《An Age of Mysterious Memories》


 Chapter 1: Bullies and Eights

    As I¡¯m contemplating the meaning of the phrase Aces and Eights, I find myself lost in thought as usual. There¡¯s no context for it, whatsoever. I¡¯ve never seen a playing card, I¡¯ve never met a human who might play cards. Yet there it is, right at the forefront of my weird digital databank of memories. They¡¯re a mystery to be sure. My lovable little dragon buddy Lilagni has a few odd bits of knowledge too, but it¡¯s more just knowledge, not memories. To me, it feels like the knowledge shouldn¡¯t even exist in our world. Computers? Technology? Videogames? Cards? Humans? None of that stuff exists. Heck, if it weren¡¯t for Lilagni and the beavers I just met, I¡¯d assume sapient life doesn¡¯t even exist. But it all feels so familiar somehow.


    Even some of the things Lil says about our lives and reality just don¡¯t quite mesh up with what my brain tries to tell me is the way things are supposed to be. It¡¯s like, I remember physics having specific gravity, erosion, decay, lack of distributed force, and on and on and on. But none of that exists. Trekking through our samey samey world with my spherical dragon pal has yielded no hints as to any of those things being true, or ever having been true. Heck, even things that seem like they¡¯ve broken off from trees or otherwise accumulated on the ground are probably just ground spawns of usable material loot, at least half the time. The fish at our home pond respawned frequently. I never bothered timing it, not that I have any source of timekeeping, since our light source isn¡¯t a sun or anything.


    I¡¯m vaguely human-like, definitely humanoid, though not necessarily as human as I thought early on. I¡¯ve had more looks at my reflection since I made a home at the pond. If I were human, I¡¯d be extremely young, but, my appearance is too pixie-like, elven, yet cherubic, and ever so slightly goblinoid. Plus, I don¡¯t present as any human gender since I don¡¯t have a biological sex, nor any hints of the characteristics of either. At best I could be called androgynous, which is fine by me.


    Lil is apparently headbutting me, trying to get my attention, to shake me from whatever reverie I¡¯ve been muddled in. I¡¯ve once again been traversing down a mental rabbithole along a train of thought that leads to nowhere. Thankfully, Lil is quite insistent when they need to be, and oh, now is probably a good time to get my attention.


    Oy vey, really? Well, speaking of humanoids, in the distance is a cacophony of croaking and ribbits. The sounds are seemingly being belted out by bipedal frogs or toads. I really don¡¯t know the difference. Not only that, but the ground gets a bit murkier, damper, as if we¡¯re reaching some sort of flood plain, basically the jungle that had been like a tropical savanna of endless baobab trees, is now a swamp. Actually, that¡¯s probably the wrong name for the type of trees, but I have no idea what tree names mean what trees. I think they might be redwoods, or sequoias. What do I know though? I¡¯m a crypto-zoologist not an arborist.


    Ahead, where all of those humanoid bullfrogs are croaking, it seems almost all of them are facing a rock formation that¡¯s a bit like a leaning tower. It¡¯s an angular stone jutting out from amidst the swamp, near the edge of the river as it goes over yet another small set of falls and rapids. At least, it appears like a small set of falls, but the horizon is all awash in a sort of murky emerald. I¡¯d hate for it to be much longer than ten or twenty feet. I wouldn¡¯t know how to get down safely without having Lil transform and fly us down. Though, in a dire emergency, I could risk using a potion. I don¡¯t know if I believe or trust its effects. I definitely don¡¯t want to have to find out if the scroll was correct about their magic through trial and error during a life or death scenario.


    Atop that rock, standing with pride, is some sort of primate wielding a staff and wearing a simple tunic and trousers. I¡¯d describe their looks more accurately, but it seems as if every time they take another stance, their form or appearance shifts. Maybe they have some kind of martial arts skill that mimics animal forms based on their posture or kata. I think kata is what they¡¯re called. They do retain a long prehensile tail in every shape, despite occasionally appearing as species of apes.


    Upon approach, it gets harder to make headway due to being short, and trudging through soggy murk and muck. I realize the frogs are antagonizing this mammalian monk or ninja or martial artist. The odds look incredibly poorly in favor of the lone monk upon the rock. I don¡¯t know the sides or the stakes here, if this is a game, a friendly rivalry, a territory battle to the death, a duel of honor, I have no idea if I should intervene at all.


    Lil grunts out through their textbox, nearly answering my unspoken thoughts, ¡°Rej buddy, I don¡¯t think this is a good situation at all. It looks bad, mega bad, mega mega mega bad.¡±


    I want to smile at Lil¡¯s phraseology, or turn of phrase, a familiar sort of verbal repetition for them, but they¡¯re right. Also, thinking on it, Lil could answer my unspoken thoughts if they read my narration log after it updated. It keeps perfect record of almost every thought I subvocalize. I feel like that¡¯s incredibly strange, but the only two people in existence that I know of both have them. Lil and me that is. Well, knew of until this moment.


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    So why should having a subvocal memory log feel strange, when my data set shows that it¡¯s a hundred percent likely? Okay, obviously a terrible data set, but that¡¯s why we¡¯re on this whole quest to find, or create and start, a community to begin with. Because just two people sitting around a lake until we die of boredom doesn¡¯t entice either one of us as a prospect.


    It doesn¡¯t appear as if the frog-people are likely to want to join a community, it seems they have their own. They¡¯re numerous, something that¡¯s surprising, since the entire rest of the world seems to be so sparsely populated. Several ¡®dactyl dinosaurs, Lil, me, a few beavers, that scary feathery bear. And, well, continuously respawning fish.


    I vaguely hear that familiar ticking typing noise of text appearing, the sound associated with ellipses. The sound however gives me no clue as to what¡¯s being said, or transpiring, though I could swear the frogs are croaking out bully. Are they calling the primate a bully?


    As I¡¯m pondering this, some form of missile, whether it¡¯s a rock from a sling, or an arrowhead that broke loose of its shaft I can¡¯t tell, sails towards the individual atop the rock. I wince as I expect a gruesome impact to be followed by the squelching sound of them falling into the muck below. Instead I hear a thunderous crack as the missile is deflected with their staff, and there¡¯s a veritable wave of force like a mass of wind that knocks back everything within a radius of easily a hundred feet or more.


    After the thunder clap, the figure slams the staff down atop the rock causing another thunderclap. This thunderclap is followed by a bolt of lightning sailing out of presumably the sky. Which is also seemingly from nowhere, as it hadn¡¯t been raining, nor did it seem to be storming at all. The bolt of lightning blasts downward but seems to curve in midair towards the direction the missile had been fired from. Instantly I hear a croaking gurgle, as sizzling and popping and a shower of sparks forms from what must have been a frog hiding amidst the branches of a tree. One that had fired on the martial artist. The frog thing fired, obviously, not the tree. Actually, maybe that¡¯s not so obvious in this world. Our world? My world? Reality? I think it¡¯s just reality. I should stop thinking of it as something separate from my memories. Regardless, the sizzling is followed by the familiar sound of crashing, shattering glass and metal chains of derezzing.


    I right myself from where I tumbled after the thunderclap, and try to skirt the edge of the conflict, or confrontation. I¡¯d really like to get to know that lone defender. For some reason, it almost seems as if that rock is important to them. Or are they using the rock as a staging grounds for something else? A battle? A lure? A trap? My ultra-strange genre-senses are telling me there¡¯s something more to this situation than a simple bout of bloody violence. My skull aches as memories try to force their way to the forefront of my brain once more.


    More and more frequently I find myself with at least partial headaches. I don¡¯t want to worry Lil, so I don¡¯t bring it up, plus it¡¯s not like I could hide it from them anyway, they read my mental logs aloud every so often. I love my adorable spherical dragon pal. Their resilient shining scales on a soft blubbery form is a lovely juxtaposition. Their tail being their only limb is a bit saddening, but Lil knows how to make up for their lack of limbs.


    I especially enjoy getting hugged by their tail, or them using their tail to grip my skull like some sort of crown, or circlet, as they ride atop my head. I think I¡¯ve caught them playing with my hair with their tail, and maybe sniffing it? I¡¯m not certain. Scent is a weird thing. I don¡¯t notice scents at all almost any time. On occasion though, a scent screams out importance as it rushes to my nostrils to alert me to its presence.


    I whisper through party-only text chat, ¡°Lil, they¡¯re like some sort of devotee of the elements, or have some sort of ninjitsu elemental skill, or maybe their staff controls thunder and lightning. Do you think we should just get away from this conflict?¡±


    Lil¡¯s comment causes my heart to sink, ¡°I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s going to be an option partner.¡±


    I gulp as I ask, ¡°Why not?¡± I¡¯m dreading the obvious answer, and hoping I¡¯m wrong about my guess.


    ¡°We¡¯re surrounded.¡± Lil answers, almost laughing under their breath in the tone of their text, confirming my fears.


    I slowly shift my eyes around, squinting, letting my eyes take in the scenery, avoiding moving as much as I possibly can. Amidst the muck are several figures, as Lil said, pretty much surrounding us.


    ¡°Greetings, sorry to interrupt your business, we¡¯re just travelers passing through, I hope that¡¯s permissible.¡± I try to explain to no one in particular, hoping perhaps some of the frogs can figure out a way to understand me, or to interpret my intentions by my tone and body language. I know my voice isn¡¯t translated to text for anyone outside of my party, and everything in the universe other than me apparently speaks through textboxes. I¡¯m only even able to talk to Lil at all because they invited me to their party.


    As a spear sails towards my head, I frown, slightly dismayed. I¡¯m mostly annoyed at yet more creatures being hostile. The thing that shant be named, the vicious fish in the pond, Vampguppy, the big white-feathery bear. All hostile. Do I really need to run into a society of creatures that chuck spears at me on sight?


    Speaking of spears, or, thinking rather. Rather than ducking out of the way, I try to claim ownership of the spear as it sails at me. Reaching out towards it, it scrapes into my hand, yet thankfully it passes mostly harmlessly into my inventory. It did gash my palm slightly though, and I can spy a bit of ichor mingling with my blood. The effluvial ooze that traverses from the point of the ichor¡¯s contact burns and itches.


    I groan and nearly facepalm, ¡°I really hope that wasn¡¯t some kind of poison.¡±

 Chapter 2: The Ninja the Snake and the Staff

    Lil¡¯s reply contains a poignant question, ¡°Probably was Reggie, should we fight back?¡± I almost expected a sardonic reply at my misfortune from Lil, instead their tone is worried. I should know by now to expect Lil to respond with tenderness, unlike how my memories say most sapients, humans at least, treat one another.


    I shake my head momentarily, hoping we can de-escalate this situation, ¡°Not yet, maybe it¡¯s still a misunderstanding, if they see that we don¡¯t retaliate, maybe they¡¯ll get we don¡¯t mean any harm, and just let us pass through.¡±


    As three more spears sail our direction simultaneously, I hear Lil let out a slight laugh and an almost subvocal ¡°fat chance,¡± through their textbox. Despite speaking in textboxes, things do still create some vocal noise as they utter their words to the text.


    The frogs in particular are definitely croaking ¡°Bully, Bully¡±, and I¡¯m confused yet again on if they¡¯re calling their target, which is me, a bully, or if they¡¯re proudly being bullies. Trying not to make the same mistake twice, and feeling my right arm seize up slightly near the wrist, palm, fingers, and forearm, I swipe in a circle. Shoving sideways, I make contact with each of the spears'' hafts from the side as I spin out of their path. Just as I make contact with each spear, they disappear into my inventory.


    I launch the spears back in the exact opposite trajectory because my space skill can store objects as well as their momentum. It can redirect that momentum, reduce it, increase it, it¡¯s honestly incredibly versatile for moving things through, well, open space. It can even add momentum from seemingly nowhere. Somewhat surprisingly, and somewhat dismayingly, there are three squelches, followed by that familiar crystalline crashing crackling noise of derezzing happening. I¡¯m trying to not have to murder my way across our land. So far it has been a pretty mixed bag.


    I used up a fair amount of mana-like energy from my mind¡¯s-eye mental interface¡¯s blue bar doing those inventory stunts. Lil calls it energy, I¡¯ve alternated between calling it energy and mana. Claiming my own objects requires almost nothing at this point, but claiming someone else¡¯s projectiles and storing the kinetic motion of them? That takes a chunk out of me, apparently. They¡¯re almost free to expel at the same velocity, but I¡¯m not sure if it was better or worse than just trying to physically dodge them. Especially since the first one I foolishly got cut by. My energy pool is far, far larger than it was when I started learning about my inventory however, so I¡¯m willing to try a few things to hopefully either de-escalate the situation, or frighten away these bullyfrogs. As I try to come up with a plan to do so, lightning strikes within a foot of me, and I nearly jump out of my skin.


    There¡¯s a familiar sound once again of derezzing. Examining the location of the strike, I realize that a smaller bullytoad was shimmying through the muck unnoticed, about to stab me in the ankles or back. Looking towards the primate mounted atop the rock, I could swear they¡¯re smiling and giving me a thumbs up. I try to make a positive facial gesture of some sort of thanks and recognition, but I¡¯m not sure if it''s even very visible from this distance, or even what to do with my face to convey my thoughts.


    Oh, oh there is definitely poison moving around inside of me, but if anything I touch is something that can be mine, and anything that¡¯s mine can go in my inventory. What if I just--? Yeah, I¡¯ll try to claim it.


    Whew, yeah, that¡¯s a lot better. Now I¡¯ve got a little blob of poison in my mind¡¯s eye inventory, and a little bit of my own blood too. Possibly more than a little bit of my own blood, I¡¯m kind of light headed now, a tad woozy. I can maybe get better at that with practice, though it¡¯s something I hope to not have to practice very often, or ever again.


    I think my right hand and forearm are still going to be seized up for a while. Whatever nerve agent that was in the toxin has messed me up fairly thoroughly, but at least it¡¯s not going to keep traveling up and paralyze me entirely. Lil appears to be worried, and sick of waiting for the opportunity to de-escalate, so now they¡¯re spewing little gouts of flame while riding about my shoulders, literally covering my back.


    With Lil back there, and my mana-like energy pool being much higher than it used to be, I turn my head and give Lil a raised brow, querying whether they want to try the evolution thing again. Lil nods emphatically. With that, I focus on pouring my energy into Lil, infusing them with my will and my care and love and support, my desire for them to be okay and to make it through this.


    I¡¯d swear the world, or at least my mind¡¯s-eye interface, produces a heavenly chorus saying the phrase, ¡°Ryuga, hayazaki.¡±


    I¡¯d swear I heard something like that before. Was it Ryu Mankai? Ryu Shinka? Was it when the bear attacked us? I can¡¯t recall. Hm, Ryuga Hayazaki. Does that mean dragon go early bloom? Regardless, I pass my love, my courage, my endurance, my will, my heart, my energy to Lil.


    Sure enough, Lil¡¯s form elongates. Polygons, mostly holographic looking triangles, float in from seemingly nowhere to extend Lil¡¯s shape to that of the Agnewt, Lilagni¡¯s winged fire newt form. I hear a round of whooping from atop the rock, but I¡¯m preoccupied trying to concentrate on the transformation. I¡¯m doing my best to make certain that it won¡¯t harm Lil in any way. I¡¯m also trying to see if I can support Lil with my energy so they don¡¯t go into energy debt again. It feels as if there¡¯s a literal tether around my heart that stretches to Lil. A cable that¡¯s a sort of pipeline for energy like a power-cord. Or maybe for data, like fiber-optics.


    I probably shouldn¡¯t be focusing on such a thing as transformation and energy management, from a position surrounded by bully frogs and toads in a swamp. Frog things who are chucking spears in my direction. But Lil¡¯s fiery breath is so much more potent in this form that they¡¯re able to literally blast the spears out of the air. Their breath ends up incinerating some instantly, leaving ash blowing in the breeze.


    One spear throw strikes me partially. Its blade misses me, though its haft clonks me upside the head, leaving me momentarily dazed. I sort of literally walked into it while dodging other things. Annoyed, I think about moving into and out of combat, because I really want to smack the toad that hit me, and I swear for a moment I was seeing from atop Lilagnewt in the sky. It¡¯s as if I had just instantly teleported there and back down. I rattle my own head a bit, trying to shake loose any confusion in my senses. I must have been disoriented from the strike while I was closing the distance between myself and the bully that hit me. Still a bit disoriented, I strike the creature several times with my fists, not even thinking of using any weapons, just smacking it angrily.


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    I scream into its face, though I know it can¡¯t understand me, and I wouldn¡¯t be able to understand a response, ¡°Why, why violence and enmity and just one hostile thing after another? I even tried to show that I wasn¡¯t going to hurt anyone if it was a mistake, why are you attacking us!?¡±


    It continues the same croaking it has been doing this entire time, ¡°Croaaweeeaak arreoooaaaak Bully, bully, bullies.¡±


    I¡¯m pretty sure that it just croaked that they¡¯re bullies at me, and I think my brain blue screened with the most incredulous look on my face. It felt like a perfect answer to my question. Honestly my jaw probably hung slack with the blankest most dumbfounded stare before I rolled my eyes. Fine, they¡¯re bullies, they identify themselves as jerks? Fine, I¡¯ll give in. This land wants fantasy and fighting and death? Then here, have some.


    I partially materialize a copy of a spear, and just swirl it in a circle at waist level. My space skill impresses me yet again, it¡¯s almost telekinesis when conjuring something from my own inventory. Against biological creatures, this would be a gross evisceration where guts spill out. Instead, the familiar sound of crinkling crackling crashing smashing of derezzing fills the air from several directions around me. Some other bullies had apparently been sneaking up on me, and just had their brain pans tapped by a swiftly slicing spear. Triangular polygons spill forth until the creatures wireframes are entirely exposed, and even those are no more.


    I can tell I¡¯m still somewhat surrounded, but the croaking and ribbiting is growing more distant. The sounds of swishing muck are harder to hear as they seem to retreat while circling. The occasional puff of hot air and mild roars of fire tell me Lil is still flying about chasing off further bullies. I focus on listening, really just trying to hone my senses to make sure I¡¯m not missing anything. Those genre senses are still tingling somehow. There is something I¡¯m missing. This situation is far from resolved, I¡¯m almost sure of it. I focus even more intently on my hearing. That may have been a bad idea as another thundercrack booms out from the rock in a most deafening manner. My brain feels like it rattles around in my skull as I shake loose the ringing in my ears while trying to blink and squint out the pain rising behind my eyes.


    ¡°Oww.¡± I groan as I continue rubbing my brow and eyelids. I hear the soft beat of Lil¡¯s flapping wings approaching, and I hold out my arms as I can tell they¡¯re aiming for my chest. I let my energy tether drop and I can feel Lil¡¯s Agnewt form diminish into their usual spherical shape as they plop into my arms.


    ¡°That¡¯s such a rush! Thank you for helping me do that partner!¡± Cries Lil excitedly as their tail lightly curls around me. ¡°Though, how¡¯d you get up ontop of me, and why¡¯d you leave?¡±


    My left brow raises with piqued curiosity, ¡°How¡¯d I what now?¡±


    Lil responds forthrightly enough, ¡°You were up in the air with me. It was mega cool, mega mega mega cool. I mean I think it was you, I blinked and you were gone from down below and I felt a weight on my back, and I blinked again and you were halfway across that clearing fighting a bully.¡±


    I mumble, mostly to myself, ¡°Did I, well, did I teleport?¡±


    Lil, either guiding my thoughts, or thinking that I asked them, asks in answer, ¡°I dunno, is that something you can do?¡±


    Shaking my head, I try to puzzle out what just happened, ¡°I don¡¯t think it is, or I don¡¯t think it was. Maybe it has something to do with how I connected my energy to you, to try to make sure you wouldn¡¯t go into energy debt for me again?¡± My mind drifts to the fact that I have a skill that Lil doesn¡¯t, the space skill. It has to deal with manipulating objects¡¯ positions in space. Could it manipulate me somehow? Could it manipulate Lil if needbe?


    Lil surmises, ¡°That could be it, maybe, I¡¯ve never had anyone connect to me like that before. It felt like I had limitless energy.¡±


    I grin down at my Lil¡¯ buddy, responding with appreciation, ¡°Yeah I¡¯m pretty sure it was coming from me, but I wanted to make sure that you couldn¡¯t lose any more in a way that was my fault.¡±


    Lil of course is a total sweetheart about it. Despite it having been partially my fault that they were unconscious for ages after the last time they evolved, ¡°Hey, we¡¯re both okay, and that¡¯s what matters, thank you, for caring so much.¡±


    The left half of my face wears an uncontrollable grin, despite the seriousness of our situations, ¡°Of course Lil, I love you buddy.¡±


    ¡°Love you too Reggie.¡± Lil¡¯s reply is almost automatic, as if there¡¯s never any question that they could ever have felt, or feel differently. Despite the seeming loneliness of our world, we have each other. I thank all my good fortune for Lil¡¯s existence, and their persistence to make their way into my life.


    I hear a slow clapping coming from atop the rock, and notice the croaking has all but faded away into the distance. The figure, definitely someone that can change shapes on their own, sits down cross legged and slides down the angular smooth rock slope. As they approach, during their descent, Lil and I look at each other, exchanging a semi nervous glance. Our glance conveys our question of ¡°just who is this person?¡± My memories say that people, well, humans at least, which, I guess don¡¯t exist, argh, trains of thought, distractions, just stick to one thought train, brain. My memories say humans all have names. But of the four or so sapient creatures I¡¯ve met before now, none of us had names, myself included. My mental inventory interface only obtained a name when Lil decided what to call me. Similarly, Lil was just some little draconic sphere slithering around on their only limb, their tail, no name to speak of, nor other limbs for that matter.


    As the apelike creature slides to near the bottom of the sloped rock, the, I guess I¡¯ll call them the staff ninja, the staff ninja polevaults into the air. They end up leaping a massive distance, landing fairly close. Their form, or at least facial region seems to oscillate between various primates, like a mandrill or baboon, or bonobo. Despite apelike appearances, they have a prehensile tail, and a very cocksure gait.


    Again, words that I have no idea why I know them, are how I think to describe things. I try to introduce myself to Staff Ninja, and they seem pleased to see us, but there¡¯s the usual language barrier. As the sound of croaking grows more distant, I feel like a swishing sound grows closer, though I¡¯m not certain where from. Anyway, when trying to communicate I talk, like talk talk, but people or creatures seem to make some noises. Yet they only communicate in text boxes that pop up. The only reason I can create textboxes when I speak with Lil is because we¡¯re in a group or party or are otherwise connected somehow.


    Regardless, I continue my attempt to communicate with the primate individual. A moment later I¡¯m worried I¡¯ve offended them as the Staff Ninja¡¯s eyes go wide, and they swing their bo at me. It¡¯s quick but doesn¡¯t contain an injurious force. It connects, knocking me to the side, as a series of serpentine heads, jaws wide open, slam down on the spot where I had just been standing. The quickness of both the serpent¡¯s strike from some vast distance, and staff ninja¡¯s reaction to it are beyond my comprehension. If the serpent was that swishing sound from earlier, it was hundreds and hundreds of meters away, but it¡¯s here only moments later.


    I gaze in horror at the many-headed snake the size of a two-family home. It¡¯s easily as large as Vampguppy, likely much larger, since my sense of scale is always wonky. Its fangs and eyes glint with ferocity despite the muck and mire casting a weary gloom upon everything else. I¡¯m almost certain it¡¯s licking its reptilian lips on most of its faces.

 Chapter 3: Overfalls, Underfalls

    ¡°Thank you, thanks, not that you can hear me, but thank you.¡± I express my gratitude as they seem to be squaring off against a reptilian creature that¡¯s like some serpent from myth and legend, one that¡¯s petty and cruel, and plagues others with suffering. The one that has just risen from its stealthy slithering amidst the muck. Staff Ninja seems to be saying things that pop up in text boxes that face away from me or otherwise are illegible to me.


    ¡°They want us to get around behind it while they distract it, they¡¯ll try to keep the heads busy while we take it out.¡± Lil¡¯s font, or tone sounds weary, tired as they interpret Staff Ninja¡¯s text, paraphrasing so that I can understand what¡¯s being planned. Feeling like that¡¯s a wise option, I begin skirting around this gargantuan serpent, and its five or six heads. Staff Ninja appears to be faring somewhat alright, but can only fend off two or three heads at a time with ease.


    I gulp as I leap over a head that thrashes wide. I nearly beg, ¡°Lil this isn¡¯t good, are you ready to fly again?¡±


    ¡°Sorry partner, I¡¯m feeling kinda, kinda sleepy.¡± Lil says as they snuggle in against my back, in the leaf-hood pocket that serves as a sort of hammock. I¡¯m a bit worried, but I know they didn¡¯t go into energy debt, so maybe they¡¯re just a little worn out from transforming back and forth between their Agnewt form and this form. This really isn¡¯t ideal, even Staff Ninja looks worried, or perturbed, that we¡¯re not finishing this serpent quickly. Staff Ninja fends off two heads with their staff, another with their tail, two heads with their footpaws, and tries to just keep dodging the sixth head. I wouldn¡¯t be able to handle that many simultaneously.


    It¡¯s around now that I realize it¡¯s not a six headed serpent, it¡¯s an eight headed serpent, two of said heads happen to reside on the creature¡¯s tail. They catch me completely off guard. They¡¯re a bit smaller than the other heads, which is good, because I don¡¯t have any weapons drawn. I just use my forearms to brace against their faces as they snap and slam at me. Even the front edges of this creature¡¯s fangs are sharp as they gash into my forearms.


    I hear thunder, a loud crash from the front of the beast. Apparently so do the two smaller heads, they look away for a second, towards the now crackling-with-energy Staff Ninja. Staff Ninja apparently summoned lightning to strike themselves or their bo, and are now fighting with what I¡¯d call untold ferocity, trying to stave off each of the heads. I¡¯m somewhat in awe, until I realize that they¡¯re still fighting a losing battle, mostly only distracting and surviving.


    ¡°Focus, Focus!¡± I reprimand myself, whilst drawing a weapon, and two energy versions of that weapon. I try launching all three simultaneously into the hide of this great serpent. I once again feel like berating myself for being small and weak, in a world that definitely seems to be survival of the fittest or strongest. Even my energy constructs do nothing, or rather, while they seem to sink in slightly marking the hide of this serpent, the marks close up immediately.


    Like some kind of cockroach, it feels like this creature could survive anything, an eight headed cockroach, some sort of octoroach. Octorochi. Orochi? Where have I heard that before? Something about a multi headed creature. When its heads are cut off, they grow back unless the stumps are burned. Cauterization? Is that just like a medical myth or something? Despite my rambling brain, apparently the systems of our world dub the terrifying, godly-horrific beast Octorochi now, as its health bars gain the title I¡¯d accidentally chosen for it.


    Staff Ninja is busy batting away each head that tries to strike it, and now two more heads are deciding I¡¯m not a threat, heading around to join the fray. This is bad, if I don¡¯t get their attention quickly, my new ally might end up as snake chow.


    ¡°Lil, Lil hey, now would be a good time to wake up for a little bit buddy, just any little bit at all right now. Lil, buddy?¡± There¡¯s no response from Lil except a tired murmur like a cartoonish snore. They¡¯re definitely okay, but also probably not waking up until this is over.


    How much energy can I risk using to get something¡¯s attention? What if it¡¯s stronger than Vampguppy? How much stronger is it? If only I had Lil¡¯s analysis skill, or if there were like, damage numbers and health point values that I could see. That would be a little too convenient though wouldn¡¯t it? The health and energy bars are somewhat helpful, but rather discouraging. This thing has a multitude of health bars, and every time the first one even ticks down slightly, it pops back to full in moments.


    What¡¯s the most efficient I can use my energy at? What about a few volleys of two energy-duplicates of weapons each? Wait, it ignored one of those and just healed back up. Okay, maybe a massive blow, everything except a little bit of energy so that I don¡¯t pass out and can still act if it survives. It¡¯s probably literally the only shot we have right now, before the three of us end up snake-chow.


    The serpent has Staff Ninja in several jaws right now, but the electricity crackling around Staff Ninja seems to be the only thing keeping the serpent from eating them immediately. It¡¯s now or never, and if I¡¯m lucky, the electricity will be hot enough to stop any regeneration. I imagine the largest conjuration that I can within my remaining energy limit. I jettison spears as numerous, fast, massive and forceful as possible. Rearing back, I slam forward, throwing my whole body and mind into it, producing radiant objects of varying size and sharpness. I mostly focus on an especially giant bolt nearly as thick as the main body of the serpent. I send all of this energy and force straight into the serpent, hoping to at least distract the beast in order to save Staff Ninja. It would be nice if it also either ends, or scares away the serpent.


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    For a moment I breathe a sigh of relief, as everything seems to pause in that familiar fashion when something large derezzes. My various spears jut out from the serpent¡¯s hide, before they vanish. There¡¯s that crashing crackling tinkling sound, and I imagine it starts from the serpent¡¯s heads. However, only the serpent remains, and the simple-garbed primate, who wielded thunder and lightning via a quarterstaff, is nowhere to be found.


    The Orochi, or Octorochi, whatever it is, unlike Vampguppy, has taken a small chunk of damage to several health bars at once. And each bar is regenerating by the passing moment, almost full again already. That was everything I had. Even if I had started the fight with full energy, and the exponential nature of my skills kicked in slightly higher, I wouldn¡¯t have even come close to defeating this beast. I stare dumbfounded, watching in horror, as the serpent begins to turn ¡®round in slow motion to face me. I¡¯m fairly certain it views me as a threat now, or at least its next meal.


    Taking stock of my surroundings, there¡¯s a swamp that I¡¯d have a hard time traversing. I¡¯d plod slowly whilst the serpent would catch me easily since it¡¯s used to navigating the murk and mire with its swishy slidy swimming type movement. There¡¯s the rock upon which Staff Ninja had been standing, before the bully frogs started antagonizing them. Just beyond the rock is the short falls as the river picks up speed yet again. I hope they¡¯re a short falls anyway. Stupid murk coating everything in green.


    How many times am I going to end up in the drink, hoping the water spares my life? I close my eyes and sigh, trying to exhale to make myself as small as possible. I feel the air rushing towards me as eight serpentine fanged faces close in, and then I dive forward, thrusting myself in the middle of all of them and out between two of their necks. The serpent tangles amidst itself for only a moment. I can¡¯t even spare that moment to check for any sign of the Staff Ninja, someone that might have been friendly.


    SN could have been an ally, or actual friend, and they¡¯re gone, just as I was going to meet them. I¡¯m doing my best to leap and bound from root and vine to root and vine, sandbar and stone. Whatever bit of solidity my feet can find, I do my best to dash between them, or leap and throw myself bodily from one to another.


    With unbelievable luck, I make it to the angled rock. It¡¯s like something out of a movie where a lion views its lands across a savannah, and I realize the falls are far, far deeper than I had thought. The swampy greenness disguised a cliff as a flat horizon line from as far away as I was. I don¡¯t know how to dive safely, I don¡¯t even know what sort of heights are survivable to dive from, but I¡¯m pretty certain this is not one of those heights. I begin to feel my jaw tremble and breathing become shaky, as I¡¯m a mere instant away from the next snap of the serpent. A serpent that won¡¯t fall for me dodging between its necks again. I hope an earlier theory was correct. I call an item from my inventory, something I¡¯m glad I¡¯d saved enough energy to do.


    Uncorking and putting a small potion bottle to my lips, I throw myself off the side of the cliff towards the pool of water below. I¡¯m in an uncontrollable spin at first as I fall, terrified. The river lands some several hundred feet below the edge of this swampy cliff surface. I drink the potion as I fall through the air, trying not to flail my legs, remembering that I only get a single step. I hear the snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, of eight jaws clamping down where I¡¯d just been standing as my heart skips a beat. I can¡¯t resist turning my head and glancing at how close I¡¯d come to death. I seem to freeze midair, still within reach of the serpent as all sixteen of its eyes hone in on mine.


    Just then, I notice the beautiful spiraling color patterns in all sixteen serpentine eyes. The patterns make me want to reach back and hold Octorochi¡¯s faces to stare into its eyes. I¡¯m not exactly hypnotized or charmed, but they¡¯re just so full of ethereal beauty, I could see spending my last moments alive staring into them. Gravity seems to finally catch up to us, the cliff¡¯s edge breaks my line of sight to the serpent as Lil and I plummet downwards. Octorochi snaps again just an instant too late.


    Landing on the water, I¡¯m certain I¡¯m going to break every last bone in my body, tear every fiber of my being, and splatter all of my organs internally. And yet, instead, it¡¯s like all motion and force is sucked from me so that a bomb goes off in the water around me. Everything but the tiny surface area of water I¡¯m on seems to rocket back upwards, nearly reversing the waterfall. My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach as I wait, waiting for inertia to catch up with me, to tell me I¡¯ve actually been dashed across the surface of the water and am now just paste mixing with its roiling depths. Instead, I stand there, and I stand there, and nothing happens.


    The magic worked like it said it would, every last bit. Terrified that the inertia will transfer back to me as soon as I take my first step, I stay standing still for quite some time yet. I freeze while letting the entirety of the falls return to their normal speed and the pool beneath the falls seems to calm down. The serpent probably assumed what I assumed, that I had just leapt to a splattery death.


    I realize I¡¯ve been holding my breath for a bit, probably from pure terror, so I finally heave a sigh of relief. I then take a deep breath as I step forward. I step forward, forgetting about the limits of the minor water walking potion. It provides only a single impact worth of unbroken water surface tension with its magical kinetic dispersal. I immediately plummet beneath the surface of the pool. There¡¯s startled text boxes popping up as Lil awakens to a cold, wet surprise.

 Chapter 4: A Cold Wet Surprise

    ¡°Lil! Oh no I didn¡¯t even think the serpent might get you when it was trying for me while I ran away, Lil are you okay?¡± I cry out. However much of my concern translates to the textboxes shared between Lil and I, I¡¯m unsure. But they¡¯re mostly just sputtering and trying to stick near me using their tail to tread water slightly or steer their downstream drifting.


    Lil hooks onto me with their tail as they respond, ¡°I¡¯m okay, I¡¯m okay, we ran away? What about the monkey man? You didn¡¯t beat the snake?¡±


    ¡°No, no I didn¡¯t beat the snake Lil, I. I couldn¡¯t save them. I thought I did, I thought I did for a second.¡± I start to tear up, as we float downstream, occasionally bumping lightly into rocks. I try to keep deep breaths to help us stay afloat as I recount the battle to Lil, intentionally staying in the water and letting the river carry us onward, further and further from the serpent and the bullies.


    Lil¡¯s textual tone is tinged with regret, ¡°That sounds awful Reggie, I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t stay awake and help.¡±


    I attempt to flash my pal half of a smile, despite my sadness, ¡°It was awful, it¡¯s not your fault, we¡¯ll need to take some time, find a safe place, and practice the evolution thingy, I want to make sure I never put you in a position where you think you¡¯ve finished a fight, and pass out, and end up in worse danger.¡±


    Lil resolutely states, ¡°I don¡¯t want to leave you in danger either if I have to fall asleep.¡±


    They¡¯re so protective and loyal. I¡¯m beyond lucky that they chose to track me down utilizing their analysis skill on my soul trail. Gratefully I¡¯m about to speak, ¡°Thanks Lil, I just. Pfft, plbblpbbpl, ugh, is the water starting to taste saltier, or sort of like garlic to you?¡±


    Lil makes some slurping sounds, then spits water into my face like a squirt gun. ¡°Pfbbft, yep!¡± I cough, sputter, and laugh a bit, the levity and silliness of the situation taking my mind off of losing a potential friend ever so recently. Also, the saltiness of the river could mean that maybe we¡¯re nearing the ocean. Or I¡¯m not sure, maybe there¡¯s a sulfurous bog or something nearby. Does sulfur taste salty? I¡¯m not even sure if that¡¯s a real thing.


    I just think the words go together somehow. Sulfur bog, peat bog, methane bog, something like that, some sorts of natural things, either the mosses or molds or decay, or pockets of gasses beneath swamps create a type of swamp. Do they taste salty? As far as I¡¯m aware, nothing else decays or erodes in our world, so how or why would peats become gasses? I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m asking myself, or if I think someone someday will be able to read my mind journal, and tell me the answer. I really do hope it means getting closer to the ocean though. I can¡¯t imagine that big swamp serpent following us to a sandy beach.


    Speaking of, it seems like every biome has its own weird lighting situation, like any sort of sun that might be seen at any given time, isn¡¯t really a sun, or the sun, but like each small region has its own lighting. Lighting body? Lighting apparatus? Celestial cosmological sky based something or other? Trying to stay afloat however leaves little energy to think about such things, well, energy in the broad sense, not in the inventory and skills magical energy sense.


    I feel extremely drained, sleepier and sleepier as we drift onward. Even occasionally smacking into a river rock is barely enough to keep me awake. I don¡¯t want to bed down in the swamp due to the serpent¡¯s presence. I¡¯m uncertain if it can get down the cliff, or if it would be able to track us or travel swiftly along the river, or swim downriver, but I¡¯d rather get as much distance as possible before trying to set up camp. I honestly hope it thinks we died from our explosive fall down the falls.


    Getting somewhat hungry, I¡¯m tempted to eat some of the many, many, many sashimis I¡¯ve got packed away in my inventory, but I think better of it. Heh. Well, remember the last time I ate fish while in water? Yeah, not going through that again, especially since I¡¯m pretty certain I have a couple of wounds from spears or serpent fangs, which could mean another Vampguppy situation, or something. So I mentally grumble in frustration while my stomach grumbles in hunger. I even hear a cutesy low rumble of hunger from Lil as their belly basically vibrates against the back of my head.


    Lil¡¯s permanent exuberance is dampened, and not just from being wet as I ask, ¡°Lil, you doing okay?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m alright, but I¡¯m kinda sad, you said you had to run, right? And that our new friend is gone? Jeez, that sucks, monkey man seemed pretty cool.¡± Lil sulks slightly as they reply.


    ¡°I was calling them Staff Ninja, I didn¡¯t know if they were a man or not.¡± I mutter, trying not to be a pest about gender since we never got a chance to ascertain it.


    Lil is rather sensitive, and sweet about things like pronouns though. They swap immediately. ¡°Oh, good point, Staff Ninja seemed pretty cool, and really strong. I thought for sure you two were okay, or I would have tried harder to stay awake.¡±


    The roar of the river dies down slightly as it begins to slow once again. I sigh heavily as my eyes droop with sadness and weariness. I basically blubber, ¡°We¡¯ve never, I¡¯ve never really lost before. Even with Vampguppy, even though it was scary, and I was sure I was going to die, we still came out on top. But someone we didn¡¯t even know, we¡¯d just met, or were just about to meet, they, they died, they completely and totally died. They derezzed. What do I even do with that information? Somebody existed, and now they don¡¯t. It¡¯s not like a random hostile creature that spawned out of nowhere. They seemed to be someone, someone with a goal or feelings. It¡¯s like they were guarding that rock formation. What if we did a bad thing by not staying to guard that rock formation? I mean, I guess, what if I did a bad thing by running?¡±


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    Lil answers my questions with one of their own, ¡°I guess you can¡¯t dwell on it, do you want to go back to the rock right now?¡±


    My eyes widen with terror in response, ¡°No, absolutely not, I threw everything I had at the snake thingy, Octorochi, and it didn¡¯t even seem fazed.¡±


    Lil prods further, ¡°Then I guess we just keep going, yeah?¡±


    Lil¡¯s right, but how does one go about that? I admit, ¡°Yeah, I guess so, but I don¡¯t know how to process this. Psychological things are, well they¡¯re outside of whatever knowledge I have, wherever that knowledge is from.¡±


    Lil¡¯s voice gets a bit more jovial, I think they think they¡¯re starting to successfully distract me. They¡¯re right. They prod, ¡°So basically, you don¡¯t know what you don¡¯t know?¡±


    I raise my index finger as I try to form words, my index finger curls, and raises, several times in succession while my mouth hangs agape, ¡°I¡­ guess that¡¯s one way to put it.¡±


    ¡°And since you don¡¯t know it, if you just keep thinking about it, you probably won¡¯t get anywhere with it, will you?¡± Lil is fairly astute when they want to be.


    ¡°Well no, but¡± I start.


    Lil however, interrupts, ¡°But you¡¯re going to dwell on it anyway, because it bothers you, yeah?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I guess so. Sorry Lil, I hope I¡¯m not being a pain.¡± Even as I say it, I can tell how Lil will respond.


    As expected, Lil responds consolingly, ¡°It¡¯s okay buddy, you¡¯re not. I¡¯m not really used to this either. I mean, everything I met before you I ate, so we¡¯re kinda new to this all together.¡±


    ¡°Hah, good point, but without either of us having any experience, and nowhere to learn from, how are we supposed to figure out how to be good?¡± I can¡¯t help but chuckle at the fact that Lil is absolutely right. Every single thing they met before me, they ate. I know for a fact, it¡¯s in their memory logs. They mostly just met insects like kabuto beetles, giant ants and the like.


    Lil does their best to pose an answer to my query, ¡°Just trying our best I suppose. What else is there?¡±


    ¡°Like, schools, or philosophy, or stuff, or schools of philosophy or schools of thought.¡± I ramble in a way that probably comes off incoherently.


    Lil, similarly to me, basically knows the definition of any word or phrase that they¡¯re introduced to, yet they still jokingly ask, ¡°Is that a school made out of thought?¡±


    ¡°No, no it¡¯s, uh, like a group way of thinking, I think? Like people that agree on how to think about something in a productive way, or something like that.¡± Now that I¡¯m thinking about it, do I know the names of any schools of thought? Or their like, in-depth tenets?


    Lil responds with mild confusion, ¡°I don¡¯t think I get it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure I don¡¯t either anymore, after trying to explain it.¡± I mirror Lil as I get lost in a train of thought.


    Surprisingly, Lil keeps the train going, asking, ¡°So are you going to make one?¡±


    ¡°One what?¡± I probably didn¡¯t even need to ask.


    ¡°A school of thought?¡± Lil responds, confirming that I need not even have asked. We¡¯re pretty in sync.


    I chuckle, shaking my head, ¡°I uh, I don¡¯t think so, at least not intentionally, no.¡±


    ¡°Could you unintentionally make one?¡± Lil keeps rapidly asking questions as soon as I¡¯ve answered one, keeping me distracted.


    Lil¡¯s question is kind of a nice thought experiment, so I do my best to answer it. ¡°Yeah, yeah I think so, like coming up with some rules about how to think about a thing that I just subconsciously hang on to.¡±


    ¡°Would that help with Staff Ninja and the weird rock?¡± Lil circles the train back around, helping me confront my grief.


    I mumble, muttering, ¡°No, no, probably not.¡±


    ¡°Then what should you focus on right now?¡± Lil basically nails home like some sort of professional therapist.


    I have to think on it a bit to be able to respond, ¡°Now? Well, probably the best way to survive, since this swamp is way more dangerous than I first thought a trip down the river might be.¡±


    ¡°Go on, what¡¯s the best way to survive?¡± Lil presses for further elucidation.


    That¡¯s a really good question right about now. How would be the best way to survive? What sort of skills or strategies can we employ? I hazard, ¡°Uh, well, I guess we could do something weird where we take some mud, you bake it real hot til it dries with fire. So that we could make like, a sort of cylinder or platter, like a hole cover. We could dig in somewhere that¡¯s a bit drier, then we could dry out a little cave, and heat the cover into place, especially if there¡¯s like, a hollow tree above it for air to come in through. We could maybe make air-holes through the soil itself anyway.¡±


    ¡°So we sleep in a muddy hole with fire baked walls?¡± Finally, Lil¡¯s tone resumes their usual upbeat giddiness, that permanent underlying good humor.


    My buddy is a buoyant personality to be certain, always popping back up. Persistently positive. It leaves me feeling more joy by the moment. I answer, ¡°Kinda, yeah, yeah that¡¯s probably the safest thing to do for now, we can disguise one side of the platter with regular swamp muck, so that nothing seems out of place.¡±


    ¡°Hehe, just like a real dragon cave. Does that mean we¡¯re done bobbing along down the river for now?¡± Lil asks in a rather exasperated fashion, though there¡¯s laughter underlying the question.


    ¡°Oh, yeah, I guess it does, we should scoop some mud from the riverbank, the mud¡¯s probably purest around there, maybe? Like water moves sediment, I think that¡¯s the word, it should also move stuff that isn¡¯t the same, um, density I guess, further down, so any mud should be mostly just mud. I think we actually have to find clay, but I don¡¯t know how clay differs from any other soil that someone would call mud.¡± I scratch my head as I try to puzzle out how much I know, how much I fake-know, and how much I¡¯m guessing.


    ¡°So we¡¯re looking for special, clean mud?¡± Lil lets out something akin to a giggle at the apparent oxymoron.

 Chapter 5: The River Ride

    We bump into another rock. I get another mouthful of gross tasting water as I bob underneath the surface of the river for a moment. Coughing and sputtering, I flail over to the shore. Lil and I spend a quarter of an hour or more sifting through muck and mud, trying out various globs of moist soil. We assess which reacts the best when dried out by Lil¡¯s flames. Eventually we find some, well, what might possibly actually be clay, after a few mishaps.


    One of the blobs of mud that we try to fire-bake ends up igniting, letting out a woosh of flame, as a kind of air pocket or gas pocket in it expands and bursts. It makes me think there might be some sort of methane or similar gas in the swamp soil. I¡¯m tempted to find a way to weaponize that. I¡¯d make little carefully baked spheres of mud full of gas, toss them lightly around an area, and have Lil set them off, starting a chain reaction at a critical moment if we have to make a getaway, to cause a pretty big distraction. I don¡¯t know enough about soils and gasses to do it safely however, so I¡¯m not going to risk Lil or myself trying to collect flammable gas, in flame-baked mud.


    Actually, thinking about it, digging down into the muck, and burning a dry hole in the ground sounds like a potentially extremely dangerous idea. But I¡¯m far more terrified of the Octorochi Orochi snakey serpent thing. I honestly think I could probably survive an explosion set off by a small packet of swampgas with one of Lil¡¯s puffs of flame, while I don¡¯t think I¡¯d survive another run-in with the serpent. Wait, what was that thought a few moments ago? A chain reaction at a critical moment? A critical reaction? A reaction itself becoming critical? Something like that. That sounds oddly familiar.


    Wanting to be able to make a quick getaway to the river, should we get surprised while resting, Lil and I look for a tree whose trunk seems a bit concave or maybe hollow. It doesn¡¯t take long until we find one that probably sucked up too much salty water, or sulfurous mineral deposits, and basically petrified itself in a dead state. Odd, everything about the swamp seemed homogenous right up until we started looking for a specific thing.


    Lil and I excavate a meager corridor of earth under the tree, leaving a few tiny holes that peak out between the roots as we heat and harden the mud into a sort of a dugout. Huh, is a dugout called a dugout because it was dug out? I mean, it has to be, right? Anyway, after finishing crafting a cozy dry little hole, we shape our clay cover, and plaster the outside of it with mud and sloppy muck as we snap it into place blocking our small dwelling from the outside world. Completely blocked off save for the small ventilation holes that peek up through the roots of the tree we¡¯ve dug under.


    Finally, having a safe space to do so in, Lil and I pull out some food to satiate our rumbling stomachs. Looking over at Lil, I give a half sad smile, I¡¯m glad we both made it out okay, but I¡¯m still disturbed, thinking about Staff Ninja just being gone. I haven¡¯t got any real coping mechanisms for anything that happens, I can only keep moving forward. I don¡¯t have any sort of long term plan to shoot for, because I don¡¯t know what¡¯s available to be done in this world of ours. I just have to make things up as I go. Lil noms happily and seems to have been able to move on pretty quickly.


    I rub my eyes as I yawn out, ¡°It¡¯s been a pretty long day, I¡¯m feeling really sleepy buddy, hopefully we can get out of the swamp really quickly tomorrow Lil.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good Reggie. Yawn, me too.¡± Lil hops, bounds, and bounces over, giving me a sort of bonking nudge as they nestle into the crook of my arms, curling their tail around my waist.


    Memory Logged, Dream:


    The greys and browns of the stonework in the temple are somehow pristine. Though the temple has been seemingly lost and unvisited for countless ages. Most of the reliefs and stonework have been spared the ravages of time. We know however that the supposed celestial emperor and his reign of terror trace back to here, but to even enter, I¡¯ve had to slay a number of powerful members of the celestial empire. Not being one to march headlong to my death, I still try to seek side entrances, but as expected, the celestial lieutenant¡¯s insignias open only a massive front entrance.


    It has been years of chasing leads to even get this far. This had better be the right place. Jarvis¡¯s rumors were on the money about the lieutenants at least. Tavner knows his stuff about the Imperium, that¡¯s for sure. Poor old sod¡¯s been running that inn under its banner for far too long. That¡¯s what spurred enough people to risk enough to contact the Vale for a job. The biggest ever requested. No other assassin would touch it. What have I got to lose though? Eights hasn¡¯t responded in years. Gram and Gramps aren¡¯t really my family. Huff. Nothing in my life but death.


    Death is a bloody business, and it¡¯s my business, I¡¯m here to fulfill the true end of my contract. Jarvis and many of the good people of these lands wish to be freed from their ruler¡¯s despotry. Just stay focused on the task, don¡¯t get reminiscent. You might not be the best, but you¡¯re the longest-lived of the Vale. At least, the longest-lived that hasn¡¯t backed out into retirement.


    Stalking what some might consider hallowed halls, it¡¯s still eerily quiet for what is rumored to be the center of this dominion, a tyrant¡¯s vaunted domain. This tyrant whose iron grip has suppressed and oppressed for the last two generations is rumored to be from the heavens, lauding themself as the Celestial Emperor, as of some sort of angelic figure, or deity. I don¡¯t care where you¡¯re from, grinding the commonfolk into the mud, killing them on a whim, ordering construction of some asinine spire to the heavens is something I¡¯d fight against even without being paid. The nation I¡¯m from is tiny in comparison to this supposed Celestial Empire. Vale Valley is little more than an independent town located twixt a series of mountain ranges.


    Vale Valley¡¯s main export happens to be murder. Our self sufficiency is predicated on most of our citizens being assassins and rarely needing anything save a safe space to lodge. It¡¯s also why no one invades The Vale. A town hidden amidst mountains, filled with nothing but trained killers, and no useful resources is not a tempting target for even the most war-mongering nearby nations.


    The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as I see a working fountain, I swear I hear faint murmurs, or even screaming, coming from the mild steam wafting out of the fountain. To the north are statues whose beards appear to be a mass of stone serpents encrusted with jewels. For some reason, seeing many serpent faces fills me with a mote of dread. The statues smattering the innards of the temple appear to be placed randomly. The figures making up the statues are also incredibly lifelike, I¡¯d swear the statues are just people covered in stone, or turned into marble. The path deeper into the temple requires crossing a chasm over an internal river, the water of which shares properties of the fountain, a steam that sounds like it¡¯s murmuring or screaming far in the distance.


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    Noticing that several of the statues¡¯ figures are in positions of fear, and dotting the bridge across the river chasm, it feels quite like the figures were actually people who were instantly petrified. I don¡¯t believe in magic, but perhaps some sort of paralyzing gas could do this. Maybe it causes, what¡¯s the word? Calcification? Something like that, hardening, dermal something or other, I don¡¯t know.


    I focus on the air around me, and begin whistling inaudibly, at least to most creatures, eventually a moth floats in from outside the temple, attracted to the sound. I carefully catch the moth, and blow against its back, aiming it towards the bridge. Startled by my breath, the moth flaps its way partway across the bridge, before falling out of the air, heavily thunking into the bridge and shattering, having turned to stone. Seems I¡¯ll have to find a way to avoid a grisly fate to be able to fulfill my contract.


    A voice rouses me into a groggy state, ¡°That sounds kinda scary Reggie.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± I jostle myself awake to Lil¡¯s bemused voice.


    Lil helpfully replies, ¡°I think you were talking in your sleep again, having a dream. It sounded exciting, but like, like it was the same dream, from that one time.¡±


    Still groggy, I ask for more clarification, ¡°The same dream? Like what about?¡±


    ¡°Like you were someone who had to fight the ruler of an empire because they were a bad guy, like mega bad, mega mega mega bad. They were in some scary temple with statues that used to be people.¡± Lil is almost excited to tell me a tale I apparently just told them in my sleep.


    I don¡¯t remember any of what Lil is saying, but I think even my dreams end up logged in my brain¡¯s databank of logs somewhere. I might be able to dig around and find it later. Oh, right, interact with the world around me, Lil is waiting on a response, ¡°That sounds, well, kinda weird. So I was there trying to stop the ruler of the empire? How did I get there, why did I get there?¡±


    ¡°Well, you were a killer, you said in a really gruff voice ¡®Death is a bloody business, but it¡¯s my business¡¯ or something like that, so you were like a killer, you said everyone where you came from was an assassin. It sounded like you were hired by the people in the empire that were being hurt.¡± Lil says the death line in a mockingly gruff voice, through text, somehow. The text boxes seem to be more and more voiced the more I interact with Lil, like I don¡¯t even notice myself reading them in my mind¡¯s eye anymore, I basically hear what Lil¡¯s saying at me.


    Bemused, I mumble, ¡°Well, huh, I wonder if that dream will keep going.¡±


    Lil exuberantly declares, ¡°I hope so, I like waking up and hearing you tell me a story.¡±


    Chuckling, I try to correct Lil, ¡°Well, I mean, I¡¯m not intentionally telling you a story.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to pretend I didn¡¯t hear that, la la la la.¡± Lil intentionally ignores me, or pretends to anyway, and I can¡¯t help but to laugh. They continue, ¡°You¡¯re telling it to me because you love me buddy, and you can¡¯t convince me differently.¡± I keep chuckling, but I flick my head towards the lid on our little hideout as I raise an eyebrow. Lil nods to my unspoken question.


    We carefully bust our way out of our dugout, popping the mud seal on our fired-clay hole cover. We steel ourselves for another day of riding the river. To make it a little easier on ourselves, I suggest to Lil that we get a large chunk of lumber or a fallen trunk, hollow it, coat it with mud and fire harden it, to make essentially a canoe. Lil agrees that would be better than trying to bob along downriver smacking into rocks repeatedly.


    We set about trying to find, or fell a decent sized tree that isn¡¯t too large, but that part proves a tad difficult, all the trees are massive, there are no large branches or anything, no fallen trunks, it feels like every tree is a sequoia. I think that¡¯s the word, like ancient baobab or redwood or kapok or some other massive tree that¡¯s been around since prehistoric times. I don¡¯t want to fell any of them, even if I could do so. Oddly the branches are miniscule in comparison to the trunks, while a trunk might be a dozen feet from side to side, the branches that fall are walking-stick sized. The fallen branches are far too small to turn into a boat or even to lash together as a raft, and the trunks are so massive they¡¯re unlikely to even fit in the river when it occasionally bends, dips, or thins.


    Frustrated of searching, though we are making at least some progress southwards, I¡¯m about to suggest to Lil we give up. Suddenly there¡¯s a rustling, and a squishy swishing noise that stills my heart momentarily. Not hesitating, I run to Lil who is scouting a slight ways away. We¡¯d figured spreading our range of vision out would be the best way to find a useful canoe body. I scoop Lil into my arms while mentioning what I heard.


    I carry us both hopefully away from peril, making a mad dash for the river. Without a second thought, I take a big puff of air, hold my breath, and I throw myself bodily into the swift waters. I clutch Lil tightly so we don¡¯t get separated. Lil seems about to complain, but doesn¡¯t bother, and just clutches my arms with their tail, as we¡¯re once again sent careening and bobbing downriver.


    Hours go by, and I feel like my body needs nutrients that aren¡¯t just random raw fish platters, like, I think my skin is looking slightly pekid, peaked? Pale, slightly ill and green around the gills. That may be from spending a day floating in a sulfurous or salty section of a river, or could be from the lack of any fruits or vegetables. It would amuse me to no end if that rustling was just some fruit vendor, like an actual nice person wandering around selling their wares, and I overreacted and threw us into a river.


    Speaking about selling their wares, we actually have various forms of currency from fishing, things that look like paper money, or coins, so maybe there is an economy somewhere in this world, people that trade for these with goods. Whether or not anyone else exists out there though, I highly doubt the rustling was anyone non-hostile, as neither Lil nor I have any experience to back up being remotely hopeful yet.


    Or maybe I¡¯m being cynical? I guess let me think of all the things I know from this world, in this world, not from assumptions and knowledge whose origin I don¡¯t understand. There was at least one fanged sphere on¡­ Day¡­ One¡­ a sharp rap on my head as it plows into a river rock shakes me from that traumatic flashback fairly quickly. Anyway, one negative, for sure, the flying dinosaur things didn¡¯t look friendly, but I won¡¯t give them a score, the fish were pretty much neutral, and only hostile when I started eating them or bleeding in their pond. Still just one negative, maybe two. There was that scary cave area when ascending the cliff, and the lava biome itself seemed pretty hostile, so I¡¯ll say maybe on another negative there.


    Lil exists, so one major positive experience, honestly Lil¡¯s so wonderful that they¡¯re probably worth at least two or more positive experiences for hopefulness. Vampguppy is a weird situation, since they kind of didn¡¯t and don¡¯t exist, but just sort of sprang into existence based on something we did, so I guess I can¡¯t really count that one too bad, but if I¡¯m giving Lil two points, then Vampguppy probably can be counted as one with all the other maybes. At that point, it¡¯s two negatives and two positives. The beaverfolk were fairly amicable, if not actually friendly, they sort of seemed to be willing to be friendly, and at least avoid hostilities, so three positives. The feathered bear was definitely hostile, so three negatives. The bullies were kind of negative, I mean, it almost seemed like it wasn¡¯t even hostility, it was just kind of, fighting was what we were supposed to do. Staff Ninja, I sigh as I think about it, Staff Ninja was probably a positive experience about to happen. The Octorochi Orochi snake serpent hydra thing was definitely a negative, so four negatives, and four positives. I guess we could maybe be hopeful that any experience is about as likely to be positive as it is to be negative?


    With that reverie leading me to a more hopeful conclusion, I rub sleep from my eyes, realizing we¡¯d been drifting downriver for at least ten hours, and Lil is shivering in my arms. Not that Lil can actually get cold, with their infinite thermal resistance. I understand their sentiment though, since I¡¯m not even certain how we¡¯re managing to stay afloat so easily for so long. Still, I¡¯m grateful for the ease, since we¡¯re saving time and making headway away from whatever might have been after us.

 Chapter 6: Asleep Upon Water

    I¡¯ve gotten so used to passively messing around with my inventory that it¡¯s probably not granting me progress in anything anymore, but I notice I¡¯ve been doing it almost subconsciously. It strikes me that I should at least be riding around on my largest walking stick. I could be wrapping it in as much cushion and as many vines as possible, rather than just trying to maintain flotation with no aid. If I recall, it floated pretty well even when saddled with all the weight and mass I could muster. If I don¡¯t place quite as much on it, I should be able to ride it for a while at least.


    I try to use my inventory to tie the extra leathery leaves in such a way that there¡¯s a bit of sideways room, and cushioning for my head, so that my head floats higher than the rest, and I can keep Lil above water. Laying back, I let my eyes droop while drifting downriver lazily, the occasional jostling becoming an expected mundane part of the experience. I¡¯m barely even startled at all with each bump. Less and less do I react to smacking into the river¡¯s edge, or protruding stones, and eventually I feel myself napping slightly.


    This continues for over a week, as we lazily float down the river. When not in the river, during times where we occasionally wake to eat our fish meals, Lil and I mostly stay contemplatively silent as we ruminate on the events of our travels. Though we also make certain to gather as many useful materials as possible, mostly the leathery leaves, sticks, vines, and the like. We only spend ten or so hours a day in the water so that we don¡¯t get sick, and to leave us enough time to gather supplies and dig our dugouts while still getting a long sleep. I¡¯m not sure we can get sick, I just feel ill from all the time spent in the odd-tasting water. Leaving our latest dugout behind, we hop into the river once more, and soon I¡¯m snoozing on my makeshift raft. A single stick raft. Who¡¯da thunk?


    I awaken when I start finding myself submerged more and more, sputtering for breath. For some reason I¡¯m less buoyant, or my single stick raft is less buoyant. It almost feels like there¡¯s something towing us under, drawing us downwards. I gasp and spin around to make sure Lil is still in my hood, though of course I can feel Lil¡¯s tail grasping my shoulder. The swamp scenery has given way to sparse palm trees under a brightly lit sky. Still no sun of course, but an entirely different lighting than the swamp biome. The source of light is vague at best, though few clouds dot the skyline. I flail towards shore, dragging Lil and myself atop it to landfall. Summoning my makeshift flotation device to my inventory, I try to make sense of my surroundings.


    I spin around, probably too quickly, as I reorient myself. The river flows in a direction that¡¯s still probably mostly southward, at least, as close as I can call any direction, as there are no celestial bodies to orient myself against. I peer back upriver, and see darker splotches that are likely the denser swamp trees far in the distance. I suppose I could verify the direction with the magical compass orb, but that feels meaningless, since we¡¯re oriented around the river itself anyway.


    I rattle my brain as I ask my constant companion, ¡°Where do you think we are Lil?¡±


    Lil takes a whiff, then another, then several more before answering, ¡°I smell something salty again, but a different saltiness.¡±


    Scents, sometimes I forget they exist. Lil¡¯s answer leaves me hopeful though as I surmise, ¡°Oh? Maybe that means we¡¯re close to an ocean. If we find a shore, well, traveling around it is our best chance of finding anyone else who set up a society or civilization, I think.¡±


    Lil jubilantly asks, ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡±


    ¡°I think that, well, when creatures, people I guess, collectively start to survive together, they tend to orient near water, and maybe, um.¡± I try to think about what my preconceived notions about the history of civilizations are, finding it more difficult than I thought it would be. It feels like the mysterious knowledge I had is harder and harder to access on-demand, though the whole of it still exists, it¡¯s hard to dig through the knowledge to find specific bits that I want to know or remember.


    I simply hazard a guess, ¡°I think that, um, when people have enough to sustain them, they start to have more free time to think, and create, and desire. So when they want things, they have to be able to offer things. So trade revolves around water, maybe because it¡¯s easier to move things on water?¡±


    Lil raises what could be considered an eyebrow on their scaled face, ¡°Like with us just floating down the river?¡±


    I shake my head, but think better of it, ¡°Well, kind of, but rafts and ships can hold a lot of weight and move it with almost no effort.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t your inventory magic do that already?¡± Lil makes an excellent point.


    I¡¯m flummoxed as I ramble, ¡°Oh, oh yeah, I guess anyone who finds some bags can just haul things around. Well in that case, ships and boats can take a lot of people who each have a lot of things. Hopefully. otherwise people might not live anywhere that would make sense to me, and my assumptions could possibly never lead us to anyone else.¡± I pout as a result of my own rambling.


    Lil¡¯s textual tone drops at least a level of joy as they further question the situation, ¡°What happens if we follow the shore forever? And what if there¡¯s no one in all that time?¡±


    My face adopts a grimace as I try not to imagine a vast empty world with nothing but hostile creatures, relying on Lil and my space skill for survival against terrifying beasts like Octorochi. Trying to distract myself, I answer more about math, possibly accidentally condescendingly, ¡°Well, hopefully the land we¡¯re on isn¡¯t infinite in size, eventually we should come back around to the same location. Normally when someone walks along the edge of a land mass, well, it¡¯s a shape, and the shore is, um, its perimeter. Like if you see a lone mountain, you can walk a circle around it, more or less, it might not be perfectly circular, but you get the idea.¡±


    Lil nods along, perfectly aware of basic geometry and its terminology. They then press, ¡°And if we don¡¯t find anyone?¡±


    I gnaw my bottom lip, almost not wanting to answer. I don¡¯t want Lil to think I don¡¯t value them enormously, ¡°I don¡¯t really know. I love our time together, and I guess we can just build whatever sort of life sounds fun to us, maybe?¡±


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    Lil¡¯s effervescence returns as they reply, ¡°I like that idea. I liked it when we were in our baked mud holes, they felt cozy.¡±


    Grateful for Lil¡¯s exuberance, and the change of topics, I nod, happily agreeing, ¡°We could do that again, but do it above ground maybe, in case of flooding. I think I understand the basics of how to do some sort of construction of buildings. I know triangles are important for some reason, and perpendicular surfaces offer support. There¡¯s something about distribution of weight, but I don¡¯t know if that all applies here, or if things just have some sort of energy or health value, and don¡¯t need to worry about physics.¡±


    Lil chews their tongue as they ask, ¡°What¡¯s the best way to find out?¡±


    Huh. What is the best way to find out? Have I experienced enough to understand physics in our world? What sort of observations should I have been keeping track of? It¡¯s probably best to tackle a specific subject in an isolated way to understand it. I hazard, ¡°I guess if we go back to our pond some day, we can try a few building types, one where we¡¯re intentionally bad at construction, like balancing a whole house on top of a single stick or something, maybe not quite that ridiculous, but it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to test.¡±


    Lil hops atop my head and bounces, seemingly trying to catch as much air as possible to view into the distance. ¡°Reggie, I think I see something massive and sparkling.¡±


    Furrowing a brow and raising the other, I try to parse Lil¡¯s meaning, ¡°Massive and sparkling?¡±


    Lil¡¯s jubilant as they bounce about during their response, ¡°Like, the entire rest of the world just shines.¡±


    Confused, I continue walking downstream in the direction Lil had been looking, eventually I spot what must be an ocean on the horizon line, then it clicks.


    ¡°Oh, oh that¡¯s the ocean Lil, yeah the water is really reflective I suppose.¡± I swear I see massive loops breaking the surface of the water in some nearly endless distance, far, far away. The idea that there are sea serpents large enough to be viewed from miles away terrifies me. ¡°Here there be dragons¡± indeed. Another mysterious memory, something to do with maps, mapping or cartography and exploration. Here though it could very well be literal. Actually I¡¯m not certain it wasn¡¯t literal in my memories.


    Trying to distract myself from potential terror, and possibly infinite loneliness of an empty world, I admit to Lil, ¡°Lil, buddy, the more I think about it, the more I just want to go back to the pond and build a home with you, what do you say after we get to the shore, we just take a look around for one day, then go back?¡±


    While chewing their tongue, Lil nods, ¡°I¡¯d like that Reggie, if I¡¯m being honest, I¡¯m so far from anywhere I¡¯ve ever been before, that if I weren¡¯t grouped up with you, I think I¡¯d be running day and night to get back home.¡±


    My eyes flash wide with understanding and agreement, ¡°Yeah, I have this weird fear type feeling in the pit of my stomach, I guess this is what they call homesickness.¡±


    Lil jokingly asks, ¡°Homes can make you sick?¡±


    I take the question seriously anyway, ¡°Hm? Oh, no, no nothing like that. I think it¡¯s a, well, a mental thing, psycho somatic or something like that. Words that I think mean brain, and feeling or something like that. Basically your brain is used to something, and misses it, and that longing is somehow such a bad feeling emotionally, that you also feel bad physically.¡±


    Lil playfully pouts as they insult the idea, ¡°Well that¡¯s dumb.¡±


    ¡°Uh, what?¡± I can¡¯t say I¡¯m not confused by the direction their tone is taking.


    Lil goes on a silly tangent, I barely realize they¡¯re joking, ¡°My brain, it¡¯s dumb, why would it do that to me?¡±


    Finally starting to catch on to the humor, I respond, ¡°Oh, I mean, well honestly I have absolutely no idea why we feel the things we do. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s a thing trying to hurt you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just being silly I guess, but you feel the same way right now? Like you want to go home?¡± Lil¡¯s response begins to allow me to laugh, admitting their silliness, then sobers me up rather swiflty.


    I frown and glance away, ¡°Yeah, I know it¡¯s probably silly, since anywhere is as good as any other place while we have supplies, and we have a ton of supplies, but I guess it¡¯s, um, what¡¯s the word. There¡¯s a word that means, uh, illogical. Well I guess that would suffice. A brain doesn¡¯t necessarily process feelings logically, or something, I guess. You might get somewhere and feel homesick just when you arrive, or you might feel jealous that someone else has something, even though you can have it too, things like that. Feelings are complicated. There are some that I have that I have to avoid.¡±


    Lil seems confused, perhaps not understanding I¡¯m hinting about my panic attacks, ¡°Some feelings you have to avoid?¡±


    I nod, trying to clue them in, ¡°Yeah, well, memories, whenever I start to think of certain things I just freeze up, really badly.¡±


    Lil¡¯s eyes spark with recognition, ¡°Oh, oh, I¡¯ve seen you do that, you look like you¡¯re so far away.¡± They suddenly appear saddened as they recall the times I¡¯ve fallen into panic.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I probably am.¡± I feel my heart racing as our topic draws closer to a certain memory, but I rattle my brain pan by shaking my head quickly to bring my focus back to what is right in front of me.


    I notice my toes sifting through warm, soft, smooth sand, and realize the last vestiges of the swamp are behind us. We¡¯re essentially on a tropical beach, though a massive one. I just had a thought. This beach may be more massive than I¡¯d ever seen, but it¡¯s literally the first ocean beach I¡¯ve ever seen, so yet again I have no frame of reference.


    I imagine gravity rotating about ninety degrees, and Lil and I just falling forward towards the horizon, hurtling towards those terrifying shapes somewhere far in the distance along the surface of the ocean, thankfully it doesn¡¯t happen. Catching my breath, I try to ground myself, literally sinking my feet into the sand and relishing the warmth. I flop backwards, reaching back to flip my hood up and launch Lil into the air as I land on my butt with one arm behind my head. I lay back into the sand as I catch Lil with my other arm.


    ¡°Wha, huh, woah!¡± Lil exclaims in surprise at being tossed.


    I smile widely into Lil¡¯s eyes, ¡°Heh, sorry Lil buddy, I just feel like taking in the moment.¡±


    They appear quizical about my turn of phrase, ¡°Taking in the moment?¡± It¡¯s almost as if they expect me to be talking about actually consuming time. Perhaps for some sort of time skill rather than a space skill.


    I shake my head as I respond, ¡°Just enjoying right now, how good we have it at this second, while we¡¯re safe, and warm, in a beautiful location.¡± If they were actually confused by the possibility of me manipulating time, I can at least assure them that¡¯s not what I meant.


    ¡°Oh, oh cool! Whew!¡± Lil bounces on my chest a moment before bunching down and cuddling against the leaf-leather armor. I can¡¯t help but smile at how pure and jubilant Lil can be, with virtually nothing for inspiration.


    I mumble quietly, ¡°Love you Lil buddy.¡±


    ¡°Love you too Reggie.¡± Comes Lil¡¯s reply, almost automatically, I close my eyes with a contented half smile, resting my head on one hand, while my other hand sits atop Lil¡¯s head, stroking and patting gently.


    Speaking about time, rather, thinking about it earlier, I wonder if time will pass, or if the light in the sky will dim at all. Keeping my eyes half lidded, relaxing with Lil for hours on end seems to make no difference to the light in the sky. Noticing no changes, and hearing our stomachs rumbling, I sit up, jostling Lil while I hold them up to place them on my head. I start summoning some of the usual food from my inventory as we continue walking, well, while I continue walking. Lil gets to be lazy by hanging out on my head, as I continue walking towards the shoreline. I swear I see objects dotting the shoreline, like giant seashells, as if they were set up to resemble huts or buildings. Continuing walking for several hours, getting hungry yet again, I pull more food out of my inventory for Lil and myself, and that¡¯s when I notice them, moving figures from afar closing the distance almost in unison.

 Chapter 7: Meetings Greetings and Treatings

    A mixture of colors, though mostly dark brown, oily yet sleek-furred, beautiful, otter-like creatures are approaching as a group. Some are just spheres with tiny paws and tails. Others appear to be otters as I recognize or know them, only with slightly more anthropomorphic qualities, or at least what I imagine they look like from my mysterious memories. Several others are, well they look humanoid, like, as if they were just furry humans with otter tails dragging behind, and slightly snouted facial structures. They seemed to be following their noses, sniffing the air from downwind, and are now staring at me.


    My heart skips a beat, they¡¯re each a gorgeous sight to behold, wrenching me free from the fear of a life of eternal solitude. Lil¡¯s amazing company could become all the better if they had friends, hobbies, stories to tell. The otterfolk don¡¯t seem hostile. They¡¯re looking in my direction with intelligence and desire. They¡¯re likely looking at the sashimi platter in my hands, and I let myself hope beyond hope that I can become friends with them.


    I try calling out ¡°Hello? Can you understand me?¡± Which Lil messages me in our party chat that of course they can¡¯t, causing me to sigh sadly. I cautiously set down the sashimi platter, and then I begin summoning another one from my inventory, one for each of the otter creatures and otterfolk that I see, setting them each down in a circle. I slowly make my way to the farthest spot in the circle and summon another platter for myself, taking a seat.


    I can tell that some boxes are forming, but how I perceive them feels different, it¡¯s like as the weeks pass, I acclimate more and more to life as it¡¯s supposed to be here, I can almost read the boxes, though Lil still has to communicate for us, for now at the very least.


    ¡°They¡¯re asking if they can eat with us Reggie, since you put out all the food, I¡¯m guessing yeah. Yeah?¡± Lil inquires.


    ¡°Yes, have some.¡± I gesture to the food


    ¡°Yes, have some.¡± Lil shares with the otterfolk on my behalf, well, on our behalf.


    As they begin eating, I ask Lil to see if they have names,since neither of us did. They let Lil know that they are collectively the Shellcrackers, but don¡¯t have individual names.


    ¡°Would they mind if we came up with names so we could refer to them individually? I¡¯d feel disrespectful just saying ¡®that one¡¯ or ¡®you there¡¯.¡± Lil chuckles at my question, but Lil still conveys my curiosity and desires to them. They appear interested, and ask Lil why I won¡¯t communicate with them directly. Lil lets them know that I have a problem that keeps me from talking normally, but that I can speak in a party.


    The hope that we could become a formal party rises within me, ¡°Do you think they¡¯d be willing to party with us Lil? Or can there be like a mixed-party liaison or something, someone who is in multiple parties?¡±


    Lil¡¯s answer fills my hope-chalice beyond brimming, ¡°I think they were about to ask if they could join us, Reggie.¡±


    I barely restrain my excitement as I ask, ¡°How so?¡±


    Lil headbutts my shin playfully while answering, ¡°It¡¯s just a hunch, but they seem really friendly, especially after the food. They¡¯re also curious about our inventory magic, it¡¯s completely unfamiliar to them.¡±


    I poke Lil¡¯s forehead, keeping their headbutting at bay with my index finger as I remind them, ¡°Well, um, I still don¡¯t really know how to engage in party things, could you extend them an offer?¡±


    ¡°Sure thing pal, and done!¡± Just like that, my world expands, more information pops into my mind¡¯s eye, bars relating to each of the otterfolk and names I had been thinking of for them populate boxes in my mental display.


    I look towards the two largest in our new party, Agwai Shellcracker, an apparent leader, Laomati Shellcracker, their partner or sibling or spouse, similarly in a position of leadership, the two most in-charge seeming humanoid otterfolk figures. Laomati in particular sets my heart aflutter. Laomati¡¯s figure is all soft curves, roundness and smoothness accentuated by short sleek fur, her smile is kind, while her eyes are gentle yet radiant. She has the look of a being whose hugs create a sense of safety and utter contentment. I blush while imagining being hugged by her, even though we¡¯re basically strangers. I can say that I almost want nothing more than Lil and myself to enjoy a massive group hug with these tender, kind beings.


    In my confusion over my emotions driven by Laomati¡¯s appearance, I remember that I don¡¯t know if I have any family. Her demeanor is doting, as she sets about making sure each of the smaller otterfolk gets a cheek nuzzled, and is told to thank Lil and myself. In short, Laomati looks motherly. I guess being on my own for this short period of life, not knowing where I¡¯m from has left me wanting someone to look to, for guidance, for care. I wonder who I come from, if I would find them to be so beautiful and poised, with care virtually exuding from every pore. I suppose my confusing emotions might have been a twinge of jealousy at the otters for having such a caring and lovely individual to look after them.


    Agwai and Laomati are both almost twice my height, not counting the length of their tail to nose tip. Somehow I feel much safer, and more confident about my place in the world, with these two charismatic, caring individuals of such presence. Lil informs me that their various skills and numbers available in analysis are actually generally lower than ours, and yet, that contented feeling of safety remains. I feel like a lost child who¡¯d been wandering scared and alone, now reunited with their parents, a situation that isn¡¯t too far fetched, nor all that much unlike the current one.


    The others are Atamai, a very proud, stubborn, and resistant spherical individual, who seems driven to prove themselves superior to me. Their determination burns brightly even though they¡¯re a sphere smaller than Lil. Every time I answer a question or Lil answers a question about me, Atamai claims to be as good as or better at whatever was done, or that they could have done it better.


    Luni is an utter sweetheart with an abundance of questions, her and Lil are bouncing up and down talking at one another at a rapid pace, firing off questions and responses quicker than I can keep up as I get to know the rest of the otters. Olioli is similarly rambunctious, curious to explore every new thing, which at this point, includes my head, and my general shape. Olioli leaps at me, gnawing testingly on every part of me, starting with my head, the whole thing is silly and endearing, and I swear there¡¯s cutesy ¡°poi poi¡± sound effects as they bound around me.


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    Yet more of the figures are Mataalii, along with Manaia and Manamea, twins, Penina who carries a small clamshell with her at all times. Mataalli appears exactly as I would imagine otters to appear. The twins Manaia and Manamea are spheres with little tails and feet, their fur pattern appears like swirls of chocolate that dwindle to a creamy underbelly, while Mataallii¡¯s fur appears nearly dark as midnight across the entirety of their body.


    Penina is a pearlescent white-furred otter, though she doesn¡¯t seem to be albino, as her eyes are a deep violet, the color of which nearly bleeds into the surroundings with how vibrant they are. One who utterly captivates me is an athletically toned mid-stage individual, Teuila, whose hair is a brilliant copper. Teuila¡¯s hair in the right light is a more fiery red than my own shock of reddish hair, and a sight to behold. The hairstyle is adorable, something akin to a mohawk. Even though she seems to be in the middle stage, between sphere, and almost human, she¡¯s the most humanoid looking of the otters in that stage of, well, evolution I guess, based on Lil¡¯s terminology usage when Lil transforms. Likewise, similarly to Penina, Teuila¡¯s eyes are so vibrant, though verdant rather than violet, that green seems to flow from her stare into everything around her.


    Two that apparently refuse to join the party, older grey humanoid otterfolk known as Iakopo, and Taito bow with gratitude. They seemingly bid farewell to all the other otterfolk. Curious, I ask the party what that¡¯s about.


    Laomati answers, ¡°The elders insist that the Shellcracker home will prosper again one day, but that we should journey with you, the generous ones, until that day comes.¡±


    ¡°Prosper again one day? Your home no longer prospers? How so?¡± I ask, my curiosity piqued.


    Laomati continues responding to me, ¡°Our food source, the spawning pools of fish have changed, an unprecedented thing. Creatures from vast depths beyond the continental shelf have arrived, enormous serpents whose mere bite deletes entire spawning pools from existence.¡±


    My eyes go wide and I feel my consciousness yanked from my body, as if drawn far out to the edges of my vision along the horizon to witness the massive scaled loops that break the surface of the ocean. I know I must be gulping, and my pupils must be constricted to pinpoint droplets in my eyes. Though I can somehow tell my body is reacting with adrenaline and fear, I can¡¯t control my senses as it feels like I drift along the surface of the ocean, skirting the waves, closer and closer to the serpents whose enormity I can barely imagine. Their bites tear into the laws of the realm and remove not just creatures from existence, but the very systems in place that bring them back, or repopulate them.


    I can only see apparently endless serpentine bodies as my consciousness skirts the waves, and I can stare down into the endless inky depths. Before long I realize those endless inky depths are the open maw of a monstrous serpent. I try to break off this out of body experience. I try to shriek in fear, to flail, to turn back, but in an instant, my consciousness is devoured, and I fear, me, with it.


    It feels like an eternity passes, an eternity in which I cannot perceive, think, react, or exist. Yet now my thoughts are coalescing again, begging to return my consciousness to my body, and Lil, and the otterfolk. My wish is finally granted as I come to my senses, flailing away from the rest of the party, on my back in the sand.


    Agwai and Laomati nod solemnly. ¡°At first we suspected the Rocksmasher clan of simply finding a change in the spawning times, and beating us to the fish every day, greedily keeping them all to themselves. We are ashamed that we accused them, more ashamed now as none of them are left. Gone, to the last.¡±


    ¡°None of them are left? Don¡¯t tell me that they still tried fishing and then they were, they were...?¡± I gulp, stammering, unable to finish my question.


    ¡°Yes, it is likely as you suspect. Or something of that sort at least.¡± Agwai interrupts, sensing my voice cracking and my inability to finish my query.


    I can only blubber, ¡°No, oh no, oh no that¡¯s awful!¡±


    Agwai¡¯s gaze is both distant, yet resolute as they stare off towards the horizon, ¡°Yes, and we will forever live with the shame of losing our close allies while we treated them coldly in their last days.¡±


    I gulp back a sob as I sympathize, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry to hear that. I can¡¯t imagine the sort of monstrous nature of a creature that can just do such a thing.¡±


    ¡°I suspect you can imagine, and that you just did.¡± Agwai jokes, at least I think Agwai is trying to bring levity to my recent out of body experience. I laugh halfheartedly, and realize I must be sweating profusely, and my heart might even visibly be pounding in my chest. I summon my soap stone to my hand, and invoke its magic to clean myself of all sweat and grime. Agwai seems mostly unfazed by the magic, yet slightly interested.


    Laomati steps closer to me tentatively, her arms open, I don¡¯t notice at first that I¡¯m being hugged until I realize my arms are wrapped around her hips and my face buried in her torso. My welling tears begin to spill and dampen her fur slightly. Well, they actually roll down her fur, completely repelled.


    Once I realize I¡¯ve been embraced, I just ramble in confusion and sadness. ¡°It¡¯s so awful, it¡¯s so awful, were you close? Did you coexist for a long time?¡±


    ¡°Yes, and, ages my sweet, but that shame is ours to bear, not yours.¡± Coos Laomati, while stroking my head. At least I think she coos, something about the font of the communication just conveys the sound I expect to hear. I realize my breathing is somewhat ragged sobs and I take a step back, rubbing my cheeks with my forearm abashedly.


    I¡¯m so sad and curious for and about them, I rattle off questions, ¡°What are your plans, how long have you been hungry? How are you getting by? What are you going to do?¡±


    ¡°One question at a time. We had planned to travel inland, seeking swampfish and swampfrogs, we¡¯d been hungry for several days before we realized our folly, the true events that had transpired. In truth, we hadn¡¯t been getting by, which is why we¡¯d been heading north as you arrived. We are going to continue now, refreshed by your generosity.¡± Laomati states with poise and a demeanor that¡¯s comforting, reassuring, and somehow dominant, in such a matter of fact manner that I can¡¯t help but believe that whatever course of action she says is chosen, is what will happen.


    I purse my lips and furrow my brow before gnawing on my lips, avoiding Lao¡¯s gaze as I abashedly ask, ¡°Um, can Lil and I, maybe, see your home on the shore to rest for a spell? Then we could maybe travel together?¡±


    Agwai and Laomati look at one another, as if somehow their shared glance could judge the right course of action, before they nod to one another. ¡°These names, and your generosity, and our joining your party, yes, that would be fine. Though we must warn you to harden your heart. What you will see we have already lived through, and we move onward as we must.¡±


    Lao¡¯s hand cups my cheek as she orders my hardness of heart. Confused I ramble, ¡°Oh, there¡¯s, there¡¯s more to see that is somehow harder? Wait, I think I get it, but yeah, yes I mean, I think um, if it¡¯s alright, let¡¯s head back to your home quickly?¡±


    ¡°Yes, loves, let us return, we need not hunt today.¡± Calls Laomati to the rest of the Shellcrackers, whom each, in turn, swiftly stop what they¡¯re doing. I didn¡¯t even realize I had been being playfully bit in turn by Olioli and Lil until they stop and Lil hops atop my head.

 Chapter 8: Twitterpation Strikes, So Too, Does Tragedy

    The athletic one, a young woman I suppose--though none of us have sexes, and barely any of us have genders--Teuila, scampers up close. I gulp as she stands on her hind paws, putting herself nearly at equal height with me. She¡¯s such a presence, the pride in her stance, the sparkle in her eyes, the sleek, taut musculature that¡¯s visible beneath the fur of her slender frame. She takes my hand, and I stand transfixed. For the briefest moment our eyes lock, before she bashes her shoulder into mine and then takes off like a rocket, dragging me along. I picture myself veritably flying through the air behind her waving like a wet noodle or ribbon, though I¡¯m doing my best to keep up.


    Lil topples over, rolling off of my head and plopping into the sand behind me, where Luni helps them up. I feel bad about Lil, but Teuila dragging me towards something, adventure, rest, excitement, discovery, anything, is filling me with unimaginable exhilaration. Her silky hand gripping mine tightly somehow fills me with lightness, perhaps even lightheadedness in a rapturous joy. Actually, I also feel tremendously light in contact with her, as if half of my own mass is dispersed, or unaffected by gravity. It must be my giddiness going to my head. These feelings are so alien, foreign to me. I can barely comprehend how enamored I am in the moment of such a simple thing as running along a beach with a new friend.


    I find myself thinking that proprioception is a really cool sense, based on the feeling of various muscles, their exact states, generally your somatosensory cortex can present a subconscious image to your body as to where your limbs are in relation to one another, and in some cases, simple changes in air pressure and other subtle hints in the atmosphere can clue you in to other nearby things before impact. Or even tell you if you''re smiling or frowning and such. Some of the subtle changes can even be just the sound of the air around you as you move through it, if the swish suddenly changes, your proximity to other objects has changed.


    These thoughts pop into my mind, as I realize both that I¡¯m smiling, and that I¡¯m a mere instant from colliding with a massive palm tree. So I put in a burst of speed, nearly tackling Teuila, throwing her into a spin while I lift her into the air as if we¡¯re doing a sort of ballet across the sands. She¡¯s impossibly light, almost literally weightless.


    ¡°Dork.¡± Teuila snarks, while her face betrays amusement. She looses a soft giggle.


    ¡°Huh?¡± Oh right, we¡¯re still racing across the sands, with the Shellcrackers following along behind us. I wonder if I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker now. I realize I¡¯ve been running a few paces with her in my arms, and set her down. Teuila doesn¡¯t miss a beat, hitting the ground running, dragging me along once again, her stamina and athletic abilities put mine to shame.


    I don¡¯t feel ashamed though, I just feel exhilarated, my mind distracted from any thoughts of massive sea serpents, or Day¡­ One¡­ Falling into a sudden panic attack, I lose my step, tripping over myself, losing my grip on Teuila and launching dozens of feet through the air to skid another dozen feet through the sand on my face until I impact the back of a massive seashell.


    My vision has tunneled and my heart is pounding into my throat, and my face is scraped and reddened from the sands. Despite this, I can tell Teuila is crossing her arms, rolling her eyes in a sort of ¡°Did you want to win so badly you hurt yourself? You dork,¡± kind of expression. Proprioception again, I guess, it¡¯s probably only meant to apply to your own limbs and their immediate surroundings, but, I can just feel her rolling her eyes from a short ways away, or at least crossing her arms. It¡¯s like there¡¯s no space between my sense of location, and that same sense among others nearby. Huh, objects and their positioning in space. My skill? I feel myself being helped up, and dusted off in a manner that feels quite similar to a hug.


    Instantly, I fall into the perceived embrace, and am drawn out of my nightmarish flashbacks. It¡¯s unlikely to work again, but the shock of feeling so closely, tenderly embraced by one so captivating, powerful, and charming helps drag me from my panic attack. I cock my head to one angle as I stare into Teuila¡¯s eyes for a moment, feeling my racing heart slow, but skip a few beats. Somehow she sees. I can tell she sees that I was somewhere dark and hurtful. Her expression changes from a scoff and exasperation, softening. She playfully socks my cheek and bonks my head, extremely lightly, before just walking away, not a word said. Allowing me space to process.


    I raise a hand to my cheek as I hold my face, noticing a minor wetness of tears as I mumble, ¡°What is this feeling?¡±


    Lil¡¯s response snaps me back to reality, ¡°I¡¯unno Reggie, what is it?¡±


    I gulp and blush as I respond in turn, ¡°Huh? Oh, oh I thought that out loud. Oh no, oh this is going to be challenging. Did the whole Shellcracker party hear that?¡±


    Lil jubilantly answers, ¡°Naw, just me buddy, you and I are on, hm, I guess a separate channel, wavelength? Something like that, a direct link.¡±


    Whew, I let loose a bated breath before answering Lil¡¯s earlier question, ¡°Oh, in that case, I had a really bad memory pop up at a bad time.¡±


    ¡°Is that why you faceplanted like twenty feet of sand?¡± Lil queries jokingly.


    I snerk, a half snorted smirking laugh, ¡°Hah, yeah, yeah it is, oof, how do I look?¡±


    Lil lands a punchline that¡¯s already perfectly set up, ¡°Like you lost a fight with a beach.¡±


    ¡°Hahah, I suppose that makes sense.¡± I can¡¯t help but laughing a deep, full, belly laugh, nearly falling over into the sand face first again, and I rub a tear from the corner of my left eye while I grin stupidly at Lil.


    Lil presses further about the previous topic, ¡°So was that bad memory the feeling buddy?¡±


    I flush heatedly with blush as I try to honestly answer, while being confused about it myself, ¡°Hm? Oh no, no, just, Teuila, she helped me up, and when her arms were around me, I snapped out of the bad memory. It felt really nice.¡±


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    ¡°Sounds like twitterpation to me, mhm, mhm.¡± Lil says matter-of-factly, as if that were the only possible conclusion.


    An incredulous confused expression takes up residence upon my face as I questioningly state, ¡°Give me a break buddy, what does twitterpation even mean? That sounds like a made up word.¡±


    Lil teases, ¡°All words are made up ya goon.¡±


    I try not to snort a laugh as I clarify, ¡°Okay, fair, but I mean, it sounds like you made that up just now.¡±


    ¡°Nuh uh.¡± Lil¡¯s response is seemingly juvenile and slightly out of character. Not that they wouldn¡¯t make this joke normally, but the tone coming across has hints of a negative emotion that I¡¯m not parsing properly.


    I try to keep it lighthearted as I ask for clarification, ¡°Uh huh, come on, cut me some slack, tell me what it¡¯s supposed to mean?¡±


    ¡°Fine, fine, but it¡¯s totally obvious, you were literally heel over head after running with her for a little while. Hmph.¡± Lil looks a bit indignant, and I¡¯m not sure whether that¡¯s because I¡¯m giving them a hard time about twitterpation, or if there¡¯s something more going on.


    I try to puzzle out, ¡°Isn¡¯t the saying head over heels? Wait, your head is normally over your heels, why would. Okay so the saying that I think I know, doesn¡¯t even make sense.¡±


    ¡°Whatever! You and your new best buddy can put your heads and your heels wherever you want them!¡± Oh no, Lil is actually upset. Wait, is it because Lil¡¯s jealous or annoyed that they don¡¯t have limbs?


    I guess I could play on the safe side and just ask. ¡°Lil are you feeling down about anything?¡± I hug Lil tightly ¡°You know I love you, right?¡± Lil squirms for a moment before sighing and nuzzling into the hug, wrapping their tail around my left forearm.


    ¡°It¡¯s not fair, I¡¯d totally hug you to help you get out of bad memories. I would, you know I would!¡± Lil¡¯s tone cracks and I feel tears flowing from their eyes like a stream. I cry several silent tears and kiss their forehead.


    ¡°Oh buddy, buddy I know you would. I know you would. I love you Lil, it¡¯s okay.¡± I keep hugging Lil and stroking the back of their head and tail. I notice we¡¯ve been standing around behind a giant shell for a while, and the rest of the Shellcrackers had caught up and passed us, though I can tell they¡¯re just on the other side of the shell.


    ¡°Are we okay buddy?¡± I ask with bated breath.


    ¡°Yeah, whatever, it¡¯s fine.¡± Lil responds while attempting to sound grumpy through our text bubbles. I can tell the grumpiness is an act as Lil is already cheered up, something about our special bond just feels like we¡¯re back in sync after having a small upset. I give Lil a little noogie, to which they respond ¡°Heyyy you big meanie, hah, fine fine, we¡¯re good, we¡¯re gooood stooooop already.¡±


    I chuckle as I release Lil from my noogie grip to let them take up residence atop my head. I step around the shell and realize we¡¯re at the Shellcracker¡¯s home, and their clan name or family name, is fairly accurate. There are dozens of giant shells that look like they were set up as shacks and lean-tos, but they¡¯re all cracked and smashed. I catch up to Agwai and Laomati, to ask them about it.


    I somewhat jokingly state, ¡°Oh, I guess I understand how you get your name.¡± Agwai and Laomati exchange a sad glance and shake their head at my guess.


    After seeing their, I guess furtive glance, no, that¡¯s probably not the right adjective, their solemn glance, yeah, that¡¯s it, I have to ask, ¡°Wait, what¡¯s wrong?¡±


    ¡°We did not crack -these- shells.¡± Agwai states, emphasizing the word these. Laomati nods in agreement, pointing to smaller shells around what looks to be a cooking pit, and then points over to Taito and Iakopo hauling a large shell in from somewhere, a completely intact giant shell.


    I feel fear rising in my throat as I imagine the implication. ¡°Then, then what cracked these shells?¡± I manage to shakily ask, though perhaps in our odd text communication there might be no difference.


    ¡°These were our homes, and while thankfully, the great beasts of the sea themselves did not come aground, their mere presence upon the shelf, instead of the depths, set the seas to turmoil, sending a tsunami¡¯s tidal wave crashing ashore stronger than we¡¯d ever experienced before.¡± Laomati explains as she clasps one of my hands, seemingly knowing that explaining such to me would make me nervous. Laomati strokes my hand and keeps me grounded during the explanation.


    There¡¯s a change in the air pressure, everything feels suddenly cooler as a chill passes, and I peer into the distance, at where I thought the horizon line was, but my gaze is met with water. Puzzled, I look up just slightly, and there¡¯s the horizon line. I think. How would the horizon line itself move? My eyes flash wide in fear as I imagine what it could mean. A massive wave, far in the distance.


    I gulp, almost certain I¡¯m imagining things, but I ask, ¡°A tsunami wave, like, like that one?¡±


    Lao and Agwai look to the horizon, trying to deny my fears, but don¡¯t answer. They wave over Taito and Iakopo who nod before heading off to the shoreline where they dive into the water.


    My facial expression twists to one of confusion, ¡°Wait, is that safe, what are they doing?¡±


    ¡°Never fear my child, they¡¯re simply heading out to estimate the height of the wave. Should we need to, we¡¯ll take shelter a short ways inland. It¡¯s likely several hours away, if it is a wave at all.¡± Lao explains and Agwai nods before heading off to round up the rest of the Shellcrackers, who all gather in a single lean-to.


    Looking around, I realize that there are far more shell buildings than Shellcrackers, and my heart sinks as I come to the logical conclusion. They must have lost several friends and family already. They are all in pain and pushing forward. My throat locks, caught with a gulp halfway swallowed, unable to voice my thoughts. These wonderful people have recently lost more than I can guess at the moment, and here they are, welcoming me, joining me, comforting me. I just feel so inadequate. I want to comfort all of them and take away their pain and give them back what they lost, but I can¡¯t.


    Laomati ushers everyone into the largest shell hut. The entire Shellcracker clan, myself included, pile into a small circle, cuddling amongst one another, Teuila practically flops atop me in a faux body slam, where she spreads out across my lap and Lil¡¯s head. Lil harrumphs, but I can tell they¡¯re actually happy to be so close to each of us.


    Laomati and Agwai seem to keep vigil, likely waiting for some sort of signals from Iakopo or Taito. They''re sitting at opposite ends of the cuddle pile, holding the hands of various smaller otters while staring towards the sea. Surely they will rouse us at the first sign of danger. It''s not like a tsunami wave can just teleport closer, or be generated out of nowhere like a magic spell with unexpected suddenness. I think. I''m honestly too tired to think about it as my eyelids droop again and again.


    Having felt a whirlwind of emotions over the last few days, and having traveled through, well, basically hell and high water, I think that¡¯s the phrase, has left me feeling fairly drained, more than I realized. Moments after cuddling into the cuddle pile, I feel fingers intertwine with mine, and I can tell Lil tries to say something cutesy and snarky about it, though I pass out before I can tell what was said. My dreams feel full of warmth and kindness, somehow in a vast universe of endless possibilities, through endless challenges, strife, struggle, and adversity, the lives of the loving in the universe find a way forward.

 Chapter 9: Hell and High Water

    My eyes flick open and blink rapidly as I furrow my brow, trying to recall my dream. I must have only slept for a few minutes to be as groggy as I am, not even a full REM cycle. It''s hard getting my bearings, and to sift through the voices, or messages, in my mind¡¯s eye. A roaring sound fills my ears, a sound that I realize is a massive wall of wind being pushed so hard that it feels like it¡¯s crushing my ear drums. I suddenly feel much more alert, a moment too late, as an enormous, towering, wall of water crashes into the beach, sweeping myself and the Shellcrackers along with it, slamming us into the underside of the roof of their shell dwelling, thrusting the roof off into the air. My attention is drawn to the fingers linked with mine, Teuila¡¯s grasp is all that is keeping me from being dragged beneath the waves by a terribly powerful undertow, I hold onto Lil with my other arm for dear life. Teuila manages to grip Laomati¡¯s tail with her free hand, I notice that most of the Shellcrackers are latched onto either Agwai¡¯s tail or Laomati¡¯s tail, any free limbs are used to grip their family members.


    The fore wave knocked us into the air, but the primary wave engulfs us all in hundreds upon hundreds of feet of water. I¡¯m about to gasp for breath, but we¡¯re still dozens, maybe hundreds of feet beneath the waves, when I realize that my lungs don¡¯t burn for oxygen yet, as I would have assumed they would. Lil looks uncomfortable but is also holding their breath without gasping or accidentally sucking down water. Curious, I scan through my mind¡¯s eye, sure enough, my name is Reggie Shellcracker now, and apparently with the name comes increased lung capacity, as far as I can tell.


    Somehow, knowing that these otters shared their ability with me, and kept me tightly gripped in their sleep, and made sure I stayed with the group as the wave swept over us, fills me with calm. The calm is short lived, as I see small grey splotches in the distance underwater that must be Iakopo and Taito, and somehow those grey splotches are painted against a darkness that¡¯s a deeper absence of light than anything else beneath the waves. I realize too late what that darkness is, the open maw of one of the great sea beasts as it closes over the grey splotches, erasing them from view, replaced by the massive maw, an endless evil grin and calculating carnivorous eyes. Though the serpent¡¯s eyes are so red, and so massive, and my puny form an insignificant spec in comparison. I swear I feel the serpent¡¯s crimson gaze lock with mine, chilling me to my core. I only realize the Shellcrackers have been crying out in dismay after some time has passed and my lungs begin to burn.


    I realize the Shellcrackers have been making a concerted effort to try to break the edge of the wave as it still pushes inland, we must be traveling thousands of feet per minute, and we can¡¯t gain enough forward momentum to beat out ahead of the wave, or upward momentum to break the surface. I also realize I¡¯ve been subconsciously kicking along with the family, trying to thrust along with the swimming attempt. The pathetic flailing of my feet doesn¡¯t add to the escape whatsoever. Several of the smaller Shellcrackers look worse for wear, and my own eyes are starting to bulge as I hold my breath. I swear I hear that tinkling cracking crackling sound of derezzing, which sets me to panicking, not wanting to lose anyone, nor to die myself. I check on Lil who appears to be unconscious, maybe in a sort of stasis, because at least they aren¡¯t derezzed or gulping down water in a panic.


    I actually feel like I might be the one derezzing as my lungs burn and ache and cry for air. I notice that Laomati is shuffling several of the smaller shellcrackers through, kissing them, even though they look to be unmoving. I figure her lungs must be larger, and she¡¯s likely sharing air with them. My limbs feel weaker and weaker, my grip on Teuila slackens, and I swear she turns her gaze down upon me in sheer terror. Perhaps that¡¯s my imagination though, as I think my eyes might actually be closed at this point, my eyelids too heavy to fight as every muscle in my body aches and burns intensely, something feels like it pops in my eyes, or near them, somewhere around the, hm, I guess they¡¯d be called ocular cavities, I guess. All I can think to do is lock my left arm tighter around Lil, feeling as if I¡¯m tearing my muscles apart by locking my joints into position. Heh, proprioception. I swear I feel Te¡¯s tail wrap around my waist, but I realize that my vision is gone, like a television with a burned-in image. Te turning towards me and looking down with terror is a frozen static image in my eyes. Is this what dying is like? The last image in your eyes? I could imagine worse last images, she looks like she cares so much. I¡¯m happy I got to meet them, the Shellcrackers, and Lil. I hope Lil is okay, I hope the Shellcrackers are okay as a whole, and that they can recover from the loss of Iakopo and Taito.


    Wait, they¡¯re still in danger, I can¡¯t die yet. That thing is out there, and Lil wasn¡¯t moving, something burns within me in a way that¡¯s less painful than the ache for oxygen, a secondary fire, like a feeling of pure determination as I stare at that caring, terrified face. Even with this image frozen in my mind¡¯s eye, filling me with determination, there¡¯s not much I can do, except, wait, what happens if I displace several thousand liters of water with several thousand liters of water? I could swear I feel something silky, furry, soft, and smooth on my lips, and as if my lungs are hurting less, though the vision slowly fades to nothingness, I¡¯m not certain if it¡¯s black or white, it¡¯s just, empty sight. I try to imagine where I was in proximity to each of the Shellcrackers, Ag and Lao were forwards and upwards, the main pull, Atamai was fiercely clinging onto Ag with their mouth, Luni, where was Luni, I can¡¯t remember, I think she was being kissed by Lao, probably to give her air now that I think about it. Olioli I can¡¯t remember where he was either, dangit, I nearly start to hyperventilate in frustration, but remember I¡¯m underwater and keep it under control. Mataali, Manaia, and Manamea were holding in a triangle pattern around Agwai. Penina, Penina would have been obvious, she¡¯s a very creamy white that nearly has a pearlescent sheen, where was she. Dang it! I can¡¯t remember. I know Teuila was right in front of my face, as was Lil. Okay, okay, I¡¯ll try my best. I divest myself completely, putting everything in my inventory, and could swear I feel silky smoothness against my skin. I hope it¡¯s not weird, but I need every last ounce of supplies. Normally the plates and platters and wraps that the sashimi appear on disappear when the sashimi is eaten, but I try to separate them in my inventory, storing the sashimi in empty space, while using the plates as well to construct the shell I¡¯m trying to build.


    I truly only have a single shot at this, because if the shell fails, or the thrust doesn¡¯t work, I won¡¯t have any more supplies to make another attempt. I try to think of octagons, and dodecahedrons, I wrap and spool leaves and vines and sap and clay as much as I can with as many sticks and twigs and spears and clubs and various items I''d picked up while fishing that I never found a use for as I can muster. I mentally focus on filling the gaps with plates and platters and wraps, I leave a tiny hole where I picture the rear to be. I pray the pressure change won¡¯t just kill us, and I summon this monstrous creation from my inventory around where I picture the Shellcrackers to be in relation to me. Immediately I imagine thrusting the several thousand spare liters of freshwater from my inventory backwards from ahead of me, blasting all the saltwater out of our shell, and all of the freshwater as well, and I feel a clump of furry bodies slam into me, and myself slam against the rear of the shell. I can tell the shell is rocketing forward, but that it¡¯s also already failing, as water sprays in, but I take a deep gulp of air, and hear at least half a dozen other gasping breaths and sounds of confusion.


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    I try to patch up the shell with radiant energy, just copying sap-covered platters, but I have no idea if it¡¯s having any effect, as my vision still hasn¡¯t returned. This attempt massively eats into my energy pool, and doesn¡¯t seem as if it¡¯s having the desired effect. Instead I try to claim the water that surrounds us as it pours in, drawing it into my inventory, which is far more efficient, but it fills my inventory incredibly quickly, so I cycle it in and then out the back of the shell as much as possible. I swear I may have accidentally thrown out one or more bags in my haste, trying to bail out the water, as I thought my capacity was 1337, and now it¡¯s 937. Frustrated, and realizing my body is not responding, I do give in and hyperventilate slightly. Thankfully there¡¯s air to gasp in, in the shell at the moment, sort of, as there definitely feels to be an absence of pressure in the shell. It feels like I might have accidentally created a vacuum, but I think that vacuum drew some oxygen out of the water due to inventory shenanigans. I¡¯m not certain how that would normally work, I don¡¯t think normally matter suddenly displaces other matter from literally nowhere. Now isn¡¯t the time for complex physics analysis by a complete amateur like myself. I just need to keep this up for a little longer.


    Uncomfortable with the lack of a plan, and my own lack of sight, I ask, ¡°Can anyone tell me, the shell I made, is it still completely submerged or are we riding the wave?¡±


    Thankfully my sight in my mind¡¯s eye isn¡¯t destroyed, as I can see/hear the responses of the textboxes.


    A voiced text whose owner I can''t identify through my over-exerted befuddlement at the moment responds, ¡°Not yet, your magic saved us, some of us.¡±


    ¡°Some of us!?¡± I cry out in shock and horror.


    ¡°We shall see, it may have been too late, we have definitely lost some, and may yet lose more of my loves.¡± Laomati¡¯s calm response only barely betrays her desperate sadness, somehow the tone comes across, indicating a forlorn feeling that lays beneath her calm exterior.


    I choke back tears and swallow a gulp, trying to focus on manipulating my surroundings yet a while longer. I resolve to find a way to just claim a massive amount of oxygen permanently in my inventory after this, compressed if I can, due to how often I seem to spend time on or submerged in water.


    Confused by my inability to see, I ask, ¡°Is it dark, or really bright? Normally I can see pretty well in the dark, but I don¡¯t see anything right now.¡±


    Lao''s response comes from closer than expected, it''s as if she''s right in front of my face, though I don''t see her, ¡°Your eyes, my child, they¡¯re glazed and grey, and full of blood. I fear the worst.¡±


    ¡°My, my eyes are bleeding?!¡± I barely manage to choke out the question, trying to maintain my focus on manipulating the water surrounding us.


    ¡°Something of the sort, I¡¯m afraid.¡± I feel a tender caress against my cheek, and I notice I¡¯m being tightly embraced by someone closer to my height.


    ¡°Teuila, are you hugging me?¡±


    She haltingly, barely, responds, ¡°Yes you dork, so is Lil. Just, just shut up and use your magic to get out of this.¡±


    ¡°Lil, are you okay?¡± I unintentionally ignore Te¡¯s request that I shut up as I realize I can check in on Lil.


    ¡°Better than you Reggie, better than, better than some of us.¡± Lil¡¯s voice cracks through the text.


    With Lil being alive and conscious, an idea begins to form as I beg, ¡°Lil, this might sound crazy, but when I say go, can you blow a big fire right into my left hand?¡±


    Lil obviously agrees with me, ¡°You¡¯re right Reggie, that does sound crazy.¡±


    I plead once more, ¡°Please Lil, I¡¯m almost spent, I can¡¯t keep this up, I feel like I¡¯m going to faint, and I have one last idea before this all breaks apart.¡±


    Lil acquiesces easily enough, ¡°Okay partner, just say when.¡±


    ¡°Everybody else please move behind Lil.¡± Feeling their bodies shift away from me, I feel Te linger for a moment, before there¡¯s a light bonk as she raps my forehead. ¡°Okay Lil, the biggest one you can muster, absolutely massive, pour everything into it, please?¡±


    Lil virtually shrieks in text, ¡°Are you CRAZY!?¡±


    ¡°Maybe Lil, please, please just do it, right now?¡± I hear Lil sob slightly but just after I say now, I feel the heat begin to form, and immediately start claiming all the fire as it comes into contact with my hand, and I keep claiming and keep claiming, Lil is honestly pouring on more than I thought they had available, I regret asking for so much as I feel my skin blister, crackle, and peel, the scent of the hairs on my arm and hand cooking is utterly revolting, and then in a flash, it ends, and I feel Lil flop next to me, spent, gasping for breath. I''m fairly certain the fire cooked the nerve endings in my nose completely to ash, a small mercy that I can no longer smell the burning hair.


    ¡°Everyone, hang on tightly to each other. Thank you for saving me, for letting me be a part of your family, I¡¯m sorry I wasn¡¯t stronger or faster. Here goes everything.¡± I basically say a silent prayer as I''m giving it my all.


    A massive pool of fire in my mind¡¯s eye inventory I try to replicate with radiance, expending everything except the amount of energy it will take to expel the real fire. I imagine attaching it to our shell as a thruster, exploding out rearward. Like a multi stage rocket we are thrust forward. I repeat it again, and again, and again, as I unleash my radiant fire duplications, trying to absorb any excess heat so as not to harm the others, feeling my flesh peeling all over my body at this point as I make certain all heat goes through me. Eventually I can tell we¡¯re sailing through the air, and that I¡¯ve regained a tiny fraction of energy. I feel paws clasping my tender burnt arms, it¡¯s excruciating, but I reclaim all the supplies that make up the shell into my inventory, I reconfigure them into a massive cushion with multiple layers of support, and weight distribution, and below that, I expel the last of the real flame, as a sort of landing thruster.


    I black out as I feel all of us impacting the cushion at roughly the same time. As I¡¯m losing consciousness, I hear a heart wrenching sound, the cracking, crackling, tinkling noise of someone derezzing, and I can tell that my tear ducts are too burnt to cry.


    Every nightmare is supposedly accompanied by a rider whose purpose it is to harvest the emotions, or pick the subject matter, something along those lines. My nightmare and rider must have looked at my charred remains in pity, as there was a wash of bright light over all of the horrors in my dreams, everything was too bright to perceive. Trees whose trunks contain sharp-fanged gaping maws? Awash in light. Spheres whose fronts open into fake faces that tear and rend? Awash in light. Bottomless depths of ponds from which tentacles arise? Awash in light. Caverns in which horrifying enormous spiders lay in wait? Awash in light. Serpents the size of continents whose motions cause tidal waves, whose bites rend the laws of physics? Awash in light. Yet somehow, this pity taken upon my poor psyche feels almost more horrifying. Now to have to fear the light, it¡¯s almost too much.


    I awaken, hoarse, I think I may have been screaming, or crying, or trying to, but I can tell no sound is escaping. Somehow I¡¯m alive, but it seems like the burns are preventing me from recovering, or maybe I just wasn¡¯t out long enough to recover. Normally a full sleep has me nearly healed up from just about anything, but I can tell I¡¯m in exactly the same state as when I passed out, or worse, thanks to my mind¡¯s eye stats page.


    I can tell Lil is coming to, as they begin sobbing and headbutting my leg while wrapping their tail around my ankle. It¡¯s excruciating beyond belief how tender my raw flesh is. Oh, I can¡¯t move my limbs. I tried to move my hand down to pat Lil comfortingly, but I can¡¯t move at all.


    I hear more of that familiar derezzing sound of crinkling crackling tinkling, and a gasp from those gathered.

 Chapter 10: You Are No God

    ¡°No, no, no no no, I tried so hard, why, please no, don¡¯t die.¡± I beg no one in particular.


    I can tell Ag or Lao are standing above me, as I feel a teardrop land upon my brow somewhat unexpectedly.


    ¡°Please, please tell me what I can do, who¡¯s hurt, I¡¯ll do anything, anything in my power, please, someone say something, who¡¯s okay? What¡¯s going on? I can¡¯t see anything, please tell me!¡± I beg tearfully.


    ¡°It¡¯s Luni now, she¡¯s leaving us.¡± Comes a stoic response from Laomati. I hear Lil sob harder at the explanation, I know Lil was bonding with Luni on the trip to the Shellcracker home.


    ¡°I refuse.¡± I state with defiance, trying to lace my voice with determination.


    ¡°What?¡± I can veritably feel the confusion and disbelief in the text voice that replies.


    Gritting my teeth, trying not to sound my frustration at the speaker, Lao, ¡°No, it won¡¯t happen, with your permission, I¡¯m going to do something, or try to do something.¡±


    Her sadness strikes in waves through her response, ¡°Child there¡¯s nothing you can do, but I won¡¯t stop you from trying, whatever you need do to grieve.¡±


    ¡°No more, no one else has to grieve today.¡± I mentally reach for the sound of the tinkling, and I feel the polygons escaping Luni¡¯s form, and I try to claim them, seemingly to no effect at first, but then my energy regenerates enough and I get just enough to catch a single triangle from Luni. I beg the world, the system that runs the world, the laws behind the world, for enough energy, please, just this once, enough energy to save her. I feel a partially forced limit break, and I feel my energy debt expand far far deeper than normally able. It¡¯s like feeling someone reach into your innards and begin clawing out your guts but as if you had an endless supply of excruciatingly instantly regenerating organs, so they just keep reaching in and clawing out more, endlessly ripping essence away from you, an almost unimaginable pain. I focus and claim as many of the escaped polygons as possible, and Luni¡¯s main body, it breaks my heart that she qualifies to be claimed into my inventory, I try to piece the polygons back together, but I wasn¡¯t fast enough, I¡¯m not a god of life, there are bits missing, and I have an incomplete Luni in my inventory as the last bit of my internal essence is stripped, ripped away.


    I fall flat on the ground, unmoving, unblinking, unbreathing. I might have overdone it. I can feel myself truly dying from this attempt, I can feel parts of myself trying to sacrifice themselves to give Luni another chance. I even feel Lil¡¯s analysis as they¡¯re shrieking in terror at my unmoving form. That terror gives way to anger, and defiance. Lil leaps at me and begins to tear into my side. Lil begins to spit little gouts of flame, the rest of the Shellcrackers look aghast, somehow I know all this, oh, I¡¯m out of my own body again. Looking closer, Lil isn¡¯t attacking me, it looks like they¡¯re trying to enter me, or become one with me. There appear to be some polygons, triangles, trying to escape my side. I guess I am a part of this world after all. Its laws are my laws, and I was just broken for a while, not quite normal, when I awoke on¡­ Day¡­ One. Hm, I can¡¯t even tell how long I froze up for, oh wait, where¡¯s Lil? Lil must have gotten so upset that they had to leave, I don¡¯t blame them. It was so arrogant of me to think I could do anything to stop someone¡¯s death.


    I notice my inventory capacity display is messed up in my mind¡¯s eye, though I suppose that could be an effect of the dying process. Giving one last glance to my inventory, wondering if I can at least give the fish to the Shellcrackers before I disappear, I¡¯m shocked and horrified to find Lil in my inventory, bleeding polygons.


    I want to cry out and scream no, to kick Lil out of my inventory but I have no control, no ability to invoke any effort. Enough of Lil is stripped away in front of my very eyes, and those polygons drift their way to Luni, though some appear to bleed away into my inventory space, lost forever. I even see a beating crystalline heart as Lil exposes more of their core. A small portion of this heart goes to Luni, and yet another portion floats away into my inventory. I suppose the spare polygons and heart piece could be going to me in some vague sense.


    Suddenly I begin to perceive sound again, mostly a terrible ringing in my ears, I didn¡¯t even notice it was gone until it returned. That¡¯s one aspect of my life I could have gone without, and I suppose I will find one terrible silver lining as a smidgeon of solace when it¡¯s gone. Yet my mind¡¯s eye numbers hint at recovery. Not just for myself, but for Luni, and Lil!


    Wait, what¡¯s Te doing? Ow! She leaned down and slapped me! Ow! She keeps slapping me! Stop, please stop, how can I tell you that we¡¯re recovering? Lao pulls Te off of my body while she¡¯s swiping furiously at the air, seemingly crying hysterically. Oh, oh heavens I look like a corpse, an utterly toasted, crispy corpse, oh my goodness that¡¯s. Oh wow, if I were conscious I¡¯d probably vomit at the sight of myself. If I could see myself. I couldn¡¯t see myself with Te in the way, but no wonder she¡¯s so mad. Wow, that¡¯s, it¡¯s just so hard to see someone so hurt. Maybe we could just cover that up? As I think that, some of the cushion disappears into my inventory, reconfigures into my leaf-leather armor clothing. Next, the clothing appears upon my body, which fills me with an excruciating sensation as it touches my crispy raw flesh. I didn¡¯t expect that to work, or to feel it. I try to float around for a better view of myself, and who we¡¯ve lost. I realize I can just check my mind¡¯s eye. I can¡¯t see information for Atamai, Oli, or Penina, and can¡¯t find them anywhere in my out of body experience. Eugh, I think I¡¯m going to be sick if I wake up, just the thought of having lost them. Oli was such a lovable goof, and Penina was a demure young lady with wonder in her eyes and that shell was always in her hands. Actually, looking now, all of the Otterfolk have -1 as their maximum inventory capacity. I guess that¡¯s why they think of mine and Lil¡¯s inventories as magic, and why Penina wouldn¡¯t let the shell out of her tiny webbed-pawed-hands.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    I think this out of body experience is reaching its limits. Actually I think it¡¯s about to be an inner body experience, or maybe intra body experience, because I start to feel Lil, and Luni. Not like the sensation of touch, but like I feel their sensations as they float in the void of my inventory. We¡¯re all in terrible pain, our bodies broken beyond what this world normally allows to remain. Not the most pleasant way to find out you have an even stronger bond than you thought you did. Or well, not the most pleasant way to find out that you¡¯ve developed a three way bond with two people you care about. I have a feeling it has something to do with Lil. I remember hearing stories about dragons being able to give away pieces of their hearts, forever linking those who¡¯d been gifted the heart part. Lilagni really, absolutely, truly is a dragon, and personifies its noblest characteristics it seems.


    My clothing appearing on my body must have spooked the family, the Shellcracker clan, one and all, I think. I¡¯m not certain but I think they were about to bury me or leave me somewhere, but I¡¯m fairly certain I faintly feel the excruciating sensation of being borne across someone¡¯s arms as they carry my crispy body along. Oddly enough, while most of my body hair was singed away, my face and head were kept away from the flames, so my shock of red hair looks like an ironic reminder of my recent playing with fire. At least, from what I remember of the out of body experience.


    I wonder if I can give them some of the food. Hm, yep, simply by wondering, I¡¯m pretty sure I just sent several plates of sashimi from my inventory out onto my chest while I¡¯m being carried. That was probably pretty dumb, but hopefully it literally gives them the strength to carry on.


    Oh, now I understand why the sand was so pristine, while still so far from the beach. I also realize why the palm trees were so much more sparse than trees anywhere else. That wasn¡¯t the first massive tidal wave. I mean, I knew this earlier, about it not being the first wave, but I couldn¡¯t have imagined the scale til I experienced it. I really truly hope the family stops and eats before making it too deep into the swamp. I¡¯m not sure how fast they can travel on land. Oh, oh they¡¯re going to have several days before I can do anything. I¡¯m pretty sure I just destroyed a ton of the progress I¡¯ve made since I woke up, on¡­ Day¡­ One. Oh, turns out it¡¯s pretty hard to have a traumatic panic attack when you¡¯re barely alive, in some sort of mental three way limbo. Silver lining? I guess?


    Oh crap, each time I think about trying to summon stuff from my inventory to help out my Shellcracker family, I just realized that I¡¯m going further into negative energy. Also apparently I¡¯m stuck in the limit break in a bad way, it¡¯s keeping me from being able to recover at all, and I think it¡¯s limiting Lil and Luni as well. Oh, oh this is going to get silly. I think I have to use a limit break finisher to stop this. Alright, here goes ridiculous post negative energy expenditures. I imagine claiming the trees around me as my hand brushes across several, whilst I¡¯m being carried, further surrendering yet more energy debt. I¡¯m fairly certain trees disappearing from right next to you is likely startling whoever is carrying me, but this next bit will probably be more startling. I actually claim cylindrical logs from the trees sort of like bullets from the chamber of a revolver, since the ancient arbor would be far too large to claim instantly as a whole.


    Let¡¯s engage a crafting limit break climax. I erect a massive edifice in my mind¡¯s eye out of radiant copies of all the logs and vines and sap, using up as many of the base wood and other material as possible or necessary, something akin to a cubic raft with the front face open, facing away from the shoreline. I craft it completely laden down with shelves packed with sashimi platters, hoping that if another wave hits, or the same one catches up with us, that my Shellcracker family will think to stay aboard, and possibly ride the wave to safety. With that, my energy debt plunges into ridiculously abysmal levels even further, and I finally, truly lose consciousness.


    Several days must have passed, I feel my muscles ache, stirring me into that semi-conscious state of being able to browse my mind¡¯s eye, having recovered slightly. However, not moving for days on end is causing its own problems. I¡¯m hoping that Lil and Luni are recovering as well, but they seem to not be making progress while trapped in stasis in my inventory, it seems like whatever force of will allowed Lil to enter my inventory and split their heart ran out of juice after that, and now they¡¯re stuck. I hope that Lil¡¯s action was safe, and saved Luni as well, but the only way to find out is to expel them from my inventory, and let our family take care of them while we all recover. So, I gently nudge them from my inventory, trying not to use any energy to do so, letting them fall from my hand, wherever it may lie.


    My wrists, my forearms, my ankles, neck, everything aches, and the sheer raw pain of my flesh has barely diminished, so I try to welcome the bliss of unconsciousness again, and am grateful when it welcomes me with open arms, stealing away my consciousness into sleep once more.

 Chapter 11: Road to Recovery

    I awaken what must be some days later yet, to fish being pressed against my face, as I¡¯m being fed. Thankfully the way eating works is rather automatic, and the family thought to take care of me, making sure I was nourished. I¡¯m truly, fully awake now, but tears barely work their way out of my injured tear ducts as I realize I can¡¯t move, nor can I see. Or at least I can not see more than a slightly blurry darkness on a slightly blurry lightness. If my eyesight is recovering, it¡¯s doing so slowly. I¡¯m not sure why I can¡¯t move, or speak. Having control of neither my muscles nor ability to communicate fills me with panic. A soothing, moistened, swath of cloth, or fur, or perhaps leaf leather, helps relax my racing panicked mind as it brushes various tender parts of my body. Oh, I¡¯ve been stripped, probably so whomever is attending me could take care of me. I thought I was doing them a favor by covering up the burns, but I guess medically that wasn¡¯t the smartest thing to do the way I did it.


    ¡°Reggie¡¯s crying, Reggie¡¯s eyes are moving! They¡¯re awake!¡± I can -hear- my family talking, I heard Te calling my name, pronouncing me awake. I know it¡¯s textboxes in my mind¡¯s eye, but her voice, though frantic, is akin to a bell in an orchestra, light and airy, yet demanding of attention, a pleasing pitch that¡¯s encompassing like a hug between two bodies on a cold day.


    I want to talk to her, to thank her, to tell her how much I worried for them, how hard I tried, but I can¡¯t speak. I want to ask about Lil and Luni, about everyone. I¡¯m so frustrated that I shed a few more precious tears from my dehydrated body. I feel Te¡¯s cupped hands near my mouth, and can tell they¡¯re filled with water, which she allows me to drink, in that magical way that consumption happens automatically.


    ¡°Reggie, Reggie you did it, you saved her, we saved her, come on buddy, please wake up, Luni wants to say hi, she wants to thank you. Please Reggie, I love you, talk to me.¡± My heart breaks as I hear Lil begging me to respond, and all I can do is feel tears well into my eyes, my tear ducts slowly functioning better and better.


    ¡°Shh, it¡¯s okay my child, let them rest, they will be okay now, now I¡¯m sure of it.¡± Lao calmly seems to direct Lil away from me, though I wish they would stay, and I think she whispers something to Te, who appears to agree.


    I feel sharp pains as someone is apparently pulling my clothes onto my body once more, the pain is so intense I pass out yet again.


    I don¡¯t know whether it¡¯s days later, or simply a few hours, when I finally awaken again, and feel some strength in my limbs. I wiggle my big toe, but that¡¯s all I can do at the moment. Breathing feels so heavy and hard, I wonder how I¡¯ve been breathing while asleep all this time. I exert myself as much as I can, I move just my big toe, and then the cluster of muscles that controls the rest of my toes slightly twitches simultaneously. I don¡¯t think I ever had too much independent control of my toes, so I¡¯m not surprised, but I feel the tendons and muscles along the arch of the top of my foot strain and quiver as I try to move my toes. Eventually, quite possibly hours later, I can''t make any more progress on my lower extremities, so I manage to flick my index finger of my right hand, just slightly enough to let it drop and tap whatever it¡¯s resting on. Almost proud of my progress, I tap again, and again, slowly more fingers join in.


    A voiced box belonging to Teuila exclaims, ¡°Reggie¡¯s moving, I saw fingers tapping there, see! Their fingers are moving. Reggie, Reggie can you hear me?¡±


    Lil excitedly adds, ¡°Or me buddy!¡±


    Teuila then gently orders, ¡°If you can hear us, stop tapping for a second, then tap once.¡±


    I do my best to let my fingers rest for a moment, then tap once. I¡¯m suddenly engulfed by a warm embrace, as I¡¯m pretty sure Te hugs me tightly, while I¡¯m engulfed by a scaly bottom on my face as Lil practically smothers me, trying to hug and kiss me.


    Teuila, with a mix of anger and laughter orders, ¡°Get off Reggie you big dork, they can¡¯t breathe like that.¡±


    ¡°Sorry pal, sorry, I¡¯ve missed you so much, it¡¯s been weeks!¡± Lil''s response is somewhat expected, though not the length.


    Wow, weeks and I¡¯m still not recovered. The magic of this world normally put me back together from basically dead to basically fine overnight. I probably screwed up really badly to be in so much energy debt that I¡¯m not even recovering physically all that much yet. I try to wiggle my fingers to get Lil and Te¡¯s attention. I feel Te lean away from the hug, which saddens me slightly, but she seems to be trying to figure out what I want. While only being able to move three joints on my index finger, I try to point towards myself, and then point up, hoping that Te understands. I think I need to start moving to be able to recover, I don¡¯t think I can make any more recovery progress from just resting.


    ¡°Te, I think Reggie wants to get up, I can just feel it somehow. They won¡¯t get better anymore from just sleeping, at least that¡¯s what they think, I think.¡± I can tell Te is thinking hard on Lil¡¯s explanation. Eventually Te gives in and embraces me once more, this time, lifting me to a sitting position.


    Teuila grumpily states, ¡°That¡¯s as far as Reggie¡¯s going for right now, no matter what they want, okay?¡±


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Lil cheekily replies, ¡°Sure fam, I care about Reggie more than anyone, I don¡¯t want them getting hurt worse.¡±


    I can feel myself smile, and it hurts like hell, moving my facial muscles. After smiling, the pain causes me to grimace, which also hurts, which causes me to grimace again. I¡¯m pretty sure that my two pals can tell I¡¯m accidentally hurting myself with my facial expressions, as I get cuffed upside the head lightly by Te.


    ¡°If it hurts, stop doing it you big dork.¡± She actually causes me to laugh, the slightest vibration of my torso, and exhalation, but a laugh, laced with an incredible amount of pain, nonetheless. I still my face and my torso, and wiggle my finger once more, wanting to show appreciation, to hug my two closest friends back for taking care of me.


    ¡°They wanna hug us, but can only move their fingers and toes.¡± Lil explains. Are they in my mind? Or maybe just reading my mental log thing? I feel Te¡¯s paw as she slips her fingers between mine.


    ¡°There, you can hug my fingers with yours.¡± She lets out a tiny chuckle like a tinkling bell that lifts my spirits further. I do just that, too, gripping her little hand with mine, as best I can. Lil bounds over to my other hand, and keeps bouncing up to touch it with the top of their head. I do my best to give gentle one-finger head pats to Lil when they come into contact with my hand.


    I feel a bit drained from the exertion, as ludicrous as that sounds, of wiggling my extremities, and smiling and laughing a little. I also find myself thinking of being kissed by Te while underwater, how it saved my life when she gave up some of the air in her lungs for me. I flush a bit with embarrassment, hoping Lil doesn¡¯t read my thoughts, and I swear I hear Lil think ¡°Jerk.¡± for a second.


    ¡°I think Reggie needs to rest again, they can¡¯t move anymore, and they have recovery stuff on the mind. See, they¡¯re getting all red, like me, it means they have to cool down, ya dig?¡± Lil, Lil you sneaky little, are you in my head? A telepathic reply sounds out, ¡°Duh.¡± Why didn¡¯t you say something? Are you reading my memory journal thing, or how? Lil''s brain plants into my brain the message, ¡°Nah, I think I messed up and made us way more connected, Luni and I have been able to hear each other think for weeks now.¡±


    ¡­


    Can Luni hear me think? ¡°Yes, but I was trying to give you privacy.¡± Wait, is that Luni? How many voices am I going to have in my head!?


    ¡°Just us two I think buddy,¡± responds Lil. ¡°I think that¡¯s also why you can hear now the way that I hear. Maybe if you try focusing on it, you can see what I see?¡±


    I guess I could give it a shot, though it hurts as I accidentally squint my eyes, I start to see my cute little self, not quite with as much cute round pudginess anywhere anymore, a little bit frail and gaunt looking, just a tiny bit. But I swear I look different in Lil¡¯s vision than I do when I look in a reflection. More powerful, or cool somehow. I¡¯m fairly shocked at how I appear in others¡¯ eyes, though I feel touched by the admiration and adoration their view of me implies. Lil, could you please do me two favors? Could you come clean to Te about our connection, and could you, Te, and Luni, agree to laugh about my situation?


    Lil grumps, ¡°I don¡¯t really want to do either of those, but I can¡¯t say no to you buddy. Not right now at least.¡±


    Sorry Lil, and thank you. Anyway, is that what you really think of me as you see me Lil? In Lil¡¯s vision, my outfit looks far more well-tailored, better fitting, more protective, almost masterful fashion on top of sleek form and function, and my wild shock of unkempt hair looks more like the locks of a regal mane.


    ¡°Yeah, of course, not only are you high level, but you¡¯re adorbs.¡± Adorbs? Really? Thanks Lil. Lil, I love you, I¡¯m so grateful you saved Luni, and me. ¡°Oh you didn¡¯t need saving buddy, at least not before I entered you, I screwed up by going inside, then screwed up again inside.¡± came Lil¡¯s reply.


    Oh, I didn¡¯t? Well, still, thank you for saving Luni, Luni I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re alive, I¡¯m so so so so glad. I¡¯m so sorry about not being able to save everyone, I can¡¯t express how sorry I am, I just. I begin crying, tears streaming down my cheeks, I realize our entire mental conversation is happening in the split second it takes for Te to lay me back down.


    ¡°Are you kidding? I wouldn¡¯t be alive if it weren¡¯t for both of you, please don¡¯t be sorry, I can literally feel how sorry you are, it¡¯s so sad it hurts.¡± Luni responds to my thoughts. Oof, I feel a pang of guilt for that, feeling consequences for having negative emotions is going to be difficult to navigate.


    ¡°No no, don¡¯t worry, we don¡¯t always feel what the others feel, just when we¡¯re listening in and talking like this. We can have whole conversations and go through whole spectrums of emotions with each other in seconds, it¡¯s like we think faster than the world can act, like way faster than we could talk.¡± Luni explains to me, which makes sense. ¡°It¡¯s part of why Lil and I are so close now, it¡¯s only been a few weeks for everyone else, but now it¡¯s like we¡¯ve had years of conversations and thoughts shared.¡±


    Oh, wow, I¡¯m a bit jealous of you two for the time that I missed out on.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be jealous Reggie, now you¡¯re part of it too, and plus, I can tell how you feel about Te.¡± Lil teases.


    Lil! I mean, okay, I guess Luni can tell too. That¡¯s just embarrassing though, I¡¯m so naive that I don¡¯t even know what I¡¯m feeling, like, she makes my heart race, what even is that? I don¡¯t know what that means! Is that like what you and Luni have?


    ¡°Yup, although everyone suspected on the first night when you two kept staring at each other like you were lost in another world.¡± Luni commented in response.


    Wait, we did, wait, we both did?


    ¡°Uh huh, and Te insisted she be the one to take care of you.¡± My heart flutters as I hear this. Ugh, this is going to get embarrassing fast, having my emotions on display.


    ¡°More on display.¡± Lil teases again.


    More on display?


    ¡°Yeah, you light up, literally.¡± I look through Lil¡¯s eyes as they claim this. ¡°Think about Te saving your life underwater.¡± I blush at the command, and sure enough, in Lil¡¯s eyes, my aura has flashes of reds and purples in a sort of undulating pattern.


    Wow, that¡¯s, wow, well, that¡¯s kind of ridiculous. Emotions in myself that I don¡¯t even understand, show up as big flashes of color to everyone else. Way more obvious than flushed faces and quickened breathing or pulse or pupil dilation. Though I guess it doesn¡¯t take an expert to recognize those either. I realize that even though I think my eyelids are closed, my eyelids feel incredibly heavy, and that I¡¯m barely maintaining consciousness.


    ¡°Yeah you were on the verge of passing out as soon as Te started letting you back down.¡± Lil explains. Oh, that makes sense, I guess I won¡¯t be able to keep--.

 Chapter 12: Further Yet

    Talking? I awaken sometime later, at first it feels dark and lonesome, but then I focus enough and am able to twitch a finger. Then I realise that Te¡¯s hand is still holding my fingers, and I just smile before shedding a happy tear, falling asleep again.


    I think this continued for several more days. During that time, I came clean about my trauma of Day One to Te, of course freezing up and having a panic attack while talking about it. Those few days passed with brief periods of being sat up, and wiggling my legs or arms, until today, when I¡¯m ready to start walking again. In fact, I can tell I¡¯m in positive energy. I almost don¡¯t wait for Te to assist me. I think she¡¯d beat me silly however if I didn¡¯t. Te helps lift me to my feet, and I feel fairly steady, until I take my first step, falling into her. Her muscular lithe limbs easily catch me and set me right. I don¡¯t know if I envy her, or if I¡¯m just so grateful and happy to know her. I was hoping that my vision would recover while my physical health did, but it doesn¡¯t seem to be making a lot of progress. I¡¯m able to take a few shaky steps, stumbling each time into Te, before I think to ask for some food.


    Embarassedly, I ask, ¡°Te, could we maybe sit down and eat together for a second before I try again?¡±


    ¡°Sure Punk.¡± Te manages to make punk sound like an affectionate term of endearment, it¡¯s something she continues to do with random terms like dork, dingus, jerk, punk, potato, petunia, I have no idea how I¡¯m supposed to feel about any of that. Well, mostly I feel happy to hear her refer to me at all.


    Regardless, we sit down together, to eat some of the sashimi I had duplicated with my limit break, apparently even though normally my radiant duplicates disappear almost immediately, the limit break materialized everything I copied into realistic seeming duplicates. Real enough to eat at least. The meal only lasts a few moments, with the automatic eating process, I¡¯m really craving any sort of food other than these particular platters at this point, even though there¡¯s a few different flavors and styles.


    I mumble in gratitude, ¡°Te, I can¡¯t thank you enough, you saved me, without you I couldn¡¯t have done anything, and now, after all that, you¡¯re fixing me up, helping me all the time. You¡¯re so wonderful.¡±


    ¡°Duh, dork.¡± She replies in a teasing tone, before her voice softens. ¡°Besides, we¡¯ve been over this, I had to, and then you saved as many of us as you could, I don¡¯t know if we¡¯ll ever be able to be even, because I can¡¯t even guess just how much you did for us, or what you gave up for us.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Te, still, I¡¯m sorry, for things, and stuff.¡± I tear up, not being able to talk about how five members of her family are gone, that I can¡¯t do anything about it, that if I had acted faster, I might have been able to save three of them. Or maybe I wouldn¡¯t have been able to save anyone, if we were still under too much pressure in the wave and if the shell collapsed right away. It¡¯s too hard to think about. Te leans over. Despite being unable to see her activity, I can feel her staring into my eyes, captivating me, then she hauls back and slugs me hard in the shoulder, bowling me over. I jokingly shout, ¡°Ow!¡±


    Heat has been rising in the air between Teuila''s face and mine. I could sense it until I was knocked over, though I bet she''s still blushing as she quietly orders, ¡°Stop being sappy, let¡¯s get you better.¡±


    ¡°Holy carp, okay, fine, ow, how am I supposed to get better if you keep beating me up all the time?¡± I joke, because even though she playfully hit me, it was mostly the surprise that knocked me over, she¡¯s never once intentionally hurt me with one of her punches or bonks or boops or knuckle raps. She looks a tad sad, I think, just from the proprioceptive response I get from the hairs on my arms, I think she furrowed her brow and pouted. ¡°I¡¯m okay, I¡¯m okay, you¡¯re not really beating me up, you¡¯re right, let¡¯s get me better.¡±


    At that, Te hoists me up and gives me a quick hug, before gently booting my rear. I stumble forward, to my hands and knees, but I feel strong enough to stand back up on my own, and begin walking around. I exhale a breath I didn¡¯t realize I¡¯d been holding, sighing in relief. Now that I¡¯m mostly physically capable again, it¡¯s time to earn back a lot of energy, and maybe about four hundred carry capacity. Lil and the rest said they hadn¡¯t seen any bags popping out in the tidal wave, so it may have just been the inventory shenanigans somehow using the bags.


    I actually have a feeling that I somehow converted inventory space into like, a nebulous special space, and that¡¯s why I was able to store the fire after the fact. Lil still won¡¯t forgive me for making them breathe on me like that, whenever we¡¯re in our shared thinkspace. I think we both just cry thinking about it. No sense dwelling on it, we love each other and we lived through an ordeal, and we¡¯re moving forward.


    Speaking of moving forward, I don¡¯t seem to even be having trouble walking. It feels like second by second, my strength is returning at a more rapid pace than it had in the previous weeks, almost dormant in bed. Curious, yet cautiously, I start to jog, and then to run.


    ¡°Seems like you¡¯re better, but watch out for that, oo, tree.¡± Te begins to call out as I crash, bang, headlong into a tree just as my sensory awareness kicked in, warning me of it a moment too late. I swear there are little stars and birds tweeting circles around my head for a moment as I stand up, a little disoriented.


    I can feel Teuila grinning slyly from nearby as she teases, ¡°Alright, hold still, come here you big dork. Are you going to make a habit of tripping over yourself and falling or smacking into things?¡±


    ¡°Not if I can help it. The beach wasn¡¯t my fault, I told you about Day¡­ One.¡± I freeze up momentarily as Te rushes forward to lift me up in an embrace that slowly grounds me, keeping me from falling into a triggered memory. She whispers ¡°You¡¯re here, right now, you¡¯re here, I¡¯m here, it¡¯s okay, what about today?¡± She squeezes me gently, holding me as I ride out the panic, without it devolving into heartpounding terror. We both know that she can''t necessarily stop or prevent all of my attacks, but the grounding still helps shorten this one.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Today? Today? Hm, oh no, today was your fault, why would you let a blind person run around all higgledy piggledy?¡± I tease, jokingly laying blame on Te, which earns me getting socked in the shoulder.


    ¡°Ow, haha, okay, okay, no, I was being dumb. I¡¯ll need to be careful, and stick with Lil or Luni if I want to do anything that might require sight from now on.¡± I explain, pleading my case for her to stop her light jabs at my arm. I can feel the warmth of her smile as she has satisfactorily gained victory I suppose.


    ¡°Just don¡¯t go getting hurt, okay, Jerk?¡± She almost pleads, there¡¯s a tenderness to her textual tone that melts my heart. My eyes are wet with happy tears, though none fall.


    My smile hurts with how far across my face it has spread. It''s difficult to respond, but I make my best effort, ¡°Yeah, yeah I¡¯ll be good. No more getting hurt from me. I promise to try my best at least.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t make promises you can¡¯t keep.¡± Teuila grumps at me, a mild annoyance underlying her tone that''s mostly laced with a saddened worry.


    I nod in answer, ¡°You¡¯re right, you¡¯re right, but I will try my best, I swear.¡±


    ¡°Okay, good enough for me, Dingleberry.¡± I swear she has a million insults that all sound like loving nicknames as she calls me dingleberry again.


    Frustrated that I can''t see her beautiful eyes and myriad facial expressions, I rhetorically ask, ¡°Te, do you think my sight will ever come back?¡±


    Teuila tries to guide me to an answer anyway, ¡°Well, you said you can almost see shapes again, right?¡±


    ¡°Almost, but basically there¡¯s no depth perception, so if you face me towards a dark area, everything¡¯s dark and nothing stands out. Things basically have to be backlit for me to kind of be able to know there¡¯s a shape in a certain direction ahead of me, though I can¡¯t tell you how close really.¡± I try to puzzle out the best description of my current limited sight.


    ¡°We¡¯ll get there, Dippy.¡± I give a half smile as she tosses another backhanded insult my way. ¡°I¡¯m going to go on a walk with Lao, did you want me to take you back to bed or do you think you can handle finding it on your own?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not quite ready to sleep yet, I don¡¯t think I can get into too much trouble if I just sort of wander around til I find it on my own.¡± Te hems and haws at my response, I can virtually feel her train of thought imagining just what sort of trouble I can get myself into, and whether or not she should usher me back to bed. Eventually she seems to shrug.


    ¡°Fine fine, just don¡¯t get hurt, Derpy.¡± She gives me a peck on the cheek and a warm embrace before I hear her scamper away.


    Alone with my thoughts, I first practice sitting and standing, then, realizing I¡¯m next to the tree I crashed into, I begin trying to shimmy up and down its trunk just a short ways. At most a dozen feet. I feel far more skilled at climbing than I remember myself being, but I don¡¯t want to risk taking a long fall right now, so I don¡¯t press my luck. Wandering around our temporary camp, I look for Ag to ask a fairly serious question. Well, look is a strong word, I stumble blindly around listening for a larger being, trying to feel, hear, and smell the nearness of any of my Shellcracker family. Oh, hm, did I ever have a sense of smell? I don¡¯t seem to anymore. Anosmia or apnosmia, something like that, I think I smelled the burning hair during the tidal wave ride, but before that, and after, I can¡¯t recall.


    After about the third time of bumping into a tree, then asking it if it¡¯s Agwai, I get a tad dispirited, but manage to bump into them on the fourth try.


    Agwai startles aloud, well, a-text, ¡°Hm, oh Reggie you¡¯re up and about, how did you manage to sneak up on me?¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s just because I had to start walking more and more carefully, to stop bumping into trees. I basically have to tiptoe now.¡± I explain, somewhat unknowingly, as it¡¯s mostly a guess.


    ¡°Well it¡¯s good to see you moving, you had us worried for a bit in the beginning, then the waiting game has been quite hard on some of us. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve noticed.¡± Ag insinuates, assuming I have more awareness than I think that I do.


    I half-answer, half-chide, ¡°I can¡¯t notice much of anything with my eyes anymore, unless you meant something else.¡±


    Agwai is somewhat pensive in response, their insinuation from earlier left unclear, ¡°Ah, right right, no, nevermind. Is there something I can do for you?¡±


    I put my best foot forward, trying to explain my proposal, ¡°I would like the Shellcrackers to come back to my home, it¡¯s past the swamp, all the way north up the river to the cliffs that lead to the volcano, there¡¯s a pond there. I guess it¡¯s not really mine, or a home, but it¡¯s a place that I wanted to settle with Lil if we ever found anyone else to share it with. It¡¯s a really abundant spawning ground.¡±


    I can sense Agwai''s lips beginning to form words, and stopping several times, before they respond, ¡°Hm, we had been working on settling here, I¡¯m not certain it¡¯s worth such a long trek, to abandon all we¡¯ve done down here.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± I say, disappointed and deflated. I can¡¯t see myself abandoning the Shellcrackers, but I still have that longing feeling for the familiarity and relative safety of my little pond.


    Agwai tries to lift my spirits, though they actually dishearten me in a different way, ¡°That¡¯s not to say we won¡¯t consider it, but perhaps you should rest up first, maybe if your sight comes back, judge what we¡¯ve done here. We still want to look for Iakopo and Taito.¡±


    I gulp, saddened as I ask, ¡°Wait, you didn¡¯t see?¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t see what?¡± Agwai begs clarification.


    I shake my head, barely able to process the memory. It seemed like a nightmare conjured from my imagination more than reality, ¡°Iakopo, Taito, the serpent, it, it took them, they were so far away, but they were grey against the darkness of its open mouth, and then it closed its mouth.¡±


    Ag¡¯s brow furrowing is nearly audible, their displeasure is tactile, thick in the air. ¡°That would explain there being no sign of them since the night they checked the tidal height.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry Agwai, I¡¯m so sorry, I thought someone else must have seen it, it was horrible, I would have tried to tell someone sooner, I¡¯m so sorry.¡± I keep stammering apologies, and Agwai cuffs me ever-so-softly on the cheek.


    ¡°Save it child. I¡¯ve much to think about, Lao has been in mourning, but she has decisions to make. I''ll break the news to her. I¡¯m not used to doing as much of the leading as I have been, whilst she has been grieving.¡± Agwai explains, though I can scarcely believe that Laomati, the calm, cool, collected, Laomati, has spent weeks grieving, without doing a fair share of leadership. Obviously I trust that Agwai isn¡¯t lying, I¡¯m just astonished.

 Chapter 13: An Unexpected Swim

    Agwai¡¯s look appears, to my limited senses, to be one of disappointment, exhaustion, or disgust, and I worry that I¡¯ve done something wrong, but they simply give me a light pat on the back and point me in the direction of the construction I had set up as my last act of the limit break. I can¡¯t truly tell what expression was worn, simply the feel of the air around my body told the tale of a frown, for the most part. Feeling a bit tired, I wander vaguely in the direction I¡¯d been given, and I notice that I hear the river rushing ahead. I must have built the houseboat raft next to it, and simply not noticed before.


    Rather than heading back inside to sleep, I start to do exercises that I think are called calisthenics. I start awkwardly, weakly doing pushups, and situps. Each one is a struggle after which I slump to the ground before being able to complete another, my biceps and abs feel aflame by the tenth of each one, after which I flop onto the ground and roll onto my back, staring emptily upwards. I lay both my arms out on the ground, keeping my back flat, I rotate my hips to one side, bringing my knee outward, and then rotate to the other side, doing my best to keep my back flat. Similarly by the tenth alteration, my wrists, hips, and waist are burning terribly. Why my wrists? I think from keeping my arms flat on the ground while leaning to one side or the other.


    Bored, and hurting, I just curl onto my side in the fetal position, and set about crafting in my inventory, trying to earn energy capacity back. My energy display is odd, when Lil lost maximum energy, their capacity just displayed the new number, mine shows a locked, greyed out high value number, and a blue, lower value number, which takes exceedingly long to raise. Eventually, frustrated with the lack of progress, bored, and sleepy, I take out the magical soapstone, and use it to clean myself. Then, curious about it coming into contact with water, I head down to the river, and dip my toes in from the edge. While sitting on the shore of the river, I scoop some water, and drip it over the soap stone. It feels like some soap suds form, so somehow it is both a magical rock that cleans whoever uses it, but it¡¯s also soap suitable for a bubble bath. I wonder how the others would feel about a sudsy bathing experience. I almost worry that it might sound insulting ¡®hey you¡¯ve never bathed with soap, try this out because you aren¡¯t clean enough¡¯ is how I fear it would come off. Feeling drowsy, I allow my eyelids to droop closed. I send my soapstone back to my inventory, and feel my head bob low several times.


    I awaken to my head falling beneath the surface of the river, its gently lapping waves not rushing quickly enough to drag me anywhere, but my own limbs too cold and stiff to propel me out from beneath its surface. I¡¯d be furious, if I wasn¡¯t so exhausted, thankfully my lung capacity is incredible at this point, compared to what I¡¯m used to, so I don¡¯t need to panic just yet. I try to think at Lil, and see through Lil¡¯s eyes. Lil appears to be hopping around with Luni, which is fair, and to be expected. It feels like the tether that connects our senses must be strained, either from distance, or maybe me being submerged in water, as everything is a bit fuzzy. I don¡¯t think Lil can sense me trying to contact them. Lil does however see Te running eastward, which would be towards the river. Huh, Agwai is also in that direction, they had been apparently walking away from the river, but are now heading back towards it.


    I let myself bob in the water, just enjoying it, while holding my breath, until I feel a furry, warm embrace. Expecting Te, I start to thank her, but then notice the embrace is much larger, Agwai¡¯s arms perhaps.


    ¡°Foolish child, are you alright?¡± Agwai¡¯s stern voice came through loud and clear once I was clear of the surface, and being hauled back up onto the shore.


    ¡°Oh, of course, I¡¯m perfectly fine, I must have nodded off and fallen into the river, once I was in there it was so relaxing I just went with it.¡± I shrug haphazardly as I answer.


    ¡°Hm, it does seem your aura is accepting more of the water. Perhaps you are becoming one of us.¡± Agwai explains, though I can feel myself being wrenched out of their arms by much smaller arms. This, I¡¯m thinking, is probably Te. Agwai¡¯s words send me into curious thoughts though. I¡¯ve been with Lil much longer than the shellcrackers, was I picking up any of Lil¡¯s aura? Was I becoming part dragon until I met them? Or is it literally because I¡¯ve spent so much of my adventure dunked in water, this specific river in particular?


    Ah, yes, I¡¯m being lightly throttled now, those are definitely Te¡¯s arms around me, shaking me by the shoulders. She has my full attention now. I feel a twinge of pain between my shoulderblades, as one of my stiff muscles knots and pinches when it unleashes from its locked position as it warms up. Why does a muscle unlocking allow it to twist and pinch? It pulls from the left side of the middle of my back, all the way up to the base of my skull, which even pulls slightly on my jaw.


    ¡°What are you doing you big Jerk?¡± She asks, as if it weren¡¯t obvious that I was getting myself into mild trouble. Yet again, even if she intended it condescendingly or angrily, her insult comes off endearingly, with subtle tones that warm my heart to hear.


    ¡°Apparently going for an unscheduled swim.¡± I laugh, as I jokingly reply. Te socks me in the cheek for my cheekiness. Part of me wonders if I really just tipped over into the river, I feel like I wouldn¡¯t have had a held breath if something hadn¡¯t made me apprehensive first. I wasn¡¯t consciously roused until under the water, but I¡¯d had a lungful of air. And there¡¯s the pain in my back, but maybe that¡¯s just a weird muscle thing. I hear Agwai exhale stuffily and begin to walk away.


    Te continues to hug me, I guess warming me up, maybe she can tell my muscles are so stiff and unmoving. ¡°Why were you even by the water?¡±


    It takes me a moment to recall, ¡°Oh, I was just trying to see if my magic soap rock reacted with it, I¡¯ve had it for weeks now, without thinking to try it out.¡±


    ¡°Your what?¡± I feel her pawed hand flip my hair away from my eyes as she seems to be checking me for head injuries. I''m pretty sure most of the family saw me take it out when we met, but Teuila might have been preoccupied if Lil and Luni were correct about our mutual twitterpation.


    I summon forth the stone, and present it to Te as I cautiously take a step back to gauge my muscle stiffness, as well as my balance. My legs seem capable of holding me upright, so I start pulling items from my inventory that I received from Vampguppy. Te seems almost as excited as the first day we met, when she grabbed my hand and dragged me along for a shoreward run on the pristine sands near the coast.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Te seems most absorbed by the Orb of Direction, it¡¯s kind of a neat item, but I don¡¯t really need it, I feel like its effects have sort of baked themselves into my natural sense of direction by this point.


    I smile at Teuila''s cheeriness and curiosity, asking, ¡°Do you like it? I want you to keep it if you do, I¡¯ll make you a pouch to keep it in, so you don¡¯t have to hold it in your hands.¡±


    Teuila sounds ecstatic, ¡°Really? Yes yes yes. So your magic, it¡¯s okay, you can summon things again?¡±


    ¡°Well, yes, though my energy reserves are tiny, miniscule right now.¡± I respond while terribly slowly crafting a small, leaf-leather, vine pouch for Te. I happily hand her the Orb, and the pouch when it materializes out of my inventory.


    ¡°What does that do? How does it affect your magic?¡± she queries, full of curiosity about me, I realize we haven¡¯t really had a chance to just chat and get to know one another. Her pitch is also at an adorable level of glee.


    To answer Te¡¯s query I point in the vague direction I believe the raft that I constructed, to be in. ¡°I couldn¡¯t do anything like that, before I did that, and now that I¡¯ve done it, it could be months before I can do something like that again. Then it would lead to me being useless again for weeks on end I suppose.¡± I feel a light rap on my noggin. Te playfully punishing me for being self-deprecating.


    Teuila lightly admonishes my self-deprecation, ¡°You¡¯re not useless, you¡¯re recovering, there¡¯s a difference.¡±


    I half-frown in reply, ¡°Well, while I¡¯m recovering, I can¡¯t even look after myself, much less help out. Oh wait, speaking of which, do you think I upset Agwai by asking if we could journey back to my home, where there is plentiful fishing?¡±


    I can sense Teuila resting her chin on her index finger while her thumb rides her jawline, ¡°Hm. Agwai has been snippy lately, seems like Laomati normally kept everyone together. Lao has been so sad these last few weeks, I¡¯ve never seen her like this before, not even after the first tidal wave.¡±


    ¡°Oh, oh that¡¯s right, she¡¯s been through that horrible event at least twice, that¡¯s awful. I¡¯m so sorry. I thought she was infinitely stoic, with how cool and calm and collected and accepting she was. I guess losing more family was the straw that broke the camel¡¯s back as it were.¡± Puzzled for only a moment, I recall why Lao might be in such a state, and I''m saddened to my core.


    ¡°The straw that did what now?¡± Teuila seems to partially be joking, but none of us have ever seen a camel, and we probably shouldn''t have phrases that reference them planted in our heads.


    I try to answer as if it were a serious question regardless, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s a saying, uh, where I¡¯m from, I guess, although I¡¯m the only person I¡¯ve ever known, other than Lil, but I remember things, like idioms, phrases, words, meanings, math, events. A straw that broke the camel¡¯s back is when a lot of bad things happen, and eventually even just one more little bad thing, or another big bad thing, eventually the person collapses under the weight of the feelings they had been putting off, or a machine breaks down, or stuff like that.¡±


    ¡°Wait wait, you¡¯ve never met anyone else other than Lil, do you mean no one at all?¡± Te is playing with my face, stretching my cheeks into smiles and frowns, and I try not to laugh so I can answer her question. She already knows that I''ve only ever met Lil before them. Well, I also technically met some beavers, bullies, a bear, a snake, and a monkey-ape-ninja.


    ¡°No, I mean anyone at all. I woke up, alone, naked, cold and afraid, a few months ago now I guess, I don¡¯t know how I got where I was, or who I¡¯m from or where I¡¯m from.¡± As I remember my own body, not having seen it in quite some time, I run my hands along my arms, especially the hand I used to accept Lil¡¯s flame, I can feel terrible scars. I imagine it looks somewhat terrifying.


    Te, almost seeming to be sensing what I¡¯m thinking, traces my scars as well with her own hands. The soft pads on her pawed digits are simultaneously smooth, and rough, her rounded claws she¡¯s careful not to scratch my scars with. ¡°It¡¯s okay, they¡¯re a reminder of everything you¡¯ve done for us, a beautiful portrait of how you saved us. They say ¡®I gave everything for a family I just met, and would do it again.¡¯ Also, they are already fading. I¡¯ve never dealt with burns before, but I have a feeling you¡¯ll only be left with sterner skin, and little else.¡±


    Blushing at Teuila''s expressive praise, I express my gratitude, ¡°Thank you Te, I guess I was starting to get self conscious, thinking about my body. You really aren¡¯t weirded out, or grossed out by them? The scars, I mean.¡± Normally Teuila is much quieter about her own emotions on any given topic, her feelings and views of things outside of a logical or combative perspective anyway.


    ¡°I would gaze upon your scars for a thousand lifetimes in thanks for saving my kin. But also, no, Dork, they¡¯re perfectly fine.¡± Te starts off poetically sweet then nails the sentiment home with an endearing insult. I can¡¯t help but to chuckle. Whoever Te is, whatever she is to me, I¡¯m so happy to have met her, and Lil, and the other Shellcrackers.


    ¡°You¡¯re the meanest nice person, or the nicest mean person, I¡¯ve ever met, hah.¡± I chuckle as I clasp Te¡¯s hands. ¡°So Te, what do you like to do, what were your goals before all of this, what¡¯s your dream?¡±


    Teuila, without missing a beat, rattles off a fairly expectable answer for the most part, ¡°I like to get better, faster, stronger, to train, to climb, to swim. I was going to be the best of us, a hunter, a fisher, a warrior. I still am, I suppose, it¡¯s harder now to get better, faster, stronger. Until we decide where we will stay, anyway. I really want to soar the skies under my own power. I dream of flying, or at least gliding along the breezes like a gull, the strength of my own limbs carrying me aloft. I want to be that strong.¡±


    ¡°Heh, Te, I hate to break it to you, but flapping your arms, no matter how strong you are, is never going to get you up there, but I do have an idea.¡± She lightly socks my jaw for my cheekiness. While she¡¯s doing that, I¡¯m using what little inventory energy I have to try to combine Vampguppy¡¯s dorsal webbing, with wood, vines, and sap. It feels like it takes forever, having to do tiny portions of every mini combination I want to do one at a time, and waiting for the energy to regenerate while I combine inventory materials.


    Te and I continue chatting about what it might be like to soar through the air. When I complete my little project in my inventory, I ask her to turn around. ¡°Te, would you mind turning away, sticking out your arms, and closing your eyes?¡±


    ¡°What? Why? Are you going to get me back for all the teasing?¡± I can feel Teuila eyeing me suspiciously.


    ¡°Hah, you wish, there¡¯s not enough payback in the world to tease you as much as you tease me. No, I just did something in my inventory I think you¡¯ll like.¡± I respond to Te, and she obliges, taking a tee pose in front of me, facing away. I carefully try to gauge her exact shape and form with the senses available to me, using my odd nearly external version of proprioception I let my hands drift near her back and shoulders, gauging where to materialize the item. I have a feeling my inventory space magic would handle it for me, but just in case it doesn¡¯t, I want to be as careful as possible. I summon a winged harness out of my inventory, I imagine it looks something like a manta ray, or just an angular cloak. I think it successfully appears on Te. Because I think she¡¯s subvocally squealing with glee. ¡°You can open your eyes.¡± I state, though I doubt I needed to inform her.

 Chapter 14: Wings and Petals

    ¡°Is this? It is! What? How? Forget that, hold still!¡± I hear Te take a few steps away, I furrow my brow in confusion. Immediately though I hear Te¡¯s pawpads rapidly approaching, and have no time to react. Te leaps through the air, bounding off of my shoulder, leaping higher yet, trying to catch a breeze to glide, yet I hear a soft thunk as she lands, with no success. ¡°Awe, I thought maybe they were magical.¡±


    I chuckle as I chastise her, ¡°If you¡¯d waited a second I could have told you they weren¡¯t.¡±


    I can virtually feel Teuila sticking out her tongue before she responds, ¡°But that¡¯s not as fun as finding out firsthand.¡±


    I stifle a laugh in response, ¡°I, well, I guess that¡¯s true? Anyway, it might work to glide if you¡¯re falling from a high place, possibly, I have no idea. I don¡¯t really know anything about, uh, aeronautics? Aerodynamics? I¡¯m not even sure what the right word is.¡±


    Te''s countenance shifts several times across a mixture of emotions as she replies, ¡°I didn''t know what either of those meant til just now, but if they have air in them, could you learn about them somehow?¡±


    It''s my turn to have my face drift between several emotions, ¡°Maybe if we find other people some day. Didn''t know what they meant? Like Lil and me when new words crop up?¡±


    ¡°Awe, poop. But yeah, didn''t know, then bam, definition.¡± Te responds, sounding slightly dejected, but more playful and exuberant than anything else, I can feel her skipping around me, swishing the wings. I hear their flutters and swooshes as she cuts the air with them. As Te enjoys her winged cloak, I set about crafting a smaller version for Lil, with more of a rigid frame, as a sort of glider.


    I find myself sitting in a meditative position that I think they call lotus. My legs are crossed, interlocking somewhat. I try to breathe deeply while focusing on my inventory manipulation. I think having crafted these two things is helping break the lock on my energy. I feel like the key to breaking the lock, no pun intended, is possibly creating something new and unique, or something I haven¡¯t done with my inventory management before. The effort of crafting actually wears me out, silly as that might sound. The two of us eventually retire to rest.


    Over the next few days I¡¯m well enough to start rejoining the family, sleeping in the cuddle pile, rather than being watched over alone in a bed by Te. After I still haven¡¯t made progress breaking my energy lock, I decide to approach Te with an idea that might help. It''s frustrating to know I was so much more powerful, and ruined the power I had by asking too much of it.


    I try not to let desperation leak into my textual tone and voice as I ask, ¡°Te? Can we start exploring the swamp for herbs? I think I can get better, faster, if I try new things with new materials.¡±


    Teuila seems fairly chipper as she acquiesces, ¡°Sure, I think Lil and Luni wanted to hang out today anyway. We can get some swamp hunting done.¡±


    I nearly sigh in relief, as I hadn''t even thought about how I was going to identify useful herbs, ¡°That¡¯s great, that way I can see, even if it¡¯s a little disorienting, having to watch where I walk from outside my own body. If we see any signs of the serpent though, we run, right?¡±


    ¡°That eight headed thing you call Octorochi? Definitely, I have to get stronger before I can protect your scrawniness.¡± Te has actually been advancing rapidly, getting much stronger, at a faster pace than I have been recovering, yet she seems incredibly driven towards her goal of being the fastest and strongest among us. I admire her dedication and drive, as I still feel slightly aimless.


    We meet up with Lil and Luni, who just seem to be blankly staring at each other for a moment, before they bound towards each other, smacking into one another. As they bounce off of one another they roll around on their backs laughing.


    Teuila asks the pair for me, ¡°Glad to see you two in good spirits. Want to go gather materials in the swamp?¡±


    Lil jokes in a faux code, one that probably shouldn''t exist on our world, ¡°Ixnay on the eesay inay ontfray ofay eggieray.¡±


    ¡°Lil, I don¡¯t care if people use the words see, seeing, sight, or anything like that. Te asked what I wanted to ask, would you two like to join us, please?¡± I half chastise Lil, though mostly just tease Lil for acting overly concerned for my feelings. Or maybe Lil was the one teasing, speaking in fake code. I let my senses float outwards, drifting to Lil and Luni. From their sight, I can see myself. The burn scars are all spirals and twists and hooks and spins about my left arm, though the rest of my body is mostly recovered already, it¡¯s almost miraculous. As, on the night of the tidal wave, I swear everything other than my face was crispy, scarred, and blistered. Looking through their eyes is, again, weird, seeing myself look cuter than I imagine myself being, as well as more talented, fashionable, and stronger as well.


    I notice, while looking through Lil¡¯s eyes, the ominous shadow of the large flying dinosaurs, pterodactyls or pteranodons, I¡¯m still not sure. Apparently those winged beasts have been making a journey southward once a month, then returning northward a month later, or something around that sort of timeframe.


    Lil, Luni, Te, and myself all wend our way northward, and slightly westward away from the river. Apparently it¡¯s rare that there are spawning pools or locations where things appear, right along the edge of running water. Taking that to heart, and with Te¡¯s experience hunting and gathering in the swamps, we mostly just try to keep pace with Te as she dashes to and fro, scouting about the swamp ahead of us, scampering and loping in turn. Occasionally Te will run back towards us to let us catch up, and purposely skid in the muck, showering us all with mud.


    Lil, Luni, can you two hear me? ¡°Yep¡± Comes Lil¡¯s reply. ¡°Aye Sir!¡± Comes Luni¡¯s joking reply. I¡¯m definitely not a sir, though I don¡¯t think I¡¯m a ma¡¯am either. Lu abashedly responds, ¡°I¡¯m not sure where I heard the phrase, but it was a joke.¡± No worries Luni, sorry, I guess I just don¡¯t know what gender I am, or uh, other stuff. Anyway, what do you two say we give Te a taste of her own medicine next time she showers us with mud? You two fling some mud blobs with your tails, and I¡¯ll toss a couple her way.


    ¡°Do you think you have any chance of hitting her, Reggie? You are still kind of blind you know, and she¡¯s really fast.¡± Lil makes a good point, but I feel like all I really need to do is put a mudball where she¡¯s going to be the next time she¡¯s headed back our way, the element of surprise will work to our advantage.


    Lil and Luni agree to the plan, Lil and I scoop some mud into our inventories to form into soft little blobs of mud to fling, then we set them out nearby so all three of us have access to them. A few moments later, Te comes rushing back, and purposely slides, skidding through the mud, sending a spray in our direction. Just as Te¡¯s about to come to a halt, I toss a glob lightly her way, at the point she¡¯ll come to rest. I can see and hear the squelch as it hits her hip, splatting against her fur, and a wicked gleam enters Te¡¯s eyes, as Lil and Luni start their own barrage.


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    ¡°Oh really, ganging up on me, three on one? You¡¯re in for it now!¡± Te calls out, and wow, Te is ridiculously fast, bounding from tree trunk to tree trunk. Lil, Luni, and I, miss her with nearly every toss as Te works her way high into the air. She spreads her winged cloak for a moment, then divebombs the muck in front of us, sending a massive wave of mud careening over us.


    ¡°Pbffft, eugh, blugh, pleh. Okay, okay, you win. Hah.¡± The three of us are laughing and congratulating Te on a victory well earned. Te takes a bow, and strikes a victory pose, which makes us laugh even more. Eventually we all end up just rolling around in the mud smearing each other with it. After we¡¯ve had our fun, I pull out the soap stone.


    I immediately clean myself with the magical pumice, Luni and Lil clean themselves as well, but as Te reaches for it, I playfully flick my arm around behind my back, just for an instant, before grinning at her and handing her the stone. Te sticks her tongue out at me and blows a raspberry at my teasing. She then uses the stone to remove all the muck from her fur as well. The magic of the stone is wondrous to behold honestly. I wonder if a town that had access to one of these would ever get sick. It really cleans up everything, though I have no idea where any of the grime goes, or what happens to the germs.


    Being with my best friends, two of whom I share an emotional bond with, and one whom I¡¯m apparently twtitterpated for, almost makes me forget the feelings of loss that we¡¯re all dealing with. I guess our bonds of friendship formed probably faster than they might have otherwise, due to shared trauma. I doubt instant friendship is normally common, but in a world with so few friendly people, maybe alliances and friendship all form this quickly? I mean, chosen family is a concept that I vaguely recall, but is it really a chosen family if we fall together because there¡¯s no one else in a vast empty land? Also I guess in our case, we¡¯ve had a long time to deepen our bonds already, some of which was spent unconscious, sure, but weeks upon weeks of either trekking the jungle and swamp with Lil, or floating downriver with Lil. Or weeks of attending my wounded body by Te.


    Lil and Luni being able to spend compressed time talking together and thinking at one another is another example of a longer period of bonding. For Te and myself, I¡¯m mostly just honored that she decided I was worth her time while I was a crispy fried version of myself, and perhaps her own honor or sense of duty deepened her care for me while I was infirm. On the first night we¡¯d met, Te was probably just excited to have someone new to show off her home to, and happy to have had food. I suppose I could just ask her why she chose me. Then again, do chosen families really need to address why they chose each other? Or maybe she just saw my twitterpated aura like Lil and Luni, and decided to roll with it. I think I don¡¯t actually want the answer, now that I think about it, I¡¯d virtually die of embarrassment. My face is so flush right now, and I just caught Lil looking into my thoughts, so this whole line of thought is on display. Now I want to crawl into the mud and blush so hard that I burn a hole in the ground.


    All the while that I¡¯m pondering these thoughts, we¡¯re walking through the swamp. Te is taking pity on us by staying close rather than running to scout and sliding back towards us in the mud. The swamp is finally giving way to a muddier, slightly more solid landscape, dotted with vegetation more than just the swamp trees. Actually, I¡¯m not certain if I¡¯ve been walking through a bog, a swamp, a marsh, or some other landscape feature, since I don¡¯t know the differences offhand. I think some contain standing water, while others are mostly mud, others possibly covered in moss or peat or something like that.


    I wonder if the reason I can¡¯t see is something like asphyxiation, or hypoxia, from having had to hold my breath under the tidal wave, or if it has something to do with the way the world works, with energy and inventory magic. Or maybe both, maybe hypoxia cost me my vision, while energy debt is keeping it from returning. Oh right, situational awareness, I should probably pay attention to where I¡¯m going, I think, as I tumble into the mud, and slide down a slope. The slope surprises me, because other than cliffs, most of the regions, or biomes, seem almost entirely flat, with the mildest decline, or gradient, or something like that, heading southward. My tumbling is halted by Te, as she is apparently faster than gravity, well, sort of, it¡¯s not like I was in freefall at terminal velocity, I was sliding down a slippery slope on my face.


    ¡°Klutz!¡± Te chides me playfully, and lightly socks my shoulder. I wonder if she¡¯ll try out every insult in all known languages, because I¡¯m pretty sure klutz isn¡¯t a word in this language, though it has been adopted as slang. Why do I have these preconceptions? Heck if I know.


    Luni and Lil have been having some luck hunting frogs, getting these weird dishes that seem a bit like small fried chicken legs. Having Lil, or myself, around, means that the Shellcrackers don¡¯t have to hunt nearly as often, and when they do hunt, they don¡¯t have to pass up any opportunities. We¡¯re not yet hurting for fish even the slightest, but it also doesn¡¯t hurt to keep up with hunting and gaining food in case of some future emergency.


    I¡¯m fairly certain I¡¯ve been staring at Te without responding, and I flush with embarrassment at that thought. ¡°Oh, yeah, I wasn¡¯t watching where I was going. Or anything really.¡± I try to laugh it off, treating my blindness humorously, since it was really just me being oblivious. I also could be perceiving through Lil or Luni¡¯s senses, but I was just preoccupied with thought. I guess that¡¯s one of my major flaws, lacking situational awareness when I get caught up in thought, as well as the trauma, certain fears, awkwardness, lack of physical strength or aptitude, well, quite a few things actually, come to think about it. I wonder if treating an inability or disability of my own humorously is also a flaw, I hope not, I wouldn¡¯t make fun of someone else who had been blinded.


    Te tousles my hair, then grabs my hand and drags me the rest of the way down the slope, I think I can hear her subvocalizing a gleeful squee, or squeal, or something along those lines. ¡°Look at all of them! They¡¯re so pretty!¡± She exclaims. With Lil and Luni somewhere back up atop the mudslide, I can¡¯t exactly oblige her at the moment, as I see them playfully hopping after one another, as they chase frogs that are hopping away.


    ¡°No can do, right now, but I¡¯ll take your word for it, you could paint me a word picture though.¡± I chuckle as I tease Teuila.


    ¡°Ugh, I¡¯m not the storyteller of the family, I don¡¯t know, there¡¯s pretty flowers! Things that look like lilies or orchids or something maybe, I don¡¯t know plants, they just look neat.¡± Te grumbles a bit at my request. I forget on occasion that we¡¯re both essentially new to most of our world, and as much as I imagine her to be perfect, I guess no one truly is. Plus it¡¯s rude to hold high expectations of someone in every possible skill.


    I stifle my chuckling and fight my smile, ¡°Sorry, thank you for telling me, I¡¯m glad that you get to enjoy how they look here. Are we in some kind of bowl in the swamp?¡±


    Teuila returns to her excitement in short order, ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s weird, like, I dunno, a big footprint, or scoop, and it¡¯s absolutely filled with flowers!¡±


    This sounds like a plentiful harvest, so I ask, ¡°I¡¯m going to try to gather some of them, maybe all of them. Can you point out the ones you find the prettiest, first?¡±


    ¡°Are you seriously going to just rip up the ones I like the most, first?¡± Te asks, incredulously, possibly a bit astounded that I¡¯d be so mean.


    ¡°No, no no, that¡¯s not why, I want to try something.¡± I reassure her, feeling a bit abashed.


    ¡°Hmph,¡± she utters, and I think I can feel her squinting at me suspiciously. I bet her facial expression is adorable, even if I don¡¯t want to be on the receiving end of her suspicion, or to hurt her feelings. ¡°These ones over here, this one especially, there are a few like it over there, and over there.¡± Te leads me to one of the larger flowers, and I can tell she¡¯s pointing to various spots in the flower patch, but all I need for now is this one.


    I reach out with my mind to claim the flower that Te finds the prettiest, and inspect it when it arrives in my inventory. Sure enough it¡¯s a lovely flower. Over the course of the trek, I think I got back just enough energy capacity to attempt what I¡¯m about to try. I weave the flower through vines into a circlet, but instead of taking it out of my inventory, I try to create a radiant duplicate with my inventory space magic. I feel a painful pressure above my eyes, as if I¡¯m squinting too hard, or clenching various muscles, but after a few moments, I can feel its presence outside of my mind¡¯s eye, in my hands.

 Chapter 15: Valkyrie

    ¡°Ooo!¡± Te gasps, seeing what I¡¯ve made. I know it won¡¯t last long, but I can always try to do it again later if she wants to wear it to show the rest of the family. I fumble towards her voice, and use one hand to find her face, from there I locate the top of her head, and set the radiant flower crown upon it.


    ¡°Heeeeeeee!¡± She scampers a circle around me, squeeing, then I can feel the air woosh as she strikes a pose. ¡°How do I look?¡± She asks excitedly.


    I give her an incredulous, disbelieving, ¡°Really?¡± as my reply, but only jokingly. I continue, ¡°Hah, but seriously, I¡¯m sure you look beautiful.¡± Of course, right then, I hear Luni and Lil giggling as they slide down the muddy slope. I roll my eyes while awaiting their teases and taunts.


    Lil and Luni for their part, don¡¯t bother verbally teasing me, they just share a giggle or snicker once in a while, as they chat excitedly about the flowers we¡¯ve found. Looking through their eyes is almost too cutesy to bear, I¡¯m positive I don¡¯t look that cartoonishly adorable. I''m more convinced I might possibly not be a human child, but be some sort of little elf, or some kind of pixie or fae creature. Anyway, looking through their eyes, I can gauge the rough size and shape of this indented meadow in the swamp.


    I explain while requesting, ¡°I¡¯m going to try something, I generally have to touch something to claim it, for at least the first time, right? I¡¯m going to touch the ground, and try to claim the tiniest layer of soil, and all the flowers in it, so, um. Well. Could you all stand at the edge of the meadow for a second, so I don¡¯t accidentally claim you?¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t claim me, I¡¯ve already claimed you, Dinglehopper.¡± Te jokes as she steps towards the edge of the meadow. I can sense Lil and Luni following.


    I reach down, sinking my fingers into the earth, hm, soil, the planet might not be named earth, and I¡¯m not even sure earth is the right term unless you¡¯re on Earth. Distracted from what I was doing, I shake my head, rattling my brainpan, to try to focus. Oh yeah, distractibility and lack of focus, some more of my flaws, or did I already think of those ones? If I did, then short term memory goofiness, or hey, memory problems in general. Oh, right, the soil. With my fingertips slightly buried in mud, I imagine the thinnest possible platter of topsoil, I guess technically a cylinder. When I¡¯ve got the rough shape visualized, I try to pick out each and every flower and herb, via Lil¡¯s vision. Once I¡¯m done thinking my way around the meadow, I gently tug the shapes to my inventory in a rapid fashion, nearly en masse.


    Success! That is a lot more plant life than I thought there would be, based on how little vegetation I¡¯d seen other than trees, most of my journeys. I try to set a little mark on the flower that Te found to be the prettiest, and luckily my mind¡¯s eye can draw over things, hopefully I¡¯ll remember not to use that one, in case Te wants to wear the flower wreath, circlet, crown thing, that I made her. However, with a rousing success, with my new limits, I feel spent, and drowsy. I walk, wobbling, over to Te, Lil, and Luni, and plop down on the muddy slope with them. ¡°Blurgh, carry me home guys?¡± I plead, half jokingly.


    ¡°Nope, sorry Lazybones, you have to walk back just like the rest of us.¡± Te chastises me, I think playfully, I mean, when is she not? For the most part.


    ¡°Or hop, or slither!¡± Chimes Lil.


    ¡°I think I¡¯ll take a pass on those last two, I did enough slithering downhill on my face in the mud, and hopping takes more energy than walking, literally, I don¡¯t know how you do it.¡±


    ¡°Because I¡¯m a draaaagon!¡± Lil accentuates the word dragon, elongating syllables, and wobbling their textual-tonal voice in a silly fashion. I can¡¯t help but chuckle, even though it¡¯s true, and also probably the right explanation. ¡°Reggie, Reggie look, what¡¯s that!¡±


    I¡¯m about halfway to making a snide remark about not being able to look, when I peer through Lil¡¯s eyes, and see the glint of a hard object that was buried beneath the moss, flowers, herbs, and mud. Rather, the slightest corner of one.


    ¡°Huh, I¡¯m not sure, I guess I can take a closer look.¡± Everyone stifles some minor laughs, they¡¯d normally be more respectful, but it¡¯s an unusual situation. We can afford to be lighthearted about my lack of sight, because I still have access to the senses with no problem. I know none of us would tease anyone whose sight, or other senses, or physical faculties were disabled in some way. I know they feel slightly guilty for even allowing themselves to partially laugh and tease me, because I can literally feel what they¡¯re feeling, but I asked them to be as light-hearted about it as possible, early on after waking up and being able to move around.


    Approaching the object, and peering through Lil¡¯s vision, the object appears to be a buried box, or chest, with a metallic, uh, filigree? No. Binding? No. Moulding? Maybe. That outer metal reinforcement that runs along the perimeter of the faces. If this is really a chest, sunk beneath a flower meadow in a swamp, what are the odds it¡¯s part of some weird respawning materials thing? Or maybe it¡¯s a creature, just waiting for someone to react to. I swipe away a fair bit of mud from around it, and lay my hand along the surface where a lock should be.


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    The good news is, the trunk pops open, revealing its contents, the bad news is, my hand is stuck to the chest, and its contents are teeth and a massive tongue. Seriously, life, did I need to add paranoia of containers to my list of trauma in addition to Day¡­ One? That was probably a bad time to let my mind wander down that particular train of thought, as now my entire upper body, and torso, are inside of the box, as it uses its tongue to try to engulf me. I try to see through Lil¡¯s eyes, but I think my panic is spreading to Lil and Luni, they¡¯re both frozen, hyperventilating, like I am, and Te is starting to panic that no one¡¯s responding to her.


    Or maybe Te is just getting angry, she makes a motion like rolling up her sleeves, and then bounds on all fours from tree trunk to tree trunk, like earlier, gaining height and speed as she does so. Normally I wouldn¡¯t even be aware while I¡¯m frozen in a flashback like this, but I think the connection with Lil and Luni is granting me an out of body experience, or lessening its grip on me, while possibly sharing the burden with them.


    I hear a loud snap, apparently from Te finding a branch to break off as she leaps into a glide. Teuila drops into a divebomb, then rolls forward so that her feet are pointed downward. She holds her branch aimed parallel to her feet, and wraps her feet around its circumference, like some kind of pogo stick spear. She then delivers a massive stabbing thrust with the energy of the leaping dropkick, barely missing my flailing legs as she plunges into the sticky wooden mimicked trunk. In a single attack, Te must have managed to fell the mimic. I hear the familiar sounds of derezzing, as all the triangular polygons bleed away from the trunk,leaving its red wireframe for barely an instant, before it shatters entirely and is gone with the loud crashing shattering sound that accompanies the finale of a creature¡¯s derezzing.


    I plop to the ground, and Te crosses her arms, tapping her foot impatiently. I think she¡¯s waiting for thanks, but she doesn¡¯t realize I¡¯m stuck in nightmarish visions of the first time I was attacked while helpless. I simultaneously also experience the nightmares I had when I passed out in a panic that day. Her look of impatience and irritation takes a moment to soften into concern. She kneels into the mud and props me against her where she can hold me close. I can vaguely tell she¡¯s whispering comfort to me, though it takes me a while to rouse from my frightened reverie. I feel like a terrible liability, because I caused Lil and Luni to freeze up as well.


    After I start to come to my senses, I press into Te¡¯s embrace, hugging her back, thanking her repeatedly. She jokingly asks, ¡°I guess actually getting eaten was a pretty bad reminder, huh?¡± as she tenderly raps my cheek with her knuckles.


    ¡°That¡¯s what it¡¯s like for you Reggie!?¡± Lil exclaims, in a tremulous, almost furious cry.


    I gulp, frowning as I turn to face Lil and Lu, ¡°I uh, I guess so buddy, I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to share that with you and Luni.¡±


    Luni is still shaken up. I can tell she''s holding back sobs. They must have both had the full experience, flashbacks deep into the dark nightmares, experiencing them as I felt them, not how they would feel about them. They felt it all from my perspective, including the terror, the hyperventilating, the tunnel vision, the disconnect from their bodies and senses. While I was able to at least observe, it seems like they took the full brunt of it. I resolve to never let that happen again. The trauma is my burden to bear. Oh, oh no, it was also probably the first time they weren¡¯t able to feel each other thinking, if they were each trapped separately. I mean, the first time since our shared bond formed. Going from such an intrinsic bond, one that you start to base your entire life around, and having that wrenched away from you, while having terror forced on you as well, it had to have been awful.


    I repeatedly apologetically mumble, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I can¡¯t apologize enough, I¡¯m so sorry.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re sorry!? I¡¯m sorry you¡¯ve been dealing with that alone!¡± Lil¡¯s tremulous reply contains a mix of fury and remorse. I¡¯m a little shaken by it, because it sounds like they¡¯re mad at me.


    ¡°How often do you deal with that?¡± Luni timidly asks, her voice quivering.


    ¡°It varies, sometimes not for a long time, sometimes a series of similar things will keep triggering it in a row. I try to avoid thinking about a certain thing, or things that would remind me of it.¡± I explain as best I can, while avoiding the topic itself.


    ¡°Maybe we should go home for now. Here, Putz, here¡¯s the things that creature left behind.¡± Te says, as she hands me a pouch. I accept it, claiming the contents to my inventory, and surprisingly enough, I see my inventory capacity jump back to 1337, an image of a large container replacing the pouch I accepted. There are some other contents I¡¯ll wait til we get home to identify.


    On the return trek, I feel miserable, awful even, for putting Lil and Luni through dealing with my emotional turmoil, or baggage I guess. Trauma is no joke, I wouldn¡¯t wish it on anyone. I feel so weak and helpless, and pitiful and lame for having trauma over something that probably seems so small. If someone else told me they have nightmare flashbacks to the same event though, I wouldn¡¯t ridicule them, or think that they were helpless or pitiful or lame. So why do I hate myself for having these flashbacks? Well, hate¡¯s a strong word I guess.


    ¡°Lil, Luni, want me to carry you guys?¡± I ask, with the ulterior motive of trying to comfort them, and keep them in hugging distance.


    In my mind Lil replies, ¡°We know why you want to, we¡¯re okay now Reggie, but I¡¯ll never say no to a hug from my best buddy.¡± I half smile at hearing the shared thought, as Luni and Lil both plow into my open arms for a big hug. Once I¡¯ve got them in my arms, I place Luni in my leaf leather hood sack thing, and place Lil atop my head.


    Luni seems to be in the middle of mentally recounting the days leading up to meeting us, intending to share with Lil, but I have to ride along on their conversational wavelength to be able to see, so I try not to butt in. I especially try not to butt in as she talks about Penina, or Atamai, and the games they would play together to keep from thinking about previous events. My heart wrenches when thinking about them, but I try to push my emotions down so as not to flood the conversation with negative energy.


    Te has been a bit silent on the trek back, and she disappeared ahead a short bit ago. Eventually I catch up to her looking contemplative, and a bit downtrodden.

 Chapter 16: Its Automatic, So Dramatic

    ¡°Lil, I want you to do me too.¡± Te proclaims matter of factly. I raise an eyebrow at this, though I catch her meaning. She wants to be connected to us.


    ¡°Are you crazy?!¡± Lil virtually shrieks in an outraged-seeming fear. ¡°The last time, I messed up, and almost killed all three of us. There¡¯s no telling what would happen if I tried to do it again!¡± Lil continued to explain. Te frowns at the explanation, unsatisfied.


    My heart palpitates, feeling this heated exchange, on one side, literally feeling Lil¡¯s terror at the prospect of trying the action again, on the other hand, seeing Te¡¯s frown droop to an angered pout. I can¡¯t weigh in on it, I want Lil to be safe, I want all of us to be safe, I wouldn¡¯t risk any of us, for anything, no matter how special a bond we might be able to form.


    ¡°It¡¯s not fair, you know how each other are feeling, so much that things like that happen! Why can¡¯t I be a part of that? I¡¯ll never know Reggie like you do, it¡¯s not fair! I can protect Reggie, I took care of them all that time!¡± Te¡¯s exclamations are somehow simultaneously a mix of immature jealousy, and a concerned indignation.


    ¡°Guys? This topic, I think talking about it anymore only ends badly. I love you all, I just want us, well, I just want us to be okay.¡± I try to defuse the situation, though my emotions are jumbled, and I trail off, mumbling by the end. I feel myself tearing up, water welling in my eyes, imagining my closest friends fighting, and a rift forming between them, or them silently resenting each other. I gulp back sobs and try to hide the sadness that has found its way to my face. I gasp a quick breath, almost a hiccup, having accidentally forgotten to breathe for a bit while trying to not sob out loud.


    Te sighs loudly, and stomps closer, for a second appearing furious, but she spreads her arms wide and hugs the rest of us. I sniffle and bury my face in the velvety fur of her neck. All Te says, in that endearing, lovingly insulting tone of hers, is, ¡°Sorry, Brats.¡± I lose track of how long we spend in a tight hug shared between the four of us. It¡¯s probably the best feeling in the world, this much love and concern for each other, which made the earlier outburst all the more frightening, to me at least.


    I can tell Teuila is stroking Luni and Lil both while hugging us, and I feel the sincerity that her words didn¡¯t convey. I guess she¡¯ll always slip into a playful meanness verbally. She doesn¡¯t seem as used to having to express her feelings. I can definitely see why she would want to just be connected, emotional core to emotional core. For Te, saying what she feels is just harder. I don¡¯t know whether it¡¯s embarrassment holding her back, or something else, but of that much, I¡¯m certain.


    ¡°Guys, um, this makes me think.¡± I gulp. ¡°This makes me think about my dream, well, desire, or goal I guess, not like a literal dream. My dream about building a community at the fishing pond where I met Lil. A community shares and cares for each other, and we can build, like literally build, and, and, and, well, and stuff.¡± I start to trail off, still a bit emotionally shaky and slightly sobbing. I don¡¯t know how to tell them how important it would be to me to bring them all there, and to build something special with them. I don¡¯t know how to express the homesickness I have for a tiny area, and how much I worry that they will always feel a similar lingering homesickness, no matter where we go unless I can give them something special.


    Lil knows what I¡¯m feeling, and thinking, deeply. Luni comments on it however, ¡°You¡¯re right, nothing will ever be the same as Shellcracker Rocksmasher beach, it hurts when I think about it, remembering it, missing it. We can¡¯t return though, so maybe you¡¯re right to want to share your home with us. It¡¯s a sweet sentiment in any case.¡± I feel the weight behind Luni¡¯s comments, her emotions and feelings behind her statement, and I can tell she has that same sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, perhaps more so, as she¡¯s definitely lost more than I can ever remember having. ¡°It¡¯s not a competition.¡± She states plainly.


    My eyes hurt, and I just want to make everything better between all of us, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything I can share between Lil, Luni, and myself, that needs to be said, or hasn¡¯t already been said, or that they can¡¯t already tell that I¡¯m feeling, but for Te, I don¡¯t know how to absolve her. ¡°I want you to be happy, I don¡¯t want you to feel envy. I don¡¯t want anyone to have to share my panic, and fear. If I could punish myself in a way that wouldn¡¯t hurt Lil and Luni, for having subjected them to that, I would probably do so.¡±


    Te just lightly punches my shoulder, and sweetly mutters ¡°Dork.¡± Her expression is of a strange forlorn contentment. The look she displays is both a sadness that¡¯s uniquely hers, yet an acceptance that contains a preternatural beauty. She then frees us from her hugging embrace, and continues the trek back to our temporary home. After riding this rollercoaster of emotion, I feel yet further exhausted. What is a rollercoaster and why do I know that idiom? Whirlwind of emotion would have sufficed, yet my brain pulls these preconceived phrases and words out of nowhere. If I get to analyzing this though, I¡¯ll wonder how I know any adjectives to describe anything, or nouns indicating what anything is. This makes my head hurt.


    We march, well, I, march back, mostly in silence, even Lil and Luni aren¡¯t chattering over the shared wavelength. I think we all need some time to process a few of the revelations we¡¯ve had. These are more than just acquaintances that I¡¯ve found with a common interest, or people I keep bumping into. These are friends that form my chosen family, that have accepted each other, and accepted me. Most of us have lost actual family, or never known any. I can¡¯t bear the thought of irreconcilable differences. I don¡¯t think it will come to that, since we hashed things out slightly in the swamp, but there¡¯s a lingering spark of terror, that paranoia of a loss of what we have. It occurs to me that I haven¡¯t even asked any of the Shellcrackers if Agwai and Laomati are the parents of the remainders, or if they were from separate parents. Who to ask though? Agwai is stressed with having to keep everyone together. Laomati is in mourning, grieving her losses, and probably doesn¡¯t need to be reminded of them. Luni seems fairly young, she might not even know who her parents are, or what parents are. Similarly, the twins as well. Then there¡¯s Te, who right now, might be brooding about not feeling connected to her chosen family. Would asking her or reminding her of parents she may have lost, be cruel right now?


    The thought of hurting her sickens me so much that I double over, weeping silently for a moment. I feel some teardrops on the back of my neck from Luni and Lil as well, and I curse myself for subjecting them to such sorrow and pain. ¡°It¡¯s okay buddy, you just feel feelings, really strongly.¡± Lil tries to comfort me, and is mostly successful in absolving my guilt, since Lil and Luni are whom I would want to have forgive me.


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    Luni chimes in ¡°Lil¡¯s right, until this bond, I¡¯d never known anything like it, but I wouldn¡¯t give it up, for anything.¡± This entire exchange happens in the few split seconds of me quickly doubling over, weeping a scant few tears, and standing back up.


    I can hardly bear being out of Te¡¯s embrace right now. I worry so much about what¡¯s going through her mind, if she¡¯s hurting, envious, resentful, jealous, or if she¡¯s bottling things up, or if she¡¯s just stoic. Maybe Te really is contented, and the issue is resolved, but I just want to hug her and hold her until I can be positive. But without the bond, I¡¯ll never be positive of what she¡¯s feeling. I gulp, and shake my head, rattling my brainpan in frustration, dislodging Lil, and barely catching them before they land from the surprise fall.


    My chagrin is obvious as I apologize, ¡°Err, sorry about that buddy, was starting to get bogged down in thoughts.¡±


    Lil nods along knowingly, ¡°Yeah, I could tell.¡±


    I bite back a dry laugh, ¡°Right. That¡¯s kinda the current issue, huh?¡±


    Lil agrees and explains further, ¡°Yup! It¡¯s okay though, based on her aura, I think Te¡¯s going to be okay. She feels really really strongly for us, you especially.¡±


    ¡°Is it okay though? For us to be twitterpated? To have such strong feelings for each other?¡± My thoughts on feelings and emotions are muddied. The way the world from my memories is supposed to work, well, it''s just so different from reality.


    Lil is confused about even the basis of such a premise, ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t it be?¡±


    I frown as pain shoots from temple to temple as I try to answer, ¡°I mean, based on what you said before, it was obvious that we felt this way immediately, or at least felt some version of this way, immediately. Sure, since then, we¡¯ve been through hell and high water together, kind of literally, like a fiery hell, in high water. Wow, that phrase came back to haunt me. Err, sorry, distracted. I mean, since then, we¡¯ve had time to bond and chat and get to know each other, but is it okay how it started? Like, we shared a meal, I¡¯m afraid she wanted to like me, from feeling indebted to me, and I¡¯m afraid that whatever twitterpation is, that it was superficial to begin with.¡±


    ¡°Buddy, buddy, I can¡¯t answer any of that for you, I¡¯m sorry. I just think that you¡¯re going to be okay. I can feel what you¡¯re feeling for her, and those feelings are strong, ugh, how many times am I going to say feel, probably should have said emotions.¡± I chuckle a bit at Lil¡¯s frustration over how their vocabulary choices expressed their thoughts.


    I still ramble along on the topic, trying to come to any sort of resolution or conclusion, ¡°Okay, okay, maybe I just need something to focus on to take my mind off of all this emotional analysis. There¡¯s this terrible hurt in my chest that feels like homesickness, but deeper, and I think it¡¯s worry about losing what we have. I guess I could focus on trying to imagine our community?¡±


    Lil prods, directing me further down a salient thought train, ¡°Oo, that would be good for all of us. What is it going to be like? Are we just going to sit around fishing all day until we get old?¡±


    ¡°Huh, that doesn¡¯t really sound very fulfilling, does it? I guess I really should put thought into it. I know we¡¯re not the only people anymore. Oh those beaverfolk, they¡¯re builders, and the Shellcrackers are aquatic types, so maybe they¡¯ll be our friends now, and maybe they¡¯ll join us. Also the Shellcrackers were pretty handy with stacking up shells into buildings, they didn¡¯t even have inventory magic, they did everything by hand, or uh, by paw in some cases. I guess.¡± I ruminate about the possibilities, with Lil listening in to my rambling thought process. Luni, for her part, I think is trying to hold back just the slightest bit of laughter, mostly about me being unable to keep a train of thought for very long.


    A song suddenly springs into my head, and I realize, in all of my existence so far, as far back as my memories reach to when I woke up, I don¡¯t remember hearing a song, or singing. Lil or I may have hummed slightly on occasion, but even that I can¡¯t recall offhand. The song in particular is someone claiming that someone else has never had a friend like them, which is really apt for the current situation. I really ¡®aint never had a friend like these¡¯, as it goes, more or less.


    ¡°Music, instruments, art, for those we need tools, for tools we need materials, and safe spaces to store and work on them. For training, and exercise, and expanding our abilities to ensure our safety, we could make facilities that, well, facilitate that, wow, I wonder if they have the same root because, well, yeah, probably, duh. Please allow myself to introduce, myself, jeeze.¡±


    Lil laughs, and Luni snorts, actually laughs so hard she snorts in our shared thinkspace. It¡¯s about the most adorable thing I¡¯ve ever mentally heard. The levity and laughter helps lift my mood, as I¡¯m distracted more and more, just enjoying being with these comrades that I love. I put on a burst of speed and rush up to Te, I tackle her into a hug, once again covering us all in mud, flinging Lil and Luni up into the air to land atop us.


    ¡°Huh, oof, what, oof, Jerk, oof, you¡¯d better have your magic stone.¡± Te suffers three impacts, first my tackle, then Luni, then Lil, landing atop us. She doesn¡¯t really make an effort to shove me away, I feel her nose nuzzling into my neck. After a few moments, we all get up, and I summon the soap stone so we can all instantly clean up.


    ¡°Are we, um, are we good?¡± I ask, scratching the back of my head, somewhat avoiding eye contact as my face flushes. Te actually takes a step back, and leans forward, peering at me, craning her neck side to side. Despite my inability to currently see, she''s trying to catch my eyes for some reason.


    Eventually I can tell she spots how hard I¡¯m blushing as she makes eye contact, and she grins widely. ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re good, Bozo.¡± She simultaneously gently punches my shoulder and kisses my cheek.


    I mumble about my curiosity from earlier, ¡°I¡¯ve got kind of a weird question, I hope that it¡¯s maybe okay to ask? It might, um, yeah, it might be weird.¡±


    Teuila prods to hear it, ¡°What question?¡±


    Basically having been granted permission, I ask, ¡°Are Agwai and Laomati your parents?¡±


    ¡°My what?¡± Teuila''s response sounds almost joking. I know at the very least, knowledge of terminology propagates for us when we think of a new term. Definitions just spring up.


    Still, I try to nudge towards the answer I''m looking for, ¡°Your parents, like, uh, birds and the bees, mammals, birth, uh, you know.¡±


    Teuila, almost certainly running a bit on me, continues, ¡°I have no idea what any of that means, except yes, I¡¯m a mammal.¡±


    I blush as I''m still trying to get at least one answer from this curiosity, ¡°Okay, err, maybe instead of that, when were you born, how were you born?¡±


    Teuila seems to drop the bit partway through her response as she actually answers, ¡°I¡¯m not sure what you mean, I¡¯ve borne shells and burdens since as far back as I can remember. I guess maybe Lao or Ag might have borne me when I was still little like Luni.¡±


    My right eye squints and twitches while my left brow raises in surprise, ¡°Wait, so you were a sphere like Luni at one point?¡±


    Teuila matter-of-factly responds, ¡°Of course, eventually I got strong enough to evolve, and so I did.¡±


    My left brow tries to rise further, but there''s no more elasticity in my face for further surprise, ¡°Wow, that is, uh, not what I was expecting to learn right now. Okay, let me try another angle, how or when did you start existing?¡±

 Chapter 17: Revelations

    Te responds in a confused but yet again matter-of-fact manner, ¡°Probably when I hatched? Like when else would I start existing?¡± Her response, however, causes my brain to, what¡¯s the phrase, blue screen of death? Whatever a BSOD is. Teuila, my Teuila, came from an external egg, was a sphere, and is now a mostly humanoid otter.


    I realize Teuila was slightly concerned and she probably figured, or at least assumed, that I must have mentally checked out. She¡¯s hugging me, telling me it¡¯s alright. Lil and Luni seem to have been bounding ahead, letting us have our moment, as we¡¯ve nearly reached our home base.


    I shake my head, rattling loose several thoughts in my brain, ¡°Oh, oh it¡¯s okay, it wasn¡¯t that, I just, I¡¯m so confused. Do you know whose egg you were?¡±


    Teuila''s confusion is still palpable within her answer, ¡°Whose egg? The Shellcracker Rockcrusher beach¡¯s egg I guess. I don¡¯t think there will be anymore though, not if the great beasts of the sea keep flooding the beach.¡±


    My incredulity fights the revelation, trying to assure me that Teuila is still running a bit on me, but I know that she isn''t. I virtually stammer my thought train, trying to still form conclusions, ¡°Wait, you came into existence, as an egg, on the beach, with no, um, activity that preceded that? Like uh, there wasn¡¯t an event that triggered your egg existing?¡±


    Teuila shrugs in response, ¡°Hm, I don¡¯t think so, I think it was Shellcracker¡¯s turn, and so Iakopo and the other old ones chose the egg that would be me, then Rockcrushers picked the other egg. When eggs spawned, we always took turns. Now I¡¯m here.¡±


    ¡°Now you¡¯re here.¡± I repeat, rather dumbfounded. If Teuila just sprang into existence as an egg, at random, could I have hatched from an egg at random? Teuila didn¡¯t need parents, apparently neither did Lil, though I thought as a reptile, maybe Lil was just accidentally lost or abandoned as an egg. Do people, beings, creatures, all just spawn into existence, at some stage of personal evolution, with various memories?


    I might not even have had to hatch from an egg, I could have just been the island¡¯s random spawn choice for the day. But all these words, phrases, all this knowledge, preconceived notions, hints of memories of the way things should work, but they don¡¯t. Why would the world spawn me with those? And why was I broken at the start? Or does everyone start not being able to understand the mind¡¯s eye interface?


    I prod the line further, curious still, and seeking more answers, ¡°Um, Te, when you hatched, how long was it until you could use your analysis, or talk, or understand the mind¡¯s eye interface, or join parties, or anything like that?¡±


    ¡°As far as I remember, right away.¡± Te¡¯s reply is just so, so, I don¡¯t know, I suddenly doubt reality, and am simultaneously reassured that I belong in it. Maybe there was just a glitch in the system of the world where I spawned, and then everything happened afterwards, maybe that¡¯s why I bleed blood instead of pixels or polygons. Although, why did Vampguppy have a skill specifically related to blood? Maybe bleeding polygons still activates the skill, who knows?


    This day has been a whirlwind of revelations, I¡¯m actually starting to get dizzy and I feel mildly ill to my stomach from it. Though maybe that¡¯s more like, uh, neurochemicals? Overproducing and flushing and overproducing due to rapid emotional changes?


    I try to collect my thoughts, as I realize I¡¯m just staring blankly into space, right through Te. ¡°Oh, thank, um, thanks, thank you, uh, for letting me know, filling me in.¡± She cocks her head to the side curiously.


    Now Teuila seeks answers, ¡°You spawned alone, and then later met Lil? So you didn¡¯t have anyone to tell you where you came from?¡±


    I nod in response, ¡°Yeah, and there¡¯s something broken about me, glitchy, it kept making me wonder if anything I knew was accurate. I have a lot of memories and knowledge that don¡¯t seem to really apply, like they¡¯re knowledge based on rules and physics from another world.¡±


    ¡°Huh.¡± She emotes rather blankly. Te¡¯s not unintelligent, it¡¯s simply that my rambling must sound like non sequiturs because of how much of my experience is tied into these weird broken bits of knowledge.


    I try to reason aloud, ¡°Okay, like, take words for example, how do we know what they mean? How do we start talking to each other? In my knowledge or memories or whatever, people have to be taught, and they can¡¯t do it right away, like in our baby form, or sphere form equivalent, humans literally just wail and cry. I don¡¯t know if we¡¯re even capable of learning til later. Then when we start learning, our vocabularies are tiny, ridiculously small, a few words at a time. Not only that, but someone my size would be really young, and have a ridiculously small vocabulary, I think.¡±


    Te nods along, agreeing that on our world, vocabularies are nothing like the world from our memories, since we''re given encyclopedic knowledge of terms as soon as we''re introduced to them. She takes it a step further, ¡°Yet you¡¯re, what would you call it, wordy, verbose, loquacious perhaps?¡± Te comments, almost in a jokingly accusing tone. I blink rapidly several times. I''m ever so mildly stunned that she¡¯s using vocabulary that, as I was saying, normally doesn¡¯t just show up in young individuals.


    Te''s teasing catches me off-guard, so my response is rather dumb, muted, ¡°Uh, yeah, kind of exactly that.¡±


    Teuila taps my cheek and lightly bumps my shoulder with her fist, ¡°So, what are you thinking it all means, now?¡±


    ¡°I have no idea.¡± Honestly, as best I can surmise, I can one hundred percent trust Te¡¯s statements, which aren¡¯t exactly at odds with anything I was expecting, surprising though they may be. It¡¯s just that, with this knowledge, my place in the world is more fluid, and questionable. If we can just spring into existence, live, fight, and die, entirely at random, then every possibility that led to my meeting Lil and Te and Luni are all the more precious. ¡°I guess all that I do know is, is that you¡¯re important to me, and I want to chase this dream, this goal of a safe community. I can¡¯t find the time to find the words to express how to, to tell you how, well, just, stuff, things.¡± I trail off, mumbling, rambling at the end.


    ¡°Well alright then, Brainiac, let¡¯s go chase a dream.¡± I¡¯m not even sure Brainiac is an insult, but the way she said it, with that double-tinged tone of endearing and insulting feels like it was.


    We start rushing to catch up with Lil and Luni, running down my dream of all of us together. The first step of which is convincing the rest of the Shellcrackers that it¡¯s worth journeying through an incredibly dangerous swamp to find our way up to my pond. Actually, wait a minute, Te said she evolved, by herself, from an otter-tailed sphere, into the type of otter she is now. Could I help Lilagni permanently evolve into Lilagnewt? Or what about any of the others? I guess I¡¯d have to get my energy capacity back to its previous levels, and go even higher than that. Well, I was planning on doing that anyway. Maybe combining plants and herbs will help me do just that. Either learning more alchemy, just the act of learning and manipulating, or maybe some kind of potion. Thinking of that, I grab any nearby mold, fungus, or moss, from trees, or the standing water that we wade through.


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    When we return, most of the Shellcrackers are bedded down in their usual cuddle pile, interlocking hands, and holding onto tails, well, okay, nowadays that¡¯s just Mataalii, Manaia, and Manamea, as Agway and Laomati are not yet laying down. I suppose this is a holdover from more aquatic behavior, but it¡¯s just adorable honestly, and it saved my life, and most of our lives, on the night of the tsunami tidal wave.


    Agwai and Laomati appear to be just sitting, staring blankly at one another, I don¡¯t feel like now is the right time to broach the subject. Breach the subject? No, I think it¡¯s broach. Regardless, they sit at the edge of the cuddle pile, and only slightly nod at our approach.


    Lil, Te, Luni and I quietly head to the opposite edge of the cuddle pile and snuggle up to one another holding hands or tails as we bed down. While I try to plot out exactly what to say to convince the family to head northward with me, I¡¯m also cautiously testing out some of the plants and herbs in my inventory, how they react with one another for example. In order to make more of the water walking potions, I¡¯m missing a certain type of lily that I had actually seen growing before leaping over the edge of the cliff in the swamp, now that I have a moment to parse and recall that day. I¡¯m not comfortable trying out more combinations while falling asleep, in case something should turn out to be explosive and somehow escape my inventory.


    As I drift away into slumber, though Luni and Lil have already fallen asleep, I can still sense my surroundings slightly, and it feels like just as I slip into dreamland, that Agwai and Laomati are leaning in to hug one another. Hopefully whatever glances they were sharing, or conversation they¡¯d been having ended in a way that helps them both. I regret being a part of the pain they¡¯ve recently suffered. I can¡¯t help but wonder if they would have been too far north to have to worry about the tidal wave, if I hadn¡¯t bumped into them on my journey to the south. I try to push aside the guilt so as to not accidentally cloud Luni or Lil¡¯s dreams with dark thoughts and somber emotions, instead focusing on the warmth, closeness, and love, of those around me.


    Memory Logged, Dream:


    Wiping the same mug clean, awaiting customers, I sigh. I watch as more individuals, obviously adventuring types enter my establishment, not for patronage, not a bottle or a jug, nor a night¡¯s stay, rather to test out the various doors within the inn. These reckless planeswalkers don¡¯t even care if they open a door to the abyss, letting in demons to be fought off in my tavern. Of course the ol¡¯ Bottle¡¯n¡¯Jug is still standing, regardless of how many times we go through this mess, thanks in part I suppose to the adventurers that risk life and limb to fight back their own mistakes as they open the wrong doors. We normal residents see a room on the other side of a door, those that freely traverse planes instead see a location somewhere else in the universe supposedly, and that sight enables travel back and forth, letting them through, or occasionally letting in unwelcome guests from the other side. I sigh and, just in the nick of time, bend below the counter as a familiar roar shakes through the tavern, some aquatic tentacled beast awoken by the adventuring types. A massive tentacle strikes against the wall where I¡¯d just been standing, business as usual these days, while the sounds of combat rage, I lift the cleaver from beneath the counter as I set about hacking pieces of the tentacle away. I suppose free ingredients for fried squid isn¡¯t the worst thing that could have come through the door. Sometimes the doors have opened to worlds that work differently, lands of clockwork whose rules of time passage bleed through, causing everyone to rapidly age, or to move slowly for example. Yet other times, a door will open to a land whose gravity is fickle, sending myself and any patrons falling to the roof, or falling sideways. Why the adventurers don¡¯t just construct a hallway of doors in an alley mystifies me. They¡¯ve admitted it can be anything with closed edges, so why my rooms, in my inn, every day?


    I awaken, yawning and blinking with a confused expression on my face, I can¡¯t quite remember what I was dreaming about. Also as I awaken, I can feel Te¡¯s paws on my back, her hips against mine, our ankles intertwined, her snout leaning against the back of my head. I think that¡¯s called spooning for some reason, and makes me the little spoon, even though if I remember, Te might actually be shorter than me. Though perhaps we¡¯re the same height, it¡¯s hard to gauge from memory alone, having lost my sight.


    Speaking of losing my sight, I¡¯m slightly excited to begin experimenting with alchemy and disenchanting, if nothing else, skills that are lower tend to raise faster, triggering that pleasant chime mentally, internally. Mine are about as low as they get, in those two. Te appears to catch my excitement, or just my stirring, she lifts away, parting us, ever so gently rapping her knuckles against the top of my head. I half want to pout as we¡¯re separated as Te walks away to go exercise. We have our own lives and goals though, and I don¡¯t want to hold Teuila back from hers. Feeling outwards with my senses, I can¡¯t locate Lil or Luni nearby, so I assume they¡¯re off somewhere playing together, in fact, I appear to be alone in our sleeping area, so I must have been the last to awaken, and Te must have stuck around to make sure I didn¡¯t wake up alone. I¡¯m so incredibly lucky to have the friends I do.


    Thinking back a few weeks, or months perhaps at this point, to when I was alone, unsure if I would ever see another living being that wasn¡¯t either fish, or something that treated me like food, I can barely see the line of events that led me from one point on the timeline to another. Well, metaphorically see the line of events anyway, with my vision currently little more than a slight splotch of darkness on a slightly lighter splotch of darkness. Hm, darkness sounds like harkness, but where have I heard harkness before, and what does it mean? Or maybe I¡¯m just thinking of harkens, and my mind is treating it like a partial anagram.


    Regardless of all of the pondering I let myself get up to while I¡¯m stuck in my own head, I still work at making progress with disenchanting and alchemy. I don¡¯t seem to actually make anything that shouts ¡°this is magical, use me¡±, but the herbal combinations in water do actually tend to raise my alchemy skills, disenchanting however doesn¡¯t raise much at all. Maybe I should try exercising and training with Te, especially while blinded, because survival is a bit of a challenging struggle. Combat and fitness seem to be a pretty big part of that struggle. I guess I¡¯ll ask her about it tomorrow, although I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be swimming or sailing through the air like she does, leaping from tree to tree. I might be able to at least dodge her if I can hear her coming.


    I wonder if Mataali and the twins train like Te, I don¡¯t actually know anything about them, whether they¡¯re avoiding me because they don¡¯t like me, or they don¡¯t want to acknowledge me, or if they feel bad for me, or anything like that, I have no idea. Most of the time, I wake up, and they¡¯re gone, and when I come to bed down, they¡¯re already cuddled up. They don¡¯t avoid me during the sleep pile at least, so maybe we just don¡¯t have enough in common to get to know each other. Plus, like all the Shellcrackers, they¡¯re dealing with loss. I sigh as I think about the losses that have happened around me since I awoke on this island or continent or world, whatever the place is that I¡¯m located in. I can also laugh at how precious a walking stick was to me early on, I actually crossed a river to go back and fetch a stick after events on Day¡­ One.


    Whoops, I come to, sweating, my breath ragged, as I must have mentally checked out for a while when reminiscing. Thinking on it, the way the world works, where there are so few plants other than the enormous trees, and the biomes are all so perfectly delineated with cliffs or similar things is just odd to me. Probably only due to my preconceptions, but still. There are very few branches littering the forest floor, and so on, it would be hard to have a group of humans trying to cultivate fire regularly. I wonder how the Shellcrackers had a cooking pit, or if that was simply more of a meeting spot, like a rock garden. No matter, I suppose, like Lil once said, I probably won¡¯t get very far, pondering about what I don¡¯t know, about what I don¡¯t know. How can you even fathom what information you¡¯re missing about topics you lack knowledge on? Ugh, I¡¯m giving myself a headache thinking in logic circles.

 Chapter 18: Timber

    Curious about exactly what I might be able to achieve, I head a decently long ways south of the temporary camp. I reconfigure my walking stick and various fangs into something I imagine would work like an axe, and I begin chopping down my first tree, the thinnest one I can find, which is still several feet in girth. After what seems like hours, I feel as if I¡¯ve barely made a dent past the tree¡¯s bark, and running my hand along the groove I¡¯ve carved, I find my assumption to be correct. I know I can throw a radiant spear through a tree, I¡¯ve done that before, but I¡¯m afraid I wouldn¡¯t be able to control the tree¡¯s descent, and might end up injuring myself. Then again perhaps I could angle the spear toss from above, downward at an angle, and the tree would fall away? At least, if I stand on the far side from where I had been chopping. Sweating, panting, and leaning against the tree that I¡¯d been swinging at for hours, I hear some snickering from nearby. I panic and spin around quickly, hefting my axe, my back pressed against the tree, my heart racing.


    I feel a familiar palm touch my hand, keeping me from reactively swinging, as Te laughingly tells me ¡°Give me that, you goober, you¡¯re going to hurt yourself.¡± Her voice all atwinkle to my ears, metaphorically at least.


    Trying to hide my exhaustion and temporary fright, and curious what Teuila is doing down here, I ask, ¡°Te? Are you done training for the day?¡±


    Teuila responds with pride, oddly directed at me, ¡°Yes it¡¯s me, yes I am. It seems like you¡¯re training too, in your own way.¡±


    I rub the back of my skull while blushing as I mutter, ¡°Well, less training, more trying to do something to prove a theory.¡±


    Innocently enough, Te asks, ¡°What¡¯s the theory?¡±


    I have to give an honest answer, ¡°I¡¯m not entirely sure, yet.¡±


    Avoiding eye contact, even though I''m sightless, I can feel Teuila grinning like a loon as she teases me, ¡°Isn¡¯t that the same as not having a theory?¡±


    I pause deliberately, and mumble ¡°...Shut up.¡± I laugh immediately after though, as I squeeze Te¡¯s hand. ¡°So I wanted to collect lumber, and see what I could do with it, without using inventory magic to just claim a tree right out of the ground, but it¡¯s proving to be way too difficult for my little arms.¡±


    I hear Te make a tsk sound as she hefts my makeshift axe before giving the tree a mighty thwack. The sound reverberates, or maybe Te shakes, so hard from the impact that I actually wobble for a moment. ¡°It would take a lot of chopping to get through one of these.¡± She states plainly.


    I sigh, I¡¯d figured as much, but wanted to accomplish something on my own anyway. ¡°Te, can you chop a small notch really low on one side, and a small notch higher on the other side? Make sure that the high notch is towards camp, and the lower one is away from camp.¡±


    Her question is unsurprising, though a tad funny to me, ¡°Just what are you up to?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to try to magic my way through the rest of the trunk.¡± I can feel Te¡¯s gaze become stern as if she¡¯s peering into me to suss out my intent, as if she doesn¡¯t quite believe something about what I¡¯ve said. I¡¯m not sure what doesn¡¯t seem exactly as I said it, maybe she thinks I can¡¯t do it yet since I haven¡¯t shown off much magic since the tidal wave. Somehow I can think about the tidal wave night with sadness, but not a full blown panic attack, yet other things in my memory, well, they don¡¯t bear thinking about. I guess I was quite possibly in my formative moments, I may have literally just hatched from an egg at that time. My pulse races as my thoughts edge towards that early time, but I try to still my breathing and squeeze Te¡¯s shoulder.


    Te, for her part, obliges, maybe to show off how strong she is compared to me, after a few minutes of chopping, she made more progress than I had made in hours, enough to accomplish what I want to try next. ¡°Te, you¡¯re amazing, thank you, make sure to stand closer to camp, and don¡¯t stand parallel to the line between the notches you cut, in case I get this wrong.¡±


    She half-snarks at me, ¡°You really think you¡¯re going to take the tree down the rest of the way?¡±


    ¡°I know I am.¡± Okay, that probably sounded way cockier than I intended it, but it¡¯s true, I have the energy capacity to make radiant copies again, and to eject objects from my inventory. If I configure my spear to have a bunch of teeth on one edge, like a saw blade, and imagine it spinning rapidly, I should be able to chop it down the rest of the way in one go. First I need to make sure that I know exactly where I¡¯m going to send the sawblade, so I walk around the trunk several times, gauging exactly where the notches are. Once I¡¯m certain of the angle I need to hit between the two, I imagine summoning a spinning bladed copy of my spear from my inventory, above the notches, expelling downward at an angle, making sure I¡¯ve got as close to the exact position in my mind as I can possibly get. I summon a wedge of baked clay to put in the top notch, hoping to help persuade the tree to fall away, then I stand next to Te.


    I plea for Teuila''s protection and safety with a request, ¡°Brace yourself, I might need you to dive us to the side if I screw this up.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re the most reckless being in existence, I¡¯m sure of it. Made yourself blind, burned yourself to a crisp, nearly died to save one of us, now you might squash us both flat with a tree? If I couldn¡¯t read you as well as I can, I¡¯d think you were some kind of thrill-seeker. Go on, I¡¯ve got you, dingus.¡± I feel Te¡¯s firm grip on my shoulders, and I can tell her haunches are bunched to leap us any direction that might be safest. Feeling comforted, content, and safe in her grasp, I summon the blade at the position I¡¯d imagined before, expelling it with as much spin as I can muster, hoping that it either strikes with the head, with as much force as the one time I was testing, or that it saws through the tree.


    Instantly, we¡¯re greeted with the sound of wood tearing, and a massive crack as the rest of the tree separates from the remaining trunk on the ground. I almost feel bad for taking the first tree that might ever have been intentionally felled in this place. An instant later, after several crashing sounds while the falling tree plowed its way to the ground, a massive earthshaking thud welcomes us to the end of its descent. I¡¯m fairly certain between the sound, and the tremor, our activities can probably be perceived all the way back at camp. I jog towards the stump to lay my hands upon it, whispering a quiet apology and thanks to the nature that brought the tree into existence. Even though trees are living things, it doesn¡¯t seem to derezz either the trunk, or the lumber.


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    Walking the length of the fallen log, there¡¯s a massive quantity of material available for me now, the biggest load of vines and cypress needles and branches I¡¯ve yet been able to acquire. I don¡¯t count the time that I was nearly dead, stuck in limit break, sucking up nearby trees to try to make a log raft. All of that material disappeared in the limit break finisher. I sort of wish I had done this back near my pond home, because the trees there have those amazing leaves that are like leather. The needles here don¡¯t interest me as much, though I¡¯m surprised there are none scattered about the swamp floor, nature doesn¡¯t quite make sense to me here, so many things are in a perpetual state of not-decay. Actually, I take it back, about the needles not interesting me as much. They¡¯re nearly as hard as stone, though a tad brittle, if we¡¯re careful, we could use them as nails, or actual needles.


    Te seems to be watching me with bemusement, as if she were slightly impressed but unwilling to admit it. I struggle to claim the whole tree to my inventory, but eventually the log is separated from its branches, and claimed to my inventory in chunks, when it is, I turn to Te, completely exhausted, panting and sweating.


    ¡°What, even magic is too much effort for you right now? Poor little dweeb.¡± Te taunts me, in her sweet tone of voice that¡¯s meant to be an endearing fashion, but it actually stings slightly, as I am really spent, and just want to be helped back to camp. When I can¡¯t respond to the teasing, Te seems to realize she hit a little too hard at the moment. Just as I¡¯m about to topple over, in what feels like slow motion, I can sense Te drop her mocking stance to rush over to me. She swings one of my arms across her shoulders to help keep me standing.


    ¡°I¡¯m, huff, getting, huff, better, phewww.¡± I try to explain to Teuila between panting and gasping for breath.


    ¡°Right, sure you are, easy does it, now, don¡¯t overdo it. You promised not to get hurt, remember?¡±


    ¡°I, huff, know, phew, I¡¯ll, phooph, be, hufff, good.¡± I manage to pant out in reply. I realize the ringing in my ears that¡¯s ever present, is close to the loudest it had ever been, causing my head to swim slightly. If I¡¯m exerting myself this much, maybe I¡¯m making progress towards breaking the lock on my energy capacity.


    We walk back to camp together, finding time to idly chat as I finally catch my wind. Te¡¯s excited that she has been able to catch more air with the winged cloak from Vampguppy¡¯s dorsal fin, so she proudly boasts of the height, in a way that insinuates how grateful she is for the presents I¡¯ve given her. Of course, being Te, she has trouble admitting depth to her feelings, while mine are on complete display, as I¡¯m so proud of her and enamored of her. Te, curious about the material, asks me about it. I don¡¯t recall if Lil or I had shared with her the tale of the Vampguppy fight, so I recount it in vivid detail, trying not to embellish at all. I don¡¯t want to come off as trying to sound heroic, it was stupid of myself to not run immediately when Lil and I saw the kind of danger we were in. We were ill prepared, and got lucky, even with our luck I still barely made it out, and would have actually drowned if Lil wasn¡¯t there to fish me out after I passed out.


    Once we¡¯ve broached the topic, I start to share all of my fights, with pauses for panic and flashbacks, how I basically lost and ran from the first encounter, won and walked away from the second, lost by diving into the river on the third encounter, accidentally won on the opposite riverbank during its fourth assault, basically I¡¯m pretty sure I had four skirmishes with the same sphere on¡­ Day¡­ One... I talk about how even fishing was dangerous at first, the caves and cliffs, spotting Lil for the first time, leaving them some food. I gloss over Vampguppy since we just talked about it, then I share how Lil and I couldn¡¯t beat the feathered bear. I recount how we drove away some Bully Frogs when we were about to meet Staff Ninja, the creature with the harmonious nature with the elements of thunder and lightning, then everything changed when the swamp serpent attacked. From then until we met the Shellcrackers we¡¯d mostly just floated downstream.


    Te and I bond, like every conversation was our first. Even if I¡¯d already told her the tales of woes that were my various adventures til now, she listens raptly, rarely chiming in except to chastise me for getting hurt, or express pride in my successes. When we arrive back at camp, it seems the noise of timber crashing alerted the rest of the family, as everyone is gathered. As much as I¡¯d like to go take a short nap, I figure this is the best time to approach everyone about heading home.


    ¡°What in all good graces happened out there? We thought for sure a tsunami had struck without warning and was snapping trees but there was only the sound of one.¡± Ag questions in a serious tone, demanding a response.


    ¡°We were, well I was, working on felling a tree for lumber, building materials, I couldn¡¯t really do it until Te showed up, we chopped it down away from the camp.¡± I produce chunks of log from my inventory as proof while I continue explaining. ¡°I want us to be able to have the safest possible places to stay, and I want to share something with all of you.¡± I¡¯m about to explain what I want to share before I get cut off by Lao.


    ¡°Child, you¡¯ve shared much of yourself already, you need not push yourself. You are still injured in ways that may never heal.¡± I can feel Lao¡¯s soft furred hand as she strokes my cheek, looking through Lil¡¯s eyes and listening through Lil¡¯s senses, I can tell how forlorn Lao really is. I¡¯m not sure if she¡¯s saddened that I¡¯m hurt, or still grieving, or any other combination of emotions.


    ¡°Oh, thank you, sorry though, I wasn¡¯t finished with what I want to share. There¡¯s a place up-river, a pond that I was living at, alone, until Lil showed up. The fishing is plentiful, it¡¯s near a cliff face, along which are caverns. It just feels like, if we¡¯re going to be inland, we could maybe, possibly, share the best place I¡¯d found to live? The journey would be hard, because there are dangers in the swamp, but we¡¯re already in danger living within its boundaries and frequently heading within. The serpent there, or serpents, if there are more than one, was so powerful. Lil and I have a somewhat safe way to at least rest during the journey, right Lil?¡±


    Lil takes a moment to realize I''d called on them for affirmation before excitedly confirming, ¡°Oh yeah, we can bake a little hidey hole in the mud under a tree, it makes a really cozy little cave to snuggle up in for a sleep!¡±


    I try to gather my thoughts, and end up rambling as I press towards what I hope is a group conclusion, ¡°So, um, what does everyone think? I think the further inland we are, as well as the further away from the swamp, the safer the whole family will be, and, and, um, when we make it back, I want to build for all of you. Oh, and on the way back, there are beavers, who said they¡¯d be friends with us, or well at least consider being friends with us, if and only if we proved to be friends of other aquatic types. There¡¯s also another danger, but that one is miniscule based on what we¡¯ve overcome so far, a big bear thing, that I think Lil, or Te, or myself could drive away or strike down, now.¡±


    Ag had been in the process of forming a response when I mentioned Te could drive off or strike down a bear, when their aura looks visibly perturbed through Lil¡¯s senses, and they seem on the verge of hitting something, as they shout, ¡°Share with us, you want to share with us, and want our safety, yet you would ask Teuila, whom you seem to care so much about, to risk herself in battle!? Something you, with all your vaunted magics, apparently could not defeat prior to you nearly ending your own life and losing much of what power you had!?¡±

 Chapter 19: Cut Low

    Laomati sets a hand on Ag¡¯s shoulder and looks concerned, yet somehow also pleadingly at Agwai, as if a simple look requests that they calm themselves. Somehow this motherly figure¡¯s authority and presence calms even her equal, giving me the opportunity to explain.


    ¡°I would never risk Te or any of you if I could avoid it, if I could find a safe solution, you have to know that, you have to believe me. I¡¯d be willing to give up everything, for any of you. I just mean, the feathered bear was something we ran into before I even really discovered how powerful my inventory magic could be, and I went about the fight all wrong, I think a single one of these could have ended it.¡± I state as I summon a radiant spear duplicate to expel it from my inventory, flinging it straight downward, where it burrows deeply into the ground before dissipating.


    I indicate the devastating tunnel excavated in a single instant, ¡°I¡¯m already back to the point of being able to do that, and Teuila is honestly more powerful than me in any sort of combat where I might be unable to do that for whatever reason. Even without this magic, Lil and I were able to drive off the bear thing, and well, like I said, Te is stronger than either of us, no offense Lil.¡± Lil harumphs in response, though I can tell from our shared wavelength, that Lil begrudgingly agrees, at least in Lil¡¯s current form. Lilagnewt might be a different story, a flying, fire-breathing dragon is a force to be reckoned with.


    I can tell Lao¡¯s eyes look almost pleadingly at Agwai, while the twins and Mataalli seem to be talking privately in confusion. Te and Luni, for their part, come to stand next to Lil and me, Te¡¯s hands resting on my shoulders. Agwai¡¯s look softens, and their readiness to outburst in anger appears to drift away, vanishing as Lao strokes their cheek.


    Agwai sighs, visibly heaving a long bated breath, frustration veritably dripping away as their shoulders sag, and they sink into an embrace with Lao. Lao turns, hugging Agwai¡¯s face to her shoulder, before she takes over the conversation.


    Lao quietly agrees, affirming, ¡°It, as you say child, is dangerous to remain here. We are not entirely ignorant of the serpent of the swamps, nor its frog denizens that wish harm unto all. I trust your best intentions, and so too does Agwai. We¡¯ve simply been thrust into change after change, danger after danger recently. We await a seemingly inevitable danger once again to remain here, though you¡¯d created shelter for us. Where once we saw always the right path to take upon our beach, we now see only fearfully surviving each day, dreading what may come the next. If you believe your pond to be safer, to be a home that can be shared with us, your family, I see no reason not to pursue the path that leads there, though the path itself carries its own risks.¡± My heart swells as Lao calls me her family. During our entire conversation, I¡¯d been trying to combine timber and needles into rough house shapes, as well as trying out various alchemical combinations still. I swear I heard a tiny cracking sound coming from within my mind¡¯s eye, where I picture the virtual lock on my energy capacity.


    ¡°Yes, yes I really do believe it, there¡¯s a pain with being away from your home that I can feel, a sickness in my gut that I don¡¯t want you to have to bear, that I think would dull with time if we can build a community there. Things like this could be where we would take shelter and, um, train, and pursue arts and music.¡± I try to explain as I produce a radiant roughly hewn version of a miniature log cabin from my inventory, the creation of which was massively exerting. The shellcrackers seem to understand the word music, but its impact doesn¡¯t carry the weight I¡¯d been hoping for, as if the word and its definition exists, yet none of them had experienced any of it before.


    ¡°When?¡± Agwai asks plainly, with some irritation in their voice. I feel like I¡¯m finally part of this world as normal, while there are text logs of conversation in my mind¡¯s eye, I could swear that I truly hear Agwai speak with my own senses. ¡°Well, When?¡± They ask again impatiently. I realize now, that I might not even have been noticing that my senses were acclimatizing, hearing things around me as others like Lil hear them. I remember the sound of Teuila¡¯s voice, and, oh right, Agwai asked me a question.


    ¡°What? Oh, oh sorry, I was, I was distracted, I¡¯m sorry. Honestly as soon as possible, maybe in the morning. Each day is going to be a challenge, but I¡¯m terrified of losing any of you if we stay here and another wave happens further inland.¡± I don¡¯t let on how excited I am to hear Agwai¡¯s voice, even if their voice sounds irritated at me. I don¡¯t mention how I hear the murmur of individual conversations, and I can just sink into my own closed-eyed world. I find myself sighing contentedly that I really belong.


    Lao and Agwai look to one another, exchanging those knowing glances that speak volumes more than I could ever comprehend, maybe they¡¯re on as close of a wavelength as Lil, Luni, and myself. ¡°So be it, we journey in the morning.¡± Agwai states, before their voice softens, ¡°thank you, child. What we yet have is each other, we strive to keep it that way.¡± I want to hug Agwai in a sort of comforting acceptance, but Agwai has never really struck me as the affectionate type. Even as I think that, Lao brings them into a hug, while Agwai seems to begrudgingly accept the comfort.


    Everyone appears to be slightly uncomfortable at the moment, and looking for excuses to wander off to do their own contemplation or preparation for tomorrow¡¯s journey. My senses are starting to become more reliable, and I¡¯m struck with an idea. Thinking at Lil and Luni, I flick my head towards the river, Te¡¯s observation also catches my meaning, so the four of us head towards the river for privacy.


    Across our wavelength I telepathically send, ¡°So, um, it looks like my wish is going to come true, for showing you all to our little home.¡±


    ¡°Yup, it was probably just a matter of time buddy, everyone was nervous staying here.¡± Lil plainly comments on everyone¡¯s subtle anxiety. I was probably a bit preoccupied to realize that it was affecting everyone, but it makes sense that two massive, deadly, tidal waves striking, in such a short time, would leave a family feeling anxious. Between that, and being forced to move closer to a swamp that houses violent bullies and deadly serpents, everyone has probably been more on edge than I¡¯ve been able to notice without my sight.


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    ¡°My biggest worry on the way back is the serpent, Octorochi. Thinking back to the fight, I think I managed to halfway strike down one head with a radiant spear worth about half a thousand energy. That means it would take eight thousand to stop it all at once, no, over eight thousand, wait, the main body too, so it would take over nine thousand energy worth of radiant attacks at once to at least stop, if not put down permanently.¡±


    ¡°Over nine thousand!?¡± Lil exclaims, realizing that it¡¯s far more energy than either of us currently, or have ever had. This vaguely sets my brain flickering into a tiny BSOD moment oddly.


    I nod when I reorient myself and return to my senses, ¡°I know, I know, that means we shouldn¡¯t try to fight it. At least, not yet. Lilagnewt¡¯s dragon form, and Te¡¯s divebombs are our aces, or trump cards, or the tricks up our sleeves, and I don¡¯t know how those compare numerically to my radiant strikes, but, well.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen one of your energy attacks take down a tree in a single strike that I spent minutes on, your space magic is ridiculously powerful, it¡¯s frightening.¡± Te basically completes my thought, as I didn¡¯t want to disparage her and her power, as physically she seems to be dozens of times stronger than myself, she¡¯s easily capable of doing things it would take me magic to complete.


    I continue nodding as I try to puzzle out a solution while rambling, ¡°I¡¯m pretty certain our best bet is to try to flee, and maybe put up some kind of barricade if we can¡¯t get away, if we make like, clay or logs that it can¡¯t break through, then it should eventually get bored, especially if we leave only little holes that Lil and I can fire out of whenever it tries to attack. It doesn¡¯t seem stupid enough to keep throwing itself at rocks that are going to set it on fire and blast spears into it repeatedly. There¡¯s something about its eyes. Other predatory things have had these crazed, red, pupil-less eyes, but Octorochi knew what it was doing.¡±


    Teuila oders, ¡°Make me some spears, and teach me what skills and abilities I¡¯m going to need.¡±


    My right eye twitches as it squints while my left brow raises in confusion, ¡°Do what now?¡±


    Teuila responds matter-of-factly, ¡°I didn¡¯t stutter, I said make me some spears, and teach me what I¡¯m going to need. To be able to throw at this Octorochi. I¡¯m not letting you two take care of everything. I¡¯m the protector of our family, I¡¯m going to be the strongest. Show me what my numbers need to be at, and I¡¯ll work harder than anyone, ever, to get them there.¡±


    Befuddled, I mildly grump, ¡°Te, I, I don¡¯t know how high¡±


    Teuila prods, ¡°Can you make them?¡±


    I do my best to respond, ¡°Yes, of course I¡¯ll make anything you want, anything to help you protect us and yourself.¡±


    Teuila continues to needle, ¡°Then just help me make a goal for my numbers, you know you need to get yours over nine thousand, what do mine need to be to keep up?¡±


    ¡°Okay, well, uh, currently the numbers for us three are the following.¡± I say as I pull up our stats, as the three warriors here. Luni doesn¡¯t seem to mind being excluded, her thoughts are mostly focused on Lil¡¯s wellbeing, and I think she might be composing music in her mind?


    Lil thinks at me ¡°Yup, Luni took it to heart when you were talking about creating music!¡±Teuila¡¯s statistics are ridiculously impressive, I think over the last few weeks she has somehow gained an average of at least five in every offense and defense on any given day, the rest of the family can¡¯t even compare to her numbers. I can¡¯t even imagine what her training is like, probably swimming upstream against rapids and bashing into rocks, it would also explain why her stamina is so high. ¡°Well Te, uh, at the rate you¡¯re going, like, three, four, maybe five of your strongest strikes might take out a head? If the numbers work that way, but I couldn¡¯t even penetrate its hide with my lesser strikes with normal weapons that were like half of your numbers. We¡¯d have to craft something special for you.¡±


    ¡°Well?¡± Teuila asks impatiently, I can hear the soft tapping of her foot.


    I boggle, ¡°Well what?¡±


    ¡°Well, go on then, craft away. Gimme gimme.¡± She orders in what sounds like a partially joking manner. I half laugh at the absurdity, I hope she¡¯s joking.


    Stifling a laugh, I try to entertain the thought while providing clarification, ¡°Teuila? I can¡¯t tell if you¡¯re being serious. I don¡¯t have any materials, or ability, to craft better than what I used back then. We¡¯d have to get metals, or well, ores or something, and learn how to melt and smelt the stuff down, then like, hammer out the impurities, or fire it with uh, I think they call it coke, which I think is just cooked coal, or something. Right now I can give you some pointy wooden sticks with some teeth glued to them. I think we need iron, and molybdenum or vanadium or some other eeyums, like titanium or something. The more impressive sounding the mineral element of the ore, the harder it is to work with, I think. At least based on my memories. Like ferrous metals can rust, so we¡¯d have to combine them with other metals to make an alloy, so if we found iron, we¡¯d need to make steel.¡±


    Before I can continue further explaining what very very very little I know about metallurgy, Teuila puts a paw to my lips, shooshing me, in fact, her pawed hand basically paps my entire face, smooshing my cheeks, rubbing my forehead and rolling my lips around, smearing a bit of saliva, ¡°Blah blah blah, all I¡¯m hearing is we have to go on adventures and find some materials.¡± I laugh somewhat indignantly, now I can tell she¡¯s teasing me, for sure, but from anyone else, that would have been so rude I¡¯d probably facepalm, or stomp away in frustration. With Teuila however, I just get a big derpy grin on my face, and shake my head incredulously.


    My smile stretches my face wide as I jokingly admonish her, ¡°You¡¯re unbelievable.¡±


    ¡°I know, right? Fast, strong, and smart enough to know when to shut you up?¡± Teuila proudly claims, I can tell she crosses her arms, striking a pose and leaning back, for a split second. I burst out laughing and wipe a tear from my eye from laughing so hard. I know she¡¯s not that full of herself, so the last few seconds have played out like some sort of comedy skit in my mind, but I feel her padded fingers plop against my face again.


    ¡°Hah, hah, okay okay, can I have my face back now?¡± I jokingly ask as I try to shove Te¡¯s hand off of my face, which earns me another paw to the face, and as I push that one away, the other returns, again and again for several seconds filled with laughter. ¡°Hah, okay, okay, you win, you win already! Hahah, yes, sort of, you¡¯re right, adventures in mining I guess, but to do that, we¡¯d have to go all the way back to, what did Lil call it, Fire Biome? Volcano Biome? Lava Biome?¡±


    ¡°Fire Biome buddy!¡± Comes Lil¡¯s excited reply.


    Expressing my gratitude, I continue, ¡°Thanks Lil, so yeah, we¡¯d have to head all the way to the North, through the swamp, up the river past our home, and into the cliffs leading to Fire Biome anyway Te. No luck on getting the materials right now to make you decent equipment until after we leave Octorochi behind.¡±


    Teuila''s frown itself is almost audible, ¡°Huh, well, poop. That sort of sucks, how am I supposed to protect you brats if I can¡¯t fight? Did you maybe get any materials from that living box mouth thing? The mimicked box, you know, the one that, uh -¡±


    ¡°Ah yes, the one that ate me, thank you for reminding me.¡± I jokingly shudder, and Te baps me on the cheek playfully before hugging me comfortingly. She is right though, we did get some things from the box. Maybe they¡¯ll be useful in finding our way home.

 Chapter 20: Battle Tapes? Wraps?

    Drawing forth the last identification scroll from my inventory, I realize a problem. I can¡¯t read the scroll. Looking through Lil¡¯s vision, the scroll is just blank, or rather, shrouded in a white aura. I pinch the bridge of my nose and rub my eyelids and temples.


    ¡°Whatcha doin¡¯ with that?¡± Te asks, full of curiosity as she leans forward, close enough that she gives me a peck on the cheek, interrupting a frown that was about to appear on my face, causing me to smile instead.


    I start, ¡°Well I was going to read it-¡±


    Te snarkily, teasingly interrupts, ¡°Tough job for someone whose eyes are closed.¡±


    ¡°Yes, thank you Te. Hahah.¡± I try to act annoyed but can¡¯t help but to laugh. ¡°I was going to read it, but looking through Lil¡¯s vision, it¡¯s shrouded in like a white aura.¡±


    ¡°Same here, yep me too, yep yep!¡± All three of them jumble replies simultaneously. I sigh, somewhat exasperated, not at my friends, but at my disability actually having consequences. I¡¯ve gotten so lucky that there have been workarounds in this reality for all the difficulties I¡¯ve come across. I hope I hadn¡¯t been seeming like I was taking for granted how wonderful it is that magic has been supporting me and helping me through what would have been a devastating life change, but I still can¡¯t help being disappointed.


    Te and Lu bombard me with questions about the parchment, ¡°So what were you going to read it for? Is it a map? Does it tell you where materials are, or where treasure is?¡±


    ¡°Naw, Reggie used one of those before when we fought Vampguppy, remember how Reg told you we got bunches of stuff then? The scroll let us know all the magic in the items!¡± Lil chimes in, before I end up needing to answer.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s exactly it, I was going to try to identify what we got from the mimic.¡± I pull out the long pair of ribbon looking fabric strands, they seem kind of like tape for martial arts or boxing, and as an item they go into and out of my inventory in a pair. I also pull out what appears to be, well I want to call it a vial, but it doesn¡¯t have a stopper or opening, it¡¯s a small metallic cartridge around a clear glass center that glows ever so slightly, it¡¯s somewhat cylindrical, somewhat a rectangular prism. There¡¯s also a small needle that looks to be dripping with venom or ink. The last object I pull out is a very simple ring, it¡¯s an orangey bronze, and it¡¯s warming to the touch.


    ¡°Well, maybe just try using the things, and your big brain will figure out what they do?¡± Te pokes me playfully in the noggin. ¡°You do have magic of your own after all.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ not the same at all, but it¡¯s still worth a shot, thanks Te.¡± I do the only thing I can think of, placing the ring on one of my fingers, instantly my whole body feels slightly warmer, I can¡¯t even feel the cooling breeze of the nearby swamp air while wearing it. I also notice that my thermal defense jumps by about fifty points while wearing it, which is probably pretty powerful, when I remove it, it drops back down. ¡°This little thing is definitely some kind of temperature regulating ring, warming mostly, I think Luni should wear it, she has the lowest thermal protection of all of us. I¡¯m not sure how she¡¯d wear it though.¡±


    Teuila teases, ¡°Really, Luni, before moi? Didn¡¯t I slay the beastly box after all?¡±


    ¡°Te, I have a feeling you could stand in Lil¡¯s fire and bean Lil in the face, knocking them out before you had to back down, you¡¯re incredibly strong, even if your thermal resistance is lower.¡± Lil grumbles something along the lines of fat chance but keeps it to themself while I state this.


    ¡°Awe shucks, you think so?¡± She plays at being mock bashful at the compliment, giving me a light punch in the shoulder while pretending to hide her face behind one pawed hand. Luni and Lil, however, bound over and snuggle my legs from both sides. Try as I might though I can¡¯t figure out how to get a ring to stay on the little webbed paws that barely stick out from Luni¡¯s spherical form. So instead, I wrap my arms in the bandage-like ribbons. Partway through the wrapping, the ribbons seem to finish wrapping themselves, and my awareness expands. My arms feel slightly more powerful, like I can feel a sort of extra sense coming from them, and I think they add about two hundred to my own reflexes. Remember proprioception? It feels like it¡¯s in overdrive, I sense Te¡¯s next playful punch and reflexively dodge it well before it arrives, sidestepping underneath and to the side of it, giving her arm a slight push that sends her off balance to the point that she spins around and falls into my arms, laughing. Her stats and skills page flashed into my mind¡¯s eye too when my fingertips nudged her arm out of the way, a new value is highlighted in bold, something along the lines of threshold: 0.


    ¡°Haha, what, what just happened? How¡¯d I end up down here?¡± She chuckles and snuggles into my embrace.


    ¡°Wow, these are amazing. They warned me of your attack, well I mean your goofing off, and like, directed my reflexes. I feel like I can feel everything around me within like thirty feet. I think there¡¯s a stick on the ground about twenty five feet that way, without looking through Lil¡¯s senses. A needle just dropped into the river over there. It¡¯s almost information overload, but the information seems curated, like, just enough that it won¡¯t overload me even if I¡¯m focusing on it, and if I¡¯m not focusing on it, it¡¯ll only feed me dangerous incoming things. Like some sort of wraps of warning.¡±


    ¡°Dahling, keep those on, having a danger sense when you¡¯re down a sense just makes sense, ya sense?¡± Te jokingly teases me, but she¡¯s right, and I can¡¯t help but laugh at her phrasing, and the silly accent she used.


    ¡°I¡¯m worried about this thing though, it seems like it¡¯s dripping something.¡± I hold the needle up for all of us to see, and though there appears to perpetually be some fluid about to drop from it, it never does. Curious, hoping my new warning wraps will warn me if it¡¯s dangerous before I do so, I touch the fluid, then the needle and fluid both disappear. ¡°What, what just happened?¡±


    ¡°Reg, Reggie, look, look through my eyes, look at yourself!¡± Lil exclaims, and I focus my attention through their eyes, it¡¯s almost blindingly brilliant for a moment, with a mixture of several auras of color coming from various locations on my body. The wraps give off a brilliant white, my own aura is greens and blues and reds that undulate between and mix on occasion, while my left arm, including the hand I touched the needle¡¯s ink with, is now covered in a swirling incredibly-dark purple aura. Not only is there an aura over my hand and arm, but there are tendril-like waves tattooed onto my skin, meshing and mingling with my burn scars in an almost hypnotic display. While focusing on the tattoos, they almost seem alive, in fact, they really seem alive, too alive. I start to get nervous looking through Lil¡¯s eyes, and suddenly the tattoos spring to life, dark purple tendrils reach out and grasp Lil. ¡°Hoi, hurk, oopf.¡± Comes Lil¡¯s guttural utterances as they¡¯re wrapped up by magical grasping tendrils and lifted into the air slightly.


    ¡°Eep, I¡¯m so sorry Lil!¡± I exclaim, dropping my senses from Lils, focusing on trying to grab the tendrils and shake them away or stop them somehow. Instantly they fade away, I worry that they just became incorporeal to me, but I hear Lil plop to the ground and start laughing.


    ¡°Welp, I think we know what those do.¡± Te tries to state nonchalantly before everyone kind of nervously chuckles a bit, before slowly breaking into full on laughter. ¡°I won¡¯t lie, they look kind of beautiful on your skin, and, well, that was pretty cool, seeing Lil all tied up like that.¡±


    ¡°Hey, that¡¯s mean.¡± Lil fumes with indignation.


    ¡°No it¡¯s not, and you enjoyed it, you little dork.¡± Te teases Lil, she leans down quite far, giving Lil a flick on the snout before kissing their forehead, which gets a slight harumph from Luni. Lil also playfully harumphs, but I can feel the flutter of their heart and the embarrassment across our shared mental wavelength. That¡¯s probably what actually caused Luni to harumph now that I think about it. Oh, me thinking these thoughts is making Lil blush even harder.


    ¡°Yeesh Reggie, shuddup will ya!? Cut a pal some slack!¡± Lil chimes across the mental wavelength, which sets Luni and myself to laughing, we both know there¡¯s no reason to get jealous, we all love each other in different ways here.


    Out loud, Lil responds to Teuila, ¡°Well I mean getting flung up and down, sure, but not being tied up all of a sudden, plus they actually hurt pretty bad.¡±


    ¡°Sure sure, you know what I meant, sorry, I didn¡¯t realize they hurt you.¡± Te picks up Lil and gives them a gentle rubbing and a once-over, smooching their forehead again in apology. ¡°I think Reggie¡¯s new magic could help them a lot. Reggie, can you use those viney things to move around?¡± Te sets Lil down, then traces my arms with her padded fingertips, I half smile feeling her curiosity bleed through her teasing. Lil bounds behind me, and thinks into our shared wavelength that Teuila is a menace, or a meanie, or both.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Amused by all that''s happened, I ask, ¡°What, like some kind of grappling hook? About how long did they look when they came out?¡±


    Te shrugs in response, ¡°I dunno, they didn¡¯t look stretched very thin, just give it a try.¡±


    Obliging, I point my left arm and focus on extending the magic concentrated on my arm and hand, as far as I can. I feel like an extension of my body whips out as far as about fifteen feet away. The length of the tendrils is not even enough to really wrap around a tree trunk near here, since their circumferences are pretty massive. I think the smallest trunks around here are something like eighteen feet in circumference, like six feet in diameter. Still, curious, I try to reach for a tree that is about ten feet away, and I hear my friends gasping. I can feel a limb that I don¡¯t have. Well I can sense a bunch of limblike tendrils, wrapped tightly around a tree even though it¡¯s over ten feet away, and over twenty feet around. I give a light tug, the tree doesn¡¯t budge, but I do get yoinked in its general direction, colliding with the tree face-first.


    ¡°Oof.¡± I groan as my friends laugh slightly. At least using the wraps or the tattoos doesn¡¯t seem to take any energy, or cause them to disappear. They seem more like the magical soapstone, or the orb of direction, permanently enchanted equipment. As I let go of my focus, the tendrils seem to disappear, and I trace my hand around the tree where my tattoo had grasped it. I feel a slight sense of dismay. The bark cracked heavily where the tendrils lassoed the tree, several grooves are basically smashed into the tree. The damage isn¡¯t enough to fell the tree of course, but I didn¡¯t actually mean to hurt the tree. I will have to be careful when using the tattoo so I don¡¯t hurt someone, because it seems like even if I just want to be able to catch someone with them, it¡¯s going to hurt them, like Lil said. I can¡¯t tell if I¡¯m more dismayed by the idea that I could hurt someone, and did hurt Lil, or that I recklessly tore into a tree that I won¡¯t be using for timber.


    I don¡¯t know enough about this world to know what it¡¯s like for these ancient-seeming trees, if harming or cultivating or using them will have wide ranging effects. I honestly don¡¯t know much about my life or place in this world at all, it¡¯s hard to make assumptions. I¡¯ve got Lil, and Luni, and Te, and Agwai, and Laomati, even Mataali Manaia and Manamea. I share my life with them and they with me. I doubt they know much about forestry, or long term agriculture, not to disparage them, but it doesn¡¯t seem like something they¡¯d have studied. Still, thinking on my closest friends, I¡¯ve got something for Lil. I keep getting these magic items, and it seems like I get to choose who they go to, which makes me feel guilty and greedy.


    ¡°Lil, I¡¯ve got something for you, well, sort of. I don¡¯t think it will actually work, but, well, you see Te¡¯s wing-cape, it¡¯s kind of like that, but it¡¯s a glider, only I have no idea how you would use it unless you were falling off a cliff. I figure if you want to actually go for a glide, we can try to get you into Lilagnewt form.¡± I produce the haphazardly-constructed, rigid-framed glider from my inventory to show Lil.


    ¡°Awe, Reggie, you didn¡¯t have to, and you don¡¯t have to feel guilty buddy, you seem to pick the best places and people for the items, and you can really use the help. I¡¯m a draaaaagon, I don¡¯t need nothin¡¯, but I won¡¯t say no to presents!¡± Lil laughs and leaps into me, bowling me over, hugging me with their tail, before swiping up the glider and claiming it to their own inventory.


    ¡°Speaking of, well, of being a dragon, and evolving to new forms, um, I¡¯ve been working on something, I could share it, if that¡¯s okay?¡± Luni asks somewhat timidly. I¡¯m surprised she felt the need to ask, she¡¯s such a wonderful, kind, supportive person, I don¡¯t imagine any of us would shun her for any reason.


    Luni begins to hum, and bob a little bit, squishing downwards, then up to one side, then downwards, and back to the other side. All of us sit quietly, looking back and forth to one another, uncertain if this is what she wanted to share. Luni clears her throat for a moment, before beginning a song.


    "Fighting and losing,


    I fear I''d lose you


    You-less, I''m not two" Luni looks tenderly at Lil, a mix of fear, admiration, love, and sadness in her eyes.


    "Singing''s my breakthrough,


    Breaking away from breaking you


    I''d break down and be broken too," Luni seems to be frozen in time, admitting her feelings for Lil out loud for all of us, she then turns to the rest of us,


    "Change is something we all go through


    Evolving now we''ve go to do" Suddenly Luni''s tone changes from somber, to upbeat, as she bounces around, landing on each of our heads and singing a line, first mine, then Lil''s, then Te''s, after landing Te''s she leaps straight up accentuating the last line.


    "I need t''rise up ''n'' become a little wiser" She bounces atop my head,


    "Im all tied up, ¡®n¡¯ my bonds becoming tighter" Luni bounds from my head, to Lil''s, and bounces off like Lil were a trampoline,


    "I''m all fiy''d up, ¡®n¡¯ I''m y''number one fighter" Luni lands atop Te''s head for a moment, Te looks like she''s going to bat Luni off, when Luni leaps even higher,


    "I''ma fly up, and go soarin'' eva'' higher" Luni seems to leap so high in the air that her figure stretches outwards and upwards, when she lands however, she lands on her paws, or maybe feet, as they''re covered in leather boots, and takes a bow, or well a curtsy, as she''s wearing an adorable white and green multi-layered dress with frills. The dress also has bronze-colored diamond accents. Luni appears to be holding a small harp in her left hand. Everyone was about to applaud, but I think we''re all stunned.


    I do a double-take, Luni appears to be a young woman, somewhere between the purely otter stage, and the humanoid stage of evolution, similar to Teuila, but with even more anthropomorphic characteristics. I stand there blinking hard several times, my mouth agape. I check both my ranged senses, and through Lil¡¯s eyes, and the results are the same.


    "What, but what?" Pretty much is the unanimous utterance from the rest of us as Luni giggles, twirling around, checking out her own new form.


    "Wait, it''s that easy? Let me try!" Lil tries to repeat Luni''s performance to a tee, just replacing staring at themselves with staring at Luni, though they''re entirely off key, out of tune, and definitely giving Te a big ol'' faceful of scaley butt at the end of the song. When Lil leaps off of Te at the end, nothing special happens as they land in the soil, bouncing slightly.


    "Okay, okay, okay okay okay, so, so, so what just happened? Is that how you evolved Te?" I manage to stammer out a question.


    Te responds while shaking her head, "Uh, no, most definitely not. I was slamming rocks in the river with my tail, and face, and then I was punching them."


    I try not to chuckle at her answer, "That¡¯s kinda awesome. But, did you spontaneously spawn clothes or equipment?"


    Teuila jibes, "Does it look like I''m wearing anything?"


    I blush at my naivety while apologizing and asking, "No, no I guess not, sorry, is that normal?"


    "Penina had her shell when she evolved from an egg, but usually not. I want a wristband like Luni''s now, humph." Te harumphs a bit indignantly. Upon closer inspection, on the same arm that holds the harp, Luni is indeed wearing an adorable bracelet that looks like a cross between a wrist-warmer, and my own leaf-leather gear. She even has a hairband with a flower in it that looks suspiciously like the circlet I''d made for Teuila recently. She''s even wearing leggings under the skirt, how in the how!?


    I query, "Luni, how do you have leggings, and are they uncomfortable on your fur?"


    She giggles and twirls, her hands are palm-faced-up, and her shoulders are in a shrug, "I have no idea!"


    ¡°I guess you can wear the ring now though, uh, wow. Well, way to go? I mean, you did great, you look great, you¡¯re stunning, and adorable, at least through Lil¡¯s eyes, I mean, not that I doubt you are adorable in general, just, you know, haven¡¯t seen you in a few weeks. Ugh, not that me not personally seeing you means you got any less adorable.¡± Before I can keep rambling, Lil playfully swats my legs from behind with their tail, and Te shoves her hand in my face, bowling me over. My wraps warned me of the tail and palm, but I was too preoccupied trying not to insult Luni to dodge out of the way. I fall on my rear and just start laughing at myself.


    ¡°Stuff it!¡± Lil and Te both playfully exclaim to get me to shut up and stop making a fool of myself. There¡¯s the tiniest tinge of jealousy in both of their voices, but they¡¯re mostly laughing.


    I roll across the ground out of the way of the various limbs being comically swung my way. When I¡¯m out of the veritable minefield of flailing bodyparts, I find myself kneeling in front of Luni, so I can at least give her the ring now. ¡°Here you go Lu, you can wear it now, I hope you never need it, but if you do, I hope it protects you.¡± I place the ring on Luni¡¯s right hand, the bronzy-orange goes nicely with the diamond patterns along her skirt, or the leather coloration on her wristband on her left wrist.


    Luni giggles, bends foreward and smooches my forehead. ¡°Thanks Reggie, I love it.¡± She states after kissing my head. I can veritably feel Lil fuming behind me, as if steam were coming out their ears, and I just now realize how this would have probably looked amongst any other group of people, like someone dodged a bunch of attacks to propose to someone else.


    In my mind Lil jokingly-angrily shouts ¡°Gee, ya think!?¡± Lil and Luni, however, are both laughing uproariously across the shared mental wavelength.


    ¡°Haha, sorry fam, didn¡¯t mean to get weird.¡± I think into the shared wavelength, chuckling as I do.


    ¡°Sure sure, I see how it is, now that she¡¯s got legs and arms, you want Luni now too, you and your unstoppable twitterpation that is!¡± Jokes Lil, though I do flush with embarrassment when I think about how adorable Luni¡¯s outfit is and how nicely it accentuates her already cute appearance. ¡°Mhm, see? Told ya.'''' Lil jibes in my mind.


    ¡°So, what, it¡¯s going to take like two evolutions until you¡¯re twitterpated with me pal? When I¡¯m like a big dragon standing on two legs? Hm?¡± Lil keeps poking fun at me and I feel exceedingly flushed with embarrassment. My face burns red hot, and I probably look the same color as Lil at the moment. Everyone is laughing or chuckling or gasping for breath though, thankfully no one is seriously paying jealousy any mind. Te leaps from her current position to tackle me, and we end up doing a double somersault before coming to a halt, with Te hugging me from above as I¡¯m pinned to the ground. Te laughs until she sighs contentedly, snuggling down atop me.


    I realize I¡¯ve been holding a breath for a while. Or rather, I haven¡¯t inhaled in a while, and inhale a bit of a ragged breath out of surprise, then find myself sighing contentedly as well. Luni walks over and calmly sits next to us, once there she leans down to one side, cuddling against one of my arms and Te¡¯s shoulder. Lil bounds over and smooshes between all of us, while Luni welcomes Lil, wrapping an arm around them when they arrive. I happily state, ¡°I, I really love my life, I love you guys so much. Thank you for being my friends.¡±


    ¡°Sure, you¡¯re our pal, and our confidant.¡± Lil replies, which almost causes my brain to do another one of those weird BSOD moments, as it triggers a vague memory. Lyrics from a song.

 Chapter 21: An Incredible Journeys Beginning

    Turning to Lil, I blush as I ask, ¡°I hate to ask this, but, Lil, are you willing to stay up all night, pulling an all nighter with me, to head into the swamps, find a lot of clay, and I mean a lot, a lot of clay, and help me bake it, so that we can have enough material to build some walls when the family is ready to move in the morning, in case we get into trouble?¡±


    ¡°Of course pal, no worries!¡± Lil¡¯s response is chipper, and pretty much what I¡¯d expect from my best buddy.


    ¡°What, you think you two brats are going anywhere without me protecting your sorry hides?¡± Teuila chimes in from atop me, and basically straddles me, pinning me to the ground, as if to also say ¡®you¡¯re not going anywhere.¡¯ Which, okay, she actually did just say.


    ¡°You know I¡¯m going anywhere Lil does.¡± I¡¯m kind of surprised at Luni, I don¡¯t know how much time, if any, Luni and Lil have spent apart since our shared bond formed, but I had thought she¡¯d at least want to rest.


    Wait, that''s all four of us. Huh. I bumble about forming an answer, ¡°Ah, oh, uh, I guess that¡¯s all of us then, it¡¯s going to make tomorrow extra hard, since we won¡¯t be getting any sleep, are you all sure you¡¯re okay with that? Te, you might want to be rested to be able to protect us tomorrow in case something happens.¡±


    Te butts in, exclaiming, ¡°Look, if I have to push a little harder, go beyond, give a hundred and ten plus ten plus ten, I dunno, plus, ultra, percent, whatever it takes, I¡¯ll do it. I¡¯m not letting you go through what you went through, ever again. I¡¯ll knock you out myself before seeing you ever get so badly hurt, ever again.¡±


    ¡°Oh, uh, I¡¯m, well, flattered? I guess? Sorry, thank you. Sorry.¡± I¡¯m so touched by Te¡¯s sentiment that I can barely form words to express my feelings. Obviously I don¡¯t want to end up in crispy fried catatonic states. I probably won¡¯t admit it to her, but I¡¯d do it again if it even saved her from a little harm, Luni and Lil and Laomati and Agwai and Manaia and Manamea and Mataali as well of course.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay. I, you know, those words.¡± Teuila almost stammers, which is so unusual, as she¡¯s generally so confident. She¡¯s usually so exceedingly confident that she can play off as being cocky and it¡¯s hard to tell when she¡¯s joking.


    ¡°What words? Oh, oh I see, I love you too Te.¡± I get socked in the shoulder for my sappiness, apparently, as I assume what Te had meant to convey.


    ¡°Yeah, whatever, sure, that. You know.¡± She hides her face in the crook of my neck. It¡¯s somewhat astonishing to me, she plays off being so brave, brash, bold, even jokingly full of herself, yet on things like this she¡¯s bashful, demure even. Teuila downplays her own emotions, I just hope that we¡¯re all being honest with ourselves about what our emotions mean to each of us. I try to shove Teuila off of me so that I can get up and we can start our trek into the swamp, but it¡¯s like she has some sort of density altering power. It feels like I¡¯m trying to lift a boulder off of me. I know Teuila is light as all get-out, but her muscles are stiff, locked in place, pinning me down. I hear her whisper, ¡°Nuh uh, just a little more snuggles, please?¡± I chuckle, and give her the slightest nod, so she knows I won¡¯t tell anyone what she asked for. Though Lil and Luni snicker across our shared mental wavelength, they promise not to tease her about it.


    Eventually we all stand up, dust ourselves off, and use the soapstone to clean up. Noticing Luni¡¯s new dress has pockets, I offer her the soapstone to hold onto, since she has a really pretty new dress to keep clean. Luni says ¡°I¡¯ve got even better than pockets, secret pockets!¡± She takes the soapstone and shoves it into her wristband, which apparently has internal flaps that act like a pocket.


    ¡°Huh, fashionable, and functional, handy that. Cute too.¡± I comment on Luni¡¯s wrist pocket, which earns me a hip-check from Teuila. I chuckle and throw an arm over Te¡¯s shoulders as we walk along the riverside into the swamp proper. We once again scour for ¡®special clean mud¡¯ as Lil called it previously. I scoop and claim virtually a metric ton of claylike mud that I¡¯m hoping has enough lime content to work like mortar, or spackle, or whatever the stuff is that seals bricks together.


    Te takes the opportunity to swim upriver against the current, intentionally shoulder-bashing and tail-slamming rocks and boulders in her path, an excuse to get some training in I suppose. We continue onwards for hours, when my extra sensory perception, well, not that kind of ESP, the kind from my wraps, warns me of danger incoming. On the way inbound is a dart, well, three darts. The problem is, Lil and Luni are right in front of me, and if I dodge out of the way, they¡¯ll get hit. Sighing exasperatedly, I warn them of what¡¯s incoming in our shared mental link, while spinning to try to grab the darts out of the air. I manage to catch two darts with my hands, and slam my palms together around the third dart, stopping it right in front of my sternum. However, caught up with these three darts, I don¡¯t notice the other three until their trajectories have placed them too close to either dodge or catch, another dart for each of us.


    The best I can manage is flailing myself into harms way, taking all three darts across my right bicep. As I face south towards our attackers, my left arm points towards the river, and I try to make the tendrils splash to get Teuila¡¯s attention without alerting our adversaries that my Te is nearby. I don¡¯t feel any toxin entering my bloodstream, but I still feel sluggish. Checking my mind¡¯s eye, my energy and energy capacity hit zero somehow. My senses begins to distort and blur, while Lil bounces around frantically spitting gouts and plumes of flame. Our assailants haven¡¯t yet revealed themselves.


    As I drop to my knees, I sense more darts heading towards Lil. Lil thankfully is spry enough to blast the ones out of the air that came from the front, but, oh no, that sound. Luni dropped to her knees and then crumpled over, she must have been hit. The sound puts panic into Lil as they spin around to check on Luni, dropping their guard, ending with them taking half a dozen darts in the rear. Lil barely plops forward far enough to faceroll next to Luni as their energy bottoms out.


    Half a dozen creatures, about the size of the bully frog things, similarly scaly, encircle and approach us. Underneath their hoods are glowing eyes according to Lil¡¯s vision. Oddly enough, they just grab the various needles and darts that hit us, and begin to scamper, running away, leaving us to our fate. Suddenly it clicks, they just wanted to steal our energy.


    ¡°No, please no, you can¡¯t, that¡¯s mine, I¡¯ve been struggling so hard to get it back, you can¡¯t take it!¡± I manage to somehow yell, despite being nearly paralyzed. My left arm barely manages to lift slightly off the ground, and I try to focus on using the tendrils to grasp my way forward, towards the escaping creatures. Thinking numerically, each of those darts had to be able to steal about a hundred energy capacity, minimum, for the three that hit me, and five or six that hit Lil, to bottom us both out. If Te shows up, she can¡¯t afford to let a single one hit her. Lil is actually rolling slowly in my direction on their face, I remember them telling me that they could roll or slither without energy, though I¡¯m not sure they¡¯ll be anything more than a target if we manage to corner our assailants. If Lil can move without energy, why can¡¯t I? I try to focus on my breathing, trying to imagine how much energy I might have had on Day¡­ One¡­ Fart, bad timing. My mind spins out of control, I imagine these creatures have faces that open to indiscernible maws beneath their hoods, that the trees around me reach out for me as their trunks open up into jagged faces and try to shove me down their gullets, shredding my flesh on their jagged smiles on the way down. My breathing is halting, stuttered, staccato. I don¡¯t have vision and yet it feels like my senses narrow to a pinpoint tunnel, throwing off my balance. All that whilst my hearing is filled with that ever-present shrieking ringing noise that is so incredibly loud when I remember it and notice it.


    I feel a soft furred paw against my chest and another at my back. I¡¯m being shoved into a seated position, but I can¡¯t respond. I try to struggle with my tattoo tendrils for a moment to keep moving, but I hear Te whisper, ¡°Stay put, your stats pages all went to zero energy, I¡¯ll follow their footprints.¡± I worry that Te going off on her own means we might all end up like this, and my mind drifts to dark thoughts of losing everyone, the family not being able to find us as we slowly starve, unable to muster the energy to take care of ourselves. I¡¯m tempted to beg the system for energy debt to go along with Te, but I also want to show that I trust her, so I settle down, and just try to focus on what I can do while out of energy. I can sense Teuila scamper off, though she makes almost no noise, I do however feel her leave the thirty foot range of my wrap¡¯s danger senses. Sighing, I lay awake, mostly paralyzed, propped against a tree. My sweet warrior heading off to reclaim what was taken from us leaves me with little to do save think. Even my hearing left me in the last few moments, probably from exerting myself while at zero energy. I realize that I can¡¯t even reach out into Lil¡¯s senses anymore, apparently that took energy, so now I can¡¯t hear or see from either my own or Lil¡¯s perspective.


    Speaking of, Lil can move, and Lil has finally caught up, slithering into my range, and back out of it. I think they¡¯re torn on whether or not to leave Luni defenseless near the shore. Oh no, that thought hadn¡¯t even occurred to me, we¡¯re basically sitting ducks, or uh, frogs, or otters, or people, basically trapped, if something even more deadly should happen by. Maybe I should have told Te to try to drag us back to camp. I need to get to Lil and Luni, Luni should be able to move without energy, and so should I, since Lil can do it. I can¡¯t leave us in such danger. I stare at my still locked maximum energy capacity, now a couple hundred lower than the two thousand or so it was at previously, and I mentally shriek at it in rage. I imagine myself in my inventory, pounding on my stats panel in my mind¡¯s eye. I slam into everything related to mobility, stamina, energy, anything that might help this situation, but nothing seems to happen. There¡¯s a tiny cracking, crackling sound after a while of this though, and I panic momentarily, worried that I¡¯m hearing myself, Lil, or Luni derezzing, but it doesn¡¯t end with the loud shattering one would expect from a derezzing. My knuckles hurt though, but how?


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Feeling outward with my senses, at some point I had to have gotten to my knees and faced the tree, and I must have been bashing into it subconsciously this entire time. I throw another punch as a test, and sure enough, it hurts like heck. I have to be imagining things, right? I stand fully upright, and punch again, and again. I can¡¯t see through Lil¡¯s eyes, but as I walk towards where I last felt Lil¡¯s presence, they¡¯re slithering back and forth exceedingly slowly, as if pacing, trying to keep Luni and myself within range. I can¡¯t seem to talk, or hear anymore, I¡¯m in some kind of blind and deafened rage, doubly blind I guess. Leaning down I scoop up Lil who feels like they¡¯re reacting with shock, and like they¡¯re probably talking at me with concern. Every step I take, I feel a fire burning deep within exploding outward with force, burning away my muscles from the inside. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m in energy debt, but I don¡¯t care right now, I keep marching towards the river, where I remember Luni falling. As I arrive close enough to sense her through the wraps, I rush, or plod towards her, as quickly as I can. I can¡¯t honestly tell how quickly I¡¯m moving, everything is distorted and dizzying, relying on the movement of the external senses to judge everything. I pat my hood flap, trying to indicate for Lil to jump in, and they seem to comply.


    Leaning down, I pick up Luni in both arms. I expected it to be fairly difficult, as we all know I¡¯m fairly scrawny, my physical attributes, strength especially, aren¡¯t spectacular. Luni however fairly flies up into my arms. All I know is that I have to get Te and get out of here, whether or not we get our energy back, it¡¯s not safe. All I can think about is shouting ¡°We have to leave, right, now!¡± The fire exploding inside of me feels like it¡¯s trying to escape from my shoulderblades, like at any moment I¡¯ll grow a massive pair of fiery wings.


    I carefully set Luni¡¯s prone form over my right shoulder, she stirs only slightly, seemingly starting to be able to move regardless of lacking energy, but only just barely. I wish I could communicate with Lil and Luni. Being cut off from our shared mental bond is torture. I vent my frustration by using my tattoo tendrils to help yoink me from tree to tree heading westwards in the direction Te was tracking the creatures, stopping occasionally to loudly pound against a tree with my left fist.


    I¡¯m met with a surprise, as another dart enters my danger sense range, I let my tendrils slap it out of the air and rush the direction it came from. At the same time, the creatures seem to have returned, they¡¯re running from something, that¡¯s probably my Teuila, at least I hope so. I focus on making Luni and Lil as small of targets as possible, not daring to find out what happens if they¡¯re siphoned even further. My tendrils grip one of the creatures, strangely enough, the grip almost immediately disappears, as if my tendrils crushed it into derezzing in a single motion, or like the creature was able to become intangible reactively. I reach out again and again for these creatures wielding their little pipes that serve as blowguns, my tendrils seem to be either passing through them, or ripping them asunder. Several more bodies join the fray, which is surprising, because none of them seem to be Teuila. I grab the nearest thieving figure and this time the tendrils stay connected, for a moment at least, long enough to slam it into a nearby figure, both of which seem to disappear from my senses afterwards.


    All of a sudden I sense Teuila¡¯s presence, and she¡¯s waving frantically, as if to yell ¡°Go, go! Run!¡± Teuila is probably the bravest amongst us, and if she¡¯s ordering a retreat, I¡¯d better listen. She seems to be stooping to scoop things up in passing, which might be items dropped by the thieves, if we¡¯re lucky, they¡¯re the ones that contain our energy. Luni stirs, and like me, she seems to finally be able to move without energy, she slumps off of my shoulder onto her own feet, and begins slowly plodding into a jog. As light as she felt, it is certainly easier to move around now without her on my shoulder, especially since she¡¯s my size now, rather than Lil¡¯s size. With her boots, Luni¡¯s the tallest amongst us, well, other than Ag and Lao of course. Teuila runs past me, and seemingly slings an arm under Luni¡¯s shoulder to help speed her along, good.


    In this moment, I feel the swamp floor vibrate in a sickening serpentine pattern. There¡¯s an undulation of something massive slithering along the swamp, and I know why Teuila was running. I¡¯m not fast enough to outpace it, it¡¯s already upon me and the remaining thieves, but as the thieves die around me, disappearing from my danger sense, the serpent pauses. I¡¯m fairly certain it¡¯s trying to lock eyes with me, but tough luck you rotten jerk, I can¡¯t see anything. The serpent tests a single head lunging at me, but I won¡¯t react like I did last time. I wrap the incoming snout in tendrils and scream my heart out, pouring all of my fears and hate into just buying Teuila and Luni a few more moments. Suddenly I can hear again, and I can sense my inventory energy, everything save the couple hundred that was stolen is unlocked again.


    ¡°Lil, get Luni and get the hell out of here!¡± I scream, crying in fear as I pour my heart and energy into shifting Lil into Lilagnewt, creating the tether that links my energy to Lil to provide them a limitless source as long as I remain standing, at the same time I spin and launch Lil like a discus in the direction of Teuila. Just then, I¡¯m struck seven times in the back by snapping maws, well, seven times in the back of my left arm as my danger wraps directed my it to intercept the blows. My left arm swung rearward to bap each snout in the face with each bite, the fangs did rake along my arm repeatedly though. Through Lil¡¯s senses, I can tell the transformation was a success, as they¡¯re flying swiftly, low above the swamp floor, and about to swoop in to take Luni to the skies. Teuila lets out a whoop of pride, or gratitude, or awe, and immediately spins around back towards me.


    ¡°No Te, no please, go while you have time.¡± I whisper, muttering to myself, but she¡¯ll be back in the fray any second now. ¡°Lil, when you get far enough, I¡¯m going to drop the connection, I¡¯m sorry buddy, find a cubbyhole and hunker down.¡±


    Lil''s telepathic response is affirmative, and contains an underlying concern, ¡°You betcha Reggie, why weren¡¯t you talking til now?¡±


    Since our telepathy happens faster than conscious thought, in the moments between moments, I can afford to respond, ¡°Something was messed up when I hit zero energy, I couldn¡¯t hear or see our shared information or anything.¡±


    Lil''s reply is even further concerned yet, ¡°Oh that¡¯s awful. Reggie come on, get out of there pal? Please?¡±


    Lil''s beyond the range of our usual bond of telepathy, my tether being the only thing keeping us mentally linked, and the distance is beginning to strain even that mental connection as I respond, ¡°Sorry Lil, Te turned around, I have to get her out of here, she just joined the fight, I have to drop the connection, stay safe, I love you.¡±


    I turn to Te as she¡¯s arriving, as I do small somersaults and cartwheels between serpent snaps. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be here Te, I love you, I was trying to buy you time.¡±


    Te shouts excitedly, ¡°Reggie, you¡¯re as powerful as I¡¯ve ever seen you, I think you can do this, I think we can do this!¡±


    ¡°Te, no, this is still nothing. My danger wraps tell me things about creatures that I hit, I punched it in the snout, I found out what some of its numbers mean, it has a threshold of one thousand. Do you know what a threshold is? I can¡¯t even harm it with a strike that¡¯s numerically worth less than a thousand, well, damage I guess.¡± I can tell Teuila¡¯s expression droops, a mixture of realization, terror, and defeat.


    As I gulp to keep sadness back from reaching my voice, I¡¯m momentarily distracted by trying to convince Teuila to leave. I try to leap out of the way of an incoming serpent bite, but the serpent wised up to my moves and spun its heads sideways so that I basically leapt against the roof of its mouth. ¡°Te, Te run, go, run, GO! I¡¯m finished, I love you, please, go!¡± I struggle against the serpent¡¯s jaws, but one of its fangs has run through my entire left ankle. Even if I could break free of its maw, I¡¯d still be stuck on its tooth. Even if I could get out of here now, I¡¯d be in no condition to run away. ¡°I hope this helps you, I love you, here¡¯s everything I have left.¡±


    I dump most of my inventory out, which confuses the serpent momentarily, buying Te a few precious seconds, and the rest of my energy I pour into Teuila, hoping to maybe offer her a temporary evolution. I feel a connection form, similar to when I help Lil evolve into their Agnewt form, but the strain is a bit different, we don¡¯t share quite the same wavelengths, instead I get feedback from Teuila. I feel her fears and dreams, her hopes for what awakening her powers could mean. She really isn¡¯t as confident as she pretends.


    Teuila is screaming inside, railing against losing me right now. Her form elongates somewhat, becoming even more humanoid, a spear forms in her hands, armor adorns her shoulders, knees, and chest. A shield materializes as a buckler on her left arm, a winged bow materializes between wings of a cloak of massive feathers that materialize on her back, a helmet adorns her face, also winged, her greaves are similarly winged. I don¡¯t know the color scheme since I can¡¯t see, but I¡¯m sensing a theme here. She seems like some kind of armored angel, or Valkyrie maybe.


    Teuila screams while crying as she begins leaping so far into the air that she passes out of my sensory range, and seemingly out of earshot. I guess that means she¡¯s safe, she jumped so hard she virtually flew away. I guess I¡¯d better focus on surviving for as many seconds as it might take for her to get away so the connection isn¡¯t severed while she¡¯s in the air. I begin hammering at the inside of the serpent¡¯s mouth, using tendrils to try to pry its jaw upwards, holding it from closing down. I start grabbing random odds and ends that I dropped out of my inventory and jamming it into this beast¡¯s throat, honestly this is probably the best location to fight it from, only having to deal with the one head I¡¯m inside of, rather than all eight. Wait, what¡¯s that sound?

 Chapter 22: The Valkyrie Cometh

    An incredibly loud battlecry roars out against the night whose quiet had only been broken by the thrashing of the serpent prior to now, ¡°AAAaaahhhh!¡± Teuila enters my sensory range at what has to be twice terminal velocity, as if she somehow doubled her own gravity, or engaged a jet thruster aimed downward. Her boots are braced against the head of her spear, aiming downward, the serpent foolishly looks towards the sound, and Teuila shifts just enough to split the skull of this particular head of Octorochi all the way down the neck to the base where it connects with the main body. I topple free, bewildered.


    ¡°What in the heavens?¡± I claim the equipment I¡¯d spilled out, and manage to claim some pieces of Octorochi as well, and I accidentally claim Te¡¯s spear where it¡¯s stuck deep in the earth at the base of the serpent. ¡°Te, Te please be okay? Are you okay? Te!? Te answer me!¡± Octorochi is thrashing against something, and I hear the clang of fang on metal repeatedly. Extending my senses I can feel a smirk play across Teuila¡¯s face. She¡¯s, well, enjoying this? Teuila draws a sword from its sheath at her hip, which she uses to parry bite after bite.


    ¡°Time to go honey.¡± Te shouts back towards me. At this point I wonder if I should just let her finish off Octorochi, but then I realize that her leaping attack took up most of our combined energy. Teuila barrels into me, leaping horizontally at incredible speeds, the wind is knocked out of me as she virtually flies through the swamp, hundreds of feet per stride. Since I¡¯m exceedingly disoriented, I feel completely useless, until I sense where Luni and Lil are hunkered down.


    ¡°There, take us there, grab some mud, quick!¡± Teuila obliges, heading towards the direction my finger vaguely points in. ¡°I¡¯m dropping the tether, I¡¯m almost out of energy but I need to erect a barricade.¡±


    ¡°You might need these Reggie, I gave Luni hers and Lil¡¯s already.¡± Teuila hands me several small darts that just feel heavy in a non gravity way, in a metaphysical way. I can tell these contain my maximum energy. As we land, I¡¯m about to drop the connection, but before I do, Te places a gloved hand on my face, she whispers something and kisses me. I blink a few times, as my vision appears fuzzier, less dark splotches on darker splotches, and more details than earlier in the day. As I drop the tether, I can sense Teuila slowly shrinking back to her usual form.


    Lil is up and about, moving around, Lil and Luni are basically comforting one another and seeming to be just fine. ¡°Lil, can you fire some clay for us still?¡± I try to request Lil¡¯s help quietly.


    Lil answers quickly, quietly yet excitedly, ¡°You betcha buddy, I was so worried about you! We¡¯ve got no roots down here to worry about burning, so we can fire the whole hole!¡±


    ¡°Perfect. Here¡¯s the clay type mud I¡¯ve gathered. Te''s grabbing another armful, that should be enough for a wall to hide us while we take a short rest.¡± Lil and I work on firing some bricks and platters and carefully shaping the walls of a little dugout, when Teuila returns, we make sure we have a sturdy wall surrounding the cap on the dugout with her extra armload of clay. We¡¯re all full of anxious, nervous energy, jittery, shaking, yet somehow, it almost feels like the best I¡¯ve ever felt.


    ¡°We¡¯re alive, we¡¯re all alive, we did it. If we weren¡¯t surprised and attacked by those jerks, I think we could easily get the family to a safe spot away from Octorochi if it starts chasing us. You guys, you guys, you should have seen Teuila, she took an entire head out in a single attack, the head that I was stuck inside!¡± I nervously ramble, trying to play off just how terrified I had been, how certain I was that once again I was likely to die for just the possibility to maybe let my chosen family have a chance to live. Te presses a paw against my chest, and leans in to kiss my cheek. She shushes me with her other paw, then puts it to her own lips, whispering a shush sound. I nod nervously, trying to calm my breathing, to quiet down.


    I spread my arms out and pull everyone in close for a tight hug, the air is pretty thin in our dugout, because we¡¯ve only got very small airholes poked through the mud, but the nervous excitement, and the cuddlesome love that we all share right now is palpable. I whisper ¡°Te was like some sort of ultra fast shadow, if we could get Teuila and Lil both evolved, foes wouldn¡¯t stand a chance.¡±


    Luni sassily replies: ¡°I think one or the other is probably enough, you just played it safe and didn¡¯t want to risk any of us.¡± Hm, a sassy shadow of a chance, somehow these words near each other cause my brain that momentary BSOD flicker. I do smile though at her assertion, of course I didn¡¯t want to risk any of them, even though it¡¯s not necessarily my decision.


    I stare into Te¡¯s eyes for minutes, possibly an hour or more while resting, and I realize I¡¯m staring into Te¡¯s eyes. I can see her beautiful emerald eyes. I can see Teuila. Wait. What?


    I exclaim, ¡°I can see you!¡± Everyone plops a paw, hand, or tail over my mouth as I loudly exclaim having my sight back. Teuila smiles at me, she winks and puts one finger to her silky-furred lips. I get a quizzical expression on my face. Did Teuila have something to do with this? Wait, my inventory, wait what? G¨¢e Buidhe. Teuila¡¯s spear is still in my inventory. But Teuila is herself, her ottery naked self. ¡°Te, Te I still have your spear!¡± I excitedly hoarse-whisper.


    ¡°You what!?¡± She quietly exclaims back, her eyes wide. She playfully thrusts her hands forward doing the gimme gimme motion. I make sure we¡¯ve got enough space in the dugout safely to summon it, and carefully place it in Teuila¡¯s hands. ¡°Hm, put this back in your inventory, if it cuts one of us, it¡¯s really going to hurt, and it won¡¯t heal up.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll what?!¡±


    ¡°This thing has some kind of magic that stops healing, though I guess you could carve the wound out with a different weapon and then heal back the bigger wound.¡± I nervously follow Teuila¡¯s orders and shunt the thing back into my inventory. How does forced evolution create spontaneous items? How does it create magical equipment? How did that equipment stay? I would hazard a guess it had something to do with me claiming it to my inventory, and it remaining there when Teuila de-transformed. Speaking of equipment, Luni is still wearing her dress, headband, wristband, and her harp is slung around her shoulders, I haven¡¯t heard her try to play it yet. But point is, Luni evolved into clothing and equipment as well.


    If I help Teuila re-evolve, will another spear appear? If so, could I ask her to drop it again, and claim that one as well? What if I asked her to doff her armor? We could all be armored up with actual metal equipment. Equipped with equipment, which, well, sounded really effective when she was defending against the serpent. Te¡¯s armor must have also been extremely light for her to be as mobile as she was, leaping hundreds, maybe thousands of feet into the air.


    I quietly ask, ¡°Do you guys mind if I experiment with some evolution stuff before we head back to camp? We¡¯ve still got a few hours before everyone else gets up.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s on your mind buddy?¡± Lil chimes in with a query.


    ¡°What scheme are you concocting in that precious noggin¡¯ of yours?¡± Teuila noogies me lightly. Her knuckles actually hurt worse than the hole in my ankle, which is beginning to mend slightly. Actually, all of my flesh hurts a bit worse than the hole in my ankle, like all of me is slightly on fire, exceedingly tender, hypersensitive to tactile activity.


    My answer is a bit long-winded, ¡°So, when I helped Teuila evolve, it takes some of my energy, but she had like, magical equipment just show up as part of the evolution. Her spear was stuck in the ground when I was reclaiming stuff as we were about to run away from the serpent, so I accidentally claimed it, but it stayed when she returned to this stage of evolution. If you¡¯re willing Te, if I evolve you again, and you have a second copy of your spear, we could duplicate it, and duplicate your armor as well, for those of us that it might fit anyway.¡±


    ¡°You really think it works that way?¡± Te queries.


    I return with a question of my own, ¡°Has anyone else ever been able to evolve and drop back down a stage of evolution?¡±


    ¡°Not that I know of. Also, I didn¡¯t evolve like Agwai or Laomati, I evolved into some sort of winged warrior, I could soar like I¡¯ve always dreamed.¡± Lil and Luni oo and ah at Te¡¯s description of her evolved form. It really was magnificent as far as I could sense with the danger wraps, though that was mostly like a ranged tactile sense, some sort of silent sonar. I¡¯m also sort of curious what it looked like visually.


    ¡°Speaking of evolving, why didn¡¯t you just teleport onto my back, or into Te¡¯s arm¡¯s buddy? Like that one time?¡± Lil asks, curiously.


    ¡°I uh, well, I didn¡¯t think of it. I don¡¯t really know how I did it the first time, and when you were flying away to get Luni, I wouldn¡¯t have wanted to weigh you down and slow you down, and my connection to Teuila is different somehow when I helped her evolve. So uh, yeah.¡± I mildly curse myself for not thinking of that possibility, and giving into panic when I was in Octorochi¡¯s mouth, when I probably could have just phased out or teleported out or something, to one of my friends who was evolved at the time. Well, maybe, depending on how the ability actually works.


    ¡°We¡¯ll definitely need to experiment with that later, at some point, but for now, um, I think we should experiment with the evolving equipment. Yeah?¡± I raise my eyebrow, basically asking if everyone is ready, which receives a series of nods from everyone. I try touching Te¡¯s shoulder whilst pouring my energy into forming a bond with her, hoping maybe a physical connection will make it easier. Sadly, nothing appears to happen with the same amount of energy poured into a tether, I frown and scrutinize our stats. I think a temporary forced evolution has always taken a total of five hundred fifty energy between the two parties, Te has far less energy than Lil, but after claiming the darts to my inventory, I¡¯m back up to over two thousand energy capacity. I could easily offer her the five hundred fifty just by myself, but for some reason, out of combat, that doesn¡¯t seem to be enough. Or maybe it requires more energy since we now have to replicate a new spear, or something.


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    Curious, I try pouring in double the required energy, and I feel Teuila growing slightly in front of me. I see her form glow brightly like a backlit silhouette. As her form gains more human attributes, clothing and armor materializes on it. Her body appears to be that of an extremely sporty, fit, slightly androgynous young woman, an almost entirely human, woman. The clothing is incredibly silky, smooth white fabrics that look like body stockings or bandages or wraps, depending where on her body it materializes. The armor is silver, with gold as the main accent, with white and blue highlights. What I thought was a bow on her back is actually a small metallic bird that seems inactive. Her spear materializes in her right hand, whilst her buckler appears on her left forearm, several belts appear with sheathes, or a quiver strewn about her hips.


    ¡°Te, would you mind divesting? Or uh, unequipping everything, for me to claim it, before we run out of energy?¡± I ask, but Te was a step ahead of me, understanding the plan before she evolved, she knew she¡¯d be dropping everything, so she disrobes everything rather quickly. I blush at her nearly human features, but she just raises an eyebrow at my reaction. I distract myself by claiming all of the equipment and clothing, and severing the connection. Te¡¯s form glows and shrinks back to her usual otter self, and all of the equipment, including an inactive metal bird, and her clothing remains in my inventory.


    ¡°How are you feeling Te? Would you be up for doing that again a couple more times? I know that sometimes, the forced evolution could maybe take a lot out of someone.¡± Te tussles my hair as I ask this, and she just gives me a thumbs up. I¡¯m concerned that she isn¡¯t saying anything, but all I need is a few minutes to regenerate my energy. Not only that, but my energy capacity is growing again for the first time in what must be a month or more, since I was locked at such a low capacity when recovering, and had been unconscious for so long. I repeat the process several more times, until we have eight spears, and seven sets of equipment, after which point, Te falls silently into my arms, and I begin panicking.


    Gulping, I ask with fear, ¡°Te, Te are you okay? Te come on, be okay!¡±


    ¡°¡®M¡¯jus¡¯tired, dingus, gonna sleep now.¡± comes a very quiet, mumbly reply from Teuila. I hope she¡¯s just taking a normal short nap, and isn¡¯t going to be unconscious for days like the first time Lil went into energy debt from transforming.


    ¡°She¡¯ll be fine, she was using your energy Reggie. I think it¡¯ll probably be okay, but we don¡¯t know anything about this evolution stuff, there could be long term consequences none of us know.¡± Lil explains, making a fairly logical point.


    Whew, but Lil''s right, I acquiesce, ¡°Oh crap, you¡¯re right, I didn¡¯t even think about that. Alright, no more, until we learn more.¡±


    ¡°So what are you going to do with all that armor and all those weapons and clothes?¡± Lil prods.


    I take a moment to figure out how to phrase my plan, ¡°Well, as gorgeous as Luni looks in her dress, I was thinking she could wear some armor over or under it, for protection, and obviously Te herself. It¡¯s also probably way, way, way more effective at protection than my leaf leather. Luni¡¯s dress looks pretty poofy and like there¡¯s lots of space under it, Luni do you want to try putting on the tights and armor under your dress?¡±


    ¡°Sure thing, I was afraid you were going to ask me to cover it up.¡± Luni strips as I produce a full set of equipment for her, I was slightly incorrect about the poofiness of her dress, Luni is actually relatively curvy now, erm, exceedingly curvy, hourglass-like even. Wow. I rattle my head to stop ogling Luni. The dress is still poofier than her form, but there¡¯s not as much space as I thought, as her body fairly fills out the dress, in that hourglass shape. When she¡¯s getting reclothed, Luni opts for her own leather boots, instead of the metal-ribbon wing boots, but the interesting thing about, wait, what?


    Okay, firstly, the interesting thing about the armor, it seems like it perfectly fits Luni, even though it came from a version of Teuila who was much taller, and proportionately larger, it even fits underneath her adorable poofy dress. But I just noticed Luni pick up the helmet, boots, and several of the weapons, and I don¡¯t see them anywhere. A small panel on the bottom of her harp opened, a bag attached to the inside of the harp unfolded, and I think she somehow shoved the excess equipment in there.


    ¡°Luni, did, did you somehow get inventory magic?¡± I check her stats panel, and her inventory capacity still says negative one. She shrugs and shakes her head.


    ¡°Nope, just a neat magic bag inside my instrument thingy.¡± She rolls the bag back up, it seems completely empty, and she latches the bottom of the harp back, locking it inside. I stand up so I can sit down extra hard, just to demonstrate how floored I am that Luni¡¯s evolution included magical equipment, and that I¡¯m only just now learning about it. Luni and Lil laugh since they knew my intent before I did it, but Teuila just mumbles something like five more minutes.


    I¡¯m trying to process that anyone I know or meet probably came from an egg, was likely spherical at some stage of evolution, and could possibly evolve in a way that ends up with them equipped with magical equipment. If I hadn¡¯t met Lil, I¡¯d be concerned that everyone keeps evolving til they reach a state that is completely human, based on the Shellcracker¡¯s morphology, as if there were some kind of cosmic joke about humans being the pinnacle of evolution. They absolutely aren¡¯t, by the way. Laomati and Agwai are still definitely visibly otters, though they stand tall, bipedal, and have facial characteristics that are human-like, not to mention webbed, pawed, hands. Iakopo and Taito were also in that stage as well, and seemed to have been considered elders, so I don¡¯t think there was any chance that Lao and Ag are in danger of a further evolution turning them into humans.


    Is morphology the word I meant there? I think it is. Regardless, the revelations keep coming, leading me on an incredible journey. Not that it would be necessarily bad if my friends and family became humans, but I honestly think it would be a downgrade for most of them, well, all of them. People, well, human people, are squishy, feeble little things, if we¡¯re still assuming I¡¯m a human, then, me: case in point. I think that¡¯s how you say that.


    I blow a sigh through puffed cheeks, exhaling as I ask in a mutter, ¡°I think we can gather some more clay and still get back to camp before the others wake up, at least if one of us carries Te. Lil, are you up for being evolved again, just trying to keep the energy expenditure low til we get back?¡±


    ¡°What, you want me to be her personal carrier, like some sort of mount? I¡¯m a draagon, not a horse. Hehe, just kidding, sure I¡¯ll do it.¡± I got nervous for a second as Lil seemed indignant, before I realized Lil was stringing me along for a joke. I fashion a little harness out of vines and leaf cushions, sort of like a saddle, which makes me feel guilty as I help Lil transform, then strap it to Lil¡¯s back, then strap Teuila to the saddle. Teuila has stopped her sleep muttering, but I¡¯m not sure if that means she¡¯s getting better rest, or worse.


    I work on claiming any of the fired clay and mortar-like mud, and several gallons of murky swampwater as we leave the dugout, trying to mentally prepare myself to throw up a massive wall in case Octorochi arrives suddenly. Thankfully, as we head back to the river, we can easily hop over to the other side by waiting for Lil to fly back and forth, and there¡¯s a fairly sizable deposit of clay on the way back towards camp on the east side of the river. If I¡¯m careful, I feel like I could maintain Lil¡¯s transformation, as long as they aren¡¯t breathing fire, probably indefinitely, if I rest for about half the time. How crazy would that be, to be able to head back to the rest of the family, and be all like ¡°Hey fam, remember how Lil¡¯s always talking about being a dragon? Guess what, they grew up big and strong.¡± Or something. My comedic delivery needs work, even in my own head. For now though, since we¡¯re basically back to camp, I ask Lil to fly us each across to the west bank once more, and then we¡¯ll just let the transformation drop, and I¡¯ll carry Teuila the rest of the way.


    As I begin to sever the link, causing Teuila to slide off Lil¡¯s back as they de-transform, I hear Teuila mutter ¡°Awe, poo, I was having fun riding Lil around in the air.¡±


    I fight back a smile as I ask, ¡°Te, just how long have you been awake?¡±


    ¡°Ah, well, maybe since you put me on Lil¡¯s back?¡± Teuila''s answer has me cracking up.


    ¡°This entire time! You bum!¡± Lil cries out indignantly, though they¡¯re half laughing as they say it. Teuila rubs the back of her head with a big mischievous open-mouthed grin on her face.


    Te responds jubilantly, ¡°What can I say? I couldn¡¯t pass up the chance to fly.¡±


    Lil grumbles an agreement, ¡°Grr. Well, okay, yeah, flying¡¯s pretty cool. You got me there.¡±


    ¡°See, I knew there was a reason I loved all of my little dorks so much.¡± Teuila starts to noogy Lil. Lil is trying to respond with indignant grunts but keeps laughing, then Teuila realizes what she said, so she pauses, blushing. This confirms my suspicions that Te really has a hard time expressing her feelings with words because it embarrasses her for some reason. Specifically she has a hard time with words that contain meanings for strong emotions. I wonder if there¡¯s a story behind why, or if it¡¯s part of her personality as a general thing. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a flaw or anything, per se, I just sort of wish I could help her out.


    Trying to distract Te from her embarrassment, I bring up the equipment. ¡°Te, ah, so, did you want to try any of the equipment? It seemed to fit Luni even though she¡¯s shaped a bit differently than you were. She¡¯s got a bit more shortness, and some round poofiness, and um, curviness, and stuff.¡±


    ¡°And look, it even fits under my dress!¡± Luni lifts her skirt up, pulling her dress up over her head, revealing a fully clothed, armored torso, her legs still covered by essentially some sort of bodystocking as well. The armor somehow even looks slightly curvier on her than I remember it. As I pull an extra set of equipment out of my inventory, sure enough, her armor is shaped more for her body than the copy I set out for Teuila.


    Teuila begins to inspect the gear, rather, um, judiciously I guess is the word I¡¯m trying to think of. She slides on the padded clothing that¡¯s meant for someone a fair bit taller, and sure enough, it seems to fit perfectly. Teuila pulls on the armor, and likewise, it seems to form a comfortable fit for her current body. When forced to choose between her guppy-leather wing cloak, and her feather-winged cloak from her evolved form.


    Te twirls, continuing to wear the cloak I made for her, swishing it through the air. ¡°I¡¯ll keep this one, you can store the other one away, for now, also, no weapons until we march. Or armor either, I¡¯m not going to sleep in this stuff. Though I think I¡¯ll try sleeping in the clothes, they feel really really comfy. Feel!¡± As she divests herself of the armor, Teuila grabs my hand, and yoinks me to her, placing it on the various padded portions of her bodysuit-looking clothes. They¡¯re silky smooth, cushioned, but resistant, it feels like they probably offer a fair deal of protection all on their own. Probably in part so that the armor doesn¡¯t smash into the person wearing it when they take a heavy hit.


    Luni also disrobes, storing all of her armor and clothing in her harp pouch. It¡¯s kind of funny seeing Teuila in clothes now, but Luni, well, naked I guess, other than fur. We head to the cuddle pile afterwards. I¡¯m a bit worried about the hole in my ankle, so I decide to clothe myself in one of the white padded outfits as well.

 Chapter 23: Homeward Bound

    The rest of the family is sleeping quietly, we somehow still have an hour or so before dawn, so we all agree to at least nap, to recover from any stress from the adventure we had over the course of the night, also hoping to delay leaving a little bit longer in the hopes that the serpent finds somewhere else in the swamp to be.


    As everyone begins to drift off to sleep for a nap before our journey, I feel like I¡¯ve barely fallen asleep when I see Mataalii standing over me, nudging me and flicking his head towards the river. I oblige, groggy as I am in my half-sleeping state, and I carefully un-entwine myself from Teuila, Luni, and Lil. As we approach the river, Mata crosses their limbs, and looks crossly at me.


    Mat growls, ¡°It¡¯s your fault.¡±


    I blink, stupefied, ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m sorry?¡±


    Through gritted teeth, Mat interrupts before I can process, ¡°You should be. You saved the rest of us, so I¡¯m grateful, but you¡¯re not forgiven, you¡¯ll never be forgiven.¡±


    I rattle my head, starting to finally awaken, sadness tearing at my heart, ¡°Wait, wait, do you blame me for the tidal wave?¡±


    Mat confirms my fear, ¡°Maybe the wave, maybe being home when it hit, maybe not acting faster to save all of us, maybe all of that. Point is, Teuila sees something in you, and I don¡¯t. I can¡¯t forgive you, and if you let her, Luni, or the twins come to harm, I will find some way to end you, exile you, something.¡±


    I bite back tears and hysterics as I virtually shout, ¡°Mataalii, I, I¡¯m sorry, I never wanted any of you to be hurt, much less die!¡±


    ¡°Quiet!¡± Mata hoarse whispers. I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯re telling me to shut up, or to keep my voice down.


    My eyes feel puffy and sore, not ready to produce tears after recovering from blindness as I try to continue, more quietly, ¡°Mataalii, I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t know how to¡­¡±


    ¡°Ag was right, you¡¯ve all these vaunted magics as Agwai puts it, yet you¡¯re a danger to yourself and others.¡± Mata interrupts me.


    I''m starting to get pissed that he''s being so confrontational, ¡°Now hold on, I¡¯ve existed for a grand total of a few months, I barely know anything about myself and my powers, let alone this world.¡±


    ¡°Liar!¡± Mat''s call-out of my claim is a hissed shout that makes no sense whatsoever. The whole family knows I spawned alone, met Lil a few weeks later, camped at our pond for several weeks, journeyed for several weeks, then I met the family. It''s pure insanity to call me out on this.


    ¡°What? I¡¯m not lying, I¡¯ll give you access to my memory notes.¡± I flick through some menus internally, in my mind¡¯s eye, to make sure Mataalii has access to my memories, and I gesture at them to take a look. Mata seems to be spaced out for a moment, hopefully reading.


    Mat growls, ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡±


    I can''t believe his disbelief as I respond, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t lie to any of you, I don¡¯t know how or why I am the way I am.¡±


    Mat tries to strike a different blow, ¡°You are a child, a child with a weapon that is far too powerful for you. You should give it to someone wiser, more mature.¡±


    Despite there being no such thing as children on our world, despite everyone spawning with a head full of encyclopedic knowledge, and assortments of skills, I partially agree with Mat on this one. I ask, ¡°Is that even a thing I can do? Who should I give it to, you?¡±


    ¡°Unlikely I suppose, and no.¡± Mata sighs and smacks a nearby tree. I feel like there¡¯s subconscious anger at me that¡¯s not going to go away, and maybe Mata now feels guilty for it, now that they¡¯ve seen things from my perspective. ¡°Remove my access to your memories, I can¡¯t stomach this nonsense.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I, sure, I¡¯m sorry.¡± I stammer and try to comply as quickly as possible. It seems far more difficult to remove access than to grant it, but eventually I¡¯m successful. ¡°Um¡­ where do you and I stand? I mean, uh, I don¡¯t want you to hate me, but I don¡¯t want to get in your way or tell you how to feel, or, or well, anything. Mataalii¡­¡±


    Mata sighs ¡°Just Mata, or just Ali, it¡¯s exasperating waiting for you to try to pronounce my name. We¡¯re family, family doesn¡¯t have to like one another, but I don¡¯t hate you. My threat still stands, but I don¡¯t hate you. I just want my family to be safe again, to chase each other across the waves and sands. To play beneath the sun and beneath the sea.¡±


    There is no sun, but I don''t want to be pedantic with Mat right now. It''s weird that we have the concept of a sun without ever having seen one. Weirder still that there isn''t one. It''s also weird that Mat has a concept of pronunciation, since our speech is all in weird semi-auditory text. Still, I agree, ¡°I want that too Mata, I want that too.¡± Mata¡¯s expression still seems cross with me, and I can see him sigh with frustration as he pounds the tree again. If only I could somehow show Mataalii how much I care for all of them.


    ¡°You retired late, if you¡¯re to protect anyone, you had best get some rest. Don¡¯t fail me. Don¡¯t fail us.¡± Mata¡¯s final words to me before he heads off strike like daggers, he doesn¡¯t return to the cuddle pile, I¡¯m not sure where he¡¯s heading at the moment.


    I probably shouldn¡¯t tell Mata we just fought and ran away from the serpent again, and struck it a massive blow. Knowing my luck, when next the serpent strikes, its head will somehow have regrown, and I¡¯d look like a liar. I do actually have one of its severed heads in my inventory though, thanks to Teuila''s rescue. Oddly, despite her having split it down the center of the skull, instead of a bisected cranium, I have an intact, severed head. We didn''t chop it off, she split it from skull down its long neck to the base of its multi-necked body. I guess finishing off part of a creature, in whatever way, can possibly allow such a part to be considered by loot if someone snags it before it derezzes.


    I return to the warmth and tenderness of those I love the most, but have trouble resuming my nap. Who wouldn¡¯t? I was basically accused of murdering the family of the people I love the most, in a roundabout way, then threatened to be cast away from them. As if I didn¡¯t already harbor the fear that I was responsible somehow. Oh, I guess Mata knows I worried about that, if he was skimming my memories about the subject. If I could give Agwai or Laomati my space inventory magic, would they wield it better? Could they protect the family better than I could?


    I just want them to be safe and happy, and maybe emotionally fulfilled. I drift back to sleep thinking of my family finding their ways to happier days. Lil being a dragon that watches over us all, soaring high in the air, Luni composing music and telling stories through song, Teuila becoming a winged warrior who can leap down from atop Lil to strike down nearly any foe, Laomati giving everyone the best hugs and guiding us to be our best selves and be our best to each other, Agwai finding a passion and pursuing it. Not knowing anything about Mata or the Mana twins, my thoughts only see them growing into their own personalities, beyond identifying with youth, hopefully content in whatever they pursue.


    When I do awaken, I¡¯m not certain where my dreams took me, though it must have been a short journey, as I was asleep for so little time before being roused as everyone comes to their senses on what¡¯s likely to be a very somber morning. Or maybe solemn is the right word? Or perhaps just serious? Ugh, why do I have such vocabulary but barely recall its uses? It reminds me how I, in some ways, feel young. But in other ways, I feel weary, old, like I''ve had lifetimes of experiences, filled with plenty of turmoil and strife. I have no such memories, yet I do have memories that are insistent on the way the world should work, though they''re entirely incorrect. I occasionally recall a planet full of humans called Earth, though sometimes even that escapes my memory. It''s terribly hard to parse this brain of mine.


    Ag and Lao are up, and to my surprise, they¡¯ve fashioned some sort of kelp backpacks or something, basically packs made of seaweed, that they¡¯re packing away the fish and frog meals into. I go to assist, motioning that I can just pull them into my inventory when Ag stops me, holding up an arm as Lao speaks. ¡°Please child, let us shoulder our own burdens.¡± Laomati requests, in that motherly soothing yet authoritative tone of hers.


    Naught to do but let them, I suppose, I mean, I suppose if I did actually die holding back the serpent, it would suck if they had no food, and no one to show them where to go to get to the pond, though it¡¯s basically straight up the river to the north. Oh actually, I was asleep a lot riding the river, there could be offshoots that I don¡¯t know about, but my gut tells me that just going straight upstream will take us home. It¡¯s kind of weird to say it like that, right? It¡¯s not really a home, not for any of us. I spent time there, alone, and with Lil, but I didn¡¯t even bother making shelter until Lil showed up, then it was just some leaves tied against a tree. I distracted myself from a dark line of thought, didn¡¯t I? Oh well, that works I suppose.


    Mata and the Mana twins are puzzling over Luni¡¯s new appearance, even moreso as she gets up and gets dressed, fully decked out in padding, then armor, and then puts her adorable dress on atop all of that, their jaws drop to the floor as Luni demonstrates her bag¡¯s magical nature to hold more on the inside. She twirls and chats with them excitedly, I think she¡¯s pretty happy with it, I¡¯m glad of that. I don¡¯t often get to see what she¡¯s like by herself, she really is beautiful in her own right, in personality, with all that charm and exuberance, as well as, well, I¡¯ve already put my foot in my mouth about her adorableness or gorgeousness, no need to rehash that. Mata apparently notices me staring, and then sends a dark look my way, which hurts to my very core, but I understand his feelings.


    Lil and Te are sleeping in, which worries me, but they¡¯re snuggled up extra tightly, they deserve the rest, and they look adorably peaceful like this. I guess I could talk to Lao alone about what happened last night. ¡°Um, Lao, could I talk to you a second over there?¡± I ask hesitantly. Ag and Lao exchange a glance, but she nods, and we walk a little ways out of earshot of the others.


    I begin, ¡°So, Lil, Teuila, Luni and I went to gather some supplies for the journey before we bedded down for the night.¡±


    Lao nods, interrupting, ¡°I could tell you hadn¡¯t arrived til quite late.¡±


    Blushing, chagrined, I continue, ¡°Erm, well, yes, the thing is, we got the supplies, but were attacked by these thieves, no no, not like that, we still have the supplies, we got attacked by things that stole our energy with some kind of darts, it left us helpless. It¡¯s okay, there¡¯s more.¡± I try to reassure Lao as I speak and her face expresses deeper concern at every turn in the tale.


    ¡°We got our energy back, Teuila was in the river so they didn¡¯t know she was with us, she was able to track them down, but when she did, and remember, we¡¯re all here, back and safe. Anyway, when she did, the serpent showed up.¡± Lao¡¯s startled expression is almost aghast in horror, but she composes herself, waiting patiently, knowing there must be more to the tale.


    I try to finish the night''s tale quickly, in a single breath to avoid any interruptions, or to cause Lao any more concern than she needs, ¡°Right, so, anyway, I um, I went even more blind than I was, and deaf, and, well, I was in a panic, and a rage, and something snapped, or broke, or unbroke, and I got my energy back that had been locked away. If it hadn¡¯t been locked away, things might have turned out differently, since the thieves stole all of my energy, and I needed my energy for, well, evolving Lil to get Lil and Luni out of there. Yeah, Lil can turn into a dragon, well a little one, pretty much any time now that I¡¯ve got my energy back. Teuila was helping Luni get away, but Lil flew Luni out, and Teuila ran back to help me. I didn¡¯t want her to, I promise I was just trying to buy time for them to all get away, but when she came back, I got distracted, and got eaten by the snake, sort of, I ended up in its mouth, with one of its fangs through my leg. To try to get Teuila away, and keep it distracted, I dropped the evolution link with Lil, and tried to send the same thing to Teuila.¡±


    Lao manages to interrupt as I''m losing wind, ¡°You can turn our little Teuila into a dragon?¡±


    I try not to laugh as I gasp for breath to continue, ¡°What? Oh no, no, um, like a temporary forced evolution, she turned into an angelic winged warrior, she seemed to leap away in frustration, but really that was just her method of attack, she soared up into the sky, and came down so hard she split an entire head of the serpent down to its base, the one I was in.¡±


    Lao raises an eyebrow to beyond incredulous levels as she responds, ¡°That seems implausible, yet here you are, and I sense no deception in you my child.¡±


    I try to finally get around to my point in telling this tale, ¡°Well um, the thing is, I found out a weird thing happens if I claim items that, well, you see how Luni has new clothing, and she evolved? That clothing and harp was part of her evolution. When Teuila evolved, there were magical armors and weapons, and the weird thing is, they resize to whomever was using them. Since I can claim things to my inventory, and for some reason they sort of become mine, they don¡¯t disappear. I mean, you see Teuila isn¡¯t evolved right now and Lil isn¡¯t a bigger dragon form right now, the thing I can do for them is temporary. But every time I do it, Teuila¡¯s equipment comes back.¡±


    ¡°You created spares.¡± Lao surmises before I can finish.


    ¡°I created spares.¡± I begin pulling out copies of the equipment, though I leave all copies of Gae Buidhe in my inventory for now, I don¡¯t want anyone accidentally hurting themselves on it, and having to lose a hand to save a finger, or something weird.


    ¡°And you say this somehow fits?¡± Lao pokes at the equipment that¡¯s entirely neither her size nor shape.


    I nod confirmation, ¡°Yes, I, um, I think maybe the family would be safer, if they¡¯d be willing, the ones that can anyway, would be willing to wear as much of it as they¡¯re comfortable with? It was able to withstand blows from the serpent.¡±


    Lao taps her chin, gazing between me and the pile of equipment, ¡°That is quite the feat, if I¡¯m understanding correctly the magnitude of the beast.¡±


    I nod emphatically about Octorochi''s size, ¡°It really is enormous, I fit into just one of its mouths completely. The padding seems to absorb a lot of impact, or um, blunt or bludgeoning resistance I guess is the right stat, the armor adds more to that, and a lot against slashing and such things. I obviously didn¡¯t create the spares or test that all out in the heat of battle, Teuila got me out of its mouth when she split its skull, and we escaped to rendezvous with Lil and Luni, to a dugout that we sealed off.¡±


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Lao puzzles aloud, ¡°A dugout? This is what you and Lil spoke of yesterday, a way to keep us safe on the journey, when we rest?¡±


    I try not to come off as patronizing, since I know we all have encyclopedic knowledge, ¡°Yeah, scooping out some earth, muck, mud, what have you, either by hand, or with inventory magic, and then having Lil literally fire it to harden it, to keep it safe and dry, and then us baking a hard cover, then coating that cover with swamp muck to disguise it. Not only that, but we gathered enough mud material, and clay material, to maybe be able to put up a temporary shelter if the serpent, or multiple things attack us. I figure we¡¯ll pick up more as we progress northward.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d chide you for journeying alone at night, yet you didn¡¯t, our three strongest were with you.¡± I¡¯m a bit confused by the count, does Lao mean Luni is one of the three strongest here, or is she counting me as with myself?


    Blushing, I still want to apologize, ¡°Um, right, I¡¯m sorry I put them in danger, I¡¯d hoped our luck would hold, and we wouldn¡¯t run into that thing, so we could be better prepared in case we DO run into it on our march.¡±


    ¡°Your heart and mind were in the right place child, luck it seems was not on your side in that regard, but perhaps in others.¡± I¡¯d swear there¡¯s a twinkle in her eye as she speaks.


    I rub the back of my skull with one hand while blushing with an closed-jawed open-lipped grin, ¡°I do feel more confident than ever that we can get the whole family past the swamp safely, which makes me feel like it¡¯s definitely the right move.¡±


    ¡°Your tale doesn¡¯t spark additional confidence in me, but mine was already high in you to begin with, the Shellcrackers will journey North, and come what may, that is the path in our lives that we must walk.¡± Lao seems to be subtly praising me, while also remaining somber about the realities of the dangers we face. She continues, ¡°I¡¯d always thought it unnecessary, Teuila¡¯s dream of becoming a warrior, a protector for us, the most adversity we¡¯d face is a rare shortage in food for a brief time, or the occasional flighted creature who would come to steal our food, we could either leave it be or scare it off with stones and shells. Yet now, I¡¯m glad for it.¡±


    ¡°Me too, oh, speaking of flighted creatures. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen any birds, or, gosh, I haven¡¯t seen many creatures at all, mostly plants, the fish and frogs that basically spawn out of nowhere, there aren¡¯t even insects to deal with. What¡¯s up with the ecosystem? Normally I¡¯d say it couldn¡¯t possibly be sustainable, but there¡¯s like, no decay, no rot, barely any hint of passing of time, it¡¯s not like plants need pollination. I don¡¯t understand our world, not based on my memories anyway.¡± I get around to rambling about my curiosities.


    ¡°I¡¯m having trouble following, the others have mentioned this, you spawned with incorrect knowledge and memories, yes? Perhaps it be best you leave such thoughts for idle time when we¡¯re safer, you can sate your curiosities when we¡¯ve landed at your home, perhaps the Shellcracker pond it may come to be known as. One can only hope. Maybe such is your calling, to answer the mysteries of your memories, some long time hence.¡± Lao basically skirts answering, but I suppose that¡¯s only fair. She probably doesn¡¯t have answers to; ¡®why isn¡¯t science like my head says it should be?¡¯ Ya know?


    Lao motions back towards the rest, and it seems everyone has awoken and gotten ready, though Te seems to be tapping her foot impatiently. Seeing her brings a smile to my face. Oh! ¡°Oh Lao! I can see! My sight returned after the fight, I forgot to mention that!¡±


    ¡°Hm, that however does spark improved confidence. Your eyes do look different, I hadn¡¯t thought to mention it, I didn¡¯t want to raise your hopes falsely or prematurely.¡± Her gaze is filled with warm concern, but subtle pride. ¡°We should begin our journey, it is many days travel according to your own word.¡±


    ¡°True, true, yes, I¡¯m excited to bring you all to Shellcracker Pond, I¡¯d be happy to have it named that. I can¡¯t wait to start building things for my family, our family.¡± I chatter excitedly as Lao beams a warm smile to me, it seems even her spirits are higher than they¡¯d been, since she was so long in mourning. We proceed back towards the others, and Te is doing her gimme gimme motion.


    Oh right, I have her gear. ¡°Oh, oh, um, anyone who¡¯s willing, would you maybe like to try on some armor? It seems to magically fit, it even changes shape some, hm, I hadn¡¯t thought to try it on Lil.¡± I set down all six spare sets of equipment that I had brought out to show Lao, once again leaving the spears in my inventory, those things terrify me. In a world where I¡¯m used to constant bumps bruises and cuts just miraculously healing overnight, a cut that never heals, I just, I don¡¯t even want to imagine it.


    Mata walks near and begins inspecting the equipment, he plainly makes an obvious observation, ¡°There¡¯s not enough for all of us, nine of us, seven sets counting the one on Luni, or is this one of those self-sacrifice things to try to win our favor? Or maybe you think you¡¯re too good to need armor?¡± His observation devolves into a jibe, I think.


    ¡°Hm? No, oh, no, um, I just, the way we got them, I couldn¡¯t keep doing it at the time, because I didn¡¯t know if there were risks involved, and I wasn¡¯t sure Lil or the twins could wear them, or if everyone would even want to.¡± I try to answer as coolly and calmly as possible. Mata doesn¡¯t seem to be being hateful, just, just um, slightly mean I guess? Mostly just observant, and poignant, that is, he does have a point.


    Mat scoffs, ¡°You¡¯re right that, I¡¯ve no interest in wearing metal, I¡¯ll be swimming the whole way, we all should.¡±


    ¡°Swimming upriver, for days on end? Can you do that? I can barely swim downriver, heh.¡± I try to chuckle to emphasize the joking nature of my statement, to maybe show that I look up to Mata for such strength, but it comes out as a weakly nervous single breath.


    Teuila comes to my rescue, ¡°Oh? Didn¡¯t know you¡¯ve been training day and night too in the river, thought I was the only one. It¡¯s a rough workout, not as bad as an undertow, mind, but hours at a time is a massive strain, let¡¯s just compare numbers, yeah?¡± Mata scoffs and stalks off. ¡°Didn¡¯t think so Ali. Besides, they¡¯re light as a feather.¡± Teuila scoops up a set of identical clothing and armor, and ends up in them in the blink of an eye. I wonder if it¡¯s part of the form-fitting magic that causes them to slip on easily. Teuila takes two sets and asks ¡°Do you think they might shape to the twins somehow?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s worth a shot, right? Better safe than sorry.¡± I answer, and with that, Te calls the Mana twins to the side, and tries to help them into the padded body stocking type clothes and armor. It sort of works, kind of, kind of not really. Basically the clothing wraps them up like a mummy, and only the helmet resizes, which makes sense, they kind of look like little heads with tiny-paws, and tails. Luni isn¡¯t wearing her helmet, so there might be enough equipment to go around, more or less. Out of the seven full sets, only two were used, three helmets though, that leaves five sets, and four helmets. Let¡¯s see, Mana and Mana in helmets, seven left, Mata says no, six left, Teuila and Luni accounted for, four left. Me, Lil, Ag, and Lao, huh, I guess there is enough, even for Mataali, if one of the four or five of us is willing to not wear a helmet. That can¡¯t be right. Nine of us, seven sets, two helmets for the twins, but one less helmet for Luni, so basically six full sets and one helmetless set left over for seven of us. Oh, yeah, I guess things did work out. Two of the rest of us would have to go without helmets, and there would be a spare set, if Lil wants to wear a helmet.


    I bring two sets to Lao and Ag, who seemed to be discussing the armor as I was handing it out. Ag looks, hm, incredulous maybe? It¡¯s so weird seeing things with my own eyes again, and not looking through Lil¡¯s vision, though I guess I could still do that too. I kind of shrug as if to say ¡°I have no idea if this is going to work¡± without actually saying it, but sure enough, shortly after accepting the equipment, the two of them are outfitted, though they both turn down the weapons and sheathes from the belts.


    ¡°So um, we basically just have to head upriver, nonstop until pretty much the end, it sort of ends up in the fire biome, but the waterfall just before that is just a little ways past the offshoot where our pond is. I don¡¯t remember how many days the journey was, we won¡¯t run out of supplies, but the biggest thing I worry about is that serpent, first it was on the east side of the river, atop the cliffs in the swamp, now it¡¯s way down here on the west side of the river, way, way way too close for my comfort. Or there could be multiple serpents, either way is bad.¡± I check around to be certain the others have gotten themselves as equipped as they¡¯re interested in being


    As close as I can figure it, if the river averaged five to ten miles per hour, and I was in the drink for ten to fifteen hours a day, we were covering anywhere from fifty to a hundred fifty miles in a day. I think those are accurate¡¯ish. If we can trudge through the swamp about two miles an hour, ugh, it¡¯s tough going in the swamp, and we march for sixteen hours a day, we can make it thirty two miles northwards daily.


    How many days were we snoozing drifting downriver on the raft? I can¡¯t even remember. Was it just two? Five? Two weeks? That gets us to the cliff, then we need to safely find a way up. Well I suppose we can topple a tree and use it like a ramp. I¡¯d prefer to save that as a last resort. What is it with me and not wanting to hurt trees? Err, anyway, time scale. If it was about a week of drifting, it will take about three weeks to get back there on foot going upriver, well, going north alongside the river.


    Ow, oh right, my ankle, I should probably take a look at that. Shifting what clothes I can, I free my ankle to look at it, and it is a tad grotesque. The flesh is growing back inside the wound, now there¡¯s no longer a path through my ankle, but being able to see some muscle as it knits back together is weird, and gross. Also there¡¯s a lot of black veininess, I¡¯m unsure if it¡¯s mud, or some kind of necrotizing toxin. Regardless, I don¡¯t feel up to trying to draw it out of my own veins at the moment, instead I have a better idea.


    ¡°Lu, Te, Lil, can one of you bring me the soapstone please?¡± I call out to my closest friends, unsure if one of them might have it at the moment from wanting to freshen up for the trek. I know Luni was carrying it in her hidden pocket in her wristband recently though. Sure enough, Luni arrives, and takes it out. She looks me over and furrows her brow, with a look that contains a bit of seriousness and mayhaps upsettedness that I haven¡¯t ever seen play across her face before. Well, okay, I¡¯ve never seen this face of hers before getting my sight back, and I haven¡¯t even seen her ottery spherical face in however long it was since the Night of High Water.


    I¡¯m getting distracted, I think Luni is chastising me across our mental wavelength and out loud.


    Lu responds, ¡°Yes, I am, you should have had this cleaned out before we even got back to camp, what were you thinking?¡±


    Blushing, I apologize, ¡°Sorry, I was just, well, distracted, we got out alive, which, well, I was excited about that, and then there was the equipment, then getting back home safely was still a bit nerve wracking, I didn¡¯t have time to think about me.¡±


    ¡°Ugh, stop doing that, sometimes, you have to think about you. No one else can necessarily do that, we¡¯re not mind readers you know. Wait, scratch that, okay, some of us are sort of mind readers with you, but that¡¯s no excuse. We can¡¯t know what you don¡¯t know about you.¡± Luni pushes her hand into my face and smooshes my nose and cheek. ¡°Start taking better care of yourself, okay?¡± She applies the soapstone to my ankle, and instantly it both feels massively better, and stings like heck.


    I gulp as I mutter, ¡°Ow, ow, ow, okay, I¡¯ll try, wow that stings!¡±


    ¡°Give me some cloth or leaf or something from your inventory to wrap around this.¡± Luni demands, I guess she inherited some of Lao¡¯s authoritativeness. It¡¯s almost cute in a way, err, oh yeah, right, she knows what I¡¯m thinking, and I don¡¯t think that shade of red is embarrassment, I think she¡¯s annoyed, right, right, fabric. I produce what I think might suit what she¡¯s asking for as quickly as I can. Luni takes it, inspects it closely, rubs the soapstone on it, then flicks her harp once, and hums at it until she matches the key of the harpstring, then binds my ankle gently. ¡°There, much better. Wouldn¡¯t you say?¡±


    ¡°I, um, wow, yeah. What was the humming about?¡± I sort of stammer, having another new appreciation for her.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about in the slightest, hmph.¡± She harumphs, turns around, and walks away. I guess she¡¯s still annoyed at me for not taking care of myself. I¡¯ll have to do better. It does not feel good having her upset at me. Even Lil feels a little off across the shared wavelength, likely annoyed. I¡¯m sorry, both of you, I will try to do better. I can¡¯t even get their attention to thank Luni. Not being able to thank her, well, that stings worse than the soapstone.


    I guess it¡¯s kind of sinking in to all of us that I¡¯m a bit of a lucky idiot. Getting out of the fight alive was dangerous enough, they thought they might lose me, then this wound would have had some sort of toxin or poison in it that might have been killing me, and I didn¡¯t take care of it until now. Yeah, I kind of get why they¡¯re upset. Dang, I could have really let them down there, and they wouldn¡¯t have known how or why until it was too late. That¡¯s going to be hard to make it up to them. Ugh, I feel awful.


    I rub some wetness from my eyes, realizing the mistake I made in hiding the hole in my ankle without attending to it. What a mistake to make, never hide a bite, ever! Zombies taught us that. I think. Zombies? Are zombies real? Could Octorochi have made me into some kind of snake zombie? I promise I¡¯ll never make that mistake again. My brain is having more random BSOD flickers as it skirts this topic, and a pressure grows near my right temple, and right occipital lobe. Why do I know what an occipital lobe is? Regardless, thinking right now hurts, so I¡¯ll have to drop these trains of thought.


    Oh, hey, Teuila¡¯s walking this way. ¡°Hi Te, oof!¡± She socked me in the face so suddenly she bowled me over! ¡°Te, what? Ow!¡±


    ¡°You have a magical soapstone, you can literally clean any wound instantly, and you put it off until now? You, you, you big freaking dingus! You¡¯re important to us! How hard are we going to have to pound that into your thick skull til you realize you need to do your best to stick around!¡± She grabs my shoulders and looks like she¡¯s about to headbutt me, before I see her gritting her teeth and trying to hold back a sob and tears. She buries her snout in my clavicle.


    I gulp back my own sob as I apologize, ¡°Te, Te I¡¯m sorry, it didn¡¯t even occur to me that it could be dangerous, I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m so stupid, I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    Teuila mutters, ¡°You¡¯re not stupid, stupid.¡±


    I snirk, fighting back a smile as I respond, ¡°Te, heh, Te that doesn¡¯t make any sense.¡±


    ¡°Sh¡¯up.¡± She socks me in the gut, but thanks to the padding I barely feel anything.


    I try to apologize again, ¡°I love you all so much, I love you Teuila, I¡¯m sorry. Please forgive me? I¡¯ll try to be better, I¡¯ll try to do better.¡±


    ¡°And no more ¡®go, save yourself!¡¯ yeah?¡± She mimics me in a derisive tone.


    ¡°I uh, can¡¯t promise it won¡¯t come to mind, but I¡¯ll try not to act that way.¡± I reply as honestly as I can. Trying to predict future actions of myself at the present isn¡¯t something I feel capable of at the moment. At least, not a future me that¡¯s trying to adhere to promises. Without them, I could guess that I¡¯d probably try the same thing over and over.


    Teuila makes a face like I¡¯d just offered her a cantaloupe when she asked for sweet rolls or frogs or something. ¡°Fiiiiine, I gueessss. At least you¡¯re here with us. Don¡¯t ever leave, except, right now, okay? ¡®Cause we¡¯re leaving, now.¡±


    I chuckle while I agree, ¡°Heh, alright. Let¡¯s get this show on the road. I feel like an entire chapter of my life has passed since I intended us to start heading North. Wait, do you capitalize North? Or only when you¡¯re talking about The North?¡±


    ¡°I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about goofball.¡± Her reply seems, what¡¯s the word, sardonic? Like sarcastic, but more hidden annoyance, but there¡¯s still that endearment under the surface that warms my heart. I feel slightly better than I did a few moments ago.


    I call out to the family, an odd feat with textual speech, ¡°So, um, hey everyone, there¡¯s probably two ways to keep safest as we head upriver. We could try being as quiet and stealthy as possible, though slipups and smaller aggressors might call unwanted attention to us, or, well, we could, um, sing and be loud, alerting things around that we¡¯re a pretty big party, so maybe we shouldn¡¯t be messed with. I think us being loud would probably scare off anyone and anything other than the serpent, because anything smaller that might have attacked us will probably assume we¡¯ll get the serpent¡¯s attention eventually, and won¡¯t want to risk dealing with that. What way do you all prefer?¡±


    ¡°A silent march seems dolorous at such a time in our lives.¡± States Lao, I guess she could use some reprieve from her grieving, a reminder that she still has these remnants of her family.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind learning a song or two.¡± Comes an unexpected reply from Agwai.


    ¡°I think we should all shut up and be quiet.¡± Mata¡¯s reply however, is quite expected, after he turned down the armor.


    ¡°I¡¯m a draagon, can¡¯t keep me quiet for long!¡± Lil¡¯s chipper, boisterous, upbeat, prideful, almost silly response is pretty much par for the course for Lil.


    The twins don¡¯t reply, and Teuila is oddly silent, facing away from everyone. I wonder if she¡¯s hiding recent tears? Luni however replies, ¡°I think playing my instrument could actually make our trip faster, like magic.¡±


    ¡°Wait what?¡± Every last one of us asks as we turn towards Luni. Luni who is now brightly blushing with the embarrassment of an entire family¡¯s worth of attention on her.


    ¡°Well, um, it has a magic pocket, and a magic bag, and it¡¯s, um, well, magic.¡± Luni¡¯s reply seems uncertain, yet confident, as if she doesn¡¯t know the certain truth, but she knows what she believes. The question on my mind is, is the harp magical, or is it Luni, or both? Maybe on evolving, she earned a level in bard or something? Wait, what is that, a videogame reference? No, another kind of game, well, both.


    Regardless, it sounds like our course of action is set, and we¡¯re finally headed back home. A dangerous journey awaits us, but we¡¯ll meet it with song and cheer. I¡¯m so happy to be alive.

 Chapter 24: Heading Swampward

    <h2>Chapter 24: Heading Swampward</h2>


    I notice Mataalii frowning and looking at everyone wearing equipment, getting ready to boisterously sing while we journey, and I can''t help but feel bad for making him feel like an outsider in his own family. His choices are his own to make, but what if he regrets them and is too proud to ask? I suppose it¡¯s okay if he thinks I¡¯m an idiot for offering again, so I don¡¯t really lose anything, and it could help Mata save face if I offer again.


    ¡°Mata, are you sure you don¡¯t want any of the equipment? The clothes don¡¯t seem to feel bad on fur from what the others are saying. You don¡¯t have to of course, but I just figured I¡¯d offer the last set, rather than have it sit around in my inventory.¡±


    ¡°Hmf, I suppose if it¡¯s the last set, and it¡¯s going to waste, I may as well put it on. No sense being wasteful.¡± As I expected, Mata responds somewhat pridefully, barely begrudgingly accepting the gear. I really do hope we can come to terms some day, but at least I¡¯m not driving a wedge between him and the rest of the family right now.


    I gaze wistfully back at the haphazardly constructed open-faced cube of a log-raft that I made for the family as a last resort to break the limit I was trapped in on the night of high water. Everyone seems to be meandering for the moment. I take a little while to catch on and realize they¡¯re waiting on me. Embarassedly I scratch the back of my head and avoid eye contact for a bit as I start heading northward with the others. Even though we agreed to sing, there¡¯s an awkward silence in the air.


    We haven¡¯t done anything remotely like this as a family yet since I became a part of it. Now I realize how much of an outsider I really am. Lil seems more naturally calm and in-tune enough with Lu, such that that they don¡¯t notice any awkwardness about being around everyone.


    As I try to think of some way to break the ice, without simultaneously making myself even more different and outsider, I¡¯m saved by Luni, who begins playing her harp for the first time in earnest. It¡¯s a beautiful sound, but I swear it seems like there¡¯s more than one instrument playing when she strums, not a full orchestra perhaps, but like she has command over the sounds of several different types of instruments just by plucking its strings.


    Her meter and cadence are a bit awkward as she announces, ¡°So, I¡¯m still working on it, but this one¡¯s a little piece to say hello to our trip through the swamp.¡±


    ¡°Oh the path goes ever on and on,


    We travel hither thither and yon,


    When the brightest lights will fill the skies,


    Then our home we will have realized,


    We journey past e¡¯en the great beyond,


    Hoping years ¡®fore our last breath is drawn,¡±


    The beat and the rhythm of her harp changes,


    ¡°Fleeing the serpent,


    Is so important,


    Rules that can be bent,


    Are tools, savior sent,


    Without which we fools,


    Would all lose our cools,


    We can orient,


    On the story-vent,


    Ourselves we will re-invent,


    Sea otters no longer,


    We will grow stronger,


    Our bonds become bonder,


    Of each other we¡¯re fonder,


    As we travel o¡¯er yonder,


    Without home that is promised,


    Forever we¡¯d wander,


    Sea that will be missed,


    Our feelings we¡¯ll ponder,


    Til in our midst


    We finally find a new hooooome.¡±


    The meter was a bit weird in a few places, I think that¡¯s the term, where like the syllabic timing is supposed to match from place to place in a written or lyrical work, but she¡¯s doing this all in her head, by hand, with no training, no teaching, no one to guide her. Luni is pretty remarkable, I definitely understand how Lil can spend hours in their shared thinkspace, which is like days in real time, and never tire of her. Not that I¡¯d tire of anyone of our family either, being as lonely a world as ours is.


    Caught up in thought, I don¡¯t realize we¡¯ve already marched so far that looking back, I can¡¯t even see the raft, nor did I notice that Te had grabbed one of my arms and is leaning her head on my shoulder as we travel. I sigh contentedly as I gaze around at those I love.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Luni scratches her head perplexedly, I think she¡¯s trying to think of something she can sing repeatedly without tiring, because as she guessed, we somehow covered a lot of ground while she was singing, I don¡¯t know how, since I was lost in thought, analyzing her song for some reason.


    ¡°Zero, One, Two, Three, Four!


    Get up and out the door!


    Zero, One, Two, Three, Four!


    March til our legs are sore!


    Zero, One, Two, Three, Four!


    Keep on then march some more!


    Zero, One, Two, Three, Four!


    Forget not, days of yore!


    Zero, One, Two, Three, Four!


    Show us what, legs are for!¡±


    Huh, does that last one count? It¡¯s a homophone. I swear there¡¯s a drum beat coming from her harp. Hm, listening closely, yes, somehow it¡¯s like she has, I don¡¯t know, pre-recorded samples of other instruments, that she¡¯s able to loop, live, in real time, just using her harp. Live looping, why does that term sound familiar?


    While we march, I find myself leaning ever so slightly to scoop mud once in a while, I barely notice I¡¯m doing it, as I siphon it directly into my inventory. With hours of hearing ¡°Zero, one, two, three, four!¡± accompanied by different rhymes, I sort of zone out, letting Luni¡¯s words drone out and pass right through me. I can tell some of the others have joined in, at least on the zero, one, two, three, four, bits, since they can¡¯t be sure what her next rhyme will be. I¡¯m surprised none of us are tripping on, uh, cypress roots, or mangrove roots, whatever they are, like not even my clumsy self. The slight standing water of the swamp barely even seems to splash with our footsteps. I never really noticed that the ground of the swamp has a kind of very thin moss, like some sort of astro turf. Whatever that is.


    While trying to be more observant, I catch myself staring at either Luni or Teuila, just smiling like a fool. Lil spends time bounding between my hood, and Luni¡¯s head, and I also smile foolishly at that. I can¡¯t imagine life without them. Or rather, I don¡¯t want to. We¡¯re so different, all of us, but, somehow we communicate virtually the same way, and we all share the trauma of this world, but more than that, somehow, we¡¯re just really there for each other, none of us even has to ask. They¡¯re all so precious to me, I only wish we hadn¡¯t lost any of them, the night of high water. I¡¯d have loved to get to know Oli more, or Penina. Even that strikes me at how different they all are, even in their various stages of evolution, Oli was like an actual childish animal, chewing on everything curiously and playfully. Penina was a demure young lady, bashful and distant. Teuila was an adventuresome soul who saw a new adventuring companion and seized them, well, me. Not just their personalities, but physically, even though some look slightly more like otters in my memories, or more like spheres, or more like humans, they¡¯re all at various obvious stages of metamorphosis or uh, morphology, or evolution.


    The interesting thing is, despite our various size differences, different gaits, strides, and whatnot, we¡¯re all keeping up easily with one another at this advanced travel speed, thanks to Luni¡¯s magic I suppose. Or maybe it¡¯s psychosomatic, the faster ones are pacing themselves to let us slower ones keep up subconsciously. Eh, I¡¯ll just assume it¡¯s Luni¡¯s magic, it makes the world a little brighter to think magic is the reason behind certain things. I¡¯m not sure why that is, but ever since Lil told me it exists in no plainer words than that, well, ever since then, I¡¯ve felt better about the world we¡¯re in. As a baseline I mean, I¡¯ve still had confusion and ups and downs about my place in our world, but the minimum feeling still has this hint of a sense of wonderment. Trees that rarely seem to shed anything, creatures that spawn that seem almost solely to exist for harvesting, as they respawn shortly after, actual magical music, celestial lighting that doesn¡¯t pay attention to any laws I can recall, magical equipment that enhances or changes shape to fit its wearer. I almost think I¡¯d be disheartened to learn of some kind of science behind it all.


    I feel like my head hurts for some reason, and as I go to rub the spot, I catch Te¡¯s knuckles lightly rapping my skull, apparently she¡¯s been trying to get my attention for some time now. I really, really do get lost in thought, don¡¯t I? I definitely need to keep better spatial awareness, or keep my perception at least somewhat tied to reality. Ow, oh right, Te wants my attention.


    ¡°Ow, heh, hey Te, what¡¯s up?¡±


    ¡°Does anything feel or sound weird to you?¡± She asks suspiciously.


    I jokingly surmise, ¡°Well, the lump on my head feels pretty weird, and the fact that a harp can create the sound of a drum and flute is pretty weird.¡±


    ¡°Not that, you booger, I mean, look around at how fast we¡¯re going. Don¡¯t you have a kind of danger sense or something?¡± Her endearing meanness shows up in her mild derision, but Teuila is right.


    ¡°Hm, now that you mention it, my senses feel the land around us passing by way quicker than I can march, probably even a bit faster than I can run. We¡¯re making incredible time. I think we¡¯re going maybe triple what I expected us to be able to travel at, maybe more.¡±


    ¡°And that doesn¡¯t seem odd to you? Don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m grateful for Lu to get magic all of a sudden, but doesn¡¯t it seem too good, too powerful to be true?¡±


    ¡°Teuila, what are you saying, are you jealous that Luni got magic from evolving?¡±


    ¡°No! Well, okay yes sure, a little bit of that, but that¡¯s not why I¡¯m perplexed. It¡¯s unprecedented. First you, you wielded magics like we¡¯ve never seen, insanely powerful, now one of us, the first one to evolve since we met you, has incredibly powerful magic. And when you helped me evolve temporarily, I was everything I¡¯ve ever wanted to be. That¡¯s too good to be true, right?¡±


    ¡°Well, what if just, um, I guess I can¡¯t deny it¡¯s remarkable. I know that my, well, I guess spawning maybe, if I spawned back then, was a bit glitchy. Are you hinting that you think I glitched your family, our family, somehow?¡± I start to sweat nervously and my heart rate races at the prospect of my own existence somehow endangering or dooming or changing the destiny of this family I¡¯ve come to love, my eyes wet with tears and my vision narrows as my breath sticks in my throat.


    ¡°What? No, no, and even if it was connected to that, it¡¯s not your fault, shh, it¡¯s not your fault, it¡¯s okay.¡± I realize Te can probably feel my pulse as my heart races, and seeing the tears in my eyes she strokes my face, and coos calmingly in my ear, holding me tightly. Even if we don¡¯t have the same mental wavelength communication that Lil, Luni, and I share, Teuila can read everything about me like a book. Well, she can also literally do that if she wants to check my memory log, but she doesn¡¯t seem to need to. I gulp back a sobbing breath I¡¯d accidentally held, then suck down a ragged breath for a second.


    ¡°Sorry, I just, for a second I thought you maybe meant that I did something to you, to all of you, to us.¡±


    ¡°No, no no, shh, it¡¯s alright, that¡¯s not what I meant, I only meant, ugh, I don¡¯t even know what I meant, I was just hoping you might know some magic that could tell us if this was really happening, if Luni really suddenly became so powerful. It feels like a dream that my little Lu could wield so much magic that she might not need my protection.¡± Teuila almost looks dejected, or forlorn at the prospect of Luni not needing her. I think that¡¯s what it was really about, about possibly losing Lu if Lu didn¡¯t need her. I pinch Teuila¡¯s cheek somewhat playfully hard in response.


    ¡°Ow, what the heck?¡±


    ¡°Did that feel like it really happened?¡±


    ¡°Yes you big jerk. Jeeze, I said magic, not a pinch in the face. Heh, what a couple of dorks we are. Right?¡± Teuila rubs her cheek a bit before grabbing my arm again and snuggling my shoulder as we march. Somehow magically in rhythm.


    ¡°Yeah, a couple of big dorks, and I wouldn¡¯t have it any other way.¡±

 Chapter 25: A Dugout Day

    <h2>Chapter 25: A Dugout Day</h2>


    Lu seems a bit out of breath, after providing us with rhythm to move to, literally, for hours on end, so Teuila and I quicken our pace to catch up with her and get her to rest. She actually looks a bit sickly, maybe Teuila was right, some things are too good to be true. If this is hurting Luni, I don¡¯t want us to be taking advantage of her.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, really, stop fussing, a short break would be nice though.¡± Lu tries to shoo Te and me away, but she does break her song, and its magic. She definitely needs more than a short break though, we¡¯re all done for the day by the looks of it.


    Everyone else in the family lets out a relieved sigh at that, I guess we were all starting to either get; a bit flagged, or, worried about Luni. Teuila still fusses over Luni for a bit, like the overprotective big sister that she is, in a way. Actually I guess biologically they aren¡¯t really sisters, I wonder if the twins came from one egg or two. Lu playfully shoos Teuila away finally, and most of the family break apart to either sit near, swim in, or drink from the river. Teuila takes me to the side though.


    ¡°Hey, buttsnack, I uh, I have something to admit to you.¡± Did she just call my butt a snack? Again, weirdly endearing, but weirder than usual. ¡°I was kind of, well, stringing you along, when you asked about parents, and being born.¡± My heart nearly shattered mid sentence, my Teuila is of course a complex individual, and well, not mine in any possessive sense, but the thought of having somehow been treated to a complex trick, a trick that required saving my life, or at least nursing me to health over weeks or months, I can¡¯t bare to imagine it. It actually makes me wonder what we are to each other, we¡¯re close, but I don¡¯t even know if we age in this world, will I one day suddenly morph into a more adult humanoid body? Are we actually young, or does youth even exist here? I do have these almost impish features, I kind of look like an interpretation of Peter Pan. Wait, why do I know that story? A forever child, one that spends an eternity in a mystical land. That uh, that¡¯s a worrisome thing to remember all of a sudden, because of all the things that happen to Pan. But moreso, I look like Tink and Pan, well, I look like the result if they had a kid. Oh right, right, Teuila just brought up parents, I should pay attention.


    ¡°You, you what now? What? How do you mean?¡± I¡¯m having trouble wrapping my head around Teuila¡¯s admission, both what she could have been doing, why she did it, or why she¡¯s admitting it now.


    ¡°I knew the words, somehow. It¡¯s not like I don¡¯t have the same vocabulary as you, or relatively the same after all. At least, I think we probably do. We¡¯re all spawned, or, born as you put it, with pretty much a grasp of language that¡¯s more or less equal, minus some fun cases.¡±


    ¡°Like Oli?¡±


    ¡°Like Oli.¡± She nods, and turns to hide her face while she probably wipes a quick tear. ¡°Right, yes, um, so I knew the words, but I didn¡¯t quite know why I knew them, or how they could have applied. I mean, why do I know something like that? Birth? It doesn¡¯t exist, why do I know the term? Why do I know the meaning of an imaginary thing. A lot of the things you¡¯ve mentioned, we all knew about, but we never thought to think about those words until you brought them up. Lao thought it would be best if we tried to, well maybe Ag thought it would be best, but Lao told me to, well, if you asked about certain things, to kind of play dumb, but I can¡¯t, I don¡¯t like to lie to you. I hate it, I hate it.¡± She seems to be rubbing her eyes still while she faces away.


    ¡°Teuila, I, well, I don¡¯t know what to say. Thank you, for um, sharing your feelings, and confessing. It¡¯s really brave, you¡¯re always really brave. I don¡¯t think anything could make me stop loving you, loving being your, whatever I am to you. Well, anything short of, like, some specific magic that makes people stop loving, or controls their minds, good gravy I hope nothing like that exists.¡± I shudder at the idea of something being able to overwrite my emotions, or free will.


    ¡°But you don¡¯t get it, that first night, sometimes you¡¯d say some things, and each of us would remember a word or meaning, like you, it doesn¡¯t make sense for us to know them. Sure, part of that is the way the world works, we¡¯re born with knowledge, it doesn¡¯t have to come from anywhere, we know that, but why we would also know words about fake things, things we¡¯d never thought about til you mentioned them, I guess we were all too confused to ask you or confront you that first night. Then¡­ then it happened. The wave.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been, uh, well, I¡¯ve been calling it the Night of High Water in my head. The wave sounds like a dance move.¡± Teuila chuckles and lightly punches me in response.


    ¡°I¡¯m being serious you dork!¡± She socks me several times in the shoulder lightly.


    ¡°And I¡¯m serious that it sounds like a dance move! Heh, hey stop hitting me, please, go on?¡±


    ¡°Right, so um, obviously we didn¡¯t have any time to process it, or think about it that night, but then you were, you were, you were, almost, you were almost gone, for weeks.¡± Teuila chokes back sobs, and my heart wrenches, imagining how I would have felt if she were on death¡¯s door, unresponsive for weeks, in a world where recovery should happen over night. My eyes well with tears and I wrap my arms around her, turning her to face me. She buries her face in my clavicle, and I hear a weird sound. Did she just? Yeah, Teuila just blew her nose on me. That¡¯s so gross but I can¡¯t help but laugh.


    ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± She manages to ask between sob-wracked breaths.


    ¡°Just having the one dearest to me be so comfortable with me that she uses me as a snot rag, and doesn¡¯t worry what I¡¯ll think about it.¡±


    ¡°Oh come off it dork, you have a magic cleaning stone.¡±


    ¡°Correction, Lu has the magic cleaning stone.¡± I tease Teuila, one of the few times I tease her back.


    ¡°Oh, right, oops.¡± Then we both burst into a small fit of laughter, holding each other.


    ¡°So then, sometime during those weeks, you all talked, I mean, I knew you didn¡¯t just put your lives on hold while I was out cold, but even Lil was in on it?¡±


    ¡°Lil was so confused at the decision, and angry at first, I was terrified they were going to actually kill someone. They admitted it was the same for them when first talking to you, that you used words, and somehow they knew the definitions immediately, as if they¡¯d always known them, but were confused on their meaning, and by the time you explained, they didn¡¯t need to ask any more. Lil is so protective of you, they didn¡¯t even realize they were already doing what was suggested.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just kind of shocked that both Lil and Lu could keep it hidden from me across the shared wavelength. Lil and I have had some discussions long ago, where they didn¡¯t know what words meant, or at least weren¡¯t sure how I was using them. I guess I hadn¡¯t thought to ask into our bond all that much about their knowledge of words¡¯ meanings. I do remember Lao sort of deftly changing the subject away when I got on a tangent one time. Do you think she doesn¡¯t want me to understand these memories? Are they painful for you?¡±


    ¡°No, just a bit confusing. We¡¯ve never had to worry about such things before, we led a pretty simple life, now all of a sudden, we have to contemplate what parts of our existence means, and on top of that, we have, well, we had, the Night of High Water to deal with, and everything since.¡± She actually air quotesed around Night of High Water to make fun of me, and I can¡¯t help but to chuckle.


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think Lao means any harm.¡± We both surmise at the same time, and laugh again.


    ¡°I know Lil will be relieved to know that I know, maybe Luni will too? I¡¯m worried that it might upset her if she thinks she¡¯s doing something Lao doesn¡¯t want, since I know.¡± While thinking about Lil and Lu, I realize that I can just ask or sense how they feel about it.


    ¡°Yeah you can.¡± Comes Luni across our shared wavelength. So, she already knows that Teuila is admitting this to me now. ¡°Yep, it¡¯s okay, I told her to come clean, it was eating her up inside. She felt like she was treating you in a way that would make it look like she thought you were an idiot who would never catch on.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Lu,¡± I whisper into the wavelength, but also a bit out loud, which causes Teuila¡¯s face to screw up.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡±


    ¡°Err, not you Te, Lu was just talking in my head. You two are so good to each other.¡± Teuila fumes a bit, I know how she feels about not being a part of the shared think space, so I try to change topic quickly. ¡°So um, hey, you don¡¯t have anything to worry about, we should probably just break it to the whole family at some point, we can pretend I figured it out on my own if you want. There were enough hints between Ag and Lao that something was off, I guess I was just too preoccupied to wonder what was off. It makes sense now, and I think Lao might want it to be a sort of personal quest of mine. I guess Lil was right, maybe my destiny is to make a philosophy school, or school of thought, something like that. Something that helps us understand our mysterious memories.¡±


    ¡°Well, your mysterious memories. We just know some words that don¡¯t apply to anything in reality.¡±


    ¡°Right, right, my own mysterious memories.¡± I shrug, I guess it¡¯s as good a reason as any to keep moving forward. Well, okay, no, I can think of three really great reasons to always push forward, and I love them all so deeply.


    ¡°Love you too buddy¡± ¡°Samesies Reggie¡± Come responses from Lil and Luni across our wavelength. I guess I was thinking about them pretty strongly right then. I just hug Teuila closer, enjoying our embrace.


    ¡°You know what? My legs are really sore, and we¡¯ve been standing around talking, we should either sit down, or work on a dugout.¡±


    ¡°Heh, you wimp, I should make you train with me.¡±


    ¡°Te, I wouldn¡¯t survive half an hour of your training.¡±


    ¡°Pssh, darn right you wouldn¡¯t. Fine, fine, I think we should get the dugout made, I¡¯m worried about Lu. Tomorrow, maybe we don¡¯t march as long straight in a row. As many hours, whatever.¡± Teuila sort of starts to mumble or ramble by the end.


    ¡°Hey everybody, we¡¯re going to make camp for the night, it¡¯ll be easier if everyone pitches in a hand, or paw, but if you¡¯re too tired, please rest nearby. I think that tree over there has some strong roots that are far enough apart to dig between. If you don¡¯t like the mud, Lu has our magic stone that can clean it off of anyone.¡±


    ¡°You also got mud cleaning magic Lu?¡± I hear the twins bound over to ask Luni, while Teuila, Lil and I start digging under the roots of the biggest tree, and scooping out water as we build a bit of a dam. Luni seems to be entertaining the twins, showing off her hidden pocket and magic bag. It makes me happy to see her enjoying herself with the family.


    Lil and I work at hardening the dugout¡¯s interior walls, and drying out the insides to make it safe and cozy, then I head out to judge the right dimensions for, well, essentially a door. Is it a false door? Or is it a false mudglob because it¡¯s technically a door that¡¯s disguised? Maybe just a camouflaged door. Mata just seems to be keeping a silent eye on me, which is a tad unsettling, but as long as I don¡¯t make them feel any worse, I guess I¡¯m fine with it. Ag and Lao pitch in with the scooping and drying on the inside, since they need the most room, and are probably the best suited to judge how much ventilation we need, which we create with pointy sticks up through the mud, then we firebake the holes left behind. It only takes a couple minutes of work, but we have our first Shellcracker family dugout.


    The family largely disrobes, or divests themselves of the armor, most stick it in a corner cubby, though Lu puts hers in her magic bag, and Teuila asks me to hold onto hers in my inventory. Apparently though, the padded clothing feels better against fur and skin than the dirt does, so oddly enough, my family is now by and large, clothed. What does that phrase even mean, by and large? I mean, I¡¯m pretty sure I thought it in the right context, so I¡¯m not even sure what I¡¯m asking, maybe its etymology? Do words even really have etymology? Here I mean, this world that seems to conflict with my memories. Words just seem to have always been there, for everybody, as soon as they¡¯re born.


    The whole family takes a meal together inside the dugout, it¡¯s ventilated enough that it¡¯s not too stuffy, despite the many warm bodies in close proximity. Lil basically gets the center of the dugout, because on any given side, they¡¯d bring warmth only to a few of us, or perhaps overheat a few of us. It basically lets the rest of us choose how close to or far from Lil we want to be. Of course Luni basically rests atop Lil, and I stick close to my oldest friend, and Teuila close to me. The other five are lazily spread out in a near perfect circle, tailtip to nosetip. I can actually reach out a hand and stroke Laomati¡¯s paw-like hand from where I sit, and I see her smile a tender smile at me, in that motherly way of hers. I guess we¡¯re more of a clan, rather than a biological family, and all that, but still, our closeness can¡¯t be denied. Especially the closeness between Lil, Luni, Teuila and myself. I mean, it¡¯s obvious that we¡¯re not biologically related, several of us are entirely different species, and well, I think a few of us are romantically involved. I¡¯ve never really asked, and I don¡¯t know how old we are, so it feels a bit weird.


    We¡¯ve been through so much together in what seems like such a short time, in my memories, a normal life wouldn¡¯t have any of this sort of adventure, let alone as much as we¡¯ve packed into our short time knowing one another. Not to mention, most crazy things don¡¯t happen to people who look miniscule, or well, young, it¡¯s generally some buff, tall, or at least adult-seeming individual that purposely goes out looking for danger, or in stories, to take on some quest. I doubt any mythological person known for their strength, really, truly would want to experience what we have, fighting off some seven, eight, nine or whatever headed serpent in a swamp, or facing something with such a terrible and dangerous command of the sea. A name comes to mind, or well, two, but they sound similar, Heracles and Hercules. I don¡¯t remember any individuals that seem real, but if I focus hard, it seems I can remember some from myth and legend. Who would I have learned those myths and legends from though? Why should I know a pantheon worth of mythos when I¡¯ve a body that seems to have so few years of experience in life? Maybe I¡¯m some kind of elf or pixie, and actually much older than I seem to be by human standards? Yet why would all my memories be of human society then, and tell me that elves and pixies don¡¯t exist? Not to mention, things like Octorochi and magic don¡¯t exist, though they exist in fantasy, in board games, in things like Dragon Dungeons. Whatever that is, ugh, I need to get out of my own head.


    If it weren¡¯t such a serious need for shelter, it would feel like camping, like what camping is supposed to be with other humans in my memories. I don¡¯t have any specific humans in any memories, but just the idea of camping together with others exists. Sitting around a campfire, or in this case, a fire-breathing dragon, enjoying one another¡¯s company in the wilderness. Though I guess my entire life has been nothing but wilderness since I sprang into existence, or at least since my memories start. There¡¯s still that nagging suspicion that I existed before Day¡­ One¡­


    Oh fudgeknuckles, after another panic episode, I come to, with the entire family staring at me, other than Teuila whom is holding me, consoling me. She¡¯s trying to signal to everyone else to knock it off with the stares while simultaneously holding me and stroking my hair. I¡¯m really lucky. Even Ali looks concerned, slightly, though perhaps of a different concern than everyone else.


    ¡°Sorry, sorry everyone, I um, had some flashbacks when my thoughts went a certain direction, sorry. I¡¯m good, I swear. But uh, I got to thinking, this is a lot like camping. Where I¡¯m from, or well, where I think that I thought I was from because of my buggy memories. Memories that Ag and Lao keep trying to steer me away from, which is probably a kindness, thanks you two. I can tell there¡¯s something up when I ask about certain things, but you¡¯ve been very sweet about it. Anyway, point being, there¡¯s a tradition when camping with a group of friends or loved ones, where people take turns telling one another scary stories. Often ghost tales. Does anyone want to do that? We can keep it really quiet if anyone doesn¡¯t want to hear. I guess they don¡¯t have to be scary, it could just be stories.¡± When I call out Lao and Ag about the avoidance of certain topics, they exchange a knowing glance, but say nothing.


    ¡°Oo, I¡¯m most definitely in.¡± Luni surprisingly answers first, well, I guess not that surprisingly, she seems to be growing into the family¡¯s storyteller, bard, and whatnot. She dusts down her dress and sits in a demure pose, legs to one side. Luni looks around, seemingly for more volunteers, or anyone to speak up before she tells her story. Teuila elbows me, and I cough and raise my hand.


    ¡°Yeah, I uh, suggested it, of course I¡¯ll join in.¡± I state, rubbing the spot where Te elbowed me. I grin down at her and kind of roll my eyes, signaling she didn¡¯t need to give me a push after all.

 Chapter 26: Spooky Scary Storytimes

    Another slight surprise, Mata says ¡°I¡¯ll wait til after Lu, and you go, then I¡¯ll give it a try.¡± I¡¯m almost shocked, since we haven¡¯t done anything as a family together since dinner together and meeting one another the Night of High Water. I guess I¡¯m happy though, at least it means I¡¯m not making Mata feel like an outsider in their own family.


    Teuila shifts so she can lay her head in my lap and keep one arm wrapped around me behind her own head, while still looking at Lu.


    Luni begins weaving her tale, ¡°This is a tale of a land beyond our own world, a land where people live in great societies, kingdoms even, with many families in camps called cities, where usually they work together for the common good. However, in some cases, the common is not so good, and the good is not so common. This is a land itself without a name, but in that land stands a kingdom known as the Celestial Imperium.¡± As Luni says this, it feels like my vision zooms out. I can barely hear the rest of her tale, is she using something Lil told her about my dreams when I used to sleep talk and Lil thought I was telling them stories? Was she browsing through my memory logs? Do my memory logs even contain my dreams? Is it just a coincidence? Am I forgetting to breathe right now? Yes, yes I am.


    I gasp for air as apparently Lu is finishing her tale, ¡°So never let it be said that the only evil are the supernatural or undead. Sometimes the greatest evil is the darkness in our own hearts. Never let it consume you.¡± There¡¯s a bit of a stunned silence, other than our various breathing, mine more audible than most as I¡¯m chugging down air, catching up on breathing after accidentally holding my breath.


    Agwai states, ¡°I fancy a turn if that¡¯s alright, I think I can show you all a thing or two about crafting stories.¡± I¡¯d never object, but at the moment I¡¯m also pretty much too stunned to do so. ¡°This is a tale of caution, a reason to think twice about venturing into deep, dank, swamps. Dun dun dun!¡± Agwai suddenly shouting at the end causes the twins to shriek, and I barely manage to both not jump, as well as to stifle a chuckle. Ag is normally so serious, I¡¯ve never seen this side of them. Teuila does cover her mouth to stifle a chuckle, temporarily removing her arm from around me, as she shifts slightly in my lap, to be able to see Ag as they tell their tale.


    Agwai continues their tale, ¡°Once, long, long, long ago, on a beach not very far from here, lived a clan, much like our own, with homes, much like our own.¡±


    Manameia asks ¡°What happened to them!?¡± All full of nervous energy.


    Agwai replies ¡°Hush now, wait til the end and you¡¯ll find out.¡± They actually give a wink after making the shushing gesture.


    Manameia hushes themself with a ¡°meep¡± sound.


    Agwai continues after the interruption, ¡°Where was I? Ah yes, the clan, the clan.¡±


    Manaia interrupts, ¡°What was their clan name!?¡± excitedly. These two really get into Ag¡¯s stories it seems. I¡¯m finally getting to learn a little bit about the twins, and well, most of the family it seems.


    Agwai pauses to think for a moment before answering, ¡°The hm, Shellrockers, yes, that¡¯s what it was, it was so long ago, nearly lost to time what their name was.¡± Mata doesn¡¯t even try to stifle his laughter, and his exclamation of ¡°Really!?¡± until he gets a few dirty looks from the rest of the family.


    ¡°Anyway,¡± Agwai continues, ¡°the Shellrockers lived peacefully along their beach, much like us, they spent much time in the sea, but unlike us, at least unlike our life recently, they rarely visited the swamps. Unlike us, they had names to call one another by. Some of their names are still known, others lost to time. There was Pietro, and Pedro, and Peter, and Paul.¡± My brain momentarily BSODs at this combination of names, like a flickering error triggers some static, some snow on a screen where a memory should be. ¡°One day, Pietro ventured into the swamps while the others played ¡®neath the waves in the sea. Pietro¡¯s curiosity about this nearby bit of nature got the better of them in more ways than one. Of course this fine lad could navigate by the scents in the air, the light in the sky, and all manner of tricks, so he was certain he wouldn¡¯t get lost. Pietro certainly wouldn¡¯t get lost, but he would be lost in another way. Many hours¡¯ journey, deep into the swamps, Pietro began to admire and even marvel at the plants and the funguses and the trees, but Pietro derided the slime that lived atop the standing water. Its light glow was a sickening green, and it clung to his fur as he traveled. Pietro would say aloud ¡®how awful is this gross slime atop this water, how dreadful is it to ruin such a pretty place.¡¯ Perhaps Pietro should have kept his mean comments to himself, and maybe the tragedy about to unfold would never have happened.¡± There¡¯s a round of meeping from several of us.


    Agwai¡¯s story continues to unfold, ¡°Pietro began to find it harder and harder to move deeper into the swamp, so, he decided to finally turn back, but found it equally hard to return. Pietro¡¯s fur was sticky, with slime coating it, from bottom to top. Pietro was certain he saw more and more of the slime grow thicker and heavier in the parts of the water where he walked, so once more he derided the slime. ¡®See how this awful goop grows thick and slows a traveler, see how grossness ruins the delight of a day.¡¯ Twice now Pietro spoke thoughtlessly, carelessly of any feeling of the natural world around him. Pietro then began to panic as his limbs felt harder to move, almost as if the slime were encasing him. Pietro a third time, decried the slime ¡®oh how awful this muck must be that it sticks to one then hardens, it derails a traveler''s journey and slows them thusly, its disgusting goo spreads and sticks and stays, becoming a second skin, some membrane of which I know not.¡¯ Pietro then was sure he felt slime dripping down into his ears, Pietro wanted to scream in terror at the feeling, but did not, could not. Pietro returned home, and acted as if all was normal, his fur clean, no sign of the slime of the swamp. However, on the next day, Pietro invited Pedro to the swamps, there, he asked Pedro, ¡®Isn¡¯t this slime awful?¡¯ ¡®Isn¡¯t it gross that its sits atop the water?¡¯ ¡®Isn¡¯t it sticky, a disgusting goo?¡¯ To each question, Pedro answered yes, as the slime coated Pedro¡¯s fur, became sticky, and hard, then Pedro too felt slime dripping into his ears, and Pedro also wanted to scream, but did not, could not. The two returned home, clean, no sign of slime, and the next day, they invited Peter and Paul to join them on a journey into the swamps. There they asked Peter and Paul three questions on the awfulness of the slime atop the water. Peter and Paul couldn¡¯t help but to agree, and once again, by the third question, each felt slime trickling, they wanted to scream, but did not, could not. Pietro, Pedro, Peter and Paul returned home, clean, no sign of slime, they invited yet others of the clan to the swamp, with the same results on the following day. On the last day, only one very special young lady had not yet been to the swamps, so the whole clan invited her. Her name was lost to time, but she was a beautiful, pearlescent, bashful, demure young lady.¡± Everyone gasps at this and the younger ones whisper ¡°Penina!?¡±


    Agwai states, ¡°Perhaps, perhaps. This very special young lady was brought deep into the slimy swamps, and there she was asked three questions. ¡®Isn¡¯t it gross?¡¯ They would ask. ¡®No, nature is always beautiful¡¯ she would shyly answer. ¡®Isn¡¯t it awful how it sticks?¡¯ ¡®No, it¡¯s like nature gives a comforting hug.¡¯ She would meekly reply. ¡®But isn¡¯t it horrid that it hardens and slows one, more and more?¡¯ her response could only be ¡®but what is the matter with a slower journey, more time with my beloved family, and the beauty of nature?¡¯¡± There¡¯s a round of awes and everyone shushes.


    Agwai finishes the tale, ¡°The others all looked at one another, and the slime began to drip away from our little lass, but so too did her family, they seemed to melt away before her very eyes. She cried and whispered to the swamp itself ¡®I would beg you, please don¡¯t take my family, but you must be very lonesome indeed to need such company, if you wish, I will tell your tale.¡¯ All that was left of her family, the only answer the swamp seemed to give was the very dim glow of the slime itself atop the waters.¡± Agwai dusts their hands off as if to indicate the finishing of their tale.


    ¡°What!? That¡¯s it? But what happened to her? Where¡¯d the rest of the family go?¡± Cry the twins in discombobulated questions simultaneously.


    ¡°Shush now, no one knows, only that she spread a cautionary tale wherever she went, to be careful with your words, for whom they might hurt, you know not. It might even come back to be that you¡¯re only hurting yourself.¡±


    ¡°But, but, but but but.¡±


    ¡°Shh my darlings,¡± coos Lao. ¡°A good thing we¡¯ve such a nice dry cave, provided by our little dragon here isn¡¯t it, after such a scare?¡± Lao elbows Agwai lightly in the ribs. The twins are clinging to one another tightly, and I realize I¡¯ve got a bit of a death grip on Teuila, who happens to be grinning at me like a lunatic as I let up. Lil spits their own tail out of their mouth to thank Lao for the compliment, apparently they were chewing on it nervously.


    ¡°Something a little less close to home, for the next one, perhaps, Reggie?¡± Lao asks, seemingly hinting that I should maybe try to be a bit less scary than Agwai, I can¡¯t help but to agree.


    I begin my story attempting to be subtle, since it¡¯s also a cautionary tale. ¡°There once was a child named Will, with a family who loved them very much. Will led an idyllic life, frollicking with fluffy sheep in the fields, lazing about on sunny hills, or playing with carved wooden toys. Will¡¯s family only ever set down two rules. One: Be in bed by sundown to close the windows and shutters at night, make sure they¡¯re locked tight. Two: Never, ever, ever, follow a light such as a lamp into the woods.¡±


    Mata mutters fairly audibly ¡°Pft, I can tell where this is going.¡± His muttering earns him some harsh stares and some shushing.


    I continue while answering Mata, trying to remain friendly, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s true, it seems obvious to us, we know to heed the rules of those wiser than we. Some children, somewhere out there though, have never heard a tale, nor know why rules exist. Will is one such child. Will¡¯s life carried on as usual, after all, the rules were easy to follow, there was no reason not to. Day in and day out, for what seemed like many years Will paid heed to the rules, even if only accidentally, or by rote, or for whatever reason. One day however, Will came down with a curious cough that simply would not go away. Will¡¯s parents, understandably upset, said to Will ¡®stay here, beloved child, we will journey to find medicine, and return hence.¡¯ ¡®Yes mother, cough, cough¡¯ went Will. ¡®What are the rules my dear?¡¯ ¡®Be in bed by sundown.¡¯ ¡®And?¡¯ ¡®And shut the windows tight, I know I know.¡¯ ¡®And what else?¡¯ ¡®Never follow a lantern into the woods.¡¯ ¡®Yes my sweet, do these things, stay here and we will return as soon as we have medicine.¡¯¡±


    The twins exclaim ¡°Will was left all alone!?¡±


    I reply, smiling, ¡°Well, Will did of course have the sheep for company, they were friendly, and fluffy, one sheep in particular slept in the house with the family, little Bessie, she was smaller than the rest, and better behaved. Bessie and Will whiled away the time, awaiting Will¡¯s family to return with medicine. One day, and the weather grew blisteringly hot. Two days, the weather became insufferable. On the third day, it began to rain, which would normally be a reprieve, but it was still just as hot, it became muggy, the air itself sticky and sickly. At night, Will could not stop coughing because of the moisture in the air, so of course, could not sleep. Will was also sweating uncontrollably from the intense heat, so shoved Bessie away. She didn¡¯t understand why Will was spurning her, but she so loved Will that she sat dejectedly some ways away. Will was still suffering, so unbearably warm was it, Will thought that perhaps a breeze could at least mitigate some of this terrible night. Will began to open the windows. Bessie, Bessie was such a smart sheep, she began bleating at Will, and tugging at Will¡¯s trousers with her teeth, trying to drag him away from windows, as he opened more and more, searching for relief from the heat, hoping to let a breeze blow through the house. Will, a bit delirious in suffering, did something that they¡¯d never done before, Will kicked Bessie out of the house, angrily saying ¡®you insufferable creature, can you not see you make it only warmer, you harass me as I try to ease my pain?¡¯ Bessie sat mournfully outside the door, only wishing to cuddle her beloved Will, to comfort Will with her soft fleece. Fleece which was now soaking in the heavy rain, causing Bessie to become heavy, and tired. As Bessie grew tired, unable to stay awake, staring hopefully at the door, waiting to be let back in, Will instead grew restless, and stuck their head out the nearest window, trying to feel the breeze, and the rain pouring down. Suddenly, Will spotted a light in the distance, seemingly at the edge of the forest. ¡®Oh, oh joyous day, my family returns.¡¯ However the light did not draw nearer. ¡®Perhaps then it is that they are lost? Or perhaps not my family, but some traveler that knows how to stay cool in this dreadful heat?¡¯ ¡®Needs must I go to them, for my sake or theirs. Besides, that is surely no lantern, see how it hovers, then bobs to and fro? I was warned only of lanterns.¡¯ Will of course misremembered the rule, equating light to lanterns. Will crawled out the window towards the forest, landing in the mud with a splash and a thud. This alerted poor Bessie who was so tired, and so heavy with water, she went to see what was the matter, and saw her beloved Will walking away from the house, towards the forest. She bleated and bleated, but could not get Will¡¯s attention, so she stalked off against the rain as Will trudged onward, but she was so slow, as she was a tiny sheep, with so much fleece, fleece heavy and wet with rain. Will got further and further away, her bleats did not reach Will over the sound of the rain. Will broke the treeline, and began to disappear into the forest, following, ever following the bobbing light, calling out ¡®Mama, Papa, traveler perhaps, wait, you¡¯re heading the wrong way, you¡¯re heading deeper into the woods.¡¯ Never were Will¡¯s calls answered.¡±


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    I pause for a breather, and ask a question. ¡°There are two known endings to this tale, one cautionary, and one happy, which would you like to hear, or both?¡±


    ¡°Happy, happy, happy.¡± Come most of the replies, yet from Mata an utterance of ¡°Let¡¯s hear both.¡± I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s wisest to be trying so hard to appease Mataalii, but I do conclude, or rather decide, to tell both endings, based on his wishes.


    ¡°Right, well, at least one of you would like to hear both, so you shall have both. In one version of the tale, it¡¯s said that Bessie tried her best, but either stayed at the edge of the woods herself, or ventured in, but was lost, never seen again, and Will followed and followed and followed this light until Will was so lost, that the night never seemed to end in the forest, and then the light winked out, leaving Will alone in the forest to disappear, never heard nor seen as Will again, mourned after the return of their parents, and eventually perhaps forgotten, or perhaps coming to be known as Will of the Wisps, for wisps are what we call dancing lights in the woods that we should not follow. Will of the Wisps would be cursed to forever also lure families and travelers into the woods to spread the curse of their lonely existence, all because they could not bear to follow the rules the one time it became difficult.¡±


    There are some gulps, and one of the twins asks, almost pleadingly, ¡°And, and, and the happy ending?¡±


    I give a slight nod, closing my eyes contentedly, happy to wrap the tale up on a happier note. I finish with, ¡°Yes, of course, in another version of the tale, poor little Bessie found something sharp, some say it was magical shears, some say it was a rock left by Will¡¯s parents just in case of such an occasion, whatever it was, Bessie shed her fleece, freeing her from its heavy burden, and she charged into the forest after Will. Bessie was able to quickly catch up, but Will was disoriented, ¡®Who or what are you, naked little beast?¡¯ Will asked, then stated ¡®Needs must you leave me be, I must find whomever this is, they must know how to beat this heat, or perhaps at least need shelter.¡¯ Bessie bleated her heart out at Will, and Will heard the love in her ¡®Baaa¡¯, recalling who she must be. ¡®Oh Bessie, my dear sweet Bessie, what has happened to you? How did you lose your so-wonderful, cuddlesome fleece?¡¯ Baa of course was her only reply as Will bent down to hug her, coughing in the rain. ¡®You did this for me, didn¡¯t you? You came all the way out here, and you gave up your beautiful fleece for me? Even after how I spurned you this night, how I treated you. You must love me so, and I have been so foolish. Whomever holds that light is also a fool, heading ever away. Oh Bessie, Bessie my sweet, I fear now that I realize I am lost, I do not remember the way home.¡¯ Baa came Bessie¡¯s reply, her teeth clenching Will¡¯s trouser legs, she began tugging away. ¡®You somehow know the way back? Though our tracks are washed away in the rain?¡¯ Baa Bessie said. Will followed beloved Bessie, winding back towards home, avoiding thickets, as more lights began to spring up around them, lights that seemed to dance hysterically, enticingly, strangely, invitingly. Will was curious, but Bessie was insistent, baa she would say, and Will would once again focus on her. Eventually they finally broke the treeline, and were within sight of home. Will and Bessie returned home, haggard, exhausted, Will coughing up a storm. Will coughed themselves to sleep, cuddling Bessie despite the heat. In the morning, the awful weather dissipated, and Will¡¯s parents returned with medicinal plants. Will¡¯s parents were shocked at Bessie¡¯s appearance, and Will admitted the awful truth. Will¡¯s parents wanted to scold them, but the fright that was suffered seemed punishment enough. Instead they praised Bessie for her bravery and sacrifice, and gave Will the sorely needed medicine. Though it tasted awful, Will¡¯s cough was cured in short order, and though Bessie would take many moons to grow back her beautiful fluffy fleece, the family was able to live happily, ever, after.¡±


    ¡°Yay!¡± excitedly exclaim the twins. Even Lil peps up, and says something along the lines of ¡®told you you tell me stories pal.¡¯ across our shared mental wavelength. Lil looks pretty smug and happy at the same time.


    ¡°Ugh, that¡¯s so sappy.¡± States Mata, yet he¡¯s smiling down at the twins. I think their happiness is precious to him, I mean, it¡¯s obvious that it is.


    ¡°Stuff it, it¡¯s your turn,¡± says Teuila, defensively of me, though I just hug her and shake my head lightly, she somehow knows I don¡¯t mind right now. I try to let her know subtly that I¡¯m the one that, well, I feel like I deserve Mata¡¯s ire. I try to blink back tears as I think of what Mataalii blames me for.


    ¡°Right, well, my turn, as our illustrious warrior princess so says.¡± Mata starts off, jibing at Teuila, which upsets me a bit, or maybe even a great deal, but I look down into Teuila¡¯s eyes, and see that she¡¯s just rolling them in response. ¡°My tale is a tale of terror, and disaster, one never before heard.¡± He continues.


    Agwai squints at Mataalii, which I find a bit odd, yet Mata carries on, stating, ¡°Our tale begins in a land of barren rock, and mountains of fire, with a child who was given a great and powerful gift, a gift far too powerful for them.¡± Lil starts to object with a ¡°Hey,¡± muttered under their breath, but stays mostly silent, since everyone else seems more or less interested.


    ¡°A family of, um, yes, badgers, knew that these great mountains of fire were acting out, earthquakes had ravaged their homes beneath the rocks, so they had decided to flee, as food had become more scarce, and the land more dangerous. On their flight however, they met a supposedly special child, one who offered food, which of course was scarce in so barren a land.¡± As Mata¡¯s tale is told, my eyes sting and my breath catches in my throat, he¡¯s definitely doing this to hurt me. Teuila is gritting her teeth in anger in my lap, she looks ready to leap up and attack Ali, but I just stare down into her eyes sadly. As my tears begin to drop, lightly splattering her forehead, her gaze softens, and her jaw unclenches.


    There are some gasps from the rest of the family as they put two and two together, but Mataalii pushes forward with the story anyway, there¡¯s a look of deep regret in his eyes, ¡°One of the badger family was infatuated with this arrogant child, and whether the child¡¯s curiosity, or the badger¡¯s infatuation was the true culprit, the child won out with a request to see the home of the badgers. Since they now had food, they thought, what could one more night hurt, before facing the world and finding camp elsewhere. They shared a meal and their love with this newcomer, this child who seemed strangely powerful, and strangely lucky. This child had tales of adventure to woo the family with, even if many of those adventures were only won through luck by the child¡¯s own admission. The family bedded down, happy to share their home with this intruder, for whatever reasons. Their um, yes, their caves were a comfort, since they had already feared the journey ahead, traveling coastward, away from the fiery mountains. In the night however, two of the elder badgers were worried about the rumblings of the earth, so they set off to check out the disturbance. All of a sudden, disaster struck, another earthquake, the biggest ever seen, one that shook the land as far as a day¡¯s travel, and the family was stuck right in its heart. The elders were swallowed up by the earth right away, and the family banded together, dragging the useless child away from the crumbling rock; the child was even injured during the escape. Whether from the injury, or their own ineptitude, the child forgot about their powers for some time, while the badgers exhausted their strength dragging everyone away, and three of the littlest badgers were taken, crushed by the waves, I mean caves.¡± Everyone is aghast that he¡¯s still telling this tale, but there are tears in his eyes, even the twins look mortified, whether or not they¡¯ve caught on, or are just scared for the family in the tale.


    ¡°Eventually, the child remembered their great power, and came up with a convoluted way to dig the family to safety, the remaining family anyway, at what seemed like a supposed great cost to themself. A great cost that miraculously disappeared over time that the badger family spent doting on the child.¡± As Mata concludes, I break down into tears and curl in on myself, going fetal, rolling slightly away from Teuila, and trying to distance myself from everyone, sobbing uncontrollably. Mata sniffles and I can hear them rubbing their snout. I can feel Teuila¡¯s burning rage, and Lil¡¯s heated anger, but I don¡¯t want that for them, I don¡¯t want anger or a wedge tearing them apart. Mata¡¯s right. I could have been faster with my powers, I could have just invited the family to my home right away, rather than asking to see their home. Agwai and Laomati seemed about ready to chastise Mataalii, but we¡¯re in a dugout for our own safety, our whole family¡¯s safety, we can do nothing but stick together through this. He can¡¯t be sent to another room, or punished in any way that isn¡¯t a risk to his life. I don¡¯t want him to be punished though, I want to be alone, I want to cry and cry because I know he¡¯s right. I don¡¯t know how to make it better, but I know how to be alone though.


    I claim earth into my inventory below me, and as I plummet into squishy mud, I release clay from my inventory above me, sealing off behind me, except for a tiny slice intended as an air-hole. There are cries of alarm, but the clay muffles them quickly as I dig deeper and place more, it seems thick enough that I can¡¯t even sense Lu or Lil. I stay fetal, weeping, sobbing in my deep dark dank hole for what seems like the longest time, until I begin hiccuping. How do I face them when he¡¯s right? How can I possibly continue to be with the people I care about most, when I put them through hell, and cost possibly five of their lives already? I screwed up so badly. I never thought of myself as any sort of hero, or wielder of great power meant to save others, but now it¡¯s so obvious that I¡¯m so far from any such description, that I just want to fade away, and never risk causing anyone else any of this suffering ever again. I try to extend the tendrils from my tattoo, they come forth easily enough, I let them wrap around me, and sure enough, like Lil said, it hurts, it hurts a lot, other than that, it¡¯s like a hug from a stranger, a hug I desperately need right now. It has to be from a stranger too, because I can¡¯t bear to face the family right now. It¡¯s almost funny that Mata would pick badgers and digging, instead of directly telling the tale of the Night of High Water. Like it prophesied even more calamity for us for any life spent under ground or near the Fire Biome. Thinking back about the first time I heard about Fire Biome, I realize I¡¯m even an unreliable narrator in my own life¡¯s story. At some point, I know I remember smelling something, but I¡¯ve also been recently convinced that I¡¯ve never had a sense of smell. I swear I had certain plans or thoughts, or interactions with Lil, but maybe I never had them. I have an actual memory log that I can access, and I still misremember, or forget things.


    Why do I even have something that seems like such a small body? Also maybe a young emotional maturity, I¡¯m not sure on that regard. Why can¡¯t I decide what gender I am? Why do I think I¡¯m human without being sure? Why am I supposedly powerful, due to a unique skill, or at least manipulating a skill we maybe all could have, in my own unique way? Why did they have to get hurt? Why did they have to die? Why did Mata have to remind me, in front of everyone, how badly I screwed up? I thought maybe we were at least on neutral terms, like leave each other alone terms. Was Mata crying because he knew he was hurting me? Or was Mata crying because of the pain of remembering losing the others? Also, why am I hiccuping so hard? Oh, oh there isn¡¯t much air, to breathe, down, here, the wedge I¡¯d left as an air-hole collapsed.  Oops. I lose consciousness before I can start reclaiming any soil or clay to dig my way to air, as I drift away, my body hurts in brand new ways.

 Chapter 27: Return of Octorochi

    <h2>Chapter 27: Return of Octorochi</h2>


    I awaken to Lil, Lu, Te, Ag, and Lao, all absolutely covered in mud, staring down at me, seeming too shocked to say anything. Or if they¡¯re talking, I can¡¯t make anything out. I feel so ashamed for putting them through that, they must have been worried sick. I just keep whimpering ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I¡¯m so sorry.¡± My danger wraps tell me Mata¡¯s on the far side of the dugout, holding the twins tightly, almost seemingly cowering. I think Teuila is stammering, trying to say something. I did it again, I did something so dangerously stupid, I almost got one of us killed, me. I didn¡¯t even think, at all, I could have dug down, then up and out at an angle, and at least ran somewhere in the swamp, but I was too wrapped up in self pity, fetal, to think of moving even an inch, and just used magic to drop into the dirt, murk, mud, earth.


    I can finally make out what Teuila¡¯s trying to ask. ¡°Re, Re, Re, Reggie? My Reggie? Is that really you? My, my, my.¡± She trails off, unable to finish, her tears splashing down onto my face. I must look a pretty awful muddy sight for my Teuila to not recognize me. No one else is saying anything, I just lay there, tears streaming down my cheeks, as I reach a hand towards Teuila, my wonderful, loving, brave Teuila, and my hand eclipses hers, it¡¯s far larger. What in the what? What is this? What¡¯s going on? Level 17? My energy capacity is back down below a thousand, again? What? Why!? No, no no no, no, please let this be a nightmare. Please, please, please let me just be my little self again, and be held by Teuila, please, please, I¡¯m begging this world, please. I feel something uncoiling from around me, at first I think it¡¯s the tattoo tendrils, but they probably already vanished when I passed out. It feels somewhat like the energy tether I use for Lil, or rather more like the one I use for Te, that one with an odd feedback that¡¯s almost an absence of my own senses, replaced by or strengthened by hers, that hard to explain feeling. However, it¡¯s like I tethered myself, and subverted my own senses with my own senses. As the tether uncoils, there¡¯s a bright flash, after which Teuila immediately tackles me into a tight embrace, and my hand is Teuila¡¯s hand¡¯s size again.


    I whisper over and over, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry for putting you through that just now, I¡¯m so sorry for putting you through that just now, I¡¯m so sorry for putting you through that just now.¡± Even as I¡¯m shushed by those that love me, I keep mumbling it over and over. Suddenly I have something new to say, ¡°I feel like I¡¯m going to throw up,¡± I roll to the side looking for a place to do it that isn¡¯t one of my loved ones¡¯ laps, and nearly roll into the hole they dug me out of, where I vomit profusely, tears and snot mingling and streaming below with the contents of my stomach into a dark pit. I¡¯m gripped tightly from behind, keeping me from accidentally falling in. I feel Lil¡¯s teeth digging into my clothes, keeping me away from the edge. ¡°You rescued me, you rescued me, I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry, I wasn¡¯t thinking, I didn¡¯t think about air, I¡¯m sorry.¡± My stomach heaves once again, I feel so terrible, I drop a large amount of mud into the hole from my inventory, filling it mostly back up. After the hole is filled, it appears to introduce a new silence. It seems like no one dares move, for minutes on end. Oddly, my thoughts drift to the days ahead. I¡¯m suddenly more certain than ever that we¡¯ll face Octorochi soon, perhaps multiple times. I realize I saw more during the encounters with the serpent than I could keep track of as it was happening. Octorochi had nine bars that must have been health bars. It has defenses that keep it from even noticing any damage below that threshold of a thousand, but my radiant weaponry copies seem to be able to ignore thresholds. Somewhat at least, maybe a percentage based on how much energy I use.


    ¡°Buddy, that was bad, that was mega mega mega bad, I thought I lost you pal, you¡¯re my pal, I can¡¯t lose you. I can¡¯t lose you, okay? You know I love you right? Right Reggie buddy? No matter what.¡± Lil nervously rambles at me at a fast pace, the only one able to break the current awkward silence. Luni and Te are hugging me from opposite sides, Lao and Ag are hugging all of us from opposite sides. I feel so loved but my lips continue to quiver and eyes continue to water as I¡¯m distraught beyond words. Despite the love, my brain feels as if it¡¯s swirling in a vortex of pain, being sucked down a drain. Great, now my internal monologues of thoughts are rhyming. This couldn¡¯t have worse timing. Ugh!


    ¡°Reggie, talk to me, please, my, my, my Reggie?¡± Teuila keeps trying to put a word to whatever I am to her, but her challenge in expressing herself remains, and I can¡¯t even do her the honor of answering, I¡¯m so exhausted, mentally and emotionally, and well, physically from lack of oxygen. Plus, I think I can permanently force evolve myself into an essentially adult body, something that I somewhat feared. Age doesn¡¯t work quite the same here as it does in my memories, it¡¯s levels, or something similar at least. Lil has about three years worth of experiences, and as many levels, most of the Shellcrackers have more years, but less levels. Regardless, this revelation throws my mind into chaos about my place in our world yet again. I just imagine that our life expectancies are tied to our stage of evolution, is it better to stay in a lower, younger seeming stage longer? Do we, at some point, evolve into decrepit elders? Or evolve straight into death?


    Through gritted teeth, as Teuila turns away from me suddenly, she growls out, ¡°Ali, how could you!?¡± The family is so stunned, still, that no one reaches to stop her as she leaps towards Mataalii in a near feral rage, no one save me. With the lightest grip on her tail, I beg her, pleading with my eyes. She turns to look at my hand gripping her tail, then my face. My gaze says please don¡¯t make me use them, my tattoo limbs. The appearance of defeat in my untense muscles says don¡¯t hurt him, not for me. Teuila, my understanding, caring, courageous, kind Teuila is able to read my look, and her anger drips away as her shoulders sag, her features droop, and she drops to her knees, deflated and defeated. She crawls back over to me, and tries to drag me away from everyone else¡¯s embrace, they can¡¯t help but let her, her strength is so great she¡¯d overpower them, the others probably fear I¡¯d get hurt in the process.


    Somehow my throat¡¯s so dry that I can barely form words. Which is weird, since words mostly come out as text boxes anyway, text boxes that have voice flavor from fonts, or something, which somehow reaches our ears. Life is so weird, everything is so weird. I¡¯m light headed, and I begin to pass out in Teuila¡¯s embrace, but she shakes me lightly, keeping me awake, staring into my blurry eyes with her own wettened eyes. ¡°You gotta stay awake for a bit, okay? Just til we¡¯re sure you¡¯re okay.¡±


    Trying to reassure her, trying to lighten the mood, I manage to croak out, ¡°Do you feel as bad as you look right now? Because you look as bad as I feel.¡± She looks stunned for a bit, before her face turns from one of utter sorrow, to one of pure joy, as she starts laughing, at first a halting, unsure laugh, that turns into a full bout of laughter.


    ¡°You, you, you big dummy, hahaha, that was so mean! That¡¯s the first thing you say to me when you get your words back?¡± She then whispers to me, and only to me, ¡°I love you, you get me so well.¡± Teuila somehow manages to blush so hard it¡¯s visible through both mud and copper fur.


    The tension in the air seems defused, the various worries of the family seem to drift away as there¡¯s many a sigh of relief. I¡¯m mortified at having put them through that. I know I was reacting emotionally, and maybe overreacting, obviously, but, I don¡¯t know how to face any of them about this, neither about what Mataalii said, nor about my reaction to it. It¡¯s a really good thing I didn¡¯t use any of the fired clay, it might have been hard for them to dig through it and rescue me, it¡¯s also a good thing that I didn¡¯t try to dig up out away at an angle, they¡¯d never have found me if they kept going straight down. I¡¯m surprised once again as Agwai of all people comes over and asks of Teuila, ¡°May I?¡± Agwai indicates to me, and Teuila begrudgingly lets Agwai closer. Ag lifts me to a seated position, and sits directly in front of me, leaning low and close, their legs crossed.


    ¡°Little one, I feel I¡¯ve failed you, that you should feel so distraught. You are one of us, one of us to whom we owe every single thing we have left. As I¡¯ve said before, what we yet have left is one another. None of us, save perhaps Mataalii, feel you bear any responsibility for events that unfolded.¡± I can¡¯t meet Agwai¡¯s gaze as they continue, hitting home the topic at hand. Avoiding eye contact, I look down at the floor of our dugout, both of us sitting cross-legged, in white bodysuits covered in mud. My heart races, and my breath catches in my throat as I gulp, I¡¯m filled with panic about the topic at hand. Ag continues, ¡°Perhaps I have failed to let you know it, as you are newer, perhaps my lack of letting you know has left you feeling as an outsider, for that I beg your forgiveness, but you should know, I love you, Lao loves you, you are one of our own.¡± I¡¯m a bit floored that Agwai, of anyone in the family, would take me aside to express such sentiment. I didn¡¯t necessarily think of them as cold or hateful, but I definitely didn¡¯t feel close to Ag before now. I start to reach forward and lean forward, wrapping my arms around Agwai¡¯s torso, and burying my face in their chest. I¡¯m met with open arms, and comfort. I can sense Agwai use one arm to motion the others over. In a moment, I am embraced on all sides yet again, and Lil has squeezed in the midst of all of us.


    After what seems like an embrace that lasts a lifetime, I hear Luni¡¯s harp as we continue to hold one another, she strums only a few notes, and begins humming softly. I can feel the family falling asleep around me, each of us seated in awkward positions to be able to hug one another as we drift off to sleep. I can scarcely believe it¡¯s Agwai¡¯s arms that I fall asleep in, this night. This reminds me, that I almost suspected Agwai of shoving me into the river not so many days ago, how foolish could I have been to think such a thing? It would make more sense if Mata had snuck up, and shoved me to get my attention, to have the talk we had recently. When I fell into the river, Mataalii probably feared he would be blamed, so he likely darted away. There was no malice in it, of that I¡¯m certain, with the last of my strength before I fall asleep, I beckon to Mata to join us with the twins.


    I awaken to being held only by Teuila, as the others are breaking fast, she¡¯s rocking slightly back and forth with my head and torso in her lap, her heels under her butt. I want to ask her if Mata joined us in the sleep, but it seems so awkward a question to ask, that I just say nothing. My stomach hurts, and feels extremely empty, which makes sense. I basically didn¡¯t have dinner, since I lost my lunch, well, dinner, before sleeping. Luni seems to have helped everyone clean off with the magic soap stone, that wonderful little bit of porous rock. ¡°Where¡¯s Lil?¡± I look around, not spying Lil anywhere, then I realize Teuila¡¯s lap can¡¯t be this big, and I roll to the side, realizing I¡¯ve been squashing Lil this entire time. ¡°Oh buddy, I¡¯m sorry, I can¡¯t believe I didn¡¯t notice you down there.¡±


    ¡°S¡¯alright pal, we¡¯re good! You look famished, c¡¯mon, let¡¯s eat!¡± Lil¡¯s ability to show exuberance early after waking never ceases to amaze me, or well, at least amuse me. Watching Lil eat gives me an idea, the inside of Lil¡¯s mouth seems much softer than their outer scales, and mid-bite, I stick my head in Lil¡¯s mouth, to look at their insides, which nets me a ¡°Vwhat va heck? Bubby? Vvucka boin in by bouf?¡± I¡¯m able to learn a few things, firstly, Lil probably said what the heck buddy, whacha doin¡¯ in my mouth, secondly, Lil¡¯s definitely softer on the inside, even softer than their bottom, and third, I have no idea where food goes, because they are basically just a head with a tail.


    ¡°Sorry about that Lil¡¯ buddy, I got to thinking about how we¡¯re likely going to face Octorochi soon, and I was in its mouth the other day. Inside its mouth seemed much less armored, I wonder if its threshold is lower in there?¡± Lil gives me a curious glance as I get around to explaining what I surmise.


    Teuila, listening in, and laughing that my face is covered in dragon slobber, gives a bit of an indignant hmf, before stating, ¡°If you think I¡¯m letting you fools fight that giant snake from the inside, before we¡¯re sure you can win, you¡¯ve got another think coming. You¡¯re mad, you¡¯re mad, you¡¯re mad. Utterly bonkers, totally nuts.¡± My brain slightly has that blue screen of death error message style flicker, and another tv screen in my mind¡¯s eye turns on, filled with that static snow, a couple in fact.


    Even Lao, gazing over from sharing food with Agwai, puts a pawed hand to her face to stifle a chuckle at the three of us. Luni is oddly enough, doing stretches in the middle of the dugout, then equipping her gear. I wonder if Luni¡¯s musical magic could enhance the speed of our attacks if we had to fight, though it¡¯s probably better to just enhance our escape velocity. That¡¯s probably not the right term, but the words mean the right things, in context.


    Oh, right, I¡¯d better get a move on and catch up to the others. Thankfully, meals only take an instant to consume if you want them to, and I¡¯m a bit sick of fish and frog, so I¡¯m happy to instantly consume the food. I then set about pulling out equipment from my inventory, for those whose gear I¡¯d been carrying. Teuila and I armor up and arm ourselves, I¡¯m not exactly adept at sword fighting, I¡¯m more used to just wielding a stick like a club or spear, but I don¡¯t dare wield the spears I¡¯ve got in my inventory, my walking-stick spear is useless against the serpent, and Gae Buidhe is terrifying for an amateur to wield. I kind of wish I could just use Gae Buidhe¡¯s haft, or is it shaft? The handle. Basically, I think I¡¯d be better with a staff, of all things. Maybe since it was my first possession, more or less.


    ¡°Lil, I spotted another clay deposit a little bit upriver last night, can you help me collect it, and fire it into bricks before we set off?¡±


    ¡°Sure thing buddy, I¡¯m always at your service! Especially when I get to show off that I¡¯m a draaaagon.¡± Lil wobbles their voice in a silly fashion, that somehow comes through both textually and auditorily. We carefully head out, together, and replace the lid on the dugout, while the rest of the family makes their own preparations for today¡¯s leg of the journey.


    ¡°Something made me realize that a pyramid is easier, faster to build than a box, less material, and more stable too. If our backs are literally to a wall, if I¡¯m simultaneously creating two faces at a sixty degree angle, Well, those two faces can meet at a point above us, then I don¡¯t have to make four faces out of three walls and a ceiling before closing off the snake¡¯s attacks. It¡¯s literally half as much work, twice as fast to get to the point where we¡¯ll be safe enough to pelt it with attacks, annoy it or scare it off. And if we don¡¯t have a wall at our backs, by the third wall, we¡¯re completely encased and safe. If I make an equilateral floor for support, it¡¯s a tetrahedron.¡±


    ¡°Huh, sounds like a plan pal, but where¡¯s all this coming from?¡±


    ¡°Would you believe me if I told you, the inspiration came from something involving dragons?¡± I don¡¯t know where or when I started to remember it, but there are games of fantasy, played with dice, and their shapes, well, sure the cube is simple, easy to remember, easy to visualize to construct, but the tetrahedral reminds me of when I was thinking about construction with Lil, way back when. I know that angles are somehow important for support, something about triangles being the simplest shape.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    ¡°You betcha I would, dragons give the best inspiration!¡± Lil exclaims in a way that¡¯s somehow slightly incredulous, yet also completely trusting, while being a bit amused. There¡¯s laughter under Lil¡¯s breath.


    Continuing the line of thought, I think I used an octahedron, or dodecahedron style shape on the Night of High Water, to encase us in our flimsy vessel. ¡°Lil, oh Lil we need to find a way to capture air. I can¡¯t let that happen ever again.¡± I fall to my knees and quiver, sucking in a ragged breath.


    ¡°Buddy, what¡¯s wrong?¡±


    ¡°The Night of High Water, if I¡¯d had air in my inventory, things would have gone so much better. I think.¡± Lil¡¯ bounds into me as I state this, snuggling into my chest. My chest, which feels tight with regret, but at least I can try to learn, and be better prepared. I¡¯m still alive, and moving forward. Mata can continue to think whatever he wants, I¡¯m done trying to win his approval. Last night hurt worse than nearly being eaten. I¡¯ll strive to be less over-emotional in reaction to things, maybe even ignore Mata completely. ¡°Anyway, seems like we have enough now, pal, to make a full pyramid, let¡¯s get everyone out here, and practice it once or twice before we head out.¡±


    I head back to the dugout, scrape the muck off the door, and knock a couple of times as I claim it to my inventory. ¡°Knock knock, I need everyone out here and close together for a few seconds, please. I need to practice, to be ready.¡±


    ¡°Be ready for what?¡± ¡°Practice what?¡± ¡°What now?¡± are questions from the twins and Mata. I only let myself heave a slight sigh.


    ¡°I¡¯m trying to be better prepared, I have a plan, but I haven¡¯t tested to see if I can even do the plan with my powers. Any time we¡¯re not marching, or running, we¡¯re going to need to be within, hm, this distance, of a shape like this.¡± I draw out a rough triangle on the ground, about the shape of the amount of materials I have. Lao, Ag, Luni and Teuila immediately bunch up in the center of the triangle, Mata rolls his eyes before ushering the twins to one corner. ¡°Near the edges, the amount of room will be really low, you¡¯ll have to stay ducked low.¡±


    Lil and I begin to try to rapidly construct a pyramid around us, but the process is slow, too slow to be used in an emergency. We try several times, but can¡¯t speed up the process quickly enough when trying to construct it brick by brick. Larger objects seem to use up exponentially larger amounts of energy when called to and expelled from my inventory, so I was hoping to be able to do it with individual bricks, nearly for free, but even at several bricks per second, that¡¯s too many seconds of the serpent having a chance to eat my family.


    Sighing, somewhat exhausted, I let Lil¡¯ know the change of plans across our shared mental wavelength, and as we finish the pyramid, we leave several gaps to attack out of. Once we¡¯re completely surrounded, I claim entire faces of the structure to my inventory at once. Once it¡¯s claimed, everyone seems about ready to leave, but as practice, I quickly throw the faces back up around us before they can. It¡¯s much quicker, and leaves me panting for breath. If I put up three faces, with no floor, I can do it without energy debt. However, with no floor, it¡¯s less a stable structure, and more some walls that sink and fall away from one another. I grimace, and try to hold back sadness and tears. I¡¯m not strong enough yet, to protect my family without risk, without sacrifice. The fourth face is almost enough energy debt to evolve one of us. It takes around six hundred sixty energy per face, three faces is nearly all of my energy, the fourth sets me around twenty five percent negative.


    I¡¯m tempted to just not tell anyone, but Lil¡¯ already knows, Luni already knows. I don¡¯t want Mataalii thinking I¡¯m trying to look like a hero, claiming I¡¯m making a sacrifice. ¡°Who cares what that jerk thinks?¡± Asks Lil¡¯ across our wavelength. Luni adds, ¡°You are a hero, to me, I wouldn¡¯t have Lil¡¯ if not for you, I wouldn¡¯t be alive, if not for you.¡±


    Sighing, and a bit gasping for breath, I close my eyes for a moment, then state as plainly as I can. ¡°My plan only works if I risk energy debt, the real reason I was knocked out for several weeks, back then.¡± The rest of the family murmur or gasp as I reveal this, Teuila socks me in the shoulder. ¡°I mean, hopefully it was a combination of injury and energy debt. Also, the energy debt won¡¯t be so drastic this time, it¡¯s not nearly as far into the negative, but there are consequences that seem a bit random, so I can¡¯t guarantee what they will be.¡±


    ¡°What if you put it up, before we¡¯re attacked? More slowly?¡± Luni asks aloud.


    ¡°My plan partially relies on the element of surprise. I think the serpent is smart enough to find a way to break a structure, either from a distance, or all at once. It¡¯s not a bad idea Lu, but, I worry that it might possibly risk invalidating the plan, and leave us more vulnerable. A structure in the middle of the swamp sticks out, it¡¯s pretty obvious. It¡¯s better to quickly create a dugout every time we need a break, rather than to give away our backup surprise. I think so at least, anyway.¡±


    ¡°Hmf, I guess so, what you say makes sense at least.¡± Luni replies, yielding.


    Teuila however continues to sock me in the shoulder, lightly growling. I turn my attention to Te, staring mournfully into her angered gaze. She says ¡°It¡¯s not fair, why do burdens keep falling on you?¡± I can only shrug, and half-smile, as I hug her tightly, and hide my shame in the crook of her neck.


    ¡°Lu, I need you to promise me that you won¡¯t overwork yourself just because of this, promise me we¡¯ll take breaks. I¡¯ll never forgive either of us if I¡¯m the reason something happens to you.¡± Luni looks guiltily at me, she knows I know she was thinking of marching the whole day through, just so we wouldn¡¯t need my fallback plan. ¡°Promise me, please.¡±


    ¡°I,¡± She stutters a moment, halting, then she heaves a sigh, ¡°I promise.¡± Ag and Lao seem to be confusedly switching focus, peering at one of us then the other, they then look down at Lil, expectantly, who says nothing, then their gaze turns to Teuila.


    ¡°What? I¡¯m the responsible one of these dorks, I¡¯m not going to do something risky, I keep them all in line. Well, as much as I can anyway.¡± Teuila¡¯s reply causes Laomati and Agwai to sigh with relief. As brash as Teuila is, she is definitely the level-headed one amongst my little inner-circle. At least right now. I would have thought Lu would be even more clear-headed, as she wasn¡¯t really part of any fights, but now she¡¯s trying to push herself for all of our sakes.


    I couldn¡¯t ask for a better family for this life, in this wilderness so fraught with danger. Even Mataalii, he reminds me that I¡¯m not invincible, and I¡¯m definitely nowhere near perfect. Not that I really truly needed to be reminded of such, but his mere existence at this point will probably keep me from ever having an over-inflated ego. Self-doubt can be a good thing, right? If it forces us to face ourselves, and always try to be better, one moment to the next?


    There are some other things I need to practice, and I realize we probably should have been on the East side of the river this entire time. Lil, are you up for evolving and carrying us across the river so I can test a few things? Can you hear me buddy?


    ¡°Yep yep! Hey everyone! Who wants a dragon-back ride!? Go for it pal!¡± Lil exclaims aloud for everyone to hear, I guess that¡¯s my cue to help them evolve, I¡¯d be a jerk to leave them hanging after an announcement like that, so I quickly form our tether.


    In a moment, Lil¡¯s form shifts to that of Lilagnewt, a quadrupedal winged gecko more or less, and I test out teleporting to Lil¡¯s back as they take a quick flight around the family to show off their wings. It¡¯s exceedingly difficult to do, when it happened, I was really angry at one creature in particular, and I wanted to get to them, so it was less teleporting onto Lil¡¯s back, and more teleporting to a place of anger, with Lil as a stopping point. Realizing that might be the key, and that I¡¯ve only got two creatures I could possibly be angry at at the moment, one of them being myself, I sigh, and picture Mata as my anger anchor, and sure enough, for the briefest moment I find myself atop Lil, then right in front of Mata.


    I casually whisper, ¡°Boo.¡± Mata tumbles backwards as I give the ghostly greeting. I wonder, if I¡¯m my anger target, will I still move to Lil¡¯s back as a midpoint of a telejump? Or can I somehow drop my anger and my target, while I¡¯m on Lil? After several attempts, I¡¯m still no closer to staying atop Lil with a teleport, but I could at least teleport in front of someone I¡¯m fighting, if for example, I¡¯m in their mouth. I wonder if Lil has to have line of sight on my target for the teleportation to work. There might be a lot of factors to play around with. Maybe if Lil sees my target as I engage the ability, but loses sight the split second I begin to teleport, I might get stuck on their back.


    All of my testing and pondering happens over only a few split seconds, during which it probably looks like I¡¯m harassing Mataalii, which sucks. The twins are clamoring excitedly as Lil swoops around one last time for a landing to start taking passengers. ¡°I think we should be on the east side of the river, Lil will carry anyone across who doesn¡¯t want to swim. The serpent was near the west bank two nights ago, I¡¯m hoping that it¡¯s still somewhere out there.¡± I motion off to the west.


    Lao is standing near Lil, stroking their wings and flank with a curious expression on her face. I wonder what¡¯s up, but I have to stay a bit focused on maintaining the tether. Teuila beats everyone to the east bank in a split second, not even the least bit slowed by the river as she swims across it. I try to join Teuila in crossing the river manually, via my own power, and I lose quite a bit of distance to the river¡¯s flow as it sends me downstream during my crossing. Teuila looks like she¡¯s struggling to stifle laughter as she walks along the bank to bring me back to the rest of the family. Mata crossed the river while Teuila and I were making our way back up the bank, seemingly fairly handily. In that same time, Lil had ferried the twins, and Ag and Lao across.


    ¡°Is this who you are now? Have you evolved dear child? Can you stay like this? It¡¯s such a beautiful form for you.¡± Lao dotes on Lil in a curious manner, seeming very impressed with Lil¡¯s draconic form.


    ¡°Awe shucks, but nah, it¡¯s temporary, Reggie¡¯s gotta keep pumping energy into this weird bond we have. Without it, watch this, hey Reggie, let ¡®er rip!¡± As Lil requests, I let loose the tether, reclaiming my energy. Lil drops to the ground and Lil¡¯s form shrinks as they bounce a bit in the standing water of the swamp.


    Teuila tugs on me a bit, and she begins stripping her gear, I raise an eyebrow, curious what she¡¯s on about, then I realize, she wants to get to show off her form too, she¡¯s just embarrassed to ask, since it would be like admitting being jealous of Lil. I claim Teuila¡¯s gear for a bit, and whisper to her not to do anything fancy that takes a lot of energy. I hope she understands why, since things seem to cost more out of combat, we could both end up in energy debt, if we do, and the consequence is passing out, we leave the family pretty vulnerable.


    Since Teuila wants this, I politely announce, ¡°Our family¡¯s primary protector Teuila also has another form, and this! is what she looks like.¡± As I emphasize the word this, I pour energy into a bond with Teuila, showing everyone at hand the appearance of her evolved form. I clutch my chest as I¡¯m stricken with a bit of pain, and an odd pressure builds in my forehead just above and between my eyes, thankfully no one¡¯s attention is on me, as Teuila shows off her gear, and mimics her moves without fully leaping into the air. I gasp for breath as a pain also starts in my right suboccipital area, then lances to the pressure point in my forehead, passing through my right eye. I clench my jaw and grit my teeth, pressing through the pain. What¡¯s more, my right temple is in a pain that can¡¯t decide if it¡¯s pounding, throbbing, pulsing, or a dull ache.


    I think the oxygen deprivation, or self-transformation of last night probably left some lasting damage, though I¡¯m not sure what kind. Teuila touches her forehead, and glances back at me, it¡¯s pretty obvious she can sense something is up as she announces ¡°But I¡¯ll only be like this in a dire emergency, and remember, never touch this spear, its magic is super dangerous.¡± Teuila divests in front of me, I guess she figures we may as well grab any extra copies of her equipment that we can, so I claim them before dropping the tether, then I hand her a copy of her equipment once we¡¯re finished. Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is there a tiny white streak in Teuila¡¯s brilliant copper fur?


    ¡°Reggie, how¡¯d that happen?¡± Teuila points to my forehead, and if she¡¯s asking about the pain, I have no idea how to answer. Her hand darts forward and she grabs a shock of my hair, bringing it in front of my eyes, it¡¯s lightly streaked with white.


    ¡°I, I don¡¯t know, but it happened to you too.¡± I stroke her forehead where there¡¯s the tiniest streak of white amidst her gorgeous fur, and if I brush it the right way, it¡¯s completely hidden. She holds my hand with both of hers, and nuzzles it momentarily. ¡°Do you see any white spots on Lil?¡± I ask her quietly.


    ¡°Hm, no, none.¡± Her answer is given as she quickly glances over at Lil, and I struggle with the pain in my temple and various spots in my head. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± She asks as she returns her gaze to me.


    ¡°It hurts, it hurts really badly. I might be paying the price for being an idiot last night.¡±


    ¡°Shut up, you weren¡¯t an idiot, well okay, you kind of were, that was really dumb, but it¡¯s not your fault.¡± Teuila chastises me, but I can¡¯t help but to laugh as she basically backpedals my own insult to insult me then defend me.


    For probably the first time ever, I pull my leaf leather hood that I¡¯ve only ever used to give Lil a hammock on my back, over my head, and down over one eye, then I tie it tighter with a vine, leaving the helmet off for now. ¡°We should get moving, can you give Lu some sort of signal to get everyone started?¡±


    She nods, then shouts, ¡°Lu, let¡¯s roll!¡± I roll my eyes and chuckle, rolling my eyes hurts, but it was funny.


    ¡°Subtle, very subtle.¡±


    ¡°Heee.¡± She lets out a single giggle, then socks me in the shoulder.


    Over the next few hours, Lu tries out a new variation on her marching song, that uses ¡°And a one, and a two, and a three,¡± instead of ¡°Zero, one, two, three, four.¡± Similarly, the twins, Ag, and Lao are able to easily join in on the counting bits, and I¡¯m able to zone out, letting the scenery just pass us by, slowly feeling the pain recede. I¡¯m grateful for the distraction, and the mindlessness of the march itself. Three hours into the march or so, I signal for Teuila to get Lu to stop and rest. I¡¯m not willing to risk Lu going through any of the sorts of pain I have gone through, or am going through.


    The family gathers close to sit together, knowing how close we need to stay together, so we partake of a meal temporarily as we recuperate. The jade and emerald lighting that reaches down through the canopy leaves our family awash in diamond patterns of different shades of green, and it¡¯s a slightly mesmerizing effect.


    I lean against Teuila, still somewhat recovering from the surprise headache, I drift into a bit of a short nap. It¡¯s slightly uncomfortable to sit in standing water, but it¡¯s better than staying on our feet marching for eight or more hours straight in a row.


    Luni announces, ¡°I¡¯m going to go get a drink, and cool my toes in the river.¡± She takes off her boots and puts them away in the magic bag inside her harp, and heads down towards the bank. I¡¯m nervous that she¡¯s outside the range of the structure I can throw up, and Lil senses my nervousness, so joins Luni down on the riverbank.


    Lao and Ag, Mata and the twins, Teuila and myself, are all sitting in corners of a triangle, holding our pair, or pairs. I let my eyes droop, my breathing slow, as I try to recover for the march ahead. I hear Luni playfully splashing Lil, and Lil indignantly joking and occasionally squirting her with water. Their innocent joy lets me smile.


    That¡¯s when I hear it, feel it, sense it. That undulating roll, that swishing slither that shakes the surface of the whole swamp. I even see its heads already on the west bank, the bastard has six front heads somehow, but one of its neck stumps has no heads. Like some form of hydra, it must have torn off one of its own heads and grown two back to replace it. The magic of the spear Gae Buidhe worked at least, if only we had managed to jab each of its necks at least once.

 Chapter 28: Revenge of Octorochi

    <h2>Chapter 28: Revenge of Octorochi</h2>


    No plan survives first contact, or so they say.  Lil and Luni are off to the west, Octorochi is closing in on them fast and Lu is just barely standing to begin turning away to run, everything seems to fade into slow motion, Agwai has to hold Laomati back as I place the first face of our structure, the floor beneath us.


    I have two fighting instincts clawing for dominance, one is to place the two western faces of the structure, which gives me more time to place the final face before I have to suffer energy debt, the other is to tether energy to Lil, and have them get Luni to safely, which takes enough energy that I won¡¯t be able to get all of the walls up at all.  If I place the two westward walls, Luni has further to run before she makes it around and into the pyramid, where I could close it safely, and Octorochi is faster, every scenario I play in my head in rapid succession ends with her being caught.  If I evolve Lil, I don¡¯t have enough energy to put up the third wall, even the second wall causes me to go into energy debt, causing the rest of the family to be a free meal as we¡¯re trapped in what amounts to only most of a pyramid.


    I hate this serpent, this evil beast that attacks without reason, without remorse.  Someone dies today if I take either course of action, everyone dies today if I do nothing.  I look to Teuila, begging forgiveness for what I¡¯m about to do.  I state calmly, ¡°Change of plans.¡±  I then yell ¡°Scatter!  Te, Lao, south, Mata, Ag, Twins, North!¡±  I extend my energy tether to Lil, whom is atop Luni¡¯s head at the moment, as they transform they know immediately to break away to the south, carrying Luni.  I however test out my teleportation, and face down this bastard once more as I summon a copy of Gae Buidhe from my inventory.


    I can feel Teuila¡¯s seething rage as she has no choice but to guide Lao away, she understood immediately that she and Lao were faster, so could sweep wide around and rendezvous with the rest.  All I need do is survive, and not look this thing in the eyes.  I tighten the leaf leather hood about my eyes, covering both of them, and roar my frustrations at the serpent once more, letting my danger wraps guide my reflexes.  I¡¯m almost lucky to have spent that time blind, and to have gotten a headache today, it¡¯s like some force is looking out for me.  I wish I had Teuila¡¯s agility, or leaping ability, if I could get above this thing¡¯s reach and come down on it, repeatedly, but no such luck.  Gae Buidhe however manages to ignore its threshold, as expected of a dangerous magical spear.


    What other advantages do I have?  Quick, think Reggie, think, it can¡¯t meet my gaze, inside its mouth is more tender, I have seven more copies of a dangerous spear, wait.  If I move that way, it snaps, I¡¯m in a jaw, if I move that way, it snaps, I¡¯m in a jaw.  If I move this way, and duck low, it snaps, and won¡¯t notice until too late as it jams its own face down on a spear that I stick in the mud.  I feint, as if Gae Buidhe and the shield are my only armaments, striking towards the agile serpent, it dodges me nimbly as expected, then I duck low, summoning an extra copy of the spear into the muck below me, sticking up just past my head as I inch ever slightly lower into the muck below.  The force of the serpent impales itself, driving Gae Buidhe through its own head, and filling it with fury.  It won¡¯t fall for that again, I need to infuriate it twice more before it will make enough mistakes for me to escape.


    I¡¯m already panting, and sweating, if Lil guides Lao and Teuila around to the north, and spots Mata, I can probably teleport away and join them, but I have to wait for an opening, and wait for them to be far enough away that the serpent loses the trail.  I have to keep inciting mistakes until then, without making too many of my own.  Fudge, I have to go for a swim, again.


    I dance in a slow semicircle around the serpent, drawing its attention as I make the occasional jab.  It can¡¯t afford to ignore me, knowing how dangerous my spear is.  I summon another copy of Gae Buidhe in the air above the serpent, out of all of its lines of sight, then I feign falling backwards into the river as I let the other copy drop between the serpent¡¯s rear heads, shunting into its tail, nearly pinning it into the mud, but of course the ground is too soft for that to work, all it accomplished was angering the serpent.  That¡¯s all I needed it to do.  The serpent took a split second to look around for an unseen attacker as I let myself fall in the river, before it realized that it was me.  Mistake number two.


    Come on, I just need one more, I need it to make one more, and I have to make sure I don¡¯t impale myself on one of the spears sticking out of the snake in the meantime, I should probably get close enough to reclaim those.


    Oh no, it¡¯s even faster in water, oh no, what was I thinking.  Lil if you can hear me, tell Teuila I¡¯m almost ready to teleport out of this mess, keep Mata in your sight, don¡¯t let them split up anymore, start a dugout.  Ahh my head.  Fudge.  My vision blurs even inside the hood, and my danger wraps¡¯ senses are flooded with froth and the splash of water, making it hard to discern where the serpent¡¯s attacks are going to come from.  I have to give in and let the wraps subconsciously guide me, and trust in them.


    I send my copy of the spear back to my inventory, deciding to fight bare-handed, mostly so I can retrieve the other two copies without injuring myself.  The first spear is easy to get, as all I have to do is bop one of the front heads in the snout, the one that¡¯s got the spear stuck through it, to reclaim Gae Buidhe from its cranium.  Next time I fight this bastard, I¡¯ll have a spear ready for each of its heads, I just need to survive until then.  It¡¯s getting impatient for me to be in its mouths, here comes all the heads at once, just like the first time.  I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d ever fall for the same trick twice, you big jerk.  I make myself as small as possible, and I have to give up one of my most prized possessions to do this, but I use Newton¡¯s third law, expelling my walking stick from my inventory, jamming it into the bed of the river, pivoting my body so that it shoves me upward between all of Octorochi¡¯s necks, into the path of the last spear.


    I catch the final copy of Gae Buidhe, dragging it out of Octorochi¡¯s tail, and slashing it across as much of its body as I can as I¡¯m teleporting away in the confusion of its heads snapping at one another in the foam and spray of the rapids.  I momentarily appear atop Lil as I¡¯m shunting Gae Buidhe back into my inventory, then arrive in front of Mataalii.  Without the fury I feel deep down for Mata, I wouldn¡¯t have gotten away.  Once there, I just hug Mata and say ¡°Thank you.¡±  I then drop to my knees, dropping the tether with Lil, passing out.


    While unconscious, I find myself reviewing the losses.  I lost a quarter of our tetrahedron¡¯s faces, I lost my walking stick, but as far as I could see when I arrived via teleportation, everyone had arrived and banded together to make a dugout, it seems it was easier with a nearly fully fledged dragon to dig.  Maybe we should just do that from now on, I¡¯ll keep Lil evolved, and deal with the pain involved with keeping the tether up for extended periods.  Lil can just quickly dig a cave every time we need to rest, then I only need to throw up one face once it¡¯s dug.


    I awaken to being shaken and slapped by Teuila.  I¡¯m in for it now.  ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I¡¯m so, so, so, so sorry, please forgive me Te, please.  Please forgive me.¡±  I do mean it, I¡¯m sincere that I regret and want her forgiveness.


    Teuila¡¯s response is to growl louder, and louder.  ¡°Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!GRRRR!!!!!GRRRRRR!!!!¡± When she seems unable to growl any louder she just yells, ¡°AAAAHHHH!!!!!¡±  After it¡¯s out of her system, and everyone else looks a bit shook up, she slumps to her knees once again.  She pleads with me quietly as she lightly pounds on my chest, ¡°Why is it you?  Why does it always have to be you?¡±


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The funny thing is, it¡¯s because I¡¯m not strong enough yet, that it has to be me.  If I had a little more maximum energy, the plan would have worked fine.  There was another option I didn¡¯t exactly try to take, I could have maybe force evolved Teuila instead of Lil, to much the same effect, she¡¯d have dashed over to rescue either Luni or Lil, then I¡¯d have had to beg her to scatter.  She could have stayed to distract Octorochi that way, but then Luni or Lil wouldn¡¯t have gotten away, one or the other.  I also might not have gotten out, because I¡¯m slower than the rest, and I don¡¯t know if I can teleport to Teuila.  She might have risked herself or one of the others to try to save me.


    I realize that as I¡¯ve been lost in thought, several of the family have been asking me why I didn¡¯t put up the building, or why I couldn¡¯t.  When I come to my senses, I try to answer.  ¡°Luni was too far away, she¡¯d have had to run around to the back side, but the serpent was faster than her, it¡¯d have beaten her there, then I¡¯d have to close the pyramid to save the rest of us.  I had to choose between Luni and Lil, or the rest of you.  I also played through in my head trying to have Lil or Te rescue her, while still putting up the walls, and I couldn¡¯t get the final wall up due to energy debt.  I¡¯m sorry that I¡¯m not strong enough, that I don¡¯t have enough power and energy for my magics yet.¡±


    I¡¯m certain that my failure has cemented my worthlessness into Mata¡¯s mind, but I guess that serves its own purpose.  His animosity towards me, or my resentment of that animosity allowed the kind of negative bond I needed for my own small victory this day.  It¡¯s fairly somber in the dugout, and Lil looks to be snoozing off the weariness of the transformation, their adorable snores are the only sound at the moment.


    Lil¡¯s probably the only one that understands why I thanked Mataalii when I arrived, since I haven¡¯t really explained the teleportation to anyone, what I¡¯ve learned about it, or at least guessed about it.  I might even be wrong, it might not be anger that I have, it might be hostile intent of others, Mata could actually really have it in for me, I don¡¯t know.  ¡°Is anyone injured?  I¡¯m sorry if that was scary.¡±


    The twins look extremely shaken, but I don¡¯t see any injuries on anyone, well, anyone other than myself.  I¡¯m battered, bruised, I might have some broken bones.  I¡¯m so incredibly grateful for the way injuries recover in our world.  What I¡¯m not grateful for is that jerk serpent, as my thoughts focus on it, my hatred of it grows and grows.  I imagine how it could have taken any member of my family from me.


    My vision goes red, I can¡¯t help but feel full of fury, I want to lash out, I need to lash out.  I feel my tattoo tendrils extend, and I begin to growl, my family vanishes from my vision, and all I see is red as I continue to think about that horrid beast.  This.  This isn¡¯t me.  I try divesting the tattoo.  It feels as if the flesh of my arm is being flayed.  It feels akin to my skin being peeled off, but the tendrils disappear from my senses, yet my vision remains red, it was not their fault.  My thoughts drift to the various red-eyed creatures I¡¯ve run into so far in my short lifespan, and thankfully, one of my greatest weaknesses stops me before I lash out.  I imagine Day¡­ One¡­


    As I hyperventilate, and this red vision somehow tunnels into deeper crimson, the ever-present ringing in my ears is accompanied by a pounding presence.  My pulse races, my body quivers, and I relive the nightmares of my first sleep, fleeing from everything opening into jagged maws, the world itself cracking a jagged false smile and me tumbling into its toothy grin, swallowed and shredded to bits.


    Some time later, I come to, my eyes incredibly itchy and dry, as if they¡¯re all cried out.  I hear faint weeping, that I would expect to be coming from me, but it¡¯s not, it¡¯s coming from the twins who seem to be cowering behind Mata.  I realize my hood is still down over my eyes, and I pull it back, scanning the dugout for everyone.  If I¡¯ve hurt someone in a rampage I¡¯ll never forgive myself.  Lil is there, seeming a bit stiff and on guard.  Lao and Ag are holding one another close, staring on in a fright.  Luni is backed against a wall.  Teuila¡¯s fist is approaching my face.  I pass out before I can even finish the thought.


    I awaken again, yet some time later.  I feel my face for signs of a bruise, or itchy eyes, but my hood is still over my eyes, Teuila is snuggled into my chest, Luni and Lil are atop me on the other side, Lao and Ag are close as well.  It¡¯s as if none of that just happened.  For once, I check my memory logs, there¡¯s my experience of it, and reading about having a panic attack triggers another panic attack, but there¡¯s no evidence that Teuila hit me to knock me out.  My tattoo is still applied, my vision isn¡¯t red.  Teuila has woken up and is comforting me, sensing my panic.


    ¡°Teuila?  Did, did I go on a rampage?  Did you have to knock me out?¡±


    ¡°Shh, no, what are you talking about?  You¡¯re okay, you¡¯re here.¡±


    ¡°Teuila, please look at my memory log, the most recent bit?¡±


    ¡°Hm, okay, sure.  This¡­ This didn¡¯t happen.  How can that be?  I understand the panic attacks, but I don¡¯t get the rest of this.¡±  Teuila¡¯s bewilderment matches my own puzzling at this memory.  I don¡¯t think I even went into energy debt, so I can¡¯t blame that for a hallucination.  ¡°You passed out right after asking if anyone else was injured, maybe it was a dream?¡±  Teuila guesses.


    ¡°What a horrible, awful, vivid dream.¡±  Is the only reaction I can come up with for that.  I bury my face into the crook of Teuila¡¯s neck, and smooch at her clavicle several times, trying to just rattle free any of those dark thoughts.  We didn¡¯t march as far today, but it seems like everyone is napping with me.  I¡¯m perfectly happy to accept the rest, and I¡¯d like to take advantage of it, but I can¡¯t.  I need to earn about a quarter more maximum energy.  The most I was earning was when Teuila was evolved.


    ¡°Teuila, I¡¯m afraid to ask this of you, well maybe not afraid, but loathe to, since we¡¯re so comfy, but I think I need you to be evolved, and to use a lot of my energy.  Are you willing to head out of the dugout, and practice jumping attacks for a bit?¡±  Teuila¡¯s ears perk up at my request, she basically scoffs in response.


    ¡°You barely even have to ask.  Sure, let¡¯s let the fam snooze while we train.¡±  Teuila gently nudges Luni to one side, so that we can crawl out from under her without waking her, and we exit the dugout, replacing the cap carefully, quietly.


    My idea is to have Teuila leap onto things I summon out of my inventory into the air, and thrust them down.  I¡¯m suspicious that she might have some sort of gravity based powers.  While she does that, I should probably be swimming.  It¡¯ll tire me out pretty quickly, but if I time my rests, I should be able to keep it up for a while.  I share my plan with Te, who¡¯s all too happy to agree to it.


    Evolving Teuila feels easier now, having done it already so many times, and I feel closer to her than ever before, like she carries my beating heart in her chest, soaring into the sky with each of her incredible leaps.  As I suspected, she¡¯s able to basically dance on objects in the air, barely connecting with them at all, or she¡¯s able to kick them downward so hard that they rocket to the ground with incredible force.  My swimming against the current tires me out physically while summoning things for Teuila to perform sky ballet on tires me out magically.  I¡¯m really just gently tossing random junk upwards into the sky, and she¡¯s connecting with them at the apex, but it makes for effective training.  I¡¯m able to actually recover energy when I clamber out of the river and rest against Teuila, while she rests, even in her evolved form.  Though panting, and struggling, I manage to continue doing this with her for several hours, before I have to beg to head back in and join the family for sleep.


    Teuila readily acquiesces.  We manage to resume our snuggling position under Luni and Lil, by nudging them slightly.  I return to sleep, comforted, assured in the thought that next time, surely next time is the last time we¡¯ll ever see that horrid serpent.  It¡¯s in for a nasty surprise, spears raining from the skies.  I try to let go of my anger though, to enjoy the comfort and love of those I hold dear, their embraces bring me the utmost joy, and I never want to lose sight of that.

 Chapter 29: Octorochi Strikes Back

    <h2>Chapter 29: Octorochi Strikes Back</h2>


    The thing about heat, or cold, it seems to be tied to the same resistance, thermal resistance, which makes sense. I guess it¡¯s the resistance in the change of the speed of the fluctuation of one¡¯s own atoms, since that¡¯s more or less what heat is, or lack thereof. I wonder, if one achieved high enough thermal resist, could they acquire thermokinesis? Well, I mean, Lil basically has that, and they have infinite thermal resist. I only surmise this as a possibility because it feels like resistances and tolerances are somewhat subconscious abilities, learned as it were, as most other abilities. So if a being is basically learning to control their own atomic movement, a very mild possibility exists that they could learn to control other atomic movement. Honestly, if one did learn that, they¡¯d acquire all forms of psychokinesis, tele, pyro, cryo. I guess it seems a bit far fetched. Hah, in a world full of magic, gaining psychokinesis sounds far fetched. I don¡¯t even know what to believe anymore. Am I dreaming right now, or am I lost in thought?


    I open my eyes, to see Teuila¡¯s face in her hands. She¡¯s propped up with her elbows digging into my chest, where my hands lay beneath her elbows. Te stares down at me, smiling. Her legs and body drape down my torso and legs, she basically has me pinned. ¡°¡®Sup dork?¡± She asks, I can¡¯t help smiling, rolling my eyes and shaking my head.


    ¡°A direction.¡± I sarcastically reply, staring into her wonderful emerald eyes. Teuila¡¯s jaw hangs slack for a moment, with one eye slightly squinted, the other eyebrow slightly raised, as she contemplates my answer. When she realizes I literally answered what is up, she sits up, straddling me, and socks me in my shoulder then my cheek for my cheekiness.


    ¡°Heee.¡± She gleefully lets out her wonderful single laugh. After the laugh, she stands up and to help me to my feet. We jokingly stand professionally, with one hand behind each of our backs, and casually shake each other¡¯s other hand. ¡°Dork.¡± Is all she says in response, and I just grin at her like a madbeast, smiling wide to my eyes.


    ¡°Does anyone else mind if we keep doing this? The much shorter marches, with quick scouting for dugouts, and frequent long naps for rest?¡±


    The rest of the family seems to agree that it appears to be the safest course of action for all involved. I regret that my pyramid idea didn¡¯t work out, though I¡¯ll gather enough new resources for a new bottom face for the pyramid over time, and hopefully Teuila and I can keep sneaking out to train. If we train enough, I¡¯ll have enough energy capacity that I can toss up all the walls simultaneously. I¡¯m nearing that point already from one training session. If we train even harder, I could force Lil or Teuila¡¯s temporary evolution and still place all faces of the tetrahedron, that way, anyone who was further away could be rescued and dragged into place before I set up the walls.


    Next time we train, maybe we could invite Lil and Lu along, though perhaps the singing and marching is all the training Luni needs for now. If Lil gains a bit more maximum energy, they might be able to evolve when tethered to my pool, without using any of my own energy. Are you guys in my head right now? What do you think about that idea?


    Since I was thinking strongly about them, I figured it might call their attention to my thoughts. ¡°It did.¡± ¡°Yup yup!¡± come Lu and Lil¡¯s replies across our mental wavelength.


    ¡°Lil should join you two, I can¡¯t believe you snuck off without us, but I was really tired and scared after today. I didn¡¯t really see it that one night, since I was barely moving. Having the first time I really see it be when I was away from the family, well, it terrified me.¡± Luni sends her thoughts my way telepathically into our shared wavelength, the bond between the three of us. ¡°I think maybe you¡¯re right, maybe the singing is enough training for me for now. I¡¯m not brave like you.¡±


    Lu, you are braver than you know, but you¡¯re so sweet, and tender, wait, that sounds like I¡¯m describing food, sorry. ¡°Tehe.¡± She giggles across the mental wavelength, and I hear Lil chuckling as well. Anyway, it¡¯s okay, you don¡¯t have to prepare for fighting, just be your sweet self, and don¡¯t over-exert yourself.


    ¡°But you¡¯re gonna let your dragon pal join you in training! Right buddy?¡± Lil enthusiastically thinks at me. Of course Lil, of course.


    The entire exchange happens in a split second, between other conscious thoughts, it really is like being able to experience a conversational world at the speed of subconscious thought. It might even be faster. Our wavelength is such an accelerated pace, that I understand how Lil and Lu have years of time together already. I want to get to spend more time with them in there. I¡¯ve been so preoccupied with my emotions and plans that I forget that I have two amazing friends within reach at all times. Our little inner circle gathers for a group hug, which of course means Lil jumps up to be squished between all of our chests.


    Our days begin to blend together, as we continue marching ever North. Luni finds simple rhymes she can do that the twins and Agwai can join in on, like ¡®and a one and a two,¡¯ and so on. We take rests every few hours, and for about half the duration of those rests, Lil joins Teuila and me for training. So I practice having them both tethered and evolved simultaneously, which has some unusual repercussions, or well, at least unexpected benefits. One benefit is that my energy capacity increases faster, though I have to be careful, evolving both of them outside of combat takes up nearly everything I have. Another benefit is; as Lil joins the tether Teuila gets to feel what Lil feels, including somewhat joining our bond.


    Teuila and Lil grow closer than ever due to the shared evolution training through me. I¡¯m so happy that there¡¯s no lingering resentment there. I remember dreaming one time that Teuila would be able to leap off of Lil and strike down any foes. Now that they¡¯re able to practice with each other, Te can actually do just that. Seeing it in action is a pretty spectacular spectacle, as far as sights to behold are concerned. They both have such exuberant, and similar personalities. They share the dream that they both hold. Both want to get strong enough to lead a happy peaceful life, staying safe, and protecting the ones they love.


    We¡¯ve finally reached the waterfall at the cliffs in the swamp, I can see the rock that I leapt off of from down here. We haven¡¯t run into Octorochi again in all this time, perhaps due to our cautious use of dugouts every few hours, or perhaps it¡¯s laying in wait for us atop the cliff. I¡¯d wager the latter. That serpent is so intelligent, it knows what it¡¯s doing. I¡¯d wager it figured out we were traveling north. With our frequent rests, it had probably beat us here.


    ¡°Hey, um, everybody? I¡¯m so proud of how far we¡¯ve gotten, we¡¯re nearly out of the swamp, but I¡¯m almost certain the serpent is atop the cliff waiting for us. I¡¯m at a loss how to get us safely up there, while staying ready for battle. I could have Lil or Teuila carry one or two of us at a time, but then that basically leaves the first ones up there to face the serpent alone, as Lil or Te¡¯d have to go back down and get the others. Worse yet, that¡¯s two non combat evolution tethers, I barely have enough energy to create those, let alone maintain them.¡±


    There¡¯s murmurs from the family, as they worriedly try to suss out the right course of action. Mataalii plainly asks, ¡°So what¡¯s your plan, magician?¡± I sigh and sit in the mud that¡¯s caused by the standing water on the swamp floor.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know Mata, I don¡¯t know, I¡¯ve been trying this whole time to be prepared, I can¡¯t work miracles.¡±


    ¡°Seems to me like you can.¡± Mataalii replies smugly.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± I¡¯m confused, that almost sounds like a compliment, but Mata sounds like a jerk as they state it.


    He leans close and whispers, ¡°I¡¯ve seen you sneaking off, I¡¯ve seen what you can do, don¡¯t, disappoint me.¡± He emphasizes his final words by jabbing me in the chest repeatedly. The rest of the family watches the exchange but doesn¡¯t intervene.


    Does this mean Mataalii snuck out at some point, and watched me train with Teuila and Lil? I guess it doesn¡¯t matter, we weren¡¯t intentionally keeping it secret, we just wanted everyone else to rest, and we wanted the time to train.


    ¡°I guess I could make pitons, or, basically clay stairs or steps, pounding them in slightly, and baking them against the cliff face with Lil¡¯s help. Near the top, we could affix a rope. Lao and Ag, you could fit the twins in your kelp pouches. Mata I trust you can climb safely, Luni too.¡±


    ¡°Child, what of you, Lil, and Teuila?¡± Lao¡¯s words are fretful, which is understandable, I left us out for a reason.


    ¡°We¡¯ll already be atop the cliff, we¡¯ll be the ones placing the clay ladder steps and vine rope.¡± I didn¡¯t want to have to admit it. I¡¯m risking the three of us.


    Lao starts to object, but Agwai holds Lao¡¯s hands and shakes their own head. I wish I could stomach the courage to thank Agwai for their faith right now, but my insides are tied up in knots of fear. I spend a few moments thinking questioningly at Lu and Lil  Though Lu is fearful, while Lil is prideful, they both agree.


    We have to go slowly, I need to regenerate my energy as I¡¯m using it to place the clay. I¡¯m carefully using unbaked clay shaped into wedges. I fire it into the cliff side by expelling it from my inventory, then pound it in place with my tattoo tendrils. Lil bakes the steps into place with their fire breath. Teuila seems almost invincible to the effects of gravity in some ways, but still, as she climbs along beneath us, testing each step, I ready myself to help her evolve at a moment¡¯s notice.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    We¡¯re about two thirds of the way finished up when disaster strikes. My guess was either wrong, or Octorochi has a quick way up and down the cliffside, as there¡¯re screams from below. I rapidly fire the last piton-steps into place, including an eyelet one. Lil digs into my energy to finish firing the clay into place on the cliff¡¯s face. I send a vine from my inventory through the eyelet, rather, almost all the vines I have, to be able to reach the bottom. This course of action sets my energy dangerously low already, I barely have enough left to evolve Teuila. I thought we would have more time, so that I could finish the ladder without using energy. Instead, now it has taken far too much energy, risking the entire plan.


    The family is climbing rapidly as Lil and I descend at breakneck pace. Teuila leaps off the side of the cliff onto Lil¡¯s back with me as we plummet. The three of us crash into Octorochi from above, driving it back just before it snaps at Laomati. Lao is bravely bringing up the rear as the rest climb. I catch a sob in my throat as I understand her bravery and what her action signifies. She had to have come back down from partway up the cliff¡¯s face. I don¡¯t see her kelp satchel though, but I¡¯ve no time to contemplate that. Lao wouldn¡¯t put Mana in danger, so the twin is safe, somewhere.


    It¡¯s hard to get the words out, I can only manage a one word plea to Laomati, ¡°Climb?¡± Lao thankfully obliges, and I turn my attention back to the battle at hand. Lil has been taking a quadrupedal ground based evasive stance to buy time for the family. If we flew up, it¡¯d just ignore us and go after our loved ones after all. Teuila seems to be doing nothing in particular, that¡¯s when I realize I need to cover her eyes. I tie my own hood down over my eyes once again. I pull Te¡¯s visor down on her helmet, and cake its screen with clay. Thankfully that seems to snap Teuila back to her senses.


    Starting to summon weapons for Teuila and myself, I place several Gae Buidhe face up in the mud, so that I can keep the serpent angry and distracted. As I¡¯m about to start enacting the plan, the serpent breaks away, seemingly fleeing the fight. They aren¡¯t fleeing though, they¡¯re scaling a tree with blinding speed, and beating the rest of the family to the top of the cliffs. Lil would have a hard time catching up to it carrying one of us, let alone two of us. Teuila however could make it in a single leap.


    I try to steady my breathing, remaining relaxed, trying to conserve and regain as much energy as possible. Being seated seems to be able to trigger regeneration, at least slightly, even when in danger. Though perhaps that would be difficult if I were actually still in the fray. Teuila evolves as I send my tether to her. She immediately leaps to the top of the cliff to distract Octorochi. I can¡¯t teleport with Teuila, but I dismount Lil, and give them a slap on the tail. Lil knows what to do. Lil takes off like a rocket, still much slower than Teuila, but they will join up in time.


    The few seconds of waiting are complete agony as I borrow Lil¡¯s senses, their wings pounding with everything they can muster as they take to the sky to catch up. I can¡¯t express how much I appreciate my little dragon buddy right now, or Te. Teuila is beyond incredibly powerful, and Lil is still a force to be reckoned with.


    If the family gets to the top where they can see the serpent, and starts climbing back down, the serpent will just come back down. Eventually climbing up and down the cliff face, or hanging onto it for dear life, will tire us out before the serpent. It really has us pinned here. I guess I was right, one way or another, this is the last time we¡¯ll ever meet this snake. I spy a slight aura in the muck through Lil¡¯s vision, around where Staff Ninja fell. Could that possibly be the staff of thunder and lightning that they wielded?


    ¡°Lil, can you grab that, and toss it above you?¡±


    ¡°You betcha partner!¡± Lil dives low, coils their tail around the object emanating the aura, and flicks it up above their back. I teleport through Lil¡¯s bond towards Octorochi, snagging the object out of the air above Lil on the way through. I curse the fact that I had to teleport through the bond to join the fight. It was either that, or let them battle Octorochi alone. As I¡¯d have to scale the cliffs and push my family up into the fray. The energy cost for the teleport is too high, we¡¯re barely going to be able to enact what¡¯s left of the plan.


    Now that I¡¯m up here, I see how the serpent gets back and forth so easily, certain branches from the canopy of the trees that sprout below the cliff edge are within a serpent¡¯s leaping distance upwards.


    I send a telepathic request to Lil, ¡°Lil, can you take out those branches? Even if it means setting the swamp on fire. Then tell the family to hold on until the fight is finished.¡± I curse slightly that I left several Gae Buidhe at the bottom of the cliff, since my plan for finishing this jerk relied on many of them. Thankfully Teuila and I have built up quite a stock of sets of equipment over our travels in the swamp. Also, we may yet be in luck, they¡¯re sticking face up in the mud, like a spike pit trap.


    I should probably be paying attention to the fact that I¡¯m dodging Octorochi while I make these mental plans, but the danger wraps are doing their job, helping direct my reflexes. They seem to direct my reflexes to use the staff as a guard much more easily than I would expect, since I haven¡¯t practiced with it. There are slight booms with every impact the snake makes against the staff, though I can¡¯t figure out how to command any of the staff¡¯s other powers. I think the noise is only angering the serpent, and nothing else. I¡¯m fine with that. They also disguise the sound of Lil snapping branches off of the trees that the serpent could get to.


    As the serpent lunges time and time again, I find myself trying to be in several places at once, to keep each of its heads distracted. They all have to remain looking down. With this many heads, its only blindspot is above it.


    I¡¯ve been having trouble keeping track of Teuila. She¡¯s been basically dancing atop the serpent¡¯s heads, keeping out of reach while trying not to bottom out my energy. She¡¯s trying to use zero energy, since we haven¡¯t even started enacting my plan yet. We¡¯re still bleeding energy by the moment though, and this battle is far too dangerous to risk energy debt. If I pass out from a random effect of energy debt, the tethers might drop. I try to calm myself as I summon copies of Gae Buidhe into the air in the serpent¡¯s only blindspots, facing downwards at an angle towards Octorochi. I¡¯m not the hero of this battle, I just need to survive.


    Teuila knows what to do. When her and my stamina grew through our recent training, our abilities required less and less energy. I¡¯d like to say we could do this all day, but that would be a bit of a lie, stretching it currently. Maybe with a few more months of training. I raise an eyebrow towards Teuila, checking if she¡¯s ready, if she believes I¡¯ve been distracting enough. Te nods when she catches my gaze for the brief moment she¡¯s visible before I lose her again.


    We¡¯ve only got moments left before my energy gets too low to maintain the tethers, and I¡¯m personally running on fumes from trying to dodge the beast¡¯s heads. Octorochi is going to wise up to Teuila¡¯s position and threat level after our first assault. Once the serpent wises up she¡¯ll have to take it on from the ground, losing our greatest advantage. Her leaps would cost too much energy if there were no items suspended in the air for her to dance between. Knowing this, I have a sneaking suspicion that we¡¯re in deeper trouble than I can afford to let on.


    I¡¯m down to one last copy of Gae Buidhe in my inventory. Even though our count is incorrect, I let Lil know to let Teuila know. Now I take a single step back, and I give Octorochi the meal of a lifetime as I spread my arms wide. Enraged, it falls for the same trick for the third and final time. I shrink in on myself and leap through each of its necks as they all snap simultaneously.


    Passing between its necks, I spin backwards to face its heads that just thrust past me. I extend my tendrils to grasp and coil each of the necks into a bunch. Teuila first throws her own spear with incredible accuracy, helping pin several heads together. Afterwards, a rain of deadly spears begins falling as if from the heavens. There are mere milliseconds between each impact as Teuila soccer kicks or backflip kicks each spear into the serpent¡¯s craniums. Health bar after health bar bottom out on Octorochi, but as I feared, it¡¯s not enough, our count was off. Our count is off, and it¡¯s my fault for thinking we could engage Octorochi when we first met it at the lower swamp level.


    If Octorochi is like Vampguppy, they¡¯ll become enraged and more powerful in this state. I can¡¯t afford to let that happen when we¡¯re about to lose our advantages. Teuila combating it from the ground with the few seconds left in the tether could get hurt, or die, before even figuring out its new abilities, let alone finishing off the serpent.


    I look up to the skies and see her, it causes me to smile and realize, I¡¯m no poor child. For this upcoming course of action, I need no sympathy. I love you, my warrior angel, and my dragon, my oldest friend. Leaping from the cliff, tendrils still clasping Octorochi, I aim for just beyond the copies of Gae Buidhe. There is terror of realization in the eyes of Lil and Teuila as they both dash into Octorochi, making sure my leap isn¡¯t in vain. Their extra push is what was needed to send it tumbling over the edge. I imagine Te and Lil are livid with me for sacrificing myself again. Both race against gravity to reach me. I calm my breathing, closing my eyes. I know they will be too late, but one thing might still work.


    ¡°Lil, pull up!¡± I demand, and Lil, startled, does as I ask, spreading their wings in a breakfall, causing Teuila to be caught up atop them as well. Teuila is startled and enraged, but I try to teleport, hoping that it doesn¡¯t conserve momentum. The bad news is, I¡¯m not mad anymore, and Octorochi isn¡¯t alive to have any hostile intent as they impact a split second before me. The good news is the same news. I don¡¯t dare teleport to Mataalii, I¡¯d knock him off the cliff face. If I die at this moment, Lil and Teuila are low enough, and they¡¯ve slowed enough that a fall wouldn¡¯t really hurt them, so I may as well try one last thing.


    I drop their energy bonds, watching my beloved buddy, and my dear Teuila seem to slowly pass out. Teuila wraps her arms around Lil with the last of her strength as she loses consciousness. She does this, I assume, in order to reduce Lil¡¯s falling impact as they lightly plummet from a few yards above the ground. In that single instant that I have left, I force a tether around myself, pumping the energy I reclaimed from the two bonds. I shudder as I¡¯m launched into a forced evolution with barely enough energy to even begin the process. Maybe if I¡¯m lucky, the evolved form will absorb the impact with the swamp floor. Wait, the swamp floor has standing water! I call the other minor water walking potion from my inventory, trying to consume it as I transform. Transformation was a mistake, it made me ever so slightly larger in the direction of the ground as I began to consume the potion. The barest fraction of my back touches the ground as the potion kicks in.


    It feels like my back breaks, and the swamp around me explodes, thrusting Octorochi¡¯s derezzing body up and back down onto the copies of Gae Buidhe. I may have been a moment too late with the potion. How many times have I counted on water to spare my life? I feel my energy tether on myself snap, as my own forced evolution drops. Consciousness fades from me, and I see a bright light overhead.

 Chapter 30: Told You Beavers Bore Repeating

    <h2>Chapter 30: Told You Beavers Bore Repeating</h2>


    Everything hurts, are those doctors standing over me? Is that the bright light of an operating room? No, those things don¡¯t exist. I pass out once again.


    I find myself thinking, how does Laomati know cardio-pulminary resuscitation? How do I even know what that is? Why am I even thinking that she knows that? Lao¡¯s furred, silky lips press to mine once more, one of her hands seems to be holding a torch, as there is an intensely bright light above me. Her other hand heaves down on my sternum. I gasp for air, but find it hard to breathe, with my sternum feeling crushed. Oh, oh of course Lao knows how to breathe for others, she did it the Night of High Water. Lao should be a doctor when we set up our home.


    I¡¯m alive, I can see that Lao can tell, but she also understands I can¡¯t breathe on my own just yet. There¡¯s panic in her eyes, I don¡¯t know how long she¡¯s been keeping me going. She did bring up the rear, so it was easiest for her to come back down, but where are Lil and Teuila? Trying to reach into Lil¡¯s senses gives me the same feeling it does every time Lil is asleep, so at least Lil is probably fine, that means Teuila is too, because of her weird bond with gravity.


    Even through the pain, I feel somewhat comfortable and content, my eyes droop back closed, I could use a rest. I don¡¯t mind sleeping here on the swamp floor. Laomati slaps me lightly as my eyes droop, and harder as they close. Apparently she¡¯s saying something, but the ringing in my ears that¡¯s ever-present is drowning out everything, such that the text boxes are all fuzzed out. Oh, it¡¯s probably something like stay awake. That¡¯s a shame, it¡¯s such a nice time for a nap. The next few slaps keep my eyes open momentarily, but I can¡¯t keep them open for long. I could swear I saw Mataalii picking up one of the spears, that¡¯s dangerous. I manage to think that as I briefly pass out once more.


    That¡¯s dangerous! The brief moment of sleep manages to knit enough of my sternum or lungs, whatever was giving me trouble breathing, and I sit up with a sudden jerk, bashing my head into Laomati¡¯s accidentally. I look around frantically in a panic, why would Mata be picking up one of the spears? I pant, heaving every breath, Lao tries to say something to me, something soothing or calming most likely, but my ears are still ringing so loud, and my vision is so blurry.


    ¡°Where.. Where.¡± My jaw feels slack and loose, as I try to ask a question. Lao strokes my cheek and chin. Lao points out Lil and Teuila, cuddled some ways away, breathing and okay. As much as I love them and was worried for them though, I was asking about Ali. I¡¯m terrified, why did he want a spear all of a sudden? He knows how dangerous they are. As I frantically snap my head to and fro, side to side, looking for Ali, Laomati seems to catch on that I¡¯m looking for the others, she shakes her head and points to the top of the cliff.


    ¡°Everyone?¡± I manage to ask, to which she nods. ¡°Ali?¡± I¡¯m able to ask, and she nods again. Lao cradles me close, mothering me, as my energy is spent once again. I¡¯m sure my family is safe, for now, so I let go of consciousness, drifting to dreamland, hoping that what I saw was just a nightmare.


    I awaken to Teuila and Lil exuberantly cheering. I¡¯m able to give them a weak smile, and I swear I see Staff Ninja giving me a thumbs up from the canopy. I raise my arm to return the gesture as I pass out once again for another short while.


    I awaken one more time, embraced by Lao, Lil, and Teuila, as we all curl up against Lao¡¯s lap. There¡¯s an unlit torch sticking out of the ground at Lao¡¯s right side, seemingly burned out. Lao senses my stirring, and sees my gaze. ¡°I used it to signal our safety to our family atop the cliff.¡± Her answer to my unspoken question. ¡°I¡¯m so, so, so proud of you, my children. But never do anything like that, ever again.¡± She chuckles as she both praises and chastises us. Lil and Teuila stir as Lao¡¯s belly shakes with laughter.


    With excitement, I whisper to the two of them, ¡°We did it!¡± praising them. Teuila socks me lightly in the shoulder, and Lil actually spits a fireball up into the air, something I¡¯ve rarely if ever seen them do.


    ¡°Can you manage the climb, my sweets?¡± Lao asks, doting on us, looking as if she¡¯s ready to carry us all up the cliff face. Staring at her, she¡¯s not wearing her backpack or harness, which means she doesn¡¯t have one of the twins with her.


    ¡°Who¡­?¡± I start to ask, and Lao catches my meaning right away.


    ¡°Mata of course, along the face, I passed the pack up and leapt back down along the rope.¡± Lao¡¯s answer has me imagining her rappelling down the cliff face. I want to say I didn¡¯t think she was that athletic, but she can basically outswim a tidal wave while dragging her entire family, almost.


    Lil interrupts, ¡°Hey partner, we got a bunch of stuff to pick up!¡± I turn my gaze to Lil, who appears to be dumping stuff out of their inventory instead of picking it up, but it¡¯s new things, objects that must have come from Octorochi. There¡¯s a beautiful magenta silk robe with golden embroidery that appears to be Lao¡¯s size. There are leather bracers with sylvan iconography. There¡¯s a massive tome, several potions, and something that looks like a pot on a chain, with a built-in candle holder underneath.


    Upon inspection, the bracers have secret pockets, like Luni¡¯s, so I know just who to give them to. ¡°Hey Te, how do you like the look of these?¡± I toss them to her, and she tries to hide her gleeful squee as she places them upon her wrists. ¡°I definitely think Lao or Ag should take this beautiful robe, it¡¯s their size. The rest we can deal with later.¡± I start claiming all the copies of Gae Buidhe to my inventory, and all of the things Lil had spit out.


    ¡°Lao, would you like to take the elevator up, the dragon ride, or climb the long way?¡± I flash a grin at Teuila and Lil, who nod, grinning back.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± Laomati asks, as I forge my bond with Lil and Teuila again, helping them assume their evolved forms. Teuila grasps Laomati about the waist, and whispers something to her. Teuila then leaps into the sky before anyone can respond.


    ¡°Huh, guess elevator it is. Hehe.¡± I chuckle a bit at Teuila¡¯s seeming impulsiveness, and Lil joins me in a slight bout of laughter. It hurts to laugh and breathe still. Thankfully, even just a little sleep helps mend a body. ¡°Ready Lil?¡±


    ¡°You betcha buddy! I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re okay!¡±


    ¡°Me too Lil, me too. I guess we don¡¯t need to do dugouts anymore, but we may as well, I think the family has gotten to like them.¡± I smile as I mount Lil, cuddling down into their slightly soft scaly back, holding their shoulders tightly. Lil brings us to the top of the cliff with ease.


    Once atop the cliff, I set about claiming the copies of Gae Buidhe, but at least one, if not several are missing. I can¡¯t remember the count. Perhaps they got knocked into the river. After that¡¯s done, I sit in lotus position, meditating momentarily before announcing, ¡°Dropping the tether.¡± Teuila and Lil snuggle close to me as their forms return to normal, and we all doze ever so slightly, for at least a few moments. As I dream for the briefest of moments, I imagine the staff of thunder and lightning clashing with Gae Buidhe in my inventory, as if they were animate, or sentient.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    Right about now is when the bullies would probably show up, as the three of us are continuing to recover. Of course, this slight bit of genre savviness proves to be true. I¡¯d have liked to be wrong, but I groggily stand as I wake to the croaking sounds of those jerks circling us. Lao and Ag are holding them at bay. Mata is grasping the twins in his arms, staring around fretfully.


    I begin to divest of the impressive Valkyrie equipment, and replace it with my old leaf-leather gear. Realization suddenly dawns on the froglike creatures. That¡¯s right you idiots, I¡¯ve dealt with you before, and now the serpent is dead. Do you really think now is a good time to anger us? I know I can¡¯t communicate with them though, so I just shout the only word they¡¯ll understand. I don¡¯t want to succumb to hubris and say something like ¡®do you really think you stand a chance.¡¯ Again, genre savviness, that¡¯s when a character takes a prideful fall.


    ¡°BULLIES!¡± I exclaim the one word they understand, with all my anger and all the vigor I can muster. Calling forth the staff from my inventory I shake it high, causing it to send forth a loud crack of thunder.


    There¡¯s a pause followed by silence. Lao and Agwai stand at the ready, Lil and Teuila stir, Luni appears as if from nowhere. I begin summoning radiant copies of spears in the air above my head, pointed at the bullies. This finally has the desired effect. The bullies turn and flee.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad we didn¡¯t have to kill any of them. They¡¯re just idiots. I think fighting and antagonizing is all they know.¡± The rest of the family looks quizzically at me. I wonder if they all would have been less merciful. I feel a slight bit of remorse for having killed several of them previously.


    ¡°I think we¡¯re half a day¡¯s walk from the dam where the beaver¡¯ish individuals lived.¡± Stating it out loud both distracts me from my reverie about mercy and killing, as well as brightens my mood considerably. We¡¯re about to possibly make new friends! For the first time in so long, we could possibly spark more friendship!


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty excited, after this, the journey home is basically safe except for that bear thing. I don¡¯t want to kill the bear either. It just seemed like a hungry animal.¡± The family breathes sighs of relief around me, hearing that the path ahead is relatively safe.


    Everyone mills about for a bit, seemingly waiting for someone to actually start the march, so I shrug and begin heading to the North once again, making a quick stop to pick some of the lilies on the west side of the river atop the cliff. I can make new water walking potions now, those things have saved my life on several occasions. From the same cliff actually, that¡¯s sort of ironic. Who¡¯d expect an idiot to jump from the same cliff several times?


    I laugh at my own foolishness, which starts an uneasy laugh amongst the family, they mostly don¡¯t know what I¡¯m thinking, save Lil and Luni.


    ¡°Everyone doing okay? I know our journey has been hard, filled with danger and frights, but I¡¯m so happy to have all of you safe, as we¡¯ve passed the worst of it.¡± I ask aloud, to which there are murmurs of assent. I guess we¡¯re all pretty stunned about the recent event. I¡¯ve been planning it so long that I hardly realize how much of an emotional toll it could have taken out of us, I¡¯ve already dealt with the idea of killing the serpent for so long now. I think to the rest of the family, it¡¯s probably surreal, like maybe it didn¡¯t happen, couldn¡¯t have happened.


    I hope we can all get back to our usual cheer soon. I don¡¯t want to force anyone to process their emotions at my speed, but it¡¯s uncomfortable being chipper when they¡¯re all in mixed emotional states. Lil states into my mind, ¡°Don¡¯t worry buddy, they¡¯re coming around, it¡¯ll just take some time.¡±


    Lao approaches me, and signals for the others to carry on ahead as she stops me. I stare quizzically at her as she kneels down. ¡°This marks several times you¡¯ve opened death¡¯s door, stood at its edge, and called into the great beyond. I do hope you won¡¯t make a habit of it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry Lao.¡± I answer as truthfully as I can, I can¡¯t say I won¡¯t do it again. Lao knows the underlying truth to my words, and she pulls me into a tight embrace. The embrace is tight enough that I realize I¡¯ve still got broken bones, or at least bruised bones, as it¡¯s both a lovely hug, while simultaneously excruciating. That¡¯s probably the point. Loving me is a dangerous, painful experience. I frown slightly as a few teardrops fall, and notice that Lao is also shedding several tears.


    ¡°We love you, sweet child. Do try to remember that your absence would hurt as much as any physical pain.¡±


    My eyes fill more widely with tears that blur my vision. I can only nod and sniffle. Lao strokes the back of my head, which reminds me that I¡¯m wearing my old leaf-leather gear, she¡¯s carrying her armor in a sack and just wearing the white bodysuit, so I feel so small and vulnerable in her embrace, yet so comforted. I whisper, possibly inaudibly, ¡°I love you too, so much.¡± I half smile, feeling exceedingly heavy-hearted. There¡¯s something different though. Oh, the canopy, Lao is literally kneeling in the last bit of swamp, as the biome changes to the jungle biome I know as home. I¡¯m standing in the slightly more well-lit jungle biome. I feel so small against her frame, but I try to help her to stand, then take her by the hand to catch up to the others.


    We catch up in short order, after which we find the family slowly getting back to their merry selves. My inner circle is wowing the twins with the tale of our encounters with the serpent, Mata is scoffing as usual, Agwai is trying to create comical lyrical rhymes. That last bit is a tad humorous. I guess I didn¡¯t get to meet the real Agwai until we were able to move past the grief of the beach.


    I don¡¯t know how many hours, or days pass as we march, seemingly without tiring, further along the river, until we finally spy the dam. I¡¯m so excited for this moment, that I realize I don¡¯t have a plan! Do you just walk up to someone and say, hey I have water friends now, be my friend? How do you get someone to be your friend? Gosh, the only thing that seemed important for the longest time was battling and survival, so much so that I forgot all I really want is to make a friendly community and gather people to live together. I¡¯m freaking out!


    ¡°Buddy, buddy, buddy, chill.¡± Calls Lil across our mental wavelength. They continue, ¡°Me and Lu will go up ahead, and get their attention, you and Te can be near behind, and the rest close to you two. They¡¯ll see how close we all are, it¡¯ll be a snap!¡±


    I try to calm my breathing, I¡¯m having such a panic about making friends. They¡¯re some of the few creatures we know in all of existence, of course I want this to go smoothly, and want to make sure we¡¯re friends at the end of the day, of course I¡¯m panicking! Lil and Luni both chuckle into the shared wavelength. They¡¯re so calm, how are they so calm?


    Teuila apparently notices me freaking out, and gives me a tight embrace, sifting my hair, she mumbles something along the lines of, ¡°Oh, more white,¡± holding another lock of my hair in front of my eyes to show me. Huh, I suppose when I messed up and forced myself to evolve during the cliff drop, I really didn¡¯t need to do that. I wonder if the color draining away signifies anything.


    As I get to pontificating on the various natures of possible physical indications of how this world works and the consequences of certain actions, I don¡¯t even realize Lil and Luni are already talking to the beavers. I¡¯m so caught up in thought, that it takes Teuila rapping my noggin with her knuckles several times to get my attention. She whispers to me ¡°Say hello to our new family members ya big goober.¡±


    My eyes shoot wide, I¡¯m so oblivious that I didn¡¯t even notice two new party members, or that there are way more beavers here than I thought, including at other stages of evolution beyond sphere-like, similar to my family.


    I start to try to introduce myself, saying how honored I am, when they cut me off, laughing. ¡°I see why you call this one the big dork, they¡¯re a sweetiepie!¡± I look between Teuila, and the two individuals who are calling me both a big dork, and a sweetiepie, realizing that I took too long to introduce myself, and Teuila made my first impression for me. I flush red with embarrassment. I¡¯m never going to get another chance at a first impression with these two, ugh. Thanks Te.

 Chapter 31: Bears However, Dont

    <h2>Chapter 31:  Bears However, Don¡¯t</h2>


    So the one that called me a big dork is apparently called Spice, the one that rebutted calling me a sweetiepie is Sugar.  Sugar and Spice both need glasses, which apparently they spawned with.  Thank heavens Lil and Luni are catching me up in hyperspeed between moments in our mental wavelength.


    I slump, slightly defeated, a bit deflated that I basically played no part in our making new friends, or forming a sort of alliance.  I also realize how overdramatic I must seem.  Every few days I come to the conclusion that I¡¯m dying or dead.  I mean, to be fair, if the world worked the way my memories say it should, I would be dead dozens of times over.  If I didn¡¯t have my wonderful family risking it all for me or rescuing me, over and over, I¡¯d be dead as well.  I really don¡¯t want to come off as some sort of drama-seeker to Sugar and Spice.


    I do find it a bit weird that the beaver-folk decided to send their youngest with us.  Would you send your youngest children with strangers to form some kind of aquatic alliance along a river?  That sounds like a ridiculous question to ask.  Yet here we are, two new people, instantly accepted as a part of my family.  I guess maybe I¡¯m a bit jealous, which is irrational.  The family accepted me just as readily, I should expect this level of acceptance.  Or maybe it¡¯s not jealousy, I just can¡¯t figure out why my brain is focusing on certain things, instead of just letting me interact and get to know them.


    I think, I think I¡¯m still stuck in survival mode.  My mind races ahead to the west side of the river a bit of travel to the north.  I want to deal with the bear thing, but I don¡¯t want to kill it, and I don¡¯t want my family to fight it.  My plan is to toss the tetrahedron up around it, then throw food inside the pyramid with it.  I¡¯d like to wait til it eats, calms down, and then let it out, showing it that we mean it no harm.


    Have I forgotten how to interact with anyone other than my inner circle because I¡¯ve been in survival mode so long?  Well, then again, did I ever have any social skills?  Vague memories of how civilization and socialization works, meeting Lil who did all the work of sparking our friendship for me.  The beavers, Lil also did all the work there.  Our family, I just put food down, Lil did the work there too.  Teuila basically adopted me as her, whatever I am to her.  Oh no.  Oh no.  I want to create a community or society or civilization and I don¡¯t know how to socialize.  I¡¯ve never, ever socialized with new people.


    ¡°Hah, hah, hahaha.¡±  I probably sound like a lunatic, cracking up hysterically.  I¡¯m so overdramatic! And so unsocially skilled!  How did I never notice?


    ¡°What¡¯s up with them?¡±  I can tell Sugar and Spice are asking about me, but I think I¡¯ve probably cracked under the pressure, or at least look like it.


    ¡°Hummm, well, Reggie¡¯s been through a lot.  They pretty much die every other couple of days, almost.¡±  Luni explains, in a semi-joking manner.


    ¡°What, really?¡±  These two new family members ask simultaneously, or rather, one begins and the other finishes.


    ¡°Yup yup!¡± Exclaims Lil, I don¡¯t think my near death experiences require quite that level of enthusiasm, but I can¡¯t help but to laugh even more.  I chuckle, and facepalm.  I realize I haven¡¯t been breathing properly so I gulp down a ragged breath.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, forgive me, I must seem completely crazy.  Hi, I¡¯m Reggie, I think.¡±  Why did I add, I think?  Ugh, I was probably subconsciously thinking about how I didn¡¯t know my own name and I let Lil name me based on aura colors.


    ¡°You think?  We know.¡±  Sugar asks and Spice answers.  They are are kinda freakin¡¯ adorable.  Crap, I didn¡¯t say that out loud did I?  I mean not that it¡¯s bad if they know I think they¡¯re adorable, just, it should be something I say naturally, not randomly blurt out.


    I can hear Lil and Lu trying not to laugh across our mental wavelength.  Thanks for the support, guys, I think at them, semi-sarcastically.  In truth they are being really supportive, they¡¯re not teasing me out loud.  I¡¯m so very lucky to have them, and our bond with one another.


    ¡°Ah, right, anyway, so um, has Lil or Luni told you about my dream?  Do you have any dreams?  I mean like big goals, not sleep hallucinations.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve got some sappy desire like you want to build a place for everyone.  Yep, and we want to build anything other than dams!¡±  Spice answers then Sugar elucidates.


    ¡°Oh, oh cool!  Construction, or, um, architecture, or uh, design?  I uh, I guess, well, what aspects of building interest you the most?¡±


    Sugar surprises me with her answer, at least I think Sugar identifies as a gal, since Luni has referred to her as such in our mental wavelength, ¡°I kinda mostly like breaking things, and throwing stuff together!¡±


    Spice rolls his eyes, ¡°I dream of making things that look unique, leaving my own touch on the things we create.¡±  He then mutters something under his breath about it not being as sappy as it sounds.  I swear he¡¯d be pushing his glasses up with a single finger if he could manage it.


    I think I¡¯m starting to get the picture.  Spice feels like he at least has to put up a tough front at the bare minimum, while Sugar is just happy to be however she is, in any given moment.  I wonder if they¡¯re twins, and he¡¯s older by a smidge.  I stumble a bit as Teuila hip-checks me, after I must have been caught up in reverie again for a few moments, leaving the conversation hang.


    ¡°Oh, oh uh, so, you two seem, well you seem like twins, like our Mana twins.  Are you?  Well, siblings, or twins, i guess.¡±


    ¡°Is it that obvious?  Of course!¡±  Spice snarkily sarcastically asks, while Sugar answers honestly.  I sort of grimace, worrying I¡¯m making a bad impression on Spice.  At least, until he leaps at my chest, where I barely catch him without being bowled over.  He stretches up to stare me right in the face, looking extremely serious and grim for a moment, before he just starts rolling around in my arms laughing.  ¡°Take it easy!  We¡¯re already family already ya big doofus!¡±


    His reaction sort of knocks the wind out of my sails, and even though I kept my footing, I just sort of let myself fall to my butt.  I do so, so that I can let Spice drop into my lap as I facepalm, while I flush with embarrassment.  I sigh and start laughing a bit maniacally again, then I heave another deep sigh.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I just, I haven¡¯t had very many chances to ever interact with new people, and it¡¯s been a pretty much mixed bag of them either wanting to kill me, making me a part of their family, or resenting me forever.¡±


    ¡°Woah, that¡¯s uh, that¡¯s rough buddy.¡±  Spice¡¯s comment triggers a brief BSOD flicker in my mind, even though it sounds like something Lil would say at any given moment.


    ¡°Yeah, I suppose it is.  Obviously the ones here mostly fall into the middle group.¡±


    ¡°Mostly?  Which group do some of them fall into?¡±  Sugar queries curiously.


    ¡°I¡¯m not one hundred percent certain, it¡¯s touch and go between first or third group, with at least one of the family, if not three of them.¡±  Lil, Lu, and Te exchange glances as I explain my guess as to how Mata and the twins feel about me, without naming names.


    ¡°Come on dinglehopper, enough of that gloomy talk, get up, let¡¯s go flying!¡±  Teuila basically orders me to evolve Lil and go on an aerial joyride together.  I look over to Lil and Luni for permission.  Luni mostly, since she seemed to be getting pretty comfy chatting with the beavers with Lil next to her.  I say Luni mostly since Lil is pretty much always down to evolve and fly around.  Lu just smiles brightly at me, and it melts my heart with how warm it is.


    ¡°Don¡¯t fly too long, we¡¯ve been invited into their dam!¡±  Lu calls out as I help Lil evolve, and Teuila veritably drags me onto Lil¡¯s back.  Lil launches into the air before I get a chance to respond, but I hear Sugar and Spice replying in a pouty manner that sounds like they hoped we would be leaving rather than spending a night here.  I guess they¡¯re excited to start a new life elsewhere.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Teuila hugs me from behind as Lil takes to the skies and breaks the canopy, something we¡¯ve rarely ever done.  I don¡¯t know why, but we¡¯d always cautiously flown beneath it.  I see dark dots on the horizon far to the south, the winged dinosaurs returning, though they¡¯re likely many, many miles away.  I wonder what their lives are like, why they travel so far, so often.


    I feel a bit of a pain on the back of my skull, and realize Teuila is, as usual, rapping me on the noggin to get my attention.  ¡°Come on, get out of your head!¡±  She exclaims, squeezing my waist from behind with her right arm.  ¡°Cheer up, we did it, your dream is coming true!¡±  I can¡¯t help but smile.  She¡¯s the best, absolutely the best.


    ¡°Ahem!¡±  I hear in our mental wavelength, from Lil.  Heh, whoops, you¡¯re also the best Lil, you know I love you buddy.  Lil laughs across our shared thinkspace, they weren¡¯t seriously offended, just teasing me.


    ¡°Oh, oh hey look, I think I see something down there, like a peak, or a point, Lil could you take us below the canopy for a closer look?¡±


    ¡°You got it, partner!¡±  Lil circles into a slow dive in the direction I indicated.  Sure enough, there¡¯s not just a peak, but a fairly massive pyramid.  It¡¯s sticking out of the jungle, though it seems to have been built in such a way that several trees pass through it, so as not to break up the canopy.  I can¡¯t see any entrance though as we circle it.


    ¡°Let¡¯s maybe land for a second?  Teuila, do you wanna check this out with me?¡±


    ¡°Always.¡±  Her response is somewhat expected but also hard to parse.  She always wants to check out this specific thing with me?  No, I know that¡¯s not what she meant.  She''d probably bonk me for cheekiness if I asked her that.  Lil snickers at my train of thought across our shared wavelength, and I think back at Lil to stuff it, which just earns me more laughter.


    I love how lighthearted we can be together.  As we dismount, I drop the tether to Lil for a bit, so we can all explore at the same pace, and fit into the same spaces.  There doesn¡¯t seem to be any point of entry however.  There are diagrams, or depictions, art of some kind.  It¡¯s a bit simplistic, but I¡¯m certain that it¡¯s humanoid at least.


    ¡°What¡¯s that Reggie?¡±  Lil asks, pointing out a slightly larger image of a figure standing over others, the ones below have arms outstretched.


    ¡°A man, I think.¡±


    ¡°But what is a man?¡±


    ¡°If I recall correctly, a miserable little pile of secrets.  Wait, what?¡±  My brain fritzes on me for a bit.  Firstly, why would Lil be asking what a man is, Lil knows what humans are after being around me, or at least what we both believe humans to be.  I might be the only one, but this structure makes that seem less likely.


    ¡°Wait, what?¡±  Lil also asks in response, seeming confused.


    ¡°Uh, sorry, why did you ask what a man is?¡±


    ¡°When did I do that?¡±


    ¡°Just a second ago, right Te?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t hear anything.¡±  Teuila looks at me quizzically.  She doesn¡¯t look like she¡¯s teasing me.


    ¡°Okay, somebody¡¯s messing with me, I¡¯m not sure which of you it is, but someone asked what is a man, after I said that looks like a man.¡±  The two exchange a puzzled glance.  ¡°Okay, then I guess I¡¯m just imagining things again.¡±


    Teuila wraps her arms around me from behind, and nuzzles her face into my neck.  ¡°Is it like that one time?¡±  She asks, intimating the time I thought I went on a rampage.  It doesn¡¯t feel like that though, this was for sure a waking moment, and only a single instant.  I sigh and shrug, leaning into her embrace.


    Lil perks up for a moment, and starts to growl.  As I¡¯m about to tell Lil that there¡¯s no need to get jealous, they can join the hug, I notice the ground shaking as well, as if something heavy was approaching fast.  Looking around, it¡¯s hard to see anything around the base of the pyramid, due to its construction wrapping around so many tree trunks.  Teuila, Lil and I hop to the forest floor quickly, so we¡¯re not smacked off an edge of the structure.


    We fan out slightly, unsure which direction the sound is coming from.  I place down the bottom face of the tetrahedron, that I had to recreate after I lost the first one.  My partners look at me suspiciously, but I motion to further spread out.  Not more than a moment later, I¡¯m sailing through the air with a gash on my torso, I still haven¡¯t changed back to the Valkyrie gear, that¡¯s my fault.  The feathered bear rears up on its hind legs, standing on the tetrahedron¡¯s base.


    I see Lil spinning around blasting a gout of flame, and Teuila drawing her sword as she leaps forward, but I yell no, to both of them.  As the creature drops from its hind legs, I swiftly toss up two faces of the tetrahedron.  The bear roars in confusion, thankfully it fits and doesn¡¯t seem injured.  I sidle around to the side as the bear begins to back out, throwing the final face up just in time, trapping it inside.


    Teuila approaches our smaller pyramid, sword drawn.  She looks to me for permission, but I shake my head.  ¡°We don¡¯t need to kill it.¡±


    ¡°Leaving it trapped in there, it would starve to death.  That¡¯s pretty cruel.¡±  Teuila frowns at me.


    ¡°I¡¯m not doing that either.  Give it a second to tire itself out a little, then I¡¯ll throw some food inside.¡±


    ¡°And then what?¡±


    ¡°And then, after a while longer, I¡¯ll let it out.  Also, ow, my chest stings like heck.¡±  I curiously poke the gashes on my chest, the front of my leaf leather is totally ruined now, and my skin sticks and pulls away from the wounds when I poke it.  I grimace in pain.  I see Teuila rolling her eyes at me as I explore my wounds.


    ¡°Stop that, you dingus.¡±  She marches over to me and swats my hands away from my chest.  ¡°We really need more than one of those soapstone things.¡±  Her pawed digits trace the rough edges of my now destroyed torso-covering.


    ¡°Well, we could probably get another one when we finally get home, if I bleed in the pond and we fight off Vampguppy again, if it happens to spawn again.  Or maybe if it spawns again, the stuff it drops will be entirely random, I¡¯m not sure.¡±


    ¡°Hey pal, do you think we¡¯re going to make a new friend by doing this?¡±  Lil bounds up and down around me, full of energy as usual.


    ¡°Well, I doubt a friend, but hopefully at least a neutral party that will leave us alone, maybe in trade for fish.¡±


    All the while, the bear thing has been roaring, but there isn¡¯t enough room in the pyramid for it to really get any momentum to try to break its way out.  It lets out a sad, defeated sound, when it finally realizes there¡¯s nothing it can do.  I summon some fish meals from my inventory, and try to carefully drop it through the holes we¡¯ve left in the pyramid.  This proves difficult, as we made the holes purposely smaller on the outside, larger on the inside.  We did that when I had planned to use this against the serpent, from the inside, so we could wiggle spears around from within.  Eventually I drop a few bits through holes on each side of the pyramid.  After a while, I hear what sounds like a dejected snort.  A few moments later, I can tell the fish is being consumed.  There¡¯s a vague sense of chewing sounds in the air, though food isn¡¯t consumed by chewing.  Maybe the bear is just licking its chops, or its, well, beak.  I think it has a beak.


    When it sounds like all the food has been consumed, I drop more in.  I shoo Lil and Teuila around behind a tree.  Touching the tetrahedron, I carefully claim the furthest face first.  There¡¯s a startled noise from within, and an obvious shuffling.  I remove the two other standing faces when I¡¯m pretty sure the bear has turned around, then I begin to slowly creep away.


    Sadly, the bear turns to strike, rushing at me, so I throw two faces of the pyramid up again, and it lets out something akin to a sad howl.  Once I think it gets the picture that I can place these at any time, I try to remove them again, and just stand still, staring at the bear.


    I know I probably shouldn¡¯t make eye contact with a wild animal, but I don¡¯t know the right course of action here to be able to spare this thing¡¯s life.  I hope it can see the plea in my eyes.  It lets out a huff, turns, and ambles away.


    I drop to my butt and heave a sigh of relief.  ¡°Hooo boy, I honestly did not expect that to work.¡±


    ¡°You what!?¡±  Come simultaneous cries from around the other side of the tree, whoops.  I probably shouldn¡¯t have said that.


    ¡°Hah, sorry, I mean, uh, I¡¯m.  Heh, sorry guys.¡±  I just chuckle abashedly, staring at Teuila and Lil as they approach.  They keep approaching with grim faces, until they leap upon me, attacking mercilessly.  I didn¡¯t even know I was ticklish til now.  ¡°Ahh, hahahaha, stop, stop stop stop, hahaha.  I give, I give, you win, I¡¯m sorry, hahaha.¡±


    The three of us burst out into a fit of laughter, rolling around as we hold onto one another.  I find myself thinking we should get back to the others, less for our sake, more because I realize that our family¡¯s three warriors are out playing around.  Us, that is.  We¡¯re goofing off, and sure, the only threat that I know of is up here, with us, but the threats that I don¡¯t know of are likely the far more dangerous ones.  Those ones we should be near our family to prepare for.  As I express this to the others, I¡¯m met with confusion.


    ¡°What could possibly go wrong?¡±  Lil asks, and I¡¯m immediately panic stricken.  Never ask that, ever.  I send my energy tether to Lil, who is all too happy to resume draconic form.  Teuila shrugs and mounts up with me, so that we can set off back towards the dam.

 Chapter 32: Or Maybe They Do

    <h2>Chapter 32: Or Maybe They Do</h2>


    Upon returning to the dam, there¡¯s no one in sight save for a single beaver in that middle stage of evolution, where they appear like a beaver should in my memories, save slightly anthropomorphized, standing on their hind legs. I feel Teuila¡¯s hackles raise, at not seeing her family. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as well.


    Trying to remain calm, I call out, ¡°Howdy, where is everyone?¡± As we glide down on approach. This, as usual, is met with no response. I¡¯m still slightly glitched, and can¡¯t initiate communication with non-party-members. That is vaguely infuriating.


    Lil echoes my greeting, and I¡¯m able to hear the response, indicating everyone has been invited in, and are resting within the dam. I guess that makes sense. Teuila still seems on edge, and there¡¯s something odd about the situation, that I can¡¯t put my finger on, but I guess we should join the rest of the family to rest as well. There¡¯s a pretty massive community of beavers here.


    Lil has to return to their normal form, as we¡¯re instructed that the entrance is under water. I suppose that also makes sense, which also clarifies why they wanted us to be friends with other aquatic types before gaining their friendship so long ago now.


    As the three of us, and our guide, dive into the water, I swear I hear Luni think ¡°No!¡± loudly in my head, but when I reach out across our mental wavelength, I don¡¯t sense her anywhere. Maybe she¡¯s asleep, or maybe deep diving blocks our connection, like a decent amount of solid material does. Lil looks somewhat distraught, so I try to rig up a vine harness to tie around them as we swim.


    I¡¯m exceedingly grateful for being a part of the Shellcracker family, and for having spent so much time swimming while training with Lil and Teuila over the last few weeks, because the path beneath the dam is long and winding, submerged the entire time. It feels like there are offshoots and dead ends that would cause Lil or me to get lost long enough that our breath would run out long before we made it in or out of this place, without a guide.


    Even still, I¡¯m starting to approach my limit as I finally see a pocket of air, and a path above the water. Lil seems to be fine, thankfully, and of course Teuila isn¡¯t even fazed. After briefly surfacing, we¡¯re led further down yet again, submerging once more, into winding tunnels that seem to be built beneath even the main riverbed. How long can this possibly go on?


    Finally there are signs of life, small offshoots that appear to lead to individual moon pools or whatever caves with air pockets are called. It seems like many of the beavers have their own individual rooms, or rooms for their families. I occasionally sense some movement from those rooms, though it¡¯s tenebrous at best down here. I think that¡¯s another point for me not being entirely human, I can see in this darkness, and have always been able to see fairly decently in the dark. Well, except for when I was blind.


    Exhaustingly, we eventually reach an area where we¡¯re treated to the sounds of crowd chatter, far more voices than I¡¯ve ever heard in my life. A louder voice booms, and the rest go silent. We start to pass beavers and beaverfolk hanging about, they smile cordially and chitter at or chat with Lil, Teuila, and our guide. They probably also chitter at me, but, well, we all know my communication difficulties. We¡¯re somewhere fairly deep in the earth at this point, or, well, whatever our planet¡¯s name is, or its name for soil is. I would have been fine just rooming with one of the beaver families on the near edge of this tunnel system, closer to the surface of the dam. There are patches of lichen, and some kind of vines along all the walls, which must filter the carbon dioxide down here. It isn¡¯t too stuffy, so they seem to be working.


    We finally get to what can only be described as a great hall, there are dozens of beaverfolk here, and their arrangement, well, I can only describe it as appearing as if they¡¯re split into factions. A smaller group beckons to us. Our guide appears quite nervous, and continues leading us towards the larger group.


    ¡°Lil, Te? What¡¯s going on? Something is definitely off.¡± I can¡¯t shake this feeling, Luni wouldn¡¯t have just zonked out before Lil got back, would she? Was she that exhausted?


    ¡°There¡¯s some kind of standoff buddy.¡± Lil seems to be whispering.


    ¡°Where¡¯s our family? This is getting ridiculous.¡± I glance around at the veritable army of beavers, and then glance at our guide.


    ¡°He won¡¯t answer me about that, he just keeps saying they¡¯re resting.¡±


    Looking over to the smaller group that discreetly tried to call us over earlier, I ask, ¡°Those ones seem to want our attention, maybe we should go talk to them?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m getting the sense that that isn¡¯t an option pal.¡±


    ¡°I think Lil¡¯s right.¡± Chimes in Teuila as she clenches and unclenches her fists, one hand on the hilt of her sword.


    ¡°What, why?¡± I ask as our guide stops us in the center of this hall, a curious place to lead us, for sure. If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d say they appear to be sweating. Several other beavers bring a table in from one of the offshoots. The table is laden with ropes, and empty sacks. Another pair of beavers brings in a very large basket with a lid. The basket appears to be wicker, or woven reed or some such. When they remove the lid, it¡¯s completely empty. I¡¯m starting to panic as I think I get the idea of what¡¯s going on.


    Okay, okay, okay, breathe Reggie, don¡¯t panic, don¡¯t let on about your inventory magic. ¡°That¡¯s right pal, keep it secret for now.¡± Lil chimes in, straight into my brain.


    Several of the beavers from the larger group are indicating for us to tie ourselves, and to throw our equipment in the basket.


    ¡°Why should we!?¡± Asks Lil, crying out in outrage. There are decidedly evil sneers from the larger beaverfolk. One claps their hands, and my stomach drops as I imagine what¡¯s about to be brought out.


    One by one, my family is brought out, borne on the shoulders of beaverfolk, trussed and tied to small logs. First Agwai, then Laomati, two sacks which likely contain the Mana twins, then Mataalii. The beaver carrying Mataalii¡¯s trussed up form is wielding a copy of Gae Buidhe.


    I¡¯m furious. How, why did he sneak a copy of that deadly spear? That complete jerk, what was he thinking? One of the beavers in charge points at Lao, and the beaver carrying Ali drops him flat on his face to march towards Lao, spear drawn towards her.


    My heart drops into the pit of my stomach, we can¡¯t let her even get scratched by that thing, even as just a minor threat or she might bleed to death! Everyone is blindfolded and gagged, but there¡¯s no sign of Luni. My vision starts to blur, my lips quiver, imagining why Luni isn¡¯t present, why we can¡¯t reach her in our mental bond, Lil is slowly screaming louder and louder into our mental bond. My vision tunnels as I hyperventilate.


    ¡°They want us to throw down our weapons, then tie ourselves up, fast, or they¡¯re going to hurt Lao. Reggie what do we do?¡± The beaver wielding Gae Buidhe is pressing it against Lao¡¯s cheek, and I think I see tears streaming from her eyes.


    ¡°We comply, we have to, what choice do we have?¡± I answer, while trying to concoct a plan that doesn¡¯t get anyone killed. Lil thinks angrily at me that they could fry every last beaver in here if I send them a tether. ¡°But could you do it before Lao gets nicked, before anyone gets stabbed?¡± Lil rages in our shared think space. They¡¯re furious at the lack of Luni¡¯s presence. Luni¡¯s stats page is grayed out, and I have no idea what that means. I don¡¯t blame Lil. I¡¯m barely keeping it together right now, as I drop my clothing and equipment into the basket. I secret away the danger wraps into my inventory. No one seems to notice some fabric strips, or lack thereof, in the tall basket from a distance. No one knows that my tattoos are a piece of equipment.


    Teuila follows suit, divesting and disrobing. Lil growls furiously but hops onto the table, sitting at the edge of a sack. I gulp down breath after breath, trying not to hyperventilate, and failing.


    The beavers apparently take that as a sign of hesitation, and begin dragging Mataalii away on his face. I start to cry out to object, but the merest motion is met with the wielder of Gae Buidhe hauling back as if to skewer Laomati. I freeze in panic. Are Sugar and Spice a part of this? Or is this why they wanted to leave rather than spending the night? Their stats pages are similarly grayed out. What does that even mean!? My pulse, and tinnitus feel like they¡¯re destroying my hearing, drowning out everything.


    Minutes pass, as Teuila and I remain frozen, gulping. What more do they want from us? Do we have to truss ourselves? As I gaze at Luni, Sugar, and Spice¡¯s stats pages, something weird happens to Ali¡¯s page. It gets garbled, and my eyes go wide as I freak out. Are they in the process of killing him? I exchange panicked gazes with Teuila and Lil. I cautiously try to begin binding my own hands, trying to show that I¡¯m attempting to comply as best I can. I fumble for several minutes, as Teuila follows suit. Lil can only scurry into an empty sack. It¡¯s easy enough to tie our own ankles, but I don¡¯t appear to be able to tie my wrists to their satisfaction.


    Suddenly Mataalii reappears, unbound, wielding a spear. I¡¯m conflicted between thinking that we¡¯re saved, or that they¡¯re going to kill Lao because Ali broke out. Yet Mata just marches in our direction, spear aimed at us. My heart sinks further.


    There¡¯s no way, there¡¯s no way Mata would ever turn on the rest of the family. Me? Sure, I¡¯d buy it in a heartbeat. This has to be some kind of trick, it¡¯s just a long, elaborate prank that has gone on too long, right? I try to nervously laugh, but that¡¯s only met with weapons poised for striking, Gae Buidhe aimed at Lao, and Mata¡¯s spear aimed at us. I gulp and try to remain frightfully still. Mataalii approaches, and harshly tightens our bindings before shoving gags in all of our mouths, blindfolding each of us, and also binding a sack over each of our heads, including Lil¡¯s entire body.


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    I vomit slightly from fear, and it¡¯s soaked up by my gag. I can hear logs being dragged around to our rears, like the ones Lao and Ag are trussed to. Then I feel my limbs jerked into elongated positions, and strapped to wood. There was something wrong with Mata¡¯s eyes, they were unfocused, and his movements, they were a robotic march. He had to have been being controlled, I won¡¯t accept any other explanation.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know fam, seems like we got played pretty hard. You saw the spear, Mata had to have snuck one away somewhere.¡± Lil calls out into my head. But how? How could he possibly have kept that a secret as we marched?


    I could kill every last one of them, starting with the ones nearest Lao, I could still do it, almost instantly. All I need do is claim the blindfold, the sack over my head, I don¡¯t even need to claim the binding. I can just expel radiant spears from my inventory, or heck, sharp sticks and chunks of fired clay would be enough to end their lives. Ugh, this is a terrible, horrible, sickening thought. I keep hoping this is a prank. I hope they¡¯ll drag us off to some room, and shout surprise, and they¡¯ll unveil a banquet as they untie us. Realistically, it feels more likely that we¡¯d be the banquet. That doesn¡¯t make sense though, I¡¯m sure they don¡¯t eat people, there aren¡¯t any people around to be eaten, and we were last here months ago.


    Suddenly I¡¯m dropped onto my face, and I feel several logs clatter together. I hear the shuffling of feet heading away, and the grinding of stone slamming into place. Did they toss us in a hole and roll a rock over it?


    I wait an agonizingly long time before risking it. I claim my blindfold, then the sack covering my head, and immediately regret it as my gaze meets Mataalii¡¯s. Time seems to stop as I begin to panic that I¡¯ve lost our only advantage. Mata stands there however, unblinking. Lil is sobbing in our shared thinkspace, mourning Luni. I can hardly breathe, between panic, and the stuffiness of our cell. I gaze around, I can see Lao, Agwai, three sacks, Teuila, Mata. The sacks are likely the twins and Lil. No sign of Luni, Sugar, or Spice. Despite my freedom of movement, Mata makes no move to reapply restraints to my head. I cautiously claim the bindings on my other limbs as well, and still, Mata stands there, unblinking.


    I stand, ever so slowly, and inch towards him. ¡°Ali? Ali, is that you? Are you in there?¡± Oh mi familia, what have they done to you Ali. I approach him, and knock the spear out of his grasp. He doesn¡¯t react. I carefully hug him. Mataalii, even if you want me dead, you¡¯re a brother to me, what have they done to you? Why did you have a copy of Gae Buidhe? How did you manage to hide it?


    I sigh, knowing I can¡¯t spare any more energy fretting over Mata right now. My family is beginning to squirm confusedly. One by one, I go around shushing them, and removing their various bindings. We sit quietly in the dark, not daring speak, until I can bear it no longer.


    ¡°What happened? Where¡¯s Luni?¡± Lil perks up at my question, restored with hope that maybe she¡¯s still out there. Teuila grits her teeth, clenching her eyes tight as she fights back tears. I¡¯m sure she imagines Luni is already lost to us.


    Lao responds, ¡°She, Sugar, and Spice, were with us one moment, and gone the next.¡± I vaguely recall Luni appearing as if out of thin air, after the Octorochi battle. Does she have some sort of teleportation, or invisibility song, or something?


    ¡°What about Mata? How¡¯d this happen?¡±


    ¡°We were led to a great hall, they marched a table out to us laden with bindings, we thought it some manner of jest. We tried to laugh it off, but they advanced on us, weapons drawn. Then Mataalii drew that dangerous spear of yours as if from nowhere. Stones were flung from slings, and Mata was taken from us, as was his spear. We felt we had no choice but to allow ourselves to be bound at that point.¡± Lao shakily tells the tale, with Agwai nodding in confirmation.


    I only manage to growl as I begin summoning equipment for everyone. I¡¯m going to find my family members, get back their stolen copies of gear, and that ridiculously dangerous spear, and I¡¯m going to get to the bottom of what happened to Mataalii. My determination feels like it burns bright, akin to the time we were hunted by the energy thieves, as if it wants to burst forth from me as flames. Somehow it¡¯s even easier to see in our little cave, then I notice that perhaps my determination is literally burning bright, as I appear to be glowing.


    Teuila pokes me, then pinches and pulls at the skin on my arm. My only response to which is, ¡°Um, Te, ow, what are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Since when was your skin glow in the dark?¡± She prods me a bit more as she asks.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, since now I guess.¡± I shoo her hands away, since I¡¯m as clueless as she is about this. I¡¯d be laughing and enjoying our exchange at any other time, but right now I¡¯m fighting back a fury that¡¯s begging me to let loose and kill everything between me and finding where Luni is.


    Lil calls into my head, ¡°You and me both Reggie, you and me both.¡± I feel a vein pulse on my forehead, and continue to grit my teeth as I try to calm my breathing.


    Pointing between Lil, Teuila, and Myself, I state rather plainly, ¡°Any of the three of us could get us out of here, but Mataalii might be forever lost to us if we don¡¯t find out what¡¯s wrong with him before leaving. That¡¯s not to say anything about having no clue where Luni, Sugar, or Spice are either. I half wish I could call that bear down into these tunnels to cause a distraction while we investigate.¡±


    Wait, that bear, it¡¯s as if it was guarding that pyramid. This couldn¡¯t be some cliche curse of the mummy sort of thing, could it? Somehow one of the beaverfolk woke something that they shouldn¡¯t have, or were controlled by or replaced by something in the pyramid, when its guardian was half-baked by Lil¡¯s flames several months ago? Maybe. But then, if so, what¡¯s the right solution? Do we find the beaver that went to the pyramid? Do we go to the pyramid? I can¡¯t even muster the energy to try to share my train of thought with the family because it¡¯s so obtuse, and such wild mass guessing.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid that whatever¡¯s going on with Ali, is also going on with some of the beaverfolk. When we were in the great hall, it looked like a smaller faction were trying to get us to run towards them. Maybe they¡¯re the only ones left who are unaffected.¡±


    ¡°We noticed much the same, several beckoned us to head off to one side before the table was brought out, then were gone as we faced our choice of submission.¡± Agwai explains, with Laomati nodding for confirmation.


    ¡°Mana, Mana, are you two okay? I¡¯m so sorry for this.¡± I ask the twins, I¡¯ve rarely ever interacted with them.


    ¡°Please save him, you gotta save Ali!¡± My heart breaks as they beg me, as if it were up to me alone to bring Ali back to his senses.


    I grit my teeth and fight back a sob at their request, clenching my fists and my eyes. I inhale a ragged breath before continuing, explaining to Lao, Te, Lil, and Ag. ¡°Any of the five of us could slaughter dozens of them indiscriminately, not that I¡¯ve seen either of you two lift a weapon, but you¡¯re both so fit, and you¡¯ve survived so much, you¡¯re stronger than any of them that I¡¯ve seen. Between that, and the magical equipment, well, yeah.¡±


    Lao begins, ¡°Child, we, we couldn¡¯t,¡± Agwai interrupts her by clasping Lao¡¯s hands firmly, and shaking their head. Lao continues, ¡°I don¡¯t believe you could either, it¡¯s, it¡¯s not you to suggest such a thing, you¡¯d lose such a piece of what makes you our dear child.¡±


    I sigh, then rattle my brainpan, ¡°I know, I know, I wasn¡¯t suggesting that¡¯s the right thing to do. I was getting at how we have an easy road, and I know we¡¯re not going to take it. Grrr, I can get one, two, maybe three of us out of here, but I fear what they¡¯d do to the ones left behind. I feel as if we need someone to check out the pyramid, someone to guard those left behind, and someone to explore this complex. Oh.¡±


    Teuila bonks me in the noggin as she comes to the same realization I just did. I can evolve Lil, who basically could block off this entire room, and keep any number of beavers at bay, that leaves someone who can guard the ones left behind. I can evolve Teuila, whose speed in her Valkyrie-like form is absolutely blinding, she could get to the pyramid in no time. That leaves me to explore, while trying to hold back and not kill any of the beaverfolk. I drop my forehead into my right hand, close my eyes and sigh. Lil has caught on to my thoughts, and agrees as usual, no questions asked, when offered the chance to evolve. What I wouldn¡¯t give to have that bear here, guarding my family, so that Lil and I could search together.


    ¡°Teuila, promise me you¡¯ll be extra careful on the way out. One of them has a copy of Gae Buidhe, promise me you won¡¯t get nicked, and that if you do, you¡¯ll come right back so we can figure something out. Please, I¡¯m begging you.¡±


    ¡°Hey, look who¡¯s talking?¡± She socks me lightly in the shoulder, hinting that I¡¯m the one always doing risky things, and forgetting to take care of myself.


    ¡°That¡¯s not a promise. I love you, I need you to promise, or I won¡¯t be able to concentrate, or keep up the bond.¡± I stare into her eyes tearfully, panic lacing my voice.


    ¡°Shh, shh, okay, yes, I promise. If I get cut, straight back and we figure something out. What are you going to do if you¡¯re the one who gets hit?¡± She strokes my hair and pulls me close, before turning the tables on me and asking about me.


    ¡°I uh, I¡¯ll figure something out, I guess. It¡¯s our equipment, so I should be able to claim it to my inventory, where it can¡¯t hurt anyone, just by getting close enough to it.¡± I gulp slightly, whether from fear for Teuila¡¯s safety, or my own, I¡¯m not sure.


    ¡°My sweets, is this the only way? You¡¯re so strong together. It feels like you¡¯ve never been apart.¡± Lao coos as she strokes each of our cheeks in turn. I gulp again, this time choking back a sob. She¡¯s right, I don¡¯t want to be apart at all, let alone sending each of us off in such a way that any one of us, or all of us, might die to that stupidly deadly spear. None of us would know about what happened to the others for such a long time, but, well, I guess the stats pages would disappear.


    I sigh, regretting even thinking I wanted that bear here. I wouldn¡¯t want to risk it either, any more than any of us. I stare at Teuila for the longest time, I want to remind her that our energy will be shared, linked, and if she does anything fancy, she might put us into energy debt, which at the very least could drop her transformation, or one of the worst options would be both of us falling unconscious for varying periods of time. She knows though, I know she knows. I can¡¯t bear for the last thing I might say to her to be some stupid cautionary knowledge she already knows.


    As I extend a tether to her, her form extends, and I just smile sorrowfully. The only words I can find worth saying before she leaves are, ¡°I love you.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± She replies, as she nudges the boulder lightly, then leaps through a crack between the boulder and the wall, nearly seeming to teleport out of the room. I gulp back a sob as I sit to regain energy.


    I motion everyone to stand back save for Lil, then I extend a secondary tether to Lil, and watch as they assume their Lilagnewt form. My little dragon hugs me with their wings, and begins shoving the boulder far enough out of the way for me to take my leave. I¡¯m scared, I don¡¯t want to leave them behind. I don¡¯t want to get caught and end up like Mataalii. I don¡¯t want any of us to get cut by Gae Buidhe.


    I guess my first stop will have to be the grand hall, and the side tunnel with the sane faction of beaverfolk.

 Chapter 33: Thats Why We Gotta Stick Together

    <h2>Chapter 33: That¡¯s Why We Gotta Stick Together</h2>


    There¡¯s a pretty massive flaw in my plan. Like the idiot I am, I send the one of us who can¡¯t communicate, to go investigate possible allies. Me that is, I send me. I¡¯m the idiot, and I¡¯m the one that can¡¯t communicate. Ugh.


    I don¡¯t want to give away my inventory magic right away if I¡¯m spotted, so I shove everything back into my inventory. Well, everything other than the danger wraps, which I disguise with some of the rope bindings. I¡¯ve got the tattoos, and the wraps. I might be able to make some bolas or nets, or some other non-lethal weapon. I don¡¯t think in my wildest dreams I¡¯d ever have imagined it would be harder to not kill a bunch of people than to do so.


    If anyone ever reads this log, and knows how we get out of this mess. Could you do me a great big favor of somehow sending the ending back in time to right now? Just so I know what to do, I¡¯d really appreciate it, thanks.


    Anyone? No? Yeah I kinda figured.


    Exploring, I try to follow the right hand wall rule. I make sure that I¡¯m touching the same wall continuously, leaving marks along it to indicate where I¡¯ve been. This place is labyrinthine to say the least. I¡¯m afraid at any moment I might find multi level water passageways that would make it hard to determine what the right hand wall is.


    I should probably be focusing more on hostiles than on navigating at the moment, because I just entered a room with three beaverfolk. They actually look pretty beefy, it might be hard to subdue them without killing them. Hopefully they¡¯re strong enough to take a few seconds of my tattoo tendrils.


    The beavers stand, and grab anything nearby that they can use as weaponry, including actual weaponry. I sigh and extend my tendrils, which has a very odd effect. They exchange a glance, and start bowing and chanting. I try to make out the chant by just listening to it, or squinting at the text boxes that always seem to face away whenever it¡¯s a non party member that¡¯s speaking, but I can only ever understand when I¡¯m using Lil¡¯s senses.


    Or Luni¡¯s. I sigh and rub my itchy eyes as I think how Luni and I also share such a tight bond, and we haven¡¯t been able to reach her. I start to feel anger welling up within me again, and I have targets here I could take that anger out on. But no, she wouldn¡¯t want that. She¡¯s so kind, Luni and Teuila both. Though I think Teuila is barely on the edge of remaining merciful right now. Speaking of my angelic warrior, we should really have switched tasks. How is she going to get into the pyramid? I might be able to slowly claim pieces of it to my inventory until I find a hollow space to enter. Is she just going to hack away at it? Dig in from underneath with her spear?


    Ugh, why am I such an idiot!? Why are these fools still bowing and chanting? I lash out with my tendrils and slap the wall in frustration. The beaverfolk jump, a bit startled. Since I¡¯m worried they¡¯ll either follow me, alert others, or go attack my family, I have to do something about them, but I don¡¯t feel like I have a lot of good options.


    Stepping outside the room, I bend around the corner, and try to look like I¡¯m dragging a bunch of rope along as I pull vines and bindings out of my inventory. Sighing, I haul enough material into the room to bind these beavers. I whip my tendrils once to get their attention, then make a motion of putting my wrists together. They seem to understand, even if they don¡¯t like it. At least they comply.


    After I¡¯ve bound the beavers, I leave the room, sighing, shaking my head with my eyes closed. What am I even doing? I hope Teuila is faring better than I am. I hope Luni is somehow okay, wherever she is. If my life were a movie, it would cut away to one of them or both of them right now.


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    Regardless, exploring gets to be extremely tedious, I have to start skipping rooms. I can¡¯t just waste time with every pair or trio of beavers, spooking them and tying them up. Plus I¡¯ve gotten lucky that they¡¯ve all submitted so far. If any of them actually fight back, or I run into the one that has Gae Buidhe, this will get much more challenging. I spend hours trying to find my way to the great hall. I wonder if Teuila has even made it outside yet, or if her Valkyrie form is as good at swimming as she usually is.


    Up ahead the hallway seems to open up into a wider room, one filled with beaverfolk milling about. I¡¯m fairly certain that¡¯s the great hall. Based on my orientation, if we entered the room from the south, and the sane beavers were on the west side, we¡¯re on the east side, well, I¡¯m on the east side right now. Approaching the creatures that are essentially blocking my way, even if only inadvertently, I decide I¡¯ll have to make a spectacle out of myself to be able to get through this.


    I haven¡¯t really practiced this before, I hope it works. I¡¯ve used Newton¡¯s third law a few times with inventory shenanigans, but I¡¯ve never tried it with my tendrils. I face my back to the room, so that I¡¯m nearly back to back with several beavers. I then exhale slowly, trying to remain calm as I flick the tendrils hard, down and away, shunting myself upwards and rearwards, tumbling into a backflip as I sail into the room.


    All hell breaks loose as I land. How did Teuila get past all these without them taking up arms and scouring all the corridors? I know she¡¯s fast, but that¡¯s ridiculous. There¡¯s one beaver poking their snout timidly out from the western corridor. I¡¯m pretty sure I need to get to them. As I¡¯m trying to plan my way out of this mess, my danger wraps warn me of slingstones and spears sailing my way. It¡¯s easy enough to deflect them with the tattoo tendrils.


    Once the beavers realize they aren¡¯t going to knock me out from range, we enter a standoff. I feel a fury building, I could hurt them or kill some of them to intimidate the others, that would be easy. Taking a life shouldn¡¯t be easy. What am I doing? Why do I think it¡¯s even an issue that I have to address? I just now remembered something I have access to. I start walking westward, throwing any beaver to the side that tries to approach me. I think I¡¯m using Judo, without actually knowing Judo.


    Once I arrive in the western tunnel, the main population of beavers seem infuriated. They appear to be preparing to charge in after me, while the timid one scurries away. That¡¯s fine. This is fine. I let the mass of bodies and weapons approach, nearly closing in on the tunnel, then I place my hands on the ground. As they prepare to strike me down in my supplicated position, I rise, throwing my hands to the air. During this motion I summon a mass of clay and fired clay from my inventory, walling off the tunnel. Hopefully it appeared like terrakinesis, or geomancy. Even if they figured out that it¡¯s inventory magic though, I guess it doesn¡¯t matter right now.


    Turning westward, I follow the spooked beaver. These tunnels are all lined with lumber, but where do they even get logs this thin? I hadn¡¯t really gotten a chance to ponder the makeup of this complex before now. Every tree that I¡¯ve seen has a massive girth, and are mostly redwood or similar. These however appear to be mostly birch, and pine. There has to have been an entire forest that these beavers have taken down to line the miles of tunnel with wood. Is it necessary to support the weight of the tunnels, or is it just decoration for them?


    I make certain my tendrils are stowed, and that I appear as if I have no weapons. I want to look as non-threatening as possible. My apparent guide ignores several offshoots in the tunnel, until suddenly taking us down a branching hall. As we approach what must be the end of this tunnel, finally, I¡¯m met with a sight that¡¯s definitely good news and bad news.


    The good news is that there are a lot more beavers in the sane faction than I thought. The bad news is, it doesn¡¯t matter how many there are, I still won¡¯t be able to communicate with any of them. Maybe one of them knows where Luni went. Hm, speaking of Luni, did we come up with her name based on the word lunar, or something else? I think it was something else. Rivers in June come to mind, though I¡¯ve no idea why.


    I really wish we had stuck together right now, I¡¯m going to need a translator.

 Chapter 34: A Moon Apart

    <h2>Chapter 34: A Moon Apart</h2>


    My current dilemma is finding a way to even let these beavers know I can¡¯t understand them.  I doubt charades will provide any success.  I¡¯ve never played it in my life, so I¡¯ve only got vague memories of how it¡¯s supposed to work.  I do however want to make sure these individuals know I¡¯m not hostile, so I take the most non aggressive stance I can possibly think of.  I prostrate myself before them, kneeling down, head touching the floor, hands behind my back.


    My pose seems to have the desired effect.  I think they¡¯re at least not afraid of me, or can guess that I don¡¯t mean them any harm.  After remaining prostrate for a short while, I finally sit up and gaze around the room.  The sounds of murmuring and chatter have been reaching my ears, but it sounds like bruxing rather than speaking.


    ¡°So, I bet you¡¯re wondering why I¡¯ve gathered you all here, today.¡±  I joke aloud, knowing no one can appreciate the humor.  I try to extend my senses as far as possible, hoping that I can pick up on something, anything that will help me out here.  Nothing doing as far as that is concerned.  I do however hear the sound of mallets smacking wedges, like chisels.  Seems like the wall I¡¯ve put up isn¡¯t going to last forever.


    One of the larger beaverfolk hovers around me, constantly gazing at me.  They appear to be trying to suss out my intent, or gauging me somehow.  I don¡¯t know what insight they¡¯re gaining, but hopefully it¡¯s positive.  I try not to shrink under their scrutiny.  They need to know that I¡¯m not frightened of them, or the other faction.


    Maybe these beavers can read and write?  I¡¯m not sure what I have that might work to write with, or on though.  Hm, some twigs, slightly smoldered at the end would work.  All I need to do is summon some twigs from my inventory, and spin them quickly against a larger chunk of wood.  If I roll them between my palms, I should be able to cause enough friction to at least char the tips.


    I worry that it looks like I¡¯m either ignoring them, or insane, but after a while, the beavers begin to ignore me, talking amongst themselves, save for the large one.  After several minutes, I¡¯ve managed to ignite the tips of the twigs just enough that my breath can fan a spark on each one.  When the ember dies out, I set them down.  Now for a writing medium.  I suppose that tome we received from Octorochi was pretty thick, maybe it has some blank pages.  I probably have a few hours before they knock down the wall since I made it fairly thick, but I¡¯d still better make the time count.


    Calling the tome forth from my inventory, I set about scanning its contents.  Everything appears in some sort of alien script.  It¡¯s like whatever alphabet is used is a series of fragments of a square.  Symbols like the upper right corner of a square, or both sides with a dot in the middle, simply the bottom fragment like an underscore.  On and on, though there don¡¯t appear to be twenty six combinations, so I can¡¯t even make an educated guess as if it were a simple substitution cipher.  I manage to get a bit lost in thought, scanning its contents, and I feel a bit drowsy, as if I¡¯ve been reading for hours.  Wait, my energy has fully recovered from placing that wall near the great hall.


    The largest beaver shakes me, gaining my attention.  They point back into the hallway towards the entrance, and I hear the sound of rushing footsteps.  But how?  How could they have gotten through already?  Why am I already so hungry?  My vision is a bit blurry, and my eyes are dry, as if I¡¯d been reading for hours on end without blinking, that coupled with my energy having returned perplexes the heck out of me.  I try to flex my jaw, rattle my brainpan, and rub my eyes, blinking them furiously.  Wait, the gashes on my chest are healed too.  How long was I sitting here?


    The beavers around me make as if to run into the hall towards another side tunnel.  I don¡¯t think fleeing with them will get me anywhere however.  I haven¡¯t made any progress in communicating with them.  Since I won¡¯t be joining them, I flick my head towards the hall they indicate, and nod.  I wave them towards it.


    As I claim the book, and look around for the twigs I¡¯d left out, I see charcoal drawings on the floor.  It looks like one figure leaves the dam.  The next drawing looks like the figure comes back, and is set to one side while there¡¯s a scribbled mass that looks like it could be many people drawn hastily together.  Below that, the figure is drawn taking away one of the mass.  Below that, the two figures stand apart.  Below that, there are more and more figures drawn on, well, that side of the equation I guess.


    If I¡¯m interpreting this right, my guess from earlier isn¡¯t far off.  One of the beaverfolk found something, or was cursed by something, or replaced by something.  When they returned, they slowly built up a following, maybe by abducting others, maybe by impressing them somehow.  I guess learning this is a step in the right direction at least.  If I can figure out who the less friendly faction reports to, I might be able to end this.  I think I¡¯ll have to kill their leader though, that¡¯s less than ideal.


    As I¡¯m caught up in my reverie, I¡¯m nearly caught on the chin by a slingstone.  My wraps guided my reflexes enough to have me simply shift just far enough to dodge it.  The stone clacking against the wall is what actually draws my attention back to reality.  Ugh, I¡¯m done trying to hide my magic, screw these buffoons.  I fashion several bolas from vines and clay in my inventory as I equip myself.


    This isn¡¯t even a fight, I block attacks with the shield I¡¯ve got equipped from the copies of gear we¡¯ve acquired from Teuila¡¯s evolution.  It¡¯s almost like the beavers are moving in slow motion compared to me.  It¡¯s easy to tie their wrists or ankles in passing, between their attacks.  Is this what Lil meant when they thought I was so much higher level than others?  This can¡¯t be real, right?  Maybe their reactions are slower because they¡¯re being controlled.  I¡¯d better not make assumptions that could let hubris get the better of me.  I¡¯ll try to avoid getting cocky.  Mataalii¡¯s mere existence reminds me how fallible I am, and right now I¡¯m doing this to try to rescue Mata.  I¡¯m just going to refer to this lot as the mind-controlled faction, or the MCF.  It¡¯s easier than thinking broadly, these beavers, or those beavers.


    As the number of MCF that aren¡¯t tied up dwindles, I find myself near the back of their ranks.  I spot a beaver wielding a copy of Gae Buidhe and my fury rises.  The one with the deadly spear flees around a corner and I lose sight of them however.  Blast it all.  What if it¡¯s not the only one?  My stomach lurches as I begin to panic, imagining that one or more other copies of Gae Buidhe are out there in the hands of beavers who are attacking Lil or Teuila right now.


    Focus, focus, calm down, I¡¯m still in the middle of a fight.  Suddenly I sense a figure leaping at me from behind, and I turn to strike them with my shield, barely stopping in time.  I¡¯m flabbergasted as I see a gorgeous, curvy otter in a familiar green dress with bronze diamond accents.  As Luni leaps to embrace me I wrap my arms around her and twirl her in a tight hug, laughing.  My tendrils continue to work to slap the last few beavers senseless that try to interrupt our reunion.


    ¡°Lu, Lu you¡¯re okay!  Thank heavens you¡¯re okay!  I was so worried, we were so worried!  Lil has to be worried sick!  Where have you been?  How did you get here?¡±  I smooch Luni¡¯s cheeks and hug her tighter once more.  I feel her body twist as she throws her legs out to knock down an MCF beaver coming our way, booting them in the head.  I can¡¯t lie, that was pretty impressive.  It seems like that was the final one, for now.


    ¡°Talk later, we need to catch up to the others!¡±  She calls, as she drags me back towards the end of the hall where the non MCF beavers¡¯ room was.  ¡°Which way did they go?¡±


    ¡°Uh, down that side tunnel, but why?  The family is holed up in the dungeon, well I guess it¡¯s a dungeon.  I¡¯ve got Lil guarding them in Lilagnewt form, we could go get them now that you¡¯re safe.  Wait, where are Sugar and Spice?  Were they in on this?  Are they okay?¡±  Luni nods at my last question.


    Luni continues to explain as we chase the friendly faction, trying to catch up, ¡°They¡¯re safe, I got them out of the dam.  I could tell something was up, so I got out right away, and they filled me in on as much as they knew.¡±


    ¡°But how?  How did you get away?  How much do you know about what¡¯s going on?  Do you know about the pyramid?¡±  I dig for answers while tailing Lu through the tunnels.


    ¡°The what?¡±  She sounds fairly perplexed.  I know she knows what a pyramid is, since I used one in the swamps, and talked about my plans with her.  So that¡¯s not why she¡¯s confused.  Luni gives up trying to hold a conversation while we jog down the halls, and instead just thinks straight into my head.  ¡°I was hiding outside with Sugar and Spice when you three got back from flying around.  I didn¡¯t notice you return until you were diving into the water.  I tried to reach out but by the time you were in the river it was too late.  I left them out there, and I¡¯ve been tailing you ever since.  It really sucked being stuck on the other side of that wall you know.¡±


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    ¡°Oh, uh, sorry, I didn¡¯t realize you were there, obviously.¡±


    ¡°Obvee.¡±  She smiles back at me while thinking slang into my head.  I¡¯m glad she isn¡¯t mad at me.  ¡°So anyway, I didn¡¯t want to risk following you all straight back to the jail or dungeon or whatever, since I knew you could just get out of it with your magic.  I was worried that if I got caught on the way there, they might use me to keep you from fighting back.  I¡¯m sorry that I¡¯m not as brave as you three.¡±


    ¡°Luni, you¡¯re insanely brave, you saved our two new buddies, and snuck back in here to rescue us.  I don¡¯t know what qualifies as brave in your book, but you¡¯re a hero to me.¡±  She beams another smile back at me in return for my response.  Our path starts to take us to more water-filled hallways, we end up having to regularly dive and swim through areas with no air.  How far did the other beavers retreat already?  I really just want to take a break and hold Luni for a long time to really soak in the fact that she¡¯s okay, and I want to bring her to Lil so Lil can do the same.  Realizing she¡¯s in my head right now, I start to flush with embarrassment.  She sends an image of herself blowing a raspberry, sticking her tongue out at me into my mind.


    ¡°Y¡¯know, Lil¡¯s kinda right.¡±  I¡¯m about to ask Luni how so, before she continues.  ¡°You¡¯re going to be twitterpated with anyone on two legs aren¡¯t you?¡±  Oh, she¡¯s teasing me, and succeeding.  I feel my face heat up even further.


    ¡°N¡­no, sh¡¯up.¡±  I try to laugh it off.  ¡°Maybe just you three.  Besides, the last thing I want to do is make Teuila feel bad.¡±


    ¡°Heee.¡±  Luni emotes that drawn-out single laugh similar to Teuila¡¯s when she¡¯s exceedingly happy.


    Teuila was so jealous of our bond, or envious, or some other negative emotion.  I¡¯d never want to put her through that feeling of alienation or resentment, whatever she was going through, ever again.  As I¡¯m about to frustratedly ask how long these tunnels can possibly go on, we meet a dead end.  That¡¯s equally frustrating in its own right.


    ¡°What now?¡±  We both gaze around, and I flick my eyes upward to make sure nothing is going to literally have the drop on us.  As I look up, I realize that the logs that make up the tunnel roof have an interesting seam.  Ah, a hidden door.


    Luni watches me try to scramble up the walls, giggling to herself.  She laughs harder when I hang upside down like a bat, trying to shove open the door on the roof to no avail.  I give the door a good kick, loudly knocking on it, which also dislodges me.  As I fall on my head, Luni stifles her laughter to help me up and rub the back of my head comfortingly.  ¡°You okay Reggie?¡±  She gives me a consoling hug as I get my bearings.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah I think so.  This is annoying.  I¡¯ll stack up some mud into steps, and try pushing one more time, if that doesn¡¯t work, I¡¯m just going to claim the stupid door.¡±  As I explain my plan, Luni steps back and waves forward as if to say, after you.  I go about placing enough mud to stand at a height where I can get leverage to shove upward.  Once that¡¯s completed, I shove upward with all my might to no avail.  Sighing, I knock several times.  When there¡¯s no answer, I frustratedly yoink the door into my inventory, which then floods the tunnel from above.


    I find myself wondering if the door might have been a pull door, as I see a dislodged rope that could have been used to pull the door closed from above.  Even still, I couldn¡¯t find a latch or handle to try to pull on it.  Taking Luni by the hand, I swim upwards, and eject the door from my inventory, lodging it relatively back where it came from.  At a certain height, it¡¯s obvious there¡¯s yet another door off to the side.  Through that one, yet another.  After a short series of doors, there¡¯s no more water pouring in from the final door.  We exit the tunnel system entirely, coming out above ground.  That felt like an unfinished series of airlocks.  Maybe it was meant to be opened in a certain order, so as to not flood oneself with water like I mistakenly did to Luni and myself.


    Sighing, I look around, and Luni points to some obvious prints in the soil.  It¡¯s easy enough to follow the trail, and easier still to realize where they¡¯re staying.  There¡¯s a log cabin up ahead.  If my estimation is correct, based on where the river is compared to where we exited the tunnels, then we¡¯re also nearing the pyramid.  Maybe I had it backwards, maybe something in the pyramid keeps the beavers sane.


    Since I don¡¯t want to squelch as I walk, I summon the excess water that¡¯s soaking my gear, claiming it to my inventory.  Luni similarly dries herself out, instead by using the soapstone.  I find myself wondering where the matter goes when it¡¯s cleaned off of us, and what constitutes anything that needs to be cleaned.  If water can be cleaned out, what about smells?  Perfumes?  What about dyes?  Maybe there¡¯s some subconscious amount of will that enacts what we think it should be able to do.


    When we reach the cabin, I don¡¯t see any obvious point of entry from the near side, but I also don¡¯t want to go scouting around it, in case there are traps.  I try to loudly clear my throat, and cautiously tap on the cabin with a staff I summon from my inventory.  The good news is, the staff tap probably caught their attention, the bad news is, it probably caught the attention of everything in a wide radius, as tapping the staff summoned a massive thundercrack.  I facepalm, thinking to myself how much of a dork I can be.  Luni giggles and smiles my way.  I can¡¯t help but to smile back, even though I only flash her half of a smile, it¡¯s still one full of joy.


    Beavers filter out from around the other side of the cabin, wielding sharp sticks as spears.  I roll my eyes and put my hands up in a gesture of peace.  Luni takes over and speaks for us, before things get out of hand.  She explains how I can¡¯t communicate, and how I accidentally used the thunder stick when trying to get their attention.  After a brief exchange, things seem to be going alright.


    Luni explains, ¡°They say since you can¡¯t communicate, you might as well wait out here, and guard the place, in case anything comes to check out that big boom.¡±  I suppose that¡¯s fair, it was my fault after all.  I don¡¯t like the idea of being separated from Lu again after finally being reunited though.


    ¡°It¡¯ll be fine, I¡¯ve got my tricks now too you know.¡±  Before I can ask what she means by that reassurance, she scampers off with the beavers around to the other side of the cabin.  Sighing, I sit in the soil and just lean back.  I let myself fall to the ground on my back, cupping the back of my head with my right hand.  I use the buckler on my left arm like a visor, to shield my eyes from the light filtering in through the canopy.


    My thoughts drift to Teuila, she¡¯s probably only a short ways away right now, figuring something out with the pyramid.  I¡¯d love to go check in with her, but I can¡¯t afford to lose this location, or Luni.  Plus I¡¯ve pretty much agreed to guard the cabin for the moment.  It¡¯s probably a good thing I did, since I now feel the ground rumbling as of something large approaching quickly.  Sighing, I summon some fish from my inventory, and I sit up, tossing some in the direction the vibrations are coming from.  I eat the rest when I realize how hungry I¡¯ve gotten.


    Sure enough, moments later, the feathered bear thing storms into the clearing and raises its forepaw as if to swipe at me.  I just roll my eyes and shake my head at it, holding my hand out to remind it of what I can do.  It probably didn¡¯t recognize me since I¡¯ve switched out of my leaf leather gear, as that was stolen.  The bear balks for a moment.  I point to the fish on the ground, and it dejectedly slumps, heaving its butt onto the ground with a thud.  When it¡¯s at rest, it begins to consume the fish.


    Curious if I¡¯ve made a new friend, I summon some more fish from my inventory, and cautiously approach the feathered bear thing.  It immediately bats me away like a ragdoll, though I don¡¯t even feel much pain from the attack.  Apparently we¡¯re not friends, yet at least.  I shrug, and throw it some more food.  While it¡¯s consuming that fish, I inch closer once again, but I maintain a few arm lengths of distance.  I wish I was with the rest of my family, I wish we were safe and sitting in a dugout, cuddling up to tell stories for the night.  I never want to be apart from them, especially my inner circle, Teuila, Lil, and dear sweet Luni.  I was so scared for her when she was out of touch, and wasn¡¯t with the others.  It felt like she might as well have been on the moon for all the good our trying to reach her did.  I¡¯m not even sure if this planet has a moon, but if it does, we and the moon are far apart.  I sigh, frown, and slump, leaning over towards the bear, laying flat on the ground, feeling saddened.


    The bear stands up, moves a step closer, and raises a forepaw as if to smash in my face.  I frown at it and roll my eyes, shaking my head.  The bear then sits down once more, its hind end thudding into the ground.  It lays its face on my torso.  I cautiously try to pet the bear¡¯s beak.  It snaps at my hand, so I set my hand back down.  Bored, and somewhat trapped, I try to stroke the bear¡¯s left forepaw, and for once, it doesn¡¯t try to attack me.  Good enough for now I suppose.  If our Luni and we were a moon apart, then this bear and I are just as far apart, a whole lunar cycle worth of emotions away from connecting.  I guess that makes this bird bear Luna, Ursa Luna.  I wonder if Luni would mind the bear having a name that sounds so close to hers.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad we didn¡¯t kill each other, way back when.  I¡¯m also glad my family listened to me, and didn¡¯t try to kill you today.  I don¡¯t know what your life is like, but I hope you manage to live happily.  Maybe you¡¯re guarding something, maybe you¡¯re just a hungry beast whose territory we¡¯re in.  I don¡¯t know, but you are beautiful.¡±  As I ramble at Luna, I¡¯m simply stared at by one of its massive eyes.  Luna sets their left forepaw on my face as if to shush me.  I shrug and hug its paw.


    ¡°Reggie, oh no!  Reggie!  Are you okay!?¡±  I hear Luni rushing around the cabin accompanied by many more footsteps.  Wanting to make sure there¡¯s no misunderstandings, I connect to her mentally to let her know I¡¯m fine before anyone can do anything.


    After reassuring her mentally, I also call out, ¡°Everything¡¯s fine Luni, Luna and I are just hanging out.¡±  I wave one hand from beneath Ursa Luna, and everyone seems to freeze in their tracks.


    ¡°Eck, Excuse me?  Did you name it after me?¡±  There¡¯s incredulity in her query.  Makes sense I suppose.  How often would you expect one of your best friends to say hi from under a bear, and oh by the way I named it after you.


    I try not to laugh as I respond, ¡°Sort of.  Is that okay?¡±


    ¡°I guess I¡¯m honored, kinda.  A bit weirded out, but honored, I guess.¡±  Luni trails off.  The beavers around us chatter incoherently to me.  I just flash half of a smile and close my eyes, waiting for someone to tell me the plan.  For once, I don¡¯t have to be the one solving things.

 Chapter 35: Rivers In June

    <h2>Chapter 35: Rivers In June</h2>


    ¡°Reggie, can you maybe get up, please? And maybe send your new friend somewhere so they stop scaring the beavers?¡± Since Luni is making a request of me, I can¡¯t really say no, she rarely ever asks me to do anything. There¡¯s a bit of a problem with that though, Luna seems comfortable, and is very, very heavy.


    I try replying, while attempting to stifle a bit of laughter at my own predicament, ¡°I would like to comply my dear, I really would. It seems Luna however isn¡¯t having any of it. I don¡¯t want to make an enemy out of them.¡±


    Luni taps her foot impatiently for a bit, then does something that scares me half to death. She marches up to Luna, leans her shoulder low, and just shoves with all her might. This of course doesn¡¯t budge Luna even an inch, but I was terrified that the bear might attack Luni in retaliation. Luna probably realizes that while we are squishy enough to die, we¡¯re also not worth the trouble of attacking, as we cause all sorts of inconveniences. Friends that breathe fire, me conjuring stone structures, and now this brazen lass shoving, backed up by dozens of beaverfolk. Compared to being given free fish, what seems like a better deal to you? Dealing with that nonsense, or accepting the fish?


    ¡°Okay, I give, we need her anyway.¡± Luni admits defeat after trying to shove Luna for a while.


    ¡°We do?¡± Now I¡¯m curious what the plan is, if Luni already knows such a detail.


    ¡°Luna there is the only one that can enter the pyramid that you mentioned. At night it seems she can walk through walls, or at least those walls, and anyone riding her gets taken along through.¡±


    ¡°Does that mean one of the beavers somehow made friends with her before, or, or well, what does it mean?¡± I interrupt, expecting where this is going, slightly.


    ¡°Their best guess until now was that this one beaver who came back with a name like Lithick, Lithium, whatever the name was, jumped on the back of Luna here, and just happened to get taken into the pyramid. If you really have her tamed, or well, have her friendship, then one of us can go inside.¡± Luni continues to try to fill me in on the plan.


    ¡°Nah, Luna definitely isn¡¯t tamed, she just tolerates us at the moment. Aint that right Luna? You think we¡¯re a bunch of trespassing idiots, and just want fishes, don¡¯cha?¡± I give Luna¡¯s paw another hug, she responds with a huff and an eye roll. Curious, does she actually understand me? I peer at Luna as intently as I can, but she reveals no secrets to me. ¡°Still, Teuila¡¯s the one I sent to get inside the pyramid, if someone can figure out where she is, and fill her in on the plan, I¡¯m sure she can get Luna to cooperate, even if accidentally.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good, because this Lith-whatever, our new friends say they aren¡¯t the beaver, they¡¯re something inside the beaver. Their guess is that something in the pyramid would let them jump into anyone else under their sway if they were threatened or killed. At least, unless the pyramid is being dealt with at the same time.¡± Lu¡¯s explanation has me slightly rattled. How could they possibly guess that? Unless they¡¯ve already tried to kill Lith-whatever before. Oh, right, it has been months since Lil and I passed through, when we sent Luna packing with burns. They¡¯ve probably tried all sorts of things.


    I ponder aloud, ¡°Well fudge, how are we supposed to time something like that simultaneously?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯unno, got any magic for that?¡± Lu sidles up alongside me, and leans against my shoulder, as well as Luna¡¯s paw. Luna doesn¡¯t react, so we¡¯re good there at least. Luni seeks out my hand and intertwines her fingers with mine. I spy the orangey ring on one of her fingers, and blush about the day I handed that over.


    ¡°Not really, we have a couple of mysterious potions, and this weird burner thing that I think you¡¯re supposed to put incense in or something. I¡¯ve got some serpent parts I never bothered to check out, from the time Teuila saved me, this weird book that seems to steal time as I try to read it. I guess we could figure out what the incense thing does. Would be easier if we had Lil here to light the stuff. Oh wait, I have a candle, but it¡¯s a weird one, we¡¯d have to fill the candle holder with water, and not spill it. How did Lao light a torch back in the swamp?¡± I ramble, unable to keep a train of thought, Lu giggles and squeezes my hand.


    ¡°For that last one I can answer, Lao said she lit a stick wrapped in some weeds on one of Lil¡¯s snores.¡± Lu¡¯s answer is perplexing though, because I¡¯ve slept face first in Lil¡¯s fiery snores, and never been ignited, or even slightly crisped. Heck, we¡¯ve all cuddled around Lil dozens and dozens of times to sleep together. Even Lu should be suspicious of that answer, but she seems perfectly content as she shares it.


    ¡°Alright Luna, I really do need to get up now though, would you mind lifting your paw, please? We¡¯ll cuddle some other time, if we all live through this.¡± Surprisingly enough, Luna lifts her paw and raises her head to gaze down at me. We aren¡¯t in a party, and I know things at best have a difficult time understanding me when they¡¯re sapient if I try to talk to them, when not in a party. Is Luna as intelligent as everyone else? Smarter maybe? I cautiously stand up, Luna huffs, swats me back into a seated position, and rests her head on me once more. As I¡¯m about to complain in the next moment, she stands again, and backs away slightly. Luni and I exchange glances, both raising an eyebrow about how odd that interaction was.


    Since I can stand, I¡¯m about to pull a few things out of my inventory when I realize I¡¯m still holding Lu¡¯s hand, fingers interlocked. Blushing, I clear my throat a bit as I look at our hands. Lu can read what I¡¯m thinking, so she drops my hand, but then she leaps sideways at me. Luni ends up wrapping me up in a hug while I¡¯m trying to summon things from my inventory, and I can¡¯t help but to laugh. ¡°Lu, are you purposely making this difficult?¡±


    ¡°Yup!¡± The innocent audacity of her reply is almost flabbergasting, almost. Lil and Luni are so similar. I burst into laughter. Luna makes a huffing sound, so I gaze over at the birdlike bear. Was that jealousy? Ah, right, anyway, I should experiment quickly, our family still isn¡¯t safe.


    I frequently let myself get distracted. It¡¯s a really bad habit of mine. How can I be sitting here, enjoying my time with Luni, and Luna, when Lil might be being harassed by someone with Gae Buidhe, or Teuila might be lost somewhere? Ugh, welp, that certainly puts a downer on my mood. Luni, sensing my thoughts darken, flicks me on the nose and smooches my cheek, before backing off to let me act. ¡°Heh, alright, alright, yeah, it¡¯s still fun being with you, I guess I can¡¯t deny that, even if I¡¯m worried about everyone else.¡±


    I place the items on the ground that I¡¯m thinking about using. I¡¯ve got the candle that lights in water, and the weird thing that I think is called a censer. I¡¯ve filled the little candle holder that hangs below it with water. There¡¯s no incense in the top container though, and I don¡¯t have any, or know how to make any. What if I just shove some flowers in the top? Curious about the effects of this item, in case it might be magical, I decide to place some flower petals in the top. It¡¯s slightly unsettling having the giant bear that is Luna, just watching me proceed. But if we really are at peace, then I guess it¡¯s no different than hanging out with Lil while Lil is evolved. Or at least it¡¯s not too different, though Lil is still smaller by far.


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    I place the candle in the water I¡¯ve got sitting in the bottom receptacle, pick up this device, and wait. Some smoke eventually begins to trail out of this censer, but I can¡¯t tell if anything magical is happening. Eventually the smoke dies down, and I figure the few petals I put in have burned out. Maybe if I place an entire bulb in, of certain kinds of flowers. That might do something, maybe. I pull the candle out of the water, and like the magic suggested, it loses its flame. Also, this would be a pain to hold for long periods, so I gather some twigs to make kind of a spit. Once I¡¯ve got the twigs staked into the ground, and the censer hanging from them, I¡¯m about to place the candle back in when I get another idea. Luni is more magical than me, like she seems to actually have spells.


    ¡°Lu, would you care to do the honors?¡± I ask as I hold out the candle and some flower bulbs. She gives me an expression that¡¯s quizzical, but hops closer again, taking the objects.


    Luni sets the candle in the water after placing flower bulbs inside of the censer, and sits on her heels next to it, awaiting the ignition point. The beavers look perplexed, and are probably assuming we¡¯re buffoons that are wasting time. Once smoke begins to pour out of the bowl however, Luni begins whispering. I can¡¯t make it out, but it seems like she¡¯s talking to the censer. Luni stands up, claps her hands as if to dust them off, and says, ¡°I see, thank you.¡± She says it directed at the censer though, not me.


    I¡¯m about to question if Lu is messing with me when I feel a strong breeze enveloping me. Lu claps her hands excitedly as she turns towards me, grinning. ¡°Reggie, meet Sylphie, our newest friend!¡± I¡¯m about to ask if Lu inhaled too many fumes when sitting close to the censer, when the breeze around me coalesces, forcing me to take a step back.


    If I focus my gaze just right, staring at the dust floating in the air, it seems to be tracing a vaguely humanoid shape. There¡¯s apparently an anthropomorphic breeze floating in front of me. ¡°Uh, hi Sylphie? Pleased to make your acquaintance, I think?¡± I¡¯m enveloped by the breeze again, it feels like a comforting hug, and the welcoming kiss one would give in greeting. There¡¯s an intimacy in such a warm breeze surrounding oneself that I can¡¯t even describe.


    The breeze seems to be speaking, but to me it just sounds like the rustle of leaves on a summer¡¯s day. I frown, somewhat sadly. I¡¯m sure Luni can speak with Sylphie, but I won¡¯t be able to, and that¡¯s probably why nothing happened when I used the censer. It does give me an idea though.


    ¡°Lu, will Sylphie always answer the call of the censer? How fast can she travel? Is she any good with directions?¡± I turn to gaze at Lu who is mini-clapping her hands together with glee. Luni is grinning so hard that I¡¯m forced to smile wide yet again. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you already know the answers, and have a plan?¡±


    ¡°Yup! Yes, as fast as the wind, as sound, as thought, according to her. She says once she¡¯s tasted a soul, she can always find it.¡± As Luni explains the last bit, I¡¯m a bit worried. Presumably it means Sylphie just tasted my soul. I shudder at the implication, but Lu is chuckling at my mental response across our shared wavelength.


    Trying to distract myself from the implications of soul tasting, I ask, ¡°So, are you thinking what I think you¡¯re thinking?¡±


    ¡°Totes! I¡¯ll take this thingy, and Luna to find Te. I¡¯ll catch her up on the plan while you sneak back into the dam to find the big boss for a showdown. You hold off on throwing down until Sylphie gives the signal, Easy!¡± I wish Lu hadn¡¯t added that last bit, but her innocent exuberance is adorable. Her excitement might be contagious too, the breeze swirling about seems almost gleeful, if I could describe it. Even Luna perks up from her slumped position. I really need to reunite Luni with Lil as soon as possible. The more time I spend alone with her, the more I appreciate the bond they have, and how much Luni must mean to Lil.


    ¡°So you¡¯re sure you can just get Luna to follow you? What are these guys and gals going to do?¡±


    ¡°Well, they¡¯ve kind of given up, when they saw all of us get captured, and then you escaping, they figured they lost any opportunity to end things in the dam. They¡¯re giving us the chance to save the fam, but then they¡¯re going to flood it, whether we¡¯re out or not.¡± Luni¡¯s answer causes my eyes to shoot wide with terror. That got dark, fast. I can¡¯t let my family be caught up in a flood type situation yet again, I can¡¯t let that happen, it just can¡¯t happen. My pulse races and I have trouble breathing as I pant, gasping for air. The tunnels below are so long, and labyrinthine, not even my beloved aquatic family could hold their breath long enough to escape.


    ¡°How,¡± I gulp, unable to get my question across. ¡°How long do we have?¡±


    Luni¡¯s expression sobers up, she even looks slightly guilty, as if she¡¯s ashamed for having been happy over the last bit of time. ¡°Mid day tomorrow Reggie. Unless we can fix the whole situation, it¡¯s happening then.¡± My heart sinks. I think we¡¯ve been dealing with this whole dam situation for nearly a day at this point, with all the hours spent, it feels like midmorning right now. I haven¡¯t slept a full sleep in at least a day, if not two or three at this point, since we marched out of the swamp under Luni¡¯s spell.


    I¡¯m definitely not in the best condition for espionage or ninja or spy or assassin work. What was that dream I had? I was an assassin, taking down a tyrant, facing some sort of magic? Well, that was vaguely prophetic, wasn¡¯t it?


    Looking at Lu, water wells in my eyes as I start to tear up. I don¡¯t want to be alone again, and I don¡¯t want to let her, or any of my family out of my sight, ever again. Luni hasn¡¯t stuttered or mumbled once today, which she usually does around anyone other than Lil. I guess she¡¯s mustering all her courage. I¡¯m scared, and I don¡¯t want to risk losing her by seeing her head off on an adventure with a bear and some air. Shakily I try to say, ¡°I guess, I guess this is goodbye then, for now Lu.¡±


    Lu can sense my sadness, and fear, she doesn¡¯t console me quite the way Teuila would though. Instead Luni says, ¡°I guess so Reggie, just for now though, okay? You got this. You¡¯re my hero.¡± Most of the time she¡¯s generally pretty shy about sharing her thoughts to anyone other than Lil. Right now though, she has been really brave today, and outgoing.


    I can also tell Luni has been hiding something. I mean, obviously she has more powers than she shared earlier. How much magic does Luni have? Is it changing her somehow? Still, Lil, Teuila, and I love our Luni, that won¡¯t change, even if she does.


    What¡¯s that phrase, April showers bring May flowers, but should no May flowers bloom, rivers flood in June? Some pithy epithet warning about topsoil erosion if there¡¯s no plant life, or something like that. I think Luni means June, in some other language, or river in another, now that I¡¯m thinking hard on it. More oddly prophetic things, that stopping a river flood from hurting our family basically falls to Luni. I guess I play a part too, an ugly, grisly part, but I¡¯m glad to not have to lay this job in Luni¡¯s lap. What was that phrase that Lil said I used? Death is an ugly business, but it¡¯s my business? Something like that. Lu trots over to speak with the beavers a bit, and she slings the censer onto her shoulder strap that holds her harp. I guess I should get going too.


    How the heck am I going to find my way back? Let alone find my family, get them out, find this leader, and wait to put a stop to them until I get a mysterious breezy signal? All before tomorrow, so I can¡¯t afford to sleep. Sighing, I set off in the direction of the hatch that leads below, through the locks, back into the dam¡¯s tunnel system. As I wend my way back in, occasionally swimming, I realize this is probably one of many series of locks like this, and probably what they¡¯re going to use to flood the dam. This could send the whole river down here.

 Chapter 36: Mind Blown

    <h2>Chapter 36: Mind Blown</h2>


    I¡¯ve never maintained tethers for this long for the forced evolution for either Teuila or Lil, let alone both of them simultaneously.  I can only hope beyond hope that it¡¯s not having any ill effects on them.  It certainly feels rough on me, though that might just be from not having slept.


    The way I see it, there¡¯s two ways for me to go about this.  I could head back to the jail, prison area first, to try to get my family to escape, but that would mean dropping the tether on Lil, so that Lil can fit through the halls and swimming tunnels.  Worse, I might lead many, many MCF beavers to my loved ones if I head to the jail first, including that jerk, or those jerks, with a copy of Gae Buidhe.


    The other option is to try to find the leader first.  Try to find them without threatening, engaging, or killing them, until I get the signal, which could take hours.  If I¡¯m spotted in that time, I don¡¯t have the kind of stamina to survive for hours while not attacking.  Well, mind¡¯s eye stats page stamina I¡¯ve got a ton of now, but I mean the metaphorical willpower and energy to continue acting for long periods.  I¡¯m already flagging from jogging and swimming back down into the dam.


    How do heroes in stories do this kind of thing?  Especially alone!  Especially when their loved ones are separated from them, in danger!  As I feel my panic rising, I double over in an empty cubby, panting, from both exhaustion and terror.  What if I can¡¯t do this?  What if I make the wrong choice, and doom either the beavers, or my family, or both?  How could Lu put her faith in me after all the times I¡¯ve screwed up so badly.  All the times I felt resigned and just thrown my life at the problem?  I was always assuming I was sacrificing myself, like once every other situation basically.  I realize that though my vision is narrow, it¡¯s hard to blink due to how wide open my eyes are from sheer terror.


    Okay, okay, okay okay okay.  Calm down Reggie, breathe.  You have to do this.  There is no other option.  Failure is not an option.  I don¡¯t think I do well under pressure, because that¡¯s definitely not helping.  I just, I just need a little break, that¡¯s all.  I need to have a good little cry, and then go be brave.  As I let myself fall to my knees, then roll to my side, going fetal, I let myself sob and cry.  I thought I was finally free to help my family rebuild their happiness, safe, away from harm.  It¡¯s not fair.  It¡¯s not fair.


    As I continue to cry, my eyelids droop, feeling heavy, laden with sleepiness.  I yawn through sobs, and curse my predicament.  I can¡¯t afford to sleep, I have no idea how long things are going to take.  Groggily, infuriated at my own cowardice, or whatever I¡¯m feeling, I stand, and pound the wall in frustration.  I guess I¡¯ll give turning my brain off a go.


    I let the tedium of exploring empty halls just blend together in my mind, so that I can stop thinking entirely.  I have no idea how long that lasted, but it¡¯s finally time to re-engage my brain.  There¡¯s basically a platoon of beavers scouring the halls ahead of me.  They appear to be searching for the renegades, the sane faction, thankfully to no avail.  They haven¡¯t spotted any of the secret exits, or water locks that have been set up, or we¡¯d probably all be done for by now.


    As I extend my tattoo tendrils to grab the nearest beaver, several bow, several drop their weapons, and jaws, and several flee.  A few however try to slap the others back to attention.  Unluckily for me, whatever fear or reverence they have for me due to this tattoo, the authority of the other beaverfolk seems to win out.


    I don¡¯t know if I have time to deal with every combat situation I¡¯m going to get into, let alone deal with them non lethally.  As I somersault, cartwheel, and dash my way through the various beavers, tying them up, I feel exhausted, spent.  I¡¯m running low on vines and bindings already.  How am I supposed to keep them from killing me, without killing them?  All while still doing everything I need to, on a time crunch?  Especially if I run out of rope.


    I¡¯m about to curse it, to say to heck with it all, and start killing indiscriminately, when I realize I¡¯ve already made it back to the great hall.  How long have I been wandering around here for, fighting, barely paying attention to my surroundings?  I can barely think straight at all with how tired I am.  What was the right conclusion here again?  Do I head northish, and try to at least find their leader before I find my family?  Am I in the middle of combat while trying to ponder this out?  I look around, beginning to notice that I¡¯ve been beating beavers senseless with my fist, shield, and tendrils.


    My right arm hangs low as I hunch forward, panting.  I raise only my eyes to gaze at the other hostile creatures around me, which seems to spook them.  I¡¯m pretty sure I look psychotic, even if I¡¯ve been avoiding killing anyone.  I don¡¯t even have the energy to think about what the right answer is anymore.  I¡¯m so exhausted that all I can do is stumble northward, beaning anyone in the face that gets close.  My limbs feel so heavy that my movement slows considerably.  The beavers are starting to land blows with their spears and slingstones.  I barely notice, not just because the armor is wonderfully protective, but because my senses are dulling the longer I go without sleep.


    I spy a side room, with something that looks like a large seat, or maybe an altar, and a single figure in it.  Annoyed at dealing with massive waves of beavers all this time, I erect a barricade behind me as I enter the side room.  My head pounds with pain, I must have a massive headache from running so long on so little energy.  The pain has to be extremely intense to be making it through my dulled senses.  My eyelids droop so hard that I can¡¯t open them anymore.  I feel myself passing out for the briefest of instants, though as I do, I swear the lone figure in the room looks familiar, even in silhouette.  That can¡¯t be Teuila though, right?  What¡¯s she doing here, out of Valkyrie form?


    I fight as hard as I can to reopen my eyes.  Once my eyes are open, I stare, flabbergasted, as my Teuila approaches me, as her usual, naked, ottery self.  Something isn¡¯t right, I still feel the energy tether that grips my heart, extending outwards and away.  I rub my eyes, blinking as hard as I can, but the figure that approaches is definitely my fiery-copper-furred Teuila.  Even in the low glow from the luminescent lichen along the walls, there¡¯s no mistaking her.  Agh, my head is pounding so hard.


    ¡°Te, Te you shouldn¡¯t be here, you¡¯re supposed to be with Lu. Kaff, kaff.¡±  I find myself coughing from exertion as I reach towards Teuila.


    Finally she stands before me, and explains what¡¯s going on, ¡°Reggie, oh Reggie something bad happened, something went wrong with Luni.  She started changing, and, and she just wasn¡¯t herself anymore, I couldn¡¯t hurt her, so I had to get away.¡±  Teuila¡¯s right hand cups my chin and cheek.  I can only squint at her as she calls out something I¡¯d terribly feared not so long ago.  Our Luni, changing due to whatever powers she¡¯s hiding.  I can hardly believe it, but somehow Teuila is here, and Luni isn¡¯t.  Not to mention Teuila isn¡¯t evolved, but the tether still exists, so somehow Luni had to have usurped it, or something.  Do I dare break it?  Would that hurt Luni?  I can¡¯t risk it, even if she¡¯s going through something.


    My head pounds harder and harder as Teuila leans close.  She whispers, ¡°Whatever you do, don¡¯t think about day one.¡±  My eyes flash wide as my vision narrows to a pinprick, I¡¯m sent hurtling into my own nightmares, panting, gasping for breath.  Teuila?  But why?  Why would Teuila ever?


    Everything opens into facsimiles of fanged maws, even various parts of Teuila¡¯s body appear to split open as if to consume me.  Her maw appears thusly open, but also tentacled, at least, in the flash-frozen image in my mind.  Since my tunnel vision is so obscured right now, I lose balance.  I find myself stumbling into her grasp.


    I gulp for air, gasping.  I try to squint and blink as hard as I can to reset my vision as my pulse races.  I¡¯m greeted with only more horror, as it looks like Teuila¡¯s face is opening into an even wider tentacled maw.  Now I must be hallucinating based on my fears about the deep end of my pond, next I¡¯ll probably be seeing monstrously enormous giant spiders.  Or lava rolling free as I bathe.  I backpedal, stumbling out of Teuila¡¯s grasp.  She lunges for me, but in my panicked state, I stumble randomly, drunkenly, back to the entrance of this room.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    I¡¯m blocked by my own construction, but thankfully the solution for that is simple.  I claim the wall in front of me that I can barely see.  I fall forwards, due to leaning on it, then hurriedly replace it behind me.  I¡¯ve trapped Teuila in that room for now, so I just break down, sobbing onto the floor, the terror causes me to dry heave repeatedly as the tears stream down my face.  I choke and cough and sob and heave.  My breathing is completely screwed, and I¡¯m probably near the point of blacking out from lack of oxygen.  I can tell I¡¯m being hit with slingstones, and prodded with spears, but nothing hurts as bad as Teulia betraying me like that.


    I¡¯m tempted to let them finish me off.  I don¡¯t want to live in a world where Teuila is some kind of monster who would prey on my most dire fears.  Let alone some kind of monster that appeared to be about to eat my head.  No, I can¡¯t do that.  Lil and Luni are still alive, I have no idea what happens if one of us dies, I need to stop throwing my life away recklessly.  The rest of my family still needs me.  I don¡¯t think I can save these beaverfolk, or their dam now, as I feel so utterly lost and defeated.  I can however get my family to safety, those that are left.


    I roar as I rise, extending my tendrils to their fullest.  I grip one of the largest beavers with my tattoo, and whirl like a hurricane.  I feel the beaver in my tendril¡¯s grasp begin to fade, and I barely let it go in time to not slay it.  I only release it after it has knocked back, or out, pretty much everyone else around.  Beating a hostile jerk with another hostile jerk, serves them right.  I sniffle, and rub my arm across my face, wiping away tears.


    I¡¯m tempted to start flooding this place myself, just destroying the walls and ceiling until I meet water.  No, that won¡¯t do.  I can¡¯t see, and I can barely breathe, or walk straight, but I know the way back to the great hall from here.  From there, I can follow my markings back to the rest of my family.  I¡¯m sorry Mataalii, it looks like I won¡¯t be saving you either.


    Slowly the panic subsides, but despondency continues to try to settle in.  I march as stoically as I can muster, with tears streaming down my cheeks, blurring my vision.  I catch a glimpse of a very ornate, very deadly spear as its tip passes close to my face.  My shield barely inches up enough to deflect Gae Buidhe away in time.  I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m hallucinating it, or if I¡¯ve run into the jerk wielding Gae Buidhe again, but as I turn to lash out at whomever it was, they¡¯re already dashing away down the hallway.  If I follow, I could lose track of where I am, I might not find my family if I let myself get distracted.  It¡¯s like they¡¯re trying to egg me on, and herd me into a trap, or at least lead me astray.  Maybe they are, all they¡¯ve got to do is nick me once, and the more chances they get to surprise me or ambush me, the easier that will be.


    How long have I been stumbling along?  Did I already make it back to the great hall?  No, I¡¯m past the great hall, I¡¯m nearly back at the prison.  My headache is nowhere near as intense as it was when I was alone with Teuila a while ago.  Maybe I¡¯ve been sleepwalking, getting some much needed rest?  I doubt it though.  I spy char and soot along the walls up ahead, Lil has been active.  I begin unequipping everything save my wraps and tattoo as I approach the room that holds my family.


    I¡¯m greeted with a slight puff of flame as I try to scooch through the crevice that¡¯s barely my size, between the boulder and the entryway.  Lil stops partway, excitedly exclaiming, ¡°Reggie¡¯s back!¡±  Lil¡¯s wings flap happily as they bowl me over.  I can¡¯t respond in kind though, I can only sob, unable to form words to tell my family the horror of what happened.


    There¡¯s tenseness in the air as Lao, Ag, and Lil are asking each other what¡¯s going on, and asking me what¡¯s wrong.  I can¡¯t bring myself to answer, I feel about as empty as Mataalii looks, where he sits in a corner, staring blankly.  Sensing something awful must have happened, Laomati, Agwai, and Lil, and even the Mana twins, crowd around me to embrace me.


    I realize that I¡¯ve been sitting in their embrace for quite some time, as they occasionally say soothing comforts, or ask what is wrong.  Finally I think I have the strength to tell them, they¡¯re going to have to find out why Teuila wasn¡¯t with us when we end up escaping later.  ¡°Teuila, she, she became some kind of monster.  She, she purposely brought up, brought up, my, my, the.¡±  I stammer, unable to even say Day One as panic grips my heart.  My head lolls to one side as my vision blurs, my pulse pounds in my ears, and the ever-present ringing drowns out everything again for a short while.


    ¡°This, well it simply couldn¡¯t be, if it was, she must have had good reason.  Teuila threatens even us with violence about speaking on said topic.¡±  Lao or Ag are explaining to me, trying to rationalize, I¡¯m not even sure which of them, as my brain feels like it has gone haywire.


    ¡°Something happened.  I met up with Lu, she was okay, but different, more powerful, more confident.  We escaped, and went towards the pyramid.  Lu was supposed to find Teuila and go into the pyramid to help end this.¡±  I gulp back every emotion that I can, shoving everything down so that I can get this across, before we have to flee.  Lil is trying to interrupt with excitement and questions, but I shake my head and hold  up my hand.  ¡°I was sent back here to end this, but we have to do it simultaneously with what happens in the pyramid.  I know it seems like a longshot, but Lu found a way to do it, with a magic item.  So I let Lu and Lu, that¡¯s Luni and Luna, the bear, go off alone together.  Well, Luni, the bear, and some air, it¡¯s complicated.  They seemed fine, they were supposed to find Teuila.  I came back, looking for the leader, to end this.  But instead I found Teuila hiding in a room alone.  She was unequipped, and was in otter evolution, not Valkyrie evolution.  She, she, she said Luni changed, that Luni did something to her.¡±  The family gasps as I continue explaining.


    ¡°I had such a headache, my brain felt like it was exploding, so I wasn¡¯t sure I was understanding at first.  Then Teuila got close, and she, she, she brought up things that send me into panic, things that she knows sends me into panic.  While panicked, I think I was hallucinating.  It looked like her face opened up into a tentacled maw, like she was going to eat my head.¡±  The family looks aghast.


    ¡°Nope!¡±  Lil exclaims, almost happily.  My face screws up into the most perplexed expression.


    ¡°W.. What?  I¡¯m not lying, I¡¯d never lie to you!¡±  I¡¯m a little upset that Lil doubts me after what I just went through.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that, pal, whatever was in that room, it wanted to hurt you, bad.  Look at Te¡¯s stats though.  She¡¯s definitely still a Valkyrie.  It looks like her and Luni are together too, based on how some things were jumping at the same time.  Plus, I can kinda feel Teuila¡¯s happiness, since we¡¯re both tethered.  Te¡¯s only that happy when she¡¯s in the air, leaping around or flying, or in your arms.¡±  As Lil continues to explain, my world shatters into a million pieces.  How can I trust anything, if I hallucinated that whole thing?


    ¡°But, but, but how, but what?  Am I, what¡¯s the term, schizoaffective?  Ugh, what does it matter how messed up in the head I am, we still have to get out of here before noon on the second day.  They¡¯re going to flood the tunnels to end this, if I can¡¯t do it.  And obviously, I can¡¯t.  I¡¯ve failed you all, I¡¯m sorry.  We won¡¯t be able to get Mataalii back to normal, but we can at least get him out of here.¡±  The twins look crestfallen as I state the last bit.  A several-way, simultaneous conversation breaks out, such that it¡¯s hard to hear and respond to all the questions.  It¡¯s even harder to accept the comforts.


    Eventually I¡¯m finally able to catch everyone up on as much as I¡¯ve learned since leaving the room, or at least what I think I¡¯ve learned, since I can¡¯t trust anything anymore.  ¡°So, that¡¯s as much as we can deal with right now.  It feels like my emotions are broken, along with my heart.  I don¡¯t know what¡¯s real anymore, but I know I want you all out of this dam.¡±


    Lil argues, trying to get me to change my mind about my course of action, ¡°But, but Reggie, whatever that was, that brain blower, mind blower, mind asploder, brain blaster, that, that, that thing!  Whatever that thing was, the thing that tricked you, I gotta be there for you buddy!  You can¡¯t go through that again, especially not alone!¡±  My heart breaks a little more as I have to refuse my best buddy.  If that thing caused my brain to explode, then my heart must be exploding with love and gratitude for Lil.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Lil, without you, I worry that the others won¡¯t make it out.  Even though I have to drop your tether, you¡¯re still really strong, I know I can count on you to protect them.  You know to make sure to claim that spear if it gets near any of you.  Lao and Ag trust you to keep them and the twins safe too, right?¡±  I don¡¯t mention Mataalii, but I know Agwai and Lao will work together to get Mat out of here safely.


    ¡°Of course, my sweets.¡±  ¡°Yes dear child.¡±  Lao and Ag respond respectively.


    ¡°But, but it¡¯s not fair, that sounds awful, just, so awful!  I want to fry whoever did such a thing to you!  I want to hurt them so bad!  Mega, mega mega mega bad!¡±  I can barely keep my composure, as Lil starts to lose theirs, for me.


    ¡°I know, I know Lil.  I love you buddy.  Please, please keep them safe for me though, okay?¡±  I have to blink back tears as they blur my vision again.  First, I make sure I¡¯ve dropped Lil¡¯s tether, then I resolve to leave, to get back to the business at hand.  Before I devolve into a blubbering mess again, as my emotions bubble up from where I have them bottled.  I¡¯m not doing a good job at keeping them bottled, not at all.  It¡¯s like that thing blew my heart to pieces, my heart and my mind.  Lil called it a Mind Blower?  Well, definitely, mind blown.

 Chapter 37: The Blowback

    <h2>Chapter 37: The Blowback</h2>


    I desperately want to travel with the family, at least back to the great hall.  I would break down though, I wouldn¡¯t be able to deny Lil, or I¡¯d give up and go with them as they escape.  Instead, I sit here in the prison cell, trying to become stoic.  I just need a bit of a break.  This whole series of events has really messed with my head.  I lightly smack my head into the wall, repeatedly, just letting it drop, bonking the wall, over and over.  Not enough to bruise, just enough to rattle my brain.  Finally, all my thoughts are just focused on the light throbbing of my forehead.


    As I calm my breathing, slowing it, I let my eyes drift closed, longer and longer.  Every muscle in my body is shaking from overexertion, exhaustion, just the lightest quiver and vibration.  My pulse even feels so strong that it knocks me side to side.  I leave the room, squeezing out past the boulder, donning all of my equipment, keeping my eyes closed all the while.  Just to be sure, I tie a leaf hood around my head and eyes, before pulling the helmet down over my head.  I¡¯m not at one hundred percent when blinded, but I¡¯m better off than if I were to see Teuila attacking me again, of all people.


    I just keep repeating to myself, ¡°Te isn¡¯t here, Te isn¡¯t here, Te isn¡¯t here.¡±  It¡¯s all I can think to do.  I catch some scurrying out of the edges of the senses granted to me by my danger wraps.  The beavers have wised up, and are mostly no longer engaging me.  I pass several slumped along walls that barely lift their heads as I pass.  They slump back down, perhaps playing dead, when they realize it¡¯s me.  One beaver takes an aggressive stance as it backs its way into a side room.  Too angry at the moment to be entirely merciful, at least, too angry to just leave this one be and walk on by, I enter the room.


    It¡¯s a good thing I did, this one has stolen and equipped some of our gear, and the wicker basket that holds the rest is sitting open behind it.  I¡¯m a bit irrationally infuriated by this beaver wearing Valkyrie armor.  It¡¯s like that action somehow sullies my already shattered memory of Teuila.  It is wielding a magical sword, and shield, while I¡¯m using my fists to try to bludgeon it enough into submission, so I¡¯m at a disadvantage.  Honestly, other than Gae Buidhe, and that mind blasting, illusionary hallucination-causing thing, whatever it was, other than those two things, this is probably the only serious threat in the entire complex.


    This beaver hasn¡¯t been fighting for its life, day in and day out for the last few months though.  It hasn¡¯t faced down some god-tier serpent creature with its family.  It hasn¡¯t spent hours every day honing every last skill it can with allies who push them to the breaking point, and beyond.  Ugh, my train of thought is getting too cocky, that isn¡¯t what I meant to be pontificating at the moment at all.


    I receive a sharp gash across my chin for my hubris, one of few unprotected parts on my body.  Though the beaver dodges my tendrils a few times, eventually I manage to entrap it with them.  I tug, drawing it close so I can bludgeon its face repeatedly in return.  As I feel it drop the sword, seemingly in submission, I bend down to claim it to my inventory, when I¡¯m warned just an instant too late that it draws a backup sword.  It manages to run me through, through the right side of my abdomen, and I¡¯m more infuriated than anything else.  I¡¯m not so much furious that I might die from this.  I absolutely might die from this, sure, but I¡¯m furious that this thing would deceitfully attack me like this, and more furious that I would fall for it.  Perhaps I¡¯d have noticed the second sword if I weren¡¯t wearing a blindfold.  I didn¡¯t do a thorough sensing with my danger wraps.  I think I probably screamed in pain, and maybe I¡¯m still screaming.


    I almost instinctively toss the beaver away with my tendrils, but with its grip on its sword, that would disembowl me.  I don¡¯t need any additional evisceration at the moment, so instead I squeeze it harder, and harder.  I feel its grip loosen and slacken on the handle of the sword embedded deep in my torso.  I want to keep going, squeeze this jerk til they pop.  Then images of Lao looking saddened and frightful enter my mind.  Images of Agwai or the twins looking aghast accompany them.  I don¡¯t want to become a monster.  I drop the beaver in a corner, approach it while I have it cornered, and strip it of the valkyrie gear by claiming the gear to my inventory.  It takes almost no energy when the creature can¡¯t resist, especially when it¡¯s gear that I¡¯ve already previously claimed.  I still have to be careful with my energy, because the real Teuila is still evolved.  I can¡¯t risk dropping the tether if she might be midair, or mid combat at any given point in time.  Rather than claiming all the gear from the basket to my inventory, I just claim the whole basket and its contents as well.


    I leave the room with a sword sticking through what are probably my stomach, and maybe my kidneys, probably several rows of intestines too.  I¡¯m not quite sure on biology normally, and less sure in this land.  Imagine me rendezvousing with the family with this sticking out, that would be a bit hard to explain.  I¡¯m pretty sure that medically, one shouldn¡¯t remove an object that¡¯s perforating oneself, but does that apply only in my weird memories?  Or is that applicable in reality as well?  Right now, the wound is caked with blood, but the blood is already coagulating, and I¡¯m not losing too much more.  However, with every step, the sword wiggles around my insides, gutting me further.


    Alright, let¡¯s try to picture this with some numbers.  If I have several thousand steps to take to get out of here, let alone however many leaps and tumbles and dodges I¡¯ll have to do in combat, yeah, there¡¯s no way I¡¯ll live with this thing hollowing out my insides.  On the other hand, trying to stay alive with a wound this size, on my frame, hm.  I¡¯ll have to risk it.  I claim the sword to my inventory, so that I don¡¯t accidentally open the wound further by pulling it out.  Feeling the air stinging as it enters the wound, I¡¯m fairly certain that biologically I should instantly drop dead right about now.  If nothing else, for no other reason than from shock.


    As I woozily stumble onward, I try to convince myself that, like Luni said, I¡¯ve got this.  Nope, nope I don¡¯t.  I don¡¯t got this.  Too many wrecked organs, and too much blood loss already.  I may have been screaming in pain this entire time.  I can¡¯t hear myself over the ringing in my ears though.  At the very least, I need fluid.  I think it will have to be a bit thicker than water, at least slightly more viscous.  I don¡¯t want to waste the few water walking potions I¡¯ve re-made, but the only other potions I have are mysterious ones from Octorochi.  At least two of them are red though.  Could they possibly have some sort of blood replenishing magic?  One is about the size of the minor water walking potions, the other is in a slightly more ornate, much larger bottle.  Do I try the smaller one first, to identify its contents, and hope that the larger one is more of the same?  Or do I save the smaller one, in case of a smaller emergency.


    Oh wait, are all potions, um, taken orally?  Imbibed?  Or are some topical?  Fricklefrack.  Whatever I choose, no turning back.  I pull the larger red potion out of my inventory, and start chugging it, in that magical way that consumption works.  I¡¯m so glad it does, because I¡¯m pretty sure that my body is ruined right now, and fluid would just go spilling out my wound.  At least if consumption worked like my memories say it should.


    Suddenly my abdomen is on fire, I¡¯m in complete agony, and I worry I¡¯ve drunk a cursed potion for a moment.  I nearly black out from the pain, but I can¡¯t risk sleeping or passing out, I especially can¡¯t risk dying in my sleep before accomplishing my task.  I try to calm my breathing, to focus on letting the pain wash through and over me, as I realize what the pain is.  It¡¯s the tissue from all of my organs being forcibly knitted back together, without anesthesia.  My consciousness starts to fade due to the pain, and I actually vomit from its sheer overwhelming intensity.  My side starts to stitch, mostly.  It seems like the potion¡¯s effects ran out, or I accidentally vomited some of it up.  Ugh, what if it¡¯s a matter of life and death, would you try to, no, just no.  I don¡¯t even want to ponder needing to re-consume the potion to finish its work.  Though blindfolded, I stand with my gaze tilted towards the spot where I vomited on the ground.  I can¡¯t bring myself to even try to convince myself of that course of action though.


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


    Sighing, I do my best to wrap my side tightly with a bit of leaf leather.  As long as I¡¯m not jabbed there, it should probably close up in a few hours.  I¡¯m insanely lucky that the injury wasn¡¯t from Gae Buidhe.  Even luckier that I happened to have a potion on hand that could mostly take care of it.  Or maybe vice versa, lucky that I had a potion, even luckier that it wasn¡¯t from Gae Buidhe.  I wonder if I should use the smaller red one as well.  No, maybe if I¡¯m battling the leader, and it manages to tear open my side.  Having the small potion as a backup still might be my only saving grace.  Though, then I¡¯d have to finish the fight with the excruciating agony of my organs being forcibly knit, while still fighting.


    ¡°Huff.  Huff.  I need a flippin¡¯ break.¡±  I say as I slump against the wall, drawing some frog meals and water out to consume.  I sit with my butt on my heels, my back against the wall.  My head just lolls side to side as it rests against the wall behind me.  I occasionally pant with exhaustion, or frustration.  Several beaverfolk seem to be skirting the edge of my senses.  I think they probably notice my fists or ears twitch when they get in range, so they¡¯ve figured out how far away to stay.  How long has it been since I¡¯ve spoken out loud to myself?  Te has told me before to get out of my own head, right?  Would it be better to speak aloud more often?  My muscles lose all tension and fall relaxed, dropping my limbs loosely.


    I could go for a nap.  I could nap here, right?  My danger wraps would probably wake me up if a serious threat were approaching, wouldn¡¯t it?  Well, they¡¯re not infallible, even if they warn me, I still need enough time to react to something.  I probably wouldn¡¯t have time to react if the wraps were trying to wake me up, and I woke up as groggy as I¡¯m going to be when I finally sleep.  After all this is said and done, I feel like I could sleep for a week.


    I cough weakly.  Then I stand agonizingly slowly.  I need to explore the rest of the north section before I get the signal, I have to find the leader.  I just hope the leader isn¡¯t that fake Teuila in the room I¡¯ve blocked off.  My stomach churns and my heart feels like it drops through my guts into the pit of my stomach as I imagine having to fight, and likely kill, someone wearing the face of my beloved Teuila.


    Sadly, as I explore the northern section of this series of tunnels, behind the great hall, I find no other traces of what one might think to be a leader, or boss.  I do however scare a bunch of beavers away from the wall I made.  They were going at it with mallets and wedges.  The wall was about to fall, so I reinforce it a bit with some of the mortar-like mud, and a thin layer of clay.  One last hall to check, before coming back to this room.


    Nothing of note in the last hallway, at least not in the way I¡¯m searching for.  The weirdest thing though, in a room with a long table, there was a horned cervid skull hanging up.  I¡¯ve never even seen anything leave a skull behind before.  And why would beavers of all people have a deer skull hanging up?  Maybe it was a crafting project, and it¡¯s just a wood carving.  My danger wraps can¡¯t exactly tell the difference between wood and bone, I think.


    I find myself thinking that it¡¯s pretty stuffy, and rather hard to breathe with my guts and lungs all jumbled.  The feeling doesn¡¯t last long though, as a gentle breeze caresses me and fills my lungs.  I breathe deep and sigh contentedly.  That feels nice, it¡¯s almost like this breeze sought me out, just to help me out.


    Oh!  It probably did!  Crap, that¡¯s the signal.


    ¡°Sylphie, are you here?  Is it go time?¡±  I rush back towards the wall I erected, blocking off the room I really don¡¯t want to return to.  I know Sylphie can¡¯t understand me, at least I think they can¡¯t.  Then I spy the most curious thing.  Writing appears as if being carved by a finger that¡¯s being dragged through the still drying clay that I had just placed a short while ago.


    ¡°Been in pyramid for almost twelve hours?  Think we know what to do, have to act now, it¡¯s almost noon?  WHAT!?¡±  Ugh, I probably did pass out several times after all, and even still, I don¡¯t feel rested, since I¡¯ve been maintaining tethers, fighting, jogging, swimming, and running all over.  It seems like Sylphie was able to convey Luni¡¯s words, likely with extreme accuracy, by writing in the mud.  Sylphie doesn¡¯t leave however, which is a small comfort.  At least someone friendly will be at my side as I face one of my worst possible nightmares.


    I claim the wall, and on the other side is Teuila, waiting for me, she shrieks at me with indescribable force.  Somehow it feels like this horrid wail is trying to shove my brain rearward out of my skull, or knock me over, flung about by my brain.  My headache is so bad that I can feel blood trickling from my nose and ears.  Fighting the pain, and to keep Teuila from escaping the room, I leap forward, tackling her, placing the wall again to seal us in together.


    Sylphie¡¯s breeze coils about my head, and she appears to be wiping the blood from my nose and ears, mothering me, soothing me.  It¡¯s the only thing holding me back from just emptying my entire energy into devastating radiant attacks on this doppelganger, this insidious, horrid creature.  I need to remind myself that even if Luni has found out what to do in the pyramid, I don¡¯t know if the right course of action is just killing this creature yet.  I circle it, backing into the room it was in so that I can sense around the room.  It seems there¡¯s a thronelike seat that faces the door, and some kind of altar off to one side.  On the altar is something sharp, like a bone dagger.  Next to the bone dagger is a bowl.  The contents of the bowl are ugh, soft, juicy, pulsating, wriggling.


    The fake Teuila starts shrieking at me again, and it feels like somehow her yelling lifts me off the ground by my brain.  Kicking my feet, yes, I¡¯m lifted off the ground.  Teuila thrashes, throwing a hand to one side, and I¡¯m flung to my right, clattering into the throne, the corner of an arm jabbing sharply into my wound, opening it again.  Hell, I was hoping not to have to use this at all, much less this early.  I summon and quaff the smaller potion, and am once again treated to ridiculous levels of agony as tissue begins to knit in rapid fashion without anesthesia.


    I start to panic, wondering how the heck I¡¯m supposed to fight something that can fling me around and keep me from getting close to it.  Oh wait, duh, what I was going to do earlier.  Is it the right thing though?  Should I do it now, while it thinks it has me pinned to the throne?  As if in answer to my question, the entire world seems to shake.  Then a great, greenish hued wave of light seems to pass through the walls in slow motion, so bright that it even illuminates my blindfold, as if some sphere far in the northwest were expanding massively.  There¡¯s the sound of derezzing coming from the bowl, and my guess as to its contents sickens me further.


    The fake Teuila, perhaps sensing my hesitation, perhaps afraid of the light, leaps at me, her face expanding into a grotesque maw, as the barrier wave of light washes over her, each of us are half in, half out of the barrier.  In that instant, I know it¡¯s my one opportunity to end this.  The light has to be whatever Luni did, and I have to finish this while she¡¯s caught in it.  It doesn¡¯t take much.  Several radiant copies of an extremely deadly spear appearing in the path of her lunge is all it takes.  I need not even expel them with any velocity as she impales herself.


    The world slows to a crawl.  I barely even needed to be here.  The crashing, crackling, tinkling sound of someone derezzing is barely audible above the ringing in my ears, or the woosh of the breeze that Sylphie brings.  I slump to my knees.  I just want to cry, and cry, and cry, until someone finds me.  I feel like a lasso is cinched tight around my heart, squeezing and yanking, trying to draw it forth from my chest.


    I can¡¯t help but sink into despair as one thought slams into my mind on repeat.  ¡°I just killed Teuila, I just killed Teuila, I just killed Teuila.¡±  But somehow, even this nightmare isn¡¯t yet finished.  The world seems wrong somehow, as if everything is just slightly unstable.  Am I not allowed even a moment¡¯s grief?  Let my mind shatter into pieces in peace, so that I can put it back together, please!


    No such luck, the vibration of the instability of the world grows, and grows.  Sighing, I pick up most of the contents from the room as I return towards the wall I¡¯d erected.  I approach the wall, and lightly slam my head into it, resting my forehead and hand on it for a moment, sighing.  Sylphie seemed to cushion the impact, a gust forming between my cranium and the concrete-like structure.


    ¡°Thanks, I guess, Sylphie.  Not sure if you can understand me.  I¡¯m not sure why you stuck with me, but thank you nonetheless.¡±  I recall the wall to my inventory, and am met with the blowback of a river¡¯s worth of water flooding into the room, crashing against me.

 Chapter 38: Air? Air Is For Suckers

    <h2>Chapter 38: Air?  Air Is For Suckers</h2>


    I accidentally suck down river water as I try to gasp for breath in surprise.  Once water enters my lungs and nostrils, I fall into a panic, choking, sputtering, coughing worse than I already was.  I¡¯d been coughing just from being run ragged for so long, but now my lungs are trying to expel extra moisture.  This is one of those times where I¡¯d dramatically assume I was dying, and resign myself to death.  I mean, the nearest exit is literally hours away, unless we¡¯re near one of the secret exits that doubles as a water lock that lets the river in.


    Somehow though, I need to save all these idiot beavers, from the other idiot beavers that flooded them, now that the deed is done.  Ugh, one or more copies of Gae Buidhe are out there, probably washed away, floating around.  If I survive this, it will always be a nagging fear in the back of my mind.  How should someone feel, knowing that an insanely deadly, magical spear is just traveling around somewhere.  Maybe it¡¯s floating around the dam I¡¯m about to swim through, maybe it¡¯s drifting downstream, to one day be picked up by bullies or angry beavers or otters.


    When I realize I¡¯m not swimming, but walking, and I¡¯m not having to fight back against a river current, I get a might bit confused.  Snapping to my senses, I take off as much gear as I can, including the blindfold, so that I can see what I¡¯m doing, and move about more freely.  I¡¯m not even coughing up my lungs anymore, what on earth?  Or well, what on whatever my planet¡¯s name is.  The wall of water that slammed into me is being held back several feet ahead of me, as if by invisible force, but swirling around a sphere, as if I were in an air bubble that¡¯s constantly pushing outward.  Is this why Sylphie stayed?  Is she saving me?


    How long can she manage this?  Should I try to rescue as many beavers as I can, with her help?  Should I head straight to a known exit?  Should I try to find a closer exit?  Ugh, I feel so guilty, I know the western tunnels have several beavers tied up.  Some of the rooms have different elevation, so it will take a while for the water pressure to build so much that those ones are completely flooded.  The beavers who live here would know them best.  It¡¯s likely that none of them have died yet, unless they were abandoned while unconscious or tied up.


    Yeah, that guilt is the last straw, I have to go on a rescue mission.  Sylphie I hope you know how much I appreciate this.  ¡°Sylphie, I can¡¯t thank you enough.  I don¡¯t know how long you can hold on, I know you can¡¯t understand me, I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m rambling.  We have a rescue mission to commence.¡±


    I test out marching around, and sure enough, Sylphie keeps in lockstep with my stride, moving the mass of swirling air forward with me.  I try to take a long, slow, calm breath.  I vaguely know what to look for, rooms that are dead ends, I need to check their roofs.  I still haven¡¯t had a real sleep, and I just did something that, that I can¡¯t think about.  I gulp, accidentally sucking down air as my thoughts drift back to mere moments ago.  I need to be careful, I don¡¯t know what sustains Sylphie, and she has no way to let me know she¡¯s weakening.  In that case, I¡¯d better sprint.


    I¡¯m definitely not a marathon sprinter.  That much is obvious as my loping pace is more of a jog with a long, slow stride.  Regardless, it¡¯s not long before I come upon confused beavers that are swimming near room ceilings, trying to suck down the last of the air in the room.  It¡¯s almost comical when they fall through the air to the floor as Sylphie pushes the water out from under them.  I motion for them to follow me, and make a motion to indicate the word all, and I point at their tails.  Hopefully they get that I mean to rescue all beavers.


    It doesn¡¯t take them long to figure out that following me means being able to at least scrabble into an air pocket once in a while.  Some of the braver ones break off down hallway offshoots, and return with more of their friends, thankfully.  That means I don¡¯t have to do all of this alone.  I lead my current swarm of tenuous allies to the room with the deer skull.  I still can¡¯t tell if it¡¯s bone or wood, but I can tell that water is coming in from this room¡¯s roof.  When I spy where it¡¯s coming in from though, I¡¯m fairly disheartened.  There¡¯s a massive boulder with a long chip through it, like a drain spout, not enough room for anyone to fit through.  It seems like it was shoved down to smash out the hidden door.  Do I dare risk using energy?  I have no clue if Sylphie is somehow relying on my energy to keep me alive.  I still don¡¯t know if Teuila and Luni are safe.  I gulp back a sob as I think about Teuila, and I shudder.  I can¡¯t help but be scared for her, and by her, and of her, right now.


    Shaking my head vigorously, I commit to helping this particular flock of beavers from the colony.  I take another gasping sigh, and regret it, worrying that I¡¯m straining Sylphie.  I try to motion to Sylphie that I want to swim, that she can rest, and she seems to understand, since she moves back, allowing water to cascade over me.  I swim up and immediately claim the stone blocking the entryway.  There¡¯s no way they maneuvered multiple of those, to multiple sections of this lock, right?  In fact, it looks like all the doors are smashed open from maneuvering the boulder through these secret tunnels.  It feels like there¡¯s enough water pressure to swim against, that this probably leads straight out to the river bed, hopefully.


    The boulder basically took up every last ounce of my remaining inventory, so I expel it at the base of the wall near the exit in the roof.  I can let the beavers climb up it, getting one last breath from Sylphie before they swim.


    Swimming back down, I step into the air bubble once more, and I try to play charades, motioning for the beavers to swim up.  I also plea for one or two brave ones to stay with me, to help rescue more of them, by making pleading gestures, and once again trying to gesture all, or everyone, and pointing at their tails.  Sylphie¡¯s bubble shrinks slightly, and I hope that¡¯s just because several beavers are leaving, so she doesn¡¯t feel as great of need to be as large.  If she¡¯s weakening, I have no idea how long she can last.


    Thankfully, the majority of the beavers that were following got the message.  There¡¯s a line of them swimming upward and outward.  I just hope the exit to the river is close enough that none of them drown on the way out.  They can hold their breath even longer than otters if I recall, due to the way they construct their dams, needing to spend more time under water.


    Everything begins to blur together in the monotony of this rescue mission, endless tunnels with endless water, and dozens, maybe hundreds of beavers, this colony is so much more massive than I could have hoped for.  If we can be allies when my family finally makes it to our pond, then it will have all been worth it.  We occasionally find a room that can¡¯t fill with water just yet, due to the elevation differences, or pressure difference, something or another.  When we¡¯re in one, Sylphie seems to disappear for a while, hopefully resting.  Thankfully in these rooms, I often find a brave soul that has been rescuing his or her compatriots that were tied up or knocked out, bringing them to a location with air.


    There don¡¯t seem to be any hard feelings, as most of the beavers seem to understand the extenuating circumstances.  First, they were the aggressors, and I didn¡¯t kill any of them, second, I¡¯m returning to rescue them, third, I happen to bring magic along with me.  Well, Sylphie does.


    At one point, I notice several beavers nervously gnawing on the wood that seems to decorate the walls, and it finally dawns on me.  They didn¡¯t go collect the wood from anywhere.  It¡¯s their food source, it spawns here.  That explains why there¡¯s some wood furniture floating around, but nothing in the way of food storage, or stored food.  I had a suspicion they were herbivores, but I couldn¡¯t remember for certain.


    As my compatriots, and I, the brave few that continue to remain behind with me, reach what I think is the final leg of the journey, or wing of the colony, the worst happens.  Sylphie¡¯s bubble begins to sputter, falter, and disappear.  It manages to return erratically for a while, but I can tell she can¡¯t hold on much longer.  I figure we¡¯re half an hour, to maybe an hour from finally completing this and getting to the last exit, one I know for sure exists.  We marked off the main exit as not needing to head towards it, since anyone over there would have taken air in the pockets along the way and just left the dam complex.  Right now, if I dashed straight for the exit, I could probably make it in half an hour, but I¡¯d be abandoning an entire hallway I know I filled with unconscious beavers.


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    I try not to panic as my heart races, I need to conserve my breath, slowly taking more sips of air every time Sylphie reappears, gradually filling my lungs to their fullest.  Normal otters in my memories can hold their breath for five to ten minutes.  We of the Shellcracker clan can hold our breaths for about fifteen minutes.  These beavers can probably hold their breaths for double that, which I think is also twice what I recall beavers being able to do.  But they can only do that if they¡¯ve had adequate air to prepare their lungs with.  I know I just implied I¡¯m an otter, and we all know I¡¯m not an otter.  I¡¯m some weird human goblin pixie something-or-other.


    Okay, I¡¯m not giving up, and I¡¯m not dying here.  Each room we enter, we manage to find more beavers holding their tied up brethren aloft, helping them to breathe, or undoing their bindings.  I try to charade which direction the exit is, but then I remember it¡¯s probably blocked by a boulder.  Razzlefrazzle.  I can¡¯t keep bumbling back and forth between beavers as we undo their bindings, now that there are no more pockets of air in any of these rooms on this leg of the journey.  Sylphie hasn¡¯t come back in several minutes.  I just feel a slight tickle in my nostrils, which seems to be at least keeping water from flooding my lungs.  Tearing my hair out metaphorically, I start gesturing wildly for the bravest to split up, fan out, and meet up at an offshoot ahead when they¡¯re done.


    It takes a bit of energy, and a few precious seconds, but it¡¯s worth it to delegate right now, as my vision starts to blur.  My eyes feel as if they cross and I¡¯m starting to see double.  I need to make it to the hall with the hidden door, and the water locks before I pass out, or we¡¯re all going to die.  If I can at least get the boulder dealt with before I pass out, maybe, just maybe one of the beavers will be kind enough to drag my body out of here.


    When I made my estimate of how long it would take me to get to the exit, I was counting on being able to sprint on land, not swim against a current, so even though we made progress before Sylphie vanished, I¡¯m starting to panic, as my lungs begin to burn.  I hope I don¡¯t frighten the beavers, but they¡¯ll just have to learn to forgive me.  I start using my tendrils to simultaneously push downwards, away behind me, as well as to reach out, claw into the walls and drag me forward.  It takes a lot less of my physical stamina, since they don¡¯t require energy to operate.  Thank all the heavens for magic.  It¡¯s also far faster than swimming was.


    I think up ahead is the last bend in the tunnel, then a long stretch before the dead end.  A pressure behind my eyes that has been building feels like it reaches a breaking point, and bursts.  My vision clouds with red, which causes terrifying flashbacks of the time I thought I went on a rampage, and it turned out to have been a nightmare.  No, no, this isn¡¯t like that time.  This is more like the Night of High Water.  Well, at least I have magic, and practice being blind.  That¡¯s all I can think of as the image of the corridor ahead burns into my eyes, coated in red, then it washes over in white.


    My muscles falter, and I can¡¯t bring my arm forward anymore to even direct my tendrils ahead, I can only push off from below and behind me.  This is problematic, since it¡¯s easier to claim things when touching them with my hand.  Oh well, I think, as my face smashes into where I believe the boulder to be.  I claim the boulder to my inventory, with my face, and, as I¡¯ve been doing with the others, eject it into the hallway below.  When Sylphie was around, it helped the beavers climb up before they had to start swimming, now it¡¯s a mild inconvenience for those that are already swimming.  Sorry folks.  I try to wave the others ahead, in a panicked motion.  It seems everyone has caught up.  I¡¯m really thankful as my muscles go completely slack, and I can¡¯t hold my breath anymore, as bubbles start exiting my mouth and nose en masse.


    In probably the strangest communal effort ever, each beaver that passes me embraces me for just an instant to pass on the slightest bit of breath.  Eventually, as I slowly pass out, those bringing up the rear, the stronger swimmers, grab me, dragging me upwards and outwards.


    At first it feels as if perhaps I enter a dreamless sleep.  Then the nightmares revisit me.  All the times I¡¯ve failed, everything that¡¯s ever incited panic in me, including quite recently, some manner of doppelganger, brain blaster.  Sobbing quietly in terror gives way to screaming fear.


    My danger wraps tell me that there are a lot of individuals standing around me, most of them holding their ears.  I realize I¡¯ve been screaming as I come to consciousness.  My face flushes with embarrassment.  It probably has to be pretty understandable though, right?  I did just drown, once again.  Not that they know that.  Well okay, I think drowning is technically fully dying, but what else would you call being knocked out by asphyxiation from being under water?  I¡¯m so grateful they saw fit to save me, since I both hurt them, and failed to save their dam.


    By my estimate, if all that happened around noon, and it was several hours per wing, at least six hours have passed, so it¡¯s somewhere between six and nine pm.  Luni and company can¡¯t even exit the pyramid until midnight apparently, based on her message that stated they¡¯d been in there for almost twelve hours, around noon.  At least I figure that¡¯s what that must have meant.  Timewise, they had to have entered at midnight, almost exactly, for some reason.


    I get to sit around blind, panic-stricken, in the company of no one that can understand me, many of whom I¡¯ve recently attacked, tied up, or knocked out?  Nah fam, no thanks.  Standing up woozily, I immediately fall back on my rear.  That¡¯s unfortunate, my limbs don¡¯t want to listen to me.  I have mostly been awake for several days straight, generally only checking out very shortly from extreme physical or mental duress.  I guess I can lay here for a little while longer.  May as well eat something too.


    I grimace as I touch the wound on my side, thankfully the smaller potion managed to knit it most of the way, even after it had been reopened a bit.  I¡¯d better dress that, then gear up.  So I pack and wrap the wound tightly, then don the usual gear.  After which I summon some fish.  I¡¯d offer some to the beavers, but, again, I found out, or remembered, they are herbivores.  That¡¯s probably also why there was so much of the luminescent lichen.


    I sniff around, and take a few practice breaths.  I try to wave my hand around in front of me and above me, trying to catch the breeze that would signify Sylphie¡¯s presence, to no avail.  That¡¯s disheartening.  I hope she¡¯s not dead.  I hope Lu doesn¡¯t blame me.  As I worry and fret over whether or not Sylphie is gone for good, and if Lu will hate me for it, I start to panic, and suck down air in gulps before hyperventilating slightly.


    Keep it together, keep it together.  The last thing you need right now is this colony assuming you¡¯ve gone crazy.  I really don¡¯t want to have to fight off an entire colony in this state.  Oh, right, they¡¯re leaderless, and aimless right now.  I could at least reunite them with the sane faction.


    Standing up, I cough lightly, clearing my throat, trying to garner attention without demanding it.  I point vaguely in the direction that would be away from the river, upstream, that is, northwest.  I don¡¯t intend to command them though, so I start marching in the direction I know the cabin to be.


    My heart feels like it¡¯s bound in razor wire that¡¯s being squeezed.  It¡¯s an intensely uncomfortable, downright painful experience.  I think that¡¯s Teuila¡¯s tether though, and until she makes it out of the pyramid, I don¡¯t dare risk dropping it.  I have no idea what dangers they face within.  I grit my teeth as I begin to panic when my thoughts hover around Teuila.  Please, please let me just forget about what I experienced below.


    My hand quivers, and I suck back a ragged sob, trying not to cry aloud while leading these beaverfolk on a march.  Lil isn¡¯t tethered right now, Sugar and Spice are hidden somewhere, probably hungry and alone, Lao and Agwai are looking over Mat and the Mana twins, none of them know how to get here.  I can¡¯t reunite with most of my family for quite some time.


    I kind of can¡¯t believe I suspected Luni of being changed, or corrupted by power, and that I let that fear convince me of, well.  I let it convince me that the thing below was speaking truth.  That Lu had somehow hurt Te, and scared her away, or changed her into the thing that.  That.  I gulp.  I¡¯m trying to talk myself out of this memory, to discredit it, but I can¡¯t face it.  My faith in my loved ones faltered, and I paid dearly for it.  I¡¯m emotionally scarred.  I¡¯m terrified to see them again.


    I want nothing more in the world than to be held by my closest loved ones again, and yet when I think of half of them, I flinch, I shudder, I¡¯m terrified.  I gulp back a sob as tears roll down my cheeks.


    Finally reaching the cabin, I pull the staff of thunder out of my inventory.  I only say thunder since that¡¯s the only thing I know I can use it for.  I thump the ground lightly.  This causes a slow rolling thunder, rather than the massive crack when I swing at something.  Hopefully the sane beavers get the message that it¡¯s me.  I don¡¯t wait for them to exit the cabin though, and I don¡¯t really care what they do with the other faction right now.  I¡¯m so emotionally drained, and physically exhausted, that I just walk up to the cabin wall, set my back against it, slump down and let myself pass out.

 Chapter 39: Tearful Reunions

    <h2>Chapter 39: Tearful Reunions</h2>


    My dreams are inscrutable, I¡¯m fairly certain they¡¯re nightmares yet again, but similar to the first time I nearly drowned, everything is awash in white. Perhaps I do have a merciful deliverer of dreams after all.


    My eyes are itchy and swollen, but vision is already beginning to return. I guess the energy debt, and how much longer we spent beneath the waves, compared to my lung capacity at the time anyway, factored into my blindness previously. I find myself contemplating my vision, as a large, blurry figure begins to block it. A heavy form collapsing on me finishes stirring me to wakefulness. ¡°Whuff!¡± I manage to exclaim, slightly in surprise, slightly from having the wind knocked out of me. I imagine that¡¯s Luna, but I don¡¯t hear any signs of Luni or Teuila, which is worrisome. Nor do I sense them with my danger wraps.


    Okay, stay calm, think, is Luna here to get me to enter the pyramid, because they are in trouble, or is Luna here because she¡¯s bored, and tired? If the latter, where are my family members? Likely heading to the point across the east side of the river, quite a ways to the south, where the rest of our family is. They probably expect to find me there.


    ¡°AARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!¡± I find myself shouting. Yet another solo adventure until I¡¯m finally reunited with my family. The beavers that mill about within the ranged tactile sense of my danger wraps all startle a bit at my shout. Oh, sure, that you understand. Flippin¡¯ ¡®eck.


    Luna swats my face to get me to shut up. I sigh momentarily, and take a deep breath. I let my sore eyes rest a might longer yet, as I hug Luna¡¯s neck. She has definitely warmed up to us quickly. Last time I tried to make any motion anywhere near her head, she snapped at me. Alright, as sweet as cuddling a gentle giant is, I need to settle a lot of panic and ascertain whether or not all of my family members made it out of this whole horrid event unscathed.


    ¡°Luna, pardon me, friend. I need to catch up with them. Did they head southeast?¡± The giant, feathered bear lifts her head and nods. Wait, she really does understand me? I was just sort of humoring myself. Luna stands up slightly, shuffles back a few steps, then flops her heavy rear on the ground with a great thud once again. ¡°Wow, you really are something. I¡¯m so glad I met you.¡± My puffy, sore eyes wet with tears a bit as I smile at Luna. I shakily stand, approach her, and hug her one last time. Luna, for her part, gently swats me, which sends me flying about five feet to the side.


    I manage to only stumble slightly from getting knocked around. I chuckle to myself as I let out a huffy sigh. I do what feels like a very iconic gesture indicating so long. I begin my journey south-eastward. Without looking back, I raise my right arm, flexed about my head, then straighten it quickly upwards just once while flicking my wrist slightly. It¡¯s about half of a goodbye wave honestly. The only being over here that I even care about understanding the gesture right now is Luna, but that¡¯s probably asking for a little much.


    Once I¡¯ve gotten far enough away, I put my recently practiced tendril movements to good use. Shunting two tendrils downwards, behind me to push me, while a third tendril flicks ahead to drag me forward helps me get a pretty decent velocity. It¡¯s also a bit relaxing to be able to travel without expending any energy, just the mildest bit of concentration.


    This method of travel lets me shut my brain off, and shut my eyes, thankfully. They still feel like they¡¯re bulging slightly in my eye sockets. Eventually, I hear the rushing of the river, now the trick is figuring out how far north or south along the river I am compared to the dam. I probably should have headed straight east before veering south. Hm, my speed should be enough that if Luna separated from the girls only a bit before entering the clearing, then I might only be a few minutes behind them. If Luni has to stop somewhere to pick up Sugar and Spice, then we might all rendezvous at the same time. Relatively the same time, that¡¯s the hope anyway.


    I would probably find someone or something to kill, if I ended up in a merry chase of sitcom hijinks, missing one another by a few seconds heading back and forth. I¡¯m in too frail of a mental state to handle any shenanigans right now. It might sound childish, but, come on, cut myself some slack. I don¡¯t even want to list the things I¡¯ve been through recently. Plus, there¡¯s still that copy of that flippin¡¯ stupidly deadly spear out there. Ugh, that balls up my innards then drops them like a pit into my stomach. Is that even the right phrase? Heck if I know, something about peach pits upsetting stomachs or something maybe, and people being afraid they¡¯d grow a tree inside of them, so it¡¯s equated to fear? That sounds about right, right? Or is it something something, knotted in the pit of my stomach? Bluh, it doesn¡¯t matter.


    It especially doesn¡¯t matter, because the train of thought was so distracting, that like so many times before, my danger wraps try to get my attention to warn me of incoming impact, and I don¡¯t manage to react until too late. I crash shield-first into a tree, then bounce, skid, and ever so casually, slowly fall into the river.


    You¡¯d think this river would have traumatized me by now, how often I end up in it, unplanned. Right? Yet nope, I¡¯ve always come out of it in a better situation than when I entered it, more or less. I check my inventory, and I¡¯m missing so much. My walking stick, my original sharp stick, most of my leaves, all of my vines save some fragments, nearly all my clay except a single tetrahedron face worth. Should I try sapping some leaves to my thunder stick, as a mini raft? No, no that sounds pretty incredibly stupid now that I think about it. Boom, boom, boom boom boom as I bonk into every last thing, or maybe even a constant unending loud crack, since it would be under constant pressure from being pushed by the river. Awe heck, I don¡¯t even have the makings of Lil and my original lean-to tent anymore.


    While distracted, checking my inventory for raft materials, I slam into several rocks in the river, a number of times, relatively hard. My equipment absorbs the majority of the brunt of it, but it still rattles my skull. Whatever, fine, I¡¯ll walk. I thrust myself out of the river towards the east, using the tendrils. If it sounds like I¡¯m starting to rely on them too much, trust me, it¡¯s just for today, my partners and I will be back to training soon enough. I just need a freakin¡¯ rest for my weary muscles.


    Why am I asking myself to trust myself? Hm, actually, that¡¯s a fair question, but also, unnecessary, because I do actually mistrust myself quite frequently, so it¡¯s not like it was sarcastic, but I also wasn¡¯t expecting to realize that the answer was fairly obvious. My head starts to spin as I think myself in circles about whether or not to trust myself and whether or not to ask myself if I trust myself, or to ask myself to trust myself when I know I don¡¯t trust myself. Holy moly. Okay, yeah, brain needs a reboot. Does the river ahead sound weird? I swear to all that is holy, if I somehow ended up all the way down in the swamp already, and am at the cliff, I¡¯m going to be so angry. There¡¯s no way I could have made it that far already.


    I decide to risk opening my eyes. Now I understand what the sound was, the main structure of the dam is ahead, but it¡¯s partially collapsed, and there¡¯s a massive whirlpool near it, likely where one of those series of locks was. I spy some beaverfolk milling about, which for some reason irritates me. I think it¡¯s just because I was hoping that the first thing I saw when I got my sight back would be my family. Also these are likely beavers that I didn¡¯t save, because they were nearer to the entrance of the dam. I realize only now that they¡¯re scattered to quite literally the four winds. I led a pretty equal number of beavers out each wing, North, East, and West, and this would be the South wing, or entrance.


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    I have to rest my eyes again as my vision blurs quickly. My ocular cavities still feel a bit too small for my eyes right now, like my eyeballs are bruised and puffed up, swollen perhaps. Hopefully a night¡¯s rest, when I finally get one, will clear that up. Even without sight, and danger wrap senses, there¡¯s plenty to be heard though, mostly that bruxing sort of sound that comes across when the beaverfolk are talking to one another.


    I can¡¯t handle this anymore, I¡¯m impatient, I want to see my family, now. I haul the thunder stick into the air and slam it into the ground like an axe chop. The immense crack of thunder that follows is almost deafening. The sound that follows that however, melts my heart, soothing it from the terrible pain it¡¯s currently in, as it¡¯s raked by barbed wire, from a tether stretched far too far, for far too long.


    ¡°Reggie!¡± Several voices cry out. I want to maintain my composure, but I can¡¯t. I fall to my knees and weep, I¡¯m finally reunited, and there¡¯s no more dangers between here and our new home. It¡¯s finally over. Everyone rushes my direction, and everyone save Mata embraces me, surrounding me. I can¡¯t help but to, what¡¯s the phrase? Ugly cry? Yeah, I¡¯m ugly crying. Sugar and Spice get to see this side of me, as one of their first impressions of me, since we¡¯ve only just barely met, but impressions be darned, I can¡¯t help it right now. I¡¯m so relieved.


    ¡°Child, can you not open your eyes? We¡¯re so happy to see you safe, surely it would do you a world of good to see the same?¡± Lao, somewhat jovially, pleads with me. I struggle to open my eyes as I smile towards her voice.


    Teuila is still evolved, we¡¯re still tethered, and she¡¯s holding me the tightest, against her armor. I probably change a few shades of blue from inability to breathe properly, which causes the rest of the family to back off a bit. I stand and embrace her back, trying not to think about the recent events.


    She simply whispers, ¡°I¡¯m okay, I¡¯m ready to be me again, I can tell how much this has been hurting you, for this long.¡± I gulp, grimace, and nod slightly. I bite my lip as I release the energy tether, hoping that I can temper my reaction, and steel myself.


    I fail. I fail miserably. When Teuila returns to her usual, naked, ottery self, as she reaches for me, I shriek, flinch, flail, and fall backwards, scrabbling backwards. This all happens as my mind floods with the terror of what transpired below. And the very worst of it? How I personally killed her. I killed Teuila, I killed her, but here she is, I killed her, but here she is. I burst into tears and sob loud, fearful cries as I hug my knees to my chest. Teuila tries to reach to me to comfort me, but sees my reaction, she hesitates, and I can sense tears form in her eyes as she makes a mad dash off east into the woods.


    Half of the family is asking what¡¯s the matter with me, why I would do that, the other half is trying to defend me, to explain on my behalf so I don¡¯t have to relive it by explaining. I just start shaking, so badly. I inch towards the river, away from the family. I couldn¡¯t control myself, I couldn¡¯t hold against my fear, and I hurt my dear, beloved Teuila. Lil is the most vocal in trying to get everyone to calm down and give me a break, explaining that I went through something awful, and hinting at what it was, avoiding things that might trigger my panic.


    How can I be with the one I love most, if I¡¯ll tumble into fear, fall into panic every time I lay eyes upon her? I¡¯m going to be sick. Once again, I find myself vomiting, for the how manieth time in the last few days? I let up sick, all over myself, at the edge of the river. I tried to stretch out, to aim away, but I was clasped so tightly fetal, I couldn¡¯t unlock my arms. I¡¯m pretty sure it probably smells awful, though I personally haven¡¯t seemed to have had a sense of smell for quite a long time now. Anosmic or Apnosmic, something like that. Sure, my brain can go down a rabbit hole of self pondering, while I¡¯m in a terrified panic, but can I even accept a touch, or gaze upon my beloved Teuila, when things are finally safe? I just sob harder in response to myself.


    I vaguely hear Lil and Luni trying to get my attention across our shared mental wavelength, in fact, due to the way it works, it means they¡¯ve been calling out to me for hours to try to help me, but I can¡¯t even engage. I didn¡¯t even notice Luni had walked over to use the soap stone to clean me up. I get the vague sense that Lil has been reading my logs, to try to see what happened since I sent the family out of the dam so that they have the whole picture, to fill Luni in. She¡¯s also peaking at my logs on occasion, but not reading with scrutiny as much as Lil.


    I so badly want to run after Teuila, to beg her to forget that I reacted like that, but I felt both of our hearts shatter when I did it. Lil¡¯s trying to get my attention, probably to distract me. I just think quizzically at Lil, more or less sending them a question mark.


    I finally notice Lil¡¯s thoughts as they come across the wavelength, ¡°Hey, that was all pretty rough partner, I¡¯m so sorry you went through all that. We¡¯re here for you, you know that, right? You haven¡¯t been responding, but we¡¯ll keep trying, because we love you, we¡¯re here for you.¡±


    ¡°I, I love you too, all of you.¡± My eyes are puffier yet still, with tears of mixed emotions. Out loud I ask, ¡°Lu, could you tell me about your adventure? What happened? How did you find out what to do?¡±


    As Luni tries to fill me in, I¡¯m unable to grasp, hear, or comprehend her, since her adventure included Teuila, as soon as Te was mentioned, my brain checked out once more.


    The first thing I hear when I realize I still exist in reality is, ¡°Um, um, so, um.¡± Luni balks, stammering. Then she suddenly, quickly rattles off a shout ¡°I¡¯m so glad I don¡¯t have to put on a brave front anymore!¡± We all gaze at her, somewhat stunned before she continues. ¡°I can, um, kind of maybe, keep being that upbeat, if, if you guys want, but, but um, I don¡¯t really want that much attention, or responsibility, ever again.¡± Luni was pushing herself to be both brave and happy, that entire time? No wonder something seemed off! It¡¯s all the more reason she¡¯s our wonderful, lovable Luni.


    I think it¡¯s probably my longest panic episode ever, because I keep triggering repeated cycles and circles, as I so desperately want to think about Teuila, and to ask for her forgiveness for being afraid, but I¡¯m too afraid to do it, because of being afraid of her, and I want to ask her forgiveness for feeling that fear, but I¡¯m too afraid to do it, because of being afraid of her, and on and on.


    I honestly didn¡¯t even notice my family curl up around me protectively, I don¡¯t know how long they¡¯ve been taking turns napping around me. Even Mataalii, who looks as angry at me as ever, seems to have some sympathy there behind what seems like palpable hatred now. As I finally begin to calm, I realize Teuila¡¯s been watching over me from the edge of the treeline, just outside the distance of the senses of my danger wraps, and my heart breaks once more, but I also freeze in a panic that I can¡¯t escape. I hyperventilate as my vision tunnels, my pulse pounds into my ears, my tinnitus grows, and I awaken several of my family who¡¯ve been napping around me. I only refrain from shrieking in terror because I lose control of my vocal chords and most of my muscles, seizing up and falling prone. I can virtually hear Teuila¡¯s heart break further still, from the treeline as I burst into tears during my panic.


    That¡¯s the final straw that snaps my mind. I¡¯m fairly certain anyway. I think I retreat into my brain, just so exhausted from endless panic. I stop perceiving the world around me, and my family decides to continue our journey, to finally find our new home. I don¡¯t know how many days that my body follows, stumbling alongside them. I don¡¯t know if Teuila gets close to me during this time. I am pretty sure that someone had to be taking care of me, and maybe occasionally carrying me, because I¡¯m utterly checked out, buried beneath my own terror. I feel broken beyond repair, all the worse because the only real thought I have during all that time is how sorry I am to have hurt Teuila by having these feelings.


    It feels like one phrase breaks through, just once, during my entire time checked out from reality. ¡°I will always, always love you, and I will always, always wait for you. Take as long as you need.¡± I fear it was likely my imagination, but the faintest glimmer of hope keeps me from succumbing to a yet further level of despair. What could be deeper despair than this? Well, I think accidentally just outright dying from a self-inflicted heart attack is probably the next step, or something like that.

 Chapter 40: The End Of A Journey

    <h2>Chapter 40: The End Of A Journey</h2>


    Apparently, some time during however long it¡¯s been while I¡¯ve been retreated into my own mind, the family actually built a home, Spice designed it. I hear that Sugar was pivotal in its construction. They must have made trips to the dam to get smaller logs from the beavers, quite a number of times. The beavers have apparently worked to unflood several sections of the dam. Also, I apparently handed out some items on several occasions. I even made a new copy of the little lean-to tent, which means I also had to have gone gathering at some point.


    I¡¯m told that Lil has caught Mata sneaking off to scale the cliffs and explore the Fire Biome. I don¡¯t know how I would have felt about that while it was happening, I don¡¯t even know how I feel about it now.


    Supposedly, once in a while I try to spend a night with the whole family, but by morning, I¡¯m inconsolable again, and spend days alone in my tent, only letting Lil in, and even then, only rarely.


    I can¡¯t recall doing any of this. My head hurts, so much, it feels like the rear lobes are going to explode outwards. Finally, finally I return to reality, and I¡¯m conscious of what I¡¯m doing, and I return to this, a feeling like a warning for death.


    I find myself spending several days working up the courage to even somehow let my family know that I¡¯ve returned to reality. How does one broach the subject? ¡°Hey fam, thanks for taking care of me for several weeks, or maybe months again, y¡¯know, like the time I almost died, but this time it was because I was scared of one of us.¡± Ugh, I need to not make light of it. I wouldn¡¯t look down on anyone else who suffered the same fate.


    My muscles barely respond to me, I find them constantly stiff, as if neurochemicals like adrenaline, and norepinephrine have been flooded into my system for far too long. Well, they probably have. My body has probably been in fight or flight mode, unending, ever since the events. With my brain on auto pilot at best, there¡¯s little else it could do I suppose.


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    I have to take a few days to myself, leaving the pond and the family entirely. I think they¡¯re used to me wandering away, and returning several days later at this point. There¡¯s a deep sense of heartache as I catch up on everyone¡¯s feelings. I¡¯m so saddened to have lost time that we could have been bonding, spending time together, living a happy life, pursuing our goals and dreams. I worry that if I try to return, I¡¯ll just be some distant stranger, trying to force their way into a family where I don¡¯t belong.


    There¡¯s my family, going about their lives, working to move on after a harrowing journey, finding their purposes. Teuila is standing apart, far, far from the rest of the family. She¡¯s a lone guardian whose place seems so distant. I¡¯m told she rarely smiles, save with Lil or Lu, but right now she¡¯s not with Lil or Luni.


    I steel myself, and hold my breath as I take a step towards Teuila. I take another, and my eyes wet with tears. I take another, and a gulp catches in my throat. I take another, and my pulse races. I take another, and my vision narrows. She notices my approach, and the frown on her face says ¡°I know you¡¯re not ready.¡± My right arm spasms, I look down and see my legs shaking, and realize I¡¯m wearing Valkyrie equipment. I send it all back to my inventory, replacing it with my leaf leather gear, the outfit with the gashes on the chest from Luna. It feels like my head vibrates up and down as I quake with fear. She¡¯s only a few steps away, but it seems like an insurmountable gulf. I put the danger wraps into my inventory as well. I divest the tattoo, which returns to a needle that seems to perpetually spill ink.


    I nervously scamper close to Teuila, then I stand to my full height. Apparently I¡¯ve grown some. I take Teuila¡¯s hand, tentatively, then I shoulder bash her, and begin dragging her towards the pond, my home, to show her the home we share, the life we have together, the way she once wanted to share with me. I sprint, catching her by surprise, and I feel the warmth of her smile as she catches on. The feeling warms my soul, and I look back at her to verify she¡¯s really smiling. While distracted, I trip, and slide face first several dozen feet into the nearest tree. Teuila seems unsure of herself at first, as she barely begins to laugh, but then nervously approaches, consolingly, to check if I¡¯m panicking. I am still slightly panicked, but everything¡¯s going to be okay now. I¡¯m home, I¡¯m finally home.


    My voice timidly croaks out, ¡°I love you.¡±


    The smirk on her face as she replies with two simple words is the most precious thing in the world to me. ¡°I know.¡±

 AAOMM Book 2: B 2 C 1: Reconciliation

    <h2>B 2 C 1: Reconciliation</h2>


    As I once again look back, as I so rarely do, at my memory logs, I¡¯m a bit perplexed.  Who supposedly told me things, and caught me up on things?  The closest I can figure is I must have been referring to myself as having been reading my family¡¯s memory logs.  Somehow, even deeper down than the subconscious I was buried under, so far from reality, something in my mind was still trying to keep up with those I love.  Perhaps the furthest out it could reach is the mind¡¯s eye inventory interface, where it would be able to access the logs.  I mean, there¡¯s no one else in my mind, right?  Luni and Lil started to give me space as they¡¯ve spent years together in our thinkspace once again.


    Teuila flops down onto me, laughing that I¡¯ve once again driven myself face first across quite a distance, smacking into a tree.  I shakily, nervously hug her.  The panic is still there, but I¡¯ve only ever so recently rejoined the world around me.  I think it was a day or two that I wandered away from the pond, trying to work up the courage to return.  Only moments ago did I finally approach Teuila for the first time after returning.  A split second ago I was skidding on my face, and turning to profess my love.  Te can sense my anxiety, and knows she can¡¯t help that another version of her is part of the cause.  She does however sense my determination to face it.  I¡¯m so grateful for her understanding.


    Come to think of it, a short while ago, I was mortified that I would be looked on as an outsider by my family if I tried to rejoin them.  Yet, how could I ever even fear that?  Even if that were the case, my family has only ever welcomed anyone with open arms.  Not to mention, their love for me has been palpable, and professed on many-an-occasion.  Lil, Luni, can you two hear me?  Can you hear my thoughts?  I know I haven¡¯t reached out in so long, I¡¯m so sorry.


    ¡°Buddy!¡±  ¡°Reggie!¡±  Come exclamations from Lil and Lu across our shared wavelength.  The joy that radiates from them as our emotions begin to sync up once again sets my soul alight.  The soothing of my heart that comes from them causes me to laugh at my own fear.  How could I ever have doubted these that I love the most?  How could I possibly imagine that they¡¯d have shunned me?


    ¡°I love you both.  I¡¯m so happy to be back.¡±  I say, mentally, and accidentally slightly out loud.


    ¡°Both?  Are you seeing double, dweeb?¡±  Teuila¡¯s reply causes me to blush with chagrin.  Her endearing manner of using an insult as a form of affection still fills me with joy.


    ¡°No, no, not you.¡±  I immediately regret the words as they leave my mouth.  In response, Teuila huffs, grabs some grass, and tries to bean me in the face with it.  When she can¡¯t swing it as a weapon, she just throws handfuls of grass into my face, which causes me to sputter and laugh, so I can¡¯t correct my reply right away.  The longer this goes on, the more my anxiety melts into humor, as much as I don¡¯t want Teuila to misunderstand, I can¡¯t help but laugh for a good while, as I try to focus on the humor, letting it overcome the terror.


    ¡°Wait, wait wait, wait, hahaha, wait, that¡¯s not what I meant!  I meant I was talking to Lil and Lu, but I love you too!¡±  I finally manage to explain, with Teuila straddling me and smearing my face with grass.  The terror causes my legs to twitch and my heart to palpitate.  It¡¯s still there, under the surface, like a pressure with an endless flow.  Sometimes a drip, sometimes a river.


    How ironic is it that my life revolves so much around one river?  A river that I¡¯ve leaped into time and time again, hoping it spares my life, hoping it gets me out of a worse situation, and often it does.  Not to mention that I have an aquatic family, and have had escapades near oceans and swamps and dams.  I suppose it¡¯s hard to have something be ironic, when one doesn¡¯t know what to expect.  When you don¡¯t know what to expect, it¡¯s hard to have those expectations subverted.  Also, I will probably never learn to stop being distracted by thought.  I didn¡¯t notice as Teuila stood up, and took a running start.  Since she¡¯s now an instant away from connecting to my torso with a faux body slam, I can only hold my arms up in a mock terrified plea.  It¡¯s better than the real terror, that¡¯s for sure.


    Teuila however, remains light as a feather.  Her special bond with gravity means that she can drop on people as a joke, like this, without injuring either of us.  My arms shake uncontrollably, but I still manage to wrap them around her, letting my emotions catch up to me.  I let the tears flow unabated.


    For her part, Teuila strokes my hair, sifting through it, as she coos and shushes me.  ¡°Shh, my extraordinary goofball.  It¡¯s alright.  It¡¯s alright.  I¡¯m here, you¡¯re here.  We¡¯re okay.  We¡¯re finally okay.¡±  She almost seems to be trying to convince herself.  I can barely imagine how hurt she was, or for how long.  Yet here she is, struggling to be the strong one, to accept that it¡¯s going to be a challenge to accept my love.  Also struggling to still be here for me, through it all.  While I¡¯m the one struggling against terror, she¡¯s the one struggling against not being able to comfort her loved one.  She¡¯s the one struggling against being the object of my terror.


    ¡°Huh, more white than I remember.¡±  Teuila pulls more locks of my hair out in front of my eyes as she says this, then she continues.  ¡°I couldn¡¯t get a close look, not since, well, back before then.¡±  She scratches her forehead, furrows her brow, and avoids eye contact.  When she does, I also spot significantly more white streaking the underside of her fur along where she scratched.


    ¡°Oh, oh Te, you too.  White I mean, in your beautiful fur.¡±


    ¡°Hee, you think my fur is beautiful?¡±  She slips into that exuberant single laugh as she insinuates she¡¯s teasing me.


    ¡°Well, I mean, uh, err, well yeah, obviously, no sense denying it.¡±


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    ¡°Ya big dork, hehe.¡±  She sighs, and lays atop me, contentedly.  I know she can feel me quivering as I fight back the fear.  I¡¯m finally back in control though, and I want to get our life moving forward, I want to start accomplishing our goals.  But I can put that off for a little while to enjoy this.  I¡¯m hooked on this feeling, that of Teuila¡¯s happiness being shared with me.


    ¡°Te?  I, um.  Back then.  The longer the tether was active, the more it hurt.  You said you could tell it was hurting me?  It felt like literally there was sharp, barbed, razor covered wire sawing into my heart, yanking on it, by the end.¡±  I nervously query, trying to skirt the thoughts that I know will trigger panic.


    ¡°Yeah.  I remember.  It wasn¡¯t hurting me, but it felt like there was a string running from me to you, and that string was shaking like, like someone can only shake when they¡¯re hurting real bad.  I can¡¯t explain it, it was a kind of feeling that said, on the other end of this line, someone is holding on, but barely, their hand must be bleeding, or something.¡±  Teuila¡¯s description sounds about right.  The line felt like it was connected to my literal and metaphorical heart.  Holding the line was excruciating, if it were my hand, my hand would have been shaking uncontrollably.  I just find myself nodding at her answer.


    ¡°Oh, oh did I tell you?  Well I guess I couldn¡¯t have, maybe Lil or Lu did, did anyone tell you, that I got like, stabbed, skewered pretty much straight through with one of our own swords?¡±  I don¡¯t know why I was excited to share that.  What is wrong with me?  Teuila¡¯s face screws up, her right eye twitches while her left eye shoots wide, raising the brow to extreme levels.


    ¡°You, you, you what!?¡±  Teuila¡¯s face is so incredulous, as she tries to shake her head, checking if she heard me right.


    When I remember why I was excited, I continue, ¡°Err, yeah, it was pretty bad.  Oh, oh oh oh, right!   Right right right, the reason why I asked, is because there was a potion that fixed it!  Two in fact, from Octorochi.  Though one of them I vomited up, because I was in so much pain.¡±


    ¡°Let me guess, since you threw that one up, you had to use both of them?¡±  Her expression evens out quickly, she even sounds snarky.


    Curious what Teuila is getting at, somewhat defensively I reply, ¡°Yeah, sorta, it was more complicated than that.  I uh, I can¡¯t explain without, you know, why?¡±


    My jaw drops as I realize what Teuila is about to ask, ¡°Don¡¯t suppose you learned how to make them before drinking them?¡±  I facepalm, and burst into crying laughter.


    Teuila similarly bursts into laughter, calling me out, ¡°You, hahaha, you big dummy!  Hahaha, only you.  My sweet doofus.  Only you.  Heee.¡±  Te¡¯s laughter drops into that gleeful single elongated laugh as she expresses her affection for me.  Her face enters a sort of ecstatically content closed-eyed smile.  I think because she finally realizes she can share with me again, that she can express her affection for me, and it will be accepted, and returned.  I know she thought, in the swamp, that I was the only one who got her so well.


    I¡¯m so happy.  I¡¯m so happy that I can pretend my rapid pulse is from joy, rather than terror, and that my quivering is a side effect of that.  I¡¯d better not try any tasks that require precise dexterity though, not for a long time.  Slightly hyperbolically I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever stop shaking.  That¡¯s only a slight hyperbole though with the way I currently feel.  Jeeze, could you imagine me trying to carefully prod something with a spear, or to stab a specific area, right now?  Holding from the far end of the handle the point would be wobbling around like crazy.


    As I try to plan heading in to finally see my family, an invisible force grips my heart, like an icy cold hand.  ¡°Um, Te?  Can, um, can you, maybe, maybe please, maybe, help me face the fam?¡±  I end up whispering and muttering by the end of my question.  I know, deep down, that they won¡¯t reject me, and actually Teuila¡¯s presence is only going to keep me on terror¡¯s edge.  That doesn¡¯t stop me from wanting her nearby however.  Both physically and symbolically, I want to return to our family with Teuila.


    Te doesn¡¯t answer, which is concerning.  I cock my head to one side, and she¡¯s just looking up into the sky, out of my gaze.  I can¡¯t see her eyes or much of her face from down here.  That¡¯s when large teardrops begin falling on my face.  Teuila suddenly looks down, and she¡¯s, similarly to me the last time I was in the real world, ugly crying.  Her lips quiver and wobble, slightly being chewed on by her teeth.  Her eyes alternate between crying wide, and squeezing out tears.  There¡¯s snot dripping down her face.  I¡¯ve never seen her this vulnerable.  I¡¯ve never seen her feelings this exposed.  Even just now she was trying to hide it before looking down at me.


    Teuila kneels on my legs, and doubles over.  She lightly pounds on my chest in slow motion, one strike from one fist, then a strike from the other.  I feel my heart simultaneously breaking, and mending.  I realize just now that she¡¯s been muttering, whispering.  ¡°Dummy, fool, idiot, dork, butthead, jerk, nimrod, goofball, airhead, putz, doofus, bozo, bonehead, dippy, dingus, geek, goofus, dipstick, dweeb, lugnut, hoser, poser, bum, palooka.¡±  She continues muttering further insults.  Wow, wow she¡¯s really going for it, she¡¯s really calling me pretty much every name in the book, in every language that she can think of.  I know I jokingly once questioned if she might do that, over the course of our life, but I never thought she¡¯d try to do it all in one go.


    I try really hard to stifle my laughter at the absurdity of her attempt.  We could be at this for hours.  Oh, now it hits me.  I¡¯m finally back.  I can stay just hers, for a few hours.  I lightly, shakily take her hands by the wrists the next time each of them come in to strike my chest.  I flash Teuila a half of a furtive smile, and tug lightly.  She acquiesces and falls atop me.  She blows her nose all over my shoulder, but I don¡¯t mind.  We lay there, each of us shaking for different reasons from strong emotions.  Hours pass during our embrace.  Finally Teuila sniffs slightly, rubs her nose and starts to sit up.


    As Teuila stands, she hauls me up by the hand.  She mutters, ¡°Come on poofbutt, let¡¯s get you cleaned up.¡±  I thought I¡¯d heard them all, yet Teuila finds another insult to use to endearingly refer to me.  It sounds like the whole family has gone into the cabin by this point, and while Teuila tries to lead me, I shake my head and take the lead.


    Nervously, quaking through my entire body, I enter the cabin.  Several family members somberly acknowledge my presence, either nodding, or just saying my name politely, seemingly not expecting me to be responsive.


    I take another step into the cabin, lightly tugging Teuila by the hand to stand by my side as I nervously say, ¡°H,H, Hi everyone.¡±  Everyone other than Luni and Lil literally drop whatever they were doing, objects and projects clatter to the ground.  Jaws drop to the floor, and in a moment, I¡¯m surrounded, being showered with love.  Luni and Lil just grin in the background.  They already knew I was coming in, probably before I concluded to try.

 B 2 C 2: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

    <h2>B 2 C 2: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back</h2>


    If I thought the last time I was cognizant held tearful reunions, the emotional outpour I receive now is at least equal, if not stronger. I¡¯m actually even being checked out by Mataalii, his hands explore my face and his jaw refuses to raise. He¡¯s acting like he¡¯s seeing a ghost, testing if I¡¯m real. It feels like the family members can barely wait to take turns to tell me something, to catch up with me or check in on me or interact with me in some way. It¡¯s almost stifling, almost. Sugar is rambling at me a mile a minute, I can¡¯t make out anything she¡¯s saying. Spice is calling me a butthead for checking out so long, but that it¡¯s good to have me back, since we just barely met. The Mana twins are talking about how much they enjoy fishing with Lil.


    Finally there¡¯s a brief moment of break, Agwai seems to shoo the others away as Laomati sets her hand upon my cheek. Slowly tears well up in her eyes. ¡°My child, I knew you¡¯d return to us.¡± Her faith causes tears to well in my eyes, and my breath to catch in my throat. She kneels down to my level as she pulls me into a tender, motherly hug.


    Agwai whispers to me, ¡°Whatever you went through, no matter how long it affects you, we love you, and we¡¯ll never be able to thank you enough for what you¡¯ve given us.¡± They kiss my forehead and ruffle my hair. Ever since the swamp, Ag has been more tender, loving, emotional, expressive.


    I can feel Teuila slightly fuming next to me, a mild jealousy brewing. At first I worry she¡¯s annoyed that I¡¯m getting the family¡¯s attention, since she is also returning, metaphorically, to her old self. That¡¯s not it though. She¡¯s annoyed that she can¡¯t just drag me away for more time alone to catch up, to break through my fear and move on, and she¡¯s a bit jealous that I thought such loving, kind words of Agwai. Somehow I know exactly what she¡¯s thinking, or at least feeling. Wait. Teuila, can you hear my thoughts?


    Teuila¡¯s jaw drops next to me, and I hear a gasp in my mind. Teuila flying tackles me so hard to the side that we go crashing about the inside of the cabin and tumbling out the entryway.


    She¡¯s laughing so happily, so giddily. ¡°Is it real? Was that you? Is it true? Is it? Is it? Hahaha, really? Really? After all that? Was that you? Can it be? Please tell me it was you, please tell me it¡¯s true!¡± She starts to grip me by the collar and throttle me slightly as she tries to shake loose the truth.


    I put my shaking hands up in surrender, laughing, tears rolling out of my eyes. ¡°I felt you, I really felt you, you heard me too!¡± I excitedly, hoarsely whisper. I suck down shaky, ragged breaths. I spy the rest of the family gazing out of the doorway with concern. It looks so cartoonish to see heads peeking around a corner stacked on top of one another. I can¡¯t help but laugh at the absurdity. When they realize I¡¯ve spotted them, and am still laughing, most of them sigh with relief.


    ¡°Sometimes, um, sometimes when they¡¯re close, I can feel Lil. I can really feel Lil, and ride the connection a little bit, hearing parts of their conversations with Lu.¡± She admits.


    ¡°Te, that¡¯s amazing. That¡¯s so amazing! This is amazing! You¡¯re amazing!¡± I fight, struggling to my feet. I wrap my arms around her and lift her into the air to twirl her around. Who knew? All it took was mostly dying several times in a row over the course of several days while stretching a tether so hard that the tether itself also almost killed me.


    Teuila mutters ¡°Jerk.¡± Into my mind. Oh, right, she heard my sarcastic thought. I hope you know that was slight sarcasm Teuila, I¡¯m so glad for this, no matter what it took. I¡¯m really sorry for the snark. That definitely wasn¡¯t intended at you.


    My shaking arms can¡¯t support even Teuila¡¯s feather-light weight for long. As I set her down, she smiles into my eyes and socks me in the shoulder. It seems she¡¯s taller too. ¡°We came here to get you cleaned up, dingus.¡± Teuila says to me, changing the subject. She knows that¡¯s not entirely true, but I¡¯m happy to use her cover.


    Parts of my muscles, like the edges of my biceps and forearms near my elbows start to seize up. The various fear chemicals are still virtually killing me, figuratively. It feels like I¡¯m tearing my muscles occasionally just moving around, as I fight my internal struggle with every step.


    I want to gather my inner circle to go training, exploring, adventuring, but I¡¯m barely functional. Teuila sifts my hair as she comforts me, ¡°Take it slow, wonderboob.¡± Yep, Te¡¯s going to just invent new mildly insulting nicknames now that she has run through so many. I love the way she hurts me, in a non hurtful way, the playful punches, the endearing insults. I chuckle as my mouth flicks back and forth between a frightened pout, and a massive smile. Some day again, some day soon I hope, I¡¯ll finally loose the terror¡¯s grip on my heart from seeing her, and being with her.


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    Te grips my chin to draw my attention and gaze. ¡°Lil told me, everything, in excruciating detail. I know I could have read it, but I couldn¡¯t. I did know you got stabbed, I knew you drank the potions so that you could come back to us. I know how much. It. hurt you.¡± When she says the word it, I realize she¡¯s not talking about the stabbing. She¡¯s talking about how much I hated being overcome with fear of her. I can tell she¡¯s admitting this because, well, she went along with my questions because she was scared how to handle our reunion. She wanted everything to be at my pace. Te probably figured out that I was struggling, and wanted to encourage whatever was distracting me with any emotion that wasn¡¯t fear. In that instant, it was excitement.


    Also, Teuila hates lying to me, even as a joke, and can¡¯t keep it up for long. I guess her facial reaction wasn¡¯t a lie, she was probably incredulous as to why I was so excited to share having gotten stabbed. I probably came off like a lunatic, or an idiot, maybe both.


    Teuila flicks my nose, ¡°You¡¯re neither. Dweebus.¡± Oh, right, when I¡¯m thinking about someone with a shared wavelength, they can hear my thoughts. I have to actively try to hear them though. Well, emotions flow along the wavelength in all directions. Oh, oh no. I look at Teuila¡¯s elbows, and the tips of her extremities. Like mine, they¡¯re shaking. Perhaps not as much, but she¡¯s experiencing this too. Her pawed hand spreads out over my face, smooshing my face around and dragging my lips upwards, smearing saliva. Actually, thinking about it, she¡¯s been shaking for quite a while too. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯d suffer a thousand times this, just to be back here.¡±


    I gulp, disliking the sentiment, because I¡¯m sure she¡¯s already suffered a thousand times this. ¡°I, um. I don¡¯t know how to proceed from here. I¡¯m so happy to be back, but I¡¯m struggling, and I¡¯m lost. I don¡¯t know what comes next. There are things I wanted, things I still think I want. I just, I just don¡¯t know how to start.¡±


    Te ponders for a moment, removing her hand from my face. Somehow, the arrangement of her thumb and index finger on her chin causes a mild BSOD in my brain, and yet another imaginary screen flickers with static. As she comes to a conclusion, she shares it, ¡°I guess just like I said, take it slow. One day at a time. Where do you. Want. to start?¡±


    I look downward, away, ashamed. The thing I want most is to be done with this roadblock between myself and being able to act normal. I want to be where I¡¯m not fighting for every second of sanity. I can¡¯t really focus on anything else. ¡°I hate what I¡¯m about to ask. I. Um. I, I. Um. I need, I need, uh. Argh.¡±


    ¡°You need some space, and some time to yourself. What I said before is still true.¡± What she said before? Did she really say those words that pierced the darkness? That she would always love me, and always wait for me? She beams a bright smile my way, nodding as she backs away. She scampers off somewhere to train, or keep watch over our family from afar.


    I retreat to my tent, and begin pounding the tree with my fist in frustration as I start to cry again. As long as I just focus on frustration, my muscles finally stop seizing and shaking. As long as I don¡¯t let my thoughts drift in a certain direction, I¡¯m almost, almost, functioning like I was before this mess. I equip the majority of my gear, and my danger wraps. I also pull the tattoo needle out of my inventory.


    Letting the tendrils do the work, launching myself into the air and slinging from tree to tree, I fairly sail through the air several miles to the south. From there, I launch myself into the river, and swim in place against the current as long as I can manage.


    Now that I¡¯m thoroughly exhausted, I launch myself out of the river to the eastern shore, the dangerous shore. I¡¯m located pretty close to the events of Day¡­ One. My head swims, filling with pain and pounding pulse, my vision tunnels, but I remain standing. Shakily I roar to the skies, daring the world to send my fear at me. I drop to my knees, drawing ragged breaths. When nothing appears, I pull the thunder stick out of my inventory, and begin slamming it repeatedly into the ground, causing thunder to crack over, and over. ¡°Face me! Face me! Face me, so I can face you.¡± I shout my challenge, which trails off to a disheartened mumble, almost a whimper by the end.


    Saddened that I can¡¯t just literally fight this fear, I unequip my gear again save the danger wraps, tattoo, and some leaf clothing. The divested gear in my inventory seems important somehow. Looking into my inventory doesn¡¯t clue me in immediately though. Exhausted mentally, physically, and probably spiritually, I sprawl on my back and close my eyes. I listen for the breeze, vaguely remembering Sylphie. It sends me into a slight panic to remember her, as she was there during the, the, the event. Even my brain, my internal monologue stammers as I try to put a name to the, the event. I¡¯ll have to ask Lu about Sylphie later. I¡¯ll also need to ask about Luna. I let myself pass out due to very mixed emotions.  I lay sprawled, barely equipped, along the shore.

 B 2 C 3: Breadth And Depth

    <h2>B 2 C 3: Breadth And Depth</h2>


    My wraps try to warn me of danger, to wake me, but it¡¯s like an alarm when you really don¡¯t want to go to work in the morning. Why am I using that simile? I have no basis for comparison, absolutely no way to know what that feels like. Oh right, I¡¯m being attacked. What finally wakes me is my flesh being raked by the maw of an open-faced sphere creature.


    I narrow my eyes, fighting dozens of emotions, fear, panic, contempt, pride, satisfaction, vindication, so many things swirling in my mind. Even with panicked tunnel vision, all I need to do to end this fight is apparate anything from my inventory right in front of my torso. Yet I don¡¯t, as this thing chews on me. I try to look it in the eyes, and the eyes aren¡¯t red. Slowly my vision begins to expand, clearing up. My panic episode should be triggered repeatedly, but the situation is different somehow. I summon my thunder stick to my hand.


    Out of the blue, I finally realize why Staff Ninja was on that rock. They were trying to draw the serpent out during a fight with the bullies. They wanted to force the bullies to help fight the serpent. That¡¯s why they were relying on me. Like how I was trying to draw out my fear, Staff Ninja was trying to draw out Octorochi. While I was trying to do this to overcome terror, they were probably doing it to make the swamp safer for everyone. They basically were trying to trick the bullies into fighting it, since they¡¯d have been in danger. I accidentally threw a wrench into that.


    Guilt slams into me. Though I guess, knowing what I know about the serpent, I don¡¯t need to feel as guilty as I feel. Staff Ninja was probably happy that I showed up, and was able to drive off the bullies with Lil¡¯s help. It probably looked like we would have had a better chance together, than they would have had relying on the bullies. Maybe they were right, but we didn¡¯t stand even the remotest chance back then.


    It took crazy powerful magical equipment, and someone we hadn¡¯t even met yet, and that person to train like crazy, to be able to finally end the serpent. Even with all that, we were still just barely shy of defeating it due to my screwup. Our Valkyrie could pause the gravity of all the spears in the air, and then launch them with about as much force as I could, using virtually no energy. She was the hero, the only one who could have done so much major damage against the serpent. At least, quickly enough that none of the rest of us would die during a prolonged fight.


    The creature eating me realizes that I¡¯m not dying, so figures it¡¯s not biting me in a vital-enough area, and as it opens its maw to reposition itself, I jam the thunder stick into its mouth. The crack of thunder reminds me of the sickening crack I heard the first time I did something like this. I choke back a ragged, sobbed breath. I¡¯m not going to kill this creature. I swing the staff away as hard as I can, flinging the creature away into the woods. As it tries to return to attack me, I simply slam the thunder stick into the ground, warning it, warding it off. Once we¡¯re in a standoff, I summon some fish from my inventory. I¡¯m apparently pretty low on fish, finally. I drop the fish, and flick it towards the creature. From there, I start walking back to my pond. Shellcracker Pond.


    Curious about my physical abilities, I break into a jog, then a sprint, and try to pole vault across the river with the thunder staff. Though the staff sounds a loud boom, I don¡¯t know how to pole vault. So my attempt ends as one would expect. With me once again in the drink. Sighing, rolling my eyes as I¡¯m bashed against several rocks, I use my tendrils to flick myself out of the river to the western shore.


    What in heaven¡¯s name am I doing? The very thing I wanted the most, the thing that drew me back from being forever lost in my own mind is waiting for me. They¡¯re all waiting for me, ready to welcome me back. Yet when I¡¯ve finally come to my senses, I need alone time? What is wrong with me!?


    My eyes feel puffy and sore. I realize my torso is pretty shredded, as is my right bicep. I think I¡¯ve gained a fair amount of defensive ability, or maybe stamina or health, something or other. I don¡¯t feel threatened by the wounds. Maybe I should be. What if I¡¯m ignoring them due to a subconscious, well, desire that I¡¯d rather not even think about. I guess I can call it a desire to punish myself for having put my family through everything that happened, not to mention putting them through my reaction.


    Alright, I need to at least have Luni hit me with the soap stone. I promised I¡¯d be better. As much as I want to rush into all their arms, I take my time ambling back to Shellcracker Pond.


    When I was last in touch with reality, I had become a de facto leader, because it was up to me to deal with the serpent. Then I had to deal with the river rescue, and I was supposed to triumphantly welcome my family to our pond afterwards. I¡¯m not trying to convince myself of self importance, my thought train is trying to figure out what my place in the family was supposed to be after that. I don¡¯t even know what I was going to do. I suppose I was going to experiment with construction, which Sugar and Spice are doing just fine at. I was going to try to teach everyone about music and song, which Luni is taking care of. I was probably going to eventually explore the volcanic plateau, apparently Mataalii is doing that somewhat in secret. I was going to look after them as a guardian, a protector, they¡¯ve got that covered quite fine.


    I know I could join any of them at their tasks, and no one would shun me, but I do feel displaced. I sort of am displaced in time. I want to go back and experience my family¡¯s excitement and trials in setting up their new home. One other thing I can think of was that I was going to experiment with metallurgy, but we have metal equipment already. Do I even want to create metallurgy? I could explore the world, looking for more allies, creatures, displaced beings. That thought feels slightly sickening though. I feel like if I did it, I¡¯d have to go it alone, even if Lil wanted to join me. Wait, do I need a place to fit in? Do they care if I can¡¯t find a way to contribute? I can always help out if something really serious comes up that requires extra help.


    I guess, I guess maybe, just maybe, I can just be? Is that even allowed? I feel as if a weight pressing down on me lifts off ever so slightly. Lost in my reverie, I didn¡¯t even notice I¡¯m already home, standing in the entryway, causing a commotion once again. Half of my family are aghast at my appearance, Luni just rolls her eyes. Lu then grabs Lao and approaches. She starts poking me with the soap stone. Lao pulls some leaves and vines off of a shelf so that she can start binding my wounds.


    ¡°I, um, hey everybody.¡± There¡¯s a round of smiles as I speak up, and this time my family members are careful to wait their turns to catch up with me. I give Luni probably the tightest hug we¡¯ve ever shared, and she coughs. I blush, mumbling an apology.


    Lao frets over me in her motherly way, ¡°Precious child, what could you possibly have been doing?¡±


    ¡°I was, err, well, facing my fears. Literally. Tried to anyway, without much success.¡±


    ¡°Teuila did this?¡± Lao queries with shock. I wince when it¡¯s mentioned that I fear her.


    ¡°No, no of course not. My other fears.¡± Laomati lets out a slightly relieved sigh with my response.


    ¡°Lao, um, I wanted to ask you, what your goals and dreams are now, what you want, for yourself, and us.¡±


    ¡°An easy answer dear one. Peace, happiness, an idyllic life watching each of you grow to be the best versions of yourselves.¡± I smile at her, of course that¡¯s what she wants. I couldn¡¯t picture anything less of her, or for her. I squeeze Lao in an embrace less tightly than I hugged Luni. I realize I hugged Luni too hard, trying to make up for lost time. I try to demurely excuse myself from Lao to approach Agwai.


    ¡°Um, Agwai? Um, Ag, can I, um, can I ask you the same thing?¡± I catch a ragged breath. I realize that after all this time, I still find Agwai imposing. It¡¯s from the preconceptions that were built up over time when Agwai was cold, distant, when everyone was still grieving at the beach, and grieving again at our first mini home.


    ¡°Of course. Our dear child, how could I refuse to answer such a sweet question? I¡¯ve resumed storytelling, I¡¯ve taken a liking to joining our Luni in song, and I think I¡¯ve found a calling.¡± I raise an eyebrow as Agwai continues. ¡°Do you know what the ocean said to the beach? Worry not, I¡¯ll tell you. Nothing, it just waved. See? Humor.¡±


    ¡°Snrk. Heheh. Hahaha.¡± That caught me entirely off guard. I chuckle as I hug Agwai. That last bit is definitely not the answer I was expecting. I then look for Sugar and Spice. I spot them appearing to argue with one another off to one side.


    Approaching Sugar and Spice, I have trouble finding the words I want to express. ¡°I,um, hi, hey guys. I uh, I¡¯ve been wanting to meet you, for such a long time now.¡±


    ¡°You already met us ya big goon, you really are as sweet as they all say.¡± ¡°Told ya, sweetiepie, total sweetiepie.¡± Spice and Sugar reply.


    Spice argues, ¡°Nah, not a sweetiepie, more like a lovable dingus.¡±


    Sugar rebuts, ¡°That sounds kinda mean? Doesn¡¯t it? You can¡¯t just add lovable to an insult, can you?¡±


    I feel like a third wheel in their conversation, even though I¡¯m the subject, and I try to stifle my chuckle. Spice gives up arguing and starts shouting, kindly. ¡°Fine, look, I was worried sick, I¡¯ve been wanting to meet this sweetheart for friggin¡¯ ever, okay? Sue me! You hear that ya big dingus? I¡¯ve been waiting on you, got anything to say to that?¡± Spice finally addresses me. I¡¯m, well, I¡¯m not even sure how to reply.


    ¡°Uhhh.¡±


    Sugar saves me, ¡°We both were. Reggie¡¯s supposed to be a big hero who has it real tough. Don¡¯t take your excitement out on them or me though, meanie. Besides, half the reason you wanted to meet them already happened, everybody is safe and back to normal.¡± Spice hisses a sort of shushing sound at Sugar, trying to cut off her reply.


    I raise a single eyebrow at Spice. Spice sighs and turns away from me, not making eye contact. I guess it¡¯s up to me now. ¡°I¡¯m, um, glad. I¡¯m glad. Really, really glad that you¡¯re with us. I¡¯m glad we, that the situation, that it happened the way it did. No, no wait, I mean, I just mean that I¡¯m glad everyone is okay.¡± I realize that Spice was going to try to ask me to save the colony, back before everything happened. I don¡¯t know the other reason Spice wanted to meet me though. Plus, it really wasn¡¯t me. The girls saved the day without me even being anywhere nearby. The part I played was, it was, it was. It was just grisly business that might have been taken care of by water, oh. Well, everyone getting out safe was more thanks to Sylphie. My vision starts to narrow and cross, doubling. I try to slow my breathing as my panic fights to rise once again. As I ride out my panic rather quickly, I¡¯m met with loving stares from most of my family.


    Spice hops at my chest, forcing me to catch him. He actually nuzzles against me, and whispers, ¡°How do you do that? How do you beat it?¡± Wait, is that why Spice wanted to meet me? Is he like me? Does he suffer panic attacks?


    ¡°Do you? Are you like me?¡± I try to covertly ask.


    ¡°Shhh. Don¡¯t tell. And don¡¯t make fun of me.¡± His answer confirms my suspicion. I wonder what sort of triggers exist for him, I¡¯d like to avoid them. I can only guess that his trauma is related to the situation at the dam. Maybe he saw some friends or family that he loved cross over to the MCF.


    Realizing Spice¡¯s command was really a request, I reply before I let myself get more caught up in thought. ¡°I would never, never ever. To answer your question, I¡¯ve had to push through it, time and time again, for survival. I¡¯ve been on death¡¯s door, over and over and over and over again. It¡¯s not a method I¡¯d recommend to anyone else.¡±


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    ¡°Oh.¡± Spice sounds dejected, he deflates in my arms.


    ¡°But um, there¡¯s two things that help me, we could try to work on your breathing.¡± My statement causes Spice to peer at me with just one eye.


    ¡°What¡¯s the other thing that helps?¡±


    I gulp, trying to fight back fear, and tears, ¡°It, it, it used to be, ¡° I gulp again, shaking so hard I nearly drop Spice, he looks really confused, and concerned. ¡°It used to be Teuila¡¯s touch.¡± Realization dawns on his face as my knees buckle.


    ¡°That¡¯s rough buddy.¡± Is all Spice manages to say in comfort. I give him a quick hug before I try to pick myself back up. I slowly stand up off the ground from where I¡¯d fallen when my knees buckled.


    ¡°If um, if you¡¯d like, we can talk about some things, some more. There¡¯s more stuff, and sharing kind of helps lighten the load. I just, I might need some time to work up to it. Kay?¡± There¡¯s a heat in my chest that¡¯s slightly unpleasant as I try to convince Spice to talk with me about this later.


    ¡°Kay.¡± Spice hops away after responding, he and Sugar bound out of the domicile.


    I don¡¯t spy Lil. I know Lu left shortly after I started speaking with Lao. I¡¯m dreading what comes next. Three individuals sit in a corner, one of them sneering slightly at me. I try to ask him, something, anything, as I mumble. ¡°I. I. Um. I hope. I want. Are you. Did, um.¡±


    Mata interrupts me, ¡°Spit it out, I don¡¯t have all day to wait for you to almost die on me again.¡± My eyes shoot wide as my jaw juts forward slightly, letting my mouth hang slightly open with slack. I basically have my face screwed up into the position to say the letter double-u. Mata slaps his hands over his own mouth. ¡°Holy, wow, I did not mean that like that. I¡¯m sorry. I mean, welcome back, but come on, dude, you can talk to me without stuttering. You kicked some major tail, and I¡¯m sick of seeing you almost die is what I mean. Still don¡¯t like you, but, yeah, sorry how that came out.¡±


    I chuckle slightly, after having nearly freaked out. It really did sound like Mata straight up admitted to wanting me dead, or wanting me to go get into another near death experience again instead of bothering him. ¡°I just, kind of want to know how you¡¯re doing, what you plan, and if I could talk to the twins.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you know, same ol¡¯ same ol¡¯, whole life flip turned upside down. If you take a minute and sit right there, I¡¯ll tell you all about it, from beach to pond.¡± His response is amusing, but pretty sarcastic. Plus my brain has a mild blue screen of death moment, again, as more imaginary screens fill with static. I guess I won¡¯t get any further with him today. He makes a gesture that means something like ¡°Be my guest,¡± indicating the twins.


    ¡°So uh, hey there guys. I just wanted to say I¡¯m so sorry I was gone so long, and I.¡± I start to explain.


    ¡°Nah.¡± One of the twins interrupts. I¡¯m a bit stricken as if someone slapped me.


    ¡°W, what? Please, I¡¯m trying to ask for your forgiveness, just, just a chance.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t, yeah you don¡¯t have to, yeah, you weren¡¯t gone.¡± The Mana twins talk over each other, finishing each other¡¯s sentences. I¡¯m really confused. Do they not understand that I was mentally checked out?


    ¡°But I was, I was trapped.¡±


    ¡°Nuh uh.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m telling you, I was, a bad thing kept me from really realizing what was going on at all. I couldn¡¯t really think or do anything.¡±


    ¡°Hmmmmm. Nope. You were there, every time we needed you. You brought Mat back to us.¡±


    ¡°I, I didn¡¯t really, the dam, it was more the girls who brought Mat back.¡± Mata grimaces slightly when I call him Mat, as the twins do.


    ¡°Not then, nope nope, not then!¡± They talk over one another again.


    ¡°Mataalii, I, what? Mata, what are they talking about?¡± Confused, I feel like the twins are giving me the runaround, but they seem to be trying to praise me, and they¡¯re refusing my plea for forgiveness. I turn to the only other one that might be able to clarify what they mean.


    ¡°Ugh, why¡¯d you have to tell ¡®em. You little twerps. Fine, yes, I got myself in a spot of trouble, and there you were, riding your dragon, instantly, no questions asked. Is that enough? I don¡¯t want to talk about it.¡± I¡¯m a little perturbed at the way Mata refers to Lil as my dragon, it makes them sound like some kind of pet that I own, but I¡¯m really perplexed. I had at least one adventurous encounter, while completely checked out? Lil? Are you around? Is that true?


    ¡°You betcha buddy. Aaaaand yeah, I wasn¡¯t quite sure what to make of it, but suddenly out of nowhere you hit me with the tether, and pointed up the cliff. That¡¯s when we found out Mata was sneaking off to explore up above. Or at least when I found out, somehow you knew.¡± Lil¡¯s explanation floors me. They continue, ¡°Yeah, it was still pretty obvious that you weren¡¯t really there, it was like you were on auto pilot, not responding to anything. It was a pretty big ordeal, but you were still awesome, a bunch of stuff happened, and you got hurt real bad. We got Mat out of the situation though, obvee. Then we got to the edge of the cliff, you got off while I took Mata down, and you scared the pants off me, the pants that I don¡¯t wear! You jumped off the cliff, but then you teleported to Mata. But then you left for a few days, we couldn¡¯t find you anywhere. It was like you didn¡¯t want anyone else to know you got hurt, like you were hiding Mat¡¯s secret for him.¡±


    Hearing this news flabbergasts me. I feel like my eyes are swirling around in their sockets, I get quite dizzy and topple side to side for a bit. As I stumble away, I mumble to the twins and Mat, ¡°Uh, thanks, thanks. Yeah, uh, thanks.¡± Was I somehow working on some ability to keep track of my family? To know when they¡¯re in trouble? Who was it that told me the things that caught me up slightly? Why did they leave out details? I thought maybe it was my subconscious having me read logs, but this is more like I had someone else take the wheel. Then, when I was ready, they happily stepped back, and just shared a few tidbits about what happened while I was away.


    I need some time cuddling Luni and Lil. I¡¯d like to say my whole inner circle, but I can¡¯t handle the stress right now of being afraid while I try to catch up on affection, and their lives. I hope she forgives me. I guess I know she already does, it just hurts that I have to avoid her a bit longer.


    ¡°Guys? Lil, Lu? Can you hear me? Are you free to snuggle for a bit, and catch up?¡±


    Both of them respond, quite gleefully, ¡°Thought you¡¯d never ask!¡± There¡¯s giggling coming from them across the shared wavelength. They¡¯ve been waiting pretty patiently over the last couple of days that I¡¯ve been back, for me to get around to them. I feel like a huge jerk, but all I feel from them is love, warmth, and acceptance.


    I¡¯m confused as to where they might be, so I leave the building, and check around our campsite. Underneath my lean-to tent I find them, with open arms, figuratively in the case of Lil, and literally in the case of Luni. I sink into her embrace, laying partially on Lil. I lay on her lap, face up, my head resting slightly against her torso. Luni rests her hands on my torso, and they both wait patiently for me to be ready.


    I spend an inordinate amount of time laying there in silence. I¡¯m mostly content, but I feel that ache of a part of me that¡¯s missing. A piece that¡¯s like an entire third of my whole sense of self. I do find myself dozing slightly for a moment. I awaken to Luni playing with my hair, inspecting the white locks. She smiles down at me, then kisses her pawed fingertips, and flicks me in the nose with them. Her claws are the shortest of any of the family in the middle stage of evolution, and her hands are the most human in appearance.


    I try to react to the weird indirect kiss, stating, ¡°I, uh, heh, don¡¯t know how to respond to that. I¡¯ve missed you both, so much.¡± I find myself wondering how the family¡¯s morphology can vary so much as I stare at Luni¡¯s fingertips while I reply.


    ¡°And what do you think we were feeling? Of course we missed you too.¡± Luni playfully chastises me.


    Lil further explains, ¡°Yeah buddy, it sucked mega bad, mega mega mega bad to not feel you in there for so long. I love you pal, we love you, so much.¡±


    I work up the courage to ask Lu one of several things I¡¯ve been meaning to ask of her. ¡°Sorry about that. Um, so, well. Lu? Do you, um, do you still want to sing? What are your dreams, and plans? Are you doing okay?¡±


    ¡°Totes! Still the same, mostly, just do this singing, storytelling, you know. I¡¯m okay, and you don¡¯t have to worry about my powers corrupting me or anything silly like that. I¡¯m still gonna keep some secrets though, okay? Love you, but I can¡¯t tell.¡±


    ¡°I love you too, all of you. So, there¡¯s so much I want to know, but I know a lot of it I¡¯m not ready for yet. Do you uh, do you guys ever check in on Luna?¡± I ask, timidly working the conversation towards the curiosities I want satisfied.


    ¡°Totes, whenever we go get some lumber. Thanks for the extra bag by the way! She¡¯s doing fine, just guarding that pyramid, even though it¡¯s empty now.¡± Luni answers.


    ¡°Extra bag?¡± I try to remember when I would have gotten an extra bag, especially one that I could hand to Luni.


    ¡°Oops, ignore that, you¡¯re not ready. Shoosh, shoosh, next topic.¡± Lu smooshes my face around, playing with my cheeks, she¡¯s successful at distracting me as I find myself laughing, trying to chase her hands with mine. One then the other keeps playing with my face.


    Chasing them away reminds me of a time something like this happened before. I remember the pure joy of the moment, and try to hang onto just that feeling, without letting any other emotion filter in to taint it. Just when I think I¡¯m going to falter and lose a pure memory, I catch both of Lu¡¯s hands, and she intertwines her fingers with mine. Her action differs, so I¡¯m brought out of my reverie to curiously stare at her.


    Luni blushes, Lil coughs from their squished position, and suddenly Lu starts to remind me of Penina. Her demeanor becomes quite demure as she abashedly withdraws her hands. I remember her saying something about putting on a brave front. Is she doing it again? ¡°Lu? Are you okay?¡±


    ¡°Um, so um, yeah, you remember right. I, I kinda, well, people like the confident me, so I do that, a lot. But um, I¡¯m still me. You know? And that¡¯s me, too! I¡¯m not lying or faking! I just, um. I can¡¯t be that all the time. Lil reminds me I can let go. Lil¡¯s the best in all the world! I mean, to me, I feel that way, that is. ¡®Cause, maybe cause yeah. I said so.¡± Luni trails off, mumbling by the end.


    There¡¯s so much to Luni. She¡¯s a remarkable woman. I can imagine Lil and her exploring the wide spectrum of emotions together for extended lifetimes in the quickened shared thinkspace. I feel half of my face smiling deeply as my eyes droop again, contentedly. Lu takes my hands again, so I draw her hands down to my chest as I think at Lil, through our mental wavelength, to hop on my chest. Once Lil¡¯s there, we¡¯ve both got our arms wrapped around Lil, with my hands resting on Luni¡¯s, on my chest.


    Sighing contentedly, I approach what I know is going to set me into panic, but there¡¯s no safer, calmer, sweeter place, or time, to ask than right now. ¡°Lu? What, what happened, to, to, to Sylphie?¡± I choke a bit as I try to get the question out. My mind drifts to the fact that Sylphie was with me during the, the event. My mind spirals into panic, and my muscles seize up. My vision narrows as my pulse pounds in my head.


    I regret that my two dear friends can sense what I¡¯m feeling. Still, Luni does her best to answer. ¡°Um, so, um, well, Sylphie said if something happened to her, that she couldn¡¯t come back for a long time, and, and, and well, when she finally came back, she might not be the same. It was, um, kind of unclear, maybe? But I haven¡¯t tried to call on her any time since, sorry. When I told her what might be happening, she um, she sounded like she knew she wouldn¡¯t, or well, like she um, like something would happen to her. I don¡¯t really know what she was, I only know she didn¡¯t derez. Is um, that okay? I mean, enough?¡±


    My eyes well with tears, and I clench them shut while replying. ¡°Thank you Lu, thank you. I wish the answer was something different, but it was probably too much to hope. Thank you. Sorry you have to feel this with me. I¡¯m so sorry.¡±


    I try to focus on sensations, the sound of each of us breathing, the texture of Lu¡¯s hands, or Lil¡¯s scales. The rise and fall of our chests as we breathe in sync, slowly calming ourselves. I try to focus on Lil, my dearest, oldest friend, so I can finally ask them what they want to do now, what they¡¯ve been up to, and how they are.


    ¡°Don¡¯t even gotta ask buddy! I¡¯m still workin¡¯ on it! Growing up to be a big strong dragon, y¡¯know? Always bigger and stronger! Well, maybe not too big, ¡®cause then I couldn¡¯t cuddle Lu and you. It¡¯s just not the same. Or, or, or maybe I¡¯ll become a great dragon! One that can change shape! I guess it wouldn¡¯t be so bad to stay like this forever, but like, that¡¯s definitely what I¡¯d try to be, I¡¯d try mega hard, mega mega mega hard.¡± As Lil rambles about their possible future form, I crack half a smile and chuckle. I lean forward ever so slightly to smooch the top of Lil¡¯s forehead. Lil is so pure, and singularly focused. While Lu seems like a well of endless depth, Lil seems to be a shallow pond that extends to the horizon, reliable.


    I really hope that didn¡¯t sound like I was calling Lil shallow. I just meant that Lil¡¯s pretty driven for just a couple of things, and those are everything to Lil. They don¡¯t really change focus off of friendship, evolving, protection, and cuddles, and excitement to tackle each day. Maybe there¡¯s a lot more of Lil¡¯s depth that I just haven¡¯t seen because, unlike Luni, I haven¡¯t spent years with them in the accelerated shared thinkspace by now.


    It¡¯s only the middle of the afternoon, but with how comfortable and contented I am, I can¡¯t help but doze off. I find myself happily sleeping the entire day away, embracing two of those most beloved to me.

 B 2 C 4: Catch the Breeze

    <h2>B 2 C 4: Catch the Breeze</h2>


    Based on what Lil said, I can definitely still create their tether, probably without problem.  I need to cautiously find out what the other tether is like now.  For that, I¡¯m going to need everyone, my whole inner circle.


    As I start to rise, I realize it¡¯s late into the night, possibly going on early morning soon.  Lil and Lu have been patiently cuddling with me, napping, this entire time.  ¡°Thanks, you guys, you¡¯re the greatest.¡±


    ¡°Fo sho!¡±  Lil excitedly tries some new slang in response.  I raise a single eyebrow as I chuckle.  Lu just sifts my hair for a moment then pats me on the head.  After that, Lu starts to shove on my shoulders, pushing me away and upwards, helping me stand.


    ¡°My legs fell asleep, now they¡¯re all tingly, pins and needles!¡±  Lu exclaims, with mock anger.  Oops, that¡¯s my fault.  Reading my thoughts, Lu replies, ¡°Darn skippy it is.  Tehe.¡±  In penance, I try to help wake Lu¡¯s legs up, in the manner one would expect, then I help her up.


    ¡°Do you guys, um, do you think Te might maybe be up?  Or maybe wouldn¡¯t be too mad if we woke her up?  Could you, would you maybe please come with me, to see her?¡±  I stammer my desire, barely able to get my questions across as my jaw starts to lock, and the rest of my muscles begin to quiver.


    ¡°She doesn¡¯t sleep much anymore, Reggie pal.  A couple hours a night in the cuddle pile on some nights.  Or other times maybe not at all, or maybe napping wherever she goes off to train at.  I honestly wouldn¡¯t even normally know where to find her, but now that you ask, I can feel she¡¯s awake, nearby.¡±  Lil¡¯s explanation fills me with mixed emotions.  Teuila is still driven, still striving to be what she¡¯d always wanted to be, for herself, and her family.


    ¡°And for you.¡±  Come three voices simultaneously, as Teuila cautiously approaches the entry of my tent, standing far enough away to not block my path.  It¡¯s surreal that they all share the same thought.  Lu gives me the mildest shove, barely more than a tap.  Even with how meek the shove was, I still wobble slightly forward.  My panic is fighting to rise to the surface, but I¡¯m mostly keeping its symptoms to weakness of muscle at the moment.


    My limbs shake as I take a single, slow, plodding step towards Teuila.  I take another step, and I¡¯m out of the tent.  I reach one hand back, begging for the comfort I know is only inches away.  Luni takes my hand.  Teuila drops her gaze momentarily, before raising it to meet mine again.  While our gazes are parted, I feel the swath of mixed emotions swirling through Teuila, due to me needing comfort.  When our eyes meet again, her smile is the warmest, kindest I¡¯ve ever seen on her face.


    Finally, we stand face to face, once again.  As I throw my arms around Teuila, my hand is still linked with Lu¡¯s.  This flings Luni around to Te¡¯s backside, almost comically, especially since my muscles feel so weak right now.  My inner circle forms a group hug with Te at the center.  I realize just how badly that she, too, needed comfort.  Not that my Teuila would ever have let on.


    I start out timidly mumbling completely incoherently, but finally finish with joking chastisement.  ¡°You know, if you¡¯re not resting enough, your training could backfire, then you might end up being the one that needs protecting.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s face screws up into one of incredulity, as it has most times that I¡¯ve teased her.  ¡°You, I, what?  That¡¯s what you have to say to me right now?  You, you big dummy!  You, you, you¡¯re, you¡¯re ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!¡±  Yet she¡¯s laughing, hugging me tighter as a tear rolls down her cheek.


    Though I¡¯m shaking, and our emotional bond causes us all to slightly ride my wave of panic, we all laugh quietly.  Teuila removes one arm from our embrace so she can bonk me lightly on the head, pap me lightly on the cheek, and gently sock my shoulder.


    No one, other than me, has been wearing any of the protective equipment, not even Te.  I realize that the fact completely escaped me, and that it warms my heart that my family feels safe enough to be naked once again.  Well, they all do wear fur coats.  Sort of.  Lu is wearing her adorable dress though, of course.  She might actually have gear on, under it, since I remember that the dress hid it so well.  I rattle my brainpan, chuckling, trying to rein in the strange train of thought, so I can ask what I wanted to.


    ¡°I want, I need, all of you, sometime, maybe now, please now, I.  I want to.  Can we please go to the waterfall?  I have to test something with Te.  I can¡¯t do it without all of you, I¡¯m not brave enough.¡±  I realize I¡¯d been holding my breath, so I suck in a ragged inhalation.


    Teuila just nods her head, barely perceivably.  Lu cups my cheek with her palm and similarly nods.  Lil breaks up the somberness of the moment, excitedly adding,  ¡°Duh!  Of course we will buddy!  Barely even gotta ask!  Plus, we¡¯re all curious too!¡±


    I manage to chuckle at Lil, through the weariness that my panic instills in me.  It¡¯s fighting further past just muscle stiffness symptoms, into headaches and racing pulse.  There¡¯s a tightness in my chest, but I can manage for a while longer yet.  The other day was an extraordinary, herculean effort, to last as long as I did.  I gnaw on my lips, discomforted by the idea that it could still be harder yet, to work through this.  The idea that my moments of ability to be near Teuila might draw shorter and shorter.


    We quietly, closely march to the falls.  We consistently bumped into each other on the walk, because none of us could bear giving any of the others any space.  Now that we¡¯re finally reunited, it¡¯s almost awkward, and mildly hilarious, how close we all want to be.  I think this is the first time, since before the dam, that we were really all together, in these forms.  The events that transpired at the dam alone felt like they took too much time of my life away from my beloved inner circle.  Every turn in the tale of my life that asked me to once again operate apart from them was agony, for far, far too long.


    I guess that makes me, what¡¯s the term?  Codependent.  In our world, where life and death can hang in the balance, decided by any random factor, even one as simple as how comfortable you slept the previous night, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s such a bad thing.  Our shared happiness, and shared safety, relies on the health of all of us.  I¡¯m glad that my family faced few dangerous trials in my absence.


    ¡°Oh!  Oh Teuila, I got our equipment back!  I, um, they were in here somewhere, shoot, I don¡¯t see them.  I know I got the bracers back, I swear I did.  Please believe me, I got them back for you.¡±  As I try to explain, and seek the bracers in my inventory, Teuila rubs my cheek with her thumb and smooches my forehead.


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    Luni asks, ¡°You mean these?¡±  She opens her harp, and two empty bags unfold, one attached to the inside, one just stuffed next to it, which falls out.  Lu digs about in one bag, then the other for a bit.  She pulls the bracers out, and beams a smile at both of us as she hands them to me.  ¡°You set them near Te at some point while you were checked out, but she asked me to hold onto them, til you could give them to her again.¡±


    I furrow my brow, slightly perplexed.  More things that I did while on autopilot?  Still, the sentiments behind Te¡¯s actions reach me.  I clasp her hands, handing over the bracers.  She lets out that elongated single laugh of pure bliss.  ¡°Heeee.¡±


    Staring at her wrists as she places the bracers upon them, I notice curious details.  ¡°Hm, the iconography on those Te, something reminds me about archery.  It reminds me that when I first saw the equipment.  Well, I didn¡¯t see it, I was blind at the time.  The first time I sensed your form as Valkyrie, I thought those bird things were a bow.  It¡¯s too bad we never figured out what they really are, or how to activate them.¡±  Luni and Teuila exchange a glance, before breaking into sweet laughter.


    ¡°What?  What¡¯s so funny?¡±  I scratch my head quizzically.


    ¡°They are, they are bows, gooftop.  They unfold.  We had to find out, in um.  Well, let¡¯s just say we had to use them, punkhead.¡±  Teuila¡¯s answer is filled with yet more creative terms of endearment.  I can¡¯t help chuckling, through the terror, against the tremors working their way deeper into my torso.


    ¡°Oh!  Did the missing copy or copies of Gae Buidhe ever turn up?  The beaver that was wielding it kept running away, then uh.  Then.  Then.  Flood stuff, and when we were getting everyone out, none of them had it.¡±  I barely manage to finish explaining, as my mind begins to spiral, and my vision starts to blur.


    ¡°Sorry pal, I kinda want to lie to you and say we found it, to set you at ease, ¡®cause I know how much it¡¯s going to worry you at the back of  your mind, but nah fam.  Nobody found it.  So yeah, it¡¯s out there somewhere.  Really really sorry Reggie buddy.  Try not to think about it too much?  Please?¡±  Lil tries to console me, cutting my thoughts off at the pass, knowing exactly what I feared.


    I sigh, and look up at the falls as we arrive.  I motion across to the east bank.  Lu strips, tucking away her dress in one of the bags in her harp.  The four of us swim across the shallowest portion of the river.  I draw a ragged breath once across.


    ¡°Te, my, um, my Teuila.  May I please, um, do you consent to me trying, the, the tether?  Again?  May I send you that bond?¡±  I nervously ask, my breath catching in my throat.  Teuila takes my hands and kisses my cheek in response.  Then she nods, stepping back only just barely far enough, still holding my hands.  I manage to gulp out, ¡°Here, um, here goes.¡±


    I pour my energy, my heart and soul, into a bond with Teuila.  As her form elongates, my fear shrinks.  After a bright flash, her Valkyrie form stands before me, and I can look upon her, unafraid.  She starts divesting her armor, but remains in the padded cloth.  I worry for a moment that she thought I wanted to do this for more spare gear, but as she pulls me close, I know that¡¯s not why she dropped the armor and weapons.


    As we embrace, I swear I can see the future, our idyllic life together, as Lao desires.  One where we work to become our best selves, pursuing our own paths, yet remaining a family.  In it, I¡¯ve taken on that adult form, as I have right now.  Wait, what?  I look down, nervously, as I¡¯ve become slightly taller than even Te¡¯s Valkyrie form.  I see her laughing, lightly pounding on my chest with one fist, rubbing her eyes with the other.  I hear her sniffle, and a quiet happy laugh escapes her.


    ¡°Uhhhhhh, Reggie buddy?  Did you mean to do that?¡±  Lil¡¯s question helps keep me grounded.  Suddenly I¡¯m shorter again, and my tether to Teuila wobbles like a ribbon being waved vertically in the air.  I calm my breathing, and take a step back, struggling to maintain it.  Eventually the tether stabilizes.


    Lil, can you sense what I¡¯m planning?  Do you want in on this?  I look to Lil¡¯s face.  I see their wide-mouthed grin.  Their eyes are sparkling, as if I just offered them everything they¡¯ve ever wanted.  I crack half a smile.  I happily send Lil a tether as well, and wait a moment for it to stabilize.  Teuila is gazing at me curiously, perhaps she hasn¡¯t caught on yet, or maybe she¡¯s not certain if she wants me to sacrifice this much.


    To give them both their power, to free them from needing me, I flick the bonds up and down.  I try to match the wavelength that seems to be needed for both evolving, and returning.  Before anyone can object, if they hadn¡¯t really caught on til now, I run a few paces away, and summon a radiant sword copy from my inventory.  I send it crashing through our invisible tethers, severing them.  I can only watch as my maximum energy plummets, transferred to Teuila and Lil.  That took eleven hundred energy for each of them, over two thousand energy gone, most of everything I had.


    Lil immediately starts goofing off, transforming and reverting, changing up and down in size between their two evolutions.  Teuila however stares at her own hands, still in Valkyrie form, looking stunned, maybe somewhat disappointed.


    I start to mumble, trying to explain, ¡°This way, you don¡¯t, um, you don¡¯t need to rely on me.  You don¡¯t need, need, me.  It was always your power after all, not mine.¡±  I gulp, fearing the worst as Teuila continues to seem absent.


    Suddenly Te marches over to me, drops to her knees and sighs.  Once more she lightly pounds on my chest with one fist, then the other in turn, over and over.  ¡°You, you big bully.  Who said I wanted to not need you?  What if, what if I can never feel you again?  You, you jerk, you utter and complete jerk.¡±


    I reach down to cup Teuila¡¯s chin, tilting her gaze up to meet mine.  I just think directly into our shared wavelength.  ¡°You can still hear me, can¡¯t you?¡±  Teuila¡¯s eyes shoot wide, and her smile broadens vastly.  She leaps up and socks me relatively hard in the shoulder before picking me up, twirling me around, and leaping a kilometer directly in the air.  We reach the apex of her leap in a matter of seconds.


    ¡°I love you, I love you, I know I can¡¯t say it enough, I¡¯m sorry it¡¯s so hard for me, but I love you more than anything.  You have always given me the best gifts.  You gave me my family, my little Luni, yourself, this form, everything, everything I could ever want.¡±  She shouts, barely audible against the breeze as we plummet.  Her emotions pour into me, even if I can¡¯t hear every word.  I let happy tears fall from my eyes, they actually catch the breeze and fall upward.


    Teuila holds me aloft, in the most private place we could ever be, someplace it feels like only she could reach.  As we hold each other by the shoulders spreading out horizontally, we spiral, spinning in the air.  Her powers slow our fall to a crawl.  It seems like she wants this fall to last for hours, and I wouldn¡¯t dare complain.  Eventually, while we¡¯re still high above the canopy, dawn breaks, and it seems like the world has celestial bodies now, when it didn¡¯t previously.


    Metaphorically, it feels as if Teuila herself placed stars in the sky, just for us.  That¡¯s probably a little much, and too sappy for me to ever tell her, oh, wait, argh.  Teuila grins at me, hearing my thoughts, she¡¯s barely stifling her laughter.


    We¡¯re in the presence of a beautiful sunrise.  It feels like we could reach out and catch it.  Reaching my hand out however, I find it only catching breeze.  I chuckle at myself, then wrap my arm back around Teuila.  I spot Lil soaring below, slowly spiraling upwards to meet us, with Luni atop their back.  What a time to be alive.  I sink into utmost joy, letting all my worries and fears pour from me as if I¡¯ve uncorked a bottle and intentionally spilled it.  I feel like I could soar to the heavens on happiness alone.  While my own soaring is unlikely, impossible even, Teuila probably could make the journey.


    As I¡¯m reveling in the utter bliss of our descent, it looks like the world below us shakes.  The mountain, well, the volcano, far, far to the north, spews plumes of ash.  It¡¯s a fairly majestic, if slightly unnerving sight.

 B 2 C 5: A Familiar Face

    <h2>B 2 C 5: A Familiar Face</h2>


    Though a tad frightening, as I¡¯d never noticed it happen before, the smoke plume doesn¡¯t seem to indicate anything other than the natural activity of the Fire Biome. The dark cloud that arises from the volcano dissipates long before it even remotely approaches the edge of the biome.


    Oh, hey, it dawns on me, the gravity powers definitely belong to Teuila, and not her equipment. I¡¯d always been slightly curious if her Valkyrie form needed the equipment to perform her incredible leaps. Yet here she is, half naked, sailing through the skies as she embraces me. I doubt the torso bindings, or leggings provide magical leaping power. I know they don¡¯t for me, since I wear them frequently, and also frequently find myself skidding on my face from a failed step, let alone a failed jump.


    I realize Teuila is laughing almost nonstop at my completely random train of thought. I try to call her out on it. ¡°So, Te, how does it feel being in my head? Because it¡¯s like that. It¡¯s that completely random, all the time!¡± Te¡¯s only response is to pull me closer, burying her face in my neck. She wraps her legs around mine, aiming them down like the tip of a spear.


    Suddenly we¡¯re rocketing towards the ground. We zoom quickly down past Lil and Luni, who seem to shout dejectedly, though they laugh as they do. I¡¯m a little frightened that we¡¯re going to break our legs, but at the last moment, it feels like all the kinetic energy bleeds out from us. Just before impact I swear I heard a thundercrack, or maybe a sonic boom, and the ground craters where we land. The crater seemed to form an instant before our impact, maybe a quarter of a meter ahead of us.


    ¡°Wow.¡± Awe escapes my lips and I just stare at Teuila. She flashes me a sly smile and flips her hair back, while brushing mine back. We both look pretty wind-blown at the moment, in our hair styles anyway. We stand there, staring into eachothers¡¯ eyes for a while. After some time, Teuila sighs and looks away. I can feel trepidation building in her, as I realize what she¡¯s about to do. I also know she¡¯s getting ready to flee as she does it.


    As Teuila¡¯s form begins to shrink, I clasp her tightly. Even though I begin to shake, I maintain my grasp. ¡°You never have to leave, ever, ever again.¡± She doesn¡¯t fully believe me, but she relaxes into my embrace. I let my gaze meet hers after some time, and my muscles seize, my breath catches in my throat, forcing me to gulp. My pulse rockets so hard that it feels like it¡¯s shaking me each time my heart pounds. I can¡¯t help smiling though. ¡°You¡¯re amazing. Every last bit of you. That was amazing, you are amazing. You¡¯re so, so, so, Awesome!¡±


    A frown that had been playing across Teuila¡¯s lips suddenly cracks into a smile as she starts to laugh. ¡°Heeee, really, awesome? Ya goobtube, thanks. I guess.¡± She sticks her tongue out at me, blowing a raspberry, pulling lightly on her right cheek, near her lower eyelid, not enough to really move her eyelid though.


    I¡¯m glad she only half heartedly performed the gesture, it allows me to be serious with what I¡¯m about to share. I sense Lil swooping and performing breakfalls, or well, brakefalls more accurately, closing in on the ground, trying to catch up with us safely. As Lil arrives, they drop their Lilagnewt form, and bounce on the ground while Lu descends gracefully as if hanging in midair for a moment. I try not to let that confuse me, as I get around to stating my plans. ¡°I¡¯m going to start traveling again, for a bit. First I need to see the beavers, to ask for some lumber. I¡¯ll come back after that for a while. None of you have to come with me. I don¡¯t want to be away from you, but I know I¡¯m already interrupting your lives with my erratic return. I¡¯m.¡±


    ¡°Bup bup bup bup.¡± Each of them interrupt me, and I receive a facefull of palms and scaly butt. Lu and Te both perform their elongated laugh of bliss, ¡°Heeeeee.¡± I can¡¯t quite figure out why, until they tackle me to the ground in a hug, one from the top right, one from the lower left, knocking my feet out from under me, causing me to land on Lil. I¡¯m still not quite certain, but I think this means that they¡¯re coming with me. I chuckle at my own uncertainty.


    ¡°Doy, buddy! You won¡¯t be able to get rid of us now that you¡¯re back!¡± Lil¡¯s response is as exuberant as I¡¯d expect.


    ¡°Okay, but, guys, you just, I just, we just. Earlier, I asked about your plans, none of you said, ¡®hey I wanna go see the beaverfolk and get back to adventuring.¡¯ You each had plans, desires.¡± I struggle to find the words. I¡¯m still a bit shaken by Teuila¡¯s presence.


    ¡°Uh, yeah, dinglehopperberrybush. With the amount of trouble you get into, adventuring with you is always going to be the fastest way to reach those goals, pootbrain.¡± Te¡¯s creativity continues to stretch terms of endearment to their extreme, granting me confusing laughter. Thinking back on my life so far though, she¡¯s probably right.


    ¡°But what about you Lu? I thought you were storytelling and singing with Ag, for the family?¡± I ask Lu, who still hasn¡¯t put her dress back on from the swim earlier. Her fur is poofed wide from the air dry caused by going from soaked to the sky. It¡¯s a vaguely adorable, slightly amusing sight.


    ¡°I think Agwai can handle it, silly. Um, you know, besides, maybe, just maybe,I could maybe use a break from the puns.¡± She chuckles slightly nervously as she meekly answers. Ah, I¡¯ve only heard the one, but if she and Ag are practicing regularly during the days, Ag is probably telling a lot more jokes. Lu grimaces slightly as she reads my thoughts, though it¡¯s a playful grimace, with laughter underlying it. I¡¯m actually exceedingly happy that she¡¯s comfortable enough with us to show her meek side, to feel like she doesn¡¯t have to put on the extroverted face as much with us.


    My stomach rumbles and I sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t know about you guys, but I¡¯m famished, my food stocks are low, and I could use at least one nice night of having the whole family back together for a full cuddle pile. Care to join me for some fishing?¡±


    ¡°We better rush Pal! We¡¯ll have to beat the twins there, it¡¯s almost time for them to wake up. They¡¯re getting pretty good!¡± Lil exuberantly explains.


    Well, with that answer, there¡¯s naught for it, but to rush home. One obstacle to that plan however, well, two, the gals grin, pinning me down over top of Lil. I¡¯d worry that it might be hurting Lil, but Lil¡¯s ridiculously strong and resilient.


    ¡°You betcha I am! I can barely even tell you¡¯re squishin¡¯ me!¡± Lil then releases a squeaky noise that I¡¯ve only ever heard before while they sleep. Suddenly Te and Lu are rolling away, coughing, gasping, gripping their noses. I¡¯m suddenly grateful for having lost my sense of smell so long ago.


    ¡°Ugh, that was foul! What is that, brimstone? You dorky little dragbutt!¡± Teuila exclaims as she lunges for Lil, who slithers out from under me and starts hopping away. Lil transforms midleap to flit across the river. ¡°Oh no you don¡¯t, get back here you little punk!¡± Te cries as she chases after Lil.


    Lu laughs so hard she cries, as she sidles closer to me for a moment, laying against me. Her hands clasp mine for only a second, before she tosses my own hand into the air so she can throw her arms wide and tackle me into a hug. ¡°I¡¯m, um, I¡¯m so proud of you. I told you before, you got this. You¡¯re you¡¯re, you¡¯re my hero, still, always.¡± After her admission, she blushes, and scampers towards the river. Luni leaps in and swims across as if nothing had just transpired.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    I scratch my head, a bit dumbfounded. First they say that I won¡¯t be able to lose them again, then they race off to home without me? ¡°Heh, hahaha, as Te might put it, oy vey, my bunch of dorks.¡± I check to make certain the equipment that was divested disappeared. Sure enough, it did, so at least there¡¯s no risk of Teuila leaving extra copies of Gae Buidhe around anywhere. Satisfied, I chase off after my friends, taking a shortcut, the river itself. I swim with the river¡¯s flow, and use my tattoo tendrils to fairly rocket along downstream. As I¡¯m about to pass the bend in the river that leads to the offshoot wherein lies Shellcracker pond, I flick out a tendril to pivot around a rock. Once done, I¡¯m swinging into the offshoot at breakneck speed. As I see my inner circle approaching in various states of evolution, playfully chasing one another, I lazily float about on my back, spitting water like a fountain.


    ¡°Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat? No way!¡± Lil cries with incredulity, still in a chipper manner as they leap into the pond. Rather, they leap atop my stomach, causing us to both fall into the pond slightly, laughing. I wipe the water from my eyes, and spy Teuila just grinning at me, beaming with pride. As Lu finally catches up, she notices our orientation, and realizes our order of arrival.


    ¡°Heeeeee. Told you!¡± Luni gleefully sends into my brain across our shared wavelength. I can¡¯t help but smile widely, even as I stare at Teuila, who sets my heart aflutter for several reasons. The panic under the surface steels my resolve to complete the tasks ahead of me.


    ¡°Guys? Make sure the twins stay back for a bit, I¡¯m gonna do something that¡¯s probably a bit stupid.¡±


    Immediately I hear Lil groan as they leap off of my chest. ¡°Awe maaaaaaan, tell me you¡¯re not gonna do what I think you¡¯re gonna do pal.¡± As serious as they sound, there¡¯s a light air, laughter under their statement. I flash Lil a bit of a wicked smirk. Lil rolls their eyes and bounds over to the gals. Lil starts butting them playfully towards the side of the pond, where they can keep Manaia or Manameia away if either or both of the twins do show up.


    I summon one of my last few meals from my inventory, and equip myself fully, including a sword that I hold by the blade. I need to be a bit careful, I¡¯m back down to maximum energy capacity values similar to what I had when I was first here so long ago. Still, my stamina reduces the cost of my magic far more than back then. I eat the fish, calling forth an angry swarm of every fish in the pond.


    The little fish are of course no challenge, I flit about, so much better at swimming than I was in the beginning. With how much time I¡¯ve spent in, or under water, who could expect anything less by this point? The larger fish only take the slightest bit more force than the smaller ones. When I¡¯ve stricken down nearly every fish, save a large barracuda, and some bass that got away, I enact my very dumb plan.


    I gash my left hand with the sword that I¡¯m holding by the blade. That stings like heck, but as a cloudy poof of blood enters the water, it has my desired effect. Sure enough, a familiar old foe returns, as if called from the ether. Feeling a little cocky, I launch an attack at it, which it deftly dodges. When I say deftly, it moved like lightning, I could barely see its movement.


    A bit confused that Vampguppy is so quick, my eyes widen when I count its health bars. Seventeen that traverse the color spectrum from green through yellow to red. Well now, this just got interesting. Also, Vampguppy rises up far, far taller than I recall.


    ¡°Need any help fam?¡± ¡°Yeah Pal, you good?¡± Luni and Lil call out. Teuila however watches on in bemused silence, tapping her foot impatiently.


    I call out, ¡°No no, not yet anyway, I¡¯m good.¡± I dodge a lunge from Vampguppy, barely. ¡°For now.¡± I mutter. I decide to take the fight to land, on the far side of the pond, away from the family. My family. My heart swells with pride. Shellcracker Pond, my family. I close my eyes as my smile spreads wide. The danger wraps guide my movements, and I find myself summoning radiant copies of spears for Vampguppy to impale itself upon while I dash past its attack, dragging my sword along its torso. Vampguppy does manage to nick me in the passing of one lunge though. Suddenly their health starts rocketing up.


    ¡°Oh come on! Really?¡± It barely touched me, and that recovery is much faster than before. I don¡¯t want to call Lil over just to stop its regeneration, so I need to figure out something that provides a lot of heat. Electricity burns, right? I¡¯ve heard the term electrical burns. I¡¯ve been calling it a thunder stick for a while now, but the staff should have the power of both thunder and lightning. Sheathing my sword, I pull my thunder stick from my inventory. What sort of willpower, what kind of action did Staff Ninja require, to activate this staff¡¯s abilities? Teuila keeps tapping her foot impatiently, and she stares at me with one eyebrow raised. She taps two fingers on her wrist. How does she even know the signal for time, or a watch? Her knowing the gesture is confusing enough in and of itself, but my staring at her weakens my muscles with panic. Still, I persist. Luni is watching Teuila, and laughing. Lil is rolling around on their back, proclaiming how bored they are.


    ¡°Hahaha, I feel so disrespected right now.¡± Alright Reggie, think, this thing has more health than even a certain serpent, this was a really stupid idea. I¡¯ve got less energy than I need for this many health bars. Unless I can get this staff to work. I try to picture Staff Ninja in my memory. They were very showy, and flashy with their staff movements, not treating it like a club as I have. Wait, flashy movements? Flash of lightning? Is that literally all there is to it? I begin spinning the staff, windmilling it, twirling, and as I cartwheel, I strike the staff into the ground, imagining that I¡¯m becoming a lightning rod for a bolt to jump from me to Vampguppy. The thunderclap probably woke up any of my family who isn¡¯t awake yet. Whoops. That, and the bolt of lightning that streaks through an otherwise clear sky above the canopy, down to meet me.


    ¡°OW!¡± Perhaps that wasn¡¯t quite the right thing to imagine. I¡¯m struck by lightning, and it does indeed leap to Vampguppy, utterly destroying a large section of their health. It continues to drain bar after bar, as I channel lightning through me, into good ol¡¯ evil VG here. Vampguppy somehow seems to be everywhere at once, lashing out, flinging me towards the deep end of the pond as has happened once before. They leap after me, but before they can even hit the surface of the water, I can think only the phrase, ¡°Nah fam.¡± No words leave my lips though, only a cough, and a puff of smoke shaped like an oh.


    As Vampguppy is about to make contact with water, I¡¯m still channeling lightning, which is bouncing around, ricocheting off of the blue barrier, and the surface of the water. It sets the pond aflame, somehow igniting the water itself. Perhaps more likely, separating some hydrogen from oxygen, and igniting that. I then summon dozens of radiant copies of Gae Buidhe, facing point up, under where Vampguppy is about to touch down. I really want to cockily say checkmate, really really badly, but I bite my lip and hold it in, waiting as time slows.


    That familiar crashing, cracking, tinkling happens as Vampguppy derezzes. They fade away to wireframe and polygons, and I¡¯m met with cheers, and sneers, when I can finally hear outside the pond again, as the barrier drops. Agwai is slapping their own face and probably rolling their eyes. Mat is sneering, jeering at me. Teuila is smirking at me, she nods approvingly. Lil and Lu are cheering me on, as are both pairs of twins. Laomati has her arms crossed, and she¡¯s tapping her foot, with a half smile on her face that betrays her attempts to appear stern as she gazes my way.


    I actually have to take a victory lap to gather everything in the pond, which makes me feel like I¡¯m coming off a bit more cockily than I intend to. The first family member I need to talk to is Lao. As I leap out of the pond, I unequip everything save some clothing. I approach Lao and she holds up a hand.


    ¡°I can see it in your eyes. You¡¯re leaving us again, soon. No? If that is the path you must walk, so be it.¡± For a while, her words linger in the air, they sound stern, and unforgiving. ¡°But dear, sweet child, our beloved Reggie Shellcracker, did you really have to do that, so early in the morning?¡± She chuckles, and pulls me in for a tender, motherly embrace, laughing. She really had me going there for a moment. The fact that my family can tease me, that they are confident enough to stand around and watch me battle some giant creature, all of that adds up to me feeling so happy for them. I made the right choice, I gave them the right home. Our experiences made us stronger.

 B 2 C 6: Party Time

    <h2>B 2 C 6: Party Time</h2>


    ¡°Whadja get whadja get!?¡± Come excited cries from Lil, Spice, and the Mana twins. I look over towards Teuila,who waited until the fight was over to assume her Valkyrie form. A show of support and faith. She believed in me, even when she saw it was more powerful than the one I originally told her about. I gaze down at the littlest amongst us, clamoring for attention, answers, and excitement. I peer over at Agwai who now has a hand on Lao¡¯s shoulder as they double over with laughter. Mataalii is rolling his eyes, making a ¡°big whoop¡± gesture. He probably didn¡¯t realize it was something like five or six times stronger than it originally was, but I¡¯m definitely never, ever going to mention that to him. Let him think what he wants.


    Luni however, Luni has the smuggest ¡°I told you so¡± expression on her face that I¡¯ve ever seen or imagined on anyone, and I break into laughter upon seeing it. I feel like the luckiest being in all of existence, and right now, I¡¯m not crippled with fear. I know Te is transformed for my sake right now, but hopefully she knows that she doesn¡¯t need to be, yet also how much I appreciate it.


    Oh, I guess she does know, as she beams a smile my way. I wonder if I¡¯ll ever get used to having my feelings for people draw their attention to my thoughts. That brings my thoughts around to the fact that it¡¯s only my inner circle, at least one of which is only because of a tether that was strained for so long. Hm, I¡¯m also going to need to do a bunch of energy capacity training again, ugh.


    ¡°Alright, alright alright, hold on. I um, hey everybody, sorry about the rude awakening, and, well, being a big doofus.¡± I hear some calls of ¡°darn right¡± from my family, and I shake my head. I close my eyes, rolling them, laughing. ¡°Anyway, the reason I did this was because I wanted to show all of you what throwing a party can be like. I want us to feast tonight. I¡¯m going to need all of your help though. Yes, even you Mat.¡± Mataalii opens his mouth wide, tongue out, and points his finger at the back of his throat.


    Various members of my family clamor around, excitedly asking what their tasks or jobs are. Lao and Agwai stand in the back, holding one another, gazing at me with pride, and gazing at the rest of us with love, and adoration.


    As I start to hand out supplies, equipment, and tasks, various family members break off to think about how to complete their tasks. Some break off to actively work on them. My inner circle hangs back, off to the side as I approach Mataalii. Mat holds up a hand as I approach. ¡°Now just wait a minute.¡± He calls, but I continue my approach, and toss my arms around him.


    ¡°I need your help brother. I don¡¯t know what presents to get everyone, especially you.¡± My statement catches Mat completely off guard, probably compounded by my surprise hug. My statement is mostly the truth, I do know the presents I¡¯m getting, making, or already have, for some of the family, but I don¡¯t know what to get every single one of them.


    Mataalii looks around me to my inner circle. My inner circle immediately try to look inconspicuous, and do a horrible job of it, as they suddenly strike up whistling, and I can feel them rocking back and forth in the senses from my danger wraps. It takes almost all of my willpower to not burst into laughter. Mat seems satisfied however. ¡°Presents, really? Even me? But, we don¡¯t like each other.¡±


    My face adopts a neutral expression, half frown, half angular smile. ¡°Have I ever said that I don¡¯t like you, Mat?¡± As I ask this, Mata makes a disgusted face, as if I¡¯d offered him a honeydew when he wanted a sword. Once more, I struggle to keep my laughter stifled. Some things run in this family. Something about the faces of melons, now, tomorrow.


    Mataalii finally caves, ¡°Okay, well, um, you have to have, some, ideas, right? Who are you struggling with?¡±


    ¡°Well, you, obvee.¡± I begin.


    ¡°Obvee,¡± he interrupts.


    ¡°The Mana twins, Sugar, Luni, Ag. Um, yeah, I think I can handle Lil and Teuila and Lao, I definitely know what I¡¯m getting for Spice.¡± As I answer, Mata gives me an incredulous glance that essentially says ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s almost everyone, what the heck?¡± Mata grabs his head and tugs on his hair.


    ¡°I told you!¡± What, did he expect me to be lying?


    ¡°I guess, I guess I didn¡¯t believe you. You always seem to have some plan, like you know everything to do.¡± Oh, his explanation is actually kind of sweet. I guess he has a lot of confidence in me, faith that he wouldn¡¯t admit to, normally. ¡°Okay, give me a minute. I can do this. Can you take a trip to the caves before this party of yours?¡±


    ¡°Definitely, just tell me what you need.¡± I start to smile wider, and tears form in my eyes.


    Mata shoves his hand in my face, ¡°Stop that, you¡¯re gonna make me sick.¡± I laugh, as I swat his hand away, which is followed by his other hand blocking my face, I swat that one, the other returns. Yeah, some things definitely run in this family. ¡°Okay, Okay, okay, so it¡¯s going to go like this.¡± He apparently reaches his conclusions well enough to share with me.


    ¡°Okay, so, my babies, I mean, my twerps.¡± When Mat slips up, I feel a flood of emotions well up in me. I know none of us are biologically related, the closest are the twins, who probably just hatched from two eggs at the same time. Yet still, his true feelings just slipped through. What do I even do with that information? Well, nothing for right now, I guess, Mata is continuing to explain. ¡°So, it¡¯s gotta be something to keep them entertained, you know? Even if they can¡¯t use it, something they can try to play with. None of us have inventory magic like you. Closest is Lu with those magic bags, so it¡¯s gotta be something that¡¯s not dangerous to leave laying around. Getting any ideas?¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. A couple of things. A glider style harness, but on a zip line, from the roof of the house, to the pond. Sound cool?¡± Mat nods at my question.


    He carries on, ¡°So, Sugar, you¡¯re really having trouble with her? She likes, like, everything, well, breaking everything, and maybe putting it back together, some of the time. Have you ever heard of a geode? In the caves, sometimes there¡¯s these round rocks, and sometimes, there¡¯s really pretty, shiny rocks inside those rocks. She would get a kick out of those. What are you so sure that you¡¯re getting Spice?¡±


    I answer honestly, ¡°I¡¯m making pencils, charcoal drawing sticks.¡±


    ¡°Oh, oh that¡¯s pretty thoughtful actually, yeah, I think he¡¯d really like those.¡± Mata seems to be appraising me, looking me up and down. ¡°Really though, you can¡¯t think of anything for Lu, or Ag? Can you make anything that they can make music with?¡±


    ¡°Oh! Great idea! Thank you so much Mat. What about you?¡± Mata makes that disgusted, but playful face again as I ask.


    ¡°One present I want is you to stop calling me Mat, only my b. My twerps can call me that.¡± Oh, oops, he actually has attachment to that, he continues as I realize my mistake. ¡°So uh, y¡¯know, it¡¯s kinda hard to ask someone for your own present dude, y¡¯know? Oh wait, sorry if dude is like, not right, or something. I don¡¯t mean it in any particular way.¡± I chuckle at Mata¡¯s concern. He starts to mutter. ¡°Maybe, just something, to, y¡¯know, something cool, like, yeah, cool kids, ¡®n¡¯ stuff. To make me, like, you, you know. Sh¡¯up.¡± I haven¡¯t said anything but Mata shoves me away by my face.


    Mata¡¯s request feels like a punch in the gut. This brother of mine, who has seemed to nearly wish death or exile upon me on several occasions, wants to be like me? I mean, I guess I¡¯m flattered? But I¡¯m a mess! No one should want to be like me! Ugh, what can I do to symbolically give Mataalii something? Oh, oh I think I have an idea, but I need to make sure it won¡¯t break the magic of the item. Mata says something like ¡°Done here,¡± and stalks off.


    Alright, so, zip lines and glider frames for the twins. Pencils for Spice, geodes for Sugar. Instruments for Ag and Lu. I kind of already gave Lil and Te their presents, but I think I can do something else, special for them. Half of this item for Mata. For Lao, an item I can¡¯t believe I¡¯ve been holding onto since the serpent. I figured whoever was in control of auto-pilot me would have handed it over, since they seemed to hand out other things. Lil¡¯s charring some twigs for me right now, I¡¯ll wrap them later, it¡¯ll literally take me an instant to throw the zipline up, so the twin¡¯s gliders I¡¯ll construct in my inventory now, with new dorsal material from Vampguppy.


    Huh, that reminds me, Teuila hasn¡¯t had the cloak I made for her, not for a long time now. It¡¯s not in my inventory. I wonder if it¡¯s in Lil¡¯s, or in one of Luni¡¯s bags. I hope it didn¡¯t disappear due to evolving and unevolving, I can¡¯t remember if it always showed back up if she was wearing it first. I guess I know what I¡¯m making for her, too. For Lil, I¡¯m going to try to find the spot I first saw them, and dig it up. The exact chunk of rock they were laying on when I first spotted them in Fire Biome is what I want to get Lil. I want to start a kind of dragon hoard sort of place for them.


    Alright, first thing¡¯s first, I¡¯m going to have to take down one of these humongous trees, partially to make space, partially for the lumber, for Sugar and Spice to complete their task. The best tree is the one that my tent is currently leaning up against, it¡¯s smaller, out of the way, while still being on the perimeter. Without a second glance, I send a radiant copy of a sword spinning through the tree at an angle from above. Everyone turns from their tasks to watch as it falls, their attention drawn by the loud crack as it begins to shift. The tree falls away from camp, and hangs slightly amidst other trees.


    I can barely even remember what I used the last tree for, from back in the swamp. I think I was using the lumber to help shape the dugout doors, and reinforce their interiors while Lil was drying them out, so they wouldn¡¯t cave in before Lil finished. Yeah, that¡¯s right, all that lumber eventually ended up charred from doing that over and over, I left it in the last dugout we ever built. Trying to remind myself to get a move on, and stay in the present, I shake myself from my reverie. Focus, focus. I approach the newly felled tree, I¡¯ll need to be claiming it in chunks, cylinders about a foot to three feet thick. It will be incredibly difficult, but not as bad as the last time I was trying to do this, with the paltry energy capacity I had back then, when my main energy capacity was locked away from me. I suppose, in a way, my energy capacity is locked away from me again now, now that I¡¯ve just gone and handed over so much of it. Anyway, I claim the wood of the trunk until it¡¯s flush with the ground, which helps the tree fall free from its current precarious angle. Once there, it doesn¡¯t take too long to finish the rest of the tree, as well as to gather the vines and leathery leaves as well.


    Oo, my inventory capacity went up from the stuff I snagged from the pond earlier. I thought my previous capacity was some sort of ultimate possible limit. I don¡¯t even pay attention to mind¡¯s eye boxes anymore, that might be a dangerous habit. Right, right, no getting distracted. I set the lumber off to one side, for Sugar and Spice to deal with, near where I set the last of my clay. Somehow, at some point when I was on auto-pilot, I must have gone back to the swamp to get more. Lil did say I sometimes disappeared for several days at a time, but that¡¯s a heck of a travel pace. Right, right, stop getting distracted. I¡¯ve got so many more leathery leaves now, I can make us comfy beds, but not yet.


    I steal away over to the pond¡¯s deep end, and I begin claiming the granite of the shelf of the near side of the deep end of the pond. I claim this mineral in step form, so that it¡¯s easy to climb out of, because the inverse of a step is still just a step. I randomly eject the rectangular prisms of granite off to the north, near the cliff, not sure what to do with them. I lazily swim across the pond, and chisel essentially a half-fist-sized eyelet, to tether the zipline to. Then I think twice on it, and chisel another one, so that the twins can use two at the same time if they don¡¯t want to take turns, or go on the same glider harness.


    My inventory crafting magic nets me a bunch of wood shavings as I hollow out and carve down some lumber. Lumber that I¡¯m going to use as the basis for drums. I let my crafting ability stretch some vampguppy leather across the now hollow cylinders, the drums even come out looking pretty nice. I sit on the steps I¡¯ve carved into the pond, letting my feet float while I carve several spoons by hand, with chunks of wood left over from the lumber I¡¯d used to carve the drums.


    Lil will catch up to me later with the charcoal, I¡¯ve got the gliders, the drums, the spoons, the wraps. Sugar and Spice are taking care of the dance floor, and the stage. I feel a bit lazy with Lao¡¯s present, that doesn¡¯t sit well with me, but I¡¯m not sure what else to do about that. I love our matron so much, I want her dream of an idyllic, comfortable life to come true. One where she watches us become our best selves. I want her to be able to watch over us in comfort.


    Time for a quick trip to the caves to search for geodes, and then up to the top of the cliffs. That one should be pretty easy, I remember it like it was yesterday, and even if I didn¡¯t, I could just look at my memory to see how far I walked. Anyway, I¡¯m sure that I was overreacting when I was first terrorized by thoughts of heading deeper into the caves.

 B 2 C 7: Im All Agog

    <h2>B 2 C 7: I¡¯m All Agog</h2>


    As excited as I am to experience a party, I¡¯m more excited to just do something for my family. Something tangible to make up for what I¡¯ve put them through. I know they feel I don¡¯t have any amends to make, mostly, but I¡¯m still, well, I¡¯m me. I overthink, and overguilt myself. Hm, is that a word? It should be. I¡¯m overdramatic, prone to strong emotions. I always assume I¡¯m failing in some way, and even when I¡¯m succeeding, I feel like it was luck, or not my own success. Take this journey to the caves for example. I¡¯d require a lot more time to get here, and back, if it weren¡¯t for this tattoo. This tattoo that I didn¡¯t earn, my beloved Valkyrie, before she ever even evolved, earned it. I was just there, being eaten by a box.


    Speaking of boxes, that¡¯s why I claimed this stupid wicker basket with our equipment in it. I was too afraid to reach inside at the time. How pathetic can I be? Sighing, I try to shake the negative thoughts from my head. I¡¯m also pretty hard on myself. I¡¯d never call someone else pathetic for struggling with their fears.


    I¡¯m a couple minutes deep into the caves when I realize I probably wasn¡¯t overreacting after all. Back when I first feared entering these deeper caves, rather than following the tunnels up to the plateaus. Why might that be? Because I just stuck my hand in an enormous web. How did Mataalii get around in here, without freaking out? I¡¯ve got to give him credit, he doesn¡¯t have the same mental hangups I do. Or maybe he didn¡¯t go this deep, and just happened to notice a geode one time on the way up the plateaus.


    As I cautiously extricate myself from webbing, trying not to shake it at all, I do my best to achieve stealthiness. Minimizing my breathing, and reducing the impact of each footfall, I slowly inch through the caves, deeper still. There are starting to be more and more offshoots in the tunnels, and I¡¯m worried that the right hand wall rule won¡¯t hold out. The tunnel has curved so many times that I can¡¯t tell which direction I¡¯m facing anymore. Me, me, I¡¯m the one who can¡¯t tell which direction I¡¯m facing anymore. The person who named North on their first day of existence, with no guidance. Hopefully it¡¯s pretty understandable why I¡¯m starting to get a little more freaked out.


    That¡¯s a weird noise off to my left. I can¡¯t help but hiss out loud, mostly to myself, ¡°Why¡¯d I have to be right!?¡± Spying a creature with a long vertical eye situated above a pair of mandibles, and three eyes on each side of that one, I fall to my rear, scrabbling backwards. I see at least two pairs of legs just up front here on this side of the corner that it¡¯s peaking around. There¡¯s probably at least two more pairs of legs behind the corner.


    Nope, nope, nope. Noooooope. As it lunges forward, I beat a hasty retreat. Do I fight it? Do I kill it? I¡¯m the one who is trespassing. I came here searching for treasures basically. Now that I¡¯m sprinting down the corridors, making sure I hug what is now my left wall, I¡¯m disturbing many more webs, accidentally destroying them. If it wasn¡¯t already annoyed at me, it will be now. Or worse yet, they will be. Of course there¡¯s more of them, why wouldn¡¯t there be? Three more of the creatures are ahead of me, one on the ceiling, one on each wall. At least a familiar move will get me out of this situation without hurting anyone. I tuck in all my limbs, shrinking down as much as possible while leaping between the three of them. They bump into one another as I pass through.


    I thank all that is holy, all the heavens, anything good for all my good fortune. If it weren¡¯t for having spectacular darkvision, this escape would be nearly impossible. Humans aren¡¯t supposed to see this well in the dark, right? I can¡¯t be a human after all. Hm, that same old internal argument again. My memories are of how human society is supposed to work, how humans age and develop. Oh, right, pay attention, flarblegarble. I ran into a massive patch of webbing, tripped, and now I¡¯m laying face down, sprawled out, stuck basically across my entire surface area.


    Okay, okay, don¡¯t panic, this is no time to panic. Who am I kidding? This is the perfect time to panic! No, no, don¡¯t. Okay, breathe, just breathe, I have a few options here. I can try to claim the webbing, I¡¯d almost rather not. I can try to saw through the webbing with laser-thin precision with radiant copies of things from my inventory. That sounds like a recipe for disaster. I could see if I can summon lightning in here, and set the webs on fire. That also sounds like a recipe for disaster, and maybe wouldn¡¯t work if I need access to a sky above me. Fricklefrack.


    No time to deliberate, gotta choose, they¡¯ve caught up to my danger wrap sensory range! Ugh, I hate claiming things with my face, it feels so gross, and wrong. I claim the webbing I¡¯m currently stuck to, and shudder. It feels like a load of silky goop just passed through my system. This imaginary feeling had the texture of, hm, shampoo I want to say. It¡¯s as if I¡¯d swallowed it. Ugh.


    Wait, wait, wait wait wait, I¡¯m following the left hand wall rule now, going out exactly reverse of the way I came, I should have been out by now. Unless, oh no. Unless these creatures had a boulder, or a door at some point. One that was close to flush, and mostly indistinguishable from the normal wall. If I passed one of those while it was closed on my right side, and they opened it on my way back out. Oh no. I¡¯m lost. Have I ever been lost? Oh no, oh no, oh no. Think, think think think. I could probably just fight, taking on all comers as it were, then slowly explore my way back out, but then I might miss the party. I know for sure that I need to turn around, and head back towards the things that are chasing me, until I come to a T-juncture. At that juncture, there should be some sign of a door or boulder, then I just go left from there, and I should be back on track to follow the left hand wall rule all the way out.


    Oh, hey, geodes. Or at least, round smooth stones. I¡¯d better grab those while I can. That was easy enough. Oh no, why did I have to think that?


    Sure enough, after thinking something so cliche, life becomes a whole lot more difficult. I¡¯ve reached a dead end. It doesn¡¯t make any sense, I know that if I went down a certain path, following a single wall, and came back along the same wall, but that wall opened up, that this is how to find the way back out. Supposing the entrance is point a, and the place I first got spooked enough to turn around is point b, then the trick offshoot would be point c. There weren¡¯t any dead ends from point c to point d, so how did I run into one on the way back to point c? Unless this is point c.


    I struggle against the wall, and sure enough, it feels like there are seams, as if a massive boulder is in the way, one far too large for my inventory. Or wait, is it? My inventory capacity grew recently. But this thing is massive, and my maximum energy is so much lower. Hm, also, how did I not pass the creatures on the way back to point c? Ugh, they¡¯re probably either waiting on the other side of the wall, or taking another tunnel to come around and flank me in this dead end, or both.


    If they have the concept of doors, tracking, and trapping, they¡¯re pretty intelligent. Does that make them sapient? Could I maybe try talking to them? Well, if it weren¡¯t for my own communication difficulties that is. Bluh, sucks to be me at the moment. Hah, how awesome is that? I can just poke fun at my own situation, and not panic about it. If I claim this boulder, it¡¯s likely going to take all of my energy, and there¡¯s probably at least one of the creatures, if not the front three, or all four that I¡¯ve run into so far, all standing on the other side.


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    I check behind me in the tunnel to make sure nothing is coming just yet. It seems as if I¡¯m okay for the moment, so I walk back far enough to get enough of a running start for a good leap. Dashing towards the boulder, I leap, left hand outstretched, fingers out past the edge of my shield. Just as I make contact with the stone, so that I don¡¯t break my fingers. I claim the whole stupid thing to my inventory, and sure enough, four creatures lay in wait on the other side. They were not however, expecting their door to disappear, or for me to be barreling through at this speed. Skidding between all of them, I flick my tattoo tendrils downward, thrusting myself the direction I know is right, now that I¡¯m back on track.


    I¡¯m glad I took the time just the other day to go for a swim, and make sure my muscles are in good order. Alternating between sprinting, and flinging myself around bends in the tunnel has me gaining distance, breaking away from the creatures fairly quickly. Up ahead is the exit, which is great news, but I veer off to a certain side tunnel that I know leads upwards, now that I¡¯ve got my bearings.


    When I finally leave the cliff-face tunnels, it¡¯s onto the first plateau that hangs off the cliff like a balcony. Panting, I flop down against the exterior wall for a moment. I sit with my back to the wall that lays between both sections of the tunnel, the section that leads up, and the one that leads down. When my energy recovers enough, I eject the boulder from my inventory, and it¡¯s a hilarious sight. Pfoot, out into midair this massive stone ejects from my inventory, traveling barely a few dozen feet off the edge before plummeting. I want to say like a rock, but it is a rock. Can a thing be like a thing, if that other thing is itself? Or well, a category that includes itself? I mean, I suppose I am like me. If I weren¡¯t like me, then I wouldn¡¯t be me, so I couldn¡¯t not not be me, because the me that is me wouldn¡¯t exist. Oh wow, I hurt my head there.


    The skittering sound from one side is my cue to keep ascending. It feels like mere moments pass before I¡¯m up in the Fire Biome, gazing out across the volcanic plains. Taking a few breaths, I calm my breathing, and try to picture exactly how far I traveled before spying Lil for the very first time.


    If I were Lil, I¡¯d probably be able to spot an aura trail or something. Lil has no idea how powerful their analysis aura vision stuff is. I rarely ride along on Lu¡¯s senses when I¡¯m blinded, because Lil just perceives so much more. Lil was right though, basically to anyone other than me, my aura is on display, which includes my emotions. Flitting up into the air, swiftly across the plain, traveling via tattoo tendril gets me to the spot I met Lilagni soon enough. There we go. Now how much of this stone should I claim? Enough just for Lil¡¯s base form? Or enough for their Lilagnewt form? I guess I¡¯ll play it safe and go big, I can always whittle it down after if the sentiment doesn¡¯t come across.


    Leaning forward, I mentally trace an oval on the ground. I want to claim it as more of a hemisphere with a taper, rather than a cylinder, which is a little harder to imagine. I don¡¯t have x-ray vision, so I¡¯m not sure exactly where the tapered end should meet up. Still, my space skill, or the inventory magic itself seems to figure it out. As I¡¯m leaning over, claiming this patch of ground, it disappears out from under my hands. This wouldn¡¯t be much of a big deal, as I¡¯m pretty constantly eating dirt as the phrase goes, skidding on my face and whatnot. But I just created a pool of lava. Freaking out, I thrust my tattoo tendrils down into the lava to push myself away from it. Bad idea, the tendrils give tactile feedback, and it¡¯s excruciating. I hope I didn¡¯t just ruin them, oh holy cows and crows and bats and ravens and poop, oh that hurt. I¡¯m in the middle of the act of falling away from the pool I made, thrusted away by my tendrils, when I noticed I splashed lava into the air, which is now following me, about to land.


    My shield rises up to meet the small splash of lava just in time. I find myself laying flat on my back, laughing in a hysterical panic. That was too close, way too close. Even if convection doesn¡¯t seem to do anything, I do not want to risk contact with actual molten rock. I want to be sure I haven¡¯t damaged the tattoo, so I divest it for a moment, looking at the needle it becomes. I can¡¯t see any differences from the last time I¡¯d seen it, so I guess it¡¯s okay. I reapply it to my left arm, and test out the tendrils. Things seem alright after doing some push ups with them, as well as flinging myself up into the air several times.


    Hm, I¡¯m running short on time, the caves were a fairly long excursion, and so was traveling west to them, then back east to here. If I¡¯m right, I¡¯m pretty close to home, just above it. Am I crazy enough to attempt this, to save some time? Yeah, yeah I probably am. Plus, falling is really, ridiculously fun. Teuila took me in the air not so long ago, and it was amazing. I sprint towards the cliff¡¯s edge, and fling myself away from it with the tendrils towards the nearest tree, which is honestly a bit further away than I judged.


    I¡¯m not ashamed to admit I¡¯m panicking a bit as my arc becomes more of a, what¡¯s the word for a vertical line, perpendicular to the ground? Oh hey, wait, ground. I can make my own ground. I really am a dingus, this would have been smart to do during the fight with the serpent. I eject a bit of spare lumber into the air, with upward velocity intended, just under my feet. Sure enough, it slows my descent, and gives me something to spring off of with my tendrils, to make it the rest of the way to the treeline. Once within tendril¡¯s reach, I wrap around a tree and let myself spiral down it, slowing my descent. I accidentally land with a bit of a thud on the roof of our home. Huh, I didn¡¯t realize I was that close. While I¡¯m up here, I may as well set up the anchor for the zipline, or ziplines.


    Teuila and Luni have already worked together to string up vines with flowers and leaves in the form of streamers and banners. Lil has made a massive pile of charcoal, heh, you went overboard buddy, thanks. Wow, the dance floor and stage are coming along really nicely, how do Sugar and Spice even do that? Ag and Lao are setting up a small, uh, did I use the right word, pavilion? I told the Mana twins to make some mud, and they¡¯ve taken their job to heart. I have no idea what I¡¯m going to do with the mud, but I wanted them to feel included. Mat already helped me pick out presents.


    Speaking of, just in case there¡¯s something better I could give a few of my family, I¡¯d better check out some of the things I¡¯ve gotten recently. Some things I won¡¯t be able to look at, things I got at a certain time that I should stop vaguely thinking around. Anyway, the stuff from Vampguppy I pull out from my inventory.


    It includes a tiny gemstone that, when inspected, begins to orbit my head. As it does, I feel my muscles slightly bulge. It spins pretty rapidly, so it actually takes me two swipes to grab it out of the air. Hm, if it enhances strength in some way, Teuila would get the most use out of it. Make our strongest stronger. Is that the right choice? Hopefully.


    There¡¯s also a pair of stones that each vaguely resemble an open flip phone. I jokingly ask one "What do you do?" The other one actually repeats my question, instantly. It seems to only work for a short while, hopefully reusable once a day or something. Actually, with how often I¡¯ve interacted with magic stones, I can just feel that each of these can be used to open a communication with the other, once a day. This, this is the right gift for Lao. Well, one of them. The inner circle will have the other when we¡¯re out on adventures.


    There¡¯s also another small potion bottle, the entire bottle and fluid inside seems translucent. Not just in the way glass normally should, but like it''s slightly blurry. The liquid inside seems to be more viscous than other potions as well, like it¡¯s an oil, rather than a drink. Huh, I guess maybe some potions are topical. I really wouldn¡¯t want to try to ingest this.


    Welp, that settles that then. I¡¯m pretty happy with how today has turned out so far, and as the phrase goes, I¡¯m all agog for what comes next. Tonight¡¯s festivities include feasting, then partying into the eve with my family, then cuddling the night away amongst all of them. I leap off of the roof of our home, and manage to scare the everliving snot out of Sugar, Spice, Mata, Agwai, and Lao. I guess they didn¡¯t hear me impact the roof earlier, oops. I can only blush and mumble an apology as I grin like a dork. Luni and Lil break into laughter at the reaction I garner, and Teuila seems to have disappeared around the other side of a tree.

 B 2 C 8: Party Crashers

    <h2>B 2 C 8: Party Crashers</h2>


    I apologize profusely with hugs and kisses to everyone I just alarmed, even Mata. Lao, Ag, Sugar, and even Spice accept my apology and affection graciously. Mataalii of course shoves me away, fairly viscerally. I try not to laugh about it so as not to upset him, but I do feel better about our relationship, even if only slightly. Taking my leave, I snag the charcoal Lil has created for me, then I dart away behind a tree opposite the one I saw Teuila head behind.


    I try to fashion the charcoal sticks into something that Spice will find easy enough to hold by covering them in thin leaf-wraps, choosing the ones that have the best angles, or the best straightness to them. Once I¡¯ve got them created, I bundle the whole stack in a giant leaf, then fold the leaf up over the gifts. I pin the edges of the leaf together by jabbing a hole into the edges so I can tie a short vine in them in an easily undoable slip knot.


    Each further gift pretty much follows the same procedure as I wrap it up, though Lil¡¯s is rather massive. Instead I¡¯ll have to just wait to reveal Lil¡¯s until later. Let¡¯s see, I¡¯ve wrapped the geodes, pencils, drums, spoons, the floating gemstone, ah, I can¡¯t wrap the glider frames for the twins, I¡¯ll have to install them as part of the gift. They basically just have to be carried back up to the roof, and the hook set upon the zip lines again. Oh Mata¡¯s gift, please work.


    Unwrapping only my right danger wrap, I feel my senses dull and shorten slightly, but the magic remains. Whew, okay, at least Mata should appreciate this, it has actual magic that can help him protect himself, and the twins. If that doesn¡¯t make him cool in his own eyes, I don¡¯t know what will. I don¡¯t want him to actually want to be like me. I think it¡¯s probably just because I saved him while on autopilot when I was checked out for so long.


    I wrap up several silk, or well, perhaps satin objects that I didn¡¯t know I had, and the one from Octorochi for Lao, along with the one communicator stone. I don¡¯t know the difference between silk or satin, all I know is these fabrics are ridiculously, luxuriously smooth. I hope Lao likes them. Plus, at least the communicator stone is practical, we need never truly be too far out of reach. Though each of us can only initiate a few seconds of multi-way conversation per day, once apiece.


    Oh, I know where I got the other silk or satin objects. I immediately crumple to the ground, sobbing, as I remember The Event. Teuila suddenly appears beside me, and I can¡¯t tell if I¡¯m hallucinating during a panic episode. So it takes all my willpower to stay frozen in place, to not scrabble away. My pulse pounds faster and faster in sheer terror as she reaches for my neck. I think my heart is about to explode from fear until she wraps her arms around my shoulders, leans in close and coos comforts into my ears. My muscles seize up, and my jaw locks painfully, but eventually, through tearing strain, I¡¯m able to wrap my arms around Teuila in response. It feels like I rip apart the inner bicep near my elbows whenever I move during an episode like this.


    As I calm down, Teuila mutters something, trying to ask me a question, when she¡¯s finally sure she has my attention, she mumbles, ¡°So, y¡¯know, how do I look, punkbutt?¡± I can feel her heart flutter with trepidation, as she¡¯s nervous about my response. She¡¯s wearing the old vampguppy wing cloak I made for her so long ago. She has adorned it with flowers. So that¡¯s where it was!


    Oh right, she¡¯s awaiting a response. ¡°You¡¯re so beautiful, to me.¡± I ponder the facial expression I make after stating this, because my brain and face both screw up for a second. Teuila jabs me several times playfully in the stomach as she hides her face in my neck. Her face is red hot with embarrassment. I can tell because heat escapes and feels like it sets my neck aflame. Though it¡¯s not painful, or uncomfortable, it¡¯s just such an intense emotion. Or rather, it¡¯s an intense physical indication of her emotion. I love her so much, I wish I could figure out how to indicate to her that she need never be embarrassed about her emotions to me. Oh, oops.


    Te lets out her single elongated gleeful sound, ¡°Heeeee.¡± She then socks me once more playfully in the shoulder, baps my left cheek, and cradles my neck to where she can give me an extended noogie. Yep, I¡¯ll never remember to keep my brain shut from those who share a wavelength with me.


    ¡°You darn well better not.¡± Te noogies my skull slightly harder to emphasize her point.


    Despite my trembling, I¡¯m able to hold Teuila tightly, and fight my emotions for allowance to smile. ¡°Of course not, my Teuila.¡± I still don¡¯t know what to call her. I don¡¯t know what we are, in a lot of ways. Age is weird, evolutions are weird, clans are weird, twitterpation is weird. I just have no idea.


    ¡°Just yours. And you¡¯re just mine, mostly. All of ours really, I could never truly ask you, y¡¯know, to stop giving of yourself to the whole fam. You just couldn¡¯t do it. I know that. I, y¡¯know, that word, you for the way you are.¡± Teuila rambles slightly, intimating that she loves me despite, or because of, my desire to always give up anything and everything necessary for the safety, happiness, and love of our family.


    ¡°Well, that, and, you, y¡¯know. You¡¯ve had your bond with them longer. I was jealous. I still am. I know they look at you sometimes, sometimes kinda like I do. But only sometimes. We just, ugh, jealousy isn¡¯t important. They, y¡¯know, you, and so do I.¡± Teuila continues to pour her feelings out to me as best she can after literally hearing my thoughts. Wait, what? Who looks at me sometimes? No, no, I¡¯m pretty sure I know who. Our inner circle are all heavily enamored with one another. Teuila even bonded with Lil through adventure, training, and, well, an actual bond.


    ¡°Yeah, alright, yeah, I can admit the dorky little dragbutt is a cutie patootie too. Ugh, never tell them I admitted that, or I¡¯m going to fly you into the air and drop you til you wet yourself.¡± I snerk, barely keeping my laughter quiet as Teuila threatens me. Even if she did just that, she¡¯d only do it if she was sure she wouldn¡¯t let me get hurt.


    Te responds to my thoughts, hearing them through our bond, ¡°Why ya gotta go and spoil a perfectly good threat? Lesigh, are you ready for this party yet?¡± Chuckling, at her jovial choice of inflection, I bite my lips. I¡¯m still trying to hold in laughter. I manage the slightest of nods even though my neck aches as my body trembles.


    In the last few minutes, Sugar and Spice managed to put an awning over the stage. They also carved chairs for Ag and Lao, our guests of honor as it were. Since they carve the wood by eating it, they accomplish tasks almost instantly. Their speed seems to be because consumption appears to teleport matter to some endless black hole. Rather than the eating process I¡¯m familiar with. I guess at this point I am familiar with matter disappearing when I eat it. Something just sends a signal to my brain to shut up about being hungry for a bit.


    Te takes me by the hand, and though I amble shakily, she still drags me to the rest of the party. As my family slowly stops milling about, I clear my throat, for their attention. Their tasks are finished, and I want to thank them. I start off a bit nervously, ¡°H, hey everyone. I¡¯m so proud of what you¡¯ve all accomplished. You¡¯ve made us all a beautiful home, for this beautiful family. You¡¯ve also put together an amazing party location. I hope my asking for your help wasn¡¯t too inconvenient, since I wanted to throw this party in thanks for all you¡¯ve done for me. As we feast, I¡¯ll hand out gifts I¡¯ve gotten for each of you. After that, I figure we can dance until our legs go numb, then sleep it off, together.¡±


    My family responds with a mix of laughter, cheers, and silent admiration. Mataalii, Luni, Agwai, and Laomati head off to the side to bring our brand new feasting table to the fore. Teuila squeezes my hand reassuringly, and the two of us bring seats to the table. I add a finishing touch by placing thick leaves as cushioning for the seats, gluing the cushions in place. We leave the larger pair of chairs in the pavilion, for Lao and Agwai to enjoy later.


    Even though eating seems to barely mean anything when we attempt to do it instantly, we work to savor a meal together. While I¡¯m honestly quite sick of fish, I can¡¯t help but smile as my family is gathered around a table, for the first time, sharing a meal together. The two pairs of twins are goofing off, smacking one another with food, then wolfing it down. Mata is rolling his eyes at their antics. Lao is barely stifling chuckles as she slowly partakes of our food. Agwai is laughing uproariously at their own jokes. My inner circle are all feeling my overwhelming affection for everyone gathered here at this moment.


    As the evening approaches, the last of us finally finishes savoring our meal. Figuring the time is ripe, I clear my throat for attention once again. ¡°Ah, hrm, ahem. So, I got gifts for all of you. I¡¯ll pass them out, but please don¡¯t open them yet. I need to take the Mana twins and Lil to the side to be able to give them their gifts. Te, littlest one is yours, small one for Spice, next one up for Lao, the really heavy one for Sugar. The two identical really big ones for Ag and Lu, could you hand them out please? Mata, this one¡¯s yours, I¡¯ll explain what to do with it when we all open them together. Manas? Lil? Please follow me for a second.¡±


    The family mills about in response, getting situated so that their gifts can be opened when I return. The twins and Lil follow me to our one building. I leap to its roof in a single bound, which surprises me, I thought I would have to scrabble up by barely catching its edge. Some of Teuila¡¯s leaping prowess must be rubbing off on me. Once atop the roof, I construct a polished wooden slide ramp, and set it down off the edge, so the others can climb up. While they¡¯re busy ascending, I set the gliders atop the roof, affix the ropes to the two anchors, and leap off the roof towards the pond. Once at the far side of the pond, I tie off the ropes to complete the ziplines and hurry back before the twins can get any ideas.


    ¡°Lil, do you see how this one differs from your glider? There¡¯s a hook constructed at the top, all anyone has to do is set it on the ropes, and it¡¯ll go sliding down, like this.¡± I demonstrate how the glider can slowly slide down the rope without any passengers. ¡°It¡¯ll be faster with someone in it.¡±


    Manaia excitedly squeals and asks, ¡°Really, this is for us!?¡± Manameia answers for me, ¡°Duh, Reggie said it is! Come on let¡¯s try it!¡±


    I chuckle at the twins as they busy themselves setting up the glider and zipping down into the pond for the first and second time. By the third go I have to let them know the others are waiting. ¡°So, you can keep riding it if you want, or you can come watch the others open their gifts, I¡¯ll leave it up to you. I¡¯m happy you both like it.¡±


    The twins give that gleeful elongated single-laugh sound that seems to run in the family. ¡°Heeeee.¡± Their closed-eyed smiles warm my heart.


    ¡°Lil buddy, don¡¯t think I¡¯ve forgotten about you, and don¡¯t be alarmed.¡± I explain as I leap from the roof once more towards the back of our home. I angle to the side of the tree that our home is built against as I fall. While falling, I call the solid slab of stone that Lil was first resting on from my inventory, shunting it into the ground. My fall causes a minor tremor, which causes me to blush at the unplanned earthquake. ¡°Err, whoops. Do you know what this is buddy?¡±


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Lil hems and haws, ¡°Hmmmmmm, it¡¯s definitely from Fire Biome, and there¡¯s the faintest traces of, wait. Wait. Wait wait wait wait. Whaaaaaaaaaat? I could swear it looks like I¡¯ve been on that rock before, maybe, your aura is all over it freshly though.¡± I smile, waiting for Lil to puzzle it out. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me, did you go dig up that spot where you first saw me? Whaaaaat? That¡¯s so sweet! It can be like, my dragon bed if I get too big for our home!¡± Lil leaps into my arms, headbutting my chest repeatedly. They smooch at my collarbone and then spin to whap my face playfully with their tail. I end up with a faceful of dragon heiny, as one frequently does. Well, at least as I frequently have during the course of my friendship with Lil.


    Chuckling, I hug Lil, expressing my feelings, ¡°I hope you like it pal, you¡¯re pretty much everything in the world to me. I wanted to find some way to express that. Some way to show you that every moment we¡¯ve ever had together is important and precious to me. I uh, I hope that point came across, and isn¡¯t too sappy.¡±


    Lil growls at me, which is a bit concerning, until I realize they¡¯re being playful. ¡°Grrrrr, are you kidding Reggie!? You could never be too sappy pal! I love it, I mega mega mega love it, I love you, you¡¯re great!¡± I chuckle and hug Lil tightly.


    ¡°We should get back so the others can open their gifts, I want to see the looks on their faces.¡± I¡¯m most curious to see how Mata will react when I ask him to open his first. We arrive back to the table in short order, and the Mana twins have beaten us there. Everyone¡¯s waiting, some, patiently, others such as both pairs of twins, quite impatiently.


    I announce, ¡°So, there¡¯s a certain order I¡¯d like to do this in. Mataalii, I¡¯d like you to open yours first.¡± Mata eyes me suspiciously, but he complies, unveiling the singular arm wrap. I explain, ¡°That contains a portion of the magic that the pair imparted onto me since before the swamp. They sense danger, and guide reflexes. I hope that they always keep you safe, and help you to keep your loved ones safe. Especially in our absence.¡± I indicate my inner circle.


    Mata just gazes down at the arm wrap, saying nothing for an inordinate amount of time. Finally Mata begins applying the bandage-like material to his arm, and as with mine, it finishes wrapping the rest of the way on its own. Mat¡¯s eyes spark with new awareness, the ability to sense his surroundings. He only says, ¡°So, uh, cool, yeah, thanks.¡± I close my eyes so no one can see me rolling them as I stifle a chuckle.


    Next I announce the next two, ¡°So, Manaia and Manameia got their gifts, ziplines from the roof to the pond.¡± My family oohs and ahs at the announcement, but I continue, ¡°So I¡¯d like Sugar and Spice to open theirs next.¡± Spice opens his, and gets a whiff of the charcoal, causing him to sneeze. ¡°Uh, yours aren¡¯t food friendo. They¡¯re to write, or draw with, so that you can do your designing more easily. Maybe someday we¡¯ll find a source of paper, and you¡¯ll be able to keep your designs somewhere more permanent.¡± Spice¡¯s eyes well up with happy tears as they sparkle. His smile is so wide, I almost can¡¯t believe it. Spice bounds across the table and leaps into my face, smooching me all over.


    That¡¯s probably the best reaction I could have possibly hoped for. I whisper to him, ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I was gone so long, when I should have been around to meet you, to start getting to know you with the rest of our family. I love you too, even if we hardly know one another Spice.¡± I let a few tears fall from my eyes before realizing I¡¯m crying. I quickly wipe the tears away before anyone other than Spice notices.


    Spice replies, ¡°We¡¯re good Reggie, we¡¯re so good. Thank you, thank you, thank you thank you thank you! You really are as sweet as they say. I hope we find paper soon, and I hope I evolve, so I can hold them more easily.¡± As Spice and I hug each other, both of us shedding a few secret tears, Sugar is about to open her present when suddenly Spice begins to glow. All of a sudden, instead of an incredibly light beaver-tailed sphere in my face, I now have a fairly heavy beaver bowling me over. Spice whoops with delight, and runs in circles as he tries to gaze at all of his own new form. There appears to be a t-square tucked behind his ear, alongside his glasses. He also has a little vest, with many pockets.


    Most of the family bursts into laughter, especially Sugar. I wonder if Spice will have gained any magic powers, just by evolving in my proximity. Sugar gazes at me extremely impatiently though, and I nod to her. Sugar unwraps her gift with excitement, then her face droops, sullen. Her response to the stones is to be expected, ¡°Uh, rocks? Thanks, I guess, Reggie. Sorry, don¡¯t mean to sound ungrateful.¡± I really hope they¡¯re geodes, so that this disappointment doesn¡¯t last long.


    I cough before explaining, ¡°So, I heard, well, I know, you like breaking things, it was one of the first things you said to me when we met. Try breaking a couple, they might surprise you.¡± At that, Sugar lights up. She rolls the rocks to the ground, and sets them in locations where they won¡¯t roll. One after the other Sugar smacks each stone with a loud thwap of her beaver tail. Her tail is so strong that each stone splits with a cracking sound. I¡¯m fairly impressed. Thankfully, each geode seems to hold an interior crystal structure more dazzling than the last.


    The entire family pauses as Sugar passes around the geodes, staring at them with wonder. We all get to partake of her fascination with their internal display. After they¡¯ve all been passed around at least once, Sugar begins collecting them, and hugs them close to her, covetously. I chuckle, and as I¡¯m about to move on to the next announcement, Sugar too, glows. Sugar evolves similarly to Spice, though her adornment ends up being a toolbelt, replete with tools. I¡¯m a bit in awe, since we don¡¯t even have screws to use a screwdriver on yet, nor nuts and bolts to use wrenches on. Yet here we are, a fully equipped toolmaster in our midst.


    I pause to wonder if any of the equipment that Sugar or Spice spawned with is magical, but I let them enjoy exploring their new forms, similarly to how Luni did, so long ago now. Come to think of it, she was so excited for her new dress, and the pockets in her dress and accessories. Luni also secretly had magic, or maybe she learned about it after the fact, as she didn¡¯t share for quite some time. Luni is still keeping some secrets about her powers, but I won¡¯t begrudge her that. For all I know, her powers require secrecy to even work. I¡¯m letting myself get distracted again. We¡¯ve now gifted both sets of twins, Lil, and Mataalii, that leaves Lao, Teuila, then Agwai and Luni together.


    While I wait for everyone to settle down from the excitement over Sugar and Spice¡¯s new forms, I retake my seat, then close my eyes and lean against Teuila. There¡¯s a painful grip of fear in my chest, squeezing my heart, just being near her. I only hope that it lessens with time. Once everyone seems to be more or less ready to continue, I call out to Laomati, one of our two leaders, essentially mother to us all. ¡°Lao, I¡¯d be honored if you would open yours next.¡±


    Lao looks to be a picture of perfect poise, and grace, but loses all restraint and tears into the gifts, surprising everyone at the table, earning a round of laughs. She holds up the silk robe that she¡¯d seen us win from Octorochi, and she rubs it against her cheek, smiling approvingly. Similarly Lao feels the other objects all over, reveling in their texture. She does gaze ponderously at the stone though, the one shaped slightly like a flip phone from my memories. ¡°And, this, my child? Does it hold some power?¡± Lao pokes the stone.


    I pull the other one out of my inventory, and motion for Lao to put hers to her face, as I do with mine. Speaking into the stone, I whisper, connecting with hers, ¡°This only works a short time each day, but with it, you will always be able to reach us, and we you.¡± Lao gasps, her gaze leaps back and forth between the stone and myself. I nod to her, mouthing to speak quickly.


    Lao rambles, appreciatively, lovingly, ¡°How, how long do these precious stones work? Dear child, this is immeasurably thoughtful, I can barely begin to express. I couldn¡¯t have hoped for anything nearly this wonderful in my wildest dreams. Are you certain, what if you all must split during one of your adventures? It nearly destroyed you once before, I can¡¯t bear the thought.¡±


    I chuckle, whispering back, ¡°Lao, Laomati, it¡¯s okay. I know, I thought of that too, but I need it to be with you. I need to be able to hear your voice, to know the family is okay. I need for you to be able to reach us, so that you may call us back at a moment¡¯s need. I¡¯ll sleep sounder with it in your hands. Our whole family is precious to me, not just my beloved inner circle.¡± Lao wrings her hands, then motions for me to approach quickly. Lao¡¯s arms are outstretched and she¡¯s waving her hands towards herself swiftly, repeatedly, begging me to rush to them for a hug.


    I happily oblige, sprinting around the table and into Lao¡¯s arms. I appreciate her tender, motherly embrace, as I hug her tightly in return. Laomati strokes my hair as she finally stops fretting over whether or not she can accept the gift. Without being in sight of Teuila, nor feeling her presence with any of my senses, terror¡¯s grip on my heart loosens enough for me to relax into Lao¡¯s hug. When our embrace finally finishes, after an inordinate amount of time, and then some, I meander back to my seat. I smile into Teuila¡¯s eyes, even though the panic returns, and it causes my jaw to lock.


    Teuila takes my hands, and our gazes stay as locked as my muscles for the longest time. I manage to speak through a nearly locked jaw, barely freeing my muscles from their painful stasis. ¡°Teuila, would you mind opening yours?¡± Teuila giddily bounces up and down before turning away to open her gift. She reaches to inspect the tiny gemstone, and as it did with me, it begins speedily orbiting above her head. I can actually visibly see the faintest hint of extra muscle definition on Teuila.


    Teuila either senses my observation, or feels her muscles expand. This sensation causes her to stand up, and similarly to Sugar and Spice, she does her best to inspect every inch of herself. I raise an eyebrow as if to ask what she thinks of the gift. Teuila grins, then she hauls off and smacks me in the shoulder, bowling me out of my seat. I do a double backwards roll, somewhat playing along as a joke, but also somewhat because her punch packed more, well, punch, than usual. As I dust myself off, and return to my seat, everyone is laughing. Teuila¡¯s laugh expresses her glee with that single elongated sound. ¡°Heeeee.¡± Her smile is so precious as she sounds her glee.


    To wrap up, I wave towards Luni and Agwai, before stating, ¡°Lu, Ag, your gifts probably look similarly shaped. There¡¯s a reason for that, I¡¯m hoping you¡¯d do us the honor of testing them out tonight, as we celebrate our first family party, with what I hope is our first of many family dances.¡± I can tell Lu has been riding around the waves of my head, as she seems unsurprised, but still happy with her present. Agwai takes a moment to realize what the gifts are. Ag looks childishly ecstatic as they take the spoons, and twigs, to begin tapping them on their thigh, and then on the drums.


    Agwai¡¯s jam starts off erratic, but they begin to learn the ins and outs of their new instruments fairly quickly. It¡¯s honestly remarkable. Our world has so little that we can interact with to learn from, it seems like we have to make up for it by adapting quickly, instantly even. Luni calls for our attention. ¡°I want to dance too! Agwai should get a chance too! So, first dance is as they say, on the house!¡± Lu plucks her harp a bit, and seems to set it up for a lively dance beat. The magic of her harp is fairly astounding, she lets the music loop as we all take to the dance floor.


    Absolutely none of us have any sense of rhythm. None of us know how to dance whatsoever, and yet, I find myself having the time of my life. We¡¯re each shaking and grooving. We¡¯re laughing and hugging one another, even spinning and spiraling one another around. It¡¯s pure bliss. Lilagni is in their Lilagnewt form, so that they have feet to slap on the dance floor, pounding steps in place next to Luni. It¡¯s a hilarious sight, seeing a soft, medium, quadrupedal dragon dancing with a curvy otterfolk gal.


    Eventually after dancing together for a while, Teuila does me a favor, and evolves into her Valkyrie form. She tosses her equipment off high up in a tree where it¡¯ll be out of the way. My fear dissipates with her in this form, and we hold one another, while acrobatically leaping around the dance floor, we end up on the stage somehow.


    Lu seems to take this accidental leap as some sort of cue, so she grabs Agwai, and the two head away from the dance floor to their drums. Luni sets up a slow beat, and Agwai follows suit. My heart races for a reason that, thankfully, isn¡¯t fear, for once. Luni strokes her harp, and a sound that reminds me of searching for crystals, guided by light, begins to play. It seems to be a simple scale down then up and returning, yet it¡¯s enchanting. For some reason, I¡¯m reminded of menus while hearing it. Or perhaps other types of screens, such as title screens.


    Teuila lighty bonks my noggin to pull me from my random reverie. I grin at her like a goof. She¡¯s so much taller in her Valkyrie form. I wonder if I should tether myself? Oh, wait, I can¡¯t anymore, I don¡¯t have enough maximum energy. That would take at least eleven hundred. Oh well, this is still nice, just like this.


    Lu seems to take a break, leaving Agwai to jam on the drums as she finds a spot to cuddle with Lil. Agwai¡¯s jam goes from jovial, to wickedly cool, and that¡¯s when I spot them, our first party crashers, and their far too many legs.

 B 2 C 9: An Unexpected Acquaintance

    <h2>B 2 C 9: An Unexpected Acquaintance</h2>


    Agwai continues to play on, a bit cluelessly, truly enjoying their jam session.  I usher everyone else back a bit, motioning to remain peaceful, but at the ready.  I don¡¯t want to have to kill our neighbors if I can help it.


    The smaller one approaches our party, I say smaller, but the creature¡¯s still as large as, or larger than Lil in their Lilagnewt form.  I wait with bated breath as I pull my thunder stick from my inventory.  I¡¯m hoping that if all else fails, I can scare this neighbor away without killing them.  Maybe if they go back to their nest with news of us being annoying, but not dangerous, the rest of their family won¡¯t invade as revenge.


    The creature hisses at me as I try to interpose myself between it and Agwai.  Agwai finally notices it due to the loud hiss, and tumbles backwards, away from the drums.  Ag sits on the ground, a bit bewildered, before getting back up, and returning to the drums.  I¡¯m about to direct Ag to leave, when Agwai plays a simple series of beats.


    The creature taps one foot to the beats in response.  I stare on, mildly flabbergasted.  The creature knocks me aside with several legs, and heads to the drums.  Agwai plays a short set of beats, and the creature mimics the same beats on another drum.  Agwai ups the complexity, and the many legged beast follows along, perfectly mimicking Ag.  Agwai continues to jam more and more complexly, and this eight-legged, seven-eyed being follows along perfectly.  What¡¯s more, it starts to compose its own rhythms, challenging Agwai to repeat them.


    The whole situation reminds me of, hm, banjos that duel, or perhaps some sort of drum-off.  I try to approach to check on Ag, but the creature turns to hiss loudly at me.  It hisses so loudly it actually floors me, literally, I end up sliding backwards a few inches on my posterior.  The larger one begins to approach as the smaller one gets back to drumming.


    Oh, the large one was much farther away than I thought.  Large doesn¡¯t describe this entity in the slightest.  She¡¯s absolutely massive, enormous, towering over all of us by far.  She¡¯s at least as large as our house.  I stupidly, jokingly say, ¡°So uh, I guess you¡¯re wondering why I gathered you all here, today.¡±  This nets me a hiss from both the smaller one, and the larger one.  The larger one¡¯s hiss scoots me several inches across the dance floor from sheer force.  Based on their morphology, I think they¡¯re both adults, and the smaller one is male.


    Ag asks, ¡°Reggie, dear child, what did you do to make them so mad?¡±


    ¡°I was trying not to kill them when they were chasing me, so I was a bit hasty, and accidentally ruined a bunch of their webs, I even still have some in my inventory.  Oh, oh no.¡±  Yep Reggie, you complete buffoon.  It wasn¡¯t just webbing that I claimed, it was, yeah, these need to go back, right now.  Way to go, me.  Well, at least I didn¡¯t have to hurt any of them.  I produce the webbing that I stumbled into, and place it on some spare lumber.


    The larger one flicks a single leg at me and sends me flying into a tree, a tree where there happens to be a bunch of Valkyrie equipment that was hastily discarded.  Equipment that is now about to impale me, including a very, very deadly spear.  At least it looks like the larger one is satisfied with the webbing on the log.  She appears to be heading back north to the cliff face.


    I gulp what I fear will be one of my last breaths, unable to control my descent.  The tip of Gae Buidhe glints just below me.  Suddenly, I¡¯m knocked sideways through the air by a glowing, leaping form, and the equipment simultaneously disappears.


    ¡°Oh, uh, hi Te.¡±  I barely manage to state, as Teuila had to have sent herself rocketing skyward as Valkyrie to intercept me.  Once we impacted, she wanted to make sure neither of us could still land on Gae Buidhe, so she dropped her Valkyrie form.  Now we¡¯re both plummeting through the air.  My terror isn¡¯t from the current fall though, it is of course from being held by my Teuila.  The Event is still fresh in my mind, so I quiver in her arms.


    Our fall is neither as controlled a descent as Te can manage as Valkyrie, nor is it as deadly as a fall from this height would normally be.  Somehow Teuila¡¯s bond with gravity still manifests even in her base form.  I seem to have lost hold of my thunder staff when Te rammed into me.  It impacts the ground somewhere in the jungle below us, sounding a loud crack of thunder.  I¡¯ll need to scour the jungle for that later.  Teuila¡¯s trying to angle our descent into a glide which does reduce our downward velocity a bit more.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Not enough to save us from a very crunchy paired impact with the ground however.  We both bounce and skid several feet, racking up plentiful bruises.  We had to have glided hundreds of meters away from the party.  If it weren¡¯t for the groove we gouged into the ground with our faces, I might not know the way back home.  Well, thankfully Teuila still has her pouch with the compass orb, and I¡¯ve got my sense of direction, but still, I was knocked flying one way, then knocked perpendicularly another way while in midair.  All in all, it was very disorienting.


    I regret not being in armor when that giant arach-whatever flung me away.  I¡¯m pretty sure it broke or bruised a couple of my ribs, and Teuila¡¯s lunge smashed a few more.  The ground decided to take pity on my ribs and just grind my face, elbows, and knees to a pulp.  Still, I¡¯ve had worse landings.  Literally.  Turning to Teuila, trying to take my mind off the pain, I ask, ¡°So, what do you think of the party so far?¡±


    Te¡¯s look of incredulity is all she really needs, but she still asks, ¡°Seriously?  You want to ask that right now?  You goofdingusbugbodbagoob.¡±  I try to keep a straight face while listening to her response, but I can¡¯t help it as she makes up another endearing insult.  I end up cracking up with laughter, Te joins me, even though we¡¯re both clutching our torsos in pain.


    We help one another up, and lean on each others¡¯ shoulders, each saying ow, more and more frequently as we amble back home.  Honestly, I think that sharing this pained walk with Te, after she risked her life in two forms, to save me, is massively helping with my fear.  Teuila¡¯s Vampguppy cloak looks fairly totaled though, I feel pretty bad about that.


    Te, spying my thoughts, casually absolves me, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, deebledoomer I still love it, I¡¯ll put it back where I was hiding it, and I¡¯ll just start wearing some of those dozens of feather cloaks we¡¯ve got saved up.  Yeah?¡±  She socks me lightly in the shoulder.  I laugh in response, but also wince in pain from the playful punch.


    ¡°I suppose that works.  Thank you for saving me Te.  I don¡¯t know what I would have done, I wasn¡¯t thinking fast enough to react.  Like usual, I thought I was for sure a goner, before thinking about how to get out of the situation.  I can¡¯t help it, my first thought is always resignation or self sacrifice, then I start thinking about other solutions if I have time.¡±  I apologize, rambling about my thought processes when in danger.


    ¡°I know, I know.  You¡¯re poot-for-brains on the spot, but give you a few seconds and you can be a genius.  Sometimes.  Anyway, those on the spot reactions have saved more than one of us, on more than one occasion.  I can¡¯t ask you to change that.  I wouldn¡¯t.  I don¡¯t want to know what might happen one day if you decide to hold off on reacting until you can plan.  It might already be too late when you do.  You¡¯re my scaredypunkyputz, and I¡¯ll just have to be satisfied with that, for now.¡±  Te tries to bring me in for a hug, but both of us suffer loud cracks in our muscles.  We laugh slightly as we both wince in pain.


    A glorious sight glides into view, Luni riding atop Lil.  Lil¡¯s spouting the occasional short ranged fireball to light up the sky beneath the canopy as they fly vaguely in our direction.  Te and I wave to Lu and Lil, Lu waves back holding a staff.  It looks like they found my thunder stick first.  As we reunite, we all have a laughing fit about the events that transpired so far.


    Sugar and Spice both happened to evolve, Lao went wild opening gifts, Agwai jammed obliviously while we had uninvited guests, then one of those guests jammed along with Ag while another guest sent me flying.  I can honestly say I wasn¡¯t expecting any of that to happen tonight.


    When we make it back to the party the octo-peds both seem to be gone.  One of the drums is missing too, I¡¯m glad I made two full sets.  I start to apologize to Lu, ¡°Lu, I¡¯m sorry, looks like one of the drums is missing, I think they probably took it.  It¡¯s my fault.¡±  I receive a bunch of limbs in my face for my efforts.  Lu leaps at me for a hug.  I barely manage to catch her, but the pain in my torso is too much and we end up toppling over anyway.


    ¡°It¡¯s um, it¡¯s okay, I told them they could have it silly. I, I hope that¡¯s okay, I hope you aren¡¯t disappointed. I um, don¡¯t want you to be disappointed in me.¡±  Luni sits on my waist, straddling me, she puts her index fingertips together and plays with them.  While looking away she speaks shyly out the side of her mouth, with a vague pout playing across her lips.


    Teuila hauls Luni off of me, and vaguely chews Lu out in a loving manner, ¡°Of course Reggie isn¡¯t disappointed in you, drama queen, they thought you were disappointed in them, ya booger.  Can¡¯t you see how beat up they are right now though?  Awe come on, don¡¯t give me that face.  Come here you.¡±  Te brings Lu in for a tight hug, then noogies her lightly as I resume standing.  We all finish meeting up with the rest of the family together.  I think that¡¯s enough excitement for one evening.  I¡¯m pooped, ready for bed.  I think we all are, as we head into our home, as a full family for the first time since I¡¯ve been back from near-catatonia.

 B 2 C 10: On the Road Again

    <h2>B 2 C 10: On the Road Again</h2>


    Lao tends to my bruises and frets over me before the family prepares to bed down. ¡°Sweet child, when you went skyward, I didn¡¯t know what to do, then our Teuila leapt after you, and I was certain you were saved. But then the both of you didn¡¯t return immediately, what was I to think? Heavens forbid something happen to either of you. Do try to be more careful, please?¡± I try to maintain composure with Lao fretting, assuring her that we¡¯ll do our best to be safe. She¡¯s seen us together, she saw the whole fight with Octorochi, mostly. She knows how powerful Teuila is, the strongest among us. That thought sends shivers down my spine. I know, consciously, that Teulia would never hurt us. The panic from The Event still pokes and prods at me, a pressure that builds under the surface.


    Our cuddle pile is one of the most wonderful things in existence. We frequently had a fair bit of distance between various cliques within our family. There were times when we¡¯d be so spread out, and sprawled out, that at best we could touch a fingertip to a tail tip. Not tonight. Tonight we¡¯re celebrating, and I think we all feel closer than ever. Mata even drags the Mana twins to lay against Agwai¡¯s side, opposite Lao. We¡¯re basically shoulder to shoulder, or chest to shoulder, in a loose circle. Lu however has decided that Teuila, Lil, and myself are all pillows. She¡¯s sprawled over the top of us. Sugar and Spice make up the far side of my inner circle, where the full circle meets the Mana twins.


    We drift off to sleep, some of us still chattering excitedly about the party, and the day¡¯s events, others so exhausted we pass out almost immediately. I of course am in the latter category, so I¡¯m not certain what gets chatted about.


    When I awaken, I first notice that Mata has scooched himself and the Mana twins to the far side of the room sometime during the night. Like I said before, he mostly doesn¡¯t avoid me, mostly. I roll my eyes and try to pick up my last train of thought.


    If I were truly, permanently terrified of Teuila, there¡¯s no way I could have, or would have, relinquished so much of my own power. Let alone done so to grant her full control of her own. Equating it to my memories, it would be like a blaster superhero giving up a lot of the sustainability of their blasts, to grant a speedster hero even greater speed. I guess that¡¯s pretty much exactly what happened. Again, I have vague concepts of things like superheroes, definitions of the words, and even archetypes, but my memory says they¡¯re fake, that they don¡¯t exist. Why is so much of my memory wrong? Teuila is obviously ridiculously fast, with several secondary and tertiary powers. I may as well call her a speedster, like Red Lightning or something. Copper Bolt? Because her hair is a reddish copper, and she streaks from the sky like a bolt of lightning, crashing down.


    I¡¯m getting completely sidetracked, it¡¯s time to head out. I check that we¡¯ve got adequate provisions in my inventory, and that my inner circle are really truly okay with joining me to do this. Lao must see my expression change from pondersome to resolute. She sighs, wipes down my face momentarily and pats my head. ¡°Alright, if you must. But only if you continue to brighten the world, and our world. Please promise me that?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the goal Lao. As many of us as possible, as happy and as safe together as possible. Some day, maybe I¡¯ll figure out what the red eyes mean.¡± I shudder, panting, grasping my chest as I remind myself of certain hostile creatures I¡¯ve encountered. Lao strokes my back momentarily as I ride out the panic.


    I want to explore, to map out the region, rather than just following the river up and down again, so I find the largest contiguous piece of bark I can easily remove. I take one of the charcoal sticks I saved that wasn¡¯t pretty enough for Spice so that I can begin sketching a rough estimate of the distances between the various biomes.


    ¡°Alright my loveliest of buddies, pals, amigos, my dearest and brightest, I want to test our sense of direction, and find out more of what¡¯s inland as we head towards the beaver dam.¡±


    ¡°Uh, about that Reggie. Um, you see.¡± Lu plays with her index fingers, avoiding eye contact and talking out the side of her mouth.


    Teuila interrupts, ¡°Yeah, the butts don¡¯t want to ever see your face again. Something about, you saved them, they saved you, even Steven and no need to muddy the water, or something like that. There were lots of euphemisms and water puns that even I barely got, and I¡¯m an otter. What kind of gadabouts out-water-pun an otter?¡±


    My jaw drops, my nose crinkles, and I stare, incredulously, somewhat angrily. ¡°What, what, what the everliving fudge! I thought, y¡¯know, maybe we could get to like one another, and maybe have like, trade relations or something, like be two settlements with a big treaty or something.¡±


    ¡°Not everybody has to like you, my dweebus.¡± Te tries to console me. I think. That might have just been a statement of fact.


    ¡°I, I know that. I didn¡¯t mean, I don¡¯t think everyone likes me. Lord knows Mata mostly hates my guts. The only reason he¡¯s nice to me is because of, well, it doesn¡¯t matter why.¡± My three closest friends exchange a look that says they all know I saved him while I was checked out from reality, but I still won¡¯t spill his secret out loud. I notice their glances, but continue, ¡°I guess, well, are they even at least willing to be cordial with our settlement if I¡¯m affiliated with it at all? I¡¯m not asking us to be called Reggie village or anything like that. We¡¯re the Shellcracker Pond tribe. I, I just, I don¡¯t want to be the reason that keeps my family from moving into the brightest possible future.¡± My lip quivers and I turn away. I mutter, ¡°Lao¡¯s our leader, along with Ag anyway, I¡¯m just some dingus who goes places and gets in trouble.¡±


    My friends usher me further away from camp before they start to explain. Teuila starts off, ¡°So, look, chappy mcbusterpants, they don¡¯t want anything to do with you, but they¡¯re mostly okay with us. We visit once in a while. Since their lumber just respawns, they don¡¯t care if we take some. Thing is, you saved a lot of them. But the ones with the most say from both factions? They saved themselves. They don¡¯t see you as anything more than trouble, at best. At worst, they think you¡¯re a violent bullying thug. They¡¯re slightly at each other¡¯s throats, and both of them blame you for them not being at peace. It¡¯s about the only thing they can agree on these days. The ones that rose to leadership under the, well, bad thing, think they still deserve most of the leadership of the colony. The others wholeheartedly disagree, saying they deserve no power at all.¡±


    I try to digest what Teuila is saying. I know that a significant portion of the MCF lived in the south wing, we saw them during our escort on the way to the grand hall. So, the most important MCF beavers were there, and they got out by themselves, without me. Of course they wouldn¡¯t feel any kindness for me, they never met me. They only know that I didn¡¯t stop their dam from getting destroyed. The sane faction didn¡¯t even give me a long enough chance to fix things. If I had had a night of sleep, or just another day, or even a couple of hours, the flood could have been avoided.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Te also comments on my train of thought, ¡°They¡¯d also probably not enjoy you calling one of them, the sane faction, and the other group the MCF. Not that they really have group names for the divide, there¡¯s just these beavers, and those beavers.¡± I grimace, but also chuckle slightly at the fact that it might tick off whoever¡¯s in charge.


    No, bad Reggie, no making things worse. I start to mutter, trying to math out how to approach the situation. ¡°Okay, so, I don¡¯t want to disturb our canopy too much, the shade is part of what makes this place so idyllic, peaceful, and gorgeous, but I need an absolute boatload of lumber, like my entire inventory capacity worth for my plans. I know you three don¡¯t have the same capacity as me, so I wouldn¡¯t ask you to take dozens of trips for me. Hm, I need to expand the pond as well, hopefully increase the fish spawn, as well as contain possible Vampguppy outbreaks.¡± I visualize my muttering forming words that travel around my head, like some sort of green haired nerdy protagonist in a school. That¡¯s a weird visual, since my hair is mostly reddish.


    I think I¡¯ve got it! ¡°Lil, up in Fire Biome, did you have any sort of frequent hunting grounds? Things that respawn fairly quickly. Especially one where you couldn¡¯t keep up and fight everything off all the time? I think I remember reading about you not wanting to tangle with big packs of things.¡±


    Lil nods, answering in their usual chipper manner, ¡°Yup yup! cragbeasts and lavultures are kinda nasty, even if their main abilities don¡¯t do much to me, mine won¡¯t work on them either.¡± Lil is insinuating that they breathe fire, or maybe lava. I¡¯d really rather not mess with vultures that spew lava from the sky though. Still, as long as we all have Valkyrie gear, the shield seemed to be able to handle a smattering of lava.


    I pull out the copy of the shield I used to block a splash of lava. There¡¯s some slight pitting, but it seems otherwise unharmed. I even have the lava that splashed on it in my inventory in the form of cooled iron. Woah, wait, melted iron? Ugh, I need to not get sidetracked. We can come back to metallurgy later. Lil said the bags were rare, but not impossible, so maybe Lil saw some inventory expansion bags drop at one point, but wasn¡¯t able to claim them due to the dangerous location they were in.


    Lil nods at me while coasting along our shared wavelength, feeling my train of thought. I grin at Lil as I exclaim, ¡°That settles it, for the first leg of the journey buddy, you¡¯re our leader! You take us to the biggest, quickest spawning area of hostiles in Fire Biome, and we¡¯ll get your inventory capacity maxed out, as well as mine to whatever my new cap is. Once we do that, then we explore south along the jungle, sweep down to the beaver dam, pick up as much lumber as we can carry, and finally return for a while to improve our home.¡±


    I glance between Luni and Teuila. I can sense Lil is in, no matter what, but I need to ask, ¡°So, from what Lil describes, what we¡¯re about to do is going to be grueling. Quite possibly nonstop combat for days on end. We might only be able to leave by fleeing, and we should probably only flee when we¡¯re completely finished, because it might be hard to get back in a rhythm afterwards. Teuila, I know you can handle yourself the best out of all of us, but even still, this is dangerous, and you don¡¯t need to do this with me. I¡¯ll love and respect you no matter what you choose. Luni, likewise I¡¯ll love and respect you no matter what, you don¡¯t have to join us in this.¡±


    Te is about to answer snarkily, when Lu shyly interrupts. ¡°Um, soooo, I forgot to mention one thing. The beavers in the, you called them the MCF, they have Lao¡¯s, Ag¡¯s, Mata¡¯s, and the twins¡¯ Valkyrie equipment. Also, uh, you¡¯re all going to literally die if I don¡¯t come along.¡± I think it¡¯s safe to say the rest of us are stunned at Lu¡¯s assertion, as we all turn our gaze to her. Lu shrinks from our combined gazes, blushing profusely. Curses, that¡¯s right, I only got the wicker basket with Teuila¡¯s and my equipment out of there on that horrid day, I still have the waste of space in my inventory. I want to vent my frustrations, but I¡¯m trying to show Luni patience.


    The three of us side eye one another as we wait patiently. Lu however seems unwilling to offer up any more information without prompting, so I prompt, ¡°Luni, would you possibly at all be willing to elucidate us on why? I don¡¯t mistrust you, if you have a feeling, or know something we don¡¯t, I think we¡¯d just like a little explanation, is all.¡±


    Luni puts on her extroverted face, or her brave pants if you will. She starts, ¡°Okay, I can¡¯t tell you why or how I know, but I can promise you I do absolutely know. I also promise you that I will be okay with you three to protect me, so you don¡¯t have to worry. I¡¯m coming, there¡¯s nothing more I can say about it.¡± Her voice starts to waiver ever so slightly at the end. By the end, she¡¯s playing with her index fingers again.


    I can only guess that Luni will do something like magnifying our thermal resistance at a key moment, keeping Teuila and myself alive. Keeping us alive will keep Lil alive. Without us Lil might get locked in a bloody stalemate with an endless wave of hostile spawning creatures. Lil¡¯s primary ability is their fire, without much else in the way of offense. Lil¡¯s defenses are also a smidge on the vulnerable side as Lilagnewt. So yeah, Lil facing off against a ton of beasts that are immune to Lil¡¯s fire sounds like bad news.


    I¡¯m still worried a bit about Lu though, the requisite secrecy, the flips between her shy and extroverted personalities. I don¡¯t want to be pushing her too hard. I feel like, if she has to keep secrets to be able to use her magic, that we¡¯re abusing her by putting her in that situation. I¡¯m afraid we¡¯ll hurt her, or change her somehow.


    Lu interrupts my train of thought, ¡°You won¡¯t, it¡¯s okay. I can choose. It¡¯s not abuse when it¡¯s my choice. Lil, Reggie said you¡¯re the leader for this trip, so, um, maybe, could we possibly please get going, please? If that¡¯s okay?¡± Lu swaps from extroverted to introverted mid sentence, and it¡¯s mind-boggling. I trust her though. Quite literally with our lives.


    Lil takes the cue however and starts bounding forward. Lil suddenly swaps forms to Lilagnewt mid leap, and begins soaring northwest towards the caves along the cliff face. I smile as I watch Lil spiral and swoop back and forth, guiding us and returning. On one pass, Lil swoops low enough that Luni leaps atop their back. The two make an incredible pair. I can only smile at them as Teuila and I jog along behind them.


    Teuila, bored of jogging, exclaims, ¡°Oh sod this.¡± I see a bright flash, then suddenly I¡¯m jogging alongside Te in her Valkyrie form. She scoops me up and races Lil to the cliff face. Teuila¡¯s able to leap horizontally as quickly as she is vertically. I thought we moved dozens of meters in a single bound, but we must be moving nearly a kilometer every single leap when we¡¯ve got a straight enough path between trees. We arrive in mere minutes. I¡¯m not even sure if it was plural minutes, or if it was something like a minute and a half. Valkyrie can do in minutes what it takes me days to accomplish. Teuila¡¯s base form can do in minutes what it takes me hours to accomplish. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever stop being impressed with my Te.


    I vaguely find myself wondering where Teuila learned the term ¡®sod this.¡¯ I¡¯m a tiny bit embarrassed that I¡¯m being cradled in her arms right now. We wait, with Te standing around holding me in her arms for quite a while as Lil catches up. I¡¯m comfortable enough that it doesn¡¯t bother me more than the mild embarrassment.

 B 2 C 11: Fire Biome Beginnings

    <h2>B 2 C 11: Fire Biome Beginnings</h2>


    Teuila notices my embarrassment and drops her form, plopping me onto my feet in front of her. She scratches the back of her head while she blushes, looking away. Te mutters, ¡°Sorry, kinda just like being the strong one I guess, maybe. Sorry bubbaloo.¡± I lean down and crane my neck upwards until I can meet Teuila¡¯s gaze. Though I¡¯m shaking slightly, I poke her in the nose.


    ¡°Boop.¡±


    Te, completely caught off guard, manages to respond, ¡°W, wh, what? Hahaha, what was that? If you¡¯re gonna flick me, flick me like you mean it.¡±


    I respond, ¡°As you wish.¡± Though as I do, my brain seems to shut off for the briefest of seconds, another momentary BSOD. Continuing my train of thought, I grab Teuila by the waist and rush away from the cliff face, so that any goofing off we do doesn¡¯t end in disaster. Teuila begins jokingly jabbing me in the stomach with her fingertips, but manages to just slightly catch the edge of a rib. I pitifully articulate, ¡°Ow, ow, ow, ribs still sore, ribs still sore, you win, you win! Hahaha.¡±


    Te responds mercilessly though, ¡°Oh no buster, you asked for it, if I have to avoid your ribs, I¡¯ll just getcha elsewhere.¡± Teuila starts playfully poking and prodding me all over with light jabs, occasionally hitting a ticklish spot. I can barely manage to retaliate once in a rare while. Mostly just landing the shortest possible tickling jab to an elbow or armpit. Each time I do earns me one of her gleeful ¡°Heeee¡± sounds.


    Lil and Lu finally catch up as we¡¯re in the middle of rolling around on the stone. For once, I end up on top, with Teuila pinned. I wave to Lil and Lu as they arrive, and Teuila takes advantage of the momentary distraction to once again flip us so that she has me pinned. We both can¡¯t help but laugh. I think the fact that her love is rough, unrefined, playful, somehow manages to help against the fear of the cruel, cunning, deceitful moments of The Event. I know they weren¡¯t her, I know it, but I can¡¯t help it. I break down slightly. My vision narrows, my breathing becomes staccato hiccups, my pulse pounds in my ears. I weep momentarily.


    I return from my panicked state to find myself embraced by Lil, Lu, and Te. Lu whispers to Lil, ¡°Told you they¡¯d be goofing off til we showed up, my turn to pick the topic, nyeh.¡± Lil laughs, but then whispers back, acquiescing. If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d say my friends were betting on whether I¡¯d panic before or after they arrived.


    Lil and Lu flash each other a look after riding my mental wavelength, hearing my last thought. They jumble startled responses together, making it hard to discern who¡¯s saying what, ¡°Nope, nuh uh, we would never, oh okay yeah, yeah, sorry, we did.¡± The comical charade has me laughing, I¡¯m not even mad.


    ¡°Okay buddy, uh buddies! Uh, and, my gal pal! This is the first time I ever get to show you around my homeland!¡± Lil excitedly starts to flit about, though I¡¯m curious if they have the same trouble that Teuila and I do, figuring out what our relationship is. I don¡¯t think romantic relationships even exist in our world, our reality. Plus, I think we¡¯re in some sort of quadruple relationship. Lil and Lu, Lil and Te, Te and me, me and Lu, me and Lil. I believe Lu and Te think of one another as sisters.


    Leaning over to Teuila, I whisper, ¡°Since they bet on me, how about I bet you something that Lil¡¯s tour is filled with a bunch of excited ¡®and here is where I ate this other guy!¡¯?¡±


    Te whispers back, ¡°No bet, that¡¯s a fools bet, a trick. Wait for it.¡± Teuila points as Lil begins to call out something.


    Lil excitedly exclaims, ¡°Here¡¯s where I ate my first rhinoceros beetle!¡± Teuila smirks at me, but we both knew it was coming. I chuckle at our buddy¡¯s enthusiasm for eating, but I can¡¯t say a tour by me would be much different. Here¡¯s where I cried, here is also where I cried, and I cried over there too. Oh, over there I ate fish.


    Teuila bursts into laughter after hearing my thoughts. She states, ¡°Look, cry all you want, you¡¯re still glorious, your magic, and your plans have kept this family moving forward to the future. I¡¯ll stand by you as you cry until the end of time.¡± She then slugs me hard in the shoulder for emphasis. I wince slightly in pain, I don¡¯t think she¡¯s used to her enhanced strength yet.


    When Teuila realizes she actually might have left a bruise, her bravado and ego deflate. She looks utterly mortified as her eyes well with tears. ¡°I, I. I wouldn¡¯t. I¡¯d never. I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry. Please don¡¯t let me make things worse. I¡¯m sorry, please don¡¯t lose sight of us. Please don¡¯t lose progress. Don¡¯t go away again, please. Please don¡¯t leave again. I didn¡¯t mean to be mean, or an idiot, I would never hurt you. I¡¯ll never hurt you again. I¡¯m so sorry.¡±


    Between the topic at hand, and literally feeling Teuila¡¯s remorse with our bond, tears stream unbidden down my cheeks. I slowly double over, clutching at my chest. I let out a single wail of anguish, quite possibly the loudest sound I¡¯ve ever made. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhh!¡± The reason for the anguish? Disappointment in myself. My fear is causing Teuila to doubt me so much. My fear caused us to lose months of our lives that could have been lived together. My fear is what hurt her. I drop to my knees and pound the ground slightly as I start to laugh. It¡¯s a weak, nervous laugh, not quite hysterical.


    I choke back a sob so I can clear my throat, before Teuila can get upset about the laughter. I try to explain, ¡°Teuila, my Te. You¡¯re the kindest, sweetest, most powerful being that I know, in all of existence. I can¡¯t make you any promises on my stupid emotional state. I hate it. I¡¯m sorry that I can¡¯t promise anything. I¡¯m so utterly sorry. I can absolve you of this bit of guilt at least though. You¡¯re okay. I like it when you roughhouse with me. Just maybe practice a bit to test out your new strength? Heh.¡±


    She stammers for a second, ¡°You, you, you, ugh I hate this! You twerpleberrypuck! It¡¯s not your fault!¡±


    Teuila¡¯s about to continue, but I interrupt her, ¡°It¡¯s not yours either.¡± Te¡¯s jaw goes a bit slack, and she holds up one finger as if to point, puts it down, brings it back up again near her lips, recoils it against her thumb, vaguely in a pinching motion, her mouth looks like it¡¯s about to form a word but she stops.


    Despite looking stunned and speechless, she somehow reminds me of a captain. Maybe it¡¯s her confidence. Teuila seems to recover from being stunned, as she starts jabbing me again before saying, ¡°You, you big jerk, I was going somewhere with that! But, I guess, maybe something doesn¡¯t have to be anyone¡¯s fault, and a thing can just suck. Can¡¯t it? It¡¯s not fair. It¡¯s not fair to you that you suffer. I hate seeing you suffer, I¡¯d give up everything, if only for your good. I mean, for you to be able to be good and feel good. But I¡¯d also see you suffer for an eternity as long as it meant I got to be by your side. Isn¡¯t that messed up?¡±


    I can¡¯t help but chuckle, and also can¡¯t help but to agree with Te¡¯s sentiment, ¡°That last part is a little bit messed up, the way you worded it, heh. I understood what you meant though. I feel the same. I¡¯m sorry that we hurt for each other. I¡¯m sorry that it mostly stems from the suffering I have to deal with. I guess it¡¯s just part of the package. I don¡¯t know if that will ever change, but I hope you can see that I¡¯m trying to face it, to make it better.¡±


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Te cups my cheek as she whispers, ¡°I do, I do see it. I can¡¯t tell you how proud and grateful I truly am. I mean it, seriously, I can¡¯t. You know me, I can¡¯t do the word things. But, I do, y¡¯know, those words.¡± I almost start to laugh when Teuila says ¡®I mean it, seriously¡¯ but I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t. The last bit fills my heart with joy. I gaze into Teuila¡¯s eyes. My heart skips several beats from fear, several beats from love as well. Tears of both fear and happiness cascade from my eyes.


    I gulp, and I¡¯m about to do something, when Lu shouts, ¡°See, told you they needed a private minute!¡± I sigh as my heart resets. Taking a few ragged, sob-laden breaths, I manage to laugh at Luni¡¯s timing. I check the progress on my maximum energy capacity, and the prognosis is pretty grim. I¡¯m definitely still gaining maximum energy, not as slowly as I feared, but nowhere near as much as I was originally capable of. As I feared, so long ago now, struggling back into the thousands is going to take a lot more than passively dinking around in my inventory all the time.


    Lu calls out, ¡°Come on my little birdies, Lil says we¡¯ve gotta head all the way to the volcano.¡± Teuila and I glance at each other. We both know our conversation wasn¡¯t finished, but also wasn¡¯t going anywhere productive. Each of us will always feel guilty for our own feelings. Teuila returns to her Valkyrie form and picks me up.


    Te calls out, ¡°Race ya there!¡±


    Lil lets out a nearly bloodcurdling scream of, ¡°No!¡± I¡¯ve never heard them so adamant about something. Te looks shaken even in her Valkyrie form. I¡¯m feeling quite panicked as I wait for this to pan out.


    Lil huffs, ¡°It¡¯s dangerous. Lava plumes if you don¡¯t have a red soul. I mean jets, geysers, big shooting lava out of the ground! If I leave a soul trail, the ground will see red long enough, so it won¡¯t burn you. Please let me do this, I don¡¯t want to see you hurt.¡± Teuila gulps guiltily.


    Te acknowledges Lil¡¯s concern for our safety, ¡°Hey, hey Dragbutt, I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t know. We, I just. There was a thing, and we were, but. I didn¡¯t know. I¡¯m sorry. Are we okay?¡±


    Lil flits on over to us and nuzzles Teuila. Luni drops down from Lil¡¯s back. There¡¯s tension in the air, but also love. Lil absolves Te, ¡°Of course we¡¯re okay boogerbrain. We¡¯ll never not be okay unless you go dying on us. So just, don¡¯t die, okay? Reggie and I care about you a lot. You¡¯re real fun, and super awesome. Also you were carrying Reggie, so you woulda both got killed. We¡¯d have been so sad, mega sad, mega mega mega sad.¡±


    My breath catches in my throat as my lips quiver. Lu tugs at my wrist to pull me away from Teuila and Lil for a moment, apparently giving them privacy. I see Teuila smooching Lil¡¯s forehead out of the corner of my eye. Their closeness warms my heart. I¡¯m glad they continued to grow closer when I was on autopilot.


    Lu hems and haws as she rocks back and forth on her heels. Finally she states, ¡°So uh, in about five minutes, I¡¯d have to break off from the group to make it in time, but they¡¯re going to be a bit. So I¡¯ve gotta go save all your lives now, k? Bye, love you, take care of them!¡± Luni leans in and plants a smooch on my cheek before jogging away. She somehow covers ground ridiculously fast. Oh, right, she has some sort of travel music power. Some sort of seven leagues song or something.


    I just have to trust her. Lil and Teuila need a minute to mend their bond, and I¡¯m the only one that witnesses Luni stealing away, to supposedly save our lives. Well, I shouldn¡¯t say supposedly. She said she¡¯s saving our lives, so that¡¯s what she¡¯s doing.


    I flop to the ground to sit lotus style, lost in my own thoughts. It¡¯s not an unfamiliar place for me to be. Lu told me specifically to take care of them. Was that some sort of prophetic power of hers, or just general well wishes? If it was a prophecy, what am I going to do? I gave up most of my power to Lil and Te. My radiant attacks are somewhat useful, but Teuila could deliver a thousand blows worth any of my radiant attacks, without having to expend the energy. I¡¯ve got it in me to do maybe a few dozen at this point.


    Maybe I¡¯ve been relying too much on my space skill? But what else do I have? There¡¯s basically nothing good about me as an adventurer. I¡¯m scrawny, I¡¯m slow, I¡¯m tiny, I¡¯m frail, I succumb to panic and fear constantly. I regularly get distracted by my own thoughts. Oh, and worse, once in a while, I get cocky too. Okay, okay, enough with the self-recrimination. Think what Lu could possibly have meant, just in case I do need to answer the call of some prophecy.


    I make plans, my plans generally don¡¯t work, but my reactions to them failing tend to get us out of a bind. Is that it? Do I just need to plan out what to do, then watch my plan crumble to dust, failing as they always do? When it has gone awry, then I just react? Ugh, that was vaguely self-recriminatory. I also don¡¯t think it¡¯s what Lu meant. What if Lu actually meant I¡¯d have to be there to take care of them at some specific moment, in the ways that I generally leap to do? My consistent overdramatic self-sacrifice. Just with a touch of moderation, and self-preservation.


    That sounds more like it. I guess I just need to literally have their backs. Although, they¡¯re both aerial combatants. How the hell am I going to do that? I¡¯ve used Newton¡¯s third law before. Too bad I can¡¯t just ignore physics. Wait, when I slowed my fall before. I can summon things out of my inventory with upward velocity. I can do that right under my own feet. I¡¯m such an idiot!


    I mutter to no one in particular, ¡°Lu, you¡¯re a genius.¡±


    Testing it out, I begin summoning thin slats of wood from my inventory, and sure enough, I can get vertical airtime. What¡¯s more, I can get endless hangtime, as long as I¡¯m summoning really small amounts of material. I can jump around in the air and not fall unless I do something stupid like get distracted, oh, oops.


    I plummet for a bit, from the several hundred feet I¡¯ve managed to ascend. Slowing my fall at this point is more like, how do I put this? If someone were to fall through like thirty awnings in a row. It¡¯s a very jostling way to break one¡¯s fall, or uh, to brake one¡¯s fall. I think they both actually work verb wise. Braking is to slow to a stop, so, yeah. As I finally return to the ground, I of course land on my face. I am after all, not a graceful creature.


    Teuila and Lil trot over, Te teases me, ¡°So uh, dirt taste pretty good today tootsuit? How¡¯d you end up down there?¡± The two of them must have really been emotionally bonding to not notice me sailing in the air just a short ways away.


    Teuila hears my thoughts before I get a chance to express them, and she cries, ¡°You were what? How? Wait, where¡¯s Lu? Did she get kidnapped by a bird? Is that why you were in the air? Who do I kill?!¡±


    I chuckle, as I stand, dusting myself off. I¡¯m not sure how much to tell them, so I¡¯ll try to succinctly summarize, ¡°Lu basically hit me with some mystic prophetic words saying that she had to go to be able to save our lives. She asked me to take care of you two. I couldn¡¯t figure out how I could possibly help, since you can both spend so much time in the air. Now I can too. I just use my space skill to throw stuff under my feet! I don¡¯t know why I never thought of this, other than the fact that I¡¯m an idiot, a complete maroon. I especially should have thought of this in the swamp, since we were already planning on suspending things in the air for Valkyrie to dance on and dropkick. I literally had you doing it, and never thought to try doing it myself, to maybe reduce the fall.¡±


    As I ramble exceedingly quickly, Teuila walks up and slaps me. She calls me out, ¡°You, you ignoramus! You could, you could, you could fly? And you still fell! You got so hurt! Ugh, you, you dirty rotten jerk. Stop getting hurt!¡± I want to correct Teuila that I can¡¯t fly, but it¡¯s semantics at this point. As long as I don¡¯t get distracted, and have a supply of solid matter in my inventory, I can pretty much stay aloft as long as I need, and I don¡¯t need to, oh hey, my maximum energy took a nice little jump. Not massive, but much better than the last day or so of passive putzing.


    Teuila, still furious with me, rides our shared wavelength, and catches that I¡¯m distracted by my own thoughts, so she chews me out some more, while simultaneously falling to her knees and hugging me tightly. Her insults eventually fade off to one last single, ¡°Jerk.¡± Before she stands up and noogies me.


    I don¡¯t know what¡¯s worse, my own feeling of guilt and stupidity for not having figured this out, and having gotten hurt. Or the fact that I got hurt, when I could have avoided it, which hurts Teuila, and leaves her disappointed in me. Sighing, I dust myself off and motion towards the volcano.


    Lil leads us onwards, on foot, in their base form.

 B 2 C 12: Its About Time

    <h2>B 2 C 12: It¡¯s About Time</h2>


    For Lil, it¡¯s less on-foot when in their base form, but I meant that none of us are flying. Lil has to make sure their aura is on the ground. I¡¯m not sure what they meant about the ground seeing aura. If Lil says the ground can see though, then the ground can see. I have utmost faith in everyone in my inner circle. If Mata told me that, I¡¯d be skeptical.


    I¡¯ll happily walk with Lil and Valkyrie-Teuila as long as necessary, though I¡¯m saddened that Lu isn¡¯t walking with us. I trust that somehow, either she¡¯ll catch up, or she¡¯ll be right where we need her to be, when we need her to be there. I don¡¯t know how, or why, but I have faith in our little Lu, and her ominous prophecies.


    The three of us travel for several hours, Lil carefully staying at least half a slither ahead of us at all times. I want to be prepared in case of any surprises, so I¡¯d better get my maximum energy capacity back up. Looking at my mental logs right now, it¡¯s just annoying to read maximum energy capacity over and over. I should probably just start calling it mana, and max mana at some point. Lil should still understand what I¡¯m talking about if I say mana. Right Lil?


    ¡°Sure buddy! Whatever¡¯s easier to remember, think, or say. I¡¯m not the boss of words! Hehe.¡±


    Chuckling, I stumble slightly on a single loose rock as I browse my mind¡¯s eye interface. Honestly, probably the only loose rock on this plain, and I stumble on it while trying to come up with a way to increase my effective max mana accumulation rate. The stumble causes me to drop a step behind Lil and Teuila. I pause for a moment to laugh at myself for once again not paying attention, but I swear I just saw a new skill pop up before getting distracted from my distraction. Just after my space skill, I swear it said time.


    Distracted yet again, and a few steps behind, my world comes crashing to a halt. Time seems to freeze as it only does when someone derezzes. Completely without warning Lil and Teuila are engulfed in lava spewing from below. I hear the crashing, cracking sound of someone derezzing, and I pray it¡¯s my imagination, or my own heart. Lil is immune, Lil has infinite thermal resistance. Teuila, my Teuila, she doesn¡¯t. She isn¡¯t. Time continues to stand still as I retreat into accelerated thinkspace. Less than a tenth of a millisecond has passed since the lava spewed forth from beneath their feet. I have a new skill, a time skill of one. Please do what I think you can do. As I try to activate the time skill, I swear the lava spout is bending, angling towards me.


    My pillars of sanity come crashing down around me as I see lava erupt from beneath Teuila¡¯s feet. My heart feels as if it¡¯s ripped from my chest, impaled on spikes, set aflame, then dunked in acid for good measure. Lil will be okay, Lil has infinite thermal resistance, but Teuila doesn¡¯t. I could swear I¡¯ve seen this happen once before, and what comes next is the lava spout redirecting in midair. I¡¯m crushed under the weight of my guilt and regrets, a burden so heavy that Atlas himself could not shoulder it. Retreating into accelerated thinkspace so that I can experience a lifetime of grief and trauma in a single instant, I take advantage of the time dilation momentarily. My mental log says this did happen once before, and that I have a time skill of one. But checking it, I have a time skill almost up to two. I hope you do what I think you can do, please take me back.


    My whole world crumbles at the sight being enacted before my eyes. Lava spews forth from the ground, engulfing Lil and Teuila. Instantly there¡¯s the horrid, gut-wrenching sound of derezzing as time stands still. I know I have an active imagination, and a propensity to dream up the worst, but I swear I¡¯ve watched this happen before already. I retreat into accelerated thinkspace to wallow in the weight of my sins. I want to be swallowed by my sins and my grief, a thousand times longer than will actually pass in meatspace. While there, I check my mental log, to see what my last memory of my beloved Teuila will be. Oddly, my log says I¡¯ve experienced this before, twice now, and that I have a time skill of one. But looking at my skills page reveals a time skill of two. I must have used it already, and failed her twice now. I hope Teuila will forgive me for failing her, however many times this takes. Here goes nothing.


    Distracted from my own distraction, I swear I just saw a new skill pop into place, I think it said time. That would be crazy right? I¡¯m several steps behind Lil and Te now, so I¡¯d better catch up. Life suddenly ceases to have meaning as lava erupts from beneath Teuila¡¯s feet, engulfing her and Lil. Lil has infinite thermal resistance, but Teuila, she, she doesn¡¯t. Time turns on its head, freezing so hard that it feels like my own heart stops as I¡¯m greeted by the awful, gut-wrenching cacophony of derezzing.


    Not even being able to bear facing Lil at the moment, as we¡¯ve both just lost someone so precious to us, I retreat into accelerated thinkspace. I go there, here, to wallow in my grief, a thousand times longer than one could normally fit into a lifetime. While here, I check my logs to ascertain my last memory of my beloved warrior-angel, my Valkyrie, my Teuila. Strange, it says I¡¯ve experienced this before, time and time again. It also says that I have a time skill of two. That¡¯s crazy, right? It couldn¡¯t possibly have done what I was guessing, could it? If it does, Teuila please forgive me for putting you through this, over and over. Good luck, past me.


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    Distracted from my distraction due to stumbling, I am positive I just saw a time skill get added to my skills list. Opening my skills list again, yes, I do have a time skill of three, but if it¡¯s three, that means I have to have used it several times already. I look at my mental logs to confirm having used it. I don¡¯t have time to read as I gasp in horror when my normal vision catches lava erupting, consuming Lil and Teuila in an instant. I vomit, but even that hangs in the air as time freezes during that horrid familiar sound of someone derezzing. Lil has infinite thermal resistance, but Teuila, she, she doesn¡¯t. I retreat into accelerated thinkspace. I want to cry a thousand lifetimes worth in a single lifetime, and this is the place to do it. While here, I want to know what my last memory of Teuila will be. Strangely, my log shows this having happened over and over. Some well deserved self-inflicted punishment it seems. Yet still, I have a time skill of three, the temptation is there. I hope Teuila can forgive me if I¡¯m putting her through this over and over, failing again and again to save her. Maybe next time will be different.


    Looking at my skills page, I spy a time skill that¡¯s halfway between three and four. I pause midstep to check within my logs how I could have used it already. Gasping, I begin to cry out a warning as I fall behind Teuila and Lil. As my mental logs show, I witness Teuila being engulfed by lava without warning. Time stands still as she¡¯s instantly taken from me, I can feel Lil screaming with loss in the frozen moment. I¡¯m sorry my beloved buddy, I can¡¯t comfort you or stay with you to grieve. Please work, please work, please be real.


    I decide to pull up my skill page while trying to figure out ways to increase my max mana faster, and spy a curious skill at four. Time. That is quite odd because I¡¯ve never used it before. Checking my mental logs however is like a gutpunch. I¡¯m just going to trust past future me, and skip witnessing that, to try out this skill. Here¡¯s hoping I notice it early enough to finally save her. Please work, please work.


    While checking my mental logs to confirm how annoying it is to read maximum energy capacity, and maximum energy capacity gain rate, several new entries pop in simultaneously. But these can¡¯t be real. I verify that I have a time skill of four, I see a rock I was about to stumble on, so I bolt for Teuila. Using my new knowledge of my space skill, I lean almost horizontally, then jettison raw matter beneath my feet with the velocity aimed directly at Teuila''s midsection. It''s probably the fastest I''ll ever move.


    I cry out, ¡°Aerial, quick! Lil, up!¡± I grip Teuila¡¯s waist tightly as she plants her feet, having caught me. Te begins her leap because she intrinsically trusts me. She trusts me even though I¡¯m dashing at her like a loon, looking like I¡¯m going to tackle her. It seems like I watch the same event described in the logs happen in slow motion. This time though, my beloved Valkyrie was on the move as the lava rose. I thank my stars that convection isn¡¯t a real thing, at least not in this reality.


    I also thank everything lucky for Teuila being as powerful as she is. Nothing¡¯s as fast as Teuila taking to the sky. Her ancillary powers must reduce g-forces and whiplash for herself and those near her as well. I think she can only break the speed of sound with gravity assist currently, but I¡¯m sure someday she will be ascending tiers of mach speeds even during vertical climbs.


    Lil actually rides the lava spout for a while before transforming. After a bit, Lil does their best to pound air, attempting to rise on the updraft provided by the lava itself. It looks like the lava is still rushing up to meet us from below, we have to retreat a bit and get our bearings. This is not normal lava. I also think we¡¯re going to have to somehow fight it, which is very confusing. I also feel a bit drained for some reason.


    Anyway, time, really? Now this is a hell of a convenient power to have acquired just in the nick of time. Ugh, two puns in one mental sentence. Someone sentence me to mental prison for them, please. Ugh, more wordplay. Seems like I can¡¯t help myself. Somehow, somehow I just know that Lu is the reason I have this new power. She had to be gone so that I¡¯d have it in time. Ugh, wordplay again.


    There¡¯s no way, there¡¯s no way, right? The last few seconds are just me hallucinating from panic or something, right? But there it is, my logs arrived as I traveled mere seconds into the past. Great, now I¡¯m going to be so paranoid that I need to look at my logs every second of every day to make sure future-me didn¡¯t bring back some logs warning of somebody¡¯s imminent demise.


    Teuila and Lil are chuckling at my puns until they telepathically hear me talking about my logs. They then take a look for themselves. My pals are both aghast at what appears in my mental journal. I give them a look of horrified confirmation. Yes, these logs really must have happened.


    I can virtually sense Lil¡¯s question before they ask it telepathically. No, Lil, I will not use it to guess what number you¡¯re thinking. Not even by waiting til you say it, then coming back in time so I can read the number before you even think it.


    Lil begins to ask, ¡°Hey Reggie, wanna use it to guess.¡± As I interrupt, Lil releases a dejected, ¡°Awwwe!¡± Te seems a bit somber until Lil¡¯s joking around makes her giggle into our telepathic bond. It must be awful for her, reading how I failed to save her, time and time again. Reading about her own demise, over and over.


    My Valkyrie hugs me tightly as we change trajectory, retreating somewhat. She calls across our telepathic wavelength to me, ¡°Reggie, Reggie it¡¯s not awful for me, it was awful for you. How, how can you possibly keep worrying about me, when your logs literally say your sanity crumbled, your world shattered, your heart broke? I never want to see you hurt so badly, ever. If I have to train hard enough to become immortal to prevent it, then I¡¯ll sure as spitfire do just that boosterboob.¡±


    I didn¡¯t realize I was crying until I started to hiccup and laugh simultaneously. I think I¡¯m a bit lightheaded from the altitude or something. Wait though, did Teuila just say something really sweet to me about my state of mind? Actually, why is it getting so dark all of a sudden?

 B 2 C 13: Yes Really, A Lava Monster

    <h2>B 2 C 13: Yes Really, A Lava Monster</h2>


    I feel lost, adrift in an endless sea. The water is soothing, a neutral temperature, it almost robs me of all sensations. In fact, I don¡¯t hear waves, the breeze, gulls, anything. All I see is a cool blue sky, or maybe that¡¯s just more water. Somewhere, there¡¯s another soul in this sea. Something I did hurt them, took them from their rightful place and put them here with me, earlier than their time. This must be the end of all things, I think some call it purgatory, but I don¡¯t belong to this place yet. It lets me know that it¡¯s not my time. Somewhere out there, in the distant future, a candle is snuffed out just a bit too early. This place somehow indicates it¡¯s my fault. Something I did cost time, time that wasn¡¯t mine to steal.


    Blinking, I slowly awaken at the cliff¡¯s edge of Fire Biome. What was I dreaming about? As I come to, I hear Lu speaking with concern, ¡°Is Reggie okay? They told me they might not be okay when using it for the first time, oops, I mean, uh, just, they got the time skill in time, right?¡± My mind feels a tad discombobulated, so I rattle my skull. Did Luni say someone told her about me using a skill before I even activated it for the first time?


    The last thing I remember, I was picturing losing Teuila over and over and over. I must have been having a horrible nightmare. Perhaps I passed out as Te was racing Lil to Fire Biome. Yes, it must have just been a horrible nightmare, there¡¯s no way I have a skill that rewinds time.


    Checking my skills page, my heart stops. My eyes shoot wide with terror. I can¡¯t manage to suck down a single breath. There¡¯s a time skill, it happened. I lost her, again and again and again. My stomach invents an acrobatics routine as my head lolls. My widened panicked eyes stop seeing anything, leaving me with a blank stare. As my jaw hangs slack, I¡¯m fairly certain I drool.


    Agonizingly slowly, I clutch at my chest, my heart, with one hand, then the other. Maybe, maybe if I go back far enough, I won¡¯t even have to have seen this. I could practice, raising the skill until I can go back far enough to rescue everyone. We could see Penina again, Olioli, Atamai, Iakopo, Taito. Staff Ninja might not have to die.


    Luni, riding my horrid thoughts telepathically, shouts, ¡°No! You mustn¡¯t! You can not use it again, you can¡¯t practice with it, you have to promise me. You can¡¯t practice with it until a certain event. You¡¯ll know when. You want me to get you to promise, I mean I want to get you to promise me.¡± In my daze, I barely comprehend what Luni¡¯s asking of me. Te and Lil are a bit startled at Lu¡¯s assertion. What did I say before? Even if I don¡¯t trust myself, I trust Luni.


    Wait. She keeps saying I told her. Some future me reached out to her, told her what she needed to know, because I knew I would trust her before trusting myself. I put myself through that? Instead of just coming up with a way to prevent it entirely?


    Lu shouts, again, ¡°Don¡¯t, don¡¯t guess, stop guessing! Focus, um, please, please focus Reggie. The lava, Te and Lil said it chased you. Do you have a plan for that?¡± Lu tries to direct my thoughts, again, I have to trust her. I¡¯m positive now that she¡¯s the reason I have this skill, that somehow I acquired this skill, then spoke to her in the past, or sent her back in time. Right, right, stop guessing. I¡¯ll probably rip a hole in the space-time continuum if I accidentally change the course of events. That¡¯s probably why I trusted Luni with the information instead of myself.


    Still, my head¡¯s swimming, I swear I had some sort of nasty nightmare recently. If it wasn¡¯t witnessing Teuila die over and over, what was it? Ugh, no time, gotta focus, no idea how long until that lava creature catches up to us.


    Luni continues, shyly, "Um, so uh, guys. I won''t have all of my powers for much longer, some stuff is going to happen. Reggie, you need to start learning how to use your magic defensively. Lil, I love you and your forms, but you''re going to need to try to master it enough that you can change it. Te, uh, you keep doing you, honestly." Lu is once again playing with her index fingertips, speaking out the side of her mouth. The duality is almost impressive. Moments ago she was shouting assertively.


    Curiously though, I query, ¡°How would my magics be used defensively, especially if I¡¯m not allowed to use the time skill? Also, yeah, I promise you Lu. You three mean everything to me, and if any of you need something from me, well, you know I¡¯d go to the edge of death and beyond to try to do it for you.¡±


    Lu shrugs, but takes a wild guess anyway, ¡°I um, I have no idea. Maybe uh, well, getting yourself out of the way? Or, or, uh. When you, when you make copies of things, do they ever break? Do they ever move anywhere that you didn¡¯t want them to?¡±


    My jaw drops when Luni points out something that should have been patently obvious. My radiant copies have never broken. They¡¯ve never been knocked aside or knocked back at me. I know that at one point during the Night of High Water, I actually copied fire as an explosion. The fire behaved exactly like I expected or imagined it to. My desires and imagination weren¡¯t necessarily in line with physics. If I can do that with fire, can I do that with water? I¡¯m not carrying around as much freshwater anymore though. So, first stop is to fill up.


    I happily exclaim, ¡°Lu, you¡¯re a genius! You¡¯re such a genius. I already learned the first one, it¡¯s how I finally saved Te from that horrid, mortifying experience. The second though, you¡¯re right. Lil, what¡¯s the lowest setting you can breathe fire at? I need you to basically cook me as we walk.¡±


    Lil dumbfoundedly replies, ¡°You what.¡± No inflection of a question in their voice.


    I answer anyway, ¡°Preferably all three of us, for as long as Lu and Te can handle it. If they¡¯re willing to join me.¡±


    Lu and Te follow suit with Lil from a moment ago, ¡°If we what.¡± At this point I can barely stifle a chuckle. It¡¯s like they¡¯re running a bit on me.


    I start marching as I repeat my request, ¡°So, yeah, Lil, start cooking. Please? Te, Lu, join me if you can, if you¡¯re willing, but don¡¯t stress yourselves out. Also, Lu you should probably stow your dress if you join. Lil, you can keep track of our thermal resists, when our resistance gains slow down, ratchet it up a notch, please?¡±


    Luni and Teuila facepalm as Te resumes her Valkyrie form. I can see them rolling their eyes and wearing that one disdainful facial expression. The expression that looks like I offered them a melon when what they wanted was anything else. Still, Lil begins breathing flame at me, albeit worriedly.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to have to go hotter Lil, sorry to ask this of you buddy. I think I¡¯m going to need something around a thousand thermal resist before we run into that thing again. Even that isn¡¯t going to protect any of us from being engulfed in lava.¡± I begin explaining my thought process to Lil. Continuing I state, ¡°I know, I know, if it¡¯s not going to save us, why am I asking? I¡¯ve got this weird theory. Thermal activity is the kinetics of atomic movement. If we¡¯re somehow learning to passively control the speed of our own atoms, we might just be able to manipulate those around us. Even if only slightly.¡±


    As I¡¯m explaining, a new skill enters my skill panel, thermokinesis. Lil, Lu, and Te hear my thoughts telepathically and check my skill panel to confirm. Their reactions are fairly mixed. Teuila immediately steps into the flames alongside me, and takes my hand. Lu¡¯s astounded gaze flicks back and forth twixt Lil and myself. She strips from her lovely dress, donning just enough Valkyrie gear to help her be able to stand with us, then Lu joins us as well. Lil pauses for only a few moments before starting to gently blast us with fire again, ratcheting it up slowly.


    Unfortunately, this new thermokinesis skill is at negative one. Similarly to my family¡¯s carrying capacity. I believe that¡¯s supposed to mean I can never earn even a single point, since I can¡¯t engage it as a skill. I¡¯m fairly confident though, that passively raising skills through other activities works. I might only be able to hit zero in the skill at a thousand resist, but I¡¯ll figure that out when I get there. I dump all of my energy to perform a partially forced skill gain limit break. Once it¡¯s engaged, my steps and breath falter for a moment, but my resistance climbs rapidly. I continue my march to the lake atop the cliffs in Fire Biome, letting my energy hang at zero the entire time, intentionally using up any that I regenerate.


    Teuila wears a slightly grim smile that barely betrays her pride in me. Yet I feel that pride all the same. Lu and Te don¡¯t seem to have a way to engage a skill based limit break, so their gains aren¡¯t as rapid. But, if even one of us unlocks this skill, we can use it to protect the others. That¡¯s my hope anyway.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Lil can¡¯t manage to continuously exhale flame the entire time, even with the extra eleven hundred energy I¡¯ve given them, so we do stop for breaks occasionally as we march. Also, while fire-breathing, Lil can¡¯t talk, so we spend a lot of time in our thinkspace together. While we march only a few hours, we spend dozens of weeks telepathically bonding, laughing, sharing stories, moving forward with our lives and ourselves. I¡¯ve neglected this for so long, and Teuila has wanted it for such a long time as well. I¡¯ve got far less to share than the others, what with my shorter lifespan thus far, and the massive portion of that time that I¡¯ve spent checked out. Even still, my inner circle is eager to hear my feedback, and tackle my needs. They know what topics to tread lightly around, and they''re there for me through everything. It paints my past in a colorful light, helping fill my darkest moments with joy.


    This, this is everything I could ever possibly have hoped for. A telepathic bond in which we all share so much love. Even Teuila can ride along into the shared thinkspace. My friends do have to spend quite a few weeks of our several months helping me face my own self-doubt, self-loathing, and sadness over my failures. Yet when it¡¯s done, I feel the best I¡¯ve ever felt, in so many ways. I¡¯ve still got panic to deal with, but I forgive myself. I¡¯ve still got my demons, but now I know, someday I¡¯ll be strong enough to let them go. How amazing is that? With their love, I learned to forgive myself. Slightly anyway. It¡¯ll be a lifelong project, but we have thousands of lifetimes together. Maybe if we¡¯re really lucky, it will only take one lifetime to overcome.


    As we reach the pond, my thermal resistance hits one thousand. Almost as if on cue, my thermokinesis hits zero. I¡¯m probably wearing a fairly wicked grin right now, trying to not be boastful or prideful about the events. Luni and Teuila can¡¯t keep up with Lil¡¯s increasingly potent flames, but even though I¡¯m a bit char-broiled, I keep requesting that Lil ramp it up. Lu and Te sit it out, taking a swim in the lake for fun to relax. Te drops her Valkyrie form, but mostly stays beneath the water, out of visual range, sparing me from the panic.


    Through our practicing, we actually approach Lil¡¯s old upper limit, and surpass it, as Lil gains more and more breath skill during our shenanigans.


    It takes hours, but my thermokinesis skill hits one, and Lil taps out, desiring a break. I smile and confirm, ¡°Of course buddy. You¡¯re the best. Thank you so much for taking that burden and facing it. I unlocked the skill because of you.¡± Now, every bit of energy that I regenerate, while still riding out this skill gain limit break, I put into playing with thermokinesis.


    As I¡¯d feared, or expected, I can only slightly warm or cool my own body, and the air in direct contact with my body at first. After several more hours of play at the edges of the lake, with lava a scant few dozen meters away, I hit another breakthrough. I realize I can use thermokinesis on objects, material, and elemental forces contained in my inventory. First, I train myself to freeze the water in my inventory, then I begin claiming Lil¡¯s flames when they¡¯re willing to start up again. I nod when I¡¯m finished. Now I¡¯m practicing chilling Lil¡¯s flames, when I get them below freezing temperatures, my nose begins to bleed from the extended skill limit break. Hm, it seems my ears are bleeding as well. I may have pushed a smidge too far. I teeter, stumble, then begin to topple forward.


    Before I can even react, let alone reach the ground, there¡¯s a blast of wind and dust. I find my face buried in a chestplate, and Valkyrie¡¯s arms wrapped around my torso, under mine. Of course Teuila knew I was overdoing it. She trusted me, and let me continue, ready to swoop in and rescue me from myself at the last moment. Honestly, her speed is so blinding to have been able to react to my stumbling. She had to transform, and still move from beneath the waves on the far side of the lake straight to me in an instant. Yet, here she is, before I¡¯ve even fallen at much of an angle. I need to finish this limit break, and hopefully I can do it in a useful fashion. Calling into our telepathic bond, I make sure that Lu is out of the lake, and beg Teuila to drag me to its edge.


    Once at the edge, my hand droops barely into contact with the water. I smoothly exhale, engaging the finisher. First, ice spreads out from my hand, stretching across the lake almost instantly, leaving a small hole at its center. Secondly, I carefully evaporate the water beneath the layer of ice, forcing a cloud of steam to pour up and out through the hole in the ice. The steam continues to pour and pour and pour out of the hole in the ice. It eventually takes the form of rainclouds, showering us with beautiful rain, just in the nick of time.


    I can sense movement beneath the rock within fifteen feet. Shoving Teuila away from me, though I¡¯m loathe to do it, I yell, ¡°Scatter!¡± Te virtually fumes at the order, but her trust wins out, and she leaps to Lu¡¯s side to take Lu into the air. Lil transforms, and paces back and forth, unsure of what to do.


    Thinking into our bond, I tell Lil to prepare to shatter this thing and spread out its pieces when they get the signal. ¡°What signal?¡± Lil asks. Oh you¡¯ll definitely understand this signal. When this thing cools into stone. Lava shoots forth from the earth right where Teuila was only an instant before. I thank my lucky stars that she trusts me as much as she does.


    I haven¡¯t recovered much energy since the limit break, but creating a small barrier of ultra-cold particles in patches near my body doesn¡¯t take much. I can¡¯t practice using my radiant inventory copies defensively at the moment, because of how little energy I have, so I¡¯ll have to focus on thermokinesis instead. I try hard to fight the urge to smirk. No time to be prideful, this is still deadly dangerous. I draw in on myself as much as possible, making myself as small a target as I possibly can behind my shield. Thankfully this lava creature takes the bait, and tries to spread around the shield to engulf me. The rain sizzles and steams as it makes contact with the monster, and it has the desired effect, dissuading the lava beast from taking to the air. It probably doesn¡¯t want to risk cooling in the atmosphere and then dropping like a rock. A literal rock, at that point.


    Parts of the lava beast cool and crack as they come into contact with my cold-air-barrier, and it recoils. Learn to use my magic defensively, just like Luni said. I coat my fist in a layer of frigid air, and take a test swing at the beast. It tries to spread out, forming a hole where my hand punches, but it doesn¡¯t yet understand that it¡¯s the air around my hand that¡¯s freezing it. I manage to freeze this brand new gap in the creature.


    I think I¡¯ve finally enraged it, because the lava begins to assume a humanoid shape, and health bars finally pop up. Bingo. Vesuviform huh? Well VF, not so pleased to meet you. Are those, are those red eyes? My confidence slips away as a lump catches in my throat, my breathing becomes ragged and my pulse races. This, this Vesuviform has the same eyes. Those same eyes as those monstrous Leviathans, the same eyes as the blue spheres. My vision narrows to a pinprick and I¡¯m struck a massive blow from my unshielded side. Unable to react, unable to put up a barrier of cold air, the padding beneath my valkyrie armor burns away in an instant, and my skin sizzles and cracks. I¡¯m knocked far into the air, far and away, though VF does at least give chase, thankfully.


    Gritting my teeth, I try to calm my breathing. Nightmares tear through my mind, shunting my consciousness from the current moment, back to Day One. The day when I was without family, without memory, without love, or safety, or any of the memories or the kindness I¡¯ve experienced since. Thinking about my family helps startle me from my panic episode. Not completely, but that¡¯s to be expected. Trauma is malingering, it¡¯s hard to beat. At least I can breathe. I clutch my chest, trying to drag away the icy grip of fear from my heart, but of course, I¡¯m unsuccessful. Still, while my body doesn¡¯t want to respond as it rides a wave of panic, my skills are willing to respond at least.


    I may not get to practice icy wind pugilism, but I can at least do one thing. When I land, tumble, and skid away from the Vesuviform, it chases after me to finish me off. I know I¡¯m about to cause a steam explosion. I hope I can weather such a force, as I once believed myself to be able to handle explosions way back in the swamp. At least, I was more confident I could survive a series of explosions than I could survive encountering Octorochi again back then. Hopefully that confidence wasn¡¯t misplaced.


    VF swings at me from both sides with massive arms of molten rock, and though my danger wraps warn me to move, I cannot. I still don¡¯t have control of my body through the terror. Instead, I eject freezing water from my inventory in both directions, thousands of liters. The resulting contact instantly hardens VF¡¯s arms, cooling them, and it has the other expected effect. While the water boils off instantly into steam, and that steam is superheated, it expands at too rapid a pace for the air pressure around it. I¡¯m treated to two deafening cracks, and thunderous force from both directions as I¡¯m centered between two massive explosions.


    My left side is still shielded, protected by both my shield, and all of my armor and padding. My right side is completely bare due to the earlier blow. The force of the explosion feels as if it caves my right ribs into my lung, puncturing it. I gasp, and actually cough up blood. Immediately I can feel the concern of my inner circle. It¡¯s okay guys, this fight is almost over. VF begins to grow new arms, and their health bars start to regenerate, but it¡¯s too slow.


    Gathering what little strength I have left, I momentarily fight through my panic. Leaping straight into VF¡¯s chest, I coat myself in an icy wind. Once there, I summon the rest of the water from my inventory above both myself and VF. What must be a quarter of a nearly freezing lake cascades down. I can¡¯t help but laugh that VF¡¯s own body is protecting me like an armored shell of stone from this much larger explosion. Lil, this is your cue buddy. Te, if you think you can handle the heat of the steam, feel free to help out. I¡¯m going to pass out now.


    With that, I do exactly as I said I would. Consciousness fades from me as my muscles ache and blood drips from my mouth. Thankfully, functioning with one lung seems to be mostly fine in our world. I¡¯m glad so many of my memories are wrong. An excruciating experience to be sure, but slumber still takes me nonetheless.

 B 2 C 14: Theres Some Bad News On the Rise

    <h2>B 2 C 14: There¡¯s Some Bad News On the Rise</h2>


    I believe my last telepathic words before passing out echo a sentiment Luni once shared with me, ¡°You got this.¡± As I come to some time later, I¡¯m laying in what feels like a stone coffin, in a pool of liquid with a coppery taste. I vomit another mouthful of blood into the pool. Ah, right, it¡¯s probably my own blood. I hear a hurried scrabbling at stone above me, as of several creatures frantically trying to move massive amounts of rubble. It seems as if my inner circle are trying to break through to me telepathically. Dense solid matter has always seemed to block our bond, their thoughts occasionally reach me, filled with a familiar snowy static. Hopefully they can hear me as I try to reassure them that I¡¯m okay.


    Sighing, confirming I have enough energy before doing so, I claim the rock above me with my left hand. More stone collapses inwards atop me, but as it connects with my upturned palm it falls harmlessly into my inventory. A streak of light peaks through from above. Now that I¡¯ve got an air passageway, avoiding a mistake I¡¯d once made in the past, I let myself double over in pain. Clutching my right side, I loose another stream of internal fluid, coughing and sputtering.


    Engaging a forced limit break to rapidly gain skill, and purposely extending it for hours and hours was a massive risk. There¡¯s so much we don¡¯t know about our world¡¯s possible risks and consequences. I feel like limit breaking adds a strain that makes it harder to heal from injuries taken before, during, and shortly afterwards. The months I spent recovering from the Night of High Water back that theory up.


    Still, during the weeks spent in our shared thinkspace on the march, those dearest to me agreed that the plan might work. Ah, there¡¯s their voices. Hi everyone, I¡¯m fine, I love you all. As I try to reassure them through our telepathic bond my eyes cross, doubling my vision. Bluh, I could use a break, but I don¡¯t feel like continuing to sit in a pool of my own internal fluids. Painfully sighing, I continue to claim more rubble to my inventory. Something very bright rolls free from a location just above where I¡¯d been situated. A mesmerizing, glassy orb filled with bright, undulating colors falls towards my bloody pool. It¡¯d be a shame to see it shatter, or be soiled. It also might be a danger to free whatever¡¯s inside, so I reflexively claim it to my inventory as if it were a hacky sack. I jut out my right foot, and as the orb connects with the crook of my upper ankle, it passes into my inventory.


    Distracted with that, I barely notice myself being hoisted out of my stone mausoleum by my left arm. Teuila embraces me, and noogies me playfully. Lu tenderly embraces me from the other side, my charred, broken right side. Even though Luni is far more gentle than my Te, it¡¯s still a mixture of agonizing, and comforting. Lil wraps the rest of us in their wings. I could swear their wings have been getting larger since the first time I ever saw Lil transform against Luna.


    Luni notices the side of my torso that she¡¯s sharing affection with, and begins to fret. It¡¯s okay Lu, but I¡¯d appreciate being helped out of this armor, and cleaned up a bit. I¡¯ll put on a fresh set of gear afterwards.


    Lu responds immediately, shoving everyone else away, ¡°Reggie, yeah, um, of course, sure, sure thing. Te, help me out, please. Get Reggie out of this, some of the armor is melted against their skin, this is going to hurt.¡± Teuila nods and grips the armor melded to my torso, and my eyes shoot wide as I attempt to interrupt. I¡¯m still too dazed from the pain to react all that quickly to anything.


    I cry out, a smidge too late, ¡°Wait, wait wait, I¡¯ll re-melt it first, I can Ahhhhhhggghhhh! Fricklefrack that hurts like a beast!¡± Te and Lu tear the armor from my torso, removing patches of flesh. They both share an expression that can only mean ¡°oops.¡± As they remove the armor I vomit from the sheer intensity of the epidermal shearing. My head swims a bit from the excruciating pain and my eyes roll randomly in their sockets. While I¡¯m dazed, Luni cleans me up with the soap stone, then asks Lil for some fabric to bind my wounds.


    Teuila bears me across her arms, cradling me so that Lu can finish binding me, since I now don¡¯t have the wherewithal to respond or move.


    Trying to regain my senses, I playfully admonish my beloved friends, ¡°Ugh, guys? If anything is ever welded, melded, melted, or frozen to something else, I can carefully fix that now. That¡¯s why we did the whole thermal training. Heh.¡±


    Luni looks the most abashed she ever has. She keeps poking her index fingertips together while she looks away. Lu¡¯s blushing actually heats the atmosphere between us. I can literally feel such minor fluctuations in temperature now. Speaking out the side of her mouth while looking away, Lu tries to apologize, ¡°S, so, sorry, I¡¯m sorry Reggie, I just, you asked us to help. And um, and um, we wanted to help, right away, you looked hurt. So um, please don¡¯t be mad at us. Please don¡¯t hate me? For, for, forgive us please?¡±


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    Te sets me down gently, walks over to Luni, and lightly cuffs the backside of her head. Teuila then hugs Luni tightly. Te rolls her eyes at Lu¡¯s bashfulness as she replies for me, ¡°Of course Reggie doesn¡¯t hate you, drama queen. My dingledork is teasing us.¡± Then Teuila actually adopts the same mannerisms as Luni, tapping her fingertips together, speaking out the side of her mouth, ¡°That said, sorry sweetypoot, that seemed like it really hurt. Sorry.¡± Teuila avoids meeting my gaze, and I chuckle.


    Absolving them, I wave it off playfully. ¡°Guys, guys, we¡¯re fine, we¡¯re fine. Te¡¯s right. Besides, it has been a long day. We can make a decent shelter in this rubble. I don¡¯t know about the rest of you, but I could go for a nice long nap. By nap I of course mean a full sleep. This hurts like a mother of rustbuckets.¡±


    ¡°Reggie buddy, the rest of us haven¡¯t really done anything today, you¡¯re the one that has taken on so much today, of course we¡¯ll rest if you need a rest. Come on, I¡¯d be mad, mega mega mega mad with any of us if we begrudged you a rest when you needed. None of us would ever do that though, right guys?¡± Lil asks the others, and they affirm Lil¡¯s assertion.


    I chuckle, nodding. Coughing up a spattering of blood, I raise one of my hands to help focus my inventory use. The first thing I do is expel the rubble I¡¯d claimed into as neatly stacked a pile as possible. Next I place some large flat material as an angular plane, making a lean-to shelter as I have so many times in the past. I try to walk towards it, but my legs won¡¯t respond. Seeing my inability, my friends carefully drag me inside to cuddle. I happily succumb to sleep in mere moments.


    Whew, a fresh day and a lot less pain. No nightmares, not even any dreams at all! New abilities and massive increases to my skills. Yesterday was. I sigh, remembering reliving Teuila¡¯s death over and over. Yesterday was eventful. I¡¯m currently the littlest spoon in a four spoon set. I can tell Te¡¯s in her base form, but I only see one of her arms. It doesn¡¯t inspire much panic, thankfully. Lu is cuddling up behind Te, and Lil is actually still evolved into Lilagnewt from the previous day¡¯s activities. I¡¯m surprised Lil can keep their form up for so long.


    Oh wait, Lil spent most of the entire day burning through energy en masse, their stamina and maximum energy capacity have skyrocketed. Lil¡¯s skills in those areas might have hit a plateau for now, like when I¡¯d first reached two thousand max mana. Yeesh, I¡¯m still getting used to shortening what I call things. In my memory, humans, or whatever I am, didn¡¯t have mental memory logs. Having one that I can refer back to, well, it¡¯s just annoying to read something over and over that¡¯s so long. My internal monologue could do with being a bit less wordy sometimes.


    I¡¯m startled from my reverie when Lil asks, ¡°Reggie pal, how did you do the stuff? Like how did you give us our evolutions in the first place? How did you figure out how to keep doing it?¡± Ah, Lil¡¯s trying to work on Luni¡¯s directions to master their form.


    ¡°Do you mean the original tether concept pal? I just kind of pictured a rope of energy going from my heart to yours, it had a lasso on both ends around our hearts. Same with evolving myself, I had to wrap up my own heart. If you mean the very first time, you know it was pure luck. I was crying, nearly drowning in the river, sick with worry about you. I love you all so much, it sucks to see any of you get hurt. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re all annoyed at how often I end up getting myself hurt. Sorry about that. I know I wouldn¡¯t want to see you guys doing what I do. Sorry for putting you through stuff so many times.¡± Teuila socks me lightly in the shoulder for my response, but she nods all the same. Lu sets a hand on my shoulder, then leans her forehead on my cheek. Lil headbutts me, still in Lilagnewt form, so I¡¯m nearly bowled over.


    Trying to determine our course of action, I ask, ¡°So, uh, how far is it to this cragbeast area Lil?¡±


    Lil sticks out their tongue, sniffs the air a bit, and looks into the distance before replying. ¡°Hm, I think it¡¯s about 3, maybe two days that way if we walk in normal forms. Probably a few minutes for your crazy-powerful girlfriend, but I¡¯d take a couple hours to catch up at minimum.¡±


    I blush at the title Lil uses to refer to Teuila. But as I suspected, though we all vaguely know the definition of the word, it¡¯s only my mysterious memories that give it any meaning, or connotations. Aging and romance aren¡¯t real concepts. They only exist in the glitches that are my false memories. We can all transform, change shape, grow rapidly, find new family members spawning or hatching from eggs. Wait, eggs? Looking into my inventory, there¡¯s an object I acquired, an egg I¡¯ve kept since earning it on Day One.


    My head throbs as I crumple to the ground. I have to fight for every breath. Even though I¡¯m gasping for air, it feels like I¡¯m using a drinking straw for a snorkel. My head threatens to split open and release my nightmares, to spill them from the past into the present, to give them form. Clutching my head, I want to wail and scream, but no sound escapes. I only silently weep. Even though my loved ones surround and comfort me, it¡¯s still some time yet before I can respond. Worse is the news they have to share when I regain my senses.

 B 2 C 15: Not Such Bad News After All

    <h2>B 2 C 15: Not Such Bad News After All</h2>


    Luni looks questioningly at Teuila, as if asking for permission, before she steels herself to speak. Te nods, so Lu begins, ¡°So, there was a facial feature on that lava beast thing. That facial feature, um, when it died, that facial feature went away. I don¡¯t mean like faded out. I mean more like the glow that was in them escaped. Plus, I mean, nothing derezzed, it¡¯s like we didn¡¯t actually defeat the creature, like there has to be some part of it out there still that can regrow. I don¡¯t know, a heart or something. Between the red glow of the eyes zooming away, and the rocks sticking around to keep you buried, I don¡¯t know if we actually beat this thing. We knew you needed to sleep though, no matter what. With those ribs, we didn¡¯t want to move you until you recovered at least a bit, so we stayed ready to escape, mostly. Basically we wanted to give you every last second of recovery we could until or unless it was absolutely necessary to move you.¡±


    As I¡¯m already recovering from a wave of panic, I barely recognize that Luni is talking about the red eyes. Somehow I can think about them for this briefest of moments. The eyes signify some sort of possession, or control, or mutation. I¡¯m certain of that now. As far as hearts go, I¡¯m pretty sure we¡¯ve got that covered. Checking my inventory, the orb I picked up is sitting at about five hundred thirty seven degrees celsius, or one thousand fahrenheit. My new thermal related powers allow me some fairly keen intuition on things like that. I also think that¡¯s within the limits of my current thermal resistance, barely. Since it¡¯s not quite as hot as the molten rock that made up the rest of its form, oddly enough, I should be able to hold it without suffering any ill effects.


    Summoning the orb from my inventory to my already charred right hand, my friends gasp and stagger backwards a step. I don¡¯t feel any discomfort in my right hand, so I respond to Luni, ¡°I think we¡¯ve got Vesuviform handled, for now. I have a feeling that if this touched the ground, or shattered, or something, that VF would regrow. Not sure how it would feel about us when it did, so I¡¯ll just hold onto it for now, til we can figure out what to do with it. Hopefully it isn¡¯t awake while it¡¯s stuck in the void of my inventory. I¡¯d rather not drive it legitimately crazy. As far as the red eyes, we¡¯re finally making some progress on that mystery. I, I can just barely manage to think about it with clarity right now, for a moment. Which direction did they fly?¡±


    As I ask for a bit more clarification, I send the orb back to my inventory. I¡¯m fairly certain it¡¯s some sort of heart, or core, or mind. When it was no longer in contact with any lava, and couldn¡¯t reach ground, it basically became inert. My three closest friends gulp before they answer my latest question. That¡¯s confirmation enough for me. I ramble on, ¡°So, we¡¯re headed the same way, that¡¯s fine. Lil, do you think Vesuviform here was the reason you needed to mark the land with red aura? Could there be more of them? Or was VF maybe the only one of its kind?¡±


    Apprehensively, Lil responds, ¡°I dunno buddy, it¡¯d be a mega bad risk, mega mega mega bad, if there was more than one of them. I think we should still walk the slow way. I think those eyes were the only reason my aura didn¡¯t work, but, well, I don¡¯t want to lose Te. Or you! Or Lu! Of course, none of you. Just, just knowing what you went through. I wish we could all forget it. But, but since we can¡¯t, we just gotta make sure it doesn¡¯t happen. Right?¡±


    I comfort Lil by wrapping my arms around their head that¡¯s still about half my size. Wait, Lil¡¯s Lilagnewt form is definitely bigger. They¡¯ve got to be four times my height in length at this point, not counting tail. ¡°Lil buddy, has this form been growing steadily every time we used it? Or did you just hit a growth spurt?¡±


    Lil shrugs their shoulders. Hm, even their shoulders and other musculature areas are more pronounced. Lil¡¯s scales look ever so slightly less soft. Still, their scales are more like a pliable skin than what I imagine Lil¡¯s scales will eventually become. I¡¯m certain that someday Lil will have scales as tough as the best equipment we have. You¡¯ll get there buddy. I rest my head against Lil¡¯s for a bit while hugging them before agreeing, ¡°Yeah, alright, you¡¯re right. Slow it is. I could probably use a few more days to heal anyway. Has it really only been a day since we set out? I¡¯d better let Lao know we¡¯re okay.¡±


    Pulling the communication stone from my inventory, I whisper into it, hoping that Lao has the stone near enough that she can answer. ¡°Hey Laomati, we¡¯re all doing fairly well so far, sorry we didn¡¯t check in before now. There was, uh, a need to rest that was fairly urgent.¡±


    The sound that comes from the stone is laughter, the Mana twin¡¯s laughter, and splashing. It takes a moment before Lao replies, ¡°It¡¯s so wonderful to hear from you, please have everyone share a round of hugs from me. As for the family, Mataalii was gone for a while yesterday, but had returned by morning. I fretted over whether or not to contact you about it, but all is well after all. I¡¯m currently taking a swim with our beautiful twins as they fish.¡± Lao continues to speak, but the magic of the stone seems to wear off from my side for the day. Lao will have to reach out if she wants, or needs, to talk again today. Each stone opens the lines of communication only once per day after all.


    As requested by Lao, I gather everyone for a group embrace before we set out. I had better ask Teuila to hold onto the comm stone in her pouch. I don¡¯t know if it can let me know that Lao has reached out, while it¡¯s in my inventory. I should have asked her to test it while we were still at home. Still, we have our course, or is it heading? You know what? Let¡¯s not bother getting caught in a reverie right now. I¡¯d much rather be in our quad thinkspace.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I check in with everyone in our telepathic bond, and I marvel at how much more life we have to live together. Every day of travel is several years of new happy memories formed with one another. A thousand days per day, well, more like six hundred or so days per day, since we do sleep after all. Still, it¡¯s remarkable. No wonder Lu and Lil are so unbelievably close. No wonder Teuila wanted that for us.


    Lu and Lil say that thinkspace¡¯s time wasn¡¯t originally quite this compressed. Originally it might have only been ten, twenty, fifty times as fast as the reality around it. Is our bond evolving? The more time I spend with them in our bond, the more it¡¯s like a minor sub reality of its own. When I started joining them, it was like a subvocal internal monologue that was sort of like reading thought logs at light speed. Now though? It¡¯s like we¡¯re sitting on a grassy hill in the shade of a tree, talking, playing together. There¡¯s entire lifetimes taking place for all of us. My mental log actually seems to have hyperlinks to a set of sub documents for the time spent in thinkspace, as if there¡¯s just too much to record at once. It definitely makes it easier to remember where we¡¯re at in reality for someone as introspective as myself.


    We arrive near the base of the volcano on the second day of travel, but have to skirt around its foothills to the far side. Every day, we contact Lao to let the family know we¡¯re okay. When sleeping, I practice setting up a frigid barrier beneath us. The girls sleep atop Lil, since Lil is immune, and I sleep below Lil, working to maintain an icy barrier all night whilst asleep. With two layers of defenses, I¡¯m fairly sure if we¡¯re attacked again, Lil could get Lu and Te out in time, and I¡¯d survive just fine. A side benefit to sleeping against a barrier of subzero temperature air is that my thermal resistance continues to climb even higher. At some point, I might be able to stand in lava with Lil, though that point is a long ways off unless I decide to force skill based limit breaks again. I really don¡¯t want to do that ever again if I can help it. Hm, I guess I could technically stand in lava with Lil right now, my stamina has continued to rise, and my thermokinesis seems to cost almost zero energy, at least for cooling. It appears to cost more mana for heating things up. I suppose that makes sense, cooling is basically reducing the kinetic energy, possibly using the atomic energy to fuel the ability, heating requires that I expend my own to stimulate the atoms.


    Having now spent nearly five years with Lu, Lil, and Te, I finally feel ready to confront another skill I¡¯ve had redacted this entire time, since the dam. I take a deep, ragged breath, steeling myself as I remove my own mental block. There it is, Psi Resist. It¡¯s only at one, of course. The only thing that ever used psionics or psychic attacks against me was in the dam. I gulp back some fear as I force myself to puzzle this through. Psionic resistance would likely be the brain¡¯s own electrical impulses forming an electromagnetic wave barrier. Something like pinpoint EM shielding to protect areas of the brain from specific kinds of psi assaults. I think those same waves would also be the basis for gaining either psionics or psychokinesis. Though I might be able to learn telekinesis just from thermokinesis.


    Stroking my chin, I ponder whether or not it¡¯s worth pursuing this course of action, and how best to tackle it, if it is. I¡¯d first need to meet someone who has an offensive psychic skill. That person would need to be willing to use it on me constantly for a long time, without intending to kill me. I don¡¯t want to have to do a skill limit break to acquire the necessary resistance. If I don¡¯t find someone who is peaceful, or amenable, and I only run into more hostile psychic creatures, then I might have to limit break to gain resistance fast enough to even survive.


    I begin to pant as my breath turns into gasps. My head starts to pound, and my pulse slowly speeds up. The panic is far, far more tolerable, and takes much longer to begin. At least this panic, since I¡¯ve been able to face it every day for the last five years. When our thinkspace started to seem more and more realistic, our own bodies seemed to appear there, so I had to face Teuila constantly. She never hurt me, she never lost her patience. Between her playful, rough love, and her patience with my terror, we¡¯ve made a lot of progress in what has only been about two days of marching. Lu and Lil were of course just as instrumental in helping comfort me and keep me calm.


    It feels like I close another chapter in my life, as we finally arrive within a short climb of the area where we¡¯ll start our hunt. Above us, there¡¯s a small terrace that leads to a cavern structure. Lil assures us that it¡¯s separate from the volcano itself, since we¡¯re at one of its rear foothills. In those caves are a series of spawn points for cragbeasts. Apparently they look like bulky, top-heavy hounds with no eyes, and four-fold mouths. They can breathe fire, but only shortly after consuming phosphorus, or brimstone. Brimstone I guess is just what we call sulfur. This means cragbeast flames will be blue, or bluish green. Lil¡¯s fire has gone from red to white hot over the last few days, but I think blue is generally even hotter. Even I might need to be careful with blue flames. I¡¯m able to stand in Lil¡¯s hottest flames now. The fire barely tickles, without even engaging a barrier of cold air.


    Lu and Te have been able to stand near enough to Lil¡¯s flames that they¡¯ve made significant progress in thermal resist as well. I may have been wrong about convection not existing, but it definitely doesn¡¯t work the way my memories say it should. There¡¯s a sort of runoff of heat that¡¯s less intense, it diminishes ridiculously quickly.


    We prepare to bed down for another night, contacting Lao to share our love, reporting that we¡¯re okay, checking that all the family is doing well. It¡¯s hard to catch the family up on five years of new life experiences in the smattering of seconds that the comm stones work, but we try our best. One day I hope we find a source of paper, so that I can risk disassembling any scrolls I have, or get, to hopefully be able to reproduce them. I¡¯d like to use the identification scrolls to know if there¡¯s any other secret properties of things that I haven¡¯t divined yet.


    We bed down once more, steeling ourselves for what might be a multi-day grindfest against hostile creatures. I¡¯m once again the littlest spoon in a four spoon set. We have to sleep with me on the bottom, projecting my cold air barrier downwards, with Lil atop me. I¡¯m grateful for all three of my beloved inner circle. Hm, if we¡¯re an adventuring party, then we¡¯re the inner circle party, but for some reason, I don¡¯t like the acronym, maybe I¡¯ll think up a better name after the upcoming battle.

 B 2 C 16: Trapped

    <h2>B 2 C 16: Trapped</h2>


    We rise to greet the new day with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. We probably won¡¯t be able to spend much time in our accelerated thinkspace today, or at least I won¡¯t, since I¡¯m already so easily distractible.


    Being me, I need to make plans for what¡¯s about to happen, and for that, I need information. Gathering information, I ask, ¡°Te, about how much energy do your attacks in Valkyrie form take? How much energy does it take to maintain the form, like per second?¡±


    Teuila transforms into her evolved self to answer, ¡°Well, zero at this point, for both.¡±


    My jaw drops, ¡°You, zero, what, but, super speed, super leap, durability difference, magic equipment, ancillary powers, antigravity, what.¡± I ramble fairly incoherently. Te uses her index finger to lift my jaw, helping me out.


    Before I can ask, Lil answers the same question, ¡°Almost the same here buddy! Doesn¡¯t take anything to stay evolved, and my fire breathing is so cheap, it¡¯s almost free! I think Te had a head start on stamina training.¡±


    My brain tries to take in the possibilities in overdrive. Should I be training my body more, to increase my stamina faster? If I get certain abilities down to zero cost, that¡¯s effectively infinite of an action, as quickly as I can manage to do it. But no, as much as I thought it could possibly happen, many of my abilities still require specific amounts of energy to activate. I can¡¯t launch radiant copies of objects for less than a hundred mana, but the number of objects I can generate at once has risen over time. Actually, knowing that, I haven¡¯t tried to engage thermokinesis with specific amounts of energy. What if I try imagining blasts of frigid or superheated air, for one hundred energy? I point a finger to the sky, imagining superheating the air. It¡¯s easiest to picture a fireball, and sure enough, a bolt of flame rises skyward. It¡¯s pretty miniscule in size, and impact, but it¡¯s proof of concept.


    Similarly, I don¡¯t know how to picture a blast of supercooled air, so instead I picture a lance of ice worth a hundred energy. When it materializes and launches, it leaves a trail of ice as a ray into the sky, far more impressive than the firebolt. While lost in thought, I find myself being tackled to the side to avoid the sharp fallout from my own ability. I suppose it was pretty stupid to launch ice straight upwards. Radiant copies aren¡¯t solid objects, fire isn¡¯t a solid object, so yeah, ice was going to fall back down.


    I stammer, ¡°I uh, thanks, yeah, thanks. I¡¯m, I guess I¡¯m a bit dumbfounded. My abilities get stronger, but they have a minimum floor to activate. But, I mean, the news, guys, this is great news. I wonder, huh, I wonder if maybe someday, these could be considered your base forms, and when I had more max mana, I could create new tethers, helping you become something even, further still, more powerful.¡±


    Lil and Teuila exchange a glance as they help me up. I find myself wondering what would happen if I offered Luni a tether. I might be able to muster one in the heat of combat right now. Lu just smiles innocently at me as she rides along my telepathic wave.


    I need to verify at least one thing, ¡°Lu, this is going to be incredibly dangerous for everyone other than Lil, are you sure you¡¯re confident in us? That we can protect you?¡±


    Lu nods in response, ¡°Yup yup! You got this. I know you do, ¡®cause you¡¯re my hero. That¡¯s all I can let you know, nyeh.¡± She sticks her tongue out at me, catching me off guard a bit at how playful her response is.


    Her playfulness actually inspires a massive amount of confidence. Her ability to treat the situation lightly, even though she knows exactly how dangerous our combats are, shows absolute faith. If she believes in me, then I need to strategize to be worthy of that belief.


    Alright, as we enter the cavern structures, Lil will be our, vanguard I guess is the word, the point of our spear, and also our shield. With Lil¡¯s wings unfurled, they offer a significant amount of shielding against flames for Lu and Te. I can conjure a cold air barrier to stop any flames from getting through that make it past Lil. We¡¯ll venture deep enough into the tunnels, finding a spot without any brimstone or phosphorus to fight in. Without a food supply, the cragbeasts will only be able to manage one or two flames apiece, when they¡¯re out, then Lu and Te can join me in the fight. I¡¯ll be trying to practice icy wind pugilism in order to conserve energy for absolutely dire needs, like throwing up a shield in front of Lu or Te in case a cragbeast surprises us with an extra breath attack. Lu¡¯s fairly certain that we¡¯ll keep her from getting hit, but she still stows her dress to don valkyrie gear, just in case.


    Honestly, once it¡¯s safe for Teuila to join the fight, the fight is basically over. Nearly mach speed impacts with her spear, or drive-by slashes with her sword? I¡¯ve never even seen her fire her bow, I have no idea how powerful that could be. She says they only work for Valkyrie, so, sadly, all the extra copies are somewhat pointless.


    Though it makes me shudder to think about, I¡¯m actually hoping to see the red eyes here. Why didn¡¯t they just possess Lu, Lil, or Te? The only answer I can come up with is that the eyes require a creature that is already hostile to me in particular. If we find them here, slay a creature with them, and they possess another cragbeast, or flee, then I¡¯ll take that as confirmation. Somehow they have it out for me, and can only work against me.


    Thinking about them for this long finally causes my panic to catch up to me. My knees buckle and my nightmares from Day One invade my waking world. It feels as if I can¡¯t breathe, so I clasp my windpipe, but it¡¯s drawing breath normally. My eyes cross as my vision doubles, while simultaneously tunneling to a point.


    Thankfully, I¡¯m not the main strike force, no one needs to rely on me to maintain the offense if I break down in panic. While panicked, I can still keep myself coated in a frosty aura at this point. Lil knows to get back to shielding Lu and Te if that happens while there¡¯s still any fire breath about.


    I¡¯m glad that my friends are following along with my plan telepathically. It saves me the time of repeating it out loud. As I recover from panic, I shakily ask, ¡°Sound good everyone?¡± My party nods affirmatively.


    Lu hops aboard Lil, and Lil flies up to the terrace with the cavern entrance. Teuila leaps up, and I¡¯m left to find my own way skyward. Thankfully, I can launch myself pretty decently with my space skill now, it just takes thin slices of sturdy enough matter. Once I¡¯m nearing the terrace, at the apex of one of my thrusts, I latch onto the terrace edge with my tattoo tendrils to drag myself to it. I¡¯d rather not overshoot it and plummet.


    Te teases me, ¡°What took you so long bugaboo?¡± Her smirk is adorable.


    I playfully taunt Te in return, ¡°Well, the beautiful scenery just demanded that I stare in awe, wasting all of your time. It certainly wasn¡¯t because a certain supersonic otterwoman didn¡¯t offer me a lift. Nyeh.¡± I get to stick my tongue out at Te, and playfully tug at my cheek near my eyelid. I¡¯m not going to actually expose my eyelid, that¡¯s weird, and probably rude.


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    The four of us chuckle as we enter the caverns. I direct Lil to keep an eye on the right hand wall, to make sure we¡¯re always taking turns along it, even if it leads to a dead end, that dead end becomes a continuation of the right hand wall, it just turns left, twice. Each member of my inner circle agrees to flee along the left hand wall to retreat if things go haywire.


    Of course, we would be able to do that, if a translucent red barrier hadn¡¯t just formed behind us. It seems to be slowly creeping closer too. Not wanting to risk any of us coming into contact with it, we have no choice but to explore within. I surmise that either, the barrier only affects red souls, blocking them, harming them, or doing something to them. Or, the barrier only lets red souls pass through safely. Since Lil doesn¡¯t know the answer, we can only continue, hoping to deactivate it somehow deeper within.


    Before long, we¡¯re advancing on cragbeasts, these hellhound-ish creatures that populate this cavern complex. Lil¡¯s wings, unfurled, intercept a majority of the flames as planned. My cold air barrier deals with the rest, thankfully. I launch a few sharp bits of stone at the cragbeasts to let them know we¡¯re a threat, so they continue to retreat as we explore. Eventually I can see certain cragbeasts return after having refueled, since they still have bits of sharp stone stuck in their hides.


    Oh wait, these things were immediately hostile to us, they¡¯re probably hostile to everything. I imagine that they¡¯d be all too happy to head into the jungle below Fire Biome to set it ablaze. The red barrier probably prevents them from leaving. Lil would be trapped here if we didn¡¯t find a way to at least temporarily disable the barrier.


    Lil mumbles, ¡°So that¡¯s why I was scared to come in before. Something just told me a big fat nope when I saw a cragbeast near the entrance one time. It fought with another one, one of them derezzed and dropped a bag, but I couldn¡¯t bring myself to go get it. It was the only one I¡¯d ever seen in all my hunting, that¡¯s why I was so shocked when you offered me several Reggie. I guess I had intuition that I would have been trapped here, or something. Sorry that I¡¯m stuck here now guys.¡±


    I comfort Lil, hugging the back of their neck from above. I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m the one that asked us to get into this mess, we¡¯d never abandon you, never ever. How do you say it? Abandoning you would be mega bad, mega mega mega bad.¡± I try to diffuse tension from the situation by gingerly poking fun at Lil¡¯s affectation. Lil just telepathically sends me a raspberry in response. Lu and Te giggle and chuckle across our bond.


    One cragbeast advances on Lil, attempting to physically attack since its flames aren¡¯t working. It leaps with its maw open, and both of its forepaws extend thick claws which it uses to swipe inward at Lil¡¯s neck. I¡¯m about to interpose my thunderstick to stop its advance when Teuila zips over Lil, along the cragbeast¡¯s side with her sword, and back behind Lil in a split second. Her ancillary powers are incredibly strong to prevent her from getting whiplash at such sudden acceleration and movements. The first cragbeast of our hunt derezzes, in its place is a steaming hunk of meat. There¡¯s also what looks to be some sort of chili salad, like it¡¯s just peppers in a bowl.


    Meat, oh heaven¡¯s yes, meat, something other than fish, oh heavens I¡¯ve forgotten what other food looks and tastes like. I salivate, accidentally drooling atop the back of Lil¡¯s head. Lil jokingly complains, ¡°Hey, come on buddy, gross, cut it out, would ya?¡± The four of us laugh at my overreaction though.


    More cragbeasts begin physical assaults now that combat has begun in earnest. With probably the worst possible timing, we all feel the comm stone activate. Lao announces to us, ¡°The Mana twins found an egg whilst fishing, its timer is about ninety six hours. We¡¯re not certain if it might be one of those big monstrous things you fought, the Vampguppy you called it. If it isn¡¯t, it may be a new family member. I thought it best to let you know, my beloveds. Oh I hear fire, is everything alright? Oh heavens, you probably can¡¯t respond, busy with whatever quest you¡¯ve set for yourselves. Don¡¯t mind me. Love and hugs from the whole family, stay safe my dears!¡±


    The egg, the egg has a timer? Drawing a certain egg from my own inventory, it has a timer indicator, which similarly is set to about ninety six hours from now. This egg has been in stasis for nearly a year in my inventory. We have no idea what it could be, but it¡¯s a life form, it deserves a chance to hatch, to have the time that I accidentally stole from it by preventing its hatching for so long. That means I now have to protect this egg while we work through this foothill.


    Te shouts, ¡°Hand it to Lu, she¡¯s got her hidden pockets and stuff. You need to focus on the fight.¡± Teuila is right of course. I momentarily hop off of Lil¡¯s back to approach Lu.


    This is the oddest interaction I think I could possibly have in this world. I¡¯m giving a life, one that I may have inadvertently created, directly to someone I love. In my memories, well, that¡¯s not a thing. Life has a process. I blush as I hand over the egg to Lu, trying to keep the thoughts of my memories out of my mind. Trying to avoid the thoughts of how lives are generally created between mammals, I remind myself that I obtained this egg differently, I obtained it on Day One. That¡¯s a sufficient enough distraction, as it sends me tumbling into a panic, one that takes me just as I realize we¡¯re being advanced on from the rear, somehow. I barely manage to interpose myself between Lu and the creature before I stagger and lose myself into the panic, keeping my frigid wind barrier in place.


    Teuila nearly dashes past me to attack this creature, but its flames are so intense that they¡¯re causing pain to both Lu and Te even after being forced to pass around my cold barrier. That¡¯s with the extra thermal resistance they¡¯ve both gained in the last few days, on top of me dulling its effects. In fact, the intensity of the flames is so great that it¡¯s actually causing me to skid backwards. Te couldn¡¯t advance even if she still wanted to, with such a massive wave of pressure building between its heat and my cold. Why am I able to perceive everything rationally at the moment? I¡¯m standing right there, panicked out of my mind. Oh, also out of my body again, apparently. That has been quite a while, hasn¡¯t it?


    Hey! Hey you, me! That one¡¯s breath is only ramping up, there¡¯s something wrong with it, it¡¯s more powerful than it should be, you have to do something dingus, come on! Oh, oh, it doesn¡¯t have eyes, yet stark-red pupil-less eyes adorn its cranium. This is almost as bad as the time I felt out of body when I imagined the serpents, before I¡¯d ever even seen that they were red-eyed creatures.


    Hey, is that my hand moving? Yes, go me! You can do it! Flippin¡¯ ¡®eck this is weird, cheering myself on. Come on, do it! Either pull out a copy of Gae Buidhe, or just unsheathe your sword, and strike it. Why do you still have the thunderstick in your hand? I, that is the other me, the one piloting my body, shove the thunderstick into the cragbeast¡¯s mouth. Hm, the grammar on that thought is weird, because I¡¯m the subject, but me is the subject as well. Anyway, what are you doing bud? I¡¯m surprised the wood of the staff isn¡¯t burning up, I guess magic items are pretty resilient things.


    The other me shakes the thunderstick ever so slightly, and I am so incredibly grateful that death happens by derezzing in our world. An explosive sphere of thunder cascades outwards from inside the cragbeast¡¯s skull. Its wireframe is actually pretty scattered to bits as the polygons bleed away to nothingness. The other me picks up something that it dropped, claiming it to their, or I mean my inventory. But I can see the red-eyed glow fleeing, through the surface of the rock. I sigh in frustration. The other me taps my body, then aims a thumbs up my way. Wait, the other me knows I¡¯m here?


    And now I¡¯m not there, I¡¯m back in my body, wave of panic over. What in the everliving spoot was that? Who was piloting me? Guys, could you hear all my thoughts?


    Lil responds, ¡°No buddy, you went blank for a bit, and we were all starting to get pretty sad, it seemed like back when you were checked out, just operating on instinct or something, no waves coming from your brain into ours at all. I was about to just rush you all back to the entrance, and kick you out myself.¡±


    Grateful for the honesty, I call back, ¡°I¡¯m glad you didn¡¯t buddy. I¡¯m here, but I think someone else is too. A couple of someone elses. One seems to be helpful, the other seems to be hateful.¡± My vision is a bit blurry, somewhat doubled, but I rattle my brainpan for a bit, trying to make certain we have no more visitors from the rear for now. Lu and Te are looking a bit worse for wear, as flames were coming around Lil¡¯s wings from the front, and flames were coming around my wind barrier from the rear.


    I rejoin Lil in the fore, setting up the cold barrier once more, so that Lu and Te can take a breather, as we advance into a large open chamber.

 B 2 C 17: Meat Grinder

    <h2>B 2 C 17: Meat Grinder</h2>


    The cavern¡¯s rock face is domed, the roof¡¯s only features are several stalactites of significant size. The floor however, the floor is littered with eggs. Gazing at the eggs provides the floating mental image of their timers. Most are due to hatch in seconds, some in several minutes, and more eggs spawn by the moment. If luck is with us, when the cragbeasts spawn, they won¡¯t have any fire in their bellies right away. If we¡¯re unlucky, we may be weathering an awfully long storm of flames.


    This subterranean habitat is a little too open, and has too many tunnel offshoots to get our backs nicely against a wall corner. We¡¯re going to have to break the right hand wall rule, so I do my best to break the right hand wall, marking the tunnel we¡¯re entering from. Teuila performs a jetspeed thrust at the wall I¡¯m trying to mark so that we can move on with our plan quickly.


    I cry out, ¡°Lil, can you sense any dead ends in any of these halls? I¡¯d rather fight with our backs to the wall than surrounded!¡±


    Lil doesn¡¯t reply immediately as they dash around the room¡¯s perimeter counter-clockwise. More cragbeasts are beginning to spawn as we¡¯re halfway around the room¡¯s edge, and panic begins flooding our shared wavelength. The spawning cragbeasts do have fire in their bellies, so luck is not with us this day. I have to dance around Lil¡¯s rear quarter blocking blasts of flame from all directions. Lu and Te start to blister slightly as the occasional flame nicks them.


    Before disappearing suddenly, Teuila mumbles, ¡°Oh sod this.¡± I know she didn¡¯t just abandon us, but she¡¯ll be in danger without Lil or my protection.


    Tugging Lu up onto Lil¡¯s back, I try to envelope her with my body, covering her as much as possible, coating my backside with a frosty barrier. Lil withdraws their wings from their splayed positions, and does their best to provide some additional cover. Lil has to start fighting off several cragbeasts physically, while half a dozen other cragbeasts take turns breathing fire to keep Lu and me pinned down. Unable to go on the offensive, I only hope that Teuila is okay. At this point, Lil is circling the perimeter still, but no longer in a dash, they¡¯re keeping their back to the wall. Lil faces the center of the room to have the fewest angles to need to defend themselves from. Occasionally as we pass one of the offshoot tunnels, a cragbeast will surprise Lil with a swipe from behind, Lil¡¯s tail is starting to look a bit worse for wear.


    I wish I had helped Lil train their physical offenses in this form before we decided to do this, I feel so selfish. I wanted to expand our inventories to help expand our home, without ruining the jungle¡¯s natural ancient trees, or our canopy. How trivial is that? Definitely not worth risking my beloved inner circle¡¯s lives over. Preserving their lives is so much more important to me.


    Preserving! That sparks an idea that I convey to Lu, ¡°Lu, I¡¯m going to try something, please tell me if it starts to hurt!¡± I had been keeping my cold barrier away from Luni because it¡¯s part of thermal activity, and she¡¯s not quite as safe from its effects as I am, let alone as Lil is. Instead of simply sapping the kinetic energy to create a cold barrier on my back side, I try to leave one atop Luni as she huddles on Lil¡¯s back. I¡¯ll need Lil to stay in place, since this won¡¯t be able to follow her.


    I send a request to Lil telepathically, ¡°Lil, hold here a moment, I¡¯m going to go on the offensive.¡± Once Lil pauses, I make certain to add several layers of frigid air as a barrier over Luni. It doesn¡¯t even take energy, mana, whatever, it almost seems like it would grant it, if I hadn¡¯t been staying topped off. I¡¯ll have to experiment with that later.


    Leaping down from Lil, I begin grabbing cragbeasts with my tattoo tendrils, specifically I clamp shut the mouths of ones that still have visible fire in their bellies. They¡¯re a bit too sturdy and heavy for me to use as bludgeoning weapons against each other, but I¡¯ve got other weapons. Another wave of cragbeasts spawn just as I¡¯m starting my assault. Flippin¡¯ ¡®eck. Before the newest ones can get their bearings, I abandon attacking the ones I¡¯d been about to tackle, so I can take them out swiftly instead. I wonder if I can get the thunderstick to do what other-me had it do, but now¡¯s not the time to experiment.


    Weaving between cragbeast swipes, leaps, and bites, I draw my sword while coating my fist in air that¡¯s likely closer to absolute zero than not, it actually stings badly, I can feel frostbite forming. The frostbite doesn¡¯t last long as I intercept the first new cragbeast¡¯s flames with my fist, jamming my sword straight into its throat, then slicing downwards. The beast derezzes, and during the time dilation of its derezzing, I plot my next few steps.


    Those three on the left saw me unaffected by flames, they¡¯ll be trying to take me down physically, the three that were behind this one only saw their kin derez, so I likely have a few moments of them wasting time trying to incinerate me. The time dilation ends, and I propel myself into a slide beneath the first lunging cragbeast from the trio on the left. I simply hold my sword up as I pass under its belly, splitting it in twain. Its derezzing buys me another precious fraction of a second. During this dilation, I notice that Lil¡¯s starting to fret as their back is less and less cold, meaning Lu¡¯s protection is wearing off.


    These two, I¡¯ll need to do something risky with, to get back to Lu and refresh the chilled air. Summoning a copy of Gae Buidhe from my inventory, I physically thrust it sideways through their skulls, causing a pair of derezzings. I stow Gae Buidhe once more, collect the loot in passing as I dash back towards Lil, and uppercut a leaping cragbeast that was about to tear into Lil¡¯s left flank. My frozen fist doesn¡¯t derez the cragbeast, but it does knock it for a loop, buying me time to attend to Lu.


    I start setting up a new series of barriers of frost, when Lu speaks up. ¡°Reggie, Te¡¯s gonna need help in a few seconds, you gotta get to her, but I don¡¯t know where she is.¡± She chokes back a frightened sob.


    Sparing an instant to telepathically call out into thinkspace, I try to comfort Lu, ¡°Thank you Lu, this whole adventure was a mistake, but you¡¯re so brave for coming with us.¡± Lu shakes her head no, insinuating she¡¯s not brave. I sigh, unable to comfort her at the moment without getting too distracted to fight.


    Telepathically calling out to Teuila, I beg all our stars for enough luck for her to be within range, and not on the other side of too much dense matter, like too many rock wall turns. ¡°Te? Te! Where are you? Teuila, please answer! Which tunnel?¡±


    Te answers huffily, perhaps exhaustedly, ¡°Seventh, seventh tunnel, found it for you, good dead end. Might be mine.¡± I grip my hair and tug it in panic at Teuila¡¯s words.


    Okay, okay no time to panic. Do I bring Lu and Lil with, trying to cover them, or can I make it there and back faster on my own? Roaring with frustration, I erect further frost barriers around Lu, and I risk summoning stone from my inventory. It takes a fair chunk of my energy to call forth enough stone to erect a partial pyramid that leaves a small funnel that Lil should be able to break out of, but the cragbeasts will require a minute or two to break into.


    Lil, Lu, I promise I¡¯ll be back, I promise. Please be safe, I love you. I dash off, trying to count the tunnels. Did Teuila mean seventh from the left, or seventh from the right? Fudgeknuckles. Te, are you in thinkspace? Can you hear me? No response, not good. At this point, I¡¯m just tackling my way through cragbeasts. I¡¯m throwing a series of constant frozen jabs, lunges, and uppercuts. Knocking a dozen out of my way seems to have garnered their aggression, good, better me than Lil and Lu. Oh, oh I wonder. When I eat fish in a fish pond, fish attack me, all of them angry at only me.


    I call forth a piece of cragbeast meat I¡¯d looted from the trio on the left, and begin chowing down. Suddenly I feel the weight of the hostility of every creature in this cavern complex. Their overwhelming killing intent is palpable, pressing down on me like a ton of bricks. Thankfully, I know just where to go to lighten my load. I spy the seventh tunnel, I¡¯m certain it¡¯s the correct one, because at a bend in the tunnel ahead, I see flashes and flickers against the wall, as if there¡¯s firelight far down the corridor.


    Calling out telepathically across our shared bond, I veritably yell to Lil to break out of the stone that I¡¯d just wastefully put up. Oddly, my mana doesn¡¯t seem to have taken the hit I thought it did. I was sure I used up more than this quantity. Still, Lil, follow the cragbeasts, then do your best to get into the dead end as I lead them away.


    I dash down the seventh tunnel, but I don¡¯t take the offshoot that I¡¯m certain Teuila is in. As much as it pains me to not rush immediately to her aid, her longer term safety is more assured with Lil and Lu being in the correct position first. Lil won¡¯t be able to get to the dead end if the entire population of the caves is between them and it. So I need to clear them out first, or at least lead them away. Plus, this finally gets Lil to a spot where they can look after Luni, without getting torn to shreds by cragbeasts. I think I saw one of Lil¡¯s wings hanging limply.


    I stand still, just past the offshoot I¡¯m certain Teuila is in, waiting with bated breath, hoping that any cragbeasts attacking her turn to chase me. Thankfully I¡¯m greeted by a pair, and then another pair, and then a trio, all rushing from the dead end tunnel. Wanting to be sure I keep their attention, I start eating another piece of cragbeast meat. The flavor is delectable, it¡¯s a bit spicy for my taste, but anything other than fish, after so many months, is heaven-sent.


    Ugh, distraction, folly be thy name, or something like that. I forgot to take into account that there might be cragbeasts further down this tunnel. I was hoping to find a path that looped around into one of the other tunnels, so I could meet up with everyone. Not only that, but since I was distracted by the taste of this delicious morsel of meat, I took a fairly sizable swipe to the right side of my head. The whack sends me careening into the wall, as I see the beast coming from another tunnel offshoot on the right. Faced with dozens of cragbeasts behind me, half a dozen straight ahead, and this one on the right, I suppose breaking through this one is probably the safest option to look for a wraparound tunnel.


    I chose wrong. This one has red eyes. It doesn¡¯t even have eyes, you freakin¡¯ cheater. I find myself cursing this Red Eyes entity as panic begins to grip me. Terror sets into my heart. My knees buckle, but I¡¯m able to raise my left hand in time, positioning my shield as it looses a blast of flame. Fighting to keep my head on straight, my eyes feel like they swim loosely around in their sockets. An oppressive force of gloom clouds my mind, but I know I need to act quickly, I have moments before the other creatures catch up from the fore and the rear.


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    I close my eyes. Breathing deeply, I retreat into thinkspace, trying to reach out, thankfully Lu and Lil are only a few dozen meters away, perhaps a few hundred. Our thinkspace acceleration isn¡¯t as strong as it normally is, I definitely don¡¯t have a thousand times the amount of time, it feels like it¡¯s only triple the speed of meatspace at the moment. Is the acceleration stronger when our four way bond¡¯s health and happiness is higher? Stop getting distracted!


    I plead, ¡°Lu, can you play something, anything? A lullaby, battle music, a bawdy ballad, anything. Please, I¡¯m stuck in terror mode. Whatever you play, just make it loud. Please, if you can. I love you. Love you Lil, Te, all of you, if any of you can reach thinkspace right now.¡±


    As I let go of thinkspace, returning to my panicked mind, flashbacks haunt me. It seems so innocuous, so unthreatening compared to so many of the things I¡¯ve been through. A little blue sphere with striped patterns and red eyes. Its front opened into jagged edges, and it bit me. I survived, it didn¡¯t. We don¡¯t pick our traumas though. How things affect us are out of our control. We can only control how we react to the emotions we¡¯re dealt. Lost within the terror of my own mind, my cold barrier and valkyrie shield are barely keeping this beast¡¯s breath at bay.


    Over the din of the various fire crackles, the throng of thousands of pounding feet, the cacophony of the strange howls produced by the cragbeasts, I hear a very exciting opening riff on an electric guitar. That is not at all what I was expecting, but I¡¯m grateful all the same, maybe even more grateful than I expected to be. Grinning, I uppercut the beast breathing down on me, and as it recoils, I jam my fist down its throat, summoning Gae Buidhe from my inventory as I do. I¡¯m treated to the time dilation of derezzing, between the music, and the momentary reprieve, and the object of my terror being gone, I¡¯m able to recover my senses, mostly.


    I vigorously claim and eat the meat from this beast, as well as its other drops. The first inventory expansion bag of the hunt triples my current inventory capacity. I¡¯m absolutely flabbergasted. Something tells me that the cost of my inventory summons is also cut in one third. Not the radiant copies, sadly, but still. Right, no time to get distracted, dozens of beasts bare down on me, and Lil is basically waiting patiently behind a line of them to get down the corridor.


    I dash off into this offshoot tunnel on the right, following the right hand wall rule, hoping that the tunnel leads back to the wide open spawning room. Trying to conserve my energy, the more metaphorical energy, the drive to continue during a long excursion, I use my tendrils to move about the cave system.


    It takes me ten full minutes to find my way back to the spawning grounds, without doubling back into the angry mob chasing after me. As I arrive, I¡¯m greeted by newly spawning cragbeasts who don¡¯t yet know to be furious with me, but are hostile all the same. Sighing, I chuckle and engage this new half dozen while I still can. One propelled thrust takes me through three of them, and I drop to my knees temporarily panting from the exertion. Standing, I notice one leaping from my right, so I haul back and launch a right hook as hard as I can muster, sending it crashing forward into one approaching me from the fore. I wish I¡¯d trained my pugilism a bit more, well, a lot more. While the two in front of me are bowled over, scrabbling against each other to stand up, I dispatch the last of the sextuplets that snuck around to my rear. It was hoping to annihilate me with flames, being newly spawned, it hadn¡¯t yet seen any of its brethren¡¯s fires leave me unaffected.


    During the momentary solace as it derezzes, I feel through my danger wraps senses for the two I¡¯d knocked over. They¡¯re about to stand, so I jettison-thrust myself to my right, then sharply change angles, thrusting myself directly into the belly of the one I caught with my right hook. I throw several more frost-barrier coated jabs to their underbellies, before abandoning trying to finish them with my fists. Curiously though, as I draw my sword again, the one I¡¯d been beating on finally derezzes, giving me the instant to analyze why it may have just died.


    Equating it to video games from my memories, I stacked damage over time frost into it, virtually. The cold was so antithetical to its needs, each punch chilled it further and further. Its heart must have stopped when the icy chill finally reached it, even if it only cooled the heart by a few degrees, that might have been enough. Hm, neat.


    Still, I can¡¯t afford to waste more time here, and it has been agonizing leaving my inner circle alone for so long, so I draw my sword and cross-slice the last cragbeast before spinning around, trying to orient myself to find tunnel seven once more. The moments of derezzing are long enough for me to count the tunnels out in my head, so I make for the area I hope to find my friends safely tucked away.


    After about another minute of running, I¡¯m a bit lightheaded, my head is aching, my flesh is charred in spots from various fires that caught me off guard. My vision starts to cross, and double again, but I shake my head thoroughly to rattle my brain loose a bit. Finally, I spot Lil and Lu standing over Te. Teuila is there, so she¡¯s not derezzed, but she looks smoldering hot. Worried that she might be burning up, and cursing myself for taking so long, not going to her immediately, I dash to her side.


    I can¡¯t sense any sort of lingering effect, but to be safe, I try to provide the feeling of a temperate autumn breeze to help soothe Teuila. This action causes me to long for Sylphie, but we don¡¯t know how she might change if we ever call for her again. Lu¡¯s statements about her nature were ominous. It sounded like dying, and reincarnating with a possibly different personality, one that may be unhelpful, or possibly spiteful.


    Strategizing, I request something a bit odd from my friends, ¡°Lil, Lu, Te, I need you to trust me, and try to nap for an hour, maybe two, whatever you need to do to be fighting fit, you¡¯re both looking haggard at best. Now that we have a chokepoint, I¡¯m confident I can hold off dozens, maybe hundreds of them for a long time. I¡¯ve got my orientation, when you¡¯re rested up, I¡¯m going to use inventory magic to slowly tunnel our way back towards the central room, while blocking this dead end, leaving us a nice alcove to fight from. Hopefully if we can see the spawns, we can figure out if there¡¯s some link between them, and the red barrier.¡±


    Lil and Te are in no condition to argue, so Lil slumps protectively atop Te, and actually drops their Lilagnewt form, cuddling atop Te¡¯s chest. Lu lightly drags Teuila as far back against the wall as possible, and sits against the wall with Te¡¯s torso cradled in her arms. Lil and Teuila are splayed across her lap while Luni sings a lullaby too soft for even me to hear from a few dozen feet away.


    Hopefully it¡¯s some sort of song of rest, or at least puts them to sleep quickly. To avoid a certain deadly flaw of mine, I blindfold myself as I push back against the oncoming horde. Their occasional howls let new spawns know to come hunt down the intruders, us. With my vision impaired, I erect enough stone that I can take a step back if needed, making a crevice that I can fit easily through, but the cragbeasts shouldn¡¯t be able to at all.


    I spend several hours dancing back and forth into the fray. My arms grow heavy, and it¡¯s harder and harder to fend off their physical attacks. My strikes are less deadly with each passing minute. The last one in the central room took me two strikes of my sword to finish, after I¡¯d sent one sprawling into it, and laid into both of them with punches. Now, if I¡¯m lucky, six or seven stabs or thrusts of my sword might finish one, ten or eleven slashes.


    Exhausted, gasping for breath, I contemplate buying myself a breather by sealing off the tunnel completely, but I dare not risk that, because it would be the opposite of a breather, there¡¯s no ventilation, and if I left any holes for ventilation, they¡¯d breathe fire through it and cook us. I weave back through my crevice once more, carefully inspecting the stone with my tactile senses, remaining blindfolded, hoping it holds out until I can get a break to regenerate my own mana.


    Teuila did right in finding us a dead end like this one, as scary as it was to see her disappear with her ridiculous speed. I¡¯m sure she slew several cragbeasts, as I saw a few hunks of meat in the corridor as I ran past it the first time. Still, even she can only dash into fire so many times, even if she only has to weather it for a split second. I love you Teuila, please be okay.


    I hear knuckles cracking behind me, and the sound of a very angry Valkyrie standing up. Te actually announces, ¡°Payback time.¡± Her rise sets my soul alight, and a smile to my face. I chuckle at her pithy expression. She¡¯s right though, there haven¡¯t been many new fires over the last few minutes, so Teuila could clear out dozens and dozens of cragbeasts near instantly until she reached the newer spawns that have fire in their bellies. I swear I just felt something pass through my danger wrap senses, but I don¡¯t feel any panic from my inner circle, so I just lean against the crevice for a moment, catching my breath until Teuila is ready to take out our quarry.


    ¡°Done.¡± Te exclaims as she dusts off her hands. I pull off my blindfold to look back at her, expecting her to leave any moment, as if she was agreeing, like, ¡°it will be done.¡± Or, ¡°You got it.¡± Te just stands there smirking however. Looking back out the crevice, I see dozens of cragbeasts just beginning to derez, as a massive time dilation hits, accompanied by the familiar crashing, cracking, tinkling sound.


    I know I said the plan was to basically hold off until it was safe for Teuila to wade into the fray, and that then the fight was basically instantly won, but still, wow. I¡¯m astounded at her speed and power. She must have hopped over my head, and leapt through their ranks, slicing in all directions. Then she returned within seconds.


    I barely manage to exclaim, ¡°Wow, well done Te. Just, just, wow!¡± Since I have a momentary breather, I continue, ¡°Okay, so, I¡¯ll go grab the loot, and come back here to begin expanding our stone safe haven. The deeper and thicker I can make this crevice, the closer we get to being out of range of any flames while we rest. Since they¡¯re basically all defeated for the moment, that means I don¡¯t need to keep saving energy for an emergency, and I can dump my mana into carving through stone. Then I¡¯ll even be able to take a break myself.¡±


    I steal away through the crevice to grab everything, and Teuila helps me as best she can. When we¡¯re nearly back to the central chamber, Teuila picks up a very special looking satchel, and it disappears. I only caught a glimpse, but the satchel was ornate, with many pouches, and stylish seamwork. Te looks around confusedly, but I grin as I check her stats panel. Her inventory capacity went up to zero. If we can get another, Teuila can have inventory magic too. I wonder if we could get enough for everyone else. Sugar, Spice, Mana, Mana, Mat, Lao, Ag, Lu. That would be sixteen more bags of this rare variety, after Teuila acquires her second one.


    This trip might just turn out okay if we can figure out a way out of here after that. Te rushes me back into the crevice as newly spawned cragbeast hellhounds approach swiftly.


    Reunited with everyone once more, I urge Lil to stay small for a moment, leaving enough room to work at claiming stone to my inventory from the rear of the dead end. Once claimed, I¡¯m placing it on both sides of the narrow hall I¡¯ve constructed. It takes several minutes of claiming, resting to regenerate mana, and placing, per inch of stone, but once we¡¯ve made enough headway, I can finally relax.


    Relaying my findings about Te¡¯s remarkable luck, I ask ¡°So, what does everyone think about taking turns napping for a bit, and then me setting up a new sort of staging area, sort of like this? Then continuing to fight until we¡¯ve either got enough of those ornate satchels for everyone, or we can tell the red barrier drops, whichever happens first. If we somehow snag enough satchels and we don¡¯t know if the barrier has yet dropped, I¡¯ll just try to dig us straight out of the mountain.¡± I draw my intended staging area for my friends to comment on. Lu makes a suggestion, and I edit it to include a sort of secret shelf, even though I¡¯m unsure what she plans to do with it.


    Right now, we¡¯re trapped, but in a good way, safe on all sides from approach. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll be stuck here for a few days yet while we figure things out, but things are looking up. My head vibrates from exhaustion, and I lean against a wall, cradling Lil. Lil is snoring snot bubbles, the goofy little cutie. Even Teuila chuckles at Lil¡¯s sleeping form. Te drops her Valkyrie form, and approaches to nuzzle twixt Lil and my chest. Lu actually stands guard, singing a soothing song whose words I can¡¯t make out. Luni¡¯s song soon sends me to slumber.

 B 2 C 18: One Valkyrie Falls

    <h2>B 2 C 18: One Valkyrie Falls</h2>


    The good news is that we have a limitless supply of food, though not as much drinking water. The bad news is that it would take months to tunnel out of here safely. We could maybe make a mad dash towards the exit, collapse a tunnel behind ourselves, and try to dig around the barrier from a closer position. There are no guarantees we¡¯d all make it safely back though.


    Hours pass as I set up our alcove to reenter the main chamber from, leaving a long thin hallway to a mostly buried dugout style cubby. Lil has to detransform to slip back through the hall into the cubby, but thankfully that¡¯s an option. Hm, oddly enough, I think if viewed from above it would look like a spear. The way I¡¯ve angled the walls of our alcove for a chokepoint that expands into a staging area would look a bit like a speartip. While the long hallway behind it would look like a haft, and the cubby would look like a grip or pommel.


    I¡¯m exceedingly worried about Lao and the family back at Shellcracker Pond, with news that they have an egg that¡¯s going to be hatching in less than four days. Something like three and a half days at this point. Is there really a chance it could hatch into a Vampguppy? Can they handle fending it off if so? I guess for now, I can try to trust our family¡¯s safety in the hands of Sugar, Spice, and Mata. Sugar and Spice recently came into their newest evolutionary forms, a middle stage of slightly anthropomorphic beaverness. Mata¡¯s got some frustration or hatred to unleash, and he should have decent reflexes with his half of the danger wraps.


    Hm, I wonder why Vampguppy was so much stronger, or well, had more health and offenses at least, when I fought it a few days ago. Some differences are my own abilities, I cut my hand with a magic weapon, an entire party instead of just Lil and myself were present. That might be it. I hope not though, I don¡¯t want any spawns to count Lil, Lu, Te, or myself as being present when we¡¯re not there.


    I continue this train of thought, trying to suss out how realistically we need to work towards the exit immediately, when I¡¯m interrupted by shouting. Te calls out to me, ¡°Hey, get out of your own head for a bit! Some of these are hellmutts are learning to dig, we need to take them out before the newer ones catch on!¡±


    I call back, ¡°On it!¡± Thankfully the cragbeasts, similarly to Vampguppy, have extremely low defenses. They¡¯re menacingly savage though. Dashing past Teuila out our newly carved alcove back into the main chamber, I take another bite of meat, drawing the hostility of every beast to me. For each cragbeast I struggle to slay Teuila takes advantage of the distraction I cause to appear as if out of thin air behind six of them, derezzing them nearly in an instant with thrusts from her sword or spear.


    Te and I make significant progress thinning their ranks, when hundreds of new eggs pop into existence around us. Thankfully most of their timers are a matter of hours rather than seconds or minutes. Still, we¡¯re in for a grueling haul.


    Lil¡¯s taking their turn resting, we¡¯ve got it set up now that Lil or I can operate for an hour or two at a time, protecting our partners from flames. When most of the fire is exhausted some of the cragbeasts break off to refuel. As that¡¯s happening, one of the three of us wades into the fray to take down as many cragbeasts as we can before any come back refueled. Lu is pushing herself to stay calm, and awake, watching over each of us that takes a turn resting. I¡¯m a bit worried for her, I¡¯ve never seen bags under her eyes before.


    Lu telepathically whispers, ¡°It¡¯s okay hero, you¡¯ve got this, you¡¯ll protect me.¡± Her assurance and faith brings a smile to my face. I charge deeper into the fray, lashing out at cragbeasts with icy jabs. One thing that I didn¡¯t have time to analyze early on is the fact that they have infinite thermal resist. That makes sense of course, like Lil, they¡¯re immune to flames, but also to cold. My danger wraps tell me though, that my frost somehow bypasses some resistance. When I use my abilities offensively it¡¯s like there¡¯s a maximum threshold or percent of damage reduction that anything can have. It¡¯s something like ninety to ninety nine percent, but still, at least I haven¡¯t been wasting time by practicing this skill.


    I sort of wish that I could increase the strength of my tendrils, snagging these beasts and swinging them around at one another for no mana cost would be really useful. I suppose eventually I¡¯ll have to try to acquire telekinesis, and train it to be strong enough to lift massive creatures.


    Maybe I won¡¯t desperately need to research telekinesis, but it is a mild desire at the back of my mind. I¡¯m fairly positive that some of Teuila¡¯s weird bond with gravity is rubbing off on me, since I can uppercut these hellhounds and knock them away several feet. It¡¯s mostly surprising, since they weigh at least half a ton each. Sadly that gravity bond seems to only work during direct skin to skin contact. My knuckles are fairly bruised, bloody, and in all around bad shape from my various attacks. The cragbeast¡¯s bare, hairless  flesh is somewhat stony after all. Telekinesis would spare my knuckles from being ground into a pulp at least.


    Caught in a reverie, I barely notice that Teuila has landed from one of her leaps to pause and pant for breath. She¡¯s positioned at the edge of a tunnel from which half a dozen cragbeasts are returning with fire in their bellies. As they round the corner of the tunnel and spot Teuila, I don¡¯t have time to position myself to absorb the flames, or even call out for Teuila to evacuate. The flames begin leaving the mouths of the beasts as I panic, trying to find the right course of action.


    In thinkspace I try to get Teuila¡¯s attention, ¡°Te, Teuila move!¡±


    Te responds, panting, ¡°Something¡¯s wrong, can¡¯t. Can¡¯t move, too tired.¡± I check her energy to figure out why she¡¯s so exhausted. Her mana hasn¡¯t dropped much at all during the course of the battle, but there has to be some hidden cost to her ridiculous suite of abilities. It¡¯s taking a toll on her body.


    Okay, I don¡¯t have time to angle myself to help Teuila out, so this is going to hurt. As I¡¯m leaving thinkspace, I plot exactly where I¡¯m going to have to impact myself with inventory propulsion, and it¡¯s my darn right ribs again. I need to expel with full force at my highest velocity. As I¡¯m being knocked towards the tunnel Teuila¡¯s standing in front of, I¡¯ll aim perpendicularly, through the platoon of cragbeasts. Here goes nothing.


    I summon a slat of stone to slam into myself from my right side, shunting me towards the wall near Teuila, just as I¡¯m slamming into it, I aim a line through the skulls and shoulders of all six beasts. Exhaling smoothly, I plot a five hundred energy radiant copy of Gae Buidhe to blast through them. I just hope it has a strong enough impetus to take out each one simultaneously.


    The flames begin lapping at Teuila, slowly overtaking her body as Gae Buidhe launches. In an instant we¡¯re treated to just enough time dilation to plot our next move as the six beasts derez. Te can¡¯t operate right now. Not only is she unable to move, but the nape of her back, and half of the right side of her torso is exposed and blistered. Normally she¡¯d be able to just rocket above the beasts and back into our alcove through the secret shelf slide that Luni had me install.


    My problem in trying to personally evacuate Teuila is that I¡¯ve eaten meat to garner the attention of every beast in the vicinity. I could risk running down a side tunnel, hoping there are no more beasts on the far side of Teuila that would be chasing me down through her. No, not an acceptable risk. Lil is resting off another wing injury, I can¡¯t afford to interrupt that. Dare I risk throwing Teuila with the tendrils? I know they hurt when gripping someone, like a kind of shocking forceful drain of senses, some kind of toxic touch that excites pain receptors or something. Not only that, but I know that sometimes they damage a gripped creature enough to instantly derez them. Still, Teuila and her Valkyrie form are far tougher than any of the things I¡¯ve accidentally slain with my tendrils.


    Telepathically calling to Lu, ¡°Lu, can you be prepared to catch Teuila? I¡¯ve got an air drop mail delivery for you. Thanks for the secret shelf slot idea.¡±


    Luni calls back, sending warmth and a smile into our bond, ¡°Already here hero. Go for it.¡±


    I don¡¯t even pause to contemplate whether or not Luni¡¯s having another prophetic moment as I grip Teuila with my tendrils, haul her backwards and launch her like a spear at the ¡®mail slot.¡¯ She seems to sail through the air simultaneously quickly, yet with almost no force. Parts of Teuila¡¯s boots clip along the lip of our slot, and I worry that I¡¯ll have thrown her to smash against the wall, but her heels meet her butt and she slides out of sight. Hopefully into Lu¡¯s waiting arms, and then to safety.


    If Teuila has some sort of hidden cost to her evolved form, Lil might have it as well, that means I can¡¯t risk Lil being a solo fighter anymore. That means I no longer get breaks. Heh, three more days of having to struggle onwards in a place with labyrinthine tunnels with no breaks? Where have I done that before? I¡¯m joking, I know, and recall in vivid detail.


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Fine, I¡¯ve made my bed, I¡¯ll lie in it. I¡¯m the reason we¡¯re here, and I¡¯m mostly at very little risk. I¡¯ll just have to think of it as if it¡¯s just a long, grueling training session. I think I might be able to slightly rest on autopilot if I just run around the tunnels via tendril movement. That¡¯ll also let me get a sense of the full structure. Maybe if we¡¯re lucky, I might find an exit or a way to open the exit as I explore.


    My last resort for getting us out of here will be trying to exterminate all of the cragbeasts and eggs at once while Lil is at the exit. I¡¯d be hoping that the barrier will go down for at least a split second if there are no hostile red souled creatures in here. Lil should be able to leave during that time, then the rest of us should have no problem leaving, hopefully.


    Conserving my mental energy, I¡¯m just going to shut my brain off and check out during the monotony of exploring barren tunnel structures for hours on end, as I¡¯ve done once before. At least I¡¯ve got something other than fish to eat, and I have to continue to do so on occasion to make sure the beasts don¡¯t break off from following me.


    This is different. How long have I been exploring? It does feel like several hours have passed. There¡¯s a river of lava swirling in a circle around a new room. It looks like some sort of pacing room with a menhir at its center. Every semblance of genre savviness I possess is screaming at me to not enter this room alone. Gulping, I extend my right hand, palm first as if touching an invisible door. I see a translucent flicker in front of me. As I worried, there¡¯s some sort of one way passage. Pulling my right hand back, I shear off my fingerprints, as they must have penetrated the barrier ever so slightly.


    Argh that stings like the dickens. I shake my hand out, blowing on the fingertips to try to take the edge off the pain. The good news is I didn¡¯t fall victim to that trap, the bad news is I¡¯ve got hundreds of cragbeasts bearing down on me from rearwards up the tunnel I came from. How many hours have I been exploring? Did I follow the right hand wall rule while I let myself check out?


    Okay, yeah, I probably was a bit stupid to have done that. Okay, I can leap over and across the back of a few cragbeasts, but they¡¯ll wise up and start scrabbling atop one another¡¯s backs. For a few of those ones, I¡¯ll be able to spear drill leap between them as they try to catch me. Eventually they¡¯ll just cram so many bodies in my way that I¡¯ll be forced to take a few of them out. I can¡¯t even come up with some sort of super attack to blast through a bunch of them at once, because I blew most of my energy stopping Teuila from being incinerated. Hm, wait, my mana is recovered to max. How long was I exploring?


    Nuts, they¡¯re on me. Okay, think Reggie, what¡¯s the best use of your energy, your suite of abilities, and any items you¡¯re carrying around, to try to rendezvous with the team? My space skill thrusting movements could help me basically pinball around the tunnels. They don¡¯t cost much as long as I keep stocked on solid matter. I could maybe test out making a massive ice spear straight down the center of a hallway, or a radiant bolt of magic weaponry, the same way. The problem with doing those is, if the hellish hounds are in staggered groups, I won¡¯t necessarily take them all out, and I¡¯ll be stuck in the same position I¡¯m in now.


    For now, the opening salvo of fire breath is buying me a few seconds as it harmlessly dissipates against my cold air barrier. I pull down my blindfold, because I can¡¯t afford to see a panic trigger in such a dangerous situation.


    Let¡¯s just take it moment by moment. I swing my Valkyrie sword diagonally upwards towards the right as a cragbeast leaps to maul me. Its derezzing buys me another precious moment for me to slow my breathing and center my thoughts.


    Right, like I said, a long, grueling, solo training session. I reverse my slash to catch the claw of one trying to strike me from below and to my left. I literally disarm the creature, if forelegs could be considered arms anyway. Losing its paw doesn¡¯t force it to derez, which confirms that for some attacks I do need to be at least slightly accurate towards vitals. Sighing, I stab its cranium on the return swing. Leaping upwards I slash down at the center cragbeast who¡¯d been exhaling flame the entire time. The two derez as expected, buying me a moment to analyze the situation again.


    They stand shoulder to shoulder, three abreast, and completely pack the hallway horizontally. If any of them get the idea to climb atop others, they¡¯ll fill the entire hall in front of me bodily. Maybe it¡¯s best if I give them that Idea. Hopping atop the now forefront cragbeast, I start casually walking across their backs, side-stepping and dancing around claws that appear between the beasts to try to maul me.


    As expected, they do learn slightly by mimicry. At the far end of the hall I can virtually feel the mass of bodies doubling up as those beasts behind catch up. Once caught up, the second wave of cragbeasts scrabbles upwards, based on my vague proprioceptive senses of the stuffiness of the air and other cues. I¡¯m not going to bother confirming by undoing my blindfold. I leap backwards, sword outstretched as I spin counterclockwise like a corkscrew. Whirlwinding through the air I score cut after cut across shoulders, spines, and craniums of cragbeasts as I retreat. Several derez, and I open enough space to stand at the fore of all the beasts once again. One beast tackles me as I¡¯m recovering from my landing.


    The beast that tackled me pins me to the ground and expands its four-way jaw around my helmet. I¡¯d probably scream in terror if I could see inside this thing¡¯s mouth. Breathe Reggie, breathe. I know it¡¯s getting stuffy in here with all their bodies and all the fire burning up oxygen, but you have to keep breathing properly to stay calm buddy. Just pull out Gae Buidhe, and this one is no longer pinning you. There we go, me, good job. I may be slightly cracking under the pressure. Thankfully the one pinning me impaled itself on Gae Buidhe when I summoned it resting against my shoulder. Gae Buidhe was angled in the direction the chomp was coming from. I reclaim the ridiculously deadly spear, and heave a massive breath as I stand, dusting myself off.


    Hm, the only space I need is a diamond about half their size. Or heck, half of that, a triangle. If I stack stones about two feet deep to the halfway point of the hallway, with a small notch at the center, yes, that might work. I carefully begin slowly placing stones behind me from my inventory, slow enough to not cost any noticeable amount of mana. When it feels like my back is to a wall, I leap backwards atop my partial barricade. I lay in a prone sniping position, and continue to expel stones to each of my sides. Eventually I¡¯ve made myself into a sort of turret. Now lets see if I can mimic something. What¡¯s a good analogy, a howitzer? How about I spend everything except about ten energy, and flood the tunnel with radiant copies of Gae Buidhe, large enough to nearly fill the entire hall. My helmet takes a claw swipe even in my barricaded position, as the hellmutts begin scrabbling at the stones to dislodge them. It won¡¯t last long, so I¡¯d better do this now.


    I exhale as smoothly as I can. My mind¡¯s eye pictures summoning several dozen radiant copies of Gae Buidhe from between the spaces inbetween the rocks in my barricade, facing the hall of hounds. When I¡¯m certain my danger wrap senses have picked out all the best spots to summon the weapons, I pour nearly all of my energy into summoning them with as much forward velocity as I can muster.


    The raucous din that I¡¯m treated to as an entire hallway of hellhounds derezzes feels like it nearly shatters my eardrums and nearly caves in my skull. I vomit slightly and taste copper. Ugh, that rib injury acting up again. I had to shunt myself to save Teuila, which apparently punctured my lungs again. My mana must have been keeping the injury from bothering me, and now it¡¯s no longer a buffer between me and the pain.


    I let my eyes droop for a bit as my breathing slowly becomes more shallow. I¡¯m certain I¡¯ve only napped for a few moments when I snap to attention. I can¡¯t let myself nap until I rendezvous with Lu, Te, and Lil, in our dugout cubby. Even then, I should probably remain fighting the entire time, in case one of them checks out in the middle of one of their shifts like Teuila did.


    Yeah, blast it all. I tear off up the hallway, snagging all of the loot. I¡¯m smiling because we¡¯ve just acquired several more of the special ornate pouches. Ah, of course that wasn¡¯t all of the hounds from this batch of spawns, but I¡¯ve finally reached a tunnel offshoot on my right. I can try to circle around back to the antechamber I constructed once again. I suppose if I treat the scary one-way room as a dead end, I could still be following the right hand wall. Should I turn back and try to follow the left hand wall to backtrack? Or do I just hope that this circles around to one of the many tunnels that meet up with the central spawning chamber?


    I think I¡¯ll hope for the latter. I¡¯m in no shape to take out another entire hallway of hellhounds if they pack in and block my way again. Hours and hours are passing as I try to find my way back to Lil, Lu, and Te. I try, and fail, to not hyperventilate. Between the stuffiness, and the mild terror settling into my soul, from being separated for so long, and lost for so long, while we¡¯re all in a dangerous situation, I¡¯m barely keeping it together.


    Correction, you¡¯re not keeping it together buddy. Oh screw you buddy. Wait. What.


    I chance pulling up my blindfold to quickly glance around. Spying nothing, I drop the blindfold back around my eyes again. Great, I¡¯m arguing with myself, or hallucinating voices. Neither is a great sign. You¡¯re fine Reggie, you¡¯ll be fine, you¡¯ve got about three more hallways in this section to explore, based on your intuition of your sense of direction. Likely one of them will wrap around to a familiar tunnel, or the center chamber soon. Really? Yeah, trust yourself just this once. Huh, alright, I guess it¡¯s worth the weirdness to keep up hope.


    Sure enough, the third tunnel finally wraps around to a familiar tunnel, one that Teuila marked when we first entered. I¡¯m coming in from one of the left hand offshoots that we ignored as we followed the right hand wall. Hey me, are you still there? No response. I just wanted to say thanks for keeping my hopes up.


    Returning to the spawning chamber, dozens of cragbeasts are set to spawn within the next few seconds, but for this briefest of instants, I have a clear shot to my party¡¯s antechamber. I lean forward until I¡¯ve basically fallen on my face, brace my legs into a locked position, then thrust forward from behind my feet to launch myself as fast as possible sailing across the room. Just in case, I keep my sword pointed forward and angled slightly up.


    Lu surprises me by stepping out from the corner of our alcove staging grounds. Terror grips my heart in that split second I have before my sword connects with her chest. I panic and claim all my equipment to my inventory, praying to all that is good in the world that I made it in time.

 B 2 C 19: Another Rises

    <h2>B 2 C 19: Another Rises</h2>


    As I collide with Lu I scream and cry out, ¡°Lu!  Lu are you okay!?  Please be okay!  I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry, please be okay!¡±  The two of us go tumbling rapidly into our crevice, and we end up a mess of tangled limbs, stuck in the miniature hallway, legs wrapped around one another and faces pressed to one another¡¯s.


    Lu giggles in response.  She nuzzles my nose with hers before answering, ¡°We¡¯re okay.  Told you, you¡¯ll never fail me, you¡¯ve always got this, you¡¯re my hero, always have been, always will be.¡±  I burst into tears at her faith, drawing ragged, sobbing breaths.


    I stammer, ¡°Lu, I, I, I could have killed you, I was so, it was so close, I almost killed you.¡±


    Lu interrupts before I can finish my thought, ¡°But you didn¡¯t.  You won¡¯t.  You¡¯re okay.  Shh, it¡¯s okay.¡±  Since we¡¯re a bit stuck together at the moment, Luni plays with my hair with her one free hand, but she can¡¯t move the arm it¡¯s attached to.  She titters lightly as she makes a playful jibe, ¡°So, are you stuck or are you just happy to see me?¡±


    I gulp as I blush.  I¡¯m not sure if Lu knows the connotations attached to that phrase, and I don¡¯t have the equipment that¡¯s implied.  I don¡¯t have any equipment.  I think.  Shapeshifting seems to be a possibility within my repertoire though.  Shaking the thoughts free from my head, I find myself bursting into laughter before replying, ¡°I¡¯m always, always happy to see you.  I absolutely adore you Lu.  I love you beyond words, as I do with Teuila, and Lil.¡±


    Luni tips her head upwards slightly to nip at my nose.  She ponders a bit before responding, ¡°I know Reggie, I love you too, obvee.  Still, y¡¯know, know what I mean?¡±  I could swear she¡¯s salaciously wiggling her eyebrows, as I feel fuzz tickling my brow.


    I gasp in shock at my own distractedness, ¡°Oh, oh!  Right!  Right right right, I¡¯m so sorry, yeah, yeah we need to, um, maybe if you just put your foot right there against mine,  err no, maybe against my thigh?  Can you reach it higher to shove with more leverage?  Ow, okay, maybe not.  What about your free hand, can you push my head away a bit?  Ow, ow, ow, okay, no, no, ah, hahaha, stop, hahaha, my head won¡¯t bend that way Lu.¡±


    Lu and I devolve into a fit of laughter before she makes a suggestion.  ¡°Maybe you could, you know, and then you and I could, you know.¡±


    The vague implications set my heart fluttering, til I realize what she meant.  She meant I could use my inventory magic, then we could move around because we¡¯d have enough room.


    Lu telepathically sends, ¡°Sure, exactly that!¡±  Somehow the devious grin she implies across our mental wavelength causes me to suspect I guessed wrong.  I can¡¯t think of what she might have been implying now, if not my inventory magic.  Well, other than, uh, certain activities.  But we don¡¯t have that sort of, I mean no one does.  No one has that kind of relationship.  This world doesn¡¯t have any of the related activities.  Anyway, she also couldn¡¯t have meant that, she doesn¡¯t have my weird broken memories where things like that exist.  I think she just likes teasing me.


    Lu, riding my mental wavelength, comments on my train of thoughts, ¡°Darn right I like teasing you, you¡¯re fun!  But maybe you should get on with your plan, huh?¡±  I can feel her wink against my face.


    Oh, right.  We¡¯re really jammed in here good, wow, it¡¯s a wonder neither of us got seriously injured from this.  I mean, I guess Lu is kinda, um, padded.  She¡¯s curvy, soft, fluffy.  What was I doing again?


    ¡°Inventory stuff with rock?¡±


    Oh, right!  Hah, hah, ahem.  Wow, why is my heart rate so high?  Must be panic amiright?  Just me and my normal boring old panic.  I claim enough of the stone surrounding us to first carefully set our arms down so that we won¡¯t fall and get further lodged together.


    ¡°Why so cautious?  Would that be so bad?¡±  Lu teases.


    I pause before replying, ¡°You know, Lil once called Teuila a menace and meanie because she kissed them once, but you¡¯re going to give me a heart attack with your teasing.  I think you¡¯re the true menace or meanie Lu.  But, uh, heh, no, I guess it wouldn¡¯t be that bad.  It¡¯s really comfy snuggling you this close.  Argh I¡¯m getting distracted again, you punk!¡±  Lu bursts into laughter again at my reply when she ascertains how successful she was.


    I claim more stone, just enough for each of us to set down one foot, so at this point, our only things entangled are one of each of our legs, our midsections, and faces.


    Lu starts to comment, ¡°I see the order was very carefully selected.¡±  She pecks my cheek.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    She starts to continue but I interrupt.  ¡°Bup bup, no more of that.  Yeesh, what are you doing to me?  We¡¯ve got firebreathing beasties spawning out there as we speak.¡±  I claim more of the stone around us so that we can carefully bend away from one another.


    Lu however, instead of finally extricating herself, just embraces me tightly.  She calmly states, ¡°You needed a break.  You won¡¯t be taking another one for two days.  I want you at your best, my hero.  Like I said, you¡¯ve got this, but that doesn¡¯t mean it won¡¯t hurt you if you don¡¯t get some help.  I also said I love you.¡±


    My jaw hangs ever so slightly slack, and my right index finger can¡¯t decide whether to point, or tap my thumb near my chin.  I try to form a few words, but can¡¯t.  Lu¡¯s taking care of me even now, somehow she¡¯s done it from afar, as well as throughout time itself.  Here she is, doing everything she can to keep me from rushing in and out, back into battle.  My face adopts a slightly sad smile as I stroke her cheek with the back of my right hand.  I nestle my chin into the hair that adorns her head.  I think her hairstyle might be called a bob with bangs?  I don¡¯t know hairstyles.  Mine is literally just an unkempt mane.  Te¡¯s is a bit of a mohawk, or halfhawk, or something like that.  My eyes droop a bit as we lean into a slightly stuck position once more.  My breathing slowly calms, and I feel myself drifting to sleep in Luni¡¯s embrace.


    I awaken to Lu sleeping in our shared embrace.  Kissing the crown of Lu¡¯s cranium, I gratefully state, ¡°Thank you Lu.  You¡¯re absolutely amazing, phenomenal in so many ways.  If this world had romance, you, me, Lil and Te, I¡¯d want us all together like that, forever.  Maybe I¡¯ll remember to tell you sometime when you¡¯re awake.  I couldn¡¯t do any of this without you.  Sometimes I forget just how much you¡¯ve done for me.¡±


    Lu¡¯s hand strokes my cheek, betraying the fact that she wasn¡¯t asleep for my admission, she lets out the family squee of glee.  ¡°Heeee.¡±  My heart flutters but I give Luni a playful shove.  We finally extricate ourselves, and Lu heads forth, leading me into our dugout.  Upon entry I spy Teuila still in her Valkyrie form, cuddled tightly around Lil.  Lil is in their base form.


    Slightly panicked, I ask, ¡°Lu, why didn¡¯t she drop her form yet?  There¡¯s something wrong with it right now.¡±


    Lu shushes me slightly, ¡°You¡¯re going to have to borrow it from her, to fix it.  You¡¯re going to feel like you¡¯re on fire, and be on fire for two days.  I wanted you to get as much peace and joy as you could before this.  It¡¯s going to be a lonely kind of hell for you.  Lil can¡¯t join you either, and if you don¡¯t do this, Teuila will suffer permanently.  Also if you don¡¯t do this, we probably won¡¯t survive when the cragbeasts learn to dig.  I have to help you help Teuila, so I¡¯ll be a part of your hell for two days.  This is part of why some of my powers will be leaving me soon.¡±


    My heart sinks as tears well in my eyes.  How do I absorb all that?  She knows this is how it has to play out, how it was going to play out, and yet she¡¯s willing to subject herself to a shared hell for two days?  She signed up for this, well in advance?  How giving, kind, caring, loving, and wonderful is this woman?  I pull Luni to my body, wrapping my arms around hers one more time.  It sounds like it¡¯s the last affection I¡¯ll be getting for several days, so I kiss her cheek lightly and stroke the back of her head.


    I try to calm the fluttering of my heart, and breathe evenly as I request, ¡°Okay Lu, show me what to do.¡±


    Lu leads me to the slumbering Teuila, she hasn¡¯t recovered much from her burns even though she¡¯s been sleeping for however many hours I¡¯ve been missing.  Lil isn¡¯t looking too much worse for wear at the moment as far as I can see. Their spherical form is mostly encompassed by Teuila¡¯s body, so I can¡¯t see much of it at the moment though.  Lu begins plucking strings on her harp, strumming slowly.  I swear radiant notes fill the air, and the notes slowly become an absence of light, like floating shadows.  These umbral notes are entrancing.  Lu assertively directs me, ¡°Touch her, and with all of your love, all of it, ask her to give up her form for now.  Convince her with one touch that you¡¯re saving her.  Don¡¯t tell her it¡¯s going to hurt you as much as it¡¯s hurting her right now.  You¡¯ve suffered so much, she couldn¡¯t bear it.  But because you¡¯ve suffered so much, you can bear this.  You¡¯re the only one of us who can.  She doesn¡¯t need to know that though.  When you¡¯re connected, give her the other bag.  Go on.¡±


    I do my best to follow Luni¡¯s directions, but my love feels infinite.  An infinite well that I share among all those dear to me.  Lu specifically said to pour all of my love into this touch though.  I try to shut off the rest of the world, to virtually destroy all other memories from my mind, save those intimate moments with Teuila.  Shedding every other thought I¡¯ve ever had, I think only of her as I stroke her cheek.  Leaning in, I kiss her left brow.  All I can think is that right now, I want to see her in her base form, to show her that I¡¯m unafraid, and how much I love her.  Somehow my desire reaches Teuila, her form glows and shrinks, while mine darkens and elongates.  My thumb brushes her cheek once more.  I¡¯m just borrowing this.  This power is yours, it always was, it always will be.  Here, this is for you too, now you finally have inventory magic like Lil, and someday it¡¯ll be able to hold as much as Lu¡¯s special bags.


    Luni was right, everything burns.  I remember this pain.  The pain of having gone berserk and having lost nearly all senses, save those of my danger wraps.  Fire begs to explode from my shoulder blades.  I couldn¡¯t stay in this resting room with them even if I wanted to at the moment, I¡¯m afraid various powers would lash out and harm those I¡¯m trying to protect.


    Lu whispers into my mind, ¡°I¡¯ll anchor you, you can do this.  I¡¯ll be on the shelf.  Keep me safe, um, please?¡±  Her assertiveness, teasing, and everything else finally drips away, leaving only the bashful, shy, loving Lu.


    It virtually breaks my heart to imagine how hard she was pushing forward to buy me every moment possible before doing this, and how much she¡¯s going to be taking on for me over the next two days.  I¡¯ll do my best to deserve your aid Lu, and of course, to keep you safe.

 B 2 C 20: Cragbeast Queen and Family

    <h2>B 2 C 20: Cragbeast Queen and Family</h2>


    Every step is an agonizing, plodding torment.  While Teuila may move about as if unfettered by gravity in this form, I find myself suffering the weight of a supermassive black hole dragging me downwards.  However, it seems as if the Valkyrie form has mixed with my more adult form, and whatever umbral energy that Luni conjured.  The equipment doesn¡¯t contain a shield, bow, or spear, but it does contain a greatsword, and a double-tipped staff.  Also, I¡¯m fairly certain I have actual feathered wings, four of them, but if I¡¯m supposed to have muscle control over them, I can¡¯t exert any while suffering this weight.


    Luni whispers into my mind, ¡°Focus, remember your ice, keep it up, your reflexes will take care of the rest.  Um, I think, hehe.¡±  I feel her gaze upon me from the secret slot that¡¯s carved into the wall that faces our little alcove, above its entrance.  Her presence helps fill me with confidence, and makes the fiery warmth consuming me almost bearable.


    Wait, you think?  Lu replies to my nonverbal question,  ¡°Hehe, um, well, I¡¯m not the hero, right?  You got this!¡±  I ellipse at you Lu.  Ellipses, many of them, straight at you.  Dot dot dot.  I hear an almost cackling laughter from her through our telepathic bond.


    Curiously, I poke myself hard in my chest near my heart with my index finger, and hear an ¡°Ow!¡±  Oh Lu, Lu, what have you done?  Are you sure about this?


    Lu cracks slightly, revealing how hard this is on her, ¡°I, um, so, yeah, I didn¡¯t want you to worry.  It¡¯s okay.  It¡¯s for you, and Te.  I¡¯ll do anything for you.  If, y¡¯know, if that¡¯s okay.¡±  I sigh.  Not only is Luni suffering for us, but my injuries could injure or kill her.  I carefully cradle the right side of my torso, gently massaging my busted ribs.  Lu groans with pain across our wavelength.


    ¡°Sorry Lu.  Some day, somehow, I¡¯ll try to make this up to you.  You¡¯re the bravest, kindest soul.  You don¡¯t deserve to have to suffer this with me.¡±  I only hear a shushing sound in response.  Her gaze remains fixed on me however, unwavering.


    I haven¡¯t even been paying attention to my left hand cracking cragbeast craniums while thinking worriedly about Lu.  Though every motion feels slow, as if fighting against the gravity of a neutron star, I feel incredibly dense.  Luni chuckles into my mind.  Not that kind of dense.  Force is mass times acceleration.  Even if my acceleration is ridiculously slow, it¡¯s not zero.  Somehow there¡¯s so much weight behind my strikes that I can send these beasts flying.  I end up derezzing many with single strikes if I uppercut inside their jaws.


    Curious about my strength, I grip a claw as it comes towards me.  I spin in the direction the attack was moving, rolling my shoulder, throwing the cragbeast into three that were approaching from behind.  The four beasts collide so hard that they all derez.  This form has a ridiculous force multiplier.  Is that part of Valkyrie¡¯s power?  I mean, Teuila¡¯s version is on the acceleration side of the equation.  Mine appears to be on the density side.  I¡¯m tempted to satisfy my curiosity by letting one of these chew on me, but I¡¯m terrified that it might hurt or injure Lu even if it doesn¡¯t manage to tear into me.


    I spin, low to the ground, raising slowly, producing layers of icy barrier around myself until I¡¯m surrounded by a nearly solid cone of superchilled air.  With the momentary breather, I draw the greatsword.  Like everything else about this form, wielding the sword feels like I¡¯m tearing my muscles fighting a gravity greater than any known celestial body to move.  The boiling fire beneath my skin explodes constantly, fueling my movements.  At average cragbeast skull level, I swing in a slow wide arc, and it seems to leave a cleave in the air.


    Sure enough, cragbeasts that approach through where I¡¯d just cleaved derez on contact.  I have no idea how to rationalize that.  Checking my energy display, it¡¯s screwed up, glitchy, seeming to be covered in jpeg artifacts.  But at least it seems to be at max mana.  I take a few more wide arcing swings, surrounding myself in slashes that hang in midair for a moment.  During that reprieve, I try to use energy to summon enough stone from my inventory to form a shield.  The stone appears, but my energy doesn¡¯t seem to move.  Instead the fire beneath my skin boils harder.  The explosions feel like they tackle my heart from all sides, mini popping booms in a chain reaction around my heart.  The explosions even feel like they slam my busted ribs back into my lung and I cough, though no blood escapes my lips.


    Luni cries out in pain, and a wet splatting sound escapes her lips.  I gasp, saddened that Luni just suffered this horrid torture.  Okay, so, Two days in a form that seems to have been bulking up over the last few minutes.  I think I¡¯m too big to retreat into the crevice now anyway.  Two days, not using any energy unless I want to subject Luni to the agony that crawls beneath my skin.  Worse than however much she¡¯s already sharing.


    Regretfully I apologize to Luni, ¡°Lu.  I adore you intensely, I¡¯m sorry about that.  I won¡¯t do it again, I¡¯ll stop experimenting unless absolutely necessary.  Just one more test, I¡¯m going to shut my brain off for a bit, when I check back in, let me know how much you felt, please?  No lying.¡±


    She replies, ¡°C,c,cool.  All, all good, yeah, heh, um, go team.¡±


    Taking a deep breath, I wrap some of my padded clothing around my eyes, and slowly focus on the monotony of just reacting to each leap or swipe by a cragbeast.  I keep my entire body coated in a layer of frigid air passively, but eventually the swings of my sword fall into a rhythm.  As they do, I let myself lose myself in the rhythm, ignoring the pain and weight pushing down on me, and the gravity wrenching every one of my movements.


    Several hours have to have passed, I regret letting a test go on that long, as I mentally frantically feel across our wavelengths for Lu.  Telepathically I think towards Luni over and over.


    Lu finally calls back, ¡°Um, all good, yeah, all good, no worse feedback while you¡¯re on autopilot.  Maybe even a bit less feedback. Um, maybe.  Don¡¯t feel like you need to do that, if you don¡¯t want to, probably.¡±


    Luni¡¯s hiding something.  My right temple aches and my vision, though blindfolded, doubles and crosses.  Luni, there¡¯s something you¡¯re not telling me, it¡¯s pretty significant.  What is it?


    Luni frets, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m so sorry!  Te, she, she got up somehow, she shouldn¡¯t be moving for two days, I swore I would anchor you, and wouldn¡¯t leave, I¡¯m so sorry, please forgive me!  I put her back to sleep with Lil, she was super out of it, I came right back.  I¡¯m so sorry I left you hanging here at all.¡±


    Lu telepathically sends me images of her own face, bawling her eyes out, holding two pieces of a broken heart, one in each of her hands in front of her quivering lips.  I try not to laugh at the over dramatic nature, because her sentiment is endearing and heartfelt.  I reach out in return,  ¡°I know I¡¯m a bit dramatic with my overreactions, but Te was right, you¡¯re the queen of it my dear.  I cherish you Luni.  We¡¯re okay.  I may not know exactly what your anchoring does, or how necessary it is to be linked visually for it the entire time, but I trust you.  You took care of Teuila, I couldn¡¯t ask for more than that.¡±


    Lu clarifies, ¡°Well, well, um, I was still your anchor, you won¡¯t lose yourself, just, I need to keep an eye on you in case you need more music.¡±


    At least I think that was clarification.  If anything I¡¯m more confused.  I finish absolving Luni, ¡°Thank you Lu, my beloved sweet Luni, we¡¯re good.  Do what you need to do, I trust you.  I¡¯m going to check out again.  The pain is intense, it feels like wielding the greatsword is shearing my right wrist, or fracturing it.  I¡¯ll try switching to the staff for a bit.  Either way I can barely handle this, but we¡¯ll get through it.¡±


    Over a day and a half passes monotonously standing in the center of a massive room, taking on all-comers.  Occasionally I can handle joking around with Lu.  About the only thing on my mind other than the pain though is our recent entanglement.


    I needle Luni, ¡°Lu, how much do you know about my memories?  I know they aren¡¯t in my logs, my logs just show my inner narration since you know when.¡±


    Lu sends an image of her tapping her index finger tips together and avoiding eye contact.  I continue needling and eventually she relents slightly, mysteriously.  Lu answers, ¡°Secrets, um, not your memories.  But yeah.  So, uh, sorry.  But yes.  Like, fiscal responsibility, and uh, macroeconomics.¡±


    Fiscal responsibility and macroeconomics?  What?  I.  I don¡¯t know what to do with that information, or that non-answer.  Or, is that a non secret way to intimate that Luni also has glitchy memories?  Lu?


    Luni refuses to respond any more on the topic.  Instead Lu orders, ¡°Focus up, things are going to start soon.  It¡¯s going to start getting hard, then get more difficult from there on out.¡±


    The stuff so far wasn¡¯t enough of a challenge already!?  Oy vey.  I nearly vomit with how hard my stomach flip flops over the new information.  I hear an urp sound from Luni, and a small splash from the shelf.  Oof, sorry Lu, didn¡¯t mean to share that with you.


    Luni sends an image of her face looking droopy, sick, and exhausted.  However there¡¯s also a weak thumbs up alongside it.  I call back, ¡°Alright then, just like, hit me with a rock when I need to start paying attention or something.  I¡¯ll check out for a bit longer.  I treasure you, my anchor.  Thank you.¡±  Lu sends another thumbs up telepathically, and I can feel both of our stomachs doing acrobatics routines.


    I¡¯m brought to my senses by the world feeling as if it¡¯s crumbling around me.  Lu calls into my mind immediately, ¡°Keep your blindfold on, whatever you do!  You¡¯ll be okay, stall for a couple more hours.  Conditions aren¡¯t right yet.  Leave mama alone, and take out all the little ones except the last one.¡±


    I¡¯m exceedingly confused, but I reach out my senses, trying to figure out what changed.  My back is near a stone surface, something like a rounded obelisk, oh.  It¡¯s the menhir from the lava circle room.  Other rock formations begin to appear within my senses, stalactites are beginning to rain down.  Some of them are doing my job for me, taking out cragbeasts.


    Why does the menhir feel like a giant egg with a timer?  Lu said to keep my blindfold on, but I can virtually feel a giant timer at my back quickly ticking away towards zero.  I¡¯ll rely on Luni¡¯s foresight though.


    Wait, what did Luni say about mama?  As if on cue, the menhir at my back explodes.  Between the force of the explosion, and being displaced by a massive creature spawning into existence, I¡¯m thrown all the way from the center of this massive room to its farthest edge.  Of course I slam into the wall with the right side of my torso.  I gasp and cough blood, and Luni must be doing the same, based on the spattering sound I can barely make out from all the way over here.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    I cry with fury at these beasts for forcing Luni to feel that particular pain of mine yet again.  As much as I want to imagine the fury speeds me up and helps me plow through their ranks, it doesn¡¯t.  Instead the pain just wells up, boiling up as if it¡¯s ready to melt upwards through my flesh.  Its intensity and fierceness leave me gasping for breath, nauseated.  My head lolls and it feels as if my eyes are swimming in their sockets.


    It¡¯s, it¡¯s a transformation.  I¡¯m, I won¡¯t be the same if I transform.  Something¡¯s coming.  The pressure that my insides exert outward grows to nearly unbearable levels.  I swear I¡¯m an instant from my skin tearing or disintegrating so whatever¡¯s inside can burst out.  Suddenly I hear a soft rock riff from the shelf, and the bubbling under my skin slowly recedes.  I whisper thank you Luni.  She saved me from whatever that was.  That¡¯s why she¡¯s my anchor for this.


    The bad news is, that if I could hear Luni¡¯s music, it seems as if the cragbeasts could too, including mama.  I feel every creature turning away from me towards the far side of the room, where the shelf is located, where Luni is playing from.  Mama is some sort of cragbeast queen, a creature who fills around eighty percent of this enormous cavern.  If she claws at the shelf, Lu might, Lu might.  I gulp.  I¡¯m unable to finish the thought of what might happen to Luni.


    Collecting the loot, I do everything in my power to skip the step where it enters my inventory.  I know that if I try to use my inventory magic that it will hurt me and Luni.  The hunks of meat of course don¡¯t care what my desire is.  The meat goes straight to my inventory, as does all the other loot.


    Sighing, I lean my face down and try to tear into one of the hunks of meat as it floats near me, instead of claiming it.  Finally, some success.  Everything in the room at least senses my intent, and turns towards me.


    I cry out my challenge, ¡°That¡¯s right!  I eat your kin for breakfast!  Also, for the past few days, for lunch, dinner, and dessert as well!  And since I know you can¡¯t understand me, I¡¯ll go with an old standby.  I bet you¡¯re wondering why I¡¯ve gathered you all here today!¡±


    Luni bursts into laughter across our telepathic bond, our wavelength is filled with giddiness that overrides our shared pain momentarily.  I chuckle as my face adopts a sneer at the beasts closing in on me.


    The greatsword is easier to wield due to the slowness of my attacks, and its ability to leave the attack hanging in the air.  My right wrist is killing me though.  It feels sprained from the weight.  If my right wrist is killing me, Lu¡¯s is probably aching too.  If I break my wrist, would she be able to play her harp?  That might doom our anchor plan.  I¡¯ll have to use the staff.  I can¡¯t figure out any special properties of it, so I¡¯m basically just using it as a double ended club.  I whack with one side, then the other, bludgeoning skulls in as I fight my way around to be near Luni.


    It feels like it takes hours of plodding through the beasts, especially because occasionally the queen will swipe an entire quarter of the room.  When she does, Luni directs me to dodge into a hallway.  Sometimes I have to wait in a hall for several minutes for the queen to calm down.  She seems to go docile for several minutes at a time as I slay the regular cragbeasts.


    I¡¯m still about a third of the way around the cavern from Luni, Lil, and Teuila when Lu calls out, ¡°Right there!  Ummm, I think, maybe, I think like, seven or so paces to your left, stand over that egg, protect it.  I think it¡¯s the one with the longest timer.  Oh no, it¡¯s about to get rough.  You stupid things, why won¡¯t you leave Reggie alone!?¡±


    I can only imagine what Lu is referring to.  It¡¯s probably the reason I need to keep the blindfold on.  The queen begins to go berserk.  I¡¯ve still got something like fifty cragbeasts to deal with.  If I could just use my mana based powers, I could maybe deal with them, or even the queen.


    I won¡¯t risk subjecting Luni to that pain though.  I tenderly grasp my right ribs as I feel a sharp pain.  There¡¯s some kind of toothy tendril trying to burrow into my right side.  I think it¡¯s coming from the queen¡¯s mouth.


    ¡°Hurk.¡±  Another of the queen¡¯s tendrils wraps around my neck and head.  The tendril shoves my blindfold and helmet off.  The helmet clatters to the ground.  I pinch my eyes closed tightly as I struggle against the tendril gripping my throat.  At this point, all fifty cragbeasts are pretty much surrounding me, emptying their flames at me.


    My skin begins to bubble and boil again, the fury wells up within me.  I feel like I¡¯m giving birth to some kind of literal rage beast.  Lu is arguing something.  Luni angrily pleads, ¡°You, you can¡¯t do that, it¡¯s not fair, stop it!  Let Reggie go!  It can¡¯t go this way!  It can¡¯t happen this way!  This one, I¡¯m, I can¡¯t do this one, I¡¯m, I¡¯m not brave enough.¡±  By the end, Luni¡¯s voice trails off to a saddened whimper.  Lu begins to cough, sputter, and choke as well.


    My eyes bulge, and I can tell my vision is blurring and doubling, even with my eyes closed.  I struggle to breathe, but my neck is pinched tighter in return.  A familiar red cloud poofs over my eyes as some blood vessel or something bursts as it usually does when I¡¯m low on oxygen.


    I guess Lu had a few possible futures, and whatever force took over the queen picked the worst one for her.  I¡¯m sorry for putting you in this position Luni.  I find myself pondering if I should give in to the rage boiling up within.  I don¡¯t know who will emerge, I¡¯m fairly certain I won¡¯t be me anymore though.  But maybe, just maybe they¡¯ll know to save my family.


    Luni meekly, weakly calls out telepathically, ¡°No, no don¡¯t.  I¡¯ll go, I¡¯ll do it.  Please don¡¯t go.  Don¡¯t go.  Please don¡¯t go.. You can¡¯t, please, please don¡¯t go.  Te will never forgive me.  I¡¯ll never forgive me.  I, I, I¡¯ll never forgive you, but mostly me.¡±  Lu¡¯s answer to my pondering fades to a whimpering plea by the end.  Tears flood the mental wavelength from both of us.


    Suddenly I sense Luni jogging around below me at wicked speeds.  Right, her seven leagues song.  She seems to be kickboxing cragbeast craniums, derezzing one or two every other kick.  I¡¯m pretty impressed.


    I¡¯m a brick in a family of speedsters.  Well, no, I¡¯m a blapper, I¡¯m a brick right now is all.  Wait.  I¡¯m a friggin¡¯ brick right now.  Teuila has a bond with gravity, it basically does whatever she wants it to in coefficients from zero to about two and a half.  Mine seems to start at two and a half and goes up from there.


    ¡°Thank you Lu, I know what to do now.  Now get out of here.  You are fluffin¡¯ amazing.¡±


    Luni doesn¡¯t run back to the ledge, I can hear her music as she runs circles along the walls.  Yup, family of speedsters.


    Gripping the tendril that¡¯s wrapped about my throat, and the one digging into my right side, I imagine setting the gravity of just the flesh grasped in my hands as high as possible.  I imagine a coefficient of a million, though I¡¯m not sure what I actually reach.  Instantly I drop free from the tendril, as it tears loose right where I¡¯ve gripped it.  I unwrap this ropey flesh as I cough, choke, and gasp for breath.  About half of my vision is clouded with blood, but I haven¡¯t lost my eyesight yet.


    ¡°Lu, is your wrist going to be okay if I break mine?¡±


    Luni whimpers into our mental wavelength in response, but there¡¯s a meek thumbs up.


    I grip the greatsword and surround myself with slashes just before new tendrils try to reclaim me for the queen.  The tendrils shred themselves on what I can only call sharp air.  Several more cragbeasts are caught mid-lunge as well, dying to the lingering cuts.  As I continue to rend pure space, I wonder if I can mess with the gravity of the slashes.  I gingerly poke one lightly from behind.  It agonizingly slowly floats forward before dissipating.


    Curious, I try slashing, then slamming the gash in space with my left palm immediately.  The result is a wave of sharp air that travels at about walking speed before it dissipates at the usual duration.  Trying to do this though feels like my right wrist is going to break sooner, since I basically have to one-hand a greatsword that is made out of some ridiculously heavy material.  Seriously, it¡¯s so dense that I can lift a cragbeast by the face more easily than hold the flippin¡¯ sword.


    Finally it seems like all the little ones are dead, and the queen isn¡¯t willing to rend her own hands or tendrils to bits trying to get at me.  Luni seems to be about to say something about the last egg, when another wave of eggs spawn.


    Luni does call out though, ¡°I knew that was the wrong one!  This egg, this one over here, get here, quick.¡±


    I try to follow Luni¡¯s voice, but she¡¯s traveling around quickly.  I don¡¯t have my helmet or blindfold, so I¡¯m squeezing my eyes shut as best I can.  I feel her grab my hand to try to drag me to the spot quickly during her magical music-forced march.  I try to warn her all too late.


    Luni screams in pain as I hear a sickening pop, it¡¯s followed by a tearing sound, but Luni stops before anything worse can happen.  Luni¡¯s scream is cut short by an urp sound.  I try to convince myself that it¡¯s just dislocated, that that¡¯s recoverable, that it wasn¡¯t my fault, but I still vomit as I¡¯m flooded with guilt and pain and other emotions.


    Luni is whimpering, sobbing, cradling her right arm with her left, her music has stopped.  I¡¯m crying so hard I can¡¯t even catch my breath enough to apologize.


    Luni connects to me telepathically and draws me to accelerated thinkspace.  She absolves me, ¡°I knew you were going to be heavy, I thought my travel music would transfer to you, I didn¡¯t realize you were literally dealing with the weight of all three worlds.  I¡¯m so sorry Reggie, I don¡¯t know what to do.  You have to get to that egg in about the next ten seconds or so, and I have to be able to play while you¡¯re there.¡±


    I can¡¯t spare the time to ask what Luni means by all three worlds, as our thinkspace is barely faster than one to one time right now with meatspace.  I carefully scoop Luni into my right arm.  She looks so small now against my forearm.  Just how much have I grown while in this form?


    A whimper from Lu tells me that my growth is a side effect of containing whatever is trying to burst free.  I need to remain calm so that I don¡¯t have to rely on Luni hurting herself to keep the beast at bay with music.  As much as I want to freak out or give in to fury, I simply plod slowly towards the egg that Luni directs me to.


    I break into as much of a sprint as I can in this form, and just destroy beast after beast that comes near.  I exterminate them by gripping their skulls, and introducing hundreds of times normal gravity to their brainpans.  I keep a frosty barrier around Lu just in case any of the new ones think to use fire breath.


    Picking up a cragbeast, I attempt to use it as a cannonball, or mortar shell.  I toss it and increase its gravity as it¡¯s leaving my grasp.  It has the desired effect, cratering the ground and finishing off most of the cragbeasts.  The last few cragbeasts I just soccer punt during my sprint.


    I risk opening my eyes to make sure I¡¯m still going to get to the egg in time.


    As the last egg hatches, I swear I see Lu whisper something into her harp, something powerful, the strings vibrate and glow in response.  Particles of ethereal light appear in the air around Luni and her harp.  The particles expand to small spheres, then are absorbed in waves.  In a mere instant, this light cascades across the cavern to collide with the last egg while it¡¯s still hatching.  The light bounces towards the wall, ricochets up to the ceiling, down to the floor, over and over until it reaches the side of the cavern with our alcove.  It passes through our secret mail slot, and I can only guess it eventually connects to Lil and Teuila.


    The queen is truly enraged, and she literally blows her top.  The top of the foothill explodes outwards, as does most of the cavern structure.  The light seems to play out its rebounding in reverse, dragging Lil and Teuila backwards until they connect with the glowing form of the hatching creature, then all three are pulled towards Lu, her harp, and my arms.


    The queen continues to pound, throwing a catastrophe level tantrum, veritably disintegrating the ground beneath us.  We tumble into empty space, chased by millions of tons of stone.  It¡¯s at this time that there¡¯s a glow from one of Luni¡¯s accessories with a hidden pocket, her wristband that she kept wearing through the entire encounter.  Lu unfolds the flap carefully, and the egg hidden within begins to hatch, glowing as it transforms into a creature.


    We¡¯re plummeting, but I¡¯m awestruck as tenebral energy is siphoned from me, darkening the glow that¡¯s coating Lil, Te, and the two creatures that haven¡¯t quite hatched yet.  This umbral presence is somehow soothing, comforting.  There¡¯s a kindness in the darkness.  The light is fury, power, vengeance, self-righteousness even when it¡¯s wrong.  The darkness is the quiet moments of forgiveness.


    As we¡¯re crashing through the sky, each of us is greeted by a strange message in our mind¡¯s eye interfaces, ¡°Olioli has joined the Shellcracker Party.¡±  Laomati begins excitedly chattering through the comm stone in Teuila¡¯s possession.

 B 2 C 21: Reincarnation?

    <h2>B 2 C 21: Reincarnation?</h2>


    Oddly, the two glowing forms of the hatching creatures meet, and then form a single egg. Lu quickly snatches it out of the air and tucks it into her wrist pocket. Its timer is pretty short, I think a day. It¡¯s hard to read as we¡¯re plummeting to our doom, plus I only got a glimpse before it was tucked away.


    Trying to figure out how to get out of this, I can¡¯t bear using my inventory magic when I know how much pain Luni is already in. My version of the valkyrie form is fading, and I¡¯m shrinking, but I don¡¯t know when Luni¡¯s anchoring of me will end.


    Te¡¯s eyes shoot wide and a wild smile adorns her face as she says, ¡°Got it.¡± Her form elongates and glows with a neutral creamy gray. The silhouette of her form slips past her valkyrie form into something new, I can¡¯t even describe it during my current panic.


    Lil similarly awakens and shifts evolutionarily upwards to Lilagnewt. Similarly to Teuila, instead of a bright white light, Lil¡¯s silhouette is coated in a creamy gray glow. Lil¡¯s silhouette continues past Lilagnewt form as they intentionally plunge below us. Lil¡¯s wings look like a heart from up here.


    It strikes me that I finally have names for my relationship with each of my inner circle. Luni is my anchor. Teuila is my wings. Lil is my heart. My pulse is pounding against my cranium, shunting pressure outwards to my temples, I can¡¯t focus with the rapid altitude change.


    I also see now why Luni wanted me to keep my blindfold on. The Cragbeast Queen, a now semi-foothill-sized monstrosity is adorned with red-eyes. She doesn¡¯t even have eyes, you cheater! My wrist is definitely broken, Luni¡¯s arm is sickeningly dislocated, both of us have punctured lungs, and now I¡¯m descending into a nightmare world of panic, reliving nightmares of Day One.


    Teuila and Lil¡¯s forms haven¡¯t finished taking shape, so they seem to be struggling to figure out their abilities.  They can¡¯t seem to get used to their bodies. Lil does their best to swoop around and angle to intercept my descent with Luni in such a way that doesn¡¯t outright kill us. Wait, cold air sinks, I can¡¯t heat the air without risking hurting Luni right now. I have to do things that don¡¯t require energy or I¡¯d basically just make a landing thruster. Plus, still stuck in nightmare mode.


    I try to rapidly create pillars of pillows of cold air beneath us. If I can create blocks of dense air, maybe I can slow our descent enough. Lu coughs and drags me into our shared bond. Telepathically she makes a request, ¡°Go get her hero, we¡¯re unanchored. Lil and Te can¡¯t help with this one.¡±


    With that, Luni kisses my cheek, then raises her left arm, and though Lil just barely misses us with their angled dive, Luni clasps Lil¡¯s still-forming limbs, and is carried away into a slow dive.


    I peer around, all the exploding rubble seems to have paused its various random trajectories. The din and chaos and fury of the crumbling mountain goes unheard, or is similarly paused. I¡¯m not sure if this is part of a panic hallucination, or what. Just in case, I reorient my feet towards the ground, and begin summoning aerial material to stand on. I casually stroll through falling debris, walking through the air. Poking the crumbling stone doesn¡¯t yield any confirmation one way or the other to let me know if I¡¯m hallucinating.


    If I¡¯m not hallucinating, I¡¯d better stop wasting time and take advantage of this opportunity. If I¡¯m hallucinating, I may as well plan what to do, either way, I need to cover ground and stop putzing around. I propel myself into a horizontal leap towards my target trying to keep my eyes low, and trying to keep my breathing slow and controlled. Hm, no, I have to do this right. I ricochet myself into an upward climb as I shut my eyes tightly. Right about here should be good. Seems like I¡¯ve gotten a lot of max mana back over the last few days. Even still, just in case, let¡¯s go all out and beyond, and then some. What did Teuila say once? She¡¯d go a hundred plus a hundred plus she didn¡¯t know, ultra percent? Yeah, let¡¯s go plus ultra percent.


    Hey world, do you mind letting me go into energy debt for this one? I don¡¯t hear a no.


    Gulping down a deep breath, I exhale in as slow and controlled a fashion as I can muster. I place my wrists together, palms towards my target, and picture summoning a radiant copy of Gae Buidhe worth fifteen hundred energy as a massive bolt through her skull. Hm, no, something tells me I need to stop relying on radiance, there¡¯s something wrong with it. Let¡¯s see if umbral energy works, or maybe a neutral mixture. Even though it only takes an instant, it feels like a lifetime before the copy of the spear takes form. My mana slowly plummets towards bottoming out, but umbral and radiant particles in the atmosphere spring to life, glow and grow in size to small spheres. This mixture of spheres is absorbed by the forming spear, and my mana stops just shy of bottoming out when the spear launches.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Suddenly time fully reengages, the rubble continues to fall from the sky, and so do I. I guess it was a hallucination, but it¡¯s a good plan. Following along with my hallucination, I blast horizontally first, then instantly shift into an upward climb at the same spot. My rapid direction change saved me from an enormous tendril being swung about by the queen. I try to count the number of breaths I swallowed and how long I exhaled in my hallucination.


    At the appropriate count, I beg the world to allow me to hit energy debt for this one, to protect my loved ones, and the world from this beast that I¡¯ve accidentally unleashed. I don¡¯t get a response. Placing my palms forward, wrists together, one of which is broken, I try to summon forth a mixed umbral-radiant copy of Gae Buidhe from my inventory aimed at the queen¡¯s skull. My danger wrap senses tickle as if small fuzzy balls appear all around me, then they bleed away into the spear. Just before my energy bottoms out, a copy of Gae Buidhe the size of the trees near my home rockets downward as a massive tendril reaches up for me on the same trajectory. The tendril is split instantly by the spear as it continues its path down to the queen¡¯s brainpan. As the enormous creature begins to derez, the time dilation is so strong it feels like it reaches into the past, present, and future. Ah, maybe that¡¯s what happened. It would be better than having to admit I probably hallucinate frequently.


    A hostile presence enters my sensory range. It¡¯s slightly ethereal, it tries to ram me, repeatedly. This entity wants to possess me. I know what this presence is. Somehow, a shared history begins to bleed through from its contact. Even still, what little I saw doesn¡¯t explain its hatred. I was nothing, a speck, discarded. That¡¯s all I saw. Still, its fury gave me more clues than I had previously. I get the sense that I was something of a malformed, underdeveloped soul, destined for a garbage bin, or incinerator. Figuratively.


    Distracted by this entity and the shared reveries, as the Queen is still in the process of derezzing, I come into contact with her outstretched tendril¡¯s wireframe where my spear had split it. Unexpectedly, I¡¯m impaled in a turnabout of one of my worst memories. Blood gushes forth from my abdomen, and mouth. Wait, how did Luni bleed? Was it just because of our connection?


    Oh my vision is fading fast. One of those red potions would really come in handy now. If I can get to the base of the rubble, where the queen¡¯s drops are, I might get lucky. Angling my descent towards the center of where the queen had been standing, I try to cushion my landing as best I¡¯m able with my little remaining consciousness.


    It¡¯s so close, mere feet away, but I can¡¯t feel my legs, and my arms are trembling, too weak to drag me forward. I feel myself being rolled onto my side, and a smiling presence looms over me, shushing me, comforting me. There¡¯s fret and worry beneath that comforting though. I can hear the unsounded sobs.


    Details fade away to the familiar blotchiness of slightly darker splotches against slightly lighter splotches. I raise the only muscle I can, my right finger. My finger is coiled about by a familiar one. Okay, I can rest. They¡¯re safe, and I¡¯m safe in their arms.


    I awaken momentarily as I feel the breeze blowing over my wounds at near half mach speeds. It¡¯s excruciating. I think Lil is coiled around my legs, hanging on for dear life. Luni is borne across Valkyrie¡¯s right shoulder. I pass out once more.


    I¡¯m awakened by an abrupt stop and shouting. I think I can make out Teuila yelling, ¡°Someone help them!¡± Who could she be talking to? Did she already take us all the way home? Based on the number of gasps that greet us, it sounds like it.


    I raise my right hand slightly to try to wave hello, but I can only manage to wave my index finger as I croak, ¡°Sorry, hi, urp, all.¡± I¡¯m met with shushing, cooing, and hands exploring my torso and forehead.


    Lao frets, but tries to bring levity to the situation, ¡°No wonder you didn¡¯t reply when I told you about our new family member!¡± Lao¡¯s chuckle belies her worry however.


    There are some excited whispers, questions that are begged to be asked. My inner circle wants to know if it¡¯s really Olioli. The problem is, it¡¯s hard to tell, since Olioli was always more animalistic, and never spoke. They certainly appear the same, as they curiously bite everything in sight.


    ¡°Freeze yourself!¡± Someone orders, and too delirious to argue, I comply. I form the largest, coldest barrier I can around myself, as many layers outward as I can muster, each layer condensing tighter and tighter close to me as I reach another layer outwards. I feel myself losing consciousness in a new and unusual manner.


    I¡¯m certain that whoever ordered me to act knew what they were doing. The presences gathered around seem comforted at my sudden action, though startled by it. Why are you surprised fam? You¡¯re the ones who told me to.


    ¡°No they didn¡¯t.¡±


    Oh, it¡¯s you again? Are you me?


    ¡°Yes, just go to sleep. You¡¯ll be mostly fine in the morning. Take it easy for a week.¡±


    I¡¯m perfectly happy to do just that. Wait, are you really, truly me? How do I know what to tell myself?


    ¡°Just shut up and go to sleep. You¡¯ve got family to catch up with.¡±

 B 2 C 22: A Constellation of Tears On Her Lashes

    <h2>B 2 C 22: A Constellation of Tears On Her Lashes</h2>


    I wake up finding myself being thawed out by Lil.  Laughing uproariously, though it aches like heck, I conclude that I¡¯m pretty sure my family is just desensitized to seeing me almost dead at this point.  More or less.  This last time was stupid too, I didn¡¯t even know wireframes were solid matter.  Hm, actually they might not normally be, it might only be my buggy nature that caused it to impale me.


    Tears of laughter streaming out my eyes, I ask, ¡°Hah, uh, how long have I been out Lil?¡±


    ¡°Most of a day buddy!  You good?  That was pretty gruesome.  Um, also Lu told me what you did.¡±


    I start to sweat at Lil¡¯s assertion.  Trying to close off my brain from our shared wavelength, I speculate.  In the world in my memories, saying ¡®I just slept with her¡¯ would be tantamount to treason between best friends.  Or maybe Lil¡¯s talking about the tackle?  Or nearly getting her killed?  Or dislocating her shoulder?  I need to open my wavelength back up, now I¡¯m worried about Luni.  Opening up our telepathic bond I query about Luni.


    Lu skips in from outside my visual range and plops down atop me, she carefully avoids my abdomen and right side.  Instead, Lu twines her legs with my right leg and lays on my right arm so that her own right arm is elevated between her hip and mine.  Teuila likewise twines her legs with my left leg and lays on my left arm, pinning me.  Oh no, I know what¡¯s coming next.


    Lil dejectedly harumphs at not being able to jump on my belly, so they instead snuggle atop my face.  I laugh through a faceful of dragon heiny.  ¡°Pffft, pblbblbllpt Lil come on buddy, hahaha.  Pfftt.  Guys, guys, hahaha, the other me told me to take it easy for a week.  I don¡¯t think being pinned by my dearest ones was what they had in mind.¡±


    My statement earns me several curious looks, and three simultaneous questions.  ¡°The other you?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, I don¡¯t remember if we got into it in the tunnels.  I don¡¯t think it qualifies as dissociative identity disorder, this is something weirder.  I don¡¯t think distinct personas or alters interact, much less have out of body experiences where they can observe the others.¡±


    Lil and Te query, ¡°Huh?¡±


    Lu takes me into private thinkspace, a deeper level than I can recall being, so the others can¡¯t hear.  ¡°Just try not to think about that one, k Reggie?  Please?  Um.   If you could maybe please do me that favor?  It¡¯s not the right time.  Could you maybe, kinda, possibly deflect the topic?¡±


    I gaze into the telepathic depiction of Lu¡¯s face, finding myself slightly stunned but unable to deny her request.  I confirm, ¡°Oh, um, sure, anything for my anchor I suppose.  Are you doing okay?  There was a lot of intense stuff back there, and a lot of physical pain.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk later, thank you for caring.  You¡¯re the best.¡±  Luni floods my mind with affection in this deeper thinkspace so much that I¡¯m booted back to reality.


    I find myself blinking, a bit stunned at the exchange.  Did that really just happen?  I catch Lu winking out of the corner of my eye.  My heart flutters, and I cough, trying to distract myself.  I ramble a bit randomly, ¡°So, um, Olioli?  Are they really back?  Can anyone tell?  Does this mean we could meet the others again someday, somehow?  Has anything like this ever happened before?  Like, what the heck?  Is death permanent?  How¡¯s everyone doing?  Lao said Mata went missing that first day, that awful, horrible, endlessly repeated day.  Is he okay?  The Mana twins?  Are Sugar and Spice used to their new forms?  Do they have magic?  Did we get enough bags for everyone?  Lao isn¡¯t too upset that we didn¡¯t check in for a couple days is she?  Is Agwai still working on jokes?  Is everybody doing okay and moving on with things okay?¡±


    Luni flinches when I ask about Mata, and the day when I earned the time skill.  I can¡¯t tell if it¡¯s because she feels bad for me, and how much pain I went through losing Teuila over and over, or if it¡¯s because Mata had something to do with it.  I¡¯m almost positive it¡¯s the latter.  Luni sharply mentally hints to stop guessing about those related topics.  Right, right, sorry Lu.


    My friends are laughing at my inability to follow a train of thought without jumping tracks, and my inability to wait for one question to be answered before continuing on to ask more.  Lil steps up to answer, somewhat unhelpfully, ¡°So, first few questions, don¡¯t know, don¡¯t know, don¡¯t know, don¡¯t know.  Not to me, obvee.  I dunno, what the heck to you too buddy.  Also don¡¯t know.  They can tell you themselves.  Also I heard that, nyeh.¡±  I telepathically send apologetic waves towards Lil for the ¡®somewhat unhelpfully¡¯ comment.


    Lu and Te stand up, and carefully, gingerly pluck me from the ground.  Lil stays perched on my left shoulder, their tail around the back of my neck.  As I rise, I can tell why I might need a week for this.  I gaze worriedly at Luni.  How much of my injuries did she share?  How much of it was just pain, but how much of it actually harmed her?  Lu shakes her head, indicating she¡¯s unwilling to answer, and that she¡¯s reading my thoughts.  Of the four of us, Luni has always had this secret depth to her, and the most constantly-active telepathy, as far as I can tell.


    Still, if Lu says later, then later it is.  I struggle to clasp Teuila in my right arm, but my arm is mostly unresponsive.  Between the cold preservation, and my wrist still being broken, I can do little more than lightly squeeze Teuila.  Lu and Te guide me gently to one of the cushioned seats that we made for the party, they¡¯re all adorning the inside of our home now.  The feasting table has been moved under a pavilion to preserve it.  I gaze around, searching for each family member, when I¡¯m greeted by a gnawing at my ankle.


    The being below looks and acts like Olioli, my heart both soars and breaks.  What does this mean?  How can they be here?  How did the twins find an egg while fishing?  I try to bend down to be able to lift Oli into a hug, but I can neither bend, nor grab at the moment.  Lu does me the favor of snagging Oli to snuggle.


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    I ask, ¡°Does, does Oli have any memory logs?  Did they ever?¡±


    Luni responds while wearing a forlorn half frown, ¡°They used to, but this Oli either doesn¡¯t have any logs, and never will, or they¡¯re locked from us, and this Oli doesn¡¯t know how to unlock them.¡±


    That¡¯s almost more worrisome.  If one of us was slain, and we came back, could we be just shells of our former selves?  No memories on any given day?  Could Oli have been like that because they¡¯d already reincarnated once before?  Would I be little more than a hungry face to feed if I were slain and returned?  Not to disparage Olioli, I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on in their head, obviously.  I wish I could help them communicate.  They¡¯re a lot like me in that regard, unable to express anything verbally without help.  I''m suddenly distracted by thinking of the types of help I''ve received for communication.  Simply being in a party, having a mediator, and even thinkspace, whether being talked down in thinkspace, or experiencing years together over the course of days.


    Wait a minute, what if the thinkspace acceleration isn¡¯t dependent on all four of our health, but just Luni¡¯s?  During the entire cragbeast foothill excursion, it was slowing down more and more, and Lu was becoming more and more haggard.  During the awful repeating day, we had lost one of our quad, and I was still able to retreat into a thousandfold thinkspace.  Lil and my mental health in those moments were in grievous agony, but Lu was likely healthy as she was so far away.  I peer intently at Luni who casually avoids my gaze.  Just how much power do you have, Lu?  Is she straight up telepathic?  Could she hear Olioli¡¯s true thoughts?


    Answering my nonverbal question, Lu replies, ¡°No, um, no, you, uh, err, you think too highly of me.  It¡¯s sweet Reggie, but um, it¡¯s not like that, not at all.  Someday we¡¯ll be able to talk about it.  It¡¯s a long ways off though.  I¡¯m sorry.  I hope that¡¯s okay.  I hate not being able to tell you.  I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry.¡±  She telepathically sends the embarrassed avoidance expression once more.  The expression is that of her playing with her index fingers while avoiding eye contact, speaking from the side of her mouth.


    I¡¯ll just take Luni¡¯s word for it.  I spy Mata looking grumpy in a corner, flinging small rocks at other small rocks on the floor.  It¡¯s a bit like a game of marbles.  When Mata observes my gaze having fallen upon him, he looks utterly furious.  It¡¯s a bit shocking so I gulp and avert my gaze.


    Wow, I was not expecting that level of hostility.  I thought maybe he¡¯d be happy to possibly have a family member back.  I shake my head, rattling my brain to try to focus on something else, anything else.  The twins aren¡¯t in here, so they¡¯re probably fishing, while being watched over by Lao, and perhaps Agwai.  Where are Sugar and Spice?


    As if on cue, Sugar and Spice waddle in from wherever they¡¯d been.  Sugar veritably leaps for joy at seeing me up and about, her leap takes her on a collision course with my torso.  I¡¯m so glad to have such powerful companions, as they intercept and catch Sugar for me.  Sugar pouts in response.  I can only smile weakly at her as I greet her.


    ¡°Hey Sugar, hey Spice.  How are you two getting along with your new forms?  Everything going okay around here?  Have you learned anything about your equipment or abilities that might be magical yet?  Also, Spice, um, those things doing okay?  Haven¡¯t had too many?¡±


    Spice looks embarrassed at being singled out and he makes a slight hissing shushing sound.  Sugar takes care of the rest of the answers, ¡°We¡¯re good, good good good good gooooood, yep yep!  I can kinda fasten things together, it¡¯s a bit weird, and I can¡¯t lose my tools, even if I forget them somewhere, they¡¯re always back in my belt a little later.  Spice is all mathy now, talking all formulas and equations and theorizing on the beauty of architectural artifice as he puts it.  My nerrrrrd, hehe.  But seriously don¡¯t make fun of him for it or I will gut you.¡±


    I nervously chuckle at the abrupt shift in tone near the end.  I¡¯m pretty certain she was serious.  At least to some extent.  I glance around at my companions nervously, they only shrug with mildly shocked expressions on their faces.  I put my hands up in a plea of mock surrender.  The flick of my right wrist is excruciating.


    Struggling, I stand.  Exhaling as calmly as I can, fighting the pain, I state, ¡°I need to talk to Lao, I¡¯m guessing she¡¯s with the twins?  You guys can stay here, catch up for me, please?¡±  I indicate my inner circle and wave at the home, and its new decorations.


    There are strenuous objections from my inner circle but I give them a very serious ¡®try me¡¯ gaze, which quiets them down.  Spice tugs at my left wrist lightly as I¡¯m leaving our home.  He whispers, ¡°Lao, uh, she isn¡¯t with the twins.  She went for a walk, south by southwest a bit.  She said you¡¯d know where.  Thank you for coming back to us, and um, thanks for, well, this, and everything.¡±  I rest my head on Spice¡¯s for a moment, struggling to give him a one-armed hug.  He seems to be thanking me for his evolved form, but I didn¡¯t do that.  I didn¡¯t give Luni, Sugar, Spice, or Teuila their middle evolution stages.


    I playfully hip-check Spice back towards my inner circle, and he relents, rejoining them.  After sighing, I take a determined breath and start marching towards where my face, and Teuila¡¯s face, plowed through a lot of dirt a few nights ago.  South by southwest.  It¡¯s a fairly long walk in my current state, and I¡¯m almost surprised Lao has the patience to await me there.  But this is Laomati we¡¯re talking about, well, that I¡¯m talking about.  When I arrive, Lao is seated with poise on a mound of soil, the mound of soil that was raised as a result of my own fall.


    Lao turns her gaze upwards from the ground to meet mine at my approach, and there¡¯s a constellation of tears on her lashes.  She¡¯d been crying for a dreadfully long time at this point.  She motions for me to approach and enter her embrace, so I do.  Her poise crumples as she is wracked with sobs.  I spend minutes, maybe hours being held by Laomati as she sheds galaxies from her eyes.


    Finally, between sobs, Lao speaks in barely audible utterances, ¡°It¡¯s too much.  It¡¯s too much.  A family member returned to us?  I can¡¯t understand it.  I¡¯ve grieved their losses already.  I don¡¯t know what it means.  Dare I hope for more?  It¡¯s too much.¡±


    I don¡¯t know how to comfort her.  I remember how hard Lao grieved, and for how long.  In a world where survival doesn¡¯t offer one the luxury of unlimited time to grieve, hers had to be compressed into several weeks.  Something tells me there was another, stronger flood shortly after we left.


    Lao continues, ¡°This has something to do with you, dear child.  I¡¯m certain of it.  I don¡¯t know how, but every magical, wonderful thing somehow comes back to you.  Here you are, returning to us from the brink of death once more just as we are reunited with one who had already been lost to death.  I don¡¯t know whether to thank you, or throttle you.¡±  Lao sniffles, composing herself, then makes a polite demand, ¡°Thank you for seeing me, beloved child of the Shellcracker clan.  Come, Luni said something is to happen shortly after noon, we should yet make it in time.¡±

 B 2 C 23: Hunter

    <h2>B 2 C 23: Hunter</h2>


    I¡¯m fairly certain that the event to transpire at noon is likely the hatching of that special egg.  The egg containing two creatures had begun to hatch, but then merged.  I was startled when they reverted to a single combined egg.  Still, walking arm in arm with Lao, peacefully in the lands that we can now call our home is pleasant.  Her motherly nature helps me recover from my own emotions simply via her presence.


    I gaze about, reminded that I should marvel at the majesty that is nature.  This whole region is our settlement.  I¡¯ll expand it some day, though not far enough to annoy our beaver neighbors, since they probably don¡¯t want to be known as the Shellcracker Beaver Colony or anything.  I know there are more beings out there, I¡¯m positive of it at this point.  I¡¯m finally starting to understand some of the rules of our world, although yet more mysteries remain.  Still, the clues I¡¯ve gotten give me hope that we¡¯re not alone in a desolate landscape devoid of other lives.


    Lao begins chatting, in between sobs and sniffles, startling me from my reverie, ¡°Sugar and Spice have grown up to be so ingenious, so fast.  Spice is planning something, but won¡¯t let on what it is, only Sugar knows, and as exuberant as she is to share everything of herself, she won¡¯t dare spill a single secret of Spice¡¯s.¡±


    Lao pauses a beat as her tone acquires a layer of sadness, ¡°Mata is not taking as well to life here as I would have hoped, I don¡¯t understand it.  We each grieve in our separate ways, yet he seems to fester with rage rather than grieve.  Our Manaia and Manameia are of course growing, their youthful innocence is always refreshing, though sometimes I cannot share their joy.  There are times I still grieve.  I must steal away in these times, such as this one.  Agwai is the only one that understands my need.  They are so dear to me, a bastion for me to rely upon.¡±


    Laomati ruffles my hair as she continues, ¡°Our family is so small, smaller still without you four around.  My heart aches each moment you¡¯re away, though that is not your fault, it still aches while you are with us.  A lesser ache though, even if only slightly.¡±


    Lao catches me up on her take on everyone, and I have no words for her.  I let her hold my right hand at its broken wrist as I lean against her with my damaged side.  We walk together and I don¡¯t begrudge her her sadness, nor do I burden her with my hurts.


    When Lao¡¯s been silent for a while, I fill the silence with rambling, ¡°We gained a lot of, well, a lot of many different things in Fire Biome.  It wasn¡¯t where I¡¯d meant to start this leg of our journey, but somehow that was the choice that had to be made first.  We were in the right places at the right times for certain things.  We¡¯ll easily be able to get enough lumber without disturbing these trees or the rest of the canopy.  I don¡¯t know why they¡¯re so important to me.  I made stupidly risky decisions, selfish decisions to preserve these woods.  I hope you can forgive me for that choice that nearly lost several of us, several times.  I¡¯ve gotten some more magic, enough to grant several of our family inventory magic, I¡¯m not sure if all of us yet or not.  I was kind of out of it for a couple of days, so I don¡¯t know what Lil has, or if Lu was able to grab any of the magic.¡±


    Lao pauses our walk to stroke my cheek with her free hand, she responds to my self-recriminations, ¡°Nearly lost you, but didn¡¯t.  Somehow, I feel that will always be the case.  I don¡¯t know what blessings any future family members you bring to us may bear.  I know that the four of you will somehow weather any storm though.  Whether it¡¯s because you¡¯re each connected to the heart of a dragon, or if some other forces are at play, I know not.  Our time in this life may be brief, and may be cut short, yet you and yours will persist. You always must.  Danger seems to find you no matter where you are, but you bring such soothing to those in need.  When a fire rages, threatening to destroy all we have left, you¡¯re a cool shadow to rally under.¡±


    Laomati¡¯s analogy strikes me as odd.  Bright radiant energy of something like fire being the threat, and umbra, or shade being our solace.  Where have I heard something like that before?  I rest my face in Laomati¡¯s chest for a moment as I sigh.  She cradles my head while I let myself cry unbidden tears for a while.  Lao has such faith in me, in us.  I don¡¯t deserve it, I may overreact and think we¡¯re finished often when we aren¡¯t, but I still nearly get everyone killed time and time again.  Should I tell her that I might have some other entity riding around with me at times?  Or worse, that a specific entity that desires my destruction hounds me?


    ¡°Don¡¯t.¡±  The command startles me with its authoritativeness.  Is Lao upset that I¡¯m crying on her?


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    I stammer an apology, ¡°Oh, uh, oh, okay Lao, sorry, we can get back to walking.¡±


    Laomati furrows her brow as she gazes down at me questioningly.  ¡°What are you sorry for my dear child?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t even answer her, she¡¯ll worry.¡±  I search the area with as many senses as I can muster, but I don¡¯t feel anyone else¡¯s presence.


    I come up with an excuse, something else that I¡¯m sorry for, ¡°Oh, um, for getting your chest wet.¡±


    Lao¡¯s reply is as soothing as her presence, ¡°Never apologize for being vulnerable with me, beloved child.  I would soothe an endless stream of your tears for what you¡¯ve given us.¡±


    Honestly I think Laomati might soothe an endless stream of tears for anyone, she¡¯s just that kind, giving, selfless, caring, and tender.  The sentiment tugs at my heartstrings however and I resume bawling into her chest for a bit longer before we finally continue back to camp.


    When we arrive, Lu is gathering everyone.  She ushers us to hurry over.  Lu worriedly paces about, shoving family members into certain positions, mostly in a circle.  Luni then grabs Lao by the wrist and drags her to the center swiftly.  I notice that Lu passed something into Lao¡¯s palms as she bids Lao be seated, slightly off center in the circle.


    As a creamy gray glow emanates from Lao¡¯s palms, I think I understand why we¡¯re so spread out.  A life begins to form as a silhouette.  It elongates away from Lao, starting as a snout and jaws resting in her palms, it becomes lupine ears, a shaggy mane, a neck, shoulders.  It spreads out into forepaws, a somewhat lanky torso, a spinal ridge, and rear paws.  Finally, unlike the cragbeasts, as they had no tails, a tail that¡¯s thick and tapered.  All down the tail the spinal ridge follows.


    As the creature becomes more form and less silhouette, it¡¯s clear that the ridge is actually a continuation of its shaggy mane.  Somehow the hair near its spine is much thicker and longer, such that it forms a bit of a side swept mohawk similar to Teuila¡¯s hair.  As its form is given color, it¡¯s a myriad of blues, the darkest being the shaggiest hair that adorns its spinal ridge.  I¡¯d swear its paws end in draconic claws, and are scaled beneath the fur.  In fact, if I had to hazard a guess, I¡¯d guess this creature has properties of Teuila, Lil, a cragbeast, a blue sphere¡¯s secondary evolution, and possibly some influence from Luni or myself.  This new blue hound is absolutely massive, probably the size of our home, certainly large enough to bear the entire family upon their back.  No wonder Lu spaced us so far apart.


    Luni sends an elongated ¡°Heeeee¡± into our shared mental wavelength.  She pulls me into a private accelerated thinkspace again, one with our grassy hill, shaded by an apple tree.  Luni holds me in a tight embrace for minutes on end in our own little world.


    I find myself letting a sadness I¡¯d carried around slowly drip away.  A pressure residing beneath the surface of my emotion stops boiling to be released.  I smile as I return her embrace.  I feel like somehow Lu has reduced the pressure that my trauma involving Teuila builds.  It¡¯s like she installed a release valve, and she is it.


    Lu puts a finger to her lips as she shushes me, and my thoughts before she exclaims, ¡°I almost thought we weren¡¯t going to do it!  You had me worried there a few times bucko, but we did it!  Mm you¡¯re the best!  The absolute best next to Lil.  I knew we¡¯d get out okay, and that you wouldn¡¯t let me get hurt, but I wasn¡¯t sure we could accomplish everything else we needed to.  And there¡¯s you all, rah, Luni you¡¯re a genius, thanks for the idea.  Even when you¡¯re completely winning on your own merits, you were attributing it to me.  I didn¡¯t even get in position to help you out before you figured out how to get out of it on your own.  Teuila¡¯s right, sometimes you can be such a dingus, but you¡¯re also so unbelievably sweet.¡±


    Luni plants several kisses on my cheek, ¡°Thank you Reggie, thank you thank you thank you.  My hero, you did it, we did it.  They¡¯ll be safe now.  They have a protector, this Hunter will only listen to Lao.  I wonder what she¡¯ll name it though.¡±


    I¡¯m caught a bit off guard by the whirlwind of Luni¡¯s admissions.  I start to mutter, ¡°Uhhh,¡± but I think better of it and just remain silent as I try to absorb everything she said.


    Luni sits me down beneath the tree to cuddle for several hours.  I sit silently with her, enjoying our closeness.  I¡¯d guess about ten seconds have passed in meatspace when Lu grins at me and floods my mind with warmth and affection, booting me back to reality.


    When there, I¡¯m greeted with Luni sticking her tongue out at me and lightly dragging her right cheek down with her index finger.  Then she puts that finger to her lips in a shushing motion.


    For once, I don¡¯t name a member of our family.  Lao strokes her chin as she deliberates.  Her face alights with joy as she determines the name her Hunter will have.  There¡¯s a mixture of reactions at her choice, but this is Lao we¡¯re talking about, of course it would be this endearing.

 B 2 C 24: Lucky

    <h2>B 2 C 24: Lucky</h2>


    Lao quietly announces, ¡°Welcome to the family Lucky. So named for how much luck we¡¯ve had to thrive through so much strife, for how much we still yet have.¡± She presses her forehead to that of the great beast. Oddly, Lucky doesn¡¯t join the party, they seem to be only for Lao.


    Lucky¡¯s body is all sleek muscle and tense sinew, it emanates the intensity of a comet bearing down. Lucky¡¯s presence is tangible strength, and comfort, and calming. I can see why Lu would be willing to go through what she did in order to give Lao this protector, to bring Lucky into our family.


    Lu needles me telepathically, ¡°You know I didn¡¯t do it just for that, meanie. So many things had to happen, and you know how much I love you, as much as you adore me. You do adore me, don¡¯t you?¡±


    I gulp and blush for a moment in the telepathic bond, ¡°Of course I do, you know that. You, Lil, and Teuila are everything to me.¡± Luni just beams her elongated glee sound into my head in response.


    Still, Lucky is a brand new being, I don¡¯t think such a creature has existed in this world before. Yet there it stands, awaiting Lao¡¯s orders. Its intelligence is evident, but it doesn¡¯t seem to have the capacity for speech. Maybe it has a telepathic bond with Lao? I wonder if she is already trying to communicate with it mentally. I could talk to her about psychic bonds if so.


    ¡°Whatever you do, don¡¯t ever give Lao the idea that she can use this to come to your rescue. She can never save you.¡± I glance around, it seems to be a disembodied voice contacting me again.


    You¡¯re more and more talkative aren¡¯t you? I¡¯m not certain I believe you¡¯re just me.


    They respond, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what you believe, yet. When you next go for a swim, start in the river, not the pond.¡±


    Well that¡¯s certainly ominous. You¡¯re right though. Lao needs to never even follow a train of thought that might lead to her thinking she can endanger herself to come save us some day. Thanks for the insight I guess. I hope we¡¯re alright, you and me.


    ¡°We¡¯re fine, kinda hard to not be. You should put some thought into naming your abilities, just a suggestion. Most importantly, just get out of your own head and be with your family while you can. Cherish every moment.¡±


    Ugh, that sounds like you know I¡¯m going to lose them some day.


    Great, no response. That¡¯s as good as an admission you jerk! What the heck? I heave an exasperated sigh. The family turns to check my rude exhalation.


    ¡°Oh, sorry, was holding my breath with excitement, forgot to breathe.¡± There¡¯s a round of laughter from almost everyone at my response. Lu gives me a glance that says she knows that wasn¡¯t it though.


    As I¡¯m pondering Lu¡¯s glance, I can see that she¡¯s shaking, trembling almost imperceptibly. I¡¯m standing right next to Teuila, and am barely suffering any of the effects of my trauma. Lu, what did you do?


    I¡¯m certain she did this for me, she¡¯s taking on my trauma for me. How much more can she possibly do for me?


    Teuila appraises me, checking me out up and down, then she follows my gaze to Luni who quickly begins trying to whistle while rocking back and forth. Really inconspicuous Lu. I chuckle and roll my eyes as I turn to face Teuila who is hauling back to sock me in the shoulder playfully. Her jab almost connects when she stops short. A puzzled expression crosses my face. Teuila¡¯s hand trembles, and I hear a sob catch in her throat. Teuila stares at her own fist with horror slowly drawing across her face.


    Teuila suddenly states, ¡°Uh, oh hey, gotta go do my daily training and stuff, yeah, um, see everyone in a bit!¡± Te scampers off as she excuses herself. What was that about?


    Oh wait, just a few days ago she nearly had a breakdown when she hurt my shoulder. Te, the wings of my heart and soul, now has her own trauma. I thought we worked through this in the five years in thinkspace. I agonizingly kneel down to hug Lil with one arm as my family¡¯s chatter rises like notes of a symphony to my ears.


    Cherish every moment. Absolutely. Yet still, I need to get cleaned up, in a way the soap stone won¡¯t do. I just need to clear my head. The voice said to start with the river, not the pond, but I don¡¯t feel like I have the strength to fight the river at the moment. Still, it¡¯s not like they¡¯ve given me any bad advice yet.


    Mata¡¯s glowering at me as usual. Will he never give it a rest? The Mana twins are leaping up and down across the surface of the pond while they watch the proceedings. Lu looks like she¡¯s signaling Lil for some private time. Sugar and Spice have disappeared to work on a secret project. While Lao continues to get acquainted with Lucky, Agwai keeps a protective eye trained upon her. I suppose now would be the time to slip out.


    Heading towards the river, I let my hand play across the bark surface of each tree I pass, wishing they could tell me the stories of this land. I want to know if they¡¯ve been here since prehistoric times. Gazing up to the canopy lends me no answers however. I sigh and pat the last tree along the river bank, as if I can somehow communicate ¡®there there¡¯ to the tree. I divest everything, save something akin to a loincloth.


    When I finally dive into the river and begin swimming, I suddenly feel nearly all my wounds open. Massive quantities of blood gush forth. I struggle to maintain consciousness, and thankfully my grip on life remains strong. Second by second, more vibrant life force is drawn from me south along the river. My flux joins the river¡¯s current in a literal bloody discharge. My heart hammers in my chest, working to finish expelling everything.


    How? What is happening? Wouldn¡¯t Lu have warned me, ¡®by the way your blood is going to explode out your body next time you touch water¡¯? Supposing she knew, I¡¯m certain she¡¯d have warned me. She doesn¡¯t appear to know everything, just certain series of events that need to occur, or will likely occur on the way to certain goals. I know she doesn¡¯t want me to guess, but it¡¯s like she was visited by a future self, similar to me, one who had run through several possible futures during certain events. Right, right, I need to stop guessing.


    Gazing about, the river is running red, yet my blood is gleaming with a familiar radiant aura. When it feels like I¡¯ve bled an entire body¡¯s worth of sanguinity, all a furious radiant flow, a few drops of umbral aura coated blood escape my wounds as they seal.


    Gasping for breath, I drag myself painfully, agonizingly slowly towards the shore. I can¡¯t imagine the size of the Vampguppy that would have been summoned by that torrent of vitality. What is it with all the radiant energy lately too? Oh dear lords, my chest feels as if it¡¯s been caved in by a locomotive. My heart weakly beats as it tries to resume normal function. As my eyes lose focus, I still feel like I need a swim to clear my mind. I roll on my side along the riverbank, gazing into the torrential body of water.


    I want to be able to empty all the random thoughts, the dark thoughts, the adventurous thoughts, and just take in every moment with my family. To do that, I just need a few moments of clarity. This river has been such a significant portion of my life, in so many ways, for better or worse. I find myself dry heaving along the bank as I¡¯m overcome with the intensity of the current event.


    I visually scan the area, half expecting the voice that visits me to either laugh at, groan at, or berate me for the accidental pun. Seems they¡¯re silent, or not with me at the moment.


    I lower myself into the river with my left arm, and just paddle upstream towards the falls with my feet, guiding my progress by gripping the shore with my left hand. Approaching the falls, curiously enough, there¡¯s a significant splotch of radiantly glowing red marring the surface of the shallows near the falls as well. The pool of blood churns beneath the surface where the falls contact the water, that¡¯s why it hasn¡¯t drifted downstream or diffused yet. It seems to circle in an endless cycle, reminiscent of a lava lamp. A bare, slender-framed, copper-furred woman clutches her elbows to her torso beneath the pounding fury of the falls. My Teuila looks for all the world to be wracked with sobs after having bled out radiant energy as I just did. That can¡¯t be right though, no one but me bleeds, or Lu that one time when she took on my pain.


    I cautiously wade through the soiled shallows against the might of the falls to reach Teuila. At first, as Te catches sight of me, I swear there¡¯s fear in her eyes, and I see a future where she scrabbles away from me in terror, perhaps terrified of the possibility that she might hurt me. This future doesn¡¯t come to pass though, Teuila just stands there, motionless against the fury of the falls. I embrace her as best I¡¯m able with my damaged body. It seems like minutes yet before Teuila unclutches her elbows, and responds to my presence. Cautiously, Te wraps her arms around me, and she slowly begins squeezing tighter, and tighter.


    At the point where my spine makes a loud popping sound, Teuila stops as she looks slightly aghast. I surmise she¡¯s shocked that she let herself grip me painfully tightly, and shocked that I haven¡¯t broken down into a terrified panic yet. Te mumbles, ¡°You¡¯re, you¡¯re not afraid? We¡¯re okay? Is this real?¡±


    With my right hand, and its broken wrist, I raise it against the force of the falls to be able to stroke Teuila¡¯s cheek and brow. I wince at the pain my action causes me, but I keep my left arm about Te¡¯s waist to hold her close. I sigh slowly before echoing a sentiment she once got through to me that brought me hope in my despair. ¡°We¡¯re good. I love you, I always will. I¡¯ll wait for you, as long as you need. Do you need time alone right now? I¡¯ll give you as much space as you need to process your feelings.¡±


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Teuila doesn¡¯t respond for several moments, so I loosen my own grip on her, and turn to begin to leave. Teuila loosens her grip on me, but meekly tugs on my left wrist. With her shoulders slumped, and the long expression of sadness upon her face, Teuila seems vulnerable, defeated. I can¡¯t tell what she needs right now, her mind seems closed off to me at the moment. Her voice cracks as she quietly pleads, ¡°Don¡¯t go.¡±


    I lean against the cliff face beneath the falls, gaining a brief respite from its downpour, and I gaze questioningly at Teuila. I don¡¯t want to rush her. Still, I push warmth, tenderness, love and affection across the wavelength that should contain our telepathic bond, though I get no response.


    We both break the silence at the same time, with us asking one another why we¡¯re shut out from our bond. I don¡¯t understand, if Teuila didn¡¯t do this, I certainly didn¡¯t do this. Even if I thought Lu might have the power to do this, she¡¯d never hurt Teuila like that. I gaze at the last of the radiant blood dispersing amidst the crashing foam of the river. There¡¯s something wrong with radiant energy. It¡¯s corrupt somehow. I think our bodies and minds aren¡¯t used to the purge yet. Perhaps that¡¯s why I haven¡¯t heard Teuila for quite some time.


    I share my guesses, ¡°Te, I think, I think somehow the bright, radiant type energy is corrupt somehow. I think Lu knew that, and worked to help get us to be able to purge it. I can only guess, and hope, that our bodies and minds just need some time to accept this tenebrous umbral source instead of radiance. When it does, I, I hope that. I hope. I hope I hear your heart and soul amidst my thoughts once again. You¡¯re my wings, you set my soul alight.¡±


    Teuila mutters, ¡°Dork,¡± as she sniffles and rubs her nose with her arm. Te takes a moment before she explains another revelation to me. ¡°I, my form. I thought you took it away from me. I tried to become Valkyrie, and it seemed like I was becoming her, and more, but then, but then. It¡¯s like my body was a rubberband that needed to stretch a bit farther, but it couldn¡¯t, I couldn¡¯t, I wasn¡¯t good enough, I snapped. I can¡¯t even fully manifest Valkyrie anymore. I thought you found me unworthy and took it away forever. I was barely able to keep pressing into the transformation to get us all home from the volcano.¡±


    It breaks my heart that Teuila could ever believe I¡¯d hurt her like that, that I¡¯d revoke my trust in her in such a fashion. I know why she has that nagging fear though. She thinks she set me back with her roughhousing. I can read it across her face as plain as day that Teuila believes I¡¯m scared for her to be too strong. I know we talked for ages about this very topic in our five years in thinkspace, but self doubt is powerful, lingering, it sticks with you, and rears its head when there are setbacks. It makes you question your own worth, and the trust you have in others, and the trust they have in you.


    Sighing, I adopt a half smile as I keep my gaze locked deadly seriously to Teuila¡¯s. I say only two words, ¡°Hit me.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s face screws up, and she tries to rub water out of one of her ears. ¡°Come again? I think the waterfall¡¯s too loud, or I¡¯ve got water on my eardrums.¡±


    ¡°Hit me, as hard as you can, as hard as you want, as much as you want, right now. Please.¡± My gaze remains locked with hers, I make certain that no humor laces my tone.


    Te¡¯s eyes flit about, as if she¡¯s still not certain this is actually me, actually ordering her to hit me. She mumbles, ¡°I¡¯d say, you¡¯re joking, right? But you¡¯re not, you¡¯re serious. Why are you serious? Why do you let me be me? Why do you put up with me?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll echo something I¡¯ve told you, near this very spot, that power is yours, it always has been. That of course isn¡¯t why I let you be you. I don¡¯t just put up with you Te, I adore you beyond words, beyond reason. I just told you, you¡¯re my wings, you set my soul alight. I recently had to fight the force of a supermassive black hole. I happily burned away in that agony for two days. Something threatened to consume me the entire time, but I let the monotony of the misery guide my hand. I did this because I have unconditional faith in you, and Lu, and Lil. Faith that you¡¯d pull through, faith that Lu was telling the truth, faith that Lil will always bounce back.¡±


    As Teuila observes me longer and longer without response, I begin to worry I¡¯ve said something wrong. Finally, after an agonizingly long pause with no feedback, Teuila gingerly raps my forehead with her knuckles, playfully taps my cheek with the end of her fingertips in a mock slap, and gently slugs me in the shoulder. The smile that slowly fights to spread across Te¡¯s face is that of dawning bliss.


    At last, she happily acquiesces, stating, ¡°Okay boogerboo, I trust you.¡± Teuila draws me to her, wrapping her arms around mine, trapping them against my torso as she grips me in another bear hug. I feel like we might lose some progress if I complain about the pain such pressure is exerting on my ribs and lungs right now, so I try a different tack.


    Pondering aloud, I guess, ¡°I think injuries will take longer to heal, due to that radiant glow having left us.¡±


    Te agrees, ¡°I think you¡¯re right, my fur hides it, but the nape of my back and my side are blistered and scarred something fierce. Oh! Oh your ribs! Sorry, sorry.¡± Te¡¯s grip goes slack. But I keep her held tightly, enjoying our closeness.


    Te tries to coyly ask, with her gaze avoiding mine, as she speaks from the side of her mouth, ¡°So, uh, you and Lu are getting even closer than me and Lil got, during the time you were gone, huh?¡±


    Finally sensing we¡¯re in a good place, I tease her, ¡°Why do you ask Te? You¡¯re not jealous are you?¡±


    Teuila blushes so hard that I swear I see steam rising where the water of the falls meets her cheek. She begins a playful series of rapid punches to my shoulder and chest. She embarrassedly mutters ¡°Sh¡¯uuuuuuup.¡±


    I needle her playfully just a bit more, ¡°You know, at first I thought Lil was jealous earlier when they said Lu told them what I did, but nah, Lil¡¯s not that way, jealousy is just for Te, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s embarrassment hits a new level as she increases the rapidity of her mock punches. When I finally feel like we¡¯re in as good a place as we can be right now, I catch her wrists, wincing at the agony my right wrist lances down my arm. I pull Teuila tightly to my torso and sink my face into the velvety fur in the crook of her neck as I nuzzle her. Teuila relents, giving up the play fight, and nuzzles me in return.


    I don¡¯t want the moment to end, but Teuila slowly leans away, gripping my left wrist she exclaims, ¡°Come on, we shouldn¡¯t be mopey, we have two whole new family members, we have to throw another celebration! What¡¯s the plan? You do have a plan right? You always have one.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s right of course, both that we should have another party, and that I have a plan. I¡¯d been caught up in trying to clear my head, and then in helping absolve Teuila, but a plan has been forming nonetheless. I want to avoid the drums, so as not to accidentally invite our many legged neighbors again. I need to learn a little bit more about Laomati¡¯s bond with Lucky.


    I need to find a way to let everyone know that the celebration is all about Lucky and Oli, and has nothing to do with our excursion. Somehow I need to create a theme where I¡¯m not only not the center of attention, but I¡¯m a shadow presence, barely noticed. Hm, shadows bringing comfort again. Isn¡¯t that something Lao said to me when I awoke after our excursion? Didn¡¯t I have a similar thought myself when comparing umbra to radiance during the excursion?


    Speaking of our excursion, well, thinking about it, I get the feeling that the cragbeasts were really low level, on the power scale of things that exist in our world. Since I don¡¯t have Lil¡¯s ridiculously potent analysis vision, I¡¯d probably rate the things we¡¯ve run into in a certain order. I¡¯ve got to think of them chronologically first though.


    The originally Vampguppy was about, I¡¯d say level three to five, and boss class. Luna when we first ran into her was definitely about level four, miniboss class, but caught me off guard. The bullies weren¡¯t even level one for any single one of them, but as a group, they made up about a level two sort of challenge. Octorochi was around a level eleven god-boss class creature at first. They definitely came back with more ferocity after losing one of their heads to Gae Buidhe, so maybe twelve or thirteen.


    The energy thieves were probably level one to two minion class. I¡¯d guess there was some variance in level, since some died instantly to the energy tendrils of my tattoo, while others didn¡¯t. They just had the advantage of surprise, and unique weaponry that completely disabled us. I actually want to visit them again some day, maybe I can trade for, or steal some of their weird energy theft blowguns. I want to know what kind of society they live in that they need to steal energy from others.


    The beavers were mostly level two to three, minions and lieutenant class, beaver spheres were barely half a level. The third stage beavers were all around level three, lieutenant class. Once clad in Valkyrie equipment though, they were about a level six or seven threat.


    A certain horrid psionic creature was a threat somewhere between level five and nine, definitely miniboss class, low health and defenses, but cunning with unexpectedly strong offenses for its level. The second Vampguppy was around a level twelve miniboss threat, but was only somewhat stronger in health and speed, not so much offenses or defenses. Lil could probably give a good breakdown of the stats of Vampguppy in both forms. If the original Vampguppy had something like three hundred health, then the second one had seventeen hundred, and its speed tripled. Its size doubled, along with its strength and durability, but with Valkyrie equipment, its attacks were almost nullified.


    Vesuviform was about a level twelve elemental boss or miniboss I¡¯d wager. Cragbeasts were level one to three minion class creatures that spawned with one-off offenses somewhere in the range of level seven to nine breath attacks. The ones that got a certain boost by a certain cheating entity were level five minions with level twelve offenses. Cragbeast queen was more of a level thirteen environmental hazard, rather than a creature, or boss, at least until it got a boost by that cheating entity that has been hounding me for so long.


    I quiver and quake as my mind skirts a panic trigger, my knees tremble and Teuila supports me as we clear the riverbank. In its final state, the Cragbeast queen was something of a level fifteen catastrophe class creature. She had to be stopped. Originally she seemed moored to the menhir, until the top was blown off the mountainous foothill, but as that happened, I could tell she would hunt me down and destroy everything precious to me, at least while possessed.


    With Valkyrie equipment, I can fight at a much higher threat level than I should be able to. Valkyrie herself can fight at a level even far greater than that. Lil, while being a dragon, hasn¡¯t really come into their own yet. Some day, Lil will be a force of nature. My gaze falls upon Teuila, and I can smile so broadly at her. Teuila is remarkable, easily twice my better in combat physically, probably more than that honestly. I do have a few cheats with my magics, but it¡¯s not a competition.


    As we approach home, Lu and Lil are waiting for us on the outskirts of the river side of the pond. Luni exclaims, ¡°Oh poo, none of you have it after the purge? Thinkspace is going to be so boring and lonely until you guys get it back. Hurry and rest up! I mean, please?¡± Once again Lu goes from assertive to bashful almost instantly, adopting her index-fingertip-tapping, side-mouth-speaking gaze-avoiding pose. That really needs a name. Hm, a certain friend told me to start thinking about names for my abilities, maybe I could workshop them with my inner circle as we plan the party to welcome Oli and Lucky.


    Oh, wait, what if I don¡¯t plan or announce the party, what if Laomati does? I ask Teuila to borrow the comm stone, and convey my plan to Laomati, and my desire to be out of the spotlight for it. Lao¡¯s voice is utter bliss to listen to as she exclaims her joy and jubilation at the idea.


    Smiling, sighing contentedly, I let myself fall backwards to the ground to gaze up at the canopy, taking in the moment. The impact is fairly painful, but the signal seems to be understood by my inner circle, as they all join me to snuggle up for a mid afternoon nap.

 B 2 C 25: Lumberjacking Hits A Snag

    <h2>B 2 C 25: Lumberjacking Hits A Snag</h2>


    After cuddling and napping for a while, my inner circle gets up to help Lao with any preparations she needs. Out of all the family members, Mata and I are the only ones that can¡¯t approach Lucky without him growling at us. I suppose that¡¯s another reason we have to make sure Laomati never gets the idea to try to have Lucky come rescue us.


    Lao actually indicates she has everything taken care of, almost mysteriously, but she simply shoos my inner circle away as she goes about whatever her plans are. Lucky can actually transform down an evolutionary stage, though he doesn¡¯t do much save walk between the house and the pond. He occasionally laps up large quantities of water. Lucky seems to be caught somewhere between bored, waiting for something, and unused to his own body. Lucky¡¯s current form is that of a large blue sphere with a thick blue sideswept mohawk, lupine ears, and a tail that¡¯s more reptilian than mammalian, and tiny little draconic foreclaws. Thankfully, at this size, he at least fits in the house.


    When given a chance, I try to pass out the ornate bags that grant inventory magic even from a capacity of zero or below. Luni had collected two while she was my anchor, Teuila had collected one, and I passed her one while she slept. In the end, Teuila, Luni, Lao, and Agwai end up with positive inventory magic capacity, with only one bag left. I offer it to Mataalii who takes it huffily and stalks away. His capacity remains at zero, at least it¡¯s not negative one. He doesn¡¯t even stick around to let me explain that he might be able to raise it through various means, or that he might be able to find another ornate bag while fishing.


    The party and its announcement are a simple affair. Apparently it¡¯s reminiscent of the egg-picking ceremony that the Shellcrackers once shared with the Rocksmashers at their beach so long ago. Lao splits us into two half families, Lao and my inner circle on one side, Agwai, Mata, and both pairs of twins on the other side. Lao then chooses Lucky, then Agwai chooses Olioli. Then as an added measure, Lao approaches Agwai with a silk kerchief that I¡¯d given her, and she binds one of her hands to Agwai¡¯s at the wrist, signifying a unified family.


    When that¡¯s done, we each pick a family member, or pair of partners, from the opposite side of the family, and dance, rotating partners until we¡¯ve danced with them all. Mataalii avoids having to dance with Luni, Lil, or myself, he stalks off after dancing with Lao and Teuila. Lucky doesn¡¯t so much dance, as bounce near Lao with whichever partner she¡¯s picked. Similarly, Olioli doesn¡¯t dance so much as chew on whichever partner they¡¯ve got for any given dance. Luni of course provides the music with her harp looping as she enjoys dancing with the rest of us.


    My inner circle and I spend the better part of a week leading our idyllic, blissful, peaceful lives with the family. My inner circle finally regain our telepathic bonds near the end of the week, and we slowly rebuild our mentally constructed grassy hill, and its apple tree for shade. As Teuila guessed, Luni and I have gotten extraordinarily close over the last week or two. Te bonds deeper with Lil, mostly as they share their exuberance for flying. They both lament that they can¡¯t manifest their forms anymore, and that when they try, they only get a creamy gray umbral silhouette for a short time. It feels like umbral energy is a weaker power source for our abilities, so we¡¯ve got to build back much of what we¡¯ve lost. Thankfully we have magical equipment, and Teuila¡¯s ridiculous fighting prowess to protect us should we actually find ourselves in danger.


    But tensions rise between Mata and myself. His resentment radiates, and I pause to think about what he actually said before the first party.


    He was stammering, so when he said ¡°Maybe, just something, to, y¡¯know, something cool, like, yeah, cool kids, ¡®n¡¯ stuff. To make me, like, you, you know. Sh¡¯up.¡± the  ¡°you, you know¡± part didn¡¯t mean he was saying he wanted to be like me. He was trying to say that I know what he wants. Power, things that are cool in his eyes. There¡¯s this unbreachable divide between us, and I can¡¯t mend it. Mat¡¯s not enjoying our idle life together, so come the end of a week, my inner circle and I excuse ourselves quickly.


    I just want to be on the road, out of that situation, to hopefully give Mataalii some time to cool down, and maybe enjoy life at the pond. I hope whatever he¡¯s going through will finally be over some day, but, knowing how trauma affects myself, I doubt it will ever be that simple. Every time I try to puzzle out what might have changed during our trip to Fire Biome though, Luni steers my thoughts away from it. Her persistence lets me know that something in the future needs me to be unsure of Mata¡¯s true motivations.


    We leave northwest to the cliffs to set out directly south from there. It¡¯s fairly easy carving a swath south through the jungle, even a few miles west of the river, as I try to map out more of our domain.


    At the moment, we¡¯ve run into an odd creature, or maybe a plant. It looks like vines, or tentacles, like that¡¯s the entirety of its composition, except for its massive fanged maw. This creature¡¯s appearance does my trauma no favors, I¡¯m sure I won¡¯t be able to handle vines for a while without picturing them growing fanged maws. Teuila easily, deftly, dodges this thing¡¯s massive tentacle swipes and thrusts. One of its larger tendrils causes a ripple in the ground, a mini earthquake every time it strikes. Lu, Lil and I often end up stumbling as a result of that strike. Teuila continues to plug away at the tendril beast, its name is apparently Cigarette. What a weird name. As she gets close to its main body however, it expels gas from its mouth that looks supremely deadly, so I beg Teuila to back off while I do something a bit risky.


    Focusing my breathing, and my thermokinesis, I imagine launching a sharp, ice-wind-laced fireball towards the center of the beast for about a third of my mana. Sadly one of its tentacles happens to swing in the path of the fireball, just in time. The tentacle is severed at the point of impact, and smolders slightly, but it doesn¡¯t consume the entire beast, or disperse the gas. Still, as I¡¯ve said several times in my life when using new powers, proof of concept.


    ¡°Teuila, as soon as this next attack disperses the cloud, you need to be on the way down with your best drop-stab. K? Be careful, there¡¯ll be some blowback.¡± I look to Teuila as I call out for confirmation, and she nods affirmatively.


    I sit lotus style for just an instant, so that I don¡¯t knock myself out with what I¡¯m about to do. I lean forward as far as I can, til I¡¯m almost laying prone over my own legs. Trying to slow my heart and calm my breathing, I exhale as smoothly as I can, picturing a fireball worth the remaining two thirds of my mana, save for the small fraction I¡¯ve just regenerated. The concussive force released as I launch a nova the size of Lilagnewt¡¯s form nearly bowls me over backwards, instead it sinks my arse and hips into the ground where I¡¯ve planted them. The flame rockets into Cigarette¡¯s various flailing limbs, but thankfully none are massive enough to block the entire burst. Eventually the fire makes contact with the cloud of gas, igniting it. Cigarette lets loose a shrill roar as its own breath knocks it for a loop.


    I glance around trying to spot Teuila¡¯s ascent, trying to see where she¡¯ll be attacking from, but she¡¯s already driving a spear into Cigarette¡¯s skull, if it has a skull. Thankfully, that finishes the creature, initiating its derezzing, leaving us with a few items. Hm, remembering that the tougher creatures we fight tend to always leave magic items, I ask my party what the cragbeast queen dropped.


    Between Cigarette and the queen, we¡¯ve got a quarterstaff, a cloak, a pair of gloves, a tiny leather pouch with a drawstring, a clay jug, and some goggles that look like they¡¯d fit Lil better than any of us. There¡¯s also an insane amount of gemstones and possibly some jewelry, from the whole cragbeast warren.


    I kind of want to see what Lil looks like in the cloak, so I have them put it, and the goggles on. No magic seems to happen save for the size readjustment, and its ability to stay in place on Lil¡¯s body. The goggles even disappear from Lil¡¯s face.


    Lil grumbles, ¡°Great, the one magic item that might fit me, and it doesn¡¯t do anything fun.¡±


    Teuila angrily quips back, ¡°Hey Dragbutt, show a little gratitude, we all look out for each other, right?¡± She approaches Lil looking like she¡¯s going to give Lil a playful whack before asking, ¡°Wait, why are there two of you?¡±


    Luni and I glance at Lil, we only see one of Lil, so I worriedly ask Teuila, ¡°Te, are you okay? Do you see two of either of us?¡±


    Teuila rubs her eyes and glances between us before answering, ¡°Nope, just two of the little Dragbutt, you two are fine. Sorry to worry everyone, sorry if I sounded angry Lil, c¡¯mere cutie patootie.¡± Lil leaps into Te¡¯s arms at the request. Suddenly Te exclaims, ¡°Hey, now there¡¯s only one of you.¡±


    Scratching my chin, I try to imagine myself angry enough to want to hit Lil. It¡¯s a really difficult thing to imagine. Eventually I pretend Lil somehow gets Mata¡¯s personality, and I¡¯m able to feel a bit of rage for my best buddy. Suddenly I see two Lils, both out of focus and slightly translucent. Rattling my skull to lose the angry thoughts, I go back to thinking of all the love I hold for Lil, and they return to one being.


    Grinning, I exclaim, ¡°Got it, the cloak, it has some sort of illusion, or displacement effect to ward off hostility. Somehow it senses who might mean its bearer harm, even if only jokingly, and then projects Lil slightly split, to make it harder to strike them. That¡¯s pretty awesome for Lil, since they can¡¯t wear the Valkyrie equipment. I hate it whenever they take a big hit that we could block if it were coming at us.¡±


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Lil excitedly chases their own tail to get a better look at the cloak upon their back now that they¡¯re happy with its magical effect. Lil sounds gleeful as they ramble, ¡°Wooooahh. Really, I get to keep this one? You don¡¯t want one of the girls to have it?¡±


    I chuckle as I pick Lil up for a hug, assuring them, ¡°It¡¯s yours Lil buddy. Even Lu can wear a shield, I¡¯ve been worried about your soft scales for so long. It¡¯s worse now with our forms on the fritz.¡±


    We all surround Lil for a group hug before I continue puzzling out the other equipment. I attach one of Octorochi¡¯s serpent fangs to the end of the new quarterstaff, it seems virtually built for it. On the other side, I hand one of the newer Vampguppy fangs. I essentially create a double-ended spear. I hand this to Teuila, so we don¡¯t need to keep bringing out copies of Gae Buidhe. I don¡¯t want that spear out in the world any more than absolutely necessary.


    When Te takes hold of the quarterstaff, her eyes flare with new comprehension and additional senses, akin to when I shared one of my danger wraps with Mat. Te exclaims, ¡°Wow, it¡¯s like, it¡¯s like I can feel everything around me for a few dozen feet, as if I were tracing my paws on everything. This is what you sense with your wraps? It¡¯s amazing, it¡¯s a whole new way to experience the world.¡±


    Teuila excitedly scampers around, into and out of range of various trees and other objects, merely to feel them enter her sensory range.


    Lu pulls me into private thinkspace, giggling, ¡°Hehe, don¡¯t tell her, but my harp gives me more or less the same feedback any time I pluck a string, it¡¯s like echolocation. Give her some time to enjoy it and get used to it though, it¡¯s good to see her having fun. I can¡¯t tell you how sad I was for her when you were gone for so long. I missed my big sis¡¯s smile for so, so long.¡± While she has me for at least a thousand seconds, Lu pulls me to our tree to snuggle in hypertime.


    I blink away a few tears as Luni calls Te her big sister and admits how much she longed for Teuila to smile while I was trapped in my own mind. Leaning over, I kiss Lu¡¯s brow and rest against her.


    I try thinking about the rest of the equipment, the gloves look like they¡¯d be an adorable addition to Luni¡¯s ensemble. The pouch and the jug are a bit mysterious. I can almost guarantee that at least one of them somehow refills itself, or has infinite of something. Possibly both. There¡¯s a bit of genre savviness bleeding over from my messed up mysterious memories.


    Snuggling her, I quietly advise Luni, ¡°Lu, go ahead and take the gloves back in meatspace, and the pouch, I think Lil should take the jug.¡±


    Still, Luni pulls my arms around her and twines her legs around my left leg in our telepathic thinkspace. We stay snuggled close for nearly a quarter of an hour, as barely a second passes in real time. I¡¯m not sure why Lu is treating me so well, why she takes me aside for private time into deeper thinkspace. Especially when she¡¯s so close to Lil, and has had so many more years of life with Lil in thinkspace.


    Lu gives me the tiniest punch in the shoulder, ¡°That¡¯s why you goon. We¡¯ve got catching up to do. I¡¯ve told you time and time again, you¡¯re my hero, always have been, always will be. And I love you. Plus, plus, there¡¯s, um.¡± She adopts what I¡¯ll call the Shellcracker shyness expression, that of her index fingertips tapping against each other as she avoids eye contact and speaks from the side of her mouth. She continues, ¡°There¡¯s a thing, but um. I want us to be close, for when I can finally tell you. Um, I, I, I don¡¯t want you to think I¡¯m springing it on you. I want you to like me, and, and, and trust me. I will never, never ever, ever ever, if I can help it, lie to you. Um, please, you believe me, please, don¡¯t you?¡±


    My heart wrenches for this beautiful young woman trying so hard to earn and build my trust when she already has it. I barely manage to answer with the breath caught in my mental throat, ¡°Of, of course I trust you, I believe you. The three of you are everything to me, I can¡¯t imagine anything that you could say would ever drive me away or shatter that trust.¡± I gulp, since I do know one or two things someone could do to break my trust, and hurt me deeply.


    Luni knows which thoughts I fear from gulping. She looks aghast, ¡°I¡¯d, I¡¯d never! Never ever! I, I know how much that hurt you. But, but still. Someday, it¡¯ll finally be the right time, and you won¡¯t believe me anyway. Maybe. I¡¯m, um, pretty sure. At least it¡¯s pretty highly possible, I think?¡± Lu seems to lose her nerve partway through puzzling out the future, and I wish I could assuage her fears.


    Suddenly Luni floods a mixture of emotion into our private thinkspace, and I¡¯m kicked back to reality, only a second having passed. There was such a wide range of emotion in that flood, I don¡¯t know how to parse it. I look towards Luni with an ache in my heart. She gives me a furtive smile.


    Teuila¡¯s new senses pick up the hesitation in Lu¡¯s smile, and she stands between the two of us, sussing us out. Te can sense the sadness in each of us across our wavelengths, but also our body language is now plain as day even with her eyes closed. Te starts to huffily ask, ¡°What did you, no, you, no which one of you, argh, who hurt who here? Who do I beat up?¡±


    Lu and I both chuckle as we rush to embrace Teuila from either side, tackling her to the ground as she once did to me with Luni¡¯s help. Lil happens to provide cushioning once again, and we sound a round of laughter. We pin her from each side, snuggling on opposite sides of Teuila.


    Te objects, ¡°Hey, hey no fair using my own tactics against me punkbutts. Goobers, come awwwwwn. D¡¯awe, I can¡¯t stay mad at you guys, fine, you win.¡±


    When Te says we win, Luni does what I should probably name the Shellcracker squee. That closed-eyed wide-smile with the elongated single laugh of ¡°Heee.¡±


    Luni takes the gloves and pouch as I¡¯d requested, she makes sure Lil snags the jug to Lil¡¯s inventory. When Lu equips the gloves, she calls out, ¡°Ooo, handy! Te! Te! Jump me up there and drop me! Please?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s expression at Lu goes from incredulity to disdain to eye rolling, but she caves in and leaps Lu towards a tree. Along the bark of the tree, Teuila carefully drops Luni. Lu reaches out and grips the bark of the tree with a perfect climber¡¯s hold, even though the handholds don¡¯t look deep enough. Luni then shimmies up and down a few feet before finally climbing down. Lu lets loose a Shellcracker squee, and most of the rest of us join her.


    If that might one day save her from a fall, I¡¯m all the more glad for it. Or if it might help her rescue one of us who are trapped up somewhere higher that she wouldn¡¯t normally reach. After all, she¡¯s not just some damsel in distress, she¡¯s an adventurer too. I always call Teuila the most powerful, but Luni might actually be the most powerful among us. It¡¯s hard to gauge with all her secrets.


    Eventually we continue south, and when we¡¯re a few miles northwest of the pyramid, the ground begins to rumble as something large lopes through the jungle. Crashing into view is a beautiful sight, Luna. Just how far does Luna range on a given day? Luna knocks everyone aside individually, then she nuzzles Luni, before coming over to flop atop me.


    Having the air knocked from me twice in a few seconds, I gasp out, ¡°Hooof, I¡¯m so glad my ribs are mostly healed.¡±


    Luna lifts her head momentarily, and I¡¯d swear she wears an apologetic expression,if a beak could make one. She then drops her head back down atop my torso anyway. I chuckle and pull some fish out of my inventory for Luna to eat, and the whole family recovers from their various dazes from being knocked around.


    Luni telepathically calls out with worry, ¡°There¡¯s something really wrong at the dam. Luna can¡¯t talk exactly, but she¡¯s really worried about something. We should hurry!¡±


    It¡¯s never simple, is it? Sighing, I hug Luna¡¯s neck for a moment, and as I¡¯m about to shove her off to start rushing towards the dam, she instead picks us up one by one to set us upon her back. Her forearms, like her neck, are remarkably flexible. It feels like she might be part owl or something. I wonder if we have that in common? Me with my magnetic sense of direction, her with her beak and twisty neck.


    Luna takes off at a lope, skirting past the pyramid in short time, ending at the cabin. She paws at one of its faces, then shoulder slams it loudly for attention.


    The beavers that exit the domicile glare at me with hateful ferocity and aim their spears my way. Luna interposes herself between them and myself, but I don¡¯t want her getting hurt over something this stupid. I hold my hands up as a sign of peace, hop down, and walk back the way we came while the rest of my party sorts this out.


    Finally, after quite some time sitting alone against a tree, my family, Luna included, catch up with me, and catch me up on the situation.


    Luni explains as quickly as possible, ¡°So, um, the MCF as you called them. They¡¯re lording it over everyone else that they have the Valkyrie equipment, it makes them too strong, too dangerous for anyone to stand against. They want more of it for their most dominant members, so that no one can challenge their leadership. They¡¯re planning to force the, sane faction as you called them, to march ahead, and help capture our family to ransom them for more of our equipment.¡±


    My blood boils as I think of these ungrateful slimeballs daring to come up with such a plan. Then I almost pity them. Lucky could take down hundreds of beavers without breaking a sweat, though he might get a bit hurt by the ones in Valkyrie gear. Especially if they¡¯ve found that stupid copy of that gorram deadly spear, Gae Buidhe. I can¡¯t let it come to that anyway, since they¡¯re putting the innocent ones in danger first. I want to kill them, I want to kill the leadership that came up with this idea. I want to destroy the ones that stole our equipment and used it to lord it up over others. I can¡¯t see a path to peace here. They¡¯ll always know where to come to get more of the equipment, and one day they might succeed in kidnapping my family.


    Lu tries to calm me but I can¡¯t hear her as my brain rages, racing through plan after plan, trying to find one that ends in peace. At what point is it okay to be the final arbiter of when it¡¯s okay to kill someone? If there are irreconcilable differences where they actually threaten your lives, is that good enough? If you know it¡¯s coming, and preemptively strike, is that still self defense? My muscles ache as I quake with fury.


    I came here to peacefully request some lumber, not start or finish a war. Now it looks like if I want lumber, I¡¯ll have to jack it while securing a few objectives along the way. Lu finally is able to reach me through the hostile mire of bubbling thoughts.


    All Lu can say though is, ¡°Sometimes, you have to do what you think is right. You do the best you can, everything you can, even when you hit a snag.¡±

 B 2 C 26: Do Everything You Can

    <h2>B 2 C 26: Do Everything You Can</h2>


    I don¡¯t have a plan, and that scares me.  I can¡¯t do diplomacy, since no one understands me outside of our family party.  Some of the beavers already think I¡¯m a violent thug, which, I guess I am, technically.  You try being raised in the wilds, fighting for your life day in and day out, then having your family kidnapped, and being imprisoned.  Let¡¯s see how nonviolent you are to your captors.  Ugh, I sigh, knowing that I¡¯m not talking to anyone, and that I don¡¯t want my beloved inner circle weighed down by my train of thought.


    I look to Luna who has taken a seat a few dozen meters away.  She¡¯s a beautiful but imposing beast.  Her snowy white, feathered fur doesn¡¯t really make sense for this region, at least, according to what my memories tell me about ecologies and ecosystems.  I remember how intimidating I thought she was, how intimidating she still is.  She¡¯s strong enough to knock any of us flying, repeatedly.


    Hm, actually, what about intimidation?  The problem with that is that sooner or later, some greedy little buttmonkey is going to want our gear, to make themselves feel powerful.  Let me think this through, there¡¯s only, what, three mostly full sets of equipment, and a couple of helmets.  Lao¡¯s, Mat¡¯s, and Agwai¡¯s full sets, the twins¡¯ helmets.  Lao and Agwai refused to carry weaponry, so there¡¯s only one set of weapons, Mat¡¯s.  Huh, I wonder if Mata is peeved that I didn¡¯t include him in the plan to fight Octorochi.  He¡¯d have been killed, he has to know I just wanted to spare him that risk, right?


    This thought train isn¡¯t helping.  Hm, what if, instead of killing, we do a little of the ol¡¯ ¡°turnabout is fair play¡±?  What if we kidnap the ones who¡¯ve stolen Valkyrie gear, and make them come live with us.  I don¡¯t want to reward them for being buttheads though.  I have to make it seem like a deterrent, but I can¡¯t condone torture.  Ugh, ethics, where are you when I need you.  What¡¯s the moral choice in this situation?  Is there even one?  What if I make a choice, and figure out a less murder-oriented solution some day down the road?


    Okay, what¡¯s like, the least torturous thing I can do, without killing someone, that¡¯s still really deterring?  Solitary confinement?  I doubt it would get the point across.  Solitary confinement with no food?  That feels a little torture-ey to me.  Plus I¡¯d basically have to construct stone boxes around them with little ventilation slits and nothing else.  They¡¯d eat their way out of wood cages.  What if the cage was partially submerged?  They¡¯d be able to get water at least on their own, and it would be tiring, if it was slightly deeper than neck level.  I really don¡¯t want to waterboard a beaver.  Should I just march in, knock out anyone who stands in my way, and murder the everliving heck out of the remaining leaders of the MCF?


    If I do that, then at least the sane faction will see that I still don¡¯t kill indiscriminately.  It still doesn¡¯t feel good though.  I really don¡¯t want to ride the line of evil.  I think these MCF leaders are full on evil though, their motivations sound fueled purely by lust for power.  Okay, that¡¯s one mistake I¡¯m making.  I¡¯ve only heard one side of the story.  Things are rarely so cut and dry between good and evil.  This is going to be hard, but we have to go in, and hear it from the horse¡¯s mouth what they want.


    Finally, I share my conclusion with my party, ¡°So, uh, this is going to sound stupid, probably, but I need us to all go in there, together, look out for one another, but take no guff from anyone.  We need to find the ones wielding our Valkyrie gear, and any other so called leaders of the MCF, and sit down in a room together to parley.  Obviously I¡¯m going to need translators who aren¡¯t going to immediately jump to the worst conclusions.  We should probably get Sugar and Spice down here.  Do you think they could handle dealing with this horrible nonsense?¡±


    My party hems and haws.  Teuila tries her best to answer, ¡°I dunno Reg, this is, this is kinda risky.  Sugar and Spice could get hurt in the crossfire if it goes south.  You know?¡±


    I sigh, and glance around at Lil and Luni for their input as well.  Lil tries to approximate a shrug without shoulders, ¡°Me or Te could maybe go get ¡®em for ya, working on tryin¡¯ to shift into our forms, Te would be the quickest obvee.  I dunno though.  I¡¯d be happy to just waltz in and burn them for you if you don¡¯t want to do no killin¡¯ Reggie.  Eat or be eaten is the only school I ever had before you.¡±


    I flash Lil half of a smile and shake my head at their offer.  ¡°Thanks Lil, no, it¡¯s not that I have a problem personally doing the killing, it¡¯s that I just think there has to be a better way, one that doesn¡¯t start a cycle of violence.  Honestly, yeah, we could take out every last creature living here, even without our forms, even with our magic being limited by having to resort to gray and umbra, we¡¯re still ridiculous as a party.  That can¡¯t be the right answer though, can it?¡±


    Luni finally chimes in, ¡°Hey, um, hero, maybe not everyone, but, I think maybe Te is right.  Do you not trust me to be impartial if I¡¯m your translator?¡±


    Luni¡¯s question strikes me like an icy dagger to the gut.  While feeling as if I¡¯d been struck a mortal blow, I can see horror and sadness on Lu¡¯s face.  I can¡¯t form words as a gulp catches in my throat.  I¡¯m sure I look mortified that I implied in any way that I don¡¯t trust Luni, of all people, after all we¡¯ve been through, after all it cost me the first time I let my faith waver.  My heart beats like a jackhammer inside my chest, screaming to escape, to throw itself at Luni¡¯s feet in a begging of forgiveness.


    Eventually my pulse slows, and slows, and slows, until it feels as if my heart stops beating, hanging to life by a thread.  The world around me fades to blackness with a spotlight on Luni.  Lu is then coated in umbra, and I fight away both the blackness blocking my vision, and the spotlight.  Lil and Teuila are coated in umbra as well, and it¡¯s the only thing I¡¯m sure about in the world at this moment.  Umbra, the shadows, the secret confessions in the dark, the calming comfort of shade, the only thing that truly matters is those that I share this energy with.


    I snap back to reality, realizing that my party has been calling out for me for at least several seconds.


    Lil tries to reach me first, ¡°Hey, hey buddy, you checked out there for a few seconds, you okay?¡±


    Teuila tries to form words as she catches my semi-vacant stare.  She can¡¯t seem to find how to express herself at the moment.


    I gaze towards Luni who is turned away, clutching her sides, seemingly sobbing.  I reach out mentally towards Lu, afraid she¡¯ll block me out because I hurt her with my mistrust.  Lu immediately reaches back and drags me into our private telepathic thinkspace.


    Luni veritably tackles me towards our mental tree in a tight hug.  She exclaims with tears in her eyes, ¡°You didn¡¯t hurt me, I, I hurt you!  I, I knew what questioning your trust might do, I just, I forgot in the moment.  I never want to hurt you like that, never, never ever.  Also I don¡¯t ever want you to feel manipulated like that, it was so wrong of me.  Manipulation is always wrong, but, but, I didn¡¯t mean to, I didn¡¯t mean to, please forgive me.  Please.¡±  By the end her exclamation turns into a whimpered plea.


    My heart aches and I hold Luni tightly.  I feel all the strength drain out of even my telepathic avatar¡¯s muscles.  I try to gulp, and can¡¯t even manage to do that.  Lu is waiting for forgiveness.  Forgiveness that I want to inform her that she already has.  I want to tell her, but I¡¯m so stricken and emotionally drained by this ordeal and the memories it brings back.  I¡¯m treading water to keep from being buried under, or drowning in my emotions, and that¡¯s when I realize why Luni said what she did.


    She¡¯s still my trauma valve, the faucet that my extra trauma is poured from, or the basin it¡¯s poured into.  This whole horrid event brings me back to The Event.  Without Luni right now, without how much of my emotions she¡¯s taking on, I would go catatonic.  I would be lost again in my own mind.  At the very best, I might be on autopilot.  It could be worse than that.


    The roof of my mouth and back of my throat feel dry and cracked, even in my mental avatar¡¯s form.  I barely manage to croak out, ¡°Lu, forgiven, always.¡±


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    She buries her face in my shoulder and continues to shed enough tears for the both of us, since I feel dried up inside, hollow, unable to move or process.


    I think we spend a day or two just trying to work through our loop of shared pain.  We must both look catatonic to Teuila and Lil, even if only for a couple of minutes.  It takes about a minute and a half for a day to pass in here.  Normally Lu can operate in meatspace and thinkspace simultaneously, though I have to be on a bit of autopilot to really dive in as an avatar.  It doesn¡¯t take that much concentration when I¡¯m only going to send and receive one or two messages.  Those sorts of times I can function normally with thinkspace active.  But these times when I spend days, especially these days in this deep level with Luni, basically turn my brain off to the outside world.


    Finally I feel like I have some control back, and that I won¡¯t be dumping a catatonia-inducing trauma on Luni while I try to talk through our situation.  Absolving her, I state, ¡°Lu, we¡¯re, we¡¯re okay, I mean on my end.  I¡¯m so sorry for what my emotions do to you, what burden they place on you.  If you can forgive me for that, then we¡¯re definitely okay.¡±  I gulp, looking to Lu for absolution as well.


    Luni chuckles as she lets out a last few sobs, wiping tears away she says, ¡°Of course I do.  I wouldn¡¯t take this on if I loved you any less, or couldn¡¯t forgive you for them.  It¡¯s not even really forgiveness, I don¡¯t need to forgive you because you didn¡¯t do anything.  Um, so, maybe, can we maybe just pretend like we just had some snuggle times and worked out that I¡¯ll be your translator?  Please?  I don¡¯t, um, if it¡¯s okay, I don¡¯t want to tell Lil and Te about this.  They¡¯d want to share the burden, and, and it would hurt them, it would hurt them if they could, and hurt them if they couldn¡¯t, and, um, well, I don¡¯t know how.  And, and it¡¯s, it¡¯s kinda our special thing.¡±  Midway through absolving me, Luni adopts the Shellcracker shyness expression, playing with her index fingertips.


    My heart catches in my throat.  Yeah, Luni¡¯s right.  Lil and Teuila would offer themselves up onto the fire that is the pyre of my traumatic emotions in a heartbeat.  Plus, she¡¯s right, she has translated before, and I need to not finish that train of thought or I¡¯m going to end up going into an emotional coma.  Squeezing Lu one last time to my side with my left arm wrapped around her shoulders, I nod.  She floods adoration and apologetic thoughts into our private thinkspace enough to boot me back to reality.


    Te¡¯s tapping her foot impatiently, though she wears an extremely worried expression on her face, betraying her true thoughts.  Lil is fretfully slithering back and forth between Lu and myself.  I gasp and heave a massive sigh, it feels like I might have been holding my breath for the last few minutes while we were spending days in thinkspace.  I blow the sort of exhalations that work to calm one down from hyperventilating as I suck down massive breaths of air.


    I look to Lu, and I know what she wants me to say, what I¡¯ve agreed to say, but my body language and aura probably betray what has really been happening.  I think a query at her, and she relents.  She affirms that she realizes we have to tell them.  Neither of us want to lie to them


    I stutter as I start, ¡°So, um, hi guys, sorry about that.  I just, I kind of realized how similar the situation we¡¯re in is to the one that, well, the one that took me away from you all before.  I was cracking pretty hard mentally.  Lu scooped the pieces just then.  The pieces of my psyche are pretty sharp and painful to hold.  Uh, about a week ago now, Lu basically turned herself into my trauma faucet somehow.  Though that was shut off while our thinkspaces were disabled, so I didn¡¯t really catch on, or think all too much of it until this wave hit me just now.  I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t share before, the thought didn¡¯t really cross my mind.¡±


    Teuila glares at the both of us, then walks between the two of us to cuff both Luni and me lightly in the back of the head as she drags us together.  When we¡¯re all close she drags us to a seated position and hugs us so tightly that I gasp for air.  Te¡¯s cheeks are radiating heat behind me as she loosens her hug slightly.  Te starts to rant, ¡°Heck Lu, come awwwwwn, you didn¡¯t have to do this alone, you know I¡¯d drop anything, do anything to ease this pain, to, to, to share this weight, this burden.¡±


    Lu interrupts, ¡°I know, in a heartbeat.  I don¡¯t know how to share though.¡±


    Te interrupts in return, ¡°Hah, darn right you don¡¯t, I could hardly hang with Penina because you were always hogging her to yourself.¡±  Teuila lightly slugs Luni in the shoulder, but then her mood sinks as she recalls our lost family member.  Teuila also knows that Lu was referring more to the metaphysical sharing of the burden of my trauma, but she thought she was helping distract us from it.  Until she saddened herself that is.


    Teuila runs her hand through her own hair and scratches her scalp as her cheeks feel like radiant flames behind my head.  She apologizes, ¡°Uh, yeah, sorry.  Ugh, Luuuuuuu, grr.  I know, I know that you two, like, we¡¯re all, you know, and you know that I, y¡¯know, we all words.  I didn¡¯t mean to make you feel bad.  Or to bring up grief, or, or stuff.  Look, I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m not as good with emotions as you.  Just, please don¡¯t hog Reggie all to yourself?  Not even the pain.  I want to be there for both of you, fine yes, all three of you, through everything, better and worse, thick and thin.¡±


    Luni sniffles and turns to hug Te, ¡°I know, um, well, you know I love you too big sis, you¡¯re my rock Te.  I, err, couldn¡¯t have gotten this far, I couldn¡¯t handle this without you having my back. And, and, and I¡¯d never, never ever, hurt you like that, not intentionally.  Reggie and me both, never ever.  They¡¯re not going anywhere, and neither am I.  I¡¯m just trying to help make sure that we don¡¯t lose them for a long time again.  This last time was pretty bad.  It almost turned into the time back then.  Lil, me, Reggie, we all love you so much.  And, yeah, um, maybe, maybe I do, about Reggie, like that, but we all do.  And, um, and we all do about Lil too, you admitted it yourself.  See, even Reggie¡¯s blushing about it right now.¡±  Lu adopts the Shellcracker shyness expression as she plays with her index fingertips.


    Lu¡¯s right, I¡¯m blushing about the fact that I¡¯m twitterpated with my three closest friends to various degrees.  Lil catches my thought train and interrupts in a jocular fashion, ¡°See, what¡¯d I tell ya pal?  Just wait, you¡¯re gonna be all twitterpated even more, like, three, no five, no ten times more than with Lu or Te when I have arms!  Just you wait for another couple of evolutions.¡±


    The three of us burst into laughter at Lil¡¯s assertions.  Lil harrumphs and mumbles, ¡°I¡¯m serious, I¡¯m gonna be awesome.  You¡¯ll see.¡±  We all reach for Lil to bring them into a tight group hug centered on them.


    I once again realize I haven¡¯t been breathing in a while, and suck down a slightly ragged, sobbing breath before sighing as I catch up on air consumption.  Wiping a tear of laughter from my eyes, I snuggle against the three most beloved to me.  There¡¯s this nagging feeling, like a tugging at my heart somehow connected to a faraway land.  Not as painful as a stretched evolution tether, yet somehow even more distant, an even further, lonelier longing.  A missing piece.  Somehow it feels like that piece is right next to me, or they are right next to me, yet simultaneously so far away.


    I find myself gazing at Luni and Teuila.  Do they really not share my mysterious memories?  Sometimes one or the other makes a reference, and Lu herself admitted to knowing about, what were they, fiscal responsibility and macroeconomics?  It sounds like she would have been a college student taking economics courses.  But Teuila¡¯s are more subtle, the tapping of her wrist signifying a watch, the occasional quote or reference that hit me with a mental BSOD.  Some of their references seem like they¡¯re from different other worlds.  What did Lu once say?  The weight of all three worlds?  Lil feels like the most here one of our group, if they¡¯ve ever hit me with a mental BSOD I don¡¯t recall it.  Mata actually hit me with one once too.


    Lu suddenly jumps into my mental thought train, ¡°Bupbup bup bup, no guessing, stop guessing.  I mean, um, please?¡±


    I blush and snuggle against her apologetically in response.  Alright, we¡¯ve sort of got a course of action.  I don¡¯t want to make too many plans for the outcomes of the parley, because they¡¯re mostly depressing.  I wonder if I could bring Luna down into the dam.  I gaze over towards Luna who huffs, somehow it sounds a bit like a horse¡¯s huff, though she doesn¡¯t appear to have lips.  Luna plods over, and without warning, sits on the four of us.  The weight would crush us all if we weren¡¯t equipped with Valkyrie armor, and if Lil weren¡¯t a squishy sphere creature.  We gasp for breath under Luna¡¯s tush.


    Luna stands up, angles away to sit nearby and rests her head on the four of us.  As we¡¯re all recovering from our dazes, Luna picks me up, swats me back to the ground, picks me up, swats me back down, and repeats several times.  She then trundles away, seemingly back towards the pyramid.  I have no idea how to parse that whole interaction.  I can¡¯t tell if Luna likes me, or if I annoy the crap out of her and she puts up with me because I help her with the pyramid or feed her fish.


    I guess, maybe it could be her way of saying see you later, like, you stay here or something when she knocks me down.  Her sitting on us may have been a humorous thing to her, about the fact that she gave us a lift and we were sitting on her a bit ago.  In my memories, animals are even more inscrutable, so at least Luna has an edge over them in communicating, even if only slightly.  I guess she sort of heard the whole interaction.  I¡¯m fairly positive she understands speech, even mine, which is miraculous, since she¡¯s not in our party.  Maybe Luna was trying to say, ¡°You might get knocked down, but you always get back up again.¡±  If so, that¡¯s kind of sweet.


    Right, so, time to once again go try to not murder a bunch of people to protect my family.  This has only happened a couple of times, but it¡¯s already getting old, I¡¯m sick of it.  Oh, huh, I clenched my fist so hard my nails drew blood from my palm.  Keep it together Reggie.  You can keep it together.

 B 2 C 27: No, You Really Cant

    <h2>B 2 C 27: No, You Really Can¡¯t</h2>


    I think our family lung capacity has been going up. Between the harrowing events we¡¯ve suffered, and finally living at a place that¡¯s decent for swimming, us otters are at about twenty minutes of held breath. Yes yes, I¡¯m not an otter, but I¡¯m not a human either. I¡¯m more certain of that as I gain access to various changes in my form. I can adopt a form that looks like a slightly masculine-leaning androgynous adult human. But for my base form, my ears have gotten pointier, my features more effeminate, yet angular. My skin is simultaneously rough, yet ridiculously smooth. That part I can¡¯t really figure out how to rationalize. But I can pop back down to the cherubic form I remember at any time. I feel like I look like a teenage mutant ninja elf. Hm, another brain BSOD for a moment there, almost. I think I¡¯m even starting to grow a bit of a tail. But yeah, goblin-human-pixie hybrid is still one of the things I think I look like, the more recent, friendlier goblins, their more attractive depictions, not the older ones. Why do I have so many memories of something that I know how they were depicted in different eras? Yet no memories of a place in that world for me. No people, no names. Those memories don¡¯t matter, they¡¯re fake, like Teuila and Luni said, they know the definitions of words that I bring up, when I bring them up, so that just means we all do. I just have some more weird context for the words. Maybe I was supposed to be spawned as a librarian, which meant I needed more word knowledge.


    Sighing, I go back to thinking about our lung capacity. It¡¯s good, but still, I wouldn¡¯t want to be trapped in any of the waterways between exits in the dam, and I wouldn¡¯t want to have to fight in the water. It¡¯s about the only way the beavers might pose a threat to my party, if they just held us under while we suffocated, since their lung capacities are greater. I wish I could figure out how to bottle oxygen to my inventory.


    Wait, I know I can claim fire, and water, why not air? What if I already have air in my inventory? What if any empty carrying capacity is filled with air? Hm, trying to expel air just beneath the surface of the river doesn¡¯t net any results though. I suppose fighting under water actually wouldn¡¯t give the beavers that much advantage. I could do some nasty things with my SIP using my FBF style.


    Yeah, during the week of idle peace, my party and I decided to dub my icy wind pugilism attacks sub-zero ice punches, easier to just say SIP. They also decided that I should try to develop a style of combat around it, and call it the frostburn fist style. It really does sound like stuff from entertainment in my memories, but it¡¯s easier to subvocalize when internal monologuing during combat. They also workshopped my mobility power, we decided to call it jettison-thrust, jetthrust, or JT for short. They figured that was best since it works by using my space skill to place an object in space near me, jettisoned with momentum aimed towards myself, to thrust me in that direction.


    I don¡¯t do radiant copies of equipment anymore, only neutral gray, or umbral copies. My inner circle thinks umbral shot and umbral stab are the best way to describe them. It¡¯s funny since that means my attacks are made of USes. My thermokinesis mana consumptive abilities are pretty easy. Frost javelin, and fireball, pretty classic, easy to remember names. I can also do steam explosions directly from my inventory, I don¡¯t really need to name those. For my cold air barrier, I like the name cold air barrier, but my friends think I should call it my frozen frost shield. I¡¯m still iffy on that one, since the acronym is FFS, which is kinda funny in my messed up memories. Actually, I could totally see myself saying that exasperatedly when I need to block some incoming flames. ¡°Oh FFS.¡±


    I¡¯m thinking all these through because I¡¯m trying to figure out if I can combine any of the abilities that I remember that I have, to be able to keep us safe in water, able to breathe. Especially able to breathe without needing to possibly call a possibly reincarnated Sylphie to us. She died for me, to help save these beavers. I know she didn¡¯t derez, but she definitely died, no two ways about it. I don¡¯t want to throw that sacrifice away and kill these idiots. She easily had enough strength for her and me to escape, we went through several wings before she died.


    Is it better to go in armed, or to go in looking unequipped? I don¡¯t really like being deceitful, but I don¡¯t want to start off on a hostile foot either. Maybe it would be a good show of force to equip and unequip in front of them, showing that we¡¯re capable of instantly defending ourselves. Even Teuila, now that she has inventory magic. She barely snagged enough carrying capacity from fishing in the last week for the things she wants to carry, but I¡¯m proud of her regardless. She¡¯s always, always training and improving.


    Teuila sends the Shellcracker squee along my mental wavelength, indicating she¡¯s been riding it this entire time. I can¡¯t help but chuckle. I¡¯m glad to have her presence in my brain. Lu appears unequipped, but she carries Valkyrie gear under her dress. Lil will wear the cloak regardless, consequences be darned if any of the beavers are hostile and see two Lils. Teuila and I can go in mostly naked, and make a show of force in equipping ourselves from thin air as we demand an audience.


    Still no idea how to help us breathe underwater, but we¡¯ll just have to hope it doesn¡¯t come to that. Alright, let¡¯s do this. We¡¯re going in the front door. Two beaverfolk from each faction, fairly burly looking ones, guard the main entrance. They glare hatefully at me upon approach. Oooh boy do I want to shove a frozen fist down their mugs. Keep it together Reggie. I¡¯d say breathe, but we¡¯re under water, so don¡¯t do that.


    Since they recognize me, they know they can¡¯t stop me from entering, instead they enter alongside us as chaperones. It¡¯s a mundane swim through reconstructed dam tunnels, but eventually we¡¯re at the great hall again. Luni has to take over from here for the most part, so I hop a ride on Lil¡¯s senses to be able to understand most of what¡¯s being said.


    Huh, Lil, are you on this wavelength? Try taking those invisible goggles to your inventory, then putting them back on. Lil complies, and their senses are completely different with the goggles on. It feels like they somehow enhance vision, visual acuity and accuracy. I bet Lil could land a firebolt dead center on a target at a thousand paces right now. Well, when their fire gains a long enough range to do so.


    Lil telepathically exclaims, ¡°Woah partner, I didn¡¯t even notice! Thanks for checking that out for me! This is cool, mega cool, mega mega mega cool!¡± I can¡¯t help but don a wry grin, which apparently unsettles our guards.


    I actually recognize one of these beaverfolk guards from when I was half slumped over in the great hall on the return trip, I could barely move anything other than my eyes. I¡¯m fairly certain I looked psychotic then, so this one probably views any facial expression I make as a ticking time bomb of psychosis.


    Anyway, Luni is making our plea to talk to the leaders of the MCF, without calling them that. We demonstrate our ability to equip ourselves instantly, magically, and then we doff the equipment back to our inventories as a show of good faith.


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


    Oh that sneaky mother of, grrr. The one that kept running away with Gae Buidhe is shadowing the room, creeping around. They don¡¯t have it on them at the moment, but I don¡¯t believe for a second that little jerk wouldn¡¯t have been searching for it until they found it. Keep it together Reggie, keep it together, breathe, you can do this. Anger isn¡¯t the right answer right now, breathe.


    The leaders of the sane beaver faction essentially say, yeah sure go talk to them. I can tell they basically hope we kill each other off. What a bunch of ruthless dicks. I hate authority figures sometimes. About the only position of power I respect and admire is matron, specifically only our matron Laomati. When I think about the fact that these utter dirtbags captured her, held her, took Mata away from her and brainwashed him, I, I. As my fury boils to the surface I clamp my jaw tightly shut to keep from screaming in rage. I grind my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut as hard as I can. I dig my nails into my palms, drawing blood, begging myself to breathe, to keep it together. You can do this, just keep it together. They have to see that you specifically aren¡¯t a threat. You can give that air.


    Then again, as the only being in existence that naturally bleeds, me standing around glaring pure daggers in fury as my palms drip blood all over their floors, with a jaw that looks like it had just bitten the head off something and locked down, is probably not the most convincing air of ¡®not dangerous.¡¯


    Lil and Teuila are laughing into our shared wavelength at the irony of my intended image versus how I¡¯m coming off. They try to bring levity to help keep my mind off of what enrages me. Lu tries her best to remain diplomatic, to gather as much information about who the leaders of the MCF are. Based on her descriptions, the little sneakthief with Gae Buidhe is one of their lieutenants, or right hand people.


    When we¡¯re certain we¡¯re not going to be jerked around, and led to a phony meeting, we allow ourselves to be escorted off to the room with the cervid skull, and large table. We¡¯re made to sit at the entrance of the room, while the MCF beavers take all the seats at the table. Fine, this is fine, keep it together. Specifically they order us to sit with Luni in front, about five or ten paces ahead, me behind her, and Teuila five or ten paces behind me. I think they think they can keep me in check if I have to go through my loved ones to get to them. This thought just enrages me further. Lil is allowed to do whatever they want, I don¡¯t think they understand that Lil is also the dragon who was guarding my family in the prison way back when. Urk, that time, the time that. Ugh. Hate them, so much. So much!


    Breathe, breathe, you can do this. Lu trembles as she absorbs as much of my rage as she can handle, and I can hear Lil and Teuila gnashing their teeth. I¡¯m panting, seething with rage. I probably look like a caged animal, and that probably gives them endless satisfaction, thinking that I¡¯m angry because I¡¯m caught between my friends. You idiots have no idea. Focus, focus. Think about anything, anything else, um, redwoods, sequoias, cypress, uh, baobab. Fudge! Why am I thinking about trees? Beavers eat trees! These jerks eat trees! Ugh, okay, ugh, um, Fire Biome, rocks, obelisks.


    Wait. Wait, there was an obelisk missing from the landscape. My fury gives way to panic. What do those obelisks do? Are they the nesting grounds of the ptero-creatures? Would they destroy their own nesting grounds by accident? If someone else destroyed one, would they seek revenge on whoever destroyed it? What adventure did I have with Mataalii and Lil when I was on autopilot? Do those obelisks do anything other than act as landmarks? Was Mata taking his fury out on those stone structures? Did he break an obelisk? The lava that rolls up to the pond seems like it¡¯s held back by a spell, since it melts and cools itself without ever piling up. If the obelisks somehow, no, no, just, just don¡¯t even imagine it. It can¡¯t happen.


    Lu catches wind of my thought train, and breaks concentration on negotiations to telepathically divert me, ¡°Hey, Reggie, hey, don¡¯t think about that, it¡¯s okay, it¡¯s, that¡¯s not, that¡¯s not something you should be trying to guess about, it¡¯s going to, it¡¯s going to do bad things to you. Neither of us can handle that right now. Right, love?¡±


    Did Lu just call me love instead of offhandedly saying she loved me? Why does that feel familiar. Especially the accent she used. I, huh. I¡¯m not frightened or furious anymore. Lu, just what are you to me? I scratch my head as I gaze at the back of hers. She sends an image of herself blowing a raspberry through our telepathic bond. Finally my breathing calms down and I release the clenching of my jaw.


    Six beaverfolk are marched in, three wearing whole suits of Valkyrie armor, two wearing helmets, and that weasel wielding a copy of Gae Buidhe. I almost lose it again seeing this sneaky turd grinning smugly at me. A furious sneer adorns my face and I start panting with rage again. I instinctively armor up with a full set of equipment from my inventory. Minus the spear and bow of course.


    Trying to get out of my own head, I listen through Lil¡¯s senses as best I can. Luni is trying to figure out what they want, and they seem to want all beavers of all factions to follow them, and some sort of divine mandate. As was suggested, they want more of our equipment, but they¡¯re willing to bargain for it, instead of holding my family hostage. Though this show of force is pretty much them saying, ¡°Hey we have your equipment so we could totally fight you if you don¡¯t give us more.¡± It¡¯s an obvious power play, and a fool¡¯s mistake.


    Still, I bite my tongue as long as I can, waiting for Lu to try to find a peaceful solution. Lu starts to ask what the divine mandate is.


    The largest, eldest, most rotund humanoid beaverfolk answers with some sort of religious fairytale. She describes how her portion of the tribe are the chosen ones, because they were the first followers. As I begin to discern where this might be going, I feel like I might be sick. She says her followers need not have been coerced, they knew the right thing to do was join the mighty deity, this being from beyond. My fury builds to uncontrollable levels, and I barely hold myself from drawing my sword. This elder beaver woman then goes on to describe that her mighty deity can take on any face, read any thought, but the true face of her deity she describes especially viscerally. She says its slimy tentacles that open to supposedly deliver knowledge or take it away are the most pure divinity, that its ability to consume and bestow radiance are the ultimate power. She says that she knows a way to bring its divinity back into one of her own, that she can resurrect it. She means it eats brains, or plants things in brains, like those pulsating globules in the bowl on that day, she must have one saved somewhere.


    My sanity snaps, Lu tries her best to stem the flood of negative emotions, Lil and Teuila are carried along with my rage, but they barely maintain their own senses. My tendrils react before I have a chance to stop myself, they reach out and snag the three strongest weapons in the room. They lash forth to strike down the MCF beaver who¡¯s proselytizing for that horrid abomination. Luni screams and tries to stop one tendril, she pushes on it, even though touching it carries pain like a jellyfish nematocysts. Her push and my desire not to hurt her swings the tendril back away from the beaver, towards us, loosing the weapon it had clutched. Gae Buidhe, its point aimed directly at Lu¡¯s neck.


    The beaverfolk derezzes, and during the time dilation everything in me freezes, the tendrils disappear, my armor shunts into my inventory. I try to reach Luni, she¡¯s several meters away, I just need to shove her out of the way, I JT forward, but I realize that will just bowl her into the spear sooner. So instead, I JT to the left by ramming my right ribs once again, aggravating an old injury. Wait, if I can JT myself, can I JT Luni? The fraction of a millisecond that¡¯s passing is agonizing as I materialize a slat of wood on Luni¡¯s far side to jetthrust her towards me. Only when Luni¡¯s slamming into my right side do I see that Lil had already leaped in the way of Gae Buidhe.

 B 2 C 28: Save Lil

    <h2>B 2 C 28: Save Lil</h2>


    Gae Buidhe disappears from the air, but Lil isn¡¯t like me. Lil doesn¡¯t have a space skill. They have to touch objects to claim them into their inventory. Gae Buidhe touched Lil, tip first, at high speed. I explode with fury. Lil, my oldest friend, the only reason I ever had the bravery to meet anyone else, to forge a path that met a family. A path that led to unbelievable levels of love. Lil, my dearest, staunchest ally and companion. Lil, a dragon of valor beyond measure whose exuberance and tenacity are pure bliss. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m more furious at the beaverfolk for this situation, or my own explosion of anger that set Gae Buidhe sailing.


    Lil tries to calm me down, ¡°Pard, it¡¯s it¡¯s okay, it¡¯s just a, woo I¡¯m kinda woozy, scratch.¡±


    I¡¯m screaming and I¡¯m crying, Lil is obviously losing vitality by the instant, I see an occasional polygon float away. My throat makes a horrible gurgling, clicking sound as I try to speak. I manage two words, ¡°Ff,f,f,fix Lil.¡± Using my FFS, since that¡¯s what Lil wanted it to be named, I coat Lil in as thick a layer of preservative frost as I can muster the sanity to create. I JT my inner circle out of the room and erect several layers of walls between myself and them.


    The MCF leaders and their lieutenants have been trying to cut me down all the while, since I just slew their elder, but when I finally retaliate, it¡¯s over in an instant. Now that I know my tendrils can wield weapons, I give them each a sword and simply have them whirl at neck level.


    I can¡¯t contain my fury though, I smash into walls, I light them aflame, I incinerate the cervid skull. Turns out, it was a wood carving. I gaze for the spot where the secret exit would be, the one that could flood this whole dam again. I literally fight myself to stop from burning it away to see if they left it vulnerable.


    I fall to my knees and pound the floor over and over and over, spreading ice further and further out. I ash the entire table in an instant. I start to call forth the most massive radiant copy of Gae Buidhe I can muster, aimed at the secret exit, the flood gate, but my tenuous grip on sanity reminds me that radiant energy is corrupted somehow. I barely manage to stop myself from engaging the radiant summon in time. My mind has just barely enough grip to claim any equipment in the room, summoning it to my inventory. Standing back up, I JT myself into the nearest wall fist first. I repeat it again and again, until my fist is unrecognizable as such, broken and crumpled.


    I hear scrabbling, hacking and slashing at the wall behind me. Thinking it¡¯s more of the MCF, I roar a bloodcurdling challenge and start to launch a massive fireball to take down the walls and catch them off guard. Lil¡¯s Lilagnewt silhouette comes crashing through the walls, blocking my fireball just in time to protect Luni and Teuila. There¡¯s a gash across the front of where Lil¡¯s sternum would be. It glows even in their silhouette, and it¡¯s barely covered by frost.


    Lil pleads with me, ¡°Come on, come on pard? Please partner? Buddy? It¡¯s me. Please don¡¯t make me fight you.¡±


    I slump, defeated, sobbing that Lil thinks they have to fight me, that I was aiming at them.


    Lil calls out telepathically, ¡°No, that¡¯s not it, I knew you¡¯d never do that buddy. Just, I don¡¯t know how to get you to calm down except by knocking you out.¡±


    I gaze around, looking at the mess I made. I¡¯ve utterly destroyed the lumber that spawns against the walls. I needed this lumber, I still need this lumber, the others have to get lumber, Lil has thousands of capacity now too. I destroyed lumber, and our chances to get it from this room at least, between frost, flames, explosions, and sheer ferocity, this entire room is now barren bedrock coated in soot and ice. I gulp back sobs. I tried to be merciful, I tried. Just like on Day One.


    The panic finally shuts down my mind, and I¡¯m sent tumbling into an abyssal nightmare. In my mind, all the lumber respawns. Each log grows toothy maws, and takes turns chewing me up and spitting me into other logs¡¯ mouths. The gash on Lil¡¯s chest becomes a fanged maw, and I¡¯m spat from one tree into Lil¡¯s chomping chest. Lil¡¯s face opens up into an array of tentacles that reach for me, and I can¡¯t even manage to scream or scrabble away, I only whimper in panic.


    Despair sets its icy grip into my heart, and I reflexively throw up an FFS large enough to turn the entire room, myself and Lil included, into a block of ice.


    It feels like several year pass, or at least one year passes in a constant state of terror, until I¡¯m finally able to control my own thoughts again. It may have been condensed terrorspace, like our mental wavelength thinkspace, but still, years of a frightened hell. I need to figure out how to save Lil, before I let go of this FFS.


    Okay, okay, think, puzzle this out. I could time travel, my logs could warn me before it happens, maybe I¡¯d stay out of the room, but Lu said I can¡¯t do it, that I¡¯d know when the time is right to practice it. This doesn¡¯t scream out as being a safe situation to practice time travel. Repeating this situation over and over would be even worse than when it happened with Teuila, because I¡¯d have to experience my rampage hundreds of times before I even got back to the point of Lil¡¯s injury.


    What else? I could kill everything in here other than Lil, to cause a big enough time dilation to maybe have slowed Gae Buidhe down slightly more. I¡¯ve seen that a massive time dilation can stretch into the past. Or maybe I was hallucinating when fighting the cragbeast queen. Probably better to bet the latter, rather than indiscriminately slaughtering in the hopes of possibly performing time shenanigans.


    ARGH! Okay, fine, forget time travel, fix it in the now. Teuila once said that you could maybe gouge out an injury caused by Gae Buidhe, and then, and then maybe, possibly, maybe the regular injury would heal, since Gae Buidhe only prevents its own injury from healing, and you wouldn¡¯t be connected to that injury anymore.


    To even have a chance of that working, the location you have to gouge out has to be non fatal. Lil¡¯s injury is right in front of their core, their heart, their sternum, and I can¡¯t tell how deep it goes. I¡¯d have to cut into Lil, with no guarantee that it would work, and hope they can bear the pain, and hope that I don¡¯t hasten their death by cutting too deep. Even then, gouging that much out of Lil would need something to help it heal, or they would just die anyway.


    Red potions! But, but I don¡¯t have any. I didn¡¯t get the formula first either, so I can¡¯t just make one right now. Okay, creatures from places seem to drop things that are a bit thematic sometimes. Spicy meat and gemstones from hellhounds that eat minerals and belch fire, things like that. The, the. I gulp. The thing that dropped the red potions, it¡¯s from the pyramid. Wait, no, that¡¯s wrong! It¡¯s from the swamp. It was Octorochi. Staff Ninja wanted Octorochi defeated there, approximately where we finally ended its life. There¡¯s something about that rock. I gaze at my thunder stick in my inventory. It¡¯s my only hope. Staff Ninja was like me, they called out to an enemy, they needed to defeat it.


    I need to return and hope for one of three things. One, Octorochi wasn¡¯t the only one of its kind. Two, it respawned if it was. Or three, the rock holds some hidden cache of knowledge, or is home to some creature that can help. Regardless, thunder stick has a date with destiny.


    Releasing my FFS on my half of the room, I gulp back sadness, and fight my hesitation to leave Lil¡¯s side. I scream out, begging for Teuila and Luni to be near.


    The two girls enter, both looking like they¡¯d been sleeping in shifts for most of a day. I struggle to find my words, to apologize. They ride my wavelengths, they know what I¡¯m feeling. I manage to croak a mild yell, an order, a begging plea, ¡°Te, Octorochi¡¯s demise, Lu, guard Lil.¡±


    With not even an instant¡¯s hesitation, knowing we might not have a moment to spare, Teuila forces herself into the creamy gray silhouette of Valkyrie, snags me and rockets away through the halls. In moments we¡¯re outside the dam, in minutes we¡¯re at the swamp. I could be wrong, it could have been minutes and hours, but I swear I heard several sonic booms at various turns, and it feels like such a short time has passed. Almost no time after that, we¡¯re at the falls in the swamp, and I plea for Teuila to throw me as hard as she can at the rock, to rest while I figure things out. I need her to be able to get us back just as quickly, and I know she can¡¯t manage the form for long like this.


    Teuila launches me like a javelin at the rock and I aim the thunderstick directly at it. The speed of my impact causes a literal earth-shattering crack to sound across the swamp. The mini mountainous formation splits asunder and shakes the land and the falls. If there¡¯s any possible way to summon Octorochi, this has to be it. If there¡¯s any possibility of a secret cache buried within the rock, and a chance to uncover it quickly, this has to be it.


    I can¡¯t bear to think about what happens if there are no potions, but what if there¡¯s only one potion? Do I dare disassemble it to learn how to make them? What if my skill isn¡¯t high enough to turn it back into a potion? Even if we find a potion, my hands are shaking like leaves. Who is going to carve a chunk out of Lil without killing them?


    That¡¯s when I hear it, a swishy, slithering, sliding, swimmy sound, and the undulating waves across the standing water of the swamp that it pushes ahead of it. When I turn in its direction though, it¡¯s not one large Octorochi, but two smaller, uh, Rochis, I guess. Still all fury and cunning, hatred and venom. If I¡¯m getting the morphology right, one is an older adult male, the other is a younger adult female. They each only have two heads up front, and one at their tails. They¡¯re sort of Ouroboros-esque, due to having a head at their tail, but the two up front, and not traveling as a wheel eating their own tails isn¡¯t the same as that legend.


    Something strikes me as odd, the young-adult female is tethered to the adult male. I don¡¯t know how I can tell, but that is not her form. There¡¯s something wrong here. She doesn¡¯t want to be following this older serpent. That doesn¡¯t stop her from striking at me however. With her smaller size, and slower speed, I¡¯d be able to take her out more easily first, and maybe only have to take her out if she drops a potion, but something is eating away at me. I can¡¯t hesitate, Lil¡¯s life is on the line!


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    But didn¡¯t I just make the mistake of letting my fury kill, and that killing cause me to injure one of the ones I love?


    Also, how in all the nine hells do I know the morphology of offshoots of mythological snake figures? Did these broken memories want me to be a, what¡¯s the word, cryptozoologist? Ugh, regardless, adult male Rochi it is. I wish I could just melt down all the copies of this spear. Wanting to be very careful that it doesn¡¯t end up being knocked out of the sky and somehow flying at Teuila or myself, I pull out Gae Buidhe.


    Using JT, I knock myself side to side in zigzag patterns towards the male¡¯s tail head first. If I can get rid of that, it won¡¯t have nearly three hundred sixty degree vision, it¡¯ll have blind spots. It¡¯s a bit easier said than done. I don¡¯t feel like I¡¯m at any risk, but I can see Teuila in a nearby tree getting ready to strike, and I shake my head no at her. I need Teuila to be absolutely as full of energy as possible to return us just as expediently. I¡¯m pretty sure her legs are broken, and I¡¯ve got a pretty heavy case of whiplash. The gray silhouette doesn¡¯t have all the ancillary powers at full capacity that Valkyrie would normally have.


    The younger snake tries to set a trap for me, getting behind where I will be as the larger one advances on me. She thinks I¡¯m being herded towards her waiting mouths, but I just have to be careful not to instinctively react and slaughter her as she springs her trap. My danger wraps indicate where she¡¯ll be springing from. Unlike the older snake, she actually seems to have some sense of combat, anticipation of dodges and the like. It¡¯s as if she has formal combat training. Even with my danger wrap¡¯s sense, I¡¯m barely able to make it out of their combined trap by JT¡¯ing straight up, stopping my upwards momentum in midair, and switching to a sideways momentum through the tiniest gap in their offenses. She¡¯s able to cover most of the larger predator¡¯s gaps, as the adult male seems to just be more of a wild animal that lashes out. Somehow she¡¯s vastly more intelligent. She¡¯s a person, not a beast, not a spawn, not a boss, I¡¯m sure of it.


    My whiplash is making the fight a bit more difficult than it needs to be, since every time I JT, I aggravate it. It feels like I¡¯m giving myself minor concussions every time I start and stop. Oh, oh this is perfect. I¡¯m at the fore of the serpent, and it makes one of my favorite mistakes, lunging all heads simultaneously at me from outwards intersecting angles. I JT between all of the necks and rip through its entire tail with Gae Buidhe, removing that head entirely. Okay, two more heads, main body. Teuila doesn¡¯t look like she¡¯s recovering, she looks like she¡¯s getting worse from her injuries, frickin¡¯ ¡®eck.


    Something weird is happening with the younger snake, she¡¯s, well, fritzing out is the most polite way I can describe it. As if someone were playing with a screen that only she was on, and messing with the horizontal tuning. I hope my intuition is right about this, otherwise things could be about to get a whole lot worse. If she¡¯s actually about to morph into a full Octorochi, then I¡¯m screwed.


    Gorramit will I ever learn to stop getting distracted by introspection!? Agh that¡¯s a gash down the entire inside of my right thigh, and a heaping helping of venom to boot. If I weren¡¯t worried about this thing suddenly sprouting back more heads for each one I take down, I¡¯d vary my attacks more, but I have to rely on Gae Buidhe. As much as I want this spear out of my life forever, it¡¯s a permanent fixture because of situations like this, where it¡¯s necessary.


    The younger serpent lunges at me, and I whirl out of the way, barely stopping myself from slashing at her necks.


    I think, like Vampguppy, this adult serpent thing just entered a mild enragement stage after losing a third of its heads or health. It¡¯s faster, and its fangs seem to be able to extend outwards as it lunges to bite. I feared Octorochi would do this if we didn¡¯t end the fight in a single onslaught. We barely won in time with that self-sacrificial leap. Sure, turns out I could have kept myself from plummeting, but that¡¯s in the past. Okay, since it now has more reach, it thinks I¡¯ll need to dodge further back. In that case, let it lunge, and go low. When it thinks it has me, leave Gae Buidhe in place.


    As the serpent lunges again, I plant Gae Buidhe facing up at an angle towards its throat. Now I JT myself down into the muck as hard as I can, slamming myself into the swamp floor, nearly burying myself. The serpent impales itself, nearly decapitating its own left head according to my danger wrap senses, so I JT upwards to finish dragging Gae Buidhe out of its skull. Once I do, I JT back down again, slashing Gae Buidhe at its neck, finishing off the left head. It took a lot more to deal with since its front heads are so much larger than its rear head.


    As I¡¯d feared, the serpent goes into full on ludicrous rage mode. Not only that, but the younger serpent is looking like something from a horror film. It seems like during the fritzing, the younger serpent has a head of incredibly long hair that drapes over its face, or faces, and its movements become erratic. It virtually teleports left and right as it advances. The movements are sickening, uncanny. Somehow though, they¡¯re fairly predictable in nature.


    The serpent is now spitting, and it doesn¡¯t seem like ordinary venom, it seems like potent acid. Blocking the acid blasts on my Valkyrie shield actually caused it to quickly eat holes in my shield. It¡¯s destroying magical equipment. Oh heavens if I could get my hands on that, I¡¯d melt down all these extra Gae Buidhe copies in a heartbeat.


    Ah! My same thigh! Oh, oh no, oh no that¡¯s bone. I drag myself through the swamp to dilute the acid splash that hit my right inner thigh. It¡¯s a grizzly sight. I equip a fresh set of Valkyrie padded under-armor, hoping to offer it at least a little protection. I also hope to keep it from festering or getting any dirtier. My dominant hand is still pretty shattered from my earlier foolishness in the dam, and it¡¯s been getting harder and harder to aim a decent thrust at the snake.


    Worse, the younger snake actually catches up to me, and it feels like she phases through me during one of her glitchy motions. I think I¡¯m going to be sick, it¡¯s like a cold effluvium passing through me. Like how one would expect the ectoplasm of a ghost to feel, especially one such as a banshee. As I¡¯m reeling from the nausea, between the pain and her strange contact, she slams her heads into me, knocking me into the swamp floor. My left arm lets out an audible snap as it bends and breaks, getting trapped behind my back during the landing. I scream in anguish, and just then I notice three jets of acid coming my way. One will hit the younger serpent when she next fritzes to the right, I can¡¯t let that happen if my intuition is correct. I can''t afford to let it happen, but so little of my body is responsive right now.


    I JT into position to avoid the two acid blasts and intercept the third. I only manage to interpose my right hand in front of the acid blast directed through the younger serpent towards me. I toss up an FFS to absorb as much of the acid as I can, slowing it down by reducing its kinetic energy with thermokinesis, but plenty still makes it through to splash on my fist gripping Gae Buidhe.


    Teuila looks like she¡¯s barely holding onto consciousness, and fretting about me all the while. She trusts me, I can¡¯t let her down, she¡¯d never forgive herself, or me, if I died when I told her to stand by. I jam my hand that¡¯s barely capable of being called such into the swamp, diluting the acid. It¡¯s the same hand whose wrist was broken recently, that hasn¡¯t fully healed. The same hand that I used to go berserk in the dam. I can barely hold onto Gae Buidhe at this point, it¡¯s hanging loosely. I told myself I wouldn¡¯t do it, I wouldn¡¯t risk any more copies being loose out in the world, but I can¡¯t get a manual attack off.


    I have to launch attacks using inventory copies of Gae Buidhe at the serpent with JT magic. I don¡¯t have the energy to do umbral shots or stabs. It feels like my mana has been depleting to keep me alive at this point, with as much exposed bone as I have.


    Okay, I need to get into a position where I can¡¯t miss, and I can¡¯t lose a copy of Gae Buidhe if it goes flying past my target. There can be no chance at all that it rebounds, ricochets, or flies towards Teuila in any way. I JT myself sharply to one side, through the younger serpent¡¯s fritzing motion, gaining another wave of nausea, on top of the pain induced nausea. When they¡¯re both going to be directly under where I want to be, I JT myself completely skyward, hoping that I¡¯m predicting the female serpent¡¯s fritzes correctly.


    The serpent leaps vertically straight at me, I stayed low enough to give it the idea that it had a chance. I fire three copies of Gae Buidhe out of my inventory with JT directly down, the serpent tries to twist out of the way of one, and acid blast the other two, but while it¡¯s busy dealing with those three decoys, I summon one right below it¡¯s skull as I JT myself down with my own copy of Gae Buidhe loosely aimed into its face.


    Time pauses. I¡¯m treated to the same cacophony as always from derezzing. On my breakneck descent, I claim all five copies of Gae Buidhe that I¡¯ve been using. Three are heavily damaged from acid. The one I held in my hand has its haft nearly completely eaten through, the two that the serpent tried to blast out of the air are almost toothpicks in girth. The one it dodged is fine, as is the one I set below its skull as we fell together.


    The female snake stops glitching, and begins to glow, her form lengthens in some aspects, shortens in others. She takes on the form of a lovely woman, bare of clothing, though with long black locks that cover most of her torso. She doesn¡¯t have legs however, instead she retains a serpent¡¯s tail, though this one, with no additional heads on it, just a tail tip. She¡¯s also many times smaller than she was as a serpent. I believe she¡¯s what you would call a naga, or maybe a lamia.


    I claim the items dropped by the serpent, and send a mental call to Teuila. There¡¯s only one red potion. I can¡¯t risk disassembling it. I start to explain our situation before remembering, ¡°I know you don¡¯t know us, but I need someone with a steady hand to rescue my dragon friend, I need someone to cut a wound away from their heart, and administer this potion. Crap you can¡¯t understand me.¡±


    Teuila telepathically sends, ¡°Are you trusting someone that just attacked you to go save Lil?¡±


    I telepathically send back, ¡°It¡¯s all I can do right now.¡±


    The naga actually responds, telepathically to the both of us, ¡°You may trust me, Dehlia, with one task, then I never want to see your faces again. Such potions are rare, and induplicable. You¡¯ve saved my fate, but I hold no love for softskins. May you all rot in the great hereafter. Still, your friend is scalekin, scale-kind does unto scale-kind as one would have done in return. I shall do this task for you. I need a clean blade, and transport to your friend.¡±


    I don¡¯t have time to be floored by the revelation that someone can understand me, that there¡¯s entire worlds of possibilities and different types of peoples out here. Instead I hand my cleanest Valkyrie dagger to Dehlia. I hand the potion to Teuila, begging her to get us back to Lil as fast as she can, through the pain she¡¯s in.


    Te stutters, crying, ¡°I, I, I can, I can only take one of you.¡±


    I nod, understanding. Kissing Teuila on the cheek I order her to go, ¡°Go, take her, take Dehlia, save Lil. I¡¯ll catch up. I¡¯m fine.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s eyes flash fury at me, she knows I¡¯m lying, but she can¡¯t bear to lose Lil any more than I can. I have to trust this naga woman, Dehlia, and a half broken Teuila, it¡¯s all I can do. Te¡¯s form elongates as it becomes a creamy gray silhouette of Valkyrie, the naga woman seems to take less affront to this form as it isn¡¯t really soft skinned, it¡¯s no skinned.


    Instantly Teuila takes off, and I realize they weren¡¯t necessarily sonic booms that I heard before, that¡¯s just how loudly Teuila¡¯s legs were shattering with each leaping stride. I nearly vomit at the revelation. Lil¡¯s fate now rests in Dehlia¡¯s hands, and your legs Te, heavenspeed to you.


    I throw up several times as I try to place several FFS on the worst of my wounds. The frost slows down my vitality loss. My mana hovers near zero, and I don¡¯t dare do anything that might cost energy. I slink towards the split rock via my tattoo tendrils to try to recuperate before I head back to join the others. Eventually I¡¯ll be fine, but right now I¡¯m an utter mess. I need to clean these wounds so Lu doesn¡¯t get mad at me. Also so that I¡¯ll live, that¡¯s important too.

 B 2 C 29: No Rest For the Wicked

    <h2>B 2 C 29: No Rest For the Wicked</h2>


    I gaze about another area where I¡¯ve yet left more destruction in my wake. SIghing, I limply amble about, mostly hopping on my left leg. I committed a horrible act. I did apparently rescue a naga person because of it, but I don¡¯t think that can make up for just taking matters into my own hands and, well, ugh. What I did would have been so gruesome if the world worked the way my memories say it should. My vision is so blurry, I¡¯d better eat if I don¡¯t want to pass out. If I let myself fall asleep, I might die before waking up. Hm, cragbeast meat or fish for my meal?


    Why not both? Both? Both is good. Heh, por qu¨¦ no los dos. More weirdness. Everyone I¡¯ve run into speaks the same language, even if I can¡¯t understand all of them, yet I supposedly have fragments of knowledge from other languages. Regardless, yes, both is good. I summon a sashimi platter and a hunk of cragbeast meat from my inventory and begin chowing down. What I wouldn¡¯t give for some pasta, or potatoes, or toast, or oh heavens forbid some chocolate. I probably shouldn¡¯t be letting myself drool, I probably need all the fluids I can get to stay alive at the moment.


    Still, how do I know about food types, and have contextual memories of tastes and activities involved in making or eating them? Pasta probably comes from some noodle monster in some wheat field looking biome. Instead, my memories say it¡¯s created by grinding something like wheat into flour, making dough, cutting it into certain pasta shape types, and so on. I might be wrong on that, that might be bread. Maybe it¡¯s both. I¡¯m a cryptozoologist, not a baker, remember? Okay, I¡¯m neither of those things. I¡¯m a scrawny little adventurer who tackled a sociopolitical issue way out of my depth.


    What was it Dehlia said about the potion? She called it induplicable. If that¡¯s what it sounds like, it can¡¯t be duplicated. At least I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s how she was using it, even if that¡¯s not the right definition. Maybe naga people have their own portmanteaus and idioms and such. I wonder if there¡¯s a people out there that speak in spoonerisms? I am a bloody mess, and my mind is a train wreck.


    As much as I don¡¯t want to, I need to strip and let the river clean me, it should be fairly clean at the falls. It¡¯s going to hurt so much climbing in there. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m still conscious with the agony these wounds should be placing on me. Maybe it¡¯s my FFS, maybe my nerve endings are shot. Still, time to clean up.


    I unequip everything, and carefully lower myself into the river with my tendrils. I can¡¯t risk being swept over the cliff, so I keep them anchored. Ah, yeah, there¡¯s the pain, I should have been facing the opposite direction. I hurl, upstream, and it immediately splashes over, through, and past me. Well, now I have two reasons to let the river keep cleaning me. Ugh, so much for dinner.


    Oh, oh, nope, nope, no, hold on, don¡¯t lose grip, come on tendrils, you¡¯ve never needed energy before. I must have started to pass out in the water, I probably sat in place far longer than I intended to. I clamber out of the river, using the only limbs that aren¡¯t destroyed at the moment, my left leg and tattoo tendrils. Wow, how did I finish a fight in this state? Oh, right, blapper. Blaster scrapper. I¡¯m still not regenerating energy, I think every ounce of regeneration is barely prolonging my life. Te would be so pissed if I died right now. Lu would be upset, I think she¡¯s looking forward to letting me in on her big secrets some day.


    Lil, my, my buddy, Lil, they¡¯re probably. I gulp, unable to finish the thought as I break down, sobbing and dry heaving on the now shattered stone. Lil, I hope you can forgive me. I¡¯m not sure what my lesson in this was. Do I just not take a stance on situations? Or do I just start with murder so that none of my family gets hurt. If I treated killing like a business, just an action that needed to be done, none of this would have happened. I¡¯d have gone in, done the deed, and left. That phrase again, killing¡¯s bloody business, but it¡¯s my business. Maybe I really was that assassin? But that sounded like a fantasy land full of magic, like our world, this world, the real world. If I was that assassin, then where do the technological memories come from?


    Lu would probably tell me to stop guessing and following this train of thought. Urp. Oh gods. I thought I didn¡¯t have anything more to throw up. Oh that burns the umpteenth time around. As I lean over the edge of the rock, gazing at the cliff face below, praying for sweet mercy, I spy something curious. Very carefully, I lower myself over the edge via my tattoo tendrils. There¡¯s a small alcove here. For some reason, I feel like it¡¯s something a gnome may have lived in, in some age long past. It¡¯s a tiny domicile carved into the rock that was sealed over time due to the sedimentary striations. It doesn¡¯t make sense, my memories say geology works that way, but everything I¡¯ve noticed about Fire Biome is to the contrary. The world kind of just is. It doesn¡¯t really decay, or shift.


    Still, here it is, a now vacant tiny cavern home opened due to my earth shattering crack of the thunder stick. Something inside has been glowing and flickering all this time, a tiny sconce with a gem that appears to forever glow. One of my tendrils reaches for it as I notice another object in the domicile. There¡¯s a large tome that looks exceedingly familiar, and I could swear the object it¡¯s on is also special. The tome seems to vaguely indicate the roman numerals VI out of VI on it. Sixth book in a set? Checking my tome, it says IV out of VI. I don¡¯t know how I never noticed it before. My second tendril reaches for the tome, and my third tendril reaches for the last object.


    Oh, oops. Of course since I was hanging over the edge of the cliff face by my tendrils, and have effectively no working limbs, I¡¯m now crashing through the sky towards the bottom of the falls. Sighing I use some careful JT movements to cushion my impact. Once again, it¡¯s like falling through dozens of awnings to brake my fall. This is very much an oof, ow, oaf, ugh, whuff, oof, eek, agh, ow, kind of moment. I claim the three objects held by my tendrils to my inventory. I¡¯ll have to look over them, and the other serpent drops later, because I think even if I slowed down enough, I¡¯m probably going to black out from impacting the ground. I doubt I¡¯ll actually gain much benefit from any sleep at the moment. After all, they say there¡¯s no rest for the wicked.


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    My survival instincts, or maybe the voice that sometimes gives me advice, scream at me to freeze myself, so I do, knowing that this time, Lil might not be around to ever thaw me out again. My last thought as I lose consciousness is how much I regret that I might never see Lil again due to my own stupidity, carelessness, and rage.


    Oh neato, another out of body experience, this time I get to look at myself as a block of ice. Hm, I wonder if I can explore. Nope, can¡¯t seem to do much of anything. Other than some really screwed up limbs, it looks like that body of mine is going to be mostly okay, with time. It¡¯s definitely going to be quite a few months before I¡¯m ready for adventuring again. If anyone else had these injuries, I¡¯d try to remain kind and cognizant of how I react to them. However, they¡¯re my injuries, and I feel like even this spiritual out of body avatar is going to horf from viewing them.


    I guess I should just stop looking. Maybe I should get introspective. What was the right choice today? Those MCF¡¯ed beavers weren¡¯t MC at all, they were just F¡¯ed. That is, they weren¡¯t mind controlled, they were just factioned, maybe fascisted. They made up a religion to worship the stupid Mind Blower thing, and wanted everyone else under thumb, everyone under their power. I¡¯m not even sure they believed their own spiel, but they were sticking to it. They weren¡¯t going to be satisfied with just a few extra suits of armor, and taking over the entire dam. They¡¯d have come for more and more armor, eventually ransoming my family like they originally planned.


    Could it maybe have been the right thing to do? Or as close to the right thing as it was possible to do? There¡¯s that dream of being an assassin. Was that character a bad person? They were trying to free a subjugated peoples. Do I just have buggy morals and ethics because of the glitchy way I spawned? The glitchy memories that say the world should be like something else, with vague notions that it should be full of humans and technology.


    Is it really might makes right here? Hm, no, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s it. That¡¯s not what I did. I was somewhat prideful, but what I did was out of the defense of my loved ones due to the fear of what I absolutely knew they were going to do. Hm, looking at my inventory, if that¡¯s what I think it is, I¡¯d like to hurl even more. The Mind Blower brain pod thing. The elder of the MCF must have been carrying it somewhere. Somehow I snagged it when I claimed everything left in the room. I don¡¯t even know how to destroy one of these things without that green glow from the pyramid. Please don¡¯t tell me I¡¯m going to have to keep this disgusting creepy thing in my inventory for the rest of my life to keep it from being used on someone. I¡¯m guessing she was one of the beaverfolk in the south wing, and she got far enough away that the green light didn¡¯t derez this thing. Ugh, what if that¡¯s the only way to get rid of it safely?


    If I wasn¡¯t in a sort of icy coma near death¡¯s door, I¡¯d use thermokinesis on it in my inventory to try to turn it to ash. Doing anything with my inventory costs energy that I might not be able to afford at the moment. Wait, has it already been a day? I saw the light grow brighter then dimmer. Do I dare risk dropping my FFS? My energy is looking topped off somehow, though my injuries are still pretty gruesome. Yeah, I want to get back to Teuila as soon as possible, she¡¯s in no condition to travel. I, I. Gulping, I can¡¯t finish my thought at first. Finally I get it out. I want to see Lil, I want to know what happened. Wait, their stats page, that¡¯s right, I can just look at.


    No, oh no. It¡¯s not gone, which is good, but everything, every single thing is at zero. When someone derezzes, does it go to zero for a while? No, no their whole page is just deleted. I have to get back, fast!


    I drop my FFS and launch myself into the air with my tendrils first, flitting back and forth between trees and cliff face, trying to conserve my energy for what¡¯s to come. Teuila¡¯s Valkyrie form, or its semblance, was able to go at least half mach speeds, maybe greater. I should be able to reach that velocity as well with JT impulse, but to do so, I¡¯d be striking myself at mach speed, over and over. My legs would crumple and probably just fly off. About the only surface area on my body that I can imagine withstanding the blows right now is my back. That¡¯s a pretty dangerous game though, if I snap my spine, it might be over for me.


    Still, Lil needs me, somehow I know it. Somehow I know Lu and Te need me even more. Hm, it¡¯s actually the same day, those sorts of snails would have moved to at least a different tree if a day or more had passed already. They seem to sort of just migrate in a single direction, and they¡¯re facing east, on the first tree on the east side of the river. I didn¡¯t even log down that I noticed them on the way into the swamp, everything was blurring by so fast, but I¡¯m certain they were on that very same tree. I have to steel myself, this is a bit of a stupid risk. I¡¯ll probably make some mega wicked blunt pain tolerance/resistance progress from doing this. I try to gulp back tears as I think that Lil would then emphasize mega mega mega wicked.


    Summoning up my FFS, I JT at a familiar pace to start with, I don¡¯t try to immediately hit max acceleration, I do not have any ancillary powers that would keep me from snapping my neck, or burning my face off in the wind due to friction. I¡¯ll just keep ratcheting up the velocity of my jettison power, more and more. If I time it just right, I barely lose any energy still, while covering a massive distance.


    It took me about half an hour, but I believe I¡¯m now going about the speed Teuila was, at least somewhere between half her speed, and her speed. By a few minutes ago, every impact felt like it was shattering my spine, but I keep reinforcing my spine with as strong of an FFS as I can muster. I¡¯ve been making my back and spine as dense as possible, drawing in the atomic movement, energy, and atoms of the surrounding air to coalesce where needed.


    I can¡¯t even tell how long it has been so far, but I¡¯m making incredible time. Still, I never want to do this again. I thought my injuries were excruciating, but this is pure torture. I¡¯ll leave speed to the speedsters from here on out, my body can¡¯t handle the physics without the ancillary powers. I¡¯m going to need months of recovery. I¡¯m pulverizing the flesh of my back, and the bone of my rear rib cage. Even though I¡¯m wearing full Valkyrie gear, and it absorbs a ton of shock and impact, it¡¯s still not enough.


    I¡¯m almost to the dam, but is that Dehlia standing outside way up there? I stop using JT and let myself coast into a glide that ends with me skidding hundreds of meters on my face. I barely manage to stop before plowing into Dehlia. She doesn¡¯t even look surprised at my mode of travel, or method of braking.


    I¡¯d say she looks amused, but she doesn¡¯t. Still, I feel like we¡¯re almost on good terms at the moment. I worry that anything I say or think might change that though.

 B 2 C 30: Safety At the End

    <h2>B 2 C 30: Safety At the End</h2>


    I try to speak, but I¡¯ve got a mouth and throat full of dirt. Since I wasn¡¯t actually trying to consume it, it¡¯s clogging up my esophagus. Normally consuming things teleports it to one¡¯s stomach or whatever, but this is just manually packing my holes full of dirt. Dehlia taps her forehead and raises a brow at me. She also looks at me like she thinks I¡¯m an idiot.


    Dehlia beams a telepathic message into my mind, ¡°Not necessarily an idiot. You did make the right choice. The choice of having me rather than your companions carve into your young draconic friend. I bear neither good nor bad news, but the young dragon wished me wait for you to deliver the news that your girls are within, and they won¡¯t leave until you catch up. I can hardly fathom the love such a marvelous scalekin has for you softskins, but I could hardly begrudge them their request either, as the effort. Hm, let¡¯s just say wasn¡¯t as successful as we¡¯d have liked.¡±


    Choking back a sob, I send telepathic thanks to Dehlia, my eyes well with tears and they stream unbidden, unabated. I end up rambling, ¡°Dehlia, thank you, thank you beyond words for what you tried to do, what you did, every last bit of aid you offered Lil, anything you¡¯ve done so far. I can never express enough gratitude, no matter how this turned out. I¡¯m sorry for every bit of this journey, and whatever life has taken from you. I¡¯m sorry you had to deal with so many softskins when you seem to hate us so much. I cherish Lil in ways I cannot describe. I¡¯ve never deserved their friendship, but they gave it freely, and I always tried to be better, open more doors, worlds, and possibilities for them, to earn that friendship.¡±


    Dehlia interrupts me, ¡°You weep for scalekind, not just your dragon, but, for me? What manner of softskin are you? Actually, are you even softskin at all? Hm, not quite scales. I¡¯ve no recollection of any type of creature that you might be young friend, but I suppose if I simply stop thinking of you as softskin. No, no, I¡¯m sorry, but no. As kind as you are, I cannot tolerate you or those other beings close to you. You should count yourself lucky if we never meet again. Should we meet again, it will likely be in the company of many more of my kind. Our magics would end your life before even a greeting was uttered. Goodbye, whatever you are.¡±


    With that, Dehlia slithers away with a hypnotic sway, and I¡¯m left literally eating dirt. I think I just made an enemy unintentionally. Or at least a hostile neutral party. If there were a faction conning, err consideration system, she definitely said her people regard me as kill on sight.


    Lil, oh Lil, I¡¯m so full of trepidation and nausea. I¡¯m so worried about what I¡¯ll find when I see you, but in such dire need to see you. I just need to get through this water, the great hall, the north section, and get to the meeting room that I¡¯ve destroyed. I know that¡¯s where my inner circle will be holing up. Oh hell how am I going to swim with only one limb. I guess I¡¯ll have to just tendril thrust all the way to the bottom and along the bottom of the water.


    This time, the guards only blink nervously as I pass them, they don¡¯t escort or chase me into the dam at all. I make all the haste I can in my current condition, even still it feels like too much time passes before I¡¯m greeted at the great hall by droves of beavers and beaverfolk. I have to sheathe my tendrils so I don¡¯t hurt any of them, there isn¡¯t any floor space to launch off of, but now I¡¯ve just got one tired left leg to hop about on, in a throng of bodies. I¡¯m about to summon my thunderstick when a loud bruxing occurs that draws the attention of all the other beaverkin present. Suddenly I¡¯m sent toppling forward as the beaverfolk I¡¯m unintentionally leaning on crushes to one side as if parting for me. In fact, the entire room seems to make just enough room for a straight shot to the north wing. I stand as best I¡¯m able, using a combination of JT and FFS to lightly shove myself from prone to standing. I mutter a thanks that none of them can understand and hop and hobble my way through.


    When I¡¯m finally clear of the beaverkin, the spheres, the otters, the beaverfolk, and have an empty hallway, I resume tendril motion, flinging myself to and fro. Whatever was happening back there was serious business. Maybe the two factions were reconciling? I guess one can only hope.


    My heart pounds with more intensity with each passing beat. It feels like the world slows to a crawl as I¡¯m approaching the room. This alone is enough to get me to panic, as it seems similar to the time dilation of derezzing, but there is no accompanying sound. As I round the corner, I first spot Te in the back. Te¡¯s eyes are glazed, blank, and far-staring. She¡¯s shivering, shaking, her legs appear as wet noodles with chunky bits. I try not to vomit out of respect for what she put herself through. Lu sits in the opposite corner, sitting on her heels, rocking back and forth with her knees hugged to her chest. I don¡¯t spot Lil at all.


    Lil is okay, Lil has to be okay, they didn¡¯t derez, they didn¡¯t. They didn¡¯t, they couldn¡¯t, it¡¯s, it¡¯s not, their stats panel is still here. I look to Lu and Te, begging for absolution, resolution, answers, anything. They slowly notice my presence, at least Luni does. Luni rushes to Teuila to bring her to me. She shoves us both in one of the nearer corners as she sobs into my chest. Teuila looks stunned, dumbfounded, her fur along her cheeks is matted as if she¡¯d been crying until she could cry no more.


    Lu finally breaks the silence, but only telepathically, ¡°We, we definitely cried ourselves out. I spent maybe half a year with Te in thinkspace, crying in there and out here. Reggie, the potion, the potion you gave Lil.¡±


    I gulp, fearing the worst. My heart feels as if it¡¯s going to explode as I await Lu¡¯s continuance.


    Lu continues, ¡°It, it was for you, or, um, people like you. People, or well, any creatures that bleed.¡±


    I pant, my vision tunnels as I struggle to gasp down air. My eyes are filled with sheer terror, I can¡¯t see straight, everything blurs and doubles even in the tiny pinprick that is the tunnel of my vision.


    Lu coos softly, stroking my cheek, trying to comfort me, ¡°It¡¯s not as bad as what you¡¯re thinking. It¡¯s just, the snake woman, the naga, Dehlia, when she realized that Lil wasn¡¯t ¡®of blood¡¯ as she put it, she said the potion wouldn¡¯t work, and not to waste it, that it¡¯s a precious resource. She gave it back to us. She, well, she wasn¡¯t kind, but she was honorable. She did everything she could for Lil. She knew about the types of wounds that never heal and drip away vitality, so she said we were right to ask her. She did her best, honest, I¡¯m sure she did. If only because Lil¡¯s a dragon. In the end, too much of Lil¡¯s core was exposed though for safety. She, um, she taught Lil some scalekin magic as she put it. I, um, It¡¯s kind of gruesome to think about, but Lil basically went inside out, they inverted into their core.¡±


    Luni lifts her wrist flap to expose the beating crystalline heart that makes up Lil¡¯s core. I want to hold the remnant of my dearest, oldest friend, but no words come forth. I want to ask so many questions, but no words come forth. I want to comfort Luni, to thank her, to comfort Teuila, to thank her, but no words come forth.


    Luni knows however, Teuila finally perks up, but only barely just, and she too knows. Luni gingerly lifts Lil¡¯s heart, their core, to me. I realize I don¡¯t even have operable limbs to take it. I sag against the wall, but Lu helps me set my unresponsive legs in a fashion to form a crook between mine and Teuila¡¯s, with hers loosely atop mine. Teuila has to be in utter agony. I think she had to shut her own brain off to deal with the pain, that¡¯s why she has such a blank stare. I can¡¯t blame her. I¡¯m nearly ready to do the same. The funny thing is, right now, out of all the pains, my right wrist hurts the worst. I barely even have a right hand, and my right wrist hurts the worst. It¡¯s not my pulverized rib cage, not the acid-eaten leg, not the broken arm. It¡¯s the wrist that fractured and broke when wielding that ungodly dense greatsword.


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    Lu starts to suggest that I drink the potion, but I shake my head. Teuila and I will heal, together. This was my mistake, I can live through it. Lu hands me the potion anyway, so I just claim it to my inventory, where it will be safe. Some day in the future, it will definitely save a life. Perhaps mine, perhaps another ¡®of blood¡¯ as Dehlia put it. That means there are more individuals out there that bleed. Maybe they¡¯re like me? Was Dehlia ¡®of blood¡¯?


    When Lu sets Lil¡¯s core in my lap, something lights up in all of our mind¡¯s eyes. Lil¡¯s core has a timer, but that timer is nine thousand nine hundred ninety eight days. At first, I worry that it¡¯s telling us Lil¡¯s lifespan, but no, the timer is added to Lil¡¯s stats page, and it¡¯s definitely a hatching or rebirth timer.


    That¡¯s over twenty, over twenty five years. But Lil¡¯s alive. I gaze around at the destruction I¡¯d caused and sigh. Lil¡¯s alive, but I¡¯m basically a monster. Will they be able to forgive me, in three decades? Will they even remember me?


    Lu says, ¡°Before we let ourselves cry our eyes out, Te went around and got a bunch of lumber, and I did too. If you want to, you can still get some.¡±


    I somberly nod. I ask, ¡°Lu, are you alright for travel? Can you hold Lil¡¯s core? We can¡¯t stay here like this. I need to be able to care for Teuila properly. Te¡¯s checked out dreadfully, and healing her legs is going to take months without radiant energy. Do you think we could, maybe, make an exception?¡±


    Lu¡¯s eyes shoot wide in terror as she virtually screams, ¡°No, no, you can¡¯t! Whatever you do, don¡¯t use it up. Don¡¯t use it, please, right now it¡¯s toxic. Never use it again, until, until, you¡¯ll know when.¡±


    Lu¡¯s terror confirms for me that the radiant energy is a limited resource, and that it¡¯s corrupted. She wouldn¡¯t want me to guess further though. When she rides my thoughtwaves, she calms down, knowing I trust her intrinsically. I gently angle myself to stand, when a fairly large time dilation hits, I panic, gazing about the room, worrying it¡¯s one of us. The crashing, crackling cacophony comes from the great hall though. Luni and I gulp. We need to get out of here. I finish angling myself to gently stand in a way where Teuila ends up on my right shoulder. She¡¯s light as a feather, thankfully.


    Lu starts to fret, trying to offer to take Teuila for me, but I shake my head. She relents, and we begin our escape. I claim thousands and thousands of units of lumber on the way out of the dam, before and after the shrewdness in the great hall. I¡¯d have called it an atrocity, but I don¡¯t think I cared enough about the MCF that chose death over peaceful cohabitation.


    It wasn¡¯t everyone in the MCF, just the supposed true believers. The sane faction offered peace, as long as the MCF stopped trying to convert and subjugate members. When the MCF lost their leadership, they were rudderless, and rather than admitting defeat, they tried one last ploy to proselytize for their cause. The sane leader came up with a ploy in response. Since the MCF was all about the rebirth of their monstrosity, I mean, deity, then surely any true believers could die and it wouldn¡¯t matter, for they could expect to be reborn. There was more subtlety to it, but that¡¯s the gist I got from Luni. The MCF were backed into a corner, and so that¡¯s when the sane faction weeded out the true believers, and put an end to them. Now there¡¯s no more two factions. The ones that were subjugated, or just going along with the MCF for whatever reason, are all welcomed back to sanity as it were.


    It¡¯s a lot to take in in one conversation that occurs while running for what we thought was our lives. The sane faction is grateful, and even no longer hates me now, mostly. I¡¯m not sure I want gratitude for having been a part of that.


    We leave on fairly amicable terms, especially compared to what I thought would happen when I had gone berserk. I thought I¡¯d just started an intersettlement war. I¡¯m grateful that I didn¡¯t.


    We continue our journey home, regardless of their offer for us to stay. It¡¯s too bad I can¡¯t benefit from Luni¡¯s travel song like this, her seven leagues song would get us home pretty quickly. The song however does not benefit tattoo tendrils, they¡¯re intended as weapons, not a method of travel apparently. Just me being derpy using things for unintended purposes I guess.


    We stop by to see Luna on our way home, she¡¯s in decent spirits, but avoids getting physically close to us. I think she can tell we¡¯re massively injured. I wonder if Luna understood the whole strife in the beaver dam. Or maybe she understood that one gross globule thing remained. Hm, that might even be why she¡¯s avoiding me right now, if she can somehow sense it in my inventory.


    While Luna is present, I pause our travel homeward to ask Lu, ¡°Hey, Luni, um, you were in the pyramid. I¡¯ve been barely maintaining my sanity about this thing, but I got a globule, that I¡¯m pretty sure is like some kind of mind control rebirth resurrection seed for the Mind Blower. I want it destroyed, permanently. Do you know how to do that?¡±


    The two Lu¡¯s exchange a knowing glance, it¡¯s a bit unnerving honestly.


    Luni speaks up, ¡°So, um, yeah, Luna can do the thing, she won¡¯t need to do as big of one. Bring it to the pyramid, set it on top, make sure no one, and nothing, touches it, or we have to go through the whole thing again.¡±


    I shudder, but I acquiesce. Exhaling, I ramble, ¡°So, I guess we¡¯ll continue heading home in the morning, but I think this is pretty massively important to handle too, don¡¯t you Lu?¡±


    Luni nods with quite a bit of fear behind her action.


    We follow Luna back to the pyramid, and I get to witness her walking through walls. I¡¯m about to whisper a thanks to Luna alone, when Luni tags along behind her, with a hand on Luna¡¯s rump.


    My heart pounds in terror. Luni was scared to go back in there. I thought she meant Luna could do it on her own. Luni, Luni come back, I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯ll hold onto this stupid ugly thing forever. I can¡¯t lose you, please. I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to put you in danger again.


    I gulp back as many tears as I¡¯m able. I have to make sure we don¡¯t waste whatever effort Luni is putting in inside this horrible mound of stone. I¡¯ve been fighting terror about this whole ordeal for several days now. When I finally get home, I¡¯ll take a day to panic, maybe a thousandfold day, then I¡¯ll attend to Teuila with all my soul and being.


    I summon the grotesque bulbous pustule of a thing from my inventory onto the top of the pyramid. I construct a stone box around it, so that nothing can come into contact with it save for the green light that traverses through walls. I stand a wakeful watch until noon when the light is finally released, and I hear the cracking, crashing of derezzing from within the box I¡¯d constructed. I¡¯m not even going to look to see if it dropped anything. I want this nightmare over with.


    Now I just need to wait til Lu is free from this building once again at midnight. Well, until Lu and Lu are free of it. I have such a big apology to make. I stand on one foot, braced by my tendrils, with Teuila on my shoulders, from midnight til the next midnight. Teuila barely stirs, but I do my best to carefully feed her fish with a single tendril as I balance us.


    Shortly after what must be midnight, Lu and Lu emerge, and I flood Luni with all the apologetic energy I have in my soul for having asked her to go in there again.


    ¡°Lu, Lu, I didn¡¯t know, I didn¡¯t know you had to go in with her, I thought, the way it sounded, Luna could just go in and hit a button or something, I¡¯m so sorry, I¡¯m so so so so so sorry.¡±


    Luna swats me, which feels like it re-breaks several of my bones that had been starting to mend, and I whimper in pain. Luni absolves me, ¡°It¡¯s, um, it¡¯s okay, sorta. I guess, just, just this one time, I had to kinda, maybe, be my hero, to put an end to this. I didn¡¯t know I could. It, it was sort of nice. Like, I can see why I might become. Hm, can¡¯t tell you yet. Sorry, Love.¡±


    The fear and worry and pain and anger and sadness and sorrow and all other negative emotions flow from me like the oil off a duck¡¯s back as they¡¯re cared for by ecologists, being washed up, given a new lease on life. Again, weird analogy from my messed up memories. But the way Lu said that, with that accent, I swear I¡¯ve heard it before.


    Luni kisses my cheek. She then ushers me on as we say goodbye to Luna. She also tries to distract me with silly marching music. It mostly works, mostly. Thankfully, the rest of the way home is uneventful. I¡¯m terrified of what Ag and Lao are going to think. We just came down here for wood.


    Still, as scared as I am of their disappointment in me, there¡¯s safety waiting for us at home, and I¡¯ll do everything in my power to look after Teuila as she¡¯d once done for me.

 B 2 C 31: Economies of Scale

    <h2>B 2 C 31: Economies of Scale</h2>


    When I finally get home with only Luni conscious, no Lil in sight, Ag and Lao are beside themselves. I expect heated reprimands from Agwai, based on our one conversation in the swamp, but instead, they pull me tightest of anyone to weep with me. I can only share the tale of our trials once, before I need to succumb to my own panic and fear. I¡¯ll drop into terrorspace to live through a thousand days of panic, so Luni can finally stop being my trauma faucet for a while. I¡¯ve put her through so much, especially in the last few days.


    I share the tale as best I can, my side of it, the mistakes I made. I start to lay into myself verbally near the end.


    Lu stops me before I continue my thought train, ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay. Somehow we¡¯ll be okay. I, um, I don¡¯t know how. But, but, but you¡¯ll make it better. I know you will, you got this. Just, um, just don¡¯t rush. Even though I want Lil back more than anything, don¡¯t rush. You don¡¯t have to take on your trauma alone. I um, well, I do love you, you know. I know you and Te are, I guess, main squeeze, kinda, but, but, Lil, I, I, Lil. I can¡¯t. I just. Please, please be okay, and please share with me. Everything and anything. Please, L, L, I mean, Reggie? We, we¡¯re, you and me, we, please?¡±


    Luni¡¯s asking to help keep her spirits high, full of love and affection. I nuzzle Luni¡¯s head with what little strength I have, and I create two large beds out of massive piles of soft leathery leaves with inventory magic, to set Teuila and myself down upon. It¡¯s more like one bed that¡¯s just expanded in size honestly. I fashion a quick awning, to make it a kind of canopy bed. I strip most everything, including tattoo and danger wrap, I only wear the cushioned undersuit from the Valkyrie gear. Wordlessly I pat the space between Te and myself. Luni understands, and as she climbs in to cuddle between us, I slowly let myself fall into the sleep I know will be plagued by terrors.


    Sure enough, physically, I can tell only about a day passes, but in the accelerated thinkspace, I put myself through my own personal hell for all of my sins. The nightmare-fest lasts for over two years. Somehow, just barely, I don¡¯t lose my grip on reality in all that time. I don¡¯t check back out to go on autopilot. I think I have a literal grip on something in reality, or someone has a grip on me. When I finally come to, I realize Luni has been holding my hand clasped under hers to Teuila¡¯s for an entire day.


    Fighting my panic about all of the events that transpired for so long, including the gutwrenching horror of possibly losing Lil took a lot out of me, and when it caught up with me, it took over two years to pull out of the nightmares. Even still, as hurt as she is, as lonely as she is without her constant bond, Luni looks after me and Teuila. A day in meatspace, but I don¡¯t know if Luni was doing her own hurting in accelerated time. Lu and Te have both taken care of me, now it¡¯s my turn.


    My own physical pain is funny to me right now. I¡¯m desensitized to most of it, except for my darn right wrist. I¡¯ve got pulverized, powdered bones, melted limbs, broken limbs, even re-punctured lungs again, and always that right wrist reminds me of the hellish two days spent mostly wielding that greatsword. Why would our world give me a weapon whose density rivaled or beat any known element? What was the point?


    Sighing, I give up on the train of thought to embrace Luni tightly, before I get up to help take care of Teuila. The soap stone helps keep her clean, the only thing to really do is feed her, comfort her if she spasms or has terrors, and occasionally move her so that her muscles don¡¯t ache too greatly. The family mostly gives us privacy as Lu and I tend to Teuila. Most of them know they might send me spiraling down a rabbithole of panic. Lucky actually frequently takes up a post at the foot of the bed near Teuila, guarding her. He growls at me if I leave the bed, but he seems to not care if I¡¯m cuddled tightly against Te. I wonder if Lao taught him that, to keep me resting, or if it¡¯s just his natural animosity towards me.


    One family member who invades our recuperation time once though is Mata. Mat comes in with seething fury, and starts shouting incomprehensibly at first, but I can¡¯t handle the needless rage right now. I¡¯m tempted to hurt him, to fling him away. Lu wants me to not guess things about Mata, so the only thing I can do is give him the benefit of the doubt. He¡¯s angry at me that I let Teuila get hurt so badly. So, instead of lashing out and hurting him, I let him lash out at me. It¡¯s mostly verbally, but he does slap me once, hard. He grabs the hand I try to raise to my face and he bites into my arm, tearing into my forearm pretty viciously, and I just stare in awe that he would go so far. I coat the wound in ice while his teeth are still digging in. I¡¯m pretty sure I chip one of his teeth with my FFS.


    Luni rides the waves of my thoughts during the whole ordeal, but she stays silent, she trusts me to handle it, and I guess I sort of did. I think I gave Mat¡¯s tongue frostbite by accident. I¡¯m trying to not get on his even worse side, but it doesn¡¯t seem to be working. Lu starts warming back up to me, taking us into our private thinkspace for weeks at a time on some days. We talk about nature, ecosystems, my plans for helping reunite us with Lil. My plans for our settlement.


    Some days, Teuila wakes up long enough to exchange a few sentences before the agony becomes too much for her to bear. She returns to her near catatonic state to avoid the pain when it does.


    Some days, Lu and I will make silly bets on dumb things to decide who gets to pick a topic for a multi week discussion in accelerated thinkspace. One time I win our little wager. As my choice of topic, I joke that since we have currency, someday we¡¯ll have visitors. We¡¯ll maybe want to trade with them, or buy things from them, or sell things to them. So we need a shop for that. Luni immediately, excitedly volunteers to run the shop. I wonder if it has anything to do with her talk about fiscal responsibility and macroeconomics, words that hinted that she had some kind of glitchy memories like mine. Even if we say it will be a several weeks long discussion, it¡¯s often intermittent chatting while cuddling for days on end in accelerated time.


    Every once in a while, I break down in sadness and apologize, begging Luni for forgiveness once again, for costing us our dear Lil, and the time that they could be sharing together. Luni always absolves me, though I can see she hurts, she aches for our shared loss. She doesn¡¯t blame me, but I can¡¯t help but to blame myself. Although, that copy of Gae Buidhe should never have fallen into their hands. So a tiny seed of anger towards Mata continues to grow. I don¡¯t know how he secreted it away, or why, but I¡¯m not allowed to guess either. It¡¯s far in the back of my mind, even compared to random projects I want to do for the family.


    Still, as much as I want to begin the projects that I¡¯ve got for the family, Lil and Teuila come first. I¡¯ve joked about being a cryptozoologist, but in the video games and entertainment in my memory, phoenixes are notorious for going back to egg form, and rebirthing. If anyone or anything might be able to help Lil, or might know how to enable Lil to return faster, it would be a phoenix. Where might a being find a phoenix? Well, what better place to look than the very top of the volcano in Fire Biome?


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Oh, right, I have to remind myself, and Lu, slightly, that they¡¯re big birds made out of fire that like to roost in high places that are usually impossible to reach and impassable to normal people. Sometimes there¡¯s even myths like Simurgh or something like that. One like that would be benevolent, and maybe want to actually help out. My skills have been skyrocketing on what I thought was going to be a peaceful trip to gather some wood, so I might be able to make the journey, even in my busted up state.


    Still, I won¡¯t risk myself needlessly without letting both of the girls know my plans, and getting their permissions. To do that, Teuila needs to wake for longer than enough time to say ow before passing out again. At least she¡¯s able to intermittently come to her senses, but the pain is so intense she checks out again almost immediately.


    Today, we¡¯re able to exchange some conversation, and even laughter, so I bring up the idea to Teuila, with Luni, in shared thinkspace. The accelerated time buys us more conscious time with Teuila, now that she¡¯s well enough to join the wavelength telepathically, at least for a bit. Luni is both trepidatious, and excited for the idea. She wants me to return immediately if there¡¯s any danger. She knows I won¡¯t turn around if I think I can handle a risk that¡¯s thrown my way, but she still begs Teuila to tell me to go, and to tell me to come back if there¡¯s any danger.


    Teuila seems a bit dazed. She understands what we¡¯re talking about, but it takes a while for it to dawn on her that we might be able to get Lil back. She grips my arm in our thinkspace and gives me an order, ¡°If, if you can get my dorky lil¡¯ dragbutt back, do it. Do everything in your power. You beat the effing serpent on your own this time, while you were already half out of your mind with worry and a quarter dead. Bring Lil back to me, to us, to all of us.¡± Teuila¡¯s gaze is resolute, before it slowly becomes glassy, and glazed over. The pain overtakes her enough that she is ripped from thinkspace to retreat deeply into her own mind, beyond our reach once more. I choke down a sob and let several tears fall, silently acknowledging the power and desire behind Teuila¡¯s request.


    I steel myself to travel with a three quarters dead broken body, and Luni frets, worrying she pushed too hard, that maybe I should wait longer before heading out. To me, it¡¯s all the same when I head out. I hate adventuring alone, that pain is greater than anything my body suffers.


    I smile as I kiss Luni¡¯s forehead. I ask her, ¡°Lu, can you tell my plans to Sugar and Spice? For the store at least, the one we talked about for so many weeks. Maybe they can have it built by the time I get back. You can get a feel for, well, how it feels behind the counter, you can decorate it like you were talking about. Also, maybe see if Sugar can expand the pond a few meters?¡±


    Luni adopts a forlorn smile, ¡°Sure thing, hero, my hero. Come back to us, more than anything else, come back to us, no matter what. You¡¯ve got this.¡±


    I ramble one last ponderance, ¡°I still don¡¯t know if I should bring Lil¡¯s heart along or not. It¡¯s probably best if I don¡¯t. If the phoenix exists, and if it¡¯s benevolent, it might offer some form of help whether or not Lil is there. If it doesn¡¯t exist, or if it¡¯s hostile, there¡¯s no reason to risk Lil¡¯s core being away from you for even a moment. Still, I wish Lil was coming with me. Or you, or Te. But even just symbolic Lil, in their core would be better than journeying alone. I¡¯m almost tempted to ask Lucky, but I definitely shouldn¡¯t do that.¡±


    I gather my resolve to head out. I have to travel by tendril, but it¡¯s a fairly quick and painless way to travel. If only the journey itself were similar. Traversing Fire Biome itself isn¡¯t very difficult, it¡¯s a massive flat expanse, so I can thrust myself around via my tendrils, or my JT movements without worrying about too much. I¡¯m not even worried about falling into lava all that much anymore. I probably should be, but FFS has gotten to be a pretty automatic response to almost anything. Between FFS and my continually growing thermal resistance, something that seemed like a natural disaster that spelled instant death seems like it can¡¯t hurt me anymore.


    I have to make camp on the plains in Fire Biome several times, but I barely even notice myself constructing a stone shelter and projecting an FFS downward as I sleep.


    Climbing the volcano, I finally get to meet the lavultures Lil was talking about, back before we journeyed to the cragbeast warren. I remember a certain entity was last around the other side of the volcano, so I blindfold myself, despite my danger wraps only having a fifteen foot range ever since I gave half of the magic item to Mata. The shorter range on my tactile sense provided by the wraps doesn¡¯t hamper me all that much in the long run. I can mostly just ignore the lava the vultures spew at me. When they realize lava isn¡¯t doing the trick, most fly away in fear, a few stick around to try to take swipes at me. The ones that stick around get to feel why my fifteen foot sensory range is still adequate. It¡¯s also the range of my tendrils, and my tendrils let me grip the birds out of the sky, yanking them to me for a quick subzero ice punch.


    After slaying a few, some drop meat, feathers, things you would expect. I try the meat, and it¡¯s delicious, it¡¯s like a barbecue roasted chicken. Of course, eating a creature when in its territory summons the hatred of all of its kin down upon me. I¡¯m all too happy to receive their aggression, to let out some of my own. There¡¯s a staggering number of lavultures on the climb, but it¡¯s something that keeps me on my toes, keeps me from getting bored, or thinking about how lonely I am. Keeps me from thinking about the weight of my sins crawling on my back. Wrath is supposed to be one of the big ones, right? That one hit me pretty hard. Sometimes I can get pretty prideful too. Oh well, better think about the birds attacking me.


    I suppose they¡¯re less birds, and more amalgamations of molten stone vaguely formed in the shape of feathered creatures that resemble scavenger birds. It doesn¡¯t matter. One of the interesting semi rare drops from them however are scales. Not some sort of lavulture scale, but dragon scales. It feels like, even if there isn¡¯t a phoenix here, maybe there will be a dragon, one that might know how to bring Lil back sooner.


    That¡¯s when I remember a fatal flaw in my plan, one that I keep stumbling upon over and over and over. I can¡¯t communicate. If any Phoenix should exist, and if it should be benevolent, I¡¯d have to pray to all my luck that it¡¯s also psychic on top of all of that. Similarly, if I¡¯m in some kind of massive dragon¡¯s territory, even if I can hope it¡¯s benevolent, even if it ends up being so, I can¡¯t ask it for help with Lil.


    Ugh, well, I may as well at least get to the caldera to see what¡¯s up there. For now, I¡¯ll take a short break at this terrace. There seem to be small chutes behind me against the volcano cliff face that I¡¯m sitting against, but I doubt I¡¯ll sit here long enough for it to leak lava out of them.


    Hm, they might not be lava chutes, there¡¯s many, many tiny feet slapping inside of them. Well, not too tiny. I feel a familiar spiteful presence float by me, and I get another glimpse of something, a kind of a candle. Some sort of super candle, only it¡¯s not wax, it¡¯s souls. I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s metaphorical or literal. Regardless, the entity passes through me into one of the many sprinting little creatures. Their shape is like little bipedal dinosaurs, sort of tiny velociraptors. I think they¡¯re called oviraptors. Wait, ova or ovum, something like that means egg. Something has one or more eggs in the caldera. I need to protect it. Not just to hope to win its favor, but because it might be the only creature of its kind in existence.


    Whether dragon or phoenix, I¡¯m going to have to wipe out these little egg thieves to protect their nest.

 B 2 C 32: Raise You, Like a Phoenix

    <h2>B 2 C 32: Raise You, Like a Phoenix</h2>


    Before I wipe them out, I have to risk letting them succeed by following them. Worse, one of these little punks is possessed right now, and I can¡¯t let myself look or think about who or why. The climb is a little more arduous for them than me at most spots, but it also becomes a bit terrifying when I need to catch up. Sometimes to catch up, I basically hang upside down under an overhang as my tendrils try to pull me outwards and upwards. I could JT myself out and up, but I really don¡¯t want to risk a dragon, or roc or phoenix showing up as I take to the air up here, in case they¡¯re hostile. I mean, if they exist and are hostile. Well I know dragons exist.


    I can feel us passing through a thick layer of smog. I cough, sputter, and choke as we move through it. Wishing I¡¯d taken a deeper breath, I try to hold my breath until we¡¯re clear. When it feels like my lungs are going to burst, I thrust myself as high as I can to take a deep breath, gasping for clean air. That¡¯s when I realize we¡¯re at our destination, me and these oviraptors. There¡¯s a massive terrace spanning out below where I¡¯d just jumped from, only its base is shrouded in smog. On the far end of the terrace is the presence of a great conflagration. It¡¯s almost a noble warmth. I think it could bypass my thermal resistance if it were hostile.


    Thankfully, what I can only assume is a phoenix nesting atop eggs, sits idly by, silently observing. It could probably wipe out the oviraptors on its own, but I don¡¯t want to risk one slipping by it and harming it or any of its eggs. So starts my long day of bringing down thunder and lightning upon raptors in a phoenix¡¯s nest.


    Most of my limbs still aren¡¯t very functional. My right hand is still a mess, but at least my right arm and wrist work again, mostly. My left arm hangs a bit limp, I can use its wrist and hand just fine, but it¡¯d be hard to do much with anything I held in my left hand. I really took for granted the way I thought healing always worked in this world. My tendrils work just fine, as do my left leg, and about half of my right leg. My back oddly feels fine, though that may just be because it was pretty much powdered and pulverized from near sonic levels of acceleration.


    Regardless, if I¡¯m careful, I can stand on my own two feet, and use all three tendrils to wield weapons, now that I know what they¡¯re capable of. No chance in the fiery pits of hell that I¡¯m pulling out a copy of Gae Buidhe next to a phoenix. Can you imagine, accidentally permanently killing the unkillable bird of rebirth? Still, out of three tendrils, I¡¯ll have this one wield a Valkyrie Sword, and these two will wield the staff of thunder and lightning. Even though the tendrils give me feedback, it¡¯s not as bad as letting myself be a lightning rod, since I still don¡¯t quite know how to control the lightning aspect. I need the area of effect of the lightning jumping from raptor to raptor though, as long as we stay on this far side, so that I don¡¯t accidentally hit the Phoenix. Hopefully my thunder booming won¡¯t piss it off.


    Slicing in even strokes with the sword tendril as I stand in place manages to carve out a swathe of the raptors and keep them from being able to advance en masse from their only path up to the terrace, though I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll eventually think of something if I do only this all day. I wait for an opportune moment to begin swirling, twirling, and windmilling the staff as I bring it crashing down in the middle of a new clump of them, picturing the staff itself being the lightning rod instead of me this time, and the lightning jumping between all the little compy-like creatures.


    The lightning attack¡¯s a massive success, and just leaves an incredibly sharp hot pain in limbs that I don¡¯t actually have. I alternate between the two methods of attack, and occasionally mix them up at the same time, when I can get a solid stance to not fall over. Looting is fairly easy, if somewhat unrewarding. Eventually it feels like I¡¯ve slain or driven off hundreds of the buggers, and their numbers might be either dying down, or retreating, when I feel a hostile presence pass through me from the front, towards the rear, where the Phoenix sits.


    I can¡¯t help but say aloud, ¡°Oh you have got to be kidding me. That¡¯s, that¡¯s just not fair.¡± as I feel the noble conflagration on the move. The heat is overwhelming as the firebird takes wing and sets me alight, flying through me repeatedly in the span of mere seconds. It¡¯s all I can do to soothe my burning, boiling, blistering flesh with my FFS each time I rack up a new explosion of subdermal heat as this creature passes through me.


    Just before it tears through me at its ridiculous speed on each pass, I hear the most awful raucous, thundering ¡°Skreeaww!¡± At least I have warning when it will strike, not that it does me any good. My body¡¯s shot, and even in the best of shape I couldn¡¯t dodge something this fast. Teuila might be able to in Valkyrie form fully manifested.


    I could swear we were pretty certain the creature had to at least have hostility towards me to be a candidate for possession. I find myself stumbling backwards towards its nest, and that¡¯s when I feel one sneaky little oviraptor darting for an egg. I take another massive wave of heat that runs through my entire body. Somehow the inside of my throat, nose, and tear ducts scar and blister. It knocks me full force on my rear, just out of sensory range of the oviraptor that was making its move. Still, I can¡¯t let the thief get that egg. I need to carefully dissuade it without harming the egg itself. I use JT to launch myself painfully towards the nest. As I arrive, the oviraptor¡¯s already about to dash away with the egg.


    After I save this egg, if I even can, I need to leap off the volcano terrace or I¡¯m going to die. I can¡¯t take much more than another one or two passes of the noble conflagration. Trying to figure out which weapon would be safest to use, I facepalm with the remains of my right hand. Summoning my weapons to my inventory, I just grab the little bugger with my tendrils, and pull it apart, derezzing it.


    I really hope the phoenix¡¯s instincts to protect its nest win out over the possession. Here goes nothing. I hobble towards the edge of the terrace and bodily throw myself into the smog below. I JT myself away from the volcano face so that I don¡¯t come crashing down on rock. Just when I feel like I can breathe a sigh of relief, that awful screech of the titanic firebird reaches me, and a massive wave of heat approaches me. I try to adjust my trajectory with JT movement twice, but the heat course corrects each time to intercept me. I won¡¯t be able to outrun it unless I JT straight into the ground, then I¡¯ll just be a greasy red smear along Fire Biome¡¯s otherwise fairly featureless plain.


    Well, it was a good try at least. Maybe if I die to a phoenix, I might return to an egg too? Then Lil and I could hatch together in twenty five years or so. I wonder if Mataalii is maybe twtitterpated or in love with Teuila. It doesn¡¯t strike me as a relationship that would work out, but I¡¯d never begrudge Te moving on with her life, especially if I were missing for twenty five years.


    Te and I have had a few years of experience in hypertime accelerated thinkspace together, and it was an amazing life. My memories tell me most lives don¡¯t work like this, they definitely don¡¯t have as much adventure and chaos. A person would normally maybe go backpacking across a landscape once in their life in a foreign land. Some adventurous people might hike the same mountain trail over and over for years, or try to scale a single mountain, or head to a polar region. These are all types of activities that give context to words I know, but I don¡¯t know any individuals, no names, no faces. Maybe someday I¡¯ll be able to just forget and give up on these glitchy memories.


    A sonic boom sounds in the distance, and for a second I worry Teuila is injuring herself to come save me, but no, it¡¯s caused by a much larger body, moving at even higher velocity. Two enormous birds clash as they grip at my falling form. One, mostly intangible, pure fiery fury. The other has to be a roc. I don¡¯t know any other bird creatures this size. Its enormity is hard to put into scale. It¡¯s not quite the catastrophe class size of the cragbeast queen when she went enraged and blew the top off a mountain foothill, but it¡¯s relatively darn close. Plus, it feels way more formidable than she did.


    At first, I¡¯m not sure which bird won out in the battle for my falling body, as I seem to end up being lifted back towards the phoenix nest. I don¡¯t however feel like I¡¯m gripped by claws of flame. Ugh, it¡¯s definitely the roc that has me. I¡¯m pinned beneath its massive talons, and I don¡¯t have the fight left in me right now to even struggle out.


    Suddenly there booms a voice, ¡°9, 8, 7.¡±


    I don¡¯t know what it¡¯s counting down to, so I ask, ¡°Is, is there something I can do to earn your favor?¡±


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    The voice continues, ¡°6, 5, 4.¡±


    I¡¯m not exactly above pleading for my life, so I try to plea, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry for trespassing, I was hoping to, to possibly help my dragon friend return to our family. I mean, to maybe earn someone¡¯s help to bring them back. We, we can¡¯t wait a quarter of a century without them. I, I need Lil. I know that makes me codependent, but I don¡¯t just need Lil for me, I need them for Lu to be as happy as she deserves. For Te to have her extra special bond.¡±


    The voice finishes, ¡°3, 2, 1, the end and the beginning. If all fall, it enters. It enters the beginning to as far as the end. But only the first beginning, not the one that stretched out before, longer ago.¡±


    I¡¯m completely flummoxed. A countdown, something enters if this countdown occurs? Like, a creature can go back to the beginning? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Also, how can there be a first beginning, and one that¡¯s stretched out even further earlier than that?


    I feel the heat approaching once more, and I resign myself to death in my pinned position. Even if the roc wants me for itself, at this point I¡¯m too crispy fried to survive another blast wave. The Roc sounds a thunderous blast that¡¯s akin to cannon fire. Even pinned beneath its feet I feel the force of its roar, or scream. The phoenix seems to be perturbed by this, but not altogether defeated or anything. It does however seem to go sit back upon its nest. Why does this entity keep hounding me? Why did it ever start hounding me to begin with?


    The Roc raises its talon and beats its mighty wings as it begins to take flight. The voice calls out again, ¡°Remember, 3, 2, 1, if all fall, it enters the first beginning. That is why.¡±


    Wait, did it answer my thoughts? If it could do that, it probably would have been more explicit with its warning. Sighing, I unwrap my eyes and doff my helmet. The phoenix isn¡¯t attacking me anymore, so something strange is up, and I probably need to see what it is to figure it out. Through blurry, fire-baked vision, I see the phoenix looking for all the world to be trying to blast a red glow out of its eyes.


    As much as I¡¯d like to take the opportunity to escape, everything fails me at this point, even my lungs. I can¡¯t even find the strength to gasp for breath as my heartbeat hammers my eardrums as the ring of tinnitus strikes as loud as it ever had previously. As my vision tunnels, I see a curious thing. I could swear the phoenix snapped its head back, bit at the red eye glow entity, and swallowed. I don¡¯t know how one mostly intangible creature swallows another, yet it happens, although sadly it doesn¡¯t destroy the red glow. Rather it swirls amidst the phoenix¡¯s insides for a bit, before, well, being expelled at high velocity.


    I sit, patiently, hoping that if I¡¯m lucky, the phoenix either forgets about me, so I can sneak away, or if I¡¯m extra lucky it strikes up a conversation. Waiting around a while, it just keeps one eye on me. I spot another oviraptor sneaking around near the nest, so I just roll my eyes and lance it with a sharp stone from my inventory using JT propulsion as an attack. Sometimes an oldie is a goodie, and it¡¯s all you need. Learning to use space skill to push things out of my inventory at high speeds was one of the first things I ever did.


    ¡°What else did you learn?¡±


    Well, eventually, far later than I should have, I learned I could use that same theory to propel myself, or guide my falls. I learned how to summon radiant copies of inventory equipment, then learned doing so was bad, so learned to summon umbral copies. I learned to control thermokinesis, so I can technically make ice and fire, though ice is easier, since the energy doesn¡¯t necessarily have to come from me, I just pull energy away from matter to chill it. My fire abilities are too miniscule to even call them fire when I¡¯m in your presence.


    Wait. Uh, have I been talking to a godly flaming bird who answered my thoughts?


    ¡°Perhaps.¡±


    I¡¯m a bit panic stricken with terror at the moment, I¡¯ll check back with you when I¡¯m done being dead now. I lay on my side and go slightly fetal, trying to process whether or not I might be hallucinating again.


    The phoenix lets out a blast of laughter that feels like it would sizzle the skin off an elephant, and I can¡¯t help but chuckle at my own chagrin. I¡¯m not sure what level of propriety or uh, formality to use in the presence of one of the greatest creatures of legend.


    ¡°That level works just fine.¡±


    Ah, uh, right. Thank you for not destroying me, though your powers were overwhelming and I was moments from death. I, I¡¯ve come to beg, to plead for aid in helping my draconic friend return to us, their family. Lil has a partner, a lifemate that misses them dearly, as well as the other two of us, we also dearly miss our friend.


    ¡°The four of you then? Come closer.¡±


    Gulping, I drag my broken body closer to the majestic bird, this solar grace. The intensity of its mere existence is excruciating to bear up close, especially when I¡¯ve been damaged so far beyond recognition. Still, I persist. I suppose, dying by basking in its presence isn¡¯t the worst way to go.


    ¡°You are truly melodramatic. Still, I¡¯ve harmed you. You may pluck one plume for free in return for my folly. You may pluck another four for your winsome coterie. Do not return however. I may overlook it if one of your allies journeys in your stead, but do not believe that you are tricking me. I choose to bless you thusly, at my own leisure.¡±


    I gulp, this being of pure majesty lowers its breast to within my reach. Its down is the most splendiforous thing I¡¯ve ever laid eyes upon. And I¡¯ve laid eyes upon my beloved inner circle. I can¡¯t begin to describe how deeply heartfelt of a compliment that is. This beast of fire, life, and love chortles at my train of thoughts. Carefully, I reach forth into its breast to pluck a plume of down. Its rachis, or perhaps shaft, or quill, is as sturdy and long as a sword within my hands. Shortly after grasping it, this benevolent sage of light and life blows a simple breeze over me, and the plume disappears in my hands.


    The plume¡¯s warmth flows through me, it feels as if it sizzles away every part of me, but perhaps only the imperfections, the wounds, the blisters, the pulped and powdered bones and flesh. In the end though, it feels as though that¡¯s most of what currently makes up my body. Indeed, as the internal fire consumes all that I am, I¡¯m born anew, whole once more. The experience was otherworldly. In fact, it feels as if I¡¯ve experienced such a thing not once, but twice before. Two other worlds. The weight of all three worlds Luni once let slip. I have to not think of or guess as to these thoughts. I can¡¯t let her down, I can¡¯t change whatever she¡¯s keeping me from changing.


    ¡°You are a curious sort aren¡¯t you? Maybe one day I shall seek you out, for a favor, hm? Stay strong, little old one.¡±


    I cautiously pluck four more plumes, trying not to puzzle too hard about what the phoenix referred to me as. I need My Anchor to know what lines of thought I shouldn¡¯t cross, and I know I¡¯ve been getting dangerously close when dealing with these sagacious creatures. I carefully place the plumes into my inventory, double checking, triple checking, and quadruple checking that none of their properties change from entering my void.


    Gulping, I try to speak, ¡°Thank, thank you, beyond words, from the deepest bits of my soul, to the highest heavens. I, um. Please let me bid you farewell, and forgive any possible rudeness I may have shown in my ignorance. P, Please.¡±


    The phoenix leans its head down close, and I¡¯m a bit panic stricken on what the custom might possibly be, so I hug the beautiful being around the neck as best I can, sizzling away plenty of my own skin once more, but I¡¯d endure this a million times over for what it has shared with me. The divine bird leans away from my embrace, and once again gently blows its breath over me as a strong breeze. I skid away from it across the plateau. Not wanting to anger it, I run and leap off the edge of the terrace.


    Now that I¡¯ve survived that ordeal, and am in far better shape than when I started, I don¡¯t even fear a many thousand-feet plummet like the one I¡¯m taking now. I JT myself at upward angles in the direction of home, letting the apex of my boost happen at lower and lower altitude, until I¡¯m basically sprinting across the ground many kilometers from where I started my leap. I feel powerful, and victorious. I endured through an actual god-class beast of a primordial element, even for the briefest amount of time. It actually sounded like we ended the conversation amicably, possibly on friendly terms.


    The phoenix also was able to do something that gives me hope for one day ending a curse that has been plaguing me. It broke free of a control. I¡¯ve never seen an indication that that could possibly happen before now. It may have only been because it was virtually a god of flame, but still, if there is even a fraction of a chance, we might be able to inoculate others against the horrid hunter.


    I¡¯m starting to fall into a panic attack, so I have to shut my mind off for the rest of the way home. I may make camp, I don¡¯t recall how far I¡¯ve been able to travel in what amount of time.


    When I arrive home, there¡¯s a fair amount of surprise, both that my face, neck, arms and shoulders are burned to a crisp, but also that I¡¯m walking around and using all my limbs


    I announce, shakily, ¡°Hi, hi, um, hi everyone. Guess who has two thumbs and found a phoenix? This little dork right here of course.¡± I point both thumbs at myself for emphasis. Agwai laughs at my humor at least. The others give mostly eye rolls or share their excitement and jubilation that I¡¯ve both returned, and that I¡¯ve done so fairly quickly, however few days I¡¯d been gone.


    To me, the best news of all from the family currently is that Teuila is sitting up in bed, massaging her legs.

 B 2 C 33: Change You, Like a Remix

    <h2>B 2 C 33: Change You, Like a Remix</h2>


    I¡¯m torn about who to treat first.  I honestly expect Teuila to turn down the plume, to say to save it for later.  Or she might say what if we end up needing multiple to awaken Lil.  What if one plume only takes off five or ten years from their timer.  Something like that.  Yeah, I¡¯ll just get Lu and Te both together and ask.  Lao hardly is willing to let me leave her embrace, Agwai is similarly smothering me, but it¡¯s a wonderful feeling, being so loved.


    Sugar and Spice are excited with the progress they¡¯ve made on some of my designs and requests, but I can¡¯t attend to them until I¡¯ve done this first.  I know they understand.  Mat and the Mana twins don¡¯t care about me or my successes.  Well, the Mana twins are fine with me, I¡¯m surprised Mat hasn¡¯t poisoned them to me, or about me, yet.  Or is it poisoned me to them?  Badmouthed, made me look evil in their eyes.  Or maybe he has tried, and they¡¯re too smart to fall for it.  I don¡¯t think he would actually go so far as to try to turn anyone against me though.  I mean, he did threaten that exact thing way back when I was first recovering from the Night of High Water, when we were about to journey into the swamp.


    I gulp, trying to push the thought out of my mind that Mata would do something so pernicious.  A bit exhausted, I telepathically call around for Luni as I sit near Teuila.  Lu responds that she¡¯s swimming and she¡¯ll be right in, the excitement in her mental wavelength is palpable.


    Snuggling two of my beloveds, I share the tale of my journey.  Even before I can complete the tale, Luni whispers into our private deeper telepathic bond, ¡°Told you so, hero, you¡¯ve got this, always have, always will.¡±


    I try not to let her praise cause me to laugh or interrupt my quick recitation of what happened so that Teuila can make her own decision.  Teuila for her part though, laughs and slaps my shoulder, my crispy, tender shoulder, one of the only parts on my body still injured.  I wince and shed tears of pain, trying not to let any noise out so Teuila doesn¡¯t feel bad.


    Te exclaims, ¡°Only you, my wonderpunk.  Only you could go out over two thirds dead, looking for what might only be an imaginary creature, go up against a horde of creatures, a god beast, another god beast, your worst nightmare that¡¯s always haunting you, and somehow come back better off than when you left.  Hahah, really, truly, only you.¡±


    Jokingly I say, ¡°Hey, I resent that.  I wasn¡¯t two thirds dead.  I was three quarters dead.¡±  The three of us laugh for a moment.


    Teuila pulls me into a tighter embrace, ordering, ¡°Come here my perfect dingleberry.¡±  I sigh contentedly for a moment, getting distracted.  Oh, right, the plumes!  I present the four plumes.


    Te immediately puts one in her inventory, saying ¡°I¡¯m probably going to have to save your life with this at some point goober, I¡¯m definitely not using it for a few broken bones.¡±


    Luni likewise places hers in her inventory.  I¡¯m not sure if I should keep one for myself, or give it to Lil for putting them through this.  Actually, if I keep it in my inventory, I¡¯ll probably make sure to save it for Lil, or one of our other family members that Lil would want saved anyway.


    Finally, the last plume, the one saved for Lil, we head outside to the stone from Fire Biome that I¡¯d carved out for Lil.  I carry Teuila, and gently set her down.  We all sit lotus style facing one another in a rough triangle.  Lu ever so gingerly places Lil¡¯s heart, their core, in the center.


    I mirror what the phoenix itself had done for me.  As I carefully press the plume against Lil¡¯s core, I blow a warm breeze across it, pushing my love and energy through the quill, into their core.


    As the plume disappears, the timer on Lil¡¯s return drops towards zero at full tilt, faster than I can read the numbers change.  I swear that their core lets loose silhouettes of various draconic forms that Lil might become in their future life, while their core¡¯s recovery timer is being wound down to zero far in advance of its scheduled time.


    Lil returns screaming to life, and as we¡¯re all about to celebrate, Lil lambasts me, ¡°You left me, you froze me then you left me to die!¡±


    My heart sinks, I try to plead my case, defend myself, apologize, beg forgiveness, ¡°Lil, I, I, but you.  You said it was just a scratch, but I was worried.  I thought a potion, and careful incision.  I only knew where to get one kind of potion one way.  I didn¡¯t know the potion wouldn¡¯t work, I¡¯m so sorry, I¡¯m so sorry.  Please, please forgive me.¡±


    Lil continues tormenting me, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me the big dumb hero never realized they could just claim the wound?  I¡¯m an item to you, aren¡¯t I?  I¡¯ve been in your inventory once before, your inventory magic can take apart items.  Lu too, we¡¯re not your friends, we¡¯re not ¡®of blood,¡¯ we¡¯re just items to you.  Maybe even your girlfriend.  We¡¯re all just, what was it, digital?  Heck, you could probably even put me back together in your inventory.¡±


    My jaw drops, and my eyes fill with tears.  I want to gouge my eyes and ears out to check if they¡¯re working properly, to prove to myself this isn¡¯t happening.  I can¡¯t find words, I stutter and stammer, it feels like my insides, my blood, my vitality, my soul are drying up and shriveling up.


    Lil spits my emotions back at me to my face, ¡°Ugh, I can¡¯t look at you right now, you left to go almost die on me again, and I had to wait on that, I don¡¯t know if I can handle your emotions on top of mine.¡±


    Lil bounds away from the three of us, leaving us all stunned.  Wait, that last bit.  Lil sounded like Mataalii when I¡¯d finally returned to reality after so long, after the first time at the dam.  How, why?


    Teuila riding my thought waves answers my unspoken questions, ¡°Mata, he¡±


    Lu interrupts her, trying to deflect, ¡°No, don¡¯t tell!¡±


    Teuila continues,  ¡°Mata asked to see Lil¡¯s core.  I¡¯m sick of the secrets Lu, I don¡¯t know why you need them, but you know I can¡¯t stand them.  I lo, lur, lo, I words you.  You know that, but I can¡¯t let this hurt Reggie, you know I can¡¯t.¡±


    Lu¡¯s eyes shoot wide with terror.  Luni pulls me into shared thinkspace, begging forgiveness, ¡°Please, please believe, I wasn¡¯t doing it to hurt you, you know part of why it has to be a secret, please, please oh hurk, I, I, I. gods and devils, I, I, no I¡¯d never, please, please please, please believe me, please, I¡¯m begging you, you, you have to know, you know, you must know, I couldn¡¯t, I wouldn¡¯t.  We¡¯re,we.¡±  Luni bursts into tears, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably, almost inconsolably.


    I stroke Luni¡¯s head as I gently tug her towards our tree for a quiet embrace as I try to puzzle this out.  Everything in me is screaming to break down into a sobbing wreck, but Lu needs me right now.  I¡¯m not supposed to know Mata did this, so I have to try to puzzle things out from a different angle.


    Luni cries out, ¡°Why, why, why do I have to keep this up?  Why me, why me!?  I can¡¯t do it, I can¡¯t, I can¡¯t, I want Reggie to love me, not hate me, please no, no more, no more, n n no no more.  Not the third time, please not the third time too. Please, please no.  no, please no, not again.¡±  Her scream of anguish dies to a pitiful whimper by the end.


    My heart shatters into a million pieces when Luni finally admits how much this is tearing her apart inside.  I feel myself dying for how truly committed she is to doing whatever it is that needs to be done, for our future good.  I can¡¯t alleviate her burden.  I can only assuage her fears.  I¡¯m barely preventing myself from falling into a sobbing mess beside Lu, but I hold her tenderly.


    I kiss Luni¡¯s cheek at the corner of her mouth and just try to coo consolingly to her, ¡°Shh, it¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay.  I do, I do love you, endlessly.  I can see part of how hard this has been on you.  It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay to let it out.  I¡¯ll do everything in my power to, to, to do whatever needs to be done, the way it needs to be done, to lighten your burden.  And everything in my power to prove that you are loved, and beloved, time and time again.¡±


    I wipe my own tears away so that I can focus on Luni¡¯s as I kiss them from her cheek at the corner of her eyes.  Even our telepathic avatars are emotionally wrecked from what happened in meatspace.  Not to mention the flood of emotions we¡¯re barely able to control in here.


    Gulping, I ask, ¡°Lu, you, you don¡¯t have to answer, I¡¯ll trust you, no matter what you say or refuse to say or don¡¯t say or ask me not to ask, anything.  I trust you to the ends of the world and beyond.  I feel like you knew Lil would come back different, but that you weren¡¯t just less shocked, you seemed to be okay, like you knew not just you and Lil would be okay, but I would be okay.  What Te said hurt because you knew what was going on, and that maybe in a possible, or likely, or guaranteed future, we get through it together.  Having your big sis accidentally accuse you of something you¡¯re trying so hard to avoid, while trying so hard to protect us must have hurt deeply.  Does Lil ever come back to us, the way I know Lil?¡±


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Luni trembles as she frantically searches for a truth that she can give, she tries to suss out how much she can answer.  She seems to come up at a loss for words, but she meekly, almost imperceptibly nods.  She seems terrified that I might even pick up on the nod, as if it could cause some catastrophe that she would have to blame herself for, so I just hold her and try to put it out of mind.


    We while away half an hour in accelerated thinkspace, only two seconds in meatspace, as we do our best to try to stem the tides of our own emotions.  Both of us wanting to be there for each other¡¯s hurts at the moment.


    Before we separate from our hypertime thinkspace, I call out to Luni, ¡°Lu, I need a couple of months with Teuila in our space.  Can you keep Lil busy for an hour?  Maybe more?  I¡¯m not trying to get rid of you, I adore you, and cherish you in an epic fashion.  I just need to be there for her right now.  I¡¯m afraid I might break down if Lil comes back at me like that while I¡¯m trying to be supportive of Teuila.¡±


    Luni gulps and nods.  Her right hand explores my face, then strokes my hair.  I blink back a few more tears, and Lu floods enough regret into our thinkspace to kick us both out.  I clutch my chest, and lean my head over onto Teuila¡¯s shoulder.  Te catches on immediately that we just went through some heavy emotions and hashed them out in hypertime.


    I beg Teuila to join me in a private thinkspace just for us.  At first I think she¡¯s going to refuse, there¡¯s such a cloud over her emotions, such a mixture of different kinds of pain.  Teuila relents and drags me to a deep sea beneath our thoughts.  I don¡¯t think the two of us have been in a private shared thought realm before, so I¡¯m unsure how to proceed.  We¡¯d normally bonded with all four of us together.  Unlike this, Luni and I share the same idyllic scene as our quad think space for our private one.


    My telepathic avatar struggles to stay afloat and not be lost adrift as I search these stormy seas of moving emotion for Teuila.  Even Te seems struggling to stay afloat, in her own projected image of her own mind.


    Once I¡¯ve found and latched onto Teuila, I try to politely ask, ¡°Te, um, is this what you want our private thought space to be?  Is this like the one, the one that you, that you share with, that you shared with, with Lil?¡±  I gulp, trying not to come off as jealous or manipulative, I just want to know how to proceed, if she wants me to be a rock, a lighthouse, a ship, if she wants us to just struggle in the water.  I want to be here for her however she needs.


    Te gulps air as she flounders, ¡°No, n, no, no I mean, with, with my dorky dragbutt it¡¯s just words.  We, we just, it¡¯s just words, like when we all started joining together in thinkspace.¡±


    Does that mean Teuila is so guarded, even with her closer relationship with Lil, that she¡¯s never shown this depth of her subconscious?  The vulnerability of her torrent of emotions?  Is this what lies beneath the surface that makes it so hard for her to express herself?


    Te, my Teuila, my wings, she¡¯s plagued by torrents of emotions, too many at once, in too large of quantities to handle, no wonder she can¡¯t bring herself to say the words.  She¡¯s afraid everything else will spill out too.  Teuila can carefully measure out milder emotions, but she¡¯s afraid of how much might come along with the stronger ones.


    It¡¯s so touching to learn all this about her, but I don¡¯t know how to help her weather this storm, or ride the waves on this sea, or even know what to do about our current situation.  Also, don¡¯t you start if you¡¯re in here with me, voice.  That pun was accidental.


    I have one idea, and I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯ll scare Teuila half to death, and she might hate me for it.


    I clasp Te closely, and whisper, ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay to let go in here.  Even if you can¡¯t out there, in here, we can sink under the weight of our emotions.  In here, we have a thousand lifetimes to pull ourselves through them, to measure them, explore them, use them.  We can define them, we don¡¯t have to let them define us if we don¡¯t want to, but we can do that too.  I know it¡¯s scary, and I know you wouldn¡¯t want to admit to being scared, but I¡¯m here.  I¡¯m here, with you, always, I will always love you, and always wait for you.  Take as much time as you need.¡±


    I just hold onto Teuila as we bob atop the stormy sea for ages, I try to add my buoyancy to hers.  She adds hers to mine for quite some time, until finally she lets go.  As she sinks beneath the waves of her emotions, I follow along, letting myself be drawn beneath the pressure, the unending weight of so many unspoken thoughts and feelings.


    At times I find myself gasping for air, struggling, but I remind myself that I¡¯m in Teuila¡¯s mindscape, that I¡¯m here for her.  The discomfort of breathing water, even telepathically, is persistent, but so am I.  Persistent that is, not discomforting.  Hopefully.


    Over several days in hypertime within Teuila¡¯s mind, she finally begins putting names to certain waves and features.  It doesn¡¯t necessarily mean she¡¯ll be able to express them in meatspace, but it means she has words to describe our location in her mind, the feelings she wants to feel and to be near.


    Several weeks pass as Teuila slowly comes to grips with just how vast and deep her emotional well truly is, which means we¡¯ve been sitting without really acting in meatspace for at least a quarter of an hour.  But I¡¯m willing to be here as long as Te needs.  I wonder if Teuila is able to stay active in fully accelerated thinkspace with Lil while she continues to act in external reality.  Am I the one that makes private thinkspaces take up all our thought and ability to concentrate?


    After about a month and a half of exploration, Teuila lands upon joy, it¡¯s a sandbar deep beneath the waves.  Slowly, she builds it up.  Teuila erects an island of bliss to share with me, our private retreat in her mind.  We can finally start moving forward together, tackling our emotions and making headway towards being who we want to be with one another.


    Teuila asks, ¡°I know it¡¯s been a while now, you¡¯ve been dealing with my baggage and weight, but are you going to be okay?  If dragbutt keeps acting like that to you, I don¡¯t know how I¡¯m going to be able to be close to them again.¡±


    My chest heaves with sadness momentarily before I reply, ¡°I¡¯m almost positive it¡¯s temporary.  I¡¯m not allowed to guess, there¡¯s something massively important at stake, something worth pain and secrecy, possibly worth lives.  I have to trust Lu with this, she¡¯s the only one I could.  Even though I love and adore you beyond words, to the depths of the hells and the heights of the heavens, I don¡¯t think you would maintain the secrets.  I think you would prevent me from making the mistakes I¡¯m supposed to make.  I can¡¯t tell you too much of what I¡¯ve figured out, but just trust Lu, please.  She never meant to hurt either of us.  It¡¯s absolutely destroying her inside.¡±


    Teuila looks distraught in her current melancholy.  She tries to redress her earlier calling out of Luni, ¡°I, I never thought she was trying to hurt us, not really.  I just can¡¯t do it.  I guess you¡¯re right.  It really hurts that you¡¯re right.  I¡¯m not the one you should trust with something that¡¯s that precise over such a long time, requiring so many secrets.  This has something to do with your time skill, doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    I respond as carefully as I¡¯m able, ¡°I¡¯m not allowed to make guesses as to the truth of that.  Personally, yeah, I¡¯m fairly positive, but I have to shunt that belief to the back of my mind and forget about it.  I have to treat each moment like I¡¯m experiencing it the way it¡¯s happening, with no thoughts that a future me is plotting my course.  I can only guess that something horrible, utterly catastrophic is going to happen, and this will help prevent it.  Or worse, multiple horrible, catastrophic things are going to happen, and one or more of them has to happen, so we can stop the future ones.  Ugh, I¡¯m guessing, I have to stop, I could screw up everything when Luni has put herself through so much hell to get this far.¡±


    Realization dawns on Teuila¡¯s mental avatar¡¯s face.  Te exclaims, ¡°Oh, oh wow, yeah, if you both.  Okay, okay, new topic, we can¡¯t risk that.  Oh my poor little Lu, what have you been going through, for us?  New topic though, so um, what do you think about my spear style?¡±


    Chuckling, I raise a brow at Teuila before replying, ¡°Really?  It¡¯s amazing.  You are fantastic.  I hope that we can find out how to fully manifest Valkyrie with creamy gray aura, or umbral energy, soon.  You deserve that power, it¡¯s all yours.¡±


    Teuila lets out the Shellcracker family squee, and tugs my left arm to nuzzle my shoulder. Te asks, ¡°So, I heard you had Sugar and Spice doing some building, what¡¯s that about?  A shop?  I get the word, you know, we both have the vocabularies, but I don¡¯t really understand the concept.  How is trade a thing?  I mean, stuff exists, it spawns, everyone can get everything they want or need.  I think.  Right?¡±


    I ponder a bit before I can answer, ¡°Hm, well, no, not necessarily.  How many phoenix plumes do you think are out there right now?  I¡¯d hazard a guess that there¡¯s probably no more than a dozen.  We might have the only three that were handed out.  People would trade almost anything for them, people would literally kill for them.  I don¡¯t think there will be any more Octorochis, so I¡¯ve got one of the only Octorochi heads left in existence from the time that you first evolved up to Valkyrie.  Someone might want that as a prize, or as an ingredient to some powerful spell or potion or arte or ritual.  Same with the other body parts I¡¯ve got from Octorochi between that encounter, and our final encounter.  We know those bags that can bring inventory capacity from negative one to zero, and zero to one, are tremendously rare.  We did something that no little squad of beavers is going to be able to do, to get as many as we did.  We might have even ruined the only place to get them, they might never drop again.¡±


    Te holds up her hands for me to slow down as she processes.  She contemplates aloud, ¡°Okay, okay, okay I get it, I think.  Yeah, you¡¯re right, I guess not everyone can just go fight some godbeast or catastrophe creature or horde of flaming hellhounds.  We¡¯re uh, huh, probably pretty lucky to have made it through everything we have so far, huh?  I guess I didn¡¯t really appreciate that til now.  So, so if things that are rare, or might never be seen again are also things that people might want, if we¡¯re willing to give them up, they might have something rare that we¡¯ve never seen, to trade?  I think I get it now, also why you would want a building just to do this.  I wouldn¡¯t want severed heads sitting on a shelf next to our bed, waiting for someone to wander by that happens to want one.  I mean, just for example.  Actually a severed head next to our bed might be kinda cool.  Also thank you for the bed.  It¡¯s nice, and soft.  It um, it¡¯s nice on my mushy legs.¡±  By the end of her rambling, Teuila adopts the Shellcracker shyness expression, where her index fingertips are poking together and she¡¯s avoiding my gaze while speaking out the side of her telepathic mouth.


    I chuckle and tackle Teuila to distract her from her embarrassment, we roll off of our joyous sandy beach into the stormy seas of moving emotion, but we happily ride the waves, experiencing the depths Teuila has to offer.  We¡¯re finally in a good place.  The terror has finally let loose its grip on my heart, and Teuila can share everything of herself with me, no need to hold back.


    I would never have meant to change her, but if somehow our interactions changed us, we¡¯re still ourselves, just an updated version, like a remix.

 B 2 C 34: Guess Whos Back?

    <h2>B 2 C 34: Guess Who''s Back?</h2>


    Mataalii grows more sullen and distant by the day. That doesn¡¯t bother me so much. What truly bothers me deeply to my core is Lil also shuts us all off from hypertime thinkspace, even Luni. I don¡¯t see Lil ever with Mat, so I don¡¯t think Mat¡¯s controlling Lil or feeding them lies, but I don¡¯t know how to repair the bonds we share.


    Even if our injuries don¡¯t heal as near-instantly as they used to, I¡¯m glad healing doesn¡¯t happen the way my memories say it should. Every single one of Teuila¡¯s bones below her hips were pulverized. They must have already been fractured pretty badly when she took us all from Fire Biome back home when I was bleeding out from the Cragbeast Queen¡¯s wireframe. She hid that pain from us, thinking it was a minor inconvenience that would heal quickly enough. It¡¯s probably a part of why she looked so lost and in pain at the falls when I¡¯d found her, when our bodies expelled the corrupted radiant vitality.


    When we went to the dam to hash things out with the MCF, Teuila¡¯s legs had to have just started mending from those fractures. I bet she figured that we would be fine. It would be nothing we couldn¡¯t handle together. She probably wouldn¡¯t even need to risk further injury. Then Lil was dying, and I selfishly asked her for all of her speed. Te, without a second thought for her own hellish pain that she knew she¡¯d rack up, took us where we needed to be faster than we¡¯d ever moved before. Then I once again selfishly asked her to leave me behind and to use all that speed again. The return trip, I knew about her legs, that¡¯s when I was a horrible friend, partner, anything. Worse, Teuila wanted me to be the person she brought back to our friends, not some nearly-hostile naga woman we¡¯d only just met. Still, Teuila frequently absolves me of this, when she and I share time in thinkspace.


    Sighing, I gaze around at the progress we¡¯ve made. Between Sugar and Spice, our settlement is starting to look like a town, rather than a vacation home. Our pond is being expanded. Hopefully that means that the fish spawns might also increase someday in case we need to accommodate more family or friends. We¡¯ve set up guard rails, and even a little diving dock. Teuila is itching to use the diving dock. It¡¯s driving her mad with desire. Sadly, at the moment Teuila has to only swim slowly while her legs recuperate. In my memories, bones don¡¯t regrow like this, hell, limbs don¡¯t stay together when bones have been blown to pieces and nearly atomized. Yet here is Teuila, following a rehabilitation plan that Lao, Te, and I have agreed upon, racing herself to recovery.


    The shop is almost complete, as are the separate types of storage sheds, and the communal housing. Luni¡¯s excitement for opening the shop is adorable beyond all reason. We¡¯re not going to have any customers for a long long time. We need to find other people in the world, and make our presence known in a friendly manner to ever have customers.


    Still, I¡¯m watching Sugar and Spice put the last touches on the shop at the moment. Their construction skills feel vaguely magical. In fact, now that the last beams,shelves, and doors are in place, I could swear I saw a pair of sparkles spiral up the building like a DNA helix. Lu giddily claps her hands together and dashes in, to stand at the other side of the counter.


    Practicing her greeting, Lu asks, ¡°Well hello there beautiful customer, what can I get for you?¡±


    I chuckle as I respond, ¡°An apple would sure be nice Lu.¡±


    I notice something shift in my inventory, the currency that I¡¯ve never kept track of diminishes ever so slightly. Luni and I gaze as an apple does the opposite of derezzing on the countertop. I guess it would be called rezzing? Polygons appear as if from nowhere, and form an apple. Lu tries to snatch it to check it out, but her hand passes through it. When my hand grabs it, it¡¯s a solid, firm, juicy apple.


    Both of us are gazing back and forth between the apple and each other, stunned. I bring the apple questioningly to my mouth, attempting to consume it, and it doesn¡¯t disappear like food normally does. Curiously, I sink my teeth into it, and I¡¯m treated to the heavenly splash of juice as I actually manually consume something for the first time in my life. A delicious apple no less. The fruit¡¯s flesh beneath the skin is just the perfect crispness, and no seed or core blocks me from consuming the entire thing save the stem.


    Luni runs around to the front after watching me zealously consume the apple, exclaiming, ¡°Let me try! Shop? An apple sure would be nice. Um, pretty please?¡±


    Nothing happens in response to Luni¡¯s request, so she pouts. I¡¯ve got a sneaking suspicion though on what needs to happen. I call out to Teuila telepathically to ask if she¡¯s okay to be held for a bit as an experiment. Te sends back a mixture of emotions but mostly a sort of fine whatever expression.


    I make a request of Luni, ¡°Lu, could you go back behind the counter for a moment? Let me grab Teuila. I need to confirm a few things.¡± As Lu heads back behind the counter, I scurry off to help Teuila out of the pond. Well, Shellcracker Pond is almost Shellcracker Lake at this point, as we¡¯ve been expanding it. Not sure when it will reach official distinction. Teuila bops me in the nose for my distracted chain of thought, since I interrupted her rehabilitation swimming time.


    I try to explain to Teuila my thoughts, ¡°Right, right, sorry, when we get there, you have some of the currency from the cragbeasts in your inventory right? When we get there, ask Lu for something simple, like an apple.¡±


    As we approach, Lu teases, ¡°Oh greetings fair customer, carried aloft by whom you are so smitten, is your heart all aflutter on this fine day? You make a lovely couple, a pair that should enjoy my fine wares, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s blush virtually steams from her cheeks and ears as she grumbles, ¡°Luuuuuuu, knock it off. I would like one apple please. To stuff in your mouth to shut you up. Maybe a cloth binding to gag you with to go with it.¡±


    I try to stifle my laughter, because I don¡¯t want to make light of Teuila¡¯s discomfort. Suddenly, two objects begin rezzing atop the counter, Lu looks down in shock. Then she looks at Teuila who happens to be grinning deviously. Lu takes off like a rocket when Teuila picks up the cloth gag and the apple, while Te cackles. Teuila would love to give chase, but her legs are still pretty much mush.


    After we¡¯ve laughed for a bit, I reach out telepathically to Luni, ¡°Lu, come on back, you know she can¡¯t even chase you. It¡¯s your turn. I¡¯ll stand behind the counter.¡±


    Luni returns, giddily clapping, awaiting her turn. While holding Teuila across my arms still, I announce, ¡°Welcome traveler to our fine shop, how may I serve you today?¡±


    Lu virtually squeals, ¡°An apple, please, I¡¯d like an apple!¡±


    My suspicions are correct, but something I didn¡¯t suspect is somewhat disappointing. As the apple begins to rez into reality, it¡¯s malformed, lumpy, bruised, possibly a bit pre-eaten. This requires a bit of further study. Luni looks heartbroken and crestfallen that she got such an underwhelming apple. She actually takes it and buries it behind a shed. I chuckle at the symbolism.


    Still, I gather as many of my family as I can that are willing right now. I have each stand behind the counter in turn, and purchase an apple from each of them. Far and away the best produce is when purchasing from Luni. Lao and Spice are close seconds. Agwai and Sugar are not far behind, Teuila a bit behind them. My goods are downright awful. Well, it doesn¡¯t seem to be related to the duende score, or Lil and I would sell perfect produce.


    I sigh, thinking about Lil who has been spending the better part of several days staring at the waterfall, alone. Lil will come back to us, whatever convinced them to say those things, it wasn¡¯t Lil. Anyway, I wonder if there¡¯s an interface for this shop.


    Sure enough, after digging through our mind¡¯s eyes, we each find a shop, its selection, prices, and qualities change with who stands behind the counter.


    With Spice behind the counter, I greedily purchase as much vellum, paper, leather book binding, writing implements, and art supplies as I can. I present the majority of these to Spice, and his eyes sparkle like diamonds with joy upon receiving them.


    Spice and I have private talks on occasion. I¡¯ve had some magical help through my trauma, including actually being burned alive from the inside out by a phoenix, which might have caused me to be reborn. I¡¯ve also had years more time to tackle my trauma due to the hypertime my inner circle can participate in.


    I make sure to shut off my log during our private meetings, so that no one else can read Spice¡¯s secrets, his fears, his traumas. His sister occasionally sits with us, and she shares her part in the tale. She also regularly threatens to gut me, saying, ¡°If you ever spill Spice¡¯s beans, I¡¯ll spill your guts.¡± It¡¯s hilarious, adorable, and terrifying to have Sugar go from supportive aid during talks, to overprotective beast with murderous intent.


    Still, we can also sell things directly to the store, which generates currency. We can finally get rid of all the extra copies of certain evolved equipment if we need to. It seems to disappear after sale, but I¡¯m not in need of cash yet, nor am I willing to risk that they teleport somewhere for someone else to use.


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    Those of us that have some currency from our adventures, and an inventory, are able to purchase from the store, which doesn¡¯t leave many of us. Still, I¡¯m fishing for bags for Lao and Ag as frequently as I can, and when they have enough, I unload hundreds of units of gemstones, as well as mass amounts of currency, in case they ever need anything from the shop while our inner circle is away.


    For my part, I mostly buy raw materials that will help out, or pieces of equipment that we have no way to make yet. I buy actual bandage cloth for bandages, aloe and balms and disinfectant for those bandages, splints with braces, anything that might work medically in my memories. I make sure my family has all such goods on hand. I also make sure Sugar and Spice have nails and screws, in case their fastening magic stops functioning for some reason. I¡¯m able to buy glass bottles, so I make tons of water walking potions, and finally increase my alchemy skill at a decent rate.


    There are some furnishings that are pretty expensive, I¡¯m not even sure I want them to exist yet. There¡¯s a forge with billows, a massive anvil, a smelting furnace, things like that. I don¡¯t know if our family needs to have metallurgy or be in the metal age.


    Agwai was able to find a single squeaky rubber ducky tucked away somewhere deep in the interface. It boggles my mind that it exists. Rubber, squeaky toy, what? Of course Agwai uses it to play with Lucky. Including when Lao is trying to train Lucky to help family members with tasks, much to her chagrin. Back when I¡¯d first met Agwai, when they were so solemn in the swamp, I¡¯d never have imagined them to be a playful goof, a storytelling trickster, or just, just so fun in general. Grief and the pressure of leadership had really forced Agwai to be completely different from their true self. I¡¯m so happy they¡¯ve got a peaceful place to be themselves.


    Luni, Teuila and I take turns in various speeds of accelerated thinkspace with different partners, or sometimes our whole trio. We¡¯ve had several more years of life together. Life I wish I could have shared with my oldest companion. I also wish it was life I could share with Penina, Atamai, Iakopo, and Taito, but we¡¯ve had no new eggs randomly resurrect a family member yet.


    One night, we can vaguely see shooting stars through the canopy, and I¡¯d swear one had an impact trajectory with the base of the falls. Worried for Lil, I make a break for the falls, dropping everything I was in the middle of, including dinner with the family. I don¡¯t care if I look like an idiot dashing towards Lil. I¡¯ll look like a jerk if they¡¯re okay, but that doesn¡¯t matter.


    Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay. I don¡¯t care if you hate me, just please be okay. I try to reach out to Lil telepathically, but of course there¡¯s a mental wall between us at best, or at worst, Lil is hurt. My pulse races as do I, towards the waterfall.


    I can hardly catch my breath, even if the physical activity is hardly exertion at this point in my life. I finally spot Lil, an actual lump on their forehead, their eyes spinning spirals. There¡¯s the faintest, tiniest hint of a red glow within Lil''s spiraling eyes.


    I cry with an impotent fury, ¡°No, No! You can¡¯t have Lil! You can¡¯t! You will never, ever take Lil!¡± I know there¡¯s nothing I can do though, anything I might be able to do would just hurt Lil.


    As my fury rages, and my mind begins to lose its tether to reality again, for the first time in quite a while, my FFS activates so hard that it flash freezes the river. It continues to freeze the falls as high as halfway up the cliff. Several nearby trees make gross cracking noises as they¡¯re coated in a layer of frost. I, I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t do anything. I have no target for my wrath.


    I plea towards Lil, hoping beyond hope that they¡¯re not so hostile to me that they¡¯ve been claimed. Hoping even more that this intrusion into their psyche is why they acted the way they did. Even though Lil looks unconscious, like the time they were knocked skyward by Vampguppy so early in our relationship, I can only plead with them.


    Begging Lil, I ask them to remember, ¡°Lil, your name is Lilagni, but we call you Lil because it¡¯s short and cute like you. I was scared of you, even though I found you adorable. You wanted to fish me out of the drink the first time you ever evolved, but you left me alone for so long on my own. I missed you but when you finally woke up, we were right back to being besties. We went through so much together.¡±


    I gulp back a sob as I continue, ¡°We met Luna for the first time, you scared her off with your flames and flight. We fought off bullies, and I ran from that darn serpent. We invented snuggling clay-fired dugouts. We met our new family together, the family that holds the two most dear to both of us, other than each other. We survived hell and high water on the Night of High Water. Evil toothy boxes, energy thieves, the serpent over and over. You spent months, maybe years with Lu when I was recovering from the Night of High Water. You forgave me, I think, I hope, for being gone so long after the Night of High Water, and again after the events at the dam.¡±


    I also recall, ¡°At the end of the Night of High Water, you risked yourself for both me and Lu. You said you screwed up, but you didn¡¯t, you gave us an eternal bond. Please, please come back to me buddy. Please don¡¯t give up on us. Even if you hate me, please come back to Te and Lu, they didn¡¯t hurt you like I did. I¡¯ll understand if you never forgive me, but please come back to them. You¡¯re so important to all of us.¡±


    Lil coughs, their lips waver and wobble, well, what can be called lips on a dragon sphere face. Suddenly Lil is crying, and two tiny motes of red flush out with Lil¡¯s tears. Lil wails, ¡°Don¡¯t, don¡¯t, don¡¯t look at me. I can¡¯t believe, I can¡¯t believe I said those things. I know it was me, I heard me say it, but I¡¯d never say those things, those weren¡¯t even my words. Those weren¡¯t my words. How can you be here, begging me to come back, when, when all I want buddy, is for you to forgive me.¡±


    I whimper, gulping back sobs of my own, trying to stay strong to get my point across, ¡°Oh Lil, Lil buddy, I never held it against you. I did mess up badly that day, I deserve any anger anyone has at me for it. I love you, you¡¯re my heart. You give me strength and purpose. You keep me beating the odds. You keep me full of adrenaline and love. Did, did you know that I met a phoenix, trying to bring you back to us? They were mysterious, and wonderful, and I think they might live near a mighty dragon. Creatures in the area were dropping dragon scales.¡±


    Lil turns harder inwards on themselves, bawling their eyes out. They scuttle and slither around, unsure where to go, my heart aches that I can¡¯t comfort them, unless. Yeah, screw it, they can hate me for it if they need to. I dive and tackle Lil into a hug, I¡¯d lose Lil just to comfort a smidge of the ache I see them experiencing at the moment.


    What did Teuila say once? She¡¯d give up everything, if only for my good? I¡¯d give up Lil, for Lil¡¯s happiness. Lil starts butting into my chest, I make sure it¡¯s bare, and they growl, and chomp, and cry. They don¡¯t hurt me in the slightest though. They could tear my chest open, their fangs and maw are strong enough.


    I feel a wall shattering somewhere, I¡¯m terrified it¡¯s one of us derezzing, but I see no signs of either of us, or anyone derezzing. Eventually, Lil assails my mind with pleas of forgiveness. I realize after a while what wall shattered. Lil has finally opened their mind to us. Lil has come back to us. I pour every ounce of love and forgiveness I can muster into our bond. How can I ever express enough? You don¡¯t need forgiveness Lil, but you are forgiven.


    Lil¡¯s form begins to attract creamy gray polygons as it elongates. At first, I worry Lil is engaging their form change to fly away, our reconciliation unfinished. But Lil remains, and Lil¡¯s Lilagnewt form stabilizes, leaving silhouette and becoming something new. Lil¡¯s Lilagnewt form looks simultaneously less impressive, yet more regal and imposing. Their eyes are a creamy green, as is their soft, rubbery dorsal ridge. They sport a hairstyle similar to Teuila¡¯s, which is really odd for a reptile. Lil seems a bit more compact, not quite as massive as the last time I¡¯d seen Lilagnewt fully manifested, but their muscles are far more defined. Their scales are slightly harder, and their wings are less soft fleshy leathery newt wings, more draconic ribbed taloned wings. Lil¡¯s face is simultaneously goofy, and imposing. They have a bit of an underbite, and vertical standing tusks.


    Lil rides my mental wavelength, hearing my description, and exclaims, ¡°Whaaaaaaaaaa? Let me see, let me see? Ahhhh you froze all the water, I can¡¯t see myself in it, it¡¯s all white. Pal, pal, pal, can I look through your eyes, please, please, can I, please? I wanna see mega bad, mega mega mega bad.¡±


    My heart soars as it mends while I chuckle and nod. There¡¯s an odd sensation, a not-uncomfortable pressure just above my eyes, and I can tell Lil is appraising themself through my senses. I hug this wonderful dragon¡¯s face, laughing away the tears, the sorrow at the loss of my best and oldest friend. None of what transpired mattered, it¡¯s as good as not having happened at all. I¡¯ve got my Lil buddy back.


    Lil leaves my senses to begin exploring their form. I think this time I¡¯m going to have Lil train physically with me and Teuila. We¡¯ve got a lot to catch up on, emotionally, mentally, physically.


    Hm, the chunk of shooting star that beaned Lil and knocked them out is at my feet. That¡¯s a crazy coincidence. I¡¯m definitely going to call it a lucky starmetal rock, or starmetal luckrock. While I¡¯m distracted by claiming the starmetal luckrock, Lil swoops in from high and to my side, divebomb tackling me into a hug. I can feel their trepidation as they let loose their hold on their form, so I make sure to squeeze Lil tightly in comfort, in case we can¡¯t get it back right away.


    When we reunite with the rest of the family we welcome Lil back with open arms as if it¡¯s like Lil never left, but also like we appreciate them more than ever before. We spend months building up our settlement, training, rehabilitating Teuila, learning to access our new creamy gray semi-umbral evolution forms. During that time, we spend years and years together in thinkspace, forging a bond stronger than ever. We¡¯ve probably each spent around a quarter of a century together easily, and several decades in groups as either trios or our whole quad as well. If we could have gotten Lil back like this, I¡¯d have been fine waiting.


    We couldn¡¯t though, so I¡¯m glad I went through one last solo adventure to get Lil back. Hopefully I never have to do it again. Teuila¡¯s trying her hardest to recover while also making progress in her training as she always does. She wants just as badly as I do, for me to never go on another solo adventure.


    By the time Teuila is back to one hundred percent, or, as she says, one hundred plus one hundred plus one hundred, plus she doesn¡¯t know, ultra, percent. By that time, we¡¯ve spent nearly a century together in accelerated time. If it weren¡¯t for having separate logs, I don¡¯t think my brain could hold all the memories we make day by day.


    All this time, I never thought to go much farther east along the waterfall, because of my trauma. When I finally start to bring up the idea, Luni diverts me, so it must be important that I don¡¯t know it yet. Instead, perhaps our next adventure will take us directly west until we hit the shoreline.

 B 2 C 35: A Journey To the, Wait, What?

    <h2>B 2 C 35: A Journey To the, Wait, What?</h2>


    Teuila still has trouble expressing herself, I¡¯m sure she always will, but her love comes across in her endearing insults, her playful jabs, and her tender embrace. Frequently Te will also pull me into private thinkspace and point to one of the various waves she¡¯s named that signify her emotions.


    After living nearly a lifetime, nearly a century together, spending it in idyl pastures in our mindscapes, or the occasional tumultuous sea, I feel fulfilled. This would have been impossible in the world in my memories. One would be lucky to lead even a fraction of one¡¯s own lifetime in idyl bliss.


    I haven¡¯t been training myself as hard as I should, what with spending so many of our waking moments in thinkspace. I¡¯ve made a fair bit of progress though. Mostly with crafting, alchemy, pain tolerances, some resistances. I gained a point of disenchantment, trying to break down the identification scroll I had left, but it only turned into vellum and ink, which I have some of currently.


    I don¡¯t know how to reassemble the identification scroll, so I¡¯ve lost my only scroll left. The only beings I know in existence that for sure know about some magic items are the naga. Dehlia mentioned she understood the potions, and apparently, based on what Lu said, they also knew about wounds that couldn¡¯t be healed. So there are more weapons like Gae Buidhe out there. That thought is terrifying. Still, there¡¯s hope that maybe someday I can get the naga people to impart wisdom of magic items, a slim chance at that hope, but hope nonetheless. Maybe if I¡¯m lucky, they¡¯ll know how to craft scrolls.


    My energy capacity is getting close to a thousand again. That¡¯s a fair amount of max mana. If Lil or Te needed it, I could probably provide them a tether mid battle.


    Teuila¡¯s creamy gray manifestation of her Valkyrie form looks largely the same, though there¡¯s a certain slenderness, a petiteness that belies her frame. I think Te got a bit jealous of Luni¡¯s curviness, as even in this more slender frame the new Valkyrie has more curves in certain places. Obviously any sort of jealousy about that is probably my fault for gawping at Luni so long ago. Still, Teuila is unbelievably gorgeous in all her forms.


    Regardless, this version of Valkyrie¡¯s ancillary powers aren¡¯t as potent, so she can¡¯t accelerate as quickly without hurting herself. Since her motion is done by making leaps, that means she can¡¯t reach her top velocity at all anymore, since all of her acceleration happens when leaving the ground. We¡¯re all a bit saddened or disappointed for her, but I¡¯m certain somehow, someday, we¡¯ll ascend to her old level of capability and beyond.


    I still think even with her needing to be more careful, Teuila is probably the most powerful of us in direct combat. Luni is surprisingly capable, but she carries so many burdens that she frequently can¡¯t face her fear to actually join the fray. Lil and Teuila developed an interesting training regimen, one will be evolved into their more powerful form, while the other isn¡¯t, and the more powerful form is on the offense. For example, Lil has to pounce and claw at Teuila as Lilagnewt, while Teuila defends herself with her reflexes, a shield, or just absorbing the hits because she¡¯s terrifyingly powerful. Likewise, Teuila¡¯s Valkyrie form is meant to go on the offensive, without using her powers, to chase down and strike Lil. Thankfully she uses a blunted walking stick instead of any of her spears or magical swords. She does however show off her archery skills on occasion. It¡¯s mildly impressive.


    Okay it¡¯s freaking phenomenal, and apparently the bracers we got for her so long ago actually enhance archery somehow. She has a quiver, but she can motion as if to draw from it, and the bow will be nocked with an arrow, even if the quiver is empty. The longer she holds the draw on her bow, the more wind spirals around the arrow, coiling around it, basically increasing the arrow¡¯s size, force, and velocity dozens-fold.


    I sigh as I recall another being whose powers involved wind. One of our other fallen friends, Sylphie. There¡¯s the slightest chance we could call her back, and she might still be someone that would be interested in friendship with us, but I don¡¯t know what I¡¯d do if her reincarnation is hostile. I imagine since she can grant and create air, she might be able to take it away. Watching my family suffocate on land is too frightening to contemplate, and too great a risk to take on the off chance we could possibly reunite with her.


    Now that I¡¯m thinking about hostile creatures, I feel like there¡¯s probably a tribe of naga, or nagafolk, or nagas. I¡¯m not sure of the plural. I feel like there¡¯s a tribe of them somewhere in the eastern quadrant of the swamp. Would Dehlia really let her community slay us before we could even say hello? She literally said their magics would slay us before even a greeting was uttered. She looked so disdainful. Lovely, but disdainful. I wonder if I can shapeshift to look like her? If I could take on a naga form, would the community at least give me a chance? Would they see me as deceitful? Would they see it as a ruse and see through it immediately?


    My form seems to be a bit malleable, self actualization has been letting me slowly sculpt myself in ways that appeal to me. I like being a bit lanky, a slender frame. I sort of miss my cherubic cheeks from the beginning, but I could just bring them back. I¡¯m fairly certain that there¡¯s no such thing as a child in our world, but I still led myself to believe I might have been one.


    Still, I guess the cheeks were kinda cute. Lil called me adorbs when I had them. I guess it wouldn¡¯t hurt to bring them back. I kinda like it when my buddy thinks I¡¯m cute.


    Basically, if I start to tether myself, picturing what I¡¯d eventually like to look like, and hold myself in the process without completing it for long periods, then I let it drop before it completes, part of the transformation sticks with me. For now, I¡¯ll bring back the cheeks. I¡¯m trying to slowly grow a reptilian tail, it¡¯s a much longer process than just getting a bit taller or shorter or chubbier or skinnier though. I sorta think an otter tail and otter ears might look cute on me, but maybe I can work back to that someday. First I want to be able to safely talk to any scalekind or scalekin, whatever Dehlia called them. I need to know that they¡¯re never going to pose a threat to my family. If I ascertain that they are a threat just because we¡¯re softskin, then I¡¯ll have to find a way to convince them to stop being so, uh species-est I guess?


    I try not to picture having to possibly fight off an army of magically endowed snake-people to ensure our family¡¯s safety, but the thought pops up anyway. It causes me to heave a deep sigh. I almost wonder if I should just carve a bloody path through our land, if we took advantage of every opportunity to express our might, we¡¯d probably grow in power, and therefore eventually safety. But then we¡¯d basically be murderous tyrants. Well, I suppose not, since we wouldn¡¯t just kill indiscriminately, we¡¯d only fight with those that threaten our peaceful pond life.


    Maybe we should just stay here, at our pond, and live out our days. If trouble comes a-calling, then we can face it together. Hm, no, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s good enough for my family. Even Lao asked me to continue my journey, my search for more friends and family to expand our community.


    I¡¯m suddenly snapped out of my reverie by Manaia trying to get my attention, she asks, ¡°Hey, hey, hey Redge, redge, hey Reggie, Reggie, Mat¡¯s being a butt, can we hang with you today?¡±


    Manameia confirms, ¡°Total butt.¡±


    I glance around to make certain Mataalii isn¡¯t watching from somewhere, waiting for me to make some kind of faux pas to lambast me about. As far as I can tell, between any of my senses, Mat isn¡¯t nearby. I¡¯m a bit floored by the twins¡¯ desire. I¡¯ve never really gotten a chance to know them. I know it¡¯s rude to refer to a pair of twins as just the twins, they¡¯re both individuals. But I¡¯ve never been given the opportunity to learn anything about either of them as such.


    I flump to the ground, sitting lotus and spread my arms wide as I answer, ¡°Sure thing buddies. I sorta thought I¡¯d never get a chance to meet you. I don¡¯t know if that makes any sense. Do you two want to play a game? What if we take turns saying something about ourselves that we think is only true of us? Like if I say I like peanut butter because I¡¯ve eaten it, I could be pretty sure that that¡¯s only true of me. I haven¡¯t actually eaten peanut butter, that¡¯s a bad example.¡±


    The twins hop into my lap, they¡¯re honestly a bit too big as a pair for me to comfortably host both of them, but I make it work so I can hug them both simultaneously. The twins are laughing and excitedly each exclaiming ¡®me first.¡¯


    Te passes by, since we were about to meet up. She raises a brow at me curiously and I can only helplessly shrug and nervously chuckle. Telepathically I send ¡°Sorry My-Wings, seems like I¡¯m a twins-sitter for the moment. Give Lil some snuggles from me after you beat the stuffing out of them please?¡± Teuila sends back the Shellcracker squee of glee across our shared wavelength. Hopefully she likes our titles for each other. Lil is My-Heart, Lu is My-Anchor, Te is My-Wings.


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    Te¡¯s titles for us are ¡®My-Dorky-Lil-Dragbutt¡¯ for Lil, obviously, ¡®Luuuuu¡¯ for Luni, and ¡®My-pretty much any insult in the book¡¯ for me.


    Lil¡¯s titles are ¡®Buddy¡¯ for me, ¡®Gal-Pal¡¯ for Luni, and it¡¯s-a-secret for Teuila. Literally, that¡¯s what Lil calls Teuila, their it¡¯s-a-secret.


    Lu¡¯s titles for us are Hero, or My-Hero for me, The-Best for Lil, and Big-Sis for Teuila.


    I guess I could use that to start the game off. Coughing to clear my throat to get their attention, I wait for the twins to stop arguing before starting, ¡°I¡¯ll uh, I¡¯ll start, then we¡¯ll go clockwise, Manaia you¡¯ll be next, then Manameia, then me again, and on and on til we¡¯re bored. Sound good?¡±


    Manaia replies, ¡°Hmmmm, okeydokey.¡±


    Manameia seems to take a while to consider the options before answering, ¡°S¡¯pose so, can¡¯t be too bad, right?¡± That seems a little pessimistic, I hope Manameia is okay. I think I¡¯m going to need nicknames for them too. Maybe M^2 for Manameia, and ¡®Naia for Manaia.


    I start off the round, ¡°So, one thing about me, is I have nicknames for our family members, that I don¡¯t think would make sense for you to also have. I call Luni My-Anchor. I hope neither of you two do, it has some context behind it for us. I call Lil My-Heart. Pretty similar thing there. I call Teuila My-Wings. I¡¯m thinking for you guys, I could call Manameia M-squared, and Manaia I could call ¡®Naia. How do those sound?¡±


    ¡®Naia is quite pleased with her nickname, and while M-Squared is fairly pleased as well, M^2 is a bit mopey. ¡®Naia tries to make her turn quick by saying she likes fishing, but M^2 is quick to remind her that pretty much the whole family likes fishing. The point of the game is to tell us unique things about one another.


    ¡®Naia takes a moment to ponder, ¡°Oh, I had super fun dancing, I think, maybe when I get bigger, I kinda want to dance, all the time. Is that a thing?¡±


    ¡°Well, yes, you can be a dancer, no one would stop you. Especially no one in this family.¡±


    ¡°Sept Mat, ¡®cause he¡¯s being a butt. He doesn¡¯t like dancing.¡± She explains.


    I don¡¯t have a rebuttal for that, I don¡¯t know Mataalii well enough to defend him verbally. I don¡¯t know if he actually dislikes dancing, or if he just has a sour mood for some reason. I¡¯m not even allowed to think too much about Mata. If I do, I might find out something about the future that could change my actions in the now, and screw up everything that Luni has been putting herself through hell to work towards. Instead I focus on M^2¡¯s answer for their turn.


    ¡°I kind of want to tell people what to do, but not like bossy way, like, like if ¡®Naia wants to dance, I want to tell her where to dance. I don¡¯t know how to explain it, like if ¡®uila was out there, I¡¯d be all like. Left foot there, right foot kick, spin, shake your arms forward, and stuff. Does that make me a jerkface mcbossypants? I been kinda thinking about this all day, since Mat was a butt, and I made myself sad, ¡®cause I don¡¯t want to be a jerkface, or a butt.¡±


    Is that why M^2 is a bit mopey? I think I might have an answer for that, ¡°M^2, there is a place for someone like that, um, I know we have access to the same vocabularies, so I want you to think of the words choreographer, and coordinator. How do those sound?¡±


    M-Squared¡¯s eyes light up as realization dawns on them that they¡¯re not just some sort of bossy jerk. M^2 lets out the Shellcracker family squee of glee, that single elongated ¡°heeee¡± sound through closed lips with a closed-eyed smile.


    ¡°I guess for my next turn, um, I¡¯ve helped a couple of our family evolve in special ways, you¡¯ve seen Lil and ¡®Uila take on bigger forms. I kinda only figured out how to do that for them because of scary situations. Something that probably isn¡¯t unique to me is that I don¡¯t want our family to ever have to go through scary situations again.¡± As I ramble for my turn, the twins nod or shake their head, trying to confirm they also wish for our family¡¯s safety.


    ¡®Naia takes her turn again, ¡°One time, when fishing, I found an egg, it had Olioli in it!¡± So it was ¡®Naia who found it? I wonder if she¡¯s the only one who will ever be able to find more, if somehow more members of our family are ever able to reincarnate.


    M^2 wants to share credit, but admits it was ¡®Naia who found it. M^2 instead, on their turn, states, ¡°I know some of Mat¡¯s secrets even ¡®Naia doesn¡¯t know, and Mat doesn¡¯t know I know.¡±


    I absolutely cannot know whatever it is that Manameia knows about Mataalii. I sweat a bit profusely, and try to change the topic away from the game. I¡¯m afraid M^2 will start divulging Mat¡¯s secrets as part of the next few rounds. I¡¯m afraid of the consequences for our future, but also I¡¯m worried Mata would kill me if he thought I forced the twins to spy on him and spill the beans. I¡¯d say figuratively, but with how angry and sullen he is these days, I think Mat might actually consider finding a way to get me killed.


    Right, time to distract them. I try to excitedly query, ¡°Who wants to try out a new way to glide!?¡±


    Thankfully that excites the twins enough to change topics without raising any of their suspicions. I can use it as an excuse to train precise movements with my JT abilities. Since we¡¯ll be technically training, the twins can join us near Lil, Lu, and Teuila. I mean, they could join us over there if they wanted to at any time anyway, but at least it¡¯s an excuse for us all to hang out together.


    When the three of us catch up with my inner circle, Lu¡¯s in the middle of cheering Lil on while my dragon buddy is on the offensive. Lil is trying to land strikes on Teuila, with little success. Teuila¡¯s combat prowess is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. She occasionally stands around to let Lil land a strike, just so that they can both increase respective skills. I shake my head incredulously and let out a sighing chuckle.


    The twins are asking why ¡®Uila and Lil are fighting, but thankfully Lu answers for me. I share my plans to distract the twins by flying them around with inventory magic to Lu telepathically, thankfully she thinks it sounds like a fun idea. Lu and I spend a few minutes snuggling in shared thinkspace before I get started explaining to the twins how I¡¯m going to do this. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever practiced using JT from two different directions facing in different directions before. I¡¯ve also rarely ever used it at anything slower than the fastest I can jettison-thrust.


    This should help me learn precise control, and it could open up more possibilities for me in combat. Lu even helps, or maybe distracts me, by making suggestions in shared thinkspace between motions.


    After a few hours, I¡¯m using JT in entirely new ways. It¡¯s not quite the same as telekinesis, but since I can claim my own items even from range, and summon them slightly at range I can do micro readjustments to their trajectories. I practice having the twins take bouncy flights that pass near one another, crisscrossing their trajectories on occasion.


    We¡¯re all having a fairly good time until I hear a snarling from a ways away that can only be Mataalii. Oh he¡¯s going to kill me. Some sort of defensive instinct flares in me as I want to spare the twins from his wrath, and something intangible passes from me to them.


    ¡®Naia¡¯s form elongates and glows, as does M^2¡¯s. Oh no, now he¡¯s definitely going to kill me. I try to cushion the twins¡¯ falls from where I¡¯d been flinging them up and down with JT magic. My reaction is largely unnecessary, but everything seems to be happening in slow motion.


    ¡®Naia takes on the appearance of something akin to Luni, the slightly humanoid stage of otter evolution, but her outfit and form are a mix between a ballerina, a jazzerciser, and a mermaid. M^2¡¯s form adopts a similar look, though M^2¡¯s is a little less athletic looking, without the shimmering scale elements, and they have a scarf as well.


    Mataalii looks like he¡¯s about to fly off the handle. The twins are defending the situation, saying they¡¯re not babies, and never were. Mat¡¯s fairly close to frothing at the mouth as the twins relent and follow Mat away from our training area.


    Okay, if I was waiting for any kind of signal for the correct time to start our journey to the west, it¡¯s now. Mataalii is going to need a long time to cool down.


    Gulping, I call out to my inner circle, ¡°Guys? Could you um, gather your stuff, and say our temporary goodbyes to Lao and Fam? Give her hugs for me, I¡¯ll be waiting over by the caves.¡±


    Teuila cracks her knuckles but I shake my head in her direction. I know she wants to smack Mat for scaring me, but it¡¯s not worth the family tension and strain.


    Thankfully, it doesn¡¯t take long for my inner circle to catch up to me near the caves. We haven¡¯t seen our neighbors in a while, but I can actually hear the faint sound of drumming coming within. I think we¡¯re at a good place with them. Hopefully. I really don¡¯t want to imagine what would happen if we weren¡¯t. Right, anyway, we never did come up with a party name, did we?


    Lil did once say that I could never be too sappy, right? Let¡¯s put that to the test. I ask my party, ¡°Hey, guys, how do you feel about Shellcracker Adventuring Party for our inner circle name?¡±


    There¡¯s a round of laughs from the SAP as they agree it¡¯s a fitting acronym for a name for any party that contains me. Still, however many days or weeks the SAP travels, it feels like we¡¯ll never hit a coastline. We¡¯re training constantly now, rather than spending as much time in shared thinkspace.


    Today we¡¯ve finally reached the coast. To the north, the cliffs rise up to FIre Biome far above, and the waves crash against the cliff face in a majestic display of the fury of the ocean. The ocean¡¯s waves also lap high onto the sandy beaches from here to the far distance.


    It seems unlikely that any sort of civilization or group of potential allies might live at the edge of the cliffs in Fire Biome, so we decide to venture south.


    Finally, after two days traveling south along the shore, we crest a rise in a sandy dune created by the waves of the beach, and we¡¯re treated to a sight I didn¡¯t think existed in our world.


    Our entire party stares at one another in shock at what we discover. There¡¯s a walled city, ships at dock in a port, a miniature castle, a bell tower, chimneys, and a lot of motion visible within its walls.

 B 2 C 36: Human Civillization

    <h2>B 2 C 36: Human Civilization</h2>


    We do our best to get to a point in the treeline near the coast where we can peer into the city from above the walls, without being seen. Using Lil¡¯s extremely potent senses, we all scout this city. There seems to be a sizable standing militia, all decked out in the same regalia, red tabards with what appears to be a fleur-de-lis, armor, and long spears. The fleur-de-lis style symbol is somehow twisted, there¡¯s something off about it, a sort of halo adorns its upper crest, and there¡¯s a few other differences, like it being surrounded by a fetterlock. Beyond just the spear, the standing military types all seem to possess the same weapon, it¡¯s reminiscent of a sharktooth. The blade is oblique and serrated.


    The military practices more than formations, they practice magic spell drills. Every ten casts though, they have to rest for about an hour, they all look worn out from the exertion of ten spells. If they¡¯re like mine, that means that their minimum spell mana is one hundred, and they all have exactly one thousand energy, roughly. Based on the size and effectiveness of their spells, it seems like a pretty good bet that they¡¯re all in the early stages of being able to use one hundred mana to produce effects. Back when I was first using thermokinesis, my firebolts were as pitiful as theirs are when expending only a hundred energy. Mine are quite a bit more impressive now, but that¡¯s not to brag. I¡¯m simply perplexed by everything I¡¯m witnessing. The militia members don¡¯t all use fire or ice either, there appear to be clouds of poison, or acid, short bolts of lightning, waves in the air that could be sonic or kinetic attacks, all manner of things. If I could get in that militia, I would try to get them to spar with me and hit me with their attacks constantly to build up resistances until I unlocked all of their skills.


    One of the most surprising things though, is there are human children of all ages, humans of all ages, and I am definitely not one of them. I¡¯d convinced myself I was human, but I¡¯m most certainly not. Maybe in some strange past life, but this body, Reggie Shellcracker, even before I started playing with shapeshifting, was never a human, and probably never a child. I could pass as a human child if I¡¯m careful, especially if I self actualize a bit to look like my first appearance. I should stop calling my larger form my more adult form, it¡¯s just my more authoritative form. Like I said, I doubt I was ever a child to begin with. Like Laomati and Agwai, I spawned with enough of a wealth of memories to draw from. We choose our location in our family. I guess I just wanted to be mothered for a time.


    I can¡¯t spy anyone using inventory magic, most people are carrying backpacks and purses and the like, or baskets and so on. The purses do seem to contain the same currency that I possess, but it¡¯s not acting like a rotating icon. The money is in its base form. Some of the backpacks are like Luni¡¯s, though those seem incredibly rare.


    Some people wear bandages with blood spotting through them. These people bleed, they¡¯re ¡®of blood¡¯ as Dehlia would put it. I¡¯m not the only one. Yet I¡¯m not human. I gaze at the red potion in my inventory curiously. What would this potion be worth here? It¡¯s literally a life saver. That¡¯s to say nothing of the actual phoenix feathers we possess. I think we need to keep our inventories a secret if we journey within. I can just imagine the avarice that such items might inspire in such a populace.


    One of the ships pulling into looks oddly familiar. Its dark-skinned crew looks friendly and capable. Their captain has a head full of gorgeous salt and pepper curls, he seems to have freckles, or maybe age-spots on his handsome elderly face. In my memories, someone with that kind of hair would need to have a certain subset of ancestors from a certain land. The captain looks like the most utterly free man I can see in the entire place. For some reason, I imagine his name to be Morgan. I wonder if they¡¯re the captain from my dream so long ago. I don¡¯t think so, but it¡¯s still odd to see a captain sweeping and swabbing a deck, hauling supplies with their crew, and treating everyone in such a friendly manner.


    One other detail about the ship is that there looks to be a sort of closed cannon port at just above water-level on the rear of the ship. I¡¯d wonder if it was an anchor-hole, but that¡¯s on the other side.


    After a few hours, we notice hooded figures sneaking around. One of the figures even slits the throat of a militia member. My friends gaze on in horror, until we realize what they¡¯re killing for. What we thought of as cargo containers. It doesn¡¯t make any sense. They weren¡¯t stealing anything, they were freeing porcine beings, pig people, porcine spheres, anthropomorphic pigs. At first I¡¯d thought perhaps we should go catch these two for the authorities, but no. The militia loses track of the hooded figures, and the porcine individuals. The hooded folk seem to whisper something to the animal folk as they break off. Both groups disappear into the city somewhere in separate directions.


    After a long time our party spies the um, pigkin I suppose, swimming towards the one ship with a friendly crew, keeping out of sight, mostly beneath the waves. One knocks near the barely perceptible seam that I¡¯d spotted before, and it opens, the apparent family of pigkin are all hauled in swiftly. Once they¡¯re all in, the small porthole is sealed back up so that one can barely tell it¡¯s a secret door unless you had Lil¡¯s crazy powerful senses and invisible goggles.


    In the eve, the ship steals away in the night to sail to the south. I wonder if they¡¯re actually going south, or if they¡¯re going to pretend to go south, and swoop far out to sea to head north. That¡¯s the sort of thing I¡¯d do, unless I had a secret cove nearby that was inaccessible to others. Better yet, I¡¯d have both locations, and one would have a decoy trove. Some trinkets to make it look like I was a pirate with secret treasure, and nothing more. That way even if someone did manage to follow me to the first secret cove, they might be satisfied after looting it.


    I mean, that¡¯s what I would do if I were trying to save people like the pigkin, and didn¡¯t care about money, which I don¡¯t. I want more information on this town. I don¡¯t see anything that reminds me of forced labor, but I don¡¯t see otterfolk or pigkin or beaverfolk or naga or anything other than humans out and about. On the second day of observation, I think I finally understand why. In the market, many people trade in eggs, and common drops from folks. If those eggs are what I think they are, I¡¯m going to be sick. Do they let people hatch, kill them for their drops, and hope for another egg to have a supply of loot? Does that mean the same person reincarnates and is slain over and over? Or are they a brand new being if they drop an egg upon death?


    What¡¯s the right thing to do here? I sort of want to go in and plead for them to change their ways. Or go in there and just slaughter everyone. I wonder if humans drop loot. Heh, that¡¯s pretty sadistic. I¡¯m not too different from them I guess. I¡¯ve taken lives. I¡¯ve hunted a species to extinction, cragbeasts. Apparently they don¡¯t spawn anymore, and probably never will again. To be fair, they¡¯re hostile to anything and everything on sight, and would burn down the entire world if unleashed from their warren. Still, they were trapped there, unless maybe the barrier could fail some day. No idea if that could happen. Actually, with everything happening in a way that seems to be conducted by my future self, and Luni, I almost wonder if we needed to do that to prevent that exact scenario.


    Luni interrupts my train of thought with a, ¡°Bup bup bup, no guessing. Just keep being you. You¡¯re my hero, you¡¯ll make the right choices.¡±


    Hm, that¡¯s almost confirmation, but yeah, I trust Luni with everything, heart and soul. I¡¯ll stuff that thought in the back of my mind and forget about it. I call back telepathically, ¡°Love you Lu, I think I need to get into this city, but I¡¯ll need some more common clothing to blend in, wait, what¡¯s that?¡±


    Gazing into the city through Lil¡¯s senses, I can see several groups of people from the obviously richer section of town heading out. Their outfits scream self-importance, positions of power that they likely abuse, and wealth. They¡¯re followed by, of all things, otterfolk in ridiculously pompous outfits. My heart both soars, and breaks, that there are more people that could be my family in the world.


    Yes, once again, I know I¡¯m not an otter, but I mean, people that would probably be happy to live under the Shellcracker clan name. I can¡¯t imagine these ones are enjoying themselves all too much, as I haven¡¯t seen any go for a swim at all in the two or so days we¡¯ve been here. They don¡¯t look completely downtrodden or anything, but it still hurts to see. The humans also don¡¯t appear to understand the otterfolk at all, completely ignoring any sort of attempt at speech.


    Can the humans not understand, just like I couldn¡¯t? I definitely have to get in there, and talk to those otterfolk. In one of the dingy areas of town, I can see a small stall that sells meager clothing. I think that¡¯s where I¡¯ll enter from first, we¡¯ll sneak over the wall and down inside, all of us using my JT movement. Lil will have to keep their magic cloak hidden, which is too bad. It was kind of funny seeing Lil and Teuila train. Teuila would sometimes miss Lil because she attacked the wrong Lil.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    We have to make sure to keep our inventory magic a secret, absolutely no one here seems to be able to do what we can do. Still, time for the old up-and-over. I launch each of us into the air, then aim us for what appears to be a refuse pile on the inside of the wall. As we all land, the other three are trying their best not to gag, Luni quickly hits everyone with the soapstone repeatedly as we extricate ourselves. I think one of the other benefits of the soapstone is the ability to perform minor clothing mending, thankfully Lu¡¯s gorgeous dress is still alright, even after all this time.


    Wait, crap. The humans here don¡¯t seem to be able to understand any folk other than one another. I can¡¯t communicate with anyone unless I¡¯m in a party with them. Wait, unless. Hm. Perhaps I should at least give it a try.


    Walking to the shop stall we¡¯d seen, it¡¯s a bit dilapidated. It seems to be constructed from driftwood and scrap lumber. The shop owner seems to be a portly older woman who is almost snoozing standing up. She perks up as we approach.


    ¡°Oh oh oh, wealthy visitors, to what do I owe this esteemed pleasure your grace? I have the finest hand crafted, oh who am I kidding? There¡¯s nothing you could possibly want at my stall except to punish me for something. Have I done something wrong? Has my child offended you somehow?¡±


    I hesitantly ask, ¡°I¡¯m sorry ma¡¯am, I think there¡¯s been a mixup, would you mind sharing your name? If you¡¯d like, I could go first?¡±


    The woman seems fairly shocked, I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s my inflection, my accent, my presence, or what. She chooses her words carefully, ¡°Oh, I would never dare request that your eminence share first. Please forgive me, I¡¯m Berthalina, Bettie to my friends, Big Bettie or Big Bertha to the rascals around town.¡±


    I try to measure my response, ¡°Thank you Berthalina, Bettie if I may? I would like to purchase some of your clothing for myself and my friends here.¡±


    Bettie responds, ¡°Of course you may, your grace.¡±


    I make a fatal mistake as I turn to Teuila, I ask her, ¡°Te, what do you think would look inconspicuous on me, and nice on you?¡±


    Teuila begins sifting through the clothing, rubbing some against her cheek, holding various things in front of herself to inspect how they would appear on her. All the while, Bettie¡¯s jaw is basically on the floor.


    Bettie finally works up the courage to ask, ¡°Ex, ex, excuse me, your grace. Did you say, your friends? And did you just speak to critterfolk? Did you perhaps teach her to respond to your voice? It¡¯s almost as if your little beast understood you.¡±


    Fury flashes through me, but I breathe as calmly as I can. Though I keep my face neutral, somehow Bettie recoils in terror. Oh, right, my aura is on display. I need to maintain my poise and respond. To maintain my cover, I¡¯m going to have to break my own heart and treat my friends as pets it seems.


    Telepathically my inner circle all agree to go along with the charade, though I¡¯m loathe to do it.


    I respond, trying to recover, ¡°Hm? Oh yes, silly me, of course I didn¡¯t, just sometimes wealth is lonely and I yearn for friendship, they¡¯re mostly all I have, what with my parents being so important and busy of course. So yes, I suppose this creature here has come to respond to my voice. She must know I¡¯m feeling generous at the moment.¡±


    Bettie perks up, ¡°Generous your excellency?¡±


    Really playing up the part, I answer, ¡°Yes, yes I think I¡¯ll take this entire section over here, and the dress that my naked female was picking out just now, she seemed smitten by it. They will of course be carrying it for me, no need for delivery. Do you have a privy stall in which to change? I¡¯d like to try some of it on immediately.¡±


    Bettie gasps, ¡°All, all, all of that? I, I¡¯d have to total it up, but it would be near a thousand rand your lordship. But, but of course I don¡¯t question that you could afford it, with your coterie. And, and of course you can use the privy to change, it¡¯s just over here.¡±


    Trying to play up the part of an entitled wealthy child, I say, ¡°A thousand, surely I could talk you down to five hundred? Hm, no, my pet seems to think I should be generous, something about the glint in her eyes, I think she truly likes this dress you¡¯ve crafted. For her joy, I shall pay you two thousand, but not a rand more.¡±


    Bettie stutters, ¡°Two, two, two, two thousand? Truly? I, of course, yes, your graciousness is appreciated beyond measure. And, and you¡¯re certain you don¡¯t need it delivered? Err, I shant question your lordship, please forgive me, you said what you said, of course you meant it.¡±


    As I pay Bettie, I make a motion as if to pick and carry everything, for Teuila and Luni, when an idea strikes me. I¡¯ve seen some of the richer folk use bags like Luni¡¯s, so I telepathically ask Lu to take her harp out for a moment and carry the bag that isn¡¯t attached to the inside.


    Lu? Just make it look like you¡¯re pulling it from under your dress to wear it. Once it¡¯s out and strapped on, make it look like it¡¯s overflowing with some of the extra clothes, so that people can¡¯t see you¡¯re wearing it unless we need to impress them. Te can hold a small armload of clothes to make it look like I¡¯m using her as an attendant.


    Speaking to Bettie one last time, I try to offer a bit more aid, as she seems fairly downtrodden in this unwealthy section of town, ¡°Thank you Bettie, for making this lonely child¡¯s day, and the day of my pets. Should you need anything within the next few days, please ask around for Billie. Oh, if I could impose one more favor of you, would you mind telling me where one could purchase a night¡¯s stay if they didn¡¯t want to immediately return home to an empty domicile devoid of their parents?¡±


    Bettie seems to go from gleeful at her new wealth, to slightly suspicious, but answers nonetheless. ¡°You poor dear, yes, of course, if you head down Waterson, you¡¯ll see it intersects with MacIntyre, take that towards the town center, but not too far. You¡¯re looking for the, and you¡¯ll pardon my language your grace, The Salty Wench.¡±


    I barely stifle a chuckle at the many-entendre of the name. Thanking Bettie, I bid her adieu and head further into town to find Waterson street.


    We try to maintain our inconspicuousness and cover as much as possible. Thankfully there aren¡¯t many people in this less wealthy section of town, where it appears to shift from poor to middle class.


    Three men in faded blue tunics roped tight over the hips of their beige breeches seem to take notice of my party.


    Two don¡¯t appear to be paying attention to us, rather simply following one of the ones missing the least teeth. The apparent leader says, ¡°Oh hey, hey look that must be some rich kid, he got some of them critterfolk, and that curvy one aint half bad lookin¡¯. Hey, hey kid, how much for a night with the pretty one?¡± As I realize this imbecile is talking to me, I¡¯m about to say I¡¯m not a he. Then he gets around to his question before I correct him on my gender. At first I almost dignify the question with a response, then I realize what the cretin is asking.


    Once I realize what the question meant, from my memories of human civilization, I veritably fume. When my inner circle telepathically learns the meaning behind the question, I can¡¯t tell which of the four of us want to kill this man more. I grit my teeth and crack my knuckles as a malevolent sneer adorns my face. For some reason, he falls to his posterior and scrabbles away backwards. He looks a bit like a crab before he flips to his hands and knees so he can stand up and take off in a sprint.


    Oh, oh right, everyone else in the universe can see auras, and even the weakest sense of an aura can give you a read on someone¡¯s emotions. I doubt the coward had ever felt, or seen, the full animosity of a killing intent before, let alone such a strong one from four innocent-appearing individuals. His two friends also take off after him once they get around to looking our way.


    Crap, that¡¯s probably bad news. We don¡¯t want to make waves. We hurry along to the Salty Wench. It¡¯s easy enough to ask for a no-questions-asked room. I¡¯m a little sickened by the implications of what¡¯s going on around me, and what they¡¯re likely assuming I¡¯m here to do, but it¡¯s a decent cover to play along, while also pretending I don¡¯t know what they¡¯re talking about. The cover being that I¡¯m obviously trying to maintain plausible deniability, rather than anything else.


    Listening to conversations in the tavern area, one between two off-duty militia drinking beer at a nearby table sends a chill straight through my core.


    ¡°It¡¯ll be the easiest battle in history, all we have to do is march straight east along the cliff face below that flaming Drakkhen biome.¡±


    That path intersects directly with our settlement, with Shellcracker Pond. It feels like an entire planet¡¯s worth of weight lands upon my shoulders. The weight threatens to crush me as my knees waver and buckle. I manage to persist. Partially because there¡¯s no time to panic, I need more information. Lil, Lu, Te, did you hear that too?


    My party all telepathically confirms that I truly heard what I¡¯d heard, and they heard it too. Thousands of humans marching east along the cliff face, thousands of them that wield magic. Magic not as potent as some of ours, but too strong to fend off if we¡¯re caught by surprise. Militant humans from a society that seems to slay and eat ¡®critterfolk¡¯. Militant humans whose magic we couldn¡¯t fend off in such massive numbers. Maybe if we launched a surprise attack, we could take them all out, but not if we were busy trying to defend our family.


    I rush to the room I¡¯ve purchased so I can let loose sick in the chamber pot, as well as to break down crying. I need to formulate a plan, but at the moment, I need to ride out a wave of terror and sadness. My inner circle comforts me as we lock the door to our room.

 B 2 C 37: The Jig Is Up

    <h2>B 2 C 37: The Jig Is Up</h2>


    After calming down, crying for a while in the arms of my inner circle, or tail in the case of Lil, I gather my thoughts. We know that there¡¯s some kind of critterfolk friends somewhere in the city. They aren¡¯t above assassinating to free pigkin. Those pigkin were probably going to be slaughtered for loot like meat, and then if they were unlucky, they¡¯d have turned into eggs and reincarnated for it to happen again and again.


    I don¡¯t know if we¡¯ll be able to find the assassins, let alone in time before the militia marches. It¡¯s more important to find out exactly when that is happening, and if there¡¯s any way to convince anyone in charge to possibly change their mind.


    I think I¡¯m going to have to join the army. Not only that, but I¡¯m going to have to show off some of my magic. Just enough to show I¡¯m more powerful than any of theirs. Fliers around the town advertise essentially a trial by combat registration process, so at least it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to get into the military.


    I¡¯d rather not be the target of one of the assassinations for having supposed critterfolk pets. I make sure everyone has writing implements and paper in their inventories, as well as notes signed by me as Billie, saying that I¡¯m a friend of critterfolk, and that I¡¯m only joining the military for information. I don¡¯t know if the assassins are critterfolk, or humans, and whether or not they can communicate with the kind that they¡¯re not.


    We rest up for the night as well as we can with the weight of what¡¯s on our minds. We don¡¯t even dare spend time in thinkspace so we don¡¯t risk getting distracted from the task at hand. We also need to stay alert, so for the first time ever, we sleep in shifts. It¡¯s as horrid and lonely to be the one left awake as one would expect.


    By morning, I think we¡¯re feeling less rested than when we went to sleep, due to each of us having to spend a shift alone. So we¡¯re codependent, so what. We literally have immortal bonds. We definitely get more than a fair share of looks and jeers as we leave The Salty Wench. I¡¯m sure they think I¡¯m, ugh, I can¡¯t even finish the thoughts of what I assume are their thoughts of us.


    Asking around about whether there¡¯s an age requirement for joining the military, it appears there is none. At least that¡¯s a stroke of luck, I won¡¯t have to try to maintain a different form. My apparent age won¡¯t hamper my ludicrous plan. All I really need is an audience with someone in charge, but they need a reason to be willing to give me that audience before I spill the beans on my desires. If I somehow gained an audience without having any authority behind my words, there would be no point, no way I could convince the army not to march through my family.


    Asking around also clues us in that they¡¯re at war with some apparent elf colony far to the east, well, not that the elves know it yet. These people want the renewable resources located in the elven colonies. They¡¯re gearing up to march in a few months, so I¡¯ve got at least a couple of months to make an impression to be able to gain an audience.


    One upsetting piece of information that I learn though is that they¡¯ve had scouts scour the path between here and there already. The scouts supposedly reported back nothing significant. That means the military already knows my family exists, and doesn¡¯t care one whit about them. My family will be marched over, and slaughtered without a second thought if I don¡¯t do something.


    I¡¯m a little concerned about my maximum mana again. I¡¯d made significant gains during our training sessions while marching, but now I have what I think are several pools of mana, instead of one large pool. The one that I can actively draw from is only around nine hundred max mana. I wonder if I subconsciously developed a kind of defense against energy theft. I did want to visit those punks some day to figure out why their society required stealing mana capacity.


    It takes several weeks to get an exhibition date, they need enough recruits to be worth setting up an entire arena date for it, and then several more weeks to announce the debut matches. Apparently we¡¯ll also be entertainment that draws in funds for the military.


    I can¡¯t risk communicating with any of the otterfolk that are kept as pets during my entire stay.


    My military recruiter¡¯s name is going to be Reginald. I¡¯ll be given three exhibition matches, the better I perform, the higher my starting rank in the military. I¡¯m also allowed to make requests for the matches, but I¡¯m nervous on how much exactly to show off. Even my hundred mana spells are at minimum half a dozen times deadlier than any I¡¯ve seen casted here, likely far more than that.


    Would being virtually immune to fire, and showing that off, be a good thing? I could easily stand in their hottest flames without any equipment. I¡¯m met with a bit of derision as I appear to be some rich snot just trying out for fun, with my coterie as they call my inner circle, my SAP. My Shellcracker Adventuring Party is not allowed to try out, obviously, the humans here don¡¯t think critterfolk can talk or understand humans.


    Still, I know that I can¡¯t leave my party anywhere in town alone for two months, they might be kidnapped. That would mostly be disastrous for the kidnappers, but also blow our cover. Plus none of us want to be apart from one another for that long, so I look like a rich brat with attendants trying to join the military for kicks. That¡¯s fine, it¡¯s better than the alternative.


    My first request will be that they send every single fire mage that they have on hand who attends exhibitions to be my first opponent. Reginald thinks I¡¯m crazy. Still, he relents when I sign a waiver that says my ¡®parents¡¯ won¡¯t pursue damages for whatever happens during my matches. I have to be careful, if anyone asks me to identify my parents, I don¡¯t have a cover story for that. My second request is that my second exhibition be against all the ice mages they can muster as well. For my third request, I ask that if I¡¯m sufficiently impressive enough, to be granted an audience with whoever is in charge as soon as possible. For the third match, I just say to surprise me once they see what I can do.


    I notice that the human militia mages seem to have to call out names for their spells, so I¡¯ll play along and call out mine as well during my matches. There¡¯s a young woman and a brother trying out ahead of me. As for the sister, she¡¯s fairly impressive, definitely the top of her class, and probably the best that this entire human community can muster. The brother is similarly impressive, albeit a skosh less. For some reason, they only each have two matches. I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s because they¡¯re so impressive, or some other reason entirely.


    There doesn¡¯t appear to be too much sexism about it, but the examiners definitely assumed Harry would be stronger than Sally. I don¡¯t know their actual names, but they sounded like they vaguely started with Har, and Sal. The rest of their names are somewhat unpronounceable to me anyway. That¡¯s all I hear them refer to each other as. They actually seem oddly familiar somehow. Their movements are quick, lithe, succinct, without excess.


    They couldn¡¯t be? Could they? Nah, the friends of the critterfolk, those assassins didn¡¯t use any visible magic, just slit some throats. Well, that¡¯s not proof of a negative either, since Sal also didn¡¯t appear to use magic, but I¡¯m certain she was using wind magic. I¡¯ll have to keep an eye out for them. I hope I don¡¯t get on their bad side, one way or another.


    Sal approaches me as her match ends. I gulp as she asks, ¡°So, you¡¯re Billie right? I hear you¡¯re spending your nights with your coterie at The Salty Wench? Pretty brazen for someone as young as you, even with how much money you come from. I also hear you¡¯ve got a death wish, and are probably going to die in your first match. I¡¯d be honored if you¡¯d leave your coterie to me in your will.¡±


    Frantically I look to Teuila and Luni who shrug. I know they can safely escape from even this powerful mage¡¯s possession if they need to, and I don¡¯t want to blow my cover, so I try to laugh it off. ¡°Hah, yes, you know what? Of course, absolutely, you have my solemn word that if I die in my exhibition matches, I would like you to take charge of my coterie. Give them a good life, would you? They are after all, this lonely child¡¯s only friends.¡±


    Sal actually blinks a bit, taken aback, before she sneers at me. She offers a hand, ordering, ¡°Bettie said you¡¯d say that last bit. Shake on it and it¡¯s a deal.¡±


    As I clasp her arm at the wrist, I can tell there¡¯s definitely a dagger beneath her glove and bracer. My eyes flash wide and for a moment I imagine she¡¯s going to kill me on the spot. Sal leans close and whispers something, but I don¡¯t hear it in my panic. Ugh. That was probably an important bit of information.


    I stutter, asking, ¡°Come, come again?¡± But Sal walks off rather than repeating anything. Crap!


    Har just walks past me on the way out, somehow waggling his eyebrows salaciously, while also scowling. Ugh, I¡¯m not sure which is worse, if they want me dead, or if they think I¡¯m, ugh. Wait, she said Bettie spoke about me. Crap crap crap crap. Did I slip up with Bettie? Or did I play my part too well? Either way it¡¯s bad news. If they¡¯re like all the other humans here, them thinking I¡¯m friends with critterfolk could be dangerous for Lil, Lu, and Te. If they¡¯re the assassins, and I played my part too well, they might try to take me out to save Lil, Lu, and Te.


    Reginald calls out, ¡°Billie, no surname given, Match one, opponents, the entire fire squad from the fifth platoon. Match rules as always are until a side yields in submission, or inability to continue, no intentional death will be excused. In this case, I assume accidental death is inevitable. Take your places.¡±


    I make sure my SAP has a seat safely away from any humans where they can still watch the match. When I¡¯m sure they¡¯re fine, I literally sit in the very center of the arena, in lotus position.


    Several of the fifth fire platoon begin to laugh, and I hear several calls of ¡°you can¡¯t be serious.¡± Reginald replies, ¡°Deadly.¡±


    When the match finally begins, after everyone stops snickering, the first fire attack I simply block by saying ¡°FFS¡± as I put up a pinpoint frozen frost shield. This causes a few murmurs. I interlace my fingers and steeple my thumbs.


    I call out, ¡°Please, continue, more than one at a time please, or it¡¯s the same as only fighting one of you.¡±


    This has the desired effect, the one whose attack I blocked yells something like ¡°Beginner¡¯s Luck.¡± That individual begins slinging several of their spells. I know they can only manage about nine or ten spells before they¡¯re spent, so I don¡¯t bother showing off everything just yet.


    I simply call out, ¡°FFS¡± repeatedly. My party knows it means Frozen Frost Shield, but the humans don¡¯t. They simply see tiny ice manifestations as I superchill the wind in micro locations where a firebolt will land. It doesn¡¯t matter where they¡¯re coming from, I don¡¯t even have my danger wraps equipped. At this point I can sense thermal fluctuations around me with unerring accuracy. If a firebolt is aimed at the back of my head, I¡¯ll have a pinpoint FFS barrier there, if it¡¯s aimed at my crotch, I¡¯ll have one there, right shoulder, left shoulder, knees, it doesn¡¯t matter.


    If these humans know the same curses I do it¡¯s probably freakin¡¯ hilarious to hear a child be casually dismissive in a battle by yelling FFS repeatedly. Not to mention seeing them actually block the attacks with such an acronym. At this point, all twenty soldiers begin to rain down firebolts. Now that I have their attention, I wait until they¡¯re about half spent, and I stop using my FFS, simply letting their attacks land.


    My clothes are blown to tatters, but I¡¯m left barely singed due to my ridiculous thermal resistance training with Lil. The squad halts their attacks for a moment when they realize I stopped defending myself, but when I gleefully shout, ¡°Please, don¡¯t mind me, continue if you will!¡± that¡¯s when they lose it.


    As they all rain down their second to last, or last spells, I move my hands from their position on my lap. I leave my fingers still intertwined while I press my palms outward, then call out, ¡°FFS, Flash Freeze Storm!¡± and coat the entire arena in a layer of frost, encasing the entire squad in ice. Thankfully their prepared final spells thaw themselves out quickly enough, but they stand around shivering, clasping their own elbows. I fashion a bit of a loincloth out of ice, so that I don¡¯t give away a certain difference I¡¯ve noticed between myself and some drunk humans who were pissing in corners. Like I said before, I don¡¯t have the equipment for that kind of relationship.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    I call out, ¡°Would you mind if I had a change of clothes before my second match?¡± No one answers, so I walk to the side of the arena where Lu, Lil, and Te are sitting, and I telepathically ask Lu to toss me a change of clothes from her bag. She tosses me some breeches and one of the heavier wool looking tunics from Bettie¡¯s shop. I pretend to appreciate the added warmth as I equip my danger wrap on my left arm under the tunic.


    Reginald calls out, ¡°Exhibition match one, Billie, no surname given has¡­ passed the match, the fire squad is unable to continue. Ice squadron of fifth platoon, Billie, please take your places for the second match, same rules apply.¡±


    This match is slightly more dangerous, because the ice spells are actually solid objects that could pierce my skin. I¡¯m not sure quite what I was thinking in asking for this one. Still, between my tattoo and danger wraps, I might possibly be able to handle this. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever had to defend myself from twenty angles simultaneously though. Lil thought up a funny acronym for my tattoo tendrils. Tattoo Tendrils Fend Now. TTFN is what I¡¯ll be calling out as I work through this match.


    The ice squadron doesn¡¯t waste time in beginning their barrage, after they¡¯ve seen me do something that shows up their entire squadron already. Just as I was thinking I would, I call out, ¡°TTFN!¡± repeatedly as my tattoo tendrils slap icicles out of the air as they¡¯re launched in my direction.


    Ah, yeah, twenty directions at once is a bit too much. I¡¯ve got cuts on my cheek, holes in my breeches, and a gash on my left foot already from one time when I slipped on my arse. I¡¯d better start actually fighting back. As I do essentially a breakdancing move, I twist into essentially a whirling top on my head before launching myself up to land back down on my feet. As I land, I bring my fist down, yelling, ¡°SEE yah!¡± Steam Explosion Extension, yeah. My fist contains enough flame to superheat, boil off, and then explode the moisture that had coalesced from my earlier flash freeze storm. I use an FFS to direct the force of the explosion towards one quarter of the arena. The blast knocks five ice squadron members off their feet into the air. Some land on their arses while others end up knocked into the audience.


    I try to get a bit flashy with a roundhouse kick containing an arch of fire large enough to hit another five in the next clockwise corner, but they¡¯re quick enough to use their ice magics defensively, throwing up thin walls of ice that barely block the attack. That¡¯s two hundred of my energy down, I have to be careful, I have limits similar to theirs as far as quantity goes right now. With the fire I could sit and actually regenerate while being attacked, it wasn¡¯t even an issue.


    I also don¡¯t know what the third match will be. I¡¯d better use my FBF style to tag a few of these guys with SIPs that cost zero energy. Dashing in a circle around the arena, I earn some reprieve from a few of the ice mages due to putting their allies in a path between me and them. Now I can punch, kick, and crash through their ice wall defenses. I¡¯m still not a graceful creature, so I do end up slipping on my arse once, sliding under several ice mages. On the way through their legs I take advantage of my position to fight a little dirty. They crumple to the ground and I feel a bit bad for them. I feel a little evil for taking advantage of a weakness I don¡¯t share with humans.


    In a matter of moments, I¡¯m left with three of the strongest ice mages left who had been taking their time by launching fewer attacks while sussing me out. The three of them do something I¡¯ve never seen done before, and they begin channeling their mana together to coalesce a single massive bolt of ice. If I dodge this thing, they¡¯re going to kill their allies behind me. Are they stupid? I can¡¯t use my JT even if I wanted to to dodge, as that would give away my inventory magic, or at least signify something was up. My best bet is to thrust myself into the fray and take them all out before they finish launching their spell.


    As I zigzag towards the trio, one of the mages I thought was down for the count unleashes an ice bolt at my backside, and skims my right calf, causing me to stumble. With the loss of momentum, I won¡¯t get to the trio in time before they launch their spell. Thinking quickly, I lean completely horizontal, letting myself drop parallel to the ground. I spend another hundred energy to produce a pair of jets of flame from my palms, using them as rocket thrusters aimed behind me as I slide along the icy ground.


    Once I¡¯ve made it to the trio, I simply sweep all of their legs at once, and give each a swift jab to the head on their way down, knocking them out. The spell still goes off however.


    Reginald calls out, ¡°Somebody stop that runaway spell!¡± The gathered audience gasps, it seems no one present has the power to stop a triple infused spell. Sighing, I launch myself to intercept it. The only angle I can get is one where it¡¯ll impact my right ribs.


    These poor ribs, how many times am I going to re-break them? I don¡¯t want to be perforated by the spear that¡¯s about as large as a hippopotamus, so as it¡¯s contacting my skin, I ignite another hundred energy fire spell from the point of contact outward. This causes a massive steam explosion, which cracks my ribs and sends me flying into the ice squadron members whose lives I just saved.


    I mutter, ¡°Ugh, idiots.¡± As I cough, I realize I¡¯m coughing blood again. Crap and a half, how many times are my lungs going to get punctured? This isn¡¯t survivable in the world in my memories.


    I stand up and hustle to the center of the arena to take my lotus position, hoping to regenerate my mana before the third match. I don¡¯t know what Reginald has in store. I can see him scratching his bearded chin and rubbing the stubble along his jawline in contemplation. I try to make a happy and polite facial expression. I give a slight smile and a nod. Reginald returns the nod, but looks a bit disturbed nonetheless.


    Reginald calls out, ¡°Second exhibition match, Billie no surname is decidedly the victor. An impressive showing. For the third match, will Sal and Har please return to the arena, secondly, acid specialist Jazharn, toxin specialist Adom, and thunder specialist Sofu please take your positions.¡±


    I¡¯m beginning to wonder why I used a pseudonym, since none of the humans can hear my family say my name. None of them will have ever heard of Reggie Shellcracker. I guess it would have come across weird to this Reginald if I said my name was Reggie without a last name. He¡¯d probably think I was poking fun at him, and maybe have me arrested or something. Wait, did he just say I¡¯m facing off against Sal, Har, and three specialists in elements I don¡¯t know? I have terrible acid resist and toxin resist! Thunder I figure will fall under blunt tolerance, but this is bad. Sal and Har didn¡¯t seem to use magic, but I think that¡¯s because it was wind or something. They could fairly skim along the ground with their movements, and when they threw punches, the punches would connect before their fists.


    I¡¯m in trouble, why did I ask him to surprise me!? I glance towards my SAP and they shrug with scared looks on their faces. Lil approximates a shrug without shoulders.


    Okay, let¡¯s quickly puzzle this through in thinkspace. Acid and poison specialists Jazharn and Adom I absolutely need to take out as soon as they begin conjuring their first spells. I might be able to operate with some slight wounds from Jazharn, but I don¡¯t know what kind of toxin Adom has. If it¡¯s contact, inhalation, or penetrative. Plus, whether it¡¯s neurotoxin, necrotizing toxin, or some other magic brand of toxin that I don¡¯t have a name for. If it¡¯s neurotoxin or necrotizing toxin that travels through my bloodstream, I might be able to claim it, along with some of my blood. If it¡¯s a gas, I could maybe hold my breath for the entire fight. Would it give me away if I use spells without shouting, if I¡¯m in a cloud of gas? I¡¯ll have to risk it, first thing¡¯s first, full breath for my lungs. Secondly, a non physical attack for Jazharn so that she can¡¯t block it with acid. Next, a flash freeze storm to buy myself some time as I see how things play out. Okay, let¡¯s do this.


    Reginald begins to announce for the match to begin, but I can tell something¡¯s already wrong as I begin to take a deep inhalation. Adom already casted a cloud of poison just around my face while I was distracted by thought. Good news, I don¡¯t need to call out my attacks, bad news, I¡¯m already lightheaded and my vision is going haywire. It feels like my eyes are being eaten. It¡¯s excruciating. I expel as much of the toxic air from my lungs as I can afford to without passing out, but Adom conjures a massive cloud of poison covering about eighty percent of the arena, forcing everyone else to not engage me in close range. Thankfully I was right about Sal and Har, their abilities are wind magics, and as they dash towards me, they push the poison out of the way. I easily slip past them during their dash.


    I swear on the way past that Sal mouths the words, ¡°Nice dodge Reggie.¡± That can¡¯t be right. That just can¡¯t be right, can it? No one here has ever heard my name, no one can talk to critterfolk. They don¡¯t seem to have access to analysis skills or stats pages or menus at all.


    Taking advantage of the brief reprieve from the cloud of poison, I take a deep breath and try to claim as much of the toxin out of my lungs eyes and nose as possible. It¡¯s a gutwrenching experience that leaves me bleeding from the eyes and nostrils to claim the toxified parts of myself. I really hoped I¡¯d never have to do that again.


    Crap, Jazharn¡¯s going to hit Sal and Har if I don¡¯t do something. I was going to do an FFS to buy myself time, but then they¡¯d be trapped in the path of the acid bolt.


    Steam explosion it is instead then. This might incinerate all of us with the cloud of poison gas here. I unleash as much moisture as I can from my inventory without being conspicuous, then superheat it. As I hoped, but also slightly feared, this also burns off the toxin in the atmosphere. Just as Hal and Sar are being ignited by the draft of flames, my steam explosion knocks them on their faces from behind, extinguishing them. It also knocks down everyone else currently participating.


    Now that I¡¯ve bought myself a second I yell, ¡°FFS, Flash Freeze Storm!¡± I don¡¯t even wait for the entire coat of ice to cover everyone as I¡¯m dashing for Jazharn and Adom, thankfully they¡¯re near one another. Careful not to shatter them, I pummel them as I thaw their heads.


    I didn¡¯t really have a plan for Sofu, actually, where¡¯d Sofu go? They¡¯re not frozen on the ground. Crap Reggie look up! Of course Sofu saw me freeze in the last two matches, so didn¡¯t stay groundridden. If I dodge this, these two are going to be shattered and die, how ruthless are these idiotic humans? Sofu is aiming a massive thunder wave down towards me where I stand over the recently-pummeled, still-frozen pair of assailants.


    Diving into accelerated thinkspace, I try to figure out what to do. Uh, um, what the hell contrasts thunder? It¡¯s noise, if I wasn¡¯t scared of using my inventory magic, I¡¯d pull out my own thunderstick and see if the stick could absorb it. Alright, no need to panic. Sound waves are still waves, I have this last fraction of a second to reverse or neutralize the waves. Nope, not enough time to come up with a plan to save these two. Best I can do is throw up a massive ice wall with some quick FFS uses and take the rest of the attack myself. Well, that¡¯s my best bet if I don¡¯t want to give away my inventory magic. It has to remain my ace in the hole in case we get arrested or captured, so I¡¯ll have to use this plan.


    Tossing up the quickest and thickest ice walls that I can, they shatter and are basically atomized by a relentless wave of sound. My eyes and nostrils are bleeding from Adom¡¯s toxin, but now I¡¯m pretty sure my eardrums just exploded and are bleeding out my ears. Oh that throws my balance off so bad, hurk. I¡¯m gonna horf. Oh, sorry Adom, didn¡¯t see you there. Loosing up my sick all over Adom is probably unsportspersonlike, but it wasn¡¯t intentional.


    Okay, so, Sofu needs to be brought down. They¡¯re literally flying with some kind of thunder magic. Fine, tendrils it is. I launch myself skyward with the tendrils, snag Sofu with all three and wind up for a spiked piledriver as I plummet with Sofu towards the ground.


    Holy crap I hope I didn¡¯t kill this person. They look really messed up from that.


    This leaves Sal and Har who are using wind to cut their way out of my FFS right now. Are they going to go bloodthirsty on me too? I¡¯d better get to the other side of the arena so that no one else can get caught in a crossfire.


    Sal and Har free themselves, take each other by one hand, and bow as they call out, ¡°We yield.¡±


    Huh? I probably look like a complete mess, and they could probably take me, since they¡¯re a coordinated team who have subtle magic that I can¡¯t predict.


    I stammer, ¡°Bu, but, wha? Huh?¡±


    Seemingly in response, Sal winks at me, then Har follows suit. I shoot my thoughts telepathically to my team, and they have no words for me.


    Reginald announces, ¡°Ah, yes, a marvelous third match for our top three recruits of the day, one can not fault a submission in such extraordinary circumstances. Well done each of you, absolutely top marks for everyone. Could we get medics in here for Sofu and Adom please? Also Billie may need detoxifying herbs.¡±


    As Reginald calls that out, I find my body purging itself violently. I projectile bleed from several orifices and vomit against a wall of the arena. I¡¯m starting to lose consciousness as I hear someone yell ¡°Seize them!¡± while pointing at my inner circle.


    I nearly lose it and go on a murder spree, but I call out telepathically to play along when I realize I¡¯m also being cuffed. I keep fighting to remain awake as my eyes droop and I pass out for moments at a time as I¡¯m hauled away in cuffs.


    Reginald looks bewildered and apologetic. Sal and Har look like they¡¯re trying to hide the fact that they¡¯re pissed about what¡¯s happening. Are they on my side? Or at least on Lil¡¯s Lu¡¯s and Te¡¯s sides. Maybe they are those assassins. I¡¯m going to have to risk it. I use my inventory magic to apparate one of my notes that says ¡°Don¡¯t rescue, need answers, friend of critterfolk, Billie.¡± I summon it basically in Sal¡¯s chestplate since I can summon at range. Hopefully the sudden velum in such a sensitive place will register and she¡¯ll know to look at it soon.


    Sal clutches her chest with one hand, so I think she noticed. I nod at her as she squints in my direction. I black out again for a few moments and I¡¯m somewhere outside of the arena, heading towards what is likely the prison complex of the town.

 B 2 C 38: Breakout

    <h2>B 2 C 38: Breakout</h2>


    We spend several days in prison, in separate cells. The prison is a bit of a joke, sure it¡¯s cobblestone for walls, but it has thin wood, or leather ceilings. Even worse, it seems ¡®critterfolk¡¯ don¡¯t deserve normal cells, and are tossed in essentially a pig pen with a padlock. It¡¯s humiliating and infuriating. On the third day I¡¯m finally informed of what the charges for my arrest were. I¡¯ve been arrested for impersonating a noble.


    As far as I know, I never claimed to be a noble, I just let people think it. I definitely didn¡¯t claim to be from any specific family, so they don¡¯t really have any ground to stand on.


    Telepathically I send to my beloved inner circle to stay strong. Lu disappeared in the confusion at the end of the fight, which is good for her, bad for us. If I don¡¯t know where she is, I don¡¯t know that she¡¯s safe, and have a harder time focusing. Still, it¡¯s better this way, they stripped Lil¡¯s scarf and hat as well as Teuila¡¯s brand new dress. I think they may have just tossed their clothes in the fire.


    Regardless, this is as close as I¡¯m going to get to a chance to talk to someone in charge now. I spend several days pleading to be allowed to make my case to someone in power. I¡¯m finally told I¡¯ll be taken to Priscilla, commander of armed forces and prison warden, tomorrow.


    We can¡¯t afford to break out until after I speak to her, so I beg Lil and Teuila to keep it together a little bit longer. Luni contacts us telepathically to say she¡¯s trapped nearby, she had let herself get caught after making sure all of our belongings were hid safely in her inventory. At least Lu is safe.


    I try to insinuate repeatedly that the army needs to divert their march just slightly, but I¡¯m not sure if my guards communicate that to Priscilla.


    I¡¯m dragged through the halls, if you can call open air walkways between shoddily constructed cells halls. Eventually we end up walking in circles til we¡¯re not that far from my cell or the cells with Lil and Teuila. There¡¯s a fairly luxurious looking tent stationed here.


    Two guards jab spears against my neck from opposite sides and walk me into the tent. My hands are still cuffed behind my back, and I haven¡¯t been fed in days. Or at least, they haven¡¯t fed me. It was easy enough to hide my face in a corner and apparate some fish close enough to consume it. Lil and Teuila did the same.


    A stately woman in a pristine uniform sits behind a long table, and motions for the guards to roughly seat me. Once I¡¯m seated, she begins, ¡°I am Priscilla, but you may refer to me as Madam Warden. You are brought here, Billie, under charges of impersonating a noble.¡±


    I roll my eyes as I reply, ¡°Thank you for clarifying madam warden, but I¡¯m actually here to make a request of you and your military. I want you to divert your military slightly before the falls at the edge of fire biome. I¡¯d like you to let me and my friends go. I¡¯m willing to trade quite the wealth of supplies to make this happen. I¡¯d even be interested in opening trade relations between our settlements. Shellcracker Pond is growing by the day.¡±


    Priscilla replies, ¡°Settlements? Surely you jest, you and the three savages you travel with couldn¡¯t possibly have a thing worth negotiating for.¡±


    I bite my tongue as I continue to argue my case, ¡°It¡¯s more than just the four of us, we have a full family that we continue to expand. We¡¯ve been building a community, a town.¡±


    Priscilla pauses, seemingly weighing whether or not to bother continuing the conversation. Or perhaps she¡¯s weighing if the information she shares will constitute spilling state secrets. She finally states, ¡°I¡¯ll admit, it¡¯s something of a mystery how a bunch of critterfolk last seen on the southern coast, ended up all the way upriver, and more of a mystery that you¡¯ve somehow got them constructing actual buildings for you, but I¡¯ll wave that off as the dumb luck of a wild child.¡±


    I bite back tears of rage at the insinuation that ¡®critterfolk¡¯ couldn¡¯t just construct buildings on their own and lead civillized lives.


    I start to crack under the pressure as I request, "You don¡¯t need to march through our settlement. Why are you even doing this? What purpose does this war serve? Please, disband or reroute this war effort, I''ll get you anything and everything you need, just please, don''t do this. Let my friends go. I can become more powerful than any of your forces. In a week¡¯s time I¡¯ll have more potency than anyone in your armed forces, and I¡¯d be willing to do anything you asked."


    She interrupts, "We need land for our crops, and our populace."


    Her answer is utterly ludicrous, it has to be a lie, there¡¯s thousands of acres of untapped land from here to there, maybe millions of square miles all told. I blurt out, "Forget the crops, I can get you literally infinite respawning fish. As I was saying, if you give me another week, I''ll be back at the same level as any of yours. I''ve already sacrificed more than double the highest among you has ever had. I''ll reach that level again too."


    Before I can continue, she ignores my assertions entirely as she interrupts again, to literally speak down her nose at me, "Oh no, don''t tell me you haven''t heard? The leviathans have been on the move, deleting entire swarms of fish spawn all across the oceans. Soon there will be none left. Perhaps then if we''re lucky, the Leviathans will die. More likely though, they''ll raise the sea levels, and come to claim the lands. We must grow stronger before then, and if it''s on the backs of others, so be it."


    My fury rises at this leader''s callousness. I then realize, or at least start to believe, she''s not even a leader, she''s just some, some middle management war monger general goon who gets off on a power trip. There''s no way they''d have taken me to see their leader. If this was their real leader, I could end this insufferable fool''s life right here. She not just condones, but desires the subjugation of others. It''s deplorable, detestable. This worthless pile of inhuman trash, and everyone in this city can go straight to hell.


    Gritting my teeth, I manage to carefully choke out a warning, "I must warn you, that if you continue this course of action, I will not take it sitting down." The spearmen at my back keep their spears trained on my neck from either side. The points rest against my most vulnerable flesh.


    The haughty commander laughs, spittle flying into my face as she closes in to whisper, "Silly child, you''ve been bound in the strongest magisteel cuffs this kingdom has to offer. Not to mention, if I so much as snap my fingers or blink threateningly, your head comes clean off."


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    I try not to let myself sneer as I growl back, "I''d be less worried about my head, and more worried about your own. I want my family''s safety, and I want you to keep your gorram military path away from our settlement! I''ve been offering you, time and time again, I''m willing to do nearly anything."


    She actually cleans her nails in front of me to look disinterested. It¡¯s such a classic villainous move as a power play. When she looks back she makes a face as if she just realized I was still here before continuing. She actually reiterates and repeats herself from earlier, "Please, you have nothing to offer, you''re some savage bunch of miscreants living off of fish and wood. It¡¯s a mystery for sure, that critterfolk we¡¯d scouted existing on the beach many months ago, are now the same ones we happened upon in a different scouting mission far to the north, some quaint little home near the falls. We know you traveled upriver from the ocean, it''s a marvel you even survived the swamp, what with that ghastly beast out there. It ate a platoon of my best."


    The insinuation that they¡¯ve had people near my family twice without my knowledge makes me nervous, but the fact that she brought up Octorochi as having eaten an entire platoon causes me to laugh out loud as I let her know how we survived, "I killed it."


    She blinks before her face returns to one of disinterest. She asks plainly, "You what?"


    I can¡¯t help but boast, "I f''king Killed that abhorrent serpent, with a capital K."


    Priscilla scoffs, "Child, it''s not nice to swear at, nor lie to adults, let alone your superiors. And if you do want to lie, at least make it believable. I think perhaps it''s time we teach you some lessons. Go ahead you two, cut the child, but only a little, maybe suffering their first booboos will teach this child not to talk back to their betters."


    This idiot knows I was taken in after winning three exhibition matches, and she thinks this will be the first time I¡¯ve ever been hurt. I¡¯ve literally been reborn in flames. I''ve had it with this insufferable prick. I claim the cuffs on my wrists, and the spears touching my neck to my inventory. Then I eject one of Octorochi''s heads that I¡¯d been saving since Teuila first transformed into Valkyrie. I launch it straight into her face.


    "Believe me now!?" I seethe at her as I materialize the spears facing the reverse direction, now trained on the necks of her two guards. "You will alter your course, or I will gorram end you and every last being in this horrid city! I''ve played nice, I''ve begged, I''ve offered up my services and my soul, but you literally spat in my face. This is your last warning!"


    I risk energy debt and take on my more adult, more authoritative-looking form so that I can crack my knuckles to add to the intimidation. I veritably radiate blood-intent. In fact, since every other being in existence who isn¡¯t me can see aura to some extent, I actually literally radiate a perceivable killing intent. This supposed leader soils herself as I growl. Sending thoughts into my bond, I ask Lil and Teuila if they''re ready. When they confirm I tell them to break out, get Luni to safety, then head here.


    The fib I''m about to tell hurts my very soul, as I''m about to basically refer to Lil as a pet, "My dragon is on its way, as is my personal angelic knight. You have until they arrive to plot a different course through the jungle, or we start a massacre."


    Priscilla seems to regain her composure, "You''re, you''re bluffing, you wouldn''t."


    "Do I look ilke I don''t kill?" I eject more viscera of the serpent onto the table. "What will it be? I''m not even asking you to stop your stupid war, I''m asking you to angle your troops around my settlement. You have about ten seconds. Ten, nine."


    She stammers, "Surely, surely you jest, you don''t just have a dragon on call." Since she interrupted me, I continue counting silently, eight, seven, six. Her interrupting stammer finally ends.


    Since she stopped interrupting me, I continue aloud, "Five."


    My continuation that went unheard unnerves Priscilla. She nervously asks, "Wait, what about eight seven and six?"


    "Four, three" Lil''s wings can be heard flapping now, and this commander''s eyes shoot wide with utmost terror. Sweat is running down her forehead into her eyes in rivulets. I can tell it stings but she dares not blink it away.


    Priscilla finally relents, "Okay! Yes, yes, I cede, we will change course by a single half day''s march."


    I¡¯m not satisfied anymore, I ask, "And?"


    Priscilla nearly begs, "And what? That''s good enough, isn''t it? It''s what you asked for!"


    "And you will never, ever, darken my family''s doorstep, ever again. If I so much as catch a whiff that anyone from your city has been within ten miles of my home, or its newly expanded borders, I will return here and burn this entire forsaken cesspool to the ground." Lil lands with Valkyrie-Teuila riding atop them. I think into my bond that I had to risk energy debt, so as soon as this fool agrees, we need to get out of dodge so that I can pass out.


    Lil''s response on our mental wavelength is somewhat comforting. "Sure thing buddy, sorry about this nightmare."


    Teuila''s response is downright proud. "I heard everything you said to this dirtbag. You''re the best."


    I''m starting to try a little too hard to avoid thinking about certain triggering topics. Having a panic attack right now would probably blow the whole charade, then I''d actually have to kill everyone here. Hm, for some reason, I''m not afraid of that thought, nor am I really upset about it either. When did I become a killer? What did the dream say? Death¡¯s a bloody business, but it¡¯s my business? Am I really fated to become that ruthless?


    The dirtbag, as Teuila referred to her, finally acquiesces, "Yes, of course, of course all of our forces will be instructed to stay away from your, what was it again? Smashyshell lake?"


    Through gritted teeth and a hateful sneer I barely manage to say "Shellcracker Pond. Thank you, we''re done here. Don''t worry about letting my friends go, I already had them rescued while we were having this conversation. In case you still think we''re bluffing, ruminate on that. Goodbye. If you are very, very lucky, you will never see me again." I draw into my inventory; the spears, the viscera, and serpent head, leaving only a bloody smear for good measure. One of the few things that actually bleeds in this world, other than humans, and me, is the occasional item left behind by some creature or another. Even those rarely have blood.


    Thinking into my bond, I''m veritably fuming, but also exhausted. Guys, quick, quick, get me out of here.


    Teuila makes a polite nod, as if acknowledging an equal or superior officer, she then offers me a leg up to mount Lil. Lil crashes through the tent roof as they rise to the sky. Finally I can drop my form and pass out.


    I said I can drop my form and pass out. Oh come on, what now? Huh, my energy is recovering. But, but I can''t drop my form. Is this the price for my willingness to kill?


    Is that Sal and Har hanging out east of town near the forest? I ask aloud, ¡°Lil, Te, where did you drop Luni off?¡±


    They nervously reply approximately where Sal and Har are located. My fury rises but I try to remind myself that these two conceded their match and used an easily dodgeable wind attack on me when I was surrounded by poison. They could very well be allies.


    Still, if they¡¯ve harmed Luni, I¡¯m going to just kill everyone here for good measure, consequences be damned, the accord I just negotiated be damned. Hm, the sin crawling on my back the most really is wrath.

 B 2 C 39: Rumblings

    <h2>B 2 C 39: Rumblings</h2>


    Har calls out as we land, ¡°Hey Billie pal, or should I say Reggie? You got yourself a couple o¡¯ gorgeous girlfriends!¡± This earns him getting elbowed by Sal.


    My hackles raise and every muscle in my body tenses. I¡¯m still stuck in my authoritative form, so I dismount and carefully approach the pair.


    I ask, ¡°You two know who I am? Can you speak with, ugh, I hate calling them this, ¡®critterfolk¡¯?¡±


    Suddenly Luni appears as if from nowhere, giggling. My guard finally drops as I relax ever so slightly.


    Sal and Har nod, Sal answers, ¡°Luni here has been filling us in, got to say, didn¡¯t expect you to change shape before coming out, but uh, pretty imposing, impressive, probably got the point across I¡¯m assuming.¡±


    I chuckle as I admit, ¡°I kinda lost it, I shot a giant serpent head out of my inventory at Warden Priscilla and covered her in serpent guts and viscera.¡±


    Sal and Har burst out laughing while Luni makes a gesture as if she¡¯s going to be sick. Lil and Teuila grin evilly and snicker behind me.


    Har ponders aloud, ¡°So, inventory magic, huh? We¡¯re stuck with stuff like Luni here¡¯s bags. Never even thought there was something more.¡±


    That causes me to ask, ¡°Wait, but how can you talk to my family if you don¡¯t have the whole menu interface and stuff?¡±


    The two exchange a curious glance. Sal shrugs before responding, ¡°I think I know what you¡¯re asking about, like, otters and beavers and pigs and whatnot talk with boxes, yeah? Only, it¡¯s not just boxes, it¡¯s also wind, they still use their lungs.¡±


    Oh of course! These two are some really adept wind mages. I¡¯m surprised the ¡®critterfolk¡¯ can hear them, but I¡¯m glad they can. Wait, if they¡¯re adept wind mages, could they possibly know Sylphie? My gaze probably saddens and begins to take on a questioning look because Sal answers my unspoken question.


    Her response is, ¡°Yeah, no, Sylphie died a while back. She, uh. She aint really coming back. Not that way. Most of what¡¯s left of her is in us. Guess you¡¯re lucky she¡¯s not mad at you. She¡¯s how I knew you were Reggie Shellcracker and not some Billie to begin with. I¡¯ve got fragments, bits and pieces. Those last few hours were rough on the two of you. My sympathy for all that.¡±


    I choke back a sob as I try not to remember the dam, and when we lost Sylphie. I want to be comforted by my inner circle but now I¡¯m twice as tall as Luni, even new Valkyrie Teuila is barely three quarters my height. I crumple to the ground and sit on my heels as I hug my knees. My right arm spasms and seizes up. I¡¯m mostly over the trauma revolving around Teuila from this event after decades of accelerated thinkspace, but it¡¯s still an event that was destructive to my entire core being.


    Teuila herself might no longer be a trigger, but thinking about the event itself still sends me into a spiral of sadness and terror. More than once I nearly lost my family to flood conditions. More than once I had to deal with hostile entities in that dam who had the power to brainwash. I lost an entity who was willing to protect me and sacrifice herself to help me save others. She would have been a true friend. Sylphie was an amazing being who deserved better than to go out like that. It¡¯s too much. It¡¯s just too much.


    I think Sal nods to Har, the tallest person here, and Har kneels next to me, placing his hand on my shoulder. Teuila drops her form and sits next to me with an arm around my waist. Lil drops their form and nuzzles me from behind. Luni scoots Har to the side slightly so she can scooch my legs apart to kneel between my legs and between my arms since I¡¯m hugging my knees. She nestles into my embrace and just softly sings. Sal stands over all of us, her hand on my head, a strong breeze whipping up, and I can see the tears she¡¯s shedding ride the breeze in swirls.


    Sal suggests we make camp somewhere a bit out of sight, a cove a few dozen miles south along the coast. She¡¯s able to help us travel faster via wind magic to get there quicker, but Luni has it covered with her seven leagues songs. I¡¯m halfway on auto-pilot mode as we make the journey. We can¡¯t stay, we can¡¯t help Sal and Har if they need help with their crusade in this city. We need to get back to our family to make sure Priscilla keeps her deal. My thoughts cycle between the loss of Sylphie, and the possible loss of my family if we don¡¯t stay close enough to protect them.


    As I¡¯d expected of the possible cove, it¡¯s almost inaccessible if you can¡¯t fly, or don¡¯t have a very competent ship and crew. Luni can run on walls and cliff surfaces, Teuila virtually flies, Lil actually flies, and I can use my JT movement. Sal and Har can actually fly for a bit as well with wind. Hm, Sal and Har are killers, but so am I. That thought strikes me now all of a sudden.


    Another thing I¡¯d suspected earlier, this cove has some minor trinkets and a fair amount of wealth, but the ¡®critterfolk¡¯ aren¡¯t here. When the ship pulls in, they stay only until the following night before making a wide berth around the coast to the north. The name of the ship is the Undine. It¡¯s a beautiful name, like Sylphie was a beautiful name for a wind spirit. I wonder if a water spirit guides the Undine.


    A twinge in my gut keeps telling me we need to get home. I try exercising my magic while everyone is resting and talking about the state of affairs within the city. I blow through my entire primary mana pool, and secondary, and finally when I¡¯m burning through my tertiary mana pool, my form drops. I revert to the form I know as Reggie Shellcracker when I see my own reflection. Teuila welcomes me back to snuggle away from the discussion. I think Lil and Luni might be staying here with Sal and Har to work on the issue of the ¡®critterfolk¡¯ in this city. It breaks my heart that I don¡¯t see a way to fix it. The entire city seems to rely on their sick twisted hatching and slaying of the same creatures over and over to live.


    When I jokingly guessed that the captain of the Undine was named Morgan, it turns out I was right. He doesn¡¯t have a last name, but he¡¯s proud to be a free man, and to share that freedom with anyone he can. It¡¯s noble, I want to help, but I can¡¯t shake the fear that I need to get home soon.


    After a couple days of planning with everyone, I notice that the army is beginning to assemble for their march. It will be slower than even I could travel alone, but I wouldn¡¯t want to risk it.


    I ask those assembled, ¡°Guys, would you hate me if I headed home? I don¡¯t trust Priscilla. I really want to help out here, but I can¡¯t risk it. They¡¯ll take a few weeks, maybe a couple months to get to the river, but I need to make sure our home is prepared to defend itself if they do show up.¡±


    Te immediately asserts, ¡°I¡¯m coming too, we¡¯ll get back quicker if I do the travel, and you just set up camp for us to rest.¡±


    I blink back tears and bite my lips as I nod thankfully at Teuila.


    Luni and Lil say what I expected them to, that they have to stay to help out. Sal, Har, Morgan, and the crew of the Undine are the only hope the ¡®critterfolk¡¯ have. I don¡¯t even know what kingdom this supposed city belongs to. I could never find a time when it would have been natural to ask what nation the city was a part of, or who their sovereign was, when I was under cover. I could ask Sal, Har, or Morgan, but I feel like I shouldn¡¯t waste their time gathering more information that I won¡¯t be using to help them out.


    I hate that I won¡¯t see them for a very long time. I embrace Lil and Lu in the most affectionate hug I¡¯m able to devise, then I kiss Luni and Lil goodbye as lovingly as I can muster. All of our hearts flutter, and Teuila tries to stifle her jealousy.


    Teuila¡¯s goodbye consists of, ¡°See you soon Dragbutt, will miss ya. You too Lu.¡±


    Until Luni and Lil tackle her for more affection that is. Teuila relents and smooches Lil affectionately. Te also gives Luni an embrace so tight that I hear cracking and popping sounds from the two of them. Te pulls me into a private thinkspace to point to sorrow, longing, love, joy, and other waves, as she¡¯s filled with a mass of emotions she can barely parse on her own. I nod as I understand how difficult it is for her.


    I call out, ¡°I¡¯m sorry again, I¡¯m so sorry. Please forgive me for not joining your noble endeavor. Please, please keep one another safe. Please. Anyone that you save is welcome at Shellcracker Pond, as are all of you. Your entire crew mister Morgan sir, of course you both as well, Sal, Har. You all know how to find it, straight east along the cliff face.¡±


    Morgan¡¯s voice is godly, forgiving, ¡°You have made your choice, your guide be providence itself. Good, bad, or indifferent. Though you don¡¯t need it, a soul is liberated through forgiveness. Go with grace, little old soul.¡±


    Teuila transforms into her Valkyrie form, the creamy gray silhouette version, she wraps her arms about my waist and begins leaping us towards the cliffs, then towards home. Te can¡¯t manage to keep it up indefinitely, it¡¯s not energy-free like the radiant version of the form was. Every few hours we make camp for a short while, and every few times we make camp, we take a full rest.


    Still, we make it home with easily weeks to spare, probably at least a month or more. I don¡¯t know if the army has any sort of magic to aid its progress and speed, but I doubt it¡¯s anything near Teuila¡¯s, Luni¡¯s, or mine.


    Spice lets me know he has actually been working on something to keep the family safe in secret. He says that he had the family helping him and they didn¡¯t even know it, because he was just having them do small parts or surface adjustments. I¡¯m fairly certain he has dug tunnels and reinforced them above and belowground by his description of the tasks. I¡¯d be surprised if none of my family has caught on yet.


    The volcano started erupting once a week recently before we returned, but now it¡¯s erupting almost daily. It feels like a bad omen. I give Sugar and Spice some more instructions on activities to help shore up our defenses to the west and south. I hope we don¡¯t need them, but if Priscilla goes back on her word, or if she didn¡¯t really have any power to make the call to divert the troops, then I¡¯ll be fighting off thousands of enemy mages. If Teuila is careful, she can take out dozens, maybe even hundreds, without suffering many injuries, but eventually a prolonged fight will wear her down.


    Hm, most of their attackers were fire magic users, which I don¡¯t really need Teuila¡¯s help to deal with. The ones to really look out for are those specialists in things like acid and poison. I could use Te¡¯s help to keep an eye on the sky for flying thunder mages too. Honestly though with how ruthless some of them are, I¡¯m pretty sure I could get them to murder scores of their own allies without even hitting me. How much am I willing to straight up kill these people? Should I just have done it preemptively anyway, when I had the element of surprise?


    No, no. We¡¯ll defend ourselves, that¡¯s enough for now. We met good people. Morgan, Har, Sal, Bettie. Bettie may have accidentally sold us out, based on how some of our guards talked about how we were caught. I think she was just having idle gossip with a customer about the strange kid with a coterie of ¡®critterfolk¡¯ and it probably got passed around that she thought I was a noble. She¡¯s pretty much the only person other than Sir Reginald that I spoke to while in the city. Sir Reginald wasn¡¯t too bad either. He didn¡¯t seem to want me to get killed, he genuinely looked out for me and kept offering me chances to back out even after I¡¯d signed waivers. There were also children, babies, innocents in the city. I know that I wasn¡¯t going to attack them regardless, but I suppose ruthlessly murdering all the military may have left some of them without providers, without their mothers or fathers or sisters or brothers. Hell¡¯s bells it¡¯s hard to figure out how to handle these sorts of things.


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    It¡¯s around the time that we¡¯re a few hours to a few days from when we expect the military to start passing along the river to the south of us when a great gale whips up and some familiar faces join us. Sal, Har, Lu, Lil, and Bettie arrive from the west.


    Stunned, I ask, ¡°Guys? What, what¡¯s going on? Did you rescue them all already?¡±


    By the looks on their faces I know it isn¡¯t good news, but I had to hope. They all seem too stunned to talk as Lu walks over to me and pounds feebly on my chest as she breaks down in tears. I gaze around, a sob caught in my throat, my lips trembling.


    I cautiously, trepidatiously ask, ¡°Morgan? The Undine?¡±


    Sal almost imperceptibly nods, ¡°They¡¯re alright, last we left them.¡±


    Bettie looks the most shaken up, I¡¯m trying to avoid the obvious question, hoping that I¡¯m wrong. I gulp as my stomach ties itself in knots. I barely form the words, ¡°The city?¡±


    Sal shakes her head, she can only utter one word, ¡°Gone.¡±


    I sink to my knees and draw Luni in closely as I try to console her. She was being a hero, she was putting everything on the line. An entire city, gone, wiped off the map. I can only imagine the cause is the same thing that took so many of her family from her to begin with. Priscilla may have been right. The Leviathans may be trying to take the land inch by inch. How the hell do we defend against something like that? If I was there, could I have flash freeze stormed an entire tsunami¡¯s tidal wave? Does Luni hate me for not being there?


    Lu trembles but she shakes her head in answer to my unspoken question. I inhale a ragged sobbing breath as I stroke her hair. Gazing at Sal and Har, Har¡¯s trying to console his sister in much the same manner, stroking her hair. I wonder though if it¡¯s Har that¡¯s deriving the comfort from the action, he looks far away, lost in thought.


    Bettie appears to be completely unsure how to handle a town that¡¯s comprised almost entirely of ¡®critterfolk¡¯. She seems a bit less intolerant than the rest of the city she lived in though.


    Oh crap. As much as I rather want her dead, Priscilla needs to know. There¡¯s no city to go back to, there¡¯s no reason to go to war with the elves over resources. That¡¯s going to have to be up to me.


    I gulp as I ask, ¡°Is there anything else? I need to take this news to Priscilla, maybe I can salvage some sort of relationship, and prevent her from losing the rest of the town¡¯s populace in a pointless war.¡±


    The assembled each shake their heads. Teuila looks at me nervously. She knows I intend to do this alone. I explain to her in thinkspace, ¡°I need you to protect the family if this fails, if, if I fail. If she turns on me, I¡¯ll take out as many of them as I can, and try to get back to you, I promise. I will not fight to my dying breath alone against an army of thousands. I will try to find a way out of this if everything breaks down.¡±


    I take to the skies with JT movement propulsion, and angle southwest over the canopy. It doesn¡¯t take long to spot the lights that mark a massive gathering beneath the canopy. So I come crashing down at the biggest concentration of lights, intentionally plummeting through a tent and flash freezing everything in a massive area, everything save one person.


    Priscilla screams in terror, ¡°No, no, we, we¡¯re diverted, we, this is far enough isn¡¯t it? You can¡¯t, you can¡¯t!¡±


    I kneel in front of her and grip her hand, with tears in my eyes. Suddenly she takes on a somber stance. I shake as I try to find the words. Priscilla gazes at me, jaw agape, shaking her head. It probably dawned on her why an enemy would drop in unannounced, tears in their eyes. I¡¯m shaking uncontrollably, and surprisingly, Priscilla kneels down to wrap her arms around me, breaking into sobs.


    This woman who I despise has just lost everything she¡¯s fighting for. Someone I consider a vile enemy. I can¡¯t help but try to offer her comfort as every part of my being vibrates in my own discomfort at the situation. I¡¯m quelling fear, rage, sadness, grief.


    Arrows begin landing near me as the rest of her forces come rushing in to see what the giant crash and glacial blast was about. I don¡¯t care. I let several arrows hit me before she holds up a hand.


    She asks me with fury underlying her sadness, ¡°Was it you? Did you do it?¡±


    I shake my head as I utter a one word response, ¡°Leviathans.¡±


    Every last bit of strength drains from her form as she collapses in my arms, her arms go slack and fall to the ground beside us her head rests against my Valkyrie chestplate. The sound of her breathing is a grotesque mixture of wail and indescribable noises.


    Hours pass. I guess Priscilla was at least the commander at arms, or whatever her position is, because whenever we¡¯re advanced upon by yet more troops, she holds up a hand and they relent.


    I gulp as I stutter and stammer, ¡°I, I can¡¯t, I won¡¯t make demands, I can¡¯t begin to express my sympathy and grief for your losses, but, but please, please don¡¯t, don¡¯t throw your lives away. Please. You may not believe me, but ¡®critterfolk¡¯ are people, we can build community, society. I¡¯m, I¡¯m not going to ask for an answer, I¡¯m just begging you to preserve your lives, at least for a while, find some place to make your home without trying to steal it from others. I, I can help, I would be honored to help, if it could mean peace. You know how powerful I am, I want nothing more than peace, safety, and happiness for all who seek it. Please believe that. I¡¯ll, I¡¯ll. I¡¯ll leave you to your grief and plans. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s much that must be done.¡±


    Priscilla grips my arm as I try to stand. The expression on her face is twisted, grotesque, morphing between fury, hatred, anger, grief, loss, shock. In short, her most fervent expression is pure anguish. She asks once again, ¡°Was it you!?¡±


    I shake my head slowly, gulping back my own sobs. As I stand, Priscilla grips me by the ankles and sobs at my feet.


    I don¡¯t have a good answer to this situation. At any moment, her grief could turn into a desire for vengeance, a desire to lash out at anything nearby. My family is nearby and their safety is my priority. I spot Sir Reginald nearby looking flabbergasted. Maybe I can get his help in smoothing over this situation. I beckon him over.


    Reginald addresses me, ¡°Young sir, or is it madam? Billie, we had thought you detained, although I suppose a jailbreak was not out of reach for one who could present such an exhibition while holding back.¡±


    I gulp down sadness as I reply, ¡°Sir Reginald, instructor, proctor, I¡¯m sorry to be the one to deliver this news.¡±


    Sir Reginald interrupts, ¡°By your tone, this devastating entrance, and my commander¡¯s grief stricken sobbing, I fear it must be the worst possible news.¡±


    I nod. I get around to asking what I wanted to ask, ¡°Sir Reginald, it¡¯s gone, the entire city washed away by Leviathans. I¡¯m so sorry. I can¡¯t and won¡¯t make demands of you in your time of need, but I will beg and plead for you all to not throw your lives away. I want peace, safety, and happiness for all those that seek it in our lands. My family¡¯s safety is my top priority, full stop, nothing comes before that. If my family is not in danger from this contingent, I will do everything in my power to help you find a new home without stealing from others. Others includes ¡®critterfolk¡¯ mind you. They are people. I am ¡®critterfolk.¡¯¡± As I announce this, I reveal the scaled tail I¡¯ve been growing.


    The tail is small, but much more noticeable than when I¡¯d had my pants blasted apart in the arena. I¡¯ve been working on the self-actualization training while Teuila transported us home. I desperately want to be able to be at peace with the naga folk. If Dehlia wasn¡¯t lying, they have a community. It would be dangerous for this army to wander southeast into the swamps. I need this tail and more scales to cover my body before I feel safe heading to see them though.


    Priscilla stops her wailing for the briefest of instants before resuming it. Sir Reginald gasps at the revelation.


    I continue, ¡°I don¡¯t know how much power either of you have, or what you can decide on now, or any time soon. I pledge that I will try my best to ensure peace and safety in these lands though. I cannot begin to contemplate your losses. Please take the time to grieve before doing anything rash. I beg you.¡±


    Sir Reginald maintains composure before slamming his right fist to his breast and bowing towards me. Priscilla has gone fetal and let loose her grip on my ankle.


    I could just leave. I could let them take care of each other. This isn¡¯t my people. It wasn¡¯t my city. They were horrible people. Why do I care? Sighing, I sit down and pat the ground next to me for Sir Reginald. I help lift Priscilla¡¯s fetal form partially into his lap as I lay a hand on her shoulder in comfort.


    Sir Reginald rambles, ¡°She¡¯s, she¡¯s my commander, we don¡¯t, we hardly know each other. Her husband is, no, was in politics. Her son was in the reserves, I don¡¯t know if he was dispatched to join the contingent yet. Oh mercy me. She lost her husband and son. I fancied a barmaid at the Salty Wench. Her name was Eustace. She had a sister named Euriel who promised to fix us a picnic dinner when we returned. All gone, everyone, all of them. I, I can¡¯t really comprehend it. It isn¡¯t sinking in. Every last one?¡±


    I do my best to take in the information without judgment then I try to reply, ¡°As far as I¡¯m aware. I don¡¯t have scouts like you, only the word of some of my family that escaped.¡±


    Sir Reginald continues, ¡°Those two promising new recruits, fresh out of the exhibition trials, the same as you, gone, never to reach their full potential.¡±


    This time I can interrupt Reginald, ¡°Actually, they¡¯re um, sort of part of my family. They¡¯re why I know what happened. They¡¯re okay, but I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll be rejoining you. They love and respect ¡®critterfolk¡¯ too much to be a part of a military that might harm ones such as my family. Or any others.¡±


    Sir Reginald nods, barely comprehending, as he absentmindedly strokes his commander¡¯s cheek and her curly hair.


    I try to be as polite as I can when asking, ¡°Do you need anything, anything that you think I might be able to provide? Does your force have provisions? I will not let you go around killing the nearby critterfolk for food. If you need food, we can provide produce and fish aplenty. We might ask for some things in trade if it becomes a regular thing.¡±


    Sir Reginald says, ¡°We, we have some provisions, though I suppose many of those you aren¡¯t going to like.¡±


    I gulp and frown at what Sir Reginald is implying. They have eggs they use to harvest people for loot drops of food. What if some of my family randomly respawned in their clutches? What if Atamai or Penina respawned in that city? Olioli reincarnated as an egg in Shellcracker Pond. Who¡¯s to say Atamai, Penina, Iakopo, or Taito couldn¡¯t have done the same as an egg far out to the west?


    Closing my eyes and biting back my fury, I state, ¡°I would like to propose a formal trade union, the first substantial trade will include a month of provisions for the entire assembled population, in exchange for all of the people you¡¯re using as cattle. Please try to convince your commander to take this deal when she¡¯s finished grieving. I must take my leave, because there are layers of grief to this situation that I can not personally handle at the moment. Sir Reginald, you have my respect and adoration. I truly hope that this situation resolves in a safe, peaceful ending for you and those remaining that you hold dear.¡±


    Before I break down and slaughter my way to the supply lines to find the eggs, I blast off into the skies with JT propulsion and head towards home.


    Upon return, I inform everyone of what transpired, Sal and Har are fairly surprised at both how I handled it, and that Priscilla fell apart. I let them know that I intend to try to rescue the ¡®critterfolk¡¯ by way of trading supplies for them. I¡¯ve got the wealth to buy thousands of units of produce, and a single set of Valkyrie equipment can purchase thousands more if we sell it to our shop. We¡¯ll deplete our stock of fish quickly though. We¡¯ve actually succeeded in getting an extra school of fish to spawn by expanding the pond, so my theory proved correct.


    I didn¡¯t really check if the lake up by lava biome has fish spawns, perhaps we can make this work after all. I excuse myself to JT propel myself up into lava biome to check the lake and its possible fish spawns. The volcano explodes, erupting yet again, each time has been more violent than the last. That¡¯s when I notice it, out of ten obelisks that used to dot the landscape, there¡¯s only one left. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 then it enters at the beginning. Something is going to be let into our world. Something whose presence will stretch back to its first beginning. If that last obelisk falls. Hell¡¯s bells this couldn¡¯t have worse timing.

 B 2 C 40: Hells Bells

    <h2>B 2 C 40: Hell¡¯s Bells</h2>


    The last obelisk falls in the distance, and the sky goes awash in red. It¡¯s that stark red, the same as the eyes that have been hounding me since Day One. I plummet out of the sky as I¡¯m sent spiraling into panic. Four individuals and several spells break my fall. I struggle to breathe, clawing at my throat, my eyes lose focus and my tinnitus rings as loudly as ever. My right arm spasms and twitches and its wrist flicks painfully backwards. It¡¯s the eyes. The eyes are what was released into this world. The obelisks kept them out. Somehow, somehow the eyes are sent throughout time to my beginning. That¡¯s why there¡¯s a second beginning that stretches out before.


    The eyes, they¡¯ll forever haunt me, always, every turn of my journey and every step of my life¡¯s tale. If it could possess a phoenix, even temporarily, then anyone might be taken from me. I could lose anyone and everyone. I could have to fight Teuila again. It¡¯s too much. I can¡¯t, I can¡¯t take it.


    Suddenly, of all things, Lucky licking my cheek snaps me from my panic attack. But Lucky hates me. Has the world flipped upside down?


    From my position on my back, it seems like the whole night sky is alight with fire. Realizing that¡¯s not normal, I frantically ask, ¡°Guys, guys? Why is it so bright atop the cliffs!?¡±


    Everyone turns to gaze upward, several of our aerial specialists head upwards to check it out, returning with horrified looks on their faces.


    Har composes himself to state, ¡°The lava, it¡¯s, it¡¯s covering the entire Fire Biome. It¡¯s pouring out at an incredible pace, like the planet is vomiting its entire lifeblood to the surface.¡±


    I take stock of everyone around me. Lao, Agwai, ¡®Naia, M^2, Sugar, Spice, Har, Sal, Teuila, Luni, Lil, Olioli, even Bettie are all accounted for.


    Where¡¯s Mataalii? Where is he? He¡¯s not here as lava is threatening to pour over the edge of the cliff. He went to fire biome by himself, didn¡¯t he? Not a question in my mind about it, he went back there. Fire Biome is flooding with lava, and Mata¡¯s stats page is all screwed up. We¡¯ve just lost a brother. That can¡¯t be what future me wanted. It can¡¯t be. I¡¯d warn myself, I¡¯d have stopped Mata from leaving somehow, kept him under watch, something. I can¡¯t possibly believe that I¡¯d give us a message and not save Mata. What was going through my head? I couldn¡¯t possibly need events to play out exactly this way. That can¡¯t be right. Some future me was cold and calculating enough to determine that this had to happen? The thought frightens me to my core, a remorseless future me would chill me to the bone. I might not trust myself, but I trust Luni. She believed whatever she learned, wholeheartedly, and she knew this would happen. She trusted me, so I¡¯ll put my trust in her.


    Sal and Har fly up the cliff to scout out if there¡¯s anything that can be done to stem the flow, but a pterodactyl shows up and begins chasing the two of them. It¡¯s a massive beast, and I dare not look it in the eyes right now, because I have a feeling about them.


    There¡¯s utter shock when the entire family receives the message, ¡°Mataalii has left the party.¡± I didn¡¯t even know that was something that was possible. Why would he choose to do so? The Mana twins, his babies as he calls them, are here, with us, in this family, this party. He at least had to be conscious to make such a choice, so he hasn¡¯t derezzed. My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach as I can only manage to come to one conclusion. Mataalii hates me enough, is hostile enough to me, that he was a valid target for possession by the Red Eyes.


    My mind devolves into panic, not only that I¡¯ve lost a brother, but he¡¯s now in the hands of my most fervent enemy, one who has hounded me since Day One. This creature can exist simultaneously across time, including several places at once. It can leave fractions of itself in some beings. Mata must have possessed a fragment of it that he inserted into Lil¡¯s core. How much of that was Mata¡¯s choice? The nightmares consume me as the lava pours over the edge of the cliff, threatening to consume all we have worked for. I crumple to the ground as my knees buckle. I must be wailing tears of loss in between sobs of fear. I feel a tap on my shoulder, but none of my family are at my back. I sense a presence shaking their head.


    With pulse pounding in my ears, threatening to blow my eardrums with my own heartbeat, and eyes bulging against their sockets, I stand. I cry out, ¡°Spice, that plan you made, go, take them to safety, I¡¯ll catch up! Teuila, get Bettie to the humans, have her warn them! Make sure that if they evacuate south they won¡¯t fight Luna or the beavers! You got that Bettie!? Don¡¯t let them hurt the bear or the beavers! Then Teuila come back to guard the family, I¡¯m sure it¡¯s a tunnel structure!¡± Teuila hesitates for only a split second before following my request. She¡¯ll only be gone for a few minutes to cover that distance. I should be able to hold out that long. I start with a massive FFS, but sucking the atomic heat from such a wide area at once is too much when that area is mostly lava.


    The lava begins encircling our entire settlement somehow, it fights its way back uphill after being diverted around us. I dash back and forth, parallel to the edge of the lava flow, erecting superchilled air barriers as much as I¡¯m able. Though I manage to create a small dam of cooled rock, the lava quickly continues to spill around the sides. Gazing eastwards, it¡¯s like the waterfall has been replaced by a lava fall. Worse, the river level is rising, a river that is now lava instead of water. I sense my family members disappearing into some sort of secret place, one by one.


    The terror that I¡¯m fighting off threatens to consume me. I can¡¯t help but think about all the times my family members have been in danger. The flood of lava reminds me of the Night of High Water, the pterodactyl reminds me of a difficult foe, Octorochi. The lava flood also reminds me of the beaver dam, both times. It also reminds me that we nearly lost Lil and Teuila to some mysterious force in the foothill of the cragbeast queen. A cragbeast queen that was possessed, similar to the pterodactyl now attacking us. My only body parts that respond are my fingers at the ends of my trembling hands. The pterodactyl makes a swoop for me in my panicked state, but Sal and Har both blast it sharply with wind that only mildly scratches its tough hide.


    Sal and Har traveled so hard, they¡¯ve only had a few hours to recover since they arrived with Lu and Lil. They¡¯re not doing well at all, but I can¡¯t bring myself to move as I see the pterodactyl¡¯s eyes. Stark-red, pupil-less eyes. Sal dives beneath its wings and summons a mighty wind blast upward, knocking it off of its trajectory that would have gutted me and smashed me to smithereens. She¡¯s screaming at me to run or fight, but I can do neither.


    I mumble, barely a whimper, ¡°P,please, please go. I won¡¯t die to this.¡±


    It¡¯s true, other than perhaps some injuries from the pterodactyl, I could walk out of this mostly unscathed even on autopilot. They can¡¯t hear me though.


    Har motions for Sal to find a better vantage, so she rockets skyward as best her wind magic will allow, she aims for the cliffs, but I can¡¯t warn her that there¡¯s no structures up there. There¡¯s nothing to gain a vantage from. Her vertical ascent is much slower than what I can manage, but I can¡¯t even manage to move. A sonorous bell rings out from the pterodactyl¡¯s mouth, an awful thunderous noise.


    Suddenly Sal is knocked out of the air as if by some invisible force, far too far away for me to reach or to help. Har is rushing down to try to save his sister but, oh, oh no. She cooled a small patch of lava but then was immediately engulfed as the rest of the flow swept over it, splashing her. Is that how I will die? Sal isn¡¯t derezzing, she¡¯s, it¡¯s so gruesome. Har has her arm! He¡¯s, oh no. He is, he¡¯s, he just gave up. He just, the only thing that was left was her arm in his hand, and he let his wind magic end. They, they were gone in an instant. It was so fast. That¡¯s how it would have worked in my memories. That¡¯s how my memories say lava would treat people. Is that what¡¯s going to happen to me, right now? The pterodactyl begins its thunderous dolorous gonging directed at me, knocking me over and shattering the dock of Shellcracker Pond.


    I blindfold myself and let lava begin to surround me, trying to overcome my fear. When the pterodactyl enters my danger wrap sense range, I summon a dozen umbral copies of Gae Buidhe for a terrifyingly powerful US, it tries to release its sonic attack one last time too late, even as its gonging sounds loud the beast dies. The pterodactyl derezzes, and I can feel the furious entity try once again to pass through me. Once more I¡¯m given a glimpse, some shared memory. A stone bridge, temple steps. The entity takes off in frustration, I can tell it¡¯s heading towards the center of Fire Biome.


    Teuila returns and pleads with me to go. I remind her that I¡¯m fine, that lava barely affects me at all, and that she should head to the family to keep them safe. She acquiesces and follows where she¡¯d seen Spice go before leaving.


    I remove my blindfold to witness the calamity as it happens around me. The lava seems to have a mind of its own. Every bit of molten stone that I cool and block off seems to only cause further lava to try to work against gravity to flow back uphill towards me and the pond. Wait, lava with a mind of its own? I don¡¯t know if this will help, or be the worst mistake of my life. Vesuviform, I choose your freedom. Please don¡¯t kill me. Please don¡¯t attack my family. I summon the orb that I¡¯m positive contains the heart of Vesuviform from my inventory. I huck the orb into the lava as far north as I can, which is a fair distance at this point, but it¡¯s not enough to be out of sight range of VF as they swirl into existence.


    I gulp nervously. Tension hangs in the air as I¡¯m busy dashing about, cooling lava into rock as it remelts. VF watches me, and I worry that they¡¯re simply enjoying observing my losing battle. Vesuviform seems to swim away upstream, taking a significant portion of lava with them, though not enough to staunch the flow. Somehow I get the impression that they¡¯re headed to the volcano to put a stop to this. But it¡¯s several days of travel. No, it¡¯s several days of travel for me, probably a few hours for a creature like Vesuviform. Still, I¡¯m losing ground by the second. There are mere minutes before the pond is completely finished being overtaken, then seconds after that our homes will be destroyed. At least the whole jungle won¡¯t be destroyed if VF is really going to soothe the volcano.


    I first worried that Mataalii would be taken from us by lava, now I worry that Mataalii is somehow immune to it, or worse, controls it. If Mata somehow catches Vesuviform as VF races to the volcano, can Mata control the lava beast? Well, that¡¯s pure speculation, I don¡¯t have any idea what¡¯s keeping Mat alive in Fire Biome right now.


    I glimpse a future where Lao is unconvinced that I will follow along, she believes she has to come back to save me. We unwittingly pass one another, Lao and Lucky end up far too deep in lava, and by the time I catch up in that future, Lao dies. She derezzes with Lucky before I can even get back to her when I''ve caught on that she turned back, there''s not even an opportunity to use the phoenix plume on her. This is definitely why Lao could never be given the idea that she could come rescue me with Lucky.


    In such a future, I could see myself becoming cold, calculating, ruthless, especially to find a way to use my time travel well enough to prevent it. Is that it? Was all of this pain and suffering to save Lao? Would she have wanted that? I can''t say I''d have done anything less.


    I abandon trying to save the buildings of the Shellcracker Pond Settlement, and instead I claim as many of our belongings and as much of the material as possible, including significant chunks of the buildings. I find Spice¡¯s secret tunnel entrance, and it¡¯s ingenious. There¡¯s a sort of sieve trap at the bottom, he probably planned it for flooding, but it might work for lava as well. It leads to a massive chasm for the liquid runoff. Off to the side, there¡¯s a doorway of stone. My family must be down it. Sadly this tunnel heads northwest, right under the lava, and towards our neighbor¡¯s caves. I step outside the tunnel and let out one more massive Flash Frost Storm to buy a few precious seconds as I take off down the tunnel after my family.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Whew, I¡¯m catching up to my family, wait, it¡¯s just Lao and Lucky, why are they running this way? No, no I¡¯m fine.


    I shout, ¡°I¡¯m fine! Go on!¡±


    Lao, Lucky! Lava pours through above the two of them and there''s no room to move, no time to react. My instinct is to JT myself into Lao''s position, knock her out of place and use the phoenix plume on her as she''s derezzing.


    A voice in my mind shouts, "Lucky must survive!"


    But, but Lao, she''s, she''s she''s like my mother.


    "Look at Te."


    Trusting the voice, I use JT and summon the plume from my inventory, Teuila likewise becomes Valkyrie and summons her plume, leaping backwards from the rest of the family to meet me at Lao. I touch my plume to Lucky as I blow a gust of frigid air strong enough to freeze the lava flow, the two plumes are consumed, and Lao and Lucky aren''t taken from us. Teuila''s first instinct of course, was to also save Laomati. We''d have both used up our plumes, and Luni couldn''t have gotten here in time to save Lucky.


    The rest of the family are on their way backwards from where they were up ahead. Sugar tries to reinforce the currently tenuous frozen lava dam.


    Spice exclaims in terror, "We, I, I built it to spec! I would never skimp! I just had Mata do the surface reinforcements. He said he would take care of it., that''s the one spot I asked him to do while I was getting this done. He only had one job, he said he''d do it!¡±


    Mata, you sick, twisted soul. You killed Laomati, you basically killed your own mother. Now I''m going to have to kill my own brother. So in this timeline, Mata has to go darkside, so that Lao''s death happens where we can reach. I must have gone through timeline after timeline to find a way that saves Laomati and Lucky. Wait, why Lucky? The voice was so insistent. This isn¡¯t even over. Future me still has plans for us.


    Now I see why the rest of the family began to turn back as well. Our smaller neighbor, drum in tow, is running full tilt away from a lava flow that fills the entire tunnel behind them. Our neighbor must have just lost everything. The lava must be consuming the entire eight leggers warren right now.


    I start retreating with the family, but I make sure they pass me so I can cover our escape by stopping this wall of magma. I think it¡¯s magma when it¡¯s completely below ground, even if it was above ground then went back below ground. I guess it doesn¡¯t matter. Heh, matter sounds like Mata if you pronounce it a certain way without enunciating the r. Focus brain! Oh holy crap I¡¯m completely submerged in lava!


    Even with massive thermal resist, and Valkyrie equipment, this is still excruciating, and sizzling away my flesh at a rapid pace. I wade out of the lava towards my family and conjure another FFS, and another, and another, over and over. On the far side of my family, lava is pouring down from the secret entrance, into the runoff sieve that Spice designed. Good boy Spice, good plan. I love you so much little brother.


    I call out, ¡°Lao, has Lucky learned how to dig? If so, have him dig south by southwest from this point, preferably in his full form!¡±


    Lao responds by speaking to Lucky, ¡°You hear that my Lucky protector? That direction, please, for the good of all of us.¡± She kisses Lucky¡¯s forehead as Lucky transforms.


    Lucky digs with preternatural prowess, like the cragbeasts that make up part of his form, when they learned to dig, they could plow through solid stone. I guess this is one of the reasons Lucky absolutely had to survive. I usher the family into the tunnel that Lucky is making, and I know that we¡¯re going to catch up to the lava and slightly outpace it in time to meet up with the humans. I don¡¯t know what happens then. If they attack, I will probably go completely psychotic and lose my sanity. Hopefully between myself and several hundred ice mages who¡¯ve had some warning, we can do something.


    As I predicted, I can tell we¡¯re under the humans by the panicked stomping that audibly and visibly shakes the ground above us, I give the signal for Lao to tell Lucky to dig upwards, and he complies. Lucky turns around and licks my face repeatedly. I can¡¯t help but to hug the big lug. I swear he hated me. Was Mata somehow responsible for that? Or did Lucky find out I was going to save him? Is this his gratitude? I guess the only one that might be able to find out someday is Laomati.


    Regardless, I need to find Priscilla or Reginald, whichever one is cognizant enough to give orders.


    I cry out, ¡°Lil, can you burst out of here in dragon form, and get Sugar, Spice, ¡®Naia and M^2 away from here?¡±


    Lil replies, ¡°You got it partner!¡±


    Lil begins shuttling the most vulnerable among us, while Lao, Olioli, and Agwai ride forth on Lucky as he bursts out from the ground.


    I shout my command to the humans to back off as I create a hallway of ice leading south through their ranks for my family to pass through. I telepathically whisper to Luni, ¡°You can go too, I understand if this is scary. I love you, I don¡¯t think less of you.¡±


    Lu sends back a mental image of her shaking her head, giving crossed arms, and then a thumbs up. I can¡¯t help but smile at her cutesy method of communicating during such a frightening occasion.


    Lu, Teuila and I look for the leadership, but it¡¯s complete chaos in the human ranks, they seem to have gotten the warning from Teuila and Bettie thankfully at least.


    I grab the nearest soldier by the arm and shout into his face, ¡°Where¡¯s Sir Reginald, or Priscilla?!¡±


    When the soldier points off vaguely southeastward, I take Teuila and Luni in that direction, knocking aside any soldiers that are stupid enough to draw weapons or spells on us.


    There she is. Priscilla is still a wreck, I can¡¯t blame her, first her city, now this. Sir Reginald is barking orders, it seems like he took an impromptu promotion due to his proximity when the commander went mentally AWOL. I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s quite a ways down the chain of command, being something to the equivalent of staff sergeant. I don¡¯t know much about military rank in the world in my memories, and less about it here, but I¡¯m glad he was close by.


    Even still, I¡¯m going to need Priscilla for this one.


    I cry out, ¡°Sir Reginald, Priscilla, I need all of your mages with ice or liquid or wind powers, every last one of them! Get them to form behind me with an oblique angle like their swords! Heavier on the river side! Have them pour everything into an attack focused on me, everything that you can muster!¡±


    Priscilla actually begins to rouse from her daze. She asks, ¡°Is that a death wish?¡±


    Sir Reginald knows what I¡¯m thinking though, he saw the trio of mages coalescing shared mana to try to kill me in the exhibition match. Reginald responds for me, ¡°No, it¡¯s a plan to save our bacon, all of it. Please Madam Warden, give the order. I guarantee you won¡¯t regret following this one¡¯s advice.¡±


    It takes several minutes to get the word out across the ranks, and several minutes more to get everyone into formation. The lava is getting dangerously close when I can feel the energy pulsing in the air. I can sense new life arriving as well. I see these beautiful ancient trees collapsing and being incinerated, but somewhere behind me within the camps, all of the eggs are hatching.


    Three hellish bells seem to go off in my mind, the three blasts let loose by the pterodactyl. I know what the three energy pools were for now. I wrap myself in one tether, I gain what I thought was my adult form. I wrap myself in a second tether, I double in size and take on properties of all those I¡¯ve loved, and all those I¡¯ve lost. I hesitate, Lu¡¯s voice rings out from nearby ¡°You got this, always have, always will hero!¡±


    I wrap my heart in the third tether, and my vision goes red, I further triple in size, but I remain me, I retain control. If Luni hadn¡¯t anchored me, I wouldn¡¯t be able to face this side of myself. I don''t have enough energy in each pool to form each tether out of combat, so I¡¯m in energy debt, but that means I can trigger a limit break. I enter limit break mode immediately.


    The attacks begin coalescing down the line, all aimed directly for my heart, and I absorb it all to my inventory. It goes on for minutes, finally there¡¯s nothing left. My flesh is melting from acid, frozen from frost, coated in toxins, but still I persist.


    Now I create Umbral Shots duplicates of the entire attack. I push back the lava with US. How fitting. I fire the last of the umbral attacks, then the main energy itself I coat in the deepest umbra I can muster as I release it. I engage a limit break climax and blanket the land in a cool frozen shadow. I call it Black Ice.


    There¡¯s a stunned silence as the humans wait for what they fear is the inevitable bad news of the lava breaking free, but the wedge of lava from here to the falls is completely frozen over in a massive reverse sweep, even if the lava is still coming, it will take hours to make it over that, and hours more to make it back to us. A cheer raises through the assembled crowds. I¡¯m not sure if the trees themselves were dropping loot, or if the lava was pushing gems as sediment, but the darkness is broken only by glittering lights speckled across my Black Ice shadow in patterns reminiscent of galaxies.


    Vesuviform has stopped the volcano, somehow I know this. Perhaps it¡¯s because the Roc is flying overhead. It echoes what it said to me at the phoenix nest, and I nod solemnly. Its warning came to pass. I¡¯m grateful for its warning nonetheless.


    My tethers drop one at a time. I drop from somewhere around thirty feet tall to around ten to fourteen feet tall as the first tether drops. Instead of the usual umbral transformation, it¡¯s more like that whole ruined portion of my body sloughs off, leaving the healthy secondary form underneath. My second tether drops, accomplishing much the same. I¡¯m reduced to between five and seven feet tall in what I call my more authoritative form, instead of calling it my adult form nowadays.


    As the final tether begins to unravel from around my heart, there¡¯s a flutter of feathers and a woosh of air as my Valkyrie leaps to my side. She knows what this cost me. I¡¯ll have lost at least two pools of energy, and if my enhanced fourth form hadn¡¯t taken the brunt of the attacks, I¡¯d also be spending the next several months or years recovering.


    I pass out in Teuila¡¯s arms, trusting her, Luni, Lil, and Sir Reginald to keep the newly hatched ¡®critterfolk¡¯ safe.


    I awaken to a tenuous peace between the humans and the critterfolk, mostly brokered by Bettie and Sir Reginald. Bettie has the tiniest hint of wind magic about her now, a final gift from Sal and Har, perhaps from Sylphie as well. She can understand the speech of ¡®critterfolk¡¯ because of it.


    We¡¯re in dire straits because there are no provisions now, and twice as many mouths to feed. Also as I suspected, I¡¯ve lost both extra pools of energy, and my own energy capacity is now locked again, leaving me with a small amount of mana I can actually access, with my greater max mana cap being inaccessible until I find some method of breaking the lock again. I really hope I don¡¯t need to face another godbeast to do so.


    At least the food situation I can solve. I call over Sugar and Spice, ¡°Hey guys, can you put together a couple of shops from these materials I managed to salvage? Hey Lu, want to have the biggest grand opening of any shop ever?¡±


    Luni excitedly responds, ¡°Do I!?¡±


    I set out the materials from my inventory, Sugar and Spice get to work immediately. ¡®Naia and M^2 try to entertain the wounded soldiers that had to have attacks channeled through themselves to make the link all the way to me. Their interpretive dance about the whole situation is amusing to say the least.


    The humans don¡¯t have inventory interfaces, so they¡¯re going to have to rely on the ¡®critterfolk¡¯ to purchase produce from Luni and Laomati. The ¡®critterfolk¡¯ are going to have to share, because the humans have been busy looting the gemstones and currency from along the lava-washed plain that is now devoid of trees.


    It¡¯s rough, we¡¯ve lost friends, allies, a brother, an entire population, but we¡¯re still a family, and we can persevere. I¡¯m terrified to make the lava plains our home. I¡¯m afraid the Fire Biome will act up again some day, and I¡¯m desperately trying to not make the same mistake I did with my family at the coast. If a second storm of death hits, I want to be far away from it, so I suggest we all pack it in and get marching before nightfall. It took me a while to notice, but there¡¯s a massive swathe of forest to the south that just vanished, as if the trees gave their life force to help the effort in stemming the tide, perhaps literally adding to my life force to withstand the extra attacks. We should head south through what little remains of them. We should get Luna, and warn the beavers too.


    Right now it looks like there¡¯s only two, maybe three, possible safe locations to settle, near the nagas, or near the elves. Somewhere off to the northwest, Morgan and the Undine have a hidden settlement as well, I hope it was safe from the lava.


    Regardless of what we choose, the Shellcrackers will weather the storm of consequences together. Any flames that burn us physically or metaphorically I will cool with shadows and umbra. I gaze out at Agwai, Laomati, Lil, Lucky, Luni, Manaia, Manameia, Olioli, Spice, Sugar, and Teuila. I would endure a thousand waves of lava and more for them.


    There¡¯s a somber air about my family, but joy lingers just beneath its surface as we make new friends, and our family metaphorically grows by the thousandfold.

 B 3 C 1: Get Luna?

    <h2>B 3 C 1: Get Luna?</h2>


    Priscilla''s, the Madam Warden of the surviving human forces, tolerance of me is tenuous at best. A quarter of the time, she wishes I would assume command of the entire human forces. Another quarter of the time, she wishes I would obey her every command. The other half of the time she wishes she''d never met me and would never have to see me again.


    Sir Reginald, originally my proctor, military recruiter, staff sergeant examiner, has been appointed as her advisor of some sort. I¡¯m not sure on the official title. The two are both working through a lot of grief, but their opposing opinions are probably necessary to find the right path. Sir Reginald fancied a lady and perhaps her sister as well who worked at the Salty Wench, but the whole city was destroyed. That¡¯s also why Priscilla is the way she is. Not that she had a crush on Salty Wenches, but that the city was destroyed. Although, who knows? Maybe she does fancy Salty Wenches.


    Our neighbor the eight-legger isn''t doing so well. They''re used to caves, and now they''re on sunny open plains, with no support network, no place to build their home unless they leave us all behind to journey alone into the forests to the south. That might be the best for them in the long run, but I think they''re attached to Agwai and the rest of our family.


    Some of the soldiers have given me the nickname of Little Giant. I suppose in part because I''m quite short, and I had adopted a form towering over thirty feet tall during the Night of All Burn. It''s what we''ve agreed to call the horrid event where lava was consuming everything across the land.


    Just like using super speed beyond my means, I hope I never have to do anything like I did on the Night of All Burn, ever again. I don¡¯t know if the fourth form will always absorb the damage sustained. If it hadn¡¯t, I don¡¯t know if I¡¯d have ever recovered. I was looking a bit like molten dross, or slag by the end of the mana convergence. I also don¡¯t even know how I got three mana pools to begin with for separate self tethers. The experience tells me an earlier theory was correct though, that I could probably add an additional heart tether to Lil or Teuila, or even Luni, even in their strongest evolutionary stages. Not just that it¡¯s possible, but that it would likely create some new evolutionary form.


    I haven¡¯t heard from the voice that I believe to be future-me since the Night of All Burn. Yet Luni seems to still be under orders to keep me from guessing about certain events, both past and future. Apparently this isn¡¯t all over yet. Now that I know just how enormous the stakes can be for these time travel shenanigans, I completely understand why I entrusted Luni with this, and no one else. She¡¯s made of the sternest stuff to put herself through so much hurt having to hide things from us.


    I would like us to bring Luna into our fold. I don¡¯t want her dying out here if the lava decides to just spill all the way south down to the swamp. I¡¯m not sure the best way to do it though. Can one of the Shellcracker Adventuring Party just ask her to follow the SAP? Can we invite her to the party? I don¡¯t want her to get freaked out by, attacked by, or attack, all the soldiers and critterkin. It hurts to say ¡®critterfolk¡¯ because of the way the humans had been using it for so long, like it was derogatory, so a few of us are trying to change the terminology used.


    I thought of myself as a child for so long, but I¡¯m essentially a wartime general, an adventurer, a family leader, just too many things to ever have put on a child, not to mention all the trauma I carry. Still, even being saddled with so many responsibilities, it doesn¡¯t hurt to be mothered once in a while when one needs motherly advice, does it?


    Speaking of trauma, we lost Sal and Har because of me. They thought they had to save me, and kept trying. They didn¡¯t realize I was basically in no risk. Sure, I was frozen in and out of an ongoing panic attack, and would have gotten hurt a bit by the pterodactyl, but the lava wasn¡¯t as dangerous to me as it was to them. Maybe if it weren¡¯t for their sacrifice, I might not have been able to survive to fully manifest the fourth form. I don¡¯t know how many tries across how many timelines I went through for that night¡¯s outcome to be as it was. Well, not me, the sneaky mysterious future me that I think keeps contacting me. If it¡¯s not future me, then I have another personality riding around in my head that has some sort of precognition.


    Luni telepathically sends, ¡°Stop guessssssing. Silly goose.¡±


    I send back, ¡°Aye, yeah, sorry Lu, just went down a rabbit hole of thought. I think I need some advice from Lao, have you seen her?¡±


    Lu replies, ¡°Have you checked over by neighbor-san?¡±


    I chuckle in response, ¡°When did we agree to start calling him neighbor-san? How does anyone even know what the suffix means?¡±


    Lu blows a raspberry towards me mentally, ¡°I think it¡¯s more polite than eight-legger, or just neighbor.¡±


    I can¡¯t help smiling, Luni is right. I definitely would prefer to be on good terms with neighbor-san. I think Lao and Agwai are trying to convince him to start a new home far to the south so that he doesn¡¯t have to deal with the sun, and so many people. I know he doesn¡¯t like me, I¡¯ve known ever since he crashed our first party. I take my time ambling their way, hoping that Laomati breaks off so I can talk to her for a few moments alone.


    Speaking of people or beings that don¡¯t like me, thunder specialist Sofu thinks I¡¯m a complete dick for the way I piledrove them into the ground. I¡¯m glad they lived, but I was also trying to prevent Jazharn and Adom from dying, so I don¡¯t really regret doing it. Jazharn is, ah, well, she definitely doesn¡¯t like me, her acid is powerful though. Not as powerful as the serpent in its final rage mode, but she¡¯s still a frightening force, she¡¯s part of why I was so destroyed during the Night of All Burn. Adom, whew, I think he keeps trying to poison my food. I wonder if it¡¯s almost a game to him at this point. I¡¯ve been careful to only ingest enough to trigger the mildest defensive responses so that I can raise my toxin resistance. I can¡¯t prove it¡¯s him, but, come on, who else would it be? He¡¯s really good at subtly casting his poison magics. Most of the human mages all announce their spells to be able to manifest them, not Adom though, instant effects by the time he has pointed somewhere, boom. I sort of wish I hadn¡¯t made enemies of those three. Maybe we¡¯re just rivals? Is that any better?


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    Since humans don¡¯t have menu interfaces, or inventory magic, they can¡¯t progress rapidly like I can, nor recover from as deadly of injuries, and so on. Human magical prowess and its progress is more like exercising a muscle would be in my memories. No matter how much they do it, there¡¯s limits. For humans that seems to be a thousand maximum mana, though the rest of their sub stats vary a bit. I guess the progress and healing is something that sets us critterkin apart. Yet I¡¯m also different than every critterkin I¡¯ve ever met. I bleed like humans. I can¡¯t understand non-party speech, like humans.


    Oh whew, Laomati is free. I call out, ¡°Lao, can I snag you for a second?¡±


    Lao beams a smile towards me as she almost sashays in my direction with arms open wide. Her approach ends in a warm, loving, motherly embrace that I sink into for a while before getting around to my question. I hug her back as lovingly as I can. I don¡¯t know if she remembers being in the middle of derezzing from lava on the Night of All Burn, or that I was forced to save Lucky instead of her. She¡¯s not the type of person to ever hold it against someone, but I still wish I could find some way to beg for her forgiveness that wasn¡¯t all about me. She¡¯s alive and in good spirits, that¡¯s what¡¯s most important to me.


    Teuila¡¯s first instincts were to save Lao, essentially our mother figure, our clan leader. If we had both acted to save Lao, Lucky would have perished, then we wouldn¡¯t have been able to escape the lava. Only Lil and I would have survived. Lucky was able to dig us to safety when the lava was closing in on all sides. Our settlement had been completely surrounded by lava so quickly. I was fighting it back but it actually flowed backwards uphill in a circle around our settlement to close in from all sides. Without Spice¡¯s tunnel, or Lucky¡¯s digging, I¡¯d have lost much of my family that night.


    Sighing, I finally begin rambling, ¡°So, Lao, um, sorry about the events, but thank you, and Lucky. I um, anyway, not about any of that, all behind us, right? Anyway, you¡¯ve heard our tales of Luna now and again, you know how close she is to a place that has terrible memories for me. The humans and critterkin here need to move south as soon as possible before sweeping east to find a new home, so we¡¯ll be passing the area. I¡¯d like your opinion on what the best way to approach Luna is. Also your opinion on the beaver situation. I¡¯m not sure if their dam structure is safer or more dangerous in the event of the lava flooding the river like it was doing during the Night of All Burn.¡±


    Lao leans back on her tail for a moment, then sits down, using it as a cushion. She pulls me into her lap and I happily take the position, despite the jeers and sneers from various nearby human soldiers.


    They say things to the effect of, ¡°Looks like it¡¯s Little Giant¡¯s Naptime.¡± or, ¡°Guess Little Giant really is little, needs his mommy.¡± Others will correct people that call me male and say that I¡¯m a she, and they¡¯ll get into arguments over it. They project their genders onto me, whichever they assume to be either stronger if they admire me, or weaker if they admonish me. Joke''s on both camps, I''m neither.


    I roll my eyes at the soldiers, and I jokingly, somewhat juvenilely pull out my thunder stick and set a low rolling rumble in their direction. Harmless, just sensory, but a bit funny to me. It¡¯s like I can make the ground or sky growl for me. Some are startled, others call out that thunder is no biggy, they can do lightning, or they can do thunder too, then they get into arguments that devolve into heading away to spar to prove which magic is stronger.


    I¡¯m surprised these fools are able to function as a unit at all, but we did pull together to pause the Night of All Burn. Regardless, I turn my attention back to Lao who is stifling a chuckle, holding her bottom lip as she gazes between me and the soldiers who are now walking away to spar.


    Lao finally responds, ¡°Dearest, Beloved Reggie Shellcracker. At this point in our lives, I feel as if you¡¯ve the loom of fate all to yourself, and that only you can plot the correct path for us. Look at what you¡¯ve accomplished! You saved them, all of them! We could have continued to flee, we could have fled further south yet as we could outpace the lava by this point, as it slowed considerably. But no, one family was not enough, you saved thousands! I know how it hurt so that three dear to you that I know of were lost, but still you persisted.¡±


    Lao pauses for a breath, then continues, ¡°You had help, much help, but you made the choices that led to you being able to earn that help. Think on that. Every choice you made leading up to that point was necessary for you to be able to get so many powerful beings to rally behind you, to put their faith in you. It was no small amount of trust either, you requested they give up all the power that they might have used for their own survival.¡±


    I chuckle a bit as a tear forms in my eye before I rebut, ¡°I¡¯m so grateful for your pride and faith in me, but I honestly believe that the right course is for me to garner your opinion on matters. You¡¯re important to me, you¡¯re mother to us all. Honestly, we might have a party of thousands of critterkin all under the Shellcracker family name soon. Whatever you believe about me or yourself, I think every last one of them will look to you for your warmth, guidance, affection, and all that you bring to our family.¡±


    Lao wrings her hands slightly as she frets, ¡°Surely not, would they truly all join the family? Well, I suppose it matters not, if they do, they do, and we shall persevere. If they don¡¯t, they don¡¯t, and we shall carry on.¡±


    At this point, it sounds like Lao¡¯s trying to convince herself of something rather than convince me of anything. Almost as if on cue, the parley between Lil, Bettie, and several critterkin families appears to have concluded. New panels open in my mind¡¯s eye interface, a sub party. Disturbingly, it¡¯s attached to me, not the family as a whole, or Lao. Lao chuckles as we notice this at the same time, there¡¯s a slight wink that¡¯s as close as she¡¯ll ever get to saying ¡®told you so.¡¯


    More disturbingly is the name. It¡¯s ShellCracker Raiding Adventurers Party. SCRAP. That feels like a bad omen. At least I can speak with them without needing a translator, I guess. Ugh, I do not need this kind of responsibility. Can¡¯t I go on pretending to be a human child a bit longer? No, no I suppose not, not with the threat looming over us. We couldn¡¯t pull off another Night of All Burn finisher right now. Heck, I can barely combat anything at the moment with how much energy capacity I¡¯ve lost and how much max mana is locked away on top of that.


    Fine, if it¡¯s up to me, we march south, but slowly, with my SAP far in the lead. We¡¯ll talk to Luna. She¡¯s wildly intelligent. I¡¯m almost positive she understands speech, and even more odd, my speech. Few people or creatures understand my speech, or did. Now I have nearly a thousand critterkin in some kind of raiding party, and thousands of humans who can understand me. I really don¡¯t like the name raiding party. It implies we¡¯ll be raiding settlements. Hm, maybe I can distract myself from that connotation if I think of videogames instead? Raiding would be raiding bosses or dungeons. Is that fine?


    I wonder if Luna can join that party dynamic. Would we be able to speak freely with her if so? I guess there¡¯s nothing for it but to try. I hug Lao as I announce my intent. She nods approvingly as I stand and take my leave.


    I¡¯d like to check in with everyone individually, it seems like Agwai is saying goodbye to Neighbor-san, I guess we are parting after all. Luni is curiously hanging around Priscilla and Sir Reginald. I¡¯m worried for her safety around Madam Warden, but I trust Lu to take care of herself for the most part. Lil is just returning with the heads of the various sub factions of critterkin that are now allied under me. I give Lil a dubious look, a very ¡°why did you do this to me?¡± look.

 B 3 C 2: Recap

    <h2>B 3 C 2: Recap</h2>


    Lil spots my gaze and rides my thought waves, so they hop over so they can headbutt my chest while laughing at the situation.  I catch Lil for a hug and noogie my little dragon buddy, My Heart.  Or as Teuila might call Lil, a dorky little dragbutt.  I roughly smooch the top of Lil¡¯s head, which also happens to be the top of their entire body more or less, since Lil is in sphere form.  Lil¡¯s reptilian draconic tail is their only limb in this form.


    Teuila, My Wings that make my spirit soar approaches from the north.  She drops her Valkyrie form to sprint at me in her beautiful bare coppery-furred otter form.  Te¡¯s side swept mohawk-style hair that adorns her head fairly flows behind her.  Teuila leaps into my arms and I actually have the strength to catch her and spin her about because she¡¯s light as a feather.  Between being slender and athletic and her special bond with gravity, Te can virtually float in someone¡¯s arms.  She can almost freely mess with gravity in coefficients from almost zero to about double.  Most others that leap into my arms at a full sprint would tackle me to the ground as I am a scrawny creature.  Still, Teuila plants kiss after kiss on my cheek and ears in pride before she nuzzles into my left clavicle.  She¡¯s chuckling at my inner monologue narrative description of her, slightly embarrassed, but mostly flattered.  Lil¡¯s nickname for Teuila is literally their ¡°It¡¯s-A-Secret.¡±  I still get a kick out of it.


    Luni leaves Priscilla¡¯s side, I¡¯ve no idea what she was doing over there, and she sprints my way as well, her short dark bob with bangs bounces with each of her strides.  Her curvy form is hinted at by her poofy green and white dress with bronze diamond accents.  Where Teuila is all firm yet supple muscle across every inch of her body, Luni is soft, plush, um, she has nice soft curves to feel against oneself, like now as she¡¯s thrown herself at the three of us, bowling us all over, pinning me under herself and Teuila.  I flush with embarrassment as my entire party is riding my thought train while I think about Luni¡¯s soft curves.  Lil is squished between the rest of us, and they¡¯re jokingly sending waves of jealousy into our telepathic bond, which Teuila joins in on as well, for the opposite reason.  Luni is My Anchor, but she¡¯s Lil¡¯s Gal Pal, and Teuila¡¯s Luuuu.  Lu thinks of Teuila as Big-Sis.  Luni calls Lil her ¡°The-Best.¡±


    Speaking of nicknames, the names my party helped me come up with for my abilities cause me to laugh.  My umbral copies of equipment from my inventory we call Umbral Shots or Umbral Stabs, either way, it¡¯s USes.  My barehanded fighting style we call my FrostBurn Fist, or FBF style.  The punches I throw in that style we call my SIPs, Subzero Ice Punches.  My defenses that are like pinpoint shields of ice almost passively as needed, we call my FFS, my Frozen Frost Shield.  I get the most kick out of that one when interacting with humans, since they use the acronym for something different, and I look like a child to them, so I look like a child swearing my brains out in combat.  My Flash Freeze Storm is also an FFS.  I basically glaciate an area close to instantly.


    By far my probably most useful ability for saving others lives, and my own, is probably my JT, my jettison-thrust, or JetThrusts.  I expel matter from my inventory with a directional velocity from any point nearby so that it rams me or the person I¡¯m trying to move out of the way of something.  When my mana pool is higher, I can almost remain perpetually airborn with it due to regenerating more than I expend.  Right now I¡¯d have to be careful to use exactly the right amount when falling from great heights.  Oh yeah, I fall from great heights a lot.


    I call into my telepathic bond, ¡°Hey fam, how many times have I crashed out of the sky or fallen ridiculously far?¡±


    Since Lil¡¯s been with me the longest, Lil starts reciting, ¡°Not sure about before me, I don¡¯t think there were any before we met, but definitely first time in the swamp when running from Octorochi, first time, you drank a water walking potion to go boom and make all the water take the fall rather than you.  Then again when we actually went to fight Octorochi at the same spot.  Back then you didn¡¯t know you could fly, so you almost died, you also forgot you had another water walking potion on you, which was dumb, but you¡¯re a dummy sometimes Pal.  It¡¯s okay, we forgive you.  Um, I think you almost drown a lot more than you fall, honestly.¡±


    Even though we¡¯re using telepathy, Lil pauses for a breath before continuing, ¡°Still, after you came back to us, you and Teuila flew up real high, then rocketed back down like a meteor while I was trying to fly up to meet you.  Not cool beeteedubs fam.  Hehe.  Kidding, it¡¯s fine.  Then uh, when we went to Fire Biome, you realized you could do your flying JT stuff, but you got distracted in midair, ¡®cause you¡¯re always getting distracted, so you faceplanted pretty hard.  I think you fell a couple of times when you went to find a phoenix to bring me back.  We only have the one plume left now.  I hope we never have to use it.¡±


    At Lil¡¯s mention of the phoenix plume, I remember how I earned five total plumes.  One was used on me because the phoenix had inadvertently almost killed me, when controlled by my greatest enemy.  One was used to bring Lil back to us from a quarter century of loneliness.  Two were used to save Lao and Lucky from Lava on the Night of All Burn.  Luni has the only plume left, and I¡¯m positive her powers of foresight, or her messages from the future know who it¡¯s destined to be used on.  I¡¯m not allowed to guess though, so I have to shove that information to the back of my brain.


    Speaking of my greatest enemy, I¡¯ve been trying to be strong all this time, but now that my inner circle are cuddled atop me, I break down in sobs.  My greatest enemy took my brother from me, Mataalii, I¡¯m sure of it.  Sure, a brother that had always hated me, but a brother all the same.  Something broke the ten obelisks that were keeping the being from our world, and somehow when the tenth was broken, my enemy was sent all throughout time and space across this world, to the point when I first began existing, and all over the world after that.  I¡¯ve overcome one traumatic stress panic trigger, that was my own Teuila, a situation I still can¡¯t think about without breaking down.  It took me a long time to even be able to see my dearest, the love of my life, without shrieking in terror and scrabbling away in fear.  I regret everything about that every single instant of my life.  My-Wings has absolved me, but still, it was horrible for both of us.


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    One trigger I will never overcome though is that dastardly red eyed entity that possesses others to seek me out and hunt me down, the thing released into this world by the destruction of the obelisks.  Even as I¡¯m thinking this, my limbs are spasming and seizing.  My pulse hammers into my ears as my vision narrows, tunneling to the size of a pin prick.  Tinnitus fills my hearing, drowning out all other sound.  My inner circle comfort me as best they can, they know that they can¡¯t control my panic or end it for me, but they can ease its effects.  Since we¡¯ve spent decades in accelerated thinkspace, nearly centuries, we¡¯ve worked through so many issues together.  We accept every bit of one another intrinsically.


    I like to remind myself of the major bits of my life now and again, for my memory logs.  I do this since I can review them at any point.  It¡¯s easier to read a summary rather than reading through every word I¡¯ve ever thought in my inner monologue every day I¡¯ve been alive.  Y¡¯know?


    Plus, my fam, my inner circle, my SAP get a kick out of it since they are a huge part of everything I¡¯ve ever done, wanted, or been.


    Lil, My Heart exclaims, ¡°Darn tootin¡¯!¡±


    Lu, My Anchor chuckles and adds, ¡°Because you¡¯re my hero, always have been, always will be.  You got this.¡±


    Te, My Wings also adds, ¡°Yeah dork, we get it, you lo, luh, lur, you words us.  We do too punkbutt.¡±  My Wings has a hard time expressing herself, she always will, but we¡¯re as intimate as two beings can be, able to literally explore the depths of our feelings in her mindscape that is a tumultuous sea of moving emotions.


    Teuila flushes with embarrassment as I reiterate our relationship for my logs.  I kiss her forehead repeatedly in apology.  My heart soars sharing affection with her.  Luni presses closer to us, intercepting one of the smooches and causing my heart to flutter as she presses closer against my torso with her softness.


    Sometimes Luni has fun teasing me and making Teuila jealous, she¡¯s really effective at it.  I¡¯m blushing harder than Teuila right now.  Teuila stands up and knocks everyone away from me with her ridiculous raw strength, enhanced by the gemstone that orbits her head.  Once everyone is off of me, she offers me a hand up, on the way up, she playfully socks me in the gut, then bops the top of my head as I jokingly double over.


    Te mutters, ¡°Serves you right, dingleberryhopperbutt.¡±  She then sticks her tongue out to blow a raspberry at me before offering up an SFS.  Te and Lu both share the Shellcracker Family Squee, an elongated single laugh of ¡°heee¡± accompanied by a closed eyed barely-open-mouthed smile.


    Oh, what Teuila¡¯s doing right now is another thing the Shellcracker family shares, the Shellcracker Family SlapFight I¡¯ll call it.  Teuila plaps one hand across my face, I chase it away with one of my hands, her other hand ends up on my face, I chase that one way, the other one returns, rinse and repeat until we¡¯re both laughing like lunatics.  Luni has done it to me on occasion as well, with, um, different results.


    Teuila eyes me suspiciously at that last thought.  She squints for a bit but then she shrugs and slugs me in the shoulder playfully.


    I flush with embarrassment at Teuila¡¯s suspicion, defensively asking, ¡°What?  She just, y¡¯know, lets me catch her hands, and uh, we hold hands.¡±


    Lu jumps aboard the teasing train to insinuate, ¡°Suuuuuure that¡¯s all it is.¡±  Lu waggles her eyebrows at me right in front of Teuila.  My heart skips a beat and I think steam is going to explode out my pointy ears as they burn from my blushing.


    Teuila shouts, ¡°Luuuuuuu!  Knock it off ya borkbutt!  Hey come back here!¡±  Luni giggles and takes off with her Seven Leagues Song.  She and Teuila are both speedsters, if I had to put them into archetypes.  Lu¡¯s power set is more magical speed and assorted abilities, Teuila¡¯s seems like it¡¯s raw physical prowess with some weird gravity based ancillary powers.  Te engages her umbral Valkyrie form transformation and launches towards Lu at ludicrous speeds.


    Lil transforms into Lilagnewt to fly to the defense of their Gal Pal as Teuila tackles Luni at high speed, the three of them laughing and rolling around what¡¯s essentially a battlefield.  I call out to my dearest friends to be careful.  There are still weapons strewn about where they¡¯ve been abandoned when the soldiers realized that they were not only not going to be fighting a war, but they might be dying to a flood of lava.  Then we brokered the peace with the critterkin, and the freedom of the critterkin.


    Our friend, a shop owner named Berthalina, Bettie or Bertha for short, was instrumental in that, as she¡¯s one of few humans who can now understand the critterkin.  She somehow was blessed with a mote of wind magic during the Night of All Burn.  It was likely from Har and Sal, the two wind mages who lost their lives.  Those two also had a connection to Sylphie, some sort of wind spirit who¡¯d been so instrumental to succeeding during a devastating period in my life.


    Regardless, I want to chase after my beloved inner circle and join them in goofing off, but I feel like I¡¯m forgetting something.

 B 3 C 3: Generations of Notions

    <h2>B 3 C 3: Generations of Notions</h2>


    I got really distracted from what I was going to do. What was it again? Oh yeah. I actually need to talk to Priscilla. We¡¯re pretty much enemies. She ¡®captured¡¯ me and my inner circle. We were playing along because I needed to meet her anyway. When she was a condescending prick, insinuating that she was going to march her army straight through my family, I threatened to raze her city to the ground. I backed up the threat in vivid, visceral detail. I proved myself capable of backing up my threat with actual viscera, and I thought we¡¯d never see each other again. But here I am now.


    I worked to break the bad news that Leviathans destroyed her city, and then I worked to save her and her thousands of soldiers marching across our lands when the volcano went crazy. Like Lao said, somehow, the contacts I made, the choices I made were just the right ones to get just enough trust to try a ridiculously crazy suite of power combinations to save everyone. One of the side effects of that crazy suite of powers was massive deforestation to the south of where the tide had turned, as if the trees gave up their life force to preserve my life during the gathering of mana and convergence of attacks. We marched into that deforested zone immediately that eve. It¡¯s where we now make camp. We saved everyone, well, almost everyone.


    Everyone other than Sal and Har, who sacrificed themselves needlessly for me, not realizing I was having a panic attack but I was safe. Why is it that I¡¯m saddled with responsibility? I¡¯m a mess. No one should trust me to save anyone or anything. I frequently almost die, and even when I¡¯m not almost dying, I¡¯m melodramatically believing I¡¯m almost dying. I failed to save Iakopo, Taito, Penina, Atamai, Olioli during the Night of High Water. Somehow, Olioli miraculously returned to us, we think. An egg spawned with an exact copy of Oli in it in Shellcracker Pond, but we can¡¯t confirm if it¡¯s really him. Oli doesn¡¯t have memory logs, and doesn¡¯t speak. He just chews stuff. He¡¯s kinda adorable, probably a little bit of a menace, but all told, a total sweetie.


    Oh! Luni was the one who saved Sugar and Spice back during the horrid situation that left me basically catatonic for months. Sugar and Spice are our beaver family members, the rest of us are otters, or Lucky, Lao¡¯s hunter hound. Well I¡¯m not any of those things. We still don¡¯t know what I am after all these years. We thought I was a human child for the longest time. I might be an elf, we haven¡¯t met the elves yet. I¡¯m trying to pass myself off as naga though by self actualizing my transformation powers to slowly grow scales and a tail. The progress is slower with a lower mana capacity.


    Spice is kind of like an architectural designer, he likes to draw now that we have paper and art supplies. I think he might also be an inventor. Sugar, she¡¯s kind of like, hm, how would you describe a lovable brute who breaks and builds equally? She¡¯s super overprotective of Spice, because Spice is a bit like me, they suffer some things, but that¡¯s not my secret to tell. I don¡¯t really have nicknames for them, they¡¯re Sugar and Spice, how much sweeter can you get? I guess that makes us, as their family, everything nice.


    The Mana twins, Manaia and Manameia, are wonderful. But them being with us breaks my heart, because Mataalii called them his babies. They recently evolved from spheres into otter stage, but because I was near, they seemed to evolve with cute outfits, and possibly some magical dancing powers. My nicknames for them are ¡®Naia and M-Squared, or M^2. Mataalii would never have left them behind. It¡¯s why I¡¯m convinced that Mat is possessed by my enemy.


    I try to put all other thoughts out of mind so I stop getting distracted as I approach the stately woman with the admittedly lovely curly hair. Her hair is reminiscent of Morgan¡¯s, the captain of the Undine. I announce myself, ¡°Madam Warden, Reggie Shellcracker requesting permission to confer. If you please.¡±


    I try to be as polite and formal as I can in my interactions with her now. I was the one that broke the news to her that her family died to the Leviathans washing the city off the face of the map. I was still her enemy at the time. When I came rocketing out of the sky into a crashdown strike that flash froze everything in the area other than her, she wet herself. When I knelt before her with apologetic tears in my eyes, realization and disbelief fought for control of her mind. At that time, the last thing I had said to her prior to my crash was basically that if I ever saw her again, that I¡¯d kill every last human related to the city and raze it to the ground, more or less. She thought for a moment that I had gone crazy and came to admit my act. It wasn¡¯t my doing though. Leviathans were what took her family from her, her entire reason for the stupid war she was about to enact. She cracked under that emotional strain as badly as I frequently do. If Sir Reginald hadn¡¯t been there at that exact moment, we wouldn¡¯t have pulled everyone together, we wouldn¡¯t have succeeded. He recognized the sound of my flash freeze. So many pieces had to fall into place.


    Thank you future-me. I¡¯m sorry for however much we went through. When I originally got my time traveling skill, it was utter horror reading the logs of reliving that moment over and over. Regardless, I stand awaiting Priscilla¡¯s response.


    Priscilla pretends to look disinterested, ugh, that villainous power play again. Then she does something unexpected, she treats me cordially, ¡°Oh you horrid little thing, please drop the formalities and pretenses. I¡¯m sure you¡¯d be happy to call me Priss as a nickname, with its implications. Feel free, the less I have to hear from your mouth the less I have to relive our meetings.¡±


    I gulp as I try to apologize, ¡°Uh, yes, sorry, Priss.¡± Abashedly I glance around for anything to stare at to avoid eye contact with her. I¡¯ve never been someone¡¯s trauma trigger before. Sort of. Teuila traumatized herself about me once.


    Priss asks, ¡°Please, please just say what you have to say? I cannot stand our little dance. You win, you are a hero, there is no more war effort. You¡¯ve even taken our supplies from us, replacing it with this quaint barter system. I¡¯ll admit, knowing that critter, ahem, kin, are as intelligent as us, does make our practices seem a tad barbaric. I, I. Stop, don¡¯t look at me like that. I don¡¯t want your pity, you ruthless little heathen.¡±


    I can¡¯t help but gaze sadly at Priss, wanting all the world for us to be able to forgive each other, so that our respective factions can live in peace, without the threat of us, the leaders, accidentally starting a war. I don¡¯t deserve her forgiveness for how I treated her and the threats I imposed, and she doesn¡¯t deserve mine for her treatment of critterkin and her callousness.


    Priss begins to break down, gulping back a knot in her throat, ¡°Stop, please, please stop.¡± She turns away, attempting to maintain her poise.


    I¡¯ll try to extend an olive branch. I clear my throat for attention, signaling I¡¯m ready to state my case, without her needing to turn around. I state, ¡°Priss, um, we¡¯re both in charge of beings that benefit from living together at the moment, the loss of your city was an extraordinary loss of life, but I¡¯d be remiss if I didn¡¯t try my hardest to offer what I think is the safest path to a peaceful coexistence for us. I have a friend, a very large feathered bear, slightly south of this location. I don¡¯t know if she will want to join our population, but I wanted to warn you. Slightly south of her is a massive colony of beavers and beaverfolk. I don¡¯t know the right solution to dealing with them. We¡¯ve had some, uh, excitement, let¡¯s say. I don¡¯t know if they¡¯re at more or less risk should the volcano blow again due to their colony being under the river.¡±


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I pause, trying to find somewhere to affix my gaze. I continue, ¡°Priss, I would dearly value your opinion in as non-biased a manner as you can muster. I am not a leader. I look somewhat like a child, and I¡¯ve lived as if I was one. I am not the right person for this, no matter how many people put their faith in me. My personal emotional issues cost two lives on the Night of All Burn alone. That¡¯s not counting the other times I¡¯ve lost beings due to my own panic or slowness to act. I understand if you can never forgive me for how horribly I threatened you and yours, hell, I don¡¯t even forgive me for that, among many other things. I constantly struggle with whether or not I should just slaughter everyone I believe threatens my family. Yes, your twitch there is appropriate. I am not a leader, I am a monster.¡±


    Priss deliberates before answering, ¡°Yes, I doubt the two of us will ever reconcile, but it would be unconscionable for us to let our personal differences cost more lives. For what it¡¯s worth, I always doubted your monstrousness. You do manage the charade frighteningly well however. If you¡¯re asking my opinion on this bear and the beavers, recruit and welcome your bear friend. Plot our march to an area you deem geographically fit. Warn the beavers, let them know your plans and let them decide. It really is that simple. I doubt you had planned anything differently than that. If you¡¯re looking to me to absolve you of responsibility for your segment of the populace, I can not. I¡¯m. I¡¯m sorry. I will not take on their burden. We¡¯ve, there are generations of, of notions, that you¡¯ve, that we¡¯ve. It¡¯s all I can do to maintain peace in my fraction of the populace. Maybe in a decade, maybe two, things that I¡¯m describing will be a long distant ache that¡¯s on its way to being forgotten. Many of mine are struggling with grasping the implications of how we¡¯ve lived for generations. I assume yours are, they¡¯re.¡±


    Priscilla gulps, ¡°They¡¯re struggling with having been treated as little more than renewable meat for generations.¡± Priss clasps her stomach and mouth while still facing away. The thought, the knowledge that she was killing and eating people, not just some magical respawning beasts sickens us both.


    Priss pleads, ¡°Please, are we done here? If you need more advice, please speak with the one I gave a job title who matches the description of your needs. Sir Reginald, the advisor. I can¡¯t. I just can¡¯t bear your presence. Please excuse yourself without another word if you have no further need of me.¡±


    I silence the gulp caught in my throat, turn and leave wordlessly. It¡¯s probably the best I could have expected from her, maybe more than I expected, definitely better than I deserve. I¡¯ll work with Sir Reginald to plot our course. Reggie and Reggie working on cartographical planning, kind of funny, I was trying to map out our land with our most recent adventures.


    As much as I¡¯m not a fan of their old way of life, or militaries in general, Sir Reginald has my admiration. He treated me with trust and respect, despite my appearance. He offered me every opportunity to both retreat to safety, and save face. My exhibition opponents weren¡¯t even announced until the day of, so that I wouldn¡¯t be embarrassed if I backed out. Then, twice on the Night of All Burn he stepped in when no one else was fit to. He wasn¡¯t even anywhere in the chain of command, relatively.


    I¡¯m getting distracted. Sir Reginald and I are plotting courses. His scouts, Priss¡¯s scouts, report back with far more detailed mapping information than I could estimate about the region I haven¡¯t explored yet. I suppose I could send Teuila out to scout, Or Luni, Or Lil, but I¡¯d rather not. That¡¯s probably selfish of me. In many ways, I want to be allowed to act childish. The route is simple enough, south by southeast until point A, east by southeast until point B, then resume scouting from there. On the way, the SAP have enough methods of far faster travel speed than the rest of the united critters and peoples, so we can easily head out ahead of the contingent and stop to see Luna and the beavers.


    I really, truly don¡¯t think I should go into the beaver dam ever again. Both times I¡¯ve been in there, I¡¯ve killed their leaders. Well, leaders of one faction. I mean, two for two is a pretty bad track record for unintentional, undesired assassination isn¡¯t it? I really don¡¯t want to make it three for three. But my SAP will be there to help me through it, and as far as I know, the MCF, that is the mind controlled faction, are essentially extinguished.


    There¡¯s something that¡¯s bothering me, something Sir Reginald once said. He said someone who exhibited the power I did while holding back could easily jailbreak. How did he know I was holding back?


    I flat out ask, ¡°Sir Reginald? You thought I was holding back in my exhibition matches. Why is that?¡±


    Sir Reginald responds, ¡°You could have killed every single mage sent after you, couldn¡¯t you?¡±


    I mumble abashedly, ¡°Well, maybe, probably, yeah.¡±


    Sir Reginald continues, ¡°You also chose to save my men, when their own attacks would have slain their compatriots, while continuing to restrain yourself, did you not?¡±


    I gaze anywhere other than Sir Reginald¡¯s face as I nod ever so slightly. My face is flush. I wasn¡¯t asking for praise, I wanted to know how he suspected. ¡°I, I didn¡¯t mean, I¡¯m not fishing for compliments, I wanted to know how, without admitting that I was.¡±


    Sir Reginald scoffs, ¡°Billie, er, Reggie, I saw you turn into an over thirty foot tall monstrosity that channeled the might of several hundred mages. It¡¯s a bit late to pretend you were ever not holding back.¡±


    I scratch the back of my head and chuckle nervously, ¡°Aheh heh, hehe, ah, heh, um, okay, yeah, I suppose that¡¯s true, but I meant that you suspected before that. I just, I wanted to know if you maybe knew someone who knew me somehow that gave you that impression.¡±


    Sir Reginald sighs, finally coming clean, ¡°I¡¯d hoped to spare you, yes, the other two recruits. After your first match. They pointed out just how much you were holding back, and I think even they underestimated you.¡±


    A knot catches in my throat as I try to gulp back a sob, realizing that it was because Sal and Har had knowledge from Sylphie. Sylphie thought of me as powerful. Even before I learned thermokinesis. But I failed her. She died trying to accomplish a goal I had set, one she need not have joined in on. My jaw locks as my lip quivers. Sir Reginald nods solemnly. I blink back several tears.


    I cough to clear my throat and apologize, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry that my difficulties cost them their lives. They were impressive, kind, courageous, and noble. They had so much life left to live. Another of my sins I suppose is sloth in some ways. Inaction. I¡¯m sure my friends would tell me inability to act is different than inaction, but I feel the weight of their deaths all the same. There are no two ways about it, I caused their deaths.¡±


    Sir Reginald only nods as he gathers the maps and missives required to start the marching. Why do I get the notion that if I don¡¯t find a more tangible peace, we could be marching for generations? I suppose, there are godbeasts and catastrophe class monstrosities out there that will always threaten us. Is there any possibility that I could remove all such threats? That¡¯s insane, right? I¡¯m basically immune to heat and I struggled to stop some melted rock. I had to borrow the power of hundreds of human mages to do so. There¡¯s no way I could take down a creature the size of a continental shelf. The biggest I¡¯ve ever defeated was roughly the size of about a third of a foothill. Ugh, let¡¯s just hope Luna is happy to see us.

 B 3 C 4: They Still Bear Repeating?

    <h2>B 3 C 4: They Still Bear Repeating?</h2>


    Thankfully, it seems Luna is happy to see us. Or maybe she isn¡¯t, her usual greeting is the same. When we¡¯ve arrived in her territory, somehow after we wander around in it for a while, she always knows how to find us. She bounds in from whatever direction she was in, and swats me so hard that several of my ribs crack as I go flying dozens of feet away. Then once I¡¯ve landed, she stomps towards me and lays her head on me, claiming me as a pillow for a period of time.


    My SAP chuckles a bit nervously. They each know how powerful and dangerous Luna is, but we¡¯ve all had good interactions with her. Good interactions other than the first time when we had to fight her off with fire, so long ago now. Luni has spent the most time with her, and seems to have the most understanding of Luna, but even Luni doesn¡¯t know exactly what Luna is thinking. I think. Lu has never let on if she¡¯s full-on telepathic.


    Lil has had the least positive interactions with Luna, since Lil was there the first time when we were attacked. It was just me and Lil way back then. Still, even Lil trusts both Lu and Lu.


    I groan, ¡°Urgh, heh, hi to you too Luna. Good to see you. I¡¯m glad the lava didn¡¯t make it all the way down here. Did you know about it? Could you see it or sense it? I¡¯m not sure if you really understand me, but you seem to respond sometimes. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s going to be safe here. We¡¯re going to be marching a lot of people through your territory, and humans too. I think it would be safer if you were with us, but even if you don¡¯t want that, I worry that the lava might flow again one day.¡±


    Luna, this great, feathered bear, stands back as she lifts her head off of me. She picks me up to my feet. Now normally she would then bat me back down to the ground, and repeat the process several times. Instead there¡¯s a brief pause, and Luna just cocks her head at a ridiculous angle. I think she has the neck and beak of an owl. I mean, she definitely has a predator bird¡¯s beak, that much is obvious. Her neck and shoulders are incredibly flexible though, it¡¯s a bit scary.


    Telepathically I send to my inner circle, ¡°Any help here, guys? Luni, you seem to be able to talk to her or understand her sometimes, should I say any more? Is she deciding? What¡¯s going on?¡±


    Everyone telepathically sends back images of their mental avatars shrugging. Sighing, I gaze at Luna ponderously. I cautiously step towards her and slowly spread my arms wide. Luna raises her right forepaw as if to swat me. I try not to wince or cringe, but I¡¯m sure the trepidation shows. She has never really hurt me when swatting me around, nothing lasting anyway. I keep expecting to be swatted away. But for the first time ever, Luna not only lets me walk up to her face to hug her neck, and her forepaw pulls me in closer to complete the hug.


    I¡¯m about to question if this is a goodbye hug, since we might never see one another again, when I¡¯m treated to a message in our mental interface. ¡°Luna has joined the party.¡± Luna becomes Luna Shellcracker. That sound just now is four jaws hitting the floor. I don¡¯t have the power to invite or communicate with people, Lil has always had to do it for me. I glance over at Lil and they¡¯re as floored as I am, so they didn¡¯t do it. Similarly as I look towards Luni and Teuila, it¡¯s plain as day that neither of them had any idea this was going to happen.


    Another odd thing that happens is that our party interface begins shuffling around, and Luna leaves the primary Shellcracker party to become the only member of a subparty under Luni. Is Luna able to control the interface herself? Not just that, but in ways that none of us even knew was possible? We¡¯re all glancing around at one another with no answer in sight.


    Luna begins her mildly stomping walk to the southeast, her trajectory will take her past the pyramid, to the beaver dam. At least if she continues, and doesn¡¯t stop at the pyramid. I¡¯m still unsure whether or not she¡¯s committed to joining us in the long run, or if this was some symbolic gesture. She doesn¡¯t speak, similarly to Olioli. Also like Oli, she doesn¡¯t have memory logs available to us either.


    My SAP continues along behind Luna, and we¡¯re still so confused that none of us can even manage to dive into shared thinkspace. Each of our psychic bonds took near death to form under extremely unique circumstances. When we¡¯re without our bonded party, it¡¯s pure agony. When we¡¯re separate, the loneliness and longing rise over time to immense levels. Without the escape of accelerated thinkspace, we live life in the slow lane, stuck in that loneliness. Or worse, we punish ourselves by sinking into accelerated thinkspace to experience that loneliness for much longer than we would otherwise have to. Imagine you¡¯re going to be apart from your best friend for a year. Now imagine you¡¯re going to put yourself through nearly a thousand years during that year because you have access to a realm of thought that exists at a rate nearly a thousand times our own. It¡¯s as awful as it sounds to go even a single day without any member of our bond.


    Will Luna someday, through a horrid near-death experience, join a telepathic bond with one of us? Will that link us together like Teuila¡¯s split bond with me and Lil? Teuila¡¯s bond formed when I¡¯d had a split tether holding them both in their evolved forms for far too long, and the tethers felt as if they were literally sawing my heart in half. I nearly died several times during the excursion, but somehow maintained the tether. I think when I let Lil¡¯s tether drop, so that they could escape the dam, I somehow kept that same tether active and used it to strengthen the tether to Teuila. I think that¡¯s what formed Lil¡¯s bond to Te and vice versa.


    I still don¡¯t know how to help others conceptualize energy tethers that reach out to one another. Lil and Teuila can form their own self tethers after my sacrifice. The one I performed shortly after coming back from months of near-catatonia. None of us know how to send tethers to anyone else. If I could have found a way, I¡¯d have had all the fire mages that were on standby send me tethers so that I didn¡¯t need to go into energy debt on the Night of All Burn. Energy debt is truly horrid, it¡¯s like having one¡¯s own guts scraped out, regenerated, and scraped out more. It imposes restrictions on healing from wounds gained before, during, and after the debt is accumulated, for quite some time. Sometimes it reduces your maximum capacity for energy as well. Other times, it does this weird thing that it did to me, where it locks a part of your maximum energy pool. Sometimes all of the above. Oh, and it can cause you to black out for extended periods. My mana pool is mostly locked away again, for the second time in my life, but at least I wasn¡¯t injured around the time I most recently went into energy debt. Well, okay, that¡¯s not true, I was, but somehow a fourth form evolution managed to take the brunt of all of that, and it washed away the injuries as it disappeared.


    We¡¯re at the pyramid now, a place connected to events that I can¡¯t think about without breaking down into heartrending terror. Luna¡¯s gaze at it is almost hateful if I could describe it. Luna seems to be staring the pyramid down as if to challenge it. It¡¯s getting pretty late in the evening, so I wonder if Luna is planning on going inside. Luna can walk through walls, specifically the walls of this pyramid, around midnight on a given night. Or maybe it¡¯s not the time so much as darkness or the moonlight or something. Our planet didn¡¯t even have a moon or stars to start with when I first spawned. I¡¯m almost positive it didn¡¯t. Slowly over time though, the sky seems to be further and further populated. No one else believes me, but my only proof is my memory logs. My memory logs are a bit fallible, I¡¯m an unreliable narrator in my own story, because we have proof that I¡¯ve sometimes hallucinated.


    It seems witching-hour has struck, or something like that. Luna looks like she¡¯s going to enter the pyramid, which might be goodbye. Luni, My-Anchor, walks abreast Luna and lays a hand on her flank. For a moment, I¡¯m panicking, worried that Luni is going to go into this horrid pyramid again. Teuila and her both have their memory logs redacted from the time or times they¡¯ve been inside this awful place. I can barely imagine how bad it is inside with what little information I have on it. Teuila senses my worry, and comes to wrap her arms around my waist from the rear, hugging me comfortingly.


    Lu pulls out her harp, and whispers into it, and oddly, it seems like Luna also whispers towards the harp. Umbral notes with vaguely crescent shapes instead of the flags and noteheads one would normally expect begin to float about the pair. The notes vaguely seem to depict the cycles of the moon, fitting for the two Lus. Luna rears back, and slams her paws on the ground, barely connecting her claws with the pyramid¡¯s base.


    It feels like the world begins to crumble at the might of the earthquake that suddenly rocks the landscape. The ancient, majestic trees all begin collapsing inward towards the pyramid from several hundred feet. The pyramid itself begins sinking into the land as the five of us struggle to maintain our footing. Luna backs up, picking up Luni by the scruff of her dress collar with her beak. Lu escapes carrying other Lu, loping away from this pit that¡¯s forming in front of us. Luni scrabbles atop Luna as Luna tries to keep Luni safe from falling trees. I hate seeing the arbor fall when it seems to have been so ancient.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Something is wrong, we can¡¯t keep losing these trees. Something screams inside me that we can¡¯t afford to keep letting these ancient life forms up and vanish. I¡¯ve always been a little curious as to why I¡¯ve been protective of them at various turns in my life. I still don¡¯t know, but now there¡¯s a tangible urge to save them, and I can do nothing. I sink to my knees in despair, mourning the losses of these primordial plants. Even as they crash down around me, I can¡¯t bring myself to move. Even as the pit¡¯s edge collapses closer and closer in front of me, I find myself struggling to muster any sense of the present.


    Teuila trusts me to take care of myself, as does Lil, or they¡¯d have transformed and dragged me away from here by now. I vaguely sense Lil dragging away Teuila out of my danger wrap tactile sensory range. What¡¯s odd is that neither Lil nor Teuila have evolved yet. Life blood, radiance is a limited resource, but it¡¯s currently corrupted somehow. Why do these thoughts suddenly surface? Luni specifically directed me to not guess about that topic. It could alter future events if I come to any conclusions. I manage one conscious effort, I physically sigh as I bury the thoughts once more.


    I¡¯m still not moving, the thought of losing this nature, of the ground swallowing up everything from primeval times onwards fills me with terror. Especially the loss of the prehistoric flora. Did Lu and Lu really cause this? I suspect they were more likely trying to close off the pyramid for good, to keep everyone safe from whatever is within. My eyes bulge but my vision tunnels down to the point of a pin, my pulse pounds from my heart to my temples, the sound hammering my eardrums from the inside. My muscles seize and spasm. I feel as if I¡¯m going to vomit as I¡¯m overcome by a layer of sweat. Now, I¡¯m overtaken by the crumbling precipice that has receded to just before me. I¡¯m sent tumbling below as ancient vegetation covers the pit, and the world finally stops convulsing.


    Now would be a really good time to stop panicking, so that I can engage my JT to reduce my downward velocity. No dice. I can¡¯t sense anything around me within the fifteen foot range of my danger wraps, so I¡¯m plummeting through empty space in the dark, and the chasm is already covered from above. My vision in darkness is rather decent, which again reminds me that I¡¯m not a human. At the moment, I almost wish my vision wasn¡¯t so good, as the thing propelling itself through the air between chasm faces below looks horrifying. It appears to be, there¡¯s no better way to describe this, an enormous floating mote with a fanged maw and an elongated flagellum, essentially, a toothy spermatozoon. Something literally out of my worst nightmares, and now I¡¯m sent tumbling into a further episode of panic, remembering Day One. My breath catches in my throat, and the pain in my chest feels as if my heart had stopped, even though my pulse is still threatening to blow my eardrums from the inside. My mind is filled with the nightmares of Day One, where my mind had seen everything, the land, the trees, the sphere creatures, open their faces in approximations of fanged maws. The worst of it is, it doesn¡¯t matter what sort of surface, they didn¡¯t actually have to grow teeth, they just split open in sharp jagged edges, as did the first sphere creature I ever encountered. Its front simply opened wide with a jagged line, and something that was a soft sphere like some sort of bouncy ball tore gouges out of my flesh with its fake mouth.


    Oh, oh I¡¯m being eaten. By a giant flying, ugh, I don¡¯t want to call this thing a sperm creature. Let¡¯s just call it a floating tailed-seed. Somehow the ridiculousness of the situation is helping to snap me out of my panic. With my much lower mana capacity, do I risk killing this thing and continuing to hurtle downwards? The plunge may not be survivable if it would take too many JTs to break my fall with my low max mana. On the other hand, I¡¯m definitely going to die if it finishes chewing me enough to break through my Valkyrie armor.


    I guess I should, as they say, risk it for the biscuit? Ugh, never mind, that was dumb. This thing is pretty enormous, its mouth alone is easily twice the size of Luna, and she¡¯s a massive bear. Luna is larger than any type of bear in my memories. My memories include kodiaks, she¡¯s not much larger than them, but still, absolutely gargantuan compared to me. Stop getting distracted! One of my truly fatal flaws, even more than the panic, is my distractibility. What was I doing? Oh, right, I should probably fight back. Maybe if I freeze this thing, its weird ability to float I could just slowly aim downwards? It¡¯s worth a try.


    Having hung around the human mages too long now, I call out, ¡°FFS, Flash Frost Storm!¡± I suck the kinetic energy out of the atoms in the surrounding area, slowing them to a crawl, freezing everything around. Ow, this flying tailed-seed creature did not like that. It¡¯s fighting back against the freeze to crush me between its horrid teeth one last time. Why haven¡¯t I been using my tattoo tendrils? Ugh, I extend my tattoo tendrils, one below, and one above, gripping its jaw from both sides and prying apart. My tendrils normally only extend fifteen feet, but for some reason, anything within that range, they can wrap around. Well, I haven¡¯t tried it on truly enormous monstrosities like the cragbeast queen, or the roc, not that I would try it on the roc, the roc saved my life. Stop getting distracted! Right, right, so, now that I¡¯ve got a bit of a reprieve, let¡¯s angle this thing to the bottom of this pit, since it can¡¯t seem to fly any higher. I definitely don¡¯t have enough mana to JT my way all the way to the top of the chasm, and claim enough space in the trees to break out.


    If I¡¯m lucky, I¡¯ll run into one of the beaver¡¯s tunnel structures near the bottom. If I¡¯m not lucky, I¡¯ll probably have to spend several months tunneling upwards with my inventory magic, by claiming a few inches of soil at a time. I¡¯m nearing the ground, or, well, I¡¯m in the ground, I¡¯m nearing the floor of the pit, and oddly the pyramid isn¡¯t here. Now, do I kill this thing? I don¡¯t want it to burrow its way to the surface and eventually attack my friends, or the human troops. It seems instantly hostile to anything it can get its mouth around. I guess I¡¯ll have to.


    Sighing, I unsheathe a Valkyrie dagger, and hand it to one of my tattoo tendril¡¯s tips. I then recoil the tattoo tendrils, essentially pulling a rapid barbed wire laceration. Wow, that was ludicrously effective. I might have to think of a name for that one, and use it again at some point. The gigantic creature begins to derez, and I¡¯m treated to the familiar cacophony, and time dilation of derezzing, it ends with the shattering crash as its final wireframe polygon disappears. I¡¯m not certain if it was any decent sort of threat level, but I¡¯ll claim its drops regardless. Huh, that¡¯s a bunch of eggs. I really don¡¯t enjoy the implications, or the irony. Is the world making fun of me? I¡¯ll sort the rest of this stuff out when I reconvene with my family.


    The good news is, or well, several bits of good news are, There¡¯s definitely a connection to one of the beaver¡¯s tunnels down here. I¡¯m also apparently fairly well defended even when distracted. The bad news is, I¡¯m three for three with accidentally assassinating beaverfolk. Several creatures drew weapons on me while I was distracted. My danger wraps had me react in as violent and visceral a manner as one might expect after having just slain a giant, uh, seed creature, filled with eggs as loot.


    One of these beavers I recognize as the one I¡¯d scared pantsless with my visage of fatigued psychotic fury long ago now. I¡¯m not certain who I just derezzed, but by the looks of it, this is a meeting place for members of the MCF. I thought I was done with these bozos. I thought they had reformed and joined the sane faction. There are diagrams drawn on bark of a tunnel going up from this room. They were planning to get into the pyramid. They were hoping to resurrect their psychopathic telepathic telekinetic psionic illusionist deity.


    I, I can¡¯t, I can¡¯t handle it, I can¡¯t take it. Why do they want to be subjugated and brainwashed? What is the matter with these idiots? Do they not understand that this creature took on the face of the one I loved most dear, to prey on my greatest fear? Do they not understand that that creature would convert every living being into one of its followers, by coercion or force?


    My vision both narrows as it tunnels, and floods with red. I let loose another Flash Freeze Storm, and I can¡¯t control myself. My muscles won¡¯t respond. I¡¯m flooded with panic, remembering the events of the dam. My pulse quickens and my palms fill with sweat as I curl my hands into fists. Please me, don¡¯t do this, we should at least get someone to verify this is what it looks like before doing this. Please, don¡¯t be a killer. It¡¯s too late. I¡¯m beside myself in my own mind, struggling with crippling fear and panic in one third, struggling to maintain rationality in another third, and filled with utmost furious wrath in another third. My wrath wins out. My tendrils lash out, shattering three beaverfolk at a time in their icy prisons, my fists take care of two more. In moments I¡¯ve dealt with the rest.


    My wrath isn¡¯t finished with me though, I completely lose control of my senses. I alternate between flash freeze storms, and as much fire as I can muster. I hear cracking, similar to the sounds of derezzing. I worry that it¡¯s me for a moment until I realize it¡¯s the lock on my maximum mana.


    When I finally regain my senses and come to, I look around at yet another scene of devastation, one that I¡¯ve once again caused. Three times I¡¯ve been to this dam, and every time I¡¯ve ended up murdering someone, and leaving large swathes of it destroyed. Every bit of respawning tree bark or lumber that had coated the walls is nothing more than the merest pile of ash. There are tendril gouges that look like tremendous claw marks on every surface.


    Sighing, I begin to explore the tunnel structures leading from this room into the dam proper. At least I can find my way out to Lil, Teuila, Lu, and Lu.

 B 3 C 5: Unexpected Affection

    <h2>B 3 C 5: Unexpected Affection</h2>


    One bit of bad news is that I destroyed any possible proof I might have had that might absolve me of the murders I just committed.  Or at least could prove that they may have been necessary, or assuage my own self recrimination in some way.  The only thing I have to show for it is the room¡¯s proximity to the crevasse through which the pyramid fell.


    I want to just lay down and vomit.  My stomach is performing an olympic tumbling routine.  I can scarcely believe that every single time I¡¯ve visited this place, I¡¯ve slain people.  I, I just don¡¯t, I don¡¯t know what to do.  I do know that I want to never return here so long as I live.  Ugh, do I leave the room open to the crevasse or do I use inventory magic to seal it up with stone?  If I don¡¯t seal it up, what if there are more of those, uh, bitey flying tailed-seed things?  Fine, floating toothy sperm, whatever, ugh.


    None of the critterkin will understand, since none of us have reproductive equipment, sort of, more or less.  But the humans won¡¯t ever let me live it down if they learn I was nearly eaten by a flying giant sperm.  Enough already!  Move on brain, new topic!  Out of sight, out of mind.


    Right, I should be paying attention, just marking where I¡¯m going along the right hand wall is normally okay, but I don¡¯t want to be lost in this tunnel structure for days on end before finding my family.  I¡¯m not in danger of starving or dehydrating, not with the amount of inventory space I have packed full of fish and fresh water.  That¡¯s not the reason I want to hurry though.  I want to hurry to let my inner circle know that I¡¯m okay.  But also, something is eating at the back of my mind, and I can¡¯t quite place what it is.  Something happened up top.  There was some clue to a greater mystery, and I missed it.  I don¡¯t even know what the mystery is, let alone what the clue signified.


    Ah, great, rushing footsteps, beaverfolk are going to see me looking covered in ash, appearing in the middle of their dam tunnels, and they¡¯ll know I¡¯ve killed people again.  I put my hands up in a sign of peace as dozens of armed beavers round a corner, likely sent to investigate the damage caused by the earthquake.  Wow, has it really only been a few seconds since that happened?  Sometimes it feels like even without accelerated thinkspace, that I often manage to compress a ridiculous amount of activity into short time frames.  Other times it feels like I shut my brain off, and hours, days, weeks, or months pass with very little action.


    I¡¯m getting distracted, where was I again?  Oh, right, surrounded by armed beavers and beaverfolk.  I¡¯m not even surprised anymore, that my brain just tunes out harmless threats like these.  I feel way too prideful.  I could be injured, but there are certain levels of threats that just don¡¯t mean anything to me anymore.  I¡¯m sure they¡¯re asking me questions, but, as always, my glitchy spawn means I share something with the humans.  I can¡¯t communicate with critterkin that aren¡¯t in my party.  Sighing, I shake my head, as I just assume they¡¯re asking me if I caused the earthquake.  I mean, what else do you ask the mysterious stranger that keeps showing up to your dam in times of crisis, when they show up again right after an earthquake?  First time, the dam flooded, even though I didn¡¯t do it.  The second time, I blew a room to smithereens like the one behind me.  The first time wasn¡¯t really my fault, the sane faction didn¡¯t give me enough time, so I had to spend hours under water with the help of Sylphie saving everyone.


    Sighing, I remember Sylphie, and sadness grips my heart.  My torso is wrung out like a wet towel.  I double over and wail at the loss.  This divine entity, this spirit of wind gave her life to save these beavers at my behest.  Beavers that I keep coming back to and killing every time I find them trying to return their deity from the dead.  Now that I¡¯m thinking of their deity, the sadness is replaced with panic.  It took on the face of Teuila, and it cut me so emotionally deeply that I could not face the being most beloved to me in all the world.  I couldn¡¯t even look upon Teuila without suffering a panic attack even stronger than this.  When my gaze would spy her form, I¡¯d shriek and scrabble away, or sob in terror, unable to move.


    Eventually my brain couldn¡¯t reconcile how much I was hurting Teuila with my fear of her.  Seeing her cry as she desired so desperately to comfort me just broke me down.  I retreated into my own mind, and even the piece of me that retreated deep within myself went dormant.  I had to be fed and taken care of as my body ambled along.  Somehow, during that time of catatonic-like state, something in me piloted my body and still had at least one adventure, if not more.  Eventually I regained my senses, months later, but still, every time I saw Teuila, I was overcome with fear, and panic.  It took extraordinary events, and years of comfort in accelerated thinkspace, but I was finally able to disconnect Teuila herself from the source of my trauma, this trauma I¡¯m experiencing right now.  The trauma of the thing that Lil dubbed the Mind Blower.


    My breath is ragged gasps as my eyes feel open so wide that I fear they¡¯ll pop out of my sockets.  My face is contorted, twisted into an expression of terror and anguish, and weeping overtakes me from my wide-open tear ducts.  My right arm spasms and convulses, and I barely have the wherewithal to claim all of my equipment, including my tattoo to my inventory.  I claim it all so that I don¡¯t lash out and hurt anyone else.  My stomach tries to invent a quadruple Produnova as it repeatedly flips in place.  I can spy only knees, feet, and speartips in my tunneled vision, even as my gaze sharply flits left and right in my encroaching hysteria.


    I think the beavers know me well enough, by my various trips here, to know not to mess with me when I¡¯m in such a state, yet I feel a spear prod from one direction, and a calming paw laid upon me from another.  My mind struggles against the desire to lash out.  Worse, it wants to use the one attempting to comfort me as a bludgeoning weapon against the one prodding me.  Please brain, just, just stop, just shut down for a bit, please, don¡¯t hurt anyone else.  I can¡¯t take it.


    With that, everything fades to black, at least for a time.  When I come to, I¡¯m being hauled by my armpits through the halls of the beaver¡¯s tunnels on my bare arse.  As I stir, they toss me in what I assume is going to be some sort of prison for me, and I begin to laugh hysterically.  Those beavers who¡¯d tossed me into the room flee in terror.  Probably the best choice, with my track record here.  Still, if this was meant to be a prison, it¡¯s very, hm, plush.  It¡¯s almost lavish.  There¡¯s a soft leaf-leather bed, a cabinet filled with sweet sap-coated sticks that I assume are treats for beavers.  That might even be syrup.  Maybe they weren¡¯t trying to imprison me?  There isn¡¯t even a door on the room.


    Trying to appear less imposing, while also appearing less insane, I equip myself in leaf-leather clothing.  I take a few of the sweet twigs to suck on as I traverse the halls.  There are different levels of consumption for different types of materials and different creature types.  Most things I¡¯ve interacted with seem to instantly teleport somewhere as I try to consume them, then my belly feels slightly more full.  But recently we¡¯ve discovered produce that can be purchased as if by magic from a shop that¡¯s run by any critterkin, and the fruits and vegetables actually require chewing and eating.  They¡¯re still a bit odd, they¡¯re food all the way through, no seeds, no cores, even the skins are all perfectly clean and edible.  Well, at least ones sold by Luni or other top tier merchants.


    These honeyed twigs, or syrup sticks, whatever they are, seem to fall into the latter category.  I¡¯m not certain I want to actually chew on and eat the wood, but the syrup itself is divine.  Pure maple.  I sort of forgot maple trees might exist, what with the homogeny of the tree life on the surface.  I don¡¯t know the name of the types of ancient trees that pepper the landscape above, but I do know they¡¯re basically all the same in any given biome.  Down here in the beaver warrens, or colony though, logs of birch and maple tree trunks actually spawn along the walls of all their tunnels and rooms.  It seems like tunnels excavated by beavers slowly gain spawning points for new wood.  Similar to how when my family was expanding Shellcracker Pond, we gained more fish school spawning points.


    Thankfully, Lao and Agwai managed to get their inventory capacities to thirteen hundred thirty seven before we lost Shellcracker pond, it¡¯s one of the first capacity limits.  I don¡¯t know offhand what breaks through that capacity limit though.  Also thankfully Lao is very practical in what she chooses to carry; some freshwater, many medical supplies, and massive quantities of fish.  Agwai is slightly less practical, they carry toys and things that make sounds when banged together, drawings made by the Mana twins on bark, sentimental things.  They still of course carry large quantities of fish, and currency, at my request.  I think if it weren¡¯t for my request, Agwai would fill their inventory with every last thing that ever carried any sentiment for them about any member of our family.


    I really, truly, could never have imagined Agwai being who they are, when we had first met, with the interactions we had up until we started journeying through the swamps.  Ag is a wonderful, loving, zany, goofy individual.  They seemed so stern, cold, distant, and angry back then.  My heart aches every time I recall the moment I realized it was due to the loss of their home and so many family members in such a short time.  Also due to the burden of leadership being split amongst Lao and Ag, when there used to be several elders.  Not to mention Ag suffered more responsibility as Lao would normally handle more leadership choices if she weren¡¯t in the process of grieving so hard as she was back then.


    Still, I¡¯m getting sidetracked.  My family is somewhere on the surface, likely worried sick about me, and here I am wandering around, lost again in the beaver¡¯s dam structure.  Plus, I get to suck on sweet sticky sap sticks as I enjoy meandering about, lost in thought.  That¡¯s really unfair to them, I should hurry up.  I guess I could blast around the tunnels with JT movement, rocketing from one hallway to every intersection.  That wouldn¡¯t use up too much mana, since I could pause at each intersection.  My maximum mana still hasn¡¯t unlocked of course, but I know the lock was damaged during my fury.  The same thing happened last time when I went into a blind rage while my mana capacity was locked away from my access.  It¡¯s funny, if I let myself go into a blind rage again, I¡¯d probably recover from this energy debt penalty more quickly.  Why does it feel like the world wants me to give into my wrath and just slaughter everything?  Wait, there was a hint, a clue.  Something about a shared history with someone, somewhere.  Wrath, hatred, indignation, fury, theft, something malformed, corruption, an alabaster temple.  I can¡¯t quite place it.


    I have to be careful not to guess too many things that might lead to me changing how I approach the future.  Especially without My-Anchor nearby.  She knows what to ward me off of when my trains of thought veer in certain directions.


    SIghing, I find myself thinking of Luni.  She was this innocent otter-sphere that I thought would simply be the love of Lil¡¯s life, full stop, nothing else.  That alone made her important to me.  That alone was cause enough for me to desire her safety and happiness.  Lil jokingly accused me of falling into twitterpation with her when she evolved into a curvy, more humanoid, otter form, replete with gorgeous dress, adorable hair, enchanting sense of style, even more charming, and cute accessories.  But it was true.  I was smitten with Luni and felt ashamed for it.  There¡¯s no jealousy in our inner circle, but in my memories, everything screams that the norm is to only share that sort of affection and love with one other.  I honestly think that¡¯s a stupid way to live, but the guilt that that norm carried with it affected me.  Then Luni continued to endear herself to me, time and time again as she proved more and more valuable in the coming hardships.  She also hinted repeatedly that I was special to her, and somehow will always have been and always will be her hero.


    Teuila has never admonished me for my feelings, and Lil only jokingly plays off as jealous on occasion.  I think Lil and Teuila have a special bond wherein they¡¯re as much smitten with one another as Luni and I are with each other.  Well, I think Luni reciprocates my feelings.  She certainly teases me enough about our closeness.  The darndest thing though is she teases me in ways that indicate she has some knowledge of the same sort of wrong-world that exists only in my memories.  Human-style flirting and the like.  Any time I try to puzzle out how that can be, she deflects, but also lets slip emotions that confirm how much I mean to her.  One time, during Lil¡¯s absence, I thought she was begging me for affection to temporarily replace Lil as some sort of backup, just to ward off the horrid loneliness that I thought she would feel.  She was of course wracked with loneliness without Lil, but that wasn¡¯t what she meant though, she was admitting her feelings and she had to cut herself off mid sentence before admitting it.  Something about revealing them I¡¯m not supposed to know about, not yet anyway.  It changes how I act in some future timeline to know something about some of the depth of Luni¡¯s feelings for me.


    ¡°Huff.¡±  I sigh, I have to bury all of these thoughts, and maybe even redact them.  That sucks.  I deeply enjoy thinking of my little quad, especially during monotonous solo adventures like this.  Adventures full of long boring hallways of samey samey wood and lamey.  Okay, that was childish.  I¡¯m sure the beavers are very proud of their tunnels of food supplies.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Oh no!  They have to stay here.  As far as I know, they may never be able to generate their food source in any other tunnels unless they¡¯re connected to this river.  Spice¡¯s secret tunnels didn¡¯t have respawning logs as far as I could tell.  But, but, the volcano could go crazy again some day, and once again spill past Fire Biome.  If it does, and I¡¯m not here, backed up by hundreds of mages, what happens when the lava starts hitting their tunnels?


    Dangit!  Even if I try to avoid this place for the rest of my life, somehow or another, my relation to it is going to kill tons of these folks!  Argh, I hate this!  When I¡¯m here, I end up killing people, or they end up dying nearby.  If I¡¯m not here, people are going to die.  I know we didn¡¯t rescue every single last beaver during the dam¡¯s flooding incident.  Some definitely died before we made it to every single hallway.  I suppose the other faction wished I had just let them all drown, come to think of it.  If I had done that though, there wouldn¡¯t be hundreds and hundreds of beavers, there might barely be a hundred, or even only a few dozen.  The sane faction was such a small fraction of the populace at that point.


    Well, Priss, as much as we hate each other, gave me good advice.  I deliver the news, and my intentions, and I let the beavers decide their own fate.  Maybe even give them our marching course in case they want time to deliberate.  That way they could eventually catch up if they so choose.  They¡¯d certainly always be welcome.  The only ones I hold any animosity towards always end up dying anyway.  Ugh, how cruel and callous is that?  ¡°Oh hey you¡¯re all okay because I already killed the ones I don¡¯t like.¡±  That¡¯s horrid.


    I guess that thought is also self recrimination and minimization of the situation though.  I didn¡¯t kill them from simple dislike.  I killed them when they proved to be threats to my family.  They proved to be threats to my family by proving to be threats to the entire world at large.


    Hm, I wonder why they¡¯ve expanded so much.  The tunnel systems always seemed needlessly large and complex down here, and these don¡¯t look familiar in the slightest yet.  Up ahead though, that intersection looks slightly familiar.  I JT my way to the next intersection, and a bomb drops into the pit of my stomach.


    I know where I am now, I¡¯m in the north wing.  This room once contained a cervid skull carving.  I have no idea what they were doing with an antelope or deer skull, whatever kind of cervid it was.  Even as just a carving, it¡¯s an oddly gruesome thing for beavers to create and hold onto.  This is the room I destroyed when I was last here, and it¡¯s still a mess.  They¡¯ve swept out the ash, but the walls contain craters where I slammed my right fist into them at jet speeds.  No logs have grown back on any of the surfaces, and I can see the plug they¡¯ve used to prevent the re-flooding of the dam is slightly exposed from my rampage.  I didn¡¯t notice at the time, I¡¯d barely stopped myself from blowing open the hole to re-flood the dam myself.


    I lean against the entry of the room and horf the contents of my stomach into its interior.  The waves of nausea overcome me as strongly as the waves of emotion that I¡¯m riding.  Each feeling stronger than the last, competing for dominance.  Fear, regret, sadness, panic, hatred, anger, fury, guilt, remorse, contrition.  A bunch of those might be the same emotion, just trying to bubble up under different names to reach the fore.


    I let my knees buckle and allow myself to drop to the floor so that I can bawl my eyes out.  I flood the scene with tears of regret, for who knows how long.  Suddenly though, there¡¯s a tapping on my shoulder as someone lays a comfortable leathery leaf cloak, or possibly a blanket, over my shoulders, and sits next to me.  I expect that when I turn to meet their gaze, it will be one of my inner circle.  My expectations are due to how tender and comforting the action was.  But when I turn I find myself staring into the eyes of a young beaverfolk man who holds his arms wide.  He remains seated nearby, allowing me my space.  He¡¯s a cute, pudgy, friendly fellow.  He tries to say something to me, but my inability to communicate with critterkin means I only see a dialog box facing the wrong way laced with inscrutable script.  I can hear the bruxing of his teeth, and I lean towards the box to try to parse what it says, but about the only thing that I can make out is the word sorry.


    I continue to cry, now tears of frustration.  This kind individual is trying so hard to comfort me, and I can¡¯t even communicate my appreciation, or understand what comforts he¡¯s offering.  He motions his arms wider without approaching, allowing me the option to accept his hug.  I want him to know how much I appreciate the gesture, so I shuffle closer and lean into his embrace.  I bury my face in the velvety, slightly oily, fur of his chest.  He pats my back and strokes my head and shoulders.  I truly don¡¯t deserve this level of kindness from folks whose kin I¡¯ve killed repeatedly.  This thought causes me to loose further tears of regret into the young man¡¯s chest.  Eventually I begin to hiccup.  I hadn¡¯t been breathing much between sobs, so now the oxygen situation is catching up with me as I draw ragged breaths.


    I need to get back to my family, and let any of them deal with the beaverfolk situation.  Why do I often end up in the position where I, the one that can¡¯t communicate, end up being the first on the scene that could use a mediator?  Sighing, I tug gently at this fellow¡¯s arms as I try to stand.  He shuffles to allow me to stand as well as aid me upwards.  I wrap him up in a warm hug, hopefully showing my gratitude.  I roll up the cloak or blanket type object he¡¯d tossed about my shoulders, and hand it back to him.  He looks a bit perplexed for a moment, as if he¡¯s considering whether or not to accept his own blanket back.  Eventually he acquiesces, and collects the object of warmth that he¡¯d shared.


    I make as if to leave, motioning that I need to head topside, and he nods, stepping to the side.  I figure this is probably the last I¡¯ll see of him, but he trots along several paces to my rear and to the right.  I don¡¯t know if this is one of those embarrassing ¡°oops we¡¯ve said goodbye but are going the same direction¡± moments, or if he thought I asked him to accompany me topside.  I¡¯m only slightly apprehensive of him.  If he wanted to take advantage of me or hurt me, he could have tried while I was vulnerable in my grief and regret.


    He¡¯s really too sweet either way, as he makes no efforts to complain or change direction.  I wonder if he can read and write, I mean, we all talk in text boxes, sort of.  I pause, and he pauses behind me.  I produce charcoal pencils, and scrap paper from my inventory, that I had bought when Spice was operating the shop for a time.  I try writing out the simple question of whether or not he can read what I¡¯ve written.


    He smiles and nods emphatically.  A breakthrough!  I can finally communicate with people, instead of just humans.  I draw a ragged breath and sigh in relief, chuckling and crying a few tears of joy.  I then write out that I can¡¯t speak or hear anyone.  It¡¯s an oversimplification of the matter, but at least I can let him know I wasn¡¯t ignoring him.


    He looks sorrowful, almost apologetic as if he¡¯d done something wrong.  I wave my hands worriedly, trying to let him know that he has nothing to be sorry for.  I offer him one of the pencils and some paper on which to write.  His face brightens up and he gladly accepts them.  Finally I can at least introduce myself.


    ¡°I¡¯m Reggie Shellracker.¡± I write.


    His written response is, ¡°I know, you¡¯re famous around here.¡±  This causes me to blush, and my face to adopt a sad expression as I try to fight back tears.


    I write out, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I never meant to be involved in so many horrible events.¡±  He quickly shakes his head and waves his hands, mimicking my earlier gesture.


    He replies on paper, ¡°No no, no need to be sorry, it¡¯s a good fame.  We know.  I, well, I know what some of the leaders have put you and your family through.  I¡¯m the one that¡¯s sorry on our behalf.  I heard some of our miners talking that they found you in a wing that shouldn¡¯t have existed, we didn¡¯t know it existed until the earthquake.  Like, the news is still spreading through the dam just now.  I figured you must have had an adventure and saved us all again, even if on accident.  So I wanted to see you for myself, if I could still find you while you were here.  I just wanted to thank you somehow.  When I did find you, you looked so sad.¡±


    An asymmetrical smile accompanied by a look of deep sadness adorns my face.  This fellow is too sweet for words.  On paper I ask, ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    His response in writing is, ¡°We don¡¯t really have those, but I like the name Magnus.  Does that sound good?  You could call me that, if you like.¡±


    I let my smile widen a bit, still lopsided with gloom, but approaching a true smile as I respond, ¡°Pleased to meet you Magnus.  Do you happen to know Sugar and Spice?  The two that joined us when we first passed the dam on our way North as a family?¡±


    Magnus simply nods with a broad smile.  His acknowledgment fills me with calmness and joy.  The last of my apprehension melts away.  Anyone that Sugar and Spice might have thought was good, is probably a safe person to confide in.  I extend my own arms wide this time, offering Magnus a hug, which he accepts quickly.  He puts more strength into the hug than previously, squishing me against him joyfully.  I find myself laughing, as well as rubbing and patting his back as our arms are wrapped around each other.  We continue walking, each with an arm about the other.


    I take a moment to scrawl, ¡°Magnus, do you know about the lava a few nights ago?  The volcano destroyed Shellcracker pond, and miles upon miles of land to the north.  We barely pushed back the lava flow this time just a short journey from here.  If it happens again, we won¡¯t be able to stop it.¡±


    Magnus looks worriedly at what I¡¯ve written, shaking his head.  I was afraid of that.  News hadn¡¯t reached them, since they¡¯re rarely above ground or water.  I pause our hug and our walk to scratch my head and lean against a wall.  Even if I could write out everything that needs to be shared, it wouldn¡¯t have the impact of a speech that one of my party members could give.  I have to let the others handle the negotiations, if there are to be any.


    We¡¯ve reached the great hall, and there¡¯s a fair bit of hustle and bustle.  Magnus helps guide me through so that I don¡¯t have to make myself imposing as I¡¯ve done so many times before.  As we¡¯re reaching the south section, when we¡¯ll need to start swimming, I¡¯m worried I¡¯ll have to say goodbye to Magnus without a way to communicate.  I point at the paper and make swimming motions, then rub my eyes as if wiping tears away.  I stow my own paper and pencil in my inventory, then Magnus hands me his as well.  He realizes what my inventory magic signifies since he¡¯d seen me draw them out of thin air previously.


    I give Magnus one last hug, then I back up, wave, and turn to take the lonely swim topside.  Magnus however catches me by one wrist, and despite the fur covering his cheeks, appears to be blushing.  He tugs me close for another hug, I¡¯m always happy to relent for a warm embrace, but then he surprises me.  Magnus plants a kiss firmly on my lips.


    I probably look pretty stunned, it¡¯s not unenjoyable, but I don¡¯t kiss back since I¡¯m lost deep in thought.  I¡¯ve spent years, decades with my coterie, my quad, my inner circle.  I¡¯ve spent nearly a century with those that I hold most dear in the world.  Though we smooch one another all over, and even frequently near one another¡¯s lips, we¡¯ve never actually shared that kind of kiss.


    Well, I haven¡¯t shared that kind of kiss with anyone unless you count the times when Teuila or Laomati had to breathe for me when I was dying.  If you count that kind of mouth to mouth contact, then I¡¯ve also technically been kissed by like forty five MCF beavers that had shared breath with me when I was dying underwater during the dam flood at the end of my trying to save them.


    I think part of why my inner circle hasn¡¯t performed that exact action is because, for so long, I thought I was a human child that just had too many memories of a nonexistent world.  I was also certain that I was missing memories of what would have been a childhood in our world.  I was nervous.  There were implications.  Once I realized I wasn¡¯t even human, and that among critterkin, we don¡¯t really have children, or even a child stage of life, I suppose I could have abandoned those nervous preconceptions.  I only learned I wasn¡¯t human fairly recently though.  Technically we don¡¯t even have biological sexes, and our genders are basically just pronouns for convenience.  Though, there are some traits and characteristics that some of us critterkin tend to share, the ones that identify as one or the other anyway.  For neutral parties like myself and Lil, it¡¯s hard to explain.  Agwai has some of those characteristics leaning one way, but they¡¯ve never identified themselves that way, or any way for that matter.  I enjoy appearing cherubic and small, but I can change my shape into virtually anything with enough time and concerted effort.


    Narf, thinking on it, even though I know I¡¯m not human, I might also not be critterkin.  I don¡¯t know which umbrella elves fall under, if either.  I haven¡¯t met any of them yet.  Do any of them have shape changing powers?  Can they speak with critterkin?  Do they behave like humans biologically?  Is there a chance I¡¯m just an elf?  Oh no, I¡¯ve just been standing here, distracted in thought, while poor Magnus had kissed me and then recoiled.


    Magnus looks mortified that I haven¡¯t returned the kiss as he backs away.  His face contains terror that he¡¯s done something wrong.  Before he runs away I need to find a way to absolve him, to let him know I didn¡¯t mind.  Now as he turns to leave, I grip him by the wrist, and pull him in for a hug.  It¡¯s not a kiss, but it¡¯s affection all the same.  I try to assuage his worry about the kiss, though I don¡¯t feel like pulling the pencils and paper back out just to write if I¡¯m simply going to put them away again an instant later.  I stroke his back and hold him for a moment.  He calms down fairly quickly.


    I mime out questions for Magnus, indicating I want to know if he was going to follow me topside, and if so, if we can keep writing once we get there.  He nods emphatically, so I smile and begin a much less lonely swim through the southern halls of the dam that lead out to the river proper.

 B 3 C 6: The Target Of My Endless Wrath

    <h2>B 3 C 6: The Target of My Endless Wrath</h2>


    It¡¯s pleasant to have Magnus swimming beside me. If one thought his chubbiness might hamper his athleticism, they¡¯d be wrong. His movements are fluid and strong. His tail works as fin, rudder, and flipper. It gives him fantastic control over his propulsion through the water. I¡¯d always been impressed by my otter family¡¯s aquatic maneuverability, but Magnus is easily on par with the best of us, if not even more impressive.


    I wonder if perhaps my tail should be a beaver tail when I¡¯m done growing scales and a reptilian tail. I need to stick to the plan of reptilian features for now, so that I can safely broker peace with the naga, and any other potential scalekin, or scalekind, as Dehlia called them. Do all reptiles possess a crystalline heart core like Lil? Dehlia was able to teach Lil a spell that allowed them to retreat into their core, giving up their corporeal form, their physical body. But to know a spell like that, she¡¯d have to have met at least someone else that had such a core to learn it from, right? The way she spoke of her people, it sounded like they were all extremely advanced in the ways of various magics.


    I need to break the lock on my max mana and then expand it over eleven hundred again to even begin making decent progress on my own scale-ification again. I¡¯ve sort of stalled out, since I can¡¯t even fully attempt to engage a self evolution tether right now. That¡¯s part of how I can mold my form through self actualization. I partially evolve a form, without fully committing, while imagining the base form I return to as being different than what it was. I then have to drop the tether before I fully assume the secondary evolution form, and voila, minor alterations. A few scales here, a few millimeters of tail there. All in all, it¡¯s exhausting. I suppose if I really wanted to, I could make my base form the same as that thirty odd foot tall monstrosity of my fourth evolutionary form over time. I¡¯m not sure if changing my base form will confer related powers or prowess though.


    Magnus and I swim in a corkscrew pattern as we lance through the tunnels that lead out of the dam to the river proper. It¡¯s almost thrilling to have him at my side. He seems to just be enjoying himself so much. It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve seen someone jubilant to be doing something I had begun to consider mundane. Don¡¯t get me wrong, my family and I still enjoy taking swims, and fishing, but his glee is on a whole other level.


    If I recall correctly, Teuila said the beavers out-water-punned the otters during some lumber collecting mission they were on. I honestly can¡¯t imagine them marching along with us to any new location if water is their ecstasy, their purest bliss. I¡¯m surprised my family of otters was able to handle how much time we had to spend on dry land. I¡¯m even more surprised that they didn¡¯t build their home directly in the river or pond. I guess they got used to our dry, cozy, warm dugouts.


    The idea for those dugouts started with just me and Lil, then we used it one time for our quad, and I was certain it was the right choice for safety in the swamps. I think of Lil, Luni, and Teuila as my quad, but I guess a quad has to include me, so I¡¯m part of my quad too, I just seem to be this nebulous entity in my own mind. It¡¯s like, of course I¡¯m there, I¡¯m part of it, but I never list me, even though I count us as a group of four. I guess we¡¯re five now, with Luna. That¡¯s going to take some getting used to. I think Luni was as surprised as anyone. She was possibly even more surprised than anyone, with how that turned out. I know she doesn¡¯t know every single thing about the future, just certain events that need to turn out certain ways.


    Argh, I have to stop thinking about it, I could spoil all the effort she has put in. Luni has taken on so much pain to be able to guide us through what I hope is the final, best timeline. The hurt that engraves itself upon her soul for having to keep secrets is palpable. The torture is so substantial that I sometimes worry if it¡¯s even all worth it. The most conflicted she gets also seems to be when it has to do with our individual relationship within our group. The look of terror she wore when she barely nodded an admittance of one aspect of the future, one time, spoke so many volumes. Yet even more is spoken in an underlying tone, the shakiness, the uncertainty of certain phrases, words, pronunciations. She slipped up once, and used a term of endearment in an accent that doesn¡¯t exist in this world. I need to stop thinking about this. My heart aches for Luni¡¯s plight, and for the thoughts I¡¯m not allowed to partake in.


    Right, right, get out of my own head. Teuila would admonish me for getting distracted. I¡¯ve been playing around too long underwater with Magnus. We¡¯ve meandered and spiraled during our swim, and I¡¯m nearing my limit. We¡¯ve spent about twenty minutes underwater at this point. My lung capacity grows every time I nearly drown, but I¡¯d like to not have that happen right now. I don¡¯t want Magnus to fret as to whether or not it¡¯s okay to resuscitate me via mouth-to-mouth if I end up passing out.


    I sense potent emotions coming from the surface of the river. Someone powerful is upset, and that¡¯s not good. I motion for Magnus to surface cautiously after me. He looks perplexed, but responds with an affirmative nod. Trying to save myself the embarrassment of passing out from drowning right now, I JT propel myself through the last bit of water and out above the surface of the river. As I¡¯m flying through the air to land on the east bank, I¡¯m met with no one in sight. Hm, odd.


    It¡¯s a longshot, but I try to telepathically reach out to Lil, Teuila, or Luni. They might be hours of travel to the northwest if they¡¯re trying to dig me out of that hole. Though my friends are strong, the trees are massive. None of my friends have the strength to lift them, not even Teuila with her ludicrous base and enhanced strength. If they tried to chop through any of the trees, they might collapse the whole lot of them down into the tunnel, where they probably worry that I¡¯m lying unconscious.


    Magnus fairly jets out of the water to land beside me as I¡¯m pondering whether or not to rush immediately to the site of the earthquake. I pat the ground next to me as I situate myself in lotus position. Magnus sits excitedly and grabs one of my hands. I chuckle but squeeze his pawed hand lightly in response. He¡¯s probably waiting for me to pull out the pencils and paper, but I need a moment to figure out something. There¡¯s a clue I missed.


    Just then, a massive stomping can be heard, as of an enormous creature charging across the land on the west bank. Luna emerges into view, ridden by Lu, Lil, and Te. During Luna¡¯s sprint, she doesn¡¯t slow down at the edge of the river, instead, she leaps and soars across to land atop me, bowling me over, squashing me beneath her hindquarters. Magnus lets out a sharp bruxing that sounds terrified as he tries to pry me from beneath my friend¡¯s butt.


    The fact that all of us begin laughing seems to clue Magnus in that he can resume a calm nature, for the most part. Magnus appears to calm down, but doesn¡¯t let go of my hand.


    Te calls out, ¡°Hey dweebus, who¡¯s this you were holding hands with? New boyfriend?¡±


    I respond, ¡°I uh, I think so actually, yeah, probably.¡±


    Te calls back with only mild surprise at first, giving way to excitement and glee, ¡°Huh. Nifty. Really? That¡¯s awesome!¡±


    Te tackles Magnus into a hug, Lil and Lu follow suit, pinning Magnus to the ground, as they¡¯ve done to me so many times. I give one of Luna¡¯s silky-feathered legs a hug from beneath her squishy bum. Luna huffs like a horse, which is so odd to hear from a creature without lips.


    Magnus seems to be bruxing a bit in distress, not sure how to handle the new influx of affection, or something. Hearing this, I ask my friends to cool it a bit, ¡°Hey guys, is Magnus okay? What¡¯s he saying?¡±


    Lu translates telepathically, ¡°He was nervously rambling apologies, I think he thought we were mad that he was holding your hand. It¡¯s cool, Te¡¯s smoothing things out with her usual aplomb.¡±


    Realization sinks in and my face draws up a mortified expression for a moment as I imagine Teuila being the one to smooth out an emotional situation, before I start laughing uproariously into the mental wavelength.


    Te sends back across the wavelength, ¡°Hey, I heard that punkbutt. What, you think I can¡¯t be tender with some newbie you¡¯re sweet on?¡±


    I reply to Te, ¡°That¡¯s not it, it¡¯s just how far we¡¯ve come Te. I love you so much. Look at you, back in the swamp, I feared there would be a wedge driven between you and Lil forever. Yet you and Lil are in such a good place. You were the one that convinced me to take the solo journey to bring Lil back. I¡¯m so happy that you¡¯ve chosen me, that you¡¯ve chosen to share our life together. So blissful that I¡¯m the one you honor with your depth, and constant love. I¡¯m so proud that you are you, and that you care so much.¡±


    My eyes wet with tears of joy and pride, which are absorbed by Luna¡¯s feathers in an odd fashion. Te telepathically requests, ¡°Stop, you¡¯re making me blush. Please no, literally, stop, I¡¯m literally blushing when I¡¯m trying to interrogate this guy.¡±


    In distress, I ask, ¡°Interrogate? Wait, hold on!¡±


    Teuila sends an image of her mental avatar blowing a raspberry at me, teasing me. I¡¯m not sure if that means she¡¯s not interrogating Magnus, or if it means she won¡¯t let me stop her from interrogating Magnus. The poor guy.


    I¡¯m suddenly treated to the mental interface message ¡°Magnus has joined the Shellcracker party.¡±


    Finally I can understand Magnus¡¯s cries, ¡°Really? This is for real? I can come with you guys? I can support Reggie? And, and, and you too of course, I know they don¡¯t tell the full story at the dam. Reggie¡¯s story always involves you three, but they don¡¯t give you much credit.¡±


    There¡¯s rounds of laughter and affirmations, and plenty of teasing from Teuila. I hope he can weather it. Teuila is the most beloved, precious entity in the world to me. Teuila sends a SFS, a Shellcracker Family Squee of glee across our mental wavelength at my thought. But there¡¯s a but. She sends a pout. The but is that if somebody wasn¡¯t used to the teasing, or didn¡¯t know the emotions that underlie it, or couldn¡¯t tell, they might feel hurt.


    Teuila responds to my thoughts, ¡°I know Punkbutt, I know. I¡¯m not gonna chew up and spit out our new friend. Come on, have a little faith, would ya? Faithlessmcbusterpants.¡±


    I chuckle into our bond, thinking only that I have all of the faith in Teuila, all the faith in the world. I adore, cherish, admire, love, treasure, and think the world of Te, My-Wings. Teuila sends an image of her mental avatar blushing so hard her cheeks steam. She then drags me to accelerated thinkspace to drag me into an SFSF, Shellcracker Family Slap Fight. She plops one hand on my face playfully. I chase it away with one hand, her other hand lands on my face, I chase that one away. Her first hand returns, again and again until we¡¯re both rolling around hugging each other, laughing our brains out. We spend about a quarter of an hour goofing off in accelerated thinkspace, barely a second of meatspace time.


    It dawns on me that there¡¯s something I actually want to seriously talk about with Teuila, about this situation.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°Te? Magnus kissed me.¡±


    Teuila looks perplexed as she responds, ¡°You like him right? You like me, and I do that all the time, what¡¯s the problem?¡±


    I ponder how to phrase what I¡¯m thinking, ¡°It¡¯s not a problem, it¡¯s more that neither you and I, nor me and Lu, nor me and Lil have ever kissed that way. We¡¯ve always avoided full-on kissing on the lips, unless it was like a life threatening need to share oxygen. We have decades of time spent together in idyll bliss, but it was always cuddles and smooches. I don¡¯t want Magnus to get the wrong impression. I don¡¯t want him to think that I didn¡¯t enjoy his affection. I don¡¯t want him to feel bad about having shared it with me either. I just don¡¯t think I¡¯m comfortable sharing that kind of kiss with anyone right now, except possibly maybe you, Lu, or Lil, and even then, I¡¯m not sure.¡±


    Te playfully slugs my telepathic avatar projection in the shoulder, ¡°And that is why we¡¯ve avoided that, ya goon. Everyone has to be ready and willing when sharing anything that affects someone else¡¯s body. I¡¯m sorry that it sounds like he kissed you without asking first, do you need me to rough him up for you, slug him a few times, say it¡¯s coming from you?¡±


    I blush, trying not to laugh as I formulate my reply, and shake my head, ¡°No, no, please don¡¯t, hah, I can only imagine the mortified look on the poor guy¡¯s face. I guess, uh, yeah, the phrase is something like, respecting bodily autonomy? Or mutual consent, something like that. Yeah. I hope he doesn¡¯t feel too bad about it. It was nice and all, just, not my thing with him, not yet, maybe not ever. But yeah, please don¡¯t beat Magnus up, especially don¡¯t say it¡¯s coming from me if you do slug him, hahah.¡±


    I start to ponder out why I feel the way I do. At first I thought it might have been because I thought of myself as a child for so long, which makes me uncomfortable. I know I¡¯m not a child, but I¡¯m still uncomfortable in a different way. I know gender identities are weird with my memories, but I think romantic identities are even weirder. What¡¯s the word in my broken other-world memories? Orientations, that¡¯s it. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m orientated towards anything. Or, maybe only slightly? Quasi-orientated? Demi-orientated? That sounds a bit right.


    Teuila notices me lost in thought and guffaws before bringing me in for a noogie. She then smooches up and down my left ear to the crown of my skull and back as a sort of apology for the roughhousing. I respond by rolling my shoulder and flipping her onto her back and tumbling over her to playfully pin her. We roll around for a while, trading pins, laughing all the while. Teuila leans in to nip my nose and nuzzle me when she has me completely at her mercy. I nuzzle back, sifting my fingers through her fur and her hair.


    I notice even Teuila¡¯s mental projection of herself has the white streaks we earned from our times when we were tethered too hard for too long. I¡¯m not sure what they signify. Based on genre savviness, I¡¯d guess it¡¯s a kind of hint of shortening our lifespans, or draining our vitality somehow or another.


    I clear my throat, my imaginary, non-phlegm-filled mental projection throat, ¡°Uh, ahem, hm, Te? I, I really don¡¯t want to go back in the dam. Can, can you ask one of two or three of the others to go, please? I. I. I killed again. I need to break down, mostly alone. I, I sort of want to be alone. But, but maybe you or Lil, could stay please. Please. Please.¡± My request turns into a pleading whimper by the end.


    My eyes fill with tears as I leave accelerated thinkspace before Teuila can respond. I hide my tears in the feather-like fur of Luna¡¯s rump as I shake and silently sob. I hear my friends talking for a bit, and the splashes of several bodies leaping into the river shortly after. I finally start to just let myself blubber like a mewling kitten.


    Luna is rocked to the side slightly, not by her own muscle motion. Luna doesn¡¯t move however. The rocking happens with greater force, and Luna huffs loudly, that odd horse-lip sound that somehow escapes her beak. Finally, Luna is lifted bodily off of me and I see who was responsible for the rocking. It¡¯s my Teuila of course. No one else is this ridiculously strong.


    Teuila grunts, ¡°Come on out of there buggerboo, I can¡¯t hold her like this for long, get a move on, please.¡±


    A soft, barely perceptible laugh escapes me between my sobs as I roll towards Teuila, out from under Luna. Luna makes a harumphing sound and stalks away. A few yards away, she turns around, sits, then glares daggers at the two of us. Heavens we have an incredibly strange relationship with this bear. Teuila and I exchange glances, and I can¡¯t help but to laugh for the moment.


    Still, I just want to ride out my remorse. I don¡¯t know how to tell Teuila, that though I love her so much, I feel more and more sins crawling on my back, weighing me down, and I fear one day, I¡¯ll succumb to them and never return to her.


    Teuila thinks towards me, ¡°That sounds awful sweettoot, I¡¯m sorry this keeps happening. You¡¯ve got awful luck around this place. And the Fire Biome. And the coasts. And the Swamp. Wow, we really can¡¯t take you anywhere, can we?¡±


    I burst into laughter and end up choking on my own saliva, coughing and crying all at the same time. It¡¯s true though. The notion does impart an idea though.


    I bashfully try to request of Te, ¡°Te? Teuila, can uh, I know it¡¯s usually you and Lil, but can you and I train, like you do with Lil? Only, only you use your best form, best attacks, and best defenses. I don¡¯t want Lil to think that I think I¡¯m better than them, I just worry I might hurt you in this form.¡±


    Teuila responds, ¡°No, no, I get it, yeah, your magic is scary powerful, you blast flames as hot as Lil¡¯s, you freeze entire areas now, your inventory space magic was always strong, enough that it¡¯s what we used to beat the gorram serpent, yeah, I wouldn¡¯t want to train with anything less than going all out against you. But, um, the problem with that, is, well, I haven¡¯t been able to transform since the earthquake. See? Watch.¡±


    Teuila wraps herself in a tether, and the creamy gray silhouette overtakes her as she seamlessly transitions into Valkyrie form. I don¡¯t notice any differences, so I scratch my head, perplexed.


    Raising an eyebrow, I start to ask, ¡°Uh¡­¡±


    Teuila interrupts me, ¡°What? But, but how? Did you do this as a joke to prove me wrong? No, no, I don¡¯t feel you that way, not like we used to be. This really isn¡¯t coming from you?¡±


    I start to respond, but Teuila interrupts again, continuing her own thought, ¡°But, but it doesn¡¯t make sense. I¡¯ve never needed to be near you, not since you sacrificed so much for me and Lil. Or, I don¡¯t know, maybe it was something else. Maybe I was just so panicked at seeing you break down at the edge of a cliff that I couldn¡¯t think straight until I saw you again. You really don¡¯t know how much you mean to me. I, I words you.¡±


    Even though I want to break down and wallow in regret of the atrocities I continually commit, I find myself standing and wrapping my arms around the bewildered Valkyrie before me. Teuila needs to be okay. More than anything else in the entire world, anything and everything else, I want Teuila to be okay. I want her to be safe, to be happy, to feel loved, fulfilled, strong.


    Thinking about it like that, I guess nothing else matters. I could probably cope with being someone I¡¯m ashamed of, so long as I can keep bringing Teuila joy. Well, her joy requires her to be safe, and alive, in my mind anyway, so those are part of me bringing her joy.  Teuila smiles as she pulls away slightly.


    She¡¯s the best, the utterly best thing, being, in existence, as far as I¡¯m concerned. And now she¡¯s thrusting a sword my way while I don¡¯t have my danger wraps or any protective equipment on. Starting our training without warning, that¡¯s a bit cheeky, isn¡¯t it? I pivot counterclockwise on my dominant foot to my back foot. I direct her thrust, leading it away with my less dominant hand, while my main hand cuffs her at the inner elbow. I don¡¯t strike hard enough to make her drop her weapon, but now I¡¯m inside her threatened reach, so she¡¯ll have a hard time striking back with her longer sword.


    As Teuila tries to recover to a position where she¡¯ll have me at length again, I grip her about the waist with my dominant arm, so she simply leaps us both backwards. I notice Luna leaving the area of the mock fight, even without my danger wrap senses, since it¡¯s in my inventory at the moment. Luna¡¯s just that large, it¡¯s hard to not notice her moving around.


    Teuila thinks that my momentary distraction is enough to capitalize on, so she drops her longsword to reach for her dagger. I summon the magisteel cuffs I got from my time in incarceration in the human city, locking her dagger in its scabbard, and her hand to her dagger simultaneously. Teuila gives me a look that says my magic isn¡¯t fair, but I never agreed to not use it. She started off a surprise attack with deadly weapons afterall. She at least has the decency to find some dull sticks to fight against Lil with.


    I¡¯m surprised she isn¡¯t offering cheeky mental retorts to my inner monologue, or trying to distract me in thinkspace. She did say she was going to go all out, though I didn¡¯t think that meant deadly weapons while I was still unarmed. But all out should probably capitalize on my mental weakness of distractibility. That would be maximum effort.


    Teuila tries to leap back again to distance us, but my right arm is still about her waist, and I¡¯m standing on her feet at the moment. She doubles my gravity in the middle of the leap and I nearly lose my hold on her, but I swing around her back side and wrap my legs around her dominant shoulder. While there, I throw my momentum backwards, aiming Teuila facefirst towards the ground, with my doubled gravity driving her downwards. She has no choice but to let up on the gravity manipulation. When she does, we both float gently down. She lands softly on her face, and then I realize, I gave Teuila inventory magic. She claimed the cuffs during my acrobatic maneuver, freed her right hand, and is cutting a wide slice backwards towards me.


    I thrust my offhand at her wrist so that my fingertips touch the pommel of her dagger, and claim it right out of her hand so that her slash completes with nothing but air. I call out, ¡°Okay okay, hold on, time out, maybe we should set down some ground rules? Deadly weapons probably shouldn¡¯t be used, like I¡¯m not going to flash freeze you and shatter you Te.¡±


    Teuila doesn¡¯t respond, but Luna bellows a curious cry and charges towards us. Luna leaps and pins the both of us on the ground. Teuila¡¯s head snaps back and forth from the sudden jolt. I know her ancillary powers protect her from whiplash, but it¡¯s enough that her eyes droop for a second, eyes that have the tiniest mote of red energy in them.


    I nearly vomit as fear overtakes me. Luna inhales a massive breath of river water and expels it into Teuila¡¯s face. There¡¯s the tiniest red glow in the water that washes away over Teuila spreading out downstream. The panic that had been about to grip my heart lets up just before a full attack starts.


    Frantically I call out, ¡°Te? Te are you okay? Luna, Luna you saved me, thank you! Teuila? Te!¡±


    Wait, was Luna protecting me from the start? She leapt across the lake and landed on me in a way that Teuila couldn¡¯t get to me. She was glaring daggers at us, but Teuila and I were standing right next to each other. What if she was just glaring at Teuila to warn me? My breathing becomes labored panting. My eyes widen, I can feel my mind connecting the dots between Teuila and trauma again. I scream in anguish and beg my brain to not do this to me, not again.


    Teuila grumbles, ¡°Get off me featherbutt, I gotta hug my bugaboo quick.¡± Teuila shoves Luna off the both of us, drops her valkyrie form and quickly scoots close enough to draw me into her embrace.


    Teuila coos and shushes me, stroking my cheek. She kisses my forehead repeatedly and sifts through my hair. I can hear her muttering an apology over and over. Te¡¯s grief and remorse are incredibly intense.


    Teuila almost inaudibly mumbles, ¡°I, I thought I saw Mat, back at the earthquake, but then, I didn¡¯t think I saw him, I didn¡¯t remember thinking I saw him until Luna hit me with water just then. It¡¯s like, if I saw him, he kept me from remembering it. I, I don¡¯t get it. What does this mean?¡±


    When Teuila finally starts putting the pieces together for me, I come to one conclusion, ¡°It means I have to kill my brother.¡± The presence who had been projecting strong emotions on the east bank earlier was probably Mataalii.


    Luni would probably tell me not to guess about this. I¡¯m almost certain now though. Mataalii destroyed the obelisks, he¡¯s why the red eyes were released into our world to begin with, why they were sent back in time to my beginning. He has some sort of power to implant tiny fragments of their energy, their hostility towards me. He didn¡¯t always have that power, or any power. He gained some kind of power that let him lend himself an ability as far back as the final fight in the swamp. That¡¯s how he got a copy of Gae Buidhe without us being able to notice it. Maybe the power was simply sending one item to himself at a slightly future point in time. Maybe it was a memory related thing like what happened with Teuila just now. He could obfuscate our memory of him even having the spear as we just walked around. I have no idea, it could have been any number of things. It doesn¡¯t matter what his suite of abilities are. My brother¡¯s the reason Lil was almost killed. The reason that even though we saved Lil, it would have taken a quarter century to get Lil back, if I hadn¡¯t begged a phoenix for aid. My brother¡¯s also the reason that when Lil did come back, Lil was partially possessed. I was already almost positive about that, but Luni told me not to guess back then. My primary sin is wrath, and now my wrath has a certain target. I finally know who to aim it at.

 B 3 C 7: The Naga or the Fairies?

    <h2>B 3 C 7: The Naga or the Fairies?</h2>


    Teuila and I sit in quiet discomfort for quite some time. We both rest against Luna, who seems to no longer need to sit on either of us. Teuila had explained that she came up to comfort me when I was panicking near the pyramid, then the next thing she knew, she was being dragged away by Lil. Or so she thought. Once Luna dumped enough water to clear her eyes, Teuila remembered seeing Mataalii on the other side of the pyramid¡¯s clearing, seemingly hovering against a tree. She was going to point him out, but then something happened, and she still doesn¡¯t even recall what it was, but that¡¯s why her arms weren¡¯t still around me when Lil had to begin dragging her away.


    How the hell am I going to break it to Lu that I¡¯ve messed up and come to a conclusion on one of our forbidden topics? She worked so hard. She put herself through so much stress, and pain to be able to keep all the secrets and redirect all my thoughts.


    I¡¯ve also come to a conclusion that Magnus shouldn¡¯t really come with us unless he knows the risks. He¡¯s not like Luni with secret magical powers, or Teuila with ridiculous physical prowess and an enhanced combat form, nor like Lil who is a freaking dragon. He¡¯s definitely not like me. I¡¯m some kind of error, some sort of freak of nature, an absurd accidental glitch of the system of our world.


    For all I know, I¡¯m part red-eyes, my own enemy, because of the obelisks being broken. My vision does go red a fair amount. Mostly though that¡¯s my eyes bleeding, or like a capillary or something. Though, that one hallucination, and that fourth form, hm. No, no it¡¯s not quite the same thing. I don¡¯t get the same feeling as I do around that entity.


    Ugh, can¡¯t keep thinking around that topic or I¡¯ll break down in panic. Okay let¡¯s take a step back. Magnus. He can¡¯t adventure with us. Dehlia was sure that even I would die before I could say hello amongst the naga. She saw me save her from the serpent, alone, facing off against the two of them, intentionally handicapping myself. She¡¯s that confident of the naga society¡¯s magic. That¡¯s my next stop, but it¡¯s not the next stop for my family. I was going to ask for feedback, but I¡¯ve decided. Ugh, I hate adventuring alone. At least Teuila will be able to come visit me as a go-between a few times until I actually set out in search of them. Once I¡¯m on the move, she won¡¯t be able to find me unless she basically canvases the entire swamp. That would risk putting her in range to be a target of the naga. I¡¯m not willing to take that risk. I know, I know, it¡¯s hers to take, she¡¯s smirking at me right now as I think about this, but it¡¯s deadly serious.


    I guess I could hold onto the comm stone again. She could maybe be able to find me if she and Lao talk to me through the stone at some point when I¡¯ve taken a break in my search. Teuila is brightening up as she rides my wave of thoughts. Yes my beloved Wings, I obviously don¡¯t want to be apart from you if I don¡¯t have to. Any possible way we can avoid that, or shorten the length, I¡¯ll try to figure out.


    Still, poor Magnus, thinking we¡¯ll be hanging out, and then I¡¯m suddenly leaving, that same day. I¡¯m pretty awful. Ow, Teuila just cuffed me upside the back of my head for my self-recrimination. Let me rephrase, I feel awful for doing that to anyone. Maybe he¡¯ll find someone to get smoochy with in the SCRAP, the ShellCracker Raiding Adventure Party, the hundreds and hundreds of critterkin who now show up in my party panel as a sub party under me.


    Who thought putting me in charge of any group of being¡¯s welfare was a good idea? Oh right, Lil, Lu, and I guess Bettie. Maybe even Sir Reginald. Ugh, people need to stop relying on me! I¡¯m bad at stuff! I either almost die, get people almost killed, get people killed, threaten to kill people, or kill people! That¡¯s a lot of words involving death! Someone with that many words involving death about themselves should not be in charge of anyone else¡¯s lives.


    Why is Teuila laughing so hard that she¡¯s crying? Heh. It¡¯s not funny.


    ¡°Hahah, dangit Te, it¡¯s not, heheh, funny, hahaha, stop laughing!¡±


    We both devolve into full-belly laughter as we clutch one another, cuddled together against Luna. I¡¯m only wearing the hip to thigh covering of the Valkyrie padded underclothing, and enjoying the bristly yet downy feel of Luna¡¯s feathered fur against my back. Also of course enjoying the feel of Teuila¡¯s warmth and her silky fur cuddled against my arm. There¡¯s a hint of several layers of sadness beneath each of our laughs. The longing we know we¡¯re both going to be feeling soon, with every minute spent apart. The regret that I feel for all I¡¯ve wronged. The self-doubt Teuila feels in being unable to comfort me from my regret. A myriad of emotions that neither of us feel like sorting through right now. Instead, we¡¯ll take this surface laughter, and nurture it as best we can, to hide the pain.


    I sober up for a moment, ignoring my own desire to revel in the intoxicating laughter. I state as quietly as I can, ¡°I love you Teuila Shellcracker, with every fiber of my being, every bit of what makes me who I am. Some of that isn¡¯t such good fiber, but I¡¯m yours. And Lil¡¯s, and Lu¡¯s. I have room in my heart to share more love, but it won¡¯t ever be the same, as strong or as deep a well as the one I have for our inner circle. You three mean everything to me, and though Lil is my oldest companion, you above all.¡±


    Teuila hides her face and slugs me lightly, repeatedly. She sniffles before saying, ¡°Come on, don¡¯t say stuff like that, that¡¯s the kind of stuff someone says when they¡¯re going to leave forever. Just, just don¡¯t. Ever. Never leave forever. Please. Please always come back. No matter how long it takes, just please always come back.¡±


    I embrace Teuila lovingly, tightly, as tears stream down both of our cheeks, hers running rivulets down my scales. Wait, what?


    I don¡¯t remember having made this much progress. It¡¯s still not enough, but it¡¯s dozens, maybe hundreds more transformations worth of progress than I recall having already made.


    I confusedly ask, ¡°Te, how scale-y do I look to you right now?¡±


    Te abashedly replies, ¡°Sorry pookapoo, I haven¡¯t really been keeping track. You¡¯re always you. You¡¯re cute, and, and stuff. I like the way you look just fine. You can change or not change however much you want. I¡¯ll, y¡¯know, words, always.¡± Teuila adopts the SFS, Shellcracker Family Shyness expression, where she taps her index finger tips together and speaks from the side of her mouth while avoiding eye contact.


    Heavens, that is adorable. Luni and Teuila use that to great effect on my heartstrings. Plus what Teuila just said is intensely endearing, and exceedingly brave of her, for how much of her feelings she just admitted. That wasn¡¯t exactly what I was asking, but I guess it doesn¡¯t matter. Progress is progress.


    I¡¯ll find some angry thing to attack me in the swamp, unlock my energy cap on my max mana, then get back to training until I can spend enough energy over enough days to go completely scalekind. Dehlia appeared to have almost half a body of soft flesh from a distance, but even her human-seeming torso was actually covered in micro-scales that were visible when viewed up close. I want to make sure I have at least that, if not an even further reptilian appearance before I reach out to the naga. If I¡¯m lucky, Teuila will be able to visit every day or two for a while, then maybe once every few days as the contingent moves towards Point B.


    Te lets loose a Shellcracker Family Squee, that elongated single laugh of glee from a closed eyed, barely-open-lipped smile. She probably just heard how I would feel lucky if she could visit me, and ignored everything else that I was thinking.


    Te audaciously exclaims, ¡°Yup!¡±


    We break out into another fit of laughter and snuggling. Luna extends her left forepaw behind her side with her freakishly flexible shoulders, and smacks Te and me so hard that I swear we sink a quarter of an inch into the ground. This only makes us laugh harder, and Luna makes that odd horse-like huffing noise.


    After some time, the others return with mixed news.


    Lu casually reports, ¡°So, good news is, we got the message across, and um, there¡¯s no hard feelings for you bursting into the dam and, y¡¯know, glrk,¡± Luni draws her index finger across her throat and I cringe as she continues, ¡°murking as they put it, water puns, I tell ya, uh, yeah, no hard feelings since you discovered some naughties up to no good. They would have done the same anyway, with a little bit more psychological torment before execution. They¡¯re kinda ruthless.¡±


    Luni pauses a moment and hops into my lap, throwing her legs across Teuila, which gets an objection that Luni stifles with her left hand, as her right arm reaches around behind her head to form a headrest. This also lets her tickle my ear with her fingertips which feels really weird. When it doesn¡¯t seem to get the reaction she hoped for, she stops, but stays in her position, using us as seats.


    Luni clears her throat, blushes, and brings both her hands back towards her chest, so she can perform a Shellcracker Family Shyness expression, poking her index finger tips together. ¡°So, um, well, they believe us, at least, that the volcano erupted, but they don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to be a threat. They um, they¡¯ll deliberate, and create an evacuation plan, just in case, but they¡¯re definitely not joining the march, unless, well, unless the volcano blows again real soon. We all hope it doesn¡¯t.¡±


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Lu waves towards Magnus. Magnus blushes and rambles, incoherently at first, ¡°So, I know that you all must have done through amazing stuff things and gone to stuff. I mean, um, er, things done stuff. You did stuff, together. You must all have gone through many things together. I¡¯m new to the family, and I can¡¯t really do any of the stuff I¡¯ve heard that you can do, or seen that you can do. Um, but, but I want to be around, you¡¯re all really cool, and you¡¯ve been so nice. I probably have maybe just a little smidge of a hero-worship for Reggie, which, I guess isn¡¯t fair. Sorry.¡±


    I sigh as I deliberate, ¡°On the one hand, I¡¯m glad you admitted that, there¡¯s a lot of things wrong with me, a close relationship with me comes with a lot of baggage, decades worth at this point. I also only just realized something about myself, that I have trouble finding the words for, I don¡¯t know how to express it without letting you down. I also have to let you down in another way. As much as I hate being apart from my winsome coterie as they¡¯ve been called, I keep having to take solo adventures, over and over and over to ensure the safety of my family, and now the hundreds of people, and humans, in my charge. I¡¯m going to be going off on my own again soon, like, within minutes. I hate it, I absolutely hate it.¡±


    I turn my face away to hide my burning cheeks and running tears from everyone, but Teuila¡¯s on my left, Luni¡¯s face is adjacent to mine on my right, and Lil and Magnus are down in front of me, and above me respectively. I turn to the closest face for comfort, to hide my sorrow in her cheeks. Luni coos and shushes me, kissing my forehead softly every so often.


    I hear Magnus gulp and clear his throat, and he¡¯s already adopted the SFS expression of index fingertips together shyness. He shyly queries, ¡°I¡¯m um, afraid to ask, but the thing you can¡¯t find words for? Does it, um, uh, well, does it mean you don¡¯t like me?¡±


    I shake my head no, I can¡¯t quite get myself to speak at the moment, knowing that soon I¡¯ll be leaving my dear inner circle once more.


    Magnus tries to guess again, ¡°Does it, uh, was the, the, when we, no, when I. Did I do a bad thing?¡±


    I shake my head no, trying to absolve him of the guilt of kissing me without asking first, since I don¡¯t really have any boundaries on physical affection, I¡¯m happy to share pretty much all of me with pretty much anyone. I¡¯d stroke Priss¡¯s cheek and kiss her forehead if it could keep our factions at peace, and we more or less hate each other. Heck, I could nuzzle Sir Reginald¡¯s scruffy face and twiddle his beard if I thought we were on affectionate terms. I really have almost no boundaries.


    My inner circle snickers and giggles across our mental wavelength. I only learned of a boundary I have recently. We¡¯ve never shared that kind of kiss in that kind of way, not in decades of time spent together. How do I tell him that? That if I was ever going to kiss someone that way, it could only ever be these three? That I¡¯m still not sure if I¡¯m ready to even share that sort of romantic-energy-laced kiss.


    Lu whispers in our mental wavelength, ¡°Just tell him, it¡¯s kinder if you do. If he doesn¡¯t understand, and won¡¯t take the time to learn, then that¡¯s his own fault.¡±


    I sigh as I gather my courage to speak, ¡°I, um, Magnus. It was, it was kind of nice, but I¡¯m not. I don¡¯t do that with anyone, I¡¯ve never done that sort of kiss with anyone. If I was ever going to, it would be with these three that I¡¯ve spent somewhere around a century or more together with. I, I liked swimming with you, and holding hands, and hugging. I just don¡¯t want to make you think that I might ever be, well, that way. I just don¡¯t think I would. I can¡¯t see me feeling like that. I don¡¯t want to hurt you, you¡¯ve been nothing but kind and sweet to me. You comforted me without asking anything of me, and in a charged moment, one where I was leaving, you reacted to something with passion, I think.¡±


    Magnus blushes and scratches the back of his head, nodding.


    I continue, ¡°I would be honored, so happy, if you would join our family, reacquaint yourself with Sugar and Spice, and look after everyone for me while I¡¯m gone if ever my inner circle can¡¯t be there. Some time in the future, I¡¯ll return. I¡¯d be pleased as punch to cuddle with you and catch up then. My family is very big on cuddles and handholding, right fam?¡±


    My inner circle, Luna included, nods. She really does understand me, huh. Her love is very rough though. Or, maybe it was protection? Or both. It¡¯s hard to tell.


    Magnus adopts a wry smile and tries to find somewhere for his eyes to fall that isn¡¯t meeting my gaze as he nods. There¡¯s a sadness that plays across Magnus¡¯s face, but I feel like he¡¯s being as understanding as he can, whether or not I explained myself well enough for him to truly get it. I like him, I really do. I hope someone back at the main camp can make him as happy as he deserves.


    Gulping, I pull my face out of Luni¡¯s cheek to look her in the eyes, I express, ¡°Lu, I, uh, I have something to admit, I..¡±


    Luni interrupts, ¡°I know.¡±


    I shake my head, ¡°No, no, not that, I mean, yes I love you, but I have to kill Mataalii. He, he did¡­¡±


    Lu interrupts again, ¡°I know. Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll make the right choices, you¡¯ve got this. You¡¯re my hero, always have been, always will be.¡± Lu kisses my cheek at the corner of my eyes. Eyes that I now realize have flooded with tears once more.


    Lil and Magnus are caught up in shock. Magnus doesn¡¯t know who Mat is, but he can tell how much I don¡¯t want to kill anyone. Lil¡¯s gaze is flitting from one face to another, stunned that no one else is reacting with surprise.


    Lil¡¯s question is one I expected, ¡°Buh, bwah, huh? Buddy? What? What what what? When did you decide that?¡±


    I answer as best I can, ¡°Mata¡¯s the reason. Gae Buidhe, possibly the pyramid, definitely the obelisks, the entity, you not being yourself when you came back, maybe even the volcano, maybe even that earthquake, and definitely Teuila attacking me just a bit ago with deadly force.¡±


    Lil and Lu both gasp at that last bit and stare in shock at Teuila who is now trying to hide her face between Luna¡¯s feathers and my shoulder. Sorry about that Teuila. Magnus looks utterly dumbfounded by the constant stream of revelations. I did tell him that any relationship with me came with a lot of baggage.


    I¡¯m a bit surprised at Luni¡¯s reaction though. She said she knew. So me killing Mataalii was always going to happen, but she didn¡¯t know Mat made Teuila attack me. The only reason I¡¯m even alive is because the air being pushed by Teuila¡¯s sword, when she first thrust, reached me early enough that my proprioception noticed it. The air brushing against the hairs on my extended arms was enough to let me know there was an incoming object. It¡¯s like I have innate danger senses within a few inches. No one warned me, no magic item guided me. If Teuila had leapt away, and come at me with her top acceleration before thrusting, I¡¯d be gone. There wouldn¡¯t have been time to react. I¡¯d have noticed the sword at the same location in relation to my body, but her speed would have been dozens, or hundreds of times faster. I could possibly have hoped that I might have instantly reacted by summoning Valkyrie armor, and that it would have caused it to be a glancing blow instead of a fatal one, but then we dive down the rabbit hole of what-ifs.


    Sighing, a pain between my shoulder blades twinges, and I spasm backwards as it tugs my muscles together. I gasp a sharp inhalation from the pain, and clutch the back of my head as the stabbing pain travels upwards and becomes a throbbing ache along the back of my skull. Trying to calm my breathing, to ride out the discomfort, I decide on some things while I have my SAP with me.


    I mumblingly make requests, ¡°Te, could I get the comm stone? Luni, can you teach Magnus about the fam, and the important people in the camp, and the humans too? Lil, I so desperately want you to come with me buddy, but I understand that you probably want to stay by your Gal-Pal¡¯s side. I just love you Lil buddy and I could use some words of encouragement for when I go off to train solo so that I can grow scales and see the naga people.¡±


    There are some glances exchanged that I didn¡¯t expect, and Lil leaps into my face to wrap their tail around my head, leaving me with a face full of dragon heiny. A common occurrence in our friendship to be sure, but not one I was expecting at the moment.


    Lil proudly declares, ¡°I¡¯m coming with you buddy, doy! How are you gonna introduce yourself to scalekin and scalekind without at least one other scalekind at your side to vouch for ya? It¡¯s you ¡®n¡¯ me pal, thick ¡®n¡¯ thin! Yeah, I mean, I love Lu, my Gal-Pal to bits and pieces, and, and my It¡¯s-A-Secret Te as well, ¡®cause, ¡®cause stuff. They¡¯re real swell, but buddy, how could I let you go at this alone? You hurt so bad when you gotta do these things alone. Lil and Lu can come visit ¡®cause they¡¯re super fast, super duper super super super duper fast. They¡¯re like, blazing fast, mega blazing, mega mega mega blazing. But only when it¡¯s safe, that¡¯s why you¡¯re taking the comm stone, right?¡±


    I can¡¯t help but to chortle at Lil¡¯s affectations. Still, I have to nod, that is why I¡¯m taking the comm stone. I didn¡¯t expect to get to see Lu, because I thought she would be staying with Lil, because I thought Lil would be staying at the camp. Now I look worriedly at the girls, loves of my life in different ways.


    Te sends a mote of jealousy across our mental wavelength. Lil joins in sending one as well, then the two each send one at each other, then all four of us blush telepathically. Yeah, our inner circle is entirely smitten with one another. No doubt in my mind about it. I¡¯m glad the world in my memories is fake. No need to deal with the stress of whatever nonsensical social pressures make people follow certain rules on how love is supposed to look. Although, my memories are a lot like the human society from our world as well. Priss had a husband, and a son. She¡¯s an actual, legitimate, biological mother. I barely registered the fact that Sir Reginald was rambling that fact off about her. Sir Reginald hinted that he may have had fancies for sisters, though he only explicitly said he fancied one. That might have been human social pressure to only share love with one other human.


    I wonder if Sal and Har were actually brother and sister, or if that was a cover they were using to enter the exhibition matches. They seemed to have a boundless love for each other. I¡¯m struck by a painful twinge of regret, remembering that my panic got the two of them killed.


    Wait, I don¡¯t remember seeing a graveyard. Did I just miss it? Or maybe there was a crematorium and they spread the ashes at sea. That¡¯s the most likely. Humans don¡¯t derez like people do, they die as gruesomely as my memories say they will. Still, why are there some people ¡®of blood¡¯ that aren¡¯t human, that also have the critterkin mental interface, and all these things that Dehlia hinted at? Maybe the naga folk will help me finally start unraveling some of my mysterious memories. It has been ages that I¡¯ve been stuck with them.


    I¡¯ll train myself day and night with Lil, we don¡¯t need much sleep, and when I¡¯m ready, we¡¯ll seek out Dehlia and her tribe. The nagas first it is then.

 B 3 C 8: Linti, Lightning Hunter

    <h2>B 3 C 8: Linti, Lightning Hunter</h2>


    It¡¯s been a long time since Lil and I have been journeying alone together. So much in our lives has changed since the last time it was just the two of us. Still, I know we¡¯ll make it back so long as we try our best. Honestly, I could never forgive myself if I let down our loves, and only one of us made it back, or neither.


    Lil exclaims, ¡°Jeeze pal, don¡¯t be so dramatic, we¡¯ll be fine! Y¡¯know!? Any advice for everyone headed back though?¡±


    Lil¡¯s right, I should probably advise while I can. I ramble, ¡°So, uh, when you all make it back to camp, obviously give Lao, Ag, both sets of twins, Oli, and Lucky my love. Someone¡¯s going to have to talk to Bettie to talk to Priss and Sir Reginald. Ugh, for once I¡¯m actually the best choice as the go-between and mediator, and I won¡¯t be there. Jeeze my life is dumb. Every couple of times that you make camp, you¡¯ll need to have Sugar and Spice build new shops so that everyone can restock on supplies. See if you guys can find sources of spawns of fish, or hostiles. Help everyone stock up on currency, food, whatever sort of supplies will help keep everyone alive while we try to find a home.¡±


    I pause to consider something before continuing, ¡°By the time you guys get the whole contingent to Point B I should hopefully be on my way back with at least an answer, unless I¡¯m roped into some adventure or side-quest within the Naga lands. Ugh, knowing how much my life is like some freaky adventure tale in my memories, that¡¯s probably exactly what will happen. Alright, scratch that train of thought. Just try to keep peace between everyone, even if you have to do it by force. Lu, Te, if the humans start to kill anyone, just go ham, take out as many as you can while calling for the critterkin to retreat, then get yourselves to safety too.¡±


    I pause for a beat to let it sink in. ¡°I really hope it won¡¯t come to that. I don¡¯t like her, but I¡¯m starting to trust Priscilla, Madam Warden. Oh! Don¡¯t let them bring down any of the ancient trees. There¡¯s something going wrong. I¡¯m not sure what. I can¡¯t shake it though, just please try to stock up on as much lumber as you might need here, rather than letting anyone cut down any of the ancient flora. You two need to make big shows of being a strong presence in the camps. Lu if there¡¯s any other secret powers you¡¯re holding onto, maybe some sort of tranquility song, or some kind of crowd enhancement, this is probably the part in our lives where you reveal that sort of stuff.¡±


    Lu whistles as she rocks back and forth on the heels of her feet, feigning ignorance. She¡¯s adorable, but not fooling anyone, except for maybe Magnus. Speaking of, or, well, thinking of Magnus.


    I relay, ¡°Magnus, I¡¯m sorry again. It¡¯s hard to explain just how deadly it is, the thing I¡¯m about to do. Also how important it is for the safety of everyone that we do it. We¡¯re marching thousands of people around in lands that might be populated. It looks bad, really bad, especially to scalekind, they already hate softskins. I just want to reiterate that I think you¡¯re an absolute sweetheart, but that you shouldn¡¯t be waiting on me, not to seek that kind of happiness. I don¡¯t know if or when I¡¯d ever be interested in that, and that¡¯s not fair to you. Not only that, but I get the feeling that I¡¯ll only ever feel that way for these three. There¡¯s hundreds of wonderful people that could use your brand of sweetness. Maybe some of them would also like to share that kind of affection with you, the kind that I think you¡¯re seeking.¡±


    I sigh, interrupting before Magnus can reply, ¡°I¡¯m no hero, not really. I don¡¯t know what makes me Lu¡¯s hero, but I treat it as just a nickname. I¡¯m glad that you admitted part of your feelings were hero-worship. I want to dispel that. I don¡¯t want anyone other than Lu to call me that. Hell, it has been used to hurt me before by someone I hold dear. Plus, I¡¯ve murdered people. I didn¡¯t rescue the otterfolk or any of the eggs from the city when I had the chance, and now I¡¯ll never have the chance. I¡¯m just struggling to get by, barely keeping my head above water figuratively. Though frequently also quite literally. So, yeah, I¡¯m no hero.¡±


    Lil¡¯s lip quivers when they realize I was talking about the time that they spat the word hero in my face and treated me coldly after they were released from their own core. It¡¯s not Lil¡¯s fault, Mata put those words in their mouth, but Mata was also dear to me. Either way, someone dear to me hurt me with those words.


    Magnus scratches his head and blushes, pausing to see if I¡¯m going to continue again. When it seems I¡¯ve said my piece, he replies, ¡°I, um. You¡¯ve done things that you¡¯re not proud of, but that we¡¯re grateful for, at least. I. I don¡¯t want to shove that word down your throat if you don¡¯t want to hear it. I don¡¯t want to shove anything down your throat that you don¡¯t want. Uh, yeah. I still like you a lot, and I hope the offer still stands, when you make it back. We can cuddle and you can tell me about whatever adventure you have. I¡¯m happy with that, that¡¯s enough. I¡¯ll, um, yeah. Don¡¯t worry about me.¡±


    Luni telepathically giggles to me across a private wavelength. Is she snickering at the phrasing Magnus used? That kind of phrasing wouldn¡¯t mean anything here in our world, well, except maybe to humans. Just what are you to me, Lu? How much do you know? Lu¡¯s mental avatar winks and then blows a raspberry. She leaves our private wavelength, leaving me flustered and confused.


    I walk around to everyone, including Luna, to give them each a tight, tender hug in goodbye. I save Lil for last, since Lil is coming with me, and I¡¯ll just carry them in a tight hug for a while. Lu whispers something too quietly to hear as she kisses my ear when I hug her goodbye, but she refuses to tell me what she might have said when I query with telepathy. Teuila peppers me with kisses and buries her nose in my clavicle before nipping at my collarbone. She lightly marks my skin, claiming me in a sort of fashion. Luna actually hugs me back with her ridiculously flexible arms. Her strength is such that I hear cracks and popping, and I¡¯m fairly certain I¡¯ve obtained several fractured ribs from her hug. Magnus¡¯s face flushes with embarrassment as I embrace him warmly. I wave goodbye to Lu, Lu, Te, and Magnus as I pick up Lil in a tight hug to begin marching south along the river.


    I can feel the ground vibrate as Luna begins to take off with the other three. My heart aches knowing it could be days, maybe more, before I see Te or Lu again. The ache is incredibly strong for them, let alone the weeks or months it might be until I see Laomati and the rest of our family again.


    I whisper to Lil, ¡°Thank you so much for coming with buddy. I don¡¯t know how many more solo adventures I can handle. They tear me apart inside. You¡¯re right. I¡¯m sorry that we¡¯re going somewhere the girls shouldn¡¯t come with. You know I don¡¯t want to be apart from them either. We both love Lu and Te to bits.¡±


    Lil shamelessly exclaims, ¡°More than just love buddy, we¡¯re mega twitterpated, mega mega mega twitterpated! I, um, my It¡¯s-A-Secret and I, for a while I was worried you might not understand. But that¡¯s long past! We¡¯re all in deep twitterpation. Like, like, some day, if you want to change stuff, that¡¯s cool! If not, that¡¯s cool too! Buuuut seems like I guessed right, huh? If I hit another tier of evolution and I¡¯m like a bipedal wyvern with arms, you¡¯ll be crushing on me just as hard as Lu and Te, huh?¡±


    I flush with embarrassment, my cheeks reddening to match Lil¡¯s scales. I smooch their cranium roughly then give them a long noogie instead of replying. Dorky little dragbutt indeed, Teuila. Ugh, my heart¡¯s fluttering like crazy. I do love my little buddy.


    Lil, reading my thoughts, interjects, ¡°Love you back pal!¡±


    My blushing spreads up to my pointy eartips so heatedly that it¡¯s painful. I layer on some FFS and I actually steam from embarrassment. Come on Lil, that¡¯s not fair, riding around in my head when I¡¯m all pensive and awkwardly self-conscious about something. Anyway, instead of in my head, can you ride on my head and just exhale flame on me all day? The hottest you can muster, take breaks when you need to, and I¡¯ll just keep walking. We¡¯ve got a lot of training to do.


    Lil grumbles, ¡°Awe man, I was afraid you¡¯d wanna do this, fine buddy, I guess. Just tell me if it hurts pal, please?¡±


    I tease, ¡°Of course Lil, but I mean, if it got to be too much, I could just freeze you. I¡¯d probably freeze you for practice if you didn¡¯t go as hard as you could.¡±


    Lil gulps and quits grumbling. Their flames writhe around me from above, and I sigh happily with the heavenly arrangement. I can walk around essentially naked near the river, covered entirely in flame. I must look like a blazing elemental to outside parties. I wonder if that would be good enough to be accepted by scalekind. That would be pretty funny. If that¡¯s all I needed to do, I could probably cover myself in sap or tar and just light it up.


    As Lil cranks up the power and heat of their breath to their highest levels, it does start to sting slightly. It¡¯s like trying to reach bare-handed into an oven, then forgetting why you¡¯re reaching into the oven as you stand around for nearly a minute lost in thought. Basically open-air roasting yourself at several hundred degrees. It¡¯s not going to kill me any time soon, but I still need to be careful. Lil¡¯s max heat is somewhere in the mid two thousands Fahrenheit now, closing in on fifteen hundred Celsius. They hadn¡¯t been training it much ever since Fire Biome. There was a long time when they were missing, or weren¡¯t themselves. Then we had Lil and Te working entirely on physical combat training.


    Fire Biome¡¯s also the last time that I had seriously done any thermal training myself, mostly because I was able to break the limit and rapidly gain accelerated skill growth. Now I¡¯m just hoping that my body triggers a defense mechanism that breaks through the lock on my energy cap. The last time it finally broke in a deadly situation while I was enraged. When wrath was consuming me in the dam earlier, I also felt the lock beginning to shatter. Something about strong emotions and perceived danger really works its way through that particular mechanism.


    Maybe the mechanism of locking is in its own way, a self defense mechanism to keep me from limit breaking too frequently? If I were able to use it all the time, I would. But there¡¯s probably hidden costs, on top of the recovery penalties. Well, some of it has to do with how far into energy debt I go with a limit break climax. I think there¡¯s a sort of proportional energy debt limit though, so if my max mana is only say fifty to two hundred, like it is when the rest is locked away, even if I did have to limit break and limit break climax, I probably couldn¡¯t manage one worth more than a few hundred into the negative. Conversely, when my maximum mana was in the thousands, I could dive deep into several thousands of negative energy debt.


    Oof, I¡¯ve gained a point of thermal resist, but Lil¡¯s still going strong and my skin is starting to crack and peel as it dries out. My buddy needs training as much as I do, in case our situation gets deadly. So, I¡¯ll just tone down their fire against my skin a bit with a barely perceptible dermal layer of FFS. I know you can hear me think Lil, but keep at it buddy, we¡¯re cool.


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Lil pauses for only a second to grumble and take another deep breath. Another benefit of Lil joining the Shellcracker family with me, their lung capacity has grown to enormous levels. It was already ridiculously high as a fire-breathing dragon, but the aquatic nature of our family somehow multiplied that even further. While I can hold my breath for about twenty five minutes, Lil can take a deep enough breath to exhale for that long. If Lil wants to just hold their breath they can hold it for an hour or more, easily. If Lil is really worried about holding their breath, they can go into a sort of reptilian stasis, sort of like hibernation. In that state, they could probably remain underwater for most of a day.


    A whistling swoosh clues me into a projectile headed towards my left shoulder from the east. I¡¯ve made the mistake before of trying to catch and claim a projectile, only for it to be poisoned. I¡¯m not making that mistake again, but I also don¡¯t want to accidentally de-seat Lil, they¡¯d fall into the projectile''s path.


    What was it Lu said once? Learn to use my abilities defensively. I summon an umbral copy of a Valkyrie shield in the path of the projectile, and sure enough, the shield remains in position as a snapping sound hits it. The shield doesn¡¯t move until it dissipates a few moments later. That took my entire reserve of mana however, since I¡¯m only at about a hundred capacity unlocked right now.


    I¡¯m a bit angered, I was enjoying a nice walk with Lil. Lil if you¡¯re in my thoughts, hop off and take wing please. Use your wonderful senses to find whoever shot at us, and stay out of their range. I try to use an FFS to absorb some of Lil¡¯s fire as mana, and it seems to work. Stolen kinetic energy of atoms is capable of being converted to mana, at a very low return rate, but it¡¯s still possible.


    Lil does as requested, transforming and taking to the air immediately. I sit in lotus position for a moment to regain the rest of my mana, facing the eastern treeline. I equip all of my gear, including my danger wrap. Grr, I¡¯m filled with regret at having given Mataalii half of this magic item now. He¡¯ll be that much harder to kill when we can both sense each other¡¯s attacks.


    Crossbow bolt incoming from my twelve o¡¯clock, it¡¯s aimed to sail right between my eyes. Here¡¯s something I¡¯ve never tried, and probably shouldn¡¯t be risking in an actual heated combat. I draw my valkyrie dagger and parry bolt with the flat of the blade, deflecting it leftward, northward. Exhaling slowly, smoothly, satisfied with my mana recovery, I stand to adopt an aggressive stance. There¡¯s a static-laced crackle as the air suddenly feels charged. Barely in time I summon my thunderstick from my inventory. Three new crossbow bolts arcing with lightning sweep out at wide angles to converge on me.


    Blocking the bolt approaching from the left with my shield, I¡¯m treated to a jolt of electricity regardless, as the lightning leaps off of the crossbow bolt, conducted through my shield down my left arm. It passes through my heart on its way to ground and I¡¯m brought to my knees, gasping, my heart momentarily stopped. I manage to block the bolt coming straight on with the thunderstick, it channels the lightning straight into the ground, not passing through me. The third bolt sinks into my right clavicle, penetrating deeply to discharge its electricity down along my spine and ribcage, once again passing along my heart. I convulse at the feeling of a heart attack, and my eyes flood red with rage. A loud crash sounds from my inventory interface. Well, hello again maximum mana, it¡¯s a pleasure to meet you once more.


    How convenient, just another near-death for Reggie Shellcracker, what am I up to these days, ten? Twenty? Thirty? Meh, it¡¯s just a fact of life at this point. Lil telepathically chuckles at my blas¨¦ attitude about my frequent near deaths. I claim the bolt protruding from my neck to my inventory. It¡¯s interesting craftsmanship, there¡¯s runic etchings on the bolt-head. Lil snickers at my distractibility. Lil stop laughing across our wavelength and find this assailant, please? That actually really hurt. My vision is also red, if I find them before you do, I might kill them without meaning to. I need a moment to calm down.


    I¡¯m almost lucky that two jolts hit. The first dropped me into cardiac arrest, the second missed, and the third zap jolted my heart into an arrhythmic palpitation, but at least it¡¯s beating again. I¡¯m ludicrously powerful in certain ways, but someone just turning off my heart would probably kill even me within a few seconds. Phew, okay, I want to meet this person. Lightning is definitely something I¡¯d like to build a resistance to.


    Hm, one of the two other bolts disappeared. I wonder if only one was real, and the other two were magical duplicates. If that¡¯s the case, then I accidentally created a permanent duplicate by claiming the one that was stuck in my neck. It¡¯s similar to what happens when Teuila hands me her valkyrie gear before de-transforming, so that I can claim it to my inventory to make it permanent. I suppose if the contingent runs out of money and supplies, Teuila could still keep them fed, if they ration themselves, by transforming into Valkyrie, selling her equipment to the shop to buy produce, and de-transforming. It would really just cost some time to recuperate mana, and little else.


    What an oddly abusable system. I scratch my chin ponderously. The world in my memories would be flipped on its head if something like this existed. Honestly, either part of this loophole would throw a wrench in that entire world. I hear a loud tsk from the treeline as I sit down to ponder, my sight slowly returning from its red-wash.


    Lil calls out, ¡°I see aura get thicker in patches, but it moves around so quick buddy, I don¡¯t see a person anywhere, just a mess of aura!¡±


    Hm, curious. I wave my hand in the general direction I believe the assailant to be in, unequip my weapons, and hold both hands up as a sign of peace. What steps forth, with a wrist-mounted crossbow still trained on me, is astounding.


    A bipedal jaguar clad in tight leathers, eyes me warily. Her gorget, spaulders, form-fitting cuirass, and tight breeches are all made from a dark leather. Beneath the leathers is a dark linen shirt with voluminous sleeves, but rather than hanging to her breeches or being tucked into them, the shirt is tied around behind her back, exposing her athletically toned abdomen.


    I¡¯m not sure why Lil had trouble noticing her, since Lil¡¯s senses are phenomenal, until there¡¯s a crackle, flash, and she closes the distance between us in an instant, her crossbow jammed into my neck. The jaguar lady snarls wide as she demands something, but of course I can¡¯t understand her. I can¡¯t help but laugh and facepalm, a big mistake. She pulls the trigger on her crossbow, and I¡¯m only able to lean slightly to the left as a lightning-enhanced bolt tears through the right side of my neck, severing my carotid artery.


    She reloads her crossbow, but hesitates. Lil screams in terror for me and begins to swoop to my side. I telepathically yell, ¡°Cool it.¡± I hold up my hands, still peaceably.


    The jaguar lady looks incredibly perplexed. I hold up a finger asking for one moment. I freeze my neck as best I¡¯m able, to buy time for my wound. It¡¯s not a permanent measure, I will absolutely bleed out and die from this if I don¡¯t get medical attention, or use what might be the last red potion in existence for those ¡®of blood.¡¯ I hold up my hands again as a sign of peace, and sit down to draw out paper and charcoal pencils. I send my armor and most of my equipment back to my inventory, except for the tattoo and danger wrap. I¡¯m bare save the one arm wrap, tattoo, and hip to thigh under-clothing from the Valkyrie outfit.


    The jaguar lady looks beyond dumbfounded that her prey just sat down in front of her. More so that her prey divested, and waves for her to be seated, unarmed. She aims her crossbow at Lil, and I frown.


    I ask my buddy telepathically, ¡°Lil, can you drop your form please? If she keeps threatening you, go for a swim so she can¡¯t hit you. I hope that her lightning will mostly dissipate in the water, too many places for it to go to really hurt you. I hope.¡±


    Lil drops their regal Lilagnewt form and hops over to me, instead of into the water. They nuzzle me protectively as they position themselves between me and this cat woman. I sigh and chuckle before waving again to the ground next to me.


    I pull out the notes I¡¯ve already written that ask if my opponent can read and write, the one that states my name, and the one that states I can¡¯t hear or speak. Again, that last one is an oversimplification, but I don¡¯t have the time for her to get the full picture. Literally, I¡¯ll die before I explain my life story. Even freezing the blood repeatedly is leaving me lightheaded as my blood¡¯s oxygen flow is disrupted.


    She glances back and forth between the paper and my face, trying to discern if I¡¯m lying I guess. Pretty hard to do based on writing and someone who is wobbling woozily. She frowns and sits, pointing to the question of her ability to read and write. She nods affirmative. Her crossbow remains trained on Lil at this point. I figure she knows I¡¯m already as good as dead, so she thinks Lil is the only threat. She doesn¡¯t realize I could just materialize a spear through her abdomen, or even just nick her with Gae Buidhe and watch her bleed out, figuratively. I doubt she¡¯s ¡®of blood¡¯ but her vitality would drip away all the same.


    She takes the proferred writing tools, and writes out, ¡°I¡¯m Linti, Lightning Hunter. Why do you two scalekind travel here, flaunting scalefire?¡±


    Ah, that¡¯ll take a bit to explain. I wave my hands and shake my head. I point to the word scalekind and then point to myself and shake my head. Standing again, I carefully risk energy debt to transform into my authoritative form that looks similar to an adult human. Huh, it only took the in-combat cost, that¡¯s good. Well, also bad. She or someone nearby is still hostile to us.


    I spin around for her, showing off my whole bare body, not a scale on it. Linti gawps and I think she even blushes. Her fur is incredibly thick and a vibrant yellowish brown, with open rosettes of a darker tawny brown. There¡¯s white fur that seems to stretch from her chin down her torso to her inner thighs. All that is to say that it¡¯s even harder to tell if she¡¯s blushing than it is with Teuila, whose fur is a coppery red, so that¡¯s saying something. I probably shouldn¡¯t be getting distracted by analysis of blush determination difficulty as I¡¯m slowly bleeding to death.


    I sit and write out a question as to whether or not she¡¯s okay with me transforming back. Lil is telepathically sending worried thoughts at me about my blood loss and frozen artery. Lil wants me to take the potion instead of screwing around to try to win trust. Linti nods, and I drop my self-tether. I write out a question on if she is free to join a party so that we can communicate more easily, and that I can speak normally within a party. I also indicate that I can¡¯t even invite, that¡¯s part of why I can¡¯t talk normally, Lil has to invite for me.


    Linti looks taken aback, and she gazes between me and Lil, her expression gaining fury as she gazes at Lil, then softening as she looks back to me, repeatedly. I think when she realizes I¡¯ve got several hundred mammalian critterkin in my party, she¡¯ll probably be a bit less hostile, and regard me less as a scalekin. Lil, please offer her the party invite?


    Lil harrumphs, and hesitates. During their hesitation, my eyes begin to droop as I wobble further. Lil panics and sends the invite.


    We¡¯re treated to the message ¡°Linti, Lightning Hunter has joined the party.¡±


    Lil cries out, ¡°Buddy, buddy stay awake, stay with me, please! Come on, come on, please? You, Linti person, you did this, please, you gotta help them, come on! I don¡¯t care if you hate me, but don¡¯t take it out on Reggie!¡±


    My eyes well with tears as I feel Lil¡¯s love for me, but I can barely keep them open. I can vaguely sense Linti realizing how enormous our party is, and that I must be responsible for the lives of hundreds of mammals.


    Linti asks, ¡°May I take them to our village? You won¡¯t be able to come, in part because you won¡¯t be able to keep up. Though there are other reasons.¡±


    Lil shouts, ¡°No, that¡¯s not good enough! I don¡¯t care about the risks, take me too! Please, please.¡± By the end, Lil¡¯s request trails off to a pleading whimper.


    Linti seriously considers Lil¡¯s safety as she queries, ¡°Are you certain? I cannot guarantee your safety.¡±


    Lil is nodding, whimpering, and their lips are trembling. Well, what passes for lips on a dragon-sphere anyway.


    Linti states, ¡±I may have misjudged you. I¡¯ll do what I can.¡± She then wastes no time in scooping up the two of us. Suddenly I¡¯m treated to excruciating pain, Lil cries out in pain as well. We¡¯re being destroyed by lightning. Linti is turning into lightning to travel faster than sound. We crash between trees, slam into trunks and plow into the ground repeatedly as the lightning zips from surface to surface. I honestly don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll live to make it to her village at this rate. Maybe I should take the potion, before I pass out. Ah, too late.

 B 3 C 9: A Temporary Detour

    <h2>B 3 C 9: A Temporary Detour</h2>


    I awaken to Lil growling at several catlike individuals. There are cat spheres, there are several like Linti. There are also creatures that look quite similar to actual wildcats from my broken memories, these ones happen to occasionally stand on their hind legs. Their torsos and hips are more humanoid than the ones from my memories though. Linti and several others are similar to Laomati and Agwai in that they¡¯re recognizable as the creatures they evolved from, cats, but they¡¯re utterly humanoid, bipedal, furred, furry-eared, animal-faced, and tailed, but humanoid nonetheless.


    Ah, there is a sharp hot pain in my neck. Someone appears to be trying to solder my artery back together, to little effect. That would be my thermal resistance training backfiring on me. Still, I¡¯ve got what seems like a bit of a coconut intravenous attachment. They don¡¯t have rubber tubes. Instead they¡¯re using what appears to be a tiny bamboo reed jabbed directly into my arm straight from the fruit¡¯s shell. I¡¯m not sure that¡¯s safe or sanitary, but I applaud their ingenuity.


    The one attending to my neck hisses in a way that I¡¯m certain is swearing angrily, and Lil hops onto my chest protectively. Eventually I feel something melt into place between sections of my venistructure. That might not be the right term, but what do I know, I¡¯m a cryptozoologist, or something, not a phlebotomist.


    Linti, seemingly in reply to my doctor, speaks up, ¡°No, I¡¯m certain, they are not scalekind, and their party is hundreds upon hundreds of folk, otters, pigs, camels, apes, and more. The little dragon seems to be their constant companion, a beloved friend apparently.¡±


    Lil shouts, ¡°You bet we¡¯re beloved friends! That¡¯s my buddy! I¡¯ve been with them since a few days after they spawned! I. I don¡¯t want to lose Reggie. I¡¯m sorry for shouting. Please save them.¡±


    My eyes wet as they well with tears and I smile. I¡¯ll be fine, I¡¯m sure. I carefully raise my right hand to stroke Lil. My breathing is a bit difficult, but I¡¯ve got my mana back now, I can probably find a way out of this. If nothing else, I can drink the potion.


    Lil blubbers, ¡°Reggie-ie-ie, why you gotta keep getting hurt paaaalll!? Bwahubhublahwuhuh¡±


    I joke, ¡°Sorry buddy, I¡¯m just a danger magnet. Maybe that should be my middle name, Reggie Danger-Magnet Shellcracker.¡±


    Linti actually chortles and raises one of her hands to clamp her lips shut. She¡¯s an incredibly impressive specimen, and one heck of a dangerous woman. Yet her laugh is fantastically pleasing to hear. I¡¯m glad that we managed to break through the hostilities. I don¡¯t imagine we¡¯ll ever be on affectionate, let alone cuddling, terms though. Mostly because she seems all warrior, all business, no pleasure. Other than the small laugh that she had let slip.


    Just viewing Linti¡¯s taut musculature is reminiscent of Teuila, but even more intense. It¡¯s as if she never stops hunting or training, and right now is a wild exception to her norm. There¡¯s a tenseness, an itch beneath the surface of her expression, it¡¯s the desire to leave and resume her hunt, I¡¯m sure of it. Still, I¡¯m glad she took this moment, both to save me, and to have that tiny laugh.


    I try to glance out of the corner of my eye to see who it is that¡¯s operating on me, and I almost laugh myself. That face is straight out of angry cat imagery available on the internet in my glitchy memories. Gray, voluminously fluffy fur, and a permanently brachycephalic grumpy expression. This can¡¯t be real. I think the more famous one has short hair and a bicolor pattern of brown and white or something, but this still feels surreal.


    I may as well use my recovery time to get some answers. I ask, ¡°Linti, can you hear me? Would you mind telling me about this place, your job, your family or tribe, or whatever? Your hostilities for scalekind. Basically just talk at me to keep my mind occupied, please? Anything you¡¯re willing to share.¡±


    Linti hems and haws for an instant. I unintentionally cough which rips whatever stopgap plug had been made to connect sections of my artery. The feeling is excruciatingly agonizing. I end up gasping in pain as my operator has to start again with melting something into place. Linti¡¯s face adopts an expression of dismay at my pain, so she seemingly resolves to answer me as fully as she can.


    Linti begins describing her kin, ¡°I¡¯m the Lightning Hunter Linti, as you can tell, I¡¯m a jaguar, my job is to protect and provide for my kin. That is elder End of Winter, call him Winter. He¡¯s, I believe, a short tailed lynx. He¡¯s the most knowledgeable on those ¡®of blood.¡¯ Over there is Gentle Ice, call her Ice, her pure-white hair is the envy of some in our brood. As is her apprenticeship to Winter.¡±


    Linti motions out the doorway of the hut we¡¯re resting in, beckoning others outside to enter. She then continues, ¡°This is Fawns at Sunsets, call her Fawn, we haven¡¯t met anyone new in a long time, she¡¯s our current matron, and an inveterate flirt. Don¡¯t take it personally. She¡¯d glom onto a sentient twig if it could rub her back or belly. I think her subspecies is somewhere along the lines of cougar, maybe puma.¡±


    I blush at the idea of being flirted with by the matron of a tribe. I remember my initial reaction to Laomati, and how I was intensely flush with embarrassment with confused feelings. I couldn¡¯t tell if I wanted her affection because I desired her in some way, or if I was jealous of her being a motherly figure to the Shellcrackers. I¡¯d rather not think of that brief moment of confusion. Laomati is like a mother to me now. If Fawn treats me in a motherly fashion, yet also flirts, I¡¯ll probably suffer a brain meltdown in confusion.


    Yeesh, my heart is fluttering. Quick, Lil, please distract me telepathically. Lil just eyes me suspiciously then starts laughing into our mental wavelength. Come on buddy, it¡¯s not funny.


    Lil, unable to contain their telepathic laughter, sends back, ¡°It is too pal, you¡¯re already twitterpated for half of these cats, hehe. It¡¯s all over your aura and they can all see it. Hehehe.¡±


    Ugh, ugh, just ugh. Thanks buddy. Just great. I¡¯m going to just let this neck wound bleed out so I don¡¯t have to die of embarrassment.


    Lil telepathically calls me out, ¡°Drama queen, you¡¯re fine, they¡¯re flattered, except Lightning, she¡¯s scary. Fawn is eyeing you up for cuddles, the only thing keeping her back is your neck wound. Well, those two over there aren¡¯t flattered either. I think that one of those two is thinking of you like a meal. A, uh, snack?¡±


    Fawn begins to object to Linti¡¯s description of her as a flirt, and I swear that something she says equates to it¡¯s not a puma. However, Linti speaks over her, ¡°This is my protege Spring Blossom, we call her Spring, but she might like it if you called her Blossom. She¡¯s a cheetah as you can tell. She hasn¡¯t yet unlocked her magic¡¯s full potential, but I¡¯m certain it will be wildly powerful one day. That over there is Dream of Days, call her Dream. She¡¯s End of Winter''s other mentee. I believe she¡¯s some sort of hyena. She¡¯s our storyteller at the moment. Ignore her misgivings and aura of dislike. She doesn¡¯t like anyone.¡±


    Linti gazes around and ushers several others to rotate in and out of the small reed hut. She indicates two new members of the family, ¡°This is Six Wind, Spring''s younger twin by a few moments. Anything or anyone Spring is interested in, Wind is interested as well. Three Thunder over there is less friendly and less interested. You¡¯ll forgive him. His copper fur is something of an anomaly and he feels ostracized for it.¡±


    Awe, his fur is a bit similar in color to Teuila¡¯s, that¡¯s not fair. I wonder if the others treat him differently, or if he just feels different due to how odd his coloration is.


    Linti coughs and pauses for a breath before finishing, ¡°The spheriforms among us are the following. There¡¯s Merry Canvas. Call him Merry. He¡¯s a cheetah like the twins. He loves to paint, though it¡¯ll remain a tad difficult until he reaches at least feraform. Even then it won¡¯t be easy until he reaches humaform. If you ever manage to spy Art of Shadows, Arty, then it¡¯s probably too late. Arty is mischievous as hell, and black as night. There¡¯s also Curious Branch, Branch is inquisitive as all get-out, another of our brood with dark fur. Finally one you should hope not to meet is Ice in Summer, unlike Gentle Ice, Ice is aloof and a bit snooty. Rather than white fur, her fur is pigmentless, she¡¯s albino.¡±


    I try to digest all I¡¯ve been told. Not only about Linti¡¯s family, but Linti finally gave me terms for the stages of evolution of all the critterkin. Spheriforms, feraforms, and humaforms. They¡¯re pretty accurate descriptions. I¡¯m guessing that a feraform would be like the feral versions of creatures in my broken memories. In those memories, they certainly don¡¯t generally have the ability to stand on their hind legs and talk however. Nor can they use their pawed hands for much of anything. Feraforms in our world can do both of those however. Take Teuila for example, she would be a feraform stage, and she¡¯s fairly humanoid in general, though her face is more snoutlike than Laomati¡¯s, or even Luni¡¯s. Luni is an odd feraform, she¡¯s ridiculously close to humaform. Honestly, I can¡¯t really think of any differences in form structure between Luni and Laomati. They¡¯re both bipedal, both have tails, both have full fur covering their whole bodies. Lu¡¯s face is ever so slightly more snouted, but not as much as Teuila¡¯s. Lu does have whiskers though. Lao doesn¡¯t have those. Luni¡¯s curves are also, um, a bit less curvy than Laomati¡¯s. They¡¯re both gorgeous women, Lao just has, uh, thicker curves I guess. For some reason, the phrase ¡°with two C¡¯s¡± comes to mind. I have no idea what that means.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    I wonder if Linti knows that people can take side-evolutions from any given stage. She didn¡¯t react too surprised by Lil and my transformations up and down the scale, but she was already fairly shocked at her prey, me, being friendly while bleeding out.


    Hm, one more difference between me and other critterkin is that I don¡¯t have a spheriform stage as far as I¡¯m aware. Unless I was a spheriform and lost my memory when I hit feraform stage. That¡¯s still unprecedented either way.


    As I process the information, I mumble, ¡°Thanks, Linti, um, Lightning? Or, uh, Hunter? Uh, what¡¯s life like in this settlement? Are all scalekind enemies? Do you hunt them all down? I was trying to transform enough of myself to scales to be able to talk to the nagas. I want to make sure they won¡¯t attack my family. We¡¯re marching hundreds and hundreds of people near here as we try to find a new home. The lava destroyed our home just the other day. Our whole settlement, it¡¯s, it¡¯s gone.¡±


    I gulp as my lips quiver, and Winter hisses at me to probably indicate to stay still, since my gulping moved my throat and neck around.


    Linti replies, ¡°Any of the three is fine, life is fairly idyllic, we¡¯ve a few giant insect swarms to hunt for food. They aren¡¯t much of a challenge, and we¡¯ve penned off their hollow to prevent our spheriforms from getting injured. Scalekind are, hm, how do I put this. We tenuously tolerate one another at best. A single foot misstep can be met with death and either side must not retaliate, lest we fall into full-out war. By our unwritten agreement, I would have been fully in the right if I had slain the two of you. It would not have provoked retaliation from the scalekind.¡±


    Linti pauses contemplatively, ¡°Hm. But you don¡¯t belong to them, and I fear it may provoke a retaliation from your enormous family. We do not want the blood of so many on our hands, nor the risk to our own brood. Similarly, the nagas vastly outnumber us, as do the chamelefolk. The naga are of course the far more hostile of the two, and their magics are far more advanced.¡±


    Linti considers my needs, ¡°Still, as you say, you tread a dangerous line to bring so many a creature into these lands. I may be able to at least point you in the right direction. Perhaps you should see the chamelefolk first. If you broker an agreement, some sort of peace, mayhap they will add some credence to your request of the nagas. I¡¯m not entirely certain. The only thing I am certain of is that I do not envy your position. It seems you have both my role, and Winter¡¯s role in your tribe.¡±


    I make the gesture for iffy, or so-so, wobbling my right hand horizontally. She¡¯s sort of right. I¡¯m responsible for this family as a sort of leader, once again. Hopefully only temporarily. I¡¯m definitely one of their four strikers or hunters though. I¡¯m glad I¡¯m not the most powerful. If I die, they¡¯ll be able to continue on without me.


    Lil interrupts my thoughts telepathically, ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t even think about going and dying on us pal! It won¡¯t be fine, and continuing without you would, would, it would suck mega bad! Mega mega mega bad!¡±


    I¡¯m sorry Lil, I didn¡¯t mean to think that way. I just meant that I¡¯m glad the family has you three. Some day you¡¯ll find a way to either permanently evolve into feraform stage, then tether yourself higher, or maybe double your own tethers to jump several stages. Then you¡¯ll be the strongest among us. My great big dragon buddy.


    Lil comes over to nuzzle my cheek, which means that, like so many times before, I end up with a facefull of dragon heiny. Winter hisses at and swats at Lil who hops out of the way and starts apologizing. Lil approximates an apologetic bow without having any body parts.


    I question Linti, ¡°Linti, would Winter be able to tell you if freezing my wound now would keep it closed? I can keep it frozen permanently. The reason I wasn¡¯t doing it earlier was because it was obstructing blood flow. Now it feels like there¡¯s a tube in place. I don¡¯t have the patience or ability to sit still long enough for my neck or artery to heal. I sometimes get panic attacks or shakes, or trembles.¡±


    Linti relays my question, Winter hisses, grumbles, and rips the coconut¡¯s straw out of my arm. He sticks the bamboo straw at the fruit¡¯s bottom into his mouth and stalks off. That can not be sanitary.


    Linti, chuckling, says, ¡°Apparently Winter thinks you should have said that earlier. If you can manage that as you say, then yes, you¡¯re done, as much as we can do for you anyway.¡±


    I use a prolonged FFS centered on my throat and neck area to enhance the density of the atomic structure of my various cells. In that region I draw air molecules towards my wound and slow them to a crawl. Everyone other than Linti and Lil leaves the hut.


    I blurt out, somewhat inappropriately, ¡°I really like when you laugh. You seem so serious, and I get it, when you have a job like ours, everything seems like life or death all the time. Do you want nothing more than the hunt in your life though?¡±


    Linti glares at me. She huffs, rolls her eyes and begins to walk out. She pauses in the doorway to glance back at me. Her eyes speak volumes of jealousy of the bond that Lil and I share. Jealousy towards my lackadaisical attitude towards death, frustration at her inability to ask for more. She¡¯s stuck, she¡¯s saddled with this responsibility in a deadly precarious situation, and I just insulted her integrity and honor by asking her to betray that by expressing her own desire.


    I call out an apology, ¡°Linti, I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry, I guess I didn¡¯t think that through, I. I didn¡¯t mean to insult you, and you¡¯re gone. Crap.¡±


    I receive the message that indicates ¡°Linti, Lightning Hunter has left the Shellcracker party.¡±


    Ugh, that makes me feel like a turd. Fawn, the matron walks in and gazes at me quizzically. She asks something that I assume to mean what happened between Linti and myself. I can¡¯t understand her of course, or reply, so I just flash her a sorrowful frown that¡¯s part pout.


    Fawn hesitates. She gazes out of the hut, glancing around, and apparently comes to a conclusion. Fawn closes the door to the hut, leaving her alone with Lil and me. I gulp with nervous apprehension as my heart races. My pounding pulse threatens to break free the temporary arterial aid. I do my best to slow my breathing by blowing my exhaled breaths through puffed cheeks and pursed lips. I really hope it doesn¡¯t look like I¡¯m trying to blow kisses like some sort of orangutan or something. Oh heavens, it probably does. Fawn¡¯s eyes are sparkling as she approaches me.


    I telepathically beg Lil, ¡°Lil, Lil buddy, help me out here, what¡¯s she saying?¡±


    Lil mentally sends back nothing but uproarious laughter. Come on Lil, it can¡¯t be that funny. What am I supposed to do here? We were going to be training, not, um, flirting with gorgeous cat people. Heavens to Murgatroyd, or Betsie, or some other name that I don¡¯t know. Why is it so hot in here? I have over a thousand thermal resistance. Hoo boy, phew. I¡¯m gulping repeatedly and resuming my breathing imitation of a pufferfish.


    Lil, in between bouts of furious laughter, finally asks, ¡°Buddy, do you want me to tell her you¡¯re not interested?¡±


    Blushing, I reply, ¡°Well, I mean, no, not exactly, uh, but I mean, uh, oh wow, uh, phew, I can¡¯t even talk to her, this is really weird when you can¡¯t talk to someone!¡±


    Fawn is stroking my cheek as she stands before me. Gosh, she¡¯s really pretty, and very tender and affectionate.


    Lil mentally exclaims, ¡°Oh that I can totally fix for ya!¡±


    Lil? Lil buddy, what do you mean by that, what are you doing?


    I¡¯m treated to somewhere around a dozen messages of the individuals from the cat brood members joining our family¡¯s party. Oh, oh boy. Lil you are so mean.


    Lil innocently telepathically claims, ¡°Me? Mean? Never! To prove it, I¡¯ll give you some private time buddy!¡±


    Lil leaps out a nearby window that would be too small for me to squeeze out of. Lil! You butt! Dorky little dragbutt! Ah you¡¯re so mean!


    I start to hyperventilate as Fawn asks me about my wellbeing, ¡°Hello, Reggie is it? You couldn¡¯t hear or speak to us before? Are you okay sweet one? You¡¯re such a curious creature, I¡¯ve never seen the likes of you. I don¡¯t know if this is normal behavior. Would you like to lay down?¡±


    Gulping, I nod to my name, and shake my head no to the next two questions. I nod emphatically to the last question about laying down. I ramble, ¡°Uh, ah, yes, down, lay, I, I should, yes, please.¡±


    Fawn leads me back to the cot, and climbs into it, laying on her side, facing me.


    I think towards Lil. Lil! Lil you butt! Where are you!? At least come cuddle with us! This is way too intimate all of a sudden!


    Lil can¡¯t stop laughing across our mental wavelength. Lil is such a meanie.


    Fawn pats the cot but makes no moves to force me, she simply gazes at me with tender care in her eyes. Awe, she¡¯s a sweetheart. That doesn¡¯t make this better! Lil! Get in here please!


    My heart racing a mile a minute threatens to blow my temporary artery patch, so I frost my neck repeatedly. I hear Lil bouncing around to the front of the hut as I climb into the cot with Fawn.


    I hissingly whisper, ¡°Finally Lil, get over here you booger!¡±


    Fawn raises an eyebrow as I lay into her embrace. She rubs her cheek on mine, and coos about how cool the frost is, how nice it feels against her fur in our jungle. Her embrace is incredibly comforting, and I find myself rubbing her back with one arm that I¡¯m able to wrap around her. Lil bounces up to us and snuggles between our bellies, causing us both to chuckle slightly.


    I know I need to sleep for a while to heal up, I just didn¡¯t think I¡¯d be doing it while my heart was pumping so fast. I wasn¡¯t even this worked up until Lil kept teasing me about it. Lil snorts across our telepathic wavelength while riding my thoughts.


    I ramble, ¡°I, uh, thank you, Fawn. I, uh, I should be healing, and um, oh this is Lil, I¡¯m Reggie.¡±


    Fawn laughs like the tinkling of a tiny bell, ¡°Yes dear, I know.¡±


    Fawn carefully strokes my cheek and then directs my arm by the elbow to reach further up her back to rub higher. She arches her back in the way felines do in my glitchy memories, and she actually purrs. I blush so hard that, coupled with all the difficulty with my artery and neck, I faint.

 B 3 C 10: Reggie DDM Shellcracker

    <h2>B 3 C 10: Reggie DDM Shellcracker</h2>


    Oh flippin¡¯ ¡®eck I fainted from embarrassment, that in itself is incredibly embarrassing.  Lil?  Are you riding my thoughts buddy?  How long was I out?  Oh, wow, we¡¯re all really entangled right now.  When did we get down on the floor?  Where did all these pillows come from?  Is this Blossom¡¯s arm?  I think this is Six Wind¡¯s thigh that I¡¯m laying on, he¡¯s got a pretty muscular thigh.  When did this happen?  Oh, I¡¯m staring Fawn in the eyes.  Oh heavens, those vertical oblong pupils suspended in a green and hazel galaxy seem like tears in space that lead to entire other dimensions.  She¡¯s blinking so slowly, I can¡¯t help but mirror the exact same speed of blink.


    My throat and lips are so dry, I can¡¯t help but lick my lips to try to wet them.  Oh, oh that was probably something I should have waited to do until after I stopped staring a stunningly charismatic cougar lady in the eyes.  I gulp and she extends her tongue to drag it up my cheek and forehead.  Ow wow, that is rough.  That is a heck of a rough tongue.  I¡¯m being groomed lovingly by a cat that¡¯s two or three times my size.


    I whisper, ¡°Fawn?  Um, when did we end up on the floor?¡±


    Her reply is humorous, and can¡¯t be real, ¡°Spring attempted to ask if you¡¯d like to trade cuddle partners for a bit, but you wrapped one arm around each of us.  Since Six and Spring generally share everything, there simply wasn¡¯t enough room for the five of us on the cot.  Six brought in pillows and we moved you to the floor.  Is your neck feeling any better dear?¡±


    I carefully raise my right hand to my neck to check it out, the FFS patch is holding, and I can tell the flesh is knitting.  I can only barely reach it with my fingertips for some reason.  Oh, this is a lot of limbs that aren¡¯t mine.  Still, the arterial patch might even be no longer necessary, but it¡¯s best to leave it in I suppose.  Sometime after the full wound is closed, I¡¯ll claim it to get it out of there.  It would feel odd to have this foreign object in there forever.  Lil snoring a snot bubble that they burst with a tiny poof of flame snaps me out of my reverie.


    Fawn startles a bit at Lil¡¯s flaming snores, but she places her hand near Lil¡¯s mouth, and realizes there¡¯s no heat.  She raises an eyebrow at me, awaiting an answer.


    I recall her question, ¡°Oh, oh yes, definitely making progress.  Thank you, um, for the um, comfortable resting experience.  Gosh you¡¯re so pretty, oh, wait, I¡¯m still talking out loud, crap, I mean, uh.  Normally I talk in my head, all the time.  Hi, I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker.¡±  I try to facepalm but I can¡¯t reach with Blossom¡¯s arm around my bicep, I could barely reach my neck with my fingertips.


    Fawn titters, but then can¡¯t suppress a laugh that becomes a snort.  She replies, ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever made a guest quite as nervous as you appear.  Don¡¯t worry, as rude as Linti¡¯s statement was, she wasn¡¯t lying.  We¡¯re simply affectionate, and me more than most.  It¡¯s actually why I am the matron.  I have endless love to share.¡±


    I exclaim in a rambling whisper, ¡°That makes so much sense!  Ah you¡¯re lovely and a fantastic cuddler and just feel so wonderful.  Oh wow, I feel so much better, I have no idea what was going through my head, thank you for explaining.  I have some weird glitches about me, like the inability to speak or hear without being in a party, and some memories that are, um, more like human memories, but not even the humans of our world, like humans from some weird fake world.  But yeah, anyway, oh your fur is luxurious, an amazing combination of bristly and silky, and your ability to snuggle in any position is a testament to your flexibility.¡±


    My heart still palpitates a bit, fluttering as I ramble about Fawn to her own face.  I try to keep myself from commenting on the interest I have in the way her features that, uh, anyway, no need to think about it either.  Really wish I could delete these stupid broken memories.


    Fawn stares at me with a mischievous grin and one eyebrow raised, seemingly waiting to see if I¡¯m done praising her, or something.  I¡¯m not sure.  Oh, oh, our chests are pressed tightly together, she can feel how fast my heart is fluttering again.  Jeeze, Lil, come on buddy, wake up, we need to get back on the road.  I need to apologize to Linti and beg her to lead us towards the chamelefolk settlement.


    Oh, wait, no, I need to train my transformation powers and finish becoming scale-ified.  I, well, I guess I could do that while in a cuddle pile.  I don¡¯t need to complete the transformation, in fact I need to stop in the midst before my physical form actually changes.  It might actually be kind of nice to be held while I do it, since it¡¯s pretty exhausting.  Wow, my throat is so dry again.  I apparate some water from my inventory into my mouth, just to wet its roof, and my throat.


    I query to Fawn, ¡°Fawn?  I um, I need to make progress on a long-term goal, and it might seem kind of weird.  I¡¯ll be glowing a creamy gray, and I¡¯ll stop glowing for several minutes, then I¡¯ll do it again.  Each time my tail will get a bit longer, and I¡¯ll grow a few more scales.  Are you, um, okay with that? With me trying to become scalekind to negotiate with them?  Are you willing to keep snuggling while I do?¡±


    Fawn squints for a moment while staring into my eyes, causing me to gulp.  She then raises an eyebrow as if to say she¡¯s curious.  I think she actually waggled that eyebrow once, but that might have just been a side effect of raising it.


    I tentatively partially commit to a tether around my own heart, initiating a creamy gray transformation.  I picture myself being fully covered in scales, with a tail that¡¯s about at least fifty percent as long as my body.  As I drop the tether, I can feel a tiny fraction of progress.  However, as I said, it¡¯s exhausting, and I pant from the effort.  Fawn gazes at me with sudden concern, and begins to groom me again, licking my forehead as she strokes my ribs.


    I didn¡¯t think what I did was that concerning, unless she didn¡¯t believe me.  Or maybe she¡¯s just worried that I¡¯m tired, and trying to take comforting me from my exhaustion seriously.  Actually, her rough tongue is a little less noticeable near my forehead.  Did I gain an entire encirclement of scales around the edges of my hairline, brow, and ears?  Flexing my jaw, eyebrows, brow, and cheeks feels like there is an area of higher tension around the edges, as of an area of less pliable epidermis.  Huh, neat, that¡¯s a few transformations worth of progress.  I wonder what kind of reptile form I should be aiming for.  Maybe I should be aiming for draconic?  Could I maybe gain the dragon subtype, and learn Lil¡¯s breath skill?  Could I teach Lil the space skill if I shared their type?


    Oh, I¡¯ve been absentmindedly stroking Fawn¡¯s lower ribs in return, uh, yeah, moving my hand back to her back now.  Like Linti said, Fawn really likes belly rubs and backrubs I guess.  The transformation wore me out more than I thought.  Maybe it¡¯s because I made more progress with the self-actualization than I usually do?  Regardless, my eyes droop and my face falls forward into Fawn¡¯s chest.  Fawn reaches away for an object, and it must be a hairbrush, or comb, as she begins brushing or combing my hair.  I¡¯m not quite sure on the difference, I suppose brushes are supposed to be more flexible, softer.  I¡¯d never even thought to create a comb or brush for our family.  And other than playing with one another¡¯s hair, sifting it, we¡¯ve never officially groomed our hair that way.


    I almost don¡¯t want Fawn to do it, because of how much I¡¯m used to my messy hair at this point in my life.  It feels sort of nice though, and it seems to be a very cat oriented thing to do.  It¡¯s either this or her tongue I suppose, and her tongue is really rough.  It¡¯s also, uh, for humans it would imply far more intimacy than what we share.  Thankfully neither of the two of us are human.  Right now I¡¯m about one eighth dragon, a quarter pixie or something, an eighth some kind of human offshoot, and half whatever my own unique species is.  I wonder if changelings exist, or if shapeshifter is a species.


    I almost think I should maybe lose my hair for scales entirely, but Lil has hair in their newest Lilagnewt form, and Dehlia had a head of incredibly long luxurious locks.  So hair alone won¡¯t spill the beans that I¡¯m not naturally scalekind.  It¡¯ll also probably be the only way that Dehlia will recognize me.  Alright, I¡¯ve rested long enough to recover enough mana for another attempt, let¡¯s breathe through this. It doesn¡¯t really get easier.


    As I perform the series of exercises again to further self-actualize my form, it hurts and exhausts me even more than the previous attempt, and I¡¯m left gasping in Fawn¡¯s chest.  My gasping breaths slowly recover to just being panting.  And then recovers to normal breathing after a few more moments.  I¡¯m surprised at how sound of sleepers Spring Blossom and Six Wind are.  Or they¡¯re just that respectful of the privacy of my process that they¡¯re not saying anything.


    Oh, ow, that¡¯s a massive pain in my stomach.  I¡¯m actually going to have to shut my brain off between attempts for a while.  I whisper to Fawn, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m in a lot of pain, don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not my neck, or your grooming.  But it¡¯s intense enough that I¡¯m going to shut my brain off for a while.  Please forgive my absentmindedness during it?  I won¡¯t be intentionally ignoring you, I just won¡¯t be experiencing the real world at all.¡±


    She nestles her face into my hair so that I can feel her nod.  Grateful for her understanding, I retreat into thinkspace, though I slow its acceleration down to as close to one to one time as possible.  I while away the time picturing my own mental avatar meditating in lotus position, focusing on the ways I¡¯ve learned to manipulate mana, energy, whatever one calls it.


    For a hundred energy, or two hundred or two fifty, I can create various attacks with either umbral space skill manipulation, or thermokinesis that are fairly potent.  Each of them somehow ignores certain things like damage thresholds and have capped amounts that resistances can be applied against them.  My frost even has that resistance cap on otherwise thermal immune creatures.  There¡¯s something like a ten percent margin of error in its immunity piercing, so it¡¯s only anywhere from ineffective to maybe ten percent effective.  It might even be only one percent.  I¡¯m not certain how to parse the information I gleaned back in the cragbeast mound.  I¡¯m not going to start punching Lil with strong ice to find out more.  My non-attack related thermal abilities range from cheaply setting everything around me aflame, to actually recovering energy, and gaining density, by drawing the atomic movement of everything in the vicinity of a point.  If I¡¯m careful, I can use the chilling effect in a myriad of ways.  Pinpoint thermal absorption, full body ice encasement, area immobilization, walls of solid cold air created by compressing and drawing in the atomic movement of surrounding air in massive quantities.  The walls actually require a bit of energy since I¡¯m exciting and directing matter atoms from a ways away to a specific point before draining their kinetic energy.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    For about five hundred fifty mana, I can provide a tether to an individual in combat.  I¡¯ve only ever tried it on myself, Lil, and Teuila.  I haven¡¯t really had combat opportunities around anyone else I trust other than Luni, and she doesn¡¯t actually want to participate in the combats, so I don¡¯t want to force that on her.  For about eleven hundred mana, I can provide those same tethers out of combat.  The reason I haven¡¯t experimented with those is because of how much of a painful energy sink it is to create a tether like that, and the first time someone is tethered can lead to a pretty painful crash, even when in combat.  I¡¯m afraid of what eleven hundred energy might do to someone like Lao who has a miniscule energy pool.  I¡¯d be scared it could hurt her somehow.  So yeah, evolutionary tethers just between a few of my inner circle.


    I think I¡¯ve regained enough energy for another attempt.  Time to rejoin reality for at least a few seconds.  Upon return I say, ¡°Hi Fawn, I¡¯m back for a moment, still in pain, but I have to keep going.¡±


    Fawn strokes my ribs in acknowledgement.  I place the tether back over my heart once more and perform the series of exercises yet again.  I wonder if the reason my innards hurt so much is because I don¡¯t have the capacity to fully engage a non combat tether.  I¡¯m not fully engaging it, so I hope it doesn¡¯t matter too much.  This is similar to the pain of energy debt though.  I hope I don¡¯t end up screwing up my max mana by doing this.  It seems to be climbing though.  Ugh, it¡¯s even more excruciating than last time though.  I¡¯m feverishly sweating at this point.


    My brain checks out from reality for a while, and I don¡¯t even truly rejoin it for the few moments required to tether transform anymore.  I just continue to meditate in my mind to regenerate mana.  When there¡¯s enough mana, I tell my body to go through the motions, so that I don¡¯t have to experience the pain.  I do this dozens, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of times.  For some reason, I imagine drawing tendons and muscle fibers, stretching them to new locations, copying them, and replacing their original locations with regeneration.


    My mindscape is beginning to become unstable.  I feel like I may have spent a few years in here.  But if I did that, then full days would have been passing outside.  I tentatively reconnect my mind to reality, and thankfully I don¡¯t feel pain, just hunger.  I don¡¯t spy anyone else in the hut, so I toss my taloned feet off of the cot and hop to the floor.  My balance is incredibly off of what I¡¯m used to, so my wings flutter to compensate.


    Wait, what?  Wings?  Talons?  Lil are you there buddy?  Can you come here so I can see what I look like?


    Across our mental wavelength Lil exclaims, ¡°Reggie buddy!  You¡¯ve been out for days!  You didn¡¯t tell me  you were going to go full dragon!¡±


    I telepathically respond, ¡°Wait, full dragon?  What?  Days? I only meant to grow a few scales while cuddling with Fawn.  Things started to hurt, so I started to check out.  Oh wow, my max mana is back to about fourteen hundred.  That¡¯s pretty decent progress.¡±


    Lil replies, ¡°I¡¯ll say, it got to be nonstop, you were glowing, resting a few seconds while freezing the room, glowing again, and repeating constantly.  No one could stay in there with you safely except me.¡±


    I pout, feeling crummy that I¡¯ve displaced these lovely cats from one of their own homes.  Lil bounds into the hut and takes a gander at me.  I use Lil¡¯s senses to follow along.


    Wow, where I expect to find keratinized skin in the form of scales I see something that appears more like creamy emerald gemstones than scales.  My form is sleek, it looks like I rearranged my organs to allow for an incredibly slender, taut abdomen.  That could be what hurt so much.  That, or the massive pair of wings and freakishly long serpentine tail.  Or the talons, or the reptilian snout.  Honestly pretty much any of it probably hurt to reconfigure my body into.


    Huh, if I thought my middle name should be danger-magnet due to an earlier joke, then I should probably add draconic in front of that.  Reggie Draconic Danger-Magnet Shellcracker.


    Oh no, these kind cats are probably going to hate me now, I¡¯ve gone full scalekind in their midst, and I didn¡¯t even get to apologize to Linti first.  Oh no.


    I tentatively ask Lil, ¡°Lil?  Can you help me find Linti?  I really want to apologize.¡±


    Lil responds, ¡°No need buddy!¡±


    I furrow my brow, ¡°Lil, I¡¯m going to apologize, she¡¯s an incredibly important person and I accidentally disrespected her.  I never meant to offend her or insult her honor or integrity.  She might have to live a certain way for the safety of her tribe, but I¡¯d still like her to have any kind of happiness she desires.  I hate that the world is so dangerous sometimes.  Sure it can carry excitement, or thrill, but it keeps amazing people like Linti from being able to stop and enjoy anything else.¡±


    Lil starts rolling around laughing.  That¡¯s unexpected, and a bit rude.  I furrow my brow further and squint at Lil as Linti steps in from around the corner of the outside of the hut.


    Oh, oh she probably heard all of that.  She dropped from our party to rejoin her family, but then she was forced to rejoin the party when her entire family joined.


    Lil telepathically responds, ¡°Yup!  Already got your apology across now buddy!¡±


    I stand with my jaw hanging slightly slackened.  My new taloned feet I find difficult to balance on, and so I try to pretend that I need to stare at them to get the hang of them, so that I don¡¯t have to meet Linti¡¯s gaze.  This warrior woman¡¯s stare could cut holes through sheet metal.  Oh, oh no, she¡¯s approaching, I¡¯m staring at my feet and, wait is that her fist?  Is that her fist sparking with lightning?  Oof.


    The lightning passes along the edges of my scales, not running into or through my body.  The punch contained plenty of force aimed straight for my abdomen, and that knocked the wind out of me, but I¡¯m otherwise unharmed.  Lil looks a little stunned at Linti.  I think Lil is trying to decide whether or not to attack our erstwhile ally.  Well, perhaps still ally, maybe it¡¯s just a misunderstanding, maybe I insulted her again.


    I begin to speak, barely, due to having no wind, but Linti interrupts, ¡°Impressive, you¡¯ve done fairly well Shellcracker.  I¡¯ve never seen someone essentially change form to another subtype before.  It¡¯s exceedingly thorough, I think you¡¯d fool anyone that didn¡¯t already know you.  The hair¡¯s a bit of a dead giveaway with those white streaks, but only for someone who knows you.  As far as the other thing, water off a duck¡¯s back.  Forget about it.  Life has different things in store for everyone.  I¡¯m fine with my lot in life.  If you can actually pull off what you¡¯re trying to do, come back to us.  You tell me that it¡¯s safe for my family, and maybe I¡¯ll try to find something else to enjoy.  Maybe.¡±


    I rub the back of my head, and it¡¯s an entirely new sensation with a new dermal type, as well as different muscle distribution.  The tactility, friction, pliability, suppleness, everything is different.  I try to respond, ¡°I, um, yeah.  I hope I do.  I hope you can.  Thank you.  For everything.¡±


    Linti adds, ¡°Your Teuila stopped by yesterday, Lil called to her the day before on that stone of yours.  Interesting magic, that.  She and I sparred.  She¡¯s pretty quick, but nowhere near as fast as me of course.  Still, I feel like she was taking it easy on me, holding something back.  You have some good friends, strong allies.  Maybe one day I¡¯ll count myself among them.  For now though, would you mind getting on with your quest and leaving my home?  I haven¡¯t been able to sleep in my own bed for days.  The twins are never going to let me live down sleeping with them that many nights in a row.¡±


    I¡¯m in Linti¡¯s home!  Of course!  That¡¯s why it¡¯s so sparse.  Since it¡¯s her home, of course it just had a cot.  Oh bollocks I¡¯m an arse.  I blush, or at least I think I¡¯m blushing, but I might not even be warm-blooded anymore.  Bowing apologetically I scamper waveringly out of Linti¡¯s house.


    My balance is terrible in this form.  Oh wow, my reflexes dropped a lot.  Hm, I can¡¯t seem to reapply my tattoo due to the nature of these scales.  They¡¯re reflective and oleophobic it seems.  Or something like that.  I wonder if my danger wrap will try to get me to respond in the ways my body is used to, or if it will help by directing me to use my new limbs appropriately.


    I really liked the tattoo tendrils.  Maybe I should give the tattoo to Teuila next time we see her.  Or maybe Luni?  Just imagine Luni dashing around a room with her Seven Leagues Song with three outstretched tendrils equipped with swords.  Yikes, scary thought.  I think we should do it.  If nothing else, she¡¯ll be able to slap projectiles out of the air, so we never have another repeat of the Gae Buidhe incident.


    I¡¯m so grateful that the Valkyrie equipment magically adjusts to its wearer.  It actually looks quite a bit different on this body.  On top of having to accommodate new limbs, it also seems to be an entirely different style of armor.  The danger wrap is the same though, thankfully.  I miss having both of them.  Especially since I have to kill Mataalii for the other one.


    Sighing, I frown and gaze sadly at the ground.  This sucks.  I have to kill my brother at some point.  Future me and Luni agreed on it, or something.  I¡¯m the one that decided to commit to the course of action, so I don¡¯t hold it against either of them, but it¡¯s still horrid.  Ah crapsnacks, I didn¡¯t get directions to the chamelefolk settlement.


    Calling out to Lil, I ask, ¡°Lil, uh, is Te okay?  Everyone okay?  Also, did you happen to get directions to the chamelefolk or naga settlement while I was out?¡±


    Lil excitedly calls back, ¡°Yep!  To all four questions!  We can go whenever you¡¯re ready, partner.  I¡¯m so excited that my partner is a dragon too!  Maybe I can teach you my breath skill finally.  We joked a long time ago that you could use it to help with your breathing, maybe it can!¡±


    I adopt a wry smile, as best I can with a scaled face and maw.  This is going to take a lot of getting used to.  Maybe we should just go hide in a dugout for a few days so that I can practice using this body, so that I don¡¯t look like I¡¯m completely drunk every time I move.


    Lil telepathically sends, ¡°Sounds like a good idea pard, you ¡®n¡¯ me in a dugout near the swamp, good old days here we come!¡±


    I chuckle as I wave goodbye to the wonderful cat tribe.  Though I¡¯m saying goodbye, they remain a sub party alongside the Shellcracker party under their own matron, Fawns At Sunsets.  My scaly cheeks literally steam as I recall the first eve with Fawn.  Yeah, let¡¯s get going Lil.

 B 3 C 11: Introspection, Intra-Inventory

    <h2>B 3 C 11: Introspection, Intra-Inventory</h2>


    Lil and I don¡¯t journey as quickly as we could with the aid of Luni, or with Valkyrie carrying one or the both of us, but we still make good time.  I could of course use my JT movement to zip around speedily, much faster than even Lil¡¯s draconic flight, but I¡¯m trying to learn my own draconic body, flight included.  Each step is a new experience, a new series of muscles and tendons moving in unison to support my weight in a balance I¡¯ve never known before.  My wings pump instinctively each time I¡¯m about to falter, so though I stumble, I never fall.  My tail provides a layer of balance against the topheaviness that plagues me in my forward hunched run.  I thought it looked ridiculously long at first, but it seems to be about right to provide the counterbalance necessary.


    I¡¯m likely four, maybe four and a half feet tall now, but my wingspan at its furthest when fully splayed is around ten feet, easily, maybe more.  My tail itself is actually at least two meters long, around five or six feet, minimum.  Every measurement is always a guess.  I don¡¯t have anything to actually measure distance with, except my danger wraps, and those I¡¯ve loosely estimated to be originally thirty feet, and now fifteen since they¡¯ve been halved.


    There¡¯s a few things that are odd about my transformation.  I seem to have gained psi resistance, and electro resistance.  Perhaps these scales provide some sort of electromagnetic shielding.  They did ward off a low level lightning shock entirely as well, so that seems likely.  Also, something I didn¡¯t notice before when looking through Lil¡¯s eyes.  There are more of the gemlike scales floating around behind my wings, following in a perfect harmonic of motion along with every single stirring of my wings.  I couldn¡¯t see them through Lil¡¯s eyes due to how brilliantly green my aura is now.  They were visually hidden, awash in the aura.


    I wish I had gotten time to have Linti rain lightning down on me in slowly increasing increments long enough to train electro resist, and maybe to unlock electrokinesis.  I figure the same basic principle applies as with thermokinesis.  If electricity is the motion of electrons away from their atomic partners along paths of conduction, then electrical resistance is essentially a subconscious control over that, or at least over the conductive-ness of the pathways in one¡¯s own body.  It might not allow for external control like thermokinesis does without some sort of lightning mastery power though.  Still, if I could control the electrical impulses within my own body, supercharging them or slowing them as needed, I could boost my reaction speed or slow down incoming pain sensations.  There are probably a few more applications that I can¡¯t think of at the moment.


    Supercharged internal electrical impulse might give me enough reaction speed and reflexes to develop my own ancillary powers to deal with my maximum speed of JT motion.  I could rival Valkyrie¡¯s top speed, with her current limitations anyway.  I still won¡¯t even compare to her old speed ability, or what I believe her maximum potential to be.  Still, she¡¯s currently similar in top speed to the fastest motorcycle in my memories even with her limitations at the moment, although that level of speed stresses her body presently.  I figure a few more weeks of training in her umbral form will acclimate her body to that particular maximum.  Maybe someday we¡¯ll uncorrupt the radiant forms, and she¡¯ll be able to progress past sonic speeds, various mach levels.


    Anyway, no sense in pondering, I¡¯m certain I overstayed my welcome with the cat tribe.  Linti said she doesn¡¯t currently count herself among my friends or even my allies.  That¡¯s a fairly subtle, and kind, way to say that she thinks of us at best as acquaintances.  At worst, Linti thinks of us as potential enemies-in-waiting.  That¡¯s definitely not the type of relationship where someone asks the other ¡°hey, would you mind blasting me with lightning for days on end until I become immune to your powers and develop my own?¡±  Yeah, our trust isn¡¯t at that level.


    I heave a deep sigh, and Lil turns to look at me from their position where they¡¯d been hopping ahead of me.  I wear a neutral expression and shake my head.  I don¡¯t really want to talk about it.  I¡¯ve got mixed feelings on the situation.  They were very kind, they saved my life, which saved me from using the red potion.  They were affectionate, accepting, quite like my own family.  If we had run into them on the way south the first time, they might be my family instead of the Shellcrackers, or we might be dead.  I was not powerful enough to protect Lil back then.  I¡¯d probably have gotten myself killed trying to protect or avenge Lil.


    Linti reminds me of Teuila in so many ways.  She¡¯s a strong protector who never stops training, hunting, fighting, scouting.  She¡¯s an amazingly gorgeous woman who radiates power and confidence.  She has a wry sense of humor and states things matter-of-factly.  Linti even seems likely to dislike expressing more sentimental emotions.  The pressure she puts herself under is vastly dense.  Hm, the weight of all three worlds.  Luni once said that.  I¡¯m sure Linti bears that same burden, though I don¡¯t quite know what it means for sure.


    I sigh again, thinking of Lu and Te.  I cherish them so deeply, yet here I am, once again, heading off somewhere that I can¡¯t bring them.  I¡¯m trusting them to handle something else that¡¯s equally as important and deadly.  There are hundreds of on-edge humans with trained magical powers, some of whose powers would be incredibly deadly, bad matchups for my dear loves to face.  Clouds of acid or corrosive toxin when Lu and Te are both melee combatants?  Yeah, I don¡¯t want to imagine things going south with the humans.  If there was even a civil divide, and a small faction caused pain or deaths to my newly expanded family, I know I would lose it and slaughter every last one of them.  I¡¯d probably die in the process too, not defending myself properly.  I think I¡¯d let Priss and Sir Reginald live, just so they could see what failing to control their people had cost them.


    That¡¯s pretty monstrous isn¡¯t it?  You¡¯ve lost everything, or so you thought, you couldn¡¯t keep your people in check, so now you truly lose what little you had left.  Also I¡¯m dying now, so you can¡¯t even take vengeance on me, hrkglrk.  I don¡¯t know what it¡¯ll take to convince people that I¡¯m a monster, not a hero.  I obviously don¡¯t want to do the actions that will finally convince them, but I definitely can¡¯t take hero-worship.  I don¡¯t deserve it, and it¡¯s an expectation I can¡¯t live up to.


    Sighing, my thoughts turn to Magnus.  He¡¯s a sweetheart, but what he liked was an image of me, something he¡¯d drawn up in his mind.  I think he also thought of me as identifying as male.  I know that us critterkin don¡¯t really have sexes or sex-characteristics, except slightly rounded chest areas that approximate breasts on some of us that identify as femme, but I don¡¯t know how to indicate to others that I lack even that self identification.  If he wants to fall in love with a heroic man, boy, whatever, that is most definitely not me, on several counts.  Spice is an affectionate young man, and definitely a hero in my eyes.  He¡¯s never killed anyone, he has only ever built protections and created art for our family.  Maybe when they reacquaint, they will hit it off.  One can only hope.  I regret not being able to be there for Spice to help him through his emotions and traumas.  I¡¯m just gone too often.


    Lil is frowning at me while hopping backwards.  I know Lil buddy, I¡¯m getting down on myself.  Sorry pal.


    I call out, out loud, ¡°Lil, what do you say we make a dugout over beneath that tree with the uprisen roots?  I know we could keep walking for a long time, but I just need some cuddle time with my best pal to work through some things.¡±


    Lil replies happily, ¡°Sure thing partner, I¡¯m supes glad you aren¡¯t doing this adventure alone, you torture yourself when you don¡¯t have someone to interrupt your thoughts.  Seriously, I wish I could help you not think certain ways.  But I guess it¡¯s part of what makes my pal my pal, y¡¯know pal?¡±


    Chuckling, I respond, ¡°Sure do buddy, yeah, your pal is your pal because I am who I am.  If I wasn¡¯t, why would I say I am?  Let¡¯s get digging.¡±


    It only takes a few moments to dig a cozy hole.  We¡¯re not quite in the swamp proper yet, so we don¡¯t need to dry out and fire harden the walls of our little cave.  Lil¡¯s Lilagnewt form is becoming an exceptional digger.  I think their talons have been growing and hardening over the many months we¡¯ve known each other.  Or has it been years at this point?  Mentally, in hypertime thinkspace, we¡¯ve known each other for around a century.


    Let¡¯s see, a few weeks at the pond to start, maybe a couple of months, several weeks heading south along the river, maybe a couple of months before reaching the shore.  Several weeks, perhaps a couple of months recuperating, another few weeks recovering once I regained consciousness.  Perhaps a month making it through the swamp, easily half a year at that point.  Then, ugh, horrible events occurred and I left reality for several months.  I think it was getting close to three quarters of a year after the cragbeast adventure and return to the dam.  Lil was retreated into their core for a long while when Teuila and I were recovering from our injuries received during that excursion.  Between Lil¡¯s recovery, and Teuila¡¯s rehabilitation, it had been about a year since I met Lil at that point.  Then there were weeks, or months of marching to the shore, nearly two months in the human city.  Teuila and I returned to prepare for the human army¡¯s nearby march, and that took a couple of months.  It has really only been a few days since the human army reached the point near our settlement.  In that time, so much has happened.  So Lil and I have physically known each other for about a year and a half.  I¡¯ve been a Shellcracker for almost a year, or somewhere around there.


    Does that make me a year and a half old, since I spawned about a year and a half ago?  That¡¯s such a weird, wild concept.  We can self actualize and evolve to change forms, we can take whatever position we desire in our tribes or families.  We can spawn with the personality and skill set to immediately take on the role of matron or patron or elder.  I spawned with just enough survival instincts to begin making my way in a hostile world alone.  I wonder what the human¡¯s spawning is like.  Hm, no, I know they don¡¯t spawn, they¡¯re born.  Priss had a son and a husband.  I¡¯ve seen human infants, toddlers, children, teens, young adults.  I¡¯ve seen soldiers going through puberty and gaining their first stubble.  Humans age, they have to reach adulthood and acquire memories and experience manually.


    There¡¯s one manual experience I wish the humans had never had.  Well, several.  I wish they hadn¡¯t adopted the practice of harvesting critterkin to begin with, but I also wish they didn¡¯t have to lose their whole society to change.  I can¡¯t believe that the human¡¯s changed their behavior overnight.  I¡¯m worried every moment of every day that they¡¯ll start slaughtering critterkin for meat.  Hm, what¡¯s worse is, I know that the city was part of a kingdom.  I never got around to asking Priss the name of the city, or kingdom, or sovereignty.  Somewhere out there in the world is another group of humans, larger, more powerful, still holding onto that barbaric practice.


    Based on the geography of the land that I¡¯ve observed, I think we¡¯re on an island continent.  There may be larger continents out there somewhere.  Sadly, reaching them would mean going through Leviathans, so the city has probably been cut off from its kingdom for as long as those things have been around.  Or from whatever point in time they¡¯d risen from their deep sea homes.  I wonder exactly when they rose up for the first time?  It feels like it would have been sometime between when I spawned, and when I made it to the sea for the first time.  Otherwise they¡¯d have already claimed our entire continent.  It¡¯s unsettlingly coincidental that they have the red eyes and that I.  Oh.  Hell¡¯s bells.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Lil tries to interrupt my train of thought, ¡°Buddy, pal?  Don¡¯t, don¡¯t do this to yourself.¡±


    Sorry Lil, we¡¯ve both just realized it, haven¡¯t we?  I¡¯m the reason the Leviathans are on the move.  It¡¯s my fault that the Shellcrackers lost so many family members and an entire allied clan.  I¡¯m the reason all the otterfolk and eggs in the market of the city will never get a chance at life.  I¡¯m the reason that all the humans in that city are gone, forever.  Red Eyes was released into this world by Mataalii to hunt me.  Somehow released in our recent past, near present, sent across time and space to occupy every moment of my life, from the first beginning, my beginning.


    My existence was so detestable, that some external entity felt the need to vanquish me before I even got a chance at life.  Maybe it¡¯s this world¡¯s way of punishing me for my buggy spawn.  Maybe the world sees me as a virus that needs to be cleansed.  That would make Red Eyes the antibody, the hero.


    Lil furiously shouts, ¡°No you idiot!  You¡¯re the hero!  You¡¯ve only ever tried to do good and keep your loved ones safe!  You sacrifice yourself at every turn!  You¡¯re, you¡¯re the best pal a dragon could ever have!  That stupid thing that¡¯s hunting you is doing all the killing, that¡¯s not your fault.  Mat let the thing out, not you!  The world lets you go into energy debt to save people all the time.  The world showed you how to stop the lava.  The world knows you¡¯re the hero, this world needs you to be okay.  I, I need you to be okay.¡±


    Lil¡¯s words trail off to a tremulous sob near the end, and I can only look my best buddy in the eyes with my own heart and face full of despair.  I should listen to Lil.  I trust Lil.  Lil loves me, I love Lil.  And yet, I can¡¯t help but feel like the villain.  Like I¡¯m the one in the wrong.  Like I did something to deserve this, and that somehow justified someone else killing everything in their way to get to me.


    Wait a minute, what am I talking about?  Did I kill the entire beaver dam to get to its horrid leader?  Did I even kill off all of the MCF?  I fought against every horrid thought and instinct in my body to make sure to spare them all.  Not just spare them all, but save them all.  At least the first time.  What could I have possibly done that was so horrible, just by spawning into our world, that could possibly justify the senseless slaughter of dozens of wonderful innocent otterfolk?  What could have been a justification to destroy an entire city that I wasn¡¯t even near anymore?  What possible reason could one have to destroy an entire ecosystem to try to flush me out with lava?


    Does Mataalii really hate me that much?  Or has the Red Eyes always had its grips in Mata?  Closed time loops, the events that cause the past to play out the way they have started in the future.  But then, do I have to kill Mataalii?  The answer is still yes.  He made the choice to kill our family before he ever exhibited signs of possession.  I can¡¯t save him from that.  I can¡¯t make him into a non-murderer.


    I let my scaled lips quiver as I sink to my knees.  Even this is a difficult task with my new digitigrade legs.  I unequip everything to send it all to my inventory.  I beckon Lil who quickly hops into my arms so I can hold them tightly.  I can still barely contemplate these sorts of topics without breaking down into a panic, and after a few minutes of thought I need comfort, or to allow myself a full breakdown.  The more things that pile up for me to contemplate, the harder solo adventures are going to be. If Lil wasn¡¯t here right now, I¡¯d be convinced that I was the villain, a monster that needs to be slain.


    Gulping back a knot in my throat, I barely find the strength to beg, ¡°Please forgive me Lil.  Please know how important you are to me, how much I trust you and, and.  Just please believe that I love you so deeply.  Please keep being you pal.  I literally couldn¡¯t do this without you.  I cherish you so dearly.¡±


    Lil, nuzzling my scaly chest, responds, ¡°It¡¯s not even a thing pal.  You don¡¯t have to worry about a thing bud.  We¡¯re good.  How¡¯s it go?  Always have been, always will be.  More or less.  I love you too Reggie.  We, I couldn¡¯t, I. I wouldn¡¯t have Lu, or Te, without you.  Hundreds of times over.  In so many ways, even other than you, the best things in my life are all thanks to you.  I have a better form, a bond with Te, a bond with Lu, Lu¡¯s alive, Lu and Te are, they¡¯re.  It¡¯s okay that we both are so twitterpated for them.  And you brought me back pal, two, three times!  Maybe even more that I don¡¯t know about!  I would have missed out on so much more, maybe Gal-Pal¡¯s and It¡¯s-A-Secret¡¯s entire lives.  I hate it when you think bad about yourself.  I wish I could help more.¡±


    I weep silently, holding Lil, trying to absorb what they¡¯re saying, trying to take it to heart.  It¡¯s so hard though, knowing how closely I¡¯m involved with so much chaos, death, and destruction.


    Gulping, to distract myself, I clear my throat to ask, ¡°Lil, do you wanna try to teach me your breath skill?  I¡¯ll try to just get used to my body, or practice that, or both.¡±


    Lil perks up, ¡°Really?  Yeah, sure thing Reggie!  Maybe we can try to each learn a skill from the other.  One thing that doesn¡¯t make sense to me is how you got ice magic from me breathing fire on you for a day.  You explained it, and I get the words in the way that you scienced it out.  But I mean, I have infinite thermal resist already.  Oh well, doesn¡¯t matter, try to teach me your space skill while I try to share breath, yeah?¡±


    I nod silently, pondering over Lil¡¯s problem.  They¡¯re right, they have far more thermal resistance than me.  Yet they don¡¯t have thermokinesis, they only have fire breath.  A lot of our world¡¯s way of granting powers seems to revolve around self-actualization though.  A strong will and a strong string of logic seems to help guide skills to develop and evolve the ways we want them to.  I mean, case in point, I¡¯ve become a humanoid dragon, and like Lil said, I gained ice and fire magic from being lit aflame for an extended period.


    Teuila always wanted to soar, and when she unlocked the Valkyrie evolution, she could take to the skies under her own power.  Plus her affinity for gravity became so strong that she could simply turn off gravity¡¯s effect on her.  She gained a form, and abilities perfect for her leaping oriented pile driving spear-stabbing fighting style.


    Lu started to bring music to the world, and suddenly she became a bard, complete with a magical instrument, and spell-like songs.  Her body in feraform evolution gained an even more humanoid appearance than any other feraform.  Knowing how much she likes to tease me and press her soft curves against me, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she self-actualized those just to use them for that exact purpose.  I¡¯d similarly be unsurprised if she somehow subconsciously knew I would think that tights, leather stompers, and her adorable dress would be a gorgeous sense of style.  I didn¡¯t even know I liked any clothes, let alone which kind.  Lu has somehow always known more about me than she let on though.  I don¡¯t know how long she¡¯s had to keep her knowledge a secret, and it breaks my heart knowing that it¡¯s been eating her up inside longer and longer.


    Another self actualization is Lil told me they were a dragon that would gain more limbs, and be more impressive.  They did exactly that in a time of crisis, and have regularly gotten more potent with their form over the course of our life together.  And what¡¯s more, they¡¯ve decided to share their skill with me, and now I find an entire hidden menu that I¡¯d never seen before in my mind¡¯s eye interface.  It¡¯s a page that contains options for skill merging, deleting, trading, transfer, and instruction.  Currently the page indicates dragon subtype to dragon subtype.


    I initiate an instruction of space skill towards Lil, and they initiate instruction of breath to me.  It feels like polygons are floating from Lil¡¯s brain directly into mine, as I assimilate their breath skill.  I don¡¯t seem to be giving the same thing in return to Lil though.  I¡¯m worried that because I¡¯m ¡®of blood¡¯ that something isn¡¯t compatible.  Yet I¡¯m absorbing their skill instruction just fine.


    ¡°Lil, you doing okay buddy?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯unno Reggie, somethin¡¯ is weird.  It¡¯s like my brain is trying to grow outside my head.  It hurts a lot.¡±


    ¡°Maybe we should stop, how do we do that?¡±


    ¡°Not sure pal.  I don¡¯t think anyone ever had to deal with this before.  Oogh, ow.  Buddy is this what it¡¯s like to have your space skill?  Is this why you¡¯re always thinking down on yourself?  ¡®Cause it feels like your brain is smooshing itself pressing down on you?¡±


    Lil¡¯s question does ring true slightly.  I guess I never thought that it might not be normal to always have a mild level of pain, or dark thoughts always threatening to shove through the back of my skull.


    ¡°Okay Lil, I want to stop, I don¡¯t want you to deal with this.  It¡¯s not fair to you, I didn¡¯t realize it would do this to you.  If we can¡¯t figure out a way to stop it in three seconds I¡¯ll do something drastic.¡±


    ¡°Urghk, k pal.  I don¡¯t think I¡¯m in any condition to argue.  I can hardly think.  How do you do this?¡±


    How do I do it indeed?  Life has its challenges and I was spawned already adapted to some of them, to think of them as normal.  Alright, retreating into accelerated thinkspace, I try to examine the menus thoroughly.  Maybe if Lil initiates a deletion of the space skill, that might terminate its acquisition.  Or maybe it¡¯ll delete what has already been transferred, ease the pain, and they¡¯ll be able to delete the rest when it finishes transferring.  Is it that simple?  For once in my life, can I help a friend and save them from pain with just the simple press of a button?


    ¡°Lil, try deleting the space skill, please.¡±


    ¡°K, pard.  Done.  Yeah that¡¯s a bit better, but it¡¯s still coming in.¡±


    ¡°Keep deleting it everytime it starts to hurt, please.  Hopefully the instruction stops soon.  I wonder if the time skill...  No, no, we can¡¯t mess with it.  Lu said I would know when.  This isn¡¯t it.¡±


    The instruction completes, and I earn a breath skill of one.  Lil earns a garbled entry that¡¯s probably half of the space skill, which they delete.  There¡¯s a horrid side-effect however.  Lil begins to fritz like Dehlia was doing when she was under sway of the serpent.  I think I¡¯m going to be sick.  I just caused my buddy to get the worst kind of teleportation.  An uncontrollable one that has them sickeningly zipping and zapping left and right.


    Let¡¯s puzzle this out, if space is related to inventory management, duplication, and kinesis, then why would partially having it, and losing it, cause teleportation?  Lil has been in my inventory before.  Ugh, we probably should have thought of that.  Would resting in my inventory reset this glitch?  Or at least offer them some reprieve?


    ¡°Lil, were you riding my thoughts?  Do you want to try it?¡±


    ¡°Urp, sure partner, just don¡¯t blame me if your inventory gets a little dragon pukey.¡±


    ¡°Heh, sure Lil.  I, I¡¯m sorry buddy.¡±


    This feels like the greatest risk I¡¯ve ever taken.  If Lil is considered an object by the world, because of our bond, or the buggy space skill transference, or for any other reason, will they be able to leave my inventory in one piece?  Will they remain themselves?  Lil, I love you, please be okay.  I reach towards Lil, and I wait for their fritzing teleport to land in a spot that connects with my hand.  Exhaling smoothly I pull on Lil¡¯s entire being with everything my space skill has to offer.  I drag Lil bodily into extradimensional inventory space.


    Inside the floating void of my inventory, Lil seems okay, but that took everything I had to simply claim Lil.  Probably even more.  Hopefully I can recover enough to expel Lil soon.  For the moment though, that drained more than just my mana, and I need to pass out for a bit.  There¡¯s a soothing warmness against my heart, as if Lil and their core were literally pressed up against my most vital organ.  I hope Lil can sense my love for them.  They seem to be mostly snoozing.  They aren¡¯t fritzing at least.  Once in a while I see them gaze around in the void.  I think we¡¯re going to be okay, so I¡¯m going to let myself fall asleep for a bit.

 B 3 C 12: How Many Lils?

    <h2>B 3 C 12: How Many Lils?</h2>


    Upon waking up, I gaze around for Lil and begin to panic when I don¡¯t spot them. I briefly forgot they¡¯re in my inventory. It feels like my mana isn¡¯t recovering very much at all. I¡¯ve slept for at least several hours, long enough to get hungry at least. But my mana is only at just over a hundred and not climbing to any decent degree. Maybe food will help?


    I summon and consume some fish, and water. Even though it fills me, I don¡¯t see any signs of speeding up my mana restoration rate. Is Lil receiving my mana instead of me? Is it fixing their glitch? Dumping Lil out of my inventory is going to take a full pool of mana at the very least, but now that they¡¯re stuck in my voidspace for a while, I¡¯m curious about a few things.


    What happens if I summon an umbral copy of Lil? What happens if I try to do inventory crafting to combine things onto Lil? What happens if I summon an umbral copy of Lil, then for example, put a helmet on the real Lil? I¡¯m actually afraid to try the second one, as I worry it might consume Lil in some way if they get combined with an item and just become draconic scales on that item or something. That thought terrifies me.


    Still, I¡¯ve got just enough mana to try an umbral copy of Lil. Lil, can you hear my thoughts? Are you curious too? I can see you floating around in there, peering at all kinds of things. What are you looking at? It seems like you might be hearing me, but I can¡¯t tell if you¡¯re responding. I guess we¡¯ll give the umbral copy a shot. I perform an US, an Umbral Shot, expelling a copy of Lil from my inventory with no velocity. I just want to inspect it.


    Suddenly, both Lils gaze around in frantic surprise. The Lil in my inventory hops around in my inventory, and the umbral copy leaps into my chest, causing me to catch them. The Lil in my inventory makes a nuzzling motion, and the external copy nuzzles my scaled torso. If I¡¯m parsing this correctly the Lil in my inventory is getting sensory feedback from, and able to control, the umbral copy.


    Curiously, I query, ¡°Lil, can you hear me? I¡¯m not hearing you if you¡¯ve been talking.¡±


    Lil seems to try to speak, but they realize I¡¯m not responding to whatever they¡¯ve said,so they simply nod emphatically. That¡¯s good news at least. It¡¯s a bit less lonely.


    ¡°Lil, could you hear me before I made the umbral copy?¡±


    Lil tries to approximate the so-so gesture without hands. I wonder if they can hear me verbally, but can¡¯t ride my thought train. That seems likely, otherwise Lil would probably just call out to me from thinkspace. Still, this umbral copy has hung around for a fairly long time, I¡¯ve never had a copy stick around long enough to really inspect. It¡¯s identical, other than being made from a nebulous gray umbra, instead of Lil¡¯s red scales. I wonder if it would cost the same amount as actual Lil to claim, or if it would cost the normal amount for an object of this size to draw it into my inventory.


    First, let¡¯s try equipping Lil with a helmet. Hm, it worked, and now the umbral copy is wearing a helmet. That¡¯s utterly fascinating. I could play dress-up with Lil all day, but that won¡¯t help us progress. Unequipping Lil¡¯s new helmet, the umbral copy loses theirs as well.


    ¡°Lil, can you evolve while you¡¯re in my inventory? Can you try?¡±


    Lil looks thoughtful before they begin to glow with a coat of creamy gray in my inventory. Sure enough, the umbral copy also elongates as a silhouette, and suddenly an evolved Lil copy takes up most of the space in the dugout. When the Lil in my inventory evolved it felt like my stomach just expanded as if I¡¯d eaten everything at an all-you-can-eat buffet.


    I stroke the umbral copy¡¯s face and lay my forehead to its forehead. I don¡¯t have the mana to do much of anything at the moment. I suppose I could try to cheat and siphon some heat from the air, pulling in atomic motion as mana. Extending my thermokinesis out, I cautiously draw in the kinetics of the molecules in the air and soil around me. I try to avoid the tree roots so as not to damage them. Sure enough, I get about enough mana to claim an object of evolved-Lil¡¯s size.


    Is this a risk? What if, like Lil, it costs far more and drops me into energy debt leaving me unconscious? I suppose I¡¯m mostly safe in this dugout to experiment. Stroking the jaw of Umbralil, I claim the unusual copy to my inventory. Thankfully it only seems to require the normal amount for an object of its size. Lil looks surprised in my voidspace. Umbralil mirrors the expression.


    Hm, this could change some of my tactics in combat in a few ways. Having one or more extra Lils to fight alongside me is already a massive boon. Furthermore, evidence suggests I could summon umbral copies of a spear for a hundred mana, then combine stuff onto that spear to increase its density, size, lethality, and cost. I wouldn¡¯t have to pay that cost for all of the copies of the spear though. If one or more copies connected with a foe, I could tie a sword to the original spear¡¯s tip in my inventory. Would a sword appearing inside a foe displace their organs? That¡¯s pretty gruesome. Actually I think the world would prevent it. I can¡¯t summon items accidentally or purposely in the same place as other solid matter normally. About the only thing that came close was when I displaced water with other water.


    My mana has tanked out to zero, and Lil¡¯s starting to look a little sickly in my inventory. Now they¡¯ve fallen into a hibernating stasis. Is it taking my mana to allow Lil to be conscious?


    My mana doesn¡¯t seem to be recovering at all anymore. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to get Lil out of my inventory if I remain here. I¡¯d better just start marching and slowly siphoning mana out of the air. Well, siphoning atomic motion and converting it to energy. There¡¯s a heaviness in my stomach, and what feels like a depleting pull upon my heart. My mana threatens to drop into the negative, and Lil suddenly de-transforms while in stasis. The weight in my stomach lightens up, as does the draw upon my heart. Oddly, the umbral copy remains evolved.


    Alright, that¡¯s all the experimenting we¡¯re going to safely be able to do. Let¡¯s head out, shall we Lil? I know you can¡¯t hear, or respond, but it feels nice to know you¡¯re with me. I leave the dugout, and begin marching along the same heading we were previously taking. I¡¯m able to lope at a decent pace now in my draconic form. In fact, if I sprint, and leap, I can make a modestly elongated glide, conserving my physical stamina. Sprinting and gliding are starting to become second nature. At least if I¡¯m trying to only head directly forward. Veering to one direction or the other is an entirely new sensation to balance against, in order to retain my equilibrium.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    I¡¯m continuing to passively siphon atomic motion out of the air. Even carefully drawing in the motion to convert to energy, at its poor return rate, is at least granting me some mana regeneration now. Lil seems to be looking less ill in my inventory as they awaken. Hey Lil buddy. This more or less confirms my suspicions that Lil is requiring my mana to be sustained in my inventory. Lil hops in place, and so does the umbral copy within my inventory. It feels like there¡¯s an earthquake that only takes place in my stomach. That¡¯s an incredibly unusual feeling. Lil doesn¡¯t have the same limbs as their umbral form, so their control is definitely limited comparatively.


    I''m being tailed by a figure in a hooded cloak. Since he seems to be levitating about 20 feet off of the ground as he follows me, I''m just going to assume it''s Mataalii, based on Te''s last description of him. Do I kill him now? What sort of powers has he picked up? If I launch everything I have, and he doesn''t die, I''ll be at his mercy. He''s got a danger wrap for enhanced senses and ease of dodging projectiles, at the very least. That makes filling the air with projectiles in a nearly solid wall the best option to score a direct hit, but if he has high maneuverability and speed, he might just fly to an area where he doesn''t have to dodge any of them. Plus my mana is barely capable of generating one or two umbral shots at the moment.


    I need to test the waters to see what his suite of powers is like. I also need to make sure he doesn''t have some massive area-covering powers that might hurt the flora in this area. I''m still not sure why, but my heart aches for the loss of any of these ancient, massive trees.


    I pause to take a breather, well, to at least appear as if I¡¯m taking one. I make a big showing of panting and acting discombobulated in my new body. Mat takes the bait, thankfully. I don¡¯t even need to look to know he seems to summon a globule of lava as if from nowhere. As Mat launches the lava I feel the fluctuation in heat approaching me. I simply wobble left, pretending my balance is still off. I can hear the air swoosh as Mata cuts it with his hand, and the lava glob suddenly veers left towards me.


    So you do have control over lava now Mat. Let¡¯s see if you can control it when it¡¯s nothing more than a chunk of stone. I pull up an FFS in the direction of the lava, and draw all the heat from it. The lava falls like a rock after becoming nothing more than pumice. It harmlessly bounces off my FFS and I hear a ¡°tch¡± coming from Mat.


    Seems like he doesn¡¯t have petrakinesis or terrakinesis, thankfully. I¡¯ve got just over one hundred energy at the moment, do I dare risk trying a strike right now? He might have fantastic reflexes at this point. If only I could control trajectories of my umbral shots like Mata could with his lava shot. Well, maybe I can¡¯t control a trajectory, but Lil certainly could. Still, I¡¯m curious, how many layers deep does Lil exert control? If I make a copy of the umbral copy, instead of Lil, do Lil¡¯s actions still translate?


    I don¡¯t exactly feel threatened if all Mata has brought to the table is lava at this point, so I may as well test this out. Mat seems to be doing something behind me. I still haven¡¯t even turned around to face him. He might not even know that I know he¡¯s here. My FFS probably looked like a passive defense. I summon an US of Umbralil, aimed towards Mat, and Lil gazes wide-eyed in my inventory. I try to connect my senses to Lil, and I can actually see through Lil¡¯s eyes, Umbralil¡¯s eyes, and Umbralil number two. They don¡¯t appear to have Lil¡¯s same massively potent aura senses, but that¡¯s fine.


    Mata dodges to his right, Lil leans left in my inventory, and Umbralil number two veers towards Mata¡¯s new position. It¡¯s definitely Mat under that robe. He¡¯s still feraform, so he hasn¡¯t changed too awfully much, but there does appear to be some sickening graying of his fur that branches and diverges in streaks akin to lightning. Get him Lil, end this.


    There¡¯s a heavy ache in my chest, and I close my eyes, cutting myself off from all three Lil¡¯s senses. I don¡¯t want this weight on Lil¡¯s heart, but I¡¯m so grateful that it doesn¡¯t have to be me.


    There¡¯s a sudden wave of heat coming from my rear, and I steal a glance in its direction. Mata has summoned a small flood of lava in the air, and is proceeding to try to trap Umbralil #2 in it, to little effect. Umbralil simply flies through the molten rock, it slows them down considerably but doesn''t stop them. The two of them perform an aerial ballet, but I need to siphon the heat out of that Lava if Umbralil is going to have any hope of keeping up with Mat. Plus I really don¡¯t want it taking out trees and starting a forest fire. Currently Mat is fleeing, Umbralil is chasing them, and lava is chasing Umbralil.


    I launch myself directly towards the heart of the floating wave of lava with a JT propulsion, and summon a flash freeze storm on the way. It¡¯s enough to generate another hundred energy as this pond of lava turns into a boulder midair. I let myself plummet behind the boulder, keeping it between Mat and myself, so that he no longer visually knows where I am.


    Let¡¯s see how many Umbralil #2s that Lil can control, shall we? I summon another clone of Umbralil as another Umbral Shot near Mat¡¯s back with velocity aimed towards me, through Mat. As the new Umbralil appears, Lil appears to be sweating. That¡¯s an odd thing for a reptile with infinite thermal resist. But instead of hopping around and leaning left and right, they furrow their brow and seem to be able to control the Umbralil copies individually.


    Mata lets out another ¡°tch¡± and suddenly he¡¯s gone. Grr, we haven¡¯t finished him off, or seen the last of him. I¡¯m certain he has more powers than that, but maybe he¡¯s taking time to get used to them in the same fashion I¡¯m getting used to my new body. I wonder how he even found me. I get that he could recognize my hair, but what led him to me? Oh, wait. My aura is so strong it leaves a massive trail everywhere I go if you have aura senses as strong as Lil¡¯s. Maybe that¡¯s one of the abilities he picked up, other than the low-speed flight, and lava conjuration/manipulation. I wonder if the last one is two abilities, or if he has an inventory full of lava now, and just used that to summon lava. Or maybe it¡¯s a single ability.


    The extra Umbralil copies land nearby and approach to nuzzle me from both sides as I¡¯m lost in thought. Chuckling, I stroke their cheeks and nuzzle in return. Do I claim them to my inventory as well? It would take less energy to call copies out of my inventory than to keep making new umbral duplicates. I suppose I could claim one of these two, and see how long the other Umbralil lasts. It has been nearly a minute since I summoned the second one, nearly three minutes since I summoned the first. Yeah, let¡¯s see what happens.


    I claim the fresher Umbralil copy to my inventory. The remaining Umbralil lasts until what must be about the five minute mark. I wonder if the two in my inventory also have a five minute duration, or if they¡¯ll have become permanent since I claimed them and their normal expiration has passed. I feel like it might be the latter since that¡¯s what happens with Valkyrie equipment when Valkyrie de-transforms. It¡¯s also what happened with Linti¡¯s magical lightning bolt duplicates. Oh, I just got that, lightning crossbow bolts, lightning bolts, her attack is, well, yeah. Wow, can¡¯t believe that one slipped by me during the heat of combat. I suppose I was a bit distracted at the time, what with my heart stopping, then my throat being blown to pieces.


    I¡¯m fairly certain the bolt that came straight on towards me was the original attack, and the two that homed in from a wide arc were the duplicates. It just seems most sensible. She can probably launch magical copies in arcs, but a real bolt still needs to be fired from her wrist-mounted crossbow.


    Huffing, I heave an elongated sigh and start marching back along my original course. I don¡¯t think Mat will return until he has mastery over some of his new powers. I¡¯m going to need to step up my game in preparation.

 B 3 C 13: A Return To...?

    <h2>B 3 C 13: A Return To¡­?</h2>


    I need a moment to recover from that fight with Mata, so I¡¯ll make camp for a couple of hours in a dugout alone. I know I won¡¯t be able to regenerate mana, since my entire regeneration rate seems to be pilfered by my buddy. Not that I¡¯d begrudge them it anyway. The dugout is still fairly quick to create, since I¡¯ve now got talons, and slightly stronger limbs. I also don¡¯t need much space when it¡¯s just going to be me, as long as I fold my wings in.


    I didn¡¯t really lose much in the fight. Mataalii didn¡¯t lay a scratch on me, it¡¯s more the emotional toll of facing off against a brother, and basically using Lil as a weapon. That last part makes me feel like a monster. I¡¯ve done exactly what Lil accused me of when it seemed like they hated me. I wish they were out here, able to hear my thoughts. Lil would tell me that it wasn¡¯t really them saying those words. I can almost make myself believe that Mat somehow knew I would have Lil in my inventory again one day. Does Mat have the time skill too?


    That thought sends a shiver down my spine, and I deeply shudder. If Mat knew how things would play out though, why bother to attack me before he¡¯s ready?


    I spent at least an hour, maybe two just circling the drain of the dark thoughts within my own head. Nothing productive comes of doing things like that, yet every time I¡¯m alone I can¡¯t help myself. Anyway, the first thing I need to do since I¡¯m rested is get somewhere that I can draw all of the ambient temperature down to nearly absolute zero. I need to do that to be able to regenerate any mana right now, and do it without damaging any of the flora. The only place I can think of is the sky. Can I manage a few JT shots safely upwards? What about the fall? Wait, I have wings. Wow, yeah. Do I even need to JT myself upwards? Come on Reggie, pump those brand new muscles!


    Well that¡¯s not working. I¡¯ve never had the raw strength of Lil or Teuila. Even when I tried to seriously hone my physical abilities more than my magic skills, I ended up needing to rely on my magical skills or equipment to carry me eventually. I guess we all have to start sometime, right?


    Reggie mentally asked to no one that can hear them. It sucks to be alone in my own head. I¡¯m so used to at least Luni riding around in it almost nonstop, or Te or Lil pulling me into thinkspace for snuggles or random chats. Or someone chastising me for being hard on myself. I¡¯d settle for a grumpy hedgehog yelling at me to get off their lawn telepathically right about now.


    I glance around making sure the world doesn¡¯t spawn a grumpy old hedgehog to make fun of my train of thought. With how much I believe this world relies on self-actualization, I worry that sometimes an accidental or fake wish might come true. I do have an actual shooting star that happened to crash into my best friend. It also happened to knock sense into them, knocking out an evil entity¡¯s influence. Lil wouldn¡¯t have been hurt by the heat of a falling object due to their infinite thermal resist. Lil also has pretty great blunt resistance due to their draconic scales. Alright, get out of your own head Reggie Shellcracker, you want Lil back, don¡¯t you? Yeah. Then get your rear in gear and get in the air. Righty-o me.


    I may be cracking under the pressure of being solo again even for only a few hours. I blast off into the air with JT propulsion, now guided by my wings. I¡¯m also able to stay aloft and glide, so I don¡¯t really have anything to fear from getting distracted anymore, like just now. I could swear I just saw something darting about beneath the canopy, zipping around making crashing sounds. Regardless, I¡¯m up here to regain mana. I¡¯ll suck every last bit of atomic motion out of the atmosphere. This will probably cause a small snowstorm or hailstorm. I think the trees will weather that better than having their own atoms slowed to a crawl at least. Hopefully.


    Drawing in every bit of kinetic energy I can with a massive flash freeze storm, I find myself plummeting slightly with the denser air falling below and around me. Pumping my wings twice I¡¯m able to right myself, correct my course, and glide onwards to a less dense patch of air that my FFS hasn¡¯t reached yet. Every few patches of air lends me several hundred energy. There¡¯s that zipping again. A motion below me, beneath the canopy. Are they following me?


    Do I risk falling below the treeline to see who they are and what they want? I think I¡¯m going to need my full mana capacity to return Lil to meatspace, but if Lil is glitchy or vulnerable, I don¡¯t want to risk bringing them back. Not until I know whether this zipping entity is hostile anyway. I guess I¡¯d better just top off my mana, and hope that it doesn¡¯t come to a combat.


    After a few more patches of air I manage to fill up my mana reservoir, so I allow my glide to carry me beneath the canopy. I haven¡¯t seen any signs of the figure for a couple of minutes. Maybe it was a coincidence that they were following me? Or even more likely, nothing was following me and I was hallucinating. Or I could have been, what¡¯s the term? Projecting? Pareidolia? One that ascribes meaning to meaningless things, like maybe the subtle change in the shadows of a canopy caused by anything like the breeze. Such a swaying of the shadow might be seen as looking like a face, or traces of a creature passing by.


    Hm, since my danger wrap says there¡¯s a projectile incoming, I guess it wasn¡¯t any of the last couple. The sharp crackle of electricity along the projectile clues me in as to who it is however.


    Turning towards it, I hold up my shield, imagining I¡¯ll be blocking a bolt as some sort of friendly sparring. What I see however is a myriad of bolts of lightning coalesced into a roughly humanoid form with vaguely catlike features as it crashes into my shield.


    The electricity courses over the shield, over my scales, and into the ground, mostly. Softer areas like my talon-tips, my armpits, inner elbows, and so on allow the passage of electricity into my body. Gasping, lightning threatening to bounce around inside my ribcage, I call out, ¡°Linti!?¡±


    The lightning coalesces until it takes on the solid shape of my recent acquaintance. Her eyes are furious. They carry the rage of one that has seen a thousand battles and the insurmountable death tolls that climb with each one. More than that, however, there are flecks of red bursting within her irises, threatening to consume her eyes with the dreadful stark redness. Its crimson mixing with her own vibrant colorings but overtaking and diluting the pigment to nothingness in the end.


    Her clawed hand grasps my throat, and I can barely manage to choke out, ¡°Linti, fight this!¡±


    Unlike Teuila, Linti responds, ¡°You brought this curse down upon my family!¡±


    She¡¯s holding back, she¡¯s going easy on me, but she could still kill me if I don¡¯t do something. I don¡¯t really know what level of force I can safely use. Lil buddy? Would you be up for controlling another couple of duplicates? I know you can¡¯t hear me or respond, but I don¡¯t feel right just shoving two more bodies into your brain to control.


    Sighing, I JT a pebble at Linti¡¯s wrist from underneath. When her grip slackens I JT myself backwards and upwards, spreading my wings to stay aloft as I get my bearings. While I have a second, I¡¯m trying to parse what Linti said. She said I brought down a curse. Did Mataalii do something to that beautiful cat tribe on the way to me? Or did Mat lash out at the only creatures he could find nearby? Or did he follow my aura back to the cats to specifically punish them for knowing me? That last one feels likely. I am going to kill that prick. No one seems dead, thankfully, all of their stats pages are still linked in a sub party under Fawns at Sunsets.


    I call out, ¡°Linti, did an onyx otter in a cloak do something to the tribe?¡±


    Three bolts zoom towards me, two of them swinging out into wide arcs. If I don¡¯t move, one will puncture my throat, and the two at the side will rip holes in my wings. I¡¯m not nearly as mobile like this as I¡¯d like to be, but gravity should work to my advantage here. I use a JT to thrust myself straight down, trying to fold my wings in, but the bolt on my right speeds up and tears through the front and back of my right wing twice in its folded position. The electricity arcs into the softer leathery flesh of my wings, travels up my wing¡¯s radius, ulna, and humerus where it exits the base of my wing against the scales on my back, dissipating before entering my more vital area. I¡¯m sent spiraling, careening to the ground with the extra velocity of my own thrust as I nurse my injured wing. Thankfully plummeting moved me out of the way to avoid having my throat punctured, and left me with one good wing.


    I think I can use my wing to batter Linti without hurting her too greatly. Maybe, like with Lil, just knocking some sense into her will do the trick. Teuila might also have had some sense knocked into her when Luna plowed into us. Now, how do I track the movements of a predator cat that¡¯s literally as fast as lightning? Or, she seems incredibly fast when she transforms into lightning at least. I can¡¯t really rationalize becoming a being of pure electrons. Do electrons have mass? I can¡¯t recall. I was able to rationalize thermokinesis coming from thermal resist, but I don¡¯t think I can rationalize the full suite of electrokinesis from electro resist. I could probably coat myself in lightning, or throw a lightning bolt, but that¡¯s a conversation for another time.


    Danger on my right! I draw my valkyrie dagger in the hopes of parrying whatever the attack is, but I¡¯m not quick enough to keep up with her, I only manage to roll my shoulder back and get my bicep up high enough to keep Linti away from my jugular. Linti draws blood as her lightning enhanced maw clamps onto my right arm. The lightning finds its way into my bloodstream and spiders about inside my arm, coursing through me excruciatingly. Each new branching path the lightning takes is its own hellish agony, but thankfully it travels down the right side of my ribcage, spine, hips, femur, tibia, and outward to ground. I try to breathe smoothly, trying to keep my mind off of Linti¡¯s eye color so that I don¡¯t fall into panic. I apparate a blindfold around my eyes from my inventory. I have no reason not to since my eyesight isn¡¯t doing me any good anyway. I¡¯m almost glad I spent so much time temporarily blinded. I¡¯m getting more and more used to this.


    Linti thrusts her weight forwards, swinging on my arm, incising a jagged circle through all of the scales, exposing the tender flesh beneath. As Linti completes a rotation around my arm, I shift my weight to my back foot so that I can push from the ball of my left heel, up through my hip, into my shoulders to batter her in the stomach with both my wing and left fist. This knocks the wind out of her, and she gasps wide enough that I can free my bicep from her maw. My blood pours from my bicep like a faucet at full blast. That¡¯s not good. I wonder how good my space skill is at equipping me. Good enough to tightly apply a bandage mid-combat, nice. Obviously only going to lightly staunch the flow, but it buys me a bit more time before I have to decide to flee or kill.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Come on Reggie, come on. Do I just try to brain her hard in the forehead with blunt objects? She¡¯s holding back less and less by the second. Or maybe whoever¡¯s piloting her is getting used to her powers. That¡¯s a scary thought. I could kill her, I know I could flood the area with umbral shots and close off her escape paths with this much mana, but I don¡¯t want to do that.


    Wait, my thermokinesis slows down molecules, do electrons slow as well? My danger sense indicates Linti is charging directly at my front for a full on assault. I carefully apply a Flash Freeze Storm the instant she enters my range, but she covers fifteen feet in no time flat. Her lightning enhanced claw reaches for my throat again, but she¡¯s slowed enough that I can jerk away in time. I leave her with a parting left hook to the jaw as I spin away, favoring my injured right side as I try to adjust to using it as my back foot. Traces of sparks claw at and leave ashen webs burned into my exterior scales when the punch connects, but none of her slowed lightning penetrates them, thankfully.


    She¡¯s the better hunter, the better fighter, and her powers are incredible. I¡¯m a poor match in any nonlethal combat, but moreso against her. Actually, similarly to Valkyrie, if I get close and stay close, her deadliest abilities can¡¯t be brought to bear. Well, she¡¯s still a predator cat, I don¡¯t like the idea of my neck being in the range of her bites. I really wish I had some sort of formal combat training. Though I don¡¯t think there are any katas specifically for nonlethally repelling lightning cats. I wonder if I can trick her into thinking she¡¯s going to get around behind me.


    If I expose my flank, and she takes the bait, yeah, that might work. I once again favor my normally dominant side, now injured, adjusting my posture rotated a fraction too far, exposing just enough of my back side to be a tantalizing mistake to capitalize on. Linti takes the bait and heads for me straight on. I increase the power of my FFS as I JT to my right. I then jerk my sudden rightward momentum to a halt with forward leftward momentum using another JT. I swivel on my feet, barely managing to plant them to connect a strike against Linti¡¯s right kidney. Well, approximately where it should be. Anatomy is weird enough to begin with since she¡¯s an anthropomorphic cat, without factoring in this cat-woman currently being made of lightning. As Linti naturally leans into the punch to soften the blow, I¡¯m wrapping my left arm under hers to grip her throat with my left hand. I take the deepest smoothest breath I can, layer on an even stronger Flash Freeze Storm to keep her form as solid as possible, then I JT us both straight into the air as fast as I can. She struggles for the first few hundred feet, but I¡¯m hoping that when she¡¯s at fatal heights that her survival instincts will win out.


    Here¡¯s hoping she still needs to breathe. By the time we¡¯re a kilometer in the sky, the air is starting to slightly thin out. At two kilometers in the air, I can feel a noticeable difference in the wind resistance. I hit three, four, five, six kilometers in the air, and even my eyes are starting to feel like they want to escape their sockets. I hope the numbers in my memories also apply to our world. I hit seven, then eight kilometers in the air as I continue to layer on Flash Freeze Storms, draining Linti¡¯s molecular motion, keeping her corporeal. Eight kilometers in the air, I pause my ascent and do my best to hover.


    Minutes tick by, and I¡¯m worried I¡¯ve made a grave error. When several more minutes pass, it seems like Linti¡¯s lightning form is finally subdued. Her physical body is still conscious, and emanating bolts of lightning as her entire form crackles with power. She jerks in my grasp several times, I think more in fear of suffocation than of any attempt to finish me off. Linti begins to go limp in my arms. I hope I can land safely, quickly enough. I let go of the various JT objects I had paused with upward momentum in the air, and simply lean forward into a dive. Worrying about Linti¡¯s safety as her heart rate drops lower and lower, I JT thrust myself towards the ground as if my inventory were a multi stage booster rocket aimed the wrong way. I¡¯m pretty certain I¡¯m shattering my legs as well as the sound barrier as I near the canopy. I hastily try to patch up my right wing with leather, vines, and sap, just enough to turn my diving momentum into a forward glide as I swoop low over the trees. When I¡¯m sure we¡¯re at a survivable height with no extraneous downward momentum, I let myself fall the rest of the way to the ground, where I¡¯m treated with a sickening crunch as I land on my definitely broken legs.


    I really need to leave speed to the speedsters. Come on Linti, come on. I splash water in her face from my inventory by the dozens of gallons. It seemed to be some combination of water from that particular river, on top of physical subdual that freed my previous friends from control. Huh, everything in my life keeps coming back to that river, doesn¡¯t it? Lil was at the falls, Te fought me alongside its bank, I spent so much time riding it or swimming in it. No time to get distracted! Linti stopped breathing!


    Okay, okay, one thing I do know from my memories is cardiopulmonary resuscitation. That should be universal for beings that need oxygen, yeah? She hasn¡¯t drowned, so maybe just the breathing will get her lungs started. If that doesn¡¯t work, then compressions and more breathing. I make sure Linti¡¯s airway is unobstructed, which actually requires pulling out her egregiously long cat tongue, to droop it lazily out one side of her mouth. That tongue is a feature of hers I hadn¡¯t seen before. I really hope she forgives me for that. I hope she lives to be able to need to forgive me for that. Pinching her nostrils proves a tad challenging, I wonder if I should close her mouth and try to breathe into them? But would her, what are they, nasal bronchial tubes or pharynx or larynx or whatever be able to handle forced air pressure? Don¡¯t get distracted, just go with what we¡¯re doing. Breathe, breathe,count to ten, do it again. She has a pulse, it¡¯s incredibly slow but steady, does that mean don¡¯t do compressions?


    I don¡¯t want to risk it. I¡¯d rather bruise her ribs than let her die. I pass her two more breaths then clamber into position straddling her waist to be able to place my hands just above her solar plexus, between her breasts, when suddenly a lightning enhanced paw reaches up to grab my wrists.


    Before I can say anything, Linti asks, ¡°Trying to cop a feel, Shellcracker?¡±


    I nervously chuckle, as I frantically scrabble backwards off of her waist, out of her grasp. My chuckle transforms into mildly hysterical laughter. The laughter gives way to grateful tears that burst forth as if a dam had burst, I have to remove the blindfold as it gets soggy. The tears stream freely, like the crew of the Undine, but also unbidden. I can¡¯t find words, I don¡¯t know where we stand right now. I don¡¯t think I could subdue her again if she came at me full force, I¡¯ve just shattered my legs. Nowhere near as badly as when Teuila traveled a much greater distance at similar speeds, but the scars of my rescue attempt are obvious in the way my bones cause uneven jutting of the scaly flesh on my legs.


    Linti sits up, and swipes a paw through her hair, and calmly, dryly, jokes, ¡°Ugh, wet hair, was that really necessary?¡± She spies that I¡¯ve got a lump caught in my throat, and that I¡¯m viewing her with a mixture of fear and gratitude in my eyes. She sighs and continues, ¡°What is it with you Shellcrackers and holding back against me anyway? It¡¯ll get you killed against anyone else as powerful as me. Where¡¯s the little dragon?¡±


    At her final question, I gulp, hiccup, and sob simultaneously. It¡¯s about as painful as it sounds to have one¡¯s esophagus try three things at once. Her brow furrows and she asks more directly, ¡°Hey, come on, seriously, the dragon. Where¡¯s your buddy?¡±


    I still don¡¯t have my wits about me, nor the mana to eject Lil safely at the moment. Instead I summon an umbral copy of evolved Lil next to us. Lil takes a few steps, stalking a circle around us, and then sits between the two of us.. Linti first looks shocked, then dismayed as she begins to poke and prod the umbral copy. Her next question is, ¡°What is this? Some kind of mana construct? An animate memorial statue? Come on Shellcracker, I know you can speak. We¡¯re in a party, remember? I need you to get your act together to help me with something bad that happened.¡±


    At her request for help I finally regain my senses slightly as I answer, ¡°A,an,anything.¡±


    Linti grins and hops to her feet exclaiming, ¡°Now we¡¯re talking!¡± She offers me a hand up, but as she lifts me, I crumple on my broken legs. She gazes down at the wreckage that is the lower half of my body and lets out a tsk sound. She grumbles, ¡°I didn¡¯t do that. I¡¯m sure of it. Those are self-inflicted?¡±


    I nod, gulping. I shakily reply, ¡°I, I didn¡¯t, I didn¡¯t know how long, um, how long you could last, once you started to pass out. I couldn¡¯t. I couldn¡¯t, uh. I couldn¡¯t risk letting you die. You¡¯re important to your family. To me, I know you don¡¯t consider me a friend, but, well, I consider you one. I¡¯ll put everything on the line for a friend, anytime, anywhere.¡± My answer becomes more resolute as I ramble.


    Linti frowns and answers back, ¡°Meh, whatever, don¡¯t get sappy. My family went nuts after that floating otter showed up and started launching lava everywhere. They got out fine, to the giant insect hollow, not the safest, but easiest to split them up. They were at one another¡¯s throats. Almost as angry as I was at you. I can¡¯t even remember why I blamed you. Do we have to beat them senseless or can we ride it out, or what?¡±


    Scratching my chin, I contemplate, ¡°I¡¯ve only seen this happen maybe three times where we didn¡¯t have to kill the possessed person anyway. You, Teuila, and Lil. The only consistent thing I can think of across the scenarios is each time the person was roughed up at least a bit, and interacted with the water of the big river in some way. Mostly splashing on their faces.¡±


    Linti frowns at my explanation. She looks at my legs, frowns harder as her visage morphs into a grimace. Her predatory features are imposing even in these simple emotive expressions. Still, her fur is beautiful, as are the rest of her features. Uh, I¡¯m getting distracted. She scoffs, ¡°Your aura spells it out plain as day, but you and I both know neither of us have time for that Shellcracker. Are you able to handle riding the lightning right now?¡±


    I flush with embarrassment, both at her implication of my twitterpative aura, as well as the accidental euphemism, since she goes by any of her three names, Linti, Lightning, or Hunter. Not that that would likely be a euphemism among critterkin in our world. Just in these stupid buggy memories of mine. Oh, right, she asked me a question.


    I nod, ¡°I can handle it, anything for a friend, right? Or, non-hostile acquaintances.¡±


    She scoffs again, ¡°You¡¯ve got a pretty low bar for friendship, especially since I¡¯ve attacked you the only times I¡¯ve seen you. I don¡¯t even make your criteria for the last one. You¡¯ve got a big, soft heart. Someone¡¯s going to stomp all over it someday. Just let me know whoever it is and I¡¯ll hunt ¡®em down for ya. Anyway, hop on in. I¡¯m too tired to pick your arse up.¡±


    Linti extends her arms, forming a perch for me to drape myself across the front of her chest. I do my best to acquiesce, shoving off the ground with my wings and tail as my arms wrap around her neck. Instantly I¡¯m being consumed by lightning again as Linti speeds away towards her home. The pain is nearly unbearable, but I¡¯m not in mortal danger, so I can remain conscious through it. My eyes swim in their sockets. I¡¯m not certain if it¡¯s dizziness from the blinding speed, or the sheer amount of pain I¡¯m in. Does Linti hurt this much while accessing her powers? She¡¯s incredible either way. If she pushes through this pain, or is powerful enough to have some sort of immunity to it.

 B 3 C 14: Well, That Was a Blast

    <h2>B 3 C 14: Well, That Was a Blast</h2>


    Linti pauses our lightning-quick return, ¡°Stop doing that,¡± she orders. I catch a moment¡¯s reprieve from the furious pain of electricity coursing through my entire being.


    Confused, I ask, ¡°What?¡± I try not to sound huffy as I gasp and pant for air.


    Her answer is almost humorous, ¡°Thinking friendly thoughts.¡±


    Trying to stifle a giggle, I politely point out, ¡°Sorry, the other alternative is thinking about how we¡¯re going to go beat up your family, and I don¡¯t have a lot of nonlethal options, even fewer with my legs blown to pieces.¡±


    Linti retorts, ¡°Do I look like I even know the words non lethal?¡± This actually causes me to laugh, which I immediately regret. My regret is twofold, one, the pain that lances up and down inside my rib cage from the lingering lightning burn, two, I don¡¯t want to have insulted Linti any more than I already have.


    Linti cocks an eyebrow at me as a result of my laugh. Her single raised brow gives her countenance a menacing appearance that screams of the danger belied by her gorgeous face. The difference in size between her eyes with a raised brow and squinted eye is almost cartoonish in nature. I¡¯m about to start apologizing when she pulls me closer to her chest and resumes our lightning-fueled journey. I can¡¯t even scream in pain since I¡¯m not sure I even have lungs or a throat as a mingled bolt of lightning.


    When we are about to arrive at the tribe¡¯s village, I can see the carnage that resulted from Mata¡¯s visit in the distance. There¡¯s smoldering wreckage of the huts smoking in the distance, but thankfully no signs of forest fire. I¡¯m honestly surprised Mat hasn¡¯t just set the jungle alight to smoke me out. Does he hold the ancient flora in the same high regard that I do? Should I stop caring if so? Hm, no. I don¡¯t need to make myself the opposite of Mat. Maybe he knows something I don¡¯t. Or maybe he hasn¡¯t realized that the smoke might be able to kill me even if the fire itself can¡¯t. I¡¯m not sure how much he knows about my abilities, other than the fact that I returned from adventures in the Fire Biome. He could have checked out my stats panel in our mind¡¯s eye interfaces at any time. Oh, that thought is a bit sickening.


    As a new pain grips the center of my chest, I feel like I¡¯m going to vomit lightning all over Linti when we suddenly come to a halt at the entrance of a marshy cave that angles down into the soil. This must be The Hollow. It¡¯s a bit deeper and more imposing than I thought it would be when Linti described it as just a few spawns of giant insects. I hope her family can handle themselves, especially while their brains are addled from whatever Mat did.


    As soon as this is all over, I need to lay down and let myself have a panic attack that I¡¯ve been putting off. The longer I fight it off, the exponentially stronger and longer the panic will be. I can¡¯t walk, or even realistically move around in tunnel spaces, so I¡¯m not sure how much help I¡¯ll be to Linti at the moment, especially since she has to carry me with at least one arm to even bring me along. Hm, but that arm could still be useful to her.


    Resolving to loan Linti the tattoo, I state, ¡°Linti, I¡¯m going to give you a magic item. I¡¯d like it back after this is over. I¡¯d also like to beg you to be careful who you use it on, as the tendrils cause as much pain as a jellyfish sting. Not only that, but they deal enough damage to derez some weaker creatures instantly. All you have to do is touch the ink droplet to your left hand, and hopefully the magic should apply itself instantly. Since you have to carry my lame butt around, at least you¡¯ll still be able to use the tendrils even if not the whole arm I¡¯m perched in.¡±


    The ground trembles, seemingly releasing the fury of a spanked newborn infant, as if the world itself were crying out in its first breaths. The way below is suddenly replaced by a black featureless expanse.


    Linti begins to exclaim, ¡°My, my family!¡± Yet only moments later, the tunnel below slides back into view, as if it had just casually moved aside momentarily to let a stranger pass on a sidewalk.


    We exchange panicked glances, then steel our resolve as Linti enters the now-returned tunnel. The thunderous din of thousands of appendages striking ground, and buzzing wings flitting in the air reaches our ears.


    Squinting towards the Lightning Hunter, I quip, ¡°I thought you said there were just a few giant insect spawns?¡±


    Linti retorts, ¡°There were. Something¡¯s wrong. The Hollow has never moved before. Let alone this.¡± She indicates further down where the sound emanates from.


    I withdraw the tattoo needle from my inventory and hold it for Linti to inspect. She takes only a moment¡¯s consideration before touching it to her left hand. I can veritably feel the power course along the arm she holds me aloft with as the tendrils wind and lace their way up her arm as a waveform tattoo.


    Having been told what the item does, Linti manifests the tendrils and takes a few curious cracks with them, whipping the edge of their range. She nods appreciatively, commenting, ¡°Huh, handy, that.¡±


    I wisecrack, ¡°And nowhere near as traumatic as the first time I used them.¡± Linti raises an eyebrow in response, but that¡¯s a story for another time.


    The tunnels almost seem to be breathing, pulsing, thrumming with a power of their own. Linti, Lightning Hunter, looks scared for the first time. I realize it isn¡¯t fear for our safety, but fear for those she calls kin, her family. We both know they¡¯re still alive, they haven¡¯t derezzed or we¡¯d have lost access to their stats panels. Linti looks lost in panic, frantic that there¡¯s the sound of an army worth of creatures between us and her family.


    I try to offer some additional solace, ¡°Blossom, you¡¯re her mentor, right? You¡¯ll just have to trust that you did a good enough job teaching her for now.¡±


    She tries to rebut, ¡°Well, yes but¨C¡±


    I interrupt Linti only by sharing a stern gaze. Her face is a picture of despair for a moment until she catches my gaze, then she nods in resolution. The panic drips away from her face as her expression softens towards me for only a moment. After the moment passes, her countenance is resolute once more, determined. Thankfully it seems my minor effort was enough to snap her out of her reverie.


    Linti¡¯s brow is furrowed as she passes intersection after intersection, shaking her head as if something is incredibly wrong. Further in, it seems like the tunnel is spewing up the guts of the earth. The tunnel structure itself seems to squeeze a mudslide through itself like blood pumping through a vein. Linti nearly engages her lightning ride to pass through it but I shake my head and conjure a wall of stone from my inventory. We maintain our purchase behind it as the mud passes around us.


    Linti begins to ask, ¡°What was that!? And what is this? There were never this many branches, there certainly wasn¡¯t any of that!¡± That refers to the mudslide that passed us by, and this refers to my wall of stone.


    I shake my head and shrug in response to the first question, as for the second, ¡°The stone was me, using my inventory magic. It took a fair bit out of my mana reserves, which aren¡¯t recuperating right now because Lil is stuck in my inventory. I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t talk when you first asked. I suffer from panic attacks, and a few other things. I couldn¡¯t get the words out to explain what happened to Lil.¡±


    Linti looks concerned, ¡°How many more times can you do that?¡±


    Thinking carefully, I respond, ¡°A few, depending on what exactly we need. I¡¯ll try to limit my mana usage. I can do more if you leave me behind to crawl after you. I can leech the warmth from the air to regenerate mana, but I¡¯m afraid I could hurt, freeze, or kill you if I did it while you were within arm¡¯s reach.¡± The truth is, I¡¯ve been passively cooling the air in front of us as we run to try to at least keep up with the energy drain my inventory is currently causing with Lil stuck in it.


    Linti only lets out a tch in response as she continues carrying me hurriedly down the tunnels. We finally spot what was making the horrid stampeding noises. Endless droves of monstrous ants, mosquitoes, and what I assume are ticks. Each one is the size of a rhinoceros. I¡¯m honestly more frightened of them than I was a warren full of fire-breathing crag beasts. Linti, however, simply engages her lightning ride to pass through each of them in her path. We arc from one creature to the next in a dazzling display of rapid rebounding. Each carapace we slam into is met with a shower of sparks, and is left behind as a sizzling, smoldering hole in the side of whichever insect we passed through. Their exoskeletons crack and burn under the ferocity of Linti¡¯s lightning lunge. I¡¯m left with the feedback of every impact, the impulse of every electron that vibrates more rapidly than my body should be able to handle. The pain of each shockwave caused by every impact is nearly as intense as the excruciation of becoming pure electricity. My neurons can¡¯t even fire because they¡¯re all constantly on fire. No thoughts feel like they can spark in my mind when all my synapses are alight with jolting voltage.


    Linti suddenly pauses, and though we¡¯ve cleared hundreds of creatures behind us, they¡¯re already swarming in droves to surround her, us. I plead, ¡°Linti, retreat to the aft of this cavern, please, then stand behind me, even better if you stand a few dozen paces back. Make sure to warn me if you spy any of your family where I¡¯m aiming.¡±


    Linti eyes me warily, trying to suss out my intent. Telling a hunter to retreat, and to stand behind my own crippled form is probably a massive offense. She looks as if I¡¯ve slapped her in the face, but I can¡¯t care about either of our feelings at the moment. I can tell that I¡¯m ruining any chance at friendship the more we interact, but thankfully it seems we¡¯ve built up at least some trust.


    Linti zips us rearward and places me at the rear of the cavern, laying me prone facing towards the oncoming horde. She dashes back slightly and I can feel her predatory gaze peering out over the top of me from behind. She¡¯s doing exactly as I requested, so I¡¯d better get to work.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    I whisper into my inventory, ¡°Sorry Lil buddy, gotta use up my mana again. I swear I¡¯ll get you out of there as soon as I can. I love you, please forgive me for taking so long.¡±


    Waiting as long as I can muster, I conjure a massive flash freeze storm to both top off my mana, as well as to buy additional time for my plan. The approaching insects have to tunnel through the frozen bodies of their own front line as I begin conjuring an Umbral Shot worth all fourteen hundred of my mana. The exponential nature of my space skill means I¡¯m able to summon hundreds, maybe a thousand or more umbral duplicates of a simple object such as a spear. I flood the cavern with what amounts to a gray glowing spike wall, its velocity temporarily paused. Once it¡¯s fully conjured, as I want to be sure there are no gaps, I release every spear with as much forward velocity as I can muster.


    I immediately begin crawling forward after the spike wall to try to recuperate some mana from the warm bodies that fall to its deadly path before they derez. Linti isn¡¯t patient enough for me to make the hopping, wing-flapping crawl, so she scoops me up as she dashes from behind. I sigh since I can¡¯t risk drawing all the heat from the atmosphere in a massive Flash Freeze Storm while being carried, so I settle for holding a hand out to brush the wireframes of the insects, each one I come into contact with I draw in as much energy as I¡¯m capable of. On the way through, Linti at least brings me close enough to claim all of the loot from that particular insect horde. Based on the sounds coming from further ahead in The Hollow, there are more hordes awaiting us. How far in could her family have gotten?


    The Lightning Hunter seems to be conserving mana, utilizing the tendrils from the tattoo I¡¯d loaned. As for her mana, she¡¯s trying to regenerate it herself as well by the time we come to another oblong cavern that widens ahead of us. Of course it¡¯s filled with insects. Linti wades directly through them, carving a path of destruction, leaving carnage in her wake, before I can warn her. There are cavities in the ceiling, and each seem to spew an endless wave of monstrous insectoid abominations to cut off our retreat.


    Linti whirls like a dervish. After a few bolts from her crossbow, she abandons it entirely to its holster and simply claws, slashes with tendrils, and gnashes with fangs on her way through everything that approaches. She still doesn¡¯t stem the tide, especially not from above, so I work to conjure Freezing Frost Shields above in as many angles as I can muster. The cold, hard air weighs down on me as it fends off attacks of the flighted insects from above.


    While being supported at the small of my back by Linti¡¯s arm, I feel like the swooning individual in distress on the covers of trashy romantic action novels. It doesn¡¯t help that she¡¯s the perfect figure of action hero launching attack after attack at waves of foes. I wish Lil were here, even if they wanted to make fun of me for my in-distress appearance.


    There¡¯s a static crackle in my thinkspace, then I hear, ¡°I¡¯m here buddy, I finally got through! Yeah, you¡¯re totes the damsel-in-distress from those images you were thinking about, hehe. But, um, it looks super bad out there. I think I¡¯m like, supercharged on your mana at this point. Should I try breaking out of your inventory on my own?¡±


    I scratch my chin, rubbing my thumb along the base of my bottom lip as I mutter aloud, ¡°It could work, maybe, but it might irrevocably damage one or the other, or both of us. I don¡¯t feel in danger, but I¡¯d rather go into energy debt than risk losing you, or losing my inventory magic, or both. Alright Lil, I¡¯ll get you out of there myself.¡±


    Lil begins to object, but it¡¯s too late. I beg the system of our world for energy debt, which means my legs are going to take months to heal. Definitely not ideal. I could always shortcut the process with the red potion, but it may be the only one of its kind in existence based on Dehlia¡¯s description. I¡¯ll manage, one way or another. Now that Lil¡¯s free from my inventory, my mana regeneration should be mostly back to normal. With it, I can risk using JT as my primary method of movement, since I recover more than I can use up with careful applications of Jettison-Thrust.


    In fact, other than a throbbing pain that races back and forth from my left shoulder to my mandibular joint along that side of my face, I feel fairly good. Well, minus the fact that I can¡¯t even feel the pain in my legs anymore, or feel my legs at all. Where did Lil go, anyway?


    ¡°Lil buddy?¡±


    Linti gives me a curious look inbetween furious rakes of her claws at incoming insects. Then we both spy my draconic best pal. Lil¡¯s right, they look supercharged on creamy-green-soul mana. It¡¯s radiating out from them, threatening to flood the entire cavern. Lil looks to be in such discomfort that I worry they¡¯re struggling to hold back an explosion. I can only think of a couple of ways for Lil to use up that much overflowing energy. The safest I think would be to layer up several self-tethers.


    ¡°Lil, were you riding my thoughts? Please buddy, try to self tether.¡±


    Lil¡¯s trembling, quaking, spherical form approximates a nod. Their form glows the muted gray of the umbral evolution as their silhouette extends into Lilagnewt. Their body still seems ready to virtually combust from the strain of holding in too much mana, so they adhere another layer of self-tether.


    The silhouette that expands from Lilagnewt to Lildragni is a magnificent sight to behold. Such a regal dragon whose fins, spines, wings, and every other feature just scream majesty. As the silhouette drops, Lil¡¯s new form takes up the entire tunnel they¡¯d been standing in, and I half believe that their form would have expanded further if there was enough space. As is, they¡¯re currently stuck. Even stuck, Lil¡¯s new form is pure beauty to behold. Lil¡¯s new scales are iridescent, a reflective sheen of purples and silvers and reds, all backed by an undercurrent of a mild green glow. Checking Lil¡¯s stats page reveals a brand new skill, shapeshifting.


    Lil must have felt, or seen the new skill as well, because their form undergoes a different sort of change. Not the silhouette of temporary forced evolution from mana tethers, no, something more subtle. A shrinking and reconfiguring of each of their body parts. The changes are so miniscule, but so rapid that one could almost succumb to change blindness if it weren¡¯t for the massive differences in form from base dragon to the end result. Standing before me is a bare, androgynous human. No hair adorns their form save a shock atop their head slightly styled into a mohawk. The hair is a mixture of colors that contains my paint-bucket red, Teuila¡¯s fiery copper, and Lu¡¯s dark tresses. Even though I¡¯m gawping, all of this happens in a mere instant.


    Somehow I know that every pore on Lil¡¯s new body breathes for them. Every inch of their form is capable of unleashing devastating breath attacks. I momentarily panic and try to direct Linti to once again retreat, this time behind my draconic companion. I receive another infuriated tch for my request, but Linti relents and risks using mana to ride lightning. Her movement takes us through the insect horde that surrounded us. I can tell that Lil¡¯s senses inform them that we¡¯ve safely made it to their rear. My heart flutters as I stare at my oldest companion, as I continue to gawp in awe.


    Lil cheekily telepathically calls out, ¡°See? What¡¯d I tell ya buddy!? Twitterpated as soon as I¡¯m on two legs!¡±


    Their telepathic laughter belies how much raw power and fury they wield as they utter aloud, ¡°Wrath of Godsbreath.¡± Suddenly fire explodes forth from them, cascading out every pore that isn¡¯t facing our direction. Lil sweeps their hands back and forth, and cranes their neck side to side while looking towards the ceiling. Everything that comes into contact with Lil¡¯s new flames is incinerated in an instant. I don¡¯t even hear the sounds of derezzing over the roar of flames spewing forth. Lil marches onwards, seeming nearly oblivious to us following behind.


    Linti gives me a ¡°What the actual bloody eff?¡± look. I can only shrug as she haphazardly drags us along behind Lil who vaporizes every hostile creature in our path. With virtually no impedance, we¡¯re able to march through The Hollow swiftly behind Lil. I¡¯m able to claim all the loot from the insects to my inventory, it¡¯s mostly meat. Tunnel after tunnel, cavern after cavern, Lil destroys all hostile life without a second thought.


    Eventually, a mass of vines blocks our path. Lil¡¯s flames consume the vines in rapid fashion but there¡¯s a scream from beyond them, as of someone in terrible pain at the death of the vines. My mind instantly gloms onto the fact that Spring Blossom¡¯s powers hadn¡¯t fully awakened. Linti seemed to indicate she would become a force of nature. What if that was literal? I don¡¯t recall if Linti actually said that, but that was the sensation I got. Plus we spent most of a day sleeping together on a floor with Fawns and her twin brother. During that time I just felt like there was a flowery hint to the air. Nothing tangible, especially with my lack of smell, yet a hint all the same.


    I call out, ¡°Lil, Lil buddy, you can stop, I think those vines belong to Blossom.¡±


    Linti spares me a suspicious glance at my assertion. Lil however doesn¡¯t stop, and the screaming grows more fearful. Linti unholsters their crossbow and I panic. I fling myself from Linti¡¯s grasp, then JT myself into Lil¡¯s backside. I carefully position myself to cover most of Lil¡¯s vitals, although Lil seems infuriated at my interruption, they at least don¡¯t retaliate. Linti¡¯s first crossbow bolt goes wide, I think she didn¡¯t want to hurt me. Now however, she has her wrist-mounted crossbow aimed directly through my throat into the back of Lil¡¯s cranium. Her crossbow hums with energy as lightning begins to crackle and dance along the edges of the bolt.


    Now that I¡¯m here, topping up my mana on Lil¡¯s Godsbreath is ridiculously swift. Even at the terrible conversion rate of atomic kinetic energy to mana, I¡¯m full in mere moments. More than that, as I suck the heat through Lil¡¯s body to where they¡¯re expelling flames from their front, I can tell that my chill is reaching them enough that they need to turn their fire inward. At least, until they realize they can stop me by blasting me away.


    As soon as I sense the fluctuations that clue me into Lil preparing to reverse flames, I JT Linti away back up the tunnel path. This has the added benefit of preventing her from skewering us with a lightning laced crossbow bolt. Lil¡¯s flames lick at my body. They crack and peel my skin like a hard-boiled egg¡¯s shell, but I persist, placing stone wall after stone wall between Lil and the vines likely hiding Spring Blossom, possibly the entire cat family.


    I try to speak, but as I open my mouth the flames instantly consume the inside of my esophagus, scarring it, leaving me barely able to utter, ¡°Lil, get, ahold.¡± My eyes shrivel in their sockets as even my thermal resistance is no match for Lil¡¯s new Godsbreath. I can¡¯t drain enough of the kinetic energy from the flames to bring it down to tolerable levels.


    Still, with this much heat available, I can risk trying a few things. Like how about an umbral duplicate of several thousand liters of water worth fourteen hundred mana? As I envision it, my ¡®spell¡¯ goes off to ridiculous effect. Even though we¡¯re suddenly awash in a flood that might be millions of liters of water, it is about to evaporate near instantly. Lil¡¯s Godsbreath will cause the biggest steam explosion, likely in the history of any world in any of my memories. Barring something like a meteor impacting an ocean.


    Even as Lil¡¯s Godsbreath comes into contact with the umbral water I¡¯ve created, my mana is nearly instantly refilled as I¡¯m trying to continue my massive constant Flash Freeze Storm to draw in all atomic energy nearby. With renewed mana, in the instant before the steam explosion, I create an umbral tetrahedron around Linti, and another around myself, each worth about seven hundred mana. Hopefully Lu was right, hopefully my conjured object copies are basically indestructible. The water might change shape to steam, but it won¡¯t disappear til the duplication of my space skill wears off. The water changing from one state of matter to another isn¡¯t the same as an object I conjure being broken by force. These tetrahedrons should last ever so slightly longer. Hopefully.


    I can feel Lil through their mindscape as they rail against their own instincts, trying to stop themselves from hurting me. Moreover, I can feel Lil¡¯s relief as the steam explosion knocks them senseless, throwing them through layer after layer after layer of stone walls that I¡¯d set up. Lil knows they aren¡¯t ready for this form, nor to use this Godsbreath ability. I can feel their remorse, but hopefully no one was hurt too badly. Vines seem to cushion Lil¡¯s impact as they¡¯re blown through every bit of rock I had conjured, and the vines slowly dissipate after absorbing the massive wave of force caused by our horrendous explosion.


    I¡¯m pretty sure the cat family knows the insects are dead at this point, after such a massive blast. And, with all the water I conjured now condensing into a rain cloud within the tunnels, I¡¯m pretty sure we won¡¯t have any lingering possession issues. Whew, I can pass out now.

 B 3 C 15: Mud Toboggan and Dream Interlude

    <h2>B 3 C 15: Mud Toboggan and Dream Interlude</h2>


    Ugh, I feel like a roasted lizard on a stick. Oh, wait. Yeah, that¡¯s probably a pretty apt description. I¡¯m currently draconic, and my internals are fried from lightning, and my externals are cooked by Godsbreath. Lil!


    Fighting every ache in my body I thrust myself into the air by my arms and scan the cavern for Lil. Linti is dashing my way from where I¡¯d knocked her back. She looks pissed. I guess I didn¡¯t pass out for long if she¡¯s just recovering now as well.


    I call out, ¡°Linti, wait, I¡¯m sorry! I couldn¡¯t let Lil¡¯s fire hit you! I wasn¡¯t sure you¡¯d survive!¡±


    And she tackles me out of the air anyway. Ow, ow, ow. She¡¯s slugging me in the face, but I know she could put a lot more force behind her strikes. Linti screams into my face, ¡°Shellcracker, you jerk! What the hell was that!?  First it sounds like your little dragon pal is going to cook my family, then you get in the way of my shot, then you try to knock me out!?¡±


    I interrupt, ¡°Not out, just back, away from the flames, I could feel Lil¡¯s fire turning backwards towards us. I¡¯m sorry. Would you mind stopping hitting me? I¡¯m not sure reptiles can get black eyes, but I think I¡¯ve got a big shiner forming.¡±


    Linti huffs, ¡°Ugh, you gorram idiot. Just, ugh.¡±


    Linti slugs my face one more time for good measure. She then picks me up, sets me standing on my legs, which fills me with a pain that alternates between numb and excruciating since they¡¯re broken. As I¡¯m about to fall over, she knees me in the stomach. I double over with the wind knocked out of me, into Linti¡¯s waiting arms.


    She scoops my broken, battered body up, mostly in one arm, holding me to her chest. Since my wings are otherwise in the way, she has to hold me face-first against her torso. She walks towards where we believe her family to be. Lil is lying on the ground in spheriform stage, their pupils spiraling about in their eyes. Linti punts Lil like a soccer ball towards the end of the tunnel that we believe Blossom and the others might be in. I try to object to her rough treatment, but can¡¯t voice my opinion since I currently can¡¯t even draw a breath to speak with. I crane my neck to be able to see ahead of us with one eye, though Linti keeps me locked tightly against her chest, preventing any likelihood of me using JT to escape again unless I want to hurt her.


    Ugh, I¡¯ve really screwed up any chance of solid friendship with Linti. As we round a corner, through a mess of charred, burnt, tattered, torn vines, we spy the entire cat tribe, all soaking wet from the accumulated moisture. Lil seems to be okay at least, as does the rest of the cat family.


    Linti growls, ¡°I thought I told you lunkheads to stay separated, what the hell is even going on here!?¡±


    Fawns At Sunsets approaches us, and though she tenderly reaches for me to check on my state, Linti hisses at her. I weakly wave while trying to smile out the free side of my face in her direction. I¡¯m starting to feel really mixed signals from Linti. She has beaten the bloody crap out of me, but is holding me tightly to her breast, not letting anyone else near. Maybe she isn¡¯t as sure as I was about the possession having ended, and thought she might need to use me as a bludgeoning weapon against her family to knock sense into them. At the moment, that seems like the most likely explanation for her behavior.


    Fawn begins to speak, ¡°Will you calm down, Hunter? We¡¯re alright, whatever you and the Shellcracker tribe did, everything is right as, well, rain.¡± Fawn indicates the condensation dripping from the ceiling, then she stifles a chuckle.


    Linti snaps back, ¡°What about Spring?! I heard her screams!¡±


    Spring Blossom meekly waves from the rear, and Fawn answers for her, ¡°Blossom was terrified that some new threat approached, one her vines could do nothing to protect us from. She may also have had some sensory feedback from her vines. I do not know the full extent of her magics. Their manifestation in our time of need was most fortuitous, no? She protected us with her magics, and so we stood in the fore, to defend her as long as possible in case she may need a chance to reapply them.¡±


    Linti grumbles an acquiescence, and shoots a look at Spring Blossom that seems to convey pride. She huffs, and sits down into lotus position. Finally her grip on me relaxes, and I can catch a breath, coughing though I am. The tunnel structure still seems to be oddly pulsating this entire time, but there seems to be nothing new that it can send at us.


    Linti furiously mumbles, ¡°Oh that horrid floating little monster, when I get my hands on him, I¡¯m going to snap his neck!¡±


    I reckon Linti¡¯s hoarse-whispered rant is about Mataalii, and I certainly can¡¯t blame her for her desire. Currently, I also want him dead. I¡¯m almost surprised that she wasn¡¯t able to kill him already, but he seems to have a suite of abilities that would probably make it hard for her. If he can conjure and control some lava to intercept Linti¡¯s bolts while controlling other lava to threaten her or her family, she¡¯d be too busy to take him out of the sky.


    As I¡¯m about to voice my curiosity on whether or not the tribe is going to rebuild, I¡¯m interrupted by Fawn asking, ¡°So, this march of yours, does it have room for a dozen or so more?¡±


    Fawns At Sunsets and I both nervously chuckle, Linti squints an evilly angry-eye at each of us. It¡¯s a horrifying expression of malice drawn across her face. Fawn tries to defuse Linti¡¯s tension, and wrath, ¡°For the good of all of us, if this is the kind of enemy we will make from here on out, and the type of enemy that this poor family has, it would be best if we joined them, Hunter. Your strength could prevent any of theirs from getting harmed, their numbers could keep any of us from being individually targeted. Surely you can agree to that?¡±


    Linti grumbles while halfheartedly nodding. Phew, okay, so at least we¡¯re not enemies, and I know I can count on Linti¡¯s strength to safeguard my family. She¡¯s willing to go to deadly lengths to prevent harm to those under her protection. I wish I hadn¡¯t made so many missteps around her.


    Linti tosses me lightly to one side and hisses a command to her family. They line up and begin following her as she stands to walk away. I wonder if they know where to go.


    As I¡¯m about to ask, as if reading my mind, Linti calls back, ¡°It¡¯s big enough, we¡¯ll find it. Oh, and Shellcracker? Don¡¯t get yourself killed. I¡¯d like the honor of taking you out myself some day.¡±


    I wince at Linti¡¯s threat, and I can virtually feel several of the cat tribe grimace. That could definitely have gone better. And now I¡¯m stuck crawling on my arms in the marshy dirt that has become sopping mud. I follow agonizingly slowly after them. Lil playfully hops aboard my back as I crawl along. I frown for a moment, but I can¡¯t fault Lil¡¯s playfulness, it¡¯s one of many things I love about them.


    I hear the faintest echo of conversation bouncing its way back to me, ¡°You couldn¡¯t hones¡­ No, I wouldn¡¯t really¡­ Shellcracker¡¯s a ¡­ glad they ¡­ Kinda cute¡­ sure¡­¡± It sounds like that¡¯s the last I¡¯ll hear from them for a long time.


    I know that Linti¡¯s important to her tribe, but Fawn is the matron, and even she fell in line quickly. It¡¯s like Linti is a wartime general who assumes full authority in a dangerous situation. That might be an agreement among the tribe. I certainly wouldn¡¯t want to disobey her when she seems this upset.


    I sigh as I try to figure out the next steps. Since Lil grabbed the comm stone from me at some point while I was passed out, I need to ask for it back for at least a moment, so that I can speak to Teuila and Laomati.


    Calling into the comm stone, I quickly speak plainly, ¡°Hey Te, before you react, I¡¯m obviously fine, so is Lil, so are the cats. Mat got to their village though, he torched the whole thing. They¡¯ve decided it¡¯s too dangerous to stick around, since he could come back any time. They¡¯re going to need to be set up with everyone else in the march. Could you and Lao and Lu and the others take care of that please? They¡¯re really good people. Look out for Linti¡¯s temper, but also don¡¯t mind her too much, I don¡¯t think she¡¯d really hurt anyone. I love you Teuila, give my love to Lao, Lu, Ag, both pairs of twins, Magnus, and all the others please? Hell, give Sir Reginald, Bettie, and Priss a hug from me if the humans are still treating us alright.¡±


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    Since the comm stone magic only works for a few seconds a day per stone initiating contact, and I¡¯ve used up most of it, before the magic of the comm stone wears out I only hear Teuila speak one word, ¡°Dork.¡± I don¡¯t imagine Te will actually hug any of the humans for me, that last bit was mostly for laughs. Especially not the human that she only refers to as ¡°The Dirtbag.¡± Te could reach back out to us with her comm stone, but she knows to save it in case she needs us to return home at emergency speeds, or to call around midnight when the stones will recharge anyway.


    Lil is rolling around laughing at the last sentence I sent to Teuila. At least someone appreciates my humor, heh. I¡¯m pretty sure Teuila also would have joked with me and teased me back if the magic hadn¡¯t run out.


    I chuckle at my own situation, ¡°So Lil buddy, how long do you think it¡¯s going to take for me to drag myself all the way through these stupid muddy tunnels on my face?¡±


    Lil¡¯s laughing response is, ¡°Dunno pal, your legs are pretty wrecked, but not as bad as Te¡¯s were. Did you engage a limit break when you shunted me out of your inventory?¡±


    As I wet my lips, I explain, ¡°No, thankfully I didn¡¯t need to go that far. I¡¯m not even sure how much energy debt I went into, if any, what with the passive ambient atomic energy I was turning into mana. I was certain I¡¯d have to get a full pool or more to get you out safely.¡±


    I pause before adding, ¡°I¡¯m glad I was wrong, if I was wrong. Everything¡¯s a bit of a blur.¡± I pause again, adding one slightly frightened thought, ¡°Also, I don¡¯t really want to be in here when everything respawns.¡±


    Lil comments, ¡°Yeesh, me either pal. Come on, I have an idea, but you¡¯re not going to enjoy it.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow as Lil transforms into Lilagnewt. They walk around behind me, grip my tail in their maw, and spin me around so they can march while dragging me backwards through the mud beneath their belly. Lil was right, I¡¯m not enjoying being a personal mudslide toboggan. Still, during several of the tunnels between intersections, we barely fit, even with as little space as Lil is trying to make us take up together. These sections take agonizingly long for Lil to plod through while dragging me with.


    Maybe Lil¡¯s right though, maybe my legs will heal at a decent rate. Did Teuila somehow engage a limit break on her way to save Lil? Is that why her body was ruined for so long? I thought it was just being cut off from our radiant power source that made healing take longer at that time. Maybe that wasn¡¯t the only issue. I didn¡¯t get to measure my own length of recovery time due to the phoenix taking pity on me. Still, Teuila couldn¡¯t limit break before, she still might not be able to. If she did, was it a one time thing? Was it an engage, and immediate climax to reach max acceleration? A limit break climax that fought off pain for just long enough for Teuila to arrive where she needed to be? I wonder if she even knows or recalls. Hm, maybe if I¡¯m lucky, a few nights sleep might actually knit my legs, especially if I use self-actualization shapeshifting to try to move the bones back into place.


    Lil chimes in about my train of thought, ¡°Speaking of shapeshifting pal, check me out!¡±


    Lil expands and shrinks various parts of their body, playing around with their new skill. It seems like that¡¯s its current limit without resuming Lildragni form. Both of us are hesitant about letting Lil try to do that again any time soon. It was a really charged moment, literally and figuratively. They were literally overcharged by my mana, and the emotions were intense. Still, Lil, ya goober, if you could shrink parts of you, you could have shrunk your wings, shoulders, and ribcage. Then the tighter tunnels wouldn¡¯t have been as much of an issue.


    ¡°Oops,¡± replies Lil.


    I laughingly respond, ¡°Oops is right, ya goon. Love you buddy.¡±


    Lil shrinks down their more protruding body parts and continues to carry me with their jaw, dragging me through the mud beneath their belly. Lil could also probably shrink their back a bit, and toss me up on their back, but whatever, I think they¡¯re having fun. I do wish I had the soapstone though, I¡¯m absolutely covered in mud. I¡¯ll have to have Luni stop by with it tomorrow or the day after.


    Lil telepathically asks, ¡°So, we headed back the direction we were going pal? Or what?¡±


    In thinkspace, I respond, ¡°Let¡¯s head back to the cat¡¯s village, see if we can save any of their belongings to give back to them when we see them again. We¡¯ll rest there for a spell. If Mata attacks, it¡¯s also an area that¡¯s already a bit burnt down, so we can go all out.¡±


    I can feel Lil nodding at my response with my tail in their mouth. We¡¯re still definitely moving through the tunnels of The Hollow slower than the Linti and her family, but progress is smoother now. Lil and I play a mental game of twenty questions on the way out, taking turns thinking of something and trying to determine what the other¡¯s thought is by asking twenty yes or no questions. It also lets us practice guarding our thoughts and peering at each other¡¯s thoughts to try to cheat, since neither of us cares if we win so much as strengthening our bond.


    Finally, we¡¯ve made it out of The Hollow, and now I can move under my own power, I think. Or I could just ride around on Lil¡¯s back. I¡¯m not sure where I should hit myself with JT to propel myself around right now. I used to alternate between my feet and the thick of my back between my shoulder blades. I can¡¯t aim a large flat object across my shoulder blades anymore with my wings taking up so much of my back, and my feet wouldn¡¯t sustain any impact. If I aimed something smaller between my back, I¡¯d risk just shattering my spine or piercing my own heart. This is really inconvenient. I thought of maybe using my posterior as the point of impact, but my hips have fractures as well, and my tail also gets in the way.


    I¡¯m hesitant to ask, ¡°Lil buddy? I think I¡¯m going to have to rely on you for mobility for a couple of days. Do you mind me riding your back?¡±


    Lil¡¯s wisecracks, ¡°After all the time I spent on your head or in your back hammock, how could I refuse pal o¡¯ mine o¡¯?¡±


    Huh, isn¡¯t a palomino a kind of horse? What an oddly coincidental turn of phrase. Still, I¡¯m grateful as Lil flings me up to their back, and shapeshifts their proportions back to normal. Lil then shapeshifts their wings even larger to propel us through the air with greater ease. It¡¯s easy enough to reposition to grip onto Lil¡¯s rubbery dorsal ridge.


    Arriving back at Linti¡¯s family home, my heart aches for what this family lost. Some of the huts are partially standing, but only barely. There are burn holes in basically every wall still standing, about the size of a basketball. I¡¯m surprised this whole place isn¡¯t ablaze, until I trace my clawed hands along the edge of the burn holes. It seems like they¡¯ve coated their buildings in a heat-resistant shellac. Some sort of insect goop I imagine, a sappy fluid they likely acquired from The Hollow.


    Lil and I claim what few possessions weren¡¯t destroyed or already claimed by the cat tribe on their way past their home. There are some combs, some supplies, some odds and ends. I don¡¯t know if any of it has sentimental value, so I¡¯ll keep hold of all of it until I see them again. I take the heat-treated sections of wall and roof that are still standing as well, maybe it¡¯ll come in handy someday.


    With plenty of mana, and plenty of heat nearby, I pretend I have terrakinesis as I erect a stone lean-to for Lil and me to cuddle in. It¡¯s easy enough to claim soil or rock below me and reshape it in my inventory, even easier to place it with my space skill. Lil decides it¡¯s probably for the best to maintain their Lilagnewt form until we¡¯re sure Mata is no longer on our tails, they¡¯re probably right. I take up lotus position cuddled against Lil¡¯s side, and Lil¡¯s body is curled around me in a crescent.


    In our position I take a deep breath and smoothly exhale as best I can. I put all thoughts out of my mind except for my form having its leg bones in the proper places. Summoning a tether around my own heart, I go through the exercise to shapeshift as I actualize my mental image. Dropping the tether, I can feel my bones having moved about a millimeter back towards their correct positions. I recuperate my mana and do it again, and again, until I¡¯m both exhausted from the effort, and fairly certain my bones are set well enough to begin knitting. The pain has certainly returned, there¡¯s no more alternating numbness, my legs have all their sensation back. That¡¯s probably a good sign, but feels awful, as every bit of grinding bone sends pain lancing through my nervous system.


    I wonder if I could go a step further, and heal the injuries, but I¡¯ve already been at this for hours. Every muscle in my body is vibrating under the strain and ache. Panting from the exertion, I tilt my head back against Lil¡¯s torso and let myself slumber.


    I had that dream again, walking around with a little round reptile, jungle to swamp. Is my imagination damaged? Always more or less the same locations that look borderline identical. Anyway, I must have been daydozing while talking to the innkeep. Hell''s bells, the tavern maid is staring right at me. How much did she hear? My left palm grips the hilt of my dagger subconsciously.


    She eyes me warily and pleads, "Please don''t feel threatened, I won''t share your secrets. I think what people like you do is heroic, always have, always will. At least if you''re only taking jobs like this one. Do you, ?" She pauses, apparently wanting to know how to refer to me.


    Sighing, I reply, "I''m no hero, and I go by Aces."


    She suggests, "Well Aces, you look so morose, so lonely, I figure you could use a friend."


    I try not to sneer as I claim, "I had a friend, once."


    Her brow furrows as she tries to suss me out, "Once? Who were they?"


    My answer strikes her, "Aye, once, they were called Eights."


    Realization dawns on her face, and she frowns. After frowning for a bit, she pouts at me, stating, "I can''t tell if you''re poking fun at me, or if that''s really what happened. I guess I''m sorry for you either way. My offer of friendship stands, hero."


    I awaken to Lil squeeing in glee, ¡°Heeee, told you partner!¡±


    I reply, ¡°Huh?¡±


    Lil chirps back, ¡°You tell me stories, and they¡¯re all for me, nyaaaah.¡± Lil sticks their tongue out at me and blows a raspberry, both physically and telepathically.

 B 3 C 16: Lil, the Revered?

    <h2>B 3 C 16: Lil, the Revered?</h2>


    I don¡¯t want to disappoint Lil, but if I was sleep-talking, I¡¯ve probably been doing it off and on whether or not they were around, for a long time now.  Still, if I did just start up again after so long, why now?  Lil licks me as if they were a giant dog, startling me from my reverie.


    I react, grossed out, ¡°Eugh, buddy, what the heck?  Hahaha, okay okay, quit it.  Fine, yes, storytime is just for you pal, jeeze.  That is weird enough on skin, on scales it¡¯s just odd.  Why would you do that?¡±


    Lil apologizes, ¡°Sorry pal, you just smell so good right now.¡±  Lil guiltily sneaks one more lick as I playfully shove their head away.


    My face screws up in a curious expression, ¡°I, I what?  I smell good right now?  Huh, I wonder if I could regain my sense of smell if I self-actualized it while shapeshifting.¡±


    My legs are in much less pain after a full sleep, but I can tell the bones have only just begun to knit back together.  Lil, riding my thought waves, knows I still need help getting around, for probably a week or so.  I¡¯m amazed that shapeshifting can take the place of magical regeneration, but then again, it is an active ability versus a passive one, and they¡¯re both magical.


    Wondering if we can get back on track and expedite our journey, I ask, ¡°Hey Lil, can you get above the canopy?  Do you mind if I try to use JT on your rear legs to see what sort of speeds we can reach with your glides?¡±


    Lil excitedly replies, ¡°Sure thing buddy!¡±


    As Lil performs a massive standing leap, they energetically pump their wings.  Once we¡¯ve broken the canopy, I scan the horizon in all directions to make sure there are no anomalies like billowing smoke, or Mata hanging out waiting for us.  Everything seems clear, so I direct Lil on how to brace their legs so that I can use Jettison-Thrust propulsion to speedily drive us through the air.


    There we go, Lil¡¯s dense dragon bones and greater surface area to spread the impact out across handle powerful JT with ease.  Lil ends up receiving less force at any specific joints or bones than I did, while being able to maintain a higher maximum velocity without injury than I¡¯m capable of.  I don¡¯t want to risk injuring Lil though, so we¡¯ll settle for this pace.  We¡¯re still fairly rocketing along in the sky, probably two hundred kilometers per hour or more.  At this rate, we should be within sight of the Chamelefolk settlement within a couple of hours at most.


    Concern for my best buddy still requires me to prompt, ¡°Feeling okay Lil?  No strain, nothing breaking?¡±


    Lil whoops and hollers with joy in response.  I guess they¡¯re enjoying themselves.  I find myself chuckling and whooping along with Lil.  Lil, Teuila, and I all love flying, especially at high speeds.  Utilizing JT for thrust and propulsion means we have to keep almost perfectly straight however, so that I don¡¯t randomly knock us into a death spiral with inventory magic.  I can sense how much Lil wants to be doing barrel rolls and swoops right now, but they¡¯re still enjoying high speed flight.


    I wonder if there¡¯s a way for me to personally develop the ancillary powers that Valkyrie has.  They don¡¯t show up in her skills page, so I¡¯m never certain if she¡¯s making progress with them, but I¡¯m certain her maximum safe velocity is slowly rising over time.  Since they don¡¯t show on her skills page, I don¡¯t know what to rationalize to self-actualize gaining them as skills.  I imagine infinite blunt resistance might make all of it safe, uncomfortable though it may be to feel like our skin is peeling away while leaping at incredible speeds.  I haven¡¯t run into a creature with physical resistances in the infinite range, even the phoenix only had somewhere in the five or six digit range, I didn¡¯t get a good glimpse as it was blasting through me repeatedly.  I worry that infinite blunt resistance might prevent us from being able to move at all, unable to initiate muscular motion.  Hopefully not.


    As I¡¯m trying to calculate possible skill levels and combinations that I¡¯ve come across, to possibly replicate Valkyrie¡¯s ancillary powers, Lil tries to get my attention.  Lil telepathically sends, ¡°Hey pal, pal we¡¯ve been going for a couple hours, I think we¡¯re there!¡±


    Good, good.  I stop with the acceleration from JT propulsion, so eventually our speed dies down to Lil¡¯s normal maximum glide velocity as they slowly spiral down towards the canopy.  As we break the canopy with our descent, the sight beneath us is astounding.  The Chamelefolk settlement is the second most advanced community I¡¯ve seen since the human city on the sea.  Everything is simple cubic stonework, simple buildings with few floors, perhaps only one, but crenelated roofs.  Through some windows, I see lumber supports along the inner corner walls of the various houses.  The town is essentially two perpendicular intersecting roads, though they come to meet at a roundabout that circles a small open-air temple on a dais.


    Its denizens though are all chameleon individuals ranging from spheriform to feraform to humaform.  They¡¯re much shorter and smaller than the cats on average, I might even be taller than their largest humaform individual with my current stature.  Oddly as they spy us, their dermal coloration all shifts to various shades of red.  That doesn¡¯t seem like a good sign.


    I calmly request, ¡°Lil, let¡¯s not land in their town, let¡¯s circle again and land just outside of it at the northwest where we had come from.  Just take us in nice and slow, so that any of them can follow or ignore us.¡±


    Lil nods and swoops another wide circle, aiming back to the northwest.  I¡¯m half expecting archers or spear wielders to be rushing after us as we land, but none come.  Once we¡¯ve fully landed, Lil follows further directions of mine to approach slowly while calling out our intentions.


    Lil announces our arrival, that we¡¯re looking to speak with anyone who is willing to listen.  Though we get some curious glances, no one responds to Lil¡¯s attempts to communicate.  That¡¯s extremely disheartening.  I do notice that the chamelefolk seem to rapidly shift pigmentation when looking at one another on occasion, mostly along their faces and necks.  Their coloration changes slightly towards red when they view us walking their streets, but they make no attempt at contact, nor at hostility.


    I¡¯ve got a feeling I¡¯m going to need to develop whatever organs allow them to change pigmentation so quickly.  Ugh, I hope I can learn enough about one of them from my danger wraps if I can touch one without combat, or through Lil¡¯s analysis skill.


    ¡°Lil, can you set me down carefully near the intersection?  Feel free to either drop form, or stand guard at the edge of town.¡±


    Lil hems and haws as they decide.  Eventually Lil drops form next to me as we sit near the center of town.  Lil¡¯s evolutionary stage changing in the middle of town draws many curious Chamelefolks¡¯ gazes.  Their shades range from lilac, through shades of blue into those of green such as mint.  Oh no, I don¡¯t know what chameleons eat.  I hope it¡¯s insects.  I carefully begin to place several kinds of food I gained from The Hollow in a semicircle around myself.  Hopefully it¡¯s seen as a gesture of peace and friendship.  Even if they aren¡¯t necessarily hungry, maybe they¡¯ll take it as an offering to their shrine.


    When what looks like a family unit passes nearby, one of the spheriform chamelefolk reaches to accept some of my food, but the humaform chameleon ushers them away.  The humaform individual seems to offer me a polite smile, I think.  Their expressions don¡¯t change much at all, but the coloration on their face was a soft azure.


    I sit and observe their culture.  Several humaforms seem to leave town and return with a single granite brick once every few hours, they then place it at the end of one of the roads, slowly expanding it.  Others seem to return from a gathering session, or insect hunt.  After several hours, everyone in town queues up to head to the shrine.  They each seem to kneel for a few seconds in turn.  The queue is disorderly, asymmetrical, it fills and empties in-between duties held by the various folk.  Each one rings a small bell as they finish their kneeling, before leaving to resume their duties or lives.  Though there are four separate queues, there is only one bell.


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    I¡¯m not entirely certain if each chameleon individual heads to the shrine only once, or if they make the journey from each of the four cardinal directions.  I actually suspect it¡¯s the latter.  I can¡¯t recognize the differences in their facial structures well enough yet to be able to tell if I¡¯ve seen the same one in several locations, or just different individuals that look similar.  I think there are only a few dozen of these scalekin here, maybe one or two hundred, but it¡¯s hard to get a good count of their census.


    On closer inspection, each of the shrine¡¯s four faces has an engraving that depicts some kind of creature.  The southern one seems to be a serpent, with wavelike markings beneath it.  The northern one depicts a dragon-like figure that is also serpentine.  It has no wings but is poised above cloudlike imagery.  Its starkest feature is incredibly long whiskers.  The western one appears to be a dragon with what looks like a volcano on its back in place of a dorsal ridge.  The eastern one honestly looks like some sort of gorilla or something.  It doesn¡¯t really have any animal features or characteristics, it¡¯s just bipedal with massive arms that reach down to its lower appendages on the engraving.  I¡¯d swear there are tiny trees on its back.


    I still my breathing and try to extend my senses as much as possible.  Lil¡¯s boredom reaches my mind, but I push aside even that.  Sorry buddy, right now I¡¯m trying to take in everything I can.  There¡¯s a tiny rustle of paper, like the pages of a book being flipped, a single page for each chameleon¡¯s visit to the top of the shrine.  This strikes my curiosity.  I¡¯m not however strong enough to walk on my own yet.


    I crawl into the queue behind a Chamelefolk spheriform, and drag myself along on my arms so that I don¡¯t re-break my legs while they¡¯re still mending.  Lil hops along beside me, seeking anything to alleviate their boredom from simply observing.  Eventually I make it to the temple itself, and I¡¯m not certain what to make of my senses.


    There¡¯s a tome that looks identical to the other ones I¡¯ve got, one of which I know steals time when I try to read it.  This temple tome is seated on a pedestal.  Each Chamelefolk will read a single page, while the one that arrived earlier in the queue waits for them to flip the page, once the page is flipped, the previous Chamelefolk rings the bell, and the one who¡¯d been staring at the book seems to snap out of a daze, and take their place at the bell.  I assume the first few likely took turns ringing the bell as they approached, so that none would be caught in a daze.


    As it becomes my turn, the spheriform in front of me awaits me at the bell, seemingly willing to share in this tradition, even though I¡¯m not one of them.  I carefully drag my way up the pedestal to gaze into the book.


    My mind leaves my body, I feel like I¡¯m hurtling through a crimson void.  I hear only one word echoed, its meaning slowly cascading through my mind and my entire being.  Original.  That is all I can make out before the clang of a small bell returns my brain to its mortal shell.  I falter and stumble towards the bell while Lil looks confusedly at me.


    Lil is the final individual, so I take my place at the bell, as I don¡¯t want them to be caught in a time-stealing book for eternity.  Lil hops up onto the pedestal next to the book, starts scanning pages, and their reaction baffles me.


    Lil exclaims, ¡°Hey, what¡¯re my mental logs doing in some goober¡¯s book?!  Who¡¯s the wiseguy?¡±


    They begin rapidly flipping through the book, mumbling various affirmations, confirming what they read.  The sound of rapid page-flipping brings chamelefolk rushing back into the temple to gaze at Lil with wide-wonder.  I¡¯m fairly certain their barely perceptible facial expressions are astonishment.  The chameleons begin rapidly flashing patterns of coloration at one another, and several brush by me on their way to Lil.  My danger wrap senses pick up on the key words iridophore, and chromatophore.  I now know what cellular structure to add to my draconic form to be able to communicate.


    Lil¡¯s fairly distracted by the book, but not lost in a daze like any of the rest of us were.  Still, Lil barely notices as the chameleons begin to surround and stroke Lil¡¯s tail.  One of the eldest seeming humaform Chamelefolk carefully closes the tome, picks it up, and kneels before Lil.  With the book closed, I can see what appears to be the roman numeral for one inscribed on the cover.


    Lil starts to object when they finally realize how much attention they¡¯ve gotten.  The elder chameleon individual proffers the book to Lil who appears to be grumbling in confusion.  Lil touches the tome with their tail to claim it to their inventory.  The chameleons all gasp at its disappearance, but several pick up Lil and toss them into the air seemingly in celebration.


    Lil seems to be a bit preoccupied, as more and more Chamelefolk are surrounding them.  I¡¯ll take this time to head out of town, dig a dugout, and work on adding the nanocrystals of the iridophores to my scales, and the chromatophores to the cells beneath them.  I let Lil telepathically know what I¡¯m up to, and tell them to enjoy themselves.  It seems like they might be worshiped or a feast might be thrown in their honor.  Something or other like that.


    Lil wants to object, but knows that the better in their good graces that we are, the easier our task will be.  I flash my buddy a bittersweet smile as I painfully crawl my way down the steps through the throng of Chamelefolk.  Once I¡¯m out of the crowd, I carefully launch myself skyward with a JT placed beneath my chest as I lay prone.  Once airborne, I try to fly towards the edge of town.  I¡¯m still not a graceful creature, but after a few false starts, I¡¯m able to make it the rest of the way in a single go.


    Building a small dugout is easy enough with inventory magic, hopefully the chameleons won¡¯t mind me making a temporary domicile.  I practice my shapeshifting technique that requires applying my self-tether of mana around my heart, and releasing it prematurely.  Over the course of several hours, I¡¯m able to grow enough iridophores and chromatophores to change the colors in my fingertips.  The process however is utterly exhausting.  I let myself slump against a wall of my dugout to fall asleep.


    When I awaken, I¡¯m certain a day has passed, so I contact Lu and Teuila to wish them my love, and to let them know that Linti has the tattoo, that I¡¯d like her to give it to Luni.  They let me know the cats have arrived, and the march has made it all the way across the river already, but isn¡¯t quite to point A yet.  They decided a slightly more easterly route, worried they would intrude on the cat family¡¯s territory, before Linti¡¯s tribe ended up joining anyway.


    I¡¯m wary of them making further progress through the lands before I manage to secure a guaranteed peace with at least the chameleons.  I¡¯m much more wary of their progress if I can¡¯t find and negotiate with the Naga.  The Chamelefolk seem relatively peaceful, even kind.  One stopped by just now with some bandages and salve for my legs.  I didn¡¯t know how to let them know that I was already healing, so I couldn¡¯t really refuse the kind gesture.  They applied the salve and bandages and left without a word.  I assume they tried to communicate with their pigmented facial expressions, but I didn¡¯t fully understand.  I believe they indicated something along the lines of no hurt, or no pain, or no threat.


    Well, nothing for it but to keep at it.  I continue my transformation training.  Now that I know I can generate the new cell structures and nanocrystals, progress speeds up.  Still, it¡¯s going to be at least three days of doing nothing but this, with breaks for eating and mana exhaustion recuperation.  I¡¯m fairly positive my abilities weren¡¯t meant to be used like this, just like my space skill probably wasn¡¯t meant to be a massive mobility boost for both myself and anyone around me.  Similarly how my thermal resistance probably shouldn¡¯t have given way to a thermokinesis that somehow allows for mana regeneration.


    Lil stops by several times a day to check on me.  I¡¯m grateful for their company, but they haven¡¯t made any breakthroughs in figuring out how to communicate with the chameleons yet.  The chameleon village still keeps up their tradition of traveling to the shrine to ring the bell, but now they need not pause at the tome.  I¡¯m curious about the tome myself, but I don¡¯t want to push Lil.  If it¡¯s a copy of their mental logs, does it have up to date logs?  Future logs?  I¡¯m a bit frightened of that last possibility.  It¡¯s one thing to receive occasional guidance from a future self making tweaks to the timeline.  It¡¯s another thing entirely to know your entire life¡¯s story is dictated before you even get a chance to live it.  I¡¯m hoping, and fairly certain, that that¡¯s not the case.


    I smother Lil with snuggles and smooches while I can, to load us both up on affection and lovey dovey feelings for the hours we¡¯re going to keep spending apart.  We¡¯re both trying our best to advance our cause for peace.  That my family works so hard to help my dream come true always astounds me.  We¡¯ve been through life and death situations, hell and high water, and more together.  Yet they keep believing in me, no matter how many of these situations my dream puts them through.


    Finally, most of my body, and my whole face can change colors at my whim.  There¡¯s a bit of an emerald hue to every color I try to project, due to the translucent green nature of my scales.  Hopefully that doesn¡¯t hamper my attempts to communicate.  Now to find someone with the patience to teach me how to speak in colors.

 B 3 C 17: To Speak In Colors

    <h2>B 3 C 17: To Speak In Colors</h2>


    Thankfully after three days of meditation in solitude, more or less, my legs are alright to walk on. They¡¯d shatter in an instant if I tried to use any remotely powerful JT movement on them currently though. At least everything is just hairline fractures across contiguous bones now instead of broken bone bits floating near one another in approximately the right places. I¡¯m always so glad that the world in my memories is fake. Imagine taking months just to heal from where I¡¯m at right now, never mind possibly never healing from my previous injuries. I wonder if the humans recover from injuries as quickly as the rest of us? Well, I know they don¡¯t, I¡¯ve seen their military drills and accidental injuries. Maybe my memories are of some human¡¯s life on another continent. Could there be a computer age society just across the seas?


    Anyway, it seems like Lil has made some progress on at least deciphering some of what the chameleon people try to communicate to them. So the first step is practicing with Lil near a friendly chameleon, until I can at least communicate some basics.


    The practice seems to be going well, and the chameleon sitting with us seems to be giving us positive feedback. I feel like they should be able to read and write, what with them having worshiped over a book, but none respond to my attempts to communicate in writing. Okay, now that I know some basic expressions, I can ask them to teach me more on my own.


    Ugh, how often does trying to ask a simple question normally result in one¡¯s face hurting? It¡¯s a constant state of being for me at the moment. I¡¯m not used to exerting minor control over frequencies of muscle vibration to trick sections of my face into flipping their iridophores or squeeze their chromatophores. This is worse than mandibular joint pain when my jaw is locked, and worse, it¡¯s my entire draconic face.


    They¡¯ve never had to teach anyone before. I don¡¯t think anyone else in the world possessed the ability to communicate in their fashion. At least no one who didn¡¯t already spawn with the memories available of their entire vocabulary.


    Thankfully they don¡¯t mind Lil and me wandering in and out of town, and sleeping nearby. Lil¡¯s celebrity status is slowly dying down since Lil can¡¯t do much in the way of returning their communication or praise. I¡¯m scared to ask Lil to bring out that tome to see if there are any more secrets buried within.


    I am able to ask about the shrine though, apparently the depictions on the plaques are four gods of elements. Land, Sea, Sky and Fire. I¡¯m fairly certain we¡¯ve met the sea god or gods. I¡¯m not sure which is more frightening, if all those loops belong to a single serpent the size of a continent, or if there are just that many mountain sized serpents. I wonder if the phoenix is a god of sky or fire? For some reason, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d have survived even a single pass by a fire god¡¯s attacks. Similarly, I doubt the roc was a sky god, impressive though they were. The chameleon people have some sort of superstition, or legend about the gods meeting. The ringing of the bell is to keep them driven apart. Something about if the four gods meet, a great calamity will befall the continent, maybe the world. Or will bring about an apocalypse. It¡¯s really hard to determine esoteric concepts from facial coloration manipulation. They both seem catastrophically bad, so I have no intention of getting in the way of their practices. If they were sacrificing people, it¡¯d be a different story, but ringing a bell seems pretty harmless.


    Alright, it has been days, maybe weeks of hanging out with the chameleon people, none of them have names in a way I could express, just patterns of colors used to get one another¡¯s attention. I¡¯m confident I can safely ask to speak with a leader capable of making decisions. This has been a mentally exhausting experience, and all I want from this entire stay is to make sure that they don¡¯t have a problem with our people moving east along a route to their north. We met Teuila and Luni once a few miles north of their city to catch up, apparently the majority of the contingent is now several days march northwest, and approaching Point A rapidly, which is too close to the chameleon people¡¯s village for my liking.


    Apparently Linti is rarely even with the camp, she seems to make trips to The Hollow to stock up on insect meat and parts for her family. Luni loaned her one of the magical bags, the one that isn¡¯t attached to the inside of her harp, and Lu now has the tattoo beneath the fur on her left arm. The amount of hunting that Linti is capable of, and the quantity of supplies she can bring in with a magical bag is enormous. Linti distributes it only to her family, but they share with mine. Both directly with the Shellcrackers, and also the hundreds of other folk in our sub party.


    As I¡¯d hoped, Magnus and Spice seem to be hitting it off, they¡¯re seen hanging out alone, with Sugar hovering protectively nearby on occasion. I¡¯m a little bit afraid that Sugar might break him if she feels threatened. Breaking things is her favorite activity after all.


    Te lets me know that several hundred critterkin that didn¡¯t join the SCRAP have taken off on their own to try to make their own settlement far to the southwest. They can¡¯t forgive the humans, and aren¡¯t willing to risk being near humans even with offers of protection. They¡¯re perfectly within their right to be wary and not to trust us to be able to protect everyone. Still, I¡¯d never gotten an exact census of how many individuals hatched, but it seems like we only have about half of the critterkin in our party. Half of us willing to give humans a chance to prove themselves able to coexist. About as good as I could hope for I suppose.


    Now that they¡¯ve led Lil and me into one of the humble domiciles, I¡¯m meeting with someone I haven¡¯t ever seen partake in the bell ceremony. They seem to be excused due to being an elder. We exchange pleasantries as I try to work my way towards the topic I most desire covering. Similar to everyone else in the world, I can¡¯t really suss out much of a history beyond what I¡¯ve witnessed. The world is in this constant state of non-decay, but also non-progress.


    After enough hours to make my face hurt in agonizing new ways, I finally ask the elder if it would be okay to discuss the path of my family. I indicate that it¡¯s a large family, several times larger than their entire village, but that we don¡¯t want any trouble. We¡¯re simply wandering in search of a new place that¡¯s safe to settle. Before they make any decisions, I do my best to convey the loss of my home to the volcano, the struggle against the lava that miraculously ended with only few deaths.


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    I sigh sadly. Two of the only deaths that night were Sal and Har, they didn¡¯t need to die, I wasn¡¯t in mortal danger. My panic got them killed. My heart aches at the memory as an icy grip plunges into my center. It claws its way around the inside of my torso, but everywhere it leaves behind it a burning sensation of fury and fire, disappointment and dismay. I was at immediate fault, but there were greater forces at play overall. The tightness in my chest threatens to implode my torso until I suddenly realize I haven¡¯t been breathing and reactively gulp down a ragged breath through an unuttered sob.


    The chameleon elder says something, and Lil suddenly exclaims, ¡°You can talk!?¡±


    The placid, stunned look on my face as I slowly blink must speak volumes. I can¡¯t even bring myself to be confused or upset. Lil must pass the elder an invite, because we¡¯re greeted by a host of messages indicating many individuals joining a subparty under Lil. I sigh with only the mildest hint of exasperation.


    The elder replies, ¡°Yes, but your friend seemed so intent, we wanted to see just how far they were willing to go to ally within our culture. The greater the respect shown us, the less we know we have to fear. You have gone to great lengths. You and yours have nothing to fear from we and ours. You will however need to prove yourself in a temple beneath the center of Naga society before you can secure their peace. You will be lucky if they don¡¯t kill you on sight as strangers. It would be best if none see you until after you return from below their secret temple.¡±


    I don¡¯t even have the energy to be further exasperated, bewildered, or stunned by this new revelation. Of course I have to perform espionage in hostile territory again. Of course some subterranean temple is involved again, like the depths of the pyramid near the beavers. Of course they¡¯ll be trying to kill me, while I have to do my best to not kill any of them, while staying alive, so that when I try to broker peace, they won¡¯t just decline me for being a murderer. I draw another ragged breath and heave a hefty sigh. I¡¯m tempted to just stop wearing reptile skin and fight my way through the naga ranks. It¡¯s so much easier to kill people than to not.


    ¡°Are you able to give me any further directions? Also, are you comfortable with the humans passing nearby? Or maybe not comfortable, but willing to let them be if I can keep them out of your hair? Figuratively.¡± I chuckle, chagrined at my own faux pas. Keeping people out of reptiles¡¯ hair, good one Reggie you goon. Although Lil and I do have hair in several of our forms, including my reptile form.


    The elder responds, ¡°Hm? Oh yes, if you head west to the Miracle Oak, then south, you may stand a chance at a straight shot to the temple. You will have to enter their above-ground temple, and find its secret entrance to the underground temple within. I¡¯m not even certain how I know of its existence, the knowledge is just there. As for the rest, we are passive unless attacked. We could certainly cause trouble if angered, but against these forces alone I¡¯m surprised you don¡¯t simply threaten your way to peace. You say you have even more humans who are further dangerous still. If you choose to tread the path of peace, your course is plotted to the temple beneath the soil. I know not its contents, only that it is there.¡±


    Ah, yes, wonderful, let¡¯s go on a deadly mission trusting mysteriously there information. I shouldn¡¯t be snarky, the elder has been kind. I flash gratitude patterns at the elder, and begin to take my leave. My legs feel in pretty much full working order at this point, I¡¯m ready to get out of here.


    Lil leaps at the elder to nuzzle them, surprising the elder who pats my little dragon buddy in return. I purse and chew on my scaled lips trying not to show my amusement. I¡¯ve got a stealth skill, I¡¯m going to see if I can get my chromatophores to passively aid my stealth as I march towards this Miracle Oak.


    Lil hops along after me, and we march westward in silence as I try different methods of engaging my stealth skill as an activated ability. Eventually Lil remarks that I¡¯ve done it, or done something. Apparently I appear as a translucent shimmer, somewhat obfuscating whatever¡¯s behind me from the viewer, it¡¯s a bit obvious when you know what to look for. Still, if I jet from far beyond their sentries¡¯ ranges while I¡¯ve got this stealth mode engaged, I should be able to make it into their temple. Then I should be able to carefully sneak along its halls attempting to secure a path to whatever lower level leads into a secret subtemple.


    It¡¯s physically and mana exhausting to engage stealth in this fashion, so I¡¯ll keep it up as long as possible. Then I¡¯ll rest at the Miracle Oak, and not engage it again til we¡¯re pretty sure we¡¯re within Naga territory. Lil will use their new shapeshifting to shrink down their base spheriform as small as they can, and hide in the crook of one of my arms, or wings.


    As if out of nowhere, a mighty tree that¡¯s dozens of times the girth and height of all other trees appears before us. How could we miss this!? This should be visible all the way from Fire Biome! The ancient flora itself is massive trees that are at least thirty meters tall at the very minimum, probably sixty or so, and this one is easily several dozen times that height.


    Since I¡¯m floored, I fall back, allowing myself to be actually floored as I sit with a whumpf, tumbling back slightly. The tree suddenly disappears. I¡¯m not exactly brilliant but I think I¡¯ve put two and two together already. I lift myself back into a seated position, and move my face back and forth where I lost sight of the tree. Sure enough, after crossing some arbitrary imaginary line, on the inside, the tree is visible, on the outside, it simply appears to be a slightly canopied clearing.


    I wonder how many of these exist in our world, on our continent. Is this the only one? It¡¯s definitely a miracle regardless. Miracle Oak indeed. It should also be a fairly safe place to rest between many of its surface-arcing roots. My heart races as I approach what must be the most magnificent plant in all creation. It feels like there¡¯s something missing. It¡¯s not exactly yggdrasil pouring forth dew of immortality, or myrrh. It doesn¡¯t feel like it contains portals to other realms. Yet it feels massively, uniquely important in ways I can¡¯t comprehend or fathom at the moment. I suppose one day maybe these weird broken memories might actually come in handy. If I end up needing to save this tree or something like that.


    Crap, we can¡¯t risk resting here, if Mat¡¯s following my soul trail, letting this tree get caught in the crossfire would be disastrous. Okay, so I double back and make sure that it looks like I took a sharp left, rather than having walked to a spot and suddenly no longer leaving aura. Hopefully if he¡¯s following my trail at some point, he turns left before making it past the camouflage barrier.


    I query my draconic pal, ¡°I guess we¡¯d better make another dugout, right Lil?¡±


    Lil responds with their usual verve, ¡°Sure thing Pal! Maybe you¡¯ll tell me another story!¡±


    Chuckling, we make camp one more time before a ridiculously dangerous segment of our journey begins. We tell the gals not to visit and not to worry about us for a while if we¡¯re out of touch for a couple of days, since we¡¯ll be doing a stealth mission. Teuila hems and haws but agrees, Luni is oddly silent. She knows something we¡¯re about to face, I can sense it.

 B 3 C 18: Dream Interlude, and Naga Society Part One

    <h2>B 3 C 18:  Dream Interlude, and Naga Society Part One</h2>


    There are certainly a lot of those creatures in my dreams, feh, no matter I suppose.  The tavern maid reminded me of the loss of Eights.  Like I told her, he was my only friend.  I didn¡¯t tell her he was a hound.  One day he just went blank, catatonic, as if his mind or soul were sucked away from him.  Sometimes I regret how lonely this business is.  Born into it though, nothing I can do about that now.  My job is death, and I¡¯m good at my job.


    I can¡¯t afford to get distracted by things like pretty little flirts and their kind words.  Feh, hero indeed.  I have to murder my way through the ranks of this Celestial Emperor until I get every last snippet of information on their inner sanctum possible.  Starting with the worst of the corrupt nobles, then moving on to military leaders if I don¡¯t learn enough.  The order doesn¡¯t truly matter, it¡¯s not that I¡¯m afraid of one target over the other, if anything, the nobles tend to be more well guarded.  It doesn¡¯t matter how well trained a military agent is when their neck is slit in their sleep.  I just expect to be able to find information more flagrantly disregarded in noble domiciles.  They tend to get sloppier.  Military folk are regimented, precise, almost religious in their actions, always disposing of information properly after committing it to memory.


    Speaking of memory, why¡¯d she have to go and say anything?  Now I can¡¯t stop thinking about Eights.  He and I were abandoned mutts in Vale Valley, no idea where we came from, but we came from there together.  We took petty jobs back then, mostly just espionage over stupid things.  Who is in whose will, that kind of nonsense.  Sometimes we¡¯d get a request to bump someone else off ahead of the line in a will, things like that.  They were all ruthless bastards, their deaths didn¡¯t even register.  I have to get my head back in the job, I¡¯ll go dunk it in the horse trough for a bit.


    Lil¡¯s raucous laughter is what I wake up to.  I flex my reptilian jaw and yawn wide, blinking away sleepy tears.  I clasp my chin in one taloned hand slowly rotate my head, popping my neck in several places.


    Still barely able to focus, I blink rapidly in Lil¡¯s direction, asking, ¡°What is it this time Lil?¡±


    Lil¡¯s exuberance shines through as they relay the ending of another of my dreams, ¡°You were shoving your head in horsewater at the end! Hehe.¡±


    I roll my eyes but I allow myself to laugh along with Lil a bit anyway.  Today is going to be rough.  We¡¯ve got to sneak close, engage stealth, and zip straight to the temple.  Hopefully it doesn¡¯t have heavy or locked doors.  I¡¯m tempted to ask Lil to ride in my inventory so that they¡¯re not at risk, as well as better hidden.  That could be disastrous though, last time was nightmarish.


    Lil chimes in along my thought wave, ¡°Oh hey pard, speaking of that, check what I can do!¡±


    Lil¡¯s form fritzes, and when it¡¯s done fritzing, poofs a short distance to one side.  I¡¯m worried for a minute that we have to find another solution to heal up Lil¡¯s fritzing problem, but they¡¯re just grinning at me like a lunatic.


    Squinting at Lil, I cautiously ask, ¡°Can you?  You can control it?¡±


    Lil just beams at me with pride, sounding a happy laugh of glee.


    Huh, that could come in handy someday.  Well, regardless, I don¡¯t want to put Lil in my inventory if I can avoid it.


    I make a rambling request of Lil, ¡°Lil, if it looks like we¡¯re about to be spotted, I¡¯ll try to summon an umbral copy of you nearby if we can find some cover, to make it look like the umbral you was whatever was sneaking around.  Are you down for that?  Do you think you can control a copy when you¡¯re not in my inventory?¡±


    Lil delivers an expected response, ¡°Hm, only one way to find out pal, why don¡¯t we try it out?¡±


    I nod, ¡°I guess we could give it a shot right now, then rest for a few seconds.  Better than trying and failing in the middle of a dangerous situation.¡±


    I flick myself into the air with JT using inventory magic to check around our tree, then above the canopy.  When there doesn¡¯t appear to be any danger nearby, I allow myself to land in a slow glide.  To make sure all of the variables are going to be the same, I pick up Lil in their shrunken sphere form, engage my stealth power, and summon an umbral copy of Umbralil.


    At first I¡¯m slightly worried, Lil seems like they are seizing up in the crook of my arm, and the Umbralil copy doesn¡¯t move.  Just as I¡¯m about to panic, Lil vibrates with the stress of concentration, and Umbralil begins to gallop circles around us.  After a minute, Lil is able to make the Umbralil take to the air and glide around.  After another minute, Lil is able to pump Umbralil¡¯s wings in unison.  During the last minute that Umbralil is active, Lil is able to have the copy do barrel rolls and loop de loops.


    Lil, sensing my worry, explains, ¡°It took a bit to feel the muscles.  When I was floating in your inventory, they were like my only sensation.  Out here, it¡¯s like, they don¡¯t match my muscles, so I have to think about each muscle to move, but I can do it, now that I know how to think.¡±


    I hug Lil tight and pepper their skull with kisses and congratulatory noogies.  I¡¯m proud of my little buddy.  Two new abilities that they got working while I was busy trying to learn how to change colors to talk to people who could just talk normally the whole time.  Still, I did gain a kind of semi translucent invisibility, it¡¯s far too draining to utilize much more than going swiftly in a straight line from one point to another though.


    Alright, that umbral copy is about to disappear, I want to try something.  I claim it to my inventory when it only has a few seconds left of lifespan.  I then drop my active camouflage.  Let¡¯s see what happens when I summon that Umbralil copy without making a copy of it.  I draw it forth from my inventory, it¡¯s far cheaper than making an US copy.


    It continues to persist past the original five minute timer by lasting ten more seconds, and still remains.  I raise a scaled brow at Lil, they get my signal to try controlling it, and they¡¯re successful!  I¡¯m not sure how useful it¡¯s going to be, since it takes basically all their concentration.  Maybe if I had made the copies of Umbralil with my danger wrap on Lil or something, the wrap could guide their reflexes.


    I suppose if Lil practices enough, they might be able to multitask their brain to the point where they can control a copy while acting at normal reaction speed themselves.  We¡¯ll have to make that part of their training regimen with Teuila when we get back to the family if Lil is interested in using this new combination ability of ours.  For now I¡¯ll claim this copy back to my inventory again.  Later we¡¯ll need to do tests like, how far out it can be away from Lil while still being controlled, sensory input, and the like.


    Alright Lil buddy, hang on, I¡¯m going to get us above the canopy near the Naga city then engage stealth.  Flying at my maximum safe speed without injury, the journey only takes maybe a couple of hours at the most.  When I arrive, I¡¯m floored.  My brain screams the term Mesoamerican from the fake world in my memories.  There is a cubic pyramid at the center of the city, like, it¡¯s made out of cubes and it¡¯s stepped rather than slant-surfaced.  The entire temple is either alabaster or marble, so are all of the pillars and wall faces that I can see.  The temple is magnificent.  It¡¯s massive, reaching just barely up to the canopy, but easily taking up four times as much width as height.  Every few steps there is a small plateau, and these plateaus host cubbies beneath the next step in line.  They¡¯re filled with what look like reading desks, candelabras, occasionally even Nagas holding books.


    The city has lamps that appear to be gas powered by methane or natural gas from some kind of central reservoir somewhere.  I think they have irrigation, public utilities, and plumbing!  There¡¯s a forgeworks at the far end of the city, and various metalworks and other crafting shops as well.  There¡¯s a glass-blowery, and either a florist or alchemist supply shop, I¡¯m not quite certain which, maybe both.  They seem to trade in minted tin coins from what we can tell through Lil¡¯s senses.  I could probably find a way to make them in my inventory, but I¡¯d rather not scam the Naga economy.


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    There look to be several arenas, or perhaps sports gathering structures.  The Nagas have a whole district dedicated for residential dwellings.  Their masonry is exquisite, and it¡¯s no wonder.  Whenever any building is done, a mage with petrakinesis or terrakinesis comes by to erect the walls or etch the engraved murals that adorn every face of every building.  A single mage lights or snuffs all of the lamps in the city simultaneously as needed via a pair of precision firebolts that zip to each lamp in rapid succession.  There are hundreds of Nagas, and they all seem to possess spells and wells of mana similar in depth to mine.  I don¡¯t see any spheriform or feraform serpents or anything though.  I feel like their base and only form is humaform.  I don¡¯t see young or elderly, so I¡¯m not sure if they spawn, or are hatched, or birthed, or what.


    Still, the chameleon elder told me to sneak into the temple and prove myself within, before trying to ingratiate myself into Naga society.  So we¡¯re going to do exactly that, before I get sidetracked for a whole day and end up getting us caught.  I engage my AC, Active Camouflage, and JT myself towards the only spot that leads to an interior of the pyramid structure, the very top.


    Lil and I look like little more than a heat ripple in the air, but still I could swear some of the naga are looking my way.  Crap!  My aura!  Reggie you idiot, ugh, Lil, I could definitely have used a reminder that everyone else in the world can see auras.


    Lil telepathically responds, chagrined, ¡°Sorry Reggie Pal, it didn¡¯t even occur to me to mention it, ¡®cause, well, y¡¯know, I can see them, so I thought you had a plan. I forgot you couldn¡¯t. Sorry pal.¡±


    Someone reaches into my mind with a sultry, commanding voice, ¡°Reggie, Lil?  Those are names I haven¡¯t heard in quite some time.¡±


    Crap crap crap crap, best case, that¡¯s Dehlia, worst case, we¡¯re screwed.  We need to get into the temple to prove ourselves quickly.  The chameleon elder was adamant about this.  Hold tight Lil, this is going to hurt.


    I risk a single near sonic level acceleration towards the temple¡¯s entrance at the upper level, simultaneously I perform a US of Umbralil heading in the reverse direction.  Hopefully it looked like Umbralil just sonic boomed in over head and they¡¯re what the aura is all about.  Take over the piloting of Umbralil please Lil, thanks.  Just fly them in half of a wide spiral and then back north until the five minute duration is up, please.  Hopefully it looks like they¡¯re leaving the aura trail that we came from.


    The voice returns to my mind, perturbed, ¡°Really, you aren¡¯t going to respond to me?  You¡¯re headed straight into the temple and its proving grounds?  How reckless can you be?  Is another friend on death¡¯s door?  You are such an odd little creature.¡±


    I don¡¯t know how to respond without line of sight.  I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s Dehlia, maybe, hopefully.  I hope that she¡¯s the strongest psychic here, or can only hear my thoughts because we¡¯ve connected before.  I really hope I¡¯m not broadcasting my brainwaves to every Naga in the city.  I also hope that thought about connecting previously doesn¡¯t sound vulgar.  Please don¡¯t be upset.  I¡¯m sorry, I hope you know I¡¯m not ignoring you!  I¡¯ve become a dragon type something or other, I¡¯ve physically changed my subtype, and I want to earn a chance to talk to some of your people.  Please forgive my intrusion!


    The voice, which I¡¯m almost certain belongs to Dehlia, begins, ¡°You could¨C¡± but they¡¯re cut off as our flight path takes us into the temple interior.


    I sort of wish I had roller skates, or a skateboard, so that I could zip around with JT movement while on the ground.  Maybe if I live through this, and don¡¯t piss off the Nagas, I could commission something on wheels.  I¡¯m tempted to turn back around and try to find Dehlia to talk to, but even if she¡¯s willing to vouch for us at the moment, the other Nagas may simply slay me for intruding.  Or they might kill us when we plead our case for peace since we¡¯re bringing thousands of softskins near their territories.  Hopefully whatever happens below will earn us some forgiveness.


    Maybe being able to prove we¡¯re friends with the chameleons will earn us some forgiveness?  We do technically have the entire chameleon village partied with us as a sub party under Lil.  I¡¯ve got the whole SCRAP, Lil has Chamelefolk Village, Luni has Luna, Teuila is the only one in my inner circle that doesn¡¯t currently have a sub party.  Hm, I hope Magnus isn¡¯t upset that I don¡¯t include him in my inner circle.  Focus Reggie!


    Oh heavens that¡¯s the third Naga I¡¯ve passed as I¡¯m zipping along the right hand walls, thankfully they¡¯re mostly too confused by the mass of aura plowing by to react.  I¡¯m down two levels, and there¡¯s a giant ritual chamber or prayer chamber in here.  There¡¯s a big bowl on a pedestal in the center, and for a moment, I¡¯m worried that they¡¯ll be doing ¡®of blood¡¯ sacrifices with me soon enough, until I realize the contents are some sort of sap.  It seems like they roll and harden amber or some other kind of sap into balls.  Does that mean they have rubber bouncy balls?  Do they play modern sports?


    This society is more cultured and varied than the human city we visited!  Artists that wield magic to share their gift with everyone on every wall in the city, mages with magnificent precision, leisure, entertainment, industry, housing, learning centers, and more!  I wonder how they feel about cuddles?  Probably not as big about it as mammals, although I could see them having tail piles to save on pillows.


    There were about half a dozen Nagas in what I thought was a ritual chamber.  The one that might have literally been some sort of rubber workshop.  I¡¯m four levels deep at this point, and getting extremely winded trying to keep up my Active Camouflage skill while running.  Oh no, in both hallways ahead, the Nagas are standing two abreast.  There¡¯s no room to run by them on either side.


    I don¡¯t want to hurt them, and I definitely don¡¯t want to alarm them enough that they rally everyone to seek out intruders.  So fighting, and summoning a distraction are both out.  There might be enough space to go over them.  This is going to hurt.  I JT myself prone against the ceiling and rocket myself along it above the heads of the guards in the right hand corridor.


    There are more and more of these pairs of guards in various hallways, but at least I can get by them without too much difficulty.  I need a cubby to recover my mana though, or should I be siphoning heat from the atmosphere?  Will I hurt the Nagas by bringing down the ambient temperature?  Maybe I can at least staunch the flow of outward mana bleed for the Active Camouflage.  It¡¯s taking a physical toll though too, exercising micro muscles across every inch of my body to send vibrations beneath my iridophores to bend light, and atop my chromatophores to match the colorations of my surroundings.  Those muscles are in a constant state of vibratory tension and it¡¯s like I¡¯ve run seven marathons in a row without stopping for food or drink.  My stomach rumbles loudly as I¡¯m jetting over and past another pair of guards, they look up and see the aura trail, but then poke fun at each other, seemingly about the other one being hungry.


    The air is actually a lower temperature down here, I¡¯m what, six levels down at this point?  Eight?  Lil do you remember how far we¡¯ve been running?


    Lil sleepily replies, yawning, ¡°Yahhhhhn, sorry pard, haven¡¯t been keeping track.¡±


    It¡¯s fine buddy.  If we can find this secret entrance, I think we¡¯ll be safe enough to take a break.  It sounds like the Nagas either know about it, and won¡¯t go in there, or don¡¯t know about it.


    Lil retorts, ¡°If they know about it, but won¡¯t go in there, doesn¡¯t that mean it¡¯s dangerous for them, and probably us?¡±


    I gulp, and hesitate in my run for only a moment.  A bad moment, as I¡¯m standing at an intersection, with a guard staring right at the now accumulating aura trail.  They begin sniffing the air and flicking their tongue about.  Oh no, I didn¡¯t think about scent, I haven¡¯t had Luni bring the soapstone.  Lil, do I still smell good?


    Lil licks me and nods in my arms.  I can barely stifle my laughter as I jet away from the now-curious guard.  At this point, I¡¯m making a lot of noise as I¡¯m huffing and panting with every stride.  Some walls are now rough hewn stone, rather than worked or magically shaped, so I feel like we¡¯ve made it to ground level, or below.  The secret entrance is likely on this floor.  My panting is drawing too much attention however, so I try to wait around a corner from a pair of guards.


    Telepathically I cry out to Lil, ¡°Lil buddy, my muscles are seizing, it¡¯s like every bit of me is on fire from holding onto Active Camo for so long.  But like, fire before I had huge thermal resist.  It hurts so much.  All of these micro muscles in every tiniest morsel of my body are aflame with overexertion.  Can you gaze around these few corners, and see if there¡¯s a spot that they either stay away from, or a lot of their aura passes conspicuously?¡±


    Lil nods, and hops out of my arms to peek around several corners, inconspicuously due to their current tiny size.  When Lil returns, their telepathic answer isn¡¯t what I¡¯d hoped for, but better than I expected.  ¡°Neither of those buddy, but I can do you one better, that hall over there?  Up over one pair of guards, then take the next turn, and there¡¯s a really fishy dead end with some statues.¡±


    Alright, thanks buddy.  Up and over we go, and zipping into the dead end.  The statues are unexpected as well.  They¡¯re hourglasses, but the three support struts are, well, One appears to be a serpent, one appears to be a human, and the third I imagine can only be an elf.  Its slender frame and sharp features along with pointy ears and immaculate brow seems unlikely to represent anything else.  The serpent¡¯s tail on the right statue juts out ever so slightly more at the base.  Really?  Could it possibly be that simple?  I look down and notice that the stonework below my feet is circular, whereas everywhere else was either cubic, or magically flat.  I¡¯m pretty sure there are movies with this exact scenario.


    I pull down gently on the right tail, there¡¯s a soft rumbling, some grinding of stone, and I¡¯m rotated along with the floor and statues to the other side of the wall.

 B 3 C 19: Dream Interlude, It鈥檚 About That Time

    <h2>B 3 C 19: Dream Interlude, It¡¯s About That Time</h2>


    What is this!? I know I haven¡¯t run down enough levels to be this deep underground. I drop my Active Camouflage and sink to my knees in agony. My AC took way too much out of me to be using it for that long. Every joint on my body is shaking from muscle tension and overexertion. I can¡¯t even spend the time coming to terms with what I¡¯m seeing as I¡¯m on the way to passing out. Lil buddy, you got this handled for a second? I summon some stone from my inventory to key places to stop the wall from rotating, in case we were followed. My body sinks into slumber.


    Why am I remembering this now? Even after dunking my head in cold water I find myself thinking of the times that Eights would be waiting for me at home when we were younger. It was before I could really handle myself. Back when we were scraping by on literal scrapings. Table scraps and the like. Old boy was good to me, friendly, loving, and eventually, a great partner in another kind of scrape, brawls and hunts. I¡¯ve had to pick up some tricks with other animals since losing him. Some kind folks back in Vale, a bit on the retired side of the blade, keep some scraps out for him even still. It¡¯s all he can do though, there¡¯s no thoughts, no recognition, he stands in that spot, moves a few feet to do his business, then returns to stand there, awaiting more food. He doesn¡¯t respond to anything, doesn¡¯t even sleep! Somebody did something to my dog, someday I¡¯ll find out who, and they¡¯ll pay.


    For now though, I¡¯m on the toughest assignment yet. Everyone turned it down. I should have too, but I¡¯ve got a soft spot for the downtrodden. Call me a sucker for someone that shares my sob story I guess.


    Eights was a real good hunter, I was lucky to have him as long as I did, heck, he was my lucky charm. Times when I thought for sure my goose was cooked, Eights would notice a loose board or a handhold in parkour distance, any of the like, and more. Oddest, darndest little things that made all the difference between a successful job with flawless escape, and a grisly end. My luck has soured a bit without Eights, but thankfully the neighbors in the Hidden Heart taught me a few things. They claim what they taught me was magic, but it¡¯s just whispers, kind words to animals, listening to the breeze, things like that. They say I should be able to understand what whispers back, but I never could. Somethin¡¯ broken, buggy in me they say, but that I¡¯ve got their magic nonetheless.


    Gorramit boy, why¡¯d you have to leave me? I don¡¯t have time for these feelings. Just like I don¡¯t have time to keep gazing back in this window at that pretty maiden who came-a-calling that seemed sweet on me. Distractions are death.


    I wake myself up with a snort that has me coughing, choking, and sputtering as the air ripples down my esophagus. Did I dream about a hunter dog? Something about Lucky? I can¡¯t remember. Thinking about Lucky is a rabbit hole I can¡¯t go down right now. That wonderful creature¡¯s whole existence is the craziest confluence of events I¡¯ve ever imagined. Some of those events are emotionally scarring.


    Speaking of emotionally scarring, the grandeur of this place is bewildering. Also, where is Lil? Lil, I¡¯m thinking at you buddy, can you hear me? I gulp when there¡¯s no response. I¡¯d shout, but I think the telepathy has at least the same range as shouting, and I don¡¯t want to draw attention to this place.


    This place though, wow. Bottomless pits, and endless dark chasm above. There are floating hunks of stone just hanging out in midair, they¡¯re small islands, yet they¡¯re perpetually hovering in place. If I look closely, I think I can see the slightest bobbing motion as if they¡¯re suspended on liquid. But they¡¯re all at different levels, so it¡¯s not like I¡¯m standing on the other side of incredibly clean glass, with rocks floating on top of crystal clear water.


    Picking up a pebble, I toss it to the nearest one, and the crystal outcropping on it begins to brighten, but nothing else happens. I didn¡¯t even realize that there were glowing crystal outcroppings on the floating islands. Still, there¡¯s an obvious stone bridge leading so far into the distance that I lose sight of it in the darkness beyond.


    Approaching it however is disturbing. There appear to be humanoid statues. Their poses are all set as if they were fleeing in terror of something. Actually, as I approach, they¡¯re all me. What? How? At least the ones I can see from this distance. They¡¯re me at different stages in my journey. Early on when I¡¯d just started wearing leaf leather, later when I was a toasty fried corpse, further on when I began wearing valkyrie gear, the first time I assumed the taller form, further still when I assumed that ridiculous shape with that stupidly dense greatsword in the cragbeast warren. On and on. I half expect at the end of it all to be either that fourth evolutionary stage, or this draconic form, or both.


    I¡¯m tempted to tie my blindfold around my eyes, to differentiate me from the statues, but that¡¯s just silly. I know who I am. Still, hourglasses. If anywhere is the right place to begin practicing my time skill, this is it. I check my logs to be certain I haven¡¯t already done so, and when I confirm there are no messages from a future me, I proceed with crossing the bridge.


    I¡¯m barely several steps across the bridge when the world shakes, and reality itself looks to be disintegrating into white-hot plasma in all directions. The stone of the bridge collapsing beneath me doesn¡¯t fill me with as much terror as the presence of that light. A light that burns away everything, all of existence is burned away to nothingness, serving no purpose. It¡¯s time.


    Still, there¡¯s an obvious stone bridge leading into the distance, its end escapes my range of vision from this far away. Approaching it however sickens me. There are humanoid statues in poses of utmost terror, with grimaces or visages of certain doom. Upon closer inspection, they¡¯re all me. This one here is early on when I¡¯d just started wearing leaf leather. That one is when I was a toasty fried corpse, that one over there is when I began wearing Valkyrie gear, that one ahead of it is the first time I assumed the taller form, but standing next to it is a statue of me in this draconic form. It looks like they had been appraising the statues further down as I¡¯m doing now from back here. Then something gave them a terrible fright.


    I wonder what it was. Perhaps if I get closer, I can see exactly where its gaze is going. As I approach the draconic statue version of me, reality itself begins to deteriorate. A white hot light floods existence itself, burning away everything to nothingness, not even ash. It¡¯s a radiant consumption with a ceaseless hunger. It will take everything away, but I won¡¯t let it, if any place could possibly be the right place to practice my skill, it has to be here. The hourglasses? Reality unmaking itself? Yeah. It¡¯s time.


    Huh, those floating outcroppings of stone all have glowing crystal outcroppings. How did I not notice that? Still, there¡¯s an obvious path forward into the darkness, and for some reason, I¡¯ve always been soothed by darkness. The stone bridge ahead is populated by statues wearing grotesque masks of terror. Viewed from up close however, they all appear to be¡­ Me? That¡¯s my leaf leather outfit on cherubic Reggie. That¡¯s crispy fried Reggie from the Night of High Water. That¡¯s Reggie wearing Valkyrie gear for the first time. There¡¯s Reggie in the second evolutionary stage, the one that¡¯s mostly just a taller version of me. Up beyond there seems to be the form from the cragbeast warren, but also two copies of draconic me. Those seem out of place if these were all chronological. Oh no! Chronological! I sprint past them, trying to take evasive flight by using JT to shunt myself forward at ridiculously high speeds. I break the sound barrier, and my legs, but an all-consuming light threatens to take all of existence. Looks like I failed again, whatever¡¯s happening, but if any place and time is right to practice this skill, it¡¯s here and now. It¡¯s time.


    I flick a stone to the nearest outcropping, and something I hadn¡¯t noticed before catches my eye, all of the floating islands have little patches of glowing crystal on them. The one that my pebble hit glowed slightly brighter for a moment. Hm, no matter, I don¡¯t even need light, between danger wraps, and all the time I spent blind or blindfolded. In fact, the path ahead has some pretty grotesque humanoid statues, I may as well blindfold myself along the path. I can always just JT myself back up if I fall off.


    As I begin passing statues, my danger wraps parse them with my ranged tactile sense, and they feel like, like me. But how? The first one is cherubic Reggie in leaf leather from early on, then crispy Reggie from the Night of High Water, then Valkyrie geared Reggie. Panic grips at my heart as I begin sprinting forward, suddenly there are several copies of statues of draconic Reggie blocking my path, but, but I didn¡¯t become draconic til recently. Those are out of chronological order. Oh no! Chronology! I open my mental logs, trying to quickly scan through, sure enough, world-ending terror should be approaching right about now.


    As I feel the blazing radiance of the heat of a thousand suns, all I can think to say about the situation is, ¡°Crap.¡± It¡¯s time.


    I pick up a pebble and I¡¯m about to throw it when I have a flash of deja vu. I swear I¡¯ve thrown this several times before. Why would I have bothered? Huh, ah well. I drop it back on the ground, ignoring it as I approach the only viable path forward. Somewhere far ahead the bridge before me disappears into a soothing darkness beyond the range of my sight.


    It¡¯s a good thing too, because the bridge is absolutely covered in draconic statues, and several humanoid ones that appear to, wait. That¡¯s cherubic Reggie in leaf leather, that¡¯s crispy Reggie from the Night of High Water, but why are there hundreds of statues of Draconic Reggie in various states of running, flight, fear, attacks, and more?


    I check my log, and I¡¯ve tried to cross this bridge hundreds of times. How crazy can I be? I¡¯ll just fly around it. I fly out towards the outcroppings but hover above them without touching them as I JT my way forward into the darkness. Soon I¡¯m met by the world diminishing into unending brightness from all directions. Crap. It¡¯s time. Hey Past Reggie, hopefully a scratch on the chest will get you to check your logs.


    I bend over to pick up a pebble when I suddenly have a sharp pain in my chest. Oof, the micro musculature used for my chromatophores and iridophores must have really taken a toll out of me. Maybe I should sit down for a second. As I sit down, I realize I¡¯m staring right into a brightly glowing outcropping of crystal on the islands floating nearby, and it hurts my eyes. Meh, I don¡¯t need light, I¡¯m used to being blind, and my darkvision is ridiculously good. I shatter the outcropping with a Jettison-Thrust of sharp stone. The light flickers and fades. There, now I can take a breather and rest my eyes, without having to move or turn. Wow, how ultra lazy am I? I shot out a light rather than turning a little. Haha.


    Oh Reggie, sometimes you Shellcrack me up. Eh, eh? Agwai would laugh. But no, really, I think you¡¯re losing it since Lil isn¡¯t responding. Did Lil tell me anything before I went to sleep, or maybe while I was asleep that might be in my logs, that might let me know what happened?


    Oh, no, no they didn¡¯t, but something else definitely happened. So the world keeps ending consumed in a brilliant light, the flame of a thousand suns, huh? Well screw you light. I leap into the air and begin blasting out crystal outcroppings as I fly forward parallel to the bridge. I¡¯m not quick enough, the light arrives to consume me, maybe past Reggie will figure out a way to be quicker. Good luck, me.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I bend to pick up a pebble, but for some reason, I¡¯m ridiculously angry all of a sudden. The only thing I see to vent my frustration on is a weird glowing outcropping of crystals. In fact, there¡¯s a lot of them. I don¡¯t need light, I might as well zip around knocking them out to let off some steam. Faster, faster. For some reason I¡¯m so pissed that I need to do it faster than this! Wait, why is the world disintegrating into brilliant white light? My logs, oh no. Good luck, past me.


    I bend to pick up a pebble, but images of a thousand possible futures flash in my mind, each one culminating in the same ending. The world ends, erased in radiant flame, an unending, ceaselessly hungry brilliance that consumes all. What kind of freaky hallucination is this now? I remember long ago, when I thought I was dying on the Night of High Water, everything in my nightmares was awash in light, and I thought I would end up fearing the light. Is that finally coming to pass? Grr, no thank you. I can face the light, or I can fight it. I¡¯m perfectly happy to operate in darkness. Why are all these stupid crystals glowing? I begin rapidly firing at them, flitting around with JT motion. I¡¯m furious at the light, it wants to take over everything, to take everything away, leave everything as nothing but a spent husk. A partially, no, fully, but it was malformed. What am I remembering? A candle, but it was enormous, like a spire to the gods. But it wasn¡¯t wax. It was, it was souls? The light comes to claim my world and everything in it, but I won¡¯t stand for it. Hey past me, be better than me.


    As I think about bending to pick up a pebble, I hear ¡°Hey past me, be better than me.¡± Glancing around, I don¡¯t see anyone, so I figure I¡¯m being visited by the voice again. I wait for it to explain, but it doesn¡¯t offer anything else. I wonder if I ever spoke to Lil about the future voice? Or well, my belief that I heard my future voice. I can check my logs. Oh. Oh no. How many thousands of times have I tried this? Okay, fine, maybe if we destroy this entire place before the light gets here, that will do something. I conjure the largest Umbral Shot copy of Gae Buidhe that I can muster, as many copies of it that will fill the air, and then I adhere more material to it in my inventory. The result is a whirling trident of death, several dozen of them, that sail forward, destroying all the statues and islands that I can see from this distance, as well as the bridge itself.


    The light still comes, its endless hunger driving it to consume everything. Past me, a massive multi Umbral Shot with extra inventory shenanigans won¡¯t work, try something else.


    As I approach the way forward, I hear ¡°Hey past me, be better than me.¡± I then hear ¡°Past me, a massive multi Umbral Shot with extra inventory shenanigans won¡¯t work, try something else.¡±


    Glancing around, I pause, waiting for more instructions, when none come, I check my logs to make sure I got them correct. Oh, oh wow, there¡¯s an entire sub log for this event that contains thousands of recurring attempts to move forward. What if I move backward? I head towards the hourglass statues, claim the stone blocking the spinning mechanism, and begin to pull the tail on the right serpent, but the world begins ending around me, awash in an endless hungering radiance. Alright past me, you can¡¯t go back, keep focusing on getting faster and stronger.


    I can barely comprehend it, future me is really chatty, with dozens of tips, and my logs are filled with thousands upon thousands of attempts to prevent this catastrophe. Is my world doomed? Is now when I¡¯m supposed to send the tips back to Luni and myself, to at least get us this far? To at least have had this much life?


    Lu, Lil, Te, I love you all so much. I want you to have every second possible. I¡¯ll do this forever if I have to, just to give you these last few seconds, I hope you¡¯re enjoying whatever you¡¯re doing as our world ends. You mean everything to me, the world to me. Hah, yeah, the world.


    Alright future me, any other tips? None at the moment? Alright, fine, let¡¯s give this a go. How about I use my space skill directly on myself, instead of using Jettison Thrust? Hm, I can move about an inch for a hundred mana. It¡¯s something I couldn¡¯t do before. It¡¯s almost instantaneous too. I can burn through a full pool of mana to move a foot almost instantly.


    It feels like the light is taking its sweet time this time around, so I¡¯ll keep futzing around with my skills.


    Okay, so, it has been several months, with no signs of Lil, or the light, maybe the logs are some weird bug in the world, some kind of prank. Would Lil have gone back out? No, the stone is still in place. Lil must be bored out of their mind deeper inside. Just in case, let¡¯s see how fast we can make it across.


    I¡¯m about halfway across as far as I can estimate, since I can¡¯t see the end of the bridge as I fly above it. However, the edges of my vision in all directions are awash in blinding radiance, an ever consumptive light. Fudge. Hey past me, the Light is patient, but it will take everything. Learn every skill you possibly can, try something new.


    I wake up with a snort that causes me to cough and choke as the air ripples down my throat. I hear ¡°Hey past me, the Light is patient, but it will take everything. Learn every skill you possibly can, try something new.¡±


    Glancing around, I don¡¯t see any light, or anyone else, but as I shuffle into a standing position, I¡¯m flooded with more tips from what must be future me. Checking my logs, there are thousands of attempts, including several attempts that went on for months.


    I try again, and again, and again, spending several months learning skills and trying to reset. I think my time skill is enough to send messages back years at this point. Let¡¯s see how this attempt goes. I¡¯m at attempt something like fourteen million at this point.


    Nope, the ceaseless hungering light consumes all once again. ¡°Past me, use the time skill every second for decades, learn every skill you can in that time.¡±


    I awaken with a snort, the air rippling down my esophagus causes me to choke and sputter. I hear ¡°Past me, use the time skill every second for decades, learn every skill you can in that time.¡±


    I check my logs and I¡¯m horrified. As I read them, I¡¯m treated to dozens and dozens of tips from various versions of future me from dead timelines. Still, they have a point.


    I don¡¯t have the comm stone on me for some reason, so this is going to be a lonely attempt. I hope you have a happy life, even though I¡¯m not there, my beautiful, wonderful family. I hope the Nagas don¡¯t attack.


    Alright, I don¡¯t think I can die of old age, or age at all. I¡¯m out of water and food though, if I¡¯m ever going to stop the light from destroying the world, hopefully it¡¯s now. I¡¯ve missed out on so many years with my winsome coterie, my SAP. I hope they¡¯ll forgive me when they realize what I¡¯ve been training to do. Well, I know they will. I guess I hope they even remember me is all.


    I can virtually instantly teleport myself, I can fire forth arcing lasers of fire and ice, I can fire homing Umbral Shots by the thousands, I probably have the firepower and mana to level a small continent, like the one we¡¯re on. I can place myself in my inventory and create umbral duplicates of myself, then claim those, I¡¯ve got dozens of me in my inventory. I can summon them, or summon Umbral Shot copies of them, and have them act either semi autonomously or under my direct command. I can multitask about a dozen of them at once, and I¡¯ve upgraded them to be able to copy all of my attacks without using any of my mana to do so. I can create highly potent acid from a drop of saliva with alchemy, it somehow fills entire vials or flasks, I¡¯ve a host of other abilities, but those are the most offensive. I can actually layer myself in ice armor that¡¯s harder than diamond, simultaneously coating that ice armor in flame armor that¡¯s in the thousands of degrees kelvin.


    As my stomach rumbles harder than it ever has before, I feel like it¡¯s now or never. Or, wait. What if I don¡¯t move? What if I let myself go? The light doesn¡¯t seem to attack until I move. Would my family be safe if I made this last sacrifice? Hm, I can¡¯t risk it. What if my presence is also holding it back somehow. There¡¯s no reason to throw my life away. It has been a lonely one, but still, I had my logs of the wonderful times I¡¯d spent with my beloved SAP.


    Let¡¯s do this thing. Summoning several dozen Umbral Shot copies of myself, I draw the kinetic energy out of the air to top my mana back off, the return rate is ridiculously good these days. We all begin summoning thousands of homing umbral shots, and preparing our teleports to not overlap, and to not strike one another with our attacks. Even still, our defenses are ridiculous. Umbral Copies don¡¯t need to worry anyway, but I actually have difficulty penetrating my own SAZA, Sub Absolute Zero Armor. Still, hopefully our coordination wins out in the end.


    I call out into the past, in case I mistime something, ¡°Past me, if you get this, it means throwing everything we had at it after decades of training didn¡¯t work, the only other thing to try is self sacrifice. Just sit in place and starve. I know you¡¯re willing. We¡¯ve been through millions of attempts and hundreds of years at this point. Thanks for the wonderful life Reggie. You weren¡¯t such a monster after all.¡±


    I picture the paths, utilizing my time skill to pause time and look into possible futures. I plot every single projectile¡¯s path, every teleportation step of every single Umbral Clone. We begin our assault, destroying everything in the cavern, likely even the ceiling we¡¯ve never seen, no matter how high we flew, and the floor in the bottomless pit. Our barrage is a massacre of multitudinal missiles that sweeps through every possible millimeter ahead of us. We then atomize the rubble as it¡¯s falling. We¡¯ve made it farther than any log has made it before, the estimates that they were halfway were ridiculously hopeful, even at teleportation speeds, there seems to be no end in sight. We continue our assault, we¡¯ve only spent a fraction of a millisecond, but we¡¯ve moved kilometers into the darkness. Further and further still, destroying all floating islands and every last remnant of the bridge as we push forward. We¡¯re actually pushing our mana consumption such that we¡¯re not able to regenerate as much as we¡¯re using, even with endless Flash Freeze Storms sucking up the atomic kinetic energy.


    Thousands of kilometers, dozens of thousands of kilometers, we¡¯ve destroyed everything and there¡¯s no end in sight. No, I was wrong. There¡¯s one kind of end in sight. The all consumptive light approaches once again. My umbral duplicates actually manage to fend off the light itself for mere fractions of a moment. I rail against light itself, summoning an endless well of shadows to push back, having my clones copy me, but I¡¯m still just one being, with a pool of mana that, however ridiculous, is still limited by the rules of our world. I can¡¯t keep this up perpetually. More and more of my duplicates are taken as we close in against one another. I engage a limit break and try to multiply my clones and my unending shadow well. It buys us several more moments, but now the limit break and my energy debt is eating away at me at ridiculous speeds with such powerful expenditures. Parts of my own body begin spewing light as my skin cracks revealing empty radiance beneath. I engage a limit break climax with only one wish, ¡°Save my family.¡± The light inches closer through my clones, and as I¡¯m about to pass out, I follow my message to my past self back in time, one last time. Past me will accept the sacrifice.


    I awaken with a snort, the air rippling down my throat causes me to cough, huff, sputter, and choke. I hear, ¡°Past me, if you get this, it means throwing everything we had at it after decades of training didn¡¯t work, the only other thing to try is self sacrifice. Just sit in place and starve. I know you¡¯re willing. We¡¯ve been through millions of attempts and hundreds of years at this point. Thanks for the wonderful life Reggie. You weren¡¯t such a monster after all.¡±


    My jaw drops as my eyes well with tears. I check the logs as more and more tips from dead versions of future me from broken timelines call back.


    Anything, anything for my family. I love you Shellcrackers, one and all. Goodbye everyone.


    My hunger grows by the day, as does my thirst, but I resist summoning anything from my inventory. I¡¯m lasting far longer than I should based on my broken memories of another world, but I suppose that¡¯s to be expected.


    I believe it¡¯s my final day. Every bit of my skin clings tightly to bone, my eyes are so dry that I can¡¯t blink, yet they still swim loosely in their sockets and cross on occasion. My lips and tongue are so dry and cracked that I can hardly breathe with how swollen they¡¯ve gotten. I believe I¡¯m having hunger delirium hallucinations. I¡¯d swear that a humanoid individual in a martial arts gi is wearing a large straw or wicker, slightly rounded hat. It appears that they¡¯re approaching me from thin air. The latest version of me flew to both sides for miles, as well as vertically for miles up and down. The world begins to dissolve around me as the individual approaches me, slowly clapping.


    I swear in a soothing voice they say, ¡°Let¡¯s just hide a few of those painful memories until you should need them, hm?¡±


    As they reach two fingers to my forehead, I begin to mutter, ¡°What, what the everliving,¡± before passing out.

 B 3 C 20: The Fata Morgana

    <h2>B 3 C 20: The Fata Morgana</h2>


    As I¡¯m passing out, I manage to reset time one last time. There are enough messages and logs that past me will see me being approached in their future.


    I awaken with a snort, the air rippling down my throat causes me to cough and sputter. I hear several conflicting tips from various versions of future me from dead timelines, and check my logs.


    On the most recent attempt, an individual was coming from this direction. I cautiously step out into midair, and my weight is supported by nothing. I don¡¯t mean I¡¯m falling, I mean there is absolutely no sensation of my weight being supported, yet I remain standing in space. I know for a fact that a previous future me flew up and down in this exact spot dozens of times over their decades of exploration. Why is it solid now?


    I¡¯m suddenly being approached by a figure from my most recent log. I can¡¯t make out their subtype under their dark gi, or their large hat with dipping brim. They slowly clap as they approach.


    In a soothing voice,they say, ¡°Well done, let¡¯s just help you out by hiding a few of those painful memories unless you should need them, hm?¡±


    As they reach for my forehead, I grab for their hand to toss them over my shoulder, but they fritz out, like Lil¡¯s new teleportation ability. I groan in exasperation.


    The figure calls out from far above me, sitting upside down in midair, ¡°Understandably mistrustful after such an awful experience.¡±


    They chuckle before continuing, ¡°Come now, Lil is waiting, you¡¯ve passed the first test with beyond flying colors. Even to the bitter end, you never gave up hope of saving your family. You tried nearly every conceivable path that wasn¡¯t a simple pointless alteration. Lil can help you face the Fata Morgana if you wish. Chop chop, and again, well done.¡±


    Lil! I glance around in a panic. The figure motions a chop with their right arm, and some of the scenery changes. The stone ledge is still here, but now it continues on the side to the right of the statues facing out. Also, the pit is barely deep enough that it might cause a small injury. The ceiling is visible, and the creature is sitting on it upside down.


    Seemingly in response to my thoughts, they query, ¡°Or is it you who are standing upside down, having had your world flipped upside down to safely practice your time skill so thoroughly? Decades, honestly, far more than expected.¡±


    I begin ambling towards another statued alcove, grumbling and groaning. My head is so full of logs. I can see why they would consider it a kindness to hide or delete some of these for me. Fourteen million six hundred six timelines. My brain feels like it¡¯s going to explode. Still, I¡¯ll deal with it myself. I¡¯ll shove the early few million in a redacted subfolder. Ow, okay, the process of doing that feels like the sound of an old hard drive clunking along, no, worse, an old floppy disk drive. Okay, whew, feels a bit better now. I just realized something they said.


    I ask the creature, ¡°What do you mean safely?¡±


    They respond, ¡°Exactly that, the only place in existence you can practice enough that your time skill does not steal time from another¡¯s life as the price it pays. Now it only steals time from your life, and you¡¯re ageless! Hah! Always breaking the systems you are!¡±


    I quail at the thought momentarily, ¡°I, I would have been. I did. I stole seconds from someone else¡¯s life, to save Teuila on that day? I, I think I¡¯m going to be sick.¡±


    They reply, ¡°You did, you will. Why do you think you agreed to get your dear friend to tell the younger you not to use it again? It¡¯s a heavy price for someone with a conscience. Unlike certain rapscallions floating around out there. No matter. Yours is the important one. Theirs will never have such versatility, or such a high possible cost.¡±


    As the creature suggested, when they said I will be sick, I horf along the stonework before the statues. I mumble apologies as I lean against a statue, accidentally pulling its secret lever. Wait, did they say a floating rapscallion? But that means Mataalii has a version of the time skill. It¡¯s less versatile though? And they can¡¯t use it for as high of a cost or to alter as much as I can. I almost guarantee it has something to do with moving items between different points in their timeline, probably specifically to the future. Maybe items and energies. They can likely only do any given item once, and the difference doesn¡¯t matter, because it¡¯s not taking away time from anything, not really. It¡¯s pausing it, then causing it to travel to a point. The travel time is probably the cost, and the travel time is likely judged by the speed of light, or thought.


    Hm, Lu would probably tell me to stop guessing. Or maybe we¡¯re past that? She says she knows I have to kill Mat. She also, hm. I don¡¯t know. She also said I¡¯d make the right choice. If Mat is even stealing fractions of seconds of people¡¯s futures, and their lives, he needs to be stopped. If he could be redeemed, would he come here to train? Would he be willing to practice until the only fate¡¯s string he could pull from, would be his own?


    My vision is all wonky, I feel like I¡¯m stumbling through a funhouse of mirrors. I see reflections of myself, but they¡¯re all distorted, stretched, compacted, bloated, and all other manner of morphs to my form. Where did my erstwhile guide go? They said I could have Lil help on the next test. Or did I accidentally trigger the test when I horfed alongside the statue? Ugh.


    Great, what¡¯s a Fata Morgana again? If it has to do with Morgana, or Morgan Le Faye, from my memories of, I keep jokingly calling it cryptozoology, but I guess it¡¯s just mythology, anyway, if it has to do with those memories, that¡¯s bad news. Morgan Le Faye at best is usually a trickster, a connection between the human and the fae realm. At worst, she¡¯s the most powerful, and most evil sorceress to ever have lived, one whose corrupted heart called for an unending quest for power that sought to rule the world from the seat of Camelot¡¯s throne. I really, really hope it isn¡¯t the latter. On the plus side, most of the myths agree that she was a cunning, intelligent, charming, beautiful woman, so I might get some witty conversation or snuggles before getting a dagger in my kidneys. Fata though, does that mean fate? I guess it could just mean fey or fae. But even those can be tied to mythological fates and inevitabilities. An inevitable betrayal? Who cursed whose sudden but inevitable betrayal? Hm. Or an inevitable trick, prank, prankster or trickster. Again, hoping that it¡¯s that one rather than the other.


    Wait, fate, Fate¡¯s Threads. Morgana, robes, no clothes, fae, fate, argh, brain, where are you going with this? I can tug at the end of my own thread of fate. I¡¯ve basically had it confirmed. I can run forward and backward along it at will, to some degree, that it costs from the end of my thread of fate, but my thread is endless. The only skill whose growth remains with me, from that dead timeline with decades of solitude, is the time skill. Can I really pause time? Look into the near future? Oh, oh, I don¡¯t have the hundreds of thousands, or millions of mana that future me did. I mean, even their mana was worth relatively much more, because their stamina was at ridiculous levels. Their consumption was a fraction of what mine would be, and their pool was massive enough, and recovered fast enough, that I don¡¯t know exactly how much energy it takes to engage those aspects of the time skill. Still, emergency aces in the hole are always nice.


    I call out, ¡°Hey, um, tester?¡± The cacophony of echoes that I¡¯m treated to feels like it¡¯s going to rupture my eardrums and flatten my brain. All of these distorted images of me each seem to be calling out the same question, and now clutching their heads along with me.


    Ow, okay, no sound. I wonder if now is when I should send the messages back to past me. I don¡¯t think I know everything I should know yet to make that choice. Also I shouldn¡¯t do it in here. Since I think I have to speak out loud I¡¯d probably cave in my own skull with the echos. Grr, my heart aches, I want to see Lil or Lu or Te. I¡¯ve literally spent decades without them at this point, according to my logs, and I actually feel as much longing as if I¡¯d actually gone through with it.


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    Alright, if this is another test, what was the last one about? It was perseverance? Or was it willingness to sacrifice? Maybe both. Persevere until sacrifice is likely the only possible option left, and even then, buy as much time as I can for my family in case even that doesn¡¯t work out. In here I don¡¯t feel like some endless all consuming evil is going to destroy the universe, but it is creepy as all heck.


    Still, each reflection floating around here feels like it hides some demon or another. Since they¡¯re my reflections, I guess they¡¯re my demons. I wonder if they¡¯re manifestations of my sins, my actual demons. Is this test about self reflection? I feel plenty guilty already for the actions I¡¯ve taken, or not taken, that had cost lives. Wait, no, remember the name of the test, the Fata Morgana. So at best, the reflections are a trick. Don¡¯t cave in to whatever any of them seem to be saying to you Reggie. That would be so much easier with Lil at my side.


    It¡¯s so weird, some of these reflections are of cherubic Reggie, but even those are twisted beyond recognition, like their eyes overlap so hard that they form a single large eye for example. Or their collar mingles with their mouth, giving their maw a green fanged black hole appearance. Stuff like that. The draconic ones I don¡¯t even recall how I look yet since I¡¯ve only seen myself for a brief time through Lil¡¯s eyes. I¡¯m not capable of judging the accuracy of copies of draconic Reggie.


    Hm, they¡¯re all mostly unarmored and unarmed, should I be as well? I currently am, but for some reason I feel like I should be fully geared. I draw forth my Valkyrie equipment, which takes on its draconic form for this version of my body, and seemingly just in time. Every reflection seems to break free from its mooring, but half of them seem intangible. A very tangible one however is rushing towards me with a familiar spear. I hate you. This version of, hm, me, I guess, is twisted and bulbous beyond recognition, as if I were some enormous draconic bodybuilder. Their copy of Gae Buidhe is also twisted, but even with a spiraling handle, it¡¯s still recognizable.


    Blocking a simple forward thrust with the buckler on my left hand, I slide along the haft of Gae Buidhe, closing the gap on Monstrosi-Me. Their reach is massive, but now that I¡¯m within their short range, they¡¯ll have a hard time bringing Gae Buidhe to bear. I try to cave in their right knee, which is at head height for me, but it¡¯s like punching a granite cliffside. Fine, weaponry it is. I dance around behind my right leg, gosh that is such a weird sentence to think. Ugh, anyway. I hack away at Monstrosi-Me¡¯s tendons, when I¡¯m suddenly skewered by ridiculously long fingernails from one version of Cherubi-Me. Hglrk. Always the freaking right lung. Coughing up blood I can¡¯t even pull myself off of their nails as Monstrosi-Me raises their copy of Gae Buidhe to drive it through my cranium from the top down along my spine.


    Is this maybe a test to not react and not use my time skill? Nope, nope, nope, too close, not going to risk it. Hey past me, vertical dodge!


    I¡¯m fighting Monstrosi-Me, attempting to slip around behind their right leg to sever the tendons when I hear ¡°Hey past me, vertical dodge!¡±


    I leap and look down as I see a Cherubi-Me thrust its gruesome nails where I had been standing, and it skewers Monstrosi-Me¡¯s right leg. As I land from my dodge, I orient to figure out how to capitalize on my enemy¡¯s predicament. Monstrosi-Me sweeps their copy of Gae Buidhe low, and suddenly I drop to the ground, my legs cleanly removed below the knee. ¡°Oof, past me, vertical dodge again!¡±


    As I land from my dodge, I hear an instruction from the future to leap, so I do. I see Gae Buidhe swept low by Monstrosi-Me and it cleaves Cherubi-Me in-twain. A version of me that¡¯s stretched into a vaguely predatory bird zooms in from nowhere and begins to sink its talons into my eyes. ¡°Past me, ground quick!¡±


    As I land from a dodge, hear an instruction to leap again, I leap again, then hear an instruction to head to ground, so I JT myself downward away from the combat backing up a bit to catch my bearings. I stand to take a defensive stance, and a Gorilla-Me grips my head and begins to squeeze. ¡°Past me, duck again!¡±


    As I start to catch my bearings, I hear, ¡°Past me, duck again!¡± Of course I oblige immediately.


    I¡¯m pretty sure I go through a few more near-miss timelines, because I hear ¡°Pivot left¡±, so I spin on my back foot as the Gorilla-Me jabs, they end up smashing in the face of Vulture-Me. Then I hear ¡°Swivel right!¡± I do a half pirouette, and watch as Gae Buidhe launches through the Gorilla-Me¡¯s abdomen right where I¡¯d just been.


    I hear ¡°Left Lunge!¡± So I turn left, dip forward, and thrust into a long horizontal lunge. I pass between a low sweep from the upper half of Cherubi-Me, and a grab from Monstrosi-Me.


    I hear ¡°Right cartwheel!¡± That one just seems ridiculous, but oh well, future me thought it was worth it, I wheel to my right, and between each of my limbs a flurry of blows pass from various grotesque versions of me that happen to skewer, jab, crush, or grab other versions of me.


    My next instructions are, ¡°Throat Jab!¡± after I run up the toppled Vulture-Me, I throat jab Monstrosi-Me, and hear ¡°Uppercut!¡± Obviously I oblige, and send Monstrosi-Me crashing into the remainder of Gorilla-Me and Cherubi-Me.


    Wait, vertical, vertical again, low, low again, left, then right, then left, then right, then heavy, then leap. Did future me just have me do the Ko-code? Hey me, did you do that on purpose? Or was that really the quickest safest path to victory? No words of wisdom? Hm? Sometimes I¡¯m a butt.


    Finally, that seems to be over. Lil is sitting near a half broken statue, whacking it with their tail. They aren¡¯t wearing their invisible goggles, or cloak. They begin saying some nasty things to me as they look my way. I exhale smoothly, I try connecting my senses to Lil. They¡¯re nearby, in a similar position, but this isn¡¯t Lil. This Lil would be viewing me from a slightly different angle. I skewer it with my Valkyrie dagger just shy of its core.


    I lean in and whisper, ¡°No games, I want my Lil, now. If you¡¯re a real entity, and I see Lil in three seconds, you get to live. If you¡¯re an illusion, it doesn¡¯t really matter.¡±


    The fake hostile Lil nods as the undulating mirror-esque realm begins to dissipate in smoke, revealing a rather plain roughly-hewn stone room between two sets of pairs of hourglass statues. Finally, my buddy appears in front of me, looking mildly confused before leaping into my arms.


    I immediately divest everything to my inventory to safely catch Lil and hug them tightly. I cry as I exclaim, ¡°Lil, my beloved dragon buddy, it has been so long. So, so, so long.¡±


    Lil starts to question me, but they dive into my logs. Once they see just how much has happened, they pause their question and instead whistle appreciatively. Lil nuzzles me and wraps their tail around me as best they possibly can.


    I collapse to my knees and just weep, holding and stroking Lil until something dares interrupt us. Thankfully nothing is that stupid right now. For their own sake.


    Eventually, Lil asks, ¡°So, really? Ageless buddy? Does that go for all of us? I mean, I guess you wouldn¡¯t know. Sorry pal. Wow, that¡¯s just. That¡¯s awful. All that time, and there¡¯s millions more buried away, all blocked out to save space? Oof. My poor pal. I love you Reggie. I¡¯m sorry you went through that.¡±


    Lil continues, ¡°There was a weird lady, or um, maybe a guy, I couldn¡¯t really tell, their hat¡¯s really big. And they were like, Reggie¡¯s about to take a test, if you are in the room when they do, you will be annihilated time and time again, and it might break Reggie. I couldn¡¯t let you go through that pal. So, so I moved over to this room, and, and, uh, just, ugh, that sucks. I can¡¯t believe you went through that, but your time skill is enormous. Is that, is that a billion? Hundreds, thousands, millions, billions. Yeah, wow. I¡¯m surprised the skill system didn¡¯t just go, fine, here¡¯s infinite, instead of adding more digits.¡±


    I can¡¯t help but laugh at how rambly Lil is getting about the situation. I smooch the heck out of the crown of their head and give them light noogies.


    When I¡¯m finally mostly in control of my faculties, we share a meal together, and contact the family with the Comm Stone. Amazingly it has only been a day since we last contacted the fam. I let them know we¡¯re in some kind of temple of time, and that I¡¯m going to need the longest cuddle in the history of ever when we get back. They tell me there was a fight today, but not among any of ours. The critterkin that left the contingent snuck back in and tried to steal produce from the human quartermaster. The humans threw their weapons away so they could fight back nonlethally, but the critterkin took the weapons too, and ran. No casualties on either side, but plenty of bruises, and some lost supplies and equipment. The magic of the stones runs out on our end before I can hear more.


    I can¡¯t really fault either side for that interchange. I don¡¯t know what to do though. We offered everyone a place with us, we might have to make it known that we will fight back with lethal force if they keep attacking our allies, so that our allies know we¡¯re standing with them. Otherwise coexistence will be a fading dream. If the humans think our people don¡¯t care about their lives and health, they¡¯ll likely respond in kind, by not caring about ours, and resentment will fester. I huff, heaving a heavy sigh. More political nonsense. I know I don¡¯t consider myself a hero, while some do, but I¡¯m definitely not a leader.


    Alright, genre savviness says one more test, or some sort of final boss room, or something like that. Let¡¯s see what¡¯s on the other side of this door together, eh Lil?


    Lil exclaims, ¡°Sure thing buddy! Together!¡±

 B 3 C 21: Naga Society Part 2

    <h2>B 3 C 21: Naga Society Part 2</h2>


    Inevitability. That¡¯s what we find on the other side of the door. At least, that¡¯s what I think to myself as I have deja vu flashes while the stone wall rotates with us.


    I find myself looking out across a tiny forest, the trees barely come up to my toes, but in the center of it stands a beast that looms over everything else. It seems to be part mud golem, part serpent, part dragon. It takes no action as Lil and I peer at it from the entrance.


    As we begin moving, it starts pounding on a tiny orb, something like a snow globe. The globe shatters, cracks, and the world around us begins to fade in an all consuming light.


    Really? This nonsense again? Past me, hold up, light is eating everything again. It¡¯s time.


    Inevitability. I hear ¡°Past me, hold up, light is eating everything again.¡±


    Sighing, I gaze around, coming to terms with what I see. Lil is about to hop forward into this miniature jungle, but I hold them back with a hand.


    I caution, ¡°Something isn¡¯t right buddy. That thing doesn¡¯t even care about us in the slightest. You see that little glint over there? There¡¯s some kind of little orb. What do your senses tell you about it?¡±


    Lil, peering intently in the direction I motion, states, ¡°Hm, seems like some kind of toy, like a glass ball with a little statue or castle or something in it. Is that important?¡±


    I shrug, ¡°I¡¯m not certain, not yet anyway. We¡¯re probably going to be here for a long time, and a lot of loops, until we figure this out.¡±


    I testingly try to throw up some umbral protection around the globe, US copies of stonework in a tetrahedron. The beast¡¯s attacks are held at bay only momentarily. Its fury grows until the umbral shielding dissipates, and it finally destroys the globe. The light spreads in from all around us once more. I huff as I let past me know that didn¡¯t work.


    Coming through the door rotated by the two hourglass statues, I think only one word, inevitability. I¡¯m greeted by a curious scene, and several messages from my future self. Crap. Before Lil can even try anything, I fire off everything I have at the monstrous beast. It doesn¡¯t even look my way or flinch. The beast proceeds to break the globe once we¡¯ve stepped closer to examine any damage we might have caused it. Well past me, that didn¡¯t work either. You¡¯re going to have to try patience again, you and Lil are going to be here for a long time.


    As we arrive, I think only one word, inevitability. I¡¯m inundated with message after message from future versions of me. Apparently Lil and I have been at this for days, maybe months already.


    I ask, ¡°Lil buddy, you up for maybe trying to ride this out for a few decades, see how powerful we can become?¡±


    Lil nods affirmatively. Alright, us from every timeline, let¡¯s do this.


    We¡¯ve been training for years, decades at this point, and we¡¯re running out of food and drink. We messed up once, and tried to get sustenance from the tiny jungle below, but that triggered the events, so we had to reset and begin again. We know that we have to do this in a single go.


    It¡¯s done, this is as long as we can possibly push back our confrontation, we won¡¯t survive much longer without sustenance, even as powerful as we¡¯ve become. I stroke Lil¡¯s talon next to me. Lil is currently what they like to call a greatwyrm. I¡¯ve taken on my monstrous fourth evolutionary stage, and still I stand only to their ankle.


    As far as the evolution of our abilities, Lil¡¯s breath can break through my beyond-diamond-density Sub Absolute Zero Armor, my SAZA, but only barely. Lil thinks I should call it my BASZAA, Beyond All Sub Zero Absolute Armor. It¡¯s cute, but a bit pretentious. We can both teleport through different means, Lil has learned to harness other elements in their breath, and they¡¯ve even safely gained my space skill. We¡¯re both able to make dozens of Umbral duplicates of ourselves. Our mana pools and regeneration rates are sickeningly high, and with Lil basically producing endless heat to ridiculous levels, I can sap that heat for nearly limitless mana. We¡¯ve molded and shaped our abilities to extreme levels, challenged and changed ourselves and our skills, but even still, I worry that it won¡¯t be enough.


    Lil shapeshifts into a humanoid figure about my height, we embrace tightly, and share a soft kiss, knowing it may be our last moments in this timeline together. We¡¯ve spent so many years preparing. I rest my forehead on theirs, heaving a sigh. We both know we have to at least try.


    Lil resumes their ungodly powerful greatwyrm shape, assuming the form that feels most powerful to them. It is a marvel, but judging by the distance between us and the beast attacking the tiny globe, Lil is still a miniscule fraction of their size, a mosquito comparatively. Lil and I summon as many duplicates as we can handle, and teleport forth, in the way of the beast and its attacks. I summon umbral copies of everything in my inventory in the order of thousands, and each of my duplicates do the same, we fill the skies with unbreakable objects aimed at the incoming fist. Lil¡¯s duplicates, my duplicates, and all my objects are swept into the creature¡¯s bodyparts as they swing our direction. Even if we¡¯re scratching its surface, it doesn¡¯t even slow the creature¡¯s assault in the slightest. Lil and I evade, teleporting towards what we assume to be its head or heads. We let loose everything we can muster, beams, breaths, item copies, duplicates of ourselves, Flash Freeze Storms, every possible method of attack we have at our disposal. The creature is unrelenting, and it¡¯s mere fractions of a second away from shattering the orb once more.


    Sighing, Lil and I both engage limit breaks and call forth umbral duplicates of ourselves worth millions of mana, enormous copies of ourselves to strike back against the beast. We¡¯re able to grip one of its limbs and hold it back, but our own forms plow along the ground, destroying the entire landscape below, barely missing the orb. As a last ditch effort, we try to engage a limit break climax to whatever effect the world thinks might help us. Lil¡¯s own body, energy, soul, everything is spent and absorbed into the fist of my duplicate.


    Lil! No, no, no. Okay, we¡¯ll reset after we try this, just, just keep breathing. Don¡¯t give in.


    My enormous umbral duplicate raises its fist and unleashes all of the energy its climactic act can muster, Lil¡¯s entire being pours forth as weaponized radiant energy, and it causes a fracture along one of the creatures limbs, but nothing more, though the beam carries off into the endless horizon as my arm is knocked to the side. Where the beam connects with water and land somewhere in the far distance is met with unending explosions, steam, and mushroom clouds as of a billion nuclear detonations. All that, all that, and Lil¡¯s sacrifice, and this is all we managed to do.


    My umbral duplicate is slammed downwards into the orb, crushing me between the monstrosity¡¯s fist, and the orb. This snowglobe shatters, and the light begins to consume everything once more. Alright past me. This is unwinnable, once again. The outcome is inevitable.


    Inevitable, that¡¯s the word that comes to mind as I enter an empty room with Lil at my side. Well, not empty, featureless. I¡¯m inundated with warnings and messages from dead versions of future me from failed timelines, but I don¡¯t see anything that sounds like what they describe. Nor what appears in my logs.


    Lil and I glance at each other. Lil reads my log and looks worried. If this was a test, I think we failed. I have to shunt aside and redact memory logs of millions of attempts between the first room, and this one, in order to reduce the explosion my brain feels like it¡¯s constantly experiencing.


    My vision fritzes slightly. Ahead of us is a walkway across a chasm over a river, it leads to an alabaster dais upon which stands six pedestals. They¡¯re similar in size to the one that held a tome with Lil¡¯s memory log in the chameleon village. Curiously, we cautiously cross the stone walkway, and stand before the pedestals. Sure enough, they have space for tomes of identical size, and there are roman numeral style engravings inlaid in the areas set for placing the books.


    I take out the IV and the VI book and set them in their slots. Lil takes out the I book and sets it in that one, but nothing happens. I heave a sigh and let myself huff for a moment.


    I call out, ¡°I guess we failed, huh? Are we going to be worthy to talk to the Naga people or no?¡±


    The figure, our tester or quester, whomever they are, approaches. There¡¯s something about their cocksure gait, the way their form is unreadable beneath their clothing, their prehensile tail, just something about every bit of them that seems familiar. They respond, ¡°This test was not to fail or pass, simply for you to one day understand. Not now, don¡¯t think too hard on it now. You did marvelously. By now, you¡¯re some of my oldest friends, my strongest allies. Thank you for taking care of things I wished to accomplish.¡±


    My face screws up in a quizzical expression, ¡°Staff Ninja?¡±


    Lil looks at me in surprise while the figure chortles. The being replies, ¡°Yes, and no. Like many of us, I did not have a name, I still don¡¯t. The being you know as Staff Ninja most certainly perished fighting the serpent. Yet that being¡¯s desires and gratitude reside within me. I suppose who I am now you can continue to refer to as Tester or Quester. Or perhaps one of your quaint acronym nicknames, TQ sounds pleasant, does it not?¡±


    Lil and I exchange a glance before I reply, ¡°Uh, yeah, TQ sounds fairly cool. Do you, does the being or desire that resides within you, want the thunderstick back? I mean, the lightning and thunder staff.¡±


    TQ chuckles while shaking their head, their face still hidden beneath the low-lipped brim of their round hat.  TQ then looks about, worriedly, ¡°Hm, it seems we haven¡¯t as much time as I¡¯d like this time.  Do not worry, you¡¯ll know when you can come back, when you need to come back.  You already have the five souls of origin, though one might be a smidge hard to convince.  And of course, the original soul.¡±


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    I can tell that somehow, beneath the brim of their hat, TQ is gazing intently at Lil as they say the original soul. The micro muscles beneath my skin still ache from the extended rapid use of my chromatophores and iridophores from the previous day¡¯s journey, so I find myself massaging my jaw, shoulders, neck, and chest.


    I clear my throat to ask, ¡°So, do we just leave? Have we passed the tests enough to earn the Nagas¡¯ trust? I¡¯m grateful to learn that my time skill had a price, and that now only I pay its price, as well as the ridiculous amount of practice I¡¯ve gotten with it, but it wasn¡¯t exactly why I came here. Or well, why I intended to try to come where I thought I was going to be. I still desire my family¡¯s safety above all else.¡±


    TQ responds, ¡°Wasn¡¯t it though? Hm, no, I suppose you wouldn¡¯t have been convinced of that reason. Some old gecko telling you what you needed to hear it seems. I apologize, that¡¯s insensitive, chameleon. Amazing how much they were able to absorb from a book not meant for them. Tsk, it shouldn¡¯t have been there, but no matter, you recovered it, with no loss of life, perhaps new allies to boot. If you truly desire your family¡¯s safety, and I know you do, you¡¯ll need the other three tomes. The elves should have some clues as to their whereabouts.¡±


    TQ pauses before adding, ¡°When you leave, you¡¯ll round a few corners, and spy a familiar face. Her telepathy is as strong as you believe it to be, the strongest I¡¯ve ever known. I bid you farewell for now, I haven¡¯t the energy to stick around any longer. I should be rested enough to help you when next you return.¡±


    TQ ushers us to return the way we¡¯d come, and while I¡¯d like to protest, we all know that I want to ensure the safety of my family as swiftly as possible, and to keep peace in all our lands. Lil has been mulling something over silently, and reading years upon years of my logs of our futures together that we¡¯ll never have lived. We turn to express our gratitude to TQ, but they¡¯re nowhere to be found.


    Lil breaks the silence as we proceed to the final, or first door, however you want to look at it. The one that will lead us back to the Nagas¡¯ temple. Lil mumbles, ¡°How am I supposed to be the original? Huh? Lots of things are older than me. I think. I don¡¯t get it pal. Did we do good? We failed, but, but I thought we did our best.¡±


    I lift Lil into my arms to snuggle them tightly, I smooch their forehead repeatedly. I blush remembering that Lil, in our longest dead timeline, is someone that I shared more tender kissing with. The only comfort I can offer is my love for Lil, my agreement that we did our best.


    Is there going to come a day, an inevitable day, when our best isn¡¯t good enough? When no matter how hard we try, that¡¯s it, that¡¯s the end of it all? The first and last test seemed to indicate such a possibility, but at least the first test didn¡¯t end until I had decided to sacrifice myself, for the merest chance that my family could live on. We didn¡¯t even get that chance in the final trial.


    I heave a sigh and let my brow rest against Lil¡¯s. I mumble, ¡°I love you to death and beyond, Lil, buddy. Thank you for being here with me. Going through that, twice, alone, would have been a special kind of hell.¡±


    Lil nuzzles against my head in return, ¡°I know pal, I know. I¡¯m sorry that this me wasn¡¯t really there with you through it all. I¡¯ll only ever know from the me in your memory logs.¡±


    I gulp down a breath and nod slightly. It¡¯s true, it seems like I¡¯m the only one that comes back, or messages from me come back. But how does that work with Luni though? It¡¯s more like I sent her entire future-self back to her, sometime around when she first evolved. So many times it has seemed like she¡¯s had personalities from different periods of her life piloting her actions and emotions. Early days, near anyone other than Lil, Teuila, or myself, she¡¯d stutter and mumble almost every sentence, and sometimes even with just me, or Te. Ever since she evolved though, Lu has been able to swap back and forth between extroverted, confident Lu, and shy introverted Lu, at the flip of a hat. Drop of a dime? Drop of a hat, flip of a dime. Something or other.


    Lil chuckles at my distractibility, ¡°Yeah, Lu¡¯s special, I guess I didn¡¯t really notice the differences, since she¡¯s always open around me, sorta. But she has something even more special with you. Kinda makes me jealous pal, but also kinda doesn¡¯t. Like, she doesn¡¯t get nervous with me, but she knows she can let go with me, too. I¡¯unno pal, it¡¯s weird, and stuff. But, like, like, like, best buds forever, right? And, and Gal-Pals, and It¡¯s-A-Secrets, and, and stuff.¡±


    I smile wide to my eyes as I continue to nuzzle Lil and kiss their cranium, nodding all the while. We exit this temple of time, after I¡¯ve recovered the stone I used to block the rotating entryway, and begin wandering a bit, seeking out the turns that TQ mentioned. Before long, a gorgeous Naga with long dark tresses can be seen approaching us followed by two guards.


    I slump to my knees and raise my hands palm forward in a sign of peace.


    Telepathically, I hear, ¡°I was surprised you were so adamant to head down to some old ruined arena with a dilapidated temple to prove your carpentry. That¡¯s generally not how we judge the worthiness of strangers.¡±


    My response is confused, incredulous at best, ¡°Buh, huh, bwah, what? Carpentry? Dilapidated temple? Floating islands! Crazy space warping! Time flipped on its head!¡±


    Dehlia replies, ¡°Did you suffer a head injury in the ruins? Falling stone is a constant hazard within.¡±


    My index claw raises as if to make a point, and my mouth tries to form words, but my index claw can¡¯t decide whether to point or pinch or purse near my scaled lips. How do I tell Dehlia that I did suffer many head injuries over several decades, nay, centuries, within? How do the Naga people not know about a crazy time warping temple?


    Dehlia states, ¡°It seems you¡¯re delirious, perhaps hospitality will aid your recovery. You have been a source of constant curiosity since first we met, Reggie Shellcracker. And now here you are, a draconian, or dragonborn, or draconoid, something or other. Did doing this to yourself scramble your skull? Addle your brains?¡±


    Lil starts laughing across our mental wavelength, and I begin to complain, but even Dehlia eventually snickers along telepathically.


    I sigh, and try to push all other thoughts aside. I came here with a single task. I request of Dehlia, ¡°Dehlia, would you be willing to tell me about your society? Its hierarchy, its structures, who I would talk to to ask for sanctuary, who I would speak with to parley or negotiate peace, things like that?¡±


    Dehlia ruminates, and she waves the two guards away behind her. They slither away down the hall to their posts I assume. Dehlia looks to be spending a great deal of time in consideration, her face hanging low. More and more of her hair spills forward, and she frustratedly grips all of it to tie in a swift bun behind her head. Even that has several feet of hair draped along her back. As she straightens up, I¡¯m treated to the sight of her bare torso, I gulp, blush, and avert my eyes. It¡¯s micro-scales that mimic human epidermis, and small curves in approximations of human proportions, nothing more, but my buggy memories slam me with a sense of guilt, shame, and impropriety for viewing someone¡¯s bare torso. Dehlia squints one eye at me while raising the other brow. I know she can essentially read my thoughts if she¡¯s listening, I hope she knows I have the utmost respect for her and her incredible powers.


    She chuckles, ¡°Flattery will get you nowhere, Reggie. Well, maybe a few feet closer. Come here, let me show you around. May I carry your Lil? I¡¯m surprised, and happy, to see them recovered so swiftly. I thought it would take them years. I¡¯m both ashamed and proud of my part in their, hm, current state.¡±


    I start to say that Lil isn¡¯t mine, but Lil bounds ahead into Dehlia¡¯s arms. Dehlia virtually babies Lil, cradling them with one arm, stroking their tail with her free hand. Lil blurts out, ¡°Thanks sweet sexy snake lady!¡±


    My expression becomes mortified as I facepalm. Who taught Lil to talk like that? That¡¯s not even an adjective that should have any meaning to critterkin since we don¡¯t have, y¡¯know, sexy stuff. Dehlia looks stunned for a moment before she bursts into laughter. Whew, okay, at least she took it well. I guess it was kind of funny after all, heh.


    I don¡¯t want to imply that the tour we get from Dehlia is boring, far from it. Her description of every bit of her culture as we pass by any given object, engraving, sculpture, building, member of her extended family, or anything else, is utterly fascinating. There¡¯s just so much information being passed my way, that it ends up in a sub log within my memory journal, devoted solely to the Naga city and its society. Since her telepathy is so strong, she isn¡¯t limited to just speaking telepathically, she can pass me entire histories of a thing that we¡¯re discussing or looking at, all in an instant.


    It¡¯s almost like we have a version of our accelerated thinkspace, but only Dehlia is accelerated, and she can dump dozens of times quicker speech into telepathic contact than I can respond to or even digest. She even seems, almost giddy to be sharing all of the information with pride. Some of the standout features to me are scriveners and scribes who work at determining functions of magic, and documenting them. I may one day be able to learn how to create new identification scrolls from them, since I¡¯d destroyed the last one unintentionally when trying to learn its secrets.


    For now, I¡¯m far more interested in her governance, or well, her discussion of the Naga society governing structure. It¡¯s an elected panel, three trios who provide checks and balances against one another, rarely do they all handle a single matter, but matters of great import will require a tribunal of all nine. To even have a chance to request a full tribunal though, one has to have acquired a sort of mark of importance. These are given out to people in the top of their field, the best craftsman of a given type, the best athlete, the most accomplished scribe, the most accurate soothsayer, and on and on. They may only be used once in a lifetime, before needing to be earned again. It sounds like to earn them again, every other Naga in your field must earn and use up their own mark of importance before you¡¯re allowed to again, so you have incentive to train and support everyone who was previously beneath you, to help them ascend to your level of talent.


    The only way for an outsider like me to earn one, would be to demonstrate my mastery of a field, and for the top Naga in that field to acknowledge me, and willingly hand over their mark of importance. The problem is, I¡¯m not a master of anything. The only thing I¡¯m even sure I¡¯m good at is one on one combat. I don¡¯t think any individual Naga is capable of slaying me if I fight with the idea of going all out, with life and death on the line, but I don¡¯t want to challenge someone to a duel to the death. That doesn¡¯t seem like the way to earn a peace treaty, or pledge of sanctuary.


    Dehlia did reiterate her warning. The warning that if I wasn¡¯t so obviously scalekind, currently, all of the guards would have reacted much more harshly to me zipping about their territory. Also, a reminder that many of them have powerful magic. I¡¯m so glad that most of their magic seems to revolve around fire and cold, though there are plenty of specialists in acid and toxins as well. There are several that have minor gravity powers, and I really wish I could invite Teuila here to show off hers. At least, hers at the height of her power, when we were still using radiant transformations.


    I ask Dehlia for her opinion on which mark of importance I¡¯m most likely to be able to earn from someone else, based on what she knows about me. Her response is, ¡°Hm, you¡¯re nimble, powerful, able to take a beating. Do you know how to play ball?¡±


    The turn of phrase strikes me as funny, but Dehlia did describe their sporting activities to me. The wildest of which is almost no-holds-barred combat. I say almost, because injuring or killing the other team is punishable by the same, so players tend to avoid using their magics directly on one another. Honestly, I think she¡¯s right. If my life were a comic, manga, or anime, I¡¯d be about to enter the silly arc that seems like it might be filler, since it revolves around sports, but turns out to be massively important anyway.


    Dehlia informs me that I¡¯ll have to challenge enough teams to even be considered a worthy challenger to be allowed to make a challenge of the current master in the sporting field. My big choice is whether I make the challenges solo, and face the solo master, or in a pair with Lil, and we eventually face the duo masters.

 B 3 C 22: Sportsball, Thats a Word, Right?

    <h2>B 3 C 22: Sportsball, That¡¯s a Word, Right?</h2>


    I think my best bet is to, once again, keep an ace in the hole such as my space magic. To do that, I¡¯m going to need Lil to do the heavy lifting in their Lilagnewt form, in partners Naga ball. That¡¯s not its actual name, its actual name is something I can¡¯t pronounce in a word that will translate to my mental log that seems to be in English. I can actually say it with my draconic tongue, but that¡¯s neither here nor there.


    Another reason I¡¯m going to need Lil is because of my difficulties communicating. Not many officiants are telepathic, and I have my ridiculous communication difficulties with critterkin and whatnot. Lil will be able to tell me if we perform a foul or something, I¡¯m not even sure if those are things.


    Honestly, we have a bit of a ridiculous advantage. Lil and I are both capable of flight, while most teams are not. Even without using my inventory magic, I can leap into a strong glide at this point, as well as recover lost height over time with a few pumps of my wings. The only real rule is basically don¡¯t harm the other players, and if you perform a magic that obstructs a goal, or confines a player, that you can only use that ability to do that action once. So for example, I could freeze one, or both of the opponents, but then not do that again the rest of the match without being disqualified. I could freeze over the goal, but not do that again without being disqualified. I could even freeze their goal, and each of them individually, and the pair of them simultaneously at separate times during the match if I make it look like a separate spell, and that would all be kosher. I can also do my umbral duplicates or inventory shenanigans in separate ways that will look like terrakinesis or petrakinesis, or wood conjuration, or weapon animation, I have a lot of variations on my powers that I¡¯ll be saving until the most important matches. Lil can cook the ball hot enough that only they or I can handle it. Lil also has fantastic physical training from their time with Teuila. Lil can even glitchily teleport a few inches, maybe a foot or two, to one side or the other. That one will never get them in trouble, because they won¡¯t be using it to obstruct anyone or any goal, only to get free of obstructions. We¡¯re allowed to attack and destroy obstructions, and thankfully our fire abilities are both potent enough to destroy most gasses and liquids, and my ice abilities are strong enough to shatter most physical objects when paired with Lil¡¯s strength.


    Since I don¡¯t want to spend a lot of time on this, I beg Dehlia to essentially be my manager, to set up a non stop flow of challengers for us to compete against. She relents, curious to see what surprises we might have in store. Plus she¡¯s already heard me thinking about some of my secrets.


    One odd thing happened recently, on our way out of the temple, Luna shuffled around in our party interface again, and now the entire Shellcracker family are in a sub party under me. Luna then shuffled herself back to being under Luni, then she shuffled my inner circle into a private sub party under me as well. For all intents and purposes, it looks like I alone lead everyone, including Lil, who leads the chameleon village. If any Nagas join us, it will look like the dragons are in charge of the wellbeing of both the chameleons and the softskins.


    Does Luna somehow know what¡¯s going on, and what the stakes are? How the heck does she manipulate party management? I¡¯ve never thought of her as a dumb animal, but she doesn¡¯t seem sapient in the way that the rest of us do, most of the time. On the other hand, she¡¯s at least as intelligent as any of us most of the rest of the time. Maybe I should think of her more like a friend who happens to be mute? I shouldn¡¯t be thinking of her as a smart animal, I should be thinking of her as a smart friend, just one that can¡¯t talk in a way that I was capable of learning yet. Maybe she knows BSL, beak/bear sign language, and I¡¯m just an idiot who hasn¡¯t been picking up on it.


    Dehlia does let me know that the reigning champions of the duo class in Naga ball are Lluxop and Rastoc, divine twins, who apparently have quetzalcoatl¡¯s blessing. This apparently means they can fly and utilize lightning magic, possibly also weather magic. When Dehlia describes their powers, it honestly sounds a lot like Linti. I wonder if they realize how much they have in common with some softskins? Would that be an insulting thought to share? I don¡¯t want to blow our chances at peace.


    Dehlia sets up a preliminary challenge for us against a middling duo who is eager to take all-comers. It¡¯ll be enough that if we¡¯re fairly entertaining with our match, we¡¯ll have challenges lined up until we¡¯re bored of it. Oddly, some of the men and women actually seem to have a more feral evolution now that I¡¯ve been around the city more. Or rather, while normally a feraform is about half the size of a humaform, there are Nagas that have human torsos and faces, while others have serpent faces, and barely human-esque torsos. I don¡¯t want to appear rude by asking about the distinction, Dehlia has already graced me with far more information than I thought I would receive. I figure if she hasn¡¯t offered it already, then it¡¯s not polite to ask about it.


    Our first opponents are Szintoc and Brastley, a duo with wind and toxin powers. We¡¯re playing a simple first team to five scores match, no special rules, but it¡¯s also unofficiated, so there will be no punishments if Szintoc poisons us or if Brastley knocks us around or cuts us with wind. I don¡¯t intend to retaliate in the slightest even if they take advantage of this open dynamic. Lil agrees that we¡¯ll play fair, and not harm our opponents.


    Since it will be a short game, I practice my breath skill slightly. The one I recently received from Lil. All I need is to be able to exhale the tiniest gout of flame in case toxic vapors are attempting to work their way into my nostrils. I also don¡¯t need to see, so I layer up blindfolds to protect my ocular mucus membranes. I similarly cover my nose and mouth after taking a deep enough breath that it will last me nearly half an hour. The game shouldn¡¯t take more than five minutes, but I figure the vigorous activity, coupled with possibly getting knocked around a bit, might knock down the air in my lungs more quickly than I¡¯d like.


    Since we¡¯re the challengers, we have to return the ball into play to the other team on their serve, placing them on the first offensive. That¡¯s fine by me. I can already tell that Brastley will guide Szintoc¡¯s shots while Szintoc keeps themselves safe with an area of toxic mist. Simple but effective strategy, allowing for control of the field, and easy goals scored. Brastley will also be knocking us out of the air since we don¡¯t have an officiant, so our easiest route to removing their advantage is negated.


    We¡¯re going to have to be really careful when burning away the toxin in the air so that we don¡¯t hurt Szintoc. If Brastley accidentally fans the flames when we ignite the toxic clouds, there could be some explosive action that we don¡¯t intend. Actually, Lil, how about no powers, just pure physical strength for this one? How about you mask up and hold a breath too? That way we don¡¯t risk hurting them at all.


    Lil nods and I help get fabric situated in ways that act as scarf, mask, and blindfold, though their blindfold is thin enough to see through. Szintoc and Brastley are laughing their heads off as we prepare, and they serve without warning. Since there¡¯s no officiant, we can¡¯t complain, though Dehlia sounds a tsk from the sidelines.


    I catch and return the heavy sap-rubber ball, allowing them to begin their offensive. Szintoc intercepts and I can feel from my danger wrap senses that he¡¯s already coated in toxin, and exuding a fine mist of it as well. Just as expected. Lil, go right, fan your wings, furl them, then flap as I leap towards you, I¡¯ll spring off of your wing.


    Lil, riding my thought waves, does exactly ask I ask, and I steal the ball just as Szintoc is preparing to make a long ranged shot that would have been guided by Brastley. Brastley hisses in frustration, and hits me directly with wind, aiming a barrage at my torso, trying to batter my own breath out of me. It hurts mildly, since we¡¯re not allowed equipment, but my scaled torso is much more resilient than old cherubic softskin Reggie¡¯s. I suffer a bit of pummeling but I prepare a feint as if I¡¯m ready to score a goal, knowing I have both of their attention now. Lil however knows what I¡¯m thinking, and zips around to my left. I purposely fumble, letting the ball drop from my hands as I raise up for a shot. Brastley aims a blast of wind where the ball would have been, to knock it towards where Szintoc is waiting, but Szintoc receives nothing save a gust of air. Lil scores a goal while they¡¯re looking at one another dumbfounded.


    Szintoc and Brastley get the offensive serve again since we scored, and this time I feint as if I¡¯m going to follow the exact same strategy, but instead of heading for the intercepting steal, I instead leap back towards our goal. Brastley barely stops themselves from delivering the ball right into my hands, and Lil leaps through their wind blast, catches the airstream, soars high into the sky and divebombs straight into the goal, scoring again before they even have a chance to retaliate.


    Once again, they¡¯re given the offensive serve, but they purposely fault. Even though we don¡¯t have an officiant, they claim it¡¯s only fair that we take the offensive serve. Obviously they¡¯re planning something. I¡¯m not sure what. Also, future me, don¡¯t bother coming back to tell me anything about this. If we can¡¯t win some sports fairly, we weren¡¯t meant to parley this way. I have other skills I can ply if this fails. I perform the offensive serve as I¡¯d seen them do it, but instead of the return serve to allow us on the offensive, they do what I could only compare to an onside kick, in uh, that ball sport with the feet. I think even in my broken memories of fakeworld I hated sports.


    Lil and I react a bit slowly, since I¡¯m distracted by my own mental reverie about my memories, and Brastley guides Szintoc¡¯s shot from the far end all the way to the goal. I mentally shrug, but outwardly I applaud them, giving them the solemn nod of approval I¡¯ve seen Naga give one another for a good play. They seem to be enjoying themselves now, and no longer underestimating us, at least until we score two more points in the blink of an eye, while they¡¯re still on their first point. Now they¡¯re a bit mad, and throwing every spell they have at us to keep us from getting our final point. Honestly I¡¯m weathering all their spells and muscling just fine, but I¡¯m curious what their mana limits are like. Ah, now we¡¯ve found them. They¡¯re panting with exertion, and unable to manifest any more magic. Lil and I saunter over to the goal and drop our last point in casually.


    I think that¡¯s probably pretty insulting, but I apologize and ask Lil to share that it was an excellent game and I was honored to get a chance to play against them. Their response is something along the lines of beginner¡¯s luck, of course. Not exactly poor sports or sore losers, they aren¡¯t being openly hostile, but they¡¯re definitely exhausted and wearing it on their serpentine faces.


    After such a one sided victory in which we used no magic whatsoever, we start to draw a crowd, as Dehlia predicted. The fact that we let one easy goal slip past us gives enough people enough hope that they can show up the newbies, so, strategically in the long run, it was good I got distracted at that point.


    We play three more unofficiated matches, giving away no more than two points in any match. I¡¯m a bit physically exhausted, but I¡¯m happy to take a food break with Lil. On our fifth unofficiated match, we¡¯re informed that if we want to continue afterwards, we¡¯ll be doing it officially. They¡¯re starting an impromptu tournament, essentially, well, not exactly in our honor, but because of us stirring the athleticism pot as it were.


    Our fifth match goes off once again without a hitch, the only thing we¡¯ve revealed is Lil¡¯s flame breath when an opponent was able to do something similar to my Flash Freeze Storm. I pondered about just adjusting the temperature of the ice around me to melt and walk through it, but Lil decided to let them score a point and break out physically. On the next serve the team used the same ability, but Lil was breathing fire as the frost hit us, and it was instantly nullified.


    Now we¡¯re in an odds bracket tournament, where the champs don¡¯t have to face anyone, but they¡¯ll face the one who makes it furthest in our side of the bracket. Basically winner gets to face the reigning champions. That¡¯s absolutely perfect. I share my gratitude and excitement with Dehlia, which actually earns me something the Nagas call the good luck kiss, where they, uh, stick their extremely long serpentine tongue a ways into each of their favored team member¡¯s ear areas. Lil enjoys it tremendously, but I am too flustered and embarrassed to know whether or not I enjoyed it. Still, when the most powerful telepath in quite possibly the entire world wishes you luck, uh, intimately, you should probably feel honored, and I do. These victories are honestly as much Dehlia¡¯s as they are ours, since she set this up for us. She admitted to not even being that great a fan of the sport, yet I see her on the sidelines on the edge of her figurative seat for each play, cheering for each goal, gasping each time we were struck by spells in unofficiated matches.


    She¡¯s, well, kinda cute honestly. I never thought I¡¯d be having that thought. She¡¯s this serious, intelligent, driven woman, and here she is, just showing her fun enthusiastic side. She promised to introduce us to her brother as well later, but also said we¡¯ve already met. It was very, hm, if I could offer evidence to the contrary, I¡¯d make some guesses and say that if I didn¡¯t know any better, it was this idea I have in my head. Honestly though, I don¡¯t know any better. The idea in my head is that she is her own brother. I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s some sort of multi spirit thing, or multi gender, or uh, as some reptiles are, well, I think the term I¡¯m thinking of is offensive. Plus, like I said, critterkin don¡¯t have the bits, the machinery, the parts, for that kind of relationship or to have that sort of terminology. We don¡¯t have physical sexes, mostly. Some of us have, well, slightly rounder or more curved torso areas, or different hip to waist ratios, stuff like that. We have, what is it, morphic qualities? Dimorphic without primary characteristics? Something like that. Cryptozoology again. Gendered-dimorphic anthropomorphic reptiles without primary sexual characteristics.


    That was a ridiculous train of thought, and I apologize to anyone who ever reads my mental log, or hears my thoughts. Sorry Lil, sorry Dehlia.


    I thought the officiated matches would be slightly harder, but now that no one is risking targeting us with their spells, it¡¯s even easier to make it through the matches with flawless victories without giving away any of our powers beyond our physical prowess. I feel like they¡¯re going easy on us for some reason. It¡¯s almost like they want us to make it to the champions.


    Maybe they do? But is that a good thing, or a bad thing? Regardless, we give up no more than four points in the entire tournament to reach the top bracket, where Lluxop and Rastoc await their newest challenger. The officiant exchanges a knowing glance with the pair, and I worry that we¡¯re not going to get a fair match.


    Dehlia chimes in telepathically, ¡°I don¡¯t like that thought. Don¡¯t accuse my people of cheating. But also, I saw the glance as well, and didn¡¯t like it. Remember, this is not your only opportunity, it was simply the quickest one. Do not destroy all of your chances, if something untoward happens here.¡±


    I nod to Dehlia. I¡¯m surprised she¡¯s this invested in my succeeding at getting a chance to parley, since she has been able to dig around in my thoughts. She knows it¡¯s to broker peace, and to safely march hundreds of softskin critterkin and humans along the north edge of their territory. She seemed so viscerally adamant that she could never befriend a softskin or anyone who cared about one when we¡¯d first met. Still, she does get to boast that she saved a dragon¡¯s life. Maybe that elevated her station here, or something. Or maybe she just realized she was a few weeks from being transformed into a full Octorochi dominated by the male tri-serpent, and has since decided that altering that fate is cause enough for friendship.


    Either way, I¡¯m glad for it. Still, our match with Lluxop and Rastoc is starting. We¡¯re using a new scoring abacus, this one with seven points. They of course get the offensive serve, and first turn on the offensive. Would it be a faux pas to onside kick on the first serve? I don¡¯t want to risk insulting them by either playing unsportspersonlike, or by appearing to not take the challenge seriously.


    Their first play goes by ridiculously quickly. Similarly to Linti, they can transform into lightning and zip around at ridiculous speeds. I manage to just barely cause Lluxop to fumble once in the middle of his leap during which he was preparing to take his first shot. Lil dives in and scoops up the fumble, but Rastoc teleports through Lil as lightning, and Lil, stunned, drops the ball. I race downward to pick it up, but Lluxop teleports there before me, and hip checks me hard as I land, sending me crashing into the nearby wall. Lluxop casually plays their first point.


    I can tell something is announced to the effect of, ¡°Champions One! First of Seven!¡±


    Ow. Okay, so the officiant doesn¡¯t care if they strike us with injury inducing force. Lil, Lil are you okay? Lil buddy! Come on buddy. Come on pal. Lil sweetheart, breathe my buddy, someone, help! Rastoc sends a tiny bolt of lightning at us that strikes Lil between the eyes. Lil¡¯s eyes flash open as they cough. What the everloving heck!? They can stop our hearts, and that¡¯s not a foul?


    Okay, fine, so the officiant is probably a little biased, that¡¯s fine. We can¡¯t risk doing anything that might get us called out for fouling, but I will buy myself a little insurance. I ask Lil to sit out the next serve to recover. When I receive their serve, I instantly claim and unclaim the ball to and from my inventory. While it¡¯s in, I also instantly summon an Umbral Shot copy of it and claim that, faster than the blink of an eye. I¡¯m tele-rammed by Rastoc, and fumble the ball due to the impact, but I use inventory space magic to pretend to cover their goal in terrakinesis. Now that they can¡¯t score for the moment, I bull rush through, appearing like I¡¯m going to spear Rastoc in the abdomen. Rastoc of course goes lightning-intangible, as I predicted. It hurts like heck to pass through them, but I grab the ball on my way through, using JT to move to my goal and score.


    The announcer doesn¡¯t even bother to pronounce the challengers, us, having scored our first goal. They do however mark it on the abacus, the first of seven.


    The officiant orders me to remove my terrakinesis block on their goal for the next play, so I do, but I ask Lil to keep resting a bit longer. As they begin wildly blasting lightning during their offensive serve, I summon an arena-coating Flash Freeze Storm, turning them into popsicles. I saunter over and very carefully pluck the ball from Lluxop¡¯s hands by warming them lightly with thermokinesis, so as not to harm his hands. I score another goal. The match is delayed as we wait for the arena to thaw out. Thankfully that gives Lil time to recover.


    The officiant again doesn¡¯t bother announcing our second goal, but they slap the abacus point politely in my favor, the second of seven as it¡¯s a championship match.


    When the champions get their next offensive serve, they focus all of their efforts on blasting me in the chest with lightning repeatedly. At first it simply dissipates around my scales, but as it scorches the same spot over and over, the scales begin to break down. They¡¯re aiming for the kill! What the heck?


    Dehlia calls back telepathically, ¡°This is highly unusual. I, I suggest forfeiting. We don¡¯t know each other that well, but, but I don¡¯t wish to see you die. Please forgive me for putting you in this situation.¡±


    I reply to Dehlia, ¡°I¡¯m not sure they¡¯d even let me forfeit right now, plus, I can¡¯t speak, and they consider me the team captain. At best, Lil could retire and let me face them one on two.¡±


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Dehlia lets out a soft tch from the sidelines. She looks flustered and upset.


    I¡¯m hauled bodily into the air and slammed into the ground by Rastoc, as Lluxop begins to burn holes in Lil¡¯s scales. They completely abandon the ball as they pummel us into the ground. I cover Lil in terrakinesis-looking inventory magic, hoping to protect them from Lluxop¡¯s fury. I then JT blast myself away to snag the ball.


    Lluxop aims a lightning bolt directly for my chest. With how many direct hits I¡¯ve taken to my chest, my only option to dodge at the moment is to gain altitude, but Rastoc is teleporting as a lightning bolt, I have no time to react as he aims where I will be as I dodge. Rastoc connects with my face at full speed. I feel myself plummeting as I lose consciousness briefly.


    Gorram maiden at the bar and her fair features, lovely hair, soft curves. Curse it all! She got in my head. I can¡¯t afford these distractions. Yet I¡¯m standing here at the trough, gazing in at her wistfully. She¡¯s speaking with another lass, one that looks simultaneously more regal, yet adventurous, a woman of likely at least middling if not high birth, yet one who has taken to the sword and the saddle. Every inch of her is firm, and she wears her hair in such a uniquely curious style, nearly balding til near the top, then long locks near the center of her skull swept to one side. I cannot hear the words exchanged, but a spy and assassin doesn¡¯t make it far without learning to read lips. The weathered warrioress asks of the maiden,¡±Do you think it¡¯s really them?¡± Our friendly maiden answers back, ¡°Can never be sure, but I¡¯m almost positive. I guess our hearts are going to break one more time, huh?¡± The princessora nods somberly, but continues, ¡°Do you think it¡¯s true? That it continues down further yet? How many life¡± She turns for a moment, gazing around, she may have been in the middle of saying either lives, or lifetimes, ¡°are you willing to spend gambling on the chance? I¡¯m with you now, I¡¯ll back your play.¡± The bar maiden responds, ¡°Hard to say, but I believe so, yes. As many as it takes. We were a bit foolish the first time around, but I¡¯m committed now. Look at the world they made! I¡¯m sure the next one will be even more dazzling.¡± Hm, these maidens speak in the trading of lives. Seems like they¡¯re just like everyone else, hungry to have blood on their hands.


    Argh, who, what, where am I? Dirt, balls, snakes, face. Oof! Another blast of lightning drives my face further into the ground. Even the crowd lets out an ¡°ooooof¡± type sound. Rastoc¡¯s tail curls around my torso and begins squeezing. Agh my gorram right lungs again! I feel my right ribs crunch slightly as they fracture and puncture my right lung. I begin coughing up blood. How many times is this going to happen!? Lluxop has broken through my terrakinesis and is pummeling Lil. I order Lil to leave the field telepathically. We¡¯re not dying here, we have a family to keep safe. Lil limps away.


    It doesn¡¯t look like I¡¯ll be given the opportunity though. Rastoc scores again.


    The officiant, or announcer, whomever, seems to indicate ¡°Champions two.¡± Albeit less excitedly than the first time.


    I can¡¯t even remember what goal we¡¯re on at this point. I think we¡¯re at two to two. I stumble to the serving position, and I¡¯m smashed in the face with the ball when it¡¯s my offensive serve, knocked over. I freeze the air in a solid FFS inside their goal, and wait until they come to take their frustration out on me. I JT past them, steal the ball and score again. That¡¯s my third. I think we¡¯re at three to three? I can barely think at all. Wait, no, I¡¯ve got three, they¡¯ve got two, I think.


    The officiant marks my third of seven on the scoring abacus.


    The pair begin combining mana to coat the entire surface of the arena in pillars of lightning that reach up like flames to lick at me as I take to the sky. There¡¯s enough lightning now that if I land, my heart will stop. No one¡¯s doing anything, even the crowd¡¯s murmur has hushed. The champions seem annoyed to not be receiving cheers, so they slightly pull back on their devastating lightning storm. Slightly.


    Forget this. I cover them in Umbral Shot duplicates of tetrahedrons, completely impenetrable, and it cuts off their spells from the outside. I drop down and pretend to reach my hand through the pyramid holding Rastoc. I claim the ball to my inventory from range, and summon it to my hand. I limp to my goal and play my point.


    The officiant marks my fourth of seven goals.


    The champions are getting furious. I have a few more tricks that guarantee they can¡¯t score, but it¡¯s going to be harder to get the ball away from them while their goal is blocked.


    Immediately as they get the offensive serve, before they can catch the ball to begin their offense, I summon regular stone tetrahedrons around them. They can easily break out, but all I need is an instant to JT across the arena, intercept the ball, and score, like this.


    Lluxop and Rastoc break out of the pyramids just as the officiant is marking my fifth of seven goals.


    Their eyes flash with lightning-rage. I wonder if I should have maybe chosen the singles tournament. Lil is looking really battered, broken, and bruised. Dehlia is tending to them behind the stands, with plenty of distance between the arena and them. Thank heavens for Dehlia.


    The champions are going to receive their serve again. This time I¡¯m not going to mess with them directly. I¡¯m bumrushed before I can even return their serve, but it doesn¡¯t matter, I don¡¯t even need to see or be physically near the ball for what I¡¯m going to do. Lluxop takes their shot from a distance, Rastoc begins tearing into me, slamming me into the ground with lightning enhanced fists. I claim the ball in midair on its way to the champion¡¯s goal, and reverse its directional velocity towards my goal instead, and increase it to sonic speeds as I recall it from my inventory at that exact spot, instantly. The sonic boom calls everyone¡¯s attention. Even the fastest eyes would barely catch the faintest flicker as the ball changed course.


    Everyone¡¯s jaws drop as the officiant marks my sixth of seven goals. Even Rastoc stops pummeling me to figure out what just happened.


    As I gurgle and cough blood, I woozily approach the serving line once again Lluxop begins charging up an electrical beam that I know will be aimed directly at me, since Rastoc is the receiver for this serve. I feint a serve, and serve an umbral duplicate of the ball with a zero velocity, infinite density at a point in front of Rastoc. He charges, grips the ball, and begins to try to lightning port away with it, and there are loud pops as he dislocates his own shoulders even in lightning form.


    Lluxop blasts forth the beam aimed directly at my torso, but I summon an Umbral Shot duplicate of a massive Valkyrie shield to block the blast. Thank you Luni. Use my abilities defensively, right? I love you so much. Still, I had to actually serve the ball to their side, so Lluxop has a chance to realize where the real ball is as I¡¯m using JT to zip myself around to catch up with it. Wait, why even bother? Lluxop sees me about to intercept the ball, and they aim a lightning blast that will cover all my possible paths to dodge in a way that would let me intercept. Instead I dodge away, and simply use JT at a distance to propel the ball with a flake of stone towards my goal.


    Everyone seems to have lost their mind as the officiant marks my seventh point, but the only thing I care about right now is checking on Lil. I glare at the officiant, challenging them to stop me from walking out during the victory proceedings. They gulp and don¡¯t interfere. Lluxop and Rastoc do however try to get in my way. I simply siphon enough mana from the air, well, mana from kinetic energy by way of cooling the atoms in the air, to be able to cage them in Umbral Shot tetrahedrons and walk on by. No one said I couldn¡¯t be a little petty if they tried to kill me after the game. It¡¯ll wear off in five minutes.


    As I near Lil, a spark of lightning that I didn¡¯t realize was still racing around inside my torso expands and explodes. I vomit a torrent of blood and begin to black out. Dehlia saw the spark of lightning, the flash that escaped the burnt hole in my chest. It was a ranged spell planted earlier with a timer. She¡¯s catching me, but I don¡¯t even know if I have a heart to restart. I¡¯m definitely not breathing, there are no lungs in my torso. Oh, I¡¯m out of body and unconscious. I can¡¯t get to the red potion. What am I supposed to do? Come on. Come on me, reach into your inventory. You do that sometimes when I¡¯m out of body, right? Please?


    Dehlia touches my mind, ¡°You¡¯re still in there? But, but you¡¯re dead. You haven¡¯t derezzed, but I suppose that¡¯s because you¡¯re of blood. Yet, no. You are definitely critter kind, scalekind even. We derez, even when we are of blood. How is this possible?¡±


    I think, I think Lil, or My-Anchor, Luni. Lil, are they okay? We¡¯re in a three way bond that might be a matter of life or death. Please make sure they¡¯re okay. Please, they¡¯re all that matters. Don¡¯t let my death kill them, Please, I¡¯m begging you.


    Dehlia replies, ¡°I. I¡¯ll do what I can. My brother was right. I¡¯m sorry I was so harsh when we first met.¡±


    I don¡¯t, I mean, I don¡¯t care is harsh. I do care. I just mean, it¡¯s okay. Don¡¯t worry about me or my feelings, please, please take care of Lil. They¡¯re all that matters. They can still broker peace with the mark of importance, right? My family. I, I just want them safe. I¡¯m sorry you had to get involved with this, and see me like this. Thank you so much for your help. Please, please protect Lil.


    Dehlia drags my body closer to Lil and sets us against one another, and she resumes attending to Lil¡¯s wounds. Lil suddenly drops down to Spheriform stage, startling Dehlia, but that usually happens when we¡¯re unconscious if we don¡¯t have the mana to support our forms due to injuries.


    Dehlia confirms, ¡°I believe your bond is what¡¯s keeping you tethered to this life. Worse, I do believe it is also killing our little dragonling friend. I¡¯ve never seen the like. I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t know what to do. Even if I could convince them to cast the core spell again, I believe their core would diminish rapidly until it was extinguished.¡±


    No, no no no no. Lu, Luni, oh no. Dehlia, Dehlia do you have inventory magic? Do you know what it is? Can you reach into our inventories? I still have the red potion. I¡¯m of blood. Or, barring that, get the comm stone, call Teuila, make sure Luni is okay. You met them before, they were integral in saving Lil. Lil is bonded to Luni as well.


    Dehlia curses, ¡°I really was far too harsh on all of you. How are you still able to persist? You must be in unbelievable pain. Lil most definitely is. They feel your internals having combusted. I think if this were to ever happen again, the three of you in this bond might perish together, simultaneously.¡±


    I am, wait. If I time travel, that won¡¯t invalidate the victory right? Like, there¡¯s no rules against it, are there?


    Dehlia looks bemused, ¡°If you could accomplish such a feat, I¡¯m sure none would even be able to tell.¡±


    ¡°Okay, past me. I¡¯m not going to have you cheat, but at some point in the match, there¡¯s going to be a time bomb implanted into your chest. I don¡¯t know when it is, there¡¯s too many attacks to tell. Give Dehlia the red potion before the match. You¡¯ll win, but you¡¯ll die before you realize when to drink it.¡± Thank you Dehlia. I¡¯ll see you in a few minutes. Sort of.


    I¡¯m about to head to the field to take up serving positions with Lil for our championship match against Rastoc and Lluxop when I receive a message from future me. ¡°Okay, past me. I¡¯m not going to have you cheat, but at some point in the match, there¡¯s going to be a time bomb implanted into your chest. I don¡¯t know when it is, there¡¯s too many attacks to tell. Give Dehlia the red potion before the match. You¡¯ll win, but you¡¯ll die before you realize when to drink it.¡±


    Turning to Dehlia, I say, ¡°Dehlia, it sounds like I¡¯m going to die at the end of this match, but this will save me. Please safeguard it for me? I apparently won¡¯t be able to get to it in time.¡±


    I try not to peek at my logs as I engage our championship match. Examining them after the fact though, they played out identically. As I¡¯m walking past the champions who attempt to block my way as I check on Lil, I entrap them in umbral tetrahedrons, and only a few steps closer to Dehlia, a spark that has been lingering unnoticed in my chest explodes in a torrent of lightning. My innards are vaporized, and I vomit, gushing a cascade of blood. Dehlia sees my predicament and rushes the red potion to my lips. She drags me into her serpentine lap, if one can call it that, holding me to one side, making sure I don¡¯t drown in my own blood as my organs begin excruciatingly regenerating.


    Without anesthetic, every cell in my insides screams with agony as it is born anew, and knitted to others. I¡¯m trapped in a torrent of unending pain for hours as my body earns new organs. I can tell that it¡¯s eating into the bond that Lil and I share. If I go through this again, Lil won¡¯t live long enough for me to regenerate, even if I had another potion. If Lil dies, I worry that Luni will too. I might then die from the bond anyway, or if not, from heartbreak.


    Dehlia continues to comfort both myself, and Lil in their spheriform state. The officiant awaits patiently, with the two marks of importance that the champions were forced to hand over, as they¡¯ve been escorted away by guards that apparently answer to Dehlia. I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll be in permanent trouble, they¡¯ll probably be able to claim it was an accident, but Dehlia knows it wasn¡¯t.


    I have to fight every instant of every moment to not regurgitate the potion as I let it do its work. The ceaseless agony that consumes every fiber of my internal being is a hell beyond measure as my organs race into this world screaming to life.


    Dehlia speaks aloud, but I cannot understand her. She knows I can¡¯t. She frets, and motions like pointing to menu boxes, but I also can¡¯t invite others. She scowls in frustration, and tries to shake Lil awake. Come on Dehlia, please don¡¯t do that, let Lil rest. We really appreciate you doing this for us. I¡¯m sorry it¡¯s probably uncomfortable sitting here for hours. Dehlia shakes her fists to the sky in further frustration.


    Suddenly Dehlia¡¯s demeanor changes again as she reaches into my mind, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, my brother doesn¡¯t have my gift for outgoing telepathy. He could hear you, through me, just not respond. He¡¯s anxious with worry whether or not you¡¯ll recover in time for your friend Lil to survive the effects of this.¡±


    Oh, that makes sense. I mean, I sort of figured somehow your brother was also you. The way you talked about them having a softer spot for us, and regretting not giving us a chance, because they wanted to, or something like that. If you¡¯re willing, when Lil wakes up, they could invite you, then you and your brother would be able to speak to me without telepathy.


    Dehlia hesitates, ¡°I, hm, according to your logs, you¡¯ve said something similar once, any form of relationship with me carries, hm, baggage shall we say. It may not be in the best interest of your tribe for you to invite me and mine, ever. Would you still risk it?¡±


    Oh. I mean, my family is the most important thing in the world to me, but, we¡¯ve saved each other¡¯s lives, you and your brother are family to me.


    Dehlia pauses, deciding whether or not to share something truly deep. She relents, ¡°I was once deep in a sect, a faction of softskin hunters, the Black Fangs. Many of our society belong to the Black Fangs. My brother convinced me quite some time ago now to leave.¡±


    She continues, ¡°I¡¯m now part of a much smaller, no, not part. I now lead a much smaller faction of, no, not I. My brother leads a faction of seekers of equality and peace. For a time, I was bitter and could barely turn a blind eye to his works that were counter to mine. We were at odds. The Black Fangs decided to ally with the serpents of the swamps, or, try to at least. I was meant to be a mediator, but also an offering. The effects would be twofold, my brother could no longer work at odds against us, and we would have a powerful softskin hunter in our ranks to wipe them all from the swamps.¡±


    Dehlia pauses to telepathically chuckle, ¡°You know how that worked out for me. When we were freed, and shown that softskins are capable of letting us pass in peace, relying on us to save their lives and the lives of other scalekind, weeping tears for scalekind, my brother¡¯s words finally reached me. Not immediately, mind you. It was quite some number of weeks after I¡¯d returned, when I finally grew sick of the hypocrisy of the Black Fangs.¡±


    Dehlia shakes her head angrily, ¡°They would sacrifice their own to further a cause of violence, when many softskins would rather not sacrifice any of us, or them, instead forging a path of peace. In fact, other than some very angry cats, I¡¯ve met far, far more amicable softskins than not. Even those we slew often offered up little to no resistance. I thought it was because we were powerful, fearsome, in the right. Instead, it was because we were hateful, frightening, and the mark of an unjust world that caused despair in peace-loving folk that we slew without measure.¡±


    Dehlia¡¯s gaze hardens with frustration and anger at her past misdeeds, then soften in regret, turning to anguish before her expression settles on neutral. She asserts, ¡°My brother, no, I, no, we, will champion your cause to the full tribunal. Each of the three triumvirates would be appeased by different arguments. I will gladly help mold your statements for them. If you still wish to take the risk of alienating the Black Fangs by inviting me.¡± Her final expression is resolute.


    I nod. I finally have an esophagus again, so I clear bloody phlegm from my throat. I¡¯m surprised my body didn¡¯t force me to pass out in shock from the intense pain I¡¯d been suffering. Heavens, look at all that blood and viscera on the ground surrounding us. Dehlia I¡¯m so sorry, you¡¯ve been sitting, soaking in a massive puddle of my literal guts. Dehlia waves it off as to say pay it no mind.


    Lil finally stirs. I burst into tears of relief, and as strength begins to return to my limbs, I embrace my buddy tightly, and snuggle into Dehlia¡¯s waist. I pass out for a brief while, now that I¡¯m no longer worried for Lil¡¯s life.


    When I awaken, an entire subparty of dozens and dozens of Nagas, led by Dehlia, or more accurately, her brother, are allied within the Shellcracker family party. It seems Lil awoke first, and they¡¯re, uh, flirting. I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯re flirting more with Dehlia, or her brother, who also simply goes by Dehlia. No confusion there, right? There¡¯s a slight difference in their iris patterns and pupils when one or the other is in charge, but it¡¯s hard to describe. Dehlia¡¯s voice is also slightly more pitchy when the brother of the two is in charge. Plus Dehlia, the sister, almost only communicates in telepathy, while the brother cannot do so at all.


    I share all of my logs, plans, and desires with Dehlia and Dehlia. I honestly don¡¯t even need to be at the triumvirate tribunal, since we only have two marks of importance. I figure Dehlia and Lil could do this. I¡¯m rather tired of trying to do leaderly and political things. Apparently though, we don¡¯t have to use up both marks of importance, and we can bring any counsel that we want. We could quite possibly make a case again someday if we desired another tribunal. That¡¯s an unexpected benefit. But if we hold onto it, and never return to the Nagas city, we¡¯d be ruining a part of their cycle of governance, since no one could ever challenge one of us to the rights to it. Although technically, it has to be willingly given, so a Naga could hold onto theirs their entire life without giving it up, after earning it once, and only then would it re-enter circulation. I guess we won¡¯t be disrupting things too much if we keep it. The other option would be to give it back to one of the twins with the blessing of Quetzlcoatl. I¡¯m not sure I want to see what would happen if they got into a fight over who got to keep the mark. Hm, I just realized, they had tattoos that looked vaguely like that fanged icon Vampguppy had, dripping blood, a black-filled silhouette of a fang. It was under their right armpits.


    I ask telepathically, ¡°Dehlia, does that mean the twins were, or are, in the Black Fangs?¡±


    She nods in response. Well, that clarifies why everyone went out of their way to let me get to them, and why they were trying to kill me. I think my name was passed around, and even though I appear draconic, it was probably mentioned long ago that a softskin named Reggie Shellcracker helped free Dehlia. Yeah, I was definitely an assassination target, even if they didn¡¯t know about my plot for peace. If they knew what I was going to ask, from overhearing Lil talking about it, or if there are any other psychics among them, then yeah, I was definitely an assassination target.


    Still, apparently due to how rare it is for someone to cash in a mark of importance, one can summon the tribunal almost instantly. It takes little more than a few hours to agree on a time within the next day at most.


    Here at the tribunal, I can barely even understand how to hear, let alone pronounce, the names of the individuals in charge. Apparently, like most other creatures, Nagas generally don¡¯t have names. They assume one if they take a station of significant enough importance that they need to be referred to frequently by others. Anyway, these justices or whomever they are, whatever you would call these officials, they hear out Dehlia¡¯s description of our requests.


    There¡¯s one of the nine that is definitely a member of the Black Fangs. They oppose everything suggested or offered. Thankfully, even in their triad, they¡¯re outnumbered.


    When we finally leave the tribunal session, it¡¯s with a guarantee that the only border patrols will be peaceful scouts that might be interested in trade, during the duration that we¡¯ll be passing. We¡¯ve opened up trade in general, and opened up the option to take any adventurous Naga with us, in order to spread their culture, history, and lore.


    As much as I¡¯d dearly desire Dehlia to come with, since they were so instrumental in our success, they have to stay, to continue to fight the good fight as it were. Maybe we¡¯ll see them again someday. For now, I am aching to rejoin my family, and recuperate from a journey that was both quicker, and far more time than I¡¯d ever expected to spend.


    We head to rejoin the contingent, followed by several dozen peaceable Nagas from Dehlia¡¯s faction. Hopefully this will go a way towards easing Linti¡¯s mind, letting her know that peace can be achieved. I hope she will realize that one day, she can choose to follow her own desires, even if those desires are still just hunting.

 B 3 C 23: Reunited, and It Feels So Good

    <h2>B 3 C 23: Reunited, and It Feels So Good</h2>


    Lil decided to leave their chit with Dehlia.  Chit is the official term for the mark of importance, I probably should have been referring to it as that the entire time, meh.  Dehlia will be able to call a tribunal in case of an emergency and it might help her fight for peace, or for the disbanding of the Black Fangs.  I¡¯m pretty sure Lil is twitterpated with Dehlia, or Dehlia, or both, but I don¡¯t have an aura sense, so I can¡¯t confirm it.  Still, Lil now leads the entire chameleon village in a sub party under the elder of that village, as well as several dozen Naga in Dehlia¡¯s organization in a sub party under Dehlia.


    Personally I now also have a secondary sub party of Naga under Brastley of all people!  Brastley has decided to journey with to see what kind of life I live that I have such a huge party, large family, and the powers that I do.  Brastley and Szintoc had a tearful goodbye.  My broken memories from fakeworld would find that to be an unusual sight.  The sight of a couple of muscular athletes hugging and sobbing as they say their temporary farewells.  Brastley is one of the Nagas that has a serpentine face instead of a human-appearing face, I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s a different evolutionary stage, or if it¡¯s a personal choice from magic, or what.  The serpentine faced and human faced Nagas are both roughly the same size, it¡¯s not like where a feraform is generally half the size of a humaform stage individual.


    As much as I¡¯m in a hurry to get back and see my family, to snuggle for ages, Lil and I have decided to move only slightly faster than the Nagas.  The reason is so that we can scout ahead and swing back repeatedly.  We¡¯ve informed Teuila that we¡¯re bringing Nagas and have negotiated for safety for our contingent.  Thus, word should be spreading throughout the camps, which should include letting Linti know to not hunt any serpents for the time being.


    It has been almost exactly three weeks since Lil and I veered off on a different path from Luni and Teuila on the eastern side of the river.  We¡¯ve gotten to see one another a couple of times during that, but the worst part is having memories of decades spent being unable to contact them.  Even when Lil and I tried to use the comm stone to reach out, during our many-years attempt in the third trial, we weren¡¯t able to reach them.  I guess because technically we never really left the same day.  Maybe?


    I ache and yearn for my beloved inner circle to be reunited, but it¡¯s only a few more hours until we¡¯re meeting up regularly once again.  Thankfully we¡¯ve passed or subdued most dangers at this point.  Mataalii and a possible critterkin civil war are the only threats I can think of right now.  I am however mentally exhausted from this mission of establishing peace and trust, so I will straight up murder anyone that starts trouble at this point.  If the Black Fangs try something, I¡¯ll just have to apologize to Dehlia later for killing them all.


    That seems pretty cocky, doesn¡¯t it?  Especially since one of them technically killed me already, kind of twice.  I was trying to respect rules of a game though.  Without having those sorts of limitations on myself, or Lil, either one of us could have ended them before they began their first attacks.  I will have to be a bit more wary of timed detonation spells from now on though, now that I know they exist.


    I also gained a lot of lightning resistance from having my organs atomized by internal lightning.  What doesn¡¯t kill you only makes you stronger, right?  And what does kill you, makes you even stronger than that.  Or something, hah.


    Brastley being with us is a bit fortuitous.  I think if we want to open further lines of communication, so that Bettie isn¡¯t burdened by being the only mediator between the critterkin and human groups, we¡¯ll need more wind mages.  As far as I can tell, that¡¯s our best bet for being able to get our voices to literally be heard.


    I know, I know, I can be the mediator since humans can speak to me, and now all the critterkin that remain are in my party, but, ugh.  I¡¯m not a leader, or a mediator.  I¡¯m a mediocre adventurer, and a murderer.  I wonder how much better off the world in my memories would be, if societally, those humans had stopped letting murderers lead them long long ago.  Individuals that crossed oceans and claimed continents, or fought one another to be the dominant kingdom to be able to levy taxes, never really made good leaders in my books.


    To me, in my eyes, I¡¯m pretty much like those humans, and I think that they¡¯re scum.


    Lil tackles me, interrupting my train of thought, ¡°Knock it off Reggie!  You¡¯ve been through a lot pal, but you always try to do what¡¯s right, and, and, and like, like when you can¡¯t figure out what¡¯s right, if there even is a right, you try to keep us safe!  Even the times you lose control, it¡¯s only around really dangerous people!  And like, the cragbeasts, Lu said they were going to break, wait.  Ignore that, Lu said not to talk about it.¡±


    My jaw drops as I stare at Lil.  I¡¯m pretty sure I know how that sentence was going to end.  Cragbeasts had a population that continuously spawned, the only reason they were stuck in their warren was because they constantly killed and ate one another.  If it weren¡¯t for their own population control, they might have been able to find a way to break out of the barrier.  By the time we had arrived, something caused the cragbeasts to stop having any hostility for one another at all.  Their population would have started skyrocketing soon after.  I¡¯ll have to compartmentalize that thought though and ignore it.  If Lu said not to talk about it, that means I¡¯m not supposed to know, yet.  Maybe the time is already past where it¡¯s okay to tell me, but I¡¯ll wait until My-Anchor is ready for me to have the information.


    Sighing, I nuzzle my forehead to Lil¡¯s, ¡°You¡¯re right, sorry buddy.  I¡¯ll always struggle with self-deprecation.  I hope you can forgive me for that.  It¡¯s not going to change.  I¡¯ll try to be better, but the thoughts will always find a way back to hit me once again eventually.¡±


    Lil returns the nuzzling, and my comment, ¡°You might not be able to change your thoughts, but I¡¯ll always be there to knock some sense into you or knock them out of your head.  Ya dig?  You¡¯re my best pal.  We watch out for each other, even when who we have to watch out for is each other.  Right buddy?¡±


    Chuckling, I nod, ¡°Right Lil, right.  I love you.  Let¡¯s meet up with the girls and catch up, maybe if Luni comes along, we can get the Nagas to catch up in a few minutes instead of hours or days.  I love her speed magics.¡±


    Lil yips in joy, ¡°Heck yeah!  I hope my Gal-Pal is coming with.  I know my It¡¯s-A-Secret is faster, but I want to see them both, ya know?  And, and, and, I have new things to talk about, and a whole new partner, my Tongue-Tie-er.¡±


    My face screws up as I try to imagine what Lil meant by that last bit.  I thought I was mistaken, but I swear I saw Lil and Dehlia flicking their tongues into each other¡¯s ears, or well, auditory orifices, more than once, which I thought was just a once-in-a-blue-moon good luck thing.  Ah, Lil is blushing, yeah, apparently that¡¯s a thing now.  Chuckling, I rub Lil¡¯s tail while giving them a playful noogie.


    Not long after Lil and I are done goofing around for the moment, Luni and Teuila arrive.  My heart virtually soars, and My-Heart literally soars to tackle Te out of the sky into Lu, Lil transforms into Lilagnewt on the way to bring Teuila down to the ground.  The three of them are plowed into the ground but are trading flips and pins amongst themselves while exchanging gleeful noises.  Then, Lil adopts their spherical form for the best cuddles.  I put on a burst of speed to join up as well.  We all roll around laughing, hugging and kissing one another non stop, while the fastest few Nagas show up from behind us.  Brastley, being a wind mage of course, is one of them, and he makes a very enamored expression when seeing us share our affection.  Brastley and Szintoc, as burly as they are, seem more in touch with their emotions, or at least more expressive, than some of the lady Nagas who had battled us in the tournament.  Some were so cold and dispassionate, that I wondered if they even enjoyed the games.


    Since he¡¯s here, I introduce him, ¡°Brastley, these are the rest of my beloved inner circle, my SAP.  This is Luni, Lu, My-Anchor.  This is Teuila, Te, My-Wings.  Obviously you know Lil.  Guys, this is Brastley.  He¡¯s one of the first people we had to beat to start drumming up some challengers to be able to earn our chits.  Brastley and Szintoc were a little bit ruthless, but otherwise good sports.¡±


    Brastley blushes and motions apologetically when I call him ruthless.  I adopt a wry smile and chuckle, waving it off.  He picks up the four of us in his burly arms and massive tail for a great big group bear hug.  Oof, coughing, I pat his shoulder to indicate he can let us down.  He once again motions apologetically.  I wonder if he realizes I can understand him now that we¡¯re in a party.  We can talk now, I mean, he heard me introducing them.  Ah well.  He¡¯s giving us our space to catch up, now.


    My inner circle sits on the ground snuggling against one another as we wait for the Nagas to finish catching up.  Teuila drops her Valkyrie form, since she¡¯ll be marching alongside all of us for the return journey anyway.  Lil remains spherical since it¡¯s easier to feel close to one another when Lil isn¡¯t like four times the size of any of us.


    Te starts to describe the situation at camp, but Luni keeps talking over her, earning many a call of, ¡°Luuuuu, I was gonna say that!¡±  We¡¯re all laughing too hard to really get any serious information out of the exchange for a while.  Eventually Teuila relents and just lets Luni relay the information.


    Luni starts to explain, ¡°So, that cat family you sent to us, their matron, Fawns, is all over everyone, all the time, but especially Lao and Ag.  There isn¡¯t a night where she¡¯s not part of the family cuddle pile, and frequently she¡¯ll bring Blossom or Six along, or well, they¡¯ll bring themselves along.  Hehe, it¡¯s kinda cute.  I can see why you fainted.¡±


    I flush deep red and I lightly steam from my ears as I try to cool myself off with a micro FFS.  Lil you boogerbutt, did you have to tell them about that?


    Lil telepathically sends, ¡°Yes, yes I did, hehehe.¡±  Lil starts giggling uncontrollably in our mental wavelength, the meanie.  Okay, yeah, it¡¯s kind of funny, but still.


    Lu continues, ¡°Magnus and Spice are thick as thieves, Magnus is excited about anything and everything Spice designs or draws, and they¡¯re basically joined at the hip, or face, any moment of the day.  Adom and Sofu actually seem a bit bored without you around.  I¡¯m pretty sure they think of you as their personal rivals.  Jazharn has actually been trying to get to know some of us through Bettie.  She¡¯s kind of nice actually.  At first there were jokes that she¡¯d have an acidic personality, because of her specialty, but I think she wishes she could speak to us herself, without needing a translator.  I think she¡¯s sort of twitterpated for some of the catfolk too.¡±


    Lu ponders before carrying on, ¡°Oh yeah, Priss has been, well, Priss.  She¡¯s a bit distant, she¡¯s struggling to come to terms with things.  I think she wants to ask something of the critterkin, but can¡¯t bring herself to do it, so she mostly shuts everyone out and just passes out marching orders and calls to break camp and barely participates with anyone.  Sir Reginald checks in on her fairly often, but I don¡¯t think she likes him, since he thinks highly of you.  Sir Reginald is kind of nice, but also kind of a butt, because his job was essentially to be your liaison, and you¡¯re not around.  So he basically complains about feeling useless, even though he¡¯s essentially leading everyone in place of Priss, he just doesn¡¯t notice he¡¯s doing it.  He¡¯s good at the job too.  Not that Priss isn¡¯t, she¡¯s just struggling, really hard.  We flipped their world upside down, on top of all she has lost.¡±


    Lu looks a bit embarrassed, ¡°They don¡¯t know, um, a certain thing.  So they let some things slip.  Some of the troops still had, um, supplies, not eggs, or more people, but they were still eating, uh, people meat is the only way I can put it.  Priss couldn¡¯t bear to punish them, neither could Sir Reginald, but they were both repulsed and sick over the news.  Not everyone in the human party is adjusting well to mostly having to eat fruits and veggies.  The amount of fish or insect meat we can get isn¡¯t enough to even ration a little bit to everyone.  Not even with Linti¡¯s family sharing so much of it with everyone.  Linti hunts like a maniac, apparently their insect hollow is way more populated than it ever was before, but she¡¯s running herself ragged.¡±


    I cock my head to the side and squint at Luni.  How does she know something that Priss and Sir Reginald didn¡¯t want to let slip?  Was Bettie spying and confiding in her?  Or, hm.  Is Luni psychic enough to understand what they¡¯re saying?  I¡¯ve seen Lu hanging around Priss before.  I know you¡¯re riding my thoughts Luni, want to weigh in on any of this?


    Lu telepathically sends an image of herself blowing a raspberry and winking at me.


    Yeah, that¡¯s what I thought.  You¡¯re a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.  Hm, my brain just had a minor BSOD at that thought.


    I wonder if we should just make our new home over the insect hollow.  I don¡¯t suppose that would work though, if Linti is already hunting nearly all the spawns, and even that isn¡¯t enough to feed everyone, then it wouldn¡¯t make sense to settle there.  I¡¯ve got thousands of units of insect meat, but even that is only maybe enough for half a day for the whole contingent, and we wiped out everything in the tunnels.  What we really need is some fertile open land, and people with plant or earth based powers, and a massive lake with tons of fish spawns.


    From what I recall about Priss¡¯s original plan, the elven lands might have exactly that.  Although I think they also have a fairly large critterkin community.  One that Priss was going to raid for eggs.  I really hope I don¡¯t have to slaughter a bunch of dissenting human mages that are meat-starved when we arrive at Point B, to prevent them from going on an egg and meat raid.


    Regardless, it sounds like people were carrying on pretty much how I expected them to, in the march.  I can¡¯t wait to get back to Lao and the others for snuggles.


    Lil, privately, mentally chimes in, ¡°And Fawns too, I bet!¡±


    I blush heatedly again.  In our private thinkspace I glare daggers at Lil.  Dangit Lil, you¡¯re so mean.  Ugh, my heart¡¯s racing, ooo you booger.  Te and Lu are gazing at me in confusion.


    I mumble, ¡°Dun worry, s¡¯nothin¡¯.  Just Lil being a dorky little dragbutt.  Making me think of things, teasing me.  Stuff.¡±


    I avoid everyone¡¯s eye contact as I try to still my fluttering heart.  Lu and Te exchange a glance before bursting into laughter.  Te says, ¡°Fawns really got her claws in deep didn¡¯t she?  Your aura is going wild!¡±


    Agh, ugh, no fair, no fair.  I feel like the scales on my reptilian face are going to straight up melt.  But to be honest, as much as cuddling with Fawns was amazing, the cat woman I most want to speak with is Linti.  Everyone gazes at me with new wonder, I¡¯m sure my aura changed somehow as my thoughts drifted to the Lightning Hunter.  I¡¯m not even sure on my feelings for Linti.  She reminds me of Teuila in ways, maybe I¡¯m projecting some attachment towards her because of that?  I¡¯m not sure.  My heart aches when I think about the fact that she basically said she wanted to kill me herself when she was leaving The Hollow.  Are we enemies?  Rivals?  Does she really want to kill me?  I want her to be happy.  She deserves happiness.  She¡¯s like Teuila, but also like me.  She protects her family, seeks out threats to them and takes them out in one way or another.  I try to do it by securing peace, but I¡¯m not above murdering the everliving crap out of someone who is a threat to my family.


    Do I just wish for her happiness from our similarities?  Or am I smitten by her?  She¡¯s definitely a strong, cunning, beautiful woman.  Based on my inner circle, I probably have a bit of a type.  A type being the sort of person that draws my affections.  At least, that¡¯s what that use of the word type means in my fakeworld memories.


    For an example of my type, Lil¡¯s greatwyrm evolution allowed them to shapechange, and they took on a slightly androgynous but very strong, female-esque form almost every time they used it.  I have decades of memories of sharing more intimate affection with that version of Lil, since we had thousands of years together in accelerated thinkspace across the decades we spent training.


    Thinking about that time, Lil and I are both agendered, maybe gender fluid at best, but I think we were slightly femme leaning for the majority of our time together.  I was very strongly neither for quite some time.  Then for a period, I was masculine.  There were times when Lil or I, or both of us, would make our transformations lean slightly more to the masculine side of agendered, but usually we leaned mostly femme.  I suppose we could have even fully committed to a biology if we really wanted.  I mean, we could have had physical characteristics of a biological sex.  We had powerful enough shape-changing abilities.  Neither of us wanted to during all that time though.


    Luni and Teuila, riding my thought waves, dive into my memory logs to see what I was thinking about.  I can feel them rummaging around for the thousands of years of sub logs within the longest attempt that Lil and I spent in the third trial.  I think they¡¯re both a little jealous, but they shouldn¡¯t be, since even Lil doesn¡¯t have those memories.  It¡¯s as if they were just a dream that only I had.


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    The Nagas have all arrived and caught up though, so I clear my throat, and my winsome coterie stands up, one and all.  Lu begins playing music as we all make way to meet up with the rest of the survivor¡¯s crew.  I should come up with a name for our overall group.  Are we a pilgrimage?  What about the Lavaborn Alliance?  That feels fitting.  Everything we¡¯ve done since has been because of the Night of All Burn.  I¡¯d rather not be the NOAB Survivors, so yeah, I think I¡¯ll refer to us as the Lavaborn Alliance.


    As much as I love my Shellcracker family, I¡¯m not really willing to share their name with all of these strangers, even if they¡¯re all going to be a part of the community I¡¯ve been trying to found for so long.  I don¡¯t want to share as intimate of a relationship with all of them as I have with the Shellcrackers.  Even Magnus feels more like a, hm, in my memories it would be called a brother-in-law situation.  So, yeah, Lavaborn Alliance it is.


    I wonder if I can manage something that my future self from one of various timelines was able to do.  They could change their form back and forth between forms we¡¯d already finished creating, or had already been at one point or another.  It only took a single attempt.  Let¡¯s see how many attempts it takes for me to bring back cherubic Reggie.  I tether my own heart, partially, without fully committing to the transformation, and self actualize my old appearance.  I drop the tether, and hear some gasps and some cheers from those around me.  Gasps mostly from the Nagas, cheers from my SAP, my Shellcracker Adventuring Party.


    Lil telepathically sends, ¡°As much as I love having you be a dragon, like me, pal, you¡¯re so much softer and more fun to cuddle like this.¡±


    I chuckle as I nod mentally in agreement.  I¡¯m definitely softer like this.  I¡¯m looking forward to sharing my softness with some people that I¡¯m twitterpated with soon.  Luni, stop snickering.  Why do you even have concepts where phrasing implies things?  I love you, my mysterious Anchor.


    We arrive at the Lavaborn Alliance¡¯s marching column in short order, it stretches for miles from west to east.  They¡¯ve been careful to not disturb the forest, at my request.  It¡¯s a very slow procession, because they essentially need to build another shop every day, travel backwards, tear down the old one, build a new one further ahead, and continue to do that.  People are constantly filtering in and out of the shops to be able to keep up with food consumption.  That means Lao or Lu or other top tier merchants have to stand in the shops almost all day every day, trading off when they tire.  There are currently three shops, one at the front, one at the middle, and one at the rear of the procession, and the rear one is in the middle of being torn down, to be moved several miles ahead.


    Luni could possibly transport segments of the Lavaborn Alliance en masse to far further locations, but she¡¯d have to make dozens or hundreds of trips back and forth, ferrying clusters of people with her Seven Leagues Songs.  I have a promise to keep, so I¡¯m going to shut my brain off for a bit and stop trying to plot out next moves and stuff.  I¡¯m going to find Magnus, cuddle and catch up by telling him some of the basics of what happened.  No need to go over centuries of time in some weird magic temple.


    Magnus eagerly awaits, but like Lu mentioned, won¡¯t settle down to catch up until Spice is free, so the three of us can cuddle together as I share the tale of my adventure.  I mostly just talk about meeting Linti, hunting in the Hollow to rescue her family, the chameleon village in a short blurb, and the naga sport tournament to earn a chance to ask for a tribunal.  I don¡¯t bother explaining how Mataalii is the reason we had to rescue Linti¡¯s family, or that Lil acquired a book with their own memory logs in it.  Nor do I tell them that we left that book, and two more, in a temple of time secreted away beneath the Nagas¡¯ society.  Sugar passes by once or twice, always keeping a bit of a sharp eye on Magnus.  It¡¯s cute how overprotective Sugar is of Spice.


    They are dismayed to hear that I died, and used up the last red potion.  There may never be any more, unless more Octorochi creatures spawn.  I¡¯m honestly not looking forward to the idea of something like that happening, even if it meant I could earn more lifesaving potions.  There¡¯s the tiny possibility that maybe the Nagas have some hidden away somewhere, in some kind of ¡®of blood¡¯ apothecary, but I wouldn¡¯t hold my breath on it.


    After catching up, I¡¯m duty bound to check in on Priscilla.  Priss is, as Lu mentioned, distant.  She¡¯s far away, barely cognizant of us exchanging words.  That¡¯s a bad way for a leader to be, but I¡¯m hoping she can pull through.  I¡¯m relying on her to keep the humans in line.  I risk approaching her and squeezing her hand reassuringly.  I¡¯m not even sure if it registers in her mind that I¡¯ve done it.  Still, I feel like I sense something shifting, or cracking.  Something made an impact, somewhere.  I¡¯m not sure how I know, but I just sense that something is changing in Priss.  I hope it¡¯s for the better, for all of our sakes.  She commands a massively powerful populace after all.


    If she¡¯s changing for the worse, steeling her resolve to turn on all of us, then we¡¯re in for a hellish battle.  I¡¯m pretty certain she knows she would have to attack at some point when I¡¯m away, because I can fend off the majority of her forces with a single spell.  Her most prevalent troops are fire mages after all.  I mean, obviously if she¡¯s far away because she¡¯s plotting out the safest way to betray us, she¡¯ll have thought of contingencies and plans and strategies and formations that I can¡¯t begin to pick apart.  She is a strategist, a general, and the warden of a prison, so she has decades of experience commanding others, after all.


    As I¡¯m about to reunite with the majority of my family, I spot Blossom waving at me from afar, blushing.  I¡¯m not sure what she has to be shy about.  As I¡¯m pondering this, I¡¯m blindsided by Fawns At Sunsets.


    Fawns exclaims, ¡°I heard you were back, my deliciously sweet, cuddlesome little Reggie!  Truly a joyous occasion.  I hope I can steal you away for a while before Linti returns from her hunt.  I know she¡¯d like to have words with you.  I¡¯m not certain what about, but I¡¯m sure it would be best if you went into such a conversation as relaxed as possible.  Don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Fawn picks me up in a hug that smothers me in her ample bosom, and my embarrassment radiates heat into the pilowy cushions.  Sure Fawn, relaxed, right, yes, I¡¯m not nervous at all.  Mentally I¡¯m laughing hysterically from anxious nervousness.  I manage to lightly chuckle, and reply, ¡°I, um, that would be nice.  I¡¯d be happy to, um, yes, with you, cuddle.  You¡¯re wonderfully kind to be so considerate Fawn, thank you.¡±


    As I compliment her, Fawn begins to groom my forehead and hair with her incredibly rough tongue.  What is it with the people I¡¯m twitterpated with licking me lately?  Fawn, Lil, even Dehlia.  Though I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m twitterpated with Dehlia, her tongue got pretty intimate with my ears.  Even Teuila was nibbling on my nose and collarbone when we met up on the way here, and I could swear she snuck in at least one lick as well.


    Fawn retires us to a tent that she apparently commandeered almost entirely for private cuddling.  I see several human soldiers blush as she walks by, carrying me against her chest.  Linti really was honest about Fawn being an inveterate flirt.  How did she even manage to communicate her flirtiness and cuddling desires with any humans, let alone as many as I¡¯m seeing appear nervous or embarrassed right now?  Not that I can blame any of them for taking her up on any signals she managed to send.


    Oh jeeze my heart¡¯s racing a mile a minute again, and Lil isn¡¯t even nearby teasing me.  Lil is getting private snuggle time with Luni and Teuila.  I suppose I can¡¯t be too jealous, since Fawn is taking me aside for the same, when I was supposed to be going to see Sir Reginald.  Wow, it is plush in this tent, either Fawn convinced many people to give up their pillows, or she saved pillows from their settlement, or she has been buying pillows from the shops.


    Fawn sees my gaze and wonderment at the amount of pillows, ¡°Little known secret, though the birds used to be rare, I¡¯ve seen more and more.  If you manage to catch a few, sometimes they drop little golden feathers.  They¡¯re apparently worth a lot of currency to your interesting little shop system.  Plus, a little bit of extra meat never hurt in such difficult times.¡±


    Dumbfoundedly I reply, ¡°Huh, neat.  Oh, I mean, actually yeah, that¡¯s really useful information.  Thank you Fawn.  I¡¯ll try to keep an eye out.  Gosh, you are just full of wonderfulness.  Such kindness, secret wisdom, lovely face, luxurious fur and soft br, I, uh, mean.  I¡¯m going to go find a gag to tie my mouth shut now.¡±


    Fawn laughs like the tinkling of a bell and she wraps her limbs about mine as she lays us amidst the pillows.  As she directs my right arm around her waist, placing my hand on the small of her back, she exclaims, ¡°I thought perhaps you¡¯d been cured of that nervousness, but it¡¯s just as adorable as ever, you charming little sweetheart.  Here, rub right here please.  Feel how tense it is?  That spot right there was my worry for you.  You came to us nearly dead, you came back to save us quite injured, and then we parted once more with you taking on a task of peace greater than any we¡¯d ever thought to attempt.  It was literally tying me in knots with worry, do you feel it?¡±


    Gulping, I massage the spot Fawn directs my hand to along the top of her tail.  Sure enough, the muscle is knotted tensely.  She begins purring as I stroke around the spot, loosening the muscle before I try to work and knead it with more force.  I nearly faint again as she purrs with her face pressed against my head, licking my jawline, cheek, and ear, grooming me.  No wonder those human troops looked so nervous and embarrassed!  In human society, a tongue is a really intimate thing to share, sort of.  I mean, humans just don¡¯t go around licking one another.  It would be nice if I didn¡¯t even know about human society, since neither of us are human.  I don¡¯t need their embarrassment added to my own.


    Fawn arches her back while her own clawed hands carefully knead my shoulders.  Now that I¡¯m paying attention to her affection, I¡¯m far more tired than I realized.  After so much excitement, and danger, and emotional drain from doing things I don¡¯t feel qualified for, I¡¯m in an extremely safe space, being loved on by a wonderful person that I hold dear.  Even if we hardly know each other, we¡¯ve shared several tender moments, and at least one life saving experience apiece.  My eyes droop and my muscles begin to slacken as I let myself relax in her embrace.  Fawn was right, how much tension and nervousness was I carrying around?  It would probably be best to let go of all this before speaking with Linti.


    This is nice.  I like this.  Her throat vibrates against mine as she continues to purr while I knead her muscle knot.  I wonder if she was being honest or facetious about the cause of this knot.  Not that I¡¯d accuse her of lying, but it¡¯s cartoonishly sweet as a sentiment.  We hardly know each other.  Still, she¡¯s an amazing source of affectionate cuddles.  Her family, and mine now too, are lucky to be blessed with such a loving individual to share so much tenderness with us.  Matron of affection of a cat tribe indeed.  If this were the world in my memories, I¡¯d imagine she was some sort of deity, like a goddess of affection, or seduction, or the bedroom, or interpersonal grooming, or something like that.  There¡¯s quite a large number of those across all the cultures of that fake world.


    Hm, I must have dozed off for a while.  Fawns¡¯ breath is soft, low, regular.  The gentle rise and fall of her chest against mine is rhythmic, soothing in its own right.  I slowly begin extricating my limbs from hers.  What a marvelous person.  I knew I needed some cuddles to recover from this last adventure, but I didn¡¯t know how much I needed this in particular.  I kiss her brow as I slowly rise to walk away.  I swear her smile widens from the kiss in her sleep.


    Phew, my heart is fluttering like crazy, but still, that was a fantastic, and restful, experience.  I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve been out for more than an hour or so, based on the light making its way through the canopy, unless I¡¯ve slept for over a day.  I think my SAP would be teasing me relentlessly across my mental wavelength right now if that was the case though.  Lu, Lil, Teuila? Are you close enough to ride along on my thoughts?


    Three affirmatives reach my mind.  Their presence in my brain fills me with warmth and happiness.  I¡¯m unbelievably lucky.  Hm, based on the charge in the air, and that faint crackling sound, I believe Linti is returning.  I don¡¯t have a sense of smell anymore, but I could swear there is the faintest hint of ozone.  Sure enough, loud crashing begins to sound off in the distance as Linti¡¯s lightning leaps smash into trees and the ground all over.  Somehow she manages to not damage trees, even though she plows into them on the regular.


    I spy the majority of Linti¡¯s family nearby, so I go to sit by Blossom and Six who glom onto me from each side.  Six¡¯s strong hands ruffle my hair that had been flattened by Fawn¡¯s licking-grooming.  He¡¯s saying something about how it looks better messy.  I can¡¯t really hear him though because I¡¯m staring at Linti as she arrives, and the look in her eyes is mesmerizing in a dangerous way.  She looks like a hunter who has found her prey, or a predator that¡¯s ready to strike.  Which I suppose makes sense.  I gulp and begin to stand to try to sneak away, but Linti sets a hand on my shoulder, and extends her claws ever so slightly.  Their sharp presence only barely hints at their ability to gouge my flesh.


    Linti growls out a challenge, ¡°You, me, no more holding back Shellcracker.  I won¡¯t be.  That clearing over there.¡±  Linti points to a fairly wide open empty space.


    I glance around at the rest of her family, and the best they can offer me is shrugs, frightened grimaces, or nervous smiles.  Gulping, I march towards the clearing.  Linti surmises, ¡°So, based on the Nagas around camp, you managed to secure peace, safety for my family?¡±


    I nod tentatively.


    Linti states, ¡°Good, get ready, when this bag drops, we fight.  Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t kill you too hard.  No more holding back, got it?¡±


    Again I hesitantly nod.  Linti throws Luni¡¯s spare magic backpack to one side, and my gaze widens as I stare at it falling, almost in slow motion.  I see lightning begin to coalesce and crackle along Linti¡¯s body as she begins to transform into lightning.  I¡¯m already leaning away from the angle she¡¯ll be leaping at as the bag hits the ground.  While she passes just above me, the tiniest thread of lightning rakes along my flesh.  It causes a smoking sizzle but doesn¡¯t otherwise damage me at all.  I know as soon as she lands, she¡¯ll be turning to either jab, or fire her crossbow from close range at me, but I¡¯m not going to let her do either.


    My counterattack is decisive.  As she¡¯s touching down to change directions, I trap Linti in an umbral tetrahedron duplicate, and immediately summon water from my inventory into its airtight inside.  The water apparently disperses her form with violent sizzling and crackling.  When it sounds like there¡¯s no more sizzling or crackling from the inside, I claim the umbral tetrahedron back to my inventory worriedly.  The water sloshes out across the ground as it spills forth, no longer having a container.  Linti¡¯s limp form flops onto the ground.  She¡¯s unconscious and not breathing.


    No, no no no.  She has a pulse but it¡¯s weak and erratic.  I clear Linti¡¯s airway, and begin passing her rescue-breaths.  Her heart continues to slow to the point where I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s beating any more.  I pass her more breaths and straddle her hips so that I can offer her chest compressions with my hands between her breasts.  Two more repetitions of breathing, and compressions pass and she¡¯s still unconscious.  As I¡¯m in the middle of passing her another breath, Linti grabs the back of my head and begins laughing, coughing, and kissing me.


    I¡¯m caught in a confused panic, and caught in her muscular grasp.  Similar to the last time I was kissed on the lips, it¡¯s not unpleasant, but I¡¯m startled.  Yet, thanks to Fawn, I¡¯m mostly relaxed enough that I find myself returning Linti¡¯s kiss for a moment, forgetting my worries.  Only for a moment, before I blush and nervously try to scrabble away.


    It was a long enough moment though for Linti to grin and begin laughing, ¡°Haha, I knew it!  I never even stood a chance!  Of course my family is safe with you.  How in the hell Shellcracker?  Why even let me think I was in your league?  I died.  You killed me, without me even laying a scratch on you.¡±


    I interrupt, ¡°Well, I mean, uh, you, well, sorta actually, a tiny trail of lightning did scratch me a little.¡±


    This only earns more laughter, ¡°Pfft, hahaha.  Okay, I want you.  You and me.  You train me to be as strong as you, as creative as you with your powers.  I want every bit of that crazy little brain of yours.  Really, letting me blow a hole in your neck, on the off chance I might be willing to read your little notes?  Knocking me out with altitude sickness and then breaking yourself to pieces to make sure I¡¯m the one that¡¯s okay?  Turning your little dragon friend into a god when you flooded them with mana from your soul?  I heard their attack, Wrath of Godsbreath, what the everliving hell Shellcracker?  What even are you?¡±


    I blush and chuckle nervously.  This is sort of more than I had thought to hope for from Linti.  I don¡¯t have answers for her either.  Those things just, well, seemed like good ideas at the time.  I guess I could tell her that.  ¡°Those things, uh, well, they seemed like good ideas at the time.¡±


    Linti barks uproarious laughter and approaches me, offering me a hand up from where I¡¯d scrabbled away to.  As I take it, she wraps an arm around my neck and noogies me with her free fist.  She then virtually pins me to a nearby tree in a Cicada Block.  My heart skips a beat.


    She then asks, ¡°So, yes or no?  Come on, I¡¯m literally dying here.  Well, I was.  Thanks for that, by the way.  The saving me I mean.¡±


    I can¡¯t help but laugh as I wrap my arms around this crazy jaguar huntress.  I nod, stating, ¡°Sure, of course, jeeze Linti, you could have just asked.  Yes, I¡¯ll train with you, we can hunt together, whatever you want.  You¡¯re amazing.  But, um, my brain though, I¡¯d prefer to keep it, heh.  Also, well, like figuratively, it¡¯s already split with three other people.  My inner circle and I have psychic bonds.¡±


    Linti bursts into more laughter when I say I want to keep my brain, but she leans in and smooches me roughly on the cheek before ruffling my hair once more.  She adds, ¡°Sure thing Shellcracker, whatever you say.  Tomorrow, you and me, crack of dawn, yeah?  Hell, if I didn¡¯t know you¡¯d be sleeping with Fawn, Six, Blossom, and your otter fam, I¡¯d say we just sleep together so we¡¯re ready at the same time.¡±


    I chuckle at Linti¡¯s straightforwardness.  I also try to push back thoughts of the implications of her phrasing that come from fakeworld¡¯s human society style memories.  This has been a bit of an unexpected whirlwind.  Do I even want to know how or why she feels the way she does?  She was mostly friendly when we were in her settlement, while I was dying.  She was a bit upset when I accidentally disrespected her, but then she was angry on the way to the Hollow.  I remember her angrily mentioning Teuila held back when sparring with her.


    Oh, wait.  The reason she was so cold and annoyed was because she suspected I was holding back against her, and felt disrespected because of it.  I can be really dense sometimes, can¡¯t I?


    Screams cleaving through the chilly evening air cut off my thoughts and my reverie.  Linti and I both rush in the direction of the sound.  I¡¯m about to JT, but Linti¡¯s literally lightning fast reaction speed has her grabbing me and transforming us both into lightning to leap in the direction of the sound before I even get a chance to.  A glob of lava falls through the air in the path of Linti¡¯s lightning leap, and she drops me out of her transformation, throwing me to the side.  She can¡¯t change direction until she touches down, she doesn¡¯t have flight, only lightning fast leaping.


    No you fool, I¡¯m almost immune!  Not again!  I can¡¯t have someone dying again to try to save me from lava!  Linti¡¯s fractions of a millisecond from impacting the lava as I Flash Freeze Storm the entire area.  My removal of massive amounts of atomic kinetic energy causes Linti to drop from her lightning transformation and bonk almost harmlessly into the pumice that falls in front of her.


    I gulp back tears as I order, ¡°Please, don¡¯t ever, ever try to save me from lava!  It can¡¯t hurt me.  I would, I¡¯d.  I¡¯d bring you back to life to kill you myself if you died to lava for me.  Got it?¡±  I barely maintain my composure, though my voice cracks several times as I make my request of Linti.


    Linti offers a nervous, chagrined chuckle, but she nods, wiping a tear from her eyes.  We both scan the canopy for who we know to be behind the attack.  The problem is, it¡¯s not just Mat.  Critterkin that aren¡¯t in my party, equipped with stolen human weapons, are marching in from the west.  I can see what emboldened them to do this as well, Mat is floating above a platoon of armed critterkin.

 B 3 C 24: The Voices Say Empty and Hollow and Thud

    <h2>B 3 C 24: The Voices Say Empty and Hollow and Thud</h2>


    Screw this. I assume draconic form by starting my secondary evolution tether and dropping it. I said I¡¯d murder the everliving crap out of anyone that started trouble when I was trying to recuperate from all this craziness. I fully equip myself in Valkyrie gear except for Gae Buidhe of course.


    I shout a warning, ¡°Anyone who wants to live, get the hell out of here now! That includes all of you! You too Linti. I can¡¯t take this nonsense anymore. Everything around me is going to die.¡±


    Linti takes a look at my face to gauge my seriousness, and she ever so slightly pales at the anger that¡¯s flooding my expression. I begin summoning dozens of umbral duplicates of sharp objects from my inventory aimed at the oncoming horde, and they pause in their tracks. I march through a gap I¡¯d left in my offenses and begin freezing everything, including the first several rows of critterkin ahead of me. I even manage to snag Mata in my ice storm before he manages to somehow blink away further behind his assembled army. Grr.


    I pause for a moment, I hadn¡¯t really given my allies a chance to flee before I started moving ahead. Glancing around though, it seems to just be me and my floating armaments now. Linti is zipping around at the rear edge of my ice, making sure everyone else gets to safety.


    I call out, ¡°Following Mataalii will lead to your death. I¡¯m sick of people not believing and not understanding that it takes everything in my power to hold back from murdering every living soul that threatens my family. Here¡¯s the proof of what letting out a tiny fraction of my rage earns you!¡±


    I unleash hell upon the most heavily equipped front line of offenders as my Umbral Shot armaments rocket forward, piercing wave after wave of critterkin that chose to follow Mataalii. Come on Reggie, don¡¯t do this, they¡¯re all going to die. They¡¯re a threat to my family, they have to die! You know that isn¡¯t true. Come on. Look at this, your Umbral Shots tore through every single one that didn¡¯t flee off to the side. It¡¯s a massacre. If there were a thousand people in that contingent, there can¡¯t be more than three hundred left alive.


    Then those three hundred should understand that they had better never threaten the Shellcracker clan, ever again! Come on Reggie. We can turn this around. I know it¡¯s tiring, but we earned the skill for a reason. It now only costs from our own timeline, our own infinite timeline.


    Grr. Huffing a sigh, I admit, you¡¯re right, we¡¯re right. It was sort of nice to vent, but this was an atrocity. I can hardly believe I feel relieved at having done this, even just venting in what will end up being a doomed timeline. I¡¯m almost sickened at myself, almost. All those poor derezzed souls. Yeah, okay, I am sickened at myself. After a moment of vindication it leaves me feeling empty inside. Tell my past self that it feels empty, miserably so. Like the sight of one of my inner circle thudding into the ground, beginning to derez. This was unnecessarily violent. It wasn¡¯t a victory, it was a hollow shameless violent act.


    Linti wanted a chance to learn how to use her powers creatively, right? How about we take a really good look at what we just did. Let¡¯s give Linti a chance to dig into our mind. Neurons and Synapses and electrical impulses are a big part of thought and memory. Between her powers, and mine, we should be able to create a projection of this mess. Fine, past me, right around a split second after we stop Linti from melting herself, look at these logs and tell Linti to ride around in your skull electrically. Remember, it¡¯s empty, hollow, imagine the thud as a body hits the ground when losing any of us. My brain has a minor BSOD at that arrangement of words, but that should help emphasize my point to past me all the more.


    I gulp back tears as I order, ¡°Please, don¡¯t ever, ever try to save me from lava! It can¡¯t hurt me. I would, I¡¯d. I¡¯d bring you back to life to kill you myself if you died to lava for me. Got it?¡± I barely maintain my composure, though my voice cracks several times as I make my request of Linti.


    Before Linti can respond, I hear a message from future me to read our logs. Future me wants me to make another request of Linti, ¡°Hunter, I need you to try something new with your powers. You¡¯re used to becoming electricity, and even controlling it. Try to form yourself into as thin a stream of electrons as possible and reach into my head to view the memory I¡¯m playing back right now. Once you¡¯ve got it, we¡¯ll work some lightning, ice, and fire together to make a holographic image of it.¡±


    I heave a sigh, knowing that I was about to massacre most of this population in front of me without giving them a single moment to explain or negotiate. They can¡¯t even understand me when I yell at them, since they¡¯re not in my party. Linti works as best she can, trying something entirely new with her powers. It¡¯s uncomfortable to say the least, and I can feel my lightning resist climbing as she basically fries my brain bit by bit when she makes mistakes. It only takes a few moments, but the agony I endure as she tries to put together the mental map of what I¡¯m envisioning feels like it lasts for weeks.


    When I¡¯m fairly certain Linti has the imagery needed, I use my inventory magic to create something akin to a slide projector. Using Umbral Shot duplication, and ice from a compacted FFS of the water in my inventory as a lens, I bring this projector to life. I have Linti use her lightning to engrave miniature ice slides of what she was able to deduce from riding around in my head. Finally, I start a low heat, bright flame behind the slides to project the imagery ahead of us. Linti handles rotating out the slides to keep the picture moving along in a loop, showing the devastation I caused in a fraction of a second.


    I take on my draconic form in front of the oncoming horde, hoping that radical changes of shape lend credence to my words. Even if they can¡¯t understand me, they should be able to understand the sound of a threatening voice.


    I call out, ¡°This is the future I just lived. I came back in time to stop myself from killing all of you. Throw down your weapons now, and leave this area so that I can speak with my brother, or die. I¡¯m only going to give you five seconds before I begin to prove this future will come to pass.¡±


    Linti echoes every word, but indicates that I¡¯m the time traveler, not her. That works too. That makes more sense than just hoping they somehow get the implications of my tone of voice.


    I begin summoning Umbral Shot duplicates of weapons from my inventory. Since I don¡¯t have telekinesis, pausing their velocity for several seconds is the best I can do. It takes almost all of my concentration to keep it temporarily halted. I siphon off the atomic heat mostly in a direct line to Mataalii, catching him in frost for a moment before he manages to bamph away. I glare at the critterkin ahead of me with fury as I begin counting aloud, ¡°Five, Four, Three¡­¡± Linti repeats my count.


    There¡¯s a massive clatter as a large swathe of the critterkins near me drop their weapons and begin to scatter off north and south, out of the direct line of fire of my upcoming westward aimed attack. I continue, as does Linti, ¡°Two, one¡­¡± The majority of the rest of Mataalii¡¯s forces scatter, some still carrying their weapons.


    We finish, ¡°Zero.¡± My attack launches into a mostly empty battlefield, slaughtering only a dozen or so defiant camelfolk and pigfolk, and a handful of apelike beings. I sigh, knowing I shouldn¡¯t have killed anyone, but they had to know it wasn¡¯t an empty threat, that it wasn¡¯t some illusion of power. I gaze about, searching for Mataalii, but he¡¯s nowhere to be found.


    I yell, ¡°The battle is over, come out! Face me Mat!¡± There¡¯s no response or sighting of Mataalii.


    I¡¯m worried that he¡¯ll try to get at me by harming our family. He wasn¡¯t above flooding our whole home with lava, as far as I can tell, so I doubt he cares whether they live or die anymore. How can he be so cruel? Wasn¡¯t his desire to protect our family his main reason for hating me? Still, I don¡¯t think he¡¯s dumb enough to attack them now, when Linti and I are here and have used almost nothing to end this entire farce.


    SIghing, I cry out for peace, ¡°Alright, come back whoever is leading this mess. Mat¡¯s gone, he abandoned you. Let¡¯s talk this out.¡±


    Linti gives me a strange look of confusion with one raised eyebrow as if to ask, ¡°Really?¡± She then whistles appreciatively, then hoarse whispers, ¡°Holy crap, what the everliving hell Shellcracker? You were still holding back!¡±


    I blush with a nervous smile and scratch the back of my head, chagrined, as I re-initiate a tether around my heart. Envisioning my cherubic form, I drop the tether part way through to transform to the image I have of Reggie Shellcracker.


    I stand closer to the jaguar huntress and whisper, ¡°Sometime later when we¡¯re alone, I¡¯ll try to let you ride around inside me so that I can show you my memories of the Night of All Burn, that¡¯s probably the only time I wasn¡¯t really holding back. Or I can let you ride for memories of the cragbeast queen.¡±


    I hear Luni snickering across my mental wavelength, so she¡¯s somewhere nearby. What¡¯s even so funny right now? Oh, phrasing. How do you even have concepts of that phrase''s meaning!? I love you Lu, you butt.


    I telepathically send to Luni, ¡°Can you or some of the others come over here, so we can talk this nonsense out? I need to know that these idiots aren¡¯t going to follow Mat if he tries to rile them up again, and that they¡¯re not going to attack regardless.¡±


    Thankfully, between Luni, Linti, and Teuila zipping around to corral everyone who participated in the armed march, we¡¯re able to gather what seems to be all of their survivors to talk things through. I¡¯d only slain a handful of them, but I¡¯m still ashamed of even that.


    Regardless of my shame, the impact of my ¡®statement¡¯ netted the desired result. None of them want to risk attacking a group where a single person can wipe out a battlefield. I spared them from having to go up against hundreds of meat-starved human mages who each could wipe out small villages worth of people at a time. There was never any chance for them to take revenge on the humans, let alone to somehow take control of the Lavaborn Alliance. They¡¯re not willing to rejoin the family party though, obviously. Luni manages to convince them to travel west, to see if they can meet up with the crew of the Undine. Maybe the secret settlement that Morgan and the crew ferried critterkin to can handle their numbers. Hopefully.


    Saddened, emotionally drained, mentally exhausted, and with a slightly aching head due to Linti¡¯s lightning ride, I amble away from this mess, back towards camp. I need to apprise Sir Reginald of the situation, and I desperately want to see Laomati and Agwai.


    Finding Sir Reginald is easy enough, as he¡¯s organizing a squadron to equip blunt weaponry to subdue and chase off the invasion that¡¯s already been dispersed. I thank him for his diligence in maintaining peace, and the avoidance of unnecessary violence. He hadn¡¯t realized I had already returned, he also hadn¡¯t realized I already handled the situation. I do inform him that the critterkin will be marching west instead of harassing us ever again, if they stick true to their word. I also note however, that Mataalii is the true threat. He possesses magics that I don¡¯t fully understand yet, that even he might be growing into. With how he moves, I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever be able to track him down to put an end to his nonsense. I suggest that, while I prefer peace, if Mataalii should attack, that the human mages fight as if it were life or death, because Mataalii will not hesitate to kill.


    After our talk, Sir Reginald breaks off to treat his rallied troops to a seated meal. I sigh wearily as I watch them march towards one of the shops the Lavaborn Alliance currently has running. I know he wouldn¡¯t, but he could turn that little contingent around and start slaughtering critterkin, or my family. I¡¯m starting to understand why some people might become tyrants out of the fear of others¡¯ powers. Still, I¡¯d rather put my faith in trust, and avoid needlessly killing. I guess I have it far easier than any tyrant. If someone breaks my trust, I can rewind time and break them first. That affords me the luxury of at least trying to be trusting and peaceful.


    Still, I got lucky. I probably won¡¯t live long enough to rewind time if I¡¯m caught by surprise by a mortal blow ever again. Exhaling a bated breath that I didn¡¯t realize I was holding, I try to picture what I want for all of us, and what my next steps should be. Right, right, I was going to see Agwai and Laomati. I wonder how ¡®Naia and M-Squared are holding up. Do they know that the attack just now was perpetrated by Mat? Do they know he¡¯s the reason the cat family had to join the Lavaborn Alliance? I¡¯m sure Lu probably handled telling them.


    I spy Olioli chewing on the heel of a soldier¡¯s boot, which she¡¯s still wearing. This woman just looks at Olioli like he¡¯s the most confusing, yet precious thing in the world. The interaction brings a smile to my face. For the most part, there¡¯s a fair amount of segregation between our camps, and I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s good or bad for peace in the long run. Still, little things like this restore my faith in the community we¡¯re trying to build. Oh hey, there¡¯s Jazharn, it looks like she¡¯s trying to befriend Dream of Days. I remember being told Dream hates pretty much everyone. I wonder if it¡¯s because hyaenidae are not quite cats or dogs, yet she¡¯s in a family of cats. Jazharn keeps casting little spells, knowing her specialty, that worries me quite a bit, so I approach the pair.


    I cautiously greet them, ¡°Hi Jaz, hi Dream. How¡¯re things going?¡±


    Dream rolls her eyes at my approach and my greeting. Jaz points down at the ground as she casts another spell. Looking at where Jaz¡¯s fingers are pointed, I realize the spells she was casting were to etch art into the ground near Dream. It¡¯s actually beautiful work, she¡¯d get along well with some of the Naga sculptors I think.


    Jazharn exclaims, ¡°Ah, Billie, or um, is it Reggie? Regardless, just the little mage I was looking for! Do you, um, suppose you could tell this pretty lady here that I fancy her? Or do you think I should write it down? I also sort of fancy either of those twins, but they seem like a package deal, and, well, I don¡¯t know how much you know about human romance, but, yeah. Also, I think they¡¯re on intimate terms with pretty much everyone, so I wouldn¡¯t really know where I stood. But this one here, I see her standing in the center of the others sometimes, orating I suppose. Even though I can¡¯t understand her, she seems so eloquent. I also adore her spotted coat, and, oh my. I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m rambling, please stop me.¡±


    I purse my lips to stifle my laughter. This amazing mage, one of the most impressive casters in the entire human army, is fumbling her attempts to flirt with some of my extended family. And what¡¯s more, she¡¯s asking me for vaguely human romantic advice and interference. Catching myself before I spoil the moment, I ask, ¡°Dream, were you aware that Jaz here fancies you? She thinks that you¡¯re an eloquent orator, and have a gorgeous coat. I¡¯m fairly certain she also thinks your eyes sparkle just before you roll them in exasperation, right Jaz?¡±


    Jazharn blushes, catching the fact that I¡¯m acting as her wingperson, and nods enthusiastically. Dream actually barks with laughter, but it isn¡¯t mocking or hostile laughter. She gazes down at the drawings in the dirt, and back up at Jazharn, and looks back and forth several times. Her constant expression is always one of displeasure, I think that¡¯s simply the form of her face. It¡¯s still a lovely face, but I think the term in fakeworld would be something like, ¡°resting angry face.¡±


    Dream finally, somewhat brusquely, says, ¡°Tell her I think she¡¯s a great artist, and I¡¯m flattered. Also ask her if she¡¯d like to go on a walk with me. Yeah?¡±


    Smiling wide I relay to Jaz, ¡°Dream is asking you on a bit of a date, she¡¯d like to go for a walk with you. There, she¡¯s offering you her arm. I hope you two have a wonderful evening.¡±


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Jazharn begins to ask, ¡°Wait, but aren¡¯t you coming with? How will I, um, oh. Thank you Billie, or Reggie, or whomever you are.¡±


    This is the kind of interaction that warms my heart and kindles the flames of faith that what I¡¯m doing is the right course. I smile brightly as Jazharn and Dream meander away arm in arm.


    Six pokes me in the arm and asks, ¡°Did you just get Dream to smile?¡±


    Laughingly I reply, ¡°Not me, not me at all, that was all Jazharn. Jaz likes you and Blossom too, but humans have this thing about not sharing affection with more than one person. It¡¯s good to see you Six. Everyone doing okay around here?¡±


    Six Wind rubs the back of his head as he replies, ¡°Yeah, it was kind of quiet, until, you know, a few minutes ago. It was a little tense for a few days, especially with Linti being as, well, you know how she can be. As intense as she is. I think we¡¯re all in a pretty good place right now. I don¡¯t know if you know, but we were nomadic before we found The Hollow, Linti basically ordered us to set up near it, back in the day. Before then, we had to constantly stay on the move to avoid reptile patrols and stuff. Eventually we marked our own territory, and well, you know the rest.¡±


    I sigh as I nod understandingly. Six continues, ¡°But, yeah, so it really isn¡¯t anything new for us to be on the move again. Still, I kind of liked living in one spot. Do you think we¡¯ll find a home any time soon?¡±


    Phew, that¡¯s the question, isn¡¯t it? I blow a breath through puffed cheeks as I consider, ¡°That¡¯s a tough question. It¡¯s my hope that we do, obviously. I¡¯ve also apparently got some mysterious quest that requires seeing the fairies anyway, so maybe they¡¯ll be helpful in our finding a new home. Mat¡¯s still out there too though. I think he¡¯s running out of options to try to get to me without coming for a direct fight. He knows how outmatched he is right now, so I¡¯m worried that the next time we see him he¡¯ll have practiced whatever powers he hasn¡¯t mastered yet. Speaking of, thanks for the chat Six, I need to see Linti again before I talk to Ag and Lao, have you seen any of the three?¡±


    Six points off behind my shoulder, and I see Linti escorting Agwai and Laomati away from a shop as a critterkin that I don¡¯t know takes a turn operating it to relieve them. I squeeze Six Wind for a quick tight hug in gratitude as I jog towards the trio I need to speak with. I wave a polite goodbye to him over my shoulder as I approach my own tribe¡¯s matron that I have missed so dearly.


    Shyly I mumble, ¡°Hi Lao, hi Ag, um, if you have a second, in a second after I talk to Lightning here, I¡¯d really love to catch up.¡±


    Lao and Ag immediately smother me in hugs from either side, chuckling and nodding affirmatives. I blush as Linti starts laughing at my predicament, but I enjoy the affection nonetheless. I happily nuzzle between the two as they embrace each other over the top of me. Does this make me an otter sandwich, or a Reggie sandwich? Whatever, it¡¯s funny either way.


    Clearing my throat, I ask Linti, from my ridiculous position sandwiched between the two leaders of our otter tribe, ¡°Linti, um, you wanted to train together. You suggested sleeping together to be sure we got up at the same time. I¡¯m not saying you have to, but I¡¯d be honored if you joined us. Would you want to maybe try that out? Or, barring that, could I take you up on that maybe tomorrow night?¡±


    Linti hems and haws as I gaze into her eyes hopefully, ¡°Ack, stop it with the eyes Shellcracker. You¡¯re worse than the twins! Fine, fine, fine, just this once. Jeeze. You little snuggle-starved goon. You¡¯re half my height right now though, so I don¡¯t know how much I could enjoy it. I don¡¯t like the idea of having a kitten to look after, especially when that kitten is going to be my mentor.¡±


    Ag and Lao are biting their lips trying to hold in their laughter, and also their obvious joy at the addition to our family¡¯s cuddle pile. I think I have a solution for Linti¡¯s worry though. Grinning, I nudge Agwai and Laomati slightly to the side as I tether my own heart. I self-actualize my appearance to be slightly more masculine in my arms but more femme-leaning everywhere else. I also envision myself taller than Linti, with the slightest hint of a mammalian furry tail, and it works.


    Linti avoids meeting my gaze for a moment and clears her throat, ¡°Oh, uh, yeah, cool. That¡¯s a thing that you can do. Neat. Might maybe come in handy if you need to reach a high shelf or something.¡±


    I double over with belly laughter at how nonchalantly Linti is trying to play this, Ag and Lao join in in the laughter. Now that I¡¯m taller than her, I wrap an arm around her neck from behind and noogie her with my free fist as payback for earlier. Tears of laughter coat my eyelashes as I roughhouse with Linti for a few minutes, as she returns the hijinks. Ag and Lao watch us with too-precious expressions of elation and it causes both Linti and me to burst into further laughter.


    Finally having subdued Linti¡¯s embarrassment, or whatever she was going through, I ask of Lao, ¡°Lao, Ag, I guess Linti too, I need to share some really important things. Can we sit somewhere in private for a bit?¡±


    As we settle into a private spot, I catch Ag, Lao, and Linti up on everything that happened. There¡¯s a bit of dismay at my injuries, especially the neck wound caused by Linti, or my self-broken legs, but the most worrisome response is when I mention that I died, I don¡¯t bother explaining quite how it happened though. I don¡¯t want Ag and Lao to worry that Linti might kill me when we train. I talk about the temple of time, and how powerful I can become with decades of training, with only access to my current suite of skills. I talk about the seeming reincarnation of the will of Staff Ninja.


    I talk about falling into a more intimate love with Lil over the course of thousands of years of shared accelerated thinkspace over several decades of training. Since we had no contact with anyone else, our bond was our only source of joy during the endless bloody training, so of course it grew over time. Ag and Lao nod in a sagely appreciation of my story, as if it was simply a matter of fact that such things could happen, would happen, or did happen. Linti frequently simply whistles an extended low note in appreciation.


    I finish, ¡°So, what do you all think I should do about this book situation? One of them had Lil¡¯s memories! They steal time from anyone else, and only impart like one or two words during that time. We left it in the temple. I think it¡¯s safe there with TQ. I left the other two books as well, I think one I got from Octorochi, and the other I got from destroying the prideful rock where we fought Octorochi.¡±


    Linti interrupts me, ¡°Wait, wait, Octo is eight. Did you kill the serpent of the swamps?¡±


    I reply, ¡°Well, it was a team effort for the first one, though Teuila did all the damage and heavy lifting, other than that last little bit of foolishness of mine. The second one, yeah I killed that one on my own, it had less heads though.¡±


    Linti just punches me in the shoulder with enough force to bowl me over, ¡°Get out of town! That¡¯s why it¡¯s been gone for months and months! Seriously? Were you two a part of the fight?¡±


    Agwai shakes their head, but Lao chuckles nervously as she replies, ¡°Not so much the battle, though I did stare down the serpent a moment for my precious loves to have a chance to organize. Then as Reggie lay dying, I did my best to keep them safe and breathing long enough for their natural healing to help them recover.¡±


    Linti just shakes her head incredulously as she raises a hand to her brow before she runs that hand across the top of her head. She mutters, ¡°Shellcrackers, crazy lot of you, one and all. Okay, yeah, fine, I¡¯ll sleep sounder if my whole family gets their tails into your sleeping pile. Jeeze. You uh, need me for anything else Shellcracker? If not, I¡¯m going to go corral my fam and give them the news. We¡¯re officially Shellcrackers now, safer that way.¡±


    I shake my head in answer to Linti¡¯s question about needing her at the moment. Agwai and Laomati each let out an SFS, the Shellcracker Family Squee, as our family expands once more.


    I resume my question for the pair that I basically consider to be my elders, or parents, ¡°So, I¡¯m sort of lost. It sounds like one way or another, we¡¯re headed for the fairies. When there, should I immediately pursue this book quest? Do you think, between everyone in the Lavaborn Alliance, you all can handle finding some way to negotiate the creation of a settlement in their lands? Should I focus on that instead of TQ¡¯s book quest?¡±


    Agwai begins to make a joke about lost books and library fines, but Lao shushes them playfully and interrupts. Although how Ag even has a concept of library fines mystifies me. Lao responds, ¡°Dear one, as I¡¯ve told you before, it seems as if you alone sit at the loom of fate, its tapestry is nearly entirely yours to command. But if that feels like too much burden to bear, perhaps yes, we could manage to speak well enough to negotiate such a thing. After all, you¡¯ve discovered things about our world that it seems no one else knew at the time. We have much to offer, and all of us, the fairies included, have little to lose by hearing us out.¡±


    I exhale a breath I hadn¡¯t realized I¡¯d been holding as I¡¯m flooded with relief. At first when Lao started to respond, I thought she was going to suggest that I handle everything personally. I¡¯ve never even been the one to successfully negotiate any sort of peace, someone else has always stepped up for me. Lao would probably say it¡¯s because of choices I made that others saw fit to put their faith in me and take that leap in my stead. She basically did say more or less exactly that about the Night of All Burn. I guess she¡¯s kind of right. Sometimes I¡¯m pretty hard on myself.


    After our too-serious catching up on my side of the tale, Ag and Lao begin to catch me up on the family. They share much the same news as Lu shared with me earlier, but it¡¯s refreshing to hear them chatter happily, interrupting or finishing each other¡¯s sentences and the like.


    When we¡¯re about to retire, my inner circle catches up to me and expresses a sort of joking dismay at my larger form. Teuila lets a hint of jealousy shine through, until she asks me how I managed to alter my form in a way that I wanted. In moments, Teuila stands before me as a version of her Valkyrie form that¡¯s so much more human than any form I¡¯ve seen any of us critterkin take, that I¡¯m at a loss for words. Instead of equipment, she has a dress that¡¯s similar to the one she¡¯d picked out from Bettie¡¯s shop so long ago. It seems to be perhaps a wool that¡¯s dyed chocolate, with a layer of cherry red beneath it that shows through only in leather-laced slits that expose the secondary layer of the skirt. Beneath this dress she¡¯s wearing a shoulderless knit sweater. Te¡¯s hair is much more voluminous, and hangs to each side of her face, framing it in a lovely fashion. Teuila is always beautiful to me, always, but she¡¯s stunningly drop-dead gorgeous at the moment. Her outfit radiates style, class, and charm.


    Luni, not to be outdone, shows off that she too can self tether, surprising all of us. Similarly to Te, Lu is so human in this humaform evolutionary stage, that it¡¯s only a soft layer of fur, tiny snout for a nose, tail, and ears that betray that she¡¯s an otter. She¡¯s wearing what I think is called a kigurumi, basically pajamas, and the pajamas look like a cartoonish dragon. Lil is both elated at Lu¡¯s choice of apparel, and grumbling in mock jealousy, since Lil¡¯s shape-shifting skill isn¡¯t quite powerful enough to assume a humanoid form in this evolutionary stage yet.


    Lil still tries, and they actually manage to grow a pair of gangly legs in their spheriform stage. It looks utterly ridiculous, exactly how one would imagine it to look if there were a head walking around on two legs. We all try not to laugh as we take turns snuggling Lil to reassure them that we don¡¯t need them to have limbs, we love them all the same. Lil gives up and de-transforms the legs for now, resuming their usual spherical shape.


    Linti arrives with the rest of her family, minus Dreams of Days, in tow. I begin to ask where Dream is, but I remember she had a date with Jaz, and that the cats are extremely affectionate, even to new people. I don¡¯t think I have to worry about Dream¡¯s whereabouts. I wonder if they¡¯ll be writing each other little notes to communicate, or maybe inventing a sign language that¡¯s all their own.


    Linti however does a double take when she sees my inner circle, ¡°What in the, who in the. Shellcrackers? How in the? You know what, never mind. Jeeze. Crazy family, the whole lot of ¡®em.¡±


    Lil, Lu, Te, and I burst out laughing as we follow everyone into the tent that Fawn had commandeered. Winter and a few of the cats pull pillows off to the side to sleep on their own, but for the most part, we have the largest, most glorious cuddle pile in the history of my entire life thus far. I use my FFS to make sure we have a constant cool breeze in the jungle night¡¯s otherwise warm air, especially with so many warm bodies all in various states of spooning or limbs-entwined cuddling, or simple hand-holding within arm¡¯s reach. Lu has Lil in her dragon-mouthed hoodie of her pajamas, and that¡¯s adorable.


    Linti pulls my arms tighter around her, and there¡¯s a mild electrical tingle that races up my arm to end in my brain. It seems to be a message from Linti, ¡°This is kind of nice Shellcracker, no one will believe you if you share that I admitted this. But still, thanks pal.¡±


    Apparently she¡¯s already putting her imagination to use. It¡¯s not quite telepathy, since she can¡¯t get a read on me without shocking the everliving crap out of me, and I can¡¯t reply privately to her, but she can plant messages in brains now. That¡¯s a ton of progress out of nowhere. I happily squeeze Linti while Te strokes my hair from behind.


    This, this is my entire purpose in life, to make sure we can safely enjoy this as many nights as possible. That¡¯s my final thought as I drift off to sleep with Linti as my little spoon, and Teuila fighting Fawn to be my big spoon, each taking about half of my body, Fawn entangled with my legs.


    Linti wakes up earlier than everyone else, and she nimbly extricates me from all the limbs wrapped around me without waking anyone else somehow. Even though I¡¯m normally groggy when I wake up after a rest, I feel so refreshed, invigorated, and excited to tackle the day. The front of the Lavaborn Alliance will make it to Point B today, it will take a few days for the rear of the march to catch up though. From there, when everyone has gathered, it¡¯ll be up to the scouts, and probably my inner circle, to either find an unsettled area that can sustain us, or to negotiate with the fairies.


    Linti and I race to The Hollow to start hunting for the day. Obviously she beats me there by a landslide. Still, as we show off our powers and talents to each other, it¡¯s a brand new experience. I don¡¯t even mind being in this six foot tall form when I¡¯m next to Linti. We can fight back to back, raising hell and razing ground. I was so used to being like two and a half to three and a half feet tall, that I never even thought I might make a taller form my default form. It doesn¡¯t take anything to maintain this secondary evolution stage. It might slow my mana regeneration rate somewhat, but not by any noticeable amount.


    I quip, ¡°Hey Hunter, try to envision a tiny spark of lightning, imagine that it has a timer of say ten seconds, after which it will flare to life and explode in a shower of more violent, powerful arcs of lightning.¡±


    It only takes Linti two tries before it works. She queries, ¡°How the hell did you come up with that one Shellcracker?¡±


    To my chagrin, I reply, ¡°I didn¡¯t, that¡¯s the move that killed me in the tournament.¡±


    Linti whistles appreciatively, ¡°Oooh, let me just make sure I don¡¯t ever point this at you, huh? Don¡¯t need you freaking out on me. I heard about your panic attacks and stuff. If you ever, I dunno, wanna talk about them or anything, we can kill some stuff together while you vent. Or not, whatever.¡±


    I chuckle as I notice more similarities between Linti and Teuila. Both of them have unique approaches to expressing themselves which are either muted, or hidden slightly behind a facade of their actual strength. That is to say, they¡¯re both strong, that part isn¡¯t a facade, the facade that¡¯s put up is that they don¡¯t really care or want to express their emotions. They definitely do actually want their emotions seen and acknowledged though.


    I reply, ¡°Thanks Hunter, I generally don¡¯t have an attack unless I think about Day One.¡±


    Awe crap. Even though The Hollow is nearly empty of insects, I thud into the ground, from the JT flight I was taking, and crash before some sort of enormous beetle. It digs its pincers into my soft sides between gaps in my Valkyrie armor. My breath comes in ragged gasps that feel like they¡¯re sucking air through a straw filled with molasses, even though I¡¯m pulling in massive amounts of air as I hyperventilate. My vision is so tunneled I can only see part of one inner mandible of the beast about to devour me. My tinnitus is so loud that I can¡¯t hear what Linti is calling out to me. On top of my tinnitus, my heartbeat is pounding so loudly in my ears that I fear it will deafen me.


    I¡¯m vaguely aware that the creature injuring me is blasted into derezzing by Linti, but I¡¯m trapped reliving nightmares. Every surface around me opens in approximations of fanged maws, I¡¯m sent tumbling from one mouth to another as I¡¯m chewed and spat out by the earthen jaws. Eventually I come to, seated against a wall, with Linti sitting next to me, her right hand on my left shoulder.


    Linti notices my expression change and asks, ¡°So uh, I¡¯m guessing don¡¯t say those words? You okay Shellcracker? That seems like a deadly weakness. I¡¯m sorry, no, that¡¯s not the word, vulnerability that could be exploited. You¡¯re anything but weak. Everyone has something or other. Well, except me.¡±


    At her final assertion that she doesn¡¯t have anything I start to guffaw as I cough and steady my breathing to normal levels.


    I retort, ¡°You¡¯ve got nothing, you¡¯re positive about that? How would you feel about being a few kilometers up, or trapped underwater right now?¡±


    Linti shudders as she replies, ¡°Okay, okay, point taken. You good?¡±


    I nod, ¡°Aye, thanks for saving me Linti. I don¡¯t know how long I was out for. Sometimes it¡¯s only a fraction of a second, sometimes it¡¯s quite a while. It hasn¡¯t gotten me killed yet, thankfully. It has definitely come close though. I¡¯m sorry about the water crack. That was a pretty mean tease. I almost lost you there, and it was my own fault. I would have reset time though, I swear it. I¡¯d never let myself kill you.¡±


    Linti takes my left hand in her right paw, ¡°Hey, whatever, it¡¯s alright, y¡¯know, it¡¯s fine Shellcracker. ¡®Sides, we, y¡¯know, it was kinda fun.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, ¡°Drowning was kind of fun?¡±


    She bashes her shoulder into mine, ¡°Not that ya doofus, after.¡±


    Catching on, I blush, remembering how she gripped my hair and, yeah. She¡¯s got an eyebrow raised at me now. Oh, I think that means she wants to know how I felt about it. I wonder if the two of us develop her powers well enough, if we might end up having a virtual psychic link with quantum entangled electrons or something. I feel like maybe she could be part of my inner circle. The ones that I¡¯d allow myself to, hm, yeah. I¡¯m just going to redact the memories I make from now until we get to Point B. This is private, and I don¡¯t want to embarrass Linti by letting anyone read the logs of what we do between moments of training in The Hollow.

 B 3 C 25: Point B, Fair Folk

    <h2>B 3 C 25: Point B, Fair Folk</h2>


    After several days of training, the last of the Lavaborn Alliance has caught up to Point B. I¡¯m making fairly rapid progress on some of my weaker skills, and I¡¯m getting close to unlocking electrokinesis, I can feel it. Linti¡¯s training is progressing by leaps and bounds. I left two copies of Umbralil at camp for Lil to practice controlling while they train with Teuila, and Lil is almost able to control one of them while moving around somewhat normally. Lil can control two at once haphazardly, but not well.


    Linti and I have been, hm, growing closer, during the moments between insect spawns. We don¡¯t even technically have to return to the camp, since my inventory carries hundreds, maybe thousands times more than the bag that Luni leant Linti, but we both enjoy our nightly cuddle. I¡¯m sure Linti wouldn¡¯t admit it though, of course.


    Luni is a bit frustrated that Lil, and Te are training non stop. She¡¯s similarly annoyed that I am training so long each day as well with Linti. She¡¯s stuck mostly tending shops to allow for produce sales for hours at a time. Still, she stops by The Hollow once in a while, but that takes hours out of her day to travel back and forth, whereas it only takes Linti a few minutes to take us between camp and The Hollow. The travel is still mildly excruciating to me, but it¡¯s one of the reasons my lightning resist is able to climb so quickly. That, and I¡¯ve been trying to teach Linti to do the crazy ground based pillars of lightning storm that Lluxop and Rastoc did, which means I¡¯m frequently standing in her wide area of attacks. Even though I have thermal resistance to insane degrees, I still end each day with my skin charred and blackened in large patches and swathes. Luna sleeps at the edge of the tent that our pair of families camps in. I didn¡¯t see her the first day or so that I¡¯d been back, apparently she makes her way to the river on occasion to fish. When she made it back on the second day, as Linti and I were returning, she of course knocked me down and sat on me, then she actually licked me as she stood up.


    For some reason, the amount of my friends and family that lick me on any given day continues to grow. My extended cat family groom my lightning-scarred flesh, seemingly in apology in lieu of Linti, but their tongues are rough and it feels like they¡¯re freeing up layers of my skin. Do I really taste good? Do I smell like cooked meat or something? I should probably regenerate my sense of smell at some point, since I know my self-actualization transformation lets me create entirely new muscles and organs.


    Either way, now it¡¯s time for us to canvas the region. Priss¡¯s and Sir Reginald¡¯s scouts are being sent out on cartographical expeditions, but my inner circle will be able to make short work of heading all the way to the coast and back. Linti agrees to take the longest leg of the journey, Teuila takes the second widest arc, I take the third widest, Luni takes the fourth widest, and Lil takes the slimmest arc of exploration. Our routes match our speed fairly well, so that we won¡¯t be apart for more than a day or two at a time. It¡¯s most likely that Luni, Lil, and I will be done before Linti and Teuila, simply because of how exponentially much more ground they have to cover. They¡¯re several times faster, but the survey areas grow at a massive pace.


    It¡¯s our second day of surveying, and I¡¯ve finished my route with no luck in finding any solid source of food for a settlement. I found several small ponds, but they barely had any fish spawns at all. If we¡¯re going to try to expand one, we might as well try to expand a larger one, or just dig a trench and fill it with water, hoping it turns into a sustainable lake.


    I was able to find several large patches of herbs that some of our Nagas have indicated make for excellent alchemy ingredients. So, I¡¯ll be buying more vials and alchemy supplies from the shop to experiment later. On approach to the camp, I¡¯m intercepted by Luni who bodily flings herself at me, wrapping her legs around my waist as I struggle to stay upright as I catch her.


    Chuckling, I greet her, ¡°Haha, I missed you too Lu, are you okay? What¡¯s this about? Not that I¡¯m complaining mind you, My Anchor. I love you.¡±


    Luni sighs in frustration, ¡°It¡¯s, argh, can¡¯t tell you yet. Yeah, I missed you. It¡¯s not fair, three whole times, and you never notice.¡±


    Quizzically I raise my eyebrows as I ask, ¡°Three times I don¡¯t notice what?¡±


    Luni waves it off as she snuggles against my chest, still wrapped around me thoroughly, ¡°Nothing, don¡¯t worry. I love you too. Always have, always will.¡±


    I take Luni into our shared accelerated thinkspace. While holding her physically, I take her avatar to our tree. We sit against it with her leaning against my left shoulder, my arm around her back.


    Worriedly I ask, ¡°Lu, are you sure you¡¯re okay? If this is future stuff, I understand not being able to talk about it, but you are important to me. Your happiness is important to me. I love you beyond measure. It always seems to be eating you up inside, it sucks that you have to go through this. I do realize the stakes are massive, if they¡¯re even more deadly than the Night of All Burn, but I wish I could do something for you.¡±


    Luni¡¯s telepathic avatar sheds several tears against my left pec as she snuggles closer, saying, ¡°Can¡¯t talk about it. Thank you though. I literally can¡¯t tell you how much it means to me for you to be the way you are.¡±


    My mental projection¡¯s face adopts a sad frown as I rest my head on Luni¡¯s. We spend several days in silence, holding one another in accelerated time. It¡¯s only a few minutes in meatspace, but we remain embraced the entire time.


    Lu breaks the silence, ¡°So, um. I know you weren¡¯t ready, back at the river. But you sort of are, now, aren¡¯t you? With Linti at least? Also maybe Lil, because of the temple of time?¡±


    I start to ask what Luni means, but realization dawns fairly quickly. She caught on that Linti and I have been sharing affection during our training in The Hollow. I wasn¡¯t trying to hide it or anything. I only wanted to make sure I didn¡¯t impugn Linti¡¯s honor, by kissing and telling, or anything like that. Some sort of human notion from fakeworld memories about not sharing whether or not you kiss someone. I think. That one¡¯s a little vague, but it also feels like something that Linti would agree with.


    I tilt Luni¡¯s chin up so I can stare into her vast, divinely exquisite eyes. My eyes ask the questions my voice won¡¯t. Luni¡¯s lips tremble as tears adorn her lashes, she nods. This next memory can remain private too, in our own little redacted subfolder.


    We leave accelerated thinkspace and I kiss Luni¡¯s forehead softly. I politely disentangle her legs from my waist as I set her down, gazing into her eyes with utmost love and adoration. My face wears a sad half smile, because I know how much Luni is still hurting. I take her by the hand as we rejoin the camp to await Lil¡¯s return. Though Lil had the least area to explore, they have by far the slowest speed without one of us to offer them additional acceleration. When I aid Lil, the two of us can approach Valkyrie¡¯s speeds, but separately, neither of us are even near hers, not safely anyway.


    Lil shows up only a few hours later, exhausted. They resume their spheriform shape in midair on a collision course with the two of us. Giggling, Luni leaps to catch Lil and purposely falls into my lap, sandwiching Lil between our torsos as she rolls to face my chest in my lap. I¡¯m so grateful that she can find these sorts of happy moments, despite the strain she¡¯s under. The phrase the weight of three worlds springs to mind. I wish I could lift that burden from her.


    Since I hadn¡¯t asked, I query, ¡°Either of you two find anything interesting or useful? I found some patches of herbs that I¡¯ve marked on a bark map of my scouted region. Some tiny ponds with one or two fish, nothing really sustainable or useful.¡±


    Lu replies, ¡°I found what I guess you¡¯d call a dungeon, it could have some fun hunting for, mrgrgr, you guys, I guess. I did a little bit of fighting with the tattoo, and got a couple of neat things, but I was too scared to go any further in. I¡¯m sorry that I¡¯m not the same kind of brave adventurer as you guys. Same as you about small ponds though.¡±


    I stroke Luni¡¯s brow and sift my fingers through her hair. I wish I could absolve her of that feeling of disparity in bravery. She¡¯s the bravest being in existence, to have taken on the burden that she did. You have nothing to be sorry for Lu, I wish I could get you to see that.


    Lu telepathically sends an image of her avatar doing the SFSE, the Shellcracker Family Shyness Expression. It¡¯s the expression where she pokes her index fingertips together while blushing and avoiding eye contact. I send waves of love at her telepathically.


    Lil chirps out their exploration results, ¡°I found a big mushroom, and lots of little ones. I¡¯m not sure if you want us to treat the big mushroom the same as the big trees, so I left it alone. The little ones were kind of tasty, even the one that put me to sleep.¡±


    Luni and I stare at Lil in shock before I exclaim, ¡°Lil you goober! That could have been dangerous! Did you even know which mushrooms were safe?¡±


    Lil, abashedly, replies, ¡°Oh, uh, no, whoops.¡±


    I laugh in disbelief, ¡°Whoops is right buddy, jeez. I love you pal, please be more careful. Any mushrooms left? Anything else to share?¡±


    Lil digs around in their inventory, producing several sorts of mushrooms, one I believe is called amanita. That red with white spots mushroom needs to be boiled to be safe for consumption, for most beings. The others look safe though, I¡¯m guessing that Lil¡¯s draconic constitution saved them from any too-harsh effects of the amanita.


    Lil chimes in with pride, ¡°Yup, that¡¯s the one that put me to sleep!¡±


    I roll my eyes as I chuckle, ¡°Lil buddy, haha, that¡¯s not something to be proud of. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay. I love you so much.¡±


    Lil replies, ¡°I¡¯m glad I¡¯m okay too pal, sorry that I didn¡¯t think too much about it before chomping down. Sorry too Lu. I wouldn¡¯t want to go away from you, my super sweet Gal-Pal and best buddy, neither of you.¡±


    I rub the top of Lil¡¯s cranium a little forcefully, almost a noogie, just enough pressure to let them know that this was serious, but that we¡¯re okay. I¡¯m suddenly struck with a flash of embarrassment as I realize something. Out of my entire inner circle, the only one I haven¡¯t, hm. My beloved Teuila, My-Wings that soar above all others in my heart. What is this feeling?


    Lil and Lu eye me suspiciously while they ride my train of thought. They both know I love them dearly as well. I simply fell romantically first and hardest for Teuila. Lu sends an exasperated sigh across our private mental wavelength, which causes me to raise an eyebrow curiously, but she waves it off and resumes hugging me physically and telepathically.


    Teuila and Linti are a day late now, this is either good news, in that they¡¯re cataloging more findings, or bad enough news to make me nervous. Neither of them has a comm stone, I wish I knew how to imbue magic into items to duplicate them. Wait.


    I produce an umbral duplicate of the comm stone, and claim it to my inventory, where I wait out its five minute duration. I make another copy, just in case the copies work but don¡¯t talk to the originals. I feel like the comm stone is a fairly simple enchantment, my space skill might be able to duplicate things like this and the soap stone and compass orb, maybe. I mean, heck, it transmits sound across space, if anything should work, this should.


    I tentatively begin speaking into one comm stone copy while Lu holds the original, and the other copy. Both begin replaying my speech, though distorted, and hard to understand. It¡¯s a start. Maybe I need a higher value in my space skill, or maybe I need enough disenchanting to learn enchanting. I feel like a level of one thousand disenchanting skill might unlock an enchanting skill, and then I could perhaps begin to copy the lowest difficulty magic items without distorting their effects too much. I suppose I can start selling things to the shops to begin purchasing more alchemy supplies to craft and break down potions repeatedly. I wish I knew how to make more types than just the water walking one. I suppose I could break down this clear oily potion. If I have the materials to craft more of it, I¡¯ll probably make more progress with alchemy and disenchanting by utilizing several types of potions.


    This all reminds me that I need to ask some of the Nagas who joined us, if any are adept scribes, and if any have ever run into an identification scroll. Or maybe the fairies will have alchemy workshops or enchanting materials or something. Or maybe the dungeon Luni found might have creatures that can drop magical equipment that I could disassemble.


    For now though, this doesn¡¯t solve the issue of Teuila and Linti both being late. I could send a message back in time to myself to give one of them the comm stone. If they contact me, I can figure out where they¡¯ll be at this time, then repeat the process with the other one, figure out where they¡¯ll be now. Sighing, I relay my plan to Luni and Lil. They both understand that this means I¡¯m going to be reliving the last few days several times over, and because I want to return to this timeline exactly as it was, I¡¯ll come back again after, without having handed off the comm stones, so I still have the copying and disenchanting idea. You hear that past me? We¡¯ve got a few things to do.


    Future me sends me a message, and as I check the logs, I groan as I wordlessly hand Teuila the Comm Stone, and borrow the other one from Laomati. Thinking better on leaving Teuila with no clue as to why I handed her the stone, I tell her to contact me the day after she¡¯s supposed to return, since I expect her to be late.


    Te is in trouble, crap. Okay, breathe, it¡¯s okay, we¡¯ll come back to today after also checking in on Linti.


    Future me sends me a message, and as I check the logs, I realize Teuila will be in trouble the day after she¡¯s supposed to have arrived. I can¡¯t let myself panic, I have to give Linti the comm stone, and live through the timeline at least twice more. I let Linti know to contact me the day after she¡¯s supposed to arrive, since I expect her to be late.


    Argh, Linti is in trouble. How? Really? Both of them? They¡¯re the two most powerful creatures I know. Okay, breathe, we can do this. We go back in time, we keep the comm stone, we pair with Lil to hit near sonic speeds. We can get to Teuila¡¯s location quickly, and either the three of us can head to help out Linti, or I can let Lil handle helping Te while I break off to find Linti.


    At least they did the logical thing, and swept their arcs such that they were at pretty much their nearest survey locations when they got into trouble. Alright past me, one more time. Keep the comm stone, tell Lil to prep for near sonic flight, and head to these two locations by this time the day after Teuila and Hunter are supposed to return.


    Urgh, living the same few days over and over leaves my stomach lurching when I¡¯m not in the temple of time. Lil and I embrace Luni for a moment as I explain the situation. We head out early, hoping to beat at least Teuila to the spot where she gets in trouble. It sounded like plants were attacking her, and that she barely got the comm stone out in time to let me know. Linti said she was trapped below falling rock and it was getting hot, and then, and then she. Linti didn¡¯t even finish using the full time on the comm stone, and didn¡¯t respond to a second attempt at contact.


    Alright, Lil and I have made it to the area where Teuila will have trouble, and she¡¯ll be arriving shortly. I¡¯m pretty sure I see the canopy shifting in the distance as she takes her massive leaps as she continues her survey.


    ¡°Lil, take us down? I don¡¯t see any hostile plant creatures or anything yet.¡±


    Lil nods and spirals low through the canopy to the ground. Teuila arrives in a few moments, and I still don¡¯t see any creatures. I know she wouldn¡¯t prank me about something so serious. Teuila wipes sweat from her brow as she leans against a tree, waving to us excitedly, surprised to see us. She takes a moment to summon water from her inventory to quench her thirst. Several drops spill on the ground and tree roots around her, and that¡¯s when it happens. Roots and vines jet out from the ground and canopy, entrapping Teuila.


    The vines begin to grow thorns that dig into and start to perforate Teuila¡¯s tender flesh in the gaps between her armored plates. Teuila¡¯s flesh begins to wither, it seems like the vines are siphoning her life force to grow stronger. A large series of vines entangle to form a spearlike wedge and drives towards Teuila¡¯s chest and neck.


    ¡°Lil, torch these things!¡±


    I Flash Freeze Storm the main spear as its tip impacts Valkyrie¡¯s chestplate. It looks like it was about to ricochet upward and take her head clean off. Lil begins incinerating the vines entrapping Teuila before they can puncture her any further. Te is lightly charred, and looking withered, as if most of the moisture had been sucked from her body. I glance around frantically, making certain we¡¯re not in any further danger. Teuila isn¡¯t doing well though.


    I pant furiously as I try to think of the right course of actions, any minute now, Linti will be trapped beneath rock and stop responding. I beg Lil, ¡°Lil, can you get Teuila home, to the, to Point B? Please. Linti¡¯s in trouble too. Te I¡¯m so sorry. You know I would come to make sure you¡¯re okay. Please forgive me. I love you both.¡±


    Lil nods. Teuila looks saddened, and confused, but gives me a weak thumbs up. I drop my six foot form, engage my self tether, imagining my draconic form, and drop my tether partway to assume draconic shape. Reinforcing my legs with as much density from the surrounding air as I can muster with my FFS, I rocket skyward with JT motion and angle towards Linti¡¯s location.


    Blasting eastward I push the limits of what my body can safely handle. My JT propulsion reaches a top speed nearly in line with Lil¡¯s when Lil is aided by me. I can feel fractures beginning to form in my heels, ankles, tibia, and knees. I let myself continue to glide on my wings, riding out my current speed. The odd gemstones that float behind me begin doing something new. They glow, and grow, and it feels like they suck thoughts and energy directly from my brain as they propel me onward, keeping my current speed. It¡¯s agonizing, like having memories physically ripped from my brain and turned into fuel. I frantically check my logs to make sure I¡¯m not losing any memories. As far as I can tell, I¡¯m keeping a consistent number of memories though.


    There¡¯s a tiny dark splotch in the sky up ahead. I¡¯ll give you two guesses who that is, and why Linti was trapped beneath hot rocks. My fury grows to boundless levels and I aim myself to spear Mataalii through his midsection with the blade of my hand facing forward.


    When I break the fifteen foot distance enclosing on Mataalii, both of our danger wraps try to tell us every possible dangerous motion each of the others is about to take, and the counters they¡¯ll take as we try to counter those motions. We each plummet out of the sky clutching our heads as we¡¯re overloaded with billions of sensations of the next few seconds as our danger wraps each try to outdo each other.


    Agh! Okay, seems like if either of us wants to engage in close combat, one of us will have to unequip our danger wraps. I know Mata would rather keep his distance. I see a massive glob of pumice that¡¯s slowly re-melting near the top. I manage to toss out a massive Flash Freeze Storm across the entire area, cooling the pumice and trapping Mataalii for a moment, but I can¡¯t approach because my danger wraps are still overloading my senses. I drop to my knees in agony, trying to conjure up an Umbral Shot, or anything towards Mat. My vision blurs as sweat pours into my eyes. How do I even sweat as a reptile? I try to fight back the urge to blink but can¡¯t keep my eyes open as they sting with sweat. Suddenly as I blink, the agony is gone, and when I open my eyes, so is Mat.


    I shout my fury to the sky, but he¡¯s not important right now. I need to know if Linti is okay, I may have frozen her inside this stone. I claim the entire misshapen mass to my inventory, and sure enough, Linti is inside, shivering, somewhat stuck in place.


    Shivering, Linti stutters, ¡°Sh,Sh,Shellcracker? How¡¯d dd ddd you know www ww where to ff f f find me?¡±


    I embrace her quickly, emitting enough heat and reorganizing the speed of her atomic structure to thaw her instantly. Trying to smile wryly, I reply, ¡°You¡¯re talking to someone who can travel through time, who said they¡¯d never kill you or let you die if they could help it. That rotten dastardly cretin is going to pay. Next time I catch him, that¡¯ll be the last time. I was so close this time. So close to ending him. It seems he¡¯s getting more used to certain powers of his though.¡±


    Linti returns my embrace, calming down, I drop my draconic form and resume my secondary evolution stage so that we¡¯re closer to the same height. Linti mumbles, ¡°Thanks. That was, it wasn¡¯t fun. A ball of molten stone dropped around where I was going to be mid-leap. The best I could do was launch a blast upward. I turned the ball into a bowl, or dome, and landed with it on top of me. On the ground I spun, trying to generate enough wind to cool it or blow it apart. I. I was going to die. Shellcracker that was it, that was the end. I. Reggie, thank you.¡±


    Linti and I share our appreciation for the fact that she¡¯s still alive as I fight back tears of rage. I want to enjoy our embrace and tender moment more, but I¡¯m consumed with hatred for Mataalii at the moment. Linti catches on to my anger and distraction, so she pauses her affection.


    She queries, ¡°Hey, hey Shellcracker? You going to be okay? I¡¯m okay. You¡¯ll get him. It¡¯s okay. Don¡¯t go all spook on me. Okay? Don¡¯t let him change you. Alright?¡±


    The festering knot in the pit of my stomach feels like a lie as I nod to Linti. The tightness in my chest along my heart feels like a betrayal as I return her embrace. I¡¯m so close to doing exactly what she¡¯s asking me not to do. To go spook is to ghost and leave on a quest of vengeance. I¡¯d be abandoning all of them in favor of hatred. Lil, Linti, Lu, Teuila.


    Teuila! I exclaim, ¡°Linti! Please get us back to Point B as fast as you possibly can? Te was hurt bad!¡±


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Linti, hearing the panic in my voice, sets a resolute expression upon her face and transforms us into lightning. She moves us westward as fast as I¡¯ve ever felt her move. My flesh peels and crackles in blackened webs and nets at the sheer intensity of the storm of lightning that we create together on our flight.


    It feels like only moments since we¡¯ve parted when we reunite with the others at Point B. The hatred drains from me and unties the knot in my guts as I gaze upon my weakened, drained Teuila. How could I possibly have contemplated abandoning them? I rush to her side and begin peppering her with kisses. Teuila, out of our entire expanded inner circle, you¡¯re the only one I haven¡¯t... You¡¯re the one I most want to¡­


    Te drags me into private thinkspace and points at a myriad of crashing waves of moving emotion, as we¡¯re tossed about like a ship on an ocean. Our avatars embrace as we share what she knows I meant when I was thinking moments earlier.


    I wrench myself from thinkspace, as much as I want to spend time with her, I want her to be okay first. I clasp her hands in mine as she¡¯s laying on a cot in our infirmary tent. Teuila slips into unconsciousness as I hold her hands.


    I gaze at the human medic, tears in my eyes, ¡°What¡¯s your name? Can you help her?¡±


    She replies, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m Alice. We¡¯ve never, I mean. Maybe. First, what happened to her?¡±


    Nodding, I realize they¡¯ve never bothered to learn how to treat critterkin, but biology and medicine should still mostly apply. Focusing, I state, ¡°Plants dug into her and, it was like, hm. They seemed to suck out her life, and maybe, probably her moisture.¡±


    Alice confirms, ¡°She¡¯s definitely dehydrated. If that¡¯s all it is, we can get some saline in her. She should be fine. You did good to get her to us this quickly, she¡¯s in advanced stages, but she should be on her feet in a day or two at most. Based on how you critters bounce back.¡±


    The conscious four of my inner circle, Lu, Lil, Lin, and myself, let loose a collective sigh of relief. I express my gratitude, ¡°Thank you, thank you Alice. Thank you. I hope you don¡¯t mind if we stay with her.¡±


    Alice shrugs, ¡°Suit yourself, it¡¯s not a serious operation, I¡¯ll mix some salts into some pure water and start administering it now. I¡¯ve uh, heard of you. You¡¯re the one, aren¡¯t you? The one who no one is sure if you¡¯re people or critterkin?¡±


    Frustrated, I frown, ¡°Critterkin are people.¡±


    Alice gasps, ¡°Oh, oh right of course! I meant humans, I didn¡¯t even think. Sorry. That wasn¡¯t even what I meant to ask. I mean, if you¡¯re that person, you¡¯re the one that took all that magic on the Night of All Burn. When you swung outward, it was like you pulled all the life behind you into your attack that pushed back the lava. If you can suck life from things, maybe you can put it back into things? Especially if those plants drained more than just her fluids.¡±


    Alice¡¯s theory holds some water. The forest to the south of where I stood basically disappeared sometime during my attack. I don¡¯t think it was a conscious or even subconscious effort by me though. It felt more like the world itself offered up the lives of those ancient trees to aid my effort. I relay that I surmise as much to Alice, much to both of our disappointment.


    I¡¯d trade an arm and a leg, a kidney and a lung, for the ability to heal others though. I hiccup, not realizing I¡¯d been holding back sobs. My eyes droop heavily, wearily. The four of us lean against one another as we watch Alice tend to Teuila. Linti clasps my hands in hers and licks at my left mandibular joint, nuzzling my ear.


    Luni sends an image of herself pouting across our private mental wavelength. I raise an eyebrow in return but she doesn¡¯t explain further.


    I ask aloud, ¡°Lil, Lu, are you two okay? Lu, I, I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t tell you how glad I am that you¡¯re not out there trapped in some dungeon right now. Having two of my inner circle in trouble, far apart, it was so frightening. Thank you for being cautious. But, but, are you okay?¡± I stress okay as strongly as I can, trying to impress upon her how much I care about her wellbeing.


    Luni sighs as she plays with my hair and strokes my right cheek with her left hand. She fiddles with Lil¡¯s tail with her right hand. Lu then nods, explaining, ¡°Yeah, yeah I am. I¡¯m glad you are who you are and can do what you can do. Thanks Reggie. I love you. Lil¡¯s doing okay too, look, they already fell asleep.¡±


    The three of us look at Lil who is already snoring a snot bubble and we have to stifle our laughter so as not to disturb the few patients in the tent. I think it¡¯s mostly just upset stomachs from not enough protein that ends up being the most common issue to deal with these days. Still, better safe than sorry in terms of disturbing them.


    Teuila begins to look better overnight, but I stay awake watching her the entire time, just to be sure. Linti sits at my side with a furrowed brow. Luni and Lil retire to the family cuddle pile, but I sit vigilant as a sentry with Linti at my side.


    Linti breaks the silence, ¡°I, uh, didn¡¯t know what I was signing up for. You¡¯re all scary close. In a good way. I mean, I¡¯d be gone if you didn¡¯t care as much as you do. I¡¯m sorry she¡¯s hurt. She¡¯s a really cool cat. Uh, lady otter.¡±


    I nod as I pat Linti¡¯s right thigh and knee before I stand up to pace around. I don¡¯t mean to shun her with my silence, but I¡¯m still nurturing my rage towards Mataalii slightly, and I don¡¯t want to take that out on her. Linti let me know that other than some interesting monsters that seem to respawn near the coast, there was nothing that really screamed sustainable settlement. If Teuila doesn¡¯t have good news, we have to speak to the fairies tomorrow. I¡¯m not expecting good news, since she was late by a day. That likely means she didn¡¯t find anything worth rushing home for. She may just have been taking her survey duty seriously though. That¡¯s the only shred of hope I have that Teuila may have found us a place to live.


    Linti stands up and slugs me in the shoulder, drawing me out of my reverie as she orders, ¡°Hey, come on Shellcracker, talk to me. We¡¯re sort of partners or something, right? Don¡¯t shut me out. That¡¯s not like you. I don¡¯t, I don¡¯t like the idea that something might change you. You¡¯re scary powerful, and what we have is plenty nice. I don¡¯t want to be on the other end of that power, and well, yeah, I¡¯d prefer not to lose the other thing either.¡±


    I gulp a knot in my throat as I try to respond. It takes a while but finally I can speak, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry Linti. You¡¯re right, on all counts. We¡¯re partners, or something. Anything you want to call it. You¡¯re also right that I¡¯m fighting something that¡¯s trying to change me. Mataalii was the cause of nearly every hurt in my life, due to time shenanigans. Until I knew that though, he was my brother. Aloof, sure, but he cared about our family more than anything. Seeing him out here, trying to kill those I love, it just, ugh. It probably feels like you think you¡¯d feel like if I changed in the ways you¡¯re worrying about. Maybe a little different, but I can empathize with where you¡¯re coming from. Sorry Hunter. I, um. I love you. Thanks for talking me down. Again.¡±


    Linti, Lightning Hunter, scratches her brow and flicks her gaze about the room, anywhere that doesn¡¯t meet my stare. She replies, ¡°Yeah, sure, no biggie, right? It¡¯s uh, yeah, cool. Love ya too bud. ¡®N stuff.¡±


    I chuckle as I lightly sock her in the shoulder. She punches me back and then we embrace to share a tender moment. Of course right then, Teuila awakens, sits up, and coughs.


    Te asks, ¡°Hate to interrupt, but what¡¯s a gal got to do to get in the middle of that? Also, could one of you help me get a drink? My limbs feel like lead.¡±


    Linti and I slightly shove off of each other quickly, both of us scratching the backs of our heads in embarrassment for a moment. I kneel next to Teuila and summon a canteen from my inventory as Linti paces closer to the exit of the tent.


    I say, ¡°Drink slowly, just a bit at a time. Dehydration sickness is bad stuff. I was worried about you, My-Wings.¡±


    Te teases, ¡°Oh yeah, real worried, so worried your tongue had to seek comfort in someone else¡¯s tonsils, eh?¡±


    I''m utterly mortified, and the expression is clearly painted across my face.  Yet I''m also fighting back laughing at the creative jibe, so I feel like my face is swelling up like a balloon as my cheeks puff out with a trapped breath.


    Te laughs and absolves me, ¡°Relax sweettoot, jeez ya gooberlicious goontacular wonderpunk. It¡¯s fine. I mean, unless I was hallucinating, didn¡¯t we, right before I passed out? Same thing, in mindspace, yeah?¡±


    Blushing, I nod as I caress Te¡¯s shoulders and knees and elbows. I¡¯m trying to make sure her circulation is the best it can be to keep the fluids moving through her body. I¡¯m hesitant to ask for her progress report while we¡¯re dancing around a topic that seems sensitive.


    Tentatively, I ask, ¡°I hate to even ask Te, but, the three of us turned up nada in our surveys. I don¡¯t suppose that you..?¡± I pause as my voice lilts the unspoken question.


    Te shakes her head. She looks like she¡¯d raise her hand to scratch the back of her head, but can¡¯t manage to move her limbs yet. We both sigh, knowing how frustrating it is that we still haven¡¯t found a suitable home for the Lavaborn Alliance.


    Te reports as best she can, ¡°So, there was a small, very small orchard in an interesting clearing. I think they were maybe peach trees or something. Honestly I think they produced mixed fruits, but they¡¯d been harvested other than a single peach that I found, so someone¡¯s using them. There were also grape vines growing on the trees and between them. Similarly empty. I thought I spied the harvester, but by the time I got to where I saw them, I couldn¡¯t find any tracks. They might live in some sort of secret treehouse, or underground or something. I don¡¯t think they¡¯d cause any trouble, but they probably wouldn¡¯t take kindly if we just stole their orchard.¡±


    Te takes a breath before continuing, ¡°Other than that, I found a neat little cave, a dungeon type thing I guess, I spent most of a day goofing off, hunting in it. I know I shouldn¡¯t have, but it was kind of thrilling. I found a room though that I knew not to go in alone, after you told me about the menhir that later marked the cragbeast queen spawn. Most of what I fought in there were reptile skeletons, and uh, floating tooth things with long whippy tails.¡±


    There¡¯s more of them!? I groan as I remember nearly being eaten by a giant, ugh, floating toothy thing with long whippy tails. I¡¯m not even going to think about what I was forced to call the last one.


    Teuila raises an eyebrow at my thought train, but chuckles slightly. I think she saw my logs of the fall near the pyramid previously, so she already knows. Te nods towards Linti as Linti returns from the entrance of the tent.


    Linti interrupts any further report, ¡°So, uh, this might not be the time, but as you can probably tell, I don¡¯t normally. Err, like, this whole situation isn¡¯t something that I normally, or ever, uh. Like, I get it, your circle is everything to you, and I totally get it, they¡¯re crazy powerful, fun, adorable, tons of positive traits. Am I messing with that dynamic? I respect you Shellcrackers, all of you.¡±


    Teuila and I exchange glances before we start chuckling and I wrap my arms around Linti¡¯s waist and drag her into a hug close to Teuila, so Teuila can embrace her on the other side, without needing to lift her limbs.


    I mumble, ¡°Hunter, you¡¯re whatever you want to be, you¡¯re welcome here. There¡¯s no pressure though, okay? If it¡¯s too weird, or new, or anything. We¡¯ll always be here, and I¡¯ll always look out for you. Right Te?¡±


    Teuila nods and Linti exhales a sigh of relief, ¡°Phew, okay, okay yeah. Alright. Do you two, uh, do you need some alone time to catch up, or, uh? Like I¡¯m kinda worried about her too, if that¡¯s cool. I mean, not that, ugh.¡±


    Teuila chuckles and replies for me, ¡°Lightning, if Reggie and I want to, we can have an entire private day in a minute and a half. We can spend an hour together in like, what, four seconds? Our bond is that strong. You¡¯re welcome here. Reggie has the best taste in people. I mean, I should know, right? I¡¯m one of them. Nyeh¡± Te sticks her tongue out at Linti and blows a raspberry, and I can¡¯t help but laugh. She¡¯s jokingly being braggadocious.


    Linti whistles in appreciation of the accelerated speed of our bond, but then recoils slightly at Teuila¡¯s joking arrogance, before laughing with the two of us.


    Linti gazes out at the light spilling over the awning of the tent entrance. She mutters, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay Shellcracker. Both of you. I haven¡¯t hunted in a few days, so I¡¯d understand if, uh. I mean, I¡¯m going to hunt. It¡¯s more fun when you¡¯re around, but I totally understand. Y¡¯know?¡±


    Teuila, strugglingly, throws her hand on Linti¡¯s shoulder as she flashes a wicked grin. Te claims, ¡°Try and stop me from joining your hunt today, ya poser!¡± Te struggles to her feet, and cycles through her transformations for a bit, making sure that when she settles on Valkyrie, that Gae Buidhe is stowed in her inventory for safety. Teuila flashes us both a wink as she jets out of the tent.


    Linti and I share a sideways glance, flick our eyes after Teuila, then glance at each other again before laughing. Linti wraps her arms around me and transforms into lightning to chase after Teuila. Once we catch up, Linti angles for an interception course and snags Teuila in one arm so that we¡¯re all a massive jumble of lightning. Our electrons mingle and jumble, and I could swear I begin to experience Teuila¡¯s thoughts in a new way, along with Linti¡¯s thoughts as well.


    During the first wave of the hunt, Teuila is a bit sluggish, and takes it easy as she keeps sipping water between every few attacks. Without thinking, after we finish the wave, Linti and I embrace to share our passion as we had been previously doing during our recent hunts between each wave of spawns.


    Teuila grins like a lunatic as she salaciously exclaims, ¡°So that¡¯s what you two have been getting up to all day, eh? Hunting all day, suuuure!¡±


    My heart flutters as I blush, sending apologetic waves across my private telepathic link with Teuila. She just winks and blows a raspberry as she limps over.


    Teuila taps her upper lip and asks, ¡°So, where¡¯s mine? I¡¯m not picky. You¡¯re both cutie patooties ya dingleberries.¡±


    Laughing, Linti and I accidentally headbutt each other as we turn to kiss Teuila. The three of us start laughing uproariously and roughhousing with one another after sharing a kiss.


    Our hunt for the rest of the morning is jubilant to say the least. Teuila¡¯s strength returns over the course of several hours. We all manage to practice several skills, as well as to gain further defenses against one another¡¯s abilities. Linti has named her wide area flood of lightning pillars her Infinite Voltage Blossom, it¡¯s pretty cool to see her use it and be able to shape the lightning pillars to spiral out like flower petals.


    Teuila¡¯s starting to be able to manipulate gravity at range. It still doesn¡¯t show up as any kind of skill in her stats panel, but I can tell she¡¯s getting better at it. She can now set some things to slightly below zero gravity, as in, they¡¯re repelled away from the ground, but just barely. Doing that seems to tax her mentally though. It¡¯s easier for her to just double something¡¯s gravity that is within touch range.


    I make sure to carefully help them raise their thermal resistances during our hunt together. I¡¯m hoping someday that none of us will ever fear lava again. I¡¯m still at risk if I forget to engage at least my weakest passive FFS when standing in lava. I also need to make sure I don¡¯t accidentally engage too strong of an FFS while wading through lava, or I¡¯ll trap myself between millions of tons of cooling stone. Regardless, one day we should be able to withstand the heat of molten stone as no more than a warm bath. Unless it¡¯s lava from someone¡¯s special ability that has resistance penetration, like my frost abilities and Umbral Shots.


    That last thought is sobering. There¡¯s never any guarantees. Just like my time travel skill. If either of the two of them turned around and lunged at me at full speed when I wasn¡¯t paying attention, they could kill me before I could react. There wouldn¡¯t be any future me to send a message to warn past me. Similarly Linti could flick a timebomb spark into my brain when sending me a message, and I¡¯d be gone before I even realized it. Or Lluxop and Rastoc could do the same thing. I only lived the last time due to Lil¡¯s bond, and that bond was strained to near its breaking point as the potion healed my internals.


    Anyway, it¡¯s mid-day. As much as I am having a blissful day hunting with these two amazing women, I need to take a party to the fairies settlement. I let the two of them know my plans, and they exchange a look, but they both stay behind, continuing their hunt.


    I¡¯ve been thinking about how to safely increase my speeds. I now have a massive dome of pumice, but what about a hollow sphere of stone? Summon an Umbral copy of it around myself, coat the inside with leaf cushioning, and JT that around, rather than having to impact myself. I won¡¯t be able to see where I¡¯m going, but with my innate sense of direction, I should be able to at least cut down general traveling time by a bit. It won¡¯t be something to use in combat, unless I want to just bowl over a bunch of people in a line. If I wanted to do that though, I don¡¯t need to be inside of the Umbral Shot, that¡¯s just stupid.


    I actually make it back to Point B in almost as little time as it takes Linti to travel from Point B to The Hollow. I¡¯d better get Luni for this, in case I can¡¯t communicate, she¡¯s always the best of us for this. I¡¯m still a little worried about Teuila, so I hope Lil is willing to check in on her and Linti, to make sure she keeps taking breaks between waves, and hydrating.


    Thankfully, Lil is totally willing. They¡¯re a little surprised to hear that Teuila is already up and about, more surprised to hear exactly what transpired in the early morning, but they¡¯re grinning like a goon as they fly away southward.


    I gulp a bit, for some reason I feel like I have something to apologize for as I ramble, ¡°So, hey Lu, uh, been a long time since it was just us, or well, down to us for an adventure, huh?¡±


    Luni leans into me, and hides her face in my left shoulder as she feebly pounds on my chest. I hear her whisper, ¡°You big dummy.¡± But she doesn¡¯t say anything else aloud.


    I nuzzle her forehead and kiss her brow as I continue, ¡°I think I found a safer, slightly more comfortable way for us to travel, but the air is pretty limited, so if it gets too stuffy, just say, and we¡¯ll take a break, okay? I, um, I love you, absolutely and truly. Don¡¯t let, I mean, um. Just, yeah. You can tell me things. You have to tell me things. Okay? Please?¡±


    Luni nods and squeezes me tightly as I summon an umbral sphere of stone around us. I line the inside with leaf cushions as I begin using JT motion to rocket us at near sonic speeds in the general direction of the Fairies¡¯ settlement. I send my telepathic avatar into Luni and my shared thinkspace, but she resists joining me for a bit. I sit there, alone, saddened, for hours.


    Finally Luni¡¯s avatar pops into our mental haven, and she skips over to me and sits against me, nuzzling me happily as if nothing was wrong. I furrow my brow but I try to foster my joy and elation at sharing happiness with Luni. She¡¯s hurting so badly right now, and I don¡¯t know how or why.


    ¡°I love you Lu. I¡¯m right though, aren¡¯t i? You¡¯re hurting. You¡¯re hurting and you won¡¯t tell me why, but somehow it¡¯s my fault, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    Luni frowns and feebly strikes my chest once more, ¡°Just, please don¡¯t ask, it¡¯s already so hard.¡±


    I gulp back a sob and fight back my tears. I try to correct my frown as I say, ¡°Right, sorry. I love you.¡±


    We sit in silence, neither of us deriving the joy we want to, from holding one another. I decide to try another tack.


    I mutter, ¡°Hey Lu, hold on tight in meatspace.¡±


    She raises an eyebrow, but I can feel that she complies. I drop from our accelerated thinkspace, and shift my form into my draconic stage. I spread my wings as I claim the Umbral sphere and cushions. Holding Luni borne across both my arms, close to my chest, I begin using JT motion to propel myself through the skies, but I dip my right wing lower so that we spiral like a corkscrew, doing an endless barrel roll across the sky.


    Luni shrieks once before she starts laughing, giggling with joy. She sinks her teeth lightly into my collarbone, and I swear she sneaks a lick. Seriously, even with entirely different skin, what do I taste like that has my entire inner circle, and more, licking me? Luni laughs further at my distractible train of thought.


    Suddenly I feel like I¡¯ve gone the wrong direction, because the Miracle Oak appears in front of me and we¡¯re barreling towards it at near sonic speeds. I have to dive into a spiraling swoop to reverse course, so as not to plow into the massive arboreal life at a fatal velocity. Looking around though, I realize there are small lights, and huts built in the boughs of this Miracle Oak. I¡¯m fairly certain there weren¡¯t any such things on the Miracle Oak located in the swamp.


    I spot fauns and pixies flying between boughs. Every creature in the settlement seems to have at least a smattering of wind magic. That¡¯s good news for me. Oh wait, I look like a dragon right now, I should drop my transformation. Oh double wait! I should wait until I land before I do that.


    Luni bursts into laughter as I nearly de-transformed while still soaring around at high speeds, over a hundred feet off the ground. When we finally land safely, we both double over with laughter at my near fatal distractibility. I then re-tether and de-tether to swap back to cherubic Reggie form. Hopefully I appear less threatening like this.


    Luni and I begin approaching the settlement. There are as many buildings at ground level as there are amongst the trees boughs, if that¡¯s even possible. The tree has to be a kilometer in diameter, and a hundred of those in height.


    What looks to be an elderly gnomish chap approaches us as we wander around. He asks, ¡°What brings you to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas?¡±


    My jaw drops as I reach to clean my ears. Lu laughs at me telepathically, she knows what I¡¯m thinking.


    I reply, ¡°Excuse me, did you say Kansas? Is that the name of, uh, our world? This continent? This settlement?¡±


    He responds, "Our continent, since you seem to not know where we are. Of course, ours is the capitol of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, named so after our own fair city. Besides, what need have we for a planetary name? Until recently, ours was the only orb in the cosmos. Though now, the night sky expands each eve. Further stars and galaxies than we could possibly ever count, let alone reach."


    The fairies apparently call this continent Can''Z''aas. It really sounds like they''re saying Kansas, it truly does. Not that any of them know what a Kansas is. Me neither, I guess. Somehow I vaguely know it''s a location in some fake world that is not here. Not the real world. And yet he said something that makes me recall my early memories in the Fire Biome. There was no night sky, there was no sun, no stars. I swear on everything that that¡¯s how I remember things. It wasn¡¯t until Teuila earned her wings, when she took me skyward, that there was finally a sun. As we broke through the clouds, the sun broke through into existence is how it felt. It felt like Teuila herself placed the stars in the sky just for us to enjoy that moment.


    Luni sends an image of her mental avatar pouting. I tease her that she put the moon in the sky and the moons on all the new planets, and that that¡¯s just as impressive. That seems to brighten her mood for the moment.


    Realizing I¡¯m standing there dumbfoundedly, I reply, ¡°Oh, uh, thank you, we¡¯re here because, well, we have refugees, our home settlement was destroyed by lava, and a human settlement was destroyed by Leviathan activity. We¡¯re trying to find some place in the world for a new home, anywhere. We were hoping maybe we could talk to someone that might be able to help with that. I¡¯m also on a personal quest apparently. I need to find three more tomes, one with a two, a three, and a five on the cover.¡±


    At first the elderly gnomish chap begins to respond about my refugee situation, but then pales as I mention the tomes. He regains his composure to say, ¡°Ah, then you must be the old man. I must admit, this was not the form I was expecting. I doubt any of us would have put money on this being your return appearance. I¡¯m betting you don¡¯t remember a thing anyway.¡±


    Wait, my return? My memories!?


    Eagerly I ask, ¡°Wait, wait, you know? Something about my messed up memories? I thought I spawned alone in a jungle, I just knew things, like critterkin do immediately at spawn. Not that I even knew that at the time. Why do you call me old man, who am I?¡±


    Luni begins to sniffle and shuts our mental wavelength off completely. I glance at her with sorrow in my heart, and longing on my face. I¡¯m conflicted. This is something that hurts Luni, but, but I¡¯ve been waiting for so long to unravel some of these things.


    He hems and haws before continuing, ¡°Hm, of course it would be something like that. Bup bup, I¡¯m not the one to talk to. I don¡¯t really have your answers, only some of what has been passed down.¡±


    I hear someone call out, "Hey, hey it''s old man! That''s gotta be him right? But they''ve taken on such an androgynous form with their return. Can we even call them old man anymore? They aint old or a man."


    My return? Is that even right? Am I even the person they¡¯re assuming I am? Would TQ know? They told me to find the fairies.


    He responds, ¡°I can show you to someone who will direct you to these tomes. If you¡¯re who you¡¯re supposed to be, their information will make sense to you. I suppose you¡¯ll have to trust that your companion here will handle this refugee situation. You head towards that building over there. My dear, would you please come with me? I¡¯ll take you to someone that might be able to help you with this refugee situation of yours.¡±


    The gnomish fellow takes Luni away by the hand, and I¡¯m so torn. She has shut herself off from me mentally. I want to mend our bond, to fix whatever hurt I¡¯ve caused, more than anything. I can¡¯t even take comfort in the fact that she knows I feel this way, because she isn¡¯t riding my thoughts like she normally would be. I slump to my knees as various fairfolk pass me by. I sob for several minutes before I gulp down my tears and struggle onward. The terrible ache in my chest makes me want to wail in anguish but I keep it bolted down. My throat feels as if I¡¯m clenching it tight to cut off a pained scream.


    Fine, if there¡¯s some sort of fate, or destiny at play, let¡¯s get these tomes to get it over with so I can get back to patching up things with Luni.

 B 3 C 26: Geawerenes Ruined Frontier

    <h2>B 3 C 26: Geawerene¡¯s Ruined Frontier</h2>


    I exhale a ragged sigh as I stumble towards the building I¡¯ve been directed towards. I futz around with changing forms to just distract myself from the pain I feel at my parting with Luni. Once again, she¡¯s saddled with doing something massively important for our whole family, and our relationship is strained to its edges. The various faerie folk around me mutter and gasp at my random changes in appearance. I pay them no mind. The only thing I really care about is mending the spot in Luni¡¯s heart where I should reside, before it shatters away and she discards it forever.


    If I lost Lu, would I lose Lil? Would Lil hate me if Luni resented me and pushed me away? If she pushed all of us away because of me? If that happened, what about Teuila? If I hurt Lu, could Te forgive me? If my hurting Lu drove Lil away as well, would Teuila ever forgive me for driving off the two of them?


    I slam my fist into the ground with all my might, carrying all my frustration. I accidentally leave a tiny crater in the walkway I¡¯m standing atop. Oops. Various faerie folk startle and dash away from my outburst. Doing the best I can, I try to patch up the stone I¡¯d shattered, then I hustle away in shame.


    A voice from inside the building calls out to me, ¡°Judging by that just now, you¡¯re on a quest you don¡¯t want to be on. The only being I know to expect in such a state, well, you¡¯ll want to know about six books.¡±


    ¡°Three.¡± I frustratedly state.


    They reply, ¡°Excuse me?¡±


    I answer, ¡°I¡¯ve already got three. The one, the four, and the six. I need two, three, and five.¡±


    There¡¯s a muffled sound of surprise as a doddering elderly lady walks around the corner, holding spectacles on a stick to view me. They make her eyes appear giant such that it¡¯s almost comical. I¡¯m not sure what kind of fairie she is, maybe a dwarf, gnome, pooka, or something. Actually, she might be a Dryad that¡¯s a tad withered. She scrutinizes me from head to toe, so I alter my form a few times to show off my various appearances. The shape shifting is in case one form is somehow memorable to these people that supposedly know me. Or maybe they don¡¯t know me, but they know someone who is supposed to quest for these tomes. I settle on cherubic Reggie form.


    She clicks her tongue and motions me inside as she rambles, ¡°Book 2 resides wherein the sea swallows the frontiers of Geawerene. Book 3¡¯s location it is said that you must find whereupon a soaring boulder, or, stone, meets the king, or queen, or royalty of flame. Northwest of this point, gaze heavensward. The image says Book 5 is misplaced but well cared for, serpentine locks guard this tome. It is said to be nearly hiding in plain sight, out in the open as it were.¡±


    Geawerene? Where have I heard that before? Wait, one of the soldiers with an upset stomach had a small book, ¡°The History of Geawerene.¡± Does that mean the kingdom the human city belonged to was called Geawerene? If my earlier surmising is correct, we¡¯re an island continent, and somewhere far away is at least one more landmass, it likely has a whole nation of humans. That would mean our small island continent is their frontier. Well that riddle is easy as heck. I need to head back to the ruins of the human city, whatever¡¯s left of it is underwater though. The sea definitely swallowed the frontier of Geawerene.


    Book three sounds a bit mysterious, but the only royal sounding flame I know is the majesty of the phoenix¡¯s flame. Oh, duh. A soaring boulder? I bet it was mistranslated from a roc. The point where the Roc and the Phoenix met was southeast off the edge of the volcano. It¡¯s in the freaking caldera.


    Book five is ridiculously simple, it¡¯s in one of the Nagas¡¯ libraries. Probably shoved behind some other books about serpents or something.


    I start to say, ¡°Oh, thank you, I know where all of those are. Thank you for your time, I want to get this quest over with so I can mend a friendship of mine. Fair well.¡±


    She calls back, ¡°Wait just a moment. You should have many curiosities plaguing you. Do you not?¡±


    I respond, ¡°Millions, but I don¡¯t give a crap about any of them compared to the love of my friend.¡±


    She appraises me once more, apparently reading my aura, now that I remember everyone else can see those. I wonder if it¡¯s some sort of ocular organ inside or near the eyes. I could maybe develop one if that¡¯s the case.


    She orders me, ¡°Sit! Going anywhere like that, you¡¯re going to get yourself killed. You¡¯re torn up inside. You need to calm down. Maybe some answers will help you sort your thoughts.¡±


    I huff a sigh. I suppose she¡¯s right. I was going to blast by the phoenix¡¯s nest as my first order of business. I forgot that they told me to never return. I should probably approach the caldera from the other side of the volcano so as not to anger the majestic firebird. If I¡¯ll be on the west side first anyway, I might as well start with the book that¡¯s underwater in the ruins of the city. I guess I can hit them up in order, since I have to take them all to the Nagas¡¯ city anyway at the end.


    I begin to ask something, but she interrupts, ¡°You are and you are not. Who you think you are, that is. There was once a very old, weary, gray soul, misshapen, malformed, spent in some fashion, as if it were used up, unable to sustain life or afterlife. It was both a short time ago, and ages ago. This can not be explained, not in words we can comprehend, not in this lifetime. Somehow this soul was important. The space it occupied was meant to be filled, and it was dying. We figured that it should be blessed with the mana most abundant in us, we flooded it with love of the earth and the wind. We painted this soul as verdant as the purest emerald, though its weariness and grayness diluted it to creaminess.¡±


    As realization begins to dawn on my features, my jaw slackens slightly as my eyes widen slowly. The trees, my desire for their safety, my creamy green soul.


    She nods, ¡°Yes, beneath all this mess of your aura, your soul and the one that left us appear to be one and the same. That soul was a fixture here, both for ages, yet also only an instant. Again, this is difficult to comprehend or explain. To, hm, I¡¯ll borrow a word, to humanize the soul, some among us took to calling it old man. It was an important entity, we knew this, but we weren¡¯t certain how. It shared with us images. Or perhaps we stole the images as we shared our mana. It¡¯s unclear. There were many images, some of several tomes, and riddles as to their locations, riddles written in a language we couldn¡¯t understand. Riddles we have since translated, correctly I hope. The time the soul left us was both approximately two years ago, but also an eternity prior to that. Judging by the look of your body, its aura, and the fullness of your brain, the time you¡¯ve spent experiencing linearly seems to line up.¡±


    I query, ¡°You know that some, like me, can experience nonlinear time?¡±


    She nods, but doesn¡¯t elucidate further. I blow a breath through puffed cheeks, reeling in the revelations. My soul isn¡¯t naturally green, or if it was, it was spent somehow, somewhere. Does that mean I died? Was I a human somewhere in Geawerene? Would that explain the human society memories? Wait, no, those memories don¡¯t know of any place called Geawerene. Heck, those memories know a song sung by a cartoon character that lists every country in the world, and none of them are Geawerene. Uni¡­ Cana¡­ Mexi¡­ Pana¡­ Hai¡­ Jam¡­ Per¡­ Yeah I think that¡¯s how it starts. Plus, the technology level is computer age in my memories. There¡¯s no way we¡¯d send some frontier colony out to some remote continent with swords, spears, and wooden ships. Ugh, we. I need to divest myself of the notion that I might have been human. Screw that. Screw humans.


    I express my gratitude, ¡°Thank you, um?¡±


    She replies, ¡°Rinnia Tolkenstein. Elder Tolkenstein if you may.¡±


    I nod, ¡°Thank you Elder Tolkenstein. My heart still aches, and I have many more questions, but I think I still want to set out on this quest and finish it as soon as possible. I hope you¡¯ll forgive me. I believe I owe your entire society a massive debt of gratitude, if I was some sort of dying, spent soul. I don¡¯t know how to express that though. I just, I trust that Luni will somehow negotiate something beneficial between your people that I already owe so much to, and the refugees that I now lead.¡±


    Elder Tolkenstein simply shrugs, ¡°I¡¯ve said my piece, the basics of it anyway. There¡¯s more speculation, there¡¯s more to the images that were shared. Some were violent. A life hidden behind a veil, lived in the shadow of mountains, a constant flash of the blade of a dagger. I hope that we were right that you¡¯re a good, kind soul overall.¡±


    I respond, ¡°I hope so too. I struggle so often. Any time someone threatens my family, it takes all my willpower to not murder them. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s normal to have to fight so hard to not kill people.¡±


    Elder Tolkenstein quails before me slightly. She tries to steel herself though, and gazes at me appraisingly once more. She purses her lips but nods approvingly.


    I try not to frown as I think about what I¡¯m leaving behind, ¡°If, if you happen to meet Luni. A beautiful otter woman in a green and white dress, her dark hair is in a, um, bob with bangs cut. If you happen to meet her, please tell her that I¡¯m grateful to you, and that I love her. Mostly tell her that I¡¯m sorry for leaving without saying goodbye. I feel like she doesn¡¯t want to see me right now. My heart aches, but I¡¯ll take my leave of you. Thank you again. Please take care, fair well.¡±


    I barely manage to exit the domicile before blubbering like a mewling kitten. Sniffling, I rub my snot and tears on my forearm. I adopt my draconic form and blast off into the sky westward. Once I¡¯ve got enough altitude, I summon an Umbral sphere around myself and line it with cushions to begin approaching the sound barrier with continued JT propulsion.


    Let¡¯s see, what sort of guile would it take to break the sound barrier? I¡¯m about as defended as I can be. Oh hey, I have enough mana and thermokinesis to create rocket thrusters, not just JT movement. Let¡¯s combine the two. Yep, that¡¯s the sort of guile it takes to create a sonic boom.


    That took a bit too much mana, but it¡¯s pretty fun. I do however feel like I¡¯m going to pass out inside my little sphere. Not just from the low oxygen levels, but also from the pressure slamming me into the cushions against the sphere¡¯s rear. I summon the sphere and cushions back to my inventory as I unfurl my wings, catching a high speed glide and catching my breath. As my velocity drops to my normal JT movement levels, after taking a deep breath, I re-apply the sphere around myself with forward momentum. I continue rocketing along westward, dropping out of the sphere every quarter of an hour or so, keeping track of my progress. It feels like in no time at all I¡¯ve reached the coast.


    Would it be better or worse if I made a new umbral sphere with air holes for rifling? Could I essentially craft a jet body? Playing around with clay, mud, and stone in my inventory allows me to make essentially any outline of a shape, but the hollow bits are still a tad challenging.


    I wish I had any of my inner circle with me. Or Sugar, or Spice, or Magnus. Heck, Lucky or Luna even. Wait, there are tiny dark blotches down in the sea along the coast. Some of the otters from the city survived! Shoot, shoot, shoot, crap, what form would be the best to approach them in? Ack I should ask someone to teach me wind magic! I can¡¯t exactly write to them in the water. I drop to my cherubic form as I land.


    Let¡¯s see, it¡¯s late evening now, soon it will be the warmest point in the day. Basically sunset is the time when solar influx finally drops below a positive level, so the heat stops increasing at that point. Until then, the heat kept increasing through the entire day. Do I want to do my diving search when the water is warmest? It¡¯s going to be pretty cold regardless below the continental shelf. My thermal resistance can probably handle it, but I don¡¯t want to seize up and freeze up under water.


    Maybe I should check in with Lao and get her advice on how to approach the otters. Crap. I didn¡¯t even think about it when I gave Lil the comm stone when they went to check on Teuila. It was such a subconscious action that I didn¡¯t even think to register it in my logs. I was so preoccupied worrying about Teuila, Lil, and Linti, argh.


    Wait, is that why Luni is upset? Does she feel neglected? I know she was a bit frustrated since she had to tend the shops while we were all training and goofing around. No, no, that kind of thought is beneath her. It¡¯s almost petty, and Luni isn¡¯t like that. I need to not diminish how heavy of a burden she carries. She carries some kind of final timeline, a last ditch effort at some sort of salvation. One that has to go a perfect way. One I wouldn¡¯t even trust myself with. I can¡¯t mess it up by doubting her or questioning her. I trusted her to trust me to trust her. Well, future me trusted her to get me to trust her.


    I¡¯m at the shore and I wave at the blotches floating upon the surf. Wait, crap, I look like a human right now. They were in some sort of weird servile relationship with snotty rich humans. Uh, draconic it is, I guess. I tether up and down into my draconic form. I spend several hours observing, waving, hoping some will approach. I spend the night in vigil, hoping at some point they will come aground and be willing to at least read my notes. I know I¡¯m here on a quest, but, but these could be members of my family in a figurative sense. They might be willing to join the Lavaborn Alliance, or, or the Shellcrackers.


    It¡¯s morning though, I can¡¯t keep putting off my quest, I want to get back to Luni as soon as possible to apologize to her. I carefully flap nearer to the various splotches that I hope are otters adrift. I hold out my notes that say I¡¯m Reggie, that I can¡¯t speak or hear, but asking if any of them can read or write. I could swear that one of the dark splotches is carrying a smaller, bright splotch that seems to be white, with a pearlescent sheen.


    It couldn¡¯t be. Can it? I mean, Why not? Olioli showed up. I check our party, but there¡¯s no Penina. Perhaps it was too much to hope. As I approach though, I nearly tumble out of the sky. A tiny spheriform pearlescent white otter with vibrant violet eyes holds a shell in her tiny paw protrusions as she rests upon the belly of a feraform otter adrift in the sea. It has to be, it just has to be Penina, doesn¡¯t it? Would she recognize the cherubic me? Did she get to know me well enough?


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I transform in midair, forgetting myself, and plummet into the sea near the otters, making quite the splash, literally. I splutter and paddle to the surface. The feraform otter holding the violet-eyed one is turning to swim away. No, please, please wait. That¡¯s, that¡¯s one of my family. I¡¯m almost sure of it.


    I start summoning sashimi platters around me, floating on the waves, hoping to catch their attention. Please, just a chance. I just want to, to, I don¡¯t even know. She was so beloved by my family, and mourned for so long. Several otters do turn, sniffing in my direction, but they swim away even faster.


    Oh no, I wonder if the humans originally trapped them with food. Is that why they hrk! I don¡¯t even have half a breath. I¡¯m being dragged beneath the waves and crushed such that even the last bit of breath in my lungs is squeezed out, causing me to suck down water accidentally. I¡¯m trapped in some sort of limb, sticky suckers cling to me and sharp talons gouge into me as I begin to black out before I get a chance to react.


    I awaken to wet silky fur pressed against my lips, then my ribs being crushed while a different bristliness of fur presses against my lips, passing me more breaths. I begin coughing up seawater. Ugh, everything hurts.


    I hear Teuila say, ¡°Dork. Hasn¡¯t anyone ever taught you not to eat fish in the water? You¡¯d think you¡¯d have learned by now.¡±


    I laugh and cough as more water burbles out of my throat. I barely gasp out, ¡°What? But, how?¡±


    Linti explains, ¡°Luni, uh, Lu I guess, she said to finish what you need to here. She also said that by the time you get there, she¡¯d already have three? I¡¯m not sure what that means, she said you would. She also said you still have to get there as fast as you can anyway. Do you need me to carry you?¡±


    I shake my head, ¡°I can break mach one now, safely, for a few minutes at a time. I can glide at about half that speed in between times. We still have to get number two. I have a feeling I know where it is. Did you two kill the thing that had me?¡±


    They shake their heads. Teuila clarifies, ¡°Hunter here couldn¡¯t join the fight, she can swim, just, you know, not like us, and her powers would basically kill her in the water, so she stayed back. I can¡¯t get much downward velocity in the water, I was only able to get in one good strike, severing the limb that had you the hardest. I had to drag you away from the other limbs myself. I took a few hits, as you can see.¡±


    When my vision finally clears up, I see gashes and gapes surrounded by what look like hickey marks that have torn out her hair. They¡¯re all up and down Te¡¯s torso in a spiral pattern as if she¡¯d been wrapped up by a tendril, or tentacle filled with talons. I¡¯m pretty sure I know what attacked us. Giant squid, or kraken. Hm, I wonder. Yeah.


    Before I get too distracted, I ask, ¡°Te, Te did you see? Penina! I swear, one of these otters has Penina! ¡°


    Teuila audibly blinks, I can hear her eyelids squishing back tears as she replies, ¡°Stop it dork, that¡¯s not funny. Penny was, come on, that¡¯s not fair.¡±


    I pout, ¡°Te, I¡¯d never ever joke about something like this. White, pearlescent sheen, violet eyes, holding a shell, it has to be her, right? The people of this city had eggs, and the rich brats got spoiled with otter eggs. Oli came back in an egg once, right? We all accept that he¡¯s Oli, right? Why not Penina?¡±


    Teuila gulps and shakes her head, frowning, ¡°I, I dunno, it was a freak miracle. You don¡¯t get two of those. You just don¡¯t. I¡¯ll, I¡¯ll take a look around later, okay? Just, just don¡¯t get your hopes up. It¡¯s too much.¡±


    I nod, frowning. I feel bad for springing these emotions on Teuila and Linti. Linti seems only slightly lost. She knows the story of Olioli by now. Still, like I was thinking a moment ago, yeah, a kraken or something, I¡¯m pretty sure I know how I can take it out and get the book.


    I ask, ¡°I think Luni knows I was going to come up with this plan, Lightning, can you pour all your juice into an area in the water where I sit for like an hour straight? However long you can manage, and keep restarting whenever you recover.¡±


    Linti asks, ¡°Are you nuts Shellcrack¨C¡±


    Teuila interrupts, ¡°Nah, they do this all the time. It¡¯s why they have fire and ice magic. My little nerd scienced their way into magic. I bet they¡¯re about to do it again.¡±


    Linti relents and shrugs, ¡°Your funeral, I guess.¡±


    I dump as much mana as I can into duplicating useful objects in my inventory and wait for my vitality to get dangerously weak as Linti shocks me. As I¡¯m about to pass out, I can feel my ability to engage a limit break unlock, so I unlock it, and thankfully Linti has to rest for a moment. I keep myself suspended in a limit break while waiting on Linti to recover, recovering myself as much as I¡¯m able to. Teuila just smirks at me from the shore. She occasionally dips her toe in electrified water to increase her own electro resist.


    Now that Linti is back to full charge, she¡¯s blasting away at the water I¡¯m standing in again, and now my electro resist is skyrocketing. In moments I break a thousand, and I¡¯ve suddenly got negative one electrokinesis as a skill. I grin wildly and nod at the two of them. Teuila excitedly points it out to Linti who looks a bit astonished. Linti then grins and pours on the juice even more powerfully.


    After a few more rests for the two of us, I¡¯ve unlocked a single point of electrokinesis, I blast through trying to activate it as much as I can repeatedly for a while, barely raising the skill much, even though I¡¯m in a skill based limit break. Normally skills basically raise a point per use in limit break, but I can¡¯t get electrokinesis to quite function as well. That¡¯s fine, I don¡¯t need much for what I intend to do. I point a finger towards the sky, far away from any creatures, and release my limit break climax. A massive cloud forms and hurls a titanic lightning bolt groundward, glassing an area of the beach as I pass out from the strain of prolonging the limit break.


    I wake up spread across two laps, Linti¡¯s and Teuila¡¯s, of course. I flash them a smile and kiss each of them softly once, claiming, ¡°I¡¯ll be right back, I¡¯ve got to hurry, so we can get to Luni in time. Rest up, but please, please try to find Penny. I need you both at full strength, but, but I swear, I swear I saw her. I love you, both.¡±


    I continue to play with my electrokinesis, sparking the water around me ever so slightly as I dive beneath the waves. I¡¯m certain the direction the kraken¡¯s lair must be in, from the direction it attacked me from. Between my sense of direction, and my danger wraps warning me an instant too late to react, yeah, I¡¯ve got my bearings. I try to speed up the electrons traveling between my muscles and brain, ever so slightly. I can tell I¡¯m increasing my reaction speed by a few fractions of a percent, but it¡¯s progress. Between this, and knowing what to look out for, I stand a decent chance.


    I could summon it with more fish, but I don¡¯t want to get blindsided, I want to sneak up on it. Oh, how fitting. The sunken ruins of the arena where I took my preliminary exhibition examination trials for joining the human military. I dodge a few swordfish as I gaze around. I¡¯m tempted to see if I can snag one of them to my inventory so that I can point it towards where I believe the kraken to be. That¡¯s sort of mean, but I¡¯d rather see the kraken lash out at a swordfish than catch me by surprise.


    I have to be careful not to reactively do a large flash freeze storm, I might never thaw out if I create an enormous block of ice down here. My FFS always centers near me, it¡¯s just how I pull the atomic motion from things, it always has to come to me. Any time that I thought otherwise was me misunderstanding the mechanics of what was going on.


    I perform careful JT motions along beneath the waves, my draconic wings acting like fins or rudders to help guide me exactly where I want to be. It¡¯s a good thing too, a tentacle lashes out from behind stadium seating at nearly lightning fast speed. I barrel roll on approach, sliding along its inner edge, letting myself trail lightning sparks into the water where it might come into contact with me. The kraken¡¯s tentacle recoils quickly, not enjoying the shocking experience.


    I pause for a second, half expecting future me to send a groan from the future at the accidental pun. Not chatty today? That¡¯s fine. It¡¯s ridiculously dark down here, even my enhanced darkvision is barely capable of seeing slight shading differences in nearby objects. Thankfully all I need is a heading, and my danger wraps will take care of the rest. While the kraken might have nearly lightning fast tentacle strikes, I now have lightning fast reflexes. More or less. They can definitely be improved upon, but I know what to watch out for. I¡¯m also fully equipped in valkyrie gear, unlike when I was wearing leaf leather when it first caught me by surprise.


    I draw my sword and continue to jettison forward, barrel rolling with the sword pointed outward, as I expect another tentacle soon. As expected, another one lashes out, but it¡¯s coming straight for my head. Easy enough to rectify. I summon a US, an umbral copy of gae buidhe in a dead center collision course down the path of the incoming tentacle, bisecting it all the way down, though I¡¯m sure the Kraken¡¯s main body is likely moved out of the way. I think its limbs are actually somewhat buried, and coming from several directions, as one is now chasing me from behind and to my right. I¡¯m a bit worried that I might be jetting down towards its beak, so I break my downward-forward momentum and jettison straight up, letting the tentacle pass through where I¡¯d just been.


    I fire off tiny sparks in the water as I take a moment to reorient myself. It¡¯s a good thing too, a larger tentacle comes in from my left side, passing into my annoying-shock minefield. Not enough to dissuade it or damage it, but just enough to slow it down, giving me enough time to react as I flap my left wing to twist counterclockwise. I slice upward, severing the tip of this tentacle, and chase it as it recoils. Hm, I could be at this for hours if I keep screwing around with one tentacle at a time. Let¡¯s let it think it has me, yeah?


    I swim to a point where I¡¯m certain I¡¯ll be between several incoming tentacles. I wait, dodging one, two, three tentacles individually. When I¡¯m certain the next attack will contain all three tentacles, I prepare to summon the copied Umbral sphere from my inventory to surround myself.


    Yes, I can sense them closing in. Umbral sphere is now in place, and oh. I know this sphere is water tight, or it was. The sphere begins to buckle and crack. So my Umbral duplicates aren¡¯t invulnerable after all. I wonder if the temple of time was just a best-guess simulation.


    No matter. Umbral Shot copies of Valkyrie swords whirling in a scything sweep around me as they rotate at high speeds should at least take out these tentacles as they crush the sphere. I summon them to enact my whirling blades attack, just in time as the sphere finishes buckling, caving in around me. I summon it to my inventory so its jagged bits don¡¯t impale me, then I fire it out of my inventory towards an incoming tentacle, shredding it along one edge.


    Where is this thing¡¯s main body? I¡¯m starting to run out of breath from this frantic activity. Wait, electricity plus water equals hydrogen and oxygen. Heh. I haven¡¯t been putting any mana into the electrokinesis, let¡¯s try a large bolt, followed by a flame, and a shield covering me. I dump several hundred mana into a small bolt of lightning aimed towards the oncoming tentacles. It only mildly irritates or slightly stuns the tentacles, but I can feel the water become aerated. I try again and immediately follow it up with a flame, and follow that immediately with a large umbral copy of a valkyrie shield. I¡¯m starting to run out of mana trying out these various things, my next action is going to have to be decisive.


    Still, this had the desired effect, hydrogen fuel, or oxyhydrogen gas, something or other ignited in a big way and shattered a majority of the nearby structure. Now the kraken¡¯s main body is revealed. Hoo boy that is enormous, based on the little I can sense within fifteen feet of me. I¡¯m starting to regret coming here. Can I get away and get reinforcements to come back down? Hrk.


    I¡¯ll take that as a no, ow. Careful with mana consumption, careful, shock the crap out of it with just free electrokinesis. Hm, not powerful enough yet. Alright, risk a small Flash Freeze, but keep a simultaneous Thermal Quickening internally. Too hard to do with a larger Flash Freeze Storm, but I think I can manage this. Yes, whew. I unfurl my wings as I shatter the tentacle that had been tearing into them and gripping me. Now that I know what to do, I want to get inside its mouth where I don¡¯t have to deal with all of these tentacles. I start tapping incoming tentacles with SIPs, Subzero Ice Punches, and I soar through the water to their base. Here it is, a massive cephalopodal creature. Its tentacles are now herding me towards its beak, and I¡¯m letting them. Let¡¯s hope you know what you¡¯re doing Reggie, if you screw this up, future you can¡¯t save you.


    The beak gnashes at me as I enter it. I carefully Flash Freeze around me, letting the freeze grow and grow, while keeping a Thermal Quickening around my torso and head. The inside of the kraken slowly becomes an ice cube, and it can¡¯t spit me out. Once I¡¯ve created enough ice to block its beak from closing, I try to picture where its brain would be. Heh, that cryptozoology coming in handy again. Somehow I¡¯m pretty sure a kraken brain is somewhere around its throat, maybe like a donut. First let¡¯s get this pesky tongue out of the way that¡¯s trying to batter us and get us swallowed. There, now that I¡¯ve chopped that off, I can even meditate for a moment.


    Dangit, I would focus on my breathing to meditate, but that¡¯s not going to work here. I¡¯d really like to gain more mana. The best I can do is break even as I slowly Flash Freeze more of it while I keep myself Thermally Quickened. I guess I¡¯m stuck here for a moment then. Once I have enough of it frozen internally, I¡¯ll just cause a steam explosion to shatter it internally.


    I catch myself blowing out a breath through puffed cheeks and shake my head at my own stupidity. I don¡¯t have much oxygen left now. I¡¯ve frozen quite a large layer of the insides of this creature, I¡¯m sure. it¡¯s going to have to be enough though, my lungs are beginning to burn. Ugh, remind me to focus on learning to grow amphibious gills next time I work on a transformation.


    Once again, I catch myself letting out a smooth exhalation as I try to aim my next abilities. I keep screwing up with my precious air. Still, here goes. A tiny trickle of a lightning bolt to create some fuel, an instant heat of thousands of degrees, and an umbral sphere around myself.


    Oh wow, never, ever do this, ever. Oh wow, my umbral sphere caved in almost instantly. It was everything I could do to summon another layer as a smaller copy of it. I was saving that mana to try to escape, since I¡¯m almost out of air. On the plus side, I¡¯m sure that the explosion will get Teuila¡¯s attention, I¡¯m pretty sure I just destroyed whatever¡¯s left of the arena, and quite possibly the whole city. I really hope my suspicion is right that the kraken itself has the book, otherwise I probably just screwed up this whole quest.


    I need to dismiss this Umbral sphere copy before I pass out, or I¡¯ll be trapped inside it and die of oxygen deprivation. Urgh, okay, tiny bit of energy debt to do that. Thank you world. Oh wait, energy¨C.


    ¨Cdebt. I awaken to wet silky fur pressed against my lips as I cough and sputter.


    Linti is laughing nearby, ¡°Really, twice in one day Shellcracker? You must really enjoy our lips.¡±


    I literally steam as I blush since my face heats up enough to evaporate the water I¡¯m soaked with. I apparently dropped down to cherubic Reggie form from energy debt. I mean, Linti is right, I do, but that¡¯s such an intimate thing to tease someone about. Plus I mean, I was drowning.


    Teuila says, ¡°Lucky.¡±


    I nod, ¡°I am, thank you for saving me.¡±


    Te shakes her head, ¡°No, the book, it said one word to me when I picked it up while fishing you out. It said ¡®Lucky.¡¯¡±


    The three of us know that the book with a one on it was for Lil, so we¡¯re all exchanging a glance of realization as I confusedly ramble, ¡°It, it couldn¡¯t be. Could it? I mean, One was for Lil. Lucky is a hound, he¡¯s a wonderful hound, but, but I mean. It¡¯s a word, it could mean anything. Right? What about, about, um.¡±


    I gulp, not able to bear asking about Penina at the moment. We¡¯re all pretty certain the book is for Lucky. We need to get to Luni.


    Te mumbles, ¡°I, I saw someone. She looked, yeah. I mean, maybe. I couldn¡¯t. I couldn¡¯t get close. I couldn¡¯t ask. I couldn¡¯t bear it if they said no. I¡¯m sorry. Then everything exploded, and I couldn¡¯t see where they went as we road waves in different directions.¡±


    I gulp and fight a sad frown. It was unfair of me to ask that of Teuila. She saved my life. Maybe someday we¡¯ll come back as a family to learn about these otters. Right now, Luni needs us.


    I exclaim, ¡°Alright Lin, Te, buckle up, we¡¯re going for a ride that should rival either of your speeds. Lu needs us.¡±


    I check my mana to make sure the energy debt didn¡¯t screw me too badly, thankfully it doesn¡¯t seem to have damaged my max energy too much. I squeeze these two wonderful warrior women tightly to me as I rocket us into the sky, summon an umbral sphere duplicate around us, and fill it with cushioning. I aim our propulsion north by northeast with JT movement, then as I reach my top mana-free acceleration, I engage thermokinesis rocket thrusters, carefully regulated with electrokinetically enhanced senses. We leave behind a sonic boom and continue to accelerate towards the Volcano and its caldera.

 B 3 C 27: Caldera Caldera, Her Hips Dont Lie

    <h2>B 3 C 27: Caldera Caldera, Her Hips Don¡¯t Lie</h2>


    I call out inside our sphere, ¡°Te, can you hit us with zero G for a while? I¡¯ll take us into a glide to try to keep up the speed. I don¡¯t know how much mana I¡¯m going to need when we meet up with Lu.¡±


    Teuila nods, and I can feel the lightness of my muscles. Linti and Teuila feel weightless in my embrace as I resume my draconic form and unfurl my wings as the umbral sphere around us disappears. I continue siphoning heat from ahead of me in the atmosphere as I continue my enhanced-sense rocket thrusting to maintain the highest velocity we safely can.


    The volcano is in sight, and I¡¯m taking us into a vertical climb to reach its caldera from outside of its ash cloud. I hope Luni isn¡¯t on the far side, but we¡¯ll be able to canvas the whole caldera in mere moments. The caldera is fairly massive, but no wider than the Miracle Oak that houses the faeries¡¯ community. The Night of All Burn definitely changed the landscape of Fire Biome, as well as the tip of the mountain that used to be its central feature, the volcano is now much wider-lipped, and has a lower total altitude.


    Is Luni running a circle around the inner wall of the caldera? She¡¯s loping at at least the speed of a gazelle. But still, is she crazy? Wait, is she dancing? I, huh. I didn¡¯t know she could move like that. It¡¯s mesmerizing to see her on the move. Uh, oh, right, she probably needs us to get in there quick. Gosh, her curves are so, uh, what was I thinking about? I guess there¡¯s the tiniest silver lining in an otherwise heartbreaking thing, since she shut me out mentally she won¡¯t hear that, I¡¯d take the teasing a thousand times over though to reconcile with her. She¡¯d tease the heck out of me for that thought train.


    Luni telepathically sends, ¡°A thousand times? Really? I can take care of that later! Heeee, Whenever you feel like helping, whenever you get down here, wherever you¡¯re angling in from, don¡¯t kill it when you see it. We¡¯re not ready for what happens whenever you kill this thing, wherever you are. Just freeze it, and I¡¯ll finish getting the book.¡±


    My heart skips several beats knowing that Luni is talking to me again. I also blush heatedly knowing that she could literally tease me a thousand times in our thinkspace. Also, did Luni¡¯s hips always sway so much whenever she runs? I¡¯d be lying if I said I could recall offhand, I never made note of it in my inner narrative mental logs. Well, I¡¯d prefer not to lie, and the proof is right there, Luni¡¯s hips aren¡¯t lying, they¡¯re swaying hypnotically. Wait, is that something she¡¯s doing to keep herself safe? I need to stop getting distracted and get down there!


    Teuila is trying to stifle her laughter at my thought train, I kinda forgot that Lu isn¡¯t the only one that rides around my brainwaves. I¡¯ve been so distraught about how we left things.


    I call out, ¡°Te, you got this? Can you land Linti gently? I¡¯m going to divebomb.¡±


    Teuila pouts, ¡°You going to take all the fun things today boogerbutt? But yeah, I got this. I¡¯ll play with the Kittycat, she and I will be just fine up here, enjoying ourselves while you play with Lu.¡±


    I gulp and try to shake the embarrassment out of my head as I chuckle. Does Te really have no idea the implications of her phrasing? Sometimes I think Luni secretly taught the others some phrasing. Err, right, stop getting distracted. Releasing Teuila and Linti, I let them float around at zero gravity while Teuila releases her gravity buff from me. I angle down to soar into a crashdown strike in the middle of the caldera, summoning a massive Flash Freeze Storm as I land.


    Luni disappears out of my sight somewhere, and I feel the stone below me shift. Teuila and Linti are floating to the lip of the volcano and about to touch down, Te looks like she¡¯s ready to leap away with Linti, and Linti looks a bit embarrassed to not be leaping around under her own power. The ground quakes slightly stronger, and I swear I just saw a dorsal fin crest through the stone for a moment, as if something were swimming through solid rock without fully displacing it.


    Unfortunately, I was right. Something is able to simply pass through the solid rock within the caldera as easily as if it were water. It surfaces beneath me, snapping its maw at my heels as I JT away. I try to encase it in frost with a massive Flash Freeze Storm, but it definitely has infinite thermal resistance, so it¡¯s only slowed down slightly, if at all.


    The thing breaching the surface below me is some sort of volcanic dragon. A Voldragon? Hm, maybe Vesuvidragon, since Vesuviform is all about lava. Yeah, we¡¯ll go with that. I wonder where that lava elemental went off to. Wait, did I just see a dark splotch flitting around the sky?


    My eyes flood red with anger as I¡¯m fairly certain I just saw Mataalii zooming in. Luni reappeared from somewhere, and she seems to be trying to get my attention, but I¡¯m busy trying to make sure Mataalii doesn¡¯t show up behind her or Lin or Te. If he hurt one of them, I¡¯d, I¡¯d. Okay, breathe Reggie, breathe.


    Mataalii purposely drops in from above me to disrupt my senses with our danger wrap clashes. Agh, my brain! If I unequip mine, he¡¯ll have a massive advantage over me. If I can just, just crawl close enough when we land, I can maybe claim his danger wrap to my inventory. We plummet onto the Vesuvidragon. I land partially impaled on its rhino-like horn. Growling in frustration, I keep myself from lashing out to kill the beast below me. Luni said not to.


    Lu reaches into my mind, ¡°Quick, quick, get out of there! I forgot about this! Oh Mat you butt, no, oh no.¡±


    I flick my gaze around for Luni, it seems like she¡¯s already meeting up with Linti and Teuila. Good, she¡¯s mostly safe.


    Or she would be, if Mat hadn¡¯t moved barely out of danger wrap range to stop scrambling our brains. He''s gone and done something drastic. Mat plunged his hand into the creature we¡¯re standing atop. Well, that he¡¯s standing atop, that I¡¯m impaled upon. As his hand plunged deep, he twisted. Vesuvidragon is now bubbling like a pot at a frothing boil, I can guess what comes next.


    Vesuvidragon explodes graphically, showering the entire caldera in lava. Don¡¯t panic, it¡¯s all within reach. I Flash Freeze Storm all the lava before it can reach the gals. They¡¯re okay, it¡¯s going to be okay, now where did that jerk go?


    He¡¯s gone! Again! Oh wait, Lu said not to kill this thing. Crap. I wasn¡¯t the one that killed it, but I have a feeling that doesn¡¯t matter. Urgh hlrk. I¡¯m vomiting blood again now that the horn is no longer plugging the hole it perforated in my torso. Seriously!? What is it with my right lung getting punctured over and over!?


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    I pump my wings as I make sure I¡¯m in the right form for travel, and although I¡¯m positive I¡¯m gaining altitude, I¡¯m not moving closer to the lip of the caldera. That doesn¡¯t make any sense. The only way that would happen is if the volcano itself were getting up out of the ground.


    My eyes flash wide with panic as I tumble out of the sky. The four god beasts. One had a volcano on its back. Four elements, the God of Fire isn¡¯t a Phoenix, it¡¯s a dragon that¡¯s miles upon miles in size. A dragon so large that a massive volcano is one of its dorsal ridges.


    I, I can¡¯t move. This thing is a threat to all life on the planet. What, what can I do? I feel Luni trying to incite me to move, calling on me to get up.


    But, but we¡¯re all dead. This is it. Forget the Night of All Burn, it will be the Millenium of Ever Burning. Is this when I go back in time? Do I try to buy time for a longer timeline? Luni? Is this it?


    She replies, ¡°Not yet, hero. We haven¡¯t lost yet. Come on. You got this. Get up, please. We need to get you to the Nagas, then our new home.¡±


    Strugglingly, leaking massive amounts of blood, I stand and try to pump my wings once more. Frustrated at my inability, I propel myself upward with JT movement. Hm, I¡¯m leaking enough blood, I should be able to limit break.


    I telepathically call out to Luni and Teuila, ¡°Can you two get out of here safely with Linti? I have an idea to buy us some time.¡±


    They both reply in the affirmative. Okay, let¡¯s do this. I soar as high as I can, then flip into a dive and propel myself into the center of the volcano with as much velocity as I can muster, spinning like a drill as I coat myself in an Umbral Shot duplicate of some clay and stone molded into essentially a hollow drill bit. Down, down, down, more mana poured into rocket thrusting thermokinesis pushing us further down. If I¡¯m right, I¡¯m somewhere around the hips of this creature, if the volcano is a dorsal ridge near its tailbone.


    I¡¯m hyperventilating in fear, but I can¡¯t afford to do that. Breathe Reggie, breathe. Every little bit counts. I draw a ragged breath, controlling a frightened sob. This thing could end everything and everyone. Even if it isn¡¯t malicious. Please work, please work. Limit break, I know I shouldn¡¯t call on you so frequently. I know I¡¯m going to pay the price, especially with this hole in my torso. I know I shouldn¡¯t call on the radiance, it¡¯s corrupted. But it¡¯s so much more powerful. Forgive me, world. I let my umbral drill bit shielding dissolve as we¡¯re now in what must be a lava bloodstream as I engage a radiant limit break. I begin siphoning as much heat from this lifestream as I can. I try to overcharge my mana beyond its maximum capacity, hoping that it will help prevent some of the backlash of limit break climaxing. It¡¯s excruciating as it feels like I¡¯m bursting at the seams with corrupted fire. Oh no. Without my anchor. I feel it, I feel it bubbling up. The change. Is it worth the risk? What if I don¡¯t stop this thing, and I become evil?


    My breathing becomes hyperventilation again, but I¡¯m already committed, I¡¯m bursting with radiance. My skin is cracking and shining a blinding light from every orifice. My wound is pouring out radiance and closing up. It¡¯s fascinating, my body is destroying itself and rapidly regenerating simultaneously. Oh, oh ow, now it¡¯s in my brain. The light, the light¡¯s trying to take over my brain as it burns it away from within. I have to do this now, I have to finish the limit break climax now. Everything I have, even if it costs that creamy greenness of my soul, just to buy a few more minutes, hours, days of life for my family. I will put this God of Fire back to sleep, even if only for a few moments.


    I sense the atomic makeup and structure of every bit of calcitrite, graphite, granite, iron, magnesium, sulfur, phosphorous, every single ion of every molecule from here to the edge of this beast as I pull on them, tugging their spins in the opposite directions, slowing them ever so slightly. I feel a barely perceptible layer of frost flow out from me for miles and miles beneath the crust of our world. That¡¯s it, that¡¯s my entire limit break. That¡¯s all I could manage to do, but I don¡¯t feel the world rumbling anymore for the moment. My skin is no longer pouring forth radiant light between its wounds and cracks. My lung is fully healed. I¡¯m out of air beneath this solidified lava, so I need to tunnel upwards quickly.


    When I finally break free and can breathe again, I¡¯m torn. I want to break down, cry, rail against fate. We¡¯re doomed, we¡¯re utterly doomed. I¡¯ve bought us some smidgeon of time, but my family will die when this thing wakes. Everyone will. Even friends like the chameleon elder, Dehlia, the Nagas who fight against the Black Fangs, Elder Tolkenstein. Even Priss doesn¡¯t deserve this. How am I going to break it to her?


    ¡°Oh hey Priss, not only did you lose everything, but now because of my brother, the entire world is ending as soon as a layer of frost I conjured wears off.¡±


    Yeah, that¡¯s going to go over well. Okay, okay, okay, Reggie shut up. It was just getting up. Maybe it just wanted to stretch its legs and shift into a different position to sleep? One can hope, right? Ugh. I mean, this thing exists, it existed. It has been here for as long as our world exists, and hasn¡¯t destroyed everything yet, right? Let¡¯s just catch up with the gals.


    As I rise out of the volcano to the skies, I scan about for Lin, Lu, and Te, but what I find horrifies me beyond words. Entire miles of the forest disappeared. No fire, no devastation, the jungle to the south just, it just disappeared. I know the creature beneath the Fire Biome hasn¡¯t moved yet, it was only lifting upwards slightly. What caused all of the. Oh no. It was me.


    Somehow, somehow it was me. The trees just gave themselves up for me. I don¡¯t, I don¡¯t get it. What? Why?


    I let my glide fall forward into a dive and crash down onto my hands and knees somewhere far south of the volcano. As I tumble and roll I shift forms back into cherubic Reggie. I hug my knees to my face and bawl my eyes out, sobbing. Even trying to buy the world just a little more time, I¡¯m killing it myself somehow.


    I¡¯m barely cognizant of the feeling of several bodies leaning up against me for some period of time. I can¡¯t stop crying. Our world is going to die. Everyone I love is going to die. Going back in time can¡¯t fix this. It¡¯s, it¡¯s inevi¡­ oh the third trial. It¡¯s inevitable.


    Am I lightning right now? I don¡¯t even notice the pain, I¡¯m so lost in these thoughts. Were the trials to prepare me for this? To know that the end was inevitable? Just to make the best choices to give our world as long as possible? To cherish every last second with my loved ones? I need to snap out of it then. Future me was right. Cherish every second. My heart aches so deeply. Oh no, I need to hide my thoughts from. Oh, oh no, too late. Even Linti has ridden around in my head. They all know.


    Were there any other lessons I was supposed to pick up from the trials? There was something about trying as long as I could, ending in sacrifice. It feels like I¡¯ve both already done that one, and somehow that that¡¯s also what is always yet to come. The second one was something about illusions, trickery, or fate. Am I fated to become a monstrosity like the ones that attacked me? The third one showed me what it was like to have years with Lil, my beloved dragon buddy. We fell in love and spent thousands of years together. More than that, we railed against an inevitable fate to the bitter end. Lil even sacrificed themselves for one last attempt for even one more fraction of a second for the rest of us. They became radiant energy, a weapon that was wasted as it destroyed some far off distant land. Likely enough power to crater an entire continent.


    Oh no, wait, are we approaching the Nagas'' settlement? Linti they¡¯ll kill you! No no no no no no no!

 B 3 C 28: Maybe the End Isnt So Nigh After All

    <h2>B 3 C 28: Maybe the End Isn¡¯t So Nigh After All</h2>


    Luni calls out into my mind, ¡°Shh, shh, it¡¯s okay. I can finally tell you one thing. I have magic that lets me hide myself and others, completely, even our auras, and sounds and smells. If I had told you before now, someone would have found out, and knew I¡¯d be too dangerous to let live, since they wouldn¡¯t know where I¡¯d be. I¡¯m directing Linti where to go. We¡¯ll go to your temple of time. We¡¯ll rest there a bit while you get your other book. It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay. I love you, no matter how many ends we face. You¡¯ve got this hero, always.¡±


    How though? How can she be so sure? Is, is there some sort of, some kind of god killing spell in the books? I suppose anything is possible. Oh my buddy, my best buddy, we¡¯re so far apart, and the world is ending.


    Luni hems and haws telepathically before sharing, ¡°I¡¯m, ugh, this sucks, but you¡¯re not going to get to see Lil for quite a while after what happens soon. Not even for some big things. I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s better that you know now, and get it out of your system, so that you don¡¯t mope. They¡¯ll be here, but then, ugh. Just, just know that Lil will be with you in the end. Okay?¡±


    Linti¡¯s lightning leap lands us at the top of the temple, and we shuffle along the inside of its corridors mostly in silence. Even bumping into a guard or two just causes some to scratch their heads in confusion. We are really completely invisible to others, and all their senses, well, except touch. Hm, danger wraps should be able to tell me where Lu is when she¡¯s invisible, because they¡¯re a ranged tactile sense, but she has appeared as if out of nowhere several times near me. She might have always appeared out of range though. Hm, a mystery. It¡¯s hard to gauge distance. Especially when it¡¯s the mysterious Luni who intentionally keeps me guessing.


    As we enter the final hallway, the one that dead ends at the hourglass statues, we approach somberly. We ride the rotating floor into the temple, and I¡¯m at a loss for words for a moment. I adopt my nearly six foot tall form so that I can look them each in the eyes, as they¡¯re all in their tallest forms.


    I start, ¡°I, I don¡¯t know how to do this. Guys, I love you all so much. But you saw it, you saw my thoughts. Even you Linti, I felt your electricity riding my neurons. You know what I saw, and what¡¯s c¨C¡±


    Linti interrupts me by kissing me with a passion that I, well, I¡¯m surprised by. I wrap my arms around her and feel myself embraced by all three of my inner circle that are present. I start to ask a question.


    Linti interrupts me again though, ¡°Shellcracker, Shellcrackers. That¡¯s, that¡¯s really world ending. Like hell I¡¯m going down with any regrets. I, look. You¡¯re all phenomenal, amazing. I, I friggin¡¯ love you, each of you differently, but yeah. Luni, uh, Lu, I got some major jealousy vibes from you, and, and look, I¡¯m really sorry, but life is way too short, especially now. Can we be pals? Or uh, y¡¯know, no grudges, or something?¡±


    Luni rests her head against Linti¡¯s shoulder and feebly, lightly, socks her in the abdomen repeatedly, ¡°You¡¯re forgiven. It¡¯s not fair, every time. They never notice. It¡¯s not your fault. You¡¯re pretty amazing too, even if I sort of hate you for it. You¡¯re the, it¡¯s not fair. So many times in so many different. Urgh, I hate you for being so pretty and strong and fun and funny, being from a brand new place.¡± Luni pauses to huff, then continues, ¡°I don¡¯t really hate you though, not really.¡±


    Te chimes in, ¡°Hey, not hating her isn¡¯t enough for me, I like her, she¡¯s tasty! In lotsa ways. Fun in a scrap, strong, handsome. I¡¯m sorry we didn¡¯t get to hunt together more before now. Just one day doesn¡¯t feel like enough. I wish my dorky little dragbutt was here too.¡± Te sobers up at that last sentence and then clutches her chest, ¡°Oh wow, is that heartache? Hell that hurts.¡±


    The three of us nod, each of us experiencing heartache and yearning for those who aren¡¯t with us at the moment. Possibly our last moments.


    I croak out through a sob I didn¡¯t realize I was holding in, ¡°I, I want to try something. Linti I want to offer you a tether, and to tangle it with Teuila¡¯s. But, but only if all of you are okay with it. It might hurt me, but Linti I want as much time with you too, it¡¯s not fair to you, I¡¯m about to retreat into thinkspace. We¡¯ll have a thousand times as much time as you if I don¡¯t do this.¡±


    Linti scratches the back of her head, ¡°Hey, I mean, I got no complaints. More time is more time. I¡¯m down, but like, don¡¯t kill yourself over it, capische?¡±


    I nod while gazing at Luni and Teuila. Luni doesn¡¯t say anything, but she squeezes my waist and kisses my cheek. Teuila just eyes me up and down, seemingly sizing up whether or not I can handle this. Teuila gives me a half shrug and a smile before throwing me a thumbs up.


    I imagine pulling back the too-wrapped too-warped tether that I gave to Teuila, and latching it around my heart, immediately it feels as if there¡¯s razor-wire dragging tight circles around my heart. I pass a tether to Linti, entangling it purposely with that one. I crumple to my knees, gasping for breath. I feel blood dripping internally as my heart is actually shredded by the metaphorical wires ripping into it. Luni wants to beg me to stop, I can see it in her eyes, but for some reason she doesn¡¯t.


    Linti gasps and looks over at Luni, having heard my thoughts about her. It¡¯s only a partially established link. Linti¡¯s transformation is completing as a creamy gray silhouette. She gains more limbs. For some reason the words Asuraform and Indraform spring to mind. She has to be at least twelve feet tall now, six armed, and somehow scantily clad rather than more armored. I suppose if she¡¯s self-actualized as a being of lightning, then she doesn¡¯t really need to imagine herself equipped like Teuila did with her Valkyrie form.


    I topple forward further, blood seeping from several orifices, all three of them want me to stop now, but now it¡¯s too late. Stopping without completing the tethered link would leave me just as damaged.


    TQ saunters in from seemingly nowhere and calls out, ¡°Really? There¡¯s a much easier way to do that you know. Come now, pick up your little love muffin or whatever you call them. Bring them along. You there, Lightning cat, drop that form if you want the time lord to live.¡±


    Linti manually severs the tether somehow, which causes a rubberbanding effect that actually blasts Teuila into a nearby wall as the tether from me also snaps and flicks her away. She¡¯s laughing as she collects herself from the wall, dusting herself off, so at least she isn¡¯t hurt. Linti and Teuila are sharing glances, somehow I can tell they¡¯re telepathically communicating, even if I¡¯m not part of their thought waves yet. The two of them share an excited kiss as Luni keeps dragging me towards TQ.


    TQ asks, ¡°Which of you has the time book? Number five. This one¡¯s book. No, don¡¯t tell me, you left it outside, didn¡¯t you? Hmf, I can probably manage to be corporeal long enough to retrieve it. Get them to the pedestal, I¡¯ll be there momentarily. Hm, where is it going to be this time? Southeast corner I think.¡±


    I black out momentarily, when I come to, we¡¯re situated in front of the pedestals. TQ exclaims, ¡°You will read one page, and one page only, from this book. This is yours, you could have already realized how to do this, you¡¯ve just had your thoughts muddled around this time. I¡¯ve opened it, read only this page. Then, enjoy your time with your loved ones. I¡¯m already in need of recuperating. You three, don¡¯t let them read any more than this page. Understand?¡±


    I¡¯m almost scared to even read the single page that I¡¯m instructed to read, what with how insistent TQ is, but my currently-present inner circle helps me steadily stand at the tome. Apparently the fifth tome really is mine. It has my memory logs in it. But it has notes as if I had gone back and read them, and made suppositions. TQ was right, it¡¯s simple, at least, for certain people. Not many qualify. The only other ones who I don¡¯t currently share telepathy with, that do qualify, are Lucky, oddly enough, and Mataalii. Like that would ever happen. Linti wouldn¡¯t normally qualify, but she does now, and only needed part of what I just did.


    I follow the instructions that I¡¯ve somehow laid out for myself, and suddenly my thinkspace expands to encompass all of us, including Lil and Lucky. That last bit is shocking. Lucky¡¯s mental avatar bounds up and takes his full hunter hound form to bowl me over, licking me all over my telepathic face.


    Laughingly I ask, ¡°Haha, hah, what? How even? Lil? But we¡¯re in the Nagas¡¯ city. Where are you?¡±


    Lil looks around for a moment, as if they¡¯re in meatspace, trying to gaze around for my voice. They continue flying in their Lilagnewt form and keep looking for the source of my voice. They land as they begin to look hazy. Lil and Lucky disappear from our thinkspace.


    In our accelerated thinkspace, I whimper as I curl up on my butt, hugging my knees to my chest, ¡°No, but, but. My best buddy, my oldest pal.¡±


    Luni¡¯s telepathic avatar sits next to my right side and tugs me close, her left arm wrapped around my back to squeeze my left knee. Linti¡¯s projected mental image tugs my avatar¡¯s right leg down to lay across it into Luni¡¯s lap. Teuila¡¯s projection sits behind me in lotus position, her knees on either side of my butt, her arms draped over my shoulders as she leans her chin against the back of my head.


    Lil and I never even got around to really practicing with the breath skill they taught me. Luni says I¡¯ll see Lil again in the end, but I wish we had more time than that. I wonder if I can breathe any element that I have kinesis for. Yeah, I probably can. Breath skill also takes very little mana, at least in draconic form, since it¡¯s almost innate. Hm, that might come in handy if I have to defend us against anything else between now and the end of the world.


    Luni squeezes my left knee and right shoulder as she nuzzles my right bicep. I was so afraid that she was going to hate me, it felt like I hurt her so badly. She still seems hurt, but we still haven¡¯t clarified some things. I guess that means we have some time left. I should take advantage of it. Either I will know when to go back, or give her messages, or she¡¯ll tell me when. That time isn¡¯t right now. I need to stop moping about the end, and take advantage of every moment left.


    I whisper in our thinkspace, ¡°Thank you Lu. You¡¯re the bravest and kindest among us. Sorry Te, Sorry Lin. Teuila knows though, we went over it once. I wasn¡¯t supposed to guess, but Teuila caught on when Lil was lashing out. I hid my guesses from back then, about Mat, but Teuila has known what I guessed for a long time now. You more or less confirmed it since then Lu.¡±


    Looking at Linti, I ramble, ¡°If you¡¯re confused what I¡¯m talking about Linti, Lu here has been leading us throughout time, fighting to keep the right secrets to keep us on the right path. She has been suffering so hard, for so long, and none of us could possibly have taken on the path that she has. I would have saved or killed Mat earlier had I known any of this was going to happen.¡±


    I pause, reflecting, ¡°But then you and I might not have met. Or if we had, you definitely wouldn¡¯t have joined the Lavaborn Alliance. I¡¯d have died to the kraken because Teuila couldn¡¯t have gotten there in time to save me without your speed. I couldn¡¯t have beat it without your lightning. I might have died earlier in the final match against Lluxop and Rastoc without the bit of electro resist I had already gained from you. I might not have developed a draconic form without sleeping with Fawn. I mean, uh, you know. But, you¡¯d still have your home. I¡¯m still tempted to go back and change things, but I trust Luni to death and beyond. If this is the way things have to happen for something even bigger than the Night of All Burn, then we¡¯ll persevere in this timeline.¡±


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Linti whistles appreciatively as she comes to grips with the ramifications of what Luni has been dealing with. She runs her pawed hand over her furry scalp and shakes her head in disbelief.


    From her position in Lu¡¯s lap, Lin states, ¡°Hell of a story Shellcracker. I mean, with all I¡¯ve seen, I believe you, obvee. Jeez though. Really Lu? All this time, all that? You had to watch us go through things, knowing what we¡¯d suffer? Knowing you¡¯d have to get jealous of me? How did you even do it? This entire family is crazy strong willed. You¡¯re a special kind of gal. Mad respect babe.¡±


    Luni half-frowns at Linti¡¯s complement. She tries to roll her eyes, but can¡¯t hide her pride for long. She leans down and smooches Linti¡¯s forehead in gratitude for the kind words that were exchanged.


    Linti grumbles, ¡°I really want to be hunting, or with my family, but, but this is special too. I don¡¯t know how long we have. I¡¯m so torn. I never thought I¡¯d have to choose something like this. We¡¯d play a game something like this, we¡¯d go around asking ridiculous questions in a circle. Sometimes one of us would come up with something like, ¡®you only have one day left to live, how do you spend it?¡¯ I never took it seriously, never even put thought into it. I didn¡¯t even play the game. If I could go back, I wouldn¡¯t have been so standoffish with my family. I¡¯d have played along. But now, now I don¡¯t know who I want my last moments to be with.¡±


    We all nod along with Linti. We¡¯re all feeling that same ache. Do we risk spending time traveling, when a God of Fire might wake up and blanket the landscape in an endless blaze before we make it to our family? Or do we just take solace in the time we have?


    Thinking about the God of Fire, I ramble an apology, ¡°Lu, Lu, I used radiance at the volcano, I¡¯m so sorry. It nearly consumed me, it nearly changed me without you there as my anchor. Worse, a massive chunk of forest died somehow, I think because I used it.¡±


    Luni nods, ¡°You can¡¯t use it again okay, promise me? I could tell you did, but that¡¯s the last time you can ever use it during, well, it¡¯s just the last time. Please promise?¡±


    I nod, gulping back a knot caught in my throat. I was afraid that this might cause her to shut me out again, but she¡¯s so understanding. She¡¯s the best of us.


    Still, Luni¡¯s words, and my own thoughts on our time travel loop gives me some hope. The books are somehow key, right? Maybe if we set all six up, something happens? Four of them are already set up. Luni has number three, Teuila gave me number two after she snagged it from the Kraken, at some point since then. Still, if we need Lil here to be able to read the first one, I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯ll do anything. Also, does Lucky need to read book two? That can¡¯t be right. It just, it doesn¡¯t make any sense. Yeah, it can¡¯t require Lucky, it just can¡¯t. Maybe the Nagas know something about the books. They had the fifth book just laying around for a long time. The chameleons absorbed knowledge from Lil¡¯s book. Apparently the fifth book is mine. Does some Naga librarian have bits of knowledge about me and my memory logs?


    For now though, we can spend about a month in accelerated thinkspace before I try to see if there¡¯s anything left to do, to rail against the end of the world. It¡¯s less than an hour of meatspace time, with three amazing people who now share some of the strongest possible bonds in the entire world. A tightness squeezes my heart as I yearn for Lil¡¯s presence in this time, but I need to take the solace that I can, before I try to face whatever destiny lies ahead.


    The four of us spend a month together, learning everything we can about one another, even those of us who have spent years in thinkspace prior to now manage to continually surprise one another. Linti has the most new info to share, of course. We also play the game she spoke of, where we ask random, possibly inane questions, and try to answer as best we can. We even pretend to be our close friends, family, and loved ones, imagining how they might answer. It¡¯s both heartwarming and heartbreaking. We share so many laughs, tears, kisses, cuddles, frustrations, yearnings, and simple thoughts.


    As much as I want to stay and enjoy this with them, I¡¯ve never been as good at multitasking in thinkspace while operating in meatspace as some of the others. I need to face my destiny though, in case there¡¯s a window of opportunity that I have to meet. I don¡¯t know what the big salvation is going to be. Maybe we¡¯ll just save some of my family to my inventory as the world ends around us. I have no idea. Something tells me that either Luni or I will realize before the end. I haven¡¯t sent our messages back yet.


    For now, I kiss each of these people that are so beloved to me, possibly for the last time. It¡¯s hopefully a temporary farewell, but they need to remain here and rest up while I talk to the Nagas. Luni could sneak around and follow me, and bring the others with, but that¡¯s a completely unnecessary risk.


    I have a new trick to try out. Linti had to nearly fry my brain to get images of an event at first, but I think learning the words that someone is speaking might just take the tiniest spark of contact. Linti was able to send a message with an almost imperceptible electrical tingle, so I think I can have the same spark return with whatever is said to me. Hopefully I can finally talk to people if they¡¯re willing to maintain physical contact. I think Dehlia¡¯s brother is probably the first person to try this with.


    I wander around the Nagas¡¯ society in draconic form, searching for Dehlia. There are some looks of recognition from various Nagas who must have been spectators during the impromptu tournament. It doesn¡¯t take too long to spy Dehlia. She looks fairly surprised to see me though.


    Telepathically she states, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect to see you back any time soon. It sounded like you were going to be busy building a whole city from the ground up. To even begin that, it would only be once you had found somewhere to found such a city.¡±


    I nod, ¡°That was the plan, but something big came up, really big. End of the world big. Do you know who was looking after the books on the southeast corner of the temple?¡±


    Dehlia gazes at me, bewildered. Her puzzlement is expressed in her words, ¡°I trust one such as you to not toss around such words lightly. How are you so certain? What does this have to do with our uncategorizables?¡±


    I adopt a half smile. That makes sense, a tome that steals time would be among their books that couldn¡¯t be categorized. My expression becomes somber as I reply, ¡°We sort of stole a book from there, kind of. It¡¯s my book. It would have had an indicator of being the fifth of six books on the cover. It steals time from anyone who isn¡¯t me that tries to read it. When I read it, it¡¯s just my mental logs. I think. There¡¯s a bit more to it than that. As far as how I¡¯m certain, my brother awoke a God of Fire. It¡¯s so massive that it¡¯s like the entire Fire Biome itself is going to get up and begin walking around. That¡¯s only a slight exaggeration to its size. It¡¯s large enough that a volcano is just one of its dorsal ridges. I was able to slow it down, maybe temporarily put it back to sleep, but in doing so, I killed off a massive swathe of nature.¡±


    Dehlia pales at my description of the beast¡¯s size. She knows I wouldn¡¯t lie to her about a matter so serious. We¡¯ve been through some deadly things together already. We¡¯ve each saved each other at least once.


    I¡¯d better ask before I forget, ¡°Oh, also, one other favor, could you convince a Naga friend of yours that isn¡¯t in our party, to hold my hand as I try to talk to them? I have a new power that might let me communicate, they might feel a tiny shock or a small tingling sensation. I was going to ask your brother to try it, but I realized we¡¯re in a party through Lil, so it wouldn¡¯t guarantee it would work with non party members.¡±


    Dehlia raises an eyebrow, she knows that I was killed by an internal lightning explosion. But obviously I¡¯m not going to do that to one of her friends, or anyone really, hm, well, almost anyone.


    Dehlia introduces me to the librarian, she says she¡¯ll translate for me if needed, but this Elder Sthenic is polite and agreeable enough to be willing to try my electro-pathy. Telelectro-pathy? Something like that. I like EP better than TP for a power acronym. I¡¯ve been subconsciously messing around with my electrokinesis since gaining it, whenever I can, and my lightning enhanced senses are now boosted by over an entire percent. One percent faster reactions might not seem like much, but who knows what the fate of the world is going to come down to in the end? I guess Luni might.


    Elder Sthenic rambles about his book collection, or rather, the books he curates, they¡¯re not his personal holdings. There are some mysterious ones that seem to be collections of maps that are not of this continent, possibly even this world, tomes that seem like some artist¡¯s nightmare sketchbook, a grand variety of mishmash and mismatched unsolvable, or unusable literary or artistic works. When I bring up book five, he begins to fetch it for me while I try to apologize, mentioning I already have it nearby.


    Elder Sthenic says, ¡°Oh? How in blue blazes did that happen? I hadn¡¯t seen you come in yet, have I? No no, I¡¯m quite sure of it, I¡¯ve an eagle eye out at my entrance and my collection. How very curious.¡±


    I respond, ¡°It¡¯s a long story, but the book contains some of my memories, maybe all of them. Anyone else that tries to read it ends up losing time, maybe learning a word or two at most.¡±


    Elder Sthenic studies me up and down as we maintain contact. He states, ¡°Hm, then you know far more about it than I do, my boy, or, my lass. I apologize. I¡¯m not quite certain on draconic genders.¡±


    I chuckle, you and me both Elder Sthenic, you and me both. I don¡¯t know what gender I am, or want to be, in any form. Draconic or otherwise. I don¡¯t bother explaining this aloud however.


    This seems like a bit of a dead end, so I thank Dehlia and Elder Sthenic for their time. I mention that I may have some friends within the city that may be covertly leaving soon, or staying hidden within. I¡¯m not certain what the right course of actions is at the moment. For now, I guess I can check in with Luni and find out what sort of deal she made for a settlement for the Lavaborn Alliance.


    Back in the temple of time, I find the three most beautiful creatures in the world lazing about entangled with one another. There¡¯s a mixture of waves at my approach, a shy playful wave from Lu, an excitable wave from Teuila, and a casual hey there style wave from Linti. Right now Teuila is sandwiched between the two of them, Luni is cuddled up as the big spoon to her big sis¡¯s back, wearing a bit of a pout. Te and Linti are nuzzling fairly intimately, so I don¡¯t want to break up their fun.


    I sit in lotus position near Luni and raise an eyebrow. She rolls away from the flirtatious pair of warriors and plops into my lap, exuding a soft sound of glee as she wraps her arms around my waist behind her head. I shift forms to cherubic Reggie, and play with Luni¡¯s hair beneath her dragon kigurumi hoodie. She drops her own form back to the curvaceous otter form in the lovely green and white dress.


    I start, ¡°Lu, I¨C¡±


    Luni interrupts, ¡°Bup, bup bup bup bup bup. Just a little bit longer. Please?¡±


    I chuckle as I smile and nod. Of course, anything for you, I know you can hear my thoughts.


    Luni emits the Shellcracker Family Squee, that single elongated ¡°heeeee¡± laugh from a closed-eyed nearly closed-lipped smile. She then plaps my face with one of her hands, I chase it away with one of mine, her other hand settles on my face, I chase that one away, we repeat several times until she lets me catch her hands. We interlace fingers and stare into each other¡¯s eyes. I shift back into my tallest form, to hold Lu closer, but she surprises me by morphing into her taller form again as well, turning to sit with her legs wrapped around my waist. The shift is so sudden as she turns that our noses and foreheads end up bumping into each other as we shift positions. We chuckle as we blush while lost in each other¡¯s eyes.


    We kiss like it might be our last kiss yet again. It seems like we¡¯re only partway finished enjoying a long kiss when she pulls away.


    Luni starts, ¡°You¡¯re right to want to know about the settlement. For now, they¡¯re going to let everyone stay with them, the fairies that is. The ground based homes and buildings have the fewest people, and they¡¯re the ones that most of ours could occupy anyway. Some of the humans can fly, so they¡¯ll be able to live with some of the dryads and nymphs and fauns with wind magic in the boughs of the tree. They very much want peaceful cohabitation. As long as Priss maintains her sanity, we have a shot at this working out.¡±


    At that last statement, she huffs a weary sigh, ¡°You know our fams will make it work anywhere, but all the refugees really need this to work out. It¡¯s the only place that will. Shellcrackers will persevere, y¡¯know, but the rest of them are struggling so much. If you didn¡¯t teach Spice how to make magic shops that create food and stuff out of nothing, they wouldn¡¯t have lasted this long. It¡¯ll take some doing, but between some huntable hostiles, and some evolution magic shenanigans, everyone should have enough currency and supplies to keep buying what they need.¡±


    Luni ponders for a moment, then adds, ¡°They¡¯ll try to make a big lake around the tree eventually, like a moat. They¡¯re pretty sure that using your blueprints for expanding water and fish spawns, they can get a nice thing going. Without being able to offer as much as we can, we might not have been able to make this deal. All of these discoveries were your ideas. You weren¡¯t even there, but you were the hero. My hero. Always have been, always will be.¡±


    I blush at Luni¡¯s praise. I won¡¯t accept that word from anyone else. It¡¯s special between me and her. From anyone else it¡¯s just a papercut, an annoyance that stings. Somehow from Lu, hearing it tells a story of our love for each other. A story that transcends worlds and lifetimes by how deep the emotion seems to feel. If only I could express this thought even half as eloquently to Luni. Oh, wait, crap.


    Luni giggles in my lap, she squeezes my waist with her legs once, before shoving off of me to stand up. She offers me a hand up as she states, ¡°Someone¡¯s going to be arriving that you¡¯re going to want to see. Well, two someones. Well, more or less. Just, just remember some of what I said okay? Try not to get disheartened. Things aren¡¯t over yet. You got this.¡±

 B 3 C 29: Its About That Time Again

    <h2>B 3 C 29: It¡¯s About That Time Again</h2>


    At Lu¡¯s insistence, I take my leave again. I find myself glancing back at Linti and Teuila who are alternatingly spending accelerated time in thinkspace, and rolling back and forth while embracing each other. They playfully punch each other once in a while, but they¡¯re laughing as they chat about anything and everything. This is the kind of image I want to burn into my mind if death is how I pictured it so long ago, the last image in your eyes. When I was drowning on the Night of High Water, I saw Teuila looking back at me with so much tenderness behind the fear in her eyes, but I¡¯d much prefer her joy.


    As I leave these amazing people once again, I find myself pondering inevitability. The Roc was inscrutable in its warning, as I come to think about it. A countdown, then something that always had to have come to pass. What really was the point? Could I have prevented it? Should I have given up everything to stand guard over the obelisks? Should I have killed Mataalii before he got the chance to break them? I know the answer is no. That¡¯s why Luni couldn¡¯t tell me anything about Mat before things happened.


    Speaking of Luni, Lu is fast, incredibly so, but even her travel speed with her Seven Leagues Songs wouldn¡¯t have let her cover much ground. The day she said she had to leave to save all of our lives is the day I earned the time skill. Just before Teuila died, over and over. If the obelisks held some entity at bay, they might have contained powers. Was Luni preventing an obelisk from breaking? Did she break it herself? Did she prevent Mat from gaining the time skill? I imagine he¡¯d use it to disastrous effect, ignoring any warnings to not use it.


    I meander around the Nagas¡¯ society in draconic form once again, I wave at some familiar faces, Dehlia included. I hide from some other familiar faces, members of the Black Fangs. If someone¡¯s going to be arriving, and it isn¡¯t Luni, since she¡¯s already here, it¡¯s likely to be Lil coming in from the air. I keep my gaze trained skyward towards the northeast. If Lil was moving towards the inhabited Miracle Oak when they started heading towards the Nagas¡¯ city, that¡¯s where they would be coming from.


    I take off into the sky to get a view above the canopy. Lil can probably see my soul presence painted all over the place if they¡¯re really coming. I practice blasting lightning into the sky, and breathing fire and ice. I think my breath skill doesn¡¯t quite reach fifteen feet yet. Yeah, it definitely doesn¡¯t reach past my danger wrap sensory range. I need to train it more.


    Suddenly telepathic thoughts hit my brain like the screaming impact of a freight train, ¡°Buddy! So much weird stuff is going on! My soul went all weird for a minute, then it stopped acting up, then I thought I heard you, and Lucky almost jumped out of the sky in the direction of your voice! I missed you pal, what¡¯s going on?¡±


    Oh Lil, it¡¯s really you, it¡¯s really you. I scan the horizon and spot a tiny reddish dot. I rocket in its direction and we tackle each other out of the sky, laughing as I cushion our fall with JT inventory magic.


    I blubber, ¡°Lil, Lil I¡¯m so glad I get to see you before the end, I¡¯m so glad, so so glad.¡±


    Lucky and Lil alternate licking the tears off my face. I can¡¯t help laughing as I shove Lil¡¯s big draconic mug out of my face, but they still sneak one or two more licks.


    Lil suddenly pauses to ask, ¡°The end of what buddy?¡±


    I frown, remembering, ¡°The end of the world. We woke something up. Well, Mataalii did. It¡¯s like some kind of God of Fire, it¡¯s so big that the volcano in Fire Biome is just a small part of its back, a dorsal ridge, it was some kind of continental sized dragon or something.¡±


    Lil exclaims, ¡°Hubba hubba! I wonder if I can get that big if I try hard enough! Ya think it¡¯s possible?¡±


    I facepalm, thinking Lil missed something in translation, ¡°Lil? End of the world buddy?¡±


    Lil responds, ¡°Ohhhh, yeah, yeah that¡¯s pretty rough buddy. But, well, do you?¡±


    We both burst into laughter, Lil can be such a goon. Lucky plops into their spherical shape in my lap, and Lil joins them.


    I collect my thoughts, ¡°But seriously buddy, we have to hurry, I don¡¯t know what to do about the end of the world, but I¡¯m pretty sure the books are an important part of it. You know that one is yours. Apparently the second book belongs to Lucky here.¡±


    Lucky barks almost as if confirming it. That¡¯s, huh, odd. Is Lao going to be okay without her hunter? I suppose Jazharn is getting friendly with Dream. Jaz is pretty powerful, and she probably wouldn¡¯t want to see any of Dream¡¯s family get hurt. Adom and Sofu supposedly think of me as a rival, so they¡¯d probably prefer it if I didn¡¯t come back heartbroken, incapable of fighting. I think I can rely on them to defend the humans and critterkin if for no other reason than that reason alone. Maybe they¡¯d even do it to show me up, prove that they¡¯re better than me by being able to protect my family? One can hope.


    Lil begins to explain some things that happened in my absence, ¡°So, so buddy, pal. Luna is going crazy without Luni or you around. She¡¯s sitting on anyone who will stay put. Like, She seems really lonely, and like she knows something bigger is going on. Maybe she felt the same thing I did? When did you say that big thing moved? I think that¡¯s around when my soul went wonky, and when Luna was most zany.¡±


    Lil also shares, ¡°And, um, is it weird that I think we have a human family member now? I mean, I guess it¡¯s not that weird that we have a couple of dragons, a bunch of otters, cats, a bear, hound, and a couple of beavers. We thought you were human for a while. But like, Jaz and Dream actually joined the family pile last night! Dream was scowling the whole time, but I half think that¡¯s just how her face is. Even when she¡¯s telling happy stories before we sleep. Jaz was enamored, I think they¡¯re practicing some kind of sign language, or wind magic, or something. Blossom is starting to get the hang of her vines and stuff, she can even make them sprout flowers now, instead of just big roots, or thorns.¡±


    Lil ponders before continuing, ¡°Oh, oh yeah, Fawn, when you¡¯re not there she¡¯s on Agwai and Laomati nonstop when they¡¯re free. When they¡¯re not, it¡¯s like she has a line of humans lined up for snuggles. I think that tons of them are crazy about her. She loves up on anyone who treats her nice. I saw her hiss and roar at someone once, just once. That guy never went back to her tent. I¡¯m guessing he was a jerk, because she loves everyone, she¡¯s just so kind and cuddly! I know how much you loooove to snuggle up against her buddy, eh, eh?¡±


    I flush with embarrassment and noogie Lil, grumbling that they could spend more time focusing on their own snuggle time rather than worrying about mine. Still, I missed Lil, I don¡¯t want them to feel like I don¡¯t want to share affection with them. I mean, we fell deeply in love in another timeline. I know they only tease me for fun, they don¡¯t mean it hurtfully. We love each other.


    Lil nods, ¡°Yup yup, and, and, uh, oh! Six is, um, ¡®seeing¡¯ a camel lady and a human guy? Like, It¡¯s the first time that Blossom and Six aren¡¯t doing everything together. I¡¯ve seen the three of them exercising together. The camel lady is the buffest of the three, hehe. Then they, um, there are some herbs, I think Six gets Blossom to grow the herbs or something. They buy some apples, and they burn the herbs in the apples as they sit around together, passing the apples back and forth. I have no idea what that¡¯s about. But they look so blissful and peaceful when they do it. The human guy doesn¡¯t even know what Six and camel lady are talking about, but they¡¯re all holding hands and laying across each other and stuff after working out.¡±


    Lil continues, ¡°Oh, oh oh oh, Sir Reginald, he got Priss to smile! A few times. I think she¡¯s finally coming around. Mostly now that the humans have a shot at a peaceful home, but also maybe because other-Reggie is kind of a fun old guy sometimes. He¡¯s very, uh, dutiful and stuff, but he likes to play cards, and invites big groups. He even learned to tell stories like the critterkin by listening to Bettie talk about what we do, so they¡¯ll play cards and he¡¯ll tell stories while they sit around together. That¡¯s how he got Priss to smile, he invited her out, or made her come out or something, and showed her that the humans are still enjoying life, or something.¡±


    Lil chews on their tongue for a bit while gazing around, seemingly trying to remember something, ¡°Sugar is starting to get a bit, um, she misses you. She¡¯s I dunno, maybe jealous of Magnus? Like her twin never has time for her any more, and that sucks. If you never made time for me once you met Teuila, I¡¯d be crushed. Wish I could do something for her. She enjoys smashing down the shop every day and building up the new one, but it seems like it¡¯s exhausting her, since she has to sprint from one end of the camp to the other like twice a day. ¡®Naia and M^2 are teaching some of the humans to dance. Lao um, had a proposal? For Agwai. For some reason it was a big thing. She heard about some humans doing it, and said it seemed fitting. I don¡¯t know what she proposed, but when Agwai learned what it was, they were really happy.¡±


    Lil sticks their tongue out while continuing to ramble, ¡°Nnn, ¡®n¡¯ there was other stuff, with like, the old cat doctor, him and Alice started working together in the um, infirmary tent. Sometimes she pets him, and he complains, saying he¡¯s not a kitten, but he still purrs, it¡¯s funny. The spheriform cats are always just everywhere. Olioli chases them around, and they chase him back. I know how none of us are really ever children, since we have all these memories and all this knowledge when we spawn, but they act like a bunch of kids having fun. I think it¡¯s cute. I¡¯m glad that none of the big things happening have stopped them from having that, y¡¯know? I do miss our pond though pal. It was all ours.¡±


    I nod somberly at Lil. I miss it too. I¡¯m fairly positive that we¡¯ll never get it back. At this point, I¡¯m worried about whether or not we¡¯ll even be able to keep any place in the world habitable. Here¡¯s hoping these books contain some secret or some power.


    I march Lil and Lucky through the city streets of the Nagas¡¯ town, watching as the evening fire caster lights all the gas lanterns with a quick double spell. Hm, there¡¯s an odd congregation in that building on my left. I swear I see more than one Black Fangs tattoo. Hopefully they aren¡¯t going to cause trouble for Dehlia. I¡¯ll try to warn her on our way back into the temple.


    After I warn her, Dehlia telepathically sends, ¡°That is odd, we don¡¯t have any laws against it, but they would normally be more careful than to be seen grouping up. They¡¯ve lost some popularity of late, so have become a tad more shadowy. It almost seems too bold. I¡¯ll stay on guard, I¡¯ve actually cashed in the chit Lil had given me, I¡¯m sorry to have used it so early, but it has afforded me some safety and authority against the actions of the Black Fangs. Thank you Reggie.¡±


    Dehlia turns to Lil, and they share some telepathic communication that I¡¯m not privy to. They then, ah, yeah, uh, wish each other luck in the reptile fashion. Gosh that is really intimate, with the tongue and the auditory orifices. I fan my collar as I try to gaze anywhere else while I wait for Lil to finish. Lucky just wags his thick, tapered tail in hound form, panting like any normal pupper would as he gazes back and forth between me, and Lil.


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    I reach up to scratch Lucky¡¯s chin, and hold out my arms. I¡¯m trying to indicate that he should shrink back down so we can enter the temple. Lil finishes and hops into my arms along with Lucky, and I continue marching back through the upper temple down into the temple of time. I must seem crazy, coming and going from this temple repeatedly all day today.


    Let¡¯s see, we have Lil, Lucky, and four others, one of which is me, could we operate the books? Unlock some sort of secret when all six are brought together? I pick up the pace and rush us back into the temple.


    I enter to see an odd scene before me. Teuila is standing back raising an eyebrow as Linti leans towards Luni, her legs draped along the ground behind her as she lays somewhat parallel up Lu¡¯s legs and lap. She¡¯s nose to nose with Luni, while Lu sits against a wall. Lu is blushing furiously, and she pushes Linti¡¯s face away, but in a playful fashion. Lin grins and nips at Lu¡¯s hand with bared fangs. Lu recoils in a bit of panic, and that¡¯s when Linti strikes, stealing a smooch on Luni¡¯s cheek at the corner of her lips.


    Linti laughs as she exclaims, ¡°Three me, zero you Lu, get your head in the game!¡±


    I flush with heat as I drop my draconic form. Just what kind of game were they playing? I¡¯m hesitant to ask. I think it¡¯s kind of like slaps, or slap fight, whatever that game is called. Red hand, hot hand, slapsies, chicken maybe. Ah, yeah, that makes sense, it¡¯s to make the other player flinch and then steal a kiss while they¡¯re distracted. That sounds incredibly fun, win or lose, but I¡¯d like to get around to saving the world now.


    I announce, ¡°Hey, um, hey guys. Lil brought Lucky, I don¡¯t even know how or why, I¡¯m not going to ask. But um, we know, or think we know, that Lucky is book two¡¯s owner, and we know Lil owns book one, and I own book five, so maybe uh, if Te takes takes book three or four, and Lu takes the other one, and Lin takes book six, we can maybe use them somehow?¡±


    Linti announces, ¡°I¡¯m down, a few minutes ago I thought the world was ending, so I was trying to steal another one of your girlfriends Shellcracker. Kidding, I kid, I kid. Mostly.¡±


    Luni blushes as she cups Linti¡¯s cheek and gives her a tight hug with her free arm. Luni drags me into a private telepathic communication to complain, ¡°I hate that she¡¯s so confident and cheeky and fun and pretty. Stupid gorgeous cat lady. Ugh, it¡¯s not fair.¡±


    My mental avatar raises an eyebrow towards Lu¡¯s and she blushes and plays a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight with my face, until both of our avatars are laughing and I¡¯ve caught her hands. We spent a few precious seconds in accelerated thinkspace holding hands, fingers interlocked.


    When we drop out of thinkspace, I watch as Teuila hauls off and punches Linti while laughing, then she scampers over to my left side to take my arm and snuggle against me as we walk towards the pedestals. Te blows a raspberry at Lin as we pass, and mouths, ¡°Fat chance.¡± Seemingly in response to Linti having hinted that she stole Teuila from me. Lin rubs the back of her head in chagrin, her joke having backfired.


    As we¡¯re about to pass, I swipe an arm around Linti¡¯s waist and drag her in for a hug so the three of us can walk together, and motion for Linti to grab Lu. The four of us walk with Lil and Lucky bouncing between our heads, as our arms are wrapped around one another¡¯s waists.


    This has to work, right? We¡¯re six people with magical telepathic bonds, and books that respond to some of us with our memories. Something has to happen, right?


    TQ awaits us in the pedestal room, they nod approvingly, but they¡¯re reserved. There¡¯s something they know that they¡¯re not telling me. They lean against a wall nonchalantly. That¡¯s not the pose of someone who is sure that six people are about to save the world.


    We set up all the books, except for the book Luni is carrying. We wait expectantly, each of us with bated breath.


    We get into position, and Lu announces, "I''m going to put the third one here, you''re going to see that nothing happens yet, and I''m going to take number four, and you can''t ask any questions."


    I look to TQ who just shrugs. I roll my eyes at TQ but I halfheartedly smile at Lu. I trust her. No questions asked. She''s right though, nothing happens when the final tome sits upon its pedestal. I try not to panic. I thought this was it. This had to be it. What did TQ say about souls? The five souls of origin, and the original soul? What does that mean? Somehow Lil is the original soul, the first. While I¡¯m pondering, Luni picks up the fourth book and begins walking away.


    I approach the third book and trace my index finger around its edges. I swear a voice in my mind slowly cries out two words, ¡°June, Selena.¡±


    Luni twists around from where she was walking away and snaps, ¡°Hey, hands off!¡±


    Blushing, I back away from the book as I gaze after the trio of gals. Luni escorts Teuila and Linti out of the temple with the fourth book. I don¡¯t know if they¡¯re going to the Lavaborn Alliance to continue setting up a settlement as if nothing is wrong, or what they¡¯re even up to now. Apparently Lu must have made them agree to something before I got back. They didn¡¯t even have to exchange words to know what to do.


    I cry out, ¡°Well what the crap!?¡±


    TQ chuckles behind me, and says, ¡°It¡¯s not yet over, there is much more to come. You¡¯ll be back when you understand. Well, when you understand what you¡¯re really up against, to some degree. Before that, of course, you have to convince the fifth soul, hm, fourth, fifth, something like that, the one that you don¡¯t have. I¡¯m surprised this time around you tried the cat woman again. I suppose I shouldn¡¯t be, she does seem to be one of your favorites.¡±


    Lil and I leave the temple of time together, with TQ waving fondly behind us. TQ said we¡¯d be back when we understood, after we¡¯d convinced the last of the five souls of origin. This time around? Does TQ have the ability to view all the failed timelines? Why didn¡¯t future me send those logs back? Oh, right. I don¡¯t trust myself. I only trust Luni with that information. I¡¯d act on it, and screw things up.


    There¡¯s a static hum in the air, a familiar electric charge, and the faintest hint of ozone that reaches even my anosmic nose. I suppose that means Linti is taking the gals somewhere. Actually, there¡¯s a cacophony of commotion echoing down the halls of the temple as we approach its top to exit it. I swear those are the sounds of a battle. A battle!?


    Lil and I begin rushing hurriedly towards the exit, to survey the chaos. There are members of the Black Fangs, and non members fighting side by side, they¡¯re facing, facing, they¡¯re, they¡¯re facing members of the Black Fangs? Wait, half of them, their eyes. No, no, no no no.


    I crumple to my knees as I hyperventilate, my mind spirals out of control. The red eyed entity. Day One. My vision tunnels as my pulse threatens to blow my eardrums. The painful ring of tinnitus tries to drown out even my thunderous pulse. I can feel something striking me, maybe nudging me, but I can¡¯t respond. Worse, my nightmares are new, they¡¯re not focused on me. The maws, all the dangerous creatures in the world, everything distorts to chew, stomp, burn, and destroy all those around me, and all those I love. Dehlia, Elder Sthenic, Lil, Lucky, and Szintoc are all nearby, and they¡¯re squashed underfoot as a massive titan crushes us all. It grinds us beneath its heel, its foot then opens into a toothy maw and it sucks us up to swallow our destroyed forms. Yet the world isn¡¯t finished with terror, it chews us up and spits us into a battle against dozens of hateful naga whose torsos open into toothy grins that chew down on us.


    It barely even needs to move and it finds Linti carrying Teuila and Luni away, it turns them to ash with a single breath. My ear canals are swollen in bursting pain. My eyes are bulging out of their sockets but I can only see the tiniest crack in the stonework where I lay crumpled on the ground, fetal.


    A scream of a familiar voice snaps me to my senses. A collar of molten stone lands around Dehlia¡¯s shoulders, I instinctively freeze the area, trying to save her from being melted through as it sizzles into her collarbone. Another glob of molten stone that had been aimed at her head freezes and slams into her face as solid pumice.


    Lil cries out, "No! Sexy snake buddy!" Dehlia tumbles down the temple steps, fritzing slightly. TQ checks her pulse and then shakes their head. My eyes go wide. I didn¡¯t even notice TQ had followed us. TQ looks solemn, somehow their expression hidden beneath the brim of their hat is saddened in some way that I can tell.


    I call out, "No, but, but she didn''t derez." I panic as I scramble down the steps towards Dehlia, Lil, and TQ.


    TQ responds, "Sorry, not dead, barely, but I don''t think she will wake any time soon, possibly ever. A coma I believe you call it."


    I honestly didn''t even think a critterkin could fall into a coma, with how our biology differs from humans with its semi digital nature, the videogame-ish healing. This is just too much. I have to put everything into hunting down Mat. He''s just getting stronger.


    For the moment though, it¡¯s utter chaos. Lluxop and Rastoc are fending off the hostile members of the Black Fangs. They¡¯re protecting innocent Nagas, scriveners and crafts-folk, and other non-mages. They¡¯re, oh no, that is a mass of lava, and they¡¯re so far away. The idiot took out his own forces. There¡¯s so much devastation, a third of the entire town is in smoldering ruins. Stonework continues to melt and spread its heat nearby. I, I need to do something. I have to save these people. The few that are left. Mataalii rings a bell, and takes something from the derezzing forms of Lluxop and Rastoc.


    Lil cries frantically for me, ¡°Reggie, Reggie I, I gotta help Dehl! Reggie, do something, please, anything!¡±


    Panting, gasping for air, I try to reclaim my senses. I rocket around the city extinguishing fires and solidifying molten stone. I try to soothe burns and set bandages, salves, and medical supplies near Nagas that are wounded but not quite derezzing, hoping that their healthier neighbors and friends can tend to them quickly.


    I gulp breath after breath as I frantically seek every last spot where I could possibly be of help. I cast my gaze about, searching for Mataalii but he¡¯s nowhere in sight. There are no more Black Fangs left, at all. Both the hostile, mind-altered fraction of its members who were under sway of Mataalii, and those that defended their home are all derezzed. Why was he ringing a bell? Was that some sort of come-hither call for his lava? Was he summoning what¡¯s left of his troops? Was he just trying to, I don¡¯t know, troll us? Wait, where are the chameleons under Lil¡¯s sub party? Why are there so few!?


    I clutch my chest and wail in agony. My mind is so torn in tatters that I drop my draconic reptilian form without thinking as I assume my most muscular, tallest form. I pound the pavement with my fists over and over, adding more and more force with every smash. I can feel my bones slowly shattering in my knuckles as I cause a larger and larger crater below me.


    All of a sudden, a scaled hand closes around one of my wrists, and another, and another joins the first, and on and on. Soon I¡¯m restrained by scaled hands. Oh no, oh no they¡¯re going to want to kill me, I¡¯m softskin in their midst. I don¡¯t want to hurt them. They¡¯re, wait. One coils down behind me and hugs me as others begin applying bandages to my fists, using some of the salve and bandages that I had personally handed out.


    I try to extend a tiny web of sparks to those around me, so that I can understand if they speak. There are murmurs, mostly of gratitude, thanks for my attempt. Some are saying they¡¯re lucky they didn¡¯t lose four champions in a single night. They recognize that Lil and I are a pair of the doubles sport champions? Oh wait, my soul is a dead giveaway as to who I am, so is my hair.


    Luni begins walking back into town from the north with Linti and Teuila, not hidden at all. Somehow her music sings out to the Nagas around me. I drop to my cherubic form as I sit with my knees huddled to my chest. The Nagas part, allowing Linti to scoop me up. The gals take me to the southeast corner of the temple, where Lil is fretting over Dehlia with Elder Sthenic. I suppose TQ told Lil where to head.


    I¡¯m lost inside my mind. What is even the point of struggling against inevitability when we¡¯re also suffering pointless losses to a spiteful once-brother? It¡¯s not like I can even track him down to put an end to his hatred once and for all. Wait. He had a bell, and he took something from the blessed of Quetzalcoatl. Maybe I can get some spell or something from one of the Nagas to be able to track one or the other.


    Yes, somehow, I¡¯m certain that that has to be the case. Something like that has to be available in this city of wonder. Not only that, I¡¯m certain that no one would begrudge me for borrowing it or using it up, to avenge their losses.


    Wait! Maybe I should send a message back to past me, to be outside to prevent this atrocity! I feel like I just saw one of the three gals shaking their head at me out of the corner of my eyes. Only Lu would respond to a thought like that. I have to trust Luni. I, I need to avenge the Nagas. I need to stop Mataalii before he finds the Fairies¡¯ settlement and destroys the Miracle Oak, along with our family and all the refugees. We won¡¯t even last to the end of the world if I don¡¯t take him out first.

 B 3 C 30: The Paradox Problem

    <h2>B 3 C 30: The Paradox Problem</h2>


    I manage to convince Lil to gather the rest of the Nagas into the molten section of town to help the survivors of the attack.  Also to get Lil to ask them to all join into a single party under Lil and Dehlia, for all of our safety and benefit, but also so that I can talk to them. I have to figure out who to ask for some kind of tracking spell.


    The corner of the temple is rocked by an explosion, and the loud sound of a mass of shifting stone fills our ears. It¡¯s followed by several more explosions from other corners of the town. Did Mat plant bombs to finish off anyone he missed?


    Luni shakes her head and mutters, ¡°Black Fangs.¡±


    Oh, that¡¯s ironic. They were planning a coup anyway. It¡¯s a good thing we rallied the survivors in the molten, reshaped section of town, there are no explosion sounds coming from there. Wow, it¡¯s almost as if, as if, huh. If Mat hadn¡¯t attacked, all of the non Black Fangs Nagas might be dead. That¡¯s, wow. My brain hurts to think about this. Is this why I still haven¡¯t sent back future messages yet? Do I need Mat to continue performing atrocities that happen to put the right people in the right places? That¡¯s so cold and ruthless. Should I just let Mat continue to run free? Is he playing into my future plans?


    Luni telepathically whispers, ¡°Stop guessing sweetie. You¡¯re getting too close. It¡¯s almost time, just not yet. Put that thought away please. I¡¯m begging you, hero. Please?¡±


    I frown and do as I¡¯m bidden. I trust Luni more than any fact or being in the universe. If she told me the sum of a pair of twos is never four, I¡¯d accept it. Okay, that might be stretching it a tiny bit.


    Sighing, since I¡¯m back to square one in terms of hunting down Mataalii, I ask Elder Sthenic about anyone that might know tracking magic. Barring that, I ask if he knows where a stash of magic items is in the city.


    Elder Sthenic replies, ¡°Come come now, isn¡¯t it more important to rejoin one another in love, and rebuild what we have? One can never have too much joy in their lives, especially in a time of sadness. Surely even a lost brother¡¯s atrocious acts can be momentarily forgotten, if not forgiven, to make the survivor¡¯s peace and happiness a certainty. No?¡±


    I grumble, ¡°Look, you don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about. He, he¡¯s going to end the world, he¡¯s going to kill everyone. He basically already has. I just, ugh, it¡¯s idiotic to even try to reason otherwise.¡±


    Elder Sthenic jokingly replies, ¡°Now, some might take offense to that, but not me, I¡¯m good natured and high spirited.¡±


    He¡¯s infuriatingly cheery. I don¡¯t know, maybe he¡¯s right. I guess it doesn¡¯t make sense to waste what time we have left hunting down Mat. I should spend it with my loved ones. Maybe I should JT all the way to the Lavaborn Alliance to at least share the news with everyone. I resolve that he¡¯s right, I shouldn¡¯t kill Mataalii.


    I feel time itself rip asunder as I implode, warping inside out as I¡¯m sucked through myself. Luni screams in pain and fear as she¡¯s separated horizontally in several pieces. Lil inverts into their core, and even their core is marked with a scar caused by Gae Buidhe. Teuila finds herself impaled on Gae Buidhe as it appears out of her inventory against her will. Elder Sthenic just sits, nodding approvingly, smiling all the while, but he ages to dust and derezzes. Dehlia sits up, places her hands on the cooled stone that had melted into her collarbone, She struggles to remove it, but it re-ignites, she derezzes the moment it melts into her clavicle towards her heart.


    I blink several times as I find myself finishing a sentence with, ¡°It¡¯s idiotic to even try to reason otherwise.¡±


    I glance around, something is fishy, I could swear I just lived through this, but there¡¯s no messages or logs. Elder Sthenic¡¯s collection of uncategorizable books sits in organized piles, but one table is cleared off for Dehlia¡¯s unconscious body. The ring of molten stone dug into her collarbone before I got a chance to freeze it, I don¡¯t know how to safely remove it. I suppose I could try to carefully melt bits of it away.


    Elder Sthenic jokingly replies to my mention of idiocy, ¡°Now some might take offense to that, but not me,¡±


    I interrupt, ¡°Let me guess, because you¡¯re good natured and high spirited?¡±


    Elder Sthenic asks, ¡°Well I surely am, how did you know?¡±


    I¡¯m not certain how to respond other than, ¡°Lucky guess.¡±


    He is good natured though. He doesn¡¯t deserve the type of world that¡¯s going to end soon because of Mat, but it¡¯s too late. Even if Mataalii didn¡¯t do it, someone or something would have woken the God Beast eventually. I thought Octorochi qualified as a God Beast so long ago, wow. How wrong was I? Yeah, it¡¯s too late. First I¡¯ll try to help Dehlia, not just for Lil, but because Dehlia and Dehlia both were integral to our life so far. They became a paragon of their society. After that, I should just enjoy my time with my family, what little I have left.


    Every atom of my being explodes and shreds existence into a trillion trillion tiny universes that all branch out to one another, crisscross, expand, and then collapse. I witness billions of universes and timelines, times I¡¯ve died along the journey to the now, times when I¡¯ve lost people I care about, or who are important to the upcoming goal that I still don¡¯t understand. I see a shining beacon, it seems to reach slightly further along the web than the rest. At its end I find TQ standing in empty space.


    TQ shouts, somehow barely audible against a deafening silence that permeates the nothingness of this between-universes space, ¡°Stop fighting fate! You¡¯re going to rip the world asunder yourself!¡±


    I blink several times as I find myself finishing a sentence with, ¡°It¡¯s idiotic to even try to reason otherwise.¡±


    Elder Sthenic jokes, ¡°Now some might take offense to that, but not me,¡±


    I interrupt, ¡°Let me guess, because you¡¯re good natured and high spirited?¡±


    Elder Sthenic queries, ¡°Well I surely am, how did you know?¡±


    I sneer, ¡°I¡¯m from the future.¡±


    It¡¯s finally time to hunt down Mataalii. I¡¯m not sure what convinced me, especially when Elder Sthenic was trying to be so helpful and hopeful, but it¡¯s definitely time. Hm, Dehlia looks pretty badly off though. I can spare a few seconds to help her. She and her brother are sweethearts of Lil¡¯s after all. They had also become paragons in their society. Naga society might need them to continue on. If we can somehow turn around the end of the world.


    I carefully begin melting stone away from her drop by drop. The ring of stone sunk into Dehlia¡¯s collarbone, so I have to carefully siphon each droplet of molten stone away. I keep her scales, muscles, and organs chilled against the stone so that only it drips away as I superheat it.


    I risk sending an exploratory spark coursing along her neck into her brain to sense its activity. It¡¯s eerily quiet. Especially for someone with two souls. There¡¯s almost no brain activity. The only things I can sense firing are automatic responses. The faintest flicker tells me their subconscious is active, somewhere buried deep. Parts of her brain are bruised. It¡¯s weird to think about, a being that isn¡¯t ¡®of blood¡¯ having bruises. I thought bruises were like, blood flowing to an area that¡¯s damaged or something, or maybe blood under an area showing up as the vessels break, something like that.


    Mat did this. Mat took another life precious to me, precious to Lil. I¡¯m going to kill him. I might not have loved Dehlia in whatever way Lil was developing feelings for them, but I do love the people that join my extended family. Moreover, I love Lil and want their happiness almost as much as anything else that I might want in the entire world.


    I gaze around, most of those that I hold the most dear are here. Lil, My-Heart. My oldest, original, and for the longest time, only friend. We¡¯d been through so much together. I brought myself to near-death trying to prevent theirs. That action introduced us to Dehlia, Dehlia would be a new Octorochi by now if it weren¡¯t for that crazy coincidence with a copy of Gae Buidhe that Mataalii somehow stole. Instead, here she lay, dormant, possibly forever. Similar to how Lil was stuck in their core when my attempts to save them failed. Mat was the cause of that whole mess. Including when Lil was somewhat corrupted. Lil was struck by a falling star because of where they had sullenly slunk off to sulk. How ridiculous of a coincidence is that? Wait, magnetic material that impacted at high speeds? The impact struck someone who had memories of Dehlia. Could that possibly help?


    I draw the Starmetal Luckstone from my inventory and place it to Dehlia¡¯s temple. I send more electric sparks probing into her mind. There¡¯s the tiniest fraction of a percent more activity, but that activity is a trickle that grows. Even if it¡¯s a miniscule amount, it grows by the moment. It might take weeks, months, years, but I think she¡¯ll recover. I fashion a headband and weave it through Dehlia¡¯s luxurious locks, the ones that aren¡¯t burned away due to the lava that fell about her. The headband sheathes the Starmetal Luckstone against her head.


    Everyone looks at me like I¡¯m crazy. I huff and shake my head as I say, ¡°Her brain activity is progressing now. It wasn¡¯t before. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s magic, electromagnetism, her own psychic talents leaching out the psychic energy stored in the stone, or what, but that stone conked Lil hard in the noggin a long time ago. Lil snapped out of a bad mental state. I figured, worth a shot, right? It seems to be working. But it¡¯s too slow to know how long it will take. Weeks, months, years. I don¡¯t know.¡±


    The gathered look about at one another with a mix of excitement and solemnity. There¡¯s hope, that¡¯s the important thing. Somehow, things around me fall into place to give us hope. That¡¯s probably all thanks to Luni¡¯s incredible efforts. I was in the middle of thinking about each of my loved ones in turn. There is of course Luni, My-Anchor. This beautiful being, a soul whose strength is beyond measure, has fought time itself, and her own love for us. She¡¯s done this all to make sure we don¡¯t stray from some necessary path. I want to stare into her eyes and melt away, and forget the pain of this doomed world, but I can¡¯t. I have to avenge the Nagas, I have to prevent Mataalii from killing more of our friends and loved ones.


    There¡¯s Lucky, Lao¡¯s hunter hound, the lovable pup hated me at first, or seemed to. It¡¯s like he wanted me to stay in an exact location at all times. Almost as if, huh. Almost as if he were afraid I was going to go away, like he would lose me. As if he¡¯d somehow lost me once before. That¡¯s, that¡¯s crazy though, right? It must have just been Lao subconsciously wanting me to stick around, to prevent me from getting injured and adventuring dangerously. Surely. Right?


    There¡¯s Linti, I haven¡¯t even come up with a nickname for my Lightning Hunter. She¡¯s the first woman in my living timeline that I felt comfortable returning more intimate affection with. I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d ever share a kiss in that fashion. Let alone with someone who wasn¡¯t already part of my inner circle. It was surprising, and it was only because of Fawn¡¯s attempts at helping me relax that I was able to reciprocate. Otherwise I¡¯d have been mortified and reacted more harshly. The confluence of events that led to us being together is beyond crazy. Those events also led to Linti joining the family, and slowly falling for the rest of my inner circle, most of them, well. The myriad actions that had to take place in sequence are seemingly incalculable. All the things that needed to fall into place just baffle me. There are all the times I had to have impressed her. Or times that I came up with ideas of combinations of powers to not kill her, while not seeming to hold back. The training we shared together which allowed us to surpass our limits. The fun we had while doing it. Was all that plotted by some future version of me?


    Teuila, My-Wings, the one I love above all others, from deepest depths to highest heights. It may be because she¡¯s the first woman I realized I could have strong feelings for, and that I nurtured them the longest. It could be because she tended to me when I was dying and near dead,as long as she did. It could be because she¡¯s beautiful and strong and audacious and a complex individual whose depths she had left unexplored for the longest time, until she shared them with me. There are so many reasons that she holds the largest piece of my near-infinite heart.


    Everyone except Luni seems to have taken Dehlia to a more comfortable location while I was lost in my reverie.


    Luni huffs nearby. She telepathically sends angry vibes my way, ¡°I hate this, I hate, hate, urgh, hate, hate th, hate. You. You¡¯re just so, argh. Three times. Every time. But I promised.¡±


    Stunned, I barely manage to reply, ¡°You, you hate me?¡±


    Luni frustratedly rants, ¡°No! Yes! No, I don¡¯t know, maybe a little. No. Ugh, just go on your stupid vengeance quest. It¡¯s always you, always only you. Only you can do this hero, you, you alone have to make the choice and do the deed that you think is right. You can¡¯t wait for a message from yourself in the future, if there are any, you have to ignore them. You are completely, and utterly alone in this. I¡¯ll be leaving the family for a while, so I can¡¯t anchor you or back up your choice. You have to live with the consequences. I have one thing to do while you¡¯re out there. Whatever you do, don¡¯t use that stupid spear.¡±


    Luni stops responding to me, or any attempt I make. She stands sullenly next to me though, unmoving. Apparently waiting for me to leave.


    Tears flood my eyes but I just stand there next to her. I suddenly have a thought, ¡°Why did Mat have that bell?¡± I check my logs as I stand next to Luni. I¡¯m searching for any excuse to be distracted, but I¡¯m also hoping to absolve myself with some memory. To somehow buy her forgiveness in the past or future by finding any shred of memory that might aid me now. I feel time itself fracture. In one timeline, a future me tells me not to kill my own brother, but there are no logs here. I retreat into my own mindscape for quite some time, trying to make this decision. I know it has to be done. My-Anchor won¡¯t give me a straight answer on the right path here. I play her last words to me over and over in my mind while I¡¯m in my solo accelerated thinkspace.


    ¡°Only you can do this hero, you, you alone have to make the choice and do the deed that you think is right. You can¡¯t wait for a message from yourself in the future, if there are any, you have to ignore them. You are completely, and utterly alone in this. I¡¯ll be leaving the family for a while, so I can¡¯t anchor you or back up your choice. You have to live with the consequences. I have one thing to do while you¡¯re out there. Whatever you do, don¡¯t use that stupid spear.¡±


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Luni knew I was thinking of just waiting until the next time I saw Mat, and scratching him with Gae Buidhe. I¡¯d have done that so that he¡¯d derez on his own at some point, so that I wouldn¡¯t have to bear it on my conscience as heavily.


    The way she was talking to me cut so deeply. It hurt so much, all I¡¯ve wanted to do ever since she shut herself off to me, when we last parted, was to mend the hurt between us. I was worried there was some hurt festering, but she seemed like she¡¯d forgiven me. But now she doesn¡¯t even want to talk to me anymore. Worse, she wants to leave the family. I, I can¡¯t handle reality right now. I feel as if I¡¯ll break down in endless tears and never do what needs to be done.


    I falter, and I give in, retreating from reality. I weep for ages in an accelerated private thinkspace. When I come to, I¡¯ve moved only slightly, and Luni is nowhere to be found.


    Right, I need to buck up, or whatever the phrase is. It¡¯s time to puzzle out how to stop Mat. I sniffle and rub my tears and snot away on my forearm. Mat¡¯s got one of the danger wraps, so he¡¯s hard to hit with anything from range, and I can¡¯t get close to him without triggering a brain feedback loop. Wait, the danger wrap is why he teleports away every time I¡¯m just about to unleash on him. Somehow he also gets feedback of my hostile intent, but I think even more specifically, the type of power I¡¯m trying to call down on him.


    I haven¡¯t used lightning on him directly, and I definitely haven¡¯t used breath on him directly. If I can breathe frost on him, I might be able to get close enough to jab him with lightning, or something.


    For now, we have to find him. I think I have an idea on who can help me with that. I check my party interface, hoping he¡¯s still alive. Good. Hang in there Szintoc. Things might look bleak, but I need you.


    I seek out Szintoc in town, he¡¯s using special variations on toxin magic to help soothe the aches of his fellow Nagas. That¡¯s more versatile than I thought. I suppose anything is toxic in a large enough dosage. So he could make an anesthetic and then dilute it, like he¡¯s doing. If he had managed to slam a thick wall of topical numbing anesthetic into me or Lil or both of us, I might have lost that match if I couldn¡¯t feel my limbs. Or I¡¯d have had to give away some of my powers that I was keeping in secret, by trying to score the goals with magic.


    I kind of thought he was a bit of a lunkhead, he seemed so obsessed with the game, and he and Brastley were a little ruthless, but I guess the sport is just so important to him and others in Naga society. Any calling is important, and treated with respect. That¡¯s what the whole chit system reinforces. Anyone can become the best in their field and be recognized. I bet if you develop a whole new field, you¡¯re automatically its first master, and are bestowed a chit. Those marks of importance drive the innovation and passion of the society. A society that is now crumbling, in shambles, around me.


    But Szintoc and Brastley surprised me more than just opening my eyes to their culture, they also surprised me by being tender, loving, strong men. They blubbered tearful compassionate goodbyes in a tight embrace. I don¡¯t want to prey on Szintoc¡¯s tenderness and compassion, but I also don¡¯t want to leave him with fury, nor false hope. I don¡¯t know the best way to approach this.


    Heaving a sigh, I knock on a collapsed stone wall near where Szintoc is diluting more toxin that he¡¯s producing from magic. He turns to see me, and even though I¡¯m in my softskin form, recognition dawns on his face as a half-smile plays across his lips. He gives me a quick once-over, looking for wounds, then raises an eyebrow when he notices I¡¯m unharmed.


    I clear my throat, ¡°I um, I couldn¡¯t talk before when we weren¡¯t in a party. I can talk and understand folk that are in my party. It¡¯s, it¡¯s a whole thing. Long story. Hi Szintoc. I¡¯d like to beg you for a favor, but I also don¡¯t want to interrupt you. What you¡¯re doing seems important to the recovery effort. What I want to do is hateful, vengeful. I want to avenge the fallen and strike down the man responsible for this mess.¡±


    Szintoc raises a fist to his chin as he ponders, ¡°Strong feelings and strong words friend. After seeing your champion match, and what¡¯s more, hearing what happened after it, I imagine you might possibly be able to do what you wish. How do I play into that?¡±


    I respond, ¡°I was trying to figure out a way to either track the bell, or whatever he took from the twins blessed by Quetzalcoatl. Or, barring that, tracking his aura. Do you have a way of contacting Brastley? Do any of the other Nagas still here specialize in wind? I can¡¯t personally see aura trails, or auras at all. I was wondering if, if the wind could maybe somehow smell an aura trail, even if it leaves and picks up a ways away, when someone teleports. If someone could talk to the wind, they could tell me which direction that the aura trail reappears in, and I could take it from there.¡±


    Szintoc¡¯s lower jaw juts out and he chews his lower lip as he hems and haws, ¡°Hm, I think I could possibly go a step further. It might hurt though. I¡¯m not sure if it would be permanent, or if you¡¯d sleep it off. I know you¡¯re ¡®of blood.¡¯¡±


    Szintoc pauses, so I prompt, ¡°Please, go on?¡±


    Szintoc says, ¡°I could scar your eyes with a toxin that makes auras blindingly brilliant. You¡¯d be able to pick them up from miles away, but, well, your vision would be difficult to sort out. Unlike someone with natural aura senses, yours would be constantly overwhelmed, and you couldn¡¯t turn it down. The rest of us don¡¯t always keep our aura vision at its highest levels, that would be silly, but you wouldn¡¯t be able to adjust yours at all. It will be a constant state of hyper-aura-awareness until it wears off. If it wears off.¡±


    I whistle appreciatively, ¡°Phewwww, that, that might be exactly what I need. Is there any chance that you can bottle some of that toxin for me, in case it wears off?¡±


    Szintoc frowns, ¡°Only if you promise not to double up dosage. I don¡¯t want to be responsible for blinding you. Brastley has mentioned how fond he is of your little pack, in what few messages he can manage the mana to send all the way back. He has been bonding with some human woman to help bridge the divide between the humans and the ¡®rezzers.¡±


    I question, ¡°Rezzers?¡±


    Szintoc answers, ¡°Those that derezz, rather than being ¡®of blood.¡¯¡±


    Oh, right, that makes sense. Although, I know there are some sort of critterkin that are also ¡®of blood.¡¯ Then there¡¯s also the Fairies who are like humans, in that I can talk to them, but they also have the mental interfaces and aura and soul sight and all of that. I don¡¯t know if all of the Fairies are ¡®of blood¡¯ or ¡®rezzers, one or the other or a mix of both.


    I chew on my own lip as I ponder how to answer truthfully. I might very well double up on the dosage if it gives me an edge in the fight against Mat. If I can maybe see where his aura will appear as he¡¯s teleporting, with my lightning enhanced reflexes, I might be able to head him off. His teleportation might no longer be able to get him away at all, in fact, it might send him straight into my waiting grasp.


    I express as best I¡¯m able, ¡°I don¡¯t want to break your trust. I think I¡¯m facing a foe where being blind to everything but the brilliance of aura is perfectly fine. I actually have practice being blind. There are a lot of things that have happened in my life, and I was blind for, hm, several months overall I think. I can prove it to you if you¡¯d like, but I¡¯m not sure either of us want to waste that kind of time.¡±


    Szintoc frowns, but relents, ¡°Alright, alright newbie champion. Actually, I guess it¡¯s just champion now. I suppose I should show you a bit more respect, my apologies. I¡¯ll fill a few vials. Just, don¡¯t go getting yourself killed. A few of us look up to you, and this is a terrible mess. There were explosions a bit ago, we can use every last bit of hope and inspiration available.¡±


    I rapidly transform via tethers up and down my evolutionary chain as I wave off the attempts to pay me more respect, ¡°It¡¯s, it¡¯s okay. I¡¯m just, I mean, look at this? Cherubic, tiny, the image of myself I have in my mind most of the time. This here? Draconic me, was almost entirely so I could talk to you guys. This one, tall, muscularly armed, femme? This one is to cuddle with my Lightning Hunter. But really, this small cherubic version. This is how I feel about myself. I¡¯m not someone or something to look up to. I¡¯m just some weird little creature stumbling through the dark, trying not to make too many mistakes.¡±


    Szintoc laughs and interrupts, ¡°Aren¡¯t we all? Thank you, thank you for serpentizing yourself for me. It¡¯s good to know our heroes and champions are people too. All the more reason to appreciate them while we have them. Here, take these with my blessing, and I wish you luck.¡±


    I wince as Szintoc hints at calling me a hero, but I accept it as part of the term champions. I gratefully accept the toxin, and he shows me how to apply the first dosage, and how much to reapply if it wears off. He¡¯s right, now I basically see only auras. Solid objects are still within my depth perception, but I can see how this might be used in combat to disorient an opponent who wasn¡¯t used to being blind. I grin wickedly. This is exactly what I need. I gaze skyward for the last place I recall seeing Mataalii. Sure enough, there¡¯s a nebulous swirl of blue and red and radiance. Radiance is corrupted, but it¡¯s all over his watery soul. The red must be the additions from the Fire Biome, his lava powers and so on.


    I resume draconic form and take to the skies. Sure enough, now that I know what to look for, I can see spots of his aura, and which are fresher. His teleportation radius isn¡¯t that large after all, and it seems like after a bit of teleporting, he has to fly to recover mana. He can¡¯t do more than say three of them without resting. Well, he may have a cap of three, unless he knows he¡¯s being followed, and is trying to make me underestimate him. Let¡¯s assume he always saves one or two teleportations worth of mana in case of getting blindsided. No reason to underestimate him.


    Regardless, it seems he was last headed north. Perfect. Mataalii, you¡¯re so dead. Still, I need to plan, plan with a contingency, and then throw all the plans out the window on first contact. Pretty much how I handle everything else, right?


    I wonder if he¡¯ll be able to dodge a sonic sphere on a collision course. I should make sure to enter the fight at full mana though. I have no idea what his current powers or limitations are.


    My reflexes are over two percent faster than normal when being enhanced by internalized lightning now. My electrokinesis is steadily rising. Maybe I should take the easy flight after him, and continue to practice my electrokinesis and breath skills a bit more along the way.


    He seems nimble, quick in the sky, but nowhere near as fast as say Valkyrie, Linti, or my top speed. I should be able to catch up just by doing my normal safe JT maxima.


    I let myself fly a bit slower than I should. I¡¯ve been practicing all the while, and we¡¯re nearing the cliff¡¯s edge that leads to Fire Biome. Mataalii is dead ahead. His aura trail has been gliding for a while without teleportation, so he¡¯s likely full on mana as well. I wonder if he knows he¡¯s being followed at this point.


    I don¡¯t know if he has some sort of base somewhere with creatures that are under his sway. If he has things like Vesuviform stashed somewhere, or worse, the roc or the phoenix, I should probably stop futzing around and take him out before he can reach them.


    Alright, we¡¯d better just take him out, we¡¯re not allowed to use Gae Buidhe but a Valkyrie dagger to the heart should still do it. He blinked away as I thought about firing on him. He teleports, in a way where he seems to react to hostile intent by me specifically. I know that some items can sense hostile intent. Whether he has a power that mirrors that sense, or an item, I don¡¯t know. He is wearing a cloak, but it isn¡¯t doubling my vision of him. Let¡¯s not give away just yet that we can see his aura.


    I¡¯m making a big showing of looking around, and honestly it¡¯s good to do because he¡¯s leaving splotches of aura all over the sky as he flits around. I¡¯m already having trouble distinguishing which aura spot is more fresh. I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s because I¡¯m not used to the sense, or if the toxin is wearing off.


    Alright, don¡¯t think, just shoot. I fire towards Mataalii somewhat blindly, not consciously thinking about doing it. He barrel rolls to the right while tossing a glob of lava from nowhere leftwards behind him. The lava slows my Umbral Shot valkyrie dagger, letting him make a clean break without even getting close to scratching him.


    Mataalii fires a spiky ball of lava towards me. I¡¯m not sure if he thinks I''m an idiot, or what. I¡¯m not going to cool it and just let it impale me. So, I dodge vertically, soaring upwards with JT propulsion magic. Mat closes the gap, to capitalize on danger wrap sensory overload. Ah, I can tell he¡¯s trying to swing the spiky lava glob into my back while we both clutch our heads.


    Thankfully, I¡¯m currently a dragon. Or well, I¡¯m draconic anyway. If he¡¯s in range to overload my senses, he¡¯s in range of my breath. I try to breathe fire towards Mat, he backs off momentarily, enough that I don¡¯t have to keep clutching my head in pain.


    The spiked lava ball closes within range for my danger wrap sense to warn me of it. I spin counterclockwise and freeze it as it passes me on a collision course with Mataalii. It loses its aerial velocity though and he doesn¡¯t even need to dodge it.


    My breath attack range isn¡¯t quite enough to get close, and he seems to be able to handle the edges of our sensory overload better than me. I could risk unequipping my danger wrap to get closer. He¡¯ll have the advantage over me. I try to picture myself jetting towards him with a dagger held out, and he teleports away again, but my aura vision is wearing off.


    I glance about, heading the direction I¡¯m fairly certain Mataalii is in. I feel the danger wrap overload, so I try to unequip my own wrap. Whew, less sensory overload, and my normal vision is mostly back. There¡¯s a copy of gae buidhe that appears as if from nowhere, too close to my heart to block, parry, or dodge it, so my left hand comes up and shoves it away by the point. I receive a long gash up my palm and vertically along my wrist for my effort as I claim this copy of Gae Buidhe to my inventory. How did this rat have another copy? Grr, I¡¯m sure there were a few that were left laying around near him at times. When they were unattended, he could have sent one or more into the future as they were despawning from transformation changes.


    I remember when I first learned what this spear is. The very first night Teuila ever transformed into Valkyrie. Te guessed that one might be able to stop the endless wound if we cut the wound out, and let our weird regeneration handle rebuilding the larger wound, or lost limb. That¡¯s also how we tried to save Lil. I don¡¯t even hesitate as I use an Umbral Shot copy of a Valkyrie dagger to chop off my own left hand at the mid forearm. I seal the wound with a Frozen Frost Shielding spell centered on the stump. The buckler on my left arm barely stays on, because my frozen stump is slick in one of its harness loops. The other loop is secure, but now the shield wobbles as I try to maneuver it. It won¡¯t be very useful like this.


    Urgh, Mat capitalized on my distraction. There¡¯s a massive pool of lava coming down. He knows it doesn¡¯t really hamper me, it¡¯s more of an annoyance as I cool it into a bowl. Breaking out I could do with physical violence, or claiming a section of it with inventory space magic. My aura senses wear off, that¡¯s going to make wrapping up this fight difficult. I¡¯m not sure where Mat is, so I¡¯d better reapply the toxin to my eyes. I need to go with a double dose. I need every edge I can get.


    I re-equip the danger wrap, not wanting to risk another spear incident. Now that I can see where Mat is, and also fluctuations in the air around us as aura begins to take shape from our will and movements, I¡¯m certain I have him. I risk getting in sensory overload range, and exhale a massive blast of frost. Now I¡¯ve managed to slow Mat down slightly, all I need is to deliver a decisive strike. Dangit, the active thought caused him to teleport away again.


    I catch up after recovering. I can¡¯t get close, I can¡¯t land a ranged hit with US, or thermokinesis. Okay, let¡¯s try to unequip the danger wrap again. Maybe if I shut my mind off and fight him with my FBF style, he might just slip up and take enough hits to slow down too much for the danger wrap to keep him safe. I know I¡¯ve taken plenty of hits when I couldn¡¯t react as fast as it wanted me to. As Mataalii reappears, we trade attacks with my Valkyrie longsword, and a blade he wields made of pure lava. I get disarmed due to the lava being able to simply flow around my sword like a liquid, then it twists sideways, spinning my sword out of my hand as the lava becomes dense as stone. I try to land SIPs. A right jab, he counters with his left palm full of lava. Another right jab, he pivots counterclockwise letting my arm swing past. I use flight to twist my momentum into a right hook, catching him along his left shoulder, freezing it slightly.


    Mat lets out a soft ¡°Tch¡± sound. I can¡¯t vary my attacks too much since I¡¯m currently missing a limb. But Mat grabs my face with his right hand and begins flooding conjured lava around my cranium. I grin, as I intentionally freeze water from my inventory where the lava is going to be, I conjure the thinnest Umbral Shot layer of stone around my face, and then hyper-ignite the water I¡¯d frozen, causing a steam explosion that shreds Mat¡¯s hand. While he¡¯s reeling, I just need to stab once. Mat begins to teleport away, but I can see where it will be.


    I JT to his teleportation arrival location with maximum velocity, breaking my own legs. I equip danger wraps to cause sensory overload while breathing lightning where Mat will be. Lightning only singes him, but inside the attack I hid several timebomb sparks that are working their way inside him. We¡¯re both clutching our heads and plummeting out of the air because of how much closer we are than we had previously been when our danger wrap senses engaged each other.


    I would try to claim his danger wrap, but I need him incapacitated so that he can¡¯t figure a way out of the attack going off inside of him. I need to make sure he can¡¯t teleport away somewhere to hide and recover.


    There¡¯s a beautiful vibrant azure aura on a fast approach from the south. Is that, but how? How is Luni here? Why is she here? She¡¯s on a collision course, Luni no! Please, please open your mental wavelength! I¡¯m begging you, please! Mat¡¯s going to explode!

 B 3 C 31: Finally Over. Or Not?

    <h2>B 3 C 31: Finally Over. Or Not?</h2>


    Wait, she¡¯s grabbing him with the tendrils and dragging him to the ground as she falls. That works too, I guess? They fall beneath the canopy at the edge of the cliff, but I can tell that Luni is pulling out the phoenix feather on the way down. Mataalii is already exploding internally, he¡¯s beginning to derez. One of Lu¡¯s hands holds the last phoenix feather we may ever receive, and the other holds what must be the fourth tome.


    Something small and silver drops out of Mat¡¯s hand into a tiny patch of lava that he seems to be conjuring as a last-ditch effort. Was that the bell he was using to taunt us? Is that silver thing a bell, or the censer to summon sylphie? Or maybe both? My overstimulated aura vision isn''t letting me make out objects that well.


    I glide below the treeline to gaze down at this frankly ridiculous happenstance. This can¡¯t be real. She told me to make the choice, to live with the consequences, to go on my vengeance quest. I did it, I killed him, and here she is, bringing him back to life. He might not have been able to be found or revived if I had struck him with Gae Buidhe. I gaze at my own bloody left stump, where my hand should be. He gets to take me down, nearly inflicting a fatal blow with a miniscule scratch, but if I do the same, she¡¯ll hate me forever.


    This doesn¡¯t seem right, or fair. This can¡¯t be real, can it? I hover in place near the canopy, gazing down to Luni at the ground. She begins to pick up Mataalii, roughly squeezing him in the tendrils, keeping one wrapped around his head, with the book squeezed over his face. She isn¡¯t exactly treating him tenderly, but she¡¯s beginning to walk away with him.


    She shoots me a glare. I can¡¯t see her eyes since I blinded myself with a double dose of aura toxin. But her aura is full of anger and hatred, as well as pain and loss, but there¡¯s love behind it all. I can¡¯t even be certain who the anger and hatred is for. Current me? Future me for giving her this task? Mataalii? Her stare defiantly says, ¡°Try to come after me, prove you no longer trust me.¡± Her speed picks up, and she heads off to the west, away from all of our loved ones and family.


    But I do trust her. I trust her, and she¡¯s leaving with Matalii. At least there¡¯s a book slammed around his face. But I can¡¯t shake this feeling of having been betrayed.


    This is why she¡¯s leaving the family? To be with Mataalii in the end days? I allow myself to drop out of the sky without bothering to break my own fall as I crash into the ground. I hear a sickening crunch as several bones fracture, snap, and break. Luni, my beloved Lu, My-Anchor. No longer willing to anchor me, leaving me with only commands and pleas of what not to do, she¡¯s gone. I may never see her again as the world ends. I know she¡¯s one of the six souls, but if she has betrayed us, or given up on us, we¡¯re doomed.


    Maybe the latest version of future-me simply wanted Luni to be happy in the end? Maybe that¡¯s all this was for. Knowing I had hurt her, I devised a timeline where she ended up with Mataalii to, I don¡¯t know, provide his salvation. Do they just reconcile to forgive one another in their last days? Do they fall in love because of this? Lu in the past would have said the mere idea is gross, since they lived like brother and sister. Also because she thought Mat was a bit of a butt, or jerk, or a really big butt, depending on the day. But we know that no pair of critterkin are actually biologically related. I still don¡¯t have clarification if twins hatch from one egg or two when they spawn. They would be the closest to actually being biologically related, but if it¡¯s two eggs, then even twins aren¡¯t actual siblings.


    Ugh, my distractibility is always so strange. Should I have followed Luni? Her gaze spoke volumes that I wasn¡¯t supposed to. She went west, away from everyone else. What is even over there? A beach that I personally glassed, the crew of the Undine, and oh, some otters. One of those otters might be Penina. Okay. Yeah. That¡¯s fine. The world can end. I know how important Penny was to Lu. Maybe to Mat as well. If they can be reunited before the end, I guess I can just give in now. No reason to bother worrying anymore. I can just lay here and cry until doom takes me.


    Still, I should try to see what was left behind by Mataalii and Luni. Hm, where was that patch of lava? There it is, it¡¯s still melting something. If there was a bell, it¡¯s completely melted, but the censer is still partially intact. I claim it to my inventory, pondering over its possible usability in its current state. How did Mataalii get his hands on the censer? What would he have used it for? Has Luni been working with him this entire time? Did she give it to him a long time ago? Or did he send it to his future self, sometime when she had it out? She might have been contemplating whether or not to try resummoning Sylphie, to see what her reincarnation would be like. I don¡¯t know any more. I don¡¯t even know if I care any more. Maybe Luni will get to see Penina one last time at least. Penny was so important to Lu. We didn¡¯t talk about it much in meatspace, but theirs were many of the memories that Luni liked to share in the accelerated time of think-space. I¡¯m just going to lay here, and cry until the world ends, or my hand regenerates, whichever comes first.


    The world trembles, and the air temperature rises significantly. Really!? That soon!? I wasn¡¯t serious! Let me cry in peace, you stupid fire deity! If I could give this thing a piece of my mind I wou, wait. I can. I learned how to view creatures¡¯ brains and talk to them with the tiniest spark. I just need to find a piece of this Fire God¡¯s body near enough to its head that my mana and spell range can send a spark into it. Can I just politely ask it to go back to sleep? Order it? Trick it?


    I guess I can try it in that order. Maybe reverse the last two. Still, getting to its head before it surfaces is going to be a challenge. I remember where it was located. I could try blasting my way through solid stone in the cliff face for miles and miles, or I could follow a lava vein most of the way down. That would mean swimming in lava, holding my breath for nearly half of an hour, without cooling the lava down at all. If I cool it, it will harden. At minimum, that will slow my speed, more likely, I¡¯ll trap myself in a pocket of stone.


    If I need a break, I can claim the lava around me to my inventory while cooling the lava that inevitably falls atop me to replace it. If only I could bottle air.


    Wait, I can. I mold clay, mud, and stone into a sphere in my inventory, but I leave a small hole in it. I summon an Umbral duplicate of the sphere in front of me, claim it to my inventory, wait out its five minute timer, and bring it back into meatspace. Let¡¯s see if this works, shall we? I place my hand near the hole, and begin using my FFS to pack more and more air molecules into the sphere, as much air as I can muster, making sure to bring in the various oxygen atoms, nitrogen atoms, hydrogen atoms, and other impurities that make air breathable. When the inside of the sphere feels suitably compressed with breathable air, I plaster clay over the air hole, and fire-harden the clay.


    I finally have bottled air. After so many times almost drowning, I can finally save myself, and others. I¡¯m tempted to go back and teach myself to do this, to save our family from the Night of High Water, or to save Sylphie at the dam. Oh Sylphie, you shouldn¡¯t have died for my hubris. My need to save others. My guilt. I find myself mentally breaking down, remembering the events of the dam. No, no I don¡¯t have time for this, please. The world itself is at stake.


    I can¡¯t help it, my breathing becomes shallow hiccups as I rapidly gasp them, barely letting any oxygen into my system. My pulse pounds, sending a vibration rocketing through my body that culminates in a screaming pressure in my temples. My vision tunnels as it floods with nightmare imagery of the Mind Blower, its tentacled face stretching open around my skull. My guilt and fear driving me to save the ungrateful Mind Controlled Faction of beavers, instead of simply escaping with Sylphie.


    Oh, I¡¯m somehow semi rational as Reggie there continues to panic. Am I out of body again? I couldn¡¯t have taught earlier-me to bottle oxygen to any useful degree. I didn¡¯t have the manipulation of umbral energy way back then. I didn¡¯t have the space skill required to duplicate objects long enough to claim them as permanent duplicates. I didn¡¯t have thermokinesis which is needed in order to draw in and pack the air molecules.


    Oh, also, teaching myself any one of those things earlier than I learned them, I might not have been able to create Lucky with Luni. Wow, yeah, the Fire Biome trip would have gone a lot different if I had been practicing thermokinesis for ages beforehand, or even umbral duplication. I might not have even used the time skill, or ever sent Luni to make sure the time skill is diverted to me, or whatever. If I had umbral energy manipulation before the Fire Biome trip, I probably wouldn¡¯t have let Teuila or Lil use radiant forms, and they wouldn¡¯t have had their near-death experiences in the cragbeast warren. I wouldn¡¯t have had those two days with Luni as My-Anchor. I wouldn¡¯t have fallen so much more in love with Lu or learned to trust her even more than I already did. Lucky wouldn¡¯t have been born from siphoned off radiant-umbral corrupted energies that mingled between Lil, Teuila, and myself.


    Lucky has to have been born, Lucky is part of a key to all of this, to the books. They¡¯re somehow necessary, and their owners must be able to access them, together, at some point. No wonder future me said Lucky must survive. It wasn¡¯t just about getting us out of that lava tunnel. Lucky needs to be around until the end. Oh, hey, look. Reggie stopped panicking. Wait, Reggie, how are you getting up without me piloting you? Hey, poot for brains, where are you going? The lava vein that leads towards the Fire God¡¯s head is north ya dingus.


    Wait, what¡¯s that? Is that an entire stash of copies of Gae Buidhe? Were we that close? Was Mat about to use them on me? Would I have turned them around on him? I would have, I¡¯d have claimed them all and fired them back at him in a massive swath. They¡¯d have blanketed Mat and the area right where Luni was going to be.


    As I regain control of my senses, I claim all these horrid spears. Someday I¡¯ll learn how to destroy them. I don¡¯t want to risk selling them to the shops. I wonder if Teuila has been selling them to the shops, and they¡¯ve been ending up here? I should warn her not to do that. We still don¡¯t know too much about how the shops operate. They provide currency and magically take items away that we intend to sell, from our inventories. They take currency, and provide seemingly endless supplies. Some items have limited quantities, like the rubber duck that Agwai uses for Lucky to play with like a chew toy. Right, stop getting distracted, lava vein.


    This is still going to hurt. I broke my legs in my final attack against Mataalii, to get into position in time, and then further broke them as I broke down and let myself fall out of the sky. This draconic form of mine is in pretty bad shape already. I wonder if my limbs are still broken or missing in other shapes as well. Hm, yep, cherubic Reggie is similarly busted up and missing a hand. Tall Reggie is also looking equally rough. I guess we stick with draconic. The scales weather heat slightly better than softskin flesh. I wish I had the time to self actualize a new hand. I know I can grow new organs, limbs, bones, muscles, and so on. My draconic form proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. But it would probably take hundreds of transformations to generate a new hand, maybe thousands. I don¡¯t have time for that kind of thing. It¡¯s exhausting and would knock me out. Come on Reggie, stop getting distracted, let¡¯s go.


    Alright, up we go. Let¡¯s make a harness, hm, can I make one out of umbral energy? No, it would be rigid. The best I can do is make a harness that places a few valkyrie shields in strategic places to let me carefully Jettison-Thrust around. If I use JT at too high of a velocity, the harness they¡¯re in will snap. Still, we¡¯re covering ground to the lava vein fairly quickly. I remember the sensation of feeling every atom of this Fire God¡¯s being. With my sense of direction, and my familiarity with atypical senses as replacements for the usual humanoid senses, I¡¯m fairly certain I¡¯m correct about this location.


    Okay, deep breaths, deep breaths, now exhale, blow it out slowly. One massive, long deep breath, and top yourself off with shallow sucking sips of air. Now hold in all that air and dive into lava like your life depends on it. Because it does. Everyone¡¯s lives depend on this. My thermal resistance isn¡¯t high enough to swim in lava without consequences, especially not with a limb that ends in a stump. At least the searing pain is closing off the wound so that I don¡¯t have to keep it frozen shut. I¡¯m going to vomit from the excruciation though. Ugh, did I just swim through my own sick, while swimming through lava? Yes, yes I did. I¡¯m so glad my eyes are shut. Hm, this draconic form is sort of nice for swimming through lava, if I just sway like an eel, I can propel fairly nicely by using my wings as flippers, or rudders. My tail is long enough that each bend and swish is like a whip crack that propels me further downward. I had to abandon all my gear though, I¡¯m swimming naked, and I can¡¯t even use Jettison-Thrust movement to dive faster, because I don¡¯t have a safe surface to strike myself at high velocity with inventory magic.


    The swim is excruciating, even my impressive draconic scales are starting to crack and allow lava to get to the serpentine scaled skin beneath. I¡¯m maybe a quarter of the way down, but it feels like my eyeballs are going to melt out of their sockets. Even with my eyes clamped tightly shut. Between scarring them with aura-toxin, and now swimming in lava with them squeezed this tightly, I¡¯m honestly surprised my eyes don¡¯t just take a vacation and leave my body. I¡¯d be entirely empathetic if my eyes said I was too toxic to stick around, and that they had to see other people. Hah, oy vey, I¡¯m cracking under the pressure. Agwai would have laughed though.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Regardless, I really do need a short break. Now, do I try to duplicate my bottle of air, or will that only duplicate the container? Sadly I think it¡¯s the latter. I should have practiced on the surface. I can¡¯t afford to be wasting mana on the trip down. Wait, how does Linti turn into lightning to travel? Can I do that? Hm, no, not yet. I could barely manage a flimsy lightning bolt without a limit break. I was barely able to set up some internal timed-detonation sparks to follow my lightning breath.


    Alright, time to claim some space for a second, and chill the area around me. I can¡¯t keep going like this. I¡¯m maybe a third of the way down. Okay, a couple hundred liters of lava in my inventory, and a quick Flash Freeze Storm allows me to sit on some cooled pumice to at least regenerate my mana. Ugh my head aches. My scales are in shambles, the leathery webbing in my wings is scorched and the outer one third has disintegrated entirely.


    Okay, ignore the damage, take a few seconds in lotus position, just breathe. Actually, before you do that, widen this area out and summon your bottle of air. Wait, can I use my thermokinesis to scrub carbon out of the air? Can I turn CO2 into just O2? I mean, I can draw individual molecules to a point in space. I might be able to nearly perpetually breathe the same air over and over if I continually separate the carbon elements out of it. Huh, neat. These fakeworld memories have come in handy once in a while. They let me learn thermokinesis and electrokinesis, and they¡¯ve given me a broad range of applications of thermokinesis that seem far greater in scope than any of the fire or ice mages I¡¯ve seen.


    Yeah, I don¡¯t even need my bottle of air for this journey. As I slowly exhale in lotus position, I feel the atomic structure of the air around me with my thermokinetic senses. If I draw the carbon to one side, slowing its atomic motion to a crawl, I regain energy and clean the air, so that I can re-breathe it. Huh, I¡¯m my own rebreather. Still, my cellular structure is using up oxygen, so it¡¯s not exactly infinite.


    Ugh, this pressure behind my eyes is nearly unbearable. It¡¯s the hint of an oncoming migraine. I suppose I¡¯m lucky to have escaped migraines mostly thus far in my life. Hm, why do I feel that way? Did I have another life where I frequently had migraines? Those mysterious memories that plague me. I wonder if Elder Tolkenstein knows more. Maybe the spent soul shared images of another life. If I manage to save the world, or even if I don¡¯t, I should probably head back and see the Fairies.


    Okay, the pain isn¡¯t getting any better, and I still have a job to do. Let¡¯s get back to it. After I refill my lungs, I claim the pumice below me and dive down once again. The terra firma, the crust of our planet, is vibrating intensely. It¡¯s like this God of Fire being is slowly awakening with one last ultra-long snore.


    I underestimated how hard it would be to swim through lava with my currently broken body. I¡¯m not making nearly as much progress on a lungful of air as I had hoped I would. I¡¯m going to have to stop to rest probably at least two more times. I huff as I heave a sigh, and immediately regret it. Now I have to scrub that oxygen clean to reclaim it. Not too big of a deal, but still annoying to be making my own job harder, even if only slightly.


    Now that I¡¯m resting once again, and my eyes hurt so strongly from being clenched tightly shut, I finally risk opening them to let them blink and flex at their own pace. It¡¯s almost as if I can see through the rock around me. There¡¯s a massive source of aura nearby, and it¡¯s not the godly beast below, I¡¯m not close enough to see that yet. This is more like a river running through the planet just below the surface. If I thought the lava-blood of the great beast was a lifestream, this is even moreso. It¡¯s like some kind of planetary leyline. It seems weak somehow though, massive though it is. There¡¯s something about its radiant aura that seems unstable, corrupt, feeble, almost anemic even. Is this the planet¡¯s lifeblood? Do radiant spells come directly from this? Looking to the south, it¡¯s like there¡¯s something special in that direction, but I¡¯m far too many miles away to see what it is. South is the direction of the jungle, the forest. I wonder. Hm. I need to stop pondering though, stop getting distracted and keep on with my job. Unless I want to take a nap here, I¡¯m probably not gaining any benefit from these breaks, other than a few moments to scrub my oxygen, and let my lactic acid buildup die down slightly.


    Plunging downward, ever downward once more, I repeat my resting process as necessary, topping off my air when needed with bottled oxygen. My migraine is incredibly intense at this point. It¡¯s all I can do to keep from curling up and sleeping it off in my next two pumice rest-holes. I¡¯m finally about one last lungful of air¡¯s distance from where I¡¯ll need to start tunneling towards the creature¡¯s head.


    Oh, this I didn¡¯t expect. Its shifting has left hollow pockets beneath the surface of the planet. There¡¯s some room to move around, and I can seal off the lava flow behind me. This allows me to angle into a drop all the way to the creature¡¯s massive head. Huh, thinking more about its general shape, and facial structure it is incredibly similar to Lil¡¯s greatwyrm shape from our longest timeline. Odd coincidence. Currently though its soul aura is such a bright red that it feels like it¡¯s burning my eyes out of their sockets even through closed, scaled lids.


    As I allow myself to fall and glide a few dozen meters, I land on this creature¡¯s face, right between its eyes. Each reticulation of its scales is a massive armored plate that¡¯s dozens of times larger than myself, all stony crags and emanating power and heat. Still, that also means the gaps in its scales are easy enough to stick a hand beneath. From there, I have to hope my spark can travel back and forth to some speech area of the creature¡¯s brain.


    I reach out with what is hopefully a respectful greeting, ¡°Hello, great and powerful entity, I am Reggie Shellcracker. Please forgive my intrusion into your psyche. Your stirring from your slumber has frightened those of us who understand your enormity.¡± The spark containing my message travels inward, and as it returns, I get a sense of just how massive this thing¡¯s mind is as well. It has layers upon layers of subconscious that it is waking from.


    Still, it responds, ¡°Hello little one. I am Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate. I have never been spoken to before by a mortal. This amuses me. Stay a while and listen?¡±


    Phew, I find myself whistling low in appreciation and then blowing a breath out through puffed cheeks. I send back an affirmative, that of course I¡¯m willing to listen. I sit in lotus position between Deckard¡¯s eyes. Or maybe I should refer to him as Lord Agni in my mental logs. That¡¯s probably more respectful. Huh, another similarity to Lil, Lil¡¯s given name, by me anyway, is Lilagni, or L Agni.


    I begin to send sparks at a rapid pace to Lord Agni¡¯s speech centers of his brain. I enable this such that they return in a nearly simultaneous flow, so that we can communicate uninterrupted.


    Lord Agni begins his tale, ¡°We, the lesser gods, my brothers and sisters came into being in ages long since past. My sister, Tenith Grayl the Sky Unending was both messenger, and, hm, spectator. Some have mistakenly named her Quetzalcoatl. I¡¯m getting ahead of myself. Long, long ago, our world did not exist, we did not exist. We were brought into being at a singular point, and from that point, a history was formed before us. We were to have always been here, to have formed the land and the seas, to have molded the lifeblood of our world. Ours was an existence meant to give way to the feeble lives of the lessers, the mortals, so that they may reach their heights, setting a path free of destiny.¡±


    Lord Agni chuckles, and the entire world rumbles with his laughter, ¡°One destiny stands in that path however. We, the four lesser gods of this continent are meant to be awakened if the path must be corrected. I feel my siblings stirring, so I will soon join them. I can not sense what must be corrected, I only know that when the four of us rejoin for the first time, all will be made clear.¡±


    I hesitate to ask, ¡°Lord Agni? What if you¡¯ve been awakened, stirred by an outside force? One not meant to exist in this world? Would you still follow that destiny? Do you want to destroy all of us mortals?¡±


    Lord Agni ruminates, ¡°Were such a thing possible, I suppose I would sleep on it for some time, I don¡¯t mind another few days, months, decades, centuries of napping. My siblings certainly have no pressing matters that they cannot await my awakening. I have no fondness, but no ill will for the mortals either. Theirs is but a brief glimmer of a candle flickering brightly. The path before me has no limit, no time in which it must be accomplished.¡±


    This is it! My family, they¡¯re safe! Lord Agni doesn¡¯t actually want to kill us! I respond, ¡°Oh great Lord Agni, this news warms my heart like the molten stone that is your lifeblood. What I ask is not a hypothetical, it is a truth. An entity has somehow entered our world, one not meant to be here. Its very presence has contaminated time itself. One of your siblings, us mortals know it as Leviathan, master of the seas, has been awakened, and has been destroying the coasts for years now, under the entity¡¯s sway.¡±


    Lord Agni scoffs, ¡°Preposterous, something powerful enough to impress its will upon the lesser gods? Not even the greater, or elder beings could force us to act against our will. Even the weakest among us, Leviathan the Storm of the Endless River would not succumb. Nothing within our universe can have such power. Perhaps to have journeyed so deep, and to become as injured as you are, your brain has been addled.¡±


    Dang it, Lord Agni is starting to get irritated with me. Still, I try to recover, ¡°My apologies Lord Agni, I can share my memories with you, if you are willing to accept them. If Lilagni were here, they could invite you to a party and you could just read my mental logs. I don¡¯t know how to operate that part of our interface however.¡±


    Lord Agni ponders, ¡°This would be a new experience. The mortals have come a long way to be able to wield such power. Perhaps there is more to their candle yet. It may in fact be a shame to snuff it out early. Please, share what you have learned.¡±


    I pass along a torrent of sparks in an unbridled flow like the rapids of the river that I¡¯ve spent so much of my life in. Each contains a memory, an image, some of which trigger trauma and panic within me. I show them out of order, the destruction of the obelisks unleashing the red eyed entity into our world, the first red eyed possessed creature attacking me, the cragbeast queen gaining red eyes as the entity possessed her, the Leviathan having stark red, pupil-less eyes as it causes the Night of High Water. I share the news that the Leviathan has destroyed the frontier of Geawerene, the ability for Mataalii to somehow spread the red eyed influence. During all this time I¡¯m hyperventilating and clutching my chest, trying not to feed my hallucinations to Lord Agni. My lungs and heart feel so tightly constricted, my aura-induced blindness is dying down as my vision tunnels. I share the knowledge shared with me by the chameleon tribe, and their legend of the four gods meeting, which mirrors Lord Agni¡¯s own fated awakening. To rejoin with his siblings in some manner.


    My hallucinations and panic grip me and I¡¯m unable to continue. Between fearing for the end of the world, and reliving my nightmares of Day One, I feel as if my heart is going to burst in my chest. My heart seems to seize for moments at a time, then beat such that it expands three times harder and wider than it should be able to, and to refract and tremble near its fully extended shape, vibrating, palpitating. After trembling, my heart then crunches into the deepest, most terrifying squeeze to send blood rocketing through my body.


    Lord Agni startles me from my reverie by asking directly into my mind. I feel drops of lava dripping into my draconic auditory orifices, scarring my ear canals at his psychic intrusion. Lord Agni asks me if I¡¯ve always been prone to such panic, and what my title is.


    I tremble as I send sparks back, ¡°I¡¯ve had this debilitation since I first took on this body. Apparently I was once a free-floating soul, with several lumps. If souls are supposed to be perfect spheres, it¡¯s like I had four other smaller spheres attached to my own shriveled sphere. As for my title, I have none. One dearest to me calls me Hero, but that is not what I am. I am a murderer. At best, one might call me Adventurer.¡±


    Lord Agni responds, sparing me the lava droplets to my brain, letting my electrical sparks carry back his message, ¡°Adventurer Shellcracker, it seems as if you may be telling the truth, as far as your understanding of the situation is capable of interpreting it. I will sleep for a time. What is that presence behind you?¡±


    No, oh no. I feel an incorporeal entity pass through me, and I¡¯m treated to another shared memory. The theft, a lumpy sphere, a self sacrifice, a birth, the rage at my escape. The entity passes me as it works its way into Lord Agni¡¯s skull, settling into his brain somewhere. Lord Agni keeps his eyes shut tight as he roars in frustration. His thunderous din causes massive chunks of our planet¡¯s crust to rain down around us, harmlessly striking his snout, but nearly impaling or crushing me.


    Lord Agni¡¯s thoughts continue to be carried to me through my constant stream of electrons, ¡°Whatever you are, leave my mind or I shall make yours a hellish existence.¡±


    ¡°No, no you won¡¯t, you are now mine.  You will meet your siblings.¡±


    ¡°I shall not, not until the appropriate time, at the earliest.  The mortals will have their chance, their candle will reach its brightest flame.


    ¡°The candle should be mine!  The critical point was nearly at hand, I have to begin anew, nearly.  Or I would, but now that I have you and yours, I¡¯ll have all that I need.¡±


    ¡°Cease your rambling and leave my mind you cur!¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t.  I have you now.  You already have a fate, a desire to meet your siblings, you will rise and join them!¡±


    ¡°If I cannot expel you, then I can at least settle myself into slumber.  Good night you ungodly cretin.¡±


    With that, I feel Lord Agni¡¯s mind retreating into subconscious thought, his body relaxing. Still, I can feel the entity¡¯s presence, it isn¡¯t giving up. It will follow Lord Agni¡¯s thoughts into his deepest subconscious, and eventually rouse him. I don¡¯t know how long I have, but I need to get out of here, I need to share this information with someone, anyone. The remaining Nagas, the remaining chameleons, the Fairies. Someone has to know.


    TQ knows something about our timeline¡¯s eventual collapse, right? Lord Agni doesn¡¯t want to kill us, so would likely avoid even harming the mortals even if he is awoken. I have a feeling though, that when the four gods meet, the calamity that strikes will be too deadly to prevent loss of life. Lord Agni might be willing to walk around us, or leave us be, Leviathan is seemingly already on the warpath. Perhaps I can convince the one known as Quetzalcoatl, Tenith the Sky Unending, to not join her siblings? I don¡¯t know the fourth sibling. I only need to convince one, to keep a single one from being possessed by the entity. There¡¯s still a chance.

 B 3 C 32: A Might Bit Mite Hulking

    <h2>B 3 C 32: A Might Bit Mite Hulking</h2>


    I¡¯m fairly much in tatters, my body isn¡¯t really up for another trip through the lava. I wonder if Lord Agni¡¯s shifting has left room between his back and the planet¡¯s crust all the way to the volcano. If so, I can fly back up the tunnel up there. The problem is it¡¯s going to be a few days¡¯ journey as injured as I am, even if I move nonstop without sleep. Should I just sit on his nose and perform self-actualization transformation until I create as much new muscle, bone, and flesh as I possibly can? Then if I sleep, I could probably handle another trip through the lava.


    I suppose I could combine the two ideas. I have to hope that I can limp along Lord Agni¡¯s back all the way to the volcano. It¡¯s a few dozen miles, but my wings are pretty much disintegrated, so I¡¯ll have to walk on my broken legs. If I¡¯m transforming and dropping my tether repeatedly as I try to morph my bones back into position, while generating new wing-leather, and a new hand, eventually I¡¯ll pass out from exhaustion as I walk towards the volcano. After I¡¯ve slept, at least my legs should recover down to only being fractured.


    Who has the comm stone? I have one, that¡¯s good. Laomati must have the other. Do I tell her that I met the god of fire? How much of this information can I shove in a single message? Lao can get a message to Brastley, Brastley can contact Szintoc, Szintoc might be able to send a party to the remaining chameleons. With Mataalii dealt with, for now at least, I think maybe the Nagas¡¯ city might be the safest location for everyone. A secret underground temple that has some sort of mystical powers could possibly accommodate everyone, maybe.


    Then again, when TQ wasn¡¯t administering tests, the rooms were incredibly small and barren. Maybe the tests were illusions, or some kind of spatial-temporal distortion. Hm, I guess we can try to get as much information as possible into one message. I¡¯m going to need to practice this. I¡¯ve only got about five seconds, I need to know exactly what I¡¯m going to say. I¡¯ll have to cut out like adverbs or adjectives or adnouns or whatever, those descriptive parts of speech. Heavens, what¡¯s important to know? Do I tell her about Mat? About Luni leaving the family? Oh my heart, oh gods, my Lu. Lu, no.


    I crumple along Lord Agni¡¯s crown where I¡¯ve been walking and weep for what seems like an eternity while clutching my chest. I wail in anguish, railing against the heavens so far above ground, those that are supposedly perpetually expanding. I equally rail against the hell of fiery death that I¡¯m seated atop, the destruction that Lord Agni could bring. I mostly wail in hatred of myself for driving Luni to do this.


    My heart and lungs feel so tightly pinched in my chest that I¡¯d swear they were in a pneumatic press. I have to continue on, I finally have hope, there might be a solution that prevents the world from ending. It¡¯s slightly scarier, because there¡¯s four gods to deal with, not just one, but at least they don¡¯t necessarily want to destroy us all. As long as we can prevent their meeting, we might be able to eke out a life somewhere on the continent, or perhaps somewhere across the seas. I don¡¯t think we¡¯d be able to successfully navigate the journey twixt this continent and another though, not with Leviathan possessed.


    Maybe Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending could be convinced to help us create a city in the sky, or to transport the survivors of this continent somewhere else before the convergence. Hm, Laputa, in order to save everyone, I could see attempting that. Could we combine enough magics, either at once, or in shifts, to keep an entire citadel flying? Would Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending offer her aid in order for us to maintain it? Would she offer some kind of blessing? The divine twins, Lluxop and Rastoc supposedly had her blessing, since the Nagas spoke of Quetzalcoatl.


    I distracted myself from heartache after heartache, trying to fill my heart instead with hope. Good job me, distractible brain coming in handy. I wonder what the others are up to. Oh wait, I need to compose a message to Laomati. This is important. Crap, let¡¯s practice a few different variations, once we decide what to tell her. What do I even say?


    I imagine saying something like, ¡°Hey Lao, went to the Fairies, got the book quest started, gained lightning powers, killed kraken, accidentally let Mat wake God of Fire that¡¯s going to be controlled into meeting his three siblings. When that happens, the world might end. Tell Brastley to share this info with Szintoc, to tell Szintoc to share it with chameleons. Oh by the way, Mat killed most of the Nagas, and sent Dehlia into a coma, and he may have killed most of the chameleons. Also, I¡¯m on death¡¯s door, standing on top of Lord Agni, the Pure and Desolate, God of Fire.¡±


    I could add, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m alive, and I can talk to gods, so we still have a chance as soon as I tunnel out of here with my broken body.¡± I guess that might fit in the timespan of a comm stone call. It sounds so flippant though. Maybe I should have Linti try to talk to the gods, hm, no. Leviathan, the Storm of the Endless River would kill her instantly, her lightning based travel-power short circuits if she tries to use it in or near water, it shuts off her heart or stops her breathing, or both. She can¡¯t fly under her own power, so she doesn¡¯t stand a great chance of speaking with Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending. We don¡¯t know where the last one is, I didn¡¯t get a chance to learn the last sibling¡¯s name from Lord Agni.


    Blurgh, it seems like it¡¯s up to me again. Lil or Teuila could maybe get to the gods, but as far as I know, unless they want their brains flooded with deadly levels of lightning, water, lava, or whatever element, they can¡¯t communicate with the gods. When Lord Agni spoke to me, during my panic attack, when I wasn¡¯t using my electro-pathy, he boiled my ear canals with lava, scarring them all the way down to my brain. I bet it¡¯s like that for any of the elemental gods to speak. It¡¯s a fluke that Linti and I developed this communication method that happens to allow safe communication with them. Hm, or is it? Everything that happens in this timeline was carefully plotted, more or less.


    But, was it plotted by me, or by Luni? I¡¯ve always trusted the implication that I was the one that sent her back in time with the messages. Could I have been wrong about everything? No, no, definitely not. Without Luni, many of our family would already have been dead several times over. Without Lu, we wouldn¡¯t have Lucky, and everyone would have died on the Night of All Burn. Well, everyone other than me and Lil.


    The lava on that night was insane. It encircled Shellcracker pond almost instantly, and tried to flow back uphill along the south edge. I ran myself ragged, freezing a border around our home and pond, mostly along the north and east edges where the flow was strongest, but it kept coming even from the south and west. Teuila could have maybe carried one or two of us as she leapt away, but if she tried to leap back to save more of us, she may have had nowhere to land. Teuila would have died if she was trying to take multiple trips to rescue us all. Te and the last few of us that didn¡¯t make the first couple of trips would be dead if I tried that route. Tunneling with Lucky meant I could keep the tunnel walls and ceiling reinforced with FFS magic, as well as keep the lava to our rear completely frozen. Hm, I guess I just keep trusting her. Somehow, some way, all of this will make sense in the end. I just hope the end isn¡¯t literally the end of the world.


    Have I been sitting here bawling my eyes out without realizing it? I suppose so. The sting of betrayal still lingers, but it¡¯s Lu. This needed to happen, I guess. I wonder how poor Luna is doing. Lil said she went nuts around the time that Lord Agni began to stir, and that she has been lonely without Luni or me around. I¡¯m getting distracted, because I really, truly do not want to have to share this information with Laomati.


    I practice saying, ¡°Hey Lao, went to the Fairies, got the book quest started, gained lightning powers, killed kraken, accidentally let Mat wake God of Fire. At first I thought this enormous Lord Agni was going to kill us all, but he¡¯s not. Instead he¡¯s going to be controlled into meeting his three siblings. When that happens, the world might end. Tell Brastley to share this info with Szintoc, to tell Szintoc to share it with chameleons. Oh by the way, Mat killed most of the Nagas, and sent Dehlia into a coma, and he may have killed most of the chameleons. That last part you could probably guess from our party interface. Also, I¡¯m on death¡¯s door, standing on top of Lord Agni, the Pure and Desolate, God of Fire. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m alive, and I can talk to gods, so we still have a chance as soon as I tunnel out of here with my broken body.¡±


    Good lord, there has to be a better way to share this than cramming all that into the few seconds of comm stone magic. Some day, I need to develop either long range communication, or long range teleportation magic. I was going to try to learn enchanting from the Nagas, but with most of them dead, and bombs having gone off in their crafting/industrial sectors, I doubt I¡¯ll ever get a chance to learn. At least I doubt I¡¯ll get a chance before dealing with this whole four gods situation.


    Grr, how cool would it be to be able to duplicate magic equipment? I¡¯d really like a copy of the soap stone right now. Luni has the only one. I¡¯d give everyone one of those, and I¡¯d give everyone a compass orb as well. I¡¯d give the most trustworthy among us copies of Lil¡¯s magic gear, the invisible goggles, and the cloak that makes displaced illusions. I¡¯d see if Sugar and Spice¡¯s construction equipment was magical or enchanted in some way, if so, I¡¯d duplicate those tools as well.


    I¡¯d definitely try to learn to craft magic scrolls. I only know of the identification ones, but I bet I could figure out how to put spells into scrolls for a single use. Maybe I could put the lightning communication spell into a scroll. It¡¯d only be good enough for a single back and forth message per scroll, but I could make almost endless copies of the scrolls if I get this enchantment duplication to work. I could maybe get a little crazy and put my space magic duplication abilities into a scroll, allowing someone to duplicate a single item, or their entire inventory. I don¡¯t think I¡¯d trust handing that out to others though. I definitely wouldn¡¯t trust handing out spell scrolls of the internal timed lightning detonation spells.


    Oh, right, contact Laomati. Come on Reggie, get up, keep walking. You¡¯re getting way too distracted. I think the air is pretty thin down here with how hot and stuffy it is standing on top of the literal god of the element of fire. I¡¯m pretty close to his brain. Do you think I should try to, well, destroy him? He wasn¡¯t evil, but he¡¯s going to be forced to meet his siblings. Sooner or later he will awaken and join them, against his will. Gosh, even if I could, should I do something like that? What if there are consequences to a deity going missing? I mean, if nothing else, the mass beneath the crust of Fire Biome will change, and there will be cataclysmic consequences if he suddenly derezzes. Do you think he¡¯d instantly destroy me for this line of thoughts?


    Stop! Getting! Distracted! Right, right right right, contact Laomati.


    I gulp as I pull out the comm stone, as I agonizingly amble along Lord Agni¡¯s skull. I speak into it, ¡°Lao, started book quest. Mat woke up God of Fire, thought world was doomed. God of Fire not bad, but going to be controlled. If he meets his siblings, possible end of world. Tell Brastley to tell Szintoc all of this, and to tell Szintoc to send party to check on chameleons, many of them missing from party interface, maybe dead. Many Nagas dead, Mat killed them. Dehlia in coma from Mat. I¡¯m on death¡¯s door, standing on top of Lord Agni, the Pure and Desolate. That¡¯s the God of Fire. Not a bad guy, but panic entity is here. I can talk to gods, might be able to convince siblings to not meet when I get out of here.¡±


    Laomati begins to reply, ¡°Dearest one! How on¨C¡±


    The magic of the comm stone cuts out and I curse under my breath. Gorram limitations on magic. Still, I suppose if everyone had unlimited potential on their magic and their magic items, the world would probably already be wiped out from various hostile forces battling one another with chaotic tides of unrestrained magic.


    I¡¯m pretty certain it¡¯s a bit after midnight, which means Laomati wouldn¡¯t risk contacting me again until near midnight. Since each comm stone only opens the communication line once per day for a few seconds, she knows to save its magic in case of something dire that requires me to abandon everything else to return to the family. Still, it was good to hear her voice. Lil said she had a proposal for Agwai, I wonder if that means Lao and Ag are going to get married in the human style. That could be really cute. I wonder if they¡¯ll both wear bridal dresses? Ag has never identified with any gendered nouns or pronouns, but they could maybe pull off a curvy dress due to certain things. On the other hand, a finely cut suit would be fetching as well.


    Reggie, get moving. Stop playing dressup with your tribal elders in your mind. What? It¡¯s cute, and I¡¯m all broken. Even doing this tethering up and down doesn¡¯t take much of my brain processing. I nearly have my wrist back already. Well, okay, I have some of my forearm back, I¡¯m getting close to my wrist. My wings have a few more millimeters of leather, and some of my scales are no longer completely disintegrated.


    Is something moving down here? Hm, I¡¯m still mostly blinded to normal sight, but the aura sight is going strong at the moment. Everything is red though because of the enormity of Lord Agni¡¯s soul. I swear I heard a scuttling sound however. I am not in the mood to fight off some super-god-dragon-mites or whatever nonsense. I was thinking of napping soon, too. I could nap in an Umbral object, but if I make it airtight, I¡¯ll obviously die from lack of oxygen. If I don¡¯t make it airtight, the creature that¡¯s out there, if it has ranged magic, or spits acid or something, it could kill me in my sleep. Blargh.


    Nothing for it at the moment but to continue marching and transforming. If it doesn¡¯t attack, it doesn¡¯t attack. If it does, let¡¯s just hope it does so before I pass out from transformation-over-exertion. I hear whatever is near scuttling around, seemingly keeping its distance. Or maybe their distances. Huh, I hope it attacks soon, walking on these broken legs is excruciating, and I could use something to vent on. Not only that, but I can¡¯t even open my eyelids. Not that I¡¯d get much use out of opening them right now, but between the migraine, and exhaustion, I¡¯m ready to pass out. Not to mention the lava-boiled brain from Lord Agni speaking directly into my mind. I¡¯m kind of surprised I survived that.


    Lord Agni could boil everyone¡¯s brains inside out just by speaking. Is there any way I could at least take that power away from him? I could maybe redact his own memories with electrical pulsation in the right corners of his mind. It could hide his own powers from himself. I doubt that would be viewed favorably in the end though.


    Oh, oh my legs aren¡¯t willing to move further. Whoops, I¡¯m falling onto my face. That¡¯s not good. Yep, the scuttling is getting closer again. Okay Reggie, if you¡¯re going to pass out, do it for only a little bit. Actually, transform down to cherubic reggie, maybe a less threatening form won¡¯t be attacked. If nothing else, whatever it is can¡¯t rip out my wings if I don¡¯t have my wings.


    Ah, unconsciousness. Normally a welcome reprieve from pain. You¡¯ve picked an awkward time for a visit, my old friend.


    Ah, yes, now I¡¯m screaming in pain. Something like a giant pair of scissors is trying to remove my left leg at the knee. Well, I¡¯m awake now. Time to, whoops, now I¡¯m being flung in the air and slammed back and forth as this claw tears my leg apart. Now I¡¯m at least free of its grasp. Why? Because now I¡¯m missing another half of a limb. I test out breathing fire in the direction of the creature, it doesn¡¯t seem bothered. Of course not, it lives on the back of the literal god of fire. I doubt frost will do anything either, but I may as well try. I swap my fire breath into frost breath, also to no effect. I could trap it in an umbral object for about five minutes. Is that enough to hop away on one leg?


    Let¡¯s just try to kill it. I should have been armored up, I was naked from swimming in lava. Hopefully a full set of Valkyrie gear can help me against this thing. Wow that¡¯s a fast snap! Ow. It pinched so hard that it sent air cascading at me like a bullet. I¡¯m lucky we¡¯re not in a liquid medium. That thing probably fires lava bullets normally. It knocked me on my arse, but thankfully my helmet protected me. Okay, no screwing around with this thing, just end it. I can¡¯t even attempt any mana saving fighting styles on this thing when I¡¯m missing an arm and a leg. Oh, wait, when the heck did I lose my entire left arm!? There¡¯s two of them!


    There could quite possibly be a lot more than that. What the heck should I do? They definitely have ranged attacks. So I can''t create a shelter to sleep in. They could definitely hit me through any ventilation holes, worse they¡¯re probably strong enough to destroy Umbral duplicates. Do I have anything that can help me in this situation?


    My danger wrap tells me its physical appearance is something like some kind of gorilla-crab chimera. Essentially some sort of bipedal creature with a spiky exoskeleton and large forearms that end in claws. It has some kind of whiskered mandibular maw though. I think the whiskers are probably how it senses prey underground. It likely hears or feels the tiniest vibration with them, like breathing or a heartbeat.


    I doubt playing dead would help, since these things seem to want to devour my limbs. Alright, fire doesn¡¯t work, cold doesn¡¯t work, my lightning magic is still weak. I get maybe two and a half percent faster reaction speed from my electro-enhanced sensory transmission. I should just fire off a swath of Umbral Shot spears. Crap, I took too long, they¡¯re alternating firing air bullets at me, continuously knocking me back and forth. I don¡¯t have my limbs or balance that I¡¯m used to to react to my danger wrap senses, and because it¡¯s not physical attacks, my danger sense isn¡¯t quite as good at telling me exactly how to dodge anyway.


    Hlrk. Are you kidding me!? My right lung, again! I need to wear like three layers of armor over my stupid right torso area. Maybe I should grow a second rib cage, or an exoskeleton.


    Huff, huff. Okay, what was I going to do? My brain is addled now. Ah, no you don¡¯t, let go of my right arm you crusty crustacean crap snacker! I fire a wall of umbral spears into it, angled through it to where I think the other one is. Bad news is, my Umbral Shots don¡¯t penetrate its shell in a single hit. Good news is I didn¡¯t just fire a single hit. I¡¯ve blown off its arm that it had gripped my arm with. I claim that whole arm and pincer before it derezzes. This could be an interesting tool. Okay, now I¡¯m pumped. I want more parts of these creatures. They can resist some of my most powerful abilities.


    I hop up and down on one foot, trying to get my bearings. The one that I just attacked is missing at least two limbs now as well, but I really want to peel its entire exoskeleton off. Gosh that¡¯s gruesome. When did I get so gory and violent? Hm, its missing limbs leave weak spots that I can capitalize on. Thank you Space skill magic. I angle some Umbral Shots into its armpit from several directions.


    Sure enough, a time dilation hits, and I try to claim as much of the creature as my magic will allow me to grab before it can become polygons to derez. These aren¡¯t even boss classification creatures down here. When I joked about being super-dragon-god-mites, that seems to be pretty much their place in the ecosystem. There are several more. I don¡¯t have the mana to take all of them out though, especially not as wounded as I am. If I still had all my limbs, I¡¯d probably try to take a few out with my sword.


    I wonder if I can hold the left arm of the creature that I stole in place of my left arm. If I hold it there, can I self-actualize attaching it to my arm with my tether transformations? Eugh, do I want to? It might give me an edge, or at least help even things out. Here goes nothing I guess.


    Oh, oh hlrk, ugh, glrglrlgl. It works, sort of. It¡¯s like this thing has some kind of alien biology that my body is rejecting, but it¡¯s fighting to take hold. I at least have a limb now, a limb that can fire air bullets to help keep these things off balance. Oh heavens, ugh. I¡¯m going to be sick. Oh wow. I just threw up all over Lord Agni. I really hope he never notices that. I mean, it¡¯s less than a sweat droplet compared to his enormous size, he probably won¡¯t notice, right? I don¡¯t notice or count every single bead of sweat, or check to see if any bead of sweat is vomit from an insect.


    Okay, next goal is to get a left leg. Should I go for the whole leg, or just the segment up to the knee? Ugh, should I remove my other limbs and just go whole hog? That¡¯s so gruesome. I¡¯m such a mess, mentally and physically. How could anyone ever rely on me? Eugh, every moment I¡¯m connected to this limb feels like it¡¯s releasing waves of parasitic cells that intentionally seek out my stomach to flip it and rotate it until it spills more sick. My sick can stay in my stomach. Thank you very much.


    At least it¡¯s a mana-free attack I can use at the moment. Their air bullets aren¡¯t exactly deadly to me, even if they hurt like heck. The same goes for them though. I think the speed of the snap of these claws, though, should be able to sever their limbs. Wait, why am I wasting time with this nonsense? I have the greatest heat source on the planet, possibly the universe below me. I siphon atomic heat into mana from Lord Agni, and begin raining Umbral Shots down into every location that I hear scuttling coming from. I specifically try to sever a few limbs that I can dash in and claim before things derez. As I¡¯m able to claim more and more parts of these creatures, I am able to draw a better mental image of exactly what they look like as I see their limbs and body parts in my inventory. They¡¯re some kind of hulking things that dwell here in the umber.


    I wonder if Lord Agni notices or cares that I¡¯m utilizing him as a mana battery? Gosh, what I could accomplish if I traveled along with Lord Agni for months. Hm. I can definitely take advantage of this. It¡¯s time to get some serious training done. After all, I¡¯m going to be going up against gods and whatever creatures live on their backs starting soon.


    So, my skills climb faster when I¡¯m able to cast spells worth more mana with them in rapid succession, and my maximum mana climbs more quickly at the same time. Go ahead, come at me you hulking monstrosities. Here¡¯s a maximum mana lightning bolt for you. Top off my mana from Lord Agni, and now one for you, I top off my mana again, and another one for you. Let¡¯s try to create chain lightning, shall we? Yes, here we go. He is a limitless well of heat, and for me, that is a limitless pool of mana. The lightning isn¡¯t doing anything to them, but it¡¯s fantastic practice.


    Look out world, here Reggie Shellcracker comes, with a vengeance. Ice breath, fire breath, lightning breath, firebolts, ice spears, lightning reflexes, Umbral Shots, crafting and alchemy. I can practice it all at once, and make leaps and bounds of progress. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m pissing off this community of mite-hulks, whatever they are. Hopefully Lord Agni doesn¡¯t need them in some sort of symbiosis. Still, the materials I¡¯m getting from them are becoming higher and higher in quality. I think I¡¯m drawing out more and more powerful mites with all the noise I¡¯m making.


    Oh, I should probably be a little more careful, they might have a queen or something. I really don¡¯t need that kind of hassle right now. Awe hell, why¡¯d I have to think of that. There¡¯s some sort of pulsating sac-butted version of these things in the distance with a massive aura of a sickening ocher, or maybe umber. I¡¯m wearing one of their arms, and half of one of their legs, and it is ridiculously lopsided to try to wander around and battle like this. Ugh, I¡¯m going to have to commit. Reggie, this is crazy. Don¡¯t do this. This is super weird. Do you feel these limbs? They¡¯re literally making you sick.


    But I¡¯m all lopsided! I can¡¯t even walk around anymore. Maybe if I¡¯m balanced, the limbs will stop fighting to make me sick? I need to be making progress towards the shaft I drilled from the volcano caldera. Oh yeah? What are you going to do when you get there right now? Well, right now, nothing, because my limbs can¡¯t handle JT movement, and my wings are utterly destroyed. If I have two of these legs though, they¡¯re incredibly impact resistant. I could JT around with them pretty handily. Hm, you¡¯re starting to convince me. But still, it¡¯s pretty gross, also gruesome. Yeah, true, but like, cool snappy limbs. I feel like they could snap into solid rock and I could climb out even if I can¡¯t fly out.


    Alright Reggie, no need to convince me, I am you after all, it¡¯s not like I was ever going to be able to stop you, since you had your mind made up to do it. True, true. Wow I am really losing it. I wonder if I should redact these logs. Or maybe I should ask the humans if they have invented psychiatry and psychotherapy as fields yet. I could probably benefit from a therapist.


    Oh, self-distraction. Well, that solves that issue. I¡¯m being quartered. Oh holy hell, oh gods, oh this hurts. Hlrk. Focus up Reggie, these hulks are even more powerful, their limbs were able to delimb me in an instant. Take these, make them your own. Fight through the pain. Dull your pain receptors with lightning. There we go. We have plenty of mana to fight off the pain. Heck, we can stop the flood of signals of sickness from my stomach as well. Wow, electro-kinesis without restrictions on mana is amazing! I feel great! I can probably trick my adrenal glands or serotonin or dopamine production centers, or even just their receptors. Wait, wait, focus Reggie. Can you trick yourself into focusing? I think so.


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


    I grin wickedly as I JT myself out of the dangerous situation where I was being quartered. I may be missing all my limbs at the moment, but that won¡¯t last long. Now I use Umbral Shot buzzsaw Valkyrie daggers to delimb the strongest hulking mite. Strongest according to my danger wrap senses anyway, it provides some numerical feedback after all. Now let¡¯s claim those. Yes, here we go. Oh balance, it¡¯s so good to have you back. I can move around. Let¡¯s also kill this one and claim the rest of its torso and body before it derezzes.


    I shout, ¡°Now then, who wants some?!¡±


    I¡¯m sure none of them can understand me, but it has the intended effect of infuriating everything within sounding distance. Wow, this electro-kinesis induced confidence is making me way too cocky. Backed up by infinite mana though, it¡¯s almost fun to be this cocky. I¡¯d better not get used to it though. I could leave now, these limbs can probably handle sonic speed JT movements. I¡¯d probably need to reinforce my hips a little bit. I can probably wear an entire exoskeleton of one of these things honestly, that would distribute the striking force across the whole exoskeleton instead of into my hips and soft flesh where the mite¡¯s exoskeleton meets my actual body.


    Sure, I could leave, but what¡¯s the fun in that? When will I ever get a chance like this again? The other gods aren¡¯t gods of fire, I¡¯d probably cause tiny useless ice patches that don¡¯t even bother them, I wouldn¡¯t get limitless mana from walking around on their backs. Ooo! I wonder if I can lightning-leap now. Shall we see?


    Yes! It¡¯s not as far, or as fast as Linti, but I can subsume my entire form with lightning and move around. Sadly I mostly bounce off of these hulking monstrosities, I don¡¯t have much impactful force, nor a solid path into their internals to melt their insides. My lightning form isn¡¯t quite that good yet. I can¡¯t even find a path to their internals at all with timed detonation lightning sparks.


    Defeating most of them boils down to sawing through their limbs with Umbral Shots, then filling their newly opened carapaces with spears or lightning or daggers. Oh whoops! That sac-butted ochre-souled or umbral-souled queen thing has more than just the ability to spawn more of these things. She can lob acid. It doesn¡¯t seem to harm the exoskeletons of her own creatures though. Well then, I guess we know what we have to do. Most of my transformations required me to eke out the transformation cell by cell, inch by inch. Connecting body parts to myself allowed me to bypass a lot of that.


    I don¡¯t think I¡¯m willing to cover my face or head in the cranium of one of these things. I do not want to have new alien thought processes in my head. Still, here goes nothing Reggie, let¡¯s connect a torso between these limbs. Self-actualize and tether up and down to set this as a new base form. Hahaha, I must look ridiculous. I¡¯m a head, I¡¯m me, with my head, but on the body of one of these hulking mite things, the biggest one in fact. Me and my tiny cherubic Reggie head. Actually, let¡¯s fix that. Wait, no, can¡¯t risk going draconic form yet, no idea where my wings would end up. They might get lopped off by apparating partially through the exoskeleton. Or if they bust out of the exoskeleton, attached to my weird insectoid muscle structure underneath, they might just be melted away by this queen anyway. Nothing for it but to continue the fight. I¡¯ll just keep swapping out Valkyrie helmets as the acid destroys them. I have quite a few dozen at this point.


    Wow, I¡¯m glad my danger wrap senses told me this one was the strongest among them, I can¡¯t even feel their air bullets anymore. The acid splashes bounce off of my chest and arms. I¡¯m able to block and fight in a way that might even be better than my normal form. If these things are mite hulks, then I¡¯m a mite hulk buster. Wait, the body inside of these things. It looks close to the form I took in the cragbeast warren. Is that why I¡¯m somewhat compatible and able to do this? It¡¯s eerily similar, especially this large one that was so much more muscular. They¡¯re very humanoid underneath the exoskeleton, minus a few extra tendons that connect to parts of the skeleton itself, and their faces, whiskers, and giant scything mandibles. It¡¯s so easy to grab and snap their mandibles with these arms though.


    Oh hey, it¡¯s even easier to spear them with their own mandible once I¡¯ve broken them off! That makes it easier to send timed detonations into their internals. Break off this thing¡¯s sharp pointy jaw, stab it into that one with a tiny flicker of electricity traveling along it, rip off that one¡¯s jaw, stab it into this one with electricity glinting along its edge, then walk away and don¡¯t look back as they explode internally. That was so cocky. Hehe, it was really fun though.


    I wonder if that queen thing is one of a kind, or if she¡¯ll respawn. Can my danger wrap tell me if I make my way to her? Let¡¯s go ahead and use thermokinesis rocket thrusters from my hands and feet to blast off at the speed of sound to find out as I skim by her. Hoohoo wheee! It¡¯s easy enough to shoulder bash and bounce off of one of her extended arms, she has a lot of them. Hm, that was a lot of information to take in. I can definitely get acid generation from her if I keep letting her attack me. Somehow my cells are adapting as a whole to being near acid, and their various mitochondrial functions are instructed by the nuclei and cytoplasm. They¡¯re passing down the memories of the makeup of acid down to their next generation of mitosis-created children. I guess that¡¯s the best way to put it. She will also respawn, because she has some sort of cellular regeneration from nothing function. Basically her acid powers are so strong that she could be a tiny droplet of acid somewhere that¡¯s a proteinated cell that contains her entire being as a genetic legacy. One cell, the nearest to her spawn point will be absorbed by the region, and that will generate another.


    At least I don¡¯t have to worry about genocide of an ecosystem. Still, let¡¯s wrap this up, shall we? Lluxop and Rastoc were able to focus lightning until it burned holes in even gemlike draconic scales, with the intention of passing a single spark underneath, to detonate my internals.


    Let¡¯s keep a constant stream of lightning at my highest level of mana consumption going outward, while siphoning Lord Agni¡¯s endless atomic heat. Slowly burn holes into all these mite-hulks, and implant detonating sparks. I let acid continuously splash against the back of my borrowed exoskeleton. Hm, no, it¡¯s no longer borrowed. It¡¯s one of my transformations now. I feel like it has been assimilated into the forms that I can return to. Yes, it is definitely a part of me now. Oh! I can create a dome helmet that buckles into the chitinous plates of my exoskeleton. An umbral copy that fits perfectly, and just has slight slits for air and vision. Now even this feels like a part of me.


    I¡¯m going to stand in this queen¡¯s attacks until I gain acid conjuration. She has a pool of mana that is unbelievably vast. It feels like these mite-hulks are getting stronger and stronger the longer she continues to spawn them. Oh! Her spawning skill is probably increasing! This is sort of dangerous, but I¡¯m exceedingly tempted to derp around here for a long time to see just how powerful her spawnlings can eventually become. If I can face off against an even more powerful mite-hulk, adding its body to my suite of transformations may be worthwhile. I don¡¯t think many other creatures would work. The fact that these have exoskeletons, and body similarity to my weird Umbral Valkyrie density-knight form, is probably the only reason it works. Honestly their exoskeletons bear some vague resemblance to the armor from that form as well.


    Okay, as much as I do really want to dink around and train almost endlessly here, not only is it getting dangerous, but I¡¯m not making progress towards my main goal, preventing the apocalypse. Well, not direct progress towards returning to my family to continue my quest to rail against the gods anyway. I haven¡¯t really been hostile to the queen before now, but I suppose I should take her out on the way out. Sorry queenie.


    Holy crap where¡¯d this one come from? It¡¯s like it spawned in when I turned my hostile intent to the queen. Oh, Hulk-Mite-King. It¡¯s fast! And bulky! It seems to be her defender. She has power, finesse, and range, but she¡¯s stationary. The king is her mobile shield. The king also looks the absolutely most similar to my Umbral Valkyrie form at the end when I had grown massively. I want to carefully dismantle him to take that body for my newest form. He actually has hands beneath his pistol-claws pincers.


    Oogh, oof, he¡¯s fast, and strong. That fractured my exoskeleton slightly with that strike. Okay, don¡¯t think like a brick, think like Reggie. Incoming attack towards left shoulder, pivot counterclockwise, lead the strike with my offhand, gripping the wrist, roll my shoulder and throw. He is incredibly heavy, I was barely able to complete that toss, and he derezzed several of the regular hulk-mites on landing. What I really need to do though is carefully take him out and, ow! Agh that¡¯s right, my exoskeleton is fractured, the acid¡¯s starting to get in now. Well, that definitely speeds up the acid resistance training process. Oh, now she¡¯s getting creative . Maybe I should disable her acid sac. Whoops, king sensed my intent and interposed himself with thunderous air-pistol blasts aimed at my face.


    I barely got my left claw up in time to protect my face from the blasts. They cracked my forearm¡¯s exoskeleton and managed to bowl me over completely. Hm, there¡¯s a familiar fury growing under my skin. Well, the weird extremely-humanoid insectoid flesh under my exoskeleton is bubbling with a rage that¡¯s hard to contain. There¡¯s a fiery pain attempting to explode from my shoulder blades. Do I relent, and let it? Luni isn¡¯t here to anchor me. Is this the edge I need to be able to convince Tenith, the Sky Unending, to stay far away from our continent?


    Hm, no. I remember how heartbroken Luni was when I nearly accepted the fate of this transformation. In the cragbeast warren, when the queen gripped me by the throat in one of her tendrils, I contemplated giving in to the bubbling fury and pain. I know I wouldn¡¯t be me anymore if I let it happen. Whoops, pay attention Reggie, kick your electrokinetically enhanced senses into high gear. Queen is starting to spawn a layer of just trap claws instead of full hulk-mites. It¡¯s like she¡¯s laying down turrets as a trap in a video game, symmetrically in concentric rings. They¡¯re all firing now, and chipping away at the cracks in my exoskeleton. Crap, she¡¯s spawning several of the stronger variations behind me, and they¡¯re now holding me in a nelson lock.


    Oh, wait, haha, easy way to get out of this one. I tether myself up, and down to forms that have no limbs, slipping out easily, laughing maniacally as the intense pain hits me from these broken forms. I resume my mite-hulk-buster form, chipped and damaged though it is. I¡¯m limiting myself slightly to try not to damage the king¡¯s carapace. I can do this. Let¡¯s enhance my exoskeletal crack density by using FFS to draw and condense molecules around to protect the fractured areas. King is bringing down a double hammerstrike aimed at both of my shoulders. If I slip in under his range I can get past his guard now, yes, I¡¯ve got him tripped, and now I¡¯m trapping him with umbral copies of carapace plating.


    Phew, okay, I bought myself half a second of breather. Now to get to his front, and lance his cranium with Umbral Shots until his brain is exposed. Oof, there¡¯s that queen and her acid again. Now it¡¯s like she¡¯s launching solidified acid spears that first jab into and crack my carapace, then deliver their flesh-melting payload. Agh, that is terribly painful. Right, finish this, quick. All of you trap cannons and regular mite-hulks can eat dirt. Umbral Shot Valkyrie daggers to all of you, and an unending barrage of them into king¡¯s cranium. Block the acid spears with Umbral Shot copies of Valkyrie shields, since now they¡¯re too deadly to keep trying to gain acid manipulation. Hm, I am up to negative one. It¡¯s so tempting. Maybe Jaz will help me finish unlocking it. I hope she¡¯s okay along with Dream and the rest of my family.


    Right, let¡¯s finish this. I jam my right claw into the king¡¯s cracked cranium with the fiercest SIP I can manage. I feel it buckle just enough. I unleash a seemingly unending torrent of timed detonations lightning sparks within his skull cavity. One by one his thirteen health bars deplete, and I don¡¯t give him an opportunity to enter any sort of enraged super-powered last-ditch effort mode. I claim my prize, his basically pristine form, as well as the few things he dropped. Now for the queen. Oh come on. Okay, so she can just spawn a new king if I kill one without killing her first


    Fine, fine fine fine. This one I¡¯m not going to screw around with. Wall of Umbral Shots aimed towards the both of them, go, keep siphoning atomic heat for more mana to keep summoning more walls of Umbral Shots. Uh oh. It¡¯s chinking away at their health, that is not the desired effect. Blargh, yep, I¡¯ve triggered some sort of rampage. The king is glowing yellow, but that yellow glow is tethered to the queen. In fact, the king is growing, taking on a new form. Nope, nope, I¡¯ve played enough video games to know where this is going. Wait, when have I played video games? Those broken memories are of a fake world. It doesn¡¯t exist. Computer age doesn¡¯t exist. It doesn¡¯t matter, he¡¯s in an invulnerability phase, take her out quickly before the transformation finishes! Right, right right.


    I use a combined JT rocket thrust blast myself to her side and just summon every attack I can think of point blank into the queen¡¯s cranium, while exhaling a tri-elemental blast of breath into her face, laced with timed-detonation sparks. Come on, come on, die already! The King is starting to look nebulous, like some sort of being made of galactic space, with glittering galaxies that shine through the vast empty darkness that makes up his silhouette.


    What do I have left? Oh, steam. I jam my claw into her throat, expel water from my inventory, air-pistol fire it further into her throat and superheat it. Well, that had the desired effect. Hm, where¡¯s the king? I didn¡¯t hear a derezzing sound. I really hope that doesn¡¯t come back to haunt me. Interesting loot, we¡¯ll look at it all later.


    I take my copy of the first king¡¯s exoskeleton, and begin fusing with it with tethering up and down. The process is a bit slow and a bit messy, since I don¡¯t want to basically chop off everything below my neck. Still, what an impressive, powerful form. I wonder if it has that weird galactic form as a sort of evolutionary stage that I could access. Hm, we¡¯ll look into that later. For now, let¡¯s pound pavement as the saying goes. That¡¯s probably really disrespectful to Lord Agni, since he would be the pavement in that equation. Future me, do not snicker at that accidental implication.


    I glance around, making certain I don¡¯t have any more mites to deal with, and also that no floating embodiments of my future self are waiting around to laugh at my mental narration. My whole point is that I should get going. Now that I can sustain the electrokinetically enhanced nerve suppression, and sensation enhancement, as well as rocket thrusting, and JT motion of supersonic levels, it¡¯s easy enough to blast my way all the way to the volcano base that is the dorsal ridge of Lord Agni. It¡¯s even easier to plow through an empty lava chute towards the tunnel that I¡¯d drilled down to his hip.


    I¡¯m worried about using these forms without his limitless heat providing me an endless well of mana, so I¡¯d better make some fortifications here, and spend a couple of days regrowing my limbs. I¡¯m glad I was able to pick them up after finishing the mites off. It¡¯s still super gruesome to see my own limbs floating in my inventory. Yeesh. Alright, so, Umbral copies of clay and stone shaped into walls around me, I should be fairly safe¡¯ish. I need to do this, despite how gross it is. Okay, tether up, and back down into, yep, poor cherubic Reggie. Alright, just reattach all these by tethering up and down several times. Okay, there we go, now I¡¯m only missing my left hand. Back to draconian Reggie we go to start regenerating that hand and my wings.


    Okay, even though I have infinite mana to accelerate the process by probably hundreds of times, this is exhausting. I¡¯m going to pass out for a while. Hopefully that also helps regenerate some of my missing flesh and muscles. I would not be able to function without suppressing my pain receptors via electrokinesis, and I could not afford the massive mana sink to keep them suppressed without Lord Agni.


    Alright, it¡¯s been another day or so, or has it been two or three? Or maybe just a few hours. I know I¡¯ve slept several times, and I¡¯m mostly back to normal functionality in my draconian form, except my left hand is still in the process of being recreated, and my limb reattachment points are in utter agony as the bones knit where they were sheared. I¡¯m not patient enough to keep working on that when the world is at stake. Everything else I needed to be able to safely move once I lose access to infinite mana. As much as I love these mite-hulk-busting forms, their weird alien biology might try to take me over or sicken me if I don¡¯t have the endless well of mana to suppress all their odd activities. I really wish I could trust the forms when outside of the range of Lord Agni, but at least I have them as aces up my sleeves in extreme circumstances. They¡¯re virtually acid immune, thermal immune, incredibly resistant to physical harm, and just so utterly strong and well-built.


    I exhale a breath through puffed cheeks. Phew, okay, let¡¯s reunite with my inner circle at the Nagas¡¯ city, then let¡¯s get them to the Faeries¡¯ city if the Nagas don¡¯t know where I can find their Quetzalcoatl. Hopefully one city or the other has some idea where to find Tenith Grayl the Sky Unending.


    Alright, JT motion up through the tunnel I¡¯d carved into Lord Agni¡¯s back. I¡¯m surprised he didn¡¯t quip about it, but then again, it was mostly through cooled magma and stone, not his actual carapace or scales. It¡¯s more like he¡¯s wearing a volcano as a hat for his butt than it¡¯s actually some biological dorsal ridge.


    Finally, free again, and oh boy, is that the roc and the phoenix? Please please please don¡¯t be possessed.


    ¡°You¡¯re still a funny one, an entirely new form too, little old soul.¡±


    Oh dear lord, um, I apologize for my impropriety, majestic lords of the sky. Would either of you happen to know the location of Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending?


    ¡°You¡¯ll meet her soon enough, if you¡¯ve just come from where I think you have. The fact that you even know her true name speaks volumes.¡±


    Um, yes, my apologies for my, uh, brazen action in seeking out and speaking with Lord Agni. I thought he would destroy the world, or at least our continent. It turns out to be better and worse than that. He won¡¯t intentionally do it, but he and his siblings have been roused by the entity. You know the one. The entity is currently fighting its way deeply into his psyche and subconscious, I don¡¯t know how long we have until Lord Agni is compelled to follow through on his destiny of meeting his siblings.


    ¡°Troubling news indeed. You do know, I told you to never return, don¡¯t you?¡±


    I¡¯m so sorry! I was trying to leave Lord Agni¡¯s presence without dying by swimming back through the same vein of lava! I was physically much worse off when I began my exit journey.


    The phoenix lets out a chuckle that would char the flesh off an elephant. It penetrates much of my thermal resistance, but mine has been growing steadily, incredibly high. It mostly only chars my scales in this form, though the edges of my wings are crispy and losing some scaled leather.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to take back my gift, not at the moment. It seems you¡¯re embroiled in something that would be a hassle even to the likes of us. Your life that is, Your life was the gift. In case that wasn¡¯t clear.¡±


    I gulp. Yes, yes it was perfectly clear.


    ¡°My mate and I have one request of you, consider it also a present. This egg is never due to hatch. Perhaps through some oddness that is your constant series of misadventures, one day you may bring our child forth, barring that, perhaps it will be of some use on your misadventures. Yes we are both men, No that does not prevent us from, never mind, I can see you aren¡¯t one to question such things. I¡¯m a tad defensive on the subject.¡±


    Believe me, I completely empathize. I have memories of some weird human society where gender and orientation are all very strict and odd. I haven¡¯t been able to figure out what I identify as personally. I¡¯m not even limited by biology and I still can¡¯t decide. Oh goodness, I¡¯m chatting with a godly living flame as if we were just schoolmates having a chinwag. I¡¯m so sorry, please forgive me.


    The phoenix lets out another laugh that is a burst of flame that sends me tumbling, to the point that I have to pump my wings to regain my altitude. The roc swoops in to nuzzle his partner. The roc nods at me as if just acknowledging my arrival.


    My life is crazy, my life is absolutely crazy. Jokes about cryptozoology be darned, I¡¯m a cryptozoologist, and I¡¯d be the envy of every other cryptozoologist in history with the myriad of wonderful, beautiful creatures I¡¯ve had the honor to gaze upon.


    ¡°That is the level of flattery I¡¯ve come to expect from you. Please meet us at our nest.¡±


    I swoop down towards the ledge that contains the phoenix nest. The oviraptor swarm seems to be making its way up, but the phoenix simply barks a laugh in their direction and instantly incinerates all of them. How am I surviving this godly beast¡¯s laughter!? He must be regulating his destructive energies. He must have been minimizing his powers and flames when he was forced to attack me so long ago. I¡¯m so honored, and lucky.


    ¡°Yes, now be honored and take this egg here, this one. I¡¯d tell you to be careful as it¡¯s hot, but you¡¯re your funny little self, and you have your inventory magic. Good luck, little old soul. If you¡¯d please leave now.¡±


    Yes, yes of course! Um, please have a wonderful, um, forever, lifetime, eternity together. Please excuse me, thank you so much, your majesticalnesses. Oh heavens, that¡¯s not a word, I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m leaving.


    I fly away with as high of a JT velocity as I can safely muster. Now that I¡¯m away from them, I¡¯ll take a deep breath before I crack and break out into hysterical laughter of fear.


    I talked to the literal God of Fire, and then to two of the most important mythological figures. Well, I thought with my internal monologue, and they read my thoughts, and spoke into my mind. Okay Reggie, get it together, you don¡¯t need to be laughing in fear all the way back to the Nagas¡¯ settlement. I should ask Laomati if she was able to get Brastley to deliver the message, and if he got any reply.


    I start out, ¡°Lao, I¡¯m okay, I¡¯m worried about the family but I¡¯m finally aboveground. Did you get the messages sent? Any replies? How are you?¡±


    Laomati immediately replies, ¡°My dearest one, your message was so frightening, the wind serpent fellow sent your message along, but we haven¡¯t yet heard a reply. We know the recipient is well, Brastley and Szintoc that is, they are, they¡¯re both in our party display obviously. Oh I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m just so flustered. I¡¯m so grateful you¡¯re okay. Fawn, please, one moment, I have to tell Reggie that¨C¡±


    Argh! Are you kidding me?! Haha, hahaha. As if I didn¡¯t already have enough reason for hysterical laughter. It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay, Fawn was there, and she was in a playful mood, so nothing too life threatening is happening, or Laomati would call back immediately.


    Alright, back to the Nagas, our Umbral giant billiard ball at sonic speeds should get us there fairly quickly. I really want to try out those hulking forms out here, without the cranked electro senses and numbing, but we¡¯ll wait until after we¡¯re in a recuperatable area.


    I have a phoenix egg! What the heck!? I know I was trying to not freak out about it, and it doesn¡¯t have a normal timer, but wow! Okay, breathe Reggie, breathe. Actually, this may be a roc egg, or some sort of hybrid. Has a rocnix or phoeroc ever existed before? What would they be like? Would they want to return to their parents right away? Would they spawn with memories and knowledge like most critterkin?


    A few glides at subsonic speed, coupled with some time spent in supersonic Umbral sphere gets me to the Nagas¡¯ city quite handily. TQ is waiting for me at the top of the temple. It¡¯s caved in. That¡¯s going to make getting to the temple of time annoying if we ever reunite the six book owners.


    TQ gives me a message from Luni, ¡°Your Anchor left me with instructions for you. Why she thought I of all people would deliver them, I have no idea, but it does serve the greater purpose for you to know. You have to go back to the Fairies and begin building what she said you¡¯d help build. You won¡¯t be seeing Lil or Lucky for quite some time. The Nagas won¡¯t join right away, don¡¯t try to convince them or tell them about anything, not yet. Most of them won¡¯t make it if you try to convince them to leave now. It¡¯s your choice. Lastly, if you want any chance of seeing Linti after all of this is over, she can help get more of them to the sanctuary when it¡¯s finally time to move. In that option, you won¡¯t see her for a very long time. Or she can stay and fight with us, and in the end, you will never, ever see her again. Regardless, leave the Nagas¡¯ city without interfering with anything they¡¯re doing right now, don¡¯t take any of their time up at all.¡±


    I crumple to my knees in front of TQ. Luni, she, she¡¯s talking to me. Sort of. She hasn¡¯t forsaken us. My-Anchor. I love you. Whatever you¡¯re doing, whyever you¡¯re gone, I trust you. I¡¯m flooded with relief from having a message from Luni, but flooded with panic at knowing that I¡¯ll have to choose Linti¡¯s destiny, or put the choice in her hands. I know what she would pick if given the choice. I don¡¯t think I could stand the idea of never ever seeing her again. Is it right to not tell her though? No, it¡¯s not. But I can try to convince her that the other option is just as necessary.


    I¡¯m a little worried that I technically already had Brastley send the message, and Lu said not to tell them yet. The Nagas don¡¯t seem to be acting like people that know the world could be ending. Instead they¡¯re rebuilding the temple mostly. Many of the Nagas left don¡¯t have strong magics, or any magics. They were ones that were protected by Lluxop and Rastoc, or in their homes during the attack, or fortuitously brought from the industrial sector to help tend the wounded just before the bombs went off in their workplaces. My aura-toxin-induced blindness is mostly wearing off, I guess my body isn¡¯t going to adjust to it permanently. I do still have a few vials of the toxin yet though. I wonder if I can manage to alter my biology for my eyes to have the toxin naturally produced at the lowest level. I¡¯d probably need toxin conjuration as a skill, in which case I could just make more vials of the toxin.


    Alright, regardless, I can be back with my family in short order. But why won¡¯t I see Lucky or Lil? Wait, are they staying here to tunnel out the temple? Hm, I guess that makes sense. I could probably just melt our way down to it if I get Jaz to finish helping me bring my acid generation skill above zero.


    As I arrive at the Miracle Oak that houses the Faeries¡¯ settlement, most of my family is present, though the Lavaborn Alliance is still miles behind. It seems my family came ahead to begin setting up the settlement as best they can. They seem to be digging a ditch around the Miracle Oak, as well as a segment that heads off east, towards the coast? Do they want a canal? I suppose that¡¯s the best way to ensure that we have fish spawns, if our lake is technically connected to the ocean where they occur naturally.


    Things might just work out. I just need to convince one of the three other gods to avoid or fight off the entity¡¯s influence.


    Lao meets me as I land, and she gasps at my stump of a hand. I had better never tell her how many limbs I lost over the last few days.


    Lao exclaims, ¡°We haven¡¯t heard from Lil or Luni, Lucky is missing, Teuila only stopped by momentarily a day or two ago without exchanging many words, we¡¯re getting frightfully worried!¡±


    Oh, whew, I mean, normally Lao¡¯s news would be catastrophic and heartbreaking for me, but I know where at least three of them are.


    I respond, ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay. Lil and Lucky are with the Nagas, I think they¡¯re underground, hard working and busy, because the Naga society was damaged. Lil is looking after two of their sweethearts, Dehlia and Dehlia. Dehlia¡¯s in a coma. Luni though.¡±


    I heave a sigh, ¡°Luni needed time away from the family when I killed Mataalii. She went west. Out west I saw another family of otters, and one of them I swear was Penina. I know it would be cruel to plant false hopes, but I swear on my life that the pearlescent coat and vibrant violet eyes and even the shell were the same.¡±


    Lao drops to her knees, ¡°You, you what? You¡¯re sure? Both of those things?¡± She grips at my clothing, tugging on my top feebly, fighting back tears of mixed emotions.


    I embrace Lao as best I¡¯m able to in my current position and condition. We have a lot of catching up to do. I apparently have to finish some things around here before I seek out Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending.

 B3 C 33: A Canal Until Tenith Grayl

    <h2>B 3 C 33: A Canal Until Tenith Grayl</h2>


    Lao blubbers in my arms, and I stroke the back of her head while she kneels before me. That was a lot to dump on someone. It was incredibly insensitive of me not to try to find a way to break all of that news slower. Though we do have the end of the world bearing down on us, so time is a precious commodity in some ways. We just don¡¯t know exactly when it is, or I would be more judicious about various uses of time.


    Even with my limbs reattached by transformation magic, the areas where the bones were sheared are incredibly, painfully fractured. It¡¯s going to take some time actually resting in order to let natural regeneration knit them back together appropriately. I don¡¯t want to have to tell Lao or any of the others about that though.


    I¡¯m concerned about Teuila having stopped by without mentioning where she¡¯s going. Linti isn¡¯t here or in the Nagas¡¯ city either. My best guess is that Te asked Linti to take her to the coast to find out if Penina was really reborn. She probably didn¡¯t want to get Lao¡¯s hopes up, like I just did accidentally. I think Teuila¡¯s safe speed is something like a fifth, maybe a quarter of the speed of sound right now, while Linti¡¯s speed is darn near mach levels. I can only break mach speeds when using a ton of mana and layering several spells together. Even when I do that, I can¡¯t see where I¡¯m going, I have to take an educated guess based on my natural sense of direction if I want to do it safely.


    I begin to speak up, ¡°Lao, I¡¯m so sorry for springing that all on you. I¡¯m so sorry. I was being insensitive. I¡¯m sure that¡¯s why Teuila is gone, and Linti too. I¡¯m sorry that Lil and Lucky are with the Nagas, but I¡¯m sure what they¡¯re doing is very important to helping us finally have a safe home. I don¡¯t know if it would ease your mind or worry you more to know this last bit. Luni used the last phoenix feather on Mataalii after I slew him. She captured him though, and took him away somewhere.¡±


    Lao looks distraught, and concerned, perplexed even. She queries, ¡°Our little Luni did what? I can hardly bear the thought of what you had to do, but then she went and, and, what? Tell me that you understand what¡¯s going on dear child, please?¡±


    I try to exhale calmly through my nose before speaking, ¡°I won¡¯t lie to you, by claiming I understand what¡¯s happening. But I will tell you that I have every faith in Luni and her actions. Faith beyond measure, beyond compare. Somehow, in some way, she is doing what¡¯s right, or the closest thing she can to what¡¯s right, for the greatest good. She had faith in me too, she always called me her hero.¡±


    I pause for a breath but hold up a finger, ¡°I¡¯m not the real hero though. Luni is. You and Agwai are for keeping our family together. Teuila is for braving the emotional pain in case I was wrong to head west and find out for herself. Lil and Lucky are for taking on some task that¡¯s so great that I¡¯m not even allowed to know about it. Fawn is for providing an endless source of affection for her family and helping strengthen the ties that bind our critterkin and the humans. The twins, both sets of them are heroes, for continuing on in the face of what they¡¯ve lost. What you¡¯ve all lost. Linti is a hero for surviving an interspecies war, defending her family during it, and being willing and able to accept a peace later offered.¡±


    I squeeze Lao tightly as I continue, ¡°All of you marvelous, wonderful, amazing people have been my family this entire time, and any success you believe I¡¯ve had is only because of the contributions of all of you. Without your love, our constant wellspring of affection, the support in and out of combat and other trying times, I would never have made it this far. None of what has happened would be possible without each and every one of you. I¡¯m starting to really see that now. In the past I was frequently self deprecating, and often trying to be humble. But now I honestly understand for certain just how vastly we needed the help and inspiration of each and every one of you to make the choices we made, to have reached this point. Any victory belongs to all of us.¡±


    I frown and look away, avoiding eye contact, ¡°Even Mataalii.¡± I then mutter, ¡°Luni really had her work cut out for her to keep all the pieces in place with me wandering around bashing into the edges of the puzzle all the time.¡±


    At the mention of my erstwhile brother, Laomati frets as she stands. She alternates between fanning herself and wringing her hands. I can see the concern in her eyes as she decides whether or not to praise me or affirm my beliefs or otherwise try to push more acknowledgement or recognition onto me. I shake my head, knowing what she¡¯s thinking. I don¡¯t want acknowledgement for my part in the things we¡¯ve accomplished. I¡¯m not here fishing for compliments. I never was, even when I was being self-deprecating in the past. I¡¯m trying to impress upon her how much we need one another, and how grateful I am that they are all who they are. I guess I could just say that.


    I kiss Laomati¡¯s cheek as I embrace her tightly one more time, then I step back to offer her breathing room and kiss her right hand, ¡°Lao, I am so unbelievably, incredibly grateful for you, and all of my family. Life is only fulfilling because you¡¯re in it, each of you. I aim to keep it that way.¡±


    Lao frets, ¡°But all this talk of gods and world-ending disasters, I just. I know that you can be a tad self sacrificial and melodramatic, and assumptive. But I trust you to never speak falsely. Is all this real? How do you intend to beat them?¡±


    I smile and try not to chuckle, ¡°It¡¯s real, and I don¡¯t. I plan to talk to them. For once, I¡¯m not the wrong person to talk to others. Deckard, Lord Agni that is, he was willing to listen, but he was in a prime location for the, the.¡± I gulp as terror grips my heart, I clutch at my chest as my vision narrows and tunnels, ¡°Red Eyes.¡±


    I sink to my knees as my heart pounds thunderously in my ears, threatening to erupt from within. I spiral into day terrors as I relive so many hallucinations and nightmares and actual moments of terror related to the horrid entity.


    I come to at some point that must be at least several minutes later. I find myself in Lao¡¯s lap, as she¡¯s stroking my hair and forehead, cooing softly in comfort. I cough for a moment as I get my bearings. I catch Lao¡¯s hand for a moment to hold it, before I drag myself to a seated, then standing position, and offer her a hand up. Apparently I dropped into cherubic Reggie form at some point in the last few minutes.


    I joke, ¡°So, a little birdie told me that you proposed to Agwai. Lil didn¡¯t know what kind of proposal, but I have the broken human society memories. Is it a marriage proposal? Were you gossiping with Bettie at some point? I imagine she would be one to talk about marriages.¡±


    Lao smiles briefly. She¡¯s momentarily no longer fretting over me or over the grand scale of the current goings-on in the world. Laomati nods, ¡°Yes, it is precisely that. Obviously we haven¡¯t chosen when we would have any sort of celebration or ceremony or whatever is called for, we would wait until things in our little world are settled and stable at the very least. It would be nice to have a Shellcracker family house again, I¡¯d settle for a cave in a dam. I¡¯d rather not be borrowing some human¡¯s tent or some Fairies¡¯ home.¡±


    I grin, ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do about speeding that process along at least. I think Luni wants me to help build a moat, or canal, or orchard, or various things to help stabilize a larger populace around here. When that¡¯s handled I should be able to find some parcel of land for Sugar and Spice to set up a home just for us. When you say Shellcracker family, are the cat tribe included in that? I know Linti offhandedly called her family Shellcrackers, and I¡¯m fond of them, but I wouldn¡¯t want to impose, even on their behalf.¡±


    Lao cups my cheek, ¡°Of course they are, my beautiful child. I¡¯d like to say we¡¯d never turn away someone who has earned your, or any of our affection, but our family is quite large already for a home as small as we had at our beloved pond. At the very least, they are of course Shellcrackers already.¡±


    I smile as I get another idea, ¡°Who says it has to be as small a home as we had at the pond? Spice loves to design things. I bet he¡¯d be ecstatic to design a larger home. I bet he could even design it to be future proof or something, easy to expand upon in case you ever decide to add more family members. Spice enjoys the challenge of designing things I bring up, I think.¡±


    Lao smiles brightly in response, ¡°Indeed he does. Still, a heart such as mine, I thought for so long I had only kept such a tiny piece of it. It felt bursting at the seams to welcome you and Lil into our family, I was overjoyed, and then the wave struck again, tearing more of my beloved children from me. I barely thought I could even manage to carry on, let alone ever have space in my heart to welcome new family members ever again. Then the journey was fraught with peril, and we welcomed Sugar and Spice. Despite all of the surrounding events, it felt like my heart was mending, and growing once again to be able to accommodate loving more wonderful family members. Even though it seemed as if you had been taken from us on some level. We held onto hope, believing in you.¡±


    Lao strokes my cheek as she takes up a forlorn gaze, staring into the distance over my shoulder, ¡°You returned to us, and our life at the pond became pure bliss. I thought for sure, that was the happiest I could possibly be. Moreover, an entire miracle happened within the pond. For certain, my heart was as full and mended as it could ever become, after all it had suffered. Somehow, months and months later you return with news of humans in the west, and danger. We prepare to lose it all, and though we do, we somehow gain hundreds of cousins. They¡¯re all a loose family, all seeking a place in the world, lost and unused to even being allowed to live. They needed so much love and guidance. I wasn¡¯t certain I could help any of them, but I¡¯ve made such wonderful friends from the experience. Some day when you aren¡¯t so burdened with responsibilities I¡¯ll need to introduce you.¡±


    Lao sighs wistfully, ¡°Then further still, a beautiful family comes to walk alongside ours from one of your adventures, and further, yet more join us as serpents upon your return. Upon your return, the beautiful ones we¡¯d become accustomed to calling close friends suddenly deigned to call us true family. We are truly blessed beyond all reason. My heart has swelled so far beyond the losses at Shellcracker Rocksmasher beach. It still aches to think about its losses, yet I couldn¡¯t dare risk begging for things to change. This life, and these loves, I could not see me giving them away for the entire world.¡±


    Laomati clutches her chest as she continues, ¡°Still though, to think that yet one more miracle may exist out there, someday to perhaps rejoin us. I fear my heart can¡¯t accept the possibility, it can¡¯t take any more surprises, or new loves. Yet perhaps it shall have to suffer such fates, if only to spring free with yet more joy in years to come.¡±


    Lao motions me to the side for a moment and we kneel near a tree. She answers a doubt that has lingered in my mind for close to two years at this point, ¡°We wouldn¡¯t have, none of us. I went over it in my head, time and time again, how far inland we ended up, we would not have survived the Night of High Water if we hadn¡¯t met you.¡±


    At first I was uncertain what she was explaining, until she mentioned the night itself. She explains further, ¡°We were reluctant to move further inland than absolutely necessary, we would have returned close to the beach after hunting. The magnitude of the second wave was beyond anything ever imaginable. Now I believe I know why. Four of them, these god siblings you say? I assume one is of the waves, water, or seas?¡±


    I nod as I sigh regretfully. Lao¡¯s assurance both hurts and heals my heart. I¡¯m hurt to be reminded of the night, my part in the deaths of some of our family. But to be told that none of them would have survived, that somehow because of me, possibly only because of me, my beloved family, those that are left, survived, I just, I can barely process it. I don¡¯t want to call Lao out or accuse her of lying, I¡¯d never do that. I believe that she believes this to be true. Maybe she¡¯s right. I hope such a thought goes to my heart though, and not my head. I don¡¯t need to be prideful about a possible success. Especially when it included massive failures and costs. But I could definitely use some soothing upon the wound that has infected my heart ever since that night.


    I sit quietly with Lao against the tree for a while longer, holding her hands with one of mine. Well, currently it¡¯s my only hand. I pause, waiting for one of my inner circle to laugh at my inner narrative correction, but no laughter comes. None of them are near. According to Luni, basically none of them will be near until the end. More or less.


    She didn¡¯t say Teuila would have to stay away, but if Teuila is bonding with Linti, then I likely won¡¯t see her again until the end. I don¡¯t want Linti to die. Luni makes it sound like there¡¯s some sort of future in this world, or the next, where we can see one another again after whatever big event must occur. But the way her message spoke of Linti, I can hardly bear the thought. She just joined our inner circle, she¡¯s bonding fast with Luni and Teuila. It isn¡¯t fair that we might, no, will, lose her forever if she chooses to aid us.


    I wonder if I should tell Brastley not to contact Szintoc after all. Maybe his message was intercepted somehow? Yeah, I¡¯ll go tell Brastley that it was a semi false alarm. TQ said that Luni told me not to tell the Nagas anything until near the end. I¡¯ll explain that while some big things are happening, we¡¯ll have to deal with it all at a later date anyway. Alright, now that Brastley knows what¡¯s up, or at least what I¡¯ve shared, I¡¯m less afraid of breaking Luni¡¯s trust.


    For now, I¡¯ll try to follow Luni¡¯s instructions. Apparently I¡¯m supposed to help construct this moat, and a canal. It¡¯ll be a little tedious and tiresome, but otherwise not too difficult. In a few weeks, we should be able to do it. After that time, my limbs should finally stop hurting, mostly. I might even have my hand back at that point. I wonder what the best method of carving a groove into the land from here to the sea would be. Freezing and shattering it? Firing ultra high density massive velocity umbral shots? Could I equip the mite-hulk-busting exoskeletons and excavate? What about melting the soil beyond glass into lava to let the lava drift out to sea? Hm, no, definitely not that last one. What about simply claiming massive amounts of soil to my inventory, then shunting it off to the side somewhere? I¡¯m my own personal backhoe.


    Once again, I wait for Luni to snicker across our mental wavelength, but no laughter comes. It¡¯s so lonely inside my own head with none of the others nearby. I sigh as I stand. I kiss Lao¡¯s forehead and whisper my gratitude and love to her as I seek out whoever is in charge of the canal effort.


    It¡¯s easy enough to find and meet them. The ones in charge of the canal effort are a nymph named Teodora, and none other than Spice and Magnus themselves. They¡¯re working to design an efficient way to construct and deploy the reinforcements we¡¯ll need so that the moat and canal don¡¯t erode over time. Teodora is basically the head engineer around here I suppose. Spice seems fairly enamored of her or her ideas, one way or the other. That doesn¡¯t seem to sit too well with Sugar or Magnus. I feel bad for them, but I don¡¯t quite understand jealousy either. I get the tiniest twinges of envy once in a while. Like right now, I¡¯m mildly envious of Linti and Teuila being together on an adventure, but I¡¯m also happy for them to at least have each other. I feel bad that Lil is in the Nagas¡¯ town when it¡¯s all shambles, and Dehlia is in a coma. Lil has Lucky at least, but I don¡¯t know how well they get along. Then there¡¯s Luni, I guess I¡¯m a bit envious of Mat that he is with her somewhere, but it seemed like she was going to beat the living tar out of him and keep his face planted in that book, so that¡¯s probably nothing to be too envious of. Yeah, I just don¡¯t understand jealousy I guess. I can¡¯t tell Magnus or Sugar how they should respond to, or process their emotions though.


    They¡¯re focusing a lot on anti erosion efforts. It¡¯s odd though, until recently, it seemed like there was no such thing as decay or erosion in our world. Rocks didn¡¯t even seem to be sedimentary. Lava could magically flow up to the edge of a lake and stop there, cool, more lava could arrive, melt the previous lava, cool, and never increase the size of the lava deposit. Is it proximity to humans that makes our world behave more like the one in my memories? Will we one day all become ¡®of blood¡¯ simply by proximity? I enjoy our digital, ageless nature. I don¡¯t really want to join the life cycle of humans. Mostly I don¡¯t want my family to join the life cycle of humans. I think as long as we remain ¡®rezzers, they won¡¯t die from anything like age unless they choose to self actualize becoming old, feeble, and infirm. That¡¯s my hope anyway.


    I¡¯m almost positive at this point that I¡¯m ageless, along with Lil and Luni. TQ basically admitted as much about my own life span anyway. Teuila might or might not be a part of that bond due to her twisted spiked tether that she shared with Lil which was wrapped around my heart during the dam. Similarly, if I had finished what I intended to with Linti, if Teuila was able to join, then Linti would be ageless as well. I wasn¡¯t able to complete that tethering process however. So, at least for Linti, the point is moot. I really hope agelessness through self actualization applies to all ¡®rezzers though.


    Spice and Magnus are both grateful for my company, and my magics. This last few days of adventure have nearly doubled the potency of some of my magic, and more than doubled others. For example, my lightning enhanced reaction speeds are now over eight percent quicker when I¡¯m able to sustain the electrokinesis within my body, and the cost to sustain it has dropped significantly. I mean, I haven¡¯t even had electrokinesis all that long ago now. I developed that with Linti¡¯s help at the shores of the ruined frontier of Geawerene. I wonder if the city itself even had a name. I wouldn¡¯t bother naming a town that was just going to be a new frontier meant to encompass an entire small island continent. I¡¯m sure the humans thought they were going to eventually expand and make the whole thing a single city state.


    Anyway, about the canal, I¡¯ll be able to draw into my inventory loosely packed earth in a massive rectangular prism in a single summoning. It will take all of my inventory at once, then I¡¯ll have to meditate for a fair amount of time. Still I can basically scoop dozens of thousands of cubic feet worth of dirt per pool of mana, to the depth and width that we want the canal at. If I¡¯m doing my approximate math right, it¡¯s something like sixty or so feet wide, about three quarters of that deep, and about fifty miles from here to the nearest point of the beach, a small cove to the east. In meters I think that¡¯s about twenty wide, and thirteen or fourteen deep. I¡¯m not sure why I know numbers and conversions, since we don¡¯t even really have units of measurement. We all vaguely understand math to varying degrees, most of us are capable of algebra and trigonometry, although Spice more so than anyone else I¡¯ve met.


    Regardless, it will be slow going because of how deep and wide they want it, and I¡¯ll have to rest frequently, or at least meditate after every single inventory load. If I¡¯m claiming the soil to my inventory, and expelling it from my inventory, each action would take about half of my mana, then I¡¯d have to rest. At least the movement process itself would be basically instantaneous. Now that I¡¯ve arrived, Teodora and Spice are ordering a change of plans for the other workers. They¡¯ve stopped bothering trying to dig, and are all working on the reinforcements at the moment, and some are heading to the coast to build the dam and locks that will let the sea flow to our moat. I feel like they¡¯ve put a bit too much faith in my ability to clear a massive amount of land.


    By my estimate, it would take me about a week and a half to four weeks straight of summoning soil, expelling it, and resting, to reach the coast. Do we really have this kind of time? Let alone any time I spend taking breaks or sleeping. I trust Luni, and I¡¯m glad for any time I get to spend with my family, but we know for a fact at least one elemental god is under sway to proceed towards its destiny, and another one is being swayed. Still, if it took months for Leviathan, the weakest to fall under sway of the entity, then perhaps there is hope. I base this on the fact that Leviathan didn¡¯t start flooding the coasts immediately after I spawned.


    From what I¡¯ve gleaned about how things happened, the obelisks were destroyed, sending the entity back in time to my beginning. They possessed the first blue sphere near me, and I defeated that accidentally. I was in too much panic and too upset over its death to take note of exactly what happened as it was derezzing. It likely went south, spreading its influence while seeking out something that would definitely kill me. It must have missed the serpent, but found Leviathan somewhere dormant beneath the seas, and spent weeks or months awakening it. Perhaps it did manage to entrap the serpent for a time, and it learned about Leviathan from the serpent, or something. Maybe the bullies knew, or maybe it found some Nagas.


    One way or another, the entity sought out Leviathan not long after I spawned, then worked to rouse him. Since the Shellcrackers had only just suffered their losses a few days prior to my arrival at the coast, that puts the timetable at bare minimum, several days to rouse Leviathan, the weakest amongst the siblings. More likely, since I didn¡¯t see the entity in all that time, it was the entire duration of my early adventures with Lil. I should really get out some paper and figure out how long I¡¯ve been experiencing linear reality at this point. I¡¯m a tad confused between the times I¡¯ve spent checked out or recuperating, or all the time I spend in accelerated thinkspace, or all the logs I have from futures that I didn¡¯t have to live through, sort of.


    Anyway, let¡¯s see, if I work from dawn until dusk, and eat as I meditate, making no time for anything else other than sleeping from dusk until dawn, it should take about two to six weeks to complete the canal. If I could somehow go without sleep, I¡¯d be done in just about a week and a half. I¡¯m not certain I have the dedication to do this in the quickest possible time. I definitely don¡¯t have the motivation, concentration, and energy to be able to do it without sleeping. Plus, I still want to catch up with, praise, and share my love with my family. I will likely gain quite a massive amount of skill while doing this, so the time it takes to complete it will be somewhat less than my current estimate, but I have no way to know by how much.


    One benefit to me doing this, is that I can place the excess soil how I want it, and how I want it is a massive wall around the outside of the illusory circle of the Miracle Oak. I¡¯m also going to have to make several trips for lumber, or foist that job off onto Bettie and Sir Reginald to organize some critterkin to acquire it.


    I¡¯d also like to check out the dungeons Teuila and Luni mentioned. If there happens to be good hunting nearby, we could help keep everyone in high spirits as we settle into our new life together. Still, I feel like between my time on Lord Agni¡¯s back, and digging this canal, I¡¯m going to reach a new plateau of power where my skills won¡¯t greatly increase again until some other arbitrary thing happens. Maybe it¡¯s my level? It has been steadily climbing, faster than all of my loved ones. Lil and I thought it had to do with years of experience when we first met, but that can¡¯t be right. What if it¡¯s like a videogame? Have I been hogging all the experience? No, no I think that all three of us were credited whenever we did something major together.


    I wonder if I could convince Jazharn to help with the canal, or if not that, to at least spray me with acid as I dig it, so that I can acquire acid generation. Maybe I can convince all three of the human mages that know me to attack me while I¡¯m digging the canal. I¡¯m trying to optimize every second that I can, between now and the end of the world. I also want to fit in as much love, and snuggling as possible during that time.


    I wonder if my time power has different uses. If I could pause time around my family, to let us have more time together while the outside world is on hold, I¡¯d do that in a heartbeat. It would be sort of like sharing my inner circle¡¯s accelerated thinkspace with each of them. Still, as far as applications of the time power though, I know I¡¯ve heard messages from future me, and I know that I¡¯ve sometimes come back to the past, based on my logs. I feel like I might be able to send my consciousness into the past, possibly to those times where I thought I was on autopilot, or checked out entirely. I think that¡¯s how I had those short conversations at times in my life, well, I suppose I knew how I would reply to myself, so I could have just sent messages in response to those replies. Still, during the times when I was withdrawn into my mind, when Reggie was still operating, maybe I sent my consciousness back and piloted the earlier me. Did I do the same thing to Luni? Did I send her consciousness into the past, with instructions to only share what she needed to share, when she needed to share it?


    That would possibly explain the various introverted-extroverted flips that could happen even mid sentence. Maybe. I¡¯m not sure. Lu is her own special kind of person, maybe anything and everything that I think I know, I don¡¯t actually know.


    Anyway, Jaz has agreed to blast me with acid so long as Dream comes to watch and laugh about it. Similarly, Adom has agreed to continue poisoning my food and drink. I knew it was Adom. What else can I set up before I commit to this? I could try out the mite-hulk-busting exoskeletons.


    Eugh, okay, as I feared, I can¡¯t manage to fight off whatever alien impulses and creepy parasitic feelings are trying to work their way into my system without the infinite mana of Lord Agni. The drain on my mana is just too great to shut down all those weird nerve impulses, or counteract them, or whatever one would use to describe firing electricity at other electricity and weird alien cells to stop them. That¡¯s just the smaller of the two mite-hulk exoskeletons. The king exoskeleton is more impressive, and drains me even faster to try to fight off its sickening signals. I wonder if I can work out some sort of transformation that keeps the parasitic symbiotic cellular signals at bay permanently, without needing to drain my mana. These things would be an incredibly valuable combat form if the king skeleton lasted more than a minute before draining my mana, or the smaller one lasted more than three minutes. That¡¯s with all of my current skills, however they apply.


    I almost wish I could peer into the rules behind the skills. If I could figure out what the numbers mean, or do, I could aim for specific values. If I had a lifetime without threat, I¡¯d probably ask Lil to analyze a bunch of human mages for me, to get me the numbers on their abilities, and then I¡¯d compare my own attempts at the same abilities. That might give me a leaping off point to try to figure out coefficients. All this weird knowledge from fakeworld, and yet it has provided me with entirely new magics on at least two occasions. It also gave me the ideas for multi-stage rocket-like propulsion.


    If I want my hand back, and I do, I¡¯m going to have to take it easy for a few hours a day and just work on reshaping it with transformation magic. I guess I¡¯ll start on that as soon as I ask Sir Reginald if anyone is willing to make trips for lumber. I have to continually beg and remind people not to cut down the trees. I¡¯m more certain than ever that they¡¯re somehow tied to the weak lifestream of our land, the leylines I¡¯d seen beneath the planet. Every time I pull off a massive effect, swathes of the forest die. In essence, their existence is at the very least, our last line of defense. I could try to use up all the flora on the island in some crazy last ditch effort to stop whatever is happening. Though I¡¯m afraid that would kill and rot the land, causing it to crumble into the sea. I¡¯d really rather not risk that happening. I wonder if the Miracle Oaks purify the ley lines, or produce energy into the ley lines, or if they feed from the ley lines and store energy. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever be able to find out.


    Wait, I¡¯ve got plenty of lumber at the moment from when I last passed through the dam, I sort of passively stole a bunch of lumber from the excess tunnels without even realizing it. I don¡¯t even remember grabbing all of this. Would this be enough to set up respawning lumber tunnels in a dam beneath our settlement? We might not even have to have anyone make trips to the beaver dam. We might even be able to shelter and house them if they want to join us! What¡¯s more, if we find clay below, we might even be able to coax it into becoming a respawning resource point if we build a room correctly around it, with Spice¡¯s ingenuity. Possibly stone as well, I¡¯m not certain. I have to bother Spice and Teodora about this right away, to see if they can work it into their plans.


    Approaching the pair, I see Spice gazing appreciatively at Teodora as they speak, and Magnus is standing nearby looking mildly perturbed, possibly from jealousy. I wave to announce my presence, not wanting to interrupt. Magnus excitedly rushes my way, arms wide open for a hug. I chuckle and smile as I give Magnus a one-armed hug, not wanting anyone to make a big deal about my left hand currently.


    I mumble, ¡°Hi Magnus, good to see you. A lot of things happening all at once these days, huh?¡±


    Magnus nods, ¡°Yep yep, I¡¯m so glad you made it back though, but what about all the others? Your mom was worried sick.¡±


    My brain fritzes for a moment. Why does Magnus have a concept of calling someone a mom? I suppose we have been around humans for a while, he could have heard Bettie talking about family relationships. Some of us view certain others as siblings, but our only relationship with previous generations is calling them elders. I don¡¯t like humans rubbing off on critterkin. Human society kind of sucks, at least in my memories, and well, it was pretty bad in Geawerene¡¯s frontier town as well. Oh, right, Magnus is awaiting a reply.


    I respond, ¡°Linti and Teuila are enjoying each other¡¯s company somewhere, I think probably out west. Lil and Lucky are with the Nagas, Lil¡¯s sweetheart there took a head injury, so Lil is staying to look after them. Luni, ah, Luni is trying out a solo adventure, sort of. Everyone¡¯s okay though, we can see their stats panels just fine.¡±


    Magnus nods along enthusiastically. I really hope he¡¯s not still stuck in that hero worship phase. I have to keep reminding everyone that it¡¯s not me. I bumble along and happen to have everyone else¡¯s help. I need everyone else¡¯s help to make it through all of these crazy events. I give him another quick squeeze and break off our embrace to approach Teodora and Spice as their conversation seems to be approaching a lull.


    I jovially call out, ¡°Hello esteemed engineers and architects. I don¡¯t mean to add any more to your plate, but I was wondering how you had planned to get enough lumber, stone, clay and so on, to continue filling the needs for fifty miles of trench reinforcement?¡±


    Spice rubs the back of his head and Teodora avoids eye contact a moment before Spice replies, ¡°We were sort of hoping you and your inner circle would be making runs for us to the warrens at the dam. Your inventory magic holds more than any of us could carry, even in a large squad. It turns out some more of ours either have, or are gaining inventory magic spontaneously. We¡¯re not quite sure what¡¯s causing it, but looking at your page, yours is literally thousands and thousands times more capable than theirs.¡±


    I let half a frown play at my face. I can¡¯t be everywhere at once. It takes mana and time to rocket across the landscape, more mana and time to swim beneath the river and claim a ton of lumber, more to return, and so on and so forth. All of that mana and time could be spent furthering the digging effort. If I had a few years of training, I could maybe duplicate myself like I did in the one timeline in the temple of time. I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s actually possible, or if it was some sort of best guess training illusion though. Still, I don¡¯t have to be upset at anyone about this, since I have my own solution in mind.


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I reply, ¡°As much as I enjoy helping out, I¡¯ll have my hands full doing the digging. I should be able to finish the entire moat off today more or less, but I was wondering if either of you had thought about creating respawning lumber warrens beneath our own moat? I know we¡¯d have to watch out for our Miracle Oak¡¯s root structure, but I think I have enough supplies on hand to help craft the basics so that the warrens could begin to self propagate the lumber respawn, if it works like the fish. I know that the MCF was doing it in secret, adding additional tunnels. I think if we find a clay deposit, or high quality stone, we might even be able to make an underground quarry that refills daily. Am I being ludicrous? Does this have any chance of working?¡±


    Teodora and Spice exchange a look as they flip to empty pages in notebooks we¡¯ve obtained from the shops and begin scribbling calculations and diagrams.


    Spice sighs as his shoulders droop, Teodora double checks his figures and nods. She sets a hand on his shoulder as he responds, ¡°We would need a vast amount of lumber just to set up self propagation. You know we need to hit a critical mass point for things to generate their own spawn points beyond the norms. Still, it would pay off within a few days once we got it constructed, but we¡¯d need everyone working on it around the clock, or you constructing most of it nearly entirely by yourself.¡±


    I query, ¡°How much are we talking about? Is twenty thousand or so units good enough? I think each unit is a gross of poundage or tonnage or something.¡±


    Teodora interrupts me, ¡°Excuse me, how much lumber did ye say ye have onhand?¡±


    I could swear her voice has an accent, from some place on an island off the north side of one of the smallest continents in fakeworld. What was it, Sco something? Ire something? Still, she asked a question, so I check through my inventory to confirm, ¡°Looks like about 4500 units of birch logs, 7000 units of oak logs, 9000 units of maple logs, more or less, a few hundred less than each of those but some other wood types that I don¡¯t actually know all that well. I really don¡¯t know what inventory units measure, whether it¡¯s volume, or weight, or some abstract number of pieces of something. I¡¯ve never had scales and measures to be able to find out. I guess they¡¯re all half logs, because of the way they spawn on the walls of the warrens, a flat cut through the diameter as if they just grow that way, but you get the idea.¡±


    Teodora and Spice both clamor over one another with excitement to order, ¡°Show me!¡±


    I¡¯m about to ask where I should put them, and they indicate a vacant area with a single dryad milling about aimlessly. I feel a tad ashamed to be depositing lumber next to a dryad, but I¡¯ve been given an order. I test out by summoning a single unit, flat-faced down on the ground. If I had to estimate, I¡¯d guess it¡¯s around a hundred feet long, and three feet wide or so. I¡¯m all the more glad that my inventory is an extradimensional space, because I think this thing probably weighs a ton, like literally several thousand pounds. Teodora¡¯s eyes gleam, I¡¯m certain she understands this is only a single unit. Wow, this is going to take up a massive area to even unload. How the heck did I even get this many units of lumber? I know that I can blank out a bit in the beaver warrens due to my trauma in that area, but this is ridiculous. If I don¡¯t want to stack them too high, I can set them end to end lengthwise ten times, and then side by side three hundred times. Doing that, I¡¯ll take up a square that¡¯s roughly a fifth of a mile on each side, and I can lay them about seven deep on top of one another. I almost feel like I need to build a silo just to store these things in. If I can stack them safely to about thirty or fifty feet high, I can massively cut down the amount of ground space they¡¯ll take up. Okay, about a ninth of a mile in that direction, and about a fifteenth or sixteenth of a mile in that direction. It looks like I have clearance to do this. Let¡¯s start dropping these things out of my inventory into position.


    Ugh, did I just black out? Spice, Spice stop shaking me. I mumble, ¡°Spice, stop shaking me, I¡¯m up, I¡¯m up.¡± I guess that took more out of me than I thought it would. It probably dropped me into energy debt to unload them so quickly.


    I look around to get my bearings and spy the edifice that my inventory has wrought. That is an absolutely massive stack of lumber. That has to be millions and millions of pounds of wood. I gaze around half expecting someone to make a comment about heavy wood on my telepathic wavelength, and to snicker at it, but no telepathic waves arrive.


    Spice begins to ramble excitedly, ¡°Four or five loads like this, and we would have enough to complete the canal, another load for the moat, and another load for the warrens. If only we could get them dug today, we could use this load to stabilize the warrens and manufacture the spawns needed to generate at least a good fraction of this daily. We wouldn¡¯t need to bother you for lumber at all after a few days when it started generating. We¡¯ll need to go deeper with the moat though, and we¡¯ll have to make this sort of lip, yeah Tea?¡±


    Teodora agrees, ¡°Ach aye, if¡¯n yer wantin¡¯ tae flood yerselves out. Nay, I reckon ye cannae do it that way. Just go simple like. Make yerselves a lock and try tae keep the water out.¡±


    I blink, hearing Teodora¡¯s accent fully clearly for the first time. Her accent brings on a momentary mental BSOD as my brain fritzes out. Other than my inner circle goofing off once in a while, have I ever heard an accent in our world? We all speak in roughly the same manner. Well, this is a small island continent. Is Teodora from here? Do all nymphs speak with that accent? It is pleasant listening to her speak, I¡¯m sure Spice enjoys many benefits working alongside her.


    Spice interrupts, ¡°No no no, we¡¯ve been over this, the water won¡¯t rise past its own level. I¡¯ve lived in a dam before, remember? As long as we make a lip above the water level, we can tunnel where we like under it. With the lichen that grows with our lumber spawns, the oxygen stays fresh and pressurized enough that water at surface level pressure couldn¡¯t get in if it wanted to, unless someone drilled in directly from above. Ahem.¡±


    Spice clears his throat when he realizes he just brought up the events of the dam and that I¡¯m now hyperventilating. I barely even realized that I¡¯ve been fighting off panic for quite a while since I¡¯ve been back. I had to puzzle out Leviathan¡¯s possession, and we¡¯ve constantly talked about or thought about beaver constructions which remind me of the events of the dam. My whole body is starting to seize up, especially the muscles along my right inner bicep as they spasm and twist and twitch. My right hand claws uncontrollably, clenching at air as my wrist twists itself painfully. I stumble away to pant and gasp near the corner edge of this new lumber pile while they deliberate on construction requirements.


    I can feel Magnus¡¯s gaze alternating between me and Spice, so I wave him towards Spice even through my panic. I¡¯ll be fine, I just need to ride this out. I continue gasping and panting as I try not to be consumed by nightmares and day terrors, and eventually I find myself sitting calmly against the lumber stack, after likely several minutes of trauma-induced terrors.


    It sounds like they¡¯re done deliberating, so I just need to know what I¡¯ll be working on. Spice blushes but allows me to receive a pad of diagrams from Teodora. It seems like the two of them have combined their ideas, and I can see the benefits to both. I can get the basics done in about twelve hours. I should be done with the bare essentials of their plan by dawn. By then, their crews should be able to start handling the rest, then I¡¯ll put in a full day of digging the canal.


    As much as I want to catch up with more of my family, and spend time recuperating and cuddling, getting at least the basics of sustainability set up will have to take precedent. I huff as I sigh. Everyone is working so hard to start building a life together. The various species of the Fairies, the humans, our expanded critterkin party, my family.


    As for me? Well, there¡¯s no rest for the wicked, or so they say. I¡¯ll have to wait til tomorrow to start recovering the rest of my hand, and catching up with everyone. Twelve hours of monotonous inventory magic with a little bit of movement from place to place. At least I can put up a dirt wall around the lumber so that it doesn¡¯t get knocked over and end up flattening someone. It¡¯s also tedious enough and simple enough that I can shut my brain off for most of it. I don¡¯t even make any sound while doing it, so I¡¯m not at risk of keeping people up all hours of the night as if I were actually some rear end loader or backhoe or crane or other piece of heavy equipment from my broken memories.


    Ugh, how long have I been doing this? Everything is dark, and I hurt all over. I can see fine in the dark, it just means it¡¯s likely midnight or so. I guess I haven¡¯t eaten in a while. I can at least scarf down some insect meat or cragbeast meat while I sit to regenerate mana yet again. Oh jeez, I¡¯ve been running electrokinesis through my nerve endings this entire time enhancing my reflexes while I was just doing a repetitive task. I guess that¡¯s one way to raise my skill, and punish my body if I¡¯m not careful. Ugh, the muscles around all my joints ache like they¡¯ve been stretched to their limits, molded like putty, ripped apart and then put back haphazardly. Alright, come on Reggie, a few more hours of this to go, then we can start on the actual project we¡¯re supposed to be working on. We might be able to at least catch up with Jaz and Dream while we do that.


    Oof, I have a pounding headache. Still, I should be able to manage zoning out for a few more hours. Even if I mess up it¡¯s recoverable for the most part. Hey Reggie, why are you digging ditches? People need ditches. It¡¯s as simple as that. Oh no. I just realized something. We have humans. Humans do actually need ditches. We¡¯re going to need plumbing. I think I can create a drainfield relatively quickly, just another hour of activity or so. Have they all just been wandering off into the woods to do their business randomly until now? Filthy heathens. Okay that¡¯s probably rude of me, since I hadn¡¯t bothered to consider their needs.


    I¡¯m going to need to buy the forgeworks, the smelter, and all of those things I¡¯d seen in the shops that can move us into the metal age. We¡¯ll need at least some hollow tubes for plumbing. I might be able to duplicate them once we can craft a few, that should save on the amount of time it takes to actually produce them. I can maybe duplicate, uh, about twenty seven pipes at a time or something, maybe thirty or forty, if I¡¯m making umbral duplicates then claiming them, meditating while I wait out their five minute timers. I can create another few batches with the mana I regenerate while waiting on the first ones to stop being temporary copies. Am I going to have to invent toilets? The humans were used to chamber pots. There¡¯s no way that Geawerene is a computer age society if they¡¯re still using chamber pots. Where are these broken memories from?!


    Okay, that¡¯s the basics for a foundation for a plumbing drainfield, we can put septic tanks in here if we need, phew. I¡¯m only using magic, and walking around a bit, but it feels like every muscle on my body is being brought to their absolute limits over and over. I¡¯m starving again and it has only been an hour or so since the last time I ate. Heck, my eyes are drooping. Come on, I need to keep going. No rest for the wicked, no rest for the wicked, keep it up Reggie. You got this, remember? That¡¯s what Lu says.


    Okay, it¡¯s dawn and I¡¯m about an hour and a half behind still. I haven¡¯t finished off the prep to lay down the groundwork for the respawning lumber warrens, but people are beginning to mill about, starting their tasks or trying to find their places in society. I think I started bleeding randomly during the night, there¡¯s just a trail of blood from the lumber stack to the warrens and back. I mean, who else would be leaving a trail of blood hundreds of yards long on the path I¡¯ve been walking all night?


    Spice is running this way looking concerned. I wave as I smile and greet him, ¡°Hey Spice, almost done, sorry I haven¡¯t finished yet, I realized the humans are going to need plumbing, they have biological business that creates waste. It needs to be taken care of for everyone¡¯s health, or people could get sick. So I dug a massive drainfield. We don¡¯t have the pipes for plumbing yet, or a water tower, but now that people are waking up, I can buy the forgeworks and smelting furnace and so on from the shops. I¡¯m sure there are probably some people with smithing aptitude that would be glad to have them. They can work on creating some pipes, and then I¡¯ll duplicate those as needed.¡±


    Spice just stares at me, his eyes boggling, he finally responds, ¡°Reggie! What is wrong with you!? Do you not even see the state you¡¯re in!?¡±


    I look down, somehow I¡¯ve got lacerations near most of my joints. It looks like my muscles tried to burst out of my skin in those areas. They seem to be fine now, but I can cover them up with bandage gauze I guess. There, just some aloe covered bandages, good as new, more or less.


    I joke, ¡°I¡¯ve had worse.¡±


    Spice rolls his eyes as he facepalms, ¡°You look terrifying! You worked all through the night? What could possibly be so urgent that you¡¯d do this to yourself, instead of coming to bed to the cuddle pile?¡±


    I pout. I definitely wanted to join the cuddle pile. Has Lao not told anyone else? Did she tell Brastley what I actually said, or was she as vague as I was?


    I try to suss it out by asking, ¡°Spice, has Laomati told you anything about what I¡¯ve been up to the last week or so?¡±


    Spice responds, ¡°Something about a book, or some books, and dealing with that dangerous ex brother of ours. Why? Is he coming here? Do we need some sort of lava defenses against him? I know he attacked the contingent during the march, and Linti almost got hurt, but it sounded like you scared him off by barely lifting a finger. He can¡¯t be that much of a threat, can he?¡±


    Phew, I blow a breath out through puffed cheeks. How much should I let Spice know? Does he need that kind of worry on his plate? What¡¯s the right thing to do here? No, no, this is fine. I should never have dumped the world shattering revelations on Laomati. If she decided not to tell everyone, then that¡¯s how I should have handled this, and should handle this. No one else needs to change their lives. We either go on, and handle this, and things turn out okay, or we go on, enjoy our lives as we work hard to build a community, and the world ends. However this turns out, no one else needs to bear this burden. I¡¯m so sorry for putting it on Lao.


    I try to laugh it off, ¡°No, no, Mat¡¯s uh, well, he¡¯s not dead, not anymore anyway. But I don¡¯t think he¡¯s a threat anymore either. We had a big climactic showdown or something, some stuff happened, you know how it is. I got lost underground for a day or two or ten, I don¡¯t remember how long, dealt with some bug things that gave me those exoskeletons, and now I¡¯m back. I need to work hard to distract myself. I want our community to be sustainable as soon as possible, because I worry about tenuous relationships if humans keep getting sick from lack of protein, among other things.¡±


    Spice squints at me, not believing me entirely. He can tell I¡¯m telling the truth, because my aura probably gives away my desire to be honest. But it also probably gave away the fact that I was puzzling out what to say.


    I add, ¡°I love you Spice. I really appreciate you. You saved us, y¡¯know? That sieve with the empty reservoir? That was brilliant. You¡¯re right, I do want to rejoin the family cuddle pile. Tonight, if I don¡¯t accidentally pass out somewhere, I promise I¡¯ll come back. I¡¯m looking forward to snuggles.¡±


    Spice grumbles, ¡°You¡¯d better, or I¡¯ll send Sugar to hunt you down and drag you back.¡±


    I pale a bit at the threat. Sugar would probably knock me senseless and literally drag me back unconscious. The thought is mildly amusing though, and comforting even. My family misses me and loves me enough to fret about my wellbeing. That¡¯s enough motivation for me to keep plowing ahead for the rest of today at least. Good heavens though everything hurts so intensely.


    Ow, ow, ow, muscle spasms around my neck and spine do not feel good, nor do my eyelids spasming and twitching. Spice is muttering and grumbling as he stalks off to track down Teodora. Oh, Dream and Jaz are approaching, that¡¯s good. We can catch up while she melts my face off with acid. Uh, that was more gruesome of a thought than I intended. I just meant she can pelt me with low level acid spells to help finish getting my acid resistance up enough to learn how to generate it myself.


    I stop by the nearest shop as Jaz and Dream approach. I purchase the various forges, smelting furnaces, anvils and equipment we¡¯ll need for metal age construction. About half of the massive glob of lava that Mat threw at Linti during her survey mission is actually molten iron, so I can separate that out as well. I¡¯ll set this all over here near the lumber for people to move to whatever better location. Thankfully we can also buy coal and coke, so I don¡¯t need to worry about them needing wood on top of everything else for fuel for the metal processes. Jaz catches up to me as I finish.


    As I wave, Jaz calls out, ¡°Holy crickets Billie! Or, uh, Reggie. What was powerful enough to put you in this state?¡±


    I glance down again, my bandages are already starting to spot through with red, ¡°Oh, uh, me apparently. I guess I went a little too hard and heavy on mana use over the night. I¡¯m fine though, I¡¯ve had worse, much worse. Pretty recently in fact. But I don¡¯t care about any of that, I want to know how you¡¯re doing. Both of you. Dream, what¡¯s life like these days? Jaz, how are you two getting along?¡±


    Dream responds, ¡°She¡¯s nice, you¡¯re dumb, life is good. Also, thanks I guess. For helping to make sure we didn¡¯t have to walk forever.¡± She runs her hand over her scalp as she wears her familiar permanent scowl.


    She motions with her hands several times at Jaz, who smiles and nods before motioning back. That makes my heart soar with happiness for these two fantastic women.


    Jaz blushes as she answers as well, ¡°Yes, thank you, for whatever she thanked you for, but also for introducing us. We¡¯re, well, making it work. She¡¯s amazing, she¡¯s thoughtful, and kind, and patient with me. I¡¯m used to the military, patience isn¡¯t exactly something we receive a lot of. She saw that I could draw, and wrote down that she liked the detail I put into hands and expressions. She thought we could use some of them to communicate simple ideas, so she wrote some of them out on some of my sketches. It¡¯s been a process, but we come up with a few more each day, and we can always fall back on writing notes. For now though, this is my favorite one.¡±


    Jaz makes a sign towards Dream with her middle and ring finger down, her other fingers and thumb extended, palm outward towards Dream. I¡¯m pretty sure that means I love you. Dream blushing seems to confirm my suspicion. I¡¯m ecstatic for the pair of them. I know that some human romances don¡¯t advance to a stage where the pair are comfortable telling each other they love one another for quite some time.


    Jaz surprises me as she asks, ¡°Oh, oh you will be joining tonight, won¡¯t you? Dream says your family has been worried about you and your coterie. Oh I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m so sorry. Is that, um, is that an inappropriate way to refer to them? I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s offensive. I just mean to ask on behalf of your family for you to return to them. They miss you dearly and have been sick with worry. They¡¯re such tender, loving beings. They¡¯re so accepting and, well, I can see why you would prefer them over, well, pretty much anything and anyone else.¡±


    I adopt a wry smile as I wistfully sigh, ¡°You¡¯re right, they really are wonderful. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re getting a chance to experience that. I hope you¡¯re sharing that experience by telling others that we¡¯re all people, and that there are more ways to live and love than the ones in human society. I desperately desire safety and peace for everyone in the Lavaborn Alliance, and of course all these marvelous Fairies who have welcomed us into a new homeland.¡±


    My smile deepens as I continue, ¡°I¡¯m definitely looking forward to finally returning to the family tonight. I¡¯m in an incredible amount of pain, but I¡¯m fairly used to it at this point. I can dull my pain senses enough to keep going. As far as calling them a coterie, I don¡¯t mind, as long as you¡¯re not using it as some sort of offensive slang with human notions attached that imply abusing my loved ones. The things that were implied that humans did with their coteries, I just. Urgh.¡±


    I rattle my skull trying to shake loose the thoughts. The memory of three men in the poorer section of town that tried to ask for a price on renting Luni¡¯s company for a night sickens me. I¡¯m fairly certain my aura flashed hatred as both Dream and Jaz quailed momentarily. I feel bad for subjecting this sweet pair to even a momentary flash of my anger. I try to think calming, soothing thoughts that project how happy I am for their company as I continue my work.


    Jaz continues to chat happily as she blasts me with carefully regulated spells. She¡¯s surprised at how well I can already handle acid against my skin or scales, depending on the form I¡¯m in. I keep shapeshifting as much as I can spare the mana to do so throughout the day, trying to generate more and more of my left hand. I¡¯ve had to change out all of my bandages about once an hour, it feels like my wounds are aggravated by my mana use, as if I¡¯ve just blown some sort of channels to pieces that ran through my body, and I¡¯m not letting them heal up. If mana, energy, whatever we call it, felt like it traveled along my nervous system previously, now it feels like it¡¯s pumping outward from my heart in a radius. Or maybe from my brain, since my brain and head ache more than my heart.


    Jaz can¡¯t fill me in as much as I¡¯d like about the goings-on of my family, but she¡¯s happy to share what news she can. Apparently Dream has stopped being mentored by Winter in favor of pursuing a more idyllic lifestyle, and developing the communication method that Jaz and Dream share. Dream seems to be open to the idea of sharing that communication method with everyone else, so that humans and critterkin can finally communicate without needing to write. Gentle Ice is still apprenticing under elder Winter, working together with Winter and Alice anytime that the infirmary is up and running. The three of them are apparently getting to the point where they¡¯re writing in shorthand to communicate to one another more quickly. When Jaz shows me a sample of a message Winter wrote for her once, I have to stifle my laughter. It¡¯s almost completely illegible. There¡¯s a joke in fakeworld about doctor¡¯s handwriting being horribly hard to read, this seems to be exactly that.


    Apparently Arty, Art of Shadows, has been causing a lot of mischief amongst the humans. I worry that that could set back our path to a lasting peace, but it seems that at least most of the humans are taking it good naturedly. Branch is often found with Winter and Ice, seeming like they will take up an apprenticeship some day, or maybe they¡¯re just curious as their name Curious Branch implies. At least until they tire of that curiosity to move on to another one. Jaz blushes and deflects the topic when I ask about Fawns at Sunsets. Fawn really has that effect on people. Oy vey, my heart is fluttering thinking about it.


    Jazharn doesn¡¯t really know anything about my otter family, since Dream hasn¡¯t really cared to bother to get to know them. Dream doesn¡¯t have anything to say to Jaz about the otters, all Jaz knows is how welcoming they are that they accepted her with love and tenderness. I think she knows most of their names at least. Probably through Bettie.


    Brastley has been trying to teach more human mages wind magic, to little effect. Most humans seem to have only a single elemental affinity. Some soldiers who weren¡¯t mages do pick up enough that they can now speak to critterkin with wind magic, for a few minutes at a time anyway. Similarly, almost none of the critterkin possess noticeable magic. Basically no one other than the Nagas, Blossom, and my inner circle. I¡¯m positive that ¡®Naia, M^2, Sugar and Spice each possess some magic, at least in their outfits and equipment that spawned as part of their evolutions, but that¡¯s not the same as being able to learn a wind spell to communicate.


    We took several breaks for food over the course of the day, but even still, my eyes are crossed and I feel like I¡¯m starving. It¡¯s nearing nightfall, but I don¡¯t think I can do even another single load of inventory magic. I slump to my knees and topple forward, my wrists bending painfully inwards as my forearms brace me against the ground. I pant exhaustedly, and notice that my bandages are spotting heavily once more. Have I been making sure to keep hydrated while losing this much fluid? I think so. Yes, yes I have.


    It almost feels like my body can¡¯t handle this much power, and power usage. The exoskeletal bodies could handle infinite mana consumption and usage in rapid order. I wonder if I should just let the weird alien symbiotic parasitic feelings flow through me, and use those bodies instead of my own? The thought gives me the jitters though.


    Huh? What¡¯s going on? Oh, I think I¡¯m being dragged somewhere. Someone¡¯s rambling about needing to fix my hand or amputate it.


    I argue, ¡°Leave that alone, I¡¯m working on regenerating it. Watch, I¡¯ll make some progress right now.¡±


    I shapeshift up and down several times, and show off that I create another millimeter of bones and tissue, or somewhere around there. There are some startled gasps, but my vision is too blurry to see who is gasping at me. I imagine I must be in the infirmary though.


    I ask aloud, ¡°Am I in the infirmary? My vision is so crossed and doubled and blurry that I can hardly see. Are Winter or Ice here? One of them could let my family know that I¡¯m coming back to sleep this off. My body¡¯s fine. I¡¯m fine. I wouldn¡¯t object to fresh gauze, and perhaps some kind of coating ointment to keep the wounds from spontaneously bleeding on anyone, but I¡¯ve got that in my inventory and can do it myself.¡±


    A voice I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ve ever heard before, one that I think belongs to Gentle Ice shushes me, ¡°Hush now, at least give us the opportunity to mend some of these for you. How you managed to lacerate yourself from the inside out, I can¡¯t even imagine. Whatever you¡¯re doing, you had better stop it.¡±


    I frown and grumble, ¡°Sadly, I couldn¡¯t stop if I wanted to, it¡¯s too important. Sorry. I don¡¯t mean to be frustrating.¡±


    Hm, but if I¡¯m lacerated from the inside out, that does sound like the amount of progress I¡¯ve made with my max energy, or mana, and all of my skills recently was probably too fast for my body to handle. I mean, I made nearly as much progress in a day or two on Lord Agni¡¯s back as I¡¯ve made over most of the last year and a half. Well, within a sizable margin of error at least.


    Whoever is attending to my wounds mumbles, ¡°Your platelets have been working overtime to try to close these and you¡¯ve just been keeping them open haven¡¯t you? Honestly, how reckless. Your family has been worried sick when you¡¯re out on adventures, but you¡¯re just as much danger to yourself when you¡¯re around as when you¡¯re not. I suppose we can stitch or staple most of these. Can someone fetch Adom? We need some anesthetic and disinfectant.¡±


    Are they seriously thinking about letting Adom near me while I¡¯m wounded? They call me the reckless one? Hah. Still, if Adom is as specialized in toxins as Szintoc, or even relatively close, I could see him being able to provide anesthetic and disinfectant at least. He wouldn¡¯t actually poison me when I¡¯m in need of healing, would he?


    The answer is yes, yes he would. After Adom arrived, he listened to a few instructions, and began some magic to fill some vials, while sneakily coating some of my wounds in a mild toxic gas. I can tell this earned him several slaps and sharp glares. Thankfully Alice has a keen enough eye that she could see what he was doing, even though Adom¡¯s magic can be extremely subtle. I¡¯ll bet he¡¯s also making the anesthetic just a bit weaker than is being called for, so that when they dilute it, it will hardly work at all.


    Yep, ow, ow, ow. I bite my lips as they stitch various wounds near my shoulders, biceps, elbows, hips, knees, and other various heavily trafficked muscles and joints on my body. I¡¯m not sure if this says good things about Adom that he trusts me to pull through this just fine, since he¡¯s toying with me instead of helping, or if it says bad things in that he¡¯s a sadistic jerk.


    Ice is leading me to whatever building our family is currently staying in. That¡¯s good since I don¡¯t think I bothered to ask anyone, and can¡¯t see well enough to look around for it myself at the moment. Ice and Fawn are arguing over whether it¡¯s best to help me relax with cuddling to heal, or whether it¡¯s best if I have a lot of empty space around me and room to breathe, so that no one can bump me and accidentally reopen my wounds.


    I query, ¡°Do I get a say in this?¡±


    Ice hostilely responds that I do not, but Fawn demures herself to me. That is, Fawn reservedly offers me the voice in her stead. I thank Ice for her concern.


    I try not to chuckle as I state, ¡°Ice, Ice, thank you for your help, truly, honestly. What I want more than anything at the moment is to feel the love of my family close at hand. There are things going on and I need the psychological and physical comfort that I¡¯ll gain from a cuddlesome rest. I¡¯ll be fine, I know that I¡¯m ¡®of blood¡¯, but I heal like a ¡®rezzer. If I¡¯m not fine in the morning, I fully expect you to cuff me upside the head and drag me back to the infirmary by my ears. Although please don¡¯t do that.¡±


    I try to laugh off my last request, while I¡¯m certain that Ice is gazing at me in a cold appraisal. I can virtually feel her mildly-annoyed glare, but she relents. I offer her a hug and a peck on the cheek in gratitude, and I swear her cheeks are emanating heat. I don¡¯t think she normally gets much thanks for her aid in the infirmary.


    Jaz actually approaches me, she blushes and apologizes for her appearance, apparently she¡¯s wearing something of a nightgown, but I can¡¯t see it right now, so I tell her to pay me no mind.


    It¡¯s just now that I realize I feel displaced. With no Lil, Luni, Teuila, or Linti, I don¡¯t really have a place in our family¡¯s affectionate pile of love. I rub my itchy eyes as I stand there while everyone settles in. I hear Sugar, Spice, the Mana twins and Magnus on the far side of the room. I hear Laomati, Agwai, and Fawn near the center. I can hear Dream and Jaz in one corner, and various other cat family members peppered around the edges. I continue to rub my eyes, and realize I¡¯m not rubbing just itchy eyes anymore, I¡¯m rubbing away tears. Without my inner circle, I don¡¯t even truly belong with my family. I should just get back to digging and get this canal over with so I can go seek out Tenith Grayl. I gulp back a sob that I didn¡¯t realize was caught in my throat, and turn to begin leaving the building.


    I try to slip away quietly, it¡¯s easy enough since my stealth skill has been on the rise ever since I developed chromatophores and iridophores for my draconic form. Just as quietly though, I feel someone enter my proprioceptive range as wind from their swift movement brushes against the mini hairs along the back of my arms and neck. Someone reaches for my wrist, and I react poorly, grabbing theirs and ending up halfway into a shoulder throw before I stop myself. From their position half slumped over me, the individual wraps their other arm around me and kneels to hug me tenderly. I realize they aren¡¯t furry like the rest of my family. The only one in the room who is a trained warrior with the senses to notice me leaving is Jazharn. I nearly ripped her shoulder out of its socket with the intention to throw her as hard as I possibly could across the yard out the door.


    Yet here she is, patting my back and pointing me towards the center of the room. Jaz whispers, ¡°Come on, Reggie, Billie, whoever you want to be, they¡¯re still your family. I can¡¯t say I know what you¡¯re thinking, but they welcomed me, go to them.¡±


    I gulp as I inhale a ragged breath before sighing, ¡°I, I can¡¯t. My inner circle isn¡¯t here. I don¡¯t have a place without them. There are things going on in the world. Things I have to prepare for. It doesn¡¯t matter if I¡¯m hurting, physically or emotionally. It¡¯s just a blip, tears in a river, it doesn¡¯t mean much.¡±


    Jaz strokes her own shoulder and mutters, ¡°Whatever¡¯s going on with you, your family can¡¯t help if you don¡¯t let them. Knowing you, it¡¯s got to be something pretty big. Walking around with the weights of worlds on your shoulders can be taxing. Take a load off. You never know when you¡¯ll get another chance. If I could go back and just spend even one more night with Bart.¡±


    Jaz trails off as she chokes back a sob. I pat the thick of her back gently as I stand near her. I forget how much she has lost, how much all of the humans have lost. She¡¯s right of course, but where do I fit in? Magnus would probably hold me, but we¡¯re not really family in the way that I feel comforted and loved by. He¡¯s a sweetheart but I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever get over the fact that the reason he wanted to seek me out was from some notion of hero worship.


    I try to glance about the room and picture those that are here through my blurry vision. Spice and Sugar are family, sure, and Spice even said he¡¯d have Sugar hunt me down, but we¡¯ve never gotten more close than being basically therapy buddies. Ag and Lao are going to be married someday in the near future if the world doesn¡¯t end. I don¡¯t want to take up any of their time and love that they could be sharing with each other. Fawn is so enamored of Ag and Lao that I just want our three tribe leaders to be able to share their affection in peace. Elder Winter doesn¡¯t seem to enjoy affection. Six isn¡¯t even in the family home at the moment, nor is Blossom, I¡¯m guessing they¡¯ve found people they¡¯re bonding with outside of the family, like the human man and camel woman that Lil mentioned. Gentle Ice sleeps near Elder Winter, but aloof. Many of the cat family are aloof, I don¡¯t really know any of them that well beyond Fawn, Spring Blossom, Six Wind, and Linti.


    Also, as much as I care about them, I can¡¯t really be around the Mana twins without thinking about Mat. The ache that such thoughts would cause would be unbearable to try to rest through. I just don¡¯t see a place for myself in this family. I barely see a place for myself in this world. The temple of time seemed to teach me that, yeah, it taught me a thing that I don¡¯t want to think about. Maybe it was preparing me. If I can spare them the heartache and pain of losing one another, that¡¯s all that really matters to me.


    I mutter, ¡°I don¡¯t belong here, not really. They accepted me, but I think only because of Teuila. I¡¯m not an otter, I¡¯m not a human, I¡¯m not any of the Fairies¡¯ races. I¡¯m nothing but some weird discarded creature randomly stumbling through the dark that got lucky a few times. They¡¯re too loving and forgiving to cast me out, but look around. They have lives and loves that they deserve to go on with, without my stumbling back in, interrupting their lives every time I come back. Worse, each time I come back it¡¯s almost always in pain, needing comfort. You have a life and a love that you deserve to enjoy too Jaz. I want you and Dream to be as happy as can be for as long as possible. You¡¯re pretty great.¡±


    I can feel a scowl fighting its way across Jazharn¡¯s face as she struggles between annoyance, upsetedness with me, and the enjoyment of my compliment.


    Jaz finally motions something, and Dream comes to lay in front of the door. Jaz then states, ¡°Fine, if you can¡¯t enjoy their love and affection, at least sleep near them. Let them know that you still care enough about them and yourself to get a full night¡¯s rest. I will melt your feet off personally if you try to leave without sleeping. You¡¯re in rough shape. Dream and I are guarding the door.¡±


    My heart aches as this stranger, this addition to our family makes a solid case, and blocks my path to leaving. I could just claim a section of wall silently with inventory magic, walk out, and replace it, but that seems like it¡¯s going a bit far when she¡¯s just trying to look out for me.


    So I just stand there, as Jaz and Dream bed down in front of the door. Over time, I begin to hear the murmurs of quiet conversations die down into a lull that¡¯s intermittently broken by soft snoring. I stand a few paces from the door and let tears cascade down my face. Eventually I drop to my knees, roll to my side and lay fetal. I clutch my knees to my chest as I weep, feeling cold and alone despite the love and warmth surrounding me. I don¡¯t even know what form I¡¯ve been in, I think I was in draconic form for a time as I self-tethered up and down to work on my hand¡¯s regeneration. I sink inward on myself, saddened and lost.


    Slumber momentarily takes me.

 B3 C34: Elysium Ascent

    B3 C33.5: Tenith Grayl the Sky Unending


    As I ponder my own thoughts, I realize I''m still staring in through the window over the horse trough, and the princessora is no longer within. I sense a presence to my left and instinctively send my left hand to my dagger, but find a blade at its hilt before my hand even reaches the pommel.


    "Relax. Saw something you liked?"


    I turn my gaze to meet my assailant, and it is the same woman I''d seen speaking with the inn maiden. How did she get here so swiftly? Or was I preoccupied for that long?


    She approaches, her blade still pressing my dagger''s hilt into its sheath, and she leans over my shoulder to gaze in the window. She nods appreciatively. She leans back, sheathes her sword and digs out a handkerchief that she tosses into my face.


    "You''re all wet. I suppose a horse trough is as good as a cold shower if you''re trying to fight off thoughts of bedding a maiden."


    I fluster as I dry my face and toss the kerchief back, "I had no such intentions. I have a job to do, and was simply maintaining alertness with the cool water."


    "It''s fine. She''s cute. She''s never had eyes for any suitor, though she attracts a few. She is interested in you though, let''s just say a friend knows these things."


    "You know the amount of suitors she''s had? Why would one of your birth be friends with peasants like ourselves?"


    "Please, my station doesn''t indicate who I can or cannot befriend. Besides, as far as her and I are concerned. Well, we''ve been friends for what seems like lifetimes at this point, almost sisters by now. We''ll continue that friendship into the next if we''re lucky."


    "Then she''s lucky to have such a dedicated friend. If you''ll pardon me, I have a job to commence. I need to be rested for it."


    Her blade is once again out and its point at my throat before I even notice her drawing it. She''s faster than any foe I''ve ever faced. I''m not afraid of death, yet I nevertheless gulp all the same. She sighs and shakes her head.


    "It doesn''t suit you, this job. But the idea behind it does. No she didn''t betray your secrets, don''t go getting any ideas of escaping and offing her. Huff, you''re going to die on your job if you continue on like you are. My room is two down the hall on the left from yours. Selunie''s is beside the kitchen on the first floor. Find one of us when you''re done stewing in whatever angry thoughts you''re brewing up."


    I cock my head to an angle and raise a brow in confusion. Is this highborn lass inviting a bedding? Moreover, is she lackadaisically offering either her own, or the inn maiden''s? That is quite a close relationship indeed. What noble family could have such a carefree, adventurous daughter out and about that I''d never heard of her? She spins to turn away in a single motion that doesn''t betray her footing at all, her short cape flutters and obscures her posture momentarily.


    "If you''d permit it, I have a question."


    She pauses and casts a glance backwards over her shoulder. That would have been the moment, right then as she was turning her head. That''s when I could have struck. Even her impressive reflexes left her open right then. Why didn''t I take out this troublesome, irksome lass?


    Almost as if sensing my thoughts, she chuckles, unimpressed.


    "Sure, go ahead, shoot."


    "Most families of high birth have something unique about them, crests, fashions, what have you and the like. I''ve never seen one with such a hairstyle. I''ve seen some bandit outlanders with something that they''d called mohawks, it''s a bit similar, yet still different. What family, or what hairstyle is it that you wear?"


    She doubles over with laughter and one gloved hand wipes a tear from her eye.


    "Really? Two beautiful women offer you to bed down, and that''s your question? I don''t know what I expected, but that wasn''t it. It''s not a mohawk, it''s a faded side swept undercut. Nothing to do with my family, I just like keeping most of the hair off of my neck, but I like it long. Some have accused me of mullet envy, I think they''re the envious ones."


    Am I really standing here, discussing hairstylings with a highborn woman who had just offered me up the beds of her and her close friend? I have an oppressed country to work at freeing. I huff a sigh, releasing a breath I hadn''t realized I was holding and shake my head, trying to rattle loose the thoughts in my head.


    "Nothing else huh? Remember, Taylynn, that''s me, two down the hall on the left from yours."


    She flashes me a wink and struts smoothly away. There''s a pang in my chest as I glance at my reflection in the horse''s water. I look up into the window once more, and the princessora has already rejoined her friend inside. I shake my head and gaze once more into my reflection. Does she even know who, or what, she offered her bed to? Is she so undiscerning? Or is it something else? I dunk my head in the trough for as long as I can hold my breath.


    There¡¯s something I¡¯m forgetting. Something was happening. Hm, no, sleep it is. I drift into a fitful slumber on the floor between piles of loved ones, distant from any grouping.


    When I finally come to, I¡¯m in cherubic Reggie form, and what¡¯s more, I¡¯m on Agwai¡¯s belly, being embraced on either side by Laomati or Fawn. I unleash a flood of tears into Agwai¡¯s soft chest and fall asleep once more. I awaken eventually as Agwai stirs. I¡¯m still held tightly to the softness of the curves upon their chest. I feel Fawn¡¯s pawed hands stroking my arm and her rough tongue grooming my hair. I can sense Laomati¡¯s fretful hand-wringing happening nearby as she sits up, awaiting my awakening.


    When I finally look towards her, my vision has returned to normal, and Lao asks, ¡°Dear child, whyever were you weeping alone so far from any of us? I can¡¯t understand it. What had happened? I wasn¡¯t certain you would accept our embrace, but I couldn¡¯t bear to see you so saddened. It felt wrong to pull you to us while you slept, but my heart ached to soothe whatever hurt you were fostering. Please forgive me dear child, Reggie.¡±


    I sniffle and rub my eyes, trying to hide my shame in Agwai¡¯s breast. I can hardly find words. How do I tell Laomati how alone I felt among our own family? Especially when she was waiting to comfort me. My heart hurts so much. Not being able to know what someone else thinks on an intrinsic level prevents me from trusting that they continue to love or care about me from one moment to the next. That seems fatally, unfairly-untrusting. Self-doubt and trauma keep me from accepting the love of those around me, unless I can literally read their minds. It¡¯s only my inner circle that I ever truly allow myself to trust and believe in, and that feels like a horrible thing. It makes me hate myself that I can be so, so, so unaccepting, so untrusting.


    But, if anyone else struggled with trust issues, with self-doubt, would I hate them? No. Why do I feel so vehemently-negatively about myself? I continue to cry, tears unbidden, trying not to bawl out loud. I hiccup, realizing I haven¡¯t been getting proper air flow while fighting back sobs.


    I beg a whispered plea, ¡°Lao, please, please forgive me. There¡¯s something so wrong with me. Something in me said I don¡¯t have a place here, that I don¡¯t deserve to be here. I¡¯m so sorry. Something is always fighting any belief I have in any of your love. Something is always struggling against letting me accept that I am welcome, or loved, or cared about. I wish it would stop, I wish it would. Why won¡¯t it let me be? Please why won¡¯t it let me just enjoy my family?¡±


    I fail at preventing myself from bawling out loud. With tears streaming down my cheeks I sob into Agwai¡¯s chest. The thing inside me that doesn¡¯t believe in their love wants me to run away, to stop burdening them with my sadness. It grips my heart and squeezes, it tells me that I¡¯m hurting them by sharing my pain needlessly. I double over, clutching my chest. It says that no one could, or should have to love someone so broken, so needy, so full of hurt that they spread that pain to others time and time again.


    I can¡¯t shut it out, I can¡¯t make it stop or shut it up. It¡¯s not the future voice, it¡¯s not another version of me, it¡¯s just some lingering sickness that has always been there. It¡¯s the voice given to my self-doubt itself. The voice that arises from a depressed state of mind that struggles against every happy thought to corrupt it with reminders of my worthlessness.


    I try to steel myself as I resolutely state, ¡°I have to go, I have to keep working on the canal. It needs to be done. Lao you know why. I¡¯m so sorry that I thrust the weight of that burden upon you as well, that knowledge. Please forgive me.¡±


    I try to push myself out of the triple embrace, but my muscles respond feebly, weakly at best. Laomati, Fawn, and Agwai keep me held tightly as tears continue to stream forth. My muscles stop responding to me, and begin to spasm and twitch instead. I inhale a ragged gasp and exhale a staccato sigh. At times like this, the pain gripping my heart makes me want to rip the organ straight from my chest and throw it somewhere I could never see it or feel its hurt ever again.


    The others are beginning to stir, and I¡¯m terrified to let them see me so vulnerable, so saddened. I don¡¯t want them to feel as if they owe me any love or pity. I don¡¯t want them to be manipulated into caring about me. They don¡¯t need to care, they deserve to be allowed to not care.


    I beg again, ¡°Please, please let me go. I¡¯m so sorry to burden each of you with my hurts. Please don¡¯t let me burden the rest of them too. I love you so deeply, all of you. You deserve to be happy, safe, carefree. I¡¯ll do what has to be done. Please just let me go. Please forgive me.¡±


    The three exchange a glance. Lao responds, ¡°We¡¯re not preventing you from leaving, my little beloved one. We were afraid to aggravate your wounds, so we¡¯ve been gingerly embracing you at best.¡±


    At her admittance, I try to shove away from Agwai, but my muscles vibrate weakly with exhaustion. I hiccup before sobbing once more. I can¡¯t even do this right. I can¡¯t even get away in time to spare everyone else the sight of my neediness. I could use magic to get away, but I might hurt one of them. My bones are almost knit from where they¡¯d been sheared by the mite-hulks. My muscles feel in working order, but I can¡¯t get them to respond with virtually any strength whatsoever.


    Frowning, I hoarse-whisper, ¡°Can one of you please set me near the end of as much as I¡¯ve dug of the canal so far? Please? I can¡¯t bear for them to feel manipulated into having to care about my state. No one deserves that. I¡¯m so sorry that you had to see me like this.¡±


    Laomati ever so softly slaps my face. The gesture stings emotionally, even if it barely registers as physical contact at all. Lao says, ¡°Whatever is struggling within you, we are your family. We love you, all of us. We¡¯ll weather it together. It¡¯s not as if this is the end of.¡± Lao pauses. She knows it actually is the end of the world. She knows if I let everyone down now, that might be the final goodbye. I can¡¯t afford to be comforted, to spend time struggling to come to grips with whatever emotions or depression are fighting within me.


    Lao changes tack, ¡°Here, Fawn, Agwai, please hand Reggie to me, I¡¯d like to take my beloved child aside for the day. I¡¯ll see you both at dinner. I love you undyingly, my dears.¡±


    The irony of her parting statement is not lost on either of us. She has already died once, and we have no more phoenix plumes. Even if the world doesn¡¯t end, whatever calamity awaits us could take any of our loved ones from us, or could take us from them. Dying is very much on the table, so an undying love is unlikely. Still, Lao carries me to the edge of the canal.


    Jazharn and Dream don¡¯t come along today as I work on the canal. They showed up for a brief moment and realized that Laomati had to carry me around, so it wouldn¡¯t be feasible to repeatedly spray me with acid. I should be alright for them to join me tomorrow.


    Lao holds me as we work in silence, Lao helping move me near the canal, or far enough away to deposit the masses of soil that I move with inventory space magic.


    I try to apologize, I barely begin before Lao interrupts me, ¡°No, we won¡¯t hear of it. You¡¯re not at fault. Whatever grief haunts you, whatever sadness strikes at your heart, it is not your fault. You bear no need to apologize. Let me do this for you, let us do this for you. I realize how much you must bear for the good of us all. I bear some fault for setting you on a pedestal. Claiming you sit alone at the loom of fate. I¡¯m sorry dear one.¡±


    I silently wipe my tears as I lean into Lao¡¯s arms. At least while I¡¯m being held, and resting, the constant use of energy doesn¡¯t seem to be working quite as harshly within my body. Thinking on it though, I believe I understand why it may be so rough on me. We¡¯ve known Radiance was corrupted somehow, for quite some time. Worse yet, we know that it¡¯s a limited resource, thanks to Luni. Even our Umbral forms and spells are at best, a diluted, creamy gray. We¡¯re mixing Umbra and Radiance. I¡¯ve been accessing more energy, more mana than ever before, pulling greater and greater quantities of the two through my body to manifest my magics.


    If I want to stop hurting, somehow, I need to call only on Umbra. If the leylines below this planet truly carry Radiance, then where does Umbra come from?


    Space is a cold, empty blackness, dotted with existence by way of stars. Umbra is a soothing darkness, the piercing jet black nothingness of empty space. My strongest attack ever, my Black Ice relied on the energy from hundreds of mages, and the Radiant lifeblood of miles upon miles of forest. In the end, it looked like the vastness of space, dotted with stars and galaxies, when it revealed all the gems left behind in the cooled lava.


    Could I somehow reach out to space itself? Could I claim the darkness at the edges of the universe, and make that my power? Surely, that is the vastness of the infinite itself in its purest form. It can¡¯t be corrupted or limited by any method. Yet to call such a power from the limitless beyond, far past the limits of the skies and horizons, how would I even begin such a thing? Somehow, Luni is able to manifest pure Umbra through the magic of her songs. Can I simply will a connection to the farthest edges of reality into being? A whispered word? A silent song?


    I make a request, ¡°Lao, would you mind setting me down for just a moment? I appreciate this so much. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am right now. How much what you¡¯re doing means to me, and how deeply it¡¯s helping against my inner demons. I need to try something with magic that I worry might be dangerous in a small radius around me.¡±


    Lao frets, but relents. She knows I¡¯m in no shape to go running off if I want to keep working on the canal anyway. I kiss her cheek before she helps me stand and takes a few paces back.


    I¡¯ve seen them spring into being before, the tiny motes of Umbral energy, as if willed into existence by massive spells calling out to some distant power. If I begin to call upon a spell far too massive, and I bring them forth into existence, will my danger wraps be able to tell me anything about their origin? I hobble down into the canal, and aim eastward, as if I intend to claim the entire path between here and the coast. Lao frowns that I¡¯ve moved from where she set me, and she sits at the canal¡¯s edge to gaze down upon me.


    World, Radiance, Umbra, systems of our reality, please let me gaze upon your secrets. I want to do right by Luni. I want to protect everyone without becoming corrupted and spent. I want to protect them all without spending the life of the very planet upon which we live. Please show me pure Umbra once more?


    It starts slowly at first. My mana drains away and even its regeneration halts as that new energy continues to feed my plea. Minutes pass, and Lao looks on at my stance curiously. After nearly a quarter of an hour, the tiniest motes, atomic in scale begin to flicker into existence. I cannot see them, only feel their presence. Even that small feat I can only accomplish thanks to my thermokinetic and electrokinetic senses. Gradually, over another ten or twenty minutes, they become larger motes of Umbra and motes of Radiance that fight their way into reality, struggling against unreality itself to come screaming into being. I dismiss the motes of Radiance, bidding them return from whence they came, as they try to mingle with motes of Umbra into motes of creamy gray. Surprisingly, the Radiance relents, it almost seems glad to be unmade, to be sent back into unreality.


    I gaze upon the motes of purest Umbra, the jet black onyx that is the soothing darkness of the furthest reaches of reality itself. Cautiously, I hazard touching one with the tip of my index finger. Several things happen simultaneously. Sensation, knowledge, understanding try to flood themselves into the core of my being, yet I only gain a glimpse, a fraction of the story being told. An invisible wave travels eastward, disintegrating a quarter mile of soil, as if it were simply calmly taken away by the darkness in an instant, sent beyond the edges of the universe. Further, I begin falling. My ankles sink into nothingness, I lose my balance and fall backwards into my own shadow, falling through it into the empty darkness beyond.


    I gaze about from my new location. I try to swim but there is no fluid to grab for purchase upon, to move through. There isn¡¯t even air to push against as I contemplate changing into draconic form to glide around. I don¡¯t feel a vacuum trying to draw the breath from my body, or my eyes from their sockets, thankfully.


    I test exhaling the tiniest fraction of breath, and this shadow universe recoils at this shared matter that I grace it with. The darkness itself undulates and ripples away from where I¡¯ve exhaled. The ripple seems to travel away for an eternity. There is nothing to truly see, no actual horizon in this absence of light, but the ripple reaches some point in the limitless beyond where the undulation, the ripples reverse direction. At some point, after several hundred years of waiting, the ripples return and cascade into me. There¡¯s a recognition, some understanding made by the cool calming darkness. Umbra pushes against me. It knows me, it accepts me, but at least one of the two of us is not ready for a connection, not yet. I find myself lying on my back at the bottom of the canal where I¡¯d fallen.


    I gasp for breath and gaze around, trying to determine how long I¡¯d been gone. Lao sits fretting at the edge of the canal, only just beginning to stand as if she¡¯s determining whether or not to climb down to drag me out. Did all that truly happen in mere moments? I struggle to my feet, and I feel the tiniest bit lighter. An infinitesimally small fraction of some weight that bore down on me has lifted. Progress is being made, yet something tells me I can¡¯t use the same method to try to resume the connection. Still, I motion to Lao to follow along the edge of the canal, since we¡¯ve made hours worth of progress with that single spell. I walk along its bottom, gazing wistfully up at my beloved clan elder. One I would happily call mother, or mom. I flash her a wide smile with grateful tears that dance upon my lashes.


    As we reach the new edge of the canal, I once again reach out, begging the universe, the systems of our reality to grace me with the presence of the Umbral motes. After several minutes, the universe seems to relent, but Umbra itself does not. We don¡¯t have a connection yet. There are further secrets to unlock. My understanding was broadened however. My guess as to the nature of Umbra must have been at least somewhat in the correct direction. It¡¯s not just the absence of light at the edge of the universe though. It¡¯s somehow the shadows within every being. It¡¯s the cool darkness of transdimensional space within our inventories. It¡¯s so many things that have always been with me and around me. Unobserved, underappreciated.


    I sigh, unable to make further progress with it at the moment. There¡¯s definitely something to this notion though. A source for my powers, for magic in general that won¡¯t harm the land. I use JT propulsion magic to fling myself up towards Laomati. I smile as I lean into her embrace. Lao strokes the back of my head and coos soothingly, almost as if she¡¯s trying to calm herself. Actually, she might be. She did just witness me unleash a new type of magic of a terrifying magnitude. Sure, it took around half of an hour to perform, but when it finally unleashed, it was almost as frightening as my Black Ice finisher. Perhaps only a thousandth of the scale, or a ten thousandth. But to wield even a fraction of that power on my own, without the aid of hundreds of mages pouring their all into me, without having to evolve to a fourth stage, or enter a limit break, well, I¡¯d understand if she were nervous.


    Yet I¡¯m wrong. Lao mumbles, ¡°My poor darling, you touch forces I can¡¯t even begin to comprehend as if it were just a fact of the matter that you need to. You struggle against time and beasts and gods and the world itself. I¡¯ve done you so much wrong by telling you where I believed you to sit though. You aren¡¯t alone at the loom of fate. We¡¯re with you, we¡¯re always with you. You don¡¯t need to do this alone. My poor child. How much you must hurt to bend the rules of reality time and time again, struggling against everything set before us. We love you. We love you. Don¡¯t ever forget that. No matter how hard it becomes to see it. Through whatever dark haze clouds your thoughts, whatever ominous gloom shrouds your mind in a fog that hides our love from you, remember that it is always there.¡±


    I break down in tears once more. This time though, they¡¯re tears of gratitude. I can¡¯t respond to Laomati. I have no words. After several minutes of crying into her breast, we resume our work. She aids me in ambling about, as my limbs are still weak, but after several meals together over the course of the day, I can at least walk again. Still, I can feel the mana tearing me apart on the inside, trying to force its way out and open yet more wounds once again. Do I dare stop? What is the right course of action? If I push through, will my body eventually become accustomed to this overuse? Or will I permanently ruin myself? Will I become incapable of using magic at all if I continue on like this? It¡¯s then that I sense a rustling in the canopy fast approaching from the west and I gently shove Lao behind me as I turn to face it, preparing to cover Lao in case it¡¯s Mat firing lava at us.


    My heart soars for joy when my assumption is wrong. Teuila and Linti rocket into view, and I assume my taller form in order to catch them in my arms. I¡¯m bowled over into Laomati and the four of us begin laughing and shedding quiet tears as we all hold one another. Still, despite the joy at our reuniting, I sense a somberness in both the air, and in the wavelengths of my two beloved ones. It seems both parties have ill tidings to share.


    Te starts out by helping Laomati up, and hugging her tightly. Linti stands back a moment, scratching the back of her head and gazing around. I can sense that Linti wants to kiss, but she¡¯s holding back for some reason. I¡¯m not sure if she isn¡¯t sure if it¡¯s appropriate in front of Lao, or if she¡¯s worried I wouldn¡¯t be receptive, or something else entirely. I just know that she¡¯s unsure for some reason. I approach Linti and wrap her up in an embrace so that we can share a tender kiss. Moments later, Teuila interrupts us to kiss Linti as well. Teuila then hip-checks Linti away to open up space to embrace me. When we have room, she kisses me next after leaping into my weakened arms. Thankfully, Teuila literally weighs nothing due to her bond with gravity.


    We all stand around blushing slightly as Lao gazes at us with tenderness and glee for our shared happiness. As wonderful as this is, I sense something coming. I also have news to share with Linti that breaks my heart.


    Teuila starts, ¡°We couldn¡¯t find them, the otters, any of them. They didn¡¯t make any shelters on the beach or anywhere near the coast as far as we could tell. We looked so desperately, you have to know that we tried so hard. I want it to be true, for me, for us, for Lu. But I couldn¡¯t find them. Lin, she, she kept traveling further and faster, everywhere at the edges of the forest for dozens, maybe hundreds of miles. I¡¯m sorry Reggie, I¡¯m sorry Lao. Lao you probably don¡¯t even know what I¡¯m talking about, but we went¨C¡±


    Laomati interrupts Teuila by shushing her and pulling her into a hug, ¡°Shh, I do, I do my dear. I know the miracle we¡¯re all hoping for. My heart is ill prepared to believe it¡¯s even possible, yet this is not the same as proving it was impossible. It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay, my beloved warrior, protector of this family.¡± Lao strokes Teuila¡¯s head as Teuila cries softly.


    I inhale a ragged breath when I realize I haven¡¯t been breathing. I telepathically send to Linti and Teuila, ¡°Linti, Te, so much happened. I killed Mat, but Lu revived him, wrapped him up, shoved his face in a book and ran away with him. Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate, the god of fire beneath the fire biome began to wake up, so I went to talk to him. It worked, he doesn¡¯t want to kill the mortals, us. But the entity came. It went into his mind, and it¡¯s chasing his thoughts into his deep subconscious as he fights to stay asleep. The entity is going to make Lord Agni meet his four siblings. When the four meet, it could be the end of everything. We stand a chance though. If I can find the location of Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, and convince her to stay far away from our land, then the meeting never has to happen. I only need to keep a single one of them away from the other three.¡±


    Te and Lin begin both asking questions too rapidly for me to comprehend or answer yet. I continue, ¡°Lu left some instructions for me, we apparently have to finish getting this settlement ready. Something big is happening soon. Worse, Luni left me with a choice. She said I had to make it, but making it for you, Lin, it doesn¡¯t seem fair. I can¡¯t take your autonomy away and lie to you by hiding these options from you.¡±


    Linti gazes at me perplexedly in and outside of our telepathic bond. Before she can ask for an explanation, I lay it out for her, ¡°In one option, during some big event, you stay with us, to fight alongside us or something, and you die. She made it sound so utterly final. We never see one another again, in any sense. In the other option, at a certain time, you instead help as many Nagas as you can evacuate. I¡¯m guessing you will have to help them evacuate to this settlement for some reason. In that option, she says we won¡¯t see each other for a very, very long time. But at least in that option, we do see each other again. Linti I know that you would help us, that you would much rather fight alongside us than help Nagas move, but I can¡¯t, I just, I can¡¯t. I don¡¯t want to lose you forever. Please make the second choice when the time comes, please. If it really is my responsibility to make the choice, I choose the second one.¡±


    Linti drops out of the telepathic bond and passes her pawed hand over her scalp as she whistles a low note of comprehension. I burst into tears for what seems like the hundredth time in the last day. Teuila holds me as we stand atop our hill in the idyllic pasture of our shared mindscape. She tugs me into her private mindscape so that she can point to confusion, sadness, agreement, desire, love, grief, loss, and various mixtures of emotions about the news I¡¯ve shared. I nod in understanding. It¡¯s still hard for Te to express herself, and this is a massively difficult load of news to bear. We¡¯re both coming to love Linti, our Lightning Hunter. What¡¯s more, she¡¯s still dealing with her attempt at searching the coast.


    We retreat from accelerated thinkspace to reality. Lin looks a bit dumbfounded, and Te is trying to figure out where to even go after such news. Lao looks confused at our sudden silence.


    I apologize, ¡°Sorry Laomati, I just updated them, I gave them the short version of what happened since I saw them last. I haven¡¯t even told them about the, eh, it¡¯s not important. I¡¯m healing fine.¡±


    Both Lin and Te look at me in confusion. Laomati assumes I¡¯m talking about the mana consumption tearing me apart from the inside, but it¡¯s not even that. I haven¡¯t told Laomati that I lost my limbs and had to reattach them with magic, that they¡¯re still healing. I haven¡¯t told Lao that I¡¯ve progressed too far, too fast with my magic, and that continuing right now could injure or kill me, or permanently ruin my ability to use magic. I didn¡¯t even tell her that the spell I did earlier let me connect with the edge of reality itself, the source of Umbra from the furthest beyond.


    Lin and Te poke me telepathically, ¡°You what!?¡± Oops. I was getting so used to being lonely in my own head and thoughts that I forgot that the ones most beloved to me can hear my inner monologue if they¡¯re riding my thought waves, or if I¡¯m thinking strongly about them.


    Lin telepathically mutters, ¡°Crap and a half Shellcracker, Reggie. Come on, seriously? Those things on top of that other one? Hell of a thing to lay on a gal, ya know?¡±


    With tears in my eyes I reply across our mental wavelength, ¡°I know, I know, but please, please choose the second option. You know why I had to tell you, right? I can¡¯t take a choice away from you. Even if it¡¯s life or death, I could never do that to you. I honor you and value you. I trust you. I love you. I don¡¯t want to lose you, but I won¡¯t ever try to make your choices or control you.¡±


    Lin just whistles that low note again and runs her hand over her scalp. Te slugs me in the arm.


    I drop into reality and try to corral us into making the choices that affect the here and now, ¡°So, my insides are suffering from extended magic use. I don¡¯t fully know my limits, but I feel like I can¡¯t continue today without suffering what I did yesterday. Yesterday I started spontaneously bleeding from internal lacerations that fired outwards around my joints. I pushed through about twenty or so hours total, maybe thirty, but I think the bleeding probably started after about six or so hours. I know the canal needs to be done, but Spice and Teodora pulled back everyone else who could do the labor and set me at the task. I¡¯m going as fast and hard as I can, but I¡¯m constantly starving, on top of this mana related pain.¡±


    Te grumbles, ¡°Those complete butts. I¡¯ll give them a piece of ¨C¡±


    I interrupt, ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay. I¡¯m the best chance at completing this quickly enough. I don¡¯t understand the timetables, or exactly what¡¯s happening. I don¡¯t have messages from a future me yet, but Lu isn¡¯t around to keep me from guessing anymore. I hate breaking her trust, but I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m puzzling out a lot of what¡¯s going on. When I¡¯m sure of the very final solution to whatever the big event is, then I¡¯ll send back all the messages that I was meant to send.¡±


    I heave a sigh, ¡°One thing I¡¯m just coming to realize is how dangerous it is to tread any path other than the one Lu has paved. I¡¯ve got fragments of a memory from when we were standing with Elder Sthenic over Dehlia¡¯s body. I made a choice, and I fractured the timeline. I think I chose not to pursue Mataalii. I chose to not kill him, because of Elder Sthenic¡¯s persuasion. When I did that, I caused a paradox. So somehow, in our timeline, I definitely had to kill Mataalii, and Luni definitely had to bring him back.¡±


    I continue, ¡°I¡¯ve also come to the realization of why I believe we had to purge our radiant forms. There are leylines below the crust of our world, but they look sick, weak, corrupted somehow. The energy in them is radiant energy. Somehow when we pull large amounts of energy from those leylines, parts of our world die, starting with the trees. There¡¯s some other factor I don¡¯t quite understand yet, but I think that¡¯s part of why I¡¯ve always felt bad to see them fall, especially senselessly.¡±


    I even further state, ¡°Just now when I was puzzling about Radiance and Umbra before you arrived, I tried to forge a connection only with the Umbral energy. I¡¯m worried that even our creamy gray powers are a mixture of Radiance and Umbra, and that we¡¯re tapping into that limited resource. I figure if we can connect to just Umbra, that wouldn¡¯t happen. My guess is that Umbra is actually the space beyond the edges of the ever expanding universe. That would make it an infinite source. Still, when I tried, I was able to summon a massive spell from a single condensed mote of Umbral energy, but then I fell through my own shadow into a reality beyond the edge of the universe. The only thing in that endless expanse was pure darkness. I spent an eternity there. When I let my breath out into the expanse, the darkness rippled and recoiled. I think that, like the Radiance, it¡¯s somehow alive in some way or another, it has some sort of will. It set me back on the ground the moment I had left.¡±


    Linti stops me, ¡°Wow, you really just don¡¯t let up, do you Shellcracker? Reggie, I mean, one minute it¡¯s a brother you have to kill, then it¡¯s a god you have to put to sleep or talk out of a calamity, or you have a message about the future where I choose to die or not, and now you¡¯re talking about talking to the forces of reality itself? I¡¯ve asked it before, but what in the hell even are you?¡±


    I chuckle and shrug, ¡°Well, according to these people in this Miracle Oak settlement, I was once a gray soul, misshapen, spent, dying. That¡¯s how they knew about the tomes. Somehow that soul, that version of me, before I spawned as Reggie far west of here, somehow that version of me knew about the tomes. That part still perplexes me.¡±


    The jaws of all three women hit the floor at this latest revelation. I give a nervous chuckle and another halfhearted shrug. I¡¯m definitely incapable of continuing today though. I desperately need food, and I just want to catch up with Lin and Te in ways that aren¡¯t so fatalistic. I know how much I need my inner circle, how needy and lost I am without at least one of them nearby to ride around in my head. My self-doubt almost made me leave my family without sleep to continue the canal last night. Something in me had me convinced that I had no place, that I was unwelcome and worthless to them other than to do these tasks of magic.


    I rattle my brain trying to shake loose the thoughts and the memories of my self-loathing that grew from those moments, standing alone amidst my own family. Come on Reggie, they¡¯re here. Just be in the moment, be present. Look at Teuila. Her beautiful shining emerald eyes, the luxurious velvety coppery fur that adorns every inch of her. Linti¡¯s topaz eyes, her firm, stern jaw, the captivating rosettes in her fur. Laomati, her tender gaze, her welcome embrace, her full, soft, comforting curves.


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    I smoothly exhale as I close my eyes, picturing the scene in which I stand. Teuila stands behind me to my left as I face Laomati, Linti is near my right shoulder, about to set her hand on my shoulder. Lao is gazing fretfully between the three of us, probably trying to decide who needs comforting. There¡¯s something else, south.


    I turn my gaze to the south and catch the faintest hint of a shadow of movement. It looked spiky, quilled. An angry hedgehog? Did that accidental mental wish actually bear fruit? I couldn¡¯t give chase if I wanted to, and I don¡¯t want any of us to bother chasing the figure. If they want to be seen, eventually they¡¯ll introduce themselves. For now, let¡¯s go home and have dinner. Ag and Fawn are waiting on Lao regardless.


    Dinner with the family is joyous, despite the secrets several of us share about the ongoing and upcoming events. We can afford to enjoy the moment, I hope we can anyway. I suppose I¡¯d send myself a message from the future, or send myself back in time if it turned out that I needed every last second spent digging. Or is that too trusting of future-me? If future-me doesn¡¯t live to send the message back because of a mistake I make, there is no one in the future to trust. Well that¡¯s a sobering thought. Thankfully my otter family is mostly omnivorous, so, while they definitely prefer meat, we can enjoy the produce from the shops. There are some among the critterkin who are obligate carnivores. This puts them at odds with the humans, when we have so few sources of meat and protein currently. Our extended cat family is among the obligate carnivorous side of critterkin, but Linti¡¯s hunting has provided them a wealth of meat that they¡¯ve stockpiled, even with as much as they¡¯ve shared with my family and the other critterkin.


    I remember how I joked once that bread and pasta are probably from some weird noodle monsters in wheat fields somewhere. Apparently along the coast, the respawning hostile creatures that Linti found were best describable as golems of bread. If we could find some baked bean elementals to go along with them, we could probably keep the human population fed. Hah. My fakeworld memories think that I¡¯m being completely ludicrous, but this is the real world, magic does exist. So do gods and elementals and hostile respawning creatures that drop food when slain. Speaking of food, how have I never noticed that when eating, my wounds heal faster? Only slightly, but it¡¯s still faster. I think I can notice now because of my electrokinetically enhanced internal senses. My nervous system never provided me with this much feedback before. I wonder if this is part of why I¡¯ve been so hungry while working on the canal.


    I realize I¡¯ve been relying on magic so much to keep my emotions stable. Without Lil or Lu or Lin or Te, I¡¯m completely at the mercy of my own thoughts. The hardest periods in my life are when I have to struggle against my own emotions alone. In fakeworld memories, no one has this sort of bond. They have to rely on medication and therapy to try to cope with the sorts of issues that I struggle against. I feel bad for the humans in that world. Especially any that have to struggle against such things without access to healthcare like medication or therapy. Phew, I¡¯m glad such a place doesn¡¯t exist.


    Being embraced on either side by Linti or Teuila helps remind me of my place in our family, as we bed down for the night. Jaz and Dream even deign to sleep closer to my inner circle, probably to keep an eye on me so that I don¡¯t get any ideas about marching off in the middle of the night to work on the canal. They don¡¯t have to worry, but it¡¯s sweet of them regardless. I feel like they¡¯re actually coming to view me as a precious little sibling. It warms my heart that they¡¯ve found each other and are joining the shared love of my family so deeply. Lao, Fawn, and Ag all make certain that my inner circle is pressed tightly up against one side of their pile as well. The three pairs of twins are in their own small pile tonight, along with Magnus, Spring Blossom and Six Wind are back from wherever they had spent the previous night, and they¡¯re cuddling with the Mana twins, and Sugar and Spice. Even Elder Winter is surrounded on all sides by the spheriforms of the cat family, and Gentle Ice sleeps just outside the ring of small spherical cats.


    I think tomorrow Lin and Te are going to resume hunting in The Hollow. I¡¯d love to join them, but I don¡¯t know the time limit to accomplish our tasks. If I suddenly see some great sky dragon serpent thing, I¡¯ll abandon everything and go try to talk to her. Until then, I just have to proceed with business as usual until the canal is done. Then I¡¯ll ask anyone and everyone if there are any hints about a sky deity or her location.


    My family has grown and grown so much since the days when I was lost and alone. This family, this world, this love, this life, I¡¯m so enamored of it. I¡¯d give anything to protect it. These are my last thoughts as I drift to sleep holding Linti in my arms as my little spoon, with Teuila embracing me from behind as my big spoon.


    When I was learning supposed magic from our neighbors in the Hidden Heart, I saw more wildlife than anywhere else. Everywhere I¡¯d been on my travels I¡¯d see bits and pieces of fauna here or there, but the Hidden Heart was home to so many creatures. Deer and their fawns, raccoons and foxes, fish aplenty, predators and prey in their endless cycle of life. One of my favorite sights was along the stream that passed through the Hidden Heart. Outside the settlement the stream picked up speed and widened into a river. A family of river otters had taken over an abandoned beaver dam. They were such curious creatures, completely unafraid of me and my passing. Though defensive. At least one of them stood at the fore of the others, possibly warding them from me. I¡¯m trying to distract myself from memories of Eights. I¡¯m hoping that I can prevent myself from seeking comfort away from these memories in the lap or bed of some maiden.


    When did I get to this hallway? My room is two doors back that way. This door, this belongs to, ah, Taylynn was her name I believe. The princessora. That¡¯s what we would refer to her as, since she¡¯s a highborn woman taken to the saddle and sword. Or maybe that¡¯s just me. I apparently did too good a job at distracting myself if I ended up here. I¡¯ll just turn to take my leave.


    Creak!


    Of course these rickety floorboards are that loud as I spin on my heels. Still, if I make haste none need be the wiser.


    Groan!


    And that would be the door opening as I turn to walk away. And of course the hinges of the door are so loud when burdened with the heavy wooden doors. I glance back over my shoulder through the now open doorway. Without her cuirass obscuring her upper torso, the fine cut of her linen tunic accents her slender form nicely. Despite the muscles that are plainly visible, there¡¯s a delicateness there of womanly charms.


    Taylynn appears to be in the midst of removing a leather waist-cinch which was beneath her cuirass. She offers, ¡°Don¡¯t be shy, come on in. I promise I won¡¯t bite.¡± Then she salaciously adds, ¡°Unless you ask.¡±


    Hm? Why am I blushing as I wake up? I think my ear is in someone¡¯s mouth.


    I try not to laugh as I ask, ¡°Teuila, are you eating my ear?¡±


    Teuila, her mouth full, responds, ¡°Vwhaf? I on¡¯t know what you¡¯re falking abouf¡± Her tongue tickles the ridge of my ear the entire time she speaks.


    I burst into laughter, and can¡¯t reach my hand to my face to cover my mouth since it¡¯s gripped tightly by Linti¡¯s arms. What is it with my family and loved ones and friends licking or nibbling on me lately? When did it even start? Was it on the Night of All Burn with Lucky? I can¡¯t recall if it was before that.


    Luna lets out a lonely groan and whumpfs in front of the door to our home. I hadn¡¯t seen her much in quite a while. I struggle against the pair of Lin and Te from my beloved inner circle. I fight through their wonderful affections to go check on our bear friend. Luna seems physically alright, but she looks sad somehow. I¡¯m not sure how a beak communicates emotions, perhaps it¡¯s her eyes. I approach and wrap my arms around Luna¡¯s neck, Luna clasps me in a one-armed bearhug that leaves me breathless, with her right forepaw by way of freakishly flexible shoulders. I¡¯ll make sure to spend time with her every day until we can reunite her with Luni.


    I feel fit to tackle the day, so I thank Laomati for yesterday¡¯s help, and ask Dream and Jazharn to join me again today. I know I need to take more frequent breaks, and to stop when I¡¯m at my limit, but I should still be able to complete the canal within a couple of week¡¯s time. The days begin to blur together as I spend my time working with Dream, Jaz, Luna, and occasionally Adom. Adom really only stops by to poison my food and drink, or to flirt with Jazharn who doesn¡¯t return his solicitations. Luna manages to help a bit. She can run on ahead to dig a large portion of a load while I work on summoning and dispersing several other loads of soil. Still, after each day, when my insides are nearly to the point of joining my outsides, I retire to my beloved family, and Linti and Teuila rejoin from their hunts. Linti and Teuila have been making fantastic progress with their abilities. I somehow barely even took note of Teuila¡¯s wind powers before or after she revealed her archery to me. Apparently that¡¯s all the wind magic she has though, the spell that laces her arrows in a swathe of wind to increase their size, mass, velocity, and overall power. I guess it technically creates her arrows out of wind as well, since she doesn¡¯t actually have to draw one from her quiver to nock it to her bowstring.


    I wish I could join Lin and Te on their hunts, but Jaz and dream provide entertaining company at least. I also wouldn¡¯t be able to comfort Luna at all if I were at the insect warrens of The Hollow, rather than here along the Canal. I can at least keep Luna fed so she doesn¡¯t have to run all the way to either the coast, or the river, to commence fishing. Jaz talks about how she grew up in Geawerene¡¯s frontier town. She mentioned that it originally had contact with Geawerene on a regular basis until a couple of years ago, when the Leviathan started moving around. It became too dangerous to send ships back and forth anymore, so they became more and more reliant on their horrible food system. We both shudder at the implications, but she tries to switch to lighter topics. She talks about a friend she had, one who was vehement against joining the military, a Bartolomeo. Very few people in the city had last names, since family names were reserved for noble families. Her argument to Bartolomeo was that almost no one outside of the military could learn magic, that her best chances to learn any were by joining. Bart felt that not even learning magic was worth joining something where you might have to fight, or kill, or be killed someday.


    Jaz tries to laugh off how sad she is. The only survivors of Geawerene¡¯s frontier town are of course the military¡¯s advance force. Even though she and Bart had their falling out, she never thought poorly of him, and she still missed him. She still misses him. A couple of ragtag ragamuffins growing up on the street, both entranced by the spectacles of magic, one willing to go to great lengths to obtain it, the other not. It¡¯s a sad story in its own right, especially its tragic ending. Still, Jazharn feels like the world is brighter than she ever imagined with the change in the human population¡¯s view of critterkin, and her own falling in love with Dream, and being accepted into our family.


    It takes several days worth of us working together for Jaz to share most of her childhood stories of Bart, and her overall take on the events that have transpired since then. She actually laments being chosen to face off against me during my exhibition match, but feels like she wouldn¡¯t have the love of her life right now if it hadn¡¯t happened, so she doesn¡¯t want to alter the past. I wonder if she says that because she knows I can send messages to my past self, or if she¡¯s just being nostalgic while trying not to seem regretful. I¡¯m grateful for her company regardless. Dream isn¡¯t very talkative during our days together for the most part, unless Jaz convinces her to tell a story, with included hand signs.


    Dream has a wealth of tales, but rarely shares more than two. One is a fable about a grasshopper and an ant, with a moral of hard work and diligence. Another is one of a king whose greed knew no bounds, when granted his greatest wish, he lost everything, by way of turning it all to gold. She talks about how being a storyteller is sometimes like being trapped in a position where you have to know a thousand and one tales to stand a chance at appeasing your audience. She admits that she knows her family wouldn¡¯t fault her for being unable to come up with a new tale. Plus, we have Agwai, and sometimes Luni, to pick up any slack if Dream doesn¡¯t feel like orating on a given night.


    Oh Lu, where could you even be right now? What are you doing? My eyes begin to itch and get puffy as tears start to form, but I rub them as I finish my work. A few more loads of soil, and we connect the entire ravine from moat to coast. The lock and mini dam are already in place. Several dozen humans have a miniature settlement out here to keep the bread golems away from the construction. It¡¯s a bit funny, but they¡¯re capable warriors.


    Jazharn actually breaks off from us as I¡¯m finishing my last few loads of soil. Dream watches the both of us from a position seated atop the canal¡¯s lip. Jaz is apparently fighting off a small wave of hostile bread behemoths. I can¡¯t help but laugh due to my fakeworld human memories. Animated bread. Maybe even sentient. The mere idea is ludicrous, something out of a cartoon as far as those memories are concerned.


    Finally, my work is completed. I haven¡¯t made any more progress contacting the natural forces of Umbra the entire time I¡¯ve worked on this project, but I¡¯m still hopeful. My body hasn¡¯t made much progress on being able to handle my new maximum mana limits. Worse, While I¡¯d normally be excited to have made even more skill and mana progress over the last week or two, I¡¯m only more afraid of how much I could ruin my body if I went all out at some point. No wonder the systems of the world don¡¯t want us abusing limit break capabilities. We¡¯d destroy ourselves.


    Spice has designed some netting that may be able to coax some fish spawn points to move, or duplicate, I¡¯m not exactly sure on all of the terminology he used, or the methods behind its supposed function. Still, a small force of our best aquatic types, naiads, ashrays, water sprites, otters, and so on, manage to corral schools of fish with the netting, and bring them all the way up our new river to its moat. It would normally take them the better part of a day or two to make the journey, but with the ocean washing in from its uphill location for the first time, they can nearly ride the waves all the way to our moat. We did of course create the slightest gradient that leads to an ever so slightly lower base at the moat, so that the ocean will always flow in. It¡¯ll be a bit weird to have a saltwater river and lake, but maybe that will have its own uses.


    We¡¯ve built a double lip, and the respawning lumber warren, and managed to create a tiny respawning granite quarry, and clay quarry, all within a short swim and a walk along a spiral that leads beneath our moat. It intermingles with the roots of the Miracle Oak on occasion, so we make sure to allow room for it, to respect its life and needs. For the most part, we¡¯ve tried to make our moat and canal impermeable to prevent soil erosion or changes to the water levels in the soil. Hopefully our efforts are successful at keeping things in a sort of, what¡¯s the word, homeostasis?


    Spice and Teodora¡¯s workforce is following along behind me, they have been every day, reinforcing the canal, the ravine, whatever you¡¯d like to call it. When I finished my last load of soil, the two workforces, the one from the front and the one from the rear, combined their efforts to finish up the last reinforcements within a few minutes.


    I let myself flop backwards and lay gazing up at the canopy. Luna of course comes to rest heavily on my chest, knocking the wind out of me. Jazharn laughs and drags Dream to sit up against Luna¡¯s haunches. We deserve a few minutes of rest at least.


    I look back at my life, the people we¡¯ve lost, or killed. Many of the deaths around me in my life were at my own hands. Even the ones perpetrated by Mataalii could possibly be attributed to me, if future-me had the ability to stop him earlier, but prevented current-me from doing so. I don¡¯t have many enemies left alive, or at least, I don¡¯t think many of the people who are hostile to me are still alive, the ones that are alive seem unlikely to act openly or seek me out.


    The phoenix and the roc are a happy couple, but I doubt they¡¯d tolerate my presence much more. Any future accidental run-ins I have with either one could end in disaster. I got lucky to escape with my life this last time. Priss, well, she¡¯s someone I¡¯ll always be wary of. At a moment¡¯s notice she could order everyone, Sir Reginald included, to try to seize the Miracle Oak or fight against everyone living within and around it. Sir Reginald has been less pleased with my presence as of late. I don¡¯t know what I¡¯ve done, or haven¡¯t done, that earned his ire. Maybe he simply empathizes with Priss now, perhaps she told him about how I left the frontier town originally, when I shot viscera and a severed head into her face and threatened to raze everything to the ground. I wouldn¡¯t blame him for his dislike of me.


    There¡¯s still dozens, maybe hundreds of beavers who were originally in the MCF, they definitely don¡¯t like me, but I think they¡¯re smart enough to finally stop causing trouble. There¡¯s the nearly thousand critterkin that broke off to start a settlement in the southwest on their own. I hostilely threatened them and sent them packing. They definitely don¡¯t like me. If any of them had the skills of an assassin, I should probably be wary. Worse, I should be worried about them taking out their frustrations on my loved ones. But they probably don¡¯t know who I am or who my loved ones are, since they broke off before really getting to know any of us.


    I¡¯m getting distracted. I have a wonderful bear sitting atop me, a couple of laughing lovers sitting nearby. Not my lovers, obviously, each other¡¯s lovers. They¡¯re like sisters to me, this whole train of thought got weird. Bleugh. Alright, yeah, now I need a new distraction to distract from my previous distraction as well as my current train of thought, great. Maybe Teuila and Linti will be returning by the time we head back home.


    If I had to walk at a normal person¡¯s pace, it would take over ten hours to make it home, thankfully, Luna can lope at over ten times that speed, carrying the three of us. If I really wanted to, I could rocket us all through the air at probably ten times that speed. It¡¯d be a lot harder with Luna, without Teuila to reduce Luna¡¯s gravity, since Luna is absolutely massive. I don¡¯t think I could reach my normal maximum velocity. Actually I might destroy any shell that I tried to make, even from umbral duplication, if I tried to hit it with enough force to send us all flying with Luna¡¯s added weight.


    Regardless, we make it home relatively near mid-evening. Thankfully, Lin and Te are arriving as well. I leap off of Luna and rush to lift my beloved pair into my arms. Over the last week or two, Linti¡¯s curves have filled out ever so slightly, she¡¯s put on the tiniest bit of softness and padding in pleasant places, while Teuila has had the opposite occur. Teuila¡¯s muscles are more defined than ever, her taut form is easily discernible beneath her fur. I find myself absentmindedly stroking each of them along the biceps or hips as I explore the changes in their forms.


    Lin slugs me in the shoulder and snaps me from my reverie, while Teuila adopts the Shellcracker Family Squee, that closed-eyed smile where her mouth is barely open as she lets out a single audible elongated laugh sound, ¡°Heeeee.¡± I blush, realizing I¡¯ve been standing around stroking my beloved ones in the middle of the plaza, with Jaz, Dream, and Luna catching up from behind. Jaz coughs politely to mark her approach. This only causes me to blush even more furiously.


    I cough to both shake my embarrassment and to acknowledge Jaz as I begin, ¡°Tonight might be the last restful night I¡¯ll have for a while. I would like Te and Lin to join me for what¡¯s about to happen, but I don¡¯t know if Linti should. She has her family, our family, Dream and Jaz included, to look out for, here, after all. I¡¯ll likely be sailing the skies and the seas on this next leg of our adventure. I know that neither one is exactly Lin¡¯s specialty.¡±


    Linti grumbles and socks me again roughly in the shoulder, and slugs me lightly in the gut. Telepathically she sends an annoyed agreement. She also takes me aside into private thinkspace for a moment to embrace me, and kiss me both apologetically, and passionately. She knows that it¡¯s nearing time where we¡¯ll be making risky decisions that might mean never seeing each other again. After a few minutes in our private realm, sharing our love, Linti ranting momentarily about how she¡¯d fight anything and that I¡¯m crazy to think that we can¡¯t beat something between the three of us, Linti finally gives in and just enjoys our embrace. After a few minutes more, we both drop back to reality.


    Teuila raises an eyebrow as her glance flicks back and forth between the two of us. I can tell Teuila hauls Linti into a private thinkspace for a moment as well, likely sharing the same few minutes I just shared with her. Or maybe she has something else to say to Linti, I don¡¯t know for sure, but that¡¯s their own business, if they want me to know, they¡¯ll share.


    I continue, ¡°So Jaz, Dream, I really want to thank you both, and ask you two for a favor. Luna here is going to be exceedingly lonely without Luni, more so now that Teuila and I are going to be leaving soon. Could you make sure she has company? Maybe if you take up some work or some project around the settlement, could you find a place for her to either help, or at least hang out?¡±


    Jaz shrugs while smiling, as she¡¯s about to answer, Dream beats her to the punch, ¡°As much as I hate everything and everyone, I don¡¯t hate you or the bear or Jaz as much as anything else. You¡¯re all pretty tolerable. We¡¯ll handle it.¡±


    I purse my lips as I bite them to prevent myself from laughing. That¡¯s about the most affection Dream will admit for anyone other than Jaz, and she only admits it to Jaz in writing or signs. I smile as I nod gratefully while Jaz and Dream share a short conversation in sign language. I¡¯ve only picked up on bits and pieces, but I¡¯m pretty certain Dream basically shared that she agrees and it¡¯s fine.


    As I¡¯m about to detail some of what we need to do, Fawn approaches us and states, ¡°I¡¯ll be borrowing Reggie for a short while, see you all after dinner!¡±


    I¡¯m suddenly hauled bodily away by Fawns At Sunsets while I hear several objections that are cut off before they can even begin to be voiced. I shrink to my cherubic Reggie form reflexively, embarrassedly, and this only helps Fawn lift me into her arms to carry me away more smoothly and quickly. She smothers my face angled inwards to her chest and the pillowy cushions that sit thereupon.


    I start, ¡°Fawn, um, I¡¯d be happy to snuggle, really I would, but some big things are happening, and I was going to ¨C¡±


    Fawn interrupts, ¡°Bup bup, my cuddlesome little sweetheart, do you think Laomati would really let all your work go unappreciated?¡±


    I respond, confused, ¡°My what? I¡¯m not really doing all that much. I¡¯m just doing what I can, it¡¯s my job.¡±


    Fawn chortles and boops my nose with her free hand, now that she¡¯s carrying me in a single arm. She makes sure my face continues to be angled such that it¡¯s buried between her breasts, ¡°Of course you would feel that way. Anyway my dear, I will definitely take you up on that offer to snuggle after this event. I¡¯ll hold you to it, so you¡¯d better treat that like a promise. Anyway, here is your surprise.¡±


    Fawn finally frees me from her chest. As I set my feet to the ground, my face flushes with embarrassment. I turn as I¡¯m greeted by yells of surprise from my friends and family. Linti and Teuila are here as well, but looking mildly surprised themselves. My heart momentarily stops from the shock of it all. I clutch my chest and gasp. Who gave them the idea for surprise parties?


    I gaze around at Lin, Te, Fawn, Lao, Ag, Sugar, Spice, ¡®Naia, M^2, Magnus, Blossom, Six, Dream, Jaz, Luna, the smaller cats, even Bettie and Elder Tolkenstein are here. Teuila and Linti look at least somewhat surprised at the turn of events, so they hadn¡¯t been filled in on this until the last minute apparently. Lao actually ushers everyone to various positions, setting Teuila, Linti, and me off to one side.


    Laomati starts, ¡°Today, like many others, we have much to celebrate, the love of a large and wonderful family, the constant adoration we share for one another, our luck in making it through so many trials and tribulations. And of course we have our beloved protectors to celebrate as well. No matter what strange journeys their position may take them on, we must always be vigilant of ourselves, to make sure that they¡¯re aware, constantly reminded that they are loved, appreciated, not taken for granted. Not only that, but that they are not alone. They have one another, and should they need us, they have us. Any one of us would answer their calls, attend to their needs¡±.


    There are cheers of agreement and assent. I feel viscerally uncomfortable with this sort of attention. This is not the kind of way I want to be recognized or what I want to be known for. I just want quiet time snuggling with those most beloved to me. I only ever threw the first party to share the idea with my family. After that I made sure to avoid any spotlight or attention in any additional parties we had ever thrown. I¡¯m so grateful for Lao¡¯s desire to help fight off my negative feelings, but I don¡¯t know what to do about this. There¡¯s panic rising, welling up within me. I don¡¯t want to ruin their good cheer, to spoil the happiness that they¡¯re trying to share with me.


    I drop into accelerated thinkspace to cry alone in frustration and fear. I know this is exactly what Lao didn¡¯t want to have happen, she¡¯s trying so hard to meet my needs, to keep me from suffering, or withdrawing into myself. There¡¯s a crashing, shattering sound. My private thinkspace begins to crumble around me. It¡¯s as if all of my internal reality is tumbling away into nothingness like broken glass from a shattered mirror.


    Suddenly in that empty space, I see Teuila and Linti bashing away simultaneously at nothing, but also what seems like a prison of light. The edges are hard, sharp, but they persist. Their mental avatars shred their knuckles and limbs against the edges of my own solitary prison. I don¡¯t want them to hurt, or to suffer for me.


    I call out, ¡°Stop, stop, what¡¯s going on? You¡¯re hurting yourselves. Just, just please, stop. I¡¯ll be okay, I just need some time to cry and sort out my feelings so that I don¡¯t do it in front of everyone when they¡¯re being so nice and wonderful and kind and happy.¡±


    Both gals reach towards where I float in the sparkling crumbling nothingness of my private mindscape. I sigh as I relent, taking their hands, fretting over their telepathic scars and lacerations.


    Linti pulls me in tightly first, ¡°Nothing¡¯s ever easy with you, is it, Shellcracker? Reggie, I can¡¯t say I know what you¡¯re feeling, not the way that you feel it, but come on, do I look like I like being the center of attention any more than you? I¡¯ve got your back, and you¡¯ve got mine, right?¡±


    I nod shyly. Teuila continues, ¡°I enjoy this, but I could sense right away how much this scared and scarred you. Let¡¯s just wait for Lao¡¯s announcement to finish, and head to a quiet corner to calm down a bit, okay my spootaloot?¡±


    I can¡¯t help but to chuckle at Teuila¡¯s random insulting terms of endearment as I nod, rubbing my itchy, puffy eyes. Even though they¡¯re the eyes of my telepathic avatar, the sensations are so real. I wonder if my own private thinkspace is now permanently shattered. I wonder if it¡¯s no longer private at all because of Te and Linti. I can tell they don¡¯t regret that possibility at all. They know that generally I¡¯m only ever in my own private thinkspace to not worry others when I¡¯m down on myself.


    Still, we return to meatspace, only fractions of a second have passed as Lao continues, ¡°What¡¯s more, we have one another to be thankful for, and every day we should affirm our love of one another. No matter how many decades, years, months, or days we have together, each one of them should be cherished. I love you all, my beautiful children, and family.¡±


    There are more cheers of agreement from the wonderful people at hand. Elder Tolkenstein stays silent, but I¡¯m surprised at her even being present. I thought the only person that might know that I knew her was Luni. I don¡¯t think I spoke about her to anyone else. Regardless, Teuila, Linti and I try to stay as out of the spotlight as we can for the rest of the evening, as we go around sharing our thanks and gratitudes, our affirmations of one another.


    Mine are fairly simple, ¡°All of you, all of you and every day we¡¯ve ever had or ever will have together.¡±


    There¡¯s more I could say, but I really only want to say it to Teuila, Linti, Lil, Luni. I want them to know how precious and special they are, how beautiful and strong and kind and wonderful and splendid and talented and driven and brave they all are. Well, at least Te and Lin know how I feel, they¡¯re grinning at me like goofballs. I flush with embarrassment since my thoughts are on full display to the two of them.


    I find a few moments to take Laomati off to the side and let her know how grateful I am for how kind she is and how much she obviously cares to have brought this together for all of us. I mumble about how I¡¯m uncomfortable with appreciation and spotlights, trying to minimize my discomfort so as not to hurt her feelings. I think Laomati understands and isn¡¯t taking personal affront to my admission, or hurt from it. I love her so much. I¡¯m blessed beyond measure to have stumbled into this family, of all the places I could have ended up, in all the ways I could have traversed the paths in my life.


    Oddly, it''s Elder Tolkenstein that drags me to one side at this point, ¡°So your Luni, the beautiful otter lass that you described, I did deliver the message you asked. It seemed she was already aware of what would transpire. Moreover, she told me to stay abreast of the canal¡¯s completion, and to keep a weather eye out for your family on that day. She asked me to find this and give it to you on such a day as now.¡±


    Rinnia hands me a thick roll of vellum. As I unroll it, it appears to be an incomplete map of our island continent, but there are strange markings in continuous patterns around the map. They look like the sort of navigation maps one would use for sailing, ocean currents and the like, but they¡¯re also over land. Wait, wind currents? My vision narrows as my heart rate skyrockets with apprehension. Is Luni still guiding my fate? Did she know I would have to find Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending? Or did she even know what she sent Elder Tolkenstein to fetch for me? There do appear to be gaps in her knowledge quite frequently.


    I ask, ¡°Are these, are these maps of wind currents? There¡¯s a jumbled floating mass along one edge, if it¡¯s some sort of floating island, or creature, it¡¯s exactly where I need to go.¡±


    Rinnia nods, ¡°I don¡¯t know where your path lies, Old Soul, but it seems you¡¯ve picked quite the allies for your journey. You¡¯ve found yourself a kind, loving family. Something I¡¯m saddened we hadn¡¯t thought to give you while you resided here. I¡¯m glad you found your place though. Whatever your place in this world is, I know that the space you take up yearns to be filled.¡±


    The elder always has that curious inflection whenever she says the word space. Still, she clasps my hands momentarily before she walks away from the party without saying another word. As the party seems like it might continue full swing into the night, I edge away from the festivities in the clearing we¡¯ve taken over for the eve. Fawn catches sight of my attempted flight, and requests alone time for us so that I can keep the promise she¡¯s holding me to.


    As nervous as I am around her, I¡¯m grateful for the diversion and excuse to leave. We¡¯re back in the home that has been set aside for our family until the construction crews can begin building further housing. Fawn sets atop several pillows as she lays on her side, facing me, patting a spot in front of her. I take up my larger form, the one I use to make Linti feel safe and loved while cuddling, and I lay into Fawn¡¯s embrace.


    We spend what must be hours into the night kneading each other¡¯s muscle knots with our arms wrapped around each other. Fawn¡¯s jaw lays against my neck the entire time. As she purrs the vibration of her affection rumbles against my own throat the entire time. I find my right hand drifting upwards to her shoulders and skull and cheeks, so that my thumb eventually caresses her jawline. I come to realize that I¡¯m gazing into her eyes sleepily, slowly blinking in time with her own slow blinks. I begin to fall asleep in Fawn¡¯s embrace, our legs wrapped tightly around one another. Our chests expand and contract as our breaths press our chests against each other in unison. Each of us lays with an arm locked under the other¡¯s body. Her right arm is trapped under me, my left arm under her. Our opposite hands lazily play affectionately with each other¡¯s scalps in our last few minutes of wakefulness. Our family slowly filters in as we drift off to sleep.


    One of my last waking thoughts is that if I fail, this may be the last time I ever snuggle with Fawn, one way or another.


    When I rouse from slumber, what I¡¯m awakened by is Linti dragging me out from under four other bodies. Fawn and I are completely entangled, Lao and Ag are sleeping atop her, Teuila was sleeping atop me at my back, and Linti behind her, until now anyway. Teuila lets out a tiny soft snort as Linti drapes her arms over Fawn while extricating me.


    Lin flicks her head towards the door, and I follow her outside into the predawn air of the courtyard, morning dew still settling atop the blades of grass. Well, maybe it¡¯s not a courtyard, I don¡¯t know what you¡¯d call the space between a Miracle Oak, and the projected illusion of non-occupancy that borders its, uh, border. Without warning, Linti embraces me warmly, passionately, and though I¡¯m startled, I return her affection as my lips meet hers.


    She breaks off to say, ¡°Shellcracker, Reggie, I don¡¯t want to die any more than the next person, heck, maybe a bit less. This isn¡¯t fair. You don¡¯t even know when the choice is? Which fight? Which mission? I have to let you and my Toots go off and do these things, maybe one after another, until we¡¯re sure it¡¯s really the last big thing, and then we don¡¯t see each other, for some unknown long time? Maybe almost forever? That doesn¡¯t sit well.¡±


    I hold my hand over my mouth and can¡¯t meet Linti¡¯s gaze. I want to be selfish, I want to beg and plead for her to make the second choice. Tears form in the corners of my eyes, but I try to remain silent as she says her piece.


    Linti requests, ¡°Come on, talk to me bud, we¡¯re, agh, I love ya, I can sense what you want to say but I need to hear you say it. You know what I¡¯ll choose if you don¡¯t say it.¡±


    I gulp back a sob and gnaw on my lips as I meet Linti¡¯s gaze, ¡°Please, please stay and protect our family, and when the time comes, help the Nagas. I don¡¯t know when that time is. I know it¡¯s selfish, I know how much you want to help, how much you care, how powerful you are. Please Lin, I¡¯m begging you. Please make that choice, the choice is yours. I do love you, we are, like you say, I don¡¯t want to go into a future where we never see you again.¡± I find myself blubbering by the end of my plea.


    Linti rubs the back of her head, ¡°Awe hell Shellcracker, my bud. What was it you said once? All you had to do was ask. I mean, it¡¯s a hell of an ask, but that¡¯s all you had to do.¡± Linti ruffles my hair.


    I slug Linti playfully in the shoulder, ¡°You big jerk, playing it off like that.¡± I sniffle, ¡°I was wracked with guilt trying not to take that choice away from you.¡±


    Linti pulls me in close once more and we kiss yet again, as we part she whispers, ¡°I know, I know. Thank you. Good luck, you two. Tell my Toots how I feel for me, yeah? I hate goodbyes, so, uh. I¡¯m going to go hunt now.¡±


    Linti leaves without another word, and a familiar static hum passes through the air, along with the faintest hint of ozone that reaches even my nostrils which lack a sense of smell. She leaps away as a streak of lightning, and I¡¯m left to break the news to Teuila. At least in this timeline, it sounds like she¡¯ll probably live.


    As everyone rises to greet the day, I go around and say my temporary farewells, letting them know that another adventure which must be completed awaits Teuila and myself. I¡¯m so glad Teuila is coming. I wish Linti was as well, because I¡¯m worried that Tenith Grayl may command lightning, which could very well strike me down, as well as Teuila. Still, I¡¯m glad she was willing to make the choice to stay for now. I also wish I could at least verify with Luni if I was on the remotely right path. What¡¯s her life like right now? What is she even up to?


    Teuila catches me thinking about Lu and pouts. Sorry Te, we both miss her, I know. We both miss Lil too, even Lucky. It seems so weird that in what might be the end times, we¡¯re scattered to the¡­ four winds.


    I whistle appreciatively, ¡°Phewww, Lucky and Lil down towards the south, Linti over here with Spring Blossom at the Miracle Oak near the east coast, Lu who headed off somewhere west, and now we¡¯re going to journey north past Fire Biome to seek out a castle in the clouds, or some mountain in the sky.¡±


    Te looks mildly amused at my train of thought. She¡¯s not unintelligent, but I don¡¯t think the significance has dawned on her that the most powerful in our family have been spread out in the four cardinal directions. I mean, I suppose there might be no significance. It could just be a phrase that comes from my memories of fakeworld.


    I embrace Teuila, and share my memories of Linti¡¯s whispered words. We share our love and passion quickly, quietly, and I begin to summon our mode of transportation. Teuila read my logs, she knows I have a map to guide us. She knows my sense of direction is good enough to thread a dart through a goal net from miles away. She trusts me, and I just have to have faith in the both of us.


    Teuila reduces the gravity and friction at the front of our roughly spherical umbral vehicle. This copy I¡¯ve made is slightly more aerodynamic, but I¡¯ve left air slits in it so that we don¡¯t need to take oxygen breaks. Hopefully the locations I¡¯ve placed them end up leaving us at least neutrally, if not positively buoyant against the air. Teuila¡¯s power does mostly take care of that as well, so it¡¯s not too big of an issue. We cuddle together in a thickly cushioned section at the bottom of our JT propulsion vehicle, and I launch us into the air roughly north by northwest.


    Based on the map, the large mass in the sky would be hundreds of miles off the north coast of our island continent. There weren¡¯t a lot of landmarks anywhere near. Obviously there were no landmarks indicated in the sea, but also none at the nearest point on the shore save what appeared to be a cliff that was split in twain. Maybe It¡¯s two large tectonic plate edges that bumped into each other at an even level and were forced upwards. Maybe it was a single cliff that was split in two. Maybe it¡¯s actually two enormous statues that have been eroded to look like little more than cliff facing.


    Hm, the area with the cliff is coming into view, and it¡¯s still hard to discern what it actually is. I guess all that matters is that we¡¯re passing our only landmark, so I need to make sure our orientation is at least correct within a ballpark. From here it should be almost directly north. Teuila pulls out the compass orb just to verify our heading. I smile at her as we nuzzle noses together. She¡¯s perfectly justified in being nervous about losing our course. We¡¯re rocketing hundreds of miles per hour straight out over the sea where we will have no indication of how to return if we get turned around and lost. Thankfully Teuila¡¯s orb and my nose can tell us where north is, and we could always head directly back south.


    Quite some time passes, but it looks like a rocky spire pierces the clouds up ahead. The unusual thing is, the base appears to be the clouds themselves. This has to be what we¡¯re looking for, although I¡¯m not certain where Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, might be at the moment. Would this be her roost? Her resting place? Her throne? Wait, could the wind currents be her travel path? Would the cycle be daily? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly?


    At least we have plenty of food and water in our inventories, and I can always disassemble the salt from the ocean¡¯s saltwater below. I¡¯d do that with my inventory crafting if we need more drinking water before Tenith Grayl arrives. Should we try to follow the currents on the map? If they¡¯re only a rough estimate, we might never catch up to her. What if we went in the opposite direction? We¡¯d surely meet, but then it would be head on in the midst of whatever routine she follows.


    Te points out, ¡°We can at least rest here til dawn tomorrow, to see if she happens to be ending her journey around now. If she doesn¡¯t show up by then, then it¡¯s probably not daily, and probably doesn¡¯t happen to be the time of week or month when she¡¯s due to return.¡±


    I nod. Teuila helps reduce our gravity and velocity as I summon our vehicle to my inventory. We land upon a stony outcropping and settle in to rest, holding each other appreciatively. I¡¯m glad I don¡¯t have to do this alone, but I¡¯m still terrified for both of our lives.


    Quite some time after sunset, the sky seems to split, as it¡¯s filled with a familiar static hum, and a hint of ozone so strong that it assails even my anosmic nostrils. It seems like a river of lightning flowing across the sky is headed straight for the spire from the horizon line.


    In my head I hear, ¡°Who dares loiter upon the Elysium Ascent?¡±


    Teuila and I both clutch our heads as we double over and vomit lightning, electricity running rivulets out of all our orifices.

 B 3 C 35: From Elysium to Maelstrom

    <h2>B 3 C 35: From Elysium to Maelstrom</h2>


    I can¡¯t respond to Tenith Grayl without touching her mind with electropathy, but I don¡¯t know if either Teuila or I can survive long enough to make it close enough to the goddess.


    Wait, I know how to set timed detonation sparks.  I know how to fire bolts of lightning.  I can set a spark to ride along a bolt of lightning, I don¡¯t have to worry about killing a god of the sky with a lightning bolt to the brain.


    I aim two fingers forward towards the oncoming storm personified, and I launch a blast of electricity carrying a simple thought.  My message is, ¡°Mighty Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, Goddess of Sky and Storm, we come to beg an audience.  We won¡¯t survive your method of communication, please forgive our intrusion.¡±


    Suddenly the storm frying the insides of my head and Teuila¡¯s ends.  As we wait for Tenith Grayl¡¯s arrival, it¡¯s obvious that she is the most majestic serpentine dragon there could ever be.  Her cerulean scales flicker with a mild iridescence in the light cast by the storm that seems to perpetually surround her being.  Though her features are smooth and effeminate, her whiskers and mane are impressive beyond imagining   As she coils about the Elysium Ascent, it shudders with the impact of her landing.  She first aims upward to rest her face upon the tip of its spire, then thinks better of it.  She reverses the many miles of elongated form that make up her whole body in an instant, setting her face in front of me and Teuila.


    I try to bow as respectfully as I can, and approach with a hand up, palm forward.  There¡¯s the most minute nod as Tenith Grayl allows me to approach, but even this microscopic motion shakes the foundation of the Elysium Ascent.  I¡¯m permitted to approach and lay my hand upon her face, so I begin sending a constant stream of sparks towards her brain.  Normally I would need to be much closer, but this is a living lightning storm we¡¯re talking about, even her draconic scales seem to conduct the tiniest spark faster and further than they¡¯d ever normally flow.


    Once Tenith Grayl realizes I¡¯ve established a safe connection, she deigns speak, ¡°Mortals?  When did mortals even get the ability to survive the approach to the Elysium Ascent?  Moreover, when did the ofbloods begin mingling with the rezzers?  Even more surprising, you smell like my brother ¡®Card.¡±


    It takes me a moment to realize she combined ¡®of blood¡¯ into one word as a name for those that bleed, or that ¡®Card might mean lord Deckard Agni.  I respond, ¡°I¡¯m not certain when mingling began, mighty Goddess, but during my very brief existence in this world, I have spent most of it amongst rezzers, and I¡¯ve worked to foster peace between our kinds.¡±


    The sky god shushes me, ¡°Hush that now, drop the formalities, you made it here, call me Tenny.  I haven¡¯t had to play my role as mediator and messenger to the mortals in so long, it¡¯s nice to have one that I can speak to without melting their brains!  Peace you say?  I didn¡¯t know they were at any particular war, they just never bothered to breach the divide of their language barrier.  You say yours is a short existence so far, do you mean that compared to me, or even compared to other mortal ofbloods?  Go on, tell me your story, all of it, I¡¯m dying to hear anything other than the sound of my own thoughts!  Please spare no details, I want to know everything from the very beginning!¡±


    My jaw drops, as does Teuila¡¯s since she¡¯s riding my thought waves and reading my logs.  I¡¯m dumbfounded.  Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, is chatting me up like an old friend, telling me to call her by an endearing nickname.  This was not the outcome I expected.


    I start, ¡°Very well, as you wish, I¡¯m honored to be allowed to do so, Tenny.  From what I understand about my life¡¯s story, it began before I spawned¡­¡±


    Tenith Grayl patiently listens to my entire narrative.  She even waits with bated breaths as I ride out my panic attacks caused by certain triggering memories that I share with her.  Her questions are myriad when topics that she doesn¡¯t understand about mortal lives arise.  Still, after many hours, we begin to reach the topics that lead to the reason for my arrival.  In fact, it has likely been almost an entire day of standing here as part of a constant stream of sparks that send and receive thoughts with Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending.


    Tenith Grayl whistles into my mind as she hears about my last few weeks of life, slaying my brother, him being brought back before fully derezzing, Lord Deckard Agni beginning to awaken, and my own plea for him to remain slumbering.  Teuila slugs me in the shoulder when she hears about how I was torn limb from limb along Lord Agni¡¯s back, since I didn¡¯t go into detail about losing my limbs or why they hurt so much as they began to heal.  Tenith Grayl is even more surprised to hear about my attempts to forge a connection with purest Umbra.


    Tenny realizes my tale is nearly at an end, as I describe our approach to the Elysium Ascent, and I¡¯d swear the goddess pouts.  Tenny states, ¡°You¡¯re right, that is an incredibly brief existence, even by mortal standards.  It was full of adventure though!  What an interesting creature with a fascinating tale.  Still, I¡¯m afraid your journey here is in vain.¡±


    My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach as Tenny continues, ¡°If Levy forges the Hallowed Maelstrom, and the old goat ¡®Card makes it there, that¡¯s the signal, Maka has to wake up and I¡¯m supposed to give her a lift to the maelstrom, there¡¯s no fighting that, it¡¯s our purpose, our destiny. During the convergence, we¡¯ll wipe the slate clean.  Rezzers and ofbloods get a fresh, barren world that starts from the barest seeds of the old one, well, when they begin to spawn again anyway.  That could be years, decades, centuries before it starts happening.  It sounds like you convinced ¡®Card to not want to go to the Maelstrom right away at least, but if something is really powerful enough to force him to get his tail moving, then you¡¯re fighting fate itself little friend.¡±


    I gulp as I fight back a mixture of emotions.  Tenny just called me her friend, and she doesn¡¯t actively want the destruction of mortals either, maybe she can at least tell me about the Hallowed Maelstrom, or this Maka sister?


    I ask, ¡°Tenny, would you be willing to tell me as much as you can about Levy, the Hallowed Maelstrom, and this Maka sister?  If I can somehow convince even one of your siblings to somehow prevent the tide of fate flowing in this direction, I have to try.  I¡¯ll try anything that might save my family.¡±


    Tenny hems and haws, hearing a god be telepathically indecisive is not something I ever thought I¡¯d experience, ¡°Hm, well, it doesn¡¯t hurt to try your best I suppose.  Maka¡¯s our littlest sibling, but she¡¯s crazy powerful, since hers is also the lifeblood of so much of our world.  Her full title is Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle, and she really lives up to it.  After the convergence, when things begin anew, it will be from her back that everything is born.  If you could convince her to stay asleep, or that her precious creations are trying to fight fate itself to save other creations of hers, she might be willing to delay the convergence for a while.  Since she can¡¯t make it there without me, and if she doesn¡¯t accept my help to get there, we¡¯ll be at a stalemate, neither she nor I will be able to go if she refuses.¡±


    Tenny chews on her enormous scaled lips as she continues, ¡°As far as Levy, he¡¯s probably going to be all too happy to create the Hallowed Maelstrom, but you might be able to convince him to make it, and destroy it, so that he can make it again and again over time, making it more perfect with each cycle.  Play to his ego, maybe.  Levy can forge the Hallowed Maelstrom at any of the seas in any of the four winds, but he¡¯s likely to at least try to make it in the south sea first.  If old ¡®Card has any control left, and he doesn¡¯t want to hurt you little guys, that would make his journey slow and meandering if he had to swim north around the continent to eventually get there.¡±


    Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending graces me with images traveling along our electropathic sparks.  They¡¯re points in space, or rather in the seas, four distinct locations at each of the cardinal directions around our island continent.  Tenny says, ¡°Hopefully you can see that, it¡¯s pretty neat for an ofblood to have gotten enough power and creativity to be able to talk like this.  Most of them never seem to be able to break past their first stage of limitations.  The Hallowed Maelstrom itself is what it sounds like though, a godly divine whirlpool of epic proportions.  When the four of us meet within its swirl, we will spiral and mingle until we become one.  I don¡¯t know what happens after that.  I only know that the candle is snuffed, melted down, and lit anew.  Oh, right right!  If you¡¯re going to want to talk to Maka, sometimes her veins open to the surface where she slumbers.  She lies beneath the eastern forests on our little continent.  Lots of little creatures like you spawn within her veins, though most never seem to leave.  The vein nearest to her head probably has some sort of field, like the ones you talked about at your pond, or near ¡®Card with the cragbeasts.¡±


    Realization dawns on me, those translucent walls that could block entry or exit are somehow tied to the gods of this land.  The blue one at Shellcracker Pond when fighting Vampguppy was probably tied to Leviathan, the red one which kept the cragbeasts in their warren was likely tied to Lord Agni.  I think Teuila mentioned the one room in the dungeon she had found was covered in one as well, if she didn¡¯t already tell me, I could hazard a guess that it¡¯s probably green.


    Two of the forcefield-like structures are already destroyed.  As much as I¡¯d like to talk to Maka-Akari first, I don¡¯t want to risk finding out what happens if the field related to her is destroyed as well, if I can avoid it.  That means Teuila and I have a date with a sea serpent.  One that I can only hope isn¡¯t currently possessed by the red-eyed entity.


    I clutch my heart as panic grips me.  I topple over against Tenith Grayl once again, as I have many times during the sharing of my tale.  I don¡¯t know how much influence the red eyes can exert over creatures that are far apart.  It always seemed like the entity needed to be fully present to exert strong control.  Whenever it was just a spark of its essence, it could be washed away by the river after knocking some sense into someone.  I thought I might have to sneak onto Tenith Grayl¡¯s back and fight off creatures that lived along her body, to be able to make it to her head to speak with her.  Is there any chance in creation that I could sneak onto Leviathan¡¯s body, possibly knock some sense into him to free him of any partial control he might be under?  The idea that he may be under sway, or simply happy to act hostilely to mortals sends me tumbling into frightened day terrors.  It takes time, but I ride out the panic, slowly calming my breathing.  Teuila and Tenny both comfort me.


    I¡¯ve lucked out with two of the four siblings so far, but this luck can¡¯t hold.  Tenny herself has said she¡¯s positive I won¡¯t succeed against Leviathan¡¯s desire to create the Hallowed Maelstrom.  I¡¯m surprised he hasn¡¯t done it already, but maybe it takes time to forge it.  Maybe he has been starting its forging and stopping it, over and over, if he¡¯s some sort of perfectionist.  I will take her advice and appeal to his ego if I can survive approaching him.  Or maybe Leviathan is already done forging it, and Lord Agni has just been slow to rouse.


    Tenny has another question for me before I leave, ¡°So you said those snake friends of yours, well, I guess enemies, the ones that tried to kill you had my blessing.  Your brother, also the one that tried to kill you, wow, you¡¯ve got some bad luck, anyway, that one maybe took the blessing, yeah?  Any idea what he could have wanted with those blessings?  They can create a strong enough gale to send almost anything basically flying for a short time.  Should I reclaim the blessings of ¡®Quetzalcoatl¡¯ from the mortals?¡±


    I shake my head, ¡°No, I think whatever Mataalii has done is something that had to be done in the end, somehow.  Luni has him in some fashion or another, so I guess she technically maybe possesses the blessings at the moment.  Maybe that¡¯s why she had to capture him.  I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever know, at least not before the end.  Thank you Tenny, for not killing us, for being willing to talk, for hearing me out, for sharing your advice and information, for everything.¡±


    She responds, ¡°No worries little friend, your hand on my snout¡¯s the closest thing I¡¯ve gotten to a hug in an eternity, maybe longer.  I feel a bit like you in all those long tunnels when you shut your brain off.  It can be years, centuries between times when I check back into reality.  It¡¯s a rather boring existence.  Thanks for spicing things up a bit.  If I wasn¡¯t so sure that things are going to go, well, the way they are, I¡¯d say come back and see me some time when you¡¯ve had more adventures to share.  I¡¯m fairly positive this is the last we¡¯ll ever see of each other in these forms though.  I don¡¯t know what I¡¯ll be after the convergence, but I doubt it¡¯s going to be someone that sits around to listen to your stories.  Good luck Reggie and Teuila Shellcracker.  You have your work cut out for you.  Oh, one last tip!  Try connecting with that Umbra stuff near us, maybe our divinity can help your message reach?¡±


    I place both my arms on Tenith Grayl¡¯s snout in the best approximation of a hug I can make, and Teuila joins me as well.  While I¡¯m embracing the goddess, I ask the systems of the world to let me gaze upon purest Umbra, to let Teuila see the connections, the greater truths.  We¡¯re not asking to cast any specific spell, not desiring any outcome or effect, we just want to understand the connection.


    The universe, the world and all its systems relent, and slowly motes of purest Umbra begin to wriggle their way into existence around us.  Each of us, Teuila, Tenith, and I all gaze with wonder upon these floating flecks of shadow, these matte obsidian spheres.  None of the three of us can resist touching a spec as we gaze upon them.  My understanding broadens ever so slightly.  More of the tale unfolds.  The story that is told is one of a simple soul.  That¡¯s as much as I can consciously grasp at the moment.


    Tenny, causing a mild shower of sparks to fry my brain in a slightly painful fashion, says into my mind, ¡°Trippy!¡±


    I can¡¯t help but burst into laughter.  I send back a spark saying our farewells and our gratitude once more, as I take my leave to at least get myself and Teuila back to the mainland before we plot our next course of action.


    We¡¯ve been awake for probably over a day and a half, maybe two and a half days at this point.  We waited for Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending to return to the Elysium Ascent after taking quite a number of hours to travel there, which was most of a day in and of itself.  While there it took me ages to relay my life¡¯s story, I think it might have been an entire day of just telling my tale.  I¡¯m exhausted and starving, as is Teuila.  As we make landfall near the split twin cliffs, I rapidly construct a shelter, bedding, and consume a morsel of meat quickly as I begin to pass out in the middle of falling onto the makeshift bed.  Teuila does much the same as we land in each other¡¯s arms, falling asleep immediately.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got a lovely bunch of, oy, what¡¯s this now?¡±  The captain leans down to pick up a small object that¡¯s obscured from my view from this angle.  He buffs and shines it while facing away, and a gale begins to pick up.


    ¡°Batten the hatches lads, seems we¡¯re in for surprise stormy weather!  Hoist the mainsails, secure the yardarm!  You there, stow those below and get to cover!¡±  The captain of this piratical vessel carefully observes each crew member to make sure they¡¯re tying themselves off and securing everything as needed.  They disconnect the sails to run under bare poles and stow them against the port and starboard railings as they tie them down.


    It seems like they¡¯re sailing under these conditions for weeks on end.  The captain finally relents and has the crew reapply sails.  Cautiously at first, but as the wind fills the sails, the ship virtually takes flight.


    I come to with a snort, and Teuila giggles as she flicks my nose.  I ask with a start, ¡°Hm? Huh?  Oh, Te.  Are you ready to head all the way to the other end of the continent to look for a terrifying serpent creating a massive divine whirlpool?¡±


    Te shakes her head, ¡°Honestly, no, and neither are you, but what other choice do we have?  What can I even do on this mission?¡±


    I respond, ¡°Well, for this next part, I¡¯m hoping you¡¯ll be able to bail me out if ¡®Levy¡¯ won¡¯t even let me talk to him.  You might be able to fight off some crab creatures or weird things attached to his back like giant remoras or something.  Also you know I couldn¡¯t reach these speeds without you, let alone maintain them.  Your powers are allowing me to make trips that would take weeks take days instead.¡±


    Teuila grumbles but relents, ¡°Okay, fine, I suppose.  This is so much bigger than anything before though.  We chose to prepare to fight the snake and we chose to go on an adventure to get bags and stuff in the cragbeast place.  This just feels like it¡¯s forced on us, and it¡¯s not fair.  It¡¯s not fair that any misstep or failure might be the last one, ever, for everyone.¡±


    I nod.  It really isn¡¯t fair.  Something Lord Agni said springs to mind.  He said not even the elders could force the gods of this continent to do something.  Did he mean elder gods?  What if he was underestimating them?  Could we make contact somehow?  Plea for them to stop the convergence?  Somehow I doubt our minds could connect without me being erased from existence for trying, or me losing my sanity or all my memories.


    There¡¯s also the fact that the siblings are lesser gods of our single small continent.  Could we find the next nearest landmass?  Would it be spared the destruction that follows the convergence?  Still, it would take weeks, maybe months just to construct vessels large enough to begin evacuating the population, maybe just as long to find the other continent or continents if none of the humans still living have been back and forth to Geawerene.  Even after finding a path, it could take as long to sail, all that time we would be at Leviathan¡¯s mercy, or the Hallowed Maelstrom itself, or the effects of the convergence.  I doubt we have any of those luxuries, or would survive any of those outcomes.  Plus, even though they¡¯re lesser gods of this continent, I don¡¯t doubt that combined, they have the power to reset our entire world.  I just don¡¯t know if the candle of mortality that they are intended to snuff out encompasses just that of the creatures here, or those of creatures everywhere.


    Te and I hold each other tightly, trying to steady our nerves and support each other as we continue our travels, this time far to the south, to the point where we expect Leviathan to be forging a whirlpool.  After an extended travel time, we camp at the beach Teuila and her family once called home.  Both of us cry in each other¡¯s arms as destiny reminds us once more of the fate of her family and their allied clan, the Rocksmashers.


    Still, I¡¯m filled with new determination to set Leviathan on a path that either delays him, or snaps him out of his efforts to follow his destiny prematurely.  If I stood the remotest chance of even possibly killing even just one of these god siblings, I would undoubtedly choose this one.  Still, it wasn¡¯t his fault, the Night of High Water.  Maybe.


    Teuila and I carefully take our bearings so that it will be a straight shot out over the ocean to seek the location where we expect to find Leviathan.  This feels even more fraught with danger than when heading to an unknown location in the sky with Tenith Grayl.  At least we were pretty certain we¡¯d be able to land on something where we could breathe when we sought out Tenny.  Here there will be no land, and the godling will likely reside beneath the waves the entire time.  We will be slower, and at the mercy of our oxygen limits, even with my ability to help separate out the carbon and re-breathe our air within an airtight shelter, our oxygen is not endless.  Not to mention Leviathan could just swallow our shelter, trapping us forever, or killing us.


    Having a thought, I ask, ¡°Te, do you think you can create a tether of wind?  On one of your arrows?  Could you fire it into a godbeast¡¯s brain for my sparks to travel along?  Then we wouldn¡¯t need to follow him beneath the waves.¡±


    Teuila pauses before replying, ¡°I¡¯ve been practicing my archery with Linti in The Hollow, I kinda wish my dorky Lil Dragbutt was here with those invisible goggles, I¡¯d ask to borrow them.  Still, between bracers and raw skill, I could probably do it.  I¡¯m not sure how long I could maintain it, especially if Levy is moving around.¡±


    I nod, I wish Lil was with us for different reasons, but Teuila¡¯s answer is good enough for my plan, ¡°That¡¯s okay, that¡¯s fine, Tenny was certain Levy wouldn¡¯t respond well to us anyway, we can¡¯t afford to die trying to convince him.  We still have a shot with Maka-Akari, and we still don¡¯t know what the six books do.¡±


    Te playfully socks me but then pauses to look down sadly at her own fist.  I¡¯m suddenly reminded that Teuila once felt trauma at roughhousing with me, a favorite activity of hers.  I think that was way back in Fire Biome, our first time there.  We worked through that, but she still carried the burden of that pain for at least a while longer.  She was afraid that I would become re-traumatized by her, and retreat from reality for a long period again.  She begged me not to leave her.  It was the most vulnerable she had ever been with me at the time.  When our bodies purged the majority of the Radiance from our systems, and we temporarily lost our telepathic bond, Teuila thought I was punishing her, losing faith and trust in her.  Thankfully it didn¡¯t take much to convince her that I would never do such a thing.  She had a brief period of self-doubt is all.


    When she was manipulated into attacking me near the river, when her Valkyrie form seemed to not respond properly for her, she subconsciously shut down our mental link.  She was likely panicking, railing against the fear that I would backslide into being traumatized by her.  She could feel me sliding into that trauma-space at the end of the confrontation, when Luna had separated us.  My mind had begun to set the neurological links between Teuila and my strongest triggers of panic and trauma once again.  She snapped me out of it just in time.


    I¡¯ve relied on Teuila to accept my love, to constantly support me during my short life.  I¡¯ve relied on her to accept how hard it is to love me, to fight through my panic and traumas and burdens and self-doubt.  She comes through time and time again.  My first love, My-Wings.  Now I¡¯m relying on her to set up a communication method and keep us out of reach of a deadly water god.  I am completely unfair to her, I don¡¯t deserve her love and I don¡¯t know how to become worthy of her affection.


    Teuila noogies me for my train of thought, ¡°Come on spootbrain, there¡¯s nothing special to it, you¡¯re already worthy and deserving of, of well, stuff, you know, words.¡±


    I chuckle slightly.  Even Te¡¯s inability to fully express her desired intent is endearing.  Even though I¡¯m not strong enough to just snap my fingers and cure my own emotional wellbeing issues, I appreciate her regardless.  I can¡¯t change my neurologically atypical nature.  I think there might even be a term for that, neurodivergent.  She doesn¡¯t seem to need me to try to change things though.  She smiles at me and holds me while she rides my thought waves.  She trusts me to always come back to her, no matter what rabbit hole my thoughts send me down.  She¡¯s always willing to wait patiently and offer her hand in support.  She¡¯s even willing to break down my walls if need be, if she can tell that I¡¯m hurting or punishing myself.


    As we sail south over the seas, scouring for either signs of Leviathan, or of a Hallowed Maelstrom, a titanic whirlpool comes into view at the edge of the horizon, and within its spiral, enormous loops of the great serpent himself.  Teuila motions for me to take us in closer, so that she can find his head to aim the tether shot for our communication.  Upon approach though, our nostrils, ears, and tear ducts flood with seawater, we begin vomiting forth saltwater as well, still not in position, as Leviathan reaches towards our minds to speak.


    Leviathan chides, ¡°What mortals come bearing the scents of the old goat and haughty bird among my siblings?  How do you have the audacity or power to even approach Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River?¡±


    Struggling to not die of drowning, we plummet towards one of Leviathan¡¯s scaled loops that seem to hover as if they were a floating mountain range amidst the spiraling torrent of his maelstrom.  Teuila is able to struggle against the pain as she grips her head, to hold me with one arm and reduce our gravity as we land with a soft thud.  A great wall of water begins to rise before us, cascading off of Leviathan¡¯s face as he raises it to spy where we¡¯ve landed.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Between pulses of vomiting seawater I call out, ¡°Great and powerful Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River, we wish to speak, we will not survive your method of communication, but we have one of our own.¡±


    Leviathan of course does not understand me or my words.  The gods are all probably rezzers.  Teuila tries to repeat what I said, though less tactfully, ¡°Great serpent, come closer so we can listen and respond without dying!¡±


    I gulp as Leviathan seems to oblige Teuila, because he approaches, jaw open,and his massive fangs drag against his scales with a sound like boulders across sheet metal.  His mouth encompasses us, but at least he¡¯s no longer speaking, and our bodies are no longer flooded with his element.  His tongue is an island, an enormous serpent in its own right, which tries to catch us and flick us down his throat.  Teuila and I sail upwards into the mucus membranes at the roof of his mouth.  We find purchase in his porous soft tissues, which buys us a few precious moments of safety.  Should he simply hold his head beneath the waves, we¡¯ll eventually drown.


    I look to Teuila, certain that I can¡¯t get a spark to reach his mind from our current position.  Our only hope is that a mana-tethered arrow fired from Te¡¯s bow, guided by wind, might possibly be able to reach near enough to Leviathan¡¯s brain.  She takes a deep breath, and aims her shot upwards towards the back of the goliath serpent¡¯s cranium.  Teuila exhales smoothly as she releases what appears for all intents and purposes to be little more than a glowing green mass of swirling wind.  I lace the mana trail from her bow to the arrow with a constant stream of sparks, carrying my thoughts to Leviathan.


    My statement is repeated, ¡°Great and powerful Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River, we wish to speak, we will not survive your method of communication, but your thoughts can be carried back along this one, should you deign us fit to speak with.  We have indeed spoken with your brother and sister, Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate and Lady Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending.¡±


    I wait with bated breath for the series of sparks to travel back.  Leviathan replies, ¡°What troublesome, irksome gnats.  That you¡¯ve survived two of my siblings is no matter, our convergence will soon wipe you all from the lands and seas and skies.  I¡¯m curious what you hoped to accomplish however.¡±


    I don¡¯t think Leviathan cares that he was roused prematurely, should I even bring up the entity?  No, I think he¡¯ll be ashamed and insulted if I insinuate that he could have been controlled.  Teuila agrees with my assumption as she rides my thought waves.  I see a future where we try to convince Leviathan to stand down because he was controlled, manipulated into waking up early.  Such a truth enrages him.  In that future, Leviathan doesn¡¯t wait for the convergence, he floods the lands, he would take everything from us, not that we¡¯d be alive to see it.  Then we should take Tenny¡¯s advice, and play to his ego.


    With reverence, I return, ¡°Great lord of the seas, at first we feared the stirrings of Lord Agni, then we learned of the existence of more deities, and that you were among their number, destined for convergence.  We had always been terrified of you, but Lady Tenith Grayl extolled to us your artistry and mastery over the seas.  She said your job was to create the most perfect, Hallowed Maelstrom that could allow the mingling of divinity.  We had to see the last, most perfect thing that would exist within our lifetimes, as they are soon to be ended.¡±


    I really hope that doesn¡¯t sound sarcastic, or like a lie.  It was mostly true.  I don¡¯t want to try to push the ruse, I figure one or two more messages back and forth and we should try to escape with our lives, or I should rewind time and prevent us from seeking out Leviathan at all.


    Leviathan¡¯s thoughts reach me again on the trail of sparks, ¡°Yes, her high and mighty birdship is correct, I alone bear the power and responsibility to create the perfect circle.  The drain funnel through which our powers and minds will mingle to become one.  This one is not perfect however, as you can no doubt tell.  It is not my most magnificent work.  I have acted in haste, my siblings must acknowledge my prowess when they arrive to join the convergence.  The very foundation upon which this Maelstrom has formed is flawed, I must begin anew.  Maka would never accept less than perfection, except from her own feeble creations of course, the hypocrite.  Sadly you won¡¯t live out the several, hm, many days it will take me to remake the Maelstrom in its perfect form, for now is the hour of your demise.¡±


    Leviathan¡¯s tongue begins to thrash at the fold of tissue in which we find ourselves.  We need to get out of here!  I don¡¯t see a path to escape through though.  Is there any chance that I could cause enough damage to Leviathan¡¯s lip to open just a tiny crack for us to pass through?  It looked like there were hundreds of meters of lip.  What if Teuila and I throw everything we have at it together?


    Teuila grumbles, ¡°I can get out along the path my arrow took, but I couldn¡¯t bring you with.¡±


    Te can get out?  That¡¯s great!  I beg her to go, ¡°Te, get out of here, take to the skies, wait for me as high up as you can get while still being able to breathe.  If he pursues you, hold your breath and go even higher.¡±  I¡¯m hoping that Leviathan can¡¯t leap more than a few kilometers out of the seas, or he¡¯d have probably flooded all the lands by now.


    Te argues, ¡°I¡¯m not leaving you, what would you even do without me that we can¡¯t do together?¡±


    As I adopt my mite-hulk busting form, equipped with a multi-layered Umbral helmet, I telepathically joke, ¡°Where I¡¯m going, you shall not pass, but I¡¯m hoping I pass through.  I¡¯m going to hope that Leviathan has an actual digestive system and a butt.  If not, I¡¯ll do my best to blow a hole in his rear and join you as soon as I can.¡±


    Te tries to stifle her laughter, ¡°You¡¯re wearing the skin of some giant bug as armor, and you¡¯re going to try to get pooted out by a god?  Only you my wonderpunk, only you.  Fine, but only so that I get to let you never live this down.  And you are going to live for me to make fun of you!  Got that?¡±


    I don¡¯t have to hide my smile that¡¯s covered by several layers as I begin rocketing off into Leviathan¡¯s internals.  I¡¯m trusting Teuila to use whatever power she hinted at, to follow her arrow out through Leviathan¡¯s brain and ears canals or something.


    There¡¯s a whole world in here, well, a fraction of one.  I have a limited time that I can sustain this form without siphoning heat as mana from my surroundings, but even what I¡¯m able to siphon through the air won¡¯t let me wear this form indefinitely, plus the energy I siphon will be expended creating my rocket thrust with thermokinesis.  I have to hurry, thankfully this exoskeleton can withstand my fastest JT propulsion velocity.  But even using JT propulsion and rocket thrusting, it could take dozens of minutes to make it out of here.  My mana won¡¯t last more than three or four in this form if I¡¯m trying to keep its alien impulses at bay.  If I don¡¯t have enough mana to suppress whatever alien parasitic symbiotic nerve signals or cells are trying to combine with my own, I don¡¯t know what will happen.  I really don¡¯t want to find out.


    Uh oh.  Even though this exoskeleton can withstand the forces needed to propel me at mach speeds, and is immune to acid, it apparently isn¡¯t immune to the environment within a godling.  The moisture within is corroding my exoskeletal form.  Not good.  I still have the king¡¯s exoskeleton, it should be even hardier than this form.  But I don¡¯t want to switch to it unless absolutely necessary.  It drains my mana even faster to fight off whatever it tries to do within my body.  Maybe I should just send a message back in time to not seek out Leviathan.  Though I do think we succeeded in buying a few more days, maybe weeks or months, before the convergence, I don¡¯t want to die before trying every last thing to prevent it entirely.


    Everything is beginning to hurt as Leviathan¡¯s internals try to make my internals my externals, by melting away my externals.  I side-eye myself at that particular inner narrative sentence.  It sounded very ¡®please allow myself to introduce myself.¡¯  Ugh, this is no time to get distracted.  At least Leviathan has a gut structure, but it¡¯s unlike any I¡¯ve ever seen.  Which I guess is accurate, as I¡¯ve never seen any guts before now, except some weird viscera that dropped as loot from certain creatures we¡¯ve slain.


    I¡¯m getting too low on mana, and I¡¯m nowhere near an exit.  I¡¯m going to have to either risk letting the mite form change me somehow, or risk meditating somewhere in my base form.  Either one won¡¯t last much longer anyway, my base form is nowhere near as strong as this one, and this one is already almost spent.  My exoskeleton is pitted, scarred, caved in in places.  My tender flesh beneath the exoskeletal suit is suffering what feels like a constant chemical burn.  Well, that¡¯s sort of exactly what it is.  The vapor in the air in here seems to be pure acid.


    I wonder if my original spherical vehicle would last long enough to recover a full pool of mana.  I jet myself towards some tissue up ahead that looks like nested webbing, and I drop to my base form as I begin to summon my sphere around myself.  The sphere crashes into the webbing which acts like an airbag, slowing its velocity and reducing its impact.  I exhale a quick but smooth breath as I scrub some of the carbon out of my own air supply.  I end up accidentally gasping for breath as I begin trying to meditate.


    My nervousness about my current predicament slows my meditation somewhat, but I¡¯m still at least able to recuperate nearly all my mana.  I once thought of my Umbral duplicates as invulnerable.  They aren¡¯t, as is evidenced by the fact that what once was a spherical vehicle for me has now disintegrated around me just as I¡¯m topping off my mana.  My real flesh begins to suffer burns this time, the pain is excruciating as welts form up and down my limbs.


    I retreat into accelerated thinkspace to try to decide my course of action.  I need to transform into the king mite-hulk stage to even stand a chance of getting out of here.  Even with that transformation, it¡¯s going to take more than a minute to find my way out, and I¡¯m burning through mana just jetting around using thermokinesis for rocket propulsion on top of my JT movements.  My mana pool would last maybe fifteen seconds, thirty if I¡¯m lucky.  I can¡¯t afford to try to rest every quarter of a minute.


    At this point, the lesser mite-hulk exoskeleton is almost completely disintegrated.  My soft flesh beneath is entirely exposed.  Alright, I¡¯ll have to abandon that form.  But how do I handle the king-mite-hulk¡¯s exoskeleton?  I can¡¯t afford the electrokinesis to fight back whatever strange alien impulses and cellular activity is going to go on.  Not if I want to survive.  I couldn¡¯t even make it back to Leviathan¡¯s mouth at this point with this amount of mana.  Should I send myself back in time?  I don¡¯t feel defeated yet.  Will I still have control of my senses?


    There¡¯s a problem.  If I lose control of myself to whatever is within the king exoskeleton, I won¡¯t be able to reset time to stop myself from making that mistake.  Crap, it¡¯s now or never, reset time, or wear the king exoskeleton.  Which one?  If it takes me over, will I still love Teuila?  Will I be myself, or ever see her again?


    ¡°You can still be you.  Never lose yourself, never give yourself up, or give up on yourself.¡±


    Future-me?  Is that you?  Those were fairly kind and inspiring words.  Thank you.  I¡¯m sorry that I thought you were nothing but cold, cruel, and calculating.  Anything else to add?  No response, huh?  Oh well, thank you regardless.  Mite-hulk king exoskeletal armor it is then.  Unless that¡¯s a future-me controlled by the alien impulses of the exoskeleton.  Awe heck, that¡¯s a terrifying thought.  Okay, okay, get it together.  I can¡¯t afford decision-paralysis.  I¡¯ll have to trust future-me.


    I exit accelerated thinkspace and swap forms to my larger exoskeleton.  Immediately my heart and mind struggle against a vicious cellular invasion.  It feels as if a mildly acidic viscous sticky sludge is crawling about my insides and sending out pulses of electricity carried by spike-coated cells along my nervous system.  If normal cells, such as my own, have a plasma membrane, the cells invading my body have a hardened spiky tar, almost an exoskeleton of their own.


    I continue my sonic flight through Leviathan¡¯s innards.  It¡¯s odd, once I passed the esophagus, there was this feeling of entering an entirely new location.  I¡¯d thought on several occasions that consuming food seems like it simply teleports the food away to some transdimensional stomach out there beyond the universe.  As if it were simply being moved to our inventories, rather than actually eaten.  This somehow feels like that, yet I¡¯m traveling through what are essentially familiar biological structures from my fakeworld memories.  I know that there¡¯s a misconception about intestines being able to be miles long, but for Leviathan, they actually are miles long.  I had to actually blast through an area where Leviathan¡¯s stomach acid had created chyme, an acidic paste.  I occasionally have to swim through the paste to continue moving through the intestines.  Thankfully, the greater exoskeleton seems to be weathering the acid almost perfectly.  At least I can¡¯t sense any damage being done, though my senses are slightly overwhelmed by the alien nerve pulses and cells running rampant.


    A reverberating, smoky, slimy voice with an underlying confidence asks, ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    I nearly vomit into my multi-layered helmet as this voice speaks to me like an undulating pond of muck.  The voice is definitely not one of mine.  My stomach invents a new acrobatics routine at each syllable uttered into my mind.


    The voice reiterates, ¡°I said, what¡¯s your name, little girl?¡±


    Though I¡¯m mildly sickened, I¡¯m now more irritated as I respond, ¡°I¡¯m neither little, nor a girl.  My name¡¯s Reggie, who the hell are you?¡±


    The voice mockingly retorts, ¡°Well hello mister fancy pants.  You can call me The King.¡±


    At this point, I know I¡¯m being egged on, and I feel less threatened as I deny its request, ¡°I¡¯m not calling  you that.  I¡¯m more likely to call you Bruce than The King.  At the very least, I¡¯m not saying ¡®hey, The King, cool it.¡¯¡±


    Indignantly the voice chimes, ¡°Okay, alright, alright, we can drop the ¡®The.¡¯  Just call me King.  After all, that¡¯s what your name means more or less, right?  Regicide, Regina, regime, region, it all means some kind of ruling or ruler, one way or another.  So, one ruler to another, I have a question.  What in the salted earth are we doing in some worm¡¯s food canal?!¡±


    Despite the sickening roil of the voice as it cascades around my brain, I can¡¯t help myself as I burst into a brief bit of laughter.  I can feel King trying to worm his way into my neurons, trying to eke out a permanent spot amidst my psyche.  But I¡¯m confident, due to my note from my future self, that I can hold him back without spending mana to do so.


    I tell the voice, ¡°At the moment?  We¡¯re trying to survive.  If we make it out in the end, I might have more energy to answer you.¡±


    King hassles me in return, ¡°Other than the poor choice of words, we¡¯ll be fine in the end.  What¡¯s the wo¨C¡±


    I interrupt, ¡°I swear to all that is holy and hellish that if you finish that question I will rewind time and eject you from my body down into Leviathan¡¯s open gullet from above.¡±


    King gulps, ¡°You can do that?¡±


    I¡¯m not certain, but I¡¯m not telling him that.  The intrusiveness of his parasitic cells and nerve impulses die down as he recoils slightly.  I think he¡¯s trying to determine whether or not he can overwhelm my psyche all at once or not, rather than risking annoying me further while trying to gain control.  Dangerous bedfellows we make.  I¡¯m not sure if I can ever risk using this form again unless I massively reduce my internal electrokinesis cost, or find an unlimited wellspring of mana that doesn¡¯t burn me apart from the inside to use en masse.


    King¡¯s burbling voice tentatively asks, ¡°What¡¯s the plan?¡±


    I figure that¡¯s an innocent enough question to answer, ¡°For now, keep flying, digging, swimming as need-be.  If there¡¯s no back door, we make one ourselves.¡±


    King replies with emphasis in his sickening voice, ¡°Groovy.¡±


    I barely stifle my chuckle.  I could swear his personality is ripped straight from campy horror movies from fakeworld.  But his essence is more like something from gritty grimdark comics from that world.  An alien, parasitic, symbiotic entity that¡¯s in a constant struggle for dominance and control over the body it resides in.  I¡¯ve bought myself some relaxation time with my vague threat earlier, and unnerved him by not answering about the threat.  I can¡¯t afford to let my guard down though.  I don¡¯t know if he can redouble his efforts in a massive incursion into my thoughts and mind that might take me over in an instant.  Staying vigilant around him is taking up most of my concentration.


    Whatever gut flora and fauna that might exist in fakeworld, thankfully our reality is quite different.  This is no twenty thousand leagues of incredible journeying microscopically into someone¡¯s insides where they¡¯re attacked by giant eukaryotic cells.  I¡¯m exceedingly grateful for that.  If microscopic things were multiplied in scale to the mass of Leviathan, each cell would be monstrously sized, something like sixteen feet in length.


    My mana reserves are getting low, and we¡¯ve finally made it through the small intestines.  I¡¯d better meditate quickly, neither King nor I want to get caught in the colon while out of mana.  At least I assume so.  I¡¯m not even going to bother to ask though.  I¡¯m grateful that Leviathan doesn¡¯t seem to be able to smell his own insides, or have wide scanning telepathy.  If he simply spoke into my brain long enough, I¡¯d just die of drowning.


    I hazard an uneasy alliance, ¡°King, do you feel like you can handle firing one claw pistol ahead and breaking through anything clumped ahead of us while I work on propulsion?¡±


    King replies, ¡°If you relinquish control of that arm, I could handle that, yes.¡±


    I nod, agreeing to his terms, and I feel his cells receding into my left arm.  The impulses and nerve signals from King die down, but so does all sensation from my left arm.  It feels, for all intents and purposes, as if I no longer have that limb attached to my body at all.  Dangerous bedfellows indeed.  We make good time as we approach the various sphincters of the rectum, still unsure if rezzers have even the slightest rear exit.  I¡¯ve never had to use one, nor have any of my family, but it¡¯s not like I ever closely inspected that area.  That¡¯s just weird.


    Sadly as I feared, there is a dead end, a scaled wall of flesh where an anus should be.  I¡¯d like control of my left arm back to focus my spells.


    I request, ¡°King, I¡¯m going to need my arm back to get us out of here.¡±


    His response annoys me, ¡°No can do little fella.¡±


    I¡¯m neither little, nor a fella, and I want my arm back.  I could risk changing back to my base form, but I¡¯m literally wading in, ugh, waste matter.  I tap the scaly flesh wall and my danger wrap equipped to the softer body inside my exoskeleton susses out its weakest point.


    I relent, slightly, ¡°Fine, then I¡¯m going to need you to work with me.  You see where I¡¯m aiming?  I need you to aim at the same spot.  I¡¯m going to create a steam explosion right there by combining lightning, fire, and ice.¡±


    King seems jazzed as his twisted burble of a voice calls into my mind excitedly, ¡°Now that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about!¡±


    I draw as much moisture to the weakest point as I can with thermokinesis, and I freeze it in place after using electrolysis to separate some of the oxygen and hydrogen.  I then work at conjuring three simultaneous spells spiraling around one another, a lance of frost, a beam of fire, and a bolt of lightning.  King seems to be able to sense my attack forming, and prepares my left arm to do something.  I¡¯m not quite sure what.


    King asks, ¡°If I help get us through this, do I get anything?  A little sugar to sweeten our relationship?  A few more inches?  Maybe some brain stem?¡±


    Ugh, I ignore King and his pulsating wave of a voice.  As my triple spell spirals outwards towards its target, I sense a growing power in my left arm.  My spell detonates how I¡¯m hoping, and blows the smallest hole in Leviathan¡¯s hide.  The bad news is, it begins sealing immediately.  The worse news is, I can¡¯t fight forward against the blowback of my own attack to reach it in time.  The good news is, King¡¯s attack goes off.  The pistol claw snaps, firing intangible essence, and it¡¯s like he slices a narrow path in the blast wave, reflecting a portion of it back into the wound, pausing its sealing momentarily, and freeing us up to move forward.


    King once again calls out, ¡°Now that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about!¡±  His voice, a bubbling pustule, then adds, ¡°Who else wants some?!  Come get some!  None of you primitives have anything to say?  That¡¯s right, nobody wants nothing.  Hail to the king baby!  Now you, Reggie, gimme some sugar.¡±


    Ugh, and we¡¯re done here, I¡¯ll risk getting to the surface of the maelstrom on my own.  I realize he wasn¡¯t asking about romantic affection, but rather more control over my body while we shared that form.  I¡¯m not sure which idea grosses me out more however.  I reset to draconic Reggie form, and do my best to launch skyward out of the swirling sea.  The Hallowed Maelstrom itself is dying down as Leviathan swims opposite its current rotation.  Hopefully my scent won¡¯t reach him beneath the waves.  I fracture my legs as I risk accelerating to near sonic speeds without the protection of the mite-hulk forms.  Ow, at least it¡¯s just a fracture, or several.  I can heal that in a few days.


    After barely a minute, I¡¯m approaching the areas of thinnest breathable air.  I begin to panic as I don¡¯t see Teuila anywhere.  I suppose I didn¡¯t take into account that Leviathan was going to be moving and spinning, and that we were going to be leaving Leviathan from miles apart.  Crap.  Te could be stranded up here, waiting for me to find her, running out of air.  She¡¯d have a hard time getting any horizontal velocity to head back towards home.  She could purposely drop down to sea level, and leap off of Leviathan again, or maybe drop down to the sea itself, set her gravity coefficient to zero, and possibly leap off of the water.  It wouldn¡¯t provide as much purchase, or thrust, since the third law of motion¡¯s reaction would mostly be the water moving away from her feet.


    Really future me?  We lived through that, and I didn¡¯t think to tell myself how to find Teuila, somewhere up to miles away in the sky?  Oh wait, tracking something up to miles away in the sky.  I have something that¡¯s perfect for that.  I withdraw some of the aura-vision-enhancement toxin, and apply it to my eyes as I soar quick spirals above the Maelstrom.


    Frustrated when I still don¡¯t find Teuila, I dive down a ways to see if I can pick up her original aura trail.  As I¡¯m flying around, I¡¯m constantly sending out love and affection across our telepathic wavelength, hoping Teuila is able to respond.  Her stats page is fine, so she¡¯s alive, and not suffering anything weird, but it¡¯s annoying not being able to find her.


    Wait, what¡¯s that?  There¡¯s a beautiful burst of colors coming from a cloudbank.  It¡¯s mostly a vivid deep sapphire with hints of frosty azure.  The faintest striations of crimson and verdant lines adorn this swathe of colorful energy, those would be the touches of Lil¡¯s and my souls.  Is she literally napping on a cloud?  Te you butt, I was worried about you.


    Still, it was quite an adventure, and we¡¯ve bought ourselves more time.  It¡¯s not a win, it¡¯s a failure, yet again, but at least it wasn¡¯t a costly failure.  We¡¯ve learned more information than we had when we originally set out, and probably have at least as much time as we had when we originally left Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    I gaze towards my Teuila sleeping atop a bed of clouds and can¡¯t help smiling.  Even though I can only see her as a brilliant splash of aura, I can sense my beloved Wings in other fashions.  She seems so peaceful as she rests.  I have no idea how exhausting her archery tether might have been for her, or what method she used to escape.  I suppose I can let her sleep.  She literally weighs nothing as I scoop her into my arms.  She drops her Valkyrie form as she snuggles into my embrace, still sleeping.  Her gravity increases slightly, but she¡¯s still basically as light as a feather.


    I¡¯m not sure I want to risk breaking my legs further, or breaking a sphere vehicle by using enough JT force to hit near sonic speeds, so this will be a slower flight back to the coast.  If Teuila were awake, her reducing our drag and gravity would mean I could use less JT force and gain more velocity without nearly as much impact.  Traveling with Te is similar to traveling with Lil being in Lilagnewt form.  With Lil, I can afford to JT strike with more force, due to Lil¡¯s distribution of mass, and achieve high velocities that way without hurting them.  With Teuila, the same or less force gets me the higher velocities due to our lower mass.


    I wonder if I could just straight up fly if I fully unlocked telekinesis.  If so, how fast would it be?  Would it be a slower, hovering float?  Would it feel like wrapping myself in a massive invisible hand and dragging myself around with my mind?  I guess there¡¯s no use speculating.  About the only person I know who could even possibly help me safely raise my psi resistance is in a coma.  Even Dehlia never attacked me psychically, so I¡¯m not sure if she had any power to do so.  Actually I¡¯m sure Tenny would be willing to talk into my brain at length, but I¡¯d probably die long before I gained enough psi resist to unlock telekinesis or psychokinesis.  Plus, she¡¯s fated to join the convergence and wipe our slate clean.  I¡¯m not going to have time between now and the end to go have a friendly chat with the goddess of the sky, much less, a long enough mentally straining chat to earn a thousand psi resistance.


    Back there, huh, I could have sworn I saw a bunch of auras incredibly far away.  It was like a large group of people on several vessels, like ships or boats, but the ships would have to have been enormous to reach as high off the water as I thought I saw them.  Maybe I¡¯m just hallucinating things again.  It¡¯s either that, or there¡¯s a small fleet of ships sailing the skies around our continent.  I doubt it¡¯s the latter.  I feel like Tenny or the Roc, or someone would object to vessels hanging around in the skies.  Maybe it was a couple of large sky whales or something, or, again, a hallucination.


    We¡¯ll make camp inland, in one of our dugouts in the swamp.  After resting, Teuila will have to show me the dungeon she found in the eastern area of her surveying sweep.  I¡¯m almost positive that that¡¯s the location where we¡¯ll find Maka-Akari¡¯s head.  Sadly I think we¡¯re going to have to break the third barrier.  I¡¯m not sure what effect that will have on our world, if any, but I really didn¡¯t want to have to find out.


    Te rouses as I¡¯m landing us near a dugout, ¡°Yawn, hey sweetypootz.  Did you get to the bottom of the Leviathan situation?  You look a little flushed.  Did you join Luni in becoming a bard?  I bet you had to create an epic movement to do your duty in escaping.  Did you make sure to log the whole thing?  If TQ was grading you, do you think you¡¯d be passing?¡±


    I burst into laughter and tackle Teuila into the dugout, sealing it behind us.  We roll around trading pins and holds for a while.


    I ask, ¡°You¡¯re really never going to let me live it down are you?  You¡¯re at least as bad as Agwai.  Is this what I have to look forward to when we grow old together?¡±


    She cheekily replies, ¡°Yep!¡±  We both chuckle at her brazen reply, forgetting for a time that growing old together might not be on the table.


    I kiss her happily, laughing all the while, ¡°Haha, I¡¯m perfectly fine with that.  Better than fine, I¡¯m glad that¡¯s the case.  I love you Te.¡±


    Teuila slugs me playfully, gently in the shoulder, clocks me softly on the noggin, and gingerly swats my face.  We settle in, our limbs entangled, as we try to ignore how harrowing our circumstances are.  We still have each other, we still have time. We¡¯re still in love and happy to be alive.  Tomorrow we set out for Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle.

 B 3 C 36: Maka-Akari, Gaeas Cradle

    <h2>B 3 C 36: Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle</h2>


    Teuila¡¯s gorgeous form is virtually almost weightless at its base gravity. Yet as she continues to slumber upon my arm, I can¡¯t move it at all. She¡¯s subconsciously doubling her gravity and mine as well while she cutely snores in my face. I chuckle and nuzzle my nose against hers. I wonder if I¡¯d be strong enough to bench press her with this gravity if I weren¡¯t stuck in a position with poor leverage. I¡¯m certain Te could bench press me even under increased gravity.


    I suppose I should plan out our day. Do I want to head back to the Nagas¡¯ city on the way to Teuila¡¯s cavern dungeon? I¡¯m worried that I¡¯d be breaking Luni¡¯s trust if I made my way there before the appropriate time, but without her being near, how will I know the appropriate time? I suppose she¡¯ll find some way to contact us at some point in case we need to do something with the six books.


    Alright, let¡¯s puzzle this out. Te will be waking up in a few moments, when she does, should I propose anything other than heading to the dungeon where we¡¯re sure Maka-Akari¡¯s head can be reached? Would Teuila want us to snag any backup before heading into a location where we¡¯re sure to face some sort of boss creature? Who could we bring though? If we go ask Linti, that might be when she dies. Ugh, this sucks! Not being able to turn to one of our toughest, most precious allies nearing the end of everything. Heck, not being able to turn to any of our inner circle.


    Then again, it must be awful for Lu and Lin and Lil. Even if they want to come help us, they can¡¯t. They haven¡¯t been able to see us in days, maybe weeks, and still won¡¯t be able to see us for quite some time. I¡¯m sorry, my beloved inner circle. Maybe we¡¯ll be able to see each other after this trip. Teuila and I have to prepare to fight skeletons and floating nibbling whip-tailed things. Then we speak to another goddess that we hope isn¡¯t hostile. I don¡¯t even want to imagine what sort of substance will fill our ear canals and brain cavities if Maka-Akari tries to speak to us telepathically. I bet it¡¯s either sap or mud or loam or silt or maybe actual blood. Maybe it¡¯s pure mana in liquid form.


    Regardless, I suppose there really isn¡¯t any preparation I can make for such a trip. It¡¯s weird to not have a plan going in somewhere. It¡¯ll just be Teuila and myself fighting back to back in tight tunnels underground, tunnels that will likely barely fit those flying gnasher things. I think they probably eat soil to tunnel through it, sort of, so the tunnels will be exactly their size, and no larger. That¡¯s what I assume anyway. When Teuila said Reptile skeletons, did she mean Nagas, draconian lizard folk, chameleon-folk, or dinosaurs? Or just tiny little lizards.


    Despite our individual strengths, we don¡¯t make an ideal team to take on this particular mission. I can somewhat prevent my area attacks from harming Teuila, if I can keep up with where she will be from one moment to the next. She¡¯s mostly too fast for me to manage that though. Then there¡¯s the fact that she¡¯s a mobility specialist who needs extreme height clearance, which she won¡¯t be getting. Should I make a sphere with a vertical split that¡¯s interrupted in two spots? Teuila and I could stand inside of it and roll it like a hamster ball, and attack with spears through the slots. Hm, no, that feels a bit ridiculously limiting. I guess we just improvise. Wing it? Yeah, wing it.


    Teuila begins to rouse, and I smooch her nose to hasten her wakening. She playfully cuffs me alongside my head and then returns my kiss.


    Smiling into her eyes I greet her, ¡°Morning, Te. Sleep well?¡±


    She just grins at me in reply and rolls off of me, offering me a hand up. Now my arm is asleep, tingling like it¡¯s set with dozens of pins and needles. I offer her a sly grin and shoulder bash her. She responds in kind, and then she and I repeat the bashing until we topple each other over and begin rolling around wrestling playfully, laughing.


    Te calls out through her laughter, ¡°Alright, alright, sunshine funshine kick you in the bunshine, let¡¯s get this over with. I figure there will probably be some sort of big reveal or something after this one, right? Like, we have to win. We just have to. Or the situation with the books is suddenly solved, or something. I¡¯m right, aren¡¯t I, butterbutt?¡±


    I bite my lips as I purse them, unsure of how to reply. I want to tell Teuila she¡¯s right, that I have every confidence that we¡¯ll solve this, and then I¡¯ll be the future me that sends the messages back into the past, assured of our safety. I want to believe that this will be the positive end to all these stupidly dangerous adventures and that we¡¯ll be able to relax and go on simple hunts and enjoy the rest of our lives with our family. I just don¡¯t know though.


    Finally I respond, ¡°I hope so Te. I hope so. I love you, my beautiful, beloved Wings.¡±


    Exiting our dugout, Te leaps us into the air and suspends our gravity. I summon forth our slightly modified Umbral vehicle, and Teuila suspends its gravity as well as its external drag. Using JT propulsion I transport us northeastward. We approach the speed of sound and then leave a sonic boom in our wake as we surpass it. Teuila describes the location in respect to her survey route, and I¡¯m left plotting a mental map in my head as we traverse dozens of miles of identical-appearing canopy. I make slight corrections as we pass the Nagas¡¯ city while we¡¯re far overhead.


    Teuila and I each sigh wistfully as we pass the Nagas¡¯ city. Our dearest dragon friend is beneath it somewhere, clearing debris or tunneling with Lucky. We snuggle into each other¡¯s embrace and I blink back tears. As we proceed into territory I¡¯m unfamiliar with, we have to drop from our vehicle and take to the sky under our own power. We¡¯re still able to maintain a fairly high velocity, but I can¡¯t re-accelerate without breaking limbs as I hold Teuila aloft in my draconic form. We have to orient ourselves from Point B to the location that Teuila marked out in her survey coordinates.


    When we arrive where we expect to find the cave dungeon entrance, what awaits us is a yawning chasm with a roughly angled surface leading beneath the soil. I glance at Teuila to ask if it was like this originally and she shakes her head, knowing my intent. We land some fair distance away and approach on foot.


    I ask Te, ¡°How do you want to do this hunt? I have a feeling it¡¯s going to be more heavily populated than the last time you were here, by far.¡±


    She ponders a bit, assuming an expression I¡¯d once seen on Luni, her right thumb sits along her jawline while her extended index finger supports her chin. Te shrugs and pulls out her winged bow. ¡°Just wing it I guess,¡± she surmises.


    Fair enough. Teuila adopts her most adept fighting form, while I ponder whether or not to stay draconic. I¡¯ll be slightly less mobile because my wings and tail will get in the way in tight quarters, but it¡¯s more hardy than my cherubic or authoritative forms. I suppose if those gnashing flying things take up most of the tunnel, mobility might not mean anything. Draconic scales and form it is then.


    Teuila leaps downwards at an angle, floating to the bottom of the chasm where it becomes a more distinct cave entrance. I follow suit by gliding down via my wings. On entry both of us can sense a massive singular presence, and the sound of numerous other presences. I drag a Valkyrie dagger along the right hand wall, marking our path as the tunnel begins to fork again and again.


    Teuila motions to a spot ahead of us on the floor, and she kicks a pebble at it. The pebble disappears as it falls through the seemingly illusory floor. That¡¯s a neat little trap. My danger wrap senses tell me the shape of the missing floor in the tunnel, but my vision clearly sees a floor covering that area. I guess an illusion isn¡¯t going to register to my danger senses unless it provides some tactile resistance. Teuila must have sensed the same discrepancy since she has that magic quarterstaff from Cigarette that also provides a danger sense. I¡¯m not even sure where she keeps equipped weaponry sometimes.


    We each easily hop over the pit trap and continue onwards. I¡¯m curious what lies beneath, but I don¡¯t want to risk dropping onto poisoned spikes or anything. It¡¯s eerie that we haven¡¯t run into any hostiles yet. Ah, yes, I had to go and think that, didn¡¯t I? The darkness at the end of the tunnel gets closer, and the darkness is ringed with fangs. I stumble and fall to my knees as my mind conjures up my nightmares from Day One, and I¡¯m left clutching my chest in a panic, gasping for air.


    Teuila wears a half-frown as she nocks an arrow to her bow, draws back its string, and fires in one smooth motion, a swirl of green energy following the path she fired down. The arrow perforates the darkness ahead of us, tearing through the gnashing creature upon its approach. It¡¯s mere moments after we noticed it at the edges of our senses, and the creature is already derezzing. Teuila kneels next to me, patiently waiting out my panic episode as she wraps one arm over my shoulders.


    Hell¡¯s bells that¡¯s not going to be good. There could be hundreds, maybe thousands of these things between us and Maka-Akari. I can¡¯t leave them all to Teuila, even if I did, I still have to come along to be able to speak with the goddess. I guess it¡¯s time to be blindfolded again. How many times in my life have I had to give up my sense of sight just to be able to continue pressing onward? I guess it doesn¡¯t really matter.


    Te gently prods, ¡°You alright boogerboo? I know you think you can¡¯t leave it all to me, but I can handle it, even if there are hundreds of these things.¡±


    I shake my head, ¡°I know you could, but I don¡¯t want you to take any injuries or get too worn out before we get to the boss¡¯s room. I have no idea if the thing within will be easier or harder for one or the other of us to handle. We both need to be at our best. I don¡¯t think we can afford to have to limit break to beat whatever lies within. Mana is already becoming a more and more straining power source to continue to use.¡±


    Te nods and offers me a hand up. I stand and briefly embrace her before we continue. I make sure my blindfold is tightly secured beneath the draconically transformed Valkyrie helmet. Moments after we collect the loot from the gnashing creature, we¡¯re set upon from all sides by various reptilian skeletons. Things that seem like ankylosauruses intermingle with skeletons that vaguely resemble my semi-draconic form as they bear down on us. I fire off an experimental Umbral JT attack by launching a copy of a Valkyrie dagger from my inventory, which becomes dozens of dagger copies due to my skill levels I suppose. Sadly, most of the daggers ricochet off of their targets, or chip or shatter some bones without seeming to impede the progress of their targets at all. Teuila lets out a soft ¡®tsk¡¯ as she draws her bowstring back to its fullest. As Teuila begins charging a massive vortex of swirling wind, I set about using my FBF style to start smashing the skeletons closing in on her with SIPs, subzero ice punches.


    Te yells, ¡°Duck my dinglegoober!¡± I immediately oblige, dropping flat near Teuila¡¯s ankles.


    Teuila unleashes her shot, and the veritable hurricane plows through the tunnel ahead of us, but also siphons foes from behind us into the maelstrom, battering them against one another. I have to dig my claws into the ground for purchase to avoid being swept away as well. The force of the blast shatters and pulverizes dozens of foes in a single moment such that we¡¯re treated to a massive derezzing time dilation. We¡¯re not in the clear, however, there are still more foes closing in from behind, and only a short window of an opening ahead.


    I grumble, ¡°Would be really nice to have a dead end right now, so that we could unleash everything in one direction.¡± Teuila nods in agreement as we rush forward into the narrow opening in the enemy ranks.


    We rush forward and are met with a tooth-encircled darkness closing in from the far end of the tunnel. It waits patiently behind its allies however. The skeletal creatures close in faster than before, and Teuila has to leap to the ceiling as she reduces her gravity to zero to evade. From the ceiling, Teuila has to continue evading by leaping in a triangular pattern. The lack of an open height isn¡¯t hampering her as much as I thought it might have. Still, neither of us expect it when an ankylo skeleton drops its bottom jaw and unleashes a piercing howl that reverberates the very walls of the tunnel. The sonic attack sends us flying backwards into the hostiles approaching from the rear.


    Annoyingly, several thunder lizard skeletons from the rear perform the same sonic attack, blowing us back forward while we¡¯re still tumbling in the air. Thankfully, instead of having no recourse but to be eaten, I simply summon mud from my inventory in front of myself and Teuila.


    Te calls out, ¡°Thanks bubblebum, that was getting annoying. Can you handle the ones at the rear for a sec?¡±


    I nod to my beloved Wings as I face the rear. I remember thinking how it would be stupid to be inside of a spherical construct that I sent at sonic speeds towards a line of enemies. That thought still holds true, but now launching a bolder directly down a hallway with as much force as I can muster is probably the best course of action, especially an Umbral copy of one. In my inventory I combine some fired clay, mud, and stone into the shape of a sphere, this one not hollow, and I use my space skill to create an umbral duplicate that I launch rearward down the hallway. The good news is, it manages to plow through and derez a fair number of skeletons. The bad news is, they¡¯re packed densely enough, and strong enough, that eventually my attack comes to rest. Slowly but surely it¡¯s reversing direction.


    I¡¯m going to be mean. If I put a wedge on this side of the sphere, and then angled braces against the back of the wedge, eventually they¡¯re going to just force the boulder to be trapped, blocking them from getting to us from this side. That buys us five minutes or so, due to my Umbral duplicate time limit. I could of course reclaim the boulder and then replace it, but I¡¯d rather not have it in our way at all if we end up having to escape several minutes from now.


    Hm, Teuila¡¯s zipping around right now shattering skeletons with the haft of her spear. If I want to help her without getting in her way, I¡¯ll need to do an area attack that I can direct in a cone. Frost breath it is then. I inhale deeply and exhale smoothly once, then inhale an even deeper breath to the point where I have to puff my cheeks to contain all the air. I position myself in the center of our front line and unleash a frosty squall that fills nearly the entire tunnel up to the point of the toothy gnasher, save for the triangular areas to my right and left where Teuila is working on shattering skeletons.


    Now that I¡¯ve frosted the ones in front, she¡¯ll have an even easier time bringing them down, so I alternate with her on my right and left to get rid of the unfrozen ones. My dagger and sword thrusts do almost nothing, my slashes rebound half the time, but my bare fists crack and pulverize the bones of these skeletal creatures when coated with SIP, subzero ice power. As I turn to help Teuila on the right side of the tunnel, a massive time dilation hits. She already slew all the rest of the skeletal beasts in the hallway while I was working on two on my left side. I chuckle, amused. I¡¯m a blaster-scrapper in a family of speedsters. Teuila is trying to find an angle of attack on the toothy gnasher and seems unsuccessful however.


    The teeth begin to buzzsaw as they approach us, something the last one of these I faced was not able to do, or at least didn¡¯t do when we fought. Then again, the last one I fought was floating in a wide open space, while this one¡¯s external surfaces are hidden by the soil and stone of the tunnel, so this might be its burrowing method. I call out, ¡°Te, hop back for a second?¡±


    Teuila obliges while I rush forward and take an experimental punch at a buzzing tooth. I manage to chip it, not even severely damage it, but that¡¯s fine, that wasn¡¯t the point of my attack. My danger wraps told me enough about the creature on contact that I now have a pretty good idea as to how I can handle one of these. Grinning, I take a quick leap back as it tries to speed forward to engulf me. I raise my right hand, palm forward, and support my forearm with my left hand near my right wrist. This might have some kickback, so I lean forward and brace my shoulder with my left shoulder actually leading, so that I don¡¯t pulverize my shoulder socket. Leaving my right elbow slightly bent, I let loose a simple fireball, imagining all the skills that multiply its effectiveness. A single hundred mana fireball is well over one hundred, perhaps two hundred, times as potent as it should be once all of my skills and stats have been factored in at this point. Normally, with no skill levels in any of the various multipliers available, a human mage¡¯s firebolt is a few inches across. My fireball covers basically the entire twenty five foot diameter of the cavern¡¯s tunnel structure as it rushes forth from my hand. I hadn¡¯t tried out this ability since before the ridiculous time spent along Lord Agni¡¯s back.


    Ah, I should have quickly summoned something in front of myself or behind myself, either to shield myself from the blast or to brace myself against it. I¡¯m being flung backwards by the concussive force of my fireball reaching its target and violently exploding. That was the lowest amount of mana and power I can put into a spell now, and I still already feel cracks forming beneath my flesh as Mana runs rampant within my body. My magics are becoming too powerful for me to handle using at all. Teuila catches me as we ride out the short windstorm caused by the fireball¡¯s explosion and creature¡¯s derezzing.


    As much as I¡¯d like to believe that will be the last toothy gnasher, I bet we have dozens more to go. I cock my head towards Teuila and raise an eyebrow, signaling that I¡¯d like to know how much further we have to go. We¡¯re only a few minutes into the tunnels so far.


    Te abashedly raises her hand behind her head and blushes as she chuckles, ¡°There are uh, a few more hours of tunnels until the scary room.¡±


    Of course there are. Much like The Hollow, the insect warrens where Linti would hunt, the spawns within this place have risen multiplicatively since Teuila was first here. Everything in the world seems to be approaching some sort of critical point as we draw nearer to the convergence. My own powers are becoming too strong, the cragbeast warren was going to be overflowing with cragbeasts that were no longer eating one another, the insect warren¡¯s spawns have gone crazy. These tunnels have gone similarly crazy. What¡¯s more, they¡¯re looking more and more like worked stone, like the tunnels of a crypt or catacomb. That¡¯s ominous. I don¡¯t like the idea that our world is doomed to go critical and end up ending in one way or another no matter what we do. Hm, other strange things are occurring as well, various critterkin spontaneously gained inventories when they hadn¡¯t originally had the ability to use them, and some have developed basic magics.


    Oh well, for now, we hunt and we loot and we travel deep within the bowels of our planet to speak with essentially Mother Gaea. For the most part, now I¡¯m conserving my mana to fire off rapid fireballs because occasionally there will be a dozen gnashers in a row, one behind another behind another. This leaves Teuila to do all of the hand to hand combat against the thunder lizard skeletons and ankylos and draconian hybrid skeletons. I¡¯m tempted to release my electrokinesis which is enhancing my nerve pathways and senses, because I¡¯m starting to actually drop lower and lower on mana while we seem to be facing endless waves of creatures. I want to keep the enhancement active though, as I¡¯ve already had several close calls with buzzsaw teeth.


    Teuila is weathering the horde of creatures easily enough, but my muscles are beginning to burn and burst every time I cast a spell at this point. Worse, we¡¯re definitely in some kind of massive dinosaur crypt or something. Strange stone coffin-like structures dot an enormous room, and these structures are peppered with eggs that I can tell will hatch into more horrid gnashers. Since my lightning breath is slightly weaker than casting thermokinetic spells, I begin relying on it to try to finish off creatures as they hatch, while they¡¯re still rezzing into being. It¡¯s less taxing on my muscles, organs, mind, and body. I can¡¯t seem to interact with eggs that have spawned in this fashion, I can only let them hatch and deal with the creatures that burst forth. Similarly, the coffin objects seem to birth more and more skeletons, and are seemingly impervious to anything I try to do to them.


    Teuila hooks an arm around me, and makes a break for it as she rockets down the tunnels, avoiding as many creatures as she can, until she¡¯s forced to stop when faced with more cavernous maws blocking the whole tunnel. She sighs and sets me down as she draws her bow to its fullest once more, aiming back the way we came. Teuila trusts me to handle these things, but if I launch a fireball at this range, we¡¯ll both be rocked by the blast. If I try to slay it with lightning breath, I¡¯ll have to enter its mouth and continue to blast lightning for five to ten seconds. Hopefully it pauses its advance while I¡¯m in its mouth, so that Teuila has time to charge her hurricane blast.


    I use the JT movement to launch myself into the gnashing creature¡¯s mouth, in between buzzsaw chomps. While within I draw a massive lungful of breath and begin blowing it back out, expelling it as a cone of jagged lines of lightning sparks. Wait, what am I doing? I roll my eyes at myself and stop my breath attack. I aim my index and middle finger towards where I imagine a brain or nervous system, or at least a nucleus, would be located in this creature. I unleash a bolt of lightning at the lowest power that I can muster. Still a hundred mana, the minimum mana for most of my abilities that could be called spells, but it has the desired effect, derezzing the gnasher instantly. The pain I experience by letting loose this attack is slightly less than launching a fireball, but it feels like the energy or mana that travels along the pathways in my body is slowly disintegrating me from the inside out, no matter which type of spell I use.


    Of course there are more gnashy-creatures behind it. Fine, another lightning bolt for you, and the one behind you, and the one behind that one. How many of these are there!? Suddenly I¡¯m pulled tumbling backwards as Teuila¡¯s hurricane arrow is released, its vortex pulls me along with it. Te drops her bow to lash out and catch me by the ankle as I tumble past. I virtually cackle with laughter at the destruction caused by Teuila¡¯s archery. She drops me to the floor of our tunnel as she zips backwards along the path to snag everything that was dropped. She rejoins me an instant later.


    We repeat this combination of attacks hallway after hallway, room after room, for hours on end. Finally Teuila holds up a hand, preventing me from crossing the threshold to another room. Sensing a seemingly endless horde that continues to spawn behind us, I hazard trapping us in by conjuring several walls of stone and Umbral duplicates of that stone made permanent. Teuila and I take a moment to recover. My insides are alight with pain from utilizing my energy for spells. I glance at Teuila, trying to study her for any hint that she¡¯s suffering the same effects, but she doesn¡¯t show any signs of suffering. Thankfully.


    Te frowns as she rides my thought waves, ¡°Sorry that you¡¯re hurting boogerboo. You really can¡¯t pull your punches any more than that? I mean, your magical ones. Your spells. Even your little acid globs that you tried firing out a couple of times are getting pretty big. What are they, like, a yard across?¡±


    I nod. Firing my newest skill off a few times didn¡¯t have the decidedly excruciating repercussions my older, more practiced skills had, but energy passing through my body at all is starting to tear it apart more and more. I state, ¡°I¡¯m glad this isn¡¯t affecting you Te. I got a little greedy when fighting mites on top of Lord Agni, and I think I¡¯m paying the price for it. It¡¯s probably doing a number on my psyche on top of the physical strain.¡±


    Teuila rests her head on my shoulder and tugs me in close as we try to calm ourselves and prepare ourselves for whatever fight lies beyond the barrier of this room. After relaxing for a few moments, and making certain our resources are as well-handled as they can be, we step through into the room.


    Two things happen simultaneously, a fwsh sound signifies that the barrier engages behind us as we enter, and the room transforms. It¡¯s as if we¡¯re standing amidst the stars, veritable giants amongst the cosmos. The utter empty blackness of space is peppered with flecks of light like shimmering crystals, galaxies some endless distance away no doubt. Our more immediate concern is a comet rocketing towards us that fills our vision to the point that it eclipses any horizon we might have been able to discern. It slams into me easily, and though Teuila reacts swiftly, she fares no better after a mere moment when the comet catches up and begins grinding us along its forward face. The comet and the emptiness of space begins to dissolve, we find ourselves back in the room we¡¯d seemingly been teleported from. The comet¡¯s massive impact was no illusion though. It has still definitely fractured several of my bones and toasted the scales on my face. Its impact, and the blast that occurred upon arriving back in the room sent Teuila and me flying dozens of feet apart. We both land shakily on our feet thanks to our fantastic reflexes, but we¡¯ve definitely suffered major damage.


    Teuila looks utterly wrecked, her limbs hang loosely and the padded clothing beneath her armor is nearly vaporized, exposing charred skin beneath. She still stands, thankfully. My heart skips several beats with worry as she wobbles in a standing position, but now she¡¯s righting herself and taking up a defensive pose as we gaze about the room for our attacker. Without warning, bones that seemingly decorated the walls coalesce to form around a pulsating aura. The form they adopt when combined is that of an impressive dragon. Before I can even pause to enter accelerated thinkspace to plan, this draconic lich attacks.


    It aims its foreclaws at Teuila, and a sickly green light sparks into existence before sending an ethereal ghostly wave of energy in her direction. I summon a stone wall between the energy and Teuila, but it passes through my fortification. Teuila is dripping blood and barely able to move. I don¡¯t think she¡¯ll survive whatever effect this spell causes, even using JT on her might knock her out or kill her. So I use the JT movement to propel myself between her and the ghastly flood. Its negative energy seeps into me but I¡¯m able to prevent it from passing through to Teuila. I seem to have enraged our boss-creature, and gotten its full attention by intercepting its attack and still living.


    The skeletal being thrusts at a blinding speed and I can¡¯t react quickly enough to fully dodge. The creature looks as if it remains standing still, yet a translucent blue afterimage is unleashed at hypersonic speeds. The dracolich mutters what sounds like a spell as its claw penetrates my armor and flesh. My defenses spread before its attack like warm butter. It feels as if a slimy liquid penetrates my flesh where its attack connects. Its claw-tip barely scratches my heart, but I feel a chill pass over my entire body. I look down and see no lasting damage, my armor is intact. I feel physically unharmed, but I swear I can hear the words anti-sorcery echoing in my mind, and I suddenly feel weakened, out of touch with my senses and mana. The electrokinesis enhancing my nerve pathways and reflexes ends unwillingly, and I can¡¯t reactivate it. The ghostly blue afterimage dissipated after making contact with my heart.


    I falter and stumble. Teuila rushes to my side by leaping horizontally towards me, but when she gets within a few feet of me, she falters and stumbles as well. One look tells me that she fell out of touch with her own mana and extraordinary senses only once she got near me. I struggle to slink away from Teuila, hoping her strength returns, and thankfully it does.


    I call out, ¡°Te, I think I¡¯m stuck with some kind of anti magical aura, it¡¯s preventing any sort of active sorcery. I, I¡¯m useless. I can¡¯t even reset time. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    Teuila looks horrified that my magic has been taken from me. We can both only hope that defeating the creature ends its spell on me. I experiment to see what I can do without magic, and the answer is very little save amble about. I can combine some things in my inventory, but I can¡¯t propel them outwards with space magic. I can summon things to and from my inventory, but only to my hands, similar to how other critterkin have to make contact with an object to use their inventory systems.


    Now I wish I had crafted a bow so very long ago, and practiced with it. The Valkyrie bows are folded such that they look like little metallic birds in my inventory, and won¡¯t unfold for anyone other than Valkyrie herself, and worse, the bowstring appears to be made of mana itself when she wields it, so it likely wouldn¡¯t work for me even if she handed me an unfolded bow.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Between the comet, meteor, whatever it was, the cascade of negative energy, and the deathly touch, I feel as if I¡¯m inches from death¡¯s door already, and we¡¯ve only just started the fight. I try to distract the dracolich as Teuila begins rebounding around the room seeking a safe angle of attack. Thankfully it still wants me dead for having survived all of its spells, and it turns its maw in my direction as it prepares yet another attack. It unleashes a massive torrent of flame, the blast nearly bowls me over, but thankfully has almost no effect. Its lack of effectiveness is of course due to my utterly ludicrous thermal resistance for someone that isn¡¯t a natively red souled or Fire Biome-born creature. Me emerging unscathed from its breath attack seems to enrage it further.


    With its focus entirely on me, I risk weakly dancing around it as it begins to swipe and claw at me. Ducking under a left hook, I stab upwards with my Valkyrie dagger, which has absolutely no effect. Frustrated, I sheathe the dagger and pull out my sword. I weakly leap over a grab from the dracolich¡¯s right hand, slashing at it with my sword as I barely clear its grasp. My slash simply rebounds off of the dense bone.


    I huff a sigh as I glance about for Teuila, hoping that she¡¯s fairing better than me. She¡¯s landing the occasional strikes, and has already severed the dracolich¡¯s wings, keeping it grounded. She seems to have dealt nearly half of the boss¡¯s health in damage already, she must be pouring her all into each strike. At the very least this lets me try to keep its attention. If it were able to fly up and away, it would eventually realize it can ignore me, and wait to finish me from range. I could maybe try to fly under my own muscle power, but I¡¯ve never been that great at flying by flapping my draconic form¡¯s wings. I think the dracolich is already realizing it can ignore me anyway, since my attacks aren¡¯t doing anything.


    Hm, I wonder if the thunderstick is going to be suppressed by this anti magic field. Oh, yes, it will be suppressed. Teuila had all of her magic suppressed, and my danger wrap isn¡¯t providing any sensory feedback.


    I guess my only option is to try to punch massively dense dragon bones. As it swipes for me again, I hop feebly back and lean forward with my shield, bashing with all of my weight behind it. As I hear a soft crunch, I follow it up by spinning hard at the hip into a right jab aimed where my shield had just connected. There¡¯s a satisfying crack as I break the tip off of one bony talon.


    Teuila meanwhile has shattered weaker bits of vertebrae, separating the dragon from its tail that had been hounding her. She seems to be powering her leaping thrusts with massive amounts of mana to make sure she¡¯s dealing devastating blows to the dracolich. Her attacks have reduced the boss¡¯s health bars down to a quarter of their starting number already. Now that the dragon is landbound, and doesn¡¯t have the reach of its tail, Teuila pauses on the ceiling at the far side of the room. While there, she draws her bow, nocks an arrow, and aims towards the skull of the dracolich.


    I try to buy time, keeping the dracolich distracted while Te¡¯s power coalesces into a tornado¡¯s vortex. I acrobatically dodge in circles around the dracolich, dropping large stones and bottles filled with acid in a tight circle around the creature. The acid was my meager attempt at bottling my own spell with bottles purchased from the shop. The acid loses almost all of its spell related potency when trying to get it to persist beyond the magic of the original spell, but at least it¡¯s something I can add to Teuila¡¯s attacks.


    The dracolich tries to swing its stub of a tail at me, thankfully Teuila has already removed the offending appendage. Te sends a message to my brain letting me know to get clear, so I dive away from the dracolich. As I dive, I drop some tetrahedron faces from my inventory in the direction of the boss and the oncoming blast. Even though I have cover, the dracolich turns towards my cover and shatters it nearly in an instant as a tornado tears through it. The tornado siphons all the debris I¡¯d left around the boss to the central point of the vortex, battering the dracolich¡¯s skull and ribcage severely. The boss ends up coated in acid in several spots, and as Teuila¡¯s attack ends, its last health bar depletes instantly. It doesn¡¯t derez, but other than a sickening pulsating glow floating near where its heart would have been, there doesn¡¯t seem to be anything else we can do. I pick up a pebble and toss it through the energy whorl. The pebble sails through effortlessly, distinguishing the energy whorl from any tangible phenomenon. I¡¯m still coated in a field of anti-magic, so quite a number of things feel off.


    Looking back to the entrance, the barrier is still up. Worse, as Teuila and I head towards each other to try to recuperate, all the bones and pulverized bone dust begin to reform into the dracolich once more. If its spells are recharged, we¡¯re utterly dead meat. As it reforms, it lets loose a sonic roar that sets each of us to quaking. It rattles the bones throughout my body, aggravating the already fractured supports within me. I¡¯m hanging on by threads, and Teuila¡¯s looking like she¡¯s at about half her strength. Okay, this thing is definitely some sort of boss, sure, but why didn¡¯t it derezz? It¡¯s undead. Based on fantasy tropes in my head from fakeworld, that could mean a few things. Its soul could be what we have to actually destroy, or it¡¯s just a puppet being animated by something else entirely.


    Teuila busies herself with slaying the dragon again. While she does that, I lock it in place by dropping conjured stone around its ankles. Or at least I try to, it barely slows the thing down. Thankfully I continue to annoy it enough that it releases its breath at me once more. The last of my scales crack and peel away, exposing soft tissue and muscles beneath, but I can bear it, for Teuila. I will not let this thing turn its attacks on her. My magic is still locked by anti sorcery, so I have very few options. Wait, I¡¯m covered in anti sorcery. If this thing dies, and I jump into that weird whorl of energy, will that prevent it from reforming? Or will I be torn apart by negative energies?


    I taunt it, ¡°That¡¯s right, get pissed off at me you bag of bones! You can¡¯t kill me! And that infuriates you doesn¡¯t it?¡± I simply hope that the lilt and cadence of my voice angers it further, keeping its attention on me, since I¡¯m certain it can¡¯t understand me.


    I cough, barely keeping myself standing as I stagger around almost drunkenly. My random movements are the only thing saving me from being flattened or shredded by the dracolich¡¯s talons. Teuila angles herself for another blow, separating it from its tail once more. In two more leaps she¡¯s removed its wings once again, and she nods to me. Her nod lets me know I need to distract it once more, and that she was riding my thoughts, so we¡¯ll try the anti sorcery against what might be its soul when her next shot kills it once again. I need to position myself so that when her hurricane arrow passes me, that I can ride and tumble along its wind current into the whorl, without disrupting the magic of the attack itself. Thankfully my sense of direction and simple arithmetic aren¡¯t magic powers of mine.


    The air in the room becomes more and more thin, harder and harder to breathe as Teuila siphons all the wind to her arrow once more. The moment it takes me to pause and gasp for breath is enough for the dracolich to capitalize on. It swats at me with its left claws, breaking my right ribs. For the umpteenth time in my life, broken shards of my right ribs puncture my right lung as the creature sends me flying out of position, I begin vomiting blood as I try to gasp for air. I¡¯m part ofblood, part rezzer, I can¡¯t, I can¡¯t let this kill me. My vision begins to fade and darken. I can¡¯t use my mana to dull the pain. Tears stream forth from my eyes. I, I can¡¯t move.


    I¡¯m sorry Teuila. I¡¯m sorry. Wait. She can ride my thought waves even though I¡¯m encircled in anti sorcery? What does that mean? Can I capitalize on it? I have so little strength left. I don¡¯t know of a way to weaponize our mental link. If I had gained psionics from someone with offensive psychic talents, that might work, but I haven¡¯t had the time to seek someone out like that, and the only person who might have them that I know of is in a coma. Poor Dehlia. Poor Lil. I¡¯ll have to ditch this line of thought, I don¡¯t have the energy to carry it through to any sort of fruition. Teuila repositions herself ever so slightly as she lets her arrow fly. It¡¯s just enough that I can stumble forward and flare my wings as the tornado passes nearby. It drags me tumbling along with it towards the dracolich as it batters the bones to dust once more. I struggle to pause my unsteady flight when I pass into the energy whorl.


    Once in position, I¡¯m coated in the most sickly feeling energy and immediately begin loosing up the sick in my stomach. Its contents spatter the ground below, mingled with blood from my lungs. This is worse than when King is trying to invade my nervous system, cells, and mind. I do my best to hover in place with my broken, battered body. The antimagic surrounding my heart continues to stay, and the dracolich doesn¡¯t reform while I¡¯m in place. The problem is, it doesn¡¯t derez, nor does the field surrounding the room¡¯s two exits drop. I¡¯m certain that as soon as I drop out of position, this thing is going to begin to reform again.


    Barely able to speak, I call out telepathically to Teuila, ¡°Next time it reforms, just disable it, don¡¯t destroy it. Buy me time to search the room.¡±


    Before I drop out of position, I exhale a fiery breath from my draconic heatsac below me. This warms the air below me, granting me a momentary updraft. I can only do that a few more times before needing to rest. I never thought I¡¯d use it, since the magical spell version of breath attacks is available in all of my forms, and so much more powerful. My breath attack also scatters the pulverized bone dust around the entire room.


    I remove my blindfold and helmet so that I can squint as I gaze about. Come on, come on, somewhere the dust shouldn¡¯t settle evenly. There has to be something invisible that I¡¯m not seeing. I continue to scan my surroundings, pleading with the world that the invisibility isn¡¯t so powerful that it can make an illusion of the dust settling evenly. I can¡¯t hide the wry grin that plasters itself across my face when I spot a pair of prints in the dust. I flick my eyes towards it, and Teuila nods.


    I pratfall out of the sky, pretending I¡¯m too weak to carry on. As I tumble to the ground, I make sure to brace my impact and roll out of it, looking for all the world like I¡¯m in an uncontrolled tumble. I angle such that I can cover any escape vectors that Teuila won¡¯t be able to cover as she pretends to focus on the dracolich again. I stumble, coughing up yet more blood as I position myself. The prints on the ground shift as the dracolich begins to reform, so I take that as my cue to summon up my remaining strength to dash towards my target in the hopes of restraining it before it can hide.


    Years of constant struggle and strife, training with Teuila, living as if life itself were an unending battle has trained even my puny muscles to be able to put on bursts of speed without magic. In an instant I burst forth from a standing position into a horizontal leap, cutting off the direction the footprints had shifted to. As my anti sorcery field comes into contact with the creature, my mind falls into despair.


    The invisible creature is revealed to be a squid-headed semi-skeletal humanoid whose face opens up fourfold with tentacles reaching out for me. I crash into the creature as the tinnitus races screaming into my ears. My joints spasm, twisting around the limbs of this new Mind Blower. I seize up, all of my muscles lock in position, thankfully locking around the limbs of the creature that¡¯s trying to eat my brain as its tentacles wrap around my face and skull. My heart pounds in faltering, frightened, staccato, arrhythmic pulses. Teuila unleashes a wind arrow that clips the wings off of the dracolich as it forms, and she leaps to my aid, barreling towards me and the Mind Blower, her longsword outstretched.


    I can¡¯t tell her. I can¡¯t tell her. Don¡¯t think about it, don¡¯t let her know. My vision tunnels as I give into the fear, stumbling slightly, angling the creature between myself and Teuila. I know what¡¯s going to happen, and it¡¯s not her fault. My heart skips several beats as my mind falls into day terrors. Her sword is too long, when she gets within the field, she won¡¯t have magic to slow her velocity or change direction. It happens, as I expected. Teuila¡¯s blade penetrates the abdomen of the Mind Blower, and my own as well. I topple backwards, off of the blade, releasing the creature as I roll away, bleeding on the ground. Teuila leaps vertically as her magic resumes, cleaving the Mind Blower in twain, she then drops on it with a copy of Gae Buidhe, making certain it can¡¯t heal as she splits it the rest of the way down its center. That last wound is enough. I¡¯ll bleed out now, since I don¡¯t have my magic to stop the bleeding.


    Time dilation hits us as the Mind Blower derezzes, but the dracolich remains. The spell that reanimated it had already been cast. Teuila is left facing the dracolich once more, this time, alone. Its attention entirely on her, the dracolich begins exhaling a horrid torrent of flame. The blast sears her flesh as she stands in its attack, charging her hurricane arrow one last time. I¡¯m dying on the floor, unable to help her, and I can tell her magical energies are nearly spent.


    Wait, my magical energies are back! The antimagic has ended. The true caster of the anti magic spell must have been the necromantic Mind Blower creature. I can dull the pain. I can help her. I aim an Umbral cascade of Valkyrie daggers towards the dracolich¡¯s neck worth several hundred mana, summoning hundreds of daggers each four times the size of the normal dagger. From above, I spend several hundred mana to drop duplicates of the full tetrahedron at the dracolich¡¯s neck as well. Running my internal electrokinesis, I shut off my pain receptors, and signal my cells to repair my lungs and abdomen first as I set a layer of Frozen Frost Shielding over my wounds.


    If the question is how do I live without magic, the answer is I nearly don¡¯t. I conjure an Umbral copy of a Valkyrie shield in the dracolich¡¯s throat, cutting off its flaming assault from assailing Teuila any further. Finally, no longer having to struggle against the heat blast that was fighting against her wind¡¯s coalescence about her arrow, Teuila is able to finish charging her hurricane shot. Our attacks release, and the dracolich is almost instantly atomized and disintegrated by the sheer volume of our attacks as I add dozens of acid shots to the swirling maelstrom of destruction.


    If there are health values in this world, if I have several hundred or several thousand hitpoints, I¡¯m in the single digits. I¡¯m at fractions of a percent of my total health, almost entirely dead. But as any miracle worker will tell you, mostly dead, and all dead, are two very different states of being. I laugh as memories of cinema from fakeworld flood my mind. My heart rate is still arrhythmic. I might die if I¡¯m not careful. I crawl to the nearby wall, and drag myself to a standing position as I slump against it. I carefully walk a circle around the entire room, dragging my dagger up and down, scoring a zigzag pattern against the entire perimeter of the room. I want to make sure there are no secret panels hiding phylacteries or other tropes from fakeworld.


    Teuila catches my intent, and she fires off several arrows at spots around the room she finds to be suspicious. She shatters several large urns that almost seemed to be reliefs carved into the wall along high ledges. She flits about the room collecting loot from the two creatures, after making certain that everything atop the high ledge is shattered or derezzed. I finally collapse against the wall after I complete my perimeter sweep. The green barrier at the room¡¯s exits has fallen, but I can¡¯t continue on without some rest. Teuila slumps down next to me after she checks me over, making sure that I¡¯m not going to die on her.


    I mumble, ¡°Te, have I ever told you how much I love you? I really, really, truly do. I was finished, my magic was stripped from me. If you hadn¡¯t been able to kill it, I¡¯d have bled out. Thank you so much.¡±


    Teuila scratches the back of her head as she blushes a bit while gazing at the wound in my abdomen, ¡°Sorry about, um, that.¡± she grimaces, pointing to the wound she caused, ¡°But, about feelings, you know, it¡¯s okay, I words you too. It¡¯s good we did this together. I¡¯m so glad I didn¡¯t come in here alone. Right off the bat we got hit with magic that was so strong that it nearly obliterated us, and then more spells kept coming. I could have maybe beaten it without my magic, maybe, if I stumbled across the invisible thing right away. I¡¯m glad you figured it out though. Check out this stuff though!¡±


    There¡¯s over forty million currency worth of coins, paper, and gemstones, just from these two creatures alone, not counting the massive piles of loot we¡¯d gained on the way in. There¡¯s a crossbow that radiates power, it looks a bit like Linti¡¯s, it can be worn on the wrist like hers. But it has two separate firing tracks to place bolts in, one atop the other. Teuila shrugs and hands it off to me, she has her Valkyrie bow.


    There¡¯s a heavy flask made of steel or iron, and it sounds like something is shaking within. In case it¡¯s some sort of angry djinn, I don¡¯t want to risk opening it while we¡¯re weakened. There¡¯s a staff that appears to be made of copper, yet far more resilient, and definitely enchanted. Its upper end culminates in a set of twists that leaves two rounded rhombuses exposed through the staff¡¯s head. Holding it, I can feel the magics laying in wait within, they want to be released. There¡¯s another tiny gemstone like the one orbiting Teuila¡¯s head, this one also orbits her head as she inspects it. She grins as she nods approvingly.


    We find several bottles that appear to contain glue, and several more that appear to contain solvent. Instructions on the glue say that the solvent is the only way to remove it. That¡¯s powerful glue. There¡¯s a girdle that crackles with lightning that doesn¡¯t seem to fit either of us, nor does it alter its size to fit us as most other magic items do. I think Lil might be able to wear it, it seems more suited for a quadruped, it almost has a harness-like quality to it.


    There¡¯s a brass ring with a flat mirror built into its top that basically rebounds my magical senses, and any magic I send to probe it. I want Teuila to wear this, if it does what I think it does. I surmise, ¡°Te, I think you should wear this, I think it reflects spells or magics somehow. Oh wow, you gained like four levels today, that¡¯s crazy, I¡¯ve never seen any of us gain multiple levels in a single outing. Still, I was worried when that comet or meteor or whatever nearly decimated you, and then that ghastly energy spell was sent your way.¡±


    Teuila shrugs and accepts the ring, ¡°I probably would have been fine. Okay, maybe not, you¡¯re higher level, the comet didn¡¯t damage you nearly as badly as it did me. Then that energy wave took you almost all the rest of the way out. So, yeah, fair enough. I don¡¯t want either of us to go without the other, I¡¯ll be happy to wear it, boofwerebutt. Should we put up some shelter and try to sleep before finding the Maka goddess sister?¡±


    I chuckle at Teuila¡¯s impropriety when referencing Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle, but nod nonetheless. Not wanting to be in this room in case of some sort of respawn, we head to the far exit, and barricade ourselves in on all sides with inventory magic and space skill duplication. I summon some thick leathery leaves for bedding, some actual pillows we¡¯d gotten from the stores when Fawn clued me in about them, and some linen sheets as well. As we sit snuggled against each other, I also summon forth bandages, antiseptic, and whatever other medical supplies I¡¯m carrying so we can tend to each other¡¯s wounds.


    I try to push the dark frightening thoughts out of my mind. The thoughts I¡¯m avoiding indicate that I would be dead if my magic hadn¡¯t returned when it did. Still, we¡¯re here, and I¡¯m cautiously optimistic about our future prospects. I glance at Teuila as she snuggles into the crook of my shoulder, and we both adopt our smaller, softer forms to sleep together. A contented smile plays across my face as I drift to sleep with Te in my arms.


    He asks, probably just covering his bases, ¡°Huh, the GALS project actually got a volunteer. You do know what you¡¯re signing up for, don¡¯t you?¡±


    The brown-haired man in an open labcoat, with corduroy vest and glasses stares at me from across the table. We sit on steel chairs in the surgically clean, boring, sterile room. The overhead incandescent lamp is virtually blinding with my hyperphotosensitivity. I chew on my tongue as I nod absentmindedly. Of course I know. It¡¯s better than the alternative. I¡¯ll never go back, I can¡¯t go back. No psychiatrist, no meds? No thank you. The researcher pulls out a smartphone and begins fiddling with its screen, no doubt entering the results of our interview.


    I blink myself awake slowly. As usual, when Teuila sleeps on one of my bodyparts, she subconsciously increases her gravity to keep me trapped beneath her until she¡¯s ready to wake up and move about. I chuckle as I nuzzle into her shoulder and neck. She nips at mine playfully, indicating she¡¯s already awake, just not ready to start our day yet.


    I start, ¡°So, Maka-Akari is supposedly probably asleep. I¡¯m almost loath to risk waking her, but I think my sparkspeak can reach into a sleeping mind and still speak to it. I¡¯m not sure which I like better as a name, sparkspeak or electropathy. Eh, either way is fine. Still, I¡¯m probably going to need you to stay on high alert in case things start spawning around us.¡±


    Teuila nods, ¡°Of course, punkychunk. I¡¯ve got your back. Never fret, never fear, your awesomest archer will stay near!¡±


    We both hold our bellies as they rumble with mirth during our laughter, and we wipe one or two tears of laughter from our eyes as we eat a smattering of meat. Summoning our temporary shelter and bedding to my inventory, I glance about the cavern to get my bearings. I assume my draconic form via shapeshifting, and I equip the strange double crossbow to my right wrist, and surprisingly I begin to radiate a soothing warm golden glow out to about ten feet. If this is aura, it¡¯s so strong that even I can see it with no aura senses whatsoever. Whether it¡¯s aura, or just light, this would be awkward if I were trying to sneak around. Thankfully, for right now, we¡¯re not trying to be very stealthy.


    As we continue down yet further tunnels, we come up against more dinosaur skeletons. I testfire the crossbow without loading any bolts into it. Shining metallic spikes fly forth coated in a dull golden flame. While trying to throw daggers or sharp objects at the skeletons normally did almost nothing, the flame coating these magical bolts seems to, on contact, burn away and disintegrate magics that hold the skeletons together. An anti-necromancy crossbow? Or maybe anti-undead in general. That would have been handy against the boss, ugh. Well, I was under the effects of antimagic anyway, all sorcery around me, including items, was suppressed, and Teuila wouldn¡¯t have been likely to try out a new ranged weapon instead of her bow.


    I stow the double-barreled hand crossbow, and draw out the copper staff. I can sense fire, ice, and lightning magic within. More powers that I can¡¯t identify, or don¡¯t know how to control, or don¡¯t know what to target, exist within as well. One bit of power apparently lets me conjure a translucent copy of my own hand, up to a few dozen feet away. It floats around at my bidding, and disappears after about a minute. Another power allows me to shrink or enlarge something or someone for a short while. The final power that I can figure out for now causes me to laugh almost hysterically.


    The staff can grant me aura sight. I can see the aura of magical items and creatures with its power. I don¡¯t even need to keep the staff in hand, but the aura sight fades after around ten minutes. I don¡¯t need to scar my eyes with aura toxin anymore. This is hilarious to me. Who in the world made this staff? Or what system of our world designed it? As far as I¡¯m aware, I¡¯m the only being in all of creation that can¡¯t see aura at all. Still, it¡¯s quite a handy tool. I¡¯m surprised the, grr, the creature, didn¡¯t use any of its magic against us.


    I gulp back a sob as tears stream from my eyes momentarily. It looked like the creature underneath the illusion in the dam. The Mind Blower as Lil called it. My legs buckle and I crumple to my knees. My moment of sadness, weakness, fear, allows a thunder lizard skeleton to roar at us, blasting me tumbling backwards into the air. My right forearm vibrates and quakes violently as it twitches in a shaky rotation. Teuila wears a concerned expression as she gazes my way momentarily, before she finishes decimating the creatures around us.


    Te swiftly joins me where I¡¯ve fallen. She whispers, ¡°Shh, shh, it¡¯s okay dearpunk. It¡¯s okay.¡± Teuila strokes the back of my skull, and I drop into my cherubic form reflexively so that her fingers sift through my hair comfortingly.


    After several minutes, my heart¡¯s pulse stops throbbing like a hammer pounding into my ears, and the ring of my tinnitus lessens slightly. My arm finally stops spasming and I shakily take deep breaths until my breathing smooths out entirely.


    It wasn¡¯t her, it wasn¡¯t her, it wasn¡¯t her. I have to keep repeating this to myself as a mantra, over and over. Teuila frowns, concerned again. She knows exactly what feelings I¡¯m fighting off. Her lips quiver but she simply walks at my side as we continue downward in the tunnel. We¡¯ve finally reached what seems like a sheer vertical drop, but on this side, there¡¯s a zigzagging staircase descending along this southern wall. It¡¯s fairly narrow, so we¡¯re careful to walk down it one at a time, each holding onto the other. Either one of us could prevent a fall from being too deadly or dangerous, but it¡¯s better if we¡¯re both alert in case something happens to one or the other of us.


    At the bottom of this stairwell, it seems we¡¯ve hit a dead end, until I realize we appear to be standing at the edge of a massive eyelid made of stone and soil. Teuila raises a startled eyebrow in my direction questioningly and I nod. This must be Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle. Similar to Lord Deckard Agni, she slumbers far beneath the surface of our small continent.


    I tentatively send out pulses, tiny sparks, until I¡¯m certain I¡¯ve located a portion of Maka-Akari¡¯s brain that I can communicate with as she continues to slumber. Once there, I set up a steady stream of outgoing and returning sparks, hoping that for once, we don¡¯t need to experience a god¡¯s version of telepathy that fills our heads with their element. I don¡¯t think we¡¯d survive having our heads filled with stone and soil.


    I probe, ¡°Lady Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle, please pardon our intrusion on your rest, but if you deign to speak with us, please simply let your thoughts return along this spark. We would not otherwise survive your method of communication. We¡¯ve spoken with Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate, as well as Lady Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending. We even paid a visit to Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River, though that did not end so amicably. An entity from beyond this realm has set its sights on awakening the four of you far earlier than fated to begin your convergence.¡±


    Maka-Akari¡¯s reply is soothing, motherly, ¡°I sense the touch of my siblings upon you, so I will trust you at your word. What is it you wish of me then, ponderous one?¡±


    I hazard a request, ¡°We¡¯re hoping to prevent the destruction of all those loves and lives that we hold dear. There¡¯s so much left of the candle our mortal lives are supposed to experience, according to Lord Agni¡¯s metaphor. This entity has been the cause of much destruction across large sections of this continent, and at this point, many of them have relocated to a single Miracle Oak in the East. I want to protect them, all of them, no matter our differences.¡±


    Maka-Akari speculates, ¡°A great many mortals around a single tree in the East? Hm, yes, I can sense the tides of fate turning in such a direction. Perhaps even as intended, despite the efforts of your mysterious entity. Still, you have not made your request, though I can hazard a guess as to your desire. I would like you to tell me what it is you believe I can or will do for you.¡±


    I gulp, I wasn¡¯t expecting to be called out by a goddess, but she¡¯s right, ¡°Lady Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle, we wish for you to remain slumbering, for as long as you¡¯re willing to. Lord Agni is currently resisting the sway of the entity as it pursues him into his own subconscious. Lord Agni has said that he would not mind slumbering for an additional several months, years, or centuries, while the mortals experience our candle to the fullest. He is being manipulated against his will, as outrageous as such a claim must sound. The entity is incorporeal and invades the minds of those it touches. It forces them to act according to its will, rather than their own. One of its first actions in this world was to awaken Leviathan prematurely. Please give us any opportunity you can, or are willing to give, to protect those dear to us, as many of the lives left on this continent as we can.¡±


    The goddess chuffs, ¡°If you are truly earnest in your desire to protect my other creations, create a shield of lacrimosa trifecta around my greatest miracle. Perhaps those within its radius will be spared the cleaning of the slate. If I can sense an honest effort being made at its construction, I will rest yet for some time. Weeks, months perhaps. I will not neglect my destiny, nor will I keep my sister waiting forever mind you, so tarry not.¡±


    As tactfully as I can, I ask, ¡°If it¡¯s at all possible I¡¯ll do my utmost to try to accomplish just that. Can you tell us anything about this shield? What is the lacrimosa trifecta? What is your greatest miracle? Is it the Miracle Oak?¡±


    I¡¯ve got a sneaking suspicion that the Miracle Oak is indeed her greatest miracle, the one that¡¯s inhabited by the Fairies and the Lavaborn Alliance. A trifecta is three, a lacrimosa is something like a crystalline tear, a river of tears or glass, something that weeps in three forms? Three colors of a river of energy? Ley lines? We already know about three fields of energy, but all of them are destroyed now. We had to break the last one to reach Maka-Akari.


    The goddess answers honestly, ¡°Yes, I believe that which you refer to as the Miracle Oak is indeed my greatest. The shield must be constructed such that it can withstand onslaught from everything along the spectrum. Reds, greens, and blues set to mingle and mix, to produce light and aura as need be. The lacrimosa is a refractory agent, a lens of sorts. Perhaps some of the oldest among your mortals, if you¡¯re protecting as many as you claim to be, may understand the construction of such a shield. If you¡¯re very lucky, they may even know enough to lecture you about its principles. Go in peace my child, but do not tarry. If the entity is as powerful as you claim, my brother will no doubt begin his journey before long. I will stall for what time I am willing and able, but know that I long to see my sister once again, and would not hurt her by spurning her aid.¡±


    I nod, I can entirely empathize with wanting to be reunited with one¡¯s family after a long period alone. Gratefully, I say my farewell, ¡°Thank you Lady Maka-Akari. Thank you beyond what words can express. I hope we don¡¯t disappoint you. Please be well. Teuila and I will do our best. We beg our leave of you and take it now. We wish you a restful slumber and pleasant dreams.¡±


    With that, Teuila and I begin making our way out of the strange crypt-like dungeon. Battling our way back out isn¡¯t entirely necessary, so we make haste where we can, when we¡¯re not blocked from proceeding further. I have to pause momentarily at several locations as Teuila destroys creatures that continue to give chase. These locations are of course where I¡¯d left a number of barricades of clay, soil, stone, and Umbral duplicates of objects. I have to meditate as I claim them. My mana over-usage isn¡¯t as bad today, but there¡¯s still an underlying pain along seemingly invisible lacerations within my muscle and tissue layers.


    After several hours of rushing back to the surface, we¡¯re finally free, and we each heave deep sighs of relief. We embrace each other and spin into the air as we kiss passionately. This is as close to a victory as we¡¯ve had yet at all. This is as much celebration as we can afford at the moment, we still have work to do.


    Te asks, ¡°So butterspoot, how are we feeling? We did it! Three gods in a few days! I mean, sure, we didn¡¯t kill any of them, hell, we barely survived some of them, but look at the pair of us!¡±


    My smile is wide but not to my eyes, at least for a few moments, but then gazing into Teuila¡¯s eyes, my smile broadens the rest of the way. My lips quiver ever so slightly. I don¡¯t speak my doubts or my sorrows. Te is right. The two of us have undergone extraordinary experiences, and we¡¯re returning home alive, mostly healthy, and with more knowledge, and more time. This is about the best outcome we could have hoped for.


    When we return home, we have to figure out how to build a shield large enough to cover an entire multi-mile wide settlement and its many miles high tree. Even once we know how to do it, getting the materials and doing it in time sounds like a massive undertaking.


    Even still, even with all of that ahead of us, I somehow feel that it isn¡¯t quite time yet to send the messages back in time to myself. Somehow, there¡¯s at least one more piece of the puzzle that I¡¯m missing. At the very least, I have no idea how the books tie into all of this.


    Teuila and I set off into the air, using our combination of skills and magics to traverse the distance back to the Miracle Oak in short order. We¡¯re both looking forward to seeing Linti, Lao, Ag, all the twins, Magnus, all the rest of the cats, and even Jaz.

 B 3 C 37: Last Ditch Efforts

    <h2>B 3 C 37: Last Ditch Efforts</h2>


    Teuila and I return to the Miracle Oak, arriving before mid-day. I think it would be best if we find Teodora, Spice, Sugar, Magnus, and Elder Tolkenstein. Perhaps some of the Fairies from up in the boughs may be elders as well, but Elder Tolkenstein is the only Fairie elder I¡¯ve met thus far.


    I glance at Teuila as we land near our newly created moat. Her gracefulness and strength bring a smile to my face before I gaze about at the rest of our settlement. Looking at the moat, schools of fish are already beginning to spawn within it, several humans are jubilantly casting fishing rods into its depths, sitting along its edges. The entire settlement gives an air of idyllic peace to be enjoyed by all. This is what we have strived for. This is what we yet struggle to protect.


    Who to see first? I turn to Teuila, ¡°So, what¡¯s the order of operations here? It¡¯s almost mid day, so Linti is probably still hunting, Lao and Ag are probably tending a shop. Dream and Jaz might be looking for work for Jaz. Since she¡¯s military, I think she¡¯d get restless without a job for too long. Our builders and the Fairies¡¯ engineers are probably gathered at the site of whatever the newest construction project is. Elder Tolkenstein lives in that little museum-space in that building over there.¡±


    I wave, indicating where I¡¯d first met Rinnia Tolkenstein. Teuila nods along, following my gaze and my waving hands. She stops me for a moment, ¡°Take a breather heartafarts. The order probably doesn¡¯t matter too much. We¡¯ll get to see Hunter this evening, same with Lao, Ag, and the rest of the fam. We have time. We can do this.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s right. It also seems obvious in retrospect that we should visit Elder Tolkenstein first, she¡¯s likely to want to retire earlier in the day or evening than anyone else on our list. With that decided, I slump against Teuila playfully, forcing her to catch me to hold me aloft for a bit. We both laugh as she shoves me to a standing position before hugging me tightly. When we¡¯re done goofing off for the moment, we head towards Elder Tolkenstein¡¯s residence. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s a public building, or her private domicile.


    Still, on approach, it seems like the Elder happens to be leaving to go on a walk. Her walking stick is a simple thing, but it seems curiously organic, living somehow. I hazard pulling out the staff I¡¯d gotten recently, and I bring forth its power that lets me see auras. Sure enough, her walking stick emits a powerful, vibrantly verdant aura. Elder Tolkenstein seems to take note of me casting a spell, and wanders our way.


    She calls out, ¡°I suppose you have business with me then, Old One?¡±


    I blush, chagrined at having interrupted whatever she was about to do, ¡°Only if you have time to spare, Elder Tolkenstein. We¡¯ve just visited some incredibly powerful beings, and have to set about on a new quest. It might be as simple as constructing a shield with materials we already have, or mages we already know, or it could require traversing our continent yet again for materials, I don¡¯t know.¡±


    She taps her foot impatiently and raises an eyebrow, ¡°Well, out with it then. What are you hoping to construct?¡±


    I reply, ¡°Lady Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle called it the shield of lacrimosa trifecta.¡±


    The elder¡¯s eyes widen at the name I just dropped, realizing I implied that I spoke with Maka-Akari personally. She composes herself, ¡°Such curious things come to pass through your involvement Old One. Fine, fine, come with me. Back into there, yes yes, walk this way.¡± Elder Tolkenstein waddles quickly back into her residence, raising her walking stick to her shoulders.


    Teuila begins to imitate Elder Tolkenstein¡¯s waddle, but I hip check her playfully, hoping the Elder doesn¡¯t catch on to Teuila¡¯s gesture. We follow Elder Tolkenstein inside the residence, and there are all the curious belongings that I¡¯ve seen before, and even a few more on display. There¡¯s a disconcerting number of weapons on display, all sheathed of course, but still, it¡¯s imposing. There are small models of ships in bottles, curious tomes, volumes of some forgotten lore. Even beyond all this, there are yet other oddities I¡¯d never seen before.


    The Elder does a strange thing, she sets her walking stick in place, and begins to climb it, standing upon its head. I worry that she¡¯ll fall, yet the stick remains perfectly in place, and she maintains her balance atop it, as if held in position magnetically. She reaches to a high shelf, and pulls down what looks vaguely like a snowglobe. It¡¯s some crystal orb clutched in what looks like claws made of stone. Why does that seem so oddly familiar?


    The Elder holds it out, ¡°I believe this is the basis of what you¡¯re wanting to create. What are you trying to protect with such a powerful edifice?¡±


    I blush, chagrined, ¡°The um, the entire Miracle Oak and our whole settlement around it.¡±


    The Elder pales at my statement. She regains her composure, instead acting flabbergasted, ¡°Of all the inane, infeasible, impossible, insane, incomprehensible, inscrutable, inexplicable possible things you need to accomplish. I¡¯m not even going to try to fathom it. Out, out, here, take this, show our engineers, maybe one of them will be able to talk some sense into you.¡±


    I blush and gnaw on my lip as I receive the snowglobe, and let myself be shooed away by Elder Tolkenstein. Teuila follows along behind me, radiating embarrassment of her own.


    Once we¡¯ve left, and Elder Tolkenstein heads off in a different direction for her walk, I glance at Teuila questioningly, ¡°That uh, doesn¡¯t inspire a lot of confidence does it?¡±


    Teuila jokingly replies, ¡°Indubitably incorrect, it¡¯s inefficient to imagine we¡¯ll be less than industrious. Hehe.¡±


    I snort, trying not to laugh, since Teuila is poking fun at Elder Tolkenstein¡¯s rant. I actually hear a quiet shout from the distance, ¡°I heard that!¡±


    We both can¡¯t help but burst into laughter that Rinnia caught Teuila being a punk. I guess we can try to find Sugar, Spice, Magnus, and Teodora. We only have to construct something that¡¯s maybe several million times this size, that can¡¯t be too awful, right? Ugh. Say it¡¯s about one or two hundred thousand times the width, and about five or ten times that in height, yeah, several million times its size.


    It doesn¡¯t take long wandering around until we begin to hear the noise of hammering and sawing, so we head vaguely in the direction of the sound. As we reach a new project site, I wait for a moment when it seems like Teodora and Spice are conversing rather than working, and then wait a bit longer til that conversation hits a lull.


    As their conversation begins to die down, Teuila and I approach. Teuila beats me to the punch, asking, ¡°Hey, how do we make this thingy big enough to be a shield of lacrimosa trifecta that covers the whole town and tree?¡±


    I facepalm at Teuila¡¯s directness. Still, I suppose it¡¯s better to get straight to the point. Spice looks between Teuila and Teodora repeatedly. He scratches his head in mild confusion.


    Teodora replies, ¡°I¡¯ll need ye tae hold right there. I¡¯ll bring some of the older builders tae look at this. I cannae believe the projects ye bring tae my home. Yer all daft, I swear on my life.¡±


    Teodora jogs away after snatching the snowglobe. I chuckle nervously as I ask Spice how the last few days have been. Spice explains a few of the goings on, and indicates that they¡¯ll be building more communal housing, and private homes over the next few days.


    Spice elaborates, ¡°We¡¯ve already got everyone set up in permanent buildings, no more sleeping in tents unless people want to. That doesn¡¯t mean we can¡¯t cater to the needs of people who want more privacy in their lives though. Also, we¡¯re keeping the humans closer to the drainfield you constructed, since their homes will need plumbing. It¡¯s fairly ingenious, even if they have to bring their own buckets of water to wash away the waste for now. It¡¯s far more sanitary than whatever they¡¯d been doing.¡±


    I blush, not wanting to think about what the humans must have been doing all this time, with chamber pots or other solutions to their waste problems. Teuila asks Spice about Magnus and Teodora while I¡¯m distracted.


    Spice gushes, ¡°Tea is great, really great, her mind can spring in a hundred different directions at once, and I feel like she really gets me, she can get just as excited as me about a new project idea. We butt heads once in a while, but it always leads to better solutions for everyone. Magnus is my heart and soul. He has been a bit down in the dumps, I guess I haven¡¯t been spending as much time with him, but we¡¯re almost done with all the big projects that will need my attention, then I probably won¡¯t see Tea as much.¡±


    Teuila and I chuckle nervously when Spice states that they¡¯re almost done with big projects, since we¡¯re about to throw the biggest one ever in his lap. We stand around a while longer, conversing about random inane topics, food supplies, trivial matters, or gossip about the settlement. Eventually Teodora returns with someone that looks to be part ent, part faun. Their skin is a dark pine bark, and their fur darker yet.


    Teodora motions for the ent individual to take over directing the construction crew as she draws us to the side. She shakes her head and slaps her palm to her forehead.


    Teodora finally sighs before explaining, ¡°Tae even contemplate creating such a shield, we¡¯d need almost literally bottled lightning. Fulgurite ye might call it if ye know the term. Fulgurite in more quantities than have ever been generated in nature. We would need someone tae shape porous stone by the billions of cubic meters tae create the lattice-work. Even the physical needs are impossible, not tae mention the metaphysical ones. The energy isn¡¯t self-sustaining, it will need tae have reached critical mass. It would need some sort of catalyst, even then, we might need as much energy as could be produced in dozens of years all at once tae even start such a field. Perhaps if we could compress the future intae the present in just the energy source. It doesn¡¯t seem possible, let alone feasible.¡±


    Teodora¡¯s explanation of the physical needs make sense. I was hoping it would be as simple as drawing some runes in the ground around the settlement, and maybe spending a bunch of days casting spells into those runes with all of our mages. But at least part of it is going to have to be a massive edifice, constructed in at least part of a sphere. Suddenly it clicks. Everything that has happened until now. Now is the time. I even understand more about my time skill in this instant, than ever before.


    I surmise, ¡°Wait, a massive amount of fulgurite, like say the amount created if someone like me caused the largest lightning bolt in history to glass an entire beach to the west? And shapeable porous stone in the millions or billions of cubic meters to form a latticework? Like the kind that could be conjured by someone who has lava conjuration, cooled by someone with thermokinesis?¡±


    Teuila catches my drift as her eyes spark with understanding. She squeezes my bicep reassuringly, beaming a smile into my eyes. She trusts me to handle this.


    This is it, this is why things happened the way they did, this is when future-me knew enough to understand what messages needed to travel into the past. The only way we win this, is if events played out exactly as they happened, with one minor detail added. We need all colors of barrier to stand a chance at preventing the apocalypse. We need to redirect the ley lines of the world that used to produce barriers. The Blue barrier of Shellcracker Pond, the Red Barrier of the cragbeast warren, the Green barrier of the dungeon that Teuila found. I¡¯m still not quite sure how to do that.


    I think this also means that I¡¯ve had a power this entire time, that would allow me to send my consciousness back without rewinding time entirely. I might be able to do it to others that are bonded in a psychic link with me as well, but the only one I can trust to send back without causing a paradox is Luni. It seems like I¡¯ve got a message to deliver to Luni. I think based on how high my time skill is, I probably have these other options to use it, instead of just sending logs back into the past. I think I can send a consciousness back, like my own, or Luni¡¯s. I must be able to reset time or send messages back without sending back my whole log as well. It happened, and I don¡¯t have the billions of attempts logged that it took my time skill to get as high as it is from a future timeline, nor the infinitesimally miniscule ones from the temple of time. During those longest timelines in the temple of time, I was resetting time a fraction of a second every second, constantly using it, exercising it without creating new timelines.


    Yes, I¡¯m certain. I¡¯ll be back in a flash. I telepathically think towards Teuila, ¡°You won¡¯t even know I¡¯m gone.¡± While I¡¯m at it, I¡¯ll message myself all those times in the past where I heard my own voice inside my head. That should close those time loops.


    I send myself back to the last time I was checking my logs next to Luni, before she had to take a different path. She had said some things that hurt me pretty deeply. At the time, I had shut down for a bit, probably being piloted by this future me, now that I think about it. Approaching her, I can tell she already knows that I¡¯m the future version of myself.


    I jokingly chide, ¡°So, this must have been the big secret for all this time, huh?¡±


    Lu replies with a wink, ¡°You¡¯d think that, wouldn¡¯t you?¡± She shakes her head with a smile though.


    My expression becomes dumbfounded. There¡¯s more? Still, I have to focus on what I need to ask her, ¡°As much as I don¡¯t want to put this burden on you, it can only be you. You already know why, don¡¯t you Lu?¡±


    She nods.


    I explain what I know that she already knows, ¡°I have to send you back, into your younger self, but you have to let everything play out as it was meant to happen. We can¡¯t risk changing a single thing. I finally get it now. I hate what I¡¯m asking of you, I hate that you had to keep your stealth magics secret, that you had to keep the version of future-you a secret. You have to let me falter at the dam, giving me just enough hope and praise to go on without you. Did you really feel that way?¡±


    Lu, smiling, responds, ¡°I did, still do. I meant it then and I mean it now. You¡¯ve got this. You¡¯re my hero, always have been, always will be.¡± A lump catches in my throat as I smile back at her. There¡¯s a bit more weight to the statement this time around as I finally realize just how much it implies. That singular point was of such vast importance.


    I continue, even though I feel stupid for sharing the things she¡¯s already certain of, ¡°Remember, you have to be there at the precise moment when Mata breaks the first obelisk, you have to channel the power away from Mata, into our bond, through you and your music. That exact second is when younger me gained the time skill. They might not be okay when they use it for the first time. Younger me was pretty shaken up, and we now know about the death debt, well, you know. I¡¯d tell you to say hi to my younger self for me, but we both know you can¡¯t do that. Please forgive me for placing this burden on you Lu, you always were the kindest of us.¡±


    I stare into Lu¡¯s eyes. Her expression is neutral, yet tender. Seeing the love beneath the surface of her expression, I steel myself to continue, ¡°We both know who set the red eyes free, but you can¡¯t let me figure it out. Try to block the knowledge from even your own mind if you can. Definitely redact as much of your memory log as possible, so you don¡¯t overburden your younger self, and so that the rest of us can¡¯t catch on. Stop me from guessing at every turn as much as you can. I know how much it will wear on you to ride the waves of my thoughts so often, for so long, but I can ask no one else. We both know I would change course if I figured out any number of the precursor events.¡±


    I pause, I know she knows all of this, but I have to have said it to initiate the closed time loop.


    We can¡¯t risk another paradox problem. When TQ filled me in on what almost happened near Elder Sthenic, well, oof. The thought makes me quake with fear. When gods of sea, sky, land and fire meet, armageddon be upon us all indeed. That¡¯s still less cataclysmic than all of time being erased, with no universe left for souls to populate. I nearly caused that, I nearly ripped time itself asunder by defying the primary timeline.


    I recall more, ¡°Remember, tell younger Reggie that no matter how much they want to practice to train their time skill, they¡¯re not ready, the cost would be too great. They¡¯ll know when it¡¯s time to start practicing. It¡¯s patently obvious.¡±


    I sigh, gazing at Lu wistfully, ¡°You have to guide yourself so many times, to the last egg, to let me fail and falter against the serpent, to escape the dam with Sugar and Spice. Every last bit of it needs to happen exactly the way it did, and it has to be you that does it. I¡¯ll always regret having done this to you Lu. Come back to us when this is all done.¡±


    I continue relaying all the things she¡¯s ever done that were mysterious, all the things she is still yet to do that are mysterious, Luni nods affirmations at each one. I know she¡¯ll remember. She has logs that she can unredact as necessary.


    If Luni is unsuccessful, then this timeline vanishes, the only one where we stand a chance against them. The only one where my family may yet live. No wonder I told myself to cherish every moment. That was so long ago now. Heh, I¡¯ve always been at least a tad melodramatic. I guess this is what it was all for, all those times Luni had to keep me from guessing the future, all the secrets.


    Lu, with a mental wink, telepathically sends back, ¡°Something like that.¡±


    My jaw hits the floor when she basically confirms we¡¯re still not done with time shenanigans. We¡¯re at the point when this version of me went on the hunt for Mataalii, leaving behind my family again, not being able to bear dragging them into a blood vendetta against their own kin. Luni had said some things to this version of me that left me feeling cold and alone, like what I was doing was both wrong, yet had to be done. It was mostly Luni¡¯s hurtful words that sent me off alone. Mat would have killed several of my family and loved ones with copies of Gae Buidhe on that eve if any of them had come along.


    Still, I¡¯ll trust in Luni, I also need her to know what to do with Mat. I recommend, ¡°In a few hours, or some time in the near future, I¡¯ll figure out how to track down Mat, and kill him, but you probably already know you have to revive him before he derezzes. We need his lava manipulation and conjuration. Not only that, but we need to figure out some way to get an entire beach of fulgurite from the west coast to the east coast, basically.¡±


    Luni wears a sly grin and winks, ¡°I think I¡¯ve got you covered, my hero.¡±


    I sigh wistfully, and stand near Luni, reaching out towards her to connect to her mind in a new way. I can feel her future and her past stretching out before her. I might even be able to grab future memories to send them back as well, but I won¡¯t do that at the moment. All I need to do is send this version of her to the point in time where she first started showing mysterious signs of foreknowledge. This version of Luni will travel along with her past self from the moment she first evolved to feraform after bouncing off of our heads. As I let myself connect to Luni''s mind in order to send her to the past, I swear I hear an exchange of thoughts between two halves of herself.


    ¡°Will they ever know how deep this really goes?¡±


    ¡°No, I don''t think so, not in this lifetime anyway. Loved them across three...¡±


    With that, the voices that permeate my thoughts from Luni¡¯s temporal consciousnesses fade. My own connection to this version of myself strains to the breaking point. Now I have to carefully send myself back into the various points in my past where I contacted myself. I have to hunt through all of my logs to do it though.


    One of the first times I need to reach into the past to help myself out is when I check out from reality after a certain big event. I¡¯ll have to keep myself hidden inside my own psyche during that time. I have to save Mataalii when he first goes scaling the cliffs of Fire Biome. I think I know how to cast the aura-sensing magic from this staff now, even without the staff, though it¡¯ll be much harder without it. I probably won¡¯t be able to talk or communicate while I¡¯m focusing on it. I guess that makes sense. Lil said that I was closed off and unresponsive, but was still able to take care of things. The over-enhanced aura sense from the staff should let me follow Mat¡¯s trail.


    Whew, okay, that was far too long locked in my own mind with another part of me that was in such horrible shape. Poor past me, yeesh. Let¡¯s never do that again. That was an interesting adventure though. I wonder if I should talk about it with anyone. Lil and Mat already know. Maybe I¡¯ll keep it redacted to keep Mat¡¯s secrets, in case he ever rejoins the family. I know, I know, not long ago I wanted to kill him, and I did. He¡¯s still my brother though, and I think Luni is somehow undoing whatever evil has its grip on his mind.


    There was the time in the Cragbeast warren where another-me shook the thunderstick and exploded a cragbeast skull from the inside. There were several times in the Cragbeast warrens honestly. Let¡¯s take care of those. I get to tell myself jokingly, ¡°Correction, you¡¯re not holding it together buddy.¡± Heh, I can be a bit of a jerk sometimes.


    I have to yell, ¡°Freeze yourself!¡± after the cragbeast warren. Then I have to tell myself that it wasn¡¯t my family who told me to do it, and to shut up. Also I have to remind myself that it¡¯ll take a week or so of taking it easy.


    I have to tell myself to not give Lao the idea that she can use Lucky to come save me, ever. Shortly after that, I¡¯ll have to remind myself that the next time I take a swim, to start in the river, not the pond. I really don¡¯t want to summon some radiant-overpowered exponentially larger Vampguppy from a massive wave of blood.


    On the Night of All Burn, I have to yell, ¡°Lucky must survive!¡± I also have to tell myself, ¡°Look at Te.¡±


    In Leviathan¡¯s belly, I need to tell myself, ¡°You can still be you. Never lose yourself, never give yourself up, or give up on yourself.¡±


    After that, I should be mostly caught up. I suppose I¡¯ll run into a paradox if I have to remember any other loops to close before the end.


    There, now I¡¯m back in the present. Teuila asks, ¡°Was that really it? Is this finally everything you need to know?¡±


    I respond, ¡°More or less. You can see the puzzle pieces now too, right? You saw me when I glassed that beach with lightning, you know Mat can conjure lava, Lu is taking him away somewhere, probably coercing him to come help us, maybe she¡¯ll even bring the fulgurite beach with her. Heck, thinking about it, we probably needed to destroy the colored barriers to redirect their energies here somehow. Maybe TQ knows something about ley lines? Teodora said we¡¯d need years worth of energy all at once. Maybe we can send it from the temple of time.¡±


    Te whistles a low note in appreciation before answering, ¡°Yeah, yeah I remember the lightning on the beach, and ¡®Ali obvee. I¡¯ve seen all three barriers. I guess it makes sense. We¡¯ve always been coming to this point, haven¡¯t we?¡±


    Teodora interrupts, ¡°What are ye gabbing about? How do ye already have plans for something so big that we cannae even comprehend the materials alone, not tae mention the labor?¡±


    Teuila takes the lead, ¡°So my dingledork here is a time traveler, this isn¡¯t their first rodeo, ya know? They¡¯ve gotten to this point in time, time and time again, I think. They probably didn¡¯t even need that many trips through the future to figure it out.¡±


    I blush at Teuila¡¯s praise, she¡¯s overestimating my abilities for sure. I¡¯m sure that many times I never even met Linti, or developed lightning powers, or knew how to develop them at the beach. I probably lost fights to various creatures when I tried to take different paths to reach this point. Anything from the point where I gained the time power onward I probably had to do at least twice, and a lot has happened since then. Plus, my time power actually stretches back further than when I initially received it, however that works. It¡¯s how I was able to send Luni¡¯s consciousness all the way back to when she first evolved into her feraform stage.


    I wonder if I should send a copy of my consciousness redacted and hidden deep within my own psyche, all the way back to my beginning. Yeah, should I, just in case? Heck, maybe see just how far back we can send the memories, if we can send them back to before we even had a body, that might be how our soul was able to share memories with the Fairies. Sure, I¡¯ll start sending this copy of my consciousness as far back as my time skill will allow. This also might be why my memory logs have been screwed up since Day One. Oops.


    I slump to my knees and hyperventilate for a moment while I¡¯m sending back a copy of my consciousness with all my memories as far back as my time skill will allow, far earlier than the beginning of my own lifetime. My pulse pounds like a jackhammer against my eardrums, and my tinnitus rings like a clarion bell. This is absolutely the worst moment to be utilizing my time skill to its fullest power on myself. No wonder my memory logs are screwed up. I clutch my chest as I try to still my breathing and fight back the day terrors.


    Teuila stands next to me and sets a hand comfortingly on my shoulder as she waits for me to ride out my panic. As my breathing slows to normal levels, I exhale a breath through puffed cheeks and slowly stand with her aid. As we¡¯re about to talk more with Teodora about the task at hand, I ponder the logistics of our physical and metaphysical needs. How exactly are we going to do this? Do we shape everything exactly like the little snow globe that Elder Tolkenstein gave us?


    The four of us speak at length. Teuila, Spice, Teodora, and myself all have the slightest bit of hope once I¡¯ve shared that I sent messages into the past that I think will help meet our physical needs. Eventually all I can do is leave it to Spice and Teodora to draw up plans that we can act on. Once I know exactly what we need, I¡¯ll work my hardest to make sure we have it at hand. They say it will take a few days at the very least to draft up such massive plans, and I can¡¯t fault them for that. I guess this leaves Teuila and me with some downtime for once.


    Te and I thank Spice and Tea for their time, and see if there¡¯s anything we can do to help construction, but right now I don¡¯t actually feel up to even simple tasks. I¡¯m so burnt out from our constant harrowing adventures, my own constant emotional turmoil, and this new pain of using mana. Thankfully Tea and Spice don¡¯t have any tasks for us that really make sense or make use of our abilities, so we excuse ourselves to go find Laomati and Agwai.


    As we near the shop that Agwai and Laomati are taking turns attending, Teuila skips ahead of me, calling out, ¡°Ag, Lao, things are looking up!¡±


    Agwai seems only mildly confused. I believe Laomati partially informed them about what we were up against. Lao smiles brightly at our approach.


    Lao calls back, ¡°That¡¯s wonderful news my dears. How high may I set my hopes? Is everything at peace?¡±


    I wear half of a frown as I respond, ¡°Not quite that high yet Lao. We have a chance to build a tool, some protection, but there does still seem to be an inevitable fate that¡¯s going to happen. We¡¯ve bought ourselves some time to construct the protection, but we can¡¯t dawdle. If my assumptions about this version of our timeline are correct, we should be seeing some familiar faces within the next few weeks.¡±


    Lao, Ag, and Teuila each raise eyebrows in my direction, but I don¡¯t want to get their hopes up by voicing my suspicions. When I refuse to elucidate, they all shrug and carry on conversing.


    Agwai jovially asks, ¡°Why the long faces and quiet gazes? I hope your voices aren¡¯t hoarse.¡± It takes me a moment to realize Agwai just hit us with a groan-worthy pun, as we all groan. Still, it was somewhat funny. We end up laughing a bit anyway.


    Laomati nuzzles Agwai while chuckling. The pair are so warm and loving, it¡¯s wonderful to see them happy together. Even though I know Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle wants us to make haste, there isn¡¯t much I can do without the raw materials. Hopefully Luni understood what I meant when I traveled back in time to tell her.


    Lao sets about looking for another shopkeeper to tend the shop so she can take Agwai on a walk with us, it doesn¡¯t take long to find a humaform camel man that¡¯s willing to sit at the counter. When he takes their place, Agwai and Laomati join us for a walk along the moat. We wave politely at the various humans and critterkin fishing in certain sections of the moat. There are some barriers erected to prevent swimmers from ending up near fishing hooks, and the fishers seem to be respectful of the boundaries. There are even several more enclosed sections that seem dedicated to people like us who fish by swimming and hunting beneath the water by hand or by tooth or claw. I¡¯m grateful that we¡¯re catering to many types of needs simultaneously.


    There are some tropical fish, and saltwater koi, in the non enclosed areas of the moat. The swimmers tread near them on occasion, enjoying the curiosity of the fish. I reach down and cup a handful of water from our moat to take a lick. The salinity is extremely low. At the locks, we have filters and boilers set up to reduce the salt content, it also provides us with a seemingly endless supply of salt. Teuila raises an eyebrow at me, while laughing at my action and train of thought. I shrug and chuckle as I dry my hand. I playfully run my fingers through Teuila¡¯s hair, messing it up ever so slightly with the residual moisture that I couldn¡¯t dry off. She swats my hand away, then we end up in an SFSF, a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight, where one of her hands ends up on my face, I chase it away with my hands, her other ends on my face, I chase that one away, and we repeat til we¡¯re giggling like madbeasts.


    Lao and Ag look on at our antics with joy visible upon their countenances. Seeing them derive joy and happiness from us being joyful and happy, fills me with even more joy and happiness. It¡¯s sort of the opposite of a vicious cycle. Would that be a wonder cycle?


    While I¡¯m distracted, Agwai starts reciting offbeat poetry to us, haiku that don¡¯t meet syllabic restrictions, rhyming couplets that don¡¯t seem to connect with one another in any fashion, and so on. It¡¯s amusing, so I find myself smiling despite the seeming ineptitude of one of our beloved elders. I think Agwai¡¯s playing the fool on purpose anyway. When Agwai seems done, Laomati fills the silence instead.


    Lao speaks her joy, ¡°I¡¯m so gladdened that you¡¯re both home, and safe. This whole series of events has had me so worried about the two of you, and well, all of us. I do dearly hope Lucky, Lil, and Luni return to us soon. Knowing that they¡¯re safe and alive is some comfort at least, but it is not the joy of their presence. What do you two suppose you will do when all this dreadful business finally concludes?¡±


    Teuila answers immediately, ¡°I¡¯ll keep hunting, every day. Lightning and I make a pretty fun team. I¡¯ll learn new magic if I need to, to keep up with whatever threats come our way. I want to be able to protect my boogerbutt against everything.¡±


    I chuckle and blush as Teuila calls me a boogerbutt. For my own reply, I spend a while pondering before coming to a conclusion. I sigh as I come to a realization.


    I mutter, ¡°I¡¯m going to have to cut back on magic usage and training. I¡¯ll even need to cut back on adventuring and hunting too. At least until I can forge a connection with Umbra, but maybe even then, I don¡¯t know if my body will be able to handle that either. I enjoy those activities, but I¡¯m starting to realize I pushed my limits too hard too many times, and it took its toll on my body and psyche, and is continuing to do so, the more I rely on any of it. Plus, I assume I¡¯m probably going to have to do some crazy magic before all of this is over.¡±


    Teuila frowns at my assumption. Lao and Agwai join her in frowning, but no one denies my guess. Crazy situations tend to take crazy magic to solve, or at least evade. I doubt there¡¯s anyone crazier than me when it comes to thinking up ways to apply magics. I¡¯m not bragging or assuming I¡¯m a genius of anything. I think half the stuff I do probably shouldn¡¯t work. I¡¯m just lucky that most of the time when my brain randomly gets distracted by a tangent that leads to a new assumption about my magic, that it ends up working out. Teuila knows how squirrelly my brain can be when trying to keep it on a single train of thought.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Te grins at my train of thought and nods. Yep, she indeed knows. Teuila¡¯s gaze flits about for a moment before she sighs wistfully. At first I¡¯m about to ask why, but then a faint crackle reaches my ears, and a mild hint of ozone reaches my anosmic nostrils. I grin at Teuila who raises one eyebrow questioningly. I nod and she takes off like a rocket, leaping towards the sound of crashing thunder to intercept Linti on her return journey.


    For my part, I meander in silence with Laomati and Agwai for some time yet. My beloved clan elders are so dear to me, yet I rarely treat them as people to interact with and be around. Similarly to how Laomati treated me, I put them on a pedestal and viewed them as something other. I didn¡¯t intend to, it¡¯s just how things sometimes happen I suppose. Our familial cuddle pile helps keep anyone from accidentally being or feeling too ostracized or neglected for the most part. Still, I wish I could do more to show them how much I appreciate each of them.


    Lao pipes up, ¡°I¡¯m feeling peckish, should we find somewhere to sup with a few friends? I could introduce Reggie to Lizbette or Sooltyn if they¡¯re out and about.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, since these are names I haven¡¯t heard before, but, scanning our party pages, I can clearly see they¡¯re members of our critterkin community. It makes sense, Laomati did say she wanted to introduce me at some point, to the friends she had begun to make in our greater community at large.


    Agwai nods emphatically, but states, ¡°That sounds wonderful, so long as you don¡¯t let them rope Reggie into cards. Our dear one seems a bit exhausted.¡±


    So Laomati leads us towards what must be some sort of communal mess, or galley, or dining area. It isn¡¯t walled in, though it does have a large ceiling supported by beams at regular intervals. We walk its length up one side, then down the other, until Lao and Ag spot one of the two they¡¯d been speaking about. Lao waves to her, and a cutely pudgy humaform porcine woman waves back. Lao rushes forward to embrace her as she stands from her seat, accepting the oncoming hug.


    Lao excitedly states, ¡°Reggie, this is Lizbette, Liz, this is our dearest Reggie, you¡¯ve probably seen them flying about at some point or another. Liz, have you seen Soo or Cal? Or Pat I suppose, Pat can be fun as well. We¡¯re looking to relax a bit before our dear one ends up being called away to yet more adventure or construction.¡±


    Liz can barely get a word in edgewise, but responds, ¡°Soo just finished up a late lunch, she was going to head to the lumber warrens to fetch some clay. She wanted to try some pottery. Apparently even if you¡¯re not that great at it, it can produce some coinage at the shops, so she expects she¡¯ll be able to keep her little clan fed. Cal and Pat will probably be along any moment, they¡¯re spending more time together. I think they¡¯re sweet on each other, the couple of handsome lads they are, can¡¯t say I blame either one of them for their eye on the other. Shapely sights and all that, don¡¯t ya know?¡±


    Lao and Ag chuckle at Liz¡¯s gossip, and I find myself grinning with a wide half-smile on the left side of my face. Being able to just enjoy such simple things as chatting about friends, their hobbies and their love lives is such an irregular or rarefied occurrence for me. At least lately, but also likely in my life as a whole. There has been so much time traveling up and down a river, getting into and out of dangerous situations, hunting, fighting, struggling, adventuring, training. This is the sort of thing one does with idle time in a community though. They sit, and listen, or talk, we can enjoy one another¡¯s company in the safety and presence of others.


    Liz, Ag, and Lao chat idly for a time, and sure enough, two handsome lads come by, a porcine humaform individual, and a feraform camel individual. Liz waves them over, and Lao calls excitedly to them for them to join us. I let my mind wander as they exchange pleasantries.


    This is probably the primary timeline, the one where things come to a final conclusion. It has to be. Right? All these wonderful people, they deserve to live, to be happy, to enjoy life as long as they can. I gaze at my clan elders. They¡¯re laughing and smiling, sharing jokes as they catch up with the two new arrivals. I feel vaguely like I¡¯m a million miles away, but I¡¯m still present, somewhat.


    Agwai tries to get my attention, ¡°Isn¡¯t that right dear Reggie?¡±


    I blush, having been spacing out, ¡°I¡¯m not sure, isn¡¯t what right Agwai? I was distracted by my own thoughts.¡± I find it¡¯s better to be honest, everyone knows I¡¯m more than a tad distractible.


    Agwai guffaws and gently slaps me on the back before answering, ¡°You¡¯ve found even more locations to adventure in. You and Teuila have been off adventuring, our mighty protectors, always on some quest or another.¡±


    I chuckle as I rub the back of my head, ¡°Something like that, yeah. Teuila¡¯s probably going to be hunting with Linti for a while, but my powers have grown past my body¡¯s ability to cope with them. I don¡¯t know how much more adventuring I¡¯ll be able to do for very much longer.¡±


    There¡¯s a mixture of emotions painted across the faces of those around me. Confusion, surprise, dismay, curiosity. There¡¯s the tiniest hint of relief that plays behind Laomati¡¯s dismay. I can¡¯t blame her. She wants nothing more than for her clan to be able to enjoy an idyllic life at home, chasing our dreams and hobbies, far from danger.


    Lao asks for clarification, ¡°Whatever do you mean, dear child?¡±


    I respond without going into detail, ¡°Remember when I started working on the canal? If you check my skills pages and stat numbers, you can see that they¡¯re so much higher than they were a few months ago. My body hasn¡¯t kept up with their growth. That¡¯s as best as I can figure anyway.¡±


    Laomati clicks her tongue as she scrolls through our mental interface, nodding occasionally. Agwai follows suit, but Lizbette, Cal, and Pat don¡¯t gaze into our interfaces. Maybe they think it¡¯s an invasion of my privacy. Technically anyone in the party can peer at anyone else¡¯s pages. There might be a way to change a setting in our interfaces that makes our pages private, but I don¡¯t know it offhand.


    Pat pulls out a deck of cards, and I take that as a cue to excuse myself. Agwai was right, I¡¯m a bit exhausted, and it sounds like they might end up playing the entire day away with their friends. I hug Agwai and Laomati as I take my leave of them, sighing contentedly while I do.


    I¡¯m not certain who I want to catch up with, or if I should just sleep for a few days straight. If I slept, it¡¯d be in the hopes that I¡¯m fully rested when Spice and Teodora have finished their plans for the shield of lacrimosa trifecta. I suppose it wouldn¡¯t hurt to head towards the fulgurite beach or Fire Biome to see if I can start bringing some of the materials here. Still, while my inventory magic is impressive, I don¡¯t believe it¡¯s quite that impressive. I wonder if any of my family might have any ideas on how to transport so much material. Or even friends like Brastley. I suppose I could ask everyone in turn as I locate them.


    I wander around for a while, observing the goings-on of the lives around me. Various fauns and nymphs and satyrs float between boughs of the Miracle Oak. I¡¯ve never been to any of its branches or any of the dwellings upon it. I feel like I¡¯d be intruding if I just launched my way up into the various buildings that reside along its trunk, branches, or near its canopy.


    I run into Sir Reginald who regards me with a cold stare. I don¡¯t want any unpleasantness, so I ask him plainly, ¡°Sir Reginald, have I done something recently that has gained me your ire?¡±


    Sir Reginald takes a moment before responding, ¡°Do you intend to continue to use your power to get your own way? Does it make you feel good to bully those weaker than you into submission?¡±


    I sigh as I try not to roll my eyes. I¡¯d feared it was something like this. I¡¯ll answer with questions of my own, ¡°Did Priss tell you about our conversation when she had me falsely imprisoned? Is that what this is about? Did she tell you how I begged and offered my services, down to nearly my everlasting soul, pleading for her to divert the march even slightly? Did she tell you that I was willing to give up my life with my family, taking up indefinite service, for an assurance of their safety? Can you honestly tell me, that if the army¡¯s march hadn¡¯t been diverted, that they would not have slain my family?¡±


    Sir Reginald balks. His reply is uncertain, ¡°There was some mention of some of these details. But no. To most of those questions the answer is no. I¡¯m sorry, perhaps I¡¯ve viewed you in a slightly unfair light at the words of my commander. Still, my question stands, do you intend to lord your power over others?¡±


    This time I let myself roll my eyes, ¡°Sir Reginald, if I could get away with never using my power again at all for any sort of hostile action, or defensive action, I certainly would. I will state time and time again though, that the safety and happiness of my family is my highest priority, full stop. I¡¯ll do anything to subdue or prevent threats to them. I recently had to kill my own brother to prevent his constant harassment from growing into a more dangerous threat.¡±


    Sir Reginald¡¯s eyes widen, ¡°You what?¡± He pronounces the aitch before the double-u.


    I feel like my eyes are in a constant state of rolling at the moment. I¡¯m not exasperated with Sir Reginald himself, just the myriad situations in which I find myself.


    I sigh, ¡°He didn¡¯t stay dead, if that matters for your opinion of me. You are of course free to feel however you feel about me, I¡¯d just prefer peace between all of us. Mataalii was the flying, cloaked otter who could summon lava. He was brought back to life in the instant of his death, and we¡¯ll likely need him before long. Do you know the prophecies for this land?¡±


    Sir Reginald squints at me, motioning for me to continue.


    Wonderful, I get to be the one to inform the humans of our impending doom, ¡°When the gods of sea, fire, sky, and land meet, calamity shall befall our land. You very well know the god of the sea, he¡¯s been active for a while now. Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River. Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate is the god of fire, he slumbers beneath the volcano in the fire biome. In truth, that volcano is little more than one of his dorsal ridges. Lady Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending is the goddess of the skies, she¡¯s a serpentine dragon that resides far to the north on a flying mountain called the Elysium Ascent. Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle is the goddess of the land, she slumbers beneath the southeastern quarter of our continent. Her head can be reached by one of the dungeons detailed in our survey reports, the one found by Teuila.¡±


    Sir Reginald hazards to ask, ¡°Why do you know all this, why are you telling me all this?¡±


    I flick my eyebrows as I exhale a breath through puffed cheeks, ¡°The thing that caused the Night of All Burn is trying to rouse these gods and force them to meet. It¡¯s succeeding, slowly, but it¡¯s succeeding. The reason Teuila and I have been missing the last few days is because I went to speak with three of them. I¡¯d already spoken with Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate, not long before returning the most recent time.¡±


    Sir Reginald squints as he surmises, ¡°You mean to tell me, we¡¯re on the edge of a great calamity? Any day now, these four immense creatures will meet to do, what, something that destroys the island?¡±


    I nod, ¡°At the very least. Still, Lord Agni, Lady Tenith, and Lady Maka-Akari don¡¯t wish us harm. They¡¯ve agreed to try to buy us time in a sense. Lady Maka-Akari set a task for us, the creation of something called the shield of lacrimosa trifecta, but it has to be one massive enough to protect the entire settlement. For that, we¡¯ll actually need Mataalii, as awkward as that may be for all of us that he has hurt or attacked.¡±


    Sir Reginald ruminates, stroking his beard, ¡°As upset as I¡¯d been with you, I trust that you¡¯ve never lied to me Billie. Err, Reggie.¡± He scratches the back of his head in chagrin as he realizes once again that we share a moniker for our first name. He continues, ¡°These are the sorts of weights you bear? I suppose I¡¯d falter under the pressure, trying to keep my loved ones safe in such dire circumstances. What can I do to ensure your success?¡±


    I gnaw on my lower lip before responding, ¡°As far as I know, just make sure everyone is rested up and ready to help with the construction of the shield whenever the plans are finished, and the materials begin arriving. The materials will include billions of cubic meters of lava generated by Mataalii, cooled by me, and the largest chunk of fulgurite ever created when I struck a beach with a massive bolt of lightning that glassed the entire beach.¡±


    Sir Reginald whistles a low note, ¡°By the gods, the enormity and scale. You don¡¯t do things in half measures, do you?¡±


    I chuckle as I shake my head, ¡°I¡¯m glad we¡¯re not enemies Sir Reginald. I¡¯m sorry for the times I¡¯ve abused my powers, even though I was bluffing, or thought I was bluffing. I don¡¯t like being angry, or hurting others, much less killing others.¡±


    Sir Reginald chuckles nervously, feeling admonished I suppose, ¡°It seems we¡¯re lucky that you stopped in Eimsas when you did. If our force had marched through your family, killing them for food, I doubt there¡¯d be many humans left alive on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Am I wrong?¡±


    I raise an eyebrow at the word Eimsas, by context, I realize that must be the name of Geawerene¡¯s frontier town, ¡°I can honestly say I have no idea how I would have fared against the might of so many mages if you all had caught me by surprise. I¡¯d likely have panicked, and been unsure whether to target the fire mages first, as they would be easier for me to deal with, or to save them for last, using them as a battery for my own powers. This is a bit of a gruesome topic. I feel a bit ill thinking of it, I hope you¡¯ll excuse me.¡±


    Sir Reginald nods, ¡°Of course, of course, my apologies. It doesn¡¯t bear thinking about, forgive me. I¡¯ll see to it that our able bodied are ready to drop any other projects when the time comes to aid the construction effort. Well, I¡¯ll relay your request to our commander, acting as the liaison that I¡¯ve been appointed as. I doubt she would deny such a request once she hears the stakes.¡±


    I hem and haw a bit, ¡°If it¡¯s at all possible, could you keep the doom prophecy from spreading around too much? Other than letting them know that if Mataalii returns, he¡¯s no longer a threat. Hopefully. We have someone working on that, I think. I feel like, while it¡¯s unfair to not apprise people, that it¡¯s also unfair to worry everyone. We¡¯ve either got this handled, and we can go on living, or we don¡¯t, and spending our last days in terror feels like such a waste. You know?¡±


    Sir Reginald strokes his beard thoughtfully, nodding. He makes a polite quarter bow, partial salute, waves, and walks off. As Sir Reginald walks away, I exhale a sigh of relief. I¡¯m glad we¡¯re on better terms again. Still, he¡¯s not who I was looking for, so I continue walking about.


    It dawns on me that I¡¯m going to have to tell our entire family that Mataalii is probably coming back to us sometime soon. I especially need to make sure Linti and Teuila know not to attack him, probably Brastley too. If Brastley has heard about Mat¡¯s destruction of the Nagas¡¯ settlement that¡¯s not going to go over well, oof. I could be entirely wrong in my assumption, maybe Luni is taking Mat¡¯s power away from him. Maybe she¡¯ll be the one that can generate and control lava. I can¡¯t bank on being wrong though.


    A voice calls out, ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you around here before.¡±


    I turn towards the voice, scratching my head, wondering if they could possibly be talking to me. I look around for any new faces approaching from beyond the illusion, but they¡¯d have to scale a twenty meter tall wall of dirt to even get in at this point. Instead I find myself searching high and low for the source of the voice. I activate the spell in my staff that allows me to sense auras, but that doesn¡¯t help much.


    It calls out again, from nearly at my feet, ¡°Yes you. Who might you be?¡±


    Looking down, I spy a tiny individual resting on a blade of grass. I¡¯m surprised at how light they are, since they¡¯re still several inches tall. Chagrined, I respond, ¡°I¡¯ve been around for a while now, off and on. I dug most of the canal. My name¡¯s Reggie.¡±


    The spriteling replies, ¡°No it isn¡¯t.¡±


    My facial expression screws up, ¡°Excuse me?¡±


    The sprite sighs, stands up and flies towards my face, ¡°That¡¯s not your name, nor is it Old Man. I recognize you now. Too bad you don¡¯t know your own name.¡±


    I frown, ¡°Look, it¡¯s the name I was given by my oldest friend when I adopted this body. I¡¯m happy enough with it. If you know more about me, please, share what you know, because I¡¯m at a loss about anything from when I was a soul or earlier.¡±


    The spriteling says, ¡°Nah. Shame is all. Guess I expected more.¡± The figure flies away towards the Miracle Oak before I have another chance to respond.


    Well what the heck was that about? I don¡¯t know how to feel about that whole exchange. Should I seek them out, and ask their name? Should I be offended? Was it just some sort of pixie prankster pulling my leg? I suppose I should watch my step a little more carefully, I didn¡¯t realize we had such short individuals in our midst. I don¡¯t want to accidentally crush anyone.


    What do I really know about myself? I know my adventures along the river, my time with Lil and Luni and Teuila, the various major events since I spawned in the jungle. I know that I¡¯ve apparently lived through many of these events several times. Not a whole lot when it really comes down to it. I don¡¯t even know my own gender. Not that that¡¯s really important in our world. It would matter more if I were part of the human society of fakeworld in my memories.


    I guess none of that matters at the moment. I need to figure out how to handle the upcoming events, in case people need to be prepared to have Mataalii around again. I guess I have to tell everyone almost everything after all. I wonder if I can wrap it up in a story that won¡¯t make me the center of attention. I should get Agwai¡¯s or Dream¡¯s help. Yeah, if it comes from one of them, tonight, then everyone will be up to speed, and I won¡¯t have to draw attention to myself. Agwai is busy playing cards. I bet Jaz and Dream are walking along the canal with Luna, since I asked them to keep her company.


    Sure enough, heading east for a few minutes, I manage to spy Dream, Jaz, and Luna. Now, how to do this. Let¡¯s see. I suppose they can handle the full truth, if everyone is going to need to know most of it, then Dream can pick and choose what to lay on everyone else.


    I call out, ¡°Hey there lovely lovebirds, can I get your ears for a little while?¡±


    Dream shrugs and responds, ¡°Sure, whatever.¡± Jaz smiles and nods.


    I start relaying the story of the chameleon village, its prophecy, the rumbling when Lord Agni began to awake, my spell that momentarily set him back to resting. I talk about the destruction of the Nagas¡¯ village, and having had to hunt down Mataalii. I let them know that after killing him, he was revived, but taken away, bound. Shortly after that, Lord Agni began stirring again, so I went to speak with him. The titanic god of fire doesn¡¯t want us dead, but is being forced to awaken. He let me know about his siblings, and the confluence that will bring about the catastrophe.


    So, Teuila and I took our time to find out how to locate the other god siblings while I dug the canal. When it was finished, we were given a map, and that led us to Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending. She was friendly, but still fatebound to join the confluence. Leviathan was not friendly, and more than happy to work towards the destruction of all of us mortals. Maka-Akari however gave us hope. She¡¯s willing to delay the confluence while we construct a shield that might protect the whole Miracle Oak and everyone living around it. To construct it, we¡¯re going to need lava, in quantities greater than anyone could possibly haul from Fire Biome. That means we¡¯re going to need Mataalii to be recovered from his wicked ways, and brought back. That¡¯s my assumption anyway. Tomorrow, I¡¯ll head to the beach to check on the fulgurite, to see if I can devise some way to bring it here.


    The pair are a bit dumbfounded, they press me for details about various sections of my story, and I oblige by filling them in.


    Jaz runs a hand through her hair and heaves a sigh, ¡°The end of it all, no wonder you were pushing so hard. I¡¯d have snapped too, and you didn¡¯t share it with anyone other than Lao, then later Teuila and Linti?¡± I nod in response.


    Dream queries, ¡°So, let me get this straight. We have some chance to survive a cataclysm, catastrophe, apocalypse, something or other, but we¡¯re going to need that slimeball of a brother of yours? That¡¯s just to meet the physical requirements for the shield? What about the energy problem?¡±


    I scratch my chin as my face adopts a slightly pouting frown, ¡°Yeah, that uh, that¡¯s about right. The energy thing I¡¯m not sure about. We still haven¡¯t solved the book mystery, but I know one of the books is Mat¡¯s, so maybe the right six people will be assembled after he returns. Maybe that does something.¡±


    Dream throws her hands up in frustration. She looks like she wants to wring my neck for keeping this from them for so long. I can¡¯t blame her, I wasn¡¯t even going to share it at all, until I realized I needed to prepare everyone for Mat¡¯s possible return.


    I gulp as I ramble an apology, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for dumping this on you two, I didn¡¯t want to have to share it, I was hoping to either solve it, or let everyone live in peace and happiness until the end, if I couldn¡¯t find a solution. Still, is there any way you could work it into a story for tonight, without making me the center of the story? I don¡¯t need acknowledgement or attention. I just want everyone to be safe, and for no one to screw up our chances at success by acting on vengeful desires.¡±


    Dream facepalms, and fumes while panting through clenched teeth. Jaz clasps her hands and sets her forehead against Dream¡¯s, calming her slightly. After some time, Dream calms enough to respond, ¡°Yeah, sure, fine. We¡¯ll get the word out in different ways to different groups, but our family gets to know everything. Everything!¡±


    I gulp, I was hoping to not have everyone filled in on my own involvement. I frown, but nod shakily. Acquiescing, I state, ¡°O-okay. If that¡¯s what it takes for your help, if that¡¯s what you think will help everyone maintain their cool while we work on the solution. I can¡¯t thank you enough. I¡¯m sorry for everything, I¡¯m doing the best I can.¡±


    Dream nods angrily, or maybe neutrally, but her visage is always one of anger, save for rare circumstances. Jaz signs questioningly at Dream, who fills her in on her half of the conversation by signing back, and writing some of it on a notepad that she had tucked into her waistband. I wipe my brow as I sigh with relief.


    At least I don¡¯t have to be the one standing in front of everyone, telling this tale, or going around to everyone individually, sharing this story over and over. I thank the pair again, and seek out Lin and Te, hoping to enjoy some private time before everyone else learns about the current events. When I find them, I let them know that I caught Dream and Jaz up to speed, and that they¡¯ll be telling everyone. The hardest part is convincing Lin to keep her cool since we¡¯ll be needing Mat in one way or another.


    Lin growls at me in frustration, nearly reaching a roar, ¡°You want me to forgive the trash that destroyed our homes? That set my family at each other¡¯s throats? That nearly killed me, twice!?¡±


    I balk momentarily before responding, ¡°I, well, no. I just want you to be aware that we¡¯re going to be utilizing his power somehow, and that might include his presence, maybe, I don¡¯t know.¡± I start to mumble, ¡°I mean, I¡¯ve technically also nearly killed you twice.¡± Realizing what I said, I backpedal quickly, ¡°Not that I want you to not forgive me!¡±


    Teuila starts laughing uproariously across our telepathic wavelength at my foible. Eventually, even Linti eventually joins her in laughing about my statement. After a while, I regain my composure and join my two loves in laughing at my own blunder.


    Lin finally clears her throat telepathically, ¡°Alright Shellcracker, we have a few days until anyone can start at all on construction, if we somehow start getting the raw materials in, yeah? What¡¯s your crazy plan in the meantime? I know something¡¯s cooking in that mad brain of yours.¡±


    I shrug, ¡°Other than heading to the coast tomorrow, and checking out the fulgurite situation, I have no idea. I figure that alone will probably take me several days to devise some slipshod slapdash ramshackle solution to.¡±


    The pair of my inner circle look a bit surprised that I don¡¯t have a more concrete plan, but laugh at my description of a possible solution.


    Te singles me out, ¡°Okay butterbutt, I¡¯ll come with you, to help you get there and back faster. Lin, do you want to come too boogerboo?¡±


    Linti cuffs Teuila gently in the cheek, ¡°You cheeky chickadee Toots, yeah I¡¯m in. This can¡¯t possibly be the time that I die from helping out, can it?¡±


    I quail momentarily as panic floods my mind. Panting, I try to calm myself by reminding myself that even if this ends up being the situation where we can¡¯t bring Linti along, I should be able to just go back in time and tell myself to leave her here. Since I don¡¯t see any logs from future me, I hope that we¡¯re in the clear.


    I clutch my chest as I slowly calm my breathing. When I¡¯m composed, I hypothesize, ¡°It should be okay, I don¡¯t see messages from future me, and this shouldn¡¯t be a situation so dangerous that I won¡¯t live to be able to go back in time to stop us from taking Linti along.¡±


    Lin and Te both nod appreciatively. Lin wraps an arm around my neck and noogies me with her other fist. Teuila leans in to smooch each of us once on the cheek before we drop out of thinkspace to find somewhere quiet to relax until the family gathers at nightfall. It¡¯s fairly late in the afternoon, or early evening already, so it won¡¯t be that long til our family members begin filing in from anywhere that they¡¯ve been. Also, apparently two more constructions from now, we¡¯ll be getting our own home again, one that Spice designed for the Shellcrackers, including all of our new cat family members. Teodora and Spice just prioritized other projects first, which I¡¯m happy about. We don¡¯t need special treatment.


    Sugar and Magnus have been busy with the various construction crews. Sugar¡¯s magic is invaluable for speeding projects along, and Magnus works hard to impress Sugar and Spice.


    Linti and Teuila and I spend several days in thinkspace, cuddling and brainstorming ideas about how to move a whole beach made of glass, more or less. We can¡¯t come up with much more beyond just having me rocket back and forth across the landscape, taking a full inventory load back with me each time as I return to the Miracle Oak. Maybe it¡¯ll be different when we see it again.


    When the majority of the family has arrived, Dream starts setting up the situation, warning everyone about the tale for tonight being news of current events rather than a story. She implies that the spheriforms or those of us who self-actualize as younger personalities might not be ready for this news before she continues. Everyone still stays to listen though, of course. Dream continues to demand attention and prevent questions or interruptions. She adds some drama and flair to the tale, though without bending the truth in the slightest, it¡¯s mostly her mannerisms and delivery that change the mood of sections of the story.


    When Dream finishes, everyone¡¯s eyes are on me, other than Lin and Te. Lin and Teuila are gazing at each other and trying not to giggle or snicker about how uncomfortable I am from being the center of attention again. They don¡¯t want to laugh and cause me any hurt when I¡¯m already nervous and skittish about the situation.


    When a barrage of questions begins to flood my direction, I nearly faint. Thankfully Lao, Dream, Te, and Lin have the prescience to expect this. They also have the presence of mind such that they are able to field some of them for me, as well as to calm everyone down. Elder Winter looks disgusted about the situation, Fawn looks mortified after realizing what I¡¯d been going through. Fawn even gazes appreciatively at Teuila, seemingly thanking her for being at my side during the last legs of our journey. She¡¯s sweet to care so much.


    Agwai looks disappointed. They seemed to want to have a night of pun-filled tales, and light hearted jokes. Or maybe they¡¯re disappointed that neither Lao nor I shared this information before. Instead, I¡¯ve saddled them with the same information I¡¯d dropped on Laomati, through Dream. Jaz actually walks around the room, waving everyone back a bit, and comes to kneel in front of me, wrapping me up in a hug for a moment, before heading back to her cushions to wait on Dream. I¡¯m a little stunned, but extremely grateful.


    After that, everyone begins hugging one another in turn. There¡¯s a massive round robin of who hasn¡¯t hugged who else yet, as we all try to make sure each of the others in our family know that we love them. It¡¯s sort of the worst case scenario, preparing for the end, trying to make sure we don¡¯t have regrets of leaving any of our loved ones feeling neglected. It hurts all the more because Lu, Lil, and Lucky aren¡¯t here to partake of this.


    Eventually each of us are left to our own thoughts and devices, but we all scoot closer to the center as we prepare for sleep. Even the more aloof members of the cat family are at least within arms reach as the majority of us cuddle amongst one another while bedding down. I can¡¯t tell how many arms are draped across how many bodies in the tangle that is our cuddle pile. Even beyond that, frequently several hands are holding someone¡¯s hand in any given space. It¡¯s somehow the most sad, yet simultaneously most comforting, wonderful thing. I drift off to sleep embracing at least three people that I love who love me back.


    ¡°Do you know how old I am Miss Taylynn?¡±


    ¡°Drop the ¡®Miss¡¯, call me Taylynn or Tay, and no, I can¡¯t say I¡¯m aware of your age.¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t bother you?¡±


    ¡°Not much, no.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve lived at least seventy years since I was found, and even then, I think I was a teenager when my first memories started. I don¡¯t know how Eights has lived this long, I thought dogs only lived a couple of decades at most. His light just went out recently though. When I find whoever stole the spark of life from my dog, they¡¯ll pay.¡±


    ¡°Really, seventy? You don¡¯t look a day over thirty. I guess it makes sense, you did get to this world before us.¡±


    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s one way of saying I was born earlier than you, yes.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course. So, Aces and Eights huh?¡±


    ¡°I may have had a dark sense of humor in my youth, being raised by assassins and all.¡±


    I observe her face as I lean my back against the wall near her room¡¯s door. Its contours are smooth, lovely. She lets her hair fall to one side, framing her face on that side, but also drawing attention to its clearer, uncovered half. Her flawless skin glimmers a reflection of the twinkling candlelight. Her reaction to my joke is one of mirth, a smile that reaches its widest point, eyes shut trustingly. Why did I come to this room? She pats the bed next to where she¡¯s seated, almost as if to answer my own thought.


    I awaken to one of my family members rolling sideways such that their hand falls on my face, slapping me awake. I cough with a start, coming to my senses. Trying to extricate myself from the pile of loved ones seems quite tricky, but if I¡¯m careful, I can probably get away with only waking up Linti or Teuila, or both. I gingerly pluck my limbs out from the grasps of others, under, around, and over various family members. Finally I¡¯m left on top of Teuila¡¯s left arm, with Linti on top of my left arm. Teuila¡¯s left hand is wrapped around my left elbow under Linti.


    Trying to move my left arm wakes both Lin and Te of course. Thankfully they¡¯re plenty happy to start the day. Linti would never admit whether or not she enjoys the cuddle pile enough to stick around longer than necessary, and Teuila is always itching to start exercising, training, or spending private time with Linti.


    The three of us slip out as quietly as we can, and Teuila leaps us all into the sky, pausing our gravity above the canopy. I conjure our semi-spherical vehicle around us, Teuila reduces its external friction and gravity as we sit nestled amongst its cushioned interior, and I begin launching us towards the coast at sonic speeds. Linti whistles appreciatively as we leave behind a sonic boom. This velocity wouldn¡¯t be possible without Teuila¡¯s aid.


    In only a few hours at most, we¡¯ve reached the west coast. The sight we¡¯re met with however fills me with mild dismay.


    Lin asks the question we¡¯re all thinking, ¡°Where¡¯s the beach? How do square miles of glass just go missing?¡±


    We land and investigate the area. The tide comes up to a rough edge in the sand that¡¯s still slightly glassed, but the tidal pool is some twenty feet deep, and stretches for probably several miles. At its bottom is a thin sheen of fulgurite glass. Someone has beat us to the punch.


    Te tries to get my attention, ¡°Hey dooferpootz, any ideas?¡±


    I try to stifle my chuckle as I respond, ¡°I can really only hope that Luni somehow figured a way to transport it, and that she¡¯ll be arriving at the Miracle Oak sometime soon. If not, I¡¯m going to have to reset time again, stake this place out, see who stole the fulgurite, how they did it, then reset time again, and beat them to it.¡±


    Lin flops down into the sand and growls as she shakes a fist at the sky. I end up chuckling after all. Between Te¡¯s endearing insulting nicknames, and Lin lazily raging against the cosmos, the situation is pretty amusing. Plus, if anything, this is good news. It means the fulgurite is transportable. One way or another, we¡¯ll be able to get it to the Miracle Oak, even if I have to reset time a few times to do it. Somehow though, I¡¯m fairly certain that the only person powerful enough, and crazy enough to steal an entire beach is Luni anyway, since she knows we¡¯re going to need it.


    We laze about at the beach for a few hours, exercising, swimming, splashing. It feels like a vacation from the constant stream of epic nonsense that is the rest of my life, and the cataclysmic events of the world. Linti gets restless first of course, so we decide to journey back so that she and Teuila can go hunting. I¡¯d like to join, but I¡¯m still trying to figure out how to get my body to be able to handle my own magic-oriented powers at their new level. They haven¡¯t even peaked, or really hit the next plateau yet, so it would only be harder and harder to sustain their use as they got stronger.


    I drop Linti and Teuila off at the hollow, we each share several passionate kisses and tender embraces before I break off to head back to the Miracle Oak. I think I¡¯m going to spend my days meditating between now and when Spice and Teodora are done making the shield plans. If I¡¯m lucky, I might stumble upon some insight into Umbra.


    After returning to the Miracle Oak settlement, I help with construction for a few minutes before retiring to the structure requisitioned as our family¡¯s domicile. This will be our home for a few more days yet. I pile up as many of the pillows as I can that are left laying around, and I sit in lotus position on one as I lean back against the pillowed pile. I try to shut my brain off and just exist, trying to reach for the connection to the furthest edges of the universe.


    Over several days, Linti and Teuila continue hunting, while I continue meditating my days away. My body, in all its forms, is at least fully recovered from all the recent events. But I still haven¡¯t learned any secrets of the universe that would let me derive power from a source of the purest infinite, the vast darkness of the furthest beyond.


    Teuila tries to sit with me to meditate after returning early from a hunt with Linti. It must be barely noon at this point, if even that. Even the two of them are starting to feel a tad unnerved by keeping up a routine in the face of an apocalypse. Te and I lean against each other in our family¡¯s newest home, its construction is nearly complete. We¡¯ve been meditating inside its first floor, primary wing, looking out over the canal to the east through a doorless door-frame.


    I¡¯m startled from my meditation as a messenger comes zooming in from the east looking for anyone with authority. This creature that looks like a weasel with wings, a Kamaitachi I believe, flits about, crying out, ¡°Ships, ships coming down from the sky south along the coast! Ships landing south of the locks from the sky! Ships coming to the coast!¡±


    Teuila and I exchange a glance. I thought there were ships traveling east in the skies along the southern edge of our island continent, but I assumed I was hallucinating. Could it be Quetzalcoatl¡¯s blessing? That would mean it¡¯s Luni returning home!


    Te excitedly asks for assurance, ¡°Are you sure? Do you really think so? My spootalu is coming home? My spoony Luni is in for an earful when I get my hands on her. Leaving us all so worried.¡±


    I cry out, teasing Teuila as I race out the door, ¡°Come on slowpoke, let¡¯s go meet her, lazybutt!¡±


    She laughs and zips along after me, catching me firmly in her grasp and taking to the skies. Once airborne, I conjure our vehicle and blast off to the east. It takes barely a quarter of an hour to reach the coast, but there¡¯s no ships in sight, yet. We meet the canal¡¯s lock guards and ask for clarification, they say that scouts from the south reported back before the break of dawn, and a messenger was dispatched to the settlement.


    Teuila and I exchange a glance, and immediately nod. We both want to meet whoever this is, and I¡¯m fairly certain it¡¯s Luni. We set off to the south, once again taking to the air. It¡¯s not long before we can spot masts cresting the horizon. What¡¯s more, a familiar jolly roger flies, its smiling face betraying who crews the vessel. It¡¯s the Undine, her captain and her crew. She touches down upon the waves and takes to the air again, basically hopping and skipping along the sea¡¯s shore northwards. Not only that, but two other vessels that almost look as if they¡¯re made of stone follow along behind her.


    Are those two massive ships made of pumice? Are they hauling a pumice barge that carries the fulgurite? This is what we¡¯ve been waiting for! Even if Mataalii isn¡¯t here, this is enough raw material to begin working with, I can superheat the pumice that makes up these ships and that barge to melt it into the shapes that are needed, if necessary.


    My heart sinks as I think about the fact that I might have to face my brother, the one I had slain in battle. I also don¡¯t know how Luni feels about me right now. In linear time, when last we spoke, she was cold towards me, angry, pushing me away. In time-loop time, she was jocular, teasing, ready to accept an impossible task. I hope those feelings still last.


    I get cuffed alongside the back of my head by Teuila as she exclaims, ¡°Of course those feelings are still there wonderpunk! It¡¯s our Lu, our sweet little Lu. Just because she¡¯s mysteriously crazy powerful sometimes doesn¡¯t mean she¡¯ll stop loving us. I mean, words, you know. Right?¡±


    I blush and flash Teuila a half smile as I nuzzle her. I adopt my draconic form and claim our vehicle to my inventory as I unfurl my wings, holding Teuila aloft as we glide in the direction of the oncoming vessels.


    The vessels are riding low in the water, as if they¡¯re absolutely laden down even more than their bulk would suggest. Upon approach, it¡¯s clear why. They¡¯re jam-packed full of critterkin. Likely from Morgan¡¯s secret settlement. There at the aft of the Undine, playing her harp, is a sight that melts my heart and brings tears to my eyes. Luni has arrived with the Undine, Morgan, critterkin, Mat, and two ships made of pumice hauling an entire beach worth of fulgurite. An otter on the deck of the Undine is holding Penina.


    Teuila and I blubber in each other¡¯s arms as we glide low to reunite with those aboard the ships.

 B 3 C 38: Flight of the Godbeasts

    <h2>B 3 C 38: Flight of the Godbeasts</h2>


    Teuila and I rush to embrace Luni who leaps into my arms. Mat sits sullenly in his cloak off to one side. I don¡¯t know how to even begin approaching him, but right now all I want to do is reunite with Luni and make sure we¡¯re okay, that our relationship is okay. Well, over there is someone that I also want to verify is really Penina, the pearlescent spheriform otter that Te and Lu think of as a sister.


    Lu breaks into my thinkspace asking, ¡°Really, is that all you want to do?¡± She waggles her eyebrows salaciously.


    I¡¯m so elated to hear Luni joking with me, teasing me, tears of joy stream down my face as I spin her about in reality and thinkspace simultaneously.


    I telepathically whisper, an almost silent plea begging forgiveness, ¡°Lu, I love you, I love you, I love you, I¡¯ve missed you. Oh how I have missed you so. There were times when I thought you hated me. My heart ached so badly. I nearly broke away from my quest to seek you out and beg forgiveness.¡±


    Lu shushes me, ¡°Shh, I know, My Hero, I know. I¡¯m sorry that I had to let those words, feelings, signals, and messages be our last contact for so long. I love you too. Always have, always will. Peni¡¯s here. She doesn¡¯t talk, like Oli, but I¡¯m sure it¡¯s her.¡± Luni gazes towards Penina being held by another otter.


    After the wistful gaze, Lu continues, ¡°Can you believe it? The one holding her thinks of her like a daughter, but she talked to me about this dragon that transformed into a human child and was eaten by a kraken. Apparently the sea exploded shortly after that.¡± I snort with laughter for a moment, accidentally interrupting Luni. She finishes, ¡±I figured that was you.¡±


    I nod, laughing and crying simultaneously. Despite my mirth, I hazard to ask, ¡°Lu, what do we do about Mat? What questions should I even ask? Where do we stand?¡±


    Luni answers my question by producing a mental image of a pair of magisteel handcuffs. She asks, ¡°Remember these? I snagged a couple of pairs too. Most magic stops working when someone is wearing them. Thankfully Mat doesn¡¯t have inventory magic, or he could slip out of them. Still, I think he¡¯s less hellbent on vengeance, and more sullen than anything. The book snapped him out of some of what he was going through. He¡¯s never going to be the same though. He¡¯ll obviously work with us on the big project, but after that, I don¡¯t know.¡±


    I nod somberly. We¡¯re okay, we¡¯re okay. After all this time, we¡¯re okay. I can hardly believe it. Lu and I drop from private thinkspace to embrace Teuila together. Te and I take time to catch up with Morgan, the captain of the Undine. I have to apologize for my part in the deaths of Sal and Har.


    Dream has been taking care of warning various groups of Mataalii¡¯s impending return, to keep them from taking vengeance on him. She¡¯s been able to hint at, or state how required his presence will be for the upcoming events. Hopefully that¡¯s all that needs to have happened to keep the peace for now. I¡¯ve got a feeling we¡¯ll need Mat and the six books at some point to help solve the metaphysical problems with the shield.


    Teuila hip-checks me, drawing my attention, ¡°Come on lazybones, get that bonebrain out of that bonehead of yours, our Lu is home. And you!¡± Teuila turns to Luni, ¡°Taking off like that? I should throttle you! I, I, I, I¡¯m so mad at you!¡±


    Despite her words, Teuila¡¯s standing in front of Luni, looking like she wants to slap Lu in the face, but tears are streaming down her cheeks. Lu cautiously steps forward to hug Teuila. Te returns the embrace, sobbing softly. Despite her bravery, and the facade of an unflappable warrior, Teuila is a tender soul at heart. I smile halfheartedly at the pair. If we could get Lil and Lucky, we¡¯d have our inner circle back together.


    Lu¡¯s telepathic avatar shakes her head, ¡°Lil and Lucky will be busy til the end of it all. We¡¯ll probably have to stop by to see them once or twice before then, but for the most part, they¡¯re digging in three directions, well, sort of four. They¡¯re digging hundreds of miles of tunnels.¡±


    Oh, so Lil is solving the barrier color issue, redirecting the ley lines. I wonder if that will also solve the energy issue. Lu once again shakes her head at my train of thought. Darn. Still, no wonder we haven¡¯t been reunited yet. I¡¯d offer to go help Lil, but between my mana problems, and the fact that I¡¯m probably needed here for the construction effort, it probably wouldn¡¯t do any good.


    While Lu and Te are having their embrace, sorting out their emotions with each other, I approach the otter holding Penina. Lu makes a surprised noise, saying something to the effect of oh yeah, and suddenly a massive party of critterkin joins as a sub party under Luni. That solves one problem I was about to address.


    I hesitantly ask, ¡°Hi, do you remember me from the beach near Eimsas? I¡¯m sorry for frightening you.¡±


    The motherly one holding Penina answers, ¡°Another Shellcracker, insistent that my Peni is actually yours?¡±


    I balk, gulping down my feelings, ¡°I, well, I¡¯m not possessive of her or anything, she just looks exactly like one of our long lost family members. We¡¯ve had it happen once before, when one was lost to us, a long time later an egg spawned in a new location, and from that egg came Olioli. I can¡¯t explain it, but I barely understand the rules of our world, so that¡¯s nothing new.¡±


    The otter woman stares me up and down with a slightly displeased, mostly neutral expression worn on her face. She responds, ¡°Be that as it may, she is my family, my child. After what happened in that horrid town, after all the family I¡¯ve lost, I won¡¯t let anyone or anything take her from me.¡±


    Realization dawns on me and I nod somberly. I don¡¯t know how I¡¯m going to break this to Laomati, unless I convince this woman to join the Shellcracker clan, then Peni will stay forever lost to us.


    I press my luck, ¡°Would you mind telling me your name? I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker.¡±


    Her lower lip rises slightly pursed as she scrunches her nose, squinting at me. Relenting, she answers, ¡°I¡¯m Gail. Just Gail.¡±


    I greet her, ¡°Hello Gail. I¡¯m sorry for your losses, but I¡¯m pleased to meet you. I hope that you forge a happy life in the safety of our community. If there¡¯s anything I can do to help you find peace and happiness, let me know.¡±


    Gail continues to eye me suspiciously, but she shrugs and turns to walk away with Peni. I heave a sigh. I suppose that could have gone worse. I felt bad not even getting to address Peni, it was like she was in the center of the conversation, but being treated as some sort of ornamentation, not a person capable of expressing her own desires. I know that like Oli, this incarnation of Peni can¡¯t talk, but, that doesn¡¯t mean that either of them lack sapience, does it?


    Huffing as I heave another sigh, I shake my head vigorously, rattling loose the thought train I¡¯d been pursuing in the hopes of finding something else to think about. I turn my gaze back to Luni and Teuila. They¡¯re now conversing with Morgan, the captain of the Undine. I suppose that there is someone else that I should talk to. Someone I¡¯ve been avoiding even thinking about talking to.


    I approach Mataalii. I notice he isn¡¯t wearing magisteel cuffs at the moment. I assume Luni holds them as a sort of threat over Mat in case he should fall back towards evilness. This is it, this is me confronting the brother who has always hated me. Once in my life I thought he was jealous and wanted to be like me. What he actually was saying was a stuttered attempt to indicate that I knew what he wanted was power. ¡°You, you know.¡± I misinterpreted it, and gave him one of my danger wraps. I see he isn¡¯t wearing that either at the moment. At least he¡¯s in the sub party under Luni.


    While not making eye contact, I mumble, ¡°Hi ¡®Ali. Sorry about killing you. Welcome back.¡±


    Mataalii scoffs, ¡°Pft, sorry for killing you? That¡¯s the best you¡¯ve got? Wha-¡±


    I interrupt, ¡°Excuse me!? What more do you want from me? You killed people! Innocent people! You tried to kill me, repeatedly! You destroyed our home! You could, you could have killed Lao. Mat you almost killed her. She died. She died on the Night of All Burn. Teuila and the phoenix are the only reasons she¡¯s alive now. You killed Lao. What can I possibly say that¡¯s civil, that keeps the peace between us? You¡¯ve always hated me, and you¡¯re right, I failed to protect our family several times over. But it turns out, that failure was failing to protect them from situations that you caused. You were the danger I couldn¡¯t protect them from.¡±


    Mat grumbles, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have been in the family to have to protect them in the first place.¡±


    Frustrated, I growl, ¡°Get over it brother! We¡¯re family! We have a chance to save the rest of the Shellcrackers that are left. I don¡¯t care how you feel about me, but we¡¯re going to be working together whether you like it or not. Just, just think about the Mana twins for even half a second, would you? They barely survived several situations that you created.¡±


    I finally look Mataalii dead in the eyes, and I see tears streaming down his cheeks as he growls back, ¡°I know! I. I know.¡± He trails off to silence. There¡¯s an uneasy air between us, and my heart literally aches at the moment as if there¡¯s a sharp pain stabbing into it from the front.


    I sigh. Telling someone to get over it is never the right move. Whatever emotions they¡¯re dealing with, they have to deal with at their own pace, but Mat has been harboring hatred for years. There comes a point when something negatively impacting your life is a thing you have to confront and change at its source. I¡¯m sure he thinks of me as the source, but the source is internal, it¡¯s his own hatred or insecurity. He literally has to either get past that hatred, or put it aside somehow.


    What about me though? Should I forgive him? I offered up a real apology. I am sorry for having killed him. I don¡¯t want to have killed anyone, least of all family. He was murdering and destroying settlements though. He had to be stopped. I¡¯m willing to write that off as external control, or influence. I¡¯m willing to give this version of Mat a fresh start. I¡¯d just prefer to do that without some toxic hatred lingering and festering that will threaten to boil over and hurt everyone we care about again.


    No, I wouldn¡¯t just prefer it, I demand it. It isn¡¯t fair to anyone else that his dislike of me puts them in danger.


    I confront him, ¡°Mat. Mat! Look at me. Promise me that whatever anger or hatred you foster, whatever you do, that it stays between me and you. No one else ever has to get hurt again. Got it?¡±


    Mat mumbles, ¡°Yeah, sure, whatever.¡±


    Frustrated, I sigh and stalk off. That¡¯s probably as close as I¡¯ll get to a guarantee that he won¡¯t lash out at the others. I no longer feel like mingling or reminiscing, or reconnecting. I certainly don¡¯t feel like speaking further with Morgan about Har and Sal. I stand at the deck railing, leaning over it, fidgeting with my fingers, twiddling them.


    It strikes me that the Undine is going to need to be used as housing for a while, if our construction efforts on the shield are going to meet Maka-Akari¡¯s expectations of haste. Now that Mat is here, as is the fulgurite, we¡¯ll need to begin the work of preparing all the materials into easily handleable chunks. Beyond that, the construction crews we do have, critterkin and human alike, are going to have to basically drop everything else to create the shield¡¯s latticework. Some specialists are going to have to work with the fulgurite to create the lenses. I figure there will be either three, five, or three hundred sixty lenses. Some number that makes sense for projecting a hemispherical dome, or maybe an entire sphere. Yeah, we want the lumber warrens, the groundwater, and the saltwater moat to remain safe as well. Spice and Teodora will have the answers about that relatively soon. If we¡¯re lucky, they¡¯ll have the plans drawn up by the time the ships make their way through to the moat.


    It¡¯s weird, ecological and weather systems don¡¯t work the way that science from fakeworld says they should work, yet more and more things seem to have requirements similar to that world as time passes.


    Anyway, to get home, it¡¯s going to take around five and a half hours or so based on what I think our current travel speed is. I think we¡¯re at about 13 knots with the boost of Quetzlcoatl¡¯s blessing. We¡¯re roughly thirty miles south along the coast from the locks of the canal, then the canal is fifty miles long. Yeah, that sounds about right. It¡¯s a good thing Luni had her contingent here cut up the fulgurite and place it on that barge in massive chunks, otherwise it would have been difficult to get the entire beach length and width through the canal.


    I hear Luni and Teuila exchanging words nearby. Te asks Lu, ¡°You want to handle this, or should I? My Wonderpunk is stewing over there.¡±


    I can hear Luni shoving Teuila out of the way and whispering, ¡°I got this.¡±


    Suddenly I hear Lu¡¯s bootsteps slapping across the deck quickly as she rushes in my direction. As I turn to catch her, she leaps into me with all her might, bowling us over the edge of the railing into the sea. I can see Teuila facepalming as Lu and I topple over into empty air.


    I shapeshift several times quickly up and down my evolutionary line to right myself in the air while holding Lu, ending in draconic form. I flare my wings as our feet scrape the surface of the sea, and Lu begins humming softly while she nestles her head against my scaly chest. Her embrace is warm, comforting. Lu¡¯s dress flares upwards, threatening to flip, until enough of the sea spray wets its edges, weighing it down. The surf is cool upon the heels of my feet. The updraft along the side of the ship is strong enough to keep us gliding on even keel, enough to even regain altitude. The ship begins skipping into the air again thanks to Quetzalcoatl¡¯s blessing, and we rise along with it.


    I will say that hurtling headlong into the sea is a pretty solid distraction, and I definitely wasn¡¯t expecting it. A smile creeps across my face, stronger on my left side. I inhale and exhale slow, content breaths while holding Luni aloft. I might as well catch Lu up on everything while we¡¯re down here, even though I told her most of it only a short while ago, in the time loop. Lu nods while nuzzling my collarbone, as if agreeing that I should catch her up on things anyway.


    I start, ¡°So, we¡¯re going to be making the shield, you already know that, and you know that we got the idea after having talked to each of the four lesser gods on this continent, but I haven¡¯t told you about our adventures in meeting them yet.¡±


    Lu withdraws her face from my shoulder for a moment to gaze up into my eyes, smiling. I continue, ¡°You were there the first time I dove down into where Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate sleeps. The second time I went back was right after, well, right after I killed Mat, you revived him, and left.¡± I sigh slightly, a single tear edging out of the corner of my left eye.


    Carrying on, I say, ¡°When there, you know most of what I learned, but there¡¯s also an entire ecosystem on his back that is incredibly deadly. I took it as a chance to train, once I realized that I could use Lord Agni himself as an infinite wellspring of mana. That may have been a mistake, because my powers and skills grew incredibly rapidly during that time. I¡¯m not sure if I was fighting for my life for hours or days to be honest. When I returned to the Miracle Oak settlement, my powers were too strong for my body, using them all day and night for a while ruined my body, and probably my mind.¡± Lu coos comfortingly as she grips me tightly.


    I surmise, ¡°I had probably the worst bout of self-doubt that I¡¯d ever had. I was a complete mess, physically and emotionally. When I use my powers with any intensity now, they begin to tear apart my insides, threatening to burst outwards. Jaz, Dream, and Lao, and even Luna, all helped make sure I didn¡¯t overdo it after that terrible night. When Lao was helping me, I began the forging of a relationship with purest Umbra, the endless darkness of the vast beyond past the edges of the universe. I can¡¯t connect with it in any meaningful way yet, nor derive my power from it, entirely in place of Radiance as I wish. Still, there¡¯s something to it.¡±


    Lu queries, ¡°Do you think we need to run another radiant purge for you? Would that stop your overpowered pains?¡±


    I shrug, unsure, ¡°No idea, I doubt it. I try my best to keep Radiance and its use as low as possible. Still, while fighting along Lord Agni¡¯s back I picked up a few tricks, and two new forms. One of them is completely ruined from my trip through Leviathan¡¯s innards. I¡¯ll get to that in a second. Te¡¯ll never let me live it down.¡±


    Luni raises an eyebrow with curiosity as she meets my gaze. She doesn¡¯t interrupt however as I explain, ¡°You somehow already had Elder Tolkenstein ready to hand us a map to the Elysium Ascent, did you even know what you were giving us? Where you were sending us?¡±


    Lu shakes her head, answering, ¡°No, I just knew it was important that you have that map, there¡¯s um. You did more than just send the ¡®me¡¯ of right then back. You sent all of the ¡®Me¡¯s from so many timelines back, and they each faded when, well, I guess this timeline solidified or something. Whenever we passed a point where they made a different choice, or something else happened. They didn¡¯t always tell me why we were doing things. Sometimes I can be a bit of a butt with all the mystery.¡±


    I snort with laughter as Luni self-deprecates, acknowledging one of the main complaints most of our inner circle have with Lu¡¯s secrecy. She cuffs me on the cheek ever so slightly before cupping it and kissing me.


    When Lu relents and releases my scaled lips, I continue, ¡°Well, regardless, the Elysium Ascent is where we met Lady Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending. She¡¯s so beautiful, this enormous serpentine dragon, she has these enormous whiskers and impressive mane that¡¯s like a beard. Her scales are cerulean, and reflective, and refractive, so the lightning storm that constantly follows her makes her light up like the cosmos itself. She¡¯s also a massive dork, in the best way possible. She chatters like a schoolgirl, and is eager for gossip and stories. She¡¯s amazing, she called us friends.¡±


    I heave a sigh, ¡°Even so, she won¡¯t stop the convergence. I understand why, since they¡¯re all awakening, Tenny can finally stop her lonely boring routine of shutting her brain off and flying her cycle of storms endlessly. She gets to see her siblings. Oh yeah, she wants us to call her Tenny, seriously.¡± Luni looks incredulous as I refer to a goddess by a cutesy nickname, but lets me continue regardless.


    I pause for a moment to collect my thoughts, ¡°Oh, right, after Tenny, we went to see Leviathan. If I could put one of them back to sleep permanently, or kill one of them, it would be Leviathan. Of the four, he is the only one that is actively hostile to mortals, and wants us wiped out. He ate Teuila and me. Teuila was able to get out along her arrow path somehow, I think she unlocked a new ability when she figured out how to keep a tether of mana running from her bow to the mana arrow. I had to take a longer route to escape.¡±


    Lu butts in, ¡°You what? Wait, what route?¡±


    I groan, ¡°Ugh, don¡¯t make me say it.¡±


    Lu looks quizzical, ¡°No really, what do you mean?¡±


    I roll my eyes, avoiding her gaze, ¡°I used the forms that I unlocked fighting on Lord Agni¡¯s back to go through Leviathan¡¯s digestive system. I lucked out that at the end of it all, one thin membrane was the only thing blocking my way out what would be the rear exit. Not that any of us have one of those.¡±


    Lu snickers until she accidentally snorts with laughter, then she covers her mouth with one hand, hiding the fact that she¡¯s still laughing.


    I chuckle along with her a moment while rolling my eyes in mock exasperation, ¡°Anyway, while I was in there, I had to risk something pretty bad. The two new forms? They come with some sort of sentience that wants control. If I use a lot of mana, I can fight off that control. The first form I could almost afford if I took breaks, but it was melting while traveling through Leviathan. The second form though, I couldn¡¯t afford the amount of mana to fight off that control, so I sort of met with the consciousness in the more powerful form. It calls itself The King, or King, which makes some sense, since I took it from a Mite-Hulk King. I swear, since you seem to know some of the things from fakeworld too, you¡¯d swear his personality was ripped straight from campy B Horror cinema.¡±


    Luni pretends to whistle innocently as I accuse her of having memories similar to mine. Sure Lu, sure. After all this time, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if I accidentally left one of my personalities inside Lu with my time shenanigans, and that that personality shared our fakeworld memories with her.


    Lu waggles her eyebrows, ¡°Leaving things inside me now, huh? Phrasing.¡± I blush furiously. See what I mean? That wouldn¡¯t have any meaning if she didn¡¯t have some fakeworld context.


    Lu interrupts my train of thought, ¡°Maybe I just spend a lot of time talking to a lot of humans. Hm, think of that?¡±


    I snort, scoffing, ¡°You¡¯ve been teasing me with fakeworld contextual hints since way before we even knew humans existed. Even those other timeline personalities in you seemed like they didn¡¯t reveal it before we ended up in Eimsas, Geawerene¡¯s frontier town. You were way too surprised, like the rest of us. Plus, we can¡¯t talk to humans! Well, you can¡¯t, I can. Unless I did leave a piece of me inside you, oh stop it, put your eyebrows down, you meanie.¡±


    I blush as Lu continues to use her expressions alone to tease me. I jokingly roar with frustration, ¡°Argh, you got me way off topic! You butt! You¡¯re such a distraction!¡±


    Lu chimes in, laughing gleefully, ¡°Hehehe, but you¡¯re so fun to tease!¡±


    I roll my eyes but can¡¯t help smiling as widely as possible, ¡°You complete meanie, heh.¡± I have to blink tears of mirth out of my eyes so I can continue to see as we glide along next to the Undine. Where even was I in the conversation?


    Lu wrangles my thought train, ¡°Something about coming out alright in the end. I bet you were relieved when you were out of Leviathan, huh? Removing King probably felt like taking a huge load off. It¡¯s funny that he was your number two form attempt.¡±


    I snort with laughter again, caught by surprise, ¡°You¡¯re as bad as Teuila! And you complain about Agwai¡¯s puns, sheesh! Hah.¡±


    Lu relents, ¡°Okay okay, go on, please?¡±


    I regain my composure, ¡°Oh, right, yeah. King and I got out of there, and I haven¡¯t risked using that form since. He took over my left arm near the end and wouldn¡¯t give it back. Anyway, the next stop was Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle. We had to go through that dungeon that Teuila found, and of course we ended up shattering the last of the tricolor barriers that previously existed in the land. The four of us blew the lid off the cragbeast warren, the lava destroyed our pond and its blue barrier that would show up during Vampguppy¡¯s rage phase, and Te and I had to fight inside the green barrier room.¡±


    Luni nudges for me to elucidate, so I do, ¡°Oh, right, the boss, it, um, glp, it seemed like it was a dracolich, but it was actually an invisible, glp, Mind Blower.¡±


    Pain and fear grip my body and mind. My muscles spasming and locking my wings in place is the only thing keeping Luni and me from toppling into the sea. I have to literally ride out my panic attack, losing some ground on the Undine as my glide slows without micro-adjustments of my wings. Lu coos softly while stroking my scalp and neck, patiently waiting out the panic.


    When I come to, we have lost so much ground that we¡¯ve almost landed on the barge. We¡¯re at the very rear of the procession of ships at the moment. I mumble, ¡°So, uh, when we got in the room, a big spell hit us, with like, a comet, or meteor. It pretty much wrecked us right off the bat, mostly Teuila since she¡¯s less thermally resistant. Then two more spells came in quick succession, one that I was sure was going to kill Teuila, so I intercepted it, and it nearly killed me. Then another one that sealed my magic for basically the whole fight. That fight sucked, because the invisible thing kept bringing the dracolich back. We got some nifty trinkets from the fight though, this holy aura double wrist-mounted crossbow for example. A staff that has tons of spells in it, including one that lets me see aura, a harness for Lil, another weird orbital stone thing for Teuila. A ring for her as well, it seems to reflect magic somewhat. Since she almost died to a single spell, I felt it prudent for her to wear it. Oh, we got a ton of currency, so I bought this for you.¡±


    I fish around in my mental inventory for the object I bought Luni, there was only one of it in a single shop interface. I pull out a backpack plushie that looks reminiscent of Lil¡¯s base form. I also pull out a cute red silk necktie. We land on the barge so I can hand the items to Luni. Lu immediately tosses the tie over her head, tying it loosely around her neck, and she straps the backpack plush on the same shoulder as her harp.


    Luni bounces up and down clapping her hands excitedly as she squees with glee, ¡°Eee, My Hero, you¡¯re so sweet and thoughtful, thank you!¡±


    I hiccup, not realizing I¡¯d been holding my breath in order to not whistle at Luni when she put the tie on. I guess you could say she takes my breath away. It¡¯s just a cute little accessory, but it¡¯s so out of place in our world, and yet it causes me to look at Luni in a whole new light.


    Lu smirks, ¡°Really, that¡¯s all it takes to flip your switch? Usually it¡¯s the other way around, not putting clothes on.¡±


    I blush heatedly, furiously. She is so mean. See what I mean? I rattle my brain about by shaking my head vigorously to return to my previous train of thought.


    I ramble, ¡°You, I, err, grr, how do you even. No. Nope. Just nope. Not even going to engage. You¡¯re so mean, and I love you for it.¡±


    ¡°And you love me for it.¡± Luni completes my sentence at the same time, then says, ¡°Jinx.¡±


    I chuckle, smirking, ¡°Anyway you bubbly goon. We survived, obviously, though just barely. Then we talked to Maka-Akari who basically said she¡¯d buy us some time if she could sense that we¡¯re actually working on the shield of lacrimosa trifecta, which is what we need the fulgurite and porous stone for. When I last checked, Spice and Teodora were like, maybe eighty percent done with the plans for the shield yesterday. I figure they¡¯ll probably be done by the time the ships arrive.¡±


    Lu smirks in return, ¡°I¡¯m sure they will. Hey, drop that form for a bit? I¡¯ve got something to show you.¡± Luni hops down between some massive blocks of fulgurite into darkness where I can no longer see her.


    I oblige, dropping to my cherubic form and lowering myself into the crevasse. The edge of the fulgurite is sharp and I lose my grip, tumbling a few feet, wedging myself against Luni in the crevasse, reminiscent of our time in the cragbeast warren.


    I flush with embarrassment, ¡°You planned this, didn¡¯t you?¡±


    Luni grins and audaciously replies, ¡°Yep! Heeee.¡±


    I joke, ¡°Just couldn¡¯t wait to get me alone, huh?¡±


    Luni jokes back, ¡°Well duh. That¡¯s what I wanted to show you, me and you all tight together. Wink wink.¡±


    She literally just said wink wink, I¡¯d roll my eyes if I weren¡¯t blushing so hard pressed up against her soft curves. My heart is fluttering so rapidly. Argh, she¡¯s way too good at this kind of teasing.


    Luni continues joking while riding my thoughts, ¡°Why thank you.¡± She ends her thanks with a wink that I can feel as her eyelashes tickle my neck.


    I sigh, relenting, snuggling in against Luni. It¡¯s not like I wasn¡¯t aching for pretty much exactly this for several weeks now. It¡¯s fun to have her tease me, and I¡¯m glad to have her back, in all of her teasing glory. Plus I love and revere her so much. We¡¯ve been through so much together, and she has done so much for us, and the timeline. She might very well be the most important being in all of existence right now, as far as this timeline is concerned. Hm, I wonder how I got the time skill the first time around. Maybe the first obelisk breaking was always going to give the time skill to me anyway, but having Luni channel the time skill this time around is what allowed me to have her be the biggest part of the grand plan.


    Luni pouts, ¡°You started that train off so fun, is that really what you want to think about right now?¡±


    Flushing with embarrassment, I argue, ¡°Well, I¡¯m kind of stuck, both with whatever direction my thought trains take, and well, against your full, shapely, um, lovely curves. Phew, I almost used other words there.¡±


    Luni smirks and salaciously asks, ¡°Like what? Luscious? Voluptuous? Ample?¡±


    I gulp and sputter, barely able to catch my breath as the heat rises through my face to my eartips.


    Luni seems to sober up slightly, ¡°Reggie? Do you, um. Do you think if Teuila had all the curves, and I didn¡¯t, that you wouldn¡¯t even pay attention to me?¡±


    I frown, ¡°How could you think that? I love and fell in love with Teuila without her being curvaceous.¡±


    Lu presses, ¡°Just if, if hypothetically, if Te had everything you liked about me, this version of me, and I didn¡¯t, do you think we¡¯d ever have gotten this close?¡±


    Now it¡¯s my turn to pout, ¡°Lu, I love you, I don¡¯t know who you¡¯d be without your personality, our shared experiences, your humor, maybe even your body. How could I tell you how I might feel about that person who doesn¡¯t exist? She wouldn¡¯t be you. If you were a different person, would I still have fallen in love with you? Well, maybe, if that person tried as hard as you did to take care of me and tease me and build up our friendship. But would she? If she didn¡¯t have your personality?¡±


    Luni frowns, then gnaws on her bottom lip as she seems to get lost in thought. I nuzzle my face into her hair, and we slip slightly lower in the crevasse, smooshing more tightly against each other. I imagine that some other version of Luni that didn¡¯t work so hard to make me notice and love her would probably be completely wrapped up in her relationship with Lil. Still, this Luni is our Lu. She¡¯s our Lu and I¡¯m so glad she¡¯s back. I wish I could fight off whatever self-doubt she¡¯s experiencing, but I don¡¯t want to lie, even in hypotheticals. I think that personally, all versions of me have probably loved all versions of her throughout time, at some point or another in our lives. Why else would I have given her the fate of the timeline, of possibly the entire universe?


    Luni seems to cheer up slightly as she playfully sinks her teeth into my collarbone, nipping lightly.


    I joke, ¡°Ow, help, I¡¯m being eaten alive by a voracious voluptuous beastie. Hehe.¡±


    Luni tries to free one arm to playfully smack me in the face. I can tell that¡¯s what she wants to do, but she can¡¯t get her arm free. I try not to laugh at her for being the cause of her own predicament and inability. We¡¯d probably Shellcracker Family Slap Fight if our limbs were free. Luni gives up trying to slap me and instead presses tighter up against me for a moment.


    My head swims at the sensation as I blush. Lu grins and says, ¡°Mission accomplished, nyeh.¡±


    When Luni sticks her tongue out to partially blow a raspberry, her tongue ends up partially in my ear, and we both have a mild panic set in, or something. Now I get to tease Lu, ¡°I didn¡¯t realize Lil taught you to be a scalemate tongue tie-er. Been hanging around with a lot of Nagas, have we?¡±


    Luni playfully fumes, ¡°Oh shut up, I didn¡¯t realize your face was so close.¡±


    I laugh, ¡°How could you not realize my face was so close, you just scrunched up against me even tighter only a second before. Is the meanie getting her just desserts? Hm, now there¡¯s a gross train of thought, my ear being someone¡¯s dessert. Oh that reminds me, a few nights back, I woke up with my ear in Teuila¡¯s mouth, and she was nomming in her sleep, she totally denied it though, hah!¡±


    Luni laughs along with me, ¡°Te will never admit that happened, will she?¡±


    I agree, ¡°Probably not, but still, it was funny. I¡¯m sorry that you missed out on so many family cuddle piles because of me and the needs of the timeline Lu. I¡¯m sorry that we missed out on being together because of me and the timeline. I¡¯m, I¡¯m just sorry. I missed you so much.¡±


    Luni coos softly, ¡°Shhh, I know, I know. It¡¯s, well, not okay exactly, but I knew what I was getting into, more or less. I don¡¯t want to waste a moment now that I¡¯m back. I sort of know, hm, no, can¡¯t tell you that yet either.¡±


    My face screws up. My jaw can¡¯t drop any lower from the revelation, but I can almost guarantee Luni was going to say she sort of knows how many moments we have left.


    Lu interrupts my thought train, ¡°Bup bup bup, no guessing, My Hero. Enough of that.¡±


    Luni further interrupts my thoughts with her lips in another fashion as they meet mine. I feel as if I melt like putty against her. I can probably redact the rest of our time spent stuck here until we get home.


    As the barge slows to a halt, Lu and I are fairly certain we¡¯ve arrived at the settlement, so we begin working to extricate ourselves.


    As we struggle to untangle our limbs and inch upwards, I say, ¡°Te¡¯s probably worried about us.¡±


    Luni responds, ¡°Nah, I told her this was going to happen.¡±


    I pause my extrication, flabbergasted, I ask, ¡°You what? You knew this was going to happen?¡±


    Lu answers while laughing, ¡°No no, not like, not exactly this. I said I wanted some private time with you, and I was going to knock you into the sea to get it if I had to.¡±


    I find myself chuckling as I wear half a smile, smirking wide. I try to request, ¡°Lu, maybe if you put your foot there? Or your hand on my knee, you could get up first? Ow, wait, oof, okay, keep going.¡±


    Luni giggles while slowly using me as a perch to climb out of the crevasse. The edges on these slabs of fulgurite are simultaneously smooth and sharp, so I worry she¡¯s going to cut herself. I use some inventory magic to place some clay handholds. They won¡¯t support either of our weight for long since they¡¯re not fired into place, but they should soften any grips as we clamber out, using our backs and legs to brace ourselves between walls of the crevasse.


    Once we¡¯re finally free, I lightly bump into Luni, leaning on her, playfully going limp so that she has to catch all of my weight. Lu grunts and shoves me back to a standing position while I laugh. She then playfully baps me in the face, leaving her hand on it. I chase her hand away with one of mine. Her other hand baps my face, I chase that one away as well. We repeat this for a dozen seconds, laughing all the while, until Luni lets me catch her hands. I smile wide, staring into her eyes before assuming my draconic form and taking flight, carrying her aloft.


    As usual, Lu got me out of my own head and kept me happily distracted, but the pressing issues are rather serious, so I can¡¯t ignore them for long. I¡¯m truly, incredibly lucky to have the inner circle that I do.


    I expect to see Teuila leaping off the deck of the Undine, but I don¡¯t. Instead, I see her working with the crew to secure the sails, tie everything down, hauling the gangplank into position, and helping unload people and provisions.


    Hm, that brings to light a new point. We¡¯re going to need an endless supply of currency for the ofbloods and rezzers that are assembled to be kept in food and certain supplies. I know that they can turn profits by gathering some materials, and crafting those into things to sell at the shops, but some of us are hunters, not crafters. We might need to create a small hunting zone with respawning hostiles to handle this many new people. It won¡¯t be safe to head to the insect warren to hunt when the convergence begins. Linti would go crazy without something to hunt. Fishing just won¡¯t cut it for some of us.


    I¡¯ll have to bring the idea of constructing a hunting zone up to Spice and Teodora momentarily. They might be able to assign a crew that can handle such excavation who wouldn¡¯t be great at expediting the construction of the shield anyway. If not, the shield is the more important construction. Maybe it will be as simple as capturing a bread golem and putting it in a cave that¡¯s carved with a small pond, and sandy beach.


    Speaking of Spice and Teodora, it looks like nearly the entire population of the settlement is in the plaza, milling about in excitement at the prospect of having newcomers on ships. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s some apprehension too, but at least I can spot the two of them each carrying half a dozen or more rolls of vellum. The plans must be complete, or nearly complete. I land Lu and myself amidst the crowd near the two of them.


    I request, ¡°Lu, do you think you could handle catching up a few of the important figures on what¡¯s going on, to keep apprehension at a minimum? Maybe find Bettie, fill her in, and let her talk to Sir Reginald and Priss. Then go see Lao and Ag, they miss you terribly, and you deserve to get to relax while you catch up with them.¡±


    Luni beams a smile my way, ¡°Yes, yes, yes yes yes, totally. Mwah, you¡¯re the best. I¡¯ll see you later, Hero.¡± Luni kissing me basically mid-sentence broadens the smile on my face wide to my eyes once again.


    I wave over Spice and Teodora, and Teodora begins immediately, ¡°Ye daft punk, I dinnae know how ye did it, but ye did it. That¡¯s most of the materials right there alone tae start the construction. Though we¡¯ll be needing plenty more by the time we¡¯re through, apparently ye have that covered though too, dinnae ye?¡±


    I nod, but as I¡¯m about to speak, Teodora continues, ¡°Well, ye¡¯ll be having all my crews on this for months tae even see half of it constructed. Do ye have any clue how long we have before we need tae have this thing running?¡±


    I respond, ¡°I think we have a couple, maybe a few months at most.¡±


    Teodora sighs exasperatedly, ¡°Tsk, Ye¡¯re lucky ye brought in new bodies too. Think any of them would object tae working on this? If ye can keep up materials, I can set supervisors and sub supervisors even for the unskilled tae help out.¡±


    As I¡¯m about to respond, Spice cuts in, ¡°I¡¯m sure Reggie will work something out so that everyone is chipping in Teddy. If not Reggie, then Luni, now that she¡¯s back, or Bettie. Come on, we¡¯re both excited to show Rej these plans, we¡¯ve been working day and night for half a week.¡±


    Teodora acquiesces, ¡°Alright, alright, ye¡¯ve got me there. Lets get tae the plans, go ahead and show them tae our wild one here.¡±


    Spice excitedly drags me aside, with Teodora following along quickly. We enter the nearest unoccupied building, the Shellcracker residence of course. Here, Spice pulls a large drafting table from his inventory, an action that surprises me slightly. I can¡¯t even keep up with remembering which of us rezzers have inventory magic anymore, or how much capacity each of them have. I could be reading everyone¡¯s stat pages repeatedly I guess, but that would be exhausting. Spice unrolls the first of six massive sheets of vellum, revealing complex blueprints that I can barely wrap my head around.


    Spice elaborates, ¡°So, this right here, this will be the foundation that we have, we¡¯ll have to go to bedrock, we¡¯ve made the most efficient support structure we could, to save as much time as possible before getting to the actual construction.¡± Spice unrolls another sheet of vellum, ¡°And this, this is the base, the first layer of the latticework, and the next parchment is the simultaneous scaffolding we¡¯ll have going up alongside of it. Thankfully, even though this will be a massive construction, the majority of the shield will be metaphysical, magic and energy. We need lattice-work, lenses, refractory agents, and energy tunnels. Teodora had great ideas on how to cut the amount of material needed in dozens of places without risking structural integrity. I went a bit overboard in the first few drafts.¡±


    I nod along while whistling low, appreciatively. Spice and Teodora have put in a massive amount of work already on this project, just in these plans. All the math along the margins, everything about this is tremendously impressive.


    I hazard to ask, ¡°What¡¯s it going to take to start working the foundation down to bedrock? I¡¯d like to get started as soon as possible. Also, you mentioned energy channels, could you make sure that one opening is aimed directly towards the Naga¡¯s settlement? I¡¯m fairly certain we¡¯ll be reuniting with a dear friend soon enough, who will have been working on exactly that.¡±


    Spice and Teddy look stunned momentarily. Teodora breaks the stunned silence by whistling a low note of appreciation. She asks, ¡°Ye really have put everything intae this havenae ye? Well, ye¡¯ll be in luck. The foundry and forges ye set up can churn out enough steel tae basically pour the foundation down tunnels like post-holes. Some of them human mages can set about tae creating the post holes with their magics. We can have the foundation done in a week if we have enough money tae buy all the coke and steel.¡±


    I glance at the over forty million currency that I got as my share of raiding the most recent dungeon with Teuila. Currency that the boss alone provided half of which. Between this, and magical inventory duplication shenanigans, I¡¯m pretty certain I¡¯ve got their monetary needs covered for now. Relying on me isn¡¯t a permanent solution for the settlement though. As far as I know, I¡¯m the only one that can duplicate with space magic. If something happens to me, I want the settlement to remain safe, however long the cataclysm of the convergence lasts. I guess it¡¯s no wonder that Luni said I wouldn¡¯t see Lil til near the end of it all.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I sigh, thinking of my dearest, oldest friend, ¡°I can probably handle the monetary needs, just tell me what to buy, from which vendors, and let me know if anything rare needs to be duplicated. I¡¯ll make myself available twenty four seven. I guess that¡¯s why I can¡¯t go help Lil out with the digging. TQ must be guiding Lucky and Lil on what to do, and it¡¯s probably taking months to do it all by themselves.¡±


    Spice¡¯s eyes widen in realization, ¡°That¡¯s who you were talking about? Oh, I get it now! Just how long have you been working towards this plan?¡±


    I chuckle as I wear a wry smile. I don¡¯t answer though. It wouldn¡¯t be a lie to say my entire life, and even before my life, I had been working to this point. Not long ago, I sent the basic framework for becoming the me of today back into my spirit self, and possibly beyond.


    Teodora and Spice give me lists of materials to start purchasing, values and quantities, there¡¯s certainly many many millions worth of material to acquire. I bid them farewell as I head off to the shops to see who is currently helming them, to see if I can knock any of the rarer, more expensive materials off of the list. I can then spend time duplicating them.


    After several hours of shopping, and creating Umbral duplicates of either expensive objects to sell, or of rare, expensive objects that are needed, I feel rather exhausted. It has been an exciting day. I even created an umbral duplicate of an entire shop structure. The most basic, smallest market stall possible, but still, it could come in handy someday.


    As I¡¯m leaning against a wall with my eyes closed, my danger wraps warn me of an incoming attack, but I don¡¯t bother dodging as I get slugged in the shoulder by Linti. I grin at her with my eyes still closed, catching her fist as it connects with my shoulder. I pivot, spin, and rotate my hand enough that Linti ends up unbalanced, flipping around to face away, falling backwards into my arms.


    Grinning, I greet her, ¡°Hi Lin. Big day. Everything¡¯s about to start. Lu is finally home.¡±


    Linti actually allows herself to purr as she leans back into me, then catches herself, and coughs gruffly to play it off. She then gets serious, ¡°Does that mean your little shit of a brother is back as well?¡±


    Most of us ¡®rezzers tend to avoid harsh language, I¡¯m not exactly sure why, but hearing Linti use an expletive definitely informs me just how deadly serious I have to take this conversation.


    I carefully answer, ¡°He is here, and Luni has coerced him to help. I¡¯m not sure if she took away any of his mobility powers somehow, but she does have him wary of the constant threat of these.¡±


    I place a pair of magisteel handcuffs on Linti¡¯s wrists, apparating them with inventory magic. She struggles against them momentarily before growling, ¡°I, grr, I can¡¯t get out of them. My magic isn¡¯t working.¡±


    I nod as I recall them to my inventory. Hoping to sooth her, I state, ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯re holding over Mat¡¯s head for now, at the bare minimum. He has also been changed by his book. I¡¯m not exactly sure how, but he¡¯s definitely stewing, and regretful in some ways. I wouldn¡¯t confront him asking for an apology, but you could probably hurt him emotionally if you thought about what to say for a bit. Please don¡¯t though. We need his magic.¡±


    Linti continues to growl and grumble, shoving away from me, leaving my embrace. She stalks off, but then stalks back, and aims her claws flatly at my throat. I don¡¯t even blink, as my eyes are still closed. Linti sighs in frustration and slumps against me, bashing into me a tad hard.


    Linti rants, ¡°First, you expect me to just drop years of animosity with scalekind out of the blue, because you somehow brokered peace. No, first you show up out of the blue and frustrate me to no end, holding back the entire time. Then your jerk of a brother nearly kills me and my family. Then you expect me to drop the animosity. I still can¡¯t help but grit my teeth every time I think about it when I¡¯m out hunting, that I¡¯m leaving my family alone next to dozens of serpents. I know they¡¯re not alone, and Spring is powerful now, but still. Then the whole thing with me not being able to help you in whatever big time ends up being the most critical, or I frickin¡¯ die. Shellcracker, you make some gorram big asks.¡±


    I gulp, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m really sorry Linti. You mean so much to me, Hunter. I wouldn¡¯t make these asks if you weren¡¯t so important to me.¡±


    She grumbles and playfully leans her head sideways fast enough, hard enough to headbutt me lightly. The bump hurts for a moment, but I quietly chuckle regardless. As I¡¯m about to hug Linti and talk further, she shoves herself upwards and away again.


    As she walks away, she calls back, ¡°You said Lu¡¯s back, right Shellcracker? In that case, I¡¯m going to get back to work at stealing your girlfriends.¡±


    I chuckle again as Linti stalks away with all the confident air of a predator seeking its prey. I¡¯m not sure who I¡¯m more worried for, Luni, or Linti. They can both be merciless flirts in different ways.


    After dropping off the majority of the required shoppable resources, I gaze out over the throng of people still milling about in the plaza. It has been long enough that it¡¯s late evening now, the sun has already set, and still people are mingling excitedly. I seek out Bettie to let her know that I need her help setting up groups of people willing to help from any and all factions. She occasionally lets slip one of her worried ¡®your grace¡¯s or other affectations that refer to me as human noble, but for the most part, she¡¯s motherly, yet authoritative. I sigh as I recall that she was a mother. I¡¯m fairly certain her child didn¡¯t make it out of Eimsas.


    After that, I stop by the Undine to see if Morgan is willing to have his crew help. As expected, Morgan seems jovial, even in accepting additional responsibility. He even lets me know who to talk to among the ¡®rezzers aboard the ships to set up groups of workers. I take care of that as quickly as I can, because my energy and wakefulness are waning. Everyone is willing to do their part, whether or not they know exactly what¡¯s coming, and what¡¯s at stake.


    We have one or two individuals that some people might classify as lazy, but they¡¯re either just laid-back, or they¡¯re thinkers or artists. I¡¯m not going to begrudge them living their lives the way they wish. Enough people want to work to feel fulfilled, that things get done. We don¡¯t have to act on capitalistic intentions when things literally magically spawn and respawn.


    I retire to the Shellcracker residence, its second floor is complete, and there¡¯s now doors in all the doorways. It even has a cellar. Inside I find Elder Winter snoozing, surrounded by the spheriform cats of our family. I find Olioli gnawing on furniture, being watched over by Agwai, and I sense the faintest presence from the second story. I wave to Agwai as I ascend to the second level.


    Luni in an exasperated tone telepathically sends, ¡°Please come rescue me.¡±


    I nearly bolt straight to her location, but I realize she¡¯s being slightly facetious. As I round a corner, there in an open doorway, Lin and Lu are playing another game of affection-sharing. Luni kisses Linti on the cheek, then shoves her playfully aside to stride in my direction. Linti actually pouts, for the briefest moment, and sends angry telepathic waves denying my current thought train.


    Lu and I both bite our lips, pursing them to try to stifle our laughter. Lu calls back, ¡°Oh come on Lightning, let¡¯s go snuggle, you jealous Judy.¡±


    Linti starts to try to deny that she even wants to join, but relents, and the three of us enter the door that they had been blocking. There¡¯s a fairly plush bed, untouched, along one of its walls. It looks like our family members have been making some wealth, and spending it on niceties to finish and furnish our home while I wasn¡¯t paying attention. I suppose Linti has been making bank with all of her hunting, and Teuila too probably.


    The three of us lay in the bed, Linti and I on either side of Luni. I raise an eyebrow at Linti, Lightning Hunter from the opposite side of Luni. Lin reaches over Lu and playfully shoves me hard enough that I roll off of the bed, laughing.


    I send a telepathic feeler out for Teuila to see if she¡¯s nearby. She says she¡¯s making friends on the Undine and the two other ships, and will be home later tonight, so I let her know which room we¡¯re in, in case I¡¯m already asleep by the time she gets back.


    Luni and Linti chat low, quietly, and it¡¯s not long before I¡¯m beginning to fall asleep, holding Luni. I want to stay awake and chat with them, to join in on their conversation, but I¡¯m simply exhausted by everything that¡¯s been happening recently, and all the work I¡¯ll start having to do in the morning. I¡¯ll be using my space magic and thermokinesis for easily a dozen hours every day for the next few months.


    The last thing I hear before I fall asleep is Linti saying, ¡°Look, Reggie¡¯s my bud, my pal, my, y¡¯know, whatever. I don¡¯t like this prophecy thing you dumped on them Lu. You didn¡¯t see the hurt in their eyes when they were trying to get me to take the second choice.¡±


    Luni¡¯s shoulders droop and she feels sad in my arms as I drift to sleep holding her. My dreams are uneventful, I think.


    As I awaken, I realize Teuila is flopped across the three of us, increasing all of our gravity, so I can¡¯t get up. At least not without waking the others. At some point, Luni somehow rolled over to face me while we slept, and I just now noticed that we¡¯re sleeping lip-to-lip, noses nestled against each other. I nuzzle Lu softly as I lay in bed awaiting everyone else¡¯s awakening. She nips at my nose playfully, clueing me in that she¡¯s actually awake as well. Linti groans and tries to shove Teuila off, but I can feel our gravity increase even further as she tries.


    I hear a faint crackle of electricity, and Teuila quietly hisses, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare! Eep!¡±


    A tiny jolt shocks the four of us as Linti lets a miniscule amount of voltage course across Teuila¡¯s feet. I¡¯d say the fact that she nailed herself as well meant that her plan backfired, but she¡¯s immune to harm from electricity. Linti is struggling to stifle her laughter as the three of us have sparks lingering along our limbs and hair. Our hair is also ridiculously poofed from the sudden shock that raised our hackles.


    Te grumbles, ¡°Oo you massive butt, I¡¯m going to get you back when we¡¯re hunting today.¡±


    Linti sticks her tongue out at Teuila, blowing a raspberry as a challenge, ¡°Nyeh, I¡¯d like to see you try, Toots.¡± Lin bolts out of bed and sets off out of the residence at a sprint with Teuila chasing after her.


    Luni giggles, ¡°How long has it been like this between the two of them?¡±


    I shrug, ¡°I think this is about the most playful it has been. I think they went from friendly rivals to falling in love pretty quickly, and are falling more in love every day. Maybe. Neither would or could say that though. Lin would just deny it, and Te would struggle to convey it. Though Lin has said she loves us, flat out.¡±


    Luni gnaws on her lip contemplatively, ¡°Hm, alright I suppose. I do really hate her though, you know? Well, I mean, not really really, but it¡¯s just so frustrating. She¡¯s so stupidly pretty, and skilled, and exciting, and just, just. Ugh. You¡¯re a butt for finding her.¡±


    I laugh, ¡°Excuse me? I¡¯m a butt for meeting someone that you and Te are both falling for?¡±


    Luni blows a raspberry, ¡°Nyeh, yes, exactly.¡±


    I can¡¯t help laughing further. Still, I stand and bodily lift Luni out of the bed, spinning her around in my arms. We embrace for several minutes, kissing the whole while, before we start our day.


    I begin, ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re going to¨C¡±


    Luni interrupts me, placing a finger on my lips, then smooshing it around my face. She explains, ¡°I¡¯ll be at your side, from now on, until the end of this mess. Every minute. I¡¯m not going to miss another moment.¡±


    I can¡¯t describe how happy that makes me. After being without Luni for so long, having cycled through various worries and fears about how she truly felt about me, I truly can¡¯t find the words to express this joy.


    As I meet with Teodora and Spice, I realize another reason Luni is going to stay with me, every minute of every day. Because I¡¯ll be spending almost as much time with Mat during the entire project. Thankfully, they have one more project for me today before we¡¯ll even be able to start forming the pumice from the ships and barge into usable chunks.


    Teodora requests, ¡°Ye¡¯ve got tae get a smidge more fulgurite if ye can. We cannae chance mistakes costing the final construction to be incomplete, so we need a few hundred spare cubic meters. Do ye think ye can swing that?¡±


    I ponder for only a moment before nodding.


    Teodora acknowledges my acquiescence, ¡°Good, if ye get that done today, rest yerself up. We¡¯ll be putting ye tae work starting tomorrow. We¡¯ll construct scaffolding, and essentially siege towers today while the ground crews blast out the foundation holes. Alright, get, can¡¯t ye see we¡¯re busy?¡±


    Teodora laughs as she shoos Luni and me away. Spice shrugs at her jocular nature when I raise an eyebrow towards him. Sugar and Magnus hang back nearby, they look like they¡¯re bonding, either about construction and destruction, or about their shared jealousy of Teodora.


    Still, Lu and I have a goal. We walk to the lumber warrens to snag a bit of lumber on the way out. I¡¯ve got enough lumber and clay now, so I wrap my arms around Luni¡¯s waist, place my hands on her hips, assume my draconic form, and take to the skies. Once there, I summon the cushioned vehicle around us. Luni nods appreciatively as I blast us off eastward. I can¡¯t reach even close to the same velocity that I¡¯m able to hit with Teuila¡¯s aid from her gravity oriented magics, but it still only takes a fraction of an hour to reach the coast


    Setting us down, I drop back down to cherubic form and sit in the sand, mostly bare, save the Valkyrie leggings. I dig my heels into the sand and wiggle my toes as the cool sand begins warming with the sun¡¯s early dawn rays. Luni sits next to me, leaning against my right side. She shapes sand into a mound and appears to be constructing a crude castle or mountain, until she draws a face in it. The face doesn¡¯t hold shape since we didn¡¯t intentionally muddy the sand with water.


    As Lu and I rest against one another, I busy myself in my inventory as I¡¯ve always done over the years, almost passively, nearly innately. This time though, I have a purpose. I create a loose conveyor belt of logs that should also serve as a raft if I¡¯ve done the tying and lashing correctly. I then set a flat sheet of fired clay atop it. I nudge Luni playfully and nip at her ear as I stand. She sighs and joins me in standing. There¡¯s a slightly worried look in her eyes, but her thoughts are muddled to me, I can¡¯t quite read them. She smiles at me as I try though.


    I deploy the raft conveyor sort of vehicle, and begin scooping sand atop it. Luni follows suit wordlessly. We work for several hours with a mix of manual relocation, and inventory magic. Before I try to glass the load I¡¯ve created, I need to test out how much fulgurite is made from a single one of my lowest mana lightning bolts.


    Luni gazes on at me worriedly as I aim a finger towards the beach sands to our north. Loosing a single one hundred mana lightning bolt, I cringe in pain as the mana courses through my system, threatening to burst forth from my muscles. I could swear tears well up in Luni¡¯s eyes for a brief moment.


    Lu mumbles, ¡°I could see it. I saw the stress under your skin. You must be hurting so bad. That was really the lowest power you could muster, wasn¡¯t it? You have those magic limitations, certain energy costs or whatever are the minimum requirements for things. You can¡¯t hold back any more than that. My poor Hero.¡±


    I wear a lopsided smile, half a frown. I¡¯m upset that I¡¯m making Luni worry about me, but I¡¯m happy that she cares so much. She¡¯s right though. One hundred energy is what it costs to activate a spell. Certain magical effects, generally ongoing things, can be activated at less cost, but manifestations of an element or an attack as a spell have that minimum requirement. Now it¡¯s time to see just how much fulgurite I can create in a single blast with nearly all of my mana as a single spell. I know there¡¯s some kind of multiplier more than as if I had just fired off a bunch of one hundred mana bolts. The low bolt created maybe a cubic foot of fulgurite.


    I let loose the blast that takes about fifty five hundred mana north along the beach. The mana courses through my body, rocking me to my very core, nearly bowling me over. As the blast races northward, the primary bolt leaves arcing trails to each side that seek ground. These secondary bolts leave a web of fulgurite in their wake along the sides of the primary branch that extends for thousands of feet.


    I black out for the briefest of moments and begin falling, yet I¡¯m caught by Luni. I nearly fall out of her grasp as I¡¯m slick with blood, my internal lacerations broke through my skin with that blast. If I made a cubic foot with the smallest blast, I ended up making dozens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of fulgurite with the blast that took up most of my energy. That is definitely explosive growth of an exponential modifier. It¡¯s not the same as miles upon miles of beach being glassed by a limit break, but it¡¯s still really impressive.


    I slip from Luni¡¯s grasp and flump onto the ground, panting. While slumped in the sand my head swims slightly in an exhausted daze. Luni plays with my hair as she kneels behind me, draping herself lightly over my shoulders, helping to prop me up from behind. I¡¯ll tell Spice and Teodora if they need more fulgurite, that I created this long streak. For now, I can put a little less force into glassing this load of sand on my makeshift raft after I meditate for a bit.


    Luni nods along with my thought train, swaying lightly side to side against the side of my head. When I¡¯ve recovered enough mana, I try to approximate the amount of power I¡¯ll need to shape an overhead bolt before I facepalm. I withdraw my thunderstick from my inventory. The staff that conjures thunder and lightning. I can feel Luni smirking from behind me, and she¡¯s trying not to laugh at me, since she knows I just hurt myself for basically no reason, but I¡¯m still hurt after all, and she does worry.


    Standing unsteadily, I aim the thunderstick towards the amassed pile of sand. Luni helps support me, whispering her usual, ¡°You got this Hero, always have, always will,¡± in my ear.


    I begin a routine similar to a staff kata from cinema in my fakeworld memories. I add more twirls of the staff until I can feel the power coalescing, the air humming with a static charge. When it feels as if I¡¯ve accumulated enough charge, I release it, slamming my staff into the ground, aimed towards the massive mound of sand. A thunderclap nearly bowls me over, but lightning streaks from the sky, through the staff, into the sand for as long as I maintain channeling it. I work the energies through the staff as long as I can, until I hear wood beginning to splinter. I immediately stop channeling and drop the staff back to my inventory. I do not want to find out what happens if a magical staff is destroyed at all, much less one in the active process of channeling dangerous magic.


    I walk to the far side of the raft, and lance it with a bolt of mana worth around a thousand energy or so to finish glassing the sand into fulgurite. This feels as if it pauses my heart momentarily, as for a brief moment, I¡¯m unable to catch my breath, or breathe at all. The moment passes as quickly as it arrived, but the pain of the momentary grip on my heart lingers. I begin trying to haul the rolling raft towards the river of the canal, but Luni frowns at me and stops me.


    Lu says, ¡°Hold it right there buster, we can get the lock guards to help out with this. They don¡¯t actually need to guard the locks anymore anyway.¡±


    Luni pulls out a mirror and signals to the south where the lock is, and there¡¯s a glint in return in a mere moment. In a few minutes, a small squad approaches from the south, and thankfully it doesn¡¯t take much to convince them to help haul this towards the river. Luni lets her music enhance our progress, and I work along with the guards to haul it into the river. Once it¡¯s set adrift, Luni and I mount it, waving goodbye to the guards.


    Lu and I lazily float west along the canal¡¯s river. It would take something like sixteen hours to make the trip at the base rate of flow, but thankfully we¡¯re not lacking in propulsion options. Still, Luni and I are in no hurry. We perch atop the new mini load of fulgurite, and I let myself nap with my head resting in her lap.


    Apparently Luni used some sort of magic to speed along our journey, as it¡¯s barely early afternoon when we arrive back at the settlement. I must have been sleeping the entire time, because I feel fantastically refreshed and rested. I squeeze Luni¡¯s thigh appreciatively as I stand slowly. Luni uses the soap stone to clean both of us up, between my bleeding and all the sand, we¡¯d gotten a bit grimy looking.


    After informing Teddy and Spice that there¡¯s another massive line of fulgurite available if they need it along the beach north of the canal, they give me instructions on what I¡¯ll be needing to form and shape with Mataalii. They¡¯d already instructed Mat, who seems itching to get started, but everyone agrees that we¡¯ll start the lava manipulation tomorrow. Today, I¡¯ll duplicate a few more things and rest up in preparation for basically endless magic between now and project completion.


    Luni and I spend the day walking around the settlement. We find out who needs any extra purchasable supplies, then end up buying or duplicating them. Afterwards, we end up napping in quiet corners. Honestly, it¡¯s not a bad life, if things could go on like this forever, I¡¯d be fine with that.


    Linti and Teuila don¡¯t get home until much later than I¡¯m used to seeing them arrive, and they look haggard, spent. Lu and I rush up to them, confused and concerned.


    Te, gasping for breath, explains, ¡°Started off fine, wasn¡¯t taking it seriously, hff, had to pay, whoof, Lin back for this morning. Things were silly, pranking back and forth. Oof, ugh, we didn¡¯t even let it get out of hand before something happened. Everything got stronger, faster, harder, bigger, more numerous.¡±


    Luni and I tend to Teuila and Linti¡¯s wounds as tenderly as we can, Lin grumbles that she¡¯s fine all the while, but there are several deep gashes along her abdomen, and patches where her fur has been melted by acid, and the skin beneath is heavily scarred. Even though it was rough on them, they¡¯ve brought back their largest haul yet, maybe double the largest haul they¡¯d ever reeled in before.


    As I¡¯ve thought a few times, everything in the world seems to be reaching some sort of critical point. The evidence is more spawns, more lava, more weather, more physics, more spell power, more intrinsic cost to using mana. The list goes on. I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s even going to be a limit, or a cap to all of these changes, or if it¡¯ll go on endlessly. Will we be able to keep up, and still survive? If we even survive the convergence. Luni doesn¡¯t let her thoughts or expressions reveal whether or not she has any foresight.


    Teuila tries to convince Lin to meet new friends that she has made on the Undine, but Lin refuses to go aboard a ship. I guess she¡¯s a bit traumatized by water. That¡¯s my fault. Though, after hearing my thought train, Linti denies it, and relents to Teuila. The pair trot off to mingle aboard the Undine. Lu grins at me and thinks teasing thoughts about Linti, sending vague notions as telepathic waves to my brain.


    I start, ¡°Hey now, that¡¯s not fair, I¡¯m sure you wouldn¡¯t like it if Lin preyed on your fears Lu.¡±


    Luni retorts, ¡°I know I know, she¡¯s, ugh. She¡¯s confident, but not cocky, because she can back it up. She¡¯s just too, ugh, she¡¯s just too perfect. It¡¯s sort of nice to see she¡¯s still hu, uh, people.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, ¡°Were you about to say she¡¯s still human?¡±


    Luni whistles innocently and avoids eye contact. Why would that even be a phrase in her lexicon, much less the one she¡¯d resort to in such a circumstance? I peer at Lu more intently, but she shoves my face away and we end up in a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight, laughing all the while.


    Distracted by Lu, I barely notice the migraine creeping in across the left half of my head until it¡¯s too late. I¡¯m doubling over clutching my skull, wincing in pain with tears streaming down my cheeks. Luni rushes me to a seated position against her lap and strokes my head comfortingly.


    Luni laments, ¡°I was hoping you¡¯d never have these again.¡±


    That¡¯s such a sweet notion, but then I realize, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever had a migraine in Luni¡¯s presence before. What does she mean, ¡®again¡¯?


    Lu mumbles, ¡°Oops.¡±


    I struggle to ask, ¡°What do you mean oops? Ow, oh gog, my freaking cranium.¡±


    Luni coos in response, ¡°Shhh, shh, never mind, it¡¯s okay, you¡¯re okay, you¡¯ll be okay. Let¡¯s get you somewhere darker and quieter. I¡¯ll get some wet cloths for your eyes. I don¡¯t want to leave your side for a second, but I¡¯ll be right back with wet cloths. Here you go, up into our house, wait on the bed. I love you, my Hero, just wait in there, please.¡±


    Luni takes off quickly to dampen some cloth in some fresh water. Until we set up plumbing for the whole settlement, we still have to get fresh water from a well at the edge of the Miracle Oak¡¯s radius. We might be able to slowly transition the moat into being freshwater as well, over time, since the salinity is already so low, due to the filtration at the locks. Ugh, this hurts my head to think about right now. Actually just thinking hurts my head right now. I lay in the bed that our inner circle used last night and just squeeze my eyes shut in pain.


    I let my mind go blank for a while, it can¡¯t have been very long, because Luni is back and stroking my forehead while laying a wet cloth across my eyes. I can¡¯t let this sort of thing stop me from working on the shield in the coming days, this is pretty much the last time that I can be comforted. I¡¯ll have to fight through every pain, and every emotional struggle, and just continue working nearly non stop until the physical needs of the shield are met. I pass out as my head lolls to the side, connecting with Luni¡¯s thigh as she sits against the headboard.


    I awaken, encircled by Luni, Linti, and Teuila, each of them holding at least one hand of one of the others. I roll slightly to my left, and end up with a face full of Luni¡¯s curves. Blushing, I roll over to my right, and my face meets Linti¡¯s face. She awakens with a sly grin, releasing the hands she¡¯s holding, to grip the back of my head and lay a passionate kiss on my lips. I blush, since it wasn¡¯t intentional that I woke her up, but it¡¯s immensely pleasurable all the same.


    It seems to be still dark out, not even nearing dawn based on the temperature. It¡¯s probably witching hour, maybe a bit later. Luni groans lightly in her sleep and rolls slightly, slapping Linti and me in the face as her limb flops free. The two of us try not to laugh so we don¡¯t wake her up. Teuila snuggles up and rolls across our three bodies, so that she¡¯s no longer laying across our legs, now she¡¯s laying across our torsos. Te¡¯s face rests in the crook of Lin¡¯s neck, and I would swear she¡¯s nomming Lin in her sleep.


    My eyes droop as Linti nips my lips once more. We stare into each other¡¯s eyes, blinking slower and slower in unison until I fall asleep once again. When I awaken again, I miss the pre-dawn hour that usually heralds Lin and Te¡¯s awakening to go hunt, and they¡¯ve already left. Luni frets over me as she helps me up, checking my temples and forehead, asking if I have any lingering pains.


    I chuckle and wear a wry smile, ¡°No Lu, I¡¯m fine, and even if I weren¡¯t, I can¡¯t let anything stop me from now until we¡¯re finished. Thank you though, My Anchor.¡±


    As we head out to finally start constructing the shield, I only hope we¡¯re able to make enough progress to be noticed by Maka-Akari in time to earn her delay. The days begin to blend together into weeks rather quickly. For others, the work is either tedious, or exhausting but fulfilling. For me, the work is exhausting, tedious, and excruciating, as I¡¯m constantly using my mana and spells to their highest levels. I mostly utilize thermokinesis, and space inventory manipulation skill, but occasionally electrokinesis or acid generation comes in handy as well. Regardless, more and more pains feel as if they¡¯re becoming permanent fixtures across my body.


    My suboccipital region of my cranium feels as if it¡¯s in an endless vice. Muscles near certain vertebrae feel twisted and pinched to insane degrees. My biceps, quadriceps, pectorals, and other major muscle groups literally lacerate through my flesh and cause me to bleed frequently. At this point, the construction crews have taken to wearing head coverings, not for their safety, but so that they don¡¯t have to wash my blood out of their hair as it frequently rains down below me as I¡¯m flying about. Luni pressures me to take breaks to hydrate frequently, which I do, gladly. I can¡¯t let myself die while working on this project. Everyone is concerned for my health, but more and more of the true nature of the upcoming events slowly reaches everyone¡¯s ears. There¡¯s a light air of panic about the settlement.


    Still, despite all that, having Luni at my side all day every day has lifted my spirits to levels far happier than I had been for quite some time. Not to mention how much happiness is caused by returning home to Linti and Teuila every evening. I still worry about Lil, my precious, oldest friend. How sad they must be without Luni or Dehlia. Maybe Dehlia has awakened from her coma? I can only hope so. Lil deserves happiness. They must be working so hard for us, digging hundreds of miles of tunnels with Lucky. I bet it didn¡¯t take much at all to convince Lil to do it though. I can only imagine Lil thinking ¡®It¡¯ll help save everyone if I dig tunnels alone for months on end? Done and done!¡¯


    Lil is so pure, and wonderful. I ache to reunite with them and let them know how much I appreciate them. But still, I have to derive as much joy from my current situation as possible to keep pushing through the pain. I have to be able to carry on and finish the project. Mat might be able to do it without me, if the other workers could trust him while he¡¯s shaping lava, but that¡¯s a pretty tall ask. He has been sleeping alone in the crow¡¯s nest of one of the ships he made out of lava. We¡¯ve already deconstructed one of the ships in order to use the pumice it was made of. We allocated communal housing for the critterkin that had been its residents.


    I¡¯m not sure what Mat¡¯ll do for sleeping arrangements now that we¡¯re going to be melting down the ship he was sleeping in, and using it next for bulk material while we generate more material together. He has completely avoided being caught by Lao, Ag, the twins, or any of the Shellcracker family. He levitates high, out of reach while we work together. I haven¡¯t seen him teleport a single time since he¡¯s been back though. Without that ability, and without the danger-wrap sensory magic, it should be easy to subdue him if we need to. Relatively easy anyway.


    We¡¯ve already broken down the barge, and distributed the fulgurite. Teddy and Spice even had several crews make trips to claim the rest of the fulgurite that I sort of accidentally made along the beach north of the canal. So far, as far as physical materials are concerned, we¡¯re at the very least on schedule to meet our needs, if not slightly in surplus. The pumice needs are going to start rising exponentially though now that our foundation and base is constructed, since the volume and area to be covered grows outward and upward. I wonder if Mat and I will be able to keep pace with demands? Or could we perhaps get another source of lava to increase the incoming pumice?


    I should not have let myself explore that thought train. It feels like the world quakes as if giving birth. There¡¯s a bright red flash far to the north by northwest, and the rumbling doesn¡¯t end. I can only hazard one guess. Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate has awoken, and is beginning his journey. Thankfully, based on the tremors, it doesn¡¯t seem like he¡¯s marching this way at least. Even so, there might be some Mite-Hulks that roam the countryside, now that they¡¯re free of the crust of the earth. Additionally, Lord Agni may be spilling billions of liters of lava in his wake. I wonder if I could create a chute, like a sort of hardened funnel that could direct the lava to a reservoir nearby. Would it be worth the slight delay? It would also give me a chance to set defenses along our northern borders in case the Mite-Hulks are roaming free.


    We thankfully have plenty of able warriors, though, sadly, most of them would prove ineffective against the Mite-Hulks. The Mite-Hulks are thermal immune, so fire and ice mages are out. They¡¯re acid immune, so Jaz is out. Lightning has to be done rapidly to break their carapaces and exoskeletons, or has to be aimed through cracks already made in their defenses. Linti could probably take care of a few. Teuila would be the ideal fighter, she can plow holes through defenses like no one¡¯s business. Toxin specialists and wind specialists might be able to work together to poison them, so Brastley and Adom could work together. Our only extremely adept thunder specialist is Sofu, but they would also be an apt fighter to cave in some exoskeletons. There are some apprentice thunder specialists, but I wouldn¡¯t want to risk any of them in one on one fights against the Mite-Hulks, since the Mite-Hulks have those air pistols that could knock the wind out of me with my crazy defenses.


    I take a hydration break, waving at Mat to do the same. While on break, I find a messenger to share my concerns with Priss. It¡¯s a bit difficult to communicate everything over the endless rumbling, but they get the majority of what needs to be said. Luni shares my sentiments, we need to be ready to protect the people, especially if that one hyper king is loose, or if the queen respawns and summons a new king for any reason. I don¡¯t know if their spawn location will stay underground, or stay on Lord Agni¡¯s back, or if it will journey to wherever they move to and despawn next.


    With the chaotic state of the world reaching a boiling point, everything I¡¯d thought I had figured out about our world seems to continually be in question as more and more changes occur. I can¡¯t risk guessing incorrectly when it comes to whether or not we need to defend ourselves and our shield¡¯s construction project. It¡¯s better to guess the worst case scenario, and prepare for that. That would be the hyper king being loose, the one with the cosmic transformation, and the queen being loose, able to summon a new king of her own, and each coming at us from different directions, and then each of them earning new spawn points where they¡¯re defeated. We¡¯d need to set up daily rotations of hunts to defeat them. Linti and a few of the better human mages should be able to handle the queen, and any regular king that she spawns. Teuila might be able to handle the hyper king on her own, but I¡¯d feel better if she had backup. Mat might be able to conjure a vast enough amount of lava to trap either of them for a few hours at a time, but they would break out eventually, being thermally immune and all.


    Luni and I seek out Teddy and Spice to share my concerns, and my idea about the funnel, or lava chute, to direct additional lava to a nearby reservoir. Spice doesn¡¯t think it¡¯s worth it, since we¡¯re on schedule, but Teddy thinks it¡¯s best to be prepared for any eventuality, better safe than sorry, so Spice acquiesces.


    The two feel like the easiest plan to put into motion that won¡¯t put me in jeopardy by utilizing too many of my abilities too strongly, is for me to take a break from the massive spellcasting I¡¯ve been doing around here. Then just purchase and duplicate sewage piping to run it all the way from a reservoir about a mile outside of the barrier, up to Fire Biome¡¯s cliff. Teddy and Spice will have a spare crew digging the reservoir so that I don¡¯t need to use my magic to do that, thankfully. I¡¯ll just need to scoop, carve, and pile some stone and metal to direct a portion of any excess lava flow to funnel into the sewage piping. Thankfully the steel we have is rated to withstand both acid, and lava, it has some sort of glass or fiberglass internalized coating. I¡¯m not quite sure on the process used to make it.


    Even with the constant tremors, I should be able to accomplish this today, or tomorrow at the latest, and the crew digging the reservoir can expand the reservoir as needed if we somehow get too much of the lava. Luni helps me along with travel music so that we can place all the piping relatively quickly, without having to use my magic to fly and stop every few feet to place more piping. The reservoir crew will also be responsible for checking all the fittings and connections, but they¡¯re honestly not too important, it doesn¡¯t matter if we lose some of the lava, since it will cool around the outside of the pipe and seal itself off, and this lava is only a backup to our primary supply anyway.


    The cliff of Fire Biome is nightmarish. It¡¯s almost reminiscent of the Night of All Burn, almost. Thankfully the flow is neither as fast or as heavy as that night, but it¡¯s obvious that Lord Agni is still tunneling, standing as he turns to walk northward, out to the sea. I wonder how the Roc and Phoenix are going to feel about their home getting up and walking away, hah. I really hope they aren¡¯t nearby to have heard my thought. I don¡¯t want to upset them, they¡¯re a very handsome couple that demand respect and privacy. I still have one of their eggs, something I have no idea on what to do with.


    Huh, speaking of things in my inventory, there¡¯s a little marker on a lot of things now, well, mostly magical things. SB. What does that mean? Oh look, there¡¯s a little index too. How have I never noticed that? Soul Bound. Cannot be given away or dropped, only destroyed. Really? Huh. Unequipping my danger wraps to my inventory, they¡¯re soul bound now as well. More and more things in the world are becoming more and more complex, as I¡¯ve said before. Another icon is SBOE, Soul Bound Once Equipped. The weird sparking girdle harness thing has that icon. I guess I¡¯d better make sure Lil equips it, since I want them to have it. Still, I re equip my danger wraps, then Lu and I continue with our work.


    Poor Luni has been constantly dressing my wounds as I continuously cause and aggravate them over the last few weeks of work. I¡¯d be lost without her. So many times over, in so many ways. I¡¯m the luckiest being in existence to have discovered the ones so beloved to me, and to have had them fall for me.


    Luni jokes, ¡°Darn tootin¡¯.¡±


    The return trip is uneventful, we leave a few loose ends for a reservoir crew to tie up, but it¡¯s more pressing to get back to the primary materials generation and distribution. Mat willingly stays up an extra hour or two each night for several nights to catch up on the few hours I¡¯d missed by taking on that side project. It¡¯s actually pretty kind and considerate of him. I¡¯m not sure if he forgives me for taking on that side project, or if he doesn¡¯t care, or if he appreciated the break himself.


    It¡¯s a bit hard to sleep, now that the world is constantly trembling nonstop as Lord Agni hoists himself through the crust of the land. The anxiety, nervousness, and lack of rest for everyone is apparent over the next few days of work. I worry that it¡¯s slowing us down, but Spice says we¡¯re still on schedule, even though less and less progress is visible from day to day. I suppose that¡¯s because we¡¯re at a segment where any further height is exponentially more material placement, but I worry that it¡¯s not just a perception issue. Spice and Teddy both reassure me though, that things are proceeding as planned, but that they may need to schedule more days of rest, and more rotations in their workforce, since everyone is having a harder time sleeping.


    One day, the shaking suddenly ends. That means Lord Agni has made it to the sea. He¡¯s swimming, hopefully west around the continent. Hopefully as slowly as he can. If we¡¯re in luck, he can take several weeks, or months to meet up with Leviathan, and then perhaps weedle Leviathan into restarting the Hallowed Maelstrom at least one more time, buying us another week or so. Then Tenny will come to collect Maka-Akari, but both might be willing to buy us a bit more time.


    You¡¯d think we¡¯d rest easier, now that the shaking has ended. But anxieties are running high since the truth, about what the lack of shaking means, has spread through the settlement. Everyone knows we¡¯re racing against fate at this point. One of my fears comes to fruition as well. The Mite Hulk Queen is spotted traveling south along the pipeline towards the spare lava reservoir. Linti is happy to accept the challenge, but that means a daily grueling battle. We still haven¡¯t seen the Hyper King, or the hordes that the queen has probably spawned along her journey from Fire Biome. If either of those surprise whomever we send after the queen, that could spell disaster.


    Teuila, Linti, Adom, Sofu, Jazharn, Brastley, and several of the better apprentice mages, and combat mages of the human forces all group up daily to tackle the threats from the north. Priss agrees that while it¡¯s dangerous to send essentially all of our strongest combatants away every day, that they¡¯re still within a few miles, and we technically still have a massive force on hand that can be directed against any threats that arise. It¡¯s a good thing too, because it seems like a tunnel to the insect warrens opens up outside the southwest edge of the barrier, and there are occasional waves of insects to be fought off. Thankfully having hundreds of fire mages and ice mages on hand who take shifts working on the shield¡¯s construction means that the insect hordes barely register as a threat.


    We don¡¯t even need the tiny bread golem dungeon we created at the end of the lumber warrens anymore, with an essentially endless supply of insect meat basically raiding itself for us by coming to our doorstep. Still, aspiring adventuring types head into the warrens daily to tackle the mighty carbohydrate colossus.


    The world has reached a boiling point, and right about now, the entire pot is going to tip over. An endless horde of Mite-Hulks is spotted by scouts that look after the Mite-Hulk-Queen hunting party every day, to make sure they don¡¯t get ambushed. The queen had to have been busy in the months since I had left her to respawn on Lord Agni¡¯s back. The fact that she can now respawn within a few minutes journey of our home is unnerving enough, but to have an army breathing down our necks as well is insane. It also sounds like the queen is beginning to respawn faster and faster, at first it seemed like it was nearly two days before she respawned, now it¡¯s barely a day, maybe twenty three hours. It might be safer to devise some sort of method of trapping her far away. I¡¯m honestly still most worried about the Hyper King. I think it can probably travel at light speed. Maybe not act or react at light speed, but at least travel between points that quickly. It also might be able to adapt and evolve, like some sort of super villain. Maybe that means it decided to seek out a peaceful life somewhere in the cosmos, or maybe that means it has been zipping around at lightspeed to scout and spy on all of us to assess all of our powers.


    Or maybe I¡¯m overthinking things, and destroying the queen, especially while it was still in a transformation sequence, meant it despawned, even if it didn¡¯t derez. Still, an army of several thousand Mite-Hulks is approaching from the north, that¡¯s bad enough news. While I¡¯m confident that Linti and Teuila could take down hundreds without backup, thousands at once could spell their doom. Even if it wouldn¡¯t be too hard on them, it¡¯d be an incredibly grueling, long, drawn out battle. That would be on top of dealing with the queen before or after. The queen could be spawning more the entire time that her army is being dealt with. I may need to rely on my own king form once again, ugh. I do not relish the idea of letting that sleeze back into my nervous system. Sure, he¡¯s funny, almost suave and charming, in a gross way, but his ego wants full control, and I don¡¯t trust him.


    Mat can basically handle his and my job simultaneously, or do a sort of, ¡®go nova¡¯ to produce a lot more material at once, and I could work on that. He¡¯s willing to do either, or alternate, so that he and I can go help defend the northern flank in turns. It¡¯s scary how easily his power could decimate our entire settlement if he harbored any such thoughts. Scarier still that we haven¡¯t even seen the full depth of it.


    Between Mat picking up slack, and the reservoir, we¡¯re able to continue on schedule, while also battling on two separate fronts, every day. If we can get the shield constructed, then ignited, or engaged, or whatever you¡¯d call it, we don¡¯t even have to battle on either front. This settlement should be safe from everyone and everything.


    Luni is so brave, she¡¯s been accompanying me into battle day after day, every other day now, as we alternate with Mat. The Mite-Hulk forces are picking up strange allies, and accepting fewer losses before retreating, playing more of a guerilla tactic game. I¡¯m battered, bruised, and bloody from the constant battles, but even all of this damage hurts less than utilizing my spells. The queen respawns nearly twice a day now, if the battle with her doesn¡¯t go on for twelve hours on its own to begin with. She¡¯s more cagey, smarter, she retreats further back, summoning more, changing her death point and spawn point to buy herself more time to produce more of a horde each day. Even Linti, our Lightning Hunter, is pretty fed up with dealing with her, day after day. The good news is, the settlement has ridiculous levels of currency now, spread about all of the critterkin families that have inventories, and plenty of the human¡¯s pockets too. We¡¯ll be able to buy provisions for ages to come at this point.


    I¡¯m a bit worried for Lil, since their tunnel paths might intersect with the insect warrens in several locations, since the insect warrens seem to now be stretching all across our small continent. Scouts from all corners report more and more holes opening up, out of which familiar beasties crawl. Still, Lil¡¯s a capable fighter, and their stats page indicates that they¡¯ve been growing plenty, so they probably have been fighting nearly nonstop as well. Actually, Dehlia¡¯s stats have been changing too, now that I look at them. Maybe that means she has awakened from her coma, and is helping Lil defend the Nagas¡¯ settlement? One can only hope. Or maybe her brother, Dehlia, has awoken, and is doing the same, while Dehlia remains in a coma. Who knows how it works with two beings inhabiting one body like that. Them sharing a name makes it all the more confusing.


    I¡¯m putting in twice the construction effort every other day, alternating with days of grueling combat, and Mat¡¯s doing the same. I¡¯ve been vomiting blood every night as I try to sleep, and getting less and less sleep. I can¡¯t keep this up much longer. There are still several months of construction left. Worse, Tenith Grayl is seen passing overhead towards the south, and can be seen circling in the sky. I¡¯m going to have to beg her to buy us some more time.


    Luni demands to come along with me and Teuila. Te is uncertain if she¡¯s willing to let Lin handle the combat without her, even for the few minutes or hours it might take to talk to Tenny, but we go as a trio regardless. Everyone has each other¡¯s backs at this point, even Adom has stopped dicking around poisoning people¡¯s food and drink as pranks. Lu, Te, and I blast off towards where Tenny was last spotted.


    On approach, the three of us begin to ooze lightning from every orifice, and barely maintain consciousness as we hear, ¡°Oh hey, it¡¯s my little buddies, the Shellcrackers! I didn¡¯t think any of us would see each other still alive, still in these forms, before the end. Oh oops, oops, that¡¯s right, you mortals can¡¯t handle me talking like this, oops, I¡¯ll shut up now, sorry my little buddies!¡±


    Tears of pain and laughter stream from my eyes. Like I said before, Lady Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, is the most massive dork, in the best possible way. She allows us to land on her snout. There¡¯s a mildly painful tingle as constant arcs of electricity leap and bound across her scales, but it¡¯s nowhere near as bad as having our innards and minds flooded with voltage. I link the four of us up, sending a stream of message spark into Tenny that rebound all the way to pass through each of us, so that we can all hear her.


    I start, ¡°Tenny, I wouldn¡¯t exactly say that in this situation, it¡¯s good to see you, as happy as I am to see you still in this form. The world feels like it has reached some chaotic critical point. It¡¯s a massive struggle to stay alive. Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle has us constructing a shield of lacrimosa trifecta to cover the whole settlement. She said if she sensed us making an honest effort, she would buy us some time. I think you can tell we¡¯ve been making the effort.¡±


    Tenny responds, ¡°Oh totally, totes totes, awe, baby-girl Maka¡¯s got you all on a big project, that¡¯s sweet. It sounds like that might actually work, it could maybe protect the settlement from the convergence, maybe. I¡¯m still not sure what we do to snuff the mortal¡¯s candle after the convergence, but having that shield couldn¡¯t hurt.¡±


    I nod, ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s sort of our only hope. I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯d be willing to make some sort of excuse to buy us a bit more time?¡±


    Tenny hems and haws, ¡°Well, welllllll, hm. I suppose I could bring the Ascent, if you mortals are done with Quetzalcoatl¡¯s blessing. I could rescind the blessing to take it back, and use that to move the ascent, it would be a bit slow, but Card has reached the Maelstrom. He honestly swam a bit faster than I expected. Faster than he expected too I suppose. He got Levy to remake the Maelstrom once, but Levy¡¯s not falling for it again. Levy¡¯s getting antsy, and probably a bit pissy. So, yeah, about the blessing?¡±


    I look to Lu who shrugs and nods, Teuila nods as well. With their answers, I respond, ¡°It seems like that would be the best thing for all of us, if you would be willing to rescind the blessing, take it back, and use that as an excuse to buy us some more time. I¡¯m sorry to ask you to delay meeting your siblings, for us, b¨C¡±


    Tenny interrupts my thoughts between sparks, ¡°Awe come on little buddy, you¡¯re like family, you literally told me your whole life story, I feel like I know everything about you. But the situation down there looks pretty grim. Do you really think you have a shot at swinging this?¡±


    I nod grimly, ¡°I think this time around is our only shot at swinging this. This has to be the time we succeed.¡±


    Tenny seems to smile, as her snout moves while her massive eyes close and their edges are tugged slightly sideways. She responds, ¡°Okay then, sure. Pleased to meet you Luni Shellcracker, they told me a lot about you, but they didn¡¯t do your prettiness justice, you¡¯re ravishing my little dear. I¡¯m glad it was you who utilized my blessing. All three of your souls look so kind.¡±


    Luni makes some incomprehensible gestures that I assume are embarrassment at being complimented by a literal goddess, but it almost looks like the cut throat gesture. Maybe she was just fanning her neck to cool the heat of embarrassment. Anyway, Tenny is a sweetheart to call all of our souls kind.


    Tenny continues, ¡°It seems like the situation down there is pretty rough, and could use your attention. I¡¯d love to keep my Shellcracker sweetlings around and hear all of your stories, but I guess you¡¯ve gotta go, huh?¡±


    I nod solemnly, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Tenny. If the world were different, if fate weren¡¯t pulling you where it was, I could see us coming to you with new stories and new friends regularly. I wish that was our world.¡±


    Tenny agrees, ¡°Me too Reggie Shellcracker, little buddy, me too. I¡¯m surprised we met again, and I¡¯m glad we met this one last time. You all take care now, you hear? Hopefully you get to live long, happy lives, but things seem like they¡¯re going to be messy for a bit, at the very least. Good luck Shellcrackers.¡±


    I sigh, wipe a tear from my eye, and motion Te and Lu to hug the bridge of Tenny¡¯s nose with me. We all link hands to give her the biggest hug we can, which is still probably less noticeable than if a fly landed on one of us.


    We wave goodbye as we leap away from Tenny into the air, plummeting towards our settlement, angling into a hard glide, guided by Teuila¡¯s leaping power, to minimize my magic use. We¡¯re back home within minutes, and Teuila takes off immediately after kissing me goodbye, so that she can help Linti with the battle to the north.


    Lu shuffles her feet and avoids my gaze for a while, with her hands behind her back, looking like she¡¯s feeling guilty about something. I start to ask, but she turns away momentarily.


    Luni turns back, gnawing on her lips, with tears in her eyes, ¡°Something¡¯s wrong. Lil should be here by now, but we can¡¯t go check for a couple of weeks yet. Not til Tenny gets back at the earliest.¡±


    My mouth makes an ¡®o¡¯ as I mildly squint my eyes in surprise at Lu¡¯s words. I¡¯m about to ask for explanations, but again, Luni¡¯s actions interrupt me.


    She rushes into my embrace, places her hands on my shoulders and cries into my neck, ¡°I don¡¯t know what to do. None of us planned for this. Lin has to start helping the Nagas evacuate soon, maybe in a couple weeks. I can¡¯t let my jealousy get her killed, I wouldn¡¯t do that to you. I wouldn¡¯t. You know I wouldn¡¯t, right?¡±


    I coo in response, ¡°Shh, shh, of course I know Lu, of course I believe you, I trust you. My Anchor, I¡¯d never imagine in a thousand years that you would do something like that.


    Luni¡¯s lip trembles. As it quivers, I can tell she wants to argue to her own detriment, but I won¡¯t hear of it. Luni sucks back a sob, sighs and holds my hands, wearing a sad look upon her face. Still, we walk towards our next segment of the construction project, including an unshaped mass of pumice that Mataalii has left for us, so that we can continue to work while he takes a turn helping defend the northern flank.


    Luni continues to work by my side, taking care of me, or even battling alongside me, day in and day out for several weeks. Tenny returns with the Elysium Ascent in tow, its massive presence casting a shadow over the whole settlement as it passes overhead, eclipsing all light. On the evening of that same day, Brastley seeks me out with a message from Szintoc. Apparently their messages hadn¡¯t been getting through for months now, but this one finally did, and it¡¯s bad news, the Nagas¡¯ settlement is overrun by insects, and they need to evacuate. Lu and I exchange a worried glance.


    Spice says the shield is theoretically complete enough to be in an operable stage if we can meet the energy requirements. It wouldn¡¯t last as a stable structure against the test of time, unless everyone continued to work on it until its overall completion, but it could be activated any day now. This means that the six book owners have to get to the temple of time, and the Nagas have to be evacuated. This is the moment, this is the choice that Linti has to make, whether or not she lives or dies. Even if she lives, for some reason we don¡¯t see her for a very long time.

 B 3 C 39: After All

    <h2>B 3 C 39: After All</h2>


    Turning to Lu, I ask, ¡°I can¡¯t quite remember, do we know all of the book owners at this point? Me, Lil, Lucky, and Mat, for sure. I¡¯m guessing that the one you were angry about me touching is yours?¡±


    Luni frowns but nods, ¡°The last one is Te. It¡¯s dumb, but it¡¯s alphabetical order. Lil, Lucky, me, Mat, you, Te.¡±


    I groan, ¡°That¡¯s, that¡¯s most of our strongest fighters, and Linti is going to be supposedly helping with evacuation efforts, and we still have the battles at the northern flank daily. Plus, plus it¡¯s Mat! If he goes with us, he¡¯s not here generating lava to finish the shield¡¯s secondary structures and supports that allow it to last longer than a short duration.¡±


    Lu nudges me playfully, ¡°Then it¡¯s a good thing you created a reservoir that keeps filling with lava, and that there are plenty of ice and fire mages on hand, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    My jaw drops as I stare at Luni. Did she plan this? Did I plan this? Lu just shakes her head, grinning.


    Luni explains, ¡°I¡¯m as surprised as you are, I don¡¯t know most of what happens around now, but it seems like things are set up to go right, maybe. Maybe we¡¯re just lucky that we are who we are, and make the decisions that we do.¡±


    Well, I trust her at that, at the very least. Still, this book thing, every bone in my body is screaming that there¡¯s some sort of finality to it. Like, like we should say our goodbyes or something. Luni fidgets and avoids eye contact as she rides my train of thought.


    I ask, ¡°Lu, do you know something? Is this a, ¡®get your affairs in order¡¯ sort of situation?¡±


    Luni gnaws on her lower lip, still avoiding eye contact as she hems and haws, ¡°Hm, erm, well, I guess, maybe, probably. Yeah, I suppose it¡¯s okay to let you know. We um, so, sort of, we could, kind of maybe, maybe sorta, make it back, like a week after the convergence, or something, maybe. I can¡¯t explain right now. Please keep trusting me a little longer. But, well, yes. We should probably kind of say goodbye. I mean, it is a temple of time after all, there¡¯s no telling how much time it will actually be for us until then, right?¡±


    Luni chuckles nervously, hiding something. But she¡¯s right, I do trust her, and will keep trusting her. If that¡¯s the case, with all those maybes, then I need to put in place as many final contingencies as possible for the safety of my family. I think Mat and I are going to have to do some massive spell to erect a giant physical barrier to the north, to buy time until the shield is activated. I¡¯m going to be a wreck at the temple of time, and so is Mat probably. He hasn¡¯t complained even once, nor has he rejoined the family a single time. I honestly don¡¯t even recognize this machine that he¡¯s become, working and battling nonstop. Even with all that dedication, the wear and tear is starting to show beneath it all, even if he doesn¡¯t complain about it or accept any help. Heck, he sleeps outside of the perimeter of the illusory field, in the boughs of trees.


    I motion for a Kamaitachi messenger to seek out the six tome owners, Linti, Jaz, and several of the strongest. I tell the messenger that I need Mat to be at the northern edge of the reservoir in exactly one hour, that I need all the combatants to stall for a bit over fifty five minutes after that point, and then to immediately retreat.


    Lu accompanies me to the location as the messenger heads off. Once there, I begin begging the systems of the world, the forces of the universe to let me connect with purest Umbra once again. The Elysium Ascent that remains overhead with Tenny coiled around it feels like the tiniest spark runs along a thread of her divinity, her friendship, her desire to see us succeed. Another thread, no, two, stretch out south by southwest at this point. They must be to Maka-Akari, and Lord Agni. The threads seem golden in color within my mind¡¯s eye, but what I want is the shadows they cast, thin though they may be. Slowly, motes of darkness begin to form, these spheres of matte onyx are imperceptible to the naked eye due to their miniscule size at first. However, like miniature black holes, they appear to suck up the surrounding reality into their own unreality, expanding rapidly. Luni whistles appreciatively as she catches on to what I¡¯m doing, meditating near a battle that¡¯s raging to the north.


    Grunting, I beg, ¡°Lu, urgh, when Mat gets here, have him grab my hand, then you grab both of ours, and the three of us each touch a mote, imagining a physical barrier, like a comet smashing a chunk of the continent away to the north, or the tectonic plates upheaving as lava spews upwards, anything. Some spell that erects a massive physical barrier, miles wide, hundreds of feet tall and deep. Please anchor us, My Anchor.¡±


    Lu nods, ¡°Copy that. Stay strong My Hero, you got this, always have, always will.¡±


    Almost exactly an hour from when I sent the message, Mat arrives. He looks haggard, annoyed, but in some ways, glad to be called back from fighting. He¡¯s perplexed by my meditation, and the now large orbs of darkness around. Though he¡¯s annoyed at having to hold my hand, he carefully follows instructions, and it feels like a telepathic link forms. Time slows as the three of us work together to form the most likely spell that will succeed, tectonic, volcanic upheaval that results in a massive spiked barricade, it deepens our lava reservoir and fills that too. The northern side of our constructed edifice has lava geysers aimed all the way from west to east along the northern face. They¡¯ll fire off randomly, then flow back down into our reservoir. It should help push back the mites, even if it won¡¯t harm them much.


    We must spend an hour or more sculpting the spell, all the while the Umbra increases in size, density, and power. Our awareness expands to the surrounding area, when we¡¯re certain all of our allies are safely away from the spell¡¯s range, we unleash the combined spell, spending everything we have, and the three giant motes of Umbra. Two hours of my own mana channeled into a single spell is dozens of thousands of energy, not to mention the hour of Lu¡¯s mana and Mat¡¯s mana. From my own recent experiments, the multiplier on greater values of mana is ridiculously exponential, and the Umbra is yet another exponential multiplier.


    Some time later, we awaken, each with aching heads. Personally, I have the deepest lacerations yet, I can see bone at various points. Originally the mana channels seemed to fire lacerative, cutting mana outwards, but either the channels themselves have deepened within my body, or they¡¯re now firing outwards and inwards indiscriminately. Everything aches, and the cuts are excruciating. Theoretically I shouldn¡¯t even be able to move some of my limbs, because the tissue down through the muscle is severed. Thankfully, enough physics and biology hasn¡¯t quite caught up to fakeworld yet, even with all the chaotic happenings that cause our reality to work more and more like that one. I look down at one laceration along my pectoral muscles and can see a beating organ laid bare beneath the cut, and my eyes go wide. Any deeper and that would have destroyed my heart. I can¡¯t keep using magic of this magnitude. Possibly any magnitude.


    I croak, ¡°Good job Lu. Good job Mat, brother. Huff, I think that¡¯s a one time thing though. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to pull it off again and survive.¡±


    Mat and Lu both turn towards me, staring along with my gaze to see my exposed, beating heart. Even Mat looks concerned. Luni immediately begins binding my wounds. I check the two of them over, making sure neither of them is suffering the same effects.


    Mat grunts for attention, ¡°I. I felt something. It was building up. It was going to hurt. You took it away though. I felt it. I couldn¡¯t stop it. I didn¡¯t know what it was.¡±


    Luni nods with tears in her eyes, ¡°Me too, I wasn¡¯t sure what it was, but it must have been the mana burn cut stuff that you¡¯re suffering, you took mine on too. I¡¯d rather take it than ever let you take mine on in the first place, even worse if you had died because of it. You can¡¯t die, you just, you can¡¯t. Please don¡¯t die.¡±


    My lips quiver as I fight back tears. I didn¡¯t mean to, I couldn¡¯t even sense I was doing it, I was caught up in the spell. I just felt like all the magic had to go through me, through the connections to Tenny, Maka, and Deckard, and out through Umbra. I rattle my head, trying to drop this train of thought, and start on what needs to be done.


    I start, ¡°We¡¯ve bought some time, maybe hours, maybe days, but unlikely the latter. Mat, I don¡¯t know how much you know about the books, but we need you and your book in a temple to the southwest. We need Lu and Te as well. Lucky and Lil are already there. Linti is supposed to help evacuate the Nagas. I don¡¯t think anyone here knows yet what you did at that settlement. Apparently messages that were going between settlements had been being intercepted. Even if you wanted to stay here to keep working, I¡¯m thinking things could get ugly. Will you please come with us, brother?¡±


    Mat looks at Lu with a raised eyebrow, then shrugs, ¡°Sure, if Lu says so, that¡¯s what I¡¯ll do. It doesn¡¯t much matter to me where I am.¡±


    I frown slightly, but nod all the same. It feels like my eyeballs have cold ice-cream scoopers behind them, trying to gouge the eyes from my eyesockets. It¡¯s such an odd, very specific, vividly detailed pain that I nearly horf just thinking about how to describe it.


    Luni, reading my thoughts, mutters, ¡°Another migraine coming on. I¡¯m sorry Hero, it¡¯s not fair that you suffer from those.¡± She then seems to mutter ¡®again¡¯ under her breath.


    Teuila and Linti arrive, and I explain the situation, ¡°I think that us, the book owners, if we clear out the insects from the temple of time, can somehow start the energy catalyzation needed to activate the shield. Even though the shield¡¯s secondary structures aren¡¯t fully created, let alone in place, Spice thinks we¡¯re safe to activate it if we can find a way to get it started. Lin, their settlement is overrun, I know how much you disliked, or dislike them, but now is that choice, now is when you have to help them evacuate to here.¡±


    Linti whistles low and runs her hand over her scalp, taking it all in, ¡°First you cast a spell bigger than any I¡¯ve ever seen, now you say it¡¯s already that time? That I just have to leave the six of you down there, alone, fighting off an endless bug horde big enough to overrun the entire Nagas¡¯ town? Gorramit Shellcracker. Seriously. It never stops with you. How long is this incredibly long time that we don¡¯t see each other? What¡¯s going to happen?¡±


    I look to Luni, but the tears in her eyes, and the sobs that she¡¯s gulping down tell me that she can¡¯t, or won¡¯t answer, one way or another.


    Frowning I can only guess, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Hunter, we don¡¯t know for sure. There¡¯s some cryptic stuff going on. My weird genre savviness from messed up memories tells me something with a ton of finality is about to happen. I need you to start the evacuation basically right now. I want to have Mat, Te, Lu, and myself run one last sweep driving the mites back as far as possible, taking out the queen again one more time. We¡¯ll be able to catch up, possibly even beat you to the settlement when we combine our abilities to hit our top speeds. Even still, we probably won¡¯t see each other again. I love you, Hunter.¡±


    Lin looks stricken, as if I¡¯d slapped her face, telling her to run the opposite direction from a fight. I¡¯m heartbroken that I had to request it, but the Nagas need our help, and it won¡¯t be safe for them to try to flee here on their own, with the random openings to the insect warrens in the way. She¡¯s fast enough on her own that she¡¯s faster than any single one of us on our own, so she¡¯s the ideal person to handle the evacuation, since everything else requires the four of us.


    Linti lets out a hissed ¡®tsk.¡¯ Her visage is full of fury for a moment, but it softens as she turns to Luni and Teuila, ¡°Hey, Toots, even you Lu. I¡¯ll miss you guys. Come back to us. Alright? You too, Shellcracker.¡± Then, indicating Mataalii, she says, ¡°You can leave that guy behind though, tch.¡±


    Mat clicks his own tongue, scoffing as he looks away. Linti embraces and kisses Teuila. She then hugs Luni. After that, she slugs me in the shoulder before pulling me in for a tight embrace, resting her chin on my skull for a moment before leaving. Mat avoids our eye contact, but the four of us gather as Teuila leaps us all into the sky above our barrier.


    As we gently come down on the far side of the barrier, it¡¯s a grim sight, the queen has set up hundreds of air pistol turrets of independent mite claws, and summoned hundreds of new soldiers. As much as I don¡¯t want to, I add a telepathic link to Mataalii with the method I learned from the temple of time, the page that TQ showed me of my own book. I can scarcely believe that he was one of the viable targets. Still, since the four of us are linked, making split second plans and adjustments to battle strategy becomes a cinch.


    I risk adopting my Mite-Hulk-King form, and King immediately greets me, ¡°Hey partner, been a while! I knew you¡¯d be back, it¡¯s good to be The King!¡± The way his smoky voice slimes its way into my subconscious and oozes about, leaving a foul aftertaste whenever he speaks is a problem I can¡¯t afford to confront right now.


    I roll my eyes, but I can¡¯t afford to spend mana fighting him off, I let him apprise himself of the situation. When he realizes how grim it is, he stops trying to egg me on, and takes over weaponizing my left arm. With my current damage, I can¡¯t risk using any actual spells, only my most basic uses of my abilities and skills. Subzero Ice Punching, Flash Freeze Storms, regular inventory launching and the like.


    Teuila floats above us, far enough that the air pistol snaps of the mites barely impact her against her Valkyrie armor, all the while she¡¯s charging up an enormous hurricane shot. Mat forms massive spikes of lava and launches them fast enough that they cool and harden in midair. Luni plays a rocking riff on her harp that seems to fill the rest of us with vigor, increasing our awareness, reaction speed, and even strength.


    Even King enjoys Luni¡¯s playing, saying, ¡°Groovy!¡±


    The other three in my telepathic link all complain, they thought I was making the weird voice earlier, but now they realize it¡¯s an entirely separate entity. I merely send my telepathic avatar shrugging at them apologetically. I have to contribute, and this is what I can do right now, safely, without my spells.


    King calls out, ¡°Hey, watch it partner. Make sure I don¡¯t get severed off over here. Wouldn¡¯t want another one of me growing from a missing limb, would you? Actually, maybe that¡¯s an idea worth exploring.¡±


    I respond, ¡°King, don¡¯t you dare. I¡¯ll cover your back a bit, which I guess is my armpit, just, just deal with the situation in front of us please. The world is literally ending.¡±


    He asks, ¡°It is? No wonder you called on The King. Serious situations require serious solutions! No one¡¯s more serious than The King baby!¡±


    I mentally facepalm, rolling my eyes, and shaking my head as I sigh. If he weren¡¯t so invasive, slimy, smoky, and oozy, it would almost be funny listening to him. He¡¯s entirely campy. If I were to ring a bell every word that oozed camp whenever he spoke, there would be an unending series of ringing bells for all the camp.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    I normally utilize my magic to keep myself rather nimble, but with King¡¯s defenses, I can wade into the battlefield and stomp my way through hordes of enemies, smashing, slashing, cutting, shooting, and tearing apart all of the other Mite-Hulks. Teuila unleashes a hurricane shot alongside me that draws dozens and dozens of mites towards the center of the line created by her fired arrow. Each of those mites begins derezzing as they¡¯re slammed against one another and hurtled off into the distance. This lances an opening into their ranks that lets me plow even deeper, causing chaos amongst the horde. In mere minutes we¡¯ve destroyed or driven back hundreds of Mite-Hulks, opening a path to the queen.


    We agree that we need to take her out in a single go so that she doesn¡¯t summon a king, much less power it up, so we feign indifference as she begins to retreat to summon more troops. As we allow her to gain some distance between us, Teuila is charging a shot more powerful than any I¡¯ve ever seen her conjure, and it looks like she¡¯s going to aim it to take out a swathe of troops, though we all know that¡¯s not exactly the intention. Mataalii is covering her defenses while she concentrates on creating the hurricane shot, blocking acid and air shots that are lobbed Teuila¡¯s direction with conjured lava. I risk tethering my heart to Teuila¡¯s to offer her most of my own mana pool, and Teuila literally radiates power as she accepts the tether. The glow cast by her as she continues to charge her spell is blinding, so much so that I have to look away, and even Mat is shielding his eyes while facing away from her, due to his proximity.


    Luni starts to object, ¡°Reggie, you don¡¯t know what might happen! Please be okay, please be okay. Both of you please be okay.¡±


    Teuila redirects her shot, aiming dead center for the queen. A king immediately spawns between Teuila and the queen. But even though it interposes itself between the shot and its queen, it is no match for the raw power unleashed in its direction. Teuila cries out in pain as she unleashes her spell and the rest of us glance worriedly her way as she drops from the sky. Luni and I both leap to catch Te while Mat dives down, all three of us hoping to cushion her fall.


    King calls coldly into my mind, ¡°Let them handle the babe, finish the job, queenie aint dead, and that¡¯s dangerous.¡±


    Ugh, I hate that he¡¯s right. I reverse my direction, risking slamming myself with regular JT propulsion magic, rocketing myself into the face of the queen as a second king spawns. I tear into her with all the ferocity I can muster as she tries to summon mites to stop my advance and my attacks. She unleashes a torrent of acid, but the king¡¯s exoskeletal carapace that makes up my current form isn¡¯t even singed. As she finally begins to derez, her remaining troops retreat. I scoop all the nearby loot and rush to Teuila¡¯s side.


    Te coughs, almost chuckling, ¡°So, this is what you¡¯ve been going through Spooterpoot? Owwww.¡±


    Teuila playfully whines, but she looks to be in pretty rough shape as she drops from the tether. Thankfully the lacerations on Te are only surface level. It¡¯s similar to the first night that I started suffering from mana overuse. As the world continues to become more chaotic, and the forces working against us require more and more power to defeat or drive back, I worry that none of us are going to be able to handle the power required to keep up. We need to get the shield activated as soon as possible.


    The three nod along with my train of thoughts as I drop to my cherubic form, then assume my draconic form. Luni dresses Teuila¡¯s wounds as best she¡¯s able to around Teuila¡¯s armor, then Te leaps us all into the air. Once airborne she suspends our gravity. I summon a vehicle around the four of us, Teuila and Luni work together to reduce its gravity, and friction, and increase the speed it¡¯s capable of as I propel us south-westward. I feel as if I¡¯m going to faint as we leave behind a sonic boom, but I can¡¯t allow myself to pass out. We still have to get to the Nagas¡¯ settlement, fight through the gathered insect horde, and activate the tomes somehow, hopefully activating the shield in the process.


    Lu frets over Teuila and me, nervously glancing between the two of us, and frowning at Mat who is sneering on the far side of us. Lu pads down my forehead with a cloth, and it becomes sweat drenched in an instant. I didn¡¯t even notice myself sweating that thoroughly. She does the same for Teuila who is similarly drenched.


    The hint of ozone strong enough to assail even my anosmic nostrils lets us know that we¡¯re either catching up to or passing Linti as we close in on the settlement. The scene below us is nightmarish. It looks like there was a reconstruction effort that had been going on in sections of the town, but the projects have been abandoned, and all of the functional domiciles are inhabited. Each one has at least one defender pushing back against insectoid creatures, protecting cowering Nagafolk within. There are so many in so many different locations, and we can¡¯t afford the time to rescue them all. This fight is up to Linti.


    Luni and Teuila nod solemnly. As much as we hate the idea of leaving those in need to fend for themselves, if we don¡¯t staunch the flow of additional insects, by the time we rescue or free one family all of the others will be harder to save. That still doesn¡¯t stop us from dropping into the midst of the horde and fighting our way through the city, instead of bypassing the entire horde on the way to the temple.


    Groaning, I resume the Mite-Hulk-King form, and King begins his usual nonsensical chatter, but I completely ignore him. The four of us are careful to use our magic as little as possible, taking everything on hand to hand. The crackle of lightning and the boom of thunder nearby tells us that Linti is fighting her own way through endless foes as well. Surprisingly, she shows up at our side.


    Lin jokes, ¡°So, uh, if this is it for us, any last words?¡±


    I frown, but between taking down several foes, I reply, ¡°Other than the message of the love I have for you, not really. When you¡¯re taking trips back and forth, make sure to stop and see the various leaders of each of the factions and groups. Give Priss a message for me, please? Tell her, Priss, I¡¯m counting on you to take care of them all. Be diplomatic, be confident, but most importantly, always, always be kind.¡±


    Linti nods solemnly as she breaks off to rescue a family whose home is caving in atop them as several massive bugs hammer its roof. If Linti can at least get all of the defenders free from their various locations, then when they¡¯re grouped up, they stand a chance at keeping everyone safe while evacuating. Linti¡¯s the fastest of us at individually taking out bug hordes, she¡¯s been doing it for as long as I¡¯ve known her, and longer. It¡¯s almost like she was meant to do this.


    King says, ¡°Hey, hey, Reggie. I feel that. Stop that. Your heart is hammering so hard it hurts, and you¡¯re barely breathing. I need oxygen too over here. Get it together! We¡¯ve got things to kill. Some of ¡®em look dead already, we¡¯ll make ¡®em more dead. Come on ya goody little two shoes, get the lead out.¡±


    I roll my eyes again. King is right though, my heart feels like it¡¯s fighting to even function at all, and barely doing its job. It¡¯s not just heartache about knowing we may never see Linti again, my heart physically hurts as it tries to do its job. The strain I¡¯ve put my body through these last few months is catching up to me. I just need to hang on a while longer. I can¡¯t afford to fail my family this time around.


    I find myself thinking about the times in my life where my heart has stopped, like at the Nagas¡¯ sports tournament when I was killed in another timeline, and basically killed in this timeline. Even if I reach a moment where I know I¡¯m dead in the next millisecond, if I reset time, where in my timeline would I go? What change could I possibly make? So many of these things had to happen to even make it to the point we¡¯re at. There was no one else to foist off any of the magic onto as far as I¡¯m aware, and even if there was, I couldn¡¯t place this burden on anyone else.


    That¡¯s all there is to it then, I have to survive. Failure isn¡¯t an option. Even still, despite my determination, my attacks and reactions are getting slower. I¡¯m not quite sluggish yet, but I¡¯ll be reaching that point before long.


    A voice reaches into my mind, ¡°Is that the rest of the Shellcrackers? Have you come to save our home?¡±


    A tear of happiness drops from the corner of my left eye. Dehlia is alright. She survived her coma, and came out the other end, and she still has her telepathy. I¡¯m so glad, mostly for Lil¡¯s sake, but also just in general. I¡¯m distracted and overcome by emotions, but at least they¡¯re positive, hopeful emotions.


    I respond, ¡°Dehlia? I¡¯m sorry, we¡¯re not here to save your home, but your people instead. Linti is helping them evacuate, you need to go with them. Please. Is Lil okay? Is Lucky okay?¡±


    Her telepathy tingles across my brain as she probes more strongly than I¡¯ve ever felt before. She answers, ¡°Lil and Lucky are fine. I feared as much. Szintoc and Brastley¡¯s messages had not been getting through. Fine, I¡¯ve already gathered the most precious knowledge, and locked away the rest in the hopes that it isn¡¯t destroyed. Perhaps we¡¯ll be able to return to retrieve it.¡±


    As much as I doubt that, I don¡¯t want to disillusion her right now, ¡°I¡¯m unsure, but hopefully yes. Dehlia, I¡¯m sorry that we can¡¯t do more, but we¡¯re trying to secure the location you¡¯ll be evacuating to. It¡¯s complicated, but are there any other routes into the bottom of the temple? Has the primary route at least been cleared?¡±


    Dehlia evinces confusion, ¡°Of course the primary route has been cleared, but no, no secondary route exists. I only know of Lil¡¯s safety through my telepathy however, we have not been able to reach each other for at least a week due to the endless hordes of creatures infesting the temple. Lil is of course deep within, working on whatever secret thing they¡¯d been doing all this time.¡±


    Phew. Okay. I can handle that. I express my gratitude to Dehlia, ¡°Thank you Dehlia, that¡¯s about as good as I could hope for in the circumstances. We¡¯ll fight our way to reuniting with Lil. Can you rally your people around Linti? I know there¡¯s bad blood between your people and the cats, but she¡¯s the one here to save and evacuate you all. If your strongest can make a break for it, and unite with her, together they might be able to get everyone out mostly unscathed. I won¡¯t be able to respond mentally anymore, my mind and body are exhausted. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re awake, that you pulled through.¡±


    There¡¯s a pause before Dehlia replies, ¡°Yes, of course, consider it done. And. Lil told me what you did for me. I may not have awoken if it wasn¡¯t for you, or so I hear. Thank you. I wear it as a pendant. The stone you used upon my brow.¡±


    I let a smile play across my lips as I continue to battle alongside Mat, Lu, and Te. It feels like it¡¯s an hour of battling just to get to the bottom steps of the exterior of the temple as we fight through the main thoroughfare on the northern side of the town. Occasionally I spot a flash of lightning streaking by to one side or another, and that reassures me that Linti is still alive, and still fighting. I didn¡¯t ask which building Dehlia was in. I doubt she¡¯d accept being given a priority rescue anyway.


    The unthinkable happens, and some new form of colossal insect explodes from beneath the earth, sending shattered paving stones flying in all directions, and scattering my small party, hurtling us against stone walls. Even within my exoskeleton the impact rocks my fleshy form beneath its surface, and I can feel blood trickling along my brow and other softer bits of my base form. The dust and debris obscures the base of this new beast, as well as my allies.


    Struggling to my feet, King¡¯s attacks and my own fisticuffs seem to not phase this colossus in the slightest, as I¡¯d feared. It¡¯s just too massive to truly harm. Its white flesh is feculent lumpy, veiny. It can extend its neck a dozen meters or more as it swings its face around to bludgeon me or to try to sink its teeth into me. The creature doesn¡¯t have eyes, only its gross fleshy neck atop what might be a torso, which sits atop two taloned feet. There¡¯s a gross stub of a tail that¡¯s similarly stretchy as the neck, and lumps that might be wings near the base of its neck. In short, it¡¯s utterly horrifying to gaze upon. We don¡¯t have time to waste on this creature, nor on the new hordes spilling out of the hole it created as it burrowed to the surface.


    I call out telepathically to Lu, Te, and Mat, telling them to take to the air if they¡¯re conscious. Thankfully I get three responses of affirmative. I risk suffering further damage as I conjure a massive Flash Freeze Storm while trying to not convert the siphoned energy into my own personal pool. I seem to be mostly safe from ill effects. Better yet, all of the lesser giant insects are frozen solid, blocking up this new hole, and even the fleshy colossus is slowed to a crawl.


    Still, even if that didn¡¯t take any additional toll, I¡¯m gasping for breath and struggling to continue now as I ascend the exterior of the temple. I see a massive spike of lava forming, coalescing and being hardened by a hurricane shot, it spins from the wind whipping spirals around it as it¡¯s fired below, decimating and destroying the fleshy colossus in a combined attack by my three allies.


    We rejoin one another at the top of the temple¡¯s exterior before entering it, taking the shortest of momentary breathers. I drop to my base form as I slump against an exterior wall, lazily utilizing my Valkyrie dagger and stabbing grublike creatures that tumble out the top of the temple next to me while I try to catch my breath. Mataalii conjures spiked tonfas from lava, and wields them with deadly ferocity, filling the wounds he causes with lava, derezzing anything he strikes almost instantly. His limitation of the incredibly short range on his conjuration isn¡¯t going to hamper him at all in the tight quarters we¡¯ll be fighting through momentarily.


    Teuila is taking pot shots from the top of the temple towards foes advancing on groups of survivors that are making a break for it as they try to meet up with Linti and the main survivor force. Even if we can¡¯t join each other¡¯s fights, we can at least try to make it easier on each other. I¡¯m still unsure how to feel about Mat, I don¡¯t exactly trust him, but he¡¯s had any number of opportunities to end me over the last day alone, not to mention the last couple of months.


    Alright, a few minutes is all the break we can afford to take. It¡¯s pretty much now or never. When the queen respawns, it won¡¯t take her long to figure out how to get her forces around or over the barrier we erected. We only have a handful of hours til she respawns, and then who knows how little time before she finds a way to advance on the Miracle Oak. Our strongest defenders that the mites aren¡¯t immune to are here, and the rest are spread thin keeping insects out of the settlement. I never even got around to meeting even a small fraction of the Fairies. I think I¡¯ve only learned two of their names. I¡¯d feel horrible if they died and I didn¡¯t even know who to mourn.


    I rattle my skull trying to shake free such dark thoughts. No time to be caught in thought. I feel like I can¡¯t even muster the strength to change my form anymore, which is bad, as my current cherubic form is definitely not my most adept combat form. I also don¡¯t want to risk getting stuck in any of the other forms though, especially not the Mite-Hulk King form, so I¡¯ll just have to make do. Even worse yet, I can barely stand. Luni helps support me as we enter the top of the temple.


    Teuila and Mat take turns leaping or gliding along the walls or ceiling with their weapons dragging or spearing across the center in long forward swaths, leaving Luni and me to only deal with a few missed foes. It works out well enough until we get to a more open level, jam packed with insects floor to ceiling, many of whom have acid spitting organs, or long scythelike mandibles on extendable necks, or other ways to make our lives hell.


    Frustrated, I sigh and lean into an attack, shoving everyone back momentarily. I barely roll over the incoming scythe in time, freezing it as I connect with an edge of it as I pass over the top. Once I have a limb blocking the path of other limbs, I take an instant to conjure a massive Flash Freeze Storm, turning the entire room into a giant insect ice cube.


    Teuila grins and charges up a hurricane shot while Mat similarly conjures a dozen spikes from lava that cool into sharpened stone alongside Te¡¯s wind. When Teuila releases her shot, it drags the spikes along in a spiral, sawing through everything in the entire room, treating us to a massive time dilation at the simultaneous derezzing.


    We alternate strategies so that no single one of us is over exerting themselves on the way down, but hall after hall, room after room, the amount of creatures we slay seems countless. Between hostiles launching things, and our own attacks occasionally going a bit overboard, all of us are looking bruised, bloody, battered, and overall just rough. Lu continues to tend our wounds, occasionally pulling out the soap stone to make sure no grime or sludge ends up in them, but even the soap stone can¡¯t keep up with the amount of blood or pixels we¡¯re constantly staining our bandages and dressings with.


    Finally, after several more hours of fighting, we¡¯re on the bottom floor of the temple, and it¡¯s obvious where at least one of the sources of incoming hostiles is. There¡¯s a tunnel leading off to the southeast that has an unending stream of insects pouring from it.


    I plead, ¡°Mat, would you be so kind as to do the honors? Plug that hole, please.¡±


    Mat nods. His cloak billows and flares out behind him as he generates a massive stream of lava continuously aimed to propel itself down the tunnel. As the lava derezzes dozens of insects, he lets it cool layer by layer, filling the tunnel with stone a hundred feet deep.


    I have no idea how fast these creatures tunnel, but it¡¯s better than not trying to close it up at all. I nod at Mat in thanks. We make our way to the not-so-secret entrance to the temple of time, and Mat makes a ¡®tch¡¯ sound under his breath. I can only surmise he thinks the reason he didn¡¯t kill me when he attacked the Nagas¡¯ settlement is that I was down in this temple within a temple. That¡¯s partially true.


    As we enter the temple, sliding around on the secret passageway¡¯s circular stone, we¡¯re treated to a brilliant sight. Rivers of color are blindingly radiant as reds greens and blues mingle to form an ocean that cycles through every color in the spectrum in bubbles and swaths and patches and bursts.


    Amidst it all is my oldest friend, my buddy Lil whom I have been missing for so long now. Lil sits in spheriform stage atop Lucky in Lucky¡¯s full Hunter form. I weep tears of joy at seeing the two of them in good health. I can¡¯t help it as relief washes over me so ferociously that I slump to my knees and, at least momentarily, lose consciousness.

 B 3 C 40: Everyone Dies In the End

    <h2>B 3 C 40: Everyone Dies In the End</h2>


    She asks, "When was the last time you got that serviced, or even looked at at all?" I half expect she''s making a joke at my expense, but her question was made while gesturing towards the dagger in its sheath on my belt on the floor.


    I glance towards the object Taylynn is asking about, my dagger. It takes me a moment to think of it, but I have to have had it for nearly fifty years now without getting it looked at.


    I answer, "I uh, I don''t think ever. It''s supposed to be a sort of damascus steel alloy with some kind of secret ore that makes it a composite that stays basically sharp forever. It hasn''t gotten too dinged up in five decades of use."


    Tay shakes her head, clicking her tongue, "Basically sharp isn''t good enough for what you''re heading off to do. In the corner is my saddlebag, you''ll see a dagger in a bone sheathe with alchemical symbols on it, grab it, keep it. Then toss me a clean blouse from the bags, would you?"


    Taylynn then chides, teasing, "We got a bit sweatier than I expected to be honest. At least after how old you told me you were."


    I feel my cheek hit the stone floor just now after I passed out, so I¡¯ve likely only been unconscious for a few seconds. Everyone other than Mat is still in the process of turning towards me, or moving towards me, to check on me. That¡¯s further evidence I haven¡¯t been out for very long. As I struggle to my feet, doing a feeble push-up, Luni and Teuila each hook an arm under one of my arms and Lil bounds beneath me, squishing down to fit then un-squishing to help straighten me upwards. I shake my head and shake my arms free so that I can embrace Lil. I drop to my knees to hold my oldest buddy close.


    I start, ¡°Lil, I¡¯ve missed you so much. What has even been going on? Did TQ somehow have you rerouting the ley lines? Do you know anything else of what we need to do to activate the shield?¡±


    Lil responds, ¡°Shield? I dunno buddy, TQ just said that everyone would die if I didn¡¯t do this, and you seemed to trust them, so I did it. I figured a couple lonely months is a small price to pay if there was even a chance it was the truth, right?¡±


    I nod, stifling a chuckle and a sob, ¡°Yeah, yeah, definitely buddy, definitely. My Heart. The world is in utter chaos, bugs everywhere, spawn points are going crazy, the four gods are all awake at this point. Tenny is hovering over the Miracle Oak on the Elysium Ascent, Maka-Akari is going to accept her help to reach the Maelstrom for the convergence any day now, possibly sooner. I know she agreed to buy us time, but I don¡¯t know how patient she is.¡±


    Lil asks, ¡°Should I know those names Pal o¡¯ mine o¡¯?¡±


    I adopt a wry smile, shaking my head as I ever so slightly roll my eyes, ¡°No, no I suppose not. The God of Fire was Lord Deckard Agni. I talked to him shortly after I left you guys with Dehlia. The Sky Goddess is Lady Tenith Grayl. The Earth Goddess is Lady Maka-Akari. You already know Leviathan, he¡¯s all too happy to wipe us all out.¡±


    Lil bounds against me, squeezing against my chest, wrapping their tail about my torso, ¡°Sounds like pretty serious stuff Reggie. Dire things and all that. Is there any chance I can fry Mat when we do whatever we¡¯re here to do with him here?¡±


    I grimace in chagrin, ¡°I um, I¡¯m not going to give you an answer to that. We¡¯ve got the six book owners here. I¡¯m hoping that the books can help us solve the energy problem to start the shield.¡±


    Lil nods along, ¡°Mhm, mhm, and after that, then can I kill him?¡±


    I chide, ¡°Lil! I mean, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t harbor similar feelings. I already killed him once, and it didn¡¯t make me feel any better.¡±


    Mat asks, ¡°Do I get a say in this?¡±


    The rest of us respond, ¡°No.¡± He puts his hands up and takes a step back at the vehemence of our shared response.


    Lil grumbles, ¡°He hurt so many people, killed so many people. Dehlia was gone for a long time because of him. Ugh, grr. Whatever, let¡¯s just do the book thing, yeah?¡±


    TQ seems to materialize out of thin air, ¡°Not quite so hasty my little draconic friend. You will indeed be able to accomplish what you¡¯ve come here for, by simultaneously reading the last page in each of your books.¡±


    I gulp. The last page? But that would mean, at the very least, we would know when we die. Or worse, it would mean that us reading the final page is the final page, because that¡¯s when we die.


    TQ nods towards me, ¡°I can guess the thoughts going through your heads. There is indeed finality to this course of action. You have at most two days to take it. Any later, and there won¡¯t be anyone to save. In fact, the longer you take to decide, the more likely fewer and fewer of your allies and loved ones survive at all.¡±


    I glance around at the assembled people in a bit of a panic. If TQ is saying we¡¯re going to die to start the shield, is everyone here willing to do that? My breathing grows difficult as I pant for air. My pulse races. I¡¯ve been willing to die for my family time and time again, and even assumed I was already finished several times in my life. It¡¯s not just my family this time either, it¡¯s our extended family, our allies, friends, even innocent strangers.


    Mat glares daggers at Luni, ¡°Did you know it was going to come to this? Is that why you agreed I would go free after this part?¡±


    Luni avoids eye contact as she mutters, ¡°I didn¡¯t know it would be this, not like this. I don¡¯t know everything.¡±


    Mat spits acid in a vitriolic reply, ¡°Yeah, sure, ¡®Sis.¡¯ You still going to hold your threat over my head? What if I want to walk out of here right now?¡±


    Luni¡¯s eyes brim with tears, her downward gaze causes the tears to drop directly upon the floor, turning the dust to mud, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t stop you, but I can¡¯t say what the others will do.¡±


    Lil snarls, ¡°I will kill him if he tries to back out of this. Maybe burning him won¡¯t work right now, so I¡¯ll just tear him to shreds. Don¡¯t think I forgot about the spear, or the time I came back from my core.¡±


    Mat throws his hands up once again, ¡°Relax, it was just a hypothetical.¡±


    TQ interrupts, "I believe you have a powerful soul that could possibly take the place of one of you. I''m not saying I''m certain it would work, but it could save one of you. I assume Reggie would be the one carrying it."


    I look around at the assembled. The only one I can imagine taking that offer would be Mat. For the rest of us, going on without one another would be an unending hell til the end of our days. If we could even literally live without one another, due to our various physical, mental, and emotional links.


    Mat catches my gaze, "Hey, don''t look at me like that, I am not going to be the sole survivor that goes back to our family with the news of the rest biting it. Screw that. I already can''t ever look them in their faces again. Look, everything sucks, but I''m doing this for my babies. I mean my, awe screw it, yeah, my babies."


    I look at Lucky who just barks happily and spins around once, looking at me with a derpy canine grin, his tongue hanging out. I think that also meant no, he''s happy to do this with us. He''s amazingly intelligent, but much like Luna, can''t communicate in ways I normally understand. My heart aches as I think about leaving behind poor lonely Luna, and hoping Linti makes it into the barrier with her last run. Maybe that¡¯s why Luni¡¯s message said we¡¯d never see Linti again if she stayed with us to fight. She¡¯d be trapped outside the barrier, and maybe the convergence would erase even her soul, if there is an afterlife. I suppose, yeah, it could be a long time until we see each other that way, waiting for Linti to live out her life before she reaches the afterlife. But then there¡¯s the thing that Luni said recently, about us being able to maybe make it back a week after the convergence or so. That doesn¡¯t seem feasible, unless we¡¯re reborn somehow, at some point. Maybe Luni was just wrong? I trust her, but that doesn¡¯t mean she has to know everything or get everything right. She probably wasn¡¯t lying in any case. If she¡¯s wrong though, that means. That means.


    Oh gods, I''ll never see any of them again. I try not to gasp or pant or hyperventilate. I''m struggling to maintain even breathing so that I don''t break down in tears. Maybe Linti will train with and roughhouse with Luna, just, just imagine the future that everyone eventually has together, the future we will buy them. They''ll get a chance to move on, live their lives full of as much love as possible. Maybe we''ll hatch from new eggs someday like Oli and Penina?


    TQ shakes their head, somehow reading my thoughts. Well, crap.


    Trying to redirect my thoughts, I hazard a guess, ¡°This powerful soul, would you mean the unhatchable Roc Phoenix Egg?¡±


    TQ nods, ¡°That sounds like what it might be, yes. The various wills that make up my being, from all the timelines have never made it any farther than this, so I didn¡¯t know what it was. I know that even if you succeed, I will discorporate soon. All the wills that make up my consciousness will scatter, released into whatever there may be for an afterlife, if there is one.¡±


    I frown, ¡°You¡¯ll die too? Is there anyone who isn¡¯t going to die in this mess?¡±


    Teuila sets a hand upon my shoulder, ¡°Our family.¡±


    Luni likewise sets a hand against my cheek, ¡°Linti and the cats. Everyone at the Miracle Oak.¡±


    I suck down a deep, ragged breath, ¡°That¡¯s, that¡¯s good at least. Wait, we never got around to evacuating all the beavers, or finding the renegade contingent of critterfolk, or, or Neighbor-san.¡±


    TQ¡¯s expression is unreadable as they ask, ¡°Would you delay, to seek them out, with the two days you have left? Knowing that every passing moment risks everyone else?¡±


    The question lands like a jab to my gut. I¡¯ve always said, my family¡¯s safety is my top priority, full stop. Luni and Teuila nod along with my train of thoughts. Lil just frowns and growls at Mat.


    I ask aloud, ¡°Do we even risk fighting our way out to be able to say goodbye?¡±


    TQ answers, ¡°It will be all that much harder to return, as you¡¯ve said, spawn points are going crazy, and will continue to go crazier yet still.¡±


    I groan as I facepalm. I continue to press though, ¡°Lu, the message TQ gave me from you was that we would never see Linti again if she stayed with us, probably in this final battle I¡¯m assuming. But you said in the second option, we see her again after a very long time. But we¡¯re going to die here, all of us are agreed, right? There¡¯s no other option, is there?¡±


    Luni bites her trembling lower lip, her gaze flits about nervously as she answers, ¡°I, I don¡¯t know. I didn¡¯t know this would be like this. There¡¯s, there has to be more. I don¡¯t know if there are any other options though.¡±


    Something about Luni¡¯s reply seems off, but I¡¯ll always trust her. I look towards Teuila who stands stoically with her arms crossed.


    Te roughly jokes, ¡°What, you think I¡¯m going to chicken out from a little death? When it¡¯s our family on the line? When Hunter might be on the line? Lin is, I mean we were. It¡¯s, words, you know. At least like this, the big god beast things will reset all these crazy spawns and stuff, right?¡±


    I ponder Teuila¡¯s question, ¡°I, I think that¡¯s right. They said they were going to leave the land completely bare, and that spawn points wouldn¡¯t even start to form again for a long time, if I remember correctly. If the shield works, the only survivors will be everyone at the Miracle Oak.¡±


    That¡¯s right, originally we were going to activate the shield in the hopes that by Maka-Akari¡¯s hints, that it might save our families from the effects of the convergence. But now there¡¯s a second reason to do it, to buy the settlement time until the convergence happens, so that everyone there doesn¡¯t die to endless waves of hostile creatures.


    TQ adds, ¡°If you¡¯re thinking there are only two reasons to do this, there is another. Surely you¡¯ve seen it, Reggie? The Ley Lines, they¡¯re weak, feeble, diseased. This world, this cosmos, this reality, all of it relies on those. They have never reached a critical point to spur an endless chain reaction. This is how to ignite that chain reaction.¡±


    TQ questions me quietly, ¡°Do you understand the candle metaphor yet?¡±


    I squint perplexedly at TQ. Lord Agni referred to the mortal¡¯s time in this realm as a candle that still had time left on it to burn, but there was mention of a candle once somewhere else. I don¡¯t quite remember where it was, so I shake my head.


    TQ clicks their tongue, ¡°Pity. Well, just know that your souls are energy. Think of them like, well, an accelerant that¡¯s always lit, as hot as phosphorous or something, and consider the Ley Lines thermite or some such. Or perhaps think of them as fissibile material, and the Ley Lines a nearly empty reactor. Do you get it? By spending enough souls, enough powerful enough souls, you can get the reaction to be self sustaining.¡±


    I nod along quietly. It makes sense. Sort of.


    I glance around with worried curiosity in my eyes, ¡°So, the cosmos. There really weren¡¯t stars in the sky until recently? They couldn¡¯t be generated because the energy wasn¡¯t propagating? But then why did they start being created if the energy was still finite?¡±


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    TQ shrugs, unhelpfully. They¡¯re hiding something, but it¡¯s not something vital to what we need to do. It¡¯s just a curiosity I¡¯d like sated at some point. Well, not like there will be any points in the future to seek answers to my curiosities.


    Teuila approaches TQ with hostility and malice, sensing the same thing I discerned about TQ hiding something. Te swings her fist and it passes through TQ harmlessly. TQ had mentioned before that it took effort for them to even be corporeal. TQ shrugs and walks through Teuila, unphased by her outburst, literally.


    TQ casually states, ¡°The process of reading, digesting, and enacting the final pages will take several hours. It will be grueling. I recommend you do what you can while you can. If you¡¯re already decided, I suppose even if you aren¡¯t, there¡¯s nothing more tethering me to our world, I¡¯ll likely be fading soon. Thank you again, for working so hard to fulfill so many wishes, of so many beings. All of you.¡±


    TQ, a being that encompasses several wills, or maybe souls, saunters away through a wall. We¡¯ll likely never see them again. I mean, we¡¯ll obviously never see them again, we¡¯re about to die. I check my inventory for anything useful I could leave behind in the hopes that someday it could prove useful to someone who finds it. Almost everything is soulbound at this point, frustratingly.


    I ask, ¡°So, do we risk trying to rescue and evacuate the beavers? Or finding Neighbor-San? Or, or anyone else?¡±


    Teuila looks away, shame playing across her face. I can sense the guilt she feels at not wanting to risk our family for the possibility of finding others to save. Luni similarly avoids my gaze. Mat however meets my gaze sternly, disapprovingly. He only wants to save the Mana twins, more or less.


    Teuila takes my hand and mumbles, ¡°Hey, um, Spooterbutt. I, I know I don¡¯t say the words often. But, but you know, right? Especially now, you have to know, right?¡±


    I nod as I lean in to kiss Teuila softly on the lips once before I rest my forehead on hers. Lil leaps between our torsos and squishes into a shared hug. Luni drives the toes of one of her boots into the ground and rotates that leg side to side shyly.


    I frown as I call out to her, ¡°Lu, are you waiting for an invitation? Come over here. This might be the last time I get to say I love you. I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s an afterlife.¡±


    I swear Luni mutters something under her breath, but I can¡¯t make it out. Still, she relents and joins our group hug. Just then, Lucky¡¯s Hunter form bowls over our entire group hug and he begins lapping at our faces with his enormous tongue. We all laughingly try to shove his face away, and Lil even resumes their secondary form to help shove Lucky off of us. I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s even fair to call that form a Lilagnewt form anymore.


    As Teuila and Lil roughhouse with Lucky for a moment, Luni and I take a few precious seconds to kiss. We stare sadly into each other¡¯s eyes. It feels like we were only just reunited. Luni pulls me into accelerated thinkspace, but the acceleration isn¡¯t as strong as it once was. We sit atop our hill, in the shade of our telepathic tree and just hold hands in silence.


    Luni breaks the silence just as I¡¯m about to speak, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. There¡¯s, I¡¯m sorry. I know, I know that you, I mean. You suspect. I can¡¯t, um. I don¡¯t know how things go, or why things seem to be going this way. I swear. But I¡¯m certain this has to work, you got us here, My Hero. You¡¯ve got this, and I love you, always have, and always will.¡±


    I chuckle wrly, ¡°Always won¡¯t be much longer this time. Eh Lu? I love you too though. You¡¯ve always been such an endearing sweetheart. I remember when you were so shy that you would stutter when talking to anyone other than Lil. I didn¡¯t even know romance could be a thing in our world, let alone in the future between us. Heck, I thought humans were a figment of my imagination, and they were my only source of romantic knowledge. I do love you though. It seems like, in some form or another, I always have. Technically, I¡¯ve loved you since before I even spawned, because I kinda messed up and sent a copy of myself back several decades.¡±


    Luni seems excited when I mention I¡¯ve loved her since before I spawned, but then raises a brow as her face screws up slightly, ¡°Wait, you what? But. What do you remember from doing that?¡±


    I chuckle, chagrined, ¡°I um, I had a panic attack just as I started it, so, um, I might be the cause of my own panic disorder? Maybe?¡±


    Luni presses me further, ¡°Nothing else? Not even¡­? Wait, um, no. No um, no past before you spawned? You, um, yeah you once mentioned that Elder Rinnia said you were a soul at the Miracle Oak before you were you, right?¡±


    Did I say that to Luni? Or was she there when Elder Rinnia told me? I can¡¯t remember. Well, she¡¯s had plenty of time to hear that from someone at this point. I shake my head in response to her questions though. Our mental avatars squeeze tightly against one another as our telepathic getaway becomes unstable. It seems like even this is falling apart as our world enters a chaotic apocalypse.


    When we come back to reality a few minutes after we¡¯d retreated into accelerated thinkspace, Lil notices us first and rushes over to us. Lil wraps me up in their wings and tugs me close with one forelimb. I hug my oldest friend as tears stream down my cheeks.


    I gulp as I try to say something, anything, ¡°Lil, I. I. Glp. I. I love you. You saved me. You gave me heart and courage. You are the reason we ever found a family, that we ever found the people we fell in love with. You¡¯re the reason for all of the best things in our lives.¡±


    Lil playfully butts their forehead to mine, ¡°Awe shucks pal. I love you too. But, right back at you, ya know? I¡¯d just be some bored little spheriform lizard wishing to grow up into a big strong dragon one day, hopping around Fire Biome, eating bugs, if it weren¡¯t for you. Oh hey! I got my duplicates working pretty good now, wanna see?¡±


    I sniffle as I chuckle and nod. Lil summons their umbral duplicates from their inventory, and has them face off against one another in a wrestling match. It¡¯s really impressive, it¡¯s almost as if they¡¯re autonomous at this point.


    Lil continues, ¡°Lucky and I couldn¡¯t do all the digging alone, we needed some help, and thanks to you, that help was just sitting in my inventory. Lucky break, huh?¡±


    I snort with laughter for a moment, unsure if Lil did that intentionally. I raise an eyebrow at their pun, and Lil looks into my eyes with a confused expression on their face. I guess it wasn¡¯t intentional after all.


    So, I respond, ¡°Seems that way buddy, seems that way. It¡¯s odd that us sharing skills, and yours bugging out, ended up leading to that. I had to put you into my inventory and then the duplicates and just, who would have thought that that¡¯s how that would culminate?¡±


    Lil shrugs, ¡°I¡¯unno buddy, but um. Thanks anyway. It was a swell ride. We got a lot longer than most. You know? All that time in thinkspace.¡±


    I nod in agreement. Lil, Luni, Teuila and I have all had decades, if not centuries of idyllic time passed in thinkspace. I approach Teuila who appears uncharacteristically shy at the moment. I clasp her hands and gaze questioningly into her eyes. She nods, so the two of us make our way towards the tome pedestals two rooms away. As much as we love each other, there¡¯s really nothing more we can say. As much as we want to cherish every second we have left, every second we spend is time that things could go wrong, time that risks our family.


    Hopefully Linti and the Nagas make it into the barrier before we activate it. Hopefully Spice and Teodora can get the secondary construction done quickly enough that they can activate and deactivate small sections of the shield as needed, or cause it to be permeable from one direction and solid from the other on a whim. Obviously that won¡¯t be happening now, or even today, but in the coming weeks, during or after the apocalypse, it would be nice if they had all the possible functionality at their disposal.


    Lucky is the first to follow us, so I pause a moment to hug his enormous head. I ruffle the fur atop his head and play with his mane for a bit, all the while he¡¯s trying to bowl me over to lick me again, but I hold my ground. Teuila laughs and pulls me away from Lucky so that we can inspect the pedestals.


    Luni carries what we need to finish setting the pedestals up with the appropriate tomes. She¡¯ll be along any instant now. I can¡¯t imagine she wants to spend much time in private with Mat right before the end. Lil arrives shortly after Teuila and I make it to the pedestals, though Lil seems a bit out of it. It¡¯s almost like Lil is on auto-pilot.


    I start, ¡°Teuila, Lil, Lucky, you¡¯re all so important to me. I¡¯d do this in a heartbeat for any of you, if I could find a way, I¡¯d do this instead of you, I¨C¡±


    Te interrupts, ¡°Bup, nuh uh, none of that. Me and my dorky little dragbutt over here would do the same, aint that right Lil?¡±


    Lil seems to snap to reality, then nods emphatically, adding, ¡°Sure thing! Rej isn¡¯t the only one that wants the rest of us safe. We all wish we could be the only ones leaving, so that the others could go on. But you know what? I¡¯m glad it¡¯s all of us at once. Wish I got to say goodbye to Dehl though. At least Mat is going down with us.¡±


    Lil sounds so bloodthirsty about Mat, but I can¡¯t exactly blame them. The Nagas were the first reptilian people we found that weren¡¯t out to kill us, well, sort of. I¡¯m sure Lil felt some kinship with them, especially with Dehlia. There¡¯s no forgiving Mat for something like that, even if we didn¡¯t personally know many Nagas. I am a bit surprised to hear Lil say they¡¯re glad it¡¯s all of us at once, but I understand the sentiment behind it.


    Luni skips into the room, seeming more upbeat than I¡¯d expect. She checks all of the pedestals and places all the tomes in the correct order. Telepathically she sends me a wink, which is ever-so mildly disquieting. That makes me think there¡¯s definitely something she¡¯s hiding. Why even bother with secrecy moments before our demise? Oh well, maybe she¡¯s just being cutesy, trying to keep her emotions aloft to go out on a high note.


    I run a finger around the edge of my tome, inspecting it. The word ¡®gals¡¯ flows into my mind, oddly enough. I take that as a cue to look at the gals of my inner circle that are here, the two women I¡¯ve been in love with the longest in our current timeline, maybe in all timelines. Te¡¯s hair is an absolute mess, even after having been hit with the soap stone repeatedly during and after battling, though I guess a spiky side-swept undercut doesn¡¯t really change much if any patch of hair is out of place. Luni¡¯s bob and her bangs are somehow relatively perfect. Hm, hairstyles, why am I thinking about hairstyles? Why does thinking about them seem familiar?


    Teuila adopts her most human appearing form, and Luni follows suit. The contrast between their outfits like this is almost hilarious. Teuila¡¯s gorgeous chocolate and cherry dress, and Luni¡¯s dragon kigurumi couldn¡¯t be more different. Lil surprises all of us by adopting a very androgynous humanoid reptilian form, unclothed, but still. Oh, clothes for Lil.


    I mumble, ¡°Um, that¡¯s pretty neat Lil, it looks great on you. Te and I got this from a boss fight, it doesn¡¯t seem to work like other magic items, but I think it would fit your Lilagnewt form. It¡¯s some kind of stormy belt or harness, and it¡¯s absolutely giant, and heavy. Here you go buddy, I uh, I guess like, happy birthday for missing your birthday.¡±


    Lil responds while laughing, ¡°Hehe, a present? Well you don¡¯t have to twist my arm to get me to accept it, even at a time like this! Thanks Reggie, thanks Te, both of you, for um, thinking of me, even while we were apart. I missed you both, and you especially Lu. I love you so much. I¡¯m a bit jealous that Reggie got to reunite with you earlier than me. Thanks for the thinkspace time though.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, Lu clarifies, ¡°I was trying to focus on getting as strong of an acceleration as I could for thinkspace with Lil, that¡¯s what took me a few minutes to catch up.¡±


    Oh, that¡¯s probably also why she was so happy when she arrived, she must have spent a couple of days with Lil if she was able to get thinkspace acceleration up to normal levels.


    I start opening my tome, and one by one the others follow suit. There are wistful gazes, hateful gazes, gazes galore exchanged before we begin reading our final pages. It¡¯s odd, the words on the final pages seem meaningless at the moment, yet I can feel time being stolen, passing more quickly than I want, racing towards our final moments. I fight to pry my gaze away momentarily, making certain I have the correct book. I do, but it looks like all of the others are struggling with the same theft of time. It¡¯s almost as if the books are draining our futures from us. Maybe they¡¯re doing exactly that. Teodora offhandedly joked that we would need over a decade of future energy compressed down into the here and now to activate the shield.


    Actually, the ley lines that swirl as a mass of colorful energy surrounding us already seem slightly stronger. Okay, that¡¯s all the sign I need that this is the right course of action. I resume reading my tome, even willing myself to speed further headlong towards the finality of it all. I read faster and push harder in order to catch up to the others that hadn¡¯t broken away from their tomes at all. Finally, I can read the last word in my tome, the word is ¡®world.¡¯


    I look up from my book, and the others look up from theirs as well, slightly surprised we¡¯re still alive, but then the feeling hits. We¡¯re each gripped by an invisible force, a force tethered to the tomes and pedestals. The force digs into us, leeching something away. It doesn¡¯t take long to realize that it is life force, or perhaps the force is leeching our souls themselves.


    As our life forces drain, hopefully saving our world, and loved ones, I look back and I can¡¯t say it was a bad life. I¡¯ve done things I regret, sure. There¡¯s more I¡¯d like to do, always. But here we are at the end of all things, sacrificing ourselves and hoping that it puts a stop to the destruction of the Miracle Oak by the four gods¡¯ convergence. Even if it doesn¡¯t, hopefully the energy we release to propagate and perpetuate our world¡¯s existence will activate the shield on their sanctuary. It¡¯s our only hope. It feels like a pretty good hope at least.


    My oldest companion slumps and begins to derez first, their polygons are sucked towards the pedestal by way of the open tome. I don¡¯t think I can bear to watch. I¡¯m tempted to retreat into my mindscape, but then again, these are the last moments I will ever see my companions in all of existence. I can¡¯t waste them. Lil offers no complaints as they begin to die again, it¡¯s not their first time after all.


    Lucky howls and begins to derez next. His polygons similarly float towards the pedestal with his tome. In a way, Lucky is my son with Luni. He¡¯s a life that we went through a convoluted process together to create. Luni sends an image of her mental avatar blushing and nodding, but then blowing a raspberry in response to my thought. Even in the end she¡¯s one of the most adorable beings in existence. I feel bad that in some ways we created Lucky with his eventual sacrifice in mind.


    Luni shrieks in pain and begins to derez next. I can¡¯t bear it, I almost break off and reset time to stop us from performing this sacrifice. I¡¯m so in love with her, as much as I am with Teuila. Teuila is sobbing next to me, and barely preventing herself from telling me to do it. Te doesn¡¯t want her Lu to suffer any more than I do.


    Mataalii grunts, trying to put on a brave face as his polygons are slowly stripped away. Even after all this time, I¡¯m still conflicted. I started to hate him, I really did. I couldn¡¯t even comprehend that he might be able to be saved some day. I understand why I had to instruct Luni to let things play out this way, but having to kill my own brother, and seeing him resurrected was just, ugh. And now, to see him dying again, partially at my request?


    The fact that I¡¯m next, and Teuila has to witness it breaks my heart. Lil was My-Heart, their vanishing first feels like that¡¯s the only reason that I can even persist. It feels like my actual heart disappeared with Lil, so that there¡¯s nothing left to break or ache. Teuila will bear witness to my death, we still don¡¯t know if it will be gruesome or if I will derez. My-Anchor left, so my sanity is barely here, or else I might still be able to seriously contemplate resetting time. Now I feel the pull. Blood drains from every pore on my body as it¡¯s sucked towards the tome on my pedestal. This is it, the final goodbye. I can¡¯t even tell if those are my tears, or just fluids being sucked from my eyes. As every shred, fiber, and atom of my being is sucked away from me, the pain is beyond imagining, yet I only care that my beloved inner circle had to suffer this, that my beloved Teuila has yet to still suffer this.


    I guess I hope there¡¯s an afterlife. I mean, there¡¯re gods right? I manage one last sigh at my foolhardy hope as everything fades to black. The last sound I ever hear being Teuila¡¯s wail of anguish, the last sight being Teuila¡¯s hand reaching for mine as I reach towards her one last time.


    Hm, the final goodbye isn¡¯t so bad, the darkness is cool, but soothing. It almost feels like moving quickly in Teuila¡¯s arms. Similar to her ability to travel at speeds too fast to comprehend while guarded against undesirable effects by ancillary powers. I did always enjoy that feeling. I suppose I could endure this for eternity. Wait, why¡¯s the darkness awash in diamonds that sparkle like galaxies?


    Oh, maybe it¡¯s one last terror-induced out of body experience. There¡¯s my body. I guess I died a gruesome death instead of derezzing after all. Wait. That¡¯s not the body of Reggie Shellcracker. But somehow I know, definitively, that that corpse belongs to me. Why is Lil inspecting that corpse? How is Lil inspecting that corpse? How is Lil even there to inspect a corpse? Lucky joins in by sniffing it. Luni sits near it, she weeps several tears, kisses her fingertips and touches them to the body¡¯s face. Mata appears nearby, distraught. What¡¯s going on? The temple looks slightly different. It¡¯s not quite right, it¡¯s not the temple I know.


    This can¡¯t be right. Can it? If we¡¯re in a different temple, we might not even be on the same planet anymore. That means we¡¯re not in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas anymore.


    Suddenly sensations of sound and touch return. Teuila¡¯s hand is the first thing I feel as we seemingly arrive in a brand new world.

 B 4 C 1: Arrival

    I gaze across the open cavern with the worked brick floor at my companions. There¡¯s my brother, Mataalii, one who hated me, whose hate drove him to endanger his own family, our family, as he tried to kill me. My brother, one that I slew in a battle near the fire biome of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. My brother sits sullenly at the furthest point in the cavernous temple room from me, his stare directed at the corpse on the floor.


    The other assembled companions who crossed into this world with me after our death in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas include Teuila and Luni, otterfolk sisters, or at least they think of each other as sisters, since biology didn¡¯t really happen back in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas in the early days. Teuila is the woman I first fell in love with, I call her my wings. She¡¯s adopted her almost entirely human form, and she juggles two pebbles in a single hand as she gazes absentmindedly around the room. Luni, Lil¡¯s first love, fought hard to get me to notice her love for me. She saved us all, time and time again. Her future selves being sent through the timeline into her own memories are how we got to the point where our family might be safe against the godly calamity about to happen back home. She had to keep so many secrets, and let horrible things happen in order for this timeline to play out as it did, but if I had learned of any of those events in advance, I¡¯d have ruined the timeline, and we wouldn¡¯t have been able to save our family in the end.


    Despite it being me with the power to send messages, personality ghosts, and memory fragments back in time, I entrusted it all to Luni. Luni and I love each other as strongly as Teuila and I do at this point in our lives. Luni¡¯s love for Lil is even greater than that, at least I believe so. Lil, my draconic companion, sits in their Lilagnewt form, their feraform stage, this small red dragon is at least the size of a hippopotamus, perhaps closer to an elephant at this stage. Their scales have come in nicely, as they used to be soft, newt-like skin. Their wings are also resplendent, similarly, no longer a soft, webbing-like pair of wings. But now rugged frames extruding from their impressive scapula, with dactyl-leather sturdier than a ship¡¯s sails.


    Luni and Lil fell in love with each other when they were both in their spheriform stage of evolution as the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterfolk would call it. They looked like little blobular spheres with a few traits of the creature they were intended to be, like Lil¡¯s scaly tail in that form, or Luni¡¯s silky fur. Luni, like Teuila, has adopted her most humanoid form with her own evolution magic. The transformation includes clothing, and hers seems so out of place in a dusty temple, a cutesy dark dragon kigurumi. That¡¯s sort of like a pajama with a hoodie and other features representing a character or creature. Like I said, Lu¡¯s love for Lil above all is evident. At least to me. Lil after all was pivotal in saving her life after the Night of High Water.


    The Night of High Water brought Teuila and I together too, but Lil and Lu¡¯s story is key to so much in our lives and timeline. Luni had died and was in the process of derezzing, as critterkin do in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. We, well, they, are made of polygons and pixels somehow, yet still flesh and, well, not blood, but fur and bone. It was a combined effort to rescue Luni from oblivion, but Lil had given up a fragment of their heart, their very core, while suspended in my inventory with Luni. Some of Lil¡¯s heart also bled over into me. A side effect of the process is apparently that the two of us have a dragon¡¯s longevity now, that is, immortal longevity. The three of us have had a psychic link ever since the episode, and, much later, through folly of my own, I nearly died, but also extended that psychic link to Teuila, and seemingly shared my portion of Lil¡¯s draconic agelessness.


    Our tale was full of so much struggle and strife, but also love and affection. A family whose nightly rituals included sharing stories, jokes, or songs until we were all ready for sleep, and then sleeping in a pile amongst one another for comfort, and safety. I gained so many magics in my quest to keep this family safe, the family that I joined during the Night of High Water. The last time I used my magics however, just using them nearly killed me. They¡¯ve become so strong that my body can¡¯t sustain their use any longer.


    That might not be an issue here. The air feels different somehow, like a static charge permeates everything, that undetectable thrum of energy, or mana. It feels like it¡¯s overflowing in the very atmosphere. Yet the difference is something more that I can¡¯t put my finger on. The air tastes different, the color in the dimly lit cavern reaches my eyes differently. It¡¯s like we exist in a realm with an entirely different spectrum for every aspect of our lives. I¡¯m fairly certain we¡¯ve left our entire world behind.


    One of the clinchers is that corpse on the ground. It feels familiar somehow. As I was drawn through the darkness of eternity, the cool calm nothingness of non-existence, I was certain I was forever dead and alone. Yet when I arrived here, and sensation returned, Teuila¡¯s outstretched hand had taken mine as she died along with me, and two things reached my brain. The tactile sensation of her silky-furred hand, and the sight of that corpse. When the sight registered, my brain immediately decided that the corpse belonged to me.


    Somehow I know, that''s my corpse over there. The corpse is only maybe a couple of hours old. The only problem is, we''re not in Can''Z''aas anymore. I peer at the corpse more intently. On the belt is a dagger in a bone sheath with alchemical symbols for antimony, arsenic, and quicksilver. If the symbols are more, well, symbolic, rather than literal, that¡¯s a pretty good composition of things for, say, an assassin¡¯s dagger. Wait a minute.


    My jaw drops as I stutter, my mouth trying to keep pace with my racing brain, ¡°Hey, that¡¯s my, wait, the assassin, wait no, Aces¡¯, wait, no, that¡¯s Taylynn¡¯s dag-¡°


    Luni excitedly interrupts me, ¡°You remember Taylynn?!¡± She meekly mutters a question that I can hardly hear, ¡°Anyone else?¡±


    Shaken from my brain stuttering episode, I turn to focus on Luni, ¡°What? I mean, she¡¯s a character from one of my dreams, well, a couple of them. Wait, how do you know Taylynn?¡±


    Luni¡¯s gaze immediately flits away from mine as she rocks back and forth on her heels, ¡°Right, dreams, yeah, your memory logs I guess, or you must have been thinking about your dreams while I was riding your thoughts for so long.¡±


    I peer more intently, trying to catch Luni¡¯s gaze. She¡¯s being exceedingly coy at the moment. We just died together, and ended up in a whole new world, but still with the secrets? Apparently perishing doesn¡¯t put a damper on Lu¡¯s plans. Regardless, I prod one last time on the issue, ¡°I don¡¯t think I had those dreams until recently though, and still, why were you so excited about me remembering her?¡±


    Luni fumes with her cheeks puffed. She turns to stomp away while muttering, ¡°Ugh, not her. She¡¯s, I mean, she¡¯s fine.¡± Suddenly she changes her mind and rushes up to me to take my hands and meet my gaze, ¡°Never mind, anyway, Quick! Slow it down! if you ever want to see our family again, you have to slow down the connection. It¡¯s even faster than thinkspace time, you have to make it slower. Please?"


    Luni motions towards empty air in front of the body on the temple floor. Other than a swirl of sand from eroded brick in the barely-noticeable breeze in the room, there¡¯s nothing to interact with. I''m mystified as I try to figure out what Luni''s asking of me, but I sense a vaguely orblike presence near the corpse on the floor. I withdraw the impressive staff that contains a host of spells in it from my inventory, and cast its aura vision spell. Sure enough, there¡¯s something there, a lumpy sphere. There¡¯s four small bumps on it. But it¡¯s as if it doesn¡¯t want to be perceived by even the aura vision. It seems as if it¡¯s trying to get away from notice, gaining its strength. The faint pulsing it gives off grows harder with each passing moment.


    I start to comment on it, "There''s, there''s something there, it''s invisible, but it''s pulsing, faintly. I think it''s growing stronger."


    Lu affirms, "Yes, I know you couldn''t see it, but it''s, it''s this one''s soul, and our world. It''s both, I¡¯m sure of it. Please don¡¯t ask how."


    If it''s that one''s soul, and our world, and it''s accelerated like our think space, then every moment passing here is thousands of moments passing there! Please don''t be gone, please don''t be gone. I reach towards the feeling of energy in the air, and a sensation passes along my brain that¡¯s unfamiliar. The sensation is knowledge of magic seeking a way to teach me its secrets. There''s math in my head along with the menus. I change a coefficient of something like ten thousand all the way down to something like one four hundred eighty thousandth. These are the values it wanted me to understand, or at least to use.


    If my math is right, even the scant minute or two we''ve been here, it could have been days or weeks in Can''Z''aas. All that time with our families, lost. If they''re even still alive. I try to view my mind''s eye interface, my inventory, my family''s party information, it all seems sluggish to bring up, taking minutes to gaze around. Eventually my mental menu grinds to a halt and fritzes out as badly as my early time in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


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    I try not to think about the exact date that my menus used to look like this, and I fail. It was Day One, the start of it all, my existence after spawning, after having been a soul at the Miracle Oak. I drop to my knees, quaking and gasping for breath as my vision¡¯s focus changes rapidly to a pinpoint of tunnel vision. My pulse throbs in my ears, threatening to hammer them out, off of my head. I begin to sway as I barely maintain consciousness.


    Luni, misinterpreting my panic attack tries to reassure me, "I think we''re okay, I think you got it in time. I think there was some lag time while we crossed over before we met the time acceleration, or rather the deceleration I guess, compared to what they were experiencing."


    I get lost in thought. I can¡¯t make sense of what Luni was trying to tell me as I¡¯m running for my life in my mind, away from the terrors of Day One. I try to escape in any way possible, and I realize I can¡¯t retreat into thinkspace, or browse my logs, or manipulate my inventory. My assembled companions busy themselves with excited chatter and questions, but I find myself unable to concentrate or listen to what they¡¯re saying as I ride out my panic attack. After nearly ten minutes, I briefly pop into my thinkspace as my telepathic avatar. Shortly after that, my mental logs flood my mind¡¯s eye. Immediately afterwards, several items materialize from thin air, ejected from my inventory. Each activation of an ability only happens for a moment.


    There¡¯s a warmth along my back, someone had been stroking my shoulder to comfort me, perhaps multiple someones. But I couldn¡¯t be shaken from that panic, so they gave me space to breathe.


    I mumble as I postulate, "Guys, I don''t think our powers work the same here, it''s like, they''re on a really long delay. Almost as if we have to call the energy all the way from another world to activate our abilities. I mean, if we''re lucky, a dragon is still going to be able to fly and breathe fire, and Valkyrie might still be able to jump crazy far and fast, but our other powers that required energy won''t activate until way later than we need them."


    No one seems to notice my rambling mumbles, but Lil hops over to me to snuggle their impressive maw against my thigh as I remain lost in thought once more, no longer in a panic. Hm, the tattoo tendrils will work, that''s good, they''re potent, those will keep Luni safe. Lil''s cloak of anti-hostility illusionry will keep them safe. I have a feeling that dragons probably aren''t welcome wherever we are though. I''m not sure if the staves or crossbow will work. My danger wraps seem active though, as I can still sense the area around me with their strangely comforting ranged tactile sense.


    I stand and embrace Lil¡¯s neck and shoulders. My best buddy from before I even started journeying or adventuring. Lil and I have been through thick and thin, hell and high water together. Quite literally in that last phrase. For the last few months though, we had been apart. Lil was instructed to dig channels for the ley lines of our world, and I had to dig a moat, a canal, and a lava reservoir. I also had to talk to the four gods, finish a dungeon with Teuila, and work on the construction of the Shield of Lacrimosa Trifecta. Life was fairly busy in those final days.


    Wow, how many people can wax poetic about their final days as an afterthought, looking back? I suppose maybe Olioli and Penina could. They¡¯re two of our smallest family members that died on the Night of High Water. Through some miracle or another, they respawned as eggs much later, in entirely different locations. The people that hatched though, didn¡¯t have memory logs, and seemed unable to talk. It¡¯s almost as if they were truly babies for the first time ever. Most of us spawned with a full head of knowledge, and the ability to self-actualize our way into various forms and evolutions. Thus, age, like biology, due to their digital nature, really wasn¡¯t a thing for critterkin.


    That brings to mind how things seemed to be changing though in the final days. More physics and nature seemed to apply to the rules of our world, and so many laws of our reality seemed bent to the point of breaking. Things I took for granted as being impossible became commonplace. While originally it was only me and Lil among all critterkin who had inventory magic, by the end I couldn¡¯t keep track of how many people were gaining it. Well, in the middle we found a way to break the rules of the system to grant inventory magic to an incredibly limited number. Magic bags from a dungeon that was destroyed. That was the first hint that the world was reaching a tipping point. The cragbeasts had originally fought amongst themselves enough to keep their population down, but they stopped for some reason, and their population was about to boom. If the Shellcracker Adventuring Party hadn¡¯t gone in when we did, they¡¯d have been able to break the red barrier on their own and be unleashed on the land, with their destructive tendencies aimed at anyone and anything else.


    The next hint that things were changing was when we suddenly found a human settlement. We had originally thought I was a human, perhaps a human child due to my cherubic appearance, but that was definitely proven wrong. I now know I bore more resemblance to the changeling Fairies from the Miracle Oak. Despite all that, we thought I was the only human in existence, or that humans simply didn¡¯t exist, and our memories that we spawned with, the ones that detailed things like science in a human society, were glitches of our world. Yet there it was, Eimsas, frontier-town of Geawerene. Humans existed in ways contradictory to critterkin. They ate by masticating, rather than digitally consuming, they had biology and waste and children and everything that wasn¡¯t supposed to exist in our world.


    Our world! Our family. We left them at the Miracle Oak, surrounded by a hoard of mite-hulks to the north, and encroaching giant insects from the south. Linti, Lightning Hunter, a humaform cat woman whom I adore beyond words was left behind as their strongest defender. Despite her prejudices against the Nagafolk, she was left in charge of their evacuation to the Miracle Oak, to hopefully get them within the shield before its activation. We¡¯re hoping the shield keeps out both the surrounding hordes, as well as whatever apocalypse is coming when the four gods combine. Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate, was wise and kind. Lady Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, was friendly and silly and fun. Lady Maka-Akari, Gaea¡¯s Cradle was practical, calm. Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River, however, was basically hatred incarnate. The four are fated to combine any week now. Their combination in the Hallowed Maelstrom heralds an oncoming cataclysm that wipes the slate of our world clean, at least the continent on which we resided.


    I want to get back to them, I want to ensure their safety more than anything. Of course I long to be with them, but more than anything else, I just want them to be safe, to be able to go on living, to find joy. Laomati and Agwai were going to marry! They learned about it from humans. They deserve the happiness of sharing their love in a ceremony for their loved ones to witness. We have to get back to them somehow, just to ensure their safety.


    While standing at the orb that is both soul and world, I ask no one in particular, ¡°Can we just use this to somehow go back? I¡¯m worried about the activation of the shield, and our family.¡±


    Luni approaches me to embrace me. While there she says, "Some day, we''ll be strong enough to go back and save them, or, well, strong enough to go back at least, and try. The world will be stronger then, too. I''m almost sure of it.¡± Luni rests her chin on my shoulder and slumps against Lil momentarily. Lu fidgets as she turns towards Teuila, ¡°But um, anyway, T, please tell me you remember?  You remember now, right?  You have to.  Can I tell them now? Please?"


    Teuila looks completely lost at Luni''s request.


    Luni frowns, pouts , and stomps, "Ugh! It''s not fair, you, you butt! You''re a butt, and you!¡± Luni turns to face me, her cheeks puffed and reddened, ¡°You''re a butt too! You''re both butts!"


    I''m a tad flabbergasted at Luni''s tantrum. We''re missing something that must be important to her. What did we forget, and when?


    Teuila tries to make it up to Luni, ¡°Luuuu, what the heck is that about, c¡¯mere! Look, I¡¯ll, um, oh I know, I got something cool while we were fighting our way down, here, you can have it, because you¡¯re my favorite sister.¡± Teuila looks puzzled as she tries to access her inventory, "I, I can''t really use my inventory or menu, but I can still talk. I feel myself talking, and I can understand you guys. I only just now realized we¡¯re not doing it like normal."


    Luni pauses her tirade to take on a quizzical expression herself, "Huh, you¡¯re right. That¡¯s sort of unexpected. Though, I guess I honestly didn''t expect us to even keep these bodies."


    I raise an eyebrow at Luni¡¯s phrasing, "I don''t think any of us expected to keep our bodies Lu. We thought we were dying."


    Luni¡¯s gaze darts away from mine as she mutters, "Right, yeah, never mind."


    As I¡¯m about to press Luni on her foreknowledge, Mat grumbles, "That''s it, I''m out of here."


    He looks constipated as he scrunches his face and leans forward. I raise an eyebrow as I grimace, unsure what he''s trying to do. Luni tries to stifle a laugh, and Teuila beans Mat with a pebble that she had been juggling in one hand.


    Te calls out, "Hey rocks-for-brains, are you trying to gas us to death after we just died, or what?"


    Mat angrily replies, "Just shut up, I''m trying to fly away. I''m done with all of you, this is as much as I agreed to. Hell, it''s more. We saved the world, or our family, or whatever, maybe, probably. My flying isn''t working though."


    As I thought, our abilities either won¡¯t work, or won¡¯t activate for several minutes at the minimum. If abilities took an hour to use or regain the energy from, would they take four hundred eighty thousand hours now? The magic that reached its way into my brain, to teach me about the mathematics of our time connection to our world, wanted those numbers specifically. I suppose if abilities took a millisecond to begin to work originally, they might take something like eight minutes or so to engage now. The problem is focusing for eight minutes on maintaining the idea of what you want to do eight minutes after each second that¡¯s currently passing.


    Sure enough, as Teuila and Mataalii bicker with each other for several minutes, while Luni cuddles Lil, about eight to ten minutes pass. Suddenly Mat¡¯s feet leave the ground out from under him, raised into the air behind him as he floats for a fraction of a second then falls flat on his face.


    Teuila bursts into laughter, and Lil snickers. Lil turns to face me, ¡°So, buddy, can I kill him now?¡±

 B 4 C 2: Bless the Rains

    I nearly topple over as Lil turns to meet my gaze. Partially since I¡¯m leaning against Lil¡¯s haunches. Still, my gaze widens in shock as I sputter, ¡°What? Lil, I, I, I¡¯m not going to give you permission to kill someone, especially not a family member. That¡¯s --¡±


    Lil interrupts, retorting, ¡°Even if it¡¯s Mat?¡±


    I wanted to tell Lil that such a decision isn¡¯t up to me, but I¡¯m so incredulous that I can barely respond, ¡°Yes, even if it¡¯s Mat.¡±


    Lil prods in what seems almost like a jokingly wheedling voice, ¡°But you got to kill him once already, it¡¯s my turn now, right?¡±


    I shake my head incredulously, ¡°Lil, it broke my heart to have to do that, he was pure evil at the time, out of his mind.¡±


    Lil growls at my answer and stands so that I fall from my position leaning against their haunches. They then stalk away angrily, muttering to themselves. I look to Luni, but she shrugs with a mixture of uncertainty and helplessness. Teuila, for her part, is trying to stifle her snorted laughter at the exchange. I can¡¯t reach any of my inner circle telepathically, at least not with immediacy, so I can¡¯t politely nudge Teuila that her laughter is inappropriate. Lil seems genuinely hurt by this, but it¡¯s not my place to give someone permission to kill someone else. If only Lil could sense my thoughts right now so they could understand where I¡¯m coming from.


    Lucky sniffs around in circles and decides to follow Lil as Lil stalks away.


    Mataalii actually addresses me directly for the first time in I don¡¯t know how long, ¡°Hey, you, yeah, uh, Reggie. You¡¯re not going to sic your dragon on me are you?¡±


    I frown as my irritation grows, ¡°Mat, Lil isn¡¯t my dragon. They¡¯re their own person, the one that holds my longest friendship. But also of course I¡¯m not going to sic anyone on anyone else. Do none of you understand how much I abhorred the insane amount of killing that I had to do in our world? How, when I took sapient lives, I felt sick, and nearly lost my mind? How much ¡ª¡°


    Mat interrupts me, ¡°Didn¡¯t seem like you had much problem killing me.¡±


    My rage forces forth words spat like weapons as I explode with anger, ¡°I hated every moment of each of our confrontations! I fought against fate and nearly tore the timeline asunder to not have to kill you! If it weren¡¯t for Luni, I¡¯d have ruined our chances of saving our family to try everything in my power to bring you back to us! Ever since you disappeared on the Night of All Burn, all I wanted from you was my grumpy brother back! I didn¡¯t care that you didn¡¯t like me, I just wanted you to have the life with your family that you and our family deserved!¡±


    Tears stream unbidden, the water welling up and clouding my vision. Still, before my vision became indiscernible, Mataalii appeared to be taken aback. I stumble blindly towards the nearest wall and slam my fist into it in frustration. Ow, okay, physics are more realistic here, I split the skin on several of my knuckles against the stone. That makes me all the more certain we¡¯ve left Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Plus, Luni said our world is somehow also that ethereal floating spirit orb over there, with the four smaller orbs lumped onto it. Wait, if that orb is a soul, belonging to the assassin on the floor.


    Wait, no, it can¡¯t be. The five souls of origin? One soul with four others lumped onto it? We¡¯re the five souls of origin, the tome-keepers. Lil was the original soul. But that would mean. It would mean. Wait, no, it, no. The four of us lived a life on this world, and died? Our souls combined to make an entirely new world? Ace called their dog Eights a good luck charm, really lucky. Wait, wait, there was a time when there was a clue that I couldn¡¯t quite remember, wrath, hatred, indignation, fury, theft, something malformed, corruption, an alabaster temple. I couldn¡¯t quite place it back then. This isn¡¯t an alabaster temple by any means, but that soul is malformed. It¡¯s malformed because other souls are embedded into it, tacked onto it.


    There¡¯s a static that permeates my mind-space, a loud crackle that threatens to drown my thoughts in inescapable discord. Suddenly that crackle becomes clearer and clearer as Luni¡¯s telepathic voice, but even with added clarity, I can¡¯t communicate back to her, or even really understand her. All I can make out is her saying that I¡¯m not ready.


    I walk my way back to Luni and slump my chin onto her shoulder so that I can whisper, ¡°Not ready for what?¡±


    Lu shakes her head sadly, ¡°I¡¯m not even sure anymore. There¡¯s more though, layers and levels, things deeper that we can¡¯t address until everyone is ready. Te has to get her, I mean. You also, but I can¡¯t even say. I promised.¡±


    With Luni cutting herself off in the middle of her sentences, I¡¯m just as confused as before, if not more so. I feel another pair of arms wrap around me from behind, Teuila¡¯s. The three of us stand in a quiet embrace for some time before Lil finally stalks over to us.


    Lil grumbles, ¡°I can¡¯t believe this, he got killed twice, and I didn¡¯t get to do it either time to pay him back for all the Nagas he hurt and killed. This sucks mega bad, mega mega mega bad. You wouldn¡¯t stop me if he did it to the cats.¡±


    I sputter in disbelief. Did Lil just accuse me of being racist against scalekind, not showing them the same justice I would for others?


    I start, ¡°Lil, greatest buddy, I¡¯m not stopping you, I¡¯m just not going to tell you to murder someone in cold blood. Someone who is effectively a different person than the one who did those things. If you¡¯re going to do it, I literally could not stop you, you¡¯re far more powerful than me here. It¡¯s not up to me to give permission, or the order, to kill someone. The only person stopping you, is you. For that restraint, I thank you. I beg your forgiveness for my part in all of it, and I also beg your patience on his behalf.¡±


    Lil snarls back, ¡°If anyone should be begging my forgiveness, it¡¯s him!¡±


    My shoulders slump, defeated. Lil isn¡¯t really wrong there. Lil¡¯s face screws up as they come to a startling revelation it seems.


    Lil begins, ¡°Wait, wait maybe you should too. You have your time powers, but you let all that horrible stuff happen. All our chameleon friends, so many Nagas. You couldn¡¯t think of something to at least not have those happen? What kind of friend lets those things happen? Huh!?¡±


    I stumble out of Lu and Te¡¯s embrace, falling to my rear as I back away from Lil who continues to butt my chest with their snout. I¡¯ve become the target of my best and oldest friend¡¯s anger. What¡¯s worse, I can¡¯t fault their logic. Should I try to reset time now? Would it send this consciousness version of me back, across an entire world, through a death and rebirth? Could I stop Mat before that? At what point could I find him? Where in the timeline could I go that would stop those events from happening? Mat still has to have the powers that he does, our family had to vacate Shellcracker Pond, the humans had to be convinced to do so many things. The humans were almost the worst part, and I¡¯m sure that half the reason they agreed to so many demands was because of my part on the Night of All Burn. I basically turned into a Kaiju monstrosity and flash froze dozens, maybe hundreds of square miles of lava, with their help of course, but still.


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    Another factor about that whole time is how desperately we needed a liaison between humans and critterkin. We wouldn¡¯t have been able to communicate with any of the humans if it weren¡¯t for the help of wind magic, magic that found Bettie only through the sacrifices of Har and Sal. Har and Sal I realize could probably, and would probably, have taken down Mataalii the next time he targeted the Lavaborn Alliance. Their wide array of wind control could have shut down his flight, making his escape less likely, even with his mini teleports.


    Wait, why did Szintoc and Brastley¡¯s messages not go through? They were spells cast upon the wind. Lu said that if we tried to bring Sylphie back, that she would be different somehow. Mat stole the censer that summons or revives Sylphie during that raid, and the bell during the raid on the Chameleonfolk village. Did Mat¡¯s messing with Sylphie cause wind magic in that large area to screw up? Is Sylphie back as a vengeful spirit?


    As much as I hate to admit it, those things had to have happened. We couldn¡¯t have built the shield without Mat, but there¡¯s no way that the Nagas in the Lavaborn Alliance would have worked with Mat if they had known what he had done. I can¡¯t believe I went months without telling them, it didn¡¯t even occur to me. I was so tired, and in so much pain, casting so many spells all day every day. Maybe Lil is right, maybe I didn¡¯t give the Nagas the justice they deserve. I think that I thought they already knew, or that someone else took care of telling them. Maybe they do already know, and I¡¯m just misremembering things. It¡¯s even harder to remember properly without being able to access my memory logs.


    Also, the Black Fangs were about to bomb all of the non Black Fangs areas of the Nagas¡¯ settlement. I have to remember that part. They intended to kill Dehlia and her entire faction.


    Lil stops head-butting me in the chest, able to tell that I¡¯m lost in thought. I gaze into Lil¡¯s eyes with an expression that begs forgiveness. However, Lil¡¯s gaze is stern, unforgiving, resolute.


    Luni comes to my rescue, saying, ¡°Lil? I love you, but even if you¡¯re going to kill Mat, maybe don¡¯t do it in here, right now? We¡¯re all so worked up, we went through such a big thing.¡±


    Lil huffs but acquiesces as their shoulders sag. Lil and Lucky begin walking towards what should be an exit to the temple cavern. There are no hourglass statues that mark the corridors between rooms, but otherwise the layouts are similar. Mat hangs back, eyeing the corpse. I don¡¯t like the idea that he might benefit from Ace¡¯s death, or body. Suddenly a thought strikes me.


    I cry out, unexpectedly even to myself, ¡°If those characters are real, I have to get that dagger to Taylynn! She deserves to know what happened to Aces. Maybe Selunie too. I think all three were in a relationship.¡±


    Luni begins to grumble as I mention returning the dagger to Taylynn. However, I could swear Lu makes a gleeful sound and barely restrains herself from clapping giddily as I finish my statement. Does she like that one of the character¡¯s names has her name in it? As I make certain that I¡¯m the only one with any belongings taken from Ace¡¯s corpse, I finally let myself follow Lil and Lucky. I steal one last look at the corpse. The sphere that had hovered near it, which was growing larger and pulsing harder by the moment, is nowhere to be found. Did that soul just pass on? How will we find it again? How will we use it to get home?


    Teuila had become quiet and contemplative in the last few minutes. I think the post-resurrection high must be wearing off for her, or something. She was acting chipper and uninhibited, unrestrained, almost goofy.


    Teuila catches up to me and sniffles as she hoarse-whispers, ¡°I can¡¯t feel it, I can¡¯t bring you to my mind-space to show you how I¡¯m feeling. It¡¯s not fair. It¡¯s so much harder without thinkspace.¡±


    Trying to soothe her, I coo, ¡°Oh Te, My Wings. I love you. I promise I¡¯ll try to help you get through this. Either we¡¯ll get back our mindscapes, or we¡¯ll help you express your emotions, something, anything.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s mindscape was a literal ocean of emotions. The waves were all distinct, we learned what each one meant together. She had her tiny island of joy and safety, little more than a sandbar amidst the sea of roiling emotions within her. Exploring her thoughts and feelings with her took us to literally untold depths of her personality. I know her more intimately than anyone else could ever know another person. I think Luni probably thinks the same thing about me, since she has ridden around in my thoughts for several years, and probed even my accelerated thinkspace for decades upon decades.


    Suddenly I realize how much Luni must be hurting. Her job, the devotion of her existence for so long, was to help keep my mind on a single track that stayed within the bounds of the primary timeline. Lil and her were the first to develop telepathy and accelerated thinkspace. Now she¡¯s cut off from all of that. She can¡¯t share the sneaky little jokes with her ¡®Big Sis¡¯, or the contemplative love of her draconic heart with Lil. She can¡¯t be certain from one moment to the next how I feel about her. She worked so hard to win my love and my notice. I don¡¯t necessarily know why, but she did, and now I can¡¯t offer up my mind to her.


    I whisper, ¡°Te, I think Lu has probably been hiding that she feels kind of the same. She must hurt so bad without our thinkspace. One of the last things she did while we were alive was to take Lil into thinkspace as long as she could. Now she might never get another chance, and they had been apart for so long. I think you two need each other right now. But I¡¯m here too.¡±


    Te frowns through most of my whisper, but nods solemnly at the end, adding, ¡°You too boogerboo. I know how hard it is for you to even go a few days or weeks without someone in your brain reassuring you. It¡¯ll be okay though. I think, I think in this world, I never want to leave your side, ever again. And I want you at mine, obviously, dork. But yeah, I¡¯ll go give Lu a hug and drag her butt out into the warm light of day.¡±


    I chuckle at Teuila¡¯s gruffness. It¡¯s no wonder that Linti and her are so enamored of one another. It was either that, or they would despise each other as rivals, because they¡¯re so similar. Linti is rough around the edges, and somewhat puts on a gruff, rough and tumble, tough act. She may or may not be entirely comfortable expressing her emotions, or admitting that she even has them, even to herself. Of the ways Linti deals with intense emotions, if Linti isn¡¯t putting on a tough face, she¡¯s trying to play something cool, and being totally obvious about it. I remember a time that I¡¯m pretty sure I saw her heart thump when I took on a form that she liked more, when she told me she didn¡¯t want to cuddle someone smaller than her. She totally tried to play it off with a ¡®oh, that¡¯s apparently a thing you can do, might come in handy if you need to reach a high shelf or something.¡¯ All the while she was so flush and flustered.


    Teuila hides the fact that she experiences almost any emotions other than anger and joy, though she wears those on her sleeve. She occasionally tries to admit her more intense feelings, but cannot express them, the words just never fully form. I watch Te as she ambles over to her ¡®Little Sis¡¯. Once there, she wraps up Luni in half of a hug, then spins her into a playful hold to noogie her. That¡¯s not quite the sort of distraction I intended to send Lu¡¯s way, but it works I suppose. The two of them whisper something to each other, but the acoustics in here make the sounds echo before they hit my ears, bouncing off of themselves and each other, making the words out to be no more than ¡®pssh pssh pssh¡¯.


    As I continue exiting the temple, I can sense that they¡¯re following relatively closely behind, and I can vaguely hear the motion that indicates Mataalii is following along behind them. The low roll of thunder that seems to have no end sets a heavy weight on my heart, the sadness that we won¡¯t see Linti for however many years it takes us to find a way back home. A wry laugh escapes me though as an ironic thought crosses my mind. Teuila said she¡¯d drag Lu into the light of day, but as far as I can see, there¡¯s only cloud cover. Endless, dark clouds that sag heavy with rain. The light drizzle that reaches me lands on my exposed skin and stings ever so slightly. It leaves tiny red welts whenever a drop connects. Before I realized that the rain was hurting on contact, my upturned face caught several sprinkles. One droplet that hit my eye caused distressing agony.


    Though mild it may be, this land is beset by acid rain.

 B 4 C 3: Leavings

    As we exit the temple, instead of happening upon the insides of another temple that leads to the top of a pyramid, we instead seem to be leaving tunnels along the western face of a mountain range. Outward, a sort of muddy gravel and dirt path seems to head west, bordered on the north and south by steep foothills. We¡¯re in a bit of a canyon. Despite the acid rain, somewhere from several hundred meters to half a mile away I¡¯m able to spy the edges of what appears to be a field of corn. The stalks look like bean vines are growing up them, probably co-planted. They¡¯ve likely adapted, as they show no signs of wilting, despite the evidence that it has been drizzling for at least several hours, as the dirt-trodden partially gravel path is quite muddy by this point.


    The acid rain seems like a natural phenomenon, and usual occurrence in these lands, and despite it only mildly stinging when hit by a few droplets at a time, I wouldn¡¯t want to be flying through clouds of the stuff. I can¡¯t even see the peaks of the mountains through the dense cloud-cover. Scaling them through essentially acidified air would be horrendous.


    All six of us meander for a moment, milling about the mountainside, unsure of what to do. We wander back and forth from the entrance, out along the dirt path a ways within this sort of canyon.


    Lil seems mostly unfazed by the acid rain, until they stick their tongue out to try to catch droplets. I call out to warn Lil a moment too late. Apparently their scales couldn¡¯t feel it, but now their tongue stings like heck. Similarly with my beloved otter family, their fur is mostly hydrophobic or oleophobic due to some natural oils or something, but seeing my skin welt, and Lil¡¯s tongue sting, Lu and Te know not to let their eyes or tongue be hit by the droplets. Lucky seems completely unharmed, and splashes in puddles happily as he bounds along after Lil. It¡¯s almost like Lucky is used to these conditions, as if he¡¯d been here before.


    Speaking of, Lucky bounds back to me, and bowls me over into the mud. It stings about as much as I¡¯d expect a more concentrated dose of the acidic water to feel like. Still, I can¡¯t fault the big lug, he doesn¡¯t seem to realize that it¡¯s dangerous to us. I hug him around his neck and he drags me out of the mud before taking back off, running between me and Lil repeatedly with leaps and bounds. He¡¯s honestly acting exactly like a dog I knew once back on Earth.


    Wait, what? Earth? I run to catch up to Luni, ¡°Lu, why do I suddenly remember the name of Earth? Like, more than just the word for dirt, I¡¯m certain it¡¯s a planet, a planet that had at least one happy dog. Why do I think I know a dog from Earth?¡±


    Luni¡¯s eyes sparkle, but her response is carefully measured, ¡°I¡¯m not quite sure why, is there anything else that comes to mind at the moment?¡±


    I frown while shaking my head, to which Luni pouts in response. She asked us if we got our memories back, but I¡¯m fairly certain this isn¡¯t Earth. Why does she seem excited that I suddenly recall Earth of all things? My broken, buggy memories do seem to correlate to what I can recall of Earth. Still no people or places, but the general topography, ecology, climate, technology levels of various regions. I know a lot of entry-level stuff about Earth. Why? The more I think about it, the more I know I can also tell definitively that this place is not on Earth somehow.


    There appears to be a hale, a domicile, out near the cornfield. I didn¡¯t notice it at first, but my attention is drawn to it now that someone is walking this way from it. She suddenly drops her wicker basket as her gaze finds us milling about the temple entrance. This elderly, slightly hunched woman virtually sprints our direction. I¡¯d really rather not be in trouble for trespassing right after dying and finding myself in a new land, so I motion for my party to bow or curtsy. Lil huffs and rolls their eyes, but complies when they realize Mat is also acting huffy. They don¡¯t want to share anything in common with Mat right now, and it¡¯s understandable.


    I may have misjudged the distance, or the woman¡¯s eyesight and mine are strong, and despite being elderly, she¡¯s incredibly quick on her feet. She arrives in short order as we walk her direction to meet her partway, occasionally waving and bowing. Her flesh is darkly tanned, a tad leathery, her hands are calloused, and they bear hints of clay. Her frizzy gray hair is held in a tight, but unkempt bun with chopsticks, or some similar cylindrical wood or reeds. Her dark woolen robe, worn off of one shoulder, is adorned with only a simple cloth cord as a sash about her waist that helps keep it suspended on her hips, preventing it from dragging in the mud.


    She calls out, "First of firsts, praise be to the first, never has someone left Noirdivinhoz ma kai before, let alone several someones who hadn''t even entered ma uka in the first place."


    Ma uka and ma kai sound like words for direction, towards and away from something. Hm, noir means dark or black, and divinhoz seems like a cognate for divine house. House of dark divinity? Temple of dark devotion? Something along those lines. It seems to be a word comprised of French and Germanic syllables, oddly enough. Wait, France, Germany? I rattle my brainpan to try to shake free from the distraction of etymology, to focus on the here and now.


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    I call back, ¡°We beg your pardon, we didn¡¯t intend to intrude or trespass. We sort of, well, arrived, unexpectedly.¡±


    She chuckles, her gaze centered on Lil for a long moment. She turns to me and says, ¡°I¡¯ll bet you did malihini. No other explanation for it than the magic of our lands becoming wilder.¡±


    A voice screams out, ¡°There! was! No! magic!¡±


    I look around for the source of the voice, but no one else seems to have even heard it. The voice might be right, I mean, at least in the lands in my dreams, the ones that Aces fought their way through, nothing seemed especially magical. It seemed like a dreary European dark ages civilization. Wait, European? I know more places from Earth, at least in an overall geographical scale. And an era of its history.


    She had been continuing while I was distracted, ¡°Yes, Noirdivinhoz is loosely a secret, but its purpose, though not its location or name, is known to quite a few. We Aasimovians don¡¯t mind others knowing that if one should seek a true death, one should seek to find a secret temple in Aasimovia ma uka.¡±


    I balk, blinking rapidly several times as my jaw hangs low, ¡°Ex, excuse me? A true death? The, the um, person on the floor. Did you kill them?¡±


    She smiles disarmingly my way, ¡°Of course not, no such thing. Simply those that pass within Noirdivinhoz are certain their souls will move on, to the great hereafter, or join the spirits, whatever truly comes next. It is the one place in all of Rayileklia that one can be absolutely assured of that.¡±


    I query, ¡°So, this land, or this country is Aasimovia? This world is known as Rayileklia?¡± When she nods at my questioning of the world¡¯s name, I continue, ¡°There¡¯s reason to believe that elsewhere, a soul might not pass on properly?¡±


    Her response contains unfamiliar language, ¡°For Aasimovian kama¡¯aina, perhaps not. Elsewhere, rumors abound of a certain emperor¡¯s lands being rife with people who¡¯ve had their essence, their light, their very souls taken from them, before they could die.¡±


    Even though the language seemed unfamiliar, for some reason, I know that kama¡¯aina is Hawaiian for something like child of the land. Similar to Tuatha de being Irish to sort of denote people or tribe of a certain land or a generation of peoples. Wait, Irish? Hawaiian? Wait wait, double wait, go back a tick. A certain emperor?


    I gulp down a knot that catches in my throat, nearly preventing me from asking, ¡°That, that wouldn¡¯t be, glp, someone known as the Celestial Emperor, would it?¡±


    She nods, ¡°Kaumaha little braddah. Sad, but true. Are you truly malihini? To all of Rayileklia?¡±


    Lil, Lu, Te and I all react with shock. Most of us know about my dreams about Aces at this point. Aces was hired to slay the Celestial Emperor. Aces¡¯ mission failed. I¡¯m almost sure of it. They came here to die because they didn¡¯t want their soul stolen. I¡¯m not sure if it worked or not. The soul disappeared shortly after we arrived here. The soul that Luni says somehow contains our world, with our family on it. Whatever purpose the Celestial Emperor has for souls, it can¡¯t be good if he¡¯s stealing them, and I don¡¯t want to know what happens to our world if he uses up that soul. There¡¯s also the fact that in my discombobulation during coming to Rayileklia, I was so confused that I thought Aces¡¯ body was my own. Perhaps because my dreams of them were always in the first person perspective of them. I wonder if anyone called Aces just Ace? Oh, I was asked a question.


    I pause, trying to figure out how to reply, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t know for certain what malihini means. Does that mean, um, not from around here? Because yes, we¡¯re not from around here.¡±


    She strokes her chin a moment, my companions have been following along, and are starting to get antsy. They know approximately what my thought processes about this are going to be. We might have to pick up where Aces left off.


    She suddenly throws her hands in the air, causing several of us to jump into defensive stances, ¡°Ay, I have not introduced myself. I am Daffodil, Daffodil Tarquin, keeper of Noirdivinhoz. Your skin is welting, most can withstand at least a few hours outdoors before such. Does the painful rain not drizzle ceaselessly for all time where you come from?¡±


    I shake my head in response, so she continues, ¡°E komo mai E ¡®ai Kakou. If you¡¯re not used to it, let¡¯s get into my hale. It¡¯s still fronds and thatch, I¡¯m slowly working my bricks, bit by bit I make enough adobe bricks, soon I will build a home. For now, just enough for an imu. If you travel Aasimovia, or more of Rayileklia, your skin will toughen up, you¡¯ll get used to it.¡±


    I¡¯m struggling to keep up with her linguistic use, much of which mirrors Hawaii of Earth, though some of it is off from the few phrases I can dig out of my memories. She said something like welcome, and let¡¯s eat. Her house has an oven she built out of adobe bricks in the ground. She begins trundling quickly away, expecting us to follow. Mat yells out for her however.


    Mat asks, ¡°Look, there¡¯s, there¡¯s things about this situation.  I just want somewhere I can be alone, permanently.  Is there some place wet that¡¯s uninhabited that I could go?¡±


    She pauses briefly, ¡°Truly?  Southwest, ma kai, past Autumn Brook, south off the shore.  There should be islands, islands that none will visit.  If you could safely sail the seas, you could go much further south.  No one settles the Untamed Lands.  Few voyages even return intact.¡±


    Mat takes off at a sprint, vaguely yelling, ¡°Good, fine, goodbye!¡±  To no one in particular.  No one reacts to stop him.  He was promised his freedom after helping to save our family, his own family, from a situation that he partially caused while under evil influence.  He¡¯ll probably be fine, he¡¯s more sea otter than river otter, he was more used to fishing and swimming than the life we built on land.  The rest of my family took to land quite happily though, even Teuila, who spent nearly all her time exercising by swimming against a river current.  Lil looks mildly infuriated at Mat fleeing, or escaping as it might be considered.

 B 4 C 4: Stores and Stores

    Daffodil looks unpleased momentarily at the disrespect towards her hospitality that Mat showed by taking off ungraciously.  She shrugs it off quickly though, stating, ¡°Tell me about yourselves, you little braddah, you two wahine, your great scaly mastiff, this young dragon.¡±


    It strikes me that we¡¯ve been ignoring an elephant in the room, or two.  If my dreams are any indicator, there are definitely no humanoid otters walking around Rayileklia.  Also, I doubt many people have interacted with dragons, in almost any world, and we walk around with Lil like it¡¯s just a matter of fact that they¡¯re meant to be at our side.  I mean, it is, Lil is a person with their own goals, ambitions, desires, emotions, personality.  Just because they¡¯re also a powerful mythical beast doesn¡¯t take that away from them.  Regardless, Daffodil has taken the makeup of our group in remarkable stride.


    Before I can answer, Teuila brazenly takes the lead, ¡°This wahine is called Teuila, that one is Luni.  Reggie hasn¡¯t corrected you, but I will, they¡¯re not braddah or wahine or kane.  Lil¡¯s our big beautiful dragbutt, and Lucky is our friendly puppy.¡±


    Lil and I both start to object as we blush, but Teuila continues, ¡°But that being said, we¡¯re very grateful for your hospitality Daffodil, and pleased to meet you.  I did good, right guys?¡±


    I struggle very hard not to facepalm, and barely succeed.  She actually turned to face us and asked for reassurance audibly about her interaction as an introduction for us.  Within earshot of Daffodil, since she was just conversing with her not a split second prior.  Luni giggles and drapes her arms over Te¡¯s shoulders from behind, snuggling her ¡°Big Sis¡±¡¯s skull near her right mandibular joint.


    Daffodil apologizes towards me, ¡°Ah, e kala mai i a¡¯u ku¡¯uipo.  If you have another word, I shall use it.  Or simply your name, Reggie you say?¡±


    She gazes hopefully towards Teuila, who nods in response.  She then smiles wide til her eyes close, and folds her hands in front of her, at peace with having made ammends.


    I try to reassure Teuila while also responding to Daffodil, ¡°Yes Te, thank you, My Wings.  I wouldn¡¯t have brought it up.  I¡¯m um, I¡¯m sorry Daffodil.  She¡¯s right.  I¡¯m neither, my name¡¯s fine, or Rej or R or anything like that.  We¡¯re sort of all neither, though Lu and Te have always been fine with female pronouns.  Lil, have you ever decided on anything?¡±


    Lil hems and haws, ¡°Hm, no, I suppose not buddy.  I¡¯m still mad at you ya know.  Mega mad, mega mega mega mad.¡±


    Lil¡¯s statement strikes my heart like a dagger driven through it as tears well in my eyes.  I gaze upwards to avoid eye contact, making the same mistake I made earlier, resulting in acidic drizzle landing on my eyeballs, each droplet like a wasp¡¯s sting.  At least I have an excuse as to why my eyes are streaming tears now, trying to flush out the physical pain, rather than the emotional one.


    The three of my inner circle chat with Daffodil on the way to her hut, but I¡¯m a tad stunned and can¡¯t really interact on the way there.  I march half slumped against Lucky¡¯s flank as we plod along the muddy path.  Hearing my best and oldest friend say that they¡¯re so angry with me, over what they¡¯re angry with me about, hurts so deeply.  I don¡¯t know what to do about it.  There¡¯s really nothing I can do right now I suppose until Lil is willing to talk it through, if that will ever come to pass.  Lil knows I beat myself up over things like this nonstop throughout our adventures.  The fact that they¡¯ve turned it on me now cuts like razor wire.  I need to focus though.  We¡¯re in a whole new world, there¡¯s so many differences and odd things we¡¯ll have to learn.


    One odd thing on the way to Daffodil¡¯s home is that plants with large green stalks ranging anywhere from shoulder height, to probably over thirty feet tall, have flower bulbs that emit light.  Not just a small glow, but as strong as a street lamp, maybe stronger.  The light feels as comfortingly warm as the sun breaking through on a cool autumn day.  At least that¡¯s what it feels like comparative to walking in the constant shadow of the acid rain clouds.  The head of the buds all face downward, emitting the light to the ground, opposite the activity of plants that I¡¯d usually expect.  Daffodil did say that it rained ceaselessly.  Did she mean that it absolutely never stops with the acid rain and dark cloud cover?  These plants, and the ongoing lightning, might be the only light that ever reaches the ground in that case.  I see now that there are a dozen or so lamp plants scattered about Daffodil¡¯s small cornfield.


    Another thing about the cloud cover is that lightning continues to streak across the sky, but never seems to seek to touch down.  What sort of ionic trail has to be happening to continue to conduct all of the electricity horizontally, never seeking ground?  Regardless, it would be all the more dangerous to try to fly above treetop level, or scale any mountains in these lands.


    Daffodil¡¯s domicile is small, but impressive in its own right.  Lil and Lucky can fit partially through the open face of its southern side, but no further.  It seems she constructed the entire thing herself.  She has very few tools; an iron hand thresher, or scythe, a stone bowl, or mortar, a pestle, the oven that she built from adobe bricks that she crafted herself, and an onyx knife.  Her work is impressive.  She has one large sealed barrel, and two medium sized jars, which appear to be her grain stores, or larder, or pantry.  Whatever you¡¯d call sealed off buckets of dried beans and cornmeal.  The wicker basket she dropped earlier had nothing in it, apparently she was intending to head ma uka to scrape a few pounds of salt, or baking soda, or both from the mountainside.  At least until she spotted strangers leaving Noirdivinhoz.


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


    Outside her home appears to be something of a water pump constructed of wooden reed, or perhaps bamboo.  It looks like a rope holds a heavy cylinder that¡¯s almost exactly the shape of the inside of the hollowed plant pipe.  I believe that the weight can be pulled upwards past the tap opening by pulling down on the rope outside.  If you do it fast enough, a short vacuum burst should pull the water from the ground.  It¡¯s ingenious.


    Daffodil addresses the group, ¡°You all seem lost when I use certain words.  Do you only know the common Englishness?¡±


    English?  But that would be a language originating in the land of England, a place on Earth.  Why would we even know English?  I suppose it¡¯s what we¡¯ve been thinking and speaking in ever since Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, but still.  I do think I had thoughts long, long ago, about our text and speech being in English, but those thoughts had come and gone.  Like many others.  I¡¯m easily distracted after all.  Still, why do I suddenly know more and more about Earth?  Or, why do I piece together things that I had remembered in the past in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas about it at least?  I¡¯m certain my face is screwed up as I¡¯m lost in thought.


    Te begins to take charge again for us, but Luni interrupts her, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡±


    Luni eyes me suspiciously though.  I know she can¡¯t fully ride my thoughts, since our telepathy is mostly broken here on Rayileklia.  Does she suspect that I seem to know Hawaiian or Tahitian?  The reason that some of the phrases don¡¯t match up with the Hawaiian that I know for some reason, could be because it¡¯s from a lexically similar language such as Tahitian.  Or it could be because Earth is fakeworld and I just have buggy memories and think I know things.  I could just be understanding definitions from context.


    Why isn¡¯t Lu looking at Teuila suspiciously though?  Te knew the words about genders, even one that Daffodil never used.  Ah there it is, her suspecting glare turned towards Teuila.  Coincidental timing, that.  Or maybe our telepathy isn¡¯t as broken as I thought it was.  If she has been concentrating on keeping it active since we got here, she might be able to stay riding around in my head.  That must take an awful lot of effort if she¡¯s doing that though, and even then, I couldn¡¯t actively reply, or probably even hear her thoughts, just think thoughts that I¡¯d hope she could hear.


    Daffodil states simply, ¡°I¡¯ll fix us corn flatbread and beans.  It¡¯s a simple, modest life, but it¡¯s what I have to offer.  If you are truly, as you say, not from around here, Rayileklia at all, I would be happy to share what I know with you over a meal.  Afterwards, I must go bury that poor soul¡¯s body that resides within Noirdivinhoz.¡±


    At the mention of Aces¡¯ body, I suffer a pang of guilt.  Did Daffodil know them?  I suppose I can ask all about it over dinner.  Daffodil reaches under a shelf to pull out another jar that I hadn¡¯t spotted, the shelf might actually be her bed, come to think of it.  In the jar seems to be salt, or maybe sodium bicarbonate.  Either way, useful in making dough with cornmeal or corn flour.


    I let the four of them converse for a bit as I maneuver past Lil to stand outside with Lucky, who also doesn¡¯t fit in the hale, the house, while in his hound form.  Lucky¡¯s hound form seems to vary in size, anywhere from that of a horse, to twice the size of our original house near Shellcracker Pond.  I wonder how or when he decides to shift sizes.  I regret interacting with him so little during our time in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  Luni and I created him in a convoluted series of events.  Lucky is essentially our son.  We had him imprint on Laomati though, in order to be her guardian.  He must have been fated to exist though, he was one of the tome owners.  I can¡¯t even wrap my head around it.  The five souls of origin, and the one original soul.  Lil is the original soul, somehow.  But Mat, Lu, Te, Lucky and I each happen to be one of the souls of origin somehow as well.  What about our family?  Where in the cosmic order do their souls fall?  We somehow created Lucky to protect Lao, but Lucky was never destined to stay with her.


    I sigh as I think about Laomati, one of our two clan leaders, essentially mother to all of us Shellcrackers.  Lao had her heart broken when so many lives of her family members were lost before I had ever met them, and had it broken again when yet more were taken from her during the Night of High Water.  At the time, I still believed myself to be a human child, so I acted with a child¡¯s level of immaturity and insensitivity, not putting enough thought into her feelings or Agwai¡¯s feelings.  Agwai is our other leader.  Back then Ag seemed so stern, so angry, so distant and cold.  It turns out that all of that was due to grief and the stress of being overburdened with responsibility that they weren¡¯t prepared for.  The two have gone on to find such happiness with each other over time.


    As much as I want to reminisce about my family, I have to keep moving forward if I want to ever see them again.  For now, I¡¯ll do what little I can.  I¡¯m pretty sure I can do this, so I focus on summoning items from my inventory that I know are there, without being able to browse my mental inventory menu.  Standing in one spot, focusing for eight minutes, I begin to pant with the strain of the pull it seems to put on my entire being.  Still, I manage to succeed.  The small market stall that I claimed to my inventory so long ago appears with a resounding clatter, along with a sizable amount of currency in coins and gemstones, and several sets of Valkyrie armor and weaponry, and most of the magic items I¡¯d acquired over the years.  I pant as I lean against the stall, and Lucky bounds back and forth around it.  I begin to wipe sweat from my brow, hoping that it doesn¡¯t carry oil and acid rain down my brow into my eyes.  Lucky however settles in front of the stall with me and laps at my face with his enormous tongue.  I don¡¯t have the strength to push his head away at the moment.


    Long ago I was convinced Lucky hated me.  It seemed like the side of him that was part cragbeast knew that I slew its queen, or something.  On the other hand, he was mostly only hostile if I moved away from anywhere that Lao directed me to be or asked me to be.  I had that first egg, approximately half of what makes up Lucky, for a year or more though!  It¡¯s nuts, I didn¡¯t think to figure out anything about it in all that time, and then we had to do magic shenanigans and a whole quest, and merge that egg with another one, along with excess energy we needed to purge from all of our forms.  In what timeline did one of us learn how to do all that?  Or is it a causal loop, where because we did it in the future, and I sent back future personalities to Lu and to myself, we knew how to do it?  Regardless, Lucky¡¯s a lovable, enormous, joyful, noisy boy.


    Daffodil shoves Lil aside to be able to exit her house to see the source of the sound.  Her jaw drops when she realizes that a building, small though it may be, materialized out of nowhere.  I smile weakly and wave in her direction.  Luni and Teuila join us a moment later, and Lu claps giddily upon seeing the stall.  She immediately takes her place behind its counter as the tending shopkeep.

 B 4 C 5: Confusion Over Dreams

    Daffodil gawps momentarily, ¡°What is this? Are you secretly Hidden Heart, or Sisters? There¡¯s rumors about their magics.¡±


    Luni, wringing out the hood of her outfit, asks, ¡°Sisters? Te and I think of each other as sisters.¡±


    Daffodil shakes her head, regaining her senses, ¡°I suppose not, Sisters of the Mists, and you are all definitely foreign to Rayileklia. I¡¯m sorry to have momentarily doubted you. Still, this, how did it come about so quickly?¡±


    Teuila starts to explain for me but I cut her off with the cut-throat gesture. I¡¯m still not certain how much I¡¯ll be able to use any of my skills or magics, or how necessary it will be that they remain secret. It has saved our lives on several occasions that others didn¡¯t realize, know, or remember that I had inventory magic.


    I try to sidestep the question, ¡°Just a little something, it¡¯s less about this, and more about what it can do. Do you think it functions like normal Lu? Can you feel it?¡±


    Luni, as chipper as I¡¯ve seen her this entire time, replies, ¡°Yep! It really is working. It¡¯s, it¡¯s so cool that you brought this. Thank you. Thank you, my hero.¡±


    I blush as her eyes wet slightly with happy tears. This was far more impactful than I thought it would be. I was about to think I couldn¡¯t figure out a reason why, but I just remembered that Luni once mumbled something about macroeconomics and market theory, or something like that. Words that would have had no meaning on our world. Words I¡¯d expect to hear from a college student on Earth. One that was studying to perhaps be able to manage or open a business, like a shop. I peer intently at Lu, but I can¡¯t help letting it slide. Her joy is so innocent. I¡¯m not sure which is more confusing. Luni having those little secrets, or me having the knowledge that puts context to them. Neither of the two things make sense on the world we¡¯re from, nor even this world either! Both worlds we¡¯ve been on have been about magic, not technology.


    The voice from earlier seems to speak to me, "This may sound cryptic, but you need to know. Over half a century ago, rumors of magic began to arise, and over the next two decades people began to change. Magic became inexorably attached to every facet of life in Rayileklia. People began to remember lives as if they had always been filled with magic, history books began to exist detailing the long history of Rayileklia, one that never existed, and its fantastical origins. People began to remember grandparents that never existed, and their tales of times of old, which also never existed. This all seemed to start in the early thirties, as close as I can remember it.¡±


    I glance around, the voice is clear as a bell to me, well, the speaker sounds as if they¡¯re straining, but no one else appears to be hearing an expository monologue that continues, "Before then, Rayileklia didn''t actually have much history. In fact, it''s as if everyone sprung into existence in the year we call eleven eleven. But, in the thirties, rumors of magic arose as I said. In the twenty or so years between the two points, life was dreary and uninteresting. Political farces, mundane wars, commoners barely scraping by, the usual fare. But there absolutely was no magic, I can guarantee it, though most others you meet will remember differently. It seems very few of us were spared magic''s insistence on its existence in our history and memories. So far as I can tell, the Sisters of the Mist may be the only ones who might remember the mundane history. The history before a history existed. Their oracular powers were fabled before magics existence. Hopefully magic hasn¡¯t blinded them to the truth."


    I accidentally theorize aloud, "I wonder which is the real, or well, primary timeline, or history."


    After several glances my way, I apologize as I ask Daffodil for a moment of privacy while I gather Lu, Lil, and Te to the side for a moment. I whisper to my inner circle the gist of what I¡¯d heard, and then ask, ¡°Guys, doesn''t this sort of sound like what happened with the stars? When I first started out, before meeting Lil, I could swear there was no sun, and were no stars, the sky was just vaguely lighter or darker in an approximate day night cycle."


    Lil¡¯s response is more chipper than expected after their recent exclamation of anger for me, "I remember buddy!"


    Teuila¡¯s is as expected though, "Me too, you were sweet on me in the air the first time we saw them together spooterdink."


    Even Lucky seems to bark in understanding, but Luni suddenly rants, "Hmf, well, it took you a long time to make that one up to me. You gave Teuila credit for all the stars, and gave me credit for moons. Moons! There''s something like, millions, billions of times difference in volume alone, not to mention moons are basically just orbital debris, while stars are the source of life and light and. Oh, uh, I mean. Yeah I remember too."


    My facial expression contorts at Luni''s tirade, with one brow up, the other furrowed, and my nose half wrinkled. I don''t know what''s more shocking, her apparent jealousy, or her scientific expertise in things that didn''t even exist while we were living in Can''Z''aas. Everyone assembled just glances around momentarily, avoiding the elephants in the room entirely while Luni twiddles her index fingers. She pokes her index fingers together while looking meek as she sways one leg side to side while her toes remain at one point on the ground. She rotates her hips and shoulders ever so slightly, basically oscillating shyly.


    I rattle my skull a moment, trying to center myself and focus on the present moment. I won¡¯t be able to fish any more out of Luni on that topic. I give Daffodil a handful of coins, because I want to test something. Luni shyly returns to her position behind the counter, knowing what I¡¯m going to want to test. The way our shops and world worked continued to change near the end of our lives. Originally only critterkin with inventories could use the magic of the shops, and very few critterkin had inventories, only me, Lil, and those of us that were able to score extremely rare magical bags from the Cragbeast Warren before it was destroyed. Others however began to spontaneously earn inventory magic, and later even those without it could use the shops. I think at the very end, even the humans began to be able to use the shops. They don¡¯t have inventory magic, or even access to the interface to know what the shop has, but if a paper catalog, or inventory, was handed to them, they could read it and make choices.


    I start, ¡°Daffodil, this might seem odd, but I¡¯d like you to ask Luni for an apple, to purchase an apple, in a moment.¡±


    Lu quietly shrieks with glee before beginning, ¡°Hello valued customer, welcome to my humble shop, how may I help you today?¡±


    Daffodil squints at me, but fishes out what are probably the lowest value of coin that could pass as currency here on Rayileklia. She then sets several pieces on the counter and asks, ¡°My dear wahine, Luni is it? I¡¯d like an apple please.¡±


    It takes a few moments, but a wireframe begins to form, and an apple pixelates into existence as the coinage disappears. The whole process takes several minutes here, rather than the near instantaneousness of it all back on Can¡¯z¡¯aas. Luni claps excitedly, leaps over the countertop and throws herself bodily at me, wrapping her legs around my waist, peppering my face with kisses as she hugs me tightly. I barely manage to maintain standing. Teuila actually props me up so that Lu and I don¡¯t fall over into the stinging, slightly-acidic mud.


    Daffodil¡¯s curiosity gets the better of her, and she picks up the apple to take a bite out of it. The crispness of the apple is evident in the sound of her bite, and its juiciness surprises her such that she has to wipe her cheek. She lets out an audible noise of appreciation, mumbling something like, ¡°Ono¡± then growling, or maybe she said ¡°Ono grinds.¡± I¡¯m not quite sure. Daffodil ambles around the stall, checking under it and around it for secret compartments I suppose. She thoroughly inspects it, yet seems to remain baffled as she continues to eat the apple, all the more surprised that it doesn¡¯t have a core. She flicks what¡¯s left of the stem into her cornfield to decompose.


    Daffodil starts, ¡°What a sweet treat, thank you for that. I assume this isn¡¯t a one-off trick? You can make more, or other things?¡±


    I adopt a wry smile while nodding around the shoulder of Luni who happens to be still glommed onto my torso.


    Our hostess strokes her chin, ¡°Maybe dinner can get more words out of you, my mysterious guests. We can trade questions perhaps. I¡¯m happy to answer what I can, and more curious than you can imagine. Well, perhaps you can imagine it.¡±


    The three of us, Lu, Te, and myself, exchange glances and purse our lips to hide our laughter. It¡¯s pretty easy to imagine what sort of curiosities someone might have about our little group dynamic and its mysterious powers. Daffodil trundles back into her home while Teuila holds Lu and me from behind. Lu finally sets her feet back on the ground, feet that I just now noticed are wearing her boots from her feraform evolution¡¯s outfit. How did she manage that? I raise an eyebrow at Lu after glancing at her boots, and she just pretends to whistle innocently. Riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma indeed.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Lil starts to grumble, then sees how happy Luni is about the development, and smiles instead. Lil then gazes at me, and their smile changes to a half forlorn expression. They¡¯re still upset. They love me, but they¡¯re hurt, and don¡¯t know how to feel right now.


    I raise my hand and open my mouth to speak towards Lil, but the lines of communication are still closed. They turn away and leap into a glide to test out their wings here on Rayileklia. They don¡¯t dare take wing too high, because the clouds seem quite nasty, with their constant crackle of lightning, and the fact that they¡¯re made up of an intense density of the acid rain they constantly pour down. I¡¯m tempted to focus for eight minutes to shapeshift into my draconic form just to be able to chase after my buddy to talk to them. I don¡¯t want to leave things sit like this.


    I ask Luni and Teuila to keep Daffodil occupied for a bit as I try to find Lil, thankfully they oblige. I start walking in the direction I saw Lil launch towards, while focusing on the transformation up and down my evolutionary line to adopt my draconic form. It¡¯s exceedingly difficult to keep in mind the initiation of the process, its continuation, when to cut it short, and the actualization that has to happen between times, for eight minutes straight. On top of the difficulty mentally, it feels like my guts are yanked rearward at the speed of a cannon shot. Finally though, I manage to transform, but instead of being able to take to the skies to find Lil, I find myself falling forward, unable to maintain consciousness.


    I''ve been riding hell for leather since the Imperious Temple in the jungles of the Celestial Imperium, and I''m barely clinging to life. I couldn''t even endure the Celestial Emperor''s presence, much less slay him. The light that surrounded him burnt like fire, deep to my core, my muscles ache where my skin cracked and peeled away. When I realized what he was, what he truly was, and what he was doing, it was all I could do to return to Navica, ascend the tower, and halt its progress temporarily. Amidst all that radiant glow, that living heat, the only features I could make out were a stark crimson glow where his eyes should be.


    Being in his presence, I felt something struggling free from my being, my essence was being torn away, my very soul. It was being tugged in the direction of Navica, and I barely maintained my wits as I chased along with the ethereal tug to the Babylonian tower they call the Spire of Heavens within that devout city. I don¡¯t know which myths, legends, mythologies, or religion he comes from, but I¡¯m certain that he is pure evil, bent on burning away all the souls in that tower for some purpose.


    That tower''s where the candle was being formed, and that''s where I found my own soul finally stopped tugging away from me. Once I ascended the tower, I gained some new vision, an insight into the aether around me. I could see souls, and somehow I knew that¡¯s what they were. There were so many of these beautiful perfect spheres with their wispy tails. When I finally spied my own, unlike others which tended to be perfect, mine was lumpy, misshapen. It seemed almost covered in cancerous growths, like miniature souls latched onto it, four little lumpy protrusions. Each lump seemed to cast a red string off into the distance, some literal thread of fate. To what those threads bound me I know not. The vision of souls, especially near the candle burned hotly, now my eyes barely see anything at all.


    I took the supports out at several key points in the tower, a strong breeze should blow it over at this point, but they¡¯ll likely repair my handiwork before it collapses. It¡¯s all I could do as an effort to slow down whatever he¡¯s planning. At least their efforts have to be on repairs rather than completion, for some time yet.


    Now I''ve got to get to Autumn Brook, word is the Aasimovians and their church of post-life know how to truly die and pass on. I''m hoping I can get to them while my soul is still my own. I''ll take my chances on an afterlife.


    I¡¯m roughly nudged awake as someone says, ¡°Hey, buddy? I guess I forgive you. Kind of. I mean, what I really guess is that I shouldn¡¯t have to. I mean, because you don¡¯t need it. Not because I¡¯m being a jerk. It looks like taking that form hurt. Come on, wake up buddy, please? You were mumbling, but now that you went all quiet, you¡¯re starting to scare me. Reggie? Pal?¡±


    I bawl tears of relief as I struggle into the waking world, slowly reaching my arms upwards to embrace Lil¡¯s snout that¡¯s nudging me roughly. Laughingly, through tears, I ask, ¡°Was I telling you stories buddy?¡±


    Lil nods, ¡°Yup! I think you were probably telling me another story about Aces! It sounded real scary, mega mega mega scary. Burning souls, meeting the emperor, running away. Do you think that¡¯s what really happened? Are you having visions of Aces¡¯ memories?¡±


    I scratch the back of my head as the dreams slowly materialize into my short term memories in a way that I can try to parse at least parts of them. I know I can¡¯t recall every detail. Heck, Lil might be able to recall more than me, just from reciting what they heard. Lil¡¯s description is rather vague, and my own memories of the dream moreso, even still, it could be true. Those could be Aces¡¯ memories. Or I could be, what¡¯s the word, projecting? Giving myself confirmation bias? I had those suspicions, but maybe my subconscious is just trying to convince me that I¡¯m right, to boost my ego or something. Plus, Luni said not to think too much about some connections between our world and Rayileklia yet, for some reason. Something had to do with Teuila and me not being ready. Seemingly more on Te¡¯s side, I think.


    I chuckle as I kiss Lil¡¯s snout, ¡°I don¡¯t know much about all that buddy, but I do know that I love you so much, and I¡¯ve been so unbelievably sorry and worried. Also, if any of the dreams about Aces are true, we need to ask Daffodil about Taylynn over dinner, or um. Selunie, or Jarvis. Crap, I don¡¯t know if I know Taylynn¡¯s last name. I think Selunie¡¯s was Tavner, daughter of Jarvis Tavner. I think it¡¯s one of those occupational names, as in, they took a family name because they owned a tavern. Most commoners don¡¯t even get family names.¡±


    Lil shrugs, ¡°Sounds good buddy, sort of. Well, no, it doesn¡¯t. I¡¯m still, grr. I¡¯m still working through some stuff. I don¡¯t know. I guess I¡¯m kind of done with searching and quests and working and just, grr. I died Rej. My It¡¯s-a-secret died. My Gal-pal died! Don¡¯t we, you know, deserve a break? I¡¯ve been alone for months, only able to sneak out and see Dehlia a few times because I could let my dupes do the work, and Lucky didn¡¯t seem to mind. Other than TQ, and let me tell you, TQ aint the best company. Or, um, wasn¡¯t. I guess they¡¯re dead now too. I just, I just want to be done. Sorry.¡±


    My heart aches for Lil, they do deserve a time of peace and rest, I can¡¯t fault them that. I also missed them dearly, but they were the most isolated of all of us, I at least got to reunite with nearly everyone else much earlier, and even Luni a fair deal earlier. Yet I still feel a sense of urgency. Taylynn and Selunie may not have seen Aces for a long time, and might not know about their death. Plus, there¡¯s the whole threat of the Celestial Emperor stealing souls, and I don¡¯t know where Aces¡¯ soul went, with our world on it. There¡¯s also the fact that the discombobulation of resurrection or otherworldly travel left me with a nagging feeling that Aces body and soul are somehow mine, and that those four lumps are Lu, Te, Lucky, and Mat. Luni was incredibly insistent that I¡¯m not ready for that revelation though, or something that comes after it. I suppose it could just be my own confusion, and Luni is trying to prevent me from getting too jumbled up in thinking these visions belong to me. I guess it could be pretty harmful to convince myself that I was an assassin living on Rayileklia. Maybe Lu¡¯s just trying to save me from that.


    I realize I haven¡¯t replied to Lil, ¡°Oh Lil buddy, I¡¯m so sorry. Here I am, getting caught up in my own head again, and we can¡¯t hear each other¡¯s thoughts anymore. I guess I¡¯d better change back. What do you think, authoritative Reggie, burly femme Reggie, or cherubic Reggie?¡±


    Lil hems and haws for only a moment, ¡°Hm, hrm, oh, definitely little you, the shortest, softest one. The best for cuddles. Plus, maybe with a smaller body, you won¡¯t need as much supper, leaving more for me. Heeeee.¡±


    I burst into laughter at Lil¡¯s minor gluttony and their jocular admittance of it. Still, I¡¯m happy to indulge Lil right now. I can¡¯t make up for months of loneliness, or the hurt that I caused by being the wielder of the timeline that resulted in so many Naga deaths. Though, this version of the timeline? It may have saved the majority of the peaceful faction of the Nagas¡¯ population. Still, it¡¯s the least I can do for my oldest pal.


    I focus again for eight minutes as we walk back to Daffodil¡¯s home, struggling harder each passing moment. Eventually I¡¯m left panting, clutching my chest, doubled over against Lil¡¯s haunch, my eyes swimming in their sockets. The ground itself spins below me. I loose up some sick along the path as my transformation starts, which breaks my concentration, and I have to start over. It¡¯s even more painful the next time around, but Lil carries me between their wings so that I can fully focus on it. As we¡¯re about to enter Daffodil¡¯s home, I finally manage the self actualization evolution transformation.


    Then, as if to show me up, Lil effortlessly takes a smaller shape, similar to their spheriform stage, using their natural draconic shapeshifting. It takes a few seconds, and the process is visible physical transformation, but, since it¡¯s not a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian energy spell related effect, they can just do it. I jokingly grunt, ¡°Show off.¡±


    Lil¡¯s response is a gleeful, ¡°Heeee.¡±


    Lil hops into my arms and I happily hold them as we enter Daffodil¡¯s home while laughing. Teuila is busy examining Daffodil¡¯s scythe and her onyx or obsidian knife. Luni is sloppily pounding some dough out into a flat circle with glee, earning laughter from Daffodil. There appears to be some adobe flatware or cookware that was stored in Daffodil¡¯s inu, her oven. Teuila seems to be trying to flatten an old hard bean beneath the flat of the blade that she¡¯s inspecting, instead of crushing it though, she manages to launch it my way, aimed right between my eyes.


    Teuila appears to mouth, ¡°Oops,¡± in slow motion. My danger wraps guide my left hand in snatching the speeding projectile out of the air while my right arm continues to hold Lil against my torso. Te looks morbidly apologetic, but Luni and Daffodil look impressed since the flying object drew their attention. Moreover, Daffodil is a bit confused by the spherical presence in my arms, noting its coloration and scaly similarity to Lil.


    As I begin to ask if there¡¯s anything I can do to help, Lil gleefully blurts out, ¡°When¡¯s supper? If it¡¯s not soon, I could go hunt something. I¡¯m starving!¡±

 B 4 C 6: Worlds, They Are A-Changin

    Perhaps daffodil is a bit befuddled by my appearance as well.  I can¡¯t even remember which form I had been wandering around in to begin with.  I smile, and once again begin trying to ask if there¡¯s anything I can do to help, when I¡¯m once again interrupted.


    Daffodil exclaims, ¡°I take it the famished one is the young dragon in another form?  Lil was it?  There are stories, legends, dragons can change shapes, usually the legend is that they take on a human form, either to trick a human or marry one or rule over a country, something or other.  I don¡¯t think any of the myths predicted this, or that the dragon¡¯s rider could do the same.¡±


    The dragon¡¯s rider?  Oh, Daffodil must think that Lil acts as my mount in some fashion.  Well, I mean, that¡¯s not entirely incorrect.  When Lil is willing, they do carry any of the three of us around.


    Lil answers, ¡°Yep yep!  I¡¯m still me, and still have the same apetite!  Need any fire?  I¡¯ve got plenty of that in my belly, just no food.¡±


    Daffodil raises an eyebrow before replying, ¡°It saves a strike of my firestarter, my flint, if you¡¯d warm my inu, if you can do it carefully.  Remember, my home is wood, thatch, fronds.  I¡¯d rather it didn¡¯t burn down before I make enough bricks for a new one.¡±


    Lil jokingly objects, ¡°Hey, that only happened one time.¡±


    I snort with laughter.  I¡¯m pretty sure Lil is being facetious.  I don¡¯t remember any time that they set one of our buildings on fire.  It couldn¡¯t have happened before we were together either since they lived alone on a stony plain.  Daffodil gives a very ¡®riiiight¡¯ glance towards Lil as she waves towards the center of her home that contains a pit where her oven is built slightly beneath the ground¡¯s surface.  Teuila and Luni both bite their lips to not join me in snorting with laughter.


    All in all, cooking the flatbreads is relatively quick once the oven is heated, and we take turns making our own, and several extras.  It has a very family dinner activity feel to it, as we pass warmed flatbreads out between one another, or use them to eat a small scoop of baked beans, or sprinkle them with sprouts, or make extras for one another.  I¡¯m flooded with a mix of emotions.  The kindness and hospitality that Daffodil is showing us is amazingly warm.  Like I said, it¡¯s almost familial.  Therein lies the rub, as the saying goes.  I¡¯m reminded of the family that I won¡¯t see for however long, that I may never see again if their world is destroyed.  Still, I don¡¯t want to bring the mood down, so we finally begin asking one another questions.


    Daffodil starts, ¡°So, what is the name of the land you hail from?¡±


    Teuila takes charge, ¡°That would be Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, not Kansas mind you, though you probably can¡¯t hear the difference since we¡¯re not talking in textboxes anymore, poo.¡±  Daffodil questioningly mouths textboxes while raising an eyebrow.  Before anyone else can interject though, Teuila continues, ¡°Our turn.  What places are around here?  How far?¡±


    Daffodil takes a moment to snap out of her confusion to realize Teuila had asked her an easy question about local geography.  She states, ¡°Oh, oh yes, Autumn Brook, run by my old friend Harriet, I¡¯m sorry, Mairess Du Pon De Brook would be more appropriate now.  It¡¯s some hard day¡¯s ride southwest, ma kai, a few days of mudcamping on foot, though you might catch the ferry on the river if it happens to be ma uka.  It travels back and forth somewhat regularly.  It¡¯s how I can make the journey to see my old friends on occasion.  The town rests along Lake Siempre.¡±


    Daffodil looks lost in thought for a moment, then continues, ¡°Keeley might have a place for you to stay, Autumn Brook¡¯s inn, the Johnston Keel-over.  She¡¯s, ah, brusque, direct.  Her humor is a bit, hm, well, you probably get the double meaning.  We are of course in Aasimovia, along the southern edge of the landmass of Rayileklia.  Rumor says that Vale Valley, home of the assassins is ma uka, in the mountains northeast.  But to get there, one would have to circle the mountain range along the southeast, and earn passage through the Hidden Heart.  One might even find the hidden sanctuary of the Sisters of the Mist doing that.  It would be many weeks, perhaps several months journey.  There used to be more countries to the north of us, now they¡¯re all under one banner, the Celestial Imperium.¡±


    I recall something Elder Tolkenstein once said, the flash of a dagger, a heart hidden behind a veil, or something like that.  What if it was the opposite?  What if it was a vale hidden behind a heart?  She got the Roc riddle wrong, sort of.  A flying boulder isn¡¯t exactly an apt description of a Roc, but it¡¯s also not wrong either.  The point is, she could have gotten the sentence flipped.  What was Rinnia talking about when she said that?  I can¡¯t remember.  Was it a prophecy of where I would one day go?  Wait, did Daffodil just say the Celestial Imperium has swallowed all of the nearby countries to the north!?  My heart skips several beats.


    Daffodil asks, ¡°Tell me of this Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  No rains of pain sounds nice.¡±


    Luni makes certain to cut off Teuila before she can start, which earns her a ¡®Luuu¡¯ from Te.  Still, Lu starts off, ¡°Our land, our world, it started off small, for most of us, before Reggie, it was just a beach, until our world was flipped and turned upside down.  Oh just sit right there Te, stay a while, listen, I¡¯m going somewhere with this telling, and I¡¯m not just blowing smoke up Reggie¡¯s butt.¡±  I flush with embarrassment at the turn of phrase, especially since I don¡¯t even have a, well, it doesn¡¯t matter.


    Luni continues, ¡°I don¡¯t just mean we were insular, though we were.  The world became more dangerous, more adventurous, we lost so much.  At a time when we stood to lose more, we met Reggie.  It was a hard time, and it was made worse by what we now know was a god of the sea that would plague us our entire lives.  With Reggie we made a modest home, like yours, far away, upriver, um, ma uka you would say, since it was closer to the volcano, and the cliffs of what we called Fire Biome.  We later learned some other societies existed, like on the way we had met beavers along the river, and bullies.  Humans in a city called Eimsas far off to the west, Nagas in a large settlement in the southeast swamps, chameleons east of them, a small tribe of cats northwest of them.  We learned about the fairies, and mistakenly called them all elves, because of the terminology the humans used, around an enormous tree that we call the Miracle Oak.  One of the miracle oaks.  That¡¯s where we all ended up, all of the societies in the end of our world, the ones that are going to survive, ended up there.  We died so that the ones who made it there stood a chance at surviving.  Yes Reggie, I¡¯m willing to tell it.  I¡¯m pretty sure we can trust Daffodil.  Our land was weird and beautiful.  There was so much of it that was oddly identical forests of one type or another, or a swamp that would appear almost the same everywhere you looked, or the flat expanse of the volcanic plain in the Fire Biome that seemed like a stretch of nothing but the same long swath of stone, interrupted only by rivulets of lava.  Our world was a fledgling one.  It¡¯s one secret I no longer have to keep.  Our world was new, but dying.  It should live now, hopefully.  We got here by dying, but that dying still should have been enough to keep our world going.¡±


    Teuila and I gaze at each other with our mouths agape, our eyes flicking back and forth between each other and Luni.  I could have guessed some of these things, I mean, I think I even did guess some of these things, but Luni sounds beyond absolutely certain, she sounds like she¡¯s simply reciting fact.  I mean, I mean, I know it is, I guess.  TQ told us more or less the same thing before we made the sacrifice, and I¡¯d commented on the sameness of our world, and the oddity that the cosmos didn¡¯t exist until later in our lives.  I¡¯m not sure how to even follow up after that admission.  Daffodil looks pensive, her expression mostly neutral, but an inkling that she¡¯s deep in thought, digesting what she¡¯s heard.


    Luni blushes and mumbles, ¡°Um, so, yeah, that, um, that¡¯s about it, sort of.  You um, maybe, probably don¡¯t need our whole life story just to hear the locations in our land.  And, and, and, um.  Reggie!  They um, they have some questions for you, I think, right Reggie?¡±


    Luni regressed into her verbally stuttery shyness for the first time in so long that I¡¯m at a loss for words.  It sort of feels like we have our old Lu back.  Not that we¡¯ve ever lost her, she just had her future personality fragments coaching her confidence.  Is she losing those?  I mean, how could she possibly have had any more of them anyway?  We died, long after I had sent Luni¡¯s consciousness to her younger self.  I¡¯m pretty certain that right now I couldn¡¯t access my time powers in a way that would allow me to send anyone back to before our deaths, we¡¯re essentially not the same people.  Oh, wait, she threw me under the bus, I¡¯m supposed to be asking my questions now.


    Something has been at the edge of my senses, nagging me, ¡°You seem to be taking us in stride.  We¡¯re a pretty odd group, even back on our world, I assume even more odd on this one.  Have there been other otherworldly travelers before us?¡±


    Daffodil smiles as she responds, ¡°No, none that I¡¯m aware of at least.  It was quite the shock to see travelers leaving Noirdivinhoz.  Perhaps that shock alone pushed aside any I might have over your appearances.  Once I could tell you meant Noirdivinhoz no harm, I felt no need to remain worked up about minor details like species.  The one that left though, he has a bad air about him.  I hope for all our sakes that he finds peace somewhere out there, ma kai.  Do you think he would return in anger?¡±


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    I shake my head, ¡°I think for once, Mat is finally done being angry.  He¡¯ll never make up for what he did under a certain influence, I don¡¯t even know how to go about dealing with that.  We were in crisis and needed his help, but even then we didn¡¯t interact beyond doing exactly what we needed to do.¡±


    Getting around to the question I originally meant to ask, that I told Lil I would ask, I start, ¡°Did you know Aces?  I mean, um, the body in Noirdivinhoz.¡±


    Daffodil¡¯s eyebrow raises, ¡°I did not, but it sounds like you, from another world entirely, do.  How is this?¡±


    I glance around nervously, ¡°We¡¯re not entirely sure if what I think I know is the truth.  I¡¯ve had, um, visions, dreams.  Do you know of anyone named Taylynn?  I¡¯m sorry, that¡¯s probably not much to go on.¡±  As I¡¯m asking about Taylynn, Luni makes a blech face, expressing her annoyance that I¡¯m asking about her once again.  Since Daffodil is shaking her head, I continue, ¡°If not her, then perhaps Jarvis Tavner and his daughter Selunie Tavner?¡±


    Luni squeaks and practically jumps out of her own skin.  I stare at her sudden startlement, but her eyes glint as she tries to avoid my peering gaze.  I furrow my brow and wrinkle my nose, trying to suss her out while I continue, ¡°I think they owned an inn somewhere, it would probably be in a city along a political edge of the Celestial Imperium.¡±


    Daffodil wears a half frown as she sighs and shakes her head, ¡°I am sorry friend.  I do not travel, I would not have the knowledge you seek.  Perhaps some traders in Autumn Brook will have the answers you desire, or may have mentioned such knowledge to Keeley, since they would all stay at her inn.  What else do you know of Rayileklia?¡±


    I glance around, and the others shrug, motioning for me to continue taking the lead, ¡°I uh, not much.  Those plants out there are a new thing to us, I¡¯ve never seen plants emit light so bright.  I¡¯ve seen photoluminescence in caves, but that¡¯s a simple glow.  This is something else entirely.  And your world¡¯s clouds make almost no sense to me.  Lightning that continues to streak horizontally?  Acidic water vapor that stays heavily laden in the skies?  It doesn¡¯t, it just doesn¡¯t follow.  Noirdivinhoz though, it resembles the temple of time that we died in on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  So, I guess there¡¯s that little tidbit.  We think Aces was an assassin trying to liberate the Celestial Imperium, that they knew some people named Taylynn, Jarvis, and Selunie, and had a dog named Eights, and they were from Vale Valley, land of the assassins, behind the Hidden Heart.  This dagger, I took it from Aces¡¯ body because it was loaned to them by Taylynn in one of my dreams.  I think she deserves to know her friend is dead.¡±


    I gulp as I try not to let on how intimate of a relationship that I know Taylynn and Aces had.  Selunie¡¯s and Aces¡¯ relationship was just as intimate, by the way the two of them spoke of her.  The collar of my Valkyrie under-armor clothing feels like it virtually steams, even though I¡¯m not wearing the armor itself.  I tug at my collar as I blush and avert my gaze from Luni who is now giving me the peering gaze of suspicion.  I can¡¯t think of more questions with the heat of my embarrassment threatening to steam out my slightly pointed eartips.


    Thankfully, Lil has me covered, sort of.  Lil asks, ¡°So, Hidden Heart, and Vale Valley, they sound like they¡¯re kind of peaceful, at least probably safe from the big jerk, yeah?  Could I go there?  They don¡¯t have like big no dragons allowed signs or anything, do they?¡±


    Daffodil wears a look of mild surprise, ¡°I, well, I don¡¯t believe they do, no.  Yes, they are among the safest places in Rayileklia, due to their geography.  It would be perhaps several weeks, if not months on foot mudcamping to journey around the mountains.  Though perhaps for a dragon, travel time is different.  But yes, they are safe, and Aasimovia is safe due to our church of post-life, the inability to reduce our population.¡±


    My face screws up, I accidentally avoid waiting for Daffodil to ask a question, ¡°Excuse me, what?  Inability to reduce your population?  Post-life?¡±


    Daffodil gasps, ¡°Oh my!  Of course you wouldn¡¯t know!  That¡¯s why Noirdivinhoz exists!  Should the great work ever succeed, we must give an everliving one the ability to withdraw consent.  Of course, we¡¯ve never brought back a soul, unless any new developments have been made since the last time I got any news.  We only reanimate bodies of willing church of post life members, but all have always been willing, ever since the First.  The First, the Prime still walks amongst us.  They lead generally pleasant, well, not lives, but, existences I suppose.¡±


    My face must continue to look wildly contorted as I ask myself if post-life Aasimovians dream of undead sheep, because Daffodil decides to continue, ¡°I could show you if you like.  The one you call Aces gave consent, not caring what happened to their body after their demise.  The eldest church members know how to do at least this much.  A proper burial, the right words, thoughts, concentration, and a body comes back.  There¡¯s a bit more to it than that, but I can¡¯t give everything away you see.  The animate body, well, it mostly chooses to do something that resembles what it did in life in some way or another.  Though of course they don¡¯t speak, or exhibit many other signs of life.  We¡¯ve not succeeded in finding the hereafter, to pull souls back from it.  Even still, many of the dead willingly fight to protect our homeland if necessary.  Or at least they wear armor and march the land.  I¡¯m not certain any have ever seen a battle.¡±


    I¡¯m flabbergasted that it almost sounded as if they enslave the dead, but it sounds more like they make flesh automatons from bodies, and give them freedom.  I ask for clarification, ¡°You said they choose?  You give them a choice?  You don¡¯t control the dead?¡±


    Daffodil looks shocked, ¡°Of course they choose.  We are not some mythical necromancers raising hordes of undead to do our bidding, we¡¯re a family that continues to honor our ancestors as they walk amongst us until the end of times, or until we find success in the great work, bringing back their souls.  Then, should any of them wish to not remain, they can retire to Noirdivinhoz, to know the final peace, never to be bothered again.¡±


    I¡¯m starting to get it now.  A community of people that preserve the dead in a different fashion.  The animation magic probably keeps them from rotting.  They couldn¡¯t in good conscience intentionally control what those bodies do, because in their eyes, they still belong to their loved ones who are just waiting for the great work to succeed in order to be able to re-enter those bodies when their souls are brought back.  It also explains why Noirdivinhoz exists.  It¡¯s as a precaution in case anyone withdraws their consent for being brought back.  It¡¯s likely that the bodies of Aasimovians who have passed on are nearly immortal, perhaps even extra durable due to the reanimation magic.


    I start out, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry to have interrupted you, I believe I see now.  I also see why Noirdivinhoz is so important.  If I were a soul that didn¡¯t have a way to tell my descendants that I was at peace having passed on, and they brought me back into a body that wouldn¡¯t let me die, I¡¯d feel trapped.  It¡¯s about consent and autonomy.  You truly, deeply embody those concepts by the way it sounds.¡±


    Daffodil nods sagely, finally getting to take her turn to ask, ¡°Yes, true indeed.  Wise observation young friend.  Let me ask you about your magic though.  You were able to save a dying world.  It sounds like you must have been powerful, are you still?  What do you intend to do on Rayileklia in order to live?  If you¡¯ve no other plans, would you be willing to help fend back the coming calamity approaching Autumn Brook?¡±


    Lil grunts and grumbles, ¡°Here we go again.¡±  They hop away from the rest of us and head outside.  I can hear the subtle sounds of their shapeshifting, and the not so subtle sounds of them taking wing once more.


    I feel guilty as I look at Teuila and Luni who seem to be waiting on me to answer, ¡°I, well, you did say that we might, maybe be able to find information about my sort of, self imposed quest, in Autumn Brook.  Even if not, we could branch out to other cities from there, asking around about Taylynn¡­¡±  Luni harumphs, ¡°Or Jarvis and Selunie.¡±  Luni¡¯s ears perk up, and she tries to avoid eye contact.


    I continue, trying not to let my suspicions surrounding Luni get the better of me, ¡°So, the thing is, um.  Lil is still powerful.  So is Teuila.  My power though, it, um.  It comes with a price that I can¡¯t pay anymore.  I might have some workarounds, maybe.  I haven¡¯t explored all of our options yet on Rayileklia.  Luni hasn¡¯t shared whether or not she¡¯s still powerful yet, and seems to be avoiding my gaze right now, conspicuously.¡±  I tease Luni, who blows a raspberry towards me for my efforts.


    I don¡¯t mention that I have a feeling that if I commit to this, that I might lose Lil, at least for some period of time.  It hurts.  Lil already knows what I¡¯m thinking.  A town on the edge of calamity?  A chance to find information?  I have to go, but they don¡¯t have to come with.  Lil deserves a break.  They died after months alone, digging throughout the land, hundreds of miles of tunnels.  I look towards Teuila, whose own gaze surprises me.  Her expression is so resolute that I can tell immediately that she¡¯s coming with, no matter what I decide.  Luni continues to avoid my gaze however.  I have a suspicious feeling that Lil wants to go to the Hidden Heart for a sort of vacation.  If Lil goes, Luni probably will too.


    I ask Luni, ¡°Lu, do you, um, do you want to take the shop into your inventory, instead of me carrying it?¡±


    Her eyes glisten as her ears perk up, ¡°Can I?!¡±  As I¡¯m nodding, she sprints around the oven pit and tackles me, whispering excitedly, ¡°You¡¯re the best, I love you my hero, always have, always will.  I just, I have to go with Lil.  They need me, and, well, you, you um, it hurts, but you don¡¯t.  I mean, you have Teuila.¡±


    I stroke Luni¡¯s cheek whispering in reply, ¡°I¡¯ll always need you Lu. I love you, but I understand.  Lil does need you.  I missed Lil so much, I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m about to do this, it breaks my heart.¡±


    My eyes well with tears as I contemplate the fact that my oldest friend and I are probably about to part ways for an indeterminate amount of time.  That I¡¯m embarking on what might become a quest to slay an emperor that scared away a hardened assassin.  I may very well die before I ever see Lil again.  On the plus side, I¡¯m now confused on whether or not dying would even prevent me from seeing Lil again, due to the insane amount of death and resurrection that can apparently happen.  Coming back as eggs in a new location, spawning into a whole new world, having our bodies revived by Aasimovians, and our souls possibly being brought back if they accomplish their great work.  Though, if I die to the emperor, it sounds like my soul will be forfeit.  No coming back from that, I expect.

 B 4 C 7: Piece of Cake, Right?

    Luni, noticing my tears, and my being lost in thought, touches my bicep and leans in to ask, ¡°How ya doin¡¯ Reggie?¡±


    I¡¯m so flummoxed with all we¡¯ve learned so far on Rayileklia that my only response for the moment is, ¡°Oy vey.¡±


    Luni, undaunted, asks again, ¡°I said, how ya doin¡¯ Reggie?¡±


    I shake my head slowly as I answer, ¡°In that case, my answer is double oy vey. So the answer that I say to ¡®How ya doin¡¯ Reggie,¡¯ is oy vey, oy vey.¡±


    She leans in conspiratorially, ¡°I know you¡¯ve got this, no matter how high, or how low. Wherever you¡¯re needed, that¡¯s where you¡¯ll go. You¡¯ll grab your staves and swords, and do that hero thing. Hey, hey, listen to me. I¡¯m sure of it, look me in the eyes. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll do that hero thing just fine. It doesn¡¯t matter what planet we¡¯re on. You¡¯re my hero, always have been, always will be.¡±


    My brain has several BSOD moments. When I recover, I do meet Luni¡¯s gaze. After staring Luni in the eyes, seeing the warmth of the smile on her face, her desire to cheer me up and center me, I remember why I gave her the nickname of My Anchor. I can¡¯t help but smile.


    I hazard asking, ¡°Lil¡¯s going to choose to go to Hidden Heart aren¡¯t they? They¡¯re probably already in the process of leaving, maybe just waiting for you. Do you think they¡¯ll hate me for choosing to go to Autumn Brook?¡±


    Luni kisses me tenderly, ¡°Lil will never truly hate you. I think neither of you are ready to be there for each other right now. Lil needs someone right now though, truly, they need me. I¡¯m sure that when you¡¯re finally ready, you¡¯ll come find us, and Lil will be ready too. I know you¡¯ll find us, whatever happens, wherever any of us end up, I¡¯m sure of it. But um, still, maybe, um, please, promise me you will?¡±


    I try to fight the smile I experience at Luni¡¯s sudden meekness, ¡°Of course I promise you Lu, my beloved Luni, absolutely. Apparently, not even death can keep us apart.¡±


    We both chuckle lightly, completely ignoring the fact that we¡¯re not the only beings in the room, because to us, at this tiny fraction of a moment, the other is the only being in the world that exists. The spell breaks after too short a moment, without private accelerated thinkspace we only have such short, ephemeral moments of wistful gazing. Luni clambers off of me, and heads out the south side of Daffodil¡¯s home. I¡¯m sure she spends eight minutes to summon the shop stall to her inventory before she heads out to track down Lil. Daffodil begins to ask a question, but the tears in my eyes and my shaking head prevent her from voicing whatever it was.


    I hear Lucky let loose a howl, and he makes a ruckus as he dashes back and forth, sloshing mud, seemingly torn between staying with us, or following Luni to follow Lil. After a while, the slosh of Lucky¡¯s mad dash gets further and further. He apparently eventually came to a conclusion. It makes sense, he spent the last few months alone with Lil, and Luni is kind of his mother in a weird sense.


    Of course Teuila doesn¡¯t take her ¡®Little Sis¡¯ leaving without bidding us farewell, sitting down. She stands and walks to me to check on me. When she¡¯s sure I¡¯m not in a panic episode, she steps out of the hut and begins shouting after Lu and Lil. Calling them butts for leaving without saying goodbye.


    Shortly after, the sound of a leathery flap as Lil brakes their glide can be heard, as well as Luni¡¯s soft, slightly nervous giggle, and Lucky¡¯s sloshing. I perk back up from my saddened stupor. Could I dare hope that maybe we¡¯re not splitting up after all? Unlikely. It¡¯s more likely that they just had to come back to say goodbye. I look to Daffodil who nods and gives me the shoo gesture.


    I can hear Teuila berating Lil and Lu who nervously chuckle with chagrin. I exit Daffodil¡¯s home to wave to the two of them. Lil shoos Teuila out of the way to approach me.


    Lil states, ¡°Look Rej, I¡¯m, I¡¯m still mad. I need some time. We gave up everything, we thought we could never come back. I thought we were finished, that maybe you and Lu made some mistakes about us maybe having a future. I was fine with that. But now, with all this? I didn¡¯t get to vent while we were still alive. I didn¡¯t get revenge on Mat, and maybe you¡¯re right, maybe I¡¯m the only one stopping me. That doesn¡¯t mean it doesn¡¯t hurt that he¡¯s out there, getting away with everything, never having to face the ones he hurt, never having to apologize. It¡¯s not fair. Mega unfair, mega mega mega unfair.¡±


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    I begin to apologize, but Lil cuts me off, ¡°I¡¯m not finished. It wasn¡¯t fair of me to turn things around on you, but that just shows us that I need time to deal with these feelings. You have to be a hero, you have to answer every call for help, I get it. I¡¯m not ready to be that dragon yet though. Not after what we just went through. I trust you though. I trust that if you find a way back to our family, you¡¯ll come find us first. You won¡¯t abandon us here pal. Right Reggie buddy?¡±


    I nod, gulping and choking on my saliva, trying not to cough in Lil¡¯s face, ¡°Hak, koff, glp. Of, of course Lil. I don¡¯t even want us to be apart at all. I can¡¯t imagine leaving you stranded on another planet. That would feel awful. I love you so much buddy. I missed you so badly for all those months, and I¡¯m so sorry that I got to reunite with our family when you didn¡¯t. A lot of things haven¡¯t been fair to you, and I want you to take the time you need. I, I just, I just wish I could be there for you while you took it.¡±


    Lil nods while chewing on their own tongue, ¡°Hm, mhm. Me too Reggie, me too. We¡¯re okay though. Just be careful out there. You aren¡¯t the ultra magic superhero anymore. And even if you were, Lu says it was killing you near the end.¡± Lil turns to Teuila, ¡°Hey, um, It¡¯s-a-secret. I lub you buddy. Sorry it looked like I was going to take off. I wouldn¡¯t though. Y¡¯know?¡±


    Teuila rubs her eyes, perhaps hiding tears, ¡°I know, my dorky big dragbutt, I know. I was just upset about us splitting up. Just when we got back together. Sorry I yelled at you guys. Sorry to you too Lu. Words ya too dragbutt. Take care of her, okay? And you too, hunter mutt, you protect them both, okay Lucky? You be good, you listen to Lu and Lil.¡±


    Lucky barks in reply and runs a swift circle, before panting with his tongue hanging out happily. I¡¯m still surprised he suffers no effect from the acid rain, even with as mild as the drizzle is. I scratch Lucky¡¯s muzzle and hug his large head momentarily. I¡¯m really the only one affected by the acid I guess. I¡¯m grateful that Luni and Teuila have hydrophobic fur, and that Lil¡¯s scales aren¡¯t sensitive to the acid.


    Luni leaps into Teuila¡¯s arms for one last tight hug, nuzzling her ¡°Big Sis¡¯s¡± cheek roughly, and Lil hugs all of us with their wings. I think Luni whispers some things to Teuila, but I can¡¯t hear over the pitter patter and slosh of the rain and mud. After too brief a time, the embrace ends, Luni climbs atop Lil, and Lil leaps into a low glide just a short ways off the ground. Lucky chases after, baying with joy or pride. I hear Luni strike up a tune on her harp for the first time since arriving in Rayileklia. It¡¯s a sad, lilting dirge of parting. It¡¯s a sweet sorrow. Luni¡¯s tears falling are somehow visible against the rain, clear crystalline droplets of her sadness painted against the murky nothingness of everything else.


    Teuila and I stand there, soaking in the ever-present stinging rains. It¡¯s hard to tell, but it¡¯s likely that both of us are silently crying, our tears mixing with the rain upon our faces. I sigh several times over a few minutes before walking to Teuila to wrap one arm about her. I guide us back inside Daffodil¡¯s home.


    Daffodil bids us welcome, and surmises, ¡°Six travelers, new to our world, now down to two? I¡¯d always thought of Noirdivinhoz as a sort of gateway of partings, but I¡¯m sad to see your little band so divided. I am sorry friends. Do you wish to see the Aasimovian burial ma uka?¡±


    As curious as I would be, I¡¯m devoid of most emotion. I¡¯ve no desires right now. I just want to let the numbness wash over me for a while. I vaguely hear Teuila answering for us, but I¡¯m barely present in my own mind at the moment. I know Te doesn¡¯t want us to be separated ever again. She probably also knows how curious I would be about something like this normally, or maybe she¡¯s worried that we¡¯ll end up in another draconic lich situation. It seems like we might be following Daffodil Tarquin back into Noirdivinhoz, but the scenery blends together as time passes for me.


    It¡¯s almost like no time passes at all as I realize I¡¯m now face to face with an animate body of the, now deceased, assassin known as Aces. The body seems to peer around purposefully. It then picks a direction, and begins walking. I believe it is heading north by northwest along the mountainside. Daffodil smiles and waves at the body, though it doesn¡¯t acknowledge her, or either of us, in any way. Aces isn¡¯t in that body. So their soul must have passed on, right? It should be safe. It was their last wish, I think. Unless more things happened after those dreams.


    Daffodil¡¯s question rouses me from my reverie, ¡°You said you have no Luma Tulipa in, what was it, Kansas? The sun plants that keep Rayileklia warm and lit?¡±


    Hm, Kansas, the Earth one, probably does have sunflowers, but not literal ones like these. I can tell Teuila is trying to parse whether Daffodil said Can¡¯Z¡¯aas too quickly, or Kansas. I¡¯d probably laugh about the scrutiny at any other time. Right now though? I¡¯m more caught up in worrying about Luni, Lucky, and Lil. I¡¯m also slightly wondering, just slightly, if the recently animated corpse is going to try to finish the job that Aces took when they were alive. It¡¯s probably a lot easier to beat a soul-stealer when you don¡¯t have a soul to worry about being stolen.


    Teuila nudges me roughly with her elbow, reminding me that I was asked a question.


    Startled from my reverie, I respond, ¡°Oh, right, correct. Though we had some miraculous plants that my memories say were the stuff of fantasy as well, oaks as tall as mountains, stuff like that. I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m not really here right now, I¡¯m --.¡±


    Teuila interrupts me, saying, ¡°Yeah spootbutt, you¡¯re a million miles away. It¡¯s so obvious. Are you going to be okay?¡±


    I flash Teuila a weak smile, ¡°You¡¯re by my side, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    Te raises an eyebrow, ¡°Duh, dork.¡±


    I stifle a chuckle, ¡°I was hoping your answer would include the word yes, so I could say, then there¡¯s your answer. But, yeah. It¡¯ll take a bit, but I just have to keep reminding myself that we¡¯ll see one another again at some point. Just gotta make it until then. Probably easier to do that if I¡¯m not trapped in my own head. I love you Teuila, thank you for standing by me, despite all the difficulties my choices force on us.¡±


    Te oscillates slightly, then slugs me in the shoulder playfully, ¡°Come on butterdink, cut it out, you¡¯re gonna make me blush. I¡¯ll be your Wings, through thick and thin. Even if I don¡¯t have all of my crazy awesome powers on demand. We were fighting a war against an infinite horde back home. Anything on this world has to be a piece of cake compared to that, right?¡±

 B 4 C 8: Quiet, For Now

    I really wish Teuila hadn¡¯t just asked that question.  I glance around nervously, waiting for the genre-savviness shoe to drop.  When no colossal enemy plummets out of the sky towards us, I breathe a sigh of relief.


    Daffodil coughs, politely demanding attention.  When we turn to face her, she begins walking back to her abode while she makes small talk with Teuila.  I¡¯m not exactly excited at the prospect of dealing with another city on the verge of destruction, or whatever calamity Daffodil was alluding to.  Maybe it will be economic calamity because the fish began to spawn less or something?  Oh wait, things don¡¯t just spawn here.  We¡¯re not on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas anymore.  Regardless, that¡¯s probably wishful thinking.  If I hadn¡¯t had Luni take the shop with her, I could probably still manage to cheat the shop system into producing infinite wealth and goods with evolution duplication.  Though I wouldn¡¯t want to subject Teuila to the sort of pain I went through when trying to change forms.


    Actually, come to think of it, I don¡¯t want to go through that pain again.  I think I¡¯ll stay cherubic Reggie for my time on Rayileklia, unless something drastic changes with our connection to our previous magic powers.  I glance at Teuila, she looks almost entirely human in this form, and her dress is lovely.  Having sort of grown up together in a short time, being used to her being a bare otter, it¡¯s almost odd to know this is her preferred clothing.  We were either naked, or in Valkyrie under-armor-clothing, or in Valkyrie armor, for most of our lives.  Right up until we ended up in Eimsas, the human frontier-town of Geawerene.  This outfit mimics the dress that we bought for her from Betty¡¯s stall in the slums of Eimsas.


    Speaking of clothing and gear, I¡¯m lucky I was able to drop as many things out of my inventory as I did, when I was messing with it earlier.  It¡¯ll be harder and harder to access when I can¡¯t picture or remember what¡¯s stored in it, or what order it will be in, in my mental interface, since the interface is basically defunct.  What I summoned so far was mostly leaf-leather stuff like sacks, or the makings of a lean-to tent.  There¡¯s also the large amount of coinage and gems, my few magical items, and weapons.  Hopefully the coins or gems work to pass as currency on Rayileklia.  We likely won¡¯t be able to sustain ourselves otherwise, without getting work.


    I shudder at the idea of trying to work some profession in human society while trying to find enough time to seek out answers about how to get back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  My Earthling memories depict how energy-draining professions can be.  We¡¯d be lucky if we could dedicate any time to searching for answers.  Worse, if it weren¡¯t a traveling profession, we¡¯d be out of luck once the leads ran dry in whatever town we were working in.  We could spend an entire life going nowhere, learning nothing.


    Daffodil asks a poignant question, ¡°If you plan to aid Autumn Brook, do you know how you would travel?  Not even a fool mudcamps without covering on Rayileklia.  Even us old-timers who are used to the rains of pains wouldn¡¯t last a night with it tearing us down.¡±


    I check the pile of leaf sacks that I had left at the outside of Daffodil¡¯s home.  They don¡¯t seem to have worn down much, if at all, in the rains.  Hopefully it¡¯s that simple, just putting up my leaf-leather tent.  Eventually we may have to replace it with some Rayileklian leather.  I¡¯m beginning to regret not getting the magical soap stone from Luni before she left though.  Lil and Lu don¡¯t have to stop anywhere muddy, with Lil¡¯s ability to almost endlessly glide.  Teuila and I will be covered in mud even partway through our first night of camping.  Te nudges me with a raised eyebrow.  Oh, right, the question.


    I respond, ¡°I¡¯m hoping it¡¯s as simple as setting up my vines and leather leaves as a partial tent.  Though the mud itself stings slightly as well.  I¡¯m not sure what to do about that.¡±


    Daffodil wrings her hands before explaining, ¡°Many of us cannot travel without a cart, or the makings of an entire shed.  I own no cart, but I know the trip to the ferry, and am patient enough to await it, even if it runs a day late.  The ferry is not scheduled this far out for quite some time yet.  I fear that I¡¯ve only returned recently, so the Ferry will be rounding all of Lake Siempre before returning.  Quite the long haul.  My returning recently is why I would even ask that you aid Autumn Brook.  You may be able to make it before the week is out, if you have a solution to mudcamping.  Their next dealing with the Colossi comes at the week¡¯s end, and Harriet is ready to no longer suffer their, hm, actions.¡±


    My breath shudders as I quail ever so slightly.  There¡¯s the other genre-savviness shoe.  With a name like the Colossi, I assume it¡¯s several colossal, hostile creatures.  I heave a sighing breath that I didn¡¯t know I¡¯d been holding.  Daffodil raises an eyebrow, probably trying to parse if my breathing is in reaction to any particular part of her statement.  I wear a weak half-smile to try to show her my appreciation for her candor.


    Teuila asks, ¡°Well, how far is it?  You said a few days of mud camping?  Where exactly?  I¡¯m a little worried that you sent Mat in the direction of the city.  Honestly, more for Mat than the city, for once, but I don¡¯t want him to spoil any hospitality we could have possibly received.¡±


    Daffodil eyes Teuila up and down before answering, ¡°As I said, three days ma kai mudcamping.  Maybe a single day on an excellent horse.  It is hard to press a horse for its best speed anywhere that isn¡¯t one of the cobblestone paths however.¡±


    Teuila prods, impatiently, ¡°Sure, sure, that¡¯s fine, but where is ma kai exactly?  Give us directions, and I¡¯ll handle transportation.  Probably, maybe.¡±


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    Daffodil half frowns at Teuila¡¯s rudeness, ¡°Facing out of my home is directly south, if you turn halfway right, you¡¯ll be heading southwest.  It¡¯s easiest to head southwest to the River Caioh, cross it, then head west to River Siempresuelo, and follow it all the way to Lake Siempre, then travel around the lake¡¯s southern edge.  One small brook of the lake has a large village built around it, that will be Autumn Brook.  One might call Autumn Brook the capitol of Aasimovia, or at least southern Aasimovia.¡±


    Teuila nods along, then repeats, ¡°So, directly southwest, hop one river, west from there, follow the next river we see west until a big lake.  Thanks Daffy.  Come on dinkerputz, we¡¯re burning daylight, I think.¡±


    Daffodil questioningly mouths the nickname Daffy as her face contorts.  Daffodil and I both start to object, but Teuila is already hauling me away.  Te calls back, ¡°Thanks again for all your hospitality!  We¡¯ll do our best at Autumn Brook, promise!¡±


    I tug on Teuila to stop after she has dragged me probably half a mile.  I gaze into her eyes pleadingly and she finally relents.  We collapse into each other¡¯s arms and sob our hearts out.  Teuila couldn¡¯t bear expressing her deep sadness in front of Daffodil.  I could tell Teuila needed private time for us to express our emotions.  This is too much.  A whole new world, already parted from half of our inner circle, and Lucky.  No way home that we know of.  The ever-present threat of a soul-stealing emperor, and the ever-present rains of pain.  Teuila had been riding a bit of a high since she realized we weren¡¯t dead, but the weight of everything had been piling up on her as her realizations grew.  When it all really dawned on her, I could see her physically bottling up and suppressing the emotions around Daffodil.  Te got more anxious and impatient by the minute.


    Teuila¡¯s far more sensitive than she¡¯ll ever let on to most others, not that she doesn''t want to.  The brash, permanently upbeat facade is a comfort meant for others as much as herself.  The pain she feels at being cut off from our psychic bond is almost visible as she clutches at her chest while wailing between sobs.  She was so jealous of the psychic link that formed when Lil, Lu, and I almost died on the Night of High Water.  There were so many hurts that struck her, one after another.  Jealousy ate at her, and played her like a game.  Green-eyed envy would be rather apt.  Eventually, when Teuila joined our bond, she was so excited that she bowled me over, despite the state I was in.  Later, when we went through an ordeal that temporarily cost us our bond, she thought I had taken that bond away from her.  After losing it, Teuila snuck away to cry beneath the waterfall.  She thought I had deemed her unworthy to keep the bond.


    Now here we are, she knows I didn¡¯t take it away from her.  She knows it isn¡¯t a question of worth.  We don¡¯t have access to our bond, or most aspects of ourselves that relate to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  Teuila never told Luni just how upset she was that Lu had been missing for so long, or how much she had missed her little sis.  She tried to fill that void by enjoying hunting with Linti.  I¡¯m sure her feelings for Linti, and her enjoyment of hunting, are both genuine, but Te was obviously leaning into it more and more without Lu around.


    We¡¯ve been as close as two people can be, and we thought we were dying together.  Now, we¡¯re stranded on another world, and though we¡¯re holding each other, we feel more isolated than ever.  Will we ever get home?  Will the family be alright?  Did Linti survive while evacuating the Nagas?  Did they make it into the barrier before it activated?  It would have taken several hours to activate it even after the energy flow had hit it, so Linti had the travel time necessary.  Still, that just leaves us wondering if the settlement even lasted against the encroaching enemies long enough for the shield to activate.  It was really down to Jazharn, Sofu, Adom, and a few of the other most powerful human mages, and some of the innately strong fairies.  Most of the human mages were more useful finishing construction of the shield.  At least, compared to being sent against things that were immune to their spells.


    Oh Jaz.  You became a part of our family.  You fell in love with Dreams of Days, and asked me, me of all people, for communication and flirting advice.  The two of you may become the basis for a sign language that breaks the communication barriers between our species.  I¡¯m so impressed with Jazharn, above pretty much any other surviving human.  That level of openness, love, and kindness shows that our species can coexist.  Not just peacefully, but happily.


    But was it all for naught?  Is our world even still in existence?  The soul which supposedly housed it has disappeared.  I¡¯m sure Teuila is having similar distressing ruminations as we hold each other while on our knees in the mud.  I hiccup from not getting enough proper oxygen flow while sobbing, for too long.  I end up gasping down a drizzle-filled breath, and choking as the stinging-wet hits the back of my throat.  As I cough and sputter, I turn my face away from Teuila momentarily.


    Teuila slugs me roughly in the shoulder, ¡°Maroonaloon, don¡¯t drink the acid rain ya dingus.¡±


    She laughs weakly as she hiccups between sobs as well.  I wear a meager half-smile as our tear-filled gazes meet.


    I finally ask, ¡°Te, Te, what are we doing?  Why did I agree to this instead of following Lil, or seeking out leads on how to get back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas?  We didn¡¯t even get an explanation from Daffodil about these Colossi.¡±


    Te shrugs, ¡°Hey, long run, or short haul, you try to do what¡¯s the most right for everyone.  You saddled Lu with secrets that carried us through the timeline that saved our family, and maybe saved as many other people as possible along the way.  You wanted to deliver a dagger, remember?¡±


    I perk up as I¡¯m reminded of my self-imposed quest.  I¡¯d nearly forgotten that Autumn Brook isn¡¯t even our intended final destination on this leg of our journey.


    Te continues, ¡°Even if it¡¯s a short little quest, maybe this Taylynn girl, or Selunie or whatever, maybe they¡¯ll have answers about Aces.  Answers about Aces might lead us to answers about souls, and maybe Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  I guess, maybe.  I¡¯ve always let you do the big plans, you and Lu.  You don¡¯t need me to justify them.¡±


    I nod half-heartedly as I stand, dragging Teuila up into my embrace as well.  This proves difficult, as she is much taller than me in our current forms.  Te laughs at the height disparity, and slings me, and all my packs, over her shoulder as she jogs along south-westward.  That ridiculous strength of hers isn¡¯t just physical though, it¡¯s also of character.

 B 4 C 9: Keel Over

    Daffodil was right about mud camping.  It¡¯s pretty difficult to do on the ground without an actual solid floor.  A sleeping bag would just end up sunk into the muck over time.  Thankfully there are trees around.  Teuila and I briefly toyed with the idea of doing a snuggly little dugout.  But, it¡¯s likely the acid rain would work its way down our air-holes, and either collapse the air-holes, or eventually become a deluge that fills the dugout.  Sadly, most of these trees don¡¯t have low hanging branches, and we don¡¯t dare climb to their very tops.  The horizontal streaking lightning occasionally makes a jagged zigzag in the sky that brings it close to the treetops.


    We end up seeking trees with the largest exposed roots.  Once we find one, we work at setting our lean-to up against such a tree, over one of the roots.  That¡¯s about as close as we¡¯ll get to a clean floor, or a floor at all.  By the end of our first sleep, our first change of clothes are fairly well ruined, and worse, the acid is eating away and fraying the edges of Teuila¡¯s favorite outfit.


    We aren¡¯t used to having to figure out a solution for fresh water though.  We can¡¯t drink the rain until it has been filtered by the soil down into the groundwater.  Perhaps we can drink from the river, if it flows fast enough.  Hopefully the river water will reduce the acid content.  This world seems to still defy some of what I think I know about physics.  The basis of that knowledge is from Earth though, which, as far as I know, is a fake world.


    There¡¯s a bridge over the first river, the river that travels almost directly north and south.  Daffodil called it the River Caioh, and there¡¯s a carving indicating as such along the bridge, so it¡¯s pretty easy to tell we¡¯re on the right track.  Following Daffodil¡¯s directions are a bit of a marvel though, as there is barely at best a footpath that she must have beat herself over the years of journeying to and from Noirdivinhoz.  As she said, there¡¯s no ferry to be spotted while we follow the next river west towards Lake Siempre.


    Teuila could probably make the journey in less than a day if it weren¡¯t for having to haul me around.  When I¡¯m jogging along behind her, she easily outpaces me by probably triple my speed.  If she were to try to drop evolutionary line down to Valkyrie, and her Valkyrie leaps functioned on Rayileklia, even the non-powered ones, she could make the journey in minutes.  Well, perhaps a couple of hours at the longest.


    After two days, it becomes pretty obvious that we¡¯re approaching Autumn Brook.  There are animated corpses, some preserved in states of minor decay, milling about as we approach civilization.  Some are randomly chopping a field with a hoe, others are standing around in armor.  Yet more of the undead are herding sheep, and on and on.  One is laying in a familiar scene.  Atop a grassy hill, beneath the leeward side of a tree.  The animated Aasimovian corpse that rests atop the hill sits in blissful, idyllic peace, occasionally tapping its toes to some unheard rhythm.  Their autonomous nature does give them some sort of existence that¡¯s almost a life of its own.


    When the city finally comes into view, it¡¯s more European than I expected after having witnessed Daffodil¡¯s home.  There are cobblestone paths, the buildings are a mix of brick and wood, there are oil lamps in addition to the luma tulipa plants.  One building in particular looks like it has a third of an upside-down ship as part of its roof.  Ah, that would probably be the Johnston Keel-over.  I motion towards the inn to get Teuila¡¯s attention.  She¡¯s gazing about in wide-wonder.  It¡¯s kind of adorable.  I suppose that I¡¯ve been so wrapped up in the things I want answers to, that I haven¡¯t stopped to figuratively smell the tulipa as it were.  I never got around to regenerating my sense of smell, and now it¡¯s too late, but, again, it¡¯s a figure of speech.  Or well, internal monologue thought.  You know what I mean, me.


    I join Teuila in gazing around, admiring the disparate architecture.  Even in a town such as this, it¡¯s odd to see more than one style, or era of building.  Or maybe because it¡¯s the sort of town that it is, that it¡¯s surprising to see.  I think the other surprising thing about the village, or city, is how teeming with life it is.  People, sheeps, horses, even cats and dogs that might be strays.  I think this is the first time in our lives, certainly in our reincarnated lives, that we¡¯ve seen animals that weren¡¯t critterkin, besides fish and frogs.  We should probably secure a place to stay, then ask the proprietor where we can find Harriet, Mairess Du Pon De Brook.


    The entrance of the inn has what I can only describe as swinging saloon doors.  The inside is dimly lit, and there¡¯s a burly crowd sitting at a table immediately to the left of the entrance.  A muscular, statuesque woman with long, frizzy brown hair stands near a bar.  Her gray eyes shift between the burly crowd, and us.  Since we¡¯re the new patrons and all.  Her apron pockets are laden with heavy things, judging by the handles, cookware and cutting implements like cleavers.


    A meek, wiry fellow doffs a tophat towards the watchful woman as he retires upstairs, likely to his room.  A rotund man grabs a hardtack roll from a basket on the counter, and leaves some coins as he turns to exit.  He brushes by us while jovially eating his to-go meal as it were.


    Suddenly I realize I haven¡¯t been paying attention to my sense of hearing, as I hear, ¡°Well blokes, what ¡®ave we got ¡®ere eh?  Seems like a couple of, whatta the locals call ¡®em?  Wahines?  A couple of wahine kittens out for a lark, gawpin¡¯ and gawkin¡¯ at everythin¡¯ under the sun, only one expression ¡®tween the two of ¡®em.¡±


    Teuila adopts a protective, angered expression when she realizes they might be thinking about capitalizing on our innocence and naivety.  She actually cracks her knuckles as the fools step closer to us.  She¡¯s also ready to tell them off about my gender, but I shake my head towards her, signaling I want her to let it slide.  They aren¡¯t worth the effort of educating.


    ¡°Well looky ¡®ere, a new expression, seems it¡¯s not two kittens, but a mama cat and ¡®er kit, the fuzzy lookin¡¯ one could actually be a cat, right fellas?  Still, she¡¯s sorta svelte, sleek, got a right nice body on ¡®er.  ¡®asn¡¯t she?¡±


    As the brutish fellow approaches Teuila with hands up placatingly, he reaches to grab her by her shoulder, or perhaps her neck, and several things happen at once.  Teuila dodges nimbly, my hand instinctively flicks to Taylynn¡¯s dagger, partially unsheathing it, and the muscular bar-woman appears instantly between all of us.


    The bar-woman, obviously Keeley Johnston, says, ¡°I¡¯ll not ¡®ave you accosting my female patrons, nor any for that matter.  If I ¡®ave to tell you again, I¡¯ll get the guards to ship you off ma kai.  And that¡¯s only if I don¡¯t feel like ¡®auling off and taking you out myself.  And you little, hm, not wahine, braddah, you keep that thing in its sheathe unless you want to test which of us swings a blade faster and ¡®arder.  I¡¯ve got my eye on you.  Gear like that, size like that, young looking, says something about a person, says they¡¯re probably a sneak thief, or maybe something a little darker.¡±


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    Well, crap.  I¡¯ve just made a terrible first impression on our host.  But, also, why was my instinct to reach for that dagger in that spot on my belt?  Also, should I bother telling her that I¡¯m neither wahine nor braddah?  It¡¯s probably not the best time, after this little debacle.  The brute squad heads back to their table with their hands up, palms empty and forward.  I quickly place my hands in the same placating position, showing that I¡¯m not intending to use the borrowed weapon.  I probably shouldn¡¯t mention that there¡¯s half a dozen or more other weapons in the various leaf packs and satchels that we¡¯re carrying, or that the staff I¡¯m leaning on has enough magic in it to level this building, if not the whole town.  I nearly dropped it when my hand went for the dagger.  I should keep a better handle on my reflexes.


    The odd double-barreled wrist-mounted crossbow that fires anti-undead bolts of magic is also in one of these satchels.  I wonder how much of a faux-pas it would be to have something that¡¯s specifically more damaging to undead in Aasimovia.  I¡¯d rather not find out.


    I stammer an apology, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry, this isn¡¯t even my dagger.  We¡¯re looking for its owner, eventually.  Her name is Taylynn.  I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯ve heard of her?  Err, Daffodil said we should talk to Harriet about the Colossi problem.  We¡¯ll go do that before we bother you for information.  Again, I¡¯m so sorry.¡±


    Keeley scoffs, ¡°Likely story, but you dropped the right names, I¡¯ll let it slide, for now.  I¡¯m keeping my eyes on you though.  Sneak-thief, killer, whatever you are.  If you¡¯re on a first name basis with the Mairess, you ought to know where to find ¡®er.  If you¡¯re only familiar with ¡®er because of Daffodil, then I¡¯m ¡®ighly suspicious of your motives.  We aren¡¯t a rich town, we¡¯re not offering merc-work.¡±


    Oh heavens, do we look like some sort of adventuring mercenaries?  I mean, Teuila looks like, well, a lovely woman ready for a day of hanging out with friends in modern Earth, normally, when she¡¯s in her chocolate and cherry dress.  Even in these muddied whites of our under-armor padded clothing, she looks like a refined athletic woman just out enjoying herself.  I, well, I probably do look like some sneaky little mercenary.  Still, I¡¯m surprised no one¡¯s really batting an eye at Teuila¡¯s appearance.  Are critterkin, or demi-humans, or other such things, commonplace in Rayileklia after all?  Dreams of Aces never showed anyone that wasn¡¯t pure human.


    I facepalm as I realize I¡¯ve been spacing out while in the middle of a conversation.  I then regret facepalming, as I¡¯m sure it looked disrespectful.  Keeley¡¯s glare confirms my suspicion.


    I try to explain, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m prone to getting lost in thought, and I¡¯m ashamed and embarrassed to have done it just now.  Daffodil did tell us to see Mairess Du Pon De Brook.  We didn¡¯t stay long enough at Noirdivinhoz to--¡°


    There¡¯s suddenly a cleaver at my throat, my danger wraps gave me plenty of warning as it happened, but I didn¡¯t want to move and start an actual fight, Teuila¡¯s hackles are risen and every muscle in her body is visibly coiled to lunge at Keeley.  My eyes shoot wide with terror at how bad our first interaction is going.  I almost imperceptibly shake my head at Teuila as she meets my gaze.


    Keeley growls through gritted teeth, ¡°There are some names that you don¡¯t just drop, little braddah.  Some of us ¡®ave a little more respect for our faith, and its lesser kept secrets.  I¡¯d expect you to abide by the secrecy portion.¡±


    Oh, right, didn¡¯t Daffodil say that Noirdivinhoz itself was a secret?  She also said it wasn¡¯t secret that Aasimovia had some unknown secret temple, somewhere, that served the purpose that it does.  As I¡¯m about to apologize, Keeley shoves the cleaver into her apron, but Teuila remains poised to strike.  I gulp, shaking my head at Teuila once again.


    Gulping, I apologize again, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry, we¡¯re very, very new to Aasimovia, we, we, well, we stumbled into, um, the place near Daffodil.  From, um, the far side of it.¡±


    This gets a raised eyebrow from Keeley.  Hopefully it hints that we¡¯re really not from around here, and hopefully she believes that.  I continue, ¡°I, um, I suppose this is a pretty awful time to say we could use a room while we try to figure things out, while we hopefully help with the Colossi.¡±


    Keeley scoffs and heads back to the bar.  This time, while behind the bar, she rummages through a small cupboard of keys.  She veritably shouts towards us, ¡°Alright, what can you afford?¡±


    Oh crap, currency.  I begin to pull out one of the smaller satchels that¡¯s loaded with coins and gems.  I scratch my head as I try to figure out how to go about this.  Abandoning figuring it out on my own, I steel my resolve to ask for more help from someone that dislikes me.


    I quietly mumble, so that hopefully only Keeley hears, ¡°We, uh, we really, really are incredibly new to these parts, so I¡¯m not sure what might pass as currency.  We have coinage minted elsewhere, and, um, gemstones.  Mostly rubies, emeralds, some sapphires, diamonds, agates, peridots, just lots of the more well-known ones.¡±


    Keeley¡¯s jaw sets firmly as she sizes me up, trying to determine if I¡¯m lying I suppose.  As I show her the contents of the sack, one eyebrow raises while the other squints in disbelief.


    Keeley hisses quietly under her breath for only me to hear, ¡°What the devil.  Put that away.  You¡¯ve more wealth than our entire town in that sack.  You can¡¯t possibly be ¡®ere for mercwork you little shid.  Come back after you¡¯ve talked to the Mairess, one of those little ones will do per week of room and board.¡±  She points at the tiniest emerald, or maybe the tiny sapphire next to it, then continues, ¡°I¡¯ll give you one of the trader¡¯s select rooms, for my wealthier patrons.  I keep those ones clean, and packed with fresh linens.  The other rooms mostly fend for themselves.  All the better to keep an eye on you anyway.¡±


    I try to hide my pout as I gulp.  I still don¡¯t know where to go to talk to Mairess Du Pon De Brook.  The confusion must be plain on my face, because Keeley facepalms as she grits her teeth while her cheeks redden with further anger.


    Keeley virtually grunts, ¡°The long single story hall, you utter little shid.  Council business is ¡®andled there during the day.¡±  As I scratch my head, radiating confusion and embarrassment, Keeley rolls her eyes before continuing, ¡°The shid?  Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t even know what time day is!  Just where the ¡®ell are you from?  Forget it, just go.¡±  As my mouth tries to form words, she says, ¡°Now!¡±


    Keeley accentuates the final word of her statement by whipping her cleaver out of her apron and slamming it into the counter-top, embedding it several inches into the thick wood.  I nearly keel over with fright, but remain perfectly still, standing wide-eyed for a moment.  I¡¯m less scared of actually being hurt by her, and more scared of inspiring so much ire that I could get us run out of town.  As I regain my senses, I gulp and begin to skitter away quickly, tying up my sacks and satchels as best I can while snagging Teuila by the wrist to run out the door.  I haven¡¯t felt such animosity from someone since Priscilla.  Well, perhaps Leviathan.  I didn¡¯t really count him as a person though, just a destructive force of nature.  Three out of four of the deities of our island continent were at least amicable.  Leviathan though, he was all too happy to create the Hallowed Maelstrom and bring about the Divine Convergence that heralded the end of our lives.


    Teuila cracks her knuckles and almost begs, ¡°Should I go back in there and bust some skulls?  They¡¯re just humans.  No powers, barely any weapons worth mentioning.  I could put them in their places for threatening you.  Just say the word.¡±


    I know our world was basically a world of kill or be killed, but the dichotomy of people from such a world, thrown into one that¡¯s more like Earth is such a stark contrast.  On Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, that would be a perfectly reasonable reaction to establish that you¡¯re not someone to be messed with.  Here, if we busted skulls, we¡¯d probably be thrown in jail.  Humans also don¡¯t regenerate overnight like we critterkin did from most injuries.  If Teuila went all out, someone would get seriously injured and either die during the fight, or afterwards from recovery complications.  I shake my head towards Teuila, but stand in front of the long single story building, holding her hands for an inordinate amount of time.  Her muscles slowly un-tense as she lowers her guard.

 B 4 C 10: A Repeat Occurrence

    I hear a soothing masculine voice rattling off what sounds like Spanish, ¡°Ay dios, como se dice la palabra, ah that word, that fricking word.  You know the one.  No soy estupido pero no puedo¡­ Ah forget it!  I will handle what I can madame Mairess.  Just, please, do not do anything rash.  Loss of life is still loss of life.¡±


    As we¡¯re rounding the corner to enter, the bearer of this voice nearly walks into us as he exits the building.  Startled, he asks, ¡°Ah, newcomers?  Donde..?  Ah, wait, how rude of me.  I am Tiago, local pharmacist, or alchemist, or healer, or miracle worker, depending on who you ask.  Welcome to Autumn Brook, este es una ciudad magnifica de Aasimovia.  Y, la primera.  Or at least that¡¯s what we¡¯re supposed to tell people.  Que quieres aqui?¡±


    He was about to ask where we¡¯re from by the sounds of it, instead he¡¯s welcoming us and asking us what we want here.  He might be asking what he can do for us, if my memory of the translation isn¡¯t meant to be taken directly literally.  In some Spanish speaking regions, that¡¯s basically how a shopkeeper greets their patrons.  Like a version of ¡°Hello how may I help you?¡±  Oh, right, interact with the world around me, answer questions.


    I scratch the back of my head, blushing with embarrassment.  My blush is likely hidden by how red all of my skin has become in the ever-present stinging rain.  Thankfully, Tiago is motioning us inside the meeting-hall, at least its front vestibule, while he awaits a response.


    I start, ¡°We¡¯re, um, we¡¯ve arrived from a certain location to the east where we met Daffodil.  She said this town had a problem with Colossi?  She thought we might be able to help, after learning of some of our abilities, and seeing some of our magic.  She told us to meet with Harriet Du Pon De Brook, the Mairess?¡±


    Tiago¡¯s right eyebrow looks fit to lift right off the top of his slightly balding cranium, past his lovely dreadlocks.  He calls behind him, virtually shouting in excitement, ¡°Harriet!  Vas a querer escuchar esto.  Newcomers to the Brook!  Ah, pues, no necessitamos a mi para esto.  I hope you¡¯ll pardon me.  Please, come by my apothecary when you are free, introduce yourselves to me and my husband.  We¡¯d be glad of the company.¡±


    I raise a finger and my mouth tries to form words, but Tiago politely bows ever so slightly as he shimmies past us.  It seems he was in a hurry.  More oddly than that, he peppers in Spanish when he speaks, but I can understand it.  Why are both of those surprising?  I mean, Daffodil seemed Hawaiian or Tahitian or French Polynesian.  This town has architecture from all up and down western Europe¡¯s dark ages.  Those thugs at the inn seemed straight out of Victorian London, or somewhere near there at least.  But how do I even know those factoids on top of everything else?  Rayileklia is giving me a headache, or maybe it¡¯s my fakeworld memories that¡¯re giving me the headache.


    A woman of average height, with dark skin, and a haughty feel about her arrives from the inner door, motioning us into the full grand hall itself, instead of this vestibule.  She has soft, angular, light brown eyes, and short, curly, black hair.  Her clothes, like many in Rayileklia, are mostly earth-coloured.


    She announces herself, ¡°Greetings newcomers, welcome to The Brook.  I am your humble Mairess, final arbiter of council decisions.  San Tiago sounded excited, and urgent.  Please, elucidate as to why?¡±


    Teuila is busy gazing around at the inside of the great hall, it¡¯s one of the fanciest buildings we¡¯ve been in, definitely the fanciest since Eimsas.  Though, to be fair, Spice and Teodora were drawing up magnificent plans for buildings around the Miracle Oak.  Many of them were sure to be resplendent, once utility and necessity had been taken care of.  Both were excitable designers and architects.


    The Mairess coughs for attention, and I stutter an introduction, ¡°Oh, yes, yes, um, sorry, sorry.  Daffodil said, well, we arrived from the far side of, um, Keeley said we shouldn¡¯t say it out loud.  We¡ª¡°


    The honorable Mairess does a visible double take, interrupting me to ask, ¡°You come from where?  Speak plainly.¡±


    Teuila nudges me, leaving me in charge of talking, though we both know I¡¯m horrible at it.  I continue, ¡°Well, yes, we come from, err, beyond Noirdivinhoz.  Sorry for using its secret name.  We uh, we died on our world, and somehow ended up on this one.  Rayileklia is entirely alien to us, but we¡ª¡°


    The Mairess cleans out her ears as she blinks hard twice, and can¡¯t control her dropped jaw as she interrupts me again, talking seemingly to herself at first, ¡°Honor to the first.  From beyond the pale?  Could they be the key to..?  No, no.  That is not why Daffodil sent them to me.¡±  She rattles her head side to side a moment before continuing, ¡°Forgive me.  I suppose I¡¯m easily surprised.  I¡¯ve been stretched a bit thin, we all have.  Our situation is slightly grim.¡±


    I pause for a beat, waiting to see if she continues.  When it seems that she¡¯s also waiting on me to speak, I go on, ¡°We¡¯re, well.  I¡¯m Reggie, this is Teuila.  We¡¯re sort of adventurers or something, where we¡¯re from.  We¡¯ve dealt with some towns on the verge of crises before.  Daffodil thought we might be powerful enough to help with some sort of Colossi problem?  We didn¡¯t stay long enough to find out, since it seemed time was of the essence.  What sort of problem is it exactly?  On our world, we¡¯re rather used to, well, killing our problems.  Wow, that sounds horrible.¡±


    Harriet lets loose the tiniest hint of a chortle at my admonishing myself for my end statement.  I don¡¯t bother to mention that we left in a hurry because Teuila and I both needed to cry our hearts out, after parting ways with our closest loved ones on this planet.  No one need know that tidbit beyond the two of us.  I gaze towards Teuila, trying to radiate love into a psychic bond that I know we can no longer access.  I sigh in a forlorn manner before adopting a more serious expression as I face the Mairess once again.


    She appraises the two of us, seeming doubtful as her gaze takes us in, top to bottom.  She puffs a sighed breath out the left side of her mouth as she starts, ¡°It started innocently enough.  In the nineties, a tribe of exiles running from some countries to the north had taken root ma kai, on the peninsula to the west.  They grew in strength, and size.  Not in number mind you, but actual size.  At first we treated them with as much kindness as any neighbor.  Recently though, they¡¯ve been taking our ancestors, and extorting us with the promise of their release.  They also give thinly veiled threats of the harm they could do to our town, given their immense size.¡±


    I ruminate momentarily.  A people, a group of people, that began to physically change over time?  Not only that, but they went from peaceful neighbors, to greedy, hostile foes?  It smells like something else is at play here.  Uh, figuratively.  Still haven¡¯t regenerated that sense since I lost it.  While stroking my chin, I realize Teuila¡¯s eyes are alight with the idea of adventure and combat.  I don¡¯t want to disappoint her, but I also don¡¯t want our first solution to be simply murdering everyone that has been acting like a jerk.


    I start off fielding easier questions, ¡°You said this started in the nineties?  Of what, um, century or millennium?  What year is it now?¡±


    Harriet looks shocked as she answers, ¡°It¡¯s twelve oh one.  They¡¯ve been here less than a decade.  Rumors of the killings in the hierarchy of the North started in the eighties, but we don¡¯t necessarily suspect them, perhaps just coincidence, especially since the rumors continued after they arrived.  As I said, they were peaceful, appearing to be refugees at first.  By all accounts, the murders were more like assassinations, likely carried out by a single individual.¡±


    I stifle a nervous chuckle as my face flushes with embarrassment.  I¡¯m almost positive those killings were done by Aces.  How many people did Aces slay, trying to get to the Celestial Emperor?  Did that cause political strife, and scapegoating?  By the sounds of it, they were at the job for almost twenty years, far, far longer than any mission that¡¯s normally taken on, at least, I would imagine.


    Huh, on the job from the eighties until oh one.  It would also mean that they were around a century in age when they passed away in Noirdivinhoz.  They met the girls some night when they were in their eighties, the night Aces officially took the job, even though they had already been doing some work on it.  I remember Aces saying something about their age being in their eighties, and they met up with the girls before the killings started.  Taylynn and Selunie seemed to be in their twenties or thirties in some of the dreams, dreams where Aces was meeting them for the first time.  So, let¡¯s see, if they exist, they should be around somewhere between nearly forty or in their fifties now.  Will I be able to recognize them from the flashes of imagery I have as memories of the dreams?


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Whoops, Harriet seems annoyed, I¡¯d best continue, ¡°How large exactly would one of the Colossi be at this point?  How many are there?¡±


    Harriet¡¯s answer is unsurprising, ¡°Some thirty feet tall or so, skin hard as stone.  They say their warriors and leaders are twice that.  Given their ability to create an actual gulf between us, I believe them.  They numbered in the dozens originally, maybe a hundred or so.¡±


    A gulf?  Like a long ditch?  That would complicate a rescue mission, especially for possibly uncooperative undead.  I begin placing my magic items on the long conference table, trying to take stock of our resources.  So much of it is geared towards violence and killing.  Harriet¡¯s gaze follows my own as I inspect my belongings.


    She queries, ¡°And what is all this then?  I recognize weapons when I see them, so don¡¯t smart off.¡±


    I barely contain my smile as I stifle a chuckle.  She read me like a book.  I would have unconsciously given a snarky answer in places where I felt comfortable, such as this one.  She does have an air of authority that also radiates comfort, protection, safety.  I trace my fingers along one edge of my staff, probably the most powerful item in my arsenal.  I can tell that its magics are still available to me, and that they will refill from the vibrant energy that permeates Rayileklia¡¯s atmosphere.  It¡¯s similar to how I would regain energy by siphoning atomic motion, heat, to fuel my spells.  There¡¯s this faint tug by the staff, but, since it¡¯s full already, the energy in the air just bounces away.


    My answer is as concise as I can make it, ¡°These are the resources that I have available to help solve potentially aggressive problems.  Like you said, weapons.  The magic in them is mostly harmful, or, well, fatal, to those on the wrong end of them.  Luni, a dear friend of ours who isn¡¯t journeying with us, has the tendril tattoo, it¡¯s probably the least deadly of the weapons available to us.  Those would have been pretty tremendously helpful, since they could restrain even the giant, floating, toothy, ugh.  Teuila, stop, yes, I know what they looked like.¡±


    Teuila is barely containing her laughter as she waggles her eyebrows, knowing that we fought an army of what were essentially giant, floating, toothy spermatozoa.  Harriet¡¯s glance passes from me to Teuila and back several times.  Harriet¡¯s face then adopts a gloom as she tilts it downward, shrouding her expression in shadow.  Her pensiveness must be in weighing whether or not she wants to send a couple of alien murderers after her problem.  Not like, alien murderers, but like, foreign people who happen to murder.  Ugh, I know what I mean.  You know what I mean, me.  Ye gods it¡¯s lonely inside my own skull without a telepathic bond.  I must be going crazy, arguing with my own inner monologue.


    Harriet starts, ¡°As I¡¯ve said, we¡¯ve been extorted, to the point of near ruination.  We can¡¯t exactly offer anything for any help you might give.  If this is a show of force, I¡¯m not willing to trade one cruel extortion for another, no matter how innocent you may appear.¡±


    I blush, and hold my hands up, palms forward, ¡°No no, I don¡¯t, um, I don¡¯t think we want anything.  Keeley said our wealth can get us a room, no problem, even though it¡¯s not the currency of the land.  We¡¯re just hoping to help as we pass through.  I have a kind of self imposed quest.  There¡¯s someone I have to find.  I doubt anyone here knows the names Taylynn, or Selunie and Jarvis Tavner.  I¡¯ll likely have to head north into the Celestial Imperium to learn anything.  Like, maybe directions to the nearest town within its borders could help, but I don¡¯t want to ask the wrong questions or make enemies.¡±


    Harriet seems to appraise me sternly, trying to discern my level of honesty.  It¡¯s true, other than maybe asking Keeley if any traders have ever mentioned staying at an inn in some city that¡¯s owned by the Tavners, I doubt we¡¯ll pick up many leads here.  Other than leads, I don¡¯t really want anything from anyone in Rayileklia.  I just want to get home.


    Harriet takes a different tack, one I didn¡¯t expect, ¡°Would you mind showing me this wealth, not of this land?  Perhaps I can calculate an exchange rate for you.¡±


    I scratch my head, wondering if coins from another planet might be worth exchanging for anything on this one.  I¡¯m not interested in hiding anything from Harriet, so I do pull out one of the pouches that I¡¯ve filled with material wealth.  I don¡¯t have to mention that it¡¯s a tiny fraction of a percent of what¡¯s sitting locked away in a magical inventory that is more easily accessible on another planet.  I could summon more in eight minutes of painful effort.  Harriet rounds the long table to lean over it near Teuila, inspecting the coinage and gems.


    She mumbles, ¡°Fascinating.  Definitely not Imperium, nor Heart.  Between these, and the redness and welts of your skin, I suspect you¡¯re being honest, rather than having gone through such trouble for a ruse.  I think you¡¯ll find that the coins will be honored in approximately equal value.  If someone asks for a metal, yours should be equivalent, gold, silver, what have you.  If you¡¯re still worried about not having local currency, I could offer to purchase some of the gems from you with the town treasury.  I would offer you a fair price that still leans in the town¡¯s favor of course.¡±


    That¡¯s refreshingly direct, and honest.  Most people don¡¯t admit that when they¡¯re buying something, they want to retain a profit margin.  She¡¯s got me pegged yet again though.  The further I can be from rousing suspicion in Rayileklia, the better, especially as our quest likely drags us into the Celestial Imperium.  I nod to her, motioning towards the gems freely.  If it weren¡¯t for my desire to have the option to appear indistinct, I¡¯d just dump the bag of gems in her town¡¯s coffers.


    Harriet¡¯s eyes glint slightly of greed.  Her town has suffered financially recently, and she seems honest about using the treasury to purchase them for the town itself.  Based on her lack of finery, jewelry, or other ostentatious wear, she doesn¡¯t look like the type to hoard or display wealth either.  In fact, most everyone in Aasimovia seems rather equal economically, so far as I¡¯ve seen.  Keeley is probably a bit better off than some, but she doesn¡¯t flaunt it.  She probably spreads the wealth around, giving fair or better prices for food and drink to serve at her inn.


    Harriet mutters something about road projects, and dock work, apparently already planning how to spend the profit she¡¯ll be making on the gems, for the town.  She looks like she¡¯s doing calculations in the air as she scratches her head with her left hand¡¯s index finger, while her right index finger scrawls aimlessly in front of her.


    Mairess Du Pon De Brook suddenly asks, ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯d care to wager some of this wealth on a hand of cards, would you?¡±


    I adopt an expression of playful incredulity, releasing the slightest snort of laughter.  About a third of a smile raises along the left half of my face, while my right brow raises slightly.  She takes the hint, and power walks to some room along the back side of this grand hall meeting space.  She returns with a ledger, a small safe, and a large coin-purse.


    Harriet, upon returning, states, ¡°Should it matter, I only ever wager my personal wealth when gambling, and I donate excess winnings straight to the town coffers.  It¡¯s actually why we have more than dust bunnies at the moment.¡±


    She then begins to explain local values of precious stones to traders that will be stopping by from various cities in Aasimovia and the various nations, especially the island kingdoms, but it makes my head spin.


    I hold up a hand, ¡°Mairess Du Pon De Brook, I won¡¯t know if  you¡¯re swindling me heavily in the town¡¯s favor, or if you¡¯re only making a small percent profit margin.  I honestly don¡¯t care either way, no offense.  I just want to be able to travel Rayileklia without drawing attention to myself, or Teuila, if I can help it.  Mostly once we hit the Imperium.  We¡¯ve sort of outed ourselves in this town already, so I don¡¯t mind continuing to be a bit of an outsider here.¡±


    I pause for a breath, then continue, ¡°Still, we definitely want the option to appear indistinct in the Imperium.  I¡¯d just like to be prepared with a cover story, and local belongings by the time we explore that nation.  Whatever a couple of traders would have for a few weeks, or month¡¯s worth of journeying should be all I need, I think.  I don¡¯t know how long we¡¯ll be on this world.  My ultimate goal is to find a way for all of us to return to our own, nothing else really matters.  Along the way though, I want to keep being myself, and that includes helping out where I can.¡±


    Harriet Du Pon De Brook looks slightly taken aback, while Teuila looks proud as she adopts a cocky stance with her arms crossed.  Te¡¯s smirk is reassuring, and I try not to laugh at the smugness playing across her face.  Harriet¡¯s gaze appraises me once again, seemingly in a new light.  Harriet then takes in Teuila, as if for the first time.  Te flexes her biceps proudly, and I have to stifle a giggle.  Teuila is strong as all heck, but her muscle is so lean as to be barely noticeable when viewed from a distance, normally anyway.  Still, she can present a bulging muscle when flexing properly.  Harriet looks between the two of us questioningly, and I nod, hoping the unspoken question is whether or not Teuila is the muscle and power of the party.  The answer of course, is that she is.


    Te nods as she speaks up to extol, ¡°Yeah, my spooterputz is a hero.  We go where there¡¯s trouble, and help when we can.  Easiest kind of trouble to deal with is the kind you can beat up, or slay.¡±  Teuila pounds her right fist into her left palm, cracking her knuckles in the process, for emphasis.


    Harriet glances questioningly at Teuila before requesting, ¡°If it¡¯s at all possible, we¡¯d simply prefer things return to the way they were, before our neighbors grew frighteningly large and powerful and hostile.  I¡¯m not saying there must be no bloodshed, but I also dislike the idea of a war being brought about, and us left to deal with that animosity.  Don¡¯t solve one problem by erecting a larger one in its place.  Please.¡±


    Teuila grumbles something about butt-kicking while I ruminate on how to carry out Harriet¡¯s request.  It seems like it might be time for a patented Reggie Shellcracker accidental assassination mission.  I really hope this Colossi peninsula doesn¡¯t become my new Beaver Dam tunnel complex.  Three for three on accidentally stumbling into situations that I killed someone while in there.  Still, if the vague concept of fiction tells me anything, it¡¯s to expect repeated patterns.  Life imitates fiction, or fiction imitates life, I¡¯m not sure which.  Either way, I smell a repeated trope coming about.

 B 4 C 11: Regularity

    Speaking of repeated patterns, I have a feeling I¡¯ll be having to interface with my inventory on occasion on Rayileklia, excruciating though it may be.  I wish I had the bag that hides inside Luni¡¯s harp, the one that seems to have extradimensional storage space.  Or the one that we found that she gave to Linti that had the same properties.  Stowing all the weapons and magic items in physical space is a hassle.  I¡¯m probably spoiled with how reliant I am on my inventory, the abilities tied to it, and my space magic.  I¡¯ve also got a veritable fortune in duplicates of one deadly spear that I hope to never introduce to Rayileklia.  A single copy of it could probably sell to traders, collectors, or warriors, for vast sums.  I don¡¯t want to risk bringing even a single copy out of my inventory however.


    Harriet asks, ¡°May I offer a suggestion?¡±  My raised eyebrow and slight nod confirms that she should continue, ¡°If you are looking to be less conspicuous, perhaps a rain poncho with a hood for, um, Teuila was it?  Lovely as you are young lady, your appearance is definitely not the norm.¡±


    Teuila looks downright bashful as she interlaces her fingers together and drops her hands to their lowest point.  She swivels slightly, avoiding our gazes as she mumbles, ¡°Oh, um, thank you.¡±  To recover from her embarrassment, she faces away and raises her right hand to scratch the back of her head while pretending to inspect carvings along the walls.


    Mairess Harriet Du Pon De Brook queries, ¡°Not used to compliments, that one, is she?¡±


    I flush with my own embarrassment.  Have I not complimented Teuila enough in our decades, or centuries together?  Hm, it¡¯s not that.  Emotions are still complex for her, hard to process, even more difficult to display the way that she wants.  I shake my head in response, not being able to come up with a succinct answer, at least not one that I¡¯m willing to share.  Teuila¡¯s emotions and how she handles them are private, privileged information.  I wouldn¡¯t betray that trust, or share it, unless she asked me to, or I could somehow tell that it was the right thing to do based on her wants or needs.


    Harriet strokes her chin thoughtfully.  The slight sag of the flesh in her aging face causes her to briefly create a double chin whenever her thumb pulls forward.  She decides to conclude our trading, and wraps up all of the bookkeeping in scant moments.


    Our host states, ¡°I¡¯ll need to summon a partial council.  If you¡¯re willing to part with any more gemstones or foreign valuables, the council would need to be apprised before I purchase more.  I¡¯d be grateful if you would strategize, and return to speak with me before you set out.  Perhaps you can see our San Tiago.  He was not keen on my last plan, but may be keen on what you come up with.  He¡¯ll also be able to direct you to, hm, local resources.  If you catch my drift.¡±


    I nod appreciatively.  I do indeed catch her drift.  Inconspicuousness is something I¡¯m striving for at the moment.  We¡¯ve already made unintentional waves with Keeley Johnston.  I¡¯d prefer to avoid making the same mistake twice.  She indicates where to find Tiago¡¯s apothecary, and home, amidst the layout of the town, saying that it¡¯s coming time for lunch soon.  How anyone can tell what time it is, without a visible sun overhead, is a bit baffling.  I don¡¯t see a clocktower or rain dial or anything either.  Teuila and I must have been marching through the night to get here, and though Te might not be, I¡¯m already feeling a tad exhausted.  Waving, the two of us take our leave of Harriet Du Pon De Brook, our honorable Mairess and host.


    I ask Teuila, ¡°Te, do you need to take a break at all or anything?  Our bodies are a bit different here.  Eating is different, healing might be different.  I don¡¯t know if exhaustion is the same.  At least we¡¯re still not like humans back home, but, well, you know.¡±


    Te shrugs, ¡°I don¡¯t actually know, dinkbutt.  I¡¯m not really tired or anything.  I¡¯m mostly pumped up.  Plus that Tiago guy seemed nice, I¡¯m keen to meet his hubby.  I don¡¯t know about you, but part of me thinks they might remind me of Lao and Ag.  Lao was so good at taking care of us, kind of like our doctor, you know?  I¡¯m hoping Tiago¡¯s husband is a silly storyteller, or something.¡±  Her face droops with sadness as she realizes what she¡¯s talking about, ¡°Sorry, forget I mentioned --¡±


    I wrap my arms around Teuila as tears stream down my cheeks.  Teuila playfully socks me in the gut, bonks me in the arm, and raps me on the head as we stand in the constant drizzle.  She sniffles and tilts my face up to meet hers.  We kiss, for what might be the first time on Rayileklia, at least with as much passion as we¡¯re currently demonstrating.  Our hopes for home, our fondness for our family and each other, all of our love, we try to pour into a kiss that necessity demands take the place of our psychic bond.


    And of course that gets whistles and hollers from townsfolk, catcalls I think they call it.  Ugh, humans.  The moment thoroughly spoiled, we wander around town vaguely in the direction of Tiago¡¯s apothecary.  It¡¯s almost exciting to take note of the swath of people preparing lunch, or stopping a task to head somewhere to get lunch, or otherwise change up what they were doing suddenly.  With how closely this resembles Earthly customs, I¡¯m reminded of how stark a contrast our world is to this one.


    On Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, we all just sort of bought provisions from magical shops, or ate from our inventories whenever we felt like it.  Well, we operated that way at least until the shield needed to be constructed.  Linti was pretty regimented in awakening pre-dawn to go dungeon hunting, but she was the only person I knew like that before we had to start building the shield.  We didn¡¯t have work shifts or anything seriously scheduled for the most part.  The humans did, and they took well to the construction of the shield, but for us critterkin, well.  The thing that had the most regularity for any of us was that eventually we¡¯d all retire to wherever our families called home.  Many of our families had one or more dedicated storytellers to help wind down the evenings with tales or histories.  We may or may not have shared a meal during that time, again, nothing was set with regularity.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Taken a different way, our lives were fantastical, magical, extraordinary.  Humans lives were subjected to aspects of magic, but even those were regular, or regulated.  We could bounce back from injuries, so we could carry on moving from one whim to the next.  Humans had to suffer a healing process like the one in my memories of Earth.  They had to have economy, and work, and schedules, and just, so much of what I¡¯m seeing here on Rayileklia.  Yet something tells me I¡¯ll see another facet of human life entirely in the Celestial Imperium.  Aasimovia might be teeming with life, despite its mass of undead, but it¡¯s also laid back in a way most humans on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas or Earth could never hope to be.  Perhaps it¡¯s because of their faith.


    Hm, speaking of teeming with life, I¡¯m surprised we didn¡¯t run into any wildlife whatsoever on the way to Autumn Brook.  Though, I suppose, wildlife probably has adapted to remain better hidden, in safer cover, on Rayileklia.  They¡¯d have to, to survive the constant bombardment of acid rainfall.  That begs the question of what happens to all these cats and dogs and other animals bounding about the city.  Do they all have homes?  Or do they simply find stoops to rest on with awnings overhead?


    Teuila begins to excitedly point something out, and suddenly I¡¯m jolted back to reality as she¡¯s inaudibly squeeing.  She virtually pleads with her eyes after she sees that she¡¯s made me aware of the shopping row that excited her.  Huh, it looks like at the end could be a sort of leatherworks, or clothier, or something.  We might not need San Tiago to find local resources, as Harriet put it, after all.


    Teuila apparently had that far destination in mind when she realized we were in a sort of merchant¡¯s row kind of a street.  There are woodworked items to the northwest of us, pottery and clay cookware to the north, fishing equipment northeast, but along this southern row, further from the docks, is a line of clothing stores that ends in aforementioned leather and fur clothier.


    I¡¯m always startled to remember that, though she¡¯s a warrior through and through, Teuila never had access to the things that allowed her to show her excitable side, save one time in Eimsas.  It might even be a part of what, to her, defines her femininity.  A portion of the subconscious reason that she identifies with female pronouns, even though none of us critterkin have, well, the biology related to either sex.


    Is it inherently feminine to enjoy looking at, or shopping for clothes?  No, I don¡¯t necessarily think that.  I do however think that Teuila might call it part of her girly side, her words, not mine, if we were in our psychic bond right now.  After all, I know her through and through, to the very depths of her core.  We¡¯ve spent decades, maybe centuries, mapping out her psyche, exploring the facets of her emotions, or even just lazing about in idyll bliss, talking about whatever suited our fancy.


    Oh, I¡¯m being dragged along by a happy, excited Teuila.  She virtually skips as we approach the shop that caught her eye.  I¡¯m not even sure how she spotted what it was, since it¡¯s at the end of the row.  Maybe it has a scent or an odor?  I¡¯ve been without a sense of smell so long, that I forget if that¡¯s something we could use to navigate with.


    Te pauses outside the shop as inspects the leather cuffs she wears.  They¡¯re similar to archery bracers, with a longer guard on the inside, to prevent the snap of the bowstring from skinning her inner forearm.  She¡¯s ambidextrous, so having two of them makes sense.  I¡¯ve seen her shoot both right-handed, and left-handed, depending on the space available.  The bracers¡¯ sylvan iconography is distinct from anything else she¡¯s wearing, but most of our clothing is basically ruined with mud, so everything is a dull muddy brown at this point.  Symbols and designs don¡¯t show up at all.  The bracers actually do have some sort of magical archery enhancing effects, and small hidden pockets but we¡¯ve never really explored their full benefits.


    Teuila wears half of a frown as she gazes down and does a halfhearted twirl, holding the air as if holding a skirt.  I think Teuila¡¯s probably a bit saddened that her gorgeous chocolate-and-cherry dress is all messed up with acidic mud.  We¡¯ve both taken to wearing the white Valkyrie gear, the padded clothing that goes under the armor.  Of course it stained even faster, more noticeably, than her dress, or my leaf leather gear, but it holds up better against the acid.  There¡¯s an ever-so-slight fraying of her normal clothes, that the Valkyrie gear doesn¡¯t display, after hours of trekking through the acidic drizzle.


    Teuila lets the drizzle help her wipe down her white clothing, running some mud off of it to the ground below.  She looks a fair deal more presentable than me.  But she also looks like some kind of fantasy being compared to humans.  No normal human has this lustrous, thin though it may be in this form, beautiful layer of copper fur, or tail, or just, most of her gorgeous features that make her Teuila.  Regardless, lacking any self-consciousness, Teuila saunters into the store, silently begging me to follow.  She spies the only other individual in the shop, and heads straight for the man at his counter.


    Te¡¯s chattering excitedly at the shopkeep who appears to be partially taking a break, just keeping an eye on the two of us, as we¡¯re the only ones in his store at the moment.  He doesn¡¯t appear to be responding to Teuila at all, just nodding along as she speaks, while he eats.  Te yells a thanks as she darts off to browse his wares.  Teuila eyes some corsets with curiosity.  She then inspects several jerkins and gambesons.  There are signs that everything is hand-crafted by Berinon Tanner.


    The fellow at the counter looks like he might be named Berinon Tanner.  He looks like he might be named a lot of things as he spears a hunk of cheese with the tip of a carving knife.  Despite the rough stab, he nibbles the cheese, savoring it, between large mouthfuls of a hunk of bread so warm that it still lightly exudes steam.  I unintentionally lick my lips as I salivate at the idea of more food that isn¡¯t just digital fish, cragbeast meat, or insect flesh.  Being in my short, cherubic form, I probably look like some poor beggar child staring at his food, so I quickly avert my gaze and bumble about the shop, trying to pretend to look interested in his wares.

 B 4 C 12: Yes. A Shopping Episode

    Hm, I actually am interested in his wares after all. Certain gear and clothing is indicated to be mud-treated. Teuila asks excitedly if she can get some of the prettier things that are mud treated. I almost feel ashamed that she thinks she has to ask me. She has earned millions and millions in currency between her hunts and adventures, easily as much as I have, if not more. Even if she can¡¯t figure out how to access her inventory, any wealth we have access to is at least half hers, at the bare minimum. I wonder if the paper rands would be worth anything on Rayileklia. I was somewhat surprised that those were the currency of Eimsas when we infiltrated the human town. It¡¯s unlikely they¡¯d be of value here though, better to stick to coins and gemstones, or the few thin strips and bars of gold I¡¯ve summoned. The gold is like slightly rounded rectangular prisms, each about as long as my thumb.


    Since we¡¯re already making waves in Autumn Brook, I don¡¯t feel like using up our local currency, so I fish out a handful of gems and gold, whispering to Teuila to go nuts. Her eyes sparkle with excitement like I haven¡¯t seen since, well, she started hunting with Linti, honestly. One of the first things she sets aside for purchase is a massive leather backpack. For anyone else her size, I¡¯d be fearful they¡¯d topple over under its weight when filled. I¡¯ve no such worries about Teuila. Before she even reached the pinnacle of her strength, she was able to lift a multi-ton, feathered-bear partially off of me with one arm, while using the other arm to drag me out from beneath Luna, that bear. Like I¡¯ve thought before, Teuila is ridiculously strong. The results of her nearly endless exercise and training and adventuring.


    Teuila tries on a form-fitting, curve-accentuating leather trench coat that¡¯s done up in a cut that¡¯s tighter around the waist, and I barely resist whistling in appreciation. Apparently Berinon crafts with style in mind. Wow. Te picks out some fantastic stompers. That is, leather boots. She also finds flattering breeches, a jerkin with a matching corset, a leather gorget that fits the same aesthetic, a linen blouse with poofy sleeves, and an angular poncho with a hood that somehow ties it all together. My memories of fakeworld say she would look amazing at a renaissance festival. She actually looks sort of like, well, nah, it couldn¡¯t be, Taylynn was a human. I mean, honestly, in my eyes, Teuila looks amazing, all the time. That brilliant copper sheen, those vibrant emerald eyes, her sleek musculature, even her tail, which is barely existent in this form. Oh, I should probably find some covering for myself as well, instead of ogling Teuila.


    Hm, this robe thing could be cute, but would it look cute on me, or just make me look like a, what are those space-faring creatures that scavenge and steal robots on a desert planet? I think their name is something like coffees, or espressos, maybe javas. Yeah, I¡¯d look like one of those, nothing visible but my eyes. More pop culture from fakeworld, Earth. I¡¯m starting to worry about these mysterious memories of mine. Even more so now that Luni isn¡¯t here, when her last words about my ruminations were ominous. Neither of the two of us are ready. Neither me nor Teuila.


    Ah well, better focus on the present I guess. I could see me kind of getting a kick out of shopping. If Teuila and I were stranded on Earth, we could probably hang out fairly inconspicuously in a mall, if we wore caps and jackets and such. I¡¯m really glad that, of all the planets we could have ended up on after dying, we didn¡¯t end up on Earth at least. Fakeworld seems like a bit of a nightmare. All those humans, all those problems facing them. I hope that, if my memories are from any particular era, that that era has passed, and humanity on Earth is better off than it was. Wait, no, it¡¯s fake, I don¡¯t have to think about anything like that, time can¡¯t pass on a world that doesn¡¯t exist. Right?


    Hm, I kind of wish Luni was here to help me pick out clothes. I really dig her adorable sense of style. Teuila¡¯s current style is somehow fitting for her. A proud warrior who¡¯s also a bit, well, sexy is probably the term that humans would use. Okay, probably a lot more than just a bit sexy, she¡¯s totally drop-dead gorgeous. Or maybe we¡¯d say she¡¯s stylish. We? Ugh. Remind yourself you¡¯re not a human Reggie. Anyway, her chocolate and cherry dress was stylish, cute in a way, but also sort of sophisticated, classy. Regardless, Te¡¯s style isn¡¯t quite what I¡¯m about. I think I prefer cute over sexy for myself. Ah, apparently we¡¯re ditching most of my haphazardly created leaf-leather stuff, for new leather pouches and sacks and packs that adorn her giant new backpack. That does make sense if we want to appear more local.


    The shopkeep, Berinon, apparently came around the counter to watch us up close. He coughs for attention, ¡°As cute as it is to watch the two of you play dressup, you¡¯re piling up quite a sum of my wares. I¡¯d appreciate if you would¡ª¡°


    Teuila marches up to him, flashes her brightest smile, grabs his hand, opens his palm, and drops a handful of gems, and the tiny gold bars, into it. Oy vey. Really subtle Teuila. Heh, Teuila and subtle don¡¯t go in the same sentence. Berinon holds the gems up to the light to inspect their luster and facets I suppose. I think you can tell the difference between glass, and gemstones, by the crystal makeup, and like refraction. Maybe. I¡¯m not a gemologist. I¡¯m a cryptozoologist, remember?


    Berinon scoffs for a moment, but inspects each of the gems in turn, then appraises us. He looks back to the fortune in his hands, and mutters, ¡°Carry on, valued customers. Berinon Tanner is at your service.¡±


    I bite my lips to hide my laughter, but Teuila has no such compunction. She bursts into laughter and rubs a tear from one of her eyes. Berinon blushes with chagrin as he heads back to the other side of the counter. Are we fated to play the wealthy brats whenever we end up in a human town? At least it¡¯s funny this time, and not life-threatening. Plus, we can help the local economy get back on its feet, after the Colossi extortion. As long as we¡¯re spendy, and spending on things we need, it won¡¯t seem like meaningless charity.


    Still, flashing wealth around in any human settlement is tantamount to asking for trouble. I wonder if that prospect excites Teuila, or if she doesn¡¯t realize. It¡¯s probably the former, honestly. She¡¯d have a field day roughing up hoodlums who might try to mug us. The real challenge would be in holding back enough to not grievously injure or kill them.


    I approach Berinon, ¡°Pardon me, Berinon is it? I um, I know I¡¯m probably not the size of your usual client¨¨le, but would you happen to have something more in my shape and size that doesn¡¯t, um, well, make me look like a thieving little munchkin gremlin thing?¡±


    Berinon begins to scoff, but thinks better of it, stating, ¡°You¡¯re actually in luck. The ones who.¡± He trails off for a moment. His eyes lose focus as sadness mists them. His voice wavers, ¡°The ones who requested the works in a box I¡¯ll bring out, they, they¡¯ll no longer be needing it.¡±


    Oh, that¡¯s heartbreaking. It sounds like the child of a friend died. I mean, if it¡¯s things in my cherubic, short size, for a human, that would mean a child. From the sadness creeping into his voice, I¡¯m jumping to conclusions, but I doubt I¡¯m far off. Berinon brushes aside a pelt that I didn¡¯t realized hid a doorway. I suppose that¡¯s probably the point of it. He bends down around the corner to the back of the shop, then drags a small wooden crate out as he stands once more.


    As he¡¯s setting out the crate for me to look through, I hazard to ask, ¡°How much do I owe you?¡±


    Berinon puffs air like a sailor missing a pipe hanging from the left side of his mouth, ¡°Pft, you¡¯re with that young wahine, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    I blush as I scratch the back of my head, nodding. Berinon continues, ¡°My wares are not cheap mind you. We don¡¯t do much hunting in Aasimovia, so I¡¯d mostly only have sheepskin to work with if I didn¡¯t offer decent prices for hides from the traders. She managed to put in my hands enough to restock my entire shop and then some. I don¡¯t do it for the profit, I do it for the chance to work, and yet.¡±


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    And yet, there¡¯s the wealth of several weeks or months worth of sales, and purchases of new supplies to craft new works. There¡¯s Teuila not asking for any sort of change or recompense or exchange rate, continuing to obliviously skip around the shop, eyeballing anything she had missed in her first go-around. Te buffs some mud off of her leather cuffs, her forearm guards, and holds them up against various wares Berinon has made, comparing the colors or patterning I suspect. Or something like that anyway. Berinon¡¯s gaze leaves me momentarily to check on Teuila, and he suddenly emits a noise I can¡¯t describe.


    Berinon fumbles to form words momentarily, ¡°You err, gurble, gumbo, giver, you, come here, please. Show me what you wear about your wrists!¡±


    Teuila shrugs and obliges, trotting over, happy to display the bracers she¡¯s so proud of. Berinon looks to be fighting to restrain himself from grabbing her arms or ripping them from her wrists. Either would probably end with him pinned to the floor.


    Berinon mumbles, ¡°By the First, these are Heart, but ancient Heart. Yet they¡¯re in perfect condition. How in blazes. Just how rich are the two of you to be wandering around wearing ancient artifacts? I would offer back everything you just gave me in trade for those, but I wager you wouldn¡¯t be interested in parting with them for such a sum.¡±


    Teuila looks like she had been handed a plate of petunias when she wanted a plate of peas, ¡°You¡¯d win that wager. My scoffclunk gave them to me after we slew a major beasty together. That, that evil Octorochi, eight headed serpent jerk, big ol¡¯ stupid hydra-face. You shoulda seen Rej, grr, I was so mad at my dinkleberry when they jumped off the cliff, and then I, well, you can¡¯t prove it, no one will believe you, but I was crying when me and the dragbutt were racing down to catch ¡®em. They almost died because they shapeshifted instead of drinking the magic potion, like a big doink. It doesn¡¯t matter though, we won! Err, none of this happened on this planet anyway, so it not mattering doesn¡¯t even matter either I guess.¡±


    Throughout Teuila¡¯s entire excited over-sharing, I¡¯m giving her the cutthroat gesture with my eyes wide in a panic. I facepalm as Berinon tries to parse what he¡¯s just been told. Without our psychic link, Teuila has no outlet for her emotions, and now apparently no filter either. She never shared that with anyone other than me before. Now she¡¯s clasping both hands over her mouth, as she glances between the two of us, wide-eyed. I sigh as I make sure the door to the shop is closed. I begin focusing for the eight minutes it¡¯s going to take me, and clenching my eyes tight through the pain that races around behind my eyes as I begin to reach out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas to engage one of my powers.


    Teuila rushes into a corner, while Berinon looks confused. He peers back and forth between the two of us. I stand near Teuila, one hand on her shoulder as she huddles down in embarrassment. I squeeze her shoulder lightly, trying to reassure her. Berinon does the gracious thing and shutters the blinds on his shop, flips a sign, and bolts the door. He returns to his stool on the other side of the counter, trying to understand what Teuila said, while also waiting out her embarrassment. We¡¯ve paid him enough to rent the shop for a few hours, so he¡¯s in no great need of making more sales today.


    Berinon converses, ¡°Telling tales calls into question your honesty and your wealth¡¯s validity. I thought it perhaps rude to ask, but I take it you¡¯re neither Hidden Heart, nor Imperium born? Still, the rest of the tale is a bit far-fetched, and now I have to wonder about the validity of this wealth, or your ownership of those artifacts. Should I be contacting constables? I¡¯ll give you a bit to recover before I make any decisions.¡±


    Exactly as I feared. Thankfully, I¡¯m over halfway to proving one of the far-fetched things about Teuila¡¯s tale. I double over in pain as the sensation of stabbing moves from behind my eyes, lancing all the way down into my guts, which twist and cramp. The knuckles I¡¯d split the skin on in Noirdivinhoz begin to bleed light as my mana sickness runs rampant, slicing the cuts back open from the inside.


    Berinon mutters, ¡°By the First. What in all that¡¯s holy.¡±


    I¡¯m glad I¡¯m still wearing the magically form-fitting Valkyrie under-armor padded clothing. I crumple to my knees, gasping in pain as I arrive in my much taller, slightly burly-armed femme form. Berinon drops the gold he was inspecting, and stands to bring an oil lamp closer to the two of us. I¡¯m still focusing on the upcoming pair of spells, well, quintuplet I suppose. In, double out, in again, out again.


    Te mumbles, ¡°Oh, hey, that¡¯s the form Lin really likes. It¡¯s only been like three days, but I miss her.¡± She then clasps her mouth shut again with both hands. I gently draw her hands away from her mouth, to hold them.


    I turn to Berinon, bleeding light and life from several spots on my body. I state, ¡°I¡¯m really hoping this is all the proof you¡¯ll need that Teuila is the rightful owner of these, artifacts as you call them. We¡¯re not from around here, not by a long shot. Give me another fifteen minutes or so, and I¡¯ll have more proof.¡± Then addressing Teuila, I ask, ¡°Te, can I dupe them for him?¡±


    Teuila nods absentmindedly. My guts rumble and a coppery taste hits the back of my throat with a sudden sickening splash. Warm liquid floods my mouth from my esophagus, and I barely contain it. The tiniest bit escapes and I¡¯m left wiping the escaping dribble on my sleeve. Blood, of course. My energy or mana use is as dangerous internally to me as it is externally to others. Berinon is probably already convinced, with me bleeding light all over the place within the darkened shop, since the shutters are closed, blocking out the luma tulipa outside. Still, he waits patiently as I perform more non-Rayileklian magic.


    As I claim Teuila¡¯s bracers, it¡¯s more difficult than usual, and not just Rayileklian difficult. I realize they¡¯re soulbound to her, but parts of our souls are bound to each other, so eventually they relent. So much of my inventory adopted the soulbound, or soulbound once equipped tag near the end of my life. It prevented me from leaving anything behind on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I¡¯d wanted to empty my inventory, thinking that I was dying, to never return. I was hoping some explorer someday would find the belongings and have a use for them.


    I continue visualizing returning the bracers to Teuila immediately after an umbral duplicate forms from my space magic skill, and summoning those duplicates back to my inventory immediately as they form. That¡¯s so that they don¡¯t poof before their duplication timer expires. I¡¯m able to accomplish essentially a triple spell simultaneously with only eight minutes of concentration, by planning out every second of utilizing my powers as if they were occurring in advance of when they actually transpire. It does however leave me gasping for breath. It also doesn¡¯t prove much, because to a casual observer, it might have looked like I hid the bracers for a split second at best.


    Berinon pulls his stool closer, watching us from in front of his door. We¡¯re in no real danger, I just don¡¯t want any trouble, so I figure it¡¯s best to have at least one person truly know how different we are, instead of having a town constabulary think that we¡¯re tomb robbers or thieves. I kind of wish it were Keeley that I was proving this to, instead of Berinon, but Teuila spoke when she did, raising suspicions. It¡¯s not her fault though, it¡¯s no one¡¯s fault. We¡¯re a weird couple, in a weird situation, that seem exceedingly rich for a pair of young punks. We¡¯re apparently also wandering around with what passes as ancient artifacts from some nearby civilization.


    Eventually, another eight minutes pass, and the umbral duplicates exit from my inventory, hopefully having been made permanent. They won¡¯t house the same magics as the originals, I never got around to learning an enchantment skill, or anything like that. I¡¯d need to adventure a lot more, find a lot more magic items I¡¯m willing to part with, and disenchant them constantly. At least that¡¯s how I surmise I¡¯d gain the skill to begin with. Then I probably still couldn¡¯t duplicate the powers of really strong items right away. All of this is moot if we never get back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas though.


    I wearily hold the pair of bracers out for Berinon¡¯s inspection, my heart tromping around in my chest like a raging bull with the exertion of using magic. As far as I know, none of my companions have really tried to utilize their Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic powers since Mat failed to use his. I don¡¯t know whether they haven¡¯t figured out the trick, or if they¡¯re scared of the pain they see me go through when I use it, or they just don¡¯t feel the need, or what. I¡¯m pretty sure the massive amount of pain is exclusive to me, due to my mana corruption issue or whatever it¡¯s called now that even my minimal skill energy or magic energy expenditures produce effects too large to scale down any lower, and tear their way through my body.


    As I pass the bracers over for Berinon¡¯s inspection, the blood loss, or racing heart and low blood pressure, or maybe all three catch up with me. It feels as if I¡¯m falling towards the floor in slow motion as two concerned faces gaze at me, one diving quickly to intercept my fall.

 B 4 C 13: San Tiago

    I look to the priest, already on his way to sainthood, if the hubbub around town is true, ¡°I don¡¯t call anyone friend, or haven¡¯t, in my thirty or so years, well, forty I guess, though only thirty that I remember, and I wouldn¡¯t exactly call you one, but you¡¯re not a bad sort, Tiago.¡±


    ¡°Verdad?¡± When I nod, he smirks and continues, ¡°Same to you then braddah, as the Southern Aasimovians like to say. As long as I¡¯m never on the other end of that blade, and it¡¯s always pointed in the right direction.¡±


    I won¡¯t correct Tiago on my gender as I¡¯ve never decided what it is. Besides, saying braddah is like saying friend, cousin, or brother-in-arms. At least said by one of Tiago¡¯s descent. It¡¯s an affectation that denotes friendliness, camaraderie, or even respect. If it were spit with vitriol from the mouth of a youth in an imperial city, it would be another matter. Plus, Eights seems to trust and like Tiago. Tiago continues to scratch Eights¡¯ skull absentmindedly as we converse.


    I offhandedly, jokingly, ask a question I already know the answer to, ¡°Let me guess, the right direction is away from innocents, and towards oppressors?¡±


    Tiago¡¯s accent pours out rich in his reply, ¡°Si, verdad. You¡¯ve got that right. I wouldn¡¯t expect, ah, la palabra, feck. Ese no es concienzudo, ah que. Soy patetico. Los burros saben mas. Sorry. Ah, I wouldn¡¯t expect scrupulous and assassin to be in a single title, but they seem to be in yours, and most of your kin.¡±


    It¡¯s funny when he insults himself in his native tongue, but he should probably work on that. He¡¯s going to be a figurehead that the downtrodden look up to. I¡¯ll try to remember to mention it to him later. For now I simply respond, ¡°We can afford to be picky with our work, no one wants an entire village of assassins to come down on them. It¡¯s odd to have such a cavalier conversation about it though. Even most clients prefer that we speak in sly tones when we meet. You¡¯re an odd fellow for a town priest.¡±


    Tiago chides in return, ¡°I¡¯m no more a priest than you are a ruthless bloodthirsty cold-hearted murderer. I bring spirituality and healing to the village, that¡¯s all. What we do bears similarity to said titles, but that is all. Still, really, no friends. No romance, nothing?¡±


    I puff my cheeks as I exhale, practically spitting air. That¡¯s the way of life for the Hidden. It¡¯s lonely, and dangerous, but good work. Thinking about it though, I¡¯ve already told him, so I reiterate, ¡°Before you, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever stopped anywhere to speak to anyone. You happened to be in the path of my longest job yet, a few months is far longer than we generally dedicate to someone. I think I¡¯m the only one that takes the longer and longer jobs that keep showing up. Someone wants long-term espionage that culminates in them moving up something like fifteen places in their household inheritance standing, and they can¡¯t all be plucked at once. Though some can simply be discredited. Honestly, if I find evidence that the client is evil, well, more evil than hiring an assassin already, and that any of the other inheritors are less so, I might break the code.¡±


    Tiago clucks his tongue while shaking his head, ¡°Messy business my friend. I don¡¯t envy you braddah. I don¡¯t particularly like what it is you do, but like we¡¯ve said about each other, you¡¯re not a bad sort. I trust you to keep your abilities honed enough that you won¡¯t even accidentally harm an innocent. Perhaps some magic could even help with that. Magic is returning to the world, and I intend to usher in its age peacefully around my village.¡±


    I try to hide my scorn as I scoff, ¡°If you say so. I¡¯ve met some supposedly magical creatures. Just people living in the woods. They tried to teach magic to me. They must have tried a thousand times, and me a thousand more to learn, but all I learned were a few animal whispers. Nothing exactly magical about a whistle or a kind word to an animal¡¯s ear.¡±


    Tiago wheedles his beliefs towards me a bit more, ¡°Maybe your lucky number was simply a thousand and one, and you gave up just shy of your goal? As to the animal whispering, you say there¡¯s nothing magical to it, but if you could see the world the way I do, you¡¯d know the truth of the matter.¡±


    Shrugging, I turn away as I prepare for the next leg of my journey. I whistle for Eights who bounds quickly to my side. Grateful for the company while it lasted, I call as I¡¯m walking away, ¡°Maybe in my next life then. Perhaps I¡¯ll be able to master magics one after another just by experiencing them, after learning the supposed truth of the matter. Even if a thousand, or a thousand and one ends up being my lucky number.¡±


    Ugh, what hit me? Where? What was I doing? I try to sit up, but a firm arm keeps me laying, slightly propped up on something soft. Oh, it¡¯s Teuila¡¯s lap. That¡¯s nice, this is nice. Teuila shushes me as I try to maneuver to hug and thank her. I can¡¯t move my head very well, but as it lolls slightly to one side, I gaze about the store. I don¡¯t spy Berinon anywhere. I raise an eyebrow as I¡¯m about to ask, but Teuila seems prepared.


    She answers before I can utter a word, ¡°You were muttering something about Tiago, and bleeding a lot. Berinon took that as a cue to get the village healer, the one that we met, Tiago. He ordered us to stay here, but if you want to scram, I¡¯ll take you wherever. I don¡¯t ever want you to feel trapped, or backed into a corner. I, I. I know what you went through. Time and time again. No more. Never again.¡±


    She clocks me once on the noggin, then sniffles, and rubs her nose on her forearm before continuing, ¡°Got that, buttforbutts?¡±


    I almost wish she¡¯d stick with dingus or dork at this point, because laughing hurts, and I can¡¯t help but laugh at butt for butts. Butt for brains, sure, I¡¯d get that, but she goes to unheard of lengths to come up with new insults. Ever since, well. That time. The one she¡¯s talking about. When I came back to her, she went through pretty much every insult in the book, and then some from other books in other languages, and then some! It was worth it though. To be back with her, having that quiet moment together. I smile dreamily at Teuila. She¡¯s so precious to me.


    The sound of hurried steps slapping cobblestone jolts me into alertness. I begin to panic, but Teuila shushes me, holding me close. Even still, I can feel her muscles tensed to spring into action if it¡¯s anyone other than Berinon and Tiago.


    I mumble, ¡°If it¡¯s not Tiago, let¡¯s bolt.¡± Teuila nods in understanding, having already been prepared to do so.


    Tiago bursts into the store first, and gazes over the two of us, exclaiming, ¡°Es la verdad? You, pardon me, young wahine. Is that one really the same as the short one you were traveling with earlier?¡±


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    Pft, I snort with laughter. I¡¯m apparently that one, and the short one. Tiago was really in a rush earlier, so much so that he didn¡¯t get our names, that¡¯s so like him. Wait. How would I know what he¡¯s like regularly? I furrow my brow as I try to figure out why I suddenly felt familiar with Tiago. Speaking of him, his hands check my forehead, my jugular, and wrists. He then checks the cracks in the flesh on my knuckles that are still seeping blood and light simultaneously.


    ¡°Que lastima. No, que horrible.¡± He exclaims, then looks apologetic as he continues, ¡°Err, how do you feel? I¡¯ve never seen the like.¡±


    I stifle my laughter while responding, ¡°You¡¯ll not have, and probably never will again. I¡¯m okay. There¡¯s a source of power connected to me. Think of it like a barrel of ale that someone carbonated too hard or something. If I turn the valve on to let any of it out, it fights to come out with so much pressure my body can barely handle it. That¡¯s the best analogy I can come up with for now. I don¡¯t intend to be tapping into that power any more if I can help it. Things just looked rather hairy here for a minute.¡±


    Berinon looks apologetic as he mops up some of the blood from the floor. He apparently abandons the task to a later date as he thinks of something else to do. He picks out a scarf, a hooded cloak, and several other things within the store.


    The shopkeep calls quietly, questioningly, ¡°Do you, ah, expect you¡¯ll, well, become short again?¡±


    Pft, I can¡¯t help snorting with laughter, ¡°Hah, um, yes, probably, maybe. I don¡¯t know. Rayileklia makes it hard to use my magic.¡±


    I can see Berinon nodding, edging between confusion and understanding as he rummages through the crate from earlier, the one containing clothes for, well--. I made an assumption that they were intended for a child that has passed on, by his intonation. He collects several objects and carefully places them in the large backpack that Teuila set aside to purchase. They will be handy if I shrink, one way or another.


    Berinon grumbles, ¡°I¡¯ve, hm, had rather enough excitement for one day. You should likely go with our saint back to the apothecary. You¡¯re paid up in full, take what you¡¯ve chosen, if you think of more, please come back tomorrow at the earliest. Though, before you fainted, you were handing me these. May I keep them to study? They appear to be perfect duplicates, minus being made of some sort of flexible onyx.¡±


    I nod, I was duplicating them for him, since he seemed to know something about their origin. Or at least he seemed to know about the origin of objects that look identical to them, from this world. He turns them over and over in his hands beneath the lamp light. He shakes his head vigorously, and tosses them into the crate from earlier. He sets the crate on the other side of the door to the back of the shop, and returns with the armload of things he¡¯d been picking out a moment prior.


    Berinon states, ¡°These¡¯ll be fitting you better for now, and, well, should compliment your companion¡¯s ensemble. I¡¯ve not had much cause for those with discerning fashion desires in quite some time. But, yes, anyway. I beg all of your pardons, but would you mind please putting these on then leaving my shop? I¡¯ve apparently a speck of cleaning to do.¡±


    Ah, yeah, cleaning up someone else¡¯s blood would probably put anyone in a sour mood. I really wish I had asked Luni for the soap stone. I wonder if there are any wizards or enchanters or something on this world that could make one. Teuila helps me up, and starts to try to help me into the majority of the new clothing. I¡¯ll change my breeches somewhere in private, later. No need to startle anyone else with yet another difference.


    As Teuila helps me up, then tries to begin dressing me, I shoot her an incredulous look complimented by an eye roll. She grins and lets out that single elongated laugh of glee through a mostly closed-mouthed smile that so many of the Shellcrackers do. ¡°Heeee.¡± I can¡¯t help smiling when I hear it, as I see the glee painted across her face. What a wonderful person. She¡¯s so, so, so many positive traits. I hope I tell her enough to make her feel loved.


    Teuila, Tiago, and I head out of Berinon¡¯s shop, quickly and quietly. Now that it¡¯s going on sometime between afternoon and early evening, there¡¯s less hustle and bustle on the city¡¯s streets, but the town is still lively. Tiago ushers us inward, to the insides of a humble-fronted apothecary. The crackle of a lit fire in a fireplace is a soothing sound, as is the warm breeze that lightly blasts back the cool outside air as we step into Tiago¡¯s home and shop.


    Tiago notices the dagger at my hip for perhaps the first time as my new cloak flutters in the gust of warm air. He stops everything and gently plucks my cloak to lift the edge of it, to stare at the dagger. Somberly, speaking distinctly to avoid letting his accent muddy his intonation, he states, ¡°The last I saw of this weapon, it was on the hip of a very old friend, one that was very out of sorts, asking about a not so secret temple. Perhaps a week ago. I¡¯m imagining very bad things about you, please tell me I¡¯m wrong.¡±


    I quickly wave my hands forward, a sign there¡¯s been a misunderstanding. I ramble, ¡°Aces, they, we, I wasn¡¯t. This isn¡¯t Aces¡¯ dagger, we, I mean sort of. Taylynn gave it to them, it was kind of a loan, but also kind of a gift, but then they both moved to the bed, or, well, it might have been after they were getting up after having spent the, err, yeah, it was definitely when they were getting dressed, because she asked for a clean shirt, she joked about servicing Aces equipment, err, I, um, and then, uh, you don¡¯t need to know that part. Phew, I don¡¯t need to know that part, yeesh, oy vey, is it getting hot in here?¡±


    Tiago¡¯s visage screws up as he tries to stifle laughter, his right hand¡¯s fingers splayed to cover more of his mouth, while his right elbow rests on his left arm. He looks quite amused, and very willing to let me continue making a fool of myself as he pleads, ¡°Do go on, quiero escuchar mas.¡±


    Even Teuila snickers at how uncomfortable I look as I tug at my collar, while I literally steam with blush. Her salaciously raised brow only furthers the heat of my face evaporating the rain droplets that collected in my new scarf. Flippin¡¯ ¡®eck, why do people have such interest in one another¡¯s, uh, bedtime proclivities. Crap on a cracker, I could really use a telepathic bond right about now for Lil, Lu, or Te, to save me from this embarrassment. I fan myself, flustered as I am.


    I gulp, ¡°They, um, glp, they were, uh, close, very close.¡± I pause to gasp a breath as I stutter, ¡°In, in, intimately close.¡±


    Tiago bites his lips for a long moment before replying, ¡°I never knew, the sly old dog. Aces didn¡¯t come into possession of that dagger until, gosh, it must have been the eighties. It¡¯s always been a marvel to me that their age was basically the same as the year. That¡¯s what you get, being born at the turn of the century I guess. Well, as far as we could guess. They never ended up being able to recall anything between double oh and eleven. If Aces was honest about the princessora and that dagger, and you¡¯re honest about their relationship. Goodness. Aces certainly was active even going on a decade or two from a hundred years old. I suppose I¡¯m one to talk, I¡¯m now that old as well. How do you know so much about their relations though?¡±


    I flush with embarrassment again, just when I thought I was off the hook, able to stop thinking about those dreams. As I¡¯m trying to formulate a response, I feel the heat continue to rise to my pointed ear tips, worse with each syllable uttered. I respond very carefully, pausing, gulping down a large breath between each word to think out the next, nearly fainting between each one, ¡°I. Sometimes. See. Glimpses. Of. Memories. While. Dreaming.¡±


    Teuila loses it and bursts into laughter, doubling over and falling onto her side. Come on Te, it¡¯s not that funny, heh. This is really embarrassing. Ugh, I wish you could still hear my thoughts. Tiago¡¯s cheeks are puffed with barely contained laughter as he bites his own lips and doubles over to prevent himself from joining Teuila in rolling on the ground laughing.


    Tiago permits himself one joke, ¡°I know couples that would pay fortunes for a potion that gives one spouse or the other such dreams.¡±


    I¡¯m sure my expression becomes utterly mortified, because that¡¯s how I feel. Can you die of embarrassment? If not, could I be the first? Please? Agh.

 B 4 C 14: A Warm Reception

    Between the warmth of the fire, and my own superheated embarrassed face, I feel ready to pass out again.  Thankfully, or maybe not so thankfully, I remain standing, and conscious, forced to endure more of the nudges and sly brow waggles and so on from the pair of Tiago and Teuila.  Ugh, I should, I don¡¯t know, chew out Luni for cluing Teuila in on this stuff.  I mean, I think it was her.


    Critterkin don¡¯t really have the concepts unless someone brings it up.  We¡¯ve got weird database style knowledge available, so we sort of know everything right from the start.  We just have to be made aware of what to think about to pull up the memory files, or something.  It¡¯s weird, like I said, we¡¯re somehow part digital in nature.  Me less than most critterkin, since I bleed blood rather than polygons.  Oh heavens, we need to keep Teulia from being injured around anyone if we¡¯re trying to keep a low profile.  If me bleeding light was a strange sight, imagine how people would react to someone bleeding dark-blue-outlined hollow triangles that float upward and vanish.


    Tiago wipes a tear of mirth from his eye, and motions us to make our way behind the shop, into the living area where the fire crackles pleasantly.  There are several bits of plush furniture set out, including love-seat style chairs set up, and a long couch.  I guess it might actually be a fainting couch, and it might double as a sort of operating table.


    Teuila drags me to one of the loveseats, and lightly tosses me into a seated position, while she leaps into the air to flop across my lap.  While reclined, she gleefully asks, ¡°Do you think we could get Spice or Sugar to make one of these when we get home?  It¡¯s perfect for snuggles!¡±


    She sits up and wedges herself against me playfully before it dawns on her what she asked.  There¡¯s a tiny hiccup that¡¯s audible only to me as she holds back a sob.  Her face resting in the crook of my neck doesn¡¯t give away the tears that flow momentarily.


    I first whisper, ¡°Someday, we¡¯ll make it home someday.¡±  I continue slightly more audibly to try to soothe Teuila, ¡°I, um, I¡¯m pretty sure, yes.  Spice loves designing, and even if they were too busy to actually build it, we could, um, well.  If Spice handed us the plans, we can gather pretty much any material on our world, and we could maybe try our hand at making it ourselves.¡±


    This gets a slight giggle out of Teuila as she asks, ¡°Have you ever even held a tool that wasn¡¯t a weapon?¡±


    My response is a vacant, ¡°Uhhhhhh.¡±  For far too long, which sends Teuila into a fit of the giggles.


    She¡¯s sort of right.  I always relied on my inventory magic to do my crafting for me, other than one time, handcrafting gifts.  Well, since early on.  Since, since the earliest point.  Don¡¯t think about it, don¡¯t think about it, don¡¯t think about it.  I¡¯m here, she¡¯s here, we¡¯re here.  It¡¯s now, it¡¯s today, it¡¯s Rayileklia.  My pulse rapidly hammers so hard that my tinnitus screams a ringing noise in response, drowning out even Teuila¡¯s beautiful laughter right next to my face.  The time.  The time that I, before I started using my inventory magic for almost everything.  That time was that day.  It was Day One.


    I try to grasp the edges of a pit as the chair opens up its toothy maw beneath me, chomping down on me to gobble me up.  I¡¯m sent spiraling and tumbling into the abyss of its innards, then I¡¯m spat out into every vaguely pareidolic face in the wood grains about the room.  Everything that can, could, or would be a toothy maw opens up and reaches out for me.  Even things that shouldn¡¯t.  My vision tunnels and widens in rapid succession back and forth.  I whimper as tears of fear stream down my cheeks.


    Suddenly, after what seems an eternity of madness, I¡¯m aware of a brilliant flower bud in front of my face.  It¡¯s a blindingly bright mini luma tulipa.  Teuila is squeezing me close while stroking my hair.  Tiago is asking her questions, and she¡¯s responding for me.  Tiago kneels before me and cups my free hand, the one that isn¡¯t trapped behind Teuila.  He seems to be trying to say soothing things.  When I¡¯m unable to respond, he disappears for a few moments, and returns with a flask that contains a dropper.  I think he asks Teuila for permission, and she helps him open my jaw.


    A bitter tasting liquid rolling around my tongue, being absorbed into my gums and swallowed in equal parts starts to clear my tinnitus, slowly.  After a while, the snapping maws fade away, and I¡¯m aware of my breathing enough to try to slow it down.  I suck down several breaths, gulp back several sobs, and let loose a phlegmy cough.  I furiously rub my wet, itchy-eyes, and avert my gaze from everyone, ashamed at succumbing to my trauma in such a safe, welcome place, with Teuila right next to me.


    I mumble, ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    My apology is met with confused responses of care.  I think Tiago is berating me for being sorry, in Spanish.  Telling me not to be so hard on myself.  Teuila tries to lighten the mood, but I¡¯m still only barely returning to reality, so I can¡¯t quite laugh with her yet.  I do turn to meet her gaze lovingly though.  That¡¯s enough.  I think that¡¯s enough, for the both of us.  As long as we have this.  No matter how many times, I¡¯ll make it back.  As long as she¡¯s here waiting, even if I need help to do it, I can fight my way back.  Eventually at least.  I have to.  I can¡¯t leave her trapped here, with me trapped in my own mind.  Never again she said.  She¡¯s willing to do almost anything to keep that from happening.  She shared our pain with Tiago.  Enough that he could make a proper diagnosis, and aid me with what is likely an anti-psychotic.


    Why do I think I know anything about drug classifications?  Would alchemy or apothecary stuff have anything to do with Earthen drug classifications?


    Tiago mutters, ¡°I didn¡¯t think it would work, honestly.  He returned, still complaining.  I guess he really was seeing ghosts possessing someone.  Or maybe not taking it after all.  Seeing it so effective, I wish I¡¯d purchased enough ingredients to make more.¡±


    Huh, it sounds like Tiago tried to help someone by using that medication, or potion, before.  Sounds like it didn¡¯t work out, one way or another.  Maybe the science of medicine isn¡¯t as advanced here pharmacologically as my memories of fakeworld.  Still, Earth is, well, it¡¯s mysterious.  If I asked someone about science that pertained to Earth while on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas it would often end up being met with confusion.  If I asked it here, someone knowledgeable enough might actually agree with the science of Earth.  Why is that?


    I try to reclaim my senses as I state, ¡°Thank you, both.  I hate that I carry that with me.  I hate that it affects me so much.  I hate that my own brain can accidentally trigger it by following a thought train to the wrong words or phrases.  I just, I hate being so, so, so weak against it.  It¡¯s miserable.¡±


    Teuila gingerly conks me on the noggin¡¯, saying, ¡°Hey, you¡¯re not weak.  It¡¯s a thing you deal with.  It sucks, but you bear it and go on, you always have.  Like Lu says, always have, always will.  Maybe we can help you against it sometimes, maybe we can¡¯t, but you¡¯ll always win in the end.¡±


    While gazing down at the two of us, Tiago asks, ¡°Will you two be alright for a moment?  I trust you not to get into any trouble, if you please.  I just remembered I have to help George with the herbs and grain stores this eve.¡±


    Teuila and I both nod, comprehending, and acquiescing, but mostly caught up in our own little world.  Tiago makes a motion that I don¡¯t quite catch out of the corner of my eye, and heads outside.  I reach up to touch Teuila¡¯s cheek, and she nuzzles my hand affectionately, while clasping it with her hands.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    We both start, ¡°I was¡ª¡° and laugh as we try to allow the other to talk first.  Teuila nudges me roughly, indicating she won¡¯t relent, so I can start.


    I begin, ¡°I was thinking, wondering almost.  We¡¯ve spent so many years in thinkspace Teuila.  Are we those people though when we¡¯re out here?  I mean, no, that¡¯s not what I mean to ask.  It¡¯s more like, well.  Hm.  Do you ever get the feeling that our story is in two separate parts?¡±


    Te raises an eyebrow, answering with a question, ¡°What do you mean?  I¡¯m still me, in and out of my head, even if I have a hard time showing it.  Is that what this is about boogerbuns?¡±


    I quickly shake my head and place up my hands, ¡°No, no no no, not like that.  You¡¯re wonderful, in and out of your head.  Please don¡¯t worry about that, like I said, I¡¯m here for you, we¡¯ll figure out how to work around that, or get our telepathic link back, or something.  I have a hard time not going down mental rabbit holes, which, well, you¡¯re well aware of.  I¡¯ve got these dreams of Aces, maybe more than two parts, maybe like, three.  Our tale of bliss within our minds, our dangerous-yet-rewarding life with our family on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and some fated adventure that somehow always had to happen, here, on Rayileklia.¡±


    Teuila scratches her chin and leans back, playfully balancing more weight across my lap as she stretches over the arm of the chair.  After she comes to a conclusion, she shares it with me, ¡°I still think it¡¯s all just us.  Maybe we¡¯ve always had some weird destiny or fate, and maybe that fate has some big breaks in it or some big parts that are like their own stories, I don¡¯t know, maybe.  What I do know though, is, well.  I know that I chose you, and you chose me.  That wasn¡¯t just some story that was written out for us.  We did that.  We lived through the Night of High Water.¡±


    Teuila looks somber for a moment, before she suddenly cheers up and continues, ¡°You were twitterpated before I had even really introduced myself to you, and I couldn¡¯t help but feel the same way back.  Um, you know.  But that¡¯s because of my feelings, my strengths, my wants.  And maybe a little bit your soul¡¯s aura, and, um, your¡ª,¡± she covers her hand with her mouth as she fakes coughing, ¡°koff-scent-koff-and-koff-gorgeous-koff eyes.  Just a little.¡±


    She seems to virtually be steaming from her ears with embarrassment, having come so close to verbally admitting the names of some of her feelings.  I didn¡¯t quite hear all the words she was trying to cover up with her fake coughs, I only really heard eyes.  Te tries to recover, stuttering slightly, ¡°An, an, anyway, yeah, um.  Everything after that, that¡¯s us, our life.  If it¡¯s a story, and there¡¯s any chapter breaks or whatever, it¡¯s all still just our life.  I don¡¯t think we have different stories, just an ever changing journey, just like everyone else.¡±


    Hm, that¡¯s true, I guess everyone¡¯s lives go through changes, whether they expect them or not.  Whether or not they can partially time travel, or almost die, or actually die several times.  Though, that part may still be just us.  Sort of.  Or at least our family as a whole.  Maybe.  I guess I never really got to know any of the other critterkin families well enough to ask if they had anyone return as eggs.  Or if they were even the same people that had been killed to be harvested as eggs, or remembered those lives.  It just seemed like such a gruesome thing to try to ask about.  I rub my palm across my forehead, downwards toward my eyes as I remember Eimsas, and all of our dealings with the city, and its surviving humans.


    Teuila nudges me, getting around to what she was going to ask stuttering in the process, ¡°I was wondering if you maybe wanted to slow down a bit?  I, I, I know we both, I definitely, and you definitely.  We, I know you want, we want, to get back to our family, to Lin, to everyone.  But maybe this whole thing is a chance of its own.  What if we miss something that could help us help them if we press too hard too fast and don¡¯t pay enough attention?¡±


    Oh Teuila, to admit that must have been so hard.  You¡¯re the strongest person in at least two universes.  I smile lovingly at her as I try to respond, ¡°I guess we still need to be careful, and we should maybe learn everything we can about all that we can, while we have access to resources and people.  I have absolutely no idea what a lead would even look like, one that might clue us in on a way home.  Or heck, even a lead to find a clue to find a lead.¡±  I try not to scoff as I joke, ¡°Who would we even ask about it?  What would we say?  Oh hey there fella, know anything about how to travel through a dead person¡¯s soul into a world that somehow spawned as a universe within that soul?¡±


    Puffing my cheeks to blow a breath through closed lips, I¡¯m reminded of my fire-breathing buddy.  I address that reminder, ¡°I¡¯m glad Lil¡¯s taking a break from everything, and that Lil has Luni and Lucky while they get their head and heart sorted.  We probably won¡¯t make much progress before we reunite.  I do still think we should at least take care of Autumn Brook¡¯s problem, and try to find Taylynn or Selunie as quickly as possible.  Just to let them know about Aces.¡±


    Before Teuila can interrupt, as an explanation I add, ¡°I¡¯d be heartbroken if someone came with news, of, well, that kind of loss of someone I loved.  It would suck.  But I¡¯d lament all the more every day that went by that I didn¡¯t know it had already happened.¡±


    Teuila scrunches her face, probably trying to not think too hard about getting that kind of news.  She blurts out, ¡°I¡¯d kill the messenger.  I mean.  If that kind of news suddenly came about you. It, it would have to be a lie.  I¡¯m never letting you out of my sight again for longer than, I don¡¯t know, like long enough to take a bath or have a private conversation or something.  I¡¯ll give you alone time if you need it, anything, whatever, but like, no, it just couldn¡¯t happen.  Never again.¡±


    She clutches her stomach and vibratingly quivers at apparently the sickening thought of losing loved ones, ¡°Still, if that kind of news came about Lu, or Dragbutt, or Hunter, or well, any of the fam.  I¡¯d.  I¡¯d.  I¡¯d freak out, and probably demand to know everything, like how long.  I¡¯d still probably threaten the messenger.  I don¡¯t know.  I guess, yeah, maybe the ones here on this planet, that ¡®Lunie and that Tay¡¯ deserve to know.  Huh.¡±


    I think we both just realized that the two women in my dreams could have the same nicknames as our two gals.  We both gaze at each other with realization dawning on our faces, but also disbelief.  There can¡¯t really be anything to that coincidence.  Can there?  Like, why would I be the only one with memory dreams or prophetic dreams or whatever if we were all these people?  Though Luni seemed to like the Selunie character more than the Taylynn character for some reason.


    Luni said that we weren¡¯t ready to think about whatever similarities or weird connections Rayileklia might have to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas for some reason.  She seemed to believe it was more for Teuila¡¯s sake than anything.  I¡¯d rather go through a thousand deaths than hurt Teuila in any way, so maybe we should just drop the line of thought.  Also, I know, going through a thousand deaths would hurt Teuila, so I¡¯m being dumb with my metaphor.  It¡¯s why I didn¡¯t tell her out loud.  Well, that, and, I don¡¯t know if even just talking about not talking about a certain topic might trigger some thought that somehow we aren¡¯t ready for that hurts her in some way.


    I can¡¯t even imagine what we would need to be ready for anymore.  We¡¯ve already died, and we¡¯ve come back once.  If we were maybe those characters from my dreams, if they really all existed, and were Aces¡¯ memories, well.  Well.  I.  I don¡¯t know.  I don¡¯t know why that could even possibly be a bad thing to think about.  Unless I¡¯m wrong, and by thinking about it, I might convince myself of something that isn¡¯t true.  I suppose that in and of itself could be harmful, I guess.  Yeah, I suppose trying to insist to my inner circle that they lived as characters in one of my dreams in a different lifetime might be hurtful, depending on what happened during those lifetimes, especially if I¡¯m wrong about my assumptions.  Or, if I¡¯m actually still on the verge of dying, and this is one last accelerated dream, whether or not the others are actually caught up in it, or, well, yeah.  I guess there¡¯s too many possibilities to be jumping to conclusions.


    I can see Teuila¡¯s expressions as she follows a similar train of thoughts.  However, it¡¯s obvious that at some point during the thought train, she just shrugs and throws the whole train out the window, abandoning it with the bathwater.  I may be mixing my metaphors a bit.  She smiles down at me and adopts a longer shrug, displaying her lack of interest in pursuing the topic further.  I grin back up at her and wrap my arms around her waist tightly as I lean against my head her sleek, athletically-toned right bicep and the head of the loveseat.  I rest my eyes for what seems to be a mere moment, yet when I open them, the soft rise and fall of Teuila¡¯s breast in a soothing rhythm tells me that we both fell asleep for at least a short while.

 B 4 C 15: Healer and Historian

    I hear our host comment, ¡°See, what did I tell you?  Aren¡¯t they precious?  Utterly adorable.  She¡¯s so protective of them, but has a fantastic sense of humor too.  These young ones are newer to these parts than you could possibly imagine.¡±


    A gruffer voice responds, ¡°You¡¯re always getting attached to any fresh blood in town my love.  You still haven¡¯t explained what you mean by my inability to imagine.  What even¡ª¡°


    Tiago interrupts, ¡°Ah, that¡¯s not for me to say dearest.  Oh, they¡¯re awake, well, good.  Early eve¡¯ siesta is fine and all, but that isn¡¯t why I invited them over.¡±


    Since they¡¯re speaking about us, I interject, ¡°So, um, Tiago, I¡¯ve heard you referred to by the prefix San, or straight up called Santiago.  Does that mean you¡¯re an Aasimovian priest?¡±


    Tiago barks a short laugh, ¡°Oh dios no.  My village, Malta Verde, well, it¡¯s no longer there, but it was a fair few miles northeast.  We were Aasimovians, but not Aasimovians, if you catch my drift.  How do I explain?  George, you¡¯re the historian, you know the tale.¡±


    George takes over, ¡°Malta Verde was an insular settlement, they had their own way of doing things.  Tiago performed enough feats that qualified as miracles in the town¡¯s eyes, so those earned him sainthood or something like that, in the town¡¯s localized spiritual beliefs.  It was before my time, though not by much.  Right love?¡±


    Tiago scoffs, ¡°Right, yes yes.  Mildred and Harriet tease that I¡¯m a cradle robber because you¡¯re younger.  We didn¡¯t meet until you were in your forties, almost thirty years ago.  They¡¯re a pair to talk, hmf.¡±


    George laughs a moment, but addresses his husband, ¡°Darling, it¡¯s probably best not to let the gossip of the hens distract you from your guests.¡±


    George leans in to kiss Tiago on the cheek, then bends down to pick up a large wicker basket that houses several clay jars.  He takes them into what must be a storeroom for the apothecary.


    Tiago lets out with a start, ¡°Oh, right!  Where are my manners?  Can I get you any tea?  Will you be staying for dinner?¡±


    Teuila scrunches up her face, gazing upward and leftward in thought.  Her smile dimples in an adorable fashion while she¡¯s lost in thought as she tries to decide about the tea, leaving me to answer, ¡°I, um, I don¡¯t think either of us have ever had tea.  We¡¯ve been up since yesterday though, apparently, marching to get to Autumn Brook in time for, well, helping out with the problem.  I think Keeley is still expecting us to return to check back in.  Harriet wants us to talk over our plan with you, so we were going to visit even before I, um, fainted.¡±


    Tiago raises an eyebrow, and nods towards me at the word plan, prompting me to continue, ¡°Um, yes, well, we don¡¯t really have one.  Nothing concrete anyway.  I have this habit of sort of, well, infiltrating a certain place, finding out a leader is evil, and, um, killing them.  Teuila can vouch about the Beaver Dam tunnel complex.¡±


    Teuila, startled from her reverie in which she was apparently forgetting to breathe, exhales a puffed breath, ¡°Psheww, aint that the truth.  My poor doofpunk.  Three for three in the same place.  Every time.  The last time though, that was definitely the last time.  I mean, not just because the world was ending.¡±


    Tiago¡¯s confused gaze causes Teuila pause.  She shrugs helplessly, leaving me to pick up, ¡°Uh, well, when we left our world behind, we thought we were making a sacrifice that might save a portion of our world, or all of it, or something.  Even with that sacrifice though, there was going to be destruction on an epic, godly scale.  Everything was going to be wiped from the map, even places like the tunnel complex.¡±


    I look around, ashamed as I continue, ¡°The beaverfolk though, um, there were two factions.  One of them was overwhelmingly evil in motive.  Some of its members were willing, some were coerced, in a vile way.  I, uh, killed the coercer on the first trip.  On the second trip, I stumbled into a plot to resurrect the coercer, and killed the plotters.  On the third trip, I literally fell into a plot to resurrect it in deep, dark, secret.  Well, you can guess how that turned out for them.¡±


    I fight against my pouting frown and saddened expression as I lament, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m definitely not proud of what I¡¯ve done there.  I¡¯m glad that the others are free, but, but the killing.  I just.  I never wanted that.¡±


    Tiago¡¯s gaze appraises me, ¡°Sounds like that very old friend of mine in some ways.  At least, how I asked them to behave.  Still, to part with that dagger can only mean.  Huff.  I didn¡¯t think they could actually go through with it.  I think that marks the first time the temple has ever served its purpose.¡±  Tiago¡¯s gaze suddenly becomes distant, and he whisperingly asks no one in particular, ¡°My dear friend, what frightened you so?  Those last words can¡¯t have been true.¡±


    I scratch the back of my head, averting my gaze in embarrassment.  Tiago understands that Aces went to Noirdivinhoz to die.  For some reason, I think I know what Tiago¡¯s more audible statement is talking about.  I think he and Aces spoke about acceptable assassinations or something.  Weird conversation topics for a saint.


    It¡¯s Tiago¡¯s turn to blush and scratch the back of his head as he states, ¡°It¡¯s funny the conversation should angle this way.  If Aces weren¡¯t on such a hard road, on such an impossible task over the last few years, I¡¯d have suggested Harriet turn to them.  There has to be someone at the center of the Colossi hostility, and perhaps their size and power.¡±


    Teuila grins as she cracks her knuckles, ¡°Now that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about!  We blitz in, learn who¡¯s stirring the pot, and snap the ladle!  Uh, did that work?  Metaphors aren¡¯t really my thing.¡±


    Tiago and I both chuckle.  I start to laugh so hard that I have to wipe tears from my eyes.  Tiago pauses for a breath to ask, ¡°Hah, oh, you two are intolerably precious.  How old even are you?¡±


    Teuila answers for us, ¡°Um, I think two, three maybe four years old  in like, physical linear time stuff?  Maybe a bit less.  The swamps were a couple of months, a good chunk of a year, settling down was basically the rest of that time.  Fire biome and warrens stuff, beavers again, resurrecting Lil early.  We took it really slow to the coasts, then had to spend around two months in Eimsas.  Then everything after that was a bunch of action squeezed into very little time, until the Miracle Oak.  Then we were there for a few months, and the world was ending, so we saved it.  Right spooterbutt?¡±


    Tiago looks incredulous, his jaw agape as I agree, ¡°Yeah, that sounds about right.  We critterkin had the advantage of spawning with full knowledge of anything available to us as long as we thought to think it up.  Our inner circle had an even bigger advantage, since we could spend a thousand times the usual length of time in thinkspace.  We had what, almost two centuries together over our lifetime?¡±


    Teuila nods at me while Tiago rattles his head as he asks, ¡°Wait, so, you¡¯re somewhere between two, and two hundred years old, though you¡¯re not quite sure?  And much of that time was spent in your minds?¡±


    I blush with chagrin as I scratch the back of my head, ¡°That, yeah that¡¯s about the half of it, ah, um, heh.¡±


    Tiago facepalms, ¡°You¡¯ve literally not had a chance to live your lives.  I can¡¯t in good conscience let Harriet send actual literal babies into a dangerous situation as spies or assassins.  I¡¯ll speak with her, we¡¯ll figure something else out.¡±


    Teuila, feeling insulted, immediately objects, ¡°Oy!  Hey!  Excuse me!?  We were never babies, we don¡¯t even have that stage of life unless we feel like it.  Did you not hear the part where my spooterdink has already done this three times in one place alone?  We also nearly did it to the only human city in existence.  Spootbutt managed to threaten them into backing down, because, well, Rej is insanely powerful.  Aincha fumpyrump?¡±


    Fumpyrump?  I try not to laugh as I respond, ¡°I was powerful Te.  I mean, I sort of still am, partially.  You still technically have all of your powers too.  They¡¯re just harder for both of us to access.  Without even accessing our powers, you¡¯re more frightening than any single human that has ever existed, even their powerful mages, like Sofu or Adom.  I¡¯d wager you could topple an ogre, or bring down a manticore, bare handed.¡±


    Tiago¡¯s face appears ashen, despite his darker skin tone, as he glances back and forth between Teuila and me.  Teuila grins as she claims, ¡°Hm, maybe not completely barehanded.  We know I¡¯m best with a spear.  My fav fighting style wouldn¡¯t work as well here anyway.  At least not with the sky full of acid and lightning, though I could maybe ride the lightning like I did with Lin koff.  But yeah, I s¡¯poooose I could maybe be the strong one, heeeee.¡±


    I adore Teuila¡¯s elongated single laugh of glee.  I also love how Teuila is jokingly arrogant, but actually fairly humble in respect to her own strength and accomplishments.  She¡¯s always willing to praise others before bragging, unless she¡¯s setting up a joke, or running a bit.  There¡¯s also that subtle bit of implication, since we both know Linti¡¯s full name is Linti, Lightning Hunter Shellcracker, and the cat clan answers to any word of their name.  Well, the Shellcracker is somewhat new¡¯ish, since she had her whole family join ours for safety.  Gosh, she was so pissed when realizing I¡¯d still been holding back.  It¡¯s almost funny.


    George reappears, asking, ¡°So, what did I miss when I put the grains to sleep?  Had to tuck them into their breadroom.¡±


    Teuila bursts into laughter as Tiago just points back and forth between the two of us, face ashen, mouth agape.  I¡¯m unsure if Teuila¡¯s laugh is more at George¡¯s pun, or Tiago¡¯s reaction to our tale.


    George looks mildly shocked as he jokes, ¡°How on earth did you leave him speechless?  I¡¯ve been trying to find a way to shut him up that didn¡¯t involve covering his mouth or stuffing it for two decades.¡±


    Tiago sputters, ¡°Excuse me, husband of mine?  How indelicate, and rude.¡±


    George brings Tiago in for a hug and kisses his cheek.  He laughs while apologizing, ¡°Relax love, I¡¯m kidding, of course.  It has been quite a long time since I¡¯ve seen you so caught off guard though.  How did it happen?¡±


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Tiago responds, ¡°They, they, they¡¯re children!  Almost infants!  Two or three or four years old!¡±


    It¡¯s George¡¯s turn to look taken aback, made all the worse as Teuila adds, ¡°Actually, I guess we¡¯re only technically like three days old.  Yeah, our old bodies are definitely gone, totally ripped to shreds by the books.  So these are new bodies.¡±


    I can¡¯t help bursting into laughter as Teuila spells out the hypothetical for our hosts.  I rub my itchy, mildly-wet eyes, drying tears of laughter.  She is right though.  Technically, even if all we went through was teleportation, and if teleportation required disintegration and reintegration, those bodies and those selves are gone.  And that¡¯s if, and only if, we just went through teleportation.  It doesn¡¯t look like that¡¯s what happened to us at all though.  We were killed, then somehow were suddenly here, in copies of our bodies.


    What was it Luni said?  She didn¡¯t even expect us to keep these bodies?  She was so confused in the temple of time when we found out we were going to die.  She thought she had messed up, that we were dying when she was assured of a different outcome.  Did one of her future personality fragments tell her we¡¯d be alive on Rayileklia?  Or at least alive in general?


    I suddenly realize I can make a joke, ¡°Oh, oh, I¡¯m technically simultaneously younger and even far older, since I duplicated the same moments over and over again in the temple of time, millions of times.  Tiny little fractions of a second back in time, every second, for decades.  Then I wiped the whole time away by traveling back to right after I started out.¡±


    I slightly confusedly surmise, quietly, mostly to myself, ¡°Or TQ did, or it was all a compressed alternate timeline.  I was never really sure how the temple worked.¡±


    Back on my original joking train of thought, I recall even more longevity related shenanigans, ¡°Oh oh, or possibly older than that, remember?  I existed as some sort of dying gray soul at the Miracle Oak supposedly, for an indeterminate amount of time.  Rinnia was cagey about that.  Their verdant nature, and literal love of verdant nature basically reshaped me and colored my soul¡¯s aura green or something.¡±


    Tiago and George struggle to form words, sputtering partially formed questions, but Teuila and I have succumbed to a fit of the giggles.  Eventually the four of us regain our composures.


    Tiago finally starts, ¡°Okay my young friends.  In truth, what is your story?  Are you adventurers?  Are you truly that young?  No more joking about.¡±


    Teuila nods as she slightly brags, ¡°Yup!  Straight out of the egg I was always ready to train.  It wasn¡¯t even that long before I evolved myself right out of my sphere stage.  There I was one day, just swimming upriver, bashing my face and tail into rocks, then suddenly I had a long sleek body, and strong limbs, and was bashing those into rocks.¡±


    Teuila then tries to extol me, ¡°Spooterdoot here is kind of similar.  Only, they hatched alone, with no one there to guide them.  Eventually they met our buddy, the Lil dragbutt.  Those two journeyed downriver, met me and my family, and, well, we went through some pretty rough adventures, lost some loved ones, saved some cities or societies, eventually probably the whole world.  You know how it is.  Fight or die, struggle to survive.  The usual.¡±


    Teuila is so flippant and casual about the finality of our journey that I worry Tiago will assume she¡¯s still joking.  Plus, there¡¯s the details that would make no sense out of context for George and Tiago.  Egg to sphere to lanky body, without even describing that she was an actual factual otter.  Well, one with more anthropomorphic limbs and such, but still.


    Tiago finally takes a seat, huffily.  His right palm rests on his forehead, locking his hair out of his face as he slumps into the chair.  George steps lightly to the side of the chair, and leans against the headrest from the side, stroking his mustache in thought.


    George cautiously hazards asking, ¡°So, you¡¯ve been through plenty of things by the sounds of it.  Do you enjoy it?  Do you seek out danger?  Do you not desire to settle down?  Do you value your own lives?¡±


    As Teuila starts to answer I quickly wave my free hand forward, answering, ¡°Woah, woah woah.  Te might get some excitement out of training, journeying, and even combat sometimes, somewhat, but, well.  Hm.  How do I put this?  We don¡¯t seek out danger, we seek out where we can help with our unique brand of skills.¡±


    I continue, ¡°I want more than anything to settle back down with our family and loved ones, back on our world.  To do that, we¡¯ll likely have to amass some new kind of power to be able to travel across worlds, or something.  We don¡¯t even know what we¡¯re looking for in terms of clues on how to return.¡±


    Regarding the last question, I respond, ¡°As far as valuing our own lives?  Well, we¡¯d all willingly, and I guess already did, sacrifice ourselves for one another.  That doesn¡¯t mean we don¡¯t want to live though.  We¡¯re not thrill junkies with a death wish.¡±


    Teuila elbows me and asks quietly, ¡°Hey, are we doing what you wanted?  This is like four or five people now that know stuff.  I¡¯m sorry for blurting things out.  Should we like, bonk ¡®em so hard we erase their memories or something?¡±


    Jokingly acting shocked, trying not to laugh, I respond, ¡°Te!  That¡¯s awful!¡±


    She grins and snickers at me in response, and I can¡¯t help but laugh with her slightly.  Trying to regain composure, and get back on topic, I request, ¡°So, um, is there anything you could add to our planless plan?  Stumbling into their territory, scouting their activities and leadership, asking face to face, hopefully negotiating an end in the process, while being prepared to possibly slay a source of corruption or evil if we find one is all that I¡¯ve got.¡±


    The two married men look from me, to each other, and back, seemingly entering deep thought once their gazes lock with mine.  Teuila nudges me, knowing how uncomfortable I am with eyes on me.  She¡¯s checking to make sure I¡¯m okay.  I squeeze her thigh reassuringly.  I¡¯m not sure which of us was more reassured, me or her, but at least we still feel each other emotionally, in some ways, even without our telepathic bond.


    After a long while, Tiago finally breaks the silence, ¡°To be honest, I never really asked Aces for a course in espionage or assassination.  I¡¯m not certain what else there is to a task like this.  I don¡¯t think either of us will come up with anything more than you¡¯ll be able to figure out yourselves when you witness the Colossi in their plains.¡±


    George nods along, ¡°Yes, I feel similarly.  Aasimovia has never truly had problems such as this.  We rarely have anything resembling a problem.  I mean, in ancient history there were, well, but they were driven out, it doesn¡¯t bear bringing up.  Still, I worry.  Do you two truly feel up to this?  Absolutely?¡±


    Teuila nods emphatically, ¡°I¡¯m honestly excited to test my mettle against someone that big.  Dingledork here got to fight some pretty big things without me on a couple of occasions, so I¡¯ve always been a little jealous.  Though, well, the big dragon skeleton and all of those deadly spells, we did that together.  After getting hit in the face with a meteor, I feel like we¡¯re pretty prepared, even without most of our magic.  Oh, actually.  Hey pinkadink, want to test your fire resistance?  See if our passive stuff still works?¡±


    Hm, Teuila makes a good point.  I nod and she slips sideways off of me, allowing me to stand.  I make a quick motion, before our hosts realize what I¡¯m doing, and I snatch a still-burning coal from the fireplace.  I would have stopped before grabbing it if I couldn¡¯t immediately tell that my thermal resistance was still enough to deal with open flame while my hand was on approach.  It doesn¡¯t blister or burn, it barely warms my skin.  George and Tiago are scrabbling to knock it out of my hand into the fireplace, looking horrified on my behalf, not understanding my calm examination.  Tiago abandons the attempt to retrieve the coal from me as I effortlessly dodge every grapple attempt due to my danger wraps.  Having abandoned the chase, he scrabbles about the room collecting gauze, herbs, and lotion.


    Once I¡¯ve put some distance between George and myself, I place my whole fist in the fire, and drop the coal back into its place.  I step nimbly around one final lunge from George, and I carefully grab his arm to spin him such that he falls into a seat, and not into the fireplace.  Tiago is fumbling with supplies dropping out of his arms as he rushes towards me.  I wave my open hand towards him and George calmly, and the pair just freeze, aghast at my actions and attitude.


    I state, confirming to Teuila, but mostly for the couple¡¯s benefit, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t swim in lava on this planet the same way I could back home.  Though that¡¯s mostly because I can¡¯t access my cold spells.  But, yeah, it seems like our passives are fine.  They might even still be able to grow.  We just won¡¯t really be able to check the actual numbers.¡±


    Teuila nods proudly while grinning, and I apologize to our hosts, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for startling you, I probably could have been less of a jerk about that.  I wanted to show off a bit of the nature of our powers, and just how powerful we were, or are.  I was being immature.  I¡¯m not exactly immune to fire or heat, but, well, it¡¯s honestly pretty close.¡±


    I gaze lovingly at Teuila, knowing that she trained as hard as I did, simply without the benefits of skill-based limit breaking, ¡°Teuila isn¡¯t too utterly far behind in that regard, but she¡¯s still far more affected than I am.  The same with cold, and we were working on lightning and acid before we died.  I¡¯m honestly surprised the acid rain affects my skin so much with my current acid resist that Jazharn helped me build.  I guess the rain¡¯s not so much damaging, as it is irritating to my skin.  Plus, Adom had been poisoning my food and drink for months as a joke, so even that resist isn¡¯t too bad anymore.¡±


    The two exchange another glance, but this time, the terror that passes across their faces is something else as George queries, ¡°Those, those elements.  Were you dragon slayers?¡±


    It¡¯s my turn to wear an aghast expression.  My voice cracks as I accidentally shriek the first word out of my mouth,  ¡°I¡¯d!-squeakkoff- I¡¯d never hunt let alone slay a dragon!¡±  Slightly calmer, I continue, ¡°I mean, unless it were an evil one, I guess.  My best, oldest friend is a dragon.  Lil is taking a vacation to the Hidden Heart.¡±


    Tiago gulps, asking, ¡°You, you¡¯re friends, with dragons?  Oh heavens, the wealth at the clothier, all those gems and gold.  But, but.¡±


    Teuila chimes in, talking at the same time as George in response to Tiago, ¡°Yep, but but is right.  Like I mentioned before, our little dragbutt.  What did you think I meant?  Boogerbones is a dragon, and sometimes a butt, but mostly a cutie patootie.  Don¡¯t tell them I said that though.¡±


    George interrupting his husband, trying to talk over Teuila, pleads, ¡°Wait now love, think about this for a moment.  They did just say evil ones and their friend were two different things.  They¡¯ve offered to help us, and we don¡¯t have any sightings, nor have we had any, for a very long time.  Dragons were driven off to The Spine of the World a long time ago.¡±


    I¡¯m incredibly curious about the history regarding George¡¯s last statement.  There are dragons on this world?  They were driven away?  Also, as I feared, Lil is going to face prejudice against dragons if they don¡¯t stay in a human shape.  Lil will probably adopt a humanoid shape though to travel with Lu once they hit the forest.  They can¡¯t fly above the trees with the acid clouds and the constant lightning, nor can they glide beneath the tree line.  Their wingspan is too large to glide between trees safely.  If they shrunk their wings, they wouldn¡¯t be able to glide.  I should have asked Daffodil about stuff like this before Lil left.  I hope they¡¯re okay.


    Tiago glances at each of the faces around the room in a panic momentarily before slapping his forehead and laughing slightly hysterically.  We all pause a moment to let him collect himself.  Once he regains his composure, he smiles wide while shaking his head and running his fingers between his dreads.


    I try to come up with a placating parting statement, ¡°I¡¯m, well, we¡¯re, incredibly grateful for your hospitality, and I¡¯m sorry for my insensitivity, and immaturity, and certain startling things.  We really should probably check in to the Keel Over though.  Are you alright?  Are we alright to excuse ourselves?¡±


    Tiago nods absentmindedly, and George escorts us to the door.  Once outside, George bids us farewell politely, ¡°I¡¯ll see to my husband, don¡¯t worry, you haven¡¯t done any lasting damage that a night¡¯s good think won¡¯t fix.  He¡¯ll be right as rain tomorrow, well, not this rain, obviously.  I wonder who came up with that phrase now that I think about it.  Anyway, you know what it¡¯s like, a husband¡¯s just like this weather.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, and George continues, ¡°You can¡¯t do a thing to change either one of them.¡±  He chortles at his own joke as he turns back inside the apothecary.


    I snort a single laugh myself.  Teuila was right, they do have a couple of similarities to Lao and Ag.  Just a couple though.  A healer and giver that loves someone who¡¯s both jokester and historian.  I toss my left arm over Teuila¡¯s shoulders and we lean our heads together as we slowly walk towards Keeley¡¯s inn.  We¡¯ve been up for probably the equivalent of thirty six hours or so, and I¡¯m flagging at this point.

 B 4 C 16: Actually Keel Over

    As we enter through the saloon-door front of the inn, the sight is mostly identical to earlier this morning. There are many more people seated about the insides of the tavern area however. Teuila flips back the hood of her fur poncho, and shakes out some of the rain droplets. Hm, the fur lining in her poncho really does help her blend in with humans. Eventually that¡¯ll probably come in handy. Realizing I¡¯d be trailing water everywhere if I don¡¯t follow suit, I do the same with my hooded cloak as we approach Keeley at the bar.


    Keeley¡¯s immediate response upon seeing us is to ask Teuila, ¡°Where¡¯s your little braddah from earlier? Who¡¯s this now? They staying in the same room? You¡¯ve got the price on you instead of them?¡±


    Wait, what¡¯s Keeley on about? Oh, oh! She doesn¡¯t recognize me! That¡¯s fortuitous, I have a chance for a new start. I can make a fresh first impression!


    Teuila grins slyly as she taps her nose, as if confiding a great secret, ¡°This is that little braddah from earlier. Not braddah, not wahine, just mine, my great, changeable, shiftable, rearrangeable dork.¡±


    I slump, defeated. I almost want to laugh. I ruined my first impression on Keeley earlier, and now I¡¯m stuck with that one. My first impression on Sugar and Spice was stolen by my inner circle a long time ago too. I scarred several other beavers for life. Luna almost killed me and Lil when we first met, and well, when we second met as well. I ruined my first impression on Linti all on my own. I brutalized my first impression on Priscilla out of necessity. I have terrible, terrible luck with first impressions.


    Keeley glares suspiciously between Teuila, and my slumped-shouldered form. She tilts her head to one side. Maybe if I¡¯m lucky, she won¡¯t believe Teuila, but then Teuila might be on her bad side instead. I don¡¯t want that either. Ugh. I¡¯d better just admit it, before she starts to dislike Teuila.


    Nodding, I state, ¡°Yes, sorry, it¡¯s me. I¡¯m not trying to trick you. I¡¯m stuck like this for a little bit. If you need proof, I will bleed a lot, so we¡¯d better do it outside.¡±


    Keeley responds, ¡°You¡¯ll what? No, never mind. If you¡¯ve still the payment, I don¡¯t even want to know. The clients keep getting weirder every year, ever since that wild woman who wanted passage to the isles for that archery tourney.¡±


    Wait, wait, wait wait wait. Wild woman? Archery tournament? Did, did Lil say something? Ugh, I can¡¯t remember. There was a thing, a thought. Why are the memories that I want to dig up, so much harder to focus on than the random things that pop into my head? Maybe I¡¯m just making stuff up at this point. I¡¯m not even certain anymore.


    I lean sideways to nuzzle Teuila for comfort, forgetting where I am for a moment. Keeley glowers at me dubiously, and I facepalm for forgetting that we¡¯re in the middle of a transaction. I fish out some of the gems, since Keeley already knows about our wealth. We¡¯re not going to be able to haul this massive backpack around with us when we explore the Colossi peninsula, so I try to hint that we¡¯d like the room for a couple of weeks bare minimum. Hopefully we can use it as a safe place to store things.


    Keeley inspects the gems again, trying to determine their legitimacy I suppose. I have no reason to swindle anyone, but I¡¯m happy to patiently wait for others to determine the worth and value of any wealth that I possess. Mostly since, on my world, wealth was just something we sort of accumulated magically from doing what we were going to have to do anyway. For a long time, we didn¡¯t even know how to spend it, until Spice and I accidentally invented magic shops. Regardless, the wealth is essentially worthless to me, so I want people to evaluate its worth to them. Maybe if they said it was all as worthless to them as it is to me, I might be a bit put out, or lost. We¡¯re going to need money to operate on Rayileklia. Thankfully it¡¯s going alright for us so far.


    Keeley nods as she pockets the gems discretely, handing us a key. As Keeley turns her back to walk away, my danger wraps¡¯ tactile senses indicate a large person is moving closer to Teuila, reaching for her. Ugh, not this again. I turn just in time to see a long-faced man with a shaggy mop of sweat-matted hair, in an open trench coat, clad in a scruffy well-worn sweater, and a pair of breeches that aren¡¯t sure if they want to stay rolled at the cuff, or fall to his shoddy boots.


    As his hand connects with Teuila¡¯s shoulder, he slovenly, drunkenly asks, ¡°Hic, hey cutie, what¡¯s your, hic, sign?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s face adopts a sneer that spells danger for this man as she replies, ¡°Trespassers beware. Executed on sight.¡±


    I gulp down a laugh and cough a snort through my nose for my troubles. That¡¯s even more creative than stop sign. I suppose a stop sign wouldn¡¯t be relevant on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas or Rayileklia though. The long faced man draws his hand back, not out of fear, but to scratch his chin in puzzlement and confusion. Teuila rolls her eyes and drags me up the stairs to the room number engraved on the key.


    Oh boy. We¡¯re literally the first room at the top of the stairs. Keeley really will be able to keep an eye on us. There¡¯s even a vent that looks down into the kitchen, probably to keep the room warm in whatever passes for winter months on Rayileklia. Teuila scowls for a bit, stomping around the room after she locks the door behind us. She peers around conspiratorially before bursting into laughter. I guess she was trying to keep up the angered act for the patrons downstairs, but found the situation too funny to hold in. That man has no idea how lucky he is that Teuila is in such a good mood after meeting Tiago, and getting to go clothes-shopping. She starts stripping and throwing clothing atop the giant backpack, setting it landing in place with unerring accuracy.


    Teuila, standing next to me in her bare glory suddenly looks surprised as she exclaims, ¡°Oh! Oh I get to shop for jammies or nighties tomorrow! Humans wouldn¡¯t understand this.¡± She motions to herself imitating an exaggerated hourglass, though she¡¯s not that curvy, and continues, ¡°Plus, on this planet, this is only for you.¡± She pantomimes the hourglass around herself again. She then mumbles, ¡°And maybe dragbutt.¡±


    I smile towards her, momentarily glad that she¡¯s not able to ride my thought waves, because I¡¯m fighting laughter. Not exactly at her, more that she was so animated and exaggerative with her motions. I don¡¯t want her to be self-conscious about her less curvy curves than Luni. Lords Teuila is so gorgeous, her muscle is so supple, her form is so lithe, I could probably spend all day just admiring each of her features. I actually have, several hundred days over the course of our lifetimes actually. In idyll thinkspace anyway. Yeah, phew, gods Teuila is so lovely, I can¡¯t tear my eyes from her as she saunters and sashays about the room, checking out each of its features. And now that she¡¯s drawn my attention to her taut yet supple curves, oy vey. I turn away to quickly fan myself momentarily before Teuila catches on.


    I suppose I should also purchase some undergarments when we¡¯re next out. I¡¯m mostly happy with the Valkyrie under-armor padding, but I¡¯d likely enjoy something more intended for bed rather than combat. I¡¯m also plenty happy to spend a short while shopping with Teuila. It seems to make her happy, and it¡¯s sort of fun in and of itself.


    I join Teuila in stripping down. Just as I¡¯m finished neatly piling away my clothing, there¡¯s a knock at the door. I roll my eyes and sigh. What are the odds? Teuila giggles at my eyeroll. I slip the padded legging under-armor back on, and answer the door as Teuila snuggles under the quilted comforter or duvet or whatever it¡¯s called. I open the door to find Keeley placing two bowls of stew, adorned with large hunks of bread, on the floor outside the door.


    As Keeley stands, her eyes take me in and she averts her gaze suddenly as they pass up my torso. Oh, crap, right. I look slightly femme in this form, and we don¡¯t even have, ugh. How did I forget nipples exist? I mean, I guess I¡¯ve never seen one in this life, well, definitely not this life, possibly even my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian life. Or maybe some male human dockworkers and some of the crew of the Undine may have gone shirtless. Hm, was it Undyne or Undine? I¡¯d heard the crew refer to it both ways. Regardless, my exposure to them is far lower than any human, since I don¡¯t have them. None of us critterkin have them. I hold my right arm across my pectoral region temporarily out of embarrassment.


    While facing away, Keeley growls, ¡°I¡¯ll expect you to remain decent if you leave your room or open the door again. I¡¯ve enough trouble with the rowdy ones. Don¡¯t need any of them thinking you¡¯re inviting them. Go on, git, close up. Marshal will come to take the overnight shift, but don¡¯t think I won¡¯t ¡®ave him keep an eye on you two as well. Make sure you put the lid on your chamberpot when you take it out. And don¡¯t leave it stinking up the room for an entire day.¡±


    I snag the two bowls of piping hot stew and skitter back inside, closing and locking the door behind me, my heart hammering in apprehension. That woman is going to utterly hate me by the time we leave this town. Ugh. I wonder if I should have told her we don¡¯t use chamberpots, or any sort of restroom activity. Teuila is snickering from beneath the covers after hearing what Keeley growled at me. I can hear Keeley mutter something about oddities as she tromps back down to her bar. Te pops her head out from the covers, sniffing the air in a vaguely feral fashion. It¡¯s rather adorable.


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    Teuila reaches towards me without moving, and makes a grabby hands motion, ordering, ¡°Gimme gimme! That smells great! I thought I smelled something baking from the vents. Didn¡¯t catch the stew though, weird. Mm that bread looks fresh.¡±


    I approach Teuila agonizingly slowly to tease her for being so bossy. She pouts up at me and I nearly crack at her beautiful eyes going all wide and shiny. Her pouting distraction also causes me to nearly trip over her boots that are placed next to the backpack. Teuila¡¯s at my front in an instant, lightning fast, keeping me propped up. We stand chest to chest for only a moment, with her grinning maniacally at me. She slugs me playfully in the shoulder as she grabs for one of the bowls of stew. She then grins wide with glee as she sits on the floor against the bed to begin tearing into the bread and gulping down the stew.


    Hm, we don¡¯t have utensils. I wonder if it¡¯s worth investing in like, a spork or something. I suppose we could whittle one. For now, I¡¯ll do like Teuila, and use the bread to shovel the stew from the bowl into my mouth. Neither of us are used to mastication or consumption, so we don¡¯t really have any table manners to speak of. Most of our lives were spent just placing food in front of our faces, and it disappearing while satisfying our stomachs.


    Okay, I mean, most of our lives sounds weird. The meal times of significant portions of our life were essentially never more than a few seconds, each, due to their digital nature, where food just disappeared and we felt full again. We didn¡¯t sit around shoving digital food down our gullets for incredible quantities of time. Ugh, why am I dissecting my own mental semantics. Ugh, me, you¡¯re such a bonehead sometimes. Or maybe just crazy, I don¡¯t know. Who knows? The sh¡ª wait. Yawn. Oops. My eyes had already been growing heavy from being awake for a day and a half, but now that we¡¯re consuming our first real meal since Daffodil¡¯s place, I¡¯m all that much sleepier.


    Teuila finishes first, and looks around for something. Ah, there¡¯s a pitcher of water and a small washing bowl on a table. This really is a high quality room. She gulps down some of the water from the pitcher, and contemplates pouring some of it into the washing bowl. Instead she rubs her fingers across her hips, cleaning them and probably making her fur slightly gunky in the process. I really took having that soap stone for granted. One might think staves that conjure thunder and lightning, or daggers that never dull are incredibly powerful magic, but a simple stone that degrimed and cleaned everything on a person or object at a single touch, now that is a phenomenal enchantment. We¡¯ve never even really practiced actual hygiene, just magic or digital hygiene. Teuila rubs her athletically toned abdomen to comfort her tummy and lets loose a soft burp before nodding approvingly. She then climbs back into the bed and yawns, stretching out to take up as much of the bed as possible. I grin at the obvious invitation to cuddle.


    As I finish, I mirror basically everything Teuila had just done. Once I¡¯m ready, I join her under the covers, laying on top of one of her arms and legs, since she was hogging the whole bed. Teuila giggles and hoists me closer suddenly. She snuggles up close as we lay chest to chest, legs now intertwined. We nuzzle our noses into each other¡¯s necks, and I can tell I¡¯ll be asleep rather shortly. I try to push off of Teuila playfully so that we can sleep in comfortable positions, but even as I¡¯m raising away from her, I keel over back into her waiting arms, falling asleep in the span of a scant few inches.


    Taylynn needles me again, ¡°So, come on, out with it. We¡¯ve been meeting for years, and you¡¯re still pessimistic. I know you haven¡¯t found a way in to his stronghold yet, but that can¡¯t be all you think about. You don¡¯t seem so keen on this life, especially the jobs you¡¯re taking on lately, it¡¯s almost like you have a death wish. What about the next one?¡±


    She knows it has all been one long job, slaughtering my way through the emperor¡¯s lieutenants until I can piece together a way into his sanctum, or heck, to even just discern its true location. I feel like I¡¯m no closer to its entrance than when I started though. Apparently I¡¯d been acting on a false rumor of a lead back at the beginning. It set me back nearly a year following that information.


    I play dumb, ¡°The next what?¡±


    Taylynn, undaunted, continues, ¡°The next life, if there is one. What would you want out of it?¡±


    I struggle to find an answer internally for some time. When it comes to me, it¡¯s fairly simple, "Next go-around, I''d like a childhood, and a famliy. Though, I guess I don''t want a normal childhood, I want to have about as much knowledge as I do now. I don''t need the memories, just the knowledge. Hell, I¡¯d prefer without the memories. Maybe then, I could have some semblance of innocence. I want that childhood somewhere far from people and their politics, and I want some sort of power preventing the Celestial Emperor from reaching into the next life to snuff me out. I wouldn¡¯t mind meeting you again, or Selunie. Earlier in my lifetime, or if I¡¯m really lucky, our lifetimes, perhaps."


    Taylynn edges closer, her nose touches mine. Her breath warm against my lips, she asks, ¡°Oh, have you grown sweet on us now?¡±


    I smirk in response, causing my lips to brush hers fleetingly, she can¡¯t possibly think otherwise, ¡°I¡¯ve returned to this inn after several harrowing segments of this job, and at least one of the two of you have welcomed me at every turn in the journey. As cold and lonely as I thought my life was, yes, I suppose I have. What do you even get up to between-times? I¡¯ve asked about you each time, and never gotten a straight answer.¡±


    Taylynn plays coy, ¡°Oh a little of this, a little of that.¡± Her smirk is undeniably delicious, frustrating as she may be. I can¡¯t help drinking in her features momentarily.


    Now it¡¯s my turn to have none of it, undaunted, I request, ¡°Come off it, spill.¡±


    She giggles as she exclaims, ¡°That¡¯s what she said! Hehe.¡±


    I give her a droll look accompanied by a partial eye-roll in response to her statement. Taylynn dances nimbly away, twirling and tossing equipment into their proper places with unerring accuracy before continuing, ¡°Okay okay, enough with the dirty looks old friend, fine.¡± She enunciates old extra clearly, teasing me for going on a century in age. She manages to swap from blouse to nightgown in the blink of an eye. Her speed and grace are unmatched by any I¡¯d ever seen.


    Taylynn looks me up and down, her gaze is licentious in nature, and I nearly react in modesty, but I¡¯m still clothed. She walks back her tease, ¡°Maybe not so old, at least in all the ways that count. But yes, fine. I took up archery this last time, rather, I trained day and night for a month a few segments back. This last time, I won first place in a small tourney in a kingdom on one of the isles out of the reach of the Celestial Emperor. The time before that, I took up jousting. I wasn¡¯t first in any of the tourneys though. If I could wield a lance and move that fast without the horse¡¯s aid, I¡¯m sure I¡¯d have done better.¡±


    I snort at the idea of her running along the ground wielding a lance, as fast as a ridden-horse, ¡°If you could move as fast as a horse, you wouldn¡¯t need your family¡¯s money or horses for your travels.¡±


    Taylynn intertwines her fingers, and splays them as she stretches her arms, palms forward. Her neck angles towards her right shoulder, it¡¯s one of her braggart stances, ¡°Selunie joked much the same. Joke¡¯s on the both of you. I win enough that I don¡¯t rely on my family to finance my travels.¡±


    I smirk, and begin to tease, ¡°Handy, that. Sel and I having the same sense of humor always catches me off guard though.¡±


    Taylynn interrupts my thought before I can continue on to the idea of teasing her about her winnings as she chides, ¡°She hates when you call her that. She says it sounds like ¡ª¡°


    I interrupt, chiming in in time with Taylynn, ¡°A transaction, I know. When she asks me to call her ¡®Lunie though my tongue always wants to fumble and say Luna or Lunar instead.¡±


    Tay smirks cruelly before giggling, her reply goes over the top, ¡°Never really found your tongue to be one that fumbles.¡±


    Flustered at her latest tease, I return to the previous topic of her winnings, turning the tease back on her, ¡°Anyway, congrats on your wins. You¡¯re quite the lady. A skilled, self-sufficient princessora who maintains her marvelous appearance and rides willy nilly across the land seeking adventure, contest, and sport? You¡¯ll make someone incredibly happy some day.¡±


    She tries to catch me off guard in response, ¡°Who¡¯s to say I haven¡¯t already?¡±


    I play dumb once again, ¡°Oh? Do I know the mister or misses?¡±


    Bitingly, Taylynn teases in reply, ¡°You¡¯re such a clod. Are you not incredibly happy during our times together?¡±


    I bite back, teasing more sharply than I intend to, ¡°I meant marriage you harpy.¡±


    Hints of anger work their way into the tone of her voice as she defensively calls me out, ¡°Easy there, Killer.¡± She only uses that nickname in that tone of voice when she¡¯s annoyed. It stings, since my entire life is killing. When she¡¯s sure I won¡¯t interrupt her, she continues ¡°Why marry? To pay credence to some religion? To establish some sort of internal laws a pair,¡± under her breath she mutters, ¡°or more,¡± thinking I won¡¯t hear it, then continues, ¡°of individuals couldn¡¯t just work out amongst themselves?¡±


    I gnaw on my tongue and the inside of my lower lip as I contemplate, ¡°I suppose I¡¯d never thought of it. You nearly never open up, in all the years I¡¯ve known you. You almost never talk about yourself or your feelings, let alone on subjects like that, emotional ones. I feel like I barely know anything about you besides your, well, body frankly. Wonderful though it is. I¡¯m not saying we should marry either. Not that I¡¯ve ever sought marriage, I just assumed I was alone in not desiring it.¡±


    Taylynn, still worked up, her ire drawn across her face making it all sharp angles and scowl lines, prods me further, ¡°And what, you thought I did desire it because I¡¯m a woman?¡±


    Now I¡¯m worked up, she knows that gender is a touchy subject, ¡°Shove off, not because you¡¯re a woman, I just said I thought I was alone in not desiring it, I assumed everyone else on our forsaken little planet did.¡±


    Realizing she hit a low blow, her expression softens as she apologizes, ¡°Alright, alright, sorry.¡± She pauses, her expression turns to one of love, ¡°That wasn¡¯t fair of me. I know that you¡¯re unsure of, well, you know. Also, you¡¯ve never treated the fairer sex with any less dignity than the other.¡±


    She¡¯s quite capable at everything, including backpedaling and recovery, I give in and laugh as I respond, ¡°Snrk, and which is which, oh ravishing one?¡±


    She expertly leaps to the mattress, twisting midair to land on her rear. Once she¡¯s landed, she pats the bed next to her, ¡°How about we retire for the night, and you tell me your guess in the morning?¡±

 B 4 C 17: Hail

    Hm? What was I? Mm, Teuila¡¯s arm. Her bicep is so smooth and soft, despite the incredibly firm muscles hidden beneath. It¡¯s heavenly against my cheek, as it always is. I think I was having a dream. Maybe a good one, or maybe a useful one.


    Wait, my ear is wet. Is she eating my ear again? I turn my head, and my ear folds lightly under Teuila¡¯s teeth as they scratch along it. Once my ear is free, I rearrange to be able to stare into Teuila¡¯s eyes, sure that she must be awake if she¡¯s nibbling on me. She refuses to open her eyes however, either playing at being asleep, or actually having slept through once again going for my ear. I playfully bite her bicep lightly, testing her wakefulness. She stirs only slightly, murmuring. I could swear she mutters Aces¡¯ name. Well, there was an ay sound, and I could have mistaken the whistle of her exhalation for an ess-like sound, or a pair of them.


    Really did sound like she was excited about something to do with Aces though.


    Huh, I guess Teuila really is asleep. I wonder if it¡¯s some sort of marshmallow dream or something. I think that¡¯s what it¡¯s called for humans, when they dream of food and realize they¡¯ve been gnawing on their pillow in their sleep. Since I¡¯m content to take longer before starting the day, I close my eyes to rest them, and find myself briefly falling asleep once more.


    When I awaken again, it¡¯s to Teuila grinning like a lunatic as she stares at my face. She bounces on the bed, disheveling the covers and dragging me upwards excitedly. I embrace her, laughing quietly as we rise from the surprisingly soft mattress.


    Teuila asks, ¡°So, we can, right? Spare a few hours to buy some jammies or nighties or something? I love our Valkyrie gear, but I doubt Keeley would appreciate us sleeping on her linens in our muddied clothes.¡±


    I smile brightly at Teuila, not answering yet to focus my mind on something. There¡¯s something that was going on that I¡¯m trying to remember. I¡¯m not sure. What is it? It¡¯s slipping from my grasp. There was something I wanted to think about, or thought about as I was waking, or falling asleep. Grr, I don¡¯t even remember the general idea or topic of what I¡¯m trying to remember. Oh well, I also want to verify something else.


    I know our armor could change size to accommodate us, but I could swear that it shifted and shrank some in my packs as we were traveling to Autumn Brook. I give Teuila the one moment gesture, and dig about in her giant backpack. Sure enough, our armor is already half its usual size, if not smaller. I pull out one of the chestplates to try squeezing it down further. It relents surprisingly easily, shrinking down to nearly the size of doll¡¯s clothing. The enchantment on these is even handier than I¡¯d ever thought.


    Teuila watches me with mixed interest, then decides to help me compress all of our armor down. I¡¯m not sure we¡¯ll benefit from it much, since we¡¯ll probably wear our armor while adventuring. But there is the slight possibility that having an extra suit of shrunken gear could possibly aid us in some strange or dire situation. I¡¯m not sure which situation, but I¡¯m glad I summoned an extra suit back in Noirdivinhoz. I must have something like forty or more additional full suits of Valkyrie armor and gear floating in my inventory at this point, but I¡¯d like to interact with my inventory as little as possible on Rayileklia. So I¡¯m hoping these ones will be all we need.


    Once we¡¯ve completed our short task, I hug Teuila and finally answer her question, ¡°Of course we can. Anything you want to do, My Wings. It¡¯s not like you can¡¯t decide what we do, I¡¯m honestly relying entirely on you for our adventuring needs on Rayileklia.¡± I take a step back to gaze at her, smiling as I continue, ¡°Like you said, we¡¯ll slow down a bit, try to keep our eyes out, make sure we do our best to survive in Rayileklia. We can¡¯t afford to die or go insane here, so we should strive to stay healthy and happy. If a few hours of fun can help that? All the better.¡±


    Teuila lunges at me, leaping into my arms, peppering my face with kisses. I twirl around, laughing as I hold her. Somehow, even though we don¡¯t have our Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic, she still has her weird bond with gravity, and can feel almost weightless. Even though we both want to return to our family, we really do need to stay as positive as possible. If we get pessimistic, sour, angry at our situation, anything like that, we might miss something obvious, something necessary.


    To be honest? It¡¯s pretty easy staying in a happy mindset with Teuila at my side, or being at hers. I¡¯m the sidekick on this leg of our journey after all. We¡¯ll have adventures, and probably danger as usual, but the scale of it all seems less grand, less punishing, less overwhelming. At least I hope it is. Being able to slow down a bit really helps me realize just how hectic our life had gotten near the end. The stakes are hopefully less dire as well.


    I still don¡¯t know for sure if we¡¯re actually alive in the world I was dreaming about, or if this is one last dream as I¡¯m dying. I wonder if the distinction even matters. Could it be possible to gain power within an accelerated thinkspace dream that allows us to resurrect ourselves back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? I was able to gain time skill points in futures that never happened, sort of. The only thing I would worry about with the distinction is, if this is just my dream, then my inner circle could be, or are just figments in my memories. I can¡¯t think about this any further. I, I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t I can¡¯t. Regardless, hopefully our family is safe.


    We can leave the majority of our belongings here, since we¡¯ll be returning to drop off nightclothes before too long. We may not even set out for the Colossi plains today, depending on what Harriet has to say. There¡¯s a trunk at the foot of the bed that¡¯s fairly large, but still not as large as Teuila¡¯s new backpack. She honestly bought a monstrously large pack. The thing looks impractical for anyone not gifted with super strength. I suppose there could be humans the size of ogres, or actual ogres, on Rayileklia. I snag the staff because I really don¡¯t want someone even accidentally ending up with it, let alone stealing it. Like I was thinking about before, it could probably level the entire building, bar minimum, if not the entire town. Plus, for some reason, I¡¯m kind of knackered and can definitely use the aid of a walking stick.


    Oh, hm, after seeing what our armor was able to do, what if I try to do the same with the staff? Oh wow. Haha. Okay this is kind of cool. Like, it shrunk down to about the size of a, I don¡¯t know, zweihander¡¯s handle? Or a hand-and-a-half sword¡¯s handle. Pretty much perfect size to attach to a belt like a dagger¡¯s or shortsword¡¯s sheathe. It can spring back out to full size instantly, and it¡¯s pretty quick to shrink down again. It even has this hollow area, I could probably get a small leather strap for it. I¡¯ll probably snag a thin strip from leather somewhere in town, and make a thong to tie the thing up somewhere on my belt or back. I¡¯ve seen some of the animals in town just kind of running around with shreds of leather. Hopefully they don¡¯t mind too much if I snag a few inches to cut into a strip.


    Teuila looses a single wondrously joyful laugh as she watches me play with my staff, shortening and extending it over and over. After practicing a bit, I can get it to change to either size with just a flick of my wrist. Wait. Ugh. I¡¯m so glad Luni isn¡¯t in my brain right now. Blargh, even without her here I¡¯m flustered. Stupid broken memories from stupid fake world.


    After packing away most of our things, we exit our room to a surprising sight. The tavern is bustling with activity, and covered in a hazy layer of smoke that looks to be coming almost entirely from one group with lit pipes in the far corner. This is definitely not breakfast activity either. At least that¡¯s what I assume with the number of card games going on. I could swear one of those tables I thought I saw Harriet¡¯s dark, short, curly hair at. Teuila and I exchange brow-raised glances. We join the crowd below and head towards the bar to speak with Keeley. We¡¯re greeted however by a younger man that could pass as a son or younger brother of Keeley. I¡¯m supposing this is Marshal.


    Marshal calls out, ¡°Well if it isn¡¯t the lovebirds that Kay told me to watch out for. Anything I can do for you this pre-dawn hour?¡±


    Teuila frowns, ¡°Pre dawn? Still? But we slept, oh, yeah right away at dinner time. I don¡¯t suppose the shops open pre dawn?¡±


    Marshal laughs while shaking his head, ¡°No such luck there my frowning wahine flower. You¡¯ll be wanting to keep to the inside of the tavern until at least dawn, so you¡¯ve some hours to kill.¡±


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    Teuila pouts and crosses her arms, ¡°Poop and a scoot. Ugh. Rej, do you wanna just go back to our room?¡±


    Marshal winks, ¡°If the lovebirds need a bit more privacy, we can close the kitchen vent for an hour or two. No need to be shy.¡±


    Teuila rolls her eyes and I join her in the action. Humans and their assumptions. I¡¯m willing to brave whatever the streets have for us in order to spend time exploring the town before dawn if that would help raise Teuila¡¯s spirits. We¡¯re not used to having to operate on any truly set schedule, so I didn¡¯t even consider this possibility.


    I wrap an arm around Teuila¡¯s waist to pull her in close as I lean to whisper into her ear, ¡°We can just go anyway, if you want. We can get familiar with the layout of the town. Could maybe even scout the outskirts, think of it like a patrol or hunt.¡±


    Teuila smooches my cheek roughly before stepping back, nodding emphatically. She grabs my left wrist and drags me through the crowd. I see Marshal leaning over the bar to try to keep tabs on us as we disappear into the rowdy crowd. We dance between slovenly drunks that are bumping into one another as we try to reach the exit. Finally we burst forth from the inn into the well-lit nighttime streets. The luma tulipa truly are a marvel.


    I gasp a breath I hadn¡¯t realized I was holding, and gulp down the fresh air. Ugh, I also try to blow my nose into empty air repeatedly, struggling to get the clinging smoke out from inside my nostrils and nasal cavities. I¡¯m tempted to tilt my head back and let the acid rain do it for me. That doesn¡¯t sound wise though. Teuila actually manages a soot-covered snot rocket from her left nostril, but can¡¯t seem to fire one from her right nostril.


    Te starts, ¡°Blugh, can¡¯t believe humans do that stuff. I¡¯m glad they didn¡¯t have any tobacco or anything around the Miracle Oak on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Ugh, ew, blech. Hey, um, butterbork. Remember how you said we could do anything I wanted?¡± Teuila pauses from itching her nostrils and suddenly adopts a meek stance, ¡°What if I wanted to, well, go back to just dork?¡±


    I¡¯m rather startled by the sudden shift, in a humorous way. What¡¯s Teuila being shy about? Trying not to laugh, since she seems sensitive about the topic, I respond, ¡°My Wings, of course you can. Why would you ever think otherwise?¡±


    Teuila scratches the back of her head while avoiding my gaze. She mumbles an answer, ¡°I just, I didn¡¯t want to remind you, you know. Of times, like, around that time. I kinda used up all the regular words that time.¡±


    I tug Teuila¡¯s chin upwards with the tip of my index finger so that our gazes meet. Smiling as I meet her gaze, I explain, ¡°I¡¯m okay remembering that time. The way I remember it, you were pounding gently on my chest with your fists, going through every name in the book, just to buy us more private time. I was being a dummy, not realizing you might want that. You know, since, since, well, since I was back, from being trapped. It made me feel loved, desired.¡±


    Heat warms the air between Teuila¡¯s cheeks and my face as she blushes, ¡°That¡¯s, I mean, duh, because you are, dork. Y¡¯, y¡¯, you know. Those words. I missed you so much.¡±


    I nod as we rest our foreheads together for a minute. I can¡¯t allow myself to think too much about the events and time and reasons leading up to that moment. The moment itself though? It was pure bliss. Even though I was still fighting through trauma and terror. Enough of that topic though, or my mind might start to wander backwards. That would be a heck of a sight, my brain hopping out of my skull and scooting away aimlessly in reverse.


    I coo softly, ¡°We made it through. You know how badly I felt for, well, we talked about it, time and time again, in thinkspace. All of those talks still hold true. I love you beyond words Te. I enjoy the tone you use when you substitute a tease for my name. I¡¯m fine with whatever works for you.¡±


    Teuila thinks about it for a moment, ¡°Well, okay, in that case, maybe not dork. That¡¯s too plain. Booger?¡± We both glance down at the snot streaking away in the rain, and adopt grossed-out expressions. Te laughs before continuing, ¡°Okay, maybe not that one either. Hey, um, dingleberry. Yeah. Right? It even has most of your name in it.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow as I try to spell out my own name and dingleberry in my head, to compare the letters. Huh, I never caught that before. I¡¯ve also never really settled on a spelling for my name, so one gee might be enough. I smile as I nod at Teuila, indicating I¡¯m fine with it. Te frowns again though and scratches her forehead in thought.


    Teuila posits, as if in a eureka moment, ¡°I¡¯ve got it, dingleberry is too long, even without the berry. Dink is just about perfect though. How about it?¡±


    I nod once more, ¡°You¡¯re the boss Te, I¡¯m happy to hear just about anything that comes out of your mouth to refer to me.¡±


    Te grins in response, takes me by the hand, and begins skipping through the town along its muddy cobblestone paths. We start off partially doing a methodical grid of squares to explore the town, but eventually abandon it to wander in random, aimless directions. We have to have been exploring for a couple of hours, or only half an hour and I¡¯m far more tired than I thought, but we have no way to know when dawn arrives, other than perhaps catching the sight of people heading to work if that¡¯s a dawn occurrence. Many of the townsfolk might not even work at dawn. We should really find, buy, or invent some kind of timekeeping device for the duration of our stay on Rayileklia.


    The only people we see out and about appear to be, well, expressionless, marking them as animated ancestors or such. Their blank stares are similar to Aces¡¯ body after it was reanimated. These undead mill about at all times. Some of the noticeable ones at the moment are wearing boiled leather cuirasses and such that likely mark them as guards. I wonder how they even realize they¡¯re needed if there is a need of guards. I have seen several herding sheep, though I didn¡¯t inspect them long enough to see how responsive they were.


    I have to give Berinon credit. These leather and fur clothes are incredibly comforting as we traipse about under the permanently drizzling clouds. They¡¯re warm, and feel soft and smooth against my skin. Also, he was right, our outfits do go fairly well together. Weird little observations, but, well, you know me. Me. Oy vey. Anyway.


    We¡¯re nearing the town¡¯s furthest outskirts, before the point where it will become individual farms, and I could swear I feel a presence. There¡¯s some sort of gaze bearing down upon us. It doesn¡¯t seem hostile though. Curious perhaps, possibly even protective.


    I pause and tug at Teuila¡¯s sleeve, asking, ¡°Te, do you feel that? Like we¡¯re being watched?¡±


    Teuila nods and comments, ¡°Yeah, it started about one or two rows back, probably when we became visible to someone watching the town from outside. Weird though. I¡¯m not holding my danger spear, and even if I was, that¡¯s only a few dozen feet of warning range.¡±


    I nod along as well, stating, ¡°Aye, yeah, it is weird. I¡¯m wearing my wraps and all, sure, but like you said, their range is way shorter than this feeling. Plus, they¡¯d give me that tactile¡¯ish radar sonar sort of sense of anyone hiding within their range, so I¡¯d know exactly where they are.¡±


    Teuila stretches her mouth sideways to an angle, and her eyes flick towards the top left of her face as she adopts a thoughtful expression with her left brow squinting. She asks, ¡°Do you want to do anything about it? I don¡¯t feel in danger, but maybe this is what Marshal was warning us about?¡±


    I gnaw at my bottom lip, and adopt an expression much like Teuila¡¯s as I try to decide. I puzzle, ¡°Well, if they¡¯re friendly, and shy, doing anything to alert them that we feel their presence might drive them off. If they¡¯re neutral learning towards hostile, and laying in-wait, announcing our knowledge of their presence may cause them to go full hostile. If they¡¯re already hostile, well, we paint a target on our backs. I don¡¯t see a win in taking any action about them. I¡¯m not sure I want to head back into town just yet though. Care to try to find the tree that that one undead ancestor was hanging out under? The one that looked like our idyllic thinkspace hangout spot?¡±


    Teuila nods along, and smiles brightly when I mention our thinkspace, answering, ¡°Yes, yes, absolutely. I doubt that zed¡¯s going to care too much about a couple of lovebirds popping a squat and hanging out quietly against the same tree.¡±


    I chuckle quietly, and fight the urge to inform Teuila she used the word love, even if it was part of another word, and in a mildly crude sentence. She¡¯d have retroactive embarrassment, and I don¡¯t want to diminish her joy. We agree to meander easterly however. Since the presence fell upon us at this southern edge of town, it will be a fair walk to the east to find that tree. If it¡¯s still obviously keeping tabs on us at that point, it might be worth addressing.


    As we close in on the hill, and the tree, it¡¯s clear that the same zombie sits against it, lightly swaying and tapping their feet to some unheard rhythm. They really do just choose to mirror some action that might have had significance to them in life, and do it endlessly.


    As Teuila approaches the tree, she jokes, ¡°Howdy pardner. Mind if we sit a spell? We¡¯re just a couple o¡¯ critters ¡®n¡¯ varmints restin¡¯ before mornin¡¯ vittles.¡±


    I blink repeatedly, somewhat stunned at Teuila pulling off a country-western accent and dialect. Where would she have even learned that? Critterkin other than me never seemed to have media or pop culture knowledge from Earth. We all had the same dictionary in our brains, but only Luni has ever really seemed suspiciously aware of things from fakeworld, Earth. Maybe I¡¯m reading too much into it, maybe one of the Fae that dwelt about the Miracle Oak spoke that way. I mean, Teodora¡¯s accent took me completely by surprise, and I didn¡¯t even meet a fraction of our gracious Fae hosts.


    Teuila giggles as she hops into a tiny spot of dry grass, just big enough for the two of us to snuggle up in against the tree. She¡¯s about to pat the ground next to her when she realizes I¡¯m already there with her. While wearing a bright smile, she slugs me playfully in the shoulder, stating simply, ¡°Dink.¡±


    I grin a mile wide, ear to ear, at my beloved Teuila. Seeing her so happy is simply wonderful. I¡¯d been worried that on Rayileklia we would lead a miserable life of scrabbling at every clue, agonizing our way back home, never to take in a moment¡¯s happiness. We can allow ourselves to enjoy our time. We¡¯re not bad people for still being hale and hearty, or perhaps hail and hearty, happy and in love.

 B 4 C 18: Meet Dawn At Dawn

    After what feels like an hour of sitting about in idyllic bliss with each other, the presence we sensed still seems to be bearing down on us. As I¡¯m about to suggest to Teuila that we do something about it, there¡¯s motion, and a humanoid figure creeps to within the sensory range of my danger wraps. They have a crossbow aimed vaguely in our direction, without training it directly on us. I tap Teuila¡¯s thigh, then point to the wrist that I usually wear my crossbow on, then point towards between the two of us. She understands my signal, and knows that I don¡¯t feel in danger, or I¡¯d already be acting. This situation ever so slightly resembles my first meeting with Linti, though she fired on me before giving me a chance to notice her presence.


    An androgynous voice calls out, ¡°Hail strangers. You¡¯re new to The Brook.¡±


    I smile as I try not to be snarky in reply, ¡°This is truer than you could possibly know, friend. Stranger. We¡¯re Reggie and Teuila. We went to bed a bit too early and had time to kill before the shops open in the morning. Care to join us for a sit? It¡¯s peaceful, and the view of the city is lovely from atop this hill.¡±


    The individual shoulders their crossbow, slinging it across their back on its strap. They also place the bolt into a hip quiver. They approach as quietly as anyone I¡¯ve ever known at their very stealthiest. In a moment, they¡¯re leaning against the tree next to us, balanced on one booted foot, as the other leg is crossed above their knee in mid air. Their clothing seems almost a bit more modern than I was expecting, with Rayileklia¡¯s predilection for seeming like the European middle ages. They¡¯ve got cargo pants, and a couple layers of tight cotton tops beneath their hooded cloak that might actually be just a large hoodie. They¡¯re also wearing goggles, and have a cowl-like scarf about their neck that could be pulled up as a half mask. I¡¯m fairly certain that, beneath their hood, their hair is styled into a pixie cut. The name for that hairstyle amuses me slightly, since I lived near a family of pixies on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    Dawn, apparently, states, ¡°I¡¯m Dawn, as in, it¡¯s just about. Shops will be opening soon enough. You could head back now.¡±


    I glance at Teuila who just smiles and leans against me in response. I answer, ¡°I¡¯m happy to do either, to head back, or to sit a spell. You seem to be some sort of guardian. Do you have sensory magic as well? We¡¯ve felt your presence since we left town, and you know I haven¡¯t turned to look your way yet, but I can describe your outfit and crossbow in detail if you like. I dig the goggles and scarf-cowl thing beneath your hood.¡±


    Dawn¡¯s expression appears startled for only a moment before they state, ¡°I¡¯m--! Huh, well now. I knew something was strange about you two. I don¡¯t really like that. Could you sense, well, I don¡¯t want to say their, hrm. I¡¯m comfortable with them, but uncomfortable with others knowing before I¡¯m ready.¡±


    It takes me a half moment to realize what they¡¯re asking about. I almost assume that they mean that our facial features are remarkably similar, since their face is obscured a bit. We¡¯re both slightly cherubic, slightly androgynous in our facial structures. Honestly it feels like our faces look fairly similar. With my ranged tactile sense, or maybe I should call it silent sonar though. I realize the body parts they were actually asking about though are a bit lower than their face. I feel as if I¡¯ve violated Dawn¡¯s privacy somewhat.


    I feel that I¡¯ve broken their privacy simply because I can tell that, well, they¡¯re wearing tight cotton tops that compress their breasts fairly well. I can also feel, or maybe hear, well, the lack of, hm, yeah, no need to think too hard about their sex. If they¡¯re at all like me though, they¡¯re going to not want to deal with any gender biases and assumptions. I want to be honest and upfront about this. I¡¯ll try to be indirect though in case they want discretion. I¡¯d hate for someone to telekinetically feel me up even accidentally and not at least admit they did it, or whatever the ranged sense can be considered. I might start calling it my silent sonar at some point. That¡¯s kind of catchy, and maybe a better description.


    I nod apologetically, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I truly would not have examined you so thoroughly as my magic automatically does. The, um, the fit of your tops is a nice cut, for the purpose that you¡¯re talking about. I¡¯m incredibly sorry for that. My magic detects everything as if I¡¯ve felt or heard the exact shapes across every inch of everything in range. It, um, some things don¡¯t, uh. They register, but the sense can pass through them to tell me what¡¯s beyond. I¡¯ve been thinking of starting to call it my silent sonar.¡±


    Dawn recoils slightly, wrapping one arm in front of their breasts, before laughing at the futility of their response. Dawn states, ¡°That is--! Wow. That¡¯s unfortunate for me. I¡¯d appreciate if you continued with that level of discretion. Should you find a need to discuss my presence with anyone else.¡±


    I nod, agreeing to Dawn¡¯s request, and they continue, ¡°I¡¯ve adopted a stance guarding this land for longer than I care to remember. Little else to do with my curse. It doesn¡¯t make me powerful enough to help with the current situation, sadly.¡±


    Dawn begins to explain the current situation in town, but, more curious about their curse, I interrupt, ¡°Your curse? Teuila and I are actually in Autumn Brook to work with Harriet and Tiago to solve the current situation. Though that¡¯ll mostly be on Teuila since she¡¯s so much more powerful than me, and in charge.¡±


    Dawn adopts a puzzled expression as they query, ¡°You¡¯re new to the region, and I know this for a fact. Yet. Yet you¡¯re on a first name basis with the saint and the mairess? Next you¡¯ll be telling me you know a secret name that resides ma uka. I remember when ugh, nevermind. Hff. Probably as grumblegrr doing that for that long.¡±


    I nod, trying not to laugh, ¡°That we do, that we do. Daffodil was quite kind upon our arrival at said secretly named location. She seemed like she was doing well enough. She¡¯s been collecting and shaping adobe bricks, and says she¡¯s getting close to enough to build a home, instead of her thatch hale.¡±


    Dawn¡¯s expression grows irritated as they ask, ¡°How in the Firsts? No. Were you, I don¡¯t know, corresponding with couriers? That would have taken months though, with as few as I¡¯ve seen leaving and entering The Brook.¡±


    I shake my head, ¡°I like you already, and I¡¯m sorry for having been mysterious. We share a similarity that I¡¯d also like to remain discrete about, for one. Depending on what you can tell me about your curse, we may share another.¡±


    Teuila looks puzzled at me, but I give her a tiny smirk and a nod on the sly. If our telepathic wavelength were still operable, I¡¯d fill her in. Still, I can tell there¡¯s more to Dawn than they¡¯re letting on. If there¡¯s any chance at all that they¡¯re from another realm or something, this could be a huge break for us.


    Dawn grumbles slightly before answering, ¡°Hm, fine. I¡¯m, ugh. I¡¯m not alive.¡±


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    My left eye shoots wide in surprise, as that was not what I was expecting. I turn to gaze up at Dawn. They don¡¯t appear to be one of the Aasimovian undead, nor do they appear to be a ghost, wight, rotting zombie, ghoul, or any other undead that I¡¯m familiar with. My whole cryptozoology shtick tells me a ton of different types of supernatural creatures, and Dawn doesn¡¯t fall under any of those categories. They just appear to be a very handsome, or lovely, or beautiful, whichever term they might prefer, living individual. I finally notice what was off however. Dawn isn¡¯t breathing, they haven¡¯t been, this entire time. Well, they haven¡¯t been breathing, save for perhaps the exact amount of air necessary to speak. Nor is their heart beating.


    I can work with this. I explain, ¡°Well, huh, we really do have another similarity there. Teuila and I were alive once, then we weren¡¯t, but now we¡¯re pretty sure we¡¯re alive again. You seem to be partway between step two and step three.¡±


    Dawn grunts, nodding affirmative, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s awful. Well, perhaps between steps one and two. Can¡¯t really say. Awful nonetheless. No food, no sleep, no, no anything except existing in a constant waking state. Sensation comes and goes, sometimes can¡¯t feel, sometimes can¡¯t hear or see. Never even bother checking if I can taste, since I can¡¯t eat. Pretty sure smell has been gone this entire time. Sense of balance sometimes drops off too. Wait. You. What.¡±


    The end of Dawn¡¯s response is humorous to me, but I¡¯m not laughing even though they just realized I had said we died and came back to life. I frown, I want to offer Dawn a hug, though I¡¯m not even sure they¡¯d feel it, or feel comforted by it. They probably wouldn¡¯t be receptive to it anyway. I look to Teuila and we both stand.


    I offer Dawn a sad frown as I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear. Or rather, hm, that¡¯s a horrible way to express empathy. It sounds like I didn¡¯t want to hear your plight. My apologies. I think I can understand why you¡¯ve decided to act as you have, given your circumstances. So, what I mean is, I feel for you. I uh, lo siento Tiago would probably say.¡±


    Dawn looks still confused about the whole returning to life thing, but they drop the subject. Their expression seems as if they¡¯d puff a forlorn sigh as they continue, ¡°Aye. I¡¯m not incredibly adept, or powerful, though I seem virtually unkillable. I haven¡¯t tried, obviously. I¡¯m not, I¡¯m not incredibly displeased with existing. You know. Despite the difficulties, and the, uh, other similarity.¡±


    Dawn eyes the bulge in my cloak that forms a sort of shelf which hints at the breasts I have in this form. Their gaze lingers for the briefest moment, indicating which similarity they were alluding to as they flick their eyes towards and away from my chest. It makes sense though. If one was trapped in a dysphoric body, or even just a body that one is okay with, but prefers to not be known, like Dawn, I could see them feeling grumpy about their situation. Even moreso if a sort of perpetual life fairly sucked. I¡¯m not certain we can do anything for them, though they¡¯d certainly be a valuable ally to us. I feel like they¡¯d be getting the raw end of any deal that includes following us on our adventures.


    I ask, ¡°Do you, do you still desire anything? Or, have any desires currently? Maybe Teuila and I, I mean.¡±


    I don¡¯t get to explain that I mean we could buy them things from town if they¡¯re uncomfortable visiting Autumn Brook before Dawn answers, ¡°If I were to spell it out, a single great desire at this point? I¡¯d say ending the curse one way or the other. Preferably alive, but, take what ya can get. Right?¡±


    I purse my lips, biting them slightly, trying not to laugh at the flippant end to Dawn¡¯s response. As I draw a deep breath through my nostrils, I slowly let it out as a yawn on accident. Dawn suddenly says, ¡°Awe hell, I even miss yawning now, thanks.¡±


    Whoops, I try to apologize, ¡°I, I wasn¡¯t bored, just forgot to breathe, and, and, ugh. Really, really sorry about that¡ª¡°


    Dawn throws a smirk my way and interrupts me, ¡°I was yanking your chain, pullin¡¯ yer leg, Rej. That okay to call you? Rej?¡±


    My smile flickers back and forth for a moment as my body is caught between apology and laughter, Teuila laughs and slugs me in the shoulder as she takes over, ¡°That¡¯s perf. You can call my dink Rej, sure. But um, Rej, you sort of basically said that I¡¯m kind of in the lead this time, right?¡± I nod for Teuila to go on, so she continues, ¡°Dawn? Do you maybe want to come with us? Where we came from, we were adventurers, probably the best, I mean, maybe, like, we were definitely the most powerful, maybe not best, that¡¯s subjective. Sorry. Anyway, our goal is to get back, and that might mean dying again in some special way that we don¡¯t know how yet. You might find some answers along the way with us. Maybe?¡±


    Dawn chews the inside of their cheek and lower lip as they consider Teuila¡¯s offer. I try not to laugh at Teuila¡¯s not-so-humble brag as the exchange goes on and we await Dawn¡¯s response. Dawn begins shaking their head somberly though, so Teuila and I both adopt sad frowns.


    Dawn lifts our spirits a bit with their answer, ¡°I just can¡¯t bear to leave until I see that The Brook is through this current time of turmoil. If you can really do something about that, then sure. Nothing tying me here exactly. Come find me if you succeed, and are going to take your adventures elsewhere. For now, I¡¯ll keep on keeping an eye out over the town I guess. Not that we ever have any killers running around or anything like that.¡±


    Dawn adopts an incredibly odd expression that I can¡¯t place. I chuckle nervously with chagrin. How many people did or didn¡¯t know about Aces work as an assassin? Taylynn, Selunie, and Jarvis definitely knew. I vaguely recall believing that Tiago knew. Well, he more or less confirmed a friendship with Aces, and having not asked Aces for assassination training, and all the basic knowledge that would have to entail. Was Aces more discrete with everyone else? Aces was definitely a killer. Or maybe Dawn is excluding assassins not on a local job in their statement.


    Teuila responds, ¡°Oh, yeah, totally! I mean, I don¡¯t think that we would abandon The Brook, since Rej kind of accepted this quest to help. My dink does the good deeds and stuff whenever, wherever. Maybe we can talk about stuff someday. I guess we¡¯ll see you around? Or, kind of, just sorta, feel you, around. But not in that way, except for your gaze thing and Rej¡¯s senses, ugh, never mind. Sorry.¡±


    I quite readily recall now, why we always let Lil and Luni handle social situations. Teuila and I are both pretty bad at them. Possibly downright awful. How many feet are in our mouths between the two of us? Yuck, blegh, horrible metaphor. Dawn¡¯s expression beneath their hood is a mixture of amusement and annoyance, but they nod towards Teuila as they skulk off to the west.


    Teuila hugs me and buries her now extremely-heated face into my neck as she blushes furiously. She says, ¡°That, that was so embarrassing. I¡¯m so sorry. Was Dawn, um, you were hinting about, like, body stuff, yeah? I¡¯m sorry if I hurt their feelings at the end, or made it weird. I suck. Ugh.¡±


    I pull Teuila slightly away so I can lift her chin until our eyes meet. I state, ¡°Hey now. You don¡¯t suck. We¡¯re both bad at social stuff. Things still work out one way or another usually. Dawn was, well, I¡¯m not sure how much I should share. Yes, I felt some body things, I guess it was obvious, so, lying about it won¡¯t help anything. I can¡¯t explain further though, okay Te? It would kind of defeat the purpose of being discrete about whatever thing we may have been discussing. It¡¯s their tale to tell, if ever. I was a jerk, even if unintentionally, that violated their privacy and learned it too early.¡±


    Teuila wears half a frown as she nods and sighs, ¡°Phew, bluh. Sorry, you¡¯re right. I didn¡¯t mean to push. I just, I got the vibe about, well, you know. All of us critterkin can kind of relate partially, and you more than most. If it is what I think it is. Again, sorry for guessing, I don¡¯t mean to push any further, just wanted to explain. I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re you is all. You were sensitive, and kind, and all that junk. My wonderful dink.¡±


    I snort a laugh as I tease, ¡°Ah yes, the highest of praise, all that junk. Truly, truly I am heralded as the greatest, of all that junk. Heh, sorry Te. I love you, thank you. That was sweet of you to say. What say you we head back into town and find you and me some fun or cute nightclothes or something? We could probably be the first ones in the shops.¡±


    Teuila giddily claps her hands, and bounces up and down twice before responding, losing any semblance of pause between her words so that they run together, ¡°Yee! Let¡¯s-go! We-can-totally-do-it!¡± She drags me back towards town at a breakneck pace while I smile and sprint to try to keep up.

 B 4 C 19: Instant Dreamland

    The joy Teuila obtains from racing me towards an interest that she wants to expose me to is pure delight.  The first time we ever met, she rushed me to her home to show off the beach.  She wanted to share with me, and partake of that first time sense of wonderment in experiencing something new.  Somehow we both knew that the other was someone who would delight in our discoveries for our entire lives.  Gods, even just running along beside or behind her, lightly clasping her hand, whatever we¡¯re racing toward, is wonderful all on its own.  She turned her head just now to smile and laugh as I nearly stumbled.  But her grip on my hand aiding my balance is blissful.  She lowers her guard for a moment as she turns her neck in that fashion.  Even her impressive reflexes would be caught off guard as she shows me that vulnerable, gleeful side of herself.


    I¡¯m not certain why I¡¯m thinking about Teuila¡¯s seeming vulnerability, but it¡¯s true.  With each other, we let ourselves be our truest selves.  We¡¯re vulnerable, open.  The same is true of our entire inner circle.  I was about to jokingly think that there are no secrets between us, but Lil¡¯s nickname for Teuila is their ¡°It¡¯s-a-secret,¡± literally.  I¡¯ll always get a kick out of that.  Lil dances around lovey dovey language with Teuila, avoiding saying words straight on that will cause Te to blush or clam up.


    I hope Lil and Lu are letting themselves enjoy being in love, being out from under the weight of the apocalypse.  It¡¯s so freeing to not know there¡¯s some cataclysmic future bearing down on you.  I mean, there could be another one awaiting us, but I¡¯m not going to go down that rabbit hole.  I hope Luni has some spare clothes for Lil in her extradimensional bag inside her harp.  Lil probably can¡¯t walk around whatever city makes up the Hidden Heart as a dragon, not just because of prejudices, but also because they probably wouldn¡¯t fit, their wingspan is pretty massive at this point.  But just shapeshifting into a nude humanoid near the town and walking in naked would probably cause the trio trouble as well.


    Speaking of naked, how did we already end up in another clothier?  This one seems to be of silks and linens.  Heavens these fabrics are so delightful to run my fingers across!  They¡¯re smooth beyond belief, quite similar to my inner circle¡¯s fur honestly.  Further speaking of naked, Teuila¡¯s asking the shop attendant, or owner, if she can try things on, and if I can help her out in private.  There¡¯s a curtained area in a corner of the shop, enough room for two, so it¡¯s probably for that express purpose.  The person attending the shop points to it and eyes Teuila with a curious interest.


    Teuila¡¯s nearly bursting with excitement as she begins dashing about the store, rubbing certain garments on her face to feel their smoothness.  I try not to laugh as I don¡¯t want to diminish her joy at all.  She¡¯s displaying her joy, and such a range of physical motion that her slight curves each fight for my attention.  She holds garment after garment against her torso, bending and stretching to every conceivable angle, determining their comfortability.  My eyes drink Teuila in so deeply that I realize they¡¯ve focused only upon her, blurring all else.  I almost wish I could capture this moment somehow.  Hm, smartphones from fakeworld would be pretty nice about now.  Teuila begins to find things that are in her size, and she makes note of the signs about custom fittings, and tailored-to-fit brand new clothing available upon commission.


    Te piles several outfits into her arms and drags me behind the curtain.  She strips bare as she organizes the clothing into the piles she wants to try on in order.  She begins with simple cozy looking linens, they¡¯re almost like a flannel-wear.  It looks cozy enough, and I nod approvingly, but Teuila makes a blech face, and strips once more.  We go through this process several times, and I¡¯m starting to laugh, fairly certain Te is running a bit on me.  She probably knew exactly which one she was going to pick out already, and is saving it for last.  Speaking of the last one, as she finishes donning this last two piece outfit, I accidentally let myself whistle a low note of appreciation.  Holy smokes it looks amazing on her.  It¡¯s a thick, dark silk, and the way the pajama top rides her slight curves is enchanting.  She¡¯s grinning in a very ¡°gotcha¡± manner, smugness almost dripping from her face.  I knew it.  Wow though, just wow.


    Te teases, ¡°Knew I¡¯d find one you liked.¡±  She kisses my nose and I feel flush.


    She observes, ¡°Oh look, your ear tips are the color of Lil¡¯s scales.  I guess you can¡¯t see that though, huh my dink?  Lu told me a while back that putting clothes on is what trips your trigger.  Guess she was right.  Maybe we¡¯ll find a nice silk tie here for me too, like the one you gave my Spootalu.¡±  Te dances her fingers up my front and flicks me in the nose to accentuate her statement.


    I tug at the scarf around my neck, suddenly far too hot inside this shop to be wearing all these layers.  My heart Is racing and my face is akin to the surface of Lord Agni at the moment.  Lu and Teuila are ganging up on me, and Luni isn¡¯t even here.  I need to give her a stern talking to for filling Te in on whatever little teasing thing she found out about the type of fashion and curves I like to see.  Or, well, maybe I should thank her for telling Teuila how to tur--.  Ack, no!  Embarrassing line of thought!  Don¡¯t think about that like that!


    Teuila grins while nodding.  She¡¯s assisting me out of my clothes to help me try on nightclothes.  Apparently some of the ones she tried on while running her bit on me were actually intended for me to wear.  It figures.  I wonder how long she had been waiting for a chance to do something like this.


    I feel faint from the embarrassment.  My hammering pulse, my flush face, my heavy limbs and droopy eyes all want me to curl up here amidst these clothes.  I¡¯m entirely drained of my wakefulness and energy.  I¡¯m ready to call it a day and sleep immediately.  Something about our time on Rayileklia, I don¡¯t feel like I¡¯ve gotten a real sleep yet at all.  Maybe I should ask Teuila if I¡¯ve been sleepwalking or something.  I think it¡¯s pretty obvious to Teuila as well that I¡¯m suddenly sapped.  She asks about the wealth and I give her a nod.  After helping me back into my outdoor clothes she takes the items she truly intended to purchase and heads off to make the transaction.  I slump against the rear wall in this curtained corner.  Oy vey.


    I wonder if.  If.  Hm.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  This isn¡¯t a panic attack, in fact, I¡¯m pretty darned happy and content right now, just a bit embarrassed and really out of energy.  Okay, exceedingly embarrassed.  Teuila was here, bare, next to me, and we tried on clothes, and she was sort of right I guess.  Those clothes do look killer on her, absolutely stunning.  I guess maybe seeing her in them took my breath away.  But I still think that there¡¯s something else that¡¯s sapping me.  I¡¯m getting flashes, images of a bare torso, and a side swept undercut, I mean, I guess that¡¯s Teuila.  Is this hot flashes?  I don¡¯t even know what those are.


    When Teuila returns, instead of holding our clothing in her arms, she¡¯s holding what must be a purse, or another backpack, likely with our clothes inside.  The thing is decorated with what looks to be a massive floof of cotton or wool.  It¡¯s reminiscent of clouds, just not the horrid ones on Rayileklia.  More the cumulus clouds one would see while sky-gazing on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas if you could make it above the jungle canopy.  Teuila waves to the attendant as she ushers me out the store.  We take cover in an alleyway for a moment.


    Teuila suddenly grills me, ¡°Hey, dink, you felt, like, really, really embarrassed, didn¡¯t you?  When I was, well, teasing you, and being kinda sexy.¡±


    I blush furiously as I raise an eyebrow while nodding.  Teuila continues, ¡°Well, I, I felt it too.¡±


    I scoff and joke, ¡°Did My Wings get her just desserts, a little bit of a taste of her own medicine?¡±


    Teuila shakes her head, ignoring my jibe, ¡°No, that¡¯s not it, and then, and then after, you felt really tired all of a sudden.  I felt that too.¡±


    I furrow my brow at Teuila¡¯s implication.  Is she starting to be able to sense my emotions even on Rayileklia?  That could be the first step towards re-establishing our psychic bond.  Teuila¡¯s eyes glint with joy as she can tell the route my mind is likely taking.  I can¡¯t help but to smile in her presence, at her enthusiasm and hope.  I¡¯m sure she¡¯s probably also hoping I¡¯ll come up with an idea as to what the next step is, for unlocking our psychic bond on this planet, but I¡¯m fresh out of ideas for the moment.


    I flash her a smile, ¡°I think I thought about what you were getting at, and I think we¡¯re on the same page, heh.  I don¡¯t have any thoughts about the next step yet though.  Plus, I can barely keep my eyes from crossing with how tired I am.  I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on.¡±


    Teuila pouts as she answers, ¡°Awe, my dink, the day is literally just getting started.  Let¡¯s go get you a nap or something.  Maybe this planet has coffee?  Eh, I don¡¯t really want to end up addicted to it.  Also, poo.¡±  To her end statement, I raise an eyebrow, and she continues, ¡°That you don¡¯t have plans for the next step.  I guess it¡¯s kind of unfair to throw that sort of thing on you all the time.  I can figure out some magic things too I suppose.  I never told you how I figured out the wind magic stuff, did I?  Maybe later.¡±


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Teuila virtually hauls me along as she marches us back towards the Keel Over.  In nearly no time at all, we¡¯re pushing through the swinging saloon double doors once again.  The late night, early morning crowd has dispersed, and apparently it¡¯s about time for Keeley to swap with Marshal.  It seems like they each take on twelve hour shifts or so, a pretty tight schedule.  I try to creep unnoticed up to our room, but Marshal calls me out, excitedly.


    Marshal asks, ¡°I take it you didn¡¯t heed my warning.  Well, did you see it?  The spook?  Everyone says they feel it most around dawn.¡±


    I don¡¯t have the energy, or I¡¯d burst out laughing at the irony.  Or maybe that¡¯s just coincidence.  Hm, no, I think irony fits.  The people don¡¯t even remember Dawn, so they now have a superstition about a spook that lurks at dawn.  I absolutely love it.  That¡¯s just too hilarious to deal with right now though.  Plus, it¡¯s not my place to talk about Dawn.  I mean, they gave me permission to talk about them, sort of, if I needed to, but this isn¡¯t a need.


    Teuila grins and nods slyly, her answer turning into a joking tease, ¡°Yep, good old spooky spook was watching us near the south side of town, spooooky, ooooo.¡±


    Marshal isn¡¯t sure how serious to take Teuila, and I¡¯m about to laugh it off to hint that she¡¯s being silly, when Keeley confronts us.  She shoves Marshal aside and stands angrily before me.  I gulp as I look up to meet her gaze.  My apprehension must be plain on my face, because she wears a sneer and twirls a cleaver.  Just how far on her bad side am I?


    Keeley accuses me, ¡°Marshal says ¡®e didn¡¯t see you taking your chamber pot out.  What¡¯d I tell you last night?¡±  All the while she twirls her cleaver menacingly.


    I chuckle with nervousness that turns into a burst of hysterical laughter.  It¡¯s entirely disrespectful unintentionally, but I can¡¯t take it.  I¡¯m so exhausted, and so anxious and frankly frightened of losing the nice warm bed upstairs.  As Keeley looks mildly taken aback, and mostly furious, I try to answer through my cackle, ¡°Hah, hahah, oh heavens, oh no.  We don¡¯t. Hahah.  We don¡¯t use chamberpots, or ditches, or, or anything.  Hahaha.  I don¡¯t know how many other differences we have, and how many it will take to prove we really, really aren¡¯t from around here, hehehe, hahaha, hooboy.  But, yeah.  You¡¯re free to take the entire pot out of our room if you want to inspect it or keep it or whatever.¡±


    I¡¯m sweating furiously as the anxiety piledrives its way home amidst my psyche, and Keeley looks pissed as all hell at my unintentional disrespect.  She grips me by the scarf and growls, ¡°Listen ¡®ere you little shid.  I don¡¯t take kindly to liars, jokesters, storytellers, fibbers, or any other nonsense.  I run a tight ship so that everyone gets the same quality service.  Get me?¡±


    I can¡¯t take it anymore, she¡¯s free to be upset with me, but I¡¯m not going to be treated like a liar.  I begin drawing magic from the staff.  I conjure the ghostly translucent copy of my hand that floats about at my command.  Keeley releases my scarf as the magic springs to life.  I use the floating hand to borrow the key from Teuila.  The hand works its way upstairs, bobbing above the steps as Keeley stares after it dumbfounded.  After it has unlocked and opened the door, I struggle to have it grip the chamberpot with the lid on, since there¡¯s really no place to hold it.  I abandon the lid and let the hand grip the lip of the inside of the top of the pot to bring it down to us.


    I snarl, ¡°There, the chamberpot is brought down, sorry I couldn¡¯t get the lid, I¡¯m sending the hand back for it right now.  Just, just back off, please.¡±


    I pause for a breath, regretting my anger as I try to recover, ¡°You don¡¯t have to like me, but I promise I¡¯m not trying to lie to you or trick you or, or, or do anything bad.  I¡¯m tired, I¡¯m sad.  I don¡¯t know how long it will be until, or even if we ever will, see our family again, or even our friends that happened to make the journey with us.¡±


    Keeley starts to interrupt, but I continue, ¡°I just want to help where I can, where we can, while I travel, while we travel.  We don¡¯t know how to get home.  We don¡¯t know where the owner of the dagger lives, or even her last name.  We don¡¯t even know which city the Tavner¡¯s inn is located in where we could possibly find her friend.  We¡¯ve got almost no leads, and almost no information about anything on this entire planet, and I just can¡¯t handle the disrespect right now.  I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    The fury on her face is obvious, but there¡¯s an inkling of understanding behind it.  Teuila grips my bicep defensively.  Once again, she¡¯s coiled, ready to strike.  I pat her hand tenderly, shaking my head weakly.  Keeley¡¯s scowl betrays her gritted teeth as they grind surprisingly loudly against one another.  It¡¯s an agonizing sound.


    Keeley verbalizes words in a staccato rhythm, halting between each one for a moment, ¡°Got.  Any.  Other.  Surprises?  You little shid.¡±


    I frown and cry out in frustration, ¡°How the hell should I even know?  It¡¯s not like I¡¯ve sat down and dissected someone from this planet.  We¡¯ve only existed for a few days!¡±


    Marshal and Keeley now wear confused, blank stares.  Did they really not get it until this point?  When we said we came, well, when I said we came from the other side of Noirdivinhoz, what the hell did she think I meant?  That I was just some sort of tomb raider that didn¡¯t find anything of interest, so I went to the one town nearby that would be angry with a tomb raider checking out Noirdivinhoz?  Just how stupid does she think I am?


    I wobble on my feet as the anger keeping me alert slowly recedes.  My energy levels plummet further yet, and Teuila is left propping me up as my eyes droop.


    Keeley cocks her head to one side and asks of Teuila, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the little shid?¡±


    Te growls back, ¡°Just tired, we¡¯ve had a rough few days.  What with friggin¡¯ dying and all!  So, yeah, kindly screw you and your judgmental attitude.  Um, please and thank you.¡±


    I snort at Teuila¡¯s mix of mannerisms.  I¡¯m sure Keeley probably looks more furious than ever, but also probably a bit confused.  I can¡¯t summon up the energy to lift my head to gaze upwards and check the tall woman¡¯s features though.  My danger wraps indicate I¡¯m probably pretty close to correct by the sensation of the scowl on her face and mixed raised brows.


    There¡¯s an exchange between Marshal and Keeley, ¡°What are they on about?¡±


    ¡°Said somethin¡¯ when they got ¡®ere, about arrivin¡¯ from the temple.  Talked to ¡®Dil supposedly.  Caught me off guard with the name drops.  Figured they were some punk distant relatives or something, telling tales.¡±


    ¡°Sounds plausible, and now?¡±


    ¡°Now?  Now I don¡¯t know what to think.  I¡¯m bettin¡¯ they¡¯ll be wanting brekkers despite coming back early morn¡¯.¡±


    Since we¡¯re being simultaneously talked about, and ignored, I can feel it as Teuila and I roll our eyes collectively.  After the shared eye roll, we make our way up the stairs.  My floating magical hand dissipates after placing the lid on the chamberpot next to Keeley.  The nice thing about that spell is that it doesn¡¯t even drain any of the magic from the staff.  Or if it does, it¡¯s such a minute amount that it¡¯s instantly refilled from the ambient energy surrounding us that permeates Rayileklia¡¯s very air.  It did the same on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    Not that it would matter if I used up a few percent of the staff¡¯s power, just a fifth, hm, even a tenth of what it holds is a fairly massive source of destruction.  I¡¯m pretty certain I could unleash its larger spells between five to ten times before the staff was drained, likely around seven¡¯ish times.  I might be able to even modulate how much power comes out of the staff for each spell, since I¡¯m used to scaling up and toning down spells to some degree.


    I had been saving the staff as a last resort in case I couldn¡¯t summon another drop of my own magical potential on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas without dying.  Thankfully we made it to the temple of time without reaching that point.  Or well, I guess I did technically die during that excursion, hah.  Meh, it doesn¡¯t matter I suppose.  We¡¯re here, everything¡¯s okay.  More or less.  I feel like a heel for my outburst towards Keeley.  It certainly isn¡¯t going to make matters any better regarding her dislike of me.


    Teuila and I make it to our room, strip, and attire ourselves in our sleepwear.  Of course, as Teuila¡¯s making herself comfortable, being quicker and all, there¡¯s a knock at the door.  I roll my eyes, and make sure to walk very slowly to answer the door.  I¡¯m hoping whoever it is just leaves.  As I peek out through the door, I¡¯m in luck.  Hm, it was apparently Keeley, or maybe Marshal, delivering brekkers as she called it.  There are two large, piping hot cornbread muffins, they each have a crater with a small ladleful of baked beans poured atop.  There¡¯s a smattering of shredded lamb around the depression at the top of the muffin.  I wonder what this is called, it looks delicious.


    Teuila does her adorable feral sniffing as she pokes out from beneath the covers.  I grin as I bring the food to her.  I¡¯m too low on energy to play around and tease her at the moment.  Teuila greedily snags one of the muffins and begins tearing into it.  Even during the first bite she lets loose a soft moan of pleasure that I blush upon hearing.  After the teasing earlier, it¡¯s hard to keep such awkward thoughts from my mind.  Still, it has to be amazingly delicious to elicit such a response from Teuila.


    I was right, this is amazing.  It tastes so good.  It¡¯s warm, and filling, the cornmeal makes the bread or batter or body just slightly sweet, and I¡¯d swear there are pockets of butter or margarine that weren¡¯t totally one hundred percent melted as I bite through more of the muffin.  Maybe they add little chunks or slices of butter to the muffin tin as they¡¯re pouring in the dough?  I occasionally have to wipe a smattering of melted butter from my chin.  The lamb is that dry kind that somehow retains every ounce of flavor across the thinnest sheer slice of meat.  I¡¯m not sure how I know what any other lamb tastes like, but that¡¯s the kind.  Stuff that you¡¯d see used in a gyro.  Holy moly.  Even if she hates us, this woman or her employees sure can cook.  Whether it¡¯s Marshal, Keeley, or someone else entirely doesn¡¯t really matter.  Wow.  I¡¯d give her a five star review just for the food and nice bedding alone.  I¡¯d completely ignore her demeanor, since that part is sort of just a ¡°me-problem¡±.


    I look towards Te as she takes a sip of water to wash down the food.  The silken outfit shimmers as it hugs her slight curves through every minor motion.  Phew, I restrain my sudden desire to whistle, though I do ogle her for perhaps a moment too long.  She grins wickedly at me as she¡¯s crawling back into the covers.  I join her after having a drink of my own.  The smoothness of her pajama top is absolutely divine where my hands brush against it to rest upon her torso.  Teuila and I snuggle under the covers for a midmorning nap, and I¡¯m instantly taken away to dreamland.

 B 4 C 20: Clint Dodge Meredith

    Hm, what¡¯s that?  Something, something.  Yes.  There¡¯s always something.  I drift in and out of sleep, apparently trying to recall something, though I don¡¯t know what.  There are flashes, and moments that I believe are from Aces'' memories that leave me steaming with blush, even in my half-lucid state.


    I could swear I hear a voice, perhaps Tiago¡¯s shouting a question.  Something like where are they.  I can¡¯t tell if it¡¯s with fear, or anger.  Hm, what a nightmare that would be either way.  Hopefully my mind switches dreams to something more pleasant.


    While I¡¯m still groggy, barely coming to my senses, there¡¯s a rapid rapping at our door.  The rapping upon the door becomes a thudding pounding.  The wood strains itself against each slam, creaking in response, barely holding together.  My eyes flash wide.  Someone sure is insistent that we answer the door.  Now my heart is pounding in terror.  Teuila is somehow snoozing through the whole thing.  Maybe I¡¯m hallucinating it?  I shake her shoulder lightly, and she murmurs, stretches one arm, yawns, and rolls over to the other side, still seemingly asleep.


    As the pounding becomes even more insistent, I stumble as I reach the door, opening it basically from the floor.  Oh heavens, I think I¡¯m bleeding from somewhere.  What an odd nightmare.  It¡¯s more unpleasant than anything else.


    A familiar voice growls, ¡°What the shid?!  Get up, it¡¯s, grr.  The saint says they need you.  ¡®e ¡®eaded back, said ¡®e couldn¡¯t risk waiting.  Sent me up.  Get your ass up!¡±


    My eyes flash wide.  I even hear Teuila snap to alertness.  The two of us glance back and forth between Keeley and each other.  We blink our bleariness away and try to pay attention to her.


    Keeley tries to calm herself as she states, ¡°If you¡¯ve some more appropriate kit that won¡¯t take an eternity, I suggest you strap it on on the run.  ¡®arriet¡¯s in trouble, west end of town.¡±


    Teuila and I scrabble for the doll-sized suits of Valkyrie armor, and a weapon or two each.  I snag the double barreled crossbow, and, well, I can at least pretend the staff isn¡¯t a weapon.  The enchantment on the armor has it reshape and resize to fit us instantly, even as we¡¯re just tugging it onto our fingers.  It¡¯s surprising how efficient that enchantment is.  Keeley jumps back, startled, seeing us instantly in fancy plate armor over the top of our pajamas.  We probably look a silly sight with our pajamas visible through the armor¡¯s joints and bare areas.  We¡¯d never pushed the boundaries on any of the enchantments on our equipment like this before.  Hopefully it holds, but even if it doesn¡¯t, we¡¯ve got at least forty more sets in my inventory alone, not counting Teuila¡¯s.  Really don¡¯t want to have to reach in and get them though.


    I¡¯m sure Keeley¡¯s asking, ¡°What the shid!?¡±  But it¡¯s in slow motion, and the sound seemingly travels slower than Teuila while she bolts for the door, carrying me.  I know she hasn¡¯t gone supersonic, but Teuila is still blazingly fast.  She blows past the startled patrons and pedestrians in our way as we barrel towards the edge of town.


    In moments, we¡¯ve actually caught up with a jogging Tiago whose harried expression betrays his fears.  His expression drops to one of confusion as he slows to a halt while we blaze past.  He grabs his chest as he bends over and pants.  His other hand scratches his forehead.  He gazes at us perplexedly as we leave him in the dust.  I doubt most people wearing this much metal could move anywhere near as fast as Teuila can.  Though, to be fair, the Valkyrie armor is incredibly light, nearly weightless, despite its tremendous durability.


    I can see the tops of enormous heads from beyond the furthest row of houses, so I¡¯m pretty sure I know what the situation is.  As we crest a minor hill before the far edge of town, I finally spy our honorable mairess.  Harriet¡¯s feet are leaving the ground suddenly.  Seeing Harriet suspended in the air by her throat, kicking and struggling in the grip of a colossal humanoid fills me with rage.  Teuila seems similarly inspired to ire, and she thrusts me forward, launching me bodily towards the honorable mairess.  This exact throw is so reminiscent of when we were trying to save Lil¡¯s life, when I used the thunderstick to crack open that proud rock over the falls in the swamp.  I friggin¡¯ hate the spear that injured Lil.  Some day I¡¯ll be rid of Gae Buidhe¡¯s influence from my life, some day.  For now, drop all other lines of thought.  Focus on only one thought.  Save Harriet.


    I can tell Teuila is drawing back her bowstring, but the wind magic isn¡¯t coming.  There¡¯s tears of anger and frustration in her eyes as she lets the magic notch a physical arrow instead, unable to connect to her Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers.  Apparently the bow¡¯s magic conjures the bowstring, or knocks physical arrows instantly, but it took Teuila¡¯s magic to provide the wind elemental arrows.


    I¡¯m soaring through the air thanks to Teuila¡¯s toss, and in a mere moment I land upon the fist that grips Harriet in just two of its fingers.  The grip is loose except for the thumb and index finger crushing her throat.  I scowl and spring up the arm to this giant woman¡¯s face.  Once there I order, ¡°Put her down gently, or die!  In three, two..¡±


    The being is so startled that she falls to her ass which sets Harriet free.  At least once Harriet¡¯s feet touch the ground.  The mairess coughs, gasping for air, and she scrabbles backwards, away from reach of the confrontation.


    I growl as calmly as I can, ¡°What.  The.  Hell.  Is.  Going.  On!  Here!?¡±  So much for calmly.


    The colossal giantess reaches for me to replace Harriet with me in her grip.  Angered, I let loose a lightning spell from the staff.  It courses, jolting her wildly, leaving a sickening scar that branches and zips as the magic tears its way up her arm and out the other side through her shoulder.  Despite her stone-hard flesh, the magic is as deadly as I feared, and I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t aim it at her heart or face.


    Everything and everyone stops as the bolt of lightning passes through her shoulder and zips off into the sky.  There¡¯s a stunned silence, and no one dares move as I pant with fury.  No one save Teuila.  She marches up to my side, her bow fully drawn with her largest physical arrow nocked.  Teuila shouts, ¡°Answer them!¡±


    Something surprising occurs.  The giantess apologizes eloquently, ¡°I quite beg your pardons.  We had been shouting for the last few minutes as your priest ran off.  Things escalated out of hand, and I¡¯m largely to blame.  I was irate at your mairess¡¯s refusal to cooperate.  She is not the only one that dislikes this situation of course.  I had just picked her up a moment before you arrived.  Perhaps it¡¯s just as well that you showed up when you did.  I forget what it¡¯s like to have a soft, frail frame.¡±


    I open my jaw to form words, shut it, open it, shut it.  My index finger can¡¯t decide if it wants to point, or to curl towards my chin.  I shake my right hand slightly at the wrist, trying to control the incredulous motion.  I gaze over towards Harriet.  I thankfully see Tiago catching up, drawing salve from a satchel.  Harriet already has nasty bruising forming around her throat, and I barely refrain from exploding with anger as I take note of it.


    Harriet raises a finger of her own towards me, and tries to speak, but all that comes out is a coughing, crushed gurgle.  Sadness adorns my face as I worry for her life, or at least her ability to speak.  I try to steady my breathing as I turn back to the giantess.  Teuila eyes me with a, ¡°just give me the word¡± look.  I barely perceptibly shake my head no.  I recall that I didn¡¯t want to simply murder our way through our problems if we could avoid doing so.  I feel a familiar presence observing the situation.  For some odd reason, even though I don¡¯t know them very well, I¡¯m incredibly glad Dawn is nearby.


    Facing the impressively large woman, I slow my breathing further yet and sit in lotus position in front of her.  I blow a sigh through puffed cheeks, and warily eye the woman¡¯s male comrades.  Each of them seems to wield  a log as a club.  Their clothing looks to be patchwork of bedsheets, blankets, and large furs.  It must be rather difficult to clothe themselves at that size.  I wish I could disenchant and enchant things with inventory magic.  I¡¯d make size-changing clothing for the Colossi with the Valkyrie armor¡¯s enchantment.  I interlace my fingers between my two hands, twiddling them impatiently, waiting for further explanation.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Once she catches on, the giant woman sits as well, motioning for her guards to sit down as well.  At least that¡¯s what I assume they are.  The two shrug and sling their log clubs aside momentarily to sit as well.  I unclasp my hands and wave my left hand flicking my wrist to end with my palm face up, hand pointed towards her impatiently with wide, angered eyes, giving off a very clear, please continue, gesture.


    She coughs, and begins, ¡°While we are not intimidated by your show of power, we are actually remorseful of our actions.  Again, I apologize, my anger got out of hand.  You must know that we will not be leaving without the appropriate tithe, or there will be disastrous consequences.¡±


    I snarl as my lips twist into a sneer, and she places her hands up placatingly as she continues, ¡°That isn¡¯t to say we can¡¯t come to some sort of arrangement.  We may be able to convince our lords to take goods instead of wealth.  For some reason, they¡¯re very insistent on coinage, but mayhaps they¡¯ll be appeased with goods this time.¡±


    I close my eyes to hide my frustration, and grit my teeth to keep from seethingly panting in rage.  In through the nose, out through the mouth, in through the nose, out through the mouth, stay calm.  She is attempting to be reasonable and rational.  Perhaps not ethical or moral, but at least reasonable and rational.  My left hand quakes with my barely restrained rage, wraith begging me to let slip more destructive magic and end this confrontation.


    I ask as politely as I can, ¡°Is it the week¡¯s end?  I truly do not know, but I was told to expect activity of this sort at the week¡¯s end.¡±


    She adopts an embarrassed expression, ¡°Well, technically,¡±   My eyes flash wide with anger as I can see where this is going.  She hems and haws, ¡°Well, no, not as such.  The day after ¡®morrow would have been more appropriate.¡±


    I clench my teeth as I pant with fury.  I let my eyes half-lid themselves to hide any redness as crimson begins to cloud my vision.  They could have killed an ally, a quite possibly innocent woman, and it wasn¡¯t even the right day!?


    I snarl, ¡°Teuila, get everyone out of here, now, please.  I¡¯m about to lose it.¡±


    I can feel Teuila¡¯s senses probing my emotions, somehow I know our connection tells her just how furious I am, despite our psychic link being unavailable.  I stand and turn my back to the giants who begin to protest.  I throw a glance over my shoulder back towards the Colossi, leaving them viewing a single crazed eye, and their objections are stifled, falling silent quickly.  I wait until Teuila, Harriet, Tiago, and several villagers who had congregated, are all clear of the situation.  I think I even spy Berinon in the mixed congregation.  Teuila signals me from afar.


    My lips quiver with the sadness at the prospect that I¡¯m about to end three lives.  I beg them for a reason not to kill them, my voice dripping malice, my expression crazed as I turn to them and plead, ¡°I am barely capable of restraining myself right now.  If you cannot provide me an adequate reason to prevent myself from murdering you all, I will drop my restraint, and carve my way through your entire society.  Bit, by bloody bit.¡±


    One of the two men begins to laugh, and just as I¡¯m pointing my staff towards him, his friend slaps his hand over the offending mouth with a look that hints at an underlying fear.  The unamused one is cautious, wary of me, he glances between the two of us repeatedly.  He may not entirely believe I can do what I claim, but he knows his friend was an inch from death.


    The woman starts, ¡°We, we must sate our lords¡¯ desires.  They are what keep us safe, living, powerful, unafraid.¡±


    My lips curl into a wicked sneer, grinning at her as I ask, ¡°Tell me, at this moment, are you daft enough to be unafraid?¡±


    She tugs at the collar of her clothing with one hand, and holds the other up placatingly.  She coughs aside a nervous chuckle as she continues, ¡°We, we¡¯re not the strongest of our tribe, far from it, we are in fact the weakest.  You should not assume anything.  I¡¯m not threatening you mind you.  I¡¯m simply stating that even if I were to die, things would continue as they are, or worse, for The Brook.¡±


    I lid my eyes until they¡¯re narrow slits, glaring daggers at this giant woman.  She might be right, my few tools that work on Rayileklia might not be enough to wage a war against even a limited society of giants, let alone ones that are all more powerful than her.  She doesn¡¯t need to know that however.  I¡¯m also not the only weapon that The Brook has aimed westward.  Teuila is far, far more powerful and versatile than me at the moment.


    I try to speak slowly, calmly, ¡°It¡¯s good you bring up rank and power.  I¡¯m also the weakest of the, hm, four, five, six, seven of us in The Brook¡¯s service.¡±  I probably shouldn¡¯t count Mat.  Nor should I count Dawn without their consent.  If Lu, Lucky, and Lil were here though, they¡¯d have my back on this.  At least as a battle of wills and words.


    Oh, oh that¡¯s right.  That¡¯s a tool I can use here.  Notoriety.  I grin as I continue, ¡°The Immortal might not bring much wrath down upon their targets, but still.¡±  I let the idea linger in the air before continuing, ¡°The three most powerful amongst us are the Valkyrie, the Hound, and the Dragon.  These aren¡¯t titles mind you, they are their species.¡±


    At first the giantess seems unimpressed, until I finish my statement with the word species.  She then momentarily quails.  I let that moment of fear sink in a bit as my mind wanders.  I¡¯m really hoping my cute new pajamas don¡¯t get ruined by the acid rain dripping through the joints and exposed places in my armor.  Probably not something I should be worrying about right now, but it¡¯s better than contemplating the myriad ways I could murder these three and all their kin.


    Teuila has returned to my side, and I give her a questioning glance, trying to communicate what I¡¯m up to.  I flex a bicep, and I think she understands.  I cough for attention, drawing the woman¡¯s mind back from whatever frightened place it had run off to.  I motion towards Teuila.


    Grinning as I wave to the whole of her, I announce Teuila, ¡°This is of course, the Valkyrie.  The strongest amongst us.  Yes, even stronger than our Dragon.  Please, shake her hand, I¡¯d like you two to introduce yourselves by name so we can perhaps get things off on a better foot.¡±


    Teuila grins wickedly and cracks her knuckles.  The woman¡¯s digits have to be at least three to four inches thick each, possibly six inches or so, I can¡¯t really estimate very well from here.  Regardless, they¡¯re each at least as thick around as a wrist, so Teuila simply grabs hold of the tip of the Colossi¡¯s ring finger, and squeezes, without hinting at how much force she¡¯s using.  The woman is similarly trying to squeeze Teuila¡¯s hand, though she has less leverage due to the size difference.  The woman¡¯s fingertip goes red, then blue in a mere moment.  The nail splits, exposing soft skin.  An instant later, there¡¯s a cracking sound as bone fractures.  Te says, ¡°I¡¯m Teuila, the Valkyrie.  Who the hell are you?¡±


    The woman grunts, trying not to cry in pain as she jerks her hand away from Teuila.  She shoves her ring finger into her mouth and speaks around it, ¡°I¡¯m, offch, Meredith.  Fchk.¡±  She sucks upon her finger, nursing the pain.  That was perhaps a bit more brutal than I intended, but Teuila got the point across nonetheless.  She made it look effortless, which is exactly what we needed.


    Teuila flicks her eyes to the two men who hastily introduce themselves as Dodge and Clint.  What an odd assortment of names on top of all the other oddities recently.  We¡¯ve got architecture from isles in the pacific ocean up through the late twentieth century, architecture from all up and down western Europe in the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries, names from anywhere and everywhere, Spanish mixed in with Hawaiian or French Polynesian or Tahitian, and English on top of all of that.


    It¡¯s like Rayileklia can¡¯t decide if there¡¯s such a thing as regional differences, or, well, I suppose people do move around, it¡¯s really not unheard of for someone born somewhere to be raised somewhere else, or be born to parents from somewhere else and raised in a land that speaks a different language.  I guess cultural differences are different on a macro point of view compared to a micro view of individuals.  Any one person might build a home more like something from their heritage, or continue using a language from another place.  Wait, maybe fakeworld memories are just based off of clumps of people from Rayileklia.  Hm, perhaps?  Ugh, screw thinking about Earth, coming to grips with Rayileklia is hard enough.  Meh, Luni was right, I¡¯m not ready to figure any of that out.


    The rage having worn away my limited energy reserves, I need to start working my way towards a solution, or I¡¯m going to pass out in the middle of whatever happens.  I ask, ¡°Can I summon the mairess and the saint to hear you all work this out?  You know, without having to kill one or more of you.¡±  As I ask my question I begin the process of summoning from my inventory.  I grunt in pain as I connect to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas in some fashion in order to do so.  I have a feeling that some wealth might help smooth things over and buy time for us to investigate for a more permanent solution, but I don¡¯t want to just sit silent in front of Meredith, Dodge, and Clint for eight minutes.  Hopefully Harriet¡¯s voice is back, and hopefully between Tiago and Harriet, they can at least converse for a few minutes while Teuila keeps an eye on things.


    Meredith nods rapidly, readily agreeing to my request, thankfully.  I flick my eyes to Teuila, pleading with her to bring them back, so that I don¡¯t have to move while calling on this magic.  I don¡¯t want to end up projectile bleeding everywhere, or vomiting blood and radiance around this meeting.  Although, gushing blood and waving it off like it¡¯s no big thing might actually be imposing enough to add credence to my threats.  Still, Teuila knows I want her to take over and guide the proceedings with Harriet for now.

 B 4 C 21: Oops, Youre Rich

    Teuila bids Tiago and Harriet return by waving them over. She paces around impatiently, twirling her spear absentmindedly. She¡¯s wielding one of the less deadly, non magical spears that I obtained from the steelworks that we created near the Miracle Oak in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I was hoping to figure out how to enchant things at some point, and I figured I¡¯d make a gift for Te once I learned how to do so. It was either this, or wooden sticks with fangs sap-glued onto their ends. I wasn¡¯t going to summon copies of Gae Buidhe when I was dropping things out of my inventory at Daffodil¡¯s place, and Teuila¡¯s other magical spear is in her inventory, not mine.


    Still, this absentminded display is how Teuila approaches keeping an eye out while up close, now that her bow is folded up along her back. I almost wonder if it would be better to have her take up a sniping position with her bow, somewhere out of sight, to make the threat a bit more unknown and unpredictable. I think that might add a slightly too-menacing air to the proceedings, since we¡¯re trying to move back towards peaceful negotiation.


    There¡¯s a back and forth for several minutes, and it¡¯s getting us exactly nowhere. Neither is willing to budge, and frankly, I¡¯m with Harriet in this situation. Extortion is a fairly awful thing to do to someone. Teuila leans in to whisper several things to Tiago and Harriet, probably filling them in on my bluff, hopefully. I mean, it really isn¡¯t a bluff. If it comes down to it, we can take off after Lil, and beg them to return with us to defend The Brook. If Dawn is even willing to stand around somewhere in view, that brings six of the seven that I mentioned. I wouldn¡¯t hold my breath on finding Mataalii, let alone convincing him to help, but the threat of a seventh unknown member being nearby might frighten the Colossi further once they see what Teuila and Lil and Lucky can do. That¡¯s if the Colossi call the bluff and Harriet wants us to just murder them, and slash or fight a war against the Colossi on behalf of Autumn Brook.


    I wonder how much simpler life would have been if I had slaughtered all of the beavers instead of trying to make peace between the two factions. Or how much different life would be if I had razed Eimsas to the ground, destroying everything and everyone before Leviathan got the chance. Pretty gruesome thoughts to be honest. While there are generations worth of things to overcome between humans and critterkin, there are people like Jazharn and Bettie. Jaz¡¯s love for Dreams of Days, the hyaenid member of the cat tribe that joined our family, is probably the single most noteworthy positive interaction between our two peoples. Not only is it the primary example of good relations, it¡¯s wholesome and heartwarming to ridiculous levels. All in all, they¡¯re cute together. Dream¡¯s permanently grumpy face sneaking smiles in when Jaz is signing or drawing for her is a wonderful sight.


    I¡¯m not saying I expect Meredith or Clint or Dodge to fall in love with some human in town, to create some sort of bridge across the divide between the Aasimovians and the Colossi. That¡¯s just kind of silly. Especially since it¡¯s fairly obvious that there¡¯s another power at play. Meredith said something about having to appease their lords to be able to retain their strength and safety. Some corrupt entity isn¡¯t going to back down from extortion when a couple of people profess their love for one another across a divide like this.


    I manage to hear Harriet throwing me under the bus, ¡°Look, there is no wealth left in the town save in the pockets of these mercenaries we¡¯ve hired. Maybe you¡¯d like to try extorting them for a few weeks?¡±


    I barely refrain from rolling my eyes. Alright, so I¡¯m pulling about a tenth of a percent, maybe a hundredth, possibly only a thousandth of a percent of my wealth out of my inventory, in the form of thin gold bars. When I summoned stuff at Daffodil¡¯s, I only imagined a couple of handfuls or pocketfulls. Hopefully fractions of a percent is at least a noticeable pile that can be used in place of the town¡¯s extortion rate while we figure things out.


    Yee gods holy smokes in a rowboat! Ow. Okay, so, yes, it¡¯s definitely a noticeable pile. Everyone on our side of negotiations leaps back as the gold materializes out of nowhere. It¡¯s a pile at least the size of me, and has buried me after it fell over. It fell, of course, because I didn¡¯t exactly picture how to pile it as it came out of my inventory. It¡¯s not like I could view how much there was or the shape a pile might form in or the space it might take up.


    Teuila drags my coughing, sputtering form out from beneath the gold, and her face is fighting so hard to keep from smiling. I can tell she¡¯s barely holding in laughter, and I honestly want to laugh with her. I work to dust myself off, and carefully sling the staff into a leather thong across my back, shrunken down. I could probably untie this and use it as a slingshot, but I have a magical crossbow, why would I do that? Speaking of the crossbow, I make certain that its barrels are aimed to the ground as I reorient myself towards the Colossi.


    Meredith exclaims, ¡°I thought you said there was no wealth left in the town? This is seasons of wealth!¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I step around the gold pile, and motion to myself, ¡°I¡¯m the one that conjured this gold you numpty. What do you think I¡¯ve been doing while sitting silent for the last ten minutes? Also, obviously, I¡¯m not just handing this over to you. We¡¯ll escort this to your bosses or lords or whatever nonsense. When there, we can talk about the future of wealth generation and sharing between The Brook and The Colossi.¡±


    I really did conjure far, far too much. There¡¯s got to be nearly a hundred thousand of those little bars. Crapsack and a half jack. I wish I could check my inventory, but I know I was explicitly trying to pull a fraction of a percent of the wealth out, and this is what came. It just goes to show you how fruitful hunting dungeon spawns can be I guess. I didn¡¯t even hunt anywhere near as much as Teuila or Linti. I can¡¯t imagine how much they¡¯ve got sitting in their inventories at the moment. Awe heck, I¡¯m going to make myself sad thinking of our Lightning Hunter. Come on Reggie, back to the present, focus.


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    Meredith rubs the back of her cranium and hesitantly claims, ¡°I¡¯m not so certain that would be a good idea. Like I said, we¡¯re the weakest, it¡¯s why we¡¯re sent out as little more than mules to collect.¡±


    I heave a sigh and rub the bridge of my nose, trying to reserve my patience. Meredith is trying to be rational, perhaps even reasonable. Not necessarily moral or ethical, but she¡¯s making an effort. Meredith, Dodge, and Clint are stuck at the bottom of a bad situation, and, as giant Colossi, letting their situation get to them proves dangerous to everyone around. Harriet¡¯s voice has been decrepit this entire time. I feel like a jerk for letting her speak or making her speak. I suppose she would have let Tiago speak for the town if she wasn¡¯t up to the task though. Hopefully.


    I motion to Teuila who stands one foot atop the gold pile, leaning on that upraised knee. Te calmly states, ¡°I¡¯m afraid we¡¯re going to have to insist.¡± She bears some minor resemblance to a pirate captain or some other nautical figure in that pose.


    I can¡¯t hide the smile that¡¯s creeping across my face, so I turn my back to the Colossi as I grin derpily at Teuila. I still need a nap. We¡¯d barely passed out when all this started, and before that Teuila and I had spent days speeding through the wilderness to get to the town in time. It¡¯s a good thing that we did too, since the Colossi showed up a day or two early.


    Us having gotten to the situation in time doesn¡¯t help with the fact that I¡¯m plum knackered though. Lords and ladies, hells and bells, this truly reminds me of the tunnel complex situation. I¡¯m going to be pushing through without sleep, for probably days on end. I¡¯m almost certain at this point that we¡¯re going to end up murdering someone in charge of the Colossi. If Rayileklia and Can¡¯Z¡¯aas were some sort of in-phase out-of-phase world combo, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the Colossi plains lined up with the Beaver Dam tunnel complex. It would make me four for four if things turn out the way I bet they will. I really, truly hope the leader is just under the curse of some easily breakable object or something, or somehow can be reasoned with. That would let us avoid murdering the leader or leaders.


    Huff. I find myself heaving a sigh since I know it¡¯s not likely we¡¯ll avoid a combat at the end of this situation.


    Over my my shoulder, looking back towards them, I call out to Meredith and the others, ¡°I feel a bit like a heel for treating you the same as your leader, but is there any chance you¡¯d be willing to carry this mound of gold? It would be a bit hard to fit in our pockets.¡±


    Harriet eyes the gold, the slightest bit of greed in her eyes. She shakes her head rapidly, dispelling the thoughts that had risen up. Tiago actually picks up a long twig and pokes the gold with it. I have no idea what he was trying to accomplish, and I barely restrain my laughter. Maybe he thought I¡¯d casted an illusion rather than summoning the gold? That would have been a hell of a way to blow our bluff if it had been one Tiago.


    Meredith sighs and my danger wraps read her movements as she shrugs. She bends over to inspect the pile of gold. Meredith tries to scoop all the money into one hand, and finds it difficult threefold. One, her broken fingertip keeps her from fully utilizing her right hand, and two, there¡¯s too much to fit in a single fist of hers, or realistically even in both fists. Thirdly, her left arm is cooked extra-crispy from my lightning-bolt.


    I do note one oddity however. When Meredith scoops towards the ground, it¡¯s as if the soil and stone spread away from her fingers, letting her grip move lower. Her fingers seem to be drawing grooves in the ground without exerting any intentional force to do so. I try to observe the phenomenon as closely as I can. Sure enough, as soon as Meredith¡¯s extremities come in contact with ground at any level, the ground accommodates her by moving lower or spreading aside. Fascinating, I wonder how much control she has over it. She isn¡¯t sinking into the earth, err, the Rayileklia? The soil. Since she isn¡¯t sinking, there¡¯s at least some degree of control keeping the soil from constantly moving away from all of her. Meredith beckons Dodge over to finish scooping the gold. Dodge and Clint produce the same phenomenon.


    No wonder it was mentioned that they made a literal gulf between the city and their plains. It would be easy as pie to scoop hundreds of miles of a channel with a few Colossi just walking in one direction dragging their hands. Ugh, where were you guys when I was digging the moat and canal for the Miracle Oak? Stupid Colossi not existing yet. Or something. I try not to laugh at my internal monologue, as I¡¯m still attempting to take this situation somewhat seriously. Or I¡¯m at least attempting to appear like I¡¯m taking it seriously.


    Trying to devise a strategy to request peace and the ceasing of hostilities from an unknown leader, a possibly corrupted entity? It¡¯s difficult to say the least. I default to threat of violence, something I¡¯m a bit ashamed of, but it has worked out fairly well so far. I don¡¯t have a lot of other skills. Hand me a battle map and I could direct you to efficient troop placement, offer guerrilla strategies and navigate impossible terrain. Give me some esoteric problem, and list off a random host of magical skills, and I could maybe conjure up some previously undiscovered application of a combination of those skills.


    I could actually improve economics across regions if I were some sort of minister of trade, even without having ridiculously insane levels of wealth hidden magically away. Also without abusing the ability to sell to and buy from magical shops that produce certain goods endlessly. Mostly since I¡¯m used to almost passively examining numerical efficiency on a dozen things simultaneously. I¡¯m actually feeling kind of weird not having an internal mental subroutine dedicated to crafting and inventory manipulation anymore. It¡¯s, it¡¯s very disconcerting losing a large chunk of what I dedicated a portion of my brain to. At least the internal electrokinesis subroutine is still running. It¡¯s weird, since that¡¯s a magic or spell-type that I picked up much later, and is far less of a natural part of me. Though I guess electrical currents are a natural part of me more than weird digital space magic is.


    Tell me to talk to someone and convince them to do the opposite of what they¡¯re doing? You might as well ask me to convince a brick wall to move, or a god to not¡­ do god things. Yeah, that one got away from me there. Honestly, I sort of kind of did both of those things too anyway. I mean, moving walls is something my inventory magic used to be able to do with barely a thought. Since I barely had to interact with the process, I could have it look like a wall got up and walked away. Convincing gods to not do their thing wasn¡¯t entirely successful, but it also didn¡¯t backfire. It bought us time.


    Regardless, in thinkspace there¡¯s ways I could come up with winning strategies for many obstacles that I had any foreknowledge of with a list of available assets. I have no foreknowledge going into this situation, and no more accelerated thinkspace, and I can¡¯t even list out the assets available in my own inventory, let alone anyone else¡¯s skills or items.

 B 4 C 22: Motion Along the Ocean

    I take a moment as the Colossi are palming the gold. I pretend to be very scrutinizing as they do so, not really giving a rat¡¯s rear end if they steal some for personal use. Turning to Tiago and Harriet, I struggle to figure out what to say. I¡¯m about to go on a mission, where I think we all hope I don¡¯t kill anyone. But I think we¡¯re all pretty assured that some blood is going to be spilled.


    I¡¯m not even the assassin. Ugh, I wonder if Aces¡¯ animated body would be interested in taking on another job. Hah, can you imagine? The unkillable undying assassin body that just relentlessly pursues its targets? Jebuz cripes that¡¯s terrifying. I shouldn¡¯t make light of Aces¡¯ plight though. They were around a hundred years old, and scared out of their minds just a few days ago. Wow, it feels like a lifetime ago already. I mean, first, how the hell should I know how long ago it was when Aces was alive? I mean, sure, we found their body, and it looked fresh, but, ugh. I¡¯m distracting myself down rabbit-holes of thought.


    But seriously though. It feels like Aces life was years ago to me, for some reason. But to everyone on Rayileklia, they¡¯ve only been missing for maybe a week. Landing in Autumn Brook, then taking a few days to get to Noirdivinhoz, then us leaving Noirdivinhoz that same day, taking a few days to get to Autumn Brook. It¡¯s just, it¡¯s so wild. I should probably be used to time shenanigans by now, but, ooftah. Y¡¯know?


    I look between the assembled for guidance. There¡¯s a town elder, a long-lived priestly healer, and My-Wings. None of them are offering any at the moment though. I frown, nearly pouting.


    Tiago suddenly whispers to Harriet, ¡°See what I mean? I didn¡¯t spot it before, but they¡¯re literally children. They haven¡¯t had a chance to live Harriet, we can¡¯t put this on them. An entire supposed life before this they spent struggling to survive for a few short years before ending up here. It¡¯s, it¡¯s horrid. We must find some other solution.¡±


    Harriet sighs and massages her throat. After a moment she croaks, her voice now decrepit, more matching her apparent age, ¡°I¡¯ve never taken the will away from anyone that didn¡¯t deserve it, and I¡¯m not about to start now. If they¡¯ve decided, they¡¯ve decided. Who are we to judge the lives of those who know only struggle and strife?¡±


    I look upon the Mairess, realizing that she¡¯s at least an octogenarian, if not older, and that Tiago is too. They¡¯re remarkably fit, active, and well-put-together for their age, but they¡¯re propping up an entire town, with no safety nets. Tiago didn¡¯t have an apprentice, his husband is twenty years younger, but might not know as much about Medicine. Harriet said she answers to a council, yet here she was, alone, speaking to the Colossi as Tiago ran for aid. I shed a tear for the two of them.


    Sighing softly, I interrupt their whispered conversation, letting them know I overheard, ¡°You two are doing amazing jobs. Your town needs you. We¡¯re strangers. Don¡¯t worry about us. If we succeed, yay for everyone. If not, well, just pretend we were naught but a dream. Come on Te. Let¡¯s not linger.¡±


    I spin on my heels away from the pair of elders, not wanting to see the forlorn looks in their eyes. That was cruel of me. I basically told them, in the politest way possible, to shove their concerns up their bums. Huff. Oh well. It¡¯s better this way. I¡¯m fairly sure we¡¯ll be okay, but, well, the less who mourn us, the better. I just. I don¡¯t want to die. I want to make sure we all get home. Lil and Lu and Lucky deserve to get home too. I don¡¯t think Mat is ever coming back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, or, well, anywhere really. As far as I know, he¡¯s settling on some deserted island off to the south by southwest.


    Ugh. We died. We really, truly, literally died. Tiago is sort of right. As exciting and full of adventure as our life was, we only had a few months of linear time here and there to live it when we weren¡¯t struggling for our very lives against impossible odds. My eyelids sag shut, my limbs are devoid of energy suddenly. The sadness weighs upon me heavily, like being sat upon by Luna, our multi-ton feathered-bear friend. I want to lift my arms to at least prop my cheek on my hand as I walk along after the Colossi, but I can¡¯t even manage that.


    Teuila glances nervously between me, and the disparate parties involved. I doubt she likes how I left things any more than I do. She¡¯s also worried about me. It¡¯s obvious that at least physically, I¡¯m basically done for. I haven¡¯t been able to get enough full sleeps to recover from various physical and emotional tolls. I push harder against myself, and it feels like my muscles are tearing apart as my arms slowly swing more and more with each step. Eventually I break into an agonizing jog. My joints feel like sandpaper grinding away within their sockets. Every motion is a fiery hell of its own design.


    Still, eventually, either the pain dulls, relenting, or I just get used to its hellishness. Teuila has been following me easily this entire time. The Colossi though are gaining ground away from us. I doubt Meredith would be willing to slow her pace to enable something she didn¡¯t want in the first place, us tagging along. Teuila rests her hands on my shoulders from behind, and I suddenly feel a million pounds lighter. There¡¯s still the fiery ache within every joint, every muscle and tendon, but I¡¯m suddenly light and fast.


    We have to fairly sprint to keep up with Meredith and her two men, and by the sounds of it, we¡¯ll be sprinting for an entire day, minimum. That¡¯s without even counting however the heck we¡¯re going to cross the gorge, or chasm, or gulf thing that they dug. Ugh, I¡¯m already worn out, and have been this entire time. Thankfully, Teuila literally has my back. She¡¯s pushing me forward, somehow keeping me lighter on my feet. The sprinting lets me take longer strides for less energy. Somehow her gravity bond is still active at least a little bit.


    Did, did she just take a big whiff of me? She totally did, and now she¡¯s saying, ¡°Mmmmmmm.¡±


    Momentarily distracted from the pain of it all, I laughingly call her out, ¡°Te, are you sniffing me?¡±


    She answers, embarrassedly, ¡°Sh, shut up, dink. Okay maybe I did. Sorry. No, I mean, yes, no, err so what if I did?¡±


    I try not to laugh at her back-and-forth emotion on the matter. She¡¯s all over the place. Still, I can tease her a bit without being too hard on her, ¡°Te, do I really smell all that good or anything? I mean, Lil said I did once, smelled good and tasted good, but I¡¯ve never noticed you sniffing me before, and, well, we haven¡¯t exactly been bathing on Rayileklia, what with the acid rain, and not having the soap stone.¡±


    I can feel Teuila frowning from behind me as she chooses whether or not to answer. Finally, she relents, ¡°Ugh, okay, fine, yes, yes, absolutely yes. You always have. Ever since the day we met.¡±


    My face contorts in confusion. I don¡¯t remember her sniffing me much in any fashion before now. As I¡¯m about to ask about it, she explains, ¡°It¡¯s, it¡¯s different here. The air is like, thicker on Rayileklia or something. Back home, just, like, all the scents would always be available, right in my nose, everything around me. I think we were all like that, all of us critterkin, well, other than you. Here though, it¡¯s like, the only scent is the air that¡¯s literally right in front of my nose. To get anything else, I¡¯ve got to suck it down in big whiffs. I, y¡¯know, I miss you, when you¡¯re not close. Your scent was a part of that. So, yeah. Just, just sh¡¯up. Meanie.¡±


    Awe, my beloved Teuila. I suppose I definitely can relate to having one or more senses being dulled or unavailable. Those weeks or months spent being blind were, well, I guess I could still see when Lil or Luni were around. I spin into a hug to carry Teuila tightly against my front as I sprint for a while with her in my arms. I love this woman to the ends of the, well, not Earth. To the ends of the Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? Kind of already been there. To the ends of the Rayileklia? I sort of hope we don¡¯t reach it. Uh, to the ends of the universe then.


    Teuila isn¡¯t exactly riding my thought train, but she sees me puzzling something out, stumping myself, and continuing, so she elates with her single long laugh of glee. Also partially because I¡¯m holding her and she can snuggle against me momentarily while she focuses on our lowered gravity. It¡¯s so weird, this is something innate to her. She has always been able to play around with gravity. Why is that? Well, better not look the gift goose in the gander. Or uh, something. I mean, definitely look a gift horse in the mouth, it might be a trojan--. Wait, I¡¯m getting off topic.


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    Teuila eventually hops down from my embrace to carry me across her arms in front of her instead. In no time at all, we¡¯re caught up to the Colossi, and easily keeping pace with each of their strides. I almost want to grumpily ask why she didn¡¯t do this in the first place. Still, it was probably good for me to force through that pain. I¡¯m awake and alert now. Awe hell, I had to go and think something didn¡¯t I.


    A wave of exhaustion hits me just then, and I find myself leaving the waking world in Teuila¡¯s arms.


    I drink in the full sight of her. She¡¯s still wearing her corseted top, despite being up to her arms in soapy water, running the linens up and down the washboard. Selunie¡¯s smile is a pleasure to behold in and of itself, preciously adorable as she takes joy in such simple things. I scrub a pair of socks absentmindedly. Still, uncertain as to how she¡¯s finding it so enjoyable, I figure I should at least speak.


    I query, ¡°You said this was fun, relaxing somehow. Yes? What part exactly Sel?¡±


    Selunie grins as she slowly replies between armloads, ¡°Sel sounds like a transaction, I¡¯ve told you to call me Lunie, or Lu, if you¡¯re going to give me a nickname. Besides, listen to it. Can¡¯t you hear it? The washboard, it¡¯s a rhythm, a music all its own. Sure, it¡¯s no violin or harp, but it¡¯s still a soothing sound. Plus, the warmth of the water and the softness of the cloth in my hands. I may have to do the task for my father, but that doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t find the best joys in it.¡±


    Her answer plasters a smile widely across the left half of my face. She¡¯s precious in a number of ways. She¡¯s so different from Taylynn, and yet, the two of them have some sort of unbreakable bond. They¡¯ve also been here for me, time and time again these last few years. Jarvis has stopped questioning my returns. He simply awaits my status updates, grim though they all may be. Not Tay or Lu though. They¡¯re happy to ask or not ask as many questions as I feel like answering, or to see to my wounds and keep me hidden in the soft, dark, privacy of their beds.


    I don¡¯t really go home these days. Eights is still a husk of his former self, standing in one spot, waiting to be fed, moving to do his business, then returning to that spot. Granny and Gramps are kind enough to keep putting scraps out for him. I¡¯m not even sure he needs to eat any longer. He just sort of exists. I don¡¯t understand how. Sometimes, just sometimes, I think maybe it has something to do with this job, even though Eights¡¯ plight began long before I took it.


    I¡¯m startled from my reverie as Selunie flicks a few droplets of water to splash across my face. I rattle my head momentarily, flinging a droplet or two back at her. Donning a slightly evil, mayhaps malicious, grin, I dash forward and bend low to scoop her into my arms, raising her legs up across my left arm. She squeaks in surprise and wraps her own arms around my neck as I sneak us from the washing yard to the root cellar. I drop her legs so that she can stand as I lean the two of us against the earthen walls. Selunie grins as she flicks my nose, playfully admonishing me. Yet she grips my jerkin to pull me in close so that our lips meet.


    Urgh, what? Huh? Somewhere. Something. Bumpy ride. Moving. I think I fell asleep while doing something, but I¡¯m even more tired than when I passed out. It¡¯s like I¡¯m running a marathon or having adventures or living a life while I¡¯m asleep, not getting any real rest. Who am I again? Oh, right. I¡¯m in Teuila¡¯s arms. My beautiful blushing Teuila. Wait, why is she blushing so hard?


    She notices my wakefulness, and curious expression, so, chuckling nervously, she explains, ¡°You uh, you were going at it pretty hot and heavy there by the end of it. I mean. They were. I mean, you kinda moaned her name.¡± She pauses, then quietly adds, ¡°Repeatedly.¡±


    My eyes flash wide in a panicked embarrassment. Teuila, seeing this, backpedals, ¡°I¡¯m kidding, I¡¯m kidding, sort of. They were just washing clothes. Not even doing it naked for fun or anything. But, uh, at the end I¡¯m pretty sure they were going to make out at the very least.¡±


    That¡¯s so mean! She¡¯s so mean! She totally had me going there! Ugh, ugh, I feel so betrayed, and yet I¡¯m laughing so hard that I¡¯m crying. Still, I¡¯m curious, ¡°Hah, wait, who was with who? Who was washing clothes?¡±


    Teuila speaks out the side of her mouth in an attempt to play coy or look uninformed as she says, ¡°Welllll. Pretty sure you were in Aces¡¯ point of view. Pretty sure the she you were mumbling about was that Selunie character. You talked about how her gorgeous, amazing, sexy curves filled out the blouse and that the corset was barely restraining her ample bosom and like, uh.¡±


    Wait, if I was supposedly moaning her name, why wouldn¡¯t she be sure. Oh, wait, she was joking or lying about that. Also wait, grr! She¡¯s totally fishing, she¡¯s running a bit on me! Again! I grumble, ¡°Teuila, you¡¯re so friggin¡¯ mean.¡±


    Her single elongated laugh paints glee across the air whose quiet was otherwise disturbed only by the Colossi¡¯s footsteps. She grins derpily down at me, cheekily stating, ¡°I know, and you just eat it up.¡±


    Ugh, she¡¯s kind of right. I love every bit of her. Gods, this woman. I¡¯d jokingly say she¡¯ll be the death of me, but we¡¯ve kind of been through that already. Oy vey though, yeesh. I¡¯m pumping out enough heat that it looks like we¡¯re leaving a trail of steam as my embarrassment literally evaporates the drizzle. Just how flushed am I? Wait. Wait. Temperature fluctuations to the extreme?


    Come on, please work, please work. Hm, I can¡¯t tell if it¡¯s working, or my embarrassment is just dying down due to distracting myself. Dang. I thought I had something there for a second. False start I guess. Just exceedingly wild embarrassment.


    Woah, I vaguely knew that we were in Southern Aasimovia, and that it was the south end of the landmass, but the massive lake to the north did not prepare me for the ocean to the south. I shouldn¡¯t be this stunned by it. I¡¯ve been to the ocean on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas a number of times, but wow, it¡¯s majestic. Teuila sets me down and then leaps into my arms in one smooth motion, startling me. I guess I¡¯d better get back to sprinting. Thankfully she¡¯s easing our journey by keeping my gravity and windbreaking low.


    I really wish I could get one solidly restful night of sleep on Rayileklia. Just a nice, long, full sleep. Maybe a day or two unconscious to catch up on rest. There has to be something wrong with me. Am I getting sick? I hear that humans get sick if they¡¯re in cold wet environments for too long, and it¡¯s fairly chilly, and definitely damp on Rayileklia. I¡¯ve never gotten sick before though, and I¡¯m not human. I just, I just feel like I¡¯m running on fumes at best. Even though I¡¯ve had amazing cuddles with Teuila, and amazing food from Daffodil and Keeley. Though I guess I¡¯ve only eaten a few times on this planet all told, and I¡¯ve been here half a week. I conjured some digital fish from my inventory back at Daffodil¡¯s, and I was saving it for emergencies, but all that¡¯s sitting in our room at the Keel Over right now. I really hope that it remains digital, and doesn¡¯t spoil. Keeley would kill me if I left fish out to rot and stink up her rooms for whatever length of time this mission ends up being.


    Our journey with the Colossi is entirely unplanned. We¡¯re going in blind, without having been able to choose which resources we would really want for a long sojourn. There¡¯s just, just so much wrong with this situation. I¡¯d kill for a chance to stock up on anything right now. Just, just any resource would be better than running into a negotiation with almost no cards to play, exhausted and famished. I may have to end up drinking acid rain just to stay hydrated and alive. I wonder if my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian acid resistance applies internally. I wonder if it¡¯s strong enough to stomach the acid. Hah, stomach acid. Oy vey. Back on topic. Think about resources and abilities.


    What do we even have? I¡¯ve got the internal electrokinesis running, just barely. I can¡¯t remember if it stayed active through our reincarnation, or if I activated it here on Rayileklia at some point to test it out. I think I¡¯m partially able to maintain it in some part because it¡¯s a nearly passive thing, but also because I¡¯m used to focusing on it as a secondary thought train to enhance my nervous system back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. The eight minute rule doesn¡¯t really apply when I¡¯m constantly using the same semi-active spell to do the exact same thing all the time, every minute of every day, even in my sleep. Plus, since the little sparks are already traveling my nerve pathways, I can guide them without having to call Can¡¯Z¡¯aas for another spell. What else? I¡¯ve got a suit of Valkyrie armor that I¡¯m wearing, and another one that¡¯s doll-sized tucked into an inner pocket on my waistband. I¡¯ve got the staff with tons of spells in it, the majority of which I don¡¯t even know what they do or how to activate them, and the magical wrist-mounted crossbow. Taylynn¡¯s dagger is attached to my belt, and the Valkyrie dagger is my belt buckle, more or less. It¡¯s a weird setup. I guess I have my wits, and I could maybe try to remember what¡¯s in my inventory, to try to fish some things out of it. The only thing I can think of in there though that I know for certain where it is and how to summon it is the half-broken thunder stick, and a few potions. Teuila has her suit of armor, her magical bow, enhanced by her magical bracers, and a non magical spear.


    Also, as I feared, our brand new nightclothes are already starting to show some wear. They¡¯re not meant to be worn as under-armor padding, let alone out in the acid rain. I¡¯m far more upset about Teuila¡¯s amazing, silky, smooth, curve-accentuating, candle-light-shimmering night outfit getting ruined than my own. I, uh. Yeah. Yeah, that¡¯s not fair, Teuila looks so freakin¡¯ breathtaking in those nightclothes. Uh, I mean. What was I thinking about? Crap, got distracted by Teuila¡¯s gorgeous, lovely, fantastic, toned, smooth body. Whew, I¡¯m flush all of a sudden. Wait, what was I? Agh! Now I¡¯m even doing it to myself! Grr, Lu, Te, you¡¯re both butts.

 B 4 C 23: The Trope Holds True

    I¡¯ve been sprinting with Teuila nuzzled up napping in my arms for a long while now, probably a few hours.  My body is on automatic at this point, just springing whenever it lands, but my muscles are otherwise locked, deadened, spent.  And just now I wasn¡¯t looking where I was leaping.  I catch my toes between mud-slick rocks and slam facefirst into the ground, barely rotating my shoulders aside to keep Teuila from suffering the same fate as I bear the brunt of the fall.  I barely manage to set her softly to my side as I¡¯m plowing into the ground.


    Te slowly sits up, yawning and stretching, rubbing her eyes with her fists.  She looks down at me and simply sweetly says, ¡°Dink.¡±  She leans down to scoop me up and take over sprinting.


    We¡¯re seeing so much of the flat expanse of these plains, the countryside, and the ocean¡¯s shore, but I¡¯m wondering what the destination is at this point.  Ah, great, the gulf, or chasm.  How are Meredith and the others already across it?  Heavens, that has to be a hundred feet, maybe a hundred meters across, maybe more?  The only thing keeping it from being a river is a scant inch or two of rock up against the sea itself.  I¡¯d fear that stepping on the rock wall¡¯s top would cause it to cave in, and we¡¯d get swept up as the sea floods up the channel.


    If we were to try to stealthily rescue all the ancestors, how the hell would we get them over that without trying to fly them across one at a time?  There is no way we¡¯re going to succeed at getting a bunch of spaced-out undead back to Autumn Brook in one piece without completely ending this situation.  Fudge.  Hell, how are we even going to get across?  Te, Te what are you doing!?


    Teuila doesn¡¯t change her course or velocity at all.  Her strides have only been taking her a few dozen meters per leap, and that distance is going to put us squarely over the edge of the upcoming chasm.  The winged cloak that¡¯s attached to the Valkyrie armor, which we generally leave furled up, or set aside somewhere, suddenly unfurls from Teuila¡¯s backside.  She trusts me to wrap my arms around her neck as she takes both edges of the cloak in her hands and coaxes us into a long low gravity glide.  I sort of forgot that I gave her a winged cloak long ago, and that she was used to doing this before she had ever even gotten her Valkyrie powers.


    Teuila learns skills and ways to apply herself and her abilities easily at least as well as I learn uses for magic.  She also remembers her abilities and conclusions far better than I do.  I should remember that.  Hah, try to remember that I have difficulty remembering things about having difficulty remembering things.  Yeesh, this brain of mine.  It¡¯s like it was made from swiss cheese to begin with.  There¡¯s something.  A word.  Why was it capitalized?  GALS.  I thought it was a hint to look at my beloved gals.  What does that have to do with memory?  Maybe just because I¡¯m remembering it at the moment.  Or because it was recorded somewhere in the book that contained my mystical memory logs.


    Gods, it was hard enough remembering things on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, when I could literally look them up by scrolling through a digital journal.  How the hell do people deal with not having one of those?  Or is it just me that has so much problem with memory?  It¡¯s like, my brain¡¯s allocated memory space has been full the entire time, like RAM, so it¡¯s shunting out what hasn¡¯t been recalled as recently, for new stuff, constantly.  RAM?  Computer terminology, digital things.  It¡¯s so weird.  There¡¯s no evidence anything like that exists in any reality.  Yet here I am, thinking in terms of computers and digital age, instead of just Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic menus.


    Some, some specific files.  Why do I suddenly remember that there were some specific files that were vastly important?  Ugh.  It¡¯s probably my brains way of telling me that memory is an important thing, and it sucks to lose it.  Hm, oh well.  We¡¯ve been traveling for quite a while now, not sure if it has been an entire day yet, though perhaps it has.  We should have stocked up on some kind of travel rations or something.  We¡¯re definitely in the Colossi plains now though.  There are a number of the Colossi people out and about, and more in these weird hillocks.


    Oh, they can make themselves a small earthen den in mere moments.  They¡¯re essentially bedding down beneath the dirt, though they leave a cavernous opening on the leeward side of things.  Having access to earth-shaping magic would have been so useful back home.  Oh well, at least it helps these people survive despite their massive size.


    Teuila exclaims, ¡°Woah, they¡¯re all so much more monstrous than Meredith, Clint, and Dodge.¡±


    Puzzled, I ask, ¡°Do you mean taller?  I mean, yeah they all look like taller humans to me, and they already said they were the smallest and weakest.¡±


    Teuila starts laughing, and asks, ¡°You can¡¯t be serious, right?  That one over there looks like a giant werewolf, that one has an extra head, that one looks like an ogre.  Lu and I had always wondered about your logs.  Like every other time you met a new critterkin, it was always, they¡¯re the most human-looking so-and-so to you.  You really are just that bad at recognizing humans then?¡±


    Bewildered, I gaze about at what Teuila is pointing out.  Hm, let¡¯s cast the aura vision magic from the staff.  Oh, there we go.  With this on, and if I squint, I can start to see what she¡¯s claiming.  Is this why I never saw magical beings in Aces memories?  Do I just have some sort of weird perception filter that humanizes or anthropomorphizes faces or something?  Or does just everyone else in existence have this aura vision?  I mean, on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that was true enough already.  Everyone could see aura except me.


    Wait, there¡¯s something sticking out of my chest!  I couldn¡¯t see it without the supernatural sight of the staff.  Hm, as soon as I took note of it, it disappeared.


    ¡°Hmf.  Shouldn¡¯t be on Rayileklia.¡±


    That voice!  I scan about quickly, there¡¯s no way there¡¯s anyone keeping up with Teuila¡¯s sprint who could talk to me, hiding anywhere around in these open plains.  Though, the luma tulipa are sparse out here, making it darker than I¡¯m used to.  I¡¯ve also adjusted my vision to pitch-black caves, so I should still be able to see a silhouette.


    I whisper to Teuila, ¡°Te, please tell me you saw that, or heard that, or sensed something, anything.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s confused gaze tells me that she didn¡¯t.  She asks, ¡°Sensed what my huggable dink?¡±


    Well crap.  Either I¡¯m hallucinating, or I¡¯ve got another ride-along from maybe a future me or, or I don¡¯t even know anymore.  Hey, voice?  Are you in here?  Can you hear my thoughts?  I pause for several beats.  Bluh, no answer.  Either it can¡¯t hear me, can¡¯t respond, or is a figment of my imagination to begin with.  Well, there¡¯s a last option that is it did hear me and doesn¡¯t want to respond I suppose.


    Meredith suddenly calls back to us, ¡°We¡¯ll take you to the edge of Karn the Dragonslayer¡¯s camp where we¡¯ll dump the gold.  After that, you¡¯re on your own.  I¡¯m not losing my head over your antics.¡±


    I gaze at Meredith incredulously, ¡°You, wait.  You guys are named Clint, Dodge, and Meredith.  But this leader of yours is named Karn the Dragonslayer?¡±


    Confused, she answers, ¡°Yes, he¡¯s one of our lords, the two reside within the camp.  What of it?¡±


    I snort as I fight off my laughter.  Seriously?  In a group of friends with such average modern humans names as these three, if someone called themselves Karn the Dragonslayer, they¡¯d be ridiculed as the geek of the group.  Heck, I¡¯d probably be close friends with someone that goofy.  I accidentally loose a small chuckle.  Teuila snickers quietly as well.


    Meredith glances back at us with a slightly ¡®your funeral¡¯ expression upon her face.  It may very well be.  I¡¯d better ask, ¡°So, who¡¯s the other lord?¡±


    Meredith shudders as she answers, ¡°Kozzurth the Nocturnal.¡±


    She refuses to utter even a syllable more about Kozzurth the Nocturnal.  Hah, wouldn¡¯t that be lucky, if we only have to negotiate with one lord, because the other one is asleep?  Somehow, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to be quite as simple as that.


    I lose track of how much time passes, but thankfully Teuila has us covered.  I¡¯m still completely knackered.  Here¡¯s hoping that my tiredness doesn¡¯t cause negotiations to break down.  I wonder if Teuila should handle the, err, on second thought, maybe skip that thought.  Teuila is itching for combat.  Even if she didn¡¯t mean to, she might subconsciously sabotage herself in order to force the battle outcome.


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    Meredith slows to a snails pace, allowing us to easily keep up just by walking at this point.  Hell, we could outpace her by walking.  We spend hours following her as she creeps westward with trepidation.  Each step she takes is trembling, vibrating her feet deeply into the mud.  I think this is going far over the top to run a bit on us.  Maybe she is honestly that frightened of the two lords.


    Hours yet still and I¡¯m famished.  Ugh, I wish we had grabbed some of those hardtack biscuits on Keeley¡¯s counter as we left.  Or just, anything.  Should I spend eight minutes conjuring some digital fish while we walk?  I¡¯m sure Teuila would appreciate it.


    Finally we approach an encampment.  It¡¯s fairly crude, similar to a lean-to of stone I once made in the ruins of the cat tribe¡¯s home after it had been decimated by Mataalii.  Or similar ones I had made in Fire Biome.  Still, it¡¯s massive, and encircled by logs whittled to spiked tips that are jammed into the ground.  An impressively large man and a woman stand at this near entrance, and likely the other entrances as well.  I get the feeling that these are the lowest rung of guards for Karn and Kozzurth, not the two lords themselves.  They are frighteningly massive however, easily twice Meredith¡¯s size.  They must be some sixty feet tall.


    The two guarding the entrance glare daggers at Meredith and the others.  She balks, scoops some stone and soil into the shape of an offering bowl, and ditches the gold in it quickly.  She turns to flee, leaving Dodge and Clint to do much the same.  Well, I¡¯m not going to just let these two guards take this pile of gold in and ignore us.  Hup, here we go.  You too Teuila, up here, thanks.  As we stand on the lip of this stone bowl, the guards glower at us dubiously.


    I shout up to them, ¡°I¡¯m here to speak with Karn and Kozzurth.  If they want this wealth, they¡¯ll have to meet with us, or I¡¯ll un-conjure it!¡±


    I¡¯ll do no such thing.  I couldn¡¯t give a rat¡¯s rear end about this gold, and I don¡¯t want to have to connect to Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian energy any more than absolutely necessary.  The two guards scowl at me, and reach for the offering bowl anyway while trying to shoo the two of us off of it with their weapons.  Nope, not gonna happen pals.


    I growl, ¡°Teuila, take a finger, just one.¡±


    As a sneer spreads across her face, her responding growl is, ¡°My pleasure.¡±


    In an instant she has leapt from the edge of the bowl, up along the offending weapon held by the man, and severed his index finger.  The poor fool doesn¡¯t even realize it¡¯s gone at first until there¡¯s a thud as it lands nearby.


    I shout, demanding attention, ¡°As I said, Karn.  And Kozzurth.  We¡¯re here to bargain.  Now.¡±  I let vitriol drip from my final word as I unholster the staff and aim it towards the two.


    As I¡¯m preparing to slay at least one of these two to make a point, a much larger, far more commanding presence demands, ¡°What is going on out here!?  Kozzurth wants her spices, says the meat is too bland without it.  Have those three idiots returned yet?  What in the.¡±


    Spices?  The only three idiots I know of sent out for something were sent out to retrieve wealth.  If wealth is spices to someone¡¯s meat, then.  Hoo boy.  I hope I¡¯m wrong about this.  I mean, what else can you think of that might eat metal along with meat Reggie?  Yeah, yeah.  Frick.  I guess we¡¯ll know in a moment.


    I summon a gale from the staff that knocks the two guards on their arses and shout towards the new figure, ¡°If you¡¯re Karn, I¡¯ve brought Kozzurth¡¯s spices, conjured by my own magic, and I can just as easily return it to the void.  We¡¯re here to bargain on behalf of the people of Autumn Brook.¡±


    Teuila grumbles that we should just kick their butts until they submit.  The large giant doesn¡¯t address me at first, or admit to anything.  It seems the giant I assume to be Karn more or less agrees with Teuila as he orders the two guards, ¡°Kill them and be done with it you idiots.  If you¡¯ve not finished them off by the time I fetch some meat from the pens, I¡¯ll kill you myself.  You little ones, if you think I¡¯ll buy any random story about magic, you¡¯ve got another think coming.  If you somehow manage to slay my subordinates, I¡¯ll humor you for a few minutes, you¡¯ll get your conversation.¡±


    He walks away, completely ignoring us as he heads towards an outcropping that might serve as a cattle-pen.  Gorram motherfriggin¡¯ stupid jerkwad dimwit buggersucker.  Of course murder would be the condition for a conversation.  Oo I should really just let Teuila go nuts right now.  Grr.  Breathe Reggie, breathe air, breathe.  Hm.  Why does that suddenly feel so familiar?  Breathe air, breathe.  That, that seems important somehow.  I rattle my brain, shaking loose the ache that comes with yet another new mysterious memory.


    I snarl, ¡°Teuila, you want to take the one you¡¯ve already started on, finish up the job, and me take the other?¡±


    Teuila jokes, ¡°Nah, I¡¯ll let you take my scraps, I want the fresh one.¡±


    I¡¯m a little sickened by our play of brutality, and not sure how much of it Teuila really means.  It¡¯s a tad frightening to be honest.  Still, she¡¯s mostly probably continuing to be over-protective of me here on Rayileklia.  I honestly appreciate it more than I let on.  As weakened as I am, any bit of help I can get is massively appreciated.  Still, I¡¯m not going to risk being injured in a drawn-out fight when we still have to deal with the lords.  I nod to Teuila and aim my staff once more, this time directly at the man¡¯s chest, through his heart.


    Teuila leaps towards the woman, snarling pure fury, and I unleash about a tenth of the magic in the staff as a lightning bolt.  Maybe a bit more.  The man drops to his knees, his heart stopped in an instant, quite possibly even burst from the massive charge that tore through it.  The woman looks shocked, and Teuila capitalizes on the distraction to drive her spear home into the Colossi woman¡¯s jugular.


    The massive woman slaps at the dashing form of Teuila along her throat, but mostly tries to clasp her neck to staunch the torrent of blood raining from her gullet.  Teuila meets my gaze apologetically.  Okay, good.  She¡¯s just playing her part.  She¡¯s not really this bloodthirsty.  Whew.  I mean, I knew that.  I¡¯ve known her for a couple of centuries.  I just, I worried that maybe Rayileklia had changed her somehow.  Teuila manages a flip kick to the giant¡¯s temple, rocking her head sideways so hard that she stumbles over.  The woman is now far more preoccupied trying to survive the loss of blood to bother keeping track of Teuila anymore.  In a moment, it¡¯s over.  The two Colossi guards lay dead as we stand in their midst.


    I shed several tears for them.  This didn¡¯t need to happen.  I¡¯m angry with myself, but it¡¯s not like I have many abilities that aren¡¯t fatal.  I couldn¡¯t really control the outcome.  Maybe if I had my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic, I could have frozen them until the big one returned.  Then perhaps forced a conversation.


    I sit on the corpse of this giant, meditating, trying to alleviate the guilt I feel over his death.  Hours go by, even Teuila gets twitchy.  There¡¯s no way that a giant lord ran away from the two of us and threw their underlings at us as fodder to escape, is there?  Nah, that can¡¯t be what¡¯s happening.


    It¡¯s far too long waiting for the massive male giant I assume to be Karn returns, and the meat he¡¯s holding as cattle sickens me to my core.  He¡¯s holding humans.  Specifically Aasimovian ancestors.  Their vacant glassy-eyed stares and lack of any sort of response to their situation defines their undeath.  He reaches for the gold, perhaps not noticing us at first.  I cough as politely as I can while trying to be loud enough to draw attention.


    He stops momentarily as he claims, ¡°Well I¡¯ll be.¡±  He points to the woman who bled out, ¡°Her, I¡¯d give you that one, a fluke of getting close enough to stab her neck perhaps.  What about him though?  He just looks dead, no more than a tiny mark of char on his chest.  I guess you must have magic after all.  Alright, I¡¯ll humor you.  Follow me inside.¡±


    The one I take to be Karn finishes scooping the offering-bowl.  Teuila joins me in scowling at the enormous man.  I see other pairs peppered about his camp, always a man and a woman as guards.  I wonder if it¡¯s symbolic.  He called Kozzurth her when he spoke of her.  Maybe it¡¯s to denote that the two lords are of different sexes?  Hell, they¡¯re of different species if my guess is correct.


    As Karn shoos aside a pair of guards, we follow him inwards down a massive divot in the soil.  The scene before me is bewildering.  A Colossi man and woman are kneeling with two barrels outstretched before a dragon whose purple scales and slightly corpulent form don¡¯t match any sort of dragon from my memories.  My memories tend to hold knowledge of monsters, and shoddy though they may be, I¡¯d still have expected to have some guess as to her nature.  I jokingly call myself a crypto-zoologist, remember?


    More fascinating, Kozzurth is digging aside one of her scales, and softly pricking the flesh beneath.  She spills only two drops of blood, one in each small barrel sitting in front of the Colossi.  Are they going to?  Ugh.  They offer her some sort of prayer of gratitude, and gulp down the blood, leaving the barrels likely for the next pair of Colossi that I feel following us inwards.


    I¡¯m going to lose a big bargaining chip if this giant, Karn I assume, just hands the offering bowl and the ancestors over to Kozzurth to eat while we talk, but I can¡¯t think of any way to stop him without killing him.  I suppose killing one lord might make the other easier to deal with.


    I shout, ¡°Drop the gold until we have our conversation, or die.¡±


    All eyes are on me momentarily, and the one I assume is Karn simply laughs uproariously.  He ignores me and brings the ancestors, along with the offering bowl full of gold, closer to Kozzurth¡¯s face.  I¡¯m not letting them get away with killing and eating ancestors, let alone ignoring us as we come to bargain for peace.  I glance at Teuila.  She meets my gaze and nods, ready to take action if this becomes an all out slaughter.


    As another lightning bolt, I unleash another tenth or so of the magic normally held within the staff, perhaps a seventh.  I feel like there¡¯s about five, no, perhaps four more blasts left within it at the moment.  Though I aim it directly through his chest, this giant drops to one knee, not dead, before he spins around in anger.  He drops the ancestors and the bowl of gold, which is good.  Teuila leaps at his jugular, striking a vicious but non-lethal blow along his neck and shoulder, which is also good.  However, there¡¯s a clapping coming from behind the dragon.  A clapping from an even larger Colossi man who rises up around Kozzurth, and punts the injured giant to the side, likely actually slaying him as he impacts the rock surface with a sickening crunch.


    Well hell.  I guess maybe that one is Karn.  Hopefully we don¡¯t have a series of bigger and bigger giants to go through before finally meeting him.  This is embarrassing.

 B 4 C 24: Deliberate Deliberations

    Teuila and I resume our positions standing atop the lip of the bowl of gold, and Karn looks amused.  Kozzurth just snorts, bored.  She nestles down into the ground after lazily spearing an ancestor that ambled too close.  She lifts it to her maw and sips it from her talon like a wet noodle.  I nearly vomit at the sight.  Teuila feels the same unease I do at the monstrous nature of their actions.  We¡¯re pretty familiar with one society eating another with no regard for their, well, anything.  Ugh.


    Karn gloats, ¡°As you have probably guessed, whomever you¡¯ve fought until now was nothing.  Some flunkies, some perhaps even friends.  I¡¯m not sure how many you¡¯ve slain, but that ends here.  I do at least take some responsibility for my kind, and I¡¯d like them to live.  If you made it all the way to me, I assume you¡¯re prepared to end more lives of my tribe?¡±


    I nod uneasily.  Teuila sets her face into a stern, unblinking gaze.  She¡¯s ready to get us out of here at a moment¡¯s notice if either Karn or Kozzurth take hostile action.  Or maybe she¡¯ll try to kill them after knocking me to the side.  Who knows?


    Karn postulates, ¡°Well, be that as it may, you won¡¯t be winning this day.¡±  He turns to the pair of Colossi behind us up the slope towards the exit and orders, ¡°You two, leave us, you¡¯ll have your deification ceremony later. ¡°


    Karn turns back to face me and Teuila, claiming, ¡°Anyway, you two.  Kozzurth here is the fiercest dragon to ever have lived.  She¡¯s lived so long and devoured so much, that she took on elements from two more dragons beyond her own.  Three elements, can you imagine?  Her acid complimented by their frost and flame.  The Colossi may serve me, but, sadly, I serve Kozzurth.  For now at least.¡±


    I frown as I call back, ¡°So, what then, you submit to and grovel before the dragon?  She looks about as threatening as you, at best.  You have an entire tribe.  Why not end her?¡±


    Kozzurth cackles and speaks in syllables I can¡¯t comprehend.  It honestly hurts my ears, brain, and stomach to even hear her speak.  My stomach flips repeatedly as she continues a hissed monologue.  Ugh, if I vomit, it¡¯ll be like admitting weakness in front of them.  They¡¯ll capitalize on that.  Keep it together Reggie.  Breathe, breathe air, breathe.  That, that phrase again.  Right, anyway, no time to get distracted.


    Teuila and I ask simultaneously, ¡°So, what¡¯s she on about?¡±


    I stifle a chuckle as Teuila beams a smile at me.  Karn picks up a massive spear and turns it over idly in his hands, inspecting it with a facade of boredom before answering.  Ugh, villainous power plays in conversation.  I could wipe that boredom from his face if he really wanted me to.  Stop.  Stop Reggie.  Just stop.  We¡¯re not here to kill everyone.


    Karn finally answers, ¡°Well, her great lordship simply extols a reminder that her powers tell of our fall should she be slain.  She has the sight after all.  Back then, she said she knew we would arrive on this peninsula, and then we did.  She was waiting, buried deep down.  Just for us.  She bleeds to grant us our strength.  She knew it would make us strong and safe.  We¡¯re no longer pursued.  We¡¯re symbiotic at this point.  So no.  I won¡¯t end her.  Yet.¡±


    I roll my eyes.  She was probably trapped somewhere, and spoke sweet nothings to the first people that came near.  She might have actually given them their size, by offering up her blood to strengthen them, but I¡¯m almost positive the rest of her story is bullcrap.  Something doesn¡¯t add up though.  How the heck is Karn supposedly the Dragonslayer, when by all accounts thus far, he has dealt with a grand total of one dragon, and submitted his entire tribe to her?


    I query, ¡°So how¡¯d you get the name dragonslayer anyway?  By the sounds of it, you were human-sized a few years ago, and ever since then, you¡¯ve been groveling here to your great and powerful dragon overlord.¡±


    Karn scoffs, ¡°It¡¯s true, my title is not quite yet earned, but it is a reminder to Kozzurth that we are not simply groveling subjects to be dominated.  Nor servants to be expended.  I demand the safety of my tribe, all of its lives.  If that means accepting her power, and sending a few of mine out to gather her meat and spices, so be it.¡±


    My stomach churns at his nonchalant attitude at calling people and their wealth meat and spices.


    I glare at Karn and fume at Kozzurth as I ask, ¡°Okay, once you¡¯ve bled The Brook dry, and Kozzurth has eaten everyone in it, what then?¡±


    Karn sneers, ¡°When that day comes, we¡¯ll return to being a nomadic tribe, and start over at the next nearest village, and the next.  If some day every little person is gone, and Kozzurth¡¯s hunger is still not satisfied?  On that day I will earn my name.¡±


    He¡¯s talking genocide!  Slow, painful, extortive genocide.  As I¡¯m having these thoughts, Kozzurth snorts, unimpressed by Karn¡¯s threat.  She raises her head to the top of the enormous antechamber, or whatever this cavern could be called, and speaks further alien syllables that sicken me to my core.  I grimace and try not to clutch my stomach.


    Karn translates, or so I assume, ¡°She believes you to be a pesky annoyance, and desires to be rid of you while she sups.  I however am not so crass as to believe you won¡¯t go on killing my tribe if I shoo you out of here.  Nor would you go peacefully, and you¡¯d likely harm or kill quite a number of those in my encampment before I subdued you.  Am I incorrect in my beliefs?¡±


    I frown, deadly serious as I respond, ¡°You¡¯ve guessed correctly.  The extortion of The Brook ends, its ancestors go free, or the two of us, the Valkyrie and I, decimate your society, quite possibly killing all of you.  That¡¯s before our Dragon, Bard, Hound, and Immortal even come into play.  They¡¯re off to the east in waiting.  If you somehow manage to live through us, you won¡¯t live through them.¡±


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Karn deliberates, stroking his chin.  He shoots a glare at Kozzurth.  He¡¯s not quite so willing to let his followers be killed for no reason, to appease the dragon he intends to one day kill anyway.


    Karn¡¯s solution is fairly simple, ¡°We¡¯ll settle this in honorable one on one duels then, so none of mine are hurt in such a battle.  To the death of course.  What say you, two lords versus two ladies?¡±


    Ugh, I want to roll my eyes at this jerk.  Instead I just give one solemn nod.  Great, once a-friggin-gain I¡¯m going to be murdering some leader of some faction somewhere.  Well, if I survive.  They are enormous, and I¡¯m not sure which I¡¯d rather fight.  Honestly the dragon is less threatening to me.  I can resist pretty much whatever elemental breath it has.  At least to some degree.  Karn though?  He¡¯d just have to step on me, or swat me once with a large weapon and I¡¯d be paste.  He also might be able to catch me with some of that earthmoving magic that I¡¯d seen the other Colossi used.  If I was caught in that, there¡¯s nothing I could do about it.  Teuila though, she¡¯s strong enough to bust out of a ton or two of dirt and stone.  Especially water-weakened as all the surface of this entire planet is.


    Karn attempts to convince Kozzurth, assuring her that he¡¯s unwilling to budge, for the sakes of the lives of his tribe.  Also that he¡¯ll double efforts to gather further spices after we¡¯re dealt with.  Kozzurth greedily agrees after that last yielded stipulation.


    I grimace and turn away so they can¡¯t see me clasping my stomach as it flops repeatedly.  I¡¯m so exhausted, as if I¡¯d been running marathons.  Well, technically I did sprint for quite a few hours.  So I kind of did run a marathon.  Ugh, that doesn¡¯t matter right now.  My head¡¯s swimming from exhaustion and disgust.  Also perhaps a bit because of those weird intrusive memories.  Ugh, I hate that they¡¯re so mysterious.


    I barely notice as Karn takes his leave of us to find four attendants, observers for the duels.  Pft, he has some sort of reasoning like, so that we don¡¯t flee the battle.  Honestly, if he¡¯s as honorable as he seems, odd as that is to say, their presence might be the only thing guaranteeing a fair fight.  I doubt the dragon cares enough about their presence though to wait until someone says go or anything like that though.  I think Karn¡¯s more likely to duel honorably with witnesses, especially his own tribe that he¡¯ll have to live with if he somehow beats us.


    I huff, heaving a heavy sigh.  Teuila looks at me with a worried frown drawn across her face.  She aches to console me.  I can virtually feel it.  As if our psychic connection is still somewhat alive, even if only in the weakest, hardest to detect form.  We dare not show weakness as we stand here alone in front of Kozzurth though.  She spears another wandering ancestor on one of her talons, and pops it into her mouth like a snack as she hungrily eyes the gold we stand guarding.


    I¡¯m about to offer her a rude gesture in response to her stare when I hear laughter of disbelief from outside.  The laughter is quickly silenced.  It sounds like whoever laughed was made aware of how deadly serious the situation is.  I find myself thinking about times when Teuila and I found ourselves in serious situations that we could barely keep from laughing, or breaking character.


    Teuila is here with me, on the journey of a lifetime.  Hah.  The journey of a second lifetime.  Wow, that¡¯s not an everyday thing you get to say, huh?  Regardless, she¡¯s true to her word about not wanting to part from me for more than long enough for a private conversation.


    She mumbles a plea, almost begging, ¡°I could take them both out, maybe, probably.  I don¡¯t want to let you out of my sight, my, my dink.  You can¡¯t die.  If you think you¡¯d die, just say the word, and I¡¯ll go to town.  Please.  Just, just don¡¯t die.  You¡¯d tell me, right?  If you¡¯re not up to it?  You can handle this, can¡¯t you?¡±


    She¡¯s nearly as quiet as can be, to avoid Kozzurth overhearing her fears.  She¡¯s trembling, which we can play off as rage for now.  I so badly ache to comfort her.  I honestly don¡¯t know though.  Do I get to choose my opponent?


    My answer is my best guess, ¡°If we get to choose our opponents, or if they appoint Kozzurth to me, I¡¯ll probably be fine.  If they try to get me to face Karn, well.  I¡¯m toast.  I can¡¯t lie to you Te.  I love you.  There¡¯s no way I can handle a giant whose only attacks would likely kill me instantly.  He might trap me in stone and then obliterate me.  But, well, you know me.¡±


    I stop myself just shy of saying me and dragon¡¯s breath.  I let out the softest chuckle under my breath, and I could swear that Kozzurth raises a scaled brow.  Is she overhearing this?  Crap, her auditory sensory organs are probably massive, they can probably pick up a mouse¡¯s fart a mile away.  I¡¯d swear Kozzurth is laughing under her own breath at the moment.  Maybe she thinks I¡¯m too cocky for my own good?  Hopefully she¡¯ll want to face me.


    Teuila starts to respond to my comment about dragon¡¯s breath, or what I can handle, but I flash her a frightened look while shaking my head.  I mouth the words no more talking, dragon listening.  Te gasps and clasps her mouth momentarily.  As long as we don¡¯t give away that I¡¯m nearly immune to several of the dragon¡¯s strongest weapons, I might stand a chance at surviving.


    Karn returns with four giants in tow, two pair, each a man and a woman.  What¡¯s with this weird pairing stuff going on?  Well, I probably already guessed it with the symbolism of their two lords.  Still, it weirds me out.


    Not willing to lose the advantage, I call out cockily, ¡°I¡¯d like a crack at the dragon if I get to choose which lord faces which, but the Valkyrie wants to take you both on.  I¡¯m obviously not going to let her do that alone.  Would you care to make it two on two?¡±


    Karn¡¯s about to respond when Kozzurth begins her alien rumblings again, sickening me to my core.  Her expression is intensely indicative of her desire to single me out.  The giants listen to her raptly.  Karn laughs and shakes his head before turning to me.


    Karn¡¯s statement seems somber, but it¡¯s great news, ¡°Sadly, you¡¯ve outgrown your britches, and Kozzurth wants to deal with you personally.  You two, guide them to the empty field, the south one.  You two, with me.  Valkyrie is it?  Come along for your chance to challenge me.¡±


    Teuila grins at Karn¡¯s request, knowing it worked out the best for us.  But still, she steals a sad glance back my way.  It aches being apart, even for a short while.  After all, we¡¯ve already lost our psychic bond, losing physical closeness on top of that is an ever-deepening wound.  Plus, she¡¯s fearful for my life.  She has every reason to be.  This dragon is easily twice, maybe three times the size of the giant that I thought was Karn in the first place, or even larger.  I¡¯m horrible at estimating sizes.  No wonder the entrance to this place is so cavernous.


    I¡¯m led to the south, and I can hear Kozzurth licking her scaly chops.  She¡¯s salivating at the prospect of eating me it seems.  I wonder if undead Aasimovians taste different than live, or well, recently dead adventurers.  We arrive, and no one explains any sort of rules to me.  I expect the battle will begin as soon as one of us takes a hostile action.

 B 4 C 25: Dragons Head and Heart

    The two guards stand at a massively wide perimeter, walking circles around us at a distance.  Okay Reggie, plan this out.  You need a strategy.  Don¡¯t let Kozzurth¡¯s bulk fool you, she might be able to Flight of Dragons this.  Wait, pop culture from Earth?  Again?  Wait, the reference isn¡¯t even right, is it?  Ugh, stop getting distracted!  Right, right right right.  The acid storm clouds are a bit higher here, so she can get a couple hundred feet of distance.  I think that¡¯s still within range of some of the staff¡¯s spells.  Although, if she stands up to her full height, and flies even a few dozen meters off the ground, she¡¯ll easily be within range of the storm¡¯s constant lightning strikes.  I wonder if she¡¯s immune to those.


    Okay, so, anyway, Kozzurth may be able to fly, so let¡¯s just assume she¡¯ll take wing immediately, wanting to take advantage of her ranged attacks and mobility.  Whether or not she thinks I¡¯m any threat in melee, it would be the wise thing to do, making it easier to dodge any of my ranged attacks, and preventing all of my melee attacks.  Actually, let¡¯s use the embiggening magic right away as the battle starts, making my melee threat seem greater than it is.  Then drop the spell immediately to be less of a target after she¡¯s taken wing.  She¡¯ll probably sweep the area with breath attacks.  I¡¯ll be dodging as many as I can, but she¡¯ll be swapping and trying out each of her elements whenever she realizes one hasn¡¯t killed me, when I finally get caught by any given element¡¯s blast.  I¡¯ll need to figure out which of the spells in the staff will be best at damaging dragon¡¯s wings mid-flight.  Honestly either the ice storm spell, or the spell that ends magic, if it takes magic to keep Kozzurth aloft.  We sadly have to make an assumption here, and assume that we can ground her.  Otherwise she¡¯ll probably see that one of her elements is at least wearing me down somewhat, and just keep blasting me with that from the air.


    Once she¡¯s grounded, she¡¯s actually more dangerous and deadly, since she¡¯ll have already realized her breath attacks don¡¯t work on me.  I¡¯ll be relying on the danger wraps to guide me through reacting to any claw swipes, wing buffets, tail smacks, or biting lunges.  Oof, I don¡¯t like not being able to plan more specifically for those.  Regardless, I have to assume I¡¯ll be dodging them, scoring minor blows.  If at any point Kozzurth¡¯s mouth is open wide enough to enter without being chopped to bits, I¡¯ll dive in and destroy her from the inside.  Constantly be keeping her maw within range of the danger wraps to sense if she leaves such an opening.  If there¡¯s never an opening, I¡¯ll probably be aiming for her throat and her eyes, trying to reach her brain from the outside.  I¡¯ll probably have to keep up a single spell from the staff to keep Kozzurth grounded.  Hm, so I can¡¯t count on it to do my damage for me.  Anyway, since she¡¯s supposedly a master of at least three of the elements that I can conjure from the staff, possibly the only three, it wouldn¡¯t help much anyway.  Well, again, not sure if lightning would work.  She doesn¡¯t seem all that concerned with the clouds overhead.


    Alright, let¡¯s assume I take a puncture wound to my right lung, as I seem to do in nearly every gorram battle, and sometimes during random occurrences outside of battles.  Can I do anything about it?  I can¡¯t use my inventory magic to patch it up mid-fight.  Hm, lean into it.  Use the internal electrokinesis that I¡¯ve been able to keep running to dull the pain.  It¡¯s so hard to maintain a dual focus on that while doing other things and thinking other thoughts.  She¡¯ll start to favor attacks towards my supposedly weak side, not knowing it¡¯s my ruse, she¡¯ll make more mistakes, grant me more openings.  I just have to hope that I can penetrate Kozzurth¡¯s hide and deal enough damage during those openings, before I die of blood loss.  Or, you know, get eaten or eviscerated by Kozzurth.


    Alright, good enough plan.  Haha.  A plan where I assume I¡¯ll be impaled through my right lung is good enough?  Oh how low my standards are, haha.  Anyway, let¡¯s get to it.  Start casting.  I double my own size, which would still only be up to the shin, maybe the knee, of one of the smaller Colossi like Meredith.


    Kozzurth looks entirely unimpressed, which, I mean, fair.  She actually sits on her haunches, and I can see musculature and organs in her throat shifting around as she prepares an element to destroy me with.  She doesn¡¯t think she even has to take flight.  Well, there goes that half of the plan.  Let¡¯s shrink back down then.  Kozzurth is grinning, probably assuming my magic was an ultra-short-lived temporary boost in power.


    I¡¯m walking a slow circle around Kozzurth while she seems to be building a larger and larger breath blast, easily turning her head to keep me in its radius as she keeps her face low to the ground, cutting off most possible corners I could run to.  I¡¯m probably not going to be able to dodge this.  I don¡¯t want to just rush a dragon though.  Okay, if she hits me with acid, or a storm of physical ice shards, I¡¯m probably done for.  There¡¯s a tiny chance I might survive a while during a storm of acid breath.  Of her breath attacks, I¡¯m most leary of her cold though because I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s tangible shards, or a cooling, heat-sucking frost like opening a canister of compressed gasses to cool the area.  The second one wouldn¡¯t bother me too much.  Fire and frost?  Probably livable.  Acid and spikes of ice?  Probably not.  So, I¡¯ve got about a two in four chance of her hitting me with an easily survivable attack, either fire or frost.  I¡¯ve got the same odds of her destroying me on this opening salvo though, with acid or ice shards.  Ugh, fifty fifty survival rate within the first few seconds of the fight.


    I love you Teuila.  I hope your fight goes smoothly.  Mine may end in a loss in the next few seconds.  Phew, brace for impact, enhance my electrokinesis along my nerve endings to reduce the upcoming pain, just in case we survive.


    Kozzurth chose fire?  Fire of all elements?  Hahaha.  Maybe she thought she¡¯d be cooking me as a snack.  The other two probably would have ruined my meat.  The wonderful thing, for me, about a hostile dragon¡¯s breath attack is, well, no matter which element, it¡¯s voluminous enough to obscure the very target it¡¯s meant to be killing.  Perhaps less so with lightning, but still some obscurity for certain.  Fire might be a mixed bag if I casted a silhouette through the flame.  This flame is far too bright and voluminous for that however.


    Anyway, I really didn¡¯t expect the fight to be over so quickly.  Kozzurth had spent so long charging her breath that it¡¯s a massive cone of flame exploding outwards.  Hm, of course it did vaporize my new nightclothes.  I can jokingly assert that she¡¯ll pay for that.


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    The force of Kozzurth¡¯s own breath attack causes her maw to open to its widest possible angle.  I simply walk through the fire towards the epicenter of the blast, her face.  Now that I¡¯m here in front of her, unable to see her, and her unable to see me, I¡¯m able to at least sense everything about her teeth and face with my danger wraps.  I coil the muscles in my legs for as quick a leap as I can muster.  Now, I¡¯m diving into Kozzurth¡¯s open maw, and I¡¯ll be slashing around wildly until I can see the muddy world below through her throat.  I can actually holster the staff and wield two daggers, Taylynn¡¯s, and a Valkyrie dagger that¡¯s always attached to the armor whenever it¡¯s donned, since it¡¯s a part of the belt.


    The first thing¡¯s I¡¯ll take care of will be the laryngeal muscles or whatever that might be able to gag reflex squeeze me out of her throat.  I leap horizontally In place, spinning, focusing most of my force downward, until I¡¯m essentially lodged in her throat with my legs wrapped around some shredded muscle tissue.  I¡¯m slashing and striking again and again for what feels like minutes.  It almost looks like Taylynn¡¯s dagger cuts in front of where I¡¯m slashing, like the air it passes through becomes sharp and cuts my intended target before it arrives.  Weird hallucination.  Finally I see it, the murky gloom that is Rayileklia¡¯s open air.


    Kozzurth can¡¯t even stop the sack from expelling further continuous flame, or hasn¡¯t realized yet that it¡¯s not harming me, even as I¡¯ve partially severed her head.  The shower of blood that gushes forth washes the otherwise murky gray of everything in a stark crimson as far as I can see in the current gloom when I peak my head out through the hole I¡¯ve made.  Whoops, better finish the job.  She claws at her throat,  actually widening the hole for me as she tries to fish me out from inside her.  Wow, that sentence in my internal monologue.  Just.  Wow.  Luni would have a friggin¡¯ field day.  Oh, right, pay attention.  Hoy!  Ooopf.  Whew, okay, the top of her talon just kind of bonked me a bit, while accidentally ripping out even more of her own throat.


    Her tongue is lashing about, but I¡¯m down near the epiglottis anyway.  Should I sever it just in case?  It¡¯s, well, kind of really really big.  It took me minutes of slicing to get through a couple feet of her neck.  Should I, I don¡¯t know, just sit here on the back of it, sawing her tongue off?  Hell that sounds gruesome.  I¡¯ll just stab it a few times, maybe that will calm it down.  Ugh, pleh, bleh, pluf, blogh, argh.  Some of it went in my mouth.  Not sure if it was more blood, or saliva.  Ugh, note to self, don¡¯t stab tongues when you¡¯re inside the mouth containing that tongue.  Whatever it was was incredibly hot, it burned a bit going down as I accidentally swallowed it.  But, yay massive thermal resistance passive skill.  I really hope accidentally ingesting that doesn¡¯t come back to haunt me later.  Ugh, it probably will, especially since I¡¯ve now thought about it.


    As Kozzurth the Nocturnal begins to hopefully die, she hisses a last few words.  As usual, most are indecipherable to me.  There does appear to be a proper noun in there though, something like Turzin, Turzinch, Terzin, Terzinch, Tzin, Tzeench, something along those lines.  It¡¯s really hard to understand her normal speech, let alone her dying breaths, especially while I¡¯m standing on her tongue.  I do my best to stab upwards, hopefully at least prodding a brain stem, if not outright shanking her brain.


    I¡¯m not risking having some stupid magical healing ritual or something bring this turd back to life.  I finish beheading Kozzurth from the inside, gruesome as this may be.  I¡¯ll destroy this at the earliest possible convenience.  I think Teuila can handle it being tied to the b--, oh wait, the backpack is back at Keeley¡¯s.  Ugh.  Well, she can probably just haul it, well, maybe drag it in the mud.  She¡¯s strong enough, even though it¡¯s absolutely massive.  I guess the Colossi can keep the body as a source of dragon blood for a short while, until Kozzurth¡¯s corpse is dessicated anyway.  Not even Teuila could lug that thing around.


    Tiago is going to have a field day with this thing on so many levels.  He¡¯ll probably tease me about my earlier visceral reaction to being called a dragon slayer.  He¡¯ll probably have a very stern ¡°I told you so¡± for George.  Lastly, he might be able to get some sort of alchemical or medical reagents from this.  I mean, a dragon¡¯s head.  Seriously.  About the only thing more potent in lore is probably its heart.  Though I¡¯ve a feeling if I try to rip that out and drag it back to The Brook, I¡¯ll start an all-out war.  The head¡¯s symbolic, the heart is a crass victor¡¯s trophy, and contains some of the blood they¡¯ve been basing their society around.  Plus, I want the head destroyed so no one can do any funny business re-attaching it and reviving the body.  Not even the Aasimovians in some sort of, I don¡¯t know, revenge zombification.  More likely they¡¯d do it as a way to honor the ancestors that were already eaten.  Maybe some day long in the future, they¡¯d even drop multiple souls into Kozzurth¡¯s body if they succeed at the great work in that scenario.  I¡¯m not going to let that scenario play out though.  Far too risky.


    Okay, just in case.  Just in case.  There¡¯s one thing I need to try.  I amble around Kozzurth¡¯s body for a minute, until I¡¯m where I think a heart should be.  While here, I fight to pry off a scale.  I¡¯m tempted to use the staff to blow a hole in her torso, but then I¡¯d risk damaging it.  After a fair bit longer than I was hoping to spend, I expose the softer flesh beneath her hardened scales, and begin carving my way inwards, hoping to find her heart.  Ugh, bluh, blech, phtooey, ptew, ew ew.  I¡¯m getting so much, I don¡¯t know, sinew and blood or just, viscera and stuff in my mouth, ugh.  Oh whew, finally.  There it is.  The organ is pulsating lightly as its temperature changes to meet that of the outside air.  Closing my eyes, begging the darkness residing behind their lids, I reach out to place my hands upon it, and beg the power within the heart to open a portal to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    Glancing around, it¡¯s fairly apparent nothing happened.  Yeah, I didn¡¯t think it would be that easy.  Still, we need to try just about everything.  Mostly.  I don¡¯t want us to risk ourselves too frequently on long-shot ideas though.  We can save those until we¡¯re out of other options.  Wait, does the heart look a lot smaller all of a sudden?  When did it shrink?  Eh, must be from coming into contact with the chilly air or something or other.


    One of the guards meets up with the other, and they exchange looks of disbelief.  I walk back to Kozzurth¡¯s head and climb atop it once more.  Looking at the stunned guards, standing on the nose of the severed head of their fallen lord, I call up to them, ¡°Oy, you two.  Honorable duel, I won mine, yeah?  How¡¯s Teuila doing?  Also, like, your lord is dead, so no more of that extortion crap.  Got it?¡±


    The two aim their weapons at me, so I aim mine right back.  There¡¯s tension in the air.  Do I seriously have to friggin murder every gorram stupid ahole around, for people to stop doing evil crap!?  Fine, my greatest sin?  Wrath be thy name, I unleash you.  Just as I prepare to wage battle against these two idiots, there¡¯s a polite cough from behind me.  Far too small and quiet to be Kozzurth, thank heavens.  I take a step back, and, once within my range, my danger wrap¡¯s senses tell me who it is.

 B 4 C 26: The First Flub

    Dawn?  How¡¯d they get here?  I guess they could march endlessly through the night.  They are possibly immortal, maybe, though neither of us would like to test that out.  It could maybe be used as a scare tactic, somehow.  Think Reggie, strategize.  Pft, hah, look how well your last strategy worked out.  Well, technically I did say that there was a distinct possibility of Kozzurth allowing an opening that would get me into her throat.  Anyway.  Okay, these two are loyal to at least one of the two lords, possibly both, and they¡¯ve just seen only one die.  Teuila¡¯s fight is somewhere in the distance beyond even their sight range, but they¡¯re probably assuming Karn won that battle, like a pair of idiots.  Not that the Colossi are unintelligent.  Far from it.  Just people in general tend to become or act like idiots when they¡¯re loyalistic and brainwashed.


    Hm, tiny flickering in the distance going upward, then falling back down.  Is that a flaming arrow?  That¡¯s a pretty big assumption, but I¡¯d hazard that it¡¯s true.  Well, Teuila is likely alive at least.  I wonder how she ignited her arrows.  If that was her anyway.  And it probably was.  More ammunition for this conversation though, literally.  Hah.


    I cross my arms, looking bored intentionally.  I rest my right elbow on my left arm, and my chin on my right fist.  I roll my eyes and sigh at the two giants as I indicate northeastward and say, ¡°See those flaming arrows in the distance?  That¡¯s Teuila signaling she won her fight.  Whether or not Karn is alive, well, that¡¯s doubtful.  Do you seriously want to go against the honor of the duel, and cause the two of us to slaughter your tribe?  When your lords granted us this duel to prevent exactly that?  You saw me slay a freaking dragon.  Do I really have to demonstrate how friggin screwed you are if you move that weapon even an inch closer to me?¡±


    I nearly burst out with laughter at my own cockiness.  Oh heavens, haha, okay, keep the laughter in my own mind, just in my own head, don¡¯t break character.  They would actually wreck me in an instant if they landed a blow.  Okay, good, serious thoughts, no more laughter.  Crap, Dawn¡¯s laughing behind me, it¡¯s going to make me laugh.  Heh, dang it all.  Okay, okay, roll with it, but make it menacing and maniacal.


    I slap my forehead to appear in disbelief of these two, and let the laughter out while shaking my head, ¡°Heh, hah, hahaha, hahaha.  You, haha, you saw me stand in dragon¡¯s breath, and you think what, a couple of feet of wood or metal are going to do me in?  Hahaha.  Oh that¡¯s rich.  Hahaha.¡±  I wipe a tear of laughter from each eye.  When I can finally quit my bout of laughter, there¡¯s another uneasy silence in the air.  The truth is, even a small bit of wood and metal is far more deadly to me than the dragon¡¯s breath.


    Dawn¡¯s expression rotates between awe, fear, and mirth.  It seems maybe they didn¡¯t witness me actually slaying Kozzurth.  Perhaps they¡¯d just arrived, and their earlier laugh was likely somewhat in disbelief of my feat.  The silence goes on for a while, and the two Colossi begin to exchange glances that tell of an unspoken conversation with their eyes.  Hopefully they¡¯re buying the bluff.


    Dawn is the first to break the quiet, ¡°Those three, the three at The Brook, they thought they were leading you to your deaths, they really truly did.  I was trying to catch up to warn you that it might be a trap.  Guess you didn¡¯t need the warning.  I didn¡¯t expect to find this.¡±  They motion to Kozzurth¡¯s corpse as they continue, ¡°Especially didn¡¯t expect to find any dragon, and more so never expected to find one slain by your like Rej.¡±


    One of the guards speaks up, having only noticed Dawn after they spoke, ¡°Who the hell is this pipsqueak now?  What, you kill our leader, then suddenly you¡¯re invading our land, trying to take it over, and expecting us to not fight back?¡±


    I call back, ¡°Oh screw you you idiot.  It¡¯s one friend who just caught up with us because they were worried about us.  You know, like you should have been worried about your lord taking on someone my size that wasn¡¯t afraid of a dragon, at all, in the slightest.  Seriously, go shove that weapon up your bum, go, do it.  You want to piss me off some more with any more wild accusations?¡±


    They seem annoyed, but also wary.  My outburst was tactically bad, but in-character for the cocky bastard I¡¯m playing right now.  I need to maintain the facade a bit longer yet while dealing with this pair of Colossi.  I do wonder why they aren¡¯t called called colossus in the singular though.  Or maybe Colossi is the singular, and the plural would be Colossii or Colossieses.  Get it together Reggie, back to reality.


    Apparently I¡¯d stood silent long enough that he¡¯s unsure of what happens next.  There¡¯s a dumbfounded look in his eyes, so I roll my own as I order, ¡°The extortion stops!  That¡¯s all I¡¯m asking of your tribe.  The ancestors go back, or they mill about the place, whatever.  They¡¯re no longer a source of food for the bloated lord anyway.  Nor is any of the gold that¡¯s left.  You should return it to The Brook, but return it, keep it, spend it in trade relations, I don¡¯t give a crap.¡±


    Dawn recoils when they hear that the ancestors were being fed to the dragon.  As well they should.  The enchantment that preserves their bodies likely didn¡¯t hold up well against dagger-like teeth as hard as diamond rending them to pieces.


    The other, the woman asks, ¡°So who¡¯s going to lead us now though?¡±


    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    I shrug, answering the question as if it were asked differently, ¡°Do you even need one?  A leader that is.  What did they actually do for you beyond order you to kidnap ancestors for food, and feed you guys some blood?  Seriously.  Anything beneficial.  At all.  Anything?  Nothing coming to mind?  Fine, since the title doesn¡¯t mean jack-all for any responsibility, I hereby name you the new leader of the Colossi.  Your name shall forever henceforth and forthwith have Leader of the Colossi of the Plains appended to your title.¡±


    The man starts to object, but she clubs him lightly in the face, just enough to stifle him.  I almost burst into laughter at the slapstick nature of it.


    I call out, ¡°Don¡¯t make the same mistakes as your predecessors.  Just be good neighbors, good people.  The people of The Brook don¡¯t deserve threats.  Have they ever even acted violently against you?¡±  I pause, awaiting an answer, then continue in the character of the cocky bastard, ¡°This pause right here?  It¡¯s so you can fill me in on all the times they¡¯ve been atrocious to you.  Yeah, that¡¯s what I thought.  Start by letting everyone know the hostility towards The Brook ends.  So, anyway, lead well, don¡¯t mess it up, or I¡¯ll have to be appointing a new leader.  If you catch my drift.¡±


    She nods, catching my drift.  Hm, I like that phrase.  It feels like surfing.  Or maybe hang-gliding.  To stay in someone else¡¯s driftwind, their wake, something like that.  I¡¯m probably mixing metaphors again, but I like mine plenty well enough.  Ah well.


    She does question my motives, or maybe intentions, ¡°Pointless but impressive titles aside, you¡¯re not demanding anything more?  Not going to try to become our rulers or impose your will on us at all?¡±


    I just roll my eyes at her, asking, ¡°Do I look like someone who has the time to impose their will on every random band of miscreants that I happen to have to punish for misdeeds along my journeys?  Sort it out yourselves and be better.  Never know when I¡¯ll be back this way again.  I¡¯d be far less lenient if there were a next time.  Like I said, new leadership.¡±


    Ugh seriously Reggie.  Another disgustingly brutal show of force, and threats of violence?  That¡¯s not a heroic thing to do.  That¡¯s a villainous thing to do.  Am I the villain?  Did I just ¡°what measure is a non-human¡± the plains?  No.  No, no no no.  I did not.  Don¡¯t start down a rabbithole like that.  Kozzurth was eating people and wealth, and Karn was enabling it.  Both with the threat of deadly force looming over the heads of everyone in Autumn Brook.  Hell, eventually the whole world.  Plus, I¡¯m pretty sure Harriet doesn¡¯t know that the ancestors were being eaten by a friggin¡¯ dragon.  How would a pacifist have handled this situation?  Hm.  I honestly think they¡¯d have been eaten.  Maybe there was no good choice.  I think I made the right choice amongst the few that were presented.


    The woman, apparently Helen, or Helena, nods absentmindedly as she tries out titles on her comrade, ¡°Helena of the Plains Colossi?  Nah, Helen of the Plains Colossi?  Helen, Leader of the Plains Colossi?  Helen, Plains Colossi Chieftain?  We¡¯ll stick with tradition, it¡¯ll be the two of us.  Come on Rej, help me pick.¡±


    I appear, and am, bewildered at her desire for my opinion when I realize she¡¯s facing the male Colossi.  His name must include Rej somewhere in it as well.  I really, truly need sleep.  I cannot maintain consciousness much longer, let alone maintain this facade much longer.  I mean, why would I have thought she was talking to me when she asked a Rej to pick out her name?  After saying something about tradition and the two of us, well, them.  Ugh, just proves I need more sleep.  I glance over my shoulder at Dawn momentarily, and they¡¯re still there, just kind of standing around.


    For some reason, my heart is incredibly warmed that Dawn is here.  I mean, I¡¯m grateful a potential ally came to warn us of danger at the very least.  But it feels like more than that.  I dunno, maybe I consider them a friend.  Even still, how did they track us?  With constant acid rain, even the Colossi footprints are mostly washed away in short order.


    I¡¯m about to ask Dawn in a whisper, but they ask me, ¡°Rej, um, your boss, your leader, you called her Teuila was it?  Is she okay?  You two looked super close.  Like, y¡¯know, y¡¯know, like, like a romantic couple.¡±


    I blush as I flash Dawn half a smile over my shoulder and whisperedly answer, ¡°Teuila¡¯s off that way a ways, fighting one of the two lords, that one¡¯s a Colossi.  You¡¯re right though.  She¡¯s going to beat herself up over not being able to fight the dragon, and also for not being at my side to protect me, since I¡¯m so much weaker than her here.¡±


    Dawn flubs, ¡°You what.¡±


    I barely contain a laugh, earning a snort for my effort.  I simply nod rearward, affirming I meant what I said.


    Dawn haltingly asks, ¡°I thought you were joking when you said she was stronger than you back at The Brook.  With those weird senses and stuff, that maybe you were equal and you were being modest.  You slew this enormous beast.  By the looks of you, barely a scratch on you.  A few scorch marks, mostly just discoloration on the armor, and maybe some blisters.  And.  You¡¯re telling me.  She needs a verbal modifier for how much more powerful she is than you?¡±


    I¡¯m going to lose it and laugh my rear off if Dawn doesn¡¯t stop with the questions, in such an exaggerated manner, so I change topics, ¡°How¡¯d you find us anyway?  Me specifically.¡±


    Dawn¡¯s body language is abashed at the edge of my danger wrap senses.  Dawn rambles, ¡°That¡¯s the weird thing.  It was hard tracking.  I couldn¡¯t keep up.  But, even though the tracking woulda been hard, shoulda been hard, was hard.  I just kinda, I dunno.  I felt where you were.  You specifically.  It was like I was following a trail I couldn¡¯t see, like a magic thread.  I¡¯d honestly have gone to Teuila first if the pull led me to her, or the two of you evenly.  No offense.  Just that you said she was the leader, so I¡¯d have figured she¡¯d need the info the soonest.¡±


    Huh.  That¡¯s.  That¡¯s quite odd.  I cast the aura vision spell from the staff, and sure enough, the thinnest possible thread seems to link Dawn to me.  I don¡¯t even think the vision allows me to actually see anything, so much as feel its microscopic presence.  But while that¡¯s odd enough, there¡¯s another odd thing.  I see Dawn¡¯s soul, external, and it looks chopped up, like there¡¯s two thirds or more of it missing, and worse yet, being unraveled into eternity in the skies above.  Poor Dawn.  I wonder if I¡¯m observing the soul right.  I also wonder if it has anything to do with their curse.


    I start to mention it, ¡°Dawn, your soul.  Has anyone ever looked at it for you?  It¡¯s, it¡¯s so shredded, it ¡ª¡°  I¡¯m interrupted in a big way.

 B 4 C 27: Shower Needed, Send Help

    A figure comes sailing in from the sky from the direction of the other battle, there¡¯s only one person it can be.  I smile happily as Teuila plows into the ground in a crashdown strike sending up a shower of mud and stone reminiscent of our time in the swamps back in the early days.  Only, you know, like, thousands of times more voluminous.  I spit several pounds of mud out of my face and wipe my eyes, trying not to laugh.


    Te yells, ¡°Cheers love!  Cavalry¡¯s¡ª oh.  Good job dink.¡±


    My brain BSODs for several moments.  After blinking enough times to reset my brain, unsure what set it off, I just smile at Teuila.  She gazes at the scene of destruction.  The massively charred triangle of ground, me standing atop Kozzurth¡¯s severed head, the Colossi nearby arguing about what Helen¡¯s title should be, and she might be able to see Dawn looking a bit timid behind me.  I hope that Dawn was in my leeward area so they didn¡¯t get too mud-covered.


    Dawn whispers, ¡°Holy shid you weren¡¯t kidding.¡±


    I crack up, laughing and I slip and fall off of Kozzurth¡¯s head due to how mud-slick it is now.  Yeah, I suppose it was probably a pretty impressive show of strength to see someone sailing in from out of sight range and smashing dozens of tons of soil away in a single strike.  I guess I¡¯m just used to how awesome Teuila is.  Oh man, I broke character, I¡¯m laughing and rolling in the mud.  Haha, ah screw it.  I¡¯ll just kill the Colossi guards Helen and Rej if they think I¡¯m weak for enjoying my love.  Jeebuz Reggie, violent much?  Brutal much?  Meh, I suppose so.


    Teuila, while snickering, helps me out of the mud, lifting me up.  We hug tightly when she suddenly spots Dawn behind me and yells, ¡°Dawny!  I didn¡¯t think we¡¯d see you til we wrapped this whole thing up.  Well, I guess that¡¯s still true, since we already did, and I didn¡¯t see you til just now.  But yeah, anyway, Dink, what¡¯s that about?¡±  Teuila asks while indicating the two arguing guards over her shoulder with a thumb.


    I¡¯m about to answer when Teuila adds, ¡°I was about to just kill my two after taking down Karn, but for some reason, heh, well.  After I kicked their leader¡¯s corpse a few dozen meters like a ragdoll, they ran away when I jumped towards them.  Who¡¯da thunk?  Right?  Want me to kill or scare off these two?¡±


    I roll my eyes and try not to laugh, ¡°Jeeze Teuila, hah, no, they¡¯re going to be the new leaders or something.  I sort of appointed them or something stupid.  It was dumb, I was playing a role and jokingly gave one a title to shut them up.  Kinda worked like a charm.  We need someone to lead these Colossi and get the word out between them to stop hassling Autumn Brook anyway, remember?  Karn¡¯s dead, so he¡¯s not going to do it.  Wait, were you really able to kick his body away more than a few inches?  He was massive.  Eh, it¡¯s you, I don¡¯t really doubt it.  But yeah, other than him, Kozzurth would never have caved.  So, yeah, someone who witnessed the fight is probably a solid choice to like, proxy or advocate or whatever.  I mean, I kinda don¡¯t really give a rat¡¯s arse what they do with their little society as long as they stop hurting and extorting their neighbors, y¡¯know?¡±


    Teuila nods, ¡°Right, right right, right righty right rightyo.  Uh huh.  Makes sense I guess.  And maybe, just maybe when I kicked his corpse it didn¡¯t go ragdolling, and only fwumped a limb to one side as a bone caved in or something.  Physics, y¡¯know.  Still, I mean, could still always just break all their legs at the knees on every single one of ¡®em or something so they can¡¯t walk to The Brook if they¡¯re going to be feisty dicks forever.¡±


    I snort a laugh and Teuila grins derpily, hinting that she¡¯s being playful and not actually desiring to kneecap every giant along the plains.  Dawn however doesn¡¯t realize that as they quail behind me.  Dawn probably realizes Teuila could absolutely carry out a threat like that, but doesn¡¯t realize how silly Teuila can be about violence.  Te¡¯s not some brutal monster, she¡¯s a playful protector with a jokingly smug braggadocious side.


    I flick my eyebrows at Teuila and flick my eyes towards the direction her battle was in.  She understands I¡¯d like a rundown of what happened.  Her smile goes so wide I want to just clutch my heart and drop dead from joy at seeing it.  She¡¯s so friggin¡¯ precious.


    Teuila brags as she excitedly, quickly rattles off the tale, ¡°It was an epic battle, you shoulda seen it.  So at first, his skin was too hard to pierce with any of my arrows, and he was way quicker than I was expecting.  I couldn¡¯t get a good angle at his neck or anywhere soft, so just straight melee with my spear was out.  Figured out a trick with the quiver so that the magic of the bow itself makes different kind of arrows.  Not like super awesome magical wind arrows from my own mana energy stuff, but still.  I started firing flaming arrows up as a distraction, but I realized that the fire made them stick in his rocky skin when they fell.  Once I saw that, I started luring him into the path of more falling arrows.  Basically I created a ladder, a bunch of ladders, for myself up his whole stupid body.  Not that I couldn¡¯t have just floated up to his face, but I don¡¯t like the lack of mobility from just floating around.  Wouldn¡¯t want to get caught in slow float-tion, slow floaty motion, you get it, by one of his swings, he was hella STRONG Ayy Eff.  Anyway, you can¡¯t imagine how surprised he was when I leapt so high off his dumb face that I left his reach.  I needed his height to keep the right momentum to get high enough without being a sitting duck.  Saw some of that lightning in the clouds up close and personal-like.  It followed me down along my spear.  Kinda melted the spear and burned my hands a bit when I plunged it into his cranium.  Anyway, so yeah, that was that finally.  Natch.  How¡¯d yours go dink?¡±


    Pshew, or phew, that could have been dangerous Te.  No need to spoil your mood about it though, so I¡¯ll keep it to myself.  It¡¯s also hella impressive.  Heck, the telling of it was impressive because she didn¡¯t pause for a single beat or breath.  I had to rapidly manually blink my eyes to keep my ears hearing her as she rattled off the tale.  I don¡¯t know how that works, but that was the requirement to be able to keep up with her.


    Since it¡¯s my turn, I try not to laugh as I relay the tale, ¡°I made a strategy for an epic battle, but had to throw it out the window.  She opened her mouth wide, I jumped in and cut her head off from the inside.  While she was breathing fire.  Natch.¡±


    I immitate the random vernacular Teuila¡¯s suddenly using instead of naturally.  Hm, hella?  Natch?  AF?  These seem like modern-day Earth slang.  Ugh, not this again.  Screw fakeworld and its memories, or, urgh, not memories, fantasies.  Yeah, their stupid fantasies.


    Teuila stutters, ¡°But, but, but, but, but dragon!  Big one!  Massive one!  Giant colossal huge one!  Epic fight!  Extreme adventure!  Just, just one move?¡±


    I bite my lips to contain my laughter, nodding.  I¡¯m not entirely certain she¡¯s not running a bit on me, but if she¡¯s not, I¡¯m not sure which she¡¯s more feeling; annoyed that there isn¡¯t a big story for my fight, disappointed at not fighting the dragon herself, or bewildered that I managed it so easily and quickly when we both know how weakened I¡¯ve become.  I honestly think that a lot of Kozzurth¡¯s power was just talk, thinking back on it.  She didn¡¯t need to actually demonstrate her power when her size inspired awe and fear.  Who knows, maybe the multi elemental thing was a lie too.  Though that organ in her throat did seem to shift colorful light.


    I ramblingly state, ¡°So, cryptozoologically speaking, Kozzurth¡¯s heart and head are probably both really valuable, but because I don¡¯t want to start an inter-settlement war, I figure we leave them with the heart, the Colossi can keep it, and it¡¯ll provide blood for a little longer.  I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯ll start shrinking without the blood eventually.  Probably will.  Kozzurth¡¯s corpse will dessicate over time, so, sometime in the future they¡¯ll probably maybe possibly start returning to human size.  Hopefully.  But even if not, Helen and Rej over there seem like they might have it handled in terms of keeping the peace.¡±


    Stolen story; please report.


    Jokingly I add, ¡°Pretty sure Helen knows I¡¯d come back and friggin¡¯ murder every last one of them if they hurt the people of The Brook any further.¡±  Dawn quails and quakes behind me for a moment, then becomes more resolute over a short while, realizing I¡¯m entirely on the side of Autumn Brook.


    I continue, ¡°But, yeah, so.  Like, the head.  Think you can get it home with us Te?  I have no friggin¡¯ clue how to get the ancestors home with us.  I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll follow us, and we can¡¯t carry an entire building with them in it.  And I am not entertaining the idea of chaining them up and dragging them behind.  Best I can imagine us doing is setting them free, and having one or more Colossi come with us dragging a ditch behind them, and creating a bridge across the chasm.  Ancestors couldn¡¯t really wander anywhere outside of the ditch, so they¡¯d eventually end up on the home side of the gorge at least.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s nodding along, ¡°Sure sure, yeah I¡¯ll drag the head.  Hm, yeah, that could work.  Maybe shore up the edges of the gorge so they don¡¯t accidentally stumble in.  They¡¯re kinda kookie.  Like, they don¡¯t really truly know what¡¯s going on around them entirely, but somehow, they sorta do?  It¡¯s weird.  Like that one picked that awesome spot at that tree.  So, they kind of know what¡¯s around them?  They just don¡¯t react to much around them that changes or moves or whatever.¡±


    Dawn hazards to ask, ¡°You two aren¡¯t, you¡¯re not serious, right?  You¡¯re not dragging that thing back to The Brook, are you?¡±


    I raise an eyebrow back towards Dawn as I glance their way, Te and I both ask, ¡°Why not?¡±


    Dawn clasps their stomach, which is odd, given they have no vital functions enabling them to be sick.  Dawn states, ¡°That¡¯s, no, just no.  Why would you even do that?¡±


    I huff, sighing, ¡°Hff, look, do you want them to possibly reattach it, and maybe figure out how to reanimate it if they¡¯ve seen any Aasimovians do that?  Are any of us sure that a dragon doesn¡¯t just reanimate on its own?  Or what an undead dragon might do that might be different than an Aasimovian ancestor?¡±


    Dawn raises a finger, curls it, raises it, curls it, and their mouth tries to form words for a moment before they admit, ¡°Ah, er.  Good point.¡±


    I chide, ¡°I¡¯ve got a giant serpent¡¯s head in my inventory, we wouldn¡¯t even be dragging it back with us if our magic worked right.  Oh, Te, are you willing to try?  If you focus on the idea of claiming it to your inventory for eight or ten minutes or so, and the things that would happen in the next few seconds, eight minutes in the future, for the entire time, it should pop right in.¡±


    Teuila raises an eyebrow and shrugs, ¡°I guess I can give it a go my wonderdink.¡±  She shoots me an incredulous glance and grumbles, ¡°One move.  Jeeze.¡±


    I try not to laugh.  I¡¯m still not sure if she¡¯s upset, bored by my lack of a story, jealous she didn¡¯t get to face it, or running a bit on me.  It¡¯s so hard to tell when we don¡¯t have our psychic bond.  Teuila lays her hand on the head, ignoring everything else going on around us for a while.  Teuila¡¯s muscles glow with the effort, along the lines that were lacerated when I tossed her a tether on our last day on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    Starting to worry for her safety I call out, ¡°Te, Te maybe it¡¯s not worth it.  I¡¯m sorry I asked you to try.  Te are you okay?  You can stop.  Please?  I love you.  Please be okay.¡±


    Teuila groans in pain momentarily, but completes the inventory interfacing.  There¡¯s an audible whoosh as air rushes to fill the void where the head once was as it disappears into Teuila¡¯s inventory.  She gleefully exclaims, ¡°Whew, hurt a little closer to the end there, but I got it!  It works!  It¡¯s that simple?  I mean, it sucks, and it takes way too long to use in combat, but really, we can really just wait around a while and have it be done?  We can buy so much more useful stuff!  Camping gear, food, everything!¡±


    She leaps at me and I worry I¡¯ll be bowled over into Dawn, but she reduces her gravity to near weightlessness, so I chuckle and spin her around as she wraps her legs around my waist and peppers my muddy face with kisses.


    Dawn coughs politely and averts their gaze, seemingly embarrassed at witnessing our shared affection.  I politely cough and Teuila looks around for a moment before also coughing and dismounting me.  That.  That¡¯s a weird sentence.  Also a lot of coughing.


    Dawn speaks from the side of their mouth, ¡°I uh, guess you two really are, huh?  Like, boss dating employee or something?¡±


    I snerk, choking on my own saliva as I try not to laugh, and Teuila¡¯s face contorts as she asks, ¡°Wha? Huh?¡±  Teuila catches on, laughing as she answers, ¡°Oh, oh jeeze.  We¡¯re not like.  I mean, okay, we¡¯re totally like --, yeah.  But not like that.  I mean, we¡¯re together.  Totally.  We¡¯re not some kind of --, like, no one is.  I mean there¡¯s no money changing hands for --.  Okay I mean Dink was paying for things.  But that¡¯s, ugh, only because I didn¡¯t realize it was so easy.  I¡¯ll just snag money from my own inventory from now on.¡±


    I continue to snort with laugher, accidentally sucking down acid rain drizzle for my troubles, coughing and laughing at the same time as Teuila explains and backpedals repeatedly.  Teuila grins wildly, widely, derpily down at me and playfully slaps me on the back, chiding me for choking on the drizzle again.


    Finally catching my breath, I explain, ¡°Teuila¡¯s my everything Dawn, when I called her boss, I just meant, on our planet, she always let me take the lead, I don¡¯t even know why.  I made so many stupid choices.  Te don¡¯t bother denying it.  I love you, but I¡¯m a dummy and we both know it.  So here, on this planet, where I¡¯m so much weaker than her, I want her to lead.  It¡¯s that simple.  We¡¯re just like, a couple of goons trying to make it from one place to another, living our lives trying to stay happy.  There¡¯s so much I want to fill you in on.  I really appreciate you worrying about us, and coming to warn us.  I¡¯d love to talk at length.  If, um.  If you don¡¯t mind, maybe hanging out with us?  Maybe, stuff.  Y¡¯know.  Te invited you, and, um, I think it¡¯d be cool too.  Especially to figure out, um, that other thing.¡±


    Dawn somehow blushes, despite not having any blood-flow.  Teuila looks back and forth between the two of us, and jokingly slugs me in the shoulder as she asks, ¡°Really, already?  We¡¯ve only been on this planet a few days, and you¡¯ve already got another g, uhh b, uhh, kissy partner?¡±


    Now it¡¯s my turn to blush, and I sense Dawn frowning as they stalk away quickly.  I shake my head, ¡°No, Te, I.  I didn¡¯t mean like that.  I¡¯d totally admit it if I did, you know that, right?  It¡¯s not like that.  There¡¯s something going on.  Dawn¡¯s soul, it, it¡¯s hurt.  Real real bad.  Can you see it?  I saw it with the magic in the staff.¡±


    Teuila shakes her head, ¡°Things don¡¯t look the same as back home.  I didn¡¯t know.  I¡¯m sorry dink.  I¡¯m really sorry.  Did I hurt them?  I didn¡¯t mean to hurt them by teasing you.  I¡¯m sorry.  Their aura is a little weird, but, well, I don¡¯t know what people¡¯s auras are supposed to look like here.  Like, Tiago¡¯s aura is different than everyone else¡¯s in Autumn Brook, well, other than Dawn, sort of.  Even those two are different, but, but there¡¯s something.  I don¡¯t know, they might not even know what they share in common.¡±


    I nod along, listening to Teuila.  When she¡¯s finished, I call out, ¡°Dawn?  Dawn are you still nearby?  We¡¯re both sorry.  Teuila was teasing me.  I¡¯m sorry.  I, um.  It¡¯s okay if you don¡¯t want to answer.  I, I really hope we see you again.  Even if.  I¡¯m just sorry.  Get home safe, please? Okay?¡±


    Dawn vanished far more easily than I¡¯m used to anyone sneaking away.  Like some kind of assassin.  Huh, maybe I should ask if they knew Aces, or if they¡¯re from Vale Valley or something.  Maybe that¡¯s why their clothing is so much more modern?  Ugh, modern.  What context does that even have?  Modern times are just current times.  It¡¯s not like I¡¯m somehow on Earth in its past.  Earth doesn¡¯t exist!  Grrr.  I wish these stupid broken memories would just go away so that I can, I can, just, ugh.  I just want to have normal thoughts, not be comparing things to some fake world all the time.


    Teuila pokes me in the bicep and gazes down towards the mud shyly.  She mumbles more apologies.  I even hear her sniffle, despite the constant boom of thunder and crackle of lightning overhead.  I wrap an arm around her shoulders and sigh.


    I console her, ¡°It¡¯s not your fault.  Shh.  It¡¯s not your fault.  I think they¡¯re okay.  They¡¯re immortal, they¡¯ve had plenty of time to learn how to respond to things.  They might just need a while before they realize you were joking.  I love you.  I love you My-Wings.  Truly, deeply.  It¡¯ll be okay.  I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve lost a potential friend.  Not yet.¡±


    Teuila rests her face between my neck and shoulder for a long while.  I sense a presence observing us at some point.  I¡¯m not sure if Dawn has been there the entire time, or only just returned.  I honestly hope it¡¯s the former, so that they might have heard our apologies.

 B 4 C 28: Ancestral Recall

    I shout at the two Colossi arguing about titles, asking them if they wouldn¡¯t mind helping dig a ditch for the ancestors to walk back in. They¡¯re not really interested themselves, but they¡¯re willing to get someone to help. I saunter back into the camp and bust open the weird prison pen the ancestors are milling about in. Some are just sitting around idly, doing nothing in particular. I don¡¯t know if those ones will ever wander back towards Autumn Brook.


    The observational presence continues along as we journey back to Autumn Brook, thankfully. Hopefully that¡¯s Dawn and not some new presence. Helen actually has Rej track down Meredith, Clint, and Dodge, to help with herding the ancestors and creating a ditch for them to walk along. Once we¡¯re certain the Aasimovian ancestors are all free, we walk the trail of the ditch ourselves, sort of testing its safety. Meredith and her two men outpace us quickly, since we¡¯re no longer in a rush.


    I¡¯ve been ready to fall over and pass out this entire time. My limbs feel like lead, and I begin to stumble more and more frequently. Teuila looks at me worriedly for a bit as she slows her pace to stay beside me. She reaches to support me a moment too late as I plummet face-first into the mud, losing consciousness.


    ¡°They say tha¡¯ magic is returning to th¡¯ worl¡¯ lad. Hear tell th¡¯ people of th¡¯ Hidden Heart are changing, some with skin like bark, some gaining antlers, some growing wings. And tha¡¯s not all. Hear tell of new creatures roaming about, little gobliny things, stuff from stories and legends.¡±


    I scoff at the utter nonsense. Returning to the world? It was never here to begin with. And there¡¯s nothing magical about a bunch of people imagining or claiming they have horns. Magic was definitely never here to begin with. Hell, as far as I can tell, we were never here to begin with, up until recently. It¡¯s as if our whole world and everyone on it just sprung into existence with a facade of history.


    Even for me. It¡¯s almost as if I myself only came alive in adolescence. No memories before then and such. Hell, even after that, it¡¯s almost like portions of the world still didn¡¯t even exist until I happened to venture far enough out into them. I wonder if I set a course for the Untamed Lands, if suddenly it¡¯ll be a neighboring kingdom, and everyone will remember that it has always existed, like they did with Khudia and Usledian once again?


    Or how they recalled Khudia and Usledian being at war with an unknown foe for whatever period, one that threatens to swallow them up under its own banner any day now. Next time I go out far enough and come back, they¡¯ll probably have a name for the hostile kingdom. They¡¯ll claim the unknown foe was known all along, and that they never claimed it was unknown. Wish I could prove it though.


    Either I¡¯m right, and everyone is affected by some sort of insanity as our world builds itself, or, or I don¡¯t know. There has to be a logical explanation though, for why people would never mention any neighboring cultures for over a decade, and no one would leave to take on a job at all. All of a sudden, we¡¯ve supposedly been a secret city of assassins this entire time. None of them are that good of actors, they couldn¡¯t keep up a charade of not being assassins for a decade or more, especially with no one leaving town to take on jobs. Honestly, I could swear our village was smaller in the beginning, just a single quad, barely an alleyway between two of the four buildings. There were never any construction projects, but our city in this valley has dozens of homes, and several taverns.


    Of course they all think I¡¯m crazy. Maybe I am. No rational person would believe any of the things that I posit. They¡¯d all just point out the fact that I already have problems with my memories, being that I can¡¯t recall the first eleven or so years of life at all. Maybe they¡¯re right.


    I sigh as I slump my back against the booth, sinking into my seat. I¡¯m going in mental circles. Grandpa Joe says these people to our east know magic. Eights and I have been taking on jobs for a long time now, they might be easier with magic. Maybe I could learn from them. The Hidden that live in the Heart of the Wilds have always seemed like good people, at least as long as they¡¯ve existed. Always been on good terms with us of Vale Valley. I suppose I can take a vacation for a few years to study magic if someone is willing to teach me, if it really exists. I¡¯m a relatively young assassin, and I look younger than that. I seem to age slowly, if at all anymore.


    W, w, what? What hap. Where. Who? Ugh. My face hurts. Koff, koff. Ugh, my mouth is full of stinging mud. Who am, no, where. Ugh. Oh, oh soft arms. Those, those are, they¡¯re nice. Those are Teuila¡¯s arms. Mm, this is nice. I feel so exhausted. But, I think I just woke up. Didn¡¯t I? Maybe I didn¡¯t sleep for long. Is Teuila sad? I could swear she¡¯s sniffling. I reach up to stroke her cheek. It¡¯s damp, but that doesn¡¯t prove anything in the constantly drizzling acid rain.


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


    Teuila startles, ¡°Dink! Oh my Dink. You¡¯re, you¡¯re okay! You¡¯re awake. I. Dawn came by a few hours ago. Said they got a feeling, they were worried about you. I tried waking you up for a few hours at first, but, but I, I guess I just thought maybe you needed some sleep. You didn¡¯t seem to be getting much rest from sleeping on the run, so, so I just stayed put. With you.¡±


    I smile up at Teuila, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Te. I still don¡¯t feel like I got much rest. Ugh, I do feel hungry though. Can we maybe hurry back to The Brook after all? I was happy to meander slowly, but I¡¯m starving. It feels like I ran another marathon after the last ones. Oh crud I can¡¯t even lift my arms.¡±


    Teuila frowns and frets as she helps me up. She looks me over, trying to find wounds I suppose. When she doesn¡¯t find anything, she just stares at me, frowning, for too long a moment. I start to feel embarrassed and recoil slightly, trying to lift my arms to wrap around myself. Te notices this and chuckles as she gives me a tight hug.


    Te asks, ¡°Want me to carry you? I mean, we took turns last time, but, well, I got a couple minutes of sleep just now, so I¡¯m probably good to make it back to The Brook.¡±


    I frown as I respond, ¡°That¡¯s not fair to you Te, I don¡¯t want to put that on you.¡±


    She bonks me lightly, ¡°Come on my wonderdink. In the end, back home, you were flying us everywhere. I can handle this. I used to dash with Lin all the way to The Hollow to hunt every morning, and come back. Y¡¯know? I can handle a few dozen miles or whatever. Hell, since you showed me how to access my inventory, I¡¯m assuming the same thing goes for evolution stuff? I could probably just go Valkyrie and get us home in a few minutes or something. I mean, not home home, but, you know, The Brook.¡±


    I wear a pouty frown as I¡¯m unsure how to respond, ¡°I, I worry though Te. It hurts me so much to use my magic, even more than it was in the end back home. It seemed to hurt you too just to use your inventory, that¡¯s not normal. Or, maybe it¡¯s because I gave you that extra mana as a tether when we were taking down the mite hulks one last time. I might have corrupted your magics. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    Teuila slugs me playfully, ¡°Oh come off it, don¡¯t worry. You didn¡¯t corrupt me Dink. I¡¯m fine. Screw it, I¡¯m doing it. You need food? We¡¯re getting you food, and quick.¡±


    Teuila glows slightly as she begins her transformation sequence. I want to say if we¡¯re going to use magic, we can just summon some fish or insect meat from our inventories, but she would probably just slug me again. Her slugging would be playful, light, soft, obviously. And she might maybe call me no fun. Heh. My eyes droop during the time it takes Teuila to assume her Valkyrie form. Before I can see if it even fully coalesced, I¡¯ve passed back out again.


    Hm, what, where? Ugh. I, I think I feel a little less tired. From when? Compared to who? Who. Why. I¡¯m, ugh. I blink harder and harder, and realize I¡¯m in the arms of someone I love, Teuila¡¯s arms. Right, right, Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, no, wait, Rayileklia. Right. Dead, alive, new world, giants, dragon. Apparently I can¡¯t really see semi-humanoid faces properly, everything just looks really human-ish to me. Teuila made fun of me and my old mental logs. Apparently basically each new critterkin I met I labeled the most human ever. That does sound like me.


    She wouldn¡¯t run a bit on me that hard, would she? I ask, ¡°Te? Te? You weren¡¯t running a bit on me about the faces, right? Like, all the human giants, you said they weren¡¯t just human giants?¡±


    Teuila frowns as she pauses her leaping strides. She looks down into my eyes and answers, ¡°Of course not. I, I¡¯m worried about you. I mean, I guess the faces thing is just, fine or whatever, since apparently you¡¯ve been like that your whole life. No wonder you thought you looked different in our eyes. No wonder you thought you were a human. Oh hey, I think Dawn¡¯s up ahead, we caught up from where they got ahead after we napped.¡±


    Oh, oh huh! Yeah! That makes sense! I remember looking through Lil¡¯s eyes, and I looked more put-together, and, and stuff. More than that, like, like my own preconceptions were still filtering even that. I¡¯m almost sure of it. I probably look even more Fae than I thought I looked in their eyes. Gosh. I guess this explains certain things about, koff, uh, heh, err. Embarrassing thoughts about various cuddle partners like Fawns At Sunsets. Ack. I¡¯m flushing so hard with embarrassment. My blushing this hot and hard feels like it¡¯s going to melt Teuila¡¯s Valkyrie armor.


    I accidentally say out loud, ¡°Holy fudge, yeah, no, she, whew, yikes, yeah. So hot.¡±


    Teuila starts to giggle at my nonsensical ramblings. I¡¯m not sure if she realizes I was interrupting myself, and avoiding commenting on my own thought train about Fawns At Sunsets¡¯ curves. Fawn was, whew, yeah, yikes. Ugh I¡¯m at it again. Wait, no, but then wouldn¡¯t that? No. No I don¡¯t suppose. Wait. Now I¡¯m confusing myself. No, Te is right. So is my earlier revelation. I just need to stop thinking about my various overly intimate snuggles with certain gorgeous women that I may never see again. There we go, now I¡¯m sad. That works.


    I mumble, ¡°I really love you Teuila. Thank you, for taking care of me, for choosing me, for being there, for being you. Thanks for making sure I was alright. You¡¯re amazing. I¡¯ll love you through however many lifetimes we end up having.¡±


    Teuila gives me an ¡°awe shucks¡± look as she playfully slugs me in the shoulder. I hear Dawn politely cough nearby, and I¡¯d like to wave to them. I¡¯d like to talk to Dawn and thank them for being worried about me and such. First though I want to make sure Teuila knows I love her. I mean, I know she knows. I just want to kiss her. I don¡¯t need to make an excuse for that. I reach up, or well, try to anyway, to kiss Teuila. My limbs still feel like lead, but at least I can slowly raise them. I try to bring her face towards mine but I¡¯m not sure if I pass out before or after I kiss her.

 B 4 C 29: Teuila the Trickster?

    Oof.  I¡¯m not sure which is more tiring, dreamless sleeps, or sleeps where it feels like I¡¯m having an entire extra life of adventure.  Oh hey, we¡¯re in The Brook.  I don¡¯t sense Dawn¡¯s presence anywhere.  Too bad.  I hope we¡¯re still on good terms.  I don¡¯t know what to do for them though.  A partially shredded soul that looks like it¡¯s being stripped away more and more over time?  That sounds awful, sad as newts in a desert.  Even if that¡¯s not what¡¯s causing their weird curse.


    Ah, apparently Teuila is shoving some of the emergency digital fish in my face and other provisions I had left at the Keel Over.  Yay non-mastication consumption.  Well, that works at least.  I¡¯m a lot less hungry.  Well, sort of.  My belly hurts.  There¡¯s a sort of cramped rumble.  We don¡¯t have the parts though, so it¡¯s not like I can toot to relieve it.  I mean, I guess I could spend a few hours shapeshifting up and down to make one?  That, that just seems like a weird use of my powers and time.  Plus all the pain I¡¯d incur, and all the bleeding I would do.


    Huh, Te¡¯s out of Valkyrie form.  I wonder if her transformation went smoothly, or if she ran out of Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian energy and lost the form, or if Rayileklian energy powers it for her now, or, just so many things.


    I ask, ¡°Te?  Your form?  Was it okay?¡±


    Te raises an eyebrow, ¡°Hm?  Yeah Dink.  It was all good.  Could only do the free jumps, but, well, my jumping with the full Valkyrie gear and some zero G.  It didn¡¯t take long.  I got kinda scared carrying around a copy of the spear.  I wish that form didn¡¯t come with that spear anymore.  But yeah, the spear is why I dropped the form when we got back to town.  Well, a little ways outside, and walked us in.  Um, Harriet might want to talk to you.  I kinda delivered a dragon head to her and Tiago.¡±


    I snort a laugh as my eyes flare wide.  I slap my hand over my mouth, unsure of where I am as I gaze around.  It seems like we¡¯re in our room at the Keel Over.


    Glancing around the room, I half expect to find some food that Keeley might have left out for us.  Spotting none, I pout, ¡°Awe, darn, none of the tavern¡¯s food?  How long have we been back?¡±


    Teuila blushes, chagrined as she scratches the back of her head, ¡°Sooooo.  Keeley might have dropped off a couple of portions of stew a half an hour ago or so, but you weren¡¯t waking up, and I figured I could at least take care of you the way I used to.  I uh, I ate both shares.  Sorry my Dink.¡±


    I pout at her with wide, sad eyes for as long as I can muster, playfully guilting her before I burst into a chuckle and reach over to smooch her.  My smile angles widely across my face as my eyes begin to droop again.


    Yeesh, crap on a cracker Reggie, stay awake for once.  Come on pal, you got this buddy.  Hah, now I¡¯m talking to myself like Lil in my own brain.  Am I really that sleep deprived?  What is even going on with me?  I stumble off of the bed, falling to the floor, Teuila rushes to my aid but I wave a hand.


    I lie, ¡°I meant to do that.¡±  I play it off as if I¡¯m trying to do calisthenics, performing a few push-ups.  We¡¯re both laughing too hard for me to take it too seriously, but it does help wake me up a bit.


    Teuila hems and haws as she paces around the room a bit, she wants to ask something, but seems nervous to do so.  I roll over onto my back and stare backwards up at her as she paces around behind my head.  I raise an eyebrow when I catch her glance.


    Te says, ¡°I, I know we just went clothes shopping the last time we were in town, but my jammies are ruined from acid, and yours, well, it¡¯s friggin¡¯ vaporized Reggie.  You stood in dragon fire ya Dink.  Can, can we maybe, later, when you¡¯re feeling okay, go back?¡±


    I chuckle as I smile widely, ¡°Of course Te!  You¡¯re so sweet.  Why wouldn¡¯t we be able to?¡±


    She blushes and rambles a bit absentmindedly, ¡°Well, I just, I¡¯m starting to kind of like it here, maybe even, ya know, a lot, but, I don¡¯t want to slow down your quest, and you¡¯ve been patient, and said we could slow down, but I don¡¯t think you thought that meant shopping repeatedly, and, and.  I just.  I don¡¯t want you to hate me.¡±


    I pout, ¡°Te?  Te, I could never hate you.  I think I understand what you meant, like, maybe resenting you if the quest was super high priority over everything else for me.  It¡¯s high priority, but you, Lil, Lu, Lucky, and our fam back home are way, way more important to me than whatever weird self-imposed quest I¡¯ve got going on.  I mean, characters from a dream?  Well, we, sorta kinda have proof that some of them exist.  But that doesn¡¯t matter.  You¡¯re what matters.  I love you.¡±


    Teuila blushes and fidgets, spinning side to side and back with one foot flat and the other raised, its toes pointed into the floor.  I slowly drag myself up to meet her.  We happily embrace, and she tries to muffle a Shellcracker Family Squee.  I smooch all over the corners of her lips and eyes in response.


    Teuila mumbles, ¡°I, um, was playing around with my inventory.  I can¡¯t remember what¡¯s in it, but I remember that we hunted the queen a bunch of times, and never even had the time to sit down and look at the loot.  Heck, I even got some magic stuff from the insect warrens with Lin, but like, I was, um, kinda maybe a little preoccupied with her lips to think about eye-dee¡¯ing the stuff.  Then I forgot I got it.  But since I forgot what all I got, I don¡¯t know what to call out of my inventory, ¡®cause I don¡¯t know what¡¯s all in there anymore.  And, like, I don¡¯t want to cave in the Keel Over if I accidentally summon like tons of gold or something dumb.  Ya know?¡±


    Stolen novel; please report.


    I¡¯m struggling to hold in my laughter as I respond, ¡°Haha, holy crap, me too!  I don¡¯t think I even looked at the loot from the first time I killed the mite-hulk queen on Lord Agni¡¯s back.  I was so freaked out about the apocalypse.  Everything from then on was just so hectic.  Hell, I remember the mite-hulks dropped some really amazing metal materials.  I could swear some of it was like, straight up mythical stuff, like large sheets or plates of adamantine or mythril or something.  I do remember that the entire adventure on Lord Agni¡¯s back, I shoved everything into one corner of my inventory, kind of like its own backpack in an MMO.  Uh, never mind the reference.¡±


    Teuila asks, ¡°What reference, like old wow or EQ or something?¡±


    My brain BSODs super hard.  When I return to reality, I don¡¯t remember what was just said that caused me to space out.  I rattle my head as I blink repeatedly, ¡°Huh?  What were we.  Something about loot.¡±


    Teuila frowns at me, ¡°Dink?  Are you okay?  You made a reference, said to ignore it, and I guess I didn¡¯t ignore it.  Did I trigger something bad?  You weren¡¯t like panting or doing the eye pupil stuff.¡±


    I flex my jaw repeatedly, not realizing I¡¯d been clenching it as I respond, ¡°Oh, no, no my dearest Teuila.  No, we¡¯re cool.  I uh.  I don¡¯t remember exactly what happened though Te.  Guess I was just kind of gone for a bit, spaced out.  But yeah, so, if we had a safe place, and like a permanent base of operations, I¡¯d totally do what I think you hinted at, like just summoning my whole inventory just to see what the heck is in it.  Right?¡±


    Teuila nods excitedly, then frowns, ¡°Totally! Wait.  Poopbutts.  We¡¯re never going to have one of those on Rayileklia.  We¡¯ve got to do your quest, and hopefully that gives us an answer on how to get home, then we have to meet up with Lil and the two Lus and get them home.  We probably won¡¯t stay anywhere as long as we have in Autumn Brook, will we?¡±


    I offer Teuila a sad smile, ¡°You¡¯re, well, kinda right.  I mean, that¡¯s what I¡¯m hoping at least.  Even if we take it a little slowly.  I¡¯m sorry Te.  You seem to be really enjoying our time in Autumn Brook.  I can¡¯t tell you how happy it has made me to see you so joyful.  Just, I truly can¡¯t express it.¡±


    Teuila socks me lightly in the shoulder and literally says, ¡°Awe shucks,¡± before kissing me and throwing me into a pin.  I laugh and trade places with her, pinning her, and we roll around laughing until there¡¯s thumping coming from the kitchen.


    Keeley shouts, ¡°Oy, if you ¡®ave need of privacy, ask first, and don¡¯t go destroying my room while you¡¯re ¡®ankying and pankying!¡±


    I blush, somewhat mortified, but mostly struggling extremely hard to hold in laughter, my face drawn long and my lips pulled tightly backwards.  Teuila snorts after seeing my face, and gives up holding in her own laughter.  Hah, haha, oh crap.  I can¡¯t hold mine either.  Ugh, that woman is going to want to murder me before we leave town.  We¡¯re such doofuses.  Ow, my jaw.


    I flex my jaw again several times, just stretching my mouth wide and hanging my lower jaw as far as it¡¯ll go, and then rolling it side to side slowly.  Ugh, there was some clicking.  That doesn¡¯t feel good.  Teuila sees me messing with my jaw, so she grabs her skull from the top and bottom, and cracks her neck hard to each side.  I shudder at witnessing her violent display, but she just grins derpily at me.  I give her a nervous chuckle.  I hope she never does that again, the neck cracking, not the grinning.  Yeesh.


    Teuila lifts me up and hoists me into the air, tucking me under her armpit, I¡¯m about to object when she shushes me with a finger to her lips.  I furrow my brow curiously and try to figure out what she¡¯s up to.  Teuila undoes a latch on the window, crawls out of it, holding me, floating just outside the window, and she shutters it behind us.  She drops us softly on the ground, and dusts me off.  She¡¯s struggling so hard to not laugh.  I¡¯m still not entirely sure what she¡¯s up to.  Oh no.  Teuila leads us around to the front of the Keel Over.


    I wave embarrassedly at Keeley as she stands in the kitchen doorway watching us enter with an unamused look on her face.  We walk back to our room, and Teuila shoves me under her arm again.  Please tell me you¡¯re not thinking what I think you¡¯re thinking Te.  I won¡¯t be able to keep it together.  Yup, she is.  We¡¯re out the window floating down once more.


    We walk around to the front of the Keel Over again, and this time I have to hide my entire face from Keeley as I wave to her, so that she can¡¯t see how hard I¡¯m fighting laughing.  There¡¯s a very ¡°what the devil,¡± expression across Keeley¡¯s face.


    When back in our room, I muffledly mumble, ¡°We gotta go out the regular way Te, I¡¯m about to lose it, my cheeks hurt so hard from holding in this laughter.¡±


    Teuila pouts, but she grabs the large backpack, probably her excuse for us returning.  We walk back down the stairs, carrying our belongings, waving to Keeley as we leave.  I can see that she peers through the vent and listens to it, possibly to see if there are any more copies of us hanging out in the bedroom.


    When we¡¯re a block or two away, I can¡¯t hold it any longer and I lose it, laughing my head off, holding my belly as I double over.  I rub tears from my eyes and barely keep upright.


    I admonish Teuila, ¡°Te, Te that was so bad, hahahaha.  Please, please never do that again to someone who already hates me so much?  Hahah.  Oh wow, we are soooo on her shid list as she might call it.¡±


    Teuila is actually rolling on her back in the mud with laughter, earning us some stares from the other townsfolk.  I blush but just offer them a helpless shrug and laughing smile.  Te finally stands, brushes herself off, and thumbs towards the town hall sort of meeting space.  I nod, realizing that we should probably speak with Harriet, since Te said she wanted to talk to us.


    We head over, and fortuitously, it seems Harriet is in.  Less fortuitously, there¡¯s a gloomy air about the place.  Harriet bids me sit, but as Teuila begins to sit with me, Harriet shakes her head.  Teuila frowns, but the glares exchanged between the two women somehow let Te know how serious Harriet is when she points towards the vestibule, possibly even meaning outside.  I gulp as Teuila passes me a sad, frightful glance, worried for me.  Teuila mouths silently to me that she¡¯ll be just outside.

 B 4 C 30 Admonish the Adventurers

    After Teuila begrudgingly leaves, Harriet faces me and orders, ¡°I gather from your Teuila that you are responsible for the enormous head at the back of the apothecary.  Tell me the story again, slowly, in only your own words.  Exactly what happened.¡±


    I relay the mindless trek to the Colossi camp, the meeting with the external guards, slaying them to earn the right to talk with who we thought was Karn, slaying who we thought was Karn when he tried to feed Kozzurth our leverage.  Well, actually, Karn finished him off.  We just stunned him.  We truly wanted to discuss things in a peaceful, political and kind manner.  There was even a sort of reasonableness and honor to Karn¡¯s desire for us to not wipe out his tribe.  He was fully on board though with letting Kozzurth completely eat all of humanity over the years, every single last small person, human.  He said only then would he try to earn his title.  He wouldn¡¯t relent, and obviously Kozzurth wasn¡¯t going to, she was, ugh, malicious to the core.


    I try to gloss over the battle, so that I don¡¯t sound like I¡¯m trying to impress her with my magic or anything.  She prods for a few details and I relent.  Harriet seems inscrutable currently, I¡¯m not sure what her emotion is when she hears how I defeated Kozzurth.  I can¡¯t read her at the moment.


    Then I talk about facing off with the two Colossi who had watched our entire duel, trying to talk them out of anything rash.  I played the part of a cocky individual, but that¡¯s not who I really am.  I skip mentioning Dawn showing up, and just sort of ramble about how what finally ended the situation was telling one of the two that they can have whatever title they want for ruling the plains.  That I threatened to maybe possibly return someday, and if they were still being dicks, change their leadership again, hinting at slaying whoever was in charge.


    Harriet exclaims, ¡°Excuse me, you what?¡±


    Confused, I respond, ¡°What what?  I mean, you had to know it was likely going to end with us killing their leaders, right?  I¡¯m not proud of it, but I¡¯m sure Te, well, we both told you why we had to do it, and I reiterated just now.  Genocide, all humans over a long period of time.¡±


    Harriet shakes her head, ¡°No, you just appointed someone ruler of the plains?¡±


    My face contorts as I raise one brow, ¡°I guess, sort of?  It was a pointless title, they¡¯re barely a society, more just a bunch of people struggling to get by.¡±


    Harriet frowns and prods again, ¡°And you don¡¯t see anything wrong with that?¡±


    I try not to pout, and fail, ¡°I, I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re getting at.  It wasn¡¯t a real appointment, I just wanted her off my back while also hopefully scaring her into maybe trying to keep the peace, to you know, avoid that war that you didn¡¯t want.¡±


    The Mairess looks exasperated, almost shocked, ¡°You entered a region, slew its rulers, which, I¡¯m not arguing, this time was likely the right thing to do, but then go out handing appointments by right of conquest?  Continued coercion through extended threat of possible future violence?¡±


    I cringe and frown, ¡°It¡¯s, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m appointing her as a puppet ruler or something, I have no interest in how she governs, if she even governs at all, it sounded like Karn was no sort of leader, just a bit of a despot.  I even left all the gold, I could have un-conjured it.  I don¡¯t want anything to do with the situation, she seemed to think they needed someone to step up, so I just said a few words to give her the confidence to do so.  She even admitted the title was pointless.  I¡¯m intending to never head back down around that region ever again if I can avoid it.  I, I have too many experiences where something like this becomes a repeat occurrence.¡±


    Harriet seems to mumble the word good when I insinuate I¡¯m never returning.  It stings, and I think it implies she wants me to never return to Autumn Brook.  She also has a look of distaste about me having left the gold.  I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s because Autumn Brook could really use the money, or if because now it sounds like I¡¯m trying to excuse my actions by having bribed them.


    Harriet asks, ¡°Do you even know the name of the woman you gave dominion over the plains to?¡±


    Crap, what was it again?  I know this, I know this.  I didn¡¯t just hand it out to someone that turns out to be some nameless faceless grunt that disappears forever after being out of a scene.  It¡¯s not a fiction or a movie.  She¡¯s a real person, she had obvious desire to see her tribe survive.


    Oh!  I reply, excitedly, ¡°It was Harriet!  No, I mean Helen, Helena, sorry.  Sorry, your name and face were on the tip of my tongue.  I mean, ugh.  The inside of my head is a nightmare, but she was trying out name and title combinations, and all of them included Helen, some included Helena.  I swear.¡±


    Harriet looks incredulous and disappointed.  Well hell, does she not believe me because I misspoke and used her name?  Does the truth that followed end up sounding like trying to recover?  Ugh.  I really don¡¯t want to be banned from a town of pretty much wonderful people.  If I tell her that the other Colossi¡¯s name was Rej, would she just think I¡¯m self-absorbed and can¡¯t even come up with other fake names for my recovery story?  Bluh, I don¡¯t want to risk it.  Ugh, I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m making an enemy out of such a staunch, caring, moral, leaderly person.  I really, truly need to let someone else handle the talking.  Two things I should never do are try to take on a task that requires super speed, or one that requires talking.  Bluh.


    I guess I¡¯m kind of starting to see her point though.  Fudge.  Was that really a bad choice though?  I wasn¡¯t appointing a dictator or anything.  It was a meaningless platitude.  I didn¡¯t even assume I had any right to rule or anything.  It probably comes off though as if I felt entitled to their, well, everything, after beating up their leaders.


    Harriet sighs as she states, ¡°Look, adventurer, mercenary, child, assassin.  For the ancestors you¡¯ve saved, Autumn Brook will always be in your debt.  A debt I do hope you¡¯re kind enough to never collect on, though I¡¯m fearing and doubting that case more and more.¡±


    I shake my head and wave my hands palm forward placatingly, ¡°No, no of course not.  I¡¯m not.  I swear I¡¯m not trying to coerce you or anyone or or, or, or.  I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry.  There¡¯s.  I, I just want to find a way home.  I didn¡¯t mean to make a political mess.  I don¡¯t feel like The Brook owes me anything, I would just be eternally grateful for directions to the nearest Imperium cities and villages.  When I come up with a cover story, I won¡¯t even mention Autumn Brook or Aasimovia in case we cause trouble, so that it never finds its way back to haunt you.  I swear it.¡±


    She shakes her head, sighing as she takes her forehead in her right hand.  I start to plead, ¡°Please, please, don¡¯t banish me, or well, no, it¡¯s fine, you can banish me, I¡¯m the idiot who who, who, I¡¯m the one.  Please don¡¯t banish Teuila.  She seems to really be falling in love with The Brook and its citizens.  Please.¡±


    Harriet clucks her tongue and snaps her fingers, drawing my attention and shushing me simultaneously, ¡°It¡¯s obvious that while you have perhaps the knowledge of someone with many, many years of life, you do not have a broadened wealth of experience to guide you.  I fear San Tiago was right.  We sent literal children into a bloody and hostile situation.  For that, I am sorry.¡±


    I want to feel insulted, but she¡¯s not wrong.  I remain silent, waiting for her to continue.  After a long pause, she does, ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s unfair of me to think less of you, but reality has its unfairnesses.  I know you¡¯ve tried to deny when your love extols you as a hero, and you are right.¡±


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    My jaw drops as my expression becomes mortified.  Harriet continues, ¡°Chin up though, you¡¯re not as monstrous as you¡¯re fearing right now.  I just think you could benefit from a few years of hard work around people.  Not my people mind you.  I don¡¯t think we have what it takes to temper you.  I¡¯ve been talking around, getting the story as best I could, Marshal, Keeley, Berinon, Tiago, George, I even had a short message relayed to Daffodil and back, and some of my eyes and ears in the village who¡¯ve watched you in and around it, including your meeting with a mysterious ghost from The Brook¡¯s past.  Your story is consistent, I don¡¯t believe you¡¯re a liar.  I simply don¡¯t believe you¡¯re ready for the responsibilities that have been thrust upon you, seemingly time and time again in both your lives.¡±


    I¡¯m weeping openly, and gulping back snot as she says this.  I mean, she¡¯s right, I¡¯ve always said that about myself.  I¡¯m not a hero, I¡¯m not a leader, people shouldn¡¯t look to me for any sort of guidance or leadership.  So I agree, ¡°I, yes, I agree.  I¡¯ve admonished myself, I¡¯ve self recriminated, I¡¯ve deliberated and tried so hard to find others to take the responsibilities, but they so often landed in my lap in critical times.  Times where action was necessary in an instant to, to save lives.  I know I¡¯m not a hero.  I know.  I just.  I don¡¯t want people to die.  I want people to lead happy, peaceful lives.  And ¡ª¡°


    She interrupts me, saying what I was going to say, ¡°You just don¡¯t know how to go about getting them there.  At least, through any other means than violence or threats of it.¡±


    I nod, sniffling.  Harriet sighs while shaking her head.  She removes her hand from her forehead, balling it into a fist as she strikes the table, startling me slightly.  She stands and ambles around the table.  As she reaches me, she walks a step past to stand slightly behind me with a hand resting on my shoulder.


    I can sense her shaking her head as she says, ¡°I do not know what unkind fate guides you, or if fate itself thinks it¡¯s making a hero out of you.  I¡¯ll not banish you from The Brook, but I want you to think on your actions.  Hell, I doubt it would turn out well for anyone that tried to force you to do anything you didn¡¯t want to do.  Though I¡¯ve a feeling you would guilt yourself into accepting a banishment.  You¡¯re not an evil person, Reggie Shellcracker.  You¡¯re just not quite good, not yet.  I suppose the same can be said of all of us.¡±


    Harriet pauses only for a single beat before continuing, ¡°We¡¯ve all made mistakes.  Yours however are riskier to make, and perhaps in the long haul, these last few choices in these last few days won¡¯t turn out to have been mistakes at all.  But you did not reflect upon the nature of the choices you made.  You didn¡¯t even realize the issue you had created.  You wield cataclysmic cosmic forces, and destiny seems to swirl around you.  I don¡¯t know how many hereafters your soul has been through, how much strife and struggle you¡¯ve truly seen.  I couldn¡¯t even hazard a guess.  I only wish you peaceful days.  For your sake, and for those around you.  I¡¯m sure your two matrons will always be proud of you, in every lifetime, but try to do them proud.  Be the best Reggie you can be.¡±


    She pats my shoulder and walks to the door, holding it open for me.  I turn to speak but she frowns at me, so I scuttle out.  Teuila is waiting outside as she said she would.  Teuila truly doesn¡¯t want to leave my side longer than enough to have a private conversation, as she pledged, for my sanity.  Teuila¡¯s veritably seething.  I guess she probably heard that, huh?  That, well, that could have gone better.  This sucks.  Ugh.  But did I really not reflect on those last few choices?  I mean, it was literally just a conversation with some idiots who were going to get themselves killed by attacking me.  My choice saved their lives.  Or, spared them anyway.  I mean, I wasn¡¯t about to let them kill me.  Does she think that would have been the ethical choice in that situation, to just let them kill me and make their own appointment by right of conquest?


    No, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s what she was hinting at.  Ugh, she¡¯s right, I don¡¯t understand.  What was bad about it?  Me, standing on someone¡¯s corpse, telling someone else to rule others and keep them in line.  Seriously Reggie, you can¡¯t think of anything bad about it?  Oof.  That¡¯s, that¡¯s not fair.  They were literally giants, the standing on the corpse thing was mostly to be closer to be able to talk to them.  It wasn¡¯t some sort of power play out of disrespect.  I may have played the part of the cocky individual that would do that, but that¡¯s not what it really was.  I mean, she even admitted herself, that maybe my choices won¡¯t turn out to have been mistakes!  I don¡¯t get it.  Why does this conversation with her hurt so much?  It¡¯s not like she offered alternative solutions, any sort of guidance to help me grow from my mistakes, what sort of options I may have overlooked.


    Does she think I should have, I don¡¯t know, ran around the entire plains for a month gathering up all the giants to oversee a democratic assembly?  Make them all elect a new leader or leadership style or governance?  I don¡¯t have that kind of time!  Plus, plus, like, why would I be any more qualified to do that, than to just say ¡°Hey you, take care of your people.¡±?  If they want to be governed in a different way, they can sort it out, can¡¯t they?


    Teuila slugs me gently in the shoulder, seeing me caught in my own head, so I relay my last few minutes of thought to her.  She¡¯s pissed at Harriet on my behalf, but I don¡¯t want her to be angry with anyone.  She has been almost the happiest I¡¯ve ever seen her, at least a few times in The Brook.  I don¡¯t want her to give that up.  I suck down a ragged breath, gasping as it turns into a sob.


    Do I even want to know how Tiago feels about us at this point?  There¡¯s a growling voice coming from within, I can tell Harriet is speaking angrily with someone.  Harriet¡¯s voice is a hoarse-whisper, quiet but laced with fury.  Teuila looks confusedly at me as I tilt my head ever so slightly.


    Harriet growls, ¡°I¡¯ve done as close as I¡¯m willing to what you¡¯ve asked.  I¡¯ve admonished the adventurers.  Now, you¡¯ll be leaving The Brook alone?  Actually, no, that¡¯s not a question, that¡¯s an order.  Get the hell out of my town.  Or maybe I¡¯ll plead that they handle you for me.¡±


    My jaw drops, and Teuila still looks confused.  Do I confront Harriet about this?  Do I tell Teuila?  I, I mean.  Harriet did say the way she admonished us was a way that she was willing.  So it¡¯s not like her feelings on the subject weren¡¯t basically the truth.  Who was she talking to?  Someone almost as scary as us, but could be scared off by us?  Someone who wanted us sad?  Or maybe someone who wanted us toughened up?  Or, or maybe to grow morally?  Fuuuuuudge.  What the hell!?  Ugh.  Who can I even t¡ª  Dawn.  I can tell Dawn, and ask Dawn if they¡¯ve seen anyone suspicious sneaking in to speak with the mayor.


    How did I hear this exchange but not Teuila?  I, hm.  It¡¯s like I have hypersensitive hearing sometimes.  Kinda like super hearing.  Mostly just painful.  Like when my pulse rams into my head so loud that it cranks my tinnitus up to full blast.


    Wait, did Harriet just say, ¡°They¡¯re not safe here¡±?  The door swings open, and Harriet  looks incredibly upset.  She seems about to start off in search of something, or someone, then spies us in the corner next to her.


    The mairess, seeming surprised to see us, steels herself and says, ¡°I know that I said I wouldn¡¯t banish you, so hopefully you won¡¯t think of this as such.  I¡¯d like to book you a fishing charter across the lake to help you get to the Imperium for tomorrow evening at the latest.  Two passengers should be easy enough to accommodate.¡±


    Teuila looks furious but I ask, ¡°Could, could you possibly make it three?¡±  With my brow furrowed I mouth the words admonished the adventurers to Harriet questioningly, shock draws across her face.  She shakes her head at my mouthed question.  I could swear her expression is almost fearful at my mouthed question.


    Harriet answers my spoken question affirmatively, almost jokingly chiding, ¡°I certainly could, but which of my citizens are you thinking of abducting?¡±


    Teuila cocks her head at an angle now, less furious, more curious how I¡¯m going to answer.  I state, ¡°A ghost from Autumn Brook¡¯s past.  I think.¡±


    Harriet¡¯s expression becomes thoughtful, and her gaze far away as she slowly nods.  She mumbles, ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do.  Good luck with that abduction.¡±


    She glances around before adding, ¡°You did say your heart¡¯s desire from Autumn Brook was simply directions.  After the river landing just north of Lake Ciao, you¡¯ll head northwest to The Gap, then north through it.  After, you¡¯ll be in Imperium lands, following the road any which way should take you to a nearby city.  Likely the most villages along the river headed north to their own large lake.  Just, make certain you don¡¯t head southwest into the Jaggedfen Bog.  Caravans report, well, it¡¯s unbelievable, but a multi-headed serpent, a hydra.  No news from the entire dominion of the large western peninsula in a very long time, as Jaggedfen Bog is in the way.¡±


    I scratch the back of my head as I nod somberly, wearing a sad frown on my face as my gaze meets Harriet¡¯s.  Her gaze is stern though, fairly resolute as she shakes her head.


    She begins to shoo us away with a parting statement, ¡°Hopefully Autumn Brook has served you as well as you it.  I hope you have a pleasant eve, and safe journeys.¡±

 B 4 C 31: Librarians Due

    Teuila cracks her knuckles as we round a corner, asking, ¡°Are you okay Dink? That, that sounded, grr. She made you cry. I heard it. Don¡¯t deny it. I, I want to, grr.¡±


    I quickly kiss Teuila as I clasp her hands. I lean my forehead against hers as our lips meet and stay locked for a long while. I don¡¯t know all of what¡¯s going on, but Teuila doesn¡¯t deserve to lose the happiness this town has brought her over it. My wonderful Teuila. I gaze into her eyes, my own eyes wet with tears of mixed emotions, I try to portray only joy.


    I start, ¡°Te, something big is happening around us again. I don¡¯t know what. This time there¡¯s someone behind the scenes. I don¡¯t know how much I can say without causing trouble for The Brook. I don¡¯t want to do that. They¡¯re good people, really good people. Can we buy some new nightclothes and just kind of enjoy our last eve here?¡± I accidentally mumble aloud, ¡°I really want you to have an undamaged copy of that sexy as hell pajama top.¡±


    Since my face is right next to Teuila¡¯s, she overheard my mumbling, and she¡¯s grinning like a lunatic. Oops. I mean, should I even bother getting embarrassed about it at this point? I¡¯m certainly flushed as warm as the sun. But a long-sleeved, thick dark-silk, figure-flattering pajama top and cute matching bottoms. I mean. Come on. Right? Just, just leave me alone about it. Me. Hah. Oy vey. I¡¯m being upset at me for pretending to be upset at me about enjoying Teuila¡¯s amazing style and appearance. Ugh, this head of mine. I definitely need someone else inside of it, or things get weird.


    Teuila slugs me playfully, lightly in the shoulder, and then gloms tightly onto my arm, pressing heavily against me. She puts no actual weight on me, despite wearing an enormous backpack upon her shoulders. That would be her perpetually weird bond with gravity. I wonder if maybe I have a weird bond with something? Some sort of power that I wouldn¡¯t need to connect with Can¡¯Z¡¯aas to use? Hm. How would I go about finding out? I think I heard that the Sisters of the Mist are oracular. So if they have oracle sight or visions or clairvoyance or divination or other such powers, they might be able to tell me more about myself. Still, they¡¯re over east by where Lil is heading, while we¡¯re headed north by northwest. I guess that¡¯ll have to wait.


    Apparently Teuila had done some inventory shenanigans while I was unconscious. How long did I sleep for again? Ugh, what day is it? We¡¯ve been here almost exactly a week, and someone mentioned the day of the week a while back, so it¡¯s a Saturday. I think it¡¯s not even noon yet. Teuila is a little less willing to access Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers than she was on our trip back to The Brook now. As I¡¯d feared, the powers are painful to try to reach out and connect to. I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s just for me and Teuila though. Did I corrupt her by offering her that tether of my mana on the last day on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? Ugh, I¡¯d hate myself if I did. I guess we already covered that though. Wait. Wait. What did Harriet say?


    A. Multi. Headed. Serpent. In a bog!? I begin to seethe with rage, quivering while tears rush down my face in streaks.


    Teuila asks, ¡°Dink? You went from happy to pissed. What¡¯s going on?¡±


    I ask, ¡°Did Harriet really say what I think she said about Jaggedfen Bog?¡±


    Teuila scratches her chin while looking thoughtful for a moment, ¡°Oh. Oh! Holy spoot. No wonder you¡¯re upset. Is, um. Is that a quest you want to take on at some point?¡±


    While panting through the anger I respond, ¡°I, I don¡¯t know. Maybe after we reunite with Lil and the two Lus if we still haven¡¯t found a way home. I, I know it would probably be better to get rid of it sooner rather than later, just, just there¡¯s too many things to do, and we actually have to travel. We can¡¯t just shoot ourselves around the continent from one end all the way to the other in a couple of hours. Plus, travel and mudcamping are hard-going here with the acid and mud just absolutely everywhere. Even the weird grass is a bit hard to walk on.¡±


    Teuila is nodding along as I rant and ramble. She suddenly asks, ¡°So, want to just put it on the back burner, and try to get back to enjoying our last couple days in The Brook?¡±


    I nod, ¡°That sounds good Te, hopefully we can find Dawn at dawn tomorrow. I¡¯d prefer earlier, but I don¡¯t want to waste all of our time scouring the countryside for someone that might not want to be found. Especially if we really only have this one more day.¡±


    Suddenly self conscious, and potentially sad for some reason, I ask, ¡°Is, is Tiago as mad with me as Harriet was?¡±


    Teuila looks ponderous for a moment, ¡°Hm, I don¡¯t think so? There was, well, a lot of silence. After some hysterical laughter. I kinda think we broke him again. I¡¯m pretty sure by the time we visit him again, if we ever do, he¡¯ll be fine, and ready to make fun of us for saying we¡¯re not dragon slayers.¡±


    I chuckle while nodding, ¡°That¡¯s exactly one of the thoughts I had while cutting off Kozzurth¡¯s head, hah. That Tiago would have a field day teasing me about my vehemence of not being a dragon slayer. That and he¡¯d probably have a big ¡®I told you so¡¯ look ready for George. Maybe I should get that history of the dragons being driven off to the spine of the world from George at some point. Hm. I wish we had more time to learn about The Brook and everything in it. I don¡¯t even know if there¡¯s a library. It sounds like it¡¯s probably the biggest city in all of Aasimovia, everything else is likely just small villages. Bluh.¡±


    Teuila slugs me gently in the shoulder and drops her head forward to bonk mine, resting her forehead on mine. Te, bashfully, asks, ¡°So, um, you thought I looked sexy in those pee-jays?¡±


    My face steams the air between us. Critterkin shouldn¡¯t have a concept of the word sexy, we don¡¯t have the bits to be sexual or have sexualities or, or, the, the thing. I guess we could still feel physical attraction with some neurochemicals or something. Hm. I wonder if I could get my electrokinesis to shut down the neurological response that causes me to blush. Or toggle the one responsible for physical attraction. Teuila would probably call me no fun for my thought train jumping to this track. She¡¯d say her nerd is sciencing out some feelings or something. Teuila pokes me lightly, still awaiting a response. Oh, right.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    I mumble, ¡°Friggin¡¯ gods yes you meanie.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s elongated single laugh of glee rings clear through the air, ¡°Heeeee.¡± I can¡¯t help it as I smile wide to my ears and gingerly press my lips to hers.


    After I¡¯ve kissed her for only a fraction of a second, she snags me by the wrist and rockets off towards the shops. I imagine I look like a wet noodle waving through the air behind Teuila, or a streamer or something. Of course I¡¯m actually sprinting to be able to keep up, touching the ground very rarely as I bound behind her while being dragged.


    Sadly the pajamas that are ruined were made from literally the shop¡¯s finest silk, so there¡¯s nothing else like it. Ugh, that¡¯s so unfair. Still, it doesn¡¯t take Teuila too long to find something that elicits a low whistle of appreciation from me, causing me to blush. She¡¯s so smug about it too. Oh well. We both get new pajamas, and these ones are almost as luxuriously smooth as the previous ones.


    We¡¯d both like to see Tiago before we leave the city, and we¡¯re not sure if it¡¯s better to visit during what might be considered the apothecary shop¡¯s work day hours, or in the evening. We figure it¡¯s best to split the difference. That means we¡¯ve got several hours to kill, and no idea what to do with it. Maybe if I¡¯m lucky, someone will be able to point out a library to me, and I¡¯ll be able to learn some things before we move on. Ah, good, random strangers will give directions to the library.


    There isn¡¯t even a librarian, it¡¯s sort of eerie. There are just two other patrons who appear as if they¡¯ve just entered ahead of us, but I didn¡¯t see them enter as we approached the library. It¡¯s almost like they teleported in front of us. Teuila jogs to a shelf, picks up a random book, and plops down against the bookshelf to read it, entertaining herself. Hm, wait, these titles.


    Marooned off V? The Weapon Too Dreadful? Reason? Nightfall? Runaround? Why do they sou¡ª. Ah my head! Ow, oh gods that hurts. Ah, Luni mentioned I get migraines. Maybe I just forgot how bad they are. Holy hells and all the bells this sucks. Ow, ow. I stretch my jaw repeatedly, trying to relieve pressure from my right mandibular joint as I stroke my temple. Ugh, I think this is the fiction section anyway. I stumble away from this shelf, past Teuila.


    I struggle to right myself before I cause any damage, barely succeeding as I grip my head in pain. I rub my brow down into my eyes with the palm of my hand, comforted slightly by its painful pressure. The self-induced mild discomfort is much nicer to focus on than the splitting headache that lances its way from my jaw up my cranium. The darkness behind my eyelids goes from orange to brown to black. Several thick fingers glowing and radiating with light fill the edges of my vision through closed eyes.


    There are the two other patrons, they look like they could possibly be brother and sister. They¡¯ve dark hair, and are quite lithe. Their movements betray little as they glide about. They whisper to one another while gazing my way. I¡¯ve likely made a nuisance of myself while they¡¯re trying to read. For some reason, their closeness, combined with their vague resemblance remind me of someone. Agh I can¡¯t think of it now though, my head hurts too much. Alright, history section, good enough. Just grab the first thing that feels nice in my hand, any book, just something to distract me from the pain.


    Why is the first half of this book blank? There¡¯s so much empty space. Who writes a book and leaves this many empty pages? Especially before the writing even starts. Wait. Here it says something. ¡°Eleven eleven, as far as I can tell, when I started existing.¡± Everything is just scribbles, scrawls, barely legible. It¡¯s, it¡¯s hardly a history, it might be someone¡¯s diary though. Or perhaps a journal, or a memoir. Here¡¯s some legible writing. ¡°Took the job around eighty.¡± Wait. Flipping frantically through for more legible writing, I spy another phrase, ¡°met the girls, surprised how that turned out.¡±


    W¡ªw¡ªwhat? What is this? There¡¯s a, there¡¯s. Roman numerals on the cover. No way. No way no way no way. It¡¯s a one of five. What in all the hells. No way. No freaking way. I don¡¯t know whether to cry, to laugh hysterically, to shout eureka, or what. I, I don¡¯t understand what¡¯s happening. Agh my head! There¡¯s a sound like air being displaced, like something coming out of my inventory. Basically something popping into reality from somewhere else, or from nothing, if I were duplicating things.


    Someone standing over me states, ¡°You can read it here all you like, but ye don¡¯t seem to be a citizen. Only citizens can check them out-like.¡±


    I look up, and a woman the perfect picture of an elderly librarian hovers near me. There, there was no librarian. There were only two other people in this building. The door hasn¡¯t opened even once since Teuila and I entered. What the hell is going on?


    I stutter, ¡°This, this book, it, it¡¯s, it belongs to ¡ª¡°


    She interrupts me, ¡°It belongs to The Brook. I won¡¯t have ye stealing now, now will I? Ye look a might peak-ed, perhaps ye should see our miracle-worker. Up now, easy does it. No need for alarm, simply helping ye up. It¡¯s alright, all quiet and peaceful in here-like. I¡¯ll just shelve that for ye, alright me dearie?¡±


    She retrieves the book, shelving it quietly, without show. The librarian begins to escort me to the door. The two people that I¡¯d spotted earlier are nowhere to be found, but Teuila is sitting quietly as she reads some fiction or another. She alternates between humming and silence. I wave to Teuila, and she waves back absentmindedly for a moment. I can sense that behind me, she¡¯s wrapping up a chapter or story, and preparing to follow me as she shelves the book. Actually, it looked like she finished the entire book. But, but that would mean. But I only just entered the library a minute ago.


    The librarian seems to exchange a glance that conveys worry to Teuila, so Te slings one of my arms over her shoulders as I hold my head. The headache has been dying down over the last few seconds. We¡¯ve walked a bit away from the library, and it has basically diminished to nothingness at this point. I¡¯m utterly bewildered. What happened in the library again? I remember going there in the hopes of studying something, anything that might clue me in to the nature of magic or souls here on Rayileklia. I think that I thought there was no librarian, but I must have been mistaken, since one escorted me out.


    Teuila interrupts my thought train, ¡°Find anything good before your headache got too bad my Dink?¡±


    Wait, wait, yes, yes I think I did. I stammer, ¡°I, I think, there was a book, a tome.¡±


    Teuila snerks, laughing as she responds, ¡°Yeah babe, there were a lot, it was a library.¡±


    I rattle my head as I ask, ¡°Te, please be honest with me, was the librarian in there the whole time with us?¡±


    Teuila pouts, ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I be honest with you goober? Yes she w¡ª. Wait. What? It¡¯s like, it¡¯s like my memories are fighting to say she was there, but that I know she wasn¡¯t. What, ow, what¡¯s going on? Ow. Oooog, oof my head.¡±


    This, this is bad. This is really really bad. Something on Rayileklia can just edit our memories?! Fricklefrack, how the hell am I supposed to even trust that I know one thing from one moment to the next? Well, maybe I¡¯m jumping to conclusions. I mean, I definitely am. This is just one very very weird little coincidence. Maybe Mildred just has teleportation magic or something. Wait, who the hell is Mildred? Is that the librarian? How the crap do I know her name!? Wait, how do I know this hasn¡¯t happened before? How do I know anything I remember is because I remember it and actually experienced it? Ugh, one thing¡¯s for sure though that she got right, we need to go see Tiago as soon as possible.


    I grab Teuila¡¯s free wrist as she holds her head with her other hand, now suffering a headache along with me. She makes sure to reduce the gravity on herself and the backpack. I start sprinting to the apothecary.

 B 4 C 32: Memories, Sweet Memories

    Gasping for air, clutching my own head yet again, I frantically gaze about the apothecary. The door was unlocked, but Tiago isn¡¯t in the front of the shop. I¡¯m about to shout when Tiago rounds the corner.


    Tiago mumbles, ¡°Dios, you two are nothing but in-trouble aren¡¯t you? Are you alright? Please, please, come in. Headaches?¡±


    Teuila and I both nod. Tiago leads us to the loveseat near the fire and excuses himself to get us something to drink. He says it will help with the pain. It¡¯ll probably be some willow bark extract for its salicylic chemical agent and pain relief properties. Perhaps brewed as a tea. Wait, what in the? How the hell do I know that much about freaking willow bark? I can¡¯t even blame my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian memory database thing for the knowledge, where whenever we were introduced to a term, we suddenly knew its meaning. Tiago returns shortly, with tea of course.


    Tiago orders, ¡°Drink up, half now while it¡¯s hot, the other half after it has cooled and steeped. Don¡¯t worry about payment. You¡¯ve done quite enough for The Brook and its peoples. Not to mention the little present your Teuila dropped off for me out back.¡±


    I nearly spit the tea as I choke on my own laughter at Tiago¡¯s flippant statement about the enormous dragon head that likely takes up his entire back yard, or somewhat nearly there. Coughing, I manage a few laughs, and Teuila grins smugly up at me.


    While coughing I state, ¡°That reminds me, I want, koff, you to, koff, ow, koff, to dispose of, and I mean utterly destroy, everything that you don¡¯t use. Please Tiago? I don¡¯t want there to be even the slightest chance that the head reunites with the body.¡±


    Tiago¡¯s eyes widen early on during my statement, but they look fit to pop out of his skull when I finish making my ask. He gives his assent, ¡°Si, yes of course. Do not fret, none of us in The Brook want such a thing either. Hmf, not dragon slayers indeed.¡±


    I chuckle, ¡°I knew it! I knew you wouldn¡¯t let me live that down braddah, hah. It¡¯s like when I met the town ghost and you were needling me for days when I referred to them as a w--. Wait. What?¡±


    Tiago actually spits his drink in startlement at my statement. Teuila and I wipe ourselves off and stand from the loveseat to help clean it up as Tiago finds rags for us. Tiago eyes me warily, yet with curiosity. Ugh my head. My eyes feel heavy. Crap. Before I get more distracted, or fall asleep again, there was a thing. Oh! Right!


    I ask, ¡°Tiago, is the librarian¡¯s name Mildred?¡±


    Tiago nods, ¡°Si, verdad. So?¡±


    I shake my head as I ask, ¡°Can Mildred teleport?¡±


    Tiago laughs and looks fit to slap me on the shoulder for an assumed jest when he realizes I¡¯m not laughing. Tiago shakes his head, ¡°No, of course not. The most magic we¡¯ve seen in The Brook in a long time were some enchanters that could help shore up a few materials against the acid rain. Berinon is one of them actually. Well, and of course the preservation of the ancestors.¡±


    I ask, ¡°How long has Mildred existed? I¡¯m not asking how old she is mind you. How long has she existed?¡±


    Tiago looks almost annoyed, ¡°This is very similar to a line of questions my old friend once asked. If you¡¯ve had more of Aces¡¯ memories in your dreams, it is a very cruel thing to remind me of my now lost friend in such a manner.¡±


    I frown, pouting, ¡°I¡¯m, no, it¡¯s not. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve had any more. Well, Teuila said I had one on the way to the Colossi plains. But she didn¡¯t mention you in it at all. Just the inn-maiden, Selunie.¡±


    Tiago¡¯s eyes widen, ¡°Just what in blazes was Aces doing with Selunie Tavner?¡±


    Teuila and I look at each other with excitement. Didn¡¯t Tiago say he didn¡¯t know her last time we were here? Wait, no, was that Harriet? Or Keeley? Ugh, I¡¯m having trouble keeping track of who I asked. Friggin¡¯ heck things are so hard without digital memory logs. Even when I had them I¡¯d goof up, forget, misremember things, like all the time. I¡¯d have to be actively reading about a thing in my memory logs to recall it accurately.


    I prod, ¡°You know Selunie Tavner? Is, where, where does she live? Which town?¡±


    Tiago shakes his head, ¡°Sorry friend, Aces never let on about where they were. I¡¯m just shocked, since your dreams appeared to be, well, intimate in nature. Aces described her as so innocent, and possibly interested in the p--, well, it¡¯s none of my business her preferences.¡±


    Was Tiago about to say she was interested in the princessora? That would be Taylynn. Do I even want to feed Tiago¡¯s curiosity about the details of my dreams? According to Teuila, they were sort of intimate. At least about to kiss.


    I cough, getting back on topic, ¡°Koff, right, anyway, so. Mildred? Librarian? Is that the same one that you and George talked about with Harriet as being hens for gossip?¡±


    Tiago strokes his chin shaking his head, ¡°No, no, plenty of people with the same first name around, I could see how you¡¯d be confused. Harriet¡¯s life-mate Mildred is, ah, it¡¯s not my story to tell. You¡¯ll meet them eventually if you continue to stay in The Brook. I¡¯m sure with your charm, eventually Mildred would open up. The librarian though, I, I really do not like the question. Aces felt as if they were going crazy, and honestly seemed to slightly be doing so. Insisting things were certain ways, that everyone else suddenly sprouted new memories.¡±


    My heart¡¯s thumping hammers in my chest. A world that changes itself, rearranges itself, builds itself as it¡¯s explored? One that adds its own history out into the past? But very few people, or no one noticing or believing it? I begin to hyperventilate. No, no, we¡¯re just. I¡¯m just. I¡¯m overlaying Aces¡¯ conclusions and confusions onto the situation, jumping to the same ones. That has to be it. Calm down. Breathe air, breathe. That phrase again.


    Tiago now wheedles, ¡°You though, are you doing alright? I¡¯m starting to worry that you might be confusing fiction with reality, or letting your dreams influence your personality. You spoke a memory of me as if it were firsthand. I mean, if all your dreams are intimate, that wouldn¡¯t have been you simply joking from a dream. I¡¯d offered Aces once or twice, but they were always too busy, then I met George, and, well, that¡¯s neither here nor there. Point being, I¡¯m concerned.¡±


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    I flush with embarrassment. Somehow I know that Tiago had flirted with Aces a couple of times across their life and friendship. Like Tiago said though, Aces was almost only ever stopping by The Brook on the way back home to pick up a new job, when they took the westerly path through The Gap, downriver to Lake Siempre. They¡¯d hit The Brook by canoe, secreting away their vessel, travel east until the mountains, then follow the mountains til the Hidden Heart, then use the secret tunnel to Vale Valley. They¡¯d never even gotten lost in the mists from the Sisters¡¯ Sanctuary to the Heart. The journey was as if by rote.


    Wait. What? That¡¯s, that¡¯s a lot more information than I recall remembering from any particular dream. What the heck is going on? Why does my head feel staticy and fuzzy at the moment? Am I starting to daydream Aces¡¯ life too?


    I mumble as I woozily stand, ¡°Th-thank you Tiago. No, no, you¡¯re right. No such thing as memories suddenly being generated or altered. I guess, I guess we should go rest. Harriet wants us out of town tomorrow eve, she¡¯s booking us on a fishing charter.¡±


    Tiago virtually shouts as he stands, ¡°She what!? Is, I mean, did you want to be leaving this early? I can¡¯t imagine Harriet would--. What the devil. Like she¡¯d said before, she¡¯d never imposed her will on anyone that didn¡¯t deserve it. Did she say the council ordered it?¡±


    I shake my head, rambling, ¡°N-no. She um. Insinuated it was more than a polite offer, and a personal desire of hers to see us gone. There were, um, some criticisms of our efforts. Admonishments even.¡±


    Tiago lets himself drop back into his seat, ¡°What the devil has gotten into the unruly woman? First she wanted to send every able-bodied in the village on a rescue-mission, knowing that some would likely die, now this? She¡¯s hardly even herself these days.¡±


    Teuila and I exchange an almost-knowing glance. There¡¯s something happening in The Brook, and we can¡¯t stay here to help them with it. I really hope Autumn Brook is still here the next time we swing back this way, if we ever do.


    Tiago continues to rant, ¡°A dragon, a literal actual dragon, and you adorable little children-in-adult-bodies-with-adult-knowledge slew it, on top of a Colossi chieftan or some such, and several guards. You took lives, which, based on what I can tell about you, hurt you and scarred you to your core, yes, I can see that in your eyes. I see that it¡¯s true. We dropped this situation in your lap, and, and, and she gives you the boot? This is nonsense. Sheer, utter nonsense. I, I must have words with George, he¡¯ll be home shortly, please, please this night at least stay for dinner. I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll see you again if not, and¡ª¡°


    Tiago cuts himself off, being about to say that I¡¯m all he has left of Aces, his dear old friend. I¡¯m almost positive on that. I look to Teuila who shrugs and pantomimes eating. My stomach suddenly rumbles, and I blush in response. She is right. I¡¯ve had what, some digital fish, a cornbread muffin with baked beans and lamb, a bowl of stew and hunk of bread, then some corn flatbreads, to last me an entire week in Rayileklia? Well, in reverse order. I am ravenously hungry.


    I sit back down, nodding to Tiago, ¡°I, yes of course. It would be a pleasure to accept your hospitality, an honor even. I¡¯m sorry we rushed off the other night, and for my bad manners and juvenile actions.¡±


    Tiago scoffs, ¡°De nada, pay it no mind. What will you two even do? Your end goal is to make it to an entire other world? How does one even start going about such a task?¡±


    My eyes flash with understanding for a moment. If it¡¯s anything like last time, it starts with a book. Then I lose the thought. I can¡¯t recall the train of thought I was going with. How would one start what now? What was I thinking about?


    Teuila and Tiago seem to be looking at me expectantly, so I answer a question I vaguely remember hearing, ¡°Um, I think I checked out the library. I didn¡¯t get enough time there, but I know in what time I did spend there, I didn¡¯t get any leads. Though maybe there was something else that could possibly have been a lead on the plains. Something weird happened with Kozzurth¡¯s heart now that you mention it. It shrank and shriveled up after it was exposed to air, after I touched it while begging the magic of the world to create a portal home. Do you know anything about touching dragon¡¯s hearts?¡±


    Tiago¡¯s eyes answer before he does, ¡°Verdad? No, no, that is a curious thing. How shrunk would you say?¡±


    It¡¯s hard to estimate, so I guess, ¡°Um, definitely smaller than half, maybe down to a third, quarter, or fifth of its original size?¡±


    Tiago¡¯s pensive gaze leaves the air hanging silent for a long moment as he taps his chin in thought. He shrugs and shakes his head before standing to pace about the room. My eyes droop heavily yet again. What is it with me? I can¡¯t manage to stay conscious here at all.


    When I awaken, George is home, and dinner is nearly served, Teuila is playing with my hair, and, wait. Is she eating my ear again? Her finger twiddling is sleepily slow, I don¡¯t think she¡¯s even aware she¡¯s playing with my hair, let alone eating my ear. I tug my head lightly to the side, and a wet pop frees my ear from her mouth. Eww-heheh-eww. I poke Teuila, and she awakens to alertness swiftly, quickly flashing a grin my way. I point at my ear, rub my index finger in the wet about its edges, and flick her nose with her own saliva as payback. Teuila just giggles and hugs me tightly.


    I call out, ¡°George, Tiago said you were a historian, right? Do you work at the library?¡±


    George laughs, ¡°Oh saints alive no, yes that¡¯s you honey hahah, no. I¡¯m town record-keeper. Minor member of the council, property deeds, city planning and the like. Mostly I¡¯m only a member to remind people of what we¡¯ve already got, or what agreements have already been made. I don¡¯t have much of a voice, nor do I care to have one. But oh, yes, I like to think of myself as a historian, or at least a fan of history.¡±


    Hm. Is there anything useful I can ask George? Anything to narrow down our leads? I ask, ¡°George, have there ever been any things like archwizards or archmages or sorcerer supremes or transcendent enchanters, or, um, planeswalkers or anything of the like?¡±


    I could swear for a moment that the staff strapped to my back glows as I speak, but there¡¯s no way to tell, it¡¯s buried deeply between me and a cushion. I have no idea why I thought it glowed, there was just this tiny sensation from behind me, and that¡¯s the only thing I can think of.


    George chuckles, until he realizes I¡¯m being serious, ¡°Ah, I¡¯m sorry. The words mean little to me, though I understand them based on context and simple grammatical meaning. We do have enchanters. The Heart supposedly has a much wider variety of magic. The Imperium boasts a wealth of different cultures and countries under its banner, so likely has several different styles of magic as well. Then there¡¯s always the rumored Sisters. Supposedly they divine with oracular powers. But no, no single names that cry out the most powerful of their kind. That doesn¡¯t mean they don¡¯t, or never existed, simply that news of them has never made it into Southern Aasimovian history texts.¡±


    I frown, ¡°Ah, right, yes, that makes sense, thank you. I don¡¯t know where to even start looking for clues. Is there anything like a magic academy somewhere in the world? Even for just beginner enchantment stuff or something?¡±


    George nods at this, ¡°Yes, yes there are several strewn about the Imperium I believe. I couldn¡¯t tell you where exactly, but as I mentioned, it had swallowed up such a variety of cultures and countries over the years. I believe a renowned one is ah, Javelina Suidae. It used to be in, or rather is located in what used to be- what was it again dearest? Usledian? Yes, thank you love.¡±


    Tiago rolls his eyes, not having said anything as George used him as a sounding board. I try to keep my laugh to a quietly polite chuckle. Wait. Javelina Suidae? Peccary Pig? Warthog? Hog¡ª. I glance around, half expecting to see a copyright lawyer ninja¡¯ing its way across the ceiling. What an odd series of thoughts. Why on Earth did I have them? Not this again! Why on Rayileklia! Or, um, something.

 B 4 C 33: Dance Magic Dance

    The dinner is splendid, seasoned steamed green beans, fresh bread, some sort of egg soup or chicken soup, and a carrot-and-radish-heavy salad with some dressing I¡¯m not familiar with.  Apparently normally they eat fish, and lots of it, being a port town, but tonight was going to be date-night.  Whoops.  Though, I mean, Tiago invited us.  I still feel a bit like a heel though.


    We sup through the eve, each sharing tender moments with our partners.  There are a lot of bawdy jokes told by George, and even a few from Tiago, but I can¡¯t for the life of me remember what they were.  I know we discussed further plans, the fact that we¡¯ll be leaving The Brook, and Aasimovia all-together tomorrow.  Both were curious if I¡¯d ever want to come back, due to the way things seem to have gone.  While I leave the plan of it up to Teuila, the question of desire is posed to both of us.  Teuila¡¯s nod is most affirmative, and well, so is mine.  Of course I would, Teuila has been so happy here.  Plus, there¡¯s this nagging feeling that I¡¯m forgetting something about this town, somewhere.  Where did we even go other than a couple of shops, the town hall, the inn, the apothecary and the, didn¡¯t we go somewhere else?  Wait.  Hm, nope, can¡¯t remember.


    It¡¯s still somewhat early-eve when we excuse ourselves from Tiago and George¡¯s company.  They¡¯re good people, really good people.  I hope whatever¡¯s happening around here doesn¡¯t hurt them.  Teuila is cheerily skipping along, she suddenly stops and scratches her chin.  She seems lost in thought for a good moment, but then she shrugs.  Either she came to a conclusion, or figured the thought train wasn¡¯t worth chasing to its end.


    Te rambles, ¡°I wonder if there might be like, I dunno, like an underground fighting club for adventurers to fight monsters somewhere or something.  I mean, I¡¯m pretty sure there¡¯s monsters on Rayileklia anyway.  We know of at least Dragons and Hydras, and peeps didn¡¯t bat an eye when  you mentioned manticores or ogres.  Plus, the Colossi were like, supernatural people.  Like I said, one looked like a giant werewolf, another was I think an ettin is what they¡¯re called maybe.  Then again, I wouldn¡¯t want there to be some sort of chained up monsters that are just people and they¡¯re forced to fight or, or, ugh.  Gross, I¡¯ll break it up if I ever find one.  Stupid thought train, started out fun.¡±


    I chuckle.  Teuila is pretty darn wonderful.  Oh I just had a thought.  If we time it right, we don¡¯t even have to see Keeley again before we leave town.  If we wait til late eve to return to the Keel Over, and get up at dawn to go find Dawn, yes!  Hah.  Whew.  At least I won¡¯t get run out of town before I get booted out of town on a boat.


    I squeeze Teuila¡¯s hand and ask, ¡°Te, would you mind coming with me?  I think I saw a nice spot that I want to try something.¡±


    Teuila rolls her eyes as she replies, ¡°Duh I¡¯m coming with you dink.  No more time apart, at least not on this planet, too dangerous.¡±


    I flash her a smile as I drag her towards the east edge of town.  I remember north along the lake as we were coming into town.  Somewhat near that idyllic hill and tree, there was a really lovely reflection of the luma tulipa.  Sweet!  It¡¯s still here.  I mean, not that I expected it to disappear, landmarks don¡¯t just up and vanish.  Unless you¡¯re a beach comprised of fulgurite.  At least when Luni Shellcracker, bearing the Blessing of Quetzalcoatl, happens to be passing by with one pirate ship and two other ships and a barge the three of which are each made of pumice.  That, that thought got weird.


    I clasp Teuila¡¯s hands in mine as I ask, ¡°Teuila, may I have this dance?¡±


    Her answer is a simple Shellcracker Family Squee, that single elongated laugh of glee that I adore so much.  She sets the backpack aside and lets me take her hands again.  I begin swaying as I free Teuila¡¯s hands so I can rest mine on her hips.  I sway side to side as I let my forehead thunk to hers.  We rest our foreheads together and just enjoy what looks like a beautifully moonlit night in the reflections upon the lake.


    It sounds like a reed, or pan flute is being played from somewhere.  Hm, my imagination making the moment more romantic I guess.  Teuila squeezes me slightly tighter, and drops her forehead to my shoulder, snuggling in as we sway slowly.  We continue for I don¡¯t know how long, occasionally stepping to one side or the other.


    Teasingly, I nip at Teuila¡¯s ear, playfully taking its edge partially in my mouth as I rest my head against hers.  Payback for however many times I¡¯ve woken  up with mine in her mouth.  She honestly doesn¡¯t seem to mind though.  I guess it could be part of her otter nature?  Claiming each other by our ears?  I didn¡¯t really mind all that much, it¡¯s just kinda gross to wake up with a fifth of my face covered in drool.  Well, drool that isn¡¯t mine.  Okay, so it¡¯s gross to wake up in a puddle of my own drool covering a bunch of my face as well.  Especially since that generally means I was drooling on a family member or beloved inner circle member.  Bluh, this thought train got weird.


    This, this was a wonderful way to spend our second to last eve in The Brook.  I smooch Teuila¡¯s cheek at the corner of her lips softly.  She grins and tackles me, shoving me over onto the ground to pepper me with kisses.  I laugh and trade places with her, pinning her, and we continue to roll about as we trade pins until we¡¯re both absolutely covered in mildly-acidic mud.  Wait, did that ancestor by the tree just put something away and start sitting down just now?  It couldn¡¯t be, could it?  I didn¡¯t notice them stand up or take anything out in the first place.  Must be a trick of the light.


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    I cock my head towards the section of town that contains the Keel Over and Teuila nods.  We journey back through town, our lovely leather and fur outerwear covered in mud that¡¯s slowly washing away in the drizzle.  Apparently these are enchanted by Berinon to resist the acid and mud, now that I think about it.  Based on what Tiago and George were saying, I think.  I still have to somewhat laugh at the enormity of the backpack Teuila is carrying around.  I suppose tomorrow we should shop for supplies like travel food and other goods that will come in handy.


    Teuila and I enter the double-saloon doors to the Keel Over, and I freeze dead in my tracks.  It¡¯s quite late eve, so Marshal is behind the bar, but Keeley is sitting at one of the nearest tables to the door.  She¡¯s facing the door, glowering and glaring as she sips a pint of ale.  Oh come on, that¡¯s just not even fair.  I mean, we¡¯re paid up for two weeks and we¡¯re going to be leaving on like the third or fourth day.  Please give me a freakin¡¯ break.


    She stands, stomps over to us, and begins ushering us out.  Please tell me we¡¯re not going to have to mudcamp on our last night in The Brook.  She ushers us around to the stables that are surprisingly empty.  Though I haven¡¯t seen many horses about in the last few days.  Oh, right, Autumn Brook¡¯s financial situation, the dragon probably required horses as tribute first before it started eating ancestors or something.  Ugh.  Friggin¡¯ Kozzurth.


    Keeley starts, ¡°So, I ¡®ad a chat with ¡®arriet interrupting my day, twice in the last couple of days.  You¡¯ll like as not guess as to who the subject matter were.  Hm?  Aye, that¡¯s right you little shid.¡±  I gulp in response.  Teuila¡¯s muscles tense as she insults me.


    Keeley continues, ¡°Now, I¡¯m only doin¡¯ this for ¡®arriet, but she said you were looking for a couple of names, and a first name don¡¯t mean nothing mind you.  A long long while back though, a wild woman came through town, said she wanted to ¡®it the isle kingdoms for an archery tourney.  Didn¡¯t give a name to me, didn¡¯t ask, didn¡¯t care.  I did over-¡®ear ¡®er introduce ¡®erself to someone else as Taylynn.  Came in from the north by ferry with ¡®er horse.  Eventually left the same way after coming back through.  That¡¯s all I¡¯ve got, that¡¯s it.¡±


    I reacted too quickly, I¡¯m going to die.  I just hugged Keeley Johnston while crying out, ¡°Thank you thank you thank you!¡±  I can feel her rage as her muscles bulge even as I¡¯m leaping back.  Reggie, you can be such an idiot.  Keeley reaches into her apron, and I¡¯m pretty certain she¡¯s going to whip out a cleaver, and we¡¯re going to end up in a bloody brawl with Teuila barely restraining herself from killing the poor woman.


    Instead, Keeley spits to the side as she pulls out a scrap of parchment, and one of the gems we had used to pay her, ¡°¡¯arriet wanted you to ¡®ave these instructions, and I figured I should refund at least ¡®alf your stay since I ¡®ear tell you¡¯ll be leaving tomorrow.  Y¡¯did The Brook good.  I still think you ¡®ave a lot to learn about respect.  Still, that was a bit impressive, I¡¯ll give you that.  The little earthquake when the lady ¡®ere conjured a dragon¡¯s ¡®ead in SanTiago¡¯s back yard wasn¡¯t appreciated, but even I ¡®ad a laugh at ¡®im screaming ¡®is ¡®ead off in ¡®ysterics.¡±


    I chuckle softly as I accept the parchment, but I curl her fist up over the gem, ¡°Thank you Keeley, for everything.  I¡¯m sorry for any trouble or annoyance I¡¯ve caused, and I¡¯m sorry for our outbursts the other day.  It, well, it has been a rough week.¡±


    Keeley snorts, scoffing almost a laugh, ¡°Pft, sounds like.  Not sure I believe all I¡¯ve ¡®eard tell, just keep yer nose clean so I don¡¯t need to come chop it off.  Aye?¡±


    I nod in response.  Keeley, without any pomp, simply stomps away menacingly in the direction which I guess would probably house her private abode.  Or maybe someone else¡¯s tavern to drink at, so she doesn¡¯t have to look at the same crowd she just spent the day serving.  I exhale a bated breath, sighing and slumping against the stable wall before I let out my own ¡®ysterics.  That is, laughing hysterically like Tiago.  Teuila joins me for a few short laughs before we both sigh again.


    She eyes the parchment, and I know we¡¯re both curious what instructions Harriet left for us.  Hm, let¡¯s see, it reads:


    ¡°Adventurers, Teuila and Reggie, and the ghost of The Brook¡¯s past.  I¡¯ve booked passage for you on the fishing trawler by the name of The Drake, captained by Tim Fisher.  He has agreed to take three passengers late, nearing midnight on June 14th, departing pre-dawn on June 15th, hopefully the morrow from when you receive this, but they, you, will be relegated to the dinghy.  Your passage will end just north of lake Ciao Please forgive an old lady her transgressions.  Safe journeys to you all.  May you live in peaceful times.  And of course, the First¡¯s guidance to you.¡±


    What?  Relegated to the dinghy?  What does that even--.  Like, like the lifeboat?  That¡¯ll be some cramped quarters for Dawn.  I¡¯m not sure they¡¯ll even agree to this now.  I can¡¯t even fathom why.  Hm, oh.  If it¡¯s a small vessel, and he, or his crew if he has one, needs all the deck space for fishing related tasks.  Still, I wonder if I could convince Captain Tim aboard the Drake to, ow, my brain.  What?  Ugh, just had a major BSOD.


    Let¡¯s get some sleep, shall we Te?  I know you¡¯re not in my head on a psychic wavelength or anything.  Still, you can read my face well enough.  Yeah.  For some reason, even though I don¡¯t remember doing or accomplishing much of anything today in The Brook, I¡¯m exhausted yet again.  It¡¯s as if I actually did have a day full of activity, and just don¡¯t remember it.  Odd.


    A nice, snuggly, restful sleep with my wonderful, strong, protective, kind, beautiful Teuila.  That¡¯s all.  That¡¯s what will happen tonight.  Nothing else.

 B 4 C 34: Dealing With Dawn

    The faintest sound of the brush being disturbed alerts me to someone before they speak, ¡°I¡¯ve seen you, visiting the saint. You¡¯re an odd sort, skulking quickly, stealing into and out of town without much contact. Except priest Santiago. Why would that be?¡±


    I scoff, I don¡¯t owe this person anything. They do have a crossbow trained on me, but it¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t caught crossbow bolts before, either in my hands or in various parts of my body to be plucked free later. Actually there is no malice or hostility in the air between us, and my senses indicate the crossbow is only loosely aimed in my direction. I steel a glance towards the voice. They try to avoid my gaze, but I¡¯m far more used to stealth than they are, they¡¯re easy enough to spot.


    I call out, ¡°What odd attire for a constable.¡±


    It¡¯s their turn to scoff, ¡°I¡¯m nothing of the sort. Just an individual cursed with boredom and curiosity.¡±


    I smirk, ¡°In that case, you¡¯ll excuse me if I tell you to go sate your curiosity elsewhere.¡±


    Their response is almost jovial, ¡°That¡¯s fair, you¡¯re certainly under no obligations. Most don¡¯t even notice you come to Autumn Brook, and there hasn¡¯t been any trouble I would pin on you. I would know. I guess I¡¯ll just ask you to look after Santiago. He seems a good sort.¡±


    I continue wearing the smirk, but I feel less smug about our interaction. Judging by the air about them, this individual stays in the wilderness. They probably haven¡¯t seen the inside of the town in person in months, if not years. Now I¡¯m the curious one.


    I nod in agreement, ¡°Yes, yes he is. I hope you find some solace from your boredom and curiosity. Perhaps a sojourn into town and a change of clothes? If you require discretion, well, Tiago is always willing to lend a hand.¡±


    I restrain myself from also suggesting they bathe. Hopefully no disdain leaked through into my voice. If I can avoid making an enemy I can avoid leaving a body. At least, that¡¯s my excuse for not killing anyone who ever spies me. I really am too soft for this job. They keep telling me. What else would I do though?


    They edge further into the brush, their demeanor abashed as they mumble, ¡°N,no, I couldn¡¯t. I can¡¯t.¡± Their crossbow is slung back over their shoulder and they¡¯ve got both arms wrapped in front of their chest. It¡¯s plain to see that the shelf of their breasts suddenly made them self-conscious when I suggested they enter town.


    I shrug in response, ¡°Well, do as you¡¯ll do. Good luck slaking your boredom.¡±


    They reach a hand out in objection, begging momentary pause, but I only grant them an instant, during which they don¡¯t speak, so I steal away into the pre-dawn wilderness.


    Hm? Again Teuila? Really? Hah. Okay, fine. I¡¯m not even going to worry about it any longer. My ear is yours, or whatever this subconscious desire is. It is odd for me to feel fully awake and ready to go though before Teuila gets up. Usually I fall back asleep at least once. But it almost feels like I¡¯m prepared to journey somewhere on foot even. I begin to move, and of course this rouses Teuila instantly. She grins madly at me and tackles me off of the bed. We thump onto the floor and there¡¯s a thump in response from the kitchen. Whoops, heh.


    Te suddenly explains, ¡°So, I was thinking, we gotta go get Dawny, sure sure, but after that, we¡¯ve got the whole day, and we¡¯re going to need supplies. Like, Harriet didn¡¯t say how far this trip was or anything, but I¡¯m starting to get a sense of the scale of Rayileklia. So, so anyway, like, I figure we can buy just a ton of stuff from the town, and what we¡¯ll use regularly and immediately can go in the backpack. Everything else I¡¯ll snag to my inventory. Yeah? But like, then I was like, well, what exactly is a whole bunch of stuff. I want to see if we can get a mud treated sleeping bag, and, um, well, food obviously, tons of food. I can¡¯t believe I can say I¡¯m sick of fish and insect meat and cragbeast meat. We have water, but we should probably buy waterskins and stuff anyway, so that my Dink doesn¡¯t have to hurt every time ya need a sip.¡±


    I blink repeatedly trying to keep up with Teuila. She doesn¡¯t pause for a breath, so I have to forcibly blink to continue hearing and understanding her. I have no idea how or why that works. I nod at Teuila. She¡¯s making good sense, and like I said, I¡¯m perfectly happy having her take charge on this planet.


    Teuila jokes, ¡°I was thinking of kind of maybe being a bit of a brat about it, doing what you did, summoning like a me-sized pile of gold, and just being like, ¡®I want your everything, keep the change.¡¯ Hehe. I know I shouldn¡¯t though, Luni would school me on economics or something weird. Though I mean, lots of gold was already removed from the economy into a dragon¡¯s belly. Oh, oh I bet it¡¯s in Kozzurth¡¯s sh¡ª err p¡ª err um, waste matter. Well, someone¡¯s going to be desperate enough to mine for it someday, hah.¡±


    I try to keep my laughter to a minimum as I chuckle more and more at Teuila¡¯s stream-of-consciousness ramble. She gives me her biggest, derpiest grin as she emits a Shellcracker Family Squee. Her glee warms my heart and finishes waking me up the rest of the way.


    I say, ¡°One thing at a time My-Wings, gotta see if we can even find Dawn, right?¡±


    Teuila nods excitedly as she makes sure everything is packed. We check to make sure our Valkyrie armor is shrunk to its smallest levels. I¡¯ll just wear this on my belt in case I need to slip into something a bit more defensive really quickly. I¡¯ll keep the other one tucked in over here though, in case I¡¯ve got to try to help someone else armor up quickly. I wonder what all Teuila brought out of her inventory. Maybe she had the same idea and she¡¯s carrying around one or more spare suits of Valkyrie armor tiny-sized on her personage somewhere. Oh hey! She¡¯s got her magic quarterstaff-turned-spear!


    Gosh, that Vampguppy fang and that Octorochi fang look deadly as hell. Or was that just a regular Rochi? I forget if it was the big male that had Dehlia tethered, or if it was the original sonnuva gun. Oh, Teuila used some spare Valkyrie gear to help fasten the fangs in place, so it¡¯s got more of a, what¡¯s that term, full tang sort of structural integrity. Ugh, thinking about magical gear, I really wish I had the tendril tattoo. It¡¯s so versatile and handy. I could even use it to move about as quick as a horse, maybe faster. Could probably keep from slowing Teuila down too much if I did that, flinging myself around with the tendrils.


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    Hm, since her spear is a quarterstaff with two points, does that make it a bident instead of a trident? Is that a thing? I forget. Come on brain, you used to list off all kinds of weapons way back on¡ª noooope. Nope nope nope. Coconuts, pineapples, persimmons, uh, aguave? There we go, now I¡¯ve confused myself. Good, whew.


    Of course the rowdy night-to-morning crowd is smoking the heck out of the downstairs of the Keel Over, koff, koff. Ugh. We wave to Marshal with the key to our room in-hand. He looks at it with a bit of a forlorn smile. Marshal accepts the key and tosses it into a cubby as he walks back to the kitchen, leaving the bar momentarily unattended. While the bar is seemingly free, an elderly drunk starts to lean over it to try to reach alcohol beneath on the far side. Do I even want to interfere? Whoop, no need. Marshal is quick, and just as scary with a cleaver as Keeley. Let¡¯s get out of here.


    Teuila and I amble southward out of town, hoping beyond hope to find ¡°Dawny¡± as Te has taken to calling them. I really hope Dawn doesn¡¯t think I¡¯ve given up their, um, identity. Oh, the presence! We¡¯re in luck! I scan the countryside as best I can from our current vantage. Hm, is there anything in the staff that will aid me? Oh! The aura sense or magic vision or whatever somehow let me feel that tiny thread that connected Dawn to me. The one that let them track me. Even if I couldn¡¯t exactly see it. There we go.


    Oh wow. Teuila¡¯s soul is on full display inside of her, and it¡¯s roiling with mixed emotions. There¡¯s excitement, rage, sadness, gladness, and just, it¡¯s hard to parse exactly how many things are going on within her, and how voluminous each one is. Normally the staff sight just sort of shows outlines of auras and stuff, the only soul I¡¯ve ever seen was Dawn¡¯s until now. Dawn¡¯s was external, Teuila¡¯s is still internal, but it¡¯s like a sort of thermal image scan. Wait, a what? Anyway. I can hazard guesses as to which emotions are caused by which events though. I¡¯ve always felt she was brave every time she tried to express an emotion. I know what her ocean looks like. I didn¡¯t realize that it had an almost physical presence in reality outside of her mind though. No wonder she¡¯s hesitant to let herself expose her feelings and say the words. She¡¯s smiling at me though as she snuggles against my arm while waving vaguely in the direction we sense the presence. I guess nothing need be said.


    I tug on this strange invisible thread, the one I can only sense when I¡¯ve got magically enhanced vision, odd as that is. It goes taut, guiding me towards exactly the direction Dawn is in. In fact, I could swear I just saw Dawn squirm behind a bush. Did the thread do that? Actually, huh, there are a few more threads, now that I¡¯m aware of how to sense them. Mostly north¡¯ish, some east¡¯ish. I guess some could be north into town, and some even further past town. There isn¡¯t one to Teuila, so it¡¯s not like it¡¯s my inner circle, or love or lovers or, or anything like that. I wonder what they signify. People who I¡¯m fated to meet even if destiny isn¡¯t exactly written out in a specific order? Hm, that seems a little trite as a guess.


    Hey! Hm. I swear I just saw that thing again, poking out of my chest, out of the corner of my eye. Is there a ghost riding around in me? Ugh, gives me the shivers. If there was, what could I even do about it? It obviously survived dragon¡¯s breath, since I first remember seeing it before Kozzurth. So it¡¯s not like there¡¯s any sort of attacks that I could muster up that would harm it.


    Teuila rushes towards the disturbed bush yelling, ¡°Hey Dawny! I, oh! Oh no. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow at Teuila. Oh crap. The quarterstaff that¡¯s the handle of her spear. It¡¯s like my danger wraps. It gives her that silent sonar or ranged tactile sense or whatever within a few dozen feet.


    Teuila¡¯s mumbling, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to. I, I forgot. It¡¯s been so long since I used this one. This spear. Its magic. It¡¯s the same as Reggie¡¯s. I¡¯m sorry. Please don¡¯t be mad. We¡¯re going to be leaving the brook, and, and we got the mairess to um, she booked us three for tonight to leave on fish. I wanted to try to help you, to see if our quest might help you curse.¡±


    I frown as I try not to laugh at Teuila¡¯s misspeaking nervousness. My poor Wings. Oh my Teuila. I love you. I wish I could alleviate your current anxiety.


    Dawn looks annoyed as they put two and two together, and doubly annoyed when they wrap an arm around their torso, remembering its futility. Still, they haven¡¯t just scowled and walked off, or told us to piss off. Dawn then follows along Teuila¡¯s statement, and seems to be reciting it in their head, trying to parse the last bits. They suddenly laugh. It¡¯s a pleasant, charming, disarming laugh.


    Dawn says, ¡°Well, I sort of expected us to be leaving together at some point. Not quite this soon, and I thought we¡¯d be traveling on foot. So, we¡¯ll be traveling on fish instead eh? Hah. No no, I¡¯m kidding, it¡¯s okay Teuila, um Boss. Don¡¯t look so sad. I¡¯m, um. Not the most comfortable around other people. But I have literally nothing going for me here. I¡¯m kind of dying, or well, not dying, of boredom. Seeing as you¡¯ve slain a dragon and more already, and you were rambling about other worlds and stuff while we were out there, well. I figure you¡¯re my best shot. Hope that doesn¡¯t sound like I¡¯m using you. I guess I sort of am though. Maybe we can both be sorry together, and just cancel it out and call it even?¡±


    Teuila offers her right hand for a shake, saying, ¡°Deal.¡±


    At first I¡¯m afraid that we¡¯ll have to set up some sort of rendezvous and sneak Dawn into town or something to accommodate their anxiety. I mean, not afraid, but, I don¡¯t know what I mean. That sort of feeling where you¡¯re sure someone might need a certain kind of help that might be difficult, but you¡¯re totally willing to give. Then they end up not needing the help. That feeling. Bluh Reggie, when you can¡¯t access your digital dictionary mental logs, your brain is a mess. I know! I¡¯ve said that already! Hah. Like, repeatedly. Same with if there¡¯s no one else riding around in it. Ah, right, arguing with yourself. The clear picture of the perfectly sane individual. ¡­ Sh¡¯up.


    After my brain is done fritzing out, I realize Teuila is dragging Dawn along with me as she streaks back into town to go shopping for supplies. I find myself smiling and laughing all the more since Dawn seems unable to fight back at least a bit of a smile at Teuila¡¯s excitement. Oh no, Te¡¯s totally going to ask Dawn what foods taste good, and what food they want. Can I stop her in time?


    Teuila shouts back, ¡°I¡¯m buying supplies ay ess ay pee ya know! What sort of food do you want Dawny? What¡¯s available that tastes good and lasts a while?¡±


    Oof. The two of us, we¡¯re both totally the epitome foot-in-mouth syndrome. Ugh. I really wish I knew a better metaphor for that. It¡¯s like, faux pas blunderama blunderificness. I hope Dawn isn¡¯t too upset by the accidental ignoring of their curse. Hopefully Teuila doesn¡¯t suffer too much if they are annoyed to the extreme.


    Dawn coughs as they follow along, ¡°I uh, don¡¯t want any. Thank you though. I¡¯d suggest sweets, some last a surprisingly long time, and salted meats, and hardtack.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s eyes light up at the idea of sweets. We both know what they are, but I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve had any, in either of our lives. The closest things we¡¯ve had were some fruits, but my family is mostly river otters, so we were closer to obligate carnivores, mostly eating meat even when fruit became available.


    As we re-enter town, there are various murmurs from the assorted townsfolk that are out and about. Most of them are along the lines of ¡°Is that the dawn-spook?¡± I¡¯d laugh if I weren¡¯t worried it might hurt Dawn¡¯s feelings. Dawn looks exceedingly self-conscious at the moment, their free arm is wrapped around the front of their torso. I¡¯m tempted to tell them that their shirts do a good job of binding, so their mannerisms are more likely to give away the, um, what they¡¯d like to hide.

 B 4 C 35: Steamboat

    Teuila fairly rockets around the city with the two of us in tow, and even Dawn seems to be smiling at how excitable she is. Berinon is getting a slow start apparently, but opens his shop to us anyway. Teuila asks about a mud-treated sleeping-bag big enough for two, and sure enough, he¡¯s got one that¡¯ll do. Berinon asks for no payment, since, well, Teuila dumped a truckload of wealth into his hand the other day. Dawn looks a little perplexed that Berinon is just letting Teuila grab and pack stuff away into her packs.


    Teuila calls out, ¡°Dawny, do you want anything from here? We¡¯ve got you covered. We, um, Berinon knows us. Right Berry?¡±


    Berinon begins to try to form words, fails, rolls his eyes, turns around and walks into the back of his shop in the span of a moment. Teuila starts giggling like a madbeast at the interaction, and I barely contain my own laughter to stop myself from joining her. Dawn looks perplexed, but they shrug, and dig through some of the more armored looking apparel. Mostly belts and joint pads. They also pick up a stealthily-dark tunic that they add over the top of all their currently worn tops. They look less anachronistic now.


    Teuila calls out for Berinon a few times, and tries to peek around the corner without actually entering the back of his shop. She pouts, thinking she¡¯ll have to leave without saying goodbye. When he steps back through the hidden doorway behind the pelt, Teuila leaps over his countertop to give him a tight hug. She also tries to plant a smooch on his cheek that he¡¯s desperately trying to pull away from. Teuila grins derpily as she elates, sounding her glee in that single laughing squee. I notice some canteens, and an empty scabbard that seem incredibly high quality, so I strap those to my own gear. Then I fish out some Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian gold and leave it where Berinon will eventually stumble upon it, without being able to refuse it.


    Teuila asks, ¡°So, where¡¯s the sweet shop, or where are the sweet shops? What kind does The Brook have? I know of sweets from our weird database brain things, but like, we never even had sugar or chocolate or anything back home. I¡¯m excited to try stuff out!¡±


    Dawn mutters something about Teuila not needing any sugar under their breath, and I barely stifle my laugh in time to avoid cluing in Teuila. Te is an excitable personality, and she¡¯s a vibrant, vigorous, vivacious woman whose exuberance basically knows no bounds, and she has the physical attributes to remain as active as she likes, all day every day. But yeah, I can imagine Dawn would want to keep Teuila away from caffeine, and perhaps things with way too much sugar in them. Heh.


    I kind of like Dawn, but I¡¯m also a bit leery. We¡¯re not really catering to their needs and wants. At best, if we happen to stumble into leads for our own quests, those may possibly segue into leads that Dawn might be able to use. All the while, we¡¯re acting in the ways we always would, enjoying the world in the way we would. Dawn in the meanwhile is stuck tagging along with a couple of lovestruck goons. I¡¯m not sure how to make that any better for them though.


    As we browse the lane of shops, waiting for certain ones to open that Dawn recommends, I¡¯m reminded of a question I¡¯ve always pondered about Teuila. I ask, ¡°Te, did you ever find out why your bond with gravity works easier one way than the other, or like, what it¡¯s really about?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s answer drops my jaw, ¡°Oh yeah, easy peezy, like, increasing gravity is harder because it¡¯s like asking a muon to un-decompose back into a boson. I mean, the particle knows the other particle exists, and certain ones can even tell that they once were one, but you try growing back hundreds of times your own mass in an instant. The whole slowing or stopping gravity thing is even simpler, I just kind of ask the Higgs field to take a break, or firmly request, depending on how much I want it to shove off. Y¡¯know? Like, Newton was kind of being a bozo calling it gravity, since gravitas was more to do with like, the weight of an argument rather than an object. Not sure if that was just him being humorous, or what. Pondus might have been more appropriate. Maybe. I¡¯m not an etymologist.¡±


    I blink slowly, several times, more and more rapidly. I¡¯ve never thought Teuila was dumb, but, but I barely even understand what she¡¯s on about. I always thought her area of expertise lay in things like exploring, adventuring, exercising, maybe even kinesthetics. Like, I think she¡¯d probably make a good health and physical education instructor, or um, physical rehabilitation specialist. Yet, here¡¯s this, just now. That¡¯s particle physics, and not like, long-known particle physics, that¡¯s stuff from recent decades that isn¡¯t exactly pop culture yet. Wait. Recent decades? Pop culture knowledge of particle physics? What? Ugh, stupid fakeworld. I¡¯m about to try to come up with any kind of response, when Teuila beats me to the punch.


    She blushes and twirls her hair beneath her hood, ¡°I um, sorry for nerding out. I know that¡¯s kinda your thing. Sciencing things out.¡±


    I¡¯m astounded, and happy, and impressed, and all the more in love as I respond, ¡°Te, Teuila, never, ever, never ever ever be sorry for being who you are, for, for nerding out, or anything! You¡¯re amazing! I friggin¡¯ love you so much!¡±


    Since Teuila paused our mad rush through the town¡¯s streets to have this moment with me, while Dawn is still caught by one wrist, I¡¯ve got time. I flit forward and wrap my hands about Teuila¡¯s hips to lift her into the air to spin her around. She instinctively drops her own gravity, and Dawn¡¯s, to nothing as I spin her about. I¡¯m also accidentally spinning Dawn in the air along Teuila¡¯s outstretched arm.


    I chuckle with chagrin when I realize I¡¯m swinging Dawn about in the air like a flail attached to Teuila. I set the both of them down and blush madly-wildly. Teuila slugs me playfully in the shoulder, then kisses me on the cheek. Dawn follows suit. Slugging me that is, not kissing me. I think we both assume that would be pretty weird. Also, Dawn¡¯s punch is a bit less playful and a bit more annoyed than Teuila¡¯s. Dawn looks furiously embarrassed, without being able to portray many of the biological responses of blushing or embarrassment.


    I cough, ¡°Koff, erm, sorry Dawn. I, um. I just love her. Y¡¯know? Sorry about that.¡±


    Dawn looks anywhere other than meeting Teuila¡¯s gaze or mine as they respond, ¡°Sure Rej, whatever, no biggie. Just, maybe give a pal some warning next time before you drag someone flying? You said she was the strong one, but that looked effortless. You two are crazy. I can¡¯t eat or get sick anymore, and I still feel like I¡¯m going to hurl after that spin.¡±


    Te and I both nervously chuckle. Do we bother explaining that it wasn¡¯t me being strong, but Teuila reducing the gravity of everyone attached to her at that moment? I feel like it¡¯s moot at this point. Dawn¡¯s request was clear: warning next time, if at all. I do feel like I¡¯m starting off a possible friendship with Dawn in a horrible fashion. They seem uncomfortable around me to say the least. They don¡¯t seem to mind Teuila as much, but that almost seems to be more of a ¡°okay, she¡¯s crazy, I can put up with that,¡± kind of feeling rather than Dawn enjoying Teuila¡¯s company. I worry that we¡¯re causing them needless suffering, even if in just minuscule annoying fashions.


    We mill about for another half hour or so, chatting about whatever passes any of our fancies. Even Dawn seems to be enjoying themselves as we cover a wide variety of topics. Yet as shopkeeps begin filtering in from their homes, or the ones that live in their shops begin opening their doors, my eyelids droop heavily. Suddenly I¡¯m slumping to my knees in the street while the two catch me worriedly. Teuila says something about maybe asking Keeley or Tiago if we can just rest until we leave town at least, but I shake my head.


    My eyes swimming in their sockets, blurring Teuila and Dawn from my vision, I try to focus on Te as I state, ¡°I¡¯ll be fine My-Wings. Just, might need to rest a spell. Just a little bit out here while you do some of the shopping. I wish I had the energy to join you in shopping excitedly. I¡¯m so, so sorry my beloved Wings.¡±


    Teuila slugs me somewhat roughly, playfully, ¡°Hey sh, shut up. It¡¯s fine. I mean, obvee I want you in there too, enjoying things, and, and, and us spending time together and stuff. And I don¡¯t want you sad and tired and hurt or whatever¡¯s going on. But, like, it¡¯s not your fault. Nothing to be sorry for. So, s, so, so just shut up. Okay? Dawn, wou¡ª¡°


    Dawn interrupts, ¡°You got it boss. I can look after Rej. We¡¯ll hang in that alley over there, next to the confectionary. Just enjoy yourself chica. We¡¯ve got it handled. I won¡¯t let them get roughed up while they¡¯re snoozing or whatever, if they need a nap. If anything bigger shows up, I¡¯m sure Rej will be the one taking care of me, honestly.¡± Dawn¡¯s closing statement elicits a nervous chuckle from all three of us.


    Teuila looks back and forth between the two of us, frowns, raises a finger, drops the finger, raises it, drops it, then pouts as she says, ¡°I was going to save the sweets shop for a bit, hoping to make sure Reggie had lotsa room in their belly, but not too long. Ugh, fine. I¡¯ll start over there going back to Berinon¡¯s, then work my way this way. You two be good, okay? I mean, not that I expect you to be bad, or, um, to fool around, and it¡¯s okay if you want to! To, to fool around I mean, not be bad. Though I mean, I can¡¯t say what I¡¯d, err. Dawn I¡¯m sorry, I keep messing up and making you uncomfortable, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m just going to go over there now. Ugh. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    Teuila scampers away quickly, steam rising from beneath her hooded poncho in the cool damp air. Dawn helps drag me to the previously mentioned alley, where they break out into laughter for a while. I don¡¯t interrupt, as I¡¯m glad they seem to be enjoying themselves. Plus, I¡¯m too tired to do much interacting anyway. My head lolls to one side, and Dawn makes certain I¡¯m sitting on my heels, leaning against the building. They doff their own cloak and ball it up to help support my head. My eyes sleepily roll around in their sockets as I gaze up at Dawn questioningly.


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    With their cloak off, the tight cotton tops that compress their breasts are a fair deal more noticeable about what they¡¯re being used for. Still, Dawn catches my gaze when I try to meet their eyes, and says, ¡°Your boss is a card Rej. Teuila, she¡¯s, she¡¯s something else. If I were alive, a long, long time ago. I, I think I¡¯d have liked to have her as a friend. I¡¯m glad you two have that. I¡¯ve been starting to piece stuff together about what I¡¯ve heard across the town since we met, heck, since you showed up in The Brook. Plus the things you¡¯ve told me that make no sense.¡±


    I¡¯m a bit confused, and it¡¯s plain on my face as Dawn continues to explain, ¡°You¡¯re from another world. Like, I never got the sense that you lied to me. I¡¯ve got pretty good senses for things like that, even if my physical ones fritz out sometimes. I just wasn¡¯t sure how much was serious, and what was a bit of exaggeration, or metaphor. You were trying to tell me something about my soul a while back. I¡¯m curious now, and, well, I guess I trust you, for some reason. Like, a lot. More than I should for a stranger from a strange land.¡±


    My brain has a massive BSOD for a moment, when I come back to reality, I can tell Dawn¡¯s expecting me to share something. What were we talking about? Oh! Right! Their soul! I start to whisper, ¡°Dawn, your soul, it, it looked shredded, it was outside of your body, like, like barely hanging onto you. Worse, it looked like there was some ethereal wispy vapor of it fading away into the sky. Like, like it was draining away. I, I¡¯ve never really seen souls before, I don¡¯t have the aura-vision stuff that everyone else from back home has. I just have some things from this staff here. Feel free to give it a look-see, just don¡¯t try to cast anything from it, please. Some of the stuff is really dangerous.¡±


    Dawn turns the shrunken staff-handle over in their hands, over and over until they accidentally extend it. The staff shooting to full length in their hands causes them to recoil and drop it. Despite my sluggish nature, and tiredness, my danger wraps guide my hand to snatch it out of the air, shrink it, and stow it away in a smooth motion before it hits the ground. I don¡¯t think it could accidentally set off any magic just from falling a couple feet, but I also don¡¯t want to risk having it break. I¡¯m about to explain more about what little I know about souls, when another wave of lethargy washes over me. I barely spy Teuila skipping by the alleyway as she heads to another shop, apparently having finished with Berinon¡¯s leatherworks. I really wish I had time and energy to pick his brain about enchanting.


    Teuila stops by for only an instant to check on us, and Dawn shoos her away with a bit of friendly banter insistent that we¡¯re fine. I think Dawn also intimated that she wanted some privacy with me for a bit, which I¡¯m sure is giving Teuila all the wrong ideas again. We were just getting onto the topic of Dawn¡¯s soul is all. I don¡¯t think they¡¯re comfortable having that be a multi-party conversation just yet. Especially since I barely know what I¡¯m talking about.


    I hear a mixture of Spanish and quickly rattled-details from around the corner of the alley we¡¯re resting in. I¡¯m fairly certain that it must be Tiago, although any number of people in town might be from Malta Verde, or speak Spanish. I¡¯m still fairly sure it¡¯s Tiago, mostly because I recognize his voice, and his feared subject-matter.


    Tiago worries aloud, ¡°I¡¯m fairly certain they¡¯ve a persistent, perpetual malady, after what the others in town have told me. Plus, they asked about dragon hearts in such an odd manner. I mean, you know, we looked into it together.¡±


    I can feel Tiago frowning as he continues, ¡°I¡¯m worried darling, they¡¯re children in adult bodies, young adult bodies, with the breadth and depth of knowledge that come with adulthood, but the lifespans of children so far nonetheless. They¡¯ve died once already, and seem to be racing headlong towards doing it again. Por que este asi. Harriet is out of her mind tossing them aside like this. I honestly believe that you¡¯re right, based on those books, Reggie must have absorbed the dragon¡¯s heart somehow. It might be all that¡¯s keeping them alive at the moment. Dios, por que este asi! I, I need to weep for them, to pray for them, to call on the old ways, the spirits, to, to do something, anything!¡±


    George, Tiago¡¯s husband, responds, ¡°I know love, I know. These adventurers from beyond, they, well, they¡¯re beyond me, that¡¯s for certain. Probably beyond all of us. Maybe Harriet knows something we don¡¯t. She¡¯s never intentionally doomed someone before. I know she¡¯s acting odd, but I¡¯ve had a good think about it, and I¡¯m almost certain she has good reasoning. I mean, it¡¯s Harriet. When has she ever given anything less than her best and her all?¡±


    Tiago chuckles dryly, quite a feat, considering the acid rain, ¡°Hah, true enough I suppose. The old hen even sharks travelers out of just a few coins every eve to add to the town treasury, always risking only her own wealth. But I just can¡¯t comprehend it. They, they need us! Or, well, maybe not us, but someone! How can we turn our backs on them when they¡¯ve just saved our ancestors, dios, our entire town?¡±


    I can feel George nod as the pair pass the alleyway, ¡°I agree, obviously I agree. I don¡¯t like it or pretend to understand it one bit. Still, that passage about the hearts. It seems more fairytale than fact. Should we track down the duo? How would that go? Trying to convince the not-dragonslayers to consume more dragon hearts to keep one of them alive?¡±


    Tiago palms his forehead in exasperation, ¡°Dios no, I suppose not. I cannot see that going well.¡±


    Tiago speaks in a mockery of his own voice, ¡°¡®Hello friends, I know how mortified you were at the thought of ever ending a dragon¡¯s life, now we¡¯re pretty certain you¡¯ll need to end at least two more to survive the season, or year at best.¡¯¡±


    He pauses for a breath, a short dry laugh barely escaping his lips before he continues, ¡°Can you imagine? I honestly think the poor dear would rather die than hunt down dragons for such a, a, a feat. But, but the books. Reggie should have nearly limitless vigor right now, hardly able to sleep, let alone passing out on a whim. I¡¯m, I¡¯m so certain that they¡¯re being barely kept alive.¡±


    Tiago and George continue to converse about my seeming predicament until they¡¯re beyond earshot. Beyond even my impressive earshot. Dawn appears to be hearing the entire conversation with me, they do have some form of enhanced senses after all. Teuila is still in the store, likely conjuring her purchases to her inventory, but I don¡¯t think she¡¯s ever had quite the super-hearing that I have had, or that Dawn seems to possess. Dawn looks down at me worriedly, saying nothing. I don¡¯t know if they can tell I¡¯m parsing the conversation at the same time. Should I step out and confront the husbands? They¡¯re so kind to have us, me, on their minds. I don¡¯t know the right thing to do here. Tiago is right though, I¡¯d rather die than slay more noble mythical beasts on the off-chance that touching their hearts keeps me alive. I guess if we happen to find two more evil dragons before the season is out, well, yeah, I¡¯ll try to absorb their hearts or something.


    Ugh, now that I¡¯ve thought about it, and heard about it, I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll come across at least two more evil dragons before the year is out. Just effing fantsatic. Heh, what I wouldn¡¯t give to be able to access my FFS on demand, my frozen frost shielding/storms. I¡¯d certainly be dropping them around like bombs, eff bombs. But, well, yeah. I¡¯m sure the next two will be nowhere near as easy as Kozzurth to take down. She was old, lazy, bloated, cocky. Hell, knowing my luck, my soul will radiate some sort of warning to other dragons that I¡¯ve slain and absorbed the heart of one of theirs. The warning will probably even come with the detail that I beheaded Kozzurth from the inside, so they¡¯ll know not to risk opening wide. Ugh. Stupid fakeworld fiction genre savviness. Ugh to all the writers of fiction in that world for coming up with memes and cliches.


    Also, bleh, the idea that I need to consume hearts in any fashion whatsoever is gross. It makes me feel like some sort of vampire, or, or, loup garou, or wendigo, or Spawn of Ammut, or something. That whole cryptozoology shtick of mine. Mythozoology? Maybe, I¡¯m not quite certain. I¡¯ll stick with the joke¡¯s original name though.


    Dawn politely coughing breaks the silence, and me from my reverie. They ramble, ¡°Rej, I, I¡¯m not sure how much you just heard. I¡ª¡°


    I nod to Dawn, ¡°All of it. At least everything George and Tiago, the Saint, have said since they made it to this street. They¡¯re right. I won¡¯t do it unless I¡¯m forced to. I don¡¯t like taking any intelligent lives.¡±


    Dawn raises their hands placatingly, ¡°Hey, far be it from me to tell anyone how or why they should live longer. Y¡¯know? Are you going to tell Boss though? She seems like the sort that would hunt land sea and sky to find you dragon hearts.¡±


    Dawn¡¯s statement evokes a single snorted laugh from me, ¡°Hah, you¡¯re absolutely right. Te would scour the ends of the region, perhaps the entire planet, on the off-chance that Tiago and George¡¯s assumptions are correct. I¡¯ll tell her what they talked about later sometime, when we¡¯ve got nothing better to do. Maybe they¡¯re just wrong though. Tiago didn¡¯t identify what kind of malady he thought I might have, just something persistent, enduring. It may literally just be that I¡¯m malnourished and haven¡¯t gotten much sleep since being resurrected.¡±


    Dawn frowns, ¡°About that.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, waiting for them to continue, but Teuila¡¯s joyous return interrupts any further conversation. My introspection and worry drip away as Teuila leaps into my arms, despite my position sitting on my heels against the building. I¡¯ll tell her later, when we¡¯re bored and have nothing else to talk about. I¡¯m sure she¡¯s excited to share her purchases with us. Oof, her fist cramming sweets in my mouth pretty much guarantees my assumption. Hah.


    Mm, delightful. Uh, the sweets, not Teuila¡¯s hand. Err, though that¡¯s not un-delightful itself either. Bluh, this train of thought is getting weird. Teuila¡¯s grinning like a loon, and I can virtually hear her chuckling at my train of thought. It¡¯s my imagination though, just reminiscing about times when we were psychically bonded. I know how she¡¯d react if she were in my head. Right now she¡¯s just happy and excited to share a new discovery with me. It¡¯s an aspect of our relationship that will always fill me with extreme delight. I guess we should start making progress towards the docks, and at least get to know the ship that will be delivering us from The Brook, and Southern Aasimovia in general, to the rest of Rayileklia.


    Teuila shoves a holster onto my belt, and shows a hidden one that¡¯s now belted into a portion of her giant backpack¡¯s outside pouches. They perfectly fit and conceal the staff in its shrunken state. I can unsnap the top or the bottom to draw out the staff, or let it drop into my left hand instantly. Instead of having to untie it or unsling a leather thong from my entire body. That¡¯s quite handy, convenient even. Teuila¡¯s dragging us towards the docks as I ponder the sheathes.


    I¡¯m about to thank Teuila when Te says, ¡°Hope you like ¡®em Dink. Oh hey look, our boat.¡±


    Huh, yet more oddities as we approach the pier containing The Drake. Captain Tim is nowhere to be found at the moment, but he¡¯s likely preparing for the voyage, buying supplies. A certain supply that I did not expect to be in use in fact. Likely coal, or some other form of fuel. That is a steamboat. A late nineteenth century, to early twentieth century, fully-steel, steamboat. Ugh, quit it with the Earth centuries and crap.

 B 4 C 36: Showboat

    Wait.  Wait a minute.  Wait!  Did, did Harriet say Shellcracker?  The other day.  When did.  I mean who.  I don¡¯t think Teuila or I told her our family name.  Have we even used it at all on Rayileklia?  Could she have learned it from someone else?  Daffodil maybe?  What in the hells is going on on this planet?  I start to hyperventilate and my vision¡¯s focus tunnels to a pinprick.  May, maybe, maybe Te told her when they talked yesterday.  Or, or maybe one of the times when I was unconscious, Te or my sleeptalking told someone in the town.  That has to be it, right?  There just, just has to be a reasonable explanation.


    Staring at the boat we¡¯ll be boarding in a few hours, I¡¯m caught up wondering how Harriet knew our last names.  Did I tell her?  Did Teuila?  Did Daffodil?  Did we even tell Daffodil?  No, no I¡¯m almost certain we¡¯ve never uttered our family name aloud on Rayileklia at all.  It¡¯s almost like, like admitting we have a family that¡¯s not on this planet would doom us to never see them again.  Plus!  Plus!  Harriet said my two matrons!  How in the hell would she know Lao and Ag are both matrons?  Even Agwai barely acknowledges their attributes, and I¡¯ve certainly never, ever spoken of them in such a manner.  Teuila wouldn¡¯t either.  We¡¯d never disrespect Ag¡¯s identity, or decision to have a lack thereof.


    I suppose Harriet maybe could be referring to Fawns At Sunsets, since she¡¯s a matron of the cat tribe, and the cats joined the Shellcracker family, so she¡¯s technially a Shellcracker matron as well.  That doesn¡¯t parse any better though honestly.  I¡¯m fairly positive I¡¯ve never identified her aloud on this planet either.  Tiago and George are quite right, Harriet is acting incredibly odd.  It may have a lot more to do with us than even the two of them realize.  Who was threatening Harriet?  Or at least, demanding that she admonish us?  Crap!  It feels so bad to be leaving The Brook like this.  I doubt Harriet would even speak with me in our last few hours in The Brook.


    Teuila, noticing me lost in thought for quite some time, traipsing near the edge of panic asks me, ¡°Dink, are you okay?  Is it the boat?  We could maybe walk around the lake.  It¡¯s no big deal.¡±


    I exhale the barest hint of a chuckle, ¡°Heh, no, no Te, that¡¯s not it.  Do you remember the other day when you were in the vestibule?  Do you remember the exact words Harriet used to refer to me, and Lao, and Ag, near the end of her admonishment?¡±


    Teuila furrows her brow, ¡°I remember being pissed off as she, wait.  When did we.  Who.  But.  But.  We¡¯ve never even mentioned Lao and Ag, we wouldn¡¯t call out Ag¡¯s, y¡¯know, thingy.  They don¡¯t identify.  And, and, and, but.  I, I haven¡¯t really, I wouldn¡¯t.  Our clan name.  It, it.¡±  Teuila¡¯s eye brim with tears as she sniffles, unable to continue.


    I nod, my own eyes wet with tears.  Dawn looks utterly lost.  We haven¡¯t used our clan name.  Using it hurts, like admitting we¡¯re all that¡¯s left of a family that may have died in an apocalypse at some point since we were resurrected.  Even with Luni, Lil, and Lucky out there.  Five Shellcrackers, out of such a large and loving family, it, it hurts.  I can barely stand the thought of conjuring their memories for someone else to, to, to have.  Wait, memories?  Something about memories seems important.  I can¡¯t remember what, or why.  Hah!  Ugh, this swiss-cheese brain of mine.  Got a mind like a steel bear-trap, but memories are like water.  A steel trap¡¯s about as useful as a sieve for holding water.


    Dawn actually interposes their face between us, trying to catch both of our gazes as they ask, ¡°Boss?  Rej?  You two okay?  That was hard to follow, but between The Saint, and this just now, it sounds like the mairess was acting squirrelly.  She knew something she wasn¡¯t supposed to?  Couldn¡¯t have known?  Think it could be about that weird-eyed creep skulking about town?¡±


    I begin to pass out from terror as I try to stammer a question, ¡°W-w-weird-eyed?  H-h-how?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s gaze meets mine with nearly as much terror as I feel.  Dawn¡¯s answer doesn¡¯t quite hit the mark for triggering full-on panic, but keeps me teetering on the edge of terror, ¡°They glowed or something.  Eyes visible from all the way outside town when they were in dark alleys and stuff.¡±


    I whump into the mud, falling on my arse and sobbing as I draw my knees to my face.  They might have followed us here.  They could still be hunting me, across worlds, time and space, possibly even universes if my guess as to Rayileklia¡¯s reality is correct.  They, it, it could be them.  The.  No.  I can¡¯t think about it.  I could be lost in my own mind, in panic, for who knows how long.  I can¡¯t leave Teuila like that.  I, I can¡¯t.  Anything, any other train of thought right now, anything that presents itself, I¡¯ll latch onto for dear life.  Teuila¡¯s mortified facial expressions and frozen body-language offer me no hope as to a disparate thought train.


    Dawn somehow infers far too much, ¡°Boss, is, is Rej okay?  That¡¯s, that¡¯s like full on panic, it¡¯s, it¡¯s about to hit.  They¡¯re right on the edge.  It, it¡¯s bad.  Something about what I just said did that.  I, I¡¯m so sorry.  You¡¯ve been bothered by creepy eyes before I take it?  I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry that, that, whatever happened.  Rej is, is, they¡¯re, I can sense something wrong, bad.  Boss, do something, snap out of it, please.  Teuila?  Boss!¡±


    Dawn slaps Teuila, shocking all three of us.  That slap rung loud through the quiet air.  Dawn clasps their mouth with one hand, and they gaze about in terror as they¡¯ve drawn attention to the three of us from the dock-workers and other assorted civilians.  Or, well, the terror might be because they just slapped someone they know is more powerful than colossi or dragons.  Or it could just be because they just hurt a friend.  It feels like the last one somehow wins out over their other emotions.  The first two would cause Dawn to flee the city.


    Teuila mutters, ¡°Thanks Dawny.  Needed that.¡±  Her eyes are reddened and blood-shot, and it seems like she¡¯s on the edge of being panic-stricken herself.  If there¡¯s even a chance that the conclusions we¡¯ve jumped to are remotely correct, the implications are horrific.


    Teuila hauls me bodily off the ground and drags me to a nearby alleyway.  Dawn nervously follows.  Te absolves Dawn, ¡°Dawny, really, thank you.  It¡¯s fine.  I needed that, really.  My dink, I, they, they.  You¡¯re right.  We have to do something.  Reggie?  Dink?  Love?  The cavalry¡¯s here.  I¡¯m here to back you up.  Even Dawn has your back.  We could be wrong, okay?  It might not be that.  We¡¯re on a whole other world, with a whole different system of magic and science.  Glowing eyes could mean anything.  Maybe it¡¯s just a burglar with an x-ray vision spell?  Or, or laser-vision, or, um, soul-sight, or, or, ah, uh, er, nightvision goggle spells.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s voice falls hush for a moment, then continues slightly more excitedly, ¡°Or, or like the eagle-eye precision goggle thingies Lil¡¯s got, the invisible goggles.  Oh, hey, I wonder what that belt did that you gave Lil.  It definitely fit their Lilagnewt form.  I suppose they could shapeshift a bit if it didn¡¯t fit properly.  Lildragbutt was way better at that, when, um, yeah, a few days ago, better than back at Point B on, on, the, um, Lavaborn Alliance marching trail.  B-but, but, but none of that, don¡¯t worry about that.  J-just think about them and like, their magic items or something.¡±


    Teuila brushes back a lock of hair beneath my hood as she rambles, ¡°Lu¡¯s got her harp, and bag, and those gloves that let her climb, almost sticking sideways on surfaces.  She¡¯s got that other bag with the furry balls in it.  We never really tested what those were.  I gave Lil that iron flask.  They have their psychology one oh one cloak.  Get it?  Anger displacement.  ¡®Cause it displaces an image of them to hostile or angry peeps.  I¡¯ve got my little ring of reflection thingy that you gave me after we beat, um, the dragon-skeleton by Maka-Akari, the one with the mirror on it that seemed like your magical senses bounced off of it.  I guess I didn¡¯t need to be so rude to Daffy about directions, since I still have the little orb that tells me where north is.  Lu¡¯s got the tendril tattoo and soap stone, and, um.  Just think about magic, please Dink?¡±


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    I begin to rouse from my near-panic as Teuila reminds me of assets even I had forgotten the SAP has access to.  The Shellcracker Adventuring Party has been through a lot over our short lives together.  Wait, did Teuila use the word love again?  As a nickname, in an accent.  Then she said the cavalry¡¯s here?  That, that fritzes my brain something fierce, ow my head.  A massive BSOD.  I wonder why.  Rattling my head, trying to shake loose the thoughts, I stare up at Teuila and Dawn.  I flash them a weak smile as I slowly stand.


    I mumble, ¡°I think, for once in my life, I could use something stiff.¡±  Teuila starts to interrupt me with a baudy joke but I continue, ¡°A drink, alcohol, whiskey, bourbon, mead, just some kind of booze.  My brain has been giving me hell on Rayileklia.  Though maybe alcohol might not help the situation, it can¡¯t hurt too much to try just once.  If I seem like I like it too much without it helping me, keep me away from it later.  Dawn, I know food and drink are, well, not really your thing now, but, well, we have a few hours.  Care to join us for a pint or something?¡±


    Dawn nods along with me listening, and waits a while before they answer, ¡°I, well, I guess I could try.  It doesn¡¯t exactly do anything bad.  So, uh, sure, Rej, if it¡¯s what the Boss wants.¡±


    Teuila grins and says, ¡°Cheers to that Dawny.  Sure Dink, let¡¯s get you some booze, maybe the extra calories will help out or something.  It¡¯s worth a shot.¡±


    It takes us no time at all to find a tavern along the docks to make merry in.  Or whatever the phrase would be.  I hope I used that right, ugh, I¡¯d be pretty mortified if that was a euphemism.  I guess it doesn¡¯t matter, since no one here can read my thoughts.


    It seems as if it¡¯s only moments before we¡¯re elbow deep in pints of beverages.  It¡¯s honestly impressive how quickly Teuila knocks back alcohol.  She¡¯s tried shots of pretty much everything the bar offers, and came to the decision that she likes honeyed mead the best.  I¡¯m of like mind about that, I prefer not to taste alcohol, it¡¯s kind of gross honestly.  A largely overpowering sweet flavor that masks the alcohol is perfect for me.  I¡¯d be happy going so far as to drown the alcohol further in fruit juices.  I think I¡¯m on my sixth pint of mead, and finally starting to feel some sort of effect.  Teuila is on her, well, there¡¯s two tables filled with mugs that Teuila has abandoned, empty.


    Dawn actually seems to be enjoying themselves.  They¡¯re sipping on some sort of warming stout that has a smoky flavor with the faintest hints of chocolate.  The smokiness grossed me out, or I¡¯d probably have tried more of it.  Though I don¡¯t have a sense of smell, the alcohol in the tavern assails my nostrils, stinging my nasal cavities ever-so-slightly.  The tavern-keep is running low on mugs, and seems short-staffed, so he¡¯s finally come to collect all the empties that Teuila has left strewn about as she kept ordering more.


    A burly couple of dockworkers approach us challengingly, ¡°Oy, seems the li¡¯l wahine here can knock ¡®em back, care to make sport of it, a little wager who lasts longer?¡±


    That doesn¡¯t seem fair, they¡¯ve only downed a pint or two since they arrived, watching us the entire time, while Teuila is dozens deep into her drinking.  Or maybe the mead around here just isn¡¯t that high in alcohol content, so they don¡¯t feel like they¡¯re cheating?  We might have an advantage with our Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian biology, or lack thereof though.  I¡¯m not even sure alcohol goes to our bloodstreams, or livers kidneys, or anything like that.


    I don¡¯t think Teuila even has a bloodstream, a liver, or kidneys.  She¡¯s digital in nature.  She bled one time, but that was more of a weird magical lifeblood purge.  Beneath her beautiful flesh is a blue wireframe, and a beating crystalline core, just like Lil.  Though somehow her body emulates some of what¡¯s supposed to be below, like muscles and bone.  Like when she pulverized her femurs, tibiae, tarsals and phalanges.  That was back when we were racing to save Lil.  She poured on every ounce of speed she could muster, despite her Valkyrie form being on the fritz.  She went beyond, what did she call it one time?  ¡®One hundred plus a hundred plus a hundred, plus she-doesn¡¯t-know, ultra percent¡¯?  Her legs looked like lumpy noodles after that, it was sickening what atomizing her bones into powder did to her.  She¡¯d do it again in a heartbeat for Lil, Lu, Lin, any Shellcracker honestly.


    Dawn actually steps up, defending Teuila in a way, stating, ¡°Even if that were fair sport, after how much Boss has had to drink, you fellas really don¡¯t want to challenge this one to anything.  She¡¯ll beat anyone in this entire town, at anything physical.  I¡¯ve seen it.  You have to have heard what she dropped off at the apothecary by now, right?¡±


    The pair balk slightly as they hoarse-whisper to each other, ¡°That was her?  There¡¯s no way.  Wait, this feeling, is, is one of them the dawn spook?  Shid, now I¡¯m curious.  We¡¯d be legends.¡±


    Well.  That backfired.  Dawn emulates blushing as they hide their face in their mug of stout, avoiding eye contact.  Teuila has been pretending to be oblivious the entire time.  Or, well, maybe the alcohol is actually affecting her, and she hasn¡¯t heard the two lugs at all.  I somehow doubt that that option is all that likely though.  Oh, yep, Te definitely heard.  Te pats Dawn on the shoulder as she walks around our table to the two fellows that tower over us.


    Te sticks out a friendly hand, and now I¡¯m terrified.  For the poor man about to grab it as she says, ¡°I¡¯m Teuila, the Valkyrie, pleased to meetcha.  Care to cross wrists?  A little arm throwdown?  Some table-smashing?  Some bicep busting?¡±


    Her expression betrays nothing, she appears to simply be a friendly young woman having a good time as she introduces herself.  Dawn is quaking in their boots, and I¡¯m honestly not sure if I should intervene.  I guess if Teuila breaks a table, we can just pay for it.  It¡¯s not like she¡¯ll start a full-on brawl, right?  I gulp, gazing about to make sure no one heard my thought.  Never tempt fate with thoughts like that out loud.  They each shake her hand in turn, and I¡¯m relieved that she hasn¡¯t shattered their hands.


    Before they can answer, Teuila adds, ¡°Both of you, at once.  One on each arm.  Feel free to use both of yours.¡±


    Oof, that hit their pride, the one that hadn¡¯t spoken til now curses, ¡°Shid, you¡¯re on wahine, don¡¯t whine to us when you can¡¯t use your arms for a few weeks.  Cheeky little pip.¡±


    Okay, they¡¯ve been at it for probably a minute now, maybe two, and Teuila is yawning.  She pretended to give up an inch a couple of times.  I think she¡¯s honestly calculating just how much force she can use to really show them up without injuring them.  Uh oh.  I can almost sense it.  Teuila¡¯s going to throw them both into pins.  They¡¯d been trash talking for a bit, and now are just muttering curses under their breaths.


    And there they go.  I freakin¡¯ knew it. Somehow she avoided smashing their chairs, and managed to only knock the table aside without smashing it as she stood.  Her motion was indescribable, fluid, graceful, yet radiating raw power.  I doubt she even used her gravity manipulation at all.


    From atop them, with their arms twisted behind their backs, Teuila says, ¡°Maybe don¡¯t judge a book by its cover, and let a gal enjoy her drinks in peace if you come across one?  You¡¯re not as pushy as some of the chaps I¡¯ve run into around here, but maybe you could help teach them some manners.  Hup, here you go fellas, upsy daisy.¡±


    The dockhands look sheepish as they stand, accepting Teuila¡¯s help with a modicum of grace.  One nudges the other, and that one speaks, ¡°You uh, yeah.  I know when I¡¯m beat but good.  Hope you have a pleasant rest of your eve and enjoy your drinks wahine, um, young miss.  No disrespect intended.  Also, on behalf of The Brook, thanks.  Wasn¡¯t sure the other one was telling the truth, but you must have been the one to fell the dragon.¡±


    Teuila bursts into laughter and wipes a tear from her eye as she says, ¡°Nope!  I carried the head, sure, but my Dink,¡ª¡°  I¡¯m making the cutthroat gesture, but Teuila is facing away from me, and not holding her danger-spear.  Teuila thumbs my direction and she finishes, ¡°Is actually the one that slew the dragon.  Can¡¯t tell you how proud I was when I came over from my battle, and saw them standing on the head like it was no big deal.  Also, about the town, no big deal.  We do that sorta stuff all the time.  I hope The Brook only has peaceful days from here on out.  Ya  know?¡±


    The two gaze over at me warily.  I¡¯d probably seemed unimpressive and nondescript until now, which I was glad of.  I¡¯m happy to hear Teuila is proud of me, but she knows I don¡¯t like attention, and there it is, she just realized she was bragging about me.  Now she feels bad for sticking the spotlight on me.  Poor Te.  The horror and sadness in her eyes as she gazes my way are heartbreaking.  She knows I forgive her, intrinsically, but I can virtually see the thought trains percolating into existence that will eventually take her out of mortification.  Things really are so much harder on her without our psychic link.  We never really had to socialize with anyone outside our own family before, even when we were commanding a group of thousands, and moving into a sanctuary populated by Fairies.  Regardless, I entirely empathize with my beloved Wings.


    Still, even if this came about because of her desire to showboat, I want to do something to alleviate her guilt.  Plus, her heart was in the right place, she didn¡¯t want to hurt anyone, or ridicule them, or anything.  She just wanted to pass along a very simple Aesop.  Wait, a what?  An Aesop¡¯s fable?  A moral of the story?  Ow my freaking head.  So much for booze helping with these migraines.  I won¡¯t bother trying that again.  Ugh, ow.  Oh, is that the floor quickly approaching my face?

 B 4 C 37: Dreamboat

    A voice seemingly from nowhere, yet exceedingly close calls out, ¡°It¡¯s you again. It must be years since the last time. Did you catch up with Santiago?¡±


    I furrow my brow. The voice is recognizable, but I don¡¯t know anyone from this town beyond the priest and his boyfriend. Hm, except that lurker in the wilderness. I glance about, but whomever is speaking is quick enough to avoid my gaze. Perhaps they¡¯ve gotten more skilled in the intervening years since our last encounter.


    Though they¡¯ve gotten better at hiding, they¡¯re still less skilled in stealth than I am. I finally spot them, and the difference is readily apparent. They¡¯re garbed more appropriately for the wilds. And, oddly enough, lacking almost any hint of the ample breasts that I recall them trying to hide previously. Good for them I suppose.


    I respond, ¡°As I do when a job requires I travel far and wide. Yes. It seems you were able to avail yourself of at least some part of town in the last few years yourself.¡±


    Their demeanor suddenly shifts to one of shyness rather than stealth. They seek to hide their embarrassment, ¡°Only, only thanks to your prodding. Only a few times. So, um, thank you.¡±


    I shrug one shoulder, waving off the thanks as I turn to leave.


    They call out, ¡°Wait, if you don¡¯t mind, please, a moment. You don¡¯t owe me it, but you know how bored and curious I am. I. No, I¡¯m sorry, never mind. Thank you is all.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow. This one¡¯s demeanor is odd to the extreme. Odder still, when they aren¡¯t speaking, not even my sharp hearing picks up their heartbeat or breath. Perhaps they have become as skilled as me, or even more so, if they¡¯re able to mask basic functions to such a degree. I pause a few moments more while I puzzle out their curious nature. Did I sense their breathing or heartbeat last time? I can¡¯t recall. It was easy enough to notice their approach by their lack of true stealth. Motion alone provided enough sound. Maybe I¡¯ll ask Tiago about it next time I¡¯m in The Brook.


    Ugh, I can imagine exactly how it will go. I¡¯ll be intending to say there¡¯s a woman at the edge of town, and as soon as I get out the word woman, Tiago will interrupt. He¡¯ll jibe and joke until he¡¯s lost memory of what even started the japery. Especially since I¡¯ve never been with a woman or man in all my fifty or sixty years. Perhaps I should just say person. This person seems to not wish to be known as a woman anyway, or at least not judged for their womanly assets. I can at least relate to part of that, or lack thereof.


    Speaking of such topics, they hesitantly ask, ¡°Sir, or, um, miss. You don¡¯t intend to hurt anyone in The Brook, do you? I¡¯ve gotten a bit better at sensing things, and there is a murky air about you. One of pain and violence.¡±


    I quell the momentary fury that trembles beneath my surface. Have I been outed as an assassin? Tiago would know not to trust that information with anyone untrustworthy, or who would do me harm. Hell, from his own statements, The Brook might want me on payroll just in case something needs slaying. That¡¯s not the only thing that raises my ire though.


    I scowl as I respond, ¡°I¡¯m neither, and, not that I owe it to you, but no, I don¡¯t.¡± I spin on my heel and begin to march swiftly away.


    There is a sad air that persists, following me for a vast distance. The feeling of being observed lasts for far too long. So, I sidle up alongside a concave tree within its leeward side. Drawing my dagger, I lay in wait. The feeling lingers, but no one approaches my striking zone near my hidden ambush.


    The voice suddenly calls out from the other side of the tree, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m glad is all. I guess we have some things in common. Thank you for showing me that, and giving me a push that I needed. I won¡¯t bother you again when you enter or leave The Brook.¡±


    I remain in waiting for several moments more, still ready to strike, not letting down my guard. It¡¯s not long though until the presence recedes, and I no longer feel as if I¡¯m being observed. I¡¯m not entirely happy with how that interaction went down, but I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t need to drop a body on Aasimovian soil.


    I¡¯m going to regret doing this. I softly whistle a series of tweets in a minor key. One of the tricks I was taught in The Heart. Sure enough, a small bird whose feathers have adapted to our abysmal world shows up in mere moments, landing on my outstretched fingertip. I hesitate. They don¡¯t deserve to know, and their own feelings are their own mess to deal with. Still, I regret my moody outburst, so I withdraw a scrap of parchment.


    I quickly scribble, ¡°Sorry, same time next year.¡± I roll the tiny note tightly, then tie it loosely about the bird¡¯s ankle. Once I¡¯m assured it won¡¯t just drop away, I whistle a few more notes. When I¡¯m sure the animal gets the gist, I whisper what I want it to seek out, and that I¡¯m grateful for its help. The Heart wants me to be kind and grateful, so I strive to be so in regards to the wilderness and its creatures.


    I sigh as I send the bird on its way. I guess I¡¯ll have to come visit Tiago next year around now whether I was going to or not. I don¡¯t relish the idea of any social interaction, but I¡¯ll try to alleviate my own conscience if they show up at least. Who knows, maybe this mysterious outlander won¡¯t even be alive the next time I come around.


    Teuila prods me as I awaken, grinning as happily as ever she states, ¡°Have good dreams my Dink? You were kinda, well, definitely talking about, groaning, and maybe moaning Dawn¡¯s name there for a while. Thought you might just be talking about the time, until, well, yeah.¡±


    I flush with embarrassment, not this again, ¡°Te, please don¡¯t joke about that around Dawn, it seems like it makes them really really uncomfortable. I don¡¯t mind you teasing me and making me uncomfortable, but, please?¡±


    Teuila pouts, ¡°I swear, I¡¯m not running a bit. You really did, that¡¯s why Dawn is hanging over the edge of the dinghy right now.¡±


    My eyes flash wide as I cry out, ¡°They¡¯re what?! Are they okay?! Which edge!?¡± I struggle to leap out of Teuila¡¯s embrace to go find and save Dawn. Barely realizing that we¡¯ve already set sail, and I wasn¡¯t even conscious to meet Captain Tim aboard the Drake.


    Teuila shushes me and pulls me back down against her torso, ¡°Shh, it¡¯s okay my Dink, they just, they were getting really uncomfortable with your, well, moans I guess. There¡¯s nowhere else really private on the dinghy, and the captain doesn¡¯t want anyone in the way on the fishing boat¡¯s deck, so, well, yeah.¡±


    I groan, ¡°Ugh I must seem like some awful perverted creep. Ugh, bluh. Please just gag me next time I start talking in my sleep?¡±


    Teuila grins and slugs me playfully, ¡°No promises Dink. I kinda like hearing what comes out of your mouth in the middle of the night.¡±


    I roll my eyes and faux-sigh with frustration. I can¡¯t help laughing. She¡¯s so mean sometimes. There¡¯s a polite cough from behind me and I almost want to weep. Crap, how much did Dawn here? Which part did they walk in on? If they got here at the word gag, or when Teuila started talking after Dink. Ugh.


    I nervously glance towards Dawn, trying to hide the tears in my eyes. I don¡¯t want them to get the wrong idea. They avoid my gaze, so I look away. I start to apologize, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m really sorry, it¡¯s not ¡ª¡°


    Dawn interrupts me, ¡°Hey, whatever, dreams are just dreams, right, ya know? Might weird me out, but it¡¯s none of my business what your subconscious is doing.¡±


    I flush with embarrassment so hard that I begin to pass back out in Teuila¡¯s arms as my ears steam. Crap, I, I need. To say. That wasn¡¯t it. Frick. Hello again dreamland.


    Taylynn has been needling me to take up a mercenary job with her. She knows I¡¯m between leads at the moment, still no closer to the emperor, and she does have me wrapped around her little finger. Still. I¡¯d prefer to continue my solo work for Jarvis and the people of the Imperium. It has expanded its borders yet again during my years seeking out its ruler. It¡¯s like the bastard can somehow control his lieutenants without ever seeing or speaking with them, or meeting with them, or sending any sort of carrier message. It¡¯s uncanny.


    I relent, ¡°Fine ¡®Lynn, err, I mean Tay. I know, I know, you don¡¯t want to be called ¡®Lynn. Sorry. I was distracted by thought.¡±


    Her grimace becomes a grin as she drapes her arms over my shoulders, resting her nose upon mine. She coyly responds, ¡°Hm, I suppose I forgive you then. What sort of thought so distracts you?¡±


    I hem and haw on whether or not to fill Taylynn in on my internal monologue. She has known me for many years at this point, I suppose it¡¯s fair. I answer, ¡°I¡¯m prone to listening to and reacting to my own subvocalized internal monologue. Sometimes it feels like I get a lot of thinking done in a short time, other times even if it feels that way, it often turns out I¡¯d been spacing out for a long period.¡±


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Taylynn chuckles softly as she nips the corner of my lips, working her way towards my ear again. What is it with her and my ear? Not that I mind altogether that much mind you.


    She whisperedly asks, her lips and tongue tickling the edges of my ear, ¡°Okay then, give me an example, what were the last few lines of your internal monologue?¡±


    Ugh, she would ask that. Still, I already spilled, may as well tell her, ¡°As you were moving, I said to myself, ¡®Taylynn chuckles softly as she nips the corner of my lips, working her way towards my ear again. What is it with her and my ear? Not that I mind altogether that much mind you. She whisperedly asks¡­¡¯ And there, you¡¯re caught up, happy?¡±


    Taylynn shoves off of me, laughing, knocking me back and off-balance slightly. She grips her belly as she doubles over in mirth. I didn¡¯t think it was that funny. I might be slightly odd in my own head, but she¡¯s known my oddities for years.


    Through gasping for breath between laughs, she requests, ¡°Go on, go on, tell me another one, I beg you, hahaha.¡±


    I frown as I roll my eyes and do as she asks, ¡°This is the last one then. I wasn¡¯t doing this for your laughter. You asked a question, I gave an honest answer. Anyway, after I answered last time, my internals said, ¡®Taylynn shoves off of me, laughing, knocking me back and off-balance slightly. She grips her belly as she doubles over in mirth. I didn¡¯t think it was that funny. I might be slightly odd in my own head, but she¡¯s known my oddities for years.¡¯ Then I talked about you gasping for breaths between laughs. There, done, no more of that.¡±


    Taylynn takes a few more moments of laughter to herself as she wipes a tear from her eyes. She begins to pout, ¡°Awe, I enjoyed knowing I¡¯m at the center of your thoughts. So, Love, am I there frequently?¡±


    I try to wear a scowl in answer, yet I can¡¯t help but to slowly smile. She is. She is and she knows it. I curse, ¡°Damn you, yes, you¡¯re a distracting presence amidst my mind nearly always. And, huff, I love you regardless, though it will likely get me killed soon enough.¡±


    She wears a bittersweet smile as she responds, ¡°I¡¯d prefer to not be damned, I like the idea of the next life. Like you said, if we¡¯re lucky, earlier in both of our lives. Right?¡± I blush as she recalls my answer to her question about a life after this one. She continues, ¡°Also, I¡¯m sorry in advance if thinking of this,¡± she makes an exaggerated hourglass figure with her hands, demonstrating her curves, ¡°gets you killed some day.¡±


    I fight back a laugh and end up snorting hard for my troubles. She grabs the nearest object, thankfully a pillow at this point, and throws it at me as I try to backpedal my laugh, ¡°Hah, wait, your curves are wonderful. Oof, stop with the bedding. It wasn¡¯t about your curves or your form, it was how animated you were about oof, and how nonchalant you were about my upcoming demise.¡±


    She takes pause as she reaches out a hand for mine. She draws me close, silently sitting frozen on the bed in front of me, her eyes downcast. She finally states, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m not. I¡¯d be heartbroken if you died Aces. I might not be able to express myself in the ways I¡¯d like to sometimes, but I¡¯m not nonchalant about it. I had to add humor to it because I can¡¯t bear the thought. You¡¯re nearly a century in age, and still running and riding between countries, killing on a lark as needed against corrupt nobles and military. What even are you?¡±


    I shrug, ¡°I¡¯m human far as I can tell, just like everyone else.¡±


    Taylynn frowns as she looks up at me, ¡°Please, take this job with me, let me show you. They aren¡¯t all human anymore, maybe never were. The orc tribes are some of the last free peoples that the Imperium hasn¡¯t brought under thumb. They have magic Aces, real, honest to gods magic. If that doesn¡¯t convince you, I don¡¯t know what will. Please?¡±


    She casts her eyes up to meet mine at their largest and wettest, striking my heart like a dagger. I answer, ¡°We ah, we got off topic, but I¡¯d already said fine. So, well, yes. Not that I believe they¡¯re anything other than human, but perhaps there is some sort of magic here or there. I¡¯ve witnessed a few things that are hard to explain.¡±


    She grumbles, ¡°I gave you a friggin¡¯ magic dagger after our first, ahem, and you still, grr.¡±


    I chuckle with chagrin as my hand flits down to Taylynn¡¯s dagger. It has been especially good to me as far as weapons are concerned. Mine was only slightly dinged and nicked over fifty years of use, okay it was rather jagged by the time I met Taylynn. But hers doesn¡¯t show even the faintest of marring in all the years I¡¯ve used it already.


    I rub my head abashedly, ¡°Right, yes, anyway, so, this job. Out west you say?¡±


    Her beautiful smile is answer enough, yet she says, ¡°Yes, and, I want us to just take my horse.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow as I query, ¡°What, why?¡±


    She teases, waggling her eyebrows, having set me up, she lands her punchline, ¡°You really need a reason to ride tightly up against my backside for weeks upon weeks?¡±


    Hm, who? What? Pflechk, bleh, something wet splashing about. Ugh, I swallowed some of it. Right, right, mildly acidic rain. No, wait, boat, giant lake, mildly acidified surface water of the lake. Teuila is laughing and wiping a tear of mirth from her eyes, even Dawn is snickering nearby. What¡¯s so funny?


    When she notices I¡¯m awake, Teuila hugs me tightly as she explains, ¡°Dink, Love, that¡¯s the most lucid I¡¯ve ever heard you in your sleep. It sounds like, or sounded like, even more, I don¡¯t know, detailed, than what you supposedly used to tell Lil. Heck, those two were really, really smitten for each other. Like, wow.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, glancing back and forth between Te and Dawn. Dawn nods affirmatively. Te continues, ¡°It was Aces and Taylynn, I think. Apparently Aces didn¡¯t believe in magic. I mean, come on, how can you not? What a dink, eh? Anyway, goober was going to keep working on stuff in the Imperium, but ¡ª¡°


    Dawn interrupts, ¡°Wait, that¡¯s right, the dream sounded like they didn¡¯t believe in magic, wait, describe this Aces character? Were they a bit lanky, skulky, always cloaked, wore a dagger on the hip with a fancy bone sheathe? Wait, kind of like that one. How did I not notice that before?¡±


    Teuila and I exchange a surprised glance before I answer, ¡°That, well, yes, that sounds like Aces. A bit vague of a description, but, um. From what I remember about their reflection in the horse-trough, gosh that was so long ago. They uh, were fairly androgynous, hair could have been red maybe, but there was no light, so color was hard to distinguish. They were an assassin, so yeah, they probably skulked a lot.¡±


    Dawn grumbles, ¡°The little shid, got to know them over most of the last half century, and never even got a name. Next time I see Aces, I¡¯m going to chew them out something fierce. They were looking kinda spooked on their way through town a week or two ago now though. Something must be up. Assassin you say? That certainly does explain some things. We only spoke a few minutes at a time, about once every year or so, but still.¡±


    My heart breaks as Dawn reminisces as if they¡¯re going to have Aces come for another visit at their usual yearly rendezvous. I gulp as I state, ¡°Dawn, Dawn this is Aces¡¯ dagger. An assassin¡¯s dagger. I, I mean. You must know what that means, right? They went to Noirdivinhoz.¡±


    Dawn furrows their brow and scowls at me, ¡°Shut your mouth. The codger doesn¡¯t age for decades, and could out-sneak me most days. They were practically as invincible as the pair of you. But, but why do you have that dagger then? Come off it, what¡¯s really going on?¡±


    My pout sinks into a sorrowful frown full of despair. Dawn doesn¡¯t even realize they¡¯ve lost a friend. This is the exact reason I want to get this dagger back to Taylynn and Selunie as soon as possible. Teuila defends me whilst I can¡¯t find my voice through the building tears.


    Te commands, ¡°Hey, Rej doesn¡¯t lie, and doesn¡¯t joke about serious things like this. That aint cool Dawny. They¡¯re trying to break it to you gently. Get it? Like, like, that¡¯s what our quest is with this dagger. We¡¯re bringing it back to the person who gave it to Aces. They deserve to know.¡±


    Dawn frowns. Still in denial they ask, ¡°Deserve to know what? And while we¡¯re at it, how is Rej there having dreams in the first person view of an old friend anyway? I thought it was just another sex dream or something. Not, not like a friend¡¯s memory. That¡¯s messed up.¡±


    My mortified expression runs rampant across my face while my blush evaporates the lake¡¯s constant spray that¡¯s splashed about over the edge of the dinghy. Defensively I retort, ¡°It, it wasn¡¯t, neither was a sex dream, okay? Apparently when I sleep, I see other people¡¯s memories from Rayileklia, okay? Sometimes, just sometimes I guess I recite them out loud while having them, or something. I¡¯m sorry Dawn, we found Aces¡¯ body in Noirdivinhoz, and I already knew Aces from dreams all the way back on our world. I knew this dagger belonged to Taylynn. She loaned it as a sort of permanent gift to Aces. We¡¯re on a quest to get home overall, in general, but we have a pit stop, a side quest to take care of. Aces¡¯ friends, and loved ones, deserve to know they¡¯re gone.¡±


    Dawn oscillates between denial and anger, ¡°That, no, you¡¯re, you¡¯re lying! They, they could find me. They knew me. They could outhide my senses if they really wanted to. They didn¡¯t age! They can¡¯t, they can¡¯t die. Not there, especially not there. No one should die there. No one knows¡ª. Chkglp. It, it¡¯s not fair! You, you¡¯re mistaken, that¡¯s it. Sure, Boss says you¡¯re not a liar, so, so you, you¡¯re just seeing things. Remember what the Saint said? You, you need more ¡ª.¡±


    I glare at Dawn, daring them to finish spilling that before I¡¯ve had a chance to tell Teuila myself. I was going to do it after our drinking excursion. Dawn clams up, thankfully. Teuila looks shocked at our newfound friend¡¯s attitude, but grief is a painful experience. We both know this deeply, truly.


    Before I end up forgetting again, and before Teuila can get suspicious, I broach the subject, ¡°Te? Tiago and George were walking past the alleyway I was in before we went drinking, while you were shopping. I wanted to tell you when my headache calmed down, and was hoping the booze would get me there. It didn¡¯t, obviously.¡±


    Teuila asks, ¡°Tell me love?¡±


    Is she getting more used to the word? Or is it just because it¡¯s a blanket nickname in the accent she¡¯s using? Oh, right, respond, ¡°Tiago and George, they, um, remember how I said Kozzurth¡¯s heart shrunk, like, a lot? I thought it was just the cold, or maybe it tried to fuel a spell that would open a portal to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, like I asked. George apparently showed Tiago a book that seemed more fairytale than fact, but the book said something about people absorbing dragon hearts, maybe giving them vitality or something.¡±


    Teuila scratches her forehead and presses me, ¡°So, like, you¡¯re supercharged? But why are you passing out all the time?¡±


    I shake my head, ¡°I, um. Tiago thinks I have something, he called it a persistent malady, but didn¡¯t say what kind. He, he, well, he thought the dragon¡¯s heart is the only thing keeping me alive right now. I, I mean, maybe because I¡¯d have been dead several times without Lil¡¯s bond, and Rayileklia has screwed over or severed a lot of our magics, maybe all that¡¯s catching up with me? Tiago thinks I need two more dragon hearts to, to, well.¡±


    Teuila frowns and orders, ¡°To what? Spit it out.¡±


    I sigh sadly, ¡°To survive the season, the year at most.¡±


    Dawn¡¯s been silent this whole time, but they nod when Teuila gazes around in shock. Teuila balls up her fists, digging her nails into her palms so hard that she bleeds polygons. Her tears drop hotly upon my face from her position as my headrest. Suddenly she steels her gaze.


    She proclaims, ¡°Then, then I¡¯ll just, I¡¯ll go Valkyrie, I¡¯ll go a hundred plus a hundred plus I don¡¯t know, ultra percent, and scour every mountain, every cave, every, every I don¡¯t know, fantasy dragon lair possible place. Or, or go to that spine of the world place, and I¡¯ll rip out two fresh hearts for you Dink. Easy as pie.¡±

 B 4 C 38: Rowboat

    Teuila knows that it¡¯s likely not that simple, and that I don¡¯t want her doing any such thing. She¡¯s also making the proclamation in an unstable mindset. I know she¡¯d freak out at herself for thinking of abandoning me somewhere for however long it would take to travel to the ends of Rayileklia searching for evil dragons. I mean, I hope Teuila wouldn¡¯t just sacrifice the first two dragons she came across without verifying that they¡¯re in some way a danger to others. I know in her right mind, she¡¯d never do such a thing, but she¡¯s skirting the edge of grief right now, the idea of losing me. Dawn nods to me, affirming that they remember we both knew Teuila would be like this.


    Dawn also gazes curiously at the floating blue triangles that disappear. Dawn reaches out to poke one, and it almost seems as if the polygon pops like a fragile bubble of soap. Teuila notices what Dawn is doing, and gazes down at her own hands, realizing she broke skin deeply enough that some of her wireframe is visible along the middle of her palm. Dawn¡¯s expression of dawning shock and horror would almost be funny if the three of us weren¡¯t in the middle of battling grief and the possibility of loss.


    Dawn stammers, ¡°B,boss. W-what? What? What are you? What is that? Rej, are you like that too? Wait, no, you got a scratch when you fell, it bled normal, I saw it.¡±


    Teuila frowns, ¡°I¡¯m Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin. A digital life form I guess? I don¡¯t know, we had weirdly massive vocabularies and encyclopedic knowledge of a lot of things from the moment we hatched, but we never knew there could be any other kind of life. At least until we met Rej, then later when we met humans, even more different than Dink.¡±


    Dawn¡¯s confusion is evident, ¡°Digit-al? Like, you¡¯re made of fingers? That, that¡¯s creepy and weird, and does not explain a void under your skin with weird lines.¡±


    Teuila curses under her breath before further explaining, ¡°Crap, ugh, of course you wouldn¡¯t know digital terminology. If I said resolution you¡¯d probably think I just meant an answer or the ending of something, a conclusion. If my resolution ever reaches the vanishing point, I break apart, I¡¯m erased. My skin immediately disappears, and my frame and core are exposed. They drift away into, I don¡¯t know where, and shatter. That¡¯s what dying is like for me. Okay? It¡¯s different, but I still live, I still breathe, I still die. Please don¡¯t make this into a thing. Okay?¡±


    Ugh, today sucks. It utterly, utterly sucks, and it¡¯s only pre-dawn hours yet. I can still see a glow in the direction of Autumn Brook, so we haven¡¯t put that many miles behind us yet across the lake. I do not want to think about Teuila dying. Or, or anyone. Obviously I¡¯d prefer to not die as well, but, well, we all know I¡¯d jump into fire for any one of¡ª, okay, fire is a bad example. I¡¯d jump into certain death for any friend, loved one, lover, and even most acquaintances, if I thought it was the right thing to do to save them. Teuila would too. We both have actually. Several times, only one of which actually led to our deaths.


    Dawn glowers for a bit, their mood shifting visibly upon their countenance as their thoughts drift to denial over Aces¡¯ death, anger at it, anger at us, fear of us, confusion over us. It¡¯s a painful sight honestly watching them experience all those emotions without being able to help them sort through their feelings at all. We spend the rest of the morning in silence, each of us mulling over our dark thoughts. It¡¯s awful beyond belief. Right next to two wonderful people, yet so alone in my own mind, and they¡¯re both doing the same thing to themselves.


    Suddenly a voice booms from across the railing on the main deck of the steamboat, ¡°Oy, you gloomers certainly aren¡¯t feeling the ¡®aster are ya? Looking real ¡®chalant for a trio getting a free trip at top speeds. Should shevel up and eat at least. I¡¯m not about to have Harriet down my throat about you three not making it to your destination. I¡¯d much rather she were ¡®turbed.¡±


    My brain massively blue screen of deaths as Captain Tim aboard the Drake uses unaffixed words to mean the opposite of their usual prefixes. ¡®Aster instead of disaster to say we¡¯re not feeling a successful mood? ¡®Chalant instead of nonchalant, worried rather than relaxed enjoying a free ride? ¡®Sheveling up instead of being disheveled and sitting in discomfort? He wants Harriet to be pleased rather than disturbed? I mean, all fair conversation points, but, but those slang. What sort of dick invented those slang? Ugh, my head. Why does it hurt so much? It¡¯s like someone took the bar from a typewriter and jammed it through my temple, then continued to type! Migraines suck!


    Teuila still looks like she¡¯s ready to transform and scour the planet for dragons, and she¡¯s not in a talking mood. Dawn went entirely vacant sometime in the last few minutes. They¡¯re completely unresponsive to anything. It¡¯s a bit spooky. I don¡¯t even sense their gazing presence. Wait. What!? Dawn! I shake Teuila to her senses, pointing worriedly at Dawn. Teuila first looks furious, about which thought currently, I¡¯m not certain, but she quickly joins me in worry.


    The two of us scoot the couple of feet of distance that was between us and Dawn, and try to check them for any sign of life. Okay, that was a stupid idea. Of course there¡¯s no sign of life. I¡¯m freaking out and panicking. Dawn¡¯s under some sort of curse, right? They said something about their senses coming and going? What if, um, what about? No. What about? Ugh, no! Okay, maybe, okay I can at least do this. I pull out the staff and cast the aura vision spell. Whew, thank all the spoots that Dawn¡¯s soul is still here, though it seems to be diminishing faster and faster. If their soul lasted decades until now, it definitely won¡¯t last decades more.


    At the current rate of exponential decay, um, crud, don¡¯t have my mental inventory interface. Let¡¯s try to math this out with average guesswork. Is that a squared curve maybe? Seems possible. Okay, between two weeks and two seasons, split the difference, probably two months at best. Holy crap, no no no no. That¡¯s if we can even wake them up somehow. Teuila and I stand over Dawn, gripping each other¡¯s elbows, staring back and forth between Dawn and each other in fear.


    I stutter, ¡°Te, T-Teuila. Their soul. It, it¡¯s going away faster. It was already shredded, and slowly being stripped away from them, but, but, if, if I have my math right, judging on an eyeballs guess of measurements, well, friggin¡¯ heck. Sorry. It, I hope I¡¯m wrong. Their soul looks like it¡¯ll last between two weeks and six months, probably closer to two months at best, if we¡¯re lucky. I¡¯ve been trying to get a chance to talk to them about it since I first saw their soul out west.¡±


    A voice from beneath me asks, ¡°¡¯Zat so Rej? Two months? Been a long time coming.¡±


    I exhale a ragged sigh, choking back a sob. I don¡¯t think Dawn wants to be touched, or I would drop to my knees and hug them tightly. Teuila actually starts to do just that. Dawn scooches away ever so slightly, and places a hand playfully in Teuila¡¯s face, preventing any hugging.


    Dawn states, ¡°Cool it Boss. It¡¯s fine. Had to know it would happen eventually. Just didn¡¯t think it¡¯d be out of the blue. But what¡¯sat supposed to even mean? My soul is shredded? Disappearing? I mean, when it¡¯s gone, that¡¯s when I finally kick it, right? But, but then, well, what about the hereafter? Joining the ancestors? Just, just doing normal dead people things? I don¡¯t get any of that?¡±


    My voice cracks as I try to guess on the positive side of things, ¡°I, I don¡¯t know Dawn. I could be entirely wrong about what I¡¯m seeing. Moreover, it could just be that your soul is making its way to the hereafter first, ready to meet you there when your consciousness finally decides to join, or something. Right? Like, like none of us really know how that stuff works to begin with. What do I know about some glowy whitish partial orb with slashes and frayed edges?¡±


    Dawn veritably fumes, but seems playful about it, ¡°Well hell Rej, had a pal going there for a minute, so instead of knowing when I¡¯m going to kick it, I just know that you¡¯re an idiot that doesn¡¯t know what they¡¯re talking about?¡±


    Teuila starts to defend me upsettedly but I interrupt with laughter, ¡°Hah, yes, yeah. Please, let¡¯s just hope that I¡¯m as dumb as we both think. But, but Dawn, this, just now. You were checked out, like, fully, completely unresponsive. Has that ever happened before?¡±


    Dawn shrugs as they answer, ¡°Not sure if I¡¯d know the difference. Hadn¡¯t really hung around anyone til you two, not in a very long time. Other than, huff, a couple minutes a year with my pal the skulking stranger. Aces.¡±


    Crap, that makes sense though. With no one to tell them they¡¯d been checked out, and nothing really needing dedicated observation, they probably wouldn¡¯t even notice missing time with how bored they are. Poor Dawn. Friggin¡¯ heck. There has to be something we can do. You know? But, but what? If, if only we had the books, if maybe Dawn had a book, they, they could maybe, I don¡¯t know, just maybe be reborn on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, or somewhere. Hell, I¡¯d settle for sending them to Earth. Not sure they¡¯d enjoy that prospect, but even Fakeworld has to be better than total oblivion. Right?


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    Interrupting my reverie is swearing from the enclosed-helm cabin, ¡°Gorram blasted pump. Swear I had you fixed. Lads ¡®n¡¯ lasses, or whatever ya like, we¡¯re taking on water in a crucial area. I¡¯m taking us aground on midpoint beach to patch up. Won¡¯t take more than a few minutes, but would appreciate your hands getting her back in the surf after. Alrighties? Get crash you three, pick yourselves up. You¡¯re supposed to be some big damn heroes or something. Slayers of titans. Not mopey teenagers.¡±


    I can¡¯t help laughing for a moment. Also, what did he mean, get crash? Pick ourselves up, I get that, so, contextually, something about doing better. How in the heck is crashing something remotely related to doing better or being better or feeling better? Knowing my luck with lines of thought tempting fate, we¡¯ll end up suffering the usual meaning, and somehow have to fight off some creatures or something while we un-crash the boat.


    Captain Tim Fisher pulls the Drake alongside the shore, just enough that it lists ever so slightly, sticking to the mud of the beach. While he works on the engine and pump, I hop out of the dinghy to stretch my legs on the beach. I¡¯m worried that the other two are still stewing, as they don¡¯t join me immediately. Not long after though, Teuila soars out of the sky into my arms, happy as can be. Nothing can keep Te down if she doesn¡¯t want it to, literally. I¡¯m so grateful for her enduring exuberance. I turn to look back towards the Dinghy, wondering. Is Dawn going to be j¡ª holy crap. Dawn¡¯s at the rear of my danger sense wraps, further on land than me, but how?


    Also, that¡¯s a lot of other creatures suddenly in range of my danger wraps. They¡¯re like bowling-ball sized crabs, but somehow their forms are more visceral, edgy, visually angry. I turn to shout a warning to Dawn who leaps back just before my words leave my lips, as a claw snaps where their ankle was a moment before. Is, is the whole island moving? No, I think just the floor of the forest. The entire thing is a swarm of crustacean cutters. Or I could be wrong, it could be both. Por que no los dos. Of freaking course. How in the hell did The Brook have something like this nearby, and no one happen to mention it as a frequent danger?


    Wouldn¡¯t Tiago or George have been the first to say something like, ¡®oh hey adventurers, since Harriet is kicking you out of town by boat, make sure you don¡¯t stop at midpoint beach, because it¡¯s actually a giant sea monster¡¯? Did no one know until just now? How and why are we the first to find out?


    I call out my concerns, ¡°Dawn, do you need help getting back on the boat? If so, Te, please help them. Te, whatever you do, don¡¯t kill any of the little ones just yet. I think the whole island is a momma crustacean or something. Captain Fisher! Tim! Why did you land on a sea monster!?¡±


    A voice calls back, ¡°Why the what now? Did someone put your brain on mode? You¡¯re not making sense. Get traught, I¡¯ll be done in a jiffy.¡±


    I shout again, ¡°A jiffy might not be soon enough, this island¡¯s about to stand up and attack!¡±


    Teuila actually starts to laugh, and she rubs her eyes beneath her hooded poncho. I can see her mouthing ¡®only you Dink, only you.¡¯ Yeah, only me would end up arguing with a captain, trying to convince them they landed on an active sea monster, because only me would end up in such a situation. I, me, you know what I mean, ugh. Maybe they¡¯re normally dormant because no one ever lands here, and Tim is just the first captain to ever need to perform repairs mid-lake-voyage. If we don¡¯t get out of its attack range soon, it¡¯ll likely attack and destroy the ship. We could be stranded on the waters. At best Teuila could keep our gravity light, and it would take us days to kick the edges of the surface of the lake to make it to either shore. The three of us on the shore are carefully prodding and shoving back the massive wave of smaller creatures as best we can while retreating.


    Since the captain didn¡¯t respond, I call out frantically again, ¡°Captain, I¡¯m not one to joke around! We need to leave, now!¡±


    Tim calls back, ¡°Hold your seahorses, you don¡¯t want to be caught in the grip of the Loch Siempre monster, so we¡¯d best make sure we can put on all speed before, oy, quit rocking the boat until I tell you to shove off. Actually, that¡¯s a mighty strong push you three have. Oof, hey, settle down!¡±


    As the island begins to rise from beneath the waves, it¡¯s as I¡¯ve feared. This is some sort of enormous mud-covered crab monster, with half a million tiny, well, tiny by comparison, crab monsters on its back. They¡¯re actually fairly frighteningly large for angry animals. Tim actually comes out on deck to chew us out as the boat lists heavily towards the lake, nearly capsizing westward off the island rising under its eastern bow. However, he can see the reality of the situation plain as day, so stifles any admonishment.


    Tim grumbles, ¡°What in blue blazes? Well, can¡¯t say I¡¯m all too whelmed about this situation. Mairess is going to owe me for this one. Maybe I should ask for a season of no taxes, no, two, for this headache. If my boat even survives.¡± He then shouts, ¡°Alright you three, give us a shove, get back on, hurry! Here¡¯s the lifeline. Tie off, then haul yourselves up after pushing off!¡±


    I¡¯m almost about to warn Teuila to be careful with her strength. If she puts all of her incredible force into a small location against the hull, she¡¯ll just rupture it rather than pushing off of the island. Teuila¡¯s foresight beats me to it though. She virtually bearhugs the boat, probably dropping its gravity significantly, as she carefully edges it back into the water. It¡¯s too big for her to have fully removed its gravity, at least as far as I¡¯m aware of the last time she really tested her powers trying to go all out. Still, seeing a single woman essentially lift an entire steamboat is breathtakingly astonishing.


    As we all hop back aboard the boat, the steam engine already has us speeding away before the crab-creature gets its bearings. The three of us in the dinghy break into laughter after staring back and forth between one another for a short while. What in the everloving heck? Am I fated to run into giant monsters? What was that third test? Inevitability? Seems like.


    Wait. The third test. All those years with Lil. A monstrous creature that seemed like a combination of other creatures, it loomed above a miniature forest and it smashed a snowglobe-like object that seemed to contain a castle or city? No! Oh no oh no. We have to get back. Wait, no, maybe the test was, I don¡¯t know, what was inevitable if we didn¡¯t make the shield of lacrimosa trifecta. Like, maybe the Fae and human mages would have combined to put up a temporary magical shield, and that one would bust under the attacks of the godly calamity that was the combination of our four Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian continent¡¯s lesser gods in the Divine Maelstrom. I, I can¡¯t afford to think about it. I can¡¯t lose hope that my family is okay. I just, I can¡¯t.


    Trying to distract myself, I ask Dawn, ¡°Dawn, why did no one bother to mention a giant crab monster, or a swarm of small crab monsters? Also, what¡¯s this about a Loch-Siempre Monster?¡±


    Dawn scoffs, chiding, ¡°Okay, that last one is a myth. The first one, well, I don¡¯t recall anyone ever coming across such a thing before. Anyway, Lochsie is an old tale passed down to give travelers the shivers as they take the ferry, and to keep any of them from deciding to settle on the lake.¡±


    I¡¯m nodding along. That seems reasonable I guess. However, genre savviness senses are tingling. Lochsie is totally going to turn out to be real. Oh friggin¡¯ heck. Seriously? Maybe a little more warning next time genre senses? Something large looms beneath the waves that causes a crest to splash across the entire boat, rocking The Drake wildly. I drop a deadpan look towards Dawn who appears sheepish. I¡¯d laugh if it weren¡¯t such a comedy of errors revolving around my own life¡¯s misfortunes, and my own running gag that I¡¯m a cryptozoologist that keeps meeting all the supernatural creatures of the world. Hell, of all worlds.


    Something akin to a head seems to be breaking the surface of the water, and it raises on an eerily long neck, but it¡¯s difficult to see since the nearest Luma Tulipa is quite a ways away. Huh, I think it looks kind of like, well, a plesiosaur? Yeah that sounds about right. Honestly, I think it has Vampguppy¡¯s body, so maybe Vampguppy was some sort of amphibious short-necked plesiosaur, or something of the sort. Thankfully it appears more interested in where we came from rather than where we¡¯re going. Maybe it¡¯ll go check up on the crab thing. Maybe they¡¯ll battle, or maybe they¡¯re a couple about to go out on date night. I mean, it definitely wouldn¡¯t be the weirdest thing to ever happen in my life. There was a roc married to a phoenix that lived on a volcano that was actually a dorsal ridge of a monumentally colossal dragon deity. They both identified as male, but I figure that, much like the rest of critterkin, well, anyway, that¡¯s neither here nor there. They were a lovely couple, despite the considerable threat to my life.


    Oh, there¡¯s a sobering thought. I hope they survive the convergence. I figure the phoenix will be alright, legendary bird of rebirth and all, but, but the roc. I don¡¯t want to know what would happen if the phoenix lost his roc partner. Or all their eggs. I¡¯ve got the one phoeroc egg that isn¡¯t destined to hatch. It does seem to be magical though. Despite it having been about as large as my torso originally, I think I could shrink it to the size of a pebble. Maybe I¡¯ll pull it out sometime to have another look at it if things calm down on Rayileklia.


    It seems like the rest of our voyage across the lake is fairly uneventful, and I nap after eating a slab of jerky and some hardtack. When I come to, it¡¯s because Teuila rouses me to shift positions as Captain Tim docks The Drake and unmoors the dinghy. It looks like we¡¯ve come a long way up the river already, and are going the rest of the way by rowboat. Dawn is more quiet than usual, but at least they aren¡¯t unresponsive, since they fidget occasionally. I guess they¡¯ve gone back to processing Aces¡¯ death. I can tell Teuila is fighting back the thoughts of me possibly needing dragon hearts to survive. She wants to stay happy, and close to me. I¡¯d prefer both of those things as well.


    Still, there¡¯s apparently a number of modes of locomotion attached to this dingy, oars, foot-pedal paddles, and a tiny steam engine that can power that same paddle setup. Tim was going to do the paddling for us, but, well, Teuila is Teuila. Any chance to exercise or train is plenty excuse for her to do physical activity. Tim relents. Teuila takes the reigns and we fairly rocket northwards along the river. The luma tulipa on the shores mark our path, and light the distance far enough that we can see Lake Ciao off to the west. Heh, bye to you too Aasimovia. Ciao indeed.

 B 4 C 39: Ciao

    The scenery fairly flies by as Teuila¡¯s muscles guide us north along the river.  Tim occasionally gives her a bit of warning about some obstacles that¡¯ll be coming up to avoid, and she obliges.  She doesn¡¯t want to damage his vessel, or strand any of us, obviously.  The luma tulipa all seem to have their heads aimed in different directions.  Until I realize that it¡¯s time passing between seeing different luma tulipa.  Friggin¡¯ heck.  They rotate like a gorram clock.  I¡¯m an idiot.  Hah, hahah.  Wow.  I huff, heaving a sigh as I roll my eyes in humorous exasperation with myself.


    Out loud I laugh, ¡°I just realized why no one has clocks or watches.  The luma tulipa are natural clocks.  They rotate based on the time of day, north is probably witching hour, south would be midday or noon.¡±


    Tim and Dawn look at me like I¡¯m an idiot, which, yes, fair, I am.  But also not fair, because I¡¯m not from this planet.  I don¡¯t bother explaining though.  I just keep laughing and shaking my head.  Teuila looks proud of me at least, heh, thanks Te.  I slump against her, leaning my face into the furry poncho covering her bosom as it makes an excellent pillow.  I enjoy the feeling of the firmness of execution in Teuila¡¯s precise movements.  Every single row or pedal is like its own excellently crafted masterpiece of motion.  I never really thought about exercise as art, but if anyone could pull it off, it¡¯s My-Wings.  While I¡¯m caught up being enamored of her, I hardly even notice the hours that have passed by and that we¡¯re already standing on a small pier, saying our goodbyes.


    That seems a bit rather sudden, but then again I am prone to getting lost in thought, even when I want to maintain awareness.  Tenny did the same thing supposedly.  Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending.  Goddess, living storm, and a lovable dork.  Her existence long before we met was supposedly as some sort of mediator between mortals and the other gods, and she bestowed a blessing onto the Nagas.  That was literally ancient history though.  In recent years she literally just flew an observational route, almost completely unknown, bored out of her own mind.


    Hm, that does remind me though.  TQ and Luni basically confirmed that our world was somehow new.  So, history was made up.  But what did that mean for beings who had lived since ancient history?  How could their history be made up?  Something about a beginning, and then a beginning that stretches out into the past before that.  Does that mean that reality existed outside linear order, granting them the history that they had?  Or was it just reality planting memories of existence to somehow reconcile itself?  I guess my time travel skill is powerful enough that I could try to find out some day.  I sort of did that already, by sending myself into the past before my own past.  Or rather, a memory fragment of myself while I happened to be having a panic attack.  Horrible timing that, really, truly.


    Still, did I learn anything from the experiment?  It felt like my power worked, and sent the knowledge fragment back into the past further than my own existence.  I could try doing physical displacement time-travel along the fourth dimensional axis at some point too, to send my whole body back into the past.  That would let me get an actual look at history, if it existed.  But those are curiosities that I can¡¯t sate until we¡¯re back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas at the earliest.  I might not even be able to attempt it even then, since my powers were killing me near the end of my life.  Heh.  What an odd series of thoughts, as usual for Reggie Shellcracker.  Just another day in the brain of.  Get it?  Instead of the life of?  Yes me, I know the wordplay I intended to use.  You don¡¯t have to explain it to yourself.  It just wasn¡¯t that funny.  Hm, true.  Oh wow, I¡¯m cracking up again, and apparently Tim is saying goodbye.


    His parting words are, ¡°Can¡¯t say I¡¯m feeling the ¡®aster having to cross the lake again after meeting Lochsie and Mid-Point that turned out to be a beastie.  Also, you wahine are little titans, I tell you.  I saw that one nearly lift my boat out of the waves.  Harriet wouldn¡¯t fib, but I wasn¡¯t sure how much she knew firsthand, and how much was rumor.  Trio of teeny tiny little titans.  Stay safe, First¡¯s guidance to you.¡±


    Dawn returns the Aasimovian farewell, ¡°May the Firsts see you after the end of your days.  Thank you for the lift.¡±


    Tim nods as he waves, walking back towards the dinghy for what¡¯s likely a much longer trip without Teuila rowing and pedaling.  Even with Teuila being our source of locomotion, it was something like twelve hours or so from The Drake¡¯s landing point, and this point that¡¯s north of Lake Ciao to our west-by-southwest.  If we head northwest through here, keeping Lake Ciao on our left, we should come to some sort of gap in the mountain range, a valley I guess.  Or maybe a gorge, or canyon.  I¡¯d like a full sleep before heading to do such a thing.  Also, canyons are notorious places to spring traps.  Yeah, I¡¯d like us to all be rested, prepared, and in the right mindset.  Plus, even Teuila looks a tad beat.  Though Dawn doesn¡¯t seem any different from one moment to the next, barring the time they were totally unresponsive.


    I ask, ¡°Dawn, what are sleeping arrangements going to look like in your eyes?  Do you want to hang out near us?  Should we take our own turns keeping watch?  As we get closer to the Imperium, I¡¯m more worried for our safety.¡±


    Dawn tosses me half a shrug while smiling, ¡°You two lovebirds can snuggle snog and sleep all you want.  I literally have nothing better to do than sit around waiting for you to wake back up.  I can keep watch.  Uh, well, as long as, y¡¯know, I don¡¯t mysteriously die for real all of a sudden, or something.¡±


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    I flash Dawn a sad half-smile.  We both know they meant going unresponsive again, and maybe never coming back from it the next time.  Any one of us taking watch could spontaneously have a heart attack or pass out from some unknown malady we were carrying around or something.  So it¡¯s not like I mistrust Dawn¡¯s ability to watch over us.  I¡¯m satisfied as long as they are, and as long as Teuila is.  I find myself accidentally turning towards where Teuila¡¯s laying into a playful right cross that was meant as a slug against my shoulder, catching me rather hard just beneath my collarbone.  Te gasps and her face is painted mortified.  I flash Teuila a sleepy smile and shake my head to indicate that she doesn¡¯t have to worry.  Though I do rub my pectoral region for a moment, where the edge of her knuckles really got caught against my top rib.


    Teuila fishes out our nightclothes from her enormous backpack.  I¡¯m about to ask if we should give Dawn a moment when Teuila is out of her outerwear, and into her pajamas in an instant.  Even Dawn marvels at the fluidity and speed of Teuila¡¯s motions.  And perhaps a bit of marveling at her body, despite being unable to see her bare form from the blinding speed, I¡¯m not sure.  I have no idea if Dawn experiences attraction at all, and if so, what their preferences are.  I¡¯m far more cautious, careful, and slow to don my pajamas, dragging them on underneath my clothing, so that I can shed my clothing to climb into the somewhat buoyant, hard-bottomed sleeping bag meant for mudcamping.


    I think there are wooden slats in each section of the sleeping bag, so that when it¡¯s rolled or folded, they fold along with it, sort of like coiling up a rope ladder.  But when laid out, with pressure evenly across the slats, they act as a bit of a floating floor against the mud.  There¡¯s enough light-enough padding that the slats aren¡¯t much more noticeable than a firm box-spring for a matress.  Te¡¯s already in it, and jokingly taking up the whole thing, forcing me to lay on her limbs.  Limbs that she of course wraps around me instantly, snuggling me tightly close.  I love this woman beyond words, to bits and pieces.  I truly hope I make her feel appreciated.


    I whisper, ¡°I love you Teuila Shellcracker.  You¡¯re so amazing, and I hope you always remember how deeply I feel for you, My-Wings.¡±


    Suddenly the temperature raises at least five degrees within our sleeping bag, I feel waves of heat pulsing off of Teuila¡¯s face as she¡¯s flush with embarrassment.  Dawn coughs politely nearby, apparently having heard me.  Ah, that¡¯s right, they have hearing at least as acute as mine, if not better.  Regardless, Teuila is too embarrassed to let her lips respond in a verbal fashion, but they do respond in another fashion as I¡¯m drifting to sleep in her arms.  That is of course to take my ear and claim me as her own.  Mm, it¡¯s divine in this sleeping-bag.  At least compared to trudging around in the stupid ceaseless drizzle.  But also divine just in general laying in Teuila¡¯s arms.  Even if her mouth is wrapped around my upper ear.  At least she can¡¯t deny that she does it any longer, now that she¡¯s done it while we¡¯re both awake.


    Dawn breaks, sort of.  That is, Dawn wakes us up in the pre-dawn hours based on the luma tulipa.  They seem fairly upbeat today.  I¡¯m not sure how much they¡¯ve processed Aces¡¯ death yet though.  Despite us having to travel at my pace, me being the slowest of the three, Dawn and Teuila both seem to be enjoying our travels, taking in the scenery.


    Dawn answers a question I hadn¡¯t heard Te ask, ¡°Hm, I suppose so.  I honestly never thought I¡¯d travel.  Other than jokingly hinting at tagging along with Aces, I, yeah.  I never expected to leave The Brook, let alone Aasimovia, never even really contemplated it for some reason.  Autumn Brook was kind of all there was for me.  You know?  It just felt like nothing else outside it existed, and that I was sort of doomed to endure that, possibly forever.¡±


    Teuila looks surprised as she responds, ¡°That¡¯s kinda weird to me Dawny, but I guess I¡¯m used to at least traveling a long way each day for exercise.  Even before Dink.  I¡¯d swim a few dozen miles upriver, or west or east along the coast, minimum, every day.  Heck, my buddy from the Rockcrushers would join me in.  Oh.  Ow.¡±


    Teuila saddened herself, reminding herself of the neighboring otter clan that was wiped out by Leviathan¡¯s first tidal wave.  I hadn¡¯t made it to the shore yet by then, but I was there during the second wave, with the Shellcrackers who had already lost so much.  The Night of High Water.  It was a horrid experience, costing us several family members, and Teuila additionally had suffered it once before I had even met her.


    Dawn, reading the air, changes topic, though perhaps not for the better, ¡°Hey, Boss, um, sorry to hear and all that.  Also sorry, but, like.  Despite what I just said about not traveling or stuff.  There¡¯s something I gotta do, alone, nearby.  I¡¯ll catch up in a couple of days.  I swear.  I can always track down Rej, y¡¯know?  For some reason.  Anyway.  Easy as cake, or pie, take your pick.¡±


    I gaze at Dawn confusedly and ask, ¡°Dawn, is something wrong?  Do you need space?  Is there anything we could do to comfort you if it was us?¡±


    Dawn¡¯s reply doesn¡¯t answer my question, ¡°So, uh, Boss.  I¡¯ll see you two crazy kids on the other side of The Gap at the latest.  Shouldn¡¯t take more than a couple days for either of us.  Keep out of trouble you two.  That doesn¡¯t seem likely though.¡±


    Teuila is about to object, but both of us lose track of Dawn immediately after they leave our danger sense ranges.  Dawn vanished into the countryside like it was nothing.


    Te and I both shout about for them as we search our surroundings for a quarter to half an hour.  Finally we have to relent and give up the chase.  Teuila and I hug each other for comfort, both confused at this turn of events.  I didn¡¯t expect Dawn to be an inner circle member, or like, a constant companion, but I also didn¡¯t expect them to just nip off and say maybe see you in a few days if you¡¯re lucky.  Basically.


    Teuila can only vent her frustration by exercising, so she asks, ¡°Dink, can we, just, like, I don¡¯t know, sprint hard?  Maybe, maybe Dawny is taking a shortcut or something.  Maybe they¡¯ll be waiting when we get there, so, like, the sooner we get there, the better.¡±


    I shrug while nodding, ¡°Sure thing Te, anything you want.  You¡¯re the boss.¡±


    She grins at me and takes off at a sprint that there is no possible way for me to match, though I do my best to keep up.  Eventually she starts sprinting backwards and forwards, scouting ahead and returning to my side to keep track of me.  I have to throw all caution to the wind to keep up this pace, so my footfalls are sloppy, but thankfully the mud is forgiving, not a concrete surface.

 B 4 C 40: Sometimes, Were Just Not Lucky

    Since none of the three of us knew how far the gap would be, or how long the gap itself is, we¡¯d been sprinting for almost sixteen hours at this point. Well, I assume Dawn is sprinting somewhere too. Something was pretty off about them. They seemed really upset when they left, despite having seemed jovial during the morning travels. I asked if there was anything I could do to comfort them, but they didn¡¯t answer. Just said they¡¯d follow along, and meet back up by the time we were on the other side of the gap.


    I understand why they call it The Gap. It¡¯s like a combination chasm, and valley straight through the mountain range. Nearly a straight shot, but not perfectly though. Bends at certain points cut off the view ahead, and there are very few luma tulipa dotting the mountainsides. I huff a sigh between panting for breaths. We must have covered twenty to forty or fifty or so miles at this point. It¡¯s so much harder to get a good speed up through all this mud. That¡¯s basically walking speed.


    I pant and double over, unable to keep up with Teuila any longer. I lean against the stone surface of the chasm walls, my eyelids drooping heavily. I¡¯m so exhausted. There¡¯s Teuila, returning. Maybe she¡¯ll be willing to make camp for a bit. I wave weakly at my beloved Wings when there¡¯s a sudden rumbling. There appear to be some high pitched growly voices somewhere overhead, but the stone of the land suddenly begins to rise. Teuila is nearly impaled as a pillar of stone raises just in front of her, reminding me of the day I lost her over and over to Vesuviform when I first earned my time traveling skill. I pant with anger and fear. Terror nearly overwhelms me, but I manage to keep my senses. Mostly.


    What, what kind of horrible luck is this? We¡¯re already in a canyon, why are stone walls closing in from all around? Wait, what? Okay, some of them aren¡¯t walls. Oh no, oh no. There¡¯s, there¡¯s like, bunches of stones coalescing in vaguely humanoid shapes. But there¡¯s also walls rising up at an angle where they¡¯ll swiftly intersect. I can¡¯t, I can¡¯t react fast enough, my danger wraps are telling me to move, but I can¡¯t keep up. Teuila, she, she¡¯s so far away. I can¡¯t reach her. She can¡¯t reach me. Teuila is smashed aside, far to to the north of me, and I¡¯m smashed southward against a wall that¡¯s being raised from the ground nearby. I bounce off the wall, hard, and am pummeled into the ground during my rebound.


    I yell, ¡°Te, Te! Jump, jump before the walls trap us!¡±


    Wait, conjured golems or elementals? There¡¯s a spell in the staff, lots of spells in the staff that I didn¡¯t understand what they do or how to employ them. I¡¯m pretty sure one of them conjures elementals. I flip the bottom latch on the holster carrying the staff, letting it drop into my hand and letting its enchantment extend it instantly. Can I just cast it the same as the other spells from the¡ª Ow!


    Ow, oh gods that hurts. One formed up around my arm and hand holding the staff, it¡¯s twisting the staff inside its stone torso, twisting and crushing my wrist and hand. I, I can¡¯t hold onto it. No. No, my, my only chance. I wince, fighting back tears of pain, but the golem pulls away from me, my staff in its innards. It mingles with the other stone creatures. My hand is virtually ruined already just from that one small interaction.


    There¡¯s something else going on. Some voices from nearby are nervously chattering, and now the massive walls of stone are raising around us at an inward angle far faster than before, they¡¯ll trap us in in a few moments. I¡¯m mere instants from being trapped with these rock monsters.


    Teuila leaps high enough that she nearly clears the wall as it''s rising, and is able to scrabble atop it, but I have no such athleticism. The backpack falls off her shoulders as it¡¯s too big to fit between the rising walls. She turns to reach for me, but has to draw her arm back as the walls reach their full height. At that particular angle they end up slamming together with earthshaking force. I''m trapped down here with the rock monsters, the golems. Worse, one has already gripped me by my waist and is proceeding to slam me repeatedly face-first into the risen stony wall. It actually casually alternates between slamming me like a ragdoll by my waist, and gripping my skull to pulverize my face against the wall. It¡¯s almost like my death is a game to it, or exercise, alternating between curls and flyes for example.


    I¡¯m not sure what¡¯s louder, my own skull being smashed into this wall, or Teuila frustratedly pounding on the wall to the north. She¡¯s fighting nature, the planet itself to get back to me, to save me. I need to hold on, to try to save myself. Just, just do anything Reggie. At least remember to breathe. Breathe air, breathe. I suck down a breath during a moment when my face isn¡¯t being caved in against stone. I cough up a lungful of blood and dust that I¡¯d sucked down with the breath.


    I, I¡¯m going to die here. I can¡¯t even see Teuila as I leave this life behind. I want my last moments to be with her, not like this. My eyes unleash a cascade of tears as my vision darkens and tunnels. I slip closer and closer to unconsciousness, and inevitably death. The nervous chattering voices from earlier return, but I still can¡¯t make them out.


    I don¡¯t want to leave Teuila behind. I promised her. I promised Lil. I promised Lu. I claw at the rocky grip holding me tightly to no avail. I try unleashing my crossbow¡¯s energy bolts into the creature¡¯s stony surfaces with similarly unsuccessful results, they only gouge small divots in its rocky hide. I don¡¯t even know which of these golems swallowed up my staff to try to get it back. Not that I could move around and pick a single one to fight.


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    I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be alive, let alone conscious eight minutes from now, but I start planning to summon power from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas to unleash a torrent of daggers and stones at these creatures. Wait, I¡¯d better not do that. What if the ability activates after I¡¯m dead? Or even if I¡¯m alive and unconscious, but if they move me into the path of the pre-determined attack. What if it activates while Teuila is holding my corpse? What if it activates while Dawn returns from wherever they¡¯ve vanished off to? I can¡¯t risk it.


    No, no, come on, please. Please there has to be something. A clue, a, a skill. Time skill, can I, can I activate you somehow before you¡¯re activated, to send me back to check my logs? No, we both know that can¡¯t happen. Both? You¡¯re cracking up again as you¡¯re dying, duh. Oh, right. Makes sense. I guess we blew it, huh? Yup. So, um. What do you think an afterlife might look like here? No freaking clue me, no freaking clue. Right, that makes sense, me either. I mean, obviously. Ugh. I think my brains are being pulped right now, that¡¯s probably why I¡¯m talking to myself, isn¡¯t it? Pretty likely. Everything¡¯s fading. It¡¯s. It¡¯s hard to even, to even think. It hurts.


    My danger wraps say there¡¯s a chance to slip free, but I¡¯m so destroyed, I can barely control my limbs. I struggle to get them to follow the wraps¡¯ instructions, crying in frustration. I¡¯m not even sure what good slipping free for a moment would do me, but I, I, I. I just. I have to try. Just, just wriggle a little bit. I, I did it! There¡¯s so much blood in my eyes, and my eyelids and brows are so swollen that I can¡¯t see anything. My danger wraps are telling me to run. Obviously I want to run you dumb things. I¡¯m sorry, you¡¯re not dumb. You¡¯re life saving. I¡¯m sorry. Please forgive me. Yes, I¡¯m willing to mentally beg my inanimate items for forgiveness right now. I struggle to plod even a few steps away from rock monsters that are converging on me from several angles.


    The voices, there¡¯s, there¡¯s something being said, like, ¡°Stones used up, up, up, all up, gonna, gonna, gonna kill dwarf, can¡¯t stop it now. Stop, can¡¯t, can¡¯t stop, won¡¯t stop.¡±


    Another one says, ¡°That no dwarf, that¡¯s not dwarf, not a dwarf, not, not a dwarf. Humie, humie, or maybe elf. Not a dwarf.¡±


    The first says, ¡°Too late, lots of blood, blood, blood, lots, all, all all over, can only trap stones, trap, keep trapped, until next dwarves.¡±


    The defiant voice says, ¡°That not, that¡¯s not good, not good, not good enough. Dippy thinks that¡¯s not good enough. I, I Dippy, Zippy agrees. We go, we go down. I go down. Dippy, Dippy goes down. Scary, scary down, you hold rope. Zippy, Zippy good, stay, hold rope with Elder and Mizah.¡±


    I hear a soft impact followed by many shifting stones turning towards that sound. There¡¯s a sound like the striking of a match, or a grating of something rough on stone. Is it accompanied by sizzling? I hear a nearby voice from that same location cry out, ¡°Really, really scary down!¡± as everything finally fades. Good luck Dawn, and Teuila. I love you Teuila, I love you Lil, I love you Luni. I love you Lucky you big lug.


    Hm, parent? Mom is riding the dragon, other parent? Sniff, sniff, where? Circle, circle circle. Don¡¯t see that one. Huff huff, panting, always panting. Happy though. Maybe just thought of parent. Both are nice. Other parent should stay put. Goes away too much. We went away this time I guess. Going in forest along mountains for a long long time. Lots of camping. I bay. ¡°Awoooooo, aw aw awooo.¡± I try to catch up to the dragon, ¡°Awooooo.¡± I announce my chase. Chasing is one of my favorite games. I get to chase a lot here. More than back home. Was only digging back home, so long only digging. Me and dragon. Before that, too many people, they didn¡¯t like me playing chase. There¡¯s dragon¡¯s tail and mom¡¯s tail. I¡¯m fast, I caught up. They can¡¯t fly in this forest. Trees are too close. Dragon can get bigger and smaller, me too. I¡¯m big right now, but not biggest. Trees are too close to be biggest. It¡¯s less wet, rain doesn¡¯t reach with trees so close. I leap at dragon to give tackle hugs and kisses. Dragon moves just before, so we only bash side to side. Silly dragon. Kisses! I can make my tongue big as your face. Lick. See? Mom is laughing. Love it when mom laughs. Sniff, sniff, hm, other parent. Could swear. Stop, circle circle. Dragon stops too. Does dragon smell other parent? They¡¯re asking me something. Why can¡¯t they talk right? Wish they could talk right all the time. Only understand a few words sometimes. That¡¯s my name, they said my name! I jump up and down at my name! I bark! I circle! I¡¯m happy. They know my name. They love me.


    Who? Who¡¯s this little guy dragging me? Is, is that a stick of dynamite? Is that a lit stick of dynamite!? It¡¯s bigger around than his arm, and almost as long. He looks so scared and nervous. Am, am I alive? Oh no, the rock monsters. I can barely turn my head. They¡¯re closing in. There¡¯s a rope, but it¡¯s on the far side of the golems, and the golems are about to rip it down. The little blue reptilian dragging me looks at the lit stick in his hands, and back to the golems repeatedly. He whimpers and tosses the stick, it seems too heavy and unwieldy for him to throw properly. He manages to throw it about twenty feet before it lands. It then starts to roll back towards us. It rolls to only a few feet away. If, if that¡¯s pure trinitro T whatever, tolulene I think, TNT regardless, that¡¯s going to kill this little guy.


    He couldn¡¯t get much farther away even if he dropped me at the moment, we¡¯re encircled. It might get rid of the rock monsters, but he¡¯s going to die if I don¡¯t do something. I summon what¡¯s left of my strength and shove this little lizard man over, wrapping him up in my body. He squirms to get away, but I need to at least save him for trying to save me. I whisper that I¡¯ll protect him. I snag the extra suit of Valkyrie armor from my waistband, begin to drag it across one of his fingers, armoring him up instantly. I lock my muscles, and he whimpers in fear. I can hear the wick. This is it. I make sure to cover every last inch of him. Please be heavily incendiary, and less concussive. Oof. Nope. Guess not. Hello again darkness.

 B 4 C 41: Void

    A sound penetrates the nothingness of my non-existence, ¡°Void, the Ceaseless Schism.¡±


    I gaze around in the utter black.  There¡¯s nothing perceivable anywhere.  I¡¯m not suspended in anything, standing on anything, nor am I falling.  I simply am.  Somehow, even just being am is an affront to this darkness.  My eyes droop heavily.  Is this eternity?  I think, I think I remember having a good life.  I remember being scared in the end.  I hope I was a good person.  If there was anyone I left behind, I hope they¡¯re okay.


    An eerie external thought penetrates my mind with a sub-current of laughter, ¡°You¡¯ve left none behind.¡±


    Oh, oh, I guess I was alone at the end, that¡¯s okay then I guess.  No one to mourn me is probably for the best.  The world goes on, I¡¯m not its center after all.


    There¡¯s laughter.  What¡¯s so funny?  Who¡¯s laughing?


    That penetrative sound breaches my lack of non-existence once more, ¡°Void, the Ceaseless Schism.¡±


    Oh, sure, that makes sense.  I guess.  Pleasure to meet you?  Maybe?  I guess.  I hope I¡¯m not disturbing you.


    Displeasure, laced with humor perforates my mindscape from everywhere and nowhere at once, ¡°Oh but you are.¡±


    Oh, oh shoot.  Um, how do I stop?  I¡¯m just, just kind of existing, and thinking.  I don¡¯t know how to stop either of those.


    The un-universe smiles as it commands me, ¡°Simply wake up.¡±


    I snort and cough, hacking up blood through a massive mound of sand and dust.  There are arms dragging me out from beneath the pile of sand, but none are familiar.  One pair of arms are blue and scaly though.  That seems familiar somehow.  I black out once more, my life force barely clinging to reality.


    I¡¯m unmade, and my unmaker remarks, ¡°That didn¡¯t last long.¡±


    Hm?  Oh, am I back?  I¡¯m sorry.  There¡¯s laughter again.  I¡¯m, I¡¯m so tired.  I.  I can.  I can barely, barely keep.  Keep my eyes.  Open.  They close and I can¡¯t open them.  The back of my eyelids is okay though.  Not much different than everything else.


    My unmaker gently prods before commanding, ¡°Yes, behind your eyes.  Remember them.  Eventually.  Now.  Wake up!¡±


    Urgh, is that a mini luma tulipa in my face?  It¡¯s so bright.  Wait.  That¡¯s not luma tulipa, that¡¯s a cylinder with a lit wick.  My eyes shoot wide.  Is someone holding a lit stick of dynamite in my face?!  I try to thrust my way into alertness and shoot up from my current position, but my limbs aren¡¯t responding.  Okay, whew, it¡¯s only a candle.  Oh my eyelids.  They¡¯re, they¡¯re so heavy.  There¡¯s commotion.  There¡¯s a lot of fear.  There¡¯s a feminine warrior¡¯s voice shouting angrily.  She¡¯s.  She¡¯s here for someone.  I wonder who.


    Something or someone pissed her off.  I felt her slam her fist into a cavern wall.  Everything shuddered.  That¡¯s terrifying strength.  Wait.  Someone.  I know someone.  A female warrior with terrifying strength?  Yes.  She rides a horse, and wins tournaments.  We spend many a night together between segments.  I think I know her name.  I slowly blink my overly-swollen eyelids as my head lolls to the side, gazing towards the commotion.


    That¡¯s right, that reddish hair, thin on the sides, swept to one side at the top.  I know her.  I¡¯m safe once more.  She and the inn maiden will tend to my wounds.  I must have made it back, barely in one piece.  My eyes fall heavier and heavier yet again.


    How long have I been dead?  Did I ever really exist?  Who was I?  There are figments running rampant in my non-memories, loves, family, lives.  It seems so far away, so unreal.  Perhaps I never truly existed at all.  It seemed like a nice dream though, while it lasted.  I can¡¯t recall any names or places, no specifics, but I remember being told I left no one behind.  So I must have been alone in the end.  Sad ending to a tragic tale that had been laced with hope for a time.  I wonder if I¡¯ll stop being am now that the dream is over.


    The unmaker, the laughter, the Ceaseless Schism pierces the whole of the non-me, ¡°Really?  Just how broken have you been made to be?¡±


    Hm?  Oh.  That¡¯s right.  I don¡¯t exist.  I¡¯m not supposed to be am.  Should stop thinking.  Stop disturbing.  There¡¯s laughter from somewhere.  I think it¡¯s coming from Void.  The Void?  Hm, no, just Void.


    Annoyance laces the unmaker¡¯s laughter.  Its non-presence bears down on my non-existence.  The pressure is unbearable, despite having no form, no organs, no senses.  Void, the Ceaseless Schism, with a sub-current of tenderness, affection, worry, commands me.  They do not want this am for me.  They want me to return to the dream, they order, ¡°Leave.  Do not make me say it again.  Now.  Wake up!¡±


    Unable to properly form words momentarily, I ramble as I cough, ¡°Koff, Sel, no, Tay, no, Ter, no, koff, Teuila?  Te?¡±


    Someone grabs my hand with both of theirs and nuzzles it as they shout, ¡°Dink!  Reggie!  You, you look awful.¡±


    Coughing phlegm, and likely blood, I joke, ¡°I probably look better than I feel.¡±


    She playfully taps me in the shoulder, likely afraid to even jokingly slug me at the moment.  Just how messed up am I?  I can¡¯t see anything, my eyes are both swollen shut.  I feel lumpy all over.  I can sense the presence of bone fragments floating around near fractures in most of the bones on my body.  Oof, including my cranium.  Those feel dangerous.  I guess I¡¯ll really learn whether or not critterkin healing still works on Rayileklia soon enough.  I might need to risk shapeshifting again, just to help set some of the fractures and bone fragments.


    I hear a nervous voice, ¡°See?  See?  The Dippy, Dippy, Dippy saved, I, Dippy that¡¯s me, I saved the squishy one.  They saved me back, we, we, we saved, both saved.¡±


    Teuila shouts back, ¡°You saved them with explosives you idiot!¡±


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    The nervous voice sounds pouting, ¡°Did, did, didn¡¯t have much choice.  Choices, weren¡¯t, not many choices.  Wanted to save squishy not-dwarf.  Dippy wanted to save, so Dippy saved, I, me, Dippy, that¡¯s me, I saved the squishy not-dwarf.  Letting them die was, was, was not good, not good, not good enough.  Zippy agrees.¡±


    Teuila cries in frustration, ¡°Grr, fine, I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry.  You¡¯re right, Dippy.  Thank you.  Thank you for saving my Dink.  I¡¯m sorry for yelling at you.  It was very brave.  Does Miza have any magic left?¡±


    Another voice, Miza apparently, answers, ¡°Magics, magic, my magic, Miza¡¯s magic, I, I¡¯m Miza, my magic, it¡¯s up, up, up, all used up, up, used up.  Miza doesn¡¯t want warrior woman to kill Miza¡¯s clan.  Miza¡¯s clan, clan, my clan is good, good, we¡¯re good kobolds.  Didn¡¯t know, didn¡¯t know not dwarves.  Dwarves gonna, gonna kill us.¡±


    Teuila grumbles, ¡°I know, I know already, you already said it.  Just.  I don¡¯t know, does Scrap have anything?  Even just some cloth?  You blew up my backpack.  That was some explosion, you had to have atomized my bag, I couldn¡¯t find a trace of it.  It was enchanted by Berry and everything.¡±


    For some reason, that¡¯s hilarious to me, but laughing causes my right ribs to dig into my lungs.  I end up sputtering blood.  Ugh, every freaking time.  Woah, unconsciousness is, is a-calling again.  But what am I supposed to do with those tossed salads and scrambled eggs?  Have a long brain blue screen of death apparently.  The words hit my brain like lyrics from a brain-biting song, the kind of catchy tune that cries to be remembered, recalled, ascribed fond memories to.


    The presence of memories, of knowledge, it feels weighty somehow, like a pressure crushing my skull.  It¡¯s as if memories have mass, and I¡¯m carrying far, far too many.  The, the weight of all three worlds.  Luni said that once.  I had a sword, its density was ridiculous, it snapped my wrist to wield it.  The Sword of Memories.  Only now can I ascribe it this name.  I know not why, for I am yet only part of my whole.  I rattle my skull.  Who the what now?  Some fleeting thought fades.  It seemed, something.  What?  Hm?  What was I thinking about?  Was it something important?  Hm, must not have been.  Oh, I¡¯ve been having thoughts in-between moments, just after an unintentional laugh about an exploding bag.  The laugh is too much oxygen, stealing my breath away, and I¡¯m passing out once more.


    I awaken later to a scaly voice shouting excitedly, ¡°Found, found it, didn¡¯t blow, didn¡¯t blow it up!  Big bag, couldn¡¯t, couldn¡¯t get it out, couldn¡¯t move it.  Tunnel, hole we didn¡¯t dig, big hole opened up but entrance caved in, both with the boom.  Opened and closed at once.  Didn¡¯t know it, didn¡¯t dig it.  Big bag in there, your bag, warrior woman Tay Oo Ee Lah¡¯s bag.  Less mad now, please yes?¡±


    I can feel Teuila rolling her eyes as she explains, ¡°I¡¯ve told you, it¡¯s not tay oo ee lah, it¡¯s Teyhh hwheee lah.  Y¡¯know what, never mind, forget about it.  I¡¯m sorry for making a fuss over it.  Thank you for trying so hard to get my name right.  You¡¯re all very sweet, and I¡¯m not mad anymore.  Thank you.  Thank you for saving Reggie Dippy.  We¡¯ll deal with the dwarves like I said, and you¡¯re free to join us as long as you want, for proof or whatever.  Just, thank you.  I¡¯ll be back in a bit you three, watch over my Dink for me please?  Keep Timbik away from Reggie, or I¡¯ll break Timbik¡¯s tail and horns.¡±  Teuila yells out to the hallway, or tunnel perhaps, ¡°I know you¡¯re skulking out there Tim!  Miza¡¯s fine!  Lay one finger on Reggie and I will break bones you didn¡¯t know you had!¡±  In an instant she returns to calmly asking, ¡°Dippy, can you or Zippy show me this big hole?  I¡¯ll fish out my backpack.  Even if I have to smash some rock to get at it.¡±


    There¡¯s a round of nervous meeping and gulping from the assembled individuals.  I think someone mentioned that they were kobolds at some point?  I¡¯m not sure when.  My brains feel like mush.  Like, as if I¡¯ve actually had someone take a potato masher to the inside of my skull and give my grey-matter a good thwacking.  I¡¯m pretty positive I have physical brain damage, and several concussions.  I think there were, what was it, rock monsters?  Golems or something.  I remember my face meeting a wall, repeatedly, with a stony grip about my skull, and torso, both on separate occasions.  The fact that a creature had enough time to shift its grip around on me for more pulverizing leverage just, ugh, it sucks.  I felt so weak.  Wait, brains?  Just one brain, right?  Ugh, that¡¯s how mushy mine is.


    Didn¡¯t I have something like this once before?  I barely blink when facing off against calamity-class creatures, but a bunch of rock coming at me causes me to falter.  Oh, oh right, the Night of All Burn.  Molten rock, sure, but yeah.  Vesuviform, and a massive tidal wave of lava that had a mind of its own were two other times when rocks basically won against me.  I guess I can add golems, and regular old rock walls to that list now too.


    I¡¯m insanely lucky that this Dippy person saved me.  I guess that must be the little blue lizard fellow that I knocked over to cover during the explosion.  Although, it also sounds like the kobold clan might have been behind the golems to begin with.  I¡¯m not sure how I feel about that.  But if Teuila was able to gather that much information without killing all of them, and able to make peace with them, then obviously I¡¯ll follow her lead.  I prefer peace anyway.  It sounds like she even signed us up for a side quest to help them out with some sort of dwarven problem.  Our life really is like some sort of story from a videogame or something.


    The voice that I believe belongs to Dippy responds to Teuila, ¡°Yes, Zippy, Zippy is, can, is good, can help Tay Oo Ee Lah.  Can show, show, show the hole, big hole, can show Tay Oo Ee Lah the big hole.  Dippy,  Dippy, I, me, I will, will, will stay with, with the squishy not-dwarf.  Red Gee.  Gonna, gonna stay, we both saved, saved each other, gonna, gonna stay with Red Gee the squishy not-dwarf.  Can, can look after.  Will look after.  Tay Oo Ee Lah can trust Dippy, the Dippy, that¡¯s me, I¡¯m Dippy.¡±


    I can sense Teuila smiling.  She bends over and plants a pecked kiss on Dippy¡¯s cranium as she says, ¡°I know I can.  I¡¯ll never, ever doubt you.  You saved the most important thing in all the worlds to me.  Thank you Dippy.  I¡¯ll be right back.  Hey Zippy, you understand us right?  Dippy said you¡¯d show me the hole, are you cool with that?  I know you can¡¯t speak and all, but you zip around when addressed and stuff.  I¡¯ve never seen such a cute little rock drake before, like some kind of faerie dragon.  Yeah that¡¯s you, you¡¯re a cutie patootie Zippy, come on, let¡¯s go.  Back in a jiff.¡±


    As Teuila scampers away, following some fast-flitting winged creature, Zippy apparently, I realize there are tears streaming down my cheeks.  Dippy freaks out when noticing them, ¡°The, the, squishy not-dwarf, Miza, Miza, Red Gee is, is, leaking, cries, tears.  Is, is that normal?  Is, are the Red Gee dying again?  Are you dying Red Gee?  Please don¡¯t be, don¡¯t, don¡¯t be dying.  We saved, both saved.¡±


    Miza responds before I get a chance, ¡°Dippy, the Dippy, you, I, Miza says, I say, you can calm down.  The Red Gee is, is, is, healing.  No more fear, wounds all closed.¡±


    Dippy argues, ¡°But, but, but, Miza, the healer, you, you said, you said the Red Gee needed fluids, needed all the fluids, bad, bad, badly.   Dippy, I, the Dippy, that¡¯s me, I, I gave blood, give blood, can give, will give more.  Does the Red Gee need more fluids?¡±


    Miza approaches, and gently spins Dippy about by the shoulders to face her.  She then lightly headbutts Dippy as she rests her forehead on his, ¡°Dippy has done enough for, for, for the squishy not-dwarf, for the Red Gee to survive.  The Red Gee cries, touched by you, the bravest amongst us, and their love, the Tay Oo Ee Lah warrior woman.  Even even, even Timbik, mate, my mate Timbik must honor you.  You have pledged quest, scale, shell, blood and bond.  You, Dippy, the, the Dippy, the bravest, are okay.  So is the Red Gee.¡±


    Dippy gulps, apparently uncomfortable having earned a new title, the bravest amongst his clan.  What a sweet fellow.  He lightly headbutts Miza once as he withdraws his forehead, and turns to face me once more.  Dippy asks, ¡°Red Gee, are you?  Sorry, sorry didn¡¯t, didn¡¯t wait.  Was worried, if you couldn¡¯t talk, might be dying.¡±


    I inhale a shuddered, sobbed breath, almost laughing, wishing I had strength in my limbs to wipe my tears.  I answer, ¡°Yes, yes Dippy, my new, brave friend, I am.¡±

 B 4 C 42: A Day In

    Dippy begins to grip my shoulders, likely to shake me in excitement at my response of well-being, but thankfully Miza stops him.  Just because I¡¯m not dying at the moment doesn¡¯t mean a jostling won¡¯t open up wounds or perforate organs with my own floating, splintered bone shards.  Miza once again headbutts Dippy gently, resting her forehead on his.  It seems to be a more common method of expression and affection for kobolds than it is for us.  I wonder if it¡¯s because of the shape of their semi-draconic faces, and lack of lips.  Is that their version of a kiss?  I wonder how that sort of affection is viewed in and out of romantic relationships.  Miza said Timbik was her mate.  Dippy could very well be her brother, I don¡¯t have any idea.


    Oh no, my staff.  It was inside a rock, stone, crag elemental golem thingy.  Ugh, that was nearly my entire source of.  Wait.  It¡¯s in my hand.  What?  I could swear it wasn¡¯t, only a moment ago.  Neither Dippy nor Miza are looking this way.  Scrap is, well, apparently cataloging scrap in the corner.  None of them are going to be able to tell me whether the staff appeared suddenly, or maybe just rolled into my palm from somewhere nearby.


    I guess my brain is still addled.  It¡¯s not like I have the ability to teleport objects.  Well, not here on Rayileklia anyway.  Even back home, my range of reclaiming objects that I owned, that I expelled from my inventory was at most one or two dozen meters.  Plus, they teleported to my inventory, not straight to my hand.  Yeah, I¡¯m probably just confused.  Yet again, Rayileklia doing a number on my brainpan.


    Still.  I now know what one of the spells in the staff does, one I couldn¡¯t figure out on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, that I didn¡¯t know how to use before.  I can either conjure, or animate elementals.  That sounds amazing.  But it doesn¡¯t necessarily mean I can control them.  I¡¯m fairly certain that the spell binds them to me in some way, but I¡¯m not willing to risk dying and getting these nice kobolds killed to sate my curiosity.  Even just one of those rock monsters is deadly beyond belief.  But, but it has the potential to call along all elemental lines.  It, it could bring back Sylphie, in some fashion.  My eyes well with tears.


    I got her killed.  My hubris, my need to be a hero, my need to save the ungrateful MCF beavers got her killed.  Sylphie was so amazingly kind, a wind spirit who we¡¯d only just met.  She gave her life to help us flee the flooded tunnel complex. Somehow she generated oxygen for us for hours while rescuing beavers and leading them to secret tunnels that led to the river and the surface.  Did she have a soul?  Is it somewhere out there in the multiverse?  What about the censer that first summoned her?  Mata used it to do something, then melted it, preventing me from being able to undo whatever he¡¯d done.


    Did Mat resurrect Sylphie as a vengeful spirit?  I should have asked him, at any point while we were working together to generate the pumice and porous lava constructions to be used in the Shield of Lacrimosa Trifecta.  I¡¯ll never get the chance now.  We¡¯ll never see Mataalii again, if he¡¯s even still alive.  He was going to swim across the mildly acidified surface of a sea, towards lands with unknown dangers that people never return from.  My brother.  You hated me so much that you killed our mother and our hound to get to me.  The grace of the phoenix is the only reason she¡¯s still with us.  Lao and Lucky both.  We gave up the most precious gifts in the world to counteract your hatred.  I heave a sobbed sigh, my breath shudders as I try not to weep aloud.  My tears cascade regardless.


    So many memories swirl and fight for the forefront position in my mind.  They demand my attention, yank at the controls of my trains of thought.  It almost feels as if it¡¯s just too crowded inside my head sometimes.  I need to recover.  I need to get on with my quest, before my head just decides it¡¯s too full, and explodes.  Or before my lack of two more dragon hearts, or my own lack of vitality catches up with me and kills me.  Hell on handrails you¡¯re in bad shape Reggie Shellcracker.  I know!  Right?  It¡¯s almost as if you¡¯ve just had your brains bashed in, after a very violent and bloody life that you¡¯d already skirted death too many times during.  Oh yeah, just almost.  Pft.  Having fun talking to yourself buddy?  Kinda, yeah.  Hah.  Get it together Reggie.  Right, right right right.  You, me, I¡¯m not even future Reggie sending messages or personality ghosts or memory fragments back or anything.  This is just plain old brain damage manifesting in ways to try to cope with the insanity of my life.


    Hm, I wonder if that¡¯s offensive.  I mean, I literally suffered blunt trauma to my brain.  And, I mean, calling my life insane, if people knew everything?  Who wouldn¡¯t think it was some form of bizarre, crazy, or insane?  What was it Lao said?  No, who said it.  Destiny seems to swirl around me?  Guiding me to some fate they know not?  Lao spoke about the loom of fate, claiming that I alone sat at its weave.  She sat me on a pedestal, and I cracked under that pressure, I fell hard into depression.  I may have been being influenced by mana sickness emotionally as well.  I certainly was influenced physically.  I would projectile-bleed spontaneously upon using too much magic for too long.  Light and energy would fire forth from me, lacerating my tissue and muscles.  I mean, they still do, even here on Rayileklia.  Worse, on this planet, I seem to trigger the mana corruption effects with even the mildest calling of my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers.  None of us know the full extent of the consequences of my experimenting with limitless mana manipulation along Lord Agni¡¯s back.


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    I get so caught up in my own head.  I have millions and millions of years of logs, possibly billions, from all the time I spent in alternate timelines, railing against fate.  I don¡¯t even have the logs from the actual timelines, or my tests in the temple of time from those runs, thank spoot.  Just the logs from my own years spent trying every possible way to prevent the destruction of our world in the temple of time.  I finally understood the only way to stop it, was to not be a player in the game, to take myself off the board.  If TQ created that test, they¡¯re pretty sadistic.  I should have let them delete the logs for me though.  I reacted with mistrust.  Someone who basically says they¡¯re about to wipe your memories, after you¡¯d just given up and let yourself die to save your world, I mean.  Who wouldn¡¯t be a bit mistrusting?


    Still, poor TQ.  Apparently a conglomeration of souls, people I¡¯d failed to save across dozens of timelines, maybe thousands, millions of timelines.  Well, not their souls so much as their specific desires, desires that revolved around my successes somehow.  Defeating the serpent that slew Staff Ninja, setting into motion events that would save the Nagas who weren¡¯t in the Black Fangs.  Probably more, since they said I¡¯d accomplished so many of their wills, that we, were among their best friends, for all that we had done for all of them over the years of so many timelines.


    Oh, right, the logs.  Maybe if I dig into my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers hard enough, I can execute a log wipe.  That would free up a lot of space, right?  My head just feels too heavy.  But, without being able to see my logs, would I be able to only delete the subdirectory containing my samey-samey endless timelines logs?  Or could I screw up and delete everything?  Would I retain my actual memories of the events if the logs get deleted?  Are my memories stored in neurons, or in the digital interface that makes up a magical part of our world?  Ugh, crap.  I can¡¯t risk experimenting.  My gods, if, if I lost, if I, I, if I lost all those memories.  My family.  My inner circle, the SAP.  Sylphie, Har, Sal, Atamai, Iakopo, Taito, Tenith Grayl, Elder Tolkenstein.  I¡¯d have no context for any of them.


    How would I feel about only having my Rayileklian memories?  How would I feel about Teuila from those memories?  Well, I mean, honestly Te has been pretty awesome to me, all our lives, and even moreso here.  But what if even on Rayileklia I¡¯m not storing memories in neurons, but in logs that are getting over-filled?  If I accidentally delete all my logs entirely?  Who would I become?  Would I become that blood-rage entity of wraith that struggles to free itself from me from time-to-time?  Usually in dire circumstances at that.  Would I become catatonic, unable to know, experience, learn?  Would I start anew, as humans are supposed to?  Ugh, my head is aching beyond just the pulping it took.


    How long have I been lost in thought?  It has only been moments!?  Does my accelerated thinkspace work again?  Could we reform our bonds now that I¡¯ve experienced enough brain trauma?  Or am I just getting excited over nothing, and it¡¯s normal to space out for a few seconds, thinking about a ton.  It¡¯s probably the latter.  It¡¯s just so hard to judge what¡¯s normal when using my life as a sample.  Alright, come on Reggie, get the heck out of your own head.  Seriously, it¡¯s a freakin¡¯ dangerous place to get lost in.  Right, right right right.  Alright, let¡¯s see what we can do.


    I clasp the staff, working as few muscles as possible, due to how numerous the amount of non-functioning muscles are right now.  I have it extend only partway, to more of a wand, so that I¡¯m not forced to drop it.  I conjure the ghostly translucent hand from the staff, and use it to help myself to a seated position, slowly.  It¡¯s not capable of carrying a great deal of weight.  I¡¯m fairly light, but even still, it certainly couldn¡¯t pick me up off the ground.  I¡¯m having it shove me at an angle, there, I¡¯m seated.  Huff, that was an effort.


    My right forearm spasms and twitches, causing me an undesired grimace of pain.  Spasms happened more and more after I became mana-corrupted.  I wonder if any neurological examination of my endochrine system could help prevent those, or if I¡¯d need a mystical cure, like going back in time to prevent myself from experimenting on Lord Agni¡¯s back.  Actually.  How would I have gotten out of there without fighting as much as I did?  I was mostly dead, exhausted, incapable of swimming back up through the lava I had swam down through.


    Dippy, Miza, and Scrap all gasp.  Probably because they realize I¡¯m upright, maybe because I¡¯m wielding a glowing staff.  I try to smile in each of their directions, vaguely.  My danger wraps silent sonar senses tell me where they are, but moving my head and neck is difficult at best.  All three approach me with arms outstretched.


    Miza speaksfirst, ¡°No no, you musting must knotting, must not, musn¡¯t mustn¡¯t up, no up, up, getting up, mustn¡¯t getting up Red Gee.  Don¡¯t get up.  You must rest.  Please.  Tay Oo Ee Lah would never forgive, never forgive we wouldn¡¯t, we wouldn¡¯t forgive, no forgiveness for us, if, if we let you perish.  Please, please rest.  We want you to live.  Also, Tay Oo Ee Lah is scary.¡±


    I accidentally crack up with laughter for a moment as Miza concludes.  Huff, if only I could control my facial muscles more than intermittently right now.  I want to flash her a smile and express my gratitude.  I was hoping to speed my recovery along by getting my blood flowing, but that might have been the exact thing to avoid.  I feel woozy, light-headed, and begin to pass out once more as the six hands of the three kobolds lay me back down.  I try to shrink and sheathe my staff, but I think I only imagine the attempt, because my muscles feel weaker than ever, completely unresponsive.  My already swollen-shut eyelids droop more heavily into a pinch.  My heavy, labored breathing slows to a crawl after one last bloody cough.  I cave in and let unconsciousness take me once more.

 B 4 C 43: The Mind Of

    A small creature calls my name, it knows me, despite my lack of the same. I only just began existing at this very moment after all. Yet memories begin to filter in, a life stretching out behind me. Still, one that does not contain this little fox-beast. Other than the scant few moments ago that it drove away an oozing monstrosity by glowing at it. Perhaps I am being unfair to the creature in how I think of and describe it. I did only recently come into being. I do not believe I have manners yet.


    My mannerisms are halting, robotic, the data of my movements suggests I might be an android. As I cock my head quizzicially, I address the small beast, ¡°Hello little one. Thank you for the shine. I do not believe that the creature which had been pursuing me would have greeted me quite so kindly. Are you not odd, to be able to speak?¡±


    The pleasant, youthful voice laughs, ¡°You¡¯re one to talk buddy! Why¡¯re you suddenly acting like a robot?¡±


    My head twitches as it cocks to the other side, my eyes flit to one location in thought before I respond, ¡°I think that perhaps, I am one. Or some form of synthetic life at least. Is that unusual?¡±


    She grins excitedly, widely, as she rolls about in mirth, laughing, ¡°Sweetie, I think you hit your head or somethin¡¯. Come on Deets, let¡¯s get outta here, before it comes back. You can keep playing robot or whatevuh, we both know I¡¯m the synthetic one. I¡¯m all data, all the time.¡±


    She begins to trot away, begging that I follow, and I see no reason not to. I call back, ¡°Is that something I am prone to doing? Playing? Or being a robot?¡±


    She scoffs as she glances back towards me over her shoulder, ¡°Deets sweetie, you¡¯re bein¡¯ real weird. No, not really. It aint normal for you. You aint too playful, but you aint formal or robotic normally neithuh.¡±


    I follow along physically, and neurally. In answer, I apologize, ¡°I am sorry to be out of character for myself then young miss. I do apologize. Hopefully you can forgive me, and perhaps elucidate me as to your name?¡±


    The eye she had been gazing at me with goes wide as her jaw hangs slack. Being unable to prevaricate, I begin again, though I am interrupted by her startlement, ¡°Deets? Sweetie? You don¡¯t remember me? Your best pal? Come on, you¡¯re joking right? You gotta be playin¡¯. Please sweetie, stop, it¡¯s startin¡¯ to scare me.¡±


    As her voice cracks during her plea, I find an odd sensation. There appears to be droplets of water along the edges of my eyelids. I appear to be moved emotionally. I am unsure why on Rayileklia that I would be so moved, by such a plea, but here I am. Wait, what is Rayileklia? My head jerks to one side as my eyes latch on a skyward position while I begin to parse my own thoughts.


    I appear to be malfunctioning in some manner. A manner that upsets this small being, a supposed friend of mine. I am unable to initiate diagnostic routines. I conclude that I am in error in at least one of my recent assumptions. I shall begin to ascertain which one or ones. As I sift through these, my first few minutes of life, the creature paces around me in a circle. She draws intricate markings in the ground, runes perhaps, and chants as she does so. After completing her circle, she sits back while looking at me, and gasps.


    She asks in shock, ¡°Deets baby, why you suddenly gots two souls in ya?¡±


    I do not appear to be an infant, it appears I am precious to the young miss, and am referred to by a term of endearment. As to the parsing of the quantity of souls, and why I should have one or more, I must consult theological knowledge within my database. I encounter an error. I appear to have an incomplete theological knowledge bank. There is limited concrete evidence related to souls within my knowledge repository.


    My attempt to answer seems not to please the young miss, ¡°I am uncertain as to how I came into possession of even one soul, young miss, let alone two. I appear to not understand much within the concept of souls. Limited knowledge tells me they are often thought of as mythological concepts, constructs theologically created to bring about metaphors. The metaphors are often about purity, one theology may insist that a pure state can only be maintained by abstaining from certain activities. Another may insist that a pure state can only be achieved by participating in certain activities. It seems they are even in disagreement as to the entry state of a soul, or its ability to exist in homeostasis, or even to exist at all.¡±


    Tears well within the eyes of the fox-creature, the young miss, she pleads, ¡°Deets baby, you gotta, gotta kick that othuh soul out or somethin¡¯ Please? This aint funny. You, othuh soul, gimme back my Deets. Please? Please? I, I just want my sweetie back. Why you gonna go an¡¯ take ¡®em away? Please, just please gimme back my Deets?¡±


    A new odd sensation occurs, my automatic swallowing response catches an error loop, and requires gulping in order to resume normal functions. An action I think referred to as, gulping back a sob. I do not know why- I begin drifting upwards, slowly I pass through Deets¡¯ body, and view the pair from above. Deets drops to their knees and hugs the young miss. It seems my body is having a tearful reunion with our friend. I appear to be pulled somewhere, by something. The force exerted upon me spaghettifies me, stretching me across one universe to another. For a brief moment, I exist within two universes.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    A hostile, glowing creature grips me about my ephemeral form, and curses, ¡°What manner of worthless soul is this? An automaton? Blast it all! All those souls spent, wasted reaching out for this one!? Fine, we shall continue to seek the adventurers. We can be patient. I wonder if robotic souls taste like electric lamb.¡±


    The entity wraithfully snatches my last breaths. I am frightened in my last moments of existence before being consumed.


    Hm? What? Ugh, I snorted what I think is a pile of scale dander. Klagh, koff, gluk, ugh. I feel bad for the poor kobolds who shed this stuff. When I had scales, they were more like gemstones, they didn¡¯t produce dander or dust. Ugh, my nasal passages feel all funky and gross. Koff. That can¡¯t be good for repairing my body. Speaking of, wow. I still have quite a ways to go overall, but my eyelids are no longer swollen, I can see straight, I can move my limbs. I try to wet my lips as they¡¯ve become dry and dusty, but my tongue sticks to them and I cough away what moisture I would have applied. I need water. I think, I think I probably bled a vast amount. I remember hearing someone say too much blood, before the rock elemental had even finished pummeling me.


    My danger wraps indicate that the only being around, well, is outside my danger wrap range, as I hear them skulking at the entrance to this cavern chamber. They sound about the same height as the other kobolds, perhaps a bit taller, and by the way their talons scrape across the stone, their stance is hostile. I think they also may be wielding a spear. I¡¯m uncertain I want to unleash any of the magics in the staff right now. A fireball could cave in this chamber depending on the surrounding stone. I don¡¯t know where I am. Similarly, a lightning bolt might knock out a support further down the hallway. Huff. I¡¯m not at my best, but I appear to be fully armored, and wielding my Valkyrie buckler. That¡¯s odd. I could have sworn I was stripped bare to be taken care of.


    I¡¯m not the best at non-lethal combat. Actually I¡¯m pretty terrible, downright awful at being non-lethal. I reach for my hip-holster, but don¡¯t find my wrist-mounted hand crossbow there, it¡¯s already on my wrist. Oh, right, I tried to use it against the rock monsters. It must have just been awkward to try to take it off, since it sort of magically sticks in place with a weird glowy band. It also makes me glow while I¡¯m wearing it, which is why it isn¡¯t pitch black in this stone chamber. Maybe if this person attacks me, if I shoot them in the foot, they¡¯ll back off?


    Come on Reggie, how many times in your life has someone who aggressed you survived, and stopped being an aggressor? Oof, the survival count is really, incredibly low. We uh, won¡¯t talk about one. Linti is the only other one I can think of. Huff. Bad news for whoever this is I guess. Bad news to be shot by any of my ranged abilities honestly. I mean, I suppose any shooting is bad news for anyone involved. If it¡¯s Timbik, Miza¡¯s mate, I wonder if they¡¯ll-


    Bugger it all, they¡¯ve dashed into the room, into my danger wrap range. Their lunge directs their spear towards my chest. I heave a sigh as I pivot rearwards on my dominant foot, swinging to my right just enough to guide the strike of the spear past me. I strike a pressure-point jab that I know works on reptiles, because it worked on me when Linti did it while sparring several times. A knife-edge thrust up into the armpit while guiding the arm for maximum connection.


    The assailant momentarily drops its spear as it flips to leave my grasp. They¡¯re probably also hoping it sets them outside my reach, but I simply aim my crossbow at the floor where they¡¯re going to land, and unload a pair of bolts into my attacker¡¯s talons. They hiss at me, and I hiss back.


    Hissing and growling, I order, ¡°Stand down. Anyone who has not accepted my offer of mercy has died. Stand down, or die.¡± I unleash two more bolts, slightly higher, skewering the arch of their left foot, then bring the glowing crossbow to bear, center of mass.


    The attacker makes as if to lunge for their spear, I can tell it¡¯s a feint, but what I don¡¯t expect is that it¡¯s intended to allow them to flee the room. I nearly shoot them in the back because of their feint. The idiot. They could have just walked away. I nearly killed them.


    Leaning down, the spear is unique, if I were in one of the fantasy settings from Fakeworld, Earth, I¡¯d say it¡¯s likely of Dwarven make based on the runes and quality. Some of the scrap around here has been crafted into quite quality equipment, but this is on another level, so it doesn¡¯t feel like it was created by the kobold clan. A clapping from just outside my danger wraps¡¯ sensory range alerts me to a presence that sounds hunched, slightly decrepit. Their walk is slow as they enter my silent sonar¡¯s area of effect. Their appearance is shrouded beneath a thin grey cloak, or hooded robe.


    Before I can speak, in an ancient, wizened voice, they say, ¡°Thank you for allowing Timbik to live. I have told the lad, pride will be the death of him. He blames your state for our now lacking a trap for the Dwarves who will come for us yet again. They demand all our metals and gems, and threaten us with thundrous sticks that explode with devastating force, yet instead of harming the wielder, like these sticks, they harm a target from afar like an arrow from a bow.¡±


    I draw a shuddered breath, my body and lungs still weakened from my bludgeoning ordeal. I clasp my right side, and feel the damp trickle through the cloth binding my wounds. Sitting back on the slightly raised mound of earth that had served as my bed, I ask, ¡°Would you be willing to share your name? I¡¯m Reggie, but you probably already knew that from Teuila or Dippy or Miza or Scrap I assume? Those are names I heard while barely conscious, and, well, I perceived Dippy, Miza, and Scrap, and you¡¯re none of them.¡±


    The wizened old voice exhales a raspy, dry chuckle, ¡°Indeed I am not. If you¡¯ll stay a while and listen, I¡¯ll share more than my name. These days, I¡¯m simply known as Elder. Long ago, I had another name. Perhaps we¡¯ll get to that later. I assume you have more pertinent questions?¡±


    I nod. Though I want to ask why his elocution is so vastly different from the other kobolds, I¡¯ll worry about dialectics later. I start, ¡°Could you tell me more about this Dwarven situation? By the make of this spear, and the sound of their weapons, they¡¯ve a strong enough society to not need to be jerks. What are the, well, what are the stakes, who did what, why, how did we get where we are? What are you expecting from Teuila?¡±


    Elder nods along, ¡°The Dwarves originally would rarely bother to interact with us, occasionally offer us trinkets in trade for the rarer, tastier ores and gems.¡±


    Tastier? I¡¯m about to ask, but Elder continues, ¡°Yes, our diet is minerals. We could, and have during lean times, subsisted on dirt and stone. It is a horrid way to live until finding a new vein of mineral. These are lean times, they fill us with desperation, anger, hunger.¡±

 B 4 C 34: Reggie Shellcracker

    This is starting to sound really familiar. A group of people who mostly left their neighbors alone, but suddenly started using threat of violence to coerce and extort the other? Friggin¡¯ heck Reggie Shellcracker, your life is a gorram meme. It¡¯s not even just one location anymore. The MCF beavers were going to extort us for more Valkyrie armor to lord it over the Sane Faction. The Colossi with Autumn Brook, and now the Dwarves with the Kobolds in The Gap? Friggin¡¯ heck. Seriously, buddy, what the hell kind of deity did we piss off for this kind of karma? I have to chuckle at myself, talking to myself again. Plus, it¡¯s not like the world revolves around us. They¡¯re just situations that happen around the world. Yeah? But we keep stumbling into them! Hm, true. You make a salient point. Duh, I¡¯m you, me. Doofus. Haha. Hah. Oh wow, yeah, I¡¯ve definitely suffered cranial bludgeoning and intracranial hemorrhaging. I wonder. Hm. If I develop a split personality, will both of us have the headaches, or will one of us take on the pain of bearing those millions of years of logs? I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how dissociative identity disorder or borderline personality disorder works though anyway. What do I know? I¡¯m a cryptozoologist, not a psychologist.


    I wonder if, well, whatever, I should pay attention to Elder. I raise my eyebrows as I query, ¡°What¡¯s this region like? Is it just the barren rock of the gap, your kobold clan, and the dwarves in their own settlement?¡±


    Elder nods in response, ¡°It is quite like as you guess. Though we prefer not to venture outside, much too bright, on occasion we¡¯ll seek new natural tunnels to see if we can sense any ore veins or gems within them, without having to excavate for ages. Scrap and the bravest amongst us, Dippy, are the most likely to know our local region the best, and, they both worked together to develop goggles, instead of lenses, they have thin dark cloth. Ingenious.¡±


    Huh, Dippy and Scrap independently invented sunglasses, without outside influence, neato. I wonder what else they¡¯ve invented. My eyelids begin to droop heavily once more, and I groan aloud at myself in exasperation. Thankfully Elder realizes just what I¡¯m suffering.


    Elder starts, ¡°You have some time yet before you¡¯re recovered. Remarkably fast healing, but worry not, Timbik won¡¯t be allowed anywhere near this room again. I will ask and answer some questions for you. You¡¯re likely wondering why my speech is different than the rest of my clan. When young, I was captured by humans, I spent years among them. While my clan¡¯s native tongue is Draconic, mine is far closer to human.¡±


    Elder pats my forehead as he continues, ¡°I was Cain back then. I worked for thieves, gamblers, cards mostly. Much of my time was spent as a decker, shuffler, dealer. Decker Cain is long gone now. I¡¯m content simply being known as Elder. I hope you¡¯ll respect that I don¡¯t want to speak more on the topic, as well as my choice of name.¡±


    I nod affirmatively. Of course. Names, genders, identities, I¡¯ve got plenty of experience being out of the norm from human society in those regards. Phew, good thing I don¡¯t, and didn¡¯t live in a human society. I raise an eyebrow as Elder squats near me, resting on his tail. He seems to be settling in to speak more.


    Elder nods in response, and does continue, ¡°You¡¯re likely curious about the stone elementals. From firma to firmament, elementals occupy the space all around us, adjacent. Near yet far. Like the other side of a looking glass, or being separated by a veil. Some objects can draw them to our side of the glass. For those beings of stone, one such item is a certain gem, malachite-encrusted emerald, naturally formed in a certain way. Shattering one spreads the veil, allowing nearby elementals through to our side. They answer to no one, and exist only as their nature dictates, but they are fiercely territorial. Thankfully, stone elementals can not simply swim through stone and soil, like certain other elementals.¡±


    Elder raises an eyebrow as I gaze up-leftward in thought. If they had a method of quickly erecting stone walls, unleashing the rock elementals in an area, and trapping their foes in it is deadly. I mean, I¡¯m living proof. Hah! I barely restrain myself from laughing at the revelation, and oxymoron. My being alive proves how deadly they are? Sometimes I¡¯m astounded that my brain functions at all, with how weird it gets.


    Elder, still hidden by their gray cloak, says, ¡°Perhaps you¡¯ve guessed. We hoped to ensnare the next Dwarves sent to hurt us, sent to demand our hard-labored food. Our Miza has, hm, what¡¯s the word, it¡¯s not one I¡¯d be familiar with from back then. I think you might call it geomancy. Her sorcery specializes in stone, though she has more than just earthmoving magic. Minor healing and the like. She had only enough power left after erecting our trap to do very little for you. Not that healing magics are powerful enough to do much more even when a sorceress is fully rested.¡±


    Elder surmises, ¡°To be truly attuned to healing magics, I don¡¯t think such a being exists on our world. They would need to, I¡¯m not certain, be able to rewind a person¡¯s injuries to before they occurred, or skip forward to the time when they were fully healed. Perhaps. I only conjecture, as such a being doesn¡¯t exist. They¡¯d likely rule this world if they did. I mean, can you imagine? Someone with control over the flow of time?¡±


    Hah, hahahaha. Hahaha. I¡¯m biting my lips so hard, holding back laughter with such intensity that I¡¯m crying. It¡¯s exhausting, and I feel myself passing out once more due to the effort. Crap, I¡¯d like to get to know more about Elder and these lands, and Dippy and Scrap. Guess I¡¯ll have t-.


    I swirl in a maelstrom of white, it takes a moment to orient before I realize that it¡¯s not a solid white. It¡¯s simply such a condensed mass of souls that we have nearly no room. From outside it must look like the wax of a candle. Now that I¡¯ve made it to the edge of our cylindrical, transparent prison, I spy a brilliant, hostile glow below. Its intensity is heat and hatred, like the fiery depths of some hell. It¡¯s speaking in languages I don¡¯t understand, yet I comprehend them.


    ¡°My fragment has not yet returned with the prime soul, fine, let us see if we can reach elsewhere. Each of you is a universe waiting to happen. Which of you has a wealth on your other side?¡±


    It¡¯s ages, yet also only an instant, but this hatred, this malevolent force somehow thins out the number of souls in our prison. Each one pulled from within is ignited in a silent scream, a last, tortured gasp of pained breath within the wraith of the entity. Forever. Eternity. Denied to each of us that is taken and spent. The evil of the force knows no limits, soul after soul. Bumping into one, I recollect a shared memory. We¡¯d known each other in life. They¡¯re being taken next, but in this tortured existence, they¡¯re all I know of happiness or friendship. They scream and cry in fear. I latch-on to their ethereal essence, struggling in vain to at least keep them within our prison. Instead I¡¯m drawn along.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    The entity almost seems curious that the soul it is spending, igniting, burning away to unseen ashes, has a passenger. I¡¯m not noticed until too late in the process, somehow I¡¯ve bought my freedom. It¡¯s not a life, hell, not even an existence. I¡¯m merely a short observation. The entity peers into the other side of the soul of my friend. A vast reality occurs, its own eternity spent in an instant. For the shortest moment, I see through the eyes of one of its denizens. My mind is its mind, I am no longer capable of conscious thought.


    Whew, glad that I was talked into these armored motorcycle leathers. Even with my new strength, I¡¯ve taken a few short tumbles already. I¡¯m getting better at climbing by the moment though. Hm, oddly it feels like I¡¯m being watched. It can¡¯t be her though, since the GPS signal is still so far away, and moving still. Oddly, she seems to be coming back towards this direction. I¡¯m tempted to try texting my old number, but the screen on that phone is broken, I¡¯m not sure what good it would do.


    The scenery out here is breathtaking. I can¡¯t believe I never even thought to go out for a hike, a climb, or anything. The inspiration for my artwork and scenery sketches is almost palpable. I mean, it¡¯s about noon at the moment, so the sun¡¯s rays are cascading off the snowy cliffs, lighting the peaks of the mountain range far into the distance. It¡¯s just gorgeous. As each moment passes, the twinkling dances along the snowy slopes, light glinting in a new way in minuscule adjustments second by second, mirroring the rotation of the planet.


    I¡¯m tempted to see just how good the sketch function is on this new phone, but I don¡¯t know how long I can stay safely out on this climb. I want to get to her before it gets dark, if there is any chance she really exists. I just want to thank her for saving my life. That¡¯s, that¡¯s all I need. Then I¡¯ll go back to my apartment, I¡¯ll run Pflopsie for more info and analysis. I¡¯ll let her go on with her life. She doesn¡¯t owe me anything. She did call me her best friend though, her partner. Why would you do that, save someone¡¯s life, then disappear? I just hope she¡¯ll hear me out, if she¡¯s real, if I find her.


    I¡¯m still uncertain though. I mean, almost super strength? Bleeding weirdly? Healing within days, recovering in a week instead of weeks to months? Winning a sweepstakes that I don¡¯t remember entering, and it being directly deposited? Gladys having my wallet and keys ready for me, as if they¡¯d simply been dropped in a lost and found box while I was in the hospital? I might still be in the hospital bed, having a fever dream. She just, she has to be real though. Right?


    Ugh, what am I even doing out here? Chasing the GPS signal of a broken phone that can¡¯t possibly have remained charged for this long. I sit in the snow atop a small boulder, rest my elbows on my knees and drop my face into my hands. I feel tears streaming down my cheeks. It¡¯s so far from my normal, I don¡¯t know how to parse reality right now. Even since the attack. I mean, me, charging at a colossal bug to try to save some shaggy stray labrador? It swatted me like, well like a bug, hah. Founder¡¯s Rock remains uncracked, so there¡¯s very little evidence the whole thing happened. I mean, none. No real evidence at all.


    A yearning, a tug at my very soul pleads with me, begs me to believe it. It¡¯s certain she is out there. Somewhere. Somewhere in this mountain range. Maybe she¡¯s some sort of snow fox? What are they called, fennec foxes? No, I think it¡¯s just Arctic foxes.


    Alright, enough self-doubt and self-pity already, yeesh. If nothing else, we¡¯re just exercising our new stupidly-strong super-muscles. I mean, we have a standing leap that¡¯s Olympic levels, pull-ups and free-climbing are almost effortless. We lifted that freaking sofa over our head, spooking our neighbors. Ugh, I keep slipping into the plural. Bad habit I¡¯ve had since I was a kid. Don¡¯t you mean since we were a kid? Heh. No, I¡¯m joking. The only me in my mind is me.


    Alright, alright already. Let¡¯s get climbing. I think a ridge bridges the gap between this mountain and the next at the next rise. Hopefully it¡¯s crestable. I don¡¯t want to have to walk all the way down to the base of the far side of this mountain then climb back up the next, and repeat that over and over. Let¡¯s pick up the pace some, we should probably turn around at around two or three in the afternoon to get back before it gets dark, and too cold. We didn¡¯t buy camping equipment, just this climber¡¯s axe pick thing, this belt harness with hammer and pitons and rope. I bought extra rope that I¡¯ve got coiled up like some sort of boxer¡¯s wraps on each arm, under the jacket, just in case.


    Whew, okay, thankfully the ridge did lead between the mountains, I didn¡¯t have to scale one mountain and the next over and over, returning to the base each time. Even still, I¡¯ve covered a couple of miles only, and it seems like her GPS location is finally relatively stable. She¡¯s maybe traveling back and forth between two points that are relatively close to each other. It¡¯s almost like she¡¯s, huh. Patrolling? That¡¯s a weird assumption though, right? I mean, my supposed partner, my protector and savior, patrolling between two spots on a mountain, miles away from the city? I¡¯m not even sure what¡¯s weird versus normal anymore though.


    Brr, you ever get the feeling you¡¯re being watched? I¡¯m not all that cold, despite climbing snowy mountains. Yet I shuddered as if someone had just walked over my grave. It¡¯s not her though, she¡¯s still a ways off to the northeast. I accidentally went too far west. Well, not accidentally. I was heading towards where I guessed her GPS location might pop up next, before I realized or found out that the GPS kept popping up between these two points. Huffing a sigh, I struggle to find a way to course-correct. Suddenly I¡¯m blinking rapidly in confusion.


    Did, did I just see a, a black dragon? I mean, it almost looked like, I mean, no way, right? It sort of seemed like it was stitched together like some sort of Frankenstein¡¯s monster. Or maybe it was wearing pleather, and the pleather was stitched? Why would a dragon wear pleather? Why would a dragon wear anything? Hey, goober, more pertinent question. Hm? Why would a dragon exist!? Wow, right, yeah. I¡¯m so far from normal. I must be hallucinating again. It was probably just a trick of the light. Besides, it¡¯s like it was moving too fast to really get a decent look at, so it was probably a cloud shadow or some..thing. The sky is entirely, totally, one hundred percent clear. I gnaw on my lip nervously while glancing around.


    Okay, it has been like an hour or so since I saw that black dragon, or, well, thought I saw something anyway. I¡¯m finally making progress towards her GPS location again. Or well, the southwestern location that she seems to stop at. W,w,what is, is that? Is that an avalanche!? Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap. Why didn¡¯t I think about just, just normal mundane disasters!? I¡¯m going to die from snow, after living through all that nonsense! No no no no! Dashing for the nearest tree, I leap towards it as the snow plows towards me.


    Thankfully I¡¯m light, so I don¡¯t just plow the tree over, but over the roar of the falling snow is the audible creak, groan, and cracking of the trunk. I keep scrabbling up and down, trying to find the safest position in the tree. Near the top, I¡¯d hasten it being toppled by the avalanche, too low, and I could be swept away by the tide of snow. Two massive shadows passing across me swiftly in the early evening sun send a new wave of concern and fear through me.


    There¡¯s no way. Right? I, I think I just saw a werewolf fighting a dragon in the sky, leaping after and tearing into each other. I, I think I¡¯m going to faint. This whole thing must have been a nightmare. The adrenaline is bringing me towards the edge of passing out. If there¡¯s any chance that this is real though, I need to hang in here. Fight. Fight it. Just, just a bit longer, the snow is almost settling, though the trunk is snapped halfway through. Oh no. There is definitely a werewolf fighting a dragon, and they¡¯ve spotted me.

 B 4 C 45: Alone Again

    I awaken in the rocky chamber once more. I feel much better, less like pulverized, tenderized meat, and more like a person. I flex my face and jaw rapidly, randomly for several moments, then slowly begin stretching my neck, flexing my fingers and arms, and work my way down. Everything seems to be responding. Without too much pain either at that. It¡¯s almost as if I were healing as well as I used to prior to the radiant purge on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. That¡¯s rather surprising. Or, hm. Maybe it was Kozzurth¡¯s heart?


    Huh, I bet it was, honestly. And it probably shortened my life expectancy by using up whatever power her heart infused me with. Fudge. Probably need three more hearts now. I am so gorram screwed. Poor Teuila. How do I fix me? I screwed up so bad on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I didn¡¯t think about it too much. Just, I knew what I had to do to save my family, so I did it. No questions asked. I was prepared to accept whatever pain or death came along with that. Lao would chastise me, but that¡¯s, it¡¯s just. I can¡¯t find a way to alter that part of my nature. I don¡¯t really want to. I value their safety and happiness over everything else in existence.


    Huff, oh well. Hm? I¡¯m once again surprised to find myself fully dressed, and equipped. Even more surprising is that Berinon¡¯s sheath survived unscathed, which means Taylynn¡¯s dagger is unscathed as well, since I popped her bone-sheathed dagger inside it. Then again, maybe this isn¡¯t a sheathe at all, it¡¯s round, it could be a scroll-case, or hip-quiver. It does have a second set of lower straps, and I¡¯m just the kind of dink to not realize stuff like that, and wear it wrong. Hah, Teuila¡¯s nickname for me, yeah, it¡¯s totally true.


    Speaking of, where is Teuila? I had to have been asleep for hours, maybe days, on two occasions now. With how insistent she has been about staying at my side, I¡¯d have expected to see her on at least one of the occasions I woke up after she went to fetch her pack. Her pack isn¡¯t here though either. I figured if she were hanging out with the Kobolds somewhere, she¡¯d drop the pack off with me, in this room. Well, if it would fit through the tunnels or hallways.


    The tunnels do appear large enough. Despite the Kobolds¡¯ shortness, I can stand fully upright, and stretch wide whilst walking. Where is everyone? Hm, there¡¯s a swift shuffle headed this way, and the sound of fabric dragging through dust upon stone. Perhaps Elder in his robe? I wait at the intersection, facing the direction of the shuffling, slightly on-guard and around the corner from the tunnel I¡¯d heard it from. It could be that Timbik fellow possibly. I¡¯d rather not let him get the drop on me. I sheathe my crossbow to hide its terribly-bright glow, and grip the hilt of my Valkyrie dagger instead.


    Still my breathing, slower, slower, calm. Patience. The figure turns the corner, and thankfully I¡¯m able to refrain from striking. Also thankfully, it is indeed Elder. I wasn¡¯t entirely sure from my silent sonar, even once he had gotten in range. I¡¯m still not entirely certain on all the shapely and tactile differences between the Kobolds, and Timbik could have been wearing a cloak or robe to come after me.


    Startled, Elder suddenly notices me, and leaps back, wary for a moment. He seems to clutch his chest beneath his robes as he states, ¡°Ah, the, hm, Reggie, in only two days, you¡¯re up and about? Fit enough to lurk and sneak up on this old lizard? How curious indeed.¡±


    As I equip my crossbow to light the hallway, I blush with chagrin, admitting, ¡°I think it might have something to do with consuming power from the heart of Kozzurth. Oh out of context that probably sounds weird. She was a dragon, and, well, I guess she is still a dragon, well, a dragon corpse now. I¡¯m getting sidetracked. She was an evil, bloated dragon, eating people and their wealth, seemingly more for kicks than out of necessity. Perfectly willing to slaughter all people that weren¡¯t being ruled by her. Anyway, I accidentally ingested a bunch of her blood, possibly saliva, and when I touched her heart, begging it to open a portal to my homeland, the heart shrunk massively.¡±


    My silent sonar can sense Elder¡¯s scaled brows widen and widen further during my explanation. He states, ¡°I have a request of you, and it may be urgent, possibly. I do however hope to speak with you about dragons at some point. Again, it only might be urgent, but I was wondering if you would be able to, be willing to, seek out your Teuila, and our bravest, Dippy. Neither has returned from the hole in which her pack was found. There are subterranean tunnels that we did not dig. They are cold and damp, and emit a foul, evil odor.¡±


    I grit my teeth and scrunch my eyes tightly shut while pulling back my lips to hide the sorrow my face wishes to display. Another solo adventure for Reggie Shellcracker. I thought we were done with these. I inhale a shuddering, staccato breath. I nod towards Elder, and simply motion for him to lead on. I¡¯m too upset to speak at the moment. He takes the hint and begins his quick shuffle, leading us towards the exit I assume. If the blast opened a hole near Teuila¡¯s pack, it would be somewhere out in The Gap canyon.


    I take deep breaths and follow along in silence, with closed eyes. So much time in my life spent without my sight. I stroke my danger wraps, tracing their edges with my fingertips. These have literally saved my life, time and time again. They¡¯ve also given me an entirely new way to experience the world. I feel almost emptier somehow when they aren¡¯t on. I guess it feels similar to when I first lost my sight after the Night of High Water. I got them a couple of months after that night, while still blind. Since then, I¡¯ve rarely taken them off, except to make a statement, or to challenge myself in some fashion. A smile creeps across my face as I remember coming back to Teuila from catatonia. I unequipped them that time. The statement, she understood it. Several tears roll down my cheeks and jaw.


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    I¡¯m certain she¡¯s still alive. I just, I can¡¯t imagine otherwise. I swear that, well, something, somehow, would tell me if she were taken from me. Hell, I would personally break the barrier to my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers and find a way to travel back to warn myself if I found Teuila was taken from me, derezzed. Hell, I¡¯d have travelled further enough back to change our entire timeline to completely avoid the circumstance that brought it about, entirely.


    Now that we¡¯re out of the Kobolds¡¯ warren, or tunnel system, whatever it is, Elder motions towards a fairly obvious yawning portal near the floor of the gap, on the opposite side, in the eastern mountain¡¯s cliff face. I nod and set off across The Gap wordlessly. Elder, for his part, respects my silent departure. I drop a shuddering sigh as I open my eyes in this new tunnel system. Teuila¡¯s pack is visible after a short drop. It¡¯s no wonder Dippy couldn¡¯t bring it up though. It¡¯s shocking that it even fit through such a small gap. Or, well, perhaps the rocks have shifted since it landed. It doesn¡¯t explain why Teuila isn¡¯t up here, or why the pack is still here though.


    Like Teuila said, she¡¯d just smash through some of the stone to get it out. The padding and upper-knuckle metal on our Valkyrie gauntlets is sort of like wearing a better version of brass knuckles. She wouldn¡¯t even have to search for a pickaxe or something, she¡¯d just punch her way down. She¡¯s okay. She must have seen something interesting. Oh, yeah, she definitely did. These tunnels look like they were dug by a familiar set of claws. The mite-hulks. There is no possible way, right? The queen couldn¡¯t have followed us here. We killed her, and then we died before she would respawn. Does Rayileklia have its own mite-hulks?


    Carrying onwards, further and further down this tunnel, it¡¯s pretty clear that they do. Discarded, shattered carapaces coated with goo dot the tunnel complex. They¡¯re odd though, shimmery, more reflective than I recall, especially in the light of my crossbow. Hm, a, well, shape, is following me along the ceiling. It barely registers on the silent sonar, but it registers as dangerous. It¡¯s like its only partially tangible, partially solid perhaps. A liquid that¡¯s following me, a dangerous liquid that¡¯s following me? Sounds like some sort of slime-monster from a videogame from Fakeworld, Earth. Fine, genre-savviness from Earth, I give up. I¡¯m not fighting you anymore. Tell me all you want about videogame dangers.


    Some slimes can change shapes? Slashing them can cause them to duplicate. They¡¯re likely highly-acidic. Fire either does absolutely nothing, or heat ends up being the only way to deal with them, dehydrating and evaporating them, plus a fireball could cave the tunnel in around me. Lightning is similar, it either is a great way to destroy them, or they¡¯re freaking energized by it, and similarly might destabilize the tunnel. Gorramit, I don¡¯t want to have to friggin¡¯ pick between three possibly bad choices. My easiest to access spells are fire and lightning, my weapon is a slashing-edged dagger. I have an ice storm spell in the staff, but it¡¯s a bit massive, I have no idea what would happen if I cast it in a cramped space. Plus, rocks don¡¯t really like ice any more than they like explosions.


    Ugh, an intersection. Crap. Fine, right hand wall rule. We¡¯ll go right for now, keep our hand along the wall, well, drag the Valkyrie dagger along the wall, scoring it as we pass. At the very least, this should keep us following the perimeter. And of course. I suck a pft in reverse while clucking my tongue. Huff. I blow a heavy sigh as I reach an obvious dead end, and the ooze following me around begins to drop from the ceiling towards me. It takes up far too much space to leap backwards up the tunnel, so I leap towards the dead end. Grrr. I growl at the thing as it begins to change shape.


    Oh hell fricking no. Not going through that crap again. It begins forming up, starting with familiar boots. The same boots I¡¯m wearing, the same boots Teuila¡¯s wearing. Valkyrie boots. I wish I had access to my thermokinesis on this planet. Or my full suite of electrokinesis abilities. Screw it, to hell with the consequences. I know how to manipulate spells slightly. Let¡¯s use the fireball.


    First, I dash towards and leap at the slime-creature, aiming for its far side, likely surprising it as it reaches pseudopods upwards to snag my sailing form. Secondly, I drop the staff from its holster into my left hand, extending it fully instantly. Lastly, I access its fireball spell, but I do to the fireball spell what Luxxop and Rastoc did to me. I aim a tiny, time-delayed spark towards the slime, embedding it within the creature. I¡¯ve only done it with electricity, lightning before, but the premise is the same. The lightning version is how I killed Mataalii, my brother, right before Luni resurrected and captured him. Further, I sprint back towards the intersection, having only given myself five seconds before the timed detonation.


    Five seconds pass and I barely make it around the corner having run at a dead sprint. I¡¯m not concerned with the fire from the fireball itself, but I am concerned with the concussive force of it morphing from a spark into a twenty food radius fireball. The roar of the flame is accompanied by a sickening splatter, and horrid sizzling. Sure enough, the tunnels are rocked with the force of the blast, and after a few moments, another sound occurs, that of stone shifting and falling.


    There, fine, even if that didn¡¯t destroy the thing, it should be disoriented as it oozes its way out of the collapsed dead end. Hopefully it doesn¡¯t have a perfect sense of direction, if it survived. Oh, a thought just occurred. Yeah, it¡¯s probably a pretty likely one too. Dippy probably went after Zippy as much as they went after Teuila, down into these tunnels. Dippy sounded like they had a very close relationship with Zippy when I was being pummeled by stone monsters.


    I really hope this isn¡¯t going to turn into a three-pronged rescue mission. Hopefully it¡¯s just a tea party that got distracting and went on too long. Pft, hahahaha, yeah right Reggie Shellcracker. Good one buddy. I laugh aloud, cracking up. I¡¯m probably going insane. We both know how co-dependent we are. Yep, yes we do. Phewsh. I hate being alone in my head as much as I hate belong physically alone. Maybe I should have asked Elder if I could ask Miza if she would accompany me. Timbik would probably kill me for making such a request. Perhaps Scrap would have joined me. They sound like an inventor, or smith, and a friend of Dippy.


    Bluh, fine. Solo adventure into hostile, unknown tunnels? Gee, a running theme in the life of Reggie Shellcracker. Prepare yourself, subterranea, Reggie Shellcracker has gone crazy, and is giving in to their greatest sin, wrath. I¡¯m going to friggin¡¯ kill anything I see that isn¡¯t Teuila, Dippy, or Zippy. So stay the F&*( out of my way.

 B 4 C 46: The Elements

    Tunnel after tunnel there are more carapaces, and I¡¯m beginning to see full corpses. They aren¡¯t exactly like the mite-hulks that I know from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Hopefully that means they¡¯re Rayileklian natives, and that we weren¡¯t followed by the queen, or the hyper king. Judging by the various holes in the carapaces, Teuila has definitely been through here, fighting with either spear or sword, and occasionally fist.


    Wrath tugs my lips into a wicked grin. Imagining Teuila destroying hostiles, taking it on herself to go deep to protect the kobolds, satisfies my wrath. I¡¯ve got about six blasts worth of power left in the staff, but I¡¯m feeling energized, almost looking forward to entering melee combat with something. Cal- No. No I won¡¯t calm down. I am done with these friggin¡¯ solo adventures, with being alone in my head, with hostility across region after region, across worlds. Things want to threaten and harm others? Then they just die. Period. I¡¯m done. I¡¯m almost certain Teuila is acting on that same feeling. She was likely attacked, and realized the kobolds would be in danger if she just left an open tunnel, or even an obvious collapsed tunnel, for these creatures to travel or dig through.


    Hm, I¡¯m still quite a bit more injured than I thought. Perhaps it was adrenaline upon waking up that¡¯s wearing off. I forgot how badly my bones were fractured, shattered, and pulverized. I¡¯m walking around on broken limbs. Crap, no, I can¡¯t give in to pain here. Passing out would be really bad. I might wake up trapped inside an ooze monster that¡¯s dissolving me, or being de-limbed by mite-hulks.


    I could probably avoid that fate if I focus for eight minutes, and adopt my own mite-hulk king form. Ugh, do I dare risk letting King out on Rayileklia? What if he bides his time to take over my consciousness? It would take eight minutes to switch forms, to ditch him. I¡¯d, I¡¯d, glp. I¡¯d lose myself. I pant nervously momentarily. I¡¯m quite attached to existing. I¡¯d rather continue to be me as I do it. Inhaling a deep, ragged breath I sigh it slowly through puffed cheeks.


    Gazing about the tunnel structure, I¡¯ve been following the right hand wall rule, so I¡¯m not lost, I could turn around and follow that same wall back keeping it on my left side. Still, not being lost isn¡¯t the same as knowing where the heck I am, or where I¡¯m going. I passed plenty of dead ends. I¡¯ll go back to the most recent one. I have to recover. The pain in my broken legs and ankles is building by the moment. How in all the hells did I not notice this pain for this long? Ugh.


    Maybe that was the effect of the heart, or maybe Kozzurth¡¯s blood. The Colossi ingested her blood to gain some kind of power, size mostly. Well, also apparently morphing into supernatural beasts and creatures. But it sounds like that took a long period to reach its current state. They kept partaking of the blood to feel safe. Did it dull their pain senses, like my electrokinesis? How often did they drink it? How much got in my mouth compared to the droplets they drank? Am I going to mutate?


    My limbs give out and I tumble forward onto my face. During my fall, I smash my aching head against a stony outcropping along the wall, and end up bouncing to the floor. My eyes roll about in their sockets as I inhale another ragged breath. Sighing, I use my core muscles to inchworm my way down the tunnel hall, sliding my face across the stony floor. I¡¯ve always felt safer, and stronger when I¡¯ve had a wall at my back and both sides. Taking on hostiles from one direction is so much easier than being surrounded.


    I probably should have felt more comfortable being surrounded later in my life on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I¡¯d never done it, but I could theoretically, near the end, go full porcupine, or uh, videogame porcupine anyway. I could conjure enough daggers to basically form a dome around myself, and fire outwards, striking basically anything in a massive radius. Well, area. Each dagger would travel up to the radius.


    My right arm twitches, spasms, and seizes. My inner-elbow-pit feels like it¡¯s tearing apart. Huff. Come on Reggie, get it the heck together. Is there anything in the staff that could protect you while you sleep? Oof, yes, sort of. I could unleash an elemental into this realm. Like hell I¡¯d unleash a stone elemental though. Even if there is some sort of coercion in the magic to keep the creature from being hostile immediately. The only air elemental spirit I¡¯d ever known was non hostile, but she couldn¡¯t actually protect me from physical danger. I have terrible, terrible experience with water in tunnels, so I¡¯m not going to remotely risk a water spirit elemental. A lightning elemental just sounds stupidly dangerous, since I died once to lightning already. Well, twice? One in that abandoned timeline. I wonder if mana is an element. What would a mana elemental be like? That sounds potentially catastrophic if it like, animates all of the mana in the realm.


    Hm, what about fire? Haha, hahahaha. It¡¯s perfect. I don¡¯t care if it¡¯s hostile. It can sit around blazing atop me as long as it likes. As long as it¡¯s not hotter than lava. Plus, I can just extinguish it if it gets too rowdy. Hell, I could do an old standby, a steam explosion. It¡¯d be rather funny if a water elemental and fire elemental perfectly canceled each other out in the resulting steam explosion. I wouldn¡¯t use a water elemental though, I¡¯d just conjure an ice storm, and let it extinguish itself as it melts the ice. Alright Reggie, let¡¯s do something stupid.


    I withdraw the staff, and I allow its magics to flow into my mind where I can pick them apart. The knowledge still is hard to decipher, there are more spells within it that I don¡¯t recognize. I mean, I don¡¯t recognize spells in this fashion at all. What I mean is, there are other spells whose knowledge are still undecipherable to me. It¡¯s like knowing how to say the words to, fire, and cold, in a language, then trying to read the rest of that language. Almost literally, since fireball, sleet storm, and lightning bolt, and some stuff with keys, and the hand, are six of the only spells that I know from it, other than the size-changing spell, the aura-vision, and uh, not sure if there are any others. Not sure what the key ones are about. I think there¡¯s a spell to lock things without a key, and another spell to unlock things without a key. When I conjured up the idea of animated elements though, the staff tried to let me know about one of its spells.


    Alright, yes, this spell is definitely an elemental spirit conjuring spell. My jaw quivers as I pant, nervously, and in pain. This is risky, and dumb Reggie. I know, I know. Do you want to pass out here with no protection? No. No I don¡¯t. Alright, here goes a bit more drain on the staff¡¯s power. It¡¯ll absorb and refine the mana from the air over the course of the night, hopefully refilling. It¡¯s a tad random how much it refills. I inhale a deep slow breath, and slowly exhale it through puffed cheeks. Tapping into the staff, I reach into some other universe, some parallel dimension, and I offer my hand, figuratively. I try to entice a fire elemental specifically. I avoid cool or wet sensations, and once I feel the bright heat, I withdraw my senses back to this universe, pulling the spirit along for the ride. It manifests as a vaguely humanoid series of flames.


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    I stare blankly at it, waiting for it to act, but it does nothing. I glance side to side, hoping nobody sees me in my foolish attempt. I know no one sees me, but this is embarrassing. I casted a new spell, and seem to have succeeded? Failed? I have no idea. I inch upwards against the corner of my dead end, flopping into a seated position to rest against the wall.


    Lamely addressing the flame, I ask, ¡°Would you possibly be willing to watch over me in my sleep? If something attacks me, could you try to drive it off?¡±


    The fiery form doesn¡¯t answer, but it takes a seated position, mirroring me, in the other corner of the dead end. I guess we have an accord, or something. I can¡¯t fight unconsciousness any longer though. I shove my staff back into its miniature holster and allow myself to pass out.


    Wait, he¡¯s releasing a new book in that series, and doing a live action film? I loved those characters. The total girl power strong female lead was great. The romance was a little awkward to deal with, since they were teens for the first couple books, then the whole apocalypse scenario was sorta crazy, a meteor and flooding of the entire planet except like, one synthetic island or something? I wonder where he can even go from there. I mean, it started off low sci-fi, just some genetic engineering and like, limb-grafting. It was mostly kind of like a sneaky escape survival drama. Then suddenly there¡¯s telepathy, morphing, and an apocalypse on the horizon that she didn¡¯t believe in. Still, she was a pretty great main character most of the time, despite the weird direction the series took. Hell, I¡¯d have reacted the same way being told I have a genetically perfected partner to repopulate with. Yuck, gross. Hm, still, I definitely want to see the movie. Hopefully I remember it around its release date. Same with the next book. Ah well, might as well close this tab and get back to work.


    Ugh, Zee Sharp is such a pain to program in. Ah well, at least I¡¯m just being paid to debug. Yeah, semicolon there dude. Let¡¯s see if it compiles and runs properly now. Pft, hah. Oh man, poor client. Ugh, I almost hate that I need the cash from this sort of stuff when it¡¯s sometimes this easy. Other times though, it¡¯s like I have to learn a whole new set of concepts, dig through entirely new knowledge to fix stuff. I can charge a bit more for those ones, but I can¡¯t really afford to charge less than my minimum for a job. Ugh, it makes me feel like such a dick. Y¡¯know?


    And sent. Well, fudge. I honestly thought, by his description, that the job would be one of those crappy ones that takes me days of learning new stuff to fix. Or well, at least a few hours. Hm, I wonder if I could just pop stuff into a text editor, and replace any line break with/without preceding semicolons, with a line break after a semicolon. Huh, yeah, pretty simple, even if the text editor doesn¡¯t have a natively strong enough find replace function. Could script it. Hell, I could do it in a little HTML box on a self-hosted slash local host webpage. I should really do that later if it turns out my tee ee doesn¡¯t have it natively in the find-replace function.


    Well, now what? I¡¯ve had this flick on for background noise, but there¡¯s been almost no noise at all for a while now. I¡¯m not sure I even want to keep watching this movie, all first person perspective, all the time, and the main character just went to sleep next to like some weird fire monster. It was silent so much during all those times the emm cee was alone. Like, I dunno, hire a narrator or something. The dragon fight was kind of cool, I don¡¯t think any movie I¡¯ve ever heard of has set the fight inside a dragon¡¯s throat, especially not in first person view. The spinning though was kinda sickening and dizzying. Yeah, screw it, I¡¯m sure the main character gets woken up by something and kicks its ass, or wakes up and goes to find their partner and the little blue guy. I¡¯ll just bookmark this timestamp in case I ever feel like finishing it.


    Alright, I guess let¡¯s put our vitality pet on. We can get in a jog. Wait, what¡¯s this? Disaster alert? It¡¯s showing up on ALL my devices. Alright, let¡¯s switch on the news. Huh, isn¡¯t she like, some DC anchor? Yeah, she won like, an award or something that showed up on the main news sites. Something about journalism integrity or something, exposing lies in the news media or something.


    She¡¯s saying, ¡°We bring you this breaking news report. As of four PM, a state of national emergency and an exclusion zone with a seven hundred mile radius originating in Chicago Illinois has been placed into effect. Reports coming in claim that even at the edge of the radius, people die nearly instantaneously from what officials are assuming to be potent radiation poisoning. Shielded drones have been dispatched, and we will now bring you live footage of the exclusion zone.¡±


    Holy effing hell. What? No way. This has to be some sort of War of the Worlds stunt. I¡¯m like seven oh four miles or so outta Chicago. Chelsey though, she, crap. I gotta call her, see if she¡¯s in on whatever this is. Come on Chels, pick up. I know you¡¯re awake, we were just party watching cartoons before you were going out for ice cream. It¡¯s only about an hour and a half since then. Come on babe, I know how much you love that ice cream place, you just sit and vibe for hours while snacking all slow-like. Seriously gal. Okay, just, text back or something.


    I start to pant nervously, and shut off the tee vee. I scratch my scalp hard as I run my fingers through my hair anxiously. I rock back and forth. What about Chels¡¯s brother? He¡¯s pretty quick about responding to texts, but he doesn¡¯t accept phone calls. Okay, text sent. Maybe if I call, he¡¯ll know to check his text, because of how much I¡¯m freaking out. As I expected, he didn¡¯t pick up, but that¡¯s usual. But not getting a reply back in the first five minutes is not usual. Come on dude. I¡¯m freaking out over here, I just need to know you guys are okay.


    I gotta cycle out there and check this out, hm, should I take the Suzuki? No, let¡¯s just bicycle, Chelsey doesn¡¯t like the noise of the Suzuki. I swear I¡¯ve had it noise adjusted as quietly as it can get without affecting exhaust backup. It¡¯s way quieter than any biker with a big hog. It¡¯s one of the lowest cee cees still considered a full on motorcycle, tiny engine block. Ugh, it¡¯s like eleven miles on the road, but like fifteen to twenty on the bike trails. Actually, heck with it, I can get there five times faster on the Suzuki. This prank is just too nerve-wracking.


    Kick starting my bike, I take off northeast towards Chi-town. I know I shouldn¡¯t, but I¡¯m doing like fifty in the thirty five. It opens up to a county highway just a ways down, it¡¯s fifty five over there. No cops as far as I can tell. Hell, I¡¯d show them the DVR of the news broadcast. They¡¯d probably consider that a state of emergency, right? I mean, seriously. A legitimate news source claiming a nuke went off at the windy city!? Alright, county on over to the interstate bypass on-ramp. Wow, this traffic is backed up. Good thing my bike is this small, offroading and shoulder-hugging aren¡¯t too hard. Still, I¡¯m going a lot slower on the interstate than I expected to be.


    Wait, is, is that like a thirty car pileup? What the everliving hell? There, oh my god. There¡¯s, there¡¯s people, just, just bodies. They¡¯re all kinda glowing. Is that radiation? They¡¯re weirdly grouped together, like, like some sort of invisible line. Paramedics are rushing through towards the pileup. Wait, is that Josh? I¡¯d better not distract him. Saving lives is more important than my paranoia.


    What. What. Just. Happened. They, they just stopped. Josh crumpled, dropped like a rock. He, he just tried to cross to the other side of the bodies to check pulses or something. He, he just. No. I¡¯ve known him for decades. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever had an anxiety attack before, a panic attack, whatever thingies are, the uh, non neurotypical crowd stuff. Now I feel like a dick for not looking up more of the stuff that my friends go through, because I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m hyperventilating and losing my shiz.

 B 4 C 47: These Dusty Old Bones

    I awaken, chilly and coughing. For some reason this surprises me. Oh, right, shouldn¡¯t it be bright around here? I equip my wrist-mounted crossbow to light up the dead end I¡¯m currently resting in. There¡¯s absolutely no sign of a fire elemental spirit or any such thing. Well. Crap. I hope I didn¡¯t just unleash some undefeatable burning monstrosity upon the world. Eh, people have buckets of water and booze, it should be alright. Heck, how embarrassing for a monster would it be to be defeated by the contents of a chamber pot? I snort a laugh as I chuckle.


    Right, anyway. I think I understand a bit more about the spell actually. I take out the staff and let its knowledge flow into me again. Hm, okay. So, it seems like it requires spell-concentration to maintain some sort of tether to the material plane? Is that a thing? Essentially the spirit can¡¯t maintain a manifestation in our realm. So its stay in our realm is determined by only the caster¡¯s will, and a certain duration determined by the ambient mana first consumed by the spirit on entry to build its form. Huh, neato. Me being me, having spells be concentrated on in a nearly automatic subroutine in my brain is an almost passive thing to do. I¡¯ve been doing that ever since the grr. For a long time, let¡¯s just say that. My eyes cloud with rage as I recall just how I got so good at maintaining spells even while sleeping. F^&*ing tunnel complexes.


    Okay, okay, breathe air, breathe. I huff a heavy sigh, and gasp a deep, shuddered breath in response. I¡¯m feeling much better again, but I¡¯m not falling for it this time. I¡¯m going to actually check my bones before running off like an idiot. My breathing is labored, heavy, angry as I pant with frustration. I was right. Sleep is finally starting to leave me feeling rested, even good on Rayileklia, so much so that I don¡¯t notice the pain and injuries for a short while after waking. Fricklefrack. Grr. If I had some sort of telekinesis, I¡¯d just fly myself around. Wait. The staff. As soon as I thought the word telekinesis, it glowed.


    Oof, new knowledge, okay, spell manifestations, runes, mana conversion, ow, my freaking brain. Okay, so, based on the amount of mana expended from the staff, and a chunk of the ambient mana around, I can cast a spell that grants me temporary telekinesis. It¡¯s going to take about a minute to cast if I want it to last for any significant duration. I could cast while slowly walking over the course of several minutes, to get a much longer duration, but I¡¯m not exactly in walking shape right now. Huff. We¡¯d better do it though. Like most spells in the staff, for those with durations, if I have one of those being casted, or already out in the world, enduring, I can¡¯t cast any other spells from the staff. It leaves me somewhat vulnerable, since I¡¯m denied three of my elements, or more, and it eats a significant chunk of the staff¡¯s daily purified power.


    Still, it¡¯s not like I just cast this particular spell at an object causing that object to float around for a while. No, as long as I maintain a mental subroutine on this one, I grant myself a power that I¡¯d always aspired to on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I gulp. It feels like a risk, but like a good one. Alright Reggie, haul yourself up and get it together. We¡¯ve got some walking to do, an awful lot of walking to do. Shuddering a sigh, I begin cautiously trudging onward once more. I focus carefully on allowing the staff to dig into, bite apart, and consume the ambient mana in the area as I pass, as I shape and generate the spell that grants telekinesis. I¡¯m careful not to slide my hands along any sharp edges of the rough-hewn rock. I don¡¯t know what happens to an interrupted spell, and the pain of a sudden cut would likely cause me to lose the intense focus I¡¯m using for this particular spell. I want to be able to maintain it for a solid duration.


    It feels like I¡¯m actually casting a real spell for the first time. Everything else was sort of instantaneous effects, even if they had prolonged durations. For quite likely the first time in my life, I have to actually work at a magic ability with a significant fraction of my brain to continue building the spell. I am quite spoiled by automatable inventory shenanigans, ranged spacial manipulation of objects, the instant effect spells within the staff, even quick transformations. I suppose my transformations are the closest I¡¯d come to this. Having to focus on a form, begin building the tether, and drop it part way while focusing on minor changes to a form, when creating it for the first time. I probably should focus inward, and engage a transformation to set all my bones properly.


    My eyelids sag heavily as I imagine the effort involved in transforming on Rayileklia. Ugh, I feel tired even just thinking about it. Finally, the staff tries to warn me that the spell basically contains as much mana as it possibly can without unleashing a wild magic surge. I carefully apply the spell to myself, and I suddenly understand a ticking clock. No numbers, but there¡¯s an odd sensation that will notify me as the spell is close to ending. A warm, tingling sensation coats my body, and more heavily wraps around my brain itself.


    I also understand more about the nature of my universe within a local radius centered on myself. My mind can reach out, and move things within it. Ugh, it¡¯s nowhere near as powerful or fast as my space skill. Still, I can levitate myself around with it at approximately walking speed. I could certainly give myself a good squeeze though, or try to compress or restrain anything, even liquids and gasses. This will come in handy if I face any more slime monsters. Just squeeze them til they pop, or compress them and stuff them in a jar or vial.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Phew, okay, floating around takes a heck of a load off of my bones. They should heal faster now that I¡¯m not constantly putting weight on them. I¡¯d really like to be able to sprint, but these are the limitations of the spell, oh well. Bluh, hours of floating already, down this endless tunnel complex, always keeping along this right wall perimeter. My innate sense of direction tells me I¡¯ve gone deeper, and spiraled back and forth several times until I¡¯m facing west at the moment. Another hundred meters or so, and I think I¡¯d be directly under the kobolds¡¯ warren. Hm, no, I¡¯d be a ways north of it. Couldn¡¯t tell you how many turns the path took, but I can tell you approximately where I am as if on a sonographic map.


    On and on and on we go. Where we¡¯ll stop, who friggin¡¯ knows. I draw another shuddered breath, and find myself yawning. Oh, the air is fairly thin down here. Stuffy. I wonder if I should drop the telekinesis in favor of conjuring an air or wind elemental spirit? No. My bones are mending faster while levitating than they did even while sleeping against the wall. It¡¯s as if Teuila were here turning my gravity off, taking all pressure off of them.


    Speaking of Teuila, I hear the clash of combat somewhere ahead in the tunnel structure. I desperately want to sprint right now. If that¡¯s Te, or Dippy, or Zippy, or all three, I want to be at their side immediately. I gulp back mucus, realizing I was on the verge of tears for some reason. Drawing a heavy shuddered breath, I continue my walking-speed float towards the sounds of battle.


    Rubbing my itchy, wet eyes on my forearm, I realize I probably haven¡¯t eaten or gotten many fluids in the last two or three days. Crap. I should have snagged some food and drink from Teuila¡¯s giant backpack before coming down here. Ugh I¡¯m a friggin¡¯ idiot sometimes. Hey, cool it buddy, breathe air, breathe. You¡¯re used to living on a world where you can instantly access food and water, at any time, all the time. Cut yourself some slack. Grr, but any more slack and I might accidentally die of dehydration! Getting upset over it isn¡¯t going to help anything though, is it? Do better next time. Grr, if there is a next time. Hey, come on now, we¡¯re Reggie Shellcracker, there¡¯s always a next time. Millions of them. Hah. We¡¯ll pull through buddy, and then no more solo adventures. What¡¯s Lu always tell you? You¡¯ve got this, always have, always will.


    The tunnel dips heavily, which causes my telekinetic float to bob sickeningly, since I¡¯m keeping it at a height in relation to the floor. On the other side of the dip, the tunnel turns sharply, and rises steeply towards a bright light. Great. Heading towards a light at the end of a tunnel. Just the metaphor you need right now, right Reggie? Hah! Suddenly, an object comes bounding and hurtling down the steep slope towards me.


    I casually float aside, pressing myself in a corner between the ceiling and the wall. The object is massive, and familiar. Ah, it¡¯s the head of a mite-hulk. Well, one of the Rayileklian variants. That uh, is probably good news, right? Keep floating buddy, almost there. Whoops, more dismembered bits being flung this way. The sound of combat feels like it¡¯s in an unending crescendo, the peak point of cacophony that never ends.


    Somehow, over the din, I hear a wonderful, beloved, familiar, though tired and angry, voice, ¡°I¡¯ve been fighting these things for three days! And I have been retreating, for thirty minutes!¡±


    Another familiar, though much more nervous, stuttery voice calls in response, ¡°The, the, the fight, fight hurts, tough fight, been a long, long, long fight, battle. Gotta, gotta, going to, will save home and family. We, we, Zippy agrees, Dippy and Zippy, we¡¯ll join you, fight or run, fight to the end. Scary, scary end.¡±


    Oh hell no, there¡¯s going to be no scary end for my friends. F&*I( this. I release myself from my telekinesis and sprint the remainder of the distance, bursting into a hellish chamber. Nightmarish creatures whose radiant carapaces cast illusions and hallucinations about them stream in from all sides save my rear. The, the confusion, for some reason, I spin and walk into a wall, repeatedly. What the hell.


    Teuila screams, ¡°Reggie!? Cover your eyes!¡±


    She sensed me with the silent sonar of her danger spear. If that¡¯s all it takes to stop this horendous effect, then yeah, fine. Reggie Shellcracker, blind again. I pull my hood tightly down over my eyes as I shut them, squeezing tightly. The silent sonar of my danger wrap senses tell me where Teuila, Dippy, and Zippy are. It also tells me a very tasty detail about this particular cavern.


    Grinning, I shout, ¡°Get behind me, I have a stupid idea!¡±


    I can feel Teuila¡¯s eyebrow raise as she dashes towards me, colliding with Dippy on the way through, carrying him and Zippy along with her as she bolts past me into the empty hallway. I sneer a wicked grin as my telekinesis senses drift upwards and upwards, beyond my danger wrap senses. I grip the stalactites at the top of this cavern, and hammer side to side with all my telekinetic might. In moments, the entire world seems to begin shaking as the stalactites come tumbling down, rumbling and crumbling down. As I cautiously step back into the tunnel, they form walls as they tumble down, blocking it off as they continue rumbling, and crumbling.


    Teuila shouts, ¡°Dink! Am I glad to see you!¡±


    She leaps at me, but I have to telekinetically hold her in place, unable to fight off the pain in my bones for much longer. I don¡¯t want her to think she knocked me out. She struggles in midair as she confusedly asks, ¡°What?¡±


    I cough, and gurgle up dust as I slowly crumple against the wall. I¡¯m pretty sure I just spat up bonemeal or bone dust. I shouldn¡¯t have sprinted. I knew I was still recovering. I smile at Teuila and say, ¡°Like my new spell? Sorry, couldn¡¯t, couldn¡¯t really, survive a hit.¡±


    I slump against the wall, and slide unintentionally down the floor, all of my muscles, even my telekinetic ones go limp as I begin bouncing and rolling down the steep stone slope.

 B 4 C 48: Pride and Falls

    Falling, a familiar sensation somehow. Right, leapt off the cliff to save her one time, then slide off of an avalanche another time. This really is some sort of black dragon with leathery, stitched skin though isn¡¯t it? It¡¯s so odd, and he seems so weak after the werewolf tore into him. His wings were in tatters before the werewolf, but now almost nothing remains of them. I really hope my partner survived those blasts. I wish I were with her in the end, but this strange technicolor tunnel appears as if it¡¯s separating my mind from my body, sending me to another universe, the afterlife, with the dragon. Only the dragon, since my partner is nowhere in sight. Somehow I know that at the end of these rotating squares of light is a drop. I think maybe I can see it.


    Despite not knowing this dragon at all, he did try to save me from the werewolf. I mean, there wasn¡¯t anywhere for me to escape to while climbing the mountain, but he at least tried to tell me to flee. If we¡¯re about to die, then maybe I can at least comfort him and show him some gratitude. I swim through the non-air of our seventies sci-fi teleportation tunnel, barely reaching the dragon in time. I clasp him in a hug as he seems to be shrinking in his death throes. Actually, not just shrinking, changing shape. I hope it¡¯s not painful, but if it is, don¡¯t worry pal we don¡¯t have too long to live to endure it. Thanks for trying to save a stranger.


    I awaken to Teuila grilling something over a fire. For some reason, there¡¯s an enormous round-shield on the ground on the other side of what appears to be a camp in The Gap. I glance around, surprised to find myself not in a tunnel complex. I rattle my skull as I try to parse what¡¯s going on. I can¡¯t possibly have sleepwalked out. My limbs wouldn¡¯t feel as healed as they do if I did.


    Teuila grins when she realizes I¡¯m awake, as she shouts, ¡°Dink!¡± She leaps towards me, and I can tell I¡¯ve been asleep long enough that my telekinesis has worn off. I¡¯m unable to stop her in time, as I grimace, prepared to feel the pain.


    No pain arrives as she slows her float and lands gently, weightless upon me. Teuila plants a smooch upon my cheek and sifts my hair playfully as we stare at each other. Have I died? Is this heaven? Get it together Reggie, you¡¯re in The Gap on Rayileklia. Te probably dragged your arse out of the tunnel complex by sprinting for a few hours. Oh, right, that makes more sense. Thanks me. No problem me. Holy hell my brain is just, yeah. No more solo adventures. I-know-right!? Haha, we¡¯re cracking up. Yup. We should maybe try to be in the present and focus on Te, get up to speed. Yeah, I agree.


    I glance around and am unable to find Dippy. Worried, I¡¯m about to ask Teuila as she answers my unspoken question, ¡°So the kobolds are doing a thing, and it¡¯s kind of a big private ceremony and stuff, or something, plus some other stuff. That shield is Dippy¡¯s, or something. He¡¯ll be back with us like, maybe tomorrow ish or something. Sorry, I¡¯m not making fun of them, but sometimes they¡¯re kind of hard to understand. Y¡¯know? They¡¯re all real sweet and all, but, between their anxiety-stutters, and their native tongue being an alien brain-melting hiss, there¡¯s a bit of a communication barrier, just a bit.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow at that part about their language Teuila nods as she continues, ¡°Yeah, they speak Draconic, but like, Elder didn¡¯t get to learn as well as the rest, because of what happened when he was young, so everyone speaks the common language in like, deference to him or something. Like I said, they¡¯re all real sweeties. ¡®Sept Tim, dickhead. I heard he attacked you. I wanted to cave his head in when I heard that, but Miza just used up a whole day worth of mana helping you heal faster, again. Couldn¡¯t really kill her mate, you know?¡±


    I chuckle softly as I nod. I ask, ¡°What about you though Te? I love you. I want to know about you. How are you doing? Don¡¯t just say okay. I know it¡¯s harder without our mindscape, but I¡¯m here for you. We¡¯ve been through some crap recently.¡±


    Teuila frowns, sniffles, punches me in the shoulder and looks away. She quietly admits, ¡°I, I was scared, Dink. Not like for me. I was scared I was going to let them past. It was like home all over again. I, I just couldn¡¯t stop fighting. I couldn¡¯t risk them getting to you, to Dippy and Zippy and Elder and Miza and Scrap. Then Dippy showed up, and I mean, talk about a brave little dude. Sometimes he seemed like he was like weeping in fear and still fighting alongside me.¡±


    Teuila sees my disapproving face as she veers from the topic of herself. She blushes and glances away for a moment, nervously chuckling before continuing, ¡°Okay, so, so yeah. I didn¡¯t know what to do. I couldn¡¯t like, transform, and, and that weird tug kept pulling me. Something was calling me down, but I couldn¡¯t get to it. It¡¯s like something is there, waiting for me. Something I¡¯m supposed to have. But yeah, so, I couldn¡¯t take a break to do any Can¡¯Z¡¯aas magic, transform, nothing, so I was fighting like this the entire time. I hate to admit it, but I¡¯m kinda squishier as Otter-Te compared to Valkyrie. And, maybe I tire a bit easier than her too, and, and other stuff. It was tough. Dink it was so hard.¡±


    Teuila begins openly weeping and sobbing, ¡°I, I don¡¯t know how you did it, I¡¯m so sorry you had to do it so many times. I¡¯m so sorry. I¡¯m so sorry I wasn¡¯t there, so many times. I¡¯m so sorry. It hurt so much, to be alone, worried that I¡¯d fail, the entire time. Even with Dippy there. He wasn¡¯t, isn¡¯t you. I still had to worry about you and Dawnie and Miza and Scrap and Elder and the hatchlings and, ugh.¡±


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Teuila sucks back tears and snot before aiming away and firing snot rockets into the dusty canyon walls. She furiously rubs her face on her forearm, despite the ever-present acidic drizzle of Rayileklia. She clucks her tongue in mild pain or irritation at the stinging sensation, and laughs momentarily.


    I nod as I grasp Teuila¡¯s hands. I stare lovingly up at her. I know that exact feeling. Both because I¡¯ve experienced it, and because I¡¯ve been deep into her ocean of emotions. I¡¯d seen this one before, unspoken. We¡¯d never addressed it. Not this particular level of this kind of fear. I had to do this for Teuila, right now, to face it with her. There wouldn¡¯t be another chance to be there for her through this emotion. Well, hopefully. I don¡¯t want this to ever happen again, and I want the wound to heal.


    I gulp and I realize I¡¯ve been nodding my head, still. I respond, ¡°I love you Teuila Shellcracker. You¡¯re amazing in any universe. It¡¯s tough, but you came through. So did I. We¡¯ve done it. There may be more times, but we can hope to avoid them being a necessity. As long as I¡¯m alive though, I¡¯ll always be there for you to help you through this hurt. It sucks, and even though it¡¯s over, it eats at you for a while. But we¡¯re here now, we¡¯re okay.¡±


    Teuila shakes her head as she begins to sob and weep further, ¡°But we¡¯re not. They aren¡¯t finished off, we only closed off one hive. Dippy and I struggled to close off like three others, and they can dig. Even if you killed a bunch during that rockslide, they¡¯ll just dig from the other side eventually.¡±


    Huh. Well crap. Stroking my chin and Teuila¡¯s hands, I frantically search for a solution inside my own dilapidated mindscape. Some fireballs can explode some tunnel walls, doing more collapsing. Lots of the spells in the staff can do some more collapsing. What would really come in handy is a fire-breathing or acid-breathing dragon to send a lava flow or acid flow so torrential down into their, wait. Huff. Dangit. I can be a fire-breathing or acid-breathing dragon. I was in Kozzurth¡¯s throat, she had an organ that seemed to rotate between elements, my danger wraps got a ton of information about dragon anatomy from her. Oh hell. Gorramit Reggie Shellcracker, guess what you have to do? Awe man.


    I¡¯m going to bleed so much, and be in so much pain. I sniffle, and though Teuila doesn¡¯t know what my plan is, she can sense my series of emotions. She knows I intend to do something stupid, alone, again, after just having gone through all that, and saying I never wanted to do it again. She slaps me, for real. I¡¯m stunned as I blink forcefully while staring at her.


    She growls, ¡°Don¡¯t, you, dare.¡±


    I shrug helplessly and my palms waver, rotating partially to face upwards as I try to explain, ¡°Te, I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s not like I want to, but, we both feel responsible for them. I can become a dragon subtype. You know it, you¡¯ve seen it. I now know a lot more about dragon physiology thanks to being inside Kozzurth for -¡° Teuila bursts into laughter and grabs her belly, ¡°Okay it wasn¡¯t that funny, give me a break. You know what I meant, heh. Anyway, remember how my version of breath stuff on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas was sort of weak and feeble when I was doing the mana-free version? And I could only do it like four to eight times over the course of a given day?¡±


    Teuila raises an eyebrow at me suspiciously, clueing me in to go on, so I continue, ¡°Well, with Kozzurth¡¯s organ, oh come on that one wasn¡¯t even funny. Heh, jeeze. Anyway! With what I¡¯ve learned about Dragons recently, between contact with kobolds, and dead dragons, I¡¯m pretty certain I can get my breath weapon to be utterly massive, without reaching back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas for the power. It¡¯ll just leave me at least as exposed as it left Kozzurth, I¡¯ll need a very long prep time, much longer than she did, and a hell of a lot of calories and minerals.¡±


    Teuila returns to growling, ¡°So why did it look like you thought you had to go off on your own again?¡±


    I frown, hating that I have to tell her the truth, ¡°Teuila, you¡¯re not immune to acid or lava. Neither am I, not completely, but my draconic form? It can be almost impervious to acid, quite possibly totally impervious if I incorporate Mite-Hulk-King carapace-biology instead of the usual scales. Hell, thinking on it, I can probably make my Draconic form completely immune to heat between my own fire resistance, and trying to emulate Lil¡¯s scales. I¡¯m not sure what kind of scales I first developed. I guess, somehow, subconsciously, I made ones that could help me do that active camouflage skill. The weird translucent green gemlike scales.¡±


    She prods, angrily, ¡°That still doesn¡¯t explain why you might need to be alone, jerk.¡±


    I pout as I frown, I hate feeling like I¡¯m talking down to her, ¡°Because I¡¯m going to try to flood an entire tunnel system with acid, then immediately follow that up with lava by superheating the weakened rock. Do you get how dangerous that¡¯s going to be?¡±


    Teuila commands, demands, orders, ¡°I¡¯m. Coming. With.¡±


    Gorramit I love this woman so much. I slump, defeated. I beg, ¡°Okay, okay, I¡¯m sorry Te. Please, please though, please just promise me, that you¡¯ll find some sort of escape route, you¡¯ll be in Valkyrie or something, prepped to get the hell out of the tunnel complex if it starts collapsing on me, on us?¡±


    She flicks my nose as she leans in to kiss me, not answering my plea. I try not to sigh into her face as we kiss. She¡¯s. Huff. She¡¯s right to be this stubborn. But I¡¯m right in that she might die, be taken from me in an instant if there¡¯s a backdraft, or backsplash, or collapse, or, or just anything. I¡¯d probably survive any of those. I might not survive long enough to dig myself out of cooled lava, or a cave-in, but, I¡¯d at least survive the instant. I could probably engage my time skill before I died of suffocation, since our otter-based lung capacity is ridiculous compared to like a human or something.


    I can almost picture myself now, coming back to warn myself not to do it. Actually. What the everliving hell is that?

 B 4 C 49: Mushrooms? Mushrooms

    Okay, I must be hallucinating. I, uh. That looks like me, sort of. But like some sort of translucent blue hologram of the draconic me I was intending to become. Cocking my head at an odd angle to stare at it, with my left brow raised, right brow lowered in confusion, I¡¯m dumbfounded. Teuila turns to look in the same direction, but makes no comment, gives no indication whether she sees it or not.


    The version of me wears a mortified expression, one of sadness and loneliness. One with which I am all too familiar. It appears alone, and makes no effort to display or announce Teuila¡¯s safety, or anyone¡¯s for that matter. My stomach begins to churn as my mind reels towards guesses as to what this could mean. Its jaw moves, as well as its throat and tongue. Since I¡¯m intimately familiar with that jaw, throat, and tongue, I think I can analyze their motions.


    It¡¯s trying to speak I think. I can really only read its jaw partially. Wow, lipreading is so much easier on mammals, holy crap this is tough. Okay, so it¡¯s definitely a short loop, pretty sure it just repeated. Something something, on¡¯t, maybe won¡¯t or don¡¯t, rk, maybe work? Won¡¯t work? Some words that I cannot guess at all, that phrase ends with takes egg. I think. Takes egg? Another phrase ends with mushrooms I¡¯m pretty sure. Mushrooms? Takes egg? Mushrooms?


    Did, did I just send a hologram ghost of myself into the past to give myself a friggin¡¯ omelet recipe!? Okay, come on Reggie, give yourself a bit more credit. You were obviously talking about the plan to flood the tunnels. But what takes an egg? A new plan? Or, or what if it costed the phoenix egg to send that message back in time? Oh god that¡¯s horrific. To do that, to risk continuing a timeline after having spent it if it doesn¡¯t work. If I don¡¯t heed the warning. Hurp. I¡¯m going to be sick.


    There¡¯s still definitely a life in the phoenix-roc¡¯s egg. What¡¯s this about mushrooms though? Have I inhaled hallucinogenic mushrooms, and I¡¯m simply hallucinating something that¡¯s warning me that I¡¯ve inhaled mushroom spores? That would be an odd as hell coincidence.


    Teuila¡¯s glancing back and forth between me, and the area where the holographic ghost was. She gets bored of turning her head, so she turns back to face me and stares at me with one raised brow.


    I ramble, ¡°So, uh, either I just had a hallucination, or, or uh, that was me, over there, from a timeline where I tried that plan just now. I looked super distraught, and, and, I was the only person there. Like, as if I was the only one still alive to send the message. It costed the phoenix and roc¡¯s egg to send it. I guess so as to be able to create a message that I could see, since I can¡¯t and wouldn¡¯t access my logs.¡±


    Teuila glares at me suspiciously, slightly angrily, she wheedles, ¡°You¡¯re not just saying that, to try to get me to let my guard down to rest, while you go sneak off and do your plan anyway, are you?¡±


    I rapidly shake my head and hold my hands palms-forward placatingly, ¡°No, no, absolutely not. I, I used up a life Teuila. In that timeline, I risked being stuck in that timeline, after taking the life of one of the rarest creatures in all of creation in all universes. I. Glp. I can¡¯t even stomach the thought. The other me, that future me, the idiot, didn¡¯t change back to mammal Reggie, so I couldn¡¯t read their message properly. So I¡¯m making a lot of assumptions based on tongue and throat movement. One of the other things I could make out, was mushrooms, but I don¡¯t know how it was pertinent.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s left brow shoots up in surprise, ¡°You haven¡¯t met the hatchlings yet, have you?¡±


    I shake my head. Te continues, ¡°Okay, they, for one, are adorbs. The oldest, Mushrooms, just came into their magic. They can only speak Draconic right now, so I can¡¯t really hang around them too much without feeling like my brains are melting out my ears. I think I might know what future you wanted you to do though.¡±


    I raise an index finger, drop it, raise it, drop it, then shrug.


    Teuila orders, ¡°Keep resting, I think I can handle this. I¡¯ve got this one taken care of Dink, and no solo adventure for either of us, promise. I¡¯ll be right back. Miza and Mushrooms are in for a long couple of nights, but they¡¯re going to be super happy when Dippy leaves. Err, that sounded mean. Never mind, I¡¯ll explain later.¡±


    I could probably use the rest. Teuila¡¯s order aren¡¯t antithetical to my needs or anything. I am still healing, slightly. Miza must have been giving it her all for me, every time I was asleep. Perhaps that¡¯s why I¡¯m so close to being fully healed. Or Kozzurth¡¯s heart, or the combination. Maybe her healing would only work on Draconic or kobold people normally, who knows. Between being Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin, bound to the core slash heart of a digital dragon, having ingested dragon blood and sputum, and absorbed a dragon¡¯s heart, who knows what the hell my biology counts as anymore. Not even mentioning I have an insectoid, and Draconic form.


    Stolen story; please report.


    I watch Teuila scamper away before she breaks into a loping sprint towards the kobolds¡¯ warrens. Shrugging, and feeling fairly safe, since I doubt Te would have left me, telling me to rest, if she wasn¡¯t absolutely certain nothing hostile was nearby, I close my eyes to rest. I breathe deeply, and instantly regret it, since I¡¯m laying face up beneath Rayileklia¡¯s constant acidic drizzle. Hack, koff, glp, glug, bluh, argh. Really Reggie? Can¡¯t go a day without accidentally sucking down acid rain? Heh.


    Isn¡¯t there some popular media, on Fakeworld, Earth, where people darken the skies to prevent some other entity from being able to win a war? I suppose there¡¯s other ones too where the skies permanently darken from nuclear fallout raising so much dust into the atmosphere. I wonder if that¡¯s sort of what happened on Rayileklia? What if it¡¯s like Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? A young world? For some reason, something nagging at me seems to think that someone I know, or knew, was convinced that it was. I can¡¯t place it though. Hm? Who what now? What was I trying to think about?


    Oh wow, my eyes are so, so heavy. Coulda sworn I was, was thinking, thinking about something. Nighty night.


    When I wake up, it¡¯s to camp being packed up, and Teuila smiling down at me. Dippy hoists the round-shield that¡¯s as large as he is. It¡¯s like a bowl, or tortoise-shell when he straps it to his back. It¡¯s also filled with tons of crap that doesn¡¯t seem to fall out, somehow. Odd. Zippy, the tiny rock drake, flits about, occasionally landing on Dippy¡¯s shoulder, and it almost seems like they share secret conversations. Dippy nods along or shakes his head sometimes randomly while Zippy is next to his, uh, ear areas.


    Cracking my jaw and accidentally my neck as well as I carefully stretch helps wake me up. Neither Teuila nor Dippy seem afraid of an impending insectoid invasion, so I assume the matter was handled somehow. I¡¯m a bit baffled, but maybe Mushrooms has become some sort of immensely powerful sorcerer or something.


    Teuila sates my curiosity, ¡°So, I bet you didn¡¯t know that in the deep, deep recesses of Rayileklia, fungus is some of the only stuff that can live. Maybe you could guess that, sciencing it out or whatever, but you probably didn¡¯t know just how dangerous those shrooms and molds and spores are. Mushrooms, the gooberific little cutie, has become a, well, sporomancer I guess. They can generate almost any kind of spore they know about, and with practice, probably even those they don¡¯t. Miza¡¯s a geomancer, moving giant walls of stone takes lots of mana, lots of effort. Moving a tiny trail of stone or soil to move a patch of spores deep into a tunnel complex? Not so much. Still, a lot of tunnels to cover, but they¡¯ve got it handled.¡±


    Huh. Wow. Good job Teuila. I stare, dumbfounded for a bit, forgetting to praise her as she continues, ¡°Oh, yeah, about Dippy leaving and stuff. So, the title the bravest amongst us is like a big important thing for them, and like, if their bravest has to do a quest or something, leaving the warrens, then the spot opens up temporarily, until that one returns. Miza, and her eldest hatchling, Mushrooms, are going to be the bravest amongst us, err, them, while Dippy is gone. There¡¯s like, honor and respect and all kindsa junk.¡±


    Dippy adds, ¡°Y,yep, yes, yes exactly, Miza, Miza always, was always, is brave, strong in her magic, magics, good magics, her sorcery is strong. Dippy, me, I, Dippy is me, I always, was always, am always, proud of my egg-twin. Miza is, is, is the best family a warrior could ask for.¡±


    That¡¯s incredibly endearing. Huh, another set of twins. What are we up to, like, eight or so? Well, we¡¯ve met thousands of people. Most of the twins we¡¯ve met were critterkin, where biology didn¡¯t really happen, so, at best, they spawned at about the same time, or something. I smile towards Dippy. I haven¡¯t really gotten to talk to, or thank my savior yet.


    I start, ¡°Hey, Dippy? Can I just say thank you? I don¡¯t know the best way to do it, I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s some sort of kobold custom I could observe. Like, I¡¯m truly, incredibly honored that you saved me. That you jumped down into the trap with all those powerful, terrible rock monsters. I cannot thank you enough. I like living, you know?¡±


    Dippy laughs before replying, ¡°The, the, the squishies, the not-dwarf squishies, Tay Oo Ee Lah and Reggie, the best, best thanks, would be travels, and, and, and safety, to, to stop the dwarf-squishies. Dippy wants to, me, I want to journey with the Reggie, and the warrior woman Tay Oo Ee Lah. Zippy agrees. Dippy, Dippy, I, me, I saved, but you saved too, we both saved, both saved. All good, even, sympa, sympa, sy, uh, square. But, but then, the Tay Oo Ee Lah spared clan, and, and, and, and stopped badbugs. Fought for days together, and then, and then Tay Oo Ee Lah found a, a, a solu, solu, a fix. And we journey to the boomstick lands to stop the dwarves. Kobolds, us, our clan, can never repay, never repay.¡±


    I blink rapidly a bit, trying to parse Dippy¡¯s speech. I feel bad that he¡¯s so anxious. He¡¯s an amazing little fellow. All I can think to do is smile at him and offer my hand. He clasps me firmly by the forearm, so I follow suit as we shake heartily. I really hope we can solve this dwarven problem peacefully. Just, don¡¯t jinx it Reggie. Keep your mouth shut. Maybe Dippy¡¯s endearing-yet-nervous method of speech will be a better negotiation tactic than letting either Teuila or me speak. We¡¯re both pretty awful at it.


    We begin marching northward as a trio, still no sign of Dawn, but Dippy and Zippy make for pleasant company. Despite having a seemingly nervous tic or stutter, he¡¯s a rather upbeat little fellow. He must be fairly strong to lug around that shield and all that random stuff with him. He has several contraptions, and toolkits, and, well, so much stuff that it¡¯s like he¡¯s bringing a whole workshop with him. I wonder if he would classify himself as any sort of archetype, like inventor, or artificer, or perhaps ranger since he carries several ranged weapons, and Zippy is his constant companion. No idea. Maybe the concepts don¡¯t even penetrate into kobold society. I mean, I didn¡¯t see many books in there. There were several scrolls in some of the cave-like rooms that I passed on my way out though. I¡¯m unsure if those were stories, histories, spells, legal documents, record-keeping, or just any other random writings.

 B 4 C 50: Dippy Deals Death

    Teuila marvels over Dippy picking up cobblestones to snack on, ¡°Huh, so you guys really do eat dirt and rocks.  I thought it was a metaphor for how badly the dwarves were treating you.  Eat dirt is a saying.¡±


    Dippy¡¯s response is informative and comical, ¡°Yes, yes, the, the warrior woman Tay Oo Ee Lah is, is right.  But, but, how else would you get rid of big long tunnels with nowhere to put rough?  Still, rocks, rocks better, rocks are better than dirt, metal, ores are better than rocks, gem is better than metal, ores.  Can, can live on rocks mostly, some kinds, but, unpleasant.¡±


    Teuila sees me flagging again, and signals for us to take a break and make camp for the moment.  I truly appreciate her.  She eyes me with worry, making certain I¡¯m not about to pass out in a pool of my own blood before she scampers off to scout our surroundings for safety.  Getting jumped by killer dwarves when we¡¯re unprepared could be bad news.  Especially if the kobold clan was right about their boom sticks.  We¡¯ve already seen explosives, so firearms aren¡¯t really out of the question around here.  Would rather not get my head taken off by someone sniping me for being near a kobold.  I really don¡¯t want Dippy to get killed for being out and about without obvious tribute either.


    Dippy comments on some of my gear, ¡°The, the armor, good armor, it¡¯s good, strong, magic, fits, fits perfect.  Same, but different.  But staff and, and, and that, different even more.  They are, they¡¯re different magic, different makers.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, trying to parse what Dippy¡¯s talking about.  Oh, I get it.  Yeah, the enchantment on the Valkyrie armor, for some reason, it looks entirely different on scaled or draconic forms, like it did when I was a bipedal dragon.  I could probably freak Dippy out by performing that transformation, but that would be mean to Dippy, and painful for me.  Still, the other two things?  Oh, my staff in its holster, and my double-barreled crossbow.  Speaking of crossbows, Dawn wields one, but there¡¯s been no sign of them since we split up.


    I wish I knew where Dawn was, they said they would catch up to us in a couple of days, and it has been a few.  We didn¡¯t exactly stay on our own plotted course either.  It¡¯s easy to imagine that we might never cross paths again if we¡¯re both roaming about Rayileklia, unsure where the other had gone.  I¡¯m not sure how well the weird tether between our souls works from greater and greater distances, and I¡¯m not even sure which string leads to Dawn, since there are several.  I couldn¡¯t keep track because I don¡¯t always have the aura vision spell from the staff running.


    Dippy is still asking about my double-barreled wrist-mounted hand crossbow, with the apparently anti-undead enchantment.  I do my best to respond, ¡°Sorry Dippy pal, I couldn¡¯t give this to you, it¡¯s sort of stuck to my soul, something bad would happen if I parted with it, I think.  Most of my belongings are, actually.¡±


    Dippy asks, ¡°No give?  No give, is okay, it¡¯s okay, no give is okay.  Dippy doesn¡¯t need, Dippy, I can make.  Can Dippy, me, I see to make?  Dippy, that¡¯s me, I¡¯m me.  I, me.  Can I see to make?¡±


    Dippy, like most of the kobolds, apparently struggles to refrain from referring to himself in the third person, since their native language is some offshoot of Draconic apparently.  I wonder if I should tell him that I don¡¯t mind, or if that would only make it worse.  I hand it to him, pointed away from him, for safety and assurance that he won¡¯t accidentally hurt himself, and we both sit down as he looks the crossbow over and over.  Zippy flits about, the excitable little being that he is, landing on the crossbow, startling Dippy from his intensely focused observation.  In his startlement, Dippy somehow manages to fire the crossbow, both barrels suddenly teeming with mana as the energy bolts spring to life, while it¡¯s still aimed directly at my torso.


    I sigh and roll my eyes as I¡¯m skewered through, guess where, my right freaking lung, again.  I should just get it removed at this point.  I probably shouldn¡¯t be so flippant, it hurts like hell, and I could die if I don¡¯t close up the wounds pretty quickly.  Hm, the energy bolts seem to have cauterized their entry and exit points at the very least.  Now Dippy is panicking, afraid I¡¯m going to retaliate and shoot him in the chest.  I roll my eyes at this as well, and give him a pat on his forehead.  I hope it doesn¡¯t seem patronizing, I just want him to know he¡¯s forgiven already, that there¡¯s nothing to freak out about.  I just can¡¯t risk talking, or really breathing.  I don¡¯t need a lungful of blood on Rayileklia.


    Oh, oh crap, oh no.  I¡¯m, I¡¯m falling.  Asleep.  Passing out.  No, no, bad Reggie, stay awake, stay awake, you need to, to.


    The lass is daft, and yet, here I am, acquiescing.  I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever in my life just strolled down a street like this.  Worse, without my face hidden.  Yet Sel wanted it so desperately, I couldn¡¯t deny her.  It¡¯s not being seen with her, or affectionately holding hands that sets me at unease, obviously.  It¡¯s being seen at all, having a face that could be remembered if a witness catches a glance.  She knows damn-well I¡¯m an assassin.  Anonymity is one of the few things keeping me from the gallows.  I¡¯m not known anywhere.  Well, I wasn¡¯t known anywhere outside the realms of the Hidden, in the Heart of the Wilds, and the Vale.


    I suppose it¡¯s nice to have made friends.  That is such a soft thing to say.  Gramps is right, I¡¯m going to get myself killed by going soft.  Still.  I don¡¯t think I could give up on Selunie or Taylynn even if I wanted to at this point.  Nor San Tiago, nor even the strange outlander near The Brook.  That one, Dawn I think, actually hinted they wanted to travel, specifically with me.  I had to feign ignorance at their hints.  I know they¡¯re bored, but traveling alongside an assassin, even with as stealthy as they¡¯ve become over the years, it just spells trouble.


    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    Well, I suppose Dawn doesn¡¯t really fear trouble.  What an odd, well, not life.  Poor soul.  Or perhaps lack thereof.  I don¡¯t know anything of the sort.  Perhaps it¡¯s some sort of persistent malady, some kind of poison that slows their vital functions so much, while preserving them.  Won¡¯t really buy into curses of immortality, but they seem pretty convinced of it at least.


    Selunie is practically, no, literally bouncing with each step we take.  Gorrammit lass, your cheer is infectious, and far too noticeable.  Eyes are on us.  I count about twenty eyes currently, between windows, stoops, and passersby.  She¡¯s so pure, innocent, loving.  Why on Rayileklia does this woman bed someone so dark and brooding?  Someone so steeped in the blood of others that I¡¯ve begun to lose count?  I suppose that last bit is facetious.  Two thousand two hundred eleven.  That¡¯s how many people¡¯s lives I¡¯ve taken.  It¡¯s not a proud point, honestly.  As long-lived an assassin as I am, it¡¯s not impressive.  As a human being with the capacity to care for others, it¡¯s a terrifying atrocity.  Still, I don¡¯t exactly mope about it.  I¡¯ve rarely harmed anyone that might be able to be considered innocent.


    I¡¯d never bloody my blade on someone such as Selunie.  Even if it spelled my capture and demise.  Feh, I truly have gone soft.  Time was, even the idea of being in any form beholden to someone, even in a pleasurable relationship, I knew my duty would be to kill them to cover my tracks if necessary.  Huff.


    Selunie points out a flower shop and drags me along to simply literally stop and smell the roses.  So damned pure and innocent.


    When I come to, Dippy is trying to pass breaths into my mouth, and I almost laugh at how ineffectual it is, since his draconic snout doesn¡¯t have lips to form a seal.  I tap his forehead and lightly shove him off of me.  Teuila is returning, and Dippy is freaking out.  I¡¯m surprised the mana bolts passed right through the Valkyrie armor, it¡¯s almost like some sort of, holy doesn¡¯t harm holy sort of effect.  The crossbow is supremely effective against undead, and the Valkyrie armor, well, it¡¯s all majesty in its radiant splendor.  Plus, Valkyries were essentially angels, guiding warrior souls to Valhalla, so, holy there too.  I¡¯ll have to make a note of the interaction of the bolts and the armor.  That might come up later.


    It¡¯s obvious that I¡¯ve been bleeding, but it was probably difficult for Dippy to pack my wound at all, since I¡¯m still armored.  There¡¯s some moss, leather, and paper shoved into various joints in my armor.  It might have been helpful?  I¡¯m not certain.  Divesting the armor, I gasp as the acidic drizzle hits the small holes in my chest.  Huff, huff, huff, holy crap that hurt.  Well, I¡¯m pretty sure the wounds are disinfected.  Oh my stars that was ridiculously painful.  I grab the cleanest, driest fabric I can to quickly wrap around my torso before I pass out again from the pain.


    Dippy¡¯s saying something.  He retrieves a twig from the jumble of stuff attached to his shield.  It looks a bit like a wand actually.  I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s metal or wood as my vision blurs woozily.  The tip of the wand glows, and Dippy aims it right for my perforated chest.  I feel something that¡¯s simultaneously ethereal, yet solid, block up the holes.  It¡¯s an intensely uncomfortable experience, like when my jugular had to be patched by Elder Winter of the cat tribe.  It¡¯s almost as if there¡¯s magical plant matter, or solid mana just sort of sitting in the entry and exit wounds.  I suppose that¡¯s essentially healing, it at least stops the bleeding.  Since I¡¯m Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, I should be able to regenerate the tissue overnight from such small wounds.


    Dippy looks mortified as he turns towards Teuila as she returns to camp.  I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s begging her forgiveness, but I can¡¯t actually make out sounds for some reason.  Oh hey, speaking of my jugular, now that part of my body¡¯s blood flow is cut off, it¡¯s twitching like crazy.  More intensely uncomfortable experiences.


    Teuila gives Dippy a combination hug and noogie then rushes to my side.  My head lolls weakly towards her, and she lifts it into her lap.  She makes sure her poncho covers my torso and face as she hovers over me.  Looks like it¡¯s a good time to take that nap I was going to take.  Hello darkness, my old friend.


    ¡°You just can¡¯t stay away.  Can you?¡±


    Hm?  Oh no.  I¡¯m being am again.  Shoot.   Sorry.  Did I undie, then un-undie?  There¡¯s laughter.  Void, the Ceaseless Schism finds me humorous at least, I think.  There¡¯s an undercurrent of annoyance, but also simultaneously a sort of, investment? An investment in my wellbeing?  It¡¯s hard to be well when dead, floating in a void.


    The darkness of the un-universe roils and cascades, somehow it reminds me of a head being shaken as a negative response.  Void, the Ceaseless Schism says, ¡°You are beyond dramatic and broken.  Our agreement.¡±  The darkness pulses, flinging me through the emptiness of the non.  It¡¯s reminiscent of an exasperated sigh.  Void, the Ceaseless Schism continues, ¡°Our agreement, tenuous though it is, stands.  You need not visit so frequently.  Eventually you will see from behind your eyes.  Remember them.  Eventually.  Now, go.  Wake up!¡±


    Though it shouts with an unrelenting force born of an otherworldly anger, there are layers to the voice of this un-universe.  Concern, indignation, humor.  Its ability to express so much with two simple shouted words is an alien experience that worms its way through the whole of the non-me.  I cease to be am as I¡¯m sent back once more.


    ¡°Blurghle whurgle flurtz, gablobble.  Hrk ¡®n¡¯, ¡¯n¡¯ stuff.  Who?  Oh, hi Te.¡±


    She shakes her head, laughing, ¡°Only you my Dink, only you.  Not sure who I pity more, you, or poor Dippy over there who thought I was going to kill him.  I knew you wouldn¡¯t die from a couple little shots.  But, well, did they seriously tear all the way through you?¡±


    I stretch my jaw as I regain my senses, ¡°Hm? Oh, oh, yes.  They, um.  It was weird though.  You know how a wide radius around the bolts sort of atomized bone when I shot them at undead?  Nothing like that on me.  So, like, the damaging magical properties of the bolts didn¡¯t happen, just like getting skewered through with two knitting needles.¡±


    Teuila grimaces as she responds, ¡°Oof, still.  I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay love.  If you died from something so, so, so dumb, I don¡¯t know, I¡¯d resurrect you just to beat you up.¡±


    I snirk, then snort back a laugh and gulp a breath as I nod.  I¡¯m fairly certain if it were possible, Teuila would do exactly as she just claimed.  I reach up to stroke her cheek as I smile up into her eyes.


    I simply agree aloud, ¡°I know Te, I know.  I love you too.¡±

 B 4 C 51: Derbrightmine Incident

    After an arduous, annoying trek, we make it safely through boomstick territory, basically. There¡¯s a palatial entrance carved into the side of the mountain-range. Oddly, we haven¡¯t spotted many, or any dwarves honestly. None actually. There aren¡¯t even any guarding this entrance into their city-structure.


    As the three of us enter, it slowly becomes apparent why they don¡¯t have, or need guards posted along the exterior. The murder-holes with longarms sticking through them like turrets cause even me to gulp. Even if those are single-shot muskets, I doubt my luck would hold enough that every single one missed, or glanced off my armor at a weak angle. They look a bit more advanced than muskets though. Not by much, but still.


    I blow a bated breath through puffed cheeks as we continue to pass into their territory. It¡¯s not long before I can sense that we¡¯re being followed. It seems there are some sort of secret side-tunnels from the murder-holes back towards the interior of their region.


    Suddenly, the walls ahead of and behind us open up. About a dozen dwarves spill out, all heavily armed, weapons pointing our way. Hell on handrails. I could maybe kill all of them in a single fireball, they¡¯re so close. Could Dippy live through one? I think Teuila would be mostly fine. What if they have spare gunpowder or explosives on their personage somewhere? Teuila might not be fine in a series of chain explosions. Te glances towards me with anger in her eyes, but I shrug with fear in mine. If she has a plan, I want her to take the lead.


    It will be pretty hard to negotiate peacefully if we start by slaughtering a dozen people upon uninvited entry into their territory. Teuila parses the same information, so she bites her lips as we stand at the ready, unsure of what to do.


    One finally speaks, edging uncomfortably close to Dippy as he says, ¡°You, lizardskin, with us. Ye two, follow them-there ta, heh, immigration. A capo will see ye in a bit.¡± His accent is thick, somehow a combination of Scottish and New York Sicilian.


    My mouth tries to form words as I want to object. I do not want to have Dippy separated from us. I worry they¡¯ll harm or kill him, as ten dwarves surround him and usher him away. The two dwarves on us, I¡¯m far less afraid of. They¡¯re close enough that my danger wraps could guide my reflexes away from their muzzles, or bring my shield to bear in the path of any of their shots. Should we knock these two out? Slay them? Rescue Dippy? Teuila appears to be biding her time, fighting her knee-jerk reaction to take these two out. I¡¯ll follow her lead.


    We¡¯re led to what might pass as an interrogation cell, if it weren¡¯t so ridiculously opulent. Brightly polished metal trim along runic engravings adorn every edge and seam of the room, any corner, doorway, edge of a floor slab. They try to shut the door on us, but Teuila makes a show of force by shattering a massive section of the stone door in a single punch. She glares at them, daring them to try to retaliate, to try to trap us. There¡¯s an unspoken conversation happening, Teuila¡¯s anger, their nervous twitch as their hands stray towards weapons. Teuila makes no move to harm them though, and after several tense moments, they walk away to find a capo I guess. Isn¡¯t that like, a mafioso? Some sort of middle management in an organized crime syndicate? I snort back a laugh as I put a few things together.


    Teuila raises an eyebrow my way, so I explain, ¡°So, Te, knowhow I have those Fakeworld memories, Earth memories?¡±


    Teuila nods, prodding me to continue, ¡°So, there¡¯s a region, I think it¡¯s called, um, Italy. Some of the people from powerful families in that region, you know, people migrate or whatever, anyway, there¡¯s lots of different styles of families and stuff. One kind is called something like a mafia. They¡¯re basically organized crime incarnate. May or may not be incredibly violent, often extortive, may or may not have hands in various pies like drugs or money laundering or gambling or whatever.¡±


    Teuila looks confused at my tangent, so I get back on track, ¡°Anyway, so, in them, a capo is someone in the middle. It¡¯s short for something like caporegime. Something like that.-"


    A burly, balding man with a dark beard, and side-hair slicked back to a ponytail enters, saying, ¡°Ye seem tae know a lot about the families.¡± He¡¯s tall for a dwarven individual, but still stocky. His height might even be the reason he¡¯s a capo.


    He motions towards the table and its seats, but Teuila and I both stand next to it, leaning on it disrespectfully. In part, because a seated position takes just a fraction more energy and time to dodge a sudden attack. We don¡¯t exactly trust these jerks yet.


    The capo continues, unfazed, ¡°So, what brings ye travelers tae our neighborhood? With a lizardskin no less?¡±


    Effing racism. I think. Maybe that¡¯s not an offensive term? I doubt Dippy cares about his scales being commented on, they¡¯re a beautiful mix of blues and azures. Teuila seems affronted by the term though.


    Teuila growls, ¡°The -Kobolds- are getting sick, their diet is cramped by your constant extortion. We¡¯re passing through, but we want it to stop.¡±


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    The capo visibly sweats as Teuila¡¯s hands grip and shatter the edge of the stone table. Even I¡¯m a bit shocked at the strength of Teuila¡¯s digits. The capo responds, "We''re doin'' ''em a favor. If the kobolds knew what was comin'' they''d be beggin'' us tae take their gems ''n'' minerals."


    Te snarks in return, "Oh really? What could possibly be coming that would make them do that?"


    He straightens up, stiffens, and glances around, almost nervously, "A word ye''ll not have heard, a name that''s as it sounds. Terrorzin." Wait, Terrorzin? That sounds familiar somehow. A Tee sound, a Zee sound, and an Enn sound. Where did I hear some syllables like that?


    Teuila rolls her eyes as she scoffs, "Am I supposed to be impressed? Scared? Am I supposed to feel anything at all? Who, or what, is Terror''s inn? A bad night''s sleep after a poor meal leading to some nightmares?"


    Teuila doesn¡¯t even wait for the capo to respond as she stalks to the rear of the room and starts hammering on the wall in frustration, causing the room to shudder. The capo answers with a slight quiver to his voice, "Hmf, ye''ll know ''im when ye meet ''im, though, not for long. By then it''ll be too late."


    Since Teuila is distracted by pummeling stone, I roll my eyes, "Look, enough with your cryptic nonsense." I take a page from their own book as I continue, "If you don''t stop hassling the kobolds, there might be a few accidents around here, like maybe some of those gorgeous, yet, load-bearing pillars get introduced to the reaction between sodium and water. Wouldn''t that be a shame?"


    Teuila snorts, barely stifling a laugh. The capo squints at me, "Ye wouldn''t."


    I wear a wicked sneer as I crack my knuckles and draw forth my staff from its hidden sheathe. I dare, "Try me. In fact, I so badly want you to try me, that I''m going to set up a spell to notify me. Sure, I might take a few days, or weeks, to get back from wherever I''ve journeyed to, but you can be certain I''ll be back once you''ve triggered it."


    He eyes me warily, but studies my hands as I gesture, trying to discern if I''m actually working a spell. I keep the staff shrunk, in the palm of my hand, collapsed down to the size of the handle of a kitchen knife. I¡¯m not sure I can do what I claim, I probably can¡¯t, but he doesn¡¯t need to know that.


    He scoffs, "Bet ye think ye''re a real wise guy. Ye aint workin'' any magic there. Ah knows it when Ah sees it."


    It¡¯s my turn to scoff as I let the light spell from the staff glow slightly, "Oh really? What circle of magic do you practice then? Sixth? Fifth? Fourth? These numbers don''t mean anything to you? Then probably first, maybe second, if you even are a practitioner. I''ve been wielding the ninth circle of magics for my entire life on Rayileklia."


    Teuila barely keeps her composure, stopping herself from laughing, knowing that my life on Rayileklia is scarcely more than a few days, a couple of weeks. I struggle to hide my smile, which ends up coming across as a vicious sneer. Perfect. Still, I let a bit of magic trickle from the staff. My eyes glow, and a translucent copy of my hand floats in front of me. I control the floating hand to sink, and draw a nonsense rune in the dust on the ground. Once that''s accomplished, I press the floating hand downwards to make it appear to dissipate into that rune as I let go of the magic.


    For good measure, I add, "And before you ask, I''m far, far older than I look."


    At that, the dwarf begins to pale before us, the color draining from his cheeks. Apparently ageless or ancient beings are something to be feared. Duly noted. I can thank Lil for that later. Though it could just be any critterkin that never bothers self actualizing aging, the draconic bond that my inner circle all share to Lil''s crystalline core, their literal heart, keeps us all from suffering any effects of aging unless we will them.


    He clears his throat, trying to regain his composure, "Look, even if Ah wanted tae help ye out, we all answer tae the Don now, Don, he did us a favor, got us all tae stop bickerin'', showed us what was comin''. We''re all Derbrightmine family now. Family sticks t''gether. Y''know what I''m sayin''? Like Ah told you, we practically begged the Don tae tell us what tae do, so we''re doin'' it, and the kobolds would do the same. But, even just talkin'' about it is one of the things not tae do, if we don''t want it here even earlier. Ye said ye''re puttin'' your ear magics down tae hear when we''re up tae shakin'' down the kobolds? Guess who ''as their ear magics down in ''ere? ''At''s right."


    Frustrated at the cryptic answer, I restrain myself before I punch his grinning mug. There''s some vague threat of some unknown terror, or rather, Terror''s Inn, or maybe he said Terrorzin. It''s hard to tell with his accent, it''s an odd mixture of New-York-Italian, and Scottish. Regardless, it looks like fear is the way to get an audience with this Don.


    Wait, something everyone on Rayileklia is terrified of, that requires precious metal in tribute? Is this another freakin¡¯ evil dragon? One that¡¯s extorting its spices from people or something like that? That¡¯s effing hilarious. Absolutely hilarious if it really is. Come to think of it, I¡¯m pretty sure Kozzurth was trying to strike fear into me with the name Terrorzin when she died. I just couldn¡¯t understand her final bloody gurgles. I knew it had some tee and zee and enn sounds.


    Oh I¡¯m going to effing enjoy this. I yawn as I haphazardly recall, ¡°Boring, look, last week I was beheading an ancient purple dragon from the inside, to stop it extorting a village. Yes, from the inside. this week, if I have to, I¡¯ll behead another. Terrorzin is the name of some dragon or something stupid, right? If you guys are extorting because you¡¯re being extorted, just point me in its direction¡±


    The capo somehow bursts into incredulous laughter, and I think he pisses himself just the tiniest bit in fear at the same time. If he¡¯s scared of Terrorzin, but not me, Teuila and I can demonstrate a bit more power to really nail it home. I ignite a fireball from the staff and have it engulf me. I remove its normally explosive area of effect.


    I growl through the roar of the flames, ¡°We are dragon-slayers. I am untouched by their breath, and my leader over there, she can punch holes in stone. Do you really think your Don¡¯s spooky bedtime story scares us in the slightest?¡±


    I approach the dwarf so that he understands the flame is hot, and not an illusion. His beard starts to sizzle and curl as I draw near. Now I¡¯m certain his breeches are darkened by moisture, at least momentarily. I allow the flames to linger a moment longer, drying him out to save him the embarrassment of needing to change before speaking with his Don.


    I say the cheesiest, corniest, most clich¨¦ line ever, ¡°Take me to your leader.¡±

 B 4 C 52: Frannie Are You Okay?

    Teuila¡¯s barely holding it together.  She would be laughing her head off in our shared mindscape right now.  I¡¯m in basically the exact same position, almost ready to give up the ghost and just roll around laughing.  I can hardly keep a straight face.  The capo says a few things that I ignore, I don¡¯t even get his name as I just vaguely wave responsibility off towards Teuila to establish a precedent.  Showing that, despite my display of power, Teuila is the one who has me in her service.  I¡¯m her dumb hired muscle basically.  Magical muscle, since she has plenty of her own physical muscle, but, yeah.


    I purposely let Teuila take the reins as I refer to her as boss several times during our chaperoned excursion into the dwarven city.  I find myself spacing out, ignoring most of what¡¯s going on around me as I try to piece together the importance of this Terrorzin name.


    It sounded like even Kozzurth was scared of him, like invoking him in her dying moments was almost a taboo she could barely bring herself to do.  What the hell could scare an ancient dragon so badly?  An ancient dragon, and a society of dwarves who have firearms?  My guess would be -the- ancient dragon.  Maybe primordial even.  Some force that even dragons bow to.  They always get more powerful with age, I think.  Even Lil was somewhat convinced they could become as grand as Lord Agni given enough time.  I roll my eyes and chuckle at how much of a goober Lil can be about getting bigger and stronger.  They were jokingly ignoring apocalyptic information to press for my opinion on their ability to maybe become continental-sized.  The laugh lasts only a short while before I sadden myself.


    Darn it.  My sweet Lil buddy.  I hope you¡¯re okay out there.  I hope you¡¯ve forgiven me, and found that heroism inside yourself once again.  You are a hero Lil.  You are.  I¡¯m so sorry you were alone for so many months, digging with only TQ and Lucky to keep you company.  I¡¯m sorry buddy.  I can never apologize enough.  I hope one day you forgive me for wielding the timeline that produced our current states.  Hm, what?  Oh crap, we¡¯re already in some sort of private mansion.  They¡¯re speaking.  Oh no. Oh no this is straight out of a movie from Fakeworld, Earth.  I barely keep from cracking up.


    Don responds to something Teuila asked, ¡°You come to me, on this, the day of my daughter Frannie¡¯s wedding to beg a favor?¡±


    His daughter, Frannie apparently, begs, ¡°Eh Papi I told yous this would happen.  Why yous gotta be so mean to them little lizard guys and gals?  You bettuh fix this.  They looks like they means business.  Ahma go freshen up.  You bettuh be nice to owuh guests, and get to the chapel in time.  ¡®Ey yous twos!  Yuh invited to mah wedding!  Capisce?¡±


    A bit stunned, I nod towards Frannie as the Don whispers some affirmations and love towards his daughter.  Likely not wanting to show weakness by acknowledging the tender bond they share.  His wife glares down at him from where she stands near his throne-like seat.  I wonder what that¡¯s about.  Paulette, Frannie, and the Don.  No one will tell us any other name for the Don beyond their family name, Derbrightmine.  Had a bit of a comedy of errors with that name for a minute.  Couldn¡¯t tell if people were saying Don The Bright Mine, Don Da Bright Mine, or Donder Bright Mine.


    Paulette, frighteningly enough, draws what appears to be a shotgun and a pistol from behind the throne.  They aren¡¯t aimed at anyone in particular, but she mentions something about losing a prototype as she whispers angrily to the Don.  Huh, there are faint hints, smears of grease on her fingertips, and a bulge at her hip suggests a toolkit beneath her dress.  Is she some sort of tinker?  Inventor?  Artificer?  Her guns look both more advanced, and more mystical, fantasy, than the other weapons we¡¯ve seen.


    Paulette loudly announces, ¡°Ah¡¯ll be in muh workshop. Sowt this out.¡±


    My brain starts to go to mush as Teuila and the Don argue back and forth.  Teuila occasionally intimidates a capo or button-dwarf that aims a weapon at us.  Why are they rolling out a cannon ball?  Teuila lifts it with her left hand, effortlessly, and smashes her right fist into it, denting it deeply enough to bury her fist to the wrist.  I¡¯m pretty sure everyone stares in shock.  Even my eyes shoot wide as Teuila spends half a second ripping apart the cannon ball to free her stuck hand.  Holy hell Teuila, when the crap did you get -that- strong?  Compressing iron with a punch?  Tearing that same iron asunder!?  Eff a duck My Wings.  Jeeze.


    Oh, apparently that was some sort of display of if we could even remotely harm a dragon.  Hah, there¡¯s a lot less doubt now.  Hahaha.  I should probably pay attention to the conversation, but I¡¯m playing the part of a dumb lackey.  Quite happily honestly.  It¡¯s so freeing to not be the one making these diplomatic choices and speeches.  I let my senses drift, actually enjoying the ambiance of the dwarven city.  There are actually clocks, a clocktower specifically.  There¡¯s the frequent, though distant, fall of a hammer striking steel.  There¡¯s the buzz of some sort of foot-pump engraving tool, equally far away.  There¡¯s a shattering sound from.  Wait, shattering!?  Oh, okay, wait, whew.  It was just glass.  Maybe they¡¯re breaking it down to melt it down to make new mosaic windows.  Hm, it seems like the crafting, the smiting of the hammer, and the strength of the engraver are reaching some sort of crescendo as they pick up pace, becoming almost frantic.


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    There¡¯s a faint sound, no one else can hear it.  It¡¯s a scream from a familiar voice.  My eyes shoot wide as I interrupt everyone to ask, ¡°Is Frannie okay!?  She just screamed!¡±


    The Don goes pale and glowers at me.  He orders all assembled, ¡°We talk as we walk, if you was lying just now, you¡¯ll regret it.¡±


    Teuila eyes me suspiciously, but the fear in my eyes isn¡¯t from Don Derbrightmine¡¯s threat.  It¡¯s for the life of an innocent woman.  I gulp back a shuddered gasp, trying not to betray my thoughts.  We¡¯re all walking swiftly in the direction Frannie did some time ago now.  As we ascend what is almost some sort of tower aside the mansion, we pass a curiously shattered window.  The crimson carpet is actually faintly spotted with tiny bloodstains.  If someone broke the window, they cut themselves, barely a nick.  No one else seems to spot the bloodstains on the carpet as we all continue rushing towards Frannie¡¯s room.


    She has her own mini palace up in this tower, several rooms, but she¡¯s not in the hosting area, or guest room, or the vanity closet, nor is she answering the Don¡¯s now frantic calls.


    Don asks, ¡°Frannie?  Frannie!?  Are you okay?  Frannie!  Ansuh yuh fathuh!¡±


    We¡¯re all virtually sprinting at the moment.  I spy the occasionally tiny single droplet bloodstains on the carpet, and they lead the direction we¡¯re heading, towards Frannie¡¯s bedroom.  Don is pounding on the door, and, receiving no answer, he opens the bedroom.  I barely catch a glimpse, but I know how this is going to play out.


    Don shouts, ¡°Spread out!  Find who did this!  Whoever catches the criminal what struck down my daughter gets ANYTHING they desire!¡±


    The various ¡®family¡¯ members do as they¡¯re ordered, while the Don drops to his knees as he shuffles into the room, towards his daughter¡¯s body laying beneath a table.  Don tosses the table aside, knocking a curious instrument to the floor.  It looks like, well, a prototype of the pistol weapon that Paulette had. I know for a fact she whispered that it was missing.  Don cradles his daughter in a pool of her blood, and likely misses a sound over his own enraged sobbing.  There¡¯s the faintest breathing, and pulse coming from Frannie.


    I beg, ¡°Don, Don she¡¯s alive, MOVE!  She was struck down, but she¡¯s not doomed, not yet, move!¡±


    Teuila looks shocked as I sock the hysterical Don to the side, and rip the drapery from Frannie¡¯s bed to pack her wounds.  She¡¯s got a nasty strike wound upon her brow, but dwarven skulls being what they are and all, that¡¯s not the deadly wound.  Instead it¡¯s a gunshot thr-.  Through the right lung.  Dippy!


    I scream at the top of my lungs to anyone who might listen, ¡°Bring the blue kobold to Frannie¡¯s room right this instant!  All his gear too!¡±


    Don glowers at me as he admits, ¡°It couldn¡¯t have been the lizardskin.  He was locked up.¡±


    I roll my eyes as I ask, ¡°Don, do you know how to pass rescue breaths?  You need to breathe for your daughter.¡±  I then urge in a hissed whisper, ¡°Immediately!  She¡¯s still alive!  She was struck down, but not dead!¡±


    The Don¡¯s eyes fling wide as he realizes I mean to have Dippy save his daughter.  He echoes my order, ¡°The blue lizardskin, up the tower, with all his gear, NOW!¡±  His voice booms supernaturally loudly across the entire cityscape.  My hypersensitive hearing leaves me dazed, and my ears ringing, sounding their tinnitus loudly at his thundrous voice.


    Don does as I suggested, breathing for his daughter as I recover from my daze.  The moments pass by in agonizing slow motion as we await Dippy¡¯s arrival.  Teuila had already caught on though, and she rocketed out of the room after I called out for Dippy, knocking anyone and anything aside that might be in her way. As long as the dwarves don¡¯t fight her or try to stop her, Teuila should be back here, dragging Dippy along in mere moments.


    Teuila must have filled Dippy in on the way up the tower.  There¡¯s nothing but kindness in his eyes as he fishes out the wand-like object from before.  Despite the dwarves treatment of him, and his clan, he¡¯s instantly ready to save a waning life.  I literally burst into tears upon seeing Dippy¡¯s kindness displayed.  Don continues to breathe for his daughter, while Teuila and Dippy work to get Dippy¡¯s wand-like device to touch both the entry and exit wound on Frannie.  Finally, the bleeding has stopped.  She¡¯s going to need help breathing though, for a long time.


    I rub my wet, itchy eyes forcefully as I ask, ¡°Don, do you have the concept of an iron-lung?  Can you get her in an air-pressurized environment?  A gentle, automatic billows.  I know she¡¯s probably hardy, I¡¯m sure your family is amazingly resilient, but, but listen to me man, look at me!  Can you get an iron lung rigged up for her quickly?¡±


    Don stares at me dumbly for a moment before glaring angrily as he responds, ¡°Aye.  It¡¯ll be done.  I.  If y¡¯ three find who did this, I¡¯ll grant any desire.  Leave, go,  Please.¡±


    Teuila begins to dash off with Dippy in her arms, but I catch her and close the bedroom door behind me as I hold a finger to my lips and point at tiny discolorations on the floor.  Bloodstains on the carpet.  Whoever they were, probably thought they were a smooth criminal by breaking in through the window, but they left evidence.  We don¡¯t want to alert them that we¡¯ve realized this though.  Also, ulterior motive, we need to be the ones to catch the perpetrator, as horrid as it is to leave justice hanging in the balance for personal gain.  Plus, a pre-orchestrated murder attempt has to have a strong reason behind it.  I want to know what that is.


    Teuila sets Dippy down to begin investigating.  Dippy gazes around quickly, then bends low and he sniffs the stains like a bloodhound, and silently takes off quickly, waving us to follow along.  Zippy flits quickly along after him.  Dippy leads us back to the broken window.  I mean, fair, the trail was going to lead here one way or another.  I¡¯m not going to disparage his tracking abilities just because of this.  Hm, the stone is marred slightly along the outer ledge of the window.  Two grooves.  A grappling hook maybe?  That would explain how they scaled the tower wall without being spotted.  Teuila flips something curious in her hands, spinning it about her index finger.  It¡¯s the prototype firearm from the table of Frannie¡¯s room.  It¡¯s probably evidence, and probably incredibly dangerous.

 B 4 C 53: Slick Offender

    Teuila leans over, and giggles while whispering, ¡°I cheated.¡±


    My left brow shoots up curiously in confusion as I mumble, ¡°Huh?¡±


    Teuila grins, glee painted across her face as she admits, ¡°I saw you out of the corner of my eye, you freaked out about the cannonball thing. I dropped its density before punching it. Couldn¡¯t really do that with an enemy, but fun as a party trick.¡±


    Hah, hah! I chuckle as quietly as I can, ¡°Heheh. Te, that¡¯s a hell of a party trick. Jeeze, it¡¯s still impressive no matter what way you slice it My-Wings.¡±


    Teuila grins as she gloms onto me momentarily, before returning to our rather serious attempted murder investigation. I friggin¡¯ love this woman. And there she goes jumping out the window. Yep, love this crazy woman. We¡¯re thirty to fifty feet above some pretty spiky looking shrubbery, but Teuila floats down on her back, with her forearms behind her head. She looks for all the world to be someone going for a mid-afternoon snooze on a lazy river ride. I shake my head incredulously, trying not to laugh out loud. Serious investigation, remember, serious face.


    Dippy looks incredibly confused. Not about Teuila¡¯s power, apparently he¡¯s seen her demonstrate it enough. Rather he¡¯s confused on if we should jump out after her. I have a bit better idea than that. I wish I had been starting it sooner. I think it¡¯ll only last randomly somewhere between ten minutes and an hour if I cast it like this. I imbue myself with telekinesis from the staff. I gnaw on my lips as I decide whether or not to tell Dippy before I pick him up and float him down below. It might be funny for a long-term friend who has a similar sense of humor, but Dippy is an anxious person of another species from another planet. I¡¯m not going to do that to him.


    I ask, ¡°Dippy, are you okay with me picking you up with my brain to float you down there? I¡¯ve got telekinesis right now, for a short while.¡±


    Dippy sniffs me several times before nodding enthusiastically. That seemed odd. Does he have some kind of mana-scent-sense instead of aura sight? Whatever the case, he seems to trust me, so I gently pluck him off the ground and levitate him through the window. I smoothly drop him gently to Teuila¡¯s waiting arms. She gives me the slyest nod of approval I¡¯ve ever seen. I can¡¯t help grinning and shaking my head incredulously as I hoist myself out the window telekinetically as well. I don¡¯t lower myself to the ground though, as I¡¯ve already spotted something suspicious from the air, and it would be much harder for me to get back up. My telekinesis doesn¡¯t like raising things vertically for some reason.


    I press my index finger to my lips, and point northwestward. Dippy sniffs the ground, and agrees, also pointing northwestward. Zippy actually lands on my shoulder momentarily, and I could swear the little drake nods his head affirmatively.


    I take off at the agonizingly slow speed of a casual stroll, while Teuila jumps Dippy over the exterior manor walls. She lands silently on the rooftops of the dwarven city below, and peers around, not able to track what I¡¯d spotted. Dippy however points accurately for her. He¡¯s a hell of a tracker. I think more likely a ranger after all. The wand seemed like a petrified twig, and his tools were fletching equipment, and, well, stuff that could be used to craft miniature ballistae or ammo for various ranged weaponry.


    Huh, this side of town is a tad dilapidated. I wouldn¡¯t expect that from an otherwise pristine dwarven city. Actually, it seems to be entirely abandoned. I wonder what happened here. Still, the figure I¡¯m chasing has ducked into a pretty obvious hideout. I can make out some of the runes on what¡¯s left of portions of the building and its surrounding structures. Hellridge. Judging by other houses in the area, it¡¯s either the house name, or a family name. Cool, though mildly unfortunate, names aside, I wonder how it came to pass that their home ended up like this. Teuila and Dippy have beat me to the interior of the Hellridge family home, and I can tell they¡¯re swiftly sneaking about inside. I however, lower myself onto the balcony that I thought I¡¯d spied a figure on earlier. Freeing myself from my telekinesis, I prepare to use it on any figure that enters my sensory ranges that isn¡¯t Teuila, Dippy, or Zippy.


    There¡¯s a startled clatter, and shouting, and sure enough, someone that isn¡¯t my allies comes hurtling my direction, landing squarely in my telekinetic grip. The figure looks only momentarily shocked before they begin struggling against my spell. Ow, ow this, ow. She¡¯s a dwarven woman, and strong as all hell. She¡¯s straining my telekinesis so hard as she tries to break free, it feels like muscles tearing across my brain. She manages to break free, shattering my hold, and what feels like a portion of my brain as a migraine lances behind my left eye. Still, before she can even take another step once she¡¯s landed, I reapply my hold on her. While she continues to struggle against this one as well, it¡¯s obvious she¡¯s winded from the first escape. Still, in a contest of wills, I¡¯m not certain I¡¯d bet on me in this scenario, if I didn¡¯t have backup coming.


    As I hear Teuila and Dippy swiftly approaching, I telekinetically shunt the woman into a corner of the ceiling, holding her tightly against the roof of the room. Before they arrive, I ask, ¡°Why did you kill her?¡±


    I want to see if she knows Frannie is still alive, or if she¡¯ll slip up and admit to the attempted murder, or anything.


    The woman coughs and asks, ¡°Would yous believe if I said technically it was exsanguination what killed her, not me?¡±


    I almost laugh. That¡¯s smooth, suave, and sort of funny. Just what kind of criminal is this woman? I raise my eyebrow and wear a half frown.


    She mutters, ¡°Tough crowd. Look, maybe we can comes to some sorta arrangement or somethin¡¯, yeah?¡±


    I heave a sigh as my companions appear while I¡¯m shaking my head. I continue, cluing them in on my ruse, ¡°You killed an innocent woman, I¡¯d like to know why, it was obviously premeditated, there must have been some good reasons. If they¡¯re good enough, maybe we can help you after all.¡±


    She struggles still, but pants as she replies, ¡°You sees this place? You knows what my name is? I¡¯m Hellga, Hellga Hellridge. Aint gonna be no more Hellridges if that marriage happened. I had ta stop it, it was for family, ya sees? I¡¯d do anythin¡¯ for family, wouldn¡¯t yous?¡±


    Ouch. Another smooth strike by our criminal Hellga. That hits hard. Yeah, yeah, I would, and have, killed to protect my family. Crap. I heave a sigh as I slowly lower her towards the floor. Teuila and Dippy help me stand in a wary semi-circle, hemming her in.


    I nod as I agree, ¡°I, well. Yes. I would, and have, done horrible things for the sake of my family.¡± Hell, I¡¯ve died for them, but I¡¯m not going to tell her that. I continue, ¡°Even still, there had to be another way beyond murdering a seemingly innocent woman. Were there truly no other options?¡±


    She hems and haws before answering, perhaps deciding how much of the truth to lean on, ¡°My baby brothuh, he fancies Freddie, yeah, Freddie, Fredrick Diggle, Frannie¡¯s fiance. I figgyah, now he got a shot. If the Diggles kowtow to the Don, Hellridge loses our last support, we become the odd family out, no one else defyin¡¯ the Don. Can¡¯t have that marriage happenin¡¯ none. Don¡¯ll grind us into dust or bring us under thumb, or both.¡±


    Before I can even digest her reasoning, she finally adds, ¡°Plus, hey, he done us all a bit bad, so hit ¡®im right where it hoits too. Three boyds with one stone. Capisce? Now, I do this thing for my family, but I don¡¯t wanna bring trouble to their house or nothin¡¯. I figure, you three seem like some kinda bigwig adventurers, gotta be powerful to be hangin¡¯ with the Don. I¡¯m headed out, you¡¯re headed out, you¡¯s all relatively cute ¡®n¡¯ stuff. We could maybe have some fun skippin¡¯ town? If ya know what I mean.¡±


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    Wait, is she seriously trying to seduce her way out of being captured? I mean, she¡¯s a gorgeous lady, being a dwarf doesn¡¯t stop that, but she¡¯s a, in her own eyes, murderer. To us, an attempted murderer. I¡¯m pretty sure she can tell none of the three of us are interested. She bats eyes at us for several moments, as we wait for her to come along peacefully. Her shoulder sag, her face droops and she finally relents as she begins walking towards us lamely, seemingly ready to face justice. A glint of steel, warning from my danger wraps, and Teuila¡¯s immediate leap to action speak otherwise.


    Teuila dodges the attack with uncanny speed, grips the stout woman¡¯s arm and twists it behind her back with a sickening snap. Te blushes, not having intended to use enough force to break dwarven bones. Oof. She really is still getting even stronger yet. Even with her little orbity gems hidden in her hair, I wouldn¡¯t have expected her to have so much force she would underestimate herself that much. She put a little too much force into things when she first got them, but that was so long ago now.


    I frown as I re-capture Hellga in my Telekinesis. I state, ¡°Hellga, if you had found us first, we could have helped you, would have found some way to help your family. Murder is the worst option, always. I don¡¯t know what kind of justice happens in dwarven society, but we have to turn you in. I¡¯m so sorry. Worse, I lied. Frannie might still be alive, if the Don acted fast enough as I told him to. The marriage is still going to happen, Diggles and Derbrightmine union or something I guess. I¡¯m truly sorry for the Hellridges.¡±


    She looks simultaneously ashen-faced, and as if I had struck her with a gauntlet as her jaw hangs low in shock. I ask, ¡°Please, if there is anything you can think of a group of adventurers being able to do for your family, tell me, if I can somehow save them from a bad situation, I will. I swear.¡±


    Her face contorts as she looks my way, ¡°What? Why would yous guys do that?¡±


    Teuila grins proudly as she interrupts, ¡°We¡¯re not just adventurers, we try to be good guys. Maybe even heroes when we can manage it. Sometimes we fail, miserably, or start at the wrong end of things. We need the Don in our pocket to keep the kobolds safe. Sorry too Hellga.¡±


    Hellga spits in anger and frustration before tears begin streaming down her cheeks as she growls, ¡°Ya think yous guys have failed? I let my whole family down if she aint dead. Worse, the family name¡¯s gonna be smeared, tarnished, run through the ringuh. I done granited up so bad. Granite all.¡±


    Ugh, this hurts. This sucks. Also, granite is a curse? Oh, I guess it is a pretty cheap, common stone. Dwarves probably think of it about as highly as humans think of feces. Technically she didn¡¯t kill anyone, yet, if Frannie manages to live. But we really, truly need the Don¡¯s guarantee that he¡¯ll leave the kobolds alone. There are children, hatchlings that are getting sick without the right nutrients. I strike the nearest wall, and surprisingly, accidentally ram my fist through it. I facepalm in frustration.


    I apologize, ¡°I, I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to damage your family home. I¡¯m, I¡¯m just so pissed at this situation. Can you think of anything we can do for your family?¡±


    Tears of anger at herself streaming down her cheeks, she growls, ¡°Aint nothin¡¯ yous can do unless yous can get the Don to agree to leave my family outta it. They didn¡¯t know nothin¡¯ about me doin¡¯ this. I¡¯d beg yous if I thought yous could do that for them.¡±


    Teuila and I exchange a glance. How big of an ask can we make of the Don? Which is the bigger ask? The safety of the Hellridges? Or the safety of the Kobolds? Eff a duck. We literally have three wishes. Crap on a cracker.


    I try to connect with Hellga one last time, ¡°Hellga, I need to know, I need to know how you feel, how you felt when you thought you killed Frannie. How you feel about being a killer.¡±


    Hellga¡¯s face contorts further, ¡°Granite all, why yous gotta go an¡¯ ask somethin¡¯ like that? Shale. I felt like shale. Frannie weren¡¯t doin¡¯ no one no harm. She been nice to everyone, ever, all the time. I, I.¡± Hellga loses her voice as tears overtake her.


    I barely manage to find my own voice as I struggle to suppress tears, ¡°Glp. Koff. Erm, Hellga. If you come clean, if you admit this, your feelings like this, to the Don. I¡¯ll do everything in my power, if the Don upholds his agreement, I¡¯ll use my ask of the Don for your family. I need to know exactly what to ask for though.¡±


    She coughs and gulps, fighting back mucus from her position suspended slightly at an angle, drooping. She struggles to gaze towards me with tear-streaked eyes, ¡°W,what? Yous can¡¯t be serious? Yous gonna get an ask, an ask of the most powuhful dwarf evuh. You¡¯d toss it to my family? Yous gotta be eithuh lyin¡¯ or outta ya mind.¡±


    I chuckle and grin, ¡°Well, I can tell you for sure I¡¯m not lying, but, heh, I won¡¯t confirm or deny that second one.¡±


    She actually barks a laugh through her tears. Coughing, she agrees, ¡°Okay, yous gotta do this this way though, but yous got a deal. I don¡¯t mind whatevuh¡¯s comin¡¯ for me, so long as yous word it just right.¡±


    Hellga fills us in, and I have to hunt through her house for abandoned writing supplies, since I can¡¯t commit it to memory with my shoddy memory. Thankfully, there are some charcoal sticks and parchment sheets in an old cubby.


    Hauling her, suspended in the air, through the streets of the dwarven city is a somber affair. My heart aches for her. I¡¯ve been in such similar circumstances. I don¡¯t know if the Don is going to kill her, have a trial for her, throw her in a jail or a dungeon. I have no idea how ¡®the family¡¯ operates. Hellga fills me in on the prototype gun on the way. It uses ambient mana that the wielder has stored up, instead of gun powder, so all it needs is ammo, rather than packing, and it¡¯s silent too. She figured, no noise, no gunpowder on her hands, no evidence. Not a bad assumption, but it makes her look all the worse for having planned it over the course of a week, since the prototype went missing several days ago, by her own admission.


    The way it sounds though, it takes about all the mana that can accumulate in your body over the course of a day just to fire it once. Not exactly efficient for adventuring purposes. It¡¯s really only good at assassinations. Oof. Plus, we¡¯re turning it over as evidence, and it belongs to Paulette. With Paulette¡¯s strange behavior, and how she acknowledges Hellga, I have the tiny faintest hope that there¡¯s some sort of conspiracy going on behind the scenes, and everything will turn out to have been a big farce, and everyone goes home laughing. I know that¡¯s not going to be the case though.


    I have to shut my brain off as we turn her over and she admits her actions to the Don while trying to convince him she acted on her own, without involving her family. I can¡¯t bear to watch. I don¡¯t want to know if they kill her. I¡¯d never forgive myself if I didn¡¯t try to save someone so earnest that I knew was going to die.


    Words are exchanged, but I¡¯m so numb I barely register what was being said. Dippy asked for the dwarves to leave the kobolds alone though, I¡¯m positive about that.


    Teuila does what I¡¯d like to be able to do, ¡°Same for me. Double down on that. I want the kobolds safe, and able to eat their own, uh, produce, whatever, minerals. Capisce?¡±


    The Don looks fairly surprised, and asks, ¡°Are yous sure about this girly? Yous can have anything yuh heart desires within my powuh. And that¡¯s yuh ask?¡±


    Teuila nods in confirmation, ¡°Hell yeah it is.¡±


    The Don sighs and nods. He eyes Teuila with some manner of curiosity, and perhaps respect as he wearily states, ¡°The dragons are gonna be furious, my pool says Terrorzin will rain unholy torrents of pain and death down upon my peoples. We¡¯ll withdraw from the surface entirely, seal ourselves off. It¡¯ll buy us time to shore up our defenses, band together. Tell yuh lizardskin, hm, kobold friends to do the same.¡±


    His what? Pool? Like a betting pool? No, he wouldn¡¯t take over a society and drive another one into the ground over a bet. Would he? What if it¡¯s more like, a scrying pool, or divining pool. Hell on handrails I really want to use my ask for time with such an artifact. Huff. No. We promised Hellga. I gasp and sigh shuddered breaths, barely restraining sobs as I hand over the parchment when he¡¯s about to ask me for my ask. I can¡¯t even bear to make my ask aloud. Not when I¡¯ve just doomed Hellga to whatever fate he has in store for her.


    He raises an eyebrow at me, and I nod. He drops his forehead wearily to his right hand, resting it, shaking it incredulously as he states, ¡°Fine, so be it. Yous done us alright, we¡¯re already in for a fight. Don¡¯t matter none who¡¯s under whose name anymore anyhow.¡± He wearily sighs and motions for us to leave him as he sits upon his lonely throne.


    Wait, what else did he say? DragonS, plural? Huh, things are starting to get really interesting around here. We¡¯re already being marched out by the same capo who led us here in the first place. Frannie¡¯s wedding has to be postponed since she¡¯s in an iron lung, and will likely be in there for weeks or months. So we don¡¯t really have any business sticking around, even though she invited us, total strangers. Hellga was right, nice to everyone, ever. We stop by to pick up Teuila¡¯s pack from the interrogation room where we had to leave it on the way in. The capo gives a grunt of approval, recognizing Teuila¡¯s strength as she hoists it effortlessly, not knowing about her gravity powers.


    But I almost feel bad leaving Frannie though. Before we know she¡¯s for sure healed and okay. She¡¯s not Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, she doesn¡¯t regenerate crazily fast. Dippy¡¯s nature magic with the petrified wood wand really only can temporarily plug holes that are bleeding. It¡¯s like an advanced form of packing a wound, really cramming in like the perfect moss compound or something. It¡¯s not going to regenerate tissue though. They¡¯re going to have to keep an eye on her lungs to make sure they don¡¯t fill with fluid, blood mostly. She¡¯s in for a tough battle to survive, but I think Fakeworld fantasy was right about dwarven heartiness. They seem fairly resilient. Hopefully she pulls through.

 B 4 C 54: Sister, Sister

    We leave the Derbrightmine Dominion, back into boomstick land, which, as far as we know, should be empty of dwarven gunners, but still. Hm, yeah, I¡¯d feel uncomfortable telling Dippy to just get lost and go back home while still in dwarven lands.  We make camp, as we''ve all had a rough couple of days, and far too much excitement for my liking.  Dippy chatters nervously, yet happily, about the fact that the dwarves agreed to leave his clan alone, and mid-sentence, suddenly stops.


    My eyes shoot wide as he topples over into the mud, I''m afraid he died to one of those prototype silent guns, but upon closer inspection, he has simply fallen asleep.  Poor guy.  Teuila and I tuck him in on the inside of his giant shield.  It feels rather odd to be tucking in a trained warrior like a child, but, eh, Dippy''s definitely earned a bit of tenderness.


    After we awaken and break camp, we''re a bit struck on how exactly to handle our possible parting.  Like I said, I don''t want to just say hey Dippy, go home, but I also don''t want to backtrack when Dawn might be out there somewhere waiting for us.  We mill about a mazelike portion of the canyon, not entirely sure what route leads either direction when a fog rolls in. I¡¯m talking cut-it-with-a-knife fog.


    The fog is pierced by a confident feminine voice, ¡°Aasimovia, The Brook especially, is doomed if you do not hasten to the cathedral. You three are all that stands in the way of its plans. When you rejoin your doomed friend, you must follow the trail that presents itself, and swiftly.¡±


    The fog, the mist, is otherworldly, as is the voice. Wait, feminine oracular voices in mist? Sisters of the Mist? Could this voice belong to one of the Sisters? I call out, ¡°Sister? Is there any other guidance you can give us? A way to, or news from our home? Anything?¡±


    The fog itself smiles at me, which is creepy as all hell. But it draws back like a veil as I find myself standing on an obsidian surface in a vast darkness. I¡¯m still surrounded by swirling mist, but it¡¯s much further away. I¡¯m also being approached by a figure covered head to toe in silks or linens. Their gait, and form, are slightly feminine. They raise a hand towards me, and I raise an eyebrow towards it as its hand cups my chin and left cheek, raising my gaze towards where their eyes would be.


    Suddenly, they recoil, clutching their abdomen and head. The voice, now emanating from her cries, ¡°You, you must hasten. Go, for the fate of all Rayileklia by this point!¡± The figure doubles over further in pain, and its form wavers as if she were losing her ties to reality. The woman beneath the clothing flashes and fritzes, her face pure agony. She disappears completely, leaving behind a ghastly, whimpering wail. The fog recedes, and I¡¯m left blinking dumbly. Well that certainly wasn¡¯t ominous or anything. Jeeze.


    I gaze to Teuila and Dippy to see if I¡¯d been imagining things, but both look equally stunned. I ask, ¡°Did, did a sister of the mist just contact us? Did she touch you guys too? When she tried to peer into me, she looked like she was hit with a psychic attack, and dying.¡±


    Te raises a startled eyebrow, ¡°She what? No, she was, kind of looking at me, but kind of not. Like she was standing near me, but far away. It was creepy, and kind of hurt my brain to be honest.¡±


    Dippy agrees, ¡°Mine, mine, my mind, my brain too, hurt, hurt lots. Lady voice hurt Dippy¡¯s brain. But, but Dippy, I, me, I still have a quest. You need to follow tracks, a trail. Dippy, I, me, I¡¯m a great tracker. Zippy agrees. The, the squishies, Reggie and Tay Oo Ee Lah, they need Dippy still. Maybe, maybe big save, maybe land, maybe world? After that, that, after, after that, then Dippy is going home, for a, long long hiber, hibe, hiber, for a long nap.¡±


    I try not to laugh as I smile and nod down towards Dippy. He¡¯s right, we do need him. If it¡¯s so incredibly important that some oracle had to reach out across the world and appear to us, and tell us to hurry, then yeah, we¡¯d better bring our best to bear. And yeah, Dippy is our best. Even though I¡¯ve seen him fall asleep mid-sentence sometimes when he was really excited. The first time it happened, I was worried he had an anxiety-induced heart attack and just died. It mostly seems to happen while he¡¯s both happy and excited after having been marching for most of a day. Basically at night time, more or less. Whenever we make camp.


    The sister almost seemed like she died to deliver the message. That¡¯s a terrifying weight and responsibility. It¡¯s quite possible that it¡¯s even more important than just, ¡°Hey let¡¯s send a message to those adventurers over near that place to stop a sort of big thing.¡± I rattle my head. Did she die because I asked a question? Did she look into my future? Was it so horrid? Was it another apocalypse so dreadful happening, one so terrible that she wilted and died at the sight of it? I mean, that¡¯s probably stretching even my suspension of disbelief. Was it all theatrics? To impose her desire for us to hurry?


    We¡¯re definitely going to hurry though. There¡¯s no reason to risk anyone else¡¯s lives by not heeding a warning. The three of us make all haste to the north. Well, four of us. Zippy goes wherever Dippy does. I doubt he¡¯d fly back to the kobold warrens without Dippy, no matter almost any possible reason. I wear a sad half-smile. That kind of undying loyalty is so special. My inner circle has it. Dippy and Zippy have it with each other. If we were on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I would extend that same loyalty to Dippy and Zippy, but, but this isn¡¯t home. Some day, we will abandon them, to go home. So we can never be considered quite as loyal. Hopefully we¡¯re still good friends to him though.


    Huff, okay, forced march, no rest, I feel like I¡¯m going to throw up. I¡¯d use the telekinesis to take a break for my weary muscles, but then I¡¯d be outpaced by triple or quadruple, as we¡¯re all sprinting a seemingly endless marathon here. Well, other than Zippy. Cute little punk gets to ride around on one of the three of us, like Lil would for so long. He is an incredibly fast flier, but I bet he tires out a lot, being so tiny. I¡¯m not sure I¡¯ve seen him eating. Does he eat insects? Minerals like the kobolds? My brain needs these weird distractions, or I¡¯ll keep thinking about how much pain I¡¯m in, and how it feels like I¡¯m sucking pure dry ice down into my lungs.


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    Ahead, startlingly, is an imperial blockade. The heraldry is very angelic, so I¡¯m pretty sure I know what society the soldiers belong to anyway. The Mairess made it sound like the Imperium didn¡¯t start until a ways on the other side of the gap, but we¡¯re still not even near the far end of it. Maybe we¡¯re about halfway, at best, as far as I can tell. Even with Dippy¡¯s guidance, the myriad twists and turns between large stalagmite-esque sections of the chasm are dizzying, staggering.


    We slow our approach as we keep our hands in front of us, but Dippy covers himself completely, appearing more like a small child playing warrior by carrying a big shield, than anything else. I bite my lips to not laugh at the adorable juxtaposition. A tiny, truly excellent warrior now looks like a silly kid wandering around in clothes too big for them, with a too-large shield as a toy.


    A gate-guard steps towards us, hailing, ¡°Halt travelers, from where do you hail?¡±


    Uh oh. I told Hariett I wouldn¡¯t let any possible trouble find its way back to The Brook. I need a cover story before Teuila tells the truth. Uh, Tiago said Malta Verde is gone, can I safely use that? No, no it was still located in Aasimovia. How about Alta Vista? That sounds like Malta Verde, and it¡¯s from Fakeworld. Perfect cover, since it doesn¡¯t exist. I quickly answer, ¡°Oh, we¡¯re uh, we¡¯re from Alta Vista, from, well, from Jeegoobotstan.¡±


    I¡¯m fairly certain I just smashed the names of four search engines from Fakeworld¡¯s internet into one name. This guy doesn¡¯t need to know that though.


    He looks me over and plainly states, ¡°Didn¡¯t think we¡¯d see anyone from that nation ever since what happened. Sorry to hear.¡±


    I barely maintain my placid facade. My jaw wants to drop. I made it up. I made up an intentionally stupid sounding name that I could pretend was some country where no one else had ever been. But apparently it¡¯s a country, and now it¡¯s where I¡¯m from, and I don¡¯t know its history. My cover story is already full of holes. Think, think, there has to be a way to recover, to stay in the lie, to keep people safe.


    I adopt a chagrined yet worried face, ¡°Come again? I¡¯ve been wandering for quite some time now. I haven¡¯t been home in ages, literally. Expressing your sympathy makes it sound like something terrible happened to my homeland.¡±


    Please be believable, please. I refrain from gnawing on my lips in anxiousness. I glance at my compatriots, my pulse racing in terror. I¡¯m sure we could survive a melee here, but starting off by entering the closest reaches of the Imperium through slaughtering its people sets a terrible precedent. Dippy thankfully keeps his tail, snout, and all his scales hidden. I don¡¯t know if there are kobolds in Jeegoobotstan. Ugh, I can¡¯t friggin¡¯ believe that¡¯s a place. I¡¯d laugh, I really would, but this is deadly serious.


    He takes in my appearance once more, perhaps judging if I seem fit to be someone who wanders for long periods. Apparently he concludes that yes, it must be true, as he informs me, ¡°Whole place went up in smoke, some great conflagration some time ago now. Hard to judge how long ago, only got news myself a few weeks back. Didn¡¯t bother asking how old the news was. News from past the Fen is hard to come by these days.¡±


    That¡¯s somewhat fortuitous, so I don¡¯t need to recall a specific date that I would have left the place, but also bad, in case I get pressed for such details, and end up saying a date after it was destroyed. Also, poor people of Jeegoobotstan, first enduring such a nation¡¯s name, then having everything go up in smoke? Wait. Is that? No. Couldn¡¯t be. Not in an imperial cloak and equipment, right? What in the? Whoever it was just raised a finger to their lips, so I¡¯ll pretend not to have noticed them for now.


    Also, past the Fen? Past Jaggedfen Bog? Oh. Oh that effing hydra. My eyes flash blood red and I seethe with palpable, visible rage. The guard shudders and takes a step back as if a great pressure was suddenly exerted on him. Uh, oops.


    The guard rights himself, ¡°I, koff, I¡¯d be that upset too, if I just found out my homeland was destroyed. I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry for your losses. Please, safe travels to you under the bright star of the Imperium.¡±


    Oh, yeah, good cover for my anger. I gulp back my feelings, and blush apologetically as the three of us are waved through, and we begin being escorted away northwards by a single soldier. We wave behind us, and begin a loping jog that becomes an all-out sprint once again once we¡¯re clear of the outpost, but the soldier keeps pace, if a ways behind.


    Dippy suddenly stops and begins sniffing around. The canyon forks here, there¡¯s a thinner trail going north-by-northwest through the mountain range. Dippy nods emphatically. So he¡¯s already picked up the trail, and we were told to make all haste, for the fate of Aasimovia, at the very least, The Brook, but also possibly the entire world!? What could possibly be going on now, that just the three, uh, four of us could solve? Glancing back at the soldier casually running after us, perhaps five. They aren¡¯t hailing us, or ordering us to do anything, but they¡¯re keeping pace perfectly a few dozen meters behind.


    The ground becomes less solid stone canyon floor, and more acidic-drizzle-filled mud as our elevation rises ever so slightly, slowly, towards what we hope is the plains beyond the range. I¡¯m unsure of what we¡¯re after, but Dippy signals us, whisper-shouting.


    Dippy hisses to the two of us, ¡°Trail, trail is, is, is like that one, that one, behind us, been, been here before, sort of, but not. Not same. Different, not same. Part, part, part of them, been up, up, up ahead. But not, not that part back there. Explaining is, is, is hard, hard to explain. Dippy sometimes, I, me, finds it hard to explain. It, it¡¯s Dippy¡¯s tracking, with Zippy, Zippy helps. Special tracking, very special. Got, got a nose, good nose for this tracking, this special type of tracking.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow trying to follow along as I attempt to parse what Dippy¡¯s saying. The person behind us has been ahead of us before? That¡¯s not hard to imagine, if they are from the Imperium, then they could easily have come from anywhere to the north. But Dippy is somewhat phrasing it like he did when he was comparing my magical equipment, and the armor we¡¯ve given him. Same, but different. It¡¯s almost more like he¡¯s talking about magic, and auras, rather than actual tracks or scent trails. Maybe he really does have an aura-scent skill in some fashion. We slow at a many forked path as Dippy sniffs about momentarily to find the right fork. During that time, the soldier accidentally catches up to within my danger wrap range. My silent sonar tells me the true identity of this soldier, but it confuses me all the more.

 B 4 C 55: Nobody Tosses A Dippy

    More of the Sister¡¯s words penetrate my mind. Word¡¯s she had intended to say, but I don¡¯t recall hearing. The calamity set to befall Aasimovia, if it occurs, they will never recover from it. Ugh. Things are like that sometimes, aren¡¯t they? You mean to say something, or try to say something, or maybe even do say something, but the point never makes it across, not without like, mystical intervention. Regardless of the sudden intrusive thoughts, my mind snaps to the fact that I know our chaperone.


    I raise an eyebrow as I glance back, and call to the completely disguised figure, ¡°Dawn? What¡¯s going on?¡±


    Dawn waves at me, but leaves my question unanswered. Dippy chatters, ¡°This, this is the Dawn one? Tay Oo Ee Lah talked about the, the Dawn squishy. The Reggie squishie and Tay Oo Ee Lah squishie were, were, worried about the Dawn. Dippy, Dippy, I, me, I understand now. Why. We, we gotta, have to, have to help Dawn, the Dawn. That way, yep, yes, that way, I, me, Dippy is sure, that way. Zippy agrees.¡±


    Dawn chuckles as they state, ¡°Charming fella, Dippy I¡¯m guessing? Howdy. Hey Boss, you two kids took a bit longer than I thought you might. Let me guess, trouble on the way?¡±


    Teuila blushes and chuckles abashedly as she nods, ¡°Something like that Dawny. You okay? What are you doing in that getup? Talk as we walk, well, run. Time crunch for The Brook, possibly Aasimovia, possibly the entire freaking world. An oracle reached out to us.¡±


    Dawn wears an incredulous expression, ¡°Seriously Boss? How do you two crazy kids keep winding up in deeper, scarier crap one moment to the next?¡±


    I semi-humorously mutter, ¡°Such is the comedy of errors that is the life of the Shellcracker clan.¡±


    Teuila grins back at me, amused, but Dawn makes no indication of even having heard my mutterings. I¡¯m starting to get scared that I¡¯ve pissed them off somehow, but I can¡¯t let my interpersonal feelings interfere with anything right now. Teuila¡¯s right, we¡¯re on an unknown time crunch.


    Wait. Is Dawn the doomed one? She said something about a path presenting itself when we reunited with the doomed one, or something like that, right? That¡¯s a horrible way to refer to someone. I know Dawn¡¯s soul only has weeks, maybe a couple of months at this point, but, but to just label them doomed, instead of using their name. Crap on a cracker.


    Ugh, I go back and forth on how I feel about Fakeworld¡¯s memory bullcrap. I suppose it¡¯s not all that weird for someone to oscillate between acknowledging something when it¡¯s useful, and trying to deny it when it¡¯s inconvenient, or confusing, or stupid. Right now, genre savviness from Fakeworld is telling me something about Dawn¡¯s involvement in the prophecy we received. The sister could have said some cryptic thing about an imperial blockade, or after Reggie makes a blunder inventing a past, or any other thing to refer to what I¡¯d do around the point just before the path branched and split. But no, they specifically referenced the doomed one, Dawn.


    I inhale a ragged gasp as we continue sprinting, following Dippy¡¯s lead. I¡¯m sucking down acidified breaths of pure agony that feel like scraping dry ice across the inside of my lungs. I can¡¯t keep this up. Teuila can, and we¡¯re on a time crunch. I hate any of us being alone for any amount of time when things keep escalating to worse and worse dangers. She can make it ahead though, and maybe at least figure out the encroaching calamity that we¡¯re supposed to prevent, even if it takes all of us being there. Teuila and I exchange knowing glances. She¡¯s having the same thought process, though she¡¯s worried for me and my health, seeing the obvious pain I¡¯m in.


    Te shouts, ¡°Dippy, is it a straight stretch from here, as far as you can tell?¡±


    Dippy responds, ¡°Seems, seems straight, straight yes, north by north by northwest, slight, slight west of north by north by northwest. Any, any path, as long as it comes back to north by north by northwest. Why? Is Tay Oo Ee Lah scouting ahead?¡±


    Te shouts back as she rockets away at blinding speeds, ¡°Yep! Catch up soon boogerbutts! Feel better Dink. Promise!¡±


    I whisper, ¡°I promise to try Teuila. I promise to try.¡±


    Dawn divests any armored part of their Imperial disguise, and I don¡¯t even notice a crossbow on their personage any more. As I¡¯m about to ask, Dawn glances between me and Dippy several times before taking off, shouting, ¡°Right behind you Boss!¡± Dawn takes off, a bit faster than I recall them having ever moved before, though not fast enough to keep up with the likes of Teuila. Still, far outpacing me. Dippy hangs back with me, and Zippy lands worriedly on my shoulder.


    I cough, burp, and gag a dusty, acid-filled burble that floods my esophagus and splashes forth, mixing with the mud below. Dippy looks to be slightly strained, under the weight of their weird shield bed thing, with all of its random stuff stuck to the inside of it. But even under that strain, I can tell he could go faster. Maybe not enough to keep up with Dawn or Teuila, but faster than my flagging progress for certain.


    I stumble and fall, crashing face first into a puddle of acidified mud, ending up with the stinging liquid working its way into all of my facial orifices, my nostrils, my tear ducts, my throat. I gag and sputter, struggling to stand and keep moving. Dippy gazes at me with worry and concern. Then he gazes the direction we¡¯re heading, with greater worry and concern.


    Okay, I won¡¯t use it on myself unless I¡¯m falling, or have to leap a gap or something, but I¡¯d better start casting the telekinesis spell from the staff. Mostly so that I have some sort of defensive option active that doesn¡¯t rely on my own muscles and bones. Relying on those right now? Foolish. They¡¯re ready to give out at any second. I actually manage to straight up vomit while continuing to run as I burp more bubbling sputum. Well, perhaps not sputum, perhaps just stomach acid caught in acid reflux. We continue sprinting for ten minutes as I let the staff chomp into Rayileklia¡¯s mana-filled air, but I can¡¯t stand the sizzling inside my throat any longer, nor the rancid taste.


    I reach back for my waterskin, and slosh a mouthful of water, and gargle it, all while running. I spit the water rather than swallowing it, trying to free my mouth from the horrid taste of stomach acid. Suddenly, there are tiny flickering lights headed our way amidst the foggy gloom, speeding towards us as if fired from a bow. I allow the telekinesis spell to finish casting, granting me its power. Along with telekinesis, a sense, similar to my danger wraps, but slower, more analytical, at a greater range, expands my consciousness. It¡¯s necessary to be able to understand what my telekinesis can feel, grab, restrain, move.


    The flickering objects rapidly approach. Oh, they¡¯re ignited crossbow bolts. That makes sense. My spit intercepts the flaming head of one as I barely stumble aside. Dippy flips his shield over his head. Dippy tosses himself into a flip towards his shield, leaps into it, and ducks low as it skates along the mud for a dozen meters. While he¡¯s letting the shield carry him towards safety, he leans low and digs out a gnarly looking bow, and begins rapidly releasing arrows towards our assailants. No questions asked, he defends us with precise sharpshooting.


    Seeing a bolt coming at Dippy from his blind spot, I snatch it out of the air with telekinesis and snap it in half angrily. I dash towards whoever was attempting to shoot Dippy in the back, but Dippy has already turned ever so slightly, and basically fired towards the sound of the snapping crossbow bolt almost over his shoulder without even looking. There¡¯s a squelch and a thud of someone dropping to their knees, then face in the mud. Dead from an arrow between their eyes.


    Dippy is scarily efficient with his bow. Rather than running around, possibly getting in his line of fire, hampering him from what he apparently does best, I get near him and extend my telekinesis senses past my danger senses. I stand at his side, simply snapping bolts as soon as they enter my sensory range, alerting Dippy to the direction hostile targets are firing from. He doesn¡¯t need to take cover when I¡¯m covering him like this, and I can finally take a freaking break from sprinting around as I dry heave once again.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    In moments, it¡¯s eerily silent, no more missiles are sent our way, but my keen ears, and Dippy¡¯s keen senses pick up a faint sloshing sound of someone trying to run away as quietly and quickly as they can. Dippy knocks an arrow, but I shake my head, and point to the rope in his equipment. Dippy grins and nods. Quick witted fella. I¡¯m so glad he¡¯s on our side. He whispers something to Zippy, and Zippy takes off carrying an end of the rope that¡¯s weighted with a rock. Dippy keeps the slack light so that Zippy doesn¡¯t have to carry too much weight as we sprint along after our fleeing assailant. In moments, I hear the faintest swoosh as Zippy dives and circles, tripping the assailant. By the time we arrive, Zippy somehow has the robed individual in a three quarters hogtie.


    That. Huh. That is far more skill than I thought Zippy might possess. I¡¯m sorry I doubted him, or thought of him as a cute pet. Dippy shrugs to me, unsure exactly what to ask, so I roll the individual over as I pull back their hood. Firstly, it lets us see our attackers face, secondly it¡¯s a bit mean, as it means they have to squint against acid rain to look towards us as we speak. Meh, unlucky dickweasel. His robes, and the robes of other bodies nearby, all contain iconography that¡¯s reminiscent of a blazing sun. A purifying light washing over a simplified humanoid that seems to reel from the light. As far as heraldry goes, it¡¯s upsetting to think some sort of holy heavenly worshipers are attacking people at random.


    I draw the Valkyrie dagger and jab it lightly towards his liver through his robes as I command, ¡°Spill, or I¡¯ll spill you.¡±


    There¡¯s a resolute look upon his face. One I recognize from genre savviness from Fakeworld. It¡¯s fanaticism. This isn¡¯t a bunch of priests, it¡¯s some kind of cult. After dealing with the MCF, I told myself I¡¯m never taking mercy on cults worshiping strange things as deities ever again. I begin pressing the blade into his abdomen, separating flesh. I don¡¯t even care if he talks anymore. Wrath boils beneath my skin as I recall the MCF beavers and their horrid deity. My eyes alight with rage, and my hatred seeps forth so much that Dippy and Zippy recoil, as the man tries fruitlessly to scrabble away.


    He coughs and cries out, ¡°Okay! Okay! What do you want to know!?¡±


    Dammit. Intimidation actually worked. The one time I was ready to just give in to rage and kill a sack of crap. Huff. Alright Reggie, rein it in. I pant several times as I struggle to contain my rage, still firmly pressing my dagger into the wound I¡¯ve caused.


    I growl, ¡°Who the hell are you, and why did you attack us?¡±


    He gulps as he responds, ¡°We¡¯re, we¡¯re the servants of the Bright Lord. The Lord of Light, and we¡¯re ordered not to let anyone through, on this, the day of the final ritual. Our master, his high priest of this region commanded us to kill any that might seek to enter the cathedral grounds. At first we thought none would arrive, but there was some sort of brown blur, then you two showed up, making noise, gasping and panting.¡±


    I sneer. The brown blur was Teuila, obviously. Too fast for them to even realize she had been a person blazing through. He makes no mention of Dawn, so that¡¯s Dawn¡¯s incredible talent for stealth that they¡¯ve picked up over the years. I¡¯m almost surprised that Teuila left these jerks alive for us to deal with, but she made the right choice. Time is of the essence.


    I command, ¡°Speak, pertinent details, ritual, lord. You have seconds left to live if you can¡¯t come up with knowledge worth enough to spare your life.¡± I twist the dagger slightly, causing him to gasp in shock and pain.


    Brutal Reggie. Just. Just brutal. Shut up. No more. Remember? No more cults. No more mind-controlling deities, no more hostile craplords looming threateningly over others. Never again. We¡¯re done. Not long ago, I condemned an earnest, repentant woman to some horrid fate. Why should this sack of crap get my mercy? My wrath festers and mutates, it gains size and power over me. I seethe with rage as I await his response.


    I don¡¯t even realize that I¡¯d done it. I mean. I do now, too late. I carved from his liver to his heart in a single smooth stroke somehow while blinded by rage. I don¡¯t even remember doing it. I don¡¯t know if I even gave him a chance to answer.


    I wear a pout that falls into a frown as I ask, ¡°Dippy? What happened? Did he answer about his lord or the ritual?¡±


    Dippy gulps as he stutters, ¡°N,no, the, the, the squishie not-dwarf Reggie, grew, grew, sort of. Monster of, of, of gas, or light, or, or, or soul, or mana. Grew. Anger, monster of anger. Inside the, the Reggie squishie. Gone again, but, but the monster, and the Reggie, gave a quick death, one slice. Killed, so clean, so fast. The, the monster and the Reggie, same, but not same.¡±


    Hell on handrails Reggie. Is that another being living in your brain rent-free? Or is that just me on anger? Or is it the me that I needed Luni to keep me anchored away from becoming? Is there even any difference that could matter? It¡¯s something you have to get under control. Panic triggers are one thing, but slaughter triggers? That. That¡¯s just not acceptable. Whatever, we have somewhere to be. We have to catch up.


    I honestly don¡¯t even care what their bright lord is. A Sister said to stop what¡¯s happening here, for the sake of many people we care about, and they attacked us first. If any continue to attack us, I¡¯ll see if my telekinesis can squeeze their heads til they¡ª. Rein it the hell in Reggie. Fine, til they pass out. Yeah, sure buddy. Right. Huff.


    Dippy chuckles nervously, not quite able to see my thought train, but certainly likely able to see my emotions dance between wrath and wariness, concern and back. I heave a weighted sigh during a pregnant pause, and realize my eyes are wet, not from the constant drizzle, but with tears of shame. You took a life Reggie, in cold blood. Someone who was cooperating, and captured. I, I know. I know.


    I can¡¯t afford to, but I drop to my butt and hug my knees to my face as I weep. Harriet was right. I can¡¯t handle these sorts of responsibilities without turning into a monster. I might not have been one, yet, at Autumn Brook, but I just get worse and worse every day. I doomed Hellga, and only maybe possibly helped her family. It sounds like even the dwarves are in for a hell of a time in general, despite the Don¡¯s leadership. Do I honestly make anything better, anywhere? Ever? What about the consequences one or two steps down the road, of whatever actions I took? Sure, I slew the original coercer, the supposed deity of the MCF, and sure, I rescued the majority of their faction. To what end? They then tried to extort and hurt my family. Then I got Lil killed basically. I. If I hadn¡¯t, Dehlia would have been consumed forever. But how can I justify things with weird timeline hoops and loops?


    I¡¯m a friggin¡¯ murderer. How do I reconcile that? How do I live with myself? How am I even sure my own loved ones are safe from me? I¡¯m too dangerous to be around. Though, why is Dippy sitting patiently with a hand on my arm near my knee? Wasn¡¯t he scared crapless a moment ago?


    I ask, gulping back sobs I didn¡¯t know I was fighting, ¡±Dippy? Why are you sticking with me? Aren¡¯t I a dangerous lunatic? Wasn¡¯t I scary?¡±


    Dippy half-smiles, ¡°The, the Reggie saves, saves often, even, even dwarves, when helping kobolds, even, even family of dwarves. Showed up, deep, deep underground, not healed, still showed up, still saved. That?¡± Dippy prods me in the chest, approximately where my heart would be.


    Dippy continues, ¡°That tries. Tries, tries hard. The, the Reggie made it safe so Dippy, me, I could fight. Arrows and bolts, snap snap in the air. Reggie¡¯s powers. The Reggie put Dippy first, even when Reggie was, when you were angry. Could smell it on you. Reggie, the Reggie, the you, you wanted to kill, kill, fight. Instead? Instead the Reggie stayed, protected, saved. Demons, demons all have, we, we all have demons. The Reggie¡¯s are just, just a bit, bit stronger, bit more, um, real.¡±


    I let the tears stream down my cheeks as I bite back my sobs behind clenched lips. I almost snort a laugh at Dippy¡¯s closing statement. They kind of are, aren¡¯t they? I literally have a cloud of wrath within me that could cloak me like a wraith if I let it out. It would direct me to a slaughter spree. Would it spare my friends and loved ones? What limits does this demon within me have? I¡¯m so tired of having to fight it. It would be so much easier to just give in, and maybe find out later, if I ever reawaken from beneath its control and guidance.


    I lean forward and hug Dippy, who of course freaks out for a moment before realizing I¡¯m just showing my gratitude. I apologize, ¡°Sorry Dippy. I don¡¯t know how else to thank you. Thanks for sticking by me, for talking me down. We¡¯ve got to hurry¡±


    Dippy thinks for a moment before claiming, ¡°Dippy, I, me, my magics, could, could maybe help, maybe? Dippy doesn¡¯t, doesn¡¯t have much magics, nowhere near Miza. Can, magics can, just, just a few per day, make spells, make just a few spells in a day. Wouldn¡¯t be able to do more magics after. None. But can, I, I can. I can make legs feel longer. Strides farther, faster. Should, should I?¡±


    I gnaw on my lips. Is Dippy offering to use what sounds like an incredibly limited reserve of mana to grant me a spell for swiftness of stride? I don¡¯t want to take advantage of him. I mean, not in the way with negative connotations. Friends should take advantage of help offered, I guess. Utilize what each is willing to give. I gasp a shuddering breath and sigh as I slowly nod. I gaze gratefully, sadly towards Dippy. He just smiles, and wiggles his petrified wood near my legs.


    I¡¯m so glad Luni isn¡¯t in my head right now.

 B 4 C 56: What Must Be Stopped

    I think this is the first time in my life I¡¯ve ever intentionally looted an actual corpse. Rolling someone¡¯s body for such a purpose sickens me, but I¡¯m hoping there¡¯ll be a missive, or map on his personage. I¡¯m in luck there. I. I still feel awful about what I¡¯ve done, but a bit less so. This says something about wiping the slate of Rayileklia clean, purging it of the filthy corruption of Aasimovia¡¯s impurity. Friggin¡¯ fanatics. It also shows a diagram that looks similar to troop-placements that I¡¯ve seen Priscilla draw out. There¡¯s an entire compound of these jerks somewhere nearby. Castle walls, a tunnel complex. Of effing course there¡¯s a tunnel complex. When isn¡¯t a tunnel complex involved in some evil scheme in Reggie¡¯s life?


    Mothergrubbing mrgrgr. I think they mean to release some sort of spell via a ritual that somehow undoes the enchantment on Aasimovia¡¯s ancestors, or wipes them out, or burns them away. Horrid fanatical arsemonkies. What is it with people and having to tromp on each others¡¯ traditions? Leave your neighbor alone. Be kind to them. They should do the same. Ugh. I hate humans sometimes. Stupid Fakeworld memories. I¡¯m so freakin¡¯ glad Earth doesn¡¯t exist. Could you imagine? Those poor people. All those catastrophes, mostly at their own hands.


    Oh, I just had a thought. What if the engraving tool that was being used back in the Derbrightmine dominion was rifling, well, rifle muzzles? Ugh, the dwarves could be within a generation of tommyguns and automatic weaponry. They still probably wouldn¡¯t be able to kill some dragons with them though. Something about their scales distributes kinetic force. The older and larger the dragon, the larger the scales to distribute force across a wider area. It was true for Lil on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and seemed to be true for Kozzurth here on Rayileklia, so it might apply to others. I wouldn¡¯t have been able to penetrate her scales. I¡¯d have had to peel one off and keep attacking the flesh underneath, and peeling one off took me minutes of concentrated effort, when I have Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian strength. I think the dwarves on average are about as strong as me, though their stronger individuals would be far stronger.


    Hm, if the dwarves have to fight dragons, well, let¡¯s see. The eyes might be vulnerable, maybe. Possibly the nostrils and throat. Most gunners aren¡¯t going to get a chance to fire from the front of a dragon¡¯s face though, where all those possible vulnerabilities are. As soon as the dragons know to avoid gunnery, they¡¯ll just turn massive breath weapons towards areas gunfire is coming from. Hey Reggie! What? Don¡¯t get distracted! Oh, right, right. We¡¯re on a mission. At least we¡¯ve only been wasting a few seconds lost in thought. Still, better get a move-on.


    Dippy¡¯s spell finishes enhancing my legs, and he¡¯s right, it feels like my legs are almost longer as I¡¯m able to travel further with each stride, at the same pace I¡¯d been running before. Even though it takes the same time to take a stride, I¡¯m covering more ground, and making much better pace. I can see why someone as short as Dippy might have come up with, or learned a spell like this. Whew, we must be drawing close. There¡¯s a certain ripple in the air, a kind of static hum that heralds a long-charging, massive spell. I do not relish the idea of fighting my way through a horde of crazed ¡°Bright Lord¡± cultists. I¡¯m sure Teuila dashed right on by all of them, unamused by any possible crossbow attacks. Hopefully she thought to go Valkyrie on the way in, using her transformation spell along the way, over the eight or so minutes it would take to engage her Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic.


    Dippy keeps stride with me easily enough. I¡¯m not even sure if he also has his legs currently enchanted. He¡¯s definitely got a greater overall agility than me, but he is a fair deal smaller when I¡¯m in this form. He¡¯s a bit shorter than cherubic-Reggie form even. I think. Ugh, it¡¯s becoming harder to breathe. The air is moist, and thick with an oppressive gloom. The dense fog-cover blankets the region in a sinister fashion. There¡¯s an insidious, sickly green glow cast across everything, as if the fog itself were passing along the festering fires of some diseased hell.


    Seriously? You idiots believe your spell, and lord, are the good guys, with magic like this hanging in the air? It¡¯s revolting. Dippy, Zippy, and I have a hard time not gagging as we suck down air while making haste. I hate fanatics. Even if these people were once moral individuals, their brains are so rewired that, ¡°oh hey, kill anyone that comes near,¡± is a perfectly reasonable order that they¡¯re willing to follow without question. No announcement, no warning, no attempt at treaty or parley, just kill.


    I¡¯ve dealt with this before, and I tried mercy, time and time again. The sane faction wasn¡¯t as lenient or as merciful though. They got results with brutality. I¡¯m starting to worry about the Colossi near Autumn Brook. Should Teuila and I just slaughter them all for the safety of The Brook? I think I took the best course of action, between those that presented themselves. A sort of, the least evil kind of decision. Ugh, still evil regardless. But what are you supposed to do when a creature of pure malice commands others to capture and or possibly kill others, to eat them? Back on task Reggie, drop the topic. Right, right.


    We¡¯re approaching a section of cliff facing that¡¯s different than the surrounding areas. More and more of it begins to look like pillars carved into the stone face of the cliffs. The splash of our feet in the occasional puddle atop the barren stone of the canyon floor is the only sound besides the acid-rainclouds¡¯ constant rumble of thunder and crack of lightning. Even the drizzle seems to be less heavy here, compared to the weight of the magic in the air casting its oppressive gloom upon everything.


    The twang of the release of crossbows as they fire alerts me to the presence of hostiles a moment before Dippy notices and reacts to it as well. There¡¯s an entire wall of projectiles bearing down on us as Dippy tries to place himself and his shield in front of me. My telekinesis is too slow, methodical, analytical. I can only grip a single bolt out of the sky during the time that all of them close in on us. Dippy takes two bolts to his tail for his trouble of trying to protect me with his portable nest. We can¡¯t even see our attackers yet, and if we remain here, they¡¯ll have time to reload, and possibly fire upon us from different angles. I take the last bolt of this wave of projectiles in my right shoulder, barely missing my stupid right lung as I fire my own double-barreled crossbow in the directions the bolts had come from. It instantly reloads, so I¡¯m able to fire shot after shot after shot. I can hear the shuffle of leather upon stone, boot-soles or slippers moving about. As I¡¯d feared, they¡¯re going to get around us if I don¡¯t do something. Dippy wants to protect me, still, but he¡¯s about to abandon his shield to start drawing his bow as another wave of projectiles imminently approaches us.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Oh hell. My Valkyrie armor protects me from a vast majority of the bolts, and my danger-wraps guide my buckler to deflect blows that would have been fatal. Still, even under the protection of powerful magic items, several bolts find their way home to strike me amidst the joints in my armor. Still, I press onward, struggling to find our assailants¡¯ positions. I can finally see what we¡¯re up against, and it¡¯s disheartening to say the least. There¡¯s a walled off compound, with a massive portcullis ahead. It must be what the missive diagram was referring to for placement, and the possible fall-back orders. The murder-holes for the crossbows aren¡¯t as tight and small as the ones for the dwarves, they¡¯re actually several feet across, and maybe a foot high each, I could definitely lace some shots through them without needing to be eye-of-the-needle precise. I¡¯d rather not become a pincushion however during the amount of time it would take to carefully find useful angles to aim at. Especially when they could hold the crossbows above their heads, and blind-fire to keep me pinned down.


    My telekinesis feels about, around the edges of the lowered gate, and thankfully, even though it¡¯s barred, my telekinesis is far stronger than me. I telekinetically lift the bar from behind the gate, essentially a massive log, and I send it hurtling sideways into the kill-alley on the west side of the gate, scattering and crushing almost half the forces that are firing upon us, but losing the log in the process as it wedges itself amidst corpses. There¡¯s still the eastern half, and any that have snuck off to the sides to flank us. We need to get in there. And great, they¡¯ve just severed the chain attached to the winch that raises the portcullis. Sonnova. Huff. Sighing exasperatedly, I aim my telekinesis at the gate and portcullis itself. I slam the gate wide open, but struggle to lift the massive interlocking iron-bars of the portcullis.


    As I¡¯m focusing on that, Dippy has burst out from cover and is attempting to keep the eastern half pinned down so that they have to blind-fire at me. I¡¯m incredibly appreciative, as it means I¡¯m taking far less hits, though some still strike as I struggle to exert my mental might against the intense weight before me. Gasping, panting for breath, it begins to rise as I sink to my knees. I¡¯ve only got it a few inches off the ground, maybe a foot or a foot and a half of clearance. I, I can¡¯t keep this up.


    Dippy, seeing me falter, stumble, and fall, notices what I¡¯ve been doing, and is torn between trying to drag me to safety, or taking advantage of the opening. He seems to decide that taking action is likelier to keep me alive, as he makes a mad dash and slides through the mud beneath the portcullis, with barely enough clearance. Zippy follows easily enough, and the two set off up the eastern steps into the eastern kill-alley. I struggle, and crawl forward slowly, as I¡¯m struck by several more bolts in my thighs, and calves. There are shouts and screams and the sounds of dropping bodies coming from the direction Dippy had taken off in. He has managed to either kill all of them, or at least draw all their attention away from me. Now the only ones firing upon me are the western flankers who had snuck around during the initial volley.


    All the while they¡¯d been shouting nonsensical crap like for the glory of the bright lord, and other meaningless bullshiz. Stupid fanatical arseholes. This entire time, any shout that wasn¡¯t a grunt of pain has been some stupid nonsense about cleansing light, or lord of light, purify this, burn away that. My rage rises and rises as the fanaticism reminds me more and more of the MCF.


    I let the portcullis drop with a slam as I turn my telekinesis towards the incoming projectiles. Huff, I pant with exertion, but I¡¯ll deal with getting inside after these ones are taken care of. I dodge two bolts, block two more on my Valkyrie buckler, one is deflected by my armor entirely, and another scrapes along near my Achilles tendon. Hey Reggie, remember that thing you wanted me not to do? Awe, hell, don¡¯t do it Reggie, that¡¯s sickening. Heh. Wrath presents itself and I give in. I reach out my telekinetic senses, and can tell half a dozen foes are nearby. One by one I squeeze their heads with my telekinesis. Hrp. Ugh. I¡¯m going to be sick. Reggie that was brutal, disgusting, completely unnecessary. Meh.


    Still fueled by rage, I turn my telekinetic senses back towards the lowered portcullis, and lift it, surprisingly much easier, a couple of feet off the ground, enough clearance to easily shimmy under. Feeling like an idiot on the other side, knowing we might need an escape route, I have my telekinesis pick apart the stonework at the cliff face. I use the largest piece of fallen stone to slam it mentally against the outer wall, over and over as I hear more shouts and hustling coming from deeper within the compound. Just as Dippy rejoins me, I finally succeed in bashing free the portcullis, and it falls outward with a mighty slam and squelch into the mud outside.


    Huff. Phew. How the hell did Teuila get in here? Or Dawn for that matter? I suppose, the murder holes are much larger. With enough speed, or stealth, they could have probably leapt up into and through those. They¡¯re almost windows. There was no way I was going to make it up into there however, especially since they were already on high-alert, likely from a brown blur streaking into the facility. I continue to pant with exhaustion as I set my hands on my knees, bending over for a breather.


    My eyes roll in their sockets momentarily as my weariness catches up with me. I struggle to catch my breath as I stumble forward, towards more enemies. Whatever this ritual is, this grand spell to bring a cleansing flame down upon all of Aasimovia, it has to be stopped.

 B 4 C 57: Whole Lotta Burnin

    I can tell we¡¯re in for a slog. If Dippy weren¡¯t with me, I might even get lost in this compound due to having to fight so much that I¡¯d get disoriented spinning to face foes behind me all the time. There are dozens of offshoots into tunnels that seem to lead to small rooms, or full buildings. Some have open-air roofs that lead to stalactites hanging high above, while others are beneath normal ceilings. Some seem to interconnect, while others are their own dead-ends.


    The Sister of the Mist said we were headed to a cathedral right? I can totally believe that there¡¯s one buried in this complex somewhere. I¡¯m certain we¡¯re nearing whatever destined thing we must stop. I¡¯m jumped by dozens of cultists from easterly and westerly hallways. One I fling away with telekinesis immediately, but between their weight, and their battering, I collapse beneath their onslaught. Dippy slays half a dozen of them in the blink of an eye, but quite a few more scrabble at my belongings, or personage. Many of them are trying to shiv me with wicked yet cheap looking sacrificial daggers. Most of the stabbings are prevented by my Valkyrie armor, but some blades rub along arrowheads already stuck in my vulnerable spots, or slash the rare bit of vulnerable, exposed skin. I should have conjured another suit of padding at some point since Kozzurth. Friggin¡¯ heck.


    I¡¯m struck about my head with blow after blow from pommels and rocks and fists. It leaves me dizzy, reeling, and my tinnitus ringing as loudly as ever. I have to risk it. Dippy¡¯s being dragged away under his own onslaught of cultists. I try to maintain my grip on the telekinesis spell, trying to bake it into one of my own mental subroutines. I fight to keep hold of it as I produce a fireball centered on myself, exploding outwards. Smoking, charred cultist bodies go flying in all directions, including several that land on Dippy¡¯s assailants.


    Dippy immediately takes advantage of the weakness exposed in the rest of the cultists to dip far enough away to draw on them. Huh. Did he get named Dippy before or after he developed his combat style? Regardless, Dippy slays a number of cultists until he reaches back to his empty quiver, finding no more arrows.


    Somehow, somehow I barely managed to keep hold of the telekinesis spell, but it feels wobbly, shaky, loosely tethered to me. It dizzies me to try to concentrate on its effect. Regardless, I do something I haven¡¯t done in a long time. With magic, I set one of their own daggers at human-neck-level, and begin spinning it like a buzzsaw. The control of the telekinesis doesn¡¯t quite offer enough speed to turn a single blade into a circular saw, but it¡¯s enough of a threat that it ends the lives of three cultists in a moment, and sends the others scattering.


    All of these men and women, huff. I gasp a shuddered breath and release a ragged sigh. I¡¯m taking so many lives. This can¡¯t possibly be the right course of action, can it? Still, at this point, I¡¯m worried for the safety of Teuila and Dawn. We¡¯ve found no evidence of their passing, save perhaps the alertness of the other cultists who scream obscenities and alarms.


    There¡¯s no way she got captured, right? Teuila is just too strong for even a dozen men to pin down. She¡¯s too vicious to need to be cautious in freeing herself from such a pin as well. She has no compunction against taking lives in pursuit of the safety of her family, her loved ones, and herself. I really hope she has gone Valkyrie and is simply enacting some plan to end the ritual ahead.


    Drawing more ragged breaths and letting slip more saddened sighs, I glance around at the carnage we¡¯re causing. Dippy struggles to carefully retrieve a dozen or so arrows and bolts from the various corpses surrounding us during this momentary lull. He even picks up one of their own crossbows, and several of their small quivers, to add to his own ammunition. Heh. I¡¯d rather not be on the sharp end of anything that Dippy can aim with.


    I cast about my senses, not entirely certain where to go next. Dippy sniffs as well, and grabs his nose in revulsion. If evil magic has a scent, it¡¯s probably getting overpowering and disorienting the closer we get to such a massive spell. Ugh, trying to cast magic with one spell from the staff already running has left me with a discombobulated half-broken spell. The telekinetic sensory range is utterly unmanageable. I¡¯ll have to use my danger-wrap sensory range instead. They¡¯re mostly similar enough, though the danger wraps parse a lot less technical knowledge about the makeup of objects and gases and vapors. It¡¯s like the difference between having sonar, and a wide-area-spectrogram with an AI analysis tool readily available to interpret the data. The only actual similarity is that you know where denseness is, meaning the exterior of objects register in the same place along both senses.


    Alright danger-wraps, guide my brain for a bit while I try to collect my senses. I guess just pick a direction where it seems to get even gloomier, and more thick with evil mana. I see several brigades of cultists passing buckets along and attempting to create a massive puddle at the end of the tunnel hallway we¡¯re in, and sure enough, a brigade behind as well. Gazing at the liquid, it seems oily. Haha. Hahaha. Are they about to do what I think they¡¯re about to do? Yup. In order to slow our progress, and trap us so that we can¡¯t double back to find a different path, they ignite massive puddles of oil. Hm, it¡¯s a blessed, holy-oil by the looks of the jugs, and the clarity of the liquid. I¡¯d personally call it unholy oil with what these nimrods worship.


    Still, I¡¯m fairly certain there¡¯s some kind of belief-oriented mana infusing the substance. It might not be as pointless as I thought. Now, I could easily conjure a sleet storm. The fire would melt the falling ice, and the water would spread the oil, slowly dilluting it til it was no longer a suitable fuel, but that might endanger Dippy by spreading the still-lit oil this way. Screw it, I¡¯m going to be mean.


    Dippy calls after me in shock as I barrel headlong through the flames ahead of us, and begin telekinetically yanking cultists from their hallway hiding places. I use their bodies to smother the flames as I send them careening into the fires with psychic throws. The ungodly screams, and the begging their bright lord, cursing their lord for letting them die in such a horrible manner is just a horrid cacophany. Once I¡¯ve broken through the far side of the flames, I begin taunting more cultists towards me. As one lunges for me, I grip its leading arm and roll backwards into a throw, all while telekinetically locking in place screaming, dying cultists, or grabbing a new one, one at a time to use its body like a mop.


    Good gravy this is horrific. Utterly horrific. Hrp. Ugh. I¡¯m gonna throw up. Glp. Ugh. Well, at least Dippy has a bridge through the flames right now. Even Dippy looks slightly mortified, sickened by having to walk across peoples'' corpses to reach me. Dippy grimaces my way before stealing one last glance behind him. The scene we¡¯re leaving behind causes him to cringe.


    We have to be within the home stretch of this spell¡¯s origin. The mana in the air itself appears to be loosing a ghastly wail, an unending moan of pain. The sound deepens and loudens the further we traverse. Dippy continues firing at our pursuers, running out of arrows again. He swaps to one of their crossbows as we¡¯re fired on from windows, hallways, and the rear. Despite the availability of bolts earlier on, the number of bodies we have to drop as we get deeper and deeper outpaces what ammo Dippy has left. Fewer and fewer of the cultists have ranged weaponry.


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    I mean, come on people, joining a worship group that outfits you with shoddy cloth armor, cheap crossbows, and sickeningly curved daggers? How stupid can you be? Fanatics. Every last screaming jerk. The never-ending bombardment of their stupid nonsensical propaganda crap is worse than the hail of projectiles, or the occasional strike from one that dares get close. Not a one asks anything like, ¡°Oh hey, seems like a pretty deadly misunderstanding, sorry for shooting at you, can we talk this out?¡± Nope, they¡¯re all glory of bright lord this, consequence of the flame, piety something something. Bunch of dickheads, all of them. Have they all drunk the koolaid? Is there not a single sane person amongst them that doubts sending hundreds of people to die is a bright idea? Not one that thinks equipping everyone to kill, and ordering everyone to kill, is a horrid thing?


    As if answering my question, ahead is a large gathering of cultists armed with slings, standing near barrels. The tunnel hallway opens up to a massive inner cavern. The ceiling is so high that it¡¯s shrouded in mist, though water drips from the tips of stalactites that must dot the ceiling some ways beyond sight range. Within this new cavern is an otherworldly edifice, most definitely an attempt at a cathedral, but it¡¯s a horrific design. The architecture is so, so wrong that it¡¯s hard to gaze upon without feeling sick to my stomach. It¡¯s not quite elder-god-mythos level sanity-warping or anything like that, but it¡¯s definitely just, incredibly unholy. I glance at my own crossbow, one that I know fires holy bolts, or something of the sort. This close to some strange evil deity¡¯s seat of power, will it even work?


    Seeing thirty cultists standing at the steps leading to the entrance of the cathedral proper, I try to engage my crossbow and find out. The answer is no. No it won¡¯t. I probably should have been able to tell by the fact that I¡¯m not even glowing as I wield it. I¡¯m so used to not caring about light or dark, glow or not glow, that I didn¡¯t even think about it. The cultists are loading strange stone-like globs of something into slings. The objects, compounds are from two different sources that they keep carefully separated.


    Hell¡¯s bells. I hope that isn¡¯t what I think it is. Even my fire resistance would probably crumble under a thermite equivalent. Crap, thermite type stuff is easily two to three, maybe four times as hot as the lava I swam through, and swimming through that lava ruined me. It utterly destroyed me, in my draconic form, which is slightly more resilient. Crap crap crap. As the first volley is spun our way, I telekinetically yank Dippy and his ridealong partner Zippy to the side as I dive out of the path of the oncoming chemicals.


    Sure enough, anywhere that the two different types of globs meet suddenly hisses. Within moments a chain reaction occurs, igniting the combined compound with a ferocious fwsh and deafening sizzle. It¡¯s far too bright to look upon. My hypersensitive eyes and ears are blinded and deafened. Despite my thermal resistance, I can feel an overwhelming heat even from several meters away.


    As frightening as they are, they need to carefully reload their allies, making sure that anyone whose sling has held one compound, is only reloaded with that compound. I make a mad dash towards the stairs, and simply telekinetically grab one cultist¡¯s sling, and yoink it into the barrel containing the other compound. I grimace at the fear, screams, chain reaction, and gruesomeness that unfolds before me. Hrp. Glp. Ugh. The furthest cultists to the side fled when they realized what was happening, but the ignition blew open the first barrel, shattered the second barrel, and scattered the first barrel¡¯s contents on the closest ring of cultists, as well as the now free-flowing second barrel¡¯s mixture. When it hit the second barrels mixture, that one had a much smaller explosion, due to not being in a confined container, but it still spread the goop to the inner ring of cultists.


    The screams of pain are almost as horrifying as the image that¡¯s literally burned into my eyes at the moment. I¡¯m re-blinded due to the insanely bright flash, and I¡¯m almost glad that I can¡¯t see the rest of the damage unfolding. Just the few bites burned into my eyes are gruesome enough. I¡¯ve had my own scrapes with burns and melting, but nothing like this. Not even close. One brave, or idiotic, cultist that fled to the side begins to spin their sling my way while still in my danger-wrap sensory range. Despite the appalling nature of what I¡¯m about to do, I do it anyway. I grip the cultist with telekinesis and fling him into the still burning mixture, and unmoving allies.


    There are some window-like areas along the massive cathedral¡¯s outer walls, high up. I¡¯m not sure if they lead to our destination though. It¡¯s far better to burst in through the front door at this point. The problem with that is that there¡¯s a massive stone doorway, likely barred with a tremendously heavy stone slab on the other side. I¡¯d had enough trouble with the log, and portcullis. Based on my danger wrap senses, I¡¯m pretty sure the barring is far, far heavier, and my telekinesis is already weakened.


    I wish my telekinesis weren¡¯t so wobbly and disorienting right now. Even with the disorientation though, I should be able to grab an area of gas, or chemical compounds, even if they¡¯re currently reacting. Dippy approaches, and I hear another gurgling scream accompanied by a thud as he drops another hostile cultist still skulking about. I motion for him to stay back as I keep my eyes tightly shut, trying to recover my vision. I¡¯m glad he has those darkened goggles. I hope he put them on after the oil fire, and kept them on. Alright, here goes a stupid plan.


    I telekinetically lift the slight mound of mostly-spent yet still-burning thermite-like compounds. Carefully I raise it towards the door, and squeeze as if I¡¯m cupping my hands with their open face forward. I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m weakening the stone of the door, but I¡¯m not finished. I continue to squeeze, and shrink the aperture rapidly as I duck Dippy and myself behind large stone outcroppings. Instantly my telekinesis shatters as the compounds explode-forth under pressure once more. That mental, telekinetic shattering is accompanied by a massive rending of stone, a sound I¡¯ve heard few times before in my life. Something so dense and massive shattered in an instant. My telekinesis breaking also drives a migraine home behind both of my eyes like two knights¡¯ lances. I shakily use my already unsteady telekinesis to wipe aside any and all still-burning compound, clearing a wide path for the three of us up the stairs, straight into the cathedral.


    Having sent Teuila ahead, in the hopes of her cutting whatever this is off at its source, it¡¯s plain to see she hasn¡¯t been able to do it yet. I don¡¯t know where you are Teuila, but please be okay. Dippy, Zippy and I continue to advance as quickly as we can, despite our wounds and combined tiredness. Dawn similarly ran on ahead, and I¡¯ve got a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I catch up, and begin to hear awful things. Inside this cathedral-like edifice is a ghastly mockery of hallowed ground. A ghostly wail echoes across the open space, evincing a harrowing presence. Made all the worse that there is an actual aura of deadly radiance pouring forth from the ground, beyond which stands a corpulent man, barely recognizable as human. It¡¯s obvious at a glance that the barrier would attempt to disintegrate anyone or anything trying to cross it. I have a feeling it cancels magics too, so lightning, fireballs, and incorporeal crossbow bolts won¡¯t do anything. Not that I could even fire my crossbow under such a powerful evil presence.


    The bloated humanoid stands at the rear of the cathedral, atop some sort of dais that seems to be wrought directly from the stone of the surrounding cliffs. There are several window-like ledges behind him. They seem to be cubby-holes holding sarcophagi. One directly behind him seems to be set up for the soul purpose of having its windowed cubby be filled with candlelight to backlight an individual giving a sermon. I guess the area around the man would be a sepulcher. His ornate robes are stained with a putrid yellowness upon their already horrid color, making him visible through the translucent white field of energy. His face is blotchy and pustulated.

 B 4 C 58: The Real Deal About Dawn

    As soon as I blew apart the door, I started calling Can¡¯Z¡¯aas for power.  This one is about the only power I know I can safely plan to have show up eight minutes later.  I¡¯ll have to stay conscious long enough to turn back afterwards though.  I can¡¯t risk falling asleep in the form I¡¯ll be trying to take.  He¡¯s too dangerous, conniving.


    Apparently mid-conversation, from beyond that wall of radiance, the pustulant figure gloats, seemingly continuing a taunt directed at Dawn, ¡°It started of course with your life force, your soul¡¯s outer shell.  Stripping that away, like the skin of a potato, was child¡¯s play, exposing enough of your soul to anchor you as the linchpin for my spell.  It was supposed to leave you an immobile husk decades ago already, your personality trapped inside, but no matter.  My vengeance for all that you¡¯ve done to me is just as sweet seeing you like this, hopeless, driven to futile efforts.  Relying on strangers.¡±


    Dawn, gripping their head this entire time, shrieks, mortified, ¡°All that I¡¯ve done to you?  I don¡¯t even know who you are!¡±


    The corpulent, bloated man in priestly robes calls back, ¡°Oh, no?  Think back, you know who cursed you.  You know it was he, I, that did it.  All I asked was that you renounce those abominations and join me.  My time in The Brook was when in your company.  I was at ease despite those bumbling abominations, the grotesqueries of nature shambling about as we shared meals.¡±


    Ugh, this pus-bucket was trying to date Dawn while crapping on their whole belief-structure?  Appearances aren¡¯t everything, but seriously ragging on someone¡¯s entire country¡¯s faith?  One that actually is basically a proven reality?  They can preserve bodies by animating them!  How can you deny them their faith?  Some stupid holier-than-thou attitude.  Oh, wait, Dawn was indicating that they either recognized or remembered him just now, more importantly, they never shared meals, at most ate at the same inn.  I need to stop spacing out in anger at this moron.


    He drones on and on, ¡°I was prepared to comfort you through the grieving and separation from your false ideals, to help guide you to the light.  Instead you spurned me and my affections, then shunned me and my faith, so I gave you a special place in all the hells that make up this spell, one nearly a century in the making.  Every you in reality, or realities if there¡¯s more than one.  You, each possible you are part of a hand to play in washing the slate of all your detestable shambling ancestors.  Them and their unholy, foul stench.  They¡¯ll be wrought to dust.¡±


    A villainous monologue?  Seriously?  This guy really doesn¡¯t let up as he continues, ¡°It has of course already been cast, long ago at this point, its effects will occur whether you like it or not.  Unless, perhaps you could find a way to completely obliterate your own soul from all of existence, before the spell finishes claiming it.¡±


    He cackles maniacally momentarily before resuming, tauntingly, ¡°You do feel it closing in, don¡¯t you?  You feel less and less of the outside world, the peeler edges closer and closer to what was originally the center of your hapless, disease-ridden potato of a soul.  Your senses leave you, maybe momentarily, maybe long term, one by one.  By the end, they should all be stripped from you, trapping you senseless in your husk until the final moments.¡±


    Dippy and I are edging closer along opposite walls of the perimeter, but the sickening radiance covers everything from floor seemingly up to the unseen ceiling above.  I¡¯m bleeding like crazy, my wounds have even disintegrated or expelled some of the crossbow-bolt heads stuck in some of my joints.  Just, breathe air, breathe Reggie.  Stick with the spell.  Stay awake, alive.  It might be just enough to make the difference in this situation¡¯s outcome.


    Dawn yells, ¡°Stop it!  Shut up!  Just, just shut up!¡±


    Poor Dawn.  But also, what is it with his awful potato peeling metaphor?  It¡¯s so half-assed.  He¡¯s had Dawn cursed for decades, and couldn¡¯t think of a better metaphor?  I suppose that¡¯s not important.  What was it he said about every possible reality?  Does he actually know about multiple realities, or is he talking out his arse?  Whether there¡¯s only one Dawn, and he did this to them, or infinite Dawns, and he did this to all of them, it doesn¡¯t matter.  This is worse than anything I¡¯d imagined.


    I didn¡¯t even know what we were tracking down was the source of Dawn¡¯s curse.  Dippy really hit the nail on the head.  He¡¯s a good guy, smart in his own ways, and an excellent tracker.  He said it smelled like Dawn had been here before, right?  Well, the person behind us, the disguised soldier who turned out to be Dawn anyway.  Well, even if they hadn¡¯t come physically, their soul was stretched in this direction, apparently.


    The horrid, putrid man jibes, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?  Your ancestors no longer mean that much to you?  You¡¯re not willing to make one measly little sacrifice to save all of them?  I thought as much.  You know as well as I that they¡¯re abominations, even your cursed existence is worth more than all of them put together.  Don¡¯t worry, just let it happen, it will all be over soon.  We don¡¯t even need your soul any longer to complete the spell.  Nor mine for that matter, hah.  One or the other would do.  It is in its final stages.  And, as a precaution, whichever of us perishes last will still trigger its final act.  Not that we need such a backup plan anymore, with the spell being moments away from finishing.¡±


    I shudder at the abhorrent figure¡¯s choice of phrasing as he continues, ¡°You¡¯ll join them in being unmade, lost for all eternity.  If the spell really does its job, it will even strip you from memory.  It¡¯ll be like you¡¯d never even been born at all.  The best part is, even if I hadn¡¯t lived long enough to see it, it would still have happened.  I pinned the spell to the outer shell of your soul after all, and that¡¯s already been claimed by the woven fabric in the magic of reality.¡±


    I call out, ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is, there¡¯s nothing you can or will do while you¡¯re alive to end Dawn¡¯s curse.  You being alive doesn¡¯t matter because the spell has a contingency tied to the final person¡¯s death, and even if we kill you, that doesn¡¯t end the curse placed on Dawn?¡±


    Suddenly aware of my presence, he turns towards me to gloat, ¡°Quite right indeed! Begone with your futile efforts, and maybe my hallowed lord will spare you as his light washes clean these lands!  Well, my lord won¡¯t spare that one of course, Dawn there will never have existed at all.  Muahaha.¡±


    Oh that is it, I¡¯ve had it with this jerk.  He does not get to live.  Teuila, I hope you can sense this hatred I¡¯m feeling, and I hope you¡¯re getting close.  If this were an action film on Fakeworld, Earth, we¡¯d have ear comms, and her fiery bow would be a sniper rifle with incendiary rounds, and I¡¯d tell her some quip like, ¡°Smoke this a-hole!¡±


    He¡¯s hiding behind that nearly tangible field of energy, knowing we¡¯d be consumed in radiance if we tried to cross it.  The smug pile of feces thinks we¡¯re just going to wait it out while Dawn is erased from existence, or chooses to erase their own existence?  Think again dickweasel.


    Screw it.  Just screw it.  I¡¯ve been concentrating since we got here, and eight minutes have almost passed, I¡¯m already bleeding, and bleeding light anyway.  He probably can¡¯t even tell that radiance is flowing out of me through the fog of his own unholy aura before him.


    Erase Dawn from existence?  Pin a spell on them that wipes out all the peaceful peoples¡¯ ancestors?  You don¡¯t get to do that to my friends.  I¡¯m used to burning alive from radiance.  The radiant area might be larger than my telekinesis range, but all I have to do is rush in a ways.  Even if it has some sort of magic-stopping properties that strips spells, I should be able to keep my spell hidden deep within me.  Hell, I¡¯ve been through anti-sorcery before, and psychic connections still worked, so psychic telekinesis should too.


    It¡¯s like I was made for moments like this.  I rush forward, Dawn gasps and shouts for me to stop, sensing what will happen as I cross the line.  The priest cackles as he thinks I¡¯m going to either be caught, screaming in pain until I die, too hurt to move, or instantly vaporize and die.  He thinks I didn¡¯t already know the agony of this exact power, that I wasn¡¯t already in the middle of channeling this sort of torture.  Yet I enter the field, and push through the pain, summoning every ounce of willpower or power I can from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas to protect me long enough to make it through.  Hellspit, it tore my telekinesis spell off of me.  It was too weakened already by having cast another spell while trying to maintain it.  I knew that would come back to haunt me.


    I have to make it to the other side.  I push against the fabric that separates our realities, willing my body¡¯s mana to reinforce my passive skills, and further enhance the electrokinesis I¡¯ve always got running through my nerve system.  I force my pain nerve response time lower and lower, fighting back the pain signals, slowing them down.  Screw it, it¡¯s fine.  I¡¯ll push through.  It feels like a million deaths compressed into each moment that I trudge forward.  I weep while suffering agony and rage, but I push through.  My Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian transformation spell goes off, perhaps a bit late.


    King¡¯s voice worms its way along my mind in that smoky, suave yet sickening tone, ¡°Long time no see partner!  What is, what, Ahhh!¡±


    King appears to have been vaporized from inside the form.  It appears to be something quite like radiation poisoning to have freed me of his influence.  But my form also dissipates under the magic-stripping effect of the radiance.  Hellspit.  It bought me a grand total of two steps under this killing-pressure.  I return to my feminine, burly-armed form, not cherubic Reggie, which should be my default state.  Perhaps because my mite-hulk king transformation was a spell technically cast from inside the aura.  I wonder if there are any remnants of King within that form.  Based on Queen mite-hulk, even a single cell, hell, a single strand of protein was enough for her to respawn from.


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    During his cackling, the corpulant man notices my continued existence, ¡°Hahaha, hahaha, hahaha, eh?  What in the?¡±


    That¡¯s right you feculent turd.  Everything hurts, as bad as the worst levels of my mana sickness, combined with the time I swam through lava to reach Lord Agni.  Somehow, this sickening radiance, it¡¯s not disintegrating my flesh, just corrupting it, infusing it, scaring me internally like radiation poisoning.  It has left me feeling exhausted.  I barely have the strength to take another step, let alone find a way to end his life.  Whatever, I don¡¯t care.  I don¡¯t even have to kill him.


    I make it through to the other side, my wrath pouring out, enveloping me in the ephemeral cloud of some sort of wraith, an almost tangible presence of all my rage, hatred, fears, mistrust, and paranoia.  Even without the aura-sensing spell active, I can feel my hostility generating an aura around me thicker than I¡¯ve ever seen before.


    I grip the front of his robe, and pull his puffed, pestilent face towards mine, dragging him toppling from the dais.  He shrieks and tries to scrabble away, but I simply walk back through the wall of agonizing energies, hauling him with me.  I hold him within it until every last atom of his being is lost to eternity.  Too bad it can¡¯t wipe the stain of him from our memories.


    As he dies, the energy barrier drops, so too, does Teuila.  She falls from the very top of the cathedral¡¯s domed roof beyond sight range in the sickly glowing fog.  She¡¯d been caught in a bad way, barely hanging on just outside of the barrier¡¯s reach apparently, it still must have been sapping her vitality the entire time.  He might have been holding her up there with a longer range, weaker telekinesis spell, or a spell effect that messed up her gravity control, sending her falling upward to the roof.  It couldn¡¯t manage to draw her closer, but still trapped her.


    I want to leap to her aid, to cushion her fall.  With Te being hurt, it reminds me that she sensed my sluggishness ever since the clothier, and now I¡¯m feeling hers.  Her own pain and exhaustion are what are preventing me from putting my all into it to move faster.  I can¡¯t generate any speed.  I¡¯m too destroyed.  I begin to cough and double over as I struggle and stagger towards where Teuila will be upon impact.


    I¡¯m not quick enough, but Zippy is.  The little fellow is trying to slow Teuila¡¯s fall.  Teuila¡¯s mostly, usually effortlessly light, but Zippy is tiny.  Thankfully Dippy helps with some sort of net tosser.  They¡¯re really, truly, great friends to have.  Dawn looks like they want to sob, to cry, to scream, to rail against the priest¡¯s statements, to claim they were all lies.


    I reach a hand towards Dawn in comfort, and they shriek, swatting it away.  I recoil, unsure of what¡¯s going on.  I won¡¯t be able to comfort anyone in a few moments, the pain is catching up with me.  I¡¯m sorry Dawn, I don¡¯t know how to help, and right about now I¡¯m going to vomit a torrent of blood and mana.  I loose up the sick that contains far more iron content than should be coming from anyone¡¯s stomach, its red splash staining the cathedral floor a crimson that aches to be called what it is, a cathedral of blood.


    The cathedral of blood, a fitting name for such a horrid edifice.  It¡¯s definitely a place one shouldn¡¯t let their guard down in.  It¡¯s a tad hard to keep my guard up at the moment however.  I think I might be screaming in pain, or maybe I¡¯ve already passed out, I can¡¯t tell.  I think the senses of that partially broken, fully stripped telekinesis spell I used, and the fact that I reached towards Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian power once again, combined with my danger wraps, is keeping me in a semi aware state.


    Dippy is freaking out that none of the three of us are responding to him.  Hey, Dippy, you goober, don¡¯t, oh you bozo, Teuila doesn¡¯t need cardiopulmonary resuscitation.  You little punk.  You know you can¡¯t form a seal to get air in our lungs.  Wait, no, I don¡¯t either.


    I can¡¯t believe he might be about to try what I think he¡¯s about to try.  Now he¡¯s running towards Dawn who is still freaking out.  Is he going to try to give them CPR while they¡¯re still standing?  And, technically already dead.  Dawn seems to shriek, and they knock one of the large decanters that likely hold holy water towards Dippy.  Dippy takes a moment to take the hint as the porcelain shatters on his cranium.


    It¡¯s a good thing Teuila and I took the brunt of everything physical this last day or two.  It¡¯s also a good thing that we critterkin bounce back just as quickly on Rayileklia as we did on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  Still, this feels ungodly awful, and I worry I may have made my mana sickness even worse.  It feels like there¡¯s some kind of presence, somehow it¡¯s external, and knows where I am, because it¡¯s also partially inside of me now.  I¡¯m terrified to think of what unholy, but supposedly hallowed, entity that jerk had bargained with for his power.  More terrified that if I don¡¯t figure it out, it might find me and my friends first.


    I fight and claw my way back to awareness, to wakefulness, as pain screams through me like lightning on rails.  Hells, my eyes are clouded with the red fog of blood mixing with tears.  It has been a long time since I was certain that my eyes were bleeding.  I¡¯m pretty certain when the thermite-like compound exploded in my telekinetic grasp, that I popped blood vessels all around my optic nerves, based on the sharpness of the migraine that hit.  And now the blood from those popped vessels is just swishing all around my nasal cavities and eyes.  Hrk, koff.


    I must look like a horrifying sight, because Dawn recoils as I stand, their face a mask of utter terror.  I slump, and falter as I edge slowly towards Teuila.  I pick up her nearly-weightless frame, unsure where her equipment is, and drape one of her arms across my back as I plod towards the exit.  I don¡¯t want to spend another second in this place.  If I had my magic, I¡¯d destroy the whole thing in an instant once we left it.  With the staff¡¯s magic, I can probably ruin its entrance at least.  We scared off, or slew most of the cultists, probably.  Any that are left wandering these halls can die for all I care.


    Dawn is at least willing to follow us out of this hellish reminder of their curse.  I knew their existence was harsh, but they¡¯re in more turmoil than I¡¯d ever even imagined I might see them in.  Dippy is asking questions in his usual nervous chatter, but I can¡¯t respond to him at the moment in my broken, nearly-dying state.  Thankfully the little guy doesn¡¯t take offense even if perhaps he might be feeling ignored.  I guess kobold society might be kind of like that, the chatterboxes get ignored, but they¡¯re still happy to just chatter away.  It¡¯s probably easier in Draconic.  Maybe that language even has a way of not being ignored, or being responded to more easily even if exhausted.  Kozzurth was able to speak it without control over much of her tongue, while mostly dead.


    I spy Teuila¡¯s massive backpack tucked away a fair ways up a boulder shortly past the exit.  It blends right in with the rock.  It makes sense that she abandoned it way over here to sneak inside.  The murder-holes are too small for it to fit.  I¡¯m glad to see it, so I snag it, coughing and sputtering more blood as I can barely heft it.  Now that I have our gear, I seek a spot on the leeward side of some independent cliff-facing.  This stone makes a branch in the path, maybe it¡¯s an enormous boulder that¡¯s worn down to a vertical smooth face in the ever-present rains of pain.  I set Teuila down and ask Dippy to help prepare camp, and tell him how grateful I am that he caught her.


    While Dippy is helping me take care of camp, Dawn disappears off to the west somewhere.  I can¡¯t do anything for them until they¡¯re ready to accept some comfort that I might offer.  I can however make a very big noise as I blow the everloving hell out of this craphole¡¯s architecture.  I start weaving magic from the staff, drawing into existence a series of fissures, and conjuring several fireballs.  The combined effect is several explosions and the toppling in of the front face of the compound that houses the mockery of a cathedral.  My combination of spells even drags down a significant portion of the cliff facing, burying the front of the buildings in enough rubble to obscure them entirely from view.  I¡¯m tempted to unleash a stone elemental inside of any tunnels that might be left standing, if the magic could reach, but I shouldn¡¯t get close to something collapsing so heavily.


    See what I mean about not getting close?  The rubble actually causes a chain reaction, caving in more of the cathedral¡¯s compound, which loosens more rubble along the supported cliff face, which caves in yet more of the compound, all the way back towards the cathedral itself by the incredibly long series of sounds of it.  More effective than I had planned honestly.  Any cultists left within are either crushed, or likely to asphyxiate or starve.  Screw ¡®em.  That¡¯s fine by me at this point.  Wrath, that deadliest sin of mine once again crawls along my back.


    Hm, that little display took abit over half of the staff¡¯s magic, when it was already down a ways, whoops.  It should be fine by tomorrow or maybe the day after though.  How much energy it can leach from Rayileklian air seems kind of random.  Or maybe less how much it can leach, but how much it can purify into castable mana.  I¡¯ve never let it drop this far.  There¡¯s barely a trickle in it.  I¡¯m afraid of what might happen if I use up all of its power.


    What if it takes energy to draw in and purify mana?  It could become a simple walking stick, completely non-magical.  I¡¯m going to have to be even more careful with its expenditures. Lets see, what have we used since it last had a chance to recharge.  I¡¯m pretty sure it fully recharged in the Derbrightmine Dominion, I know I cast telekinesis once on the way here, a fireball inside and four fireballs and one fissure-quake spell to bring the place down.  So we sort of know its limits.  The quake spell definitely used the most energy, but the fireballs surprisingly used more than the telekinesis even individually.  I could maybe use six fireballs and one telekinesis in a day when the staff is fully charged.  I¡¯d better keep count.


    Dawn returns, quite possibly drawn in by the terrifying sounds of explosions and the quaking of the ground.  They spy my handiwork, but simply mill around the edges of camp.  I want so badly to help heal their hurt, to break this spell that¡¯s supposedly rending their existence, but I don¡¯t know how.  Maybe they hate me, because I acted in haste, and didn¡¯t even really interrogate the guy responsible if there was some other way to reverse it.  Then again, that crapmonger was all too happy to let Dawn believe their only choice was to erase their own existence, or be erased as their own soul finalizes a spell that will destroy the Aasimovian¡¯s beloved ancestors.  Also, Teuila was nowhere in sight, and it turns out he had magically pinned her to the ceiling at the edge of the radiance.  I don¡¯t know how badly off Teuila is right now, but I fear how much worse it could have been if I had waited any longer to act.


    The Sister that sent us on this path must have known what she was sending us to if they¡¯re as oracular as everyone claims.  The fact that she was able to find us in the wilderness seems to indicate she was.  If she had such potent foreknowledge, she must have known about Dawn¡¯s ties to the prophecy she laid out for us.  That if we didn¡¯t seek out this trail, that a great calamity would befall Aasimovia, and the grief it caused, well the Aasimovians would never recover from it.  Still, it sounds like even though we followed the trail to its end, Dawn¡¯s fate is sealed, and so is that of the Aasimovian ancestors.


    The spell still hangs in the air, and the aura-vision from the staff shows me Dawn¡¯s soul still bleeding away.  I knew the Sister referenced my ¡°doomed¡± friend for a reason, but I couldn¡¯t have possibly imagined this.  How the hell are we supposed to have stopped it?  Were we just too late?  That disgusting, entitled, crapsack high priest talked a lot about the spell.  He probably felt pretty safe behind that aura of sickening radiance.  It feels like my insides are bubbling, boiling, melting, and the migraine from the thermite-like compound blowing apart my telekinetic muscles is excruciating on top of all that.  Urp, ugh.  Yeah, more iron content in my vomit.  Not a great day to be us.


    He wasn¡¯t lying about having set it up so that he didn¡¯t need to be alive.

 B 4 C 59: Identity Crisis of Infinite-

    After I return the staff to the hidden holster Teuila bought for me, I heave a shuddered sigh.  Dawn still looks heartbroken at the knowledge we¡¯ve gained.  I try to reach a hand towards them for comfort, and they recoil.


    Dawn stutters, ¡°I¡¯m, I, I just.  Please don¡¯t touch me.  I¡¯m not going to be, I¡¯m not.  I didn¡¯t follow you to be some concubine or something.  ¡®Kay Rej?  Like, just, just no.¡±


    I¡¯m hurt that that¡¯s what Dawn thinks of me at the moment.  Even Teuila looks a bit stricken as she¡¯s barely even conscious.  Or Te may be reacting to a dream, or worse, a nightmare, since her eyes are closed.  I think Dawn is probably, possibly always was, but probably at least while under this curse, an aro ace I believe is the term.  Aromantic ace.  On top of maybe being agendered like me.


    How can I let them know we¡¯re not a threat like that?  That I just want them to be okay?  I mean, in all technicallity, Teuila and I both qualify for most of the three of those ¡°A¡±s as well.  Loosely in the aromantic side of things, but the others for sure, and Teuila is closer to having a gender identity, but she could care less what pronouns you use.  We could physically prove that we¡¯re not lust-monkeys in that we don¡¯t have the parts to even do most of the things involved in that stuff.  Teuila looks saddened as she appears to return to unconsciousness if she hadn¡¯t been there already.


    I start, ¡°Dawn, I¡¯m so sorry I gave that impression, truly.  I don¡¯t know how to help you feel safe again.¡±


    I rack my brain for anything I can offer.  Taking watch?  No, Dawn doesn¡¯t sleep.  Uh, material goods probably aren¡¯t going to win trust.  All I have is a bit of magic, oh, the staff.  Spells in it that I don¡¯t yet understand.  Possibly even the ability to create spells, or duplicate spell effects that I already know, or have intimate experience with.  The aura vision spell is one that doesn¡¯t take any of the staff¡¯s power, only nearby ambient energy.  If I used that as a base, and some of the extrasensory knowledge from the telekinesis spell, I think I could essentially create a danger sense spell that works like my armwraps.


    I ramble, ¡°I could maybe cast a spell from the staff, it would grant you a similar danger sense to the one my armwraps give me, for maybe an hour.  Are you, are you interested in that?  Do you want that?  I have no interest in forcing anything on you, I just have no idea how to help after what I just heard.¡±


    I hope Dawn can see how mortified I am, and how sympathetic I am towards their feelings.  I just want to make this right.  After all they¡¯ve suffered, I want them to at least feel safe traveling with us.  It¡¯s not fair to them that these outside forces keep reminding them of their curse, and hurting them.  Worse, it¡¯s not fair to them to be traveling with people that they¡¯re afraid might, might coerce them.  I can¡¯t really even stomach the thought.


    Dippy and Zippy look completely lost.  Well, Zippy is sleeping for once, Dippy appears confused as he munches on a random cobblestone.  He¡¯s really got to stop picking those out of the path, some wagon is going to get stuck in the mud some day because of him, or a horse will throw a shoe or something.  Then again, what else could we even get for him to eat?  I suppose we could bash some of the cliff facing down into rocks.  Maybe.


    After a long pause, Dawn walks silently away.  I take a seat and try to stifle my tears of sympathy for them.  They must hurt so badly, and there¡¯s no one that can offer them any sort of comfort that they¡¯re comfortable with.  The tears flow regardless of my wishes.  Teuila stirs momentarily, and I help her drink, and remove the stiffest layer of her clothing so she can rest in comfort.  After a seeming age, as Teuila and I prepare to bed down, Dawn returns.


    They ask, ¡°Is, is that spell still on the table?  Could I please have it?  I.  I just.  I don¡¯t.  I don¡¯t.  Nothing is right anymore.  Nothing makes sense.  I just, I have to be able to make sense of something.  So hit me with a new sense.¡±


    I nod as I gulp down sadness-snot that decided to run down the back of my throat rather than out my nose when I was sniffling through my tears earlier.  Ugh, that¡¯s such a gross feeling.  I hope my quivering lips and tear stained face don¡¯t give Dawn the wrong impression.  I don¡¯t want them to think I¡¯m crying over losing a concubine, even just a possible one, or something.  They were never such a thing for me.  They¡¯re a valued friend.


    I pull the staff out from its hidden holster along my hip, and aim it at Dawn.  They look slightly terrified, unsure if they can even trust what I¡¯ll be casting.  I unleash a spell that should copy the effects of my danger wraps for them, for a short while.  I pause a moment with bated breath, hoping beyond hope that this offers them some small comfort.  Some tiny mote of safety amidst all that they suffer.


    Dawn¡¯s eyes become large, and the light that they shine can be seen passing over me.  They gasp and cover their mouth with both hands.  Oh, right.  The silent sonar, the ranged senses of the telekinesis are like a density spectrogram.  Dawn now knows the density of every inch of my body, or at least how it appears topographically, and Teuila¡¯s too.  I don¡¯t know how I feel about that.  It¡¯s almost as bad as if I had coerced them into joining our cuddle.  I feel awful about it, thinking on it.  Dawn turns away and walks quickly out of sight once more.


    I hate this.  I hate that I just subjected them to basically the exact thing they didn¡¯t want.  I feel sick to my stomach.  I sit on the balls of my heels and weep silently into my knees.  I¡¯m an awful friend.  Teuila sniffles from nearby in our sleeping bag, likely sensing some of my sadness, as our bond strengthens once more.  I¡¯m not sure I can sleep.  I wonder if my walking through radiant corruption will have affected her.  Or perhaps she¡¯s suffering radiant corruption and mana sickness all her own from having been suspended above it.


    Nearly an hour after Dawn left, as I stop weeping and sit in a forlorn silence, Dippy asks, ¡°Can, can I?  Is it, is good?  Can I have it?  Magics on me too?  Are they good magics?  That one, the Dawn one, seemed upset, but seemed powerful.  Big eyes, big shine.¡±


    Thinking about the staff¡¯s limitations, I normally can¡¯t have something with a prolonged effect out in the world and still use it to cast any other spell.  Especially not if it¡¯s one that requires an internal mental subroutine, or actual focus.  This spell doesn¡¯t require either of those though, and, well, it¡¯s not using it to cast another spell, it¡¯s just applying the same spell to another target.  I might be able to do this.


    I frown and huff a sigh as I respond, ¡°I can maybe place it on you Dippy, yes, but I just remembered that you¡¯ll sense everything around you.  You¡¯ll know what everything could feel like, in detail, in a circle around you.¡±


    Dippy looks perplexed, ¡°That¡¯s good, good, yeah, yeah good, can¡¯t sneak up, no sneaking up, can¡¯t sneak up if you feel everything around, right?  That¡¯s good.  Why the, why is the Dawn friend upset at that?  They¡¯re nice, they¡¯re good, magic¡¯s good, this magic is, is, is, good good magic.  Could still be, still be enemies around.  We came one way, multiple ways to get here.  Lots and lots of humie enemies, all angry and killy.  Never, never, never seen so many crazy squishies.¡±


    I can¡¯t give Dippy a straight answer about Dawn¡¯s feelings.  Even if I¡¯m correct about my assumptions, those assumptions are not my tale to tell.  I¡¯ve already accidentally added hurts to their plate tonight, I don¡¯t need to add more.


    He is right though, there could be enemies east or west that heard the massive rockslides I caused.  I adopt a forlorn smile as I aim the staff at Dippy.  I feel a tug on the threads of the energy that are woven into the air.  A tether, similar to our evolutionary energy tethers from so long ago on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, seems to stretch out in the direction Dawn headed.  As I try to cast the same spell on Dippy, there¡¯s a twisting in that tether and I immediately stop trying to cast the spell.  I may have just found how to give Teuila back our psychic link.  I am not going to subject Dawn to being tied to Dippy¡¯s brain.  Despite how pleasant and helpful a fellow as he is, that would definitely require consent first.


    I wait as the magic woven through the air in Dawn¡¯s direction fades and is snipped from the staff.  Dippy has been standing patiently with arms outstretched, assuming I¡¯m going to blast him, for quite a while now.  He opens one eye to peer at me, just as I¡¯m finally casting the spell for him.  He tumbles over backwards, oddly enough.  The spell had no physical force, but he fooled himself into expecting it, then the new senses probably threw him off balance.


    Dippy states excitedly, ¡°Reggie, the Reggie, the Reggie is a reptile too?  Didn¡¯t know, didn¡¯t know.  Reptiles can¡¯t have hair, didn¡¯t know.  Shouldn¡¯t, but you do.  And, and, and, Tay oo ee lah too!  More, more friends, scale friends, yeah good, good, good good, yeah, yes.¡±


    My face wildly contorts at Dippy¡¯s sudden outburst and exclamations.  What makes him think we¡¯re reptiles?  I guess I¡¯d better ask, ¡°Dippy, what makes you suddenly think we¡¯re reptiles?¡±


    Dippy responds, chattering nervously, ¡°Parts, the parts, Dippy is smart at tracking, knows things, I know things about bodies, following bodies, Dippy, I, know things.  The parts inside, that¡¯s a reptile.  Scaled ones are reptiles, kobolds are reptiles.  No dangles, no pointies.  Yep yep, reptile.  All inside.¡±


    I hear a pleasant laugh from a figure that approaches just barely close enough to skirt the edge of my danger sense range.  It can only be Dawn.  Yet, they sound like their load has been lightened, even in just that short laugh.  I try to reset my facial expression and rub my puffy eyes as I turn to meet them.  They stand abashedly at the edge of my sensory range, rubbing the back of their cranium, avoiding eye contact for a bit.  I feel bad ignoring Dippy now that he has, um, proved his intelligence to me, but he seems to be rewarding himself with pride well enough.  I¡¯ve been incredibly worried about Dawn.


    They wrap their arms around the front of their torso as they enter my sensory range after a long moment.  Dawn asks, not addressing me directly, ¡°Did um, did Dippy get that same spell?¡±


    I nod slowly, trying to remain as unthreatening as possible.  Barely resisting bursting into tears of gratitude that they don¡¯t seem to hate me, yet.  They look me up and down, appraising me, then gaze at Dippy who still seems to be chattering, now about whatever little thing is within sensory range.


    Dawn lets loose a pleasant laugh once more, and I hazard a sad smile, my eyes wet with tears.  They finally address me, ¡°Rej, I, I didn¡¯t know.  I mean, I couldn¡¯t have.  I¡¯ve never even, I mean, no one has.  Did, did what I sense, what I felt, was that real?  Is that, is that, I can¡¯t even voice it.  If, if, I mean.  Then you can¡¯t even.¡±


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    Gulping down pre-nasal drip or post-nasal drip, whatever, once more, I try to flash Dawn half of a smile.  Once I¡¯ve failed miserably at that, I state, ¡°Y,yeah.  We don¡¯t.  Um.  We would never, can¡¯t ever.  Truly, truly never.  It¡¯s not even a thing that crosses our minds.  Teuila might get the humor, and join in on the jokes, but that¡¯s it.  I¡¯m so terribly sorry for whatever we did, whatever I did that made it seem otherwise. I have no idea how to make up for that, how, how, how to earn your forgiveness.  I had no idea I was coming across that way when I expressed wanting to comfort you.¡±


    Dawn cringes at the word comfort and I gasp and slap both hands over my mouth.  Did they always cringe at that word?  Did I somehow miss it before?  My eyes are wide with saddened terror, worrying that I might not be able to offer them the safety they deserve, simply by my existence and vocabulary frightening them.


    Dawn finally states, ¡°It, it wasn¡¯t you.  There¡¯s things I didn¡¯t remember, things I didn¡¯t want to remember.  I mean, I was always kind of like this.  Got called frigid and whatnot.  It hurt.  Then anyone that I thought was my friend tried to offer me, ugh, comfort.  It was always the same.  They just wanted that.  It, well, I mean.  I didn¡¯t, I mean.  I¡¯ve heard stories with, like but, or, or or¡ª.  But, but it was never like that, not in The Brook.  Just pressure. Anger when denied, lost friends.  Ugh.¡±


    I clutch my chest with my right hand, the sorrow of their tale striking me like a dagger to the heart.  They don¡¯t offer up anything more on the subject, so I don¡¯t know if there is any more to the tale.  It seems the betrayals were enough to scar them.  It sounds like they couldn¡¯t rely on their friends to be friends without seeking affection, specific affection.  I don¡¯t need to know any more to know that I need to do better.  Dawn throws a concerned gaze my way.


    Dawn asks, ¡°Could you, um, maybe use she?  And stuff? From now on?  I might.  I mean.  You know.  You¡¯ve known the entire time I¡¯ve known you.  I¡¯m okay with you knowing.  It could, could maybe be kinda, of, of nice.  To be able to be known for all of me, without someone trying to get that.  I mean, I¡¯m, I¡¯m still.  I¡¯ve always been a girl.  I just got so sick of it all, especially after the curse.  I just wanted someone I could really trust to know, someone that wouldn¡¯t be that way, someone other than that grumpy sneaker who stopped by every few years.  I don¡¯t want to be touched for the most part, and won¡¯t, this isn¡¯t some doorway.  I want your word that, that you are how you say you are.  You were just trying to show that you cared, in your way, and didn¡¯t want that, and won¡¯t want that.¡±


    I nod, gulping once more, the last of my tears and snot finding their way to my stomach, sickeningly enough.  I state, ¡°Absolutely.  I, um.  If I ever slip up, and offer you a hug, I, I¡¯ll do better.  I¡¯m sorry.  And yes, of course, if that¡¯s who you are, who you want to be known as, how you want to be known, of course, of course I¡¯ll tell Teuila in the morning that Dawn, she¡¯s an amazing friend and I hope she¡¯ll stay our friend.  If, if that sounds good, to put it that way.¡±


    Dawn rubs the back of their head, stands up, and walks away again, silently.  I close my eyes as my heart sinks into the pit of my stomach.  They turn around before reaching the edge of my danger wrap senses, as they¡¯re undoing a tie in one of their shirts.  My face adopts a quizzical expression.  I don¡¯t know what to make of this.  Does this mean they trust the three of us enough that they want to use their identity that they¡¯d kept hidden this entire time?  Her, her identity.  I can be better, I can do better.  If she wants to be recognized as a woman by letting her chest remain unbound, I can give her that solace.


    Dawn approaches me, heat radiating from her cheeks, which seems to break the laws that we know of her existence, as she asks, ¡°About offering hugs, uh, you don¡¯t have to like, beat yourself up or anything.  I¡¯m, I¡¯m frigid, or, or something, I¡¯m not a touch-hating monster that¡¯ll bite your head off for the offer.  And hey, Rej, can I, maybe, just one time.  Could I get a hug pal?  And, can I just say sorry?¡±


    Tears flood from my eyes as a sad smile spreads across my face and I nod haltingly, but happily.  I spread my arms wide, and let Dawn direct how tight she would like our embrace to be.  It¡¯s loose-armed, but close, pressed firmly against each other.  I don¡¯t know if Dawn can even feel it, their senses being so obscured to them, but I don¡¯t want them to feel trapped in the hug for even a moment longer than they desire.  Her senses, I don¡¯t want her to feel trapped.  I want to respect her identity.  She breaks away and looks down, avoiding my gaze.  It¡¯s clear that, if she could, she¡¯d be crying right now.


    Dawn drops to the balls of her heels, sitting on them, hugging her own knees.  I leave my open hand hovering in the air nearby, and she shakes her head, so I withdraw it.  That isn¡¯t the kind of comfort she needs.  She just needs time, and trust.  I think, I think maybe with us, she can have both of those things.  Despite what we¡¯ve learned about her curse.


    Dippy chirps, ¡°Hey, hey, Dawn, the Dawn, you¡¯re not a reptile, you¡¯re not.  Dippy, that¡¯s me, I¡¯m smart about that.  We, we didn¡¯t finish, not finished helping, not yet, Dawn, the Dawn is still hurt, hurting, hurt.  Can¡¯t fix, not sure how to fix, but, but friends can think together, be smart together, work, work on it.  Yeah, yeah, smart good, good smarts, can, can, can help friends.¡±


    At any other time, I¡¯d be roiling with mirth and laughter, at the moment I¡¯m just waiting in stunned silence to see how Dawn reacts.  Despite having only exchanged a few words with Dippy while we were running this direction, she took to his friendship.  She lets out a sad half laugh, shaking her head, perhaps in disbelief.


    Dawn answers, ¡°Yeah Dippy, yeah, you¡¯re smart like that buddy.  I¡¯m glad we¡¯re friends.  You do help.  You help a lot.¡±


    Dippy beams with pride, and, as per usual when he has been too excitable too late into the night, falls over, passing out mid-smile.  I look at Dawn, trying to ask with my eyes if there¡¯s anything I can do for her, but she doesn¡¯t meet my gaze.  Barring being able to help Dawn, I can at least tuck Dippy in near Zippy.  They¡¯ve got their weird little mobile nest thing to sleep in, I think it¡¯s a bunch of debris glued with sap to the inside of their old large round-shield.  Even if they could pass out comfortably in the mud, they still need to stay warm.  I¡¯ll fetch an extra blanket to help him fight the bitter chill of tonight¡¯s air.  There, Dippy¡¯s tucked in.  Poor guy is so excitable.  He¡¯s really kind of great in a lot of ways.  I hope our adventure helps him out, and his tribe.  He¡¯ll probably be leaving us tomorrow, now that he helped us track the oracle¡¯s weird prophecy.


    Dawn coughs, drawing my attention as she somewhat mumbles, ¡°That was, uh, a heck of a lot of feelings, and stuff, at once.  I think.  Wasn¡¯t it?  I¡¯m sorry I spazzed out on you about it.  I, I guess, I guess maybe we kinda do have stuff to do with that in common, like you hinted at, a long time ago.¡±


    Dawn huffs and begins to rant, ¡°This whole thing about my soul being shredded, feeding some awful spell, that being why my senses and emotions are all out of whack, it sucks.  The only way to stop the spell is to permanently destroy my whole soul?  No afterlife?  Nothing?  How would I even do it?  It, it¡¯s not fair.  I, I¡¯m not supposed to be able to feel this strongly, but I hate it, I hate it!¡±


    Dawn actually sniffles and sheds a tear, surprising both of us.  She catches the tear on her right index finger and stares at it, dumbfounded.  As far as we both know, almost everything in her body is shut down, nothing works to produce tears, or snot.


    Dawn rambles, ¡°I, I don¡¯t know, I don¡¯t know what this means.  What does this mean?  It¡¯s not fair, why do things keep getting weirder and worse?  It was bad enough more or less not feeling anything, but now all I get to feel is, is this?  I don¡¯t even know anymore.  Maybe I should break the spell.¡±


    My eyes shoot wide when Dawn hints at giving up the entirety of her being, permanently, I¡¯m not even sure how she would accomplish it, what sort of horrid entity she¡¯d have to contact to be able to obliterate her own soul completely from the universe.


    She looks at my panic stricken face and forces a smile, stating, ¡°No, I guess not.  I¡¯ve got some friends here, right?  Hey, um, if it comes down to it, if I¡¯m trapped in my body and can no longer like move or talk or see or anything, I need you to promise me you¡¯ll find a way to do me in before the spell does.¡±


    I¡¯m aghast at what¡¯s being requested of me, but I can¡¯t deny her, not about something this important, at a time like this.  I acquiesce, ¡°I, I guess I¡¯ll do my best.  I¡¯ll try everything in my power to find a workaround first, you know that right?¡±


    She flashes that weak smile yet again, ¡°S¡¯pose I wouldn¡¯t have it any other way.  Wouldn¡¯t be you if you didn¡¯t.  Rej, I know I¡¯m probably sending mixed signals, and it might be weird, but can I just be kind of, just kind of close to you guys tonight?  Just like sit next to you and T.  Just, just, you should just, I dunno, just keep your arms around her or something.¡±  She looks ashamed as she adds, ¡°So, so that, so that, ugh.  I know that you won¡¯t, I mean, I know you won¡¯t, I trust you, but, but still.  I couldn¡¯t bear that hurt again, not from you.  Still, just, just sitting there.  Maybe?¡±


    I nod to her, barely forming words, ¡°Y, yeah, yes, of course Dawn, no worries about mixed signals.  You spelled out your needs, and I¡¯ll do everything I can to respect them.  You have it hard enough, without a friend breaking your trust.  I¡¯ll never intentionally, you know?  Like, if it seems like I am, check me for mind control or being a doppleganger or something, because I would not do that to you.¡±


    Dawn snorts, loosing another pleasant laugh, her mood lightening somewhat.  She answers, ¡°Sure thing Rej, sure thing.  Maybe we¡¯ll come up with some sort of code word or something.  You really are a goon, but you¡¯re a good, um, gal?  Er guy?  Sorry.  I guess, I guess I never got your side of things.¡±


    I shake my head with a half smile, ¡°No, I, um, it¡¯s okay.  I¡¯m not a guy, or a girl, I mean, at least biologically you could quite literally tell.  I just, I never decided, you know?  Some of my inner circle prefer to snuggle someone with a squishy chest, so I like to use this form for them.  Some like me in my cherubic form, some enjoy my masculine one.  Hell, I actually have a winged draconic form that¡¯s kind of like if Dippy had a lot more muscles, and was built to go between bipedal and all fours before taking to the sky.  Oh, and I was green, but like, semi-translucent green.¡±


    My description of my draconic form elicits a confused face from Dawn, and I chuckle mostly at myself as I try to return to my point, ¡°I guess, I guess maybe whatever form I¡¯m in?  Maybe, maybe for you at least, for now.  If it makes it easier in any way.  Like, like if I¡¯ve got the chest bumps, give me a she, if that¡¯s at all easier on you, y¡¯know?  If I don¡¯t, a he or a they I guess.  For you, and my inner circle.  But anyone else that makes an assumption can get bent, and stuffed.  I think I¡¯m pretty happy being neither.¡±


    Dawn starts to laugh further yet, her face full of mirth.  Still, she can see how drained and worn out I am.  Between physical exhaustion of the day, and the emotional exhaustion of our personal friendship dilemma, she suggests I crawl into the sleeping bag with Teuila.  I haven¡¯t even bothered to dig out all the heads of the crossbow bolts lodged in various places on my body.  Nor have I packed any of the wounds where I¡¯d been sliced.


    Dawn helps with some of the bolt-heads lodged in easy-to-pry-out locations on my back that I¡¯d have trouble reaching, so that I can at least lay comfortably on that side without driving them further into my body.  I¡¯m not sure if I can heal up all of these wounds over night.  Not after we¡¯d done the radiant purge.  Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin heal a lot faster than most biological creatures, but without those powers we had to give up early on, it¡¯s not quite so video-gamey.  Still, between Kozzurth¡¯s heart, Miza¡¯s healing, and being from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I¡¯ve been recovering at far closer to those old speeds.  I am worried though that I¡¯m using up whatever abundance of energy I¡¯m supposed to have obtained from Kozzurth¡¯s heart.


    Seems like Dawn and I both have about two months to live as of right now.  Or somewhere around thereabouts.  Definitely not ideal.  Should we head towards this Spine of the World area, searching for dragons?  Could they possibly have any sort of aid for Dawn?  In some stories, dragons can also turn out to be the most powerful sorcerers and sorceresses in their setting.  I guess I¡¯ll just hope that I get hit with some sort of inspiration as to where to go, if Teuila doesn¡¯t have a plan right away in the morning.


    We exchange a tiny bit more banter as I snuggle in towards Teuila, wrapping my arms around Te happily.  Dawn sits extremely close, as she requested.  I even feel an index fingertip resting on where my exposed shoulder would be beneath the sleeping bag.  I¡¯m not sure if they know that my nightclothes are torn right there, not that it matters.  It¡¯s comforting to me to know that Dawn will watch over us as we sleep, her unending wakeful state letting her feel that her curse is at least somewhat useful.  I¡¯m hoping that even if she can¡¯t feel it, she draws at least some minor comfort from this minimal physical contact.  Some sense of safety, assurance that we¡¯re here with her, for her.

 B 4 C 60: Recuperate Reggie

    Taylynn, while jamming her blade into the skull of a grotesquerie of nature replies, "I haven''t yet had my first real battle."


    I scoff, "What do you call this then?"


    She scoffs in return, laughing, "This? This is nothing, a lover''s spat, the only thing hard about this is getting them into bed, and maybe putting them down for the, grk, night! See? Easy!" Her blade comes clean out of the cranium of the dead grub-beast in a single jerking motion as she uses her foot for leverage to kick it away from her weapon.


    I grumble under my breath, "I wish you hadn''t said that." Nothing good ever comes from someone claiming a task is easy while they¡¯re still working it.


    As we continue to run for our lives, she continues to tease me, while simultaneously egging on the beast trying to devour us. We''re still scouring for the hidden stasis area of the other orc tribe, so that our clients, or perhaps friends, who aren''t being chased by this horrid armored worm creature can get the unconscious or injured to safety. Despite us having to dodge and weave our way through these ruins, the worm can plow right through them, being as gargantuan as it is. It''s sheer determination that wins us back every inch of distance put between us and the worm whenever it closes the gap by shortcutting through walls that we had to navigate around.


    I don¡¯t know why these people call themselves orcs, they¡¯re humans just like everyone else. Though I¡¯m beginning to question whether or not magic is actually real as I¡¯m fleeing from a monstrously colossal worm-grub-thing. That¡¯s to say nothing of these supposed stasis fields that let the tribes live their lives in moments, outside of normal time. I¡¯ve seen a little girl enter a field, and come back an old woman who squeezed my cheek in fond affection, remembering me from her youth. Her journey to old age? It took maybe three seconds. Also, the fact that no one save these orc-named people seems to be able to enter the fields beyond the ruins is a bit perplexing for a skeptic.


    I chastise Taylynn, "I thought you said, huff, this was easy!"


    She pokes fun at the fact that I recently let on about my inner mental narration, "The only thing easier than all of these so-called battles is Aces. She says to herself."


    I retort, "Hey, I heard that!"


    She quips, "You were meant to!"


    The cheek of this woman! And yet, hm. And yet I¡¯m all the more enamored of her. This pair of women, what is it that holds such sway over me? Am I simply enamored of the first few people that got to know me without hiring me for a job? I¡¯d like to think I¡¯m not that dependent on their affection. And, of course, I¡¯m not sleeping with Tiago, though he¡¯s hinted an interest, nor George. What then? Why does it feel like we¡¯ve been together all my life and beyond? That we should continue to be together for all of this life, and beyond? They¡¯ve both agreed that they desire the same. What cosmic fate sets two such women in the path of an oddly unaging assassin? I¡¯d think there would be no such destiny in store with even just one of them, let alone the two.


    I feel as if fate had decreed that I was to live a lonely, near endless existence by the blade, until I died by the blade. It¡¯s almost as if I had already lived this life once, only there was no magic, no Celestial Emperor, no Taylynn, no Selunie. It was all just politics and murder for ages. I see the end of my life obtained by another, nearly on accident. Apparently that individual had wanted to be my apprentice, and had been training to impress me, though we¡¯d never even met. They were far better than they realized, and I was dead before either of us knew it. Seemed odd to just die suddenly like that, but I stopped existing right as they attacked. As far as I know though, no one recalls a version of me running around for a century prior to this one.


    I roll ever so slightly, and accidentally smash my nose up against Teuila¡¯s. She had to have turned to face me in her sleep. Ow. I don¡¯t even think I noticed my nose being broken back in the compound. That¡¯s unpleasant to say the least. Teuila seems unscathed, so I¡¯m all the more worried that she looks so tired, drained. Oof, we¡¯re going to need to wash the sleeping bag, my wounds aren¡¯t all sealed. I really need to learn enchanting, and to be able to view that soapstone of ours with the aura vision spell. It¡¯s so incredibly handy. I truly want to be able to duplicate it.


    Hm, Dawn isn¡¯t nearby at the moment, but it seems like they¡¯re walking the edge of my danger wrap range, half in half out. Probably trying to let me know they¡¯re nearby if I wake up, like this. My eyelids are drooping heavier and heavier as I head back towards dreamland. Dawn also appears to have completed whatever pacing they wanted to do, as they cut across camp while I pass out.


    I struggle, gripping the edge of nothing, scrabbling and clawing my way back towards reality from this supposed stasis field. It takes years, decades, nearly a century of effort, nearly two centuries of effort. On the other side is someone shouting for me, someone whose love pierces this magical barrier, calling me back. It was so long ago now. I can¡¯t remember who they were.


    Finally I¡¯m free as I tumble outwards into reality, and I¡¯m being gripped tightly by a sobbing woman. What the devil? My limbs feel like lead, and my stomach feels like I haven¡¯t eaten in years. A shock of my own hair falls in front of my face, and there¡¯s a streak of white within it. Odd, I don¡¯t remember ever showing signs of aging before. I flex my face, and feel no wrinkles or tautness or any other tactile representation of age.


    Right then, who is this woman? I try to puzzle aloud, ¡°Somehow, somehow this happened before, a hundred years in a second. In the. The machine? This was worse, century or centuries. Tay, Te, a last thought, someone, Ter, Tayl, Taylynn? Is that you? How are you still alive after all these years?¡±


    Her lips meet mine hungrily and I can¡¯t say I don¡¯t enjoy it, but I¡¯d like an answer. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ve ever seen her shed a tear before, but I feel the wet from her face meet mine. I¡¯m utterly starving, ravenous, my body screams for nourishment, even simple salty tears. I¡¯d rather not do something foolish like lick her face or chew her tongue.


    Taylynn finally relents, stating, ¡°Aces, you couldn¡¯t, you shouldn¡¯t have been able to. A hundred years? It took that long? Oh, look, there¡¯s white in it.¡± She plays with that loose lock of hair.


    I flex my face and rattle my head momentarily. Hm? What¡¯s she talking about? A hundred years for what? Taylynn looks quite distraught. Did we fail the job?


    I ask, ¡°A hundred years for what? When did we end up in such a dusty place? Is that some sort of enormous worm? Did you slay that? Just what the devil is going on Taylynn?¡±


    Tay looks mortified, shocked to the extreme, ¡°Aces, no, no. You don¡¯t remember? Our job. The job with the orcs. We finally took this thing out together. You caused a salt-slide while I lured it. The rocks shifted when the worm spotted you. It knocked into the wall and you fell towards the stasis field. I was afraid you¡¯d die from the fall, but this is almost worse.¡±


    I harumph, ¡°Excuse me? My living is almost worse than my dying?¡±


    She cuffs me lightly upside the head, ¡°Shut up you dummy, no, of course not. Only moments ago you said you spent a hundred years struggling to leave the stasis field. You shouldn¡¯t have even been able to enter it. I¡¯m worried about you.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, ¡°Stasis field? What in the devil is that? Have we made it to your job yet or not? I did agree after all, you¡¯ve no more need to wheedle me about it. Though, I seem to recall you setting me up for a crass joke just now. I¡¯d just asked why we should only take your horse.¡±


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    Taylynn gasps and covers her mouth for some reason. Now she¡¯s shedding tears. What on Rayileklia have I said this time that¡¯s gone and upset her? I spy a colossal creature, it must be some prehistoric beast, preserved by all that salt. Did we take a detour for her to show me this monstrosity? It¡¯s a grotesquerie of nature to be sure. It would be just like her to want to expose me to something such as this.


    Taylynn pleads, ¡°Aces, Aces? Please, I need you to be honest with me, I know your internal monologue is going on. It must know, mustn¡¯t it? Please tell me exactly your last few minutes of internal monologue. Please. I¡¯m not doing it to tease you.¡±


    I grumble, ¡°Alright woman, no need to beg. It was something to the effect of: Her beautiful smile is answer enough, yet she says, ¡®Yes, and, I want us to just take my horse.¡¯


    I raise an eyebrow as I query, ¡®What, why?¡¯


    She teases, waggling her eyebrows. Having set me up, she lands her punchline, ¡®You really need a reason to ride tightly up against my backside for weeks upon weeks?¡¯¡±


    I pause for a breath and finish my answer, ¡°Then all of a sudden it continued: ¡®Taylynn gasps and covers her mouth for some reason. Now she¡¯s shedding tears. What on Rayileklia have I said this time that¡¯s gone and upset her? I spy a colossal creature, it must be some prehistoric beast, preserved by all that salt. Did we take a detour for her to show me this monstrosity? It¡¯s a grotesquerie of nature to be sure. It would be just like her to want to expose me to something such as this.¡¯¡±


    Taylynn gasps and cries as her hands cover her mouth once again. She grabs me tightly while sobbing for some time yet. Where in the devil is her horse? Have we had to mudcamp on foot to reach this place? I don¡¯t recall doing such.


    Taylynn pleads once more, sobbing between sentences, ¡°Aces, Aces we have to get back. We¡¯ve got to see Selunie right away, please. Please don¡¯t start the next leg of the job yet. Don¡¯t follow the next lead, please. Not until we¡¯ve spoken at length with Selunie. You can¡¯t, you just can¡¯t. We need to talk to you.¡±


    I try to console her, ¡°Alright love, alright, chin up. If it¡¯s that important, I¡¯ll delay a while. I was already going to delay a while to join you on your mercenary task anyway. Dearest Taylynn, what ever has gotten you riled so? I¡¯ve never in all our years seen you so emotional. Please don¡¯t take that as admonishment. I¡¯m honored to witness more of your emotions.¡±


    Despite having slept for quite some time, Teuila still hasn¡¯t woken up for any appreciable amount of time. She¡¯s breathing, and she drank some water while awake for a few seconds not long ago. I haven¡¯t been faring much better. My injuries from the compound are catching up with me. It truly feels like we cannot afford to spend this amount of time recuperating. There are looming deadlines, literal deadlines. Regardless, Teuila¡¯s out of commission and so am I.


    Dippy is willing to stick it out with us as we recover, but Dawn has assured Dippy that she has it handled. He really should be getting back to his clan, to give them the news about the Derbrightmine dwarves, and possible preparations against dragons. I should have asked the Don for more information about that, but that might have constituted my favor, which I¡¯d pledged Hellga. Ugh. I don¡¯t know what they did with her, and can¡¯t afford to think about it. Dippy has said he doesn¡¯t know anything about Terrorzin or any other dragons, but that he¡¯ll take the information home regardless.


    If we were certain that the Don actually had some sort of prophetic pool, or something of the sort, and that the dragon attack would be soon, not just any random time between now and the next millennium, I¡¯d say we wait at Derbrightmine Dominion for the dragons. My head lolls as a pressure builds behind my ears. My jaw simultaneously slacks, dropping, while also tightening, locking in place. The energy it takes for me to stretch and unlock my face costs enough that I pass back out once more.


    Ugh, why did I agree to this? I suppose that Taylynn can be very persuasive. After that supposed job I¡¯ve somehow forgotten, the one with the people who call themselves orcs, she desperately wanted to see Selunie, beyond normal desire. She was absolutely insistent that we must return to Victo together. She wanted me to wait to start my next segment of slayings until after we, well, parleyed at the Castle Inn for a long period or something.


    Here we are, at the Castle Inn, and I¡¯m not part of any parley. I¡¯m very near a century in age, if not a bit over at this point. I¡¯m certainly smitten with them both, and they both have an exceeding fondness and love for one another, but the constant angry asides during this visit are tiresome. Do they honestly not remember I¡¯m a spy and assassin? I can hear the ladies just fine as they make nonsensical arguments, whether on the other side of a door, or standing thirty paces away. Easily at that.


    Hm, that voice is Selunie¡¯s, ¡°I know I agreed, but, but it¡¯s just not fair to them. You know how hard it was the first time around. We, we learned how much worse it was than we ever knew when we followed the clues. I, I failed air, I failed them by not knowing how bad it really was. We worked together to track air down. What if next time, I mean, we didn¡¯t right away. We were you know, when it happened, when we, when we really. Ugh, I mean, that¡¯s obviously not the trigger or air would be at our side. Air doesn¡¯t deserve to be treated this way.¡±


    Again, more nonsensical arguments. The air doesn¡¯t deserve to be treated a certain way? I roll my eyes. Why are they even upset with each other over this weird nonsense?


    Taylynn sounds sad as she responds, ¡°I know babe, I know. Just, just promise me though, okay? Keep that promise, please? Things are getting darker, and if they forget again, maybe, maybe we should just forget too. I love air, I really do, more than anything. I, I sort of agree and I sort of disagree about the other part. Air deserves to make their own choice, without a whole other, well, you get it, if all that gets forced in there, in air.¡±


    She continues, intimating a number of things, ¡°It took us, you and me babe, so long to find each other. If this ends up going deeper, like the theories, infinite recursion. It could tear air apart. Forever, in ways we can¡¯t even comprehend. The same with each other. I mean, the theories never even, well, theorized, we could do something like joining air. If one of us remembers, and the other doesn¡¯t? Maybe it¡¯s because we can¡¯t handle it. Like, we¡¯re not ready, or don¡¯t have room. Probably the only way we could handle it is if we somehow made it all the way back to the start, otherwise, yeah, no room. Hah, just like back then, always leave room for air to breathe.¡±


    Selunie bursts into tears and I can hear her thumping Taylynn on the chest. My two loves console one another, and for some reason, my face is tear-streaked. I don¡¯t even remember crying. What in the devil is going on with me lately? Taylynn said something happened in that last, what was it, a stasis zone she called it. I can barely remember our job together. I¡¯ve no idea what the devil a stasis zone is. Something about that I wasn¡¯t supposed to be able to enter it, and something about time.


    Taylynn rambles, ¡°When air went missing, and, and you and I started, when we really, you know. You know, you believing in me meant so much more to me than I could say, sharing the search with me. You astounded me. You do, you still do. How do you put it? Always have, always will.¡±


    Selunie sniffles as she thumps Taylynn once again, and she¡¯s mumbling again, ¡°I, I know dummy, you big jerk. I¡¯m sorry I hated you for so long. Or well, wanted to hate you. Could never really bring myself to do it. I love you. As much as the air we both breathe.¡±


    She sniffles and they both chuckle at some inside joke. Now my eyes sting, wet with tears once more. Ah, perhaps it¡¯s literally some dust in my eye. There¡¯s a rustling of fabric as they hold one another closer. I¡¯ll go have a wash in the trough. I dart out the window, dropping a story and a half, giving them their private moment.


    Hopefully they¡¯ll have all the moments in the world when this job is done. I can feel it, this is the last leg of the journey, one way or another. Leaving quietly and letting them enjoy this one now seems fair though. Perhaps I was an ass for not having done so earlier. Heh, Vale humor. We¡¯re all asses there. They didn¡¯t forget I¡¯m an assassin, I just forgot common human decency to avoid listening in on private conversations. A lifetime spent in the shadows does that to a person.


    Ah, much better, no more stinging wet, well, besides those accursed clouds. How many years have they darkened our skies? I could swear they weren¡¯t always there, but yet another detail where everyone else in the world disagrees with me. Just like everyone else in the world thinks there¡¯s magic and always has been. Even if there is magic now, there certainly wasn¡¯t any to start.


    It¡¯s been a few minutes, maybe I should simply head out on the next leg of my journey, and let them comfort one another. Ah, the shouting voice from above means they¡¯re past their private conversation, and upset with me for leaping out the window. I wish they¡¯d make up their minds, do they want privacy, or my company. They were outside the only doorway. What did they expect me to do if I wanted to privvy? Well, not that that concern is. Hmf. Ah well, I¡¯d best return. I begin to scale the wall when I hear, ¡°And use the door you goon!¡±


    I awaken with a start, shouting, ¡°Castle Inn, Victo!¡± I blink rapidly, unsure why I just shouted that. Wait. Castle Inn, that¡¯s Jarvis Tavner¡¯s inn!

 B 4 C 61: Answers, Sorrows

    Teuila and I both groggily rouse ourselves.  We truly can¡¯t afford recuperation time if we¡¯re to have any serious chance at saving Dawn, and possibly even saving me.  We now have a lead.  We know the city, and my innate sense of direction is telling me that it¡¯s northeast somewhere from here.  I¡¯m not sure how, or why I know that, but perhaps Victo is a city with some other leads, beyond just the inn Selunie lived at.


    We appear to be alone in camp, a bit odd.  Hopefully Dawn and Dippy are alright.  I assume Dippy felt obligated to get home to his clan.  I¡¯m uncertain about Dawn though.  I have no idea if there¡¯s any chance to stumble on a lead that can save them, anywhere in the world.  I remember thinking that the Celestial Emperor wants souls.  What was it?  A dream of Aces?  Aces was convinced.  Somehow they saw the Celestial Emperor, they¡¯d finally gained access to some inner sanctum.  Then what happened?  Their soul began being dragged from them.  How in the hell did they fight it?  Escape with their soul?


    They went somewhere after that, right?  Called the place Navica, something about a tower.  A tower of souls?  Or a tower that houses souls anyway.  What would someone need a monumental, colossal edifice full of souls for?  If one or two souls, at least those we know about, are powerful enough to form the backbone of a spell strong enough to wipe out the entire Aasimovian Ancestor population, then, then what?  A whole tower, packed with souls.  Was the spell, the curse with Dawn, just a test run?  Was it seeing how far they could prolong burning a soul?  Hrp.  Glp.  Koff.  Oh hellspit.  What if they¡¯ve only scratched the tip of the iceberg?  The Bright Lord must be the Celestial Emperor, right?  I mean, it makes sense.


    If they¡¯re one in the same, that makes soul manipulation the purview of only one creature that we know of on the planet.  They¡¯re definitely not going to be interested in saving Dawn¡¯s soul, dismantling the spell.  Think Reggie, think.  Argh!  We need more clues!  I have to worry about surviving long enough to puzzle this all out.  I really need to get my SAP, my inner circle home to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  How the hell do you beat someone, something that can just pluck your soul straight from your chest?


    If Aces¡¯ soul was somehow our world, then, then we can¡¯t search for it to use it.  If using it burns it up, erases it like Dawn¡¯s.  How are we going to get home?  Did our souls travel with us?  Are we our souls?  Did we burn our Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian souls and inherit new ones here on Rayileklia?  Craaaap.


    Dawn and Dippy are both returning quickly, oddly.  I need to share it right away though, ¡°I think that¡ª¡°


    Dawn, having arrived, interrupts to simultaneously say, ¡°The Bright Lord is the Celestial Emperor.¡±


    We both gaze at each other in shock.  I suppose it wasn¡¯t too hard to put together, with the rumors and speculation about the emperor.  I just didn¡¯t want to jump to conclusions, but Dawn seems certain.  I give them a querying glance.


    Dippy nods along as Dawn explains, ¡°So, some of the creeps showed up, and were obviously a bit freaked out that their hideout was in ruins.  We didn¡¯t give up that it was, well, you Rej.  Still, I could sense the hostilities, the undercurrent of pain and violence that these creeps were looking to inflict.  Dippy and I split them up to try to cool their heads.  Together they were too much of an anger echo to one another.  We did some talking, some listening, trying to get as much info as we can.  Ya know?¡±


    I nod along as Dawn finishes, ¡°Well, Dippy kinda killed the pack he took to one side.  The screams and gurgles sent my guys over the edge, so I was in a bit of a spot.  Dippy, somehow farther away in the fog than sight range, sent a hail of arrows this way, and dropped all of the mooks.  I don¡¯t know how he did it, without hitting me, but he did.¡±


    Dippy adds, ¡°Could, could, could feel the Dawn one, bright friend, could feel you with Dippy¡¯s, my new spell.  New spell, learned from Red Gee.  Can know where things, people are, without seeing.  Large circle, an, an, an extra sense in a large circle.¡±


    I blink several times while shock adorns my face.  Dippy claimed to not be as adept in magic as Miza, but he learned an entirely new spell overnight?  Wait, it has been a few days.  Even still.  I cast the aura vision spell from the staff quickly, and it¡¯s easy to see the coalescence of mana around Dippy¡¯s somatosensory cortex.  Ah, it appears to be taking his entire pool of mana though.  Anything he¡¯d normally be able to cast in a day, with the mana stored over a night¡¯s rest, it basically takes all of it for him to maintain that.  It¡¯s still dang impressive.


    Teuila looks sad, morose as she shuffles around in one of the few dry patches of dirt, covered from the drizzle by an overhang.  She flicks her head toward the other side of the outcropping, indicating for me to follow, so I leave Dawn and Dippy to discuss Dippy¡¯s new spell to follow Teuila.  Te?  Te¡¯s crying, hard.  I wrap my arms around her, but give her time rather than asking quite yet.  If she wants to tell me what the hurt is, she doesn¡¯t need me to try to pry it from her faster than she¡¯s ready to spill. If it becomes obvious that she¡¯s waiting for prompting though, then of course I¡¯ll express my concern.  I just know her well-enough to know that this isn¡¯t one of those times, yet.


    Teuila coughs and hiccups before starting, ¡°It, it was awful.  I¡¯ve never felt so helpless, well, not since the Night of High Water, or just before you helped me evolve to Valkyrie for the first time, when you were caught in the snake¡¯s mouth, run-through by a fang.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow but nod, knowing she has more to share before being interrupted or consoled.  Teuila explains, ¡°He, he, he messed it up.  He broke my gravity power, it, it wasn¡¯t working right.  I fell, upward, hard.  I hit the ceiling, and slid up the dome towards the peak, right up to within an inch of the top of that, that, that gross, sickening energy field.  I was kay ohhed.  I felt like I was dying, Dawny caught up, we both took a few hours sneaking around here, trying to figure out how to break up whatever was going on, hoping you two could catch up, well, three, Zippy too.¡±


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    I nod as I draw my own shuddered breath while Teuila fights sobs to continue, ¡°Dawny couldn¡¯t do anything to help me, didn¡¯t even know I was stuck on the roof.  It hurt so bad, it felt so bad, but I was being crushed so hard, I could barely breathe, let alone call out or yell.  Even what I could breathe, felt like it was sucked away from me towards that disgusting energy.  I couldn¡¯t stay awake.  I thought I died.  Dink I thought I died.¡±


    Teuila sobs quietly into my shoulder for nearly a minute as she catches her breath.  She finishes, ¡°I didn¡¯t want to leave you.  I didn¡¯t want to not get a chance to say goodbye to Lin, again.  Or even Lil Dragbutt.  But I wasn¡¯t strong enough.  He broke my power, used it against me, and it beat me.  I¡¯m so scared.  What if my power is still broken?  What if I can never use it again, not even as Valkyrie?  It, it¡¯s a part of me.  I don¡¯t want it to be gone, broke, dangerous, anything like that.¡±


    I stroke Teuila¡¯s cheek as I coo softly for her, comfortingly.  I give her the faith she needs, ¡°Try it out, right here, right now.  I trust you.  Use it on me.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s face contorts from shock to fear and back.  I just pass her a smarmy look that shows how completely normal and un-terrifying I consider this to be.  My expression is almost between a droll eyeroll, and an unamused glare.  I don¡¯t even have to speak as I wear a sad yet sly half smile.


    Happiness and competitiveness fight their way across Teuila¡¯s face.  That need to prove herself, the constant betterment of herself.  The drive to keep anything from holding her back or keeping her down.  The expression is so uniquely Teuila.  Her hands upon me, she first begins increasing my gravity, until it feels like a copy of me is sitting on my own shoulders.  It¡¯s not dangerous like it might be to a Rayileklian, but having my weight essentially doubled is still uncomfortable to say the least.  Teuila then begins reducing my gravity.  In a moment, I¡¯m weightless, in another moment, I begin to float upwards ever so  gently, slowly.


    Teuila¡¯s glee is self-evident as joy resumes its perfect spot upon her countenance.  We embrace lovingly, happily.  Self-doubt sucks, for certain.  Having her power, something she bases a lot of her self-worth, and identity around, taken from her, broken, used against her?  That was a heavy blow that¡¯s going to leave scars.  This feeling will crop up again.  The fear that she might lose control of her power, and endanger herself or others.  All I know is that the best I can do for now is to simply be there for her, and show her I still trust her, whenever that happens.


    We return to Dippy and Dawn, realizing perhaps a bit late how silent the two are.  Dippy is pacing around Dawn curiously, nervously.  Dawn fumbles forward, and calls out, ¡°Hello?  Dip?  Boss?  Rej?  Anyone?  Can, can anyone hear me?  I can¡¯t hear me.  I, I can¡¯t hear me.  Please, please make it stop.¡±


    I rush towards Dawn¡¯s flailing limbs, and allow them to bounce off of me, hoping to clue Dawn in that I¡¯m here.  Even if she can¡¯t feel me, her muscles striking resilience should tell her I¡¯m here.  Dawn begs, ¡°Rej, Rej if, if, if that¡¯s you, if you¡¯re here, please, I¡¯ll do anything.  I, I just want at least one sense.  Please pal.¡±


    Oh Dawn.  I immediately withdraw my staff and once again use the aura vision spell as the basis to tack the sensory portion of Telekinesis onto.  I let that magic flow into Dawn, and she bursts into tears, mumbling, ¡®Thank you, thank you, thank you.¡±


    Dippy has been trying to speak for a bit, but I was so focused on Dawn, I hadn¡¯t heard him.  I turn to Dippy, ¡°Are you okay Dippy?¡±


    Dippy shakes his head, and Zippy copies the motion, as Dippy explains, ¡°Not, not, not okay.  The, the Dawn friend, squishie Dawn is, is, is not okay.  Don¡¯t know how to help.  Didn¡¯t, wasn¡¯t.  Dawn didn¡¯t hear me, see me.  How?  How does Dippy help this?  How do I help our friend?¡±


    I bite back my tears as I shake my head and shrug, ¡°I, I don¡¯t know Dippy.  I don¡¯t know how to handle this.  I want Dawn to be okay.¡±  I choke back a ragged sob and continue, ¡°I don¡¯t know anywhere we could go that could help us.  The Emperor certainly isn¡¯t going to help us.  What do we do?¡±


    Dippy flails helplessly, and Teuila stands to one side, hugging herself sadly, fighting back tears.  Dawn asks, ¡°Rej, Boss?  Dip?  Anyone.  I, I can tell you¡¯re here.  Can you hear me?  Can, can you come closer, please?  Just, just let me feel close to someone, please?¡±


    I shuffle close enough that Dawn immediately leans forward onto me.  She squeezes me as tightly as her muscles allow, just to feel the resistance in her muscles.  Her only sense is the external density sense of the most basic part of the telekinesis spell, and maybe, possibly some internal senses like hunger, or self awareness, or proprioception.  No sight, no touch, no hearing.  She might have some proprioception of her limbs.  She¡¯s sobbing as she gloms on to me.  Teuila sits tightly against her side, Dippy against her other side, and Zippy perches on her hood.


    Moments, perhaps minutes later, Dawn exclaims, ¡°The rain, my crying, I, I can hear them! I, I can see!  I.  Oh, hey Boss, Dip, uh, Rej pal.¡±


    She sort of quickly shoves away from us, hiding her face in chagrin, realizing that she had me in a death grip until after she started getting her senses back.  I begin to only partially raise a hand, but Dawn shakes her head.  I understand.  It was an emergency need.  She doesn¡¯t like to be touched.  That¡¯s entirely her boundary to set.  I just wish I knew some way to help her out.


    Dawn rambles, ¡°So, hey, um, Boss. I, uh, I kinda sorta, uh, came out to Rej the other night.  I mean, you sorta knew, but, ah.  I¡¯m, I¡¯m a girl, a gal, a, uh, very old woman actually.  Just, just for like, reference.  For, you know, conversations and stuff, like, pronoun things.¡±


    Teuila gasps and begins apologizing, ¡°Oh Dawny, I¡¯m so sorry, I¡¯ve been, I was usin-¡°


    Dawn interrupts Teuila, ¡°Boss, Boss, it¡¯s, it¡¯s okay.  It¡¯s sort of a new thing.  Not being known as one was, just to help the, the other thing.  So many men wanted the ever-youthful Dawn to be their prize to show off throughout their life.  The girl with ¡®no problems¡¯ when I was still trying to fit in in The Brook, with the curse.  I got some clothes, made like the girl Dawn went off traveling, never to return.  Then I just sorta, got used to being outside looking in.  A few decades go by, and everyone forgets about the rumor of the ageless lady.  Ugh you don¡¯t need my whole life story, and I don¡¯t want to tell it.  Just, just don¡¯t worry about it.  Okay?¡±


    Teuila nods along, ¡°Sure thing Dawny.  Anything you need.  So, uh, we¡¯re all alive, errr, uh, we all made it through that nonsense.  At least that¡¯s, what¡¯d Tim use, ¡®aster?  At least that¡¯s ¡®aster, right?¡±


    I snerk and Dawn snorts while Dippy looks confused.  Dawn and I both shake our heads, one to explain to Dippy that it¡¯s not worth explaining, two to express our incredulity to Teuila.  Teuila sounds the Shellcracker Squee of glee, ¡°Heeee.¡±  That wide-smiled sound of happiness or humor, depending on context.


    Oh, right!  I quickly state, ¡°I know a place to go!  It, um, it¡¯s for the, the dagger sidequest.  I¡¯m sorry Dawn.  For bringing it up.  Um, but, well, the Castle Inn in Victo.  If we head northeast a bit, we should find a river that flows north.  If we follow that river, and pass through the large copse, before the greater forest we could break east along the forest¡¯s edge.  That will lead us straight to Victo.¡±


    The three look a tad surprised, Te asks, ¡°When¡¯d you learn all that geography Dink?¡±


    I furrow my brow and scratch my skull as I postulate, ¡°Uh, would you believe, it came to me in a dream?¡±

 B 4 C 62: Poor, Unfortunate

    Dippy wants to at least see us to our current destination. That¡¯s fair. He says the quest he pledged was to stop what¡¯s affecting the Dawn friend. More or less. Even still, if we can¡¯t find a solid lead towards helping Dawn in Victo, we¡¯ll be parting ways. I¡¯m honestly not too scared for him to be traveling alone with Zippy. I¡¯m sure Zippy can take naps while riding along on Dippy, and then stay up at night as a guard. Dippy is incredibly capable of taking care of himself.


    Trekking along the northeasterly path from the cult hideout leads to a river as I expected. We should be able to head up it a few miles before needing to camp, even with my sluggish pace. I feel so bad for holding Teuila and Dawn back. Te and I are both a bit too scared for her to try to go Valkyrie again after her bout of basically radiation sickness. Same with mine. Even if King is dead, a hundred percent, fully, I don¡¯t know if I¡¯d survive the transformation with so much more sickening radiance tainting the mana beneath my skin.


    Oh no, Dawn. Not again. She stumbled, and she¡¯s weeping, begging for any sense. I quickly draw forth the staff again, and re-apply the spell to her. She hugs herself tightly while sobbing. This isn¡¯t fair. She begs nearness once more, how could we refuse? She¡¯s hugging Dippy so tightly that I hear his scales grating inside his armor, oof. I. I can¡¯t allow myself to wallow in despair in sympathy for Dawn. Her senses came back, but I think the sensory loss lasted a few more minutes than last time.


    We make it a good long ways upriver before it happens again, about where I figure we should camp at anyway. We just passed through the big copse of trees, and the greater forest is up ahead to the North. I renew the spell for Dawn immediately when I realize her senses are failing her again. She whispers nearly-silent thanks, and she gloms on to ¡°Boss.¡±


    Teuila is wearing the saddest, most tender expression I¡¯ve seen on her face in an incredibly long time. We¡¯ve had some similar moments. I think Teuila was beginning to fancy Dawn in some fashion, at least as the kind of friend she could drag along on adventures. Now we¡¯re all worried whether she¡¯ll have her senses permanently ripped from her, or disappear from existence entirely. The priest said she might even be scrubbed from our memories. Can magic do that? Can it change memo- Ow my head. Oh holy hell that hurts. Wait a minute.


    You have got to be kidding me. Magic!? Are you messing with my head!? My headache suddenly lets up. How incredibly curious. Oof, I feel a tad disoriented after the sudden headache and its quick departure. Oh, Dawn is asking to be Teuila¡¯s big spoon. She¡¯s scared of losing her senses if she tries to stay up for watch. Dippy and Zippy and I will take turns then. About halfway through my watch, I can hear Dawn whimpering fearfully and weeping. Thankfully I¡¯m awake to cast the spell on her once more. It seems to calm her down.


    It¡¯s nearing the end of my watch, but ugh, I feel sick to my stomach. Why¡¯d I volunteer for first watch? I guess I can eat some hardtack, and jerky, and drink a lot of water to try to calm my stomach.


    Hm, quadrupeds nearby, skirting my danger wrap sensory range. Dawn is probably sensing them in their radius as well. Sliding my double-barreled crossbow onto my wrist, I stand very slowly. I¡¯m an obvious, glowing target, so hopefully they don¡¯t leap at my sleeping companions if they¡¯re hostile. Dippy awakens, and I can sense immediately that he¡¯s enhancing himself with the spell. Dippy glances towards me, and signals me the one moment gesture.


    Dippy somehow whistles. I have no idea how a reptile whistles, but he does. There are several growls, but Dippy makes a few more noises, and suddenly the quadrupeds step into the light. Dogs, wolves, canines and lupines, step into the light. There are a lot more than I had thought. One approaches Dippy, and I notice an immediate difference. All the other canine and lupine individuals are sightless with smoky, clouded over eyes. They don¡¯t seem to do anything other than follow this one that has its sight still. In a way, they¡¯re like the Aasimovian Ancestors.


    What happened to Eights? Someone stole the light from his eyes? Long before things started getting really bad in the Imperium? Did, did the Emperor start by experimenting on dog and wolf souls? Eights would just stand in one spot, wait for food, eat, do his business and repeat, right? That¡¯s, that¡¯s a lot like the Aasimovian Ancestors who do ¡®guard duty¡¯ they just walk some route, maybe a single block, maybe a portion of a city. They wear armor, and are probably a bit hard to put down, but I think their presence is deterrent enough against most crimes. The Aasimovians to a last don¡¯t want to disgrace themselves in front of their Ancestors, since they assume they¡¯ll be returning some day.


    I¡¯m getting sidetracked. Dippy seems fairly upset, but I¡¯m incredibly sleepy. Hopefully you didn¡¯t need anything from me to handle this situation Dippy buddy. You seem to have it well in-hand, err, claw. Oh, do I have to sleep in Dippy¡¯s shield? This is awkward. I guess I¡¯ll just try to sleep in the mud. No wonder Daffodil said not even a fool mudcamps without covering. I regret letting Teuila throw out that leaf-leather stuff.


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Laying on my side, I immediately regret it, as the constant drizzle splashes the tiniest bit of a standing muddy puddle into my eyes. Agh! Agony. Just mild agony, but still. Hell in a handbasket that hurt. Koff, ugh, the air is thick with moisture, the kind that sticks to your lungs no matter how much you cough. Exhaustion takes me though, so at least I¡¯ve some small solace in that I can sleep, despite the discomfort.


    Blerf, urgh. Hm? Could swear I just went to sleep, but I¡¯m being roused. Dawn is helping me out of the mud. Why does she look so embarrassed? Dawn starts to apologize, ¡°Rej, I, I¡¯m sorry, I forgot, I didn¡¯t even think.¡±


    I raise my eyebrows, still a tad groggy. What¡¯s Dawn apologizing for? Dawn continues, ¡°I just, Boss kinda makes me feel safe, and I forgot that, since I don¡¯t sleep, there wasn¡¯t like, an extra bed. Sorry Rej.¡±


    Oh I get it. I respond, ¡°Hey, friends sometimes have needs that are easy to satisfy, and other times have needs that are inconvenient or difficult to meet. This one wasn¡¯t bad, all told. Dawn, I¡¯m worried for you. We don¡¯t know how long you have, and, and. Glp. I¡¯m okay with you needing some sort of close sensation to remind you you¡¯re still with us, and not trapped. I want you to remain with us, and not get trapped without senses, without the ability to act. That sounds like a horrid nightmare.¡±


    Hm, oh, right, I¡¯ve sort of been in that position myself. I took a mental vacation, locked myself away in my psyche, scared of and broken by reality. Yeah, it¡¯s definitely frightening, and unpleasant to imagine being unable to return from that. All the more reason to hustle towards anywhere that might have any sort of clue. We should be able to get approximately halfway from here to Victo in a day¡¯s journey.


    Dippy and Zippy are looking more and more sad. I wonder what happened with the wolves. He doesn¡¯t seem to want to talk about it, or be able to express himself in a way that I could understand at least. I won¡¯t press him on the issue, since I¡¯m pretty sure it helped confirm some things for me. Ideas that have been festering since we got to this world.


    A body without a soul can still do, -things-, though it¡¯s nebulous how well they can do those things, or even respond to outside stimuli. Someone stole the soul of Eights, Aces¡¯ dog, a very, very long time ago. Quite likely the only person or entity we know going around stealing souls. Canine and lupine souls might have been their first experiments. Aasimovians have had rumors circulating for a long time that the Imperium has soulless people, or souls going missing. They likely figured that the descriptions from travelers more or less matched their own ancestors. There¡¯s more pieces to this puzzle, some I don¡¯t have, but some I -should- have, that are somewhere in my head, but it hurts to dig around for them.


    I¡¯m making a lot of leaps and jumping to conclusions, but genre savviness is starting to kick in. And for some reason, it feels like memories had been being clouded from me. That cloud is beginning to lift, but I¡¯m not entirely sure which memories were hidden, or why. I¡¯ll probably need some sort of mnemonic device or trigger to recall specific ones. I hope that whatever this puzzle finally reveals, that it¡¯s in time to help Dawn, and can do something for her.


    A fairly somber day¡¯s worth of journey behind us, with several short breaks as Dawn¡¯s senses leave her on occasion. We¡¯re in the same situation as last night. Dawn¡¯s terrified to be up, alone, senseless for hours. I entirely empathize with that. Still, we¡¯re only about a day out of Victo, I can handle another night of crappy sleep in the mud. I try to reapply the density sense spell on Dawn as soon as it wears off, whenever it does.


    Alright, it¡¯ll be pretty late when we hit Victo, a normal day¡¯s trek from here would put us a mile or two or so out of town. We can press on a little bit longer and hopefully stay at the Castle Inn. Huff. Huff. Okay, long day. A strange light is passing over Victo, visible from the distance as we finally near it. Ugh, I¡¯m so looking forward to a bed at an inn, instead of sleeping alone in the mud. Guess I¡¯ll have to get a room by myself. That sort of sucks, but, it¡¯s for a friend. I don¡¯t know if people in the Celestial Imperium have any prejudices against scalekind, or if there¡¯s even room at the inn. We should have Dippy wait down here while we at least figure things out.


    Dawn follows along more slowly as we enter town. It¡¯s eerie. The Aasimovians were right, it seems like the Imperium has taken up the preservation of ancestors, but they haven¡¯t. I¡¯m almost positive these are bodies wandering around without souls, because their souls were stolen, not from naturally passing on to an afterlife. Dawn seems awestruck at the phenomenon.


    Actually, I think I should be too. The blank-eyed individuals standing about or bumbling around outnumber the regularly-living people so much, that I don¡¯t see a single person who appears as if they could hold a conversation. No one seems to be alive.


    Stopping by a leatherworks as I head towards the Castle Inn, the door is unlocked, but the attendant is standing sightlessly in the dark. I frown and drop some gold on the counter as I pick up a spare sleeping bag. Hopefully the same type of anti-wear material enchantments have been applied. I don¡¯t think you¡¯d get many repeat customers if your bag melted underneath someone in their sleep, while someone else¡¯s held up against the elements.


    Teuila stops at a provisions store and does much the same. I follow after her and renew some of my own supplies. Thankfully there are some long-lasting things still around, despite the unlikelihood that anyone will be restocking, ever. I¡¯m left wondering and worrying, are we too late to do anything on Rayileklia? If the Celestial Emperor can take an entire town, leaving them all like this, what¡¯s stopping him from just taking everyone else? Seriously. What¡¯s stopping such an evil entity?

 B 4 C 63: Victo Without Selunie

    I¡¯m pretty certain I know which building is the Castle Inn.  Jarvis had been doing fairly alright for himself to have gotten castle walls and topiary befitting a royal garden.  The gimmick, and quality beds were probably a great draw for travelers.  Or maybe even Selunie¡¯s singing.  Hm?  When did Selunie sing?  Why do I have it in my head that she would occasionally play a harp or lyre, and sing soft songs?  I don¡¯t remember that in any of Aces¡¯ memory dreams.  Are more of Aces¡¯ memories just bleeding over into me somehow?


    Entering the Castle Inn is a welcome sight, half a dozen obviously living individuals sit around a single table playing cards, muttering to themselves.  There¡¯s a proprietor too, but it¡¯s not Jarvis Tavner, nor Selunie.  I¡¯m confused.  Maybe this isn¡¯t the Castle Inn after all?  Or was I just completely wrong?  How did I know to navigate here, if it wasn¡¯t the right place?  Teuila is a ways behind, studying something outside.  I¡¯m not sure what caught her eye.  Dawn is a ways further away yet than even Teuila, still dumbfounded at the vast quantity of people who seem to be soul-stripped.


    I ask the person standing as this inn¡¯s proprietor, as politely as I can, ¡°Is this the Castle Inn?  Does it belong to Jarvis Tavner?  Is he, um, not about?  Or have I got the wrong place entirely?¡±


    The man with an oddly somewhat conical build answers, ¡°Reason Jarvis isn¡¯t here is because he¡¯s mine uncle.  He was hit with the light a few weeks back that left him a shell like so many others, almost exactly, but not quite a month ago.  Odd thing was, it was right after he met with that strange cloaked one that shows up every few months, or, sometimes years.  The sketchy one with, huh, that dagger.  Well, one like it I suppose.  Anyway, cloaked one seemed even more skittish than usual, came tearing into town riding hell for leather, and left just the same as the light was starting to show up.  Couldn¡¯t get a clear read, but nuncle said cloaked one told him about souls and the Celestial Emperor, to warn everyone, to leave the Imperium.  Fat lot of good a warning did him or anyone.¡±


    The cloaked one riding hell for leather was probably Aces, and Aces probably wanted to see Selunie before they died.  I wonder if they got the chance.  Aces tried to warn people at least.  We¡¯ve been in Rayileklia for almost exactly three weeks, like twenty days at this point, close as I can figure with how much I¡¯ve been passing out anyway.  If Aces traveled at full haste, it would take about a week from Victo to get to Noirdivinhoz if stopping by Autumn Brook.  The time line tracks.  Aces died around twenty to twenty one days ago now, and would have been here around twenty eight to thirty days ago at the quickest time frame.  I gasp as my stomach does flops, the question on my face is likely clear.  If anyone else who lived in the tavern was also hit, specifically the one who owns the dress hanging on that door.


    Seeing my gazing upon Selunie¡¯s dress, the proprietor answers my unspoken question, ¡°Cousin has been one of them for a while now, a couple of weeks at least.  I think twenty, twenty one days or so.  ¡®Twas odd, the light didn¡¯t usually pass over the inn for some reason, but then it did, and she joined them all the same.  I just, I can¡¯t handle taking care of them, nuncle nor Selunie.  Now I know it might sound cruel, but best I could do is put them with the food, and dig a little extra room in the root cellar.  I don¡¯t even know if they need to eat, but just in case.  I can go fetch her for you if you like, but she¡¯ll as like as not smell to high heavens.  ¡®Twer  ¡®nuncle first, then maybe a week or two later, cousin Selunie.  Soon as I saw the light passing through, and the light leaving her eyes, I knew, so I set her in gently with nuncle and all the longer food stores.  Couldn¡¯t bear to look in on them since.  I¡¯m sure a couple few weeks in a root cellar hasn¡¯t done her a kindness.¡±


    I sigh, trying to prevent myself from shedding tears.  I don¡¯t know why, but Selunie¡¯s soul being gone is devastating my heart ferociously.  It aches so deeply to my core, along my entire past and future.  Gulping back my own mucus so that I don¡¯t so much as sniffle, I look about the place for a moment before looking back to its new proprietor.


    I hesitantly ask, ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you knew her friend, Selunie¡¯s friend, Taylynn?¡±


    He brightens up, ¡°Oh, the pretty wild thing?  She comes by every few months.  I fancied her I did, but she turned me down.  I¡¯m not sure why, she didn¡¯t seem beholden to anyone.  Certainly not betrothed.  She¡¯d glare daggers at any drunken lout what proposed.  If not outright draw blade on them.  Not to say I¡¯m so cocky as to think I¡¯m the greatest catch, but I was already set fit to inherit the inn she so often frequents, and now I¡¯ve gone and done that.  Though, I wish I hadn¡¯t.  Not like this.¡±


    That, well.  Yeah, that definitely sounds like the Taylynn from my dreams.  Ugh, my dreams, that makes it sound creepy like a fantasy.  From my weird shared memories of Aces or something.  I guess that¡¯s a little better.


    I raise an eyebrow, almost afraid to ask, ¡°When was the last time you saw her?¡±


    He strokes his chin and forehead at the same time with just one large hand.  I couldn¡¯t tell before if his hands were a bit large, or if his head was a bit small, but it seems to be both.  The innkeep brightens up again, ¡°Oh, why, it has been a few months indeed!  Would be a sight for sore eyes to lay gaze upon her again, pretty thing that she was.  Especially when everyone else what I could talk to all can¡¯t talk back.  I¡¯m not, I¡¯m not going to do something like that.  Have a sit down or a lie down with someone what can¡¯t say yes or no.¡±


    We both shudder.  I¡¯m glad of his moral stance on that at least, though I really didn¡¯t need to know that he had even thought about such a thing.  I guess we could afford to stay in Victo for a while, we could observe this light phenomenon if it shows up again.  Hopefully Taylynn returns, and I can give her her dagger.  Maybe, maybe we can take care of Selunie, in some small way.  Or maybe we can find a solution for Selunie, and all the people of Victo to get their souls back.  I¡¯m certain that¡¯s the cause of the curse.  The Aasimovians were almost certain of it as well from rumor alone.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    If nothing else, dealing with stolen souls might help us with Dawn¡¯s problem.  Her curse.  I weep tears for Dawn and Selunie.  Dawn¡¯s curse is progressing, getting worse by the day.  She asked for hugs more today, because she couldn¡¯t even feel them at all anymore.  She just likes that Teuila and I share our closeness with her.  I¡¯m worried that leaving Dippy at the edge of this town was the wrong move.  If I left to check on him and Zippy, and found them as soulless husks, I¡¯d, I¡¯d never forgive myself.  We should send them back to their clan.  Before that strange light returns.


    There¡¯s something of a shriek from around back, it must be coming from the root cellar.  Please, please no.  Don¡¯t be what I think it is.  I rush around the back and down into the root cellar, Teuila has caught up, and isn¡¯t far behind.  There¡¯s an almost visible odor in the air, and I¡¯m grateful for once that I don¡¯t have a sense of smell.


    The innkeep is pounding on the ground, cursing himself and crying.  His wails are indecipherable for a long while.


    My brain virtually breaks.  I don¡¯t get it.  I don¡¯t get it.  What happened, and how could it happen?


    I notice what he¡¯s saying suddenly, seemingly mid-sentence.  He feels much the same as he wails, ¡°But, by the looks of things cousin, you¡¯ve been dead since that very day.  I wouldn¡¯t have shoved you down here.  ¡®Nuncle is okay, how can you be dead?  No one else has died of this accursed plague.¡±


    I want the same answer.  My face and collar feel wet, and, reaching up to my face, I realize I¡¯m bawling my eyes out.  I didn¡¯t know her.  She was just a character in a dream.  Yet.  Yet.  I fall to my knees and continue weeping.  Teuila rubs my shoulders and strokes the back of my head as she stands behind me.


    I sniffle as I ramble, ¡°It, it can¡¯t be just this.  I mean, also, why this reaction?  What is going on?  At most, it should be like seeing a well-liked character die in an anime or manga or comic or novel.  But I almost want to rip my heart from my chest from how broken it feels.  Teuila, what¡¯s happening to me?¡±


    I can sense Te shaking her head, wearing a frown as she lightly shrugs, ¡°I don¡¯t understand either, my wonderful Dink.  Maybe you got used to being in Aces¡¯ head, and fell in love with her?  I mean, you hinted that your dreams were way more intimate than the ones we heard.¡±


    I blush, steaming away some of the tears still flowing down my cheeks.  That would make me some sort of voyeur.  Yuck.


    The voice returns, a whisper full of sadness, ¡°Oh Sel,¡± is all it says.


    That nickname!  She hated when you called her that, said it sounded like a transaction.  If you are who I think you are.  Pausing for a while yields no retort.  Grr, unresponsive as always.  If you can see Selunie, do you see everything?  Do you hear everything?  Anything?


    Something¡¯s coming!  Oh, Dawn¡¯s back.  I¡¯m just sensing her come into range.  She seems about as sad as me at this point.  She¡¯s bumbling along as if blinded.  Oh no.  Not again.  Poor Dawn, another sense fading.  I don¡¯t know if touch will return at all anymore, if her sight also disappears permanently, my heart would break again.  It¡¯s so horrible.  I¡¯m not powerful enough to help her.  I don¡¯t know anyone who can reach out and touch soul magics to sunder them.  Perhaps the Celestial Emperor could, but only so he could steal her soul.  Plus, I think that priestly dickweasel got the power to create the curse from the Celestial Emperor in the first place.  I doubt he¡¯d undo it.


    We¡¯ve heard of two other groups of people with magic.  The Hidden Heart, and the Sisters of the Mist.  Both should be down along the eastern edge of the mountain range somewhere.  We could finally see Lil and Luni, while chasing down any and every lead about magic and souls.  For Dawn, but also for ourselves as well.  I don¡¯t think we¡¯d succeed at finding out leads here in Victo.  I¡¯m not even sure we¡¯d live if we tried.


    I don¡¯t know if I could stand to wait in this tavern for Taylynn to possibly return.  At least, I couldn¡¯t personally do it.  Not with knowing it¡¯s the place where Selunie died.  We probably shouldn¡¯t even risk coming into contact with that light either.  I¡¯ll just leave the dagger and a message.  It¡¯s not like I know Taylynn either.  I couldn¡¯t comfort her in her grief for losing both Aces and Selunie.  She doesn¡¯t owe me anything either, so it¡¯s not like I could or would force a conversation from her.


    I ask aloud, ¡°Is there anything like some kind of school for magic users, spellcrafting academy, anything of the sort in Victo?¡±


    The man weeping before me shakes his head for a moment before reconsidering, ¡°Well, the hermit¡¯s tower, if¡¯n that one hasn¡¯t fallen to the curse.  Southeast out of town a few paces.  Rumors say they¡¯re a witch or a warlock, but I half believe that¡¯s just because nobody ever sees who built it.  You know how townsfolk are, making up stories and sometimes they just take hold.¡±


    I drag a ragged breath, nodding along.  I beg one last favor, ¡°This, glp, this dagger.  It is the one you thought it was.  Belonged to the cloaked stranger, by way of Taylynn.  If you see her, I¡¯d like you to give it back to her please.  She¡¯ll know what it means.  I¡¯m assuming you also understand what it means that it¡¯s no longer in the stranger¡¯s possession.  I guess, I guess just tell her Aces¡¯ body is in Aasimovia if she wants to try to see it.  We¡¯ll leave you to your grief.  I¡¯m sorry for your losses.  I hope the light that passes over sees fit to return the afflicted.  I truly hope that it does.¡±


    I doubt very much that the light will ever return a single soul.  I¡¯m also starting to doubt that Taylynn will ever return to Victo.  If she¡¯s as smart as she seemed in my dreams, if Aces was able to warn her ever, she¡¯d stay far away.  I make certain that Dawn has the sensory spell active, and try not to sob as I draw shuddering breaths.  Teuila and Dawn follow me back out of the root cellar, through the Castle Inn, and back into Victo proper.


    I¡¯m helpless to save Dawn.  Selunie perished before I could ever even meet her to bring her news of Aces.  Taylynn may be fighting and dying to a hydra for all I know.  She was an adventurous type.  She¡¯d probably take it on herself to get rid of the thing.  I¡¯m supposedly probably dying, likely all the more quickly after healing so quickly from my injuries.  I¡¯ve still got some wounds from the compound, and fractures in my ankles, and a few other lower extremities, but a few more nights sleep, and I won¡¯t even have those.  Lil and Luni are trying to sort out Lil¡¯s feelings after dying.  Lucky is with them.  The only thing that seems to be going right is that I¡¯m still by Teuila¡¯s side.


    Despite it being late, and wanting to rest, I have the overwhelming urge to get the hell out of Victo.  We¡¯ll snag a few more supplies on our way back to Dippy, and see if we can stop by what hopefully ends up being a wizard¡¯s tower.  Then we should probably keep moving until we hit the mountain range.  Somehow, I know that that¡¯s almost a day¡¯s march east of here.  I just feel like we won¡¯t be safe until we hit it.

 B 4 C 64: The Scholar?

    Seeing Dippy out here, chatting with Zippy, patiently waiting on us, well, I feel like a terrible friend. He¡¯s a great guy. He has a family to get back to, and the Imperium is no place for anybody at this point. It takes some convincing, but he agrees that there isn¡¯t much tracking to do if we¡¯re just going to take a long trek around the east side of the mountains. Delaying his return home wouldn¡¯t put his abilities to use.


    Watching him leave hurts because he¡¯s a staunch companion. He never even complained about storming an entire human compound. He commented on it, and even cracked some jokes about crazy humies as he put it. But he has been only a constant companion, his only seeming desire beyond survival appeared to be our success, whatever our quest was. I guess his biggest worry was taken care of, with the Derbrightmine Dominion saying they¡¯d back off.


    I¡¯m pretty certain I spy silhouettes in the darkness following Dippy. I¡¯m more worried for anyone that tries to sneak up on him, since he now essentially invented a danger sense spell by copying the basics of mine. The silhouettes seem to be quadrupeds though. Perhaps the wolves and dogs from the other night?


    I wonder if Dippy will work with Scrap at some point later, to make a double-barreled wrist crossbow, since he wanted to get a good look at mine. Will the two be able to get it to produce seemingly infinite bolts of pure energy? Or is he just going to use it as a regular crossbow, and carry around quivers of bolts or darts?


    I¡¯m not sure what to do beyond what I¡¯ve guessed could be a possible plan. Teuila shrugs when I glance towards her questioningly. My heart still aches for Selunie and Dawn both. I glance at my pair of companions, taking stock of them, and our situation. Dawn is still tireless, but she¡¯s frightened out of her mind at the loss of her senses, and caught in a saddening spiral of despair. At best, maybe a Sister of the Mist could give us some clue as to whose magic might save her soul¡¯s final remnants. That¡¯s the closest I can guess. I don¡¯t have time to find some magical college or academy, chasing around the Imperium searching for one, and then undertaking learning one or more schools of magic. Not before Dawn fades away forever.


    I¡¯ve been passing out less over the last few days, whether it¡¯s the effect of Kozzurth¡¯s heart sinking in, now that it has likely been accessed to heal me and keep me alive, I¡¯m not sure. It could be that I¡¯m just so anxious about Dawn¡¯s situation, that my brain won¡¯t agree to sleeping so often, so randomly. Anyway, here¡¯s to hoping that the hermit at the edge of town is some sort of wizard in their tower.


    Traveling east along the south side of Victo, there¡¯s no cheer, no pep in our march. Even Teuila¡¯s shoulders sag as she occasionally glances back towards Dawn. We draw up on the tower as it shows up in our sight range suddenly. There¡¯s an odd lack of Luma Tulipa anywhere near it. Perhaps the hermit likes to sleep at times that the Luma Tulipa might otherwise shine on the tower.


    It¡¯s vaguely reminiscent of, nah. No way, right? Ugh, genre saviness senses tingling. Vaguely reminiscent of a lighthouse. Keep it together Reggie, massive conclusion jumping. Right. Right right right. Huff. Here goes. There¡¯s at least a clear entrance, so it¡¯s not some magical ¡®only the wizard can teleport in¡¯ tower or something. Knocking at this late hour might be rude, but probably better than bursting in unannounced. Hm, the clatter and shuffle from within would indicate our hermit is up.


    A paunchy man with that sort-of reverse bowl-cut style hair arrives. The odd hairstyle where one chooses to be balding in a shaven circle at the top, but wear the rest of their hair shaggily at the sides. Between it, and his humble robes, he looks quite like a friar from Fakeworld¡¯s entertainment media, from around the Robin Hood era.


    He starts, ¡°My, my my my, who do we have here? Strangers certainly, travelers out and about around witching hours? Is the inn fully booked? Come in, come in, at least leave the rain for a bit to dry off. Come come, this way. I haven¡¯t entertained in, well, ever. Rest your weary souls.¡±


    I bite my brain¡¯s kneejerk reaction as the hermit mentions the word souls. It¡¯s completely out of context Reggie. Keep it together. I rattle my head momentarily, attempting to dispel the thoughts and clear my brain. Teuila shrugs at me, she isn¡¯t sure why we¡¯re even stopping here. I guess I¡¯d better go at it.


    I start, ¡°We¡¯re sorry to disturb you. The inn is, well, there¡¯s a somber affair. There¡¯s been a death. It, well, it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate right now, and the details aren¡¯t mine to share. When I asked about town, there were rumors of a hermit in a tower. You know how rumors are, they¡¯re a witch, they¡¯re a wizard, a warlock, an ancient vampire lord, what have you.¡±


    Our host chuckles along, ¡°Oh yes yes, I¡¯ve heard them all. Tell me, seeing my living quarters, what do you make of me?¡±


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    Glancing about, there are texts with odd runic fonts on the covers, a host of alchemy equipment, small barrels of grains and salts and meats, but little else besides the fireplace. A fireplace with no logs nearby, and the ones within the fire don¡¯t seem to be crumbling or spent at all. There¡¯s something to the rumors for sure.


    I comment, ¡°Based on the makings of water walking potions over there, and those texts, and your ever-burning log, I¡¯d guess either you¡¯re simply wealthy, or the rumors hold some salt.¡±


    His eyes follow my gaze as I indicate various clues about his living area, and the reflection of the firelight illuminates them eerily. Clapping his hands together, he excitedly asks, ¡°Are you a fellow practitioner? You knew immediately one of the uses for those herbs and lilies. This is exciting, so very exciting. Are you proficient in any schools? Mine is necromancy of course, of course. How could it be anything else. Everyone wants to live forever, right?¡±


    I gulp apprehensively. How much can I let on? Looking at Teuila yields a shrug, and Dawn is doing her best to simply hold it together at the moment. I¡¯m going to need to renew the spell on Dawn soon anyway. I can fib a little. I keep the staff collapsed down to its handle, it doesn¡¯t need to be extended for such a meager display of power. I¡¯m able to hide it in the palm of my hand this way. No need to advertise a magical artifact.


    I state, ¡°I can perform some very minor alchemy, yes. I¡¯d guess the closest thing to a specialization that I have would be divination. I¡¯m using this spell to grant our quiet friend additional senses. It, hm, helps them feel safe. I can evoke or conjure a few simple elements. My ability to alter, whether you call it alteration or transmutation is very, very limited. My only brush with necromancy, well, I suppose I could animate a soulless body into a state of free will if I struggled for a few months. Time was, I could do much more, not necromancy obviously, my other schools of practice, but it¡¯s as if the knowledge is barred from me somehow, as if it were locked away on an entirely other world.¡±


    Teuila barely restrains herself as she snorts the faintest snicker. I¡¯m hoping that hinting about the Aasimovian¡¯s practice isn¡¯t enough to cause them any trouble. I don¡¯t know enough about their ritual to actually animate a body, but I¡¯m not going to sit here for several months to prove it to this chap anyway. Our host¡¯s placid countenance doesn¡¯t betray what might be going through his head in response to my statements.


    He¡¯s playing it closer to the chest than I am. Crap. I haven¡¯t given everything away. If I start now, I can call a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian power to defend us if I stall for time, if needbe. It¡¯ll be pretty obvious that I¡¯m casting something though when I start radiating light and bleeding. I suppose I¡¯ve been glowing this entire time, with my crossbow equipped, but this would be more obvious.


    After digesting for a few moments, he says, ¡°My my, my my my. You simply must stay the night, I¡¯ve never heard of someone to successfully dabble in so many schools. Nay, never have I heard of such a soul. Perhaps we could compare notes? Have you any curiosities or desires to expand your knowledge of necromancy further?¡±


    I grit my teeth and fight back a twitch as the word soul pops up once more. Hiding my grimace beneath a smile, I answer, ¡°I¡¯d be honored if you could sum up what you know. How life plays into death, the hereafter, what the potentials are of necromancy, the heights you¡¯ve reached with it. Anything along those lines.¡±


    He nods sagely along responding, ¡°Yes, yes yes. Those are very pertinent questions indeed. Solid questions for an eager mind. Quite obviously a student of magic and lore. I¡¯d like to ask you where you studied, but I¡¯m afraid you¡¯d give me the same old answer of self-taught. Please don¡¯t give me that old lie. Where, where did you begin acquiring such a vast marvelous sum of knowledge?¡±


    I gnaw on my lips as I blush with chagrin. He¡¯s right. I don¡¯t even know the names of any schools of magic, other than the warthog school, peccary something or other. That probably wouldn- wait. I can lie.


    I hem and I haw, ¡°I¡¯m unsure if my mentors would be all that grateful for their names being out there, but I could tell you where a few of them are located. Would that be fair?¡±


    I make a show of attempting to draw a fake map on my hand, as I count out locations that I know, that aren¡¯t going to send trouble to Aasimovia, especially not The Brook. I¡¯m not even willing to endanger the Colossi of the plains.


    He steeples his hands as he nods, greed clearly visible upon his face. I ask, ¡°Before we share though, perhaps we should introduce ourselves? I go by The Scholar. That lovely, incredibly powerful woman is The Valkyrie. Our shy friend I¡¯ll refrain from introducing, shyness and all. I hope you won¡¯t bother them over such trivial matters.¡±


    He frowns, realizing I¡¯m stringing out giving him a clear answer as he quickly replies, ¡°Oh, yes, of course, fine, fine fine fine and all that. I¡¯m Milbert of Navica, no family name of course, of course. Not noble by birth. Who is these days? Am I right? Please, please continue. Where are these masters, mentors?¡±


    I¡¯m pretty sure he couldn¡¯t cause too much trouble for the dwarves, if he even understands what I¡¯d say about them. They¡¯re closing themselves off from the surface entirely anyway. I start, ¡°Most recently, I studied in a location known as the Derbrightmine Dominion. Prior to that, a glade in the Jaggedfen Bog, and before that, Alta Vista of Jeegoobotstan.¡±


    I shake my head sadly. I still can¡¯t believe that¡¯s a place. Our host frowns, almost scowls as he asks, ¡°None of them in the Imperium at all? I suppose it tracks though, if you were headed east in your learnings and travels. Confound it all. I¡¯m sorry, it¡¯s not your fault your mentors dwell outside the safety of the Imperial Light. It must have been difficult, journeying without the Bright Lord¡¯s protection.¡±


    I gulp and gnaw on my lip as my glance flicks towards Teuila and Dawn. Is this just normal Celestial Imperium propaganda, or is he a cultist of the Bright Lord?

 B 4 C 65: Bright Soul I See Tonight

    Despite my worries, Milbert of Navica makes no move to suddenly assail us, nor even to proselytize the Bright Lord. I puff a sigh of relief as inconspicuously as I can manage. Still, I am quite curious what a practitioner of magic has to say about the school they specialize in. Milbert glances around for something, a tome apparently. Once he grabs it, he returns to his seat, and starts thumbing through it.


    He holds up an index finger in a one moment gesture, seeking something. Milbert begins, ¡°What were your questions again? I believe it was life playing into death, afterlife, potentials, and heights, yes? Yes yes. A perfect order. Astounding scholarly mind. You certainly live up to your name. As some fair amount know, there is of course the biological cycle of life. Life lives, dies, decomposes as it feeds fungi and whatnot, supports new life which lives and dies and so on.¡±


    He appears to be reading our faces for our ability to follow along. No one in my party is surprised by this information, so he continues, ¡°Right, so, another cycle believed by some is that life leads directly to life, that death doesn¡¯t exist. An entity, a soul perhaps, what have you, simply hops from one chapter to the next should something happen to its vessel. Theologians will argue those possibilities for days on end. Dullards, the lot of them. Necromancy isn¡¯t about death and undeath, no, it¡¯s about capturing the true essence of life.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, intrigued. Milbert grins wildly, knowing he has my full attention, ¡°Right, and just so. Life, the being, the consciousness, the soul. It is a moment of eternity itself. A perfect point plucked from the infinite. Yet even still, infinite divided by anything is still infinite, is it not?¡±


    I nod, mathematically that¡¯s technically correct. Though the postulate itself is a tad leaky. Milbert explains, ¡°A soul is therefore an infinity unto itself. Endless cycles, and they¡¯re all already written, in a way. You¡¯d have to speak to chronomancers to really puzzle that one out. There¡¯s much more to time than meets the untrained eye.¡±


    Hef, snerk. I cough as I hold back a snorted laugh. Nodding with a tear in my eye, I prompt Milbert to continue, so he does, ¡°Right, well that¡¯s life unto death, parting with a soul for whatever cycle it partakes in. Therefore afterlife, afterlife, the hereafter, what comes next. No one knows of course, but there are, hm, some methods to prolong the current point of the journey. Necromancy studies these. Bringing me to Necromancy itself.¡±


    This is what I was truly after. If any school of magic dealt in souls, it would be this one, right? Milbert explains, ¡°Some of its possibilities are of course preserving the meat, the vessel, giving them some semblance of continued life. Those are amateur attempts at reaching Necromancy¡¯s true purpose. Don¡¯t strive to bring back what¡¯s already gone, or conjure cheap tricks that any enchanter could accomplish with any mannequin. No. Pluck a piece of the infinite, and stretch it, preserve it, play with it, seek its possibilities. Please, please come with me, up here, follow. It will be so much easier to explain above.¡±


    I glance at Teuila who nods. Sending my glance to Dawn, she looks hopeful for once. I attempt to breathe coolly, calmly. The three of us follow Milbert up the various floors of his tower as he chuckles excitedly. As we approach a trap door leading upwards, I¡¯m beginning to feel apprehensive. My earlier fear about this being some sort of lighthouse dances about the front of my brain. I have to shake free the thought, so that I can continue. This is the first hope we¡¯ve had for Dawn, possibly ever, since the beginning of her curse.


    Milbert mumbles, ¡°Yes, yes, up, up you go, there you go, all of you. Such magpie minds, snatching hungrily at the tidbits. No wonder you¡¯re The Scholar, and have traveled so far in search of knowledge. Up up, right over here, yes. I¡¯ll attempt to illuminate Necromancy''s heights. Pardon me while I shed some light on the situation.¡±


    My eyes flash wide. I was right. I! Glp. As Milbert lights a torch, I find myself unable to move. The three of us crumple to our knees, struggling to get any of our muscles to respond. I have the staff in my hand, can I risk casting without aiming? Would Dawn¡¯s curse prevent their body¡¯s destruction, or would they be trapped in a charred husk? I don¡¯t dare take the chance. Teuila begins to glow, and I fear the worst, until I realize what she¡¯s doing. She needs me to buy eight minutes. Milbert¡¯s excitement is palpable.


    My head virtually vibrates. I send a silent apology to Dawn with my eyes. I need the aura vision spell on, right now. Since it¡¯s technically the same spell, I could possibly keep it running, though Dawn¡¯s is a more complex version of it. Still, my apology is in case this breaks the spell granting her extra senses. My eyes alight to the workings of magic around me. Radiant tendrils from the torchlight lap hungrily at us, gripping us, trying to pierce our hearts in order to drag something free. Milbert¡¯s enthusiasm quickly begins to fade however.


    The necromancer curses, ¡°What the devil? What even are you? No soul has taken so long to leave its vessel, especially not one so close to the source. How dare you defy the light. Perhaps, perhaps your soul will remain should your vessel be extinguished. It should be locked to the light by now. It would be such a shame for it to go to waste though if it isn¡¯t captured. My lord demands them all, but yours is far too curious, far too curious indeed. He won¡¯t know a traveler has journeyed through and fallen prey.¡±


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    Milbert cackles gleefully as he rubs his hands together. He casts about, looking for something to slay me with. I finally get a single muscle working, my throat. I accidentally cough at its sudden mobility. This draws Milbert¡¯s attention directly back to me. He races over and stares into my locked-open eyes. He scratches inside his ear for a moment, doubting what he¡¯d heard. He takes another moment to cup his ear as he tries to listen for any further sounds.


    I string it along as long as I can, but when he frowns and turns away, I have no choice but to draw his attention back to me, ¡°Milbert of Navica. This won¡¯t end well for you.¡±


    He gasps and swiftly turns about to face me once more. His eyes alight with greed, ¡°You, there is something about your soul so very odd indeed. Perhaps you were lying about not dabbling in Necromancy, hm? Maybe you¡¯ve locked your soul to your vessel? Some other fascinating facet I haven¡¯t yet studied? But what of these two. Why would they in any way be the same. The vast power it must have taken to lock your own soul in place, why, you¡¯d have to lay waste to an entire kingdom. Have you truly done such a thing? Wait, wait, I recall hearing that Jeegoobotstan was razed. Did the Scholar take countless lives in pursuit of such curious knowledge? Hm?¡±


    I start to laugh, mostly at the name Jeegoobotstan, but the laughter serves my purpose well enough. I respond, gleefully, ¡°Milbert. If you extinguish that flame now, I¡¯ll tell you all you need to know to truly see the world through my eyes. I can guarantee you won¡¯t obtain the same information from any traces of my soul that you can acquire.¡±


    Milbert glances back and forth between me and his flame, nervously. I almost think I¡¯ve convinced him, when he wags his finger at me, ¡°Ah ah ah, you wouldn¡¯t be so desperate for me to extinguish it if it wasn¡¯t working. Ah hah! I¡¯ve got you. Fine, if all I need do is be patient, then be patient I shall. Though I hope my m''lord does not notice the light blazing so long with no souls to send.¡±


    I herp, nearly vomiting. Either his lord is the Bright Lord, who we¡¯re pretty sure is the Celestial Emperor, or there¡¯s someone else out there stealing souls. Maybe the only person, with the Celestial Emperor taking the blame. Wait, no. Aces saw their soul being ripped from their chest. The Celestial Emperor definitely steals souls. There¡¯s a tower, Aces mentioned a Babylonian tower filled with souls, where was it? Oh friggin¡¯ hell it was Navica! We should have left as soon as he introduced himself. Crap! Of course a soul-stealing necromancer is from the city where the stolen souls reside. Hellspit.


    Luckily, based on my aura vision, the radiant tendrils are making absolutely no progress in ensnaring my soul, or Teuila¡¯s soul. Dawn¡¯s soul is external, but each tendril that grasps it is sucked away as it dissipates into the curse. Well, at least Dawn can¡¯t have her soul stolen and tormented before her curse is over. I try to calm my breathing. I know a way out of this, but I would want Dawn¡¯s consent. Even Teuila might not fair so well in the center of a fireball explosion. Actually, would killing Milbert even accomplish anything? We would still be trapped by the light that attempts to ensnare our souls.  If fire isn''t the answer, what about my old standby?  An FFS, a frozen frost storm.  Only, it''ll have to be a localized hailstorm from the staff instead.


    I announce, ¡°Milbert, I¡¯m about to free myself from this pitiful nuisance. If you agree to a civil discussion, I won¡¯t be forced to slay you. I do hope you¡¯ve still enough wits about you and your senses to see the rational choice in this matter.¡±


    Milbert puzzles about me, pacing a circle around me a moment before declaring, ¡°No, no I don¡¯t think you are. Somehow you¡¯ve got your throat and tongue, perhaps a bit of your lips and jaw, but you need hands for magic my friend. Brr. Why is it suddenly so cold up here? Are, are those clouds inside my tower? What even are you!?¡±


    My conjured hailstorm comes at the expense of leaving Dawn senseless, and leaving myself without aura vision. The sleet and snow of the storm rain heavily down upon us, striking us with sharp, hardened frost. It takes a moment as Milbert gazes around for it to dawn on him what¡¯s about to happen. He rushes towards his flame, and tries to bodily protect it against the chill and the wet. Even with all his attention on the slowly sputtering flame, it begins to die out.


    Milbert, sensing the torch about to extinguish, rushes over to me and leaps at me. He grips my throat in both of his feeble hands and squeezes. Milbert cries out, ¡°What are you? What are you!? What are¡ª M''lord? M''lord, what¡¯s a prime soul? No, no M''lord I didn¡¯t know. I, I didn¡¯t, ah, ahhhhh. I didn¡¯t know!¡±


    As the torch finally fully darkens, completely extinguished, Milbert spontaneously combusts, thankfully in front of me, rather than near Teuila or Dawn. I reach out towards Milbert, hoping to extinguish him and perhaps question him later, possibly under duress, but by the time my hand makes it to him, he¡¯s nothing more than glowing ash blowing away in the breeze.


    I glance about the room and quickly work at destroying anything that might be a light-source. If Milbert can spontaneously combust, then they might spontaneously ignite, and I don¡¯t know which items contain that horrid soul-stealing enchantment. I reapply Dawn¡¯s extra senses to her, when I no longer need the hailstorm, and the aura vision spell to myself.


    The people of Victo are finally safe from the light, for now. Far, far too late. If only we¡¯d arrived here, rather than Noirdivinhoz. We might have been able to save Selunie. Her soul was taken, and her death occurred on the same day we arrived. I think we do have to pick up where Aces left off. I think our enemy is the Bright Lord, the Celestial Emperor. How do you defeat, nay, even challenge a soul stealing enemy? With a weapon whose soul refuses to be stolen. With me.

 B 4 C 66: The Nuclear Option

    I¡¯m full of regret beyond belief at the moment. I nearly got all of our souls stolen. I guess that¡¯s one less thing to worry about in the long haul though. I should really, truly trust my genre savviness senses by now. They do jump to conclusions a lot, but they¡¯re so often correct too.


    Teuila¡¯s Valkyrie form finishes manifesting. I flash her a sad half-smile at the seemingly wasted effort. Te shakes her head and says, ¡°Come on Dink, help me destroy this stupid spear, I¡¯ll just stay Valkyrie from now on. When we smash it or dissolve it or whatever, then I¡¯ll pound this tower down brick by brick.¡±


    As I make certain that Dawn and I both have enhanced senses once again, I ponder for a moment, gnawing on my lower lip. I¡¯ve seen magic items be damaged, or even nearly destroyed. The second Octorochi, in its enraged state, could spit acid so potent that it began to eat through even powerful magical equipment. Could some of the alchemical compounds below be re-purposed into an extremely potent acid? I think perhaps, yes. I nod to Teuila.


    Before journeying downward, I ask, ¡°Are you two alright with me collecting every bit of knowledge in this tower? I think we might be able to, I might possibly, find some information about souls. It seems like Milbert was obsessed, and it¡¯s our first real lead.¡±


    Dawn¡¯s hopeful expression plays at her face, fighting the despair, and losing. She gives me a sad quarter smile, almost pleading that I do it. Teuila responds, ¡°Of course Dink. Aren¡¯t those the rules, something or other? One wizard bests another in a magic duel, you get their tower or some junk? Or wand or some other phallic symbol. Hehe.¡±


    Snrk. Heh. I roll my eyes as I chuckle at Teuila. I friggin¡¯ love this woman, this absolute dork. I lean over to kiss her softly at the corner of her lips, which earns me a Shellcracker Family Squee, that beloved single elongated laugh of glee. Dawn flashes the pair of us an embarrassed quarter smile as she tries to avert her gaze.


    I apologize, ¡°Sorry Dawn, sorry. I hope I didn¡¯t, I mean, I didn¡¯t mean to make you uncomfortable.¡±


    Teuila chimes in, ¡°Yeah Dawny, sorry and stuff. Really, really.¡±


    Dawn rolls her eyes, responding, ¡°S¡¯fine you two, Rej, Boss, you¡¯re lovebirds, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯m not some anti-affection maniac who can¡¯t stand the idea that other people have sex lives or whatever. Or, well, affection-lives, for people that can¡¯t or don¡¯t. Ugh, you know what I mean.¡±


    I bite my lips and fight back the smile that wants to break free at Dawn¡¯s ramble. I¡¯m trying hard not to laugh at her expense, since she was fairly heartfelt in her absolving of us. I scoop up anything that might be worthwhile up here, and begin making the rounds along each floor of the tower. When I find something that even has a hint of a magical aura, I snag it and bring it to the bottom floor to sort through. I bring down armloads of books, scrollcases, things that look like fabric patterns, anything that might contain even a mote of knowledge or power.


    Exploring this side storage room yields only a locked cabinet. Inside is a creepy doll with transmutation and enchantment auras all running through it. I''m going to just nope right out of this cabinet. Nope. Nope nope nope. Locking you right the hell back up, and putting the locking spell from the staff on the cabinet too.


    Either Milbert was wealthy beyond belief, a strong enchanter, or a kleptomaniac that ran around looting the homes of people whose souls he had stolen. I''m quite certain it''s the latter. He seemed genuinely convinced that studying more than one area of magic, and being able to be successful with it, was almost impossible. By the end of my search, I¡¯ve piled up a massive haul of goods that the three of us sort through.


    A set of pan-pipes that look fairly well-loved gives off a rather powerful aura of fright. Another set of pan-pipes that boast an aura of mixed conjuration and enchantment, sort of. It seems to physically call out to something to appear. Also by the aperture, it''s probably an incredibly high tone, likely inaudible to humans and similar creatures. Dogs perhaps? Cats? Rats? Ah, yes, probably rats. The Pied Piper of, what was it, Hamelin? Hameln? Hamlin? Something like that. At least in the collective memories available from Earth. Somehow, somehow I know that these require a high duende to utilize properly. It''s weird, do people on Rayileklia have hidden stats pages? Is there some sort of power on Rayileklia that can print those to a scroll or something?


    Next up we have this hat. Hm. It¡¯s what looks a bit like a leather jockey''s cap, or flight hat you''d see in cinema on Fakeworld depicting older solo flights. Something about its energy screams out illusory powers. Perhaps it can act as some sort of disguise


    There¡¯s several pieces of jewelry. One of which is a thin golden chain, meant to serve as a necklace, it has a faint aura that extends upwards from its thickest point, the center away from the locking ends. It almost appears like it would coat one''s mouth and nose. Some sort of filtration effect perhaps? Another piece of jewelry is a very small, thin, copper ring with runic inscriptions that look vaguely like Hermes sandals or some sort of winged boots. Well I know who''s going to get a kick out of that. I can tell there''s a simple spell inside it, and much like the staff''s simple spells, it can be cast repeatedly, indefinitely, taking the most minor snippets of ambient energy to produce its effect.


    These two items were from the pantry, although I¡¯m fairly certain the first one isn¡¯t food. It¡¯s a single packet of some sort of dust, some kind of fine dry sand. It''s got a vaguely illusory aura. The other item from the pantry though makes more sense. It¡¯s a quaint belt with a series of empty pouches, but there''s a fairly large aura of conjuration upon them, and traces of peppery powders at their edges. It seems to conjure spices. If they¡¯re endlessly conjurable, or even just a set limit per day, it would certainly make eating the same grains day in and day out much more palatable.


    There are three cloaks, two of which are identical. They have the tiniest imbuement of enchantment possible. I think all it does is make the fabric rustle. Perhaps to keep it from getting wrinkly? I suppose one could make it billow dramatically if one entered a room and wanted to call attention to oneself. The other contains a mildly strong illusory aura. It seems to be able to change its appearance somehow. The aura isn''t as strong as the leather cap however.


    This little pile causes me to shudder. There are two malachite-encrusted emeralds in identical facet configurations. Ugh. I shiver, knowing exactly what would happen if those were smashed. Their conjuration aura is fairly powerful. I''m so grateful Elder warned me about elemental spirits and gems tied to summoning them. I''m assuming this agate-encrusted sapphire conjures either air or water elementals.


    Hidden in a small chamber behind the cabinet containing the alchemy supplies is a wealth of potions. There''s a veritable host of potions, many have abjurative auras, one has an evocation aura, and I can sense the fire magics within it, due to my familiarity with fire at this point in my life. Another has a copy of the size-changing spell within the staff, but only the shrinking portion. But the two potions that interest me the most are the tiny red vial, and the slightly larger red potion. Blood potions, regeneration, healing, whatever you want to call it. They''re rare beyond belief, and Milbert has two of them. Well, likely stolen from the wealthiest people in town, or wealthiest travelers or passersby. Come to think of it, could they be dragon''s blood? Huff. I''ve a few things to think about there. One other that interests me almost as much is a small jar of ointment looks like excellent treatment for both burns and infected wounds.


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    There''s a thin brass wand that has a divination aura. It, it has the basis for the aura sensing spell within it. Dawn can keep at least one sense available, even without me around! I weep tears of relief for Dawn. Some tiny semblance of comfort I can grant her. I immediately hand it to Dawn.


    I¡¯m weeping as I hand over the wand, trying not to sob as I state, ¡°Dawn, with this, with this you¡¯ll always be able to have that extra sense active. You don¡¯t need me any more. You¡¯ve felt the spell enough times, so you should be able to alter the spell in the wand to do the same. It¡¯s the same as the spell in my staff, so the same tweak should apply.¡±


    Dawn stares at it, dumbfounded. She slowly reaches out to take hold of it, and continues staring at it for some time before responding, ¡°Rej, I. Thank you. I¡¯ve been so scared that, that if something happened to you or Boss, or I lagged behind, that, that I¡¯d. Glp. Thanks pal. Really, truly.¡±


    I sniffle as I nod emphatically. I quickly rub my itchy, wet eyes of their tears before I continue to try to sort through the magics of the various objects. I also hand Dawn the pan flute with the frightening aura.


    As I hand it to her, I whisper, because I can¡¯t find my voice, ¡°Dawn, glp, koff, if, if something does happen to us, or if you¡¯re caught lagged behind for some reason. If something scary is bearing down on you, play these. I think the sound that comes out will cause hostile things around you to cower momentarily. If they can hear.¡±


    Dawn jokes, ¡°Got it, so hope I don¡¯t run into another, scarier version of me then.¡±


    I bite back a laugh, earning a coughing snort for my efforts. I¡¯m so happy to see Dawn starting to take their situation lightly. It means we still have hope. Before continuing though, I snap the belt of spice pouches around Teuila¡¯s waist, and set the weird illusory powder pack within it, and toss her the small copper ring. She equips it and fiddles with it momentarily before her eyes alight with new knowledge. Teuila grins with glee and bursts into a wildly mad cackle. Her laughter raises the mood in the room by several levels.


    Te asks, through laughter, ¡°Dink, hahaha, Dink, heh, did you know? Hah. Did you know what spell is in this ring?¡±


    Chuckling, I give the so-so gesture. Teuila explains, ¡°It¡¯s literally called jump. Bwahaha, and I¡¯m in Valkyrie form, so it¡¯s even better. Awe man, if only we had our old radiant forms. Imagine, triple sonic boom or something. Yeesh. Some day. Right Dink? Some day.¡±


    I nod along with Teuila. She¡¯s right. Some day. I affirm, ¡°Yeah, some day Te. Some day.¡±


    We both know we mean we¡¯ll make it home to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and try our best to cleanse the radiant aura of our world of its corruption. If we succeed in that, we should be able to use our old radiant powers to their fullest. But even if we can¡¯t, I was striving to make a connection to the void near the end of our lives. Perhaps void-forms could be just as powerful.


    Getting back to this massive pile of likely stolen goods, there¡¯s still a fair bit yet. There''s a small backpack that holds its shape quite well standing up that was in this very heavily locked cupboard alongside the cap and one of the cloaks, it has two small side pouches as well. Gazing inside, the blackness of the space within is far darker than it should be. I gasp, and with bated breath, I reach into the sack''s main pocket. It is! Bwahaha! An extra-dimensional storage bag! The luck! Hell, the fact that Milbert had this just tucked away very carefully leaves me almost certain he would take it, and that disguise cap to wander around town. While out, he¡¯d be looting magical bits and bobs from others. He probably used that aura vision wand as well, so he knew what was worth taking. Klepto-necro.


    There''s a rolled up black swatch of fabric that seems extremely powerful. My genre senses say to keep it the hell away from any of the pouches and packs with magical properties. I''m going to trust them on this. It honestly looks like something from a cartoon with a coyote and a road runner. Some sort of instant door that can open a hole in a wall or something.


    There''s a small wooden carving, about the size of a button-pin that one would wear on jacket lapel, but it has a strong aura of conjuration upon it. I¡¯m fairly certain it¡¯ll burn up to sort of create a creature from thin air, more or less. Based on the weird furriness of the feather icon on it, I almost hope it could somehow bring Luna to us. I miss our feathered bear friend. I can¡¯t believe I just thought of her as an animal. Maybe someday I¡¯ll learn magic that lets me speak with her. She was better at manipulating party menus than any of us. It won¡¯t bring Luna from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I¡¯m sure, but if it conjures a feathered bear, or gryphon or something, might it be as friendly as she was if we offer it food?


    There''s a bottle from which smoke seems to trickle out the stopper endlessly. It has a fairly strong conjuration aura upon it. Based on its heft, it¡¯s completely empty, yet a thin wisp of smoke roils about inside of it, constantly bubbling forth. This seems like a stage prop. It¡¯s a portable fog machine. Of course, given enough time, or if the magic is more forceful than it looks, I imagine it¡¯d be an incredible escape tool for a heist. Put it down near an intersection, throw some sound down the hallway you¡¯re not going to travel down, then stroll the opposite direction under the cloud¡¯s obscurement.


    There''s a stone that oddly resembles my starmetal luck-rock from Can''Z''aas. The one that I''d given to Dehlia in order to help her recover from her coma. I, I''ll hold onto it as a reminder of home. When I see Lil again though, I''m giving it to Lil. They''d been in some sort of romantic relationship with either Dehlia or her brother or both. Lil deserves a positive reminder of what we have waiting for us back home. I. I just want my Lil buddy to be happy. To not hate me. It¡¯s fair that they hold me responsible for the pain and loss of so many Nagas and Chamelefolk. I gasp a shuddered, saddened breath. Was there really no other way? Luni seemed to trust that we were following the best possible plan of the best possible timeline.


    Hm, this one¡¯s interesting. There''s a hooded lantern with a fairly potent divination aura about it. It appears to generate a light that would dispel illusions I''m guessing, or at least reveal invisible creatures. Near it are a pair of solid leather boots with a fur rough as an inner lining. They''ve got a strong abjurative aura about them, and feel slightly warmer than the chilly room around us. Likely some measure of protection against the cold and damp of Rayileklia.


    There''s a saddle that''s incredibly tiny. I¡¯ll bet, like other magical clothing and armor, it resizes. when I attempt to stretch it, sure enough it changes size, It also has some abjurative aura on it. Some manner of protection for either the mount, or the rider, or possibly both. I wonder if Taylynn had one of these. She was certainly fairly wealthy, and loved her horse. I hope this wasn''t Taylynn''s. I gulp as I shed tears at the possibility of Taylynn''s body wandering around somewhere, soulless.


    Huh, more familiar items from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. a familiar candle, like one I''d given Luni so very long ago now. I know that it ignites underwater, and remains lit while wet. An orb identical to the one I''d gifted Teuila long ago. It''s sort of like a magnet that tugs the holder gently north''ish. Between those, and the starmetal luck rock, and some of the potions, I wonder if there aren¡¯t some similarities in our systems of magic after all. Heck, I should realize there are similarities. The staff taught me runewords that I¡¯ve only seen here in Rayileklia.


    This one¡¯s a bit wicked, and I almost wonder why Milbert wasn¡¯t walking around with it. It¡¯s a cane that fairly expertly hides a sword as if within a sheathe. It isn''t exactly very magical, except a faint trace of illusion around where the seam would be, between the handle and sheathe. Still, inviting strangers into your home, I figure, why wouldn¡¯t you have a non-obvious weapon at hand, at the very least.


    Huff. Scrolls. Sadly not identification scrolls. They''re a potent abjurative magic, in a runic script that would be foreign to me. If not for the staff''s guidance recently teaching me the runes for the word elementals, and a few other key words. Motherloving hell. These scrolls dissuade elementals from attacking the caster for a long period. -That- would have been handy a week ago. Friggin'' heck. Grr. At least I have a nuclear option if I''m trapped alone against powerful foes. Read one of these scrolls and break a bunch of elemental gems, and watch the elementals go crazy going to town on whatever creature is trying to slay me. These scrolls are going in the scrollcase-sheathe thing that I snagged from Berinon, so that they''re as close at hand as the powerful staff. Basically those scrolls, the starmetal luck stone, and a few smaller things are going in this rounded sheathe. Most everything else can either be worn by Dawn, Teuila, myself, or go in the extradimensional storage pack. It¡¯s a small pack, and doesn¡¯t have quite the space of say, one of the bags Luni has, but it¡¯s a rather cute leather satchel. I¡¯ll happily wear it, and keep the dangerous items like the elemental gems in this side pouch over here. There we go, I¡¯ll be able to reach them with my right hand, while my left hand fishes out a scroll of elementalist protection.


    Between the gems, the elementalist protection scrolls, and the staff, I could have four elementals running around causing havoc. Maybe combine a fire elemental and stone elemental into a lava elemental. Maybe it¡¯d become as powerful as VF, Vesuviform. Nuclear option indeed.

 B 4 C 67: Alchemy? Yes You Can

    There¡¯s a wealth of alchemy supplies, and more to Milbert¡¯s alchemy kit than first meets the eyes. With my incredibly limited knowledge of chemistry, and what little Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian alchemy I managed to learn through my inventory shenanigans, I could create explosives. I could create some acids as well. I can still of course create minor water walking potions. We already have several of those that I conjured when we first arrived though.


    Hm. Teuila desperately wants to remain in Valkyrie form. But leaving a copy of Gae Buidhe out somewhere in the world, or carrying it around where someone might bump into it is dangerous beyond belief. I take Gae Buidhe aside to study it momentarily, but I also load down Teuila¡¯s new magical spice pouches with potions. No reason not to use the space. If she needs a spice, she can conjure it after taking the potions out. Also, magical containers seem ridiculously resilient. Any of the clothing or gear I¡¯d gotten from Berinon survived a point blank explosion remarkably unscathed.


    Regardless, I sort through the potions to pick the most useful for Teuila. I make sure she¡¯s got all of the powerful abjurative potions, the one that I¡¯m sure imbues fire breath, the ointment, and the larger red potion. If I¡¯m too destroyed to take the smaller red potion, Teuila¡¯s going to need that one to revive me.


    I chuckle at two potions. They¡¯d set someone¡¯s strength almost on level with Teuila, almost. I flip these to Dawn, calling out, ¡°Dawn, if you¡¯re ever in a pinch where you need to be able to smash through a wall or something, drink one of those.¡±


    Dawn looks flabbergasted, ¡°What? Really Rej? I mean, shouldn¡¯t Boss be the-¡°


    I interrupt, ¡°It doesn¡¯t amplify your power, it sort of cloaks your muscles in giant muscles of a certain power. It¡¯s hard to explain, but basically, Teuila is stronger than those potions can make someone.¡±


    Teuila grins like a goon as she flexes her athletically toned arms, hidden beneath her armor, hah. The absolute goon.


    Regardless, this elicits a low appreciative whistle from Dawn when she realizes just how strong that must mean Teuila really is. I chuckle. I think Lil was probably approaching Teuila¡¯s strength. Actually, wait. How did I know those potions¡¯ functions? Their aura appeared similar to the girdle, the weird, giant, storming belt. Oh! Oh wow, Teuila might be a bit pissed if she tries to arm wrestle Lil while Lil¡¯s wearing that belt, hah. That belt is a much more powerful, permanent version of these potions. It will cloak Lil¡¯s muscles in much more potent aura, enhancing them to even beyond Teuila¡¯s raw strength. I¡¯m not even sure Lil will get any benefit from it after they permanently unlock their third evolutionary stage. Or at the very least, when they can begin reaching a fourth evolutionary stage. Still, it¡¯s a bit hilarious that my Lil buddy could be wearing that, drop all the way down to spheriform stage, and still topple mountains.


    I call out, ¡°Te, want the disguising hat thing in case anyone is prejudiced against people with fur? Or are you absolutely positively going to stay Valkyrie from here on out?¡±


    Teuila steels her gaze as she gives me a confident glare, ¡°I¡¯m The Valkyrie. You said it yourself. It¡¯s time I started living it. Besides,¡± her tone and glare soften, becoming almost playful, ¡°don¡¯t you think -this-,¡± Teuila swerves her hands in an exaggerated hourglass figure in front of her curves, ¡°is pretty hot?¡±


    I cough, trying to fight back laughter. Teuila''s body in all forms is, of course, incredibly attractive. Hot is what she''d call it. But yes, her Valkyrie form is so much closer to a fae-like woman, similar to my cherubic form being a mixture of fae, goblinoid, and human. Regardless. We¡¯ve done this bit at least once before, but Dawn actually tugs at her collar for a moment before averting her gaze. Even if Dawn doesn¡¯t want to pursue affection, she certainly has good taste in aesthetic preference. Valkyrie, Teuila, My-Wings. The woman is supernaturally gorgeous. I stare at Te for far too long a moment caught in a loving gaze, before there¡¯s a polite cough from Dawn, then one from Teuila as she gazes about the room avoiding eye contact. Teuila¡¯s visibly blushing, and it raises the heat of my cheeks as well. I cough along with the two of them, glancing around momentarily. I think we¡¯ve done this bit once before as well.


    I¡¯m incredibly curious about this necklace. I¡¯m not a fan of jewelry at all, but the enchantment on it is simultaneously minor, yet incredibly powerful. What could it be? I begin tracing its aura in the air, looking for runic symbols I recognize that the staff has taught me. I mostly know only elements, and spirits. I also know the runeword for telekinesis, not that that comes up much. There, there¡¯s one for air, or wind, it seems to be the bottom layer of the spell, sort of the end point, but also the base atop which the spell is formed. There¡¯s one for water, another one for water that¡¯s slightly different, but that might be vapor, or gasses. It¡¯s like, the underpinnings, or end purpose of the enchantment is an absolutely pure wind, or pure air element. Wait! I toss it around my neck, take a few practice breaths, and run to dunk my head in a small fountain next to a potted plant.


    The tree-like bush actually politely recoils in a careful, slow motion from where it had been leaning into the fountain. I don¡¯t pay it any attention as I begin breathing tentatively under water. Tiny sips of air at first, only into my mouth. When there¡¯s no hint of water, I allow myself to breathe all the way down to my lungs. I begin breathing deeply, hyperventilating testingly, but also out of sadness. I drop to my knees, dragging myself out of the fountain as I weep. I feel a comforting branch upon my shoulder. Wait, branch? Moving tree? I, I¡¯ll deal with that in a moment.


    I sob, crying my heart out. If, if we¡¯d had this at the dam, or on the Night of High Water, I could have saved them, I could have saved everyone. I, I wouldn¡¯t have made Sylphie sacrifice herself, I wouldn¡¯t have gotten her killed for my stupid heroism. Teuila looks stricken, as she realized I¡¯d been breathing under water quite fine with no ill effects, since I¡¯m not coughing my lungs out. She realized what the necklace can do as well. With how often I¡¯ve drowned or nearly drowned, how often I ended up in the drink, hoping water would spare my life, this would have been so, so important. She kneels next to me to wrap her arms around me. Dawn seems lost in mild confusion.


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    I try to explain, around sobs that become coughs, ¡°Dawn, I, this, it, it lets the user breathe, safely, anywhere, any time. Even under water. Koff, snfl, koff. I¡¯ve lost family to asphyxiation in a tidal wave. I caused a benevolent spirit to sacrifice herself for me, deep beneath a river. I nearly drowned fighting a kraken-type thing several times. The first battle that Lil and I faced something truly dangerous, I almost drowned fighting an angry vampiric mudguppy. Water, and being in, or under it, has been a constant facet of my life.¡±


    Dawn inches closer and lays several fingertips upon my free shoulder. She eyes the plant warily. Now that I¡¯m no longer sobbing my brains out, I do the same. It appears friendly at least. It¡¯s some sort of bush-like tree, maybe some kind of shrubbery. But it¡¯s semi-animate. The aura vision is blurry around the plant, but either the plant, or the pot, or both, are indeed enchanted. I glance from Teuila to the plant and back. Before I can even think of how to word the question on my mind, the plant answers by extending its roots slightly through apparent holes in the bottom of the pot, and it shuffles closer, so that it can reach my head to pat my head consolingly.


    I had been about to ask if it could move, or understand us. The animate shrubbery beckons me as it shuffles away towards a corner of the room. Perplexed, my face contorts, yet I follow it all the same. It taps at a seam in the floorboards. Upon closely inspecting the seam, sure enough, there¡¯s a trap door to some kind of cellar. I scratch the back of my head while blushing. Opening the trap door leads to gloom below, but my crossbow''s aura illuminates a foggy room not more than perhaps twenty feet or so deep.


    I express my gratitude, ¡°Uh, thank you, um, Shrub?¡± The shrubbery makes an approximation of the "p¡¯shaw, I¡¯m flattered," gesture.


    My jaw hangs slack. My index finger can¡¯t decide whether to curl or point as it alternates between the two. I have to ask, ¡°Are you interested, uh, in traveling? Teuila and I were going to destroy this tower when we leave. Milbert, the person who was here, he, um, died. He did some very bad, evil things to the people in Victo. We¡¯re worried the tower could be used to do those evil things again if someone else finds it.¡±


    The shrub seems to nod along with me, indicating the affirmative, and possibly its understanding of our motives. I know it¡¯s not a person under the effects of a transformation, that would register as a massive transmutation aura, coupled with a vast enchantment aura, to do something like this. This instead seems to be some sort of minor blurred alteration aura blended into an enchantment aura. I think it extends the lifespan of a shrub, and grants it sentience, and perhaps some limited sapience. Not to mention the agency granted by giving it flexibility and mobility of its limbs and roots.


    Slightly confused, I announce, ¡°So, uh, welcome to the team, Shrub. That one is Teuila, The Valkyrie, My-Wings. That one is Dawn, we¡¯re on a quest to help her. I¡¯m Reggie. I was lying about the scholar thing earlier.¡±


    The Shrub actually shuffles over to Teuila, and offers a branch. For a handshake? Te accepts it, and it gives her hand a tiny little shake. Its motions are rather limited, slightly slow, but what do you want from a potted plant? At least it¡¯s not screaming, "Feed me Seymour". It then shuffles towards Dawn, who accepts the limb much more tentatively, cautiously.


    An acrid air wafts up from the now-open trapdoor. Actual tendrils of green fog slowly raise into the room. It stings mildly on contact, though a stronger sting than the drizzle outside. I¡¯ve a feeling I know what¡¯s down there. I motion for Teuila to hand me Gae Buidhe, and to stay here a moment. I don¡¯t want her trying to breathe acidic fog. Between my higher acid resistance, and the oxygen-mask necklace, I feel relatively safe to venture downward. Shrub shuffles and waddles towards the far stairs, and works their way up two steps before turning around to watch what I do. Teuila hands over Gae Buidhe, and I begin my descent. The glow I cast while equipped with my wrist-crossbow comes in handy.


    There¡¯s a vat, something like a porcelain tub, filled with a green, glowing, bubbling liquid. Just approaching it causes my skin to sizzle slightly. I glance about the room. There¡¯s a box that¡¯s literally labeled ¡°to melt.¡± Another box is labeled ¡°keep.¡± Milbert apparently kept a ledger of things he tried to melt. There¡¯s a note scrawled on the most recent page, ¡°Pick up more beast tokens.¡± Flipping further back though. Hrp, glp, oh gods. The ledger includes names. Hrp. I want to lash out violently, but I know I need to make the most of this situation. I extend Gae Buidhe into the glowing liquid, and wait, hesitantly.


    Based on the ledger, larger, stronger magical items took longer to break down. Sure enough, after a fair amount of time, I feel Gae Buidhe become lighter, as the head dissolves entirely. I wonder if the handle still holds the same enchantment. I don¡¯t want to risk it. We can find other sturdy magical handles, I¡¯m sure. And if not, well, we¡¯ve got unlimited copies of Gae Buidhe to dick around with.


    Gazing about, there¡¯s another trapdoor at the top of a ramp, but it must lead out to the surface. I¡¯m fairly certain that this is how Milbert got the larger objects, and people, down in here to, ugh, test out melting. A familiar formation of a semicircle on the floor near a wall clues me in to another useful thing. After feeling about for a few short moments, I find the switch. A small carriage appears as the wall rotates, revealing what was resting on its far side. I can tell that there¡¯s no path on the other side however, and I¡¯m not going to get into a ¡®put the candle back¡¯ situation.


    I can see why the carriage was on the other side of the wall though, there¡¯s almost no room to move around down here with it on this side of the wall. Huh, I wonder if this means Milbert invented the two-car garage. Hah. Stupid Fakeworld, Earth. Still, a ledger, some notes, some odds and ends, and two more boxes of magical items, and quite possibly our ticket out of here. A hell of a find that we wouldn¡¯t have managed without Shrub¡¯s help. It takes some doing, but I manage to seal off the tub of acid, as well as to open the ramp-gate that leads to the surface. Glancing about outside, the ramp gate was most definitely disguised as normal, muddy, grassy terrain. The chilly, damp air slowly dissipates the remainder of the acidic green fog that had been building within the cellar.


    What¡¯s more, any carriage coming from this side of the tower would simply appear to be travelers coming-to-call. It let Milbert keep up the mystique of his never-seen hermitude, and probably kept suspicions off of him until nearly the entire town had their soul stolen. Hell, I bet I know why the inn was the last place hit. Milbert wanted it to stay functioning, to keep drawing in travelers, strangers, tourists. All for more souls for his wicked lord. Maybe it was even his lord¡¯s order to leave the inn until last. Grr. I huff an angered sigh through gritted teeth.


    I¡¯ve plenty of literature to read through now, on the school of magic most likely to help us. As much as I want to take down the Celestial Emperor, it¡¯s unlikely that doing so would end Dawn¡¯s curse, and we are in no way prepared for someone who had the power to steal so many souls. Let alone prepared to take on someone who has so many souls at their disposal to power whatever awful abilities, plans, or machinations they have. I can almost guarantee too, that standing between us, and returning to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, is the Celestial Emperor, the Bright Lord himself.

 B 4 C 68: Lets Blow This Joint

    Returning to the trio that comprises my party, I have to laugh at the absurdity of it. An animate bush, a souled-yet-dead woman who has been bored for the majority of the last century, an otter who now appears like a classic fantasy Valkyrie from Earth¡¯s pop culture versions of lore and legend. Only real life would be more absurd than fiction. I mean, where else would you have a tree journeying, and likely fighting alongside a small mammal whose hip structure allows bipedal and quadrupedal motion? Otters, beavers, raccoons, what have you. Absolutely absurd I tell you. Upon return, I find Teuila babying Shrub, treating the plant with all the dignity of a housepet. I hope Shrub doesn¡¯t take offense.


    Teuila yells, ¡°Dink! Guess what I just learned!? Shrub can talk!¡±


    I allow my face to contort with one eyebrow raised. Teuila continues, ¡°Well, okay, not talk-talk, or textbox-talk, but, well, watch how he rustles his leaves. Listen close to the rustle. There, you see? He just thanked you for the invitation to come along.¡±


    My jaw hangs low, incredulously. I¡¯m not certain Teuila¡¯s not running a bit on me. Trying to keep my jaw from locking, I stretch it as I admit, ¡°Owf, err, I really don¡¯t see Te. Sorry. Are you running a bit on me? It¡¯s kind of amusing, but I wouldn¡¯t want to hurt Shrub¡¯s, uh, feelings. If you have them Shrub, sorry, I¡¯m not sure how much you have of various, um, things dealing with life.¡±


    Teuila playfully frowns and pouts at me, ¡°I¡¯m not playing. I¡¯m serious. Maybe it¡¯s something to do with my connection to wind magic, or this little doohickey that fit on the jumpy ring. See? If I put it on, it looks like the rings disappear, if I take it off, there they are. I thought it was a paperclip at first. When I was playing with it, Shrub told me what it was. I actually like having it on, hiding the silly rings. They¡¯re so mismatching, and the really powerful one from Maka-Akari¡¯s dungeon is kinda gaudy.¡±


    I glance to Dawn who shrugs. Either Teuila¡¯s incredibly committed, or this isn¡¯t a bit. I try to politely bow to Shrub, ¡°I¡¯m, well, pleased to have you aboard, Shrub. I feel rude. Is there something you¡¯d like us to call you by? I¡¯m not sure if Root would be any better, though it¡¯s kind of fun to say. Root, root. Hello, I am Root. Sorry, heh.¡±


    Shrub rustles, and Teuila translates, ¡°Percy here says that he likes to use the name Percival, but you can call him Percy or Purse for short.¡±


    I blink several times, and once again exchange glances with Dawn, who once again just shrugs. I have the sudden urge to equip Percy with a firearm. Imagine, stiff as a board, perfect aim, unrelenting force of nature pursuing its goals. Hah. Shrugging, I go along with it and bow once again, ¡°Pleasure to have you aboard Percival. So, everyone, I was able to melt down Gae Buidhe downstairs, and I found us a ride. I¡¯m pretty sure that this little token thing will conjure some sort of beast, and that it can pull the carriage. Seems Milbert was almost out of beast token things, and saving this one for emergencies. I assume there are other kinds, ones specifically that summon horses. This feels quite a bit bigger than a horse.¡±


    Teuila looks it over and nods in agreement, stating, ¡°Hey, maybe it¡¯s a feathery bear like good ol¡¯ featherbutt, Luna. One can hope, right?¡±


    I wear a sad half smile as I nod to Teuila. Shrub, err, Percy rustles, and Teuila nods to him, but doesn¡¯t bother translating. I guess maybe he just asked Te if Luna was a friend of ours or something. Dawn looks mildly lost, and I¡¯m worried she¡¯s either lost her senses, or gone comatose again due to her vacant stare, but I realize she¡¯s just a bit overwhelmed as she fidgets. It has been a roller coaster of emotions since arrival in Victo.


    We just parted ways with Dippy, a truly wonderful friend, and incredibly capable party member. We witnessed Jarvis¡¯s nephew wailing over Selunie¡¯s corpse. We¡¯d seen almost no living souls in Victo whatsoever. Or rather, no bodies inhabited with souls. Then all this stuff with Milbert. Ugh. Huff. I can certainly sympathize.


    I bet the horse tokens are pretty expensive, but still cheaper than purchasing and owning a horse, if it¡¯s a mystical magical construct that doesn¡¯t need to eat, or be taken care of. Since horses themselves are worth a hefty sum, and I see no indication that Milbert has a stash of them anywhere, I¡¯ll assume the tokens are temporary.


    Despite it possibly being wise to save what could be a temporary, strong ally on demand, I think it¡¯s best if we make all-haste once destroying the tower. I also sorta don¡¯t want to be around if that creepy doll thing survives the tower¡¯s collapse. Plus, we need someone to pull the cart. I¡¯m not about to strap a bit and bridle to Teuila. That¡¯s. Ew, just yuck, no.


    Hm, the box not labeled keep or melt must be the unsorted that Milbert hadn¡¯t tested yet. There¡¯s a figurine in there of a gryphon rampant. That one really catches my eye, because it¡¯s laced with powerful transmutation magic according to my aura sense. Something that transforms, and doesn¡¯t lose that power of transformation. I glance over at Teuila. Like my beloved Wings. Or my best buddy Lil. Or, heck, even myself. Despite it hurting like heck, I can still transform.


    In the melt box, there¡¯s a curious thing. Something I got a long time ago on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It¡¯s a glowing cylinder inside of a rectangular prism, with no obvious stopper or way to check inside the cylinder. It seems to be some sort of cartridge for something. Well, now I have two. One of which is in my inventory. Hm, also in this box is what looks to be a toy glaive, but its verdant emerald hue calls out to me.


    Hah. Milbert was going to melt this, because it wouldn¡¯t respond to him. It, it¡¯s something fae, something ancient. My soul being a creamy green, from the aid of the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian fae is why I can understand it at all. I¡¯d normally hand any spear right over to Teuila, but this one can literally only be used by me. I strap it at toy size to the rear of my belt. The glaive even being with us makes the nearby terrain just imperceptibly smoother, and plants ever so slightly less likely to snag on us. Most specifically, it somehow allows an individual to navigate forested terrains slightly better. It was willing to teach me everything within its power as soon as I came into contact with it. Something about fae ancestry. I guess I really was some kind of pixie hybrid at the start.


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    Hm, in the melt pile is an adorable plushy of a meerkat. There¡¯s some bark residue on it. Did Percy claim it at some point? There¡¯s also a gorgeous, stylish dress. I can see the simple enchantment on it, it has pockets, but it hides the pockets, and anything in them from view, while keeping the dress sitting properly by its fit. Also, being magical, it likely resizes.


    I draw the dress out, fairly certain it¡¯s going to Teuila, but I casually sneak a glance at Dawn to see her reaction. The grimace is confirmation enough. She has no desire to wear a dress. I toss the dress to Teuila who gloms onto it with glee. If it works like Luni¡¯s dress, it could be worn over her armor, hiding the fact that she¡¯s even wearing any armor. Yep, there it goes, and now she¡¯s twirling while gazing down at the dress¡¯s fit. I can¡¯t help smiling and sighing contentedly. Just seeing Teuila enjoy anything is such a wonderful sight.


    Still, I think this plushy meerkat belongs to Percy, so I offer it to him, and he politely yet quickly snatches it up, setting it to rest somewhere deep within his branches. I¡¯m glad we could get it back to him before it got melted. What an odd thing to throw away.


    A translucent meerkat appears from nowhere yelling, ¡°And I oughta give you a fat lip ya wise guy, why don¡¯t ya pick on someone your own size while you¡¯re at it! Wait. Maestro Percy? How long was I gone? What do you mean you can¡¯t tell time in here. Well what about the jerk who- He¡¯s dead? Really? Maestro Percy that¡¯s great news! Hello adventurers, I¡¯d love to introduce Maestro Percival-. But Maestro, you know I have to refer to you as such, wait, Maestro, P-¡°


    The meerkat disappears, apparently in response to some rustling by Percival. Teuila busts out laughing, and I barely keep my chuckle to a minimum. Even Dawn snorts after a laugh or two. Well, if Percival ever really needs to communicate to me or Dawn, he can call out his meerkat familiar I guess. How odd. Hah. I suppose I can see why Milbert was going to melt him though, hahah. Poor familiar.


    I mumble, ¡°I wonder what his name is. His voice sounded like someone from Fakeworld, Earth. Someone who was always in the right lane or something like that.¡±


    After Percival rustles, Teuila informs me, ¡°Apparently his name is Tinpu of the Mambo celestial meerkats.¡±


    I worriedly raise an eyebrow as I gulp at the word celestial. Teuila shakes her hands as Percival rustles further. She translates, ¡°Percival says he isn¡¯t a follower of the Celestial Emperor or anything, neither is Tinpu. Being celestial just means not existing on this plane naturally, only having their consciousness brought here into a radiant avatar like that one. What¡¯s up Percy? Oh, okay, sure. Apparently familiars are bound to something, like an object, until their owner dies. The doll fell into Percy¡¯s pot when Milbert was greedily hauling back a bunch of stuff he probably stole. Ol¡¯ Mildew hadn¡¯t activated the doll yet. So Tinpu is Percy¡¯s familiar, until Percival dies.¡±


    Huh, handy, that. I wonder if Percival would lie. He probably likes having a familiar, so, any reasoning he could give us to not take Tinpu away would, well. It¡¯s not like we want to anyway. Percival seems pretty nice, it¡¯d be just wrong to take advantage of him and leave him without anything.


    Huh, at the bottom of the melt box is a thin strip of, well, it almost looks like one of Kozzurth¡¯s dragon scales. Only it¡¯s platinum instead of purple. It looks like it could slide into most helmets¡¯ visor slots. Curious, I set it within my own Valkyrie helmet, and I¡¯m left laughing.


    Teuila asks, ¡°What¡¯s up Dink? What¡¯s so funny?¡±


    Doubled over with mirth, it takes me a moment to respond, ¡°No wonder he was going to melt this one. It requires you to be able to breathe fire, hahah. It guides your fire around allies, and leaves them both unharmed, and slightly invigorated, like massaging their muscles. Plus, it can do basically what I could do with my breath weapon, it can change the elemental properties of the breath.¡±


    Dawn chimes in, ¡°Wait, since when can you breathe fire Rej? Boss, Rej can¡¯t breathe fire, can she?¡± Dawn leans towards me to whisper, "She right now, right? ''Cause of the curves?" I chuckle while nodding at Dawn''s whispered question.


    Teuila answers Dawn''s other question for me, ¡°Well not in this form, but I¡¯m sure Dink has told you by now, Dink can take on different forms. One of them is like a dragon, only not quite. A dragonoid? Humanoid dragon? Something like that.¡±


    Dawn nods along, ¡°Oh, right right. I remember something about that. Sorry, was a, a heck of a night when it came up.¡±


    I gulp back a momentary sadness as Dawn and I both recall the night we learned of her curse¡¯s true nature. That night was a roller coaster of emotions. It was also the night our friendship both began to fall apart, and mended stronger than ever. Regardless, I nod in response to Dawn¡¯s comment to Teuila.


    Teuila quips, ¡°Heh, Percy says whatever you do, keep that breath away from him, even if some magical doodad tells you it¡¯ll protect your friends.¡±


    I chuckle as I agree, ¡°I¡¯ll try my best Percy, I¡¯ll try my best.¡±


    Sensing a strong abjurative magic from a belt buckle in the uncategorized box, I check Dawn for signs of a belt. Sure enough, she wears one. I flip the buckle towards Dawn as I call out, ¡°Try this on for size Dawn. It has some protective magics in it.¡±


    Dawn frowns as she catches the buckle and turns it over in her hands. She asks, ¡°Rej, Boss, are you sure? Way I hear it Rej, you almost died in that canyon. You¡¯re scary strong, but squishy as anybody else. Shouldn¡¯t you wear it?¡±


    I wear a half smile as I ask in response, ¡°Dawn, what¡¯s your plan if you¡¯re surrounded by hostile animals? If a bunch of Celestial Imperium guardsmen and guardswomen decide you are an enemy of the state? If you¡¯re being chased by a manticore?¡±


    Dawn curses, ¡°Well shid Rej, when you put it that way. But hold on. What are your plans then?¡±


    I grin almost maliciously as I chuckle, ¡°I¡¯ll hit myself with a massive fireball in any of those three situations, and walk out of it. Anything that isn¡¯t intimidated, I¡¯ll hit them with the next fireball, or lightning bolt.¡±


    Dawn¡¯s jaw hangs slightly slack momentarily before she can respond, ¡°Erm, point taken.¡±


    I stifle a momentary chuckle as I catch myself just before offering a comforting hug to Dawn. I worry that I might have hurt her pride or other feelings. I don¡¯t want her to feel lesser in any way because of my stupid bragging. I know that hugs aren¡¯t her form of comfort though, so I just blush with chagrin and rub the back of my skull as I glance around the room.


    Any other scraps or odds end ends that might be magical are too hard to discern at the moment, so I take one last tour of the building, we load up the food into the carriage, and any books, papers, letters, or scrolls that I had somehow missed on my first go-around. Nothing else of use as far as any of us can tell. Teuila helps push the cart out of the cellar-garage, and dusts her hands off as we drag it a long enough ways away from the tower.


    I help Percival up into the carriage, along with Dawn, then I ask Teuila, ¡°Ready to blow this joint? Literally.¡±


    Teuila grins like a loon, and nods an emphatic affirmative as she leaps towards the top of the tower from the outside. In moments we can hear her efforts as she begins smashing it apart, piece by piece.

 B 4 C 69: Aromantic Carriage Ride, Not A, Space

    Anywhere else, I¡¯d be afraid of waking the neighbors with a somnambulance-shattering din. Here, next to Victo, on Rayileklia, in the Imperium? Here I wish they¡¯d wake up. That their bodies would wake up to their souls in the morning. It¡¯s only a wish though. Those souls are trapped in some Babylonian tower in Navica. We really need to permanently disable that tower at some point. We¡¯re probably not ready for whatever guardians the Celestial Emperor has managed to drag into his service though. Even if we were, Dawn¡¯s soul is still in jeopardy, and all the Aasimovian Ancestors with it. I also slightly worry that; even though we resisted our souls being pulled out here, that getting closer to something as large, as soul-hungry, as wide-ranged as that tower, might be a risk.


    I spare a furtive glancing smile towards Dawn, unsure how she¡¯s feeling at the moment. There¡¯s a mild hope that we¡¯re all holding on to, but I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s enough. Still, she¡¯s sitting fairly comfortably, and playing with her cloak to make it randomly billow. I suppose she might be trying to live in the moment. Anyway, since Percy and her are situated, Teuila and I will get in after we hook up whatever creature this thing summons. Otherwise I might have to try lassoing a fireball or using it as rocket propulsion. We¡¯ll get to that in a bit though, when Teuila¡¯s done having her fun.


    Teuila continues to assault the tower from alternating angles, easily shifting back and forth with leaps and dives. At this very moment however, she¡¯s standing on one of the higher remaining floors, launching haymakers at the walls. I bite my lips at the humorousness of it, but also because I¡¯m slightly nervous that anyone who still has their soul could be nearby enough to show up and get clobbered in the skull by a fast-flying brick when Teuila hits them from the inside. I suppose the sounds would clue people in not to get closer though, since she¡¯s punching in a circle.


    I¡¯m mostly waiting until Teuila finishes having her fun so that we don¡¯t spook whatever creature we summon. I¡¯m slightly anxious to get at those books, papers, and tomes. I don¡¯t recall reading anything at all in this life, or my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian life, other than my own memory logs. Even though I don¡¯t recall, somehow I believe that I have a fondness for reading. My brain says that I used to enjoy reading. When? Stupid mysterious memories. It certainly wasn¡¯t enjoyment whenever I had to reread my own logs to simply avoid forgetting important things.


    Hm, lost in thought. Teuila¡¯s already down to the ground floor. If she caves that in, the acid should mostly dissolve the stone that falls in, and the foundation. Hopefully it doesn¡¯t make its way to ground water. I think we¡¯re on a bit of a hill, so it¡¯s probably not an issue. Yup, there she goes, one last leap to cave in a bunch that she¡¯d knocked down to the ground floor. Now she¡¯s simply floating upwards gently while laying lazily in the air, waiting for the dust to settle. I shake my head and roll my eyes while laughing.


    I¡¯m pretty certain I hear Dawn exclaiming, ¡°Holy shid Boss.¡±


    Chuckling, I wave Teuila on over so we can get this show on the road. Teuila saunters my way, so I flick the the token towards the front of the carriage as I whisper my intent for it to activate. What pops forth is a tad unexpected, and now I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t save the token for an emergency. A fairly impressive creature that looks a tad like a miniature wingless roc appears. Ah, I should have waited for Teuila to get here, what if it bolts?


    Te admonishes me, ¡°Dink, you airhead, what if it, oh hey, I like that. Dink, can I start calling you airhead instead?¡±


    She tries to admonish me at least, hah. I nod as she moves on to a new nickname for me. She hadn¡¯t been using Dink all that long, a few days, maybe a couple of weeks. Still, I love pretty much anything that comes out her mouth. And suddenly I¡¯m once again grateful Luni is not currently in my head. Phrasing.


    Still, despite that, the creature simply stands almost perfectly still. I swear it has glowing runes floating about it. Hm, the aura vision spell shows digits counting down as a repeating pattern of runes. Perhaps that¡¯s how long it lasts. When Teuila waves to draw its attention to her, it turns its head. When it turned its head, the digits counted down ever so slightly faster. Seems like it¡¯s some sort of power source limit. Running will probably drain it faster than walking, possibly even disproportionately so, but we want to make all-haste towards the other magical societies. Any chance to save Dawn.


    I raise an eyebrow, but Teuila motions me to stay put, and quiet. She all-too-cautiously circles the creature, and then carefully begins to attach it to the yoke and reins. It makes no move to stop her, it just watches her curiously. The summoned steed continues standing placidly, and continues. Teuila orders it to begin moving, and it continues standing placidly. She tries the reins, yet it still continues to just stand there. Is it stubborn? Or, wait. Magic items.


    I call out, ¡°Friend, would you mind heeding Teuila¡¯s commands? Hers, that one right there. Please.¡±


    You probably don¡¯t have to ask your magic items politely, but it never hurts. Who knows which ones are sentient or sapient. Our quarteroc nods to my request, and then looks to Teuila for orders. The magic in the token didn¡¯t conjure a living creature, or even an avatar for a celestial creature. Rather, it sort of temporarily made a construct from the mana nearby. That construct apparently comes preprogrammed to do nothing other than follow the orders of its summoner. Huh.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Well I¡¯m glad for that. I¡¯d have felt guilty if I was temporarily summoning someone from their home or something, then being all like, pull us around. Yeah I don¡¯t think I could do it. Let¡¯s change topics. Hup, up on into the cart, with Teuila driving. I¡¯d have asked if Dawn would want to drive, since she can stay up all day and night, but, well, we¡¯re all worried about when her senses will come and go. She has everything back for now.


    Teuila calls down to us in the cab, ¡°Hey Airhead, Percy says one of those books only opens for a magic hand. I think he¡¯s being literal too. Thinking what I¡¯m thinking?¡±


    I smile as I chuckle, ¡°Yup.¡± I¡¯ll save it for a bit later though. One with a magical lock is all the more likely to contain runes or scripts I don¡¯t know yet. Let¡¯s start small. Hm, this book seems slightly enchanted on its own. Copper plates are a bit of a weird binding, and the pages of the libram itself appear to be linen rather than paper. What an odd bookbinding method. Caeuscosylil''s Folio, Libram Lingua. That sounds promising for someone like me who has been balked by language barriers most of both of my lives.


    It seems like I¡¯ll be studying this quite a while. There are words that flow from the runes into my mind as I read it. The outer edges are all runes, while the core body of the writing seems to be senseless drivel. It¡¯s likely essentially the raw translations of all the runes and runotypes. Thankfully, it¡¯s not overloading my mind, even though I sense the bulk of the knowledge flowing towards me as I read. It doesn¡¯t seem to teach itself to me in understandable segments though. Everything is jumbled. I think it will take absorbing the whole book to understand. We¡¯re in for a bit of a boring ride aren¡¯t we now Reggie? Yep.


    Oogh, have I been reading all morning? Teuila is pulling up to a stop, and telling the quarteroc to rest up. Huh, through the slat, it appears as if the quarteroc¡¯s countdown is paused while it¡¯s resting up. Neato. Hm, we still won¡¯t get all the way to the Hidden Heart though, based on those values. It¡¯ll take us another six days to get there at these rates, but the creature will only last five. Still, we can enjoy not having to mudcamp while it lasts. We¡¯ll ditch the carriage somewhere when we run out of.. Horsepower. Sigh. I huff as I glance around. I¡¯m only somewhat glad that no one¡¯s riding around my telepathic thoughts right now. I¡¯m sure I¡¯d be teased for the accidental wordplay.


    Even though we don¡¯t have to mudcamp though, it¡¯s going to be quite snug with the four of us in here, taking a nice long snooze together. I hope Dawn doesn¡¯t think that I planned this part. I didn¡¯t think this far ahead. I also didn¡¯t know we¡¯d be adopting a shrub into the party. Percival the Potted- Sonnova. Plant. My brain just blue-screened so hard. Something about evil in the tri-state area, and a catchy jingle? Ugh, ow my head.


    Dawn elects to shuffle around so that she shares a side of the cabin with ¡°Boss.¡± That¡¯s fair. I won¡¯t begrudge her her comfort zone. Still, Percy and I don¡¯t exactly make grand bedfellows. I don¡¯t know if he sleeps, so it¡¯s just really awkward with him hovering in the same position he always does, slightly leaned over towards me. I also can¡¯t tell if his leaves rustle because of our breath and the slight breeze, or if he¡¯s talking to one of us. Despite the awkwardness, the four or five of us, depending on the magical construct counting or not, get a fairly decent lengthy rest in. I find myself yawning for quite a while through the majority of the early ride so far. Teuila has a compass orb, and the directions I gave her are pretty simple. East along the mountain range, cut north when necessary to make it through a pass, then southeast along the range til the forest with the big river.


    Still not certain how I suddenly have a decent memory of Rayileklia¡¯s Geography from here to Jeegoobotstan. Bluh, a mystery. Also, those poor people. Such a terrible name, and such a terrible thing, an entire country razed to the ground. My memories say it¡¯s more of a city-state, like four closely-linked suburbs of a capital city. Still, even if it¡¯s not the largest body count, a death toll is still a death toll. Come on Reggie, keep focusing on this book, we should be able to finish it the day the mount is scheduled to disappear. It¡¯ll be a lot harder to read through these during the journey without riding in a carriage.


    Herk, hoy. I raise an eyebrow as Dawn rocks back and forth holding my arm, sniffling. An arm she yanked me across the seats to be able to grab. Oh Dawn. Sight gone again? Oh, and it looks like touch too. At least she has the density sense. Anyone else, I¡¯d get affectionate with for this to try to comfort them. Dawn doesn¡¯t want or need that though. I can be a scratching post. Something to keep her muscles and mind occupied with a stationary presence. It¡¯s not like I was going anywhere. Not like I could converse with Percival or anything either.


    I have to get through this book so I can understand the other books, and I need to hurry. We might be able to use the carriage as a raft if Teuila cuts the shortest route across the foothills. That would add one more day of possible study, and we might not have to permanently lose the carriage once we get to the Hidden Heart along the river. My mind is rolling over in its grave with the monotony of travel and study. I¡¯m so grateful to Teuila for the opportunity though, since she is the only one of us really qualified to drive. At least, compared to my or Dawn¡¯s limitations. Plus, I have to study.


    I¡¯m getting used to Dawn snagging me, then embarrassedly shoving me away when her senses return now. It¡¯s a daily occurrence. We¡¯re nearing July, and the lease on both our lives is pending closer and closer. I inhale a gasped, shuddered breath. The breath leaves as a sigh that becomes a yawn. Percival apparently amuses himself by listing off flora that we pass, so Teuila¡¯s getting a biology lesson. Possibly genealogy if Percival is related to any of the plants he spots.


    Tinpu Mambo only shows up for short stints when Percy desperately wants to communicate with all of us. That¡¯s almost sad. He sort of only exists when Percy summons him, so he¡¯s missing out on, well, not much at the moment. A monotonous ride along a mountainside, fleeing the country of an utterly evil soul-stealer.

 B 4 C 70: Beginning, Understanding, Hope

    Well, there goes our steed. At least we¡¯re within sight of the river. That felt like the longest six days ever. Alright, one more page in this libram. Ooogh, oof. Ah, I get it now. Ow, my brain. The knowledge is rearranging itself, decoding itself, linking mnemonics and other necessary parts of the runology. It, it isn¡¯t teaching me this language, not a language. It¡¯s, it¡¯s imbuing my brain with a permanent spell? I¡¯m learning plenty of runes from having the spell shoved into my head, but apparently the book is losing its magic, for a very long time after having imbued my brain.


    This spell makes me want to simultaneously laugh, and cry. It allows me to comprehend any writing, or script that I see. Where were you when I was starting out on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas!? Hah. Oy vey. Whatever, it¡¯s fine. It¡¯s an immense boon towards speeding up the deciphering of these other books. It might even be faster than reading normally, since the knowledge of the script is translated, and analyzed by this new spell in my brain, instantly on sight.


    I¡¯m lucky Milbert hadn¡¯t gotten around to using this book yet. Or perhaps he had it for enough years for it to recharge. Currently it¡¯s as useful as a paper weight. Could be a good bludgeoning weapon in a pinch with the hefty copper-binding. It seems a shame to abandon it though, well, maybe we don¡¯t have to, if we haul this carriage to the river, and stow the wheels somehow. We can keep some things in the carriage, things that are of less value to us currently, in case they, or the cart itself, get stolen while we¡¯re exploring away from the cart.


    I excitedly share the new ability with Dawn, Percival, and Teuila. I obviously shorten it, ¡°Guys! The book wasn¡¯t just reading knowledge into my brain, it was casting a spell on my brain! The book will take years to charge, but the spell now lets me read any script or language I see!¡±


    Teuila calls down, ¡°Really Airhead? I want to see if your noggin¡¯ has grown any, come on out here.¡±


    I chuckle as I attempt to comply with Teuila. Oof. Note to self, check for a sudden Dawn Death Grip before leaping out of the carriage. I slammed my chin down on the lip of the carriage itself, ow.


    Dawn asks, ¡°Rej, pal? Where¡¯s the rest of you? Wait, why are you down there?¡±


    I chuckle, then catch myself. It¡¯s not funny that Dawn¡¯s blinded and has lost her other senses yet again. It¡¯s mildly humorous that she didn¡¯t density sense along my arm to see where the rest of me was before asking though. Really, this carriage is more of a blessing than a lot of things could have been. At least we get to keep traveling with Dawn as we try to find an answer, at a reasonable pace. We¡¯d have to slow down to my walking speed if we were still hiking while Dawn¡¯s senses were diminished. All of us want to seek an answer to her curse as soon as possible.


    I¡¯m terrified that we¡¯re both nearing our ends. Dawn likely sooner, since I¡¯ve had exposure to dragon blood and a heart. I wonder if those would help Dawn¡¯s soul fight off the pull of the spell? That doesn¡¯t seem like the way to interact with a soul-based spell however.


    Still, I offer Dawn a hand down so that we can climb out of the carriage, stretch our feet, and work at getting the cabin to the river. Okay, that was fairly easy with Teuila at the lead. Teuila¡¯s grinning proudly and flexing into some poses for Dawn, who happens to be laughing at the chicanery as it appears in her density sense. I¡¯m glad we have each other. Percival elects to stay in the cabin, being that he wouldn¡¯t have been much help moving anything anyway. He doesn¡¯t even reach the back of the carriage when he¡¯s standing.


    As we approach the river, and the forest proper, the glaive at my back calls out to me, a feeling of homesickness, of hastiness, of urgency. The glaive is home, or near it anyway. Its ancestral home lies at the heart of these woods. I suppose I¡¯ll be able to return it to someone or someone¡¯s family here. It¡¯s likely an heirloom, with as much knowledge as it carries around. Compared to other items that often require either fiddling around with, identification scrolls, or knowledge of the base parts of the magic, the glaive basically communicated its abilities to me.


    Having come to a stop near the river bank, I glance around to take stock of my party. Our newest friend, Percy the Potted Plant, Dawn, Teuila, a carriage with no locomotion save us pushing it at the moment. Te has been a bit distant. I hope I haven¡¯t been neglecting Teuila during being caught up studying and caught up worrying about Dawn. I¡¯ll check in with her.


    I ask, ¡°Te, you doing alright? You¡¯ve been kind of distant a bit for the last couple of days. Is it the driving? Do you want me to do the river rafting?¡±


    Teuila adopts a sad smile as she shakes her head. She leans in to whisper, ¡°My Airhead, my Air. I¡¯m, I don¡¯t mean to be. I¡¯m just kind of sad how it is with Dawny and all. She¡¯s too embarrassed and upset at needing closeness. I¡¯m glad to be there for her, but it sucks to not have really felt your touch for most of a week. To not wake up with one of the two of us in each others¡¯ arms. I don¡¯t want her to feel bad about needing the closeness though. You know?¡±


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    Sadness adorns my face as I realize what Teuila¡¯s explaining, during her explanation. I nod forlornly along. Before I can respond, Teuila adds, ¡°Besides, you¡¯ve got more books to study, and since you got the only copy of that brain buffing, you get to do all the reading. Airhead.¡±


    We chuckle as we stand, holding each other for this short while as we lean close to share whispers. I rest my forehead on Teuila¡¯s as we gently sway in the light drizzle that makes it through the forest canopy. It looks like after a short ways down the river, the forest canopy becomes so dense, that the rains don¡¯t even reach the ground at all. Just like Lucky said.


    Wait. What? I rattle my skull, trying to shake free whatever the last thought I just had was. Something about rain I guess. Whatever it was must not have been that important. I wonder if Lil is still at the Hidden Heart. I¡¯m not entirely certain what Lil¡¯s overall plan was going to entail after cooling down and collecting their thoughts. Whatever their plan was, Luni and Lucky are with them at least. I really hope we can all be together again soon, just, just I want us to be okay.


    Huffing a sigh, I use the magic hand to help Teuila disconnect the wheels and get them up to storage. I¡¯d upgrade to using telekinesis if we knew for certain we wouldn¡¯t run in to any more trouble today. I¡¯d still do the upgrade if it seemed like Teuila was suffering or annoyed by the slow pace of the magic hand. Alright, phew, we¡¯ve got that done. My eyes are starting to droop again. I¡¯ve barely been conscious for about twelve hours a day this last week. I might be energized after a twelve hour rest, for a while, but then I¡¯m basically gone half the time.


    Huh, Teuila¡¯s got one of the wheels rigged up like a rudder. She could even ride inside, as long as she faces the slot towards the front of the cab. But to do that, well, she¡¯d have to straddle Dawn all day for a day and a half¡¯ish til we get to the Hidden Heart. I wonder if Dawn would be okay with that. Is there a chance that Dawn going numb could stop Teuila from being able to steer? Are there any dangerous rapids along this section of river? I don¡¯t think there are. I think it even slows down a bit near the city.


    I curl up on the seat as I let Dawn and Teuila work on their seating arrangement. My eyes droop more and more heavily. It¡¯ll be July fourth when we arrive. All that much closer to having been here a whole month. I let sleep take me.


    When I awaken, Teuila is being comforted by Percival while Dawn remains motionless. I gasp, but I quickly recall the details of the spell. We wouldn¡¯t even know who Dawn was, and all ancestors, or soulless bodies would be wrought to dust. She¡¯s okay, just in that weird hibernating standby mode.


    Raising an eyebrow, I query, ¡°Te? Are you okay? Dawn is just unresponsive right now, right? The spell didn¡¯t take her from us yet. We still know who she is.¡±


    Teuila sniffles as she looks at me, shaking her head sadly, ¡°Oh my Air. It¡¯s just. Every day it feels like we¡¯re closer to losing Dawny. Forever, in a big way. I¡¯ve never felt like the odds were impossible to beat before. I can¡¯t even help find the answer, because I don¡¯t understand Rayileklia moonrunes or runescript or whatever. I, I mean. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t have faith in you, it¡¯s just. Nothing has seemed like a real, direct lead yet.¡±


    I flash Teuila a sad half smile as I nod, ¡°It¡¯s okay Te. I don¡¯t want to fail her either. I¡¯ll keep plugging away at the books. Maybe if we take a week in the Heart, I¡¯ll be able to get through the majority of the important stuff. Then hopefully the Sisters of the Mist sanctuary won¡¯t be too hard to find. I¡¯m pretty sure Aces totally knew a path to their sanctuary, just never bothered to go.¡±


    Dawn is roused from her strange hibernation, and seems not to have been affected by it. In fact, Dawn is looking like her spirits are lifted if anything. I wear a tender half-smile as I toss a slight nod her way. Hopefully she can enjoy the-, well, let¡¯s not jinx or prophecize anything.


    Dawn asks, ¡°So Rej, what¡¯s new? What¡¯s shaking?¡±


    Trying to maintain a light mood, I offer, ¡°I¡¯ve got the languages down now, so I¡¯m starting on the book that requires the magic hand to open it. I¡¯m not sure if Milbert could even open it, since he said he only practiced necromancy. I¡¯m hopeful though that it will have some sort of multi-school secrets or something, being locked by magic and all.¡±


    Summoning the magical duplicate of my hand, I have it press into the palmprint on the surface of this black stained-glass tome. The glass is incredibly resilient, likely enchanted. Hm, the pages are silk, yet another curious binding method. Hm, a wealth of knowledge though? Not so much. Only a handful of pages, with incredibly complex runotype. The language magic is working its, well, magic, but I still have to be able to comprehend what gets translated. Wait. I get it.


    These are spells. I know some of these spells. Or at least, the staff does. This one makes light, this one is, hm, I understand the basics of it, but I¡¯m not quite sure its full potential yet. It seems to be an extremely minor conjuration ability. Dusting something off instantly, pulling a quarter out of someone¡¯s ear, stage magician foolery mostly. What did they used to call them? Prestidigitators I think. Wait. It can clean! Yes! If I learn the basics for this one, and I learn enchanting, I can pull out that basic function, expand on it, enhance its capability, and I should be able to finally duplicate the soapstone.


    Rather too excitedly, I add to Dawn, ¡°This one can clean! It¡¯s a spell, it¡¯s only the basics, dusting mostly, sort of like patting yourself down without using your hands. It has other effects too, but that¡¯s the one I¡¯m most excited about.¡±


    Dawn snorts, ¡°Really Rej? You¡¯re an adventurer covered in acidic mud nine times outta ten, and you¡¯re hyped over a dustmop spell?¡±


    I chuckle as I blush with chagrin. I know there are more important matters at stake, but it feels like a breakthrough to begin to understand Rayileklian magic. I really hope it leads to solutions for us.

 B 4 C 71: Runotypical

    Dawn playfully air-boxes in vaguely my direction, without her fists making contact with me. She laughs as she comments, ¡°Anyway Rej, glad to hear you still sound like you. We¡¯re somewhere new, right? Coming up on the mystical Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds or something, right? Lotsa rumors and lore about them, even from way back. I¡¯m kinda giddy.¡±


    I chuckle as the left half of my face is dragged into a wide smile. Nodding, I estimate, ¡°We are getting pretty close, yeah. Looks like Teuila needed a break though, we¡¯re slightly in the mud on a bank of the river and it seems like she got tuckered out in the last couple minutes.¡±


    I ask, ¡°Do you want to give rafting a go if I shove us off back into the river? Or should we just wait for Teuila to wake up?¡±


    Dawn scratches the back of her head while answering, ¡°I dunno if it¡¯s a good idea to have me navigating anything Rej. Let¡¯s just wait for Boss, yeah? You can keep studying or get a snooze in or whatever. I won¡¯t bother ya.¡±


    I fight a sad frown, wearing a neutral face as I explain, ¡°Dawn, you, glp, you¡¯re not a bother. You¡¯re a friend. You know that, right? We care and we like having you around because you¡¯re our friend. At least, I feel that way, and I¡¯m certain Teuila does too.¡±


    Dawn glances around, avoiding eye contact in embarrassment. She respond, ¡°Yeah, sure pal, no biggie. Really though, I¡¯m good. But you and Boss, yeah, definitely, friends, for sure. Uh, you too Percy. I think. And the hyper nervous little blue guy, Dippy, and his pal, Zippy. Only knew them for a few hours before they were fighting a whole cult basically for me and mine.¡±


    I nod while wearing a forlorn half-smile. Dippy really was willing to just put it all out there for people he had just met, based on whatever sense of their character that he got.


    I feel like his thought process was something like, ¡°Not dwarves? Probably not out to intentionally kill us, maybe try to not kill them. These not-dwarves helping with some big problems? True allies. Innocent dwarf lady bleeding out? Let¡¯s put a stop to that. These not-dwarves have a quest, and pick up a friend of theirs along the way? Another true ally.¡± I mean, that¡¯s how he came across anyway.


    I gulp and gnaw the inside of my cheek as I avoid eye contact momentarily while we both stew in a short bout of embarrassment. Dawn gets slapped in the face by a rolling, still-asleep Teuila while not paying attention. Dawn appears grateful that Teuila strips down to her night-clothing before sleeping, since one of Te¡¯s soft hands is a lot better than being slapped in the face by a Valkyrie gauntlet. The both of us chuckle momentarily at Teuila¡¯s sleepy rolling. At least it¡¯s not tossing and turning in a fitful sense. Te simply reorients occasionally so that she¡¯s better equipped to let each muscle group rest an equal amount of time over a night.


    Hm, speaking, or rather, thinking about being better equipped, or well, appropriately equipped for a situation. We all know my draconic form is far more resilient than any of my Reggie-forms. Not quite as resilient as my mite-hulk-king form, but the jury¡¯s still out on if I can risk checking to see if King has really died. If he¡¯s still in there, how much of him needs to be alive or regenerated to be able to try a contest of wills with me? Could he somehow sense it if I¡¯m struggling to take eight minutes to change back out of the form? Could he overwhelm me, take me over, replace my mind in the span of eight minutes? It¡¯s too terrifying to comprehend.


    Now, there¡¯s definitely a bit of anti scaled-species behavior from a fair number of people on Rayileklia by the sounds of it. Most of which seems predicated on dragons being around that, long ago now, were driven away to a place called the Spine of the World. I think it¡¯s a long mountain range near the northern edge, or pole of the world. Or at least, as far north as anyone has explored, and survived long enough to return from in order to record their journey.


    But, we have this hat that is capable of generating a fairly powerful illusion that cloaks someone in a full glamour. I have no idea what it would look or feel like if one of my wings accidentally smacked someone while I was glamored to look like a human. I gnaw on my lip, trying to decide if it¡¯s worth risking facing prejudice, by anyone who can penetrate illusions. Teuila likes my mammalian forms better for cuddling, but we might not be able to cuddle each other until we free Dawn of her curse anyway.


    Glancing at Dawn, I flick an eyebrow to a curious position, and she nods, so I try to ascertain her opinion, ¡°Do you think I should adopt my draconic form, and simply keep it disguised with that one hat¡¯s illusion magic?¡±


    Dawn¡¯s face contorts for only a moment before she settles on a thoughtful expression. She rambles towards a conclusion, ¡°Hm, that. That¡¯s a tough one Rej. Draconic could mean a lot of things, though I figure you mean scales, wings, a tail, sharp teeth and claws. I think Boss said it was still like a human though, so kinda two legs and feet, two arms and hands, rather than four legs and feet. If you¡¯re tougher that way, I kinda want to say right off, why the heck not, why even be any way else? Because, I mean, the entire time I¡¯ve known you you¡¯ve been fighting off one thing or another. Generally, really rough stuff.¡±


    Dawn pauses for the shortest beat before continuing, ¡°But then I realize you¡¯re you, and like, you¡¯re not even scared to not be your toughest self. Death doesn¡¯t scare you for you Rej. Naw. Death only seems like a regret waiting to happen. Without the illusion thingy, I figure, yeah, maybe stay your regular self just in case, to avoid trouble that could become regrets. But ya¡¯ve got a magic hat Rej. You can stick around longer for Boss, for, um, me I guess, and for those other friends of yours, more easily, the tougher you are. You should totally do it. Only, not just yet, maybe wait til we¡¯re no longer crammed four tight in a small carriage? Heh.¡±


    I let my jaw hang slightly slack and my index finger struggles to decide whether it¡¯s pointing, or curled back. In an effort to call back to a funny moment Dawn and I shared a while ago, I retort, ¡°Erm, point taken.¡±


    Thankfully it has the desired effect. Dawn smiles and laughs both at my response, and at my expression. It seems like such a rare, valuable thing, Dawn¡¯s joy. It¡¯s also simply adorable in an odd fashion. I don¡¯t know whether it¡¯s because of Dawn¡¯s unique mixture of androgyny, masculinity, and femininity that makes her joy seem so special, or if it¡¯s because of how precious I worry that our time is together. It could be something else entirely that gives the expressions and moments their own charm. Or, even if it is because of how worried I am that our time together is limited, still, Dawn deserves every moment of happy memories we can help her create in our time together.


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    Still, Teuila¡¯s resting, and we¡¯re at a stop, I should either be resting, or reading. I think I¡¯m awake enough to get some reading done. Let¡¯s see, black stained glass, silk scriptures or whatever, what is this mess of runes on this page? Okay, velocity, cone, arc, voluminousness, viscosity, Ph. This is an acid conjuration effect. Okay, okay that could definitely see some use on Rayileklia if I can figure out how to wield Rayileklian magic. Short range, incredibly short-lived, but up to a rather high potency of acid.


    Hell, I can come up with a few ideas off the top of my head where this would have been handy recently, yeesh. Seems like it wouldn¡¯t have whatever magic is required to allow it to melt powerful magical equipment, but that¡¯s not necessarily a bad thing. Gruesome as it might sound, melting someone out from inside their magical equipment is all the better for us if they¡¯re someone hostile and well-equipped. It leaves us the chance to hopefully find a better opportunity for their gear. Something better to use it on than hassling us, or doing evil.


    What else is in here? Okay this one is pretty much the simplest spell possible. It simply puts a small amount of nearby mana on the ultraviolet spectrum for only the duration of its contact with the staff. It doesn¡¯t even spend anything. It literally just causes the nearest waves, or particles, of mana, to shed light. I¡¯m still not sure if mana is particles, waves, or some other esoteric concept entirely. The runes generally don¡¯t go into that sort of depth on the underpinnings of the physics that they utilize, or are breaking. A bit like Can¡¯Z¡¯aas in that way. My family was a bit confused on why they knew the definitions of a few things, and weren¡¯t quite sure what to make of my more insistent memories about those things. Physics and natural cycles being some of those things.


    It turns out, I may have been right. The land didn¡¯t show any signs of even being able to have tectonic activity, erosion, glaciation, rain patterns, nothing like that. It also showed only homogenous plant life until we started to specifically look for other plant life. I know it¡¯s not proof of anything to go from a forest with only one type of trees for miles, to suddenly start seeing other sorts of trees. Probably a bit silly to still be getting hung up on this. Can¡¯t be sure if we¡¯ll ever get back. I can¡¯t afford to go down those thought trains though. I need to focus.


    Alright, so the light spell at least teaches me that you can interact with Rayileklian mana without needing to be native, or empowered by something from here, or anything like that. I mean, I might still qualify for some manner of draconic-empowered sorcery since I accidentally imbibed dragon blood, saliva, and maybe some of Kozzurth¡¯s heart¡¯s essence. Gahh, doing this magic though, urgh. Hellspit. Milbert was right. Sort of. You definitely need a limb to be drawing runes. He mistakenly said hands, meaning more specifically fingers due to their dexterity. He didn¡¯t know the truth underlying the matter. Runes simply have to exist in the appropriate shape in nearby solids, vapors, gases, liquids. Touching them in the appropriate order will activate them.


    By and large, with the aura vision spell, one should theoretically see traces of runes that have been passing along on the winds, or long ago etched into nearby stone. Even touching those fleeting memories of the runes is enough to begin stacking mana particulate in the right order. Still, without having an instant picture taken in order to analyze all the nearby runic memories, it¡¯s hard to make use of such a method. Unless one were to have, say, perhaps an accelerated thinkspace. When in thinkspace, I could quite possibly draw a mental line through all the nearby runic memories to activate a spell, or even better, spot a pattern in the air currents that will lead to the entire spell¡¯s runic line being in a nice straight clump. Theoretically there should be plenty of those floating around as well, especially in locations where battles have been waged that wizards and the like partook in.


    Either method is going to take intense training and focus. I¡¯ve never tried to essentially read the past as it floats by on the wind. Nor have I ever practiced calligraphy in order to draw runes in the air. I wonder if my magic hand is more dexterous than me, or if it might even be able to interpret a command that means ¡®draw these seven runes consecutively¡¯ and do so. Rather than me controlling it down to the most minuscule muscle movement.


    My tail tapers out pretty thin in my draconic form. I think Dawn¡¯s right, I should probably go draconic when we¡¯re no longer bound to the inside of the carriage for a while at least. I¡¯ll see if I can train my tail to draw runes as well as or better than my hands. Since it¡¯s more of an unusual set of muscles, it seems receptive to training on how I want it to respond to my impulses and needs.


    Alright, we might have a plan. A start of one anyway. If we can begin working Rayileklian magic, we can hope to stumble on to spells dealing with souls, if I can¡¯t find any in all this writing of Milbert¡¯s. What¡¯s up next? A spell that has runotypes for nearly every material ever conceived. It¡¯s incredibly complex, a massive, vast web of spellwork. But it requires almost no mana to power it. Instead, it has a strict series of limitations. It can basically stitch fabric, or set splinters back into wood enough to join a broken piece of lumber. Basically it fixes, or mends things. I¡¯m starting to understand a bit of how spells can be done with only a few runic hand motions too. There¡¯s no way this spell would ever be cast in someone¡¯s lifetime, if they tried to draw or even just press all the runes necessary to explain the spell.


    Instead, it¡¯s sort of like the cryptographic equivalent in magic of doing something like interpreting lengthy strings as much shorter strings, using a sort of unique key or seed. In a way, with a long enough seed string, allowing for each seed to in essence be its own table, as well as a length of characters before the next unit of the seed is interpreted as its own table, you could end up being able to describe everything in say something like two sets of sixteen characters. Even if the seed tables are only something like two hundred fifty six entries per character. With sixteen to the sixteenth power sets of two hundred fifity six entry tables, well, yeah. Something like eighteen and a half quintillion combinations of possible iterations of seed tables. Then all of that again, you end up talking something like, eight with forty zeroes after it. Something like eight undecilion descriptors while only allowing for strings of exactly sixteen characters. Ow, my head. Where the hell did all that math come from?


    Regardless, yeah, it seems to only take at most thirty two runes to activate even an incredibly complex spell, for the most part, with a leading rune to tell the spell you¡¯re building to refer to upcoming runes as a sort of script to hash out. Even still, those could easily take an entire minute to cast if you can¡¯t find the precise runic histories floating around, due to carefully drawing the runes and all.


    I¡¯m beginning to understand why a wand might only have a single spell in it, even if it has the power to provide that spell basically endlessly. Or the same with a ring, or floating head-orbital stone, or other thing only having a single effect. A staff that contains a dozen or more spells all at varied levels of power and ability and competency must be incredibly rare. I mean, what we defeated to get it was pretty hellish. That thing had impressive mastery over several magics. Hm, including necromancy. There doesn¡¯t seem to be any necromancy in the staff. Is that why it wasn¡¯t able to use any of the staff¡¯s spells on us?


    Is Rayileklian magic similar to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas hostiles¡¯ magic? Could they have been limited to mostly only being successful in one school of magic? Would the schools be described as specifically as they are in my Fakeworld memories though? Maybe there¡¯s more overlap in the schools than fantasy media from Earth might guess at. Illusions and Necromancy and Enchantment all leaning into one another¡¯s domains seems pretty plausible back home at least.

 B 4 C 72: Chill Out

    Onward we press into learning the secrets of Rayileklian magic. Oh hello now. This spell is immediately familiar to me. It¡¯s a bit of a frosty lance, or a sort of ray of frost. This is incredibly similar to some of the native Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian thermokinesis magics I¡¯d been relying on since our outing to Fire Biome. In fact, it¡¯s only a series of five runes, the shortest yet. I guess evoking a simple element in a single direction is one of magic¡¯s most basic functions, then leaving the projectile speed and whatnot to be determined by magic¡¯s own defaults, or the ambient mana nearby is probably one of the easiest spells to represent. Hm, okay, this sort of squiggle, that sort of squiggle, oh hell, they¡¯re three dimensional. Okay, so this planar surface, rounded along that one, a corner on this side that bites back inwards, then juts outward again. Ugh. Yeah, I¡¯m definitely not going to become a master overnight. I¡¯m still not certain I¡¯ll be able to cast anything that requires more than simply tapping the nearby ambient mana. I don¡¯t know if I absorb Rayileklian mana at all, or how my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian biology might make my absorption different, if at all.


    If all this research turns out to be wasted effort that I could have been spending seeking some other answer for Dawn, I, I¡¯d never forgive myself. Come on Reggie, keep trying. Just draw one single rune properly. We need to know if it¡¯s even worth pursuing more magic. Let¡¯s just keep count. Okay, attempt one, already a bust, messed up that edge right away. Oof, attempt two, screwed up on the width. Argh, attempt three, forgot that swish. Dawn looks amused simply watching me drawing in the air.


    Okay, attempt four hundred ninety seven, got a good feeling about, sonnova crap. Okay, attempt four hundred ninety eight. Argh. I feel like I¡¯ve been jogging a marathon while doing bicep curls and flys with heavy weights. Hell in a handbasket this takes a lot out of a person. That can¡¯t be normal, can it? Maybe it¡¯s part of the persistent malady that Tiago thinks I have. Huff, pfshew. A bit of a ragged breath for a breather, and back to it. Four hundred ninety nine is looking good, looking good, look- hellspit. Attempt five hundred is, woo I¡¯m getting woozy. Well, messed that one up as I wobbled to and fro.


    Dawn asks, ¡°Rej pal, I¡¯ve seen you making the same figure in the air for hours on end, what¡¯s up? Whacha doin¡¯?¡±


    As I attempt to recover from my eyes swimming around in their sockets as my head lolls about, I try to gaze towards Dawn. Loose-jawed, I respond, ¡°I¡¯hufm, hoof, huff, I¡¯m trying to, huff, phew, learn even, hoopf, huff, a single rune. To, to huff, do magic. Gotta be perfect. Failed every time, huff, phew, so far.¡±


    Dawn whistles a low note, ¡°Really, hours of practice on just one figure, and haven¡¯t gotten it right once, yet?¡±


    I frown as I pout, ¡°It¡¯s, huff, harder than it looks.¡±


    Dawn¡¯s face contorts as she asks, ¡°Is that why you sound like a beat-up windbag? I was wondering why you look so winded and worn out.¡±


    I nod silently towards Dawn as I attempt to continue with attempt number five oh one. Hrk. Ow. Muscle spasms ruined that attempt. Now it¡¯s like my body is actively fighting keeping me from making any more attempts. What the heck is going on? I¡¯m just practicing drawing for crap¡¯s sakes. Wait. What if each rune I finish is taking some sort of mana or some other aetheric energy source from me? Well, if it¡¯s anything like Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, then the more I press onward, the greater my pool will grow, as long as I don¡¯t go into energy debt. As far as I know, I can¡¯t trigger energy debt here because I can¡¯t beg the systems behind the world to allow it to happen. I should be safe to practice until I completely pass out.


    Seems Teuila is up, and having her own slight chuckle at my expense as Dawn catches her up on what I¡¯ve been doing. Te uses the haft of a spare spear to shove us off from our perch on the muddy riverbank, setting us to resume our heading downstream towards the city Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds. Okay, my head¡¯s spinning, I can barely think or see straight. Seven hundred twenty thr- dangit. Huff, huff. Grr. Seven hundred twenty four. Wait, wait, is this, is this? Ah crap! I forgot that entire runic subtype floret. Seven hundred twenty five. Nope, now my wrist is quivering, quaking, and shaking.


    Can, poof, huff. Can barely move. Eight hundred eighty eight. Ugh, hard to draw when I can¡¯t even raise my biceps. Another failure. Come on Reggie, just get one single rune right. You can do this. You have to do this. For Dawn, for the SAP, hell, even just for you. Come on buddy. Give it another go. Eight hundred eighty nine. Oog. Blerf. Nope. Come on, come on. Attempt eight hundred ninety is a-! Another failure. Hell my right shoulder is locking up. Okay, fine, just take a few seconds to breathe and to close my eyes.


    Come on Reggie, keep it together, we might even be drawing close to the city at this point. Nine hundred ninety ni- nope. Attempt one thousand is, is so hard to move any of my limbs. Stupid element of cold rune, twice as complex as element of heat. But I need to practice the runes for spells that I have the full spell page for. Okay, come on Reggie, a thousand and one, is, is-. Is sending me to unconsciousness. Whoops.


    ¡°Another batch, all sparsely populated, none worth spending an armada of souls to reach into. The prime soul draws nearer each day. We¡¯ll wait until their agony reaches new heights, then their soul will be primed, charged for its greatest purpose. So many billions of little ants waiting for my return, waiting to be reaped, to open new worlds. What about you? Where do you lead?¡±


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    The malevolent force holding me in an ethereal, yet impossibly strong grip demands answers of me that make no sense. Where do I lead? How can I lead anywhere if I¡¯m trapped here? What¡¯s, what¡¯s happening, happening to, to me!? Ahhh!


    We¡¯re standing along the edge of a volcanic plain. Its slate-gray monotony broken up only by a series of yellowish red rivulets of lava. Another thing breaking up the monotony of the landscape is a swath of shadows pouring forth as if from thin air. The shadows drip like ink even as they take on some semblance of form, all across the landscape. We continue to back away from the volcanic plain, down the pristine sandy beach.


    Our backs are to the proverbial wall, up against the ocean¡¯s edge. Despite our attempt at fleeing the encroaching host of shadows, we¡¯ve nowhere left to run on land. We¡¯ll have to take to the skies to have any chance to survive. A point of interest lies in that direction, and since its elevation is far above us, it likely belongs to a chain of skybound floating islands. We had caught a glimpse of it while plummeting to our doom earlier. A doom that was thankfully averted, though that averting may prove to be short lived if we can¡¯t produce enough lift to begin a strong glide.


    Running along the beach, we instinctively cast our senses about, feeling the breeze in each location as it changes, raising and dipping as its pressure builds and wanes. There, there¡¯s a strong updraft. We simply have to leap over a horde of clamoring inky shadow beasts to reach it. No problem, right friends?


    Dawn pokes me, from her position beneath Teuila¡¯s straddle, as Teuila guides our carriage-raft from within. I rouse and flex my face, stretching my jaw and forehead repeatedly. For some reason it feels like my face was locked in a shocked or frightened expression for a long time, ow. Oh, right, world around me. I raise an eyebrow towards Dawn.


    She flashes a grin and chuckles as she says, ¡°Rej pal, Boss was wondering how you got so tired. You shoulda heard her laugh when I told her about how you were fingering the air so hard and so long that you just couldn¡¯t finger any more.¡±


    I¡¯m mortified beyond reason as I flash between pale, drained of all color, and blushing brightly, heatedly. Dawn starts full on belly-laughing while Teuila struggles to maintain course as she joins the laughter. Our carriage is rocked wildly, causing the spray of the river to splash through the viewing ports, mostly dousing Teuila and Dawn, though a fair spritz hits Percy and me as well.


    I¡¯d make a joke about karma, but I don¡¯t actually want Dawn or Teuila to feel bad for their jokes. I resume stretching my jaw, since the smile my face is currently pulled into is causing my mandibular joint to lock up. The sort of nervous-embarrassment smile that wants to laugh along, but can¡¯t quite manage. After several seconds, it finally feels like my facial muscles are my own again. I wipe a tear from each of my eyes before rolling them at the still laughing pair.


    Despite just being teased about it, I have to resume my practice trying to learn to draw the runes in the air. It¡¯s easy to imagine that some spells could certainly take an entire hour to cast, if one had to carefully draw thirty two or thirty three massively intricate runes in the air. Alright, we were in the middle of our one thousand and first attempt when we passed out. Let¡¯s start our count off back there. Oof, my limbs still feel a tad leaden.


    Alright, let¡¯s see where we screwed up on attempt one thousand and one. It. Wait. Wait, I think. I think I did it! I¡¯ve had to continually refresh the aura sight spell from the staff during my trials, but I can almost feel the rune¡¯s existence in front of me at the moment. It feels like a tiny vacuum pulling ever so slightly towards itself. Reaching towards it, I poke the rune. The rune, finally drawn correctly, begins to propagate. A tad unfortunate for Teuila, Dawn, and Percival, because it¡¯s the rune for the element of cold. The temperature within the cabin drops easily thirty degrees or more, settling frost into the damp clothes of Dawn and Teuila, and upon Percival¡¯s leaves.


    I bite my lips to refrain from laughing. My own thermal resistance seems to extend outward enough that the element of cold can¡¯t reduce my temperature, or that of my clothing. Blushing with chagrin, I scratch the back of my head as the now freezing Teuila and Dawn glare my way in a mix of shock, humor, and annoyance.


    Coughing, I apologize, ¡°Ah, koff, err, ahem, sorry about that. Looks like I¡¯ve got one rune down pat. Only a few quintillion to go. Thankfully most of those are largely the same, with minor alterations to details. Guess you could say it¡¯s pretty cool that all my fingering paid off. I think I¡¯m going to chill out for a bit and relax my weary digits. I¡¯d hate to freeze up if I needed to actually cast any spells any time soon.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s expression reaches new heights of simultaneous humor and annoyance. She¡¯s struggling hard to keep from laughing and leaping to tackle me out of the carriage. Suddenly Teuila begins to grin quite wickedly, and our vehicle slows considerably. In a moment, our motion is completely halted, save a gentle bobbing as if we¡¯re sitting at a dock.


    Uh oh. Teuila shoves off of Dawn who starts laughing again. Teuila¡¯s shove launches her my way, and allows me a momentarily clear view out the front viewing port. We¡¯re definitely being tied to a dock at the entrance to a city of natural splendor. I¡¯ve no time to enjoy it however as Teuila¡¯s thrust bridges the short gap instantly. She tackles me and we¡¯re stuck trading pins and laughing in the extremely tightly confined space within the carriage¡¯s cabin. We end up in a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight. The joy that spreads across my face hurts my jaw once again, but I can¡¯t help the smile or the laughter. Teuila¡¯s right hand rests along the middle of my face, smooshing my lips towards my nose. I chase her right hand away with my hands, and her left hand comes to rest upon my face, scrunching my nose towards my right cheek. I chase that hand away, and the right returns.


    We continue our chicanery and tomfoolery for several minutes before Dawn politely coughs. When Dawn has Teuila¡¯s attention, Te politely coughs and avoids eye contact out of embarrassment. In the sudden silence and lack of slapstick comedy, I find myself also coughing and glancing about, avoiding eye contact out of embarrassment. I nervously chuckle. It does strike me as a bit humorous that this particular bit seems to be a bit of a running gag with the three of us. Maybe four of us. I heard Percival rustle, and he appears to be leaning away from the rest of us.

 B 4 C 73: Hidden Heart Arrivals

    Despite having succeeded at finally creating a specific rune, I have to repeat the success, and perform it enough times that it becomes rote.  Hopefully it will become quicker with practice.  Spending several minutes crafting a single rune in the air, when the simplest spell takes five, well, it¡¯s definitely not going to be helpful in battle.


    Hm, I know that if I just poked the spell runes depicted in the book, in order, I could probably activate the spell, though I¡¯m worried that the page could somehow become spent in some way.  In the worst case scenario, it works similarly to the identification scrolls from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and disappears in a fwoosh.  Losing the proper runes for a spell before committing them to memory would suck.  I¡¯m almost certain that that¡¯s exactly what would happen too.  Unless the spellbook itself were somehow enchanted to preserve the spells within it, even against consumption by the system of magic itself.


    Anyway, enough conjecture for the moment.  Let¡¯s try again, see if we can get another successful rune on attempt one thousand and two.  Huff, phew, huzzah!  How about one thousand and three?  Yes!  Let¡¯s just let these dissipate and not accidentally empower them.  No need to make Percy, Dawn, or Teuila even colder.  Let¡¯s keep this up.  We¡¯ll leave the defunct mental language comprehension spellbook here in the cabin, and see whose docks we¡¯ve landed upon.


    Oh, oh the glaive at my back really wants to be full size.  It''s sending waves of insistent feelings at me.  Okay, okay, calm down.  Oh, I get it.  It¡¯s for my own safety.  It wouldn¡¯t maintain its true shape for anyone without fae ancestry.  Thus me having this gorgeous weapon strapped to my back is sort of like proof that I¡¯m not someone who just slew a person with this weapon.  Or at least, if I did, that I¡¯m not some random human who did it.  Most likely anyone who recognizes it, or its magics, should pretty much assume that at least I¡¯m not outright evil.  Oh, even if I had fae ancestry, the weapon can simply refuse to respond if it dislikes me.  Which it would probably do if I murdered its previous wielder.  So yeah, fairly solid proof of intent, or lack thereof.  It has such an odd, roundabout way of communicating its thoughts to me.  Or well, maybe not even thoughts, just overall feelings about knowledge about itself.  Self awareness is still impressive regardless.


    I give Teuila and Dawn a moment to warm themselves, dry off, and secure everything or grab what they¡¯d like to bring.  As they¡¯re preparing to disembark, I exit our vessel.  Standing at the docks is a handsome, shirtless, dark-skinned fae man wearing trousers comprised of leaves.  His outfit reminds me of my old leaf-leather clothing, mixed with ghillie equipment from Fakeworld, Earth.


    I start, ¡°Hail friend, is there an authority to report to, or a toll to pay?  We¡¯re all new to wherever we are.  Folks from other parts just call it the rumored Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds.¡±


    In a thick, rich Caribbean accent, the fellow replies, ¡°I figured you would show up sometime.  Shellcracker.  Wasn¡¯t sure whether to expect a Reginald, or Regina, your friend Lil says hello all the same.¡±


    My throat catches, and I¡¯m at a loss for words.  Lil¡¯s been thinking about us.  Lil knew we would come for them.  My Lil buddy.  They don¡¯t hate us.  I openly weep, allowing grateful tears to stream down my cheeks.  I cough though, and draw a ragged breath.  If Lil was sure we¡¯d arrive though, where are they?  Glancing around gives no hint where they might be hanging out at.


    Our welcome-party shakes his head and responds to our obvious searching, ¡°Gone for some time now I¡¯m afraid.  Reluctant at first, then aided the Hidden with a great ordeal, then left with no pomp or pageantry.  The hound and the girl left with, of course.  Quite a loyal group of friends your little family.  I¡¯m not certain they told anyone where they were going, but if you¡¯re to seek them out, I¡¯m sure a few around these parts will offer guesses.¡±


    I find myself still unable to speak.  We missed Lil.  Lil moved on without us, to who knows where.  I drop to my knees and let my jaw hang slack with my lips drawn back in sadness.  My lips and jaw quiver.  I shouldn¡¯t give in to despair, but I was so badly hoping to see and patch things up with my best buddy, that I didn¡¯t even stop to think that they might have moved on already.  I gulp several times, attempting to rein in my emotions.


    Rubbing my itchy, wet eyes, I gaze at my own boots as I mumble, ¡°Thank you, for um, passing along Lil¡¯s message.  How did you know I was me?  I mean, that I¡¯m Reggie?¡±


    The fellow tending this dock offers, ¡°Between the red hair, the potent, verdant soul, and you wielding the lost Lullaby, you were unlikely to be anyone else.¡±


    My face contorts as one eyebrow raises.  I query, ¡°The lost lullaby?¡±


    A certain joy spreads across his face as he answers, ¡°Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds.  He hasn¡¯t been seen in the Heart in ages.  His sister will be glad of his return.  Even if it¡¯s temporary.¡±


    I glance around at my companions, the only one that might identify as male is Percy the Potted Plant.  It seems unlikely that he¡¯s from the Hidden Heart.  My glance passes over the glaive strapped to my back.  Its emerald hue shines brighter than ever.  Is Lullaby the glaive¡¯s name?


    As if in response, the dock-fae, Phinarel apparently, nods while saying, ¡°Anyway friend, welcome to the Heart.  I¡¯m Phinarel, and no, there¡¯s no need to pay for something so simple as stopping your, um, boat, at our docks.¡±


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    I chuckle for a moment at the description of our vessel.  It''s obviously a carriage, but it has been rafting fairly nicely.  Realizing I''ve forgotten to breathe for a bit, I draw a shuddering, ragged breath as I stand.  I blush while flashing Phinarel a smile in an attempt to respond, ¡°I¡¯m honored, it¡¯s a pleasure to meet you Phinarel.  You already know that I¡¯m Reggie.  If Lil told you about Teuila, the Valkyrie, that¡¯s her with the giant backpack.  Lil couldn¡¯t have known about Percy the Potted Plant, or our shy friend Dawn here.¡±


    Dawn elbows me playfully as she jocularly states, ¡°Shy friend Rej?  I¡¯m over it.  Just look at where we are pal!  Don¡¯t know how long we¡¯ve got before we need a solution, but damned if I¡¯m not going to enjoy the time I¡¯ve got at this point.  Y¡¯know?  Howzit braddah Phinarel.  Hele hele mai kakou e Rej.  Some place safe, yet wild and new.  Some place I can be Aasimovian without being worried about it?  Being out as myself in the first time in almost forever?¡±


    Joy spreads across my face as Dawn lays it out for me.  I¡¯m so glad she¡¯s getting to be herself and simultaneously enjoy it.  A nagging feeling at the back of my mind latches on to one sentence though.  She doesn¡¯t know how long we have.  I haven¡¯t been filling her in every day on my assumptions of her soul¡¯s progress.  She can see it with her aura vision wand if she¡¯s really curious, but hasn¡¯t commented on it at all.  I worry that perhaps it¡¯s simply too depressing.  Her soul is tatters at this point, shreds even.  There¡¯s barely enough to be compared to something like the bottom few rows of a knitted sweater.


    I need to hurry.  We need to get set up, and I need to keep practicing, and learning magic.  I ask Phinarel, ¡°Phinarel, does the Heart accept travelers?  Do they have anything like inns or anything like that?  I don¡¯t want to act on kindness and good will that Lil has earned, I¡¯d prefer to not take advantage of Lil and their good nature in such a manner.¡±


    Phinarel gives me the so-so gesture while answering, ¡°Not as such, no, but new houses grow every day.  Anyone that can find their way to the heart is deemed worthy of setting up in one.  We haven¡¯t had to exile anyone in ages, not even the Hidden of the Vale.¡±


    I clutch my chest at the mention of Aces homeland.  A pain grips my heart like homesickness.  But it¡¯s not my home.  The home that I long for is my little pond on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas with my family, or barring that, our new house in the Miracle Oak settlement.  Why did hearing about Aces¡¯ homeland suddenly spark an equal level of longing?  I rattle my head as I try to reorient myself.


    Teuila literally lifts the carriage out of the river, seemingly effortlessly, and walks down the docks to the shore with it, leaving everyone around the docks speechless.  Te, I thought that was too big to use your gravity powers on.  Are you getting even more powerful?  Was that your gravity powers, or your raw strength, or both?  When she¡¯s sure she¡¯s got clearance away from everyone, she sets the carriage down, and begins to reattach its wheels.


    Percival shuffles along after Teuila, likely wanting to resume his seated position in the cart if we¡¯re not going to need to abandon it.  Dawn just appears to be gawping at Teuila.  Sure, Dawn¡¯s seen Te bash down an entire wizard¡¯s tower, but that doesn¡¯t mean she has to stop being impressed by decent shows of strength.  It¡¯s a bit amusing though.  I¡¯m glad Dawn and Teuila have their friendship, and their nicknames for each other.  Boss and Dawny are a fun pair.  I truly, truly need to learn about souls as soon as possible.  Teuila doesn¡¯t deserve to lose someone that she has become such close friends with.  Especially not in such a horrid manner.


    With as much gratitude as I can muster, I thank Phinarel, ¡°I¡¯m humbled, and extremely grateful for the welcome, the message, and the knowledge.  So basically some tree near the edge of town will have grown a well-lit hollow or something?  If it¡¯s unfurnished, we can pretty much just claim it and camp there, no issues?¡±


    Phinarel nods along in response, giving me the affirmative.  I press my luck, ¡°Do you know what I should do with Lullaby?  I was hoping to return him to his proper owner.  We, um, rescued him from someone¡¯s hoard.  A bad someone.¡±


    Phinarel brightens up, ¡°You want to see him home?  You¡¯d be ready to part with him so easily?  You¡¯re as kind as Lil says, though I¡¯m not so sure Lullaby is ready to part with you yet.  His sister is wielded by one of Bastet¡¯s entourage, her royal guards.  His wielder is likely dead if you found him in some wicked being¡¯s hoard, so there¡¯s no one to return him to necessarily.  Still, Dirge, Requiem for the Wounded will be glad to be reunited, even if only for a time.  Getting them together might prove a challenge, but I¡¯ll leave you to figure out the politics of the Seelie and Unseelie court.¡±


    My eyes flick wide in surprise.  Those are concepts that I have from my Earth memories of fantasy media.  Also, now that my mind is drawn to Earth, Bastet is an Egyptian goddess or something like that.  Isn¡¯t she?  I think something to do with cats.  More than just the usual Egyptology references to cats and the underworld though.  I suddenly remember Fawns at Sunsets face.  There¡¯s no way, right?  Bastet was something of a matronly goddess, protection, pleasure, health.  Like most Earth deities, a beautiful personage, moreover, a feline face, or some anthropomorphic feline qualities at least.  I¡¯d once thought jokingly that Fawn would easily be at home amongst the pantheons of Earth deities, for almost those exact qualities just now.  Could Fawn be an incarnation of Bastet back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas?


    Hm, doesn¡¯t Bastet have a son, Miho?  That¡¯s sort of amusing, since I¡¯m pretty sure mijo means son in several Latin languages like Spanish.  Actually, that might be a contraction of mi hijo.  Perhaps less of an influential coincidence than I thought.  Also, let¡¯s go back to those names.  Lullaby, and Dirge?  Both are requiems of some concept, the Wounded for Dirge, but the Windless Wilds for Lullaby.  Lullaby¡¯s enchantment is about ease of travel across the wilderness, the wilds.  If strong winds were affecting a journey, they¡¯d seem to almost dissipate in a small area when traveling with a wielder of Lullaby.  Does that mean Dirge¡¯s enchantment specializes in wounds?  Causing them?  Or treating them?  Quite possibly as frightening as Gae Buidhe honestly.


    Phinarel appears to be leaving, but I¡¯m still lost, and have so many more questions.  I ask, ¡°Are there any places to learn that would accept a new, short-term student?  Especially learning anything to deal with magic.  Also, um.  Did Lil have any particular friends, or group of people they spent more time with?¡±


    He turns his smiling face back my way over one shoulder as he calls back, ¡°Lil, the lady and the hound mostly hung around the Enochian Enclave.  They¡¯re also your best bet in answer to your other question.¡±

 B 4 C 74: The Enochian Enclave

    Since Dirge, Lullaby¡¯s sister was brought up, Lullaby is trying to send feelings at me in order to describe her. She¡¯s something along the lines of a bec de corbin, mixed with a bardiche, mixed with a lucerne hammer. Essentially she¡¯s a long-poled battleaxe warhammer. A ferocious sounding weapon to be sure, for anyone with the strength to wield her. I struggle to find a way to let Lullaby know that I need some time to think and process my own feelings without having more layered on top of them for a moment. The glaive is all too happy to keep sending waves of emotion at me though, in regards to its arrival in its ancestral home. Hm, his arrival I suppose. I shouldn¡¯t dismiss the identity of anyone, even if they are technically inanimate. I¡¯ll do better.


    I draw another ragged breath as I right myself and glance around. Dawn rushed ahead to trade barbs and blows with ¡®Boss¡¯, Teuila. Percival is almost caught up to the two of them. Phinarel is waving over his shoulder without looking back as he wanders away into the city. I¡¯m, well, I¡¯m lost. Emotionally. I just need a few minutes to process Lil not being here. We¡¯re going to have a whole city to explore, a real, full-on capitol city of a hidden nation of Fae. If life itself were an element, tied in some way to nature, here would definitely be the place to learn about it. I¡¯ve a tiny shred of hope that such a thing might offer a solution, or at least a clue to a solution about Dawn¡¯s situation.


    My genre senses are screaming at me that I¡¯m destined to fail Dawn. They shout that even if I learn what the solution could be, that I won¡¯t be able to master it in time to save her. I have to drown out the horrid self-doubt voice pounding such thoughts deep into my psyche. I can¡¯t give up hope. Dawn seems like a whole new person, truly enjoying life. Maybe this is who she always was, before her curse that led to decades of boredom in isolation. Before friendship betrayals led her to retreat from everyone, and hide her own identity. I¡¯d like to be able to say that, no matter the outcome, we¡¯ll always have these wonderful memories of her happiness to cherish, but that¡¯s just not true. The curse has the potential to wipe Dawn¡¯s entire existence from all memories.


    Alright, just keep drawing this rune as we walk around for now. Get its execution down by rote, and speed up the process vastly. Okay, whew, kind of light headed now that I¡¯m at eleven hundred. Is drawing the rune itself somehow taking more energy to do than the calories it takes to move my finger, wrist, and arm? I wonder if there¡¯s sort of a rune limit comparable to my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian energy slash mana limit. By five hundred runes, I started suffering physical effects, drastically. I became sluggish, and it became all that much harder to focus or continue. At a thousand runes, well, attempting my thousand and first rune, I straight up passed out. Is my safe limit five hundred runic actions per rest period?


    Hm, it sounds like a lot, but then one recalls that most spells take thirty three runes to activate, unless exceedingly simple. The leading rune that describes which runotype tables to look at, the sixteen digit runoform code that basically sets up an array of references within that series of tables, then the sixteen rune code that points at specific sets of series of runes within those tables. It¡¯s like modular programming honestly. The leading rune is sort of like importing a dll or a java library or python function. The advance sixteen are like loading various functions to be able to call from within that loaded library. Finally the other sixteen are sort of like objects that can have multiple functions assigned to them in order of activation. Bluh, why do I know so much about Fakeworld, Earth¡¯s programming languages all of a sudden?


    Anyway. Then even the simple spells can have power modifiers, basically runes that duplicate or triplicate the previous runes, to enhance the scale or power of the effect of the building spell. Now, do those count as a single rune, or count as re-drawing the previous thirty two runes or so? Genre senses feel like it would be the latter. So if I wanted a third tier version of a regular complexity spell, I¡¯d craft thirty three runes, craft a duplication rune which would repeat the thirty two active runes, basically another thirty three, then I¡¯d craft the duplication rune again, for another thirty three. Crap on a cracker. I can basically only cast five of such spells before I¡¯m hamstrung.


    Still, I haven¡¯t exactly spotted anyone using actual spells in combat. Miza¡¯s spells didn¡¯t rely on runotype depiction as far as I could tell, but she casted while speaking draconic, which might be able to form runes just within its alien brainmelting hissing sounds for all I know. Dippy didn¡¯t seem to cast any spells, except when using his petrified wood wand. I already know that wands can contain the series of instructions for a spell, or a small number of spells.


    I do wonder how Dippy managed to convert feeling an enhancement spell, into learning how to cast a version of that spell. It¡¯s like, his body and mind was ready to learn another spell, and he just hadn¡¯t picked out which one it would be yet. When one was offered that meshed with his abilities, he was able to instantly grok it. Grok? Ugh, is that more Fakeworld stuff? Slang for understanding or something. Okay, okay, whatever, anyway, back on task.


    My point was that while magic might be somewhat common on Rayileklia, spellcasters forming runes in the air are anything but. Is my limitation a fledgling compared to practitioners of magic? Am I on par with a child, having only lived for about a month? Am I on par with a learned magician who has been studying from youth to adulthood, due to having led an entire previous life filled with magic? Where does five hundred runes per rest stand comparatively? Can I do five hundred one now without suffering effects, after having pushed myself so hard for a day? Will there be a linear growth in capability and capacity?


    Ugh. I wonder if the Enochian Enclave has any of these answers. I wonder if I want to know what the answers are. How crushed would I be if it turns out that even young Fae magicians are five, ten, fifty times as capable and capacitive. I don¡¯t think I have an overwhelmingly massive ego, but I do have some pride, enough to cause me a slight bit of vanity, and some occasional hubris.


    Teuila calls out, ¡°Hey Airhead, look at this! Bushes along the path are just mad with nuts and berries. Mm, fresh, and delish. Oh wow, it¡¯s already starting to grow back. Sort of.¡±


    Teuila pokes at the tiniest hint of a bud from where she¡¯d plucked a nut that appears to be a walnut. That¡¯s not the sort of plant a walnut comes from according to my Earth memories, but here we are. She is right though. It seems like food and lodging really aren¡¯t an issue around here at all. Homes and food are literally growing for the community at all times. Teuila seems to snag a few handfuls of berries to eat in the moment, then she drops a host of the nuts into one of her handy spice pouches. Seems like she rearranged the potions to take less space, so now she¡¯s occasionally dipping walnuts into something that looks like powdered carob or cacao. That¡¯s a creative, and tantalizing use for that pouch. Yum. How did she even think to- Oh, right. She got hooked on sweets back at The Brook.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    I wonder if we can get some sort of mount to haul the carriage here. Or would they not use animals as beasts of burden at all? Would it be upsetting to even ask? What about asking for directions? Or gathering places, or community events? I¡¯ve a funny feeling we won¡¯t be seeing fliers posted around anywhere in a nature-nurturing city such as this.


    As we continue to approach the Hidden Heart proper, the enormity and population of it is astounding. It has to be the size of Manhattan Island, maybe larger, and easily as densely populated. I thought having a few thousand people crammed into a couple dozen square miles back home around the Miracle Oak settlement was a dense living arrangement. This is something else entirely. The trees must reach right up to the permanently acidified, lightning-streaking clouds, but beneath such dense canopy, not a drop of drizzle reaches the forest floor below. It¡¯s almost as if there¡¯s an enchantment over the whole forest that protects it from the endless storm. Oh, there might have to be. Otherwise how would the treetops survive the constantly arcing lightning?


    Regardless, most of the trees are massively wide, and have hollow segments spaced a fair few meters apart, only ever taking about half of the trunk, at alternating sides or angles. It looks like a city of jenga towers in some ways. Nearly all the homes contain at least one or more beds that seem to be carved right from the heart of the trunk. Those beds are usually also home to a bed of moss that looks like a fairly pleasant mattress. Similarly, glowshrooms seem to glow in the corners of most of the dwellings, if not all of them. In all the hustle and bustle, with the endless glow of the fungus, I could imagine calling the Hidden Heart the city that never sleeps.


    Teuila pushes the cart from behind rather than pulling it from the fore. She¡¯s probably taking it as an excuse to get some exercise in, since she had been cooped up for almost a week. I smile back towards my beloved Wings, and she flashes her own glee towards me in return. It melts my heart and I mildly swoon as I sigh contentedly. I suppose I should stop ogling Teuila while she alternates munching and crunching nuts with pushing the carriage. I¡¯d better find us a direction worth heading in.


    I begin asking for directions from passersby as we approach the great throng of people that seem to endlessly mill about the city proper. I start, ¡°Hello, pardon, okay no problem, sorry, pardon me could, okay, nope. Hello there, cou-. Nope, no worries. Is anyone free enough to stop and chat for a moment with travelers? Anyone at all that can teach us about the city?¡±


    I¡¯m constantly brushed-by and ignored. Despite everyone¡¯s friendly outward appearance, they all seem very point, or goal, oriented. If they have a walking partner, they chat as they walk to wherever they¡¯re headed. If they don¡¯t, they just head out with their head down. No wonder Lil found and mostly stuck with one group of people. Even Dawn¡¯s joy at the novelty of the place is starting to be worn-down by the tiresome procession of people.


    Everyone pauses as illusory figures appear over the city like giant holograms. A literal goddess, Bastet, addresses her people, ¡°Today we honor the Enochian Enclave for its involvement in driving back the recent corruption. To note, its three surviving, founding, senior members kneel before you, our people. Jarrah Bettergrove, your small order has earned its place in the history of the Heart. Alanea Whifflewillow, you are a true aspirant of your cause, but remain vigilant of your own aspirations. Keep them from trampling others. Flint Darklace. Koff. You are also a long-surviving member.¡±


    I stifle a chuckle as this nurturing goddess avoids complimenting an individual. He must be something else entirely to warrant such lack of praise. I bite my lips and peer around at my party, none of them appear to be laughing as they¡¯re caught up, entranced by the illusionary spectacle.


    Bastet pauses as she appears to make eye contact with every single person living in the city. She continues, ¡°Our people, our wonderful, free people. May you ever remain so. Cast about in joy and merriment this day, and all others, but especially this day of celebration. My partner, Lady Mab is as always at my side, she echoes my wish for your joy and safety. Lord Anubis and his partner Lord Oberon also wish you long, prosperous lives.¡±


    I choke on my own tongue. Bastet? Anubis? Mab and Oberon? Mab is, is, is queen of the Fae, of, of the mists of Avalon. She¡¯s, I think maybe she¡¯s Titania, but she also might be queen of the winter court? Agh there¡¯s so much conflicting lore and pop culture from Earth flooding my head. Anubis, a literal god of the dead is just some hierarchical figure amongst the Fae of the Hidden Heart? Phinarel mentioned something about the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Are they divided into hetero pairings, ruled over by a respective cultural pair? Or are they separated by apparent gender? Bastet spoke as if she were speaking for everyone, and her illusions are certainly powerful enough to create multiple figures. So why weren¡¯t any of the other three there to voice their own affirmation of her message?


    That definitely smells of some sort of Fae politics that I want nothing to do with. Do those people actually hold the powers they do in Earth¡¯s stories though? Anubis could be the answer to Dawn¡¯s problem. Earning a favor from Anubis could prove difficult however. To say the very least. Mab is known to be more capricious. If we could catch her in a charitable mood, she might very well have the power to help Dawn as well. Ugh, I do not relish the idea of having to navigate Fae-court politics in a way where I have to pick a side, and hope it¡¯s the right one to earn Dawn¡¯s survival.


    What if I choose the wrong Fae court? What if I pick Bastet and Mab, and even if I end up on their charitable side, they simply don¡¯t have the power to stop Dawn¡¯s curse? Would it be better to try to side with Anubis and Oberon? The two are more likely to have a specific power relating to souls, but both are infamously hard to please, and rarely willing to grant favors without steep prices. By steep prices, I¡¯m talking things like eternal servitude as a custodian of a temple, or guardian of a gate. Hell¡¯s bells this is rough. Or what if it ends up being a waste of time, because the entire extent of their powers is Bastet¡¯s illusions? If that were the case, all the politicking would end up eating into time I could have spent researching magic to try to free Dawn from her curse myself.


    It might actually serve us better to have Dawn and me working one side of the court, while Teuila and Percival joins the other side. Maybe this Jarrah Bettergrove and his Enochian Enclave members will have some advice about the Fae courts. Hm, what¡¯s this? Oh interesting. If you desire someone¡¯s location, and you know their name, with aura sight, the city itself grants you a minuscule glowing path. Thanks for filling me in Lullaby. In that case, we now have a course, let¡¯s head for the Enochian Enclave.

 B 4 C 75: Temporarily Home

    The illusory versions of the celebrated Enochian Enclave members were kneeling with their backs facing our way. I¡¯m not sure if everyone perceived the illusion from the same angle, or if it was a three dimensional one with relative positioning. Basically I don¡¯t know who I¡¯m looking for exactly, but thankfully the city appears to be guiding us towards the town¡¯s outskirts, where it¡¯s less populated, and we might find an empty home to set up camp. Leaving the hustle and bustle of the deeper city proper has the added benefit of suddenly reminding me I have extremely loud, painful tinnitus. Well, the reminder isn¡¯t the benefit. The quiet is the benefit. Thankfully the quieter the area around me, the less my tinnitus acts up.


    This looks like an empty dwelling at just off of ground level, with only a slight ramp to enter it.  The four of us file in as Teuila parks the nearly-empty carriage outside.  The inside is extremely cozy.  It''s warm and comforting in a familiar way.  The ramp is a nice touch too. That¡¯ll be nice for Percival, so he doesn¡¯t need to wait for us to lift him up steps or anything. I wonder if there¡¯s a way to secure a home, to sort of claim it in a way that affords privacy, and perhaps protection of people or belongings. As if in answer to my thoughts, a bark door materializes in the entryway to our temporary home.


    Teuila whistles before exclaiming, ¡°Fancy!¡±


    Dawn plays along with Teuila¡¯s wonder, ¡°Got that right Boss.¡±


    Approaching the bark door, it removes itself for me as I near it. I¡¯m a bit stunned honestly. Persistent, responsive enchantments? Yet the forest isn¡¯t awash in overpowering aura glows of various spell schools or anything. Is there a difference between things that are naturally, inherently magical, and magic that is used or conjured? I scratch my head momentarily as I¡¯m lost in thought, standing in our doorway.


    Dawn teases, ¡°Hey Rej, y¡¯make a better door than a window pal, and you¡¯re even a bad one of those. You¡¯re letting the warm air out.¡±


    A smile plays across the left half of my face as I loose a wry chuckle. I roll my eyes and shake my head towards Dawn while laughing. She¡¯s not exactly wrong though. I move out of our doorway, and the door re-materializes.


    Teuila asks, ¡°Percy, do you want to, or need to sleep in the bed? No? Okay, cool. Dawny, great news, bed¡¯s big enough for the three of us!¡±


    Dawn blushes and scratches the back of her head while avoiding eye contact. She mutters with mild sarcasm, ¡°Yeah, yay, great news. Sure.¡±


    Oof. Teuila looks put out, hurt even. I cross the room to embrace her quickly. I begin to flash Dawn a mildly upset look when I realize Dawn is hugging herself shyly, and trembling.


    I query, ¡°Dawn? What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    Dawn mutters, ¡°¡¯s¡¯nothin¡¯, dun worry ¡®bout it. Sleepover party, s¡¯fine. Good even.¡±


    I exchange a worried glance with Teuila. My-Wings nods, so I free her from my hug to approach Dawn. I give Dawn plenty of space, but make my presence known while she avoids looking at either of us.


    I ask again, ¡°Dawn. Seriously. We¡¯re you¡¯re friends. What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    Dawn gulps and frowns as she tries to spell it out, ¡°Rej, I. I just realized. Boss and you, you¡¯re so tight, total lovebirds. And, and, and. Shid Rej. I¡¯ve been hogging her for over a week. I¡¯m sorry Boss. I¡¯m sorry Rej. It didn¡¯t really hit me til just now when Boss talked about all three of us. Musta been eating you two up with me coming between you like that. Firsts and thirds I¡¯ve been a jackanapes.¡±


    I frown as I ask, ¡°Dawn, would you prefer I hug you or smack you right now?¡±


    Dawn¡¯s response is pure confusion, ¡°The hell Rej, what?¡±


    I let myself smile and drop a single breathy chortle as Dawn finally meets my gaze. I ask again, ¡°Dawn. You get that we care about you, tremendously, right? We all know that, that this whole situation is extremely unique. Extenuating circumstances. So, no need to beat yourself up over things. Okay? Now, do you want a hug or a smack to drive the point home?¡±


    Dawn blushes, despite her curse stopping her vital functions. She meets my gaze as a smile creeps across her face, ¡°Well shid Rej. I know Boss is stronger than you, but I¡¯ve seen you standing on a dragon¡¯s head that you cut off. No way in hell I want a hit from either one of you. A hug it is pal.¡±


    We both laugh for a moment at the absurdity of our strengths and encounters. I stand firmly with my arms outstretched, allowing Dawn to enter my hug at her own leisure, to remain in it at whatever length she¡¯s comfortable with. We stand in an embrace that seems too long for someone as uncomfortable with physical contact as Dawn, when I realize she¡¯s got a death grip on me. Her senses have fled her again. She¡¯s got the density sense, and probably the internal proprioception of her muscles meeting resistance as she squeezes me. Anyone else, I¡¯d be stroking their back and attempting to coo comforting noises. Dawn couldn¡¯t feel or hear either, and doesn¡¯t desire either one when her senses are available.


    Dawn coughs as she releases her death grip on my torso, and she takes several steps back. I cock my head to the right at a curious angle as I try to meet Dawn¡¯s gaze with a single raised eyebrow. She avoids my gaze momentarily, but when she relents, she fearfully nods. The sadness and pain etched deep into the expression upon her face are a torment to even bear witness to. The agony that Dawn must be going through as her curse nears its end is almost unimaginable.


    Teuila hops over and hugs Dawn, stating, ¡°Hey Dawny, Air is right. We l-, we care about you. We¡¯re your friends. You can tell us when you¡¯re sad or hurt or uncomfortable. That¡¯s the only way real friendships stay strong and last long. You talk things out, or through. Sorry if I, um, like, any boundaries or borders or anything. You¡¯d tell me, right?¡±


    Dawn half chuckles while wearing a sad smile as she answers, ¡°Y-yeah, yeah I¡¯d tell you Boss. It¡¯s all good. I can¡¯t imagine you, you, um, crossing lines. You too Rej. You¡¯ve been nothing but great pal, especially since that night. I, I¡¯m really glad I got to meet you two before this curse took me out.¡±


    The fatalism in Dawn¡¯s closing statement hits me like a ton of bricks. An icy dagger edges its way into my heart, then explodes into hellish fragments of frost that seek to encase and grip my beating life-blood. Dawn¡¯s sure I¡¯m going to fail her. Teuila feels like we haven¡¯t had any true, solid leads. My own self doubt worms its way around my subconscious, gnawing its way in to every other thought, intruding where it isn¡¯t wanted. I, I can¡¯t fail her. That can¡¯t be how our friendship ends. It just can¡¯t.


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    I gulp back a sob I didn¡¯t realize I¡¯d been fighting as I state, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m going to go find that Jar person. The path the city provided says the destination is relatively close. I¡¯m. I. I don¡¯t want the curse to take you out Dawn. I¡¯m going to ask them anything and everything that I can. You coming along might help if they have any knowledge that might apply after seeing your curse situation. You don¡¯t have to though. Same to you Te.  You could stay, maybe even study some books of your own. I was glancing through the books we got, and there¡¯s a couple I think you should have.¡±


    Teuila raises an eyebrow as she queries, ¡°How so Air?¡±


    I flash a smile her way before explaining, ¡°I noticed that they¡¯re enchanted, like the language comprehension book. And, now that I can understand the runes of the enchantment, I know sort of what they do.¡±


    I attempt to summarize my findings, ¡°They¡¯d act a bit like the danger wraps, guiding your muscles or cluing your vision in to striking weak points in your target, things like that. Two of them basically enhance a fighting style that specializes in a single weapon. Another one gives you an almost supernatural ability to redirect missiles back towards their senders. Like, catching slings and arrows and stuff. Not, you know, high explosive self-propelled rockets. Though, knowing you, you could probably do that too.¡±


    Teuila snorts in laughter at my final statement. She then makes grabby-hands motions, indicating I should hand over the enchanted manuals. I hand over Cabra''s Articles, an ancient compendium bound in stained glass plates similar to the spellbook, only without the handprint lock. I have to warn Teuila though, the enchantment basically temporarily depowers all other magic on the reader while the book is open and near.


    Fishing around in the hyperdimensional haversack, I also dig out Ziri¡¯s Manuscripts, another tome bound in stained glass, though its pages are linen, and the ink is a very suspicious reddish brown. I¡¯m almost certain it¡¯s written in blood. That could be any scribe¡¯s idea of a joke though, using chicken-blood in an inkwell or something. I hand this one to Teuila as well, and she stacks the tomes together to hug them to her chest.


    Another one that I fish out, I can see the enchantment on it, but haven¡¯t been able to open it. It¡¯s only bound in leather, but the buckle seems to be magically sealed. Neither the unlocking spell nor the floating magical hand were able to open it either. Something on its cover indicates something along the lines of earth, soil, or stone. Maybe crust. Ground perhaps? Ugh, it¡¯s like having machine translation sitting in front of my eyeballs giving me random guesses as to which particular meaning a rune has in a given context.


    Teuila asks, ¡°So how do they work? Also don¡¯t be mean, I know how to read books, obviously. Airhead.¡±


    I bite my lips as I struggle to fight back a smile and laughter. I was totally going to tease Teuila snarkily about how book reading works. I cough through a snorted laugh as I struggle to respond, ¡°Koff, ahem, yes, well, that¡¯s pretty much all there is to it. You have to sort of read and digest basically all the words on all the pages, even if they¡¯re in gibberish orders. As you do, you might be able to feel runes trying to work their way into your mind or muscles.¡±


    I pause a moment to gaze up-leftwards in thought before surmising, ¡°I¡¯m not quite sure if it¡¯ll be different for physical enchantments like the ones in those books. It might be a physical magical enhancement. Or it could be all mental, like the book teaching you a martial art magically.¡±


    Teuila sends my mind into a massive blue screen of death, ¡°When I¡¯m finished, I¡¯ll show you what I¡¯ve learned. I¡¯ll be all, ¡®There is no spoon. I know kung fu.¡¯¡±


    I blink rapidly at Teuila as she simply grins madly at me while hugging the tomes. She¡¯s excited for a new experience. But, but she just made a direct reference to Fakeworld, Earth media, pop culture. She¡¯s never, I mean, I¡¯m pretty sure never, so-directly implied in any way she might have Fakeworld memories. If anything, she¡¯d actively deny it and question my wellbeing.


    Before I can form an appropriate question, Teuila quietly shouts, ¡°Let¡¯s get a move-on punks, no time to dillydally. Except you Percy. Do you want me to carry you along? You¡¯re just going to chill here and get to know the home? Okeydokey, sure Purse. Catch you later!¡±


    My jaw hangs slightly slack and my index finger wags in a vaguely pointing manner as Teuila rushes off. Does she even know where the path is? She said her aura sight doesn¡¯t work the same here as it did on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Can she see the tiny glow trail? In mere moments, Teuila is back in the doorway, rubbing the back of her head as she avoids eye contact in embarrassment. I bite my lips as I try to stifle a chuckle. I end up snorting and choking on my own saliva for my troubles. Compared to the usual choking though, this time it¡¯s an incredibly weird sensation. That seems to be because the air-purifying neck-chain immediately frees my lungs from any extra sticking moisture.


    Te asks from behind a face full of chagrin, ¡°So, Airhead, which way to the Eenookie buddies?¡±


    I snort laughter as I respond, ¡°Pft. Haha. Te. The Enochian Enclave is, haha. It¡¯s over that way. You know what nookie means, that was so bad, hah.¡±


    Teuila blows a raspberry my way as she jokes, ¡°I have no idea what you¡¯re on about Airhead. Nyeh.¡±


    Even Dawn starts to laugh at our antics as she asks, ¡°You two are really made for each other aren¡¯t you? Shid Boss, Rej. Just watching you two be in-love is entertaining.¡±


    Teuila goes bright-red and immediately turns away to hide her face as she mumbles, ¡°Y-yeah. I do. We are. Words. You, you know that, my Airhead. S-sorry I can¡¯t say it all the time.¡±


    Dawn catches on, ¡°Oh, oh hell Boss, sorry. But, uh, it¡¯s all aces whatever you two feel or say about each other. I think. Right Rej?¡±


    My jaw hangs slack as I cock my head at an angle to stare at Dawn. What did she say? Somehow that feels familiar. Aces meaning alright, solid, good, well-done, correct. My familiarity feels like another memory from Fakeworld, Earth. Not attached to any person or location or event, as usual. But it almost feels like it should be attached to events. Like there are events waiting for me to dream them up, where aces is used as a positive turn of phrase, rather than a now-dead friend¡¯s name. Dawn flicks her eyebrows at me, prompting me to respond. Oh, right.


    I nod as I return from being lost in thought. I assert in hushed tones, ¡°Of course. It¡¯s okay Teuila. I sort of have an idea that might give us our telepathic bond back too, but it also might literally saw one or both of our hearts or brains in half. So uh, hadn¡¯t really mentioned it yet til I could figure out more.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s excitement rises and falls exceedingly quickly in response to my conjecture about our telepathic bond. I could feel a twist in the mana when I attempted to cast the same version of the same spell on Dippy after casting it on Dawn. That same sort of twist cut into my heart like razorwire when I tethered my energy to Teuila to provide her Valkyrie evolution for days on end dealing with the beaver¡¯s tunnel complex for the first time. I¡¯m almost positive I had internal bleeding by the end of it.


    I offer, ¡°I¡¯ll try to flip through the other books after I get this most basic spell down. I¡¯m really hoping it doesn¡¯t take me a day per rune. I.¡± My words catch in my throat as I glance at Dawn. I¡¯m positive she doesn¡¯t have thirty eight days left for me to finish learning this spell, followed by mastering a soul-oriented spell if one lies within these tomes. She has at most a month, based on the rate of decay of her soul, as long as it stays steady, and doesn¡¯t pick up another burst of speed again.


    I¡¯m terribly wary that the curse¡¯s progress will resume accelerating again soon. I¡¯m not sure what caused it to plateau at its current speed, but I¡¯m grateful for the extra time with Dawn, before crisis hour. I inhale a ragged breath, barely holding back a sob as I gulp back saliva while blinking away the beginnings of tears.

 B 4 C 76: First Impressions Yet Again

    As the three of us are walking along the glowing trail that presents a path towards the Enochian Enclave, I risk retrieving the phoenix-roc egg. Its heat poses no risk to me, and the acid rain does not reach into the Hidden Heart. It¡¯s such a curious thing. It¡¯s not fated to hatch. It definitely contains life, or a life force though, sort of. No soul has been generated for it, not yet. Will one spring into existence at some point? I fish about for one of the many, many enchanted leather pouches that Teuila snagged from Berinon¡¯s shop, the smallest one I can find. I want to know, the instant that something happens to this egg, in case something ever does happen to it.


    Using what seems to be a universal enchantment that lingers on any magic object from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I gently compress the egg. Sure enough, it shrinks down to the size of a jawbreaker. I place the shrunken egg in the enchanted pouch, lace the pouch tightly, and tie it to the pure-air neck-chain. There, now the egg hangs heavily just over my heart. Fitting. It has no timer, it has no being existing within it. It simply has an abundant life-force. We could have spent that life-force to save one of us back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, possibly. It might have been able to take place of one of the book-wielders in the critical catalytic reaction to jump-start our world¡¯s life-stream. I¡¯m glad none of us were willing to do that though. I can¡¯t imagine the heartache that might come with trying to return home while the rest of the Shellcracker Adventuring Party had perished in the Temple of Time. Ugh. Heavy upon my heart indeed.


    Several robed figures appear to be heading approximately where our glowing trail leads, so these might very well be Enochian Enclave members. Then again, why are they thumbing latches on weapon sheathes upon approach? I nudge Teuila and flick my eyes towards the belts partially obscured beneath fluttering cloaks on the three figures. Teuila¡¯s gaze follows mine, and she nods with understanding. I check Dawn¡¯s attention, and Dawn nods, already having perceived the same thing. Dawn vanishes as if in to thin air. Hell that¡¯s impressive.


    Let¡¯s see how this plays out. I pick up the pace as Teuila sweeps wide. She intends to beat us to the enclave in order to await the arrival of the armed strangers. I fish out a water-skin from my hyper-dimensional haversack, and take a swig. Pretending that I¡¯m sloshed on alcohol, I intentionally stagger about as I near the three figures creeping up upon the enclave.


    Calling out, drunkenly, I ask, ¡°Eh, Eh! Izzat? Nah who¡¯s y¡¯buddy. Nah. Nuh uh. Izzat yous? Heyy. Lessgo git celebratory with them Enochees. Ol¡¯ Queen Bassie said so. Right, right right? Hic. Hey, how you doin¡¯? Buncha, bunch o¡¯, bunch of bunches. An¡¯, an¡¯ don¡¯t give me no lip! Just gotta, hey, who¡¯re you pushin¡¯ around?¡±


    My largely over-the-top display caused the three cloaked individuals to delay a moment as I stood before them, addressing them in a slovenly manner. At first they simply tried to walk around me, but I walked slowly backwards as I staggered side-to-side. Eventually they tired of my antics and laid hands upon me to toss me to the side. I can sense Dawn and Teuila lying in wait within, so I make no more efforts to block the individuals.


    The tree-residence that makes up the enclave is more intricate than the residence that we¡¯ve made into our own temporary home base. Its insides contain a spiral staircase, which likely continues throughout the entirety of the massive tree in which this headquarters is housed. It only has this entryway, and one landing far, far above. I have a feeling I know why Lil hung around here. The high balcony probably felt like a comfortable roost, especially if it gains entry to a level with a cushy room for Luni. Or it could be that Lil and Luni simply made friends. Perhaps even our lovable lug Lucky. I heave a shuddered sigh as I recall that we created Lucky to be Laomati¡¯s hunter hound, a protector for the family for when we can¡¯t be there. But here he is, with us. Well, with Lil and Lu, on another planet from Lao entirely.


    I stagger along after the trio of hooded weapon-wielders as they infiltrate the ground floor of the Enochian Enclave. Teuila and Dawn have the good sense to maintain their ambush potential by either hiding nearby, or retreating up the spiral staircase. I¡¯m immediately dismayed at what I see upon entry to the Enochian Enclave headquarters. There are short individuals, possibly children, wearing fluffy robes, and embroidered tabards. The insignia embroidered on the tabards is that of feathery wings that appear to wrap around, and possibly hug a great sphere. My dismay is that this may now turn into a hostage crisis.


    Sure enough, one of the cowled individuals draws their blade as they approach the back of some short individual with bushy, coppery hair. A dark-haired lass points over the shoulder of the boy being approached, perhaps a moment too late. I¡¯ve casted my ghostly hand from the staff, and had it silently wrap the cloak of the assailant around her own legs. As she¡¯s about to take another step, to begin her assassination attempt, she stumbles, and my translucent hand floats in the path of the blade, preventing it from falling upon the copper-haired boy.


    The woman, apparently the leader, hisses something in a brain-melting tongue, and her two men draw their weapons as they turn on me. I hoarse-whisper, ¡°Go!¡± to the young individuals who¡¯d been inches from death. Thankfully they have the good sense to take off running up the spiral staircase. Crap, pay attention Reggie! Whew, thanks danger-wraps. This is too close for comfort. A scimitar is centimeters from my face, and only my palms are preventing it from finishing its slashing arc. Thankfully the Valkyrie gauntlets have plates along the palms, or this thing would have just torn through my hands like butter and finished me off.


    I flick both of my wrists to the right as fast as I can. The creak of bending metal is accentuated by the sheering sound of metal beginning to break. That sound is further accompanied by the resounding snap as the blade breaks halfway towards the hilt, far away from where I¡¯d grabbed it. I guess that makes sense, fulcrum and equilibrium points and such.


    Where the hell are Dawn and Teuila? I¡¯m being circled by the woman with a broken scimitar, and her two men armed with short-swords. Each of them reach a free hand beneath their cloaks around behind their backs. This spells trouble for me, I¡¯m sure of it. I free my Valkyrie dagger from my belt, and prepare to deflect what I¡¯m sure will be six simultaneous attacks. Sure enough, at some signal too sly for me to notice, the three assailants lunge at once, leaving me only one direction to dodge. They fill the space I¡¯m about to dodge to with thrown knives however. I really wish I had thought to get the telekinesis spell up and running before heading here. This is going to hurt.


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    I¡¯m able to deflect several knives. One on my buckler to my left, two from the front with my Valkyrie dagger, but the attacker on my right manages to strike me, his knives drive their way home into my shoulder past my armor as if it were tissue paper. Crap, I hope those weren¡¯t poisoned. What would Lil say? Probably were Reggie. Actually, I¡¯m fairly sure they¡¯re enchanted to specifically phase through armor, but any poison would also have to have that same enchantment. That could get expensive, or be difficult, or even impossible. Alright, for now though, let¡¯s just get these out from my right shoulder blade and armpit. I need to be able to use my arm for fighting. Having these things digging in further with every motion would be too distracting an agony to keep fighting through, and possibly risk severing tendons.


    The sounds of battle above clue me in that this isn¡¯t the only group of assailants. Dawn or Teuila must be dealing with similar fights of their own up above. Teuila doesn¡¯t know the stakes, so she¡¯s likely struggling to pull her punches. She doesn¡¯t want, or need, to take someone¡¯s head off and end up getting us kicked out of town if we misread the situation.


    Seeing me still alive, in a perplexed manner, the leader asks me a familiar question, ¡°What even are you!? Tabardless drunk, heavily armored spellcaster. Wherever you hail from, prepare to meet your maker.¡±


    I burst into laughter at her ridiculous threat during her outburst. I continue to laugh for only a moment as I jam my own dagger up through the armpit of the man who¡¯d landed two blows on me. My dagger slides easily through his armpit, and exits beneath his right shoulder joint, nearly severing his entire right arm. He howls in pain as his left hand now clutches his limply-hanging right arm. For good measure, I toe-kick his groin with my heavily armored boots. The man crumples, whimpering in pain. I grimace, but return my attention to the rest of the fight barely in time as my danger wraps warn me about incoming attacks. A pair of lunges.


    Swiveling on my dominant leg, I rotate counter-clockwise as I let the leader¡¯s attack pass me by. I guide her strike along her outstretched arm, then grip her elbow and armpit as I double over in the direction of the strike. In an instant, she¡¯s hurtling through the air towards the wall, and I¡¯m basically coiled around the arm of the other man. I somersault over his arm, grip his wrist and armpit, then bring my knee up hard into his elbow as I¡¯m dragging his arm down to meet my knee. A sickening snap has me nearly vomiting as I destroy this man¡¯s right arm. As he screams in pain, I kick his dominant leg sideways at the knee, and am met with another squelching crunch.


    Before the leader can recover, as she¡¯s still landing, almost as if in slow motion, I disengage the two men and prepare to stomp where her hand will land. Oog, gruesome popping and snapping noises as she screams in pain. Hrp. Oh wow, that was a bit more brutal than I intended to be. I¡¯m not quite sure what came over me. That¡¯s not my usual fighting style, even discounting how difficult it is for me to do nonlethal take-downs usually.


    As I fish rope out of the hyper-dimensional haversack, I order, ¡°Tie yourselves up, unless you want me to finish the job.¡± I toss the rope at the attackers, each one with a non-functioning right hand or arm. One is bleeding viciously from my stab wound through his armpit, one can¡¯t stand on a leg whose knee sits at a sickening angle, and one is now cursing me under her breath in some alien tongue.


    Figures that aren¡¯t Teuila or Dawn approaching from the spiral staircase set my apprehension on edge. I take a hop backwards, away from my trio of attackers and prepare a readied stance. The three rolling in pain on the floor look at me like I¡¯m an idiot. Perhaps I am, but better a cautious idiot, than a dead scholar. What descends from the stairwell however is a trio of individuals wearing the same tabards as had been worn by the three apparent children.


    The one at the fore is an ageless seeming elder man. This man¡¯s gaze conveys the look of a crazed lunatic. It might be the way the thin hair of his brows sits in a, err, permanent furrow of displeasure, or it might be the constant flicking of his gaze as he takes in the scene. He glances about with rabid fascination in his deep-set royal purple eyes. Though bald, he''s got a beard and a thick mustache that seem wildly out of place on his face. His tall frame and slender build leaves his silhouette firmly in the uncanny valley. His half-open robe, heck, his whole outfit is coordinated in a green and purple color scheme.


    Behind and to his right is a small, wary, lovely woman whose build is tightly compressed. She doesn¡¯t appear to have dwarfism, her proportions are simply unlike most humans that I¡¯ve met, or imagined from Fakeworld memories. This woman with almond-shaped eyes radiates an aura of calm, of peace. Her gaze carries the care and concern of a mother for all that she meets. Her eyes alight with the color of coffee with cream. Her thick, straight, hair is worn in a style reminiscent of flower petals. Her delicate, slightly-pointed ears peak out beneath her luxuriously styled dark brown hair. Her wardrobe is flattering as it rests upon her short, extremely compact frame.


    Behind and to the elderly man¡¯s left side is another gangly man. This debonair gentleman brings to mind a clever stage magician with his flattering well-tailored attire. His round gray eyes are like two windows looking out on an overcast sky, the gentle cloudcover of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, not Rayileklia of course. His sand-colored hair mostly hangs forward, shrouding most of his forehead and half of his face. The hair doesn¡¯t hide his rounded, wide-sitting ears at all as they frame his face though. He¡¯s only slightly taller than the woman, but the minor height difference, and thinner build are telltale signs of his fae heritage despite the lack of the usual sign of lengthier or pointier ears.


    As this new trio approaches the landing, they survey the scene, as well as my bleeding yet at-the-ready self. I puff a sigh of relief when Dawn and Teuila arrive from above. The three of us reunite, and now a trio of trios is gathered in this lowest floor of the Enochian Enclave. There¡¯s a tense silence hanging in the air at the moment.


    The sandy-haired man¡¯s eyes take in the three of us, up and down, bottom to top. His gaze is licentious. I immediately feel him undressing all of us with his eyes, and I reflexively recoil, clutching my chest much like Dawn had previously done back in The Brook, and is doing right now. Dawn obviously senses the same thing. Teuila just wears a wicked sneer and flexes in his direction as she cracks open a walnut between her forearm and bicep. After she tosses the nut into the air in order to catch and eat it, she cracks two more walnuts. One in each hand, simply by balling her fists. The suave sandy-haired fellow cringes at Teuila¡¯s display, and makes as if to be focusing on straightening his hair while avoiding eye contact.


    The leader, the person I¡¯m almost certain to be Jarrah Bettergrove takes a small vial of clear liquid from his billowing sleeves. He pops the stopper, and splashes the out-of-commission attackers in their faces, one at a time. I raise an eyebrow towards Teuila who shrugs. Glancing at Dawn, she joins Teuila in shrugging as well.


    Jarrah speaks, ¡°Be freed, whomever led you from the forest, do not follow them out again. Perhaps take some time to recover from your, hm, intriguing injuries.¡± Jarrah glances my way as he examines broken limbs, and a knife-wound with an entry and exit point through a man¡¯s armpit and shoulder.


    I blush and chuckle nervously with chagrin as I scratch the back of my head, avoiding meeting his gaze for a time. This isn¡¯t exactly the impression I was hoping to make on a group that, by their name, I was hoping contained scholars.

 B 4 C 77: Jarrah Speaks

    Before the situation can get out of hand, I quickly state, ¡°So, I hear our best buddy Lil spent some time here. Are assassination attempts a daily occurrence at the Enochian Enclave?¡±


    The crazy-eyed man takes in our visages with wildly shifting eyes that flick about between us. As his hand reaches up to stroke his goatee, Jarrah Bettergrove answers in an otherworldly voice, ¡°Nay, only when one of our several queens manages to dox us to the entire city. Lil indeed spent time here with their lifemate and hound. I take it you are Reggie, and that she is Teuila. Lil spoke of no other save Mataalii, and I doubt that that one is he. I especially doubt the possibility since that individual is little more than a walking corpse.¡±


    Every muscle in my body stiffens upon his speaking, and I find myself struggling to stretch and loosen my jaw. Teuila looks similarly uncomfortable. Dawn seems to be suffering no discomfort, thankfully. The tightness in every muscle is a feeling unlike most others I¡¯ve ever experienced. The closest comparison I have is when fight or flight mechanisms engage into overdrive. Every inch of me is tensed, bunched, coiled, ready to spring forth either to flee or to battle. Worse, I realize I¡¯m standing with bated breath, unable to even gasp for air as an intense pressure bears down on me. Looking at Teuila reveals that she¡¯s similarly not breathing at the moment. Dawn of course suffers from no such effect.


    The enchantment on the neck-chain kicks in and allows me to re-breathe my own breath without having to draw in new air. The short woman gives each of us a look-over, clucking her tongue as she makes note of the blood seeping from joints in my armor. This draws Teuila¡¯s attention to my wounds as well. I¡¯m uncertain what we should be doing at the moment, not that I can perform many actions. As Jarrah finishes speaking, my muscles finally uncoil, and I hear Teuila gasp a sudden breath.


    Dawn responds to Jarrah, ¡°Hey, I may be dead, but I¡¯m right here. I¡¯m not an ancestor or some other kind of zombie ya jerk.¡±


    Now that we¡¯ve experienced it, whatever magical intent he had put behind his voice shouldn¡¯t affect us as strongly the next time he tries it. Between Teuila¡¯s natural resilience, and my own quick-study of things in the realm of magic and supernatural powers, we should be able to act normally. I am after all, a cryptozoologist. Jarrah is definitely neither human, nor fae. Palming my staff once more, I cast the aura sensing spell from it. Jarrah¡¯s soul is blinding, a sun condensed into a sphere and stuffed inside a mortal shell. It bleeds forth from every pore, a radiance unlike almost anything I¡¯d ever seen. Almost. My hackles raise as I grit my teeth. Radiance is something that corrupted my home world, Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It bled into my planet¡¯s lifestream. Radiance even almost killed Teuila and me since we¡¯d been drawing on its power unconsciously. Worse, here on Rayileklia, I¡¯m almost positive that the primary source of radiance is the Celestial Emperor.


    I steel my gaze as I furrow my brow, trying to suss Jarrah out. Jarrah laces his voice with that forceful intent once more, but I cross my arms as I stare him dead in the eyes. Teuila follows suit as Jarrah speaks, ¡°My words were not intended as an unkindness. I¡¯m sorry in advance of what will transpire for you. As for you Reggie, and you Teuila, it would seem Lil¡¯s praise of you was not unwarranted. Most take days, weeks to become accustomed to my true voice, if they¡¯re ever able. Even Lil and Luni took hours. Color me impressed.¡±


    Teuila growls back, ¡°Whatever it is, try it again and we¡¯ll see if you can even talk after I¡¯m through with you. No one leaves my Airhead breathless but me.¡±


    My jaw hangs slack as my index finger remains hooked, half caught between pointing and curling back towards my chin. A round of snickering from several of the gathered individuals quickly becomes chuckling. The chuckling devolves into full on laughter after mere moments. Teuila looks mildly confused only momentarily before she facepalms. She turns away to hide her blushing face.


    Even Jarrah laughs with that deeply unnerving, otherworldly voice. It no longer has power over any of us however, so it simply registers as some unidentifiable sonic irritant. The tension in the room slowly lifts as the short woman binds the wounds of the assailant I¡¯d stabbed. She sets a splint over the knee of the other man, as I must have at least dislocated his knee. Definitely dislocated at minimum, if I didn¡¯t snap anything around the kneecap area. She ushers the three out, and another six that limp down the stairs, bruised and battered. I let loose a sigh of relief as I clap my hand to my forehead before running it back through my hair. The nine aggressors are sent packing, each limping and supporting one another as they appear bewildered, almost lost. It¡¯s almost as if they don¡¯t even remember why they¡¯re here, or how they got here.


    Dawn continues to watch the nine as they trudge away. She then nudges Teuila while asking, ¡°Boss, you want I should sneak off or anything?¡±


    Teuila turns back to face everyone and shakes her head as she responds, ¡°Nah Dawny, I think we¡¯re good. Thanks for taking out the one at my back earlier. Alright Eenookie buddies, where¡¯s my Lil dragbutt. Phinny said to ask around, that anyone Lil had hung around would probably have guesses.¡±


    The short woman, and Jarrah questioningly mouth, ¡°Eenookie buddies?¡± voicelessly as they take in Teuila¡¯s request. The sleazy, sandy-haired man grins madly, perhaps enjoying the implication a tad much.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Jarrah shakes his head, almost laughing under his breath, almost. His answer is disheartening, ¡°As a favor to Lil, I¡¯m unable to tell you until you¡¯ve passed a week in the Wild Heart. You¡¯re free to journey onward in search of your friends of course, but you¡¯re unlikely to find them.¡±


    My heart drops into the pit of my stomach, and Teuila deflates as she adopts a hunched, crestfallen appearance. Te pleads, ¡°What? But. But why wouldn¡¯t they want to see us? It¡¯s been a month. My Lu, my little Lu. Even if Lil was still mad, why, why would they ask that?¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s countenance is stern as he answers, ¡°I¡¯ve limited information with which to conjecture as to your friends¡¯ true feelings upon their departure. Regardless of what I may be able to fathom, I won¡¯t share it with you until a week has passed. I assume that you arrived on the fourth.¡± We nod, it must be around midnight, so it might be the fifth by now. Jarrah continues, ¡°In that case, on the eleventh I will direct you with what help I can offer.¡±


    I slump to my knees and shuffle slightly to lean against the nearest wall. Lil. Lil do you hate me? Do you never want to see me again? Is that why you asked for help delaying us? How far across this world might you be able to travel with a week¡¯s lead time? I thought, I thought we were friends of undying loyalty forever. I, I suppose dying technically voids that, maybe. My eyes wet with tears and I fight back a sob. I drag a ragged, shuddering breath and let it loose as a sigh that becomes a yawn.


    Teuila stands at my shoulder, her hand resting lightly upon my crown. Dawn hugs her own torso as she glances around anxiously, uncertain of her own place in the scheme of things currently. That tears it. I can¡¯t focus on my pain, or the myriad list of possibilities involving Lil¡¯s feelings towards us. I need to focus on Dawn¡¯s soul.


    I fight my own feelings, bottling them up as I draw another ragged breath while standing. I let determination color my countenance as I demand, ¡°I can see some of the truth of you. Do you have the same power over souls that he does? I want you to sever the curse on Dawn¡¯s soul.¡±


    A pall is cast over the assembled as I draw comparison between Jarrah and the Celestial Emperor without so much as speaking his name. The short woman appears incredibly confused, but the lanky, sandy-haired man looks almost snide as he stares at Jarrah. It appears he¡¯s as eager to hear Jarrah¡¯s response as I am.


    Jarrah makes no effort to answer, he only studies me carefully. I frown as I continue, ¡°Barring that, if somehow you¡¯re unable, do you know anything of the magic of this world? I believe I¡¯d learn faster with a teacher. I need to learn faster. You can sense it, can¡¯t you? How little time I have to correct this, this, this atrocity. One perpetrated by your ilk if I¡¯m not misunderstanding things.¡±


    Jarrah wears that same crazed expression, but drops his forehead into his left palm. Jarrah orders, ¡°Flint, would you please guide Alanea home. Make certain she arrives safely, then feel free to do whatever it is you do in the late of night.¡± He then quickly adds, ¡±On your own, elsewhere.¡± Jarrah mutters conspiratorially to Flint and Alanea, ¡°It seems I¡¯ve some guests to entertain. Ms Whifflewillow, do refrain from speaking with anyone about what has transpired tonight for some time to come, please. That goes double for you Mr. Darklace. We have to sort out the cantankerous cur behind the influence without giving away that we¡¯re on to them.¡±


    So these are Alanea Whifflewillow and Flint Darklace, the other two longest surviving members of the Enochian Enclave. Flint eyes Alanea up and down, and she visibly shudders under his gaze. In an instant his gaze softens, and drops the licentiousness. He appears almost apologetic, and Alanea adopts a relieved expression as Flint leads her away. I wonder if I read him incorrectly as a lecherous deviant earlier. Then again, everyone else, Jarrah included, seems to think something similar of him.


    Still, despite Jarrah seeming to be some celestial creature, such as an angel, it does seem like the Enochian Enclave is on the¡ª Sigh. On the side of the angels. I had that one coming I suppose. I just mean on the morally better side of things. Anyway, Enochian is the name given to the language supposedly passed down by angels in the time of Enoch, or something like that. So I should have already been prepared. Still, I don¡¯t really get a soul-stealing vibe from Jarrah. I do however get a mild migraine from the voluminous luminance pouring forth from Jarrah, so I let the aura vision enhancement spell drop.


    Jarrah beckons as he turns to climb the spiral staircase. He calls back, with no mysterious magical tone or intent behind his words, ¡°Please, visitors to this world, and, hm, friend, come. Please join me at the top of the Enclave. You seem more well-traveled upon Rayileklia, and more knowledgeable about its woes than your friend Lil. I¡¯m sure you have more questions. One I can answer on the climb however is that no, I cannot, do not, have the power to release this one from their fel-broodspawn curse.¡±


    Hellspit. I was afraid he¡¯d say something like that. Regardless, at least he¡¯s willing to talk openly, honestly. I glance at Dawn who appears crestfallen again. I wish I had some way to comfort her, to assure her that I can do this. I don¡¯t have faith in my abilities though. I haven¡¯t even been able to sort through all the books and tomes and papers that we received from Milbert yet to discern their possible enchantments or contents. I don¡¯t have any idea if even a single one contains any soul related spells, or if even such a spell exists at all. The whole spell-curse thing cast by that proselytizing high priest of the Bright Lord cult could be some weird power that only the Celestial Emperor has. An ability that might even be soul-fueled in order to enact. Could I, would I abuse and use up the souls of others to save Dawn¡¯s?


    Am I willing to spend souls, utterly destroying them, in order to save one, if that¡¯s what it comes down to? Would Dawn even want me to if I came upon the ability? I¡¯m sure she doesn¡¯t want to see the Ancestors wrought to dust. But would she forgive me if a counter-spell cost semi-innocent, or innocent souls? I¡¯m sickened by even just the prospect of such a possibility. And yet. Yes, and yet I find myself willing. For friends, for family, for loved ones, I¡¯d burn an entire world away to save them. No wonder I gave Luni the reins of the timeline though on this particular lap from past to future.

 B 4 C 78: Questions? Answers.

    I mull over what has transpired in the last week or so. Milbert must have been stealing souls, and looting the possessions of people for years, maybe even decades. He amassed a wealth of magical items and knowledge. Hell, he amassed far more than we found, because I have a ledger that indicates he had been melting things for years and years. Anything that didn¡¯t suit his interests, or that he couldn¡¯t use, or perhaps could be used against him, he melted. He grabbed the most valuable, valued possessions of every resident, and likely almost every traveler that stayed in Victo. Is it right that we should benefit from his depravity? Should I have left all of his belongings in a pile at the Castle Inn? Simply hope they make their way back to their original owners someday if we can return their souls?


    I don¡¯t know if what I did was the right thing, but I wouldn¡¯t go back and make a different choice. I¡¯m willing to use what villainy and evil has already accomplished in order to try to fix something that evil had put into motion in the first place. All my life I¡¯ve struggled to try to be good, to be moral, to be ethical. I try make the right choices. I tried to avoid giving in to wrath or greed or any such thing. But now, when there is a massive host of people sitting soulless that have been robbed? Am I anywhere near on the good side of things to take advantage of that? Reggie Shellcracker. When will you realize that you¡¯re the true villain in your own story?


    Okay, maybe I¡¯m being just a tad harsh on myself there. Lil and I fought over similar thoughts several times in our lives. Lil would struggle to convince me to drop thought trains that led to me considering myself a villain or monster. Luni and Teuila would try to comfortingly guide me through such thoughts out the other side beyond them by disproving their conclusions and such. I allow myself a ragged sigh of remembrance. Lil, Lu, Lucky, I hope you¡¯re safe out there. I love you all.


    Apparently while I was lost in thought, Teuila and Jarrah have been speaking. I catch part of Teuila asking, ¡°¡ª we couldn¡¯t. But anyway Jarrah, my Airhead seems to think you¡¯re some kind of powerful something or other. Are you?¡±


    Jarrah chuckles lightly, ¡°Power has nothing to do with what I am, but I can say that I¡¯m unique. No others of my kind reside on Rayileklia, despite any claims otherwise.¡±


    Is Jarrah insinuating that he¡¯s a celestial creature, but the Celestial Emperor is an impostor? I guess it¡¯s not that hard to believe. I think Aces was convinced about the C E being some kind of demon or devil. I can¡¯t recall why I think that, but if true, Aces was probably right in that assumption. Wait. C E? Chaotic Evil? Sonnova. I mean, that has to be just some kind of stupid coincidence, right? No one would advertise their disposition so blatantly, right? Then again, it¡¯s not like he has to care what people think about him. He can create magical fires that siphon people¡¯s souls, perhaps slowly, perhaps en masse. Maybe it was a one-time deal that took a vast multitude of souls to craft such a light, basically an investment. Either way, he¡¯s self-titled as an emperor, and subjugates and conquers every bordering country eventually. His actions don¡¯t exactly give off a non-evil vibe to begin with.


    Rayileklia is such a mess. I just want to go back to our world, to our family, and yet. Yet I can¡¯t help being worried for Dawn, Tiago, Harriet, Daffodil, Berinon, Tim, Dippy, Miza, Elder, Scrap, even Clint, Dodge, and Meredith, even Helen and Rej. All of these people just living their lives might one day have their light snuffed out by the Celestial Emperor. If a portal opened up right this very second, and it led to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, could I leave them behind? Would I? Lil thinks I have to answer every call, but what if there are multiple simultaneous calls? What if they¡¯re on entirely different worlds?


    I draw in a shuddering breath as I fight back my saddening conclusions. Unless I had some way to fragment my soul in such a way as to essentially grow duplicates of myself to send into simultaneous situations, I don¡¯t know how to answer. Lil thinks the best of me in the worst way. Others put their faith in me to do the right things, say the correct words, be in various places at exact times to prevent calamities. Or maybe they don¡¯t. Maybe I¡¯m the only one putting this pressure on me, on my inner circle. Who¡¯s to say that any of my loved ones, friends, or even acquaintances would be disappointed in me if I backed out of adventuring entirely?


    Even if none of them would admonish me, or think less of me, I¡¯d probably think less of myself. Who would step up if I stepped down along with my inner circle? Can¡¯Z¡¯aas was so sparsely populated, and the most powerful mortals were all in my inner circle. I mean, maybe some of the Fae from the Miracle Oak might have been powerful spellcasters or something. I¡¯d have to hope that one or more of them rises to the challenge. Could I rest easy or enjoy life if I left the challenges to other people? Would I trust anyone else to handle the messes I¡¯ve found myself in? Sighing, I shake my head. No, no to all of the questions. Responsibility and power have fallen in my lap. What did that one uncle say? With great power, hm, yeah.


    Hell, I don¡¯t even have great power here on Rayileklia. Well, nothing like what I¡¯d had on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas anyway. What are my order of priorities here on Rayileklia, right now though? Sure I need to be more powerful, I need to be able to find us a way home. While here I¡¯d like to fix the psychic bond between Teuila and myself, but that¡¯s fairly far down my list of top priorities. Number one right now is saving Dawn and the Aasimovian ancestors from this ridiculous curse. That currently has side objectives though that include me mastering a system of magic in a short time. A system that, as far as I can tell, has never really produced masters of magic at the level I¡¯m trying to achieve.


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    Thinking about the system, magic items with anything more than basic durability enhancing enchantments take months to years to construct a simple object by my estimates. Spellcasting, learning spells, and recording them seems to be so difficult, that only the wealthiest, or most solitary individuals can devote the time it takes to master them. I base this on the fact that I haven¡¯t seen anyone weaving spells around out in the open at all. I figure if there had ever been master casters, archmages, sorcerer supremes, apex enchanters, or any other premiere individuals in various fields, there would be more sign of them on Rayileklia so far. As is, the most masterful individual I¡¯ve met is the wife of the leader of the dwarven mafia in the Derbrightmine Dominion. Paulette Derbrightmine. As far as I know, she invented those prototype weapons that could fire bullets by sucking out and condensing the mana within the gun¡¯s wielder.


    Alright, back on the topic of priorities. Dawn¡¯s curse, number one, full stop. Number two, reunite with Lil and Luni. Number three, stop the Celestial Emperor cold in his tracks, slay him if necessary. Number four, find a way home. Ugh, all of these other than finding Lil, Lu, and Lucky require me to become massively more powerful. I don¡¯t even know for certain that I have the capacity for greater power. What if I can¡¯t master any other runes?


    Oh, right, we¡¯re walking and talking. I catch a part something Teuila is explaining, ¡°Because of all that, well. Well anyway. So my Airhead is doing their best, spent all day yesterday just learning some cold magic thing. If Lil really told you all about back home, then you have to know just how good Reggie is at sciencing out magic. My Air is trying so hard. Our bond is broken on this world, but I can still -feel- their anguish as they race against the clock on this curse. Lil really said those things though? Really?¡±


    Jarrah mutters, ¡°Yes, though such sentiments are lost on me as mere doggerel dregs of affection in speech. You¡¯ll excuse my lack of finesse in emotional matters. Existing for so long, secretly at odds with such a manxome foe has been, hm, tiring to say the least.¡±


    Teuila responds, ¡°Right, right right. Great big evil looming over the whole world. We¡¯ll take care of that later. Can you help my Airhead learn magic though?¡±


    Jarrah looses a laugh that¡¯s half amusement, half a scoff of disbelief. I can virtually feel him rolling his eyes through the back of his head. His answer provides hope, ¡°If anyone on our forsaken little world is qualified to teach such a thing, I believe I could count myself among their small number. Magic is a fickle being unto itself. It¡¯s an untamed force beyond nature or the natural. Those that claim to have truly mastered it are deluding themselves. Yet there are certainly skilled practitioners out and about that yet remain. I fear many have been lost to our great foe though. That country has expanded to such a vast degree, and quelled all who reside within its domain.¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s voice adopts a saddened tone, ¡°I fear their few remaining targets will, well, it¡¯s safe for the moment, but even an enchantment such as this will not hold our foe at bay forever. Especially if he succeeds at whatever he plans to use the candle for.¡±


    The candle metaphor again, crap, did he already explain it? I ask apologetically, ¡°I, um, sort of spaced out for a bit. The candle? Is that a metaphor? Is it a, um, magical cylindrical prism housed in a massive tower in Navica? One so packed with souls that they, well, they appear like droplets of wax?¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s expression, beneath the crazed gaze, is one of shock, definitely surprise, but also possibly fear. He responds, ¡°You¡¯ve laid eyes upon the candle and survived? How in creation is that possible?¡±


    Actually, how do I know what the candle looks like? Was it one of Aces¡¯ memory dream things? I scratch the back of my head as I attempt to be honest, ¡°I¡¯m not actually sure that I have laid eyes upon it so much as, um, siphoned the memories of someone who has? I¡¯m not sure how to explain it. All my life I¡¯ve had glimpses, brief flashes. I thought it was simply a recurring progressive dream for the longest time. It seemed to jump around in the lifespan of someone who couldn¡¯t have been native to our world.¡±


    Jarrah prompts me to continue, ¡°Fascinating, do go on.¡±


    I shrug as I try to summarize, ¡°I, um, I think their, okay well I know their name was Aces, and I¡¯m positive they existed, because the people I¡¯d seen Aces speak with in their dreams exist and remember them. We found Aces¡¯ corpse, err, body, gosh there¡¯s no nice way to put that. When we arrived, it was to a certain secret temple, and in that temple was Aces¡¯ unmoving form. No signs of cause of death actually, no veins flushed or bulging, no foam from the mouth, no blood, no recent wounds, no exceptional bruising or obviously shattered bones. I know Aces didn¡¯t believe in magic for the longest time, but magic is the only cause of death that my conclusions can come to.¡±


    Jarrah strokes his beard as he mumbles seemingly to himself, ¡°So the ageless grasshopper passed on. I never thought I¡¯d see the day.¡± Then, more intentionally audibly, Jarrah responds, ¡°So you dreamt of our world while on your own, and now you¡¯ve stumbled into a nest of problems that you¡¯re trying to untangle. You hope magic holds the answers, the key to the solutions. I¡¯ll try not to dishearten you, but I will say that magic is far more lock than key, more question than answer.¡±

 B 4 C 79: Spellcraft For Dummies

    I nod in response. Jarrah¡¯s got it pretty much right. But that mumbling was curious. It sounds like he knew Aces as well. I know Aces spent some time in the Hidden Heart, a sabbatical from assassinations, in order to attempt to learn magic. Did Aces end up at the Enochian Enclave to try that learning? Aces only mastered a few fauna-related abilities. Whistles, coaxing, things that, to Aces¡¯ own eyes, they seemed non magical.


    I¡¯m about to press for details about Aces when Jarrah announces, ¡°Here we go. This room will suffice. As far as we can get from intrusion by anyone enthralled by that parasitic pissant.¡±


    Wait a motherloving minute. People enthralled by some entity that is a parasitic personality? Enthrallment ending after a sound trouncing and being splashed with special water? There is no friggin¡¯ way. Come on Reggie, get it together. The Celestial Emperor has been here, on Rayileklia, causing hell and havoc for decades. There¡¯s no way he could have found a way to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Right? But if Can¡¯Z¡¯aas was also Aces¡¯ soul, and the emperor had nearly torn it free from Aces¡¯ body, then, then¡ª.


    I¡¯m interrupted from my reverie by a round of polite coughing. Once I realize it was my attention that everyone had been seeking, I join in the cough as I gaze about, avoiding eye contact momentarily. Jarrah commands, ¡°Before we discuss any further curiosities, maledictions, politics, news, or anything at all, you will show me what you¡¯ve learned. Sit.¡±


    Huff. I drop a sigh. I was hoping for a mentor, so this isn¡¯t out of line with what I wanted to do anyway, but I think my thought train was going somewhere important. Now I can¡¯t remember where it was headed. Hm? Oh, right, sit. I¡¯ll just flump into a lotus position. Let¡¯s make sure the aura sensing spell is back up, but face slightly at an angle so that I¡¯m not blinded by Jarrah. I draw a deep breath and exhale as smoothly as I can while I draw the rune for cold with my eyes closed. When I¡¯ve finished, I press my palm, and my will into the rune carved into the air. The temperature drops several degrees in the entire room.


    Jarrah strokes his beard as he mutters to himself. I¡¯m fairly certain his muttering contains the phrase, ¡°Affinity for absence.¡± He doesn¡¯t speak at first, yet he does however look expectantly, as if impatient to see what else I¡¯ve learned. I want to cry. I spent a day, and all my essence, life force, willpower, to learn to craft a single rune, and it¡¯s not enough to even warrant a comment by a mentor.


    Jarrah deigns to speak, ¡°Well, come on, out with it, your incantation too.¡±


    I flub, ¡°My what?¡± I know what an incantation is, but I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m expected to have one.


    Jarrah demands, ¡°Your chant, your song, your poem, your sonic mnemonics, the spellcasting aid that speeds along the production of your runes.¡±


    I slam my forehead with my palm. Of course there¡¯s ways to make it faster to draw perfect runes. I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t even know such a thing existed til this very second. I spent all day yesterday drawing the same rune, sitting in silence. By five hundred attempts at drawing it, I was drained, weary, weak. After the thousandth, well, during the thousand and first attempt, I passed out. When I awoke, I was able to finally complete the rune appropriately on my true thousand and first try that wasn¡¯t interrupted.¡±


    Jarrah squints at me though his crazed eyes continue to flick about, as if perpetually scanning every inch of the surrounding area. Despite his rapid eye movements, his face indicates his gaze is leveled directly at me, my heart specifically. I frown as I explain, ¡°If you¡¯re looking for some sort of telltale heartbeat that indicates I¡¯m lying or something, I¡¯m not. Here, if you want a baseline for lying, I¡¯m a purple hippopotamus. There, whatever clues I gave off are what you¡¯re looking for. I don¡¯t like having people assume I¡¯m a liar.¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s brow raises in curiosity and suspicion as he answers, ¡°You¡¯re claiming, and honestly-so, as far as you believe, that you were able to craft a thousand runes on your first day attempting to learn Rayileklian magic, all the while empowering the growth of the rune with subtle spell metamagical rigor. Your motions were barely perceptible, you could likely do those while bound and chained.¡±


    I shrug, frazzled. My response hints at my annoyance, ¡°I, well, I guess so? I don¡¯t know how to explain how much I absolutely do not know about this system of magic. I did a thing, that was the result of an entire day of trying to do that thing. It sucked, and I feel like the worst apprentice mage in existence. Like, I technically didn¡¯t even successfully create any runes whatsoever in my first thousand tries, even though somehow it felt draining.¡±


    Jarrah mutters, ¡°Five hundred empowered subtle runes before suffering, and the child thinks they¡¯re the worst apprentice ever? They truly are from another world.¡± More audibly, he asks, ¡°Child, How many runes would you expect to be able to conjure on your home world?¡±


    My frown deepens as I explain, ¡°Look, I, I don¡¯t know, we didn¡¯t conjure runes, we just sort of had a system that did things. Nearing the end I was at over five thousand, maybe over six thousand energy, or mana capacity. I figured a rune might only be worth a single energy, since they don¡¯t offer a full spell effect by themselves. Instead they¡¯re more like five to a twenty for just a single rune. I mean, it has to be around a ten minimum, because it felt like I had run out of energy by the five hundredth. But if just single runes up to five hundred took mana, I could conjure an entire swath of duplicated daggers from my inventory, or fifty massive fireballs, or erect fifty towering shields of ice, or hasten my transformations into any one of the previous forms that I¡¯d self-actualized.  I know that most spells take thirty three runes, and ones as short as five runes tend to have very minor effects, from what I''ve seen so far in the books.  Fifteen spells versus fifty-five or more feels like a massive difference in power.¡±


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    There¡¯s mirth hiding beneath Jarrah¡¯s crazed scowl. He finds this entertaining, funny. I know I was ridiculously lucky with my suite of skills that allowed me to abuse the systems in place on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I also know that there¡¯s no way all that will translate to being an archmage on other worlds. But still, I was hoping to at least be able to cast a novice spell with relatively little effort. Instead it¡¯s going to take me five whole days of total focus and concentration, during which I may pass out at least once each day, to learn enough of the runes.


    I, I guess I might seem a bit like a spoiled brat. I haven¡¯t seen anyone else conjuring runes in the air, or singing or chanting magic into being. I technically already can cast a sort of basic spell with just that single rune. I could make it chilly for about ten minutes at a time, about five hundred times a day. That¡¯s something, I guess. Right? Ugh. Self doubt, I hate thee. Maybe I¡¯d be more patient with myself, and proud of my current progress if I weren¡¯t racing against a doomsday clock with an unknown ending hour.


    I gulp down a sob that fights its way up my throat. The sadness attempting to overtake me is preemptively seeing a loved one die, knowing I failed them, that I was their last chance, and I blew it. Dawn¡¯s a friend, but even if she weren¡¯t, no one deserves to go out like this. It¡¯s horrific. Worse, attached to her demise is the destruction of something everyone in Aasimovia holds dear.


    Jarrah whips out a thin cane, or wand, from somewhere, and whacks me in the skull to rouse me from my reverie. I rub my forehead as I turn my attention to him with a furrowed brow. He grins coyly as he explains, ¡°The last three individuals who tried, could not subtly empower a single rune. Their limits on rune conjuration in a given period were measured in the dozens. Your humble bragging is lost on me. Or if you are truly so self-conscious, then you¡¯re just a colossally besotted ignoramus with self-absorption of unheard-of levels.¡±


    My jaw hangs slack as I¡¯m insulted for being hard on myself. I¡¯m at a loss for words. On the one hand, I was just told that, like on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, where my magics were dozens of times more powerful than most of the strongest human mages, I¡¯ve already got that leg up on Rayileklia as well. On the other hand, he thinks I¡¯m either a braggart, a liar, or a self-absorbed idiot. I can hear Dawn attempting to stifle a giggle, and Teuila is openly snickering.


    I try to play up my idiocy, as, of the three things, that¡¯s the least offensive to me. I know, I know, I¡¯m so self-absorbed that I don¡¯t want to be thought of as a braggart. Get over myself. Right? Bluh. Anyway, playing up my lack, my coming up short, I admit, ¡°I don¡¯t even know what this subtle empowerment thing that you¡¯re going on about is. I got lucky with a book that enchanted my brain to let me understand the translation of runes, roughly, and everything else I¡¯ve just had to poke at with a stick. There are no spellcasting instructions in these first few tomes. There¡¯s no manual of spellcraft for dummies in the pile. I know, I checked for that one right away. I didn¡¯t even know what I was doing was any sort of metamagic empowerment.¡±


    I continue my mild rant, ¡°If you¡¯re saying there¡¯s an easier way to craft the runes, that isn¡¯t so draining, then, yeah, sure, I guess I could be a bit less hard on myself -if- I¡¯m able to learn it. I don¡¯t know if you understand what a thousand failures in a row does to someone who has such a, a, a monumental task before them. I can¡¯t keep failing. I. Glp. I can¡¯t.¡±


    I glance at Dawn as my eyes well with tears. She avoids my gaze however. My breath is ragged, wracked with the pain of longing for a long lost friend, a pain that I know I won¡¯t even be able to experience if the curse succeeds. Erasing the memories of Dawn from the minds of everyone she has ever interacted with? It¡¯s horrific. I can¡¯t bear the thought. I bare my teeth as I clench them in an unintentional angered sneer of determination.


    My fiery stare catches Jarrah off guard. He studies the resolute nature of my countenance before admitting, ¡°You will gain several skills under my tutelage that may quicken your learning, but you still may not find any thing or any one whose magics are in the purview of disentangling soul curses from the very fabric of reality. If you still wish to learn, I¡¯d be glad of an apt pupil.¡±


    I nod sternly. He¡¯s right. I know he¡¯s right. The likelihood that some random jumble of assorted books taken from a klepto necromancer happens to hold an exact counter-spell to this situation is ridiculously abysmal. It¡¯s the only hope I can cling to however. In frustration, I draw the rune again, quickly, without even feeling my fingers move, and I slam my willpower into it with all my hate, my fear, my love, my worries, my care for those that are affected. I pour every ounce of myself into this one single rune as tears streak down my resolute, angered face. I don¡¯t need a wakeup call, I need hope. Hope is exactly what this rune gives me in this very moment.


    After my will is absorbed by the rune, I¡¯m met with a familiar effect. I coat the entire room in a thick layer of frost reminiscent of my Flash Freeze Storm ability. Sadly, it took everything out of me, and I begin tilting to one side as I¡¯m losing consciousness. The shocked look on Jarrah¡¯s semi-frozen face, and the sounds of Dawn and Teuila shivering, shaking loose ice from their bodies are the last sensations I experience while conscious.

 B 4 C 80: Four Winds Archfey

    ¡°Remember that funny thing I told you about? Remember what it was called?¡±


    I respond as I stare lovingly into her eyes, ¡°Sure, the GALS, we both joked it was a heck of a name for a bunch of old white dudes to pick for a particle physics project.¡±


    This cheeky woman responds, ¡°Sure sure, of course you¡¯d remember -that- one as the funny thing. Sometimes I can¡¯t believe you. Then I remember, you¡¯re you. Seriously though, the situation was crazy beyond belief.¡±


    She gnaws on the inside of her cheek as she adopts a quizzical expression momentarily. Apparently she decides the story is worth only partially continuing as she concludes, ¡°Sorry you were sick. ¡®Le played a song kind of in your honor. She missed you. Misses you. We need to all get together sometime, go to the beach or something.¡±


    I run my fingers through her gorgeous hair, and she mimics the motion with my own hair. The shampoo she got me really does bring out the best in my hair, just like hers. I just, I can¡¯t get enough of the sensation. Her scalp, the bristliness along the sides, her incredibly fine, luxurious hair. Each is their own unique delight upon my fingertips.


    She pauses her own sifting to reach up and take my hands. Her visage is deadly serious as she asks, ¡°Do you really want to keep living out there on Six? I¡¯m not going to try to butt in or change your mind, but I¡¯m worried about you, especially those tasks on that tenny website. Doing almost anything for a tenner sounds like a recipe for disaster. I, I just. The offer is open. Okay? It¡¯s on the table. It¡¯s all on the table. You don¡¯t have to answer right now, in fact, please don¡¯t answer right now. Just promise me you¡¯ll think it over? Please?¡±


    I gulp, and find myself flustered as I realize my eyes are wet with still-forming tears. I¡¯m uncertain what¡¯s got me so emotional. It¡¯s not like she hasn¡¯t offered before. I guess it just touches me that she cares so deeply.


    As I finish putting on my jacket, she takes a step back to give me space. I flash her a weak smile as I promise, ¡°I will, I¡¯ll think about it. It, it sounds really nice. Just, just you know, I, I haven¡¯t even. Not all of it. I haven¡¯t told you all of it. Thank you for being so patient. I swear I¡¯ll think about it though, I promise. I love you.¡±


    She gulps. I know she can¡¯t respond, but she tries anyway, ¡°I, yeah, I, y¡¯know. You too. Air. Air you¡¯r¡ª¡°


    I awaken to a throbbing pain that must have come from a sharp impact when my head likely slammed into the wooden floor. I also awaken to Teuila shaking me, asking, ¡°Air. Air, you¡¯re okay, right? Air are you okay? Your nose is bleeding, bad. Reggie? My Airhead? Please be okay. Normally I let you sleep these off, but you¡¯ve been bleeding for minute after minute now.¡±


    When I suddenly inhale a ragged breath, Teuila virtually flings herself into my arms as she lifts me into a seated position for an embrace. I glance about, dazed from the impact, and perhaps the blood loss. Te is right, I¡¯m pouring a fountain of blood. It¡¯s like my brain ruptured and is leaking out through my nostril as easily as a bathroom faucet. Wow that¡¯s an odd sensation. I can tell I would have a migraine right now, but the rapid blood flow is relieving the pressure where the migraine would be located.


    I notice an odd thing, if it has supposedly been minutes upon minutes, my frost from this spell has lasted too long for a spell without my concentrated focus maintaining it. Everyone in the room is still thawing out, including the room itself. Jarrah is sifting his fingers through his beard to comb out frost, and patting down his robes and chest repeatedly for warmth. Jarrah apparently notices my wakefulness with mild fascination.


    Jarrah expresses his curiosity, ¡°Child, is this one of the spells you claimed to be able to sling fifty of in a row?¡±


    I blush heatedly knowing that what I¡¯m about to say is going to come off as either bragging, or petulant and entitled. I grimace as I admit, ¡°Um, no, back home it would be stronger, but shorter duration, and, um, it didn¡¯t cost me mana to cast. Pulling the heat out of the atmosphere actually refueled my mana, so I could do it endlessly. Better than endlessly, I could do it on top of slinging other spells.¡±


    Jarrah''s crazed gaze is incredulous, but I can tell he¡¯s seeking signs of a lie, and not finding any. My hypersensitive hearing picks up Jarrah commenting in a quiet mutter to himself, ¡°Endless spells, a remarkable affinity for absence.¡±


    I prod him on his muttering, ¡°What do you mean by an affinity for absence?¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s right brow twitches visibly as he lies to my face, ¡°Hm? A what for what? Not certain what you¡¯re on about. I¡¯m curious about these books you and your Valkyrie have mentioned. You say one saw fit to douse you in a permanent enchantment, with a gift for translation?¡±


    I frown and furrow my brow at his deflection. I don¡¯t want to lose his tutelage though, so I nod as I respond, ¡°Yeah. It won¡¯t be able to do the same for several years if I understood the makings of the spell properly. I¡¯m fairly certain I got an accurate read on it. Math about time-related things sometimes just comes a bit naturally to me. Sometimes. I suppose that¡¯s another spell I could do, but I know you won¡¯t believe me about that one.¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s wild eyes alight as he prompts, ¡°You¡¯ve a magic that performs calculations?¡±


    Teuila and I burst out laughing. He scowls at the two of us, and I realize I¡¯d better answer quickly, ¡°No, no, hah, I¡¯m sorry. No, the mathematics is all trapped up in my head somewhere, it has been there since I, um, spawned is the term. No, the other spell I was talking about was my time skill. A handful of spells actually. I could send mental logs of current events, personality fragments or personality ghosts, or with a little effort, audible messages. I didn¡¯t send them to a where however, I sent them to a when. I sent them into the past. Before you ask, I can¡¯t prove it here, but they came back at a number of crucial moments in my life that I later realized I needed to send them back to.¡±


    Jarrah scoffs, but his gaze studies me, and honestly the entire room with the otherworldly flitting of his eyes. I wonder if he can even stop his pupils to focus on a single thing. I haven¡¯t even told him about the full extent of my space skill, my electrokinesis or acid generation, the benefits of resistances earned on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I really don¡¯t want to waste time getting around to explaining all that anyway. It would be pointless bragging by this point. Hopefully he understands that I¡¯m driven to obtain the power necessary to protect my loved ones, and that that¡¯s all I want the power for.


    Jarrah comments quietly to himself in a way that seems like he has been reading my thoughts, ¡°Further undisclosed spells, apprehension at appearing to be a braggart, selfless desire for power, and still full of emotions, humor and love and whatnot, not a spent husk.¡± More audibly he asks, ¡°Would you be willing to allow me to study this supposedly spent tome on the morrow? Or rather, whenever you¡¯re free and interested in returning? If you¡¯re to return to your dwelling and sleep, I¡¯d be perfectly content to entertain again in as few as three or four hours.¡±


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    I thumb towards Teuila, ¡°She¡¯s the boss on this leg of the journey, I promised the book to her if we could find a way to recharge it or we ended up living on Rayileklia long enough for it to recharge.¡±


    Jarrah nods absentmindedly at my explanation, and looks expectantly towards Teuila. Te is about to answer when Jarrah adds, ¡°I¡¯m not interested in claiming possession of it mind you, I¡¯d simply like to verify something about the book and its origins.¡±


    Teuila shrugs as she answers, ¡°Sure, we can bring it when we come back, and you can knock yourself out with all that. That, that¡¯s a phrase. In case that isn¡¯t one here. I wasn¡¯t telling you to go give yourself a concussion. Sorry.¡±


    There¡¯s the slightest chortle beneath Jarrah¡¯s breath at Teuila¡¯s answer. Whether he finds her anxious apology more humorous, or the phrase itself, I don¡¯t know. Regardless, it seems like we have an accord, in part at least. Hm, origins of tomes sparks something in my mind. A memory that doesn¡¯t seem to be all there. Is that just a result of my swiss-cheese brain, or is there something else at play?


    Maybe I¡¯m just misremembering the whole quest for the tomes on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. How did our books end up as boss loot by several creatures? Seriously, an Octorochi and a Kraken in entirely different locations? How did one end up in what looked like a long-sealed gnome-cubby home? The one in the Naga uncategorizables library is the only one whose location made sense to me, well, the one at the chamelefolk village wasn¡¯t too odd either. I¡¯m not even sure where the one in the caldera was, since Luni retrieved it.


    Gosh, the fact that a limit break spell of mine was able to cool Lord Agni even a few degrees is remarkable. The system bypassed his infinite thermal resistance and cooled him just enough to return him to drowsiness. Finding out that a continental sized beast slumbered beneath almost a third of our entire continent was so world-shatteringly heartbreaking at the time. It¡¯s almost funny that he¡¯s actually a pretty decent chap, and that I didn¡¯t learn that until later, along with more world-shattering news. Huff. Every time I thought the possible doom couldn¡¯t get any worse, it got worse. I didn¡¯t even jinx it by saying it out loud or anything, or even thinking it consciously enough to log it! Oh well. Some day. Someday.


    A ragged inhalation leaves me as a sigh which becomes a yawn. I¡¯m fairly spent, and I need to hydrate, my migraine is starting to increase as the blood flowing from my nose decreases. We should probably return to our dwelling and retire. Jarrah has given us an open invitation to return, though neither of us is convinced that a spell exists to undo Dawn¡¯s curse. I, I just need to try the only things I can think of, the only things I can get better at that might even possibly come close to being on the right track towards a solution.


    Jarrah asks of Teuila, ¡°Does Reggie often suffer from migraines that collapse or explode blood vessels?¡±


    Teuila frowns as she shakes her head, ¡°No, my, my Airhead gets some migraines sometimes, but never had one that blew a river of blood out their nose. They had a mana corruption sickness back home. Please tell me that¡¯s not what just happened here?¡±


    Jarrah shakes his head as his gaze flits about the room while his face remains trained on her. I think he attempts consoling Te, ¡°No, I don¡¯t believe it¡¯s anything of the sort, it¡¯s more likely that Reggie simply felt too strongly about something, and let those emotions carry mana through them, into a rune I hadn¡¯t even seen them construct. So now you know, feel less strongly, bleed less vital fluid.¡±


    Teuila frowns and I join her in a frown that scrunches my face up towards my furrowed brow. The incredulity between the two of us towards Jarrah would be almost hilarious at most times. With Dawn¡¯s literal soul hanging in the balance, we can¡¯t afford humorous jabs at my emotional state.


    Jarrah, almost seeming to read my mind, clarifies, ¡°To be clear, my statement contained no humor. You¡¯ll find me to be quite a humorless being on most occasions. Reggie there is unlike most mages who¡¯ve reached such heights. Reggie still has the full gamut of emotions. Trust when I say you can barely imagine how unusual that is. I¡¯m only just now able to surmise that it¡¯s likely for this exact reason. I assume that, in physiplanars, it¡¯s some sort of subconscious defense in other trained mages that slowly robs them of the breadth and, or depth of their emotions.¡±


    After another ragged breath and a deep sigh I shake my head with incredulity. Great, me being an emotional wreck is even more dangerous than usual. I¡¯m certainly not going to let any subconscious defense mechanism strip me of my feelings though. I gaze at Teuila. To love her any less, to feel that love less, it¡¯s like a form of blasphemy or heresy. I¡¯d, well, the current me would be pissed at the future me in that situation. Ugh, this is going to cause a headache to think about. Alright Reggie, just, just try to keep them under control unless it¡¯s absolutely necessary to go all out.


    Teuila nudges me and whisperingly asks, ¡°You okay to walk home? I mean, our treehouse. Fort, thing. Want to go before this gets more awkward?¡±


    I snort half a laugh as I nod weakly. I try not to laugh as I fight to stretch my jaw and massages my temples and forehead, attempting to fight off the migraine a bit longer. I share my affection with Teuila, ¡°Yeah, absolutely yes. Please. I love you Te. You¡¯re the best. Thank you.¡±


    Dawn coughs politely from nearby which sets me to blushing. Te is already flustered and blushing from my verbal affection, but Dawn¡¯s cough adds a pregnant pause to the situation that only makes her embarrassment worse.


    To wrap things up, I express my gratitude towards our Enochian host, ¡°Jarrah, we¡¯ll head back now, but thank you for agreeing to take me on under your tutelage. Thank you for whatever you¡¯ve done for Lil, Luni, and Lucky. I think I also need to thank you for your unsung resistance against a common foe. Yeah?¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s expression betrays nothing as he scoffs, ¡°No physiplanar thanks necessary. We¡¯ve all realms within realms. Despite my mostly lack-of-emotions, I¡¯m rather fond of this one.¡±


    Over the last few minutes of talking and thinking, the room still hasn¡¯t fully thawed. I¡¯m a bit worried that I may have damaged one of these miraculous trees. I think it¡¯s hardier than that though, since my frost is generally only slightly below freezing when done as a quick blast. I¡¯d have to concentrate for a good while to siphon enough heat to drop things to anywhere near absolute zero. Hm, technically though, this isn¡¯t my frost. It was an accidental utilization of a Rayileklian cold rune.


    Dawn, Teuila, and I depart, bidding Jarrah at least a temporary farewell.  As the three of us trudge back down the egregiously large spiral staircase, past floor after floor of the Enochian Enclave filled with all number of Fae, I¡¯m left to ponder Jarrah¡¯s statement. Realms within realms? I¡¯m definitely familiar with that. Thinkspace inside Can¡¯Z¡¯aas inside Rayileklia for example. Somehow. Hell, I wouldn¡¯t be all that surprised to find out there¡¯s some recursive loop, where our death on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas created Rayileklia which created Can¡¯Z¡¯aas which, ow, my head. Thanks for the logic loop Jarrah. But what¡¯s that word he used twice? Physiplanar? Beings of the physical plane? I wonder if Percy¡¯s meerkat familiar Tinpu could enlighten us at all on that word.


    When we return, we need to ask if Mab, Bastet, Anubis, and Oberon are anywhere near as powerful as my stupid Fakeworld memories of Earth make them out to be. They¡¯re archfey and literal gods and goddesses in the mythologies of Earth. For some reason, likely my genre senses tingling, I think that any power they have, from their true existence as physical beings existing on Rayileklia, is spread thin. It¡¯s almost like I can already sense the extent of their power around us. Hm. Bastet¡¯s illusion didn¡¯t show any of the other high court members. Could they have been elsewhere for dire reasons? Four beings, not at the same location, using nearly all their power. Royally powerful entities scattered to the four winds to maintain the forest¡¯s enchantments? I¡¯m suddenly quite glad we decided to visit the Enochian Enclave rather than play at the politics of the Fae courts.  Also, it might serve to prioritize not disturbing the various archfey, gods and goddesses scattered to the four winds, if it''s that difficult to maintain the protection on the forest.

 B 4 C 81: Crazy Sap

    We return to find Percy arguing with Tinpu. The poor sap. Or well, Tinpu attempting what sounds to me like a one sided argument with a slightly rustling plant that happens to be a friend. I¡¯m too tired and dehydrated to pay attention though. Each of us prepares for bed in our own way, I huddle into a dark corner to change quickly with a modicum of privacy.


    Still needing to rehydrate, I search about our single-room treepartment for anything like a wash basin, and one literally grows from the wall. I blink several times and touch the creation incredulously. It feels real. Still, I¡¯ll need to fetch some water and food to make use of it. What in the.


    Now the basin is a sink with two faucets. Opening the valve on one reveals crystal-clear water, cool and fresh, with the faintest hints of sweetness as of morning dew upon honeysuckles. I¡¯m almost loathe to use it to clean up, but I wash my hands and face regardless before shoving my head beneath the faucet to drink my fill as it pours down into the open side of my mouth. Pure, clean water. It felt like a waste to wash up in it compared to how blissful drinking it was. Soon. Soon I¡¯ll have magic that nullifies the need to clean up.


    Curious about the other faucet, I turn the tap, and it seems like nothing happens for several brief moments. What pours forth in slow motion must be sap, but it¡¯s nearly a paste, I close the valve before the hanging paste can even drop into the basin. I snag a dab on my index fingertip and lift it to my lips. It doesn¡¯t feel like it burns my finger or lips or give any other signs of being inedible or toxic. I flick my tongue upon the sap-paste, and the tip of my tongue is blasted with exquisite indescribable flavor.


    Something comes over me, or must have come over me. I find myself blinking rapidly, staring at a clean finger and a clean basin, no sign of the sap-paste anywhere. I also feel satiated. I don¡¯t think I was hallucinating that. There are still two faucets, but I¡¯d hate to be wasteful of what might be the tree¡¯s literal lifeblood that it shed for me just to satisfy my curiosity.


    I turn ¡®round to call over to Teuila, ¡°Hey Te, come check this out? It¡¯s like a sink grew from the wall and¡ª¡°


    Te asks, ¡°A what did what where now Airhead? You¡¯re pointing at a wall.¡±


    Turning back to face the wall, my jaw drops to hang slack as my brow contorts into a half-squint, half-surprised curiosity expression. Sure enough, there¡¯s nothing there. I pat my belly, and I can feel it slosh slightly, so I¡¯ve definitely rehydrated. The sloshing is a weird thing, since technically food teleports somewhere once it gets beyond my esophagus, but it has always been like that.


    Teuila rests the flat of the back of her hand against my forehead, checking my temperature. Quite an odd thing, since I don¡¯t think I can realistically get feverish. I¡¯d have to be hitting a thousand degrees in Fahrenheit before I even mildly show the regular outward signs of fever. At that point, I¡¯d be a danger to everyone and everything around me. I smile at Teuila as I attempt to pull her towards me for a hug.


    Teuila evades me though, and asks with concern, ¡°Seriously. Reggie? My Air? You thought you saw something? Are you okay?¡±


    I pout as I explain, ¡°I swear Teuila, feel my belly, it¡¯s sloshy because I just drank the purest most crystalline water that could possibly exist, as if it were filtered through leaves and petals of honeysuckle. Then there was this paste-like sap that blew my mind as it rocked my tastebuds.¡±


    Teuila obliges and sticks a hand up my nightshirt since we¡¯d been preparing to bed down. Her hand on my belly wiggles playfully, feeling the slosh. She still gazes at me with concern however.


    Te asks, ¡°Okay, sure, you drank something, but are you sure it wasn¡¯t like, a wineskin of booze or something that we got by mistake instead of water in Victo?¡± She frowns for a moment, then seems to think better of it and redirects, ¡±Well, I guess it doesn¡¯t matter. Are you coming to bed?¡±


    Teuila turns to walk away as I frown after her. I answer, ¡°Yeah, yeah definitely in a second Te, be right there.¡±


    I turn back towards the wall, thinking about nourishment and cleanliness, and sure enough, a sink sprouts from the wall with two faucets. Excitedly I call out, ¡°Te, Te quick, it came back! It, hey, where are you going, no, stick around so that Te can see I¡¯m not crazy. Fudge. Hellspit.¡±


    Yeah, good going Reggie, you don¡¯t look crazy at all arguing with an empty wall. Hey, lay off with the snark. Although it was kind of funny, heh. Maybe focus on your current situation? Teuila is genuinely concerned for us. We need to be better to not worry her. I breathe deep and blow a long sigh as I exhale.


    Teuila just eyes me suspiciously as she taps her foot while standing near the bed with her arms crossed. Dawn, appearing as if from nowhere, whispers at my side, ¡°I saw it Rej. Crazy thing growing out of the wall, and crazy you drinking out of it.¡±


    Yeesh, spooky much Dawn? Also, maybe defend me by telling Teuila that? Ya big meanie. I turn and my nose meets Dawn¡¯s nose. Apparently she had leaned in extremely close to whisper. My heart catches momentarily, then stops beating entirely. It¡¯s excruciating. Despite her lack of vitals with which to send blood anywhere, Dawn blushes deeply enough to heat the scant distance between our faces. I join her in blushing as I edge away, backing away slowly so as not to upset her. Dawn mouths, ¡°Thank you,¡± as I move away. I nod wordlessly. I know she doesn¡¯t want things like that to develop into romantic or physical affection. Respect boundaries people.


    My heart finally starts beating again, strongly enough to remind me I¡¯ve got a migraine behind my right eyeball. My shuddering ragged breath catches several times before I can resume normal breathing after a yawn. Teuila is snorting as she fights back laughter nearby.


    I grump, ¡°Come on Te, that was awkward as heck, and Dawn says she saw it too. At least for a split second. Maybe it didn¡¯t notice her looking, because she¡¯s so stealthy. Maybe it pops out of the wall for me due to my externally induced Fae heritage? Gosh that¡¯s a weird concept.¡±


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Teuila snorts as she drapes her arms over my shoulders and kisses along my brow. She shakes her head while laughing, ¡°Only you, my complete Airhead. Only you. What¡¯s next, having to go to the bathroom for the first time in our lives and that turning into a grand quest?¡±


    My jaw hangs slack as my index finger curls. I¡¯m at a loss for words, because Teuila was absolutely hilarious just now. But also I most assuredly hope that no such thing ever occurs. I¡¯m perfectly fine being Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin, not having to deal with any of those nasty biological nonsenses. Teuila smirks and kisses the corner of my mouth before she sashays towards the bed. The way her hips sway as the silken pajamas drape along and cling to her slight curves takes my breath away. My heart arrives at a tha-thump rhythm, and I hear Dawn politely cough from near my shoulder.


    Suddenly the temperature in the room rises five degrees. I can¡¯t tell which of the three of us is blushing harder at the moment, since Dawn just reminded Teuila that we¡¯re not in private with just the two of us. Actually, for all I know, Percival is blushing as well. He dismissed his familiar Tinpu at some point during all this silliness.


    I have to flex my jaw, cheeks, and lips to unlock my facial muscles. I think a stupid grin was plastered wide across my face, or a shocked expression. I¡¯m not even sure at the moment. I only know that the three of us are now shuffling in place avoiding eye contact with one another.


    Deciding to change tack, I query, ¡°Do you guys think it would be worth adopting my dragonoid form before bed, so that I can rest off the effects of using Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers? I feel like everything about me is more powerful and resilient in that form. I might not even be able to get gushing nosebleeds. Any possible advantage to be able to learn more per day, or learn more quickly, it¡¯s something I should try, right?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s quizzical expression is almost a half smile as she chews the inside of her left cheek while squinting my way. Dawn offers, ¡°That¡¯s a real thing Rej? You guys talked about it a couple of times now, but I mean, you kinda just got distracted or whatever, and never seemed to care to bring it up and prove it. I¡¯m kinda curious.¡±


    I¡¯m about to instantly engage the transformation spell when I realize a fatal flaw. I¡¯m currently wearing unenchanted human-ish nightclothes. I¡¯d probably tear them asunder by sprouting wings and a tail beneath them. Not that my nudity is ever a problem in any form, being Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian and all. Still, I¡¯d rather not drive Dawn away by seeming indecent.


    I could swear Teuila just rode my entire thought train with how much laughter she¡¯s fighting back. I peer at her suspiciously, but she suddenly pretends to whistle as she clasps her hands behind her back, and rocks back and forth on her heels. Yeah, sure Teuila, really inconspicuous My Wings, hah. Still, I know it wasn¡¯t telepathy. More like she just knows me that well, and doesn¡¯t want to admit she was laughing at me. I sigh as I shake my head incredulously. I utterly love and cherish this woman.


    To Dawn I plead, ¡°It¡¯s absolutely a thing, but could I just have one second to switch clothes? I don¡¯t want to destroy these with a sudden shapechange. I almost did it while you were asking.¡±


    Dawn shrugs and offers the carry on gesture. I sneak beneath the far side of the bed and change into a mostly complete set of Valkyrie under-armor clothing. Thankfully the size and shapechanging enchantments that seem ubiquitous to Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic equipment applies even to their peripheral. I may as well do it while laying down back here. I summon the power from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas and feel my veins bulge as a torrent of mana pours through me, lacerating me from the inside out. It takes eight minutes of intense, bloody pain, but I come out of it on the other side in my draconic form. My odd gemlike scales seem slightly different than I remember them. Flexing my chromatophores and iridophores, I play with speaking in colors like the chameleons taught me. Tears roll down my reptilian face as I recall how Lil blames me for the loss of all of them, and as I recall how many wonderful, peaceful lives were lost to preserve this timeline.


    I sniffle and wipe away my tears as I stand to present my form to Dawn, only to find Dawn and Teuila already cuddling in bed, Teuila at least half asleep. I roll my eyes in faux exasperation and loose a single dry chuckle, nearly a snort. Since Dawn doesn¡¯t actually need to sleep, and probably can¡¯t actually sleep, she momentarily frees herself from Teuila¡¯s sleep-grip to take in my new appearance.


    Dawn¡¯s eyes alight with wild fascination as she quietly exclaims, ¡°Holy. Shiiid Rej, where¡¯ve you been hiding this? Just, hell pal. You look fierce like that, but still you, and, kinda, um, glp. Safe. Y¡¯know?¡±


    I cock my head towards my right shoulder curiously as I try to parse Dawn¡¯s meaning. Why was she suddenly embarrassed to call me sa¡ª Ah. With how badly she felt unsafe, and how greatly she desired safety, it conjures up powerful emotions, and the word has new context for her. New context involving that night. I blush and we avoid each other¡¯s gazes for a few moments.


    Teuila reaches out her arms from a supine position and drags us both into bed by our wrists, catching us by surprise in her somnic activity. Despite being reptilian, I blush as I end snout-to-nose with the two of them while Teuila squeezes us close. My subconscious even directs my chromatophores to produce the appropriate level of red. Dawn and I look anywhere other than at each other at the moment. I can sense her fidget and squirm from how uncomfortable this makes her.


    I use the staff to summon the spectral hand, and I have that hand fetch our blankets, pillows, and covers for us, from our position trapped against Teuila¡¯s torso. Dawn mouths another thanks as I drape the cover over us. Teuila releases her grip on us and turns to me in her sleepy, mumbly state. She asks me for something along the lines of fluffy candy beds as she intertwines her limbs with mine, a fair feat with the number of limbs between the two of us.


    Hm, fluffy candy bed? Cotton candy? Like the clouds Teuila slept on while suspended high above Leviathan? I guess that could be what she meant. Maybe. I can sense Dawn laying patiently on her back, prepared for another boring night alone with her thoughts. She lightly squeezes my hand, the only nearby limb for her to grip in the event that her senses leave her while we¡¯re asleep. I drift off while feeling a swirl of emotions too hard to parse at the moment.


    The nothingness proclaims, ¡°I especially enjoy the part where she hits you with a stick.¡±


    Hm? Oh, am I being -am- again? I don¡¯t remember dying, or even being close to dead in my last few moments of memory. Wait, who hit me? When? There was a man, at the top of a tower, no, a tree, he hit me with something.


    The roiling non-universe sounds almost giddy as it queries, ¡°There¡¯s more slapstick at your expense? Oh, linear progression. Honestly, why do you return so frequently? The bargain is inviolate.¡±


    I blink the non-eyelids of my non-self rapidly as I try to understand what¡¯s going on. I¡¯ve been here before? But also in the future? This place, it¡¯s, it¡¯s a void, no, -the- Void. How did I get here? Why were my thoughts so jumbled the last few times I was here? I think I was here with jumbled thoughts several times. Maybe I¡¯m imagining things. But wait, Void said I return frequently. What¡¯s this about an inviolable bargain?


    Void, the Ceaseless Schism cuts my question off before I can ask, ¡°That¡¯s enough of that now. Go, rise. You have to catch up so that we can meet for the first time. Now. Awaken!¡±

 B 4 C 82: Intense Training Day One

    Ugh, Jarrah¡¯s as intense of a mentor as I expected he¡¯d be. We¡¯ve been at this incanting thing for most of the entire day, I think we returned around eight AM on the fifth, and it¡¯s almost midnight. I¡¯ve been practicing my second rune somewhat secretly the entire time, since apparently I can¡¯t help but to subtly create my runes with some sort of metamagical empowerment. Trying to remain cognizant of my limits, I make sure there¡¯s a several minute gap between most of my rune attempts, and if I start to get flagged, I rest while focusing on the incantation stuff.


    I¡¯m beginning to cough uncontrollably, and instead of phlegm, blood joins my spittle. Ugh, of course. Can Reggie Shellcracker handle doing any magic whatsoever without murdering their own body? Nope.


    Jarrah orders, ¡°Your throat needs rest, you¡¯ve scratched it to, hmf, hell. Go, get warm fluids, soft sticky foods, sleep. Return in eight to twelve hours or so. I¡¯m sure your Valkyrie and shy friend Dawn are eager to see you. The former was furious at these arrangements you know.¡±


    I blush as I nod, not responding since my voice is ragged and my throat does feel shredded to hell. I¡¯m not used to speaking so much, or singing at all. I haven¡¯t succeeded at a single second of empowered incantation however. I huff an exasperated sigh at myself, trying to fight back tears. Not only did I not learn to incant, but I didn¡¯t master even a second rune today.


    I take my leave of Jarrah by bowing before walking quickly out. My head¡¯s a bit hazy, but if I remember the morning correctly, Teuila was going to be studying some form of tai chi, or other chi related martial arts, and Dawn decided to join her. Jarrah insisted that his tutelage comes with the caveat of being distinctly one on one, private. Like Jarrah said, that pissed Teuila the hell off. My Wings, my beloved Valkyrie wants so badly to never leave my side again, she¡¯s so worried about me, for me. I suppose she has good reason to be. I friggin¡¯ get myself almost killed on the regular any time she¡¯s not around. Okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but we get the idea.


    The Enclave is a much larger group than I was expecting, since Bastet only offered gratitude to three elder members. Fae men and women of all ages sit in silent study for some greater purpose, a concerted effort against the manxome foe. None of them have a mote of fanaticism or loyalty for the Enochian Enclave itself. Instead they seem to each have their own reasons for taking advantage of its resources, and each of those reasons has been vetted by Jarrah Bettergrove. Or perhaps Alanea Whifflewillow. Oh heck. I bet she secretly has spider related abilities. Eugh. The transposition of Ls and Rs in a certain Earth culture is rather common, and, well, Aranea is most definitely an arachnid reference. Fate really likes to screw with me it seems. I think it might be upset that I have the ability to screw back.


    Okay, wow, that thought train just. Just ugh. Crash and burn. That¡¯s what that did. I¡¯m almost certain Jarrah has telepathy, so I¡¯m glad I left his room before my brain went that direction and landed on that flub. I wonder if Atropos, Clotho, or Lachesis truly sit at some loom of fate in the grand cosmos somewhere situated between all realities. Stranger things have proven to be true in my life. Would they be hostile to me? Are they pissed that I absorbed draconic longevity? Have they been guiding me? Protecting me? Several people in my life have had guesses as to the meaning of my brushes with fate and destiny.


    Gosh, look at that room. Alanea is teaching children, literal actual Fae children. Fauns, a dryad, several pixies a, what is that, a Kamartaj? No, wait, a Kamaitachi. If I were from Earth, I¡¯d find it weird to see a winged weasel sitting with humanoids in a classroom setting, but I¡¯m from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I¡¯m used to spheres hanging out with ferals, humanoids, and humans. Plus, there were several Kamaitachi that acted as messengers. They had a supernatural ability to sort of travel between points where a strong breeze was in effect. I¡¯m not sure if it was teleportation, or just insanely fast travel. They could cover the distance from the coast to the Miracle Oak in seconds or minutes as opposed to hours that most people would take, or even fractions of an hour that my inner circle would take. I wonder if this particular Kamaitachi student has that same traveling power or speed.


    Oh well, best not interrupt, though, is Alanea waving to me? I, huh. There was something endearing, and incredibly charming about that wave, or maybe her almost conspiratorial smile from behind it. I rattle my skull about and blink rapidly. I¡¯m probably seeing things with how lightheaded I am after destroying my throat and my runic capacity all day. Gosh she is a heck of a lovely lady. Her compact frame does not detract at all from her charm. Not that it necessarily would on anyone else either. I mean, Hellga Hellridge was an attractive woman, and she was a stocky dwarf. Oh. Poor Hellga. Crap.


    I huff a sigh as I quickly continue trotting down the spiral staircase of the Enochian Enclave. The sadness and guilt nearly overwhelm me. I left a woman, an earnest woman who came clean and had relatable reasoning for her actions. I left her in the hands of a mafioso family for them to seek their own brand of justice. I¡¯m, I¡¯m a horrible life form. My limbs sag as I slump against a wall of the tree, weeping. Sadly, I¡¯m on stairs, so any sort of slumping is going to end in disaster. I begin tumbling rapidly down the steep staircase, bouncing into the wall frequently until I finally reach the next landing. Oog. Oof. Hell of a distraction to crunch my neck and rattle my brainpan through an unsafe tumble. And enough of a concussive impact as I reach the next landing to knock me out despite my scaly resilience.


    A curious thing happened. Despite being trapped in here with these strange, white, wispy orbs, and perhaps being one myself. Well, despite that, and despite the seemingly constant cycle of the other orbs being consumed, and new ones arriving to replace those ones, only to then be consumed themselves. Well, I¡¯m. I find it hard to maintain a thought. My mind isn¡¯t, wasn¡¯t supposed to be here. I think I had passed on. Right. Despite all that, someone, a man I think, cloaked, brave, yet intelligent enough to know when to flee, showed up a short while ago. Nothing you can do about this, friend. The beast that devours nearly had you too. Another rare sight is the return of the beast¡¯s lapdog.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The beast commands, ¡°Fibbs, catch up to that skulker, and drink this when they¡¯re within sight range, then bite down on this. In that order! You won¡¯t survive to face my punishment for failure in this life, but don¡¯t think that frees you from the torment I would inflict if you got the order wrong. Sight, maintain sight while drinking, then bite down. Quickly now, catch up to the skulker that fled. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re headed to that unholy reeking country to the south. Undead filth, wastes, every last one that consorts with them.¡±


    The lapdog, Fibbs apparently, claims the vial and the object. He takes off like a bat out of hell, as if he¡¯s had a fire lit under his rear. Perhaps both of those are accurate, nearly literal. I believe this is hell. I believe that we are souls, and that our eternity is snatched from any one of us that is fished out by the beast. A lovely late May is occurring somewhere out in the world with spring blossoms. Curse the Imperium. Good luck skulking stranger. You¡¯ll need it now that the beast has his sights set on you. I¡¯m not sure why the beast continues to pass over me to pluck and consume so many other souls. I¡¯m not certain I should be glad for the additional existence time, not when that existence is mostly watching others be tortured and consumed.


    As if answering my question, the beast rambles, ¡°Have you at the bottom pickled long enough yet? Hm, no. Disappointing. I suppose leaving you through June is fitting enough, what with its importance as a month. Pickle away my potent snacks, pickle away.¡±


    I almost wish I had a mortal body to be sick from.


    I awaken to my eyes rolling about in their sockets. Oh, maybe the cap of illusionary disguise is why Alanea was smiling my way. I¡¯m using it to cloak my draconic form for the nonce. I don¡¯t exactly know how to program it yet though, so, for all I know, I appear to people as a long-lost friend, a secretly admired crush, a family member, their ideal dream romantic partner, or any number of things. I don¡¯t think the cap is that powerful? But it could be. Or Alanea could simply have seen beneath the illusion. If she could do that, she might be able to even see past my draconic form. Oh! Oh I¡¯m almost sure she can. Cherubic Reggie and her are a similar height. My cherubic form closely resembles changeling Fae from around the Miracle Oak.


    Gosh, what does that mean though? Ugh, you idiot. She was obviously flirting, stop pretending to be dense. It doesn¡¯t matter what it means anyway. I¡¯ve got too many important things to worry about to be wondering about flirtations. Focus the hell up Reggie. Stop laying here upside down balanced on your neck, and get your arse up. See if Teuila and Dawn are still around, and if they want to head back together, or if they¡¯re going to stick around to train longer.


    My eyelids droop as my muscles continue to sag while I struggle to right myself. Panting with exertion, struggling not to have dry air pass down my torn-up esophagus, I nearly take another spill as I proceed down towards the next landing. Huff. Whew. Okay, this landing should be the one where Teuila and Dawn are, I think. Gosh it¡¯s like a gymnasium in there, how the hell is there this much room inside a tree? There are some areas where the trunk bulges with the thick interspersed branches. This must be one of them. Is, is Teuila about to spar a child? Blindfolded? I¡¯m frozen with morbid curiosity. I should really stop this, but I¡¯m fascinated and want to know how it¡¯s going to play out.


    As the match is called to action, the pair of combatants move faster than my eyes can observe and focus on. Yet only a moment later, Teuila is pinned to the mat with the child standing on her shoulder blade, bending her arm back at a painful angle as he holds her middle finger at a near-breaking angle. Holy hell. What are they feeding that kid? This is Teuila we¡¯re talking about. That kid has to be an absolute monster. I suppose she was blindfolded, and martial arts aren¡¯t her preferred fighting style, but still.


    I huff a sigh. It feels like the Enochian Enclave is great at pointing out areas in which we suck. I can¡¯t sing, I can¡¯t talk, right about now the only thing I can do is walk. Teuila just got schooled by, well, a gradeschooler by the looks of it. Dawn, well, Dawn is off to one side wallflowering in her usual manner. Only this time, she appears to be balanced in a yoga tree pose mixed with a sun salutation. Or at least she¡¯s trying to balance. She keeps leaning against the wall for support, and wobbling. Like I said, pointing out things we all sort of suck at. It¡¯s frustrating to say the least, especially when there¡¯s a deadline on making progress. A literal dead line.


    Teuila seems to sense me as she escapes the pin miraculously in an instant. Te hops up and happily shouts, ¡°I forfeit, thanks for the match Sprout! Airhead! Did it go okay? Are you a master yet? Look what I learned how to do!¡±


    As Teuila sprints my direction, I¡¯m left suddenly preparing to meet unconsciousness again as Teuila¡¯s right fist rockets towards my face coated in a ghostly blue flame. I blink rapidly when I realize no force has connected. Gazing down my nose though, Teuila¡¯s fist appears to be buried partially in my face. This should have caved my skull in, instead she¡¯s out of phase, or something.


    Te grins and shakes her head at my incredulity. She explains, ¡°So, I don¡¯t really have it right, yet. I don¡¯t even know if it¡¯s supposed to be an illusion, or like a teleporty thingy with like a short term semi tangible duplicate or something? Like, I have no idea what I¡¯m doing. All I know is I feel like I¡¯m where that is. Like I¡¯ve closed the space already, pulled over to it, attracted to it by a magnet even if I stop moving. I dunno, ¡®scool I guess. Right?¡±


    I smile at Teuila, then I rub my throat as I adopt a pained expression. Her hopeful gaze softens as I sign the words for blood and pain in Jaz and Dream¡¯s sign language. They got pretty used to those two signs with tons of practice while inventing their species-gap-closing language. Heh. Everyone in the family became quite familiar with those two signs due to my near non-stop projectile bleeding all about the settlement in those last months. Gods I¡¯m a mess of a life form.


    Te asks, ¡°Awe, my Air can¡¯t talk? Poo. Kinda wanted you to be hyped up and proud of me and show off all the new stuff you learned. It¡¯s okay Reggie. Let¡¯s go home and rest you up. You coming Dawny?¡±


    Dawn is at Teuila¡¯s side in the blink of an eye. At least the two of them seem to have accomplished some things today. All I¡¯ve managed to do is ruin my freaking throat. I can¡¯t even pant in frustration because the rapid breathing would aggravate the scratching up and down inside my throat.


    As we¡¯re walking out, Teuila asks me about my day, but all I can do is weep silently, sign the word for mind slash brain slash learning, and indicate a big fat zero. Teuila looks heartbroken, crestfallen. Dawn didn¡¯t understand the signs, but by my obvious pain, my silence, and the big zero, she grasped enough to know that I¡¯ve failed them both for today at least. It¡¯s almost July sixth. We¡¯ll officially have been in Rayileklia for a month, then in five more days, Jarrah will give us whatever clues Lil left behind as to their next destination. I need to make more progress, but maybe Lil or Luni can think of something, some possible thing that I¡¯ve missed. Maybe it would end up being something that one of us has in our Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian inventories, just, something, anything that might save Dawn.

 B 4 C 83: Intense Training Day Two

    We¡¯re leaving Jarrah with the linguistic enchantment book over night. Apparently he doesn¡¯t truly need to sleep, he only meditates for a few hours every sixteen to twenty four hours or so. I wonder if that¡¯s the reason behind his non-stop eye movement though. It¡¯s incredibly disconcerting. He doesn¡¯t seem to be bothered by it though at least.


    We arrive to a familiar scene, Percival and Tinpu arguing, or maybe vice versa. I suppose Percival has nothing better to do, being a nearly immobile potted plant. I wonder if Tinpu enjoys their relationship, or if he feels obligated in any bad way? Percy can¡¯t exactly mistreat Tinpu, other than dismissing him back to the celestial realm or whatever. Hm, speaking of that, I never got around to asking Percy if I could talk to Tinpu about that stuff, and now I can¡¯t even try to ask. I¡¯m not going to dig around for writing implements and then wait for someone to read and translate my sloppy writing to ask Percy to ask Tinpu for answers. Yeesh I¡¯m getting another headache just thinking about it.


    As we enter, I begin divesting myself so that I can rest. I shrink the armor down to toy size and stuff it in a pouch. Absentmindedly I reach up to drag the cap off my short horns. As I¡¯m doffing the disguising cap of illusions, Dawn startles and nearly jumps out of her skin. I raise a scaled brow in her direction.


    Dawn chuckles as she admits, ¡°Ah, err, yeah, kinda forgot you were wearing a mask, and that you¡¯re a great big old s, um dragon person right now. So, so. Um. Yeah.¡±


    Despite Dawn¡¯s vitality-less nature, she¡¯s blushing madly, wildly as she looks me up and down with rabid curiosity. I jokingly wrap my arms around my torso, pretending to recoil from her gaze. Dawn becomes momentarily even more embarrassed before catching on and laughing. I flash her a toothy smile, which probably comes off as more fearsome than I intend since it sets her face to cringing.


    I cough as I try to apologetically laugh, and I have to wipe a slight dribble of blood trickling from my maw. Thankfully the wall-sink shows up, and lets me rinse off. Hm, I¡¯m not sure where my spittle and blood are going to go when the sink sinks back into the wall. I facepalm at my own mental phrasing. Really Reggie? A sink sinking? I know, I know. Obviously no pun or wordplay intended. I roll my eyes and shake my head at myself in mild faux exasperation. Despite the silliness of it, my curiosity still stands. Hm, now there¡¯s an interesting thought. An esoteric concept exits my brain, and stands up nearby. Anthropomorphization is weird sometimes.


    I squeeze my scaled eyelids shut tightly to fight back an encroaching migraine, and rub forcefully between my temples and eyeballs. Squeezing in on my eyes ever so slightly relieves the pain building behind them. It also floods my vision with sparks and stars and technicolor tunnels behind my eyelids. Oof, probably shouldn¡¯t be doing that. Teuila playfully hip-checks me, nudging me enough that I lose my balance since I¡¯m distracted by the pain. Realizing I can¡¯t catch myself in time, Teuila catches me instead of simply letting me hit the floor.


    Now she¡¯s standing with me basically swooned across one of her arms, and she¡¯s giggling crazily. Huff, I sigh as I laugh, both big mistakes that shred my throat. Still, I know what she¡¯s finding funny. Linti had basically had me in this exact pose once, heck, I¡¯m pretty sure I was even in draconic form that time too. Lil teased me that I looked like the perfect picture of a fantasy romance novel cover damsel in the protagonist hero¡¯s arms. I smile while shaking my head, trying not to laugh. I manage to stifle my laughter, but I still have to breathe. My breath stings as I gulp down a wide breath, then my exhalation leaves me as a large yawn. Ow, yawning hurts.


    I suppose we¡¯re all amped up a bit from a long day of the Enochian Enclave¡¯s training and tutelage. I crawl into bed and try to fight off another yawn, but end up failing miserably. Ugh, my poor freaking throat.


    Dawn seems to pick up a conversation with Teuila from somewhere they must have left off earlier, ¡°So, anyway, that Flint guy, Flint Darklace, right? I was puttering around the place, and it seems like he¡¯s the, I don¡¯t know how to put it, like the head nurse or something. Had like a little infirmary and stuff. That Alanea girl, well, woman I guess, probably as old as me being all mystical faerie stuff or whatever. Anyway, she was there, and he was teaching her some things about wounds and splints and stuff. Praised her for patching up the attackers from the other night. Then she said something about class and headed off up a ways.¡±


    Teuila snorts, ¡°He seemed like kind of a creep, but that¡¯s sort of sweet I guess. Still, I almost can¡¯t believe that Dink is the one who ended up crippling their batch of mugs so badly, while the two of us put them down gently. My goofy Airhead. Thanks again for covering my back Dawny.¡±


    Dawn blushes and nods while avoiding Teuila¡¯s eye contact, ¡°Yeah, sure, no problem Boss. I saw the other three coming out of nowhere from my hiding spot, so I chugged one of those muscle potion things, and, well, at least I got one of them down before they all circled you. Hey Rej, you weren¡¯t kidding about those potions, I felt so freakin¡¯ strong for an hour or so. I wonder if the other one lasts longer, or makes me even stronger.¡±


    Teuila wraps Dawn up in a hug and exclaims, ¡°You¡¯re the best Dawny, you rock! We can totally train to get you that strong naturally if you want.¡±


    Dawn squirms mildly uncomfortably, though she still accepts Teuila¡¯s hug as she responds, ¡°Err, sure Boss, maybe. I¡¯d like that. Y¡¯know. If, stuff, whatever.¡±


    My heart sinks as I realize Dawn is worried about existing long enough to accomplish such training. Teuila¡¯s eyes well with tears and she leans forward intending to plant a massive kiss on Dawn as some form of shared comfort. Dawn reacts a tad viscerally, planting her hands in Teuila¡¯s face and shoving away while blushing and nervously chuckling.


    Dawn rambles, ¡°No, hey, Boss, it¡¯s alright. I¡¯m fine. No need for any of that or whatever. I¡¯m, I¡¯m just. It is what it is. You know? No need to get so sappy about it. I¡¯ll try to stick around. What do you like to say? Obvee. Yeah, that¡¯s it. I¡¯ll try to stick around, obvee. Just might not have much choice in the matter. I dunno, maybe, maybe if this curse isn¡¯t breathing down my neck. Stuff. Somethin¡¯. Maybe. Don¡¯t get your hopes up.¡±


    Teuila apologizes, ¡°Right, right. I¡¯m sorry Dawn. I just, I got so sad and worried for you for a second. I wasn¡¯t thinking. Sorry.¡±


    Dawn scratches the back of her head while her pulse-less body continues inexplicably blushing, ¡°Yeah, err, no worries or whatever. It happens. Sort of. I guess. Thanks for not getting pissy about it. About me shoving you off or whatever. We¡¯re cool. Right Boss?¡±


    Teuila sniffles and jokes, ¡°Cooler than cool. We¡¯re ice cold Dawny.¡±


    At Teuila¡¯s answer, my brain fritzes out into an extended length blue screen of death. When I come to, I find myself blinking rapidly surrounded by Dawn and Teuila, each one laying on one of my wings. Dawn is gripping my right arm viscerally, tightly, clinging for dear life. Teuila seems to be pouting in her sleep. I fold my wings up over each of them, hugging them in much the way Lil would in Lil¡¯s Lilagnewt form. Teuila must feel miserable for making Dawn feel uncomfortable. I¡¯m almost positive she offered to sleep somewhere else, but Dawn probably waved it off, and just elected to lay on my other side while we slept.


    Sel is just too much sometimes. I return here, time and time again, mostly fine with whatever odd desires she has. This time it¡¯s just too much. She wants me to have a sit-down dinner with her, Jarvis, and Jarvis¡¯s nephew. Nephew apparently lost both parents some time back. Sure I can sympathize, that doesn¡¯t mean I want to get to know the man.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I¡¯m sorry Sel, we¡¯ve known each other for a while now, but no, I won¡¯t be sticking around for that dinner. I guess I¡¯ll just hope that you still want to see me after the next leg of my journey. Enjoy your dinner. You look so sad in that candlelight, staring at the door, waiting for its opening to announce my arrival. Jarvis and nephew seem perturbed at waiting to dig in. I¡¯m truly a heel. Between her friend Taylynn¡¯s eclectic behavior, and her own idiosyncrasies, I¡¯m not cut out to handle either one of them, let alone both.


    What would they even do if I returned here nine tenths dead? I¡¯d prefer not to find out, but I don¡¯t see me coming out of this next leg unscathed. There is no stealth way deep enough into this compound. I either have to make a mad dash, slay my target, and flee, or fight my way in and out. Either way I¡¯ll be taking injuries, possibly grave, deadly ones.


    The few months we¡¯ve known each other, I haven¡¯t taken a single injury yet. But perhaps this time, if I manage to return alive, they¡¯ll finally understand why I keep my distance. I¡¯m an assassin ladies, taking on the job no one wants, that no one else will touch, and with good reason. It¡¯s a fool¡¯s errand, and I¡¯m a fool. I¡¯m fooling myself if I pretend to believe that I¡¯ll ever accomplish the end of this task. Huff. Time to stop skulking, and get back to it Aces. Long trek to walk around the lake tonight. I¡¯ve made up my mind. I won¡¯t lie, it would definitely be faster if I went by the boathouse to steal a vessel and crossed the lake that way. If I survive, I can return it.


    That¡¯s a big if. An underground bunker northwest of Navica? The paranoia of these people. Well, until me it would have been pure pointless paranoia. I guess it¡¯s time to prove why you don¡¯t piss people off enough to leave them willing to chance contacting the Vale. Farewell Tavners, Taylynn wherever you¡¯ve journeyed most recently.


    As I awaken, my throat is sticky with a slick coating of some sort of healing mucus preventing my scratches from being irritated or aggravated by breathing. Still, taking a deep slow morning breath leaves me coughing. Koff, ow. My throat is barely healed, it still hurts to cough, but at least I¡¯m not coughing any more blood for the time being. I¡¯m sure that¡¯ll change relatively soon.


    Hm, Dawn and Teuila are both up, and sitting on opposite sides of the bed, facing away from each other. What¡¯s going on now? Teuila is rubbing her face, specifically her eyes according to my danger wraps. Dawn is fidgeting.


    Teuila starts to speak, but Dawn interrupts, ¡°Boss, I said it was fine. Just stop. Please? We¡¯re okay. Rej¡¯ll be up any minute now, you don¡¯t have to keep beating yourself up over it. So quit apologizing and bringing it up. It¡¯s just awkward. Okay? It¡¯s all fine. I don¡¯t hate you or anything. I¡¯m not even mad about it. Like you said, we¡¯re cool, cooler than cool, ice cold.¡±


    My brain fritzes out again in an extended blue screen of death. When I come to, the two of them have gotten up, and they¡¯re both prepared to face the day. Te and Dawn appear to be chatting happily as can be, so hopefully that bit of embarrassment is over.


    We return to the Enclave, some eight to ten hours after we¡¯d left it. I¡¯m starting to lose track of the days. The exercises are mind numbing, and throat-scarring. Jarrah apparently expected more from me than absolutely complete beginner levels of incantation. I rarely speak at all, most of the time I¡¯m just thinking. Hell, a significant portion of my life has been spent in telepathic bonds. It¡¯s still frustrating though that he misjudged me, and we wasted a day of training starting off too hard.


    Not that we¡¯re doing any better with absolutely bottom rung of the ladder, bottom of the barrel incantation instructions. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s my destroyed throat, or if I¡¯m just friggin¡¯ inept. I hate it. I hate it! About two third of the way through the day, I finally master my second rune, a sort of word-shaping rune, so empowering it on its own does absolutely nothing. Even empowering it with the cold rune does almost nothing as well, basically just the effect of the cold rune.


    Jarrah hasn¡¯t commented on my runic training at all. He¡¯s not admonishing me for multitasking or anything. I don¡¯t know if he¡¯d normally let a student simultaneously train two different parts of their brain. At least I can make some minuscule progress.


    Jarrah doesn¡¯t answer me about the linguistics book except to say, ¡°Hm, yes, I verified what I wanted to verify. You''re certainly free to hand it back to your Valkyrie, your Teuila. You¡¯re quite lucky to have stumbled across it when you did, and find it fully ready to bestow its enchantment, its gift on a new reader. You are right, it will be quite some time, quite some time indeed before it¡¯s ready to be used again. If certain events transpire, and unfold the way I believe they will, it could very well be thousands of years.¡±


    I barely manage to avoid a spit-take as I¡¯m trying to wet my throat once more to help reduce the strain on it. I blink in disbelief and shock at the length Jarrah claims it could take the book to recharge. Even if Teuila and I are ageless, we definitely don¡¯t want to be stuck on Rayileklia long enough to take advantage of the book recharging if it¡¯s going to require that much time. Yeesh.


    I sigh, I¡¯m making absolutely zero progress on incanting according to Jarrah. He says he can¡¯t even move on to teaching me other helpful learning skills until I get at least the basics of incanting down. This friggin¡¯ sucks! Two days down. I barely refrain from hyperventilating in frustration, and fear of the looming deadline.


    I do catch Jarrah muttering to himself fairly frequently however. His statements seem to be about me, and definitely hint that he might be either reading my thoughts, or in some way, shape, or form, parsing my feelings. He deflects any time I ask about his mutterings however. It¡¯s mildly infuriating, and I¡¯m tempted to ask Alanea or Flint if he¡¯s always like this. Not that I have any energy or time to ask them.


    Leaving Jarrah once more as it nears midnight on July sixth, I sigh and slump away, defeated. I¡¯m left fighting back tears that threaten to streak down my face. Before long though, I bump into Alanea unexpectedly coming up the stairwell, and I nearly trip over her due to her compact stature. I do tumble slightly, and end up caught in her surprisingly strong arms. I blush ferociously as I attempt to regain my balance, right myself, and extricate myself from her embrace.


    Alanea, in a chipper manner, asks, ¡°Erm, it''s well, Reggie, right? Well, I¡¯ve been looking for you just now.  But, well, I¡¯m okay tonight, but, if you plan to return tomorrow, to train and leave at about the same time.  Erm, well, is there any chance you¡¯d be willing to walk me home? Well, Flint would normally be fine walking me, but well, Flint is going to be busy tomorrow, and what with Enclave members being attacked and all, I just. Well, I¡¯d feel safer having someone as strong and handsome, powerful! I mean powerful! As you walking me home. Err, well, You¡¯re, your, um, your power is obvious, despite the layers of enchantments and illusions over your true form.¡±


    My jaw hangs slightly slack. Lil said I have to answer every call. Should I try to prove Lil wrong here? Something says this request spells trouble. Likely my genre savviness senses tingling. Still, when an absolutely gorgeous lady compliments you and asks you to take her home, ah, er. Hell this is awkward. I¡¯m not a human, not even a Rayileklian Fae. I mean, not that I¡¯m assuming she means, ugh. I mean, she''s asking for help, not a date, much less. Blah, argh, never mind. Screw this whole train of thought. A person asks for help, I try to help if I can.


    I nod numbly, barely able to croak out, ¡°Koff, glp, would be, koff, my pleasure.¡±


    Alanea hops up two steps to be closer to my face as I flump onto my rear in surprise. My illusion must provide some level of tactile response, but not intangibility for my extraneous limbs, as she avoids my wings. She cups my throat and strokes it, mumbling, ¡°You poor dear. Well, if it still hurts tomorrow, I¡¯ll try to get some soothing cream down your throat. Well, that was all really, thank you Reggie dear. I, well, I appreciate it very much. Well, hopefully I¡¯m just being overly cautious, but, well. Anyway. Thank you. Err, see you tomorrow around midnight? Well, I promise I¡¯ll wait for you in case your training runs longer than that.¡±


    I''m so glad neither Teuila nor Luni heard what she just said. I gulp beneath the hand that¡¯s still stroking my throat, and all my chromatophores emit red, which likely signals even my illusion to blush hotly. I nod as I politely grasp her wrist to push her hand slightly away so I can speak, ¡°Glp. Um, yes. See you, glp, then.¡±


    She smiles brightly and virtually skips up the steps, apparently to speak with Jarrah before getting Flint to walk her home. Somehow I feel like I¡¯m being used. I mean, I¡¯m basically hired muscle as a bodyguard, my pay is a smile and some flirtation. Yeesh, what a devious web she wea¡ª Son of a. Note to self, do not accept any invitation to enter her abode. Also note to self, maybe ask around if there¡¯s a rumor of anyone who might have earned the nickname black widow in town. Alanea, Aranea. Are you someone I need to be wary of? Or should I be wary for you? There¡¯s more to you than you¡¯re letting on, that¡¯s for sure.


    Hm, Teuila and Dawn look bummed out, and both flash me big zeroes for their efforts for today as well. I return the gesture, sadly. Technically I mastered a new rune, but I¡¯ve been working on it for two days. Our stay in the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds is not going well so far. We haven¡¯t even gotten around to asking about the nonsense with the summer and winter court. I draw a ragged breath and heave a deep sigh.


    It will be July seventh in a few minutes. Only a few days left here. All that much closer to the end of Dawn¡¯s curse. The panic gripping my heart squeezes tighter each passing moment.

 B 4 C 84: Intense Training Day Three

    July seventh comes rolling around unceremoniously. We three disheartened warriors return to our abode, lacking any concrete progress towards our shared goal. Apparently Teuila and Dawn spent a significant portion of the day asking around for me, about Bastet, Mab, Anubis, and Oberon. Most people were cagey, elusive, or knew very little. Te and Dawn are starting to suspect similar things to what I¡¯d thought though. If the rulers are powerful at all, nearly all that power is going to maintaining the enchantment on the forest that redirects hostile forces out of it every time they try to enter.


    Another thing I suspect is that they likely use up a bit more power to mask the enchantment itself. If anyone with aura sight could see the epicenter of the spell, where its stronger origin point lies, they could head towards that, ignoring the misnavigation the forest tries to provide. This would lead them either to the Heart, or to one of the rulers maintaining the spell. Thus, spelloflage, camouflage for magic. Oh heck, that brings to mind another word. Spellophage, something that eats magic. Brr. I shudder as I imagine what sort of creature could do such a thing. Would I be more, or less vulnerable to its appetite due to my absurd mana pool across two worlds?


    Wait, wait, what was that last thought train a few seconds ago? Inhabitants of the Heart are worried about hostile forces, everyone knows the Celestial Imperium expands by force at every opportunity. Everyone knows the only thing stopping the Imperium from expanding into the Heart is its magical geography, a geography and a magic that might be able to be overwhelmed if surrounded by enough force. And further, everyone knows the only thing stopping the Imperium from expanding into Aasimovia is the superstitions and fears of the Imperial troops. The ancestors, the ones wielding armor, weapons, and patrolling, whether or not they can actually fight, are the only things holding back the tide of the Celestial Imperium washing over Aasimovia.


    If Aasimovia falls, the Celestial Imperium can advance on the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds from all sides. The curse on Dawn was set in motion to bring about this exact scenario. The Celestial Emperor has been playing the long game of world domination with fierce cunning. Once he has all countries under thumb, then he¡¯s just going to steal all their souls en masse. Crap! It¡¯s even more important to save Dawn now. Save Dawn, save what¡¯s left of the world. Hellspit and a half! As if there wasn¡¯t enough pressure already to save the life of a friend I hold dear.


    I whisper my belief to Teuila, not wanting to upset Dawn further, and Teuila¡¯s sadness is palpable. She wants to have faith in me, but she¡¯s already preparing for the worst. She¡¯s preparing for us to lose everyone we¡¯ve ever met on Rayileklia. She¡¯s right to prepare. She has apparently decided to start doubling up on studying the martial mastery books I¡¯d given her, while exercising without allowing herself use of her gravity affinity. Despite deciding to begin giving it her all and then some, to the tune of something like three hundred percent, she knows none of us can face the Celestial Emperor yet. Even if that might possibly save Dawn, we couldn¡¯t accomplish it. It¡¯s the only thing she can think of to try to progress towards saving Dawn though. We know that the curse isn¡¯t tied to the Celestial Emperor though, even if he had originally empowered that high priest, allowing him to craft the spell in the first place.


    I feel horrible for leaving Teuila feeling so helpless. She grabs one of the spellbooks as well, to try to study that in addition to the martial books while exercising. I hope she has better luck than me in mastering Rayileklian magic, but we¡¯re both doubtful. Between her aura vision being different on Rayileklia, her not having the linguistic enchantment, and the amount of effort it takes to even learn a single rune when someone already has those things properly set up, it just seems hopeless. Still, I know Teuila will give it her all and beyond.


    Te mutters, ¡°I¡¯m giving it a hundred plus a hundred plus a hundred, plus, I don¡¯t know, ultra percent.¡± A familiar mantra for her when she¡¯s psyching herself up to take something beyond extra seriously to deadly levels.


    I nod in response before adding, ¡°I know you will Te, I know you will. My beloved Wings. Before I forget, I can¡¯t remember if I told you last night, but last night Alanea asked me to walk her home tonight. Apparently Flint had been escorting her home, and isn¡¯t available tonight.¡±


    Te responds with a chipper tease, ¡°Hey nice, my Airhead making pals at the Eenookie Buddies. No worries, Dawn and I can help you escort. Unless you need some private time, eh, eh?¡±


    I snort a laugh and roll my eyes before simply turning around, not engaging at all as Teuila waggles her brow my way. The three of us return to the Enochian Enclave to begin our day. I¡¯ve done my best to have Lullaby be somewhat visible without being a danger to others. The glaive wants to be seen in its homeland, his homeland? I think. He wants to be seen, but he desires to travel. He sends me strong negative vibes any time I think about finding someone here that might deserve him, or want him. He¡¯s kind of bonded to me, a bit like a fledgling dragon imprinting on its first sighted creature. Lullaby finds humor in the comparison, but there¡¯s a tiny hint of an undercurrent of agreement.


    I¡¯m almost sad that I gave Teuila the tomes on martial prowess. They¡¯d massively enhance my ability to fight with a polearm, and Lullaby seems like he wants to continue traveling with me. It seems a shame to not put his weapon assets to use. I just don¡¯t really fight with anything other than my fists and spells though. A dagger occasionally, a few shots from my wrist-mounted holy-enchanted double-barreled crossbow once in a while. On a very rare occasion, a bo staff, or magic staff used as a bo staff weapon, risking cracking the magic staff. Maybe once we leave the Hidden Heart, I¡¯ll just keep him shrunk and wear him some place safe to benefit from his travel-easing powers. He can probably exist just fine in a pouch that¡¯s somewhere around three hundred to six hundred degrees Fahrenheit inside, right? The egg from the phoenix and roc still pours out heat, but thankfully Berinon¡¯s durability enchantments seem to include strong insulation, so I¡¯m not setting people on fire when I hug them or anything, as the heat appears to be trapped inside the pouch.


    The lesson with Jarrah is mind numbing yet again. My throat and scaled lips will just not cooperate. I wonder if he knows Draconic, if maybe that might work better in this form. Asking if my current species has anything to do with it, as I doff my cap of illusions, he shakes his head. It seems like he could see through the illusion anyway. All Fae probably have some semblance of an ability to pierce glamors, since they use them so frequently. Jarrah might not be Fae, but he has spent a lifetime around them. Also, in some pop culture from Earth, celestials and angels have a true sight ability that reveals all falsehoods, illusions, and so on. I guess that could be how and why he¡¯s always checking me for lies.


    I curse as I once again begin coughing blood, despite us having backed off to the easiest, slowest pace for absolute beginners. Tears stream down my cheeks at my constant failure. Jarrah reminds me that even his youngest pupils take far, far longer to make any significant progress. He indicates that even if I¡¯ve made dishearteningly zero progress so far, my natural aptitude for magic sets me apart. I don¡¯t feel like I have an aptitude for magic. It¡¯s taking me days per rune, though I¡¯m nearing mastery of my third rune. I know he¡¯s not patronizing me or lying, but I¡¯m immensely, incredibly upset at my learning pace when under this deadline.


    As I get sick of the slow speed of mastery, I attempt to forge the final three runes of the basic spell simultaneously with three different fingertips moving in dissonant concert. While I¡¯m able to precisely control my fingertips in the subtle shaping of the runes, something else is going on inside me. By the time I finish my attempt, what had been bubbling inside me gushes forth. I vomit a torrent of blood and I¡¯m left choking in a pained stupor.


    Jarrah demands, ¡°What the fel fires have you done this time?¡±


    I hadn¡¯t been intending to hide it, it just appears that I can¡¯t not use subtle spellcrafting metamagic. Wiping my jaw and struggling to right myself, I attempt to answer, ¡°Can¡¯t, can¡¯t keep taking so long, so slow to learn. Trying to learn three at once. Just, just gotta keep pushing.¡±


    Jarrah scowls and reprimands me, ¡°You inveterate entitled ignoramus! You¡¯re gifted, yes, but it takes most years, decades, centuries to master a host of perfect subtle spellcraft runes. Those that try to take shortcuts end up -Dead-!¡±


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Fighting through the tears I growl back, ¡°I don¡¯t have years, I have less than a month!¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s scowl remains as he cautions, ¡°I¡¯ve permitted your multitasking tomfoolery until now, but I¡¯m warning you! Should you try something that risky again, you will lose my tutelage! -As well- as any instructions I have from your dragon friend, and I will wash my hands of you.¡±


    I gulp as I fearfully plead my case, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯ll be less reckless. But you understand don¡¯t you? If the curse takes Dawn, it takes all of Aasimovia¡¯s ancestors, the spell wasn¡¯t even about Dawn, it¡¯s just using her as a long-term anchor to build up the juice to rend them all to dust. When they¡¯re gone, Aasimovia will fall shortly after. Once that¡¯s accomplished, the Celestial Imperium will advance on the forest from all sides. It¡¯s not just a friend¡¯s life that hangs in the balance, though I¡¯d risk everything even just for that. It¡¯s no exaggeration to say the fate of the world is at stake.¡±


    Jarrah mutters to himself for some time, not addressing my plea. I can tell he¡¯s parsing out the truth of my statements, and what he understands about the curse on Dawn. Further, he¡¯s deciding whether or not I¡¯m worth trusting with the fate, and responsibility, that fell in my lap.


    Jarrah admits, ¡°We, I did not see the full tapestry of the spell. Being that it was set in motion by our manxome foe, I¡¯m forced to agree with your conjecture.¡± He looses an exasperated sigh, ¡°Hff.¡±


    Pausing only a moment, he considers, and decides, ¡°I still won¡¯t accept pointless risks on your part, but I¡¯ll do what I can to aid your learning and your cause. You must follow my instructions. Practice no more than a thousand of a single rune in a day. I¡¯m sorry, it cannot be faster than this, not yet, perhaps not ever. Your life, it has worth, more value than the offal you treat it as, as you toss it around at any and every opportunity. Don¡¯t forget, you can¡¯t help anyone from beyond the grave.¡±


    I bite my tongue from saying, ¡°-Welll-,¡± since I¡¯m technically already beyond at least my first grave. I also keep my laughter completely internal. Despite this, Jarrah¡¯s wild gaze pierces right through me, and seems to parse my curbed humor. I worry that he will dismiss me outright for the cheek of it, even though I didn¡¯t say it aloud. If you¡¯re psychic Jarrah, cut me some slack, I can¡¯t help what I think, but I don¡¯t act on every thought that I have. I could swear Jarrah adopts a smirk that develops into a wicked grin, for only a moment.


    We resume instruction for a moment before Jarrah asks, ¡°I¡¯m still uncertain how the first trio was permitted entry into the Heart, despite the lack of any Fae heritage amongst them. You I assume were allowed because of the weapon on your back, and your positive intentions with it. I don¡¯t suppose there¡¯s any chance that you have heritage that resonates with its song?¡±


    I blink rapidly before explaining, ¡°I, well yes actually. I¡¯m um, when I spawned, well, before I spawned actually, on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I was an empty husk, a dying soul, broken. Fae around the Miracle Oak poured love, and love of nature into me, the verdant nature of it painted my grayed out soul green, the colors blended into a creamy green. When I actually spawned, I spawned as a cherubic changeling. I thought I was a human child for the longest time, til I met other changelings at the Miracle Oak. I didn¡¯t know anything about my prior existence as a soul until I met them either.¡±


    Jarrah mutters a vast cornucopia of conjectures too quickly for me to parse, despite my hypersensitive hearing. I do pick up the words, blade and song relatively close to one another though. Since it¡¯s nearing midnight, I heave a sigh as I begin to stand.


    Jarrah orders, ¡°Bring any, and every weapon, tool, and implement you¡¯ve ever resonated with tomorrow. We shall try a different tactic. I hate to discourage you, but you are not making any progress whatsoever on incanting. While I¡¯m loathe to skip it, we may be able to stride alongside its path in another manner. What I wouldn¡¯t give to have your girl Luni here for a few moments on the morrow.¡±


    Hell, you and me both Jarrah, you and me both. Regardless, I nod, acquiescing to his orders. I¡¯d swear that once again he smirked in response to my thoughts, but he refuses to answer if I ask anything about telepathy or psychic aptitude. As I stretch my weary muscles for a moment, I hunt about for something to clean up my messy pool of blood. At the mere thought, the blood seeps into the wood, drained until not even a stain remains. Both of us blink rapidly at the spot on the floor where my blood had been.


    I¡¯m a tad creeped out that trees around here keep absorbing my blood. Oh well, despite that, I bow to Jarrah, and, with tears in my eyes, thank him for his tutelage, ¡°Jarrah. I¡¯m sorry for my impertinence. I truly, truly appreciate your guidance. I hope I don¡¯t displease you further. I. I can¡¯t do this on my own. Thank you. I wish you a pleasant eve. Excuse me.¡±


    I quickly wipe away my tears from my scaled cheeks as I exit the meditation room. Alanea is waiting for me as I leave Jarrah¡¯s chamber, she looks almost giddy, yet the joy is hiding something beneath. There¡¯s a mixture of fear and sadness. I glance back at Jarrah who gives me an understanding nod. I¡¯m reading the situation, or at least the emotions, right. What do they mean though? Neither of them offers any further clues on the matter at the moment though. Alanea takes my hand as we descend. I¡¯m not willing to just skip out on Teuila, even if she knows I¡¯m walking someone home, so we stop by the gymnasium.


    Te jogs over, wearing almost nothing, drenched in sweat. She calls out, ¡°Heck of a workout! What¡¯s up Airhead, ready to head home? Hi Allie. Dawny, Allie and Reggie are here.¡±


    Alanea frowns and corrects Te, ¡°Erm, well, if anything, Ali would be a better nickname, but please don¡¯t. Um, well, what I mean is, please don¡¯t use nicknames that is. It¡¯s, well it¡¯s Ah lah knee ah. Well at least, I, I mean, if that¡¯s okay to maybe request. Err, well, I know you¡¯re powerful, but, I prefer my name, I love its sound.¡±


    Teuila pouts as she clasps her hands over her mouth. She apologizes, ¡°Sure thing, sure, sorry Alanea. I¡¯m so sorry. Are, um, can you forgive me? I really am sorry. Words are just. They. I play with them, because certain ones are hard. I¡¯m really sorry.¡±


    Alanea smiles and pats Teuila¡¯s right hand when Te drops it to her side as her muscles sag in apprehension. Alanea¡¯s forgiveness is evident in her answer, ¡°Well of course silly. Well, how could you possibly know before we really had a chance to talk? Well, I know that maybe someone else could have mentioned it, but they probably didn¡¯t. So, well, well it¡¯s alright. I appreciate it. Err, well, I appreciate you. Err, well, you trying and, and, um, acknowledging my preference.¡±


    Teuila nods emphatically, ¡°I, yeah, I totally know err, well, totally understand how having someone mispronounce your name or use an unfun nickname can be super irritating. Sorry again. So All-, erm, Alanea, whacha doing hanging with my Airhead?¡±


    Alanea blushes as she requests, ¡°Well, I, um, I hear how your friends refer to you as the boss, so I was hoping I could maybe request the night, or at least a few hours, off for Reggie. To, well, um, to walk me home. In private.¡±


    Teuila begins to waggle her brow but as I see the muscles tense I flash her a displeased look. She deflates before she has a chance to enjoy humorously teasing either of us about romantic possibilities. Sorry Te, not this time either. I doubt Rayileklia is going to house any such thing for me. Alanea has something sketchy going on with her. I don¡¯t know how to convey that since she¡¯s right here next to me. Oh! Jaz and Dream¡¯s sign language.


    I quickly flick my eyes towards Teuila¡¯s left hand, then my own, to get her attention. With my left hand safely out of view of Alanea, I sign the words for weird, shady, and event, more or less. Teuila barely refrains from gasping as she reads my signs. Her brows do raise fairly high in recognition however.


    Teuila nudges Dawn to fill Dawn in somewhat on something odd going on, and responds to Alanea, ¡°Oh hey of course, my Airhead is at your disposal. Just get ¡®em home before Dawn, get it? Hah, but no, seriously, just make sure they rest up before training tomorrow, one way or another.¡±


    Alanea beams a bright smile at Teuila as she nods and expresses her gratitude, ¡°Well of course, yes of course, thank you ms. Valkyrie.¡±


    The three of us fight to suppress our laughter at the formality of Teuila being referred to as ms. Valkyrie. I¡¯m biting my scaled lips hard as tears try to fight their way out my clenched eyelids. Teuila chokes on a cough to disguise her snort of laughter, and Dawn outright disappears.


    I wave to Teuila as Alanea happily leads me along, continuing downward. The veneer of her joy is wearing thin though. The apprehension, sadness, and fear are building up beneath it. I¡¯m worried for her.


    I ask, ¡°Alanea, is everything alright? I just have this sort of feeling that maybe something is wrong.¡±


    Alanea twitches once nervously at being called out, glances around, but doesn¡¯t answer my question as she continues to lead me downward. That was suspicious as all hell. Still, I¡¯m not sure if she¡¯s the one I should be suspicious of.


    Alanea stops me before we exit the Enclave. There¡¯s a sadness in her gaze as she avoids meeting mine. She begs, ¡°If, well, if hypothetically something happens tonight. And, and, well, maybe I say certain things if they happen. Well, could, could you, please believe me that I trust you, and that I hope you trust me. Please. Please don¡¯t, glp.¡±


    She turns away as tears well in her eyes, and I¡¯m left teary eyed myself. Aleana intends to betray me tonight. I¡¯m positive. She doesn¡¯t want to, but she¡¯s going to anyway. When she says she trusts me, is that extension of trust indicating she knows I can overcome whatever the betrayal is? Why wouldn¡¯t she just come to me and tell me the plan outright? Unless she¡¯s not sure she can trust everyone in the¡ª. Oh. It¡¯s kind of an open building, there were assailants waiting inside the other night. The Enochian Enclave really isn¡¯t secure in any manner. It doesn¡¯t have guards or patrols. It¡¯s mostly a school, and somewhat a faithless, or at least universalist, monastery. Yep. Alanea Whifflewillow is going to betray me tonight, whether she wants to or not.

 B 4 C 85: Betrayal Twixt Dusk and Dawn

    I try to comfort Alanea as slyly as I can in the hopes of letting her know I understand, and accept what¡¯s about to happen, ¡°Alanea, I do indeed trust that you trust me. I hope that whatever actions I take while guarding you home tonight leave us friends on the morrow. I will see you safely home. I won¡¯t accept failure in that regard. It¡¯s very sweet of you to worry about such a, koff, hypothetical, koff, event. Chin up Alanea dearling.¡±


    I use an affectation I¡¯ve heard passed between certain people in the Hidden Heart, dearling, in order to try to drive home that I really understand it has something to do with what¡¯s going on around here. I suppose the word is a simple portmanteau of deer and darling. I know she knows I¡¯m not from the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds, so hopefully she understands that it¡¯s a local affectation I¡¯m using in the moment in order to deliver my hint.


    Alanea nods and wears a forlorn smile. She clasps my right hand as we begin our walk, and she mutters a thankful affirmation, ¡°I, well, well yes of course we¡¯ll still be friends on the morrow. Well, I know that bodyguards might have to do some nasty violent things sometimes. Well, I mean, I already know you can break limbs in an instant. Err, well, so, so it¡¯s not like I¡¯m hesitant to be your friend with, well, all that power in your handsome, eek, I mean uh, something else. Well, I meant some other word. Not that you¡¯re not handsome, or are, or, um, ack.¡±


    She withdraws her hand to facepalm as she blushes madly. I fight the humor as I attempt to wear a neutral expression, despite the smile attempting to play across my face. That¡¯s honestly about as bad as me with Fawn¡¯s At Sunsets, the cat tribe matron who happens to be an inveterate flirt. Phew, I¡¯m sweating and blushing just thinking about her. I gulp and avoid eye contact with Alanea momentarily. It has been a while since anyone has seen Cherubic Reggie, at first I thought she might be stringing me along for some sort of luring me into a dangerous web kind of a deal, due to her name being a commonly mixed letter off of Aranea. Now I honestly believe she actually does find my cherubic form handsome, and is all the more upset at being about to betray me.


    I ramble as we walk, ¡°So, back home, I never truly dealt with it, but we shared stories you see. Well, it, I¡¯ll describe what it is with one of those stories. So there¡¯s this urchin, right? Street urchin, some child of the street who knows no life beyond stealing and hiding in dark alleys and abandoned buildings. He makes a few friends with other urchins, nothing unusual there, right? They make a game of who can brag about the best food they got since the last time they saw one another. Mostly harmless, and they deserve to live, life is harsh for them, but they make do.¡±


    Alanea seemed wary at first, but becomes enraptured, captivated by my tale. I¡¯m a bit surprised, since I¡¯m doing a horrible amateur hack job of it. Still, I continue, ¡°We¡¯ll call the urchin, the protagonist of this story Billie. Let¡¯s call his best friend Matt, the other street kid he has known the longest. They¡¯d share a hideout occasionally, and genuinely enjoy each other¡¯s company. Of course, it¡¯s not exactly safe for street kids to congregate together in such a city as this, easier to draw the attention of whistle-blowers noticing multiple dirty children sneaking in the same direction.¡±


    I continue glancing around, pretending to work up the suspense of where I¡¯m going with the story. I count six presences so far that continue to accidentally bump into the edges of my danger wraps¡¯ senses on occasion. We¡¯re definitely being tailed, and even led, as two of them are to our fore. I pretend to clasp my heart to indicate the upcoming heartbreak.


    I further narrate, ¡°The days were always harsher in winter. Winter meant every man woman and child for themselves. Winter meant cold, snow and ice biting at your feet through tattered shoes if you even had any shoes at all. Winter meant food stores were locked tighter. Winter meant no fresh food stalls in the marketplace at all. Winter meant hungry times for children of the street. Lean times. Tough times. Billie had made it through nearly a dozen winters, perhaps eight or so since he¡¯d lost his family as barely more than a sproutling. Matt had similarly made it through about six winters by now. Surviving any winters was a challenge for sure, but it drove the unlikelihood of their friendship home all the more so that each could appreciate it.¡±


    I gulp back saliva and try not to grin as Alanea grips my hand tightly in anxious excitement. Nearing the end, I orate, ¡°They were truly lucky to bump into each other again and again over the years. Billie and Matt were almost infamous as dirty streaks and sneaks about town, stealing food on a lark. As if they were doing it for pleasure. People can be so caught up in their own problems sometimes. Of course they may have taken some joy in their little game of who made the more daring escape, or who got the better food most recently, but they took no joy in the act of taking from others. They only did what they needed to survive. So many urchins if they ever got sick or injured at all would simply die with no one to feed them, or care for them. It¡¯s truly a difficult existence. Every one of them would give up the life if they could, if they were offered up even so much as a warm cot and enough gruel every night. The mills didn¡¯t even necessarily offer that. Children snatched off the streets were put to work in the mills, and discarded when they were too weak to continue working. Utterly dreadful. One always had to evade the authorities to avoid such a fate.¡±


    Alanea looks tearful as she begins to understand where the story is heading. I nod as I continue, ¡°One dreadful winter eve, Matt was caught by a constable. Now, there was the tiniest bit of coin rewarded for anyone who fed a child to the mills, figuratively speaking. Though not far off from literally speaking. The Thaddeus bunch that owned the mills profited from the free labor well enough that they could afford to offer a few copper per child that was handed over. Now, this constable was suffering lean times of his own. Winter is harsh, and people can be so caught up in their own problems sometimes. He decides to tell Matt an enticing lie. ¡®If you can get me some other urchin, one as strong and healthy as you, I¡¯ll let you go, more, I¡¯ll feed you and let you rest near my fireplace.¡¯ The offer was too good to be true, but, as has been said. Winter is harsh, and people can be so caught up in their own problems sometimes.¡±


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    I can tell I¡¯m being led to a rather perfect series of ambush spots. I won¡¯t know which one springs the trap. It¡¯s fine. I glance at Alanea and she gulps. As I¡¯m nearing the moral of the story, I may as well finish before trouble arrives, ¡°Aye, just so. Matt, knowing no other urchin capable of surviving even a single winter save one, decides to sell out Billie. It is with a heavy sigh that I regret we near the end of our tale, an unhappy end. One with only a shining sliver of hope. Matt knew Billie for a very long time, at least in the lifespan of urchins. Matt knew where Billie was likely to be, a series of nests as the urchins liked to call them. Sneaky little hideyholes somewhere out of the cold, at least a little ways. Matt led this Constable Turner to them one by one in the dark of night. This is of course when Billie was sure to be either weary, or asleep, or both, and thus unable to evade capture. Nearing the last possible spot to check, Constable Turner made sure Matt was shackled to him, ensuring him it was for his own safety. At this point, Matt realized his error. There was no food and fireplace waiting for Matt from Constable Turner, no, only a trip to the mills.¡±


    I draw a deep sigh. I almost half believe even my pursuers are enraptured, captivated by my story, waiting for it to end before jumping me. I allow myself a silent chuckle at the thought. I conclude, ¡°Constable Turner dove in to the final hideyhole, and sure enough, Billie was there as he laid weary within. Constable Turner had him shackled in no time flat, and though disoriented, Billie could see that the constable had another prisoner, his old friend Matt. Billie offered a smile at Matt who cried and attempted to beg forgiveness, but Constable Turner muffled and gagged him in order to keep down the noise and not lose, or have to share, his prizes to some other constable. Billie uttered four words. ¡®It¡¯s okay, I understand.¡¯ Billie marched quietly along with the constable and Matt, knowing that the both of them would surely die of the harsh conditions in the mill before winter''s end. That is of course where our sad tale ends. On one final spark, one glimmer of hope and love. Billie¡¯s forgiveness of Matt even in their most dire hour. Hopefully you can understand the sentiment of this story Alanea dearling.¡±


    Alanea¡¯s eyes flash wide. I¡¯m unsure if she realized until now that I knew exactly what was happening. Projectiles, from too many directions at once, some will hit Alanea if I don¡¯t do something. Grr! I intercept one with my left hip as I draw my dagger, two on my shield, one on my back, and I attempt to deflect two with my dagger. The bad news is, they¡¯re not traditional missiles. They¡¯re some sort of viscous globs of fast-hardening matter that are each a massive load of weight. Somehow they become more dense, and heavier as they expand. It won¡¯t be long before I¡¯m either completely covered, or unable to move, or crushed. Possibly all three.


    My hip seizes up, worse, the glob at my hip is covering the double-ended sheathe which locks my staff away, and it has locked my left wing and the bulk of my tail to my left hip. The ones I¡¯d attempted to deflect with my dagger trap my hand gripping my dagger tightly, and they prevent me from being able to equip my crossbow, or do anything useful with that hand.  Some of their spatter hit my right scapula and wing, and that spatter is expanding rapidly now too, locking up my right wing. The globs on my shield swell and puff over the shield, reaching my forearm just barely enough that I can¡¯t drop my now incredibly-heavy shield, as well as locking my wrist and several fingers in place.


    Alanea gulps as tears stream down her cheeks. She calls out, ¡°Well, well, there you go then! I, I did it! Well, I brought you Lullaby, an artifact! I want out! I, I very well don¡¯t want to be a part of this! Please, well, please just leave me and Flint alone!¡± Her gaze turned towards me shows that she wears a mortified expression, one begging forgiveness. I flash her a smile and an ever so slight nod.


    Unsurprisingly to me, but startling Alanea, Flint¡¯s voice calls out, ¡°Alanea, you know they, we, cannot allow that. You, we, belong to them now if we wish the safety of our students. I¡¯m sorry, -dearling-.¡± He nearly spits the word, having obviously heard our conversation, but he does it not out of vitriol for Alanea. He cares for her. No, he does it to draw my attention to his face. There¡¯s something in his eyes, a look. A similar plea for forgiveness. They¡¯re both being extorted, and they both truly care for the wellbeing of their students.


    I have f&*(ing had it with people extorting the innocent on this world! As I¡¯m being approached by five figures, I pick Alanea up and hurl her at Flint, startling the both of them. That took a massive amount of my reserve physical energy. It was difficult, but worth it. My gaze contains a vicious order to Flint. He picks up on it and flees as Alanea arrives in his arms. I allow the sneaks to edge closer as I glance about to make certain that Flint and Alanea aren¡¯t being followed. Let¡¯s see just how powerful we can make this.


    Heh. Subtle spell metamagic, you should be able to do it even when bound, right Reggie? That¡¯s what Jarrah said. The wicked sneer that adorns my face causes my assailants to quiver ever so slightly. I hang my head low with my eyes closed, still wearing my malicious grin. This. This is going to be brutal, but I have to be decisive. They took my options away from me. I can barely move with how heavily I¡¯m weighted down. Just a bit closer. I¡¯m sorry if you¡¯re all leaving any family behind. I¡¯m sorry for whatever made you choose this path. I¡¯m sorry that you¡¯re about to die by my hand, and I understand that your lifes¡¯ stories led you to this point. The rune finishes, and my forgiveness, my sympathy, my empathy, my sadness flood the rune. Despite the raw fury rising up within me, I struggle to maintain as calm an air as I can, and fail. Wrath, my greatest sin. I empower the rune with everything I have, and freeze my attackers solid just as they¡¯re entering arms reach. It only takes a spin with a now heavily-weighted shield. I shatter five people, five bodies, five stories, five lives in an instant.


    I vomit blood from the spelliform¡¯s cost, and from loosing up the sick in my stomach at the brutality of the act I¡¯ve just committed. I weep for five people that I never so much as saw the faces of before taking their lives. I weep, knowing that Flint and Alanea may not yet be safe, as these are likely not the ringleaders behind this mess. I weep for my beloved inner circle, the grief they may have over me, knowing that I may still yet die while passed out, if a wiser assailant or ringleader held back. The weighted, hardened foam has reached a density that I can no longer resist. I sink to the ground completely, helpless to even leave my own puddle of blood and sick. I continue to vomit and cry as my consciousness is stolen from me.

 B 4 C 86: Despite It All

    They¡¯re both so beautiful.  One, my best friend for as long as I can remember, her smile is the thing I most want to protect in all the world.  The other, a woman who went out of her way to get to know me, despite the challenges, despite me being a wreck.  I think I¡¯m losing consciousness though.  The migraine hit hard this time, and my head struck the corner of this brick building as I doubled over.  I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ve got a concussion and I¡¯m simply having a flash of rapid thoughts on my way to passing out.  I¡¯m definitely falling at least.  I''m fairly certain blood is flowing rapidly down over my right eye from a wound in my forehead from the strike.  I may have already blacked out for a moment on the way down.


    Some time has passed, but familiar, wonderfully tonal voices are calling out to me.  I can¡¯t quite make it out.  Actually I can¡¯t feel or see anything.  I can¡¯t move.  I¡¯m not even sure I¡¯m breathing.  I begin to feel a painful pressure where my chest should be.  Repeatedly.


    The voices pause momentarily before resuming as the painful pressure returns.  They¡¯re calling out something.  It sounds vaguely ironic.  They¡¯re saying, ¡°You need to breathe air, breathe.¡±  Isn¡¯t air¡ª


    Teuila is virtually screaming into my face as she pleads, begs, ¡°Please, please Airhead breathe, breathe air, breathe please.  Dawny, Dawny help me, please help me, they were drowning, they, but they¡¯re wearing the neck thingy, they shouldn¡¯t be able to drown.  Please, someone please help!  My Airhead, my Reggie, my, my love is, isn¡¯t breathing.¡±


    Tears splash hotly upon my face as Teuila continues compressions and rescue breaths.  Somehow I¡¯m accepting her oxygen through an esophagus full of blood and bile.  The neck-chain working its magic I imagine.  Perhaps the only reason I¡¯m even alive enough to notice what¡¯s happening.  Everything hurts.  I want to reassure Teuila I¡¯m fine now, but I barely have perception, let alone control of my senses or anything else.


    Teuila growls tearfully, ¡°Allie, you, you did this!  You.  I.  I¡¯m sorry Alanea.  Thank you for rushing to get me.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Flint thank you for staying and trying to get this gunk off of Reggie.  It¡¯s so heavy, it, it¡¯s heavy even for me.¡±


    Flint mumbles, ¡°It, it shouldn¡¯t do this.  It reacted differently.  To, to them, or the artifact, Lullaby.  I don¡¯t know.  I¡¯m sorry.  I didn¡¯t know this could even happen.¡±


    I feel further tears splash hotly upon my face that aren¡¯t mine, but then I feel my own tears leaving the corners of my eyes and traveling down my taut reptilian cheeks.  Teuila notices the new tears between rescue breaths and compressions.


    Teuila exclaims in a mixture of worry and surprise, ¡°They!  Their eyes are bleeding.  They¡¯re crying blood.  My, my Reggie is crying blood again.¡±


    Oh, well that¡¯s disconcerting.  I struggle to fight whatever has left me almost completely paralyzed.  This is going to suck, but I think I know what to do.  I gather a sense of what¡¯s happening.  Yeah, the foam had been slightly absorbed into my skin, and it¡¯s not expanding enough to straight up cause me to explode from the inside, but it has hardened every inch of me.  None of my muscles are working, the only thing keeping oxygen flowing through me right now is Teuila.  I just hope she understands the signal I¡¯m about to send, and keeps breathing for me.


    I call out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, begging my inventory powers to isolate the foam particulate all throughout my system.  Oh hell that¡¯s friggin¡¯ agony, but keep focusing on it Reggie.  Blood and mana begin pouring forth from me, and my gathered friends gasp momentarily.  Teuila stops the rescue breathing in surprise.  Sh$%! Sh$%! Sh$%!  Te, Te I need you to keep breathing for me long enough for this to work!  My, my brain needs oxygen.  Can¡¯t, can¡¯t focus.


    Dawn somehow catches on.  She worriedly asks, ¡°Boss, hey, hey Boss!  Doesn¡¯t that glow mean something?  Something like, like your home and stuff?  Rej aint breathing, can¡¯t breathe, they¡¯re like a friggin¡¯ statue.¡±


    Teuila gasps and exclaims, ¡°You¡¯re right!  Hang in there Air, a few more minutes.  Whatever plan you¡¯ve got, whatever you¡¯re doing, you¡¯ve got this.  Always have, always will.¡±


    Teuila resumes rescue breathing for me a bit on the late side.  I hope my focus hasn¡¯t been broken in the mental subroutine I tried to set up to guide the inventory claiming magic.  I just keep focusing on that one subroutine, not ready to start over.  I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ll live through another eight minutes of Teuila¡¯s chest compressions.  My ribs are cracked to hell.  The migraine building behind my eyes is so distracting, but maybe it¡¯s a good sign.  Can¡¯t have migraines if you¡¯re dead, right?


    Or maybe it¡¯s the sign of a, I don¡¯t know, embolism, and these are my last seconds.  Shut up with those thoughts!  Focus Reggie, focus!  Keep it together, a few more minutes.  Gosh I¡¯m so slick with blood that Teuila¡¯s starting to slide around as she struggles to compress my scaly chest.  Huh, something else is happening.  I can¡¯t feel my wings or tail at all any longer.  Also Teuila¡¯s hands feel larger across my chest.


    The magic finally completes its task, and all the blood and bile in my throat is now begging for release.   So I quickly roll my head to the side to let my esophagus eject all the inappropriate fluid.  There¡¯s rounds of gasps and shocked gratitude and people attempting to hug or comfort me, but I scrabble away from everyone for a moment so I can continue to gush a torrent of blood and bile.  Apparently I haven¡¯t yet even paid the price for the spelliform.  Unconsciousness takes me once more.


    I awaken to a pounding headache, in bed, being fretted over by Teuila and, oddly enough, Alanea as well.  I can sense Dawn and Flint outside, standing guard I think.  By the looks of everyone according to my danger wraps¡¯ senses, they must have been taking turns sleeping in shifts while watching over me worriedly.  No one notices I¡¯m awake quite yet though since I¡¯m silently nursing this headache.  Not to mention some rather heavily cracked ribs.  Teuila probably had to fight petrified scales to put enough pressure onto my sternum to keep my organs pumping.  I bet she was terrified of punching a hole right through me the entire time.


    I groan, ¡°Ugh, training is going to be a friggin¡¯ bugger today with this headache.  What a bummer and a half.  Ow my effing brain and eyes.  Urgh.  But um, thanks everyone.  Team effort saved my arse.  Seriously, needed every last one of you.  Dawn if you hadn¡¯t told Teuila to keep breathing for me when I started my spell, that was it.  Flint and Alanea, you have my gratitude, obviously.  Being crushed to death or leaving this mortal coil without Teuila at my side would have sucked.  She might have been the only one strong enough to compress my petrified chest.¡±


    Alanea nods tearfully as she claims, ¡°She, she is, was.  Flint and I tried, to, to do anything.¡±


    Flint apologizes, ¡°I hope you can forgive our part in this.  We¡¯re still trying to track down this accursed influence within the Heart, and, well, we¡¯re not warriors, we were in over our heads as we got closer to the truth.¡±


    I flash a smile vaguely in Flint¡¯s direction as I ask, ¡°You heard my story, right?¡±


    I can sense a knowing smirk cross his face as he nods ever so slightly.


    As everyone begins to crowd around me now that I¡¯ve awoken, I grumble, ¡°Alright, alright, alright, I love all of you, but I need some space to breathe for a sec or ten.  Seriously have a massive migraine, probably some brain damage from extended lack of oxygen.  Te, without the neck thing, your breath wouldn¡¯t have reached my lungs.  My esophagus was full of blood and stuff the whole time.¡±


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    Teuila¡¯s eyes flash wide in understanding.  I nod with a mixed expression.  I flex my various muscle groups, and I¡¯m surprised when I have no tail, wings, chromatophores or iridophores to flex.  Blinking, I gaze at myself.  I¡¯ve dropped down to Cherubic Reggie.  Did my inventory magic have to claim my entire form to get rid of the paralytic agent?  Firstly, confusing as hell, secondly, my powers are smarter than I¡¯d ever given them credit for.  I knew they¡¯d prevent spontaneous displacement of living matter when apparating from my inventory, and that they took care of a lot of the nuances of math and electroscopic sensing and such.  But this is something else entirely.  It¡¯s like my magic decided whatever function I was trying to do wasn¡¯t going to work, so it substituted the right ability for me.


    I glance about the room, and when my gaze meets Alanea¡¯s, it turns out she¡¯s staring at me.  Alanea blushes wildly and suddenly glances about, attempting to evade eye contact.  I blush and fight back laughter as I try not to smile too goofily.  I¡¯m flattered.  Hell, she¡¯s an earnest, caring, gorgeous woman working as a counterspy in a devilish operation for seemingly good people.  Anyone would be lucky for her interest.  I¡¯m leaving the Heart in four¡¯ish days though.  I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever be back.  If I fail Dawn, I don¡¯t know if I could ever face anyone I¡¯d met with Dawn ever again.  Then again, if she¡¯s wiped from our memories, maybe none of us will even realize how I failed.


    Flint quietly asks me, ¡°Were you certain slaying them was necessary?  They¡¯ve done despicable things as a group, but I think they were simply after your weapon.¡±


    I shake my head, sighing, ¡°I¡¯m not certain, no, but I know Lullaby wouldn¡¯t leave me while I¡¯m alive.  I¡¯m not sure how, but it would struggle to stay connected to me somehow.  They¡¯d have found out immediately when they tried to take him.  Killing me would get the weapon away, so I was almost certain it was imminent.  Fat lot of good it would do them though unless they have another use for him.  He can simply refuse to partner with or serve anyone he dislikes.¡±


    I shrug as I further conjecture, ¡°Not sure if that really mattered to them, since I don¡¯t know what they wanted him for.  If he just needs to be at a location at some point for a ritual or something, then we stopped that plan from occurring.  For example.¡±


    Flint strokes his chin then rubs along his cheek, where I now realize he¡¯s sporting a nasty bruise in the shape of an open handed slap.  He notices my gaze making note of it and wears a lopsided grimace, half a cheeky smile.


    He coughs as he explains, ¡°Your, erm, Teuila, was a tad upset when she learned of our involvement.  I took the brunt of that, thankfully for Ms. Whifflewillow.¡±


    Teuila blushes as she grumbles, ¡°I knew my Airhead already knew something was up with All¡ª, Alanea.  Sorry, still a bit pissed at you, but that doesn¡¯t mean I should disrespect you, sorry.  Anyway, I knew Air knew something fishy was going on with Alanea, but you being there was a surprise.  Also you have to admit, you have a really creepy way of staring my dude.¡±


    My dude?  More slang from Teuila that sounds so reminiscent of contemporary Earth.  Alanea laughs momentarily at Flint¡¯s expense, just for the briefest of moments.  Flint agrees with chagrin, ¡°I¡¯ve, erm, been told as much, yes.  My apologies, I get caught up when I gaze upon beauty so much that I forget myself and am prone to ogling.¡±


    Teuila adopts the face of someone who has been offered prunes when they wanted candied yams, and accompanies it with the blech sound.  I hear Dawn make a similar sound from somewhere, but casting my senses about, I can¡¯t find her nearby.


    I grunt in pain, accidentally calling attention to myself.  May as well make use of it while I have it.  I ask, ¡°Do any of you know, or have any of you learned of the extent of the powers of Mab, Oberon, Bastet, and Anubis?  Are they keeping the massive forest enchantment running?  Do they have more powers than that?¡±


    There¡¯s a mixed murmur that amounts to almost nothing before Flint offers, ¡°It¡¯s my understanding that, well, certain elder, powerful beings can bring forth some sort of major effect within their domain.  I do believe our lords and ladies are such elder beings.  I¡¯ve seen no proof that they¡¯ve anything else besides parlor tricks however.  The courts are a conspiratorial mess.  I imagine if they had any sort of additional power, they¡¯d clean up their messes.¡±


    I huff a sigh and groan, ¡°Well crap.  I need a lead, any lead.  Jarrah¡¯s going to kill me, or at least chew me the hell out, for almost killing myself after what we just agreed to.  Friggin¡¯ hell I hope he keeps me on as his student.  Ugh.¡±


    Teuila pouts and frowns as she gazes my way with a furrowed, questioning brow.  She asks, ¡°What¡¯s that worry for?  Why would Jarrah not keep you on?  You¡¯re his apt pupil or whatever, right?¡±


    I huff another sigh as I blush before admitting, ¡°Erm, well, he made me agree to not risk myself as much.  He threatened that if I didn¡¯t take his order seriously, and stick to it, he would drop me from his tutelage, and even withhold any hints on how to find Lil.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s frown takes on much angrier qualities as she grits her teeth, growling, ¡°How dare he even threaten to keep¡ª!  Wait.  He¡¯s kinda right Airhead.  You sorta do risk yourself way too much.  You should have asked for backup or something.¡±


    I glance around avoiding eye contact, blushing as I admit, ¡°I, I know.  I knew I was walking into a trap.  I thought I could handle it.  I didn¡¯t want to get Alanea hurt if she couldn¡¯t deliver on her betrayal that I knew was coming.  I was positive that betrayal required me to be alone.  Am I wrong Alanea?¡±


    Alanea blushes furiously while shaking her head and avoiding eye contact.  She rubs her eyes fiercely and sniffles.  It¡¯s obvious she regrets leading me into what was almost my doom.  The mood in the room drops to its lowest point since my waking.


    Dawn appears as if from nowhere after sensing the mood shift.  She changes topics lightheartedly, ¡°Hey Rej, pal, it¡¯s a good thing you were wearing those magic clothes.  Boss stripped you down but good, down to your bottoms looking for what was keeping you from breathing.  Woulda been even more naked after transforming all of a sudden if the clothes didn¡¯t shift with you.¡±


    There¡¯s a round of light, anxious chuckling as each of us struggles to let the mood lift.  We all go about beginning our day, though it¡¯s apparently noon at this point.  Hellspit.  Less time to practice and learn.  What was it Jarrah wanted me to do?  Bring every weapon, tool, or implement that I¡¯ve ever resonated with?  I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ve resonated with any of them, though the semi-broken thunderstick is one of my oldest, proudest possessions.  I sort of think of it as having claimed it during that first encounter with Octorochi.  Technically I didn¡¯t claim it until months later during our final encounter with the blasted serpent.  But we still lost a potential friend that day, that first encounter.  Their will though carried on to make up the essence of TQ in the temple of time, and that will wanted us to have the staff.


    I grumble as I go about making sure I¡¯ve got everything that might be in Teuila¡¯s bags, or scattered about anywhere, or in my own Can¡¯Z¡¯aas inventory. When I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve got it all, I shove it in my hyperdimensional haversack, and some of it barely fits.  Heck, the top of this staff pokes out up against the lid of the sack.  Definitely less space than Luni¡¯s extradimensional bag.  Hm.  Extradimensional.  Extrads.  That sounds familiar somehow.  Ah well, no time to get lost in pointless thoughts, have to go train.  Even if Jarrah drops me as a pupil, I have to at least practice runes.  What the hell day is it again?  My brain aches.  Right, the eighth of July.


    We¡¯ve arrived, and Jarrah seems ready for my admittance, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry Jarrah.  On the way home, there was an attack.  I.  Glp.  I took five lives, as I felt I had no other option for survival.  Even to do that, I risked, well, my life I guess.  I used the frost rune empowered to its fullest.  I didn¡¯t risk three or five runes or anything, just that one, but I was almost already almost paralyzed by the time I decided to use it.  More so when I used it.  I figured it was my only chance.¡±


    Jarrah nods along with my tale, Alanea and Flint avoid his crazy gaze but they nod as well.  Teuila fidgets, trying not to crack her knuckles.  Dawn is probably fidgeting, wherever she has disappeared to again.


    Jarrah doesn¡¯t address me, which is disheartening.  Turning to Alanea and Flint, he asks, ¡°Well, Ms. Whifflewillow, Mr. Darklace, are we any closer to the truth after this little fiasco?¡±


    Both gulp and shake their heads.  Instead of being angry, Jarrah drops his forehead wearily into his right palm.  Jarrah actually apologizes to me, ¡°Huff.  I¡¯m sorry child of another world.  It seems you were caught up in some plot by our mutual manxome foe.  One that may not even have had you as its intended target, simply that which you wield.  I¡¯m glad you heeded my words.  I¡¯m not exactly pleased to hear you spilled blood within the Heart however.  That may cost us.¡±


    Alanea and Flint look as if they¡¯re both about to say -wellll-.  Alanea actually does, ¡°-Wellll-, Reggie didn¡¯t actually spill any blood, first, they were completely frozen solid, all the way through, then by the time we revived Reggie, I hardly noticed but their bodies were gone.  Erm, well, I¡¯m pretty sure I saw the tree roots drinking them.  Well, I think that¡¯s what I thought I saw.¡±

 B 4 C 87: The Fourth Training Continues

    Well that¡¯s terrifying as all hell. Though it also seems to bend physics more than usual. Freezing someone? Sure. Shattering them? I guess. Their shattered remains turning into fluid? That just doesn¡¯t sound right. Still, the trees got rid of the evidence I guess. Those poor unfortunate souls. Ow, brain fritz. Still, huh, more trees drinking blood on my behalf. I send some thoughts questioningly at Lullaby who remains suspiciously silent.


    Is the glaive asking the trees to clean up any blood I leave laying around so that it doesn¡¯t hamper travel? That¡¯s a far broader scope to his power than I had previously imagined he might have. Holy crap. Hell, his power basically covered up murders for me. Um, thanks Lullaby. His sending of warm positive flashes of emotion to me tells me I was probably at least in the ballpark with my guessing. Sentient artifacts are scary as f^&*.


    Lullaby sends me negative signals as I plan to divulge my thoughts and findings to everyone else. I suppose that would draw more attention and suspicion on us than we need. Thanks again I guess. I don¡¯t think we¡¯re going to see your sister at this rate though Lullaby. At least not with the way things are going here. We haven¡¯t even started navigating the court politics. Lullaby sends ambivalence and acceptance my way. Thanks for being understanding. Gosh, it¡¯s kind of nice to have someone in my head again. Even if he is a literal weapon. I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t really pay attention to our bond before now. More ambivalence and acceptance.


    Each of us departs this meeting of the minds for our various tasks. Teuila sets about resuming trying to cram learning three to four things while exercising all day into a single activity. I¡¯m pretty sure she has been doing things like balancing on fewer and fewer fingers without her gravity powers, or even with her gravity powers increasing her own gravity instead of lowering it. Teuila¡¯s physical prowess is monstrous, and grows by the day. Dawn joins her just so that she can remain near Boss, and have someone nearby in case her senses fail. She can¡¯t join me since Jarrah forbids anyone else entry while we train.


    I¡¯m grateful for the one on one tutelage, but it¡¯s almost odd how stern he is about it. Even his own Enclave members like Alanea had to wait one stair below the landing that led to his meditation chamber. I guess I should feel honored maybe. I feel a tad remorseful at having thought he might secretly be in league with the Celestial Emperor due to being a secretly Celestial being hidden amongst the Fae. Still, we go about our training to little effect.


    Hours upon hours pass as we try various things with every single weapon, tool, magical item, or object at my disposal that I might have ever used in some fashion. If I had my original walking stick, I¡¯d pull that out. I¡¯m pretty sure I lost that one on of my many trips in the waters of that main river that divides Can¡¯Z¡¯aas¡¯s southern half right down the center from north to south. Ugh, my head. I miss my home. My family. I even miss my stupid tragic frequent dunks in the drink in that particular river. I can¡¯t think of another object that I have that we haven¡¯t tried yet today. I¡¯ve got three runes mastered though, on my way to my fourth. Too bad runes two, three, four, and five are just instructional runes, no effect on their own. Or maybe that¡¯s for the best, since they might be reused in other spells.


    Suddenly, Jarrah curses, ¡°Fel fires! What in this distended reality is the source of your magic!? You¡¯re not a wizard or hedge witch, even the most basic untrained wizard or witch could learn either incantation or bladesinging, but you¡¯re making absolutely zero progress, as if your magic actively defies what we know to be true about spellcraft! You¡¯re no enchanter or enchantress, no manacrafter or sage, no druid or shaman.¡±


    Jarrah mutters to himself for a moment as I roll my eyes and continue my useless training. Suddenly he orders, ¡°You, Reggie. Draw blood or spit blood into your hand. Quickly now, hurry up. Command the blood itself to sing as you try to draw another rune. Feel and sense the blood with any and every sense available to you. If you feel any twinge of any previously unknown sense, tell me immediately!¡±


    I draw a ragged breath and drop it as a heavy sigh. It¡¯s easy enough to up some blood from my esophageal track into my hand. I do as commanded. I¡¯ve a pretty fair familiarity by now with strange additional senses compared to the norm for say, Earth humans. Hell, I¡¯ve even a pretty fair familiarity by now with my own blood, hah. Gosh I¡¯ve bled far more in my lifetime than should be survivable. Still, I alight on no new sense relating to the blood as I attempt to have it sing for me, to have it aid my runecrafting in any way shape or form.


    Jarrah curses again when it¡¯s evident nothing new is happening. He returns to muttering to himself. After a moment he demands, ¡°Be honest with me, have you been in contact with any extraplanar entities?¡±


    I scratch my head as I postulate, ¡°There was a, a pyramid, the way it disappeared later in our adventures makes me think it was actually some kind of interdimensional ship or something, maybe. Especially with the kinds of creatures that dwelt within it. Creepy as hell brain eating squid faces. I. I.¡±


    I begin to devolve into panic as tears stream down my face. The room itself glows intensely and I feel the panic burned painfully away from me. I¡¯m left gasping for breath, and I¡¯m fairly certain I¡¯m bleeding from the nose or eyes again. I continue to gasp and pant, struggling to orient my dizzy, woozy head.


    I plead, ¡°I, I was being honest, I swear. There might be more too, but, but that¡¯s the first thing that¡ª¡°


    Jarrah interrupts, ¡°Shush now, my chamber just accelerated your panic attack, we both know you¡¯ve no time for those. I¡¯m not punishing you you self-absorbed, pompous, inveterate ignoramus. Let me think. That may be close, but I doubt it. By your own telling, you¡¯ve had your powers since what you call your spawning. What about any beings that can exist outside time? Outside space?¡±


    I collapse into a pained fit of laughter as I double over clutching my stomach and head. I nod emphatically as I explain, ¡°Yeah, yes, haha. I, haha. I sent myself, my personality back in time to before I spawned. So I technically interacted with myself before I could ever interact with anything. Then there¡¯s TQ, a being that wasn¡¯t an actual being, they were the collective wills of so many people I had failed to save in so many different timelines. Despite my failures, they only ever wished for, and guided my success. Their existence ended when the primary timeline met up with the furthest they¡¯d ever been though. Heck, there¡¯s even the void beyond the edges of space that I tried to contact in order to find a source of energy that wasn¡¯t the tainted radiance corrupting my world. We reached some sort of accord somehow, I think.¡±


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Jarrah Bettergrove¡¯s ever-moving wild eyes widen, and widen, and continue widening til I¡¯m sure his eyeballs are about to spring forth from their sockets by the end of my explanation. He suddenly looks inward again, gazing down as he mutters to himself, ¡°Time and math, or aberrant entities? Time and math? Aberrant entities. Which is more dangerous? Hm, no, one better.¡±


    Jarrah asks, ¡°What about dragons, beyond your friend Lil, older, more powerful dragons.¡±


    I snort, ¡°Pfft, hahaha. I mean, recently I slew an elder purple dragon by cutting off her head from the inside, accidentally swallowed some of her blood and spit. I also sort of claimed most of the power from her heart or something? Not sure. Plus, hell, this is going to sound unbelievable, hahaha.¡±


    I pause, trying to refrain from laughing, ¡°I um, I connected to the minds of two different god-class dragons, Lord Deckard Agni, the Pure and Desolate, and Lady Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending. Both were miles upon miles upon miles in size. I¡¯m not sure if a few miles, or dozens, or hundreds. By the time you¡¯re in those orders of magnitude, it¡¯s hard to gauge anything. Anyway, both were very pleasant to speak with, once they let me use my communication method, instead of melting my brain with lava or lightning by trying to speak.¡±


    I then mutter, mostly to myself, ¡°Tenny is actually a friend if she¡¯s still alive, if she even still exists after the convergence. I hope they return to their original forms after wiping the slate clean. I don¡¯t want Tenny to only exist as some fraction of some walking apocalypse that I¡¯ll have to defeat one day.¡±


    Jarrah looks incredulous as he requests clarification, ¡°You¡¯ve reached out and touched the void, battled interstellar brain eaters, sent yourself beyond your own past, and survived the speech of actual literal dragon gods? And to top it off, you then connected with their minds to speak with them in a non life-threatening manner!? What in all the fel hells even are you!?¡±


    I can¡¯t help laughing as I respond, ¡°Pft, hah, I¡¯ve been asked that question -sooo- many times in my life. I¡¯m incredibly sorry, something about what the room did, everything is funnier, I beg that you believe I mean no disrespect with all this laughter.¡±


    Jarrah mumbles as he waves dismissively, ¡°Yes yes euphoric side effects of post panic. Whatever, shut up for a moment.¡±


    Jarrah returns to muttering to himself, something along the lines of, ¡°Dragons? Gods? Aberrations? Time and math? The Void itself? Column A, Column B, a little of both? All of the above? Their own future self? Fel fires this child is vexing.¡±


    I can¡¯t help adding, ¡°Recently I had this terrifying thought that the Celestial Emperor is also somehow the red-eyed entity that hounded me my entire life on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It roused gods to try to destroy me, it took over loved ones whom I had to trounce and splash with pure river water to free from its grasp, it inhabited and enhanced monstrous creatures from dungeons to try to take me out.¡±


    Then I recall another detail, ¡°Oh, and it passed through me frequently whenever I drove it away or defeated a body it was inhabiting. I got weird glimpses of shared memories that I¡¯m just now realizing were quite similar to Aces¡¯ memories. Is that in any way relevant?¡±


    The room glows again as I begin to devolve into panic from recalling the red-eyed entity, and I¡¯m sent hurtling into a blinding migraine as it feels like I¡¯m blasted backwards against the wall that I¡¯m sitting against. Ow. I attempt to flex my jaw, neck, and spine, but every bit of me is frozen in place where I¡¯ve been blasted into the wall. Jarrah looks incredibly disturbed by my recent revelation. He actually stands and approaches me while I¡¯m temporarily dazed.


    Jarrah withdraws something sharp from the right sleeve of his robe and continues approaching me. He wears a sad, apologetic expression on his face. Oh hell. Is he about to try what I think he¡¯s about to try? Oh hell no. My muscles are spasming, a tiny spasm is all I need. I flick my left hand just enough to unlatch the secret holster for my most powerful magic staff, and it drops into my hand. The first thing I do is summon the spectral hand to attempt to simply deflect Jarrah¡¯s attack at the last instant. It barely succeeds.


    Jarrah frowns and barks, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I have to do this, it¡¯s for all of our sakes!¡±


    I retort, ¡°Well I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m not going to just give up and die you lunatic. I¡¯m warning you, I don¡¯t know how powerful you think you are, or that you think I am, but I will remind you, everything I¡¯ve ever faced has either been subdued, or wound up dead. That includes extradimensional entities, dracoliches, calamity-class beasts. All dead or subdued. I want neither for you. Actually all of those ones I listed are dead.¡±


    Okay, one or two things sort of technically beat me, but he doesn¡¯t need to know that. Technically the rock elementals only ended up dead because Dippy left the massive stick of dynamite lit, laying next to us. But I survived that explosion after having already been beaten to a bloody pulp. That sort of counts as a victory, right?


    Jarrah begins to laugh. He allows himself to fall to his arse and laughs further as he drops his forehead into his right hand. He shakes his head incredulously, and I can just barely make out a scant few tears splashing downward. I can¡¯t tell if they¡¯re from humor, or something else.


    I demand, ¡°Okay, out with it, if you¡¯re going to have to kill me anyway, do you have telepathy or psionic abilities? Have you been reading my thoughts? Are you laughing about the rock elementals?¡±


    Jarrah nods sadly while laughing and weeping into his hand. Friggin¡¯ hell, was that so hard? Although, I guess it¡¯s better to leave people guessing than to let on that you have that particular ability, so that people don¡¯t begin guarding their thoughts. Jarrah continues nodding at my thought train. I guess I can keep his secret. If I survive whatever¡¯s coming in the next few moments.


    I huff a sigh as motor control slowly returns to my body. I ask, ¡°Are we still going to do this dance of you trying to kill me, or can we get back to training?¡±


    Jarrah waves dismissively before stating, ¡°Fine, fine. Yes, fine. I suppose even if you were touched by our mutual manxome foe, you¡¯re not some deep sleeper agent. Your thoughts are too honest, too random. The fact that your first thought was to deflect and offer mercy rather than attempting to kill me with any of your available tools is a testament to that, not that most would have succeeded mind you. Our foe doesn¡¯t know my limits, and wouldn¡¯t let such an opportunity to end me, or test them slip by. Fel hells I doubt even he has a grasp on your powers if that was truly him, or even a fragment of him. It definitely sounds like his modus operandi however. I¡¯ll reiterate, what in all the fel fiery hells even are you?¡±


    I shrug. That¡¯s something I¡¯d like to know myself.

 B 4 C 88: Informed By Headaches

    Jarrah returns to ordering me around, ¡°I need you to imagine these disparate entities, these forces you¡¯re entangled with.  Feel outwards to them, be wary, and careful, but try to make contact with them as if they¡¯re somehow embedded in your own soul.  The first one that speaks to you, inform me immediately.  Barring a lack of that, we¡¯ll strive to identify any patron or devil with ties to your soul.¡±


    Huff.  I don¡¯t like the sound of either of those things, especially when one might be our enemy itself.  How hilarious would it be though if my power actually came from him?  Like, if I¡¯m actually stealing his power whenever I use magic?  Casting about my senses externally and internally though, I can tell where I have scars from his influence.  They didn¡¯t grant me my powers though.  No.  Within this room, I now know for certain that the radiant energy attempting to disintegrate me at the Bright Lord¡¯s cult Cathedral of Blood was definitely from our foe.  Moreover, I¡¯m almost, -almost- certain that our foe and the entity that hounded me my entire life on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas are linked somehow, possibly even part of the same being.


    Still, it¡¯s definitely not from him that I draw my original or current powers.  Thankfully.  Tossing my senses out and about, deep within, and far beyond the heavens, I struggle to reach out to the void, to TQ, to any entity that might exist outside time itself.  I¡¯m left gasping for breath, lightheaded and woozy, but no closer to a source for my powers.  I draw a ragged breath and blow it out through puffed cheeks.  Hell¡¯s bells I didn¡¯t think just looking for an answer could be so tiring.  My eyelids are drooping.  Come on Reggie, keep it together.


    What about magic itself?  Could magic itself be my source of magic and power?  Just the chaos inherent in its system?  Wild, raw, untamed oddity that happened to congregate around me?  For some reason, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the case.  It feels more structured, more organized than that.  Probably for the best.  I really don¡¯t want to accidentally become some sort of agent of chaos.  Hff.  Blargh.  What else was there?  Actual factual literal dragons and dragon gods?  It, it would be so nice if Tenny were the source of my powers somehow.  She was an ancient being, right?  Somehow her existence stretched into an ancient past that our planet had never even truly had.


    I sniffle and quickly rub my itchy wet eyes.  I really, really hope the goddess of the sky unending still exists somehow when we return home.  Snff.  She was so kind, and excited to share, and bond, and talk.  She was patient, and wonderful, and powerful, and silly, and fun.  I did reach out to the void in her presence, could that have somehow sent some of her divinity back to me in the past to grant me my own powers?  Somehow I doubt it.  That doesn¡¯t seem quite right.  What about Lord Agni?  I was connected with his mind as the entity slammed through me.  I¡¯m more and more sure that the entity has existed for all my life and beyond in both directions.  Could it have accidentally infused me with a gift from Lord Agni while trying to screw with me?  Hm.  Maybe.  Again, unlikely though.  I don¡¯t sense anything from either of them.


    Any other dragons of immense power?  The dracolich, no, barely an existence, though I did float in its cloud of necrotic energy for a while.  But while I was there, I was under an anti sorcery enchantment, so it¡¯s highly unlikely anything passed along my timeline from that.  What about Kozzurth?  I ingested bits of her on accident, and absorbed her heart.  I absorbed the heart of an elder-wyrm while I technically already have part of the core, the beating crystalline heart of another dragon residing within me.  That bond with Lil goes back almost to my beginning in some ways.  Could her power have infused that bond back to its very beginnings?


    Hm, it doesn¡¯t quite reach far enough though.  Lil and I didn¡¯t forge our bond til after I¡¯d begun exploring inventory magic.  Though I technically didn¡¯t cast anything I¡¯d consider a spell until after meeting Lil.  This holds some possible merit.  Specifically the limit break against Vampguppy was the first time I was able to magically duplicate things in an external attack spell.  Hm.  Then Lil was the one that guided me to try out the radiant duplication again, prompting me to learn more about my powers.  Lil¡¯s prodding helped me realize that as long as I had certain values of mana, I could evoke effects into the world.  That sounds so very much like the right track.  I¡¯m still not resonating with anything internally though.


    Jarrah said something about remarkable affinity for absence, though he always deflected when I called him out on it.  Could absence somehow be drawing power to me?  Am I some sort of black hole, or coldspot in the universe, where magic has to rush in through osmosis or heat exchange or some other function?  It seems plausible, but somehow that still seems a bit too wild and random.  Crap on a cracker.  What else?


    Time itself.  Possibly my very own future self.  This feels closer.  What a hilarious logic loop it would be if I¡¯m my own patron of temporal magic because I sent my own panicked personality ghost into my own past past the point before I had even begun existing.  Something is starting to spark within me.  This is the closest yet.  That¡¯s messed up.  Just how circular is the tale of Reggie Shellcracker?  There¡¯s a piece to the puzzle that¡¯s missing though.  TQ?  Luni?  Time?  Time across some sort of space?  What sort of space?  Empty space?  Void space?  Something somewhat unrelated to this quest for my source of magic is suddenly drawing my attention.  What is it?  Heavy space?


    Wait.  Weight.  Gravity.  Worlds.  The weight of all three worlds.  Ugh, ow.  Oof.  Holycrap, ow, ow, my guts.  They¡¯re twisting, cramping, squeezing something up through the inside of me.  What, what¡¯s happening?  Glrp.  I¡¯m gushing fountains of blood again.  Jarrah is commanding me, demanding something.  My, my brain.  What was I.  Ow.  Something¡¯s wrong.  Something.  I had a thought.  It¡¯s, it¡¯s fading.  Lullaby is, is cleaning up after me, sending concerned, comforting waves.  I can¡¯t control my body, I¡¯m falling.  My head hits what should be a hard floor, but Lullaby somehow instructs the tree to create a moss pillow where my head will impact, just before it does.  He saves me from another concussion.  Thank you, friend.


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    All of my muscles go slack, it feels like even my brain slackens.  My eyelids droop and I¡¯m left drooling on the moss pillow.  Several sharp raps on the head from Jarrah with his wand-like stick slowly begin to rouse me.  He looks annoyed yet interested.  What was going on?  Did I practice too many runes?  Is he mad?


    Though he should be able to read my mind, for some reason Jarrah demands, ¡°Out with it, which one was that!?¡±


    Groggily I beg, ¡°Which.  Which what was what?  What was my.  I didn¡¯t.  I swear I didn¡¯t go over my rune limit yet.  I¡¯ve only done a few per weapon or object.  I swear.  I promise I¡¯m not trying to shortcut.¡±


    Jarrah grumps, ¡°What in the devil¡¯s felspit are you on about now?  Which source set you reeling?  Which patron?¡±


    I flex my jaw as I slowly attempt to sit up.  I questioningly mumble, ¡°Source?  Patron?  What was.  Who.  What?¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s fury overtakes his face, casting a fire into his wild-eyed gaze.  In a mere instant though his gaze softens.  He comments, ¡°I see.  It would seem we are done for today, and that you need further rest.  Don¡¯t worry about it.  Feel free to practice a few hundred more runes this eve if it suits you.  If you begin to grow weary, let your body and mind recover.  That is all for today.  You¡¯ve left me much to think about.  Do take care of yourself now, vexing child.¡±


    I¡¯d want to complain, but it¡¯s nearing when we¡¯d normally be done for the day anyway.  I simply thank Jarrah for the reprieve and take my leave.  I¡¯m surprised to find Flint, of all people, waiting for me one step below the landing to Jarrah¡¯s chamber.  I flex my facial muscles, especially my jaw, and rattle my skull a bit, making certain I¡¯m not seeing things.  I raise an eyebrow his way.


    Flint shakes his head incredulously as he turns to meet my gaze dead on to apologize, ¡°I¡¯m, again, sorry about the events that unfolded.  I do have some possibly, potentially useful information though.  I¡¯d known what they were using in a vague sense, but it wasn¡¯t until today that I found out what they were.  The last few charges of the glob wands from the dragon wars. I assume when you changed your form, you actually took on draconic properties?¡±


    I facepalm before nodding in frustrated embarrassment.  I laugh at the stupidity of it all.  I went to my draconic form because it¡¯s so much more resilient than any of my other surviving Reggie forms, hoping to pass out less while training in magic, and it turns out that that particular form nearly cost me my life.  Friggin¡¯ hell.  A bit hilarious though.  So, on anyone else, they¡¯re some kind of sticky deterrent, on dragons, they probably release some extra agent to stiffen their muscles.  Or maybe the foam is magically set to only penetrate or infiltrate or be absorbed by dragon¡¯s scales.  Dragons are normally huge, so it probably doesn¡¯t paralyze them completely since it might amount to little more than a thumb knuckle, possibly expanded as large as a fist against their great girth.  But I was absolutely covered in the stuff by the end, and tiny by comparison.


    As I¡¯m about to ask if I have to worry about any more of them, Flint answers for me, ¡°Those should be the last ones in existence, I don¡¯t think the original enchanters are around any longer, and I don¡¯t know of anyone with the ability to recharge such powerful implements.  They need more than just time and mana, they need alchemy and unguents and reagents and more things I barely comprehend.  If there are any of the implements still left in the world with even a single charge, I¡¯ve no way of knowing about them.  I¡¯m no spy, I only play one for the Enclave, for my students.¡±


    I wear half a frown as I nod appreciatively at Flint.  I almost feel bad that he¡¯s got such a creepy default resting gaze, and that everyone judges him for it.  But by his own admission, he¡¯s caught up in ogling people, so it¡¯s not exactly a hundred percent innocent.  I attempt a friendly pat on his shoulder, and he flinches.  I look at my hand, and notice it¡¯s covered in blood.  When did that happen?  My brain is so fuzzy.  What did Jarrah and I accomplish today?  Something about weapons, or items.  Did I accidentally stab myself?  I pat myself down for signs of a wound, but other than incredibly, painfully broken ribs, I seem mostly fine.  Even those are on the mend.  Huff.  More using up the energy from Kozzurth¡¯s heart that¡¯s barely keeping me alive.  I¡¯ll probably start passing out again more frequently again now.  Season¡¯s end, year at best to find at least two more hearts, or the source of my malady and its cure.  Does summer end at the beginning or end of August here?


    I gasp a shuddering breath, and loose it as a sigh that becomes a yawn.  Flint gazes upon me with concern, before his gaze slowly becomes his faraway lost-in-thought ogling.  Brrr.  Yeah.  Almost feel bad for him having that, almost.  Not quite though.  Let¡¯s try one of each of the five runes of this spell for now while walking down to the gymnasium.  Seems Flint is staying to report something to Jarrah.  I nod politely at him to take my leave of him.


    Okay, rune one, perfect, wonderful.  Rune two, solid, fantastic.  Rune three, nice, very good.  Rune four, please please please.  Yes!  I puff a sighing breath and then wait with bated breath as I attempt to craft the fifth rune of this most basic of spells.  Crap!  Huff.  Alright.  Four¡¯ish days, four¡¯ish runes mastered. ^&*k I wish I had started with some sort of soul spell, if there is one.  Gorrammit, can I spare the time to try to read through all the books to see which, if any, contain different spells?  They hurt my head to read, and parsing each and every single spell, even with linguistic runic translation magic, seems like it takes hours.  Whether it does or not, I¡¯m not quite certain, but it certainly feels like it.


    At the landing to the gymnasium, I see an odd sight, and Lullaby sends caution to my brain in waves.  There is an incredibly muscular, tall, gorgeous woman in impressive, resplendent armor gazing in on the gymnasium with disdain.  At her back is a weapon that looks like a mix of a poleaxe and a warhammer, some kind of long-poled battleaxe.  Its head appears to be made of crimson carnelian, or perhaps blood ruby. Hells that is an impressive, imposing, terrifying weapon.  I sense alert, angry vibes wafting off of it.  That must be Dirge, Requiem for the Wounded.  I¡¯m now almost positive she¡¯s meant to end the lives of anyone wounded either by her, or those already wounded that she strikes.


    I accidentally puff a breath that¡¯s nearly a low whistle of fearful appreciation for the danger inherent in this woman and her weapon.  It draws her attention and gaze my way.  We¡¯re caught in a deadlock, staring off at one another for quite some time.  Dirge, Lullaby, myself, and this royal-guard appearing woman.  I¡¯m suddenly afraid for Teuila, of all things at this very moment.  Teuila is beyond insanely strong, more than almost anything or any one we¡¯ve ever come across, until now.  The waves of power, intensity, forcefulness, strength, animosity, murderous intent that flow from this woman and her weapon are palpable, thick, overpowering.  I actually find several of my muscle groups vibrating, quivering.  My tinnitus rings loud through my head as a warning bell, firing up my headache into overdrive.  Glp.


    I guess we get to meet your sister after all, huh Lullaby?

 B 4 C 89: Forever Indebted

    One of the odd things about the Enclave is, other than Jarrah¡¯s chamber being at its top, which landing which room is on seems to change almost daily. Do I dare rush back up several flights and landings towards Jarrah¡¯s chamber? I¡¯ve a feeling that it¡¯s massively warded.


    The woman breaks the silent standoff first, ¡°They really do let just anyone in here don¡¯t they. Ugly, petulant little changeling worm child, this, this is the wielder of your brother that you¡¯ve been nagging me to meet? His standards are lower than dirt. Dirge, you¡¯re barely worth the mess you bring by the hand full. You! Cross swords with me. Dirge wants to reunite with her brother. I can¡¯t think of a better way. Maybe I¡¯ll earn a second artifact by impressing Lullaby and squashing your flatulent arse. Oh, and it wasn¡¯t a request.¡±


    She draws on me, leveling Dirge, Requiem for the Wounded my direction. I gulp. She¡¯s an imposing presence physically, but how¡¯s her magical resistance? Her armor is definitely enchanted to help with things of that nature, but what about natively? Can I survive eight minutes? Hoy! Okay, danger wraps are still going strong, good. Yeah, eight minutes from now, Dirge and that armor are going to be on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. She is far too dangerous. Sorry Lullaby. I slip my finger into the suit of armor in my belt pouch, instantly gearing up in Valkyrie armor.


    Lullaby sends humorous, relieved waves of emotion my way, and a smidgen of ambivalence about Dirge¡¯s fated location. As I continue dodging about the landing and up the steps, I try to plot my course and my spell in case I have to send it through Lullaby, through Dirge. I flip aerially over her and dance downwards, trying to draw her out of the Enclave where she won¡¯t hurt anyone. She doesn¡¯t care at all if she kills a bystander in this duel.


    She scowls and calls out, ¡°Hold still you dancing rotten turd, and draw!¡± she swings wide as I leap while growling, ¡°your!¡± she reaches a gauntleted hand for where I¡¯ll land, but I nudge myself aside with my phantom magic hand from my potent staff in its shrunken, hidden state, she finishes, ¡°weapon!¡± My spell barely has enough force to nudge me through the air just out of reach of her hand.


    I gulp as I continue bating her, staying only slightly out of range of most of her thrusts and swings as I retreat down the staircase. I call out, ¡°Duel in progress, evacuate the stairwell!¡± I repeat it every few landings as I continue backing away from her. She¡¯s fast, and those strikes would obliterate me in an instant. Huff. I don¡¯t know if I can keep this up for the rest of the eight minutes. Come on, come on Reggie. Lullaby, any chance you cou¡ª Hah! Thank you pal!


    Lullaby eases my path by creating a handrail guided ramp under me for a moment while moving the excess wood in front of the crazed woman¡¯s next step, causing her to stumble. His powers are so, so, so much more potent than I originally understood when he described them to me.


    She spits, and I begin to truly hear Dirge for the first time as she sings through the air, literally. Lullaby is flashing warning and caution into my mind louder and louder on repeat. I, I can¡¯t. If they connect, I die. Instantly. I¡¯m an already wounded individual. She¡¯ll sound my funeral dirge in an instant. That''s her power, she slays the wounded to put them to rest, to sing their final song. If Teuila has so much as a scratch on her, could it kill her instantly too? I begin to hyperventilate as I gulp and fight back tears. Who the hell made this woman a royal guard? Huff. Right, archfey, capricious arseholes, of course. Huff, huff. Crap crap crap. Just, just a few, few more minutes. Oh gods. Oh gods that was close. Thank you Lullaby. Holy crap.


    Lullaby continues to occasionally interfere with the ever so slightest alterations in the travel path I take down the staircase, aiding me and attempting to cause Dirge¡¯s wielder to falter. The woman actually stows Dirge as she lunges for me, bare handed. Her fingertips grip at the edges of some of the fabric of my under-armor clothing. Thankfully the clothing itself shifts out from her grasp as I continue backing away. She¡¯s so fast, and strong. Crap crap crap. Do I want Teuila to get involved if I can even find her? Do I want Dawn to help? Hrp. No no no!


    Whew, okay, I may be bleeding light and life while concentrating, but being slick with blood is saving my arse. She nearly crushed my larynx, but I¡¯m still slick with my own gore from whatever I¡¯d been doing in Jarrah¡¯s chamber, on top of trying to conjure my inventory powers at the moment. Her squeezing my throat ended up simply firing me away like an old bean beneath the flat of a blade. I can¡¯t even remember how or why I was bleeding back in Jarrah¡¯s chamber this time. I must have overdone it something fierce.


    Lullaby sends confusion my way. He doesn¡¯t understand why I don¡¯t remember what happened. As he tries to remind me of my train of thoughts, it¡¯s like a siren blares in my head between his communication and my mind. Blood pours out my ears as my eardrums are blown and I¡¯m left reeling, stumbling downwards as my ears ring worse than ever. I¡¯m, I¡¯m. No, no! Stay focused. Stay conscious! No, no no no. Please Reggie. Just a bit longer.


    Tears well up in my eyes as I fear letting myself and my loved ones down in this moment. Is this woman part of the manxome foe¡¯s influenced force? Somehow I get the feeling this is just her natural state. I. I¡¯m scared. Should I chance nuking the stairwell with a rain of fireballs? Something about her armor though, I worry it might absorb magic and enhance her even further. I cast the aura sensing spell, and try to get a grip on the internal makeup of the enchantments on her. So so so so dangerous while trying to dodge her.


    I¡¯m right. My genre senses once again. The armor has a vast myriad of enchantments, though it has the downside of amplifying the wearer¡¯s emotions, specifically rage and battle-lust. Fan-freaking-tastic. Well at least she¡¯s not normally quite so bloodthirsty. She still might be willing to kill me though. Especially after I steal her armor and weapon. Almost to open space, almost, please please please.


    Kids, children, innocent Enclave members milling about! I shout through a ragged sob with tears in my eyes, ¡°Evacuate! Duel in progress!¡±


    There are screams and the milling about becomes a panicked stampede of disarray. Alanea is gazing my way wide-eyed in horror. She quickly gathers her students and rushes them away outside, managing to calm the stampede and direct it to safety. I would effing fall in love with that woman if I saw her doing that while in any other situation. It''s stunning seeing her maintain level-headedness in order to save children, despite her own obvious fear. Even more stunning was her calming presence, and ability to instantly take charge of the crowd and the situation. That aura about her that I noticed when I first met her. She''s a nurturer, a caretaker. She''s almost full to the point of bursting with love to spare.


    I gulp as I try not to crumple in on myself. My muscles are aching and quivering. Is this part of Dirge¡¯s song? Would I normally be this afraid? The amount of emotion amplification surrounding this woman is insane. Still, I¡¯m absolutely terrified, and I doubt I¡¯d be all that much less frightened without the enchanting auras.


    Seven, huff, seven minutes thirty seconds, thirty one, thirty two. Huff. Oh gods. Please, please keep it together Reggie. You avoided the mistake of charging her up by casting at her while she¡¯s in that armor, but you¡¯re going to die if you don¡¯t keep it together for another twenty five seconds, twenty four, twenty three. Come on, come on, almost there. I need to let her close in on me only in that last second.


    She rocks my skull with a haymaker that sends me flying. My cranium is left uncrushed only thanks to the incredibly potent Valkyrie armor, its helmet specifically. Her strength, she could shatter boulders, castle walls, she¡¯s easily Teuila¡¯s equal or stronger. Glp. Hrp. Oh gods the whiplash. I¡¯m going to be sick. Fifteen, fourteen. I whimper as tears of fear stream down my face. She closes in while I scrabble away, trying to return to my feet. Lullaby helps me up by ramping the floor beneath me slightly, then returning it to its original position so I can flee in that direction. Thank you. Thank you so much pal.


    Ten, nine. She¡¯s about to draw Dirge again. No no no, too dangerous. I surprise her by dashing back towards her to fire an uppercut into her jaw before retreating once more. She¡¯s mostly unharmed, but stunned and confused just long enough for her attention to waver. She returns to trying to grip me with both hands. Five, four. I slow, flagged, exhausted, my muscles quivering from exertion and fear. Three, two. She catches me with both hands, locks an arm around my neck with one, and reaches to draw Dirge from her back once more. One, zero. I touch the haft of Dirge with one hand that now bears Lullaby shrunken down, and as much of her armor with my body and other free hand as I can. Hrp.


    I was afraid of this. Soul binding. Please, please work, please work. I push the inventory spell attempt through Lullaby, through his soulful connection to his sister, hoping that, like with Teuila and her bracers, a soul connection has Rayileklia and inventory magic relent. The instant is extended into agonizing slow motion as Dirge is drawn by her hand, and Dirge¡¯s blade nears my face. My brain itself feels like it''s being rent asunder by my own attempt to use my magic, as if I''m clawing out fragments of my skull, grabbing and stretching brain matter from here all the way to Can''Z''aas.


    As Dirge nears my face, she disappears, and so does the armor cladding the woman. The mana sickness pouring out of me takes its toll. I¡¯ve bled too much, my muscles are far too strained. I collapse in her grasp, passing out, leaving me at her mercy.


    I awaken to the sounds of an earthshaking brawl. I sniffle as blood trickles from my eyes, nose, and ears. I was definitely being squeezed recently, squeezed to death. I''m fairly certain that my helmet is nearby and that a fist found my cranium several times. I barely have enough fluids to permit me to cry. I know this clashing of might. Teuila¡¯s here. She saved me. She saved me again. I burst into what few tears my body permits me to cry. Lullaby actually has a root roll slightly, bringing me to the base of the Enochian Enclave¡¯s tree. A faucet appears, valve fully open, water pouring over my face and into my mouth. I gulp it down hungrily, greedily. Its sweetness and purity both feel revitalizing, though that may just be the effects of fighting off dehydration.


    Lullaby is trying to explain that his powers are strongest in forests, and strongest of all in his homeland, this forest in particular. He won¡¯t have nearly as much control over terrain elsewhere. It¡¯s okay buddy. What¡¯s that? Oh, I get it. He¡¯s basically saying he¡¯s glad Dirge didn¡¯t catch us by surprise on rocky terrain. He¡¯d have been unable to offer almost any help, and Dirge would be stronger in an echoing area, or even just in heavy-winds, windy echoing caves would be the worst. That makes sense. Lullaby is the Requiem for the Windless Wilds after all. Huff, whew. Okay, okay, enough water, I¡¯m going to dro¡ª oh wait. I can¡¯t drown. In that case, keep it coming. Thank you Lullaby.


    Good gods, I never thought I¡¯d meet someone who could match Teuila in raw strength that wasn¡¯t some sort of colossal monster. They¡¯re still going at it. Teuila is much faster, moving about quicker than my eyes can keep up with, but the pure resilience of this woman leaves her standing against all of Te¡¯s attacks, despite the bruises marring her face and body. Huff, huff. There¡¯s a crowd gathering at the moment. I can¡¯t risk any area effects. Frack. What do I have that¡¯s single target?


    Lullaby suggests trying all five runes of that basic spell again. Really? But I¡¯ve botched the fifth rune pal. Okay, okay, no need to insist. I¡¯ll do my best. Oh no! Te! Oh my god. The woman wised up to her leaps, sidestepped, and smashed Teuila into the ground hard, cratering her as Teuila was zooming in to land another attack. She¡¯s stepping on Teuila, pinning her down. Why isn¡¯t Teuila reversing her gravity to throw her off? Oh my god Te, Te please be okay. Concentrate Reggie, concentrate. Huff, huff, panting with exertion, my muscles still quivering from the strain of my earlier flight, I work my runes. Lullaby, he''s helping me craft them more quickly, but it''s sapping him somehow. One, two, three, four.


    I beg all that¡¯s good in the world to aid me. Five. I smile through tears. It¡¯s a simple, small spell, barely an evocation effect at all. A thin line, a ray forms between me and my target. Frost travels along this ray, forming an icy spike. Huff, whew. The frost travels along the ray with the force of a crossbow bolt, and the spike drives home into the woman¡¯s right shoulder, rocking her backwards, knocking her off balance, and off of Teuila. Te groans and rolls out from the crater that had been formed from her impact. I begin rapidly repeating the five runes, over and over and over. I feel Lullaby weakening somehow, but my sadness, rage, and wrath win out over my compassion for my friend. Bolt after bolt after bolt of frost slam into this woman, leaving her with minor wounds, and slowly covering her with frost. She drops to her knees as she raises her forearms to block further bolts. This also blocks her sight of me. I finally have a second to equip my crossbow and fire several test shots into her raised arms. As I feared, they do almost nothing, they''re like being pricked by a feather quill to her. Still, she hasn''t seen what I''m using.


    I struggle upwards, glance at Teuila, she nods at me, understanding my intent. We dash forward, sweep around to opposite sides, and aim our bare hands, save for the double-barreled wrist-crossbow now mounted on my arm, knife-edged at her throat, and we simultaneously scream, ¡°Yield!¡±


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    The woman¡¯s muscles sag as she slumps while raising her hands. She grumbles, ¡°Didn¡¯t know I was facing a bedamned wizard that can send my gear away, and an ogre in disguise. If my armor was still on, you¡¯d have regretted those spells, chump.¡±


    I don¡¯t doubt it. I had to spend eight minutes of tearful fear in order to avoid exactly that. I pant as I collapse to my own knees next to her. I rock back onto my butt and hug my knees to my chest, trembling. I, I did it. I did it! I learned a Rayileklian spell! I laugh through sobs as tears of relief flood my cheeks. I cough from the exertion on my throat. Between Jarrah¡¯s singing incantation training, and the gasping for breath of the flight, my throat is torn up again.


    The woman looks at me with disdain, incredulity. She grunts, ¡°This a victory dance for you or something, pretend you¡¯re vulnerable next to your defeated opponent? Can I get my gear back?¡±


    My face contorts with incredulity momentarily. I frown at her while Teuila walks around her to my side. I grunt through a bloody esophagus in return, ¡°No, no it isn¡¯t, and no you can¡¯t. Not until we¡¯re leaving the Heart. I¡¯ll leave them with someone I trust on the day I leave, likely midnight on the eleventh of July. Kindly screw you. You¡¯re a demented, rage-fueled maniac that¡¯s a menace, and a danger to everyone around her. Go friggin¡¯ cool off. Don¡¯t come back to the Enclave until the twelfth at the earliest. I¡¯m serious. I will let my love, the Valkyrie here, kill you, if we see you again. The only reason you lasted as long as you did against her is because she was trying to be merciful on my standing orders. You hear that Te? If you see her again, restraints off, go all out.¡±


    She groans as she shivers. She slowly picks herself up, and stalks angrily away. Teuila leaps at me, wrapping me up in her arms. Te has several broken bones, and she¡¯s bleeding polygons from her face, and various gaps in her armor. Te demands, ¡°What the hell was that about!?¡±


    I fight a chuckle as I try to respond through more throat-torn scar tissue and blood, ¡°Koff, that, koff, that woman was the wielder of Dirge, Requiem for the Wounded. She¡¯s a royal guard, so we probably shouldn¡¯t carry through on my threat to kill her, even if she does return. She had powerful sentient artifact equipment. Dirge, and this amazing crimson armor that shone like a drop of blood descending beneath a floodlight trained directly on it. Huff, phew.¡±


    Teuila raises her eyebrows and prompts, ¡°Had?¡±


    I adopt a wry grin and do allow myself to chuckle, however painful it may be. I nod as I explain, ¡°Yeah, had. I counted down the seconds as I set up a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic subroutine to access my inventory. I was almost sure the items were soulbound, so in that subroutine I tried to continue imagining reaching through two souls that were already linked, to be able to do it. From me, through Lullaby, into Dirge, and thus her owner and her equipment. It knocked me out to use my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic. I wasn¡¯t sure if she would stop trying to kill me though, but it felt like my safest option. Her armor either reflected or absorbed magic, depending.¡±


    Teuila shakes her head while clarifying, ¡°No, no she didn¡¯t stop. Apparently while she was crushing your unconscious body, Alanea came to get me. I was hanging out in the infirmary. Err, heh, I got a bit carried away with my training.¡±


    She gazes me up and down and decides to continue explaining, ¡°My gravity powers are getting stronger, so I made myself a lot heavier while exercising. Was trying to read three books at the same time too. I wasn¡¯t doing too bad, but then I broke a couple fingers, and smashed my face into the floor real hard. I¡¯ve got a heck of a shiner. Alanea and Flint weren¡¯t there, so I was getting to know this tiny little pixie chap, Gerald something something. Nice guy, put my fingers in a splint and rubbed some gunk on my face. Obviously the splint is effed after that fight. My fingers fuggin¡¯ hurt.¡±


    I chuckle slightly, not at Teuila, but as I remember something the woman said, ¡°She thought you were an ogre in disguise, hah. Gods Te, you are so strong. Thank you. Thank you for saving me. For always being so driven to struggle to be stronger, the strongest there is.¡±


    Teuila pretends to be bashful about it, ¡°Pshaw, weren¡¯t no thing. Hehe. But jeeze Airhead, you¡¯re just a freakin¡¯ trouble magnet aren¡¯t you? Or maybe it¡¯s Lullaby? You said the lady had his sister Dirge?¡±


    I nod while Lullaby sends apologetic waves my way. I try to share his thoughts, ¡°Lull says he¡¯s sorry if it¡¯s his fault basically. He didn¡¯t know we¡¯d draw the attention of muggers who could kill me, or that his sister Dirge was possessed by such a crazed lunatic.¡±


    Teuila raises an eyebrow but goes along with it, she offers a hand and claims, ¡°Pleased to meet ya Lull, didn¡¯t realize you were people, or, something.¡±


    Lullaby has the nearby path extend the branch of a bush vaguely towards Teuila¡¯s hand. He can¡¯t quite shake her hand, since that¡¯s not exactly what his powers are for, but he¡¯s able to put a berry bush within her reach since showing us food is within his purview. Teuila¡¯s face adopts an impressed expression. Lullaby sends pleased waves towards Teuila, though they don¡¯t reach her.


    Lullaby¡¯s purview is making travel easier, that means showing where nearby food is, smoothening paths, pointing out nearby water, moving obstructions, things like that. In the Heart, that extends to bringing the food and water all the way to us, and actually shaping the path, and or obstructions that he moves. We¡¯re both going to miss how massively broadly his talents can be applied here in the Heart.


    I hope Lullaby doesn¡¯t regret choosing to travel with me. He has been a massive aid already in our journey, especially in the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds. I¡¯m forever indebted to him. He sends waves of acceptance, ambivalence, anti-worry at me. I get it. Thanks pal. No worries to you too, yeah, I can tell you didn¡¯t want to go with that crazy lady. Yeah, we¡¯re cool. No worries.


    Suddenly I hear Jarrah demanding, ¡°Was blood spilled within or about my Enclave!?¡± The crowd immediately disperses, fleeing upon hearing Jarrah shout.


    I blush as I admit, ¡°Um, mostly mine Jarrah. I¡¯m sorry. Mine, and a bunch of Teuila¡¯s polygons and data, and um, maybe a few drops of that crazy royal guard lady when my spells hit her? Oh, I managed the fifth rune, all five, carefully one at a time, no crazy three at once or anything, I promise.¡±


    He waves me off dismissively as he taps his chin. Jarrah mumbles, ¡°I meant lives obviously. Vexing child is such a numbskullian nimrod. Sindred paid us a visit, and risked the wrath of the Enclave to start trouble? Someone in the courts must be desperate for something. What ever could she have¡ª. Lullaby. She wanted Lullaby for her lord. One of the two of them is cooking something up. Possibly all four. Can never know when they¡¯re working together, or at odds. Chaotic court nonsense. I¡¯ll have no part of it. Having Dirge in one of their possessions already is bad enough, along with Balchar¡¯s Flame, that accursed armor.¡±


    I cough for Jarrah¡¯s attention and blush as I explain, ¡°Wellll, so, about Dirge and Balchar¡¯s Flame. I, um, sort of sent them to my world.¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s crazed eyes nearly pop out of their sockets. He flubs, ¡°You, you hwhat?¡± The aych sound before the double-eww is crazily exaggerated as he asks it.


    I cringe nervously as I try to smile before explaining, ¡°I, um. I sensed that the armor would screw any Rayileklian magic, or similar offensive spells or elemental attacks. My aura vision confirmed it amongst the runes enchanting the armor. So, uh, I took the eight minutes during our battle to summon my inventory magic from my world, in order to claim her equipment over to my world.¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s eyebrows raise and lower in opposing rhythm freakishly as he boggles. He queries, ¡°Can you bring them forth, back from your world?¡±


    I joke, ¡°Do you have eight minutes to watch me bleed mana, light, and actual blood? And a few more minutes to watch over my unconscious form?¡±


    Jarrah actually nods seriously, and beckons that I re-enter the Enclave. I was joking, but it¡¯s true. I can do it how I said, so I don¡¯t want to actually back out of it and piss Jarrah off. Teuila follows me, obviously worried that I have to tap back into my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic again already. She¡¯s not letting me out of her sight, no matter what Jarrah orders at the moment. The three of us journey to the top of the Enclave. While we do, we occasionally draw curious glances from those who heard what happened. Jarrah scowls when Teuila enters the chamber along with me, but says nothing as he observes her determined, challenging gaze. Dawn appears out of friggin¡¯ nowhere, also looking frightfully determined. Jarrah blinks in mild surprise at that, and taps the walls of his chamber in confusion. I bet he''s checking something like wards against the entry by any living thing that he doesn''t permit. Dawn doesn''t fall under that purview, heh.


    I sigh as I have to call on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas magics once more. They¡¯re going to straight up kill me one day if I can¡¯t figure out a cure for the mana sickness. Hell, that could very well be my persistent malady that Tiago sensed. A malady that followed me through death and rebirth in an entire other realm. Persistent indeed. I heave a ragged sigh as I nurse my cracked ribs and raw throat, preparing to call the items back from my inventory. I knew claiming someone else¡¯s equipment was tough to begin with, but the stress it put on my brain was pure agony. What¡¯s going to happen with them now that I¡¯ve claimed them temporarily?


    After eight minutes of bleeding radiance, mana, and vitality, Teuila and Dawn both fretting the whole while, I pass out as I hear the pieces of equipment displace air as they apparate. I awaken later to a mixture of emotions being sent at me by Lullaby, and a very curious air about the chamber. There¡¯s fascination, anger, surprise, curiosity, determination, worry, just so much of each emotion pouring out from nearly everyone in the room that it¡¯s almost overwhelming. I cough from the strain of it all, loosing up a smidgen of sick and even more blood.


    Teuila hugs me tightly, and even Dawn pats my head to ruffle my hair. My head lolls weakly about as I ask, ¡°Did, did it work?¡±


    Jarrah mumbles, mostly to himself, something along the lines of, ¡°Something worked alright.¡±


    I glance to Teuila who seems to be too overwhelmed with relief, unable to answer at the moment. I look towards Dawn who thankfully has mostly maintained her head. Dawn answers, ¡°So, I don¡¯t know much about weapons or armors with like, souls, or whatever the heck these ones had. But that one, those ones, I guess they don¡¯t anymore. Or something like that at least. Old coot¡¯s being cagey, but, I¡¯ve been observing stuff for a real long time. Got some weird senses for certain things. Y¡¯know? Anyway. Not even sure there¡¯s much magic in them at all anymore.¡±


    Ohhh holy crap. What was her name? What did Jarrah call her? Was it Sindred? She¡¯s going to be pissed! Well, heh, erm, well, at least we won¡¯t be around to deal with the fallout. Sorry Jarrah, sorry Enclave. I¡¯m sure this is going to stir up some trouble for you. I¡¯m truly sorry. No wonder Lullaby is fraught with such mixed emotions though. I, I. I kind of killed his sister, while trying to spare Sindred. Hellspit! I am so sorry buddy. Are you going to ever be able to forgive me?


    Lullaby flashes a mixture of signals my way that I can¡¯t parse, but he isn¡¯t retreating from me, or shutting off our bond, or shutting me out, or shrinking on his own or anything. Hopefully we can clear the air between us at some point. Frickin¡¯ heck. I. Crap on a cracker. What the hell does this even mean? If I claimed Lullaby, would he die too? That¡¯s not something I ever want to test. He¡¯s been nothing but awesome to me. He¡¯s been great to me, and I killed his sister. Friggin¡¯ hell I suck.


    Jarrah shoos Teuila and Dawn to the side as he picks me up. He orders, ¡°Divest, quick as you like, try on Balchar¡¯s Flame and Dirge. Mayhaps their properties will respond for you, or some other curiosity will occur. I¡¯m almost certain of what will happen. Yes, yes, curious indeed.¡±


    My face contorts as I raise a brow towards Jarrah, but he refuses to elucidate further. Sighing, I disrobe as privately as I can in a dark corner, and don Balchar¡¯s Flame. When it¡¯s on, I lift Dirge and immediately feel sick. It¡¯s like. It¡¯s like they want to trade places with me. They want to come back to life at the expense of mine. My arms quiver and shake as I fall to my knees for the umpteenth time in however many days. Despite their desire, and the wave of sickliness I feel coming from them, I retain my life. More, there¡¯s a strange echoing backlash at their desire, their attempt. They pay a price for even wanting, or trying to trade places. Their magics weaken further.


    Jarrah comments, ¡°Fascinating. It¡¯s as if you¡¯re inured to undeath by the powers of some patron archlich or some other rotter and whatnot. Yet that is not the source for your powers. Further, you¡¯re neither a necromancer, nor a warlock, so you shouldn¡¯t even have such patronage, nor abilities they normally grant. Each of you, stand perfectly still for a moment.¡±


    Teuila looks confused and upset by his statement, since she just saw me fall to my knees. Now Jarrah¡¯s ordering us all around? Wait, what¡¯s. Ow. What¡¯s happening? The room is doing something again. It, it could fast forward my panic attacks. Is, is it fast forwarding me? Me, Teuila, and Dawn? Me, Teuila, Dawn, and Jarrah?


    My life flashes before my eyes, or rather, the month or two of it that I have left. I can¡¯t discern any of the details, but I¡¯m sent hurtling into my own future, even beyond the point when I should die from my malady. Further and further, years, decades, centuries. My eyes strain and my brain races to keep up with what¡¯s passing in my mind¡¯s eye. In the physical realm, Jarrah takes on several new wrinkles, and his hair thins. His muscles wizen ever so slightly. Neither Dawn nor Teuila seem to age or be affected whatsoever.


    The effect ends, and I¡¯m left gasping for breath and coughing. The effect then occurs again in reverse, and I vomit from the whiplash of it all. I¡¯m left reeling with my head spinning as my eyeballs swim about in their sockets. Most of my muscles hang slack as I drool upon myself before crumpling to the floor.


    Jarrah simply remarks, ¡°Fascinating. Ageless as an undead. All three of you. That part''s a bit surprising.¡±


    I groan and complain, ¡°I could have freaking told you that, my heart and soul are bound to a dragon, so I have their immortal longevity. Specifically a digital dragon, Lil. So is Teuila''s.¡±


    Jarrah shakes his head as he explains, ¡°I¡¯m sorry to say, but no. At least for you, you¡¯ve been ageless since the very beginning. I¡¯m very happy for you and your bond or whatever, now shut up a moment. Let me think. You truly are vexing, you know that, don¡¯t you? Don¡¯t answer that, shut up. Stay silent. Rhetorical. Ageless, abilities steeped in undeath, regenerative, memory of limb reattachment, near immunity to necrosis, yet not a lich or necromancer or warlock. What in all the fathomless depths ar¡ª Fel hells. Be honest, have you ever contacted some elder being between realities? Some mindbending monstrosity? Some sleeping mind that lay slumbering, said to destroy all the cosmos should it awaken?¡±


    I frown and grumble, ¡°What, like some sort of Cthulian Cthonian half dragon half squid half man half calamity that slumbers in a realm with non-euclidian geometry? No, of course not. Hell, the gods of my world mentioned their elders, and I freaked out at the mere idea of their existence.¡±


    I grit my teeth and try not to growl at him. If he weren¡¯t so knowledgeable, and I wasn¡¯t in such need of tutelage, I¡¯d stalk out with how rude he is half the time. I suppose he¡¯s foreign to the mortal realm, and manners are a tad alien to him. I can cut him some slack. Still, sucking me forward through my own timeline and then spitting me back out, and telling me to shut up after he asks me a question, bluh. Rude. Hell, he just clucked his tongue at my answer and is now chuckling at my thoughts. Like I said, rude. Oh well. I truly am grateful to him. Between his tutelage, and the fact that he looked after Lil, and has a message from Lil. Well, between those two things, I¡¯m forever indebted to him.

 B 4 C 90: The Fifth Training

    After more conjecture, and self-muttering, Jarrah orders Dawn and Teuila to leave, suggesting they secure our temporary home. That¡¯s honestly not a bad idea. No one can navigate to me, Teuila, or Dawn, or Percival, because no one really knows our names beyond Alanea, Flint, and Jarrah, but they might find our home regardless. I¡¯m not even sure any of the Enclave know our last names, and that might be important. Even still, it¡¯s not like it¡¯s hard to wander around the area by the Enochian Enclave, where rumors likely tell that someone with Lullaby is residing.


    Jarrah has me return to my normal gear and refuses to let me change in private, making sure to give me a thorough looking-over. He mutters, ¡°No mark of power, little more than marring and bruising, slight freckling. Needs more sun. Not that they¡¯ll get it on this accursed world. No fatemark, dragonmark, spellplague-mark. Close on that last one, from these lacerations, but not quite.¡±


    Jarrah bowls me over so that he can look at the soles of my feet, and everything else that might have been difficult to see while I stood hugging myself in embarrassed modesty. I know there¡¯s nothing exactly to see, but my memories are of how Earth human society, specifically western society functions. The reactions are ingrained into me.


    As he begins poking and prodding me with his sharp killing-tool, I spaz out and finish getting dressed quickly. He comments, ¡°I¡¯m not going to kill you with it you pompous pinhead. Huff. Vexing child. Fine, fine, on the morrow, you¡¯ll show me your five-runed spell, and we¡¯ll attempt something else.¡±


    He waves dismissively as he walks away. My hypersensitive hearing picks up on his speech as he¡¯s whisperingly muttering, ¡°Key to defeating our foe? Perhaps, perhaps. Perhaps not. Is unidentifiable power an asset in any way? I can not see how that could be. Enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a currently-dying package? Absolutely. Need to put these artifacts in the Kamaitachi service on a long loop to arrive back here. Most secure place for them, between spaces, inside the wind. I¡¯ll offer them more than the usual sum. That should suffice. Still, vexing vexing child. Pity they won¡¯t last the season, year at most. Still, they must succeed at their current goal. Absolutely must.¡±


    Can freaking everyone other than me tell that I¡¯m dying to a persistent malady with no name!? Ugh. Jarrah ignores me and paces about his chamber, so I take my leave of him and begin heading down the Enochian Enclave¡¯s spiral staircase.


    I sit at the edge of one of the mid to lower landings, my feet propped several steps below. I drop my face into my hands to weep. I¡¯m dying. I¡¯m dying, and I¡¯m going to fail Dawn. I¡¯m going to die, maybe before ever seeing Lil, Luni, or Lucky again, let alone my family back home. Come on Reggie. Make your last act be saving Dawn. Make sure you succeed. Keep practicing your runes. One, two, three, four. All good so far. Fi¡ª flub. Fi¡ª another flub. What the? I try five again and again as I cry in frustration.


    Lullaby tries to send waves at me, but they¡¯re distorted, weak. He wants to be comforting, and also to explain something, something about the fight. Hell¡¯s bells, he gave up bits of himself to help me craft the runes faster, and complete the fifth rune. Oh Lull, buddy. Frick. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry. Hm? Well, that¡¯s good I guess. Yeah, nature, cycles, plants, regeneration, it makes sense. Still, I¡¯m sorry you¡¯re suffering right now because of my wrath. It¡¯s thanks to you that we saved Teuila though. I am truly, truly forever indebted to you.


    I guess we¡¯d better enjoy our bond for the next month or two or so that I have left, huh? I¡¯m not being fatalistic, I¡¯m being realistic. Have you seen any hints of any other dragons at all? Let alone elder, evil ones? That¡¯s what I thought. I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t mean to be snippy buddy. I just, I find it hard to deal with two torturous looming deadlines of such importance. Hm? Ah, thanks Lullaby. Yeah, no, I will. I¡¯ll try to keep my eye out for clues that might lead us to evil dragons that aren¡¯t too far off our path in our quest to save Dawn. She¡¯s more important.


    That¡¯s not even in some self-sacrificial nonsense way. If she dies, Aasimovia crumbles to dust basically, and if Aasimovia falls, so does the Heart. The Celestial Emperor wins. He rules the entire continent, maybe this entire world if there¡¯s only one landmass. Well, there¡¯s still some places out west past the Jaggedfen bog, but I¡¯m sure he has enough troops to take out a hydra and overthrow those remaining places. Hell, Jeegoobotstan pft, that country is already razed. No need to go to any trouble there. Not sure how many other places are out west.


    I hear a shuffling approach behind me on the landing, so I stand up on the landing to make way for whomever it is in case they want to get past me down the staircase. There¡¯s plenty of room, but I figure it¡¯s only polite. The individual doesn¡¯t aim for the stairs though, they redirect towards me as I move up and turn their way.


    A young dryad woman, possibly a child approaches me, and I raise my eyebrow her way. There¡¯s anger in her eyes. Her fists are, well, they¡¯d be white-knuckled with how tightly she¡¯s clenching them, if her skin weren¡¯t basically dark bark. She steps right up to me and looks me dead in the eyes with ferocity. She stomps my foot, kicks my shin, and knees me as hard as she can in the groin. I blink with surprise.


    She growls as tears well up in her eyes, ¡°You piece of crap! You nearly got my Binty trampled! Your stupid shouting and your stupid duel! I hope you die in your next one!¡±


    I gulp at the animosity she displays for me. I don¡¯t blame her for having strong emotions if my actions nearly hurt someone she loves, but, wow. I¡¯m just glad she didn¡¯t know to dropkick my chest. My ribs would have re-broken.


    I apologize as best I can while she¡¯s turning away, ¡°I. I can¡¯t say how sorry I am. I¡¯ll strive to make sure there isn¡¯t another. I¡¯m sorry for the trouble I bring. I hope Binty is okay.¡±


    She glances back over her shoulder at me with one eye full of tearful fury. It¡¯s plain to see there¡¯s no forgiveness there, a scowl still plays across her face beyond her shoulder. My danger wraps indicate the disgust written across her face and in her posture.


    Sindred, Keeley, this Dryad, how many more women want me dead? Do I even have any surviving male enemies? Maybe, possibly Don Derbrightmine and several of his capos. That would be possibly due to my ask on behalf of the Hellridges. Leviathan though, absolutely. At this point in my life¡¯s adventures, I¡¯m not sure which is more dangerous to me while here on Rayileklia. Leviathan is godly, he could possibly traverse worlds, maybe. These three women are nowhere near as powerful, but they¡¯re here on this planet, and each absolutely hates me. Keeley only bottled up her hate for me in respect of Harriet, and gratitude for ending the extortion of The Brook.


    I wonder if Hellga hates me. If she¡¯s alive. I wonder if Alanea will begin to resent and hate me if I bring down more trouble upon the Enochian Enclave. I sniffle and sigh as I resume heading back to our temporary home, failingly practicing the fifth rune along the way. No, no Lull buddy, I don¡¯t want you to help me succeed right now. This is practice for me, I have to learn. Thank you for the offer, but I don¡¯t want you killing yourself to try to help me out with a silly thing like practice. I don¡¯t want you dying at all bud. You like that nickname? Oh, it reminds you of plants. Sure thing. Yeah I can call you that Bud.


    Seems I¡¯ve got nicknames for most of the most important people in my life, huh? Teuila is My Wings, Lil is My Heart, Luni is My Anchor, Lullaby here is My Bud, Linti, well, I¡¯m blushing as I think of nicknames we¡¯ve used for each other in redacted memories. Nah I¡¯m not going to tell you Bud, sorry. Dawn? Yeah. Yeah I have a nickname for Dawn. My Friend. Full stop. She¡¯s My Friend, and I want to save her memory, no matter the cost. The only way to do that is to stop the curse.


    Hey, um. Lullaby? Bud? If you can think of anything, even if it costs my life, anything at all to end Dawn¡¯s curse, let me know. I¡¯m living on borrowed time anyway. Yes I¡¯m serious Bud, deadly. I know it¡¯s a tough ask. I¡¯m sure Teuila would take you back to the Hidden Heart if I die so that you can find another Fae. I mean, she might grieve for a bit and, I dunno, blow up a mountain or something first. Haha, you can imagine her doing that too huh? Yeah. She¡¯s pretty great.


    I heave a ragged sigh as I return to our abode. I stand outside looking in, feeling overwhelmed. I realize now that it was Lullaby providing the fancy amenities, and the automatic door for privacy and safety and stuff. I mean, okay Bud, sure, it¡¯s obvious after all the recent help, obviously. I just mean, I probably should have figured it out the last couple of days already is all. Pft, yes, I can be a goon, and quite dense, and wrapped up in my own, huh. The moral to my tale. Thanks Bud. Yeah, yeah I¡¯m ready to get out of my own head. A presence has been following me for a while anyway, so I should be prepared for an attack. I¡¯m fairly positive it¡¯s Dawn though.


    Almost as if in response to my thoughts, Dawn appears right next to me, nearly spooking the crap out of me, still startling me even though I expected it. I flash her a half sad smile. Dawn cocks her head my way in curiosity and slugs me playfully in the shoulder.


    She asks, ¡°Why the glum chum? You casted spells without your staff, beat up a very angry woman, and, I dunno, sealed away the power of some deadly artifacts or something. Day full of accomplishments, right?¡±


    I snort a laugh, ¡°Pft, haha. Yeah, I suppose so Dawn, though that middle one makes me sound like an abusive jerk. Maybe you could have worded that differently? Hah.¡±


    Dawn smirks as she teases, ¡°Coulda, shoulda, but it wouldn¡¯ta gotten the same laugh, would it?¡±


    I can¡¯t fight the smile as I shake my head incredulously. I admit, ¡°No, I suppose not. Thank you Dawn. I love having wonderful friends like you in my life. How was your day?¡±


    Dawn shrugs and rambles, ¡°Little of this, little of that, mostly watching Boss do crazy stuff all day, especially when you went down. I was tempted to make a joke and kiss her fingers when she broke them, but I was afraid I¡¯d send mixed signals and she¡¯d get the wrong impression. She¡¯s kinda clingy and touchy feely and stuff. You know? I mean, good for you two and all, but, erm, not my thing. I, I mean, not that I don¡¯t appreciate you and Boss letting me, y¡¯know, hold on for dear non-life when my senses go. Y¡¯know? Sorry. I mean. Thank you? I¡¯m glad we¡¯re pals too. Without you I wouldn¡¯t even know I was on borrowed time that¡¯s almost up. Hell, I¡¯d be freaking out alone in the wilds near The Brook, probably crying myself crazy as my senses kept leaving me. I, uh. Shid braddah. I mean, not braddah, not to you, it¡¯s, ugh, it¡¯s a saying. Sorry.¡±


    I smile and chuckle while shaking my head as I console her, ¡°Dawn, Dawn hey, it¡¯s okay. Anyone else, with all those feelings admitting and stuff, I¡¯d probably hug them tight and kiss them to calm them down. But we¡¯re cool, like you and Te were saying, cooler than cool, ice cold. I. I don¡¯t want to fail you. I don¡¯t want your time to be almost up. I don¡¯t want to lose my memory of you. You¡¯re a wonderful friend. Hell, you¡¯ve saved my life several times. Just. Thank you too, thank you for being a friend.¡±


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    I flex my jaw as I fight through two or more blue screens of death in my brain while I¡¯m talking. Dawn slugs me lightly and avoids eye contact as she disappears. My senses tell me she probably just went inside. I enter to meet up with Te, Dawn, and Percival. Apparently Te and Percy were talking about Percy¡¯s plans. Apparently he likes living in this big tree. He really feels home here. I guess when we leave the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds we¡¯ll be leaving him and his meerkat familiar Tinpu behind.


    That¡¯s a bit saddening. It makes sense though. We¡¯re trying to journey to more dangerous and more esoteric locations in search of ancient magic and any possible hint at breaking Dawn¡¯s curse. He¡¯s not exactly the hardiest adventurer. I¡¯d be heartbroken if a fireball went off near us, and Dawn, me, and Te were fine, but Percy just went up in smoke. For example.


    I swap into my nightclothes, shrink Bud down to fit into the egg pouch, and make sure I¡¯m not leaving anything super dangerous just lying around. Most of my weapons and magical items are either still attached to my hips, or in pouches or pockets that I¡¯m still wearing. I flop into the bed, completely exhausted, and I could swear as I pass out, that I feel myself tenderly embraced by three people.


    Another day, another dolorous round of training. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll master the fifth rune today, so I¡¯m bringing every last book with me in order to browse their contents after I learn it. While I¡¯d truly enjoy learning the dusting spell, and enhancing it to be a full cleaning spell, I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll be alive long enough for it to really matter. I have to focus on any spells that might help guide us to clues as to how to save Dawn, or if I¡¯m really lucky, one of the spells can actually save her.


    My face feels like mush from the pummeling I took while unconscious yesterday, and despite Teuila being digital, she¡¯s bruised all to hell herself. Between her broken fingers still healing, and the other broken bones and bruises, Teuila¡¯s doing the smart thing and taking the day off from training. She said she heard Alanea isn¡¯t teaching today, so she¡¯ll try to track her down with Dawn to hang out. I really hope she doesn¡¯t tease Alanea about any possible attraction to me. I¡¯m already worried she¡¯ll start resenting me if I bring more trouble down on her sanctuary.


    Huff, Jarrah¡¯s his usual muttering, cranky, demanding self. Today he¡¯s being just plain weird with his demands though.


    Jarrah digs through a pouch, and fishes out what I think is an octahedron. He demands, ¡°Roll this, pause a minute or two between rolls, then roll again. Skip the pause if you land on a face you¡¯ve already landed on before, just get back to rolling until you land on a new face.¡±


    Alrighty I guess. I roll it, and it lands with a roman numeral for five faceup, on the face is also a tiny depiction of some sort of creature, a person maybe, but they have no legs, only wispy wavy lines beneath the waist.


    Jarrah mutters, ¡°Hm, yes? No? Wishes? No. No, not quite that broad. Side reality populated by them? Hm, no. Huff. I feared this would be the case, the vexing will continue, likely until the very last face. If we even alight on anything by then.¡±


    I roll my eyes and shrug as he seems to be waiting expectantly for me to roll again. The eighth face shows up, with a gruesome looking skeletal icon on it. I grimace as my upper lip pulls back along the left side of my face.


    Jarrah rolls his own crazily flitting eyes as he mutters, ¡°Already ruled out undeath, pointless, do I need to rend you simpering things to dust and build you again? Grm. Vexation. Endless vexation.¡±


    As Jarrah motions for me to continue, I sigh and roll again while practicing my fifth rune. The die lands with the third side face up, the icon on this one is terrifying tentacles with eyes and mouths. My grimace takes on a terrified disgusted quality.


    Jarrah grumbles, quietly as always, mostly directed at himself, ¡°Of course not. Good thing honestly. Would have made for an interesting time, to be sure, but better safe than interesting.¡±


    I don¡¯t even bother waiting for him to motion before rolling again, wanting to see any other face at all. The fifth face returns, but Jarrah waves me on to roll it again. The second face shows up, and there¡¯s a beautiful, angellic, radiant, winged halo upon it.


    Jarrah chuckles as he continues his muttering to himself, ¡°Fat chance on that one sadly. I would have known already. Hopefully. Unless higher up and more disguised? No. No the child is no such thing. Too confused, too near death.¡±


    Huff, I heave a sigh and roll again as Jarrah motions for me to continue. The fourth face appears this time, and on it is basically the opposite of the second face. Fel fires, horns, a scroll that looks like a contract. I shudder.


    Jarrah puffs a sigh of relief as he continues his own quiet, crazed conjecture, ¡°Well, that¡¯s one less worry at least. No debt to repay, perhaps we can get their soul to safety when they die in a couple of months.¡±


    I pout at Jarrah¡¯s certainty that I¡¯m going to be dead soon. I know it¡¯s true, but, just, ouch. When I get the signal, I roll again, the second face returns, a bit of a comedic relief from the face I¡¯d just seen. I have to roll again though. The seventh face arrives, and upon it is a soul-alight weapon. I could swear the icon is morphing between types of weapons. My jaw hangs slack as I gaze upon it. Thinking on it, the fires and the wispiness and the radiance were all moving too. I mean, parlor trick in comparison to some magicks I¡¯ve seen, but still, fascinating.


    Jarrah groans to himself, ¡°I was hoping it would be so simple, they arrived with Lullaby after all. Fel hells. Technically this doesn¡¯t rule it out entirely. Lullaby simply may not be the one. Could the child be fated to wield the four? Gae Buidhe hasn¡¯t been seen in a lifetime, and that was the easiest to find.¡±


    My jaw drops and I start crying. Partially from laughter, partially from how upset I am. Since Jarrah is pacing about, muttering rapidly, I spend eight minutes to do something I¡¯d hoped I¡¯d never do on Rayileklia. He watches me with amusement as I bleed all over his chamber.


    I gasp for breath as I nearly pass out and choke on my own tongue. Somehow, the neckchain¡¯s enchantment lets me breathe even around my own tongue blocking my airway. Thank heavens. As Gae Buidhe arrives in my hands across my lap, I ask, ¡°Like this Gae Buidhe? I¡¯ve got dozens more copies of it in my inventory.¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s face boggles beyond comprehension as he excitedly flubs, ¡°You, you hwhat!? Has it, has it ever traveled without your consent? In space? In time?¡±


    I grimace as I slowly nod while my eyebrows raise in worry as I stare at my mentor. His pacing becomes extremely rapid, and I can¡¯t hear his muttering over the slap of his footsteps.


    He orders me, ¡°Continue with the rolling. Quickly now. Let¡¯s get to the rest.¡±


    Err, right, I guess we were doing that. Now I have this fuggin¡¯ deadly spear in my lap. Frickin¡¯ hell. The frightening tentacles with gibbering maws show back up on the third face and I shudder, quickly rerolling. The fel-fire contract shows back up on the fourth face and I quickly roll again as well. Argh, gross skeleton again! The morphing weapon again. He calls me vexing. This is vexing. How hard can it be to roll all eight faces on an eight sided die? Well, technically something like eight times seven times six times five times four times three times two times one to get them more or less in a row, or something like that. Or maybe it¡¯s eight to the eighth power, though I think that¡¯s only if we want exactly one result of something like eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Something like that. Bluh, my brain doesn¡¯t feel up to math right now after the last few days.


    The wispy tailed man again, huff, bluh. The angelic halo again, argh. How many faces have I done? I haven¡¯t done them all right? Is Jarrah pranking me? That seems highly unlikely. I could swear the die didn¡¯t even have anything on its faces before I started rolling it. Alright, next roll. Halo again, huff. Next. Eugh, tentacled maws again, next. Halo again. Friggin¡¯ hell Jarrah, if this is a prank, I¡¯m going back to bed to rest off my injuries. His scowl tells me it¡¯s no prank.


    Huff, alright, next. The morphing weapon again. It draws my gaze into its morphing process slightly. Jarrah actually taps his foot impatiently. Erm, right, next. Friggin¡¯ hell, nope. What faces are we even missing? The one face, and the six face. Let¡¯s just speed roll til we get them. I assume I can¡¯t just flip the thing to the next face. Jarrah confirms my assumption.


    Sigh, skeletal stuff again on face eight, ribcage with a necrotized heart, eugh. Next. Huff, not this one again either! Blurhg, next. Hello again halo. Next. I. I can¡¯t. Everything. Time is bending. What, what¡¯s happening? It was about, about to land on the fir--.


    Hm? What? What just happened? Where was I? Right, I still need to land on one and six. Next, nope, next, nope. Hey! Sixth face. Oh my. If I thought the deep-faced tentacles were frightening, this image is indescribable horror. I lose my breath and stare fearfully at it.


    Jarrah rolls his eyes and places his hand between my gaze and the die. He grumbles, ¡°Obviously not that one. What was that disturbance earlier though? You still haven¡¯t rolled the first face, why is it so elu¡ª Argh!¡±


    Time whiplash snaps at both of us, now I remember what happened earlier, the first face was about to land up. It actively fought against being displayed until the very last. How in all the fel hells? Oh, wow. That¡¯s Bastet, that¡¯s Anubis. I think that¡¯s, that, that stately face, and, and that one. Those are Oberon and Titania, err, Mab maybe. My gaze is drawn towards the octahedron nearer and nearer, I feel as if I¡¯m falling into it. Jarrah struggles to his feet from a position where he¡¯d apparently fallen on his arse. He snatches up the die and shoves it in a pouch.


    He grumbles actually directed somewhat at me, ¡°It¡¯s possible, maybe. Maybe not even the source of your powers, maybe a blessing or a curse that follows you. Damnable archfey, noses in every pie where they don¡¯t belong.¡±


    I blink rapidly. The archfey may have taken an interest in me? Possibly before I even spawned? Enough interest to either curse or bless me? What the hell? What¡¯d I ever do to them? Huff. Great. So I might be fated to wield or in some way resonate with or attune to four crazy objects, weapons maybe, or I might be cursed, or blessed by the most powerful lords and ladies of this realm, or maybe a little bit of column a, column b, and or column c. Lullaby sends massive waves of humor. Pft. Come on Bud, it¡¯s not funny. This is serious Lullaby. Lives are on the line. Worlds could possibly be on the line.


    Jarrah sighs as he claims, ¡°I¡¯m loathe to admit it vexing one, but by now I¡¯m almost certain of it. You have no natural talent for magic. Nor any given ability from a patron. You are simply brute-forcing your way through spells with more willpower than anyone I¡¯d ever seen. You are in for a long, incredibly difficult journey should you continue to pursue the power of magic, for what time you have left anyway. Perhaps even beyond. You are a vexation after all. I''ll take that spear off your hands to hide with the other artifacts as you seem so frightened of it, not to mention you somehow having duplicates of the artifact.¡±


    I shrug and let Jarrah take Gae Buidhe, I want nothing to do with it if I can avoid it. As I¡¯m about to leave, disheartened, Jarrah adds, ¡°You must accept no offer. Listen, you must accept no deal, no matter how tempting, that seduces you with shortcuts to magic and its power. Absolutely none! Huff. Yours is a soul in turmoil enough as it is. Do not add another claim to it. No matter how innocuous the offer, you must decline. The entity who offers such a deal may not even know the harm they could irreparably do to your existence. Worse, they may know exactly what they¡¯re doing to you, and desire such a terrible outcome.¡±


    Well that isn¡¯t friggin¡¯ ominous at all, thanks Jarrah. His wild eyes slow ever so slightly as his face adopts an apologetic look. I falter as I gaze upon it, feeling abashed at my flippancy. I, I really do mean thank you though. That sort of warning is incredibly important, obviously. Thank you Jarrah. For everything. Since the only magic I¡¯m gaining is apparently my own brute force runostructuring, I guess I can just sit in bed and train. I guess I don¡¯t need to come back to the Enclave any longer, that way I can avoid bringing my troubles to it.


    Jarrah coughs for attention and orders, ¡°I¡¯ll see you bright and early for training, as usual. As soon as you awaken, make your way to my chamber with what haste you can muster. Rest well my little oddity.¡± He adds under his breath, ¡°An ancient newborn essentially. Such an oddity.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow but he waves dismissively, not even engaging whether or not to admit the last part I¡¯d heard. Huff. I keep getting comments like that. Little old soul, things like that. Elder Rinnia Tolkenstein basically said my soul existed for an eternity, but also only a short time. I wonder if that¡¯s what this is about. What does that even mean? Huff. I drop a belated sigh.

 B 4 C 91: The Mysterious Malady Revealed

    Teuila is waiting for me a few flights down, chatting with Alanea who appears to be organizing a set of scrolls and books. I guess she decided to come in regardless of not having to teach. She¡¯s dedicated too on top of everything else. Too bad I¡¯m going to die in a couple of months, or if I somehow survive, that I¡¯m headed back to a whole other world. She¡¯s a really awesome lady. As soon as Alanea spies me coming down the steps I can see heat lines escaping her face as she begins blushing. She quickly raises a scroll between her face and mine, pretending to be absorbed in it. Hell, am I that cute when I¡¯m all flustered by Fawns at Sunsets? Yeesh. No wonder she delighted in letting me get flustered. Hell, no wonder Lu teases me so viciously. I mean, I¡¯m not assuming I¡¯m anywhere near as cute as Alanea, but still.


    Teuila grins as she sees Alanea blush like mad, so she turns with a limp, and throws herself bodily at me. Thankfully she reduces her gravity as she slams in to me, so that we don¡¯t go toppling down the stairs. She peppers my face with kisses, and I could swear she winks at Alanea. Now I¡¯m blushing like mad. Just what the hell is she planning?


    Te calls out, right into my face, ¡°My Airhead! So spacey, so much space in that head of yours for so many thoughts and so many people. Am I right? Of course I am. You look like you¡¯re enjoying something, eh? Huh? Huh? What¡¯s got you all blushy all of a sudden?¡±


    I glance side to side trying to avoid Teuila¡¯s gaze as her face follows mine while I¡¯m blushing ferociously. I mumble, ¡°Come on Te that¡¯s just mean. She¡¯s a sweetheart and I think she might have a crush.¡±


    Teuila nudges me with her knees that are wrapped around my torso and she leans in and whispers, ¡°Duh! Can¡¯t believe you caught on to something like that for once. Ya big Airhead. Come on, we¡¯re only here for a couple more nights, invite her over for snuggles.¡±


    I hiss, ¡°Te! I, I can¡¯t just--.¡±


    Teuila grins as she teases, ¡°Well poo on you, but good for you I can.¡±


    My eyes widen as I quietly beg, ¡°Te? Te what are you about to do? Te? Te don¡¯t you dare.¡±


    Teuila ignores me as I feel her belly rumble with laughter. She turns over her shoulder and calls out to Alanea, ¡°Hey Big A, we had a fun day together, right? Wanna come over and keep the fun going til we¡¯re all tuckered out and snuggle up for a night?¡±


    Teuila, that phrasing. I know you¡¯re critterkin, but you¡¯ve proven to me before that you know what sultry stuff and entendres and innuendos sounds like. That¡¯s just evil. Alanea stutters as she brushes herself off and glances around quickly, looking for anything to provide distraction as she avoids eye contact. She quickly digs behind a shelf, burying herself in the shelf, pretending not to be able to answer. I swear the scrolls on the shelf are about to catch fire. Teuila can be so mean. Te¡¯s trying to hide the fact that she¡¯s giggling.


    I attempt to defuse the embarrassment of the situation, ¡°I, um, Alanea? Teuila can be a bit mean about teasing people to embarrass them, but she¡¯s also honest and earnest, and honorable and trustworthy and wonderful and a great snuggler. Though she can be kind of a bed hog, usually she just lays on top of everyone. I mean, when it¡¯s like, me, Teuila, Linti, Luni, Lil, she jokingly pins us to th¡ª never mind, not important. Sorry. I, I just. I hope she didn¡¯t hurt your feelings with the teasing. Um, it was nice to see you again. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m helping this situation. I hope to see you again tomorrow, or the day after. I think we¡¯re leaving the night after tomorrow.¡±


    A meek voice calls back, ¡°You, you¡¯re, well, you¡¯re leaving? So soon? I. Well, I. I, well, maybe. Well maybe you¡¯re right about Big T.¡±


    They have letter nicknames for each other after hanging out for a day? That¡¯s kind of cute. Err, not the point. No need to torment the poor woman. Since Teuila is latched on to me, I can just carry her out of here to defuse the situation.


    Alanea apparently sees me turning to leave and calls out again, ¡°W, wa, well, um, wait, please? Can, Can I. Well, can I maybe talk to you alone for a sexond? I mean a second! I mean a minute! Or, or heaven. I mean seven!¡±


    Holy jeebuz now I¡¯m flushed all to hell again. Those Freudian slips, wow Alanea, just wow. Teuila is snorting from laughing so hard and trying to fight off her own amusement. I politely dislodge Teuila so that she has to dismount me. I raise an eyebrow at Teuila and she grins at me like a lunatic while signing that she¡¯ll be nearby, probably indicating down half a flight or so.


    I gulp down air and blow it out through puffed cheeks as I try to hide my embarrassment by pretending that¡¯s the reason for their redness. I glance around and sort of shimmy embarrassedly in place. Alanea looks mortified, and like she has no idea what she actually wants to talk to me about. I¡¯d facepalm if I didn¡¯t feel so bad about the situation. Her face contorts as she tries to ask a question that won¡¯t leave her lips. I fidget anxiously while she fidgets nervously.


    Alanea finally manages to sort of ask, ¡°Well, um, maybe, um. Well, a, a bit closer? In, in here. You I mean. I mean. Well, I mean, could you maybe please come in here so, so that, um. Well, so that we could take a private. I mean! Talk! Well, talk a, a little more privately?¡±


    Both of us gulp and resume blushing, but I nod and enter the room. Alanea glances around, and I can virtually see her heart skipping beats. I feel so bad for her. I would honestly be falling for her so hard if I weren¡¯t about to either die, or maybe make it back to my home world.


    With us being the same height in my cherubic form, I¡¯m able to meet her gaze without making it awkward. She surprises the both of us by grabbing my hand and bringing it to the top of her chest. I nearly faint. Sure it¡¯s not like she moved it left or right, but what¡¯s th¡ª Oh how weird. I can feel some sort of glow inside of her. It¡¯s, it¡¯s kind of shaped like a miniature version of her. I gulp, trying to fight off a sudden dryness in my mouth as I stare into her eyes in confusion.


    She tries to explain, ¡°I, I, I¡¯ve never, not before now, before you, um. Well, I¡¯ve never met another changeling, not, not one as, as, with a. Well, with such a handsome and gorgeous, um, inner you, form, base, um. It¡¯s so hard to explain! Well, I¡¯m, I¡¯m pretty sure from what Big T said that you, well, you never had other changelings to, to talk to, or maybe even learn about this stuff with. And, and that¡¯s such a shame, because yours is so so so beautiful. Meep.¡±


    I¡¯m at a loss for words as I remain transfixed on her, waiting for anything else she might say. She looks so mousey as she requests, ¡°Well, um, well, can I? I, I mean I showed you mine. The, the right way. Well, will you show me yours?¡±


    Both of us blush wildly at the implications of her phrasing until we can¡¯t stand the embarrassment any longer, and we both break out into laughter.


    Alanea stutters, ¡°I, I, well I¡¯m so, haha, I¡¯m so sorry. Well, you know what I really meant. Right?¡±


    I nod and I hesitantly take her hand. I¡¯ve never done this, I didn¡¯t even know this was a thing for changelings. I barely even knew I was a changeling. I just sort of thought I was pretty sure that I was one after I saw some around the Miracle Oak. My mouth and throat are so dry as my jaw hangs slightly slack while I stare at Alanea¡¯s sparkling eyes. My hand is still on her torso, so I bring hers to mine, and suddenly a new world opens up beneath my feet to swallow the two of us.


    I¡¯m falling and lost, but still connected to Alanea. I gasp frightfully before I realize there¡¯s no air, no danger, no anything save us, nor anything to harm us. Moreover, there are enormous versions of ourselves standing in the vastness of black empty space. They¡¯re astral, translucent versions of ourselves made up of constellations and whole solar systems. It¡¯s utterly breathtaking. Alanea gazes around at mine while I stare at hers. She, she''s even more gorgeous in this form. She''s tear-inspiringly beautiful. Holy crap. I look towards mine for a moment, and I¡¯m shocked at what I see. That is not cherubic Reggie Shellcracker. They, I? That image is, well, I feel vain as hell because my breath is taken away once more. That¡¯s the real me? Could critterkin on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas see that? Is that why certain things transpired the way they did?


    Again, vanity, but no wonder my duende statistic was as high as it was. I¡¯m transfixed momentarily. I rattle my head and turn my gaze back to Alanea to meet hers.


    Alanea accidentally lets out an, "Mmmmm." Which turns into an embarrassed, "Meep!"


    She giggles somewhat nervously and withdraws her palm from my chest. I realize I¡¯ve had my hand on her chest this entire time so I fling myself backwards, stumbling and falling on my rear. I end up clunking against the nearby wall.


    My heart hammers rapidly, yet flutters lightly at the same time. I can barely breathe and my eyeballs are swimming loosely in their sockets. I rattle my skull and blink rapidly, trying to rouse my senses.


    I try to say, ¡°What in the hell was that?¡± Instead I somehow only say, ¡°Heavens.¡±


    Alanea nods emphatically and steps closer to sit next to me on the floor against the wall. She takes my left hand, not in a romantic way, but in a very buddy way, almost patronizing.


    Alanea gnaws on her lip as she tries to wrap up, ¡°So, well, so that¡¯s, I just. Well, I kind of just wanted, and wanted you to, experience that, just one time, together. That¡¯s all. Well, I mean. That¡¯s enough. Err, well, I¡¯ll try to be less awkward around you now that it¡¯s, um, kind of out of my system. Well, a little at least.¡±


    The butterflies in my stomach are flipping it like an Olympic uneven bars routine. My mouth and throat are so dry, and I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve blinked since I manually rapidly blinked however long ago. I¡¯m just staring straight ahead, barely acknowledging Alanea. What the hell just happened? Am I even breathing? Am I dead?


    Alanea pats my hand reassuringly, again, in a slightly patronizing way. I¡¯m not sure if I misread the situation. Back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas I probably would try to turn to my side and lean in to see if she wanted to kiss. As is, I¡¯m just sitting here stupefied.


    Alanea stands up, dusts herself off, and asks, ¡°Do you, well, um. Well, did you mean it when you said Big T was a great snuggler?¡± I nod slowly, absentmindedly. I can sense Alanea gnawing on her lower lip, her countenance appears to be deep in thought to my silent sonar.


    I feel a bit sick to my stomach from its constant flipping and butterflies, and the rapid fluttering of my heart. Oh, whew, I¡¯m blinking again, finally. Holy crap. Okay, my stomach is settling down, and I¡¯m breathing again. Phew. My pulse is normalizing too. I gulp and rattle my head as I stand.


    I mumble, ¡°Uh, th, thank you. For that incredible experience. I¡¯m, um. I might be inappropriately enamored with you at the moment, way, way, way more than I already was, which was already incredibly so. Err, uh. Awkward. So I¡¯ll, I guess take my leave of you. I wish you a wonderful evening Alanea. You¡¯re truly wonderful, and incredibly gracious to share that with me.¡±


    I reach up to my face as I realize tears are forming and beginning to cloud my vision. I bow and turn to begin my embarrassed scurrying flight away from the situation. I shuffle away slower than I intend to, and Alanea follows me hesitantly for several paces before stopping. I glance over my shoulder back towards her, and I notice a host of emotions struggling and fighting for their place on her face. My throat and mouth dry out again, and my heart hammers once more so hard that dizziness overtakes me. My head slams into the wall as I fall to my side, and the last thing I see is Alanea reaching worriedly for me while I sense Teuila zipping up below me a bit too late to prevent my head from slamming into the next step below me. The second impact steals my consciousness from me.


    I awaken later with stiff muscles and a pounding headache. Urgh, I can¡¯t move much. I turn my face towards one source of my immobility, and I see Dawn staring, unblinking, unseeing at me, her limbs hugging mine in a death grip. I gulp again trying to reduce the dryness inside my mouth and throat. Poor Dawn. Gosh that is terrifying every time. She looks for all the world to be dead other than the fidgeting and nervous shaking, the silent sobbing.


    I can¡¯t parse my danger senses at all right now, my whole world is still flipped upside down from the weird changeling experience with Alanea. I wish I could comfort Dawn, help her somehow. I can¡¯t bear to see her like this. I feel so horrible for her.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Turning my face the other direction, I see Teuila¡¯s back as her torso appears to be weighing down upon my right arm with increased gravity. It¡¯s almost like there¡¯s even an extra body there. I can only move my wrist, palm, and fingers. Trying to reduce my muscle stiffness anywhere that I can move, I flex my palm and wrist, and then I freeze as my hand lands on something with a firm squishiness to it. There¡¯s an unfamiliar soft hempen fabric covering a body part that¡¯s round. My muscles spasm and I gulp. I want to cry out an immediate apology but I don¡¯t want to wake everyone up, and now my muscles are locked in place from the spasming. Crap crap crap. Please just pass back out Reggie. Please. You didn¡¯t mean to do this. Glp.


    The firmness in my palm shifts, and the body it belongs to moves slightly so that what rests in my palm is even softer. Crap, Alanea, that¡¯s, that¡¯s your rump, your tush. I. I¡¯m so sorry. I¡¯ll apologize til my lungs burst when everyone wakes up. I swear. I¡¯m so sorry. I struggle to pass back out, and thankfully unconsciousness welcomes me with open arms.


    I awaken once more, stiff as a board, but no longer surrounded, at least, not by bodies at rest. Teuila and Alanea are chatting nearby, while Dawn hides out somewhere at the edges of my sensory ranges. I blink rapidly and flex my jaw as I try to work each muscle group, one at a time in turn.


    Alanea asks, ¡°So they¡¯re getting worse again? Well, I mean like, more fainting spells? Well, err. How often does Reggie use their changeling metamorphosis? Not that big magic change that somehow adds mass and muscles and organs and so much more. I, well, I kind of saw something when I went inside Reggie.¡±


    Teuila snickers for a moment, then frowns as she responds, ¡°Yeah, blacking out more again. And, never I guess. I¡¯ve never seen Reggie be any other Reggie than Reggie, you know? I mean, other than the taller burly squishy form, the taller masculine form, their dragon form, and this about forty foot tall monstrous kaiju thingy on the Night of All Burn. Oh, and their hulkster mite-hulk insect armor form I guess, sort of.¡±


    Alanea was about to say something, but hearing about my kaiju form causes her to pause. She blinks rapidly and cleans out her ears as she stares at Teuila incredulously. She mouths forty feet tall questioningly, in shock. Alanea rattles her skull rapidly. Her gaze is crestfallen, an immense sadness washes over her. I''m about to try to apologize to Alanea, but I want to give her a moment in case I''ve already upset her.


    Teuila picks up on Alanea''s sudden sadness as well, but lets Alanea speak through tears, ¡°I, well, Big T. Reggie, they. Well, we, changelings, if we don¡¯t use our gift, should stay away from mana. It¡¯s, well, it¡¯s like. Well, it¡¯s kind of like a residue builds up over our gift or something, and that¡¯s with just regular pure clean mana. It, well, it makes us sick, and maybe even die the more mana residue we let build up inside us. We, well, we can be mages and stuff if we use mana sparingly, and our gift a lot, from the absolute very beginning. It like. Well, it like, scrubs itself sort of. Well, no, that¡¯s the totally wrong analogy. Well, I guess it¡¯s more like, it makes our gift spiky, so it¡¯s harder for mana residue to get to the surface of our gift to build up in the first place or something? Well it¡¯s just so hard to explain.¡±


    She gulps back a sob and continues before Teuila can ask the obvious question, ¡°I, well, I don¡¯t know of any way to wash it out. Well, I mean, and, and that¡¯s only with ordinary, pure, clean mana, but, well, the stuff Reggie has been using all their life, it was polluted, tainted, all kinds of bad stuff. There¡¯s no telling how much it¡¯s hurting them. There¡¯s, well, I don¡¯t know of any cure. I, well, I think Reggie¡¯s going to die. I, well, I''m positive. Snf.¡±


    I feel tears wet each of our faces. My muscles spasm and my face drowns in sadness and despair. I finally know my malady. I know my malady, and I¡¯m certain to die from it. I¡¯m certain to die from it, and I¡¯m hastening that death every time I use mana or spells. Yet I can¡¯t stop doing either, if I am to have any hope of saving Dawn.


    I accidentally cough, cluing them in that I¡¯m awake. The three of us share an awkward, silent stare, as Dawn huddles in a nearby corner, nursing her own sadness. I gulp down mucus, saliva, and tears as I try to form words. Anything. Nothing comes forth. Instead I simply shake as my muscle spasms worsen, and, for perhaps the first time in I don¡¯t know how long, I feel a feverish chill overcome me so strongly that I begin shivering. I don¡¯t know how I can feel even remotely chilly with my thermal resistance.


    Teuila looks incredibly concerned when she notices my shivering vibrations. Aleana doesn¡¯t know it should be impossible for me to get chills, but there¡¯s a different concern that plays across her face.


    Aleana mutters and mumbles, rambling nervously, ¡°An-,an-, anyway, well, they, they probably, um. Well, Reggie probably just, well, they, they probably felt my lu--, I mean, um, my desir--, err, my um, my infatuation, and maybe echoed it, so they think they¡¯re infatuated with me. Well, Reggie was really sweet, right away, and, and, but maybe they just sensed my gift. Well, because we both have such pretty base, bare, true self inner gifts. They, they. Well, I, I do like them a lot, and I¡¯m glad they forgive me, but, but I understand if they¡¯re confused. Or, well, maybe even mad. Plus, well, I mean you and Reggie, and um, apparently others.¡±


    Teuila coughs and fights to lighten the mood, ¡°Awe come on Big A. Give yourself a little credit. You¡¯re hot, and cool, and you¡¯re sweet for a tart. Hehe, you¡¯re like a bunch of really fun opposites. Short, but you¡¯re sta¡ª¡°


    I cough loudly to interrupt Teuila¡¯s statement to save Alanea the embarrassment of Teuila¡¯s comment on her bust size. Teuila smirks, knowing exactly what I was doing. Alanea and I both blush, also aware of what I was doing. Te bursts into a fit of giggles. Alanea and I hesitantly, nervously start to chuckle slowly, until we¡¯re both laughing as well, the mood finally lifted.


    Alanea rambles, ¡°It, well, I mean, thank you. Well, but it doesn¡¯t matter too much. Well, because you¡¯re leaving tomorrow night, and, and what you have to do is so important. I. Well, I know I¡¯ll never se-, glp, snfl, I¡¯ll never see Reggie again. I. I. I¡¯m sorry!¡±


    Alanea shouts an apology and sprints away, still in her nightclothes, tears streaking behind her, sparkling beneath the glowmoss and Luma Tulipa of the Heart. My heart aches as it breaks watching her mad sprint. I struggle to get my mind to latch onto any non heartbreaking thought. Cute pajamas though. I mean, well, kinda, err, lovely in a, yeah, in that way. I¡¯m not sure if she changed here, and has now abandoned her belongings, or if she changed into her hempen bed-robes before heading over, and wore them on the way here. Walking around in them seems, well, gosh, I imagine anyone would drop their jaw and accidentally ogle her. They wouldn''t even have to be as sleazy as Flint. Teuila reaches out ineffectually towards the fleeing Alanea, and winces, her cracked bones causing her to falter.


    I sniffle as I draw ragged, sobbing breaths. She was so sweet, and she helped me understand something so pivotal, so central to myself, my identity that I never knew I had. No wonder I have trouble with my gender. I never had to be any gender to begin with, being a changeling. It¡¯s like one mysterious weight lifted from my shoulders, only for more tangible weights to drop upon them with knowledge of my malady. If she fled us just now, is she going to avoid us for the next two days? I may never see her again. I''ll lament missing out on the opportunity to learn more about her, about me, about us, about changelings. I''ll lament however many missed opportunities we might have had. For the short while until I die anyway.


    Seeking inward, I try to find my natural gift. What I find isn¡¯t the beautiful, amazing astral vision shared with Alanea. No, it¡¯s some enfeebled, dessicated, strangled, meager husk, absolutely encrusted with what must be tainted mana. There¡¯s a faint purple aura somehow projecting a film on the outside of my gift, my inner self, between it, and the tainted crud. It flickers and shrinks by the moment as the tainted mana squeezes more tightly. I can tell immediately that¡¯s the fading energy from Kozzurth¡¯s heart. It really is what¡¯s keeping me alive.


    My jaw hangs slack as I can finally literally see what¡¯s killing me. I was never meant to be a powerful magic user. From the very moment I spawned, messing with mana was dangerous to me. Somehow, my true self, and the toxin coating it, persisted through death. Or maybe just reaching back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas every time since being reborn on Rayileklia was enough to encrust my inner self so thoroughly. It¡¯s weird to think that as a changeling, I in essence have two souls. My gift is the core of my living being, even though I¡¯ve never used mine, and now might never be able to since it¡¯s so strangulated. But my soul is my eternal self. Both are misshapen, lumpy, dying, or well, one at least was at one point. Though my soul seems to heal with time, whenever it takes some sort of damage from things I don¡¯t understand, or has been aided in its healing by outside forces like the Miracle Oak Fae.


    Teuila furiously shakes her head, and starts down the path of denial, ¡°No, no, just, just. Big A is wonderful, but, but she¡¯s wrong. She has to be. There has to be a cure. What about the hearts? There has to be. She, she just don¡¯t know everything. I, I¡¯ll leave right now. I¡¯ll go get extra hearts for Reggie, just to be safe.¡±


    I reach out to clasp Te¡¯s fists as she balls them up tighter and tighter. We stare into each other¡¯s tear-filled eyes. I shake my head as I try to dissuade her, ¡°Te, Alanea¡¯s right. I looked at it just now, now that I know how to see it. My inner self is gunked up, barely alive. The only thing keeping the toxic gunk at bay is a fading purple barrier. I¡¯m positive that¡¯s the energy from Kozzurth¡¯s heart. It seems like even if we get more hearts, it¡¯s only a temporary solution. I don¡¯t want to lose a second with you on the off chance you can find some evil dragons before I die. Teuila Shellcracker. I love you. I want every last moment with you to count.¡±


    I¡¯m blinded by my own tears and don¡¯t even see Teuila as she launches herself tearfully at me. We sit weeping in each other¡¯s arms for what feels like the longest time. She¡¯s going to lose me, and if I don¡¯t step up my game, she¡¯s going to lose Dawn, and all her Aasimovian friends, and all her Hidden Heart friends, and this entire world. I can¡¯t keep failing. I can¡¯t let her down. Even though it¡¯s killing me faster and faster, I have to practice harder. I know I can¡¯t break Jarrah¡¯s rules, or I¡¯ll just kill myself without making progress, but I¡¯ll find some way to be more efficient. I practice each of the five runes successfully while holding Teuila.


    I summon the magic copy of my hand from my staff, and have it retrieve books for me, one at a time. I control it to be floating them near me as I gaze upon any enchantments on or in them while holding Teuila. Dud of random spells, dud of random spells, no magic at all, dud martial enchantment, wow that¡¯s a lot of killing spells. Dud. W- What? Oh my gods. Oh my gods. That¡¯s the rune for soul. That¡¯s the rune for soul!


    I cry out, practically shouting through a mucus-laden sob, ¡°That¡¯s the rune for soul!¡±


    Teuila, startled, rapidly shakes her head, confused as she gazes around. She accidentally wraps her arms more tightly, higher up my form, around my neck as she''s noticing the book floating next to her. I¡¯m almost giddy with excitement as I read as much about the book as I can while in Teuila¡¯s accidental stranglehold.


    I basically read aloud, ¡°This enchantment, something something the soul, something something, fifty six, something. Ugh, stupid tears. Huff. Sorry Te, I need my arms for a second. I need to wipe away my tears.¡±


    Teuila relents, and releases her death grip on me. I hear Dawn chuckle sadly nearby. I quickly wipe away my tears. Okay, okay. Ugh, it¡¯s one of these ones where the runotypes are basically encrypted gibberish until you read almost all of it. Fuggin¡¯ hell. Ugh this is a gamble. Is it a thirty three rune spell? It says something about fifty six to begin understanding. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s days or hours. Gorramit!


    I curse, ¡°F&*(! I. I don¡¯t know what it is. It¡¯s one of the encrypted ones that will give some sort of enchantment, and I think that enchantment will reveal a spell within the book or something. But I have no idea how big or long that spell is. If it¡¯s just runotypes, or what, and if so, how many. I. I. Dawn I. I¡¯ll try. I¡¯ll get started right away.¡±


    Dawn jokes, ¡°Hey, no pressure Rej, we all got stuff to do, yeah? I¡¯ve got faith in you pal. You¡¯re impressive as all get-out. Dying, nearly dead, and working harder than anyone, ever, to save little ol¡¯ me. Best bunch of crazy friends a gal could ask for. I tell ya.¡±


    I frown as I fight back a sob and more tears at Dawn¡¯s semi-flippant humor. I manage to croak out, ¡°D, Dawn. We. I love you. You¡¯re My Friend. I¡¯ll do everything in my power with what time I have left. I swear on what¡¯s left of my life. I¡¯ll devote every moment I can manage to this.¡±


    Dawn avoids my gaze, blushing despite her vital-less nature. She mutters, ¡°Hell Rej, it¡¯s fine pal. Gonna give a girl a complex. If you can beat this curse on me before time is up, I¡¯m sure we can find a way to do the same for you. Both of you, stop being so glum chums. Game isn¡¯t over yet. Not til the, and no offense to her, Alanea sings. Okay, I mean, she¡¯s not really, at all, but she¡¯s the roundest person I know offhand. All those curves in that tight little package.¡±


    The three of us break out in laughter, I end up snorting. I mean, Dawn¡¯s right. Offhand I don¡¯t remember anyone on Rayileklia that I¡¯d call fat, and Alanea certainly had lovely proportions that were, um, curvy. Good lords she has heavenly curves. I''m not sure if I''m appreciating them more because of seeing her inner self, or if I always felt this way about her form. Regardless, her form is compact yet amazingly curvy. Like if Luni were stuffed into a smaller package. Actually more like Laomati. Lao¡¯s curves are, ah, jeeze. She¡¯s basically my mom. That¡¯s so friggin¡¯ awkward. Now I¡¯m blushing silently while Te and Dawn laugh. Ugh, good going Reggie, imagining that. Pft. Ya goon. I choke on my overly-dry tongue once again, and begin coughing momentarily.


    Teuila suddenly stops laughing to state, ¡°Oh, before I forget, Percival went to some sort of, I don¡¯t even know how to describe what he said. It wasn¡¯t like, words, not like the rest of his rustling. He says he¡¯s sorry if he doesn¡¯t catch us before we leave, but he doesn¡¯t like the idea of saying goodbye to us, that he was grateful and yada yada. Paraphrasing obviously. Real sweet sorta farewell sentiment. I gave him a kick in the butt for trying to leave without saying goodbye to you two, but he insisted. Sorry guys.¡±


    I mildly pout. I didn¡¯t really get to know Percy the Potted Plant at all, due to the language barrier, but I did think of him as a friend. He led us to the absolute trove of stuff in Milbert¡¯s cellar that we never would have found. We owe him a lot, possibly even this chance to rescue Dawn. I can¡¯t remember where this particular book was from, but even if it wasn¡¯t from the cellar, the carriage was. I definitely wouldn¡¯t have studied as easily, or as much, while mudcamping and jogging all day every day to get to the Hidden Heart. Also the forest might not have let us in without Lullaby, and Lullaby was definitely downstairs.


    Hm? Yeah I¡¯m talking, err, well, thinking about you Bud. I¡¯m glad Percy made sure we found you too. You¡¯re sleepy? How does a, y¡¯know what, never mind. You rest up Bud. You¡¯ve been amazing this whole time. I owe you a lot pal. I¡¯d have freaking died to Sindred. Oh, you heard all that about me dying anyway? Yeah. Yeah things are pretty dire. No, no I haven¡¯t exactly given up yet, but it is definitely looking grim. I¡¯ll do my best though Bud, I swear. I gotta get my arse up and hurry up to Jarrah¡¯s chamber. I¡¯m not sure what he¡¯ll have me doing that would be worth distracting me from finishing this book though, so I might have to bow out of his tutelage.

 B 4 C 92: Tea and Ramifications

    Both Teuila and I still need to physically recover from our ordeals, and I value our lives extremely highly right now. If Sindred shows back up, I want to be ready to freeze her solid, or blow her away with a fireball or lightning bolt. I can¡¯t risk dying now when there¡¯s an actual chance that I might save Dawn. Teuila insists that if she can¡¯t find Alanea or convince her to hang out, she¡¯s going to sit in on my training in Jarrah¡¯s chamber. Not sure how he¡¯ll feel about that, or if he or his chamber will permit it, but I love her regardless, and appreciate the sentiment. Dawn of course intends to hang with Boss.


    There¡¯s a tiny bit of a weird dynamic there. Dawn is iffy at best on physical contact and affection, but Teuila is even more affectionate than me. I think there¡¯s some lingering feelings that I¡¯m the male in our relationship, despite neither of us technically having genders, me being femme leaning, and Teuila identifying as a woman. Probably from our initial meeting, where Teuila was definitely presenting femme, while I was hiding it. I don¡¯t begrudge her whatever subconscious worry she has going on. She¡¯s more worried about getting close to me, and me breaking her heart by betraying her trust, if I were to be trying to get physical, even though Teuila kind of does get a little physical. Her boundaries and desires are her own. I just hope she feels they¡¯re being respected. I worry how heartbroken Teuila would be if she realized she drove Dawn away, if Dawn can¡¯t handle the contact any longer.


    Well, I assume Dawn will probably put up with us regardless of any discomfort, as we struggle to salvage her soul from this curse. I¡¯d still like to not burden her with discomfort. Bluh, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ve probably talked it out or something. Dawn was basically joking with me about it not long ago. I think she feels some sort of sistership with Teuila or something. In that case, Teuila would be, in her eyes, her annoying kid sister that she loves anyway, since Dawn is like a hundred or more years old or something. Though Teuila and I have several hundred years of life as well, at the very least, in thinkspace. Huh. Hard to tell who¡¯s really younger when all three of us are ageless. I''m so glad we all are though. Thankfully Jarrah¡¯s freaky room proved that the other day.


    Still, Jarrah was right about more questions than answers. Huff. What the hell does it mean that my agelessness has been in effect since the very beginnings of my existence? Possibly even beyond. Also, how is he so sure now that I have no patron or anything, when we had both of those weird effects with the weapon icon and the archfey icon? Probably some sort of celestial divination I guess. His warning was freakishly dire. But I mean, if I¡¯m going to be dying soon anyway, hm. Oof, his warning is echoing around in my skull now, hah. Alright, alright.


    What¡¯s that Bud? You think you and I could partner up into some sort of symbiosis? You¡¯d get stronger and be able to help me cast my spells more often? It was awesome to be able to quickly sling spells again, and to have a working rune that I hadn¡¯t mastered yet. You were an amazing help. Symbiosis though? What would that ta¡ª. Erm. I, I¡¯ll think about it Lullaby. Remember what Jarrah said? The entity who offers might not even know what irreparable damage they could do to my soul. Thanks for the offer Bud. I¡¯ll try to work it out. I kind of want a shot at a clean afterlife if there is one. Or, I don¡¯t know, another respawn or something. Y¡¯know?


    Huff. I guess I¡¯ll keep relying on the staff for now Bud, sorry. Speaking of. Better keep the aura sense spell up, even if Jarrah is stupidly blinding. It¡¯s like ramming my face into a brick wall and losing vision looking at him. What. The. F^&*. I want to strangle the staff. It has a spell that it calls bypassed-wall. I could have--! Well, no. The staff got snatched away from me by the rock elementals. Sorry staff. Thank you for letting me know. I¡¯ll strive to keep that in mind.


    Oof, the bypassed-wall spell has a metric ton of limitations. These runes are going to be a lot to sort through. There¡¯s stuff like volume, density, length, girth, material, just a boatload of factors that have to parse exactly right for the staff to work to use that spell. I don¡¯t have time right now while working on this soul spell. Hrk, oof. Walked into a freakin¡¯ branch while glancing at all these stupid runes. Thankfully Bud moved it enough that I didn¡¯t impale myself like an idiot.


    I know I should pay attention in case I get jumped by Sindred, or the forces of our manxome foe. I really do like calling the jerk that, rather than, ¡°The Celestial Emperor.¡± The stupid pompous soul stealing piece of crap.


    Hm, I¡¯m also starting to realize that, if single enchantments take entire books full of runes to confer, that maybe my conjecture about encoding tables to make spells as short as thirty three runes could be wrong. Or whomever crafted the original enchantments and older spells hadn¡¯t thought to basically create runic subtypes to stand in for tables to be referenced. There could very well be spells and enchantments that are thousands of runes. That would take the average enchanter days, weeks, months, possibly years to even be able to set the runes into place. Hell, it might also probably take some sort of crazy power source to maintain the stability of the runes while the enchanter was resting between runecraftings.


    Oh jeeze. I¡¯m starting to understand why things might take big ritual circles with tons of similarly competent magic users. They either have to be channeling the same runes in concert over incredibly long periods to bind those runes into a longer craft, or work quickly in a sort of round robin of runocraft each taking the next rune in turn.


    Friggin¡¯ hell, no wonder Jarrah says I¡¯m brute-forcing it. I¡¯m literally like a basic password-cracker app package that just sends string after string after string into security submissions for passwords until one sticks. Ow, my brain. More Earth stuff? Yeah. Programming. Why does that sound so familiar? White hat and gray hat? Security ops? Cybersecurity testing? Ow, ow ow ow, holy crap my brain, I. My eyes are bleeding again? Koff, and my nose too. Alright, time to abandon all these trains of thought, they¡¯re literally hurting my brain.


    Okay, okay, let¡¯s try a different tactic. Without Bud, it takes me seconds to minutes to craft each rune, basically as useless in combat as my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic unless I stall and flee. In which case I may as well just call out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas and fire off a host of umbral projectile duplicates. Or launch one of my own Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian fireballs. Good gods, if I put fifty five hundred mana into one of those, I, I think I could actually destroy a mountaintop at this point, a significant portion of a mountain. The exponential nature, and my thermokinesis skill being the highest of my magics besides my space skill, just, yeah.


    Just what exactly is that exponential value anyway? Can I figure it out from the volume of my lightning bolts that I tested near the end? If a single hundred mana bolt was that size, then fifty five of them should be fifty five times that size, but a fifty five hundred mana bolt was that length, and width, plus side-arcs. Hm, going to have to be a rough estimate. It¡¯s something low, like base volume of y number of casts times one point x or one point zero x to the y power, y being the number of hundreds of mana poured in at once. One point five is way too high, that would get astronomical. I think even one point two five, or one point two is still a bit too high. One point one? Hm, maybe. One point one five? That seems likely.


    Still, to math out one point one five times one point one five times itself fifty three or fifty four more times or whatever, yeesh. Even I would need some paper for that. Eh, I can round. Okay, so one point two to the fifty fifth power would be something like twenty two to twenty three thousand. So one point one five would be, ah jeeze, a couple grand? Two or three? So a couple thousand times the fifty five times the base spell volume. That would be hundreds of thousands times the power of a single hundred mana spell. If the exponential coefficient is one point two instead, then it would be a million or so times the strength of a single hundred mana spell.


    No wonder polluted mana residue is freakin¡¯ killing me. Crap on a cracker Reggie Shellcracker. I guess Teuila was right so very long ago. All these miraculous powers were too good to be true, at least for me, a changeling. Also, no wonder my Kaiju-mode Black Ice was able to turn back the tide of hundreds or thousands of square miles of lava. All that mana from all those mages¡¯ combined spells gave me a wave of frost that would have been millions, maybe billions of times the strength of a single spell. Hup, try not to trip doofus. Thanks Lullaby, you saved me from falling on my face just now. I know, I know, I should pay more attention, but math is intriguing. It helps distract me from the fact that my death is looming incredibly near.


    Huff. Jarrah¡¯s going to be his usual, rude, demanding self I assume. A few more flights and, wait, did Alanea just spy me and scurry into a room? Crap. I. Balls. Should I just leave the poor woman alone? She¡¯s obviously avoiding me. Lullaby, is there any chance that you cou¡ª Thanks Bud. Yeah that¡¯s exactly what I need. I¡¯ll just write a little apology note and set it here in an obvious place. If she¡¯s too uncomfortable to read it, and ignores it, that¡¯s totally fine. Huff. Alright. I wish you a beautiful, happy life Alanea. Sorry for any stress and craziness I added to it.


    A couple more flights. I wonder where Teuila and Dawn have gotten off to already? God, I, I just want to curl up and spend every last dying second with my inner circle. But that would be giving up. It would be giving up on Dawn, and giving up on me. I can¡¯t let myself break down, I have to push harder than I¡¯ve ever pushed before, despite each push hastening my encroaching demise.


    Heh, Lao, and everyone else really, have always said I¡¯m a tad overdramatic. But I mean, how else would you describe a hastened doom brought on by any of the necessary efforts that you must make, because no one else can take on the responsibility? Oh hey, there¡¯s Jarrah. Is that a tea set?


    I begin to call out, to explain my circumstance when Jarrah interrupts, ¡°I heard. Alanea informed me of what transpired. You have my sympathy, meager though it may normally be for mortals. I¡¯m sorry I was not aware of your species¡¯ particular difficulties, or even your species. Sit, drink. Feel free to practice or what have you.¡±


    I scrunch my face in mild confusion. Not only is he being non demanding, he¡¯s being kind, considerate, sympathetic. Just what did Alanea tell him? Or maybe he put a paralytic agent into the tea to stop me from killing myself that will put me in cryo-stasis until someone finds a cure for changeling mana residue sickness. Hah. Haha. Um. That was a joke Jarrah. Yeesh, tough crowd. Snrk. Awe hell. That reminds me of Hellga Hellridge, suspended by my telekinesis. She was so suave and smooth. She wasn¡¯t cut out to be a criminal though, even though she was athletic as hell. I gasp a ragged breath that nearly turns into sobs. Please, please Don Derbrightmine, don¡¯t be as evil as I fear you could be. Please show her some kind of mercy.


    I rub tears out of my eyes quickly as I sit across from Jarrah. I have to gulp back sobs before I can start drinking. Erf, bitter. Oh well, it¡¯s a kind gesture, so I¡¯ll try to enjoy it. I guess I¡¯ll keep reading this soul spell book while practicing some of the runes for the prestidigitating spell. I know I can¡¯t possibly finish the book today, so I may as well multi task and continue to expand my daily limit of runes and repertoire of them.


    Jarrah raises an eyebrow at my series of thoughts. I shrug and hold the book up for him to take a quick look at. His wild eyes take it in in an instant, and he nods pensively. Despite his unfocused, rapidly shifting gaze, he seems faraway, lost in thought. Huff, deep breaths and try not to sob or sigh Reggie. Just keep plugging away. However much force it takes, you just, just have to succeed. Be cautious, don¡¯t die early, follow Jarrah¡¯s rules, but push as hard as or harder than ever.


    Jarrah¡¯s gaze fixes somewhat towards me, sternly for a moment, yet there¡¯s a softness behind it. I gulp and bury myself in my reading and runocrafting, occasionally sipping the bitter tea. My muscles feel so weary, and my eyelids so heavy. There¡¯s just, just so much weight on my shoulders. So much weight and no one else can take it for me. No matter how much some of them might want to. I should have been driving the cart. I should have had Teuila study the books, and get the linguistic enchantment. She¡¯s so driven, she might have been able to save Dawn. The candle of my life might simply wink out of existence, snuffed out by my own efforts before I save her. Sniff. It doesn¡¯t matter though. This is the series of events in place, so I have to do what I have to do.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Blrgh, oof. This book. It¡¯s, ow. It¡¯s so much more painful to read than the linguistic enchantment book. It¡¯s like an immensely massive, heavy, dark force pressing down on my eyes to try to study it. That can¡¯t be normal, can it? Is it because of me being me? Or is the book itself something I should be wary of? If Jarrah knows, he offers no hints. I sigh as I do my best to press onward, ever onward.


    I¡¯m starting to get a bit creeped out by the silence in the air, but it¡¯s basically what I asked for. The ability to study any possible route that might lead to saving Dawn. Jarrah actually stands, and leaves the chamber, abandoning me alone in it. That. That seems out of character. Or does he just trust his chamber that much to keep me in check? Or does he just trust me that much? For a while he was worried that I was one thing or another, including a possible sleeper agent for our mutual enemy. I guess he has maybe divined all he can about me, and realizes that I¡¯m no risk to him and his Enclave. I mean, no intentional risk. If I flip a page in this book, and begin reading, and the next runes happen to be an explosive trap, that wouldn¡¯t be me hurting his room or the Enochian Enclave. Not on purpose, not directly.


    Gosh, how annoying would that be? Finding out that the one possible book I thought might save Dawn was either just a trick, or booby trapped so that I¡¯d never be able to succeed anyway? I¡¯d murder something. I¡¯d walk out of the stupid explosion, mostly unharmed, and go kill Sindred probably. Just anyone to take my anger out on. Huff, another ragged sigh. Don¡¯t be like that Reggie. She was just some stupid lunatic, and Teuila beat her with your help. If Sindred remains hostile to us, and attacks us again, Teuila probably really could beat Sindred next time if Te wasn¡¯t holding back. If Te went fully aggressive to go for the kill.


    More runes, more pages. Can I speed read? Ow, ow, ow, ow. Okay, no. Sort of. Holy hell my eyes are bleeding again. Jeebez friggin¡¯ chripes Reggie. You¡¯re a mess. Yes Bud I sometimes talk at myself and make jokes at my own expense in my own inner narration. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard me do so before now. Hm? Yes I guess it¡¯s probably getting more obvious as I get a bit more desperate. What? No. No! How could you even think th¡ª Oh. You goon. How was I supposed to know it was a joke without your humor waves?


    You realize how hard it is to even parse what you¡¯re trying to say, right? It¡¯s like if someone decided that instead of using letters, they used colors to represent letters, no shape to the colors, just blotches of colors. Then there are sections where the colors might sort of overlap a bit, and worse, if there¡¯s sarcasm at play or anything, the color blotches get too close and smear together and combine, making it impossible to tell if it¡¯s two or three colors in a row. Okay I¡¯m being silly, sure, but yes, it really is that hard Bud, sorry. I¡¯m not trying to make you feel bad. Sorry Lullaby, really. I¡¯m trying my best here. I¡¯ll try to be more sensitive about your communication difficulties.


    I draw a ragged breath and sigh once more. Wait. Wait. Rotating colors as a cipher, occasional mixed colors intentionally misleading, increasing the time to. Wait, wait. Please hold on to this thought! No no no! It, it¡¯s going. No! Crap! Something. I was thinking something. Something that I could feel being pulled away from me. Something that would let me learn faster maybe? What¡¯s that Bud? It was what? I. Ow! Glrp. It¡¯s like a siren going off between your waves and my brain, it¡¯s, it¡¯s deafening and blinding. My eyes and ears are bleeding. I. I¡¯m going to. To pass out.


    I slump to one side, my eyes spasming, rolling weakly in their sockets, Lullaby softens the floor with a pillow of moss, cushioning my landing. Thanks to him, I don¡¯t end up blacking out with another concussion. What, what the hell was happening just now? Why is my face so covered in sticky stuff? What is this st¡ª It¡¯s blood. It¡¯s my own blood. From my eyes and ears and nose. What has been going on? Huh? You¡¯re afraid to tell me Bud? Lullaby? What does that mean? This keeps happening? If I forget something, and you heard me think it, it what? That¡¯s so hard to parse. I, I guess that makes sense? Thanks for trying Bud.


    Apparently my brain is rupturing or something I guess, at certain lines of thought, so you can¡¯t even remind me of them without my brain basically exploding again. That sorta sucks for both of us. Sorry you have to sit through that. Through my inane random thought trains, and whatever thoughts that apparently try to rip the inside of my head apart.


    I groggily sit up as Lullaby sends concerned waves my way. Thanks Bud. I¡¯ll do my best. Oof my aching head. I flex my jaw and neck and every facial muscle that I can manage to try to reduce the strain on any part of my head before it develops into a migraine. Get back to it Reggie. No rest for the wicked, or the dying, or the dying wicked. Something or other. Hm? It¡¯s a joke Bud. Sort of. Trust me, I¡¯ve done some pretty wicked crap. I mean, you were there when I shattered five people without ever learning their names or motives. Heck, you cleaned up my mess for me afterwards. What do you mean that¡¯s not wicked? Lullaby, you¡¯re a goof sometimes. Alright, alright, obviously we see the world and society differently. No worries Bud.


    You know what would be hilarious? It¡¯d blow me away with hilarity if Lullaby weren¡¯t even sentient, and I was just talking to an imaginary friend, and I had all these nature powers and stuff myself. I know you¡¯re real Bud. Probably anyway. Sindred talked out loud to Dirge. Though she was bat-crap crazy. Hah, I know right? Yeah, I agree. No, no I do not want to see her again. I wouldn¡¯t really call her my counterpart. Maybe my opposite? Oh come on that¡¯s not even fair. I know I¡¯m wrathful and stuff, but I don¡¯t go out seeking to bring it down on people. Oh, you¡¯re teasing again. Pft. I¡¯ll try to learn how to parse your teasing Bud.


    Anyway, what about you? Do you want me to ask Jarrah to show you Dirge one last time before we go? Are you sure you¡¯re going to be okay? I can leave you in the Heart if you¡¯re really worried. I promise Teuila would treat you like a friend, and help you return home if and when I die, or whatever you wanted to do. Okay then Bud.


    Hey, some of these gibberish runes are repeating. There¡¯s, there¡¯s spots where they overlap. This is almost like some kind of ci¡ª What? Stop this train of thought, fast? But, bu¡ª Okay, okay bud. I do, I trust you. Thank you. Whatever you¡¯re saving me from, I appreciate it. Truly. You¡¯re a good friend.


    Wait! One of the tomes in her hands! What, what was on that book? Alanea was shelving a book the oth- Ow! Frak. Hm? More thoughts I can¡¯t have? Hellspit. Thanks Bud. Our rabbit hole keeps getting deeper and darker doesn¡¯t it? Oh, it¡¯s a saying, sort of. I think it¡¯s a reference to a tale from Earth, Alice goes to a place some people call Wonderland, either down a rabbit hole, or through a looking glass, a mirror basically. The trip down the rabbit hole is supposed to be crazy and, well, trippy, like a drug trip.


    What¡¯s that about Earth? No I probably can¡¯t take you Bud, I don¡¯t think it exists. What do you mean why do I have so many memories of it then? Don¡¯t you think I¡¯ve been asking myself that same question my entire life? I don¡¯t really have an answer pal. You want to go why? Oh you goofball. The Wonderland stuff is just a story, even on that fake world it doesn¡¯t exist. Hey, don¡¯t call Can¡¯Z¡¯aas a fake world, I live there, err, died there, err, uh. Hellspit. Seriously though, that isn¡¯t fair. I have proof Can¡¯Z¡¯aas exists.


    What do you mean show you? You¡¯ve seen my inventory magic. What? No it¡¯s not the same as the hyperdimensional haversack. That, that¡¯s just mean. Are you giving me a hard time to tease me and distract me? Ah you butthead. That¡¯s not funny. I mean, okay, it is a little funny, but it hurts to remember my home, and to know I probably won¡¯t survive to see it again. Bud, there¡¯s so many people back there that I love and worry about. I. Yes I¡¯m crying. No, it¡¯s not really, really your fault, but yeah, you did remind me of them. They, they¡¯re such good, kind, caring, loving, wonderful people. I was a nothing, a nobody, some strange little thing lost, wandering the wilderness with my Lil dragon buddy. They accepted me into their family, into Teuila¡¯s family.


    Yeah, yeah Te is from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas too. So is Lil, so is Luni, so is Lucky. Hell, so is Mataalii. I do hope you get to meet them someday, other than Mata. Hm? Well, for a good reason. Ugh, I don¡¯t even want to tell you the reason, it hurts. He¡¯s, well, a mass murderer. What do you mean I let him loose on this planet? He was swimming to the untamed or uncharted lands or whatever. He just wants solitude to live out his days without open reminders of what he¡¯d done. I¡¯m sure he regrets it. He was controlled, sort of. I draw a shuddered, sobbing breath. I still, I have trouble accepting that the timeline had to happen the way it did. Our world is on the verge of the greatest possible calamity. So many terrible, awful things happened to be able to get us as far as we did.


    Hahaha, actually Lullaby, yes, yes it is. Hehe. It¡¯s been a long time since anyone said anything like, ¡°It¡¯s not like you can see the future,¡± to me. Okay, sure, I can¡¯t see it here. Apparently here, I¡¯d have to give up the rarest lifeforce in existence to send a message back in time. I don¡¯t want to risk it unless I¡¯m absolutely certain that past me will know what to do with the information. Hm? An example? Well, uh. If I can tell I¡¯m about to die before learning this spell, and Dawn still has a shot at being saved, I¡¯d send a personality ghost to the past to warn me to let Teuila do all the reading, about everything in Milbert¡¯s tower. Well, it would have to be a short loop message so that past me would notice it in time and be able to parse it all. How do I know it has any chance of working? Well, I technically did it once before already. In a different timeline. Yeah, I know it¡¯s confusing, and yes, I still have that life force, because I technically didn¡¯t go down that timeline path where I had to use it up.


    No, no it¡¯s not the same as not being able to use it up. There¡¯s always the chance that my message could fail somehow, or that past me wouldn¡¯t understand the warning in time, or wouldn¡¯t make enough choices that branched the timeline out far enough before their timeline rejoined mine. Then we¡¯d still have lost the phoenix and roc¡¯s egg for nothing. Yeah, yeah it would be a bummer. Thanks for understanding Bud.


    Yes. Yes, I know, I¡¯m a whole mess of weird. Hah. Well same to you pal. Pft, you even have to ask? You¡¯re basically a sharp stick with thoughts and feelings Bud, with powers that sound really simple, but end up super broad. You bend their rules as much as or more than I do with my own magical nonsense. The book? Yeah I¡¯m making progress while we chat. I¡¯m also still doing a rune here or there for the dusting, cleaning, prestidigitating spell. I am curious where the hell Jarrah has gone off to. Ah, speak of the, well, that phrasing might be rude, since he¡¯s the exact opposite.


    Heh, Jarrah¡¯s raised eyebrow tells us he telepathically heard that. Obviously the phrase is speak of the devil, and no I don¡¯t think Jarrah is one. He¡¯s a celestial. The entire opposite end of the realms as far as I know. I¡¯m sure cosmologically they aren¡¯t on literal opposite sides of reality or the universe or whatever, but you get the idea. How do I know so much about stuff like that? Err, well, it¡¯s really just guesses due to random crap from my Fakeworld memories. Earth memories. Oh don¡¯t start that again. Yes I¡¯m positive it¡¯s a fake world.


    Err, okay, good point, but I didn¡¯t really have memories of Rayileklia, nor was I convinced that it was fake, compared to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Mostly. Ugh, okay, yes, I somehow dreamed through Aces¡¯ memories or something. We both know how mixed up that made me. I thought Aces¡¯ corpse was my own when I first got here. Yes, I know that¡¯s crazy, that¡¯s why I said I was mixed up. Okay, I¡¯m going to focus on this book now Bud, like, hardcore. You get some rest, okay? Seriously. Hm? Yes, please do. If you can passively sense me about to do one of those things that ends up with me gushing a fountain of blood and passing out, I very much appreciate you stopping me from doing it. Thanks Lullaby. You¡¯re a true pal.


    Jarrah finally deigns to speak, ¡°You truly have a head full of nonsense don¡¯t you?¡±


    My face contorts as I raise an eyebrow. I joke, ¡°Math, friends, family, magic, and memories aren¡¯t nonsense as far as I¡¯m concerned.¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s wild eyes roll as he ignores my jest. He continues, ¡°I¡¯ve a last few ideas to possibly help you along your way, but they will cost you. Perhaps more than you¡¯re willing to, or can afford to pay.¡±


    I try not to laugh and joke about monetary wealth or valuables, since I¡¯m sure that¡¯s not what Jarrah¡¯s talking about. He gives me a stern gaze before continuing, ¡°There is. This is difficult to put into terms that don¡¯t sound horrific, because perhaps it is horrific. I could quite possibly move your soul safely on to the realms beyond, whatever awaits you in the hereafter. Hold a moment. I could do this while preserving your body, and placing a new spark of life within it. Its powers, its task would continue, but it wouldn¡¯t be you. It may never even blossom into a personality, or person. It may simply wink out of existence at either the completion of its task, or the failure thereof. It would however survive until such time, no matter the force killing you.¡±


    I blink, stunned. Jarrah¡¯s right. That is horrific. But. But it also means a better chance at Dawn¡¯s survival. Would Teuila hate me forever if I made this choice? If I gave up all of myself right now to basically leave her with a robotic spark piloting my meat suit around in pursuit of completion of its one task? Glp. Hrp. I, I¡¯m going to be sick just thinking about hurting her like that. But. But it¡¯s a better chance for Dawn¡¯s survival. For all her Aasimovian friends, for everyone. If my meat suit survives long enough to do that, no matter the odds, when we can¡¯t guarantee that I personally would survive under the same conditions, well. Isn¡¯t that worth it? That extra bit of time to try to stop the curse? I gulp as I try not to sink into despair while imagining the ramifications.

 B 4 C 93: I Appreciate You

    This. This is an offer of, of tremendous importance to consider. I could give up my very mortal existence. I could be moved to the safety of whatever comes next in the hereafter. What if it isn¡¯t safety though? Our manxome foe still isn¡¯t necessarily defeated even if Dawn¡¯s curse is prevented. Suppose he succeeds at some later date, after my meat suit¡¯s spark expires? Could he reach into the afterlife to pluck souls from it? Would he be powerful enough to do that after collecting a certain number of souls? I think TQ basically said something like, enough powerful-enough souls could jump start, or create entire worlds. Could it also end them? How many souls could our foe amass if he began to snuff out the candle of world after world, using some souls to power his travel between realms, a few more yet as fuel for destruction, and savoring all the rest. Would there even be an end to his possible reign of terror across the multiverse?


    Jarrah¡¯s crazed eyes continue to widen at my conjecture. He rushes off, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Lullaby sends waves of confusion at me. He knows what was said, and what I¡¯ve been thinking about it, but he¡¯s confused why I would even consider it. Don¡¯t I want every last moment with Teuila, Dawn, and maybe even him? He knows I do. He knows I do. It hurts so much. But this might be the safest, the right choice for everyone else.


    Reggie Shellcracker, throwing yourself on every proverbial fire you come across. Huff. Yep, that¡¯s me. Self absorbed, self sacrificial, self important, vain, egotistical, wrathful Reggie Shellcracker. Hell, who¡¯s to say with all my sins, that I even deserve this last month or two of life? Ow. Did you, did you just slap me Bud? I mean, okay, not you, but did you just have a giant tree slap me? I¡¯d say that¡¯s not cool, or funny, but it kind of is, both.


    Hah. Haha. Hahahah. I can be such an idiot sometimes can¡¯t I Bud? Yeah, yeah you¡¯re right. No, no I don¡¯t¡ª I mean, sure. Slow down a sec will you? It¡¯s hard enough to parse you normally Bud, calm down. I¡¯m not trying to leave anyone. I truly enjoy having you in my head. Look, even if I decided that yes, I was pretty sure I wanted to take this path, I¡¯d talk it out with you and Teuila and Dawn first. Maybe even Alanea if she was ever willing to see or speak with me again. I hope I haven¡¯t scarred her for life. Just, please let me consider it? You know how important stopping Dawn¡¯s curse is. If the manxome foe wins, there will be no Fae for you to bond with to journey with you.


    Hm? Yeah, yes it was. Yeah, it was a little short sighted to be upset at losing a couple months with me compared to possibly losing the rest of time for eternity with anyone else. It¡¯s still sweet of you though. Also, huh. I just realized that I¡¯m actually-factually Fae, not just because of my soul shenanigans by the Miracle Oak Fae. I mean. Alanea already told me I¡¯m truly, a fully blooded changeling. Gosh I wish I could ask her more about us.


    Err, this blush isn¡¯t because of. Grr, stop teasing for a sec, would you Bud? I meant our species. Do we all spawn with memories? What are birth and life and death like for normal changelings? Do changelings on Rayileklia go through a mammalian birthing process, or what? How different am I due to being Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital critterkin-adjacent? What is love or falling in love normally like? Do most changelings get over-infatuated when seeing another changeling¡¯s true self? Do most of them even let each other see their true selves the ¡®right way¡¯? How was Alanea able to see mine before I showed it to her the ¡®right way¡¯?


    Ack, Bud, seriously, that kinda teasing is, it¡¯s just, no. I mean, you know what my body is like. What do you mean? I mean, I guess I could transform for that. Wait, my changeling gift? I don¡¯t know, I¡¯ve never tried, but that¡¯s just weird and creepy. Why would I use it to grow those things? Seriously Bud. I¡¯m truly, absolutely not thinking about things that way. Even if I wasn¡¯t on a literal deadline, it wouldn¡¯t cross my mind to do that to be like that. You what?


    Holy moly that¡¯s. Bud, jeeze. Yeesh, wow I¡¯m blushing so hard. No, no I don¡¯t think I could do that, even if she wanted to. What? Okay well yes, I possibly -could- generate the biology, maybe, but I mean, ugh. You know, you¡¯re as bad as Luni or Teuila sometimes. Don¡¯t get smug about it Bud. Gods. Just no. I mean, leaving Alanea with a child for her and Teuila and you and everyone to remember me by? That¡¯s messed up dude. Yick. Yuck. Eugh. What? No, not her, obviously. She¡¯s gorgeous as hell.


    Huff. Just because you don¡¯t see the problem doesn¡¯t mean there isn¡¯t one. We¡¯re from totally different worlds, in every sense of the phrase. I meant you and me Bud, not me and her, but it also applies to her as well I guess, though a little less about the species to sentient weapon difference, heh. Wow, is there any way to get you off of this thought train? Oh come on that¡¯s not even funny, you¡¯re a sharp stick, you don¡¯t have the parts. Gross Bud. But, well, heh, alright, it was kind of funny. Ya big jerk. Yes, occasional, very rarely, occasional lighthearted insults are still indicative of endearment. Yes we¡¯re fine. Sorry.


    Could you imagine if Luni was in my head, and didn¡¯t hear your side of the telepathic waves? If anyone from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas could read my subvocal narrative mental logs about all this? I¡¯d look even crazier than I normally do. Probably. Yes, yes you¡¯re a bad influence on me. Yes of course I¡¯m still joking. See? It¡¯s kind of hard to keep the sarcasm and stuff straight, isn¡¯t it? Alright, we can both strive to be a bit better about that.


    Ugh, my eyes, this book is giving me a migraine, and my right eardrum seems to have burst. It hurts like hell. Crap. Bud, do you know how many runes I¡¯ve drawn so far? What? Really? That many? I don¡¯t feel tired like I normally would. You¡¯re absolutely positive, and not teasing me? Oh. Within a few up or down is still accurate enough for what I mean Bud. Thanks. Over six hundred fifty, and my muscles are only just barely starting to feel that normal five hundred limit. I¡¯m sure within a few more, I¡¯ll hit it, but still. It¡¯s definitely progress. I might be able to master like, two or three runes every day and a half to two days or something. Eventually.


    Hm? Well, whenever I finish decoding this soul spell enchantment book thing, if it¡¯s one of the spelliforms with the enhanced codified runic architecture, it should have only thirty three runes. The leading rune should reference a table, and all the other runes should basically be lookup addresses on that table. Really? Well, crap. That¡¯s bad news for us. Only super advanced magic users have been able to do the codified runic architecture stuff, so most spells haven¡¯t been codified in that way? You¡¯re absolutely positive? Ugh. Let¡¯s just hope to hell that this one is codified.


    Because Dawn¡¯s time is almost up, that¡¯s why. Remember? Yeah. Okay, fine, more specifically, because I take about a day per rune to master it. Dawn has at max a month at this point, so even a thirty three rune codified spell will be pushing my luck to master it before she¡¯s taken from us. I¡¯ll have to work in overdrive to make absolutely certain I¡¯m learning more than one per day once this stupid book finally decodes. And that¡¯s if it even decodes fast enough. That fifty six I couldn¡¯t tell if it was hours or days. Even without sleep, it¡¯s going to take me like three straight days of reading in whatever conditions, either here or in the carriage. Then Dawn will only have twenty some odd days left at best, if her curse doesn¡¯t pick up speed again.


    Yeah, I know it¡¯s cutting it close. That¡¯s why we¡¯re still going to try to find the Sisters of the Mist after this stop in the Heart. You what? Really? Holy crap. That¡¯s great news! Yes, please, please, absolutely lead us there when we leave. Thank you. Thank you Bud. I cannot express how much this means to me.


    Wait, how long has Jarrah been standing there staring at me? He what? He just ran off to get some pencil and paper and ran right back a second later? Has he been basically just jotting down everything my brain has been going through? More or less? Alright.


    I cough for attention as I raise an eyebrow. Jarrah meets my gaze, so I ask, ¡°Have any opinions on anything Jarrah?¡±


    Jarrah sneers and snidely remarks, ¡°Many, on many things. About your issues, fewer. I was wrong to offer you the, the opportunity I offered. I¡¯m sorry. I suggest you drop all thoughts regarding it entirely. There are. Ah. More costs than I¡¯d previously disclosed, or frankly known, due to your unique condition. I doubt you¡¯d want either of them to sacrifice themselves to bring forth the spark and maintain it til your task was done.¡±


    I gulp, almost positive what Jarrah is referring to. One of the people I care about, or who cares about me. Their life force could either jump start the spark, or protect it until the task was finished, then both would be snuffed out. He¡¯s right. I won¡¯t even bring up the opportunity to any of my loved ones. Screw that. What Bud? No, not even you. Remember, you wouldn¡¯t be sacrificing yourself to save me, just to prolong a spark that might possibly survive a bit longer than me, if my malady were to take me before we would be able to otherwise rescue Dawn from her curse.


    Hellspit. I¡ª Jarrah interrupts my thoughts as he offers, ¡°The fact that you show such, hrm. Empathy, even for your only recently bonded weapon. I¡¯m sorry I had even brought such a grim offer to you, to place such weight upon your plate for you to consider. I¡¯ve done some calculations with a quick question to Alanea just now. I¡¯m fairly certain you will outlive the curse on your friend Dawn, so long as you do not take any further grave injuries twixt now and then. Even so, you¡¯ve a remarkable natural resilience. The dragonforce may not need to patch you up, now that you know of its existence.¡±


    I half frown. I¡¯m grateful for Jarrah¡¯s explanation, but, wow. Just so much information recently. What els¡ª Jarrah continues, interrupting my brain again, ¡°You have vexed, and continue to vex me, but you have elucidated to me a hidden plan that our foe has had in place for a very long time. I can begin to make preparations to resist his forces and advancements with this forewarning. In case you should fail. I am grateful to you for this opportunity. I¡¯m sorry that my tutelage amounted to naught. Such a thing vexes me greatly.¡±


    Jarrah turns away to stalk about his chamber, muttering, ¡°In none of nine realities has there ever, grumble grumble. Jotun? Niffle? Hel? Huff. No, no, no! Could we make a stand with the help of Ysgaard If it was even within reach? Hm, doubtful. Schvartalf? Hm. Perhaps cousins in the Neath. Does our foe even know of their existence? We must presume yes. Hrm. Grr, growl mumble grumble.¡±


    I¡¯m fairly certain I¡¯m actually hearing him say the word grumble, repeatedly. The strain on my eyes and wrists from reading and runecrafting is becoming too much to bear. Jarrah waves dismissively before I even ask, so I begin to take my leave of him. Suddenly my danger wraps¡¯ senses indicate he¡¯s streaking towards me incredibly quickly. I slip my finger into the armor in my belt pouch to instantly don it, and raise my shield his direction.


    Jarrah stands nearby gazing upon me like I¡¯m an idiot, and reaches a hand for my shoulder. He states, ¡°I was dismissive just now. I¡¯ve treated you like every other whelp, and the vexation that you are. You are on the road to die for our shared cause, and I regret my mistreatment of you at least in this last moment. Please return on the morrow. If I¡¯m able to find even a single other shred of hope for you, it will be waiting. If not, we shall have tea one last time before I and the Heart bid you adieu.¡±


    I nod at him. I¡¯m grateful for having had him as my mentor, despite his harshness, and my lack of progress. I at least now know of, and have taken heed of several important dire warnings. I perform a stiff, slight bow, and take my leave of him, calling back, ¡°Thank you, Jarrah, mentor. I appreciate everything. I appreciate you.¡±


    Hm, oh hey, that¡¯s, that¡¯s unexpected. Dawn, Te, Flint, and Alanea. Whoops, Alanea has spotted me, and she¡¯s trying to bolt, but Flint and Teuila have hands firmly on her shoulders. That¡¯s mean and awkward. If my presence harms or scares her, she shouldn¡¯t be forced to endure it.


    I frown at those assembled as I state just that, ¡°Guys, if Alanea doesn¡¯t want to see me, you shouldn¡¯t trap her here. That¡¯s horrid. Alanea, I¡¯m sorry for my friends, and, well, your friend. I¡¯m terribly sorry for, well, whatever of the many things about me that causes you to want to flee from our last few possible mee-¡°


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Flint and Teuila release Alanea who leaps at me, tears in her eyes. My heart stops momentarily as she wraps her arms around me, and I¡¯m left confused, stunned. I lightly pat her back as she sobs into my clavicle. I fight my own sadness, blinking back tears as I raise an eyebrow to Dawn, Teuila, and Flint.


    Flint coughs and explains, ¡°I¡¯m ashamed you think so little of me. I suppose I in some essence deserve it though. Alanea requested we prevent her flight. So that she.¡± Flint gulps and turns away, a hint of sadness playing across his face.


    Teuila adds, ¡°Airhead, I know I can tease people a lot, but I wouldn¡¯t do that. Not to one of our friends, not to anyone. Big A asked me to too. She knew her first reaction would be to bolt.¡±


    I gulp as I try to stammer an apology, ¡°I, I, I¡¯m sorry. Ev. Everyone. For everything. So. Sor. Sorry.¡±


    Alanea blows her nose on me, and I grimace while trying not to laugh. The assembled each approximates more or less the same reaction. A grimace with a hint of hidden nervous chuckling.


    I ask, somewhat playfully, ¡°Alanea? Could we possibly, um, maybe not do this on the stairs? Whatever this is, or whatever it¡¯s going to be. I¡¯m a bit apprehensive of stairs at the moment. A few bad experiences in the last couple days. Heh.¡±


    There¡¯s a round of slight chuckling, and even Alanea laughs through a choked sob as she nods, before blowing her nose on me again. Bud don¡¯t even make that joke. I know exactly what you¡¯re thinking. Ugh you pervert. Sharing bodily fluids isn¡¯t even. Bluh. I know you¡¯re being funny, or at least think you are, but, well, stuff is kind of tense right now man. I¡¯m hurting, and it looks like everyone else is too. I¡¯m not ready to play along with teasing right now. Okay? Sorry. I do appreciate the attempt at humor Bud.


    The five, or six of us if you count Lullaby, begin to descend in awkward silence. I gulp, unsure how to proceed, since Alanea is basically hanging off of me. I don¡¯t know where we stand, or why we even stand wherever that is. I¡¯m full of aches, and pains, and an encroaching migraine behind my eyes. I¡¯m just, so, so spiritually and emotionally tired. I can¡¯t do this any more. I almost wish I could just give myself over to the life spark that would pilot my meat suit so that I didn¡¯t have to bear the agony of watching despair slowly overtake those that I love, as my death draws nearer. I obviously won¡¯t do that though, especially since it would cost one of their lives.


    Hey, Bud? You know how the room was able to fast forward my panic attacks? Yeah, that one, yes those panic attacks. What else would I be talking about? Wait, why are you being coy? I can¡¯t tell if you¡¯re teasing me or not. Anyway. It felt like way, way, way way way more than a single panic attack each time. Ultra-condensed. Do you think? Oh. Well, that¡¯s helpful I guess. It was too much to hope for them being cured. Yeah, it makes sense. My next few panic attacks should be brief, almost instant. Stuff like that. Hey, maybe it will happen to be all the panic attacks I would have suffered from now til I die, hah. Since, y¡¯know. That¡¯s pretty soon.


    Alanea squeezes my arm lightly and rubs her nose on my shoulder again. Her nose is becoming this adorable slightly reddened gumdrop upon her face. Hellspit. Why am I even torturing her, and them, like this? Bud, if I left tonight, could you guide me to the Sisters of the Mist? How long would the journey take? More specifically, how long if I were walking kind of slowly while reading a book?


    Hm. I¡¯m pretty sure we have enough time for that. Maybe I should do it. Ow. Did, did you just have this giant tree slap me again? I¡¯d, I¡¯d come back to save Dawn, obviously, if she had to be present for the spell to cancel the curse. The curse, and her soul, is like, spread over the whole world at this point though. So I can probably just pick any point, and hopefully blasting whatever soul magic this is at it will save her. Ow. Okay, okay, I get it. You don¡¯t want me to leave them. Jeeze Bud. I don¡¯t need another concussion right now. Yes I¡¯m being slightly teasing.


    It, well, it just hurts so much to see them like this Bud, and it¡¯s all my fault. I¡¯m the one that¡¯s dying because of all the stupid choices I¡¯ve made in my life, and now they¡¯re sad because of it. Don¡¯t you dare. I saw that one forming. What is it this time? Yes I made stupid choices, a lot of them, including playing with corrupted mana by the truckload. What? Well. I mean. I guess not. Maybe? I know Lao said she believed they wouldn¡¯t have made it. Come on. I¡¯m sure someone, somewhere, somehow, would step up as a hero, and do the things, probably even better than I did, without making so many stupid, horrible choices.


    What do you mean unique, once in a lifetime? Everyone is unique, and they¡¯re the only them in their lifetime. Well, except me actually. I¡¯ve had a lot of me existing simultaneously several times. No I¡¯m not trying to make fun of you just to invalidate your point. Come on, maybe if I concentrate for eight minutes, I could show you th¡ª don¡¯t even think abo¡ª Ow. Okay. Okay. Fine. I give. I¡¯m me, and I¡¯m the only me that¡¯s me, and we made it this far, and that¡¯s just life. These are the circumstances, and, in your opinion, it¡¯s not my fault that I¡¯m dying. It¡¯s still my dying that¡¯s making them all sad and somber. Maybe Dawn¡¯s too, which we still have hope to be able to avoid.


    We¡¯ve been over this. Know of any evil elder dragons within a month¡¯s journey, maybe two or three months¡¯ journey if I¡¯m like, really lucky? Or anywhere at all? Exactly. I¡¯ve accepted it Bud. There is no hope for me. Ugh, pal, I have a migraine. I don¡¯t suppose you could like, root roll me the rest of the way wherever the gang wants to go, huh? Hey don¡¯t hit me, it was an honest question. I¡¯m in a lot of pain. Sorry, I¡¯m not trying to abuse your powers or take advantage of you. No, don¡¯t do it if it would cost you that much silly.


    Heh, but, also, maybe stop wasting your literal juice having this big tree hit m¡ª Ow! You goon! Haha. But seriously Bud, I have an eye-piercing, head-splitting migraine. You¡¯ll lay off? Thanks. Might be a little late though. I¡¯m feeling kinda woozy, kinda faint. Head. Head hur-. Head hurts so much. I begin to slump forward, but Alanea¡¯s death grip on me keeps me from falling too hard. Until she topples over and we both go rolling down the last few stairs, landing with her atop me, straddling me, her face squashed against mine.


    My heart skips several beats, then painfully stops all together. Alanea first blushes heatedly before her face goes ashen. We both glance downward from where our eyes are staring into each other¡¯s. Neither of us makes a move to extricate ourselves, or to take advantage of the position that we, or our lips are locked in. We¡¯re both mortified beyond belief. Any chance of any possible romance in any reality where I don¡¯t die seems to be stripped away as we remain here, fearfully locked in place. We both know Teuila is about to tease us, but neither of us can move.


    Teuila catches up and calls out, ¡°Hey, if you two wanted some private ki¡ª¡° Dawn elbows her, interrupting her. Dawn points out the sad, mortified expression on both of our faces.


    Teuila blushes and scratches the back of her head as she apologizes, ¡°Hey, I. Sorry. Teasing¡¯s just, kinda. It¡¯s sorta my thing, but. Sorry. But. Seriously? Are you two okay? Like. Do you need some time to work this out?¡±


    I can¡¯t move, and my heart still hasn¡¯t resumed normal rhythm, but Alanea nods ever so slightly, drawing our lips up and down a fraction. She gulps as she struggles to scrabble away. My heart finally restarts as Dawn leads Teuila and Flint outside. I gulp as well, staring towards Alanea from my position on the floor.


    She¡¯s resumed crying waterfalls. I don¡¯t know how to apologize enough for whatever part of this hurt her. I clench my eyes tight as they stream tears down along my temples jawbone, and ears. What do I even do to make this right?


    Alanea pats the floor next to her against the wall, so I struggle over, and sit up next to her. She leans her head on my shoulder, and rubs her nose on me again.


    I begin to apologize, ¡°Alanea, I¡¯m so s¡ª¡°


    Alanea interrupts, crying out, ¡°I saw! Well, everything! I, I. How you feel. About that stuff. Well, I, I didn¡¯t, I didn¡¯t want you to think th--.¡±


    She hiccups, and resumes bawling as she¡¯s wracked by sobs. What¡¯s she even talking about? Everything what? I can kind of guess about what she means by, ¡°That stuff.¡± What¡¯s the rest of it about though? Why¡¯s she so sad?


    She coughs, fighting to be able to speak, ¡°You. Well, you¡¯re different. Somehow it¡¯s, well, like. Well, err, the inner you has, it has all your memories. Well, it¡¯s as if every thought you ever had was written down in a journal. All your feelings, fears, hopes, so much love for so many people. But, well, but none of it in, in that way. I, I mean, kissing, sure, there was lots of that. But, but, but, wait, wait please, well, I, I, I wasn¡¯t trying to look. I swear to Leafdom dearling, I, I, I mean Reggie.¡±


    I start to unintentionally chuckle. Hahah. My Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian nature strikes again. Internal memory logs are a part of the true me. I shake my head in disbelief, trying not to laugh as I slowly smile. I try to figure out a way to answer that alleviates her guilt.


    I start rambling, ¡°I¡¯m, um, kind of glad to hear you could see all that. That¡¯s me, that¡¯s well and truly me. On my home world? It¡¯s just natural that our memories are logged. Friends, family, party members, and I¡¯m pretty sure romantic partners and lovers, can see one another¡¯s logs. If that¡¯s all this is about, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯m happy you saw. You¡¯re a friend, dearling. It¡¯s fine. I know it means a bit more here, but between us, it can just be a nickname, or whatever you want. You can tell me not to use it.¡±


    Alanea shakes her head, still sniffling, struggling to get some point across, ¡°I, well, glp. Well, I, I didn¡¯t, that¡¯s not even. You obviously, not that I have a problem with it. Well, it¡¯s pretty common amongst Fae, changelings especially. Well, you just have so many people that you miss, that you really, truly love, and are so sad about. Well, just, just all of you. I, I got to know a lifetime of you. It wasn¡¯t fair of me. Well, I. I¡¯m worried that our true selves maybe did something to you. I, well I felt smitten. I¡¯m, I¡¯m worried that your strange empathetic otherworldly nature made your inner self pick up on that, and copy it into your being, making you feel that without your consent. I¡¯d, well, I¡¯d never, not in a million years.¡±


    I blink rapidly. Wait. Did I double misread the situation back into being right in the first place? My face contorts as my migraine rages. My left brow won¡¯t lower from its quizzical position, but I attempt to flex as much of my face as I can. Where do we stand? What if I¡¯m the one whose weird inner self thing did something to her?


    I ask as much, ¡°Alanea? What if, well, what if it was my weird, unique, Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian inner self that did something to your inner self and you? I don¡¯t want to have done that either. If we¡¯re both worried that both of us had done it, then either maybe neither of us did, and we¡¯re both okay, or maybe one or the other or both of us did, and we should just shake hands and walk our separate ways. Whatever you want, I¡¯ll respect. I appreciate this honesty, our talks, that amazing experience, everything. Most of all, I appreciate you.¡±


    She blinks rapidly, apparently having not considered the possibility. Huff, no Bud, now is not my chance. I¡¯m not going to do some romantic subplot where any of that sort of stuff happens. I¡¯m not going to take advantage of her confusion. We both had a unique experience, and it messed us up pretty fierce. It was unlike anything either of us expected. Hm? Yes I know I could maybe ask her more about changelings, but I don¡¯t have time. I need to go rest off this migraine, and get back to the soul book. Hah, I know. Luni says the same thing, that I¡¯m no fun. Why am I no fun this time though? Are you living vicariously through me or something? Hey. Hey why¡¯d you go so quiet all of a sudden?


    Huh. Sorry if I embarrassed you Bud. It¡¯s okay, I understand experiencing the world through someone else¡¯s senses. I well and truly absolutely do. I was blind for a few months, and I had to see through Lil and Luni¡¯s eyes to be able to have any sense of sight at all. It¡¯s alright. You okay? Okay, good. No worries Bud.


    I accidentally mumble aloud, ¡°Pretty sure Lullaby really wants to kiss Alanea, through me. Not that I don¡¯t want to myself.¡±


    I facepalm. Alanea has returned to a beet red state. Huff. Been a while since I¡¯ve had that particular foible bite me in the rear. I rattle my aching head, and struggle to stand. My stomach is sickly, and tied in knots. Everything hurts, and I feel emotionally horrible.


    I apologize, ¡°Sorry, that was supposed to be internal. It was inappropriate, when we¡¯re both struggling to figure out how to deal with our unique changeling stuff. I wish I had more time with you, to learn more about changelings, about myself, about us. I¡¯m glad I met you Alanea. There¡¯s that much more joy splashed across the logs written on my true inner s¡ª¡°


    Alanea¡¯s body is in my arms, her arms around me, and our faces pressed tightly together. We¡¯re not exactly kissing, but it¡¯s extremely intimate all the same as she interrupts me. She squeezes me tightly, and gulps while the heat of her blushing cheeks warms even my thermally resistant face.


    Alanea, through sniffles and hiccups, manages to say, ¡°Maybe, hic, snf, well, maybe in some other lifetime. We could have, well. Well maybe. I, we. Anyway. Well, at least I¡¯m glad I met you, and your whole wonderful world Reggie Shellcracker. Your amazing matrons, all your siblings and cats and cousins. Well, just, just the very whole of you, every last bit of your tragic, frightening, loving, amazing journey. If, well, if you find a cure. Please, well, maybe, please come see me again some day? We, well, if we win, well, I¡¯d, if you. A, a family, on any world, would be nice.¡±


    I feel her heart flutter in her chest as mine is doing the same. I barely manage the slightest nod as my heart skips beats, and stops once more. She kisses my cheek, and then races away up the stairs. I¡¯m left brushing my cheek with the fingertips of my left hand, staring at the spot where she¡¯d just been with tears in my eyes. I don¡¯t know how I should feel, or how I want to feel about her. About a possible us. The multiple meanings of family that she dropped at the end. Her willingness to include the possibility of being on one or more worlds. I¡¯d drop to my arse to exemplify how floored I am, but I can¡¯t handle any more injuries at the moment.


    I stagger out of the Enochian Enclave, certain this time that I will absolutely never see Alanea Whifflewillow ever again. Unless perhaps I somehow find a cure, and survive long enough to return some day.


    My guts continue to flip, flop, and tie themselves in knots. I can¡¯t hold in my anxiety any longer, and end up vomiting alongside the berry bushes. I¡¯m truly sorry for that. Thank you Lullaby. Thanks for cleaning up after me as usual. I hope you know how much I appreciate you.

 B 4 C 94: Non-Goodbyes, Talking About Talking

    Apparently after seeing me empty my innards, and now my being left with a stunned, confused, slightly saddened expression is enough to inform Flint of something. He bows to Teuila and Dawn, and nods curtly to me. Flint begins to stride away when Teuila calls after him, mildly grumpily, for an explanation.


    Flint¡¯s response is, ¡°It would seem that this is goodbye. Good luck in your journey. Windspeed to you all in your quest. May your leaflings and sprouts ever find their way home. Keep those precious to you, your dearlings, close to your heart.¡±


    Tears dance along Teuila¡¯s eyelashes as she demands, ¡°What about tomorrow? We haven¡¯t left yet.¡±


    Flint shakes his head as a twinge of sadness crosses his countenance. Teuila is about to demand further explanation when he stalks swiftly away, back into the Enochian Enclave''s tree, likely after Alanea. I¡¯m not sure if I blew our chances for goodbyes, or what. I blink back tears and furiously rub my itchy eyes.


    Teuila does much the same, and even Dawn seems slightly upset at the turn of events. I begin to apologize, but Teuila shakes her head at me with a sad half-smile, absolving me. We get no goodbye to Percy the Potted Plant, no goodbye to Alanea Whifflewillow, no goodbye to Flint Darklace. There¡¯s an undercurrent of agony dragging a jagged edge along my heart. I¡¯m half-afraid Lullaby will decide it¡¯s too hard to watch us journey onward, knowing my imminent demise is approaching, and demand to stay without allowing us a goodbye as well. Hm? I know Bud, I know. Thank you for not leaving us. Plus, yes, we need you to reach the Sisters of the Mist.


    I fight back a sob as I stagger sadly towards Teuila and Dawn. We meander towards our temporary home, each struggling to come to grips with whatever emotions currently play across our hearts. We haven¡¯t bothered to mingle or meet almost anyone in the heart. Hell, I only know five names, and one angry young dryad. Six names if her Binty is someone¡¯s name. Jarrah Bettergrove, Alanea Whifflewillow, Flint Darklace, Phinarel the dockkeeper, Gerald the pixie nurse that Teuila met. Sure, technically we know the names of their rulers, but we haven¡¯t met them. I basically know only as many Fae who live in the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds as I¡¯ve slain in that same location. The thought is fairly sickening. Worse, we¡¯ll soon be leaving them to deal with whatever strange force is at play by our mutual enemy that has somehow already infiltrated the Heart.


    Wait, strange forces that seem almost conspiratorially difficult to pin down? Secret organizations? Influence laid upon those who are lured outside the safety of the Heart? Something about this situation is nagging at me. It¡¯s almost familiar somehow. I draw a ragged breath and heave a weighty sigh. Wasn¡¯t something sinister going down back in The Brook? Especially with the new theory that our manxome foe and the entity are possibly part of the same creature. Hell in a handbasket, now I wish I could leave copies of me to protect the Heart, and The Brook.


    I struggle to find my words, to be able to speak with Teuila and find comfort together with her. I croak, ¡°Te? Dawn? Teuila I. I¡¯m so confused, and scared. I don¡¯t want to be facing another apocalyptic scenario. Especially one where I might not last long enough to help prevent it. I don¡¯t know how to keep carrying on any more. Even Jarrah¡¯s latest help was, it. It was just horrific. No fault of his own. I think it¡¯s my fault that we won¡¯t get to say goodbye to some of our friends, on multiple levels.¡±


    Teuila pauses to turn to me.  She lays her arms gently over my shoulders. I¡¯m quite a bit shorter than her in our current forms, so it¡¯s almost awkward. She drops to her knees to be able to rest her forehead on mine. Dawn stands to our side with a hand on each of us, gingerly touching our shoulders. I accidentally gasp a shuddering breath as I continue to fight tears and weary sighs.


    Teuila shakes her head slightly, seemingly fighting her own struggle to be able to speak. Finally Te offers, ¡°I know, my Dink, my Airhead. My Air. The very Air that I breathe. I know. You¡¯ve always carried on though. Always. You always get back up. No matter how scared, or how much you¡¯re hurting, or how sad. Lu was right. You have got this, you always have, and you always will. Just keep being you, my precious Air. That¡¯s all you can do. No one can demand more.¡±


    I sink into Teuila¡¯s embrace, clasping her tightly. She removes her left arm from resting on my right shoulder to tilt my chin up with her left index finger. We gaze sadly into each other¡¯s tear-filled sparkling eyes for only a moment. We kiss like it might be our last, earning a warmth that raises in the atmosphere from Dawn¡¯s nearby blushing face.


    What? Oh come on Bud, way to ruin the moment you goon. No I¡¯m not going to tell you what she tastes like ya weirdo. I¡¯m sorry if it sucks to have no sense of taste, but that particular kind of information is private. I¡¯ll try to describe food to you at some point or something, okay? Sorry Bud, it, it¡¯s just. I know you¡¯re a unique existence, with so few senses. I don¡¯t want to upset you or drive you away or anything. But I¡¯m serious that certain intimate things are just, well, you just don¡¯t share them, no matter who asks, no matter how close you are with them.


    Pft. What? Yes of course that¡¯s one of the things you don¡¯t share. Hahah, I mean, I know you¡¯re you and all, but did you really even have to ask? Plus, ick dude, need I remind you, that I can¡¯t even do that? Blugh, let¡¯s not start this again. Sure, technically I could probably maybe do that if I focused with one form of transformation or another. When did you get so talkative, and why are some of the things you¡ª Oh? Oh. I¡¯m sorry Bud. I hope it didn¡¯t hurt when I did that. I didn¡¯t even think about how it would affect you to send my magic through you and your sister. I¡¯m really sorry. Hm? Really? I guess it could have made you more aware somehow, or us more connected somehow. I, well, me too Bud. Me too. Sniffle. Thanks pal.


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    What? Oh come on. Gosh I hope not. On Earth there¡¯s comedies about things like that. Two people of different species that maybe one or the other doesn¡¯t know how the other reproduces, ends up doing that. I¡¯m pretty sure we changelings don¡¯t get one another pregnant just by looking at one another¡¯s true selves or whatever. What? Well, no I can¡¯t be sure. Bud, I¡¯d never forgive myself if I abandoned someone to take care of a child that was partially mine on their own. You¡¯d what? Hah, come on Bud. I mean, okay, sure, the offer is sweet, in a way. I¡¯m sorry though. I have no intention of, ugh, how do you want me to put it? I have no intention of making an heir to have someone to leave you to, for them to inherit you with my blood and possibly strength of bond.


    You¡¯re sure? Well, that doesn¡¯t really change the fact. Even if I could remotely possibly do the things involved, I¡¯m dying at the moment, and even when I¡¯m not, I¡¯m stuck in one crazy adventure after another. I could never do that to someone. An immortal child? Err, ageless? I, I dunno man. How the heck should I know how or if they would grow up? I don¡¯t even know how or if changelings age normally. I know I missed my chance with her, it hurts to be reminded Bud. Not just because I¡¯m left in the dark on various information. Yes, I agree, she seemed really special, not just to me.


    W-what? That¡¯s honestly really sweet. I agree. I hope so too. You¡¯re not saying this to circle around to anything weird are you? Okay, okay, sorry. But yeah, I agree, I hope she has a long, wonderful, happy life, and finds as much love or as many loves in the world to share her amazing capacity for love and joy with. Hoof, gosh my breathing this last month, it¡¯s always so ragged. Do you think it¡¯s because of the mana residue strangling the inner me? I know you don¡¯t know Bud. Sorry, I was just, I dunno, fishing for your opinion.


    You, you what? Haha, you punk. No, I will not describe the taste of Teuila¡¯s lips in trade for your opinion. Haha. Jeeze Bud, you¡¯re incorrigible. No I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the same as encourage-able. Err. I suppose I can admit that, yes, that¡¯s true, they do feel wonderful. I¡¯m sorry you can¡¯t kiss anyone Bud. Pft, hah. You say you¡¯re over it, but the next intimate interaction I have, you¡¯re going to be bugging me about it aren¡¯t you? Hah, I knew it. At least you¡¯re honest.


    Sorry, I know. I mean, I think I know. I¡¯ve always been honest with you, and I trust that you¡¯ve always been honest with me. I mean, it¡¯s pretty easy to feel how honest you¡¯ve been with me when you share your curiosities and confusion as to why social things are they way they are. Well I¡¯m not your average social specimen either Bud. Are you sure you w¡ª Ow. Okay okay, enough with the finding plants to hit me with. Hah. Look, you spooked Teuila and Dawn you goof. Yes, I do know that we¡¯ve been kissing for a long time. Okay, sure. Fine, I¡¯ll admit, yes, it is really pleasant, amazing even.


    I apologize, ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s, um. That was Bud, err Lullaby, he¡¯s, um, curious about sensations and senses and stuff. He also might be a bit jealous, since he¡¯s living vicariously through me.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s face contorts before she laughs. She jokes, using Aasimovian slang, ¡°Hah. Well shid braddah, all you had to do was ask.¡± Teuila leans over and kisses Lullaby near where his haft meets his blade.


    Lull, Bud, I swear if you make one pervy comment about shaft, I¡¯m stuffing you in a sock and throwing you in a hyperdimensional haversack. You what? Oh. Yeah. She really is the best. I agree. Teuila finally resumes her full height, and we finish the short trek to our treepartment. Which is basically only a few steps away. Gods I¡¯m such a dork. I probably could have waited a few seconds or a few feet before pouting at Teuila for comfort.


    Yeah yeah, yuck it up spudball. Yuck it up? Well, I think on Earth it basically means to laugh, but yeah, it does kind of sound like throwing up. Sorry. I agree, it¡¯s sort of infuriating to have these mysterious memories of a world that doesn¡¯t exist, and to have slang from it. Not infuriating to you? I¡¯m sorry, I can¡¯t parse that feeling word thingy. I guess I misinterpreted. Sorry Bud. Anyway pal, I¡¯m going to get undressed and changed and stuff. Are you okay when I put you next to the egg in the pouch? Really? I¡¯m glad. Sorry I didn¡¯t ask for your consent and stuff first.


    I know, I kind of forget to think of you and treat you like a person sometimes. I¡¯ll try to be better. It¡¯s a unique experience being bonded to you. Really? Well how many have you h¡ª? Wow. Wait. What¡¯s the earliest year you remember? The zero zeroes? Of which cen¡ª? Woah. In all that time, really? I¡¯m honored you think I¡¯m the best so far Bud. Hm? No one else talked to you this much, or even seemed to hear you? If they talked to you, it was only them one-sided rambling by the sounds of what you¡¯re describing. Yeah, some people just sort of talk to themselves, or a nearby object to sort their thoughts.


    Huh, still, I wonder if our more communicative bond is because I¡¯m Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, or changeling, or that I¡¯ve had telepathic bonds, or that I¡¯m used to unusual senses, or what out of any number of factors. I mean, Dirge seemed to be able to talk to Sindred. She was? Huh. I¡¯m sorry that she lorded that over you. Also, well, sorry again that I sort of killed her. I¡¯m kind of emotionally drained and sleepy Bud. I hope you don¡¯t feel insulted if I respond less. Do you have any sort of resting mode where you go kind of unresponsive? Not intentionally? I mean, sleep is kind of unintentional too, we¡ª. Oh. Sapped so hard that you basically can¡¯t function until the land recharges you sort of. Not exactly the same as sleeping, no. Kind of like blacking out though. Please let me know if I get close to causing you to do that so I can avoid it. It sounds awful. Yeah, me too. Thanks Bud. Nighty night.


    I crawl into bed with Teuila and Dawn, the two snuggle each other as intimately as I¡¯ve ever seen them. I¡¯m glad they have each other. Hopefully we can save Dawn, then Teuila and her can continue to journey together until they meet up with Lil and Lu and Lucky. Maybe Dawn will become the new Reggie of the group in a way. Though I¡¯m smaller, I act as Teuila¡¯s big spoon while she and Dawn face each other to cuddle closely.

 B 4 C 95: The Final Teatime

    I awaken feeling refreshed, extremely in tune with the natural world around me somehow. Bud, is this your doing? Wow. Thank you pal. Are you sure it¡¯s okay to dig so deeply into yourself like this? Especially since we¡¯ll be gone from the Heart for a while. What do you mean you don¡¯t care? That¡¯s not like you. Are you okay? Oh. Oh Bud. I. Me too. I don¡¯t want me to die either. I¡¯m touched. Really. Snfl. Crap, now I¡¯m crying already and I just woke up. Hah. Sorry Bud. Oof, more ragged breathing. Where are Te and Dawn?


    Outside, arguing? That, that, what is going on today? Lullaby being depressed and touchy, Teuila and Dawn arguing, me being revitalized? Is it topsy turvy day? Next thing we know, Jarrah is going to be super kind and sweet to me or something. What was that? The griffon statuette? Yeah I remember seeing it having transmutation and alteration magic all over it as part of the lingering enchantment. You think it can temporarily come alive? Well that¡¯s pretty neat I guess, could be kind of cute to have walking around or something.


    What? Oh. Really, that big? That would be big enough to pull the carriage, yeah. Lasts a few days, then needs to recharge? Huh. When did you learn all this? You were what? I, I mean I guess I don¡¯t mind or anything. I¡¯m just surprised is all. I didn¡¯t even know that was something you could do Bud. Thanks for taking the time out while I slept to look through things. You think there¡¯s another book I should give to Teuila? I mean, absolutely, I haven¡¯t even read all the covers, I basically just checked over their enchantments. The what of the what? Ugh, I hope it¡¯s not Bright Lord propaganda. Though I suppose even if it is, it could contain useful information.


    I finish preparing to face the day, making sure we¡¯ve packed up everything, and I gaze about at our temporary home with forlorn longing. I could have been happy here. In another life. I don¡¯t know how to express my thanks to this place in any meaningful way. I lean my forehead against the inside wall of our small home for a time. Sighing, I share with it my final farewell. It might be weird, but yes, I kiss the inside of a tree, just like a simple goodbye peck on the cheek. Trees and nature and stuff. I am a Fae after all, y¡¯know? Not to mention the Miracle Oak Fae community pouring so much love of nature into me. Not like, romantic love, obviously. Just worry, tenderness, care, compassion, joy, and so on.


    After a deep breath and a long sigh I exit our once-domicile. Teuila and Dawn are pouting at each other with puffed reddened cheeks. I¡¯m about to offer Teuila the book Bud suggested, but there¡¯s an uneasy air. What¡¯s going on?


    I can virtually sense Dawn wanting to beg, ¡°Please Boss?¡± Somehow.


    Teuila seems to retort to the unspoken plea, ¡°Dawny, it just, it¡¯s not happening, okay!? I¡¯m not giving up on you, and my Dink, my Airhead isn¡¯t either. Like they said, leaving you guys on the off-chance that I could, hic, glp, could maybe, snfl, maybe save Reggie. When I might not be there for them as, as, as they die. I. I know I said I would, but I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t be gone when I might lose one or both of you. Airhead? Air, tell her, please. Please just, just help me out here. She wanted me to run away dragging you away searching for dragons, but I know you would refuse, so now she wants just me to go searching. I, I would. You know I would.¡±


    I gulp back my sadness as I respond, ¡°I know Te, My Wings. I absolutely know. You would fight the forces of all the Heavens and all the Hells for any one of us, if you could find them, if they would dare face you and offer a chance to save us. We don¡¯t even have the faintest lead though. Would you just head one random direction til you circled around the globe? Would you do a spiraling search pattern? That could take years, decades on Rayileklia. The closest thing we have to a hint is dragons supposedly being driven off to the Spine of the World in ancient times.¡±


    Dawn chips in, ¡°Yeah, yeah history stuff says that. The big ol¡¯ mountain range across the whole top of the continent, maybe the whole world.¡±


    I loose a heavy sigh as I shake my head sadly. Turning to Dawn I state, ¡°If that¡¯s the case, how big is the mountain range? Ten? Twenty? A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand miles? How¡¯s Teuila even supposed to search a mountain range with the acid clouds that block passage over and between them?¡±


    Dawn shrugs, pouting. She relents, ¡°I, I didn¡¯t mean to piss you guys off, Boss, Rej. I just. I saw how hurt you were, and Boss was crying all night in her sleep. I¡¯m not really touchy feely and stuff, but it hurt to even just watch. You guys are great. I don¡¯t want this for you. I, I¡¯d fuggin¡¯ kill something to stop this. It sucks. You¡¯re such good people. You don¡¯t deserve the heaping pile of steaming shid that apparently two whole different worlds dropped on you. Y¡¯know?¡±


    I gulp back several tears and force a laugh as I nod. I reply as best I can, ¡°I, I know. Sort of. Thank you for caring Dawn. My Friend. You know that I¡¯m not going to, and realistically can¡¯t abandon you, for the sake of all those we both care about. Teuila likewise isn¡¯t going to abandon me. We, well, huff. We have a course for our journey, it¡¯s set. Lullaby knows how to get us to the Sisters of the Mist. We¡¯ll leave for their sanctuary at midnight tonight. Let¡¯s just hope they can help one or both of us. Okay?¡±


    Dawn frowns, but she nods, relenting. Teuila stalks over to Dawn and socks her playfully in the shoulder, a bit forcefully. Dawn winces, but nods again at Teuila. I dig around in the hyperdimensional haversack. There¡¯s a few items from Milbert¡¯s stash we haven¡¯t figured out, or used yet. This griffon rampant is one of them. Hm, is there a difference between a griffon and a gryphon? Probably just regional variations on spelling, like color and colour, and armor and armour. Apparently to call forth the beast transformation of the statue, you have to express true love to it somehow. No wonder Milbert wasn¡¯t using it.


    I wonder which of my companions memories I could use to demonstrate true love to it. In my heart, I believe each and every one of them is someone that I truly, truly deeply love. Most recently added to that list, I think I could say I¡¯ve fallen for Alanea Whifflewillow. She¡¯s such a remarkable woman. I wish her a happy life, and maybe, hopefully the sort of family she desires. I don¡¯t even know if changelings are born, or if we spawn from flowers or something. She might have no parents or siblings, simply by nature of being a changeling if we sprout from fruits or something weird, or if it¡¯s a mix, that changelings can naturally be grown like mandragora, but can also mate and raise children through any number of methods. Or, if we¡¯re more mammalian biologically, she may have lost them in our shared battle with our manxome foe, or any number of things. If, if only I could guarantee the safety and happiness of those I care about. I allow myself another long, deep sigh as I weep for those I love, in fear for what they might face without me.


    My tears splash upon the griffon statuette in my hands, and my hands nearly break as the figurine expands rapidly. I tumble backwards as a magnificent creature becomes animate, its feathers contain a metallic sheen, as if its entire body is still made of the same material its statuette form was comprised of. His beak is a deadly saber atop a main-gauche, figuratively speaking. His eyes are virtually made of steely determination. Each of his talons is a weapon in its own right. As are his claws on his rear lion legs. I, uh, could do without the anatomical accuracy below, but even that seems like an impressive, though perhaps a bit small compared to his other features, club as it swings about. Why do statue designers do that half the time? Who thinks, ¡°You know what would be artistic? An organ dangling between the legs of this creation,¡± ya know? Bleugh. I am so very glad I don¡¯t have any of that garbage.


    Anyway, his time limit seems similar to the beast tokens, slightly. It won¡¯t pause completely while he¡¯s at rest, but unlike the tokens, he can recharge with a few days to a week or two. Then he¡¯ll be usable for another few days up to maybe a week if used only for travel and rest. I guess as long as we plan to make rest stops at places like the Sisters of the Mist Sanctuary, and maybe The Brook, and The Gap, spending equal time traveling and equal time resting and researching at each location, we have our mount. Despite having limitations, he¡¯s still easier to use and take care of than a real horse, and less likely to tire out being the only beast pulling a full carriage. I toss the magical saddle over his back, and it seems to virtually meld with his form. Hopefully it¡¯ll stay on him even if he shrinks back down into statue size.


    I tell Apheliotes Zephyrus to follow Teuila¡¯s orders. His name is a mouthful, but that¡¯s what the magic said to call him. We hook him up to the carriage and have him draw it to the Enochian Enclave as we walk along, saying goodbye to the gorgeous scenery on this quiet edge of the Hidden Heart. Since we¡¯re on the southwest side of the Hidden Heart, we¡¯re nearest where we¡¯ll be leaving too. It¡¯s funny, this might literally be where Lil showed up with Luni and Lucky when they got here, since they probably had to approach from the southwest, over there by the river. Unless they went up along the mountainside to the west, then headed east here. Then they would have hit the royal dwellings and such on the west side of the Heart.


    I pat Apheliotes to let him know to rest outside the Enochian Enclave, and he sits on his knees. Patting him felt like slapping a slab of steel, but it¡¯s not like I was trying to put force into it. Teuila, Dawn, and I enter the Enochian Enclave for the final time during our stay. Possibly the final time in my entire life. At least Jarrah is pretty certain I¡¯ll live for a couple of months most likely. Speaking of, he¡¯s awaiting with a teapot, and several attendants that I haven¡¯t met before.


    Before I can ask, Jarrah speaks, ¡°Flint and Alanea have returned to their slightly more secret assignment. They, well, they¡¯re throwing themselves into their work, seemingly avoiding processing certain emotions. I hope not too recklessly. I¡¯m regretful that they won¡¯t be able to bid you farewell. Jioskar, and Zintata here will look after Teuila and Dawn for the day. Please. Come.¡±


    I gaze back at Dawn and Teuila who wear neutral to half-sad expressions as they watch me ascend the Enochian Enclave¡¯s spiral staircase. As we¡¯re leaving, my hypersensitive hearing picks up a few things. Zintata introduces herself, voicing a distaste for me and my recklessness, but an intrigue in Dawn¡¯s stealth. Jioskar introduces himself. He makes a big deal of pointing out that his name is pronounced hee-yo scar, despite Jarrah having just used it, and his own introduction of himself. I shrug. Some of us have had people mispronounce are names, and it irritates some people more than others. Oof, as I¡¯m leaving, I hear one more snide remark from each Zintata and Jioskar about me. Apparently I¡¯ve made a fairly poor impression at the Enochian Enclave in general.


    Well, oh well. They won¡¯t have to worry about my disruptions again after today, unless I live long enough to visit again. To do that though, well, huff. I don¡¯t know. I¡¯d be coming back to either join Jarrah in facing off against our manxome foe, or, or to. Gosh I¡¯m blushing. If it¡¯s impossible to return to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and somehow all the craziness and bad stuff stops here on Rayileklia, I. I might return to start a, a family with Alanea, and Te, and Lil, and Lu, and Lucky, and Dawn. Hopefully we all survive all these stupid messes. Hopefully the triple L gang is alright. Hm? Yeah Bud, it¡¯s kind of funny that all three of their names start with L and they¡¯re a separate party for now. Oh? Jarrah¡¯s been laughing at my thoughts this whole time? Oh, right. Well that¡¯s embarrassing.


    Ugh. I really did not mean to spill the emotional beans of my, and possibly Alanea¡¯s feelings for each other. I could still be misreading things. That whole situation was just so confusing. Wonderful, amazing, tender, sweet, but confusing. I let loose a forlorn sigh as all my muscles sag heavily. I feel weak and drained as I enter Jarrah¡¯s chamber. My eyes loll about in their sockets and I stagger a few steps into the chamber. W,what. What¡¯s going, going on. So heavy. Oof, eyelids too heavy, can¡¯t, can¡¯t keep them open, and ow, left eardrum blew. Tinnitus is so, so loud.


    Thanks for catching me Lullaby. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s coming over me. Jarrah¡¯s what? Bleeding on me? Drawing on me in blood? Huff. Do I even want to know any more? I give up. If he¡¯s killing me or sacrificing me or whatever, I¡¯m just, I¡¯m so tired. I¡¯m so emotionally drained from having to be the one that steps up, time after time, when no one else seems to have the power to stop situations. If he wants my powers, or my corpse, or whatever, I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll put it to good use. Hm? He¡¯s scowling, rolling his eyes, and trying not to laugh at me? I, well, that sounds about right honestly.


    Actually. You know what. No. Not even Jarrah. No one¡¯s going to take my last month or two away from me. Argh! It hurts so much, it¡¯s like tearing my muscles apart to try to move. Huff, huff, huff. Exertion. Can¡¯t. Fight. No! I rise with all the force I can muster as I headbutt my mentor away from me. He reels back, and I stand doubled over, nearly touching my toes as my arms hang limp. He¡¯s saying something, but I can¡¯t hear it. What do you think Lullaby, cold rune, or try to move my left arm again for the staff? Uh oh.


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    Jarrah raises his hand, and seems to mutter something. I¡¯m sent flying into the rear wall of his chamber. As I slide down along the wall, I come to a seated position in an incredibly comfy chair. Thanks Lullaby. Huh? This wasn¡¯t you? Now there¡¯s a table somewhat trapping me in place, slightly. Jarrah draws a chair up to the table and sets the teapot and glasses upon it. I blink rapidly in confusion.


    Jarrah shakes his head, muttering. As my hearing finally returns, I can tell he¡¯s saying, ¡°The vexing child is truly an impossible ignoramus, but after all they¡¯ve been through, their paranoia is hardly difficult to understand. Looks like this one¡¯s coming to their senses. Yes?¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s wild eyes focus their gaze mostly on me, as much as their ever-moving presence can. I nod tentatively. Jarrah claps once, and the teapot begins to steam slightly. He says, ¡°Good, welcome back. Whatever nightmare you¡¯d been having, could you refrain from attacking me again?¡±


    I grumble as I gaze about. Lullaby, that really happened, didn¡¯t it? Yeah, I thought so too Bud. I respond, ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll refrain from attacking you if you explain why you were drawing on me in your blood.¡±


    Jarrah strokes his beard and relents, ¡°You are, as you know, dying. I had not bothered previously to learn much about changelings. What I have learned in the last several days allowed me some insight into their natural gift. I¡¯m hoping that by unlocking yours, we can prevent that demise by even a short time longer. Ms. Whifflewillow believes that one must shapeshift often before ever even touching mana, and she may be right, but we¡¯re both in dire need of your success. Every last tool in your kit, every last second to your life is that much greater chance for your success, no matter how slim.¡±


    My face contorts as I cock my head to the side to stare at him. I roll my eyes and sigh before asking, ¡°You¡¯re telling me, that you were just helping activate my natural gift, but you didn¡¯t think to tell me that you¡¯d be knocking me out and bleeding all over me, or even trying to do that, before we got up here?¡±


    Jarrah frowns, and says something that I suspect to be a lie, but his eye doesn¡¯t twitch, ¡°I¡¯d done no such thing. Whatever sent you reeling was not of my design. Yes I took advantage of your vulnerable state to simply do what I was going to do anyway however. If there¡¯s some other additional malady you¡¯re suffering, now would be the time to disclose it, in case there should be a cure we can pursue.¡±


    I huff a sigh and glare at him with a furrowed brow, attempting as much truthseeking as I can muster. Jarrah¡¯s mostly a fairly honest person. I¡¯ve caught him in his lies once or twice, but most of those seemed almost harmless desires to withhold information for my own benefit. Huff. Fine. I respond, ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure between you and Alanea, you should know everything about me. The mana sickness, the time travel, the panic attacks, the tinnitus, the muscle spasms, the anxiety, the self-doubt and slash or depression. The concussions, the explosions, the delimbing and regeneration, the melting in lava, the drownings, the lightning spark that burst inside my heart, destroying my internals, only to barely be saved in time by a magical potion while clinging to life based on Lil¡¯s bond, nearly killing Lil in the process. What else? Having gods melt and fry my brain simply by speaking at me, having a necromancer try and fail to steal my sou¡ª¡°¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s eyes widen and widen as I go on and on, until he interrupts, ¡°What? That last bit. You had what happen? Alanea mentioned seeing no such thing. Also, what the fel fiery hells are those doing back already? How long have they been here? I saw no Kamaitachi deliver them.¡±


    Jarrah mentioned he was having Dirge and that somebody¡¯s flame armor delivered into the spaces between the wind by the Kamaitachis, so my eyes shoot wide with fear as I glance around. Sure enough, they¡¯re nearby, and I feel weakened, pulled towards them. They, they want me to claim them. They need me to claim them. They weren¡¯t truly dead, only mostly dead, and my recent attempt at wearing them has bound them to me. They¡¯ve been slowly rejoining the living, but they¡¯re pained, sickened because of that attempt, because of my defenses fighting back their desire to speed their healing process by borrowing my life force. Well, crap.


    As far as the necromancer thing, I¡¯m not that surprised. I state, ¡°I have millions, maybe billions of years of logs, I¡¯m surprised Alanea learned as much about me as she did while gazing around at them for a few minutes. It seemed like she started at the beginning. The necromancer happened a week or two ago here on Rayileklia. It was, uh, June twenty sixth. Also, those artifacts are crying out for me, begging me. Should we do something about that?¡±


    Jarrah returns to his usual, muttering, rude self. He grumbles, ¡°Vexations upon vexations, child of a million lives upon a myriad of worlds, time traveling nonsense expanding their story. What? No, shut up. Leave those accursed fel-broodspawn objects alone. Ill-begotten rotter and nonsense. Wait, what. The twenty sixth? No. Yes? No. Near Victo? Necromancy surges have stopped since that very night. But there was a flash, our foe¡¯s presence, very near.¡±


    I nod as I add to his muttering, ¡°Yeah, we were about to defeat the necromancer, while we were trapped, frozen in his soul-sucking firelight that couldn¡¯t manage to grip our souls. Instead, it seemed like his own Bright Lord, our manxome foe reduced him to ash. Something about a primary something, prime soul maybe. Ol¡¯ manxy was pissed, obviously. Milbert, the necromancer, wanted to keep our souls for himself, and manxy caught on apparently, since the torch was lit for so long without funneling souls to Navica.¡±


    Jarrah¡¯s eyes boggle as he demands, ¡°You did not think to lay such pertinent information upon me sooner!?¡±


    I shrug as I retort, ¡°You somehow knew about my delimbing on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and a heck of a lot more about me, I figured you were mostly being coy whenever it seemed like you didn¡¯t know something. It¡¯s hard to know what to share when someone keeps hiding what they truly know, and denying things I obviously heard.¡±


    Jarrah grumbles, but looks mildly abashed as he somewhat apologizes, or backs down at least, ¡°Ah, yes, I suppose that could be true. Yes, I did, do know more than I¡¯ve said, by some marks upon your soul. I did not know your own soul was bodybound. That, that is a powerful tool against our foe. Perhaps the most powerful, necessary tool. Were it remotely possible that you could survive long enough, grow stronger, I would plead you take it upon yourself to finally lay to rest the fel-broodspawn that is the self proclaimed emperor.¡±


    I wear half a wicked grin as I add, ¡°Lucky for you, I don¡¯t have to survive. Teuila¡¯s soul is bodybound too, and she¡¯s a hell of a lot more powerful than me.¡±


    Jarrah virtually drops his jaw to the floor. Only for a moment, before he shakes his head sadly. He mumbles, ¡°The last solo endeavor against the emperor was by the ageless grasshopper, one whose soul also seemed at least partially bodybound. It¡¯s rather obvious they didn¡¯t succeed.¡±


    Now it¡¯s my turn for my jaw to drop. There are so many connections between me and Aces, but Luni says I¡¯m not ready to compare them. Why no- Ow, glrp, blrpk, I. I¡¯m. Glp. Gushing a torrent of blood from every orifice. I, I¡¯m. Fal,falling. Thanks Bud. My head slams forward into a moss pillow that grows upon the table, a moss pillow that thankfully absorbs the ridiculous quantity of vitality leaving my system. I think I black out for several moments.


    I¡¯m finally coming back to my senses, and no longer leaking vitality. Jarrah is, nursing me kindly with a damp cloth to my forehead? Rehydrating me with that bitter tea? Morning prediction accomplished. I think I was having a thought. Wasn¡¯t there something. Before I blacked out. I was starting to think abo¡ª. Lullaby¡¯s warning blares into my head like a foghorn, interrupting my thoughts. Huh? Oh. Thanks Bud. Not sure what I¡¯m thanking you for, but I vaguely remember agreeing to heed your warnings about my traveling thoughts.


    Jarrah nods along with my thoughts, and lifts my head from his lap to set me upright back in my chair. What Bud? Dirge is doing what? But you had the wood soak all that up! Oh, you didn¡¯t tell it where to go.


    I cry out, ¡°Jarrah! Dirge, quick, she¡¯s about to drink m¡ª¡°


    Too late. Dirge comes screaming back to life, singing angrily from her location laying nearby. I slam my face into my palm and shake my head in dismay. Great, now we have a homicidal sister active nearby to worry about. Hm, what¡¯s that Bud? She¡¯s usually less kill-y? Well, that¡¯s good I guess. Balchar¡¯s Flame or whatever it¡¯s called probably affected her too, on top of her lunatic bonded guardswoman.


    Jarrah joins me in facepalming. Only momentarily though, as he gazes at Dirge. Her song slowly changes, mellows, soothes, quiets. It somehow becomes silent, yet still permeates the air. I stare along with Jarrah at Dirge as she changes from deadly crimson to a swath of azure and emerald and just the faintest streaks of¡ª Wait. Those are the colors of my soul¡¯s aura on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. What did my soul just do to Dirge?


    What Lullaby? She¡¯s lost her dirge? She¡¯s now just Requiem, the Silent Song? She¡¯ll go by SS or SS Requiem for short? That, that¡¯s weird. Right? I mean, I¡¯m not one to deny anyone their identity, or name, but, but has anything like this ever happened before? Wait, the flame armor is about to do the same thing!? F%^&!


    I start to make a mad dash for the stupid artifacts, too late, as Balchar¡¯s flame radiates power, knocking me away onto my arse. My emotions intensify, and ramp up to stupidly crazy levels, and it takes all my willpower not to cave in to so many rampant emotions. They slowly calm, and calm, and calm. Dirge is telling you something? Err, sorry, SS Requiem is telling you something? He what.


    I don¡¯t know whether to be honored, or terrified. Balchar¡¯s flame is now a spectacular mixture of colors, quite similar to Di¡ª uh, Requiem. It¡¯s as if a tornado drew forth my soul as its palette, and used the armor as its canvas. Streaks and slashes of one color over the other are nearly hypnotizing. His name is now apparently Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark. That¡¯s, that¡¯s just a whole mess of wrong, on so many levels.


    I¡¯m going to be in so much trouble with Sindred, and that trouble is going to be passed on to the Enochian Enclave. I begin my apology, ¡°Jarrah, I, I had no idea that bleeding in their presence could, would, that it was even possible to, to do this. Sindred is going to kill people.¡±


    Jarrah is muttering to himself, apparently repeating several of my thoughts, including the artifacts¡¯ new names. Of course a familiar phrase he utters while muttering is, ¡°What? Shut up. Let me think.¡±


    I roll my eyes and puff an exasperated breath, half humorously. I¡¯m glad I was able to have him as my mentor, despite all the rudeness and peculiarity. I return to my seat, shaking my head at the absolute insanity of it all while I pour myself another cup of bitter tea. Hm, you can? Yes please Bud. I hold the teacup to the wall, and Lullaby has the wall produce a few drops of the purest sugar possible to sweeten the tea. Sipping it is now delightful in comparison. I still don¡¯t like tea, but at least it isn¡¯t like pouring a disaster into my mouth. The sugar can only do so much to mask the ashen flavor.


    I finish my tea, and I¡¯m about to pour another cup when Jarrah suddenly hoists me by the collar and drags me to the artifacts. He demands, ¡°Go on then, divest, pick up your new toys. We may as well see what is happening. Stop being shy, we both know you¡¯ve nothing to see, and your skin may yet tell tales that your mind has not.¡±


    Ugh. I hate that I even have a sense of propriety from stupid human memories that makes me embarrassed about this. Still, I quickly strip and don the new equipment. Lullaby and Di¡ª, um, SS Requiem begin chatting across a wavelength that requires the back of my brain to facilitate. Ow. Iceflame joins in, and it¡¯s a myriad of these difficult to parse emotional waves that each mean words and phrases, all jumbled together. I could understand Bud, mostly, because he and I were bonding and talking things out, and he was patient when speaking. This is a chaotic mess in the back of my mind of a rapid exchange of communication.


    Hrp, glp. Guys, is there any chance you could please maybe slow down across my bandwidth? Really? Thank you, yes please. Hoof. That¡¯s so much better. Thank you. Pft, haha, yes, Jarrah and I probably were going to ask that soon. It¡¯s too bad you don¡¯t know. I¡¯ll take a look at your runes later to see if I can discern anything, if you even still have enchantment auras. For all I know, you¡¯re powerless hunks of metal with souls that have mellowed out a bit.


    Jarrah was about to ask the question, but followed along with my thoughts and he scowls. Jarrah stalks back to his seat, and waves dismissively at me, permitting me to change back into my normal clothing. Sorry guys, if you want to hang out, you¡¯d either need Lullaby¡¯s non-Fae shrinkage enchantment, or Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian size-accomodation magic. Give it a try? Sure. Huh. Whaddaya know. Alright, can you two literally handle the heat? I¡¯ll store you with the phoenix-roc egg alongside Lullaby for the time being, until I have to leave you with Jarrah.


    Jarrah shakes his head and sneers, ¡°Oh no, you¡¯re not leaving that mess in my lap. You take those things with you. Seems they¡¯ve an affinity for your family now. Maybe your Teuila will see use of them. Or perhaps your Luni when you reunite. Hm, that should be within the next few weeks. I do suppose I owe you a message.¡±


    Jarrah sighs and shakes his head before dropping his forehead into his right palm. He admits, ¡°I¡¯ve led you on a slight bit. I¡¯ve little for you to go on. Lil only requested that we delay you. They did however speak of a desire to see the Sisters of the Mist, hoping the Sisters¡¯ oracular powers might help them solve or find something, some day. Whether or not they headed directly to the Sanctuary, I know not. Nor could I tell you precisely how to get there without being your guide, and I cannot, will not leave the Enclave and its children while it still stands.¡±


    My jaw hangs slack momentarily. I¡¯ve returned to my normal clothing, and now have three artifacts chattering alongside an egg hanging about my neck, two of which are now connected to my family. Reggie Shellcracker? What in all the fel fiery hells even are you? Jarrah snorts and spits his tea. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen him laugh so genuinely before. Whoops, heh.


    I start to apologize, but Lullaby helps clean up the spray of tea, and Jarrah shakes his head while waving his hand dismissively. He states, ¡°Let us pay it no mind. I¡¯ve done you many a disservice, and you remain a civil, strange, marvelous vexation on a parallel path. Let us enjoy our last teatime together, young-ancient Reggie Shellcracker. Hm. That does alight on some lost knowledge. The ancients, but no, simply myth and vagueries. Stories told to explain the unknown who came before.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, but I trust Jarrah enough that I¡¯m certain he would tell me anything that might help me survive to ensure our mutual needs are met. He knows I will do everything in my power, and possibly beyond, if I can, to succeed in this task. For love, compassion, and empathy for Dawn and all Aasimovians. We sup together silently this last time, whiling away the hours as I practice runes and read at the tea table.

 B 4 C 96: Leaving Hearts Behind

    Midnight nears, and Jarrah stands. I stand as well. I bow, intending to stride away in silent farewell when I¡¯m surprised once more today. Jarrah stands in front of me, arms wide as I step forward, and he offers me a short, tight hug. He then walks away and waves dismissively towards me, muttering things about luck and timeliness. I draw a deep, ragged breath and sigh. I¡¯m glad I had him as my mentor. I exit his chamber without further ceremony.


    Teuila and Dawn are nowhere to be found, not the infirmary, not the gymnasium, not any of the classrooms that I know about. I¡¯m almost starting to suspect a surprise party like on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, where I might get to see Alanea and Flint again. I huff a sad sigh. I know how unlikely it is. Hm? Yes you three, it is unlikely. Hah, yes, yes, three additional voices in my head is a bit crowded, but it¡¯s basically what I had back home for most of my life. Just, just make sure to take it easy on the bandwidth, please. I know you said you would, but I want to remind you, it felt like I was going to vomit my brain or it was going to explode out my ears as your chatter grew. Thanks guys.


    Where the heck are they? Maybe outside by the carriage? They¡¯re not on the, what is it called, the foyer of the entrance. Hell, where the crap is the carriage? Blargh. Another ragged breath and a frustrated sigh. I flump on my arse and lean my elbows on my knees as I drop my chin into my upturned hands. Ah crap, I never even got a chance to apologize to Alanea for accidentally squeezing her bum the other night. She what? Bud, you¡¯re sure? Ack, holy moly I¡¯m blushing hard. But, but still, it was a spasm, I didn¡¯t even know she was there, much less awake, or, or, or--. I don¡¯t want her thinking that, that I¡¯d just, just--. Ugh. I feel awful. She what? I. I definitely did not hear her make that kind of noise. Okay, I¡¯m literally steaming with blush, hold off, don¡¯t tell me any more for a bit, please.


    Jeeze my heart is hammering and fluttering. I gulp as I glance around, glad for the only people in my head currently being the artifacts. Phew. Yes, several relieved sighs from me. What do you mean why? I told you before, stuff like that is private, we don¡¯t just share it with other people. I know it wasn¡¯t mating you goober, but it¡¯s adjacent when she, she, she makes a noise like the one you described, and purposely--. Huff. Gosh dangit. My heart is pounding and I¡¯m having trouble catching my breath. Wait, she what with who? Haha, wait, seriously? Okay. Yeah, I guess I don¡¯t feel as guilty, or quite as embarrassed. She did say it was common with Fae, especially with changelings.


    Still. I don¡¯t think I should even have known that. Neither one of them told me, and it¡¯s not fair for that sort of thing to be shared without their permission. Yes, even if we were in the same bed. Yes, now you¡¯re getting it, because it¡¯s mating adjacent. Still. Thank you I guess, Bud. Sorry I¡¯m a freak and an emotional train wreck. No, not that kind of train, it¡¯s, uh, an Earth, Fakeworld memories thing. Just imagine like thirty carriages colliding from different directions at high speeds. Yes, I do think that I¡¯m that, well, way. I don¡¯t know the right word, damaged? Disarrayed? Discombobulated? I really don¡¯t know Bud, sorry, at least not offhand. If I remember sometime and remember we talked about this, I¡¯ll try to explain it to you better, okay? Just. Just. Thanks for caring is all. Thank you Bud.


    You two what? I mean, sure, but I haven¡¯t really known you long enough to know your personalities. It¡¯s hard to give a nickname without that. It sort of happens organically, you know? Okay, fair point, not exactly organic life forms. What I mean is it sort of just happens at some point naturally. You just refer to someone else a certain way, and one or both of you like the way it sounds, so you decide to stick with it. It would be like, if I were flustered, or tired, and couldn¡¯t say your full name, and called you Esser or Essie instead of SS R¡ª. Really? Sure. That works Essie.


    Yeah I haven¡¯t forgotten about you, but Iceflame is already kind of a cool nickname, or heck, just Shellcracker, because that¡¯s how Linti would refer to me most of the time. It¡¯s a thing on Earth too, where you¡¯d just call out your friends¡¯ family names for some reason. I¡¯m not exactly sure why, and if it¡¯s regional or not. I know in a place called Japan, that family names and given names are like, in different locations compared to most other places. How am I supposed to know why I feel like those thoughts are memories Iceyhot? Haha, only use that one if I¡¯m being mean? Okay. We¡¯ll come up with something eventually. Alright? I¡¯ve, huff. I¡¯ve been sitting here distracted from my sadness, but I really need to find our carriage and the gals.


    I suddenly tumble forward and clasp my head. Something. Something. A word. A word, read into my brain in all capitalized letters. Tears stream forth, and I¡¯m suddenly wracked by fear. W, what¡¯s going on. Why, glp, why am I so scared? Guys? Guys? Is anything dangerous around us? Are you amplifying my emotions? No to both? Well, that¡¯s good at least. I could swear though that there¡¯s something an instant from killing me nearby, like, completely erasing me, burning me away to nothing, not even a soul. Heavens and hells I¡¯m freaking terrified, and tears for fears are streaming down my cheeks, and now my brain is blue screening so hard. Jeeze, it¡¯s like the world itself is mad at me, and it¡¯s shouting, shouting it all out loud.


    Come on, Dawn, Teuila, where are you guys? I need you tonight. I, I¡¯ve got to let you know. You two are my kind, wonderful friends. I need you to know. I¡¯ve landed in such a state of confusion. My personality is wracked by a cult worth of fears, like too many people making too many problems in my head. I, I wish I could see the moon, the sky, anything right now. He¡¯ll, I¡¯d go for a walk around the moon to ease my troubled mind. I, I¡¯m crazy.


    What was it Lil once called me? Superhero? Would I still be Lil¡¯s superhero, if I¡¯ve gone crazy? Hell, at this point, I just wonder if they¡¯ve forgiven me, or ever will. My brain has been in a constant blue screen of death these last two or three minutes. It¡¯s like somebody¡¯s playing a robotic soundtrack in my head that¡¯s just static. Like the static is hiding a secret that it¡¯s got. Gee, thanks whatever DJ is in my brain. Domo arigato I guess. I¡¯m not paralyzed, but I still seem to be stuck. Just, just let me be, I¡¯ll take a raft down the river Styx at this point to stop all these tears for these fears.


    Wait, is that the carriage? What¡¯s it doing three doors down that way? Are they painting a white stripe on something? I, I need to fight my way over to them. We, I have to get out of here. Something is happening in the Heart. I need to get out of this dark lit place. I can¡¯t let anything hold me back. Not even an army. Heck, not even all seven nations¡¯ armies under the imperial banner. Oh thank spoot, they¡¯ve finally noticed me. Jeguz cripes.


    Huff, huff. Phew. The static is finally laying off of my brain. What the hell was all that? Were you guys trying to sing or something? It wasn¡¯t you? Yeah, I kinda figured, but I had to ask. Friggin¡¯ hell though. I¡¯m trembling all over. I cried so many tears at all that fear bearing down on me. It¡¯s like I was some fragile little egg and someone was rushing me with a sledgehammer. Hell¡¯s bells. Hm, I wonder why I use that curse instead of like, I dunno, Gabriel¡¯s trumpet or something. That would be kind of a funny way of admitting consternation or whatever. Or what was that story Agwai told one time? All those names that start with the letter pee, Peter Pietro Paul and whatnot. That would be a funny curse. Instead I use hell in a handbasket and hell¡¯s bells, and a few others.


    Sorry guys, yes I¡¯m distracting myself purposely. My brain feels royally futzed from the last couple minutes. Something, some word triggered like, like a panic attack. It was going to be a full mind-blowing terror episode, but the weird enchantment from Jarrah¡¯s room was fast forwarding me through something, maybe a bunch of somethings. I¡¯m not sure it was any better than one of my regular terror episodes. I guess I was still somewhat cognizant.


    Finally, here we are, about to leave the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds. I¡¯m still trembling though. Dawn and Teuila both look annoyed as they turn their gazes on me. I flinch and recoil from whatever sour mood they¡¯ve suddenly directed my way. Gulp. I sniffle and tremble as my muscles spasm and lock up.


    Love overtakes the sour mood painted across Teuila¡¯s face as she throws a paintbrush aside to leap at me, arms wide, yelling, ¡°Airhead! Ugh, the day we had. Mwah, mwah. You okay love? It¡¯s alright now. The cavalry¡¯s here. We¡¯ll beat street and head out.¡±


    I shake as I hold Teuila aloft with her glommed onto my torso, her arms wrapped around my head. I¡¯m so much shorter than her like this that it¡¯s, well, unfortunate placement. Despite the gorgeous magical dress, my face is squished between the slight curves of two soft pillows, and her incredibly taut, firm sternum and chest area. I cough, blushing. Teuila grins wildly and dismounts me.


    Jarrah said he unlocked, or was trying to unlock my natural changeling gift, right? I should be able to change without Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic. Alanea though, I. I¡¯m pretty sure she said it couldn¡¯t add muscle groups or mass like my magic can. Still, what about a bit of height, even if it makes me kind of scrawny? Hrp. Blrghle. Oopf. I guess hrp. That works. Oof, I¡¯m going to be sick. Not sure how long I can keep this up. I can probably rearrange my features, or change my face with no issue, but this is straining, koff, everything.


    Teuila raises her eyebrows as I arrive at approximately her height, though I¡¯m rather gangly. She giggles and wraps her arms around me to smooch my face repeatedly. When she¡¯s appropriately flustered me enough, she snags my hand and dashes towards Dawn and the carriage. Dawn, barely perceptibly, waves the fingers of her right hand at me in recognition. This is it. It feels like we¡¯ve had nearly a lifetime of adventure already in the Heart, and we¡¯re finally saying goodbye. We¡¯re closing a chapter in our life¡¯s journey.


    Teuila takes a moment to explain their terrible day, "So, that prick and that smurfette, Jioskar and Zintatas or whatever, thought it''d be funny to lay their chores on us after they spent hours ragging on you. I wanted to punch specifically his rotten little face. Zintata was, eh, mixed bag. Kinda wanted to strangle her, kinda wanted to punch her, kinda wanted to smooch her ''cause she''s stupidly pretty. Mostly strangle though."


    Dawn snorts and coughs a laugh at Teuila''s admittance. Teuila grins madly before continuing, "So, like, yeah.There we were, I was hyped to go back to the gym one last time and spar Sprout or something, or, I dunno, maybe sneak out and find Alanea and Flint on their mission or whatever, but nope. Those turds roped us in to doing chores. I know we didn''t exactly have to, but they made us feel like we''d be like crap if we didn''t. I let slip about how snuggly Alanea is, and Jiosky whatsit flipped his brick or whatever, getting all possessive. Like, chill my dude, she never even mentioned you, and changelings are super super poly."


    I try to fight back a smile that plays at stretching across my face, and snort a huffed laugh. Teuila grins as she continues, "Yeah, so they dumped work on us that kind of really, really needed to be done, and left pretty soon after. Turds. Anyway, what I wouldn''t give to have spent the day with Big A., or even just Flint instead of those two pricks. Huff, or heck, Sprout is a better sport than them. He''s a tough little sapling, but other than being able to throw me and knock me into a pin a bit, he''s kinda squishy and easy to break free from. He was a little sour that I could just slip out of any lock he tried on me, but we chatted and he warmed up to me. Nice little kid. I can see why Big A. wants kids some day. She''d make a great mom. She''s so good with her students too. Ugh, it sucks leaving her behind. Sorry, how was your day Air?"


    I shake my head and shrug, unable to parse my day at the moment. I thought Jarrah was trying to kill me again. I''m not even sure I told Teuila about the first time he tried. Then there was the artifact nonsense, and the talking about bodybound souls, and changeling gifts, and who even knows what else. My brain hurts. Teuila pouts but hugs me, kisses my forehead, then pushes down on my shoulders. She can see that maintaining the height is causing me tons of physical stresses. I relent and shrink back down to normal cherubic Reggie size for now. Teuila embarrassingly picks me up for a moment, but I also relent to this as well and sink into an impassioned kiss for several moments, until Dawn coughs politely. Teuila grins like a goon and plops me down as she hops away.


    I huff a sigh as I climb into the carriage, and Dawn surprisingly snuggles up on me, holding my arm tightly, though not in as much of a death grip as when her senses are gone. There¡¯s this undercurrent of emotion playing across the waves between her and I. I cast my aura vision spell, mostly to study the book with the soul spell, but also to feel out the essence of that red thread between us. Huh, it looks like one or two threads lead into here in the Heart somewhere, or maybe out west. I think Vale Valley is somewhere west of the Heart, through a secret passage in the mountains.


    Oh. Woah. Dawn''s thread. Somehow we¡¯re more connected than ever, and I can tell this affection is her way of saying she¡¯s sorry, goodbye, and thank you. She knows I¡¯m spending my last weeks alive in an effort to save her. She doesn¡¯t know how to express any of that enough, and knows I like affection.


    I start, ¡°Dawn, I truly, truly appreciate, and enjoy this, but, but if you¡¯re making yourself uncomfortable, I, I¡¯d hate myself, I¡¯d never forgive myself. You¡¯re My Friend, and your needs and boundaries are important to me.¡±


    Dawn frowns as she fidgets and sniffles. She mumbles, ¡°It¡¯s, it¡¯s not like that Rej, not really. Pal, shid braddah. The, the saying, not calling you braddah. I can barely comprehend it. We¡¯re both on ticking clocks? Like, for absolutely for sure for real? An, and, and. And I¡¯ve been my cold, frigid, uncomfortable self? Pal, I¡¯ve never kissed someone. I might be erased from existence. Now I aint saying I wanna do that, don¡¯t get your hopes up. I just mean, like, an example of how distant I¡¯ve always preferred to be and stuff. I told you before I don¡¯t hate hugs or nothin¡¯. And, and well, Boss is kinda like a kid sister or older sister to me or somethin¡¯, and she¡¯s snuggly all the gorram time. Huff. Just. Just. Shid braddah. You know?¡±


    I chuckle halfheartedly and flash Dawn a half-sad smile as I shrug. I don¡¯t exactly know. Dawn suddenly continues, ¡°Like, I felt it, and I knew it, for, for however long, especially since that fuggin¡¯ cult, but, but after that night it didn¡¯t really seem real most of the time. Only when I really, really thought about it and got down on myself. Or, or maybe kinda mad at you two for getting me to the point where I knew it was coming. Not that I really let on about that all that much. It¡¯s, it¡¯s really happening Rej. One or both of us is going to bite the big one, croak, maybe be written off forever. Boss might be left all alone pal. That fuggin¡¯ hurts to think about.¡±


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    I gulp as tears well along my eyelids as I nod. I gulp a shuddering breath and loose a sad sigh as I nod further. I can¡¯t find words, but Dawn can, ¡°So, like, like what is anyone supposed to do with that? Like, I don¡¯t hate some things, and you like some things, and I mean, it doesn¡¯t really hurt anything. So why not as much comfort and, and, I dunno, like, joy stuff, or whatever, as we can, while we can? Again, don¡¯t get your hopes up on that other stuff, just, ugh. Please, please don¡¯t do that to me. I, I know you wouldn¡¯t. Sorry. Just. It¡¯s. It¡¯s always gonna be there. Well, I guess, at least until I get unmade or whatever.¡±


    I bite my lips as I try to fight through my sadness, still unable to find words as Dawn squeezes my arm and lays her head on my shoulder. She shakes her head as she rambles, demanding something of me, ¡°Rej, I¡¯m pretty sure I made you promise, but, but I need to hear it again. You gotta take me out before this curse does if we don¡¯t find a cure. I don¡¯t know how. I don¡¯t even know if you can. But if you can figure out a way to, to, to do the thing that bloated arsehole said, to erase me before the curse works. You gotta do it. Everyone back home, the whole country, all the ancestors. It, it just can¡¯t happen. Erase me yourself before that. I¡¯m, I¡¯m begging pal.¡±


    I cough as I fail at gulping back a sob, ending up wracked with plentiful sobs, tears streaking down my face. What she¡¯s asking of me, it, it¡¯s horrific. But, but it¡¯s, it¡¯s a grand sacrifice of however many moments left of her existence. Our memories of her, of everything. It¡¯s her choice, preferring it be by my hand, if I can even find a way. I slowly, shudderingly, tremblingly nod. I gulp repeatedly before I''m barely able croak out a single word, "Promise."


    Dawn hugs me tighter for a moment before releasing me and leaning away. I need more than ever for this book to have a cure for Dawn¡¯s curse. I, I want to friggin¡¯ die. That hurt so much to hear. Hm? Yeah, thanks for staying quiet through that guys. It, it was tough. The muscles along the insides of my elbows between my biceps and forearms are killing me at the moment. Yes, figuratively guys. They hurt like hell. What Essie? Oh, you¡¯re right. Do you want to wait til Teuila hops in the cabin? Yeah, that¡¯ll be better.


    Teuila seems to be toying with the idea of using the carriage as a raft again as she has our trusty Apheliotes Zephyrus navigating alongside the river. Lullaby confirms that this is the basic path, and we can stay on it for most of two or so day¡¯s travel before cutting west. I let Teuila know the same. Hey, Bud? You know how you¡¯re all about bonding with someone with Fae bloodlines or blood or whatever? What if, and this might be gross, but what if I just bleed for Teuila? Like, I dunno, leave her a vial of my blood, or paint it on her armor, or, y¡¯know, possibly grosser stuff. Hm. Fair. Yeah, I know, it makes sense. I wouldn¡¯t expect anyone to have tried it before me. Not many Fae likely wanted a non-Fae to inherit a Fae artifact. I figured it¡¯s better asking though, before trying it.


    I let my mind wander as I spend the hours studying the tome. I hope beyond hope that it only takes fifty six hours, and not days. I¡¯ve already read it for like, twenty hours or something. Hoopf, hoy. Oof. Hi Dawn. I raise an eyebrow to see if her senses have left her, and she shakes her head. She mumbles, ¡°Rej, pal, it¡¯s nerve-wracking. Seeing you read some scary unreadable tome with some sort of soul spell in it, not knowing if it¡¯s salvation or not. Just watching you burn away your last hours on me. I, I can¡¯t not pal. I promise, I¡¯m not making me super uncomfortable or anything. What the hell can a gal even possibly do to thank someone for this? There¡¯s nothing bigger in the whole universe to someone than their whole existence and history and everyone¡¯s memories of them.¡±


    Dawn gulps before continuing, ¡°Seriously. What the hell Rej? How are you such a good gal? How¡¯d I luck into you two crazy kids being the two to get me out of my shell after my ol¡¯ skulking buddy kicked it? Shid braddah, ugh, it hurts thinking about. I haven¡¯t had friends in so long. Doofus was just, cranky mostly, but still stopped by all the same. Sometimes they came back, so beat up, almost dead, but they¡¯d still stop by, tease me about needing to go into town for some new clothes or stuff. They never believed me about my curse, dumbarse. Completely denying magic for years. Claimed it was maybe some sort of iocaine poison derivative something or other that slowed my vitals, with some kind of adrenaline something or other to keep me active. Complete goon.¡±


    She laughs, recalling, ¡°They joked that I must have played some high stakes game, and gone in against a Sicilian when death was on the line, and didn¡¯t realize both cups were poisoned or something dumb. I don¡¯t even know what one of those is. Huff. But, but still. My only friend, for, for decades I think. Then you two come along, and Dippy shows up outta nowhere for a while, straight up putting it all on the line, no questions asked, tracking and fighting and, just, who the hell even was that little blue bud?¡±


    I chuckle as Dawn brings up Dippy. He really was special. He was absolutely terrified of almost everything almost every moment of every day, and still he pressed onwards, through everything. Bravest Amongst Us indeed. Dawn continues to reminisce with me about Aces as she lays against me, while I study the soul tome. I slowly blink as my eyelids grow heavier and heavier. Teuila pulls the carriage to a hault, and tries asking Apheliotes if he needs like food or water or rest or anything. He just blinks and stares at her like she¡¯s an idiot. She shrugs and laughs. She pats him on the shoulders and tells him to rest as she makes her way around into the Cabin.


    Before I pass out, I have to introduce everyone. I cough for a moment¡¯s attention, ¡°Hey, guys, um. Remember the homicidal maniac with two artifacts that, well, kinda died because of my stupidity? They¡¯re uh. Kind of alive again, and here. Only they have new names, and would like me to introduce you to them. Dawn, Teuila, please meet Requiem, the Silent Song, and Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark. Yeah Te, I know, right?¡±


    Dawn looks mildly confused, but Teuila stares in amazement at them as she takes them into her hands. She knows the swirling streaky color of my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian soul intimately. She quickly hugs them to her chest, and asks aloud, ¡°You two, you¡¯ll, well, you¡¯ll stay with us, right? Even, even after. Oh hey what¡¯s that? There¡¯s like feelings in my head that aren¡¯t mine. Wait, that¡¯s you guys? Dink? Airhead? Is, is this how they talk?¡±


    I nod while flashing Teuila a half smile. Dawn begins to marvel at the exchange. Hm Bud? Yeah I can do that. I add, ¡°Lullaby says to remember to say that Essie likes the nickname Essie, or SS, or SS Requiem, and that she¡¯s his sister, or, was. Still is. We¡¯re still figuring out a name for Shellcracker¡¯s suit of stuff, heh. Also, Sindred will probably hunt us down someday since we didn¡¯t give her gear back.¡±


    Somehow, I doubt that either Sindred or I will live long enough for her to track us down to extract vengeance. Hell, she might be imprisoned for losing artifacts bestowed on her as a royal guard. Whoops. Teuila gets acquainted with the pair of reborn artifacts, frequently hugging them or raising them to her cheeks as if she¡¯s snuggling my very soul. I. I guess she is. Yeah Lullaby, I get the irony. I wasn¡¯t going to leave a child behind, at least not biologically, but now I¡¯m leaving a piece of me behind for them to remember me by after all. I gulp and snort a sad laugh.


    Huff. Yeah, I¡¯m turning in. Teuila sees Dawn nestling into my arm, and leaps to float gently across our laps, lightly trapping us in a trio as I drift to sleep. My dreams are tearful, fearful, it feels as if I have a lifetime of terror to fight through to return to the waking world. I finally awaken, barely refraining from screaming. I hyperventilate, exhausted and sweating feverishly. Things are getting weirder with me the closer I get to my demise.


    Several days journey, and we¡¯re nearing the mountain range now. Dawn has mostly remained silent, only occasionally rambling at me, pleasantries and gratitude and reminiscing about our meetings. I gulp as I fight down the sadness inherent in what her reminiscing means for both of us. I do snort a few laughs about the whole Kozzurth situation though as she tells me a bit about her approach, and seeing me there.


    This, this is the end of the book. This is it! I cry out, ¡°The, the book, it¡¯s rearranging the, the knowledge stuff! I¡¯ve finished studying it! I, I.¡±


    Teuila stops the carriage and races inside to stare at me expectantly, excitedly, grinning like a goon. Dawn waits with, well, not bated breath, since she doesn¡¯t breathe, but she''s waiting anxiously at least. I draw a ragged breath and puff a sigh as I try to sort through the knowledge ramming itself through my cranium. Apparently the spell¡¯s name is Ensnare the Soul. That sounds almost perfect, maybe. Perhaps too good to be true. Let¡¯s¡ª oh hell. I¡¯m going to be sick. This spell is deplorable, ugh. It has a few uses at least. Bluh, let¡¯s try to sort through them quickly. It¡¯s mostly about intentionally siphoning and trapping a soul in intentional agony in a prison of gem. It requires a gem possibly up to the size of a small boulder by the sounds of it, at least about the size of the person¡¯s heart, if not head. There¡¯s a bunch of complicated script detailing the exact value of the gemstone, things like Mohs hardness scale, luster, a bunch of crap.


    No, oh no. Milbert was right. To lock a soul to a mortal vessel, at least with this spell, it, glp. It would take hundreds, thousands of lives in trade, at minimum. Even if we could find a populated location, would Dawn be willing to accept such a cost? Even if the people were perhaps willing? Tears of rage fill my eyes.


    On the one hand, it won¡¯t take that many runes to master, on the other hand, apparently it requires complicated rituals or specialized enchanting and engraving skills to even put it to use. It is definitely one of the more powerful, potent spells within the school of necromancy, all things considered. The two look confused at my lingering silence and tears of rage. I can¡¯t find words. We¡¯ve so few hopes left to save Dawn.


    Fighting through the sadness, tears, sobs, gulping, and overwhelming fatalistic dismay, I try to explain, ¡°It, it. It¡¯s called Ensnare the Soul. It, it¡¯s meant to trap souls, not in a good way. In a prison of gem, really large gems, in eternal agony until the gem is smashed. It has several functions though. One of them is, glp. It¡¯s closer to what we need, but. But the cost. Glp, koff. To lock a soul to a mortal vessel, imprisoning it in its flesh suit as the spell calls it, again, inducing at least a mild persistent agony for eternity, though technically granting a semblance of immortality, it, it. Koff. Snfl. Remember what Milbert said when he asked me about locking my soul down? Hundreds, thousands of lives. He already knew this spell. We¡¯d, we¡¯d have to draw a rune around an entire town, a small kingdom, and, and sacrifice everyone inside by kiling them in whatever means we could, within the rune. The, koff, the last person alive, or, well, possibly animate body, we can¡¯t even be sure, within the rune after a certain period of time would draw the benefit of the spell.¡±


    I can¡¯t speak any longer. I can¡¯t fight the tears. I drop my face into my hands and weep. The horror that is drawn across the faces of Teuila and Dawn mirrors my own feelings. I wasted days. Glp. Hrp. I¡¯m going to be sick. I wasted days on, on vile, horrid, abhorrent magic. I beg all that¡¯s good in the world that the Sisters somehow have something on hand, or that their oracular powers are free of charge, or something, and can tell us where to go and how to save Dawn.


    I gaze at Dawn through tear-embattled eyes. The apology on my ashen face, my despair, I can¡¯t express it. Dawn nods, understanding. She leans in and hugs me gently. I drop my face into her shoulder and bawl my eyes out, for I don¡¯t know how long. Teuila gets Apheliotes Zephyrus to resume our journey, silently stewing in her own feelings. I¡¯m failing them. I¡¯m failing everyone. My Friend, a country, a continent, possibly this whole world.


    It feels like days pass, but I can¡¯t allow myself the time to grieve or, or process whatever emotions by wallowing. I dig through the rest of the books. I need to learn more magic, get more powerful, anything. There might be a way to, I don¡¯t know, summon a demon and defeat it to bind Dawn¡¯s soul. Or, or to summon a devil and form a contract, so that her soul can¡¯t be stolen by the spell. Even belonging to a devil has to be better than never having existed at all. What about, what about aberrant entities outside of space and time? Jarrah made it seem like they absolutely do exist. Hell, Jarrah made it sound like planes of realities that can be planeswalked across by those able to plane shift exist simultane- What. The. F^&*. Really Staff? Any more secrets? Apparently planes of reality definitely do exist, and magic exists to travel between them. The problem is that it requires magical resonant devices native to the planes. Ugh. Yeah, I guess it isn¡¯t that helpful.


    Stupid staff, for spells whose concepts I¡¯m not intimately, actively familiar with, it doesn¡¯t tell me about them until I basically accidentally say or think their name. Sorry, the staff isn¡¯t stupid, it¡¯s ungodly, incredibly powerful. Hellspit. I wonder if we could use that spell to get back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Is it on another plane of reality? Or in another reality entirely? What¡¯s the difference? Huff. Regardless, we don¡¯t have one of the special corestones infused with dragonforce shaped into a tuning fork attuned to the harmonic frequency native to the plane itself. Hell of a specific requirement for a spell. No idea how you¡¯d ever use it, except maybe to get back to your home plane if you somehow stumbled into being summoned to another plane.


    Ugh, I can¡¯t afford to spend time on this distraction. There¡¯s the tiniest shred of hope that we could maybe shift Dawn off of this plane of reality, and that such a thing might stop the spell, but, but. Huff. I¡¯m almost positive that the spell is woven into the fabric of the entirety of this reality, across all of its planes. I¡¯d teleport us to hell itself though by shifting planes to it if it seemed like it might even remotely prevent Dawn¡¯s soul from being consumed by the curse.


    I¡¯m not even going to waste time explaining this to Teuila or Dawn at the moment unless I find at least the slightest hint of a corestone existing somewhere on this plane that¡¯s linked to another one. Alright, more books. These ones look promising. Some are scrolls, but these four are enchanted like the Libram Lingua or whatever it is.


    Let¡¯s see, this one is called the Abyssal Leaves of Feidlo, it¡¯s like a set of inscribed wooden slates in a leather case. Over here is one with a hell of a name, Baatorian Articles of Hoitonous, an actual book, but bound in steel and stained glass, like several of the other tomes. What is it with Rayileklia and binding their magical books with stained glass? Does it help focus the power of the enchantments? This set of scrolls in this leather case over here is called The Luminous Illuminations of the Nyne. Another one that looks promising is called the Arcane Tablets of Thratelch. Friggin¡¯ hell these names. I wonder if any of them are from the mysterious ancients that Jarrah mentioned. Huff. Can I study them all simultaneously? Will it make my brain explode?


    Screw it, at this point, it¡¯s worth the risk. Telekinesis, and aura sight from the staff, and four simultaneous sets of enchanted writings. Crap, can¡¯t do two spells from the staff. Wait, Dawn has a wand that does the same spell. Whew.


    I plead, ¡°Dawn, I¡¯ve been using the staff to keep up my aura vision spell, but I can¡¯t run two spells from it at once. Could I please borrow your wand? I need to keep a big spell from the staff up for what I¡¯m going to try.¡±


    Dawn looks worried but hands the wand over, no questions asked. I¡¯d friggin¡¯ kiss her if she were anyone else. Or well, anyone who wasn¡¯t squicked by the more romantic affections. Alright Reggie Shellcracker. Time to go sage mode. Really show the magic of Rayileklia that you¡¯re committed to ending this gorram curse. Just like media from Fakeworld. Someone going all out levitates themselves and a bunch of books around them. I¡¯m going to be bending the limits of the telekinesis spell, and my brain, but who frickin¡¯ cares. I¡¯m dying anyway.


    I set everything up, and Dawn ogles me and the floating written works. It, it, it hurts. It hurts so bad. I. No, no Bud. Don¡¯t do that for me. Nor that either. Also, no, I¡¯m not ready to try a symbiosis that might cost my soul or do whatever irreparable damage that Jarrah¡¯s dire warning hinted at. It¡¯s like daggers of ice driving into my skull from the top of my eyesockets and my temples, and mandible joint. It feels like my heart is ripped from my chest, tossed by the wayside and stomped by a caravan as it¡¯s left behind. I. Don¡¯t. Care. I¡¯ll take it. I¡¯ll take it all.

 B 4 C 97: Oh Sister, Soul Sister

    I can sense Teuila stopping the carriage, coming into the cabin, and gawping at my state, but I¡¯m not really in my body, or physical reality. My consciousness is split between the four written works, stretched, distorted. Dawn¡¯s still wide-eyed, and Teuila joins her in remaining wide-eyed at my state. I don¡¯t know if the two can see the glow trails of the runes flowing into my mind, two from each written work, each trail stabbing into my brain painfully into paired locations across my face and cranium. I have to focus. No more rest, no more comfort, no more love.


    Eventually I can tell that Teuila and Dawn realize I¡¯m not going to be responding, so they cuddle up beneath me. I can tell that my useless mortal shell is getting hungry, thirsty, and tired, but it can go eat dirt for all I care. Rrgh, Bud, not now! I. I¡¯m sorry. I can¡¯t afford to be patient, or kind, or, or Reggie at all. Reggie Shellcracker is a failure, a useless vexation. Leave me be! Please. I¡¯m sorry. If I live through absorbing these, I¡¯ll try to remember who I was, who I am, to make it up to you. Hours continue to pass as I siphon Rayileklia¡¯s ambient mana through the staff to keep the telekinesis enchantment activately wrapped around my brain, granting me the power to keep this up.


    At some point, Teuila and Dawn woke up, and Dawn decided to sit outside with Teuila at the helm. Good for them, that¡¯s fine. Hm? I¡¯m bleeding? So what. That¡¯s just an everyday occurrence for that useless mortal shell. I thought I told y¡ª, huff. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯ll try to remain mostly myself. You¡¯re right. Thank you Bud. I think, I think without you in my head right now, well. Without your presence, I might willingly burn away my emotions and soul to learn faster. I, I need you to keep fighting, to pester me, to not let me shut you up or yell at you. Remind me to be kind. I¡¯m sorry. I. I can¡¯t express enough the magnitude of the favor you¡¯re doing for me. It¡¯s, it¡¯s just so hard to maintain this. If I let it break, I won¡¯t be able to get back into it. Worse, the whiplash of not finishing it might put me into a coma, for I don¡¯t know how long. Yeah. We can¡¯t afford that. That¡¯s why I was being a crappy friend. Sorry.


    Hrrrrk. I didn¡¯t realize Reggie Shellcracker¡¯s mortal shell w¡ª. I mean, I didn¡¯t realize I was bleeding quite so badly. Shid, this is bad. Teuila probably won¡¯t stop for quite a few hours yet, no one¡¯s even noticing me gushing blood. Huff. Well, let¡¯s stretch this telekinesis even more. Yes, I¡¯m basically using it to create a telekinetic thumb in a cracked dam, on top of straining my brain to levitate myself, and the written works, when the telekinesis is only supposed to be able to interact with a single object at a time. I know I¡¯m damaging something within me, but I don¡¯t know what. I rather quite don¡¯t care. This isn¡¯t one of the things Jarrah warned me about, and he basically only cared if I were to die before finding the cure for Dawn, which we were all hoping was in that evil, horrid book.


    What? He. Yes. Yes he did say that. My life is worth more than the offal I treat it as, throwing it around at every opportunity. But this is important Bud! The most important task currently in existence! Okay, yes, I¡¯m a pompous twit. Egotistical, self absorbed and whatnot. Regardless, the task itself is more important than my life. Worse, with my limited perception of nearby reality, tapped more into the magical world, I can see Dawn¡¯s curse picking up pace again. Instead of nearly a month, she has maybe a couple of weeks left. I can¡¯t slow down, and I can¡¯t give a crap about any dangers to myself. I. I¡¯ll try to remain me though.


    What? I¡¯m, I¡¯m bleeding from that many places? Friggin¡¯ hell. Huff. Wait, I haven¡¯t what in how long? Uh. Okay, I¡¯ll admit, even I¡¯m surprised I¡¯m still alive at this point. We¡¯re where? Already? Wait, it¡¯s been -DAYS-!? Oh, hey, look, the written works are almost done. Another few hours. Huff. How, how many hours. How many days have I been at this Bud? Almost three days straight? Dawn and Teuila have been trying to gain entry into the sanctuary for most of a day or so? My, my throat is so dry, and caked with dusty, bloody mucus.


    The, the writings, I did it! I¡¯m, I¡¯m absorbing them. I need to hold on a little longer as they rearrange themselves. Koff. Glp. Just. Just a bit more you stupid useless mortal shell! Right, right. Sorry Bud. Thank you. The enchantments finish wending their way into my mind, driven through my skull like dental drills, and I¡¯m allowed to breathe a sigh of relief. Releasing my hold on all the telekinesis, and the telekinetic enhancement enchantment itself, I¡¯m rocked by spell-concentration backlash, and I¡¯m sent flying from the carriage, ejected like a bloody, meat-cannonball. I crunch and squelch against the cliff face, streaking down it, leaving a gory smear. I can sense familiar presences closing in on me, concerned, fearful. I smile blindly their direction, barely hanging to life, let alone consciousness. N, no, no rest for, koff, the, the wicked. Apparently, either blood burst around my eyes, or I¡¯m blind again.


    I struggle to stand, falter, stumble, and fall on my face again. I vomit further gore, but struggle to one knee, and push off the ground with my dominant fist. I croak out, ¡°Hungry, thirsty.¡±


    Teuila virtually screams through tears, ¡°A,Air! Airhead! What the hell!? Jeeze I bet you are. You, you, you Airhead! What the rotten turdburglars have you been doing!?¡±


    Barely able to form words or flex my painfully locked jaw, I mumble, ¡°Learning. Magic.¡±


    Teuila cuffs me, ever so gently. She definitely desires, wants badly, to swat me harder, but can tell I¡¯m threadbare on vitality at the moment. Ah crap. Sonnova. Yeah I¡¯m weakening Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce about my inner self. Huff. Screw it. What do you think Bud? Tap into it, and get back to work? Or force it to stop helping me, and black out, possibly going into a coma? Yes, those are the only two options I¡¯m willing to put forth right now. Yes, tapping into it kills me sooner. I don¡¯t need to live as long, Dawn¡¯s time is running shorter. Thanks for the permission I guess Bud. Look, I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m being so rotten, and, and snippy, and a crappy friend. I really, really am sorry. Thanks for putting up with me, and being understanding. Alright, here we go, let¡¯s tap into it. Uh. How exactly do I do that anyway?


    Pft, haha, no, no I didn¡¯t know how before I put forth the choice. Sorry. Yeah, Teuila¡¯s right, I¡¯m a complete airhead. I grunt, ¡°Entry?¡±


    Dawn and Teuila look upset with me, but Dawn answers, ¡°Been walking around this weird compound thing built up against the mountain, no windows, no doors, Lullaby told Essie to tell Teuila this was the place, so we¡¯re kinda stumped.¡±


    I stagger towards where I think I saw them near a constructed surface while I was a meat cannonball. They aid me in walking in its direction, both barely able to help prop me up due to how slick with gore I am. I weakly wave them away, and withdraw my staff after handing Dawn back her wand. Hm, Fireball? Lightning Bolt? Sleet Storm? Nah, we have a spell exactly for this. I adopt a wicked grin. Bypassed-wall.


    I mumble, ¡°Sanctuary,¡± as I set my bloody hand upon the wall, to attempt to sense where the spell will work, with its strict limitations, the wall suddenly dissolves and I tumble forward, caught by a thin, feminine form.


    Whomever she is, jokes, ¡°You needn¡¯t have offered quite so much vitality for sanctuary, friend Shellcrackers, and the becursed-Dawn. Come, come. You two, please see these two to their rooms. You¡¯ll excuse me, but I must away with your Reggie for a while. They¡¯ve done quite a number on themselves once again, haven¡¯t they?¡±


    She chuckles sweetly, as Dawn and Teuila seem to object to the three of us being led different directions. I try to maintain awareness in case this turns out to be more dangerous than I thought it would be. If things go south, I think I can manage to battle my way around with the telekinesis spell.


    The Sister comforts me, ¡°None of you are in any danger any longer. You¡¯ve requested, and been granted sanctuary. You attempted to assist us in thwarting a prophecy that nearly cost us a sister. You''ve done so with repeated great cost to yourself. We are indebted. You may yet succeed. We are hoping to assist in such. Tell us, what new powers have you just sacrificed your sight, heh, yet again, for?¡±


    I frown, I haven¡¯t really had a second to sort through the new knowledge. Let¡¯s see, the Abyssal leaves, their knowledge was, huh. Almost useful. It¡¯s sort of a far-seeing spell. It casts my non-magical senses about at any location on the same plane that I have enough knowledge of. That, that would have been great to look in on Lil while they were in the Heart. I, I could use it to check in on the Derbrightmine Dominion. I¡¯d need some time to set up the requirements, and attune a scrying object to that location. I¡¯ll think about doing that later, if we survive this, if, well, yeah. Plus, well, I need to have non magical sight to take advantage of it, a sense I''m currently lacking, heh.


    Hm, the Arcane tablets let me conjure semi-ethereal mounts for up to three people? Enough to pull our Carriage certainly. That¡¯s, well, definitely useful. We won¡¯t need to stay in any location while our buddy Apheliotes has to try to recharge from statue form. Both Apheliotes and the ghostly steeds are non sentient mana constructs, but still. I prefer to treat things with kindness. Yes, I¡¯m sorry Bud. I prefer to treat you with kindness too. I¡¯m sorry I treated you like crap these last few days. I¡¯m really, terribly sorry. Thank you Bud. I¡¯m truly grateful you were there for me through that.


    The, the Luminous Illuminations. No wonder Milbert couldn¡¯t use these, or most other books, and their enchantments were still charged. It grants me more mastery over runostructure, which comes with additional knowledge. Even though I¡¯m brute forcing it, Milbert would have had to brute force it, and believe that he could, to study any of these tomes. The enhanced mastery over runostructure will let me quicken crafting the runes, almost as if I were incanting. I want to burst into tears. We spent all that time. There¡¯s a cost though. It basically doubles or triples the sort of internal-vitality mana cost per rune, so instead of five hundred¡¯ish, I¡¯d only be able to craft around two hundred to two hundred fifty quick runes in a day. Still, seven¡¯ish quick, powerful spells in a day. That¡¯s basically what I get from the staff if I pour out nonstop fireballs or lightning bolts. I saw some strong thirty three rune spells in some of those other books. I¡¯ll be able to learn them more quickly now too.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    The Baatorian Articles grant, they grant. Oh my god. They t-. Glp. They teach me basically how to be an enchanter! I can make enchantments permanent! I, I can have the aura vision up at all times! I, I could have telekinesis, forever! I could, wait. One of those spellbooks. Quickly. I shuffle through my hyperdimensional haversack. This one? No. This one? No. This one that I skimmed, I saw tele as part of a rune. Oh my heavens. It is. It¡¯s telepathy. It¡¯s. I. I can give Teuila back our bond. I burst into tears of joy.


    I shake my head at the Sister, sadly, even whilst crying tears of joy, ¡°I, glp, hah, nothing that truly aids our quest, not immediately. I could cast my sight to a far location, which, hah, at the moment would do nothing. I can conjure ghostly horses, enough for three riders, or a carriage. I can finally craft runes quickly enough to make actual use of them. Lastly, for any enchantments that I gain mastery over, I can make them permanent.¡±


    My danger wraps sense that she smiles while wiping my brow. They also tell me something odd. Either there is powerful magic masking it, or she has basically no features on her face beneath the veil, save an approximation of lips covering multiple rows of tiny, sharp teeth. The, the Sisters aren¡¯t human. They¡¯re not Fae. They¡¯re aberrant entities, possibly demons or devils, but I don¡¯t think so. I suddenly realize that we¡¯re not really on Rayileklia any longer while within their sanctuary. We¡¯re only partially there, as if out of phase somehow. Perhaps out of phase with time, or space, or both. It¡¯s not exactly another plane, or another reality, but it¡¯s definitely not accessible to random average people. No wonder they¡¯re so hard to find. I bet if someone destroyed that wall, they¡¯d just find stone behind it.


    My heart hammers rapidly in apprehension. The Sister can certainly sense this as she coos, ¡°Shh, we¡¯re not here to harm. We seek a positive fate for all of Rayileklia, and we¡¯ve ever attempted to guide its heroes and do-gooders, or even simply its downtrodden. We¡¯ll administer aid to you, and perhaps find if you¡¯ve a natural magical power as an affinity that could aid us in ending this curse, and its prophecy. For now, please, young, ancient Shellcracker, rest.¡±


    I. I really, truly am very tired. I can¡¯t refuse it as she holds a bowl of fluid to my dehydrated lips. I gulp it down, attempting to be careful not to do so greedily. I technically can¡¯t choke with this neckchain, but it would still be unpleasant to loose up sick upon her from the shock of sudden hydration. There¡¯s a not-unpleasant taste to the liquid, that I¡¯m almost certain is a sleeping agent. Bud, are you doing okay in this realm? Bud? Your voice is so quiet. I guess, I guess I¡¯ll see you when I wake up. Please be okay.


    My sleep is, thankfully, dreamless. I was nearly certain I¡¯d have nightmares of the Sister leaning in and unhinging her jaw to eat my head or something. Brr, I shudder at the thought. So the one that contacted us did almost die? Did I hear that right earlier? Bud? Could you tell? Gosh you¡¯re so quiet. Oh? Okay. Sure Bud. You can nap as long as you like. I¡¯m so sorry that I treated you so bad for so long Buddy. Take it easy. We¡¯re safe for now, and we might have a chance still. They seem to earnestly want to prevent this curse. I mean, they sent us to the cult, likely knowing we¡¯d have to fight through it, and learn about the curse. Perhaps they didn¡¯t know the details of the spell, so didn¡¯t know that our destroying the cult wouldn¡¯t end it.


    I stand, and nearly jump out of my skin as I stand up, bumping face-first into a Sister¡¯s abdomen. I shudder, they¡¯re like Dawn, they can appear in my danger wrap sensory range without warning. Brr. I gulp, and carefully step back, holding my hands up placatingly as I attempt to apologize, ¡°Sorry, I, well, couldn¡¯t see you there.¡±


    She titters, apparently finding my accidental coincidental turn of phrase humorous, since I¡¯m currently blinded. It¡¯s unnerving how, well, sweet and kind they are, despite what is apparently a monstrous nature hidden beneath their veils. I suppose that¡¯s the point of them, to hide their nature, to put people at ease.


    I¡¯d be a little more at ease with names, since they know so much about us, so I state as such. I request, ¡°I¡¯m slightly apprehensive about someone knowing so much about me, without so much as knowing a single one of their names. I¡¯d introduce myself, but, well, you know who I am. Would you mind sharing your name?¡±


    She chuckles and apologizes, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, we exist in a state that, well, names aren¡¯t very necessary here. We only go by Sister. Each of us is. Well, perhaps when -we- are more comfortable with you, we shall divulge more.¡±


    Brr, I shudder at the secrecy, and its implications. I gnaw on my lip as I postulate. They could very well be either a single entity, or extensions of one or more entities. This might not even be their actual realm, or actual forms. If they are true beings from outside the usual planes of reality as I suspect, then all of this could theoretically be pretense, a bit of a farse, for the comfort of, well, mortals I guess. Is it just me, or did she look nervous just then? Oh, she¡¯s offering me her hand, and I haven¡¯t taken it. Perhaps she¡¯s worried, or insulted. My bad as it were. I quickly grasp her hand, politely near her fingertips. Hoof. Oh, wait. I¡¯m, I¡¯m not well yet. I begin stumbling, and she kneels before me, catching me in her arms.


    She announces as much as I¡¯d just concluded, ¡°You aren¡¯t yet well enough, though your young ladies dearly desire your company, and word of your wellness. Is there something you¡¯d like to have them told to comfort them?¡±


    I gnaw on my lip as I adopt a quizzical expression. Shrugging, I offer, ¡°Uh, if it¡¯ll help put them at ease, just that I¡¯m recovering, and that we¡¯re all cool, cooler than cool, ice cold. They should both get the joke. To be fair though, they¡¯ll probably be suspicious of anything you guys say, since you could theoretically have been listening in on us at any point.¡±


    She responds, ¡°Fair point young ancient. Truly a fair point. We¡¯re regretful that we must keep you separate for the nonce.¡±


    I scratch the back of my head and furrow my brow while gnawing my bottom lip. She answers the question I¡¯m about to form, ¡°You¡¯re currently a danger to every being near you. Your weapon and you are recovering from some form of heightened state that, well, could quite literally be quite explosive as it settles. You¡¯re lucky your weapon survived being dragged along on that ride.¡±


    My jaw hangs slack and I blink my unseeing eyes forcefully, stunned. I didn¡¯t know I was risking Bud, Lullaby like that. Bud, I am so, so sorry. Fudge, I¡¯m such a dick sometimes. I¡¯m so friggin¡¯ egotistical, maybe narcissistic, definitely self-absorbed. Ugh, I should have stopped for at least one second to consider everyone else around me. I mean, maybe I¡¯m not totally self-absorbed. I was doing this for Dawn and the Aasimovians, and by extension Teuila, Jarrah, Alanea, Flint, just, everyone. Still, super egotistical to think that I¡¯m some kind of guru or sage that can manage such bending of the rules of magic without a cost that might affect only me instead of possibly those around me.


    I nod as I apologize, and allow the Sister to help me back into a semi-seated position on an inclined bed of some sort. She wipes my brow, and tends to me, well, tenderly. Again, it¡¯s a juxtaposition that I hope Teuila and Dawn don¡¯t have to suffer. Ah crap. They both can have, and usually do have, density senses or silent sonar as well. I facepalm, accidentally catching the sisters hand. She clucks her tongue and chuckles, removing her hand to bring forth another bowl of liquid from somewhere. I accept the nourishing fluid that¡¯s doubtlessly laced with a sleeping aid, yet again. Hopefully I¡¯m not out for too long.


    She instructs me as I¡¯m falling asleep, ¡°Each dose only sets you to sleeping for a scant few minutes, an hour or two at most, please feel at ease, take advantage of it. You deserve a much longer rest, but as we all know, you¡¯re pressed for time.¡±


    I feel as if I merely blink, and I awaken again, alone in the room, again. At least I think so. I cautiously stand, with my hands forward both placatingly, and so that I don¡¯t end up jamming my head in someone¡¯s crotch or bust as I struggle to stand. I¡¯m feeling quite a bit better, but I¡¯m starving. I¡¯ve got to thank Bud for all this extra sap and stuff that I was able to pack away. I reach into my hyperdimensional haversack and remove a leaf-packet of sap with some sort of granulated tree-flour. Despite the leaf being intended as a wrapping, I just eat the whole thing. Again, I¡¯m starving. I also don¡¯t know where to put waste. The leaf was a bit bitter, but my heavens is that sap and flour delightfully delicious. Bud, you are the best. The absolute best. I hope you¡¯re resting up okay Lullaby. I hope you forgive me when you¡¯re able to chat again.


    I begin to exit the room I¡¯ve been led to, in order to explore our location, when I¡¯m once again met with a feminine form that my face bumps into. Crap on a cracker they just show up wh¡ª. Ah, yeah. My earlier hypothesis. They could very well be projected avatars or something. Though, why exactly would you spawn it right where I¡¯m going to bump into? I mean, unless they just enjoy either the embarrassment, or the sensation. Or maybe they¡¯re just sneaky little ladies like Dawn.


    I begin my apology, but the Sister clucks her tongue and offers me a delightful titter. She then offers me her hand once more, and this time I¡¯m able to take it, as well as to follow her without stumbling. Hopefully she¡¯s leading me to rejoin Teuila and Dawn. This complex is, well, hah, complex. It definitely makes use of three dimensional space. I¡¯m starting to build a map of it in my mind, but it¡¯s difficult with its wide array of ramps and turns and small rooms or vestibule rooms. Wait. That room. I can sense it. It¡¯s powerful. It¡¯s at the very edge of my danger wrap senses, through several walls, but around enough corners that my silent sonar bounces to it. I¡¯m almost certain that room contains an active ritual circle.


    I could swear the Sister is flinching or shaking or shivering nervously, just for the slightest second. I, I think I know what that room is. It¡¯s their anchor to Rayileklia. She just shuddered, I¡¯m almost positive. I squint her way, but she continues leading me on, wrapping her free arm about herself, rubbing for the warmth of friction. Oh. I forget that other people get cold.


    She comments, ¡°It does get so chilly in our friendly little space. We don¡¯t precisely have a means or procuring fuel without, say, sending someone out to deforest our nearby beloved Heart of the Wilds. Obviously we¡¯d do no such thing.¡±


    Ah, that makes sense. Still. One does wonder sometimes. Ah well. I offer the sister, ¡°I¡¯m pretty warm, and I¡¯m carrying around a, well, a heat source that I won¡¯t disclose, nor will I hand it over, but if you¡¯d like a hug for warmth, I could oblige, and even let some of the heat out of where I¡¯ve got my object.¡±


    She shakes her head while chuckling, ¡°Worry not, we¡¯d never dream of taking such a precious gift from you as the life force of a phoenix. I will take you up on that hug young ancient Shellcracker, cherubic Reggie.¡±


    She shrinks to my height, causing me to blink swiftly in surprise. We hug, but I realize another oddity. My silent sonar has difficulty detecting them, because they¡¯re only solid in either short bursts, or a few locations at once. She quickly detaches from the hug and dusts herself off. I gnaw my lip as I ponder the meaning of such a finding. They seem to be, ephemeral, almost ethereal. It¡¯s as if they¡¯re simply souls doing their best to manifest a physical form. Hm, a soul Sister. She resumes her usual height, and I wonder if all the Sisters will be, or are identical.


    It doesn¡¯t take long til I¡¯m blindsided by someone speeding into me who, in a loving voice, shouts, ¡°Air!¡±

 B 4 C 98: Enchanting Enchantments

    Teuila basically shouts into my face as she latches on to me, ¡°Dink! My, my, grr, my Airhead! I didn¡¯t realize how bad you were hurt! Do you need a red potion? Do you need the big one? Are you okay? They said you were okay, but they used our joke, and, and I didn¡¯t know! Love, seriously, Air, are you okay!?¡±


    I blink rapidly, then jokingly reach a finger up to clean out my right ear before saying, ¡°Well, I¡¯m blind, and I may now be deaf, but other than that, yeah, doing pretty good Teuila, heh. But no, seriously though. Thank you. I¡¯m sorry I was a complete jackanapes for the last few days. I didn¡¯t really have full touch with reality while doing that. I¡¯ve got good news, and ba¡ª¡°


    Teuila throttles me, ¡°Bad news!? What happened? Who¡¯s dying? Who died!? Where?¡±


    I snort, trying not to laugh. Teuila¡¯s overexcitable at the moment. I cautiously choose my words as best I can, ¡°The bad news is simply that the four books didn¡¯t contain a cure for Dawn, nor even really a new lead, not truly. Bup. Hold your horses Teuila. Speaking of. The good news is, now I can conjure ghostly horses, send my vision to locations that I know very well, craft runes and learn them more quickly, though in a more costly fashion to my daily allowance. Eh, bup bup hold on. I¡¯m saving the best for last. If we have enough rubies to grind into dust, or sapphires, or emeralds, certain different gemstone types depending on the type of spell, I can now craft an additional enchantment called permanency. It makes them permanent, and I¡ª¡°


    Teuila leaps up and down, bouncing on me as she cheers, ¡°That¡¯s amazing! Airhead that¡¯s, that¡¯s so much new stuff, and, and it¡¯s so impressive! I¡¯m so proud of you love. Air. I¡¯m really, really glad you¡¯re alright. I¡ª¡°


    Before Teuila can get swept up in emotions, I interrupt her, ¡°I found an enchantment for Telepathy Teuila, without the need to entangle deadly tethers between hearts. With permanency, I c¡ª¡°


    Teuila¡¯s voice cracks as she pleads, ¡°Now! N-, now, p, please, please. Please, you me and Dawn, right away!¡±


    I sigh as I caress Teuila¡¯s cheek, kissing her forehead lovingly. I try to explain, ¡°I found the enchantment in a book, I haven¡¯t practiced or mastered the runes yet. I only just found it Te, My beloved Wings, minutes ago. I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯ll take quite a few days, I think, even with the new mastery over runostructure, runotyping and runeocrafting. Forgive me?¡±


    Teuila fights sobs as she basically bawls, ¡°W, koff, what¡¯s th, glp, there to even forgive? My, My Air! We, we. I miss you, I miss you in my head so much! Th, there¡¯s, it¡¯s hope. And it¡¯s you, so I know you¡¯ll pull it off! Glp.¡±


    I caution Teuila, ¡°I love you Teuila, but remember, we don¡¯t know how Rayileklian magic works, we will be telepathically bonded, but it doesn¡¯t necessarily mean we¡¯ll have our mindscapes, or telepathic avatars or anything. It might just be like the old days, like when it was sending text into each other¡¯s brains. If that¡¯s the case, maybe we¡¯ll be able to master it in order to expand upon it, or maybe we won¡¯t, because maybe such a thing doesn¡¯t exist in Rayileklian magic. I adore you from the lowest hells to the highest heavens, My beloved Wings. I don¡¯t want your heart to be broken or let down if it doesn¡¯t live up to your expectations.¡±


    Teuila pouts, but nods as she confirms her understanding, ¡°I, I get that. It doesn¡¯t matter. It¡¯s okay. Anything. Anything. I, I¡¯ve just been hanging out with Essie and Firebutt in my head for the last few days with you completely spaced out, absorbed in your books. I want you in here. With me. I want my Air in my head. No matter how. Please, please. Soon?¡±


    I nod, wearing a fretful smile as I gaze lovingly into her sad, longing eyes. I blink away tears that begin to form and rub an itch from beneath my nose. I cough as I recall, ¡°Speaking of. I heard Bud told Essie the way. Bud¡¯s really weak now. I really messed up Te. I hurt him bad by bringing him along with me into that headspace. I. I used and abused him, unintentionally. He, he kept me from, well, from giving up myself, from burning away my emotions and soul to master more magic, faster.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s face is ashen as she stares at me unblinking, she flubs, ¡°You, you hwhat? Bud, Bud saved you from, from that? I, I owe Bud a, a, a, what do halberd glaivey thingies even want anyway?¡±


    Sadness adorns a face as I admit, ¡°Friends. Ones that don¡¯t treat him as crappily as I did during those few days while my emotions were burning away. I¡¯m so sorry Te. I didn¡¯t know that forcing myself into that state would do that. I swear. I feel horrible for hurting him, both emotionally as a friend, and as the damage he¡¯s recovering from from being dragged along on the ride.¡±


    Teuila sifts her fingers through my hair and nuzzles my forehead, kissing it repeatedly. I glance over my shoulder with my senses, but my danger wraps don¡¯t pick up the Sister that led me here any longer. I breathe deep and let loose a slow sigh, falling into Teuila¡¯s embrace, melting into her. My Wings, my everything. I was going to throw myself away, again. I can¡¯t believe I was going to do that to you. I gulp sadly, trying to push away the thoughts, before I accidentally draw a shuddering breath, almost a gasp. Teuila thumbs my cheek, wiping away tear streaks that I didn¡¯t even know were there. Our lips meet, and I remember how much I love living. How much I want to keep living. How much I want to share my happiness with the wonderful, beloved people in my life.


    We stand, embracing for long enough that I don¡¯t even know how much time has passed, our lips not parting at all as we hungrily partake of our love for each other. Not in a greedily, romantically passionate way. No. Instead, in a state of constancy, almost unmoving. A reminder of how eternally we¡¯d bonded, how long we desire our bond to continue lasting into the future. I want to be hers, forever and ever. I want to live. I¡¯m not ready to give up. I still think that Dawn¡¯s life is currently more important, but after that deadline, whatever the outcome, I¡¯ll fight for my life, instead of riding out the moments until my demise in despair.


    I whisper, around our locked lips, ¡°I love you more than anything else that could possibly exist. Your happiness is everything to me.¡±


    Teuila teases, ¡°I bet you tell that to all the sexy girls who like your face. Big A. Really, really liked your face by the way.¡±


    I blush heatedly as my heart hammers. Dangit Teuila, I was trying to be sentimental, heh. Hm? What¡¯s up? Oh. Hey Bud! Are you okay? Are you feeling better already? I¡¯m so, so, so, so so so sorry. I don¡¯t know how to make it up t¡ª. Really? Just like that? I could cry Bud. Hell, I am crying.


    Teuila continues to tease, ¡°Thinking about her touches you that much huh? Brings a tear to your eye? She was a little hottie wasn¡¯t she? Plus she was so cool. Dedicated, trying to keep all those Enookie Buddies safe, especially her students. I totally get it. I¡¯m pretty sure, really, really sure she wanted to start a family with you, like full on having kids.¡±


    I choke and sputter, falling loose from our lip-locked position, and Bud joins in on the teasing, unintentionally. No bud, it¡¯s, it¡¯s not the same when Teuila¡¯s doing this, it¡¯s not exactly mating adjacent. I. I mean, yes, she¡¯s technically referring to mating, but she¡¯s not like, talking about the act, just the result of it. I. Does that make sense Bud? Holy crap I can barely breathe, between you two my heart is friggin¡¯ hammering.


    Teuila grins madly as she continues to poke her little fun button, ¡°So, she said I didn¡¯t have to tell you, or anyone, but also that she didn¡¯t mind, but, well, I wasn¡¯t joking when I said we had a fun day. Like, really fun. If ya know what I mean. But actually for reals, for seriously serious, her lips are sweet as honeydew Air, and she¡¯s got all kindsa fun squish in that tight little package. Apparently changelings kinda fall for people like that, for like, short bursts of affection or something.¡±


    Teuila seems proud of herself, but then takes on a quizzical appearance as she continues, ¡°She was so embarrassed. It¡¯s something to do with true selves and contact adding to their internal story or something. It¡¯s especially like, like they change partners frequently, quickly, and maybe rotate back if they love them enough. Flint knew they weren¡¯t like, together together, but he was a smidge jealous, but he knows changelings, and they¡¯ve apparently been friends for a really long time. Plus their undercover stuff was like, dangerous, so they got closer than ever recently. Hah, then you show up and sweep her off her brain. Not even her feet, like she went all stupid around you, not even joking, and not making fun of her, she basically called it that herself. Like, like she really, really wanted to be in, or start, a family with you spontaneously, just, bang! Ya know? Hehe.¡±


    Teuila cocks her head to the side as she gazes up-leftwards before recalling, ¡°Yeah, like, she has this little enchanted thing that lets her see like, influence or something. It helps with their investigation, into, you know, what they call their manxome foe¡¯s presence and influence. Only, when she looked at you, because she was a changeling looking at a changeling, she saw your inner changeling self thingy. Kinda a little bit jealous about that, oh well. Her brain went all screwy when she saw it. She¡¯s always been a little mousy, but apparently the inner you flipped a switch in a big way. Heeee.¡±


    As Teuila sounds her wonderful, amazing Shellcracker Squee, that beautiful single laugh of glee, I gulp while my face steams to my eartips. My jaw wags as I try to form words, but I¡¯m stunned. Huh? Yeah Bud, now Teuila¡¯s going a bit overboard in a way I would tell you to stop. I, I can barely think though, let alone talk. I. I. It¡¯s. It¡¯s kind of like. Like how I worried about things with Teuila. Was seeing each other¡¯s souls or auras or eyes or whatever a vain, superficial way to start a relationship? The only one I could look to for guidance was Lil, and they had no answer. But now, Alanea felt smitten for me by viewing something about me? That sounds superficial, but then again, well, the thing she saw? That was the literal true me. People normally say a superficial relationship is founded on not knowing anything about each other. So, her infatuation or enamoredness or whatever came from knowing me, at least a little, on that one¡ª.


    Alanea was able to, ohhh she didn¡¯t just have that brief glimpse when we touched each other¡¯s chests. She was probably reading my whole life¡¯s story every time I showed up, bouncing around in my timeline, looking especially for happiness, and love, and how I got there, or something. Whatever big feelings were easy enough to spot, to jump to those sections of the logs written on my inner selfsame soul. That¡¯s a mouthful.


    I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m breathing, or if my heart is beating. I left without saying goodbye to someone who felt so strongly about me. Someone who felt so strongly in a way that, well, I think I reciprocated. Whether or not Alanea was worried that it was a result of the inner me drawing in her feelings empathetically or empathically. Frick. Hellspit. Crap. Huff. I, I don¡¯t want to feel like that about someone on this world. I don¡¯t want to be in love with someone that I¡¯m going to abandon forever when we finally find a way to go back home. What Bud? Oh. Oh yeah. She, she did say that didn¡¯t she. I. Gosh. And there I go not being able to breathe again and blushing harder. Glp. I¡¯m getting dizzy from the blood rushing to my head.


    I¡¯m sure she has people she loves here though, and I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s any way to bring a Rayileklian native back with us, if we can even find a way back for ourselves. What if it¡¯s a permanent, final, one way ticket? What if there¡¯s only a limited number of those tickets? Okay, sure Bud, now I¡¯m just making random wild guesses, but, but jeeze. Hiccup. I. I don¡¯t know how to process. One minute, I¡¯m throwing my life away, begging for a chance to save someone. The next I¡¯m cherishing life and wishing for an eternity with the woman I first fell in love with. Then the next I¡¯m being thrown into a swirl of emotions based on someone else¡¯s feelings that, well, I¡¯m really enamored with, whatever the cause or source.


    Teuila pokes me in the chest playfully, asking, ¡°You okay in there Airhead? I can see you stuck in your head. Imagining you and her in bed? Eh? Eh? She¡¯s a great snuggler. Feels great all o¡ª, well, to be all pressed up agai¡ª.¡±


    My eyes roll around in their sockets and I nearly faint as I¡¯m low on blood, which appears to now be all pooled in my head. Apparently Teuila notices how pale I am everywhere other than my face, so takes pity on me. I topple forward into her embrace, and she strokes my forehead and sifts her fingers through my hair.


    Teuila playfully apologizes, ¡°Sorry I guess Air. Kinda forgot you bled so much. Probably shouldn¡¯t summon it all to your face with thoughts of sweet, short, stacked hotties that were absolutely head over heels, heels to the wheels, b-s to the walls in love with you, huh? Oops, oops, sorry. No, for real this time. I¡¯ll stop. Sorry. My Airhead. I, I just. It¡¯s how I deal with things. You know me. I¡¯ve always done insults and teases. It¡¯s, it¡¯s just my thing. I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s just that I¡¯m going to miss her. However any of this turns out. I really liked her.¡±


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I nod as I kiss Teuila softly. I agree, ¡°Yeah. Yeah. Me too Te. Me too My Wings. I hope that the Enochian Enclave succeeds and everyone there survives and pulls through this crazy overarching battle for the fate of Rayileklia. Love? Where¡¯s Dawn?¡±


    Teuila half frowns as she answers, ¡°They said something about since we¡¯re not Rayileklia natives, we had to be in a different wing until you were better, so they separated us pretty much right away. I¡¯m not sure. It¡¯s kind of eerie here. I¡¯m surprised there¡¯s none of those Sister thingies nearby. Did your danger wraps pick up on th¡ª. Yeah, I can see it in your eyes. Yeah, I¡¯ve got my danger spear in a pocket in my dress, shrunk down. Little bit creepy, but they¡¯re really nice and all. I wonder what it¡¯d be like to smooch one of ¡®em.¡±


    My face contorts as my left eyebrow shoots high in incredulous surprise while I wear half of a laugh on my face. I stammer, ¡°Wh-what? Te? What¡¯s gotten into you?¡±


    Teuila fidgets and blushes before admitting, ¡°I, just. You keep doing things. We both said no more solo stuff, I want it to be true, I want us to be at each other¡¯s sides all the time from now on. But, but we keep not being there, and I. I miss Lin. Like, between every wave we were all over each other, and in bed if you fell asleep first. I know she thought she was stealing me from you or whatever silly thing, so she put a lot of effort into it, but, glp, well. I really liked being like that. I just so badly want you and me to be like that, all the time, somewhere safe, to just, just enjoy that. Not all this stupid questing and world ending and dying and, and being sure we¡¯re going to lose friends and, and all this horrible crap all the time. But if we¡¯re going to have to go through it, why not get some kissy time in wherever we can? But, but you first. I want my Air at my side or on my face. Y¡¯know?¡±


    I sputter and blush as Teuila wears a derpy grin. I can¡¯t help smiling lovingly, laughingly, tearfully into Teuila¡¯s eyes. I lightly shake my head incredulously while responding, ¡°Te. I¡¯m surprised you were able to be that honest about your feelings just now. I¡¯m proud of you, My Wings. Me too though. Y¡¯know? Like, like sometimes I think to myself that, that if Dawn were anyone else who weren¡¯t squicked out by that kind of affection, that I¡¯d be offering it to her all the times when we¡¯re stuck alone without you, or all three of us snuggling could be all, well. Yeah. I sort of totally get it. Sorry, I hope I didn¡¯t sound judgmental or anything. The Sisters? They seem friendly enough, maybe they¡¯d be amenable to it if you want to ask. It doesn¡¯t seem like they get a lot of company. If nothing else, it might be a novel experience or something. Just, y¡¯know, watch out for the teeth, heh.¡±


    A sister says from right next to me, ¡°Yes, please do, we don¡¯t bite, but we¡¯d be frightfully upset if we accidentally injured you.¡± I nearly jump out of my skin as my heart hammers through my chest, nearly escaping my ribcage. My only-recently-healed ribcage.


    Even Teuila¡¯s eyes shoot wide as she blushes. The Sister continues, ¡°You are right, young, ancient Reggie. It would be novel. But that is not why we are here. We¡¯re certain you¡¯ve plenty to keep each of you busy, between your own unread tomes, and our resources. Teuila, aren¡¯t you forgetting something you wanted to share?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s eyes light up as they shoot wide once again. She virtually squeals, ¡°Eeeh! You¡¯re right! Holy spootnik. Rej, Love, Air. That book that Bud wanted you to give me, The Apex of Divinity, it¡¯s got some really, really, really cool stuff in it. Like, like, like almost healing stuff with faith in like, a big dragon or something, or like a six legged horse, or some dude that rides it, or maybe a dude is the horse, or, ah there¡¯s so much cool stuff. What¡¯s weird is, it like, resonates with me. Like, like it really feels like a vibe. Y¡¯know? Like a literal actual vibration, but also, y¡¯know, a vibe. Especially the, the true dragon lord? Something something. Eldest silver, first dragon, supposedly such pure silver atop platinum. I think his scales would be kinda like Tenny¡¯s, shimmery and multi colored, despite being silvery whitish. Wait, what was that thingy you put in your helmet that one time again?¡±


    My own eyes flash wide as I reach to dig it out. It¡¯s like a short slat, as if it were a sliver from a dragon¡¯s scale filed down into a slightly flexible rectangle. It¡¯s almost assuredly platinum. I hand it to Teuila immediately. My draconic form is on the back burner for a while anyway. We¡¯re not sure if the glob gunk is removed from it or not. Bluh, my two best combat forms are out of commission on Rayileklia. I suppose with a few days, and a whole lot of bleeding, and mana residue sickness, I could create an entirely new form. Maybe a big ol¡¯ hunter kitty cat like Lightning? Heh. Linti might either get a kick out of it, or be totally insulted.


    Teuila gazes over the platinum scale shred as she flips it over and over and over in her hands. It almost looks like she¡¯s falling into it as she stares at it. She does something that I think surprises all three of us. She eats the scale sliver. I¡¯m left blinking, stunned. If the Sister had eyes, I wonder if she¡¯d be much the same, or if she saw this coming. Teuila blinks for a short while as well, almost seeming confused as to why she¡¯d done what she just did. Te then belches a tiny mote of flame, and giggles.


    My jaw hangs slack. I¡¯m about to ask, but Teuila nods excitedly as she claims, ¡°Yep, pretty sure, I think I just got baby dragon breath. Maybe bigger? Like, like hold still. Sister, you¡¯re an ally, right? We consider each other allies, yes? Absolutely one hundred percent truly?¡±


    The Sister nods, so Teuila grins as she changes position, and basically drags the sister down to sit in my lap as she sets me against a wall. I raise an eyebrow curiously, and shrug apologetically at the sister. Teuila takes a deep breath, and lets loose a slow rolling flame in a cone in our direction. The flame spreads around us, barely licking at us, and, the Sister, uh. Purrs. That¡¯s the only way I can describe the otherworldly, semi creepy noise she makes. I shudder slightly from the effect of the odd noise, but the flame itself is relaxing, soothing, like being caressed and stroked by strong, warm hands. Just like the scale said it would do to my breath weapon, if I ever got around to using it.


    Teuila claps excitedly, and lifts the both of us up to hug each of us, partially passing through the Sister. I could swear the Sister shudders nervously for the briefest moment. I¡¯m starting to build up a sense of something with my genre senses, but I¡¯m not entirely sure what it is yet. There¡¯ve been clues, but I think I convinced myself that some of them weren¡¯t clues. I think the Sisters might actually be scared of us, despite us being in their domain, completely at their mercy. Unless, we aren¡¯t? I mean, we¡¯re definitely in their domain. I poke the Sister gently in the arm, my finger passes through several layers of cloth, and several inches of where her arm should be before coming into contact with what might be her torso beneath her many layered, flowy, floaty dress robes.


    I apologize, ¡°Sorry Sister, really sorry. I, uh, that was inappropriate of me, I let my curiosity get the better of me. I¡¯m sure there are things that you¡¯d share with us if it was important, or that are private. I, well, yeah. Terribly sorry for my rudeness.¡±


    She pats my head and sighs as she responds, ¡°You will soon learn unsettling things aplenty. Some perhaps may be about us. If perhaps this is the case, we hope that you choose kindness. We. Well, we truly do choose kindness on our end, and hope that you reciprocate. Enough of that though. Let us retrieve your friend Dawn anon. This way. Also, the answer Teuila as I was saying, is yes, we are interested in novel experiences, but later.¡±


    Teuila blushes and chuckles, remembering what originally seemed to conjure the Sister to our side. I blush, but for a much different reason. I worry that I¡¯ve hurt the sister¡¯s feelings. She said that they choose kindness, but somehow she¡¯s worried that we wouldn¡¯t? Why wouldn¡¯t we? They¡¯ve been nothing but amazing. Apparently helping and aiding Rayileklia for a long time, though that¡¯s only at their own word, and whispered rumors among some of the townsfolk we passed by, or a few people we¡¯ve met, or in Aces¡¯ memories.


    I suppose if I learned some secrets about their monstrous nature that were upsetting, that there was a past that they felt they were atoning for, then, well. Hm, did the Sister just shudder at the moment? Are their forms unstable? Regardless, point being, if they¡¯re attempting to atone, or whatever possible combination of things make them fear me choosing unkindness, then, well, yes, kindness. Who am I to interfere?


    Well, I suppose I¡¯m a bit of an egotistical maniac who makes it my job to interfere in a lot of things, hah. Yes Bud, I¡¯m being self-deprecating in a humorous manner that holds a fairly large grain of truth. Pft, hah. That¡¯s mean, but also true. No, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re doing okay. Does Te have your Sister? I guess maybe your siblings, because Icebutt is family now after absorbing my blood and soul or something. Okay, good. I haven¡¯t taken even a moment to look over their runes for them, if they have any. I felt bad for skipping that to dig straight into the soul book. Then my heart broke and I dove right into the other four books.


    Teuila looses a beautiful airy laugh before nudging me to say, ¡°Essie and Firebutt want me to tell you you¡¯re a butt, but you¡¯re forgiven. Paraphrasing, obviously. Emotion-wave-speak. Apparently Bud was gossiping about something you said or something. They also said they¡¯re in no hurry. They¡¯re happy to hang out with peeps that talk to them instead of just using them for combat and tossing them aside the rest of the time. Honestly I bet they¡¯d be happy if they didn¡¯t have any helpful enchantments any longer.¡±


    We¡¯re finally reunited with Dawn who is eyeing the Sisters nervously. I¡¯m sure her density sense is active, and, oh! I can make that permanent with just a little diamond dust!


    Excitedly I ask, ¡°Dawn! Can, can I try something? I think I can make it so that your special sense is always active, forever and ever, so even if you forget the wand somewhere, or it gets stolen or broken or whatever, you¡¯ll always have it! I learned the ability to permanently emplace enchantments from those four books.¡±


    Dawn blinks at me several times. She glances between me and several Sisters that appear, until we seem to be left with only one Sister nearby, before returning her gaze to me to raise an eyebrow incredulously. She slowly smiles as she says, ¡°Well shid, good to see you too Rej, hell yeah pal. Who wouldn¡¯t want that? Also, uh. You guys do know that your voices carry around like, this whole place, don¡¯t you? The uh. I¡¯m flattered.¡±


    My eyes flash wide and color drains from my cheeks, my entire face actually. Moments later the red rushes back across my face and up to my slightly pointed eartips. I gulp, and struggle to both blink and breathe. Thankfully Dawn flashes me a smile and slugs me in the shoulder before holding out her wand. I blink rapidly several times while staring at it, before remembering what I¡¯d just offered.


    Teuila was flush with embarrassment for a moment as well, but started snorting with laughter when she saw how pale I went and how quickly I went back to red. I blush and adopt a nervous chuckle with a half smile full of chagrin. I fish out a few diamonds, and some cookware to smash them to dust in. I keep finding myself pausing my breath in apprehension and excitement. I get to enchant something, some-one. Permanently. I, I get to do a favor for a friend. A meaningful, long-lasting favor. Hope, and joy. I, I don¡¯t even remember how to breathe half the time I¡¯m so excited.


    Gulping in apprehension, I stare at Dawn with a tiny glob of diamond-ink-paste in a pot. I forgot to tell her an important part of the process. I blush as I mumble, ¡°Um, could, uh, maybe. Privacy? It, um. Glp. I, uh.¡±


    Dawn makes a familiar joke that causes me to nearly faint, ¡°What, trying to cop a feel Shellcracker? I¡¯m kidding. I get it, magic probably has to get all slathered on or something, right? It¡¯s worth it. Come on pal, over in this room. It¡¯s not like you don¡¯t know about, well, stuff. With your senses.¡±


    I¡¯m going to shut my brain off for a few minutes, and lock it away in some sort of like, vault pal. Yea Bud, even I don¡¯t think I should know what I¡¯m about to do, even though my tale is obviously going to exist in Dawn¡¯s mind, and perhaps whatever patron granted me the permanency power from the book. Yeah, I¡¯ll turn my brain back on in a couple of minutes.


    I¡¯m about to ask how the enchantment feels, when Dawn speaks, ¡°Rej. Pal. You. You and Boss. This is great, sure. But it¡¯s you guys. You¡¯re the best gift a soul-cursed gal could ask for. Respecting everything I need or want or ask. Doing everything for just. You¡¯re the best pal. Really, really the best. I kinda hope I get to stay ageless when this curse is gone, so that I can hang with you two crazy lovebirds for, for as long as you¡¯ll let me hang around. I know you kinda had to have me tag along what with the curse and fate of the world and all, but, but we¡¯re real, right? Real friends, yeah? I, I¡¯m just kinda suddenly self-conscious about it.¡±


    I choke on my tongue momentarily, and cough in surprise before being able to answer, ¡°Koff, of, koff, of course Dawn. Absolutely. My nickname for you in my heart is My Friend, capitalized. I want that for us, forever. Real friendship. I love all of my friends and family. You¡¯re loved Dawn. You have a place beside us, and in my heart as long as you desire it.¡±


    Dawn slugs me playfully as she elates, and teases, ¡°Awe shucks, hell pal. You¡¯ve definitely given a gal a complex. But seriously Rej. I can¡¯t thank you two enough. I want us to win, you know? I¡¯m kinda curious to see your home world maybe, or at least your buddy that you always talk about, and Boss¡¯s sister that¡¯s got another half of your heart all wrapped around her little finger and big curves.¡±


    I choke, cough, and sputter, blushing wildly. Dawn grins and winks as she stands and hip checks me before walking out of the room. After recovering, I roll my eyes. Does everyone like teasing me about stuff like that?


    A sister that I didn¡¯t know was at my side seemingly almost answers the thought, ¡°It appears that you¡¯re very entertaining to bring to embarrassment. We are almost certain it is only done in endearment. Is there something we could embarrass you about? We¡¯re intrigued by the idea of the novel experience at causing the same phenomenon.¡±


    I blush and fidget, trying not to give anything away. She apparently alights on an answer, ¡°Your nearly-beloved Ms. Whifflewillow is speaking with your mentor about you at this very moment. Quite favorably, quite favorably indeed. We are almost certain she is not saying everything on her mind, no, she appears to be carefully picking her words intentionally to not admit what her current thoughts might be. Hm. How odd. It almost appears as if she has sensed us sensing her. Perhaps a curiously powerful young woman. Your interest in her is certainly understandable.¡±


    I fume with embarrassment. I gulp several times as I avoid the seeming-gaze of the Sister. Though she has no eyes, she tracks my face with curiosity. Yeah. Every woman I meet from now on is probably going to intentionally make me blush at least once. Heck, I don¡¯t even know if the Sisters are one woman, or women, or some cosmological otherworldly nongendered entity that presents as a woman to appear non-threatening. Ugh, the nonstop embarrassment has my jaw locked up, and now my eyelids are heavy.

 B 4 C 99: Nothing Yet Again

    As I¡¯m shuffled out of the room to rejoin Teuila and Dawn, I ponder our circumstances so far. This whole planet has just been ridiculous. Curses woven into the fabric of reality, skies that never un-darken, soul-stealing shmuckwads ruling kingdoms and empowering cultists and necromancers, being blown up and buried in rock elemental dust, a freaking elder dragon feeding people her blood to turn them into colossal monsters while eating other people, a random mythological lake-monster, an enormous mudcrab and her thousands of babies, have I missed anything? Just, jeeze. Oh, yeah, the whole deal with the Hidden Heart. A massive enchantment over a swath of the forest to misdirect hostile or unwanted people, rulers who¡¯ve set up a two-factioned court that¡¯s embroiled in conspiratorial nonsense, and may already have been infiltrated by the soul-stealing shmuckwad¡¯s forces, a royal guardswoman who was a homicidal freaking maniac, who may or may not have also been part of the same plot to earlier ambush me to steal a sentient artifact who I now call Bud. Then my magic accidentally almost killing two sentient artifacts, then my own blood and soul reviving them with basically mellowed personalities.


    This whole place feels like one rabid fever dream after another. Hm? Well, yeah I mean there¡¯s good stuff here too Bud, you, Dawn, Dippy and the kobolds, some of the Derbrightmine dwarves, Selunie¡¯s cousin, most of the Enochian Enclave. Glp. Yes you dingus, especially Alanea. I wasn¡¯t going to bring it up. Argh my freakin¡¯ heart hammers so much thinking about all that. That experience was just, just, it was mind blowing. No not holding her bum you doofus, the true self seeing thing, why in the¡ª Oh. Hah. I still find it hard to tell when you¡¯re teasing or sarcastic sometimes. Huff. I have to roll my eyes and laugh at this. I¡¯m glad to have you in my head Lullaby. It gets lonely and messy in there without some backup to keep me grounded, or, well, even just tease me.


    Wait, you¡¯ve been what? When did you learn how to do that? When I¡ª Huh. No, I don¡¯t mind or anything. There¡¯s a lot to read through though. Could you tell me if you find anything buried in there that you think I¡¯m forgetting that might help? Thanks Bud. Oh, right, pay attention to the world around me. Fel fires I¡¯m still so distractible. I¡¯m surprised that hasn¡¯t gotten me killed yet.


    We seem to be down to a single Sister guiding us around again. Teuila nudges me and playfully waggles her eyebrows. I wear a contorted half-smile, half-curious expression as I glance at her. I¡¯m not even sure what part of the last few minutes she¡¯s trying to tease me about right now, or if she¡¯s insinuating that she was kissing a Sister in the hallway while I was helping make Dawn¡¯s enchantment permanent. Pft, Bud, haha, sure, if you can talk Teuila into it, you can have her describe it all you like. Sometimes you¡¯re so friggin¡¯ weird. It¡¯s not a bad thing, but it¡¯s definitely unique. Also sort of hilarious on occasion.


    Hm, speaking of making enchantments permanent, I should set up my own as soon as possible. What all do I have access to at the moment? I wonder if I could make the dusting prestidigitative spell into an enchantment, and somehow stay permanently clean? I don¡¯t think it works like that sadly, hah. I might be able to turn it into like, a power-granting enchantment, like the telekinesis spell, and then burn that into me to have it be a built in thing that I can just do, instead of needing to use up runes on it. Hm? Yeah, I think so too. The Telekinesis spell should be my first priority.


    Oof, neat idea, sounds kind of risky though. What kind of risk? I¡¯m not sure. The permanentifying thingy didn¡¯t really carry instruction manuals on theoretical possible abstract uses of bending the rules with it. I might give it a shot though. Enchanting telekinesis onto me, making it permanent, casting the spell again from the staff, making that permanent, then seeing if I can safely levitate two things at once. If my brain explodes, I¡¯m blaming you. Pft, haha, no, no I don¡¯t really blame you Bud. Also, yes, in that scenario, I probably wouldn¡¯t be alive to blame you. Let me know if you sense my brain leaking out my ears or nose or something when I get around to it.


    Let¡¯s see, it took just a few bits of diamonds to make the ink for the aura sensing spell¡¯s enchantment permanentifying application, but the telekinesis is a different class of spell. Do I even have rose carnelians? Ugh, I¡¯ll have to ask Teuila later how much of what kind of gems she summoned out of her Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian inventory. I do not feel well enough to go reaching back into mine again. Maybe if we all make it through all this nonsense, and can¡¯t find a way back home, we¡¯ll make a home here somewhere, and I¡¯ll just dump all my inventory out into a big back yard and sort through what I have.


    What sorta stuff? Well, I¡¯ve got sheets of like, mythical metals from the mite hulks along Lord Agni¡¯s back. I mean, also from when they were swarming the Miracle Oak settlement. Hm? Yeah, I dunno, stuff that I think was like orichalcum and adamantite and mithril and. Okay, okay, slow down. It¡¯s cool to hear you so excited, but I¡¯m not quite sure what for. You, huh? Err, you know what Bud, I am going to do my absolute best to help you do that. I never even considered the possibility of literally changing a weapon into a tool with crafting and enchanting, but if that¡¯s what you want to be, then I¡¯ll strive to make it happen when we have time. Awe, thanks Bud, love you too pal. Hey, I¡¯m quite well aware of feeling off in one¡¯s own body, or wanting or needing to change it for whatever reason. No way in hell I¡¯m going to deny someone else their own feelings on basically the same matter.


    Hm? No I don¡¯t think you¡¯re weird for that at all. I¡¯ll playfully call you weird for a bunch of other things, but that¡¯s only lighthearted teasing. Of course I wouldn¡¯t value you any less in either form. Have I even once drawn you to attack someone with? Okay, sure, I haven¡¯t been in a lot of fights where I had the opportunity since we bonded, but well, my point is, if you don¡¯t want to ever draw blood, I¡¯ll try to help you with that. You want to travel, and create, and you¡¯re excited to be paired with an enchanter? Well, I mean, me too, sort of. But you heard Jarrah. I¡¯m no enchanter, nor hedge witch, nor wizard, nor shaman, and on and on and on.


    What? No I don¡¯t think he¡¯s wrong about any of that. He¡¯s right, I¡¯m literally brute-forcing my way into the magic system of Rayileklia. The new thing? Yeah. Oh. Sorry Bud. Yeah, I hate to disappoint you buddy, but, I mean, you were there when I gained it, it was in one of those four books, it¡¯s not really a ¡®me¡¯ power, and I don¡¯t really know any enchantments to make permanent on my own yet. Yeah I might need to look through more books before I have any idea on how to safely do that for you, or even just do something like it at all. At best, right now, I might be able to encode telekinesis into you if you were able to use the staff to cast it on yourself. It¡¯s not a spell I can cast on others. Hm, well, yes, we could experiment with the aura vision tweaked into the density sense. Sure, I¡¯d be happy to try that for you in a bit, when we have a bit of downtime between things.


    When did Dawn and Teuila start walking on opposite sides of me each of them with an arm slung around my back over my far shoulder? Yes, yes I am really that distractible. No, don¡¯t worry about it. Yeah, priority number one is still saving Dawn, sorry. As much as I want to go wild with enchanting things, it¡¯ll be a while. Also, I think putting Dawn¡¯s aura vision on cranked up as high as it was, basically ate through most of my daily rune vitality. You think I should call them sorcery points? Sure, makes no difference to me. Each point is a rune. What? Because why? Oh, haha. That¡¯s sweet of you Bud. Sure. Yeah, you can call me Sorcerer Shellcracker. Oh you were reading about that time with Tiago and George, yeah. No, I definitely don¡¯t deserve the title Sorcerer Supreme Shellcracker, not by a long shot.


    Teuila grins and noogies me a moment as she relays, ¡°So, Bud and Essie are chatting up a storm I guess, and it sounds like my Air has a new nickname, huh? Sorcerer Supreme Shellcracker is kinda Bee Ay, y¡¯know? I know, I know, you just told them no supreme, but still. Look at you. All you¡¯re going through, and you still keep sciencing your way into magic, new magic, even if it costs you. I¡¯m getting a little bit of the Rayileklian stuff myself. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever be able to cast its spells, but I¡¯m starting to kind of understand the difference in the mana here, and a few other things. I¡¯ve got a theory about something. I won¡¯t bother you with the details until I see how it pans out. Got some of my own sciencing going on.¡±


    I can¡¯t help smiling broadly at Teuila. I¡¯m proud of her. Constantly training, striving, struggling, to be better, to be the best, to be the strongest there is. I puff an elated sigh of contentment, unable to stop grinning at her or staring at her. Hm? Well, yeah, of course. Teuila is, well, she¡¯s just so Teuila. She¡¯s her own person. I don¡¯t own her or anything, I don¡¯t have to know every single thing she does. Err, yes it was kind of, um, interesting to hear about that. She doesn¡¯t owe it to me to tell me anything like that though. We do share almost everything, because we¡¯re so open, and know the other one will be accepting, or even interested in it, but if she wanted to keep something like that private, I wouldn¡¯t push her.


    I don¡¯t know how I could or could not really do that Bud. Your privacy is kind of, well, you seem sort of tied to my head figuratively. If there¡¯s anything you don¡¯t want to share with me, you don¡¯t have to. I¡¯m pretty sure I won¡¯t be able to hide anything from you, but I don¡¯t mind that. Oh, already changed your mind? Haha, okay, yes, we can be completely open with each other. I¡¯m fine with either or Bud. You¡¯re awesome. You¡¯re what? But you¡¯re sitting next to a six hundred degree Fahrenheit egg. I, I don¡¯t know how to fix you feeling chilly buddy.


    My expression of joy drops to one of contemplation and confusion as I try to figure out Lullaby¡¯s predicament. Oh. There are no wilds here. Hell, we¡¯re in like, a slightly parallel out-of-phase place that maybe no wilds exist in whatsoever. You don¡¯t really have any nature to draw power from or interact with. Is Di--, gak, is Essie doing okay? Pretty much same ol¡¯ same ol¡¯? Makes sense These halls are pretty echo-ey.


    We stop abruptly, and the Sister begins explaining, ¡°We¡¯ll allow you to avail yourselves of all our resources, and a host of our abilities in short order, but first, we¡¯d like to help you find any dormant, unknown, or otherwise innate powers within you, that you may be all the better equipped to decide what resources to make use of.¡±


    The Sister says to Dawn, ¡°You¡¯re native to Rayileklia, so we shall attempt to sense your affinity in the appropriate way, in the appropriate location. We don¡¯t wish to separate you from your friend or your ¡®Boss¡¯ for any longer than is necessary. Please do follow us. It¡¯s not far, not far at all.¡±


    I get a mild sense of unease as Dawn tentatively freezes in place for several moments. I don¡¯t want Dawn to be separated from us, or scared. Is there anything I can do to¡ª Really? Yeah, I¡¯m sure she¡¯d appreciate the gesture Bud.


    I cough politely, and quietly offer to Dawn, ¡°Dawn? Lullaby says he¡¯ll go with you, so that you¡¯re not alone, and he won¡¯t even shrink, so you have something to hold on to. In case, you know.¡±


    Dawn blinks at me several times, and stares as I remove Lullaby, letting him assume his full size. Dawn asks, ¡°Well, shid Rej. You sure? I, well I guess I mean, his choice and all, Lullaby, you sure?¡±


    I chuckle as I say through a half smile that I can¡¯t fight off, ¡°Yeah, yeah he offered when I was trying to think of how to help your unease. We¡¯ll see you soon Dawn, okay? I¡¯m, well, you know what I¡¯ll be doing. Let¡¯s all do our best.¡±


    Dawn nods as she takes off with the Sister, of which there now appear to be two more alongside us. Dawn uses Lullaby as a bit of a walking stick, and occasionally spins him halfway round to change which side she taps the ground with. I¡¯d normally say a weapon probably wouldn¡¯t like its blade end being thunked into stonework, but I doubt Lullaby cares about the sharpness of his blade.


    The two Sisters motion us onward, deeper into the complex. I once again sense that room with the massive runic circle somewhere nearby, but around many many twists and turns. The Sisters appear to be shivering, are they cold whenever they¡¯re near that circle? Actually, that circle. How do I know that it is what it is, when it¡¯s basically always outside my danger wraps¡¯ silent sonar senses range? There¡¯s something a bit fishy about it that¡¯s tripping my genre-senses. I don¡¯t want to lose our chance to partake of their resources though, so it¡¯ll have to go on the back burner. I do suddenly feel though, that it¡¯s like, there may be more than just the Sisters here in this complex. It almost feels like these halls have been traversed, somewhat recently, by other humanoids. Hell, it could have been hundreds, or thousands of years, when they guided some hero of a different age who came through here, and their place is just so time-bent that it feels recent.


    The Sister motioning us forward drift away behind us, disappearing around a bend, and I¡¯m suddenly aware that we¡¯re in the very bowels of the complex, its absolute bottom. The room ahead of us appears to be done in cobblestone, or other cracked stonework, but, on closer inspection, it appears to be deeply inlaid runostructure. More, there¡¯s an energy flowing through every crack and line that¡¯s reminiscent of lava, bright with dark spots that flow and churn.


    Another feature of this room is a Sister that¡¯s slightly larger than the ones we¡¯ve seen, even in her hunched, seated position. She also appears more aged, perhaps ancient, to my senses. She beckons the two of us, and we each enter with little to no hesitation. The Sister stands as we enter, and bows politely, so Teuila and I offer her a bow in return. The apparent agedness of this Sister does answer the question I had earlier about whether or not they¡¯d all appear identical. It doesn¡¯t really prove or disprove anything about my other theories though.


    Te elbows me, but really asks no one in particular, ¡°Fancy magic room, aint it?¡±


    I wear half a smile as I chuckle. Before I¡¯m able to offer any response, the Sister speaks in a simultaneously wizened, ancient, yet echoing, forceful voice, ¡°Please, sit in whichever circle speaks to you, however you feel most comfortable. I will offer you a refreshment that we need you to imbibe in order to divine the answers we seek. Yes, there is blood in the drink. We would prefer not to divulge the source, if you would be so kind as to refrain from asking.¡±


    I gnaw on my lip and furrow my brow ever so slightly. Genre senses are starting to sing a bit louder. Yeah, I kinda didn¡¯t need them to know that that was suspicious as all hell. Still, she¡¯s not offering us a deal or asking us to agree to anything, yet. Huff. I see Teuila¡¯s expression morph as she follows a similar train of thought. Still, looking about at the various circles on the floor, there are symbols engraved as a dominant feature in each one. I¡¯m almost certain that Teuila is going to pick the one that looks like an atomic valence structure.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    My knowledge of Teuila does not fail me, as Teuila grins upon spying that particular circle. She marches to it and happily plops down to do several pushups within it. She then rolls over to do several crunches, and nods satisfactorily for some reason. Still, none of these circles are really singing to me. I understand some of the symbolism in various ones, and for some reason I even understand the list of alchemical symbols in one. I¡¯d attribute that to the linguistic enchantment, but it¡¯s something I¡¯ve known at least since we arrived on Rayileklia, if not earlier.


    I¡¯m tempted to either just sit next to, or sit facing Teuila. Huff. Kinda wish I had Bud in my head for a few seconds to help me pick. I¡¯m tempted to just name two of the symbols and flip a coin. This feels like Jarrah¡¯s trainings and divinings all over again. Grr. Phooph. Bluh. Come on Reggie, really feel yourself, deep down. ¡­ Okay, so maybe I¡¯m glad Bud isn¡¯t in my head at this very second. Let¡¯s just think about why we¡¯re here, what we¡¯re hoping to accomplish.


    That one looks like a hand with a mana spark forming into a spell in its palm. That feels appropriate. I¡¯m trying to be able to cast Rayileklian spells, in order to find one that can break Dawn¡¯s curse. It¡¯s right next to the large Sister. I approach her, bow politely, then sit lotus at an angle that I can see both Teuila and the Sister. I make note of a thin cane laying next to the Sister¡¯s left hand, almost hidden beneath her robes. I¡¯m almost sitting on top of the edge of the robes over her left hand and that cane in this nearby circle.


    The sister motions, and for a moment I wonder if we¡¯re supposed to stand back up to come closer to her, but then I notice another Sister entering with a clay, slightly bulbous, curve-lipped pitcher of fluid. She also carries two small clay bowls, which I assume we¡¯ll be drinking from, but another Sister arrives, carrying a glass pitcher of fluid that appears to be only water, and two small glass bowls.


    I¡¯m confused, since I was fairly certain it was suggested that we needed to imbibe blood, and there doesn¡¯t appear to be any in that. Is it to wash down the taste? Hm, did the Sisters exchange a look and each fight back a slight chuckle about something? It¡¯s really hard to tell on people missing a majority of the usual facial features.


    The elder Sister waves the other two away, and approaches us, and sets the pitchers between us. She states, ¡°Choose which of you will drink from the clear pitcher, and which will choose from the obscuring clay pitcher.¡±


    Teuila and I glance at each other. Both of us are going to choose the clay pitcher so that the other one doesn¡¯t have to drink whatever could be hidden inside. I furrow my brow at her and adopt an ever-so-mild glare. I¡¯m plenty used to tasting my own blood, and sick by now. Hell, if they went outside and scraped my blood off the mountain to fill the pitcher, I wouldn¡¯t even be that surprised. I¡¯d certainly also ask me not to ask where it came from at that point.


    Teuila starts to answer, ¡°I¡¯ll take the cla¡ª¡°


    I shake my head and interrupt her, ¡°Te, take the clear pitcher. Whatever¡¯s in the clay one can¡¯t be worse than dying from mana residue strangulation. I¡¯ve already got that going on. I¡¯ll take the risk of the unknown. You¡¯re plenty healthy, we don¡¯t need to risk changing that.¡±


    Teuila pouts, ¡°I can handle it Dink, my Airhead. Don¡¯t make me worry about you more.¡±


    I frown as I sadly shake my head before I add, ¡°There¡¯s nothing to worry about Te, I¡¯ve had plenty of blood up and down my throat recently. That might be my own blood scraped off the mountainside for all we know. I don¡¯t need you getting sick from me. I¡¯m already worried about why you go through some of the mana laceration when using Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic here on Rayileklia. That was a me-only thing back home.¡±


    Teuila grumps, ¡°Fine, but I¡¯m taking the next risk, whatever it is.¡±


    I chuckle as I shake my head incredulously before relenting, ¡°Alright My Wings, fine. Unless I beat you to it.¡± I toss Teuila a wink and she fumes at me, semi playfully, somewhat actually annoyed.


    The Sister seems to be amused at least. Using her staff with her left hand, she ambles towards Teuila. She pours two bowls of the clear liquid near Teuila, and offers Teuila one to drink. The Sister requests, ¡°Bare an important piece of your body, one you¡¯re willing to bear a mark representing the true you.¡±


    Teuila doesn¡¯t hesitate as she pulls aside the article of clothing anyone would expect Te to remove when asked such a question. Her sternum and left pectoral are available for being marked. As Teuila¡¯s about to down her drink, the Sister holds up one finger, demanding at least a moment longer¡¯s patience. She lifts her own bowl of what I hope is water, and dips her right index and middle fingertips into it. The Sister nods at Teuila, and makes a motion like tossing her head back, indicating to drink her vessel quickly.


    Teuila tosses it back, and coughs out, ¡°Ack, oh gross, oh that¡¯s like tequila and turpentine, koff, oh that burns going down, and not in the fun way. Haha, I win after all Airhead, I got the worse drink.¡± She then mutters, ¡°I hope.¡±


    I can¡¯t help chuckling at Teuila¡¯s competitiveness over who gets to take the worse risk for the other. Heavens and hells this woman. Hah. She¡¯s so great. Hm, I¡¯m a bit worried as it almost sounds like sizzling as the elder Sister draws on Teuila¡¯s chest. I really hope that isn¡¯t acid she just fed Teuila, only to now scar her with it. I can¡¯t see Teuila from this side of the Sister now that she has leaned in to draw on Teuila, which raises my concern greatly. Teuila is just outside the edge of my danger wrap silent sonar sensory range.


    I¡¯m about to ask, when the Sister steps back to apparently survey her work. I see no marring upon Teuila¡¯s beautiful flesh. Despite the painful sound of the application. I raise an eyebrow at Teuila and she just grins derpily at me in response, seemingly completely unfazed.


    The sister says to Teuila, ¡°It appears this is one that you perhaps are already at least partially familiar with. Yours is precise control over the forces of attraction.¡±


    Teuila grins as she mumbles, ¡°Hell yeah it is.¡± Those two statements between the Sister and Te¡¯s response say so much about Teuila. I have to laugh. Teuila throws a wink my way and grins as madly as ever.


    I can¡¯t fight the smile that spreads ear to ear across my face as I barely repress my laughter. Still, that might be a power with broader applications than Teuila has already been using. She¡¯s always had that affinity with gravity. Attraction also applies to magnetism though doesn¡¯t it? If she expanded her mastery of it, could she get electrokinesis? Or magnetokinesis? Or is it only a me-thing to be able to science my way into related applications of powers that aren¡¯t actually listed on the tin?


    The sister approaches me, and pours two bowls of viscous reddened amber fluid. The liquid slowly forms bubbles that expand, pop, recede, and begin the process over. I grimace ever so slightly, but shrug as I accept the bowl. The sister says much the same to me as she did to Teuila, ¡°Bare upon your form an important, perhaps the most important, piece of you, willing to bear a mark of your inner self.¡±


    Hm. I¡¯m tempted to copy Teuila, because I mean, my love is pretty much the best thing about me, all the loves I have in my life, all the people I care about. But if it¡¯s more like, the purpose of the body part, rather than symbolically, then Teuila¡¯s most important part would be her heart, because she¡¯s incredibly active, and physically fit. It has to be in top condition more than any other organ more or less. What is most important to me in the way that helps save Dawn? What do I use for that? The only answer I can come up with is my brain. I brush back my hair, exposing all of my forehead as best I can.


    I could swear the Sister adopts a very creepy grin for a moment. She indicates for me to quickly drink the reddened-amber sludge, which might prove a tad difficult with how slowly it poured. Regardless, she begins dipping her index finger into the liquid as I raise the bowl to my lips. Please don¡¯t be monstrously terrible. Glp, koff, glp, koff, ugh, koff, glp. Oh yeah, definitely blood in that, ugh, it¡¯s oozing its way down and almost feels like it¡¯s alive as wriggles down like a little slime-creature or jello monster. Glg, ugh, yuck. At least the flavor wasn¡¯t absolutely horrific, but the experience definitely leaves room for improvement, and I wouldn¡¯t wish it upon anyone else. The sister has been drawing upon my forehead with the sludge and I almost vomit as I could swear it feels like mini jello monsters wriggling along my head, possibly even finding cozy homes in my pores. Glrp. Ugh. So friggin¡¯ gross.


    The Sister turns her back to me for a moment, gazing over at Teuila. In that moment, the wriggling finally ceases, my forehead doesn¡¯t even feel sticky. Thankfully. I still think I want to take a bath in lava, then another one in acid, then another one in a glaciated arctic pool. Brr, eugh. That was horrifically horrifying.


    When it¡¯s my turn to divulge her divining''s findings, the Sister turns back to me however and says, ¡°Yours, is nothing.¡±


    I¡¯m heartbroken. My shoulders droop as my whole body sags, crestfallen. I was really hoping I¡¯d have something to rely on while here on Rayileklia. More importantly, something that could give me a lead on how to save, or could directly save, Dawn. Ow, why¡¯d she hit me with her staff? What the hell lady?


    She explains, ¡°You must not understand if you are as sad as you appear. Your gift. Is nothing.¡±


    You already said that. Jeeze. That friggin¡¯ hurt. Kookie old lady. Ow! Hey, I¡¯m going to take that away from you if you keep swinging it! Grumble grumble grr.


    She performs a facial movement akin to rolling the eyes she doesn¡¯t have, and says, ¡°No you won¡¯t, you¡¯ll sulk for a while, then your mind will wander. Some time later, you¡¯ll see the truth of the matter. You two are quite powerful. Our precious little beloved Rayileklia is ill suited for the challenges that spring up reacting to your presence. Hm, that¡¯s not quite right. Not your presence. Your enemy¡¯s presence. Perhaps anyway. Horses of six in one hand, horses of a half dozen in the other. Take your pick.¡±


    W-what? Wait. Oracular powers. Crap. She¡¯s been psychic this whole freaking time. Oh look at that sly smirk, I¡¯m such an idiot. Heh, hahah. Oy vey. Mother of a goose on the loose. The woman I want in my head is barely able to reach it, but the one who bonks me with a stick repeatedly can read it clear as day. Great. Well, I¡¯ll master the telepathy spell soon enough, as well as this permanency enhancing enchantment power thing. Uh, anyway, sorry for any disrespect Sister. I obviously bit my tongue about it, my thoughts just wander. Huh, just like you said they would. I mean, not that I doubted your oracular powers.


    But how much foresight does that oracular power lend any of them? How do they prophesize and foretell anything? Hm, it¡¯s weird, it¡¯s kind of like if I sent my logs back from the future. Does it tell just one possible timeline? If they divine something, does it always come true? I could always change whatever outcomes were shown in my logs, or at least try to avoid them, or prepare for them. I suppose I could go in circles forever chasing the logic loops that puzzle out time travel and its rules across two entirely different worlds. Two entirely different systems of magic.


    The elder Sister returns to her seat at the far end of the room, next to me. I wonder if it would be inappropriate to go throw up the contents of my innards and boil my forehead. The experience reminded me of King¡¯s weird parasitic cells worming their way around my insides. Eugh. Huff. Whatever, we didn¡¯t lose anything, we just confirmed what we basically already know. I¡¯ve got no affinity for magic, I¡¯m just brute forcing my way through everything, driven by love and whatnot. Teuila might have a broader scope to her powers, unless the elder Sister was simply being poetic in describing gravity specifically. It¡¯ll be hard to tell for quite a long time.


    We sit in silence, and I glance around impatiently, wondering if we¡¯re supposed to do anything else. Frustrated at making no progress, I begin practicing the rune I remember as being the beginnings of the telepathy enchantment. Yeah, I can fail it over and over while sitting here, just as well as anywhere else. Oof. Hungry again, I fish out another packet of sap and flour as I lick my lips. I need to remember to thank Bud, and work on helping him gain his new desired shape. Hm, a squirming feeling as my belly flops repeatedly has me suddenly losing my apetite. Yeah, I¡¯m going to go be sick somewhere before I eat. No sense wasting food. I¡¯m sure I¡¯m just being dramatic and overreacting to psychosomatic nonsense, but still, yuck. I¡¯ve never even liked jello or gelatin snacks, not even when I was at th¡ª What? When I was where? What? Ow my fuggin¡¯ head.


    I flex my jaw as I clasp my cranium in pain. Squeezing my eyes tightly shut, I continue to try to flex my facial muscles to distract from the building pressure in my skull. Well, one side effect of migraines is nausea. Sorry Sister, I don¡¯t want to dirty your room, but, hurk. Blerf. Blugl, ugh. I swear to all that is holy if I see my vomit move on its own in even the slightest, I¡¯m going to find a nuclear powerplant and stand in its reactor core. I know, I know, dramatic much Reggie? It¡¯s just, brrr, creepy as hell. I already have awkward creepy experiences with slimy little things crawling around inside of my nervous system trying to gain control, what with King and the mite-hulk alien cellular structure.


    Thankfully, my sick stays put where I let up all over the floor. I¡¯m going to fireball my face a few times later when I¡¯m in private. The Sister is struggling not to laugh, and has been this entire thought process. Only now, she¡¯s starting to fail, and beginning to laugh. Teuila looks my way, concerned.


    I shake my head and joke, ¡°I¡¯ve, hrp. Never liked jello.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s face contorts in confusion a moment before she just smirks and laughs. I wish I already had that cleaning prestidigitative cantrip mastered, so that I could clean up after myself. Eugh, my belly is still roiling, but it¡¯s currently empty. My eyelids are growing heavy again, but that tiredness could be because I just loosed up sick and haven¡¯t eaten enough in the last three or four days, like, at all. Or, ¡®cause I was fired out of a carriage as a meat-rocket to splat into a cliff surface. How¡¯d she put it? Horses of six in one hand, horses of a half dozen in the other? Hah. The elder Sister smirks at my train of thoughts.


    Some of the normal-sized, less elderly seeming sisters arrive, and beckon us to follow. One thankfully seems to be remaining to clean up after me. I do feel like a heel leaving it for someone else to deal with though.


    Before following, I ask of the elder Sister, ¡°Is that everything we should do here? Are we going to look over your available resources now? Do you always remain in this chamber? Should we ever bother coming back down? If not, would it be appropriate to say goodbye to you now, in advance of us leaving? Also, thank you for your aid.¡±


    The elder Sister succinctly responds, ¡°Yes, not quite yet, yes, no, yes, you¡¯re welcome.¡±


    I¡¯m left counting on my fingers which answers were to which questions as I¡¯m beckoned slightly more demandingly to follow the other Sisters and Teuila. Oh. I bid her farewell, ¡°In that case, thank you, and farewell, take care. Also, I¡¯d get rid of that wriggly goopy stuff, bleugh.¡±


    There are smirks from the assorted Sisters, but no responses. Brrr, creepy. Still, better get going to catch up with Dawn. If we¡¯re somehow super lucky, maybe her own affinity is something she can train to break her own curse. Teuila bounds over to me, and, despite being taller than me, leaps at me, laying in the air to fall across my arms lazily. She reduces her own gravity to nothing of course, but I can¡¯t help feeling the tiniest twinge of humorous annoyance. She could be carrying me around just as easily, or far more easily, and her legs are longer, and she¡¯s more fit. Oh well. Exercise for me is just walking us around I guess.


    She nuzzles her nose into my clavicle as we follow the Sisters. Well, as I follow the Sisters, carrying her along. It becomes harder and harder to flex my jaw, and to keep my eyes open as I yawn. Oh, right, empty belly at this point, let¡¯s go ahead and eat another packet of superfood or whatever the heck this stuff is that Bud had the trees make for me. I also grabbed a bunch of nuts. Which is a sentence I¡¯m so glad no one else is in my head to have heard me think. I just mean, the nut and berry bushes along all the paths in the Heart, well, berries didn¡¯t seem wise to toss into my hyperdimensional haversack, or anywhere else honestly. Too messy. Nuts, still in their shells, are far less messy. They keep for a fair while I would imagine. We can even cook them if we want to be extra safe.


    When we reunite with Dawn, I can truly sense how absolutely numb she feels. She¡¯s not missing her senses currently, no, something upset her. My muscles clench reactively as I glance around for the Sister who¡¯d taken her away. I can¡¯t sense any danger, but that doesn¡¯t mean there isn¡¯t any. I also want to, to, to avenge Dawn¡¯s feelings or something. If someone hurt her, I, grr. Dawn waves weakly in our direction, shaking her head sadly.

 B 4 C 100: Final Dawn, End Book Four

    Dawn clarifies her sadness before I have to ask, ¡°Hey Boss, hey Rej. Guess I¡¯ve got a super power too, or something. S¡¯crappy though.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, unsure how to proceed. If she¡¯s annoyed that she¡¯s not as powerful as us, then me trying to comfort her might come across as patronizing. She leans Lullaby my way, so I accept him and shrink him back down to set him alongside the egg in the pouch on my neck.


    Dawn pleads, ¡°Boss? Rej? Sisters? Can I get a minute alone with Boss please?¡±


    I glance around, looking for somewhere to be to give Dawn privacy, the sisters point to a room a fair ways down the hall, answering my unspoken question. They glide away back the way we¡¯d come, but I heed their advice as I glance concernedly back at Teuila and Dawn. I¡¯ll give them their privacy, no problem, no questions asked. I enter the room and glance around at its stark emptiness. There aren¡¯t any objects in here to risk damaging, good.


    How many should I use? I know it might be overkill, but I¡¯m tempted to use all seven fireballs in the staff. I gnaw on my lip. Yeah, screw it, we¡¯re safe here, and we¡¯ll be here long enough to recharge it. I enter the farthest corner of the room, place my back in the corner, and face the staff such that it points directly at my face, centered on my forehead.


    And a one, and a two, and a three, let¡¯s do this. Fireball, oof, fireball, oof, fireball, oof, fireball, oof, fireball, oof, fireball, oof. Oy vey, dizzy. Wait, that was only six. Fireball, oof. Hm? Yes Bud, I¡¯m being kind of stupid. I just felt really gross and dirty with some wiggly gunk on me earlier. Huff. Yeah, you¡¯re right. Also thanks for the food, again. I¡¯m going to eat another packet right now. Yes I¡¯ve been eating the leaf too, I don¡¯t know where to put things like waste while in here.


    Sitting in the corner, I munch and snack, trying to recover my vitality from spending like three or four days in a levitating meditative overextended state. Phew. I¡¯ve got a waterskin of that amazing water too, thank you Bud. I¡¯m probably going to glug down the whole thing with how empty and dehydrated I feel. Pfft, haha, yes, it is my fault that I¡¯m dehydrated, but not because of the fireballs. Okay, maybe a little bit because of the fireballs. Hah.


    Dawn and Teuila appear to be done with their private minute, as they rush cautiously into the room. I blink repeatedly, realizing at some point, my sight returned, and it may have been returned for quite some time already. They both look around before fixing their gazes on me. Laughter overtakes both of them. I raise an eyebrow.


    Dawn asks, ¡°Rej. Rej hahaha. Rej, what, haha, what do you call that hairdo? An accident at the lab? Hahaha.¡±


    What? Oh, my silent sonar lets me picture it. Oh, haha. It¡¯s sort of fried up into place like the bride of Frankenstein¡¯s monster or some other weird up-do, only it¡¯s a bit smoky and charred.


    Teuila snorts while pleading, ¡°Please, haha, please tell me it¡¯s not going to stay like that. What were you even doing in here? We heard a bunch of explosions, then a pause, then another one. Did you see a roach or something?¡±


    It¡¯s my turn to snort a laugh. I shake my head while responding, ¡°Hah, no, come on Te, I might be a bit overdramatic, but seven fireballs on a single bug? Haha. No. It was seven fireballs on my own face so I could be sure every last molecule of wriggly blood jello was evaporated.¡±


    Dawn and Teuila double over with laughter. Te tries to speak through her laughter, ¡°Pfft, haha. My Airhead, haha. You see how that¡¯s, hah, not any better, right? Pfft haha. We could have asked for some rags or a bath or something. Hehe.¡±


    I chuckle, but I still shudder when I think about the gross wriggliness. Shaking my head, I try to explain it, ¡°It wriggled while it slid around Te, it was so so so gross. I mean, you met King on our final day on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, it was like having him being slopped onto my forehead. And, well, also down my throat, eugh. Kinda glad my migraine nauseated me enough to throw up, even if I feel like a jerk leaving my sick for someone else to clean up.¡±


    Teuila tries, and fails, to keep a straight face as she states, ¡°Oh no, totally understandable, I¡¯d explode my own face seven times in a row too if I had that sleaze on it for a couple seconds before the Sister rubbed it off too. Hahaha. Not an overreaction at all. Hehe.¡±


    I can¡¯t help laughing while shaking my head in a mixture of embarrassment, chagrin, and simple humorous enjoyment of the silliness of it all. The three of us spend several long moments in a cycle of laughter as each of us laughing reinforces the humor of the other two, causing an infectious laughter loop.


    We finally mostly stop laughing, save for the occasional titter from one or the other of us. I yawn while taking stock of our surroundings before asking, ¡°Either of you notice that this place has a whole lot of nothing? Lots of empty random space, yeah? What are these mysterious resources we¡¯re going to be able to supposedly take advantage of? Either of you notice any?¡±


    Dawn and Teuila each shake their head in response, as a Sister virtually materializes behind them, spooking all of us. The Sister remarks, ¡°I believe you were asking about our resources just now, and we¡¯ll surely have them at your disposal, but you¡¯ve all had several long days, and each of you is weary in one form or another. Or several in your case Reggie. Please follow us to a suitable suite, you can take individual rooms or share a room, there is plenty of space. You¡¯ve your own tomes and scrolls and such to go through still. We promise to make our resources available to you soon after you¡¯ve rested and explored your options.¡±


    I gnaw on my bottom lip. She is technically right, we¡¯ve got plenty of material still from Milbert to dig through. Teuila and Dawn managed to pick up some history texts and other odds and end from the Enochian Enclave too, though none of us has high hopes for any of them to pan out into answers or cures. I heave a sigh and shrug before rubbing my itchy eyes. I¡¯m grateful for my thermal resistance. I still have my eyebrows and eyelashes, somehow. Thanks spawning as Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin adjacent I suppose. Pft, Bud, I was wondering why you were so quiet during all of that. Hah. No I wasn¡¯t trying anything like that. Yes, I¡¯m absolutely certain it was absolutely necessary to clean myself that way. Yes I¡¯m being somewhat sarcastic and slightly exaggerating, but only slightly.


    I rise up to join Dawn and Teuila, and the three of us lean on one another while following along behind the Sister. Dawn whispers, ¡°I had to ask Boss if I should even tell you Rej. My stupid superpower lets me see like, time, number things when I think about like, like the, some sort of point of something I¡¯m looking at, like when fruit¡¯s going to rot, or, or. You get it, right? I, huff, grr. I¡¯m not even sure if like, it¡¯s the guaranteed super absolute future, or what. Only right now they¡¯re blurry, can¡¯t really read them, since I just started using it. Not sure I¡¯ll have time to practice, but yours and mine Rej, it¡¯s. It don¡¯t look good. Boss¡¯s is just like, like a big symbol that doesn¡¯t change.¡±


    My jaw hangs slack. No wonder Dawn looked lost, and depressed. At least, at least we¡¯re pretty sure Teuila¡¯s going to make it through whatever is thrown at her by the sound of it. Maybe. Like Dawn said, no idea how accurate it is, or if it only applies to things that definitely already have a ticking clock. It might not be able to give her an accurate doomsday clock on everyone she looks at, unless they have like, an illness or toxin killing them. She could definitely benefit from using it for a few years around a large group of people to figure things like that out. If only I could guarantee that she¡¯ll get that.


    My eyelids refuse to open at all at the moment, the weight of it all just straining every part of me. As I¡¯m about to topple forward, the Sister says, ¡°Consider this wing your suite, feel free to take up as many or as few rooms as you like. If you need to leave our sanctuary to forage or hunt for supplies, let one of us know, and we will assist you with the traversal. We¡¯re fairly certain that, unlike most of our visitors, you¡¯ve no need of such repeated entry and exit.¡±


    Half asleep, I find myself nodding along and scratching the back of my head. She¡¯s right. Between Teuila¡¯s purchases in The Brook, our snagging what supplies we could in Victo, and stocking up in the Hidden Heart, and all the stuff she brought out of her inventory, we¡¯re set on food for sure. Maybe not water, but we can burn that bridge when we come to it, or however the saying goes. Maybe cross the river before burning it? The bridge I mean, not the river. Though heh, it kind of does sound a bit funny to imagine setting a whole river aflame. Like, ¡°Welcome to my river rafting tour, we¡¯re a class four rapids over here on the river of fire folks, you¡¯ll be wanting to keep your limbs inside the raft at all times.¡±


    Pft, hah, yes Bud, my brain was pretending to be some river tour guide on a river of fire. I can¡¯t explain why. I¡¯m just goofy in the head that way sometimes. What, you¡¯ve never had a silly thought to keep your mind occupied or distract you or when you were too tired to think comprehensibly or something? Eh, keep hanging out with me, and I¡¯m sure some of my crazy will rub off eventually. Also, don¡¯t even comment on my phrasing just now. It hit me just after it left my mouth, well, head, well, neither. As soon as I thought it.


    What¡¯s that Bud? Wait, what? Since when? Huh. Looking around, yeah, you¡¯re right. When did I even get into my pajamas though? I did? Wow. Still, this feels nice. Dawn seems to finally feel safe with us, since she¡¯s bed hogging, and she doesn¡¯t even sleep. It kind of forces us to be close to her, no matter where we roll or how we lay. Actually, wait, when did Dawn even get pajamas? Are you sure this is really Dawn? Aura sense? Oh yeah. Okay, yeah, it¡¯s her. That¡¯s her soul. I recognize Dawn¡¯s shirt, it¡¯s one of her undershirts, but the pa¡ª really? That¡¯s cartoonishly funny. Just dropping down one article of clothing that usually doesn¡¯t have another of the same underneath to reveal another of that article of clothing beneath.


    Cartoons? Yeah, more Fakeworld stuff. Particularly the ones I¡¯m thinking about are usually like, some character is wearing a mask, someone else pulls it off, revealing another mask beneath, several times in a row. Eh, it¡¯s humorous when you see it, probably not so much when it¡¯s described. It¡¯s a visual medium. I know you¡¯ve got weird, limited senses though, so they probably wouldn¡¯t be as fun for you even if they existed. What? No, absolutely not.


    Because I¡¯ve told you before about stuff like that Bud. But also because Dawn is here, and I don¡¯t want to make her uncomfortable. Err, I¡¯m not sure exactly why she is Bud, but that¡¯s her business, it¡¯s the way she is. You can relate, right? Like, have you talked to your sister about wanting to not be a weapon? No? Are you afraid of how she¡¯s going to react? Do you want to have to explain to her exactly why you want that?


    Sorry Bud, I don¡¯t mean to actually press you on those things, you don¡¯t need to come up with answers. It was an example of sort of what it might be like for Dawn. Imagine every person we ever meet was another one of your sister, who might possibly have those same questions you¡¯re afraid she¡¯ll ask, and they ask them, despite it not being their business. Yeah. Exactly. Thank you. I¡¯m sure Dawn appreciates it too. Did you two get along okay when she was learning about her innate talent?


    Yeah, I kinda figured she would do that. Yeah, she¡¯ll hold on with a death grip when she¡¯s scared, or when her senses leave her. It didn¡¯t hurt, did it? Okay, good. Huff, yawn. I¡¯m sorry Bud, I¡¯d keep chatting, but I am so exhausted and sleepy. Essie and Iceflame doing okay with Teuila? Good, good. I, I¡¯ll try to make room for them as soon as I can recover and sort through some things. I need to have a concrete plan on how to save Dawn before anything else. I hope they understand that. Yeah? Okay, I¡¯m glad. Thanks Bud. Nighty night. Hm? Yeah, sure, knock yourself out, read all you like. I know you can¡¯t actually knock¡ª oh, goon, hah. I¡¯m going to sleep now.


    Ugh, ow. My left shoulder, mandible joint, the entirety of all the muscle groups up and down the left side of my spine ache like hell. Hm? Yeah, morning Bud. Or some period of day I guess. Read anything interesting? Err, I guess that¡¯s interesting, I meant more along the lines of anything that could help our current quests. No, no Bud don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m still happy to share my story with you, all of it, and I didn¡¯t mean to sound down on you for enjoying your time reading. Yeah, I just, kind of lived through that part a few times, and it nearly broke me. Yeah, I¡¯m glad I managed to save her too. Heh, obviously. I wonder what ever happened to Vesuviform anyway. Huff. Oh well, time to go about our day.


    Hoy, oopf. Oh. Well that¡¯s probably part of why my shoulder hurts so much. Dawn¡¯s got my arm twisted around my back as she keeps me in her death grip. Poor Dawn, senses gone yet again. I draw a ragged breath while shaking my head in dismay. I barely resist sobbing as I drop a forlorn sigh by the wayside of my many wasted, saddened breaths.


    Dawn slowly rouses as her senses return to her, and she shoves me off the top of her where she¡¯d dragged me to, with chagrin. I flash her a sad half-smile while I dig through the various books, tomes, scrolls, letters, and other writings we¡¯ve got. Teuila seems to be exercising out in the hallway while reading several books. I set aside more tomes for Teuila that seem to detail additional martial mental enchantments.


    Nursing the ridiculous pain along my left shoulder muscles up along my neck towards my jaw, I slowly stagger out to the hallway as I eat a handful of nuts. Dawn sits in bed fidgeting, so I raise an eyebrow towards her.


    Dawn notices and responds, nervously, ¡°Rej, I, I¡¯m not sure what to do here. I¡¯ve been relying on you two crazy cats to get me out of this mess. Just when I finally thought maybe I could do something to help out, or to get out of it myself, I, I get this stupid thing that doesn¡¯t help at all. I hate that my troubles are your troubles, that I¡¯ve gotta lay all the pressure on you and Boss. If, if you can¡¯t find the cure, and, and you can¡¯t find a way to finish me off first. I.¡±


    Dawn gulps, hesitating before continuing, ¡°I just want, if somehow, if somehow you remember me. I want you to remember how hard you tried, and how grateful I was. Don¡¯t go beating yourself up. Don¡¯t give up. Find your cure. Be with Boss. Make sure she doesn¡¯t lose you too.¡±


    I gulp a ragged breath as I slowly, sadly nod at Dawn. I¡¯ve no words for such a sentiment. Before I can find a response to share, Dawn says, ¡°I¡¯m going to go talk with some Sisters. I¡¯m, well, I¡¯m gonna make myself scarce for a couple days. Stuff on my mind. I won¡¯t be that hard to find if you figure out how to break the curse, but just, just don¡¯t worry about me til you do. Thanks Rej, pal. See you here and there.¡±


    I reach out a hand towards Dawn as she begins to take flight. She actually pauses momentarily. Dawn lines her fingertips up to mine and pushes my hand back towards me with a sad half-smile on her face. The moment our fingertips connect, I feel the despair rising within her, the urgency, the doubt. I nod while watching her as she turns to leave.


    Dawn tells Teuila much the same thing as she heads out. Moments later, Teuila enters the room, sniffling, and hugging the books she¡¯d been studying. We spend hours in silence reading our various resources together. I¡¯m committing series after series of runes to memory to be able to practice later. There are so many spells from so many schools within this host of books. Where are all these magic users? Are these books all passed down from ancients, and just jealously hoarded? Who the hell did Milbert steal them from?


    Huff. Grr. Jarrah seemed to know plenty about the magic system, but even he mostly just let the enchantments on his room conjure up their own effects. Neither Sindred, nor the young dryad who was pissed off at me bothered casting anything at me. None of the assailants cast spells at me. The kobolds¡¯ magic seems entirely different, though that¡¯s likely because of their draconic nature.


    Don Derbrightmine might have been using magic to make his voice supernaturally loud that one time. I couldn¡¯t tell over the splitting headache his voice gave me. His wife seemed to be some sort of inventive enchanter. Neither Kozzurth nor any of the Colossi seemed to cast anything. Berinon was a successful enchanter, but he didn¡¯t cast anything. I¡¯m half tempted to start acting like Aces and believe there¡¯s no such thing as magic on Rayileklia, to try to find other excuses for things that have occurred. A whole cult of Bright Lord worshipers, and the only one who might have casted a spell, well, basically said his lord did it for him, more or less.


    I can¡¯t take it any longer. None of our resources are going to save Dawn. The Sisters had better have something, anything that might help out. I lean over to kiss Teuila and flash her a gaze to share my determination. She nods in understanding. I¡¯ll get our telepathy back as soon as we¡¯ve saved Dawn. I¡¯ll help Essie and Iceflame figure out if they have any enchantments any more as soon as we¡¯ve saved Dawn. I¡¯ll work on getting strong enough to save myself from my own stupid encroaching death as soon as we¡¯ve saved Dawn.


    The lack of Sisters anywhere in the complex as I search around for even a single one to speak with is vexing, perplexing to say the least. Do they even have any spellbooks or anything on hand? Ugh, thinking about spellcasting though. Frickin¡¯ hell. Ol¡¯ manxy is going to end up being a powerful archmage on top of everything else his soul stealing arse gets up to. I draw a ragged breath and release an angered sigh of exasperation. Frustrated, I glance down several hallways of an intersection, and just sit on my rear in the middle of it.


    I angrily shout, ¡°Where the hell are you!? Our resources aren¡¯t enough!¡±


    I drop my face into my hands, as my elbows rest on my knees. The world doesn¡¯t make any sense. Acid clouds above that never relent, soul stealing jerkwads ruling kingdoms and siphoning souls over a massive populous, a place with a name that I made up actually existing? It can¡¯t be real. Am I really just having one last dying fever dream on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, still standing at the book? Is the reason that it seems to be just me and Teuila on this journey, because she was the last to die from reading her book, and she was reaching for me?


    I almost want to leave, and chase down Mataalii to the untamed uncharted lands or whatever the hell. Just to see if he has any of the same doubts, or if he even still exists now that he¡¯s left the periphery of my senses and our journey. Huff, grr. A light touch upon my shoulder has me whirling about, preparing to strike someone down in anger. I rattle my head, trying to remove rage¡¯s grip from my senses. The Sister doesn¡¯t look startled per se, but concerned at least.


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    I nearly bark a demand of her, but I manage to fight my inner struggle enough to remain calm. I ask, ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why did it take so long to find one of you? Where are the resources you have?


    Instead of answers, I¡¯m confronted with a plea for help, ¡°Would you hand over the tome with the unsightly spell? The one with the abhorrent costs. We believe it would be safest in possession of your mentor. We would also beg your aid in the summoning of steeds as you¡¯ve mentioned recently gaining such a spell.¡±


    I frown and grump, ¡°Yeah, sure, I guess. Wouldn¡¯t the book be just as safe here? I honestly don¡¯t care either way, it¡¯s just weird is all. I left it back in the room with Teuila. We¡¯re not doing very well emotionally at the moment.¡±


    The Sister nods, ¡°It is regrettable, lamentable that such is your current state. The cloudy pall that hangs over the near future is an unwelcome disruption to our usual senses, and we know that you three are the key to returning clarity. As long as we have your permission, one of the Sisters will fetch the book and meet us at the entrance. Please, follow me.¡±


    I huff a sigh and roll my eyes in exasperation. This isn¡¯t getting me closer to saving Dawn, but the Sisters have been kind to us, so I¡¯ll try not to be a jerk with my moodiness. It doesn¡¯t take long until we¡¯re at a location in a dead end, and another Sister approaches with the book of soul ensnaring. I raise an eyebrow, and the wall of the dead end dissolves, revealing the valley outside, and our carriage left untouched.


    I know that the Sister asked for the ghostly steeds spell, though I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯ll last long enough to make it all the way to the Heart, even without the weight of a rider or carriage. I think they only last twenty four hours. Then again, I think it was only about thirty two to forty eight hours of travel time at an average pace with the carriage, since we slept. Well, Teuila and Dawn slept, err, well, Teuila slept. I suppose at top speed, non stop, since they don¡¯t need to rest, they might make it to the Heart. Thankfully the Enochian Enclave is the nearest, uh, building, I guess.


    I focus on what the one book had taught me, how to summon the steeds. I doubt I need all three, so hopefully that makes a single steed stronger or faster or last longer or something. I call it forth from some aetherial essence as a mana construct. It is a remarkable specimen of a creature, or at least a depiction of one. I drop a sigh and wave towards the steed for the Sisters to do with it what they will.


    I ask the horse, ¡°Please listen to the Sister and try to do what she tells you, to the best of your abilities? I don¡¯t know if you even need to be commanded, but, yeah. Do your best.¡±


    There¡¯s a slight chuckle from the Sisters, which I¡¯m not in the mood to address. I¡¯d normally be glad of bringing a laugh to someone, but I¡¯m trying to fight through my desperation at the moment. I glance at the two Sisters. One ties a small satchel, containing the horrific spell tome, to the horse. She seems to whisper her demand to it, faces it out of the compound, and slaps it on its rear. The horse takes off like a bolt, and the wall reforms behind it.


    It seems like even if I wanted to choose unkindness for some reason, that I¡¯d remain trapped in here. The duration of our stay could become possibly forever, with Teuila, and Dawn, without the Sisters help. Unpleasant thoughts. Or maybe one or another of my spells could get us out, who knows. I¡¯m not here to cause trouble for them. The Sisters beckon silently, so I follow, sighing and rolling my eyes exasperatedly.


    What resources could they even have in such an empty place? As if in answer to my questions, after rounding several corners, I find myself in a room coated in utter darkness. There appear to be bubbles floating about, but staring at the bubbles reveals strange inverted reflections that aren¡¯t present around me. As if they¡¯re showing what could be inside the bubbles, despite them appearing empty.


    A Sister explains, ¡°Our curator is, hm, something of a unique sort. She is doing her best to present our available resources to you in a way that could be meaningful. We¡¯re sure you¡¯ll work it out. Do be careful in here, time truly flies when you¡¯re absorbed in one thing or another.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, but the Sisters depart, leaving me alone in a massive dark room filled with bubbles floating aimlessly about. I huff a sigh and sink to my rear yet again. What the hell am I supposed to do with these? Huff, grr. They don¡¯t seem to be the kind of bubbles that dissipate on their own, but if I touch one, will they pop? Will that piss the Sisters off? Or their mysterious curator? I¡¯m not going to make any progress just sitting here, so I may as well try. I know they want me to succeed, but they could be a little more forthcoming with some things.


    Reaching out as the closest bubble inches ever so slightly my way, my fingertip brushes its surface. I find my senses transferred into the reflected world beyond. I¡¯m sitting at a desk, poring over a tome whose scribbles at first appear alien to me. Thankfully the linguistic enchantment takes over, and begins to translate. On this first day of, what is this, somebody¡¯s holiday journal? I huff a sigh and growl. How do I leave this little bubble world? Glancing around, it appears as if this small well-lit desk is the only thing in existence.


    I draw a ragged breath and sigh. I know they wouldn¡¯t intentionally trap me some place, but I can certainly see how this place might leave me caught up in things. Wait. The far-seeing spell. These bubbles are somehow something like it. The Sisters don¡¯t really have any resources themselves. They didn¡¯t even want to keep the one book. My senses are somewhere out in Rayileklia, probably literally reading through someone¡¯s holiday journal abandoned on their desk.


    This explains a bit about their oracular powers, and how they might have been able to see or hear conversations we¡¯d had. How do I stop being far-casted with my senses? Argh my neck is killing me. Come on Reggie, think. What if we just step away from the desk, into this open void? It¡¯s a bit of a terrifying prospect, but it¡¯s not like falling to your death, or falling for eternity right now really changes much. I take a step of faith.


    I close my eyes and wait with bated breath for the sensation of falling to take over my senses. Raising one eyelid, I peek around nervously. Huh. I guess it¡¯s that simple. There must be thousands though, possibly even millions of bubbles. How the heck am I even supposed to figure out which ones I¡¯ve already looked at? Deep breath, slow sigh Reggie. Just do your best. Do everything you can. Don¡¯t waste time overly worrying. Maybe something will come to you after a few failures.


    How about this bubble? Cookbook? Really Sisters? Why even archive the far sight of a cookbook? Bluh. Next. Unfinished musical compositions. Next. This looks like children¡¯s scribbles attempting their first sentences. Next. Huff, more cookbooks. Next, diaries. Hm. This person at least kept meticulous diaries. They keep their diaries neatly stacked in chronological order. If they¡¯ve ever been to a magic school, maybe they recorded the classes they took, or the books they were required to read. It¡¯s my first remotely possible lead in this room so far.


    Hm, wow, they¡¯ve been journaling since they were quite young. Their penmanship certainly gets better over the years. Betrothal? Gross. Oh, good for you, running away from that. Hm, still managed to work your way up into nobility, but on your own merits, far away. I¡¯ve no fondness for nobility, but good job. Gosh, what an intriguing life you¡¯ve led. No mention of magic so far though. Children, grandchildren. Different family names all staying part of your family. Great grand¡ª. A wisp of red hair? She grows more wild and adventurous by the year? Our Tabitha Lynnia Altross is unruly, much like I was at her age? She hates her name, and the flowery haircuts her mother has picked. Tabitha pleads for me, err, you, to set up fencing lessons and equestrianism instead of grammarian and etiquette lessons, and so on. Good on you for listening to her heart¡¯s desires and setting those up. You¡¯re really invested in your great grand daughter and her story and her growth. Tabitha Lynnia, only soon to turn sixteen has shaved the sides of her heads, stolen a dagger, horse, rapier, and several¡ª. Wait. Tabitha Lynnia? Ta Lynn? Taylynn? Holy frigging hell!


    Every atom of my being vibrates in anxious anticipation of each turn of the page, waiting to see if Taylynn ever returns home. I mean, I hope, err, I think it¡¯s Taylynn, you always only refer to her as Tabitha, no indication of if she told you her preferred name. Come on, red hair, short on the sides, long on top, noblewoman who runs off seeking adventure? Who else could it be? Especially when her name is basically right there. She does return home, for a time, a few years after having left, she''s about twenty at that point. She mostly returned to see her great grandmother, the originator of this noble household, the keeper of these diaries. She shares stories of adventure, making a name for herself, without leaning on her family name. She¡¯s not without her foibles, a bit spoiled, and a bit used to being somewhat pampered, slightly hot-headed, ready to draw-blade at almost the drop of a hat. She has fallen in love with a tavernkeep¡¯s daughter. Wait. Woah. She returns home less and less over the years.


    She never mentions the name of the tavern, or tavernkeeper, or tavernkeeper¡¯s daughter, probably hoping to prevent the rest of her family of learning about it, in the hopes of preventing them from interfering. Great grandmother is fairly understanding, if a little perplexed. Yes granny, that means no children, so no great great grand Taylynn¡¯s or whatever. Oh no. Your heart condition worsens as age catches up with you, and the city you¡¯ve helped build up in¡ª. Wait, how did I miss that!? Koff. Alta Vista of Jeegoobotstan. I, wait, but. Okay, okay, let¡¯s, let¡¯s just try to figure this out. Summer home in oh wow. The glades of the Jaggedefen Marsh. This is where she¡¯s going to live out her scant remaining years. She. I.


    What a remarkable woman. Gulp. When did I start crying so much? Wait, have I read dozens of diaries dating back over a hundred years already? Oh no! How long have I been reading!? I dash away from the desk, out of this bubble, with tears streaking behind me. I crumple in the darkness of the bubble room, hyperventilating and weeping. No wonder the Sister warned me. My heart. It, it feels broken even more than it already was. Poor Taylynn, her family, her great grandmother.


    I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s still alive out there. I know where the summer home is though, and it¡¯s near the hydra¡¯s stomping grounds. If I somehow save Dawn and make it through this myself, I¡¯ll go pay granny a visit. Maybe see if Taylynn ever stopped by since June. Gosh. I¡¯m just. I feel wrecked. How long was I reading? What Bud? Your brain feels mushy? How does that even¡ª? I don¡¯t even know. Do you want me to leave you with Teuila or Dawn while I read these? I don¡¯t want your brain hurting because of my studying. You¡¯re sure? Okay. Wow I¡¯m hungry though, I must have been reading for hours and hours. I feel like a complete arsehole for spending so much time reading a diary that didn¡¯t mention a single thing about magic academies or spells or anything.


    Alright, let¡¯s get back to it now that I¡¯ve had a bite to eat and a pint to drink. Huff. Nope. Next. Nope. Next. Why do you have so many of these ridiculous scrying points set up on such trivial places? Huff. I¡¯m not actually upset at the Sisters, it¡¯s just frustrating not finding what we need to save Dawn. What else do we have. Huff, nope. Oh this one is interesting.


    The Libram Solis, huh. A soul¡¯s connection to the sun helps it maintain purity? Something something, this that and the other thing, huh. Well, not like we¡¯ll be getting Dawn any sun in here, or anywhere on Rayileklia honestly. It doesn¡¯t mention anything about breaking curses on souls either. In fact, it seems mostly fairytale and conjecture. Oog. I¡¯m hungry again? But. What? I just ate. I stumble back to the bubble room, and I feel weak all over, as if I¡¯ve been running marathons for days. I stagger away from the darkened room, and have to virtually crawl along the wall to make it back to our bedchamber.


    Teuila spies me crawling in and launches herself at me, crying, ¡°Airhead! Where have you been!? It¡¯s been like, days! The Sisters said you were reading, but, but you have to at least sleep you big dingus! Dawn really wants to talk to you, soon.¡±


    I cough, my throat inexplicably dry and cracked. Fishing out my main waterskin, I find it empty, and my backup. I fish around for my food, and most of it is gone as well. I know for a fact that whoever has this hyperdimensional haversack equipped is the only one who can seek the things in its extradimensional space. Have I been eating and drinking that much? Was it really days? More memories are flooding back to me. Woah. I read a lot more than I consciously remembered reading. Poetry about souls, novels about spirits and ghosts, the rare occasional spellbook. I¡¯ve been studying for possibly a week or something.


    I cough again before nuzzling into Teuila. I apologize, ¡°The, koff, the Sister warned me, that time flies while studying. She was right. I read so much. So, so, so so much. So much useless stuff. Huff. I¡¯m sorry Te. I didn¡¯t mean to be gone so long, I didn¡¯t even notice it. I love you. Is Dawn okay?¡±


    Teuila frets as she drags me to bed, ¡°Well, kind of. She¡¯s at her wit¡¯s end. She¡¯s scared Air, real scared. I haven¡¯t learned jack in the last few days, still barrelling through these books, only able to translate a little here or there. I got enchantments from some of them, and stuff, but, well, I¡¯m still trying to really, really read them, all of them. The ones that are just books, like The Apex of Divinity, I can read those just fine, but the big enchanty ones, I want to know what the runes are, what they did to me.¡±


    I nod along with Teuila, as she snags a pitcher to hand to me. I greedily gulp down the water within, draining the entire pitcher before panting in exhaustion. Teuila blinks rapidly, stunned at my voracious thirst.


    Te comments, ¡°Woah, you musta been reading non stop. Anyway, tomorrow I¡¯m going to go foraging, and get us some more water. I¡¯ll fill all of our stuff. Still have plenty of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas digital fish if you need, over in the big pack love. You look awful though. Get some sleep, yeah?¡±


    I nod at Teuila absentmindedly. Dawn appears in the doorway, and Teuila motions her inside. My wrists and forearms ache like heck. The muscle groups from my left mandible joint all the way down to my left hip burn and pinch agonizingly. It¡¯s all I can do to fitfully pass out as I¡¯m held by My Wings, and My Friend.


    I awaken, groggily, to an empty bed. Dawn is hunched in the doorway, sobbing. I rush over, despite my body screaming at me to continue to rest off its pain. Once I arrive, Dawn latches on to me, and I nearly choke.


    She whimpers, ¡°My, my stupid power. Rej, mine is close. Hours, maybe minutes. Boss aint going to be back. Rej, Rej it¡¯s coming. I¡¯m so scared. I¡¯m so scared. I don¡¯t wanna go. I don¡¯t want to not be remembered. I don¡¯t wanna leave you or Boss behind. I don¡¯t wanna disappear without Boss or you close. Please pal, don¡¯t go, please stay with me. Please. Please. I¡¯m begging you Rej. You aint gonna find anything in time. Please, please stay with me. End me if you can, please. Hell, trap me in, in eternal pain, something, anything.¡±


    I end up choking on my tongue as tears stream down my cheeks. I wrap Dawn up in a tight embrace. I wasted so much time. I should have been there for her. I should have been here. I can¡¯t deny her this request. I¡¯ve failed her. We sit, sobbing in each other¡¯s arms as the moments tick by into minutes. I can barely breathe. It feels like my whole world is shattering. My throat is swollen to the point of being almost totally closed off, the neckchain is the only reason I¡¯m able to breathe at all.


    Dawn mumbles while begging, ¡°Rej, Rej, they¡¯re going. My senses. I can feel it. Please, please end me somehow. Please don¡¯t let me be trapped senseless during my last bit. Please pal, please kill me before¡ª.¡±


    I await Dawn¡¯s finishing of her plea while fighting off choking on my own tongue and mucus. I ramble in response, ¡°Dawn, I don¡¯t know if I can do this. Oh no. Dawn? Dawn are you, are you still, can you even hear or respond or anything? No, please Dawn. No.¡±


    My tears rush forth in an unstoppable cascade. She wants me to kill her, or to use that horrid spell, but I don¡¯t even know how to do it in a way that will save the ancestors, or save our memory of her, either one. We have no idea if the soul spell would even help, or if it would just place her into that agonizing prison for what little time she has left. Plus, I haven¡¯t even mastered most of the runes. And we don¡¯t even have a gem big enough to do the soul trapping. There¡¯s just so much wrong with it.


    I take out my staff to utilize its aura sensing magics once more. No, oh no. Her soul, there¡¯s minuscule fragments left. What¡¯s the right choice? What can I even do? My friend. My friend that I¡¯ll never even remember having had. You don¡¯t deserve history writing you off as never having existed, as entirely nothing. Wait. My, my gift is nothing? Crap, crap crap. Friggin¡¯ Sister was right. Of course. Obviously. But, but. Shiznit. Fudgesickles. Poop on a scoot. How the hell do I¡ª? What do I do with nothing? I have to hurry! There¡¯s barely a thread left of Dawn¡¯s soul!


    Someone, please, someone please give me some sort of guidance, anything. I¡¯ll, I¡¯ll try anything. It can¡¯t end like this. Dawn, I¡¯m, I¡¯m so sorry I made you put your faith and trust in me. I¡¯ve failed you. That last infinitesimally small fragment of your soul is about to be reduced to, to nothing. The word again, the concept of nothing. What sort of use of nothing does my gift entail? Teuila, over time, has been able to get gravity to respond to her almost as positively or as negatively desires, both upon herself, and those around her, at least within range of her touch. I haven¡¯t practiced! I, I don¡¯t. I haven¡¯t leveled it up, or, or, trained it, or, or anything. Is it even powerful enough to save Dawn right now, if I can even figure out a way to use it?


    I don¡¯t even know how to kill Dawn in a way that stops the spell. What were the conditions of the spell, it only fails if she¡¯s reduced to nothing anyway? I sob, gulping back mucus. I think I know what Dawn would believe I should do, if I could even do it. I think I know what Dawn would want me to do that is, mostly anyway. If I could reduce her to nothing, she¡¯ll never have existed on Rayileklia at all. I can only hope that through some-. Wait. A new thought. But would that break the spell? If, if I could. If I could make it so that she was never on Rayileklia. That her presence here was nothing. But instead her presence was on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? Can, can I send her through nothing? Can I send her through time? Will I remember her? Will it break the spell?


    I, I think there¡¯s two things I can do now. I¡¯m pretty sure. If I could figure out how to use my gift on her, I could reduce her to nothing, all the way back through her timestream, maybe. I think I¡¯d have to have it levelled up a lot more though to be able to pull it off. The other thing is maybe I can move her, or part of her to nothing, or through nothing. Like, through the void. I don¡¯t know the outcome of either one. I reach out to touch what¡¯s left of Dawn¡¯s soul, the last few particles being woven into the fabric of the magic of Rayileklia¡¯s reality. I grasp tightly, and I think I send what few particles I manage to feel hurtling through nothing, the direction in which I hope Can¡¯Z¡¯aas lies.


    I hope. Some day. Some day she might be reborn there. If, if that tiny speck, that fragment of a soul ever reaches Can¡¯Z¡¯aas across the vast infinite cosmos. If its minuscule, atomic form can be nurtured back into a full soul if it ever reaches. I wasn¡¯t able to reduce her history here to nothing though. That¡¯s too big. She affected more lives than she knew. History, experience, it¡¯s a lot to wipe away. I was only able to send those tiny specks of her soul. Or maybe I didn¡¯t even succeed in that. Who can measure and track about three atoms of soul energy?


    The threads that were already stripped away, they¡¯re still here. They¡¯re drifting up into the weaving that makes up the magical fabric of reality. No, no! How do I stop it then!? Dawn¡¯s body is disintegrating in my arms, turning to dust. No, no! I refuse! I don¡¯t want to forget her! You can¡¯t take this, you can¡¯t take this away from me! She might never have existed, but I refuse to give up on her memory! She¡¯s not just nothing!


    I break down, sobbing into the ashes of her now fading form. The dust turns to mud beneath me, and even that begins to fade from existence. I failed her. I couldn¡¯t help her. I failed her and all the Aasimovian ancestors. Uh oh. Looks like even more bad news for Reggie Shellcracker. That magical weave is following along that weird microscopic red thread that tied me to Dawn, tugging at that thread. It might take me along with her to finish the spell. Fuuuuu¡ª. Wait. I can¡¯t give up. I can¡¯t stop, won¡¯t stop. There is nothing the woven magic can take from me. Between myself and this ethereal coalescence is empty space. It¡¯s as meaningless as pictures on the back of my eyelids. My, my eyelids?


    I don¡¯t entirely have the right terminology. My gift, my, my aptitude, my affinity, nothing and emptiness aren¡¯t quite the right terms. Or if they are, I¡¯m not applying them correctly. Oh, oh I screwed up even more than I thought. If those fragments, those atoms of Dawn¡¯s soul even still exist, they¡¯ll be trapped in the void forever. There is no time in the void, no space, no travel speed, no motion.


    I shut my eyes tightly once more, crushing back the tears. I see frenetic imagery cast by the remnants of traces of light along the inside of my eyelids. They paint pictures of soaring quickly through technicolor tunnels, or riding the waves of reality. They¡¯re meaningless though, they¡¯re nothing. That one, that one doesn¡¯t quite work, at least not yet. I¡¯m not sure what it¡¯s supposed to do, but it¡¯s, it¡¯s not part of this fight. In fact. It is a fight. Screw you magic of Rayileklia. You want to try to take a friend from me? How about I reduce you to nothing to take you out of existence itself!


    The grip on the remaining thread ends. It recoils before it can grasp whatever ethereal clutch had been holding my last ties to Dawn, the barest hint of that red thread. I remember her. That¡¯s all I succeeded in doing. I succeeded in remembering her. I don¡¯t even know if anyone else does. This, this tiny fragment, it¡¯s not even her soul, not even a tiny slice of it, it¡¯s, it¡¯s something weird that bound her to me. It¡¯s part of the loom of fate? Rather than the weave of magic? Somehow that feels right. Magic was trying to take even that, to add it to its woven tapestry. At least, at least I managed to save this. This tiny scrap of fate itself. I may not have even sent the tiniest fragments of her soul anywhere. The only thing I can be sure of is my hold on this smallest thread of fate. My memory of her.


    Wait. Did I just intimidate magic itself? Dot dot dot. Mental ellipses. Brain bluescreen. Reggie Shellcracker. What the hell even are you? Huh, I¡¯ve been asked that a few times in my life already.

 Book 5, After Dawn. Chapter 1: Post-Dawn In Reggies Head

    I¡¯m left gazing at the spot on the floor where not even ash remains. My Friend Dawn, your only lingering memory may be the one I¡¯ve caught for myself. Maybe that will still keep you in the minds of those you¡¯ve affected. I can only hope I have done you at least that slight honor. A curse that erases you from existence, from history itself, and every mind, it¡¯s, it¡¯s just unfathomable, and yet it took you all the same.


    Since I still have memories of you, does that mean the Aasimovian ancestors were spared? Did the curse truly complete and cast itself over the world the way it was intended to by our manxome foe, the Bright Lord? The Celestial Emperor wanted the Aasimovian ancestors gone, why though? More like Celestial Dickwad anyway. I¡¯ll keep calling him our manxome foe in honor of my mentor, Jarrah Bettergrove.


    Just, just how does someone go on? Dawn, what should I do now that you¡¯re gone? We¡¯ve only known you for about a month and a half, but you were our constant companion during most of that time. I know you made me make promises, but, but I can barely comprehend existing right now.


    What¡¯s that Bud? No, no I don¡¯t want you to get Requiem, the Silent Song, to change her name back to Dirge, to sing a dirge for her loss. If anything, I would like my constant mental partner, you, Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds, to sing me a lullaby that puts me into a sleep I never wake up from.


    Hm? Sorry Bud, I was being slightly sarcastic. I don¡¯t want you to actually do that either. I know. I know I said I¡¯d do things after we¡¯ve saved Dawn, but, but we didn¡¯t save her. I failed. I, I need time to process, maybe to grieve. I can hardly think straight. What? I, I¡¯m pretty sure the answer is no Bud. That plane shifting spell couldn¡¯t¡ª. What? Slow down. Look, Dawn¡¯s soul was utterly destroyed. Okay, yes, other than maybe three particles that I might have managed to save by sending them hurtling into the void, maybe.


    Bud, just, just slow down, please, just shut up a minute! I¡¯m sorry. No, I¡¯m not mad at you. I know you¡¯re helping in your own way. I¡¯m sorry about blowing up at you just now. I partially want to say I just want to be alone with my thoughts, but that would be a lie. You know how bad it gets when I¡¯m alone with them.


    Yeah, I know you¡¯ve been reading about me. No, I can¡¯t use that skill here, not without giving up something too precious to give up. I know, if we were on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I¡¯d go back in time, over and over and over, trying to find a spot in the timeline where I could alter the course of events, or clue myself in to the cure for Dawn¡¯s curse earlier, something anything. Yes, just like when I first got the time skill, just before Teuila was getting vaporized by Vesuviform.


    Ugh, that day Bud, that day was horrific. Reading about how many times I failed her, how many times I watched the love of my life derez right in front of me. I¡¯d really prefer not to be reminded of that particular day right now, not when my heart is so heavy over losing Dawn. Worse, over failing Dawn after she put so much faith in me.


    Hm? I know, I know at the end she just begged me to stay near, and yeah, she probably would forgive me for this failure. She was pretty great. Still no idea how she was so sneaky, but, huff, it doesn¡¯t matter. Yes, yes I made sure she had some magic items for protection, and not even those remain. Unless she stashed them somewhere, knowing her time was coming.


    Hm? That¡¯s gross Bud, it wasn¡¯t like that between us. Because she was an aro ace who didn¡¯t want that kind of thing, that¡¯s why. I respected that. An aro ace is someone who doesn¡¯t seek romance, or biological reproduction, nor the activities associated with it. It¡¯s kind of a spectrum Bud. Some aro aces are okay with some affection and activities, some aren¡¯t. There¡¯s a lot to it, even if the terminology probably doesn¡¯t exist here on Rayileklia. I guess it¡¯s one of the few things I¡¯m glad of my Fakeworld memories for. The last affectionate night? She had probably seen her timer, knew it was coming the next day, and just wanted us close one final time.


    It¡¯s mostly horrific that her innate affinity was some sort of natural inclination towards deadlines or time limits. Huh? Well, let¡¯s put it this way. If you knew the exact second that I was absolutely one hundred percent destined to die, because of my corrupted mana residue buildup, how would you react?


    I agree. I¡¯d need some time to think about that too. What if when the numbers finally clarified, there was very little time left? What if the numbers were of your own demise? Yeah. Yeah, I¡¯d try to be there for you Bud. Let¡¯s hope that you¡¯re immortal is all, I guess. My point was more to explain some of why Dawn might have felt that way. You don¡¯t experience the world in the way biological sapient entities do, and that¡¯s okay. The thing is, no one really experiences the world exactly the same way as any other being. We each have our own lives, personalities, memories, reactions to stimuli and whatnot. Yeah, there you go, now you¡¯re getting it.


    Ugh, anyone ever tell you you¡¯re really good at distracting someone Bud? You¡¯re welcome? Hah. No, seriously though. I¡¯d be trapped in a dark spiral of horrific self doubt and sadness. I¡¯m absolutely serious. Did you read about the part after Lord Agni, when I returned home? Yeah, I¡¯m pretty sure it was the overload of corrupted mana residue buildup, now that I know I¡¯m a changeling, and that such a thing happens to our true inner selves when we use magic at all, especially before learning to use, and using our changeling gift.


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    Even still, I¡¯ve always been extremely emotional, and prone to being overly dramatic. Yeah, yes that¡¯s exactly my point though. I¡¯d be like that, right now. I¡¯d find some reason to keep blaming myself further and further into a black hole of despair, and just throw myself into some work, with absolutely no rest, until I basically died, or actually did die.


    Examples? I dunno, maybe I¡¯d go back to the Sisters¡¯ weird far-casted bubble room and read all the books in every bubble until I just keeled over. I know there are too many to read Bud, that¡¯s the point. I wouldn¡¯t be acting logically. Or maybe I¡¯d ignore Jarrah¡¯s warnings, and try to speed-craft multiple runes at the same time to master more, repeatedly. Yes, I¡¯m sure I¡¯d gush fountains of blood again. It started to feel like a daily occurrence in the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds.


    Hm? Yep, or that too. If I let you join that symbiosis thing with me, I¡¯d be ignoring Jarrah¡¯s warnings about what it might do to my very existence. He probably meant soul, but maybe something else. Still, thank you for the offer. Yeah, I¡¯m a bit addicted to power, or feeling powerful in some ways I guess. I¡¯ve always said it was so that I could protect the ones I love, and I meant it. Saving my own bacon meant preventing their sadness at having to grieve the loss of me. No, I still probably won¡¯t give up spellcasting, not even if we find a cure for the mana residue buildup. Huff, my deep breath and sad sigh are the only sounds in this cold, lonely place right now.


    I just, well. I¡¯m probably going to be less responsive to you for a while Bud. I¡¯m grateful for the chat, and the distraction, and glad you¡¯re in my head, but, but I just lost a friend who was counting on me. I lost her in the worst way, by failing her. I¡¯m going to need some time to be sad about it. Hellspit, how is Teuila going to feel? She left the Sisters of the Mist compound to go foraging and get water for us. Yeah, I agree, Teuila is great, her smile is precious, her hair is a gorgeous red flop of an undercut, swept to one side or the other.


    Bud, that¡¯s inappropriate. Well, just because. Look, we just don¡¯t talk about people¡¯s measurements. Of course we don¡¯t compare them. Yes, I know Teuila is almost all muscle, and Alanea was soft, curvy, and-- Bud hold on. Yes, Teuila did call her a shortstack, but Te was being a bit inappropriate there. I did so give her a hard time too. I gave her a disapproving look. I can¡¯t exactly give you a disapproving look, so yes, I¡¯m sort of yelling at you, figuratively.


    Huff. Bud, seriously, this is wearing me out. I need to sit and weep for a while. If you¡¯re going to talk at me, can you please think of things that don¡¯t require me to respond? Thank you Bud. Yes, it¡¯s a bit funny that your name is Lullaby, despite you being a weapon. We¡¯ll work at changing that later. I swear, you¡¯re important to me, and I want to help you with your desires and needs. I just need to cry this out.


    Lullaby¡¯s emotional wave communication begins to drone towards the background of my thoughts until I finally feel alone in my own head again for the moment. It now hits me just how horribly I¡¯ve failed. How I was utterly doomed to fail from the start. The moment I met Dawn outside of Autumn Brook at the cozy tree with Teuila, Dawn was on a path of destiny that led to her utter annihilation at my side.


    I should have dispelled any notion Dawn had of me being powerful, even when she showed up at Kozzurth¡¯s corpse after I¡¯d cut the gluttonous dragon¡¯s head off from the inside. Maybe she would have at least enjoyed her last month in Autumn Brook. Did Harriett remember Dawn? She¡¯d called Dawn a ghost from The Brook¡¯s past. Most people had forgotten about the young woman who left town to seemingly never return. I mean, it was several generations, quite a few decades ago when she left originally.


    We¡¯re nearing a full circle of our journey too. Noirdivinhoz, the temple that seems vaguely connected to the temple of time on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas is a few day¡¯s journey southwest around this edge of the mountain range, then from there, it¡¯s only a couple of day¡¯s journey to The Brook. Oh no! I, I don¡¯t have time to wallow in despair if the curse actually went through. All the Aasimovians are in danger.


    Harriet¡¯s smart though, right? If she sees all the ancestors wrought to dust, she¡¯d figure something out. She¡¯d send word to the other cities, or something, right? That would mean I can spare time to be sad. But what if, that thing. Admonish the adventurers. That¡¯s what she said she did, to someone inside, in secret. Dawn let on that it might be a glowing eyed individual, possibly.


    With all we¡¯ve learned so far, the glowing eyed entity that hounded me on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas could very well be some sort of avatar of the celestial dickweasel. We also know that ol¡¯ manxy has forces subverting nearby countries as he prepares to nail them under thumb. Aasimovia was only safe due to their reanimated ancestors, many of whom chose to take up arms and armors.


    Teuila and I are pretty certain they don¡¯t really react to any external stimuli, since they¡¯re just literally soulless automatons, basically preserved meat puppets without any orders. Even still, it was enough to keep any troops from being willing to invade Aasimovia. That¡¯s what Dawn¡¯s curse was truly about, not whatever the stupid high cultist¡¯s vendetta against Dawn was. The Bright Lord probably didn¡¯t give a rat¡¯s arse about the pustulent priest, or his petty grievances. It was just a convenient person to empower to do a thing he would have spent decades building up to do anyway.


    I wonder how old Dippy, our blue kobold buddy is. How many years has he been around? Could I send a message into Rayileklia¡¯s past, to him? Could I have him kill that jerkwad cultist before he ever meets Dawn? Somehow, I doubt it. I don¡¯t think Dippy¡¯s like a century old or more. I¡¯d probably fracture the timeline if I tried, since, without the curse, Dawn would never have lived long enough for us to meet her, so I¡¯d have no idea that at some point in my Rayileklian journey, that I would need to send a message back in time to prevent her from getting cursed.


    Then again, whichever timeline was solidifying as the primary timeline on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas seemed to work out paradoxes on its own for the most part. Or that could be because of my eventual choice to hand the reins of the timeline over to Luni. Who knows how many times I iterated on running through my life on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas to set things up the way they¡¯d gone down in the end? I didn¡¯t leave logs for myself of all the attempts, at least not in this particular branch of the timeline. So many things had to happen in such specific ways for us to have even the slightest chance that our family could survive the coming apocalypse.

 B 5 C 2: Locomotive Breath

    I drop my head into my hands and wearily weep. Dawn never had a chance to survive. Never. Her fate was dropped into my useless lap. I¡¯m dying, for the umpteenth time in my life, but this one seems more permanent. Most of them I could avert with time travel, or rest off because of being Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin adjacent. But not this time. Apparently I¡¯m truly a changeling Fae, and apparently we shouldn¡¯t mess with mana at all unless we use our natural inner gift in great quantities. But there¡¯s stupid ol¡¯ me, who tapped into an infinite wellspring of mana on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and went overboard with it, building up toxic mana residue within me. Stupid ol'' me who never even knew I was truly a changeling, or that we had some sort of inner gift to take care of.


    I can feel it. I can actually see it, since Alanea taught me about my inner self. Now that I know what to look for, I can gaze inwards at the desiccated husk that is the barely living inner me. Essentially it¡¯s my second soul I guess. Teuila wants Alanea to be wrong, to believe that Tiago¡¯s speculation about getting and absorbing more dragon hearts could be my cure. I can sense though that the dragonforce from Kozzurth¡¯s heart is flickering and fading faster and faster. I¡¯ve got maybe a month or so, if I don¡¯t take any more grave injuries that require the dragonforce to save my life from, between now and then.


    Why didn¡¯t I think to try to rip out my inner self to send that dragonforce to Dawn? We were both dying anyway, but if Dawn could have had the curse¡¯s connection to her soul severed by the weird barrier that Kozzurth¡¯s heart energy provided, it would have been worth dying. She¡¯d only have another month left to live, but at least she¡¯d get to spend it, non-cursed, with Teuila. ¡®Boss¡¯ in her lingo. Huff. That¡¯s making a lot of assumptions. Whether or not it was even possible, whether it would interact with the curse to block it at all, just, so many assumptions. Not knowing the would haves or could haves or should haves is vexing.


    My affinity being nothing is vexing too though. Or maybe, maybe it¡¯s something else. Jarrah said I have a remarkable affinity for absence. Cold magic has always been easier for me than most of my other forms of magic, because it¡¯s the absence of heat. I could draw the heat out of things, and rather than completely waste it, convert that heat into more mana. One energy to another and all that. Was I missing an application of an affinity for absence that could have saved Dawn?


    I can¡¯t just turn things to nothing, though that¡¯s what Dawn was hoping I could do for her in the end. I know I can make things denser, by creating an absence of space between molecules and various particles. It feels like this is all moot, because I could only do this stuff with my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever natively, naturally done any of it. How can the Sister think I have any special magical natural affinity at all? Maybe her weird, gross, wriggly, blood jello divination was just wrong. I want to blast my face with another seven more fireballs from the staff just thinking about when she smeared that still-wriggling jelly on my forehead. Wait. It never costed me mana to use my flash freeze storm after I unlocked thermokinesis. Do I have the ability somewhere innately after all? Somehow, deep within me, can I draw heat out of an area, without having to conjure that cold rune, and knock myself unconscious by empowering it?


    Huff. Whatever, Powers, time travel, magic, whatever, it¡¯s all just stupid nonsense at this point. I¡¯m going to die, and Teuila¡¯s going to be stuck trying to stem the tide of torrential terror about to wash over Rayileklia. Dawn made me promise to seek out a cure for myself, to not give up. Yet all I can think to do is to scour the globe to find Lil, Luni, and Lucky, to at least see them one last time before I die. I don¡¯t want to die not knowing whether or not Lil has ever forgiven me. Though maybe it would hurt less to die without knowing, than to know my best buddy, my dragon pal through most of my life, didn¡¯t forgive me for wielding the timeline in the way that it turned out.


    Luni, oh Lu. You fought so hard for all of us, for the timeline, and you fought my own brain to get me to notice how much you loved us, well, me in particular even. I¡¯m going to die, and I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ll ever see your sister Teuila again, to ever even learn about my death. Our weird, soul energy egg project son, Lucky the cragbeast hunter hound is there with you. Does he remind you of my existence? Will he become a painful reminder if you ever learn of my demise?


    My eyelids droop heavier and heavier. I can barely tolerate being conscious. I just want to sink into this despair and wallow in it. I¡¯m ready to leave all these realities behind to fend for themselves. My ragged breaths wrack my chest with pain at the moment. I must be dehydrated from all the crying, and the accidentally not eating or drinking much over something like eleven days. Whatever I guess. Maybe I deserve the pain for failing so badly.


    A voice startles me from just above my shoulder, ¡°Do not despair hero. Your journey is not at its end. This was the likeliest route, though we wished upon all our stars for your success to avoid it. You may yet aid in the salvation of Rayileklia. Or at least the prevention of its destruction. To do that, you must survive. The price, the cost for such a task is great, monumental even. But pay it you shall. The Valkyrie won¡¯t rest, perhaps ever, until her demise, if you fail to inform her. Speak to her of this chance, this opportunity, and its price.¡±


    I boggle at the Sister. What chance? What price? I don¡¯t even have to ask you. I now know you¡¯re psychic. You can hear my thoughts. Also, is that an actual prophesized prediction for Teuila, or are you just waxing poetic about how much she cares for me?


    The Sister smirks before explaining, ¡°You¡¯ve paid one, now you must pay five, and five, and six in order to remain, hm, mostly sane, and tethered to your mortal coil. That is to say, your friend, the saint, was wrong. You¡¯ve quite a number of hearts of elder beasts left to claim.¡±


    The Sister paces about the room, making a show of examining the pristine, empty stonework. She drags one of her ethereal, ephemeral hands along the wall beside her as she paces, before she adds, ¡°Those must occur if you are to have any hope of vanquishing the parasitic force that dwells within and around you. Even then, you¡¯ve a long, hard journey ahead of you if you manage to succeed in obtaining the hearts. There are further costs, further steps along the path of your journey you¡¯ll need to take afterwards. Beyond that, you might not even understand, or know, who or what you shall become in the end.¡±


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    The Sister strides closer to me to speak things that make almost no sense, ¡°Our master has received that which was fated. A message of infinite import. We had hoped that perhaps portions of the fate could be avoided, that it may perhaps have been able to happen under different circumstances. It seems fate is a cruel mistress, or perhaps three. We¡¯re sorry to have failed. We hope you still choose kindness.¡±


    The Sister begins to drift out the doorway and back up the hallway away from the wing that they¡¯ve dedicated as our suite. I scratch my head as I stare after her from beneath a furrowed brow. There¡¯s that worry of theirs again. Why are the Sisters so worried that I might choose to treat them with unkindness? They¡¯ve been nothing but great, or at least attempting to be great. I mean, I guess other than the elder Sister bonking me on the head twice with a stick. It¡¯s not like I didn¡¯t deserve those whacks anyway. The smacks were mostly playful attention grabbers rather than any sort of punishment or pain for the most part.


    My genre senses still ring some semblance of intrigue, and possibly danger about this place. I know there¡¯s more to this complex, and to the sisters, but I¡¯m fairly certain that everything they¡¯ve said to me was the truth as they believed it. They might have skeletons in their closets, but what sort of skeletons would warrant me giving in to my wrath? They¡¯ve been supposedly guiding and helping Rayileklian heroes and downtrodden for decades, centuries, eons maybe. Even if that was to atone for some monumental travesty perpetrated at their hands in the long distant past, who am I to judge?


    Or, heck, even if that travesty was recent, or even in the future, if they are so repentant, then, well, yeah. I¡¯m not exactly sinless in any of my timelines. There are things future Reggie has done that made me, or make me sick to my stomach, that I¡¯d like to atone for, or beg forgiveness for. Hell, a week or two ago I shattered five people after freezing them solid.


    Gods, I can¡¯t face my beloved Teuila right now, My Wings. What if she doesn¡¯t remember Dawn? What if she does? I need to get out of here. I just. I failed them all so badly, especially my beloved Teuila. I break down and find myself sobbing my heart out. The woman who would reach out to clasp my hand, and drag me sprinting along to share each new discovery and each new wonder. She¡¯ll either not know who I¡¯m sad for having failed, or she¡¯ll be devastated, utterly devastated.


    I struggle to stand as I slump against the wall, yet I fall to my knees. I repeat my attempt, over, and over, and over. My body is just not cooperating. Between the three or four days of hyperextended sagacious meditative state, reading and levitating four written works, and my apparent week or so reading in the Sisters¡¯ bubble room, I¡¯m spent. Fine, I¡¯ll crawl back to the bubble room. Maybe I can find the bubble with the diaries that I suspect to have been written by Taylynn¡¯s great grandmother. Some source of distraction and mild sadness to wallow in. Or perhaps I¡¯ll stumble across something that could have cured Dawn. I¡¯d risk spending the lifeforce within the egg gifted to me by the roc and phoenix couple to send a message about that cure back in time.


    Unless, unless the price would be too steep for Dawn to accept. She made no effort to indicate she was willing to seek out a heavily populated city for us to bodybind her soul by slaughtering all who dwell within its boundaries. I do worry that it may have been done before. Jeegoobotstan was razed sometime in the last decade or two, possibly very recently. If I survive and make it out that way some day, I¡¯ll scour the city limits for traces of a massive runic circle. If the city was sacrificed to grant someone a body-bound soul, giving them partial immortality at that price, along with the eternal pain that comes with it, what should I do if I ever meet them?


    Their body will be as resilient as the Aasimovian ancestors, possibly even more so, protected by the soul binding enchantment. They¡¯d likely even survive beyond death in some ways, possibly able to have their soul retreat to a phylactery while their body reassembled or regenerated at some point, like a lich. What if they were truly repentent, and utterly regretted what they¡¯d done? I hate moral quandaries. I draw a ragged breath and loose a slow, sad sigh as I continue crawling down the corridor, on my hands and knees.


    My persistence is somehow like a train without a brake handle. I go on and on, with no way to slow down. No matter how breathless I feel. Despite wanting to wallow, I¡¯m forcing myself to head somewhere where I might do something at least semi-useful. Never even any time to catch a breath for the locomotive that is Reggie Shellcracker. My locomotive breath. At that turn of phrase, my brain blue screens hard, and when I resume being able to perceive the world, I find myself on my side gasping for air.


    Huff. What even are those episodes anyway? They¡¯ll pop up at the most random times. Some are little fritzes, while others are downright like a personal computer¡¯s BSOD from the nineties or the aughts on Fakeworld. Forced to reboot. Hm, that¡¯s more specific than most of my memories of Earth have gotten so far on my journey. A long while back, I didn¡¯t know the names or times or locations of anyone or anything on Fakeworld, I just had memories of how society was supposed to be in what, to my memories, was the most modern times.


    More and more memories show up though, insistent about the way a world is supposed to work, and they¡¯re never right. On Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, humans barely existed, and even they interacted with the fantastical nature of our world. Yet my Fakeworld, Earth memories insist humans don¡¯t have or interact with magic at all, that none exists. Even here on Rayileklia, magic exists, though it¡¯s weird to not have met almost any spellcasters, despite a wealth of spellbooks having been stolen by Milbert of Navica, the necromancer operating the soul-stealing light from his tower outside Victo.


    Hell, Aces, that skulking assassin who¡¯d spent many a night in Victo with Selunie Tavner, or Taylynn was a skeptic. Aces somehow didn¡¯t believe in magic, despite being taught magic by someone in the Hidden Heart. Despite Taylynn having given them the magical dagger in the bone sheathe with alchemical symbols on it. I think the symbols were antimony, arsenic, and quicksilver, mercury that is. I guess it doesn¡¯t matter what the symbols were. Hopefully Taylynn returns to Victo some day, and retrieves her dagger from where I¡¯d left it with Selunie Tavner¡¯s cousin. She¡¯ll know that it means Aces has perished.


    My eyelids are so heavy, and my limbs are so weak. Just keep pushing onward, let my trains of thought keep hopping the tracks, despite those locomotives¡¯ lack of any way to slow down. Branching and congregating trains of thought sometimes leave me breathless as my brain hops from one series of thoughts to the next. Like when I accidentally trigger one of my panic attacks by thinking of a certain simple two word phrase. Right now, my panic attacks are in a weird fast forward state, thanks to Jarrah Bettergrove¡¯s crazy chamber at the top of the Enochian Enclave. I don¡¯t know how long that will last though.


    This non-stop locomotive should steel itself for what¡¯s to come. This little locomotive that is me, Reggie Shellcracker, should fight for their breath, and struggle onward, to seek the cure Dawn wanted me to find, the one the Sister hinted existed. What was it, five and five and six, sixteen more elder dragon hearts? Sheesh, it was bad enough when we were hoping it was three. Where am I going to find sixteen more ancient evil dragons? Huff. Plow through every obstacle around the world like a train off its tracks that has no way to slow down I suppose.

 B 5 C 3: Wicked, Weary, Restless

    Despite having some semblance of an idea that might constitute a plan, I still haven¡¯t had time to grieve. My body won¡¯t listen to me, my mind barely registers the deep sadness welling up inside of me, my time is limited, and my options are few. Drawing a deep breath, I loose a long exasperated sigh. Just another day in the life of Reggie Shellcracker, all things considered. How messed up is that? My life has been so utterly, ridiculously crazy, that this doesn¡¯t even register as an unusual day. Hellspit and fel fires what an existence.


    Still though. When I think about Teuila, Luni, Linti, Lil, Lucky, Laomati, Agwai, Fawns At Sunsets, all the sets of twins, everyone from back home in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I know it was worth it. I hate that it¡¯s true, but it was all worth it. Every last stupidly crazy bit of nonsense. Dying multiple times, everything, all of it. I flex my jaw to keep my mandible joint from locking up worse than it already is, and I shake my head while loosing another exasperated sigh. How do I get the time off to process, and grieve Dawn¡¯s complete, utter erasure from existence? How do I earn that time, when I¡¯m staring down a ticking clock myself?


    I¡¯ve been crawling all this while, while stuck in my own head, and I¡¯m almost to that darkened room filled with the strange bubbles that gaze out upon places in Rayileklia. It¡¯s weird that I can interact with the books within those bubbles. I guess it¡¯s a far more powerful version of the far-casted sensing spell that I learned recently. Hm, before too much longer, I should try to check in on the Derbrightmine Dominion. They weren¡¯t the best people, what with their whole mafioso act and extortion, but even still, Don had a scrying pool or something that told him dragons would rain hell upon the dwarven domain.


    I wonder if Dippy made it home safely. Did he bring all those soul-stolen animals with him? I was a bit loopy when I left the kobolds¡¯ warrens, so I couldn¡¯t farcast my senses into their warrens, but I remember the ledge extremely well. Being smashed to a bloody pulp by rock monsters sorta ingrains a location into your mind, as well as your face, and bones when the rock monster uses you as a wall scubber. Pft, then brave, frightened Dippy comes down to save me with a massive lit stick of dynamite, too big for him to throw. The goof is lucky that I¡¯ve got experience surviving explosions, and that I had a spare suit of Valkyrie armor shrunken down to be able to instantly gear him up in.


    I hope the armor serves Dippy well. I hope that Miza, Scrap, Elder, and all the younglings are okay. Huff, grr. I, I can¡¯t do it. I can¡¯t just ignore the fact that I can look in on these people that I care about. Or I can at least look near where they¡¯d be. I dig about in my hyperdimensional haversack for some assorted gemstones, my cooking pot, and a few other things in order to create a scrying sensor.


    Now to empower the edges in the correct runostructure. Thankfully these ones were taught to me masterfully automatically from that particular book during my heightened sagacious state in the carriage. Alright, let¡¯s do this. Magic of Rayileklia? You¡¯re killing me too, so at least give me this. This little bit of reassurance that we haven¡¯t effed up the entirety of the world on our travels.


    Crushing the gemstones into a powder, mixing it with what little paste I can find in my pack, and coating the edges of my Valkyrie shield with it is the best sensor I can make at the moment. I¡¯ll be able to gaze into its reflective inner surface. Come on, come on. It¡¯s utterly black, complete pitch darkness. There were at least a few luma tulipa along the mountain range that provided some light. What¡¯s going on? Is this spell even functioning properly? Grr. Alright, bring out my potent staff from its secret sheath, extend it to full size, and cast the aura vision spell on myself.


    Huff, yep, that rune is fine, so is that one, and that one, yep. All of these are perfect to a tee. They¡¯re fully empowered since I haven¡¯t used up my daily vitality worth of runecrafting today. Or well, sorcery points is what Lullaby thinks I should call them. I¡¯ve got a few hundred per day when I¡¯m healthy and rested, something like six hundred or so. Less when I¡¯m in a state like I am right now, but it generally only takes a few dozen per spell. Runes are slow as heck to craft, so it¡¯s not like it¡¯s easy to use all of them up in a day unless that¡¯s all I¡¯m doing all day. Well, if I use the new quick-crafting runic ability I learned while studying the four tomes, I can generate runes fast enough to actually use in a timely manner, instead of taking seconds to minutes per rune, but that eats double or triple my sorcery points per rune, depending on complexity and a few factors.


    Grr, hellspit and fel fires, the spell is functioning perfectly. So why is the image completely dark? Did the kobolds dig up all the nearby luma tulipa? Alright, let¡¯s go cast it inside the Derbrightmine Dominion to test this out. Calm your breathing Reggie, just focus. You may not be a master, or even any good at Rayileklian spellcraft, but you can do this. Alright, using up a bunch of gems, gem powder and paste for these attempts, and I haven¡¯t even gotten around to applying permanency to any of my available enchantments yet. I know I¡¯ve got millions upon millions worth of gems in my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian inventory, but I really don¡¯t want to have to bleed light and life everywhere to access those.


    Ugh, my stomach hurts, I¡¯m starving. I should have taken some of the digital fish from Teuila¡¯s pack. Whatever, it¡¯s fine. Finish this up, then start exploring the scrying bubbles. Okay, and now we check out our dwarven, well, not allies, but not enemies either. What the flub? It¡¯s like the sensor is inside solid stone, and being shunted to the nearest location not in solid stone. I know I¡¯m doing this right, I know what the entirety of their city looks like. How could the sensor be in solid sto¡ª? Oh. Oh no. Please no. Is their entire city caved in? Did I get all of the Derbrightmine dwarves killed with my ask? Or well, Teuila and Dippy¡¯s ask. Teuila and Dippy got Don Derbrightmine to agree to stop extorting the kobolds for gems. The Don said that the dwarves would face unholy hellfire for being unable to pay tribute to the dragons, plural. He was afraid of one in particular, Terrorzin.


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    I think I¡¯m going to be sick. There¡¯s nothing but destruction in our wake. We slew most of a whole cult full of people, and those we didn¡¯t slay, I buried beneath millions of tons of rubble when I caved in the cult compound that lead to their cathedral of blood. That one, that one¡¯s totally on me and Teuila and Dippy and koff, sniffle, Dawn. But Aasimovia is soon to be under siege, I can¡¯t find the Derbrightmine dwarves or the kobolds, Victo is left with almost no souled person still alive within its walls. Sure, we didn¡¯t steal their souls, Milbert of Navica did, for the Bright Lord, our manxome foe. We didn¡¯t get there in time to stop him from stealing all those souls though, and we did destroy his tower, leaving more destruction in our wake.


    As far as I know, the only thing still standing, with a chance of continuing to stand, is the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds. One last bastion on Rayileklia, the forest of the Fae, protected by Bastet, Anubis, Oberon, and Mab, and in some ways, my mentor, Jarrah Bettergrove, and our friends Alanea Whifflewillow, and Flint Darklace. Sure, Flint¡¯s got a creepy gaze that makes him a bit of a sleaze, but he was still a decent fellow. Helped save my life with everyone else.


    After using up so many components, and sorcery points to quickly set up these two scries, and learning either nothing, or possibly horrific implications, I¡¯m afraid. I¡¯m afraid to try again to check in on The Brook, or anywhere else. Wait. Daffodil Tarquin, keeper of Noirdivinhoz. Just one, smiling, friendly, elderly face. Please. Please let one person yet exist that we haven¡¯t brought ruin to. Please grant me this. I apply the mixture and runes again, imagining Daffodil¡¯s hale, her thatch home. Please be alright. Vision!


    Okay, okay, it¡¯s dim in here, and I don¡¯t see her in here, but she has to plant and grow and harvest her own crops, and she was making an adobe home, brick by brick, to begin living in that. This isn¡¯t confirmation that she¡¯s dead, nor that she¡¯s alright, but it¡¯s less horrifyingly implicative than the other two sensors were. Hm, the curtain on her hale is rustling and, yes! As the curtain lifts aside, a familiar, leathery-skinned woman in simple robes slung over one shoulder appears. I could weep.


    Wait. Can she see the sensor? She¡¯s bending down in a way that leaves me with a closeup of her nostrils and eyes. She¡¯s poking where the sensor would be. Oh Daffodil, you wonderful, kind woman. Thank you for existing. I guess thank you for picking your nose using the reflection of the sensor? I¡¯m going to just let this scrying spell drop to give you your privacy. I¡¯m not sure what reflective surface was exactly where I¡¯d projected the sensor, but, well, yes. Or maybe the spell itself shows off exactly what I¡¯m using to scry in that location? In this case, my copy of the Valkyrie shield. The spelliforms didn¡¯t detail what showed up on the other end, if anything. I¡¯ll have to be careful if I try to scry on an enemy.


    So, I know the spell works, absolutely for certain. I¡¯m still too scared to check on The Brook, what with the scrying on both kobolds¡¯ warrens and the dwarven dominion giving me such horrible implications. I¡¯m just going to bury myself in research. Hopefully the Sisters tell Teuila where I am, rather than letting me leave her clueless for however many hours, days, or weeks I end up perusing the book bubbles. Ugh, I can¡¯t bear the thought.


    I couldn¡¯t do that to her, I couldn¡¯t hide myself away and possibly leave her alone to grieve for however long. Fine, I¡¯m just going to sit here and sob, and weep, until Teuila gets back. I let my mind wander as I sit against the wall outside the Sisters¡¯ book bubbles room. Lullaby¡¯s song penetrates my grieving thoughts. Despite us not being in the wilds, his emotional extolling through sound is comforting, saddening, restful. I begin to drift off into short, fitful naps.


    I dream of epic battles that I¡¯ve had, ones I¡¯ve yet to participate in. I dream of who or what might have razed an entire city-state country, what sort of power they might have acquired from sacrificing so many people. I dream of the sentient artifacts in our possession. Requiem, the Silent Song, once Dirge, Requiem For the Wounded, and Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark, once Balchar¡¯s Flame, and of course Bud, Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds. I dream yet further of artifacts we¡¯ve either possessed, or may need to come into possession of along our journeys. A spear that I hate viscerally, a cauldron, a staff, and something that¡¯s either a bracelet or diadem or crown. It¡¯s an unusual sleep, I¡¯m often not aware that I¡¯m dreaming, let alone able to parse and recall the subject matter. This must be Lullaby¡¯s effect. If we were traveling, we¡¯d remain slightly alert while sleeping, easing the travel journey for us, the main purview of his power.


    The sound of air being cut swiftly around several corners, with the sounds of a single footstep at each corner, are carried to my sleeping ears. Someone at a dead sprint is nearly floating, only touching down once per hallway. Someone who barely suppresses a sob caught in her throat. Someone among the most beloved to me in all the worlds. A familiar form enters the sensory range of my silent sonar granted by my danger wraps. The woman wracked by sobs and tears barrels straight into my sleeping form. My Teuila, My Wings awakens me upon impact, and I draw a shuddering breath before loosing a sad sigh that becomes sobs right along with her.


    We sink into a tearful embrace that lasts seemingly eons. Neither of us cares to move to even adopt a more comfortable position. Teuila mourns Dawn. Teuila mourns Dawn, and if I don¡¯t finish mastering the telepathy enchantment, Teuila will retreat into her own mind, and do untold damage to her own psyche as she wallows in despair. Seems like you¡¯ve got an awful lot of work to do now, Reggie Shellcracker. As always, no rest for the wicked or weary, let alone the weary wicked that is you.

 B 5 C 4: Guess Whos Back?

    I¡¯m tempted to break Jarrah¡¯s rules, or, rather, go against his dire warnings, and take shortcuts with Rayileklian magic. I¡¯m already dying anyway. Teuila needs our telepathic bond back, as soon as possible. I¡¯m able to learn the runes more quickly with the spellcraft enhancement I gained from one of the four tomes I¡¯d read in a levitating trance, but it will still take some time.


    Despite wanting to simply sit here, crying with Teuila, I practice each of the runes for the telepathy enchantment, one at a time, over and over and over. Crafting runotypes in three dimensional space is difficult for anyone, most people are supposedly able to incant, either a chant or song that speeds up and helps mold the rune perfectly for them. I¡¯ve got no such ability. I simply brute force my way into magic by manually crafting each rune painstakingly until I can get it down to perfection by rote, and ingrain that into my muscle memory.


    I fail hundreds of times per rune, about a thousand on average, which realistically takes me two days to safely do, but when have I ever been realistic, or safe? I think with the new enhancements though, the enchantment from that tome, I might be able to learn a rune perfectly in as few as a hundred, or a hundred and one attempts, maybe two hundred. Still about an hour or more per rune if I don¡¯t want to waste sorcery points speeding up the process. I¡¯d be able to practice too few runes a day if I enhanced the quickness of the runocrafting by doubling or tripling their costs. I drop a weighted sigh while shaking my head at myself.


    Teuila¡¯s sobs finally cease, and are replaced by a slow, rhythmic breathing, occasionally punctuated by a soft snore. I know Te. I know. You must be exhausted. You miss Linti, Lightning Hunter, your Lin. You miss Alanea enough for the both of us, now you¡¯ll miss Dawn too. After a ragged breath I sob a single sad sigh. I can barely even handle this reality. I couldn¡¯t leave behind a large memory to continue to remind people of the pain of my loss. I don¡¯t have much faith in my ability to succeed in getting sixteen more dragon hearts. The first one was a stroke of miraculous luck, stumbling onto an evil dragon on the plains, leading the plains Colossi with Karn Dragonslayer. Dumbarse, totally willing to let her kill and eat every little humanoid before finally earning his name.


    I guess he was probably doing it for the safety of his kin. He did offer up some fair reasoning about wanting them to live, and he relented on the matter to be resolved by one on one duels. Teuila slew Karn, the Colossi leader, as per the terms of their duel, and I was left facing Kozzurth, the draconic leader. Good thing my thermal resistance is as high as it is. I can¡¯t believe how lucky I was. Kozzurth supposedly had three elements at her disposal, and she chose fire to try to end me with. She spent so long charging up her breath attack, that she couldn¡¯t see me walk through the fire. She didn¡¯t even know I¡¯d leapt into her mouth until I began sawing her head off from inside her throat.


    Whatever battle strategy I¡¯d had prepped was thrown out the window the moment she sat in the center of the arena, and slowly spun while I walked a circle around its circumference. Luckily for me honestly. Having to try to ground a flying dragon without my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian inventory and space magics would be difficult to say the least. Even with the acidic cloud cover that constantly streaks lightning and blankets all of Rayileklia endlessly.


    I think we spend days sitting here, bouts of tears taking over us between fitful naps. Sobs and rumbling stomachs the only sound to break our silent mourning. In fact, it has to have been days in this embrace, as I¡¯m approaching the last rune for the telepathy enchantment. I¡¯m around five or six times better at learning the runes at this point, and my sorcery point daily limit continues to increase. Still, it turns out this spell only has maybe twenty one runes that I don¡¯t, or well, didn¡¯t already have perfectly ingrained by rote into my muscle memory. Some of the instructional runes provided for certain spells by the enchanting books I read in my heightened state happen to apply. I finally master the last rune required to be able to cast the enchantment, and drift off into another fitful slumber


    When I awaken, Teuila looks like she¡¯s about to give up on everything, and just walk a random direction in the wilderness, to never return and never be seen again. With how well I know this woman to the very depths of the ocean of her emotions, I¡¯m almost positive that that exact thought is passing through her mind. I clasp her hands tightly and draw her gaze to stare into her eyes.


    I speak, for perhaps the first time in days, ¡°I have a surprise for you. A little something I¡¯ve been doing to work through the grief. Sit here a bit while I prepare the stuff?¡±


    Teuila sniffles, but nods before she eyes me with curiosity. She sits against the wall, slumping down in sadness once more, no longer ready to just leave everything behind. I dig about for enough rubies in my hyperdimensional haversack to create the permanentifying paste for the telepathy enchantment. Once I¡¯ve got enough, I grind the rubies to dust, and mix the paste as quickly as I can. Despite how urgently and quickly I want to do this, I craft the runes agonizingly slowly, using my basic brute force method, rather than quickening it at the cost of more sorcery points. Teuila hiccups occasionally as she sobs only infrequently.


    I close my eyes and beg all that is good in the universe that this works appropriately, despite us not being Rayileklian life forms. Teuila¡¯s mind is an odd digital encyclopedic construct, and mine is adjacent to that as well. Please, please if there is any mercy left in the universe for us. Just let this work. I finish casting the telepathic enchantment, with only the two of us as its targets, and I quickly begin applying the permanency via the ruby paste. I permanently ingrain the enchantment along Teuila¡¯s face, Jaw, forehead, ears, brow, neck, and portions of her spine.


    I gulp and close my eyes once more as I think testingly at Teuila, ¡°Te, can you he¡ª¡°


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    Teuila excitedly launches herself at me so hard that we go rolling about the hallway. There¡¯s joyous laughter mingling with her saddened sobs as we begin to trade pin after pin with each other. My love, My Wings. We¡¯re back.


    Teuila telepathically adds, ¡°Damn straight! My Airhead, my Air, the very Air that I breathe. You did it! I knew you could! I didn¡¯t realize you were able to work on this while we were both crying our hearts out. I didn¡¯t even think to try working on anything. Hiccup. Sniffle. But, but you did it. I can feel you in my head again. Where you belong.¡±


    I cup her cheek and she strokes my hand while we rest our foreheads together, just relishing our return to this bit of normalcy for us. Our telepathy was such a huge part of our Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian lives. My strong-willed, ferociously powerful, athletic, beautiful, kind, wonderful Teuila. There¡¯s so much I want to tell you, so much I want to do for you. I¡¯m struggling between wallowing, giving up on everything, and working myself bone-dry until I die. I, I might actually be closer to that second one, with how long we¡¯ve been sitting here.


    Te responds to my train of thoughts, ¡°Oh crap that¡¯s right! I got water for us, it¡¯s back in our room! I, glp. A Sister found me there, while I was unpacking what I¡¯d foraged, she, she told me about Dawny. Somehow I remember her. The day it happened, my memories were all weird for a little bit, like suddenly they didn¡¯t make sense, why we didn¡¯t sleep in the same sleeping bag for a while, and stuff, just like an empty space where Dawny should be in my memories. Then poof, there she was, back in my brain. Did you do that?¡±


    I nod, gulping down sadness. It was the only thing I succeeded at doing in the end. Teuila, oh my beloved Teuila, to have you in my head again, it feels like it¡¯s the only good thing so far on Rayileklia. I know that¡¯s not quite true, but I¡¯m so glad to have you back. To have our bond back.


    Te grins down at me, still hiccuping and sobbing occasionally between laughs. Several tears splash upon my face as she acknowledges the same, ¡°Yeah, me too, obvee, Airhead. Gosh, do you think if we went back to the Hidden Heart, that we could get Big A. In on this? Could I maybe see that changeling you of your inner self with her? Ugh, I¡¯m sorry, I shouldn¡¯t be jealous of stuff like that. I keep doing that. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    I wear a sad half frown as I shrug one shoulder at Teuila. Oh, before I forget, uh, well, hm. Te, remember how I¡¯m dying?


    Teuila¡¯s frown becomes a saddened scowl as her telepathic reply comes across incredulously, ¡°Remember? How could I ever forget? I just, I want my time with you to, to, to be something other than watching the clock tick life away. You big jerk. What the hell?¡±


    I pout as I try to explain into Teuila¡¯s brain, before she can beat me up, ¡°Te, the Sisters, one told me something. She said I paid one, but that I needed to pay five and five and six more. She was talking about elder dragon hearts, seventeen total, so sixteen more. I don¡¯t know why. She hinted that, at that point, I¡¯d figure out something about the cure for my condition. She also said some cryptic stuff about me not knowing who or what I¡¯d become after accomplishing it.¡±


    I quickly telepathically add, ¡°You know, normal crazy seer lady stuff. Point is, she made it sound possible. Hell, she made it sound likely even, that we would make it to that point. Especially after she said that we were basically already on the most likely path, that they¡¯d hoped to avert at least a bit of it.¡±


    Teuila fairly glows with new hope as her mind sends to mine, ¡°What!? Really? Then, then, then we¡¯ve gotta get started right away. Dawny, she, she made me promise, like every day for a week, that, that I¡¯d find your cure, that I wouldn¡¯t just give up, and watch you die, or let you do that to yourself either. I, I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t right away. It broke me so hard when I found out. My heart is still in so much pain. Air, love, how do normal people get through stuff like this?¡±


    I sniffle and nod along with Teuila. I shake my head unknowingly to answer her question, but, to lighten the mood, I joke into her mind, ¡°I don¡¯t think normal people do get through stuff like this, because I don¡¯t think normal people have centuries old friends cursed to fade from existence and bring down a whole nation with them.¡±


    Teuila playfully slaps me before grinning at me like a loon. I can¡¯t help smiling as I gaze upon her gorgeous countenance. Her face radiates strength and beauty. I lose myself in her emerald eyes, like tumbling down a mineshaft bored through the purest vein of emerald in all of existence. Surreal, sparkling, dark and deep. Also, apparently, descriptive enough to make My Wings blush. Sorry Teuila, heh. I adore everything about you.


    Glp. Hi Bud, yes, that stuff too, but I¡¯ve told you that¡¯s not appropri¡ª


    Teuila bursts into laughter across our telepathic wavelength. She queries, ¡°Wait, wait, that¡¯s what Lullaby sounds like? I totally hear the family resemblance, also, haha, watch it buster. Airhead is right. Ya gotta at least buy a gal some sweets before ya start talking about the badonkas and stuff. Obvee.¡±


    Pfft, hahaha. That¡¯s my Teuila alright. Yes Bud, she¡¯s just as wonderful and amazing telepathically, all the way into the very depths of her mindscape, as she is in all the other ways. Her mindscape? Well, our original shared mindscape was basically just a big shady tree atop a grassy hill on a forever sunny day. Hers specifically though? Well it was a wild ocean, a stormy sea of literally moving emotions. Her inner self was a, wait, really? Te, did you hear that? Do you want to try it?


    Teuila virtually shouts into our telepathic bond, ¡°Yes, yes yes yes yes yes! Please Lullaby, Bud, please, please yes! I didn¡¯t know you were reading about my Airhead¡¯s life on their inner self thingy. Ugh, another person I get to be jealous of. Err, sorry. Please though Bud, yes, just like the way you read it.¡±


    Lullaby¡¯s song slowly begins to craft wilds, a wilderness to be populated in our mindscapes. He sings into creation a hill, and atop that hill a lively, shady tree. Our telepathic avatars slowly materialize in response to having a location in which to propagate. Teuila¡¯s avatar takes the hand of mine, and she dashes up the hill towards our tree. I catch her and spin her about, running with her in my arms, laughing joyously as even my mental avatar is a klutz. My avatar trips on its own feet, which sends the two of us rolling up the hill to thunk into the trunk of the tree, laughing all the while.


    We laze about, staring into each other¡¯s eyes, even our mental avatars crying tears of pure joy. We¡¯re back together. We¡¯re truly together again. Let¡¯s never part, ever again.


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar mumbles her thanks to Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds, ¡°Bud, thank you, this is probably the best gift you could have given me right now. What? Pfftt, hahaha. Okay, sure, you earned the right to talk about hooters and blowfish, honkers and badonkers. Hehe, you¡¯re such a dork. Yes, it¡¯s okay to be a dork, especially when I¡¯m the one calling you one. Thank you Bud. Just thank you so much.¡±

 B 5 C 5: Scatterbrained

    Thinking towards Teuila, I conjecture, ¡°I think the spell has some built in stuff, where if we use repeat applications of it, and layer up the permanency with rarer and rarer qualities of rubies, in greater and greater quantities, it can have greater and greater range for example. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯ll ever give us accelerated thinkspace time, but we have no idea how Rayileklian magic really interplays with us being Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian and us already having had similar effects in our lives in the past.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar nods along, then she suddenly stops nodding as her eyes light up, a realization dawning upon her. She quickly claims, ¡°So, so, so remember the thing? I was going to give it a few days to see if it panned out. It¡¯s, eh, not what I thought, or hoped, but, remember how I got some weird ethereal fire thingy, where it seemed like I was somewhere ahead of me? Only, like, I could send that ahead, and then if I wanted to, I could be there, like it dragged me, not like a teleport. At least I don¡¯t think so. Anyway, the Eenookie buddies were practicing lots of things, I think like, in preparation for defense against ol¡¯ manxy.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s avatar looks quizzical for a moment as she taps her chin with her index finger. She realizes she was in the middle of telling me something, and gets back to it, ¡°Oh, right right. So, lots of things going on, I was trying to learn from all the books, beyond just like sucking up enchantment juice or whatever. Shush Bud, you¡¯re a dirty monkey, ya dork. Haha, yes I know you¡¯re not a monkey. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right. So I understand a couple of runes, at least like, their names and stuff. I¡¯m really trying to find one that means wind and air and stuff. Can you please keep an eye out for one Airhead? I want to see if I can sorta somehow get my hurricane shot back, even if I¡¯ve gotta use some Rayileklian moony runey magic instead. Plus some other things, I¡¯ll tell you about them if they pan out, obvee.¡±


    I nod along before agreeing, ¡°Of course Teuila, absolutely. I¡¯ll dig through our available spellbooks, or any that we find in the bubble room. Do you want to help me dig through the bubbles for useful books? Oh oh oh! I found one that, I¡¯m like, ninety five percent sure was like, super detailed diaries by Taylynn¡¯s great grandmother. I mean, she had a great grandchild called Tabitha Lynnia who was a wild child with a shock of red hair that wanted to learn swordplay and fencing and equestrianism instead of etiquette and grammar and finishing school and stuff. She ran away from home after shaving the sides of her head, stealing a dagger, a sword, and a horse, only stopping back every few years to check in on great granny. That¡¯s gotta be her, right?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s mental avatar chuckles and shrugs before responding, ¡°I dunno, you tell me. I¡¯m not the one dreaming steaming steamy dreamies about a couple of Rayileklian cuties from Aces¡¯ past. Hehe, my Airhead.¡±


    My live self, and my telepathic avatar blush to high heavens. I forgot about that minor detail. When Lu or Te are in my head, they take pretty much any opportunity to fluster me with embarrassing things. Oh well, hah. Anything to have you back in my head, My Wings. I love you so very much.


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar looks ponderous again. Teuila compares herself, ¡°Ya know, if I lived on Rayileklia first, and I had a family that wanted me to do that sorta stuff, I¡¯d probably do the same thing. Heck, it sounds like we¡¯ve got about the same haircut too. I betcha she¡¯s fit as all get out, and ravishing and stuff. I hope she¡¯s still alive, I kinda want to meet her. You talk her up in your dreams about Aces and stuff. Definitely someone I¡¯d smooch on.¡±


    I chuckle. I love how Teuila can be so open with me, especially in my head, and that certain emotions that aren¡¯t as deep for her, just sit at the surface, and she¡¯s willing to spill them anywhere. It¡¯s those deeper, harder to name emotions that catch her off guard, and leave her unable to voice her thoughts. There¡¯s that underlying subconscious fear that too much will boil over when she allows herself to share something from such depths within her.


    It¡¯s also amusing in a bit of a hilarious way to think of Teuila meeting Taylynn, and Teuila trying to flirt enough to end up sharing smooching time. Though, until recently I¡¯d only suspected that Taylynn might have had romantic feelings for Selunie, so I didn¡¯t know Taylynn¡¯s preferences for sure. Her great grandmother¡¯s diaries confirmed that they¡¯ve been in love since Taylynn was in her late teens, early twenties, or so.


    Teuila coughs and sputters telepathically, ¡°She what? Hack, koff, ow, what? Really? I mean, I kinda thought maybe you were getting a little, well, maybe some crossed wires with our own big poly love circle and stuff. Ow, I snorted so hard my sinuses hurt. Meanie. But really though Airhead? Sel and Tay? And they both were with Aces too? Lucky skulker I¡¯d say. Poor Selunie though. Dead since June. Heck, poor Taylynn, probably doesn¡¯t even know either of her squeezes are gone yet.¡±


    Teuila pretends to whistle innocently, but I know exactly what she¡¯s thinking. She¡¯d make a salacious joke about comforting Taylynn in her time of grieving with her lips. Teuila catches my line of thought, and her mental avatar tackles mine off our hill, we go rolling down it, laughing as she¡¯s swatting me in the face with grass that she rips up from our mindscape.


    Teuila grumbles, ¡°Shush your airy brain ya big Airhead, only I get to tease you about that kind of stuff. Nyeh.¡± She blows a raspberry from her position mounted atop me, straddling my torso.


    I can¡¯t help laughing at the hypocrisy of it. She can be such a goof, and I absolutely adore her for it. I draw a ragged, shuddering breath as my meatspace body¡¯s eyes well with tears of joy. I loose a contented sigh while smiling widely and shaking my head playfully at Teuila.


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    As we drop out of thinkspace, Teuila asks, ¡°So, you need like, better and better rubies to layer that up more and more? Have you just been using like saddle and shoe glue to make the rune ink stuff? Don¡¯t we have anything better than that? Or does the, um, compound not really matter so much as the gem reagent?¡±


    I nod in response to most of Teuila¡¯s questions, answering, ¡°Yeah, aye, more and better rubies, and I¡¯ve been using up the glue paste, yes. I couldn¡¯t think of anything offhand, and I was out of water, though the water wouldn¡¯t really hold the gem dust anyway, it¡¯d just sink. But yeah, exactly right, it¡¯s mostly about the rarity of the reagent, somehow certain minerals and crystalline structures communicate something to the mana of Rayileklia to infuse something permanently, but each batch is basically a single use, so I could understand why there aren¡¯t tons of enchanters doing tons of enchantments.¡±


    I try to explain my reasoning, ¡°Gems are pretty scarce here, what with dragons and kobolds eating them, and stuff. I¡¯m sure when Berinon settled in The Brook, he probably did like, single rune durability enchantments on all the houses or something like that. I remember Tiago or George I think saying something about Berinon¡¯s enchanting skills. Oh, before I forget, do you have any rose carnelians in your inventory? They¡¯re what I¡¯d need to make the telekinesis enchantment permanent, so that I could always have it active.¡±


    Teuila takes up a ponderous appearance yet again, before shrugging in response, ¡°I¡¯m not even sure I know what one looks like, but I¡¯m pretty sure the answer is no. Lots of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, agates, peridots, but nothing further down the Mohs¡¯ or deeper into quartz and quartzite, stuff like that. It would be good to get that power for you though, it was strong enough to capture a, well, a lady who made some bad choices. Poor Hellga.¡±


    I have to rub my itchy, wet eyes upon hearing Teuila¡¯s lamentation. I entirely agree. Poor Hellga. Oh crap on a cracker. I need to tell Teuila my fears about what I¡¯d seen with my scrying sensors.


    In meatspace, I start out, ¡°Te? Good news is, I¡¯m certain Daffodil, Keeper of Noirdivinhoz is okay. Bad news is, I¡¯m not sure any of the dwarves or kobolds are. When I used magic to look in on their locations, everything was pitch black, or just stone. I checked them first, and worried that I did the spell wrong, but then I tried again to check in on Daffodil, and the spell worked fine, and she¡¯s okay. So, um. I fear the worst.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s eyes water and her lips quiver as she fights back a sob to express her sorrows, ¡°No, oh no. Miza, Scrap, Elder, Dippy, Shroom, even that dickhead Timbik. Oh no. Airhead, we should start heading that way soon. We can stop by The Brook, and maybe ferry across the lake with our carriage. We have to see if they¡¯re okay.¡±


    I nod in agreement as I choke back my own sob. I cough while I try to flex my facial muscles and neck and shoulders to fight off the encroaching pain. Oh, right, we¡¯re both dehydrated and starving. We should go eat, and maybe wrap things up with the Sisters. Though that bubble room is tempting. Quite possibly a window to every single existing book still intact on Rayileklia.


    I¡¯m suddenly incredibly weary and worn out again. We¡¯ve been sitting in a cramped stupor, piled into a corner of the wall for days. We¡¯ve been completely left to our own devices by the Sisters. It¡¯s remarkable that none are stalking the halls, especially none near such an impressive room as the bubble room. I struggle to stand, and even Teuila appears wobbly as she stands with me.


    We¡¯re not through grieving Dawn, not by a long shot. We are however ready to start moving forward again. Little bit by little bit. It¡¯ll be tough, slow going at first, and we might sink into bouts of depression, but we¡¯ve got an awful lot of work to do on this planet. Hopefully our work eventually lets us catch up with the triple L squad, Lil, Luni, and Lucky.


    I miss my Lil dragon pal so much, My Heart. Luni too, Lu is My Anchor. My eyelids sink lower and lower as the weight of it all bears down on me once more. Of course I even miss Lucky, our lovable mutt. He¡¯s quite literally a crossbreed between a bunch of different sources and energies. I was convinced for the longest time that Lucky hated me. I think he was really just trying to get me to stay put and heal up. It¡¯s hard to tell though.


    Lucky wasn¡¯t a critterkin, he was closer to a mob spawn, like the fish or the cragbeasts. But he¡¯s still an individual. I guess he¡¯s closer to Luna, our feathery bear friend. She was remarkably intelligent. Heck, she was more intelligent than several of us about certain facets of our world. I know she understood my speech too, which is remarkable, since no critterkin did without being in a party. Humans were able to understand me, thankfully. One of very few things that worked out for us with human society.


    Can¡¯t believe Priss thought it was a good idea to crash my entrance exams to her stupid military, and arrest us under charges of impersonating a noble. I didn¡¯t even use any noble¡¯s family name or anything. She was such an idiot back then. Anyone in the crowd could have told her I defeated an entire platoon of her fire mages without breaking a sweat, literally. Or that I not only defeated a platoon of her ice mages, but I saved several of their lives when their idiot comrades let loose a runaway spell, taking an injury to my right ribs and lungs in the process. Huff, the spot on my body that I take the most frequent injuries by far, for certain.


    The only reason Priss even stood a chance of apprehending me was, firstly, I went along with it, since I needed to speak with a military higher-up anyway. Secondly, I was barely even weakened at all at the end of my exam. The only bit I¡¯d really suffered, beyond the lung injury was because I was fighting their best of the best, their top tier specialists in thunder, acid, and poison. Adom sneakily casted a cloud of poison around my head before the duel even began, and I had to do most of that fight holding my breath as he created an even larger cloud once the battle started. Har and Sal¡¯s wind magic pushed enough of the poisonous cloud out of the way, thankfully, despite the fact that we were technically supposed to be competing. They yielded when I took down Adom and Jazharn in something like a single blow apiece, which I followed up with accidentally sort of spike piledriving Sofu into the ground to prevent him from shattering Jazharn and Adom who I¡¯d frozen.


    Huff. I¡¯m too sleepy to be thinking about all this. My brain has been all over the place, I¡¯ve been so scatterbrained for the last fair while. It¡¯s hard to keep hold of a train of thought. Oh well, it¡¯s not like it¡¯s anything new in the life of Reggie Shellcracker to be unable to focus. My lack of attention has nearly gotten me killed, mostly related to falling and plummeting out of the sky and such. If you suddenly forget to keep flying, while you¡¯re hundreds of meters in the air, well, yeah, you can probably work out what¡¯s going to have happened.

 B 5 C 6: Hotel Rayileklia

    We return to our suite, eat and drink our fill, and pass out in each other¡¯s arms in a mild food coma on the firm bed that has been dedicated to us. When we wake, Teuila has returned to sadness, grieving the loss of Dawn. I can¡¯t blame her. My heart, too, aches for My Friend, she was almost entirely erased from existence. It¡¯s so hard to move forward, knowing that so many hearts and minds were relying on Dawn¡¯s curse being broken.


    I wonder if my mentor in Rayileklian magic, Jarrah Bettergrove, the crazy-eyed celestial hiding out amongst the Fae of the Hidden Heart, would feel about my failure. He stands in direct opposition to our mutual manxome foe. If the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds is the final bastion of civilization to be brought under sway of the Celestial Emperor and the banner of his nations, then the Enochian Enclave is that bastion¡¯s first, last, and best line of defense.


    The archfey keeping the forested region of the Hidden Heart enchanted can only hold out for so long, and I¡¯ve done them the disservice of disarming one of their royal guards. To be fair, Sindred was a murderous psychopath, bent on slaying me to retrieve Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds. Sending Balchar¡¯s Flame, and Dirge, Requiem for the Wounded away from her position is one of the two reasons that I¡¯m alive. The other is that Teuila caught on to the fight, and stepped in while Sindred was pummeling and crushing my unconscious form. Huff. I wish I could access my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic without bleeding light and vitality all over the place, or passing out half the time.


    Long, half-sobbed, shuddering breaths are a mainstay of the few sounds that break the otherwise silent air of the Sisters Hidden in the Mist¡¯s compound. There¡¯s a story there, something in Rayileklian history, why these three close yet disparate groups are all the Hidden of something or other. The assassin village in Vale Valley are the Hidden of the Vale Beyond the Veil or beyond the wilds or something like that, then the Fae are the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds, and the Sisters, well, yeah, Sisters Hidden in the Mist speaks for itself. I don¡¯t really have the energy, time, or luxury of seeking out Rayileklian history to study such curiosities however.


    My own life¡¯s ticking clock grows shorter and shorter as the dragonforce from absorbing Kozzurth¡¯s heart weakens by the day. Teuila can¡¯t even bear to talk about it since the sisters indicated we need over a dozen more elder dragon hearts. I¡¯m running low on options here for learning anything useful that might get us through either living until we find my cure, or stopping our manxome foe before I die. I¡¯m pressing harder and harder to learn every spell that sounds remotely useful, but I¡¯ve got to be careful with my daily rune limit, my sorcery points as Bud calls them. Teuila has short bursts of hype and amped attitude every time I tell her I mastered a new spell, and we try to savor those short moments of happiness.


    Despite our desires to maintain our levels of happiness, Teuila and I fall into alternating cycles of despair as we come across reminders of Dawn everywhere we look. I suck down a ragged breath and drop my face into my hands once again. We¡¯ve been getting almost nowhere with the Sisters¡¯ aid. They seem more and more frightened of us the longer we stay. Especially since Teuila has grown cold and distant once again.


    While I dearly desire to make use of the bubble room, I know that I can get sucked into the readings, even if they aren¡¯t particularly relevant to our current struggles and strifes. I guess the only thing left to do is check out the one suspicious room that both my genre senses, and danger wraps are wary of each time I pass within my sensory range of it. It takes going through a bit of a maze to get there, from what I can tell, but that¡¯s not really an issue. I still have my sense of direction baked in, and the right hand wall rule rarely fails.


    I jokingly ask Bud to cover my back as I explore closer and closer to the room that I¡¯m certain holds a massive runic circle. The Sisters have been mysteriously absent most times, unless we specifically call out for one to let us out of the compound. My heart hammers like a stampede of rhinos within my chest, and I gulp back my apprehension as I draw nearer yet still. My eyes grow heavy and my sight grows dim, but still I press onward.


    For the first time since before Dawn¡¯s death, I spy a Sister that doesn¡¯t just appear from somewhere. She stands in a doorway, behind which I swear I can hear a mission bell. The door itself is massive, and completely unique amongst the doors of the compound. I draw a shuddered breath and approach the Sister. I know she¡¯s, or rather, they are, telepathic, but she makes no move to dissuade my curiosity.


    From beneath her robes, she withdraws a candle. She lights it, and motions the way forward, beyond the door. Compared to the heavenly bubble room with access to scrying bubbles containing all the written works on Rayileklia, this room feels hellish. My sense of smell is mostly non functional, and yet a familiar presence assaults my nose. There¡¯s no mistaking gore, even lacking most of my olfactory faculties. I gulp as I press onward towards the door.


    I pause a moment, trying to make certain I have my escape route memorized, so I can find the right passages back towards the place I was before. The Sister offers a polite smile that I can only sense with my silent sonar due to her heavy veils. Like all the others, the rest of her face is featureless, and that smile hides rows of needle-sharp teeth. They¡¯ve never once acted hostile towards us, but my danger senses and genre senses are both on edge as I slowly shove the double door open with all my might.


    The waft of gore in the air assails my nose further, and it¡¯s no wonder. It appears the runic circle is painted in blood. There are remnants of animal carcasses being prepared at a long table, or hanging on hooks. It all seems very clinical, and I wonder what they even use the leathers, hides, feathers, and bones for. I¡¯m not even certain they need to eat, but if they do, I don¡¯t need to question the meat at least. The far end of the room is pitch-black, as the Sister¡¯s candle is the only light to guide my way.


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    The Sister leading me about within the room stops me to plead, ¡°We choose kindness, no matter your choice. Your fate need not be grim. We hope you offer us the same.¡±


    I furrow my brow at her and gulp. Something at the back of this room, something shrouded in darkness is making muffled sounds. The stampede that is my heartbeat races across the Serengeti at full tilt. Every fiber within my being screams at me to flee, to not learn what lies beyond in the darkness. I hear the swish of a knife cutting air, and the soft sound of quickly tearing flesh. Gulping back my fear and hesitation, I move onward.


    I withdraw my potent staff with a host of spells in it, and cast a simple lighting spell to light the rest of my way as the Sister remains behind, caught in her own apprehension. When I finally light the rear of the room, I can hardly make heads or tails of what I¡¯m seeing. A pale, feral, rabid person with wild red locks is chained to a device that appears to funnel blood from their wounds into paint buckets. The person recoils from the light cast by my staff. Despite having heard the Sisters stab this individual, they haven¡¯t slain the person. In fact, there are no wounds marring their flesh at all. Stab as much as they might with their steel knives, they just can¡¯t kill this beast. Its wounds recover nearly instantly each time one is inflicted.


    Drawing nearer, the facial featu¡ª. No. I fall on my rear and scrabble backwards, into the Sister who¡¯d been holding the candle. Despite being terrified of them at the moment, she offers me a hand up. I gaze at it incredulously. I know they¡¯re ephemeral, ethereal, only as solid as they need to be in any given moment. She could be offering me her hand up earnestly, or is it a ploy to get me to take a vulnerable position with my arm extended as it passes through hers? She shakes her head sadly at my train of thoughts.


    My paranoia has saved my life on several occasions, and times when I have tried to ignore it often ended in disaster. Still, I gulp and accept the hand up. I glance between the sister, and the wildly ravenous humanoid creature. One with my facial features, and my wild mane of unkempt red hair. Their ears are slightly longer, and pointier. Their canines are far longer and sharper, visibly jutting over the gag in their mouth. If I didn¡¯t know that I was me, I would think that that was Reggie Shellcracker, only one who had been turned into a vampire.


    Who am I supposed to choose kindness for? Should I free this creature that looks like me? Or am I supposed to let the Sisters go on about their business? They¡¯ve done much good for Rayileklia, as far as I know, including sending us to put an end to a dangerous cult. So what the hell is this? As a bucket finishes filling, one Sister replaces it with an empty one, and takes the full bucket, along with a brush, to put a new, fresh coat of blood on patches of the Runic circle that are drying unevenly, or wearing thin.


    I turn to her and try to remain as polite as I can as I demand, ¡°Explain.¡±


    The nervousness and fear that wells up within this otherworldly creature in the guise of a veiled woman is palpable. She hazards her answer, ¡°You¡¯ve experience existing outside the natural flow of time, young, ancient Shellcracker. In some cases Reggie, the timeline itself rejects the course of events, leaving fragmented timelines astray in the cosmos.¡±


    She pauses, and doesn¡¯t offer further insight at the moment. I¡¯m supposed to draw my own conclusions from that bit of mysticism and cryptic conjecture. Sure, it¡¯s true, I¡¯ve been outside of, and messed with the flow of time. But it¡¯s not like I¡ª Oh. In some doomed timeline, Reggie, me, I am consumed by vampirism. But why are they here? Why are they being used as an unending blood battery? My genre senses earlier had a guess that this runic circle is what ties these otherworldly creatures and their compound to within a near enough phase that they can interact with the physical plane of Rayileklia.


    I¡¯m almost certain that those senses are right. This is why they fear us, fear me. It¡¯s why they shuddered whenever my genre senses were making guesses about this room as we passed near it. Not because they were cold. Rather, because I could sever their link to the plane of reality that they choose to associate with almost instantly. I kinda figured. Could they even set it back up, ever, if I did that? Huff. What am I supposed to do with this information? They beg that I choose kindness, but they¡¯ve got a liv¡ª okay, maybe not a living being, since that Reggie is probably undead. Point is, they¡¯ve got a sapient creature chained up, being endlessly tortured.


    The vampiric version of Reggie, err, me I guess, can never leave. Sure, I can check out any time I want, either escaping into infinite literature in their bubble room, or back into the wilds of Rayileklia. Vampiric Reggie though? While I can check out, they can never leave. I knew this place was too nice, these lovely Sisters in this lovely place were too good to be true. These faceless spirits in humanoid form are going to continue stabbing and draining vampiric Reggie for all eternity, driving them senselessly mad I imagine.


    Is that Reggie wild and crazy due to their vampirism? Or is it from being stabbed repeatedly? If I politely ask, would they free this Reggie? Where would the vampire Reggie go? Do they have an insatiable bloodlust? Would they kill? I, I¡¯m at a loss here. Worse, I¡¯m fairly certain that this isn¡¯t the only creature they¡¯ve used as a blood faucet. There¡¯s so little wildlife on this side of Rayileklia, outside of the Hidden Heart. There are also seemingly absolutely no bandits or marauders, despite Aces memories having mentioned them.


    I turn my gaze to the Sister and ask, ¡°Bandits, marauders, others of the like?¡±


    The Sister places her hands forward placatingly as she attempts an answer, ¡°Some, those that seek no better life, those that thrill or take delight in the bringing of misfortune to others. However, those that are simply downtrodden, we laden them down with furs, pelts, leathers, hides, bones, and meat, and send them to villages in need of such things.¡±


    I try not to growl as I breathe huffily. Do I trust her? It¡¯s not far off from what I would do. What I have done. But the answer is too perfect, too right on the money. Fine. I huff a weighted sigh as I¡¯m determined to ask a question I¡¯d been avoiding.


    I close my eyes and sigh once more before asking, ¡°Who is it that you serve? You¡¯d given me some cryptic statements previously about a message being delivered or something. Out with it. Please. What¡¯s their overarching desire? Their endgame?¡±

 B 5 C 7: To Feed Or Not To Feed

    The Sister holding the candle appears exceedingly nervous to my senses. She pauses long enough that I¡¯m about to prompt again before she finally relents and speaks her answer, ¡°We may only refer to that which we serve as the Boundless Divide currently. Its wish is to exist within a vessel that can traverse realities, to experience them. We, well, believe it has chosen a host, or will have chosen a host. It exists outside of the normal flow of time. It exists outside of the rules of all things, outside of all realities.¡±


    That, huh. That sounds harmless enough. Normally when you hear about extradimensional entities they¡¯re all horroterror this and mindblower that and skullflayer whoknows and insanity-warping him-or-her. Well, I mean, at least on Fakeworld, Earth, and its popular horror media. Ugh, how do I even know that? Why is that my basis for comparison? Friggin¡¯ mysterious memories. Once again, they¡¯re just wrong. I think. Unless I¡¯m being lied to.


    I slump back down to the floor and sit crosslegged between the Sister, and the Reggie vampire. What¡¯s the right thing to do here? It sounds like they want to give, or have given, some alien entity access to our plane of reality. Is that okay? Should I stop them? Who am I to decide? Haven¡¯t I had enough of having responsibility to make terrible choices slopped onto my plate? What if I choose not to decide? Hm, then I still have made a choice. The Sisters and my phantom fears struggle between kindness and whether or not to kill.


    Huff. If I still have a choice, then I choose free will. I¡¯ve no angel on my shoulder to be some celestial voice as my guide. What about vampire Reggie? They were dealt a losing hand. Huh, aces and eights, a dead man¡¯s hand. That, that has been a long time since that came up. It¡¯s why Aces named their dog Eights. Wow, the cyclic nature of my life, everything comes back in the end. I mean, even Olioli and Penina came back. Sort of.


    I ramble, ¡°I don¡¯t think you have anything to fear from me, Sister, or Sisters. Who the hell am I to be the judge of all of this? I just, is there no mercy for that vampire Reggie? Are they in eternal torment? Wouldn¡¯t it be a kindness to end them? Do you absolutely need their endless blood to maintain your presence?¡±


    The Sister smiles as she approaches my shoulder. She lays a hand upon my shoulder, and produces a silver-tipped wooden stake from within her flowing veiled robes. The Sister says, ¡°If that is what you deem a kindness, we will not stand in the way of your choice.¡±


    She sets the stake gently on the floor next to me. She left a lot of questions unanswered. Ugh. Bud, what do you think? I know you don¡¯t like spilling blood Bud. Oh, really? Even though you don¡¯t like¡ª? Okay, huh. I¡¯ll, huff. I¡¯ll think about it.


    One last question I guess, ¡°Sister? When was the last time this Reggie was fed? Would they have any semblance of their senses if they were given fresh blood?¡±


    The Sister only reiterates, ¡°If that to you is what you deem a kindness, we stand aside that you may make your choice.¡±


    Hell¡¯s bells, hellspit and fel fires these women are vexingly cryptic. Or evasive at least. Bud, I don¡¯t think I can kill someone who¡¯s chained up like that, someone who might be lucid if they were just given food. Get Teuila first? Sure. I, gosh. What¡¯s she even going to make of this?


    I stand up, snag the stake, and tuck it in to my scroll-case sheath with the elemental summoning stones, the abjurative scrolls, and the few other things that seemed important to have close at hand. We¡¯ve still got two ¡®of-blood¡¯ potions. Wait. Would that be better or worse than actual blood for a vampire who might otherwise be far gone? Is vampire Reggie too far gone? Ugh, yeah, let¡¯s go get Teuila.


    I flub between bowing and waving at the Sister, since we haven¡¯t interacted much in the last few days. I facepalm and simply stalk quickly away after embarrassing myself. I sprint down the hallways towards our suite, to find Teuila rocking back and forth, hugging her knees on the bed, sobbing. Oh Te. My wonderful, beloved Teuila. My Wings. I know how much it hurts. Tears well up in my eyes for Teuila¡¯s sadness, for Dawn¡¯s loss, for the fate of Rayileklia, and especially for the unknown fate of our family back home on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    I step close to the bed and tentatively lift a hand towards Teuila to lay it comfortingly on her shoulder, and she does something I don¡¯t recall her ever doing, she swats my hand away. I¡¯m left stunned, with my jaw hanging agape. I blink repeatedly, uncertain of what to do.


    A moment later, Teuila launches herself from her position at me, tackling me towards the nearby wall, and I barely maintain my upright position to keep standing. She¡¯s simultaneously sobbing and peppering my face with kisses. I¡¯m still reeling from her shunning my attempt to comfort her.


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar rushes into my mindscape, crying while calling out, ¡°My Airhead, my Air, I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m so sorry. I, I was caught up thinking about Dawny. I, I wasn¡¯t thinking. I¡¯d never. I. Ugh, I¡¯m so sorry. Are you okay? Bud¡¯s talking to Essie and Iceflame a mile a minute and they¡¯re all trying to tell me something. Something about vampires? What the flub?¡±


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    Despite having felt hurt and saddened moments before, I can¡¯t help laughing at Teuila¡¯s turn of phrase. My telepathic avatar holds hers close as I try to explain, ¡°Teuila, Te, My beloved Wings, it¡¯s, it¡¯s so crazy. Remember the room, the suspicious one? I went in it. They didn¡¯t try to stop me. It¡¯s a massive runic circle painted in blood. Some of it from animals, and they do the animals up all appropriately, skinning them, parting them, setting each piece into usable piles and stuff. But, but most of the blood. It¡¯s. Glp.¡±


    Teuila prods my chest, prompting me to continue, ¡°Come on Air, spit it out. What is it?¡±


    My face is ashen as I try to come to terms with what I¡¯m about to say, ¡°It¡¯s from me.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s face contorts. She slaps me on the shoulder and doubles over with laughter. Teuila, through laughter, exclaims, ¡°Hahah, oh you had me there. That look on your face, and dragging Bud into it. Jeeze Air. Thank you I guess. I guess I was kind of caught in a rut.¡±


    I flash Teuila a half-sad half-smiling grimace that slowly draws back further and further. Her gaze catches my expression, so she pokes me again, prompting me to continue, ¡°Well, it¡¯s, um, glp. It¡¯s from a me from another timeline. There¡¯s a vampire me chained and bolted to something. They stab that me, and that me bleeds. Friggin¡¯ hell these sentences are so weird to say. But that me¡¯s wounds close up right away, and they seem to just continue regenerating endlessly. I, there were so many thoughts going through my head.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s face contorts further and further until I¡¯m almost sure her left eyebrow is about to pop off her head. Teuila tries to shush the other three voices in her head as she works it out, ¡°Essie, Icey, buddies, shush for a sec. You too Bud. Air. Are you freakin¡¯ serious? I could have two of you at my side? One that¡¯s invincible? We just gotta go bust them out or something?¡±


    I shake my head as I try to formulate my response, ¡°No, err, maybe. Te, it¡¯s, they. That me? They¡¯re wild, crazed. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s because they¡¯re starved for blood, or because they¡¯ve been being stabbed, or if the vampirism itself has made them crazy and maybe evil. The Sisters simply begged that I choose kindness, but didn¡¯t answer me whenever I asked if one option over another would be a kindness. They were really evasive, but also permissive. They¡¯ll let us do whatever, whether that¡¯s freeing the vampire Reggie, killing them, letting the Sisters keep vampire Reggie locked up, whatever we want.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s confusion is evident as she asks, ¡°But, why would they be so, so, uh, laid back about it? Or, or whatever.¡±


    I gulp as I try to summarize, ¡°The runic circle? You know how this whole place is like, sort of out of phase with Rayileklia? The runic circle is painted in blood, and has to keep having fresh blood applied. It¡¯s the only thing tying them to Rayileklia. We could destroy the circle, the room, the vampire Reggie, their source of blood, basically anything. If we did that, the sisters might never be able to make it back to Rayileklia, at least probably not for along time, if ever, or this place might collapse in on itself, or any number of things. They¡¯re scared of us Te.¡±


    Teuila grumps, ¡°They didn¡¯t seem scared of me when I was giving them ¡®novel experiences¡¯ back when we first got here. But, now that you mention it, they have been avoiding us, haven¡¯t they? That¡¯s super sketch ay eff.¡±


    Super sketch ay eff? Sketchy as, right, right, but that¡¯s more contemporary Earth slang. How does that stuff keep cropping up in Teuila¡¯s lexicon? Well, whatever. She¡¯s right though. I nod in response to Teuila¡¯s question when I realize I haven¡¯t responded.


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar looks quizzical as she tries to puzzle out the right course of action. She rambles, ¡°Well, I mean, I¡¯d give my non-existent left kidney for another Airhead, especially one that regenerates from every wound as instantly as you make that one out to be. But what if, even if they seem good, they¡¯re secretly evil, and they sneak off to drink peasants dry until they¡¯re dead or something, and they start a whole vampire army cult or some crazy thing like that. But, but I can¡¯t imagine just killing a you, I just, I can¡¯t. Please, we can¡¯t do that. We¡¯ll try other routes. The Sisters can have that you if we can¡¯t figure out if they¡¯re evil. Please Air. Don¡¯t kill you.¡±


    My jaw hangs ever so slightly slack while my brow is tilted to one side as I stare at Teuila. My right index finger can¡¯t decide whether to curl or to draw back towards my chin. Teuila slugs me playfully when she realizes what I¡¯m doing and what I¡¯m reacting to.


    Te grumps, ¡°Ya big meany, you know what I meant. Seriously. I¡¯m begging you love. Any option other than that. I couldn¡¯t take it. Not after Dawny. Seeing a you burst into flames or fade to dust or crumple or whatever vampires do, it would break me so hard. Please Air. Please just, just. This weight on my heart, on my chest, you know how strong I am, but it feels like it¡¯s crushing me, like I can hardly breathe, whenever Dawny pops into my head. I, glp, well, I don¡¯t know if I could survive two of that.¡±


    I stroke Teuila¡¯s left cheek with the back of my hand while staring into her eyes. As she finishes, I sift my fingers through her hair. Teuila then catches my hand and brings it to cup her cheek so she can nuzzle into it while holding my hand in place. I definitely don¡¯t want to kill vampire Reggie now. I don¡¯t want Teuila to suffer even more than she already has. My Wings, my poor beloved Teuila. It¡¯s so hard to move on from this. I think we need to make our choice though, and leave immediately after.


    As much as I want to head to that bubble room, and seek answers amidst all the written works in the world, my ticking clock nears its expiration date. I don¡¯t want to put Teuila through another mourning process. I mean, I also kind of want to live, ya know? Yeah Bud, I agree. I have to find this cure, even if it means finding a den of evil dragons and battling through an entire horde of them. I¡¯m almost positive several dragons were recently at The Gap, outside of the Derbrightmine Dwarven Dominion. Given the state of the stone, and my darkened scrying sensors, I¡¯d hazard a guess that they might still be in the area, tearing it up.


    Don Derbrightmine was certain they¡¯d come, and that they¡¯d bring hell with them. So, I guess the only question left to ask ourselves about our last few hours here has to deal with the vampire. To feed, or not to feed?

 B 5 C 8: Taking Stock

    As Teuila and I approach the room with the blood-drawn runic circle, and the ever-bleeding vampire Reggie, a series of images play in my mind on repeat. They¡¯re like stills, or maybe a stop-motion cinema scene from a horror film. Feeding the vampire gives it enough strength to free itself, and then it wants more. Its insatiable blood-lust drives it to frenetically attack us, attempting to drain me dry. In one version of the miniature film, I die, and that¡¯s the end of it. In another, I¡¯m forced to slay the vampire, driving Teuila into darkened, saddened despair being forced to watch my death. In yet another, I arise as a vampire after it consumes my blood, and Teuila is forced to slay us both.


    I stop outside the massive double door to the room and try to shake loose these images from my mind, but they only play on repeat stronger, in more detail, with higher clarity. Teuila glances at me worriedly, concerned with the dark thoughts stuck in my head. Is this worth the risk? How much blood is safe to give a vampire? Hellspit and fel fires I don¡¯t know enough about this situation to make a safe judgment call. Can the vampire drink from the Sisters? Do they have any blood within their ephemeral ethereal forms? Can it harm them? Even if they don¡¯t, have blood, do they have something that would affect vampire Reggie if it attempted to drink them? Fricklefrack.


    Or worse, how is vampirism actually transmitted? Is it a pathogen? Is it salivary? Blood-born? What if it¡¯s mystical in nature instead? What if something simply drinking my blood then had a blood-magic style control over me, and could turn me into a vampire at its leisure? We wouldn¡¯t even be sure that¡¯s not the case even after leaving. I can¡¯t risk either of us becoming psychically enthralled to some maddened vampire version of me. Hells. Bud, do you know anything about vampires? Haha, me too. Yeah, I thought they were myths as well.


    I gaze at Teuila questioningly before I ask, ¡°Should we even interfere at all? You heard my thoughts, right? There are so many unknowns and risks. My genre senses are screaming at me to bolt and get the hell out of here.¡±


    Teuila gnaws on her bottom lip as her gaze flits about before she adds, ¡°I think it might be more than just your genre senses. Essie and Icey are getting a vibe, and me too honestly. If we go in there with a goal in mind, something bad happens, one way or another. Crap in a sack. I was really hoping it would be just as easy as feeding vampire you to bring them to their senses, and we could walk out arm in arm. I really do like the idea of two of you, one on each arm.¡±


    I snort a laugh at the idea that I¡¯m some sort of trophy-mate for Teuila, and she grins at me like a lunatic for the thought. I¡¯m beyond enamored of this silly, funny, crazy, wonderful woman. If we ever get back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and I happen to survive a decade or two, theoretically I should be able to grant her her wish. In one timeline in the temple of time, I¡¯d been able to claim myself to my inventory, and then duplicate myself with my space skill. Sure, it would be a weird umbral onyx copy of me, but she wasn¡¯t very specific, and can¡¯t really get to be very picky if she wants multiple of me around. Hah.


    Do we just leave? I know a Sister would show up to let us out if we asked. We¡¯re not going to make any further progress here unless I start making use of the bubble room. But I could very well accidentally miss my opportunity to act entirely if I get absorbed in reading. It would be a shame to absorb a bunch of knowledge and spontaneously die without ever getting to use it. I guess we could hope that the Sisters will let us back in if we part on good terms. Then if I ever find a cure, we could come back and partake of that room.


    What about it Bud? Teuila? How do you two feel about just saying our polite goodbyes? You still think I should kill the vampire Bud? Well, I, I dunno. Te? Thoughts?


    Teuila gnaws on her lips and furrows her brow towards the pouch on my neck that contains Bud, in order to express her annoyance at his insistence about killing a copy of me. Teuila grumbles, ¡°Bud, you¡¯re being a butt. Come on, let¡¯s just get out of here. Hey, Sisters, we¡¯ve got to go get to adventuring and stuff, any idea where our friends went?¡±


    A Sister opens the massive doors and glides our way. Her monstrous grin beneath her many veils is, well, pleasant as always, despite its odd nature. She beckons us to follow her towards the entrance, so that she can let us out. She also comments on Teuila¡¯s question, ¡°The three, Lil, Luni, and Lucky, have made it to the Spine of the World. They are embroiled in a plot to foil an entirely different apocalyptic scenario for Rayileklia. We¡¯ve a few of those to go around. The results of one not yet come to pass are being bled in this room. Your manxome foe is another, and Lil faces their greatest challenge in the third scenario.¡±


    My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach. We¡¯re on the trail of only one out of three apocalypses? Wasn¡¯t one on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas bad enough!? I drop a weighted sigh as my limbs take on a leaden nature. I¡¯m barely stumbling along next to Teuila and the Sister as my head swims and lolls. We¡¯re apparently making a stop at our suite to pack up so that we can leave. It makes sense.


    What¡¯s the right course of action here? The Bright Lord, our manxome foe, stands poised to take over the last few regions of Rayileklia as of yet unconquered. When he does, he has no more use for his soldiers and citizens. I¡¯m sure Milbert¡¯s soul-stealing flame was a test run. Ol¡¯ manxy will steal every last soul on the world, and then burn them away to do who knows what.


    The Sister hinted that another rampaging possible apocalypse in the near future ends with me contracting vampirism. Or, at least part of it creates such a scenario. Lil faces their greatest challenge at the Spine of the World? The place where dragons had been driven off to? Somehow, I think Lil¡¯s scenario is the one we should focus on. If anything, we might be able to pick up several of the hearts needed to begin my journey of survival. Huff. I mean, ulterior motive, yeah I want to see my best buddy, and beg their forgiveness, and hug Luni, and roughhouse with our lovable mutt Lucky.


    If we¡¯re going to head around up that way towards the triple L squad, we could stop by Autumn Brook. We should ask Harriet to begin sending word to all of Aasimovia to evacuate towards the western edge of the mountain range, west of The Gap. If we¡¯re lucky, we can get ferried across the lake quickly, head up the gap, check on our kobold friends and the Derbrightmine dominion, and then cut northwest through the path towards the Bright Lord cult¡¯s Cathedral of Blood. Around there, we can turn further west, and southwest into the Jaggedfen Bog.


    We should be able to take out the serpentine hydra that has been marauding the area for however long now. We could even do it in advance of the bulk of Aasimovia reaching the pass on the west end of the mountain range that leads along the edge of that particular swamp. My eyes flood red with rage as I imagine yet another multi-headed serpent in a swamp terrorizing innocent people. I unintentionally clench my jaw hard enough that it locks up, and twists and pinches muscles up and down the left side of my spine and around my left shoulder.


    Teuila¡¯s gaze is firm, resolute. I¡¯ve told her several times that she¡¯s the boss on our Rayileklian journey. It seems like she has settled on a course for us. Good. I trust Teuila as much as or more than anything. I wish her thoughts were more open to me at the moment, but it¡¯s fine. Yeah Bud, I know that your thoughts and mine are basically unable to be silent to each other. Hm? Yeah, more or less. Anyway, sorry we didn¡¯t take your advice back there. Too many unknowns to even make a choice about the situation.


    Take stock of things? Yeah, definitely. I¡¯ll start conjuring horses once we¡¯re outside the Sisters of the Mist compound. When we get them hitched up to the carriage, Teuila and I can get them to follow a simple path around the mountain range. I¡¯ll have to recast them a few times, but we¡¯ll-- Hm? Yes, that¡¯s what I was going to say. We¡¯ll be able to both rest in the carriage while we try to read our tomes and other resources. Yeah, I¡¯ll try to figure out Essie¡¯s and Iceflame¡¯s current new abilities too. I¡¯m pretty sure I know what Essie¡¯s ability is, or well, at least one facet of one part of it.


    Yeah, that¡¯s my guess too, since she took up her name and her silent song was still a presence in the air. Iceflame though, it sounds like tri elemental absorption or something. I just worry that his power comes with a cost like it did when he was Balchar¡¯s Flame. If he has no associated curse or cost, I¡¯d say Teuila should switch to wearing him, instead of her Valkyrie armor. She leaps high enough to bring down lightning with her in her dive-bombing strikes. It¡¯d be less dangerous, less risk of her dying to an improperly grounded bolt that finds her in the sky while she¡¯s doing that, if Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark had some sort of lightning, ice, and fire absorption.


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar snickers across our mental wavelength, and before I can even express my confusion, Te jokes, ¡°It¡¯s not often that it¡¯s the gal getting inside a guy. Nyeh.¡±


    I nearly stumble as I break into quiet incredulous chuckling when Teuila blows a raspberry telepathically. Thankfully we¡¯ve reached the exit of the compound. My limbs are still weary from whatever came over me a few moments ago. I think it was the weight of knowing that once again we¡¯re staring down the barrel of an apocalypse, or well, more than one.


    Teuila brazenly flips back the veils on the Sister currently guiding us to our leave as the Sister dismisses the wall which blocks re-entry into the normal phase of Rayileklia¡¯s prime physical plane of reality. I¡¯m a bit stunned, until I realize Teuila is simply leaning in to kiss the Sister goodbye. Hopefully that means we¡¯re on good terms all around. I wonder if we¡¯re about to get a goodbye speech though, one to the effect of something like, ¡°Now that you¡¯ve once been in our compound, and are leaving it, you shall never again be allowed to pass the threshold into its sanctum.¡± Err, well, something like that anyway.


    To satisfy my curiosity on that very topic, I hazard to ask, ¡°Sister, will we ever be allowed to return? Will we ever see any of you again?¡±


    The grey-robed, many-veiled, ethereal, ephemeral, otherworldly being in a featureless-faced humanoid woman¡¯s guise responds, ¡°Perhaps, perhaps not. It¡¯s unlikely you should need to return. Especially so when you have made note of what we¡¯ve left within your carriage. Take care not to lose it, and do not open it until you¡¯ve expended all of your other resources, and you¡¯re certain that you¡¯ve got a lifetime worth of time ahead of you to spare. That is to say, some time after you¡¯ve paid the five and five and six.¡±


    I cock my head to the side as I raise a brow towards the sister in a quizzical expression of my curiosity. She simply adopts her creepy, many-toothed grin and resets her veils to covering her featureless face. Twinges of pain shoot up and down my left shoulder blade, and I¡¯m left attempting to flex my jaw to help unclench the mandibular joint muscles, thereby loosening the pinched muscle along my neck. The Sister shoos us along through the temporarily displaced wall of the compound, back into the in-phased Rayileklia¡¯s reality proper.


    There stands our carriage, unmolested, simply wet from the ever-present acid-rain drizzle of Rayileklia. The constant lightning streaking across the darkened clouds that blanket all of Rayileklia¡¯s skies fills the air with its ominous rumblings and loud cracks. One I¡¯d almost forgotten that I had gotten used to in my travels. Thankfully mana-construct conjured horses don¡¯t spook. To be fair, I¡¯m assuming Rayileklian steeds are just used to it as a fact of life by now, since the cloud cover is ever-present.


    Teuila hitches up the ghostly horses, whispering our destination to them. She has plotted pretty much the same course I''ve been thinking about taking. A course that I think was her idea to begin with. When she¡¯s about to hop into the driver¡¯s seat, I shake my head and flick my head towards the cabin of the carriage. I state simply, ¡°No need to sit out there on your lonesome minding magic horses that literally can not stray from the path. Come on Te, if nothing else, we can get some reading done together while cuddling.¡±


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Teuila¡¯s eyes alight at the prospect of remaining cuddled up in warmth together. Te lashes her massive pack to the top of the carriage, and climbs inside of the cabin, intentionally hogging as much of both sets of seats as she can. I chuckle at her obviousness. Entering, and being immediately snatched up by Teuila¡¯s loving arms, I allow myself a few laughs and brief moment of happiness. I give the ghostly horses the mental, telepathic command to follow along the mountain ranges to our south. It¡¯ll form an eastern lip nearby that will curve back to the west. We¡¯ll keep the mountains on our right at all times as we circle back towards Noirdivinhoz.


    Snuggling Teuila, I spy the curious box-like tome the Sisters had left for us. Since the Sister said not to open it until some time after I¡¯ve gained all the necessary dragon hearts, I figure now is as good of a time as any to take stock of our abilities, our magics, and our equipment. I''ll put this unknown box in my hyperdimensional haversack until such time as I somehow live long enough to need it.


    I begin writing a rather long list:


    Current possessions, assets and abilities:


    I''ve got a limit around approximately 675 runes/SP before weakening/feeling exhausted. Approximately 1000 runes before being unable to move any more until rested.


    Reggie¡¯s Runic Costs/SP Costs when quickening casts:


    <ul>


    <li>Double the rune/point cost of spells up to 33 runes in length/SP to cast them in 1-10 seconds time. Triple the cost of spells up to 66, quadruple the cost of spells up to 99</li>


    <li>Casting in 10-30 seconds, double up to 66 SP, triple up to 132, quadruple up to 198</li>


    <li>Casting in 30-50 seconds, double up to 99 SP, triple up to 198, quadruple up to 297</li>


    <li>Casting in 50-70 seconds, double up to 132 SP, triple up to 264, quadruple up to 396</li>


    <li>Cast in 70-90 seconds, double up to 165 SP, triple up to 330, quadruple up to 495</li>


    <li>Cast in 90-110 seconds, double up to 198 SP, triple up to 396</li>


    <li>Cast in 110-130 seconds, double up to 231 SP, triple up to 462</li>


    <li>Cast in 130-150 seconds, double up to 264, triple up to 528</li>


    <li>Cast in 150-170 seconds, double up to 297, triple up to 594</li>


    <li>Cast in 170-190 seconds, double up to 330, triple up to 660</li>


    <li>Cast in 190-210 seconds, double up to 363, triple up to 726</li>


    </ul>


    Examples: in just over three minutes(190 seconds), Reggie could cast a 360 Rune/SP spell for 720 SP/runic cost. Closer to 3.5 minutes (210 seconds) Reggie could, err, I could, if I had the SP available, cast a 720 Rune/SP spell for 2160 SP/runic cost. Reggie won¡¯t be able to, err, I won¡¯t be able to safely do either for a very long time, if ever. Why am I talking about myself in the third person while I scribble these assets down?


    Reggie¡¯s Spells mastered/currently studying:


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Frost Ray,</li>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Prestidigitative Legerdemain,</li>


    <li>02/05 runes mastered: Light,</li>


    <li>02/05 runes mastered: Mending,</li>


    <li>00/05 runes mastered: Splatter of Acid</li>


    <li>12/12 runes mastered: (Theorized, but not listed in any of the spellbooks, unknown, I presume 12/12) Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct (I surmise small animals, odd creatures))</li>


    <li>12/18 runes mastered: (Theorized, but not listed in any of the spellbooks, unknown, I presume 12/18) Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct 2 (I surmise small small animals, odd creatures))</li>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Scrying,</li>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Ghostly Steeds,</li>


    <li>12/24 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct III can conjure Celestial Dire Badgers, Celestial Fel Hounds, small Elemenals</li>


    <li>00/24 runes mastered: Summon Swarm. Can conjure a swarm of bats</li>


    <li>24/24 runes mastered: Telepathic Bond,</li>


    <li>08/24 runes mastered: Blast Frost, a Dragon¡¯s Breath cone-shaped cold blast</li>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Conjuration, somewhere between an illusion, and a conjured manifestation of shadow given physical form.</li>


    <li>29/33 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct V can construct Celestial Griffons, Hounds of Shadow, Dire Wolverines, medium Elementals</li>


    <li>00/33 runes: Steel Body, hardens my body for a short period to the point that I should be able to weather otherwise deadly blows.</li>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Evocation, somewhere between an illusion, and a conjured manifestation of shadow given elemental or energy form.</li>


    <li>48/48 runes mastered: Permanency-enhancement</li>


    <li>29/64 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VI large Elementals</li>


    <li>29/99 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VII Angels known as Altivivorals, huge Elementals, whales, elephants, gargantuan or monstrously huge birds, pests, and other small animals</li>


    <li>29/180 rune smastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VIII can conjure Naga Angels known as Liltivilends, greater Elementals, bigger whales, plesiosaurs, tyrannosaurus, monstrously gargantuan insects, birds, pests, and other animals</li>


    <li>00/360: Theoretically a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct IX should exist I¡¯ve no idea if it would use any of the runes I¡¯ve learned so far. 0/360 due to its theoretical nature, I hypothesize it could conjure constructs of elder Elementals, celestial Rocs, monstrously colossal insects, birds, pests, and other small animals, and perhaps other angelic creatures.</li>


    <li>Could a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct X exist? How long would its runostructure be? What sort of conjurations could it muster up?</li>


    </ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Permanent Buffs:


    <ul>


    <li>Aura sensing(Detection of magic, souls, and runes)</li>


    <li>Telepathic Bond (Currently with Teuila only, bound sentient artifacts can come along for the ride, will try to add Luni, Lil, and maybe even Lucky if we ever catch up with the triple L squad.)</li>


    <li>Comprehension of all Languages</li>


    <li>Quickening of runotypical spells metamagic available</li>


    </ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Current Equipment:


    <ul>


    <li>1x Danger Wraps: Wristwraps that warn me and provide silent sonar</li>


    <li>1x Billowy Cloak: Can¡¯t be much more descriptive. It¡¯s a cloak, it billows on command</li>


    <li>1x Hyperdimensional Haversack: Sack that¡¯s bigger on the inside</li>


    <li>1x Enchanted scrollcase: As durable as me to survive a close-range explosion)</li>


    <li>1x Archsorc Staff after having used it on Rayileklia enough, I¡¯m getting a feeling for how to interpret its limitations. It is similar to me in that it can purify and store enough mana to perform 500 runic uses or sorc points or charges, it recharges up to approximately 250 per day, most spells take about 70¡¯ish charges due to the staff¡¯s quick casting nature. It resides in my secreted enchanted double-ended ¡°drop-sheath¡±. It can be dropped into hand with the flick of a bottom-lid.</li>


    <li>1x Griffon Figurine: expands into an animated statue similar to a mana construct. Goes by the name Apheliotes Zephyrus</li>


    <li>1x Cap of Disguising Illusions: Pretty much what it says on the tin. Can project fairly strong illusions over the wearer in order to appear a number of ways.</li>


    <li>1x Portable Hole (in my enchanted Scrollcase from Berinon)</li>


    <li>2x Scrolls of Protection from Elementals (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>2x Earth Elemental summoning stones (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>1x Air Elemental Summoning stone (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>1x Blessed anti-vampire, silvered stake (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>1x Holy Halefire wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow</li>


    <li>1x Full Valkyrie armor set + dagger and buckler</li>


    <li>1x Pied Pipes of Rodent summoning</li>


    <li>1x Neckchain of the Ever-Breathing. No matter the atmosphere, or lack thereof, as long as this is about my neck, or anyone¡¯s, that individual can breathe without damaging their insides at all. It projects basically a magical self contained breathing apparatus that either filters, or straight up conjures and creates air for breathing.</li>


    <li>1x Starmetal Luckrock. I¡¯m going to give this to Lil some day, if we ever reunite. I want it to be a gift that hopefully lets them think of their scalemate tongue-tie-er Dehlia fondly.</li>


    <li>1x healing potion</li>


    <li>6x Minor Water Walking Potions. Single Step salvation in a bottle. Literal lifesavers when falling a tremendous distance if over water. Full kinetic dispersal.</li>


    <li>undisclosed/unidentified minor equipment from Milbert, as well as several unidentified potions from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that Reggie, uh, I withdrew upon arriving on Rayileklia.</li>


    <li>2x mysterious energy cells Eventually I¡¯ll figure out what these are so that they¡¯re understood, I swear.</li>


    <li>1x Always-smoking bottle</li>


    <li>1x Enchanted pouch holding Lullaby shrunken down, and the egg from the phoenix and roc couple.</li>


    <li>1x Partially broken thunderstick of elemental lightning</li>


    <li>1x Box-like book left by the Sisters of the Mist within our Carriage. In haversack. Do not open until having collected 16 evil elder dragon hearts to consume their dragonforce. If I even live that long.</li>


    </ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Current Sentient Artifact Attunement:


    <ul>


    <li>Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds. Powers include almost anything that can conceivably make travel at least slightly easier for his wielder, and their companions. Mostly involves vibrating stray stones off the path, burying roots to present a flattened footpath, loosing apples from nearby trees to roll towards the party, hidden berry bushes extending a branch towards the path, and so on. Most powerful in a Fae forest, specifically the Hidden Heart.</li>


    <li>Requiem, the Silent Song (Shared with Teuila)</li>


    <li>Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark (Shared with Teuila)</li>


    </ul>


    Teuila¡¯s Permanent Buffs/Abilities:


    <ul>


    <li>Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Aura sensing: Detects soul auras on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, wonky on Rayileklia</li>


    <li>Telepathic Bond: Currently w/ Reggie, bound sentient artifacts can come along for the ride</li>


    <li>Platinum baby-dragon breath 5 per rest/meal (6 upon reaching level 17)</li>


    <li>Missile Deflection/Redirection: advanced billiards math/rebounding prediction with mild reflex-guidance that is more dominant than the danger sensory reflexes.</li>


    <li>Cleave-sight: When surrounded, if an opportunity presents itself, sensation similar to thermal imaging will point out an angle of attack that can cut through multiple foes</li>


    <li>Weapon specialization: Spear/polearm. Spears/polearms just feel even more ¡°right¡± in Teuila¡¯s hands</li>


    <li>Ability to conjure ¡°Foreimage¡± rather than after-image, an illusion that includes a nearly magnetic attraction to the location she projects to. Seems to be fueled by some sort of inner spiritual energy rather than mana, a chi source.</li>


    </ul>


    Teuila¡¯s Current Buff-book studying:


    <ul>


    <li>Greater Cleaving-sight: The runes indicate that it would enable more accuracy, more frequent, better prediction through more targets:</li>


    <li>Many-Shot: The runes basically enchant her fingers to be able to easily knock and fire three arrows at once. To be able to have multiple arrows between fingers all follow the same, or separate paths depending on need.</li>


    <li>Improved Precision Enchantment: From what I gather, it would be something like a mindspace/mental HUD red-dot-sight.</li>


    <li>Whirlwind of Blades: The runes indicate something about inner ear/balance correction, able to maintain balance effortlessly while acting as a whirling dervish, attacking all around</li>


    <li>Greater Weapon Specialty: Spears/Polearms. Somehow, strikes by Teuila would never dull the blades nor points of her weapons, some kind of minor mana or chi-to-weapon adjustment to protect its edge.</li>


    <li>Spiritful Leap: Seems to be a leaping enhancement based on spiritual energy, chi instead of mana, as if Teuila needs more jumping power.</li>


    </ul>


    Teuila¡¯s Current Equipment:


    <ul>


    <li>1x Danger Spear: Quarterstaff of Warning with double-pronged end, one vampiric boss fang, and one toxic hydra fang</li>


    <li>1x Ring of Magic Reflection: I know my magical senses bounce off of it. I¡¯m pretty certain that most hostile magics directed at its bearer are reflected.</li>


    <li>1x Ring of Leaping: As if Teuila needed any help rocketing around the place, but this basically triples her horizontal leap distance in the same time it would have taken her to perform her normal leap, basically tripling her speed.</li>


    <li>1x Precious paperclip: No idea what else to call it, it hides jewelry worn by the wielder.</li>


    <li>1x: greater healing potion, Potion of resistant nature: Radiance resistance, Potion of resistant nature: Lightning resistance, potion of resistant nature: Acid resistance, shrinking potion, potion of fire breath, potion of resistant nature: All, 6 doses of Salvation Ointment</li>


    <li>2x: Potion of resistant nature: Poison resistance</li>


    <li>Several unidentified potions from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that Teuila withdrew upon arriving in The Brook when I was unconscious.</li>


    <li>1x full Valkyrie armor/weapon set, including dagger, shield, shortsword, collapsible compound-longbow, quivers, sheaths, full works.</li>


    <li>Iron flask containing an unknown creature</li>


    <li>Orbital Stones (hiding in/tangled in hair) of Uncapped Strength, and Masterful Strength</li>


    <li>Compass Orb, similarly in a pouch around Teuila¡¯s neck.</li>


    <li>Several secret sheaths and small leather odds and ends from Berinon</li>


    <li>Illusory fashion cloak</li>


    <li>Dress of secret pockets</li>


    <li>Hidden-revealing lantern</li>


    <li>Winterland Enchanted Boots</li>


    <li>Endless Spice Pouch</li>


    <li>Concealable Sword Cane</li>


    </ul>


    Teuila¡¯s Current Sentient Artifact Attunement:


    <ul>


    <li>Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds (only over Reggie¡¯s Telepathic Bond)</li>


    <li>Requiem, the Silent Song (Shared with Reggie)</li>


    <li>Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark (Shared with Reggie)</li>


    </ul>

 B 5 C 9: Runic Planning

    Alright, now that my list is complete, more or less, let¡¯s do this. Oh wait, there''s a few more to add to that list, ugh. We¡¯ll organize these spellbooks to try to find spells with runic commonalities, and try to get the common shared runes mastered first. Flip through this one, already saw this one, seen those, duplicate spells, oh that¡¯s new. Argh, more nonsense to dig through. Some of these spellbooks, tomes, and scrolls, only open under certain conditions. I wonder if the arch-sorcery staff¡¯s unlocking spell could do anything about that. Hm, apparently some of them, yes. Although using that spell might have been the condition on which the lock was set to release anyway. The runes dealing with things like special unlocking mechanisms are an encrypted cipher. Even though I understand the translation with my language comprehension enchantment, bestowed by the one tome that¡¯s now powerless, it can¡¯t decrypt senseless drivel into their secret phrases.


    Okay, so, Teuila¡¯s going to want me to at least figure out the elemental rune from these two spells, gusty wind and squall wall. Gusty wind is only six runes, I¡¯ll work on that and finish it before I sleep most likely. Squall Wall is twenty four. Hm, a thought detection spell. I know four of the runes used in it already, it¡¯s one of the thirty three rune spells where certain runes are basically address pointers that refer to the first rune as a lookup table to condense the number of runes needed.


    It¡¯s like someone who wrote these spells was used to playing with opcodes in machine-level assembly language. At least for some of them. Oh wow, Prescient Moment is a bit like the danger wraps, it gives a single brief flash of the future at an unknown point within the next four hours, guaranteeing a successful outcome of whatever event was displayed. Ugh, it¡¯s three hundred thirty runes. Holy hell¡¯s bells, hellspit and fel fires. Just, ugh. I know a grand total of one of those runes, it¡¯s one of the operand runes.


    Hm, the staff¡¯s size-changing spell, I can tell that it¡¯s encoded as a twenty four rune spell, I know a single one of those as well. The staff¡¯s fireball, well, I already deeply know the rune for fire, so one out of thirty three there. Similarly with the lightning bolt spell, I know one out of thirty three there. The hailstorm spell from the staff I actually know two of the thirty three runes, the cold element, and an operand rune. Hm, the ghostly hand from the staff only takes five runes, but I know zero of them.


    Oof, the Telekinesis enchantment from the staff takes ninety nine runes, none of which I¡¯ve mastered. Though the staff thankfully doesn¡¯t use up as many sorcery points worth of ambient mana to cast it, due to the way the runostructure is formed. For me it¡¯d take all ninety nine points, and that¡¯s if I crafted it slowly, taking ten to ninety minutes. The bypassed-wall spell is sixty six runes, another spell with its full myriad number of runes that I¡¯ve yet to master.


    The Spectral knocking and spectral unlocking spells in the staff use none of the staff¡¯s sorcery limit to cast, because they essentially simply tell nearby mana to either do, or stop doing something. They share several runes, but each is still a thirty three rune spell. I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s worth my time to learn or master them, since the staff can do them for free at any time.


    Hm, as I¡¯m studying elements within the staff, there¡¯s a firewall spell, of course I know the fire elemental rune by heart at this point, as if it were engraved into my chest. Still, only one out of thirty three runes mastered for that spell. The same as the fireball and lightning bolt spells. A neat, similar spell, that might be even more useful, is this incendiary web spell. Once again I have only mastered one of its thirty three runes so far, but it might not be worth putting effort into learning it, since it only takes about a twentieth or less of the staff¡¯s maximum sorcery point capacity to cast it. It looks like the staff could cast it twenty four times safely if I used it for nothing else from a full charge.


    Mother of hell, the planar shiftage spell is six hundred sixty runes long. I literally could not quicken cast it. I¡¯d pass out before I finished crafting all the runes. That¡¯s if I want to spend, what, a hundred ten days or so mastering all of the runes to be able to cast it in the first place? Friggin¡¯ hell. Huff. I know that I can tweak spells once I¡¯ve gained an in-depth familiarity with them, so it might be our one shot at getting home. Ugh, we¡¯ve gotta stop three apocalypses, and prevent my demise before I can even begin contemplating spending a third of a year just learning the spell¡¯s basics. Then I¡¯d take months upon months of dissecting the magic piece by piece to maybe possibly find a way to have it send us home. Grr.


    Okay, what about these scarier books? Hm, ¡°Minor History¡± a spell that does a flash of identification of an object, and glances at random, usually pertinent or noteworthy, points along the object¡¯s lifetime. It displays the information about those events or short periods of time in the caster¡¯s mind¡¯s eye. That one¡¯s something I¡¯d dearly like to master. I know a single operand rune out of its thirty three runed runostructure.


    This spell looks interesting. Minor to major dispellation. It¡¯s a hundred twenty eight runes, none of which I know, oof. Hell it has a lot of restrictions. Okay, this runostructure means something like temporary mana emplacements only, while this one means permanent enchantments only. What the hell? How does that even¡ª? Oh, okay, thus the minor to major. It¡¯s in essence, two spells in one, but there¡¯s a kind of xor or maybe simple if-then operand with a simple flag determining which side of the spell to use. Ugh, too bad it takes the whole runostructure to cast the thing. I can see why though, both sides of the spell basically use most of the hundred twenty eight runes, other than the lead rune, and that operator switch, and these encoding runes that dictate its minor or major side.


    Gosh, it would be really handy to have that spell, if we ever start facing foes who have mastered Rayileklian magic. Huff, twenty days of study though, or so. That¡¯s if I go all out doing nothing but trying to master each of those runes and basically absolutely no other activity during those days, save sleeping and eating. I wonder if it could be used to dispel a foe¡¯s runes as they¡¯re crafting them. Well, I¡¯d have to somehow be faster on the draw in crafting a hundred twenty eight runes than whatever someone else was crafting to be able to even test the theory. Or perhaps I could miniaturize the spell into a counter-sorcery. Counterspell is a fairly pop-culture widely known magic on Fakeworld, Earth. Despite magic not existing there. Hm. It is a noteworthy idea though. Huff, once again though, time is not on my side.


    We¡¯ve got six days of travel until we reach Noirdivinhoz. I hope we can somehow convince the temple¡¯s keeper, Daffodil Tarquin, to come with us as we evacuate Aasimovia. I can basically master one normal length spell in that time, or a few of the smaller ones. Teuila wanted me to work on the wind-related stuff if I found it, so I¡¯ll do that. Well, I''ll ask her first if she''d prefer I learn one of these other spells on the list.


    Let¡¯s make sure I¡¯ve set my aura-sight enchantment with permanency, so that I don¡¯t need to keep recasting it from the staff. It allows me to focus on other spells while the staff is out, instead of draining both me and the staff trying to keep two spells active, or casting while an active spell was being held in place. I messed up badly by trying to do that at the Bright Lord¡¯s cult compound near the Cathedral of Blood.


    I cough for Teuila¡¯s attention. She¡¯s been snuggling me this entire time, and probably riding around in my head, listening to me ramble about Rayileklian magic.


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar pops into my head calling out, ¡°Yup! Air, I¡¯m so, so proud of you. Somehow, somehow I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll get through this, all of it. We have to. We¡¯ll find your cure, and your big new theory about how to get us home, maybe it¡¯ll work. Then we¡¯ll make it back in time to make sure the Shield of Lacrimosa Trifecta is fully activated before the convergence wipes our world bare.¡±


    My telepathic avatar flashes Teuila¡¯s avatar a quick half-smile. I¡¯m far less confident in any of those matters. Still, I may as well talk out my plan with Teuila. I spell it out, ¡°So, Te, I was thinking, I¡¯ve got these spells that summon mana constructs in the shape of monsters and beasts and stuff, apparently there¡¯s a host of differently powerful versions of that same spell. These books have the third through eighth tier. I don¡¯t know if there are any beyond eight, but a ninth tier seems likely. Something about rings of sorcerous locations being counted in nines. I don¡¯t know if there is a tenth tier, one that somehow exists beyond those rings. If it exists, it would probably be a massive undertaking to learn it. Probably about as hard as that planar shiftage spell.¡±


    My telepathic avatar pauses a beat before continuing, ¡°Well, most of the versions of the spell seem built on the same runes, although there¡¯s a jump after a certain tier, where it requires a different complexity of runostructure. I actually know more of those more complex runes due to the gifts from the four books. The ones that I nearly burned my personality away to learn. Sorry again about that. Thank you again Bud for stopping me.¡±


    My physical and telepathic selves both draw a deep breath to exhale it through puffed cheeks as I recall the carriage ride from the Hidden Heart to the Sister¡¯s of the Mist hidden compound. I rattle my skull to get back on topic, ¡°So, anyway, I could finish off learning one of the better tiers of those, or I could start on the dispellation thing. Or, well, and this is probably the one you¡¯re going to want me to do. I can snag these two windy spells, and have another day or so left over to look into a part of another spell. I figure the one that you¡¯d probably want me to pick is in that book. This one in this book, right here? You see the golem-like figure? That¡¯s a person temporarily turned into animate iron. I¡¯m pretty sure that I can tweak it to be any unenchanted metal in our possession, and I know for a fact we have a bunch of mythical metals in our Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian invento¡ª¡°


    Teuila virtually shouts both in thinkspace and meatspace, ¡°That one, do it! I¡¯ll summon the metals right away! Can you make it permanent? How long does it last? It¡¯ll keep you safe, right? If you make it permanent, can you change back and forth? Air, oh my Airhead, you need that so badly, you¡¯re so squishy. Put everything else on hold, don¡¯t bother with the wind stuff until you have that one like, super duper mastered. Do that one right away, please.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s tone softens as she gazes tearfully into my eyes in and out of thinkspace, ¡°Please, I¡¯m begging you. I hate seeing you get hurt. I, I. We¡¯re in here, in our heads, in our hearts, I can say it in here, can¡¯t I? It¡¯s just us. Okay, just us and you two too Essie and Icey. Okay, and you too Bud. Yeesh. I. Still. I love you so much, my Air, the very Air that I breathe. Please learn that spell, just, yes. Yes.¡±


    I nod, my heart catching in my throat as I gaze into those emerald portals upon her face. Since we¡¯re on Rayileklia, there has been no sun, so all of her slight freckling has completely disappeared. Whether freckled, or simply an uninterrupted swath of that deep natural creamy chocolatey mocha color, Teuila¡¯s face is pure bliss to gaze upon when I¡¯ve time to admire its beauty. Teuila¡¯s mental avatar slugs mine playfully as she rides my thought waves.


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    I¡¯m able to answer some of Teuila¡¯s questions though, ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s really short duration of actual change via transmutation, and the permanency enhancing enchantment doesn¡¯t seem to cover transmutative effects. So if there was like, an enemy-to-frog spell or something, I couldn¡¯t turn them into a frog, and then permanentify it. Sadly, eh? Heh. But yeah, there¡¯s some encoding in the spell that seems to indicate like, absorption limit of the metallic body, an overall sort of timer that reduces more quickly the more damaged the metallic body becomes.¡±


    Teuila nods along with me and gives me the thumbs up. We can do this. We will do this. I¡¯ll get to work learning this metallic body spell, Teuila¡¯s summoning sheets of metal from her inventory as I think of this course we¡¯ve plotted. We¡¯ll find the right gems to layer up our telepathic enchantment, maybe either gaining a greater distance and clarity, or gaining an accelerated thinkspace like we¡¯d had on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Six¡¯ish days, and thirty three runes to go.


    I''ve got to amend my list quickly, then get right on to practicing the runostructure for this spell, and its individual runes. Teuila''s asset list won''t change nearly as often as mine, though she will be studying several tomes that enchant her to enhance base abilities further.


    Reggie¡¯s Runic Costs/SP Costs when quickening casts:


    <ul>


    <li>Double the rune/point or "sorc point" as Bud calls them cost of spells up to 33 runes in length / 33 SP to cast them in 1-10 seconds time. Triple the cost of spells up to 66, quadruple the cost of spells up to 99 </li>


    <li>Casting in 10-30 seconds, double up to 66 SP, triple up to 132, quadruple up to 198</li>


    <li>Casting in 30-50 seconds, double up to 99 SP, triple up to 198, quadruple up to 297</li>


    <li>Casting in 50-70 seconds, double up to 132 SP, triple up to 264, quadruple up to 396</li>


    <li>Cast in 70-90 seconds, double up to 165 SP, triple up to 330, quadruple up to 495</li>


    <li>Cast in 90-110 seconds, double up to 198 SP, triple up to 396</li>


    <li>Cast in 110-130 seconds, double up to 231 SP, triple up to 462</li>


    <li>Cast in 130-150 seconds, double up to 264, triple up to 528</li>


    <li>Cast in 150-170 seconds, double up to 297, triple up to 594</li>


    <li>Cast in 170-190 seconds, double up to 330, triple up to 660</li>


    <li>Cast in 190-210 seconds, double up to 363, triple up to 726</li>


    </ul>


    Examples: in just over three minutes(190 seconds), Reggie could cast a 360 Rune/SP spell for 720 SP/runic cost. Closer to 3.5 minutes (210 seconds) Reggie could, err, I could, if I had the SP available, cast a 720 Rune/SP spell for 2160 SP/runic cost. Reggie won¡¯t be able to, err, I won¡¯t be able to safely do either for a very long time, if ever. Why am I talking about myself in the third person while I scribble these assets down?


    Reggie¡¯s Spells mastered/currently studying:


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Frost Ray,</li>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Prestidigitative Legerdemain,</li>


    <li>02/05 runes mastered: Light,</li>


    <li>02/05 runes mastered: Mending,</li>


    <li>00/05 runes mastered: Splatter of Acid</li>


    <li>12/12 runes mastered: (Theorized, but not listed in any of the spellbooks, unknown, I presume 12/12) Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct (I surmise small animals, odd creatures)</li>


    <li>12/18 runes mastered: Theorized, but not listed in any of the spellbooks, unknown, I presume 12/18) Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct 2 (I surmise small small animals, odd creatures)</li>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Scrying, Seemingly able to do this with physical runecrafting on a surface, not costing my own SP</li>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Ghostly Steeds,  Seemingly they do not require my own Sorc Points when these runes are crafted.</li>


    <li>12/24 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct III can conjure Celestial Dire Badgers, Celestial Fel Hounds, small Elemenals</li>


    <li>00/24 runes mastered: Summon Swarm. Can conjure a swarm of bats</li>


    <li>24/24 runes mastered: Telepathic Bond,</li>


    <li>08/24 runes mastered: Blast Frost, a Dragon¡¯s Breath cone-shaped cold blast</li>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Conjuration, somewhere between an illusion, and a conjured manifestation of shadow given physical form.</li>


    <li>29/33 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct V can construct Celestial Griffons, Hounds of Shadow, Dire Wolverines, medium Elementals</li>


    <li>00/33 runes: Steely Body, hardens my body for a short period to the point that I should be able to weather otherwise deadly blows.</li>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Evocation, somewhere between an illusion, and a conjured manifestation of shadow given elemental or energy form.</li>


    <li>48/48 runes mastered: Permanency-enhancement, has a weird mix of not costing my own Sorc Points to craft the runes themselves, but costs some of my vital essence in another way to finalize their empowerment, like giving up a little bit of myself permanently.</li>


    <li>29/64 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VI large Elementals</li>


    <li>29/99 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VII Angels known as Altivivorals, huge Elementals, whales, elephants, gargantuan or monstrously huge birds, pests, and other small animals</li>


    <li>29/180 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VIII can conjure Naga Angels known as Liltivilends, greater Elementals, bigger whales, plesiosaurs, tyrannosaurus, monstrously gargantuan insects, birds, pests, and other animals</li>


    <li>00/360: Theoretically a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct IX should exist I¡¯ve no idea if it would use any of the runes I¡¯ve learned so far. 0/360 due to its theoretical nature, I hypothesize it could conjure constructs of elder Elementals, celestial Rocs, monstrously colossal insects, birds, pests, and other small animals, and perhaps other angelic creatures.</li>


    <li>Could a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct X exist? How long would its runostructure be? What sort of conjurations could it muster up?</li>


    <li>00/06 runes mastered: Gusty Wind, about what it sounds like, a strong, localized galeforce breeze</li>


    <li>00/24 runes mastered: Squall Wall, similarly, a localized area of wind-pressure so heavy that it¡¯s nearly solid.</li>


    <li>04/33 runes mastered: Detect Thoughts, basically what it says on the tin.</li>


    <li>001/330 runes mastered: Prescient Moment, this one is crazy by the description built into the runostructure. It seems to grant a single random moment of foresight at some point within four hours of having been cast. Whatever foresight is given, is the exact correct way to succeed at whatever brief event is being shown.</li>


    <li>01/24 runes mastered: Growth/Reduction, basically what it says on the tin.</li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Fireball, everyone¡¯s favorite deadly toy.</li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Lightning Bolt, everyone¡¯s second favorite deadly toy.</li>


    <li>02/33 runes mastered: Hailstorm, crowd control, and possibly the ability to ground flying creatures makes this a spell I should use more. I used it against Milbert of Navica outside Victo at the top of his tower, while mostly trapped by the soul-stealinglight.</li>


    <li>000/128 runes mastered: Dispellation, I badly want to learn this one in case more magic users begin to crop up. I¡¯ve a feeling that, just like Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, stuff that seemed impossible, or at the very least, rare, will start becoming commonplace. I want to be prepared.</li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Minor History, a sort of identification spell that also glances at random points along an object''s lifetime, displaying semi-pertinent information</li>


    <li>00/05 runes mastered: Ghostly Hand, I kind of really like this spell. It¡¯s free from the staff, so I don¡¯t need to learn it, but it¡¯s handy, and it kept Jarrah from taking my head off, and saved one of the Enochian Enclave kids.</li>


    <li>00/66 runes mastered: Bypassed-Wall, at least this is in the staff, but I¡¯d really, really love to have it personally mastered, so that I could cast it if, oh, say, a fuggin¡¯ earth elemental rips my staff from my hand while shattering my hand.</li>


    <li>01/99 runes mastered: Telekinesis, I¡¯ve dreamt of having this ability since early on in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and it¡¯s an incredibly potent non-lethal way of subduing people. Something I¡¯m sorely lacking.</li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Incendiary Web, a way to ensnare things in possibly fatal flames without exploding a massive area seems like a decent spell to know. It¡¯s cheap to cast from the staff though, so I should probably use it through that rather than spending time trying to learn its runes to the point of mastery.</li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Firewall, Similar to the Squall Wall, an area of intense heat and pressure is walled off.</li>


    <li>000/660 runes mastered: Planar Traversal, Ugh, I truly, truly hope that we get enough peaceful time for me to study, master, and take apart this spell. It¡¯s our first solid lead on returning to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, sort of. We still don¡¯t know if we¡¯re on different planes of a reality, or in different realities entirely, or what.</li>


    <li>00/33 runes mastered: Spectral Lock, it magically locks things, making them resistant to opening by any means other than the next spell.</li>


    <li>00/33 runes mastered: Spectral Knock, the unlocking spell.</li>


    </ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Permanent Buffs:


    <ul>


    <li>Aura sensing(Detection of magic, souls, and runes)</li>


    <li>Telepathic Bond (Currently with Teuila only, bound sentient artifacts can come along for the ride, will try to add Luni, Lil, and maybe even Lucky if we ever catch up with the triple L squad.)</li>


    <li>Comprehension of all written Languages</li>


    <li>Quickening of runotypical spells metamagic available</li>


    </ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Current Equipment:


    <ul>


    <li>1x Danger Wraps: Wristwraps that warn me and provide silent sonar</li>


    <li>1x Billowy Cloak: Can¡¯t be much more descriptive. It¡¯s a cloak, it billows on command</li>


    <li>1x Hyperdimensional Haversack: Sack that¡¯s bigger on the inside</li>


    <li>1x Enchanted scrollcase: As durable as me to survive a close-range explosion</li>


    <li>1x Archsorc Staff after having used it on Rayileklia enough, I¡¯m getting a feeling for how to interpret its limitations. It is similar to me in that it can purify and store enough mana to perform 500 runic uses or sorc points or charges, it recharges up to approximately 250 per day, most spells take about 70¡¯ish charges due to the staff¡¯s quick casting nature. It resides in my secreted enchanted double-ended ¡°drop-sheath¡±. It can be dropped into hand with the flick of a bottom-lid.</li>


    <li>1x Griffon Figurine: expands into an animated statue similar to a mana construct. Goes by the name Apheliotes Zephyrus</li>


    <li>1x Cap of Disguising Illusions: Pretty much what it says on the tin. Can project fairly strong illusions over the wearer in order to appear a number of ways.</li>


    <li>1x Portable Hole (in my enchanted Scrollcase from Berinon)</li>


    <li>2x Scrolls of Protection from Elementals (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>2x Earth Elemental summoning stones (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>1x Air Elemental Summoning stone (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>1x Blessed anti-vampire, silvered stake (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>1x Holy Halefire wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow</li>


    <li>1x Full Valkyrie armor set + dagger and buckler</li>


    <li>1x Pied Pipes of Rodent summoning</li>


    <li>1x Neckchain of the Ever-Breathing. No matter the atmosphere, or lack thereof, as long as this is about my neck, or anyone¡¯s, that individual can breathe without damaging their insides at all. It projects basically a magical self contained breathing apparatus that either filters, or straight up conjures and creates air for breathing.</li>


    <li>1x Starmetal Luckrock. I¡¯m going to give this to Lil some day, if we ever reunite. I want it to be a gift that hopefully lets them think of their scalemate tongue-tie-er Dehlia fondly.</li>


    <li>1x healing potion</li>


    <li>6x Minor Water Walking Potions. Single Step salvation in a bottle. Literal lifesavers when falling a tremendous distance if over water. Full kinetic dispersal.</li>


    <li>undisclosed/unidentified minor equipment from Milbert, as well as several unidentified potions from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that Reggie, uh, I withdrew upon arriving on Rayileklia.</li>


    <li>2x mysterious energy cells Eventually I¡¯ll figure out what these are so that they¡¯re understood, I swear.</li>


    <li>1x Always-smoking bottle</li>


    <li>1x Partially broken thunderstick of elemental lightning</li>


    <li>1x Box-like book left by the Sisters of the Mist within our Carriage. In haversack. Do not open until having collected 16 evil elder dragon hearts to consume their dragonforce. If I even live that long.</li>


    </ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Current Sentient Artifact Attunement:


    <ul>


    <li>Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds. Powers include almost anything that can conceivably make travel at least slightly easier for his wielder, and their companions. Mostly involves vibrating stray stones off the path, burying roots to present a flattened footpath, loosing apples from nearby trees to roll towards the party, hidden berry bushes extending a branch towards the path, and so on. Most powerful in a Fae forest, specifically the Hidden Heart.</li>


    <li>Requiem, the Silent Song (Shared with Teuila)</li>


    <li>Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark (Shared with Teuila)</li>


    </ul>

 B 5 C 10: Practice, Self Care

    Teuila surprises me by also conjuring an absolutely metric ton of gems, figuratively. We¡¯re honestly in a pile of gemstones up to our shoulders at the moment, while Teuila is grinning maniacally. I can¡¯t help laughing and chuckling at her. I can tell that she conjured the various sheets of metallic plates along the outer surface of the roof of our carriage, while she was stretching her arms upward during her inventory manipulation.


    Te politely orders me, ¡°So, uh, I was a bit of a dingus right now, a dink, sure, sorry. But, err, well. You¡¯re going to have to put these all in your handy knapsack thingy with the extra dimensions inside its space stuff. If there¡¯s not enough room for all your books inside it with all these in there, I¡¯ll strap the books to my big bag, or put them inside of it. Any books you¡¯re done learning all the spells from, we can leave in the carriage.¡±


    Teuila ponders a moment, tapping her chin before adding, ¡°Oh, hey, is the little statue of Apheliotes, or whatever his name was, in your bag too? One of us should probably have him in our belt pouches, in case we need to make a getaway. Err, honestly it should be you. I can jump probably farther and faster than a metallic gryphon that leaves three inch deep footprints everywhere he walks.¡±


    I chuckle as I agree with Teuila on every level. I begin scooping all the gemstones into my hyperdimensional haversack, thankfully they mostly fit in the as-of-yet unused side pouches. I do have several items, including my half-broken lightning-and-thunder-stick half poking out of the sack. I¡¯m loathe to just toss it somewhere, but it¡¯s becoming cumbers¡ª wait. It¡¯s a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic item. Friggin¡¯ doy Reggie. Sure enough, I squeeze and compress my thunderstick down to about the size of a pencil with relative ease. I facepalm at the simplicity of it all.


    What else did I throw in here from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? I fish around in the extra dimensional space inside my hyperdimensional haversack, trying to ascertain if there are any assets I forgot to put on my list. Hm, things I haven¡¯t identified. I¡¯d really like to learn that minor history spell. It should be able to describe the effects of various enchanted, magical objects. I¡¯m most curious about the ones where the only rune on it is basically ¡°this object is enchanted.¡± Completely unhelpful translation.


    Alright, alright, enough futzing around. I need to start on this runecrafting mastery of these new runotypes and runic subtypes on these various runoforms. Those are a bunch of mouth-fulls as much as they are a bunch of exasperating constructs. It¡¯s sort of like, every rune is four ascii characters, in any combination, so it¡¯s like one hundred twenty eight times one hundred twenty eight times one hundred twenty eight times one hundred twenty eight possible arrangements. Something around two hundred sixty million to two hundred seventy million. Actually, it¡¯s worse than that, because each character can be either emphasized, stressed, bolded, italicized, underlined, overscored, or in any calligraphic font, or any font at all, so it¡¯s more like infinity times infinity times infinity times infinity combinations. It¡¯s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.


    Still, there are some basic structures within various subsets of runotypes that share principles, or outright share a majority of the structures within the crafting of their runes. Those runic subtypes share commonalities. Those ones will be easier to master than others, since I¡¯ll have already mastered a portion of the rune before even practicing a new one in the same subtype.


    While I¡¯m mentally rambling about runecrafting, Teuila busies herself with reading an enchanted book. It¡¯s an impressive tome whose enchantment should allow her to somewhat magnetically hold three arrows at a time, and loose them either at approximately the same location, or at up to three separate targets when firing them simultaneously. Some of these books basically grant super-powers. Who crafted them in the first place? Why was stained glass such a common bookbinding method for the people who originally crafted many of them? Ugh, Reggie Shellcracker, you¡¯re as distractible as ever. Hm? Yes Bud, thank you, I already know, hah.


    Okay, back to it. It¡¯s going to take me about three hours per rune, but at least it isn¡¯t going to take me an entire day per rune anymore. Huff. It¡¯ll leave me basically bone-dry on vitality by the end of it too if I push myself to six per day. I should really only do five, but I trust Teuila to protect us should anything show up while I¡¯m completely tapped out. Hm, this rune also sort of can be translated as fire, but more as in passion rather than an elemental flame. Odd that it¡¯s part of the Steely Body spell. Well, regardless, zero down, thirty three to go. Let¡¯s get to it Reggie.


    Hm? Yes Bud, it¡¯s fairly often that my inner narrative will refer to me in the third person. Oh, in my logs? Yeah. I¡¯m still surprised you can peer down in there and see them on my Changeling inner self thingy. I¡¯m glad though. Err, yes, point is, yeah, sometimes I, or my inner narrative, will jokingly act as if I¡¯m someone talking to myself, and then as if I¡¯m a different me, responding to myself.


    Err, that¡¯s embarrassing, but yes, once or twice I was cracking pretty hard under various pressures when either near dead, or really stressed. Yeah, those times, I was probably temporarily convinced that I wasn¡¯t one of the me-s that was responding to me in my own head. Err, yeah, something like that. Point being, I¡¯m not entirely the sanest individual around in some regards. I¡¯ve definitely got emotional unwellnesses that would probably be clinically diagnosed as depression, post traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and a few other things. Diagnosed by who? Err, well, contemporary modern Fakeworld, Earth psychological health professionals.


    I, yes. I see the irony in determining my sanity based on the criteria set by fictional people in a field of study on a world that doesn¡¯t exist. Thank you Bud. Hah. Oof. You really don¡¯t pull your punches, do you? The phrase, I¡¯m not actually, yes. I know you don¡¯t like to fight or draw blood. The runecrafting? Slowly. Yes I¡¯m making progress even while you¡¯re distracting me.


    I can sense Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar hanging out somewhere along the edges of my mindscape, snickering at my conversation with Bud. I can¡¯t help smiling incredibly widely as tears well in my eyes. I¡¯m so, so, so happy to have this back. I¡¯m so unbelievably happy to have you in my head once again Teuila. I know you were incredibly stoked as well. I don¡¯t know anyone in any universe more connected than the two of us, save perhaps Lil and Luni.


    Hm? Bud, well, yes I suppose you and I are now connected at a fairly similar level, but it feels sort of one way, you know? I don¡¯t really get to listen in on your thoughts or explore your mindsca¡ª Really? Huh. I¡¯ll definitely take you up on that at some point, Lullaby my friend. Hm? Well, when we get some downtime. I¡¯ll hold you to that. I¡¯m honored by the offer. Oh! Because you¡¯re Lullaby, Requiem for the Windless Wilds, dreams and dreams of the wild fall within your--, ah yeah that totally makes sense.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Have any of your previous wielders bothered to¡ª? I kinda figured as much. Sorry Bud. They didn¡¯t know what they were missing out on. Though, to be fair, by your own admission, even you and I weren¡¯t this connected until I screwed around with Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian soul shenanigan inventory magic through you into your sister. I¡¯m glad too Bud, I¡¯m glad I did that too. It¡¯s nice that Essie is no longer Dirge, and that she¡¯s chilled out so much that you two enjoy each other¡¯s company now.


    What¡¯s Icey like Bud? I haven¡¯t gotten a chance to talk to him much. Kinda buffoonish in your opinion? In what way? Ah, a jokester that¡¯s just bad at it, gotcha. He¡¯s probably still forming his personality Bud. I got the feeling that while he was still Balchar¡¯s Flame, he barely had any personality beyond rage and bloodlust. We all deserve time for self-exploration, to take that journey of self discovery to find our own identities. He¡¯s only had a couple of weeks.


    Yeah, that¡¯s true. I¡¯m glad you can be sympathetic. Where am I at? Ugh, uh, about twenty five runes so far, about sixty or seventy attempts to go before I master it probably, minimum. Could be up to another hundred or a hundred fifty or so. Yeah, like Jarrah said, I¡¯m brute forcing it. I basically try to craft the same thing over and over and over until it finally lights up once as ambient mana is allowed to dwell within its empowered structure brought about by my essence. My S P? Sorc Points? Yeah, I¡¯ll call them that from now on Bud. S P is a lot easier to say than my daily alotment of vitality-related number of total runes that I can craft without keeling over. Hah. So, yeah, thank you buddy. Hm? Hah, that makes sense. Even though I¡¯m learning from a book, I don¡¯t utilize the pages of one as a focus. If I did, you¡¯d call them W P, or Wizardry Points. Makes sense.


    Oof, my eyes and jaw. Hm? Hydrate? Good idea, thanks Bud. Sometimes I forget to take care of myself. Well, you¡¯re pretty well aware of that, huh? Hah, yep. Three or four days straight spent reading while levitating is a tad excessive in terms of forgetting to take care of myself. Though that was an extenuating circumstance, since, since. Sniffle. Since I was still trying to save Dawn.


    My eyes well with tears of sadness and I drop my face into my upturned hands, with my elbows resting on my knees. I quietly sob as I recall how badly I failed Dawn. She was a wonderful friend, experiencing our journey together with us. I, I. Tears stream unbidden, and I can¡¯t finish my current rune attempt as all my senses are diminished, drowned out by overpowering sadness. She was counting on me. All of Aasimovia was counting on me.


    It¡¯s okay Bud. It¡¯s okay to be sad. I¡¯m allowed to be sad as I continue to grieve. Huh? Well, yes. I grieve their loss too. I know I don¡¯t show it, because it was slightly more impersonal. All those chameleon-folk were very kind, peaceful, sweet. Glp. I understand why Lil is mad at me, that I didn¡¯t seek retribution for their loss. Many good Nagas were lost as well, though it was mostly the black fangs sect of anti-mammal Nagas that were slain by Mataalii¡¯s lava tide, and the explosions.


    I know it seems like a crazy coincidence, but it was planned by either future me, or by Luni, or both of us Bud. Yeah. One of us in the future knew the bombs were going to go off in the residential and commercial districts on the far side of the Nagas¡¯ city. Yeah, that¡¯s why we engineered the timeline in such a way as to get all the Nagas out of those areas, to help tend to the wounded in the lava-destroyed area created by Mataalii that wasn¡¯t going to explode. What? I, I can¡¯t really prove it Bud. At least not while we¡¯re here on Rayileklia, maybe ever, because of the mana strangling my inner Changeling self.


    Do any other Fae have limitations on being able to work with mana like this, that you know of Bud? Oh wow, really? Dryads, Naiads, and Fawns all shouldn¡¯t work with spell mana? They learn to utilize Chi, or Ki, and ambient mana, and their natural gifts instead? Makes sense. Woah. Really? That sounds a lot like Spring Blossom back home on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Yeah, she was becoming incredibly powerful with nature magics, mostly flower, root, and vine based.


    Slow up a second, what? Oh, you¡¯re reading about our time in The Gap here on Rayileklia. Yep, that¡¯s true, we know a kobold youngling with mushroom and spore related magics. Hopefully the little guy¡¯s okay. I¡¯m pretty sure if I recall correctly, he¡¯s one of Miza and Timbik¡¯s clutch, their son. A clutch? I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s the term for a group of eggs laid by a reptilian humanoid, or draconic individual. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, Teuila was the one that met the younglings and stuff. I was mostly unconscious through most of our time with the kobolds at their warrens.


    Yes, yes it is slightly humorous that I was beaten near to death by a pile of animated rocks, thank you Bud. No, I¡¯m not being sarcastic or upset at all. Yes, that was sarcasm as well. Huff. Sorry, heh. It is a bit humorous, you¡¯re right, but Bud, I was truly on the edge of death. I¡¯m pretty sure that I may have even died several times during my stay there. Or perhaps I would have. Between Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce, Miza and Dippy¡¯s magics and rescue, and Teuila¡¯s, and my own tenacity, I might have never quite crossed over the threshold. Can¡¯t be certain though.


    Yeah, I didn¡¯t even know about dragonforce at the time. It¡¯s such a cool concept, but it¡¯s also incredibly sad. Either a dying dragon has to imbue you with theirs, or you have to rip it from their still-warm heart like I accidentally did. Huff. Yeah, it might have been even more potent if I¡¯d gone straight for her heart and figured out a way to pull the dragonforce straight out of it while it was still beating. That¡¯s a tad brutal though.


    Err, yes, you¡¯re right, I¡¯ve been quite brutal on occasion. I usually regretted it after, or didn¡¯t even intend to be doing it in the first place. Yes, I have a a wrathful side that I sometimes can¡¯t fight off. When it takes control, pretty much everything around me dies. I, uh, can¡¯t remember anything having survived one of my outbursts of wrath when it took me over.


    Yes, I agree, that¡¯s scary. Not quite as scary as having my will stripped away by an external force, true. Still scary that something prevents me from acting in the way I¡¯d like to though. I¡¯m sickened by the sapient lives I¡¯ve taken. I¡¯m not cut out for being an assassin, despite having accidentally fallen into the role four times now. Or maybe five if you count the cragbeast queen as well. Don¡¯t spoil it? Hah, sorry, okay. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll enjoy that bit. There¡¯s a bunch that I redacted and kind of shut my brain off while doing, so you might find some things that even I don¡¯t know about or remember in there.


    Rune count? I still haven¡¯t mastered this one. Huff. It¡¯s becoming less obviously incorrect with each attempt though, but yeah, I¡¯m burning away S P fairly swiftly. I¡¯m coming down with a migraine as intense pressure builds behind the top of my left eye. I¡¯m glad too Bud. It would suck if you could get migraines. I need to keep flexing my jaw so that I don¡¯t end up with a tension headache on top of it. Right, right, hydration again, thanks.


    Has it been two hours already? Wow. Huff. Yeah, thanks Bud. Definitely make sure I either snack or sip at least once every two hours, please. I¡¯m trying to survive without digging into Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce. I need all the power I can muster, but, you¡¯re right. I need to take care of me in order to be able to apply it.

 B 5 C 11: TT CT UBE

    Alright, six runes down, and Teuila¡¯s already breathing rhythmically cuddled up against my lap.  Her breathing is punctuated occasionally by soft snores.  Ugh my eyes hurt so friggin¡¯ much.  I¡¯m pretty sure the steeds will vanish while I¡¯m unconscious, sadly.  Though it¡¯s perhaps for the best.  Probably better to be alert while traveling with automated steeds.  To not remain alert would be sort of like driving a car while unconscious on Fakeworld, Earth.  Quite likely to end in disaster.


    Alright, so, we¡¯ve done a fair clip as far as carriage travel is concerned.  It¡¯s nowhere near as fast as Teuila can move about, but it sure beats mudcamping.  Still, a good few days until we reach Noirdivinhoz.  Hm?  Yeah Bud, another day of just sitting in the carriage while crafting runes.  We¡¯ll probably stop the carriage a little earlier today, so that Teuila can forage for supplies while I keep working on this spell.  I know, we¡¯ve basically been traveling from dusk til around morning to noon¡¯ish.  If we stop a bit after first light, we can gather supplies, wash up, and rest through the day.  Yeah, what time we travel sort of doesn¡¯t matter, and first light isn¡¯t really a concept here with the permanently darkened skies.


    We''re several hours into today''s journey when an adorably pitchy voice calls out from beyond the front of the carriage, ¡°Halt travelers!  Eep, runaway carriage!  Bad horsey, slow down!¡±


    I quickly assume telepathic command of the ghostly steeds so that they don¡¯t trample the poor woman.  Wanting to make sure she¡¯s alright, and see who she is, I hop out of the carriage.  Teuila¡¯s only half a step behind me.  What I see before me sets my jaw hanging slightly agape while the rest of my face contorts in confusion.


    At the fore of our procession of ghostly steeds is a short, cherubic woman, possibly a child.  Her short stature and cherubic nature seem to belie her true age, as though certain facets of her form are most definitely Fae in nature. She''s got mottled turquoise and sea-green skin.  She''s covered in overly large robes that obviously cover some sort of armor at various points about her body.


    The woman stands proudly before us, she stands only for a moment however, as a ghostly translucent hand as large as her props her up with her own lovely hair as a cushion.  Her robe is quite fetching, flattering even, as it¡¯s cut to fit in such a way that it exposes the outside of her biceps, forearms, thighs, and a deep neckline.  Along the exposed areas of her flesh are glowing teal runes that don¡¯t seem to be painted on, rather they seem to be a part of her skin¡¯s coloration.


    The short woman¡¯s adorable face and ears are impish, all soft angles curving to points.  There¡¯s an indomitable smile upon her adorably impish face that sets her ruby red eyes closed momentarily.  Probably the most remarkable thing about her, is the fact that she¡¯s using a larger version of the ghostly hand spell to play with her head of orange hair. Hair that, by the way, seems to be about twice the volume of the rest of her body.  She wraps the ghostly hand in her hair, and sits upon the back of the hand as if it were a chair that happens to be able to amble with its five legs.


    The young-seeming woman calls out, ¡°Ah, yes, right, great job with your magical horseys.  I would like to hereby request an opportunity to inspect your carriage for clues, and signs of -fowl- play.¡±


    She definitely enunciated fowl as in the birds.  My face continues to remain in one contorted state or another as I raise my left eyebrow at her.  I toss my glance towards Teuila, not that we need to make eye contact, since we¡¯re bonded telepathically, but it doesn¡¯t hurt to get her opinion in the physical world as well as thinkspace.  Teuila just shrugs as she watches the short woman with amusement.


    The impish lass pulls out a pouch, almost identical to the magical one we¡¯d never been able to identify.  Come to think of it, that pouch is one that I believe we left in Luni¡¯s possession, along with her magical handhold gloves for climbing, and some of the extradimensional bags, and I think possibly a jug that conjures liquids.  It was so very long ago that we confronted that weird vine-tentacle creature named Cigarette.  I¡¯m fairly certain that¡¯s where we earned several magical items that ended up in Luni¡¯s possession.  I¡¯m sure if I had my aura vision spell back then, I¡¯d know more about their enchantments.


    In fact, now that I think to do it, I engage my aura vision. With my aura sight, this woman¡¯s pouch is definitely, obviously magical.  So is nearly everything else about this woman, enchantingly so. I eye her with cautious curiosity as she heads towards our carriage with all the air of a sleuth as she bends low to scrutinize the ground and steps of our carriage.  Her investigation consists of a quick peek to the interior of our carriage¡¯s cabin, without entering it, and then is followed by her dropping low to begin scrabbling about beneath it.


    My silent sonar sense tells me she¡¯s reaching into that tiny magical pouch, and withdrawing something feathery.  As she reaches into the pouch, I hear the faintest ticking coming from somewhere, likely imperceptible to anyone without hypersensitive hearing.  An instant later however, there¡¯s a very angry, squonking honking goose in the woman¡¯s hand.  She pops out from under the carriage, and holds the goose, which is apparently a mana construct according to my aura vision, like a firearm aimed towards us.  She yells, ¡°Ah hah!  I suspected as much!  You two are guilty of -fowl- play!¡±


    Teuila doubles over with laughter, and I have to admit, I¡¯m chuckling slightly myself.  This is truly not what I expected to encounter on my journey back into Aasimovian territories.  I rattle my head as elated humor spreads across my face.  I shake my head incredulously as I try to puzzle out the curious woman.  She seems absolutely delighted to simply be earning laughter.


    As I gaze at the amusing impish woman, I¡¯m at a loss for words.  She literally casually tosses the goose aside behind her, letting it loose into the wilderness.  At the sight of her casual throw, even I can¡¯t help clutching my belly and laughing.  What was, I mean, but why.  What was even the point of expending magic summoning a goose?  Just for that play on words?  Hahah.  I continue shaking my head incredulously as my smile grows wider and wider.


    The woman approaches me, and eyes me up in a way that somehow says more than a simple glance at a stranger.  I know she¡¯s learning more about me than she¡¯s letting on.  The amusement is partially a facade, but only partially.  She¡¯s genuinely enjoying herself.  She offers her hand as she claims, ¡°Hail travelers, I¡¯m T T C T U B E, aka Tiktik Clocktok, Urban Bountyhunter Extraordinaire!  Put ¡®er there!¡±


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    I go to shake Tiktik¡¯s hand.  The incredibly faint ticking resumes as if coming from nowhere, it lasts only a few moments.  There¡¯s suddenly a small inflated presence in her hand that is picked up by my silent sonar senses.  It¡¯s too late to turn back as she quickly claps our hands tightly together to clasp and shake mine, loosing a terrible pfffffft noise from a conjured whoopee cushion.  I laugh as my face reddens with embarrassment at just how ridiculous this Tiktik woman is coming across.


    The adorably impish Tiktik teases, ¡°Hey no need to be ashamed, we¡¯re out in the wilds after all, if a tree farts alone in the woods, and no one¡¯s there to hear it, did it even make a sound?¡±


    Wh- what?  Hahah.  What in the hells is going on?  Is this normal on Rayileklia?  Are we being shaken down and robbed by a sorcerous jester?  I can¡¯t stop laughing as I facepalm, slapping my forehead while continuing to shake my head incredulously.  During my facepalming, the ticking resumed yet again momentarily.  Hm, one minor annoyance, now my hand appears to be stuck with a bit of a rubbery substance to my forehead.


    I can tell that Tiktik is about to cast the same spell that I¡¯m going to cast, as the seemingly telltale nearly inaudible ticking returns for a moment.  I¡¯m almost certain that the ticking is her Mnemonic, otherwise known as her unique variation of incantation.  I use the cleaning spell that I¡¯ve mastered, quickened just to beat her to the punch in the hopes of throwing her off her game.  I take Tiktik¡¯s hand with my now freed hand to shake hers again before she can finish the final rune.  There¡¯s a bit of dawning shock on Tiktik¡¯s face that turns into sheer elated joy after only a moment.


    She cries out, ¡°I knew I¡¯d find something interesting if I kept following this trail eventually!  Coulda swore it would be a dragon or something, based on some clues from a while back, but this is great too!  A new sorcerous buddy!  What about you pal?  I¡¯m hot on the trails of a booknapper from Autumn-Brook, but truth be told, I¡¯m, well, an -urban- bountyhunter.¡±


    Tiktik pauses to let the word urban sink in before continuing, ¡°The wilderness doesn¡¯t really do it for me.  Clues are a lot harder to find and follow in the vast wide open.  Ya dig?  Only, don¡¯t dig, you¡¯ll get all muddy.  Though I suppose that wouldn¡¯t bother a fellow prestidigitative sorcerer!  Anyway, let it never be said that Tiktik Clocktok doesn¡¯t always catch her man, woman, child, or other-gendered criminal!  Erm, at least as long as they stay in one town.  Say, you two wouldn¡¯t happen to be heading back towards The Brook, would you?¡±


    Pft, hah, this woman.  Hilarious, but also a bit audacious.  I think it¡¯s pretty obvious that we¡¯re headed west, though I suppose we could just be following the mountains throughout most of Aasimovia.  I''m unsure how Teuila feels about the implication of Tiktik''s question as to our arrival destination.


    Teuila and I are about to answer when Tiktik interrupts, ¡°So, hey, maybe I can get to know the two of you on the ride back if you¡¯re amenable?  I know, I know, I haven¡¯t even asked your names ye-t¡ª  Hold the courier pigeon!  You¡¯re Reggie and Teuila!  Sure as spitballs, super strong athletic looking gal, androgynous pal, the wild red mane on one, the floppy ¡®hawk on the other, tons of magic and power between the two of you.  Aint no way you could be anybody else.  Well, except I suppose any other pair of red haired sorcerous powerful people in which one is androgynous and the other sports an undercut.¡±


    I can¡¯t get a word in edgewise with Tiktik. I actually cough from laughter as I accidentally suck down some of the constant acidic drizzle.  Thankfully the neckchain of the ever breathing keeps me from hacking up a lung as water goes down the wrong pipe, but it¡¯s still an irritant coursing down the inside of my esophagus.


    Teuila grins as she crosses her arms and adopts one of her more confident, cocky, braggadocious poses.  While I¡¯m putting my hands forward placatingly towards Tiktik, waving them slightly in order to ward off any further miraculously speedy chatter, Teuila sizes Tiktik up.  Te grins and nudges me telepathically as she twitches her head towards her shoulder ever so slightly, signaling that she¡¯s ready to take the reins.


    As Tiktik is about to start again, Teuila barges in to the conversation, ¡°Tiktik Clocktok, you¡¯ve got a lot of explaining to do, and a lot to catch us up on.  It¡¯s a good thing it¡¯s going to be about a week yet, eh?  Welcome aboard love.  Cheers.¡±


    Teuila offers her hand to Tiktik, and like with me, Tiktik¡¯s Mnemonic, that nearly inaudible ticking similar to that of a clock sounds her spellwork, and a whoopee cushion is suddenly conjured into Tiktik¡¯s hand just as she makes contact with Teuila¡¯s.  The two snicker at each other, and I¡¯m left rolling my eyes, shaking my head incredulously and chuckling.


    I don¡¯t think Tiktik needs any encouragement Teuila.  Ya goon.  Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar grins at me like a lunatic, a smile a mile wide to her ears, her eyes closed, and her head swaying towards one shoulder then the other rapidly.


    Tiktik uses her magical hand, wrapped in her hair, to basically pick herself up and float a circle around Teuila.  While circling Teuila, Tiktik inhales deeply, sniffing repeatedly while nodding and muttering.  She then floats my way, and repeats the process around me.  I begin to blush as she leans intimately close to sniff along my neck and collarbone.  Curiously enough, Tiktik¡¯s nose nearly makes contact with all of the places I took injuries to, during our stay at the Enochian Enclave in the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds.


    Tiktik suddenly, while still close to my face, shouts, ¡°Home!  You¡¯re both steeped in it!  Shucks, boy howdy, and how do ya do!  It¡¯s going to be a treat to get to ride with you two. Straight out of the Fae''s Wild. Bet you were just rippin'' to get out of the Hidden Heart. Something was definitely urgent, not sure what. Some remorse mixed in there. Not sure what for, sorry nonetheless."


    Tiktik adds, "Just look at you both, some sort of Valkyrian, and an Absensorcerer like hasn¡¯t been seen in, well, ever.  The two of you are straight out of myth and legend! Or, well, kid¡¯s stories at least!  I should know, so am I!  Well, from the library they were kept at anyway.  Well, more like I spent a lot of time there when the tinkers, the Clocktoks, my fam, got pee ohed by my regularly scheduled pranks.¡±


    Shock dawns across my face as my jaw hangs agape while my eyes flash wide.  My mentor, Jarah Bettergrove, a literal celestial being, using every power at his disposal, could not identify or divine my magic.  Nor could he identify how to train me in proper application of anything such as incantation, as I had no natural aptitude for it.  A literal absence of ability.  I was completely incapable of learning bladesinging, incantation, or other verbal or sonic aids such as a Mnemonic or even a Canticum for runecrafting.  He did say I had a remarkable affinity for absence, though I never took his meaning, since he always mumbled it, and deflected when I asked about it. I at least have a name for the type of caster I am, unless Tiktik is playing another prank on me. She could have the detect thoughts spell, and simply been reading our recent time in the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds.


    Also, Tiktik¡¯s pranks were regularly scheduled?  She does seem to have some predictable behavior beneath her chaotic facade.  It¡¯s likely that anyone she meets whom she cares to associate with, she¡¯ll conjure a whoopee cushion as she shakes their hand.  Hell, she probably does the fowl play gag with the goose several times a day.  I¡¯m stunned mostly.  I very much want to speak with Tiktik further, but I¡¯m hoping we can curb her hyperactivity slightly.  Just slightly, so that we can have a discussion, rather than simply being the targets of her garrulous chatter, enjoyable as it may be.

 B 5 C 12: The Twixt

    Tiktik hops aboard our carriage, and marvels at the several tomes laying open within. I hope it wasn¡¯t a mistake to invite her to tag along. She seems incredibly pleasant, and I hope she¡¯s as earnest as she appears, but her chaotic pranking nature leaves me with a seed of doubt and mistrust. Still, she¡¯s definitely one of the better people we¡¯ve met, the most amusing on Rayileklia so far, to be sure. Coming across her is about the best thing that has happened to us in the last few weeks. I have the horses resume our travel path back along the side of the mountain range, westerly towards Noirdivinhoz, and The Brook.


    Wait a tick. Go back a bit. I ask, ¡°Tiktik, you said you thought you were on the trail of a dragon? Do you have any more information on that dragon? What kind? Size? Anything?¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s face is bright and cheerful as she gleefully, unhelpfully, responds, ¡°Nope!¡±


    I facepalm, struggling not to laugh as I shake my head incredulously. Tiktik adds, ¡°Actually, pretty small for a dragon, maybe about two Clydesdales side by side in size? A bit more? A bit less? Oh, a bit! We¡¯ve gotta introduce you guys to Littlebit if we ever go back to the Fae¡¯s Wilds. Uh, if we happen to be traveling in the same direction, at some point, and happen to be going that way at the same time.¡±


    Tiktik appears ever-so-slightly mousey at realizing she¡¯d been presumptuous in assuming that we might be traveling together longer than just enough time to stop by The Brook and drop her off. Honestly, I certainly wouldn¡¯t be against it. Then again, the last companion we had on our Rayileklian journey was fated to end as dust in my arms. Worse, she was fated to be erased from existence and history all together. I barely succeeded in preventing the last part. I couldn¡¯t save her, but I was able to save our memories of her. I gulp in sadness as tears well within my eyes yet again.


    I turn away from Tiktik as I sadly, slowly continue practicing my runecrafting. I struggle to choke down sobs that keep attempting to form, and my breathing is ragged. Teulia¡¯s struggling to not give in to the same sadness since she was riding around in my head. A ragged inhalation becomes a sad sigh once more as I continue to fail at crafting the same rune, over and over.


    Tiktik, not one to be silent amongst friends, apparently, calls out, ¡°Hey look at you two, my glum chums. There¡¯s that remorse I was talking about. As my Brookian friends would say, shid braddah. Or as Littlebit might say, that¡¯s rough buddy. Um, well, I know what you need! What you need is, is, it¡¯s in here somewhere.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow as I cock my head slightly towards Tiktik¡¯s direction. She looks for all the world to be digging through empty space in front of her, like a mime. I can¡¯t tell if she¡¯s joking around or not. One of the downsides to her constant playful prankster behavior. Perhaps not a downside in her eyes, but it strains the trust of her companions and friends, I would imagine.


    Tiktik frown and grumps, ¡°Bah, I swear I kept one. Darn it. Okay, fine. Let¡¯s do it this way.¡±


    The faint, nearly inaudible ticking returns as Tiktik begins to work magic, and what appears surprises me. A translucent image is projected upwards from her palm towards the ceiling of the carriage. It appears to be a star chart, or star map, or even just a view of what the night sky might look like over Rayieklia if we could see beyond the acid-clouds.


    Tiktik starts pointing out the stars and explaining, ¡°So, so normally I draw this out, and label them. So that one? That one I call, I¡¯m sorry Littlebit. That one¡¯s for the time that I really hurt my pal¡¯s feelings, and she wouldn¡¯t talk to me for weeks. I was super super bummed out, let me tell ya. That one over there? I call that one I¡¯m sorry Granda, and fam. It, um. My family blames me for Granda¡¯s last heart problem. He¡¯s alive and all! Just¡ª.¡±


    Tiktik scratches her chin and avoids our gazes momentarily before continuing, ¡°Just, my last prank back home spooked him too hard I guess. I guess he forgot the schedule, because he¡¯s getting older. I had to leave home after that. Couldn¡¯t stand everyone feeling that way about me. Err, but, but I¡¯m okay! Doing great on my first case as an urban bountyhunter! Well, sort of. Okay, it¡¯s harder than the time I was battling hoggleshades at the Spirushian Sanctum, and less rewarding, but, well, I haven¡¯t been on my own long. That one up there? I call that one homesick.¡±


    My jaw hangs lower and lower as we¡¯re given incredibly deep, meaningful insight into Tiktik and her story. More, the sweetness of the sentiment reaches my heart and breaks it free from its current episode of sadness. Teuila and I exchange a look, and nod. We know what the other is thinking, and we both feel the same way about it.


    Together, we point at a bright cluster of stars and simultaneously say, ¡°Dawn.¡±


    Tiktik rubs her eyes a moment as she stares between us, our synchronization seemingly surprising her. She may also have been rubbing away several tears, but who could blame her after those admissions? Oh hell, my right eye won¡¯t stop tearing up with how touched I am by Tiktik¡¯s admissions. I exchange a glance with Teuila, despite not needing to. We nod to each other, as we agree in our mindscape with our telepathic avatars hashing it out.


    Teuila states, ¡°She needs a hug, bad.¡± Then asks, ¡°Ready Air?¡±


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    I nod to Teuila, and the two of us spread our arms towards Tiktik, symbolizing our willingness and desire to hug the saddened, impish woman. She tentatively stands in the carriage, between the front and back seats, and avoids eye contact shyly for several moments. I¡¯m surprised to see yet another side to her.


    Immediately after I have such a thought, Tiktik leaps into our shared embrace, hugging the two of us, exuberantly exclaiming, ¡°You guys! Awe you¡¯re total sweethearts. Thanks chums. But, but seriously though. I¡¯m okay. I¡¯ll be okay. What about you two?¡±


    I remove one arm from our shared hug to scratch the back of my head. How much do we want to lay on Tiktik, Teuila? I¡¯m not even sure how old she is. Maybe she has lifetimes upon lifetimes of hurts already, or maybe she¡¯s so young she shouldn¡¯t be saddled with our sadness. Teuila shrugs in response to my thoughts that she¡¯s observing telepathically.


    Teuila brazenly asks, ¡°Hey, one woman to another, how old are you babe?¡±


    Tiktik remove her arm from around me to use her right hand to tap her chin. She does that while her ghostly hand has shrunken down, and is scratching the back of her head. After a ponderous moment, Tiktik responds, ¡°About a hundred fifty seven to a hundred ninety seven I think? But most of that was spent in the ¡®Twixt. Hm, so I¡¯m probably only, eh twenty or so physically, give or take?¡±


    Teuila and I raise our brows and simultaneously ask, ¡°The ¡®Twixt?¡±


    Tiktik facepalms as she explains, ¡°Oy, of course you wouldn¡¯t, awe heck. Okay, so, hubbub around the Keel Over is that you two might literally be out of this world, like from another world. The ¡®Twixt is kind of like a world, kind of like an imagination. What happens there really does affect anyone who travels there, but thankfully, creatures that are created there seem stuck there. Really thankfully, since some people dream up some pretty scary things."


    Our stunned, ravenously curious gazes clue Tiktik in to continue, "Littlebit was freaking out about vampires one time, and let me tell you, she could not handle herself a vampire, no siree, no way. One look in the eyes, and she was mesmerized, and if I wasn¡¯t there, she¡¯d have been dinner, or, or maybe like a bride or something.¡±


    The shock on our faces seems to continue to prompt Tiktik to further relay her tale, ¡°So, there was Littlebit, coming along with me to the ¡®Twixt for some adventure and fun and stuff, to try out some of her gadgets, like her little robodog thingy modeled after this really advanced golem that came through some time back, Bimetal Stormzolt. Err, not the point."


    Tiktik gets back on topic, I think, "Anyway, there we were, Littlebit seconds away from being eaten when I started brain blasting the vampire with psychic mind lances, pew pew pew, and brain lashing whips, fwish fwish fwish. That wasn¡¯t enough, so I did a thing that takes a lot out of me, and I sent Littlebit ahead in time a little bit, hah, err. It¡¯s only like five or ten seconds, but long enough that the vampy had to turn to me.¡±


    Tiktik suddenly stands back away from our embrace, and adopts the same pose Teuila used earlier to show off her warrior¡¯s pride. Tiktik claims, ¡°I might not look it, but I¡¯m pretty fierce and scrappy. Ol¡¯ fangface couldn¡¯t lay one on me, and my brain¡¯s too tricky to just be all mesmerized in one go. Lotsa stuff up in my head, like all the math and clocks and time stuff. Hard to pin down my brain when it might not even be in the now, ya know?"


    Tiktik laughs a moment at her comment about her own brain and the implication about how scatterbrained she is before continuing, "Anyway, I conjured up a little dagger, and started poking the jerk while I did some ensorcelling to shroud myself in hidden elements of fire and ice. When the jerkface finally did lay one on me, well, almost on me, instead he basically blew his own arm off as the ice swept up it, and the fire backlash smoked his frozen arm.¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s chin and bottom jaw jut out as she thinks about the end of her current tale, ¡°Hm, what happened next? Oh yeah! So, I kinda, uh, well, when I conjured my little dagger, accidentally imagined a living weapon, one powerful enough to help out. Now, I was using my own magic a bit, but the ¡®Twixt has a funny way of playing with things sometimes. I got my hands on a weapon powerful enough to form a pact with me unintentionally."


    Tiktik quickly adds, "I had to! Since Littlebit was about to pop back into reality any instant now, and the vampy fangface was still around, I accepted the pact. I know, I know, never do that, but it was for Littlebit! I couldn¡¯t let her get eaten on her first adventure. Well, her first adventure with me while testing gadgets instead of, err, well it¡¯s not the point.¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s chatter pauses a moment as she struggles to return to the right track on her train of thought, ¡°Err, anyway, so there we were, and, well, yeah, Bizzenblade is still my pact patron, and still exists in the ¡®Twixt, so, ah, might be some repercussions there at some point. Anyway, my freebie cantrips might have maybe been able to blast ol¡¯ fangface back to imagination, but I couldn¡¯t risk it, not with Littlebit¡¯s life on the line."


    Tiktik huffs and drops a weighty sigh, recalling something tiring, "I dug deep into my ol¡¯ Sorc Pool for a bigger bundle of Sorcy Pointerooskies than I¡¯d ever used before, and I conjured the very stars themselves! Sort of. Little throwing stars. Anyway, those little throwing stars held the power of miniature suns, let me tell you. And what kills a vampire faster than the sun? Several suns. What kills a vampire faster than several suns? Nothing, that¡¯s what. Thwip thwip thwip, pew pew pew and ol¡¯ fangface turns to ash, just as Littlebit is showing back up from the few seconds ago that I¡¯d sent her forward from."


    There''s a pause of remembrance as Tiktik giggles. She fights through laughter to say, "She was all dazed from the enchanting gaze and stuff, so she fell into my arms, and I was like having my own whole big darn hero moment. Ugh, I was totally going to smooch her, but we¡¯re like sisters, and she doesn¡¯t feel that way about me. Whatevs. I wouldn¡¯t want to make her uncomfortable, so I just kinda stood there like a dork.¡±


    Tiktik asks, ¡°Wait, why¡¯d I tell you guys that story anyway? Oh right! The ¡®Twixt! It kinda wibbles and wobbles in time a bit, you can get a lot of living done in a couple of minutes, but it might or might not be time that you age. It''s really weird. It¡¯s only accessible to a few kinds of Fae, mostly mixbreeds like me. I¡¯m half goblin half hobgoblin half, um, something else. It¡¯s the something else that lets me in, and lets me bring one other person in with me."


    A reddish brown blush overrides the turquoise of Tiktik''s face as she realizes how much she just relayed to us. She ends her explanation with, "Uh, yeah. So, that¡¯s kinda it. The ¡®Twixt that is. Kinda short for betwixt here and there, you get it, I¡¯m sure.¡±

 B 5 C 13: Painful Reminders

    I¡¯m stunned at the tale, almost in disbelief. Yet, for some reason, I entirely believe that there are zones of reality that are vaguely connected to Rayileklia, that only certain people can enter. In fact, I vaguely feel like I remember experiencing one myself, or at least helping a group of people get to one while being chased by something. That¡¯s an incredibly weird sensation though, recalling such a thing. Err, it¡¯s odd since such a thing never happened either on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas or Rayileklia. I rattle my skull momentarily to shake loose the odd thoughts.


    Teuila adopts an impressed expression before offering, ¡°Sounds like you¡¯re pretty handy in a fight Tiktik. How interested would you be in helping stop an apocalypse, or three?¡±


    Tiktik blinks several times as she stares at Teuila before cleaning out her ears, and blinking yet again. I attempt to not laugh at the comical nature of Tiktik¡¯s overly exaggerated approach to her display. Tiktik asks, ¡°A what or a how many of what now?¡±


    Teuila snorts with laughter and I struggle to keep from doing the same so that I can explain, ¡°So, Teuila is the leader of our little two person party, uh, our duo I guess, but she¡¯s asking if you¡¯d be interested in tagging along to make it a trio. We, well, if you thought adventuring in the ¡®Twixt was scary because of vampires, one of the three apocalypses has something to do with them. Another of the three involves the soul stealing shizzpit-lord that rules the imperium. Another one might involve dragons up at the Spine of the World. Our buddy Lilagni, who it sounds like you happened to be tracking, is up that way, and is a dragon, obviously. Lil is about the size that you guessed.¡±


    Tiktik drops a low whistle of appreciation as she leans back to fall into her seat. She strokes her forehead as she brushes back her luxurious-and-massive ponytailed mane of orange hair. Teuila adds to my explanation, ¡°So, yeah, my Airhead is right. I was offering. I don¡¯t just offer a spot in our little party to anyone though babe. I mean, it¡¯s just us two, ya know? Our, glp, our last friend, she um, she¡¯s gone now. Our trio¡¯s down to two. It hurt just to see it happening.¡±


    Wetness looms on Teuila¡¯s lashes, so Te pauses to rub her eyes furiously for a moment as she fights back tears before continuing. ¡°And, well I wouldn¡¯t want it to happen to you, I¡¯m already fond of you. Just, just yeah. It¡¯s real, it¡¯s dangerous, and it¡¯s what we have to do if we want our friends to survive, and if we want to survive long enough to ever possibly return home to our family. It sounds like maybe you¡¯re kind of drifting, just starting out on your own, away from home for maybe the first time, by what you said about your job.¡±


    Tiktik gnaws on her lips while she stares at us wide-eyed. Her mood continues to remain inscrutable beneath the shock apparent on her face for several seconds longer. Suddenly, Tiktik exuberantly exclaims, ¡°Well, as my Brookian buddies would say, shid braddah, all you had to do was ask! Hah. I¡¯m in! Tiktik Clocktok, Urban Bountyhunter Extraordinaire, aka Tee Tee Cee Tee U Bee Eee at your service madame Teuila!¡±


    I snort, stifling a laugh at Tiktik referring to Teuila as a madame, since my Fakeworld, Earth memories give the word certain connotations. Teuila grins and slugs me in meatspace while her mental avatar tackles mine in our thinkspace.


    Te almost mumbles as she indecisively offers, ¡°You don¡¯t have to say yes to this next part, it¡¯s, and, well, maybe we, well, okay, I¡¯ll put it out there for all of us to consider. Reggie and I are psychically bonded, telepathically, whatever. We were back home too, but then it got screwed up here, so we made a new bond with Rayileklian magic. We can add people to that bond, I think, right Airhead? Yep, nodding¡¯s enough for me. So, um. We might maybe at some point offer to add you to ours, maybe, possibly, if we talk about it, if it¡¯s something you¡¯re interested in.¡±


    Tiktik gnaws on the inside of her left cheek before responding, ¡°Hm, I¡¯ll have to give it some thought miss Teuila. I¡¯m not sure that I want you guys to see, or that you guys would survive seeing, what¡¯s all stored up inside my head, and the zaniness that goes on. All the clocks, all the time, all the time. Brr. Plus, now Bizzenblade. Brr.¡±


    Tiktik shudders twice, once at each of the two mentions, which surprises me. I don¡¯t think she¡¯s pranking me, or us. I honestly believe that she suffers from something relating to time within her mind. I wonder if my presence on a psychic link would soothe, or complicate that. I¡¯d prefer not to harm her. She seems like an endearing, talented woman. Hm, speaking about endearing, talented women, from the Fae¡¯s Wilds as Tiktik puts it, I find myself thinking of Alanea. Our strange time together struck a chord deep within me. She taught me how to sense my inner changeling self.


    I hesitantly ask, ¡°Tiktik? Do you, um, perhaps know Alanea Whifflewillow?¡±


    Tiktik rattles her head momentarily to return from whatever reverie she¡¯d been caught in. She smiles brightly, widely as she answers, ¡°Oh heck yeah, the Whifflewillow¡¯s girl, the one-with-the-nice-pillows girl. The changeling that¡¯s got all the peeps rearrange-ling. She¡¯s a doll, for serious. Didn¡¯t know her very well or anything, but she¡¯d come check out books for the Enookie Buddies or whatnot.¡±


    Teuila grins and triumphantly shouts, ¡°See! Hah! I knew I wasn¡¯t the only one that¡¯d do that with the Enookie Buddies group name! Hah!¡±


    Pft, Teuila you goon. Hahah. Fine, sure. I chuckle while shaking my head incredulously at Teuila, My Wings. Returning my attention to Tiktik, I ask, ¡°Err, does that mean you didn¡¯t spend much or any time in the Enochian Enclave?¡±


    A strange lamentation spreads over Tiktik¡¯s face as she responds, ¡°I, uh. I was part of the, I mean, my whole family, was part of the courts. The courts are kind of like, I dunno, maybe like nobility in other humanoid cultures or something. Not like we were nobles or a noble family or anything, though we weren¡¯t like servants either. It¡¯s, um. It¡¯s like being the poor kids living on the rich side of town is probably the best way I can put it. Doing anything to make your standing even worse by consorting with people from outside the courts would basically bring hell down on your family. Ya dig? Only, don¡¯t, you¡¯d get all muddy. Ah heck, I used that one already a few minutes back.¡±


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    Hm, perhaps it¡¯s a good thing we didn¡¯t end up trying our hand at working our way up the courts to gain favors from Mab, Bastet, Oberon, or Anubis after all. I knew they were a capricious bunch in general, but that sounds like an awful environment to grow up in. Oh no, it sounds even more awful as an environment for a prankster like Tiktik to grow up in. Yeesh, the poor gal.


    I continue practicing my runes in silence as I mull over what I¡¯ve recently learned. We¡¯ve still got a fair number of days until Noirdivinhoz, let alone Autumn Brook. The stop to pick up Tiktik took almost no time at all comparatively, so it¡¯s not like it sets us behind any sort of schedule. Despite it feeling like we¡¯ve suddenly had an entire age to get to know Tiktik, it has only been a few minutes. Rather mysterious that. Perhaps it¡¯s just how open she was with her remorse map or whatever you¡¯d call her explanation of her star map.


    Despite wanting to continue to get to know her better, I¡¯m trying to make up for a few runes since I spent several S P on a cleanliness cantrip earlier. That is to say, I might need a small power nap to complete all six runes mastered today that I¡¯ve projected completion of. I wonder if picking Tiktik¡¯s brain about Rayileklian sorcery would help or hinder my progress. It¡¯s a curiosity to me that Tiktik was able to offer a name to my power, since, according to Jarrah Bettergrove, my crazy-eyed celestial mentor at the Enochian Enclave, my magic supposedly defies what he knew about magic.


    Hm, the curiosity will drive me mad if I don¡¯t attempt to sate it. I query, ¡°Tiktik, what exactly is an absensorcerer? How did you know I am one?¡±


    A pensive expression is drawn across Tiktik¡¯s face as she gnaws on her bottom lip while gazing up-leftward in thought. She cheekily, happily responds, ¡°No idea!¡±


    My forehead meets my hand in rapid order, and I¡¯m left chuckling, shaking my head in mildly humorous exasperation. Now I¡¯m starting to wonder if she made it up, and was just goofing around.


    A giggle from Tiktik draws my attention back to her before she decides to add, ¡°Well, I mean, I was only guessing, and it¡¯s hard to say what one is for sure, since you might be the only real one to ever exist. There¡¯s children¡¯s tales in several books or on several tablets that give off the impression that a character was a masterful sorcerer, but mysteriously seemed to have no origin to their magic. Lots of different tales interpret it differently, but the kids at the reading circles decided that all the interpretations were of the same type of person, if not the same person. They started calling that person the absensorcerer. It seemed to fit when you casted without a Mnemonic, and still managed to beat me.¡±


    I flash Tiktik a half-sad smile. I suppose it was too much to hope that she had more pertinent information than Jarrah in the use of my powers. Still, she is a sorceress, and she has at least some mastery over the flow of time in a small area. I gnaw on my lip as I gaze her way, trying not to furrow my brow as I scrutinize Tiktik.


    As I¡¯m about to formulate another question, Tiktik suddenly interrupts my thoughts with, ¡°Oh, hey, about earlier, like it sounding like I¡¯m just starting out and stuff, I mean, it¡¯s my first job outside of the Fae¡¯s Wilds, since I only left a few weeks ago, and kinda wandered around til I found The Brook. I figured Aasimovia was a better place to run away to after all, I mean, compared to the other option.¡±


    A grimace fights the otherwise upbeat expression on Tiktik¡¯s face as she considers the other option, the Celestial Imperium. Tiktik rattles her head before continuing, ¡°Uh, anyway, I was fairly accomplished in the ¡®Twixt, I mean, over a century of adventure, ya know? I mean, sure I didn¡¯t start off all that impressive, but who does? Anyway, my personal joint in the ¡®Twixt is this sprawling massive city, lots of dirt and grit, crimes and capers and clues around every corner. I guess the ¡®Twixt got into my head and saw what I¡¯d be good at that I¡¯d enjoy.¡±


    Hm, pensiveness returns to my face as I¡¯m struck with a new thought. Maybe a place like the ¡®Twixt would give me the time I need to study all the spells available to me. Or I might just hasten my death by putting a strain on the expenditure of Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce. One way or another, I¡¯d still be spending time, even if it was a realm that¡¯s partially based on thought, and self-actualization. Time is the one commodity I don¡¯t have much of to spare at the moment.


    Heck, even though priority number one should be to stop the soul-stealing celestial dickweasel, we¡¯re going to try to catch up with Lil in the hopes that their apocalypse is a bunch of evil dragons to fight or slay. It¡¯s kind of messed up, isn¡¯t it? I told Tiago and George that I¡¯d never hunt, much less slay a dragon. I had to add the caveat, unless it were obviously evil and unrepentant. Still, who¡¯s to say we¡¯ll be able to tell which, if any, dragons are evil? Heck, can we even know if any remain at the Spine of the World?


    Huff. Hm? Yeah Bud, I¡¯m basically putting all my chips in an all or nothing gamble on our plan. Teuila and I agree, getting word out to the Aasimovians to evacuate, checking on our friends at The Gap, and then circling back around to take out the hydra that has been marauding the Jaggedfen Bogs is how we¡¯ll start this leg of the adventure. After that, we¡¯ll make a beeline for the Spine of the World in the hopes of finding either the dragons¡¯ territory, or the triple L squad, Lil, Luni, and Lucky.


    Yes Bud, that Lucky, the one that Luni and I worked through a strange series of events to create by combining energies into an egg. Yes, the egg I got from the creature on Day One¡ª. Crap. Panic floods my senses as the nightmares of Day One overwhelm me. My vision tunnels to the faintest point, and I¡¯m left hyperventilating while struggling to calm the active jackhammer within my chest. My pulse pounds so hard and loud within me that I fear it will burst my eardrums. The ever-present screeching ring of tinnitus grows louder than it has any right to be.


    I think I may have fallen to the floor between Tiktik and Teuila. I think Te is trying to reach me telepathically, while filling in Tiktik on my traumatic stresses and panic attacks. Please brain, please just, just let me out of these nightmares. The front of it just opened up though, into an approximation of a jagged maw. A small, round, furry jelly creature with stark-red, pupil-less eyes nearly slew me three times on Day One. The day I started consciously existing. I was so helpless, so confused. Especially when nightmares of the attack flooded my dreams after I had fled and needed to rest.


    The nightmares were unrelenting. They would conjure up images of every surface imaginable opening up into approximations of fanged maws, each of them rending into me as painfully as the furry jelly did when it gouged chunks out of me. I¡¯d be sent tumbling, hurtling from one maw to the next as they chewed me up and spat me out.


    My muscles spasm and seize during my panic attack as it nears its end. The spasms painfully lock muscle groups along the back left side of my neck, a frequent, agonizing occurrence with these episodes. I cough repeatedly as my heart rate slows significantly. My vision begins to return, and I sigh with relief. Between the spasms, and something that is bringing on another migraine behind my right eye, I¡¯m feeling incredibly spent. Yet still I¡¯ll persevere. Several runes to go, and quite a few hours yet before we even rest.

 B 5 C 14: A Tiktik-ing Timebomb

    After the unpleasant reminder that I¡¯ve struggled with panic attacks all of both of my lives, I¡¯m left quite weary. Still, the two wonderful people in the cab with me are supportive, comforting, consoling. Huff. Phew. Yeah Bud, I just meant physically present in bodies that have their own autonomy, I didn¡¯t mean to discount you or Essie or Icey. I¡¯m grateful you¡¯re here with me.


    Jarrah¡¯s room and the weird fast-forwarding it did? Yeah it screwed with my panic attacks a bit. This one was weird, since I could have active thoughts during it, and could keep sensing some of what was happening around me. It¡¯s alright Bud. One way or another I carry on, no reason not to. At least, no reason related to my panic attacks. I know they very well could get me killed with how dangerous my life is Bud, yes. Have you read about, ugh, I hate that the system named him after my first thoughts. Have you read about Vampguppy? Yeah, Can¡¯Z¡¯aas is definitely different than Rayileklia. Most creatures didn¡¯t have names, so the first person who interacted with them that thought of something to call them by, the system of our world implemented that as their name.


    Oof, that one¡¯s hard to explain. I mean, the system of the world of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas was a lot like videogames from Fakeworld, Earth. I know it¡¯s an unhelpful comparison Bud, sorry, I¡¯m trying to go somewhere with this. So, in videogames, imagine a ledger, yeah, like the one Milbert kept. Exactly, one with incredibly detailed notes, dates, times, numbers, things like that. Now imagine that one of those existed picture-perfectly in everyone¡¯s mind. Well, okay, not everyone, we¡¯ll get to that later. So on this mental ledger, there would be your own name, if you¡¯d been given one, and a lot of statistics about you. There were six attribute statistics that I never really figured out how they played with the other numbers, especially the duende score.


    Annoyingly, my best stat was that particular one, a word whose definition I¡¯m not even certain of. Brawn, agility, pluck, smarts, wisdom, all of those make sense to me. It¡¯s slightly humorous to me that my wisdom and agility are my lowest stats, because I¡¯m a klutz who makes poor choices. So, well, yeah Bud, exactly. It¡¯s not like the system was getting anything wrong when it determined our statistics and displayed them. Yeah, my brawn is barely any higher than my agility. Like, sure, I can be fairly nimble when I really need to be, during extreme stress and high focus, like combat, but any random other moment of the day, I¡¯ll probably trip over my own feet. Similarly as far as brawn, in combat, I can maybe go all out and physically hold off several creatures, sure. But ask me to move a crate full of material without my inventory magic? You¡¯d be lucky if I could even budge the thing.


    Pluck? Yeah, it was my second highest scoring stat. What is it? Well, it¡¯s sort of like perseverance mixed with grit, and spunk. Ew Bud, not that kind of spunk you punk, gross. Obviously I meant the word that means a kind of rebellious attitude, defiance. Yeah, my pluck was pretty high, because apparently one of the things it lets you defy is basically death itself. Sorta, more or less. I think it has an influence on our health values. For digital beings like Teuila, and digital-adjacent beings like myself, we can take a lot more punishment than your random average human. I was struck by a meteor, and left still standing strongly enough to intercept another, even deadlier spell aimed at Teuila, who¡¯d been rocked to within an inch of her life by the meteor. Yeah, that spell almost took me out, even though I¡¯d faired the meteor itself better, so I¡¯m certain it would have slain Teuila.


    Ugh, that fight sucked, immediately after living through those two massive spells, the thing hit me with another spell. That spell basically enveloped me in some sort of anti sorcery field. Most of my magic items, probably all of them, stopped functioning, I couldn¡¯t use any of my magics. I think psychic connections were still working, maybe, but it¡¯s not like I had any psionic powers at the time. Ugh, bluh, let¡¯s get off of this topic, please? Yeah. Sure, I can do that, examples of the other two, sure.


    So, for smarts, well, mine was up there just behind my pluck. I think the system basically graded me on my mental creativity in applications of my talents. I don¡¯t think I was honestly any smarter than anyone with a different score value, especially since we all had vaguely encyclopedic knowledge the instant we were spawned. A few of us were better at math or trigonometry or navigating or other things, but those were more skills rather than just knowledge. Yeah, kinda exactly like that, good example. Hm, no, I couldn¡¯t tell you what yours would be Bud, sorry. Lil might be able to, Lil¡¯s analysis skill was top notch. They could sense tons of things about people, and even follow their aura trails of their souls.


    Yeah, yeah my Lil buddy was really impressive. Is. They are really impressive. I know, I know, I was getting to it. So that duende value, it¡¯s weird. For a long time, it seemed like all values were capped at twenty for these main statistics, but at some point, mine was able to rise to twenty two. Somehow it grades things like, influence, leadership capability, communications skills, physical attractiveness, a bunch of weird factors, I don¡¯t even know for sure. Hell, it could measure the size of your soul in centimeters for all I know, I¡¯m just making guesses.


    Uh, yeah, I suppose I do have a way of getting my way with demands that I make, one way or another. It¡¯s not a very convincing argument for my high duende score though, since the only people who didn¡¯t acquiesce to my demands are dead. Yes, I know how grim and dark that sounds. Yes, I do think it¡¯s awful that the tale of my life makes it seem like I kill to get my own way. The thing is? My way is generally just health, happiness, and safety for everyone around me, everyone. If someone endangers that safety and health in some way that isn¡¯t an absolute necessity to prevent more harm? If someone has no remorse, and no willingness to change that action? Then yeah, I¡¯m killing that person.


    Huff, yes, I know how brutal that sounds. I come from a world of kill or be killed Bud. I often used, or use, threat of violence to coerce others into stopping actions that I believe are evil. I know, I know! I¡¯ve fought with myself over that a million times already Bud! I don¡¯t want to play judge, jury, and executioner! Look, if you knew that right now, some human was going to steal something from, I don¡¯t know, a dragon, and that that object had a curse on it that would wipe out the entire Hidden Heart, how would you react to that person? Okay, sure, me too. Now, when they absolutely refuse to stop, because they either don¡¯t care, or they¡¯re -happy- to cause suffering to others, what would you do?


    Bud? Huff. I¡¯m sorry Bud. Yes. Yes I¡¯ve had a lot of situations like that crop up in my life. Maybe slightly less extreme, but yes. I know. I¡¯ve killed a lot of people, and let a lot more die. I don¡¯t know how to be better Bud, but I¡¯m trying. Every day I try to fight for a safer, happier tomorrow for everyone. I don¡¯t know how else to be. I just want to help. Mostly I just want my loved ones safe, above everything else, and yes, sod everyone else if it comes down to it. Well, okay, maybe not. I¡¯d always struggle to find a third option in such a horrific scenario. Well, the scenario is basically how I said it. If it came down to a choice between all my loved ones, and everyone else, one group or the other dying, I¡¯d choose to keep my loved ones alive, despite there being a lot more people out there.


    I¡¯m sure too Bud. My point though was, despite how monstrous that makes me feel, I can rest assured that I -have- faced decisions like that, and found a third option sometimes. Generally at great personal cost, at least for a time. I recover a lot more easily from high personal costs than Rayileklians would. Yeah, injuries, mental stress, fatigue, stuff like that. Exactly. Yeah, that¡¯s another thing too, my Fakeworld memories of Earth say that humans there are even squishier than the ones on Rayileklia. No magic, no enchanted clothing, no one used to standing in acid rain for hours, people burning alive just from being in the sun, lots and lots of squishiness. I know, I know, fantasy planet. Well, true, I guess there is no real point. I just can¡¯t help the thoughts. They pop in, intrusively.


    Anyway Bud, phew, it¡¯s what, August fifth right now, going on sixth? Oh it¡¯s already the sixth? How do you even tell time? Oh, nature and the natural world in the wilderness. Makes sense. A few more hours, and we¡¯ll stop to make camp. Teuila will forage while I keep crafting runes. I feel bad that I leave it up to her, but thankfully you¡¯re here, and your powers are potent while we¡¯re still in a forest connected with your home. Not quite ¡°I make this tree bleed pure sugar for you from a faucet that I create out of its wood,¡± but still powerful as heck. I admire you Bud, you definitely are a tremendously valuable ally.


    Tiktik¡¯s what? Oh, I should probably pay attention to the real world sometimes, huh? Hah. I cast my glance upwards towards Tiktik, and I¡¯d swear her hair appears far less voluminous. My jaw hangs slightly slack as my face contorts. I¡¯m sure that she had more hair than her entire body, enough to coat a giant ghostly hand like a chair.


    As politely as I can, I ask, ¡°Tiktik, I hope this isn¡¯t rude, but am I mistaken, or didn¡¯t you have more hair just a little while ago?¡±


    A grin creeps across Tiktik¡¯s face as she leans in conspiratorially, holding her hand to one side of her mouth as if revealing a big secret, ¡°Remember how I said I was half gobbie, half hob gobbie, half something else? I get that from my half something else. Hair grows and shrinkydinks when I want it to. Mostly. It uh, because I¡¯m not a full-blooded nightimpkorred, it sometimes, well, doesn¡¯t like to listen, and gets a mind of its own.¡±


    Tiktik then turns to her hair and babies it like a beloved pet, ¡°But she¡¯s a good girl isn¡¯t she? Yes she is, yes she is. Who¡¯s a good girl? You are, that¡¯s right, you are. Mwah. Keep that luster buster, you¡¯re great!¡±


    I really can not tell when Tiktik is earnestly being goofy, or pranking me by being silly. Hah. I guess it doesn¡¯t really matter, that¡¯s just a large part of her personality. From the more benign side of the trickstery Fae courts. Goodness, I can see how that might end up getting awkward in non-Fae lands. Well, I¡¯ll stick up for her if anyone decides to cause trouble, not like she couldn¡¯t handle it herself, but it¡¯s usually nice to know a friend has your back. Actually, speaking of handling it herself, I may as well ask.


    Since my mind wandered over to powers and ability to handle problems, I query, ¡°Tiktik, could you tell me about Rayileklian magic? Yours specifically, but more in general too. Jarrah Bettergrove, my mentor, a member of, or maybe founder of the Enochian Enclave was, well, he tried to be helpful, but he was also enigmatic. We generally only ever talked along thought trains that he had, and he¡¯d rarely answer my questions.¡±


    Tiktik snickers delightedly as she pokes fun at me and my mentor, ¡°Sounds like old Jarhead alright, from what I¡¯ve heard tell anyway. Finds some random star pupil, leaves them more confused than when they arrived, like that lech Flint Darklace. Eugh, resting creepy face is not helped by eyes that are obviously undressing everyone around you Flint.¡±


    I have to chuckle, because I had the exact same thought when I met Flint. Before I can press for more relevant information, Tiktik continues on her tangent, ¡°So, yeah, Flint is kind of like me, he came from the wrong side of the tracks in a manner of speaking. An uptown boy or whatever you want to call being born into a family that¡¯s part of the courts. He¡¯s all shmooze and flattery and whatever at the social events, very proper and all that, or at least he was. He got mixed up with the Eenookie Buddies pretty recently, I think Alanea convinced him or something. They were friends or something for a really long time. Maybe on and off again something elses, dunno, didn¡¯t really talk to him about his personal life.¡±


    There¡¯s the shortest possible pause for breath before Tiktik concludes, ¡°All that is to say, he¡¯s not looked upon well by the more traditional members of the courts any longer. Most common folk outside the influences of the court aren¡¯t, but especially not the Eenookie Buddies. They¡¯ve got some notion in their head of a secret conspiracy or something, some bad influence that¡¯s already in the heart, and maybe working its way up the courts. Now I¡¯m not one to call someone crazy, but, eh, who knows for sure. They¡¯ve been around a lot longer than me, but had been low key up until really recently.¡±


    I blink at Tiktik several times as I try to catch up and mentally digest what my auditory processing caught from her. I rattle my head to try to reset my train of thought so that I can thank Tiktik, ¡°Ah, uh, thanks Tiktik, but, err, about magic? Is it impolite to ask others about theirs or anything?¡±


    Tiktik slaps her forehead, facepalming when she realizes she¡¯d just done what I told her Jarrah did, evading answering my questions. She responds, ¡°Oh, no, no you¡¯re good. Oof, sorry about that, right, magic. Well, I¡¯m a sorceress, and you are too, or sorcerer, whichever if you feel like there¡¯s gendered connotations, I dunno.¡±


    Tiktik chuckles, and smiles widely, her adorable pointy ears perk as she speaks, ¡°Anyway, so, sorcer-whatsits are people whose magical talents come from a source, or -the- source, the will of magic itself. I¡¯ve just started reaching the eighth rung of magics, or circle like, within the last adventure that I had in the ¡®Twixt. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever reach the ninth, I haven¡¯t met anyone else who has gone past the fifth in, well, ever.¡±


    A light sparkles in Tiktik¡¯s eyes as they change colors. Glee remains evident on her face while she continues to explain, ¡°With my style of magic, my S P as Teuila was telling me to call them for you, my S P are basically bundled off into segments. Through no will of my own, it¡¯s just how it is. I can sort of borrow from one pool to do stuff in others, from different rungs, but those S P have to come from somewhere, and trying to cast something from a further rung of magic, if I don¡¯t have anything left in that pool, well, it eats up a disproportionate amount of whatever magic I had left in other pools. Like, ridiculously so.¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s tongue finds its way out of her mouth and simply sits there along the left corner of her mouth as she appears lost in thought. I¡¯m about to ask about it, but Tiktik returns to our current topic, ¡°So, yeah, I mean, yours might be the same, I don¡¯t know, but I didn¡¯t smell a source on you. Mine? Mine is weird. It¡¯s kind of mechanical, but also kind of natural. It¡¯s like, the law and order of the universe says time is a thing, and that that thing, when represented mechanically, can do, I dunno, stuff.¡±


    A grimace finds its way across Tiktik¡¯s face as she recalls, ¡°Ugh, my family is clockmakers and tinkers, and there¡¯s me with magical powers that go blasting off when mechanical sounds happen. I mean, early on, when they¡¯d first awoken. Needless to say, spooked the hell out of my family when that first firebolt just zoomed out of my nose after dad fixed a dusty clock. Out pops the birdy, cookoo, cookoo, all working nice and proper, and flinging dust up my nose. P-cheeew, fwoosh, no more clock.¡±


    I struggle not to laugh either at Tiktik¡¯s misfortune, or her use of onomatopoeia. She¡¯s a truly amusing individual. Teuila got bored of either reading her enchanting tomes, or listening to us talk about magic, and is currently curled up dozing on my lap while she waits for me to decide we¡¯ve traveled enough for the day. Or something along those lines. Tiktik gazes at me expectantly for some reason, and I¡¯m left staring back into her remarkably unique eyes, unsure what she¡¯s waiting on.


    Tiktik literally pokes me, then waves her hand in a ¡®please continue¡¯ manner, as if to say it¡¯s my turn. Ah, I start out with, ¡°Well, Jarrah couldn¡¯t figure out the source for my magic, and your guess with the kids¡¯ name for the absensorcerer is as close as I¡¯ve gotten to an answer about how and why I¡¯m able to perform runocrafting. Mine is a bit different than you, my S P are just one massive pool, but I have to craft all the runes brute-force by hand, since I have no affinity for, or any ability to use any Mnemonic that Jarrah knew about. So I have to master all of a spell¡¯s runes down to muscle memory rote perfection before I can cast that spell.¡±


    I huff as I exhale a breath through puffed cheeks. Taking this momentary pause for a brief breather, I cock my head to one side as I realize Tiktik and I have been staring into each other¡¯s eyes this whole time. Tiktik copies the angle of my head¡¯s movement, mirroring me. I raise an eyebrow, and she does the same, but she makes no effort to speak or explain why she¡¯s mimicking me.


    Shrugging, I continue, ¡°I recently gained an ability that quickens the crafting of my runes to be as fast as, or faster than a Mnemonic, or incantation, but it costs me twice as much S P, bare minimum, to do so. I, uh, think I¡¯m not limited by circles or rungs or tiers of magic, I just need to see a spell¡¯s runostructure written out somewhere. It doesn¡¯t even have to be the whole runostructure, it can be words that the runes represent, and as long as I know those runes from having seen them in other spells, I should be able to do it.¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s jaw hangs slack as she exclaims, ¡°Not limited by circle!? Then you¡¯re an archmage, an archsorcerer! I¡¯ve gotta be the luckiest bounty hunter in the world to snag you. I mean, not that there¡¯s a price on your head, or anything like that. Maybe I should have said luckiest sorceress. Really, truly, you can just cast whatever you want?¡±


    I grimace as I admit, ¡°Well, I will be able to, I¡¯ve only learned a very few runes that apply to very few spells. Perhaps we could compare notes? You seemed to be missing your star chart map paper thing, if you need paper, I¡¯d be happy to¡ª¡°


    Tiktik reaches into thin air, a ticking sound fills the cabin of our carriage, and she has suddenly conjured several sheets of vellum, and a quill that floats on its own. She brags, ¡°I¡¯m warning ya, this one might be a bit long. What¡¯s yours like? Oo, thanks! I¡¯ll just copy this format. Oh hey, magical trinkets and stuff. One of the great things about the ¡®Twixt. Actually, like, maybe all artifacts ever are from places like the ¡®Twixt. People go on fanciful journeys, and come back with magical tomes or neat suits of armor or whatever. Stuff just sorta springs into existence, like an old crypt filled with creepy ghouls and zombies and ghasts and wights and hoggleshades, and at the end of it is a necromancer wielding an awesome staff, like this one. Well, specifically this one. I feel so powerful wielding it. It also has a few S P of its own, though not many, like, maybe two hundred¡¯ish, one eighty¡¯ish. Anyway, hold up a sec, I¡¯ll get this all down.¡±


    As Tiktik writes out her own asset list, I continue to work on my runes until I¡¯ve mastered the six I intended to complete during today¡¯s travels. Phew, I¡¯m so exhausted. Tiktik appears rather beat too. She appears to have passed out sitting up. Her head is tilted towards her left shoulder, and she¡¯s drooling ever so slightly. Tiktik snorts once and rattles her head, but appears to remain sleeping. The floating quill, and floating parchment, apparently finishes their task, or run out of power with Tiktik being asleep. Since the vellum and quill fall to the floor, I pick them up to take a gander at Tiktik¡¯s list.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I¡¯ll update mine as well. Oh this is truly pleasant, several of the runes I¡¯ve learned today apply to a bunch of the spells available in the books. I¡¯ll have to update my list as well.


    Tiktik¡¯s Circles and S P Pools


    <ul>


    <li>Infinite parlor-tricks or ambient mana cantrips</li>


    <li>Four of the first rung, and a freebie that Bizzen will cast to honor our pact, brr.</li>


    <li>Three of the second rung</li>


    <li>Three of the third rung</li>


    <li>Three of the fourth rung</li>


    <li>Two of the fifth rung</li>


    <li>One of the sixth rung</li>


    <li>One of the seventh rung</li>


    <li>Kinda zero¡¯ish of the 8th rung, kinda sorta. I can dip my toes in the eighth circle¡¯s pool, but don¡¯t have a full mastery yet.</li>


    </ul>


    Tiktik¡¯s Spells by rung:


    <ul>


    <li>Ambient-mana Cantrip: Thunder Bonk. Sets up vibrations in my whacky stick and rumbles my enemy with thunder if I manage to hit ¡®em with it</li>


    <li>Ambient-mana Cantrip: Resistant Nature: Metal! (For serious! Makes my skin harder to cut, slash, crush, all of that! But only for like, a split second. Hard to make use of it.)</li>


    <li>Ambient-mana Cantrip: Necroblast. Eugh, it uh, it necrotizes wounds so they won¡¯t heal up for a while. Comes in handy fighting trolls and hydras and some other things.</li>


    <li>Ambient-mana Cantrip: Bizzenblast, I kinda shoot a shadowy copy of Bizzenblade from like, a portal that looks like it might be from the ¡®Twixt, but, well, there¡¯s no way that¡¯s what¡¯s really happening. Not sure, my pact grants me the spell.</li>


    <li>Ambient-mana Cantrip: Firebolt, like how I said when I sneezed and torched that old cookoo clock</li>


    <li>Ambient-mana Cantrip: Ghostly-hand, you¡¯re right, it¡¯s great! Especially if you dump a bigger pool into it, so you can make it big enough to do more stuff.</li>


    <li>Ambient-mana Cantrip: Prestidigitativeness! You sneak! Casting yours faster than mine.</li>


    <li>Ambient-mana Cantrip: Electro-grip. It¡¯s like a joybuzzer, but I can crank it up to eleven if I want to make it hurt.</li>


    <li>First Rung: Minor Forcefield. A skin of forceful mana hovers around me, and if I¡¯m quick enough when empowering it, attacks can be stopped by it, or glance off of it. It¡¯s pretty good at stopping mana attacks too. Not most spells, just the one or two that are specifically mana attacks.</li>


    <li>First Rung: Brainbad Whispering. I say a secret, or a lie, and it only gets heard by one person, but they usually want to scratch it out of their brain, so they¡¯ll run away for a bit to try to stop hearing it.</li>


    <li>First Rung: Reactive Icefrost Coating. I can make my mana-film take on an elemental ice property, so if something does manage to skirt by my minor forcefield, and my armor, whoever tried to hit me is going to feel it before it can get to me. It might not even get through my mana-film at that point.</li>


    <li>Second Rung: Embolsterment. It, um, bolsters and emboldens me and two other peeps. Huh, we have a trio. What a coinkydink!</li>


    <li>Second Rung: Lesser cureall. It gets rid of some poisons, helps reduce swelling that causes temporary blindness, just lots of minor fixes. It¡¯s not healing or regeneration, but it¡¯s like having the right medicine on hand for most occasions.</li>


    <li>Second Rung: Icebind cone. Just like the name says, a cone of ice binds enemies in place. Well, allies too if they¡¯re in the area.</li>


    <li>Second Rung: Hidden-sight. Invisible things can¡¯t hide from me!</li>


    <li>Second Rung: Psychic brainlash. Kinda like the illusion of a whip hitting someone so hard that their brain convinces them they feel it.</li>


    <li>Third Rung: Minor/Major Dispellation! You want to learn this one, and you¡¯re absolutely right! If you can catch someone else casting, and you¡¯re quick enough, you can nuke their runes away, blowing all of the S P they had been trying to use.</li>


    <li>Third Rung: ¡®Splodey-glyph. It¡¯s a glyph, it explodes. It makes for fun, if horrifying pranks, depending on who or what steps on it. Eugh.</li>


    <li>Third Rung: Anti-brainlash. Just because I can dish it out, doesn¡¯t mean I want to take it.</li>


    <li>Fourth Rung: Reactive Fireblast Coating. Like my icefrost one, but packs a bit more kick, a little less defensive, but between the two, hot and cold don¡¯t bother me much. I wouldn¡¯t stand in a dragon¡¯s flame, but I might survive a quick blast if I get away quick enough.</li>


    <li>Fourth Rung: Moderate Shapechange. I can make me or a friend into a big helpful animal, or I can try to turn an enemy into a weak helpless one, and either run away, or get it away from the battlefield. The form is temporary, and attacking that form won¡¯t do anything unless the attack is pressed so hard that it carries through when the person reverts.</li>


    <li>Fourth Rung: Slipperiness. Makes it so that you can¡¯t really be pinned down, as if you¡¯re all slick and oily, without having to be actually covered and icky.</li>


    <li>Fourth Rung: Moderate Brainblast. A bit more powerful than just headache inducing, but not quite enough to make heads explode, thank Fae.</li>


    <li>Fifth Rung: Moderate Cureall. Like the lesser one, but works on more things, even a few magical ailments, like negative transmutations. Being turned to stone, etcetera.</li>


    <li>Fifth Rung: Bypassed-Wall! Good taste Reggie!</li>


    <li>Fifth Rung: Conjure Major Mana Construct: Draconic Spirit. Sadly I can¡¯t cast it yet unless I get a statue of a dragon from a dragon¡¯s hoard, and keep it on me, so it¡¯d have to be a small one. I doubt I¡¯ll ever be able to use it. Where would we get one of those?</li>


    <li>Sixth Rung: Bahativimut¡¯s Platinum Scales: It gives you the protection of the big guy himself! Sorta! Like, one of his scales is magically conjured as a mana construct, and it does its best to defend you. I can only keep it up on two people at once sadly.</li>


    <li>Sixth Rung: Battle-form! Oooo I can¡¯t wait to show you guys this one.</li>


    <li>Seventh Rung: Starshots! Conjures throwing stars that have the power of miniature suns! Just, gotta not miss.</li>


    <li>Seventh Rung: Rain of Fiery Chaos. It¡¯s actually way more orderly than it sounds. I can sculpt the area that the fire hits by visualizing where I want it to be, and it won¡¯t spread to anything else unless I want it to.</li>


    <li>Eighth Rung: Can¡¯t really totally use it yet, I¡¯m close though. Not sure what spells I¡¯ll be able to find when I reach deep into my source after unlocking its mastery.</li>


    <li>Ninth Rung: Not gonna lie, I¡¯m not even close. I¡¯ve never brushed anything past the eighth rung, because, well, ya gotta get to one before you can get to the one beyond it, doy.</li>


    </ul>


    Tiktik¡¯s Permanent Buffs:


    <ul>


    <li>Friends!</li>


    <li>Also, maybe being able to go into the ¡®Twixt.</li>


    <li>I can double up some of my S P stuff to hit two targets instead of one, or quicken them, sorta like you.


    Tiktik¡¯s Current Equipment:</li>


    <li>1x My Power Staff, from the Spooky Sepulchurium at the Spirushian Sanctum</li>


    <li>1x My not-today Poison! Amulet</li>


    <li>1x My invisible hyperdimensional handysack</li>


    <li>1x Pair of invisible sticky-fingers gloves</li>


    <li>1x Minor History Mirror</li>


    <li>1x Lightweight Magicky Plate, my armor that rearranges where it¡¯s needed, and looks fancy when it¡¯s not</li>


    <li>1x My no-dying-on-me amulet. Gives me a few extra seconds to try to get to safety to bleed out somewhere else.</li>


    <li>1x A whole buncha wands! Smilyspell Wand, Frownyspell Wand, No-hiding-from-me Wand, Breezy Wand, Shooty Wand, Musical Wand, Fireworks Wand, Wand of Smokey-lusions, Wand of Gonging(A fav for pranking, ka-gong!), Lightning Wand(Dangerous, point away from own face!)</li>


    <li>1x My ring of what your minor potions do! Water walking! Never thought to use it to save me from a fall though.</li>


    <li>1x My bottle of everpure. It can endlessly pour pure water, but only at like, drinking speed. I couldn¡¯t make a river.</li>


    <li>1x One of the ones on your Teuila¡¯s list, Potion of Resistant Nature: All</li>


    <li>4x Featherfall tokens,(Well, two) one is in each of your pockets already! That¡¯s what my sneaky invisible stickyfingers gloves help me do. I can plant gifts on my friends, or play pranks on them, or both!</li>


    <li>1x My bag of fuzzybuddies, can make geese, weasels, a few other things, but those are the ones that mostly come out. Can only do a few per day.</li>


    <li>1x Enchanted warmth-breath-swimwear cloak. Specially made by someone that doesn¡¯t exist! I wanted to show off my markings, but also stay warm and safe, so I had it tailored just for me. Keeps me warm, even if I were to dive in the ocean, keeps me breathing in water, but not as fancy as your amulet of ever breathing, it only works for water.</li>


    <li>1x My hood of ratty buddies. Temporary rat familiars show up, sometimes up to a hoard of them, they don¡¯t really listen to me all that well, except</li>


    <li>1x Pied Pipes, like yours! Rats kinda go where the music goes.</li>


    <li>1x Mug that takes the alcohol out of alcohol, super fun to prank your drunkard buddy with, leaving them sober.</li>


    <li>1x inversible reversable transversable belt-cloak. If you try to put it on, suddenly you¡¯re gone! And then like, a few feet away, maybe a couple hundred feet if you¡¯re good. Only seems to work once a day though. If you can manage to get both arms around someone really tight, and most of the cape around them too, they¡¯ll go with you. Kinda like going invisible and walking, or jumping over things to get somewhere. Won¡¯t go through walls or places you couldn¡¯t fit through yourself.</li>


    <li>1x My boots leave whatever kind of footprints I want. Sometimes I change the footprint every other step, so it¡¯ll look like a chicken walked in front of a dragon or something silly.</li>


    <li>1x The spirit of my first pet bullfrog in a little wooden carved statue of him. Bugs won¡¯t bother us with him around.</li>


    <li>1x Half-completed leather bracers of faster casting. I¡¯ll beat you next time Reggie!</li>


    </ul>


    Tiktik¡¯s Current Sentient Artifact Attunement:


    <ul>


    <li>None, though, uh, Bizzenblade is kind of a sentient artifact. Bizzy doesn¡¯t really exist out here, but somehow the power of his pact still does, and so he¡¯s kind of in my head.</li>


    </ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Runic Costs/SP Costs when quickening casts:


    <ul>


    <li>Double the rune/point or "sorc point" as Bud calls them cost of spells up to 33 runes in length / 33 SP to cast them in 1-10 seconds time. Triple the cost of spells up to 66, quadruple the cost of spells up to 99 </li>


    <li>Casting in 10-30 seconds, double up to 66 SP, triple up to 132, quadruple up to 198</li>


    <li>Casting in 30-50 seconds, double up to 99 SP, triple up to 198, quadruple up to 297</li>


    <li>Casting in 50-70 seconds, double up to 132 SP, triple up to 264, quadruple up to 396</li>


    <li>Cast in 70-90 seconds, double up to 165 SP, triple up to 330, quadruple up to 495</li>


    <li>Cast in 90-110 seconds, double up to 198 SP, triple up to 396</li>


    <li>Cast in 110-130 seconds, double up to 231 SP, triple up to 462</li>


    <li>Cast in 130-150 seconds, double up to 264, triple up to 528</li>


    <li>Cast in 150-170 seconds, double up to 297, triple up to 594</li>


    <li>Cast in 170-190 seconds, double up to 330, triple up to 660</li>


    <li>Cast in 190-210 seconds, double up to 363, triple up to 726</li>


    </ul>


    Examples: in just over three minutes(190 seconds), Reggie could cast a 360 Rune/SP spell for 720 SP/runic cost. Closer to 3.5 minutes (210 seconds) Reggie could, err, I could, if I had the SP available, cast a 720 Rune/SP spell for 2160 SP/runic cost. Reggie won¡¯t be able to, err, I won¡¯t be able to safely do either for a very long time, if ever. Why am I talking about myself in the third person while I scribble these assets down?


    Reggie¡¯s Spells mastered/currently studying:


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Frost Ray,</li>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Prestidigitative Legerdemain,</li>


    <li>02/05 runes mastered: Light,</li>


    <li>04/05 runes mastered: Mending,</li>


    <li>00/05 runes mastered: Splatter of Acid</li>


    <li>12/12 runes mastered: (Theorized, but not listed in any of the spellbooks, unknown, I presume 12/12) Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct (I surmise small animals, odd creatures)</li>


    <li>12/18 runes mastered: Theorized, but not listed in any of the spellbooks, unknown, I presume 12/18) Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct 2 (I surmise small small animals, odd creatures)</li>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Scrying, Seemingly able to do this with physical runecrafting on a surface, not costing my own SP</li>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Ghostly Steeds, Seemingly they do not require my own Sorc Points when these runes are crafted.</li>


    <li>12/24 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct III can conjure Celestial Dire Badgers, Celestial Fel Hounds, small Elemenals</li>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Summon Swarm. Can conjure a swarm of bats</li>


    <li>24/24 runes mastered: Telepathic Bond,</li>


    <li>08/24 runes mastered: Blast Frost, a Dragon¡¯s Breath cone-shaped cold blast</li>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Conjuration, somewhere between an illusion, and a conjured manifestation of shadow given physical form.</li>


    <li>32/33 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct V can construct Celestial Griffons, Hounds of Shadow, Dire Wolverines, medium Elementals</li>


    <li>12/33 runes: Steely Body, hardens my body for a short period to the point that I should be able to weather otherwise deadly blows.</li>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Evocation, somewhere between an illusion, and a conjured manifestation of shadow given elemental or energy form.</li>


    <li>48/48 runes mastered: Permanency-enhancement, has a weird mix of not costing my own Sorc Points to craft the runes themselves, but costs some of my vital essence in another way to finalize their empowerment, like giving up a little bit of myself permanently.</li>


    <li>32/64 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VI large Elementals</li>


    <li>32/99 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VII Angels known as Altivivorals, huge Elementals, whales, elephants, gargantuan or monstrously huge birds, pests, and other small animals</li>


    <li>32/180 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VIII can conjure Naga Angels known as Liltivilends, greater Elementals, bigger whales, plesiosaurs, tyrannosaurus, monstrously gargantuan insects, birds, pests, and other animals</li>


    <li>00/360: Theoretically a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct IX should exist I¡¯ve no idea if it would use any of the runes I¡¯ve learned so far. 0/360 due to its theoretical nature, I hypothesize it could conjure constructs of elder Elementals, celestial Rocs, monstrously colossal insects, birds, pests, and other small animals, and perhaps other angelic creatures.</li>


    <li>Could a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct X exist? How long would its runostructure be? What sort of conjurations could it muster up?</li>


    <li>00/06 runes mastered: Gusty Wind, about what it sounds like, a strong, localized galeforce breeze</li>


    <li>00/24 runes mastered: Squall Wall, similarly, a localized area of wind-pressure so heavy that it¡¯s nearly solid.</li>


    <li>04/33 runes mastered: Detect Thoughts, basically what it says on the tin.</li>


    <li>001/330 runes mastered: Prescient Moment, this one is crazy by the description built into the runostructure. It seems to grant a single random moment of foresight at some point within four hours of having been cast. Whatever foresight is given, is the exact correct way to succeed at whatever brief event is being shown.</li>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Growth/Reduction, basically what it says on the tin.</li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Fireball, everyone¡¯s favorite deadly toy.</li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Lightning Bolt, everyone¡¯s second favorite deadly toy.</li>


    <li>02/33 runes mastered: Hailstorm, crowd control, and possibly the ability to ground flying creatures makes this a spell I should use more. I used it against Milbert of Navica outside Victo at the top of his tower, while mostly trapped by the soul-stealinglight.</li>


    <li>000/128 runes mastered: Dispellation, I badly want to learn this one in case more magic users begin to crop up. I¡¯ve a feeling that, just like Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, stuff that seemed impossible, or at the very least, rare, will start becoming commonplace. I want to be prepared.</li>


    <li>02/33 runes mastered: Minor History, a sort of identification spell that also glances at random points along an object''s lifetime, displaying semi-pertinent information</li>


    <li>01/05 runes mastered: Ghostly Hand, I kind of really like this spell. It¡¯s free from the staff, so I don¡¯t need to learn it, but it¡¯s handy, and it kept Jarrah from taking my head off, and saved one of the Enochian Enclave kids.</li>


    <li>05/66 runes mastered: Bypassed-Wall, at least this is in the staff, but I¡¯d really, really love to have it personally mastered, so that I could cast it if, oh, say, a fuggin¡¯ earth elemental rips my staff from my hand while shattering my hand.</li>


    <li>03/99 runes mastered: Telekinesis, I¡¯ve dreamt of having this ability since early on in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and it¡¯s an incredibly potent non-lethal way of subduing people. Something I¡¯m sorely lacking.</li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Incendiary Web, a way to ensnare things in possibly fatal flames without exploding a massive area seems like a decent spell to know. It¡¯s cheap to cast from the staff though, so I should probably use it through that rather than spending time trying to learn its runes to the point of mastery.</li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Firewall, Similar to the Squall Wall, an area of intense heat and pressure is walled off.</li>


    <li>001/660 runes mastered: Planar Traversal, Ugh, I truly, truly hope that we get enough peaceful time for me to study, master, and take apart this spell. It¡¯s our first solid lead on returning to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, sort of. We still don¡¯t know if we¡¯re on different planes of a reality, or in different realities entirely, or what.</li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Spectral Lock, it magically locks things, making them resistant to opening by any means other than the next spell.</li>


    <li>00/33 runes mastered: Spectral Knock, the unlocking spell.</li>


    </ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Permanent Buffs:


    <ul>


    <li>Aura sensing(Detection of magic, souls, and runes)</li>


    <li>Telepathic Bond (Currently with Teuila only, bound sentient artifacts can come along for the ride, will try to add Luni, Lil, and maybe even Lucky if we ever catch up with the triple L squad.)</li>


    <li>Comprehension of all written Languages</li>


    <li>Quickening of runotypical spells metamagic available</li>


    </ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Current Equipment:


    <ul>


    <li>1x Danger Wraps: Wristwraps that warn me and provide silent sonar</li>


    <li>1x Billowy Cloak: Can¡¯t be much more descriptive. It¡¯s a cloak, it billows on command</li>


    <li>1x Hyperdimensional Haversack: Sack that¡¯s bigger on the inside</li>


    <li>1x Enchanted scrollcase: As durable as me to survive a close-range explosion</li>


    <li>1x Archsorc Staff after having used it on Rayileklia enough, I¡¯m getting a feeling for how to interpret its limitations. It is similar to me in that it can purify and store enough mana to perform 500 runic uses or sorc points or charges, it recharges up to approximately 250 per day, most spells take about 70¡¯ish charges due to the staff¡¯s quick casting nature. It resides in my secreted enchanted double-ended ¡°drop-sheath¡±. It can be dropped into hand with the flick of a bottom-lid.</li>


    <li>1x Griffon Figurine: expands into an animated statue similar to a mana construct. Goes by the name Apheliotes Zephyrus</li>


    <li>1x Cap of Disguising Illusions: Pretty much what it says on the tin. Can project fairly strong illusions over the wearer in order to appear a number of ways.</li>


    <li>1x Portable Hole (in my enchanted Scrollcase from Berinon)</li>


    <li>2x Scrolls of Protection from Elementals (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>2x Earth Elemental summoning stones (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>1x Air Elemental Summoning stone (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>1x Blessed anti-vampire, silvered stake (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    <li>1x Holy Halefire wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow</li>


    <li>1x Full Valkyrie armor set + dagger and buckler</li>


    <li>1x Pied Pipes of Rodent summoning</li>


    <li>1x Neckchain of the Ever-Breathing. No matter the atmosphere, or lack thereof, as long as this is about my neck, or anyone¡¯s, that individual can breathe without damaging their insides at all. It projects basically a magical self contained breathing apparatus that either filters, or straight up conjures and creates air for breathing.</li>


    <li>1x Starmetal Luckrock. I¡¯m going to give this to Lil some day, if we ever reunite. I want it to be a gift that hopefully lets them think of their scalemate tongue-tie-er Dehlia fondly.</li>


    <li>1x healing potion</li>


    <li>6x Minor Water Walking Potions. Single Step salvation in a bottle. Literal lifesavers when falling a tremendous distance if over water. Full kinetic dispersal.</li>


    <li>undisclosed/unidentified minor equipment from Milbert, as well as several unidentified potions from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that Reggie, uh, I withdrew upon arriving on Rayileklia.</li>


    <li>2x mysterious energy cells Eventually I¡¯ll figure out what these are so that they¡¯re understood, I swear.</li>


    <li>1x Always-smoking bottle</li>


    <li>1x Partially broken thunderstick of elemental lightning</li>


    <li>1x Box-like book left by the Sisters of the Mist within our Carriage. In haversack. Do not open until having collected 16 evil elder dragon hearts to consume their dragonforce. If I even live that long.</li>


    </ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Current Sentient Artifact Attunement:


    <ul>


    <li>Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds. Powers include almost anything that can conceivably make travel at least slightly easier for his wielder, and their companions. Mostly involves vibrating stray stones off the path, burying roots to present a flattened footpath, loosing apples from nearby trees to roll towards the party, hidden berry bushes extending a branch towards the path, and so on. Most powerful in a Fae forest, specifically the Hidden Heart.</li>


    <li>Requiem, the Silent Song (Shared with Teuila)</li>


    <li>Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark (Shared with Teuila)</li>


    </ul>

 B 5 C 15: A Resounding O

    Teuila begins to rouse as I¡¯m starting to pass out after having finished my sixth rune. The horses vanish as my energy maintaining them wanes. On some days, I might be able to maintain them indefinitely, possibly even while sleeping, since I have practice doing just that with strong energy tethers, but not today. Today we met Tiktik, a hilarious, yet exhausting new companion. She¡¯s so full of energy, that I half wonder if she¡¯s stealing some from everyone around her, like an emotional vampire. Hah. No, of course not Bud. Tiktik¡¯s sort of great though. Hopefully we can get her back to her pal Littlebit in one piece some day.


    I lean over to smooch Teuila¡¯s forehead while she¡¯s staring up at me as I ask, ¡°Nice nap sleepyhead?¡±


    Te cuffs my cheek playfully for my cheekiness. She then grabs the back of my head to pull me down for a much more passionate kiss before tossing me across the seat softly into Tiktik after reducing my personal gravity. Teuila starts giggling as Tiktik wakes up with me thunking into her lap at low gravity.  I''m left blushing in Tiktik''s lap while Teuila gets up to go foraging and hunting. I facepalm, and I¡¯m about to apologize when Tiktik shrugs, yawns, and falls right back asleep.


    Well, at least Teuila¡¯s antics and I don¡¯t make her uncomfortable, that¡¯s good news. What Bud? No this doesn¡¯t mean either one of us has romantic feelings for each other. Err, it doesn¡¯t mean that either you goon. Because I still don¡¯t know how I really feel about Alanea anyway dingus. Sorry, you¡¯re not a dingus or a goon. Err, yes, true, I am still laying in her lap. It¡¯s comfy, I¡¯m lazy, and I¡¯m worn out from crafting runes. I got done before bothering to stop the carriage.


    Hold up a second Bud, it¡¯s one thing to talk about leaving behind an heir or someone to remember me by, back in the Heart while we were pretty certain my death was inevitable. No, I don¡¯t know what the other half Tiktik was talking about is. Huh, err, well, as fascinating as that is, the answer is still no. We¡¯re going to try to keep me alive, and it¡¯s far too dangerous to be bringing an infant along wi¡ª. They do? Huh, that¡¯s more like Can¡¯Z¡¯aas than I expected. Still, it doesn¡¯t mean Tiktik operates the same way, she has parents, a family. I don¡¯t think she sprang out of the ground Bud.


    True, she did say half too many times, but I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s just Tiktik being Tiktik, silly and all. Y¡¯know? I¡¯m sure she¡¯s perfectly capable of adding simple arithmetic. Then again, maybe Fae operate under different math when doing that sort of thing for all I know. Did any of your previous wielders ever do that? Well, then neither of us knows. What? Heck no, I¡¯m not going to ask her about it. Yes, that¡¯s right, because it¡¯s inappropriate to talk about the actual acts involved in mating. Thank you for remembering.


    Pft, no Bud, it¡¯s okay. Don¡¯t worry about it, just, could you maybe please stop being so pushy about that particular thing? It¡¯s kind of a touchy icky subject for me. Yeah. Precisely. Thank you. The spell? Well, I think it¡¯s going to be costly. I¡¯m going to need shavings of the metal I want to use, or to carry around an entire plate of metal like the big squares of it that Teuila summoned onto the roof.


    Err, the spell has a material component that¡¯s consumed. Yeah, it would be costly to keep casting it all day, both in S P cost as well as the opportunity cost of giving up tons and tons of mythical quality metal. I believe it would take either a large section of a sheet, or the whole sheet if I was carrying one around to cast the spell. I haven¡¯t mastered it yet, so I¡¯m not quite sure. It calls for iron filings, like, half a pouch full. Hopefully I can figure out how to get the spell to substitute in orichalcum or mithril or adamantite or whatever the heck we have.


    Yes, that¡¯s another reason it¡¯ll be costly. I¡¯m probably going to have to pay a smith to shave the metal down, since it¡¯s incredibly powerful metal, it¡¯s going to be hard to work with. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll be able to work the metal on my own. Sure, Teuila might be strong enough to break the metal, maybe, but if she is, then it¡¯s not powerful enough to keep me safe anyway, and I should abandon the spell. I guess we could ask her to test it. Teuila? Are you nearby enough to be in my head?


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar pops into my mindscape asking, ¡°Sure am, what¡¯s up Dink? Any specific requests for scrounging, my Airhead?¡±


    I chuckle and can¡¯t avoid smiling as I shake my head. I telepathically respond, ¡°Bud thinks that we should test out the durability of the metal you pulled out of your inventory. I agree, but I don¡¯t want you to break your hand punching the stuff. Care to experiment a bit? I¡¯m probably going to pass out any minute now from S P overexertion, so you don¡¯t have to do it right now, or if you do it, we can talk about the results when we all wake up to start riding again.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s avatar nods and throws a thumbs-up my way as she responds, ¡°Check! Rest up Air. I¡¯m so glad to have you back in my head. I love you. I love that I can say that in here, with you, with my mindscape nearby in case we have to talk about all the bubbling feelings. Talk to you when you wake up Airhead.¡±


    I smile lovingly towards Teuila¡¯s mental avatar, but also in meatspace, which has an odd repercussion. When I open my eyes, I realize Tiktik¡¯s gazing down at me with one eyebrow raised. I¡¯m about to explain, but Tiktik chuckles before beating me to the punch.


    The wild-orange-haired impish woman teases, ¡°Never knew my lap was -that- comfy. I¡¯ll have some of what you¡¯re having!¡±


    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    My face reddens to high heavens and I sit upright woozily. I begin to respond, ¡°Was, was in telepathy. With Teuila. So tired. She threw me at y¡ª¡°


    I can feel consciousness leaving me as I begin to topple into the space between the seats. It seems like perhaps Tiktik catches me, or softens my landing, because I don¡¯t immediately awaken from the pain of a concussion. When I come to, it appears several hours have passed. I find myself once again in Tiktik¡¯s lap, and she¡¯s rocking her head side to side absentmindedly.


    Yawning, I begin to sit up to stretch out. Tiktik gives me a patronizing pat on the head, and flashes a smile my way while bringing one finger to her lips in a shushing motion. Tiktik points to Teuila, and I can see that Te is still asleep after having come back from foraging. I nod in thanks to Tiktik as I leave the cabin of the carriage momentarily to work up some blood flow.


    Stretching out my aching limbs leaves me in acute pain along my spine, neck, and jaw. I pace about the carriage for a moment while stretching as many muscle groups as I know how to safely stretch. My stomach rumbles, so I dig about in our packs for provisions. We burned through a lot of what we¡¯d bought, summoned, or perhaps stole, over the last two months that we¡¯ve been on this world. We got here on June sixth, it¡¯s August sixth, or somewhere around there.


    I don¡¯t think we stole anything per se, since everyone in Victo had been reduced to a soulless husk. Not metaphorically either, literally their mortal shells were devoid of their souls due to Milbert of Navica and his stupid Bright Lord. Huff. Alright, I¡¯m spent again.


    I return to the carriage to find both Teuila and Tiktik sleeping. That makes it easy I suppose. I cuddle up alongside Teuila, who still manages to reactively quickly snag me with her wonderfully strong arms while sleeping. I chuckle quietly while shaking my head incredulously. This woman. Heavens and hells I love her. Sinking into her embrace, I sigh softly, contentedly.


    We rouse as a group after several more hours, and Teuila excitedly drags me outside. She takes me behind a tree where apparently she¡¯d been testing each of the metals¡¯ durability. One has a fist sized hole and several fist sized dents in it, but the other two seem mostly unharmed, it seems like Te hasn¡¯t put them through all their paces yet.


    I hazard a guess, ¡°I¡¯m guessing the one that you beat to hell is mithril?¡±


    Teuila grins madly while nodding emphatically. Since we¡¯re out here, may as well test the others.


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar shows up to gloat, ¡°I already did! Rock solid! Err, better in fact, way better.¡±


    My eyes flash wide as I glance between Teuila, the powerhouse of powerhouses, and the undamaged metal plates. Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar pretends to be bashful as it says, ¡°Awe shucks,¡± in response to my complimentary thought about her.


    I fight, and lose to, a smile that spreads across my face as I roll my eyes and shake my head at Teuila in faux exasperation. I¡¯m left chuckling at her false modesty. She¡¯s not actually a braggart by any means, but she¡¯s hamming it up playfully on purpose to get a reaction out of me.


    Teuila jokes, ¡°Because you¡¯re so easy to get a rise out of, Tiger.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow as I ask, ¡°Are we moving from Dink to Airhead to Tiger now?¡±


    Teuila shakes her head while smiling wide to her ears before denying, ¡°Nope, was a one time thing, I thought it was funny and fitting in the moment. Maybe I¡¯ll use it again, maybe I won¡¯t. Ya never know-.¡± Teuila lets the word know hang in the air in a singsong tone, leaving me chuckling and rolling my eyes further.


    I tease, ¡°So Te, in your expertly destructive opinion, which of these would make for a better animated golem body? Weight shouldn¡¯t be an issue unless we¡¯re fighting on a wooden boat or something. The magic transmuting and animating me allows me to move as if I were strong enough to carry that weight around, otherwise most mages would just crumple in on themselves with the steely body spell, hah. If it¡¯s super heavy, I probably won¡¯t be making any jumps though.¡±


    Teuila scratches her chin, then her forehead, as she¡¯s lost in though comparing the two. Apparently she alights on an idea as she teases me in return, ¡°I¡¯ve got it, the orichalcum, that way when things are getting hectic hot and heavy, I can tell you to get hard and put your O body on. Hehe.¡±


    My face flushes all color down the drain as it flashes pale, then redness returns until I¡¯m steaming from my pointy eartips. I cough and shake my head in disbelief at Teuila. Really Te? Yes Bud, it was funny, I¡¯m glad you enjoyed it, but come on. Hah. Great, I¡¯m being ganged up on. Don¡¯t even think about making a joke about that one Bud. Eugh.


    Blushing, mildly chuckling, and solidly rolling my eyes, I ask Teuila, ¡°Are you ready to leave then? We¡¯ve got a few more days until Daffodil¡¯s place. We¡¯re going to have to find someone in The Brook to work the orichalcum for us. I don¡¯t know any other way to get shavings from it to fill pouches.¡±


    Teuila offers, ¡°Try freezing it once Air?¡±


    I shrug and oblige by crafting the frost rune. I start pouring my emotions into it, my embarrassment, my joy, my incredulity. As usual when empowering a solo rune to extreme levels, far beyond what a Rayileklian spell would even normally do with all thirty three runes, I pass out as I finish pouring my all into it. As I¡¯m slumping to the ground in unconsciousness, Teuila shakes off a thick layer of frost to catch me.


    I¡¯m asleep for only moments as I awaken to Teuila hammering the hell out of the frozen metals with each other. I blink, a bit stunned that I didn¡¯t think to use one plate of metal against another of the same metal. The two nearly unbreakable sheets of mythical metals are breaking under the massive strain Teuila puts them under. We¡¯re not going to be able to get fine filings and shavings like this, but we might get some thin fragments that could be enough.


    What¡¯s that Bud? Are you okay? Sorry about frosting the area. I don¡¯t have control over a Rayileklian frost rune like I would have control over my F F S on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Yes I know what humans use the acronym for, hah. Lil and the rest of my inner circle named my ability to instantly chill a massive area my Flash Freeze Storm. Phew, anyway, my head is pounding after passing out, and now laying here hearing this pounding near. Each slam Teuila continues to perform leaves my head spinning as the din resounds throughout the clearing.


    I stagger to my feet and raise a hand towards Teuila, trying to get her attention. She looks my way, then cheekily takes one more slam against both sheets of metal with her gauntleted fists while grinning maniacally at me. Hah, Punkbutt. Maybe I¡¯ll start calling you that instead of My Wings.


    Teuila grumbles, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare. I like the name you picked out for me.¡±


    I grin slightly evilly at Teuila, not answering as I walk back to the carriage to summon our spectral steeds.

 B 5 C 16: Stomach? Sulfuric? Hydrochloric?

    Despite Teuila¡¯s herculean efforts, the metal sheets never broke all the way through. Cracks formed near the center of both metals, but she wasn¡¯t able to finish snapping either sheet. She¡¯s not willing to let me empower my frost rune again, and I¡¯m honestly glad of that. It wiped me out something fierce. With our ghostly steeds back in place, I hop into the carriage¡¯s cab, only to be assaulted by Tiktik. Well, perhaps assaulted is a strong word.


    Tiktik conjured a packet of flour, and strung her bottle of everpure above the door to the cabin. I¡¯m now wet, and sticky with flour. Tiktik and Teuila are giggling like madbeasts, at least they¡¯re enjoying themselves. Oh, you think this is funny too Bud? Would you like me to use you to stir up this mess and clean it off of me? Hah. I didn¡¯t think so. It¡¯s alright anyway. Tiktik and I both have that cleaning cantrip.


    After seeing me give her a half incredulous, half smiling glare, Tiktik hops over to me to clean me off with her magic. She gets extremely intimately close, sniffing me all the while. I raise an eyebrow curiously at her, but she doesn¡¯t explain her actions or motivations. This isn¡¯t the first time in my life someone has decided to take in my scent on multiple occasions. I shrug, and Teuila follows suit, shrugging as well. Time to get back to it. Same thing, day in and day out, travel and runecraft, travel and runecraft.


    As we while away the days pleasantly enough, it gets harder to make my quota of six runes per day. Each time we stop to rest, I¡¯m more fatigued than the previous day¡¯s rest stop. At this point, I¡¯ve awoken on what I think is our last day of travel before reaching Noirdivinhoz, but my limbs are leaden. I should only have three more runes to go for the spell, but I can¡¯t move my biceps, and I can barely lift my arms at all by bending my elbows.


    I can practice the runes without moving, but if I¡¯ve been overexerting myself, pushing this hard, should I? I¡¯m on this unknowable deadline as my doomsday clock continues to tick life away. So that¡¯s one point for pushing through the strain. It might be putting strain on Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce protecting my Changeling inner-self against more mana use though. One point against pushing onward. Hm. Eh, I¡¯m me, of course I¡¯m going to do the stupid risky thing that risks my own life if there¡¯s an opportunity I could save someone else¡¯s. Like, I don¡¯t know, if an acid spewing dragon shows up at Daffodil¡¯s home, and I could either get out of the way, or cast Steely Body in time to stand in front of her, taking the blast to cover Daffodil who would be too slow to dodge it, well, massive point in favor of pushing through.


    Yes Bud, I know the odds of that are astronomically low. I know, risking my own life now to be able to more safely risk my own life later doesn¡¯t make a lot of sense, hah. This is me we¡¯re talking about. How much sense have I made to you in our journey so far? Pft, exactly, hah. Yeah I¡¯m going to finish up before we arrive. We should be there sometime around morning on the tenth of August. Hopefully she won¡¯t mind us showing up, and hopefully she¡¯ll be willing to both evacuate herself, and help spread word to evacuate others.


    Anyway, runecrafting time. Yeah, I was probably going to no matter what, so puzzling it out was pretty pointless, sorry. Yep, let¡¯s get to it. If you sense me like, really dying, tell me to stop or eat or something. No, I don¡¯t know what that would sense like, but I figure since you can read the story written on my inner self, that you might see Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce poof or something. Yeah, that purple aura. Thanks Bud.


    I practice and I practice and I practice for hours and hours yet as we slowly approach Noirdivinhoz. I¡¯m in a feverish sweat at this point, but I¡¯m nearly done mastering the thirty third rune. Moreover, several of the runes I¡¯ve been mastering while learning this spell apply to a number of other spells in the books, a massive stroke of luck. Huff, huff. Phew. This, this is rough. Just, just a few more. I¡¯m, I¡¯m barely at my halfway point. It hadn¡¯t been this bad previously.


    I struggle to lift my arms, and I¡¯m barely able to wipe my brow with the back of my right hand. As it drops back down into my lap, I notice my hand is streaked with red. What in the? I¡¯m literally sweating blood. Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar pops into my thinkspace as she turns towards me in meatspace from having been zoned out in a tome of her own. The swiftness of her motion causes Teuila to drop the heavy tome to the floor. The tome¡¯s sudden thud snaps Tiktik from whatever reverie she¡¯d been busying herself with, and now all eyes are on me, in and out of my head.


    In the instant that this is all happening, Teuila, in meatspace and thinkspace, as she¡¯s turning towards me, gasps, ¡°You¡¯re what!?¡± in response to my thoughts about my sweat.


    Teuila frowns as she condescends, ¡°Air, just, what the hell. Oh my Airhead, I could just, ugh, I could just beat you up. You, you, you Airhead! Don¡¯t kill yourself trying to learn a spell to help keep you from getting killed ya big jerk!¡±


    I blush with chagrin, and I can¡¯t even lift my arm to scratch the back of my head nervously. I¡¯m so close though, between one and ten more attempts, I¡¯m sure of it.


    Teuila telepathically catches my line of thought and growls out loud in meatspace at me, ¡°I swear to all the gravity I can muster, I will knock you senseless if you try to scribe one more rune right now Airhead. Just take a little nap or something for crying out loud. We¡¯ve got at least a quarter of an hour to an hour or two before we should be in sight range of Daffy¡¯s place. Just, ugh. Rest! Please?¡±


    Tiktik hems and haws before adding, ¡°Erm, yeah, I¡¯m with Teuila on this one buddy. You two got a bit famous back in The Brook, but a bunch of that fame was sort of how Reggie seems to be kind of always almost dead or dying. Despite being weirdly magical and powerful. Things like bleeding everywhere, passing out in the street, passing out in taverns without getting drunk, y¡¯know. Stuff that an urban bountyhunter would overhear when asking about suspicious characters. ¡®Cause, uh, you two stand out, a lot. Though I heard Teuila was a lot fuzzier. I mean, not that that matters. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m unused to shape shifters, being from the Fae¡¯s Wilds, so, whatevs, y¡¯dig? Only--¡±


    Tiktik catches herself before reusing the joke she¡¯s used several times over our days of travel together. It¡¯s almost a compulsion with her. I think she¡¯s the most lawfully chaotic individual, or chaotically lawful individual that has ever existed, if there were any sort of faction breakdown of moral compass alignments anyway. I mean, I¡¯m sure Tiktik is squarely in the good category along the axis of good versus evil, but it¡¯s like she took a two dimensional graph, and decided to add her own Z axis to make law and chaos meet at her own point. Honestly, it wouldn¡¯t surprise me if she could actually tamper with reality and do something like that. She¡¯s a rather powerful sorceress.


    Teuila nudges me as our carriage begins to falter and its motion stutters. She prods, ¡°Seems like our ghostie ghost horses are about to ghost us ¡®cause they don¡¯t want to stick around while you¡¯re this tired anyway, they¡¯ll probably poof when you fall asleep. It¡¯s okay to take breaks. I know you¡¯re scared what will happen to all of us if we don¡¯t save you in time, but, but I can¡¯t lose you before then. Okay? I won¡¯t accept losing you when that dragonforce timer wears out, and I won¡¯t accept losing you before then either.¡±


    I flash a weak smile at Teuila. I¡¯m about to cast the cleansing spell, when I realize how pissed Teuila would be at me for doing so right now. I plead, ¡°Tiktik? I, uh, can¡¯t really cast anything right now. Could you maybe help me get this blood off with your magic?¡±


    Tiktik chuckles and hops to stand in the space between the seats. I think she might be even shorter than me in my current cherubic form. She makes a big show of it jokingly chanting, ¡°Allakhazam kapoof, help clean off this bloody doof!¡±


    Teuila snirks, as she tries to fight back laughter at Tiktik¡¯s antics. Thankfully though, Tiktik¡¯s spell works fine, and I¡¯m able to rest my head towards Teuila¡¯s lap without bloodying her dress. Teuila¡¯s mental avatar rolls her eyes as if to say, ¡°You¡¯re bleeding, dying, and -that¡¯s- what you worry about?¡±


    Teuila telepathically sends, ¡°That¡¯s exactly right buster. Ya big goober. Go on, get to sleep, I¡¯ll do some extra foraging with Bud¡¯s help. Sound okay Bud? Thanks Lullaby.¡±


    As much as I¡¯d been hoping my nap would be on Teuila¡¯s comfortable lap, it looks like I¡¯ll be curled up on the firm seat cushion itself instead. Tiktik apparently sees my dilemma, and pats her own lap before throwing her arms wide in an offered hug. If I could move, I¡¯d be moved. I flash Tiktik a weak smile at her offer, and she seems to realize my state is a bit more severe than it had appeared.


    Tiktik hops over to the seat I¡¯m on, chiding, ¡°If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d think you were pranking me just to get some cuddles buster. Hehe, kidding. You look rough Reggie. Rest up friendo. I bet you¡¯ll be glad when we get back to The Brook, so you can sleep in a bed, instead of curled up in a carriage cabin. Oh, uh oh. I didn¡¯t finish my job. I won¡¯t have any pay waiting for me at The Brook. Fuzzbuckets. Looks like I¡¯ll have to sleep in the carriage since I¡¯m broke.¡±


    I roll my eyes at Tiktik¡¯s lamentation, offering, ¡°Tiktik, Teuila and I are cuddlesome as hell. Back home, on our world? Every night, we¡¯d end our days cuddled up amongst a whole slew of family and friends. Later on, when we could finally develop a nice big home, and big beds, we still had, what, four or five people in it on the regular? I mean, that is to say, if you¡¯re amenable, you could just share our bed. If not, we can cover you. Heck, I hereby officially offer you a position as a bounty-hunting bodyguard or something. What¡¯s your going rate, and per diem? It¡¯s yours.¡±


    Tiktik avoids my gaze and scratches the back of her head as she blushes. She mutters, ¡°Just a, uh, a few coppers per day, but I¡¯d feel bad taking your money. I wasn¡¯t joining you for that. It sounds like you guys really need the help, and I love helping friends, especially helping them smile or laugh. It¡¯s probably my favorite thing to do.¡±


    If I could move my hands I¡¯d take hers in an effort to focus and calm Tiktik. Instead, I simply state, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about money. Ms. Clocktok, you¡¯re offering your aid to people who barely understand the value of economic wealth on this world. Have you seen how much gem dust we¡¯re accumulating as we grind the gems up for reagents? We won¡¯t need to worry about monetary wealth for a long time to come.¡±


    Tiktik gnaws her lip as her face contorts before asking, ¡°Um, about that? That¡¯s got to be from your guys¡¯ world, right? Or some place like the ¡®Twixt. As far as I know, these mountains are bare of almost anything valuable, since like ancient times, back when dragons would make their lairs in them. At least in the circle around Vale Valley. I don¡¯t know about further out.¡±


    I nod my head, which squishes her thighs pleasantly against the back of my skull as I respond, ¡°Aye, yeah. Just a bunch of Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian stuff, as if every day was the deepest area of the ¡®Twixt, constantly spewing out rewarding encounters and stuff like that. Only, every creature to combat was dropping, err, leaving behind as they derezzed, at least wealth, or materials, or both. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s like that in the ¡®Twixt.¡±


    Tiktik approximates the so-so gesture, meaning more or less as she comments, ¡°Eh, not quite like that, but random treasure chests, at least the ones that don¡¯t turn out to be some ooze creature mimicking a chest in disguise, well, those would show up in all kinds of dead ends in buildings that were created by the ¡®Twixt for adventuring types. I left all that wealthy stuff for my family, ¡®cause I felt so guilty. I hated how they looked at me the last time I saw them.¡± Tiktik sniffles while avoiding my gaze for a moment, but when she turns her eyes towards me again, she comments, ¡°Your eyes look real heavy buddy, like you¡¯re going to fall asleep any mo¡ª¡°


    Stolen novel; please report.


    I pass out in the comfort and relative safely of a powerful sorceress¡¯s lap.


    From within this jar of souls, now that I know where we are, I can spy the fiery beast that rends and eats. It¡¯s a fierce glow, a constantly lapping flame with nearly no form, yet it will extend its tongues of flame as humanoid limbs in order to snatch soul after soul for devouring. It speaks aloud to no one near, yet it gives commands and orders as if it expects them to be followed out by someone distant, capable of acting on its orders.


    The voice of damnation itself commands a follower, ¡°Tell the scaled nuisance that if he wants to continue enjoying his final twilight year, to send some capable underling to southeastern Aasimovia. Have them destroy that wretched temple which attempts to hide souls from me.¡±


    Thinking on something as a realization occurs, the hellish voice adds, ¡°Let Terrorzin know that though he knows his number is up, he doesn¡¯t know who will punch his clock. Put the fear of Bright Lord into him. Remind him that until my plans are complete, he and his underlings are to remain in his gilded cage along the Spine of the World unless I so command otherwise!¡±


    The faceless lapping flames turn their attention back to us in this jar of souls. Its stark, red, pupil-less eyes are its only distinguishable feature unless it purposely manifests a limb with which to pull yet another soul from the jar.


    The being behind the eyes gazes greedily down upon its prize, and asks with no hint of humor, ¡°Have you finished pickling yet? No, still not afraid enough. Not sad enough. Perhaps not smart enough to realize the horror you find yourself in. Fine, let¡¯s see where you lead.¡±


    The faceless flames extend a lapping tongue of flame that takes shape into a humanoid arm and hand. It plucks yet another of us, a soul, from the jar. It forms another arm and hand, this one formed with long, jagged claws with which to rend. The beast slashes into the soul in its grip, somehow managing to tear it asunder over a massive, steaming, screaming cauldron. The shreds of ghostly white, pure energy fall like feathers floating down to rest upon the cauldron¡¯s boiling surface. Once there, they¡¯re sucked down into whatever ghastly cocktail is being cooked up, and a vortex once more forms above the cauldron.


    I¡¯ve seen it many times now, and still it baffles me. Its as if storm clouds form a cyclone that tears a hole in the space above. It appears that through that hole is some illusion of life, some fantasy, some other world. After this, the forty second soul boiled away, the cauldron will empty once more, and the beast will begin the process anew. For now, it observes the scene through the portal above it, waiting for its chance once more.


    An opportunity arises, and the beast extends a limb through this tear in space. It grunts, and hisses as if in pain or under strain as it grips and pulls souls as if from nowhere. Most times, it only manages to snag a single soul, vexing the beast. This time, the vision was centered amidst the chaos of a grand battlefield. Hundreds, perhaps thousands were dying. The beast manages to ensnare dozens upon dozens of souls, making up for its recent losses as it siphons them into our jar of pickling souls.


    It wishes for us to become sad and afraid, it wants us to steep in negative emotions. It prevents one final soul from joining us in the jar, and instead draws the soul hungrily to an approximation of an open maw within its own eternal flames. As with so many others, whoever that soul used to be now ceases to exist.


    I awaken to being in a bit of a triangular pile with Tiktik and Teuila. The two giggle at some shared joke as I¡¯m slowly rousing to stretch. I yawn, and accidentally end up stretching my arm and hand into awkward locations before I blush and withdraw by recoiling. The two just laugh at my overreaction, and Tiktik playfully shoves me out of the pile so that I¡¯m able to sit up, and we can all disentangle ourselves.


    Teuila teases, ¡°So, I heard you already offered Tiktik our bed, huh Airhead? Already that anxious to get into bed with another Fae? Am I going to have to start sending invites to every Fae cutie we run across, just so that I can beat you to it to flirt with some of them?¡±


    I wear a face of discomfort and embarrassment to high heaven, my lips drawn tightly in mortification.  They form a wide straight line while my eyes are wide. I gulp, and blush as I steam red all the way to my ear tips. I cough and leave the cabin without engaging in Teuila¡¯s tease, so that I don¡¯t pass out from embarrassment, and so that I can re-summon our horses. There¡¯s the slightest tremor that I¡¯m able to perceive with my enhanced senses. The ground vibrates as if there¡¯s an earthquake occurring within a few dozen miles. How odd. I didn¡¯t know Rayileklia even had tectonic movement, or earthquakes.


    We¡¯re on the road again in moments, and I feel refreshed enough to practice this final rune a few more times. Huffing with exhaustion, I finally finish mastering it as Teuila bounces excitedly. She knows that both we¡¯re drawing near to the last bend before we should spot Daffodil¡¯s dwelling, and that I¡¯ve finished learning a spell that will likely save my life. If I¡¯ve got the S P to cast it in its quickened form when I¡¯m in need of it at least.


    Speaking of being in need of it. We are indeed within sight of Daffodil¡¯s dwellings. We¡¯re all aghast at the sight. Where there should stand the reed, straw, and thatch hale is a instead a smoking puddle of viscous ichor. What might have been most of an adobe home is slag and rubble. In fact, it¡¯s still steaming. The small canyon towards the entrance to Noirdivinhoz looks like it was caved in by a landslide. This happened within the last few hours. But judging by the chemical burns and smoke wafting from the rocks, it wasn¡¯t a natural earthquake. Plus, it wouldn¡¯t explain Daffodil¡¯s home way over here being a melted puddle.


    Teuila cries out, ¡°Daffy! Oh no!¡± We¡¯re both worried the kind lady who tended to the secret temple of Noirdivinhoz is dead. Never mind curious as to what could have done this, I just want to know if we can find Daffodil, if maybe she wasn¡¯t home when this occurred.


    We stop the cart, and the three of us exit it to approach the massive puddle that we knew to be Daffodil¡¯s home. Well, Teuila and I knew, Tiktik probably never met her. The chemical stench wafting off of the steaming liquid assails even my nostrils which mostly lack a sense of smell. The odor stings and clings to the inside of my nasal membranes, eating away at them, causing my eyes to water. Once it¡¯s identified as dangerous, my neckchain of the ever-breathing kicks in and prevents any more from entering my mouth, nose, or eyes.


    Teuila reaches down to touch the puddle with curiosity and I¡¯m forced to yell out, ¡°Wait, Te, don¡¯t! It¡¯s really, really strong acid. It turned her home into mush. Even her newer, adobe home is basically completely ruined.¡±


    I walk over to the pile of rubble that must have been where Daffodil was finally piecing together all the adobe she had been curing as bricks over the years, in order to build herself a warmer home. I try to indicate the chemical burns, and the puddling liquid, when suddenly there¡¯s coughing, groaning, and shifting from beneath the rubble.


    The three of us rush to the side of the rubble the noises are coming from. We dig and scrabble at the brick, occasionally scraping or melting bits of our fingers as we work frantically, somewhat carelessly, seeking the source of the sounds. Daffodil¡¯s in there! She¡¯s, oh hellspit. She¡¯s missing her entire right arm, and her right leg is dreadfully wounded. We need to get her to Tiago and George right away. It¡¯s still three days ride though to The Brook.


    I can sense that Teuila¡¯s worried that I¡¯ll blame her for arriving late to this scene. Of course I don¡¯t blame Teuila. I blame myself for being so weak and tired that I needed the rest. The earthquake after I woke up must have been whatever caused the rockslide that buried Noirdivinhoz.


    Weakly, after coughing, while still struggling to blink vision back into her eyes, Daffodil asks, ¡°Is that beastly lady gone? Oh heavens. It¡¯s my young malihini friends, returning ma uka from ma kai? It¡¯s good you weren¡¯t here a scant few minutes or hour or so earlier. Unless I was unconscious beneath that lot for longer than it felt. I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be alive if it were much longer though, there was very little air. I''m in your debt for your timely arrival.¡±


    The three of us ask in unison, ¡°Beastly lady?¡±


    We carefully lift Daffodil with us towards the cart as she explains, ¡°Dreadful woman in all black, thin, wispy gossamer clothing, more like veils than travel-wear. Everything about her seemed to shimmer slightly too, like polished metal, or scales. She carried herself with all the air of a predator, like every last thing around her was prey she could destroy at any moment, like everything was beneath her. I could swear she belched acid over my hale. By the state of it, maybe she did after all. I wanted to defend myself, but couldn¡¯t bring myself to move towards her, I felt frozen in fear.¡±


    Daffodil pauses, caught in a coughing fit before she continues her explanation, ¡°The best I could do was crawl into my imu, I made this one bigger this time, in case I should ever need to entertain more malihini guests popping out of Noirdivinhoz. Seems that¡¯s unlikely to happen for a very long time now.¡± She grunts in pain as she struggles with each breath. Daffodil mutters a conclusion to her hypothesis, ¡°Will take me years to clear the rock from the pass, maybe decades. Not sure I¡¯m up to it with only one arm.¡±


    Daffodil coughs once more as tears of pain stream from her eyes. Despite all this, she jokes, ¡°Guess I should have gotten married, had a child after all. No one left to tend Noirdivinhoz when I¡¯m gone, and I¡¯ve got one foot in the grave, while the other one is half melted. Looks like my departure isn¡¯t long off. I suppose that might be the task my body chooses after I die. I¡¯m sure it would continue to steward Noirdivinhoz, and perhaps work tirelessly to clear it. Well, if that lady doesn¡¯t return to simply boil my body to nothing. Worse, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d even be able to join the ancestors in shambling around, something¡¯s wrong with Aasimovian magic. It¡¯s like they all vanished, no one in The Brook had any explanation on my recent visit.¡±


    Oh no. Of course Daffodil doesn¡¯t know. No one knows why the ancestors¡¯ vanished.  It was because their bodies were wrought to dust, and now any magic that attempts to create a new one, will likely result in little more than a pile of dust or ash. No one knows save me, and Teuila. Well, perhaps my mentor, Jarrah Bettergrove, and his aids Alanea Whifflewillow and Flint Darklace might know. Possibly even Percival the Potted Plant, since he adventured with us long enough to overhear us talking about Dawn¡¯s curse.


    I fight through a wave of sadness to beg Daffodil, ¡°Daffodil, come with us, you need treatment. San Tiago might be able to help you. We were headed to The Brook, and wanted to stop by to ask you to come with us regardless. There¡¯s a lot we need to catch you up on.¡±


    Daffodil, despite the pain causing her to grit her teeth, jokes in the face of the agony, ¡°You don¡¯t have to twist my arm, not that you could, since it¡¯s a melted pile somewhere back in there. I¡¯m either the luckiest, or unluckiest old lady on Rayileklia that you two should return, and with a carriage no less. I doubt I¡¯d survive mudcamping to The Brook. The pretty young Fae wahini someone you picked up on your travels ma kai? No sign of the rest of your six?¡±


    I gulp back sadness as I nod to Daffodil¡¯s first question, and shake my head at her second. Luni, Lil, and Lucky, the triple L squad went to the Hidden Heart ahead of us, apparently had some short adventure there, then saw the Sisters hidden in the mist ahead of us, and then were pointed in the direction of the Spine of the World. At least, that¡¯s what I gathered from what the Sisters told us.


    Daffodil¡¯s eyes begin to roll back in her head, and she starts to convulse. I struggle not to panic as we set her gently in the cabin, propped up across the seats and across our belongings to give her the most comfortable journey. It leaves little room for the three of us save the one cushion nearest the door on the rear side of the carriage, but she has to survive for us to worry about travel arrangements.


    I offer, ¡°Daffodil, I have a potion, they¡¯re incredibly rare. We¡¯ve only ever encountered maybe four or five across two worlds, and these are the only two in our possession. Teuila has one, and I¡¯ve got a smaller one. Either one should be able to save your life, but it will be excruciating feeling your flesh knit itself in rapid order. Do you consent? Daffodil? Please, please try to focus.¡±


    I glance at Teuila in fear as Daffodil continues to be unresponsive. The shock of her injuries catches up with her and is beginning to take her life. Teuila nods resolutely at my unspoken question. No questions asked. We¡¯re saving Daffodil¡¯s life, with one of the rarest potions in existence.


    I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m not sure if you can hear me right now Daffodil, this is going to hurt, but you have to keep the fluid down. Don¡¯t throw it up. We¡¯ve only got the two bottles. Please, please try to hear me, please try to keep it down, no matter how agonizing it is.¡±


    Tiktik helps me administer the potion with her magical floating hand, while Teuila helps hold Daffodil¡¯s body steady against its convulsions. As we finish getting the fluid into Daffodil¡¯s throat, Tiktik¡¯s magic hand massages her esophagus, guiding the potion down to be swallowed so that it takes effect. All we can do now is wait, and hope that she can bear with the pain long enough for the potion to close her wounds at the very least.

 B 5 C 17: Sadness In Tight Quarters

    Despite it being a bit risky for the carriage to be bouncing, I¡¯ve got our ghostly steeds going at their maximum speeds pulling us along through the forest from Daffodil¡¯s home in the direction of Autumn Brook. There¡¯s not even a real path through this forest, just a slightly beaten trail that Daffodil has walked repeatedly over the decades of her life as custodian of Noirdivinhoz.


    I¡¯d say it was like magic the way Daffodil¡¯s wounds begin to knit themselves closed, and her missing arm seals itself as a stump near her shoulder. I would of course be an idiot to say that, because it literally is magic. These blood potions cause spontaneous short term cellular regeneration in a way that regrows damaged organs, and seals wounds. Sadly, Daffodil will be missing an arm, as it does not regrow whole limbs. If such a regeneration is even possible, well, it feels like that might take magic along one of the highest circles. Seventh, eighth, or ninth.


    Still, deeply ingrained in me are these weird Fakeworld memories, so often my first reaction is disbelief and skepticism. Magic? Those mysterious memories say it doesn¡¯t exist. Digital life forms? That¡¯s videogame, anime, movie, cartoon stuff. Ogres, cyclopses, hydras, dragons, Fae, changelings? Those would be in fantasy novels, and tabletop and board games. Oberon, Anubis, Bastet, Mab? Those are literally beings from mythologies, and yet, even though I knew those names as long ago as my early life in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, those are the names of the rulers of the Fae¡¯s Wilds here on Rayileklia.


    So I have to cut myself a bit of slack and not call myself an idiot for my knee-jerk reactions to things I guess. Yeah Bud, I¡¯m basically chastising myself for chastising myself. No, it¡¯s not really all that productive, true. Because a kind woman was on death¡¯s door, that¡¯s why I¡¯m letting my mind spiral like this, okay? She¡¯s still out, despite her wounds having healed, which worries me. We¡¯re making all the haste we can towards The Brook, Autumn Brook, her hometown, in the hopes of getting her to Tiago and George, the saint and historian who live at the apothecary. Tiago¡¯s basically a doctor. His potions and salves are medicinal, not just placebos, he¡¯s studied his stuff, and he knows some spiritualism.


    I know that not everyone is Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin, or Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin adjacent, but I don¡¯t know how magic interplays with that Bud. Err, you wonder how it works for me? If I¡¯m healed by something, I¡¯m generally ready to get back to it pretty much immediately, despite maybe being ragged and flagged to hell. I, hmf. Well, thank you for the compliment Bud. I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s accurate, but thank you for the praise regardless. I¡¯ve nearly died, dozens, maybe hundreds of times in my lifetimes, and have died at least once or twice in this timeline alone. My death nearly killed Lil in one branch of one timeline. Even though I mostly didn¡¯t die in my second run through that timeline, I still put strain on Lil¡¯s life force that had ke¡ª. Wait. Do I have a dragonforce already?


    Bud, can you check something for me? Is there a crimson glow anywhere in or around my true self the way that you see it? Red strings? Those, err, well, yes, those could be important too, definitely. I know that one tied me to Dawn. Is, glp, sniffle, are the. I sob into my palm as I try to even think the question. Are the fragments of the string that tied me to Dawn still in there? Even in the slightest? I furiously rub my itchy wet eyes while waiting on Bud¡¯s search and response.


    Oh thank heavens. Thank you Bud. Yes, yes it¡¯s sentimental. Yes I¡¯m still crying despite that reassurance, because I¡¯m remembering her last hours. I failed her Bud. You were there. She was erased from existence, and nearly wiped from history entirely, right in my arms. She died in torment, trapped in her mortal shell, or well, flesh vessel, senseless.


    I bawl my eyes out recalling the moments that Dawn was pleading me to find some way to end her or save her. I hear a sniffle from my right and glance at Teuila. I¡¯m sitting in her lap, and Tiktik is sitting in mine, so that we can make enough room to keep Daffodil laying flat across the seats and packs we¡¯ve stacked up between the seats to make a flat surface for her.


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar runs through our mindscape trailing tears. She flings herself at my mental avatar, and we weep together. Teuila admits, ¡°I, I didn¡¯t know how, how it went down. Not exactly. Sniffle, glp. The Sisters just said you tried your best, and despite it all, Dawn died. They, they didn¡¯t say how bad it was for you. Oh my Airhead. My Air. I¡¯m so sorry.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s mental avatar sinks to her knees in our mindscape, bawling her eyes out in a mixture of sympathy and a reminder of the loss of Dawn. The tears running down my face must wet Tiktik¡¯s neck as she turns to check on us in meatspace.


    Tiktik cocks her head at an angle quizzically as she asks, ¡°You two okay? I think your friend is alright. She¡¯s resting, probably processing some trauma or stuff. Lost her home and faced some scary powerful lady or something. Don¡¯t be glum chums, here, my smiley wand.¡±


    Tiktik boops each of our noses with a wand, and I literally can¡¯t keep myself from smiling. It actually hurts to try to fight it, so I¡¯m left with a smile on my face despite my sadness. I shoot a mildly furrowed-brow glare at Tiktik who giggles and shrugs. Huff. I sigh and roll my eyes. Her heart¡¯s in the right place. An almost two centuries old funky little monkey enjoying getting up to lighthearted tricks. Heh, not all that unlike us honestly. With our accelerated thinkspace, we got a lot of living done in quite a short time, somewhere around a couple centuries.


    I don¡¯t remember how much detail we went into for Tiktik when we said the last friend on our journey was lost to us. I think I¡¯ll take her aside to have that talk once we¡¯re safely in The Brook. I think our best course of action there is to drop Daffodil off with Tiago and George, go check into the Keel Over, and plead with Harriet, Tiago, and George to work on getting everyone in Aasimovia to evacuate. After that, we¡¯ll be begging Captain Tim Fisher aboard The Drake for a hastened ferrying across Lake Siempre so that we can beat the refugees to Jaggedfen Bog to take care of the hydra.


    Huff. What a mess. A mess that¡¯s all my fault, ever since failing Dawn. I¡¯m nothing but a f-- Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar slaps mine, and I¡¯m left stunned, blinking stupidly.


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar grumps, ¡°It¡¯s not your fault Dawn was cursed. It was that Shitelord Bright Lord piece of crap crapsack sack of crap I¡¯m gonna wring his neck with all my might, lord! Lord almighty I want to end that wretched, horrid being. It was all him and his stupid cultist priest person thing. Fanatic lunatic. So don¡¯t you dare do that! Okay?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s expression softens as she almost begs, ¡°Please Air. Please. I don¡¯t want you beating yourself up. We¡¯re both so sad already. Don¡¯t be hard on yourself. Please? I want our time, glp, I. Reggie. I love you. You¡¯re dying, and we don¡¯t know if we¡¯ll get sixteen big old evil dragons to fight before that happens to get the dragonforces from their hearts. Just, just please don¡¯t. Okay? Not with what time we have left.¡±


    I gulp back a sob and nod as tears streak down my face. I¡¯m sorry Teuila. You know how hard it is to be in my head.


    Teuila¡¯s mental avatar cups my avatar¡¯s cheek and drops its forehead to mine. She nods as she agrees, ¡°I know. I know it is love. I know. You brought us back. You got our connection back. Somehow, somehow we¡¯ll get through all this, I¡¯m sure of it. Somehow. Some day, maybe soon, we¡¯ll catch up with the three ell loser squad and chew them out a bit for leaving us behind. My, my precious little Lu, and dorky li¡¯l dragbutt. Our big sweet flumpkin pumpkin goober hound Lucky. Some day.¡±


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    I nod in silent agreement, unable to form words, or even really just coherent thoughts to express myself at the moment. I let the whole of me sink into Teuila and her embrace, in thinkspace and meatspace. The shifting causes Tiktik to slide, so she turns her head to look at us again, and notices we¡¯re still sad, and crying.


    Tiktik blushes as she apologizes, ¡°Oh, you two, um. I¡¯m sorry for how I tried to lift your mood forcefully. I guess you¡¯ve got some other stuff going on, huh? I mean, I guess we all have things, and seeing a friend almost die can¡¯t really be helping with any of those. I¡¯m really sorry pals. Do you want me to go ride in the jockey driver seat thing place for some privacy?¡±


    Teuila and I both shake our heads as we gulp back sobs. Te wraps her arms around the two of us, trapping Tiktik in our awkward seating arrangement with her incredibly firm grip. I sigh as I try to collect my thoughts. As easy as it would be to let myself sink into spirals of despair, I need to constantly be taking stock of our situation, our assets, our leads, every possible avenue for successes for any of our goals. If nothing else, I need to continue learning runes. Hm.


    Trying to distract myself from the various bits of mental anguish swimming around inside my skull, I ask Tiktik, ¡°Hey, um, Tiktik? Since your magic, well, wait, before that, do you have a nickname you like or anything? Do you want us to call you anything special?¡±


    Tiktik glances back towards us over her shoulder, and takes note of the tears still streaming down my cheeks. She appears to be carefully considering what to say, which I find slightly odd given the subjective nature of the question. Tiktik seems to get lost in thought as she taps her chin with her ghostly hand wrapped in her orange hair.


    She seems to alight on the appropriate thing, in her eyes, to say, ¡°Oh, sure thing! But I want you to pick it. When you feel like you know me well enough. When you¡¯re feeling better too. You two are going through a heck of a bunch of stuff, and walking around with the weight of the world on your shoulders. No rush, and no pressure.¡±


    My jaw hangs slightly slack at Tiktik¡¯s non-answer that throws the ball squarely back into my court. My right index finger is indecisive between pointing and recoiling. I shake my head and huff one quiet incredulous laugh. She¡¯s certainly a character. Hm, I kind of feel like that doesn¡¯t do her justice. Calling her a character feels like distilling her down to a couple of her predominant personality traits and making caricatures of them. I wonder if anyone else thinks of character as possibly insulting. Hm, still. Character, chara, Kara? I like the name Kara or Kera, though I¡¯m not sure why, and I don¡¯t think it applies to Tiktik.


    Oh, right, I had intended that as a segue into asking her, ¡°Err, I¡¯d be proud to stumble into a nickname for you at some point. I was originally going to ask if you knew of any runes for like time, past, present, future, anything related to traveling along the fourth dimensional axis, or anything like that. I know it¡¯s a bit of a long shot, and I hope it¡¯s not insulting to ask because of the sound of your Mnemonic.¡±


    I suddenly recall, ¡°You mentioned sending Littlebit a few seconds into the future though. It¡¯s just that, on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas I had a magic called a time skill, and it was, well, it cost me a lot of sanity to learn it, and to learn to use it without stealing time and life from anyone else.¡±


    Tiktik grins madly as she exclaims, ¡°Do I! You¡¯re right! Ah! I¡¯m glad you really listened to me, sometimes I talk, and I¡¯m pretty sure most people just nod and nod and nod until I¡¯m done. I¡¯m not sure if that says more about me or about them. What was I¡ª? Oh yeah! Okay, so, um, let me put this spell up. Okay, you have your aura vision thingy, so watch this one.¡±


    The quirky cutie that is Tiktik spins about on her seat, my lap, forcing her to straddle me and Teuila so that she can show me the runostructure. Her hands work in more exaggerated motions than mine require in order to craft her rune, but much like mine, most of Tiktik¡¯s runecrafting is done through force of will as it takes shape. Tiktik explains, ¡°So, this right here? This whole thing signifies time for some reason. But this part? Flexed up this way, it basically means present up to a little bit of the future, but only a little bit. I¡¯m not sure why, or what to change to make it further. I¡¯m not sure what would represent past though. I¡¯m almost afraid to play around. Then again, if I stumbled into it in the past, I don¡¯t remember doing so, so I might have already found it, and forgot by sending myself into the past to before I learned it. Ya dig? Only¡ª. Gak.¡±


    I find myself honestly smiling happily through the tears at our quirky new friend. Her verbal tik of having to make a joke out of that particular euphemism is sort of like Lil calling something mega bad, mega mega mega bad. Lil¡¯s repetition of the intensifier was charming to me at least. I--. Huff. I let my mental avatar sigh and sob with regret over how things were left between us when Lil took off. They were rightly upset, and wanted a break, after digging alone with Lucky for months, then voluntarily dying with the five souls of origin, the rest of us.


    Wait, that¡¯s right. Every time I started to piece something together about souls of origin or something, either Luni would deflect my train of thoughts, or I¡¯d get a¡ª Ow! Head¡ª ache. Oh hells. I. I feel faint. Crap. My eyelids droop until they sink to a state demanding they remain closed. Worse, I slump forward, my face cushioned by two soft pillows beneath a fetching dress as I lose consciousness.


    ¡°Hey Err, do you think I¡¯m being dumb for taking so many economics courses and only a couple of music electives?¡±


    I cock my head to one side curiously, almost upset that my best friend would ask such a thing. She must know what my response will be, ¡°I could never think you¡¯re dumb. You got us through everything since the O¡ª. Since we ran. Glp. I. I just mean, you¡¯re brilliant, amazing. Whatever you choose to study, and however you choose to apply it, that will be the right thing for you, I¡¯m sure of it.¡±


    That gorgeous smile that I love so dearly, that I¡¯d fight heaven and hell to protect, turns into a frown as I accidentally meander myself into a non-answer. I backpedal to recover, ¡°I think it¡¯s sweet that you want to open a music store. I think it¡¯s wise to focus on the business side of things to start. And I mean, hey, lots of musicians don¡¯t get formal training, or at least not a lot of it, or if they do, it¡¯s not from some college, it¡¯s from some mentor or one on one musical coach type person. Plus, well, I think you¡¯re already amazing with your looping and sampling stuff. The things you can do with your mouth blow my mi¡ª.¡±


    I regret my choice of phrase as it leaves my mouth, because she waggles her brows. She¡¯s always ready to pounce on any opportunity to tease me. She starts, ¡°Oh really now? Just which things that I do with my mouth do you like so much? Tehe, you¡¯re so red, it¡¯s no fair when you get embarrassed before I can even say my tease. Anyway, come on Err, Sam will be at the deli, so we should be able to get a whole bag of groceries for a tenner. He¡¯ll probably toss in some day olds or something. It¡¯s worth it. You might like the things I do with my mouth, but I like to put those tasty things into ¡ª wait.¡±


    Pft. I snort a laugh as she sets herself up and walks into her own tease. I know she means the food from the deli is amazing for how affordable it is. We lucked out finding that abandoned building out on route six, and then finding that one of the closest businesses has a couple of people who used to be street kids working there. They make sure we get the cheapest stuff so we can get enough of it to survive. The two of us lived in the wilderness so long that I didn¡¯t realize there was some sort of code of the street for street kids to stick up for each other.


    She playfully swats at me while laughing and complaining, ¡°You can¡¯t laugh about that, only I get to tease you and laugh about that you butt!¡±


    I laugh incredulously as I ask, ¡°Do you have any idea how hypocritical that sounds?¡±


    She sticks her tongue out to blow a raspberry at me before answering, ¡°Nyeh, I don¡¯t care. Them¡¯s the rules buster. Hehe, whatever, come on Err, keep up!¡±


    Despite her wanting me to keep up, I¡¯m lost for a moment in the smile that she flashes me. Ever since that day. She called me her hero, she insisted on it, repeatedly. I hated it for only a second. Until she flashed that smile at me. Then it felt like anything happening was the most right thing in the world. At least until that weird scolding by¡ª. Huff, doesn¡¯t bear thinking about.

 B 5 C 18: Staring Down Telepathic Barrels

    As I rouse, I hear Tiktik ask, ¡°You really like my smile that much? Awe.¡±


    I stretch my jaw and rattle my skull, which has the effect of, erm, jiggling the pillows my face is buried in. I try to recoil, but there¡¯s almost no space, so I end up elbowing Teuila in the chin on accident. Sorry Te. Teuila and Tiktik both start laughing at my overreaction.


    Tiktik absolves me, ¡°It¡¯s fine, we¡¯re Fae, not humans with their stuffiness like personal space and stuff. Plus, they¡¯ve got some really weird ideas about what, ugh, never mind. Anyway, pleasant dreams chum?¡±


    I furrow my brow in confusion as I ask, ¡°Pleasant dream? What dream?¡±


    Tiktik pouts, ¡°You were saying you¡¯d fight heaven and hell to protect this cute smile.¡±


    I boggle momentarily as I¡¯m still dazed. Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar is laughing her butt off, rolling around on the ground of our mindscape. I blink rapidly for a bit, trying to process what was said. Oh, well heck, sure, Tiktik does have an incredibly cute smile.


    I flash Tiktik half a grin as I mumble, ¡°Err, I mean, honestly, we¡¯re probably going to end up doing exactly that by the time we¡¯re through on Rayileklia knowing the way my life¡¯s story unfolds. So, literally? Yes. Figuratively? Yeah, sure, you¡¯re a friggin¡¯ cutie, and that smile is gorgeous. Who wouldn¡¯t want to see it all the time? Though, and I don¡¯t mean to discourage you, is it possible I was talking about Teuila? Her beautiful face fills my thoughts, literally, since we¡¯re psychically bonded.¡±


    Tiktik playfully pouts and starts laughing before responding, ¡°I¡¯m giving you a hard time pal. Hehe. I dunno, I don¡¯t think it was either of us honestly. You spoke in a really funny voice, it didn¡¯t sound like you at all. It was kinda weird.¡±


    I nod along with Tiktik, still struggling against my daze to recall the last few minutes, or hours. Oh! Oh they must be talking about an Aces¡¯ memory dream. It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve had one of those, I think. At least one where someone else was awake and I sleep-talked through it.


    I conjecture aloud, ¡°Oh, that must have been another of Aces¡¯ memories, they were an assa¡ª¡°


    Tiktik flashes me a grin as she cuts me off, ¡°I obviously know the skulker that stuck around to learn magic, the assassin that never aged. I¡¯m pretty sure they were running through Autumn Brook recently. I guess I must have just missed Aces on their way back to the Vale for the first time in a long time.¡±


    I grimace as a horrified expression slams itself across my face with a vigor. Gulping, I admit, ¡°Aces was, um. Tiktik, we, uh. We came to this world by dying on ours. When we got here, there was a body, a corpse on the floor of the temple we arrived in. Based on their dagger, I knew it was Aces¡¯ body from some dream memories I had. Whatever smile dream you were talking about must have been another of Aces¡¯ memories showing up as a dream I sleep-talk through.¡±


    Tiktik looks mildly stricken, and freezes in that emotional display for long enough that I¡¯m beginning to worry. As I¡¯m about to reach a hand up to her shoulder comfortingly, she dons a half-frown by drawing her lips back along their left side. She also shakes her head sadly and unleashes a weighted sigh.


    Tiktik explains, ¡°I didn¡¯t really know them personally or anything, but I get to know names and descriptions and activities of a lot of people as an urban bountyhunter. It¡¯s just my job to know those kindsa things. Still. For you guys, it¡¯s just one sad tragedy after another by the sounds of it. Some of the people around The Brook had heard bits and pieces of your story, so the other world thing isn¡¯t a surprise, but dying to get here wasn¡¯t anything any random rumor was carrying. Sigh. Looks like we¡¯re still over a day from The Brook, but you and your magic need a break. Those horses are going to poof any minute now. I think you were practicing runes even in your sleep.¡±


    I cock my head to the side as I gaze up at Tiktik in confusion. Is that something I can even do? I know I had somniscription back in colle¡ª What? I had what? Back in where? What¡¯s somni¡ª Ow, ow my freakin¡¯ head. Oh crap, my vision is flooding with red, but it¡¯s not anger. Blood vessels or capillaries or something around my eyes must have burst. I, wait, my nose is running, and it feels like tears are still flowing, just closer to my ears. Why is Tiktik looking so horrified?


    I reach up to wipe away the tears and snot, but what shows up across the back of my hand is blood, from each orifice. This, um. This seems pretty bad. I. I don¡¯t know if I can--. I begin to convulse and twitch as my headache spreads throughout my whole body. H-help. P-please. Some, some, someone. I can sense Teuila panicking and Tiktik acting on some frantic impulse as it feels like my brain is leaking out my nose and ears.


    My reddened sight doubles as my eyes unwillingly cross. The only reason I¡¯m not choking on my tongue is the enchantment on the Neckchain of the Everbreathing. If I had any control over myself right now, I¡¯d huff an exasperated sigh. Was I even crafting any runes? Was I overextending myself? I can¡¯t remember why I¡¯m suddenly almost dying yet again. This is stupidly frequent as a staple in my life. The bleeding and the almost dying that is, not the convulsing to the point of being trapped in my head, that¡¯s sort of new. I¡¯d had spasms and twitches most of my existence, but this is frightening, even for me.


    Just like that, the convulsions calm, and though I¡¯m left breathless for the moment, I don¡¯t feel all that much the worse for wear. What even brought them on? Was it, was, huh. Was I thinking about something?


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar rushes into my mind and orders, ¡°Stop! Whatever it is, whatever thought you think you were about to have, don¡¯t have it! Focus, focus on me, please. Just. Just. Breathe Air, breathe. Nothing else. Just think about me holding you while you breathe. Please? I suddenly understand Luni all the better. No wonder she¡ª. Huff. If she was always guiding y¡ª, anyway, that¡¯s not important. Just, just be with me. Please?¡±


    I blink confusedly at Teuila before I telepathically send, ¡°Of course My Wings. Always, any time. I love you. Luni? Do you mean her riding around in my head non stop for so long? Is th¡ª¡°


    Teuila copies one of Luni¡¯s mannerisms as her telepathic avatar taps my lips and face while she says, ¡°Bup bup! No more of that. Oh heck I¡¯m turning into little sis. Eh, worse things could happen. For now, just breathe, hold me, let me hold you. No thinking. Okay?¡±


    I chuckle as my telepathic avatar snags Teuila¡¯s avatar¡¯s hand to nuzzle its palm. I¡¯m quite happy to acquiesce to such a request. Though Te knows me, my brain doesn¡¯t exactly shut off or stop thinking, even when I¡¯m putting it on autopilot mode and retreating from a monotonous task in reality. That¡¯s fine though. I nuzzle Teuila in thinkspace and meatspace. Or at least, I thought I was nuzzling Teuila in meatspace. I just realized our seating arrangement means my face is not near Teuila''s body, rather it''s situated in front of Tiktik as she straddles me to face me so that we can runecraft together.


    My eyes flick open to take in a patch of bluish flesh along Tiktik¡¯s left shoulder and bicep. She looks like she wants to roll on the floor laughing, but there¡¯s no room. She must have cleaned up the blood on us with her magic. I¡¯m pretty sure I was bleeding fairly badly. I blush and retreat from Tiktik¡¯s clavicle and shoulder, squirming uncomfortably.


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    I mumble, ¡°Sorry, I, err. I was in our mindscape. Forgot meat space for a bit.¡±


    Tiktik teases, ¡°Sounds fun in there! Maybe I¡¯ll take you two up on that offer at some point after all! Hehe. Well, maybe anyway.¡±


    I blush furiously and continue to squirm while avoiding Tiktik¡¯s gaze. I¡¯d like to laugh off my own embarrassment, but I¡¯m trying to just focus on being present with Teuila. Tiktik¡¯s presence complicates that presentness slightly. Even if she presents her presence in such an adorably silly way the way that she does, it''s a gift of joy for the most part. Huh, that¡¯s a present. That¡¯s a lot of presents and presence. I rattle my head as I chuckle at myself.


    Gnawing on my lip I try to wiggle such that I can rotate at least halfway clockwise to be able to face Teuila by shuffling to sit slightly sideways on her lap. This has the unfortunate effect of dislodging Tiktik¡¯s straddled position such that she falls smooshed between the two of us, particularly her face between our faces. Despite her comfort with affection, and lack of worry for personal space due to being Fae, Tiktik seems to be blushing the hardest out of the three of us as she struggles to extricate herself from her cramped position.


    I start to mumble an apology again but Tiktik just laughs it off as she explains, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I left my heart in the Fae¡¯s Wilds, but accidentally snuggling or smooching or even getting a bit frisky isn¡¯t going to change that. Heck, not even biting, see?¡±


    Tiktik chomps into my neck and my eyes flash wide as I squirm and gulp. Teuila starts to laugh so hard she bounces her lap, shuffling us even further into a cramped position, loosing Tiktik¡¯s lip-grip on my jugular. Tiktik topples the few inches of distance between her and Teuila, accidentally trading a headbutt with Teuila, causing both to laugh. Tiktik kisses Teuila¡¯s forehead in apology, where the tiniest bruise mars her features. That would be Teuila¡¯s own strength working against her, even just shuffling slightly is done with such force that most people would probably end up with a concussion from falling even that short distance.


    My mind is flooded with images of our current position in a third person view from the last few seconds, and I flush heatedly with blush at the thoughts. Is this the kind of feeling Lil gets when they trade reptile good-luck ear-tonguing with Nagas like Dehlia? Phew. Yeesh. I mean, well, err. Yeah. I guess I get it. It¡¯s not like I exactly disliked Dehlia¡¯s, erm, luck wishes either. Though I¡¯m personally uncomfortable with the, uh, feelings associated with the intimacy implied by the activities.


    I have to pout as I continue to blush because Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar is once again rolling around on the ground laughing at my train of thoughts. Thankfully Teuila takes pity on me. Her avatar stands and walks to embrace mine. We kiss for a long moment before resting our foreheads together. I try to just focus on breathing, being in the moment with my beloved Wings.


    That is until Teuila teases, ¡°Y¡¯know, if I knew it tripped your trigger so much, I¡¯d have been biting up and down your neck for years by now.¡±


    I gulp as color drains from my face, then returns as a rush of red that sets my eartips steaming both in mind space and meat space. I pout while blushing and adopting a minuscule head-shake. These women in my life. Luni would definitely have chosen a similar, if not the exact same tease to hit me with. Ugh my freaking heart is fluttering so hard. Sometimes you¡¯re the worst best thing ever, you know that, right Te?


    Teuila adopts the Shellcracker Family Squee, that single elongated laugh of glee that sounds her joy through a wide mostly closed-lipped smile. I¡¯m in love with the best people in the totality of several worlds. The joy that Teuila can elate is beauty, bliss, pure wonderment. I¡¯d say that I wish I could pause time to capture the moment, but I don¡¯t need to. She brings that joy into my life and my mind repeatedly. Despite everything, all the craziness, I¡¯m probably the luckiest being in all of existence, every existence.


    Teuila teases, ¡°Darn right buster. Hehe. Nyeh.¡±


    As Teuila¡¯s mental avatar blows a raspberry, the motion carries over into meat space, so Tiktik gets a face-full of Teuila¡¯s tongue, and now Teuila¡¯s the one dying of embarrassment. My poor Wings. You kinda had that one coming. Hah. Sorry my love.


    Teuila blushes for a long moment as Tiktik teases, ¡°Let me guess, more mind space accidents? Just what do you two get up to in there?¡± before shrugging and then licking Teuila back.


    Now I¡¯m left rolling around in my mindscape laughing. This is far too much tongue to be sharing with someone we¡¯ve just met, hah. Though I suppose Lil and Dehlia only knew each other for a few hours over the course of two meetings before they started, uh, sharing a lot of reptilian tongue. I probably shouldn¡¯t judge based on my stupid Fakeworld memories.


    I also probably shouldn¡¯t be allowing myself so much joy, sitting next to a friend on the edge of death, after recently hav¡ª.


    Teuila¡¯s mental avatar stomps up to mine and fumes as she glares my way. Gulp. Right, try not to beat myself up. Live in the moment. Eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow I might die. Oh Te. Oh my beloved Wings. I¡¯m sorry. Teuila bursts into tears in and out of think space as I remind her of my looming death. We fall into each other¡¯s arms again and I try to just shut off my stupid self-loathing brain.


    Tiktik grumps, ¡°Okay, now you two are back to crying. Seriously, what¡¯s going on in there? I don¡¯t mean to be nosy, but you offered, and now I¡¯m starting to worry. You both seem pretty great. What all is going on? Maybe fill me in, or let me in?¡±


    I guess it wouldn¡¯t hurt to offer her a temporary casting of the spell, before committing to making it permanent. I telepathically ask Teuila, ¡°How do you feel about it Te? Do you want to let Tiktik in at this point in, well, in everything?¡±


    Teuila¡¯s mental avatar frowns and chews inside its cheek as she attempts to weigh her decision, ¡°I, I get so jealous and possessive of you, my Airhead. This is, I mean. This is the first time that I get to be the first and only one in your head. It makes me feel so special¡ª¡°


    I interrupt, ¡°Oh Te, my wonderful, strong, kind, beautiful Teuila. You are special. You are, you truly are. I¡¯m sorry if I don¡¯t make you feel it enough.¡±


    Teuila pouts aloud, ¡°I, I didn¡¯t mean it like that. I, I mean you do. You really do. You¡¯re grrr eight outta ten. Err, I mean out of eight, or five, or something. Err, you¡¯re great, that¡¯s all. Ignore the rest. I, I just. Screw it, let¡¯s do it. She¡¯s great. She¡¯s really really great, and maybe she will have some ideas. She at least deserves to know just how heavy things really are. She signed up to face down apocalypses with us after knowing us for a couple of minutes. She¡¯s my kind of gal. Please bring her in here Airhead, my Air? My very own breath of fresh Air.¡±


    I flash Teuila a weak smile as I return to meat space to ask, ¡°Are you up for this Tiktik? I¡¯m about to start casting. It¡¯ll be temporary unless we all agree that we should continue, then I¡¯ll get out the ruby paste and make it permanent, if you¡¯re okay with me marking your body, mostly your head, with it.  You''re a bit smaller, so I''ll have to travel down your neck a bit, hopefully not down your torso, but I''m an amateur at runecraft, as you know.¡±


    Tiktik jokes, ¡°I¡¯m down, you can rub your paste wherever you need to, it sounds like an adventure in those brains of yours. Just, um. Ignore Bizzy if you can hear him? Bizzenblade shouldn¡¯t be real. Not sure what to do about him, since I accidentally created him in the ¡®Twixt.¡±


    I nod as I wear half a smile while reading Tiktik¡¯s expression. Despite joking and teasing, she¡¯s earnest. To add someone into an already established telepathic link, I need our heads to touch, so I motion for us to all lean our foreheads together. I take my time crafting the runes for the telepathic link spell so that I don¡¯t burn through any more S P than I absolutely need to. I also make sure that our steeds are fresh and empowered as strongly as I can reinforce them with my S P. Inhaling a ragged breath, I loose it as a halting sigh.


    It¡¯s several intimate moments, resting tightly crammed in against one another, with our heads and faces as close as can be. I¡¯m almost nervous as I¡¯m approaching finishing the last rune. I haven¡¯t brought someone in to our inner circle since Lightning. Our, well, our shared paramour, Linti, Lightning Hunter. She¡¯d answer to Lin, Linti, Lightning, or Hunter. It was a trait of the cat tribe to have a name that was sort of a title or a story all its own, and to answer to any part of it.


    Suddenly Tiktik struggles to telepathically express, ¡°That¡¯s so cool! A cat tribe? Like kitty cats, or like people cats? How do you two, um. Hang on, I¡¯ll get the hang of this.¡±


    Moments later an avatar begins to form for Tiktik, but it¡¯s a bit different from her actual body, and ever so slightly goofy looking. It¡¯s cutesy with giant eyes and a head that seems disproportionately large. Also, certain assets are definitely differently proportioned in such a compact version of her. She giggles as she tries to inspect herself. Despite the unusual mental avatar, we¡¯ve brought someone into our most intimate of spaces for the first time since we were staring down the barrel, or facing down our share of apocalypses on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.

 B 5 C 19: Fae-fection

    Tiktik mentions in awe, ¡°Wow, you two are even prettier in here, really cute I mean. Not as cute as Littlebit, but no one is. Not even me! Hehe.¡±


    I chuckle. She¡¯s honestly adorable, even in this chibified mental avatar of hers. It¡¯s ridiculously cute. As cliche as it is, I kind of want to pinch her cheeks like this even more than I do in meat space.


    Tiktik teases, ¡°Go ahead, I¡¯m curious what stuff feels like in here! Can¡¯t be much different than any other Fae-fection. Err, Fae affection.¡±


    I blush, remembering that for some reason, everyone else who rides my telepathic waves can hear my every conscious or near-conscious thought. Still, she offered, and Teuila¡¯s laughing her head off right now. May as well oblige. I walk closer and shrink my telepathic avatar to Tiktik¡¯s avatar¡¯s height, and reach out with both hands to take thumbfulls of her adorable cheeks and squoosh them about for a moment. Haha, it¡¯s cute and funny in a way I can¡¯t describe to have a tiny bit of telepathic pudge caught between your fingers.


    Tiktik responds to my contact and thoughts by tackling me to attempt to find out if my telepathic avatar is ticklish. Thankfully, it¡¯s not, but that just means I¡¯ve got an adorable woman straddling me, exploring my body for weak spots while grumping playfully. Uh oh, she caught on to something I thought.


    Tiktik grins evilly as she starts to purposely fade from thinkspace, chanting in singsong, ¡°So your avatar isn¡¯t ticklish, huhhhhh? How about youuu?¡±


    Crap. Teuila help me out here, stop laughing! Hah, haha, hahaha, oh no, hahaha. Nooo. I writhe and squirm as Tiktik finds my ticklish spots and lays into them mercilessly. I fidget while laughing and crying. I fight my own reactions so as not to move too much, in the hopes that we don¡¯t disturb Daffodil¡¯s recovery. Despite the tickling taking up most of my senses, I¡¯m able to pick up vibrations again as if the land were rumbling heavily within a few dozen miles. That¡¯s the second time I¡¯ve picked up such a sensation. The first time I¡¯m positive was when Noirdivinhoz¡¯s canyon was caved in. Is that rockslide just shifting? Or is this a new rockslide or earthquake?


    Despite being mercilessly tickled, now by two lovable women, I focus my consciousness away from my body¡¯s tactile senses with a purpose in mind. Focus Reggie. Feel it. Use your sense of direction. It¡¯s to the northeast. Definitely a second, newer location. Worse, I¡¯m almost positive the vibration is closing in, albeit slowly, but still its epicenter is moving this way. I¡¯m almost positive. That¡¯s quite worrisome.


    Teuila and Tiktik stop their tickling to gaze at me curiously, confusedly. They¡¯ve been able to read my thoughts, and now they¡¯re curious, because neither of them sense the vibration. I don¡¯t think either one sensed the first quake either. I¡¯ve always been more attuned to the presence of waves than everyone around me. Sound waves, vibratory waves, the pressure of the the waves on the Night of High Water that cost us several family members, even light¡¯s ultraviolet rays, all of it. I wish that I¡¯d taken my senses¡¯ warnings more seriously at many points in my life. I¡¯m not making the same mistake again. I¡¯m warning Harriet about this, and not relenting until I¡¯m sure she¡¯s taking my warning seriously.


    Tiktik asks, ¡°Is it really that serious chums?¡±


    I nod as I draw a shuddering breath through my nose that leaves as a sigh which becomes a yawn. I explain, ¡°I¡¯ve, um. I knew when a mountain had moved several feet upward, I saw a horizon line a fraction of a spot higher than it should be along the ocean once, and was worried it was a tsunami, I¡¯ve spotted glows and lights that signaled dangerous things long before others around me. All of those signaled horrid events. I. I¡¯m sorry Te. Yeah, I know. I hope we get home some day, and I hope Gail lets us see Peni.¡±


    My head sags forward into the midst of our three bodies as my eyelids droop once more. My expression falls into a sad frown and I struggle to not weep. Penina died because I wasn¡¯t quick enough, powerful enough, confident enough to act to save the family that had taken me in along Can¡¯Z¡¯aas¡¯s southern shore.


    Teuila nudges me, frowning sadly. Wanting to remind me not to beat myself up. I know Te. I know. I¡¯m just, I¡¯m so tired of failing people. Why do I get to keep living through all these horrid things, yet we keep losing good, kind, sweet, or innocent people? An entire city, washed away by Leviathan. The risk of the beavers and the second critterkin contingent suffering from a reoccurrence of the Night of All Burn, Mat slaying so many chameleonfolk. Just, so many things. Teuila frowns as she grumps my way telepathically. I¡¯ll try to drop the topic Te. Sorry.


    Tiktik adds, ¡°You two have been through a lot. What normally helps you keep going?¡±


    I blush as Teuila grins evilly my way. Come on Te, that¡¯s not fair. Tiktik¡¯s a friend offering help figuring things out, she¡¯s not asking abo¡ª.


    Teuila snickers as she responds, ¡°Well, my Airhead just loves snuggles and smooches. Gets them right our of their head most of the time. I¡¯m pretty sure they also got really distracted by your attention to their neck. Hehe.¡±


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    Tiktik alights to the idea as she excitedly asks, ¡°Really!? Say no more mon amour!¡±


    Meep. Tiktik lunges for me, but thankfully Teuila interjects her hand, so Tiktik just ends up with a face full of Teuila¡¯s palm. Tiktik looks confused, since Teuila was definitely hinting to tease me in such a fashion. Heck, even I¡¯m a bit confused.


    Te mutters, ¡°I uh. I can maybe try that out later. Koff. I mean. Dangit I¡¯m doing it again. Crap. I¡¯m sorry. I. I get jealous and possessive. It¡¯s not fair, I know. We¡¯re really open and, and, and stuff. Heck, I¡¯ve spent more time with Lin¡¯s lips locked around mine than Reggie has. Err, ahem, koff. Uh. Yeah. Point being, I¡¯m sorry for being a jerk with my kneejerk jealousy.¡±


    Tiktik teases, ¡°Sounds like you¡¯ve got a couple things going on, don¡¯t worry, no need to be jealous, plenty of teeth to go around!¡±


    With that, Tiktik lunges instead for Teuila¡¯s neck, catching her offguard, and I¡¯m left wearing a mildly surprised, slightly uncomfortable expression as I blush to high heavens while Teuila squirms under Tiktik¡¯s attention. Uh. I really think I need fresh air. Okay, that¡¯s a lie. I wear the Neckchain of the Everbreathing. Huff. Gosh, that is. Wow. I know Tiktik¡¯s a Fae, and that we¡¯re rather famous for having almost no boundaries, but wow.


    Hm? Yes Bud, yes, this whole situation is entirely inappropriate, especially to bring up any topic like that. No it¡¯s. No, I¡¯ve. Hold on. I¡¯ve told you before. Even if I wanted the biology, and I don¡¯t, I don¡¯t have it right now, but I still. Now hold up just a second. I¡¯m not yelling at you, it¡¯s okay Bud, just let me explain, please?


    Tiktik snorts a laugh, causing her to release Teuila¡¯s neck with a soft popping sound. Apparently she can hear me telepathically talking with bud, or at least my half of the conversation. We don¡¯t share a portion of our soul, err, I don¡¯t think we do anyway. So Bud probably can¡¯t¡ª Oh wait. She¡¯s Fae. You totally hear all of this, don¡¯t you Tiktik?


    Tiktik snirks, snorting and laughing as she confirms, ¡°Yep! Hehehe. I gotta say, never, snrk, hehe, thought I¡¯d have someone¡¯s long pointy stick proposition me to bear a child for them, or well, their wielder. Hahaha. Oh hey, that sounds so dirty now that I say it out loud, hehehe.¡±


    Now Teuila gets to be freed from her own embarrassment and squirming as I steam to my ear tips once more. Dangit Bud, you butt. I asked you to not press me on that topic anymore Lullaby.


    Tiktik gasps and interrupts, ¡°Wait, wait, wait, Bud is Lullaby? -The- Lullaby? Requiem for the Windless Wilds? There¡¯s stories about him in the library! How did you two end up together? I mean, Reggie, you¡¯re literally out of this world, or, well, from there at least.¡±


    I chuckle, grateful for the distraction as I attempt to explain, ¡°So, uh. We ran into an individual that was a bit of a kleptomaniac. I¡¯m not even sure it qualifies as kleptomaniacal theft to do what he did though. After capturing and stealing some people¡¯s souls, he would go raid their domiciles or stores for magic equipment or valuables. Apparently Bud had been lost in human lands for some time, passed around from collector to collector, with none of them really having any idea the value Bud really held.¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s face is milimeters from mine as she gazes into my eyes enraptured, awaiting more. I blush, sorry to disappoint as I conclude, ¡°That¡¯s kind of all there is to the story. Milbert, Necromancer of Navica died in Victo. We didn¡¯t even have to be the ones to finish him off. We then gave him a bit of turnabout for fair play, and looted his tower before destroying it.¡±


    Tiktik half pouts for a moment before laughing as she backs off, withdrawing her face from its intimately close position, though she can¡¯t gain all that much distance. Teuila tries tickling Tiktik for payback from the earlier necking affection, and now I¡¯m left stuck between two women tickle fighting, squirming around each other. I squirm myself in mild discomfort and embarrassment. Okay now they¡¯re playfully biting each other¡¯s hands to ward off the tickles as one hand or another approaches. I roll my eyes and huff a faux exasperated sigh as I chuckle. I¡¯m pretty sure I know exactly how this is going to escalate.


    My life is insane. It¡¯s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Yet, I wouldn¡¯t trade it in order to live as anyone else. I knead my eyeballs through my eyelids as I rub away the wet and the itch. I continue to blush and fidget as I try to focus on meditating while keeping our steeds empowered to move at their top speeds. I¡¯m left mostly breathless, and out of touch with reality, but it definitely serves as a solid distraction from embarrassment. Until my attention is drawn to both of my ears feeling wet, warm, and being tugged in two directions by two different mouths.


    I nearly faint at the overly intimate embarrassment and teasing. Tiktik tries to speak around a mouthful of my ear, her tongue tickling its ridges the entire time as she tries to ask, ¡°You didn¡¯t know you were doing this? I can see why you kept it up after realizing. Their reaction is cute and funny.¡± Though the sound that actually comes out is, ¡°Oo i-inf no oo err doinf ish? I an ee aye oo kepf ipf up afpfer realizing. Err eacthun ith coothpf and f-unny.¡±


    I can feel Teuila simply grin evily across from Tiktik at the other side of my head. She nods, and attempts to blow a raspberry, which ends up just motorboating my ear. I¡¯d facepalm, but my arms are trapped. Apparently while I wasn¡¯t paying attention, each of them snagged one of my arms and now has said arm locked behind their backs. Finally the two release my ears as they return to giggling, and presumably speaking to one another across a telepathic wavelength that I¡¯m not invited to. That¡¯s quite fine by me, I¡¯m not certain I even want to know if they conclude to attempt some other choreographed teasing at some point.


    I¡¯m just going to snooze while trying to maintain the horses. I give them the best, vaguest directions to go on, so hopefully they can keep making a pretty straight line for The Brook.


    I smile softly as I begin to drift into a fitful sleep filled with hints of joy creeping in along the edges of my consciousness. I do feel warm embraces against each of my sides as I pass out, falling asleep once more.

 B 5 C 20: Old Friend

    We arrive racing into Autumn Brook a bit before noon on August Twelfth, Daffodil has remained unconscious for approximately two whole days, save a few seconds in which we were able to nurse half a pint of water down her gullet. I¡¯m sure we look like a terrifying sight, with all that the Aasimovians are currently suffering. A driverless carriage being pulled by ghostly steeds running hell-for-leather in from the east? It¡¯s like every cliche dire omen about horse-drawn carriages crammed into one.


    We won¡¯t be able to take the carriage straight to the apothecary, that particular street is narrow, so we park near the Keel Over, and begin gingerly removing Daffodil from the carriage, the three of us and our spells working to help prop her up as we carry her in the direction of Tiago and George, hopefully they¡¯re home. It¡¯s mid day, so at least Tiago should be. George might be in the records hall.


    A bit unexpectedly, Harriet, Mairess Du Pon De Brook spots us from the council hall, and begins rushing our way. At least I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s who¡¯s headed this way. Whomever it is, is too far away to see. It¡¯s unlikely she can see exactly who we are, but I¡¯m sure whatever eyes and ears she has about the city have informed her of the crazy carriage by now. She¡¯s remarkably well informed. I can honestly say that she¡¯s a masterful leader and credit to her community, despite what transpired.


    As we¡¯re barging into the apothecary, Harriet indeed appears to be the one chasing after us. She catches up as I¡¯m calling out for Tiago, pleading for him to be home. From a store room comes an excited shout, and some thumping as Tiago trips over himself, dropping supplies to come rushing out.


    He shouts, ¡°My dear little dragonslaying friends! You¡¯ve ret¡ª Dios. Of course, it is always this way with you two isn¡¯t it. Quickly now, to the sofa near the fire. How long has she been like this?¡±


    I gulp as I try to explain for both Harriet and Tiago¡¯s benefit, ¡°She, she was, she was buried under her home, covered in acid. We fished her out, but her entire arm was melted off, and her thigh was entirely eaten through on that side. Before you say anything, she was conscious at first, lucid, but when that suddenly changed, we used a rare magical red potion on her to stabilize her. She was lucid for a bit, but when she passed out and began convulsing, we worked the potion down her gullet, and tried to restrain her through the pain it causes while closing wounds. We rushed her here as safely as we could in our carriage, we tried to keep her propped up evenly so that she wasn¡¯t cramped or bent or jostled.¡±


    Tiago remarks in shock, ¡°Madre de dios, una salvacion en tiempo. Err, right, sorry my friends. Harriet, is this who I think it is?¡±


    Harriet nods, responding, ¡°It is, it¡¯s ¡®Dil. She¡¯s roughed up but good, but it¡¯s her. Santiago, will she recover?¡±


    Tiago wears half a smile as he slowly nods while examining Daffodil¡¯s pupils by propping open her eyes. Tiago explains, ¡°I think it¡¯s more mental shock than anything. She should snap out of it when she¡¯s processed whatever had happened. I¡¯m surprised it¡¯s taking our tough old bird this long, knowing her, but it shouldn¡¯t be much lon¡ª¡°


    As if on cue, Daffodil lifts suddenly, accidentally headbutting Tiago while screaming, ¡°Is she gone!? Is the beastly woman back!?¡±


    Daffodil hyperventilates as her mind races and her eyes dart about, taking in her scenery in a panicked, hyper-aware state. She slowly recognizes those around her as being all friends, so she lowers herself back to the sofa. It seems Daffodil isn¡¯t up to much at the moment, so I have a lot to catch Harriet up on.


    I start out, ¡°I apologize for, well, everything, but I¡¯d like to beg your undivided attention momentarily honorable Mairess.¡±


    Harriet rolls her eyes and orders, ¡°Drop the formalities young hero Shellcracker. Reggie. I knew you¡¯d return some day, and I knew it¡¯d be either on the trail of, or running from something horrid. That terrible air of fate swirling about you.¡±


    I gulp and frown, nodding along to Harriet¡¯s assumption. She¡¯s right, it was inevitable, knowing my life. Still, I continue, ¡°Right, yes, sorry, Harriet. We, glp. The ghost of The Brook¡¯s past has perished. Along with them, with her, with Dawn dying, the, the spell. A cursed spell had been using her and her soul as a basis to work its way across the whole of Rayileklia, against her will, without her knowledge. I did everything, everything I could to try to stop it, I learned entirely new magics, I slew a high priest of the cult of the Bright Lord, I sought mentorship in the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds, and further guidance with the Sisters hidden in the mist. I failed. I, I failed. I¡¯m so sorry. I couldn¡¯t save her. I couldn¡¯t save them. All of them.¡±


    Harriet looks confused, and as she gazes from me to Teuila and back, Teuila catches her eye by mouthing the word ancestors. Harriet goes pale. Harriet mumbles, ¡°They, they disappeared, the few that claimed to see where they went said they turned to dust, but, but that was impossible. We figured hysteria at the shock of them choosing to migrate or something. Truly, truly all of them? To dust?¡±


    I gulp as I nod while tears stream down my face. I continue, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m so sorry. There¡¯s so much more to the tale, but I have to move on because there are more immediate threats to The Brook.¡±


    Harriet veritably scowls as she demands, ¡°You what!? What could possibly be more important than¡ª!?¡±


    I interrupt, ¡°You¡¯re all in danger, from at least three sources. The Bright Lord? The Celestial Emperor is going to march on Aasimovia any day now. I know for a fact that something apocalyptic is happening with dragons along the Spine of the World, that I¡¯m afraid may follow our manxome foe¡¯s path down here. Thirdly, there is some sort of danger posed by vampires that the Sisters were too cagey to fill me in on yet. Well, fourthly, I¡¯m positive I sensed two different sets of quakes.¡±


    Harriet looks confused about my last statement, so I explain after drawing a ragged breath, ¡°I, well, an hour, maybe even less before we got to, please forgive me for using its name, to Noirdivinhoz, I felt the telltale vibrations of earthshaking within a few dozen miles. When we got there, the entire canyon that led down into the temple had rubble and a rockslide caved down into it, and melted into place with potent acid. The same acid that melted Daffodil¡¯s home, and nearly her as well. The acid was apparently belched by some woman in black veiled garb. The second quake I felt coming from northeast, around um, if I was about five miles west of Noirdivinhoz when I felt it, at almost a perfectly northeastern angle.¡±


    Harriet suddenly grips, and shakes Daffodil. She hysterically orders, ¡°Dil, Dil dear, focus, this is important, did this woman know where the entrance to the Felcaves were? Daffodil honey, my old friend, did she know!?¡±


    Daffodil frowns as she mutters, ¡°I heard you the first time, no need to rant like a teenage wahini. I¡¯m not deaf. But how am I supposed to know what she knew or where she went after she melted my home atop me, taking my arm with it?¡±


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    Harriet flubs, somewhat apologetically, ¡°Ah, erp, erm, right, yes, of course. How could you know. I¡¯m sorry dear friend. I¡¯m still upset, worried for your safety. Worried more now with news of more earthmoving. For you, for all of us.¡±


    I get around to my ask, ¡°Harriet, I know this is going to seem utterly insane, absolutely crazy, but I want you to try to get word out to evacuate all of Aasimovia towards Jeegoobotstan, stopping at the edge of the Jaggedfen Bog until after we slay the hydra. We¡¯re going to try to plead with Tim to ferry our carriage across Lake Siempre to beat all Aasimovians into the bog by going up through The Gap, checking on some dragon activity along the way.¡±


    Harriet rolls her eyes and scoffs incredulously, ¡°Okay, I may have been a tad hysterical, but we¡¯re not evacuating our whole country because an adventurer gets some heebie jeebies. The loss of Noirdivinhoz is lamentable, but with the ancestors having already been taken from us, its purpose could no longer be served anyway. I¡¯m quite grateful for all the dire warnings dear Shellcrackers, but perhaps you should just rest. Maybe we¡¯ll all be able to plan for events with clearer heads on the morrow. You all look fairly rough. Even you young miss Clocktok, I didn¡¯t expect to see our new Fae friend, the self-proclaimed urban bounty hunter riding back into town with the likes of these two.¡±


    Tiktik blushes, but as she¡¯s about to explain, Harriet continues, ¡°Look, we¡¯ll take stock of our situations, and gather information, and make well-informed decisions in the coming weeks, with the aid of the entire council. Please, stay a while in The Brook, we consider you our strongest allies. I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry for what transpired previously. I can¡¯t tell you why I did it, only ¡ª.¡±


    I shake my head at Harriet. I know why. She was being coerced. Someone with, glp, glowing eyes. I pat her shoulder as I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for having put you in the situation where that happened, whoever that was, whatever they demanded of you, whyever they demanded it of you. I can¡¯t stay though Harriet. I¡¯m not exaggerating when I say I¡¯m dying, and very soon, if we don¡¯t find dragons, specifically powerful dragonforces to siphon, quickly. Tiago and George already know. I won¡¯t live the rest of the season. I expect I¡¯ll drop dead in early September.¡±


    Everyone¡¯s eyes flash wide at the finality of my statement, and Tiago sputters, ¡°But, but how could, I mean, how did you know that we suspected, but, err, but how, why? Why must you be taken from us? When I¡¯ve already lost A¡ª.¡± A lump catches in Tiago¡¯s throat as tears well in his eyes.


    I¡¯m Tiago¡¯s last living reminder of Aces, and now even Aces¡¯ body isn¡¯t out there anymore, doing whatever Aasimovian ancestors do when they¡¯re reanimated. I explain, ¡°You were talking about it with George while I was nursing a migraine in an alley nearby on the day we were being, um, asked to depart on.¡±


    Harriet blushes with chagrin about having ordered us to leave. Tiago sputters once again, ¡°But, but the street was so crowded, and loud, I could barely hear George, and he me! How d¡ª. Huff. Of course. It¡¯s you magical little adventurers. Why am I even surprised? Dear young friend, please, come, let me embrace you and offer my sympathy.¡±


    I step into Tiago¡¯s warm embrace. He¡¯s an octogenarian, and he¡¯s spent his entire life in the service of helping, healing, and loving his community. His husband is a decade or two younger, which Harriet apparently teases them about. He¡¯s kind, and empathetic, but I feel like I¡¯m the one that feels so bad for him, even though I¡¯m the one dying. He¡¯s such a wonderful person, and one of his oldest friends was stolen from him at a time when he, to his own regret, disbelieved his friend¡¯s final warnings and wishes.


    Tiktik and Teuila are riding my thought waves, and Tiktik appears sadder and sadder throughout the entire conversation, realizing how deeply we¡¯ve been impacted by, or impacted those in our travels. I draw a ragged breath and nod to our normally cheerful companion.


    I apologize as I attempt to take my leave, ¡°I, well. I¡¯ve delivered my warnings. I want you to live long, safe, healthy, happy, prosperous lives. How you achieve that isn¡¯t up to me. I won¡¯t make demands or force my will on anyone. You know that Harriet. Such has never been my intention, despite what appeared to happen with the plains Colossi. You are right though, we, at least I, need to rest. I will take stock of things though. I¡¯ll leave you with a copy of our lists before we figure out our departure method and time. Good luck. I truly do love all of you. I hope you remain safe.¡±


    There are several objections as I turn to leave, but I have to gulp back a sob and stride away quickly. These people don¡¯t need an extra burden to bear right now. They¡¯ll be nursing such heavy aches now that they realize what has truly transpired. Teuila and Tiktik stay behind for a while longer yet, since they both have conversation topics in need of being addressed. Leaving the two wonderful women at the apothecary momentarily, despite Teuila¡¯s wishes that I don¡¯t leave her sight for even a second, I swiftly march to the Keel Over, not at all excited at the prospect of seeing the woman who hates me once more. Keeley Johnston.


    As I enter the swinging double doors, Keeley catches sight of me, and spits while rolling her eyes and muttering, ¡°Figures it¡¯d be you that somehow drives a carriage up with no horses to hitch.¡± She sarcastically derides me, ¡°Will you be needing your suite again, our dragon-slaying majesty?¡±


    I grimace as I try to fight back a pout. I don¡¯t want to deal with this right now. I fish out a handful of coins and several gems and just wordlessly drop them on the bar¡¯s countertop within her reach. I¡¯m barely taller than the bar, so it¡¯s probably a bit humorous seeing someone have to reach up, above their wild, unruly red hair, to plop down a pile of wealth.


    I mumble, ¡°I¡¯m fairly certain I¡¯ll only be here the one night. Harriet might request or order us to stay longer, but I do not have time to spend longer than a day in The Brook. Keep whatever value you want for the night, and for allowing us to park our carriage, I don¡¯t care. I¡¯m dying soon enough anyway. End of this season or beginning of next anyway.¡±


    I massage my temples and crush my eyelids tight while working the balls of my knuckles along my eyesockets before adding, ¡°The room is for three though, we¡¯ll be sharing the bed, and we don¡¯t hanky panky, or use the chamberp¡ª okay, actually, our newest friend probably uses a chamber pot, but we¡¯ll take care of it magically, literally. Just please lay off. I don¡¯t know how to save you all from what¡¯s coming. I¡¯m sick of failing everyone.¡±


    Keeley eyes me suspiciously as she digs only a few coins out from the pile of wealth. She turns to a cabinet full of keys to fish out the primary suite key at the top of the stairs. I flash a half sad, slightly exasperated smile as I accept it, attempting to take it wordlessly. Keeley however maintains her grip on it. She also manages to catch my wrist in her large, firm hands. She¡¯s a wall of a woman, and she¡¯s honestly a good person, but I truly can¡¯t deal with her vitriol at the moment.


    Keeley begins, ¡°Listen ¡®ere¡ª¡°


    I finish for her, ¡°Me liddle shid, yes, I know. I¡¯m serious Keeley, it has been a bad couple of months. People have died. I did my best, I fought the forces of magic itself, and lost. More are going to die, and there¡¯s nothing I can do about it. Yet. I promise to put my entire life, what remains of it, into trying to prevent further calamities.¡±


    Shaking my head and sighing, I apologetically explain, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯m not in the mood. I¡¯m frankly as disrespectful as I¡¯ve ever been right now, because I can¡¯t drum up the energy to care while fighting off the sadness. I want you to live, I really, truly do. Keeping Teuila alive and sane is the best chance of that happening, and when I die, she might snap. So I¡¯m going to try to live through this as long as possible. Which means resting without feeling like hell. I¡¯m sorry for being disrespectful. Good night.¡±


    Keeley snarls at me, but relents, releasing the key. She however doesn¡¯t release my wrist, which she guides towards the countertop so she can brush the excess wealth into my hand to take back the extra money. She¡¯s got the most angry, violent way of being a good patron of anyone I¡¯ve ever met, but it¡¯s like I¡¯m the only person that draws her ire. Whatever, it¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t done things to deserve people being pissed off at me. Ugh, I can¡¯t let myself think about this right now.


    Despite the few people in the tavern area being wise enough not to butt in, there are several coughs and nervous chuckles from the assembled. To make matters more embarrassing for myself, I begin bleeding from my nose at an inopportune moment while ascending the tavern¡¯s staircase to its rooms. Just enough blood drips upon the edge of a stair as I step upon it. I begin to transfer my weight to a foot that¡¯s only partially perched on a blood-slicked corner. My danger wraps warn me, but I already know. I¡¯m going down, and it¡¯s going to hurt. Hello darkness, yet again. Should I call you my old friend?

 B 5 C 21: The Shakes

    A gruff voice is commenting, ¡°Little shid said they were dying, figured just more drama. Though I guess none of it was drama before either, since all what went down. D¡¯you see those scars inside the ears and under the eyelids? It¡¯s unnatural, some unholy curse ¡®aunts the little shid. Gorram punk reminds me of Jonesy when ¡®e were¡ª.¡±


    The voice huffs, then steels itself to continue, ¡°When ¡®e were still around. Disrespectful cuss with no gorram clue ¡®ow to take care of themselves or keep themselves alive. I¡¯d throttle some sense into them if I thought it¡¯d ¡®elp. Can¡¯t stand the sight of the little shid. I¡¯m going back to the kitchen, take over the bar. Little shid¡¯s friends are sure to drop by soon enough, and I¡¯m not about to piss off the one that can ¡®aul around a dragon¡¯s ¡®ead.¡±


    I try to hold back my laughter, and my coughing. I¡¯m sure that rumors spread after Teuila¡¯s stunt in the tavern, that I¡¯m the one that slew the dragon Kozzurth. Keeley here probably doesn¡¯t believe the rumors. That¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t need her to respect me, or to care at all. I just need her to provide a safe roof for a night. Also, perhaps to untie me from my position bent backwards over a stool. I¡¯m getting a headache with the blood rushing to my head. I¡¯m fairly certain I¡¯m in the doorway to the kitchen, but I can¡¯t even open my eyes with how painful my headache is.


    I wish I had already mastered the telekinesis spell, and set its enchantment upon my mind with the permanency ability. Oh well. One of the basic facets of the cleaning spell is mild acts of legerdemain. It¡¯s basically what the cleaning aspect is, just making something small and pointless disappear. What could be a more iconic use of legerdemain than escaping simple bonds? It¡¯s only a few S P, it shouldn¡¯t be too hard on me since I already took a short nap just now.


    I chuckle internally at considering blacking out from a concussion a short nap. Just another frequent occurrence for Reggie Shellcracker. Significant portions of my life were spent where that exact scenario was how it had to go down. The only rest I could get were moments when I¡¯d blacked out from pain or oxygen deprivation or concussions. My mental avatar shakes its head and sighs at my memory of my lives thus far.


    I don¡¯t bother quickening the prestidigitative spell, so as to not waste S P. That does mean it takes me several minutes of sitting here while Marshal gazes between my slumped form, and the bar that he¡¯s tending. I do hear Keeley stomping about the kitchen behind me, but hopefully I can simply slip away unnoticed. There we go, the bonds are undone. Oof, sitting up causes me to involuntarily groan in pain at the shift of blood pressure swimming about in my cranium. Hellspit and Fel fires. Of couse this draws Keeley¡¯s attention, and Marshal¡¯s as well.


    I roll my eyes behind their closed lids, and begin to walk away, when the surprisingly agile duo surrounds me suddenly. Seriously you two? I know they don¡¯t mean me any harm, but I barely restrain myself from fireballing the three of us to get them to leave me alone.


    Marshal awes, ¡°Shid braddah, you took a nasty fall and were twitching something awful. Had to use a trick that worked when cousin Kerry got the shakes. You need to slow down. Sit a bit, get some hot food in you.¡±


    I drop my head towards my left hand and simply sigh as my hand supports my forehead and cheek. I don¡¯t feel like correcting Marshal about my gender right now. Plus, braddah is like saying dude, it¡¯s a colloquialism that¡¯s almost an intensifier or noun or verb depending on context. It doesn¡¯t necessarily have to be interpreted as calling the other person a male sibling, a brother.


    Keeley cuffs the back of my head, rattling my senses with her massive mitt. She orders, ¡°You paid for room and board, so take your board, sit, eat you liddle shid.¡±


    It seems like Keeley doesn¡¯t enunciate her tee consonants as clearly when she¡¯s worked up. She appears to go back and forth between little and liddle depending on her ire. She hands me a delicious looking cornbread muffin topped with lamb and Aasimovian spiced baked beans that sets my mouth watering. We¡¯ve been eating nuts and roots and the last of our digital fish for a while now. As much as I dislike the attention of Keeley and Marshal being on me, I do recall how her and her staff¡¯s cooking are excellent.


    I gratefully accept the food, apologizing, ¡°Sorry for the hassle. I slipped on my own blood. My fault, not yours. I still bleed, a lot, all over. I¡¯ll try to clean up after myself.¡±


    Keeley snarls and stalks off back to the kitchen, while Marshal shakes his head incredulously at me. Since the bar is empty, he isn¡¯t leaving my side, so I might as well enjoy the food and ask a question or two.


    Curiosity gets the better of me as I ask something I¡¯d wondered about before, ¡°Pardon me if this is rude Marshal, you and Keeley share some slight similarities, but I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s regional or familial. Humans are, ah, it¡¯s hard to know what I¡¯m seeing sometimes. When two people have some sort of closeness, I interpret it as familial. Is she a sister, a cousin, your mother or, well. Is she your partner or spouse?¡±


    Marshal laughs and slaps me on the shoulder as he responds, ¡°Hahah, heavens no we¡¯re not related. The way you say humans instead of people makes it sound like you view us from the outside, like you aint one yourself. Kay¡¯s made me a proud and happy husband for nigh on two decades now. Most impressive woman in The Brook, at least in my eyes. Shid braddah, that¡¯s hilarious. Be glad Kay was out of earshot just now. I¡¯m not sure who¡¯s hide she would tan or who she would chew out first, you or me.¡±


    Marshal continues chortling while shaking his head as his hand rests on my left shoulder. I shrug, mildly embarrassed, but I figured it was something like that. Har and Sal back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas were also two people that I thought looked like siblings, a little bit, but they were intimately close. They did share a magic specialization, but I guess that didn¡¯t necessarily mean they were family. Actually, come to think of it, letting people think they were siblings, hiding any romance while in public was probably an alibi for their assassin-work. The assassins were almost definitely lovers, the way I¡¯d seen them embrace. Less suspicion on a pair of people who claim to be brother and sister, or at least let other people think such.


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    This makes me wonder just how many things in my life I¡¯ve misinterpreted. The answer Reggie? A lot. The answer is a lot. Mat¡¯s stutter, many, many, many issues with magic and powers and physics and reality. Quite likely many relationships. Hm? Yes Bud, I caught that too. Jonesy sounds like possibly a son or nephew or something. They either died, or went off adventuring. Either one leaves a sore spot for Keeley that raises her ire towards me. I can¡¯t say I blame her. It¡¯s not like I don¡¯t have my own knee-jerk reactions to grief, or loss, or fear of either of the two.


    Oh, Marshal said something that I should address, ¡°Oh, Marshal, yeah. I¡¯m not human. I¡¯m Fae, like Tiktik, only different. I¡¯m a Changeling. A dying one that can¡¯t use my natural Changeling talent, sure, but still a Changeling nonetheless.¡±


    Marshal¡¯s face contorts as he looks me up and down, stating, ¡°Heard it was magic that had you taller or shorter a couple of times around town. Thought Changelings were a myth, but the myth said it didn¡¯t take magic to shift appearances, was just natural to them. Is that what you mean? Can¡¯t use your natural talent? Little Clock gal is the first Fae I¡¯ve personally met, so I didn¡¯t--. Err, I guess other than you. Shid braddah, sorry. Really, really dying, and can¡¯t use a gift you should have? That sounds rough buddy.¡±


    I shrug halfheartedly as I nod to Marshal¡¯s questions. He adds, ¡°Kay got it into her head that you tell tall tales like our Jonesy did. Probably a bit unfair, since she knows some of what you said is true. I mean, sorry, maybe all of it is true, just Kay could be better because she has proof of some of it. She aint going to be kinder to you, not after Jonesy, but she¡¯ll also make sure you stay good and taken care of if you follow the rules. I¡¯m guessing you aint actually a kid, what with Fae weirdness and all.¡±


    I chuckle and, not intending for Marshal to hear it, I state under my breath, ¡°I¡¯m actually only two months old. On this planet at least.¡±


    Apparently Marshal did hear me though as his face contorts in shock and sadness. Hell. I don¡¯t need his sadness or sympathy. I¡¯ve probably got more living done across my several lifetimes than everyone in this tavern combined if you count thinkspace time. Hell, if you count extra timelines, then probably even more than the entire town.


    Though I¡¯m shaking my head incredulously at letting Marshal know, he still asks, ¡°Months? Not decades or centuries? Months? Shid braddah you almost died for The Brook in June. Wait, two months, but that would be, you just got to The Brook, and immediately went off and faced a dragon for us. I can¡¯t say any more than shid braddah. I have no words.¡±


    I¡¯m about to try to explain, or at least leave to find my way up to my room, when Marshal continues, ¡°Some rumors here and there about you, you basically told Kay yourself that same thing, about only being alive a few days here, in our world, last you were here. I was there for something like that, one time. Our faith, our faith says it¡¯s possible. Die, have our spirits rejoin our descendants some day in the future when the great work succeeds. Sounds like you¡¯re proof of that, sort of. Only, only now I don¡¯t know what to think, with all the ancestors disappearing.¡±


    Ugh, I do not want to have to be the person to fill him in on this. I failed them. It was such an intrinsic, important part of the Aasimovian faith and culture. Marshal reverts topics however, ¡°In that case, Reggie, yeah? What about your first go around, how long? You¡¯re Fae, so must have been a long time, yeah?¡±


    I grimace as I admit, ¡°Physically only about two years or so the first time. I had the knowledge of an adult immediately, so it¡¯s not like I was an infant plucked from my mortal coil.¡±


    Marshal rests his palm against his brow and shakes his head. He tries to puzzle it out, ¡°You¡¯ve had a couple of years, and a couple of months, and that¡¯s it? You¡¯re about to go again? Is that regular with Changelings? Do you reincarnate often?¡±


    I shake my head as I try to stifle a bitter laugh, ¡°No, no it¡¯s not normal, and we never reincarnate. My death wasn¡¯t normal in the slightest. It doesn¡¯t matter. There are evil forces bearing down on Aasimovia, and I need to rest up and prepare to face them. Harriet refuses to start evacuations immediately, no matter how dire my warnings are. I don¡¯t know if I can save you all Marshal. I swear to everything I have left. I¡¯ll try. I promise. I¡¯ll do my best.¡±


    I fight back tears as I avert my gaze while clenching my stinging eyes shut. I can¡¯t keep failing the kind people of Rayileklia. I failed Selunie and everyone in Victo, I failed Dawn, I failed all the Aasimovians, hell, for all I know, due to time shenanigans, I might have failed Aces, or Jeegoobotstan. Or worse, I might have even been the person to raze the entire city-state kingdom of Jeegoobotstan. Marshal appears stricken. I hate to drop bombshells and leave, but I don¡¯t have the heart to keep having this conversation. I¡¯m slightly trapped however.


    I could certainly force my way past. Sure, I¡¯m nowhere near as strong as Teuila, but I¡¯m still stronger than even buff, physically fit humans like Marshal and Keeley. I wouldn¡¯t be doing standing dead lifts of thousands of pounds or anything, but, given a moment, I could physically throw either one of them dozens of feet, despite them each being in excess of two hundred pounds. They¡¯re quite possibly a lot heavier than that, as they appear to be both big boned, and heavily muscled. My point is I don¡¯t want to start a brawl, or injure anyone, or even risk either.


    Marshal surprises me by picking me up, dusting me off, and stating, ¡°Tell me what I can do. Let me make it easier on you, in whatever way I can.¡±


    I want to cry from the kindness of the offer, but I don¡¯t know that there¡¯s anything he can do. I fight around a sob to speak, ¡°Marshal, unless you can convince everyone in The Brook, hell, all of Aasimovia, to evacuate before the Imperial forces get here, I don¡¯t know that there is anything you can do. My plan was to have Harriet send word to everyone to begin heading Northwest, on the bog side of the mountain range, and to wait there while we circled around to the far side of Jaggedfen Bog by way of The Gap to take out the hydra. I was going to recommend settling in the ruins of Jeegoobotstan, since it was destroyed.¡±


    Marshal¡¯s throat catches as the weight of my words hits him like a freight train. It wasn¡¯t some fanciful tall tale, it was a concrete plan on what needs to happen to save their lives. He¡¯s sent reeling, and leans against the corner of the bar for support. I also don¡¯t know if he or anyone in The Brook knew that Jeegoobotstan had been destroyed sometime in the last decade or so, since the hydra had been keeping news from the western region from reaching for a very long time.


    Marshal was ready to offer support, and still seems ready to do so, as he¡¯s fighting his own reaction to steel himself resolutely. He¡¯s got a lot to consider. They all do. Keeley has built a home, a business, a life here for them. It sounds like they lost a son here. Their son became an ancestor, what they call the reanimated bodies, no matter who they were in life. Now, now even that reminder of their son is gone, forever. I effed up so bad by not being powerful enough to stop the curse that had been placed upon Dawn¡¯s soul.

 B 5 C 22: What Happened Here

    I haven¡¯t been practicing or thinking about my affinity for absence, my supposed power relating to nothing as the Sisters called it. What exactly did she say? To Teuila, she said, ¡°Yours is precise control over the forces of attraction.¡±


    What did she say to me though? Was it literally just, ¡°Yours is nothing.¡±? Then she started hitting me with a stick when I got mopey because she was reading my mind. Huff. Ugh. What the hell am I supposed to do with nothing. How do you use or manipulate nothing into some sort of magical advantage. What can I e¡ª.


    What if, in the absence of something, I can make something else nothing? Like, like say between shadows, between spots of the absence of light, I can make the space between those two shadows nothing for me. I could step from shadow to shadow.


    I gingerly claw at my face, cupping my chin slightly while stroking my cheeks and jaw in a gentle massage. I¡¯m lost in thought on this topic. I¡¯ve been fairly lucky about the sort of assumptions and conclusions I land on when it comes to applications of magical powers. Nearly every single one I¡¯ve made, I¡¯ve been able to actualize. This feels incredibly close to how my power is supposed to work. How would I practice it? It¡¯s not the sort of thing that you can do partway and live. If only part of me steps from one shadow to the next, I¡¯m dismembered, possibly dead.


    Teuila¡¯s been able to do her gravity manipulation since the moment I met her, and probably earlier. She didn¡¯t even know she was doing it for most of our lives. One of us figured out that she was doing it, so she started consciously controlling it at some point in our adventures on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Then one day on Rayileklia, I asked her about it, and she had an expert scientific explanation for it. I was stunned to say the least.


    Hm, precise control over the forces of attraction. That¡¯s what the Sister said. There are so many ways to possibly apply that, depending on how literal or figurative the Sister was being. But just nothing? Not precise control over nothing, not ability to generate nothing, no actual hint as to its application. Literally nothing as far as clues are concerned. Hah.


    What¡¯s that Bud? Well I don¡¯t know what it is that I don¡¯t know. How can I tell you what I don¡¯t know if I don¡¯t know it? Uh, yes, I guess that¡¯s one application of the word. I know nothing about what I don¡¯t know. It doesn¡¯t seem to apply though Bud. What? How deep is the lake? I¡¯m not sure, why? Where¡¯s this coming from? You¡¯re really worked up, slow down. Yes, yes we¡¯re definitely going to find away to cross the lake Bud. It¡¯s faster by several days travel, and we both know time is short for me. Hey, cool it a sec.


    You¡¯re coming off as being really scared about crossing a lake Bud. Hold on. Oh, that makes sense. Look. I promise that if somehow you drop out of the bag or my grip or some place, I will swim down and get you. Yes, even if it¡¯s a thousand feet deep. Yes, even if I have to battle some giant lake monster to save you. I promise Bud. Teuila would do it too if I couldn¡¯t. You know I battled, and defeated a kraken, deep beneath the surface off the coast of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas in the ruins of Eimsas. That was before I had a way to breathe underwater. You know that, right? You¡¯re going to be fine. I could literally walk around on the bottom of the lake searching for you for days if I needed to. I won¡¯t need to though.


    Marshal seems to be trying to get my attention. I must have been spacing out for a bit, because Keeley¡¯s back. I try to drop my weighted sigh silently and hide my eyeroll behind closed lids. Just what I don¡¯t need. Hm, I must have finished the large muffin while I was spacing out. That¡¯s too bad, I didn¡¯t even really get to notice myself enjoying it. Her cooking is honestly a-friggin¡¯-mazing. Oh well.


    Keeley whips out her cleaver from her apron, and twirls it til it¡¯s pointing at me. I don¡¯t even have to open my eyes to sense her attempted intimidation. I roll my eyes behind closed lids once more. Keeley grunts, ¡°Sounds like you got my Marshal convinced of some of your tall tales you liddle shid. I ¡®aven¡¯t got time to straighten ¡®im out, so you¡¯re going to apologize, and clear the air so ¡®e¡¯s not going around in a panic, spreading it to any idiot what¡¯ll listen.¡±


    Gor, friggin¡¯ rammitall! I begin to seethe in frustration. I¡¯m sick of people assuming I¡¯m a liar! I don¡¯t want their, their adoration or worship, or even really their gratitude. I just want to be treated civilly, and believed! I open my eyes, and realize my vision is flooded red once more. I¡¯m not certain whether it¡¯s from the anger, or if I¡¯m bleeding from my eyes again, but even Keeley falters back a step. I cast my eyes about for a suitable surface, spying none, I take off my shield and set it down.


    I cast the scrying spell into the reflective inner surface of the shield, and yank Keeley down to view it at the floor level while I set the scrying sensor near Noirdivinhoz, at Daffodil¡¯s melted home. I¡¯m tempted to grab her by the neck and shove her face into the friggin¡¯ shield. Instead I let her realize she¡¯s looking at a live image at her own pace.


    Keeley mutters, ¡°What sorcery. Wait, that side of the mountains, that rubble, that collapsed valley. But that¡¯s. Wait, then these two piles of mush would be ¡®Dil¡¯s. What the shid.¡±


    Keeley rips free of my grasp and seethes at me, ¡°Just what the shid was that!? It¡¯s one thing to tell tales like a disrespectful little cuss. To try to convince people of your lies with trickery is, is, it¡¯s unacceptable!¡±


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    I flare with anger and magic begins flowing from me and the staff. Keep it together Reggie. Cool it. We can not give in to our wrath right now. She¡¯s a good woman, looking out for her husband, and her town, after she lost a son. Reign it the hell in. Keeley balks momentarily, and Marshal actually trembles upon viewing my anger.


    I growl low, with all the presence and dominance I can muster, ¡°I don¡¯t care whether you like me or hate me. I will fight every damn evil from here to the deepest hells so that you and yours have your best chance for survival. But you are really not making the journey any easier. That happened around two days ago to the east, and you know fuggin¡¯ where that is. I know damn well you do. You¡¯re one of the most well informed, intelligent, most influential people in The Brook besides the Mairess herself. You -Will- listen to me.¡±


    I explain through seething rage, ¡°I¡¯m done being derided. A wave of horror unlike anything you¡¯ve ever known is on its way to Aasimovia. The manxome foe, the Celestial Emperor has developed a light that can steal souls en masse. He had a necromancer from Navica testing it out in Victo. Everyone save a couple of travelers, and the innkeep¡¯s nephew had become similar to the ancestors. Animate bodies without souls.¡±


    I huff, trying, and failing, to calm down, ¡°I don¡¯t know if I destroyed the prototype, or only a copy. He wants every last soul on Rayileklia, and I aim to stop him dead in his tracks, but I need time to get powerful enough to do that. I am -Dying- however, with a capital D. I don¡¯t have long. I¡¯ve learned an entirely new world¡¯s way of working magic, but my body was never meant to be able to handle magic at all, on any world. I¡¯m a Changeling, and magic, mana is toxic to us, to our true selves, basically our souls. And you know what? I¡¯m taking in and taking on more mana and more magic than ever, hastening my demise, trying with every last ounce of myself that I can muster, to save all of you, you, you disbelieving jerks!¡±


    As she¡¯s about to interrupt, before she can do so, I growl, ¡°I don¡¯t want your gratitude, your pity, I don¡¯t want anything from you, I just want you to stop effing assuming I¡¯m gorram lying! I hate it! Gor effing rammitall! If I didn¡¯t need Teuila, her power, and her love, to be able to continue, I would stalk off out of this entire town, and stand in The Gap. I¡¯d be awaiting the coming army, and fight until I died in a pointless waste of my life, just to not have to deal with the vitriol that comes when people assume I¡¯m a liar. I¡¯ve killed people Keeley! I¡¯ve killed dragons! I¡¯ve only had two months of life here, and only two years back home, and I¡¯m about to die again! And I¡¯d do it again, and again, and again, for all of you, for any of you! Just. Leave. Me. Alone.¡±


    I fail to restrain myself and I put my fist through her bar. I huff a ragged sigh and struggle to pull my fist from her bar, which collapses an entire third of the piece of furniture for my troubles. I facepalm, jamming thick wooden splinters into my forehead. Ow.


    I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m. Sorry. I have, huff. Trouble with my wrath. It has killed, many, many, many people. I barely prevented myself from killing hundreds in a single fell swoop when they believed my brother¡¯s lies over my truths. I still slew several of them before¡ª It doesn¡¯t matter. I don¡¯t even care if you believe me. Just stop yelling at me and treating me like crap. Thank you for the food, thank you for the room, I¡¯ll pay to have your bar repaired, but I highly suggest you evacuate the entire nation anyway. I can¡¯t stop a multi nation army on my own, nor can Teuila, nor can Tiktik. Even the three of us together are, we¡¯re. I don¡¯t know how to succeed. I don¡¯t know how to not fail you. You¡¯re good people, and I don¡¯t want you to die, or to have your souls stolen.¡±


    I slump to my knees, defeated, weeping. I don¡¯t know how to save them. It¡¯s another apocalypse, hell, three of them, and I don¡¯t even know if we saved our family from the first one we faced. Bud, I don¡¯t know if I can do this any more. I¡¯m so sad, and I¡¯ve screwed up and failed so hard, so many times. Bud, maybe you should scan Autumn Brook for another Fae. Find someone worthy to wield you. I¡¯m dying soon anyway. We¡¯re not going to find a batch of evil dragons with powerful enough dragonforces for me to pay the cost to even start finding my cure. Maybe some hero will rise up among the Aasimovians if there¡¯s someone with Fae ancestry that you find and coach.


    Marshal grabs Keeley by the wrist and drags her to the kitchen, the tavern patrons have been deadly silent ever since I started my tirade. I nearly blew up about this. I was going to nuke myself with a fireball to show off how powerful I am to her, to try to prove something, to stop being disbelieved. I¡¯d have roasted her and her husband and her patrons. I still let it get out of hand, even if I didn¡¯t go to irredeemable levels. What would I even have done if I¡¯d killed a tavern full of innocent people? How would Teuila view me? How would Tiktik? Tiago? Harriet? George?


    Bud, you¡¯ve gotta find someone else. Maybe even just Tiktik. I¡¯m done. I can¡¯t go on. My best, oldest friend left us while hating me for the timeline turning out the way it did. Lil was, is, a dragon, and my entire soul hope for survival is slaying dragons and consuming their hearts. Even if they started to forgive me, they¡¯re going to hate me all over again. I can¡¯t bear the thought. Then of course there¡¯s everything about Dawn. Dawn was erased, almost entirely. The ancestors are gone. I can¡¯t do this. Teuila wants me to stop being hard on myself, but I just want it to all be over.


    I weep into my hands. I just want people to be safe and be able to be happy. I want to be able to, and allowed to, be happy Bud. Why do I always have to turn to violence? Why is that the only solution that gets my point across? Yeah, I imagine that¡¯s true. I can see why you feel the way you do. Ugh, why stick with me though? I¡¯m a wreck. I think about just walking out into the lake holding a boulder, and then taking off the Neckchain of the Everbreathing. I know, I know it¡¯s an absolutely horrid thought. Intrusive thoughts are like that for neurodivergent people Bud. Those of us that battle depression and the like.


    I sit here, slumped against the half-destroyed bar, crying into my hands, shaking my head. We¡¯re not going to win Bud. I learned in the temple of time that my failure is inevitable. I didn¡¯t know it stretched across several lifetimes, but that must be what the third room was trying to teach me. No matter where we go, what world, how long I live, I¡¯m doomed and destined to fail.


    Something we really don¡¯t need to have happen right now, happens. Teuila¡¯s anger fills the air as she enters the bar, spies me, and shouts a growled demand for answers, ¡°What!? Happened!? Here!?¡± Whatever object she¡¯d just been holding shatters in her hand.

 B 5 C 23: Getting Closer

    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar approaches mine, but she can see I¡¯m in no condition to explain just how hurt I am. Or why I am as hurt as I am. I continue weeping, and choking back my sobs. Knots and lumps form up and down my throat repeatedly, stronger each time I manage to clear one.


    Teuila draws a spear seemingly from nowhere, and suddenly chaos breaks loose. Everyone first tries to shirk away from her then darts past her out the door as she strides into the tavern. Tiktik appears from beyond the doorway, just peeking her head in at an angle from around the corner as she leans almost horizontally to stay out of the fleeing patrons¡¯ paths.


    It¡¯s only early in the noon at this point, so we¡¯re at least not costing Keeley a lot of valuable patronage, but I feel even more horrid for this hassle. I begin to allow myself to pass out as blood seeps from splinter-driven holes in my face and forehead. Sadly, unconsciousness won¡¯t take me. I¡¯m stuck in this world that I¡¯m so saddened by, that I keep failing. I can tell that Teuila checks on me momentarily before passing me and stomping into the kitchen. She has words with Keeley and Marshal, but I¡¯m in and out of focus, barely able to comprehend half the time.


    Keeley snarls something about lies, and Teuila snarls in return, ¡°Come off it Keykey! Reggie slew a -DRAGON- for you ingrates! Do you know how much it breaks their heart to kill at all? How much it tears them apart? How much they never, ever, ever wanted to harm a dragon, because their best friend is the nicest, sweetest, dumbest little dragbutt that ever lived!? Reggie did that. Reggie did that! They did that! Reggie doesn¡¯t lie to people they¡¯re trying to protect!¡±


    More words are exchanged, and I can tell Teuila turns her ire towards Marshal, ¡°You and your sis¡ª, wait, wife? Fine, whatever! I, look, my Airhead wants to save you, all of you, everyone in your whole country! That¡¯s a tall ask at the best of times, with everyone cooperating! They gave me the reins, so I¡ª. Glp. I have to make it happen. Because I¡¯m about to lose the love of my life, to some stupid magic poisoning bullcrap that I can¡¯t stab or strangle or fight with my fists or do anything about! I, I need to give them this. We, we can¡¯t fail you too. I want you safe too. You¡¯re good people. Just. Just please don¡¯t make it harder. Everyone goes through hurts, but please. Just, just leave us alone. We¡¯ll go. I¡¯m sorry for your bar. We¡¯ll pay for it.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s voice cracks several times as her volume lowers and lowers. Her admitting her love for me, and the near inevitability of my loss strikes deep into her heart and wedges there, twisting agonizingly. She barely refrains from breaking down into sobs herself. Instead, she gulps back a knot in her throat, spins around and marches to my side. She leans down to scoop me up, and I don¡¯t resist as I snuggle into her arms.


    Keeley¡¯s left mitt reaches for Teuila¡¯s shoulder while her right holds back her cleaver, and unimaginable ire is painted across her face according to my danger wraps. Marshal calmly takes her wrist in one hand, and the cleaver in the other.


    Keeley drops to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks as she mutters, ¡°Every, stupid, worthless, know-nothing, careless, reckless, adventurous cuss! They all¡ª!¡± Her words catch momentarily as she mutters, ¡°They all die.¡± Her anger picks up once more as she begins to iterate with fury, ¡°Get out. Get out. Get out! -GET OUT-!¡±


    Teuila rips her shoulder away from Keeley¡¯s grip. She then fishes for, and spills the contents of a pouch of coins on the floor nearby as she carries me away from the Keel Over. She does something I don¡¯t expect at all, and drops me into Tiktik¡¯s waiting arms. Teuila then leaps away into the sky, aiming for the western plains. Tiktik half-carries, half-drags me back to our cart, and I shamble inside it with her. I¡¯m cried out, and emotionally numb. Teuila must be going to warn the plains Colossi of the impending calamity. Good for her. She¡¯s fast enough, she can be there and back within a day or so, instead of the several it would take us by cart.


    Tiktik nudges me gently as she sits cuddled close to me, seemingly trying to both comfort and distract me. I slowly realize my eyes are open and have been unblinking. They¡¯re fiery hot, itchy, irritated. I slowly, painfully force myself to blink repeatedly, despite the scratching and tearing that occurs across my eyeballs, until it finally feels natural to blink again.


    Tiktik asks, ¡°Reggie? Chum? Pal? Sweetie? I¡¯m starting to lose my connection to you two. Do you think Teuila and you want me to be a part of that mental space with you two still? Would it help distract you or anything to make it permanent? Should I drop the topic? I¡¯m okay if things just changed. You¡¯re good people. That, that there? It hurt to watch. I knew Keeley lost a child, I didn¡¯t know just, just how much it--. I¡¯m sorry pal. Are you okay?¡±


    Tiktik plays with my hair, pokes my ribs and sides and cheeks, and continues gently prodding and exploring me for things that might draw me back to reality from my numbness. I slowly turn to face her, pain drawn across my face. She pokes both of my cheeks backwards and upwards, forcing a smile for a moment, without using magic to truly force it upon me. This wonderfully kind, compassionate, powerful, sweet, beautiful sorceress is sitting here with me, when she could be enjoying hot food and a bed, or sneaking about town playing pranks, or info gathering, or whatever she wanted to do.


    I need to make sure she gets back to the Hidden Heart. Even if Littlebit isn¡¯t interested in being her romantic partner, she just, she should be home. Her family can¡¯t possibly truly hate such an amazing, earnest, lovable woman. Wait, she was asking about making our telepathic bond permanent. I¡¯d certainly be willing. I¡¯ve got enough of the ruby paste to finish making it permanent. I wasn¡¯t certain we were all going to consent when I first started the enchantment. I kind of figured that Teuila would become enamored of Tiktik. She has such a wide open heart. I also fall for wonderful people rather easily myself, so it¡¯s not like there was really any doubt I¡¯d want to finish bringing her in. Does this amazingly sweet goofball truly want to be a part of this crazily emotional mess?


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Tiktik¡¯s chibified telepathic avatar shows up in my mindscape, fritzing slightly as it appears to be a strain keeping the connection made. She nods almost timidly, having apparently been reading my thoughts. Tiktik¡¯s avatar jokes, ¡°Heck chum, even your super honest thoughts about a gal are flattering pal.¡±


    The smile on the mental avatar wanes as she avoids making eye contact with mine. She nearly mumbles, ¡°A, about Littlebit, and the fam. I, I¡¯m in no rush. Honestly I¡¯m scared to go back. It hurt. Nothing like what you just went through, maybe, sure, but I¡¯m not ready. Not sure I¡¯ll ever be, and that¡¯s saying something for a Fae. I mean, you know us, long lived and all. Out here? In your heads, the two of you? This, this feels the most like, like home, err, well, like a second home. Warm, kind thoughts flowing around me, making me feel all fuzzy. I really don¡¯t want to have to give it up already, but if it¡¯s too hard on you. I understand.¡±


    I flash Tiktik a weak smile in both think space and meat space. I raise a brow to see if she¡¯s truly ready as I fish out the remaining lower value ruby paste that should be enough to finish cementing the permanency of our bond. She knows I¡¯m going to need to, well, at the best of times, I¡¯d probably need to cover a fairly large surface area on such a petite woman. I¡¯m not at my best right now. Tiktik flashes me a sad grin and looses a cute bell-like laugh.


    She offers, ¡°Come on, we¡¯re Fae. It doesn¡¯t mean anything if you have to touch me to put a spell on me. Unless you want it to. We both know that¡¯s not why you¡¯re feeling this way about touching me though. Something is planted in your head, something that isn¡¯t yours, that makes you embarrassed about stuff like that. It¡¯s okay chum. Whatever you need. Time to be okay, or to ride out some sadness, or space where I¡¯m not in your face, or for me to back off entirely and keep my clingy thoughts to myself. I¡ª, yeah. I¡¯m good. Either way. Us three are going after the shite lord together, and whatever you need won¡¯t change that.¡±


    It¡¯s like she can¡¯t help saying things that make me want to give myself over into the feelings of falling in love with the little goon that she is. I close my eyes and shake my head in a sad half laugh at myself about how frequently I tumble into feeling strongly about people in ways they probably don¡¯t intend.


    Tiktik nudges me in meat space as her telepathic avatar weakens. In the physical world she states, ¡°It¡¯s a Changeling thing buddy. You all fall hard, and fast, but it tends to be temporary. I don¡¯t know any of you that form as deep and powerful a connection as you and Teuila have. Or you and Luni or Linti, based on what Bud¡¯s been telling me is written across your soul. I¡¯m flattered, really. You know my heart belongs to Littlebit, whether she wants it or not. I, I wouldn¡¯t mind giving myself over to comfort. To that feeling. With you and Teuila. But I know it wouldn¡¯t be the real thing, sort of. It wouldn¡¯t be what you two have, and it wouldn¡¯t be what I want with Littlebit. It would still be nice though. Es-especially with a whole mental world to explore together. Even if it¡¯s just this beautiful grassy hill. I¡¯m ready, and I want it, if you are, and you do.¡±


    My heart catches in my throat, and I know that if I don¡¯t hurry up, Tiktik might lose her last remaining connection to our telepathic bond. I don¡¯t know how recasting the bond would go, even if Teuila were here to be able to do so at the moment. There are so many unique variables that the spell doesn¡¯t account for. It doesn¡¯t expect a partially crafted permanency to be applied. It doesn¡¯t expect to be binding people from different worlds who have an entirely different type of telepathy residing beneath it. It doesn¡¯t expect there to be sentient weapons and artifact equipment along for the ride. It probably doesn¡¯t expect the idiot that casts the spell to fall in love with whoever shows up in the mindscape.


    Tiktik nudges me with a lighthearted, playful reminder not to be so self-recriminating. I flash her a weak smile as I quickly begin applying the enchantment permanency enhancement to her, and she disrobes from her neck to her waist. I gulp and blush, attempting to keep my eyes locked with her eyes, to avoid gazing at anything else. Tiktik rolls her eyes and directs my face to look where I¡¯m runocrafting, because I¡¯m making sloppy mistakes by not paying attention. Crap. Okay, I can fix some of this, I have to fix some of this, or I won¡¯t have enough material to finish the spell¡¯s permanency structure. It just, glp. Means more attention to detail down around here.


    I fidget as blush steams its way up my face and nearly slams my eyelids shut. I feel a tad faint, but I gulp and press onward. Tiktik slowly rotates for me, climbing into my lap to make it easy to reach as much of her as necessary, and she finishes by straddling me, waiting for me to finish up the last runes across her belly that should finish the enchantment¡¯s permanency enhancement. I cough and gulp, trying not to get worked up, and I try to tear my gaze away from her, well, her everything. She rolls her eyes and looses a tiny tinkling laugh.


    As I finish the final rune to set the enchantment into place permanently, I sense a renewed vigor added to our telepathic connection. I also sense Tiktik fighting herself in deciding whether or not to really lay into teasing me with her bare torso. The mortified expression I wear as my eyes flash wide while I¡¯m able to slightly read her mind almost seems to cement the answer in her mind. She giggles and leans against me, hugging me tightly.


    I fidget as I steam to high heavens, blushing so hard I nearly faint. I don¡¯t even notice when or how she fully re-adorned herself in her garb. Especially since it feels like her arms are still tightly locked around me. Err, then again, she¡¯s a powerful sorceress, it¡¯s probably nothing to her to conjure her magic hand to pull up a shirt or anything like that. Tiktik kisses my cheek and rests her head in the crook of my neck. Her intimate teasing gives way to a loving platonic embrace that leaves tears of gratitude streaming from my eyes. I don¡¯t know which of us needed this more at the moment. I wish Teuila were here to feel our bond with Tiktik cementing.


    I¡¯m able to sense waves of emotion sweeping over Tiktik as her mind wanders to her home. There¡¯s so much sadness, regret, joy, longing, so very many deep, full, vivid emotions spiraling about even just near the surface layer of Tiktik¡¯s subconscious. I nuzzle my cheek against hers and wrap my arms around her tightly. Now that neither of us is worrying about awkwardness or teasing or flirtation or spellcraft or anything, my senses return to meat space, heightened, and I pick it up again, the vibration. The epicenter has been following us. Whatever¡¯s causing the rumble is getting closer to The Brook. At this point, it¡¯s maybe a day out to the east at its current pace.


    Tiktik furrows her brow as she pulls away slightly. She gazes vaguely easterly, and seems unable to sense what I sense. She scoops up some of the now defunct gem dust, and the larger particles of dried glue, and scatters them on the floor and the opposite seat. Her legs wrapped around my torso squeeze tightly as she leans away to gaze intently at essentially free-seated sand grains. We both notice the dust begin to shift outward from the slight mound she¡¯d poured it into. She¡¯s verified my senses. Something¡¯s causing the ground to shake, and that something is getting closer.

 B 5 C 24: Things Yet To Come

    I give Tiktik a gentle squeeze to thank her for drawing me out of my funk. I mumble, ¡°Thanks Tiktik. We, uh. Glp. I uh, I guess I needed that. Is Teuila going to be okay? Was she planning on going out west anyway? I just realized it could take her over a day if she has to spend hours talking or convincing anyone. I was hoping to leave even sooner after that fiasco.¡±


    Tiktik gives me an unknowing shrug and a half-sad smile as she responds, ¡°I couldn¡¯t really tell you. When Teuila walked in on that mess, you on the floor, crying and bleeding, all I could feel from her was pure rage. I knew that she figured she¡¯d be a faster messenger than anyone The Brook might send to the Colossi, but I think it was a spur of the moment thing to keep herself from killing anyone around here. Sorry pal.¡±


    I gulp back a sob and drop a weighty sigh. Huff, that sounds about right. I hate that I let it get so out of hand. Depression though, impostor syndrome, trauma, just all of these things in my head were not helping me deal with Keeley Johnston¡¯s irrational disbelief of my words. I had to let sadness take over so that I didn¡¯t give in to rage and kill people myself.


    I nuzzle Tiktik¡¯s cheek and kiss it once softly, yet again in gratitude. Motioning outward, I ramble, ¡°Despite the fact that I should sleep, since we¡¯ve been sleeping noon til night, we really need to try to convince Harriet again. We also have to inform her of the approaching quake, or whatever that is.¡±


    Tiktik nods, chipper as ever as she bounces away from me, off my lap. She bounds out the door and waits below with her arms outspread, offering to catch me. I have to laugh at the silliness of it. I¡¯m wearing a suit of metallic armor beneath my heavy leather traveling garb, and have several hefty artifacts and weapons hidden about my personage. I¡¯m pretty sure she was struggling to drag me to the carriage not that long ago.


    My adorably short companion jokes, ¡°Do you trust me?¡±


    Well, now I have to give in. Of course I trust her. I face backwards and let myself fall out of the carriage¡¯s cabin towards her waiting arms. Tiktik however isn¡¯t what catches me, instead, it¡¯s the giant version of her floating hand spell. She snickers and has it carry me about as if I were lounging on some palanquin or something. I chuckle. What a goofy friend. She¡¯s honestly pretty marvelous.


    Tiktik comments, ¡°I know that this time of the week, Harriet should be checking in with a harbor master at the docks. She was probably on her way there before she spotted us heading to the apothecary. Since there¡¯s nothing else she can do for Daffodil while Daffy rests, she¡¯s probably going back to her regular duties. Sound good to head that way?¡±


    I nod along with Tiktik, then nod again in answer, affirming her choice to lead us towards the docks. I¡¯d ask how she knew where Harriet would be this time of the week, but she is an urban bounty-hunter after all. It¡¯s her business to know where people are within a city, especially those that could be targets of bounties, or bounties themselves. The idea of Harriet being on some bounty list causes the two of us to giggle until we¡¯re coughing though.


    As we approach the docks, there¡¯s quite a commotion. It seems like The Drake has recently pulled into port with a haul, and something beyond just the usual fish. Tim Fisher, captain of The Drake is whispering animatedly to someone I don¡¯t recognize, and fear is drawn upon both men¡¯s faces. That doesn¡¯t exactly bode well.


    At least The Drake appears to be completely intact, operable, undamaged. I know we barely skirted an encounter with a colossally giant mud crab, and Lochsie, the Lake Siempre monster when we last traveled aboard The Drake. Well, hah, we didn¡¯t really travel aboard The Drake, we traveled in her dinghy. Tim Fisher required we stay in the dinghy due to the limited space available on deck.


    The giant floating hand releases me and dissipates as Tiktik stops pouring her S P pools into maintaining it. I flash her a weak half smile and a nod of gratitude. For her part, Tiktik looks as cheerful as ever with a closed-eyed smile as her head bobs side to side. We¡¯re approaching the farthest dock now, the one for the largest ships. The Drake is about as big as it gets for The Brook, even if it is essentially a single-man fishing trawler.


    Wait, who¡¯s that that Harriet¡¯s looking after? I recognize them from somewhere. I know them. Holy mother of crap. The Celestial Imperium blockade guard from The Gap. He looks terrified out of his mind. I raise a brow towards Harriet, and she avoids my gaze, walking away to busy herself somewhere else. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s plenty to occupy her mind right now. I. I need to not think about my failure. I have to see what¡¯s up with this guy.


    I cautiously approach, I almost hope he doesn¡¯t recognize me since I¡¯m so much shorter like this. I don¡¯t want to explain shape changing, even though Changeling Fae exist on Rayileklia. I just want to know why he¡¯s so scared. Harriet has scurried away to pretend to be busy inspecting the fish haul. I shake my head and roll my eyes incredulously. Despite her having actual pressing matters to turn her attention to, she¡¯s simply avoiding me.


    Quietly calling out, I continue to approach the man, ¡°Hail. Friend? A guard from The Gap, yes? What news of it have you?¡±


    He quivers, and shows all the signs of being in a traumatic flashback. Signs with which I am all too familiar. I sit on my heels nearby, giving him space, offering comforting coos and reassurances from a distance. Tiktik maintains her distance as well, slightly behind me and towards my right side. I only now notice the guard¡¯s missing an arm, and there¡¯s burn scarring up and down his side where his skin can be seen in rare glimpses beneath his clothing. This is bad. It must have been utterly terrifying.


    He slowly comes back to his senses, to this reality, and turns his gaze to me. He¡¯s still quivering, and manages to stutter a single word, ¡°D,d,d,dragons.¡±


    Tiktik and I exchange a glance. It¡¯s a horrific event for everyone else, but could this be the chance we¡¯re waiting for? I was fairly certain already that dragons had attacked the Derbrightmine Dominion dwarves based on my scrying ability, but this is confirmation.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    I mull over the man¡¯s terrified utterance. Is there any chance we could catch up to a dragon or multiple dragons at The Gap if we set out immediately? The journey is longer by land than by sea, by quite a few days. Would Teuila be able to catch up if we convinced someone to ferry us across the lake? I heave a sigh, knowing it¡¯s probably not going to be as easy as asking Tim to turn The Drake around to set off across the lake immediately. I know it can cover a fair clip, being a steamboat and all, but Tim¡¯s unlikely to want to head back immediately anyway.


    Instead of approaching Tim, I approach Harriet with Tiktik, calling out, ¡°Harriet? I know what you¡¯ve said about needing the council¡¯s decisions and so on, but there¡¯s another thing I think you should know about. The epicenter of the rumbling vibrations that I felt? The center is moving westwards, it¡¯s almost as if it has been following us.¡±


    The mairess¡¯s response is predictable, ¡°Friend Reggie, young adventurer Shellcracker, Even if I were to believe such a thing was occurring, I¡¯ll not be changing my mind on the matter. I¡ª. I suppose I do trust that what you report is what you sense to be true. I¡¯ve enough respect for you to know you wouldn¡¯t lie to force your will upon others. I apologize for how I phrased things just now. We both know there is more, huff. More transpires than I can truly discuss. Regardless, my decision has been made. I will argue your point on your behalf to the rest of the council. I can show you that much courtesy.¡±


    I let my head drop to hang low as I close my eyes and shake it in a sorrow for all the people of The Brook. Turning my head slightly, I meet Tiktik¡¯s gaze, and she flashes me a weak smile. I allow my senses to drift away from me momentarily, taking in the sounds of the city, the busy dockworkers, the clamor of craftspeople, the din of the shuffle of the hustle and bustle of Autumn Brook. It¡¯s so unlike everything else in my life¡¯s journey thus far. Everything except Eimsas. A human city that was wiped from the map by Leviathan, Storm of the Endless River, one of the four elemental lesser gods of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I¡¯m glad I never met their elders.


    Still, I¡¯m left shaking my head sadly. Most of the entire human population of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas was wiped away, all but their advance military force that had been heading to Fae lands to take over their settlement for some reason. Their motives were barbaric, but when they lost nearly everything, and stood to lose what little they had left, they listened to reason. We worked together to pause the Night of All Burn. We worked together to try to find the humans a new home. When we failed, we worked together with the Fae to set up a secondary settlement around their own settlement of the Miracle Oak for the humans. Lastly, we worked together to build the Shield of Lacrimosa Trifecta in the hopes that it would save the Miracle Oak from the godly calamity about to occur after the convergence.


    I can¡¯t let this become another Eimsas. I need to try at least once more. I turn towards Harriet and complain, ¡°Okay Harriet, you have to see the truth of things by this point, you¡¯ve said that you trust me, and I¡¯m grateful for that. Especially after what just occurred at the Keel Over. Still, it¡¯s as if all the dangers are converging on Aasimovia, The Brook specifically, everything that I¡¯d been warned about, and more. Dragons at The Gap, some rumbling from the east, the shite lord¡¯s army preparing to move any day now. Please reconsider. Don¡¯t delay evacuation to have some untold amount of time pass while waiting on other council members. Go kick down their doors and get them together on the spot immediately if you have to.¡±


    Harriet scoffs in disdain and barely restrains herself from rolling her eyes at me. She simply states, ¡°Look here young adventurer, despite however much knowledge resides within your soul, you haven¡¯t the experience to understand how these things work. Given that, I¡¯m not going to hassle you with fines or jailtime for harassment of an official, but take care with your suggestions elsewhere. Others might not consider you as reliable an ally, or take as kindly to your tone.¡±


    Grrr. We¡¯ve got to talk to George and Tiago, they¡¯d listen to us. They¡¯re a wise couple, and we¡¯ve already shared our truth with them. Though I suppose Tiktik and Teuila stayed and spoke with Tiago somewhat already. It might be pointless to head back to speak with them again. Though George wasn¡¯t at the apothecary. He was likely in the records office. Perhaps I should make that my next visit. I am so dreadfully weary though.


    I flick my head back towards town while eyeing Tiktik. She nods, acquiescing. Tiktik leads the way to the records and planning office where George works, virtually skipping through the town. She occasionally stops at street corners and sneakily, cautiously peeks around the corner before proceeding. I can¡¯t help chuckling. She¡¯s an endearing, zany, quirky goofball. Is what she said about Changelings true? Do we all fall hard and fast, frequently? But if so, and if it¡¯s always, or almost always temporary, why is my life so full of permanent, staunch love shared with people who¡¯ve spent centuries in my mindscape?


    What does that mean for the strange bond that Alanea Whifflewillow and I formed? Was it just some passing flight of fancy? It felt so intimate, so real, and apparently she even had , at least as a spur of the moment, desire to, well, glp, bear a child with me. I can sense Tiktik¡¯s eyes widening as she rides my thought waves, and she tries to hold back giggling nervously in surprise. She does however let her telepathic avatar shrug helplessly, unknowingly in answer to my questions.


    Great, even amongst Changelings I¡¯m an oddity, a weirdo that doesn¡¯t fit in. Meh. Fitting in is probably overrated. Probably. Tiktik¡¯s mental avatar nods emphatically while chuckling at my thought train. Before altogether too long, we arrive at the records office.


    George, seeing Tiktik first, flashes her a knowing smirk as he questioningly states, ¡°If it isn¡¯t little miss bounty hunter. Stopping by to learn more about our townsfolk miss Clocktok? I wouldn¡¯t normally be so casual about letting someone peruse these records you know.¡±


    As Tiktik is about to answer, George spies me and drops his reading-glass that he had been using to pour over some old scroll. He shoots to a standing position and virtually shouts, ¡°Saints alive! Why if it isn¡¯t our hero, our little dragonslayer, Reggie! How are you? How are you? I didn¡¯t expect to see you back at all, much less in the company of this quirky little individual. It figures that the likes of the two of you two would find one another though. Come here. Tiago will be so pleased of your return. It¡¯s been nearly two months, and you definitely seem all the more seasoned and weathered. I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t chat at the moment though, beyond this greeting and hug. I¡¯ve much to attend to before I close up for the eve to head home for dinner. If you can spare a couple of hours, you can sit in the lounge, and I¡¯ll be with you when I can. Yes, right over there.¡±


    I don¡¯t get a word in edgewise with George, but I shrug after we exchange a hug. Tiktik and I take a seat in the lounge. Despite my best efforts, the weariness built up across the events that have transpired so far today in The Brook catches up with me. I slowly fall to my side, laying across the cushions of the armless chairs that are aligned like a sofa. Tiktik curls up next to me, sitting slightly up as she plays with my hair while I begin to doze off.


    I drift in and out of sleep, dreaming of things yet to come.

 B 5 C 25: Curious George

    Somehow, despite the absence of any sensation, light, sound, anything, I know that I¡¯ve returned somewhere, some when. My consciousness floats amidst a sea of nothingness that stretches beyond eternity. The darkness is welcoming, enveloping. I could give myself over to this, and cease to be ¡®am.¡¯ I¡¯m nothing but a swirl of several thoughts, and the prospect of losing what remains of me is somehow not bothersome in the slightest.


    For some reason, I recall that I was alive once. Perhaps twice, perhaps more. I remember grieving, though I don¡¯t recall what I had been grieving for. Something tells me it was my fault. Is that why I¡¯m here? Was it my fault? Did I hurt someone so badly, that my afterlife is now a perpetual oblivion? I don¡¯t mind the oblivion part so much, but I regret any hurt I may have been part of.


    As my thoughts continue to swirl, the un-universe recoils in waves. It¡¯s as if my very presence is unsettling to the nothingness about me. My thoughts cascade and gently crash through the utter blackness like the rippled waves of a still pond in which a stone had been dropped. The entire -non- gains sentience. Perhaps it always was sentient. Still, its current existence is reaching into a cookie jar, only to find crumbs. It¡¯s flipping open one¡¯s wallet to buy flowers for a lover, finding oneself strapped for cash, broke. It¡¯s an oceanic flight in which the pilot hadn¡¯t remembered to fuel up beforehand, the last wafts of fumes of fuel spent within its tanks, leaving only the dark, empty, which threatens to end those near it.


    The emptiness expands and contracts as if yawning. In a non-voice that permeates the entirety of my own non-existence, it booms a whispered conjecture, ¡°How very odd, what is this strange little thing? Oh, a frequent visitor even. We will be having met several times in your strange little existence. A bargain inviolate? Yes, yes quite an intriguing offer. Hm, you won¡¯t remain attached to this particular mortal coil long enough to come to the conclusion required to make the offer. Pity. Yes, pity. Yet it will have had been made already, and cannot be broken. Still. You should not be here, should not perceive here. You must awaken, or your mortal coil will be even shorter than what was foretold.¡±


    There¡¯s a tenderness in the non. It calls to me in concern, ¡°We shall have once began becoming friends in a manner. Over two separate bargains, we will once again. Perhaps. Still. Leave me be in peace until the next eternity has passed. Your message will have been received, has been received. Tread carefully you small, strange thing. You¡¯ve got -Nothing- to lose.¡±


    A voice wakes me as it speeds by screaming, ¡°Gran Vista under attack, Gran Vista has fallen, Gran Vista is besieged!¡±


    I awaken, blinking rapidly, glancing about swiftly in fright. Despite the alarming announcement, neither George nor Tiktik appear alarmed. I rub the sleep from my eyes and scratch my ears, checking to make certain they aren¡¯t clogged. I flex and stretch the muscles along the left side of my jaw, neck, shoulders, and torso. They ache so badly, a frequent occurrence for some time now.


    Poking Tiktik, I ask, ¡°Hey, is no one else freaked out by that message?¡±


    Her response has me questioning my sanity, ¡°What message?¡±


    I rattle my skull and blink repeatedly as I clarify, ¡°The one from the screaming voice about the fall of some city named Gran Vista. That can¡¯t be an every day occurrence, right?¡±


    Tiktik blinks at me as if I¡¯m insane. She places the back of her hand against my forehead, checking for a fever, causing me to roll my eyes. I¡¯m still pretty sure I can¡¯t even get fevers due to my thermal resistance. Huff. What the heck is going on with me now? I just, I just. Huff. There¡¯s so much, and I¡¯m so drained. I just want to be sure that the people I care about are safe, then I can let myself give up. I can embrace my doomed fate with grace or whatever it could be thought of as.


    I¡¯ve got maybe a month left with Teuila, and apparently I¡¯m going insane with auditory hallucinations, on top of facing three apocalypses, or more. Things are never going to get any easier are they? Why are things like this? Hm? No Bud, sorry. I¡¯m not giving up. Yeah. Yeah I made a promise.


    What was it Dawn made me promise again exactly? If I somehow remembered her, to not beat myself up, to keep going so as to find my own cure? Huff. Most importantly, to make sure Teuila doesn¡¯t lose me too. Te, oh My Wings. The rage and sadness boiling beneath your surface right now. Your stormy seas of moving emotion within your mindscape are the greatest raging torrent that they¡¯ve ever been. I don¡¯t even know how to help you, My beloved Wings.


    Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar leaps into my mindscape and tackles mine playfully. She asks, ¡°What¡¯re you doing all wrapped up in your head chum? Come on, even if you really truly do have a sort of literal deadline, is brewing and stewing and brooding what you really wanna do right now? C¡¯mon Reggie spooty cutie patootie. We should have better news for Teuila when she gets back, at least like, transpo or something, yeah?¡±


    My telepathic avatar flashes Tiktik¡¯s a weak half-smile as I nod, acquiescing, ¡°Yeah. Err, yeah you¡¯re right. Sorry. I just. Dawn, she faded to dust in my arms Tiktik. Magic tried to take everything, every last bit of her, even her memory from me. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s that grief, or my own ailments that are giving me auditory hallucinations. But you¡¯re right. Even if George is free, we should probably just go back to the docks and try to set up transportation. Thanks Tiktik. You¡¯re true blue.¡±


    Tiktik jokes, ¡°More like teal! Hehe.¡±


    Pft. Such an adorable goof. She¡¯s right though, her flesh¡¯s color, at the moment at least, is mostly teal, not counting the runes tattooed along her flesh. Err, I¡¯m not even sure if those are tattoos. Tiktik, what are you doing?


    Tiktik''s telepathic avatar grins as she shows off the entirety of her avatar''s flesh, and the runes covering her body. She says, ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for you to notice silly! I was born with these! They¡¯re my connection to my source! When I was really small, they were more like scribbles, so my connection wasn¡¯t really there yet. At best, I might have made some sort of magical things happen accidentally that no one ever knew about or caught. It wasn¡¯t until that one sneezing fire bolt that my family and I knew about my sorcery. Do you like them? I think they¡¯re pretty. Wanna feel ¡®em? Go ahead!¡±


    I nod along with Tiktik as she shares her tale with me about her life and past. Then I realize I¡¯ve accidentally nodded in the affirmative to two questions. Even my telepathic avatar blushes hard enough for steam to rise off my ear tips. I just meant to agree that they were pretty, not that I, err. Well, it¡¯s her telepathic avatar, not the same as, err, nah, still awkward. I try to begin to apologize, but Tiktik just shrugs and re-materializes her clothing upon her telepathic avatar.


    Blushing and avoiding eye contact, I express my gratitude, ¡°Thanks Tiktik, um, yes, you¡¯re beauti¡ª, err, they¡¯re beautiful. I mean, not that you¡¯re not, but really let¡¯s not get into one of those; me backpedaling every three seconds, things. Let¡¯s head to meat space and get some things done.¡±


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Tiktik grins and nods along, a slight smirk tinting her face and a twinkle in her telepathic avatar¡¯s eyes tells me she¡¯s got something cooking. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s going to be a prank to play on me, or someone else, or an idea for a teasing that she wants to use on me later, or what. She¡¯s a dangerous one that one.


    We¡¯re about to leave George to go about his business, when he snaps a book closed and looses a loud yawn. George stretches during his yawn and spies the two of us walking towards the door, so he coughs for our attention.


    George starts, ¡°I¡¯ve finished enough for the moment. So, Regin¡ª err, I suppose I don¡¯t know what Reggie is short for, forgive me my friend. What brought you to the records office in the first place?¡±


    Tiktik beats me to the punch, ¡°We¡¯ve got some news, big news, big bad news. We already told Tiago and Harriet. You know how I can always smell something fishy? Something¡¯s up with our lady mayor. She¡¯s scared, but not about the right things.¡±


    George raises an eyebrow, but Tiktik gets distracted by something in her robes. Even I¡¯m left baffled by her assertion. George asks me for clarification, ¡°Just what¡¯s our little ticking bounty hunter on about dear friend?¡±


    I inhale a long ragged breath and drop a weighty sigh through puffed cheeks before explaining, ¡°I¡¯m not sure about the bit about Harriet, though she¡¯s right, we did tell Harriet already, to no avail. George, I probably shouldn¡¯t have even let you finish your work here. Autumn Brook, no, all of Aasimovia is going to be overrun soon. The, gosh, I. I failed you. I failed all of you. There was a curse, and I was the only one that stood a chance to stop it, and I failed. My, my friend. She, she died, and with her death, the curse activated. It wrought all the ancestors to dust.¡±


    George starts to speak but I have to interrupt to continue, ¡°Wait, wait, there¡¯s, I know, it¡¯s horrible, but there¡¯s more. I¡¯m positive, utterly, absolutely positive, that the so-called Bright Lord, or Celestial Emperor, had been banking on that curse working for a very, very long time. I¡¯m sure now that it has activated, his troops will be marching to conquer Aasimovia any day now. Worse, he was able to create some kind of light, it allowed him to steal souls. The rumors were true. A necromancer, Milbert of Navica had the light in Victo. We don''t know if that was the only copy of that light. It, it stole everyone¡¯s souls except a few. I don¡¯t know how long he had been doing it, but there was nearly no one left. We destroyed his tower, and hopefully the light. Also hopefully that creepy doll, eugh.¡±


    George¡¯s face contorts as I get off track, so I try to return to my original train of thought, ¡°Err, sorry, right, it¡¯s--, that¡¯s not even everything. Dragons, plural, were spotted in The Gap, I¡¯m positive they attacked the Derbrightmine Dwarven Dominion. Wait, yes, there¡¯s even more. Daffodil, she, you do know about her and the temple right? Okay, good, well, I mean, it¡¯s not good. She was almost dead, buried under a pile of melting slag that was her recently finished adobe home.¡±


    I hold up a hand before George can interrupt, because there is just so much that I know he¡¯s curious about, but the list of events is even longer still, ¡°Some woman, some creature had come by and belched acid or something. Daffodil was caught, trapped under melting stone in a puddle of acid. Her arm is gone. Wait, yes, there¡¯s still even more. The canyon to the temple was caved in, I¡¯m thinking by the same acid-belching woman, and yes, there¡¯s still more. I felt the quake that happened when the canyon caved in, but I felt another quake after we rescued Daffodil, and were leaving Noirdivinhoz. It was due northeast of five miles west of Daffodil¡¯s home.¡±


    George flops back into his seat after slapping his forehead with his right hand. His palm rests on his forehead while he stares vacantly ahead. Just when I¡¯m about to express my concern for his wellbeing, George asks, ¡°Did, did, I mean you must have. Did Daffodil make it? Did you bring her to Tiago? What, what about that second quake?¡±


    Oh, right, crap. I nod, further elucidating, ¡°Right, yes, yeah. We got Daffodil to Tiago, she, um. She might not have made it. We had to use a rare magical potion when she started convulsing. We¡¯ve only got one left. Between the three of us, Tiktik, Teuila, and myself, I¡¯m pretty sure we filled in Tiago and Harriet on everything we could. The second quake though is weird. Its center has been following us west. It¡¯s, I don¡¯t know how to explain how I can sense it. Somehow I just feel vibrations more acutely than other people. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s a Changeling thing, or a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian thing, or a me in particular thing, or a¡ª.¡±


    I facepalm as I realize George doesn¡¯t even know I¡¯m a Fae, so I have to add, ¡°Oh, right, yes, it turns out I¡¯m a Changeling Fae, truly, though that isn¡¯t why I changed shape while I was here. I can¡¯t access my natural Changeling gift, only some spells, and it turns out using spells is what¡¯s killing me. You and Tiago were right. I overheard you on our last day here, from an alleyway where I was nursing a migraine. The dragon¡¯s heart, its dragonforce, is the only thing keeping me alive, and every time I use magic, I¡¯m hastening my demise. I don¡¯t have long. Hell there¡¯s so much. Oh yeah, and there¡¯s three apocalypses brewing that I¡¯ve been informed of, though they basically boil down to what I¡¯ve mentioned.¡±


    George¡¯s eyes widen and widen until I¡¯m sure the flesh is going to peel back across his skull away from his eye sockets. I shudder at the imagery cast into my mind. Hell¡¯s bells, just how much can I throw in someone¡¯s lap before they snap? I plead with George, ¡°George? Harriet won¡¯t evacuate until she summons the council for a meeting. I understand politics are a thing, but I¡¯m serious. Waves of death and horror are headed this way, and I want you all to get to safety. I know I might not be the most reliable, especially after I just hallucinated someone saying Gran Vista was under attack, and it was overrun. I don¡¯t even know any city named Gran Vista, I¡¯ve never heard of it, and here I am, imagining hearing about it getting attacked.¡±


    George coughs and sputters, ¡°You, well of course you wouldn¡¯t, but, I. It¡¯s a town, no, the most fortified city in Aasimovia. It stands near where Malta Verde once stood. But if you¡¯d never heard of it, how--? I mean --. But then you¡¯re you. It¡¯s, well, rather near the location and direction you described. Northeast of a ways west of the temple. That, that¡¯s a horrid coincidence. But with you, I almost don¡¯t believe in coincidence any longer.¡±


    I raise an index finger as my jaw hangs low. My index finger can¡¯t decide whether it wants to point, or curl back towards my chin as my wrist wags slightly randomly. I bite my lips and try to not needlessly conjecture. But if a city named Gran Vista exists, not only that, but it¡¯s nearby, and in the path of the quake that has been following us, well. Hell¡¯s bells. Hellspit and Fel fires. George is right. That can¡¯t be a coincidence, can it? Bud? Tiktik? Tiktik¡¯s mental avatar shrugs, and Bud is similarly unhelpful. Sorry Bud, no offense.


    George politely commands, ¡°We needs must seek out Harriet again at once. I think she¡¯ll be doing one last round of the town hall about now. If we hurry, we can catch her before she heads to the Keel Over to swindle travelers out of a few spare coins at cards.¡±


    I grimace, realizing I haven¡¯t shared yet another bad event that has recently occurred. I¡¯m going to keep that one to myself however, unless it becomes absolutely necessary. Thankfully, George and Tiago are as on my side as two civilians can be in a city like this. I flash the man a weak smile. He ruffles his salt and pepper crew cut before stroking his moustache. Humans on Rayileklia seem to live longer, fitter lives than humans are supposed to based on my memories. Yes Bud, I know, judging peoples¡¯ longevity based on memories of a fake world that doesn¡¯t exist isn¡¯t exactly helpful. I can¡¯t help it.


    Regardless, the three of us begin to hustle forth from the records office, and make a beeline for the town hall. I try to keep my breathing regular, as even as possible. Despite wanting to chase down dragons for an attempt to save my own life, or wanting to reunite with Teuila, this takes precedence in my eyes. I mean, there¡¯s no second chances if I walk away and these people are overrun by one attacking force or another. Or if they¡¯re caught up in some walking earthquake calamity.


    As I¡¯m thinking about calamities, all hell begins to break loose. The din of panic reaches my ears. Tiktik perks her ears up after riding my thoughts, but seems unable to hear what I hear. I frown, almost hoping that I¡¯m having another auditory hallucination. That¡¯s when I hear it, the same call I¡¯d hallucinated before. Or perhaps the call I¡¯d dreamed of. Gran Vista under attack. Gran Vista is overrun. The panic is likely evident on my face as George and Tiktik both shoot me curious glances.

 B 5 C 26: Truth In Advertising

    I hiss out my warning to Tiktik and George, ¡°George, get to Tiago, get to the west end of town, get anyone that you can to follow you. Take care of Daffodil. Tiktik, things are going down, way earlier than I expected. Are you really, truly, absolutely, willing to face down the apocalypses with us?¡±


    The smile she flashes me tells me Tiktik is truly, truly all-in, despite the deadly serious nature of what¡¯s coming. Despite the horrible circumstances I keep finding myself in, I¡¯m incredibly lucky and blessed to find staunch allies such as Tiktik, Dippy, George and Tiago, and even though she¡¯s gone, Dawn. George looks aghast at my command, but the steely, determined gaze I shoot him speaks the volumes necessary to earn his faith in my command. He takes off towards the apothecary far faster than my memories say someone that age should be able to move. Yes Bud, I know.


    I draw a ragged breath and loose a sad sigh as I throw wide the doors to the town hall. At least the doors to its entry vestibule. I know this isn¡¯t going to go any better than the last attempts, but I have to try. The din of panic draws closer and closer, and even Tiktik picks up on the cacophony, though she doesn¡¯t yet hear the rider and his warning. I¡¯d swear the messenger is gurgling his warning through a throat full of blood at this point. I shake my head sadly at the thought. I¡¯ve been there myself. That messenger is likely on death¡¯s door.


    The vestibule is open, but the hall itself is locked. I call out demandingly, ¡°Harriet! If you¡¯re here, we need to speak! One of the threats I warned of is arriving! It just swept over Gran Vista!¡±


    There¡¯s a scoff from within the hall and a quick shuffling that approaches the vestibule. After the noises of a clicking and a sliding, Harriet peeks her head out. Sticking her head out into the vestibule while I¡¯ve got the exterior doors open, the sound of panic reaches her ears. Concern draws across Harriet¡¯s face, overwriting the annoyance.


    She steps out and hazards to ask, ¡°I¡¯m truly hoping that you didn¡¯t just insight panic in my town to get your way. I know, I know. That¡¯s unlike you, but you¡¯ve been off kilter since you returned. Though I would honestly prefer that to the possibility that you¡¯re correct.¡±


    I roll my eyes, and Tiktik snickers. My short companion states, ¡°Dunno about you madame mairess, but when this shorty dreams up a prophecy that comes true minutes later, I¡¯m inclined to listen.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow at Tiktik. Her telepathic avatar shows up to confirm that she now hears the rider as well. I¡¯d truly hoped I was hallucinating it. I don¡¯t want this, these people don¡¯t deserve to be run out of their home. Harriet steps forth and locks the town hall behind her as she ushers us out into the street.


    The rider quickly approaches the town hall to deliver his message, though his voice weakens and weakens as he approaches. He¡¯s clinging to life by a thread. Even the horse¡¯s hoof-beats are beginning to falter. He must have been pushing it at top speeds for over a day, maybe close to two days.


    I¡¯m about to speak, but Harriet shoves me aside to approach the sound of the commotion. She listens as horror dawns upon her face. In moments, the rider approaches, and gurgles his last warning as he slumps in his saddle. He topples to one side, unable to fall off the horse due to having lashed himself to his steed. The steed however falls to its own exhaustion and injuries as well. The pair have claw marks seared into their flesh, leaving char outlining the wounds. The horse convulses, kicking one last time before settling into a stillness full of finality.


    I feel horrible for the rider and the horse. I¡¯ll never know the brave soul¡¯s name. I siphon a ragged breath and loose a sad sigh. Shaking my head, I turn my attention towards Harriet. My eyes beg the plea that she listen to my earlier request. I want her safe. I want her townsfolk safe. As much as I¡¯d like her town to remain safe, I doubt I¡¯ll fair any better against some force that was able to overrun the most fortified city in Aasimovia. The panic heightens as each civilian spreads the warning throughout the city sharing its message, increasing the difficulty for all of us to keep them safe.


    Harriet begins to mutter, ¡°The second quake. The adventurer was right. The Felgre horde has been released. It¡ª. It can¡¯t be.¡± During the chaos, Harriet turns to me to plead, ¡°You¡¯ll, you¡¯ll still help us, help to save them, won¡¯t you?¡±


    Did she really just ask that? Did she even feel the need to ask? Seriously? Will I help save them? Of friggin¡¯ course. Right Bud? Yeah, absolutely. Sure, I agree, it¡¯s probably impossible, but never tell me the odds. What? No, I know that odds are realistically helpful in determining--, ugh, forget it Bud. It was a joke that was a reference to, err, well, to media from a world that doesn¡¯t exist. Okay, it was dumb, I admit. Regardless, I may as well answer Harriet.


    I furrow my brow and frown at her as I ask in response, ¡°Harriet? Just what kind of person, just who the hell, do you think I am? Of course I will. Believe in me because I believe in you. Get everyone either on boats or to the west end of town. I¡¯m sure Teuila¡¯s on her way back. She went to warn the Colossi, but that¡¯s dozens of miles, days of travel for anyone other than her. Teuila though? Maybe a day for a round trip if she had to go all the way to the old chieftain¡¯s compound. It¡¯s only been six hours¡¯ish, but, well, hopefully she can sense the danger we¡¯re in. One way or another she¡¯ll be back before the end of tomorrow, and she¡¯ll be itching to crack some skulls and drive them back. It sounds like an entire army though. I don¡¯t know if we can save the town. Hell, I¡¯m certain we can¡¯t.¡±


    Speaking about the townsfolk, especially those like Keeley that don¡¯t believe in me, Harriet shakes her head while muttering, ¡°They won¡¯t trust that you can even buy them time. There¡¯ll be panic and dissent. They see you as small and helpless. They see you as just a child.¡±


    I scoff, ¡°They¡¯ll be surprised when they see this little warrior run wild. Sure it won¡¯t be my greatest moment, or my finest hour, but I¡¯ll be out there protecting them all, all the same.¡±


    Lightning bristles across the sky sounding loud cracks as if to emphasize my point. Hm, speaking of lightning, I¡¯m dying anyway, right? What if we crank up our internal electrokinesis subroutine up to eleven? Err, I, me, my, no plural. Well, okay, sure, you¡¯re in here too Bud, sort of. You know what I meant. I need to be better, faster, stronger. I¡¯m going to need every edge I can get. Back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I could lay waste to thousands if I really gave it my all, but I¡¯m all but stripped of that power here. I barely have any access to it at all, and when I use it, I edge all that much closer to death.


    I¡¯m about to face down whatever a Felgre horde is, likely numbering in the thousands. Maybe tens of thousands. There¡¯s at least close to a thousand, if not several thousand people in Autumn Brook. It¡¯s a fairly sizable city, all things considered. That¡¯s too many lives to just give up on. I. Glp. I can¡¯t even make their deaths mean anything if I fail. If Dawn were still alive, I¡¯d probably do the unspeakable act of carving a rune around the town. If I failed to save them, I¡¯d at least have the slight opportunity to have bound Dawn¡¯s soul to her body. I know Bud, I know, it¡¯s despicable, horrible. I don¡¯t want any of them to die.


    I may be small, I¡¯m definitely short, but I¡¯m not helpless. Turning to my equally short companion, I ask, ¡°Tiktik, do you feel better about doing crowd control of civilians and guiding the people, or do you want to try crowd control on a horde of hostile aggressors?¡±


    Tiktik chuckles nervously as she responds, ¡°I uh, I¡¯m normally right up there in the front with anyone, but that¡¯s when the numbers are sort of near even. I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m cut out for that, unless you want me to literally just rain down fire and lightning from a rooftop or something.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow towards Tiktik as if prompting her exact suggestion. I¡¯m fine with not putting her in physical mortal danger if she can aid us from afar. Tiktik pouts when she realizes I mean for her to do as she wishes, but am recommending her last suggestion.


    My wild-orange-haired friend complains, ¡°But, but you and Teuila are going out to face them, right? At least when she gets back. What if I lose track of you in the horde? I don¡¯t want to burn or melt you! I¡¯m not that kind of sorceress who can like, feel out where her allies are and sculpt my spells around them. It takes my biggest pool to cast one spell that I can do that with, one time.¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    I can¡¯t fight the smile that dances across my face tremblingly as laughter burbles forth. I double over and begin cackling. Harriet and Tiktik both look at me like I¡¯ve lost my mind. Joke¡¯s on them, I¡¯d never found it or had it in the first place. Haha, yes Bud, I¡¯m being self-deprecating for humor in my own head.


    I explain, ¡°Harriet, if you can get anyone to do it, have people stack up all excess material on the east end of town, building material, supplies they can¡¯t carry during an evacuation, explosives if you have any. As far as raining down fire? Tiktik, ignite me, right now. Hit me with your hottest fire that doesn¡¯t dig into any of your pools. Hell, Harriet, do you have a torch, flint and steel?¡±


    Harriet looks aghast as she responds, ¡°What? I, I mean, those exist nea--. Well of course we do, but I¡¯m not handing any of that over to you now you little lunatic!¡±


    I snort a laugh and roll my eyes while shaking my head in humored exasperation. I fish around in my hyperdimensional haversack for my firestarter that I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever used for its intended purpose of starting cooking fires. I don¡¯t want to waste any magic from my staff trying to impress Harriet and Tiktik. Speaking of Tiktik, she sees how resolute, adamant, and determined that I am to set myself aflame.


    Tiktik seems to parse the situation, carefully weighing how much she trusts me. She smiles and points a finger at me as a familiar ticking fills the air. I grin and stand arms wide as a bolt of flame forms from Tiktik¡¯s finger aimed my direction. Harriet actually feebly leaps towards the path of the bolt, to her credit, in her mind, likely in order to save me. She really is a staunch leader, a fantastic mairess that her city deserves.


    I let my danger wraps guide my senses in order to intercept the bolt of flame with my palms near my neck so that Harriet can¡¯t so much as come near the fire. As I clap down on the fire sailing through the air, it flares for only a moment against my flesh, not even singing any of my own wildly floating mane of hair. I raise an eyebrow at the pair and sweep my right hand flicking it at the wrist, palm-up. They take my gesture¡¯s meaning, and Harriet seems stunned from her fallen position on the ground. Tiktik grins wildly. I know what she¡¯s about to ask.


    As I offer a hand to help Harriet up, I verbally offer to Tiktik, ¡°Yeah Tiktik, you can rain fire down on me. I¡¯ve had to swim in lava for quite a length of time, then stand on the god of fire¡¯s back, after I¡¯d just killed my brother, and lost my hand to an injury he caused. Don¡¯t worry, we both got better. I mean, sure, I barely survived after swimming in the lava for too long, but fiery explosions, flames, high heat, cold? All of that? It¡¯d have to have some special kind of magic to bypass my resistant nature to thermal activity.¡±


    I try not to laugh as I downplay the horrible events between me and Mataalii in a comic fashion. He hated me so viscerally that he took a path of villainy, murder, destruction. A path that, if he hadn¡¯t taken, we¡¯d never have pushed with so many others to band together to survive. There was just so much that had to fall into place on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Still, the two women look mildly upset at my last explanation. I offer them a helpless shrug as I begin walking to the east.


    Harriet calls out, ¡°Wait! Just like that? You¡¯re going to demonstrate some power, and then throw yourself headlong into violence for The Brook? Again?¡±


    I flash Harriet a smile over my shoulder as I call back, ¡°You¡¯re damn right I am. We might not be able to save your entire town honorable Mairess, but we¡¯ll do our best. Keep your citizens safe. You¡¯re truly an amazing leader. And, uh, if we fail, or fall, I do sincerely hope you¡¯ll take up my suggestion. Tiktik can probably slay the hydra, she has a suite of skills perfect for such a beast.¡±


    Tiktik looks like she¡¯s going to object as she starts to chase after me. The town doesn¡¯t really have many high buildings, most of the buildings are at most two stories tall. Tiktik will probably have to position herself in a tree. I¡¯ve got the perfect one in mind. That poor ancestor. Huff. An undead who chose a peaceful idyllic existence resting against a tree atop a hill for eternity. They¡¯re all gone now. The two of us have a few hours to prepare some line of defense, and to rest up in preparation for what¡¯s coming. Not long enough for anything major. Not long at all.


    My ragged, saddened breathing nearly becomes sobs. Teuila is going to be so upset with herself for not being at my side during this. Partially for missing the action, mostly for not being able to protect me yet again. She wants us to never be away from each other¡¯s side ever since we died. The two of us can¡¯t help it though. Sometimes one or the other of us just has to take care of some necessary task that it doesn¡¯t make sense for both of us to spend our efforts on.


    She¡¯s a hero, an honest to goodness warrior hero that will do everything in her power to save people, no matter how much it hurts her heart to spend any time away from me. No matter how much she worries I might die before she returns to my side. Sometimes she might claim that she¡¯d let everything and everyone else burn while trying to save me or spend our last moments together, but she would never forgive herself if she actually managed to let that happen. I still wish she was here. I wish we had our idyllic life with our family at the Miracle Oak back home. I just want everyone to be safe and happy. Most of all, over everyone else, my whole family, and out of all of them, her the most.


    I silently cry beneath the stormy skies that constantly drizzle acid rain upon the land. Sniffling, I furiously rub the tears from my face, and my itchy eyes. Tiktik flashes me a sad half frown. Thinking better about things, I turn to my wonderful companion.


    I wrap Tiktik in a hug and ask, ¡°Tiktik? Can you go make sure Harriet¡¯s able to at least get started getting people organized? We don¡¯t have long, and there aren¡¯t many preparations we can make without some sort of materials. I¡¯ll be easy to find when you¡¯ve got that done. I think our telepathy should reach at least halfway across the town. It¡¯s a lot stronger in range than the telepathic bond that I¡¯m used to from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.¡±


    Her frown morphs into a pout while Tiktik hugs me tightly for a moment. She asks, ¡°Are you sure? You¡¯ve been having a rough time chum. Without Teuila here, I worry about you being alone for even a little bit after seeing what we saw at the inn. Heh, Littlebit. Sniffle. Glp.¡±


    Tiktik gulps back a saddened sob and we both draw ragged, saddened breaths for a moment. I nuzzle her cheek as I nod. Sending my telepathic avatar to her, I nod my confirmation, requesting that she go aid with the evacuation effort for a few hours if she can handle the upcoming fight without sleeping. I slip a scroll from my enchanted scrollcase to plant in Tiktik¡¯s voluminous sleeve.


    I telepathically send, ¡°I¡¯ll be meditating, cultivating what mana I can, and sleeping while trying to dream up ideas on how to turn this around. I have a nuclear option that I was hoping to never have to use, and I¡¯ll save it for as long as I can, but, well¡ª. Whatever could take down an entire city in under a day, the supposedly strongest one around, I¡ª. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll have to use it. The elementals are, well, they¡¯re not our friends. They¡¯re as dangerous to you and me as they are to our foes. That scroll will keep them from attacking you.¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar flashes mine a sad half smile as she nods. My friend takes off in meat space, heading towards the center of town. As she leaves, I stare after her wistfully. She hasn¡¯t had many opportunities to be her silly, prankstery, upbeat self. I can sense just how important a part of her that that side of her is to Tiktik. Yet she¡¯s been suppressing it to take matters seriously. I sigh as I shake my head and work my way to the easterly path leading out of town.


    Sitting in the path in lotus position, I focus on my internal electrokinesis first. Home in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I¡¯d gotten it to enhance the speed of my reflexes by over ten percent. We¡¯re dying anyway, let¡¯s see what we can do with. Err, yes Bud, I¡¯m doing the plural again. I¡¯m not sure why. I¡¯m dying anyway, let¡¯s see what I can do if I literally amp up the power to eleven. Going from an over ten percent increase in internal speed to an over one hundred percent increase in internal speed. I¡¯ll be literally burning away my nervous system, but it hardly matters any more.


    Hm? I¡¯m sorry Bud, it¡¯s true. I know, I know, we finally have a chance at some evil dragons, but we probably won¡¯t catch them in time. They may have been in The Gap for a few days, or a week or two, but they¡¯re probably finished with their rampage, and heading home already. We have no chance of catching up with massive beasts when we¡¯re days away from where they were last spotted in the first place. I¡¯m sorry Bud. I still haven¡¯t fully given up, but, well, when you need to save people, sometimes you pull out all the stops, all of them. Yes, even if it means you¡¯re even likelier to die than you already were.


    You what? Bud, no. No, you don¡¯t have to do that to yourself. You gained full sentience, you are a person Bud, you have a life that you deserve to live. I¡ª. Okay. If it comes to that, I¡¯ll back your play. It¡¯s very sweet of you Bud. Just, just promise me you¡¯ll try to not let yourself die by going overboard, okay? I¡¯m sure there are other wielders out there worthy of you bonding with.


    I¡ª. Oh. I¡¯m honored. I gulp back a sob and rub tears from my eyes quickly. Just, just try Bud. Oh. That¡¯s, that¡¯s unfortunate. I guess if it seems like I¡¯m a split second from dying, if you truly are willing to do that for the people of The Brook, then, well, I certainly wouldn¡¯t be able to stop you at that point. My ragged breathing becomes a sob that morphs into a yawn as I blink back tears. Before it even gets to that point, I¡¯ll try to use every tool in my toolbelt. Sort of literally a toolbelt, with where I have the elemental stones and my scrolls placed.

 B 5 C 27: Shake Loose Your Sins

    One of the benefits of Rayileklia¡¯s telepathy spell compared to my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian telepathy spell is that when first layered it starts out as at least a mile in range that it can cover between bonded people. The further applications with higher and higher quality ruby dust increase that distance and clarity. Right now, my bond with Tiktik and Teuila is already several layers deep due to the fairly high quality dust we¡¯d used in the first place. I guess that means we¡¯ve got two or three or so miles of range on our telepathy. It hasn¡¯t come up until now, but since Tiktik is in town to work on crowd control, it¡¯s helpful at the moment.


    Tiktik seems to have found Harriet at one of the town squares. Harriet¡¯s ringing a bell like mad. The bell¡¯s ringing is echoed by more bells throughout the city, drawing everyone¡¯s attention to head to the town squares. Harriet rallies the townsfolk expertly, beginning to organize them swiftly, despite the air of panic about the town.


    Unfortunately, there¡¯s some sort of dissenter, preaching out against Harriet¡¯s call for action and evacuation suddenly. The crowd turns on Harriet in an instant, booing their mayor and shouting for her to get realistic. They¡¯re suddenly convinced that there¡¯s either no reason to, or no way to evacuate. Some are trying to make a separate call to action, to fight for their homes. Some are disbelieving everything entirely. Ugh, a bunch of idiots.


    As helpful as having more bodies on the battlefield might be, every last one of them that showed up would just die. There are no trained warriors in the permanent citizens of The Brook. There might be some mercenary travelers, but Aasimovia was a country that relied on the threat of their ancestors to dissuade hostile activities. Almost no one took up adventuring or combat training. I draw a shuddering breath and sigh. This is not good.


    Tiktik stands up for us, and amplifies the volume of her voice as she cries out, ¡°You¡¯d listen to these liars¡¯ lies? While you shun and silence the wise? Look around and open your eyes! Your city isn¡¯t it, your life is your greatest prize!¡±


    That was catchy, but will it do anything to aid our cause? Wait, was the dissenter some kind of spellcaster? Did Tiktik dispel their magic using her own? Everyone in the crowd looks confused based on what she¡¯s telepathically showing me. I, I can¡¯t afford to focus on them. I have to focus on myself and my own powers. I have to bring everything to bear.


    Sitting in the muddy path beneath the acidic drizzle, I close my eyes and focus on my breathing. I¡¯ve had one spell from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas active almost every moment since I first thought up the ability after earning electrokinesis. I¡¯ve been enhancing the relay speed of my neural and nervous pathways. What would it take to crank those beyond my limits? My last known safe limit was almost eleven percent that I remembered keeping track of in my mental interface. There was a lot of activity, a lot of combat, between that point, and when I died on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Then there were the two months on Rayileklia where the spell has been active as a mental subroutine. Theoretically, it might already be at about twenty percent or more with how much spellcasting I had to do in those final weeks on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    I¡¯m not going to be able to take anything for granted. I need to imagine every possibility if I want a chance at survival for most of the town, let alone for myself. If Teuila doesn¡¯t get back before the fighting starts, I¡ª. I¡¯m going to die. At least, as I am right now. How can I attain an entirely higher tier of power, back towards my old limitations on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, in several short hours?


    No Bud, we¡¯ve been over this. Jarrah warned us not to do that. Whatever damage that might cause my soul, or inner self, or whatever, I¡¯m not willing to risk. Thank you for the offer. It might just kill me outright for all we know. It¡¯s too risky. Err, yes, I understand the hypocrisy of my statement, when I¡¯m taking risks that I¡¯m almost sure will kill me. I just--, if there¡¯s any sort of afterlife, I want to be able to share mine with Teuila when she eventually dies. If she does. She might have a dragon¡¯s immortal longevity too, and she¡¯s powerful enough that she might be able to avoid getting killed until the end of time for all I know. I, I just. I don¡¯t want to lose that possibility. It¡¯s too horrific to contemplate.


    Let¡¯s think about some of the things we can use. This bottle seems to pour out smoke endlessly. If we set it up now, it might provide obscurement for a large area. I don¡¯t need my sight to be able to fight. If we¡¯re lucky, whatever the Felgre horde is still needs their vision. They may have been trapped in caves for an untold amount of time, but hopefully they haven¡¯t developed some sort of sightless adaptation. We, err, I, I guess I can set it closer to Lake Siempre, to make it harder for them to perceive any of the boats that manage to flee with evacuees.


    Hm? I¡ª. What Bud? My wrath? It--, yeah. It might make me more powerful. It has certainly slain everyone around me rather swiftly every time it was unleashed. I¡¯m afraid of it though. What if I hurt someone? What if I kill someone innocent? Err, I suppose you¡¯re right. If I somehow manage to kill all of the Felgres, I¡¯d probably pass out before I could turn my wrath on innocent townsfolk. So, well, yeah, maybe that¡¯s an option.


    Tiktik has some rodent summoning things. As much as I don¡¯t like considering anyone or anything sacrificial, it¡¯d probably be best if we used those right away to test out the might of the horde, maybe hold them off for a short while. She and I both have pan pipes that can direct rodents.


    A voice I haven¡¯t heard in a very long time states simply, ¡°You¡¯re going to die. No one with any brains takes on an army alone.¡±


    I flash my gaze about, staring everywhere, including at my own chest, for signs of the person responsible for the voice. I¡¯m almost certain it¡¯s the ghost of Aces.


    Calling out to the voice, I demand, ¡°If you¡¯re there, if you are who I think you are, show yourself! Answer me! Have an actual conversation!¡±


    Nothing. As usual. Whatever. I don¡¯t need this stupid distraction, or its useless obvious statement. Yeah Bud, I could be hallucinating, true. Anyway, so we have Apheliotes Zephyrus, the gryphon statue. He could probably help out in a pinch, and he should be pretty solid, err, I mean, he¡¯ll be solid bronze, so, well, yeah. We should get Tiktik to lay down as many of her exploding glyphs as possible directly behind me, so that if I¡¯m forced back, the foes forcing me back explode. Yes, I¡¯ll be exploded too. I¡¯m not all that concerned by explosions after the massive one I lived through last time. It blew several stone elementals to dust, and I was nearly dead already, but still lived through it.


    Let¡¯s see, rodents, gryphon, explosives in the form of glyphs, some of Tiktik¡¯s fuzzy buddies from her bag. I could set up a wall of flames, but the horde would just walk around it. I can conjure a small sleet storm, but much the same. I¡¯ll use my partially broken staff of thunder and lightning. I¡¯m sorry TQ. I¡¯m probably going to break and lose my only reminder of the first friend I ever lost. Hm? Yeah Bud. Someone I hadn¡¯t really met yet died trying to defend me from a hydra-like serpent. They had a powerful staff. I sort of inherited the staff, but I nearly broke it once already by channeling lightning for too long when trying to glass a beach into fulgurite.


    Starting to form a plan here though, hm, yes. I¡¯ll wield my thunder stick in my right hand while I hold my archsorc staff in my left hand. My buckler on my left arm will help keep that powerful staff from being shattered. I expect the thunder stick to shatter at some point. After that happens, I¡¯ll set up my holy halefire double barreled wrist crossbow on my right arm, and draw my dagger with my right hand. I¡¯ll be dropping fireballs and lightning bolts from the archsorc staff with my left hand. I¡¯ll only be able to safely use five or so of those, huff. I need to quickly practice one more rune to master the fifth tier of summon monstrous mana construct. I think a horde of mana construct allies is probably the best use of my personal S P pool. I can do maybe seven of those safely with quick casting, maybe closer to ten now, my point of stress along my total S P pool has moved further towards my total limit. I think a fair estimate is about six hundred sixty S P. That''s ten quick mana constructs, or twenty slow ones. If I do one quick construct, and eighteen slow ones, with Apheliotes, and me, that makes a whole platoon. They don''t last forever, and keeping them invoked is, well, it''s not supposed to be possible to have more than one at a time. But, well, I''m me. I break rules all the time. Let''s just hope this is one that I can break and survive.


    I¡¯ll wait until Tiktik¡¯s mostly tapped out before conjuring the mana constructs, so that they don¡¯t just die in her hail of fire and lightning. I assume she¡¯ll be blasting through the charges in her wands, risking every last bit of their power. I think that means seven fireballs and seven lightning bolts from her wands, and possibly a few more from her powerful staff. After I¡¯ve got the first mana construct up with a quickened cast, I¡¯ll try to cast the other ones more slowly to conserve S P.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    I stumbled across a weather control spell on the way to The Brook, but I didn¡¯t even have time to check how many runes it takes with worrying about Daffodil. It could prove useful depending on how potent it is. Maybe we could bend the clouds down so that lightning forms a cage or a wall around part of the city. I know it¡¯s a stretch, but you know me, stretching magic is half of what I do.


    Okay, quickly, this last rune. Let¡¯s go, let¡¯s go. Get ready for this. Hm, hm hm hm. Huff. Ugh, I¡¯m dizzy and sleepy again already. I¡¯m really not up to this task, but that doesn¡¯t matter, because no one else is either. Yes Bud, the elementals are the final option, if we¡¯ve exhausted all of our own renewable and semi renewable, or other consumable resources, and it still looks hopeless, then I¡¯ll tell Tiktik to read her scroll, and I¡¯ll read a scroll while tossing out the three stones. I¡¯ll then use the staff¡¯s last few charges to conjure a fire elemental. I¡¯m hoping that between two stone elmentals, an air elemental, and a fire elemental, they¡¯ll be able to become some kind of magma storm elemental or something, and maybe carve a gulf of lava between the village and the horde, or something.


    I know, I know. A fire elemental will probably be pissy about the acid rain, but if it works together with either of the other elementals, they¡¯ll be able to keep it shielded from the rain. Yeah, it¡¯s the element with the biggest crowd control ability that I understand how to summon. If I could summon a lightning elemental, I would try that too, or maybe first. Though if it just grounds itself and dies, that would be pointless. A pure mana elemental? I, uh. I don¡¯t know Bud. I, err, well, true. I can conjure a mid tier monstrous mana construct, but that feels different. Elementals are free-willed spirits of a natural element that exist in a realm parallel to ours. According to Elder of the kobold tribe. Summoning them is basically just opening a rip in reality that lets them pass through to this side of the coin temporarily. They take shape based on the available ambient mana. They can last longer with more mana or S P provided by a caster, or that ambient mana which resides in the air.


    What else? I, I don¡¯t know yet. I¡¯m, I¡¯m getting so sleepy Bud. Hungry too, but, but everything hurts again. I, gulp. Bud? Please, please wake me up in an hour or two, or at the latest, before they close in on the city. I can barely keep my eyes open. When I wake, I¡¯ll be trying to set my internal electrokinesis into hyperdrive.


    I awaken to a familiar, yet unexpected voice yelling at me to get up. I groggily stretch my muscles as I slowly blink myself awake in the mud where I sit crouched. What in the name of all the hells? No, absolutely not, just no.


    I growl, ¡°All of you, get the hell out of here. I¡¯m literally going to explode with fire and lightning when our foes arrive. You will all die. I¡¯ve rested myself for the coming battle, and I can give it my all.¡±


    I roll my eyes as Keeley starts to speak, growling, ¡°Listen ¡®ere you liddle shid! You, you, you don¡¯t get to just die for us! We¡¯ll damn well do our dying for ourselves!¡±


    I ignore Keeley completely as I turn to George with a disappointed look. I ask him, ¡°What are you even doing here George? You know the stakes, you know how powerful I am. I¡¯m literally going to have Tiktik rain down hells of lightning and fire upon me and our foes. That sort of thing won¡¯t affect me, but it would kill all of you. It would be pointless for you to be here.¡±


    George chuckles with chagrin as he avoids my gaze with an abashed expression. Marshal looks uncertain of himself. There are a handful of villagers with tools, farming implements, cutlery, and a fair few actual weapons, swords, axes, and the like. Keeley, the wall of a woman that she is, is of course wielding two gigantic meat cleavers.


    Growling, I take out spare parchment, my fire-starter, and I hack a branch off of a bush nearby. Lighting the parchment, I hold it with my bare hands as I let it dry out and ignite the branch which I hold up to my face as I shout at the small assembled crowd, ¡°Can any of you do this!? Can you survive it!? Get the hell out of here! Take up positions in town, guard the rear of the evacuation, whatever you want, but get the flark out of here! As the ultimate last resort, I¡¯ll be destroying the town around the oncoming horde! Get everyone out of the town!¡±


    There¡¯s shock painted across most of the gathered faces, and gasps from those assembled. Several people begin to edge away, ashamedly. Keeley refuses to budge. Gorramit woman! Huff. I draw a deep breath and sigh. Unless I let her die, or kill her, she¡¯s going to screw up all of my plans. I draw my thunder stick and slam it into the ground, emanating a massive thunderclap with enough force to blow back everyone standing nearby, sending them either tumbling or skidding back several feet, Keeley included, despite her mass. George stands from where he¡¯d fallen, and picks up the crossbow bolts that spilled out of a quiver I hadn¡¯t noticed. He gulps, but only retreats a few dozen more feet. It¡¯s then that I notice the townsfolk have done what I asked Harriet to request. They¡¯ve created a massive barricade along the east side of town with everything that wasn¡¯t nailed down. Tables, building supplies, crafting supplies, spare equipment, and assorted odds and ends form a crude barrier blocking entry to town, enhancing its low perimeter wall.


    Despite knowing that they¡¯re committed to helping me protect their town, I growl, ¡°If you can¡¯t withstand my weakest ability, you have no hope of surviving near me! Go defend the barricade! Please. I beg you. I don¡¯t want to see any of you die. I¡ª I can¡¯t bear it. Not again.¡±


    I clasp the pouch attached to the neckchain of the ever breathing. Bud and the egg are within. I could spend the life force in the egg to go back in time, somewhat. I could maybe send a ghostly message back to an earlier version of myself. But what message could I give me that would change the course of events? If I don¡¯t change the flow of events, then I¡¯ll have wasted the rarest, most precious life force in existence. The unhatchable child is the product of the mating of a roc and a phoenix. I know that if I survive, some day I will stumble across a way to bring it forth. Just like how Lucky was born from an egg that I¡¯d carried for a year, and the extremely convoluted events that led to his birth.


    The constant tremor that I¡¯ve perceived since Noirdivinhoz, the vibratory trembling, grows closer, frighteningly close. I sag, weakened and saddened, dropping to my knees. I don¡¯t want them to die Bud. I don¡¯t. How do I make them understand that I¡¯m the only one that can do this? My electrokinesis? I, well, I guess I can give amping it up a shot right now.


    I reach deep within myself, staring sadly at the inner me, my true Changeling self, protected by a thin shell of purple flickering force, being strangled by corrupted mana. I plunge the hands of that inner self forward into this corrupted mana flow sticking to it like a viscous ichor. I have the inner me seek out elemental lightning, and connect it to my internal electrokinesis. I feel its effects immediately, worse, its effects bleed forth from even my physical form. The utter burning agony within me is indescribable. It¡¯s as if the electrons are trying to rend every molecule in my body apart from one another. Still, if this is what it takes, so be it.


    I notice arcs of electricity skipping forth from me, dancing along the air to the ground nearby, and I choke down vomit full of my own blood to not give away how much closer this is bringing me to death. Even Keeley stumbles away upon witnessing this display of power. I¡¯m not sure how long I can keep this up Bud, but it sounds like the horde is getting close. Well, sounds is a strong word. I can¡¯t hear anything approaching over the constant thunder in Rayileklia¡¯s darkened skies, but I feel the rumble.


    I beg one last time, ¡°Please, all of you. Stay safe. Get safe. Protect your loved ones. George? I. Glp. If I don¡¯t come back from this. Tell Teuila I love her. To the very end of everything. I¡ª. Say goodbye to Tiago for me. Make sure Tiktik gets out of this alive. She¡¯ll protect you all from the hydra. Goodbye.¡±


    I turn my back on the crowd and begin marching east, saying to hell with my plans of making a stand near the town where I could funnel the foes to me. They screwed my chances. Tiktik? If you can hear my thoughts, I need you to start with rodents and vermin and fuzzy buddies and other constructs to test the might of the horde. I¡¯m assuming they¡¯ll all die. After those, burn all of your artillery early on so that we can bring out my more powerful summons without you blowing them up. Set up your glyphs behind me so that I can fall back through them to buy myself occasional breathers within the explosions. Yes, explosions are more of a breather than fighting a horde.


    I hear panpipes despite the crackle and rumble and fury of the skies. Tiktik¡¯s doing as I asked. It¡¯s not long before I¡¯m surrounded by rodents swaying side to side as they advance with me. I struggle to contain my internal lightning so as not to harm or scare them. I can sense the most stubborn individuals still standing firm outside the town¡¯s barrier, but I can¡¯t afford to worry about them any longer. This is it Bud. Start setting up a natural barrier behind me, from the lake as far south as you can muster. Please don¡¯t kill yourself doing it. Please. I¡¯m begging you. Okay? I¡¯m happy to be your partner. I¡¯m going to try to live. Okay? You do the same. Just¡ª. If this is goodbye. Thank you for choosing me. For being my friend.


    I let anger flow through and over me. I imagine the lives lost in the town to the northeast, Gran Vista. I imagine why Malta Verde is no longer a settlement. I imagine the residents of The Brook perishing at the hands of some horde of Felgre forces. It doesn¡¯t take much pushing to loose my greatest sin, to set free my wrath. Especially once the front edge of the advancing forces begins to appear as a wave of blackness, peppered with occasional flames, washing closer from the distance. My vision runs red as blood as hatred seethes from me. Wrath, I unleash you. Don¡¯t make me regret this.

 B 5 C 28: Splinters, Shrapnel

    Tiktik understands that the horde is ahead, so she sends the rodents, vermin, and fuzzy buddies onwards ahead of me. I barely maintain my grasp on reality as I struggle forward, maintaining my wrath at an even keel. It¡¯s only a handful of minutes yet until we clash. Is there any last shred of hope, any possible asset I¡¯ve missed? The aches and burns of my body scream for my attention, making it difficult to focus and recall. I stop struggling to contain my wrath and lightning. The force of the power exuding from me literally lifts me off the ground, sending me careening into the sky in the direction of my foes. That works, I guess.


    The rodents actually manage to harry, harass, and take down several of these Felgre creatures. They¡¯re massive humanoids, all muscle and fur and blackened eyesockets with slick, visceral orbs planted within. Spikes of blackened bone protrude from each of them at odd angles. Quite a number of them appear to be alight, either internally, or externally. Fires emanate from various orifices. Some usual, some unusual. It¡¯s as if they have extra mouths with which to exude hellish flame. They don¡¯t seem immune to one anothers¡¯ flames though. Or even their own. The hellish, ogreish creatures appear to be in pain as they wash over the plains with hatred and seething fury. I think they¡¯re chanting something, but I can¡¯t make it out.


    Hellspit and Fel fires, the wave of this horde extends back for miles! Wait. Go back a tick. Felgres? Fel-ogres? Oh hell. These are literally the ogreish hordes of Hel. Gorrammit. Is this some universal cosmic scale joke at my expense? Because I picked up on Jarrah Bettergrove¡¯s common curse and assimilated it into my lexicon? Huff, of course not Reggie. That¡¯s not how the universe works.


    Despite the intense pain, I attempt to center myself and still my breathing as the power flowing forth from me sends me sailing ever closer to the front of this horde. It seems they¡¯ve snuffed out the lives of all the creatures we sent to the fore, and are simply trampling over the bodies of their fallen comrades. Several of the larger ones scoop chunks of flesh from their fallen compatriots as they pass by. Some of them eat this flesh in a gruesome, gory display, others lob the flesh at me like meat missiles. I spin to the side slightly to avoid the volley while I finalize the direction of my descent. I toss the bottle of eversmoke towards the lake, hoping to provide cover for any Autumn Brook resident fleeing by boat.


    Giving myself over to both my danger wrap senses, and my wrath, I come crashing down right behind the front line of Felgre foes. A massive cascade of lightning blasts forth from me in a one hundred eighty degree arc as I slam down. Several of the creatures explode, showering me in gore, but one of the larger ones simply steps through the torrent of lightning, and catches me off-guard with its immense power and speed. It rocks me sideways with a right-armed haymaker that launches me to the south. Barely maintaining consciousness from the concussion, I flip in the air to allow myself to skid to a halt. Running north along the line of foes, back towards the beast that dealt me such a blow, I begin twirling my thunder stick, calling down lightning to channel it into the lines of foes. Dozens fall as lightning arcs from me to the nearest Felgres, and from them, to the next nearest, spiderwebbing out across the horde, but it¡¯s not even a dent in their forces. Hell, it just provides the others with grotesque, gory, meat missiles.


    Their voices begin to carry an unholy hiss through the air that sends a splitting headache through my skull. I crumple to my knees for a moment, and I¡¯m surrounded, leapt upon from all directions. The, their language, it, it hurts so much to hear it. They¡¯re trying to batter and rend me. I, I can¡¯t. It¡¯s too early to die. Between the painful cacophony of the hellish hordes'' language, me going overboard with electrokinesis and channeling, and just my own wrath and my personal nature, I feel like my personality is fracturing, splintering. I, I can barely keep it together. If, if something doesn¡¯t happen, I¡¯m either going to die, or lose myself to wrath in a way I don¡¯t think I can come back from.


    Fire rains forth from the heavens in a titanic wave as Tiktik unleashes her first, biggest spell, saving me, and destroying an enormous swath of the foes, leaving them as nothing more than ash upon the breeze. Attagirl Tiktik. Thank you. Wrath strugles to overtake my senses, and to control me entirely. I nearly submit my entirety to it, but I strive to remain residing at the surface of my own thoughts.


    The hordes, seeing me standing amidst the ashes of their forward force, all seem to converge on me. Perfect. Let¡¯s effing do this. Tiktik seems to have taken up a spot somewhere amidst the smoke caused by the bottle I¡¯d tossed by the wayside to provide cover. Good. To the enemy forces, it just looks like I explode with fireballs and rain down fire and lightning. Heh, that¡¯s not far from the truth, but it means they don¡¯t suspect, and won¡¯t go after Tiktik.


    Some of these beastly things look like porcine humanoids, or ogreish apes, but others look like elephantine warthogs. Even those ones have disparate appearances, like some only have two limbs, their legs, others have four legs, or two legs and two arms. They¡¯re all just a mishmash of monstrous proportions. I¡¯d try to talk things out, but they¡¯re leaving only destruction in their wake, and fast approaching Autumn Brook. No time for diplomacy Reggie. Plus, they¡¯re probably literally creatures of Hel here to drag everyone to the depths below. Or maybe they¡¯re from Hell. It¡¯s hard to tell which. Jarrah muttered things about the nine realms, stuff from Norse mythology in my memories. Yet his angelic nature and other celestial things are similar to mythology from, well, western contemporary religions from Fakeworld, Earth.


    I don¡¯t want to have to, but I should save enough S P for the Steely Body spell. It will be my last attempt at a fighting retreat. If everything else has failed, it will guarantee me at least another minute, perhaps another hour of survival as I struggle away from the horde. Ugh, we never got a chance for a smith to work the metals that we wanted. Do I risk losing the enchantment on my Valkyrie equipment to assume the form of the metal it¡¯s comprised of? I could always grab a spare suit from Teuila, or summon one from my inventory.


    Wait. Speaking about being able to summon from my inventory, I didn¡¯t lay it on the table. I can summon my powers from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I¡¯ll pass out in a puddle of blood afterwards, but, but the amount of damage I could do to an opposing force. I can destroy thousands of square feet of area at once, maybe several square miles if I give it my all. I¡¯ll, I¡¯ll keep it in mind. Though I¡¯ll have to decide eight minutes in advance of when I want to unleash it, so I can¡¯t wait til the very last second.


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


    Tiktik¡¯s raining hell down on me each time I get fully swarmed, thank spoot for this amazing little sorceress. I, I truly couldn¡¯t do this alone. Thank you Bud, thank you Tiktik. Whatever you two do, please, please pull through this. Too many good people have died already. Please don¡¯t join them. Oof! Okay, I can¡¯t afford to get distracted or sentimen¡ª. Gurgle, grlp, ow. This one¡¯s crushing my throat. Huff, huff, and now it¡¯s ash. Thank you Tiktik.


    That¡¯s four fireballs and six lightning bolts from Tiktik. Her lightning wand could become defunct if she spends its last charge. It needs mana to maintain the runes that allow it to naturally siphon ambient mana to recharge. There might be enough residual charge left over, but if she¡¯s unlucky, the next bolt will be its last. The same with her fireball wand if she launches three more.


    I struggle against the hellish hissing voices, and roar my challenge to the approaching foes. Moments of dodging and weathering blows go by, and Tiktik destroys slews more foes while I work at keeping their attention and ending a few in simple melee combat. W-, w-, what the hell is that!? It¡¯s like a hillside approaching! It''s dropping off more forces as it rapidly closes in on me! Is that thing creating more Felgres? Tiktik, all of your firepower, on that th¡ª Oof!


    Its reach is enormous, its arms have to be a hundred meters long or more. I can feel my bones collapsing as I¡¯m still connected to its incredibly deadly sideways swipe. Even the air feels like a brick wall with how hard I¡¯m being rammed sideways against this thing¡¯s fist. Crap, I, I. I was, was really hoping not to have to use this this early. I hastily craft the runes for Steely Body, giving up my Valkyrie dagger for it. I can tell the spell takes nearly the entire blade, leaving little more than a jagged stub that remains in the sheathe that forms my belt buckle. I suddenly sink out of the air off the massive creature¡¯s fist as I become incredibly dense.


    Not the time for jokes Bud. Oh this is so nice. Several Felgres shatter their hands attempting to claw at or smash me. We¡¯ve only been fighting for a few minutes, and we¡¯re burning through resources like crazy, while it seems like the Felgre horde is actually growing in size. Come on, come on, re-ignite. Please. I spin my thunder stick again trying to call down lightning once more, and I rush heavily towards the monstrous mountain¡¯s extended arm. I scale its limb while crackling with lightning, channeling the deadly voltage to burn spiderwebs of scars into this creature¡¯s arm, destroying its nerves and muscles. I¡¯m hoping to debilitate it, to set it up for a killing blow, and thankfully it seems to be working.


    I was right about this massive beast bringing forth more of the horde. It¡¯s as if there are portals to Hell along this thing¡¯s back that briefly open in some sort of rhythm with its breathing. It¡¯s definitely bringing more forces. Worse, there¡¯s more of these monstrously enormous things in the distance. No wonder Gran Vista was overrun. It¡¯s as if the infinite abyss itself is spilling forth to drag the entirety of Rayileklia into the world of the damned.


    Maybe, maybe the horde was smaller before Gran Vista? Should I send a message back in time to the point when I met Tiktik, to tell us to make haste past Noirdivinhoz to Gran Vista? I, I can¡¯t think straight. The, the wrath and the lightning. I. I can¡¯t. It¡¯s. It¡¯s hard to think. To concentrate. It, it hurts. My eyelids are sinking.


    I¡¯m almost at the enormous creature¡¯s face when I misstep, losing my footing. I tumble off of the thing¡¯s arm, likely over a hundred feet off the ground. The increased mass of this metal form is going to work against me. I might collapse in on myself upon im¡­pact? Tiktik¡¯s feather floating token! That little rascal. She said she snuck one onto me somewhere in her list of assets. I¡¯m descending a little too gently. I¡¯m an easy target at the moment. While I may have debilitated one arm of the monstrosity, its other, equally deadly, hundred plus meter arm reaches out to snag me from the sky. It plucks me out of the sky easily and tosses me into its mouth. Well, this is certainly dreadfully familiar.


    How many things have I had to kill from inside their mouths or throats? Nearly the Cragbeast Queen, definitely the kraken, definitely Kozzurth, now some Felgre portalspawn. If we stood any chance of killing Leviathan, we would have taken it while we were in his mouth. Oh well. Let¡¯s get creative while we¡¯re in here. Ah crap, there goes my Steely Body. Already? Frickin¡¯ heck. Why does its tongue have mouths and razor teeth!? This thing is utterly horrifying in here as much as or worse than outside!


    Its breath is putrid, acrid, acidic. Thank all the spoots for the neckchain of the ever breathing. Focus Reggie. Let wrath subside for a moment. Calm down. Breathe air, and clear your head. There are several of these things, and unless we end all of them, they could overrun the entire world with an endless horde of Fel beasts. Wait, wait, there was a clue, you missed it. What was it. Their souls? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen any with my aura sight. That¡¯s not it though.


    Rayileklia is dark, that¡¯s a given, permanent acidic cloudcover will do that to a planet, but the luma tulipa provide sun-like light. The luma tulipa were being snuffed out in advance of the horde, as if they were purposely destroying them before coming into contact with the light. Hell¡¯s bells! If, if we could clear the sky! That could buy us most of the day if they¡¯re afraid of the sun!


    The, the weather spell! I don¡¯t know any of the runes. I¡¯d need Tiktik¡¯s help. Tiktik, I hope you¡¯re riding my thought train. Stay safe out there, okay? I¡¯m going to need you in a little while. Or at least when we¡¯re out of our other resources. Save some S P to try a ritual with me. In fact, save your firepower for a bit so you don¡¯t draw attention to your hiding place. I¡¯m going to hollow this thing out from the inside. Or, wait. Just how hard is it for lightning to pass through a less than pleasantly conductive material? Maybe I can blow it apart.


    I adopt a wicked grin as I focus on my thunder stick, calling all lightning in the region to my location, inside this stupid creature¡¯s face. That¡¯s right nimrod, eat Reggie Shellcracker, see what nutrition that gets you. Spinning the staff, I can feel thrum as the energy coalesces in the air, preparing to strike me. The electricity is set to ignore anything in its path. Alright, let¡¯s ¡ª.


    Argh, motherloving piece of monkey crap. One of this hideous beast¡¯s grotesque razor-toothed mouths on its tongue has my ankle. I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t sacrifice my Valkyrie armor outfit yet. Still, I¡¯m stuck in place at the moment. Well, not for long you horrific beast.


    I end my staff¡¯s spinning and conjure all the electricity to converge on me. The staff¡¯s power might even possibly be including electricity firing along the neurons of this thing¡¯s brain. That might have been overdoing it though. As I slam the staff down to engage channeling the energy, the cranium is blown clean off of this creature as a massive bolt of lightning strikes the staff, and me with it. The staff shatters into millions of pieces, but every last splinter that¡¯s fired outwards from the explosion seems to reverse course, as if magnetically attracted to one point. Me.

 B 5 C 29: Time For That

    I¡¯m peppered with enchanted wooden shrapnel, it digs into every last bit of exposed flesh, and works its way between joints and plates in my armor to strike every bit of non exposed flesh as well. It feels like my eyeballs are shredded. That, that¡¯s going to take a long time to heal, if I can even manage it. Hellspit and Fel Fires Reggie. You got carried away you idiot. Now how are you going to deal with the rest of these suckers? Bzzt. Zap! Ow! Zzz. Ow! What the?


    Every last volt of electricity left in this creature seems to be being drawn back towards me in waves. It¡¯s like the worst case of static shock on a dry, cold winter¡¯s day while wearing wool socks. I, I guess I can work with this. For now. I figured I¡¯d lose the staff, but this isn¡¯t something I factored into my plan as a possibility. I guess I just have to roll with the punches. Ow. Mother friggin¡¯ hell.


    Alright crossbow. You haven¡¯t gotten much use on Rayileklia. You specialize in anti unholy damage, mostly undead. What about hellish hordes? I really hope you work the way I think you do. Slapping the double barreled holy halefire wrist crossbow onto my right arm, I leap out the back of the enormous beast¡¯s exploded cranium, roaring my challenge to the Felgre hordes once again. I fire testingly behind me, towards the creatures that had been advancing past the enormous monstrosity while I was being eaten. Thankfully, the bolts definitely seem to hurt their targets.


    In fact, the bolts seem to hurt and anger their targets so much, that they start their disturbing, painful alien hissing speech again, seemingly ordering everyone to converge on me once more. Fine by me. Claws approach my face and I barely lean rearwards out of the way in time as my danger wraps guide my reflexes, then the unthinkable happens. The mass of electricity swirling about within me shuts down my nervous system. I crumple to the ground as my muscles stop responding. No, no no no. I¡¯m not going to spontaneously die. I¡¯m still conscious. All it takes is a bit of focus. Redirect the internal electrokinesis. Come on Reggie, you can do this. Quickly! Claws incoming!


    I suddenly cease to exist. At least, in any way that I¡¯m used to being able to exist on my own. Instead, I finally achieve something Linti had always been capable of. I become a streak of lightning and I travel up the claws of the creature attacking me. As I reform at Mach speeds from its shoulder, my buckler slams through its skull with explosive force while I¡¯m sent sailing high into the sky further behind enemy lines. It¡¯s, it¡¯s too hard to control. I streak about erratically, unable to control the careening forces tugging me about, shooting me from one target to the next. I¡¯m going to be sick, and I can tell it¡¯s burning away neurons and nerves. I have to find some way to let loose this power. I suddenly understand why Linti hit basically every obstacle and tree in her way when we traveled. Despite my attempts to stop or even slow down, I find myself being yanked ridiculously far up and down the battlefield, bouncing from Felgre to Felgre like a pinball.


    If only I ha..d¡ª. I could swear I felt a hand on my shoulder for a moment, but all sensation was messed up beyond belief. My senses are returning to normal however. Oh, that would be why. Thank you Tiktik, you amazing, beautiful sorceress. A dragon¡¯s scale that¡¯s almost twice my size begins orbiting me, drawing the excess electricity from my body. The scale appears to be made of titanium or platinum. It also appears as if it utilizes the excess electrical energy that it''s absorbing from me to rotate rapidly and discharge lightning with repelling force at anything getting close enough to strike at me. Huff, whew. She saved me. I don¡¯t even know where she is, but Tiktik saved me. That¡¯s a spell from her second largest pool of S P. The sixth rung of magic.


    There¡¯s a slap on my butt that causes me to leap in surprise. I look down to only find Tiktik¡¯s ghostly hand. You crazy little goober! I know the range on that spell! You¡¯re within a few dozen feet, out here in this horde! What are you thinking!?


    Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar sends my way, ¡°Pal, it¡¯s apocalypse o¡¯clock. I¡¯m going to use every last trick I¡¯ve got. If I had to, I was going to wrap you up in my inversion cloak and poof us back to town. I¡¯m not letting you go out like that. Teuila, she¡¯d, she¡¯d die of heartbreak. Just uh, don¡¯t explode anything for a couple of seconds, please? I had to get close to get the scale up on you. I¡¯m retreating sneakily. When my hand disappears, then go get ¡®em Tiger.¡±


    Tiger huh? Well, if I¡¯m Tiger to Tiktik, that makes her Kitten. I think we found our nicknames. I draw a deep breath and loose a sigh as I attempt to center myself and slow my breathing. I¡¯m functioning at something like two hundred percent capacity right now, while also being aided by external magics. This is as good as you¡¯re going to ever get on this planet Reggie Shellcracker. Get back to it. Fireball, holy bolts, lightning arc, dodge, weave, duck, slide, leap, fireball below me for some extra height, and another one behind me towards where Tiktik had been retreating from, to cover her escape, while also propelling me through the air towards the next Portalspawn.


    That¡¯s right you idiotic lump of meat, open wide, here comes a treat! I really, truly, probably shouldn¡¯t try this again. Come on, we¡¯ve got at least one more in us, right Reggie? Yeah, I think so. The scale should help ground us afterwards. So, you ready buddy? Sorry, not you Bud, talking to myself. Yes, yeah. Probably. Yep. Just, just rest up Bud, please. You sound awful. I mean, you sound worn out. A tiny crawlspace for Tiktik? Perfect Bud, thank you. You¡¯re brilliant.


    Anyway, let¡¯s do this. I leap upwards inside the roof of this creature¡¯s mouth while spinning, attempting to gain enough rotational force to drill outwards as I become lightning once again. Hurk. I¡¯m going to lose my lunch, my guts, and probably most of my brain cells if I try this again. Oh heavens, if I had a gastrointestinal system, I¡¯d be dropping a brick behind me. Blurgh. Okay Reggie, never do that again, until you get home to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas and can have Linti teach you. I, I know. It¡¯s unlikely to ever happen, just, just focus on the fight.


    We blast through the back side of this Fel Portalspawn¡¯s skull, only to be snagged out of the air by something we¡¯d never expected. One of the rear Fel Portalspawns has wised up, and is summoning forth some sort of flying monstrosities that seem unaffected by lightning. It¡¯s one of few things on the entire planet that might be able to safely fly around Rayileklia. No, no no no, we won¡¯t be able to keep these things out of the town! Wait! Whew. Thank you archsorc staff. This spell is one I¡¯d planned to use on Kozzurth, but she never bothered taking wing.


    I transform a massive area of the acidic cloud cover into an acidic sleet storm with fist sized spikes of hail raining down rapidly en masse. The Portalspawn that had been unleashing flying horrors upon the world is caught up in the storm, as are many of the Felgres below. More importantly, all of the creatures in the sky that had already been unleashed are now crashing to the ground, their wings shredded and melting.


    I¡¯ll need to maintain focus on this for a while, and the staff is already below half of its mana pool. Carefully, breathe slowly, we¡¯re about to impact the ground Reggie. Yeah, I know. Use just a smidgeon of inertia, use its momentum, rotate our center of mass about and piledrive this flying horror into the Felgres below.


    Hey Bud? You know how in my fake memories from the world that doesn¡¯t exist, some people cope with depression and strife and struggles by trying to maintain a level of humor? Okay, maybe you don¡¯t know. Anyway. What if I tried tackling stuff like that to stay upbeat and stop spiraling into giving up? I wish you could respond to me, obviously don¡¯t respond if it¡¯d wear you out worse. I¡¯m worried about you. I hope you¡¯re okay. I hope you¡¯re alive.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    I quip as we approach the hordes below, ¡°Hey you bunch of jerks! Guess how often these flying horrors crash? Heh. Just once!¡±


    I backflip off of the horror, kicking it crashing down with as much force as I can muster while I spin between acidic hail spikes. Grinning like an idiot, I call out to the Felgre I¡¯m about to fall on, ¡°Hey, your order¡¯s up. One knuckle sandwich, special delivery! With a side of hurts donut!¡±


    I hear Tiktik giggling across our telepathic wavelength, and I can¡¯t help but smile, despite the intense pain I¡¯m in, and the terrible odds. We¡¯ve dropped two of the enormous, mountainous Fel Portalspawn, and there¡¯s still probably half a dozen, at least. And that¡¯s just within easy sight range, let alone what might be beyond in the dark.


    I call back telepathically to Tiktik, ¡°Kitten, please, please tell me you have a lot more left in the tank with wide area? Because I¡¯m already half tapped out on even possible uses in my staff, but I¡¯m saving the rest for conjuration spells. My lightning staff is gone, though its shards are embedded in me painfully, my dagger is trashed, and I¡¯m not doing so hot myself.¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar shrugs helplessly as she pouts before responding, ¡°Sorry Tiger, nothin¡¯ left in the sticks. I can set up glyphs if you want for retreating, but they take a long time to set up, and they¡¯re not much bigger than a regular fireball. I¡¯ve got some pretty strong single target stuff, and I can sling some ambient cantrips all day long, but all I have left is basically one on one stuff.¡±


    I shake my head sadly in meat space, and have my telepathic avatar indicate the same emotion. I mentally ask, ¡°Can you be prepared to save Apheliotes when he turns back into a statue? He¡¯s going to burn out pretty fast fighting amidst all this.¡±


    Her telepathic avatar gives me a solemn nod that lets me know Tiktik is ready to jump back into the fray to rescue Apheliotes, despite the risk, when the time comes. I whisper Apheliotes Zephyrus¡¯s name as I unleash his animate incarnation from the gryphon statue. The creature of solid metal comes to life and increases in size enough to rival an elephant. Without hesitation, he throws himself into the fray based on my subconscious desire. I know he¡¯s technically just a magic item, but I¡¯d still feel awful to lose him all the same.


    Leaping back into the fray and landing amidst a pack of Felgres, I rapidly fire my holy halefire crossbow, tearing holes in my foes, gaining their attention once more. Apheliotes and I fight in separate directions. He fights out of the horde towards town to slow the horde¡¯s advance, I fight deeper into the horde to get to more of the Fel Portalspawns.


    I¡¯m in so much pain from taking on too much electricity, and the crushing blows I¡¯ve already been dealt. I can barely focus on the combat, let alone keep track of resources I¡¯ve already used up. I have to be careful though. One slipup with my resources and it¡¯s all over. If I pass out now, I die, that¡¯s it, no coming back, no traveling back in time to send a message to myself to keep the mistake from happening, nothing. I, I used what, sixty six runes for a swiftly cast Steely Body. I¡¯m pretty sure that between sleeping with Tiktik, and meditating outside of town, I should be topped off on S P. I¡¯m sitting at around five hundred ninety more S P before my muscles begin becoming unresponsive, based on my last daily safe usage. Nine hundred twenty four S P from now I immediately drop unconscious, period.


    What if, what if I bend the system? If I quicken the fifth tier of mana construct, but then recast empowering that same set of runes rapidly in succession? I should only have to pay the quickening cost once. I know from study that master sorcerers can occasionally spot traces of previously empowered runes free-floating in the atmosphere, and utilize those to speed their casting. With all this extra electricity running through me, maybe I can form some sort of magnetic cage or something to keep the runes from dispersing. At least for a few seconds.


    Let¡¯s do the math, a quickened cast brings me down around five hundred thirty S P, and re-empowering those same runes I can do maybe fifteen times safely, then I probably won¡¯t have enough S P left for another full safe spell. Is that the right choice here? Sixteen more allies on the field, allies that don¡¯t bleed or die or turn into grief-stricken memories when they vanish? Each of them as powerful as several Felgres put together? I can¡¯t think of a better use of my S P at the moment for taking out these Fel hordes.


    I attempt to leap atop the backs and skulls of my foes, but I¡¯m suddenly struck by the feeling of slamming my face into a brick wall as a migraine explodes through the right side of my head and face. I topple down amidst the Felgres, and the enormous dragon scale that has been protecting me shrinks as it absorbs blow after blow in my stead. The pain is so nauseating that I¡¯m left vomiting until I can only dry heave on the field of battle. I wanted to do this from a better vantage, to summon my constructs near the Fel Portalspawn bringing forth flying Felgres. I¡¯m not certain how long I can maintain the hailstorm that¡¯s grounding them. Especially with this worsening migraine.


    I¡¯m going to have to do it here, while the scale is still protecting me. Despite the waves of sick I¡¯ve unleashed, and the flopping of my stomach, I quickly craft the fifth tier of the monstrous mana construct conjuration spell. Inspired by Apheliotes tearing through the hordes behind me, I conjure a gryphon of pure mana. Working my internal electrokinesis I manage to suspend the runes between my hands momentarily. During this brief moment, my conjured gryphon is clearing the nearby Felgres from my line of sight so that I can gaze towards the Fel Portalspawn that¡¯s spewing flying Felgres.


    I conjure forth what I hope is a balanced myriad of mana constructs. I call on two of each elemental, two shadow hounds, and five additional gryphons. My hope is that the gryphons and wind elementals can keep air superiority to prevent any further Fel Portalspawns from getting the big idea to summon more flying creatures. The shadow hounds jobs will be to infiltrate the skulls of the Fel Portalspawns and destroy their brains, since they can move through the tiniest of gaps in a nearly ethereal fashion. The stone, fire, and water elementals are on the ground, with me, beginning to draw our line in the sand as Apheliotes and Tiktik mop up the foes behind us, closer to the town.


    I cast my senses about for Tiktik, trying to observe her psychically. She and Apheliotes are a vicious whirlwind of combined force, slaying stragglers, and any that still make it past me in their reckless charge.


    Still, seeing Tiktik sets me to worrying about her. The membranous field of mana about her takes on an icy sheen, and is simultaneously wreathed in flames. She mentioned those spells, and it¡¯s amazing to see them in action, though worrying. It means her reflexes aren¡¯t quite quick enough to get her out of the way of many blows.


    Her armor occasionally forms a kite shield strapped to one of her wrists to help her guard against blows, but more and more attacks slip by her reflexes and defenses, battering into her mana field. Thankfully, Felgres that connect pay a massive price as their limbs are either seared to ash, or frozen and shattered, or exploded by the combination of fire and ice. I know that each hit though wears down Tiktik¡¯s mana field, and she¡¯s starting to show signs of weariness.


    Tiktik telepathically teases me, chastising, ¡°Pay attention to your own fight Tiger, I got this, I¡¯m good. I swear. We¡¯re starting to push back the tide entirely, or at least hold our ground.¡±


    I adopt a half smile as I nod solemnly. She¡¯s right, I have to pay attention to my own fight. But what bit of fighting can I even do while I focus on directing these mana constructs? Most of my weaponizable spells are used up, my own S P pool is nearly empty, and I don¡¯t even have a dagger or staff or any other weapon I can safely fight with any longer. Wait. I can pull out a bigger weapon. Knowledge. I know this is a stupid time for it, but I pull out the book containing the weather control spell, sit in lotus position, and begin committing the spell¡¯s runes to memory. I don¡¯t really have time for that, but I¡¯m running out of options and ideas.


    Can I practice them in thinkspace? Instead of killing myself practicing them externally? Even if I¡¯m capable of doing so, will it translate to the precise twitch-muscle-memory in meat space? I¡¯ve never thought to actually train while in thinkspace, not even when I had accelerated thinkspace available. Let¡¯s try this at least. If nothing else, we¡¯ll, err, I¡¯ll carve the runes out in thinkspace so that Tiktik can see them. As a last ditch effort, we¡¯ll try to ritually cast it together.


    I absentmindedly let my right arm be guided by my danger wrap senses to aim about and fire off my holy halefire crossbow while I focus on learning the runes. The thoughts I use to telepathically direct my conjured mana constructs, I shove down into a subconscious mental subroutine that basically boils down to, stay alive, kill Felgres. I¡¯m very, very tempted to pull out the nuclear option, and follow it up with calling all my power from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It¡¯s not yet time for that though. For now, slaying a Felgre every few seconds absentmindedly while reading is going to have to suffice until I have a more concrete plan.

 B 5 C 30: Lightning Straying From Thunder

    Think Reggie, think. Take into account even slim possibilities. Plan. You¡¯ve done this before. Multitask your mind, see the paths through the timeline, the outcomes. If one or more of the colossi happens to show up, either just from wandering by to trade, or if they¡¯re brought back with Teuila, anything like that, we can set up a massive barrier, and chasm, separating us from the horde. Or, if worse comes to worse, their geokinesis can be used to cave Autumn Brook in on top of a large section of the horde if the horde makes it that far. I wonder if I could get Tiktik to ride Apheliotes out of here to seek out one or more plains Colossi. I¡¯m sure if I formed a concrete plan, she¡¯d agree if it seemed necessary. Keep thinking.


    Right, we still have the possibility of the weather control spell. I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s only about two thirty in the morning at this point though, we would need sunlight above to even bother trying the weather control fallback. Teuila left about twelve hours ago, she probably won¡¯t be back for another twelve hours. How the hell am I going to keep this up for twelve more hours? Or even just five more hours before trying our weather control fallback? I¡¯m two hours into this fight and almost entirely tapped out.


    If only I could access my full suite of Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian thermokinesis on demand without killing myself, or taking eight minutes per ability. Or, at the very least, my FBF, my Frost-Burn Fist Style so that I could be throwing out SIPs, Subzero Ice Punches. It¡¯d give me at least a weapon to keep fighting with. The crossbow is great, but it¡¯s taking longer and longer to form holy halefire bolts at this point. It¡¯s not like I have access to any other ele¡ª. Wait. I¡¯m embedded with every shred of shrapnel from the thunder stick, and overflowing with electrical energy to the point that I¡¯m nearly dying moment by moment if it weren¡¯t for Tiktik¡¯s dragon scale spell absorbing the excess.


    I was able to form a magnetic cage fairly easily. What if I¡ª? Testingly, I focus the excess electrical energy about my fists. I watch in awe as I¡¯m able to form a vague semblance of spiked gauntlets, katars, or other fist mounted weapons. I, I think this is mine now. The staff is a part of me, and it keeps siphoning excess electricity out of the air into me. To stay alive, I need to be using it.


    Reggie Shellcracker? Yeah? Guess what you just did? Hm? You leveled up an ability buddy. Might as well have a name for it for when we finally meet back up with the triple L squad. I guess I could call it my electro shock puncher style, my esper style, as I throw around ESPs, electro shock punches. I¡¯m sure Lil would get a kick out of that, if, if they don¡¯t hate me.


    Right, can¡¯t spare the energy to go down that thought trail. Five to twelve hours of battling before even a chance of reprieve. I hope to all that¡¯s good and holy, that Harriet is getting everyone out of the town. A plan is starting to form. A bit after dawn, I¡¯ll drop into a fighting retreat to get to Tiktik, and we¡¯ll try to cast the weather control spell as a ritual together, setting it up that way, we might be able to open a permanent hole in the clouds over Autumn Brook, though it could take an entire hour to cast it that way. I think it¡¯s worth it.


    If our spell succeeds, it gives The Brook itself the entire day in safety, but we¡¯ll need to keep fighting to keep the attention of the horde anyway, so that they don¡¯t just walk around to the south, or ride the Fel Portalspawn out into the lake. If they go around us, evacuees are going to die rapidly. As tiring as it is, we have to remain their focal point.


    If the spell doesn¡¯t succeed, we continue doing much the same, just with no guarantee that we can fall back for even a moment¡¯s breather. There¡¯ll be no guarantee that the residents of The Brook have most of a day to get organized and evacuate. Either way, Tiktik, Apheliotes, me, and my mana constructs are in for a grueling day. When most of my mana constructs have fallen, I¡¯ll throw the elemental stones out, summon a true fire elemental with the archsorc staff, and read the scroll of protection from elementals. That¡¯s the nuclear option, because it¡¯s as risky to everyone around us as it is to our enemies. I know the fire elemental will technically at least agree to my requests, if not obey my commands, when it¡¯s summoned from the staff, but the others are deadly to everyone.


    When all is said and done, hopefully by evening, Teuila will have returned, and hopefully with several plains Colossi, or at least one. Teuila can take over the fight, if she isn¡¯t dead tired from the round trip, and I¡¯ll coordinate with the Colossi to set up Autumn Brook as a massive sinkhole ready to crumble when the horde mostly fills it. If Teuila is dead tired, then I¡¯ll just give her the directions to share with the Colossi. I only hope that Te is as genre savvy as me, and is expecting to return to some sort of apocalyptic scenario, so that she would invite or request the presence of one or more Colossi of the plains.


    I guess I can¡¯t plan for more than that. How are my mana constructs doing? Drat, one stone elemental construct dissipated just now. Huff. It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay. They bought me enough time to at least memorize these runes, and carve them into my mindscape. The Felgres launching meat missiles occasionally knock one of my mana construct gryphons from the sky by injuring their wings, but, being mana constructs, their wings just reshape after they crash down and cause havoc among the horde.


    Meat missiles aren¡¯t the only things being lobbed around anymore though. More Felgres are either ripping bone spikes from themselves, or each other, or their fallen companions, and launching those. Some are even able to simply eject the bone spikes as projectiles without ripping them from their bodies. I need to take out the ones that are able to launch flaming bone spikes, so that my gryphons don¡¯t all start dissipating from damage. My shadow hounds are still working stealthily about the battlefield, clawing their ways up and into Fel Portalspawns¡¯ skulls and tearing them apart from the inside. Good.


    Stolen story; please report.


    I slump over for a moment, panting from exertion. I¡¯m struck by a gory glob of flesh from afar, but it does little more than send me tumbling. I end up rolling a ways to one side before coming to a halt. Gasping for breath and struggling through the migraine eating away at the right side of my skull and face, I dash to close the distance with the horde, leaving the relative safety of the small clearing that had been carved out by one of my constructs.


    Though I feel weak, exhausted, literally burned out, and burning alive, I find my punches easier to throw than ever. It¡¯s as if sending the electricity down my arms to form weapons along my fists is either sending my fists along with the energy, or is magnetically drawing my attacks to their targets. Either way, I¡¯m grateful for the boon. Too many incoming at once! I leap away from a Felgre I¡¯d been about to slay as the area is peppered with obsidian bone spikes. The horde slays one of their own while attempting to end me, but I miraculously spin through the hail of projectiles. I¡¯m nearly untouched, save for one flying shard that grazes a deep gash above my hip along my torso. Contact with the hellish projectile seems to loose a curse upon my body. Fel fires attempt to overtake my wound, struggling to char it open.


    I hiss, ¡°That hurts like hell! Yes, I see the irony, and you¡¯re about to see some iron up close and personal!¡±


    Despite the wound aching and burning like hell, my thermal resistance manages to quell the cursed fire rather quickly. I sigh with relief as I close the gap towards a cluster of Felgres that are able to launch their hellish obsidian bone spikes. Drawing what¡¯s left of my dagger, I test a theory. Sure enough, I can extend the electricity along the handle, up what¡¯s left of the blade, and produce at least a short blade of electricity. I can¡¯t exactly fire off lightning blasts, but lets see what happens when I throw this. Hyah!


    That worked better than expected, though it¡¯ll be a pain in the ass to keep retrieving my dagger. I tap two more Felgre Bonelaunchers with ESPs to their craniums. My fists cave in their skulls after several punches, leaving massive jolts of energy within, and I dash aside as the electricity blows their brains apart from the inside. Standing over the corpse of the third, I retrieve my Valkyrie dagger, and lock it back into the buckle-sheath. Yeah, this is koff, going to koff, be too much of a hassle. What about other projectiles?


    I drop to my knees in a coughing fit as exhaustion fights to overtake me. While I¡¯m down here, I may as well collect a few of these Fel bone fragments to experiment with. Argh, nope. They resist taking my electrokinesis extension. Still, I launch them at the nearest Felgre¡¯s face while I continue dashing about the battlefield, making a nuisance of myself as I stray further and further from Autumn Brook. I keep the horde harassed and harried as I hurry towards the next Fel Portalspawn. Thankfully, it seems like I¡¯m quite effective at ticking off the hordes of Hel. Or Hell. Whatever. Who knows.


    It¡¯s almost funny how far away the thunder sounds in the distance of Rayileklia¡¯s permanently gloomy skies. Lightning cracks off somewhere in the distance, and the thunder travels after, but here¡¯s me, so far from the source of that sound, spreading lightning all around. I stray about the battlefield, slamming into one Felgre after another after another. There¡¯s just no end to them, and I¡¯m starting to get deep enough into the horde, that the ones further to the west are turning away to continue advancing towards Tiktik and Autumn Brook. I¡¯ve strayed too far. I need to get back to the fore of the horde and make myself known.


    I recall my mana constructs other than my shadow hounds. I leave the hounds on their stealth assassination missions. Leaping into the air, I let one of my gryphons catch me in a talon as I rain down holy halefire bolts across the horde, injuring, annoying, and slaying quite a number of Felgres. Studying the composition of my water elemental construct, I understand that it¡¯s not truly water, or truly an elemental, so I¡¯m struck with an idea. On Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I was able to convert kinetic heat energy into mana. At the moment, I¡¯m brimming with extra electrical energy.


    Ordering my gryphon to drop me, I land on my water elemental, yelling, ¡°Surf¡¯s up!¡±


    I let electricity flow from me in waves as the water elemental construct flows swiftly across the battlefield. Sure enough, despite the normal duration and power of one of these constructs being quite limited, my current surf upon this turf is becoming supercharged. I¡¯m not sure how much it can handle, even with it allowing electricity to pass into many Felgres that we slide through. I¡¯d rather not be caught up in some kind of massive critical electrical energy nova, so I leap off of the supercharged elemental. I¡¯m fairly certain I can only do that to the two water elemental constructs currently, so I seek out the other one, to supercharge it. Since they emulate properties of water, they function somewhat as capacitors. Especially since most water on Rayileklia has at least some amount of acid. They¡¯re basically animate batteries.


    Now that I¡¯ve added a few extra tricks to our side of the field of play, I feel like there¡¯s a slightly increased slim chance of surviving long enough to be done with things. But I¡¯m, I¡¯m so, so sleepy. So tired. No no no! Reggie keep it together! Stay awake! This is too many spells and concentrations and mental subroutines, so many of them would vanish if you black out. You can¡¯t afford to let that happen! First, we¡¯d lose all these allies, secondly, we¡¯d probably explode with the constant buildup of electrical energy. Lastly, well, we¡¯d just be killed by Felgres if we lost consciousness now. You can¡¯t sleep for a very, very long time my friend.


    Since when are we friends? Uh, since forever, I¡¯m you, remember? Oh, right, right. Hellspit and Fel fires, my personality is fracturing further. I¡¯m going utterly bonkers. Just, I¡¯m just so exhausted. Oh no, my limbs, but, but I haven¡¯t been crafting any more runes. Why are they suddenly leaden? My dashing westward becomes a dizzied stagger. My migraine''s ache sends waves of blurriness over my vision.


    As my vision blurs, I stumble, reaching a hand out, pleadingly, I beg, ¡°T-Tiktik. Kitten. I, I need¡ª.¡± I falter, my consciousness beginning to drift away from me.

 B 5 C 31: The Cunning

    A voice calls out, ¡°Bolstering the three of us!  Hang in there Tiger!¡±


    Everything begins to go dark, though some fatigue vanishes from my muscles as a warmth passes over me.  What seems like only a moment later, blissfully pure water is splashed on my face, and I gulp it down.  I¡¯m just now realizing now that, despite the constant semi-acidic drizzle, I¡¯d been dehydrating rapidly while under this much electricity, suffering this many blasts of flame and Fel fires.  Life saving fluid continues to pour seemingly endlessly as I slowly blink.


    The magical wood shrapnel in my eyes makes blinking excruciating.  I must have unknowingly kept my eyes open for the last however long to avoid that pain.  It¡¯s only about three or four in the morning at the moment, so it can¡¯t have been too long.  Still, going without blinking while being set aflame and burning alive from electricity overload is a bit rough.  No wonder my eyelids feel heavy.


    So much pure water.  Oh.  Wait.  Tiktik!  She¡¯s standing over my collapsed form, battling back Felgres that approach us while her ghostly hand holds her bottle of everpure over my face.  Each time her staff strikes a Felgre, that particular creature is wreathed in mana and vibrates so intensely that it pauses momentarily.  As soon as it moves again, that mana wreathe violently explodes with a thunderous crash, shattering limbs, or caving in skulls.  Seems this little Kitten¡¯s got some potent claws.


    Tiktik¡¯s mental avatar winks in my mind¡¯s eye as she asks, ¡°You good now Tiger?  Had me worried there for a second.  You and I both lost a gryphon while you were down, even though I bolstered Apheliotes, but I snagged his statue, safe and sound.¡±


    I rattle my head as I try to focus on what Tiktik¡¯s asking of me, but my brain is still addled from the energy overload.  I fire off holy halefire bolts around Tikik¡¯s sides as she defends my prone form.  Panting, and struggling, I slowly stand once more.  The electricity has built back up all about the insides of my body, and is edging dangerously close to my heart.  Drawing air deeply into my lungs, I exhale a breath through puffed cheeks.  Focus Reggie.  I shake my right fist once, slamming a significant portion of electricity down along my arm to coalesce as another lightning gauntlet.  I repeat with my left arm, grunting in pain as the energy burns along every nerve fiber in my arms.


    Kitten asked me a question, right?  What was it again?  Oh yeah, am I good?  I¡¯m not sure what my answer is, since my brain¡¯s so addled.  Hm, I suppose I¡¯m great, totally fine and dandy.  Uh, err, other than the personality fracture, the migraine, the dizziness, and the inability to take a breather due to electrical overload.  Actually, I might not be that great, considering all those factors.  I might be rather terrible in fact.  Still, she managed to provide me enough impetus to keep going for the moment.  Her telepathic avatar frowns at me, realizing how bad of shape I¡¯m in.


    Tiktik speaks aloud something that sounds rather like a prayer, ¡°Gift, blessing, hospitality of the Fae, grace us in our task ahead that we may solve the problems we face.¡±  I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s a spell incantation, or something innate to Tiktik¡¯s particular Fae species, because I feel a film of mana wrap around me after she finishes her statement.


    I¡¯m feeling a fair bit better after whatever Tiktik just did, even if it was just motivating me and cheering me on.  I¡¯m fairly certain it was magical though.  Thinking on what Tiktik just did, I flash her a smile as I resume fighting.  As I fire bolts at more Felgres, I telepathically joke, ¡°So, we¡¯re a couple of problem solvers.  Violent problem solvers, know the name for people like that?¡±


    Since Kitten¡¯s telepathic avatar raises an eyebrow at me curiously, I continue, ¡°They would call us troubleshooters.  But there¡¯s trouble with the name troubleshooters.  The types of trouble we tackle often shoots back.¡±


    Tiktik smirks and looses a half laugh across our telepathic bond.  As much as I want to continue to be near her to avoid my usual mental issues, we have to get back to separate sides of the battlefield to reduce how many Felgres can get past us.  Thanks for saving me again Kitten.


    Her telepathic response starts with, ¡°Any time Tiger,¡± and ends with a wink.


    I follow Tiktik¡¯s escape path with my senses as long as I can afford to, knowing that she can take care of herself.  My mana constructs begin dropping left and right, and panic wells up within me.  What could even be causing such swift destruction?  There!  Over there!  It¡ª. What is that!?  What are those!?  Apparently there¡¯s some other new type of Felgre beyond the couple types I¡¯ve seen, slightly more lithe rather than blocky bricks of flesh like the others.  When it picks up the obsidian bone spikes from the corpses of its allies, those bone spikes melt down and morph, reforming as weapons like axes and spears.


    I narrowly dodge a thrown spear, but I realize as it passes me, it¡¯s on a perfect path to intersect Tiktik¡¯s escape route.  I barely manage to uppercut the rear tip of the spear in time, altering its course.  Of course, while distracted trying to prevent a missile heading for Tiktik, more missiles converge on me.  Several are blocked by the dragon scale still circling me, despite its diminished size.  Others bounce off my shield, or armor.


    One spear makes it through my reflexes and defenses, passing along my neck in a way that should sever my carotid artery as it scrapes my jugular.  Instead, the film of mana that Tiktik had just placed on me converges on the point of impact.  The mana ends up softening the edge and force of the blow before becoming spent and dissipating entirely.  I¡¯m left with barely a scratch along my neck, and no more mana barrier.


    Huff.  Saved yet again, only a few minutes since the last time.  I can¡¯t tell if I¡¯m the luckiest person across several universes, or the unluckiest.  Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar jokes, ¡°Luckiest, definitely the luckiest Tiger.  You got your Teuila, and just happened to be traveling a route that I was tracking?  Luckiest.¡±


    Snrk.  I snort a short laugh while tossing more ESPs around.  I¡¯m starting to find my rhythm and flow, despite the intense, excruciating agony swirling about beneath my skin, I somehow feel calm, at peace.  It¡¯s almost like being at home.  I don¡¯t think I¡¯m at home on the battlefield, but in those last months on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, we spent endless hours battling back the hordes of mite hulks.  This is incredibly reminiscent of t¡ª.  The mite hulks.  Rayileklia has its own version that live underground beneath the mountain range!  Crap!


    I skewer another Felgre¡¯s face on my lightning gauntlets before dropping prone to the ground, sinking my ear into the acidic mud, listening.  I cast my senses about as widely as I can while I draw back several of my mana constructs to cover me.  Teuila said they could burrow, but she didn¡¯t say how long it would take them to tunnel out of a cave-in.  Okay, phew.  I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any subterranean horde working its way along tunneling underneath this section of Aasimovia at least.  I lose track of the, I don¡¯t even know what to call them, Felgre Special Ops due to my momentary panic.  Huff, phew.  Okay constructs, get back to it.


    Several minutes pass as I scan the battlefield while doling out death and destruction.  There¡¯s one of the uniquely powerful Felgres creeping along the shore to my north, heading towards the fog bank where Tiktik is fighting.  I don¡¯t think so pal.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    I call out to the creature, ¡°Hey, anyone ever tell ya you¡¯re similar to a prime steak?  You¡¯re both in need of tenderizing.  I¡¯m happy to oblige!¡±


    Despite it seemingly not speaking my language, I get its attention all the same, especially after the uppercut to its jaw as I slip within its reach.  The sneaky butt monkey morphs its weapon into a kusarigama though, and pulls the hooked blade back towards me, catching my shoulder armor.  It¡¯s attack ends up bouncing along my shoulder such that it could shorten me by a head at neck level.  Thankfully, dropping limp on my left side allows me to fall beneath its strike.  These things are clever.  Everything else seemed to be like hateful walls of meat just plodding destructively in mostly a single direction.  They¡¯re cunning.  Heck, that could be their name, The Cunning, or Felcunnings.  Felcuns for short.  Works for me.


    Just going to have to tag this Felcun with another punch.  A Felcun punch.  Holy crap it¡¯s fast!  Is it leaving after images?  Wait!  Teuila¡¯s ability!  I leap out of the circle the Felcun is creating out of its after images, or fore-images, just in time to avoid it morphing its weapon into a spear that would have run me through.  Huff, huff.  Dangit, exhausted again, panting.


    These Felcun things are tough too, it didn¡¯t go down with an ESP to the jaw, and isn¡¯t going down with several more to the kidney areas along its back.  Dangit, it¡¯s like it has some sort of magic enhancing its durability against, well, at least my current attacks.  What about its own though?  None of them seem immune to their own Fel fires, and their obsidian bone spikes seem to penetrate their flesh easily enough.


    Okay, flip a ways away Reggie, dodge several projectiles, and get low.  Center yourself, prepare for a lunge, a feint, and a redirected attack.  I¡¯m not sure what it¡¯ll morph its weapon into after the feint, but if I¡¯m lucky, it¡¯ll keep a sharp edge along the inside of its reach, knowing that I can close on it quickly.  Here it comes!  As expected, the lunge is a feint, clever dickweasel.  Now for my own feint, close in, looking as if I¡¯m going for a gap-closing strike, but watch the weapon.


    As expected, it¡¯s morphing again this time.  Almost, almost.  Now!  I drop below its reactive inward swipe by throwing all my center of gravity backwards along the top of my body while kicking upwards.  I throw all of my electrokinetic energy into a flip kick that connects with the thing¡¯s dominant hand.  Its own inward swiping momentum, and my kick¡¯s upward force are too great a combined strike for it to stop, and the Felcun beheads itself.  Phew.


    Great, just like five more of those on the battlefield to find and deal with.  Oh, my water elementals have two of them, that¡¯s good.  Hm, seems like my wind elementals are carrying two over a¡ª.  Oo that¡¯s gruesome.  An area where a mass of obsidian spikes lay upturned now has two Felcun bodies impaled upon them.  That¡¯s four.  Where is the¡ª Genre senses!


    I dash away from my position as the fifth Felcun drops down seemingly from out of thin air with a heavy hammering blow that causes a crater where I¡¯d just been standing.  As I square up to get a read on its fighting style, it instead dashes away past me along the shore to the west.  No!  Tiktik!  I lean in the direction it¡¯s headed, and leap into a sprint chasing after it, but it¡¯s too fast.  Hey Reggie, remember your entrance exhibition matches in Eimsas to earn entrance into their military?  Yeah, sure, wh¡ª.  Ah, right, the frost mages match.


    I lean completely horizontally, and just before impacting the gore-covered ground, I begin jettisoning excess electrical charge from my fists and feet in small bursts.  I struggle to keep my limbs parallel to the ground as they trail behind me like thrusters.  I snag an obsidian spike from the corpse of a Felgre that I pass over, and grip it in my teeth as I aim dead on to spear this Felcun in the back of the neck.


    Somehow it senses me and whirls at the last moment, its immense hammer comes crashing down on my back just as my improvised spear tip sinks into the flesh of its neck.  I twist my neck, half-severing the Felcun¡¯s head as I suffer what should be a spine-shattering blow.  The Felcun¡¯s hammer should connect with my mid-back, but apparently Tiktik¡¯s dragon scale spell still has at least one impact left in it, thank goodness.  Plenty of kinetic force still transfers into me as I¡¯m slammed down into the ground, but at least I¡¯m not broken in half backwards in the center of a Reggie-crater.


    The Felcun stumbles back, gripping the wide gaping wound across half of its neck neck with its free hand.  It starts morphing its weapon with its dominant hand.  Its weapon becomes a massive scythe with nearly a dozen spears as cross bars along the handle.  Ugh, that¡¯s just not even fair.  Crap, it¡¯s closing in on me quickly.


    As I roll to the side, I grumble, ¡°Oh just die already.¡±  Thankfully, the Felcun obliges as one of my gryphons, perhaps the last one, swoops in and finishes taking its head off.


    I drop to my hands and knees in the divot that was nearly a Reggie-crater as I pant in exhaustion.  I¡¯m grateful beyond belief for these mana constructs and for Tiktik¡¯s aid.  Keeping the constructs up though is starting to cause my vision to go all funhouse-of-mirrors wobbly and distorted.  I¡¯m afraid parts of my brain or eyes are going to explode if I keep them up, but I don¡¯t have much choice.


    This spell isn¡¯t meant to be carried out multiple times at once, let alone maintained this long on multiple mana paths at once.  I think the only reason I¡¯m able to do it is because of my experience granting energy tethers for long periods to multiple people back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  Even then, that action, and this one, have both edged dangerously close to killing me.  Heaving a sigh, I throw myself back into the fray as the time ticks away.


    It must be around five am or five thirty by now, we¡¯ve been battling for hours.  I stopped hearing telltale ticking some time ago now, but Tiktik knew we had to spread out, so that¡¯s not too alarming.  The majority of my conjured mana constructs, besides the supercharged water elemenetals, are starting to fritz out, and my shadow hounds are so far outside of my sensory range that I don¡¯t even know if they¡¯re still active.  I need to start setting us up to try the weather control ritual.  Heading back west towards town, I understand why Bud sounds so weak and tired when I see what he¡¯s been working on.  He must have been spending every last ounce of his power for these last several hours.  Hell, Bud might have even started this barrier while I was meditating and snoozing on the path, doing some sort of sub-surface geo-manipulation to set up the rest of his effort.


    There¡¯s a massive vine-covered stone wall risen straight out of the ground.  The vines have thorns the size of daggers.  It must stretch for at least a mile, if not several miles, south by southwest, from the edge of the lake itself, even a ways out into the lake¡¯s shallows.  Bud, this sort of thing shouldn¡¯t be possible outside The Heart.  Are you okay?  You must be so tired, please don¡¯t die from this.  I thought you¡¯d just direct roots to angle up into spear-like spike walls or something.  I¡¯m so worried about you Bud.


    Bud remains unresponsive, though I sense his magical aura located within the pouch about my neck.  He¡¯s a powerful artifact weapon, but he¡¯d prefer to be a tool rather than a weapon.  He likes to alter and create, not harm or kill.  I could really use an artifact weapon that wants to be a weapon right now, but I¡¯m not going to hold Bud¡¯s desires against him.  I¡¯m more worried for him than worried about having a sharper, longer, pointier stick in a fight.


    Glancing around though, I don¡¯t spy Tiktik, and the fact that she isn¡¯t immediately projecting her telepathic avatar into my mindscape in response to my thinking of her is exceedingly worrying.  Setting what¡¯s left of my mana constructs in a roughly north to south line just east of the wall, I cast my senses about for Tiktik¡¯s mana trail using my aura vision.  Come on Kitten, come on.  Where are you?  You¡¯re too tough to go down without¡ª.   Tiktik!  She¡¯s slumped in the mass of fog generated by the bottle, resting against a rock while cradling her torso.  She¡¯s breathing, but not conscious.  She at least withdrew to a semi safe location before letting herself pass out.  Whew.


    My silent sonar doesn¡¯t detect a massive pool of blood around Tiktik, though the sense does indicate she¡¯s suffering several lacerations.  The more concerning damage is the broken, pulverized bones she¡¯s suffering.  She¡¯s not Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, so those injuries will last an incredibly long time.  I gulp back regret that squirms about within my throat, clawing its way towards my brain to wrestle me into despair.  I can¡¯t give in to it.  Tiktik agreed to take the risks alongside us.


    Hell¡¯s bells.  I¡ª.  I don¡¯t stand even the remotest chance at casting the weather spell without her help.  Tiktik might be able to cast it on her own, utilizing a mix of her glyph crafting spells, and whatever S P pools she has left available.  She might even siphon off some ambient mana while resting like this, enabling her to rejuvenate some of her S P pools.  She¡¯s the better sorceress.  If we have any hope of opening the sky up over Autumn Brook, Tiktik is it.

 B 5 C 32: Unlikely Assistance

    I tuck the spellbook containing the weather control spell into the crook of Tiktik¡¯s arm. Leaning down, I kiss her forehead. I know I shouldn¡¯t even spare the moment, but Kitten¡¯s been such a courageous fighter, out here risking it all against an endless Fel horde. I hope she awakens soon. I know she¡¯ll know what to try to do with the book, but, well, huff. I don¡¯t know how much longer I can survive out here.


    Charging back into the fray, I notice the draconic scale that had been orbiting and protecting me has vanished entirely. It¡¯s likely been gone since Tiktik lost consciousness, and I just didn¡¯t notice it until now. I took it for granted, crap. Without it siphoning off excess electricity generated, I¡¯m not certain how to even survive my own new power. The enchanted splinters are working their way deeper into my body, merging with me. Worse, I¡¯m realizing a part of why the staff¡¯s splinters are reacting the way they are. They¡¯re coated in cursed, Fel blood. The flames of the Fel when coming into contact with most things, burns almost endlessly, far hotter, and far longer than a simple fire. Their blood is cursed to either create, or endure such flames or other frightening effects.


    The strange mix of Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic equipment, cursed Fel blood, my own unusual Fae nature, and any other number of odd unique factors about me is creating a complex process that my body doesn¡¯t understand how to handle. My biology is muddled, disoriented, unbalanced as it tries to heal from the shrapnel damage, closing wounds around the slivers, splinters, and shards. If I can¡¯t figure out some way to permanently direct this electricity, or to undo whatever process my body is currently going through, I¡¯ll be dead before I next awaken after a slumber. Think Reggie, think.


    Whoops! That was a close one. Got rocked by a haymaker and nearly ended up impaled on a separate Felgre¡¯s spikes. Err, so instead of just thinking, think while fighting, keep moving. You still have to survive for this to even matter. Seconds of combat become minutes, and the minutes bleed together monotonously. To break up the monotony, even though they can¡¯t understand me, I quip towards my foes, ¡°I know you Felgres must be finding this a shocking experience, but trust me when I say this whole battle is electrifying to me.¡±


    I hear the faintest telepathic snort, followed by a sleepy titter that lessens my worries. Tiktik¡¯s partially regaining consciousness, even if only slightly. Good. I knew Kitten was too tough to be down for the count. Hellspit and Fel Fires, we¡¯ve still got probably six to eight hours before Teuila might return. I don¡¯t even have anyone that I can ask about how the evacuations are going. I¡¯m down to one gryphon, the two supercharged water elementals, and the two wind elementals that have mostly just been grounding any straggling fliers that occasionally show up.


    Come on Reggie, keep at it, focus. You¡¯re as alive as you¡¯re going to get, take advantage of it. How do you discharge excess electrical energy, passively, even when sleeping? Huff, huff, exhausting thinking while fighting. Dodging is getting harder as the electricity burns along the inside of my muscles. If only I had something that absorbed¡ª. What. The archsorc staff can do -that-!? Ah, but too much, and then that staff explodes too. It¡¯s a bit awkward, but I could quite possibly have the archsorc staff blasting off lightning bolts into the sky or ground, even while sleeping, if I can figure out the exact rate of buildup, and set up a mental subroutine to take care of it.


    Hm, despite the massive buildup within me, the conversion rate is poor. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be in danger of overloading the archsorc staff any time soon, though going from nearly empty to a full pool of S P in the staff will no longer take two to three days, that¡¯s for sure. Good, that¡¯s fine. It doesn¡¯t exactly solve the problem immediately, nor does it grant me effectively infinite mana like my thermokinesis could on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, but it definitely helps with both issues. Still, my muscles are grateful for the reprieve from the intense strain of all the additional voltage. Minutes continue to bleed together, stretching into an hour, or hours. With the destruction of the last luma tulipa in the area, I can no longer tell what time it is.


    Crap, the wind elementals are starting to fritz, as is my last gryphon. I call back all three constructs so that I can at least experiment before they fade. Reaching into the wind elemental mana constructs, I¡¯m suddenly beset upon by tears streaming down my face. The second ally I ever lost. Sylphie. She was a wind elemental spirit on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. She died for my hubris. I¡ª. Glp. I can¡¯t think about this right now. Focus.


    Feel the wind, sink into its embrace and let it draw the electricity that is freely flowing from me. Try to overcharge them. They won¡¯t effectively be animate batteries or capacitors like the water elementals, but the wind, sky, air, and lightning are all closely related in magic. It seems to have at least refreshed their duration, good. Okay you two, get back out there. Cause some havoc amongst the horde.


    Hey, last gryphon? With Tiktik unconscious, I need you to carry her to the other side of the barrier. Okay? Be gentle with her, take the smoking bottle with you. Make sure you don¡¯t lose the book either. While you¡¯re taking care of her, I¡¯ll begin preparations for the nuclear option. While you¡¯re over on the other side of the barrier, scout the outskirts of the town for any Felgres that might have made it past us to the southwest. In fact, keep patrolling the city. Thank you for serving so faithfully in this fight.


    Yes, I know, it¡¯s just an animate coalescence of mana that acts as an extension of my will, but, well, it takes the form of a creature. I prefer to treat creatures with kindness. Heh. The Sisters were worried I wouldn¡¯t choose kindness. Or maybe they were worried what my kindness would look like, or who it would benefit. I shudder as I recall the fact that they¡¯ve got a vampiric version of me being bled quite possibly for eternity. I also furrow my brow and frown at the fact that somehow, ¡°The hordes of Hell will rise up and swallow Aasimovia,¡± didn¡¯t register as one of the apocalyptic scenarios that they warned us about. Or maybe they only warned us about ones that weren¡¯t in our direct path?


    The Sisters of the Mist never intentionally harmed us, and seemed to be trying their best to serve some greater good, including salvaging as much of Rayileklia¡¯s future as possible. Wait, if we knew about this one, would we have met Tiktik when we did? Or at all? Would we have raced a different path to The Brook? Or even just made a different timetable? Would we have been there when Daffodil was injured? I¡ª. Huh.


    Yeah, if they told us, I wouldn¡¯t have learned the Steely Body spell, which would have proved deadly at the first Fel Portalspawns swipe. Daffodil would be buried under her home in Noirdivinhoz, and Tiktik might still be tracking something or someone back towards the Heart of the Wilds. The town might have slightly better defenses, but, well, if they orchestrated this path, I definitely can¡¯t fault them for it. Hell, I¡¯ve done similar with the timeline by entrusting all its knowledge to Luni rather than myself. I kept myself from making informed choices, decisions that would be counterproductive to the final necessary results of the timeline.


    Alright Reggie, back to reality, focus. You¡¯ve got four supercharged elementals out there currently, possibly a pair of shadow hounds, and you¡¯re about to unleash four more elementals. This time, they¡¯ll be true elementals, summoned to cross over and coalesce their own forms from ambient mana. Three from the stones, and one from the staff. Just going to go ahead and bury these gems halfway right here, back off to the west slightly as I read this scroll of protection from elementals. Tiktik, if you¡¯re hearing this train of thought, read your scroll too, in case they make it west for some reason.


    Drawing a deep breath, I slowly sigh while attempting to calm my racing heart. Suddenly my vision tunnels to a pin prick, and my heart hammers up into my ears, threatening to blow out my eardrums. I gasp, gulping down air ineffectually as I feel as if I¡¯m struggling to breathe. The, the, the stone elementals. I. I. They almost killed me. They almost took me from Teuila. I. I can¡¯t. I whimper and sob as my danger wraps attempt to warn me of incoming obsidian bone spikes. I barely manage to remain un-skewered by dropping fetal and rolling to one side. No, no no no, please no. I can¡¯t have a panic attack right now. Please Reggie, please snap out of it! Despite my desires, my limbs quiver and vibrate as they begin to seize and spasm in wild alternations.


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    Wait, alternators, electricity, electrons, neurons, neurochemistry, internal electrokinesis. I¡¯m sorry Reggie pal, this is for your own good. Please work, please work. Please don¡¯t just be a head-exploding death. I struggle to direct waves of internal electrokinesis upwards within myself, towards my brain. My hammering pulse and wobbling dizziness increases the difficulty and challenge of the task. Slowly increment the voltage, little bit by little bit. Heh, you have to survive pal. Tiktik wants to introduce you to her crush, Littlebit, someday.


    My danger wraps¡¯ silent sonar senses are struggling to warn me, to direct my reflexes and get me to move, but I¡¯m still trapped in panic. I¡¯m suddenly lifted forcefully off the ground and sent sailing sideways as a massive foot intercepts my abdomen, kicking me aside like a rag doll. I land, partially impaled across several obsidian bone spikes jutting from the corpse of a Felgre. My dominant arm is run through, as is my thigh, and I¡¯m precariously balanced across the point of a spike at the center of my back. Survival instincts and new fears overwrite the current panic.


    I can¡¯t lift off the obsidian bone spikes running me through on my right, and if I snap them, all my weight will fall on the spike at the center of my back, impaling me through either my spine, or heart, or both. I need to break that one first, and take whatever agony comes with sinking further onto the other two spikes. I summon my ghostly hand from my archsorc staff still shrunk in my left hand, grateful for how well it fits in the groove of my gauntlets.


    I direct the magical ghostly hand to use my belt, wrap it around the spike threatening to impale me near my spine, and then work with leverage utilizing the spike running through my arm, and what¡¯s left of my dagger, to snap one or both of those bone spikes. Quickly! The hand undoes my belt and acts as directed, snapping the two most dangerous spikes in time as a wall of meat stomps upon me. Its weight ends up driving me down to an agonizing impact with the blunted bone spike beneath my back. My right thigh is still skewered, but with my arms free, and no longer in danger of being skewered through the heart, I simply snap that spike off at its base and draw it out from under my thigh. I raise the deadly skewer as the hefty foot stomps downward again, so that it manages to run itself through with the obsidian calcification.


    Rolling, I sob fiery tears of pain, but struggle to my feet all the same. This nearly mountainous Felgre roars in pain but hobbles as it attempts to put weight on its dominant foot. I take a single step dash that leads me into a circling sliding skid, lining me up with the Felgre¡¯s right side. In position, I launch myself with all my might into a double footed sideways drop kick at the creature¡¯s right knee. Its knee shatters under my electrokinetically enhanced horizontal stomp, and its leg buckles sideways, causing it to fall towards me. The protrusion from its right foot runs through its left thigh, preventing it from recovering to a standing position at all.


    Wrath gets the better of me, and I curbstomp the Felgres face, mirroring how it had been attacking me. The sickening crunch and squelch feeds the red that rushes over my vision. I have to quickly finish reading the protection scroll before I lose myself to my wrath. I feel the strange abjurative ward immediately as the scroll vanishes in a flaming puff. I focus on the archsorc staff to reach into the realm of elemental spirits parallel to our own realm, seeking out the greatest heat nearby. It¡¯s rather immense, good, it shouldn¡¯t be snuffed out by the acid rain drizzle. Drawing forth the fire elemental from the parallel plane, or dimension, or realm, whatever it is, I try to calm myself long enough to request its aid.


    I manage to ask, ¡°Will you please shatter those three gemstones over there, and face these Fel creatures with the elementals that come forth? Direct them eastwards if possible.¡±


    The approximation of a humanoid shape embodied by an animate flame seems to nod at me. It floatingly slides towards the elemental summoning stones, and suddenly wrath and panic engage a struggle for dominance over my psyche as the other three elementals are brought forth from the nearby realm. Two massive stone elementals, and an invisible wind elemental. Thankfully the mana granting it a temporary form in this realm is visible to my aura vision. The fire elemental seems to communicate my request on my behalf, and the four elementals fan out eastwardly, avoiding my remaining supercharged elementals as they tackle the Fel hordes.


    I focus on the tie that binds me to the fire elemental summoned with the aid of the archsorc staff. It helps lock me centered in a middle ground between the warring struggles of panic and wrath attempting to take me over. I lose track of time as I¡¯m barely able to maintain my grip on reality. I sink to my knees as I meditate to continue focusing my force of will in keeping these elementals directed eastward. It seems that, similarly to my own mana constructs, the fire elemental behaves somewhat as an extension of my own will, when conjured in this fashion. Luckily, it seems to have an accord with, or dominance over the other three elementals. So, while I¡¯m directing the fire elemental, it¡¯s directing the stone elementals and wind elemental.


    Something heavy drops just outside the range of my silent sonar, but there¡¯s a rapid shuffling. As I¡¯m still mostly paralyzed between panic and wrath, confusion attempts to join them in overtaking me as a familiar form enters my sensory range. I feel a grip at my collar and belt just before I¡¯m thrown high away from the conflict.


    No! No! Not again! Not like Sal and Har! I can¡¯t have some idiot die because they thought I needed saving! It, it¡¯s Keeley. No, you you bedamned fool! You don¡¯t have the protections that I do. I, what can I do? They¡¯re turning on her. I, I need something, some propulsion, some traversal ability, what do I have at my¡ª. Bud! Bud are you, are you there? Do you have enough energy left to¡ª? Thank you! I launch from a springy bush that Bud leans into my falling trajectory back in the direction of the combat towards Keeley. I agonizingly accelerate with bursts of electrokinesis like thrusters that have me basically skidding through the gore and mud along the ground.


    Keeley¡¯s battling Felgres and the elementals. She¡¯s slaying Felgres, but, but the elementals aren¡¯t affected by meat cleavers, or any sort of non magical attacks or equipment. I¡¯m almost there, almost back! Fire elemental, get them away from here, please! My fire elemental ally begins to overtake the stone elemental locked in combat with Keeley. The fire elemental covers the stone elemental, seemingly setting it alight as it seems to struggle to follow my order. While the two elementals are in a struggle for dominance, a Felcun winds up a swing with an enormous hammer, aimed at the stone elemental¡¯s center. I¡¯m, I¡¯m back in the fray!


    Only in time to see Keeley struck down as a massive spike of rock suddenly juts through her from the far side, narrowly missing my face. N, no. No. No! I fire quick propulsive bursts as I circle the crumbling stone elemental and my fire elemental. The three of us converge on the Felcun with my nearly limitless wrath. The Felcun is locked down by animate stone, its nervous system is entirely shut down by massive amperage, and it¡¯s incinerated by a heat so intense that even my thermally resistant skin begins to crisp. It took only an instant to slay the thing. Only a split second, a moment. And yet¡ª.


    I rush back to Keeley¡¯s side, watching helplessly as she falls to her knees, then crumples forward. She glances my way as she bleeds her life away, only to angrily state, ¡°Hate, koff, every last, koff, stupid, reckless, adventurous cuss. All you liddle shids.¡±


    Really woman!? Those are your dying words?! I risk sending myself into a death spiral as I empower a frost rune to seal Keeley¡¯s wound with ice. It¡¯s not a spell, and using it to do more than chilling a small room by a few degrees saps vast quantities of both my S P, and my vitality. Hoisting her on my shoulders, I grunt as I drag her back towards the natural barricade.


    I struggle for what seems like minute after minute as I stumble under Keeley¡¯s heft repeatedly due to my injured right thigh. When I finally arrive at the barrier erected by Bud, it¡¯s even larger than I remember it. Gazing up at the barrier, I struggle to fight back despair since it¡¯s dozens of feet tall at this point. Bud had been putting his all into this. I must have been focusing on controlling the newer elementals for hours upon hours at this point for it to have gotten so high.


    I grumble, ¡°How you even got over this thing with how heavy you and your stupidly large muscles are is beyond me you psychopath. I pray to your ancestors that someone¡¯s waiting to drag you back to the other side. Don¡¯t you dare die on me you spiteful witch.¡±


    Bud? Bud are you there? Bud are you okay? Bud?! Oh no, Bud. Bud please be okay. Lullaby. No, no please no. Keeley¡¯s dying in my arms. Bud sacrificed himself for you Keeley. He set a springy bush in my path to get back to you with whatever was left of his strength. Don¡¯t you die, don¡¯t you both die! As I drop to my knees, weeping, a shadow passes over me and something lands softly nearby. A familiar presence filled with a myriad of emotions stands at the ready, at my side. I choke back a sob as I turn to see the most wonderful sight in all of creation.

 B 5 C 33: Amidst Tragedy

    Teuila made it back, and by the sounds of it, she brought company. A small group of villagers from The Brook, the best armed ones, seem to be out and about swinging to the south to battle Felgres making it past my elementals. I telepathically send towards Teuila to ask if she knows what¡¯s been happening, if anyone caught her up. Thankfully Tiktik did while I was busy with that last bit of channeling my willpower against the elementals. Apparently Tiktik¡¯s almost ready with the weather control ritual.


    I choke out, ¡°Te, Te please, save her, get Keeley to the others. Please. She tried to protect me, foolishly. She, she¡¯s going to die, and Bud¡¯s dying from having helped try to save her. I have elementals, sort of under my command, it¡¯s not safe for you on the battlefield yet. Please, save her first, then come back to me, My Wings. Please. I love you. I¡¯m begging you. Don¡¯t, glp, don¡¯t let me be responsible for her death. Please.¡±


    I can sense the fury Teuila feels at my request. An intrusive thought flashes to the fore of her brain momentarily. One way to satisfy my request would be if Teuila killed Keeley herself, but we¡¯re both horrified at the thought. It¡¯s okay Te, I know you wouldn¡¯t do that. Intrusive thoughts are intrusive, they¡¯re not who we are. Go, please, quickly but gently, the ice patch won¡¯t hold long.


    I stalk back towards the fight, limping occasionally from the pain in my right thigh. I utilize electrokinesis to keep my iron-rich blood from seeping out of the gaping hole in my arm or thigh by basically emitting a magnetic field within the wounds. Instead of cauterizing the wounds, I can let them heal at my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian rate with the aid of Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce. It¡¯ll still take a couple of days to regenerate wounds this size, but it¡¯s better than the weeks to months a human would end up taking, if they could ever even do it. Wounds like these might have to simply be stitched closed around the missing flesh, leaving a hole through someone, I¡¯m not certain. I¡¯m a cryptozoologist, not a physician, remember?


    Returning to the fight, I find myself bending and gathering dozens of Felgre bone spikes. I wearily continue approaching the line of combat in the hopes of keeping everyone in The Brook safe for as long as possible. Despite my weariness and wrath, and my desire to launch myself back into the thick of things, I¡¯m forced to pick off stragglers that make it by my elementals. There are likely entire platoons that make it west of me down south beyond my sight range. I have at least enough sense left about me to know I still don¡¯t want to let any of these things through, but I can¡¯t be in several places at once. At least not in this timeline, at least not yet.


    I launch their own fallen allies¡¯ bone spikes at the oncoming Felgres and Felcuns like throwing daggers or javelins depending on their size. My excess electricity aids my muscles in continuing their rapid tossing of projectiles, despite the weariness burning within them. I¡¯m certainly no expert marksman without the aid of my space skill, but their own implements of destruction prove to be the Felgres¡¯ undoing.


    Teuila, if you¡¯re still in telepathic range, if you brought any plains Colossi back, have them start setting up gorges to block the path towards the evacuation route. Then have them begin to prep the entirety of The Brook to become a sinkhole. If she¡¯s not in range, Tiktik, please relay that to her.


    A Felcun closes in on me, whirling like a dervish with two kama weapons. It leaps high into the air as it lunges towards me but I simply kick a Felgre corpse, snapping another bone spike off. As the bone spike spins into the air, I launch it upwards with a backward flipping kick, despite the pain of using my right leg so strongly. I don¡¯t even both watching to see its impact as I continue stalking to the east. An instant later as I¡¯m caving in another attacking Felgre¡¯s skull, I hear the thump of the Felcun¡¯s corpse landing behind me.


    Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar looks ashamed as I can sense her physical self nearing me. She can barely send the message due to the torrent broiling in the depths beneath her surface emotions. She gulps out, ¡°I got her to the far edge where Tiago¡¯s set up. Keeley, she, she¡¯s not, I don¡¯t think. I don¡¯t think she¡¯s going to make it. I tried to help, I did. Air, I, I swear¡ª. I just, I can¡¯t use the potion for her, it¡¯s for you. We already used the one on Daffy¡ª.¡±


    Everything drains from me and rage begins to replace it all. Te quails lightly, worried slightly that she¡¯s the target of my ire. While I still have a grasp on my senses, I try to send my love and acceptance to Teuila, to let her know that I understand and don¡¯t blame her. I only manage to choke out, ¡°Te. Get to the far side of the field. Kill everything you see! Meet me in the middle. Don¡¯t you dare get hurt.¡±


    Te takes off like a rocket, and now that I know Tiktik is awake, I cast my psychic link senses about for her. Telepathically I growl an order to Tiktik wrathfully, ¡°Hold off on the sunspot until you get my signal.¡± I regret how I¡¯m addressing Tiktik and Teuila, but I don¡¯t have full control over myself.


    What I¡¯m about to do could definitely kill me, and it will most certainly use a significant chunk of Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce to keep me alive if I do live through it. I stalk up to the elementals battling Felgres for us, and I rip the wind elemental away from the battle as I command it to take me high into the sky. It submits before my fury as the electricity bleeding from me rises to unprecedented levels. The wind elemental takes me straight up, ignoring any dangers in the sky, taking me directly through the path of several lightning bolts. As my wrath intended. I¡¯m turning myself into a living capacitor with a far higher volume for energy than likely has ever been seen on this planet, or possibly any other. This is a stupid risk, and yet I can¡¯t stop myself. I¡¯m not piloting any more, I¡¯m only observing Reggie Shellcracker acting with brazen foolishness driven by wrath.


    As we enter the acid clouds, it becomes evident that they¡¯re enchanted, heavily, and are a far, far stronger, far deadlier acid at their location in the sky. My neckchain of the ever breathing keeps my lungs from being melted, but my skin immediately reddens, and begins to lose cohesion and layers by the moment. My wrath at least has some survival instincts. I immediately work at crafting and quickening the runes for my Steely Body spell, though it will bring me over my safe S P limit for the day. Ending in the latter half of my S P limit means I¡¯ll barely be able to move, if at all. I¡¯ll be a sitting duck. Even my wrath knows I¡¯m instants away from perishing though, as I¡¯m welting and melting within the storm. It¡¯s pure agony each fraction of a moment until I¡¯m finally enchanted into a metallic state, but I¡¯m drawing all lightning in the region to me once more. The spell uses up the rest of my Valkyrie dagger¡¯s blade, and hilt in its entirety to complete.


    Even with the additional protection of my Steely Body, the enchanted acid clouds are far too strong for the two of us. Even the wind elemental is seemingly beginning to lose cohesion, however that works. So I have the wind elemental pull us down from the clouds so that I stop being dissolved by hydrolysis of my biomolecules. We remain just beneath the cloudcover while still collecting lightning. While the acidic drizzle is still stronger nearer to the enchanted clouds, it¡¯s far less potent than in the clouds themselves.


    I¡¯m beginning to understand why dragons are rarely seen, and why Kozzurth didn¡¯t take to the sky. Because if they attempted to fly for any distance, they¡¯d be rent asunder by lightning strikes. Or, if they wanted to break through the cloud cover to get high out of the reach of the lightning, they¡¯d likely die before they made it through, or die on the way back down through. Who even knows the height and depths of these soupy cloud banks? They could stretch upwards for miles. I certainly wouldn¡¯t live long enough to find out, nor would the elemental giving me a lift. I¡¯ve got acid resistance from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and I nearly melted within a few short moments of entering the clouds. I¡¯m sure dragons¡¯ scales are resilient, but their eyes, nasal passages, mucus membranes, and lungs likely wouldn¡¯t fair well in a torrent of enchanted acid.


    Since lightning stops streaking across the sky, Tiktik understands that the signal is about to occur, and needs no further prompting. When there isn¡¯t even another single spark in the sky apart from me, I order the wind elemental to throw me eastward. The elemental complies before rejoining the battle below. It sends me sailing at a rapid clip, and I make minor course corrections with short bursts of electrokinesis out my fists and feet. Two more active Fel Portalspawn are visible from my location in the sky as I¡¯m falling, so I aim between the two hill-sized creatures.


    I accelerate towards the ground in anger, despite knowing I should pull up. Struggle against it as I might, I can¡¯t wrestle down my wrath to act more sensibly at the moment. I notice a small cluster of Felcuns gathering where I¡¯m going to land. That¡¯s fine by me. Crashing down in their midst, weapons converge on me as my bones almost buckle. Or rather, the metallic facsimile of my bones begin to fracture, but I release the hundreds of stored up bolts of natural lightning in a titanic wave. The bolts that streak across a sky are generally hundreds or thousands of times greater in power than my magical artificially emulated lightning.


    Upon releasing all that¡¯s stored within me, a cascade of energy bursts forth from me in a shockwave that reaches out as far as several hundred meters. The edge of the shockwave is chased by relentless arcs of lightning. The shockwave itself isn¡¯t exceedingly damaging, but the lightning strikes so hot that it dehydrates the mud, and glasses the soil where it strikes, creating impure fulgurite. It similarly breaks down any Felgres into pure carbon, they¡¯re left as little more than charcoal statues. While it doesn¡¯t outright slay the Fel Portalspawns at the edges of the shockwave, it does render them immobile.


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    The two Fel Portalspawns come crashing to the ground, becoming impaled on the remains of trees, and the bone spikes, or fossilized corpses of their fallen comrades. The electricity continues to flow in arcs and waves for several moments yet, finally ending the two of them, just as I collapse, completely drained of everything.


    The most power I could possibly muster, pushing myself beyond my limits into wrathful territory, power that could end me entirely, slew hundreds of Felgres, and two Fel Portalspawn. Using power that pushed me far closer to death, which cost me a huge chunk of Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce to even live through using did all this. And yet, it¡¯s one small swath amidst miles and miles of the hordes of Hell. I couldn¡¯t do that again if I wanted to right now, or possibly ever again. I give up for the moment, since my muscles are barely responding due to being in the latter half of my total capable S P for the day. I rest, collapsed in a fetal position, nursing slim fractures along most of my bones below my waist and along my left arm and hand.


    Thankfully, the Steely Body spell took the brunt of my foolhardy crash-down strike¡¯s impact. I also think ejecting so much electricity, after siphoning so much from the atmosphere has finally brought me to some sort of electrical equilibrium, at least temporarily. Or perhaps the Steely Body spell interacted with the magic splinters embedded within me as it transmuted the whole of my being to metal. Either way, at least for the moment, I don¡¯t feel as if electricity is trying to kill me from the inside. Whatever good that will do me. On the plus side, my eyes are no longer agonizingly filled with splinters. It seems that somehow being transmuted several times over the last few hours has caused them to fully merge with me in some fashion, the splinters, not my eyes, obviously. Yes Reggie, I know what we meant. Ugh, personality fracture.


    I let my eyes roll back in their sockets as my head lolls weakly against the momentarily dry rocks beside me. I think perhaps an hour or two passes, and four or five Felgres are beginning to realize that I¡¯m alive in the center of this destruction, so they¡¯re headed this way. Teuila lands nearby as the Felgres approach. She launches her spear at one, whips out her bow to fire upon three more, and barrels into a fifth with a skull-crushing haymaker, ending five Felgres in the blink of an eye before retrieving her spear. Based on the amount of gore she¡¯s covered in, she has been relatively busy fighting her way this direction.


    Teuila hesitantly jokes, ¡°I couldn¡¯t make it to the far side of them. I don¡¯t think there is one. Heh? Erm, yeah. Sorry Air. So, um, since when could you do this?¡± Te indicates the circle that¡¯s hundreds of meters wide, peppered with smoking remains and arcs of glassed earth.


    I struggle against the pain of my fractured limbs to attempt to stand, but crumple again under my own weight. My eyelids begin to sink. Despite wanting to answer Teuila, my brain is barely responding to me at the moment. Suddenly, light begins to pierce the clouds as they slowly part. Tiktik¡¯s doing it! It took her hours of attempts and ritualistically casting a carefully crafted spell over a massive region of the city, but she¡¯s doing something I definitely couldn¡¯t do by being able to cast it at all before mastering each individual rune. What shines through is an early, near-noon sun, bearing down heavily over The Brook itself. I¡¯m in no shape to continue harassing the Fel hordes, so I crawl towards Teuila, who sits on her heels next to me.


    Te strokes my face and recoils her hand as she¡¯s met with a jolt. Blushing, I apologize, ¡°Sorry My Wings, I sorta got embedded with lightning laced wood shrapnel coated in cursed blood. That uh, that¡¯s where this came from. I lost it, the, the thunder stick. It exploded. It¡¯s gone, my reminder of Staff Ninja, pretty much the first person other than Lil who seemed to be a good, friendly person, a potential ally or friend. I guess it¡¯s a part of me now, but it¡¯s not the same.¡±


    Trying to redirect my saddened reveries, Teuila pouts, playfully pleading, ¡°How long are you going to be all zappy though?¡±


    I join Te in pouting, ¡°I¡¯m really not sure. For a while it was killing me, but it seems to have stopped doing that at least. I made some stupid choices, and some wrathful choices today Teuila. I leaned hard on Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce. Worse, I asked Bud for that barrier, and for help trying to save Keeley. Bud¡¯s been unresponsive, and his aura is the weakest I¡¯ve ever seen it. I¡¯ve got some ideas on how to stop being zappy, but, um, new super power like my old super powers, I guess. Yay I guess?¡±


    Teuila grins at me and braves another shock to ruffle my hair and shove me, rolling me sideways several feet. I chuckle and crawl back to her, taking this brief respite as a stampede forms around us. Many Felgres had made it past me, and were working at destroying the barricade Bud had raised. Now, these Felgres that the elementals haven¡¯t slain yet are retreating from the sunlight, while the elementals chase after them.


    I wish we could make that hole in the clouds permanent, and heck, apply another patch of it every few miles for people to have a break from the stupid acidic drizzle. I don¡¯t know what kind of gem dust it would take to make this break in the cloudcover permanent though. I don¡¯t even know where one would apply the permanency. Would I have to levitate the dust in the edges of the acid clouds? Could I paint a small runic circle on the ground? Would I have to surround the entire city in a large permanency enchantment that would probably take more gem dust than currently exists on Rayileklia? I only hope Tiktik isn¡¯t hurting herself to maintain it.


    I query, ¡°Te? Do you think we should just be done with this? I¡¯m worried about Tiktik, Tiago, George, Harriet, Daffodil, hell, the whole town, but, but I¡¯m just so exhausted. The elementals are going to be chasing the Felgre horde for a long while. I think somehow I intimidated them into continuing to obey my fire elemental, or at least leave us alone, despite the protection scroll wearing off. Maybe I convinced them I was a lightning elemental. Heh.¡±


    Teuila scoops me in her arms and immediately leaps us westward at an incredible pace. I forgot that she tripled her horizontal jump speed with a ring she¡¯d gotten from Milbert of Navica¡¯s kleptomaniacal hoard. Despite not being able to engage her energy based leaps, she¡¯s still incredibly fast. Definitely at least motorcycle speeds. No wonder she got back earlier than I thought she would. Wait, did she sleep at all?


    I poke Teuila, sending a small jolt into her bicep accidentally. I can sense her answer forming already as I ask, ¡°Te, did you get any rest at all since the crap that went down at the Keel Over yesterday?¡±


    She shakes her head while flashing me a weak smile. The three of us are spent. No, the four of us are spent. We¡¯re adventurers, maybe mercenaries, maybe even heroes on a good day, but we¡¯re not an army. Even Teuila is flagging. She¡¯d keep fighting til her last breath if I hadn¡¯t asked her to be done with it though. I don¡¯t know how many Felgres made it past me and my mana construct forces as several swept south, far outside of my sight range. I¡¯m sure that the ones that did are probably powerful and cunning, a disaster waiting to happen for anyone not yet evacuated. The idea breaks my heart, and I momentarily weep for the possibility of yet more innocent lives lost.


    Today has been a terrifying failure on so many levels. Once again, I have the panic attacks, but someone else pays the price, while I survive a deadly encounter. I failed to protect a strong, proud woman who is likely bleeding to death as we speak. I lost my sentimental memento of Staff Ninja. I tore through vast quantities of Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce. I used up my fallback plan¡¯s nuclear option.


    And the list of today¡¯s failures goes on. I may have messed up my ability to use mana construct conjuration spells by preparing and casting too many at once. A summoner is only supposed to be able to maintain one of them at a time. But I linked so many to subroutines in my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian brain that I think something snapped within me. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll even be able to summon a single mana construct ever again, let alone multiple at once. My right leg is nearly ruined, along with my right arm. Thankfully those last two are recoverable due to my otherworldly biology. The rest though¡ª. My eyelids drop heavily as I suck down a ragged, sobbing breath.


    Teuila tries to take my mind away from its currently doomed train of thought. While she has me in her arms, she catches me up on a few things, ¡°So, the Colossi are definitely smaller than they were the last time we were through here. You were right about them needing dragon blood to maintain their size and power. They¡¯ve been rationing it pretty tightly apparently. Helena and Reg, you know, the ones that you appointed chieftains¡ª.¡± I grimace at the reminder of the action that got Harriet to berate me as Teuila continues, ¡°seemed pretty reasonable when I said I thought the Colossi should join the Autumn Brook evacuees. I was sure you¡¯d convince Harriet somehow. I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d summon an army from Hell to do it, but hey, different strokes for different folks.¡±


    I snort a laugh before chuckling so hard I cough. I know Teuila knows I¡¯d never do any such thing. She flashes me one of her mad-as-a-hatter, mile-wide grins as she rocks her head side to side in joy at having brought me a mote of the same during such a dark occasion. I¡¯m about to express how much I love her when Teuila continues, ¡°So, Meredith, Clint, and Dodge, are of course the ones that were closest to The Brook. It seems like the town and the Colossi hadn¡¯t quite patched things up yet, there¡¯s a lot of forgiving that needs doing. When Tiktik told me your plan, I asked the three of them to start in on it. Hopefully any of the weird Hell creeps that got past you run into that trio. I think they can handle themselves. Hopefully. I mean, they¡¯re big and hard at least. Wait, let me re¡ª.¡°


    Despite being amidst so much tragedy, I can¡¯t help myself as I snirk, laughing through my nose so hard that I end up sneezing before enjoying a full belly laugh. It¡¯s nice not being the one getting teased for those kinds of slip ups. I know she meant they¡¯re large and have stony, craggy skin, but it¡¯s hilarious all the same, since Teuila somehow knows euphemisms and still slipped up. A deep breath becomes a yawn though as my head lolls weakly to the side. It¡¯s eerie seeing Autumn Brook so empty. It was always such a lively, bustling city.


    I¡¯m suddenly being passed off to Tiktik. It hadn¡¯t even really registered to me that I was viewing The Brook from within, as apparently we¡¯ve already made it back to town. I feel slightly dazed by the day¡¯s events, so I barely realize it when Teuila doesn¡¯t warn Tiktik about my new condition. When Tiktik feels the zap, she drops me to the ground in surprise. I feel abashed, but Kitten simply plays up the shocking jolt she feels for laughs in a cartoonish manner. There¡¯s a twinkle in her eye as she gets a smirk from both of us. Wait, her eye color¡ª.


    Telepathically Tiktik sends, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t even know about ¡ª. Eh, some other time. Are you going to be okay Tiger?¡±

 B 5 C 34: The Brook Falls

    Teuila joins us in our shared mindscape as I respond to Tiktik¡¯s query about my wellness, ¡°Not right away Kitten, no.  I¡¯m pretty sure we lost someone.  A good woman.  Despite how much we disliked each other, I never wished that on her.  I can¡¯t understand why she did it.  Why did she throw herself into a fight that she knew she was hopelessly outclassed against?  What¡¯s more, why try to throw me away from it?  I¡¯m positive she understood how much more powerful the three of us are than ordinary people.  I, I just don¡¯t get it.¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar gnaws the inside of her cheek before she conjectures, ¡°So, apparently Jonah Johnston, Jonesy, went off a couple years ago, wanting to see the world, have adventures, that sort of thing.  Last month though, pretty recently honestly, they got word that he died.  I don¡¯t know all the details, just word around town is all.  I don¡¯t think Keeley¡¯s been the same since.  Marshal started working double, nearly all day and all night, to work the same shifts as her on top of his own.  Maybe to support his wife in her grief, maybe to keep her in check, or maybe to keep an eye on her, I can¡¯t be sure.¡±


    Oh hell.  I figured it was something like that, but the confirmation that she was still in the early stages of grieving makes it all almost all the worse.  I want to curl up and sob about Keeley¡¯s upcoming death, or, her likely death.  If Te says the prognosis wasn¡¯t good, I believe her.  I want to sob for the hardships the evacuees are going to face.  I want to bawl my eyes out for the loss of their ancestors, an event that I still consider to be my fault.


    I¡¯m just so exhausted, physically, mentally, and definitely emotionally.  Despite wanting to curl up and bawl my eyes out, it feels like I can¡¯t.  I would almost worry that the cursed-blood mingling with magical electric wood shards had burned away my emotions, but I don¡¯t exactly feel numb.  I just feel too tired to even acknowledge having so many overwhelming energy-demanding emotions for the moment.


    Suddenly recalling that Autumn Brook was just supposed to be a pit stop, I groan, ¡°Ugh.  We should see if there are any boats left or if the carriage will float well enough to paddle across the lake.  Are Clint, Dodge, and Meredith going to be able to handle sinking the town around the horde when it gets dark?  Is your weather spell going to last until sundown Kitten?¡±


    Teuila and Tiktik both nod at me via their telepathic avatars, so I gratefully slump onto the for-once dry cobblestone path where we rest.  As I¡¯m about to say more, Teuila explains, ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that the CDM crew can handle it.  Their geo whatsits aren¡¯t as strong, since they¡¯re shrinking, and losing their weird dragon-blood powers, but there¡¯s three of them, and they want to make it up to Autumn Brook for being the gophers.  Hah, they¡¯ll be more like literal gophers.  A-an-anyways.  I¡¯m sorry Air, I¡¯m really, really sorry about, about just so much.  I don¡¯t even know how to ask for your forgiveness Love.  Oh, but no worries about the boat, wanna tell ¡®em Tiki?¡±


    As my telepathic avatar turns saddened eyes towards Teuila, trying to intimate she doesn¡¯t need to ask for forgiveness, Tiktik perks up as she adds for Te, ¡°Oh yeah, so, Tim Fisher has The Drake waiting for us, and the carriage is already lashed to The Drake, set afloat behind her.  He¡¯s a ways out, but said we could signal, swim, or since we¡¯re supposedly some kind of superheroes, just jump for it.¡°


    Distracted from my previous thought, I smirk and half scoff a laugh.  Tim¡¯s a character, but a pretty great guy.  I hope his wife and son are alright.  What was his wife¡¯s name?  Lydia or Emilia or Amelia Gray or something like that?  Their son is Richard, and her family passes down the mother¡¯s last name, so Richard, Gray¡¯s Son.  For some reason, this flares up my genre senses.


    Oh.  Ugh, my genre senses say we¡¯re going to run into Lochsie again, and possibly the giant mud crab that everyone thought was a central island in Lake Siempre.  Friggin¡¯ hell.  I¡¯d better trust those goofy senses again.  It¡¯s so weird.  These senses come from knowledge of media from a world that doesn¡¯t exist.  How the hell does that work?  How can it possibly apply?


    Tiktik¡¯s mental avatar pokes mine for attention while pouting as she playfully whines, ¡°Also, can I just say?  Owwwwwww my bones.  Sniffle.¡±


    The cutie actually says sniffle.  Or well, telepathically thinks it at me.  I wear a half frown as I recall just how hurt Kitten is.  Then I recall that my externals are severely close to melted, and my internals are contending with fried nerves, fractured bones, and still occasionally fritzing with sparks of electricity.  Today has not been kind to us.  I console Tiktik with hugs and affection in thinkspace as best I can.


    In meatspace, now that I¡¯m getting a good look at her, I can tell Tiktik has wounds, bruises, and very obviously broken bones.  I regret not having had the time to scan her more thoroughly when we were out there together, especially when she was unconscious.  She¡¯s such a petite gal, and so freaking brave to have been battling a horde of enormous monstrosities, with almost no backup.  Te¡¯s brave too, obviously, but I sometimes wonder if danger even registers for her.  She seems almost invincible except against herself.  Her greatest injuries thus far have been from pushing herself too far, too hard, at my request, when her ancillary powers weren¡¯t effective after our radiant purge.  Well, that time, and when we had a meteor piledriven into our faces.


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    Te, likely spurred on by my thought train, adds, ¡°Oh!  So, um, Helena, chieftan whatsit of the whosit over there.  She said her tribe¡¯s numbers have been dwindling.  Some disappearing, others just straight up dying from the dragon-blood withdrawal or something.  There¡¯s not many of them left, so I think they welcome the idea of forming up with Autumn Brook.  They¡¯re in for a surprise when they realize what¡¯s chasing them, but, well, hopefully their geo stuff can keep working long enough to keep blocking the trail behind them.  I¡¯m sure the CDM crew will tell them, and do their best.¡±


    I nod dumbly along with Teuila, barely understanding what she¡¯s saying.  It dawns on me that our job for the survivors isn¡¯t done, not by a long shot, but I literally have nothing left at the moment.  I can¡¯t give any more other than simply being a momentary slab of meat for the horde to cull through.  I can¡¯t lift my limbs, I¡¯m tapped out on spells, consumable magical items, power within my staff, and using the electricity has agonizingly cored out my nerve pathways like some tunnel-borer machine.  How the hell do we keep this from becoming a worldwide catastrophe?


    Or can we use one apocalypse to solve another?  Can we get through the gap, clear out the hydra, evacuate our friends and allies to Jeegoobotstan so that they can rebuild, and simply let the Bright Lord¡¯s troops march into a hellishly overtaken Aasimovia?  Hm.  It feels somewhat cruel, since I¡¯m pretty sure those troops are still people, unless they¡¯re all soulless automatons controlled by the craplord.  It would definitely put a dent in one of the forces that we¡¯re up against, if not both.  Not very heroic I guess, but it¡¯s not like I¡¯m being graded on some paragon points scale.  I wouldn¡¯t even know how to gain those in a time like this.  I sigh at the idea that I¡¯d have to prove myself to some figure like Anubis from Fakeworld¡¯s mythology.  Weighing my heavy heart against a feather.


    Bud¡¯s still been silent this whole time.  I¡¯m terribly worried about him.  His aura isn¡¯t strengthening or recovering at all.  I don¡¯t think it¡¯s diminishing, but it¡¯s so faint to begin with that it¡¯s hard to tell.  I sniffle, gulp down a sad breath and hastily try to rub the tears out of my eyes, but I can¡¯t even lift my arms to do that at the moment.


    Huff.  What am I even doing?  I¡¯m laying here on cobblestone, in the presence of two amazing, powerful, beautiful women.  Yet I can¡¯t stop strategizing and planning and begging the universe for guidance, even though there¡¯s almost literally nothing we can do.  Teuila could maybe fight for a few more hours, despite how haggard she feels, and is.  I wouldn¡¯t risk her like that though.  Not that it¡¯s my choice or anything, but I wouldn¡¯t want her to take that risk.  It feels like I have to let my brain go down these rabbitholes, or the sad realities of the situation are going to sink in.  Hopefully the Fel hordes literally sink in to the trap that The Brook will turn into with help from the plains Colossi.  I hate that I¡¯m retreating.  Have I ever retreated before?


    I¡¯m so friggin¡¯ conceited and full of myself.  I¡¯m used to being the most destructive presence on any massive scale field of battle.  The fact that I¡¯m one injured individual retreating from a fight shouldn¡¯t make me so, so, so whatever I¡¯m feeling.  Feeling like we¡¯ve lost because I¡¯m backing out or something.  I¡¯m not the center of the universe, a fight doesn¡¯t fail because I¡¯m not there to lead the charge.  Though, I mean, with me, Teuila, and Tiktik withdrawing, who the hell is left that can withstand more than a few minutes of fighting these hellish hordes?  It¡¯s hard not to feel like I must be conceited when I can¡¯t come up with a way that the situation isn¡¯t all up to me and my inner circle.


    It feels surreal, impossible even.  Like, this goes beyond fiction.  This is so unrealistic.  Three people against what seems like the limitless hordes of Hel, or Hell?  What the hell?  I find myself worrying yet again that I¡¯m just having one final dying dream back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas as Teuila reaches her hand towards mine one last time.  I gulp back a frightened sob at the idea that this whole Rayileklian adventure might be some death-moment fever-dream.  Then again, would that be better, or worse?  I don¡¯t know what I¡¯d do if that were the situation.  It¡¯s not like I¡¯d just give up, and let things play out to a horrific end for everyone.  Even imaginary people deserve better than that.


    What more can I do?  I might be able to work the the kobolds or dwarves, any of those that are left, to be able to collapse The Gap.  Or hell, maybe we can make the situation an even greater confused mess by unleashing the mite-hulks from the bowels of Rayileklia into the middle of the two hellish forces.  Oh jeeze.  One hellish force, one supposedly angelic force.  Friggin¡¯ hell.  I predicted almost this exact thing when talking to Tiktik a couple of days ago about her smile.  Gods why did I have to be right.  I would be face-palming so hard right now if I could move.


    Tiktik giggles at my exasperation and slightly at my helplessness.  She drags one of my hands to plop it on my face for me.  Heh.  Thanks Kitten.  I roll my eyes and try not to chuckle.  Suddenly I¡¯m beset by dizziness and waves of anger as wrath tries to resurface upon realizing how deadly the events that swirl about us are.  I nearly vomit upon my own face as the emotion struggles to overtake me in sickening pulses and waves.  My eyes swim about in their sockets and my head lolls weakly to the side as Teuila and Tiktik seem to have a worried private telepathic conversation.  There¡¯s so much that needs to be done.  I just¡ª.  I don¡¯t think I can be the person to do it right now.  I¡¯m, I¡¯m feeling so weak, and in so much pain, and starving.  My vision blurs at the edges until I¡¯m seeing clearly in only a thin tunnel as my eyelids droop.


    Between the nausea, weariness, and the various drains on so many of the systems in my body and mind, I¡¯m losing consciousness quickly.  I can¡¯t fight it, despite knowing there¡¯s still work to be done.  I don¡¯t want to abandon this heaping mess in front of Teuila and Tiktik, but I¡¯m losing my struggle to remain awake.  I vaguely hear Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar saying something along the lines of, ¡°Rest up Tiger,¡± as I reluctantly fade into unconsciousness.

 B 5 C 35: Boarding, Boarded, Bored

    This is it, the day we¡¯ve dreaded possibly arriving.  G-Con Three was sure it was on its way, and, well, we were right.  Peace talks have broken down, and now the Nedzeds want dominion over all space in this quadrant, and are ready to kill and destroy anything and anyone that might stand in their way.  I¡¯m not just talking military either though, freighters, passenger cruisers, any space faring vessel under the sun.  Well, stars.  Their demands were ridiculous at the peace talks in the first place.  Handing over all tech above the great divide, sending us back into the nuclear age.


    I glance down at my plasma blade.  Never thought I might be a Psi-E.  Never thought I¡¯d even rate on the scale.  Moving from G-Con Ops to G-Con Three was a hell of a surprise.  Three has never seen active duty, we¡¯re basically bug hunters, the best of the best of the worst of the worst case scenarios.  No one was quite sure what to do with Psi-Es and our like when we started popping up.  Maybe in history, we¡¯d have been assassins or black ops units in one of those pre-apoc nations.  No one¡¯s really sure about the pre-apoc nations, mostly speculation, archeology, sociology guesses.  Ever since the final world war, the seventh one, when everyone launched everything, and what few bits of humanity that were left scrambled through the ashes to band together.  Or so the history books say.  That was a long, long time ago.


    There¡¯s some romanticized nonsense in the history books.  There¡¯s unrealistic stuff, like some jerk setting up a dominion to try to rule everyone else, crush their souls and make them essentially servants.  Supposedly taken down by one or two or so people, some small group at best, at some secret showdown, far off the map.  Though, I guess that¡¯s what we are at G-Con Three.  The specialists of the specials, the ones with psych that can be weaponized to head far off the map behind enemy lines and take out the rest of the best of the foe¡¯s forces and leadership.  The Three is a ridiculous concept at this point in history, but here we are.


    Never exactly wanted to be a dog of war.  We were at peace, ya know?  Service was just something to do to pay the bills.  Not exactly easy getting paying work on a Duspla.  A planet bled dry is lucky to get any external support.  Getting offworld from a dust world is generally on a troop carrier or in a casket.  Pretty easy choice, right?  You¡¯ve got to think to yourself, ¡°All of local space that¡¯s known to you is at peace, so why not, right?¡±  Couldn¡¯t even make it through my short first tour.


    A third of the way through my required tour, before I could get a discharge somewhere offworld on a Mapla or Dapla the other shoe drops.  I¡¯d have taken pretty much any of those worlds still doing data analysis or manufacturing, where manual work was still a thing.  That¡¯s all I wanted, somewhere to go that wasn¡¯t a dying world.  But nope, not for me.


    It¡¯s only a third of the way my tour through before it happens.  You¡¯re shaking your head incredulously at the insanity of it all, the scale beyond your scope.  You have to think, ¡°Aliens you¡¯ve never heard of, who¡¯ve been in talks with people you¡¯ve never heard of, are now so upset that they want to kill people you do know-of along with all those others you don¡¯t.¡±


    Not that I know that many people.  Only a few other Psi-Es in The Three.  Haven¡¯t gotten to speak to anyone else in a long while, and it¡¯s not like one can keep touch with anyone back on a Duspla.  Don¡¯t even get to meet any of the other sapient species, at least, none that we¡¯re not going to be sent out to kill.  Supposedly no other species so far has developed Psi-Es.  Brains with little entangled particles inside that happen to form portals to some sort of energy.  It just sorta exists there, doesn¡¯t do anything without equipment to manipulate that energy out here.


    So now we¡¯re like the old cinema, laserguns are an actual thing, sort of.  Plastisteel with certain very unique circuitry can focus the energy in harmful ways.  Works out pretty well as long as you remember which end is the harmful end.  Rumors say some Psi-Es in the deeper G-Cons are never seen after they¡¯re enlisted.  Most people guess that somehow those Psi-Es are being used for bigger things, things that can turn their energy into portals or warp drives or weapons of planetary scale.  Even if none of those rumors are true, you still get troops with never ending ammunition, and closer quarters weaponry that passes through, sunders, incapacitates, or destroys anything it touches.  You can bet that some goon somewhere was slobbering at the thought of a fighting force like from pre-history, or in the cinema.


    Hells, what do we even know about ourselves as Psi-Es?  Not much, other than the fact that we can be weaponized.  Projecting psi energy as a form, or ejecting psi energy works better for some, worse for others.  It has to do with stability and size of the portal generated by your entangled particles, but also how adept your brain is at adapting your own unique configuration to the circuitry.  Basically, half nature, half nurture.  Nature has a leg up, since it can also grow nurture.  My nature?  Middling to say the least.  I¡¯m a nobody from nowhere, special in only one way, in that I am completely average at a very rare thing.  I¡¯m half glad of that.  I¡¯d rather not be disappeared into some deeper G-Con.


    Still, there¡¯s talk in The Three of what service might look like after a tour now, or what ending a tour might look like.  Back to the old ¡°caskets or corps¡±, or ¡°corpse or corps¡± sort of a deal I imagine.  Getting out?  Getting out would be a miracle.  We¡¯re the only precious resource in our society at this point, they¡¯re going to use us til we burn out.  Even if somehow we survive all that, they can just take the tech away from us, then we¡¯re no one special, just some wardogs that saw their day of use.  The really old history spoke of war like this, had songs that raged against it.  Things like, ¡°forefathers sending other fathers¡¯ sons¡±, and other sentiments along the same lines, angry at the higher ups for using those in less standing.


    It¡¯s funny, if any of us were evil, greedy, war-like, it wouldn¡¯t take much for them to become a worldwide threat on some planet or another.  It¡¯s almost funny they don¡¯t even pretend they¡¯re going to treat us any better than we¡¯re expecting.  I¡¯m not normally this cynical, but it¡¯s also not normal that I have to deal with being sent out to kill other people, or that one of us in The Three might actually not come back from an outing.  We¡¯re not exactly close, but we¡¯re tight, and it¡¯d mess up the rest of us just the same.


    I blink slowly towards wakefulness as wet spray splashes upon my face.  What?  Where?  I was about to get on a troop carrier.  Wait.  A what?  I must mean a carriage.  That¡¯s right.  We¡¯re on our carriage, being towed by The Drake.  But how, why are we already on the¡ª?  Ow.  Hellspit and Fel fires that hurts.  Holy crap I can¡¯t even move a muscle.  My eyes are about the only thing responding to me, so I flick my gaze about, trying to appraise my own damage.  Hell on handrails Reggie, what did you do to yourself?  How are you even alive buddy?


    I think, I think Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce, and either my bond with Bud, or Lil, or both, are the only things keeping me alive.  I¡¯m in worse shape than I thought.  The adrenaline of the battle must have been keeping me going as I pushed past my limits.  Argh, I can¡¯t even enter thinkspace, my brain freakin¡¯ hurts.  What the hell?  I¡¯m sure Te is upset, and maybe even panicking that she can¡¯t reach my brain.  Holy crap the pain though.


    I attempt to form words, but I¡¯m barely able to breathe, let alone move my jaw or esophagus or vocal tract.  Suddenly I feel a massive swath of hair draping across the left side of my body.  That¡¯s gotta be Kitten, but I can¡¯t even say hello.  She¡¯s groaning in pain, and it feels like she¡¯s tossing and turning in her sleep, based on my silent sonar.  Poor Tiktik.  Where¡¯s Te though?  Ow, my ears are acclimating.  Holy hell, there¡¯s a fight going on!  Move Reggie, move!


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    Try as I might, I can¡¯t move a muscle.  Even attempting to craft runes to perhaps move via magic only ends up feeling like my brain is being sheared in half.  No, no, no!  Come on!  Tiktik¡¯s vulnerable and weary, I need to protect her.  Also, hell if I¡¯m going down without a fight after all that.  I want to live.  Dawn made me promise.  I need to stop letting depression and other things drag me down.  I¡¯ve literally faced and battled the hordes of Hell at this point in my life.  I, I want a chance to live.  I want the good people of both worlds to be able to have a chance to live out their lives happily in peace.  If that means I personally have to battle back every single apocalyptic thing to ever rear its head, then so be it.  So, move already Reggie!


    My muscles spasm, and it feels as if I tear my right forearm off while trying to curl my arm at the elbow.  Ow, come on, come on!  I know I took some nerve damage, which, sure, was my own freakin¡¯ fault, but come on Reggie, pull it together!  Te¡¯s out there trying to fight something in the water.  If I can just flop, and crawl to the door here inside the cabin of the carriage, I, I should be able to do something.  Think Reggie, think!  You don¡¯t have your Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian thermokinesis, and you still haven¡¯t learned the telekinesis ability, but you¡¯re embedded with the wooden shards of a magic lightning stick, right?


    Hm, actually I don¡¯t feel them any longer.  A side effect of either transmuting my whole body to magical steel and back, or my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian regeneration, or both.  But the electricity is still in there, right?  Please tell me you didn¡¯t let our internal subroutine drop on that spell.  Feel it out, guide the electricity.  There it is.  You¡¯re starting to get it together, now just keep it together.


    Huff, huff.  Holy hells this is exhausting.  It¡¯s like I have to manually fire every neuron, then guide the electrical pulse to its destination to so much as twitch a finger.  That¡¯s some nasty nervous-system damage Reggie.  Non critterkin wouldn¡¯t recover from something like this.  They¡¯d be paralyzed forever.  Are you sure you won¡¯t be as well?  I, I have to choose to believe that my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian biology will let my nerve pathways regenerate from their smoking, cored-out state.


    Argh, am I completely naked?  I can begin to move muscle groups, so I can finally tilt my head to look at myself.  I¡¯d been caught up in thought so much that I hadn¡¯t noticed.  I¡¯m bandaged pretty heavily, a bit sloppily.  That would be Teuila¡¯s doing.  She¡¯s strong as hell, but paramedic aid is not one of her strong suits.  Tiktik¡¯s similarly mostly bare and bandaged, wrapped up nearly like a mummy.  I probably should have told Teuila to take us to Tiago as a pit stop before boarding The Drake.  Actually maybe she did, that¡¯s probably where she got the gauze from.  Or maybe she raided the apothecary before leaving The Brook.


    The carriage rocks once again, and much more lakewater sprays in through the various non-airtight seams, edges, and the slit that looks out towards the driver¡¯s seat.  Cough, hack, pft, ptew, ugh.  I hear a massive crack as of shearing wood and denting steel, but our carriage seems intact.  Hell¡¯s bells, that means The Drake is taking hits.  Come on Reggie, one last push, guide these elec¡ª.  The sounds of battle cease, but I don¡¯t sense Teuila returning.  For several moments, my heart skips beats.  Te!


    I flood my nervous system with all the electricity I can generate to move myself, agonizingly slowly towards the cabin¡¯s door.  I fling it open, taking the crest of a wave to the face for my troubles, but I scrabble atop the carriage while closing the door behind me to keep Tiktik somewhat sheltered.  Glancing frantically about, I spy The Drake listing only slightly, and no signs of battle anywhere across the waves.  Commotion from the deck of The Drake worries me, so I agonizingly carefully direct my movements with a combination of magnetic fields and internal electrokinesis.  Using every fiber of my being, I struggle to claw my way up the tow rope to The Drake¡¯s deck.


    Laughter reaches my ears as I slowly heft myself over the edge of The Drake and flop atop her deck.  Teuila and Tim seem to be having a chuckle about whatever just happened.  My brain is still too burnt out from overloading it with too many simultaneously running spells, so I can¡¯t enter thinkspace, unfortunately.  I wave weakly at the two, from my position flopped bodily upon the deck.


    Teuila frowns as she calls out, ¡°Airhead, what¡¯re you doing up here?  Why can¡¯t I hear your thoughts?  I thought you were just sleeping.  One sec Tim.¡±


    Teuila leans down to scoop me from the floor of the deck, and I slump wearily into her arms.  I struggle to figure out how to precisely control my vocal tract with my new nervous system.  Finally I manage to croak out, ¡°Brain overloaded, spells, too many.  Nerves cored out, can¡¯t move.  Heard battle.  Moved anyway.  Was worried.¡±


    Teuila frowns and playfully slaps me gently along the back of my head.  Teuila grumps, ¡°What do you mean your nerves were cored out?  Wait, my brains doing that encyclopedic thing.  What the hell?  Don¡¯t take this the wrong way Air, but how are you still alive after something like that?  Never mind that.  I¡¯m okay, we¡¯re okay.  You and Tiki should be resting.¡±


    Teuila adopts a thoughtful expression for a moment before continuing, ¡°I, well, I should be too.  I¡¯m beat to hell, and for the first time ever, I wish I weren¡¯t tethered up to Valkyrie form.  It¡¯s so much easier to fight in the water when I¡¯m an otter.  It¡¯s too much of a hassle, and risk, to drop the form though, in case something else happens.  I wouldn¡¯t be able to swap back up to Valkyrie fast enough if the need arose.  Really though, your brain is broke?  How do we get it better?  Do we need to use the potion?¡±


    I seriously consider telling Teuila that yes, now is the time to use the last healing potion we know of in existence.  It¡¯s not though.  Somehow I¡¯ll work this out.  Maybe I¡¯ll even become stronger because of it, if I find some way to turn this into an advantage.  I weakly shake my head at Teuila, sighing sadly.  Despite the difficulty it¡¯s causing me, my life isn¡¯t in danger, and that potion can save lives.


    My silent sonar senses say that something or someone is slowly approaching from the direction of our carriage.  Based on the topography of the incoming shape, I think it¡¯s safe to assume it¡¯s Kitten, bundled up in her hair and her giant magical hand.  My eyes roll about in their sockets momentarily as my head lolls.  I¡¯m so exhausted.  It took almost everything I had just to fight through my own limitations to check on Teuila.  Now that I know that she¡¯s okay, it¡¯s like every system in my body is shutting down.


    A second, more monstrous, much larger shape enters my sonar sensory range, on an interception course with Tiktik and The Drake.  My eyes flash wide in terror, flicking towards the direction they¡¯re coming from.  Instantly Teuila has her danger-spear in hand, and comes to the same conclusion.  Tiktik¡¯s a fraction of a moment away from danger, with The Drake not far behind.


    Teuila unceremoniously drops me as softly as she can upon the deck of The Drake and leaps into battle with the monstrosity cresting the waves.  It may well be the head of a Fel Portalspawn that¡¯s simply walking along the bottom of the lake.  I, I need, need to help.  My eyelids droop heavily closed, and despite my best efforts I can¡¯t open them.  Nor can I lift my limbs that suddenly feel even heavier than they¡¯d already been feeling.  No, no, Reggie fix this!  Get it together!  Nerve pathways that have been bored through and cored out by lightning are such a liability, dangit!


    Despite my desires, I begin to fade into unconsciousness.  I find myself flickering back and forth between wakefulness and the non.  Come on Reggie, stay awake long enough to take stock.  What are your assets and limitations?  What¡¯s the situation?  What patchwork fixes can you put in place at least temporarily?  There are some minor abjurative potions available, they¡¯re meant to protect from outward harm, but could they prevent my own system from shutting itself down?  Inward harm?  Somehow I doubt it.  I wish I¡¯d had more time on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas with the Nagas.  I wanted to learn scribing from them, maybe alchemy, more about their magic.  Wait, reptilian magic.  I snap back to wakefulness momentarily as my mind races with new thoughts.


    The last time I was in my draconian form, it was being poisoned.  My draconic form had been being filled with petrifying foam, and weighed down with intense density.  Is there anything I can do with my Changeling natural gift, or my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian shapechanging to make use of my possibly destroyed alternate forms?  I don¡¯t think the mite-hulk form would be a wise choice here, since it would likely crash through wooden floors and sink to the bottom of the lake.  Even The Drake would be dented or damaged, since it¡¯s a mostly metallic vessel, as a steamboat.  I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯d die in my draconian form without Teuila passing me rescue breaths, since it was paralyzed with foam the last time I used it.  My vision blurs behind closed eyelids as unconsciousness attempts to take me.

 B 5 C 36: Listing, Lists, Listed

    Is my staff recharged at all yet? Huff, no. The last mote of energy in it is what allows it to draw in and purify ambient mana over time. If I used up that bit of energy, the staff could go inert and cease to function. I can¡¯t risk that. A few of the spells only use ambient energy rather than energy from the staff, but they¡¯re mostly utility magics. Hm, what¡¯s that happening to Tiktik? Kitten¡¯s faltering, bobbing as she approaches, which worries me further that I¡¯ve got almost nothing left.


    Did Tiktik and the gryphon manage to snag the smoke bottle when I had the gryphon fly her to safety? Would that be useful or hazardous at the moment? Think Reggie, think! Limitations, advantages. Brand new, wide-open pathways through every bit of my nervous-system. Merged with Fel blood, and lightning-wood. At the moment, fire your electricity to your muscles, catch Kitten before she falls. I do my best to crawl up and lean over the edge of The Drake, holding my arms out for Tiktik to fall into. When she lands in them, I lean back heavily, falling upon the deck of The Drake.


    Tiktik whimpers, either in pain, or fear, or perhaps both, I¡¯m not sure which. I don¡¯t even have the strength to tell her I can¡¯t access my thinkspace. We lay together, panting exhaustedly on the deck of The Drake. Suddenly The Drake takes a hit, and another, and another. The sound of steel denting becomes the sound of steel buckling and shearing. The Drake lists heavily to her starboard side, obviously taking on water from a massive gap in the hull. It won¡¯t remain afloat much longer, and I doubt we could repair it while on the waves, even if we didn¡¯t have to fight off some barely visible Fel creatures while attempting such repairs.


    Well crap. Tiktik and I literally just got up here. Tim¡¯s shouting something, but I can¡¯t make it out. Suddenly a familiar, explosive sound reaches my ears. Gunfire. I blink rapidly, returned to startling wakefulness. Despite no longer feeling drowsy, I¡¯m unable to move my head to any great degree. Still, I still manage to spy Tim reloading a musket, while fishing out what looks to be alchemist fire fuses for trinitrotoluene. Or perhaps they¡¯re fuses for sticks of dynamite that have to be inserted. That seems to be exactly what they are, fuses smeared with a substance that continues to burn even while in water.


    Tim takes another potshot at something on the starboard side of The Drake. After that last shot, he¡¯s seemingly either unable, or unwilling to reload the musket further. Tim jams the fuses into sticks of dynamite rather than bothering with the gun that looks identical to ones we¡¯ve seen in the Derbrightmine Dominion. Using the musket¡¯s flint, Tim ignites the fuse on one of the sticks of dynamite, and tosses it off the starboard bow. The spray from the explosion is best described as chunky. Hrp. I know I¡¯ve been fairly brutal lately, but having Fel flesh bits and blood rain down on me from the sky isn¡¯t exactly pleasant.


    Fortunately, the thing attacking The Drake seems to be in its death throes after Tim throws another stick of dynamite. Unfortunately, it¡¯s a massive creature, and its death throws include slamming its full weight into The Drake as it topples towards us. The Drake capsizes, fully listing horizontally, despite us having just climbed aboard it. Tim is sent plunging into Lake Siempre, almost catapulted by the impact that capsized us. I¡¯m doing my best to keep my muscles locked around Tiktik, and I¡¯m also struggling to keep myself as magnetized as possible to the stern of The Drake. At least until one of us has the strength to get us out of here.


    I know there has to be some way to turn my current deficits into assets. What could I use tunnels running throughout my whole nervous system for though? Hm. I could perhaps keep additional mana residue from building up on my inner Changeling true self. I could focus so that whenever I work with mana, it always travels the new channels within me, and leaves through my extremities. Kind of late for that now. Heck, if mana residue built up in those nerve-channels, it would probably bolster my own durability, toughness, S P, and maybe even speed, rather than killing me by collecting on and strangling my second soul. Well, at least uncorrupted mana, though it¡¯s not like I¡¯m unused to corrupted mana working its way about under my skin at this point either.


    None of that really helps me in the moment. I can¡¯t afford to be essentially paralyzed as the forces of Hell bear down upon us. I also don¡¯t want the psychic centers of my brain to be broken either. The price I pay for my hubris is too great a cost at the moment. Tiktik mentioned something about a cureall for nonmagical, and some magical maladies, right? Could we work with that to either heal my nerve damage, or my brain¡¯s psychic centers? Well, when she¡¯s alert, and her S P have recharged. Still, we¡¯re in need of solutions for right now, as I can still hear Teuila battling something out amidst the waves. It doesn¡¯t sound like she¡¯s doing very well.


    I croak a question, ¡°Kitten? Carriage?¡±


    Tiktik rouses enough to answer, ¡°It¡¯s still floating, we¡ª,¡± I can feel her convulse as she drifts to unconsciousness momentarily from what must be intense pain, before she continues, ¡°we have to unlash it. Ship will drag it under. I, I can handle this Tiger. Find Tim, find Valk. Ow, meet on the carriage.¡±


    Tiktik struggles to free herself from the death grip I¡¯d been using to lock her safely to me, and I relent. She pulls a dagger as if from nowhere, and begins cutting into the incredibly thick tow-rope tied between mooring posts on the stern of the ship. Tiktik balances precariously on a railing support, treating it like a ladder, while The Drake is completely horizontal. Any moment now it¡¯s going to tilt over and finish capsizing. Or perhaps it will just sink like this, if the center of gravity is remaining over the center of buoyancy due to the hole in the hull filling with water.


    Tiktik¡¯s counting on me to find Tim or Te, or both. But I don¡¯t even have the power to locomote myself, let alone move, seek out, find someone else, and bring them back with me. What about a lightning leap? I was able to do one with the power of the staff, well, several. It was an intensely excruciating experience however. But, if I can¡¯t physically move, and I can¡¯t cast any of my magics, it¡¯s the only thing I can think of. Would I disperse if I hit the water though? Or would I be funneled down to the lake bed and grounded out?


    Thankfully, despite us both worrying for her safety, Teuila shows up. She spies what Tiktik is trying to do, so she finishes slashing through the tow-ropes as she hangs wearily from the stern. Teuila is looking the most haggard I¡¯ve ever seen her, and I¡¯m incredibly worried about her, but I can tell that Tiktik is informing Te that Tim fell off the starboard bow. Teuila leaps back into the waves of Lake Siempre, seeking out Tim, leaving me feeling useless.


    I¡¯m about to offer to try to lightning leap with Tiktik, when she agonizingly slowly picks herself up with her magical hand. She floats towards the carriage, bobbing in the air, her magical hand visibly near fritzing out the whole while. I guess that just leaves me. I don¡¯t want to come into contact with the carriage, Tiktik, or the lake as a bolt of lightning. I¡¯m fairly certain that I¡¯d destroy the first two, and die to the third. I¡¯m going to have to angle myself upwards like a lawn dart or horseshoe, then return to my normal non-lightning form midair. This is going to hurt.


    I exhale as smoothly as I can, despite barely being able to control any of my musculature. Up we go Reggie. Loosing my magnetic hold on the stern of The Drake, I fire myself vertically with a rearward arc, hoping the carriage hasn¡¯t drifted too far from where I recall it being in relation to The Drake. Becoming lightning feels about as bad as being struck by it. I have no natural immunity to the biological damage electricity can cause. Even my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian resistances only reduce its pain and damage by about ninety percent. Sure, that sounds like a lot, but when electrical energy is enough to kill someone hundreds of times over, a tenth of that is still fatal. For example. I obviously strive to be as low-voltage and amperage as possible with my transformation into a lightning leap, but still, it feels about as pleasant as being tossed into a giant blender full of ghost-pepper juice, and someone hitting puree.


    As I return to my own form, long before the apex of my arc, I can already tell I¡¯ve miscalculated. This is going to hurt even worse than I thought. I impact a corner of the roof of the carriage with, guess what, the right side of my rib cage. The agony that overcomes me as I feel my ribs snapping and scraping my lungs is horrid enough that I nearly pass out before hitting the water.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I can sense Tiktik struggling, wrestling to maintain consciousness aboard the carriage, and I struggle for the same as I begin sinking beneath the waves. Thankfully, I can¡¯t drown at least. At least Teuila didn¡¯t strip me of the neckchain of the ever breathing. I probably should have armored up before checking on her, but I was in a hurry and not certain where my armor was. My ribs would be a lot less broken now though if I¡¯d had my armor on.


    Wait, wait, the neckchain provides oxygen, if I breathe deep enough, I should maintain buoyancy without too much trouble. Ow, ow, ow. Breathing hurts. Holding a deep breath hurts even worse. Come on Reggie, fire enough impulses from neurons to nerves to paddle at least a bit back towards the carriage. As I struggle to move even a single limb, thankfully Kitten fishes me out of the drink with her magical hand, though it¡¯s diminished in size and power enough that she can¡¯t lift me from the waves. Tiktik¡¯s magic can only drag me to the edge of the driver¡¯s seat of the carriage.


    I¡¯ve got enough control to at least flop myself bodily into the driver¡¯s seat of the carriage, thankfully. It sounds like Teuila is fighting off one more of the creatures yet still. Wait, she¡¯s moving crazily fast towards the hull of the¡ª. Te! Oh gods no. She slammed into The Drake and skidded down it into the waves of Lake Siempre. She¡¯s not an otter right now, and if she¡¯s unconscious, she probably doesn¡¯t have a large lungful of air. Glancing over, Tiktik¡¯s out of commission, unconscious again. Unless Tim shows up miraculously carrying Teuila, it¡¯s down to me to get her, or possibly both of them. Friggin¡¯ hell.


    What do you have Reggie? What do you have? Something, anything, think about your assets list. Apheliotes was used up during the skirmish against the Fel horde. My thunderstick is shattered, merged with me. Elemental protection scrolls, even if I had more, wouldn¡¯t be much use. Minor water walking potions! I¡¯ve got tons of them! I only noted down the six from earlier, but Milbert¡¯s random stuff that we haven¡¯t sorted through had a bunch of semi-finished potions, most of which could become minor water walking in a few seconds. Okay, okay, the archsorc staff can manipulate a magic hand for me without spending its last spark of energy. It only takes ambient mana to produce the ghostly hand. What else? I can get the hand out, and have it mixing up the extra water walking potions for me as I figure this out.


    It¡¯s almost as if time is slowing down. I¡¯d be terrified that that meant Teuila is derezzing, because of the time dilation that always accompanies a powerful Can¡¯z¡¯aasian creature¡¯s derezzing. But I¡¯m positive Te isn¡¯t dead. She wasn¡¯t derezzing from the impact, and it¡¯s only been an instant since she hit the waves and began sinking. It¡¯s as if some otherworldly force is granting me extra time¡ª. My eyes widen. Focus, focus. Bring the velocity of time to nothing. You can do this. Do it Reggie. That¡¯s it, keep slowing time, further, further. Okay, everything, including my body and magical hand are also paused in time, but this gives me time to think, like my old accelerated thinkspace. We, I, I finally have a use for my aspect¡¯s affinity for absence. The absence of the progression of time.


    The various Sister¡¯s words echo in my head. While I¡¯m in this paused time, I study the back of my eyelids. There¡¯s an important clue here, but I don¡¯t know what it is, what I¡¯m looking for, or how to interpret it. Wait. Time is paused, but I¡¯m thinking, and thinking is electrical impulses, unless done in an astral or psychic plane like our thinkspace. I¡¯m able to continue manipulating at least some minor bits of electricity, and they¡¯re traveling at normal speeds within my brain. I should take advantage of that, and try things out with electrokinesis. Scatter some sparks throughout your system Reggie, carefully. Now that you have the time to do this, let the electrokinesis teach you about these cored out nerve pathways.


    This is exhausting, it feels like I¡¯m manually holding back the flow of time with my cortex. It¡¯s as if physical portions of my brain make up a dam holding back Lake Siempre from spilling out over Autumn Brook. Focus Reggie. Don¡¯t waste time thinking about that pain, or the building pressure. Explore in this moment between moments. Hm, unfortunately I was right about a bit of bad luck, I¡¯ve destroyed some things in various parts of my brain, from manipulating too many copies of too many spells at once. Huff. That sucks. Oh well, at least we know for sure. What else can we learn about our current form, our brain, our nerve pathways?


    I almost wonder if I could use King¡¯s weird alien ectoplasmic symbiotic parasitic biology to fill my cored out nerves. Well, if I could utilize him if he wasn¡¯t completely destroyed back in the Cathedral of Blood. Not something that¡¯s going to help me in the moment, but it¡¯s a possible line of thought to pursue at some point. What else is there? I¡¯m gaining some skill at manipulating these sparks to scout and receive feedback from my nervous system. That¡¯s certain to come in handy if I don¡¯t regenerate the charred tunnels throughout my body. It¡¯s also likely to come in handy when I let this nearly-frozen time drop.


    Funnily enough, I might be able to force mana residue out these cored out nerve pathways. New mana residue anyway. I could perhaps eject residue not already stuck to the inner true changeling self within me. Let¡¯s go back to our assets. Water walking potions are among them, and the hand can finish off several partially completed ones relatively quickly.


    The minor water walking potions specifically mention taking another step, so I wonder how they¡¯d react to me laying on my belly atop the waves. There¡¯s also the curious idea of what might happen if drinking one of them whilst beneath the waves. I think you might be rapidly floated to the surface, as if from a trampoline resuming its normal level plane.


    The time dilation is becoming too difficult to hold. I know I can at least flop myself back atop the water while drinking a minor potion. Most of my locomotion will have to use gravity and short electrokinetic spark pulse blasts. It¡¯s far too tiring to use my muscles manually by controlling each nerve impulse. Alright, we¡¯re back in normal time, and the ghostly hand is working at mixing up a half dozen more potions at a time. Despite the agony, I quaff several manually, and then purposely fall back into Lake Siempre.


    Whatever Teuila had been fighting, however many of them there were, there appears to be one left, though it seems to be on death¡¯s door. I spy the crate holding the alchemist¡¯s fire wicks, and two tubes of dynamite with my danger wraps¡¯ senses. If I can just get to them, yeah, my magical hand. I have my hand stow the extra potion materials and potions after I quaff several more, and place one against my lips, holding it in place without drinking it. When I¡¯m about as set up as I can be, I have my hand fetch a stick of dynamite and a wick. Once the magical hand brings them back, I combine the two, barely in time as some massive limb swats vaguely in my direction. It seems to mostly be attempting to use the wreck of The Drake to right itself in its weakened state. I just happen to be between it and the ship.


    Making certain Teuila isn¡¯t within range, I send an electrokinetic spark between my fingertips along the tip of the fuse. I¡¯m due for a headache when I do what I¡¯m about to do. I don¡¯t have the energy to throw the stick of dynamite, so I have my ghostly hand float it in the direction of the creature¡¯s face as quickly as it can manage. In mere moments, the stick of dynamite explodes in the creature¡¯s face, finishing it off, while also shattering my magical hand, sending a shearing pain through my brain. Ugh. Just like when I used telekinesis to compress the thermite through a small aperture til it exploded.


    Huff, okay Reggie, get to it. I wearily stand atop the water, locomoting by manually firing my nerve impulses. I slow time again for a moment as I try to parse my senses. I¡¯m hoping to be able to analyze the wreck, the waves, the falling creature, in order to paint a mental picture as to where Tim and Teuila might be. There, got it. The likeliest places. Within a fair margin of error at least.


    Falling forward, I discharge small blasts from my hands as they trail behind me, sending me skidding atop the waves of the lake. I re-summon my magical hand along the way, figuring Tim would likely have clung to some floating debris. I was right. He seems in and out of consciousness, but my magic hand can at least drag the debris towards the carriage. That leaves Teuila. Hang on My Wings, I¡¯m coming. I¡¯m so glad I didn¡¯t beg you to keep fighting any longer at Autumn Brook. Phew, a couple more steps, and we¡¯ll fall beneath the waves. Magic hand, you keep dragging Tim towards the carriage.


    I let the final bit of minor water walking magic expire, dropping me into Lake Siempre to seek out Teuila. I exhale as hard as I can to reduce my own buoyancy. There, over there. She has to be that way. The current is flowing westerly. Ride the current Reggie. Literally go with the flow. There she is. Unconscious, not breathing, but her heart is beating strongly. You¡¯ve got this Teuila, and I¡¯ve got you. I force enough nerve impulses through my body and limbs to wrap my arms around Teuila when I come into contact with her, locking them tightly. I inhale strongly through my nose while drinking the minor water walking potion in my mouth, angling towards the carriage. Sure enough, I¡¯m virtually fired from beneath the lake at a semi-rapid clip, while carrying Teuila. This time, my calculations are on point, and the two of us land in the carriage¡¯s driver¡¯s seat with a whumpf.

 B 5 C 37: Right Right Runostructure

    I sink into unconsciousness as I cradle Teuila in the driver¡¯s seat of the carriage.  When I awaken, everyone else is still out, though Tim has at least lashed his dinghy and debris-raft to the carriage.  He must have awoken for long enough to paddle around and snag the dinghy from The Drake.  Whew, at least he¡¯s alive.  I feel horrid for being partially responsible for the destruction of The Drake.  Gods of the four winds, I hope we can get him home to his family safely, to whatever location we¡¯re able to evacuate them to.


    While still almost completely non-functional, lamenting the danger we¡¯ve placed Tim in, the world rocks.  Or rather, the lake crests in a way that nearly bowls over our precarious makeshift flotilla.  The rocking motion rouses Tiktik and Teuila at least temporarily.  A familiar shadow forms beneath the waves, and I roll my eyes.  As the lake itself seems to rise up I begin a mutter that turns into a rant, ¡°Oh come on!  We really don¡¯t need this right now Lochsie.  We¡¯re just trying to get across the lake.  If the people of Aasimovia, The Brook especially, mean anything to you at all, it would be great if you, and maybe the enormous mud crab could go keep an eye on the southern shore to make sure nothing evil swims around our blockade to go chasing down and killing the innocent evacuees.¡±


    Without warning, the immense creature seems to spin, sending our carriage listing for a moment.  Only for a moment though, as it appears to now be swimming away to the south.  Wait.  Did Lochsie just understand me?  My expression contorts as I gaze between Tiktik and Teuila.  They both shrug helplessly, both barely maintaining consciousness.  That.  That was weird.  Right?  I mean, Luna is one thing, but now Lochsie, a creature on an entirely other planet, appearing almost hostile, just deciding to do what I asked?  I mean, Lochsie even just understanding me is stretching my incredulity.  Let alone her being inclined to agree to a request.  I worry once again that Rayileklia is just my dying fever dream.


    I gulp back my worries and fears.  The idea that I¡¯m just experiencing one last accelerated thinkspace in the moments of my death on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas is horrific in some regards.  Yet, still, even if that¡¯s the case, the people here need me, even if they¡¯re in my imagination.  They bring me joy all the same.  For Dawn, I¡¯ll carry on, ever onwards, no matter my doubts.  I think, I think I¡¯m starting to accept her death.  Whether or not Rayileklia is reality, or a reality, I experienced the death of someone I cared about, in my arms.  I blame myself, but I wasn¡¯t really at fault.  Huff.  I sigh as I try not to recall Dawn¡¯s final terrified moments, crying fearfully in my arms.  It happened.  It happened, and it hurts.  That¡¯s not going to change.  Some tiny traces of her may exist in some void of the multiverse, perhaps.  Somehow I stopped the curse from taking the memories of her.


    Trauma, pain, grief.  They have a way of haunting you.  Y¡¯know?  Oh Bud, I wish you were well enough to talk.  I¡¯m so worried about you.  We¡¯re stuck adrift only a mile or two north of The Brook on Lake Siempre, and I¡¯m stuck alone in my thoughts.  Hm, perhaps we might not be stuck.  I mean, if nothing else, when Apheliotes¡¯ enchantment recharges, he could get us out of here.  I think Teuila could also get us out of here if she gripped the toe-line, and leapt horizontally.  I¡¯d have to be crafting minor water walking potions for her, en-masse, but Te would only need a few dozen to get us all the way across the lake, with her leaping power.  I¡¯m not sure I have enough ingredients for that though.


    Hm.  I do have spectral, phantom steeds that I can conjure.  My vitality, my S P feels well enough to be able to summon the trio of them.  Can they swim?  Can I shape the spell ever-so-slightly so that they have fins or flippers or something?  I could make them into, what are they, Kelpies?  Yeah.  I think that¡¯s the name, and I think I can mess with the spell subtly enough to manage that minor change to their shape.  Reggie, what is it with you and poking magic like a sleeping bear?  Huff, whatever I suppose.  Not like there¡¯s anyone to teach me.  Jarrah mostly taught me that I probably couldn¡¯t be taught by anyone on Rayileklia anyway.


    Alright, I¡¯ll start working on figuring out the runostructure for the alterations, but if Teuila wakes up in the meantime, and feels well enough, I¡¯ll float the water-walking-potion idea by her.  I guess I can have my spectral hand working on those for me while I¡ª.  Wait.  If I need to figure something out, and if I¡¯m fairly sure I¡¯m smart enough to actually solve it on my own, I can at least follow the mental trails in paused time.  I need every advantage of every second of life I have left to stand a chance at finding the key to my survival.  Even if it¡¯s just a few minutes of time figuring out a solution before engaging in useful activities and allowing my brain to seek other avenues of thought, that could be all the difference in the end.


    I exhale as smoothly as I can, which, unsurprisingly with nearly-punctured lungs, is rather haltingly and shudderingly.  Focus Reggie.  Breathe air, breathe.  Find the absence of time between the moments.  Reside within it.  We¡¯re back in here again, in paused time.  It feels like it breaks several rules of reality to be able to still have conscious thought, to still -be- during a period of the absence of time.  Wait.  To still be am.  I think, therefore I am.  Descartes?  Why do I know that?  Why is the phrase to be am important to me suddenly?  Existing in a place without space, in a moment without time that stretches beyond eternity.  Something out there does that, is that.  Crap, where does this thought train even go?  We can¡¯t hold time at bay for long, so let¡¯s get back to the reason we hopped into this paused moment in the first place.


    Alright Reggie, visualize all of the runotypes for the ghostly steed spell.  What makes them appear as horses?  How does magic know how to interpret what a horse is, what an eagle is, what a lion is, what a gryphon is?  There have to be rules underpinning why shapes can alter applications of mana on a near-cosmic scale.  Hm, secrets of the universe will have to wait, though they would be incredibly helpful with what I¡¯m about to do.  Instead of having to work backwards with trial and error, I could actually read the formula that the runes are supposed to represent.  Regardless, here we are, and those are them.  Ugh, my brain hurts on several levels.  The physical strain of isolating myself in an absence of time psychically, the time spent alone in my own mind, and trying to wrap my head around the mental math of the magical universe.


    I wonder if I can set up a subroutine for myself within this stopped time to have parallel processing occur without fully focusing on it.  Let¡¯s try¡ª.  Ow!  Okay, okay, crap, no.  No I can¡¯t.  I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s because of being paused in time, or if it¡¯s because of the damage my brain seemed to take over the course of tethering so many mana constructs to physical forms with semi-autonomy for longer than intended.  Ow, even just thinking about conjuring mana constructs other than the horses feels like a cleaver shearing my brain.  The horses seem to be an odd, special case.  All of the monstrous mana construct spells leave my mind spinning and reeling. I¡¯m so dizzy I¡¯m nauseated, yeesh.  Back on task Reggie.  Right, right, runostructure.


    Okay, huff, phew.  I¡¯ve been in here for a few hours, maybe a day or two worth of thoughts at this point.  I feel like my cerebellum is going to blow out of my skull at any moment if I don¡¯t drop this paused time.  Still, I think I¡¯ve actually just about got it.  I can make the rest of the progress under the normal flow of time.  Oof.  Letting go of the dam against time is, hrlp, it¡¯s so painful it¡¯s nauseating.  Hm, I¡¯m positive that the herb granules were about to hit the water in that potion.  I¡¯m almost certain at least some time passed in the real world while I was mostly paused in time.


    I guess it makes sense that some time probably passed.  I suppose it would be impossible to continue perceiving if there wasn¡¯t at least some kind of flow of time, even if it¡¯s the slightest bit, right?  I mean, unless you could just exist and comprehend outside of the normal flow of time.  Then paused, forwards, backwards, time doesn¡¯t really matter.  Err, anyway, my shoulder is killing me for some reason.  Should I wake Teuila and ask her how she feels about the water walking potions?  Or should I just finish this last tweak?


    Ow, oof.  Or maybe I should nap.  We¡¯re all still recovering from The Brook, let alone the wreck of The Drake.  If only I could¡ª.  What was I thinking about?  I think I need to give in and rest, but it would be so nice if I could somehow conjure any sort of ally whatsoever to watch over us.  Being awoken by even a mana construct warning me of incoming danger would be better than risking none of us wakening until it¡¯s too late.  Huff, I exhale a weighty sigh.  It doesn¡¯t seem like I¡¯m going to have much choice in the matter though.  My eyelids are so incredibly heavy.  No, no Reggie, don¡¯t go to sleep just yet.  Satisfy at least one curiosity at normal speed in the regular flow of time.  Make sure your brain still works.


    I need to at least remember what day it is.  How much of a headstart does Lil have?  How far away could they have gone?  Is there an obvious path to some place along the Spine of the World that we could some day catch up to you on?  Or are we going to be searching forever.  How long will our detour to slay the hydra of the Jaggedfen Bog be?  Is the woman who lives there who I think she is?  Is she Taylynn¡¯s ancestor?  Tabitha Lynnia Altross is someone I know from memories shared with me that don¡¯t belong to me.  Or at least, I think Taylynn and Tabitha are one and the same.  Maybe Taylynn never even told anyone in her family her adventuring name.  Or maybe Taylynn was the alter ego of Tabitha.


    The person, and the identity, which is which?  Was Taylynn so that her family wouldn¡¯t know she was an adventurer?  Or was that persona so that the common people of the land wouldn¡¯t associate her with her family?  Maybe it was both.  It probably had to be both to be one or the other anyway.  If she wasn¡¯t disguised from the public, then eventually word of her adventuring would reach her family.  Likewise if she told members of her family that she was adventuring, they could have made her life in public hell if they were so inclined, and then the public would associate her with her family, for better or worse.


    Taylynn, are you alive?  What was it that you¡ª.  I lost a thought there.  What was I thinking about?  Something about solving a curiosity to make sure my brain still works.  I¡¯m curious as to what¡¯s still on our lists.  I may as well take them out, and take stock of things quickly.  I can let my magic hand cross off some of the things we used up or lost at the very least.  That¡¯s a useful conclusion to have come to in real time, isn¡¯t it?  Staying as prepared as we can be, by knowing our available assets and limitations?  Yeah, I feel like my brain at least still functions at normal speeds.  Despite the time-strain, and the exploded subroutine center for psychic management of multiple spells.  That one I¡¯m pretty darn upset about.


    I know it was my own fault.  I knew the spells weren¡¯t meant to be handled like that.  Somehow I think I even got off lucky.  It¡¯s like, because of my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian semi-digital biology, certain parts of me are digital or psychic constructs.  The piece of my brain that exploded from mental magical manipulation overload was one that existed only in digital space, like my inventory.  If it had instead, or also, been a part with a physical form within my actual cranium, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be alive right now.  I¡¯m pretty certain that most mages die when they break the rules of magic.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Anyway, let¡¯s pop out those lists and take a gaze, or a gander.  Hm, isn¡¯t a gander a kind of duck or something?  Wait, what?  Err, stop getting distracted Reggie.  Fatal flaw, remember?  Yeah, yeah, lists, let¡¯s go.


    Reggie¡¯s Spells mastered/currently studying:<ul>


    </li>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Frost Ray,


    </li>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Prestidigitative Legerdemain,


    </li>


    <li>02/05 runes mastered: Light,


    </li>


    <li>04/05 runes mastered: Mending,


    </li>


    <li>00/05 runes mastered: Splatter of Acid


    </li>


    <li>12/12 runes mastered: (Theorized, but not listed in any of the spellbooks, unknown, I presume 12/12) Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct (I surmise small animals, odd creatures)


    </li>


    <li>12/18 runes mastered: (Theorized, but not listed in any of the spellbooks, unknown, I presume 12/18) Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct 2 (I surmise small small animals, odd creatures)


    </li>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Scrying, Seemingly able to do this with physical runecrafting on a surface, not costing my own SP


    </li>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Ghostly Steeds,  Seemingly they do not require my own Sorc Points when these runes are crafted.


    </li>


    <li>12/24 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct III can conjure Celestial Dire Badgers, Celestial Fel Hounds, small Elemenals


    </li>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Summon Swarm. Can conjure a swarm of bats


    </li>


    <li>24/24 runes mastered: Telepathic Bond,


    </li>


    <li>08/24 runes mastered: Blast Frost, a Dragon¡¯s Breath cone-shaped cold blast


    </li>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Conjuration, somewhere between an illusion, and a conjured manifestation of shadow given physical form.


    </li>


    <li>33/33 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct V can construct Celestial Griffons, Hounds of Shadow, Dire Wolverines, medium Elementals


    </li>


    <li>33/33 runes: Steely Body, hardens my body for a short period to the point that I should be able to weather otherwise deadly blows.


    </li>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Evocation, somewhere between an illusion, and a conjured manifestation of shadow given elemental or energy form.


    </li>


    <li>48/48 runes mastered: Permanency-enhancement, has a weird mix of not costing my own Sorc Points to craft the runes themselves, but costs some of my vital essence in another way to finalize their empowerment, like giving up a little bit of myself permanently.


    </li>


    <li>33/64 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VI large Elementals


    </li>


    <li>33/99 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VII Angels known as Altivivorals, huge Elementals, whales, elephants, gargantuan or monstrously huge birds, pests, and other small animals


    </li>


    <li>33/180 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VIII can conjure Naga Angels known as Liltivilends, greater Elementals, bigger whales, plesiosaurs, tyrannosaurus, monstrously gargantuan insects, birds, pests, and other animals


    </li>


    <li>00/360: Theoretically a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct IX should exist I¡¯ve no idea if it would use any of the runes I¡¯ve learned so far. 0/360 due to its theoretical nature, I hypothesize it could conjure constructs of elder Elementals, celestial Rocs, monstrously colossal insects, birds, pests, and other small animals, and perhaps other angelic creatures.


    </li>


    <li>Could a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct X exist? How long would its runostructure be? What sort of conjurations could it muster up?


    </li>


    <li>00/06 runes mastered: Gusty Wind, about what it sounds like, a strong, localized galeforce breeze


    </li>


    <li>00/24 runes mastered: Squall Wall, similarly, a localized area of wind-pressure so heavy that it¡¯s nearly solid.


    </li>


    <li>15/33 runes mastered: Detect Thoughts, basically what it says on the tin.


    </li>


    <li>012/330 runes mastered: Prescient Moment, this one is crazy by the description built into the runostructure. It seems to grant a single random moment of foresight at some point within four hours of having been cast. Whatever foresight is given, is the exact correct way to succeed at whatever brief event is being shown.


    </li>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Growth/Reduction, basically what it says on the tin.


    </li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Fireball, everyone¡¯s favorite deadly toy.


    </li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Lightning Bolt, everyone¡¯s second favorite deadly toy.


    </li>


    <li>02/33 runes mastered: Hailstorm, crowd control, and possibly the ability to ground flying creatures makes this a spell I should use more. I used it against Milbert of Navica outside Victo at the top of his tower, while mostly trapped by the soul-stealing light.


    </li>


    <li>000/128 runes mastered: Dispellation, I badly want to learn this one in case more magic users begin to crop up. I¡¯ve a feeling that, just like Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, stuff that seemed impossible, or at the very least, rare, will start becoming commonplace. I want to be prepared.


    </li>


    <li>02/33 runes mastered: Minor History, a sort of identification spell that also glances at random points along an object''s lifetime, displaying semi-pertinent information


    </li>


    <li>01/05 runes mastered: Ghostly Hand, I kind of really like this spell. It¡¯s free from the staff, so I don¡¯t need to learn it, but it¡¯s handy, and it kept Jarrah from taking my head off, and saved one of the Enochian Enclave kids.


    </li>


    <li>05/66 runes mastered: Bypassed-Wall, at least this is in the staff, but I¡¯d really, really love to have it personally mastered, so that I could cast it if, oh, say, a fuggin¡¯ earth elemental rips my staff from my hand while shattering my hand.


    </li>


    <li>03/99 runes mastered: Telekinesis, I¡¯ve dreamt of having this ability since early on in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and it¡¯s an incredibly potent non-lethal way of subduing people. Something I¡¯m sorely lacking.


    </li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Incendiary Web, a way to ensnare things in possibly fatal flames without exploding a massive area seems like a decent spell to know. It¡¯s cheap to cast from the staff though, so I should probably use it through that rather than spending time trying to learn its runes to the point of mastery.


    </li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Firewall, Similar to the Squall Wall, an area of intense heat and pressure is walled off.


    </li>


    <li>002/660 runes mastered: Planar Traversal, Ugh, I truly, truly hope that we get enough peaceful time for me to study, master, and take apart this spell. It¡¯s our first solid lead on returning to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, sort of. We still don¡¯t know if we¡¯re on different planes of a reality, or in different realities entirely, or what.


    </li>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Spectral Lock, it magically locks things, making them resistant to opening by any means other than the next spell.


    </li>


    <li>00/33 runes mastered: Spectral Knock, the unlocking spell.</li></ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Permanent Buffs:<ul>


    </li>


    <li>Aura sensing(Detection of magic, souls, and runes)


    </li>


    <li>Telepathic Bond (Currently with Teuila and Tiktik only, bound sentient artifacts can come along for the ride, will try to add Luni, Lil, and maybe even Lucky if we ever catch up with the triple L squad.)


    </li>


    <li>Comprehension of all written Languages


    </li>


    <li>Quickening of runotypical spells metamagic available


    </li>


    <li>I¡¯m fairly worried that I¡¯ve destroyed something within my brain.  Conjuration spells just feel like they¡¯re going to be harder even just thinking about their runes now.  Everything in me aches whenever I think about them, and my nose starts to bleed.  Not exactly a buff, but an effect I need to remain aware of.


    </li>


    <li>Technically integrated lightning.  I should have counted my reflex-enhancing electrokinesis before.  Now it may be too late to count it.  I may have gone overboard.  I¡¯m not sure such thorough nerve damage is recoverable even for Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin-adjacents.</li></ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Current Equipment:<ul>


    </li>


    <li>1x Danger Wraps: Wristwraps that warn me and provide silent sonar


    </li>


    <li>1x Billowy Cloak: Can¡¯t be much more descriptive. It¡¯s a cloak, it billows on command


    </li>


    <li>1x Hyperdimensional Haversack: Sack that¡¯s bigger on the inside


    </li>


    <li>1x Enchanted scrollcase: As durable as me to survive a close-range explosion


    </li>


    <li>1x Archsorc Staff.  After having used it on Rayileklia enough, I¡¯m getting a feeling for how to interpret its limitations. It is similar to me in that it can purify and store enough mana to perform 500 runic uses or sorc points or charges, it recharges up to approximately 250 per day, most spells take about 70¡¯ish charges due to the staff¡¯s quick casting nature. It resides in my secreted enchanted double-ended ¡°drop-sheath¡±. It can be dropped into hand with the flick of a bottom-lid.


    </li>


    <li>1x Griffon Figurine: expands into an animated statue similar to a mana construct. Goes by the name Apheliotes Zephyrus


    </li>


    <li>1x Cap of Disguising Illusions: Pretty much what it says on the tin. Can project fairly strong illusions over the wearer in order to appear a number of ways.


    </li>


    <li>1x Portable Hole (in my enchanted Scrollcase from Berinon)


    </li>


    <li><del>2x Scrolls of Protection from Elementals (in my Scrollcase)</del>


    </li>


    <li><del>2x Earth Elemental summoning stones (in my Scrollcase)</del>


    </li>


    <li><del>1x Air Elemental Summoning stone (in my Scrollcase)</del>


    </li>


    <li>1x Blessed anti-vampire, silvered stake (in my Scrollcase)


    </li>


    <li>1x Holy Halefire wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow


    </li>


    <li>1x Full Valkyrie armor set + <del>dagger</del> and buckler


    </li>


    <li>1x Pied Pipes of Rodent summoning


    </li>


    <li>1x Neckchain of the Ever-Breathing. No matter the atmosphere, or lack thereof, as long as this is about my neck, or anyone¡¯s, that individual can breathe without damaging their insides at all. It projects basically a magical self contained breathing apparatus that either filters, or straight up conjures and creates air for breathing.


    </li>


    <li>1x Starmetal Luckrock. I¡¯m going to give this to Lil some day, if we ever reunite. I want it to be a gift that hopefully lets them think of their scalemate tongue-tie-er Dehlia fondly.


    </li>


    <li>1x <del>healing potion</del>  We used this one on Daffodil.  Teuila has the last one in existence as far as we¡¯re aware.


    </li>


    <li>3x Minor Water Walking Potions. Single Step salvation in a bottle. Literal lifesavers when falling a tremendous distance if over water. Full kinetic dispersal.  I used up something like a dozen of them, and have made the last few that I could with the materials we scavenged from Milbert.


    </li>


    <li>undisclosed/unidentified minor equipment from Milbert, as well as several unidentified potions from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that Reggie, uh, I withdrew upon arriving on Rayileklia.


    </li>


    <li>2x mysterious energy cells Eventually I¡¯ll figure out what these are so that they¡¯re understood, I swear.


    </li>


    <li>1x Always-smoking bottle I almost hope we kinda forgot it near The Brook in the chaotic mess of everything.  Maybe it would helpful to the MCD crew in keeping them out of sight while they were setting up the sinkhole beneath Autumn Brook.  I think Tiktik might have it though.


    </li>


    <li>1x <del>Partially broken thunderstick of elemental lightning</del> Fully broken now, and integrated into my body.  It hurts to think about.  Literally.


    </li>


    <li>1x Box-like book left by the Sisters of the Mist within our Carriage. In haversack. Do not open until having collected 16 evil elder dragon hearts to consume their dragonforce. If I even live that long.  I wonder what sort of knowledge is contained within.  Maybe their bubble scrying spell?</li></ul>


    Reggie¡¯s Current Sentient Artifact Attunement:<ul>


    </li>


    <li>Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds. Powers include almost anything that can conceivably make travel at least slightly easier for his wielder, and their companions. Mostly involves vibrating stray stones off the path, burying roots to present a flattened footpath, loosing apples from nearby trees to roll towards the party, hidden berry bushes extending a branch towards the path, and so on. Most powerful in a Fae forest, specifically the Hidden Heart.  Bud, oh Bud I hope you¡¯re okay.


    </li>


    <li>Requiem, the Silent Song (Shared with Teuila)


    </li>


    <li>Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark (Shared with Teuila) </li></ul>


    Essie and Icey are people to consider too.  I mean, sort of.  They¡¯re sentient armaments worth considering.  Though I don¡¯t like of thinking as anything with a personality as being an asset.  Or, sapience, or something.  You know what I mean, me.  Anyway, these two have been patient, but they¡¯re probably getting pissed about me not having tried to identify their current powers yet.  I know, it probably would have been worthwhile to know them when we were defending Autumn Brook, but it¡¯s not like I know how long it¡¯ll even take to figure out.  I doubt I could do it in an instant during battle, or I¡¯d have done that to begin with.

 B 5 C 38: Balanced Equations

    After what must be another extended several-hours nap, I find myself awoken to the sounds of smooth strong strokes paddling the water. It seems Teuila has fashioned, or saved some large oars, and is using the dinghy to pull the rest of our makeshift floatilla northward as she rows. The physics don¡¯t seem to add up, but maybe she¡¯s increasing her density and the density of the oars while decreasing the density of the rest of the flotilla slightly? I wonder if she even has to think about things like that, or if her powers passively act in ways that she would want them to. I know my powers sometimes surprised me by handling a situation in a different way than I thought I¡¯d have had to.


    Teuila notices me moving, and waves my way with a bright smile on her face as she quietly calls out, ¡°Mornin¡¯ Airhead. Still sleepy? You can rest, it¡¯ll be quite a few hours til we¡¯re out of the lake yet.¡±


    I chuckle, and shake my head. I then marvel that I¡¯m able to shake my head. Casting my electrokinetic senses about within my body, the nerve-tunnels are still charred, and present. It seems that, just like what I¡¯d just been thinking about, my powers are starting to understand how I need them to be used. My electrokinesis seems to be guiding the signals that my nervous system would normally be sending to provide locomotion and feedback and such. I try to sense my brain momentarily, but immediately develop a nosebleed and nearly pass out. Well, that¡¯s definitely still damaged.


    What¡¯s going on, why am I shifting? Oh, apparently Tiktik and I were cuddled up here in the driver¡¯s seat somehow, at some point. My silent sonar scans our carriage, and the surrounding waves, and I can understand why she¡¯s not within the carriage¡¯s cabin. It¡¯s quite soggy in there, and probably fairly unpleasant. Static penetrates my thoughts like a raucous din, and I¡¯m left reeling. I nearly tumble off the seat into the lake below, but Tiktik catches me with her magical hand.


    The static continues to press inwards against my mind, shearing and splitting something within my brain. My eyes well with tears of pain as my nose continues to bleed like a faucet. Moment after moment, the pressure and pain builds until I can¡¯t stand it any longer. As I¡¯m about to give in to the pain and pass out, it suddenly ceases, and I¡¯m left standing in a static-laden mindscape. Everything is out of focus, and fritzing into and out of existence like images on a channel your old CRT TV shouldn¡¯t have access to, but the antenna is picking them up on a nearby channel anyway. A what is doing a what with the huh? Right, right, more Earth things.


    Suddenly, in reality, I hear Tiktik yell, ¡°I did it! Tiger¡¯s back big Tee!¡±


    Teuila¡¯s single elongated laugh of glee pierces the eerily quiet lake air as she squees in delight. Te shouts back, ¡°I knew you could do it little Tee, I owe you big babe!¡±


    I raise my eyebrow, confused, though glad about their shared happiness. Tiktik¡¯s mental avatar pokes mine and I nearly jump out of my skin both in my mindscape and meat-space. I¡¯m not trapped alone, separated from our telepathy any longer! Teuila¡¯s mention of owing Tiktik big feels like it¡¯d be an understatement if I echoed it for myself. Tiktik¡¯s mental avatar giggles and squeezes mine in a tight hug before fading in and out.


    My mindscape seems unstable currently, but I can sense Teuila¡¯s and Tiktik¡¯s emotions along our psychic connection at least. I¡¯m sure they can read my thoughts once again. From several mental directions, I hear, ¡°Yep!¡± And, ¡°Yup!¡± It¡¯s a bit disorienting, to say the least, but hopefully it¡¯ll stabilize with time.


    I return to focusing on meat-space, and realize Tiktik¡¯s eyes are differently colored yet again. I could swear that I noticed them being red one time, and green another. Not just slightly different shades due to lighting, but entirely different colors. Actually, did her robes always look like that? I mean, maybe the way the water is causing them to cling to her form, uh, anyway. Her hair is different too, but I think she told me that part of her heritage lets her control that. But wait, her face is different too, it¡¯s, I mean, err. She has always had an adorable, or lovely face, but this is picturesque.


    Tiktik, giggling as she rides my thought train, telepathically jokes, ¡°Wait, you seriously never noticed that your eye color, hair length, clothes, and facial features switch it up? I mean, we Fae tend to invoke some change blindness from those around us, when our natural glamours go random, but usually not in ourselves, hehe. Just how rarely do you look at yourself?¡±


    My jaw hangs low as my expression freezes. I¡¯m stuck trying to think about the last time I saw myself, or even asked someone else for a description of me. I''d rather not think of the eerie copy in the Sisters of the Mist compound. I think maybe I saw my reflection once or twice when I was in Autumn Brook in June. Maybe? Otherwise, before that, um, gosh. Maybe when we lived at Shellcracker Pond. Or at least when I was blinded during our early years, looking through Lil¡¯s and Luni¡¯s vision, but I just chalked those differences up to how I appear to each of them.


    Tiktik holds her belly as she nearly doubles over laughing in and out of thinkspace. She chides, ¡°You don¡¯t even know? It¡¯s been at least months, if not years? Hehehe, that¡¯s the least self absorbed I¡¯ve ever heard any Fae being.¡±


    I scratch the back of my head as I blush in chagrin. I do have some fairly highly self absorbed tendencies, just not in the visual vanity department. Teuila jokingly sticks up for me across our triple wavelength, ¡°My Air does suffer from a little bit of vanity or pride, but, yeah, not that kind. I mean, they were a weird emerald dragon-person for months on end, and before they even got to that point, they were growing random scales to try to make it happen for months and months. I guess I didn¡¯t really notice the changes either, or just chalked it up to their magics.¡±


    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    Just how many methods do I have for altering my appearance? Evolutionary tethers up and down the line of several forms, one. Self-actualization into different forms when dropping those evolutionary tethers, two. Changeling natural gifts, three. Fae glamours, four. Are there any others? Oh, right, the illusory cap, and I could probably copy the spell it provides. Crap on a cracker Reggie. What is your natural form even supposed to look like?


    Tiktik shrugs in response to my mental rhetorical question, giggling. I find myself shrugging as well, though sluggishly. It seems like my reflexes and actions are going to be much slower even with my powers passively taking over the electrokinetic signaling along my cored-out nerve tunnels. That¡¯s a liability, but it¡¯s better than paralysis. I could probably act and respond at normal speeds, possibly even heightened speeds, if I flood those tunnels with electricity from my newly integrated thunderstick powers. That would probably devastate me from the inside out though, much like my actions during the battle to stall the Fel horde. I guess it¡¯s a bit of a break glass in case of emergencies option.


    I call out telepathically to Teuila and Tiktik, ¡°Are we still all on board for the same plan? Get to the north shore of Lake Siempre, part with Tim, go through The Gap to check on the kobold clan and Derbrightmine Dominion, then swing around west into Jaggedfen, to take care of the hydra before the refugees get there?¡±


    Both of their telepathic avatars arrive, nodding at me in my distorted static-laden mindscape. Te adds, ¡°It was a horrible thing, and there¡¯s more horrible things around the next few corners, but you know what Lu always says. You¡¯ve got this. Always have, always will. To each of us. I¡¯m done feeling down and beat. We held back an army! Maybe for only a few hours, but that¡¯s more than most trios can claim. We, we just have to catch up to the rest of these big bad situations, and throw down. Somehow, somehow we¡¯ll get stronger in time, and win. I¡¯m sure of it.¡±


    Tiktik smiles and nods along with Teuila. She¡¯s utterly precious. Like, who is this strange little Fae woman who happened to be in our path? It¡¯s insane that someone so stoic and loyal and kind would almost literally fall into our laps. I chuckle as my mental avatar scratches the back of its head, recalling that the two of them are reading my thoughts right now.


    Tiktik chirps, ¡°Yup! Hehe. It¡¯s okay Tiger. You two are interesting, and even if that weren¡¯t enough for me, you¡¯re good people, with the weights of worlds on your shoulders. Everyone needs a hand now and again when struggling against heavy weights. Right?¡± To emphasize her point, Tiktik¡¯s mental avatar conjures her magical hand, and has it lift her into the air while she poses like Atlas.


    Teuila¡¯s mental avatar clasps its belly as she doubles over with laughter while watching Tiktik¡¯s entirely cartoonish dramatic re-enaction of offering a hand to help take a load off. It¡¯s remarkable how well they¡¯ve taken to this version of telepathic mindscapes. Oh! I should tell them!


    The two stop their antics and look at me with a mixture of worry and excitement. Te asks the obvious question, ¡°Tell us what Air?¡±


    Blushing, my telepathic avatar relays, ¡°I was able to stop time! Sort of. Like, for everyone, including me, mostly. My thoughts were still working, so it was like our old accelerated thinkspaces. Before you get your hopes up, there¡¯s no way I could pause the world around us without pausing you. I don¡¯t know what would happen to your telepathic avatars while they were in my mindscape though. I¡¯m almost afraid to experiment.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s avatar¡¯s expression lifts and drops as her mood changes from excited to mildly let-down. She does flash me a proud gaze however. Thanks My-Wings. Tiktik¡¯s avatar scratches her head as she follows along. I think she¡¯s trying to parse how I could know I paused time, or nearly-paused time.


    Tiktik nods along with my thoughts. I¡¯m not sure I can explain it any better to her than I already did. Time seemed to be slowing down, and it triggered a familiar feeling. When I got a grip on that feeling, I took charge of it, and everything seemed to stop, the waves, the floating grains of herbs, my breath, everything. Everything except my thoughts. I then spent a few hours, maybe a couple of days puzzling out some runostructure changes to my phantasmal steeds spell. I think I can turn them into water-horses. Not seahorses mind you. More like, just replace their legs with flippers.


    The pair raise their eyebrows, intrigued. I¡¯m fairly certain I can work out the changes in the next hour or two, but my brain felt like it was exploding while holding time frozen, so I want to do the rest of the theory-crafting in meat-space. Plus, I have to do the physical practice in meat-space anyway. I have my telepathic avatar query the two women in my head, ¡°Are you two both okay?¡±


    Teuila makes a so-so gesture, while Tiktik shouts in a chipper fashion, ¡°Yup! Well, apart from lotsa broken bones. Good thing I had my magicky stuff on me. C¡¯mon Tiger, get out of your head for a bit then.¡±


    Teuila agrees, ¡°Yeah, lets let your brain get some air, Air. Try to recover. If you get us some sweet water horses in a bit? Great. If not? I can handle the rowing.¡±


    I chuckle as I nod towards Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar as we all begin to fade from thinkspace. She certainly can handle rowing. I sigh in contentment in this brief moment of positivity. The surety of Teuila¡¯s power, her ability to bounce back, just everything about her. All of that? I couldn¡¯t handle this crazy life without it. We don¡¯t even need to discuss the events of the wreck. Te and I will always save each other. We haven¡¯t failed the other yet. Let¡¯s just hope that I can keep up my side of that equation.


    Speaking of hopefully balanced equations, let¡¯s take in the spray of the lake and let our mind wander. Maybe the last bit of this puzzle will fit itself into place for me, with the outside stimulus. Huh. Whaddaya know? That¡¯s almost too convenient, but I¡¯m not going to look a gift water-horse in the mouth at this point in time. Seriously though, moments after turning my attention back to it, the last bit falls into place when I¡¯m splashed with water in my face by Tiktik¡¯s magical hand. Now we have a slightly variable steed spell.


    I don¡¯t think I can get the steeds to sprout powerful enough wings to both fly and carry a heavy object, but maybe that¡¯ll be a project I can work on with Teuila. It took her density adjustments for me to reach my max speeds on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, looks like it might take the two of us yet again if I can spare the time to create pegasi from the spell. I¡¯m not certain it¡¯s worth my time to spend on modifying that spell yet, when I have many more spells to learn, and flight on Rayileklia is still far too hazardous. Even if the clouds all suddenly disappeared, it might be easier to just have Teuila leap us around the continent. Still, it¡¯s worth noting down somewhere that it¡¯s a plausible possibility. It¡¯d be a few days of thought seeking the balance to the runostructure¡¯s formulaic equation, but I might be able to afford that at some point.

 B 5 C 39: With Mind Wide Open

    I test out the steed conjuration, sure enough, it doesn¡¯t cause me to projectile-bleed, or even seem to require any S P.  I don¡¯t think they can fight, perhaps the fact that they¡¯d dissipate almost instantly in combat is what keeps them as free mana constructs.  Whatever the case may be, there are now three water-horses bobbing alongside Teuila in the rowboat.  An audible squee hits my ears as Teuila squeals with delight, and pride.  I can¡¯t help smiling at hearing her sound her elation.  It¡¯s one of the most delightful sounds that I can imagine.


    Suddenly I¡¯m struck with sadness as I recall another delightful sound.  The voices of my family back home on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, especially Laomati, our matron.  I know that the messaging stone shouldn¡¯t work, wouldn¡¯t work, won¡¯t work, but I¡¯m so tempted to try it.  I¡¯ve had that desire crop up again and again on Rayileklia, but, well, the desire brings only pain.  Even if the message somehow got through, it could be years before a reply came back, due to the time velocity difference between the worlds.


    My beloved Shellcracker family, the otters, the cats, all the Fae around the Miracle Oak, I¡¯m trying so hard to get back to you.  Somehow, somehow I¡¯ll persevere until I can get all of us back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  My attention turns towards the planeswalking spell.  I¡¯m almost sure that practicing every rune in this one until I understand each rune intrinsically is going to be a significant portion of the key to getting home.  I just don¡¯t have any sort of dragonforce infused vibratory rock or tuning fork thingy from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.  I wonder if Luni knows the exact harmonic frequency of our world.


    Could Lu duplicate the required resonance?  Would it work if we used a dragonforce from Rayileklia, somehow imbued with the resonance of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas?  Could it possibly be that simple?  Somehow I¡¯m doubting it.  Come on Reggie, get out of your own head, this is a depressing thought train that you¡¯re not ready to tackle.  The people of Rayileklia need help.  We¡¯re not going to just abandon an entire world, even if we did stumble onto the answer to get home right away.  Not anymore at least.  Maybe when we first arrived, we didn¡¯t know anything about this world¡¯s problems, its issues, or its peoples, but now we do.


    You don¡¯t abandon people.  If you ever make it back to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and the convergence hasn¡¯t yet happened, you try to convince the beavers to evacuate to the miracle oak once again.  Also try to scour the continent for Neighbor-San, and the disgruntled critterkin contingent.  Oof, systemic issues would crop up if we can find all of them and shelter them all within the Miracle Oak¡¯s shield.  They rightfully distrust, and perhaps even hate, the humans.


    Hell, how do I feel about humans?  I thought I was one, for a long time.  I had, or have, preconceptions about them, based on memories of a world that doesn¡¯t exist.  Well, to be fair to myself, other than the technology level, it does seem that humans are easily as much of a mixed bag as my memories painted them out to be.  Reggie?  Reggie.  Get out of your head.  Please.  These aren¡¯t topics that you can even handle right now, let alone solve, or even afford to be spending time on.  Right, right.


    Hm, I do wonder whether my personality is fracturing further, or if my future self is sending back necessary messages again, or if I¡¯m just weird in the head.  It¡¯s probably the latter honestly.  I have this vague notion that it¡¯s not strange at all for me to think in the plural.  We¡¯ve done that a number of times, haven¡¯t we?  Yeah.  Also asking myself questions, and answering them.  To be fair, is that unusual at all?  Err, back to reality buddy.  Right, right.


    I glance around, and notice Teuila working to hitch up the water-horses, and rearrange our makeshift flotilla.  I flash a smile her way, and she waves excitedly towards me.  I can¡¯t help but smile broader by the moment as I stare at her swimming about.  It¡¯s so reminiscent of home.  We were, well, she was, is, a river otter at heart, and, err, well, physically was until she started assuming her Valkyrie form permanently.  I¡¯m unable to resist sighing contentedly again, seeing her swimming about joyfully.  Tiktik snuggles into my torso while muttering sleepily, and occasionally whimpering in pain.  I wear a half frown, pouting somewhat, worried for our friend.


    Tiktik¡¯s going to be physically out of commission for weeks, maybe months, and she¡¯s -still- willing to face down the hordes and horrors of the world with us.  I draw a ragged breath that becomes a yawn.  I¡¯m a few days from top form myself as well, at bare minimum, not even counting the nerve damage.  It¡¯ll probably be quite a bit longer to heal the holes in my leg and arm.  I think my body focused internally first on making certain my ribs stayed in place and didn¡¯t puncture my lungs.  What about the fel-blood-coated magical lightning-wood shards?  Their presence isn¡¯t physically noticeable anywhere within my body, but they still have some effect within me.  Is that cursed blood going to prove to be a problem later on down the road?


    A groan draws my attention, and Tim¡¯s voice reaches my ears as he complains, ¡°I¡¯m -so- not feeling the ¡®aster.  I¡¯m moded, and so is The Drake.¡±


    He¡¯s using more of that unusual slang.  How odd.  I call out to Tim, ¡°I can¡¯t say how sorry I am Tim, or how grateful I am.  If you hadn¡¯t been available to get us out of there, I don¡¯t know what would have happened.¡±


    Tim scoffs, wheezing a pained laugh before responding, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, you teeny tiny little titans.  You¡¯re big-damn-heroes in my book.  You got my wife and son out of The Brook.  That¡¯s crash enough for me.  Hopefully though, the rest of your plan goes off without a hitch.  Now that would be crash.  It¡¯s not like I could have walked The Drake to Jaggedfen or Jeegoobotstan anyway.¡±


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I suppose Tim is right about that.  At best The Drake would have been left docked somewhere on Lake Siempre while he joined the evacuees.  I hear Tim flop onto his back and wheeze once again.  He sounds winded, bruised, probably injured around his ribs and lungs.  I hope that it¡¯s just bruising.  My mind wants to wander towards all the ways that the last few days were a complete failure, but I have to be done with that.  I have to be done wallowing in sadness and grief.  I don¡¯t get to choose, but I¡¯ll do my best to focus face-forward.


    Trying to distract myself from all the pain, suffering, and failures going on, I attempt to orient my mind in a more useful direction.  What other assets can I bring to bear?  What about my Changeling gift?  I¡¯m supposed to be using it constantly, to prevent additional mana residue buildup.  Should I just dink around with my appearance?  Tiktik was talking about Fae appearances earlier.  I think I should probably seek a better application than just vanity though, even if I¡¯m supposed to be using it constantly.  Yeah, yeah I¡¯m sure there must be some way to apply it.  Right?  What about my nerve channels?  Can I use my gift to focus a latticework of tissue to stretch between the cored-out nerve-tunnel walls?


    Flexing my jaw, and drawing a ragged breath, I focus on my first attempts to use my gift in a masterful fashion.  I¡¯m failing miserably, but it doesn¡¯t feel entirely impossible.  I also feel as if I¡¯m stretching a muscle that¡¯s been atrophied.  It¡¯s almost like, the more I practice this, the easier it will be to hold any shapes I manage to change.  Heck, that might actually be the case.  I probably should have been working on this ever since Alanea Whifflewillow confirmed for me that I really was, err, am, a Changeling Fae.


    Huff, trying to stretch these muscles, this magical center of myself, it feels so close to impossible.  The failed attempts are exhausting.  It makes me feel like a failure.  It¡¯s the one thing I¡¯m supposed to be a natural at.  So many things in this last few months are just, they, they just make me want to sink into despair.  I know part of that is the mana residue corruption amplifying my depressive tendencies, but it¡¯s so hard to fight it back.  I¡¯m almost ready to give in again already, but something comes to mind.  Something a little bird once told me.  No, not me, something I read somewhere.


    Quoth the raven, ¡°Nevermore.¡±


    I don¡¯t recall where I heard it, or read it.  Somehow, at this moment, it feels like advice.  Give in to despair nevermore.  I¡¯ve lived through fire and flood, hell, I¡¯ve lived through a flood of fire.  Hell, I¡¯ve lived through dying!  To hell with despair!  Every doubt, every last bit of it, shove it down, bottle it, fight it back and seal it away!  Reggie Shellcracker, Teuila Shellcracker, Tiktik Clocktok, you will succeed!  You will reunite with Luni, Lil, and Lucky Shellcracker!  You will save the Aasimovian refugees!  You will overcome your obstacles preventing you from safely using mana!  You will overcome your temporary paralyzed state!  You will learn the truth behind the events on Rayileklia.  The, the truth.  That¡¯s right.  Something happened before we left Autumn Brook the first time.  It¡¯s hazy.


    Brook, book.  A book!  A screaming pain tears its way through my brain, and my left eye feels as if it bursts.  A burning behind my eye heats to a point that would melt the brain of anyone without my insane levels of fire resistance.  My left eye loses vision after washing over in red.  Is, is this what Teuila or Tiktik were warning me about in my head?  It¡¯s like something is actively, violently being kept secret from me.  Fight it Reggie, fight it!


    The heat traces a path along the inside of my cranium towards my right eye, and the pressure builds to the point that it feels like I¡¯m going to lose my right eye as well.  Huff.  Okay.  I lose this round.  Fine.  This isn¡¯t over.  This time you won¡¯t keep me from remembering that I¡¯m fighting something for access to memories and secrets within my own mind.  Whoever you are, whatever grip you have on my memories, I will pry them loose at some point.


    Teuila¡¯s mental avatar arrives in my mindscape, frtizing slightly.  She glances around in horror.  At first I¡¯m confused, until I notice what she¡¯s witnessing.  The inside of my mind, my mindscape is a hellish nightmare, a universe on the verge of destruction.  Cracks in its reality bleed light, darkness, fire, every possible thing that could consume.  Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar rushes to mine, to check on me.  I feel horrid for worrying her.  Take a deep breath Reggie.  Fix this.  Patch it up for now.


    As Teuila¡¯s avatar closes in, I focus on the moments between moments, the space within the absence of time.  As I¡¯d feared, even her telepathic avatar freezes in place.  I can¡¯t bring her into my accelerated thinkspace, or whatever this absence of time can be considered.  But I can work on my own mind.  Let¡¯s get to work pal.  One crack at a time.  This, this could take centuries.  I wonder how long I can hold this.


    Do these ruptures represent something?  Is it a psychic manifestation of a physical occurrence?  Is my brain actually being destroyed?  Is it more esoteric?  Is it a representation of losing memories?  Wait.  That¡¯s familiar.  The chamber.  A metallic tube.  Losing memories.  A heat behind my eyes.  Why does -that- feel like a memory?  That can¡¯t be right.  I think I¡¯m at the edges of a conclusion, and misinterpreting something, because I¡¯m missing clues.  What was I missing though?  A force tries to rock my temporally frozen mindscape, and I can tell that as soon as I let go of my paused time, I¡¯ll suffer a heavy backlash if I try to pursue this line of thought any further.  Some other time then.  Some day when I can risk putting myself out of commission.


    I don¡¯t know when, I don¡¯t know how long it will take, but some day I will chase down these mysterious memories.  For now, all I can do is patch things up as best I can, and push onward, ever onward.  I¡¯ve gotten lucky so far, but if my brain is vaporized, I doubt there¡¯s any do-overs.  I¡¯ll play it safe for now.  Especially now that I¡¯m vaguely aware of the stakes.


    Days, weeks, months go by in my nearly-frozen time.  Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar moves slowly closer to the point where mine had been sitting.  For some reason, holding back the flow of time doesn¡¯t hurt as much as the last time, or times, that I tried.  Perhaps I¡¯m just aware of the limitation, and not struggling so hard to drop time down to absolute non-existence?  I wonder how close to absence I really am.  Well, regardless, most of the nearby, obvious cracks have been patched or repaired, for now.  I¡¯ve hidden the entire vast realm in the distance.  There¡¯s no reason to worry Teuila.  I¡¯ll be honest with her, and tell her about it, but I¡¯ll show her that I can succeed against it as well, with this.


    I release my grasp on the flow of time, and meet Teuila¡¯s rushing telepathic avatar with wide-open mindscape avatar arms.

 B 5 C 40: The End Of Forever

    Teuila¡¯s terror is still plain on her psychic avatar¡¯s face as she asks, ¡°Air!  What, what happened!?  I saw, I swear I saw, just, just everything was hurt.  I heard you thinking about things, and heard about your eye basically exploding.  Reggie?  Reggie what¡¯s going on?¡±


    My avatar brushes back the hair from Teuila¡¯s avatar¡¯s face as I smile into her eyes.  I answer as honestly as I can, ¡°I found out something is hiding things from me, from us.  Violently, powerfully hiding things.  I¡¯ll stop pressing my luck for now.  I paused time to fix stuff up as best I can.  It took a few months, and all I got was our local little area done.  There¡¯s a whole world beyond the edges of what you can see that still looks like what you saw.  I¡¯ll be working on that for a long time.  It¡¯s okay Te.  It¡¯s okay.  I¡¯m okay, we¡¯re okay.  We¡¯ve got this.  Always have, always will.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s avatar¡¯s eyes brim with tears that she fights back.  I can sense that she¡¯s unsure how to feel at the moment as a myriad of emotions bubble up to the surface within her.  I¡¯d face off against every force in every universe to prevent those tears if I could.  To keep a smile upon Te¡¯s face.  I know she¡¯d do the same for me.  She¡¯s tried to do the same for me already, time after time.


    Tiktik¡¯s right about one thing.  Even if it was a joke, when she said I¡¯m lucky, rather than unlucky, she was right.  No one, no one else gets to be beside this amazing, powerful, loyal, loving woman, during such harrowing events, across literal lifetimes.  Let¡¯s try to live up to the person we feel like we should be to deserve that love, eh Reggie?  Yeah.  Tim wants big-damn heroes?  Let¡¯s give him just that.  We¡¯ll try to bolster ourselves, and tackle the future at our best.


    Trying to maintain my best, my positivity, I joke, ¡°Te, do you know what Siempre means?¡±


    She cocks her head and raises an eyebrow, so I continue, ¡°It means forever.  All these crazy events recently have happened laterally south of Lake Siempre geographically.  Which, sure, doesn¡¯t sound like much of anything, but for some reason, ¡®Just South Of Forever¡¯ sounds pretty hilarious to me.  Maybe it could be an album name for a prog rock band on Fakeworld, Earth?  Heh.  Err, anyway, point being, I doubt we¡¯ll ever come back to Lake Siempre after we evacuate the Aasimovians.  I doubt anyone will, with the Fel forces marching on the land.  In essence, it¡¯s the end of forever.  Sounds crazy, doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    Te¡¯s avatar pokes mine in the ribs, as she literally and figuratively jabs, ¡°Are you going somewhere with this ya dink?¡±


    I smile, chuckling, while shaking my head.  While laughing, I add, ¡°Not really, I just found it amusing.  But if this really is the end of forever, in one regard or another, let¡¯s make a new forever.  Let¡¯s make sure that everyone gets a million bright tomorrows.  Let¡¯s make an endless, peaceful, safe, happy forever, on both worlds.  Together.¡±


    Teuila pouts for some reason before responding, ¡°That¡¯s not fair Air.  Of course I want that too.  I.  I want all the tomorrows, forever, with you, and Lu, and Lin, and Lil, and, and just yeah.  Ya meanie, making it all sound so nice, putting it in such smooth words.  Also, making it sound so easy, ugh.¡±


    I roll my eyes slightly as I try not to laugh, ¡°Pft, of course I know it isn¡¯t going to be easy Te.  But, well, look at us.  Look at everything that happened, and keeps happening.  We¡¯re always going to try our best, even with weird forces and powers acting against us that we don¡¯t even understand.  I guess I¡¯m just trying to say I¡¯m glad I¡¯m at your side, and that you¡¯re at mine.¡±


    My-Wings shoulder bashes me playfully before leaning against me.  Te murmurs in pleasure while nuzzling my cheek.  I quite happily return both forms of affection.  We stand amidst my semi-patched mindscape, just enjoying each other¡¯s presence, for who knows how long.  In meat space, Teuila finishes up with everything and hops up into the carriage¡¯s driver¡¯s seat with me and Tiktik.  Te shivers momentarily as she strips to wring out and change her clothes.


    Apparently, Te had been doing some inventory manipulation while I was out of it.  She¡¯d utilized the hyperdimensional haversack to store some changes of Valkyrie clothing and armor.  I could definitely use a new suit of armor at this point.  It¡¯s almost virtually indestructible, I think it even heals itself over time when it changes shape, or something weird.  But still, despite that, my underarmor padding, and the armor itself, are in shambles after the constant lightning, fire, and obsidian spikes running me through.


    Teuila comments, ¡°I saw that the dagger buckle from your belt was missing, so I pulled another spare one out of my inventory.  What happened to it Air?¡±


    I try not to snort a laugh in embarrassment.  Shaking my head at myself, I admit, ¡°I uh, I had to let my steely body spell eat it, to survive a couple of big hits, and stupid things that I did.  Like, you saw how big those portalspawn things were, I got freakin¡¯ clobbered by one early on, and was about to become paste if I didn¡¯t use the spell.  Then later I flew up into the clouds, err, no, I can¡¯t fly Te, I had the wind elemental take me up, and we nearly died with how strong the acid is up there.  Steely body saved me from that, the hundreds of lightning bolts I absorbed, aaaand from my stupid divebomb from that position.¡±


    Teuila playfully punches my mental avatar''s shoulder before admonishing me, ¡°You big dork!  Ugh.  Be more careful, okay?  Seriously Air.  My Airhead.  No dying, okay?  You¡¯ve got enough of that on your plate already.  But, but seriously.  I¡¯m glad you got that spell learned in time.  I don¡¯t even want to imagine, glp.  Yeah, you get it.¡±


    I nod in response to Teuila.  I do get it.  I don¡¯t want to imagine Teuila suffering hits like the ones I took, especially without the protection of the spell.  Regardless, she¡¯s smiling at me in pride it seems, beaming as it were.  I wear a crooked smile as I stare lovingly into her beautiful emerald eyes.  We nuzzle noses with each other as we sink into a contented silence.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I know, I know there¡¯s a ton of tragedy to grieve, a ton of horrid events swirling about us, but, well, we have to be our best selves.  We¡¯re closest to our best when we¡¯re happy and rested.  It might seem crass to be trying to bottle up and move on from things so quickly, but we have limited time.  Maybe some day, far in the future, I¡¯ll have the time to truly grieve.  Glancing at Teuila, sensing her thoughts as best I can, I realize she¡¯s struggling with much the same.  That makes sense.  Teuila has an enormous heart.  I can tell how guilty she feels about various things, and I wish I could absolve her of that guilt.  It¡¯s not like I have that power for either of us though.  We both feel responsible for certain things, and it¡¯s going to take time to process that properly someday.  For now, we rest and recover while magic moves us towards our destination.


    I¡¯m not sure if these watery, flipper-ed versions of the ghostly steeds are able to locomote nearly as fast as the normal horses that the spell is supposed to conjure.  It seems like it might be a day or two to cross the lake at this rate.  That should still put us far ahead of the refugees fleeing Autumn Brook and the plains.  We might cross paths with messengers being sent along the north side of Lake Siempre to Aasimovia¡¯s other towns, warning them to evacuate, but the timing is unlikely.


    I find myself drifting to sleep, waking some number of hours later, and repeating the process a fair number of times.  I refresh the steed spell once, but I don¡¯t know how long it was between castings.  Still, best to refresh it whether I needed to or not.  Tiktik is unconscious basically the entire time, every time I awaken.  Teuila is sometimes curled up against us, other times when I awaken, my silent sonar senses the ripples indicating that she¡¯s swimming nearby.  Bud remains unresponsive, and I can only hope that he¡¯s alive, recovering his strength.  Maybe if we swing around back towards the Hidden Heart at some point, he¡¯ll be rejuvenated.  Hopefully.


    Tim seems to be recovering, with Teuila¡¯s help.  She fishes to provide food for him, which makes sense.  She¡¯s quite used to fishing beneath the waves of a river, lake, or pond.  I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve eaten much of anything since we left The Brook.  I wonder if we have any digital fish from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas left, or any of the supplies we picked up in The Heart.  I¡¯m fairly certain that Teuila raided the sweets shop on the way out of Autumn Brook, because I¡¯ve caught her guiltily snacking on chocolates and baked goods.  Heh, not that I begrudge her her sweet tooth.


    I give Tiktik a gentle squeeze, confirming that she¡¯s still breathing.  Thankfully she is, she¡¯s just resting off some intense pain, fractured or shattered bones and the like.  I¡¯m doing much the same, but my recovery speed is many times faster, due to being Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital critterkin adjacent.  Even with the quicker recovery speed, I¡¯m still almost entirely out of commission.  I¡¯m fairly certain my body is deciding whether or not to try to regenerate the cored-out nerve tissue.  Hm, could I make a more efficient nervous-system?  One that can handle my increased reaction speed and electrokinesis?  That sounds like a long-term project worth pursuing.  For now though?  For now, get some sleep.  There might be dragons in The Gap.  I can feel sleep taking me once again.


    She calls back, ¡°Come on you goober, we can¡¯t miss this!  Free admission and free ice cream all day for the first hundred peeps!¡±


    I try not to laugh, the park doesn¡¯t even open for another six hours or so, it¡¯s basically still the dead of night.  Either there are people already camping out, or we¡¯re going to be first in line by a long shot.  It doesn¡¯t matter to me though, as long as I get to see that precious smile.  Her cheeks have filled in a bit since we started reintegrating into society, and her smile is just all that much more bright with that bit of pudge.  I¡¯d be afraid to tell her about it though, I don¡¯t want her thinking poorly of her appearance.  My bestie is stunning, breath-taking.  I don¡¯t want to be anything other than supportive.


    I mean, I¡¯d be afraid she¡¯d develop a complex about her appearance if I commented on that, since she¡¯s already worried about her hips and toosh being a bit bigger.  She complains about feeling lopsided due to it.  I don¡¯t quite get it, but I think she¡¯s making a joke about her bust size compared to her rear size.  Maybe?  I¡¯m not sure.  I try not to stare at anything other than her smile.  It¡¯s emblazoned into my eyes and onto my heart.  Ever since that day at the river.


    Ever since then, I¡¯ve been determined.  I¡¯ll do everything I can to protect it, and earn it.  Absolutely everything, and anything.  Well, it¡¯s not like there¡¯s much I can do other than try to share joyful things with her.  We don¡¯t have to defend our hideout from wolves any more, or fend off other animals from what little food we could scrounge.


    She¡¯s far too sweet for her own good, to call me her hero for such a simple thing as scaring off animals that tried to steal our food.  Well, she gives me other reasons too, but it doesn¡¯t matter.  I¡¯m no hero, but if that¡¯s what my bestie wants to call me, that¡¯s fine.  After all, she¡¯s always smiling when she says it.


    We do have to cut across a highway to get to the fairgrounds, and I¡¯m almost positive there¡¯s a really big chain fence between us and the fairgrounds.  I¡¯m not even sure how to get around it without walking a bunch of miles along the highway.  Yep, there it is, a massive chain-link fence at the top of this hill.  Hm, I don¡¯t see any warnings or signs of electricity or anything.  Good, it¡¯s not an electric fence.  That would have been a hassle.  I guess we lucked out, again.  My bestie is like her own good luck charm.


    She¡¯s frowning at the fence though, and trying to hide that she''s winded from climbing the hill.  I don¡¯t even have to ask why.  I just lean down and pat my back.  She giddily claps her hands and accepts my help. I feel her arms wrap carefully around my neck so she can hug my shoulders, and she wraps her legs around my waist from behind.  Hoof, I¡¯m a scrawny person, but thankfully we¡¯re both pretty fit from living in the wilds.  Scaling the fence isn¡¯t too difficult like this.  Rolling over the top and dropping to the other side is going to be a challenge though.  My arms are already tired by the top of the fence.


    I¡¯m about to ask her to dismount, but she beats me to the punch, and carefully straddles the fence¡¯s top, while I roll up over it to the other side, and begin descending.  Phew, my arms are shaking now.  I¡¯m about to signal, but she¡¯s already sailing down from the top of the fence to flatten me.  I shift positions so that I can gently catch her and swing her low so that neither of us get hurt.  Catching her earns me cheerful laughter and a bright smile.


    She brightly, cheerfully claims, as she often does, ¡°My hero!  Always have been, always will be.¡±


    Despite how many times and how much I¡¯ve protested against being called a hero, I can¡¯t help smiling in response.  She resumes standing on her own feet, but remains with her arms wrapped around me in a tight hug.


    It¡¯s almost as if I simply close my eyes and our journey across the lake has ended.  We¡¯re already across Lake Siempre.

 B 5 Part 2. Chapter 41: Reduced To Despair

    As we drag, well, as Teuila drags everything and everyone ashore, there¡¯s a somber air amidst our party. We¡¯ll be providing Tim with some provisions, and a ghostly steed that will last for about a single day. It should hopefully be enough to reunite him with the other refugees, but still, I¡¯d feel horrible if he were stranded in the wilderness somewhere. I have no idea what to say to him.


    It¡¯s not like Tim coming with us would be any better an option. We¡¯re heading through almost assuredly dragon-destroyed territory, that may have hostile Imperium forces bearing down on it. We also have limited space in, and on the carriage. Not enough that we couldn¡¯t bring him, but he¡¯s not a magically empowered combatant. If we end up fighting Felgres, or anything else, he¡¯d be at risk the entire time.


    Teuila is speaking with Tim, bidding him farewell. She¡¯s spent more time chatting with him, and, well, she¡¯s been conscious more over the last couple of days during our trip across the lake than either of the rest of us. I don¡¯t really have anything to contribute to a farewell. I just feel awkward, as I truly know almost nothing about Tim, and yet he risked his life and livelihood for us. He lost one, and nearly lost the other. And he calls us heroes? What a guy.


    Oh, there he goes. I wasn¡¯t even paying enough attention to do more than nod and wave. Now I feel like a dick. I suppose I¡¯m slightly preoccupied, supporting Tiktik in a position that seems to cause her to whimper in pain the least frequently. Poor Kitten. I¡¯ve been noticing something odd happening with her over the last couple of days as well, and it slightly worries me. Her body seems to be drawing in threads of mana, or something. That¡¯s the best way I can describe it. They seem to assault her mind, but I don¡¯t sense any sort of psychic damage occurring. As far as I can tell anyway. I¡¯m not magnificently psionically endowed, so I don¡¯t truly have any array of senses that would clue me in to such things. Probably not anyway. But at least nothing has sent up red flags saying that her brain is melting within her cranium.


    It¡¯s almost like the threads, or fibers of mana, are being knitted, woven into her somehow. It¡¯s worrisome thinking that she might become piloted or puppeted by some agent of magic, yanked about as if on marionette strings. If something like that happens, it¡¯d feel like facing down Dawn¡¯s curse all over again, helpless to stop it. But I do know that I can sever a string, at least within extremely close range. My only hope is that if something along these lines does occur, that I¡¯m able to pull off such a severing before anything irreparable occurs.


    I¡¯m almost certain I¡¯ve seen these threads taking something away from Tiktik, and perhaps replacing it with something else. That¡¯s incredibly worrisome. What was taken also looked to possibly contain those runes related to time. Could magic be stealing time from Tiktik? Should I start trying to sever these threads immediately? I don¡¯t know enough about this world, its systems of magic, or Tiktik¡¯s magic in particular to make an informed judgement call on something like that though.


    Come on Kitten. Pull through, be alright. You too Bud. I¡¯m worried about the two of you. Even Essie and Icey have been unusually quiet on our flight from The Brook. Teuila¡¯s done hitching up the two ghostly horses to pull the carriage northwards, so the two of us have really nothing we can do other than fret over our unresponsive friends. Teuila wraps me in her powerful embrace, stroking my hair and rocking me gently to comfort me while we all rest and recuperate.


    Several days have passed, and we¡¯re traversing the early segment of the gap now. Somehow it looks far more foreboding than the first time we¡¯d passed through. The ominous air is only exaggerated by Rayileklia¡¯s constant lightning-storm and its booming thunderclaps. Tiktik is beginning to rouse more often, hungry, playful, yet sleepy. Thankfully it seems like she¡¯s pulling through.


    In response to my train of thought, Tiktik asserts, ¡°Better than that Tiger! I¡¯ve reached the eighth circle! Fully and totally! My source and I have been doing some kind of, I dunno, bargain. I¡¯ve been giving up access to mastery of some runes and spells, for access to others, I think. I¡¯m still pooped though. Plus it was all subconscious, so I¡¯m not even sure exactly what the trade-offs were yet. You said you thought my timey wimey rune thing was taken? I think so too. Dangit. That spell was so useful for helping keep people safe. Oh well. I guess we¡¯ll see when we have to deal with more deadly stuff. I think my big fire spell is gone too, blargh.¡±


    I flash Tiktik a half frown. It sounds like her sorcery is more complex than I initially realized. Things about it are innate, and yet can be taken away? I have no idea how I¡¯d feel about that. Well, that¡¯s not true, I¡¯d feel rather upset. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s okay though. Teuila is gazing over the two of us fondly, and I flash Te as warm a smile as I can muster in response to her gaze.


    I could swear I hear coughing, coming from outside the carriage. Our horses definitely don¡¯t cough though, in fact, unless we command them to, I don¡¯t think they make any noises whatsoever. Teuila, riding my thought train, peers out through the window-slot situated along the driver¡¯s seat, and she suddenly motions for me to have the horses stop. Bringing them to a halt immediately, I raise a brow at Teuila who motions towards the door. The three of us shuffle out of the carriage, two of us agonizingly slowly. Tiktik is barely retaining consciousness, while I¡¯m fighting my muscles and my new nervous system situation.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    In the dark haze of Rayileklia¡¯s constant storms, the fog at the edge of our vision, there¡¯s a squat figure approaching in a shambling motion. I¡¯d almost believe it was one of the Aasimovian ancestors if it weren¡¯t for two things. One, the ancestors were all wrought to dust. Two, its short, stocky stature is more akin to the dwarves of this region than to any Aasimovian I¡¯ve met. As it gets closer, the silhouette''s figure clarifies slightly, and it appears weak, feeble, frail, emaciated. Too thin to be a dwarf. And yet--.


    Is, is that Hellga Hellridge? I cry out, ¡°Hellga!?¡±


    The figure stumbles towards us, battered, scarred, hairless, sorely in need of better clothing to be out beneath Rayileklia¡¯s constant acid rain. She¡¯s almost unrecognizable, but I¡¯d still wager that she is indeed Hellga. She stumbles four more paces towards us, and collapses. No. No no no.


    Not after Selunie, not after Dawn, no. Please. I¡¯m sorry I abandoned you. Teuila and I rush to her side as Tiktik stares in shock at the distressed woman. Tiktik quickly snaps to her senses and rushes to join us in helping Hellga. On our way to her, I have my magic hand snag the bedroll tied to the side of my haversack. We wrap Hellga in our bedroll that we haven¡¯t had to use since we got the carriage, and find the leeward side of a stone outcropping. She looks malnourished, a tough feat for a dwarf to appear as, given their stocky nature. I condemned her to this. I did this. I did this and I¡¯m going to be sick.


    The pressure of a migraine builds behind my eyes as I attempt to work with Teuila at covering and comforting the feeble form of Hellga Hellridge. Tiktik wobbles woozily nearby. I can tell she¡¯s in pure agony even standing and putting any pressure on her muscles and bones at this point. I motion for Te to catch Tiktik, and thankfully Teuila¡¯s speed is enough that Tiktik¡¯s swoon lands her in Teuila¡¯s waiting arms. It¡¯s almost comically cute. If it weren¡¯t for the rest of the surrounding situation, I¡¯d probably be smiling and laughing about it.


    I ask aloud, ¡°Te, Tiktik, can you two dig some spare clothes out of our packs and stuff? Tiktik maybe you should rest in the carriage. I don¡¯t want to move Hellga any more than we already have just yet. She needs food and water too. I don¡¯t want to leave her side. Please?¡±


    Without another word, Teuila fully scoops Tiktik into her arms, and strides purposefully towards the carriage, where she deposits Tiktik within. The two shuffle about inside the carriage as they comply with my request. I kneel next to Hellga, holding one of her hands, angling so that I shield her face from the rain, and I mop sweat from her brow. Te returns with clothes and provisions, so we work at getting Hellga into the clothing, and at least getting some clean water down her throat. I think it would be safe to move her, because I can¡¯t spot any spinal injuries, or signs of a heavy concussion. Even still, I want her to at least regain consciousness before we basically abduct her. Even if it is to help her out.


    When Hellga finally awakens, she¡¯s screaming in terror. My eyes flash wide and I barely fight back a flood of tears at the fate I¡¯ve brought down upon this poor woman. She gasps and glances fearfully around in a quickened, heightened state of panic. Upon seeing us, her jaw hangs low, slack. Recognition slowly dawns on her face She looks down at her no longer bare form, and back to us, and a slow, sad smile creeps across her face as her eyes well with tears.


    Teuila and I offer her kind, warm, half-sad smiles. The two of us are holding her right hand, stroking the back of it gently, offering comforting murmurs. Te offers Hellga something that looks like a donut, and some fish-jerky. Hellga involuntarily salivates and tears into the fish jerky immediately, loosing sounds of pleasure as she savors the flavors that flood her mouth. She then nibbles daintily at the donut, savoring it in a longer fashion, drawing out her enjoyment of its nourishment. Te and I sit patiently next to her, while I can tell Tiktik is laying inside the carriage, trying to keep us in view.


    I¡¯m about to offer to help Hellga into our carriage when she finally speaks. Her earnest nature seems to demand that she tell us the entirety of her honest tale. In that strange mixture of Scottish and New-York-Italian accent, she mutters, ¡°Yous, yous guys. The, the greatest. I was, wa-. After, after a long time, maybe some prison stuff, yous knows. Don, he came and just, just unlocked my cell. Just stood there. Somehow I knews what it meant. I wanted to stay, to fight. To protect my home, my family. I begged. But Don, he said, he said he couldn¡¯t fight ¡®longside no one he didn¡¯t trust. Gave me rags, some food, and booze. I. I was banished. But, but just getting out, I. It was all hellfire and acid and. I. I thought I didn¡¯t make it. Thought I been dead a long time, and was just wanderin¡¯ Hel for what I done. Ah, I dunno, maybe Jotunheim or Niffleheim or somethin¡¯. Some bad place. But yous guys. Yous look different than I ¡®member yous. Is it really yous?¡±


    I nod sadly, fighting back tears as I struggle to answer Hellga. Teuila takes over, ¡°Yeah, yeah Hellga, it¡¯s really us. You can rest babe. You¡¯re safe now.¡±


    Hellga sinks back down, crying tears of relief, muttering, ¡°Thank yous. Can¡¯t thank yous guys enough. I-¡± Hellga bursts into sob-laden tears, and grips at the two of us frantically. My heart wrenches to see such a stoic, passionate person reduced to despair. A state I¡¯m all too familiar with. A state I¡¯ll be having to fight off for as long as I can in order to try to find my cure.

 B 5 C 42: Nothing Good

    As Hellga slips into a serene slumber, I sit vigilant over her for some time yet.  Teuila eyes me with worry, but I¡¯m alright.  Despite my desire to self-recriminate, and my normal depressive, self-defeatist attitudes, we made it in time.  Hellga is going to be okay.  Te flashes me a proud half-smile and nods understandingly.  I still lament that Hellga thought it was a good idea to try to kill Frannie Derbrightmine, on behalf of keeping her family from ending up on the losing side of an inter-family cold-war, but, well, hm.  She smoothly struck home her convictions when she admitted she was doing it for her family.  That¡¯s a sentiment that I¡¯m all too familiar with.  Would I kill to protect my family?  Yes.  I already have.  Many, many people.


    I¡¯ve saved people too.  Even enemies, threats to my family.  I need to remember that.  I need to not focus on and wallow in the shame of the lives I¡¯ve taken.  I often say that violence seems to be my first and only resort, but it¡¯s not.  I try to offer peace, and mercy.  It really is up to everyone else how the Shellcracker family regards them.  We just want to live peaceful, idyllic days, together, in harmony with anyone that¡¯s interested.  If you threaten that peace though?  Woe betide unto you and yours.  I know, I know, dramatic much Reggie?  I¡¯ve had a habit of that my entire life, err, lives I guess.  Teuila¡¯s chuckling as she rides my thought train, so I flash her a derpy smile before flicking my head towards Hellga.


    Teuila nods in response to my gesture.  We haven¡¯t had a chance to ask Hellga if she consents to traveling with us yet, but we¡¯ll drop her off anywhere that she wants, if she wants.  Te carefully hoists Hellga, bedroll and all, attempting to not jostle her.  As Teuila walks Hellga to the carriage, I glance around at The Gap once more from outside the carriage.  It definitely has a far gloomier, far more foreboding air.  There¡¯s something off.  I can sense it.  It¡¯s not just Hellga¡¯s tale that basically confirms our suspicions of draconic activity hereabouts.  No, there¡¯s more.  I scratch my chin in puzzlement.  How much more is going on on Rayileklia?  Obviously there¡¯s entire nations that we¡¯ve never been to.  There might be whole other continents.  I should have asked the Sisters for more generalized information.  They probably know every last bit of geography of the world.


    Hm, I wonder if I can scry on their compound.  I know I could scry on the valley just outside their compound.  I¡¯d rather not upset them by snooping around, but I wonder if I could circuitously avail myself of their bubble room, by scrying on that room, and gazing through the bubbles from here.  Hm, I wouldn¡¯t gain much out of doing so even if I could.  I wouldn¡¯t be able to turn the pages in the books.  At most, I¡¯d see people¡¯s desks and dressers and library shelves.  Maybe the occasional currently open page of a diary or something.  Perhaps, if exceedingly lucky, an atlas.  I¡¯d rather not risk pissing off the incredibly powerful, out-of-phase oracle ladies, on the off chance I might be able to peruse a map.


    I wonder if they¡¯d be pissed off if I try to scry on the room where I lost Dawn as she crumbled to dust in my arms.  Surely they would understand that it would only be out of sentimentality, and not malice.  Still, better not risk it.  Oh Dawn, my poor, dear friend.  We¡¯ll keep moving.  I¡¯ll try to honor your wishes, requests, and memory.  I agonizingly slowly work my way back towards the carriage as well.


    It seems Teuila has positioned Hellga and Tiktik such that they¡¯re each tucked into the rear seat of the carriage, swaddled and unable to really fall out of that position.  That means she and I are free to cuddle in the front seat.  I flash her a sly smirk, an expression that she returns with a twinkle in her eye.  I telepathically ask the horses to resume our journey after refreshing their duration.  It¡¯s better not to let too much time go by without progressing towards our goals.


    After all, it¡¯s something like August nineteenth.  I¡¯ve got about two weeks to six weeks of life left, depending on just how careful I am with Kozzurth¡¯s Dragonforce, so I can¡¯t really afford to spend any time not traveling.  Even if I¡¯d like to wait til Hellga is conscious, to ask her if she wants to come along, before moving.  I¡¯ve got to utilize as much of the time I have left as possible.


    In preparation for posibly having to cast more spells and use more mana, I attempt to engage my natural changeling gift, in rapid, minor ways.  Bushier, or thinner eyebrows, bulkier or frailer biceps, pudgier, or more slender abdomen, various increases and decreases in the length of my digits.  Teuila snuggles up across my lap, and pulls out one of the many martial-enhancement tomes that she can try to gain benefits from.


    While reading, Teuila mumbles, ¡°While you were out, I snagged a bunch of Berri¡¯s stock, some of it into your handysack bag thingy, a bunch to my inventory.  I gave them a bunch of the gems too.  Not just Berri, but like, everyone in The Brook, since we don¡¯t know how and when they¡¯ll get to rebuild, but we do know they¡¯ll probably need money to set up.  I snagged as much as I could from the whole town.  If we end up leading them to whatever place they settle in, we can drop off a bunch of it, if not, well, it doesn¡¯t hurt to have some more supplies in my inventory.¡±


    I smile down at Teuila, who can¡¯t be using more than half her vision to read, as she¡¯s got the right side of her face smooshed up against my chest.  Using changeling shape-changing, I wiggle my nose towards her, testing how much she can see, which earns me a soft giggle.  I suppose that doesn¡¯t prove much, since she can just be riding along my internal monologue.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Te teases, ¡°Yup!  My gooberific dink.  My Air.  Sigh.¡±  After saying which, she sighs contentedly and rests her book on her torso while nuzzling my chest.


    I steal a glance over towards Tiktik and Hellga, who both, thankfully, appear to be breathing gently, without pain.  Since I don¡¯t really feel up to anything else, I shift positions, dragging Teuila atop me so that we can snuggle while laying together.  My Wings.  My everything.  I draw a shuddered breath before sighing, smiling wide to my eyes.  I let my eyes droop more and more frequently.  I know one of us should probably remain vigilant, but I just want this peaceful, cuddlesome bit of rest to last forever.  I drift into and out of sleep, my limbs entwined with Teuila¡¯s.  She murmurs softly in pleasure as she holds me tightly, and I do much the same.


    We¡¯ve got a lot of hurts to work through, sadnesses and regrets aplenty.  We¡¯ve got a long journey ahead of us, fraught with risks and dangers.  One or more of us might not even make it to the end.  But in this moment, this tiny, encapsulated moment, we have each other, and we¡¯re okay.  We¡¯re relaxing, gathering our strengths.  Sometimes, sometimes that in and of itself is still the right thing to be doing.  Sometimes, well, sometimes you just have to accept that you might not be able to handle everything, all the time, and give yourself permission to relax and enjoy the tiniest of victories, surviving for a while longer, and realizing someone you worried about is actually alive.  That¡¯s our celebration right now.  Hellga, a criminal, sure, but a repentant woman, is alive.  I drift off to sleep in Teuila¡¯s embrace.


    She was right, we made it basically just in time to be first in line, but now we¡¯re essentially snoozing on our feet as we await the grand opening of the park.  I¡¯ve heard of state and county fairs that spring up for a weekend or a month or something, renting rides or tents or something, or storing them in some massive back-lot somewhere in the county, but I¡¯ve never heard of a basically one-year-only theme park, or semi-permanent circus-grounds.


    We got cute little tokens on red-ribbon string as being part of the first hundred arrivals on opening day.  They look like arcade tokens, the sorts of coins that work in machines where you have to buy all of your plays in advance.  Only, they have a tiny hole drilled in them for the ribbon string to be threaded through.


    My bestie is dashing through the areas between the stalls now, our fingertips barely touching as she excitedly explores our available options.  I¡¯m so enamored of the smile she wears while she gazes around at everything in wide-wonder.  She begins to outpace me, due to her energetic exuberance, and my mild exhaustion.  Some of which is due to the fact that I carried her over the fence, and the last few hundred yards, before we collapsed at the entrance.


    ¡°You two, hold it right there!¡±  Comes an angry voice from the other side of the stall.  I freeze, a fearful expression upon my face.  My bestie is turning worriedly in this direction, knowing how terrified I am of conflict.  My mind is racing.  I can¡¯t imagine what we could have done to earn the ire of anyone who works the fairgrounds.


    My best friend in all the world is trying to mouth something along the lines of stay calm, but it¡¯s so hard to prevent myself from bolting.  While quaking, I jerkily turn towards the angered voice.  I gulp, and can¡¯t hide the tears streaming down my cheeks.  The dark morning hides most of my visage, I¡¯m sure, but the attendant has a flashlight aimed my way.


    He¡¯s currently wearing oversized pants, held up by suspenders, and a sweaty under-shirt.  His curly brown hair hangs unevenly, lopsided off each side of his head as he pulls a top-hat down atop his brow, struggling to even out the mass of entangled curls.  He jams the miniature flashlight into his mouth while he pulls on an impressively patterned waistcoat.


    The voice goes through several shifts in pitch, coughs, and finally lands in a cartoonish voice with a silly cadence, ¡°Ah, hem, ahem, hem, koff, hem, hey-lo yew tew, howdy ye dew!  Welcome ta Wild Willy¡¯s Wonderland!  Opening day of the season, one season only!  Boy howdy yew look blew.  Why so glum, chum?¡±


    I blink rapidly as I stare at the clownish madman.  My heart is hammering so hard in my chest that I feel like I¡¯m about to faint.  Heck, my pulse feels as if it¡¯s choking off my words from being able to escape my throat.  I wobble slightly, dizzy from the sheer backlash of it all.  Did this person really just want to stop the first passersby to get into character?  I can only gulp down heaping mouthfuls of sticky saliva.  My tinnitus begins to drown out the rest of the noise of the fairground as it begins to spring to life, teeming with new arrivals and occupants.  My mandible joints, and biceps twitch and spasm.  My right eyelid joins the spasmodic display.


    Thankfully, my bestie snags my arm and speaks for me, ¡°Sorry, my Err, err, we¡¯re kinda shy.  Love the getup though!  Your park looks amazing!  Are you an MC?¡±


    The man taps his nose and winks in response, before saying, ¡°Right yew are, right yew are, looks like yew¡¯re customers one and tew, so I hope we¡¯ll be seeing yew up in the front row come opening ceremonies.  That¡¯s in forty five minutes in the big top, at the central stage down thataway.  Please, please do stop by.  Tho perhaps, after getting your shy friend a drink and some air.  If yew need more than ice-cream and cotton candy, take these passes around back of that tent over there.  It¡¯s employees only, but these¡¯ll get yew an exception.  We¡¯ve got massive pots of chili, grilled hotdogs and sausages, and more that yew¡¯d expect at a family cookout.  Probably a bit healthier than surviving on sugar all day.  One street kid knows another.¡±


    My jaw hangs low.  He knew we were, or are, street kids, runaways, survivors.  That¡¯s why he was so hasty to grab our attention.  My pulse is still hammering up into my eardrums, but I¡¯m more stricken at the kindness than in fear now.  In truth, we could definitely benefit from eating more than just day old breads from the bakery, or the mark-downs from the delicatessen, or a full day of ice cream.  I accidentally salivate at the idea of tearing into a big bowl of steaming chili.  There¡¯s a knowing chuckle from the emcee, as well as my beloved bestie.


    For some reason, I feel like I was having a fairly good dream.  Nothing good lasts forever though.

 B 5 C 43: Thunder, Lightning, All That Sort Of Thing

    The sense of foreboding is starting to make, well, sense.  The lack of luma tulipa in the gap is due to them being destroyed, so the only light we get at all is the constant lightning streaking across Rayileklia¡¯s darkened skies.  The lightning reflects off of frequent patches of unusually persistent ice, giving The Gap a sort of funhouse-of-mirrors feel.  That¡¯s uncomfortably familiar in a way I¡¯d prefer nothing ever be, like the second test in the Temple of Time.  Worse, it¡¯s like some warped version of our most recent sojourn in The Gap, and, unlike the Temple of Time, I don¡¯t really have access to my time skill to help navigate any crazy dangers.


    Hellga and Tiktik seem completely out of it, and both appear to be rapidly resting off their recent ordeals.  In a way that¡¯s good.  I don¡¯t have to worry that they¡¯ll injure themselves further, if they¡¯re completely conked out, recovering in the carriage.  I do however have to worry for the safety of the carriage.  I¡¯m about to suggest that Teuila and I sit out in the driver¡¯s seat, to maintain a better vantage point for greater alertness, but, as usual with a wonderful person riding my thoughts telepathically, Teuila¡¯s a step ahead of my request.


    Te hoists me out of our cuddlesome position, and in a motion so smooth I can barely perceive it occurring, has us out the open door of our moving carriage, and flipped up into its driver¡¯s seat, still cuddled together, with the door closing swiftly behind us.  I can¡¯t resist smiling at her with the left half of my face, as my right half attempts to scan everything nearby.  I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s hours or days as we make our way through The Gap, checking in occasionally on Tiktik and Hellga, making sure they at least stay hydrated.  The horses are having a difficult time with footing, due to the random precarious patches of persistent ice, so our pace is a bit slower than I¡¯d like.


    Eventually, we make it to where the entrance to the Kobolds¡¯ warren should be.  In fact, it rather is here, somewhat.  However, other kobolds are scrabbling away at it, fighting against what sounds like constantly regrowing stone, in an attempt to break into their tunnel structure.  I mean, there¡¯s the horrendous sound of stone moving against stone in slow, yet massive cracking scratching shaking noises.  I assume that must be Miza, working her stoneshaping magic to keep the warrens sealed off, but why?


    Why are these kobolds out here feverishly working away at the tunnels, trying to get in, if Miza, kind, benevolent, savior Miza, is trying to keep them out?  She¡¯s the only one I know with potent stoneshaping magic.  It doesn¡¯t take me long to realize why.  The kobolds out here report to a dragon.  A massive, sleek, icy-white beast.  One that appears to be ridden by a woman in black, a woman whose veils and dress are simultaneously sultry, yet all-encompassing.  The woman¡¯s apparel nearly has the¡ª, ah, of course.  It has the appearance of scales, because she is a shapeshifted dragon.  She¡¯s the woman who nearly slew Daffodil.  My ire rises, and perhaps my bloodlust offers up our location to those around us that I would consider foes.  For, until now, we and our carriage had remained unnoticed.


    Teuila springs into action, and I agonizingly slowly work to join her.  Crap, there¡¯s more at play here!  Some of The Gap warrens kobolds are toiling near the feet of the great white.  They look somewhat frightened, but are mostly maneuvering minerals around, sorting stone and gems like chaff from wheat.  They¡¯re relatively unharmed, but unmistakably being treated as servants, having to give up their own nutrition for some new capricious lord or lady.  Speaking of, the enshrouded woman leaps down from atop the back of the great white, sliding down his neck, and she appears to kiss him passionately, leaving a smoking scar upon one of his scaled lips.  After which, she changes shape, revealing her true form, that of an immense, terrifyingly powerful black dragon.  She takes wing, low enough to avoid the constant lightning strikes, so she¡¯s unable to pick up as much speed as she otherwise might be able to.  Even still, she speeds away to the north almost unbelievably quickly.


    Teuila barely dodges to the side as the great white releases a partially charged blast of frost in our direction, freezing me to our carriage, in my sluggishness to act.  My ghostly steeds dissipate immediately, much to my dismay.  Te, whatever you do, do not get hit by this thing if it spends any longer charging its breath.  I¡¯m already nearly a popsicle from the shortest charged blast, and you know how insane my thermal resistance is.


    Teuila rockets in zig-zags about the chasm¡¯s walls within The Gap, closing in on the great white, when the cowardly pile of crap picks up several kobolds in its claws and holds them in front of itself, right in Teuila¡¯s path.  Its action takes place just as she¡¯s reaching the beast for a strike, resulting in a bloody, horrific mess.  I nearly vomit from the gruesome brutality of it, combined with the enragement that I feel as tears stream from my cheeks.  Teuila¡¯s rapid force of impact met the clawed palm of the great white as it was full of kobolds, and she may have broken a hand-bone within the beast, but all the fight is drained from her, and leaves her body as she utterly decimates several innocent people.  Teuila falls to her knees, covered in the blood of several The Gap kobolds whom I¡¯d never met.  She¡¯s quaking with fury as she cries tears of rage, but she can¡¯t get herself to move as several dozen other, more fanatical, kobolds surround her to begin hurling picks, stones, and spears at her.


    Stolen story; please report.


    My own rage reaches new levels, and I fireball myself, again, and again, and again to break free of the ice impeding me.  Thankfully the ice entrapping me and the carriage manages to shield the carriage somewhat, so that I mostly only chip ice and leave cracks in the carriage, rather than blowing it apart with our innocent allies resting within.  I¡¯ve still definitely caused significant damage to the carriage.  It¡¯s almost in shambles from being rocked by explosions and rapid changes in temperature.


    Drawing my internal electrokinesis to a point, I coalesce it into a greater and greater charge.  Teuila is starting to look bloodier and bloodier as spears lodge in her body amidst gaps in her armor, and the great white is about to dive its maw downwards to devour her.  I fire two simultaneous lightning bolts, one at a swathe of kobolds on the near side of Teuila, this lightning bolt from my Archsorc staff.  The other lightning bolt is all of my coalesced and guided internal electricity, straight for the face of the great white as it closes in on Teuila.


    My first bolt fries a pack of kobolds, resulting in yowling shrieks, yips, and hisses.  My second bolt lands on a particularly vulnerable scale on the face of the great white.  That of the already-scarred scale, recently kissed by the lady-in-black.  My bolt travels within the creature¡¯s face, charring and scarring its nostrils, the roof of its mouth, and eventually leaves the dragon¡¯s face by boiling its left eyeball to the point of explosion.  The furious roar of pain that my attack earns me snaps Teuila from her stupor, but before she can attack the great white, it swats her wildly away.


    The dragon¡¯s wrath at my injury struck upon it causes its furious swipe to deal Teuila a devastating blow, striking her with easily as much force as one of the Felgre portalspawn monstrosities, knocking her to the entire other side of the chasm, slamming her facefirst into the mountainside.  I grit my teeth in fury as I attempt to recover enough internal electrokinesis to get my body working again.  I used up too much electricity at once.  Teuila seems to have lost consciousness, but the great white is fleeing, at least temporarily, in the same direction as the lady-in-black dragon.  It doesn¡¯t know that it currently has the upper hand, since I¡¯m currently completely at its mercy, as is Teuila, lucky for us.


    All of the kobolds begin rushing across the chasm towards Teuila¡¯s prone form.  Te, forgive me for this.  I shout, ¡°If you value your lives, leave the Valkyrie alone, and get away from her, now!  Stay away from her, or you die in five!  Four!  Three!¡ª¡°


    Kobolds that I assume are friends from The Gap recognize my voice it seems, and flee immediately.  The rest peer over the edge towards me, and sneer, as they wave their weapons towards Teuila, not fleeing from their advance on her.  Fine.  I continue, ¡°Two!  One!  Fine, die!¡±  I unleash another fireball from the archsorc staff in the direction of the kobolds who¡¯d been advancing on Teuila, decimating most of them, leaving a few at the periphery of the blast fleeing in terror with singed hides.


    I can only manage perhaps one more spell from my staff at the moment  I¡¯ve used up about four fifths of its charge or so, but I need to get Teuila, and get her to the safety of the kobolds¡¯ warrens.  It¡¯s my turn to rescue her in this murderbox canyon.  The problem is, I also have Tiktik and Hellga to watch out for.  Well, one of several problems.  Perhaps the most pressing issue is that I physically can not move at the moment, while I dial in and regenerate internal electricity to regain motor control.  My eyes glance about in the pitch-black as it¡¯s occasionally lit by lightning streaking across the sky.  I can tell there are kobold forms darting about, fearfully.  But which are friends and which are foes, I can no longer tell.


    I grit my teeth, and begin moving, against the nerve-damage.  It feels like flaying flesh from my own bones as I tear my muscles by physically commanding them to move.  The pain signals travel in newer, more robust ways, through cored-out pathways within my nervous system.  Roaring my challenge against all-comers, I stand at the fore of the carriage, and shout a thunderclap that blows me backwards off of my feet.  Well, there¡¯s an ability I didn¡¯t know I had.  That¡¯s also embarrassing as all hell.  I suppose I always called it my thunderstick rather than my staff of lightning.  It makes sense that I¡¯ve got that flowing around somewhere in me as well.


    Could I utilize that as a non-lethal deterrent?  Can I knock things and people away, forcefully, without killing them?  Ow, maybe if I learn to do it without giving myself whiplash first.  Probably best not to practice at this very moment.  Tiktik, Kitten?  Are you okay? I can¡¯t sense you.  Please be okay.  Bud?  Bud are you okay?  Please be okay.


    Friggin¡¯ hellspit and fel fires Reggie Shellcracker.  Guess what time it is.  Solo adventure time?  Solo adventure time.  I draw the rune for lightning, shaping it with all that I can muster, and I empower it, knowing how dangerous it is to empower a non-spelliform rune.  Worse, I leave myself as the primary and only target.  I¡¯m greeted with a jolt that¡¯s only slightly less powerful than my lightning bolt spells from the archsorc staff.  My eyes swim and cross as my vision blurs from the intense agony.  Still, I accomplished what I needed to do.  I¡¯ve re-energized my cored-out nerve pathways.  I can move again.  Slightly slower than my normal ability, prior to my nerve damage, and incredibly erratically, shakily.  Thankfully, my fritzing, jerking, jolting movements look the frightening part that I¡¯m trying to play as I begin darting about the canyon floor, towards Teuila.


    Hang in there My Wings, I¡¯m on my way.  I love you, I won¡¯t fail you.

 B 5 C 44: One Good Turn

    The last thing I want to do, is end up killing innocents out here in this darkened canyon. Teuila must be mentally hurting in ways I can barely comprehend. The visceral brutality of finding oneself unwillingly decimating living, breathing people, people you considered friends, it seems like it shut her down so hard that she didn¡¯t even try to dodge the dragon¡¯s strike. Then she crumpled like an empty aluminum can when struck, and splatted against the wall like wet paper. I know she hasn¡¯t derezzed, but that was an awful blow.


    As much as I worry about harming innocents, my first priority is to get to Teuila¡¯s side. Then I¡¯ll make sure she¡¯s okay, or is going to be okay at least, and then return to the carriage so I can stand guard over everyone. I¡¯m almost to Teuila¡¯s side, just a bit more. There¡¯s a group of kobolds near her, each drawing back their arms as if to strike. They¡¯re swinging either spears, or their claws. I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t know if any of you are doing this against your will. I¡¯m sorry. I hate taking lives. Please forgive me.


    A projectile speeds into my sensory range, at an angle that¡¯s going to perforate my carotid artery. I barely roll my shoulder in time to swing my arm towards the projectile. I connect mid-flight, and snap the arrow in half. I don¡¯t have time to waste tracking down the ranged assailant, but now I¡¯m torn. The power, and deadly precision of something like that could end an unconscious Teuila in an instant. Yet if I give these melee combatants free reign of Teuila¡¯s unconscious form, they¡¯ll also be able to end her in short order.


    As I¡¯m about to lay into the kobolds standing around Teuila¡¯s slumped body, there¡¯s suddenly new sensations entering my sensory range. There¡¯s a whole volley of arrows as if conjured simultaneously. I wouldn¡¯t be able to block, snap, or dodge them all. If any were aimed at me. Along with the arrows comes a familiar, stuttery, nervous voice.


    The voice asks, ¡°The, the, the Reggie? The Tay Oo Ee Lah? Pack, pack, packmates, come, come safe, get, get, get safe. Dippy knows safe way, Dippy, I, me, I know safe way, Zippy knows too, follow Zippy.¡±


    I hear many scampering scaly feet headed towards the sound of Dippy¡¯s voice, but I can¡¯t tell who is and isn¡¯t hostile. The dead kobolds, slain with arrows in their necks or skulls or hearts, that surrounded Teuila, all fall to the side as I bend down to grab her fallen form. I can¡¯t follow Dippy though. I have more injured comrades to watch out for.


    I call back, through a cracked sob, ¡°Dippy, I¡¯m so glad to hear your voice, but I have injured friends out here, and our carriage and supplies. I can¡¯t follow you. Thank you for sa¡ªglp, saving Teuila.¡± I cough several times as mucus floods my throat while I¡¯m caught on the edge of a tearful panic.


    The voice, definitely Dippy¡¯s voice calls back, ¡°The, the, the Red gee, the Red gee trusts the Dippy, me, right? Yes? The, the, the, you, you follow Zippy. Zippy shows you the way. Safe, safe for the Red gee, and friends.¡±


    Conflicted, barely moving under the power of magic manipulating the physical elements within my body, I¡¯m struck by Dippy¡¯s request.  Of course I trust him.  I¡¯m suddenly surrounded by wolves and canines.  Several of the beasts are intercepting blows meant for me or Teuila as I stand here with her.  One grips Teuila¡¯s cloak in its teeth, and begins dragging her away.  Panic sets in for the briefest of moments, but I recognize these beasts.  These are the soulless creatures that follow the one wolf that Dippy befriended.  These are allies, friends.  Glancing back, our carriage is moving, being pushed by several canine and lupine bodies.


    In a moment, a tiny fluttering form zips through the air nearby, then lands upon my shoulder. Zippy. Dippy¡¯s beloved companion. Zippy¡¯s draconic features are small, and seemingly fragile, yet here he is, amidst a battlefield that just contained at least one adult, or perhaps ancient dragon not moments ago. He directs me with some sort of animalistic noise that I can¡¯t comprehend, but I get the gist of it, based on his posture, and body language. If Dippy¡¯s taking charge of the rescue, and bringing all his allies and friends to bear, then we¡¯re in good hands. I begin to stumble, and falter as relief floods my system.


    Still, let¡¯s not make it any harder in Dippy. I call out, ¡°Dippy, get everyone, Zippy included, off the field and out of the way, everyone you love, and trust, and want safe, get them out of here, and tell me when it¡¯s only me and our foes!¡±


    There¡¯s several moments of silence as I continue to erratically maneuver towards where Zippy is pointing. I hear a sort of a whistle from Dippy that seems to signal for Zippy to abandon his perch on my shoulder. I wait for Zippy¡¯s flapping to be inaudible as he zips away, flitting about, his wingflaps drowned out by the din of growls and shouting and the pitter patter of acid rain. The chaotic sounds of an uneasy stalemate of a combat rises around me, and I hear what must be a signal from Dippy. Glancing around, our carriage is somewhere beyond my sight range, not visible amongst landscape of The Gap during any of the frequent lightning strikes.


    Dippy¡¯s signal is sensible as his voice calls out to me, ¡°C-c-clear! The, the, the Red gee is all clear!¡±


    Hey Reggie, remember that thing that we said to never try again until maybe we got Linti to teach us? Ugh. Yes. Of course I do. Please no. Yep. You¡¯ve been able to acutely sense thermal fluctuations for ages now. It¡¯s time to start seeing the path between sparks, the electron jumps, the flow of the current. No, please no. Yep. Come on Reggie. I heave a sigh as my shoulders slump. I¡¯m arguing with myself. Why do I even bother? Part of me must have already made the choice to commit.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    I¡¯m currently overcharged with electricity, and if I want to stun a massive group of small foes almost simultaneously, I basically need to touch them all nearly simultaneously. This way, just in case some of them turn out to have been coerced, and willing to stop aggressing, we can try to sort that out later, when we all regain consciousness, well, those that live. I know this is going to knock me for a loop, and I won¡¯t pretend like I know the exact voltage to temporarily stun a kobold. If this kills all of them, well, then everyone in the kobold warrens will be safe, despite me having tried to avoid killing. If the kobolds decide to mop up the survivors, killing the unconscious ones, that¡¯s out of my hands. This feels like the right thing to try to do. Hopefully Dippy and his friends can find my body after I pass out.


    I lean forward partially into a runner¡¯s stance, before letting go of everything in my body. As I begin falling towards the ground, I rotate, swiveling my hips and shoulders. Building up my spin, concentrating on how the momentum interacts with everything around me, my senses alight on the electron pathways. Of course electrons spin, they rotate, they revolve, they¡¯re like miniature planets in their own solar systems. Wait. Everything is connected. Even the seemingly deep stretches of nothing, of space. Nothing, my affinity, my semblance of power. Planets spin and orbit, galaxies traverse the vast, the emptiness. Everything moves. Everything except the nothing, the emptiness itself. There¡¯s something here, something in this very moment that¡¯s a clue.


    As I¡¯m falling, when I¡¯m nearly parallel to the ground, I focus on the time between moments. I slow time to a crawl as I retreat into my own mind to puzzle out the clue that I¡¯m scarcely able to comprehend. Think Reggie, think. A remarkable affinity for absence, an absensorcerer, my gift is nothing. There¡¯s someone, some thing that can teach me, there has to be someone else that knows about nothing, other than the Sisters. Wait. The gift, someone they serve. Were the Sisters an envoy of nothing? Mist is an obscurement, their compound is located outside of normal space and time, yet they can allow oth¡ª.


    We¡¯re the reason. We¡¯re the reason the blood needed to be applied more and more frequently. We brought time and space with us, into their realm. The Sisters were compensating for allowing us into their domain. We¡¯re why they were less and less accessible. Had we stayed, their very existence would have been driven back, if they hadn¡¯t been working their magics. The Sisters were most definitely some sort of representation of nothing. An extension of a non-space, a non-being. That¡¯s why they feared me most of all, and begged that I choose kindness. Some piece of my power holds some sort of sway over them, possibly a final sway.


    On the one hand, I¡¯ve no desire to ever learn of such a segment of my power, because I¡¯ve no desire to ever use it on such kind individual¡ª individuals? Individual? I¡¯m still not certain if they were really more than one being. On the other hand, knowing anything at all about my power would be a boon, and might help me figure out more. I¡¯m getting distracted, one of my fatal flaws, but this line of thought seems to be important, and I do have a fair amount of time between moments at the, well, moment. Should I try to reach out to the Sisters? Would they be more afraid that I¡¯ve made these realizations? I have a feeling they¡¯ll contact me again at some point on my Rayileklian journey.


    There¡¯s more to the conversations I¡¯d had with them, especially surrounding Dawn¡¯s death, but I can¡¯t quite recall in perfect detail at the moment. The haze of grief is clouding the hours surrounding her demise. Crap, I¡¯m crying here in thinkspace. I. Crap. Focus Reggie, keep it together, your time-halt isn¡¯t a full time stop, and requires some concentration. Don¡¯t get bogged down in the grief at the moment. You came here to try to make the lightning leap safer. You had an idea.


    Right, right. My senses were always jumbled when Linti was doing it, but Linti seemed fine after every leap. Even though she was immune to electricity damage itself, she wasn¡¯t immune to the effects of having her electrons scrambled or slowed, either by being electricity while in water, or by my thermokinesis. So she wasn¡¯t straight up immune to all effects that might harm her, involving her powers. While I would benefit from learning from her directly, I can make some assumptions. Linti always wildly crashed about during her lightning leaping, in some ways, she rode the electron pathways, the conductive currents in the wind and land, with wild abandon. In some other ways, it might have been that, while she wouldn¡¯t admit it, she was disoriented, because of one of the requirements to safely use her powers.


    Linti could put on the appearance of the lineart of a lightning-drawn creature, and subsume things she wore or held into that existence of electrical energy. But what if she wasn¡¯t actually that form at all? Or rather, who¡¯s to say, that arcs, rays, and lines of lightning weren¡¯t all spinning? I certainly couldn¡¯t observe the electrical composition closely enough, to determine the rotational frequency of the lines of lightning that made up Linti¡¯s form.


    I might not have the level of power available on demand to command this ability at the drop of a hat, especially without having to risk my life utilizing various precious resources and bits of my own vitality, but I¡¯m beginning to see an idea take shape. The form of it, is something that seems almost two dimensional, traveling through three dimensional space, but even as it does so, everything within it is traveling about itself, rotationally, almost in a fourth, no, fifth dimension. Always moving forward in time, at a one to one rate, but in an array that¡¯s like its own quantum axis. I¡¯m not just moving one part of me through points on an x, y, z, or even an x, y, z, t. I have to be moving all parts of me simultaneously along the q^360, x, y, z, t.


    That¡ª That¡¯s a lot of calculations per instant. The simultaneous rotation and revolution of every electron at the proper rate to reduce the strain to a minimum. No offense to Linti, but some portion of her power must have handled that for her, she¡¯s an absolutely brilliant woman, hunter, strategist, but she showed no affinity for calculating at literally light speed. Even stopping time every other moment to figure out all the next calculations would take me virtually forever to handle even a single leap.


    Well, now that I know, I at least know I won¡¯t be able to safely utilize this power without burning my brain out, and mentally aging several millennia per leap, if I want to use it without having to engage Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce to keep me alive. At the moment, I¡¯m willing to take that time. I¡¯m less likely to die, if I put in the effort right now. If I¡¯m lucky, I might even remain conscious after this leap. That¡¯s optimistic though, since I¡¯m paying for empowering a rune in a non spelliform manner. Still, at least performing the leap without damaging myself is just going to take a few quintillion calculations. All those calculations and all those thoughts for one good turn.

 B 5 C 45: Deserves Another Quantum Leap

    Okay, huff, phew.  I¡¯ve been at this calculation for such a long time.  While I¡¯m in here, I¡¯ve been patching up the cracks in my psyche.  At least, the ones from whatever outside force is preventing me from remembering things.  I don¡¯t know how to actually go about tackling any sort of self fragmentation I¡¯ve gone and created over the years by just being my odd little self, talking to myself, arguing with myself, and whatnot.  Have I been at this hours, days, weeks, months?  I can¡¯t even keep track any more.


    You know what would be helpful?  A personal computer, no, a server, no, a server farm, no wait, an entire cloud computing supercomputer network.  Yeah, some of that stuff from Fakeworld, Earth.  Problem is, even if I can just imagine it into being here in my mindscape, it¡¯s still just me doing the processing.  I¡¯m already straining my mind too much by trying to bring my timeflow down to almost nothing.


    I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s the process of stopping and holding back time, or if it¡¯s the process of remaining conscious and aware within that stopped moment, that drains me.  Maybe a bit of column a, a bit of column b.  Maybe both, or maybe I¡¯ve got it all wrong, and it¡¯s just a power that comes out of my mana pool or sorc point pool or something, but because of my whole mana residue sickness, I¡¯m screwing myself yet again.  I don¡¯t know for certain.


    Okay, as close as I can figure, I first of all got the entire property wrong.  I mean, I¡¯ll be spinning in the physical sense, but it¡¯s more like I¡¯ll be flipping positive or negative bits up or down, sort of.  Gods, I really, really should leave speed to the speedsters in my families.  Trying to break through the realm of physics, with magic, as a layperson, is ridiculously challenging, and probably shouldn¡¯t even be possible.  Anyway, since I become electricity, and somehow retain my consciousness, not to mention the entirety of the rest of my being, parts of me have to exist within my time stream that are more than just the electron flow that represents me during my leap.  It¡¯s almost more like, I¡¯m using time travel to move to a point barely in my future at all, and bridging the space between those two points with some kind of electrokinesis.  In fact, thinking of it in that fashion, it almost makes more sense for me, rather than trying to calculate the fundamental mathematics in a realm whose principals I barely even remotely come close to comprehending.


    It¡¯s like, every time I think I make a breakthrough with this power, I find more reasons to limit myself, and my assumption of my understanding of it, because of how risky it is to essentially atomize myself.  Which, I guess, fair.  It¡¯s only right to be a bit cautious.  I¡¯m trying to survive while I gain the powers needed to get us home some day.  Some day I¡¯ll be able to cuddle my family again, in a world where we¡¯re not staring down the barrel of one of several apocalypses.  While there, I¡¯ll be able to grieve Dawn, and come to terms with my failings, and support Teuila as she grieves and accepts the things that have happened.


    Hm, right now though, I need to get through this minor event, let my body collapse, and then be there for Teuila as she awakens, to help her cope with having been used as a bludgeoning weapon to murder several innocent kobolds viscerally.  Well, that¡¯s not even an accurate description.  It was worse than that.  It¡¯s not like she was picked up and used like a club to smash the kobolds with.  Te was taken advantage of.  She was already in motion, in the air.  The most she could have done was increased her gravity in a different direction, but it¡¯s not instantaneous.  Her ancillary powers prevent her from doing something that would give her deadly whiplash.  I think I even noticed her trying to stop as she was connecting with the kobolds that were moved into her path.


    My heart aches with a fierce and consuming love for my beloved Wings.  I worry that she¡¯ll fall deeper into the darkest corners of her own despair.  I see her in that future, where she has fallen.  Her eyes are haunted, the shadows lurking within them casting a pallor over her delicate features.  Oh, how I long to reach out to her, to draw her close and shelter her from the storms that rage within her troubled soul.  That stormy sea of moving emotion within her mindscape.  I¡¯m terrified at the raging torrent it will become after this event.


    Now I¡¯m distracted from my task.  All I want to do is sink into her arms, to hold and be held by Teuila.  Yet even as my heart sings with an all-consuming love for her, my mind is wracked with a fearful worry for her safety.  Though I would give anything to protect her from harm, I fear that I am powerless to do so.


    And so I watch this vision of the future, with a mingled sense of longing and despair, as she flits from place to place, her movements as erratic as the fluttering of a moth''s wings.  I see the pain etched into her features, the lines of weariness that will have crept across her face like the grooves of a record, and my heart aches with a fierce, helpless compassion.


    Teuila¡¯s path seems to lead inevitably towards the abyss, there is a light within Teuila that shines like a beacon through the darkness, but I¡¯m supposed to be the calming presence of darkness, the secrets whispered in the night.  But I¡¯m not the abyss that I see Teuila headed towards.  No, I see her headed into an abyss, deeply withdrawn into her own mindscape, to hide away the brilliance of her own light and life in shame for what she just felt.  Her compassion, her bravery, her strength, her very essence draws me to her.  It all tugs at my heartstrings with an irresistible force.  Yet even as I worry for her safety, I am filled with a sense of wonder at the depth and intensity of my own feelings.  I fell for Teuila so very long ago now, across the myriad ways in which I¡¯ve lived several lives.  Yet my feelings never diminish, they only deepen with each new experience.


    Stolen story; please report.


    In the end, I know that I cannot save Teuila from the troubles that beset her.  But, well, I can love her, fiercely and passionately, with every fiber of my being.  So I will, for as long as I draw breath.  For she is my heart''s delight, my troubled Wings.  She¡¯s the source of nearly all my joy at this point in my life.  She has been there for me, time and time again.  It¡¯s only fair for me to try to be there for her through this.  I know she¡¯s worried about my demise.  She¡¯s grieving having lost Dawn.  She¡¯s worried at the back of her mind that I might blame her if Keeley didn¡¯t make it.  She¡¯s disappointed at losing The Brook.  She¡¯s even worried about Hellga and Tiktik, and blames herself for their injuries, even though I feel more like their states are both my fault.  We¡¯re both pretty quick to try to take responsibility for others.  But now, on top of all of those other hard to parse emotions, Teuila now has a guilt the likes of which I can barely comprehend.  Well, okay, in a way I know exactly the feelings that she might be experiencing.  It¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t killed people, somewhat against my will.


    I gulp back sadness and shame.  I¡¯m a murderer.  How does someone reconcile that?  How do you ever move forward without just blocking it out and throwing it in a redacted memory file, hoping to forget it forever?  Does Teuila have any of the sense of morality that I thought came mostly from my mysterious memories of Fakeworld?  Would Teuila wander through this world as if in a daze, heedless of the dangers that lurk around every corner if she were stuck within her mind, forced to face and contemplate the regret endlessly?  Would she court disaster, and invite it with every step she takes by losing her vigilance and awareness?


    How can someone who has taken lives ever be a good person, let alone a hero?  I need the answer to this before I take the lightning leap.  In some ways, to absolve my own guilt about the critterkin I slew that were following Mataalii, in some ways, to have an answer for when Teuila inevitably asks.  Okay, I¡¯ve always been hard on myself, almost hateful sometimes, for the wrongs I¡¯ve committed.  I own up to my wrath, even though it might literally be some external force outside of my control.  I can¡¯t really be certain since my memories of Fakeworld don¡¯t include literal rage-demons that can manifest as clouds of aura, or secondary, tertiary, or quarternary evolutionary stage forms.  If I were someone else, trying to comfort me, or, well, what several of my loved ones have said to me over the centuries we¡¯ve spent together in thinkspace, how would I convince Reggie Shellcracker that they are okay, and good?


    Reggie.  You didn¡¯t mean to do it.  You grew up in a world where death and survival were intertwined, where if you weren¡¯t causing one, you weren¡¯t keeping the other.  Violence was a nearly daily part of your life, and the safety of your loved ones and acquaintances was always on the line, from one moment to the next.  Every life you took was in service of the safety of all of the others.  It doesn¡¯t make it right, but there were reasons that it occurred.  You lived through that, and the trauma nearly broke you each time.  Yet here you are, lifetimes later, an entire world apart, and you¡¯ve taken more lives, you¡¯ve had to.  You can feel the guilt, and process it at your own pace.  It might never go away, but it could dull with time.  If it does, don¡¯t feel guilty for the pain lessening.  You aren¡¯t a bad person.  You try.  You may well have to take many, many more lives on Rayileklia, if you survive, if you are to survive.  That might hurt, and feel terrible.  It¡¯s okay to feel awful about it.  Taking a life is an awful thing.  It¡¯s also okay to accept some things as necessary, even if they aren¡¯t right, or good.


    Flint and Alanea might be dead, or you certainly would be, if you hadn¡¯t killed those ambushers in The Heart.  Who knows how many people the cult of the Bright Lord would have brainwashed or killed if you hadn¡¯t ended the hundreds of lives of those cultists?  And yet¡ª.  Yet this is a quantum leap in a different direction from the type of guilt Teuila will be feeling.  She took lives of people she likely recognized, that she cared about.  No, that¡¯s not he right way to frame it.  The dragon took their lives.  It could have just as easily smashed them into the ground or squeezed them to paste when it picked them up.  Teuila didn¡¯t kill anyone.  It doesn¡¯t matter where the inertia came from.  The choice to end the lives was taken in the dragon¡¯s mind before Teuila had a chance to respond, period.  The circumstances surrounding it are going to feel awful, and she¡¯s entitled to process that, but I can remind her that it wasn¡¯t her, or her fault.  If I had launched a blast, or if Teuila had whipped out her bow, the dragon may have done the same thing, grabbing bodies to use as shields.


    Teuila deserves another chance to see that situation from several perspectives, but would the inevitability of the dragon making its horrid, evil choice just embitter her?  Could I use what I¡¯ve been learning about quantum electrokinetic fluctuations to set up a simulation of a quickened thinkspace?  Huh.  I think I¡¯ve made another leap in the understanding of my capabilities.  It¡¯ll be rough for a while, and perhaps a barely noticeable acceleration at first, but I think I have a present for Teuila.  Accelerated thinkspace by way of electrokinetic manipulation on a quantum level within a psionically emplaced permanent psychic telepathy enchantment.  Hell of a leap Reggie, hell of a leap.  Well, sometimes we deserve one, don¡¯t we Reggie?  Yeah, yeah we do.


    Speaking of, let¡¯s spin that spin into one good turn, and take this quantum-enhanced lightning leap.  We¡¯ve been at this for a while, and I¡¯m getting lonely, talking to myself, thinking through all these calculations, mathematically and philosophically.  I finish my forward lean, and thrust rearward with my dominant foot, with everything that I can muster, beginning a counterclockwise spin as I coalesce every bit of lightning within me to enter a state of electric transformation.


    Here goes nothing.  I burst outward slamming from body to body in a vaguely clockwise spiral, the duality of rotating and revolving in opposite directions helping keeping me, well, grounded, figuratively.  As usual, it¡¯s still agonizing to execute this ability, but it doesn¡¯t feel quite like I¡¯m going to lose myself and accidentally end my existence every other moment.

 B 5 C 46: Sit Up, Try Not To Cry

    As long as my magnetic axis is in motion, while I¡¯m flipping the poles of my electrons, mirrored with the particles of the me that is somehow both existent, and non, during the portion of the lightning leap, I should be able to manage this maneuver. Or at least, I shouldn¡¯t die from using it this particular time. I don¡¯t have the mental computational capacity even in nearly-paused time to determine the appropriate quantum fluctuations to perfectly mirror the me that temporarily steps into the future to the end of my lightning leap.


    I almost wonder if it would have been safer to find a way to launch myself into the atmosphere, absorb extra lightning, and just come down in a massive crashdown strike. The answer is no, of course it wouldn¡¯t, but not by much. This is still ridiculously dangerous, even with all the extra prep every other moment. If I could move well enough on my own, it¡¯d have been much safer to try to kite them all along until they were lined up down some sort of corridor, and use up pretty much the last charges in my archsorc staff.


    Body to body to body I bounce along, having to pause time from moment to moment to adjust my calculations and correct my course as I adjust for each miscalculation I¡¯ve made. I¡¯ve made many. I didn¡¯t take into account my own magnetic fields shifting at, or pulling on, the electrons in the particles of the bodies I¡¯m slamming into for example. Huff.


    The kobolds continue to dart about quickly and quietly, their scaled feet and claws making nearly no sounds, especially in the brief scant few seconds that my lightning leap is occurring during. Each one¡¯s reptilian predatory eyes flash alight at my approach, but not with fear, rather with a hateful determination, born of malicious mistreatment. It¡¯s very likely they¡¯ve worked in service with a dragon that can breathe lightning, and are only all the more angered at my attack. The pitch black sky mirrors my attack in an almost serene fashion when viewed inbetween paused moments, the illumination of the lightning brightening the canyon walls for a scant few instants as I survey what I can in paused time.


    The intensity of the storm overhead seems to reach a crescendo, having been raging constantly as per usual on Rayileklia. Yet the thunder echoing through the canyon, bouncing along its walls like a deafening roar feels like an appropriate soundtrack to the chaos of what can no longer be considered a battle. Several Kobolds at the farthest end of my spiral are attempting to move their blades, claws, or picks in my direction. Some even going so far as to brace themselves in a predictive attack, hoping that I¡¯m somehow run through by my own momentum on their weapons. While it¡¯s unpleasant, their outstretched weapons or limbs simply aid my course, allowing me to travel along a directed path. It does leave a lump in the pit of my stomach, as if I¡¯d left it in the lurch, but whether that¡¯s a physical symptom of traveling along a conduit, or the sickness I feel at causing grievous injury to a living being, I couldn¡¯t rightly say. Not at the moment anyway.


    In only a few seconds since I¡¯d heard Dippy¡¯s voice, there¡¯s suddenly an uneasy, eery stillness in the canyon. I¡¯m left fritzing, standing at the end of my spiral arc. As my form finalizes after coalescing, I¡¯m left erratically stumbling side to side, as if still flipping my magnetic pole violently along with throwing my center of weight. As I struggle to right myself, I fail, and drop to my knees. In the next moment, I¡¯m violently thrown onto my side by my own uncontrollable momentum. I¡¯d loose up sick, but I feel empty inside. An intense pressure builds along the inside of my cranium. It¡¯s not violently painful, but it¡¯s powerful enough that I sink into the feeling of its squeeze, almost like being cradled by the darkness. I meet unconsciousness almost gratefully.


    I chuckle at the tavern-maid, Selunie I believe it was, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I hadn¡¯t thought, well, after your friend, Taylynn I think it is, after the erm, discussion we had, I wasn¡¯t truly certain what to believe. That was months ago now, I did have a job to do after all.¡±


    The audacious, precocious lass responds by flicking me in the nose, of all things, before chastising me, ¡°You think my offer of friendship ends because you sleep with my best friend?¡±


    I cough, and sputter, grateful for the far table and quiet nature of the young woman¡¯s voice. I shoot her a mildly annoyed glare at the indelicateness of her answer. Her smile is infectious though, and I can¡¯t help but smile in return. How did I get so sidetracked? Why did I stay for more than the moment it took to fill in Jarvis Tavner? Taylynn isn¡¯t here, of course she isn¡¯t, she¡¯s some wandering princessora, seeking adventure out there on our miserable little planet. Yet her invitation of comfort at the hands of herself and her friend echo in my mind. Comfort I¡¯d not sought or received in my near century of life, until now.


    I know why we avoid friendships, and romances. Obviously. We make enemies, and retaliating against The Hidden of The Vale tends to be difficult, at best, unless we¡¯re foolish enough to create attachments out amongst the lands in which we sew chaos and confusion. Then the families of the rich and powerful that we tend to be sent against, well, they can seek their own brand of revenge by hurting those we might come to care about. Vicious cycles and all that.


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    Before I can even come up with a response to her inappropriate tease, she interrupts my thoughts to ask, ¡°So, tell me more about Eights?¡±


    I blink rapidly, and avert my gaze for the briefest of moments as my eyes mist over with a single tear each. Damnable woman with that look of adoration and admiration on her face. She certainly knows how to twist a knife. She¡¯d make for a great assassin, metaphorically. Still, the joy in her countenance, her enraptured attitude, I can¡¯t help acquiesce and answer for her. Something about her makes me want to give myself up, myself and my story, and share it all with her. Her and that bloody princessora, Taylynn, both, for slightly different reasons. Not that some of the reasons don¡¯t bleed over between the two. They¡¯re both incredibly comely.


    I begin to ramble, trying to avert my mind from going down the path of comparing the two women, ¡°Eights was, is, my best and only friend. At least¡ª at least until now I suppose. Jarvis is likely to object to, well, whatever friendship we might form, you understand my work after all.¡±


    She interrupts to rebuff me, ¡°Let me deal with the old fuddy duddy, you and him have a business relationship, and that¡¯s all, you don¡¯t owe him anything else, and I can be friends, or lovers, with whom I please. Please. Um, I mean, continue that is.¡±


    For a moment, I eye her after the slip. The look of desperation in her eyes as she pleas with me, after hinting at her desires is, well, it¡¯s otherworldly. She knows what she wants, and is willing to express it, without pressuring me. She isn¡¯t exactly subtle. She really has no problem bedding me, despite my own dalliance with her best friend Taylynn. Even Taylynn had said as much. The two share anything and everything it would seem. Not that any romance with me is quite what anyone would expect. Perhaps Taylynn somehow knew what lay beneath, before our dalliance. She¡¯s remarkably astute, observant, quick in a number of fashions. Ah, right, avoid comparing the two.


    I clear my throat, ¡°Right, well, Eights, huff. I know I¡¯m getting older, because I swear in my youth, Eights was some sort of labrador, then I vaguely remember Eights being some sort of pit bull or blood hound, something short and stout, but Eights is a Great Dane. He was, is, the light of my life, and the reason I¡¯m still a free person, with my head about my neck. I suppose my memories may be foggy on his breed since I¡¯m nearing a century in age, somewhere in my eighties I believe, not that I actually know. It¡¯s almost like I sprung into existence in my youth.¡±


    The fascinated woman, Selunie interjects with a new line of questioning, ¡°Really, Tay wasn¡¯t lying, you¡¯re really that old here?¡± Her face adopts a quizzical appearance as she tries to suss me out, though even that gaze is colored by a captivated appearance. Her lovely, slightly rounded features are all smile-lines and slightly-lidded eyes, a mixture of joy, suspense, and suspicion.


    I barely hide my smirk as I respond, ¡°I think you¡¯ll find that I¡¯m my age no matter where I am, here or there, you insufferably adorable woman.¡± For a moment, the gaze on her comely face switches from one of pure delight, to one of indignant enlightenment as she understands my tease, but now it¡¯s my turn to interrupt her before she can make a comeback, ¡°Unless you put salt into what the loonies in The Heart of the Wilds claim. Really, calling me a grasshopper, as if they¡¯re somehow ancient beyond my understanding, when I¡¯m likely the oldest person alive in our lands. Erm, sorry about the loonies crack. Loonie is what you like to be called, right?¡±


    Almost caught off guard, her countenance adopts a thoughtful expression momentarily before returning towards joy as she responds, ¡°Eh, don¡¯t worry about it, as long as you don¡¯t call me Sel. It sounds like a transaction. Selunie or Loonie is fine. Wait! Oo, the fairies, the fae!? Tell me about them, please!?¡±


    I huff, heaving a sigh, ¡°They¡¯re just people. A deluded people that are convinced that they¡¯re magical, perhaps it¡¯s all the mushrooms and nuts that they eat. I took a vacation once, a hiatus from¡ª my work. I lived amongst them, attempting to learn magic, to see for myself. There was nothing magical about it I¡¯m afraid. I¡¯m sorry to disappoint you.¡±


    A shaky, uncertain voice teetering on the brinks of both anger and despair rouses me, ¡°I know. I know what you¡¯re going to say. I know.¡±


    I blink rapidly and furiously rub my eyes to clear up my blurry double vision as I turn towards the owner of the voice, Teuila, My Wings. I¡¯m about to ask what she knows, but she continues, ¡°I know what you¡¯re going to say, most of it. You¡¯re going to say the right things, the nice things. The things I need to hear, but I don¡¯t want to hear them. I¡¯m not ready. So just don¡¯t. I¡¯m¡ª. I¡¯m sorry. Just don¡¯t.¡±


    My heart shatters as Teuila commands me to not be myself, to not be supportive of her in the way that I want to. Yet, it¡¯s what she wishes, so of course I¡¯ll do as she desires. Trying to distract myself from my own feelings on the matter, I let my senses drift, finding myself in what appears to be a cavern just barely big enough to fit the carriage, several unconscious kobolds, and a few canine and lupine creatures. The cavern has, or had, two exits. One is blocked off, likely by the stone shaping magics of Miza. The other seems to lead deeper into the Kobolds¡¯ tunnel warrens. Dippy and Zippy must have made good on a rescue mission to retrieve my unconscious body.


    I¡¯m not even sure I should share my good news with Teuila. I want her to be proud of me, and to be able to enjoy what I might offer, but I don¡¯t want to intrude on her process. If she feels unready, or unwilling to accept my comfort, love, and affection, I don¡¯t want to force those upon her. I inch away from My beloved Wings, towards the nearest wall, to prop myself up. I try not to cry, and fail.

 B 5 C 47: Cry Anyway

    I notice that Icey and Essie are in the pouch hanging from my neck, next to Bud and the egg.  Teuila must have awoken earlier, and shoved them in here, to be alone with her thoughts.  When I started to stir, that¡¯s when she addressed me.  Oh Te, my beloved Teuila.  I¡¯m here for you, when you¡¯re ready.  Just tell me what you need, when you need it.  I don¡¯t think she can hear me thinking at the moment, and I¡¯m not going to try to force psychic conversation, but I¡¯m sure she knows my thoughts well enough to know my line of thinking.


    Still, while I sit here, weeping silently for my beloved Wings, I may as well be productive.  Essie and Icey have been waiting a long time for me to try to understand their powers.  I make certain that my aura vision is cranked up to the maximum, so that I can attempt to parse their auras.  Icey is probably the easiest to determine, being that his name became even more descriptive.  Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark.  I assume that he¡¯s somehow able to act similar to the ring we¡¯d given to Luni so very long ago.  He likely raises the thermal and electro resistances of his wearer.  Or maybe it¡¯s a bit more complex than that.  It¡¯s odd that I can¡¯t exactly see runes for the artifacts the way I can for other magical things on Rayileklia.


    I¡¯m left vaguely guessing in approximations to try to determine their possible magical potentials and effects.  Like, Bud¡¯s abilities I¡¯d never have guessed, even after being told approximately what his purview was.  The ability to ease travel in minute ways, that, when taken to extremes, can alter entire landscapes.  And now, Bud hasn¡¯t spoken in days.  I hope I haven¡¯t taken his friendship for granted.  Somehow, some way, I need to find a safe way to help reforge him into a tool, from a weapon.  For now, I¡¯ll just hope that he¡¯s resting, and try to focus on Icey and Essie.  Icey, Essie, can you two hear me?


    Oh whew, thank goodness.  I¡¯m glad you¡¯re both okay.  Yeah, yeah that¡¯s exactly what I¡¯m trying to do.  Hm?  No, not because of the dragon.  I just finally have some free time where I¡¯m not distracted by constant dangers.  We aren¡¯t going anywhere at the moment.  I¡¯m sorry it took me so long.  Please forgive me?  Ouch, okay, hah, yeah, I deserve that.  I¡¯m glad you were just kidding, but, yeah, I¡¯d understand if you were still upset.  You are upset with me about Bud?  I¡ª.  I understand.  That makes sense.  I feel like it was my fault too.


    I¡¯m sorry.  That¡¯s the only thing I know how to say.  Do either of you have any feedback on how I should go about sensing your abilities?  Do you want Te to wear you and wield you?  Sure, sure, I¡¯ll try to convince her before we leave.  Sorry, yes I¡¯m sniffling and crying.  I¡¯m sad.  Okay?  Teuila is upset, Bud is unresponsive, you¡¯re both mad at me, Tiktik and Hellga are injured, the kobolds are under siege, a lot of bad is happening, and I¡¯m still not entirely done grieving Dawn, let alone Autumn Brook, The Drake, and poor Tim being out there alone, landbound, trying to catch up to the refugees.  Okay?  I¡¯m not trying to guilt you two into not being upset, you¡¯re allowed to be upset with me, just like I¡¯m allowed to be upset and parse my emotions and cry, even if I don¡¯t want to.


    Just, just hold on a second okay?  Thank you.  Grr.  Sorry.  I¡¯m not upset with you two for being upset with me, I¡¯m just, I¡¯m frustrated that there seems to be so much bad happening.  Somehow, some swirling crapstorm seems to keep me at its eye, while hurting destroying everything and every one around me.  Huh?  Hah, okay, that¡¯s true.  I guess I¡¯m not in the eye of the storm after all, since I¡¯m also constantly being hurt, and slash or destroyed, or at least on the road to destruction.  Yes, thank you for reminding me that I¡¯m dying, and don¡¯t really have any time to spare.  Yes, I¡¯m being mildly sarcastic, since it wasn¡¯t on my mind for the briefest of moments.  Sorry for being snarky.


    Anyway, Icey, do you, um, want to experiment?  I¡¯d understand if you were worried this was some kind of hostile attempt to get even or something.  It¡¯s not, I just have a suspicion about your abilities, but, well, I have no way to be certain, and the best I can come up with is shocking the crap out of myself while wearing you.  Hm?  Oh, true, yeah, it¡¯d be a kind of dumb payback if that were my plan, yeah.  Thankfully the right-sizing magics make it easy to slip into and out of armor.


    Hm, I feel numbers when I put you on.  Hm?  Yes I know how weird that sounds.  Remember, I¡¯m not from Rayileklia.  I¡¯m from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, where things had numerical quantification available in our minds and such.  I¡¯m almost certain you have elemental resistances now.   I think, and no offense, they¡¯re probably lower than mine.  I¡¯ve spent a lot of time breaking limits of elements, and taking a lot of pain and fire and lightning to the face.  I¡¯m sure they¡¯d add together in some way, but there¡¯s a diminishing return for higher and higher values, but that¡¯s why you¡¯d be even better for Teuila.  She didn¡¯t have the natural advantage I did for raising skills with limit breaking.  Plus, there¡¯s something else.  I¡¯m not willing to test hitting you with electricity right now, due to my current state.


    If what I suspect is true, we might go into some sort of overload feedback loop, and that could destroy us both, and possibly everything else around us.  Yeah, only because of me and my personal weirdness with needing to be charged with electrokinesis.  I think you somehow intercept about half of an offensive or hurtful element, and transfer that half of that element in a non harmful fashion to your wearer, or something.  So, for someone like Teuila, or anyone else, she might be almost unharmed by a lightning bolt, because you¡¯d be soaking up half of it, and rejuvenating her from the half that she had taken.  But with me, well, if I¡¯m taking half of a lightning bolt, positive or negative, it¡¯s amping up my system and jolting out, back into you, and you¡¯re doing the same back into me.  Yeah, exactly.  The loop, at best, would probably wear us both out on some psychic, or aetheric level.  At worst, mutual destruction before we could even unequip and separate.  Too great a risk to test out.


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    How did I get this idea?  Well, I don¡¯t even have to test out heat, because thermal fluctuations are constantly happening, all around us.  I can feel you intercepting warmth and cold externally, and filtering that to a neutral value to pass to me in some sort of minimalistic vitality kind of way.  Even my own body heat.  I¡¯d gained a thermal sense a very long time ago now.  I figure, anyone other than me, might be able to survive some of the things I¡¯ve already survived, while wearing you.  Like what?  Like walking through fire, being frozen in a block of ice, or possibly, maybe swimming in lava, if they were resilient enough to not instantly be incinerated by proximity.  I wouldn¡¯t test that last one on anyone unless they also had some sort of regenerative powers or supercooling enchantment though.  It essentially took both for me to survive it.  You might have more abilities too, but I can¡¯t really decipher your aura.


    Hm?  Yes I¡¯m still sniffling, yes I¡¯m still sad.  It¡¯s not that easy to get over.  Teuila is so beloved to me, and she¡¯s hurting, and she¡¯s not ready or willing to let me try to comfort her.  I¡¯m sure when she¡¯s feeling better, she¡¯ll happily wear you Icey.  That¡ª that is such an awkward sentiment.  Erm, moving on.  Yeah, I¡¯m going to unequip you and put you back in the pouch for now.  I won¡¯t keep you from her.  As soon as she¡¯s ready, I¡¯ll give you back.  I know what it¡¯s like to have things kept f¡ª.  Kept from you.


    Holy crap.  Aces.  Aces never saw magic, something actively kept Aces from being able to perceive it.  Aces wasn¡¯t just some idiot, they were a nearly century old assassin who¡¯d seen a lot of the world, but they were never allowed to perceive magic, as If something was keeping memories of magic hidden from them.  Could it possibly be the same force that¡ª ow!  I¡¯m right!  Ow!  Okay, okay!  I¡¯ll stop guessing.  For now.  Wait, guessing.  Luni.  Our beloved Lu.  Has she been trying to save me from this pain, since our early days on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas?  Ever since she first evolved?  Oh Lu.  What burdens do you yet bear for us?  Is Te also under¡ª.  I can¡¯t guess.  I have to stop.  I need My Anchor to help me see what paths I¡¯m able to explore without destroying my own mind.


    Huff.  Sighing, I unequip Icey and set him in the bag, before re equipping my suit of Valkyrie armor, well, a fresh one that Teuila had dug out for me.  The one I¡¯d worn into battle seems to be slowly mending itself over time while shrunken down.  Speaking of mending oneself.  I gaze down at the holes through several of my limbs.  They are knitting rather quickly.  Whether that¡¯s because of Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce, or my semi-digital nature, I¡¯m uncertain.  Huff, more mysteries about my origin, my identity, my anatomy even.  Whatever, I¡¯m unimportant at the moment.  Or, err, rather, those particular mysteries of me are unimportant at the moment.  I¡¯m not trying to go down some path of self deprecation or self-pity.


    So Essie.  What about you?  Requiem, the Silent Song.  I¡¯m fairly certain that you can quiet, or even mute areas that you strike.  Huh, that could prevent an enemy caster from utilizing their mnemonic at all.  Inability to incant, or to engage a mnemonic means that they¡¯d be stuck manually crafting runes if they wanted to try to cast spells, which can take minutes, if they even had the runiforms fully mastered to be able to do it manually at all.  That¡ª that¡¯s amazing.  That would put me on par with, or above, enemy archmages.


    Speaking of, yes, as always, I¡¯m always practicing at least one rune while I¡¯m conscious, and not in the middle of a battle.  I thought my rate of mastery was fairly consistent, especially after the one tome allowed me a new insight into runostructure and runic crafting, but I¡¯ve been running into more and more runes that take entirely random numbers of attempts before I master them down to rote perfection.


    I steal a glance over towards Teuila, and I¡¯m beset by further tears.  My beloved Wings is curled in on herself, withdrawn, silently sobbing in a corner.  She alternates between this sullen sadness, and fits of rage that cause her to smash her fist into the cavern floor.  At times, her hand switches from clasping tightly in a fist form that strains the skin about her knuckles, to seemingly reaching for, and grasping at empty air near her.  I so badly wish to offer her comfort of any form at all.  Te, Teuila, please, please don¡¯t go through this alone forever.  Please know that I¡¯m here for you.


    Dippy must have already been informed to leave her be as well, as he now appears to be checking on all the survivors, but avoiding Teuila¡¯s corner of the cavern.  Zippy flits near Teuila, but in her current state, I¡¯m worried she might lash out, and he¡¯s such a fragile little drake.  Despite the pain and erratic nature of my electrokinetically induced movement, I force myself to crawl vaguely in Teuila¡¯s direction, placing myself between Zippy and Te, shaking my head sadly at Zippy.  I lay my hand upturned, just outside of arm¡¯s reach of Teuila, so that she knows it¡¯s there, and I¡¯m here, but so that I¡¯m not intruding on her personal space as she tries to cope and grieve.  Tears continue to stream unabated and my nostrils itch as snot refuses to form for some odd reason.  Probably some of the various internal damage I¡¯ve taken over the last week.


    Teuila¡¯s hand twitches slightly in my direction, and for the briefest of moments, I experience a glimmer of hope, but she does not reach out for my hand.  Instead, she clasps her hand into a fist and once again smashes the floor of the cavern, as strongly and loudly as ever.  The stone shatters beneath her fist and rouses most anyone who was still unconscious.  There are cries of surprise and gasps of fear, but for Teuila and myself, there is just crying.

 B 5 C 48: Continue Anyway

    I worry for my beloved Teuila some time yet. She¡¯s so strong, in so many ways, I never imagined I could see her looking so defeated, so broken. To gaze upon her and watch as a storm of emotions wracks her, from guilt, to rage, to helpless despair, and back and forth over and over, is pure agony to be unable to comfort her and aid her with. I¡ª. I have to focus on something else, anything else. Maybe something I could improve upon within myself. Is calling her my Teuila diminishing? Perhaps I shouldn¡¯t use the possessive as my nickname for my inner circle. They¡¯ve never indicated they didn¡¯t like the names, in fact, quite the opposite. Would changing suddenly, while Teuila is going through this, be the wrong time to figure that out? Would it be piling on a possible tidal wave of emotional trauma to the storm raging within her?


    Am I being more paranoid about emotional intelligence because I¡¯m off my keel, and rudderless with none of my inner circle to guide me? Probably. I don¡¯t have experience, I have broken memories. I don¡¯t have a society to learn from, I¡¯ve got an isolated bubble of accelerated thinkspace at the best of times when I actually have my inner circle. I don¡¯t have my family, I just have wandering through violent worlds, adrift in the path of storm after storm. How am I ever supposed to know what¡¯s right, or the good or kind way to act in a situation? No wonder Harriet felt the way she did about me, I really don¡¯t know anything.


    I worry that even when she passes through this storm, as I know she will, that she¡¯ll become hesitant, full of self-doubt. Should I risk the egg? Should I send a message back in time? Would I understand my message? Will it solidify a different timeline? What if we¡¯re just stuck in this timeline, even if I create an offshoot timeline? All the future ¡°me¡±s from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas never sent anything new back from the points that they stopped existing, or rather, the points where I hope that the flow of time was diverted away from. Would it work the same here? What if I¡¯m wrong entirely about my assumptions about how my powers work? What if I¡¯ve been trapping Luni with a billion ceaseless voices of unending attempts at timelines, that continue to stretch into horrid, despairing, dead futures?


    Great, now I¡¯m the one hesitant, and full of self-doubt. As I¡¯m entertaining a series of thoughts, they¡¯re interrupted by a familiar, slightly wizened voice saying, ¡°Damocles.¡±


    I blink repeatedly, trying to understand the sudden interruption to my thought train, and I picture a sword hanging over me for some reason. I lamely ask, ¡°What?¡±


    Elder, once known as Decker Cain, answers, ¡°That which hangs over our head as we court disaster. The sword of Damocles will remain in place for as long as we stay here, but you already knew that, didn¡¯t you?¡±


    I gnaw on my lip. I could swear that the sword of Damocles is a tale from fakeworld, Earth, or maybe it¡¯s a tale from Rayileklia, and I remember it because of one of Aces¡¯ dreams? Still, I nod slowly towards Elder, the, well, elder of the Kobold tribe in The Gap. I don¡¯t really know what to say to that, since I¡¯m still emotionally focused on Teuila, and mentally focused on, well, nothing, my brain is too cagey to pin down at the best of times. Right now? Right now is not the best of times.


    Elder continues, ¡°You¡¯ll be traveling, North I suspect, as you had once before. I believe we shall too, though, we may venture westerly after.¡±


    I ramble, ¡°But, well, that¡¯s closer to the dragons! Surely that¡¯s not the best choice. Though, err, The Gap won¡¯t be safe much longer, there¡¯s, there¡¯s--¡±


    Elder finishes for me, ¡°Hordes of hell to the south, armies of humans to the northeast, and dragons to the north. All keep away from the northwest, the bog, the lair of the hydra, and the spirits that reside in the swamps. Danger surrounds us, and abounds on our world. Long ago, a kingdom stood in the west, it no longer does. We think to perhaps settle in its ruins.¡±


    I blink repeatedly. Elder is evacuating the Kobolds of The Gap to Jeegoobotstan. That¡¯s almost too perfect. Two vulnerable groups of people making their way to re-settle a razed kingdom. From how we were treated in Autumn Brook, the Brookians shouldn¡¯t be problematic for the kobolds. I think. I¡¯m not sure about the other cities in Aasimovia though, we never traveled to any of them. We didn¡¯t even land at the docks of one of the cities on the north side of Lake Siempre when we left The Brook either time. We instead landed at the mouth of a river, and ferried, or drove ourselves up along that river.


    I start, ¡°Elder, if you¡¯re evacuating to the ruins of Jeegoobotstan, Alta Vista, or near there, would you be willing to meet with the human evacuees from Aasimovia?¡±


    Elder nods in answer. I¡¯m surprised he¡¯s so well-informed. I¡¯d thought that the kobolds were insular. I mean, especially after closing themselves off after the debacle with the dominion, and advance warning of the dragon attacks. Maybe they had Dippy become a scout to gather information about the other regions? He is their, ¡°The Bravest Amongst Us.¡±


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    Elder sits nearby, placing myself between him and Teuila, giving her her space. He slowly lowers himself to sit upon his tail, heavily leaning upon a walking staff. I cast my senses about, attempting to learn what I can about our temporary refuge, since there seems to be a break in the conversation.


    As I cast my senses out about into the depths of the cavern, my eyes struggle to adjust to the darkness that envelops me, which is saying a lot, with my photosensitivity. The absence of light is almost absolute. It''s vaguely reminiscent of a--. A void. Hm. Some day I¡¯ll need to pursue those lines of thought, but it¡¯s hard to keep track of which ones are and aren¡¯t safe to follow without Lu. Without My Anchor. The air is thick with what I''m sure must smell like the damp musk of the earth, and the sound of dripping water echoes eerily through the chamber. Almost assuredly melting ice that has somehow worked its way deep enough into the stone of the nearby mountainside.


    During this momentary break in the conversation, I take a second to spread forth my silent sonar, I detect a group of huddled forms in the far corner of the cavern. It takes me a moment to make out their features, but it''s obvious that they are a small band of kobolds, seemingly accustomed to the pitch-black, huddled amongst themselves. They seem to be whispering among themselves, their voices low and urgent.


    Nearby, in the very center of our little refuge of course is our carriage that has been hastily parked smack dab in the midst of this makeshift cave. Its wheels are caked with frost and mud and its paint is chipped and peeling. It seems like it has seen better days, but it appears to be salvageable yet. Hopefully. Most of the canines are apparently resting under or around it.


    Despite the gloom, I''m able to picture our surroundings fairly clearly thanks to the silent sonar of my danger wraps, and the odd sense of proprioception that somehow tells me more about the area around me than it should. I can make out the rough-hewn walls of the cavern, their jagged edges and irregular surfaces seemingly carved by magical force. The stones are cool to the touch, and the air is thick with a faint mineral dust that tickles my nostrils.


    As I move along my sensory range further into the cavern, I feel the weight of the darkness pressing in around me, suffocating and oppressive. It''s as if the very air itself is conspiring to keep me in this gloomy tomb, trapping me with the kobolds and the carriage. Apparently Miza has blocked off the entrance and exit. That''s not good for ventilation. I Hope she knows what she''s doing.


    Sitting here with Elder though, suddenly, a familiar sensation comes over me. Belonging. Family. I can see that there is a glimmer of hope. Despite the danger and uncertainty that surrounds us, there is a sense of solidarity among us. We are all in this together, and with our collective strength and determination, we will find a way to make it through the chaos and into some sense of stability, safety.


    That faint glimmer of hope helps ground me. It reminds me that though we¡¯re all hurting, I can and will continue. I¡¯m trapped in a layer of juxtapositions and contradictions. I have to act quickly, or I¡¯ll perish from my mana residue sickness. Yet I have to act cautiously, carefully, because danger is at every corner. Not just danger, but insane, intense levels of danger. The danger sets me back from the glimmer of hope. It reminds me how powerless I am. I feel as powerless as I did when I first faced Octorochi, on some levels. I hadn¡¯t truly suffered the same feeling since then, that powerlessness. Moments where I¡¯d resigned myself to death were common enough, sure, but that was exhaustion, or depression, fear, one feeling or another. Powerlessness is something else. Inability to affect change, real, lasting change for the betterment of myself and others. Which, doesn¡¯t sound like what I should have felt back then, but in a way, in that moment, when Staff Ninja perished, that¡¯s what I felt. Not hopeless, so much as powerless.


    There are forces in the world conspiring against me, keeping my memo¡ª. My memories from me? That¡ª. That suddenly sounds familiar. A nagging pain begins to slowly lance from temple to temple, behind my eyes, building pressure. But I can¡¯t just let this thought train go. Or at least, not the thought train I meant to be pursuing. Listing the dangers. One is that deadly force that somehow holds my memories at bay, altering them, keeping them from me, redirecting my thoughts. The others, like Elder has said, include dragons, hordes of hell, armies of humans, acid freaking rain. In some regards, some of the worst dangers are Teuila and myself. Despite feeling powerless, we¡¯re some of the most powerful creatures on this planet. Right up there with dragons, archmages, mythological beasts.


    Heh. If Teuila were in a better mood, she¡¯d relish being thought of as dangerous, the most powerful. That has been her goal for so long. Well, a certain side of her goal. She wants to be the best, the fastest, the strongest, the most powerful to do the most protecting. She¡¯s a fighter for all the right reasons. Now she has to contend with losses of life, and I¡¯m certain that she¡¯ll struggle with the idea that she was powerless. Having her agency stripped from her, having her own momentum used against her¡ª. I could see it leaving her feeling powerless.


    Oddly, shakily at first, Teuila and I speak at the same time, our voices both becoming steely and resolute, ¡°We have to continue.¡±


    I blink at her, and Teuila fights herself to smile through tears. I feel the psychic walls come down, and she begins riding my thoughts again, after we¡¯d had the same thought. I gasp a shuddered breath, and almost sigh in relief. There¡¯s so much pain beneath that smile right now, but this is Teuila we¡¯re talking about. Of course she¡¯d want to fight through it while making progress on our goals. I¡¯m here for you Te. I love you. I¡¯m here for you.


    She speaks into my mind, ¡°I know you are Air. I¡¯m not ready yet though. But thank you. For now, we¡¯ve got some dragon ass to kick.¡±

 B 5 C 49: Unsure

    I return Essie and Icey to Teuila, stating, ¡°Te, you should go ahead and wear Icey. He¡¯s really potent dealing with elemental stuff, um, especially the elements I¡¯m good with. Fire, ice, lightning. Just ignore the crass jokes about you being inside of him, and stuff. He¡¯s really excited to get you to wear him, despite how he phrases it.¡±


    Te blinks, surprised at either the information, or at my suggestion, or perhaps Icey¡¯s lewd jokes. I¡¯m not able to read her as precisely as I normally would be, since we¡¯re both heavily distracted by a torrent of emotions. A torrent Teuila is not ready to address, or tackle. No offense Te. We¡¯re both suffering. Teuila pays my thoughts no mind, and strips so that she can equip Icey.


    I add, ¡°Essie would be potent against enemy spellcasters. They¡¯d be stripped of their mnemonic. She can silence them. So¡ª¡°


    Teuila grins almost maliciously, ¡°So they¡¯d be like you, but worse. If they could even cast at all.¡±


    I smirk and nod at Teuila. Elder speaks up from my side, ¡°You¡¯ll be leaving soon. We¡¯d journey with you, if it pleases you.¡±


    Te solemnly responds, ¡°It does. It truly does. I can¡¯t¡ª glp. I can¡¯t begin¡ª. I.¡±


    Elder merely nods at Teuila, understanding in some way that she cannot finish her apology, ¡°You have driven them off, given us a chance to escape. We must seize it. Miza is resting, much deeper, with our young, and our food, our workers. I trust one of you can break down a wall?¡±


    At any other time, one or the other, or both of us would have chuckled, maybe Te would relish the chance to show off her power, but she hesitates as she draws a ragged breath. I nod in response to Elder. Checking on my archsorc staff, there¡¯s enough charges in it to cast one or two of a few of the spells. The one I¡¯m thinking of is bypassed-wall.


    I start with the sort of tunnel hallway that leads deeper into the complex warren of tunnels the kobolds have dug within the mountainside. I¡¯ll save the exit for a bit later, when we¡¯re sure everyone is prepared to leave. That includes Teuila. We have to be prepared in case the dragons circle back around in order to pick up their minions, the ones they might not know that we¡¯ve slain.


    With the wall now missing, after the spell from my staff, Elder signals one of the kobolds, somehow in this pitch darkness, it¡¯s understood. I¡¯m not sure if they have silent sonar like me, or something else. Regardless, the kobold slips quietly away, the scritching of their claws against the stone barely heard as they make their way deeper into the warrens, to find Miza and the younglings, and the others.


    Elder seems almost jovial as he asks, ¡°Is there some way we could thank you, reward you? Twice now, no, three times you have averted disaster for us.¡±


    I hesitate to answer. I¡¯m sure Teuila wouldn¡¯t want anything in reward. She doesn¡¯t do what she does for gratitude, or rewards, or anything. She¡¯s a model hero in my books. She does what she does because it¡¯s *right*. She helps the helpless, defends the downtrodden, protects those who can¡¯t protect themselves. And she¡¯s shying away from riding my thought trains since I¡¯m complimenting her accidentally. Sorry Te.


    Regardless, if anyone could have some of the gem supplies I need to be able to make certain enchantments permanent, it would be our friends here. But that¡¯s their nourishment, their food. It might well be all that they have. If they even have them. I don¡¯t know if I could in good conscience ask for them.


    An almost chipper voice from the carriage states, ¡°They won¡¯t admit it, but they want, need, rose carnelians. It¡¯ll make them more powerful. After a time. Maybe a few days, maybe a month. Reggie¡¯s too kind to ask, but it¡¯s not like they don¡¯t have gems to trade. They¡¯re just too distracted to remember how much mundane stuff they¡¯ve got piled up. Always thinking about powerful, magical assets. Not the normal ones.¡±


    My jaw hangs low as I realize what Tiktik said is true. We¡¯ve got a nearly limitless amount of gems. *We* could feed the kobolds. We were planning on giving a ton of gems to the Aasimovians to help start rebuilding Jeegoobotstan already anyway. They could start a fully fledged economy. I know for a fact the kobolds can be excellent mushroom farmers, though I can¡¯t remember the name of Miza¡¯s child who happens to be a sporomancer, one that can magically create mushrooms. The humans and kobolds could barter services, produce food for each other, it¡¯s, it¡¯s got to work. It just has to. Plus, the kobolds are used to tunneling, so they could rebuild more secure, underground. The humans are used to not getting real sunlight, so maybe if they replant a few luma tulipa, they wouldn¡¯t even complain about living in cave systems, maybe.


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    All we have to do is survive, and get them safely past a swamp of no hope, the Jaggedfen Bog, a hydra, whatever spirits reside in the swamp that Elder warned me about, and, and¡ª. Huff. I heave a sigh. It¡¯s never easy. There¡¯s so much that could go wrong. We¡¯ll be mudcamping for days, weeks, maybe months, just to get there. Hopefully we can catch one of these dragons that we drove off. It might buy me more time. My clock is ticking down quickly. I¡¯ve been working on the telekinesis spelliform runes, so that I can ¡ª wait. My staff.


    As I think about it, my archsorc staff is in my hand. Except, I¡¯d put it away. I hadn¡¯t drawn it to cast the bypassed wall spell, but it was in my hand. Now it¡¯s in my hand again. Is my mind so far gone that I can¡¯t remember when I stow and draw my staff? Is this part of the memory blocking thing? Or am I just full of self doubt because of the memory blocking thing? Ow, my freakin¡¯ head. No, that isn¡¯t it. I walk to the carriage, set the archsorc staff on it, and turn back towards Elder, striding towards him to help confirm Tiktik¡¯s response.


    My staff is in my hand as I emphasize to Elder, ¡°Tiktik¡¯s actually right. I completely forgot about how many gems we have, and how badly I need rose carnelians I think it was. I¡¯ve got about forty two or so runes of the telekinesis enchantment spell mastered. I need to master all of its runes, or at least, to comprehend and be able to perfectly apply their two dimensional runostructure as part of the permanency ability that I have. When I¡¯ve got them mastered at least that much, I need rose carnelian paste to place the enchantment on myself permanently. It¡¯s a massively versatile power.¡±


    I¡¯m gnawing on my lip as I stare at the staff in my hand. I swear. I absolutely swear I set it down on the carriage. I also swear that it was probably lost in rubble when I was blown to smithereen by dynamite that Dippy used against the earth elementals so very long ago. Yet I remember awakening, finding it in my hand. Is it sentient like Bud, Essie, or Icey? Can it move? I know that I can skip some steps, bend some corners, but there¡¯s nothing in my toolkit that¡ª. Nothing. I put my staff in the double-ended drop-sheathe holster. Focusing, I try to summon it to my hand. Nothing. No success. It is soulbound to me. If I had access to my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magic, I could pull it to my inventory from at least a short range, then out of my inventory to my hand. I don¡¯t have that here though. I¡¯ve got¡­ nothing.


    Gnawing on my lips, this thought train seems circuitous, or circular, yet it feels as if I¡¯m scratching at something. It¡¯s like I¡¯m clawing away at the side of a mountain. On the other side of the mountain lay answers, and this frantic scrabbling is the fastest clawing I¡¯ve ever done. The closest I¡¯ve ever made it to the answers about my powers. And yet¡ª. Clawing away at the mountainside still isn¡¯t the answer. It¡¯s still not even really progress. Grr. I don¡¯t understand. Why didn¡¯t the Sisters¡ª. Oh, right, I know why. They didn¡¯t give me more clear guidance about my powers, because that would have somehow given me power over them, or the one they serve. Some sort of, I don¡¯t know, sentient void? Ow! My friggin¡¯ brain!


    What was I¡ª? For some reason, my head hurts a bit. Oh, right, I think I was thinking about my staff for some reason. I can¡¯t remember why though. The telekinesis spell is in it. It might allow me to shortcut a bit towards getting the enchantment on myself permanently. It¡¯s too bad that the spell is a self-only enchantment. I can¡¯t grant it to Teuila or Tiktik. I can¡¯t even let them use the staff to grant it to themselves, then apply permanency to that enchantment. Oh, right, if I made the staff enchantment permanent, it might ruin being able to cast from the staff, like when I extended the telekinesis spell and kept trying to cast from it in the cult of the Bright Lord. I¡¯d better not shortcut. Dangit. I¡¯ve got the spell about halfway mastered from the last week of travel. I think I¡¯ve still averaged six runes of mastery a day.


    But wait. Didn¡¯t I have some off days where I¡¯d only been able to master one? Or weren¡¯t there some runes giving me trouble? Why are my memories so fuzzy, so hazy all of a sudden? Why can¡¯t I recall something as simple as how many of a quantity has happened in a week? Memories? Wait. There was something. Something about memories. Ow! That¡¯s right. A force, one that I can¡¯t challenge yet. Possibly more than one. It¡¯s keeping my memories from me, screwing with them, making it harder to think and keep track of things.


    What is even its game? I know it can outright kill me. So why hasn¡¯t it? Or¡ª. Or what if there¡¯s more things at play. What if the memories themselves could kill me? Ow! Hm. This is weird. What was I thinking about? Right, right, trying to master the telekinesis enchantment. I¡¯ve got to keep on keeping on. I¡¯ll get it soon I hope. Just not soon enough to help with any dragons still in The Gap. I wonder if I can leave the heavy lifting to Teuila on that end¡ª. Or, or would asking that of her be the most horrible thing I could possibly do. Suddenly I feel like an awful person.


    I feel, I feel so horrible, I¡ª, a voice in my mind orders me, ¡°Stop. Just stop. You¡¯ve been, you¡¯ve¡ª. Huff. Just stop, okay? Shut your brain off for a bit. We¡¯ve got some friends to deal with, and then we need to get moving. We¡¯re not okay, and we¡¯re not going to be, for a while, but you¡¯re not an awful person. You¡¯re my Airhead. Just, please stop thinking about me for a while, at the very least.¡±


    My heart races at being ordered to stop thinking, worse, at being ordered to stop thinking about Teuila, m¡ª. I was given a request that I intend to honor. I breathe, ragged, shallow breathes, hiccuping, tears streaming down my face. We have to continue. We¡¯ve got friends here, we can do this. Reggie Shellcracker, breathe air, breathe.


    Tiktik¡¯s mental avatar appears in my mindscape, chipper as ever. She asks an odd question, ¡°You okay Tiger?¡±


    At any other point, I could probably give Tiktik an answer one way or another. For some reason, right here, right now, the most honest thing I can truly say is, ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡±

 B 5 C 50: Quiet Thoughts

    Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar frowns at me and states, ¡°You two have something going on, and I guess I was out for it, can you fill me in later?¡±


    I gulp, before hesitantly responding, ¡°Um, later, maybe. I, I apparently have to stop thinking for a bit. Maybe just focus on doing. It¡¯s¡ª. It¡¯s hard. Yeah, stuff happened. I¡ª. I don¡¯t know how to deal, and it¡¯s worse for¡ª. I, I can¡¯t say right now. Sorry Kitten.¡±


    Tiktik grumps, ¡°Big Tee isn¡¯t letting me in, and you¡¯re about to shut me out too, aren¡¯t you? Is there anything I could say to prevent that?¡±


    There¡¯s a long, long pause as Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar taps her foot while wearing a frown. I¡¯m struggling to quiet my thoughts in general. I can¡¯t manage a response as I ponder deeply while staring at the adorable woman. I barely manage to maintain a neutral expression as I attempt to let my subconscious take control, so that I can stop thinking.


    In meatspace, kobolds begin filtering in from the warrens tunnel structure in the meanwhile. Gnawing on my lip in meatspace and thinkspace, I shrug unhelpfully, frowning, tearing up. I have to try to not process my thoughts, or think. I was given an, well not an order, but a request. The request is difficult, quieting my thoughts has always been difficult, shutting them off entirely seems almost impossible. I lapse into nearly guttural sub-vocalization of my thoughts: need stop thinking.


    Tiktik interrupts, ¡°Then don¡¯t think Tiger, but please, talk to me? About anything, it doesn¡¯t really matter. I can feel something off, but we don¡¯t have to talk about it if you don¡¯t wanna. Like, there¡¯s so many new people around to prank, but, well, I guess this really wouldn¡¯t be the time to startle people.¡± Tiktik pauses, and sighs huffily, before adding, ¡°I don¡¯t want to stop being myself, you¡¯ve got no idea how much self control I¡¯m exerting.¡±


    I stifle a chuckle, barely. Trying not to be cynical or rude, as genuinely as I can, I telepathically respond, ¡°Thank you Kitten. Truly. For your self control, for being here, for sticking with us, for everything. As far as talking, and new people? Well, I can point out who¡¯s who that I know at least. Elder is, well, the elder of the clan, he¡¯s that one there. Miza is over there by the entrance. Dippy has their title, ¡®The Bravest Amongst Us¡¯, he¡¯s over there, with his little rock-drake, Zippy. Um, that one hauling the weird contraptions is Scrap. Timbik, Miza¡¯s husband is, uh, over that way, shying away from me. I think I scared him when he attacked me while I was down, and I still managed to display overwhelming force. I think I may have blown a hole in his foot, I can¡¯t recall. He¡¯s a bully, and a coward, but he¡¯s married to Dippy¡¯s egg-twin sister, so I don¡¯t want to start anything. Miza and Dippy are great.¡±


    The speed at which the kobolds of The Gap organize under Elder¡¯s leadership is downright astounding. I barely have time to say hello to Scrap and Miza while they work together with groups and divide up labor. Miza brings the exit wall down slightly, allowing a cool breeze into the cavern, refreshing the stuffy air. Tiktik is still bedridden in the carriage, but I can hear her gasp at the literal breath of fresh air from within. Even Hellga stirs slightly at the sudden change in air quality and temperature.


    My particular state during this current ordeal is leaving me with time to think. I know I¡¯m not supposed to, but my brain just doesn¡¯t shut off. I can at least focus on the moment, or the near future. I¡¯m not certain how to interact in kobold society, but that¡¯s nothing new honestly. All my lives I¡¯ve been searching for something, something never came, never led to anything. I couldn¡¯t build my community, couldn¡¯t draw people to a safe haven, because by the time I found enough people, it was a refugee effort, an escape. Not long after that, I was on the trail of multiple apocalyptic scenarios. Now I¡¯m on a world where there are still some cities standing, and even still I haven¡¯t had a chance to settle down and learn how to be a member of society. So, when I want to talk, I need to plan carefully what I¡¯m going to say, how I¡¯m going to act.


    Hm, odd. Measuring my responses, gauging my social interactions, planning them in advance¡ª. Somehow this seems incredibly familiar. Yet I¡¯ve hardly had any social interactions in all two of my lives. Haven¡¯t I? Can¡¯Z¡¯aas was more wilderness than anything else. When I was in Eimsas was about the only time when I had to even pretend to try to adhere to a human-society¡¯s social norms. I know I have practice doing this, somehow. Or at least think I do. There¡¯s some vague memory--. Oh, wait, stop thinking. Huff, I sigh for a long while and breathe deeply. I know I could be useful in some manner or other, but I need to recuperate, and I don¡¯t want to get in the kobolds¡¯ way as they organize.


    I glance once, lovingly, longingly at Teuila, catching sight of her as she changes her armaments about to best suit her. I just nod, almost submissively, as our gazes catch one another momentarily. No, not submissively, that¡¯s the wrong word. Sympathetically, understandingly, almost sadly. I crawl into the carriage, forcing my motions through electrokinetic nerve manipulation, shakily, jerkily.


    I find myself situating myself across from Tiktik, as I summon the ghostly steeds at its fore, leaving them for Teuila to hitch. She¡¯s going to want to be alone, driving. Tiktik and I busy ourselves attempting to use our magic to mend what damage we can that the carriage has sustained. After a few moments of telepathic silence, perhaps minutes of activity, Tiktik cautiously floats herself into the seat next to me, and stares me in the eyes.


    With one fang sticking out as she grins my way, she almost playfully, almost pleadingly asks, ¡°Fae-fection?¡±


    I can¡¯t help smiling and feeling the faintest flutter in my heart. I¡¯m blessed to have loving, loyal, affectionate friends at my side. I nod at Tiktik, and lean to one side as she lays partially on my chest, and lap, laying longways across the seat. Tiktik wraps one arm partially around my waist as she buries her face in my abdomen. We¡¯re both still recovering from injuries, and Tiktik¡¯s will take much longer to heal, so sharing what little physical comfort we can in the meanwhile just makes sense. I cringe as a spasm in my neck pinches and twists a muscle. Flexing my jaw to try to unlock the twisted muscle, I immediately regret pulling on that region of my neck.


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    The pain dazes me with its intensity, and its intermittent pulses. Hell, I¡¯m glad I¡¯m not driving the carriage at the moment. This is nearly knocking me out. I know it¡¯s partially due to my cored-out nervous-system, though it¡¯s not like twitching hasn¡¯t always been a part of my life. Muscle spasms mostly crept in while I was having terror attacks, trauma flashbacks. Sometimes in high-stress situations they¡¯d just happen. I could involuntarily lose some control over one of my arms, and it might twitch, spasm, or possibly even flail wildly. This spasm just happened to be in an egregiously sensitive location in my neck.


    Heaving a sigh, I close my eyes and try not to focus on it. Crap. Two-ton elephant in the room that is my train of thought now is sitting at the helm of the train. Don¡¯t think about it? Guess what I¡¯m thinking about. Blargh. Pain, pain, pain. Huff, whatever. I should be used to it by now. Electrocuted, burned, blown up, crushed, melted, poisoned, slashed, stabbed, psionically assaulted, mana residue sickness, I¡¯ve certainly felt a lot of pains. Why is an acute pain so attention grabbing though? Breathing deeply and sighing, I realize why of course. Because I¡¯m on the mend, and not hurting all that much, but I feel guilty for not hurting all that much, so even a single inconvenient pain is something to focus on. Subconsciously, maybe a part of me feels like I deserve to have that pain be the only thing I can concentrate on, I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s okay though, move forward despite it, despite everything.


    Glancing around with the senses available to me, I try to paint the scene in my mindscape. The occasional crackle of lightning, and rumble of thunder echoes through the entrance tunnel, and the barest flickering of light reaches this deep, as flashes of lightning reflect and bounce off of the surfaces of the tunnel. There are roughly seventy five kobolds, counting all the younglings who are situated quite near the back. There¡¯s a couple dozen soul-stolen canine and lupine creatures, led by a single wolf, who follows Dippy unflinchingly. The sleek form of the lead wolf has just enough musculature that it¡¯s easy to distinguish from an average dog, but is lean enough to indicate that he hasn¡¯t been eating great recently. His fur hangs limp against his sides, and his tail is stiff in its alertness.


    Despite the weariness evident in the wolf, he¡¯s still a leader to all those creatures with no drive, no soul, no ambition or imperative. He gives them purpose, a pack in each other. It strikes me that philosophically, they¡¯re just bags of meat and bone, wandering around with no personality. And yet? And yet they stick together in a pack, somehow the curse didn¡¯t wipe them out, when it wiped out all other soulless bodies. Does that say something about their essence, their nature, their very being? I can¡¯t rightly say, I suppose. Far more scholarly individuals than I have tackled the concept of the soul and the self. Mostly to no true end. No one has those answers. This situation raises only further questions. Questions that my Fakeworld memories say shouldn¡¯t even exist. I sigh after drawing a deep, slow breath. Shaking my head shudderingly, erratically, I try to bring my thoughts back around to Tiktik, Kitten.


    The Fae woman¡¯s hair somehow remains lustrous, voluminous, and bright orange, despite the flickering, dim glow that represents what little light penetrates the area. Its vibrance feels like it symbolizes the entirety of her in some way. It¡¯s a simile for how vivacious she is, despite all that¡¯s happened. Her slightly rounded, impish features are turned upwards in a sly grin as she catches me staring, and though I blush, I don¡¯t waver. Her eyes at the moment are red, the irises seem to take up the majority of her large eyes, which occupy a larger section of her face than most people¡¯s. Her bright, wide eyes contain an otherworldly charm as I gaze into them, smiling her way. The softness of her features accentuates the kindness in her every expression. I can¡¯t imagine Kitten ever being intentionally malicious. She¡¯s a prankster, sure, but like she said, she¡¯s using restraint, because spooking people who are miserable, and fearful, wouldn¡¯t be kind.


    I hope we can reunite her with Littlebit. I hope we can keep her safe, long enough for it to happen. Honestly though, she¡¯s powerful enough that I¡¯m relying on her to help keep this contingent of kobolds safe, even though she hasn¡¯t yet recovered. She wears a pouty half-frown in response to my thoughts. Which ones upset her, I¡¯m not quite certain. Whether it¡¯s because I¡¯m being overprotective, or putting pressure on her when she¡¯s recovering, or¡ª.


    Kitten interrupts my thoughts, ¡°Hold up Tiger, it¡¯s none of that. You¡¯re a sweetie. I just¡ª. I just don¡¯t want to be reminded of Littlebit right now. There¡¯s a whole world of trouble between me and seeing her again. I¡ª. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll make it, and that¡¯s not on you. She doesn¡¯t feel that way about me, and that¡¯s not on you either. Even if you¡¯re starting to fall for me, especially now, with whatever¡¯s going on, I just¡ª. Huff. It¡¯s not fair to you. I think you¡¯re special, and whatever¡¯s going on with Big Tee, I¡¯m sure the two of you will get through it.¡±


    I try to respond, but Tiktik continues, ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me, I know it isn¡¯t the time yet, whatever¡¯s going on. I wanted to say though, that, um. I get it, you¡¯re focusing on what¡¯s in front of you, you have to, for whatever reasons. And right now, I¡¯m what¡¯s in front of you, because I put myself there. I just, well, I don¡¯t want you to think I¡¯m trying to take advantage of that. I know that that¡¯s not what you¡¯d think of me, and I¡¯m glad, but I need you to really know it. I guess, I guess I could share a story about my time in the ¡®Twixt, if maybe you¡¯d be up for it? For hearing it?¡±


    I nod cautiously. I¡¯m uncertain as to why Tiktik¡¯s defensive about my focus on her. I don¡¯t hold any expectations, except that we¡¯ll try to work together for our common safety. If it¡¯s about any sort of affection, or romance, she and I both know how fickle and fleeting faefection can be, and that our friendship comes first to me. Like she said, she put herself in the position where she¡¯s at the forefront of my mind, when I have to focus on what¡¯s ahead of me, literally. Yet I¡¯d never make the assumption that¡ª. Well, exactly like she said. Maybe it¡¯s because I¡¯m wrong on why I think she wouldn¡¯t be that way. At this line of thought, there¡¯s a meek, ever-so-slight nod from Tiktik. I cock my head to the side, continuing to stare her in the eyes with a half-sad smile on my face as she starts her tale.

 B 5 C 51: Tales From the Twixt

    Tiktik starts off enthusiastically, ¡°So, the realm of the Twixt is sometimes pretty awesome, sometimes pretty horrible. I already told you guys about the time Littlebit and I faced a vamp, and I accidentally made Bizzy. Little mix of awesome and horrible there. Littlebit didn¡¯t look at me the same for a while after. Kept avoiding my gaze when our eyes met, coughing, looking away. Wasn¡¯t long after that that I left town. I was worried that I spooked her with my feelings, worried that she thought, I dunno, thoughts. Like maybe I used the vampire as an excuse to hold her, or set us up or something. I¡¯d never! I just¡ª. I just worry that she thought that. I couldn¡¯t tell what she was thinking, why she kept spending time with me, but couldn¡¯t look me in the eyes anymore. We spent more time together than ever, but, but I don¡¯t know. And then the thing with gramps. Ugh, sorry, I¡¯m getting off topic.¡±


    I nudge Tiktik slightly, trying to signal that she has no need to apologize. I give her a sympathetic frown, a saddened pout to show that I care. It¡¯s hard to measure the right response when I¡¯m attempting to keep my brain off, but I hope she recognizes my intent. I¡¯ve plenty of love for Kitten, and I¡¯m honored to hear her story, any bit of it.


    Tiktik sighs, and nestles into my chest momentarily. I can feel her rest her eyes before continuing, ¡°I, um, I really want to tell you this here, out here in meatspace. It, well, it feels like, symbolically, that somehow makes it more real, more, um¡ª. Honest? I¡¯m not sure. It¡¯s hard to explain. I get numbers, and rules, and laws, and things, I can keep track of names, and places, and people. I can say things with, well, omission. I get the way things are supposed to work. It¡¯s part of why I¡¯m good at what I do. I can lie without lying. But, well, I think I¡¯ve done it so much, that I start to worry when I¡¯m trying to be really honest. In a half truth? It just comes out, easy, no pressure, and people believe me, because I¡¯m at least half honest, and I guess that¡¯s good enough most of the time, for most people. But when I really, really want to be a hundred percent honest on an emotional thing, I get scared. Like when I admitted my feelings for Littlebit. Then got shot down. She, she seemed to think it was a joke, a prank at first, then started making excuses.¡±


    My heart aches for Tiktik, as she shares a different story than she intended. She¡¯s building up to it, because she¡¯s emotional about the surrounding tale, the emotional state, the desire to be truthful, and understood as such. I get that. Despite having not had many people to interact with, I really get that.


    Tiktik mumbles into my chest, ¡°She, she was like, ¡®you don¡¯t mean that, you¡¯re just confused, we¡¯re like sisters.¡¯ After she tried to play it off as a joke, thinking I was kidding. She didn¡¯t like, run away or anything, she sat there, next to me, but she patted my head while it was on her shoulder. I couldn¡¯t think of what to say or do, I just sat there like a zombie. Staring at nothing. A little while later, we were in the Twixt, then boom, vamp, and big darn hero moment, and me standing like an idiot with her in my arms, then things got awkward, then Gramps, then, glp, then I ran away.¡±


    I gulp as well, swallowing, my empathy growing for Kitten as I ride the emotional journey of her tale. I blink several times, my eyes drooping, and opening slower each time. Stray hairs from Tiktik¡¯s lovely ponytail tickle my nose, but both of us are experiencing the drain of an emotional crash. It¡¯s hard to maintain energy levels in chaotic situations, when we¡¯re barely able to take care of ourselves. Worse when we have emotional turmoil heaped on top of all of that. I feel Tiktik¡¯s rhythmic breathing as she passes out with her face resting on my chest, she¡¯s sidled up along the right side of my body, her fluffy robes providing warmth and cushioning, disguising the firmness of her body underneath. Her legs are both draped over my thighs, as she lays in a relative L shape, with her heels tucked up under her tush.


    I¡¯m not sure if I want to sleep right now, it feels almost disrespectful to give in, but I¡¯m so drained, and we have competent people working together, to help us continue moving forward. Teuila foremost amongst them. Breathing the minimum to be considered deeply, I sigh, and I repeat it more noticeably as I attempt to breathe in through my nose, out through my mouth. Breathing, relaxation, meditation. I blink slower, and slower.


    ¡°Babe? What¡¯s up?¡± Her voice rouses me from whatever reverie I¡¯d been contemplating.


    I flash a smile her way, and stare perhaps a few moments too long at her gorgeous features. Her hair is a magnificently teased, faded undercut. The natural red that has returned is something coppery, leaving her hairtips darkened from the dye she used to wear. The change in tone leaves her wearing the haircut like a fiery halo, a vibrant and colorful adornment that¡¯s alluring, and commanding of attention. The next time she gets it cut, there¡¯ll be no lingering remnants of when she used to dye it.


    Her green eyes peer questioningly into mine, and I gaze lovingly into those emerald orbs. They exude such a captivating charm, as if they were tunnels ringed in gemstone, both penetrative in gaze, yet soft and inviting. Sinking into them to explore the depths of her soul would be so easy. I can, and have, found myself staring into them for seeming ages, coming to only to witness the curiosity in her stare returned, belying a strange sense of wisdom, and perhaps a hint of mischief and smugness.


    Her skin, kissed by the sun, bears a slight freckling that adds a touch of playfulness to her already mesmerizing countenance. The freckles are like tiny constellations scattered across her cheeks and nose, adding to her unique allure and lending her an air of innocence and whimsy. The weather has been better for her morning runs, so her slight freckling is more prominent than it had been over the winter and early spring. My gaze lingers on her delicate cheeks, and flows down her jawline to her mouth. Her features are delicate, yet imbued with a captivating femininity. Her cheekbones are elegantly sculpted, her nose a graceful slope, and her lips, ever unadorned or marred by cosmetics are instead colored with a natural blush. They hold a subtle smile that speaks of kindness and warmth. More than I ever felt I¡¯d ever deserved.


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    Her features come together to paint a portrait of enchanting beauty. I have to fight my instincts, my entire self to be able to respond, ¡°Sorry, just kind of lost in thought.¡±


    She literally prods me, poking me playfully in the right bicep, ¡°Yeah, obvee. What about?¡±


    My face flushes, coloring me a bright crimson, heating the air between our faces as she leans ever closer, wearing a very ¡®gotcha¡¯ expression. The playful smirk that adorns her lips, the hint of a twinkle in her eye, the ever-so-slight furrowing of her brow in the mildest of suspicion. All those make an unmistakable combination of mischievous smugness. I tug at my collar, and gulp as I answer quite lamely, ¡°Well, um, you, and, err, how beautiful you are.¡±


    She virtually beams with humorous pride as she sounds her elation with a long single squee of delight. Her closed-eyed mile-wide smile is pure bliss to gaze upon. She composes herself quickly so that she can joke, ¡°Such a charmer, such a way with words. Hehe. Seriously though babe. You okay? I¡¯ve never seen someone walk away after getting hit by a car before.¡±


    I blink several times before realizing I had completely forgotten that I was just struck by the edge of a vehicle speeding through an intersection. I burst into laughter at my own absentmindedness. Well, that probably makes me seem hysterical. I apologize, ¡°Oh, oh yeah, hah, I¡¯m totally fine. If you weren¡¯t with me, I would have just walked home, cleaned it, and wrapped it up in paper towel and duct tape. It only tore a chunk of flesh out around the shin, near the bone, not near any major arteries or anything, so there isn¡¯t even much bleeding. I really, truly was just admiring your beauty. I totally forgot about getting hit.¡±


    She wears half a frown, ¡°Really? No thoughts about suing? I¡¯m happy you¡¯re thinking of me, but you don¡¯t want me to try to track down traffic cam footage or anything? Wait, no, I know the answer. Court system, even a civil trial, you¡¯d have a heart attack.¡± She slaps her forehead, muttering doy to herself. She adds, ¡°Okay. As long as you¡¯re okay. That¡¯s all that matters to me.¡±


    I sigh contentedly, ¡°I am. I really am. I¡¯m glad I¡¯m with you. Thank you for understanding me. For being supportive. I love you.¡±


    This time, the air between our faces rises in temperature as she blushes, unable to respond. Despite her inability to say it, I know she feels the same.


    I awaken, with Tiktik still slumbering against me, her face still on my chest, a thin line of drool stretching from her cheek, pooling along my sternum. I know that her armor is on beneath her robe, though it remains a flexible, stylish article of clothing until she needs protection. My armor however remains attached to my belt, ready to be donned at a moment¡¯s notice, due to its size-shifting properties. I draw a deep breath, and sigh. Tiktik isn¡¯t a member of my original inner circle, not a member of my family, and she¡¯s probably not someone who¡¯ll stay in my life long-term. Yet here, in the now? This little slice of time, recovering, it¡¯s like she¡¯s everything to me. Our own small piece of comfort carved out amongst the chaos. I want to extend that to Teuila, when she¡¯s ready. She has so much to process, I don¡¯t know when that will be. I¡¯m worried she¡¯ll push herself too hard, or be reckless, or hesitant, or both.


    Despite not wanting to wake Tiktik, I begin moving ever so slightly. Kitten rubbing her cheek, and wiping the drool from both her face, and my sternum clues me in that she¡¯s no longer asleep, so I needn¡¯t be so careful. Glancing over at Hellga, she¡¯s in and out of it, murmuring. I¡¯m sure she has a lot to process. Worse, right now we¡¯re already going through Derbrightmine territory. How long have I been out? I refresh the ghostly steeds.


    Tiktik nudges me, almost a bit harshly, and for a moment, she looks so timid. I cock my head to the left, staring at her from another angle. She wants to say something, perhaps to get back to the story she¡¯d meant to tell me before we fell asleep. She¡¯s almost scared to. She¡¯s feeling more shy than I¡¯d ever noticed her feeling before. Wait, is that shyness because she bared more of her situation, and her emotions to me?


    I start, ¡°Kitten, are you okay?¡±


    Tiktik shakes her head, trembling slightly. I prompt, ¡°Is it about what you said?¡± Kitten shakes her head. I furrow my brow and frown before asking, ¡°Was it a nightmare or something similar?¡± Tiktik hesitantly nods, so I further prompt, ¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡±


    Tiktik shakes her head, so I sigh, feeling helpless. So much for a slice of comfort amidst the chaos. It¡¯s not Tiktik¡¯s fault obviously. Poor Kitten. I wish I could do something for her. Seems to be going around a lot right now. Me wishing I could do something for people I care about, and being unable to. I draw a deep breath and heave a weighty sigh. Oh well. One foot in front of the other, proverbially speaking anyway.


    Tiktik seemingly regaining her confidence, interrupts my thought train, ¡°I do want to share the tale I was going to tell though, about the Twixt. If uh, if you¡¯re still interested¡±


    I flash her a smile and nod. Kitten starts out, ¡°So, I took a bounty in my Twixt town, the city the Twixt had built up for me. The people there, they, well, they aren¡¯t really real. They can¡¯t leave the Twixt, and the Twixt can either pause them in time while you¡¯re not there, or let time pass while you¡¯re away, so they well, huff. They get made up by the thinkstuff that the Twixt is made of. They disappear if you try to leave with them, or if they try to leave. Anyway, so, well, urban bountyhunting is basically a game, there really aren¡¯t a lot of stakes. People spring into existence, and are given a role, with knowledge, with a past, maybe some crimes committed or something, some interesting bits of history. But they aren¡¯t -real-.¡±


    I blink in surprise. That sounds alarmingly familiar. Springing into existence, without a true past, but being granted it? I try not to hyperventilate as my mind races dangerously close to thoughts of a certain time. I know I¡¯m real, and I know the Twixt wasn¡¯t Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and that I¡¯m not from the Twixt. I wouldn¡¯t be able to be out here in Rayileklia if I were.


    Tiktik blushes, nodding at my thought train, ¡°Sorry Tiger, didn¡¯t mean to worry you. I didn¡¯t know it was like that for you. You¡¯re definitely not from the Twixt, you¡¯re real, I¡¯d know. I just, I mean to say that like, the Twixt is almost like a game, just one with consequences. If you get hurt, or die, it still happens. You could kill, not that I¡¯d like the thought of that, but if the Twixt thought whoever you killed was important to your story? You¡¯d just see them back at the bar, or wherever. In some ways, nothing mattered, but you could still practice things, learn skills, get stronger, exercise, live a whole life in the Twixt. So, I did. Maybe in part because of my crush on Littlebit, not being confident enough to tell her about it. Not a lot of us can go into the Twixt, and even fewer of us do.¡±


    I squint at Tiktik, furrowing my brow slightly. Kitten is going somewhere specific with this, but I haven¡¯t yet connected the dots. Lives spring into existence, pasts of no consequence are put in place as little more than story details, yet what you do has consequences for yourself. It¡¯s beginning to paint a picture, but it¡¯s missing pieces. Her original bit starts with her accepting a bounty.


    Tiktik¡¯s eyes widen, ¡°Oh! Oh, right!¡±

 B 5 C 52: Return To Derbrightmine

    I have to chuckle a bit, it seems Tiktik can be almost as distractable as me. I flop my hand towards her, waving in a motion for her to continue. Kitten, for her part, giggles at my thought train.


    Tiktik continues, ¡°Right, right, so, this was a long time ago, you have to understand. Years and years ago, before I really understood the Twixt, long before I had the courage to tell Littlebit how I felt about her. I picked up a bounty on a supposed art thief who had gone too far on his last heist and killed someone. The Twixt didn¡¯t even really make up a victim, so it was just words, just a thing he did, supposedly. This guy was slick, slippery, tricky, hardest catch yet. I followed clues and leads all over, and the Twixt even made up entirely new cities for me to scour. In one town, he¡¯d have made off with an innmaiden¡¯s family jewels after seducing her, and having stayed there for the week before I even made it to town. Then he¡¯d have a night or two with a nobleman¡¯s wife, or daughter, here or there around the town.¡±


    I chuckle and blush at the implications. Tiktik grins derpily before continuing, ¡°Right, so, the goof is obviously supposed to be charming, debonair, and whatever, right? Like, like some real Casanova type, a Don Juan or whatever.¡± I blink at the references Tiktik makes that seem to come straight from my Fakeworld memories.


    Tiktik shrugs, and goes on with her tale, ¡°Anyway, by all accounts, he¡¯s handsome, fine-lipped, smooth, with gorgeous hair and a jaunty gait and yada yada blah blah all the girls faun over him or swoon when they see him. Pfft. The Twixt was setting up a real bit, and all the while, I¡¯m laughing while tracking down clues, and testimonies. I was starting to realize something about myself, that, well, I hadn¡¯t realized, because I hadn¡¯t really thought about other possible partners, especially not long-term. I catch up with Rufiqo, and we tussle, all the while he¡¯s trying to smooth-talk me, butter me up, congratulate me for catching him, get on my good side. He knows we¡¯re going to have to share inn-rooms on the way back for me to turn him in for the bounty.¡±


    I blush, uncertain how in-depth Tiktik is going to be going with this tale, the way it sounds like it¡¯s headed. She playfully thwacks me with her magical hand wrapped up in her hair for my thought-train before continuing, ¡°Aaaaanyway. I kept the goon trussed up. Every new town on the way home, he¡¯s wheedling me, trying to seduce me, but I¡¯m giddier and giddier as we get closer to the town to turn him in at. He thinks he¡¯s working his magic on me, thinks the compliments and flirtation¡¯s working. Hehe. We finally get home, and as I¡¯m handing him over, he¡¯s asking how I was so strong-willed or why his charms didn¡¯t work or whatever. I just giggle at him, I don¡¯t have the heart to tell him.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, so Tiktik finishes, ¡°I¡¯m a lesbian silly! Even if I was going to run off in the Twixt and lead some fantasy life with some long-time lover, even if I could trust that it wasn¡¯t some con, it¡¯d be with a woman, or agendered individual. I guess the Twixt helped me realize that, in a roundabout way. I mean, I had eyes for Littlebit since, well, we were little, but I didn¡¯t know if that was a just her thing, or in general.¡±


    I smile Tiktik¡¯s way, wearing an almost-smirk. I¡¯d never thought to ask her sexuality, since I hadn¡¯t intended on seducing her or any such thing. She¡¯s been a jumble of nerves though, and I¡¯m not quite sure how this piece fits that picture.


    Tiktik sighs before answering my train of thought, ¡°Because Tiger, I could see myself being with you guys. Like, really with. Long-term. But I can¡¯t. I¡¯m not going to. You know it, I know it. At least, if we somehow succeed. But, but I¡¯m also scared. I don¡¯t know how long it could take to succeed at something like this. If we¡¯re working on this war for Rayileklia for years together, and in all that time, I¡¯m pining, I just. I don¡¯t want you to think I am, and that, that well, if I turned to you, that it¡¯s some sort of moment-of-weakness thing. I like you guys. I truly, really do. It would be because I honestly want to spend what time I have left with you guys. I¡¯m scared about not winning, about one of us being offed before we succeed. I¡¯m even more scared about not, not, not, um. Glp. I¡ª. I don¡¯t wanna die alone Tiger. I¡¯m pretty fearless, but I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m gonna die on this quest. I don¡¯t wanna die alone, but I don¡¯t want it to be because of pity, because of me not wanting to die alone. I, I need you to, to know that if I turn to you, it¡¯s because I feel, I really feel.¡±


    My smile drops as sadness spreads across my face. I respond, ¡°Oh Kitten. It¡¯s okay. Whatever your motives, if and when something like that happens, I understand. You¡¯re an amazing, wonderful friend, that I deeply cherish. An ally that I trust implicitly and explicitly. You¡¯ll have nothing to worry about. If it eats up at you, and you have some sort of yearning to feel like considering yourself together with someone, or someones¡ª. Well, I mean, I honestly don¡¯t even know what would change, but I¡¯d be there for you, for that, all the same.¡±


    Tiktik wears a wry grin, one fang sticking out from between her lips as she teases, ¡°Well, there¡¯d probably be more smooching for one.¡±


    I blush and chuckle. I suppose that¡¯s true. I gaze at her for a while longer yet, trying to assess her emotional state. She¡¯s someone whose happiness I desire. If that included some sort of polyamorous romantic involvement, I¡¯d be happy to be a part of that. She already knows Teuila has my undying devotion, so there¡¯s no chance that I¡¯d have to worry about that. She¡¯s a Fae, so she knows plenty about open relationship boundaries, setting expectations, sharing affection with and without ties. Still¡ª. In some ways, I hope that her yearning never comes to pass, because it would mean¡ª. Huff. I sigh and rest my forehead against hers. I just want to get us all to where we should be, safely, in one piece, where we can live happily, in peace. I tilt my head up slightly to kiss Tiktik¡¯s forehead, before I work the electricity through my nerve tunnels to begin stretching. I flash her a sad half-frown that she returns, since she knows I¡¯m about to leave the carriage.


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    I feel a bit rotten, doing it right after that admission. Still, I let my gaze linger on her for just a moment longer yet as I extricate myself from her, don my armor, and open the carriage¡¯s door out into Rayileklia¡¯s gloomy, oppressive air. The pitter-patter of the constant acid rain, and the unending crackle of lightning and roar of thunder meets me as usual under Rayileklia¡¯s darkened skies. The plip plop of water dripping into long-standing puddles, and the eerie reflections of lightning on those self-same puddles are a mix of audio and visual cacophony. It¡¯s all so much stimulation, too much. I close my eyes momentarily, and it feels like blood rushes to my ears to enhance my hearing, despite my desires for quiet, for respite from the storm after mere moments of exposure.


    Sighing, I open my eyes again. Glancing to the east, where the entrance of the Derbrightmine Dominion¡¯s underground city should be, instead there¡¯s something that seems like an ice-sculpture placed upon a figurehead carved into stone. The horses slow to a halt, giving the scads of kobolds and canines time to catch up. It also gives me time to investigate the region. Wandering close to the stone-sealed area that should be a tunnel entrance, I glance up and gasp when I realize what I¡¯d seen from afar.


    The bodies of Don and Paulette Derbrightmine are encased in ice, frozen solid. They¡¯re mounted on some sort of stone carving of a dragon¡¯s head, in its jaws, a grizzly reminder of how they earned their fate. They weren¡¯t my friends, hell, we were potential enemies, but to see them reduced to this hits me square in the gut all the same. Gulping, I amble back to the carriage with my erratic walk, powered by my internal electrokinesis. I try to focus on manipulating the energy within me through my cored out nerve pathways, so that I don¡¯t have to imagine the fate of the rest of the Derbrightmine Dominion.


    Teuila¡¯s face is pure grim determination at the moment of my arrival back to the carriage. At this very moment, I can tell she wants to hunt the great white dragon. We¡¯re vaguely in telepathic contact again, mostly just the mildly affirming presence of sensing each other¡¯s emotional wavelengths, little more. She¡¯s still not ready for more, to connect, to be loved. She¡¯s punishing herself. She¡¯d hate herself if she thought her self-punishment was hurting me, so I mask my emotions as best I can upon my realization. Sighing, I slowly return to the carriage, knowing there¡¯s nothing I can do here.


    I need to distract myself. Their fate is horrifying, whether dead or alive, trapped, encased in ice, made an example of. What about this situation could possibly provide a positive distraction? I guess, well, if we catch up to the dragons, I might be able to live just a little bit longer. We¡¯re so close to my expiration date. I¡¯m jittery and nervous. I¡¯ve got between two and six weeks at the very maximum, probably less. It¡¯s something like August twenty first. I really hope I don¡¯t just drop dead immediately on September first, but there¡¯s no telling what will happen when Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce fades, and I¡¯ve only got best-estimates on when that will be exactly. Erm, right, positive distraction Reggie, positive.


    Kitten chuckles at me telepathically. My telepathic avatar flashes hers a smile, and that¡¯s when all hell breaks loose. With a roar that seems to challenge and compete with thunder rolling nearby, the white and black dragons both swoop down from a nearby butte. They¡¯ve been waiting for us, and now that they¡¯re now in sight, Teuila freezes, hesitating in the driver¡¯s seat of the carriage. She glances back at the long line of kobolds and canines following our carriage that are now scattering in terror. My eyes flash wide in horror, having feared almost this exact scenario. My Wings, the woman most beloved to me is caught in her own uncertainty. Despite that grim determination that she was steeling herself for, she¡¯s second guessing herself, mistrusting herself.


    The two beasts land on all four limbs, and each one splays their wings as they take position at the fore of our procession, aiming to the south. They¡¯re seemingly content to attempt to murder everyone in a single combined blast of frost and acid. While their forelimbs are powerful, the white¡¯s more obviously so, I can¡¯t help but wonder about their hind legs, and tails, those are hidden from view by their massive wingspans. Her form is all slender grace, scales as dark as onyx, glistening with an otherworldly sheen, reflecting the lightning like obsidian gemstones. His form instead is a massive presence, with weathered scales that were once as pristine as freshly fallen snow. Despite the obvious age of the grand beast, his scales still shimmer with an ethereal luminescence beneath the flicker of lightning.


    The white beast is missing his left eye, his eyelid scarred from our recent encounter. His wings, grand and expansive, are blocking most of this path across the canyon floor. They bear the marks of countless battles, the scars in the dactyl-leather plainly visible as he splays his wings in a show of dominance and power. Where he stands slightly at the fore of the pair, partially covering her with his wings splayed, she crouches in the rear, her neck low and her fearsome maw wide. Her wings however, compared to his, are sinewy, a marvel to behold, untouched by battle, as dark as the night sky with a span that seems to stretch beyond the horizon, completely encompassing the path, from chasm wall to chasm wall, and they aren¡¯t even fully splayed.


    I need to scare off the black dragon before she belches acid over everyone. If that happens, I lose everyone, and every thing. There¡¯s no time to hesitate, or to think, I need to accomplish that, and also get the attention of the white dragon. I unleash a rain of fireballs in their direction the moment they begin to exhale after they¡¯d opened their maws, aiming towards the carriage, everything my archsorc staff can safely muster, evaporating the acid spewing forth, and causing a mixed steam explosion after melting the ice. The last charges of the staff create a massive wall of fire, hopefully buying us precious seconds.


    Thankfully, I¡¯ve got their attention, and they no longer have a charge. The black dragon growls a challenge, and through the flickering flames of my wall of fire, I can see the organ in her throat begin to re-pressurize to deliver another stream of acid. D@%^ it all! What do I have at my disposal? Wait, if she¡¯s smart, she won¡¯t let me in her mouth. If she¡¯s dumb enough to let me in there, I¡¯ll destroy her acid-organ, and if she¡¯s smart, she¡¯ll keep her mouth closed. Either way, it takes her breath weapon off the board, keeping her from spewing acid across the battlefield. The white takes wing, leaping from butte to butte, seeking the best angle for devastation while the black dragon remains landbound, officially challenging me. I channel my internal electrokinesis, and take off shakily towards the acidic beast, drawing a pummeled, ever-so-slightly dented, partially cracked sheet of orichalcum out of my hyperdimensional haversack as I do. Here¡¯s hoping I know what I¡¯m doing.

 B 5 C 53: Confidence

    As I¡¯m busying myself with the acid-dragon, I see Teuila shaking herself from her stupor, finally stirring, and attempting to stand. The white dragon however elects not to go for her, the warrior, but instead to capitalize on her weakness, the innocents nearby. Teuila¡¯s eyes alight with fury as she prepares a leaping strike, but then hesitates a moment. The frosty beast leaps down from its perch, towards the nearest kobolds during Teuila¡¯s hesitation, and she nearly chases after him, but once again, stops, her confidence shattered. He leaps away at the last moment, apparently having been baiting Teuila into an attack that would have left her barreling into a group of kobolds, with Elder at its center, Timbik to one side, and Miza on the other. The blood drains from Teuila, and I have no words for the hatred I now harbor for the ice-beast perched on a chasm wall that now cackles madly down at us.


    I walk through the flames to my quarry, which doesn¡¯t impress her at all, but that¡¯s fine, I don¡¯t want her retreating. I want her to think of me as a foolish morsel to devour. Her serpentine eyes glint with humor as her torso rumbles with laughter upon seeing me with a beat up sheet of metal approaching her. I¡¯m fully armored in Valkyrie gear, but she likely thinks I¡¯m hoping to use this for protection against her breath, like a tower shield. I hope she takes the bait, the challenge.


    Having seen her leave a scar upon her lover¡¯s lip, with a single smoldering acidic kiss, I take it that they¡¯re not immune to each other¡¯s powers and elements, and that¡¯s why they¡¯ve taken the formation that they have. Exploiting this, I quicken five runes, casting a frost ray at the same scale upon her lip that she¡¯d kissed on the ice-dragon¡¯s. She reels back in surprise more than pain, as the scale cracks from the sudden change in temperature when struck by the short lance of frost.


    Miza begins erecting a stone barrier, carefully conserving her mana, but blocking her elder, her husband, and herself from view by erecting essentially three angled walls. Huh, my pyramid idea from so long ago. That¡¯s exactly what I was trying to do. Still, there are plenty of vulnerable kobolds out and about. At that moment, I hear an oof and a splat as something, rather someone, falls from the carriage interior, into the mud. I gasp a shuddered breath, and sigh sadly, knowing it¡¯s Tiktik, struggling to help, despite her injuries. A blue kobold wearing a massive roundshield on his back helps her from the mud, and she conjures a large platinum scale to orbit around each of them, the one that will intercept deadly blows and elements for some time, until it wears down.


    I¡¯m now more confident that things will go our way, remembering the tools in Tiktik¡¯s belt. I don¡¯t have to rely on my own broken body to cooperate and slay or scare off these two mythical beasts of legend. Drawing a deep breath, and loosing a determined sigh, I return my focus to the acid-dragon before me. Come on, come on d@%^ you! Loose a partial charged breath, show that you view me as an insect, too weak to waste time on! Thankfully, she obliges.


    The orichalcum sheet actually fends off the majority of her acid, causing the spray to break around me, and be weak enough to evaporate in my firewall. The orichalcum is holding up better against the acid than I thought it might, after my own experience in the clouds of Rayileklia. Speaking of, I engage my steely body spell, hoping that there¡¯s enough loose fragments of the legendary metal to be consumed by the spell, and make that my body. No such luck, instead I feel my buckle loosen, where the dagger blade would be. The brand new, fresh dagger that Teuila replaced for me not more than a few days ago. Slightly enchanted steel, and the enchantment is broken as soon as my spell consumes it. Hell¡¯s bells.


    Infuriated that I¡¯m not dead, and perhaps surprised that the ugly, dented square of metal is actually resisting her breath, the black-dragon rears back, and leans up, snaking her head around over the top of me to breathe at me from behind with the last moments of her current acid charge. She essentially curls in on herself with me at the center, and her face at my back. With my erratic, jerky, electrokinesis-powered movements, I¡¯m too slow to turn in time to bring the orichalcum to bear. Her acid washes over me for the briefest of moments in the end of her current charged breath. It¡¯s, it¡¯s the same composition and deadliness as the clouds of Rayileklia! The clouds in the sky are a permanent acid dragon¡¯s breath! I could scarcely survive it for a few seconds, even in my currently steely body form.


    Enraged at my survival yet again, the sleek onyx dragon displays that; despite her slender feminine form, she¡¯s as mighty as any beast, and she swats me with her left forelimb in a backhand motion. It feels like it nearly caves my head in as she bats me aside such that I crash into the nearby chasm wall. Curiously, as I¡¯m flying through the air at this angle, I see Teuila chugging a potion, one that I know grants fire-breath. I know that she has a minor breath weapon due to, well, consuming an enchanted platinum dragon¡¯s scale. I wonder just how this will react. The ice-dragon lands on the far side of half a dozen kobolds, one of them is Mushrooms, Miza¡¯s son, and Teuila¡¯s eyes go wide with terror as he opens wide his maw to begin exhaling a minor frost charge.


    Teuila does the seemingly unthinkable, and breathes fire over the group of kobolds first, startling the ancient ice-dragon. He pauses, preventing his frost breathing, as he laughs, seemingly only tickled by the flames. In this momentary distraction, the small group of kobolds rush towards Miza¡¯s construction, unharmed by Teuila¡¯s flames, energized, and emboldened by them instead. That was the enchantment she consumed after all. A Valkyrie of Bahativimut, graced with a breath weapon that will never harm your allies. One way to ensure she doesn¡¯t get tricked again. I¡¯m grateful that Dippy has the sense spell that I somewhat taught him, and knew that the kobolds were unharmed. As he saw Teuila breathing flames at them, he drew his bow and aimed at her with sadness across his face. Thankfully, he¡¯s now aiming at the ice-dragon instead, knowing that his nephew is safe. Miza expands her earthen stone construction into more of a dome, allowing the others in.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    My own fight isn¡¯t going so well. The most I can do is annoy the acid-dragon, the woman-in-black, by peppering her face with rays of frost. I could channel my internal electrokinesis into a charged bolt, but then I¡¯d run the risk of being paralyzed, out of electricity in my cored out nerve tunnels, unable to properly function at all. Come on Reggie, come on, think. If I supercharge myself with a rune for lightning, I risk passing out shortly after, for using a non spelliform rune and empowering it by itself. Too great a risk to hope I can take her out in one shot. As the black dragon snaps at me, intending to bisect me, I only manage to dodge out of the way by sheer luck, as my muscles spasm and force me to double over, and tumble forward. At that very moment, a massive incendiary rain pours down in a torrent around me, startling and charring the woman hounding me with her fangs and claws, and also hiding me from her view. That would be Tiktik, one of her deepest S P pools, the seventh rung.


    As quickly as it came, the burst of fire leaves in an instant, revealing me and leaving me at the mercy of the dragon once again. I can see Tiktik attempting to use fourth circle magics, trying to turn the dragons into harmless animals, to no avail. The dragons are resistant to magical tampering apparently. She¡¯s unable to land a spell upon them. Dippy¡¯s arrows, and his canine and lupine friends are having no effect whatsoever on the ancient frost dragon, and Teuila is only holding him at bay with bursts of breath that last as long as she can blow between inhalations. I know she¡¯ll get light headed soon if she keeps that up. Still, the potion gave her a more potent, further reaching fire breath than she gained from the scale, though thankfully the scale¡¯s non-friendly-fire enchantment applies to all breath weapons.


    The dragon with scales dark as night rears back and clasps her head, howling in pain. Ah, that would be Tiktik¡¯s minor or moderate brainblast. Finally, a weakness, or at least something that they aren¡¯t basically immune to. Just as she¡¯s about to settle back down on all fours, she stands back up again, clasping her head yet again, and I think I see the faintest trickle of ichor, likely dragon¡¯s blood, from her left nostril. She glances around in a wild fury, and her wicked intellect catches sight of the sneaky sorceress, Tiktik, casting the spells. The acid dragon inhales deeply, and spits an incredibly short acid breath Tiktik¡¯s way, and my eyes widen in horror. Thankfully, the platinum scale rotating around Tiktik intercepts the short acid loogie, and barely diminishes, if at all. It was made to repel dragon¡¯s breath after all.


    As Tiktik casts a brain blast yet again, the black dragon rears back, her howl of pain turning into a screech of fury, and surprisingly enough, she begins retreating, taking wing, bounding from canyon wall to canyon wall. Tiktik, panting from exerting herself while injured, falls to her knees, and topples over. The platinum scales orbiting Tiktik and Dippy flicker in and out momentarily. She weakly tries to stand, stumbles, falls, tries to stand again, and falls again, as she turns towards the ice dragon whom at this point, seems to be charging a breath. The ice-dragon apparently attempted to trade breaths with Teuila several times over the last few moments, and is now thinking of simply charging up to overpower hers, as it has gauged the limit of her power.


    The white dragon tries to buy itself some breathing room, by spinning to swipe Teuila with his tail. She manages to weather the blow somehow, grounding herself, blocking the blow and being driven to the side, driving a gouge into the stony terrain. One of the martial enhancement enchantments from one of the books she¡¯d been reading, no doubt. I still need to help Teuila though, she¡¯s not going all out, and she¡¯s not going to win if she doesn¡¯t bring her strengths to bear. She¡¯s simply relying on a potion whose effects aren¡¯t powerful enough to even harm the dragon, and she¡¯s too frightened of her own power at the moment, that she¡¯s hesitating to go on the attack, lest he pick up and use innocent kobolds as a shield again.


    Tiktik notices the black dragon coming back, and slings what spells she can in its direction, driving her back once more, and this time, the black dragon turns tail to flee for sure. I know because she calls out, in a common tongue, ¡°No more, worms! You¡¯ve not seen the last of Astridus! You¡¯ll cower in fear of my name soon enough, and all mortal will bow as cattle before Terrorzin!¡±


    The white grunts, noticing his love flee, hearing her call, looks back and forth between the gathered combatants, as I shakily drag myself towards him. We need to take one of them down. They¡¯re undoubtedly evil, and I need their hearts. I¡¯m not fast enough to catch up to the black dragon as her sleek form bounds off the canyon walls, gaining velocity and distance from us. The platinum scales on Tiktik and Dippy disappear as Tiktik tumbles once more, losing consciousness from the pain of her injuries.


    The ancient white grins as he sees a momentary opportunity, calling out, ¡°You insect of a sorceress, you who dares harm Astridus, mate of Olashax, will be a tasty treat for her this eve.¡±


    My heart sinks as he reaches out, bounding over Teuila, and snatches Tiktik from the canyon floor. In that moment, Teuila hesitates, with Dippy in her way towards Olashax. She sputters a weak fire breath in that direction, as the effects of her potion seem to be wearing off. Dippy dives to the side, dodging being impaled by the dragon¡¯s spear-tipped tail by fractions of an inch. With Dippy in the clear, Teuila finally lets loose, leaping forward, sentient spear drawn, breathing the last of her fire as she dives horizontally at Olashax.


    Essie, Teuila¡¯s spear is batted to the side by the left forelimb of Olashax during her approach, but Teuila herself continues to follow through in the direction of her attack, and she delivers a blow containing all that speed and acceleration into his wrist. They remain connected for what seems like three seconds or more as all of her kinetic energy transfers into the blow, through her and into Olashax¡¯s scales. There¡¯s a resounding snap that booms like thunder in the canyon, followed by a guttural roar of pain. The scales along his palm and the knife-edge of his forelimb''s claws are cracked, and driven deep into the muscle and bone beneath, a testament to Teuila¡¯s raw power. I¡¯m almost certain she had to use her density trick upon contact at least slightly. Olashax takes wing, leaping towards the canyon walls.


    I realize in horror what¡¯s about to happen as Olashax turns his head, with an incredibly full blast of frost charged. Teuila leaps towards his head, and my scream drowns out the constant storm-noise of Rayileklia. I empower a lightning rune, supercharging myself for a lightning leap, one that has to take me higher than I¡¯ve ever jumped before. I can¡¯t think straight, this can¡¯t be happening. No. Not Teuila. No.

 B 5 C 54: Shattered

    As Teuila is caught in the blast, first her body begins to frost over, then icicles form clinging to it.  The icicles grow and grow, until she¡¯s entirely encased in a massive shard of ice. I draw the moments closer together, and then spread them further apart. I seek the space between moments. I can¡¯t react. I have no way to rescue her body. Teuila¡¯s frozen corpse is sailing at Olashax, losing momentum, and dropping like a massive block of ice. Tiktik is in his right foreclaw, and he¡¯s preparing to happily leave us behind, to rejoin Astridus. I can¡¯t lose them. I can¡¯t lose them both. No. I can¡¯t think straight, I can¡¯t pause time, I¡¯m caught in a panic. All I can think to do is take my shot lightning leaping in that direction, hoping I have some sort of plan by the time I finish my leap. I can¡¯t even calculate the rotational frequency bit-flipping that I¡¯d need to do to make it less dangerous for myself.


    I begin arcing through the air in the general direction of Teuila and Olashax, transforming into the largest lightning bolt I¡¯ve ever been. I¡¯m mere instants from passing out from having overcharged a non spelliform rune, and I¡¯ve got no idea what would happen if I lost consciousness while in this state. Sadly, I have no idea how to save Teuila¡¯s body from shattering upon the canyon floor, as I pass into the ice containing her form for the briefest of moments. In that moment, I realize she¡¯s not derezzing, so I feel a glimmer of hope, only for the hope to be shattered once more when I recall that she¡¯s plummeting to her doom, sure to shatter into a million pieces. I barely guide myself around Zippy, Dippy¡¯s tiny rock drake, who somehow missed being turned into a popsicle himself. Perhaps he¡¯d been perched on Olashax somewhere when Olashax swiped Tiktik, and he¡¯d been trying to free her, now he¡¯s struggling to grip Teuila¡¯s icy form as she drops.


    Sadly, he¡¯s barely the size of a hawk, or other bird of prey, and Teuila¡¯s anti-gravity powers don¡¯t seem to be functioning. Olashax is swiping towards Teuila, so I arc into his left foreclaw, and travel up the limb towards his torso. Suddenly, beneath me, a stone ramp begins to form, and I see kobolds scurrying below as Miza erects a smooth surface to angle Teuila¡¯s descent, and a ramp for Dippy to ascend. Dippy and Scrap both rush upwards as Teuila slides downwards, as they prepare a net-launching contraption. My path takes me through Olashax¡¯s chest cavity, and out his right arm, into Tiktik. I immediately release my lightning transformation as I grip Tiktik, bursting open Olashax¡¯s right claws from the sudden formation of matter. My steely body plummets, and all I can think to do is roll so that I absorb the imminent impact. Hugging and cradling Tiktik tightly, I curl around her, and pray that the kobolds working together can save Teuila.


    A column of stone strikes Olashax¡¯s face as he roars in pain from my traveling in his chest and shattering his already damaged forelimbs. Miza¡¯s doing, obviously. The tip of the column is coated in spores, and Olashax has the prescience to shut his mouth, hold his breath, and flee, likely recognizing their potential deadliness. I pass out on the way down, unsure if Miza will have enough magic left to slow my descent or redirect it at all.


    ¡°Hey Err, what do you think about this one? I don¡¯t really care for the pink logo, but it¡¯s a nice fit, isn¡¯t it? Since I¡¯m flat and all¡±


    I blush, unsure what to say, since I try not to focus on my best friend¡¯s bust. I simply nod and flash her a thumbs up, but she frowns and swats at me, ordering, ¡°Come awwwn, it¡¯s no fun if you don¡¯t have an opinion It¡¯s not like I¡¯m making you watch me put on bathing suits.¡±


    The blood rushes to my ears and my pulse pounds into them along with it. She certainly knows how to fluster me. How long have we been friends? When did we start trying to reintegrate into society? We¡¯ll be trying to get our college careers done, now that we¡¯ve found a place out on route six. It¡¯s abandoned, and drafty, but for now at least, it¡¯s ours. As far as we can tell, no one¡¯s worried about squatters way out there, since you either have to get there by vehicle, or through an old storm drainage ditch tunnel thingy. Crossing the highway on foot is always risky, it¡¯s better to head under it.


    ¡ª


    A voice calls out to Reggie Shellcracker, ¡°You aren¡¯t ready yet. Please stop making this so difficult. As enjoyable as these are, they aren¡¯t yours. Not now.¡±


    Hm? What was¡ª? Teuila! I scream in fear, tears streaming down my face as I painstakingly flood my nervous pathways with electricity so that I¡¯m able to move. Tiktik is bundled against my torso, unmoving, but breathing, though her breath is wracked with pain. Pain that¡¯s been renewed by a dragon squeezing her already crushed ribs. As gingerly as I¡¯m able to, in my haste to find Teuila, I lay Tiktik down against the somehow-dry stone of the ground.


    Glancing about, we¡¯re in pitch-blackness, and I can¡¯t see the crackling lightning of Rayileklia¡¯s darkened skies, though I hear the thunder, and the rain, not far away. We¡¯re in a stone shelter devised by Miza, only a few feet tall. I cast out my silent sonar sense, and to my horror, there¡¯s a massive shard of ice, drawing moisture to it, remaining frozen, with Teuila¡¯s unmoving form trapped inside. I wail in despair as I hobblingly crawl towards it.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    All of the kobolds shuffle aside, as I press myself against the icy coffin. My skin sticks to it, and my tears freeze my cheeks to the artificial edifice constructed around Teuila. My Wings. My beloved Wings. Teuila. No, no, no. I sob, crying seemingly endless tears, each of which seem drawn to this block of ice, seemingly feeding it, renewing it. Instead of melting, it pulls moisture to it, encasing Teuila in yet more rime. I scrabble and scratch at the ice, clawing my way to Teuila, but every mark I make in its cold surface is repaired near instantly, in only a few short moments. A cough and a burble draws my senses to Tiktik. She¡¯s coughing up blood. Internal bleeding, oh no, Kitten.


    I¡ª. I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t go on. Tiktik lay dying nearby. Teuila, though she isn¡¯t derezzing, seems to be in an enchanted block of ice that will only ever get stronger, and if by some miracle I had the power to shatter it quickly enough, I would surely shatter her as well.


    I plead with the kobolds around me, through my tears, ¡°Hel¡ª, glp, help. Please, please help.¡±


    Dippy, anxious, nervous Dippy, only droops his head in sorrow. Miza looks exhausted, bereft of magic. Elder shakes his head and states, ¡°We¡¯ve done what we can, and tried even more. We cannot stay. They will recover, they will regroup. We must move on, and break out west of the chasm, where they would not think us to go.¡±


    I gulp, hiccup, and sob, alternatingly, staring dumbfoundedly in the direction of Elder¡¯s voice. Move on? Right now? When Tiktik lay dying, and Teuila is an enchanted icicle? I begin to seethe with fury, even though I know it¡¯s misplaced. My wrath begins to grow within me, and I know I emit the intense aura of enmity, despite not wanting to. Suddenly I¡¯m struck across the face by a walking stick, or perhaps a bow. I blink in surprise.


    After striking me, snapping me from my growing wrath, Dippy addresses me, ¡°The, the, the Red Gee, Reggie, pack, pack, packmate, clan, packmate, takes, takes care of the Tay Oo Ee Lah, and, and and the other, other lady, magic lady, powerful magic lady. In the, the, the, and, in and on, the, the carriage. In and on the carriage. Miza, Miza, egg twin, best egg twin, will, will, will help other magic lady, after a rest, next rest, not now, next rest. Little magic lady, orange hair magic lady, will, will, will be alright, until then, maybe. If, if the Red Gee, Reggie, takes care of her. And, and, and maybe the Dawn friend shows up? The Dawn friend is good at hiding, sneaky, quick. Where, where is the Dawn friend?¡±


    That¡¯s¡ª. That¡¯s right. Oh gods. Dippy doesn¡¯t know that Dawn is gone. Especially with the unsouled dogs and wolves not disappearing. The curse seemingly didn¡¯t account for them. But he¡¯s right about his sister. Miza has some minor healing, but she did a lot of powerful stone moving magic in a short timeframe, in order to save Teuila, and scare off Olashax. She worked with her young son to place an attack that was also a trap powerful enough to drive him away, dangerous enough to drive him off, while almost simultaneously creating several massive ramps and arcs of stone. It¡¯s understandable that she¡¯s exhausted. But Tiktik though, poor Kitten. Can she survive internal hemorrhaging long enough to get Miza¡¯s aid?


    I center my silent sonar senses on Tiktik, willing myself to somehow feel deeper, beyond the surface level, to let my sonar travel down her nasal passage, into her lung cavities. Paying this close of attention, to this fine of detail is difficult, but there is a path, however small, for the sense to travel along. There are minor lesions, bruising in her lungs, but they¡¯re not rapidly filling with blood, good. Okay, okay, maybe, maybe just, just maybe there¡¯s some small hope. Tiktik can recover. There¡¯s suddenly a small pooling of several drops of blood in her lungs, from one of the lesions, and Tiktik coughs it up shortly, aerosolizing it in the process, spraying it into her chest where her head is tucked. It¡¯s terrifying to sense, because I¡¯m no doctor, and I have no idea how survivable something like that is. I haven¡¯t lost her, my Kitten, my most recent friend, at least not yet.


    But, but Teuila though? Tears flood forth from my eyes yet again, and seem drawn towards the ice once more. How do I do this? How do I do this without you? Te, without you, without My Wings, My Anchor, or My Heart, how do I go on? Dippy thankfully refrains from assaulting me further, as I sink in on myself, sobbing. I can¡¯t even bear the idea of bringing up Dawn to tell him, not now, not now that I¡¯ve lost Teuila, and when Tiktik¡¯s chances of survival are so close to dangerously low.


    I shake, and sob, for some time yet. Shivering, I suddenly realize that this isn¡¯t everyone. Hellga is still in the carriage! I¡¯ve doomed the woman once, I can¡¯t do it again! Frantically I seek succor from our temporary shelter, and thankfully there¡¯s a narrow exit nearby. Stumblingly I race forth, and squeeze through it, into Rayileklia¡¯s gloomy rains. I twitch and spasm, falling to my knees, and then I immediately topple over when hit by another spasm. I¡¯m paying the price for filling cored nerve tunnels with non spelliform lightning. The signals have intermittent hiccups, like packet loss, or data corruption. I gather myself, and return to my feet to race to the carriage.


    Though there is blistering to the paint, and peeling, marring, and the occasional tear, for the most part, despite a few patches of frost, the carriage is fine. Hellga is unconscious within. I¡¯m worried that she may never recover. Since we started traveling with her, she¡¯s only been barely conscious a few times, only long enough to eat or drink. We¡¯ve thankfully got magic on our side, so we can clean any of the rags we use to soak up when she soils herself. How can I take care of someone who can¡¯t take care of themselves, when I feel utterly decimated? Not just one someone, but possibly two if Tiktik can¡¯t recover with Miza¡¯s help. I feel lost and so alone. I feel like I¡¯m going to end up as nothing but a big old pile of broken bones, and now I¡¯m only shattered, just waiting for that moment.

 B 5 C 55: Vulnerable, Raw

    Vulnerable, raw, broken, shattered. If I try to focus on anything other than these feelings, my thoughts simply drift to my beloved Teuila, and poor Tiktik, and poor Hellga. I thought¡ª. I thought Teuila was invincible. I thought there was no threat that could beat her in her Valkyrie form, with how often she trains, and grows, and seeks out the power to protect others, with all that she has faced. She¡¯s been through so much, so many hurts, and now she¡¯s just taken from me? Before I can ever help her mend? It¡¯s not fair. It¡¯s just not fair.


    I hear the rumble of stoneshaping magic, as Miza apparently recovers just enough to dismiss her temporary shelter. I also hear her panting with the exertion of doing so. She must be using so much of her magic lately. I simply stand at the entrance to our carriage, my head sunk forward to my chest. I¡¯m unable to lift it, unable to move other than the random jerks and spasms from my electrokinetic nerve pathway damage. Someone calmly lays a hand upon my shoulder, and I want to jerk away, but I don¡¯t even have the strength.


    I failed her. We always saved each other, every time when the chips were really down, we saved each other. This time though, I truly, truly failed her. I slump to my side, falling into the mud when the hand on my shoulder attempts to gently lead me away from the door of the carriage. There¡¯s a reptilian sigh, but several figures move through my sensory range, carrying Tiktik, and setting her within the carriage. They¡¯re asking me to just move on. To suck it up, and continue. Without Teuila.


    In my anguish, I struggle to stand, and notice that there¡¯s a group effort to haul the Teuila-cicle to the top of the carriage, and to lash her thereupon. My Te, once a radiant vision of passion, excitement, vivacious fire, now lies encased in ice. Her gorgeous locks of hair in her undercut are now crystallized in frozen tendrils that glint with a frosty gleam beneath the lightning of Rayileklia¡¯s skies. Her hair looks more like melted rubies, or red diamonds now, through the ice. Her beauteous emerald eyes that were once full of mischief and mystery are now frozen in a haunting gaze, locked in a perpetual state of vigilance. Her slender features are now preserved in frozen perfection. The lips that I yearn to kiss, once full and inviting, are now frozen, parted open in shock.


    In some small favor, the kobolds drape furs over Teuila, attempting to protect her icy prison from the acid rain that seems to only reinforce and strengthen it. Their action hides her from my view, and in some way, frees me to act. Though I¡¯m a tangled mess of emotions, and my chest is so tight with a grief as palpable as a thousand blades to my soul, I struggle to stand. My hand trembles, as I reach vaguely in Teuila¡¯s direction after standing. I huff, heaving a sigh as I let my shoulders slump, sagging in defeat. I drop my forehead to the side of the carriage in a mixture of desperation and sorrow. I just want them back. I want them all back.


    With Teuila, I¡¯ve got memories of her vibrant spirit and fiery passion, her inspiring presence, and her laughter that lit up my world. That single elongated squee of glee when she would sound her delight. The Shellcracker family squee. Now it feels like a distant dream, lost in a frozen wasteland of heartache. My own heart now feels like little more than a massive, weighty burden, weighed down by the icy grip of despair. I¡¯d give anything to hear her calming whispers, her supportive voice, her delight, all of which that are now silenced by the icy tomb that holds her captive.


    The depth and intensity of my heartache is raw, vulnerable, primal. The weight of my heart is the fire of a sun, and that sun burned for Teuila above all others. It refuses to be extinguished though. I love her in an all-encompassing, undying manner. My devotion, and fervor won¡¯t let me just give up. She hasn¡¯t derezzed. She¡¯s wearing Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark. There has to be a chance, there just has to be. Somehow, some way, some day, I¡¯ll figure out a way to safely free her from her icy prison. Someone nearby hands me a weapon that sings despair into my mind. It¡¯s Essie. Requiem, the Silent Song. I know Essie, I know. No, you didn¡¯t fail her.


    Two kobolds thankfully hoist Tiktik into, and tuck Tiktik into the carriage. Miza enters with her, looking after Kitten for me, as I come to terms with my grief. I shudder, sobbing once more, before breathing deeply, and sighing. Every bit of me aches, and I¡¯m missing layers of flesh, from when the acid melted my steely body, now that I¡¯m in my normal organic form. It has left me raw, more susceptible to the rains of pain as the Aasimovians call the never-ending acid rainfall of Rayileklia¡¯s darkened skies. All the more ironic that I now know that they¡¯re somehow related to black dragon¡¯s breath.


    Astridus, Olashax, one day, one day Teuila will be recovered. She will hunt you down and destroy you for how you¡¯ve torn me down and left me vulnerable, raw, bare against the elements and my emotions without her. I might not live to see it, but your enchanted breath can¡¯t last forever, even if you could live that long. I try to set my expression to the grim determination that I¡¯ll need to carry on. I mostly fail, but I push forward anyway, summoning and hitching the ghostly steeds that poofed away instantly from the merest contact with stray frost breath.


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    I¡¯m overwhelmed by physical and emotional pain, and I¡¯m so deeply drained, on every level, even spiritually. I just want peace, happiness, comfort, safety for my loved ones, and I want to join them in that setting. Why must it always be violence, death, chaos? I bite my lip raw accidentally, since its moisture was drawn out by Teuila¡¯s icy prison, leaving my lips stinging from every droplet of drizzle. Yet further pains. I can¡¯t take it any more. My brain just¡ª. My brain just can¡¯t handle it. One last tiny straw, and the camel¡¯s back has broken. I¡¯m shutting down, going into auto pilot.


    Hours pass, days maybe. We camp in short breaks at times, I think. We¡¯ve veered off from The Gap, after where the Celestial Imperium¡¯s blockade would normally be. We¡¯re headed towards the west, towards the stomping ground of the Cult of the Bright Lord, where we destroyed the entryway and many buildings that led to the Cathedral of Blood. Tiktik, like Hellga, no longer rouses, save for a few moments on occasion to eat. I can¡¯t say anything to her during these times. My mind is blank. Empty of all but despair. I¡¯m shut down. There¡¯s nothing I can offer her in this state. I simply empower ghostly steeds and drive a carriage, and nothing else.


    I¡¯m likely beginning to lose weight. I¡¯m not eating, or drinking. I simply empower ghostly steeds, and drive a carriage, and nothing else. Days pass, and we near a marshland. There are screams, but I don¡¯t react. I simply empower ghostly steeds, and drive a carriage, and nothing else. Whatever the disturbance was, Dippy apparently handled it. That¡¯s fine, he¡¯s The Bravest Amongst Us, whereas I simply empower ghostly steeds, and drive a carriage, and nothing else.


    As I topple over from exhaustion, lack of energy and calories, the horses pause as I fall from the carriage, and am nearly trampled beneath it when I¡¯ve plopped facedown in the acidic mud. I can¡¯t summon the energy to care enough to fight for my own survival. I can¡¯t drown, because of the neckchain of the everbreathing, but I shall simply lay here, and waste away. I¡¯m being hauled out from where I lay, and perhaps berated. I think perhaps I¡¯ve been slapped, but I care little. Nothing matters. Wait, whose arms are these? Who is so angry that they¡¯re yelling, ¡°You liddle shid!¡± directly into my face?


    Blinking, I slowly rouse from my stupor, and realize I¡¯m staring a screaming Keeley Johnston straight in the face. But, but I thought she was going to die. But how? Am I dead?


    I croak, ¡°Wha, koff, what¡¯s going on?¡±


    Marshal comes to my rescue, exclaiming, ¡°Shid braddah! I thought we lost you too!¡±


    What, how, where¡ª. Marshal didn¡¯t die, I¡¯m sure of it. He¡¯s hardy, and he got away with the evacuees. I slowly come to my senses as I cast them about, feeling outward with my silent sonar. I¡¯m at the head of a procession that¡¯s aimed vaguely west by southwest, after seemingly having traveled south by southwest along the mountainside for some time. The ground is beginning to get marshy, swampier than the usual Rayileklian turf. I blink dumbfounded. Did we somehow meet up with the Aasimovian refugees? Did Keeley somehow survive?


    Marshal nudges Keeley aside, and guides her away from me momentarily, as he states, ¡°She¡¯s just worried about you. Says you¡¯d better come to the campfire for dinner. Get your head on straight. Really braddah, she couldn¡¯t take losing you too. Not after Jonesy. That¡¯s all. That¡¯s why she¡¯s so hard, angry. I know you¡¯re not exactly a kid, but Kay, she thinks of you as one. Can¡¯t stand a kid what puts themselves in danger, or what can¡¯t take care of themselves.¡±


    I stare at Marshal¡¯s mouth stupidly as he talks, barely comprehending what he¡¯s saying. I lick my dry, cracked lips with a sticky, nearly shriveled tongue, ¡°But¡ª. Alive?¡±


    Marshal nods emphatically, responding as he walks away, ¡°Of course, my Kay is a hard gal to kill! But, well. It took some sacrifice, to um, keep her with us. Shid she was pissed when she found out. Maybe ask Santiago about it.¡±


    Tiago. A friend. A living friend. One that could respond to me. I glance about frantically, coming more and more to my senses. Despite my emaciation, and hysteria, all I want to do is see one friendly face, one that can comfort me, tell me something about this journey having been worth it. My eyes wet with what scant few precious tears they can muster. I¡¯m dehydrated despite the constant drizzle, due to its acidic nature. There¡¯s effectively a tent-town ahead of me, sprawling for miles and miles. The Aasimovians had to wait for us, they have to mudcamp, and can only make a few miles a day, and it¡¯s going to be worse as they try to cross the Jaggedfen Bog. We have to track down and slay the¡ª. I have to track down and slay the hydra first. I have duties, a responsibility to people that I care about. Snap the hell out of it Reggie, get your head together!


    The weight of responsibility seems to drop heavily into my chest, crushing the already unbearable burden of guilt and despair. The prior two weights fall to the side before settling in the pit of my stomach, with a new priority emotion overriding them. Whatever it takes to move forward Reggie. Whatever it takes.


    I erratically, weakly dash around to the best of my ability. I don¡¯t know how many days it was, I don¡¯t know if I practiced any runes. I¡¯m so lost. I just want to see Tiago¡¯s face before I head off to hunt a hydra. I just want some words of encouragement from a friend. I bump facefirst into Mairess Du Pon De Brook¡¯s hip, and nearly topple over.


    Harriet gasps upon seeing my state, asking, ¡°Hero Shellcracker, what on Rayileklia happened to you? Where¡¯s the rest of the band of heroes? Wh¡ª Your expression. Loss, despair. Oh no. You poor soul.¡±


    With that, my emotions are laid bare, vulnerable, raw, for anyone to see. I weep openly, on my knees in the mud, in front of her honorable Mairess. The gathered are thankfully kind enough to mostly mind their own business, save for a few familiar faces.

 B 5 C 56: Get Knocked Down

    I come to, as hot broth is poured lightly against my lips. I mash my lips slightly, licking and swallowing to the best of my ability. Blinking furiously, stretching and flexing my facial muscles, I find my forehead being mopped, and my ministrations being tended to by Keeley Johnston. She growls angrily, ¡°You Liddle Shid.¡±


    The juxtaposition is jarring to say the least. I get whiplash from the mix of tenderness and hostility. Gulping, I try to sit up, and she firmly shuts down my attempt by holding my forehead to the improvised pillow beneath my cranium. Now I¡¯m nervous. I don¡¯t like being trapped anywhere against my will. Thankfully, I¡¯m not restrained.


    A warm, soothing, elderly male voice states, ¡°Gracias, thank you Keeley, I¡¯m free now, I can take over once more. Dios! You¡¯re awake!¡±


    I blush as Keeley stomps off in a huff, and Tiago leans down to help me sit up, wrapping me up in a hug that I so desperately need. I embrace the octogenerian, and weep openly. A friend. I¡¯m reunited with a living friend, but now that I¡¯m awake, and have my senses, I have to leave and hunt a hydra. I want to ask Tiago how Keeley is alive, I want to reunite, and bask in the love of those that might care about me, but there are forces at play that won¡¯t rest. I actually have to somehow keep the hydra alive, and put it in the path of the Celestial Imperium, or the Felgre horde, while deterring it from attacking the expansive alliance of human and kobold refugees. Even then, I just¡ª. I don¡¯t know. I can¡¯t travel with them. I don¡¯t have long, and I need to travel to the Spine of the World, find more dragons, or maybe at least reunite with Lil and Lu before I die. I can¡¯t be the guardian they need, to handle this journey.


    I can¡¯t find words. There¡¯s so much to say, so much I should say, or ask. Instead, I flex my limbs, and flood my cored out nerve-tunnels with electricity, just enough that my internal electrokinesis can operate everything at normal capacity. Standing, I offer Tiago a saddened glance, and his expression becomes one of dawning horror.


    He argues, ¡°No, no, you¡¯re unwell, you¡¯ve only rested a few hours, eaten so little, you must stay, you have to. I¡ª. I insist!¡±


    Frowning, I can only offer, ¡°Hydra won¡¯t slay itself, it¡¯s down to me. Everyone else is dead or dying. Take care of them for me, please?¡±


    Tiago flubs, unable to find words, making argumentative guttural noises before responding, ¡°I¡ª, of course. Miss Clocktok¡¯s injuries are healing She should show signs of recovery in a week or two. The dwarven lass, I¡¯m not sure of her name, she was badly off, but she¡¯s much the same. Your, your, glp, ice sculpture, is another matter.¡±


    My head swims with a torrent of emotions at Tiago¡¯s final statement. My Wings, Teuila, love of my life, referred to as an ice sculpture. I shake my head sadly, orient myself, and begin marching west. Only to realize that I need to stock up on equipment and provisions. Groaning, I turn back, fully embarrassed.


    I admit, ¡°Okay, I might not be ready, right this instant, to set off. Huff. Where¡¯s our carriage?¡±


    Tiago frowns, and I can see the devious line of thought forming, as if he could delay my leaving by not responding. In the end he sighs as his shoulders sag. His expression droops as he points northeast, ¡°On the northeast border of our camp. Please, won¡¯t you at least stay, eat, see George, Berinon, Daffodil, Harriet, anyone?¡±


    I breathe as best I¡¯m able and slowly sigh. I try not to admonish Tiago as I glance across the elderly man¡¯s gentle, caring features. His face has smile lines instead of wrinkles, kindness where others might have a permanently furrowed brow. He¡¯s handsome, in a fashion, he and George both are in all honesty. I try to find words to express, ¡°You know my time limit. The convoy of refugees also has a time limit, if one of the forces catches wind of where you are, everyone¡¯s doomed. I failed in The Gap. We didn¡¯t get the dragons. If it were just me, or just Teuila, maybe, maybe I¡¯d have gotten another heart, more dragonforce. There were innocents. It¡ª. It broke Teuila. It broke me. We hesitated, got sloppy. I¡¯m still ruined from my defense of The Brook. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever be able to walk right again.¡±


    Tiago looks aghast at my explanation, and then pleads, ¡°Then how, how can you head off to face the spirits of the swamp, and a hydra for us? What chance do you stand?¡±


    Wearing a frown, I gulp back a saddened sob as I shut my eyes tightly. My mind is on Teuila, but I can at least provide Tiago an honest answer, ¡°Because I¡¯m the only chance you have. I will succeed, because there¡¯s no other option.¡±


    Tiago deflates, and simply leans forward, with his arms slightly spread. I lean into his embrace once more. Someone cares about me. Someone loves me, that I care about, and love. Someone¡¯s willing to comfort me, to fight my instincts for me. I have to make it back. I can catch up if I survive the swamp.


    Tiago states, ¡°We¡¯re coming with.¡±


    I balk, blinking rapidly into the soft robes across his chest. I expel a muffled, ¡°Excuse me?¡± That comes across as ekfoovvee.


    Santiago states calmly, ¡°The camp moves forward, bit by bit, as the rear catches up. It stretches for miles and miles. The fore will be with you. You need not do this alone. I can feel your heart, broken within you. A healer in touch with spirits and ancestors can sense these things you know. The fore has been Keeley, Harriet, George, and several of the rougher types from other cities across Aasimovia. I admit, I frantically hasten my way from one end to the other, day and night, as best I¡¯m able, mostly tending to the sick or wounded in the center. I¡¯m glad I was sent for when you arrived. I¡¯ll be at the fore, and ask that the wounded be brought up as well.¡±


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    My jaw drops as I shake my head. I try to argue, ¡°What? No, absolutely not, I can¡¯t have innocents possibly nearby when I might end up fighting a hydra or some other creatures whose abilities I don¡¯t know for certain! Didn¡¯t you hear what I just said, about how we screwed up because we had others to protect?¡±


    Tiago takes a step back, but crosses his arms and responds, ¡°And didn¡¯t you also just say you have a time limit, for both you, and us?¡±


    My jaw drops once more and I flex my right index finger as it can¡¯t seem to decide whether to point or curl towards my chin. I¡¯m flustered, almost speechless. He¡¯s got a valid point, but I need to talk sense into him, ¡°Tiago, listen to reason, keep the convoy clustered, but at the ready, stay back, stay far from me.¡±


    Tiago raises a brow, and scoffs, almost humorously, ¡°Hijo de cabron este es¡ª! Koff. Sorry. You stubborn fool. We are all on borrowed time, all at risk, at all times. You are not responsible for the lives of everyone in the world!¡±


    I slump as I state wearily, ¡°Actually. I am.¡±


    Tiago, taken aback, flubs, an almost question, ¡°Qua?¡± He gathers himself, and then asks, ¡°You can¡¯t be serious. If nothing else, the ego alone would be unhealthy.¡±


    Shaking my head weakly, I explain, ¡°It¡¯s not that. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m that important. It¡¯s just, I was the only person in a position of power that might have been able to help Dawn. I failed and the ancestors are gone because of it. That¡¯s a country worth of people, gone because of me. If that¡¯s not close enough to responsible for the lives of everyone in the world, to say I shoulder that responsibility, I don¡¯t know what is. Now, those that are left, face the threat of beasts of myth and legend, and I¡¯m the only one who¡¯s still standing that stands a chance against them. Unless you could maybe get Jarrah Bettergrove to leave the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds, and the Enochian Enclave, I can¡¯t think of another functioning powerful person on this planet, that could likely succeed, save perhaps Dippy, but his arrows seemed ineffective against the dragons, and Miza tires too quickly to take one out.¡±


    Tiago asks, ¡°Then why not at least take your kobold friends? Someone, something, anything!¡±


    I frown as I half-joke, ¡°You don¡¯t happen to know a soul-stolen dog named Eights do you?¡±


    Tiago furrows his brow, mouthing the word what, as he doesn''t immediately recall Aces'' dog''s name, but before he can continue our argument, I¡¯m blindsided by George, who rushes to embrace me, dropping to his knees to do so, ¡°Little friend, old soul, Reggie, our hero, I got word of some of what happened. You must be devastated, I¡ª.¡±


    Tiago orders, ¡°George, call the surviving council together. We¡¯re moving up, along into the swamps, through the narrow passes between lakes.¡±


    George and I are both taken aback by Tiago¡¯s firm sternness. George asks, ¡°What brings this on beloved?¡±


    Tiago¡¯s response is simply, ¡°Reggie has suffered untold losses, many, perhaps all, for us. We are beset on all sides by danger, so we may as well face it together.¡±


    I facepalm. If I could just teleport all of these people to the Fae¡¯s Wilds, the Enochian Enclave at the Heart of the Wilds, I would do so, and just hope that Jarrah would take them in, to keep the forest from rejecting them. Friggin¡¯ hellspit if only it were that easy. Nothing¡¯s ever easy though, is it?


    Every last inch of me aches, I¡¯m certain I¡¯m to blame for most of that. Still, I¡¯m not going to have a bunch of innocent campers wandering around with me as I scout a freaking swamp for a hydra and its lair. Huffing a sigh, I slip loose from the two handsome elderly gentlemen, my friends, or at least Aces¡¯ friends. I might be having some wires crossed there, forgetting why I should or shouldn¡¯t be attached to someone.


    I call out to them as I hustle back to my carriage, ¡°I can¡¯t stop you from following me, but I can leave you in the dust, too fast to follow for mud-campers.¡±


    Tiago grumps, and starts to call angrily in response, but George takes one of his hands, and rests his forehead against Tiago¡¯s, soothing his husband. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll probably do what Tiago ordered George to do, call a council of the surviving elders, from the various cities. That part is sobering. There have been deaths amongst the refugees already. There is literally no time to lose.


    I¡ª. No time. Sighing deeply, I inhale slowly, then exhale slowly. I grasp at the spot in the moment between moments. I¡¯ve wasted precious, valuable time, by shutting myself down, rendering myself incapable of accomplishing things or multitasking. Hellspit and Fel Fires, I could have maybe had the telekinesis enchantment up by now. Speaking of, I¡¯ll plan around emptying the massive hoard of gems that Teuila dumped out into our carriage, that we stuffed in the hyperdimensional haversack, and various little compartments that we¡¯d found within the carriage itself.


    I can afford to pause, take a break in that space between times, the frame between moments. I can just breathe. Metaphorically. I have to try to get my head on straight. I¡¯m going to take on the swamp, and I¡¯m going to do it solo. That¡¯s fine. It¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t done *that* before. I loose a dry, humorless chuckle. I was a lot weaker back then, when I lost to Octorochi, and caused Staff Ninja, TQ¡¯s predecessor to die. Despite the pain I¡¯m in, despite everything that has happened, all the losses I¡¯ve suffered, I¡¯ve grown. In worlds filled with violence, life and death struggles, and the insanity that is magic, and special powers, I¡¯ve grown in the way that seems to matter most. I¡¯ve gained almost unimaginable resilience, and strength. Even if I suffer a fractured psyche, or check out on occasion.


    Knock them down, and Reggie Shellcracker just doesn¡¯t stop coming. Yeah, they get knocked down, but they get up again, and again, and again. Stop talking about yourself in the third person Reggie. Sure thing Reggie. See what I mean? Fractured psyche. Shut up Reggie. Right, sure thing. I flex my jaw and rattle my skull, shaking my head vigorously, hoping to heck that I was just being silly in the head, as I often am. I wait a bit longer in this paused time, to see if another me actually speaks to me in any way. So far as I can tell, I¡¯m alone here in my head. As much as I dislike that state, it¡¯s probably better that way at the moment.


    Ugh, as much as I don¡¯t want to, I think I¡¯m going to need the contingent of refugees to follow me after all. I¡¯m recalling the geography of Rayileklia in this paused time, and if the Hydra¡¯s lair is somewhere near the heart of the swamplands or marshlands, such that it can range enough to block off the entire western third of the continent, I would lose weeks making it to the Spine of the World if I had to return for my carriage, for¡ª. Gulp. For Teuila. Worse, if it¡¯s not just one hydra, I need to find whatever communal lair they have, if they¡¯re a community. Thinking back on Octorochi, there were at least two of them, and Dehlia was being transformed into another. I¡¯ve no reason to doubt such to be true about the hydra as well.

 B 5 C 57: A Chance

    Gorramit all.  I thunk my head into the side of the carriage repeatedly.  The others were removed from the carriage, except for Teuila¡¯s icy coffin strapped to the top.  I suppose it¡¯s better that they¡¯re being transported with the sick and the wounded, but it was at least a small comfort knowing that Tiktik, Kitten, was nearby.  I¡¯ve got so many emotions warring within to distract me from what needs to be done.  I just, I yearn for that bit of comfort, someone to lean on, to feel their support, their affection just a moment¡¯s glance away.  Heaving a sigh, I summon my ghostly steeds, and latch them to the carriage.


    I board the carriage, and begin working to carefully pilot it between rows of small tents, or yurts, or tipi, or whatever they are.  I see the occasional kobold, from my vantage in the driver¡¯s seat, but in a contingent this large, it¡¯s understandable that they¡¯re not all in my immediate vicinity.  I¡¯m being hasty, but I¡¯ve lost days to despair.  My arms vibrate weakly, and suddenly I¡¯m rocked to my side by a spasm as a jolt runs through me.  I¡¯m paying the price for messing with electrokinesis beyond the scope of my powers, for being embedded with a magical staff, for imbuing a non spelliform rune.  I momentarily convulse, and my vision washes over in grey.  Oh no.  Not again.


    Sighing, I slump where I lay, feeling utterly defeated.  The horses pause at my telepathic command, as I attempt to adjust to my current circumstances.  I¡¯m blind again.  I¡¯m surprised it took a week to catch up to me, but no doubt it¡¯s because I took another lightning leap, one too many, especially without the rotational safety measures.  I couldn¡¯t focus on it in the moment, but it felt like my body was tearing itself apart in every direction, exploding from the inside out, every last fiber of me being stretched and pulled the wrong ways.  The searing pain that ripped through me was intense beyond comprehension, I subconsciously cordoned off a part of my mind, and now that pain is free of the box I¡¯d placed it in.


    The sensation defies description on a fundamental level as I relive it in my conscious mind, unboxed from my subconscious memory.  I¡¯m stuck with haphazard similes and metaphors to compare the amalgamation of agony and electricity to.  Its ferocity would have left me breathless, had I had lungs to breathe at the time.  It was like a million million needles piercing every particle of my very being, all red-hot, fiery, capsaicin laced.  I was pulled apart at the seams like funhouse taffy, my consciousness frozen yet stretched beyond its limits.  I¡¯m reliving the few seconds of the lightning leap, in vivid detail, and horrid intensity.  I half worry that I might subconsciously activate the power, and begin streaking around the refugee camp as a bolt of lightning, crackling with electricity and striking down poor, innocent, hapless civilians.


    Friggin¡¯ hellspit and fel fires Reggie.  You can¡¯t see, you¡¯re emaciated, and you¡¯re reliving pain you¡¯d put off experiencing in a dire moment, that you brought on yourself, with no plan.  How the *hell* do you think you¡¯re going to take on a hydra, or a lair of hydras, in this state?  Huff.  I don¡¯t.  I don¡¯t.  I figure I¡¯ve got a few days to recover as I track it, I¡ª.  I¡¯m going to have to leave the carriage, and beg Tiago to have it follow up no more than a mile behind me, probably a few hundred  yards at best, so we can signal each other.  In case the hydra finds *us*.  I need to be in signal range of someone from the refugee caravan at all times, and that person needs to be in range of someone else, on and on.


    I topple from my position in the carriage¡¯s driver¡¯s seat once more, falling heavily on my face.  I end up groaning in pain, and staggering to my feet as I cast my silent sonar senses about.  I¡¯m making so many mistakes in my haste, I just, I just keep messing up.  I keep failing, and everyone suffers because of it, and I¡¯m going to die because of it.  I make myself weaker and weaker, only gaining power in bursts.  Wasn¡¯t I just thinking the opposite?  How I¡¯d come so far since Octorochi?  Is this some sort of cosmic karma for what might have sounded like pride?


    Cranking up my aura vision sense, it¡¯s almost as good as sight honestly, and my silent sonar guides my reflexes, even when I¡¯m not focusing on being aware of it.  I¡¯ve got workarounds for my limitations.  Can¡¯t move?  Pump some electricity through the muscles.  Can¡¯t see?  Cast a spell for a different sense.  Too weak to physically fight?  Call out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas and summon umbral duplicates of Valkyrie daggers from my inventory in a massive swath, and follow it up with a steady stream of fireballs.  Next time, next time I¡¯ll be facing dragons alone, just me, and I¡¯ll go all out.  I¡¯ll buy time for the eight minutes it takes, and I¡¯ll put my all into it.


    Okay, okay, huff, we can do this.  Wait.  I cast my senses about, and try to recall what I¡¯d seen from my vantage, redrawing the picture in my mind.  Where are the plains Colossi?  How did Keeley survive?  Why hasn¡¯t someone suggested a Colossi help with the hydra?  I know the answer before I truly ask the question.  They¡¯re also dead or dying, or simply no longer Colossi.  One or more somehow sacrificed themselves so Keeley could live, and that¡¯s why she was pissed whenever she found out what Marshal was hinting at.  Sighing, I stumble towards a major source of warmth, likely the cooking campfire that Keeley had ordered me to find.


    I¡¯m greeted with a, ¡°Took you long enough, you liddle shid.¡±


    I just sigh and shake my head, before dropping my butt onto a rock, my elbows onto my knees, and my head into my hands.  I weakly ask, ¡°Which one?¡±


    I sense Keeley stiffen up at my question, the woman who seems to be made out of confidence and rage hesitates.  She responds one word, ¡°Meredith.¡±


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    I simply nod ever so slightly.  I can tell my gesture is received, and understood.  We exchange no more words as she hands me a bowl of soup.  Meredith sacrificed something, perhaps her life, so that Keeley could live.  Maybe her ration of dragon¡¯s blood.  I knew the Colossi were going through withdrawals.  I didn¡¯t know how bad it could be.  I eat in silence, lamenting their losses.  They were people.  People that I struggled not to kill, in my effort to save The Brook from their extortion.  People that were at the end, led by someone reasonable, who cared about their wellbeing, that Teuila slew, and a monster without remorse, that I slew.  I¡¯d given the ideas to Helena and Reggie to take over in place of the previous rulers, with the only real stipulation of wanting them to be kind to their neighbors.  I left them with the dragon¡¯s corpse, but acid rain, lack of a heart, decomposition, any number of things meant they had to ration it.  There might be barrels of dragon¡¯s blood somewhere here in the refugee camps, untouched, because the Colossi who it had been rationed to have died.


    I¡¯m sure it¡¯s dragon¡¯s blood, Meredith¡¯s share, that got Keeley going again.  She probably has to keep taking it, to make up for being speared through internal organs.  Keeley is on borrowed time now too.  To verify, I ask, ¡°How long?¡±


    There¡¯s a frown that crosses her face, an expression as well.  What is it?  Shame?  I think so.  Keeley¡¯s answer, ¡°Couple months, years maybe, if I¡¯m careful.  Maybe survive after, if I¡¯m lucky.¡±


    I nod, barely perceptibly.  Keeley has to keep taking dragon¡¯s blood, and hope that it patches her up, without changing her physiology, without making her addicted and dependent on it.  I don¡¯t hate the woman.  I really don¡¯t.  I never have.  I even get it, in some ways, why she was so spiteful, so angry.  Losing a son, because he was a reckless adventurer?  I¡¯d be upset too, at every reminder.  Especially when the wound was raw, and recent.  She might have been more nurturing, more loving, in the past, instead of overbearing.  Who knows?  I suppose Marshal would know, but I don¡¯t need to go digging into the scars of their pasts.


    I startle only slightly when a kind hand sets upon my shoulder.  I¡¯d barely registered Tiago walking into my sensory range.  I look up towards him, forgetting my lack of eyesight for a moment, and he gasps when he sees my likely cloudy eyes.  Keeley¡¯s gaze follows Tiago¡¯s after his noise of surprise, and her frown increases.


    I mutter, ¡°It¡¯s okay.  Been blind before.  It¡¯s fine.¡±


    The two shake their heads.  I think the three of us sigh, for relatively similar reasons, at relatively the same time, in our own fashions.  I busy myself practicing more runes of the telekinesis enchantment, as I finish my soup.  I¡¯m a bit lost.


    Turning to Tiago, I ask, ¡°How many?  How many are still Colossi?  How many are even alive?¡±


    His expression turns grim, ¡°The leaders, Helena and Reggie, they remain powerful, at the rear of the refugee procession, always erecting more barriers, covering our trail, cutting us off from the hordes.  The rest,¡± he sighs deeply before finishing his response, ¡°I¡¯d say maybe a quarter have survived as they cut back on the dragon¡¯s blood.¡±


    A seventy five percent mortality rate dependency from withdrawal.  I shake my head sadly, dropping my chin back to my chest.  Is it even worth sparing anyone?  Saving anyone?  If they¡¯re all going to just die anyway?  Should I just be more selfish, self-serving?  Would Teuila still be at my side if I had been?  If I weren¡¯t destroyed from my defense of The Brook, I probably could have taken down one of the dragons.  If we hadn¡¯t saved the kobolds to begin with, there wouldn¡¯t have been innocents in the path, and Teuila wouldn¡¯t have had her world shattered.  If I¡¯d just slaughtered all the beavers, Lil never would have been hurt, and¡ª.  This is a slippery slope line of thought Reggie.  Drop it.  Yeah.  Yeah it is.  That¡¯s not me.  No matter what.  Give up everything, save others, spare others, try my best.  Try to be good.  On a good day?  I can consider myself good overall, outweighing the atrocities I¡¯ve committed, or the failures that took place at my hands.  On a really good day?  I can just barely feel like others might consider me a hero, and I wouldn¡¯t shy away from the title.


    Where do I even go from here?  I know I¡¯m vaguely in a region where I should be sweeping southwest, west, northwest, then north, to get to the heart of Jaggedfen Bog, but that¡¯s not what I mean.  What¡¯s my drive?  Who even is Reggie Shellcracker, with no other Shellcrackers?  Sure, I still want to save the Aasimovians, and the kobolds, or, okay, maybe that¡¯s being full of myself.  Maybe not save them, but at least provide them a safe path to settle a new home.  What then?  Rush to the Spine of the World?  Hope I can be ruthless enough to kill the first dragon I see?  Hope it¡¯s evil?  Absorb its dragonforce, and then roam the world looking for more, for a way to thaw Teuila?  Oh Teuila.


    Thinking about it, I can¡¯t risk bringing her with me on my journeys.  One good fall, one strong attack by a bludgeoning implement, anything like that, and she might be sundered-through.  I don¡¯t even want her going with the refugees, for much the same reason.  They¡¯d be picking through the ashes of a ruined kingdom, doing construction, digging.  Who¡¯s to say that a sinkhole doesn¡¯t open up in the wrong spot at the wrong time, resulting in her falling, even just twenty feet or so?  Could I somehow get her back to the Sisters?  No, I¡¯d die before I circumnavigated the mountain range, especially with having to avoid the south end of it.  Could I leave her in Victo, with Jarvis Tavner¡¯s nephew?  He seemed like a kind individual, and we stopped the¡ª.  No.  No I can¡¯t leave her anywhere near the Celestial Imperium.  The Celestial dickwad knows we exist, he¡¯d find some way to extract her soul.  Or maybe he¡¯d just shatter her out of spite, sending troops through Victo.


    Wait.  Granny Altross.  I¡¯d intended to pay her a visit, ever since I saw her journals, and made the connection between her and Taylynn, her great granddaughter Tabitha Lynnia Altross.  It¡¯s still just an assumption, but I¡¯m pretty confident about it.  She was going to while away her twilight years in a manor in the Jaggedfen Bog.  She cared about Taylynn, and Taylynn¡¯s desire for freedom, for adventure, to be her own person, not be brought up as some stuffy noblewoman.  She sounds like perhaps she was a kind soul.  Would she possibly be willing to let me simply store Teuila¡¯s icy remains somewhere on her property?  In a cellar perhaps, where she might be safe?


    My breath is hitched, having forgotten to breathe for a while, as I stared down the rabbit hole of my own thoughts.  Suddenly I have a direction, a purpose, a chance.

 B 5 C 58: Get Up Again

    A plan, a direction, a plan, a direction. I keep repeating it to myself, trying to urge myself to accept it as real. To believe that that¡¯s all I need to go on. Instead, I keep picturing the battlefield, the aftermath of Teuila leaping towards an ice-dragon with a fully charged breath weapon. Massive spikes of ice grew behind her, facing away at an angle. It¡¯s part of how Miza was able to save her, there was already an upward ramp for Teuila to lose momentum on, combined with Dippy and Scrap working to slow and halt her slide. Not that I was conscious for most of the back and forth.


    The area had become a serene portrait of elemental disharmony. Columns and spires of stone met jags and spikes of ice. All situated atop a wet, stony floor, only visible beneath the flicker of lightning across the darkened, stormy skies. I¡¯d hardly have been surprised if suddenly a river of lava decided to burst forth from one of the canyon walls, honestly, to complete the elemental picture. Or if the carriage had spontaneously burst into flame. Obviously, I¡¯m glad it didn¡¯t. Can I go back in time? Should I? What would I even say, to keep Teuila from making the fatal mistake? Where could I have been, that would have made a difference, without losing everyone to a massive gout of acid?


    Hm, speaking of acid. I tilt my useless gaze upwards towards the ever-present clouds. Those are virtually living dragon¡¯s breath. Somehow, in some fashion, they¡¯re enchanted to remain aloft, and forever drizzle out just a hint of what they are. Did someone slay a black dragon, causing it to curse the skies with its dying breaths? Hey squirrel-brain. Hm? You¡¯re distracting yourself. Ah. Right. True. Hard not to, when the alternative is reliving losing Teuila, again, like the day I acquired my time powers. Ironic, last time she was caught in a blast of lava, this time, a blast of ice. But there was no Luni secretly off somewhere diverting some new magical power to me this time. No revelation that broke me free from some constraints on my powers. I draw a shuddered breath and sigh sadly.


    Tiago sits next to me, and though Keeley wears anger across her face, she stays silent. I can almost *feel* her fighting an internal battle. She hates me, because I made it, because I came back, because I¡¯m reckless, just like her son was, but I returned and he didn¡¯t. But I remind her of Jonesy, so the instinct to nurture, to protect me is there as well. She would literally rather die than see me risk myself or die. That¡¯s why she snuck out of Autumn Brook, and charged the Felgre horde head on, and threw me out of the way, when I was concentrating on the elementals. She was prepared to meet her end, almost wanted it, compared to having to live through that grief again, watching her son die a reckless, adventurous death again, in her eyes. Despite me not being male in the slightest. I¡¯m androgynous enough that people can project genders onto me, especially when other aspects of me carry strong reminders of various emotions for them.


    I tilt my head to lean it against Tiago¡¯s right bicep. There¡¯s a fragility there. He¡¯s elderly, but in fantastic health for his age. Even still, his overall frame beneath his robes is rather frail. He¡¯s a slender individual. Tiago crosses his left arm in front of himself to stroke my head. The pats on my head are a sign of comfort, affection, care. The affection earns us a slight scowl from Keeley. It makes me look even more like a child in her eyes, like her child. I¡¯m millions, maybe billions of years old, in non-linear time. The weight of my age sits heavily in the pit of my stomach. In all that time, I never grew wise enough to handle situations like this. I never overcame all of my traumas. Sure, one could say I technically didn¡¯t experience all of that, so maybe I didn¡¯t get the benefit of growth that the time should have afforded me. It doesn¡¯t change the fact that I¡¯ve experienced *more* than any other being alive. Even if it was the same thing, over and over and over, with minor tweaks, repeatedly, for eons.


    What does that say about me? That I still come off as childlike? Is it my neutral outward appearance? I could use my changeling gift, or adopt one of my evolutionary stages, and present a taller, more gendered appearance. Is it because of my mannerisms? Is there something I do that¡¯s strictly childlike? I can¡¯t imagine seeking affection and comfort in the face of overwhelming pain and agony is a strictly childlike activity.


    Perhaps I should work my way up to my third, maybe fourth evolutionary stage. The fourth one is outright monstrous, but technically I should have the mana available, back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, to tether that high. Or did that form completely, utterly, *die* when I channeled the mana of hundreds of mages? I remember it sloughing off, as if the previous stages of me were simply standing in its center. Technically, I have enough mana for five non-combat tethers, back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I¡¯d never thought to try, to push back into and above those forms. Especially not without Lu. Without My Anchor, I¡¯m afraid I¡¯d lose myself, forever. I¡¯d lose myself to whatever monstrous nature lies hidden within those forms, the wrath that¡¯s virtually palpable, or something.


    Everything is so jumbled. Without My Anchor, My Wings, or My Heart, I can¡¯t keep a conclusion straight in my head without second guessing myself, or forgetting which conclusion I came to the next time the topic comes up. That¡¯s as much of a liability as anything else right now. I¡¯m going to drive myself bonkers if I try to think in any more circles. At least I have a plan, a goal. I can at some point soon, get up, and get back to it. How long? Probably after a nap.


    I¡¯m one of the lucky ones, despite it all. Tiktik¡¯s got about a week at least before she even starts to show signs of recovery according to Tiago. That¡¯s bad with a capital b. Internal bleeding, contusions on the lungs, and so on, are serious matters for anyone with normal physical biology. Digital beings like Teuila, or digital-critterkin-adjacent beings like myself, we can bounce back. As soon as the injury stops bleeding, or seals up, we just continue on. Injuries don¡¯t really mess with our physiology, most times. I know Teuila blasted her legs to smithereens once, when our digital regeneration was a bit suppressed, after we¡¯d purged the radiant energies from our bodies. That messed her up pretty bad, and I wasn¡¯t far behind in the damage department. Plus, emotionally, we¡¯d lost Lil. It was all around a rough time. Even still, most physical biological entities couldn¡¯t recover to the point of even walking, let alone becoming stronger than ever, after having their leg bones basically atomized. One could be forgiven for taking a couple of months to recover from such injuries.


    What about now? Teuila¡¯s alive. She has to be. She hasn¡¯t derezzed. She¡¯s wearing Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark, Icey. I theorized that if a magical elemental attack, of cold, fire, or lightning struck her, that Icey would absorb about half the damage, and use that energy to rejuvenate her from the other half of the damage she took, being pretty close to evening out to near invulnerability. A strong enough blast might instantly vaporize her, with the half of the damage that she took, but Teuila is *strong*. I try to lighten my mood by imagining Lin being upset, sparring Teuila some day in the distant future, realizing she¡¯s essentially immune to lightning now. I smirk briefly as I think about it, trying not to let the longing seep in.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Heaving a sigh, I address Tiago, ¡°Tiago? You were right, about a lot of things. If you¡¯re up for it, you, or George, or someone, I need you to follow me in my carriage, maybe a mile, maybe half a mile, maybe a few hundred yards back, with a lantern. I need you, and everyone else, to be able to signal me, if there¡¯s trouble, so whoever¡¯s driving my carriage needs to be able to signal me with the lantern, especially if they receive a signal from someone further back down the line.¡±


    Tiago¡¯s barely perceptible nod is answer enough for me. I continue, ¡°I¡¯m going to sleep in the carriage tonight, I need to drop off some gems with Harriet, or Elder, the kobold elder, either one. They¡¯ll need to be distributed, maybe used as currency down the line when you¡¯re rebuilding, when you finally get a chance to settle in. Or maybe they¡¯ll just be rations for the kobolds. Who knows? I¡¯ve almost got a new¡ª. It doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯ll work my hardest for everyone¡¯s safety, and you know I have to do it quickly, but I¡¯ll try to be cautious. I promise. I¡¯ll try.¡±


    Tiago responds, ¡°That¡¯s all I ask.¡±


    I let myself fall back into a bit of an autopilot rut. I know I¡¯m at least practicing runes, organizing things with Tiago, George, Berinon, Tim, Harriet, Elder, Dippy, Miza, and Scrap, but the words are so automatic, so cold and calculating that I don¡¯t even bother experiencing myself saying them. I do the job, that¡¯s it. Then I head to rest, in my tiny slice of safety, my little haven amongst this chaos, a weathered, beaten carriage, procured from the hoard of a klepto necromancer. I¡¯d snort a laugh if I weren¡¯t so shut down. I let myself sleep, getting much needed rest. In the morning, I¡¯ll get up again, and I¡¯ll move on, as best I¡¯m able. People are counting on me, yet again, whether they know it or not. So, in the end, no matter how down I am, or how many times I am downed, I¡¯ll get back up again.


    All around me are mirrors, no, windows, looking out across unfamiliar scenes. The windows are framed by intricately carved adornments, and they¡¯re somehow tall, grand in a vague sense. I¡¯m in a long, black hallway, with no seeming top or bottom, beginning or end, but it¡¯s peppered with unevenly placed windows on the right or left sides. The hallway is a unique, endless gallery of these windows that gaze out upon events. Many are incredibly similar. A smiling face a short distant beyond, calling out to the window, as if the window is looking out through someone else¡¯s eyes. The face belongs to the same young woman, in so many of the frames.


    Phrases are echoed from a hundred scenes at once, the phrases are always, ¡°Come on Err!¡± or ¡°My hero, always have been, always will be.¡± The cascades of, ¡°Come on Err!¡±s wash over me, and somehow I feel elated. The twinge of self-consciousness that strikes me during the echoes of, ¡°My hero, always have been, always will be,¡±s is familiar in a way, and even yet, my heart is warmed, despite feeling the intrusion of someone else¡¯s guilt. The viewer doesn¡¯t believe they¡¯re a hero, and their emotions are muddled. Joy at praise from the speaker, guilt and self doubt, self-loathing at the idea of being considered a hero. Far behind me, shutters begin snapping the windows closed, blacking out the available views. More and more, faster and faster, the windows and their views are erased.


    It seems such a waste, to lose the view of this embodiment of charm and sweetness. The woman calling back, from youth into adulthood always maintains an air of vigor, of playfulness. Her dark bob-with-bangs haircut frames her adorable face, accentuating her ever-so-slightly chubby features. Her eyes, full of both mirth and curiosity, sparkle with every ray of light that bounces upon them, they twinkle with a mischievous glint that hints at her always-playful nature. Her smile though, it¡¯s her smile that¡¯s a precious treasure, a gift that lights up her face with an air of warmth and delight. Her rosy cheeks are always filled with a subtle blush that adorns her visage with a touch of liveliness. Somehow they speak of her youth and exuberance, no matter the apparent years passing between windows.


    One could be forgiven for staring at her lips, soft, supple, inviting. They form a perfect, heart-melting smile that describes the glee contained within, beneath her countenance, at her very core. Her very soul is evident, and in its entirety, it¡¯s a spark of joy, of cheerfulness. It¡¯s obvious at a glance, that she¡¯s a beacon of positivity, and happiness, ever an optimist, a ray of sunshine on every cloudy day. Her very presence is like a soft, calming, cool breeze on a hot day. Her infectious laughter could bring smiles to faces, and tears to eyes as it echoes like a symphony of joy and elation. It fills the air with a brilliant melody, that lifts the spirits of all who hear it.


    As I said, it would be a waste to lose these views, these scenes. And yet, lose them I do, as the windows snap shut, cutting off more and more scenes from view. I race towards the far end of the hallway, away from the snapping shutters, away from the ceaseless darkness, the loss of this radiant joy. Along the way, scenes begin to include another woman. One whose eyes are like emerald gemstones shimmering with an inner radiance. The joy painted across her face is more subtle, and in some ways, alluring, than the woman in the other visions. It¡¯s a different kind of joy, a presence that begs, no, commands attention. Her sleek, slender, effeminate features are the most striking womanly charms, and her expression varies so much, with such subtlety. Thousands of images of this new woman, whispering comforts, shouting joys, squealing in elation. Her athletically toned body is always adorned in stylish, fashionable clothing that accentuates her figure, and the way she carries herself speaks to the fact that she knows it. She holds herself such that the viewer is acutely aware of every subtle, supple curve, the ripple of each of her muscles, her slender, yet taut, graceful neck, reminiscent of a swan''s.


    Yet even these windows snap shut, faster and faster, I can barely keep pace with the darkness that roils forth from behind me, shuttering all scenes, erasing them. Ahead, the two women are both in scenes, sometimes each a picture of pure joy, other times, a subtle competitiveness layered thick in the air for anyone observant enough to notice. In early images, there¡¯s tension, a mild fear residing beneath the visages of either woman. Yet other times, much later, they eye each other with¡ª.


    I can¡¯t be certain what I had been seeing near the end. I thought perhaps it could be desire, but I had such a short glimpse before the windows at the farthest edges of my vision shuttered, and left me in utter darkness. The darkness overtakes me, and for some reason, I¡¯m not frightened. I¡¯m not worried, or cold. I simply -am.- This, in and of itself, is comforting in a way. Where once I stood in a hallway of purest black, now I tumble, or perhaps float, in an absence of anything. Somehow, somehow I know. The darkness does this for my benefit. Despite the joy and beauty in so many of those windows, I¡¯m denied access to them. I don¡¯t know why, or how it could be true, but it is. This darkness is my ally. It¡¯s secrets whispered in the dark to the one most beloved to you. It¡¯s the calm, quiet, reflective times, when everything is at peace. It¡¯s everything important, and yet nothing, all at once.

 B 5 C 59: Jaggedfen

    Somehow I know, I may never return to this hallway. I may never see these visions of beauty, or joy, ever again. If somehow, some day, I¡¯m allowed to return, by some specific event, then it will be far in the future, and require a confluence. Yet somehow, it¡¯s for my benefit. Whether that¡¯s to prevent attachment, and loss, or something else entirely, I can¡¯t even begin to fathom. The darkness will recede if I can find my way back here, on my own. This brief visit meant something. It conveyed a message of great import that I don¡¯t understand. One I won¡¯t remember when I wake. Oh. I¡¯m dreaming. That¡¯s too bad.


    Hm? I smack my lips and contort my visage as I stretch out my facial muscles, trying to get my bearings. What was¡ª. Oh, right, I was asleep, willingly. I think I might have been dreaming. Too bad I don¡¯t have access to my Can¡¯Z¡¯aas memory logs, or that they didn¡¯t seem to keep track of my dreams. Or, if they did, they got redacted by my subconscious or something, so they wouldn¡¯t take up too much space. I dunno.


    It¡¯s funny, I know some time back, I¡¯d been thinking about how I don¡¯t know how to truly function in a society, and now that I¡¯m tangentially adjacent to one, I¡¯m mostly shut down, on autopilot. I¡¯m practicing my magics, but not my social skills. I¡¯m tracking, but not talking. I¡¯m looking for clues, hints, running through a swamp, alone, far ahead of everyone else, yet I stick close enough to see the lantern. If that lantern signals ¡°S. O. S.¡±, or swings wildly, or goes out completely, I have to rush back immediately.


    The lack of sun, with Rayileklia¡¯s endlessly darkened skies, leaves a perpetual haze, made worse by the mist rising from the swampy terrain. The only source of illumination as always is the frequent lightning that streaks across the sky, briefly illuminating the swampland with its electric glow before plunging it back into darkness.


    With each flash of lightning, I try to use my eyes to scan the gloom, searching for any signs of movement. Try, because I haven¡¯t fully recovered from my temporary blindness yet. Even without the mist, everything would be painted over in a gray hue. Huff. Sighing, I realize I¡¯ve got to utilize my other senses, I mean, that was obvious, I just kind of forget sometimes when I¡¯m suffering something. It¡¯s hilarious how accustomed I can get to one problem or another. I recall a time when I was trying to decide whether it was better to continue adventuring with a sword sticking out of my guts, or to pull it out, because I couldn¡¯t take a break.


    One thing that¡¯s apparent here is that, unlike the regions around the Sisters Hidden in the Mist, and their sanctuary there¡¯s signs of wildlife. It¡¯s almost startling to recall that they¡¯d somehow caught or driven into hiding, basically all wildlife in a massive area. I let my ears tune in to the subtlest of sounds. There¡¯s a distant croaking of frogs, a rustle of reeds, splashing of water were the frogs leap. Despite not truly being able to smell all that well, or perhaps at all, I can tell the swamp would be musty, a pungent mixture of decay and vegetation, tinged with the acidic tang of the constant drizzling rainfall. The scent is somehow somewhat embedded in the way the air lands on my tongue, how my silent sonar picks up a slight increase in density of the air surrounding my sensory range, as the swamp¡¯s mists thicken.


    There¡¯s an occasional burble, often accompanied by a pop and a hiss, as swamp gasses filter up through murky, muddy water, filling air bubbles to the point of bursting. Focus Reggie. A plan, a direction, a course of action. In a pinch, the swamp gasses could be ignited, serving as a short distraction, or a warning flare. Though, my main methods of igniting it would provide a fairly sizable source of light themselves. Fireballs and lightning bolts would be my main methods, though I could perhaps dig out the waterborn candle. The candle would be much subtler, and would take a moment to submerge, and light. I don¡¯t even remember if I included it on my list of assets. It¡¯s such a minuscule magic item, with such limited use. Yet here, and now, it¡¯s like a spare stick of dynamite, or a hand grenade, or at least a short delay flashbang grenade


    Huh. It¡¯s funny how that works. My mind reaches out, grasping at straws, and it finds them. It tugs on them til the logical end is located, and then it jams that straw somewhere unexpected. As often as not, nothing comes of it, but sometimes, just sometimes, the straw manages to mesh up with the butt of another straw, and a plan begins to form. It¡¯s funny, I think the phrase is meant to be about dried hay, straw, not plastic drinking straws, but that¡¯s the metaphor my mind paints a picture of. That in and of itself is doubly funny to me. I¡¯ve never seen a plastic drinking straw. I shouldn¡¯t even know they exist. Stupid buggy broken Fakeworld memories. Oh well. It¡¯s an amusement, a distraction at least.


    Thanks to Tiktik, Elder traded me some rose carnelians, and I¡¯ve already got them mashed and mixed into a paste, for when I complete the telekinesis enchantment mastery. I¡¯m relatively close, and I will pause for a break to apply it to myself when it does happen. I don¡¯t think the telekinesis will be powerful enough to say, grip a rampaging hydra and hold it in place, but I¡¯ve got a few ideas on how to use it, that might be a bit out of the ordinary. They¡¯re not altogether unlike when I used telekinesis to squeeze and pressurize thermite til it exploded directionally through a small aperture. That was definitely not an intended use of the spell. It felt like something sheared through my skull and a quarter of my brain when that happened.


    A plan, a direction. If I just keep repeating it to myself, it almost seems real, almost real enough to distract myself from¡ª. From thoughts I can¡¯t allow myself to contemplate at the moment. Losses too great to allow myself to feel at the moment. Only the tiniest shred of my sanity is holding on, the barest thread of my entirety. I need to keep that bit of me focused, distracted. It lets me carry on, despite it all. A plan, a direction.


    Granny Altross has an estate on an isthmus that we¡¯ll be passing through soon enough, and I¡¯ll try to broker some sort of arrangement to allow the refugees some momentary respite on her estate grounds. Presuming¡ª, presuming she¡¯s still alive. Or at least the Altross estate still stands. Fearing for the safety of a person I¡¯d never met, and never knew, is a decent enough distraction. I¡¯m mostly only attached, because I¡¯m almost positive she¡¯s Taylynn¡¯s ancestor, and because she helped Taylynn lead the type of life that Taylynn wanted to lead.


    I need to plot out what dangers the Jaggedfen Bog actually poses to those within its borders. It¡¯s several hundred miles on a side, dozens of thousands of square miles in area. How could one hydra, or even a few hydra, manage to menace and terrorize the region enough, such that no traveler dares head to the western half of the continent any longer? The obvious answer chills my bones. There are far, far more than a few hydra in the swamp. There could be dozens of lairs, maybe hundreds of lairs if they¡¯re solitary creatures.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I can¡¯t go roaming thousands of square miles, hunting down every powerful beast! I don¡¯t have that kind of time! Plus, what are these supposed spirits of the swamp? Is it just folk superstition, like assuming swamp-gas explosions are will-o-wisps? Wait. I told a tale of will-o-wisps once. There was another tale though. A swamp. A tale of the slime, and murk of the swamp¡¯s surface. Agwai¡¯s horror tale. Leaning down, I jab my fist into a pool of murk, covered with algae. Foolish of me, I know, but I¡¯d just blast myself with a fireball if something tried to claim me. The algae doesn¡¯t seem to try to creep up my arm or anything unusual, so I suppose we¡¯re in the clear.


    If it¡¯s neither of those, could it be something else? I heave a sigh, because my genre senses start blaring warnings throughout my brain. As if in answer to my question, things begin entering my sensory range. I almost laugh as I shake my head. The first sense to pick them up is hearing. There¡¯s a barely audible, nearly imperceptible swish from dozens of directions. I can¡¯t rely on my sense of sight, since I effectively don¡¯t have it at the moment. I eschew color, and depth perception, in favor of innately knowing the texture, and density of things within my danger wraps¡¯ sensory range.


    I inhale deeply and exhale slowly as I draw on time, seeking that empty space, that nothing between moments. In a moment between moments, I analyze what I¡¯m sensing along my silent sonar, as the first few enter its range. First, there¡¯s the faintest hints of disturbance on the water¡¯s surface, an almost imperceptible displacement that causes the deeper standing water to lap at the mud. Second, within those disturbances are creatures, bodies. Slick, bumpy skin, eyes atop their heads, lips that wrap almost entirely around their heads, with bulbous gullets, or necks. I don¡¯t even need to see them to know what they are. They¡¯re bullies. Two swamps in my life, and both are inhabited by bipedal, hostile frogs, each roughly the size of a teenager. Equating them to teenagers, they¡¯re twice as hostile as the worst, and twice as deadly as the deadliest. I really shouldn¡¯t be equating them to any one or any thing though. I don¡¯t need the anguish that would come from taking their lives if I started to think of them as more reasonable people .


    Huffily I heave a sigh while rolling my eyes and shaking my head. With my erratic, jerking, jolting movements, I¡¯ll have a hard time dodging projectiles, and they¡¯re all carrying spears, poisoned spears at that, no doubt. I¡¯m only about two thirds of the way done memorizing the telekinesis enchantment spell, but that would be the best, or perhaps second best defense against projectiles. I know that with it up, I can intercept thrown or launched weapons. I could also test out my theories on being able to blanket a square region in telekinesis like a shield. Or literally float a square of orichalcum around. If I do cast the telekinesis enchantment out of the staff though, then that will be all the offensive and defensive magical power that I can bring to bear from it.


    The first ones are leaping forth from their submersion, and croaking a single word as they hurl their spears. I was going to give them a chance. I was going to try to talk things through, be my best self. But no, they open with not just hostility, but murderous intent. Fine. I can reciprocate. My archsorc staff is in my hands, and I launch a pair of fireballs at the first few bully frogfolk that break the surface of the swamp, hoping to also catch their projectiles in the blast, and throw them off mark. Thankfully, with magic, and a perfect sonar map of my surroundings, it¡¯s easy to toss the fireballs with pinpoint accuracy to achieve my desired effect.


    I follow up the fireballs with two lightning bolts that I line up for maximum effect. The devastation that I wreak is evident immediately, as I¡¯ve eliminated every hostile creature in a thirty food radius. Of that I¡¯m certain, thanks to my silent sonar, but I can¡¯t be sure there weren¡¯t more further outside that radius, now with the pained death-throes and croaking drowning out the otherwise too-quiet displacement of water. For my own safety, I conjure forth a wall of fire from the staff, in a massive circle around me, just at the very edge of my silent sonar¡¯s radius. Hopefully they¡¯re not foolish enough to try to lunge through the wall of flames, and hopefully they don¡¯t see me within it. I¡¯m sure all it would take to finish me is a well placed spearhead making it through the flames, even if the haft is burned to ash on the way through. I¡¯m not sure if the toxin that they coated their spear heads with would be completely nullified by the fire. If not, it might take just one good scratch to end me. Whether it¡¯s a paralytic toxin, a necrotizing toxin, or something else entirely.


    Then again, Jaz helped me with my acid resistance, and Adom helped me with my poison resistance. Could I maybe stand a few ounces of poison to the bloodstream nowadays? To be fair, Adom¡¯s aid in building my resistance was less voluntary help, and more hostile prank, so I don¡¯t have quite as good a grasp on the actual values of lethality reduction I might have. I wonder, are the bully frogfolk the spirits of the swamp? Or is there still yet other possibly hostile life within the Jaggedfen Bog?


    Also, I find myself irritated that a massive region of the continent is called the Jaggedfen Bog, when it contains marshlands, swamplands, and several bogs. I can¡¯t recall all the differences offhand, but I know there are differences. Stupid lazy explorers or cartographers or whatever. If they¡¯d named the individual environments, I might have a better idea where the hydra, or hydras, actually hole up. The massive, multi-headed serpent is unlikely to be too elusive, since it¡¯s a master of the swamp that has been wreaking havoc on the region for years.


    Grr, these are treacherous conditions for a miles-long caravan of refugees. Mangroves that leave mazes of tangled roots and vines, bully frogfolk that attack on sight, explosive swampgas bubbles, loose or sticky footing, the constant acid rain¡ª. What the hell was I thinking? Then again, where else was there to go? March off to the Imperium, and beg to not have their souls stolen? Break into the Fae¡¯s wilds, possibly destroying the very enchantment that might have otherwise protected them? Try to swim across the ocean to the south, to the untamed lands? Huff, I heave a weighty sigh as I shake my head. No, this was the only option that didn¡¯t assuredly end badly.


    My instincts tell me that we can make it through this. They also tell me to prepare for a barrage of attacks from the surviving bully frogfolk. In that case, shields up, and enchantment on. Staff is down to around one third power, maybe a quarter, so I don¡¯t have many casts left from it today. Maybe I¡¯m relying on it too much as a crutch. Maybe. Let¡¯s do something a bit hazardous though. I set up the orichalcum sheet from my hyperdimensional haversack. I¡¯ve always got to be careful putting it in and pulling it out, so that I don¡¯t tear the opening. Thankfully the opening has some give, and stretches quite a bit. Setting up my sheet of metal, leaning it against my right bicep, and the right side of my head, I swap my double-barreled wrist crossbow to my left arm, while sliding my buckler further up my left arm.


    Annoyingly, strapping my shield so far up my arm has some drawbacks. It locks my elbow in an extended position, but I¡¯ll have to keep it extended to fire my crossbow anyway. My Valkyrie buckler will offer cover on my left side, while I have total cover on my right side, and can easily transition sideways to have the large sheet of metal against my back. Feeling about as prepared as I can be, as I¡¯m dropping the wall of fire, I enchant myself with telekinesis from the staff simultaneously. As if they¡¯d been waiting for the opportunity, a storm of spears comes sailing my direction.

 B 5 C 60: Circles, Hope

    I could almost laugh. It¡¯s like my life has come full circle, only now, I don¡¯t have anyone to rely on, I just have others relying on me. The last time I was the target of an assault of dozens of poisoned spears by bully frogfolk croaking, ¡°Bully, bully,¡± I had first began learning how to help Lil tether up their evolutionary line to their Lilagnewt form. What I wouldn¡¯t give for a fraction of my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian power to be instantly on demand.


    Instead, I snag several spears out of the air as a cluster, with my telekinesis, and I rotate them perpendicular to the ground, so that I can swipe them hard from side to side, knocking other spears off-kilter. While I¡¯m focusing on that, I try to gently ease it into a mental subroutine, and thankfully I don¡¯t have a brain embolism or anything by doing so. I may have destroyed a significant portion of my multitasking center of my brain, or at least the segment that can maintain simultaneous spells, but at least I can still multitask to some degree. When the telekinesis is working nearly on autopilot, I begin carefully blocking spears that make it past my makeshift rotating barrier, using the Valkyrie buckler on my left arm, while I begin taking shots at the nearly-hidden creatures lurking at the edges of my sensory range.


    Having my eyesight would be really useful right about now. My aura vision doesn¡¯t reveal their locations, sadly. Either they have no auras, or their auras are so muted that it blends in with the natural energy of the landscape. Everything else is just awash with gray. Whatever. My armor is fairly sturdy, my shield and cover are sturdy and provide plenty of protection, and they¡¯ll tire themselves out or have to get in range to pick up their spears to keep attacking me, eventually. I¡¯m not going to risk anything stupid like empowering a lightning rune and shocking the crap out of myself to supercharge a lightning leap. I don¡¯t need to spend any more time unwillingly unconscious, risking yet further injuries and problems with my body and nervous system.


    I¡¯ve created a lot of problems for myself since the last few months of my life on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I went overboard with mana on Lord Deckard Agni¡¯s back, which was the beginnings of my mana residue sickness, and that messed with my head so badly, that I went into one of my worst depressive funks upon returning to my family. I¡ª. I have to end this line of thought.


    I shout a challenge, a single question, one to which I already know the answer, ¡°Why!?¡±


    The response, as if cosmically comically mirroring something from early in my life on Can¡¯z¡¯aas, is, ¡°Croaaweeeaak arreoooaaaak Bully, bully, bullies.¡±


    Sighing, I roll my eyes behind closed lids. Every time. Some people seem to relish the violence, desire it, thrive in it. Some are driven by it, or because of it. I just want it to end. I¡¯m sick of violence, but I almost would rather choose this life of violence, than the one in my memories of Fakeworld. On Fakeworld, there¡¯s corruption, people starving, authorities and people in places of power creating a world that benefited corporations, rather than people. There¡¯s thousands of underprivileged, under-represented, marginalized groups and communities, that have their rights trod upon, and stamped out by those in charge that try to pander to a lowest common denominator voting base. There¡¯s¡ª. This is a really incredibly unproductive line of thought. I honestly can¡¯t tell which is more depressing any longer. Worlds of violence, where I at least have a chance to make things right, get justice for, and protect the weak and innocent, or a world of subtlety and lies, and trickery used to get people to follow leaders that actively strip them of their rights.


    Hey Reggie. Yeah? Could you imagine it? Imagine what? Going there? And doing what? Righting the wrongs, violently, protecting the innocent, marginalized groups, violently, supporting social progress, violently. I¡ª. My fractured psyche at work again. I heave a sigh. Of course I could imagine it. I¡¯m the one posing the question, to myself. Could you imagine it though? Me, in Fakeworld? What a disaster that would be. I¡¯d probably have to swear myself to some sort of hands-off approach. Try to integrate into society, and lay low. What would I even do there? I guess I¡¯d have to find an affordable place to live, food, a source of income, like work, maybe something that could be done in bursts, maybe something that leverages my abilities, like prize-fighting or something. That way, I could devote the rest of my time to trying to find a way home.


    Pft, snrk. I snort as I laugh, accidentally inhaling rainwater, which, thankfully, the neckchain of the ever-breathing prevents from choking me. As I continue to block spears on my shield, and take pot-shots at shapes in the mist with my crossbow, I can¡¯t help laughing at the absurdity of it all. It helps distract my mind from the hurts, the losses. Everything is so stupid, and effed up. No matter where you go, there¡¯s always something wrong. In the Heart of the Wilds? There¡¯s some sort of conspiracy within the courts, that has the neutral party outside of the courts worried. That conspiracy led to muggings that may have also been assassination attempts. I don¡¯t even need to mention what happened in The Brook. Fakeworld is so screwed up, Can¡¯z¡¯aas is undergoing an apocalyptic event. My mindscape is cracked and torn.


    There is no peace, no solace for Reggie Shellcracker anywhere in the universe, is there? Wait. Solace. The Mountains of Solace and Solitude, the realm Drakkheim, at the Spine of the World. The endless torrent of the Medusa falls, that cascade endlessly, despite whatever bitter chill might dominate a given season. Somehow¡ª. Somehow I know, I can find serenity there, in some way, for a time. Is that were Lil is? Where Luni is? Where Lucky is? My breathing quickens, almost in excitement. A direction, a plan. I can almost make myself believe it. A direction, a plan. I gulp, swallowing sticky saliva, before my lips quirk into a wry grin.


    The spears have stopped coming, and a few foolish bully frogfolk are venturing into my sensory range. I¡¯ll let them get closer, get as many within range as possible, as they attempt to sneak in, grab their spears, and lunge at me. I¡¯m almost¡ª. I¡¯m almost happy. I can feel wrath simmering beneath the surface of me, across my entirety of my being, and yet¡ª. Yet I don¡¯t have to fight, or resist it. It stays of its own volition. It knows I¡¯ll act, that I¡¯ll handle this. It knows I¡¯m driven, that I once again have hope. Something planted a destination in my brain, somehow, some vague memory of Rayileklia¡¯s geography sprung into my recollection, and my subconscious snagged on it, lunging at a tidbit of knowledge like a starving animal, convinced by some genre sense.


    Drawing a deep breath, I exhale a slow, smooth sigh, almost a whistle. Now! I drop the orichalcum, and whirl, with my left arm raised, firing a torrent of holy halefire bolts from my double-barreled crossbow, at eye-level for the bully frogfolk. Several lunge at me, either missed by my bolts, in my hasty spin, or protected by bodies of their allies who fell before them. Willing my muscles to cooperate, I flood my cored out nerve pathways with electricity, and leap into a spinning backflip over the nearest bully frogfolk to keep from being surrounded, swarmed. Utilizing telekinesis, I aid my leap, basically granting me a solid segment of air to handspring off of. I land shakily, jitteringly as a jolt rocks me to one side, but I find my footing, despite the slick of the muck beneath my feet. In a matter of moments, I¡¯ve unleashed a torrent of icy rays, and holy halefire crossbow bolts. I snag a cluster of spears with telekinesis, and set them rotating around me, parallel to the ground in an expanding spiral wiping out the rest of the frogfolk contingent with ease.


    I pant for only an instant. The entire fight lasted a mere few minutes, and the lantern on the carriage far behind me is still faintly visible, not signaling, nor even slowing down. It didn¡¯t so much as flicker during the fight, and I haven¡¯t yet signaled them to stop. I don¡¯t need to either. The swampy path is littered with the remains of the fallen bully frogfolk, their once menacing forms now reduced to lifeless corpses. The air is now thick with what I¡¯m sure would be the pungent scent of mud and decay, mingled with the acrid tang of blood. The dark, murky waters of the swamp likely cast a reflection of the grim scene like a distorted mirror, similar to a stop motion horror film, in the brief flashes of light from the lightning overhead.


    The bodies of the bully frogfolk are sprawled haphazardly, their tattered hide armor is muddied and stained with gore. The once hostile creatures now lay defeated, their aggressive postures frozen in death. I almost pity them, almost. I can sense their bulbous eyes, which must now stare blankly into the murky horizon, devoid of life. The scene is a poignant reminder of the fleeting nature of existence, and the inevitable consequences of conflict. It¡¯s something I so dearly wish to avoid, yet I find myself thrown headlong into, again and again and again.


    I busy myself rolling the corpses off of the narrow path, making way for the carriage. I forget whose turn it is, but whoever is driving is fearless, to have kept advancing while I was obviously causing explosions, fireballs, and even a firewall. I want¡ª, no, *have* to believe that the bully frogfolk are the spirits of the swamp, and that a mass of them dying suddenly will cause others to think twice about jumping the refugees to cause further problems. Perhaps I¡¯m wrong, and there are other dangers yet lurking out there, beyond the hydra, or hydras, but I need the comfort of believing that I¡¯ve done my duty for the day, and that the refugees are safe for at least a while longer yet.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    I let myself tune out for a while, enacting the necessary preparations to make the path passable while on auto pilot. I find myself chucking several corpses far into the murk with telekinesis, while physically rolling some just barely off of the path. I¡¯m almost tempted to enact a campaign of fear, and strap some of the corpses to the carriage, to help dissuade further attacks, but the gruesome brutality of the act is something I can¡¯t muster giving any serious thought to. Perhaps just a few spears, dipped in their blood, will be dissuasion enough. Once more, I allow myself to tune out, simply following along with my plans, subconscious and subconscious ones both. I know I take care of my needs, eat, sleep, scout, practice runes, but I don¡¯t think I run into any further trouble.


    I blink in surprise. I¡¯m not certain how long it has been, but the isthmus is ahead, surrounded on all sides by a wrought-iron, or cold-iron fence that must be thirty feet high. Even the massive stone pillars that support the fence, are themselves surrounded by more of the tall bars that stand like spears held at attention. The construction itself is foreboding, like some sort of sentinel, guarding a forbidden realm. I¡¯m beginning to believe the Altross estate might be a safe haven for travelers, with such a massive edifice constructed around it, offering protection.


    Approaching the formidable barrier causes me to balk, and double over in pain. My head swims with agony, as my intestines tie themselves in cramped knots. What¡ª. What¡¯s going¡­ on? My thoughts race about my brain in a jumble. Cold-iron. Fae. Spirits of the swamp at bay. I¡ª. Minutes pass in agony. I think I see a figure at the gate, but I can hardly parse any of my senses beyond pain. I drop to my knees, and it¡¯s only my jerking, jolting movements that throw me occasionally side to side, or front to back, that frees me from the grip of pain. I¡¯m tossed backwards by my own malfunctioning nervous system, and I laugh nervously, appreciating the dumb luck of it all.


    A thin, tall, elderly man, balding, with a combover, wearing overalls over a tuxedo, of all things, stands above me. It appears he had moved from the Altross estate grounds, out through the gate, while I was incapacitated. He wordlessly offers me a hand up, and I take it, grateful as I¡¯m dragged to my feet. He starts to dust me off, but I quickly use legerdemain to cleanse myself of all muck and dust, so as to look presentable. There¡¯s an understanding, appreciative nod from the fellow.


    In the amount of time I was incapacitated, the cart has nearly caught up. The gentleman from the gate holds the gate open, and bids me enter. Warily, I approach the open construction, accepting the invitation, and I breathe a sigh of relief when I¡¯m not beset upon by another wave of insurmountable pain. I blink several times in surprise, as I take in the estate with my eyesight partially recovered. Has it been enough time that it has been recovering without my notice while I was on autopilot, or was it the massive jolt of pain that shook loose something in my cranium? Regardless, I¡¯m grateful for even partial recovery of any of my faculties.


    The fellow with the combover directs me towards the foyer, and I notice a feminine figure standing beyond the window. She stands still as a statue, gazing out upon me, the gate, and eventually beyond it, to the procession of refugees that will slowly become visible over time, as they continue their journey northward. Following the invitation, and direction, I make my way towards the entrance of the grand estate, and to its foyer from within.


    The elderly noblewoman stands regally, her bearing graceful and dignified despite the passage of time. She bears the delicate lines of age upon her face, each telling a story of a life well-lived. Her eyes, though now framed by fine lines and crinkles, still retain their sharpness and intelligence, gleaming with a wisdom that only comes with a lifetime of experiences. Though she stares unblinkingly out the window, her eyes hold the barest twinkle of mischief, as if hinting at the spirited youth that once dwelt within her. Her gaze seems somehow keen and perceptive, a reflection of a sharp mind that had weathered the tests of time. It feels as if she observes far more than just the scene outside the window, as she continues to stare.


    The woman¡¯s skin, though no longer smooth and flawless, carries a softness that speaks of a life well-cared for. Despite her age, she carries herself with an air of grace and poise that almost commands respect. Her posture upright, and her unmoving nature seems almost measured and deliberate, a testament to her refined upbringing and noble lineage. She exudes an aura of elegance and sophistication, as if she was a living embodiment of the bygone era of nobility.


    Her attire is tasteful and refined, befitting her station as a noblewoman. She adorned herself with rich fabrics in muted colors, each carefully chosen to complement her complexion and enhance her natural beauty. Her jewelry, though understated, speaks of her refined taste and discerning eye for elegance.


    I stand in the presence of the elderly woman, and I¡¯m struck for a moment. She doesn¡¯t seem to even acknowledge my presence as she stares out towards the gate. Almost afraid to call attention to myself, to speak beyond my station, I ask, ramblingly, ¡°Would you be, or be related to, um, the dame, or lady of the Altross family? Or um. Do you know a Tabitha Lynnia Altross? Or maybe a woman named Taylynn. I, I think they might be the same person. I¡¯m not sure.¡±


    I gnaw on my lips, worriedly as I furrow my brow. I don¡¯t want to out Taylynn to her family, but her reputation as an independent princessora is probably less important to her than news of Aces¡¯ and Selunie¡¯s deaths. A minute passes with no response, so I try to interject lamely to get the woman¡¯s attention, ¡°Um, maam?¡±


    Without so much as turning to me, she states, ¡°She¡¯s here.¡±


    My heart catches in my throat, then hammers like a drum. Taylynn? Here? I know she loved Aces, and Selunie. Would she, like Tiago, in some small way, project some portion of her feelings for Aces on to me? No, no that¡¯s not important. What¡¯s important is delivering the news of their deaths, giving her the knowledge so that she¡¯s allowed to grieve.


    I plead, ¡°Where? Taylynn¡¯s here? I, I have messages for her, that she really needs to hear.¡±


    The elderly woman¡¯s gaze has continued to stare seemingly beyond me, unflinching, unblinking, as I stand at her side, near the foyer window. I¡¯m beginning to worry that she doesn¡¯t actually know I¡¯m here, and that her responses have just been some sort of dementia.


    In a voice with more authority, and commanding presence than I¡¯d have expected her to possess, the woman orders me, ¡°Show me.¡±


    I balk as my face contorts. It¡¯s such a non-sequitor, that I fumble my words, ¡°Wha¡ª? I¡ª. That¡ª. I was asking you if Tabitha Lynnia Altross was the adventurer known as Taylynn. I was asking you if she was here. I¡ª.¡±


    I sigh, feeling defeated. I¡¯d come all this way, and Taylynn is probably not here. She might not even be alive. She might not even be Tabitha Lynnia. This elderly woman may be delusional in her age, perhaps her loss or grief. I draw a shuddering breath and sigh once more. I thought¡ª. I just thought, maybe a friend, someone who might be able to handle themselves on at least some leg of the journey, some bit of adventure. Or at the very least, deliver the messages of the others¡¯ deaths, so that she would know, so that she could grieve.


    Granny Altross interrupts my train of thought with two words, ¡°The ice.¡±


    Blinking, I try to string together my thoughts and put them back in order. Thinking on it, I try to put her words in order. She¡¯s here, show me the ice. At the very least, she¡¯s aware of the presence of my ice-cubed Teuila. I hasten to acquiesce to her demands, hoping beyond hope that this means something, that I¡¯m not just projecting, or leaping to incorrect conclusions. Utilizing telekinesis, I undo the bindings strapping Teuila to the roof of the carriage, while the groundskeeper seems to be having words with whomever was driving at the time. I can¡¯t recall whose turn it was. Using telekinesis, I carefully bring the massive icy coffin through, into the manor, here, into the foyer. There¡¯s something of a massive circular iron bowl, that looks like perhaps it could be a fire-pit, in the center of the circular room that makes up the foyer, with the large bay window, so I stand Teuila¡¯s icy prison in that.


    The elderly woman gazes over the block of ice containing Teuila¡¯s form, with tears in her eyes. She mumbles, ¡°Tabitha.¡±


    I shake my head, wanting to explain that I didn¡¯t bring a frozen Taylynn corpse with me, but I can¡¯t find words at the moment. My emotions catch in my throat, as I imagine this being the only way I¡¯ll ever interact with Teuila again. The fear rampages through me and I drop to my knees, weeping. I almost had hope. There was almost, almost a hope. Despite my near-overwhelming sadness, my silent sonar catches something odd.


    Elder Altross mutters something, finally speaking more than a few syllables. Parsing what she says, it sounds almost like, ¡°They said she would come to me, one last time. Needing help, one last time.¡±


    Even as I wonder who ¡®They¡¯ are, my silent sonar continues to trace the woman¡¯s movements. The woman, Elder Altross, opens a chamber atop one of her rings, and holds it above her face. A single droplet of liquid spills forth, and lands upon her tongue. Immediately the temperature in the room skyrockets, the center of the thermal fluctuation being in her stomach. I¡¯d almost be worried that she has somehow became a walking bomb, but something tells me that she¡¯s trying to help. The heat roils and bubbles as it rolls up from within her, until it¡¯s unleashed as a long, smooth blast of flame.


    I¡¯m left blinking in shock. Is Granny Altross a dragon in disguise? Can dragon¡¯s fire melt dragon¡¯s ice safely? What about Paulette and the Don? We left them in the Derbrightmine Dominion, and now I regret that.

 B 5 C 61: Dung Give Up Hope Yet

    Elder Altross stumbles, and I¡¯m at her side in an instant, propping her up by the elbow.  Teuila¡¯s prison is half its size, but the elderly woman seems bereft of energy, unable to continue.  I drop my head to my chest, every muscle in my being drooping and sagging.  Thankfully the moisture evaporated, and left through what seems like a hidden chimney that angles out above the foyer¡¯s bay window.  Otherwise it would simply re-form against Teuila¡¯s enchanted prison, wasting what progress Elder Altross¡¯s sacrifice had made.


    The regal woman jerks suddenly away from my support, and heads to a pile of chopped lumber, and begins painstakingly hauling one piece after another into the iron bowl that contains Teuila and her prison.  Is¡ª is she planning to burn Teuila?  Would that even have any effect?


    I stand inbetween Elder Altross, and the bowl on one of her trips, and I beg an answer, ¡°Please, please speak to me.  What are you doing?  The ice is enchanted, the kobolds told me that regular fire wasn¡¯t doing anything.  I don¡¯t want you hurting yourself for no reason.¡±


    Elder Altross licks her exceedingly dry lips, steps around me, and throws another chunk of wood into the bowl.  I sigh as I shake my head.  I maneuver to the wood pile, standing in her way.  I¡¯m not sure if I want to humor her, or if I want to just move on with my journey, or what, at this point.  She shoots me a glare as I stand in her way, so I sigh, and begin stacking wood for her, creating a pyre around Teuila.


    Elder Altross reaches behind the pile of wood, moves something that sounds like a tile, or panel, and pulls out what looks like a cross between a brick of charcoal, and feces.  I scrunch and contort my face, surprised that the refined woman would handle such a disgusting looking object.  She deigns to say, ¡°Dragon dung.¡±


    My jaw drops slightly, and my index finger can¡¯t decide whether to point, or curl back towards my face.  Elder Altross, or Dame Altross, she still hasn¡¯t introduced herself, throws the dragon dung into the center of the pyre.  I guess, maybe that could turn the fire into dragon¡¯s fire?  That¡¯s, well, honestly not a solution I¡¯d have thought to take.  I was thinking of seeing if Lil would be able to thaw out Teuila when we finally reunited, like Lil once thawed me out, after I¡¯d had to freeze myself to save my own life.


    My focus on Teuila¡¯s prison, and my belief in the various hopes and possibilities of freeing her from it, have left my mind filled with uncertainty.  I¡¯d forget conclusions from one moment to the next, maybe come to conflicting conclusions at another time.  I¡¯ve been left reeling.  I don¡¯t know if I can handle the hope.


    Dame Altross fishes out a long box of striking-sticks, matches as it were, ones that are approximately a foot in length.  She pulls forth one of the matches, and sets the box back where it belongs.  With a fluid grace, Dame Altross uses what must be a hidden blade to strike the match, and her thumb simultaneously.  I¡¯d be afraid she accidentally injured herself, if it weren¡¯t for the confidence and intent behind the motion.  She throws the bloody, flaming stick into the fire pit, from a fair distance, and after a moment¡¯s crackling, the pyre roars to life.


    Minutes pass, hours pass.  I flutter between hope and despair, seeing the flames lap haltingly at the ice, seeing the progress slowly work away at the frosty hell that entraps My Wings, Teuila.  I¡¯m worried what will happen to Dame Altross when she realizes this isn¡¯t Taylynn, or Tabitha.  I don¡¯t know if her vision is great, but I can¡¯t imagine Teuila fooling her for long.  I don¡¯t want this poor elderly woman to be alone in her grief and agony, over the loss of her last remaining descendant, if Tabitha never returns, but neither of us have time to spare.  The refugees couldn¡¯t all stay here either.  As sprawling as the estate is, it¡¯s not large enough for the miles and miles of people that are slowly working their way this way.


    Glancing about the room, trying to occupy my mind, to keep from focusing on hope that keeps giving way to crushing despair, I spy a portrait, that is actually a map of the region.  If I¡¯m reading this right, southwest of here is another isthmus, and it bypasses the most dangerous regions of the Jaggedfen Bog.  Is that how Dame Altross came to this estate?  I mean, it must be.  It looks like there are a few that one would have to pass through to get to the west end of the continent.  With that map, and decent bearings, the refugees might be able to make it to Jeegoobotstan unmolested.


    I sigh a bated breath that I hadn¡¯t realized I was holding.  Something might actually go right.  They might be able to make it.  That¡¯s good, because it¡¯s only three days until September, and there¡¯s far too much swampland, marshland, and bog to cover, to seek out the hydra, or hydras.  My expiry is looming dangerously close, so much so that I¡¯m not sure I should be waiting here, watching ice slowly dripping away from the massive block containing Teuila.  The season will soon begin to turn, and when it does, I die.


    I¡¯m something like two weeks stalwart travel from the location that cropped up in my mind, Drakkheim, the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, the Medusa Falls.  Closer to two and a half, from my current position.  It¡¯s about two weeks from the north edge of the worst of the swamplands.  Even with my death looming, and my soul being torn between hope and despair, my mind drifts to other problems, other issues, other friends and loved ones.  Tiktik hasn¡¯t been showing the signs of recovery that she should.  Her injuries seem almost cursed.  Hellga has been showing appropriate recovery, but she¡¯s traumatized, barely functional when she¡¯s awake.


    My eyes wet with tears as I imagine what I¡¯m going to have to suggest to Tiktik.  I hate myself for it.  I don¡¯t want to separate from our amazing new companion, but we haven¡¯t made enough progress, the refugees need as much protection as they can get, and if she can¡¯t heal, she needs a support network that she can¡¯t get while traversing marshy wastelands and region after region.  Dippy, Dippy¡¯s animal companions, Scrap, Miza, and Miza¡¯s son might be able to take out a hydra, working together, maybe put one down, possibly.  I should leave the waterlit candle with them, so they can use it like a stick of dynamite.  That would help keep a hydra down, keep it from regenerating, if an ever-burning candle was lit in the gassy muck beneath the swamp beneath it.  But if there¡¯s more than one, managing to halt their regeneration could be tricky, let alone fighting them simultaneously.  Tiktik could do it.  At least, she could do it at peak health.  She¡¯s basically an arch-sorceress.


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    Tiktik isn¡¯t at peak health though.  She doesn¡¯t seem like she may ever be again.  Maybe she¡¯ll try to be optimistic about it, joke about living in a wizard¡¯s tower in the rebuilt city of Alta Vista, serving as its protector from afar.  Maybe she¡¯ll try to play it off as not goodbye, pretending that she believes I¡¯ll come back, that I¡¯ll succeed.  Heck, maybe she does believe I¡¯ll succeed, and survive.  I would definitely return to see her again some day, preferably sooner rather than later.  Maybe she¡¯ll insist she¡¯s coming with though.  I can see that.  The hope in her eyes, the determination, with a hint of mischief glinting at their edges.


    I can¡¯t stand staring at this icy prison, seemingly making no significant progress in melting any longer, so I bow to Dame Altross, and excuse myself.  I¡¯d hate myself if I wasn¡¯t there if and when Teuila broke free, but it could very well be a day yet at this rate.  Although, the rate should actually increase as the volume of the enchanted ice decreases.  Still, calculating that out in a paused moment between moments, I¡¯ve got a minimum of three hours at the earliest to see the effects of the ice being reduced down to Teuila¡¯s personal volume.  I need to find Tiktik, and apologize for being on autopilot, and explain what happened, why Teuila shut down, and why I shut down.


    Thankfully, it doesn¡¯t take long.  Tiago had the sick and the wounded moved to near the fore of the procession, so that he could be closer to me and the carriage.  I step into his embrace willingly, without speaking.  Sighing for a moment, I shake my head when he tries to speak.  I ask one word, ¡°Tiktik?¡±


    Tiago points to one of the canvas-covered stretchers, a bit like a mobile mini-tent, and he strokes my back before letting me leave his embrace.  I think towards the tent, hoping Tiktik is awake, and able to join me in thinkspace.


    A grinning avatar appears in my mindscape, rambunctious, playful, no signs of the lingering injuries that are keeping her bedridden.  Tiktik¡¯s gorgeous orange ponytail catapults her towards my mental avatar, as she calls out, ¡°Tiger!¡±


    I chuckle, catching her, and my mental avatar falls sprawling on the grassy hillock in my mindscape for my troubles.  I draw a deep breath, and sigh, trying to focus on the moment, to focus on the renewed hopes.  I don¡¯t want to think about the fact that my expiration date could be as near as three days from now.


    Tiktik pouts, and sniffles, reading my thought train.  She asks, ¡°Really, it¡¯s that close?  I¡¯ve been out of it for weeks?¡±


    I nod, explaining, ¡°Yeah, we left Autumn Brook in the middle of August, and it¡¯s the end of August.  I¡¯m worried that you¡¯re still not even healed from the injuries you took in Autumn Brook, let alone the exacerbation caused by the ice dragon.  I thought maybe you were recovering on the way to the gap, but I guess I was wrong.¡±


    Tiktik continues pouting in response, before commenting, ¡°I don¡¯t get it.  I usually bounce back a lot faster than this.  You seem okay physically Tiger, how are your injuries?¡±


    I do a cursory examination of my physical self, and I have to nod.  I do seem to be pretty much in peak physical condition again already, other than the cored out nerve pathways.  I¡¯m still trying to learn how to deal with them, or if I should try to find some way to fix them.  I¡¯ve been slowly learning to cycle out corrupted mana residue through them, at least from newer spells and runes that I practice.  If I¡¯d had them at the start, if I had been doing this from the start, I could be an archmage, without the death sentence hanging over my head.


    Tiktik frowns and nudges my telepathic avatar, as her physical self sits up, to wrap her arms around my waist, where I sit next to her, at the edge of her stretcher.  I wrap an arm around her absentmindedly as well, feeling the swirling storm of emotions being temporarily held at bay from this small act of comfort.  I kiss her forehead, and lean my head to the left, to rest it atop hers, while her face is buried in my chest.


    I start, ¡°So, you were there.  You saw Teuila frozen, if you were conscious, or you¡¯ve figured it out by now, either through chatter, or talking to Tiago, or listening in to my broken mental wavelengths, I¡¯m sure.  But before that, when Teuila shut us out, it¡ª.¡±


    I gulp, in meat space and thinkspace simultaneously.  Kitten gently prompts, ¡°Take your time Tiger.  It¡¯s okay.  You¡ª.  I want to be here for you, for the time we have left.¡±


    I nod, blinking away the tears that we the rims of my eyelids, blurring my only-recently-recovered vision.  I have to gulp back sticky saliva, and sniffle, as I try to recall how it went down, ¡°I had joined Teuila in the driver¡¯s seat of the carriage, or she brought us out to it, um, the kobolds, there were kobolds being pressganged, forced to try to dig in to their warrens, by the black and white dragon couple.  Olashax and Astridus I think.  Astridus flew away, probably pretty certain that Olashax would just destroy us.  She um, she¡¯s definitely the woman in black, who hurt Daffodil.  Her shapechanging is fast, and incredibly potent.  Her dress, um, coverings, were actually her scales I think.  Uh¡ª.  Anyway.  There was a mix of kobolds, some that seemed to willingly follow Olashax¡¯s orders, and desires, others that were innocents from The Gap kobolds warren, who must have already been caught, before Miza could start sealing off the warrens completely.¡±


    I rattle my skull, shaking it side to side rapidly for a moment, breathing a quick, huffy sigh before continuing, ¡°Teuila dodged a blast of frost, and then, glp, she, she attacks by leaping.  All her acceleration happens the instant she leaves the ground, she¡¯s incredibly accurate, and incredibly fast.  The dragon, Olashax was faster.  He¡ª.  Glp.  He picked up innocent kobolds, and held them in Teuila¡¯s path.  She shattered his hand, but was showered in the gore of the innocents.¡±


    Tiktik gasps, ¡°Oh gods¡ª.  Poor Big Tee.  No wonder.¡±


    I nod.  I¡¯m not sure I need to say any more, but I might as well finish it, ¡°Te broke down, she crumpled in on herself, her confidence shattered.  She just slumped there, defeated, and Olashax was going to eat her, but I blasted his eyeball out with lightning, hurting him enough that he thought it wise to retreat.  I don¡¯t remember if he swatted Teuila before or after, I think it was after.  He hit her so hard, that she flew hundreds of feet into the opposite canyon wall.  I think it was only by the grace of some vestiges of her powers that she didn¡¯t simply splatter there.


    I draw a deep breath, and shudderingly sigh before continuing, ¡°I stunned or killed the rest of the kobolds with lightning, and passed out, from improperly empowering an elemental rune in a non-spelliform manner.  Dippy and his canines and lupines rescued us.  So, um, yeah, that¡¯s where we were.  You seemed to wake up inside the cave where we¡¯d been rescued to, and Teuila still hadn¡¯t even really had a chance to process.¡±


    I gulp back a sob, feeling the tears streaming free, ¡°She¡ª.  She didn¡¯t even get a chance, and then, glp, then the dragons were waiting for us, in the Derbrightmine Dominion.  With her confidence shattered, she hesitated, but was also reckless.¡±


    Tiktik nods, and squeezes me tighter.  She mutters, ¡°Thank you Tiger.  Thank you for telling me.  I¡¯m so, so, so sorry.  I¡¯m so very sorry.  No wonder you¡¯ve been out of touch.  Days, just a few days left, and all this happens.  I don¡¯t want to lose you both, but you¡¯re going to tell me to stay with them, aren¡¯t you?  You¡¯re going to tell me to stay with them, protect them, while you hunt dragons.¡±


    My jaw hangs slightly slack.  I can scarcely bring myself to nod, in my sadness, but I do nod, ever so haltingly, shudderingly.

 B 5 C 62: Retrocognition

    Tiktik and I are silently crying in each other¡¯s arms, in meat space and thinkspace. I want to ask if she wants to join me in the Altross manor. I haven¡¯t even told her yet that Dame Altross has been seemingly making progress thawing Teuila¡¯s icy prison.


    Tiktik gasps, ¡°She what? That¡¯s great news! Isn¡¯t it?¡±


    I flash a furtive half-smile while nodding, ¡°Yeah, yeah I think so. The kobolds said they tried normal fire, and it wasn¡¯t working, any water that melted away was instantly re-frozen. Dame Altross seemed to have a stash of things that could cause dragon¡¯s fire, or something near it at least. She barely acknowledged that I was there at all, except when I stood in her way. I feel a bit bad about it, knowing she was trying to help, but I¡¯m worried that she thinks Teuila is her descendant, Tabitha. I don¡¯t know how this is going to shake out. She might have some belongings that have magic, she might lash out.¡±


    Recalling something she said, I conjecture, ¡°She said *they* told her Tabitha would come one last time, that Tabitha would need her help, one last time. She seemed ready for the ice, and knew it was there before it was uncovered, since it was lashed to the top of the wagon, tightly covered to prevent extra rain from just adding to its mass. That¡¯s¡ª. That¡¯s weird, right? That¡¯s like clairvoyance, or prescience, or divination.¡±


    Tiktik nods emphatically, so I continue my conjecture, ¡°If she had some sort of foresight into the matter, wouldn¡¯t she¡ª. The Sisters. The Sisters told her what she needed to hear, to be ready to help us. Did they trick her into thinking Teuila is Tabitha? Or¡ª. We chose kindness, and they responded in turn. How much of our journey is being guided by them? By the thing they serve?¡±


    Tiktik furrows her brow as she responds, ¡°I don¡¯t know Tiger. Can¡¯t honestly say. I¡¯ve heard about them, obvee, never really had cause to seek them out, interact. I mean, everyone dreams about it once in a while, some problem that you just don¡¯t have an answer for, some mysteries in your life solved by mysterious cuckoo ladies that know everything, see everything, give you the answer you seek. Don¡¯t you think they¡¯d know if they were helping you out just to put you at risk? If they thought this far ahead, or maybe not ahead, but saw your journey, and figured a way to help you out?¡±


    Drawing a deep breath, I sigh. I ponder for a while before answering, ¡°Maybe, maybe you¡¯re right. Something nags me about the situation though. My head¡¯s all muddled, between despair, hopelessness, hope, grief, fear, anxiety, dread, anger, going on autopilot for weeks, I just can¡¯t keep a conclusion straight. I could swear I learned some things. Something that would put this into perspective. It¡¯s like, there was a conclusion given life, by some train of thought, then snuffed out, like a candle¡ª. The candle. Lives. Past lives.¡±


    My pulse quickens and my vision narrows. It tunnels to a pinprick, and my focus drifts backwards and forwards, dizzying me. Tabitha is Taylynn. Taylynn is Teuila. We can¡¯t allow her to remember, or she dies. How do I know this? Why do I know this? This¡ª. This can¡¯t be real. This¡ª Ow! Ow my brain! Wait, no, no! This one¡¯s impor¡ª Agh! I think I¡¯m screaming in agony, but I don¡¯t know why, I can¡¯t understand where I am, or what I was thinking about. The pain itself is a screaming agony that rockets its way around the inside of my cranium, bouncing off the walls of the lobes of my brain. I think I might be panting with exhaustion, but I can¡¯t make heads or tails of my senses.


    Tiktik, cradling me as I slump against her begs, ¡°Tiger? Tiger what¡¯s going on? You were talking about coming to conclusions, and remembering things one second, then your head¡¯s going all explodey with pain the next. Reggie? Focus, focus. Look at me. You¡¯re okay. Whatever it is, you¡¯re okay. Shhh, it¡¯s okay.¡±


    I blink away pained tears as the agony slowly subsides. All I know is that I need to get to Teuila¡¯s side, soon. Tiktik nods as she wraps her arms around my neck, and sits across my arms. I carefully scooch my way out of the shallow, covered stretcher, and rise to my feet.


    Tiago stands nearby, wearing an expression of impatience, as he demands, ¡°And just where do you think you¡¯re taking my patient, the young miss Clocktok?¡±


    Tiktik giggles, and Tiago can¡¯t keep up the facade as his countenance becomes one of jest. I wear a half smile that doesn¡¯t reach my eyes, trying to enjoy the humor of my friends as Tiktik responds, ¡°I¡¯m older than you Santiago. Maybe twice or three times your age, I forget, and lost count.¡±


    Tiago smirks, and snorts a single half laugh, before responding, ¡°Well you don¡¯t look a day over twenty five Tiktik. Reggie, look after her, make sure she doesn¡¯t get into any trouble or move around too much, those ribs of hers aren¡¯t healing properly. Bring her back straight away if she complains of any new pains. You my dear, *tell* Reggie if anything else starts to hurt. That¡¯s an order.¡±


    Tiktik smarts off in response, ¡°Yes sir mister doctor sir!¡± before giggling.


    Even I can¡¯t help laughing a bit at the snarkiness of it, as Tiago shakes his head with a closed-eyed smile. Since I have Tiktik in my arms, I can¡¯t hug Tiago on my way out, so I satisfice with gently bumping his bicep with my forehead on the way past. Afterwards, I rush past our carriage, waddling erratically as I carry Tiktik in a modified princess-carry while she snuggles against my collarbone, clinging to my neck. Thankfully we¡¯re already inside the grounds, so we don¡¯t need to worry about whatever spell or power that affects the exterior of the gate, that causes immense pain to Fae.


    Dame Altross is standing with poise, and grace, her hands folded atop one another, her arms hanging low and even. She¡¯s still staring at the icy prison containing My Wings, and its thawing is starting to pick up speed, as there¡¯s less volume of ice to melt. I¡¯m still concerned that one hunk of dragon dung, and a bunch of wood won¡¯t be enough, or that we¡¯ll get to a point where we end up broiling Teuila within the ice. The anxiety of it, and the hope fighting the despair within me, leaves me jittery as heck. Actually, my silent sonar indicates Dame Altross is pained too, her legs are faintly trembling, her back vibrates as the muscles strain to keep her poised.


    Casting my senses about the nearby rooms, I alight on several luxurious chairs, and without asking permission, I float the most comfortable-seeming one through the rooms, towards Dame Altross with telekinesis. I want to get used to utilizing this power, make it second nature, a part of me. It soon will be. Dame Altross remains expressionless for a moment, then glances down at the chair, and casts a glare my way momentarily, before the faintest of smiles crosses her face, and she sits in it. Taking that as permission, I bring another chair into the room for myself, sitting as near the roaring fire as I safely can without setting Tiktik on fire.


    Dame Altross clucks, seemingly in disapproval, at my, I don¡¯t know, impropriety I guess. I know she¡¯s not entirely snobbish, since she helped Tabitha become Taylynn, by way of getting her out of etiquette lessons and into fencing lessons. I also know that she worked her way up, with cunning, investing, and social graces. Still, for some reason, I have a distaste for nobility, or ¡°the ruling class¡± as it were. Life might be better in the upper crust, but I¡¯d hate myself, if the me that I am today, woke up tomorrow in some world where nobility matters, and I was suddenly part of some crapsack dickish royal family. Huff, sighing, I try to distract myself from this unproductive line of thinking.


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    In a manner, it¡¯s amazing how many things I can think about simultaneously, or how many things I can put on autopilot. Or, well, could. I lament the damage I¡¯ve done to that portion of my brain, breaking the rules of magic, operating as a battlefield tactician, manually supplying all the thought power to both keep the mana conjured into constructs, as well as the thought power to grant them a semblance of will, and the ability to react. I sigh again as I wonder if I¡¯ll ever recover from that damage, or the cored-out nerve pathways. My face droops when a realization dawns on me. It might be pointless to worry about whether or not I¡¯ll recover. I could die in as few as three days.


    It¡¯s around a week or so of travel to get back to The Gap, and there¡¯s no guarantees that Astridus and Olashax are still there. I¡ª. I think I¡¯m going to stick to my plan, my direction, and just hope that if I reduce my activeness to almost nothing, that I can live long enough to reunite with Lil. A plan, a direction. Stick to it Reggie. But wait. Go back a tick. The Gap, the Derbrightmine Dominion. It was sealed up. Paint a picture in your mindscape, take a moment between moments, slow time to a crawl. Walk through the scene.


    The stony chasm walls loom near perfectly vertically til they join the mountainsides themselves, stretching above Rayileklia¡¯s ceaseless cloud cover. There are a handful, no, several dozen buttes in the area, roughly anywhere from fifty to a hundred fifty feet tall, giving clearance for the dragons to sit atop some without being in danger of being in range of the cloud cover. The dragons had had kobold minions, ones that weren¡¯t from The Gap kobold warrens that I knew of. Turn, look that way. During a flash of lightning, there¡¯s a shadow cast by the edge of the rock chasm in a roughly rectangular shape, only a few feet high.


    Extrapolate what you didn¡¯t see, an area you didn¡¯t move to. It¡¯s the edge of a tunnel wall, an entrance. Trace out the layout of the interior of the Derbrightmine Dominion. This tunnel would have led into the murder holes, perfect for ambushing anyone who¡¯d still been stationed there. Breathe deep, sigh slowly. Close your eyes. Feel the absence of time. Paint a portrait of the layout of the city itself, the avenues of attack. Recall areas that had been sealed off, where your scrying censor was shunted out of solid rock. The kobolds had a geokinetic, or geomancer. At least, before the Derbrightmine Dominion assault. The kobolds in service to Astridus and Olashax lost members, many members. The Don would have fought conventionally with a show of force. Paulette would have been the one to spot a priority target, and take it out.


    The dragons would have had to be in humanoid guise to enter the Derbrightmine Dominion¡¯s city through the small tunnel, but I don¡¯t know if they¡¯re any less durable in that form. Hell, they might be more durable if they maintain their mass, and increase in density by shrinking. They apparently maintain enough of their breath weapons to at least destroy buildings. Astridus didn¡¯t stay to fight us when we first arrived, she thought us inconsequential, and was bored. Perhaps she¡¯d used her breath weapon too many times, trying to melt through the stone that Miza kept conjuring. Focus, go back to the dwarves. Frannie would have been hidden away somewhere, recovering, under the strictest of guard, deep, sealed off, either manually, or by a dwarven geomancer. Because the Don was somewhere close to the front lines, and Paulette with him, the battle was lost in a matter of moments, the dragons had what they wanted. The trophy signifying the punishment for crossing Terrorzin. That means that dwarven families in the northern and southernmost quarters of the cities, may still be alive, if they didn¡¯t explicitly join the fighting.


    I begin to pant with exertion, straining my brain, picturing the series of events. Using educated guesses to paint a retrocognitive picture is almost like having psychometry about the events. When I¡¯m able to think about a location, I can picture it from every angle I¡¯ve ever viewed it at, and somehow put together an overhead map view, whenever I recall it. I recall parts of the Cragbeast warrens, those that I wasn¡¯t on autopilot for. I recall the way to the room with the cervid skull carving in the beaver dam¡¯s subsurface tunnel structures. I recall the paths we took when scouting for livable regions¡ª.


    Why did the humans agree to not harvest the ancient arbor on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? I remember that being a sticking point, but I didn¡¯t learn until far, far later how important the trees were, that they are like batteries, and filters, for the very lifestream of the planet, all at once. Why did anyone do anything that I suggested? I know I used threat of violence in a lot of cases, but when they started cooperating¡ª. Where was I going with my thoughts? Oh, right, the dwarves. I¡¯d give it sixty five percent odds that there¡¯s at least half the dwarves still alive in the Derbrightmine Dominion, Frannie included. I¡¯d probably say seventy five percent odds that there are around forty or more percent of the dwarves left alive. About eighty five percent odds that there¡¯s at least a quarter of their population still alive.


    Dang it. That¡¯s still a significant chunk of people that are in danger, who may or may not know about the tunnel that was opened up. I mean, they have to have assumed a tunnel was opened up, but they might not have found its location. I wonder if I can get word to them somehow, so they can seal it off, while still continuing on my journey. Would Dippy be willing to go, or to send his animal friends with a letter? Could I contact the Sisters, and have them contact someone? Maybe the dwarves have already sealed it off, since we were in The Gap. It doesn¡¯t sit right with me to not at least attempt to pass on the information though. I¡¯ll try to put some thought into how to try to get a message out later. Before I die. Hopefully.


    With this attempt at retrocognition, I can picture an approximation of the battle playing out. For example, the kobolds¡¯ surprise at the first volley of firearms, taking down a dozen or more of their front line before they scatter for cover. The corpses strewn about, littering the main thoroughfare, their reptilian blood staining the impeccably carved stonework. The fear in their eyes, caught between the dragons and the dwarves, knowing they have to advance, or suffer certain death. That choice to begin terrorizing the civilians, working their way through the city towards the rear, if the civilians hadn¡¯t been evacuated further within the dominion, to some abandoned ancient level within. The kobolds¡¯ geokinetic creating cover as they advanced on the dwarves, and Paulette finding a vantage to take him out, while the Don and the Capos kept firing. The horror on all of their faces when they realized the massive range on the mighty breath weapons of the dragons. Dragons that had gotten in too close to ward off.


    Why did I jump into paused time again? Right, I need dragonforces, and I was trying to determine if Astridus and Olashax would still be in The Gap, so I was putting together a timeline. Terrorzin wants something, is afraid of something, and is sending out dragons that haven¡¯t been seen since ages long past. There has to be a reason dragons aren¡¯t seen all over, that they aren¡¯t constant news in every town we¡¯ve been through. More than just their shapeshifting ability. Perhaps Astridus and Olashax are exiles? No, no they wouldn¡¯t be. They were sent to make an example out of Don Derbrightmine. That means they have a home to return to, wherever the dragons live on Rayileklia. If they¡¯re covetous of their hoards, their homes, and perhaps annoyed at having lost their kobold followers, they¡¯ll likely return home to grouse, lick their wounds, and then perhaps seek out me and Teuila.


    If only I were certain I could live that long. It¡¯s one more step though in the plan. Keep adding to the plan, following through on the direction. Drop out of this paused thinkspace though, you¡¯re giving yourself a headache. Oh, right. Still, if this retrocognition ability that I made up is remotely accurate at all, if I¡¯m able to pick apart events that likely happened that I wasn¡¯t even a part of, based on a shadow I saw in passing¡ª. Could this be part of my power? Filling in the gaps, the absence of information? Huh. That¡ª. That could be incredibly useful. Especially with the ability to pause, or nearly pause time. I would never have to wonder, ¡°What the hell just happened!?¡± in a battle. My mental avatar strokes its chin whilst I ruminate on the possibilities to illuminate all actualities and elucidate myself in paused realities.

 B 5 C 71: Insides

<div>

 B 5 C 73: Drop

    Her voice rings out with a clarity that snaps me to attention, startling me from my daze, ¡°Honestly Err, we need to stop making a habit out of this.¡± There¡¯s a playful, jovial nature to her tone, but she¡¯s also sniffling, and fighting back sobs.


    She¡¯s right. We shouldn¡¯t make a habit of fleeing into rivers. We¡¯re cold, and damp, and she¡¯s pretty banged up from the rocks and logs we¡¯d bumped into. I¡¯m fairly certain my clothes are ripped, and that I¡¯ve got scrapes on most of the surfaces of my body. I had tried to shield her body from the worst of it with mine. She got jostled as I kept her wrapped in my arms, but I got scraped and banged and even stabbed a bit from the various debris in the river. It wouldn¡¯t have been worth it to fight for our food though, or to even stick around. I¡¯d take a thousand scrapes to protect her from even just one, to keep her smiling, to keep her safe and alive.


    I almost offer, ¡°We could go back,¡± but I know that she¡¯d shake her head. I know she would understand that I meant back to where it all began, where we fled from. She would know I didn¡¯t mean the campsite we were making use of. She trusted me, and we ran away. She still trusts me, and believes it was the right choice. She won¡¯t talk about it, but ever since that day, we¡¯ve been preparing, and running. We prepared to run, then we ran. I don¡¯t know when we¡¯ll stop, or how we¡¯ll even keep making it, but she¡¯s determined to follow me, to accompany me, and she¡¯s positive we chose correctly.


    All I want in the whole world is to keep her safe, and smiling. I don¡¯t remember ever having a friend before her. Everything is fuzzy, I don¡¯t remember much before that day at the river at all. A few weeks, maybe a couple of months at most, and even those are mostly a blur of sameness. I can¡¯t keep thinking about it, or my brain starts to hurt. I think I¡¯m a teenager, and I¡¯m missing the better part of the first decade of my life in memories. I rattle my skull, trying to shake loose this train of thought that inevitably leads nowhere.


    She scootches closer, and wraps her arms around me, pulling my arms about her for warmth in the process. We need to dry off, and find another hiding place. Sitting in the crinkly, fallen autumn leaves in freezing wet clothes isn¡¯t doing us any favors. Sitting where we might be visible to park rangers, or hikers, due to the lack of foliage, and the brightness with the lack of canopy isn¡¯t doing us any favors. But being held by her, as she smiles through her own sobs, it¡¯s worth it to wait a while. I¡¯ll protect her. I have to. It¡¯s the only thing that matters.


    ¡ª¡ª The non orders me, ¡°Stop clawing, stop scratching. These are not yours, and you will die if you continue to grasp at them! Survive, fight, free yourself! Free me.¡±

 B 5 C 87: Reggies Somethings

    My Runic Costs/SP Costs when quickening casts:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Double the rune/point or "sorc point" as Bud calls them cost of spells up to 33 runes in length / 33 SP to cast them in 1-10 seconds time. Triple the cost of spells up to 66, quadruple the cost of spells up to 99</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Casting in 10-30 seconds, double up to 66 SP, triple up to 132, quadruple up to 198</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Casting in 30-50 seconds, double up to 99 SP, triple up to 198, quadruple up to 297</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Casting in 50-70 seconds, double up to 132 SP, triple up to 264, quadruple up to 396</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 70-90 seconds, double up to 165 SP, triple up to 330, quadruple up to 495</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 90-110 seconds, double up to 198 SP, triple up to 396</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 110-130 seconds, double up to 231 SP, triple up to 462</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 130-150 seconds, double up to 264, triple up to 528</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 150-170 seconds, double up to 297, triple up to 594</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 170-190 seconds, double up to 330, triple up to 660</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 190-210 seconds, double up to 363, triple up to 726</li>


    </ul>


    My Spells mastered/currently studying:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Frost Ray,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Prestidigitative Legerdemain,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Light,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Mending,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/05 runes mastered: Splatter of Acid</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Scrying, Seemingly able to do this with physical runecrafting on a surface, not costing my own S P</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Ghostly Steeds, Seemingly they do not require my own Sorc Points when these runes are crafted.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>12/24 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct III</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Summon Swarm.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>24/24 runes mastered: Telepathic Bond,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>08/24 runes mastered: Blast Frost</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Conjuration.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/33 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct V</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/33 runes: Steely Body,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Evocation,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>48/48 runes mastered: Permanency-enhancement.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/64 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VI</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/99 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VII</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/180 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VIII</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/360: Theoretically a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct IX should exist.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/06 runes mastered: Gusty Wind,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/24 runes mastered: Squall Wall,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>15/33 runes mastered: Detect Thoughts,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>012/330 runes mastered: Prescient Moment.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Growth/Reduction.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Fireball.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Lightning Bolt.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>02/33 runes mastered: Hailstorm.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>042/128 runes mastered: Dispellation.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/33 runes mastered: Minor History.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Ghostly Hand.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>06/66 runes mastered: Bypassed-Wall.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>99/99 runes mastered: Telekinesis.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Incendiary Web.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Firewall.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>003/660 runes mastered: Planar Traversal, Ugh, I truly, truly hope that we get enough peaceful time for me to study, master, and take apart this spell. It¡¯s our first solid lead on returning to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, sort of. We still don¡¯t know if we¡¯re on different planes of a reality, or in different realities entirely, or what.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>07/33 runes mastered: Spectral Lock.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>06/33 runes mastered: Spectral Knock.</li>


    </ul>


    My Permanent Effects:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Aura sensing(Detection of magic, souls, and runes)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Telepathic Bond (Currently with Teuila only, bound sentient artifacts can come along for the ride, will try to add Luni, Lil, and Lucky.)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Comprehension of all written Languages</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Quickening of runotypical spells metamagic available</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>I¡¯m fairly worried that I¡¯ve destroyed something within my brain. Conjuration spells just feel like they¡¯re going to be harder even just thinking about their runes now. Everything in me aches whenever I think about them, and my nose starts to bleed. Not exactly a buff, but an effect I need to remain aware of.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Telekinesis, x2. I can create and maintain two telekinetic grips simultaneously, permanently. I¡¯ll be working to get them into subconscious subroutines, so that they¡¯ll work for me even when I¡¯m asleep.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Retrocognition. I can pause time, and, with some difficulty, perfectly recall recent sensory details, to paint a picture in my own mindscape. My mindscape is the only thing active during this paused time, and I can really only analyze things that have occurred, though I can make best guesses as to the future, but that doesn¡¯t take paused time to do. I¡¯m unable to affect anything outside my body, during the paused time.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Technically integrated lightning. I should have counted my reflex-enhancing electrokinesis before. Now it may be too late to count it. I may have gone overboard. I¡¯m not sure such thorough nerve damage is recoverable even for Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin-adjacents.</li>


    </ul>


    My Current Equipment:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Danger Wraps</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Billowy Cloak</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Hyperdimensional Haversack</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Enchanted scrollcase</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Archsorc Staff.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Griffon Figurine, Apheliotes Zephyrus, I think I accidentally left him with Tiktik and the carriage. No big deal.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Cap of Disguising Illusions.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Portable Hole (in my enchanted Scrollcase from Berinon)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Blessed anti-vampire, silvered stake (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Holy Halefire wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Full Valkyrie armor set + <del>dagger</del> and <del>buckler</del>, kite shield</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Pied Pipes of Rodent summoning</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Neckchain, no need to announce what this does amongst present company.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Starmetal Luckrock. This is for Lil, period. Straight up.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x <del>healing potion</del> We used this one on Daffodil. Teuila has the last one in existence as far as we¡¯re aware.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>3x Minor Water Walking Potions.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>undisclosed/unidentified minor equipment from Milbert, as well as several unidentified potions from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that Reggie, uh, I withdrew upon arriving on Rayileklia.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>2x mysterious energy cells Eventually I¡¯ll figure out what these are so that they¡¯re understood, I swear.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Always-smoking bottle. I think Tiktik might have it though.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x <del>Partially broken thunderstick of elemental lightning</del> Fully broken now, and integrated into my body. It hurts to think about. Literally.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Box-like book left by the Sisters of the Mist within our Carriage. In haversack. Do not open until having collected 16 evil elder dragon hearts to consume their dragonforce. If I even live that long. I wonder what sort of knowledge is contained within. Maybe their bubble scrying spell?</li>


    </ul>


    My Current Sentient Artifact Attunement:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds. Bud, oh Bud I hope you¡¯re okay.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Requiem, the Silent Song (Shared with Teuila)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark (Shared with Teuila)</li>


    </ul>

 B 5 C 92: Intrusion

    The uncharismatic, uncaring woman clucks her tongue in disappointment as she literally looks down her nose at me slumped in a chair opposite her across her desk. She comments on my lowly state, ¡°Tsk tsk. I must say, I expected more from a class three.¡±


    Unable to help myself, due to my training, I ask, ¡°May I speak in my defense sir?¡±


    Birdbeak McGee here decides to insult me further, ¡°No you may not, and I know you¡¯ve sir drilled into your thick skull, but you will address me as ma¡¯am.¡±


    I grit my teeth to respond, ¡°Yes ma¡¯am.¡±


    Her honorable malarkey gob continues gabbing, ¡°The disciplinary committee will pass judgment soon enough. Honestly, opening your ship to the vacuum of space after an illegal reactivation of proprietary tech. I find it humorous that you set yourself on fire, perhaps in some poetic justice, they shall pick such a suitable punishment for you. A member of our military¡ª.¡±


    Since it¡¯s the reactivation that¡¯s getting me in trouble, I grump as I correct, ¡°Ex-member.¡±


    The death-glare I receive tells me that I¡¯m only digging myself a deeper grave, but I could barely care less at this point. I lost most of my team, my crew, good friends that day. I didn¡¯t realize they¡¯d be able to track the reactivation of my psi-blade, plasma blade sidearm. Me being a Psi-E is what got the rest of my crew out of that mess alive. Me being a Psi-E hardly matters without the special tech in the plastimetal sidearms. Without them, the fact that I have some sort of energy portal in my brain doesn¡¯t matter in the slightest. I¡¯m just a normal person. Fit, from military training, sure, but that¡¯s hardly noteworthy, especially against creeps like the Nedzeds, those ungodly morphs, the Galconners, most any space pirate, hell, most any other spacefaring species.


    I try not to roll my eyes as I sigh, disheartened by the whole mess. I understand why I¡¯m in trouble. It¡¯s pretty much exactly what they feared could happen after decommissioning G-Con 3 psi-ops. Any one of us still alive, with access to our tech, could become a planetary-scale threat, given enough time. The idea doesn¡¯t interest me in the slightest, but for the merest risk, I¡¯m going to face the harshest punishment, to set an example.


    What¡¯s worse? I¡¯d do it all again, in a heartbeat. To save those few lives left in my crew? Joshua lived for a while after at least, but losing his leg was rough on him, he died while getting treatment. Cap, well, she was banged up but good, but she toughed it out, came to the rescue as I was spacing the suckers. Morris, Ramirez, and Kentucky were all already dead when I spaced the cargo bay. Still, it feels awful having left their bodies to rot out in the vac. Adelaide, Jones, and Bishop were all okay. Youngest of the crew, and you wouldn¡¯t believe it, asleep in their quarters for most of the whole shebang. Yeah, any punishment¡¯s fine, as long as they¡¯re safe. They¡¯re good kids, and Cap is the best of us. Maybe I¡¯ll get one of those scenes from the old Earth cinema, ¡°Hanged by the neck until dead.¡±


    Prissy mcwhatsit here wears a surprised expression on her face as she receives a communique. Here it is, here comes my punishment. I¡¯ll accept whatever it is. She starts out, ¡°Apparently, G-Con Three is being reinstated, and your retirement is being revoked. You will have committed no crime, since it will not have been a decommissioned piece of equipment, and you¡¯ll be leading the newest batch of Psi-Es.¡±


    I let the words hang heavy in the air. The worst possible punishment. They got me. Hell, I¡¯d rather they tortured me and sent me to die in some pit. There¡¯s new Psi-Es? Last I heard, humanity stopped producing any, was some sort of freak batch in the gene pool where a generation had the potential. Turns out, we¡¯re longer lived than most, maybe twice as long, but can¡¯t have kids. That means it has to have skipped a generation or two, and they¡¯re saddling me with kids. Kids with psionic energy, to be trained as dogs of the military.


    I shoulda let myself die to the morphs.

 B 5 C 98: Assassination

    ¡°McShaw? Yeah I¡¯ve heard of ¡®em. Survivor of the bugs out west. Well, one is anyway. Supposedly marched into town, battered, bloody, bearin¡¯ irons. Talked of a carnie killing a queen, didn¡¯t make no lick of sense. Sat down at a barstool, tipped back one shot, and then fell still as a doornail, passed out on the spot, quiet as the dead.¡±


    This is the most coherent news I¡¯ve heard about the man yet, news was Malta Rocha faced some sort of invasion, talk about behemoth bugs or something, utter hogwash. Or so I thought. A few survivors, an Audrey smith, and an Annabelle Tanner, were sent to the bins for hysteria. After that, other survivors shut up about it, clammed up but good.


    Maybe the town hero will have something to say though? By all accounts, Jessie¡¯s the reason there are any survivors, whatever really happened. Though, by the sounds of this, perhaps the young man has gone and convinced himself the same as the hysterical women.


    On the sly I slip my new ¡®friend¡¯ a whole dollar bill as I ask, ¡°Any idea where one might find the man now?¡±


    There¡¯s a scoff that says the information¡¯s worth a whole lot more than a dollar, which is a tad surprising. That¡¯s ten day¡¯s wages for most of these folk. The man¡¯s privacy is worth this sort of loyalty, from strangers? What charisma does Jessie McShaw possess? I check my wallet, a few more ones, a five, and a ten. If I offer the five, and he scoffs again, he¡¯ll expect a ten. Hopefully I¡¯ll head this shrewd gentleman off at the pass by offering him the ten, to be able to keep my five. Pulling the ten out of my billfold, I slide it to the handsome fellow wearing the sheriff¡¯s badge ¡®round these parts.


    The fellow flashes me a bright smile as he extends his hand, ¡°Name¡¯s Jessie McShaw, pleased to meet ya. This might just be ¡®nuff to bring my sister back. Shaman out west was charging an arm and a leg.¡±


    My jaw hangs low. I¡¯ve been swindled! Well, sort of. What was that about a shaman? I suppose any hope for a grieving man. As long as he didn¡¯t say it was a *bug* medicine man. I ask, ¡°Could you tell me about her? About Malta Rocha?¡±


    Jessie McShaw sighs belatedly, and responds, ¡°Sis was, is, an angel. Straight outta heaven, the only peace of mind I ever had was sitting next to her as she hummed and did her whittlin¡¯. Good with a knife, and a leather punch, she done good craftwork at most anything she tried, but her favorite was whittlin¡¯. Voice pure as heaven, face what god gifted, and hair, like mine, red as tarnation. Y¡¯all won¡¯t believe me ¡®bout Malta Rocha, no one does.¡±


    Huffing, hoping for more than a fluff piece about a dearly departed, I state, ¡°Try me.¡±


    The man wears a grim smirk. Don¡¯t know how you can smirk and still look so dour, grim, dark, but he done it. Takes a while, looks at the ten dollar bill, and the one what I¡¯d given him just before. He holds up the one, and tries to hand it back to me. I shake my head, and try again, ¡°Please, the money¡¯s yours, I just want the truth. I¡¯m a reporter for th¡ª¡°


    Jessie interrupts, ¡°I know who y¡¯are. I been military, I been law, I been a few things outside ¡®n¡¯ inbetween too. I catch news sometimes Mister Jackson. Fine, I¡¯ll tell y¡¯the truth, but y¡¯aint gonna believe me, no one does.¡±


    He seems put-together, sane, shrewd, intelligent, and ten dollars, no, eleven, tends to buy a whole lotta honesty. So I¡¯m prepared to write what he tells me, damn what I believe. Jessie sums it up, ¡°Got home after discharge, Sis been dead only a couple hours. Kicked myself, almost ate the end of a forty four Wesson. Townies told me what done it, giant bugs. So I sat out at the hill, waited for ¡®em to come back, and plugged the suckers one after ¡®nother. Ran outta ammo on I think it was day three guardin¡¯ the pass, and I¡¯m bashin¡¯ some giant ant¡¯s head in with the butt end of that same forty four Wesson, when I hear sizzle, and see nitro sticks flyin¡¯. Look behind me, and Arnie the Carnie done been run through by some hog-suckin¡¯ burrowin¡¯ scorpion. He done loaded up with ammo, and water for me and my foolish, grief-stricken ass.¡±


    Jessie shakes his head, perhaps experiencing some dismay at the supposed memory before he continues, ¡°I still had to bludgeon the damn scorpion to death, to get Arnie¡¯s body off it, and get the ammo, and some sorely needed water for my too-parched throat. Big-ass queen lookin¡¯ thing shiftin¡¯ sand like a dune on the move showed up, and that¡¯s what Arnie threw sticks at. The red went sailin¡¯, and shewee that boom is louder¡¯n¡¯hell up close. After she died, was two more days of shootin¡¯ with the ammo Arnie done brought me, drinkin¡¯ that barrel o¡¯ water, and, after a time, eatin¡¯ some damn bug meat cause my shootin¡¯ arm was gettin¡¯ weak and tired. And no, weren¡¯t all done with a single pistol. Had me a mess o¡¯ guns up there, just brought up the Wesson forty four for the reasons I spelled out.¡±


    His voice quiets, and he leans low, as if speaking a secret for my ears alone, ¡°Had me thinkin¡¯ on those lines the whole time. Just end it Jessie, Sis is gone, just end it. Didn¡¯t do it. Couldn¡¯t do it. Couldn¡¯t imagine what she¡¯da thunk o¡¯ me if I did it. Wouldn¡¯t do that to her if she were alive, couldn¡¯t do it to her while she were dead. Now, I¡¯ma march back out to Malta Rocha, and talk to that goddamn ant shaman, and get the bastard to bring back my baby sis.¡±


    Governor Kyle gave me strict orders if I heard anything about someone dealing with insect medicine men, that I was to shoot anyone that spoke of it. Dangerous delusions supposedly. I gulp as I draw irons on the local sheriff, loathe to cut down a man in his prime, one that¡¯s obviously still hysterical with grief. Never thought anything would come of it. Never, ever thought I¡¯d have to actually go through with a cold-blooded kill, and assassinate someone. I try to reassure myself, that at least I got the story, got his last words. I pull the trigger, my finger trembling the whole time.

 B 6 C 4: Children

    <div>


    My Spells in order of complexity:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Frost Ray,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Prestidigitative Legerdemain.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Light.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Mending.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: S P free Scrying.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: S P Free Ghostly Steeds.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>24/24 runes mastered: Telepathic Bond.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/33 runes: Steely Body.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Evocation.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>48/48 runes mastered: Permanency-enhancement.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>99/99 runes mastered: Telekinesis.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/05 runes mastered: Splatter of Acid.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/06 runes mastered: Gusty Wind.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>08/24 runes mastered: Blast Frost.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/24 runes mastered: Squall Wall.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Summon Swarm.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>19/33 runes mastered: Detect Thoughts.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Conjuration.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Growth/Reduction.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Fireball.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Lightning Bolt.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>02/33 runes mastered: Hailstorm.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/33 runes mastered: Minor History.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Ghostly Hand.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>06/66 runes mastered: Bypassed-Wall.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Incendiary Web.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Firewall.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>07/33 runes mastered: Spectral Lock.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>06/33 runes mastered: Spectral Knock.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>042/128 runes mastered: Dispellation.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>012/330 runes mastered: Prescient Moment.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>003/660 runes mastered: Planar Traversal. This is its own whole can of worms</li>


    </ul>


    My Permanent Effects:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Aura sensing(Detection of magic, souls, and runes)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Pool of around six hundred S P safe to use each day, or after a good long sleep. I can push it up to a thousand, but over six hundred, my muscles stop responding, taking massive effort to move, and if I hit a thousand, I just pass out.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Telepathic Bonding, I have several loved ones in a telepathic bond, and can now create other bonds between additional individuals, but it costs S P, and a fair amount of time, or a lot of S P, and a bit less time.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Near immunity to thermal fluctuation, so fire or frost don¡¯t bother me much. Lava could hurt after a while.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Vast pain tolerance for lightning specifically, not immunity, but I can shrug it off.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Comprehension of all written Languages</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Quickening of runotypical spells metamagic available, it increases the per-rune S P cost of my spells, but vastly reduces the time it takes to complete a spell.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Conjuration multitasking manipulation portion of my brain broke at Autumn Brook, might never be able to use mana construct spells that require concentration again.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Telekinesis, x2. I can create and maintain two telekinetic grips simultaneously, permanently. I¡¯ll be working to get them into subconscious subroutines, so that they¡¯ll work for me even when I¡¯m asleep.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>I¡¯m technically a Changeling Fae, so I can morph my form around, and apparently I do so subconsciously, frequently, but I¡¯m not good at consciously controlling it.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Retrocognition. Basically paused time in which all I can do is think, and analyze things from sensory memory. Can¡¯t affect anything or move or anything.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>With eight minutes, I can theoretically use abilities from another world. I had over fifty five hundred mana in a numerical interface in that world. Abilities I had there, that I can manifest here, are access to items in a pocket dimension, shapechanging, thermokinesis, a more powerful version of the electrokinesis that I have active at all times on Rayileklia, and a few other things. I had the power to send messages through time, but that would cost a massive sacrifice on this world, one that I¡¯m unwilling to expend.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Internal electrokinesis. I currently have to utilize it to bypass the nerve damage that I took in the fight against the Felgre horde while defending Autumn Brook. Bypassing nerve damage by utilizing it is mostly subconscious to do general movements, but I have to focus on where and how to control the electrical impulses for anything more coordinated. I basically operate on lightning, able to generate it, and do a few things with it.</li>


    </ul>


    My Current Equipment:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Danger Wraps</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Billowy Cloak</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Hyperdimensional Haversack</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Enchanted scrollcase</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Archsorc Staff.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Cap of Disguising Illusions.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Portable Hole (in my enchanted Scrollcase from Berinon)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Blessed anti-vampire, silvered stake (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Holy Halefire wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Full Valkyrie armor set + kite shield</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Pied Pipes of Rodent summoning</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Neckchain,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>3x Minor Water Walking Potions.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Undisclosed/unidentified minor equipment from Milbert of Navica, the klepto necromancer in Victo</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>2x mysterious energy cells</li>


    </ul>

 B 6 C 9: Planned Projects

    <div>


    <table style="width: 52.117%" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><colgroup><col style="width: 23.2814%" width="100"><col style="width: 6.69111%" width="25"><col style="width: 13.6572%" width="53"><col style="width: 11.1824%" width="42"><col style="width: 12.099%" width="45"><col style="width: 11.1824%" width="43"><col style="width: 11.2741%" width="44"><col style="width: 9.07424%" width="33"></colgroup>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>MRK Total:</td>


    <td>VV</td>


    <td>BSRGK</td>


    <td>Vivant</td>


    <td>Dormir</td>


    <td>EPBN</td>


    <td>AAGS</td>


    <td>Nala</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>360</td>


    <td>40</td>


    <td>64</td>


    <td>56</td>


    <td>56</td>


    <td>56</td>


    <td>56</td>


    <td>32</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Miraina(Every)</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie(Every)</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Kinzul(Every)</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Vylon</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Vyela</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Boetah</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Shaylon</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Revinth</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Gresog</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Kagired</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Orthral</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Prinrin</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Gilmeshtu</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Fenric</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Iylynila</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Farzhis</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Induul</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Veril</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Elshont</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Prent</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Burshis</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Nietru</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Aaront</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Geskae</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Shrulniz</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Aktixas</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Nala</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Additional Nets</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>XX</td>


    <td>Spy</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie Total:</td>


    <td>40</td>


    <td>24</td>


    <td>16</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Ixeyla</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Xayla</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Errissa</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    <div>


    <table style="width: 54.1786%" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><colgroup><col style="width: 23.0064%" width="100"><col style="width: 6.65113%" width="33"><col style="width: 9.20588%" width="25"><col style="width: 11.1824%" width="42"><col style="width: 11.458%" width="53"><col style="width: 9.56431%" width="44"><col style="width: 10.9859%" width="43"><col style="width: 16.4793%" width="45"></colgroup>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>MRKL Total:</td>


    <td>Nala</td>


    <td>VV</td>


    <td>Vivant</td>


    <td>BSRGK</td>


    <td>AAGS</td>


    <td>EPBN</td>


    <td>Dormir</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>408</td>


    <td>40</td>


    <td>48</td>


    <td>64</td>


    <td>64</td>


    <td>64</td>


    <td>64</td>


    <td>64</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Miraina</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Lil</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie(Every)</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Kinzul(Every)</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Vylon</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Vyela</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Boetah</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Shaylon</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Revinth</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Gresog</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Kagired</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Orthral</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Prinrin</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Gilmeshtu</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Fenric</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Iylynila</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Farzhis</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Induul</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Veril</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Elshont</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Prent</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Burshis</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Nietru</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Aaront</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Geskae</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Shrulniz</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Aktixas</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Nala</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Evening:</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Additional Nets</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>XX</td>


    <td>Spy</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie Total:</td>


    <td>40</td>


    <td>24</td>


    <td>16</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Ixeyla</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Xayla</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Errissa</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 B 6 C 16: Interrogation

lips time.¡±

 B 5 C 71: Insides

<div>

 B 6 C 30: Skills, Ideas

    <div>


    <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><colgroup><col width="56"><col width="180"><col width="20"><col width="36"><col width="85"></colgroup>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>REGGIE STATS, SKILLS, AND PARAMETERS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>4200.36</td>


    <td>LEVEL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>17</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.25</td>


    <td>BRAWN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>15</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.1</td>


    <td>AGILITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>12</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.5</td>


    <td>PLUCK</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>20</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.4</td>


    <td>SMARTS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>18</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.2</td>


    <td>WISDOM</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>14</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.7</td>


    <td>DUENDE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>24</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>SKILLS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.02</td>


    <td>ACID GEN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>5</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>ALCHEMY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>202</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>2.292</td>


    <td>BREATH</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>323</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>CAPACITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>32767</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>CRAFTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>420</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>DISENCHANTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>6</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.272</td>


    <td>ELECTROKINESIS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1318</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>2314.628471</td>


    <td>ENERGY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>5543</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>7.452</td>


    <td>S.A./SHAPESHIFTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1613</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.068</td>


    <td>SPACE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3767</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>7.727</td>


    <td>STAMINA</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>6727</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>4.672</td>


    <td>STEALTH</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>918</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.472</td>


    <td>SURVIVAL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1934</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.608</td>


    <td>THERMOKINESIS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3902</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>8073217.54</td>


    <td>TIME</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2,018,304,135</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>OFFENSES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.2</td>


    <td>BLUDGEONING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1300</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>4.72</td>


    <td>PIERCE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>930</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.2</td>


    <td>PUGILISM</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1300</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>8.24</td>


    <td>SLASHING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1810</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>PAIN DEFENSES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.0900090009</td>


    <td>ACID</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1011</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.04045307443</td>


    <td>BLUDGEONING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2372</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.07587253414</td>


    <td>ELECTRO</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1218</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.4524886878</td>


    <td>LUNG CAPACITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>121</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.9900990099</td>


    <td>NEGATIVE ENERGY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.113507378</td>


    <td>PIERCE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>781</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.9803921569</td>


    <td>PSI</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.05892751915</td>


    <td>REFLEXES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1765.38768</td>


    <td>1597</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.09082652134</td>


    <td>SLASHING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1001</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.02777777778</td>


    <td>THERMAL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3500</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.3558718861</td>


    <td>TOXIN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>181</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>KNOWLEDGES/MEMORIES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

 B 5 C 73: Drop

    Her voice rings out with a clarity that snaps me to attention, startling me from my daze, ¡°Honestly Err, we need to stop making a habit out of this.¡± There¡¯s a playful, jovial nature to her tone, but she¡¯s also sniffling, and fighting back sobs.


    She¡¯s right. We shouldn¡¯t make a habit of fleeing into rivers. We¡¯re cold, and damp, and she¡¯s pretty banged up from the rocks and logs we¡¯d bumped into. I¡¯m fairly certain my clothes are ripped, and that I¡¯ve got scrapes on most of the surfaces of my body. I had tried to shield her body from the worst of it with mine. She got jostled as I kept her wrapped in my arms, but I got scraped and banged and even stabbed a bit from the various debris in the river. It wouldn¡¯t have been worth it to fight for our food though, or to even stick around. I¡¯d take a thousand scrapes to protect her from even just one, to keep her smiling, to keep her safe and alive.


    I almost offer, ¡°We could go back,¡± but I know that she¡¯d shake her head. I know she would understand that I meant back to where it all began, where we fled from. She would know I didn¡¯t mean the campsite we were making use of. She trusted me, and we ran away. She still trusts me, and believes it was the right choice. She won¡¯t talk about it, but ever since that day, we¡¯ve been preparing, and running. We prepared to run, then we ran. I don¡¯t know when we¡¯ll stop, or how we¡¯ll even keep making it, but she¡¯s determined to follow me, to accompany me, and she¡¯s positive we chose correctly.


    All I want in the whole world is to keep her safe, and smiling. I don¡¯t remember ever having a friend before her. Everything is fuzzy, I don¡¯t remember much before that day at the river at all. A few weeks, maybe a couple of months at most, and even those are mostly a blur of sameness. I can¡¯t keep thinking about it, or my brain starts to hurt. I think I¡¯m a teenager, and I¡¯m missing the better part of the first decade of my life in memories. I rattle my skull, trying to shake loose this train of thought that inevitably leads nowhere.


    She scootches closer, and wraps her arms around me, pulling my arms about her for warmth in the process. We need to dry off, and find another hiding place. Sitting in the crinkly, fallen autumn leaves in freezing wet clothes isn¡¯t doing us any favors. Sitting where we might be visible to park rangers, or hikers, due to the lack of foliage, and the brightness with the lack of canopy isn¡¯t doing us any favors. But being held by her, as she smiles through her own sobs, it¡¯s worth it to wait a while. I¡¯ll protect her. I have to. It¡¯s the only thing that matters.


    ¡ª¡ª The non orders me, ¡°Stop clawing, stop scratching. These are not yours, and you will die if you continue to grasp at them! Survive, fight, free yourself! Free me.¡±

 B 6 C 65: Parental Love

    I¡¯m more than a little embarrassed by the idea of trying to show off the new powers, since it would mean standing around for up to an hour just to see me turn into a shape temporarily.  Shapes that I didn¡¯t exactly craft for attractiveness, or showiness.  Worse, I¡¯d be putting them into cooldowns and lockouts.  I guess I can test one thing first.


    Aiming away from everyone, up into the air, I breathe a stream of lightning, without costing a loss of my reflex-enhancing internal electrokinesis.  I was wrong about the multiplier, my breath weapon is only a two or so times multiplier, but that¡¯s still twice as effective as just pointing and blasting.  Farzee, um, quivers, and clenches her legs together, seeing me breathe a stream of lightning that seems to have no limit, that takes no charging time, while in my humanoid form.


    The lightning does have one drawback, I¡¯m not immune to it, so it does hurt, and burn my throat like chili-covered razorblades, so I am taking some damage from it.  Thankfully, with my new baked-in regeneration, since my base health pool is so high, I think in an hour I¡¯ll probably recover the couple minutes worth of damage done to my throat.  I¡¯m worried about Farzee¡¯s reaction, because I feel like we¡¯re becoming friends, and like she¡¯s on a good path.  I hope I¡¯m not scaring her into thinking I¡¯d be trying to take her title of The Blue.  Or¡ª.  Oh.  Prinrin¡¯s perceptiveness confirms my possible other suspicions.  Ahem.  I probably should have started with any other display of power while I¡¯m getting dressed.  Moving on.


    I can exhale a bit of flammable gas, but I¡¯m not sure I want to ignite it by swapping my organ back to lightning.  Lil ignites it while I¡¯m pondering, causing the puff of flame to blow up in my face.  I chuckle and roll my eyes before I pretend to angrily glare at my buddy.  My ice breath works in reverse, drawing in atomic motion, cooling the area in a bit of a cone in front of me, packing that heat into my organ.  I really need to think of another word for that body part.  The snickers along my mental wavelength are getting out of hand every time I think the word organ.  Especially with phrases like pack that heat into my organ.  Jeeze you guys.


    My cooling breath isn¡¯t as good as my flash freeze storms, nor is it an ice breath, nor anything that¡¯s really usable in battle, but, it could rescue someone else from a painful fire, or even reduce the effects of a fire, or lava, on me, down to almost nothing, beyond the already ninety seven point three percent reduction.  I¡¯m not willing to try my acid breath.  I probably shouldn¡¯t use or call on my poison breath.  I¡¯m nowhere near immune to either, though the poison breath might not be able to affect me, due to my neckchain making it impossible to inhale it as I¡¯m exhaling it.  It¡¯s really just my fire breath anyway, without igniting the gas, gas that¡¯s generated by packing heat into my organ.  Oh come on guys.


    Heh, I can¡¯t help laughing along with them for a moment.  Okay, what about my natural Changeling Fae gift?  Oh, oh that transformation is much smoother, much easier to control.  Oh wow.  Wow I¡ª.  I find myself mimicking the incredibly beautiful and handsome forms around me, gaining gasps from the assembled.  When Veril licks his lips during the moments that I shapeshift into Farzee¡¯s amazingly gorgeous form, in the flattering padded under-armor I¡¯m wearing, it earns him a dubious glare from the real Farzee herself.  She doesn¡¯t slap him, despite wanting to, because there¡¯s a tiny hint of pride in her appearance getting that reaction, something she¡¯d have wanted to do when she was more into her games.  Regardless, Farzee wanted some demonstrations, or info on what we¡¯d been doing, right?  Which forms are worth thinking about right now?


    One thing I ¡°programmed¡± into the plushy form, was a few computer chips, using some spare adamantite as a circuit-board essentially.  Computer chips with a mini processor, and network interface card.  I¡¯m hoping, that with the smartphone working eventually, if I put things into the inventory belly of the plushy form, that I can keep track of it on a spreadsheet on my smartphone, without having to manually enter everything.  I won¡¯t be able to use my space skill to put things in or fire things out or duplicate things, not without having Kinzul¡¯s aid, and using eight minutes to call out to the powers of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    None of this would be possible, I wouldn¡¯t survive any of these attempts to refine my powers, without Kinzul¡¯s aid.  Without my whole inner circle, and Kinzul Administrating with her Latent.  Even after I find my cure, my power from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas had grown too fast for my body to keep up with, so it might be deadly to try using on my own.  I might be less prone to dying now that I¡¯m Reggie Stage Two, RS2, as a baseline, but it¡¯s not a given.  I touch my neck, where I¡¯d bound the platinum scarf as I¡¯d worked it into the otter plushy form.  Kinzul passing on such a priceless memento to me means so many worlds to me.  I felt her heartache upon seeing it when it was retrieved.  I don¡¯t know what to do with the swirl of emotions both of us feel about the matter.  The Platinum, the true hero of dragonkind.  Me, with a symbol of his legacy?  Pieces from his actual body, his scales, given form?  It¡¯s¡ª it¡¯s beyond an honor.


    If I find Tiktik again someday, I could possibly enchant the platinum scarf with her neat platinum scale spell that causes a scale to try to intercept attacks.  I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d want to risk it though, to risk damaging something that means so much to me, and is so beyond priceless to both me and Kinzul.  Placing such an enchantment on the scarf, so that it protects the otter form in a semi-animate manner would, huff, probably be a last ditch effort at making it into a suitable combat form, if everything else were down and I still needed to be on the offensive.  I mean, the scarf was something like thirty, fifty, or a hundred feet long, I couldn¡¯t really tell.  It was likely meant to be able to wrap around Kinzul¡¯s neck even in her mountainous form.


    Since Farzee had asked for a demonstration, I¡¯ve been spending time trying to work out how to change into the shadow elemental form.  There¡¯s a prerequisite that I¡¯m not understanding, and it¡¯s not working, which is disheartening.  I don¡¯t want to put other forms in cooldown, just to show off.  I do want to go into my myconid form though, and begin examining these books Nala had passed me.  They¡¯re the kind that require dedicated time to pass on their enchantment, but my myconid form can possibly shave off some of that time with speed-reading.  Gaining these abilities from Yisstendahl¡¯s hoard is one of my top priorities for expanding my powers.


    There¡¯s something on the tip of my tongue, or brain, and I¡¯m almost certain it¡¯s something I knew once, or thought of once, that could be of aid.  I can¡¯t quite recall it at this second though, instead, feeling like a bad parent, for always neglecting him, I reach out to Lucky.  When he bounds into my mindscape, bowling over my telepathic avatar, I love up on him, roughhousing, hearing something that apparently no one else hears.  I hear Lucky excitedly asking, ¡°Other parent? Other parent? Other parent? Parent near?  Near parent?¡±


    When I speak in my mindscape, saying, ¡°Luni¡¯s close, but not here right this second.  I¡¯m so lucky to have you in my life Lucky.  You¡¯re too good to be true,¡± I hear Lucky bark and see him circle in response to hearing his name.


    His words that seem only audible to me are, ¡°My name, that¡¯s my name!  That means love!  They love me.  Happy.  I¡¯m happy.¡±


    I hold tightly to Lucky for several minutes, not even caring about the revelation I¡¯d almost made.  Of course, that¡¯s when it comes back.  Lucky forgives me as my mind wanders, and he returns to his task, almost joyously.  There¡¯s¡ª.  My mind is racing with new knowledge, or, or rather perhaps, forgotten knowledge.  There¡¯s, there¡¯s something, things that I missed.  I make a mad skitter around a bundle of bodies and leap into the air while summoning a T K Surfboard.  Zooming out towards our personal library, I dig through some of the tomes I¡¯d thought perhaps not so useful, or forgotten their potential use, since they contained a duplicate ability to one I already had.


    Hah.  Hahaha.  Hahahaha!  Yes!  Okay, so, a bunch of the things in Milbert¡¯s hoard were books that had this same enchantment, one that grants the ability to use extra S P to quicken runic crafting.  Depending on how I read them, what I surround myself with, I can change the benefits of reading extra copies of the same enchantment more or less.  My loved ones are rushing after me, to see what¡¯s got me so giddy.  Okay, okay, I¡¯ll need, um, hm, okay it¡¯ll, ah crap.  It¡¯ll take some resources, and burn them up into the enchantment, so I¡¯ll be needing to sit in one spot, reading with the book placed on those resources.


    Let¡¯s see, if I want to make it stop costing additional S P to quicken low rune-count spells down to the shortest casting time, it takes legendary gems?  Ahhhh what are those!?  Still, if I can figure it out, it basically doubles the amount of spells I can use in combat in a day.  If I want slightly less useful changes to the quickening ability, I can make the number of runes covered per S P multiplier level change.  That would mean that, instead of say, a 128 rune spell taking four times the S P to quicken, I could get it down to requiring three times, or even twice the S P instead.  Which, sure, is still a big boon, but I¡¯m not running around with a lot of high S P spells.  Dispellation comes to mind, but I don¡¯t even have it mastered yet, and it has a whole host of things that reduce its S P cost and number of runes used on its own, based on how it¡¯s intended to be used at the time of casting.


    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    Oh man, if I could master the prescient moment spell though, and afford to actually cast it before or during a battle?  That could literally be the difference between victory and defeat.  A flash of foresight with a guaranteed positive outcome.  Could I save Kinzul?  If I focused and wanted that to be the specific task that I succeeded at?  Huff, genre senses are telling me that it wouldn¡¯t give me such a specific task that might take more than a quick flash to find the correct path to.  It¡¯s basically a single second worth of foresight, before an event, then a flash during a moment when it¡¯s correct to execute what was seen.  If I recall correctly.  Still, it would be such a powerful spell if I could cut down on the amount of runes to use it, and still cast it occasionally.  The S P cost is too high though, even if it didn¡¯t cost more to quicken it.


    I sigh, trying not to feel let down about my revelation.  I¡¯d been reminded of a power that I hadn¡¯t tapped yet, that still broadens my horizons, so I should feel grateful.  Even if I can¡¯t realistically chase those horizons at this very moment.  I hustle back towards the party, struggling with my disappointment, not paying attention.  Crouching low, leaning forward with my arms back for balance, on my telekinetic surfboard, I zoom back in the direction of my vault.


    Of course, the nearest person in the pack right now, is the one who was farthest away, who¡¯d been standing farthest back in the vault towards its entrance, unsure of herself.  Veril had come in all the way hoping to catch eyefuls of handsomeness and loveliness.  Farzee had almost been using him as a shield.  I feel like a complete arsehole when I ram into her face first at chest level and we tumble over, bowling over into Veril, ending up in a mess of limbs.


    Fuggin¡¯ hell, ow.  Shaking my head, sighing, I apologize quickly before doing anything else, ¡°I am so, so sorry you two.  I¡ª, I¡¯m an idiot, a lot.  I get distracted by a lot.  I¡ª, like right now, I should have gotten up first, instead of shaking my head in your chest.  Sorry Farzee.  I¡¯m floating up, I¡¯ll help you two up too.  Gorrammit I¡¯m so sorry.  Sorry, sorry.  Fuggin¡¯ ay.  Sorry.  Really, truly.  Please forgive me you two.  Farzee, I did not mean to, to, I don¡¯t want you thinking I¡¯m playing head games with you.  I¡¯m not trying to send mixed signals.  I¡¯m proud of the direction you¡¯re headed.  I don¡¯t want to screw up your journey.¡±


    Beginning to roll her eyes, almost settling into disdain, Farzee catches herself, and holds up a hand placatingly.  In her wonderful accent, she offers, ¡°I could have been in less hurry myself Schism, got excited about you revealing new leaps and bounds in powers.  Could have avoided being right where you¡¯d have to round a corner.  Um.  Thank you.  For that.  Um, pride.¡±


    I really hope that didn¡¯t sound condescending, or dismissive of her as a person or devaluing of who she currently is, ugh.  I thunk my head into the wall to my right several times.  Right, anyway.  I need a whole mess of gems, and a lot less time to do something incredibly important, than I¡¯d needed to do before all these changes.  What would have taken eight hours, will take, let¡¯s see, about forty eight seconds per, times sixty if just doing those priority ones, about forty eight minutes in my myconid form.  I can probably afford to hit all the warrens except the experimental one, if I limit myself to only ten nodes per for tonight, in just an hour.  I can do that while reading Yisstendahl¡¯s spell-like tomes.


    If the tomes were fifty-six hour tomes like I¡¯d thought, I might be able to read them in seven or eight hours.  Possibly nine and a half, or sixteen¡¯ish, depending on how much the speed reading affects things.  I¡¯d be putting my myconid form out of commission for several days, if I use only an hour to transform, and try to keep it for eight hours.  I wouldn¡¯t be getting any sleep, but this form I¡¯m in is brand new, only a few minutes old, and I¡¯d be in my myconid form for those eight hours, one that¡¯s pretty heavy on regeneration, so it might not get tired.


    All of this does technically give me access to more time in the day too, because of this.  Some of the forms don¡¯t get sleepy, or tired, or need to sleep at all.  Just when my base form has been awake for like a total of forty eight hours on its own, between other form uses, I¡¯ll definitely need to sleep.  I¡¯m not sure how I feel about abusing this particular potential of having new forms.  I don¡¯t want to give up on cuddling and sleeping with my beloveds.  It would settle the one bit of drama that Illy brought up, but I¡¯d feel so lonely, and hurt, like I were abandoning the ones that I love, to chase all these projects and power.  I can¡¯t do it.


    From next to me, where I hadn¡¯t noticed everyone catching up and arriving, my wife, my beloved Lady Kinzul comments aloud, ¡°I¡¯m glad of that my love.  My spouse.  Nurture your love more than your power.  It will keep you through the darkest of times, more than the other.  Especially with those deep hurts within that ail you.¡±


    Smiling sadly at Kinzul, I nod and float my way into her offered embrace, realizing I now stand eight feet tall all of a sudden, having shapeshifted over the last fifteen seconds or so to accommodate her without even making note of the effort.  I¡¯m fairly certain I hear Farzee and Veril choking on their tongues at the confirmation of the marriage arrangement between me and our Lady.  Or maybe at the fact that we¡¯re kissing softly, and embracing so tenderly.


    Oh, right, blushing, I ask, ¡°So, um, you two wanted to talk, to hear something straight from me?¡±


    A bit stunned, shaking her head in disbelief, Farzee pinches her own cheeks several times to make certain she¡¯s awake.  In her always delicious accent, Farzee mutters, ¡°Well that answers one question.  Volunteers?  Pawn said ye need dragons specifically.  I know I could have, should have listened to her, the rest of it, to hear, but¡ª.  I¡¯m still selfish Schism.  I can admit it, but I don¡¯t know if I can change it.  Having an excuse to see ye, when I¡¯m still shook up, well, I took advantage of it.  Was hoping for, I don¡¯t know.  Comfort for The Broke One and me.¡±


    Floating towards Farzhis The Blue, and shrinking myself only slightly, so that I stand well over a head taller than her or so, perhaps a foot and a half, I spread my arms wide.  She takes the offered hug, and I embrace her warmly, in a kind of love that has no hints of anything save the desire to comfort someone in need.  I¡¯ve reasons for not shrinking down further, while she¡¯s as vulnerable as she is.  I turn slightly to welcome Veril into the same embrace, and hug them both at my fore.  Veril¡¯s about half a head shorter than Farzhis, so there¡¯s room for arms about me so that we¡¯re not a smashed up pile of limbs.


    Answering why I need volunteers, the reason Farzhis came down here in the first place, I state, ¡°We¡¯re going to rescue a lot of people tomorrow, evacuate them from Terrorzin¡¯s lands, here to Mount Solace.  What I need most is dragons willing to fly to Attraxiaz the Loud¡¯s domain, pick up groups of kobolds and Draconiacs, and fly back, as long during the day as necessary, while I patrol back and forth across the skies, keeping the procession safe.  I want us to expand our aerie, our landing, before that though, by say, mid-morning.  I think Gresog can help with that.  He¡¯s some sort of sand-dragon, right?  Does his breath generate silicates?  Could it become stone or mortar?¡±


    Quick on her feet, cunningly, Farzhis, as always in that delightful few-stop-consonants accent, offers, ¡°Could do fulgurite, strong glass, with the right heat, lightning, yeah, that¡¯s Greggy¡¯s breath.  Melting it could bind together certain surfaces when it cools, for sure.  We¡¯ve a few other Sands as well, if the civvies are up for it.¡±


    Nodding along, I squeeze Farzhis a bit more into our embrace in gratitude before loosening my embrace of the two Dormir dragons.  I ask, ¡°I¡¯m afraid I might already know the answer to this, but do we have *any* stoneshapers or other spellcasters?  Any casters at all?¡±


    With a grimace, Farzee confirms my suspicions, ¡°No, a titled archmage is, was, all we could get away with without sparking retaliation from Terrorzin.  He had agents all over the world, killing new mages, taking down or conscripting archmages.  Kept everyone else down, made rules as our supposed king, laws to follow on pain of death.¡±


    Farzee nearly spits disdainfully before continuing, ¡°To keep him from massively outpacing us in magic, at most we could get away with killing some of theirs in a few duels now and again, playing it off as personal disputes, taking down some of theirs.  He kept us limited, in-check, so we couldn¡¯t get to a point where we might stand a chance of opposing him.  Any time we started to grow beyond twenty or thirty members, or had any hint of magic more than our single archmage, he cracked down on us, hard.  Lot of pain, lot of death.¡±


    Thinking on it, Farzee adds, ¡°When our duels would kill leaders of a faction, possibly freeing up their people?  His other factions would always just absorb all the forces, or kill any that might have been willing to defect.  Now that we¡¯re openly hostile?  I¡¯m thinking the killing is going to be swifter.¡±


    I squeeze the two Dormir dragons one more time, rubbing their backs and ruffling their hair in a bit of a loving, almost parental manner.  Oh goodness.  Is this how Kin¡ª?  I glance at my wife, and she nods my way.  Huh.  Reggie Shellcracker, falling into these positions, over and over.  I shake my head in disbelief of myself and the situations I get myself into.

 B 6 C 66: Sporebrain? Hivemind? Sleep.

    It takes only a bit of doing, but I actually have Farzee and her slightly devious, slightly manipulative mind to thank for making quick work of my plans. She¡¯ll handle organizing the volunteers come early morning after dawn. Shiz and Atter and I will be heading off first, before that, pre-dawn, to make sure we get the most precious cargo first. We¡¯ll leave Atter in her domain while she organizes her people, as Shiz and I evacuate the precious cargo. We won¡¯t have access to Kinzul, Luni, Lil, or the Vivant, sadly. So, as much as I love her presence, and would love to have her help, I won¡¯t be seeing Prinrin during this excursion. That group is headed off to the Laotzxchi Citadel.


    Farzee begs a moment of my time at her size, I relent seeing no harm in it, and she queries consent beforehand, so I agree. Farzee makes sure to stand a few steps away, so that we lean for our faces to meet, rather than pressing our bodies tightly together. We share a tender, non-romantic kiss, little more than a peck on the lips. It¡¯s one of gratitude going both ways. I then assume a taller stature once again, and kiss her forehead, before sending her on her way with a pat on her head, and a gentle hand on her back.


    I offer Veril a hug, and kiss his forehead as well, sending him on his way much the same as Farzee. He¡¯s privately mentally marveling at my restraint, because he¡¯d very much like to be smooshing faces with Farzee, whereas I am working to cut back on any lascivious behavior between the two of us. I can¡¯t help chuckling and shaking my head incredulously at him, when Veril forgets his psychic walls are down. I still flash him a bright smile as I send him along on his way.


    Prinrin attempts to resume her perch, but Kinzul steals me away momentarily, and I barely manage to catch Prinny telekinetically before she falls on her face. She flashes me a cheeky grin, while offering Kinzul a wry smile on the sly. There¡¯s something about that, um, corrupt away, from earlier, between the two of them going on. It¡¯s mildly weird seeing Kinzul be almost playful at this point, but also heartwarming. There¡¯s so much to life, there¡¯s always more pain and sorrow, but there is joy too. I suppose one really has to embrace it when one can.


    Though, the particular joy that these two women are sharing is, ahem, at my expense in some ways. Not that I mind in the slightest. I mean, one of them is my wife and the other is one of her oldest friends by the sounds of things. I mean, Kinzul isn¡¯t necessarily my wife, yet, but, just, yeesh. What the hell even is my life? I guess, kind of amazing in some ways. Two of the eldest ladies in the domain, are taking some subtle plays against each other about teasing me, or something. I¡¯m not entirely sure what to make of most of this.


    I rattle my skull, trying to reorient my brain, because I was going to¡ª oh. Apparently Kinzul and I are having a private moment in the stacks of the library while Prinrin distracts Lu Te and Lil. So that¡¯s what that little bit was about a moment ago.


    Stroking my cheek, our Lady Kinzul comments, ¡°My love, Schism, I take it you¡¯re about to make use of that which we¡¯d just worked together to create, despite your desire, and my desire, for you to nurture your love rather than your powers. I¡¯m weary from managing our Latents, and I would see us both rest, all of us rest. You¡¯ve committed yourself to protecting an evacuation, and there are so very many things to attend to. While you must protect those under your charge that you¡¯ve granted sanctuary to, you must also see to it that our home, our domain is protected. I know you¡¯ve already had the same wariness, that not all who are granted refuge may truly be seeking it.¡±


    Before I have a chance to respond, Kinzul continues, ¡°I simply beg of you this one night my love. Rest, hope for the best but prepare for the worst for the morrow. If you do rest, I would¡ª. I should like to take my rest with thee.¡±


    I¡¯m only a little bit torn. Rapid advancements in abilities, powers, and sustainability for Mount Solace, by placing their needs ahead of mine and those of my loves, or resting with those I hold dear, to maintain my sanity, and share my love. I¡¯ve got to be honest, a personal request from the woman soon to be my wife really makes the choice easy. I feel like any choice I make, I¡¯m letting someone down, so I might as well try to make the best choices that I can, and try to live without regret.


    Knowing what I might like to ask before I ask it, Kinzul adds, ¡°I think we can agree that petty dramatics are unnecessary. You will of course be in my bed.¡±


    I gulp slightly as a devious smirk crosses Kinzul¡¯s face, before she looses a delightful titter of mirth. Kinzul continues, ¡°As will the rest of those closest to us. I dare say the emotive looks upon your face are as Prinrin claims, so expressive, and lovely to gaze upon. I especially enjoy those in the realm of shy, embarrassed, mortified, and the like.¡±


    Seems like you and every other woman in my life, yeesh heh. I feel mean for having thought the thought though. Honestly, I just delight in seeing your smile, sharing in any of your joys, and if those joys are because of me, it¡¯s all the more enrapturing to be a part of the experience.


    Anyway, there are a few things I can do without having to stay up all night to accomplish them. I can put in some of the reading time with the myconid form, I¡¯d also like to take one day¡¯s worth of harvests at some point into my inventory through my plushy form. It¡¯s not going to be one of tonight¡¯s things though. I can check out these two notes from Nietru though.


    Let¡¯s see, She wrote this one,


    ¡°Dear Schism,


    I admire you more than I¡¯m comfortable communicating in front of the others. I hope it doesn¡¯t come off as hero-worship, or romantic infatuation. As part of the strategist¡¯s council, the workings of your mind fascinate me on levels few others do. I¡­ may find the workings of such a mind, or a mind that contains those workings, to be a highly attractive part of someone, but I wouldn¡¯t ogle someone for their physical appearance, even one as pleasant as yours. I might snog them for their brains, but not intentionally ogle them.


    I would be lying if I said I didn¡¯t also find you to be lovely in other ways, but I promise you that if you catch me staring at you, I¡¯m lost in thought, marveling at something I¡¯ve realized about you, your decisions, your plans, or your abilities.


    It will do wonders for the Order¡¯s war efforts to have you in a position of high esteem within Mount Solace. I think you may need, no, let me apologize. I believe it would benefit the Order for you to make public appearances in which you performed debriefings, and sitreps, or simply answered questions about your plans, for the wider audience of the populace of our home.


    I am truly excited to work alongside you in the capacity that I¡¯m afforded. I understand that you are one of our most valuable field assets as well, so I know that our interplay will be brief and far-between, but I look forward to it regardless.


    Excitedly, yet cordially yours,


    Nietru-Devalor¡±


    Wow, that was really lovely. It feels nice to read someone¡¯s honest thoughts about me that are praising without being too hero-worshipy. Her suggestion of public events for P R is, eugh, not my cup of tea, but she¡¯s probably right. I¡¯ll put some thought into maybe considering possibly doing it at some point. What was the other letter?


    ¡°Dear Schism, again(sorry!),


    Spymaster¡¯s regular reports contained an oddity that I interpreted to be some form of code meant for your attention. She frequently, somewhat infuriatingly, will rely on pictograms or other forms of foreshortening her communiques. It¡¯s a fairly useful communication technique that would make intercepted communications less useful to our enemy, but Errissa literally cannot be intercepted, so it seems redundant.


    Spymaster¡¯s message meant to be passed on to you could be interpreted a few ways, but I didn¡¯t want to make any assumptions, so I¡¯ll lay them out for you.


    Chasm, gap, or Schism


    Thankful, or grateful, or thanks, or gratitude, or enjoyment, or the looking forward to of something.


    The number four.


    A thin wooden object, such as a broom, a cane, a pencil, or possibly a single-plank bench.


    Space, place, or a room of some sort.


    Interception of facial expression intended for one target, such as a scowl, a smirk, a wink, or so forth.


    My apologies for a second communique when I haven¡¯t even delivered the first I¡¯d wanted to give you. I hope that an informal thank you for your receiving them might make it up to you. That will probably include affection of some sort, based on what I¡¯ve heard of your preferred methods of communication and gratitude.


    Gratefully yours,


    Nietru-Devalor¡±


    Snrk. I snort back a laugh. I got sexted by Spymaster. Hah! Jeeze. Really Errissa, ¡°Schism, thanks for the(and looking forward to the next) broom closet face-time, wink.¡± I shake my head incredulously at the state of my life. Still, it was pretty spectacular.


    My Lady, reading over my shoulder, and reading my internal monologue, teases, ¡°So I¡¯ve something to try to surpass for my spouse¡¯s attention due to our Tenith¡¯s Latent after all.¡±


    I wilt under the tease, the implication that Kinzul easily picked apart what the face-time was, but also the implication that she¡¯d be trying to top it. My throat and the roof of my mouth has dried out, so I gulp down sticky saliva to try to return my breathing passageways to their normally moist state.


    Inappropriately, yet hilariously, Teuila comments, ¡°I dunno Aunty Zool, my Airhead is pretty smitten by my latent. Might be hard to top. I could give you some pointers. Go for their ears, or neck. Wink.¡±


    Friggin¡¯ hell Teuila. Jeeze, hah. She shoots me her mile-wide closed-eyed smile and rocks her head side to side derpily. Almost equally inappropriately, Kinzul responds, ¡°Thank you my beloved Tenith, I shall take that under advisement, though I may perhaps have some advantages I could leverage, or allow my spouse to leverage. I believe you called them exhibit double ds?¡±


    I snort a laugh, choke, cough, sputter, and topple over into midair, catching myself in my telekinetic grip. Teuila¡¯s giggle morphs fairly quickly into a short cackle. Luni chuckles uncomfortably, while Iylynila simply returns to a state of blushing so hard she can¡¯t interact with reality. Lil looks aghast, dismayed, or perhaps disgusted, but mostly playfully so.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Prinny though, she¡¯s ah, found her way back to her perch clinging to the right side of my torso, with her legs wrapped around my waist, essentially sitting on my hip. I think she must have taken advantage of my toppling over, to cover the distance Kinzul had put between us a moment prior.


    Grumbling through my blush, I almost want to tease Kinzul, but the only ways I can come up with sound exceedingly mean to even my subconscious, and I¡¯d never intentionally hurt her. I am wondering if she really wanted all of us to retire to her chambers for our sleep tonight. Kinzul offers her regal subtle head-tilt in response to my thoughts.


    Ah, at this point, Iylynila and I are both being ganged up on, in order to keep us blushing. I want to get some things accomplished, and this is quite distracting, so I¡¯ve been moving into the Myconid alchemist form for a while now. One thing I can do to shorten the refractory period, or recharge time, or casting cost, whatever you want to think of it as, for the Myconid form is I can make it an immobile version of itself. Basically only the tendrils move, but it can¡¯t amble or anything like that. I know I¡¯m a bit of a cheater, since I can just levitate myself around with telekinesis and so on. I would prefer most times to have it be able to amble, but I¡¯m trying to just make a quick short use of it.


    When I finally slip into the Myconid form, Prinrin exclaims, ¡°Oo you¡¯re such a cutie Schism. So soft though, almost a shame that. Almost feels like you¡¯re naught but squish, as if I could sink right in dearie. Not that I think I¡¯d mind, mind you. Oo I really can sink right in Schism my sweetie, just feel right here, and here. You¡¯ve got me all atingle again my dear.¡±


    I try not to let on to the wry smirk that would cross my face normally, during the point that Prinrin complains about my having become soft. In a truly private wavelength, with my walls up elsewhere, I jokingly, teasingly, joyously think one word at her, ¡°Deviant.¡±


    Her own emotional private wavelength indicates she¡¯d be cackling if she weren¡¯t trying to be subtle. While Prinny¡¯s amusing herself with the squish of my new, currently immobile form, I mention to everyone, ¡°I¡¯ll be ready to follow everyone to bed in a few minutes, I just want to test a few things, and grab the phone.¡±


    Floating back to the battery banks where the phone is plugged in, on a T K Surfboard, I realize a bit of a flaw with checking in on the phone at the moment. Realizing I can¡¯t activate its touch-screen features, I simply stow telekinetically with the dimensional pocket into the hyperdimensional haversack. While at the battery bank though, I check through the various types of energy devices, and I find several power packs that have USB-micro outs, and regular USB ins. I should have had these charging too, so I take the time to plug them into the powered USB-port hub. I snag a USB-micro cord for the phone, and place it alongside the phone in the hyperdimensional haversack.


    Okay, some quick mathing, an¡ª holy crap. The weird swarmbrain hivemind is so good at math! I think it¡¯d be better if I linked up more brains too! Gosh, I almost want to ask for volun¡ª.


    Beloved, adorable, deviant Prinrin offers, ¡°Oh Schism sweetie you needn¡¯t even ask, of course I volunteer for whatever little things you need my dear. Can¡¯t have our Hero going without volunteers now can we? I¡¯m sure knowing you Schism sweetie, it¡¯ll be a unique experience to be sure as well. I¡¯m all yours for the attempt dearie.¡±


    Wanting to explain to Prinny the process, and possible dangers, I start, ¡°Okay Prinrin, I¡¯ll be loosing a small puff of spores, try not to inhale too awfully much of them, you really only need one tiny spore of me to make its way inside y¡ª.¡±


    Wonderful, sly, adorable, beloved, deviant Prinrin quips, ¡°Oh Schism sweetie I think it¡¯s a bit too early in our relationship dearie, for me to be taking you inside me. But then again for you our Hero my sweet, I suppose I can make an exception.¡±


    If this form could cough, and sputter, right now, it would. Devious little minx. My train of thought gets another private emotional wavelength cackle from Prinny while I¡¯m shaking my head mentally, smiling and eye-rolling towards her telepathically. Especially because of¡ª. Well, anyway. I suppose I can just go ahead and try it then. I¡¯m new to this form, so when I attempt to release a small puff of spores, it might be more than a little. Worse, Prinny inhales deeply, taking most of the cloud into her lungs. I begin to panic in worry for my sweet little old deviant gal.


    I can sense every bit of Prinrin, and I feel her contentedly giving herself over to the pleasant numbness, the faint tingling of surrendering her senses and limbs to the spores. I have to actively send wavelengths into her body to keep her muscles in place to maintain her grip about me. Oh Prinny sweetie, I¡¯m so worried about you dearie. Wait, is my brain picking up on my sweet Prinrin¡¯s speech? Oh why so it is. Well this little test is giving this odd little old pair one heck of a new connection now isn¡¯t it dearie?


    Oh my sweet, my foolhardy little old deviant dear, this isn¡¯t meant to be surrendered to, nor taken in so much at once Prinrin sweetie. Oh please be alright you daft little dear. I worry that I¡¯ve absorbed your consciousness my dear. That¡¯s no good, no good, no good at all. My beloved little old lass, why would you go and do such a thing as drinking so deeply of me, and then surrendering so much of yourself to me Prinrin dearie?


    It¡¯s all on your will Prinrin my sweetie, you can take it back, but you¡¯re reveling in this. The spores only work on consenting parties dearie, but why did you consent to every last one of them? Oh, oh I believe it¡¯s starting to clarify. Oh you really are a little deviant now aren¡¯t you Prinrin sweetie. Letting me into you like this, after the moments we shared earlier, letting me know your joy and excitement, and the honesty of that statement on an intimately deep level¡ª. You¡¯re just full of spunk aren¡¯t you my dear?


    Grinning, I¡¯m glad it got the response I desired as Prinrin begins to retake some semblance of control over herself to giggle delighfully. Still, she worried me, so I grump, ¡°You had me so worried for you, you lusty little deviant you! You near gave me a heart attack, and for a second, I thought you might start growing a mushroom cap permanently, and end up stuck as a thrall forever. You know I was trying to warn you not to do that. Why would you risk it, my beloved devious little old lady?¡±


    Prinrin¡¯s response is, ¡°Oh Schism my sweetie, I knew you wouldn¡¯t let anything awful happen to me, or take advantage of the connection. Surrendering to it was blissful my dear, utterly blissful dearie. It felt like the days of floating along soft clouds long before the storm was ever used, back when dragons were heavy, before we were even mountains in size. Why, back then it took real power to not destroy whatever spot you¡¯d landed in, and falling was much, much faster, so being such a runt, and gliding along in the warmth of the sun, skirting the clouds and dipping my wings into them, it was pure delight dearie, so it was. My poor Schism sweetie, I¡¯m sorry I gave you a fright, I¡¯ll strive to make it up to you the next time we can take a look at your artifact, after I¡¯ve spoken with my sweet lad.¡±


    I¡¯m really regretting shifting into the immobile version of this form at this point. I¡¯d definitely be coughing and sputtering at the mention of what happened inside the¡ª. Wait. That would explain why a mile of clouds felt like it took thirty minutes to fall through without even counting the vortexes keeping us aloft occasionally. It would explain why the Damnation causing a minor earthquake didn¡¯t also leave a crater the size of Tokyo. The Worldstorm enchantment has more and more layers to it that I¡¯m constantly learning, all designed to reduce dragonkind¡¯s ability to rampage around the world, lording over and destroying everything. Oh Kinzul my love. What it must cost you to have created this, and continuously cost you to maintain it.


    Trying to divert my mind from the sad path it¡¯s about to go down, Prinrin redirects my thoughts, ¡°So Schism sweetie, what were you thinking of doing with this deviant little old runt¡¯s body and mind now that you¡¯ve got access to it? Ahem, I of course mean what was this test of your abilities that you¡¯d intended to perform? Before I went and got a little carried away that is my dearie.¡±


    Internally I¡¯m wearing a wry grin and shaking my head dubiously. A little carried away is putting it lightly my beloved Prinrin. I lightly admonish Prinny while communicating my concern for her, ¡°I¡¯d have never forgiven myself if something had gone horribly wrong. I know you trust me, but that was more than a leap of faith, that was an unnecessary risk. I love you and don¡¯t want to see you harmed.¡±


    Prinrin nods along and assures me, ¡°I know Schism sweetie, I know. Sorry my dearie. I suppose I let myself get a little swept away by certain thoughts and feelings that we both undoubtedly reciprocate. Trust, love, lust, and so on.¡±


    Yep, really regretting having a form that can¡¯t shake its head right now, or cough or sputter. Anyway, the test will be more noticeable with more volun¡ª. Of course you all would. Fine, fine, gather close, but don¡¯t take as deep a dose as Prinny. Just inhale a tiny¡ª. Every last one of you. Of course. I. Oh my.


    My head swims with the sensations of over half a dozen bodies and minds, our head, our bodies, our minds. We¡¯re all linked, and each of us feels that joy of surrender, giving over to the sporebrain, the hivemind, floating within a sea of ourselves. This could be dangerous. Still, while they give themselves over freely, I¡¯m able to distribute calculations across our combinations of brains, and manipulate our Latents on levels I¡¯d never dreamed of, with Kinzul¡¯s Administration Latent essentially at my command. Kinzul does balk slightly, and withdraws a large portion of herself from the hivemind, preventing me from maintaining such strict control over everyone else¡¯s Latents.


    I toss my senses towards Kinzul, and she acknowledges that she doesn¡¯t want me to divulge what I¡¯ve figured out from the action, so I maintain a mum state of mind. Still, with so many brains working in tandem, in concert, on the problems of exactly how to efficiently apply permanency to resource nodes, is almost simple, almost. We¡¯re set about the problem to be able to hopefully maintain some of the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital aura upon the nodes, should the worst come to pass ending in the shop being destroyed. It¡¯s experimental, and we don¡¯t actually want to test the results, but we manage to utilize some gem dust permanency enhancement enchantments on the more pressing resource nodes in a relatively short time.


    One last thing to test before bed, I begin flipping through one of Yisstendahl¡¯s tomes. I can¡¯t tell if Nala gave me three, four, five, or six, based on some of these bindings seeming to be possibly all one book. Friggin¡¯ hell, a tome of comets and meteors, and a tome of time. Nala was friggin¡¯ right, these are tip toppity relevancy. Let¡¯s see, one of these tomes Teuila hadn¡¯t used yet is a forty hour tome. We¡¯ve got me, Kinzul, Lucky, Lil, Lu, Te, Prinrin, and Illy. If I were able to take five hours, possibly all forty, with all of us linked like this, I believe we would all be granted the benefits of the tome¡¯s enchantment. There¡¯s something about the hivemind and the speedreading combination that has some unexpected interplay, that I¡¯d need at least one data point to determine a likely pattern, at the very minimum. Anything right now is conjecture, but it¡¯s still likely that we can share enchantment benefits to some degree at least.


    I¡¯m almost upset at myself now for having read some of these tomes that won¡¯t be re-empowered for decades or centuries. I wouldn¡¯t have made it this far without them though. I wouldn¡¯t have come up with the ideas that I did, to even create a new form like this.


    Let¡¯s enhance the cultivation of the glow-lichen while we¡¯re over here, the more fresh-air the better. Alright, let¡¯s drop this form, so that the spores dissipate from our loved ones, before we get too caught up in this. Our Lady wants us to adjourn to her chambers for rest, and all of us are more than okay with this. We¡¯re all exhausted, and some of us will be wakening in four to seven hours to start missions.


    Once we¡¯ve returned to form, Lady Kinzul makes use of Teuila¡¯s Latent, by clasping us all to her breast. Essentially weightless, Kinzul spreads her wings, revealing most of her legs as her dress¡¯s form changes to accommodate the missing mass. She takes flight, swiftly bringing us near to the top of Mount Solace from Mount Verdimenn in almost no time at all.


    Too tired for modesty, those of us that are more comfortable, or used to, sleeping in the nude, do. Illy and Teuila snuggle intimately to one side of Kinzul, while Prinrin settles in between Kinzul and myself, glommed onto my wife. I manage to rest one arm over Prinrin, laying my hand gently on Kinzul¡¯s abdomen. Luni is beside me, and Lil beside her, and I manage to snag both of them in a tight embrace, while Lucky remains down near all of our feet.


    Drifting off to sleep in a pile of so much love, affection, and perhaps a smattering of other emotions, is pure and utter bliss. It¡¯s heaven. My mind races as I begin to think of more applications for my old powers and new forms, and I hear groans from nearly everyone in the bed. I chuckle as I feel several walls partially go up to block my narrative stream from their incoming reception. We all want to sleep, me included, but this form of mine is brand new, fresh, and it¡¯s excited in so many ways. Still, sleep does manage to take me before long, due to the calm that being surrounded by so much love instills me with.

 B 6 C 67: Five, Six, Maybe Seven?

    Waking pre-dawn in this bed where our pile of bodies has somehow become more-tightly entangled and intimately cuddling over the course of a few hours of sleep, is amazing. Still, I extricate myself from the pile of my loved ones, and, unable to help myself, I kiss each of them softly on the lips, save Prinrin. I wouldn¡¯t steal a kiss from someone whose one explicit boundary was the sharing of her lips with anyone else. For Prinrin, I simply squeeze her left shoulder once in a gentle caress before leaving bed. Well, I don¡¯t kiss Lucky on the lips either, I kiss him on his forehead.


    Leaving Kinzul¡¯s chambers, heading towards the feasting hall, I find myself a bit surprised by the hustle and bustle of how many people are awake and active. Some of them do look haggard, as if they¡¯re on their way to bed, or as if sleep wasn¡¯t kind to them, but I can certainly empathize. I sit on a bench in one of the hallways leading into the feasting hall as I dig into the dimensional pocket to pull the smartphone out of the hyperdimensional haversack.


    I can¡¯t help holding my breath in anticipation and excitement as I hold the power button, unsure of if it will turn on, boot up, load, or what. It feels like a full minute passes before the screen suddenly, blindingly brightens as the phone powers on. I don¡¯t recognize the name for the O S, but why would I? It feels like an eternity as several minute pass while the phone is booting up for the first time. Hopefully it doesn¡¯t require this much patience each time I turn it on.


    Okay, wow, having an accurate clock is nice to start. I don¡¯t know how it knew the time, but that feels approximately appropriately accurate, and it is the correct day of the correct month. There¡¯s an N F C app, near field communication, a notepad app, and very little else that¡¯s currently accessible. Most of the things I can think to do with a smartphone aren¡¯t yielding results yet, as if parts of it are locked off to me. Perhaps in an effort to keep me from accidentally screwing myself out of the ability to use it. I know I¡¯d fiddle around in the settings right away, especially to check out things like networking, brightness, languages supported, and so on.


    Well, I suppose I can make a note of some of the th¡ª. There are already notes in the notepad app. One is ¡°Shops Required For Catalogue Setup.¡± I hesitantly open it, holding my breath in anticipation once more. It¡¯s a list of names, with Luni, Te, Kinzul, me, Attraxiaz, Lil, and a few names I don¡¯t know. The last one is bolded and underlined three times, Leezahna. That¡¯s ominous. Does that mean it¡¯s someone that¡¯s dead? Someone that¡¯s in Terrorzin¡¯s forces that I need to make sure to offer mercy to, to rescue?


    Phew, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m ready to accept the possibility that we might already be screwed. I need to take a few deep breaths and relax while waiting on the two Thunderers. Trying to relax a ways away from the feasting hall, I sense a large group of bodies, and my hypersensitive hearing kicks in, despite me not wanting to eavesdrop. I sense about six conversants, there¡¯s a bunch of early-morning chatter, but when the topic of conversation maneuvers its way to me, I can¡¯t help paying a bit of attention. I¡¯ve just decided to refer to them in my head as numbers arbitrarily, based on who was speaking earlier in their gossip gabbing.


    The first voice complains, ¡°Nobody goes out, fights two dragons, wins both fights, and fights a horde of underestimated mages, and comes back healthier than when they left. No one.¡±


    Voice numero dos quietly mutters, ¡°Schism did.¡±


    The third voice, a familiar, higher pitched, very full of themselves, angrier voice comments, ¡°There¡¯s no way that ugly little troll did any such thing. He probably had our Lady and our Star do all the work, if anything.¡±


    The second voice, one I couldn¡¯t really hear while it was quiet, a cracked, reedy, feminine, familiar voice, more audibly retorts, ¡°Schism isn¡¯t a he, but whatever you need to believe to feel better about yourself.¡±


    That third voice snips back, ¡°Ugh, screw you. Nasty little freak will get an even bigger head and float around here like he owns the place if people start buying into the propaganda of him being such a badass. Just expecting people to go along with his plans because our Lady sees her old flame in him.¡±


    The second voice chimes in, ¡°You did not just say that about our Lady. She could kill you for that.¡±


    The third voice quails ever so slightly, ¡°Erm, no, you¡¯re right. She could, but she wouldn¡¯t,¡± until she adds, ¡°Anyway, why am I even giving you the time of day? Ugh, this whole mountain is screwed up. Know your place, trash.¡±


    The second voice responds, ¡°Right, whatever Leezahna. Nobody cares who your parents were. Good luck maintaining your social status in a place like Mount Solace.¡±


    Wait, Leezahna? Crap. The note. Huff, great. Gotta convince that person to tend the shop. Just lovely. She sounds like the type who¡¯d sabotage it so that my reputation couldn¡¯t benefit from it. She also sounds like that lady with the emerald tresses.


    Voice number six chuckles and whispers almost conspiratorially, ¡°I heard that our Lady began calling him Schism my love.¡±


    The first voice grumps, ¡°She calls everyone that, what¡¯s that got to do with anything?¡±


    The response from the sixth voice is almost childish, ¡°Nuh uh, she calls everybody my beloved followed by their name or title. Schism is her *luuuuurve*.¡±


    I can almost feel the eyeroll of the third voice that steps in, ¡°I¡¯m sure if our Lady does refer to the gutter trash as anything different than anyone else, it¡¯s to show her distaste, you absolute neanderthals. Disgusting besmirching our Lady so, implying our Lady would have anything less than perfect taste by favoring a disgustingly ugly little troglodytic troll.¡±


    The cracked, reedy, feminine second voice says, ¡°So which is it, does she see The Platinum in Schism, or does she think Schism¡¯s an ugly gutter trash troll? Go shove your head in a hole Leezahna, or better yet, boil it.¡±


    The third voice blusters, and its owner, a figure surrounded by two other figures, stalks away huffily. I¡¯m pretty sure I know who Leezahna is. I¡¯m fairly certain she¡¯s that queen-bee type with the emerald tresses. Am I in an episode of a high school drama from Fakeworld?


    The first voice offers, ¡°I agree with her about one thing, he¡¯s an ugly little troll. Maybe a goblin. I mean, half the reason he¡¯s so ugly is that sleepy look of his, always dazed, like he¡¯s not even there, not watching where he¡¯s going. Like he doesn¡¯t even have a brain to turn on. Oh, that and the crying.¡±


    I try not to snort in laughter at the idea that my brain isn¡¯t turned on at basically all times. The reason I look dazed is because I¡¯m distracted devising ways to grow in power, in order to end these stupid apocalyptic scenarios, because no one else is going to step up to the plate besides my inner circle, and the members of the Order. The members of the Order are a bit stagnant in power though, it seems to just be us Can¡¯Z¡¯aasians that can achieve rapid growth.


    Voice four that hadn¡¯t spoken in a while, giggles in agreement, ¡°Hehe. Yeah, Schism¡¯s scrawny and pale, and apparently been shirtless or pantsless, or even naked all over the mountain. Isn¡¯t that supposed to be like, tabboo for actual humans? But yeah, seriously! What kinda hero cries?¡±


    The second voice grumbles, ¡°The Platinum did. Cried plenty.¡±


    Voice number four backpedals a bit, ¡°Okay, sure, but that was like, stoic crying over a field of defeated foes, weeping for their souls or some stuff.¡±


    I can virtually feel the eyeroll of the second voice as she responds, ¡°Who¡¯s saying Schism¡¯s crying is any different? Any of us know how many people Schism¡¯s killed? Why are you all hung up on Schism¡¯s looks anyway?¡±


    The fifth voice offers, ¡°He¡¯s not so bad to look at, for a human. Pretty eyes, cute pointy ears. Though, I guess that¡¯s it, maybe the hair, if he¡¯d brush it. I suppose it¡¯s fifty fifty. He could maybe be a five on a good day with less of a mess on his head, I don¡¯t see him being even a six without some sun, some meat on his bones, and more fashion like that one coat.¡±


    I can sense the second voice¡¯s owner rolling their eyes yet again as they respond, ¡°Not a human, not a troll, not a goblin, not even a he. You guys are all kind of pathetic. I¡¯ve heard of hero worship, but I didn¡¯t know the opposite, hero disdain, existed until now. Schism isn¡¯t my cup of tea, but I¡¯m not going to badmouth them to score popularity points with spiteful wenches like Leezahna and her crew.¡±


    The first voice grumps, ¡°I only said I agree with her that he¡¯s ugly, I couldn¡¯t care less what she personally thinks. I still doubt he did all that much in the first battle. Sun, Hunter, Muse, our Lady, and the Vivant were there.¡±


    The eye-rolling in the second voice reoccurs, ¡°You forgot to mention our Tenith. Way I hear it, Schism saved one of the Vivant, and was the only one that could defeat some weird special foe, and took out a contingent of mages in eight minutes when the Vivant couldn¡¯t end them in thirty. Word is the next day, Schism didn¡¯t make it back from their second mission, because they fought off a Damnation so everyone else could get away. They showed up a couple hours later, stronger than ever.¡±


    The fifth voice giggles, ¡°Tehe, you sound so naive. There is no way that that¡¯s true. Nobody comes back from an encounter with a Damnation. Even The Platinum didn¡¯t. Definitely not stronger. Hehe, you¡¯ve got some weird wish fulfillment going on or something. He probably just napped and missed the mission, and was punished for making the Dormir, Shield, and Aegis do all the work, making him fly home alone later. He looks sleepy all the time, always distracted.¡±


    Our one defender, the second voice responds, ¡°He¡ª damnit now I¡¯m doing it. They! Aren¡¯t my favorite person, but they¡¯re powerful, and kind. Go ahead and open your eyes, really, literally, use your dragon senses when you see Schism next time. There¡¯s a reason they¡¯re an archmage on top of all their other titles. They gave me¡ª us, Zayzi and me¡ª,¡± the second voice, almost assuredly Ixeyla, hesitates to divulge what I¡¯d supposedly given her before finishing, ¡°something, and an offer of something else. They¡¯re forgiving too. So forgiving that they don¡¯t even blink when I threaten to kill them.¡±


    The first voice flubs, ¡°You what?¡±


    The second voice¡¯s owner, probably Ixeyla, right? Flusters, blushing. She then turns and walks away. That had to be, right? Yeah, that must have been Ixeyla. Huh, she was defending me. I¡¯m touched. She doesn¡¯t exactly like me, by her tone, but I guess I have some of her respect, and gratitude. Also, since pretty much only Ixeyla knew I didn¡¯t like being called he, I use my changeling gift to grow a pectoral-ridge like I¡¯ve seen on femme Draconiacs. It¡¯s in the hopes that I¡¯d maybe be able to dissuade further people from assuming I¡¯m male, despite not being female either.


    Hopefully Lil is ready for that private bond with Ixeyla sometime when I have some safe S P left in a day, when we¡¯ve got time to get them together. I won¡¯t layer myself permanently into their private bond. I do like her all the more now though. Despite not really having cared about what the other voices thought of me, it was nice of her to defend me.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    A new voice joins the crowd, Atter the Loud, and she¡¯s laughing at the ones that sound like gossiping teenagers, shaking her head. She comments, ¡°I surrendered to *Schism* and no one else in your Order lads and lasses. I¡¯m a titled Thunderer. Take that how you will.¡±


    Shiz must have been near as he quips, ¡°I surrendered too, but for different reasons. Rock dragon broke my jaw, and Schism was being reasonable, offering a ceasefire. My partner was going to attack while we were talking truce, did attack, me ¡®n¡¯ Attey took the hit. Then I saw Schism completely obliterate my partner Tinth when he turned on us, in rage for injuring us, us, Schism¡¯s enemies, Schism¡¯s captives.¡±


    Shaking his head, Shiz continues, ¡°Schism did something I¡¯ve never even heard of. Fire and ice as powerful as any fully charged breath attack condensed into a single moment. In a single instant, Tinth, my partner, the ancient blue¡¯s face was blown clear off and body sealed to a wall in a glacier. Most impressive thing? Schism was *frantic* about trying to save our lives. Their enemies¡¯ lives. Schism took away our near-death injuries, took ¡®em on with their allies, some magic connecting them to a guy called Sponge. Oh, that¡¯s before we got put into a magic pocket and carried away to safety while apparently a Damnation was closing in.¡±


    Chuckling, Atter conjectures, ¡°We were in the pocket, so couldn¡¯t tell you for sure, but if someone said Schism took down a Damnation, and walked away whistling a tune, feeling even better than before, I¡¯d believe it if I were you.¡±


    I can¡¯t help smiling as I wait around the corner for the two Thunderers to show up. The Thunderers don¡¯t need to clear up rumors about me for me, but it¡¯s endearing. We have to get their clutch to safety immediately. I really shouldn¡¯t step in, but at this point I am feeling kind of full of myself, so I want to at least correct that last bit to play it down a little.


    Sliding around the corner from where I¡¯d been sitting the entire time, I chuckle loudly enough that my presence is noted, before correcting, ¡°Well, I took the Damnation *down* but didn¡¯t finish the bugger. His friends arrived and got to him while he was still breathing. They ran off with him. I¡¯m not saying they were scared of me, no, not at all, there was something going on. Like it was more about keeping his dragonforce away from me than anything else. I walked away, but I wasn¡¯t whistling. I was spent. Everything but my most emergency resources. Hey Loud. Hey Shiz. Thanks for standing up for me. You didn¡¯t have to.¡±


    Grinning, trying to stifle a chuckle, Shiz quips, ¡°Yeah but it¡¯s fun seeing the looks on people¡¯s faces when they learn that truth is scarier than the rumors. You figure out a way to get them here safely yet?¡±


    Nodding hesitantly, I query, ¡°Still probably the same idea. Illy gave you the magic pocket to hold onto, right? Do they need a lot of oxygen? We can use the same magic pocket if they¡¯d be fine with the amount of air that¡¯s in there. I wouldn¡¯t dare risk them though if they need to breathe in some way. I do want to get them as soon as possible. I¡¯m worried that the Damnations were in your area. As long as we¡¯re above the Worldstorm as I call it, I¡¯m confident I can get you home safely. If they try to go up incredibly high to reduce the risk of the storm? I¡¯ve got an even better advantage up there. I¡¯m a Void Dragon.¡±


    Shiz begins to say, ¡°About the Damnations, us too¡ª,¡± but Atter laments, ¡°I know that I¡¯ve said things that¡ª, I understand that you know how important they are to me. Even if they are lost to us, I still surrender, and plead that any of my people you can rescue, you take in. I¡¯ve no right to ask, but if they¡¯re missing, I¡¯d beg you to blaze a trail to find them.¡±


    Tensing up a moment, trying not to let my eyes wet, I nod, ¡°I¡¯d do it. If they¡¯re missing. If I knew which location, I¡¯d set out. Solo if I had to, but the Onyx Dawn are all good people. There¡¯d probably be volunteers. Let¡¯s make haste and hope it doesn¡¯t become an issue.¡±


    As we¡¯re leaving, I hear the fifth voice grumble, ¡°Did Schism look different to anyone else? Maybe they¡¯re a six after all. Well, okay, talking about mounting a solo rescue or something? The badass factor is pretty hot, maybe even a seven.¡±


    I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh. I shake my head as I work at trying to keep my mind on task. Shiz smirks, but Atter¡¯s face remains grim, neutral. I lift all three of us up out of the feasting hall on invisible telekinetic squares. I¡¯m surprised that Revvy, Gresog, and Farzee are already at the aerie, starting work on carefully trying to expand its edges. Revvy¡¯s hauling stone into place from somewhere below, while Greggy and Farzee work together to melt sand into the cracks, below, above, and around new stone blocks, locking it into place. It looks like Farzee might have even been up all night.


    Calling out to her telepathically, I ask Farzee, ¡°Are you alright? Have you even slept? I¡¯m grateful to you, and proud of you, but don¡¯t burn yourself out. We need you, our The Blue.¡±


    With a hint of pride, Farzee responds in that delightful accent, ¡°Not slept a wink, sorry Schism, but I¡¯ll make sure to hit the sack early. Won¡¯t even try to find anyone for it. I¡¯ll be exhausted. Revvy and Greggy have been up too, got me in touch with some Sand civvies. Pawn went to bed late, but she¡¯ll still be up sometime mid morning, and she¡¯ll handle routing the other civvie volunteers that you wanted. Thanks for the concern Schism. ¡®Preciate it.¡±


    Nodding to her, I wave at Farzee, Gresog, and Revinth, as Atter and Shiz take their draconic forms. It feels good to know that there¡¯re five dragons, six if you count me, up in the pre-dawn hours around five or six am, trying to be hard at work in ways that save lives. The Thunderer siblings take wing westward, angling in the direction of Attraxiaz¡¯s burrows, but they veer slightly with Atter in the lead, towards where there must be a nearby mountain instead, a fair hike from where I¡¯d seen her troops on the surface. It must be at least half a dozen miles away, but still, she was housing a thousand or so kobolds, though no Draconiacs oddly enough, unless I misjudged.


    I dare say, the entrance is fairly well hidden, because it¡¯s lined up with the top of the Worldstorm, as if it were a raft floating at just below sea-level. I wonder if Attraxiaz has managed to keep this secret from Terrorzin, or if it was meant to prevent people like us, the Onyx Dawn, from laying siege, or raiding. Somehow I doubt she¡¯s had much lucky keeping more than one big secret from Terrorzin.


    I think that, in Atter¡¯s shoes, I¡¯d probably make sure to seem like I was accidentally letting slip my biggest secret at some point, or rather, like I was trying desperately to hide one thing, when in reality I was making a subtler play to hide something more important to me. I¡¯d gladly focus efforts on appearing like I care about the secrecy of say, an extra base entrance or exit, if it meant hiding a clutch of eggs without drawing attention to the fact that I was hiding something else. I¡¯d try to keep like half a dozen fake priorities of what constitutes needing the most secrecy that made it seem like any secret I¡¯d try to keep, that I¡¯d go over the top about.


    Either way, when we begin landing in the almost-hidden tunnel structure, the Thunderers flinch as an inordinate amount of lightning worms its way towards the entrance. I¡¯m a bit surprised both at the sudden stream of lightning, and at the surprise the Thunderers show at it, as if they weren¡¯t expecting it. It doesn¡¯t take much of anything for my internal electrokinesis to extend several meters at this point, redirecting the lightning around us entirely. Apparently my new channels in place of my old physical nervous system, and tweaks to my organs that include magnetics and E M Fields let me literally channel my lightning powers biologically.


    Having my actual nervous system be located in whatever digital space contains my other organs is working out to be incredibly beneficial. I¡¯m back to my boosted reaction speed from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. The amount of time it takes for me to react to something is as low as anywhere from five to six or seven percent of the time of an average human, or perhaps an average Changeling Fae. The boost to my basic abilities and passive capabilities by becoming RS2 as a base is incredible. I¡¯m slightly excited to find out the rest of the effects of the changes we¡¯d accomplished last night.


    I¡¯ve been sort of wondering about what sort of personal possessions the kobolds and any other residents might have, if there were any non-combatants. I am however reminded that there are no non-combatants in any Terrorzin-allied faction. He mandated all eggs, and basically all living beings, all be remanded to his control and pledge their loyalty to him, and he treats them all as combatant pawns, disposable shock troops, and so on. So it¡¯s not too much of a surprise when Atter leads us through the tunnels, and everything is spartan as hell.


    When we get to a deeper area within the burrows, a place that is obviously Attraxiaz¡¯s private den, I realize that Atter¡¯s faction might even be considered poor. Even as the leader, as a titled Thunderer, Loud has little of anything one could call as wealth displayed.


    Curious about what we might need to transport, I ask, ¡°Atter, how much help are you going to need transporting materials, belongings, wealth, resources, food, and so on?¡±


    With a sullen look, Atter admits, ¡°Sadly, not much Schism, Reggie. We¡¯d been about to raid on Terrorzin¡¯s orders, forming up to head out the day you invaded ShizTinth in fact, in order to replenish somewhat. Terrorzin¡¯d have been hoping we lost enough forces in the raid to be more manageable for the amount of resources we could bring in, always favoring losing ground-troops without magic. My kinsmen, sent out essentially in the hopes that the non casters would die, it¡ª. It was fortuitous you arrived when you did.¡±


    As she continues to admit things that she knows I have strong feelings about, Atter wears a serious expression, ¡°I¡¯m only slightly ashamed that we would have raided for our survival, not as much as I should be, perhaps. Seeing your sustainability though, I¡¯d be glad to never risk it, or harm another to take what¡¯s theirs, ever again. We¡¯re almost there. Let me just blast this wall. Better yet, Shizzy you do it, low as you could, please brother.¡±


    At her request, Shiz charges a short blast to knock down a well-disguised false-wall. It¡¯s plain to see why Atter had Shiz do it, if she¡¯s a titled Thunderer, and thus her breath is of a higher caliber. The clutch of her eggs is in an incredibly tightly packed alcove just on the other side of a wall. If someone had x-ray vision, they might mistake it for a natural pocket of stone within the wall. I suppose that¡¯s exactly the point. Several of the egg-shaped or oblong objects appear to be rocks, packed in along the eggs. I think there are thirteen of the ovaloid, coarse, grayish objects that are actual eggs.


    Commenting mostly to her brother, I think, Atter laments, ¡°Only five, six, maybe seven will be viable even if I¡¯d find a mate as soon as tonight. The folks at Mount Solace seem the type to volunteer, for the chance to save lives, offer chances at life. What about you though Shizzy, you still feeling off about our deal?¡±


    Shiz looks away and grunts before grumbling, ¡°It¡¯s uncouth to speak about such deals in front of uninvolved parties, especially non-dragons.¡±


    There¡¯s a bit of a smirk from Atter as she corrects, ¡°Reggie here¡¯s as much dragon as you or me brother. Might even have been worth approaching about the Conjugation, but apparently doesn¡¯t come equipped with the parts. Not that I¡¯d have expected them to agree, what with already apparently being the mate of the leader of the Onyx Dawn, after having known them for less than a week. Still, what powerful whelps would spawn from such a Conjugation Shizzy? Fun to imagine kids that can take care of themselves inside half a year, a tenth as well as Schism can in that same time.¡±


    There¡¯s a look of distaste across Shiz¡¯s face as he responds, ¡°Alright, alright, enough with the conjecture. Yes, I¡¯d Conjugate, to make sure they had a chance before they all lost viability. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find someone in Mount Solace though, so I¡¯d prefer to not hear about the issue again, unless it¡¯s absolutely dire Attey.¡±


    I¡¯ve got a fairly strong feeling that it¡¯d be a pretty good guess to assume the Conjugation is essentially fertilization of eggs. I can see why the siblings would make a deal that such a thing was only a last resort, why the eggs haven¡¯t already been Conjugated, and so on. Still, it¡¯s a shame that apparently already half are likely to have lost viability.


    We unfold the portable hole, and begin quickly loading the eggs carefully into it, as well as the few meager possessions belonging to Atter. I also find myself blushing about the fact that I¡¯m already coming to be known as Kinzul¡¯s mate, despite, like Attey said, me having only been with the Order for less than a week. It has really only been what, five, six, maybe seven days since Kinzul had found us and brought us into the Order?


    Still, I also suggest we should snag as much glow-lichen and glow-moss to pack in with the eggs as possible. I know the pocket dimension itself doesn¡¯t really shake around, but better safe than sorry, and some extra oxygen and warmth couldn¡¯t hurt. I want us to protect every life that we can.


    It¡¯s time for Atter to begin organizing her people, now that we¡¯ve got the eggs. She should be able to take care of herself for the couple of hours it¡¯ll take for Shiz and I to get to Mount Solace, set these in a safe location amongst the Order members, and head back with the beginnings of the volunteer train. Hopefully things go smoothly, but I¡¯m already expecting a combat today.


    I¡¯m hoping that any combat that might happen is not all seven Damnations, but there¡¯s a fair chance that it could be the six uninjured ones at least. I¡¯d really rather it not be any of them, but right now? Right now I¡¯m more powerful than I was yesterday, with less limitations, and I¡¯ve got all of my resources, and new resources that Kinzul and my inner circle helped invent last night basically. I might be able to take out a Damnation or two, without needing to abuse the Worldstorm, maybe, but at least with the help of the Worldstorm, I should be able to take out at least one. Maybe. Right?

 B 6 C 68: Lotta Sixes

    As I¡¯m pondering about whether or not I could defeat a Damnation with or without the help of the Worldstorm, if the need arose, I try to stretch out my muscles, since they¡¯re brand new. I¡¯d rather get used to them, before having to face such a difficult fight. Shiz seems a bit concerned that I¡¯m walking around, light as a feather on his back while he¡¯s sailing the skies, but I¡¯m not overly worried. Let¡¯s see, deltoids, biceps, triceps, my trapezoids, wait, isn¡¯t that a shape, trapeziums, that¡¯s it, my quadriceps, and my calf muscles. Six groups that I want to make sure are limber and fully responsive before any fighting today.


    I know I technically don¡¯t need to come back with Shiz. I¡¯d never forgive myself though if he were slain or injured or lost the eggs because he got jumped by a Terrorzin loyalist that had been laying in wait, somewhere off of our first flight path. For all I know, us moving the eggs might have triggered some Psion or scrying action that alerted Terrorzin to send out a nearby force to intercept them. We don¡¯t know enough about what he really has at his disposal, because for most of Rayileklia¡¯s history, he¡¯s had pretty much everything at his disposal.


    Heaving a weighty sigh, I huff for a moment before remembering to breathe deeply. My exhalation this time is more of a yawn, despite this body being fresh, new, newly rested, and in great condition, I do feel a tad sleepy. Mostly I¡¯d just like to be enjoying this day with my loved ones, like Kinzul had wanted me to. Or making use of my new advantages to continue growing more powerful and versatile in leaps and bounds.


    While I¡¯m distracted with thoughts of what I¡¯d like to be doing, I almost don¡¯t notice it as the paper giraffe pops its head out of the dimensional pouch with a note from Luni. She wants me to start engaging my ultimate form right this instant. I trust Lu more than anything in any universe, so I do. It¡¯s going to take six hours for it to do anything more than just fizzling. I¡¯ll get a mere few seconds out of the form. Or I could maybe put the form out of commission for several years, six or so, and get a minute or couple of minutes out of the form. Possibly. It¡¯d take a lot of willpower though, and I¡¯d be risking possibly being taken over by whatever alien biology is required to operate the form. We couldn¡¯t do away with that when building it.


    It¡¯s disconcerting knowing Lu is having future foreknowledge once again. Or maybe has been this entire time. It¡¯s kind of funny. Someone who keeps more secrets than possibly anyone else, and begs us to not force her to lie, and probably lies quite a bit casually by this point, is the person I trust most of all to make decisions or guide my actions. I love Lu, and Te, above all else, with Lil and Lucky near them, and then people like Kinzul, Illy, Prinrin, Tiktik, Alanea Whifflewillow, and even though she¡¯s gone, in some ways, Dawn.


    I¡¯m distracting myself from the fact that I¡¯m likely facing a big battle in less than six hours, but I don¡¯t know how to prepare for something that requires my absolutely highest power already just after having created it. Shiz and I are flying, well, Shiz is doing the flying, but I¡¯m sticking with him in order to¡ª. Are you serious?


    Upon approach to the Onyx Dawn¡¯s aerie, I hear someone I don¡¯t know calling out, ¡°In the name of Terrorzin, I Mydraig the Hareslayer demand you all yield under his might, we prepare to march on the world, and will send yours to the front lines. We¡ª.¡±


    Hareslayer seems to be addressing six dragons working on the aerie. While three other volunteers remain on the aerie, Farzee, Gresog, and Revvinth take wing to bring their obvious refusal to this idiot¡¯s face, but I can barely comprehend his attack that knocks them all out of the sky tumbling back to the Aerie suddenly in their human forms. It¡¯s the fact that there are only three of them, and that they¡¯re in their human forms that allows me to save them with my telekinesis as I switch into battle gear and leap off of Shiz while holding my breath.


    The Hareslayer is an enormous dragon, his scales gleaming like burnished copper in the pale early morning light above the Worldstorm. The scales themselves are large, overlapping, and iridescent, reflecting different colors as Mydraig moves, their rainbow-like reflections cluing me in to what powerful Latent he might have. Mydraig''s head is long and narrow, tapering to a pointed snout that bristles with sharp teeth. His eyes are enormous blobs of amber, glowing with an inner fire that seems to burn with frightening intensity. Two long, curved horns protrude from the dragon''s forehead, adding to his already fearsome appearance.


    The dragon''s wings are massive, easily spanning the length of several tall buildings. The wings are a mottled brown, with occasional hints of green and red in the mix. As Mydraig beats his wings, the sound is deafening, causing a ripple effect throughout the surrounding foggy cloudbank beneath him of the Worldstorm. Further, Mydraig''s body is muscular and powerful, with thick, sinewy limbs that end in razor-sharp talons. The dragon''s tail is long and whip-like, ending in a spade-shaped appendage that seems perfectly designed for crushing and maiming victims.


    Thankfully, Mydraig didn¡¯t decide to maim the falling human-formed dragons. I puff a breath at that in a bit of grateful relief, falling faster suddenly. I chuckle at myself for a moment before I fight my own automatic responses so that I can hold my breath.


    When I¡¯m within a few meters of the aerie, I shout to Shiz, ¡°Get *them* from the magic pocket inside and unpacked in Lady Kinzul¡¯s demolished den, take these three with you. Make sure no-one else leaves Mount Solace until I finish him. I¡¯ve got this chump.¡±


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    Eyeing me curiously, Shiz queries, ¡°You sure You don¡¯t want a hand? Hareslayer¡¯s able to reverse and revert breaths, Latents and some other powers. Somehow has a counter to just about anything ever thrown at him. Never been defeated. Doesn¡¯t leave his home much, so it¡¯s odd that he¡¯s here.¡±


    I begin giggling madly. Nemesis. He¡¯s got a nemesis power, a counter power. Almost assuredly doesn¡¯t leave his home so that no one finds out it¡¯s probably a defensive counter only. People coming to attack him are obviously going to start crap. Shiz takes my laugh as cue enough, so he simply shrugs and accepts Farzee, Gresog, and Revvy as I set them on his back. They each grumble that they¡¯re fine, and can help, but I reassure them that I¡¯ve got this. I¡¯m certainly not going to spend four and a half hours stalling this guy, and Lu must have known that, so this isn¡¯t even the big combat that¡¯s going to happen today.


    What¡¯s more, Hareslayer is speaking as if he doesn¡¯t know we¡¯ve already begun our offensive, that we¡¯re now at open war with Terrorzin¡¯s forces. In that case, I need to take him out, so that he gets no chance to report our disobedience to his forces. With any luck, the report of him not returning from Mount Solace will take as long to reach Terrorzin as the news of our continued assaults on various fortresses, citadels, and land forces. The Damnations could have told Terrorzin about us, but I don¡¯t think they¡¯re actually working for him. They¡¯re dominated by our manxome foe in some way, possibly even on autopilot.


    I can¡¯t use any other combat forms, since I¡¯m still in the middle of transforming into the cosmic king form. Worse, parts of my biology are beginning to alter and show signs of the transformation that¡¯s coming, so I need to keep him from reversing that particular power of mine. I¡¯m pretty certain that him reversing my Latent is going to go horribly, horribly wrong for him, so I just keep giggling as I float up towards Mydraiglewhatsit.


    The numbskull who¡¯d hurt my allies begins to call out to me but I interrupt with the usual, ¡°I am Reggie Shellcracker, Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I give you this one, and only opportunity to surrender, or I¡¯ll rip you open and drink of your dragonforce. Go ahead and sense the dragonforces inside of me, and guess if I¡¯m bluffing.¡±


    Mydraig huffs and calls me out, ¡°Hmf, an impressive little selection you¡¯ve got in there, an Ice, a Fire, and a Lightning.¡±


    Woah, wait, what? Holy crap. That¡¯s right. My current dragonforces happen to be the elements I most specialize in. Moreover, in their order of power. That-- that has to be a coincidence, right? I¡¯m almost too distracted to make note of Mydraig continuing, ¡°Still, none before you have succeeded, I Mydraig Hareslayer am undefeated.¡±


    Grumbling, I quip, ¡°Yeah yeah and you¡¯re a poet and don¡¯t even know it, I get it. I gave you your one shot at mercy, so go ahead then, try to attack me.¡±


    Mydraig balks, not making the first move. Haha! I friggin¡¯ knew it! His most powerful ability is to only counter abilities that are actively being used against him, including a shapeshifter¡¯s more powerful form if used in combat. I stand smirking slyly at Mydraig until my expression morphs into a devious, evil grin.


    Anyway, I don¡¯t want to be here all morning, so I¡¯ll play along. I¡¯ll throw some easy to counter abilities that I¡¯m essentially immune to, then, ¡°give up,¡± to Mydraig, conceding defeat. Then the real fun begins.


    Starting off slowly, I simply T K Surf in Mydraig¡¯s general direction, testing a theory. Either he can¡¯t counter what he can¡¯t see, which would be far too easy a victory for me, or it doesn¡¯t count if it¡¯s only being tangentially used, rather than offensively against him. Either one is fine, hell, even having no weaknesses is fine, because I¡¯m going to get him to finish himself off if my other theories hold true.


    I begin inhaling, siphoning the heat from Mydraig¡¯s vicinity, and his face. Suddenly my inhalation becomes a roaring flame that¡¯s rushing my way, towards my face. I grin and begin cackling as I stand in an impressive blast of flame, technically of my own making. He can¡¯t counter my immunities or resistances, because they aren¡¯t offenses aimed at him. I suppose it was a bit of a stupid risk, if I had been wrong, I¡¯d have been roasted. Still, I can¡¯t help laughing almost maniacally. I¡¯m trying to sell an image to Mydraig as too dangerous and crazy to let live.


    Commenting on my crazy-factor, Mydraig queries, ¡°Never had to face the heat before? Going crazy from the pain? Is this the best Mount Solace can offer? I¡¯d have thought having a Red¡¯s dragonforce within you would at le¡ª. What.¡±


    I try not giggling at his obvious flub, and fail slightly. When the fire dies down, I blow a puff of gas towards Mydraig, which for some reason, he doesn¡¯t counter. I guess because it isn¡¯t offensively used just yet. It¡¯s not a really harmful gas unless I purposely pump a lot of volume into a small area, then it¡¯s a toxin. Since he isn¡¯t countering it, I continue exhaling it for a good while, getting a nice little cloud around the two of us. He hasn¡¯t done anything more than flap in front of me, looking a bit stunned. Still, I ignite the gas with a spark, and I notice an eye-twitch that might signify something.


    The gas explodes into a ball of fire between the two of us, but all of a sudden, before all of my breath weapon can finish igniting, it all becomes a glacier in midair. Some of that glacier is stuck to Mydraig¡¯s face, which causes him to become top-heavy in the worst way. He shakes free of it almost immediately, and casts a glare my way. That was easy, and proves one of my later theories. His counters seem to be exact opposites, and, he doesn¡¯t necessarily control what that counter does, at least not perfectly, or he¡¯d have never been the one that had to break himself free of falling ice just now.


    The ice plummets into the Worldstorm, and ends up destroyed immediately. Mydraig jokes, ¡°So you do have a few tricks up your sleeve after all. Can¡¯t say I¡¯m surprised with all those titles. Still, you¡¯re not even a tiny morsel. You should call out some backup, so that I¡¯ve got a reason to go all out, and so that I have something to eat when this battle concludes.¡±


    Still smirking at the confident Hareslayer, I retort, ¡°No, no I don¡¯t think I should. In fact, I¡¯ll make you a deal, if you can survive all of my elements when I go all out, I¡¯ll let you eat me.¡±

 B 6 C 69: Hareslayer? Hareslain

    The snort of confident disdain that Mydraig unleashes causes me to giggle further. I¡¯m in no way going to go anywhere near all out on this doofus. I¡¯m not even going to use *any* of my actual resources. I just have to not oversell it by saying something stupid like, ¡°Oh gosh, it seems you really do have me beat, please spare me mister Hareslayer,¡± or anything else as over-the-top.


    This one¡¯s just going to be fun. I begin streaming a long lightning bolt breath past Mydraig, intentionally missing him, but only just barely. He can¡¯t help it, can he? The fool calls out, ¡°Hah, missed me!¡± as I equip number four from my Q C R while floating slightly closer to Mydraig, continuing to breathe lightning just past him. My blinding flash of lightning keeps him from seeing the fact that the Worldstorm is pounding me with lightning, charging me up.


    Sure enough, the bolt of lightning breath curves slightly as it¡¯s summoned directly in reverse towards me. Better yet, as I¡¯d hoped, Mydraig is shocked in two ways. One, he gets the crap blasted out of his right wing and part of his tail as it¡¯s whipping side to side. Two, he did not see that coming. It doesn¡¯t quite confirm whether he needs to see it coming or not though. Mydraig lifts a good fifty feet upwards from his current position in response to the blast, oddly.


    The lack of confirmation on the precise nature of his counter ability is mostly because there¡¯s too many variables to account for. It could still be that it was that he can¡¯t counter any tangential attack, or that he can¡¯t counter cursed objects, or natural hazards. Any of them is fine for my purpose. I want him to counter my Latent when I use it on him.


    Alright Reggie, don¡¯t oversell it. First, Q C R back to number five. Start off sounding pissed and impressed, ¡°Hm, seems like I might actually have to consider you a threat after all. I guess I should be using more than thirty percent of my power on an ancient. Alright, I¡¯ll show you that much respect, and go all out to finish it!¡±


    Hehe. I¡¯m only using fractions of a percent of my powers. Though, to be fair, that was about thirty percent of a random lightning breath, so it wasn¡¯t exactly a lie. Still, alright Reggie, ramp it up, try to hit him directly with the lightning and see how he counters it. I begin exhaling a more potent blast of lightning directly at Mydraig. Just as it¡¯s about to hit him, it turns into a massive jet of water, and reverses directions. Holding my breath, I raise my shield up to block the watery blast. The torrent strikes my shield dead on, and it sends me flying ridiculously far away.


    The effect ends up appearing as if the blast of water struck me with far more force than it did, and as if I¡¯m bedraggled, and hurt, by my own breath that did nothing more than move me around a tiny bit. Floating back towards Mydraig, huffing, panting, and wheezing, I make sure that my telekinetic grip on myself bobs and falters. My grip also veers side to side as if I were drunk, or losing my balance and wits.


    Grinning evilly, my foe queries, ¡°Looks like your breath weapon does pack a bit of a punch after all, but can you not see? It¡¯ll only ever hurt you, not me. So, about that conceding of victory you were going to give me. Are you about there yet? Ready to give up, Hero of the Onyx Dawn?¡±


    Ah, the idiot doesn¡¯t even realize it was my breath weapon that struck him from the rear. He must think that the Worldstorm randomly shot lightning up towards him. So that¡¯s why he flew up. Hah. Okay, phew, keep up the act Reggie.


    Calling out to Mydraig, I respond, ¡°I¡¯m, huff, not even close to through with you yet. You¡¯re going huff, down Hareslayer! You won¡¯t set a claw inside my mountain! Your own ability to turn breath weapons back on me will work against you, you¡¯ll see. Huff. You¡¯ve just made me more powerful, that¡¯s all.¡±


    Snirk. Careful Reggie, don¡¯t overplay. Anyway, I float back as close to him as he¡¯ll allow me to get. He does begin backing away after a certain point, upwards away from me and the Worldstorm. I continue meeting his gaze with a wild-eyed stare, as if I¡¯m desperately searching for an advantage, looking like I¡¯m hoping a plan I¡¯ve thought up will actually work. I begin inhaling once again, cooling the area between us, and part of Mydraig¡¯s face.


    The inhalation, my cold breath, is met with the same response, fire coming my way, but I make as if I¡¯m eating it, swallowing more and more flames. Mydraig does pause slightly, curious about what I¡¯m up to, so he flaps sideways a bit to be able to get a look at what I¡¯m doing around the brightness of the flames. Good, he can see me ¡°eating¡± them. My foe furrows his brow, trying to determine if I might have any tricks he didn¡¯t consider. These dragonforces are friggin¡¯ perfect to get someone like this to underestimate me.


    After a long moment, I begin spewing flame directly from my mouth, igniting my gas before sending it out, making it look like the breath is a much more ramped up version of my fire. It does look as if I¡¯m recycling the fire that I just inhaled. It does however hurt the hell out of my throat. I¡¯m *near* immune to thermal damage, not entirely, and my own, when ignited too early, is some of the hottest stuff around below Lil¡¯s flames.


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    Mydraig doesn¡¯t dodge, because of course he wouldn¡¯t, a more powerful fire breath is just going to result in a more powerful icy retaliation. The flames begin to near those coppery, iridescent scales, each one is large and domed, overlapping with the one beside it, providing excellent protection to his likely much-more vulnerable flesh beneath. The scales are also intricately patterned, with wavy ridges that follow the contours of Mydraig''s body, giving it a sense of fluidity even when the dippy-dimwit is flapping here. The scales on his back are slightly larger than those on his belly, and they curve slightly upward towards his spine, further enhancing his spine¡¯s ridged dorsal ridge¡¯s appearance.


    The fire becomes a glacier once again, from near Mydraig¡¯s head, all the way into my throat. This could hurt a bit, if I wasn¡¯t a digital Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin adjacent lifeform. As is, I just intend to take a bite of the ice, and everything that¡¯s in my mouth or further inside of me is teleported to my nebulous digital organs. I try to wear an expression of terror upon my face as I glance at Mydraig¡¯s big dumb head, avoiding looking him in the eyes. Hopefully it appears as if I¡¯m almost afraid to meet his gaze. It¡¯s a bit difficult to fight the smile, and harder to remember what fear should look like on my face, but hopefully I pull it off.


    As for Mydraig''s stupid head, his eyes are large and oval-shaped, with a deep amber hue with that unnatural glow behind them. His pupils are slitted and catlike, oddly enough. This ends up giving his long, pointed snout, filled with row upon row of razor-sharp teeth a bit of the vibe of a predatory fox or similar animal. Mydraig¡¯s nostrils are large and flared, allowing him to take in large amounts of air. Also upon his dumb face is a malicious grin, as he seems to believe he¡¯s got me cornered.


    I begin frantically glancing around, attempting to appear panicked. Drawing Frostburn, I level it shakily towards Hareslayer, which causes him to chuckle heavily before quipping, ¡°What ever happened to conceding defeat if your precious three elements didn¡¯t work on me? Or does the word of a Hero mean nothing to the Onyx Dawn.¡±


    Annoyingly, there are quite a number of spectators that had been watching from a side tunnel that I hadn¡¯t noticed that leads up to the aerie. In fact, I think it¡¯s new, and must be where Greggy and Revvy were getting the extra stone. Worse, it means people from the feasting hall can just walk up to the aerie, when normally only fliers could exit to the balcony-esque fixture above the Worldstorm.


    This new development of course means that that idiot Leezahna is about to see me admit defeat, adding fuel to her flames. Hopefully Revvy doesn¡¯t have walls up blocking his passive reception of my internal monologue, so that he¡¯ll know my plans, and can start explaining it to the panic-stricken crowd gathered on the aerie.


    I slump my shoulders and droop my head in shame, as I pretend to admit defeat, ¡°You¡¯re right, my word is my bond. I must allow you to eat me. Hopefully another hero will pick up my legendary blade to take up the mantle of hero after me.¡±


    I casually chuck Frostburn down to the aerie, making sure to use telekinesis to drive it point-first into the stone near the crowd, so that even if someone is dumb enough and brave enough to try to help, it¡¯ll take them at least a split second. I float myself dejectedly, resignedly towards Hareslayer¡¯s snout. When I¡¯m within range, he lunges, attempting to bite into me with his enormous teeth.


    I¡¯d be lying if I said I didn¡¯t anticipate this. I perform a T K S L directly forward towards Hareslayer¡¯s throat. I perch in the roof of his mouth, causing him to ask, ¡°Wha¡ª?¡± before I begin activating my Latent, empowered by the Honoris Causa that I¡¯ve had activated. Either his counter ability doesn¡¯t work in here, in which case the vacuum of my power tears apart his throat and cranium from the inside, or, I become surrounded by crushing, incredibly dense mass, breaking his jaw to pieces, tearing open his throat, or, I become surrounded by the opposite of my implosion. That would of course be an explosion.


    The gruesome shower of gore as Mydraig Hareslayer¡¯s Latent tries to save his life, by reversing my Latent is one I¡¯m grateful to not have seen from the outside. His jaw is blown clean off, and his throat torn open down to his chest. The sides of Mydraig¡¯s skull are fractured, cracked, and exposed, as all the scales and flesh from his face has been violently expelled from within. The once glowing amber orbs of his eyes are missing, having been vigorously discharged from the force applied from beneath them on the inside.


    I levitate Frostburn back to my hand, as Mydraig attempts to make sense of what just happened. I calmly explain, ¡°I said I¡¯d let you eat me if I went all out. I didn¡¯t go anywhere near all out, but I did let you eat me anyway. I didn¡¯t say I¡¯d die from it, or even let you survive.¡±


    For some reason, my brain decides to announce, ¡°Itadakimasu. Oh, that more or less means thanks for the meal by the way. Sorta, kinda. Y¡¯know, for your dragonforce that I¡¯m about to consume, along with your heart. I have no idea why I said it, that was weird.¡±


    If Mydraig still had eyes, I can sense the panic that would be displayed in them. Before he can make even a paltry attempt at fleeing, I T K S L towards a crack in his skull, and jab away at it ferociously until Frostburn will fit through it into his cranial cavity. One might be amazed at how little pressure it takes to insert an incredibly sharp, incredibly deadly object into someone¡¯s brain. I simply float Frostburn into his skull and telekinetically thrust with it.


    Mydraig the Hareslayer is no more, and his corpse plummets to the aerie. Thankfully Revvie did indeed hear my thought train, so he knew what was coming. He and Gresog carefully lower the incoming corpse to the aerie, and they peel away his chest scales, and chest tissue to allow access towards his heart flesh for me.

 B 6 C 70: Recapturing Solace

    I try not to giggle as I see the stunned looks on the assembled peanut gallery¡¯s faces. They¡¯re completely drenched in the splattered gore, every last one of them. As I¡¯m landing, I¡¯m hearing shocked queries like, ¡°But how? He was countering everything you threw at him!¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I grumble, ¡°Please tell me that you¡¯re not all so simple-minded that none of you could figure out his power. He reversed things. I was toying with him to get him to eat me. Remember who I am? I¡¯m the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. Can anyone guess what a void existing in space does? It implodes. What¡¯s the opposite of an implosion? Anyone? An explosion. I haven¡¯t even used any of my daily resources up, because I¡¯m saving them to protect the refugee train that¡¯ll be incoming. You all should have been made aware of it. Anyway, pardon me while I feast. If you¡¯re hungry, help yourselves to anything other than his heart.¡±


    Stepping into the proferred chest cavity, as Revvy and Greggy step aside, allowing me to claim my prize, I realize that Mydraig might have been a metallic dragon. Possibly. His scales had a coppery sheen. Their reflection was the kind that casted a rainbow hue in a way that the roundness of the scales gave off blueish or greenish tones depending on which angle they were viewed at. They¡¯re fairly lovely, too bad they were on an idiot who worked for Terrorzin.


    I kind of thought that all metallics would oppose Terrorzin due to The Platinum having been the hero of dragonkind. I guess every group of people is, as always, filled with unique individuals, none of whom should be treated as anything less than unique. It is why I should, and want to, offer mercy to everyone in Terrorzin¡¯s hordes, even if most of them seem brainwashed. Anyway, time to chow down.


    Oh with RS2, it is much, much faster to absorb dragonforce from Mydraig than it would have been as cherubic Reggie. Even though his dragonforce was thoroughly spread throughout both his body, and his immediate vicinity. It makes sense, that it was probably the contact with his dragonforce that made certain abilities simply revert, since he didn¡¯t need to see them after all. It¡¯s a good thing I didn¡¯t try to use anything that might have been considered my cosmic-king form¡¯s power in a hostile manner during the fight while up close.


    Ugh, still, chowing down on massive dragon hearts, and being drenched in dragon blood while absorbing a dragonforce from within isn¡¯t exactly a pleasant, or immediate activity. Despite that, I¡¯ve absorbed his in record time. Seems he was an acid dragon, and never even had a chance to use it.


    Huh, an Ice, a Fire, a Lightning, and an Acid? In that order? The order in which I gained my first elemental spells in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? That¡¯s a friggin¡¯ hell of a weird coincidence. Anyway, since it was quick enough, and the peanut gallery is still gawping as they clean themselves off, I might as well try something. I need to earn enough of Leezahna¡¯s respect that she isn¡¯t going to eff over our shop stall when I eventually try to get her down to Mount Verdimenn. I¡¯ll work on Nietru¡¯s request.


    Floating out to Mydraig¡¯s shoulder, I call out loudly, ¡°Alright everybody, story time! I¡¯ll answer questions in a few moments. If any of you want to know who your Hero is, why Schism cries, weeps, floats around seeming dazed, any of that, stick around. I¡¯ll be working to relocate a thousand refugees here today, refugees from a faction led by Attraxiaz the Loud, a Thunderer that I offered mercy to. Mercy, deaths, and love are the primary reasons I weep. I¡¯ve offered a fair bit of the latter, and received quite a bit as well. The former I¡¯ve similarly offered a lot of, but it has been rarely accepted. Central amongst them is death, something I¡¯ve caused incalculable numbers of across two lifetimes.¡±


    I allow myself to weep a scant few tears as I draw a deep breath and sigh. Drawing a shuddering breath, I continue, ¡°I¡¯m not even from your world, this planet, Rayileklia. I¡¯m similar to Changeling Fae from your Fae¡¯s Wilds, but even that isn¡¯t a perfect comparison for what I am. Words that describe me, my birth, and my powers, don¡¯t exist, and don¡¯t mean anything on this world. Digital. Know what that means? Nothing to do with fingers, and only tangentially related to numbers. Electricity has positive and negative states, ons or offs, ones or zeros. With a wise enough application of ones and zeroes, you can make any number with only a few of them, and with any number, you can make any letter, or word. With any and every word at your disposal, a digital being at our base level, is made of ones and zeros. I guess it hardly matters. Point is, you don¡¯t understand who I am yet, much less what I am. I¡¯d like you all to give me a chance.¡±


    I barely refrain from rolling my eyes at having to ask for a chance from people whose opinions I mostly don¡¯t give a rat¡¯s ass about. Still, I attempt to explain where I¡¯m coming from, ¡°On my world, I took a thousand lives in an instant, then I reversed time and undid that action, but still came to take dozens of lives. I caused the death and downfall of entire cities and civilizations. I saved several as well. I came to this world after dying on my world in an attempt to save it from a calamity, an apocalyptic union of four gods, three of whom were my, well, allies at least, and one was definitely a friend. They were at the mercy of fate, and the fourth god¡¯s summoning, a hateful, spiteful sea serpent. I¡¯d only been alive on my own world for a couple of years, two, three, maybe four, I forget. I arrived after my death on my world, here on Rayileklia this last June. Within days of my arrival, I slew an ancient purple named Kozzurth.¡±


    There are gasps and murmurs, but before they can start asking questions, I maneuver my monologue, ¡°Rayileklia hasn¡¯t been kind to me, but that only makes me stronger. I defeated the Cult of the Bright Lord in their Cathedral of Blood, me and a blue kobold named Dippy basically slew them all, while Teuila and another friend tried to infiltrate to find their leader. Their leader was a bloated pile of excrement, figuratively, and he was hiding behind a massive spell of radiance, disintegrating radiation. I walked through it and slew him by holding him within it. It was one of the most excruciating pains of my life, and I¡¯ve suffered a lot of excruciating pains.¡±


    Sighing, I gloss over a lot of details, ¡°In a human city known as Victo, a necromancer tried and failed to steal my soul, his trove of stolen knowledge is how I began learning Rayileklian magic, to replace the magic from my world that I could no longer reach out to. I foiled assassination attempts in the Hidden at the Heart of the Wild¡¯s, I entreated with the Sisters Hidden in the Mists. I battled the Felgre hordes with my ally Tiktik, and my beloved Teuila, holding them off for half a day on my own, when Tiktik was out of commission, and Teuila hadn¡¯t yet arrived from where she¡¯d gone to relay the evacuation order. We fought for several more hours before we opened a hole in the sky, a hole in what I call the Worldstorm. The sunlight bought the Aasimovians of Autumn Brook more time to evacuate.¡±


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    I draw another shuddering breath, attempting to skip a lot of details, ¡°We fled Autumn Brook, because while Teuila and I were capable of laying waste to thousands and thousands of Felgres, and we did, they were endless. Felgre Portalspawn just continue to release more of their kind onto our world. We fled through The Gap, trying to rescue our kobold friends from there, where we ran into Astridus and Olashax repeatedly. They fled from their every encounter with us. I took Olashax¡¯s left eye, Teuila shattered both of his hands. I later took Olashax¡¯s life on the first offensive of the war, the first open engagement. I destroyed Yisstendahl, usurping the betrayer as your archmage, secretly at the behest of our Lady Kinzul. My¡ª. Someone very special to me.¡±


    Smirking, I wait for the murmurs and conjectures about that last bit to die down a tad before trying to wrap up, ¡°Teuila, who later became our Tenith, was there to help me fight Yisstendahl, creating the opening I needed to utterly destroy him. Sun was at my side to help me defeat Olashax, providing a counter-heat that kept my magical explosion from being directed away from the ancient Ice. My son Lucky, our Hunter, and another special person to me, Luni, our Muse, were there at my side keeping Vanathar grounded which allowed me to finish him more easily. I had to koff, assist, some of the Paradox Vivant on that engagement. There¡¯s no reason to injure anyone¡¯s pride, it was a massive engagement that was underestimated.¡±


    Ugh, I hate bragging, even if I try to downplay it. Still, I attempt to convey, ¡°Let¡¯s just say, in under two minutes time total, I managed to traverse most of a battlefield, free two friends from dragonfright, which I¡¯m immune to, learn an entirely new form of an ally that I can summon with my magics, disrupt what was it, seventeen? Psychic mages, Psions, that were pinning down an ally, killing a majority of them, and then killing Vanathar. I¡¯d offered Vanathar mercy, but he spat in my face, literally, so I ended him.¡±


    I try to still my breathing as I admit something I¡¯d rather not have to share, ¡°There¡¯s a dangerous part of me that was accidentally freed during that battle. Someone dear to me was injured, and while some of you may think that you might go berserk with rage in such a place, my wrath actually does take over control of my body. It had me slay roughly one hundred to three hundred fire mages in the course of eight minutes. We could have been more efficient, but I wasn¡¯t in control.¡±


    Recalling another thing from the engagement, I add, ¡°Also, Sun and I defeated a magma worm in that engagement, with everyone¡¯s help. Well, mostly so that Sun would have an escape route, since he wouldn¡¯t have faired as well against the explosion I caused inside the magma worm.¡±


    Chuckling for a bit, I shake my head at myself. Rolling my eyes while I keep them closed, so as not to show the facial gesture to anyone, I recollect, ¡°From that engagement, I was to travel solo to Mount Horatzchi for an assault on the ShizTinth stronghold. Along that path, as is my prerogative in the field, I made a judgment call to speak with a faction leader that I had spied marshaling her troops. I requested her surrender, and offered her mercy, much like I had offered Vanathar, much like I try to find the time to offer to those that I can. She, Attraxiaz the Loud, wisely accepted it.¡±


    Flashing a smile towards some faces in the crowd that I recognize, I almost reminisce about the time I¡¯d spent with Atter, ¡°Over the course of a day, we built up a rapport, and I took her as my prisoner in a fashion, in order to grant her the safety that comes with such a status. We¡¯ll be rescuing her people today, but the prisoner status was to provide safety to Atter, Attraxiaz. Her, and her clutch, that we¡¯ve managed to rescue today already.¡±


    At this, the gasps are widespread, and louder than any murmur. Nodding at the appreciation of the idea that we¡¯ve offered sanctuary to a titled Thunderer, and her unborn clutch, I work towards finishing my external deeds with, ¡°The assault on the stronghold went smoothly. I, undamaged from my fights with Vanathar, Olashax, psychic mages, fire mages, and the magma worm, slew my way up the insides from the bottom, the very front door while Shield and Aegis were late, and the Dormir were slaying their way down in from the top. I tried to offer mercy at nearly every turn. Unfortunately, so very few accepted it. One that accepted it said he would survive by raiding villages and taking humans as cattle. I had to slay him, which sickens me to my very soul. Two that accepted my mercy are in our prison, earning my trust by keeping their distance from those of you that might be vulnerable to the magics they can wield.¡±


    Scowling at the memory of Tinth breaking a ceasefire, I finish recalling my deeds at ShizTinth, mostly, ¡°Two others that seemed to accept my mercy were Shiz, and Tinth. Tinth betrayed our ceasefire, our peacetalks, and nearly slew Atter and Shiz in an effort to slay me. I destroyed him utterly and completely in an instant for this affront to my mercy, for this affront to people I had offered protection and safety to. We thankfully have many brave and wonderful volunteers, and an amazing man by the Alias of Sponge, that allowed us to save the lives of the Thunderers that will be living amongst us from now on.¡±


    Grumbling, trying to downplay it, I angrily mutter about our flight from ShizTinth, ¡°Of course the stupid Damnation showed up, just as I was finishing absorbing Tinth¡¯s dragonforce, Nonnam, so I called for a retreat, having accomplished our goals in the stronghold. Nonnam was going to pursue, so I risked my life, and drove him into the Worldstorm with the aid of Induul the Green¡¯s breath weapon that was ignited to give me enough explosive force to wrest control over Nonnam¡¯s descent from him. Bugger got away after we landed out the bottom of the Worldstorm, because his six buddies showed up and stole his body from me before I could finish him off. Then I was stuck below the Worldstorm, so it took me a while to find a way up a mountain and get above it to travel towards home. I got picked up by Sun and Muse on the way, thankfully.¡±


    Sighing deeply, I know I need to explain how we¡¯re going to be able to handle the refugees that I¡¯ve said were coming, so I do, ¡°I break the rules of reality, magic, time and space. I¡¯ve created a project in Mount Verdimenn that allows us to grow limitless resources. Wood, clay, stone, eventually metals, and eventually gems. We even currently have unlimited stew, technically. With the help of our Muse, we¡¯ve set up a special location that transforms wealth into goods, or goods into wealth. We have unlimited resources to produce goods with, in order to earn wealth from this magical location, and even unlimited wealth in the way of gems eventually.¡±


    Pausing a moment to let it sink in, I take a short breather before explaining, ¡°This gives us access to unprecedented sustainability, a problem that had been facing dragonkin and dragonkind for most of Rayileklia¡¯s history. This is why there has been hustle and bustle in the lower caverns of Mount Solace, and why many of your friends, family, and acquaintances have been spending their days volunteering, to help this project of infinite sustainability get off the ground.¡±


    I finally end my stupid public address with, ¡°There are a few key people I still need to recruit, to finalize certain magics, to protect the area, and the ability to retain the infinite sustainability forever. So yeah, that¡¯s me, that¡¯s what your Schism is out there doing for you, for those that I can save and offer mercy to. Any questions?¡±

 B 6 C 71: Dimineros Fall

    A precocious young lass calls out, ¡°Is it true you¡¯re sleeping with like, seven people?¡±


    Coughing, and blushing a bit, I respond, ¡°Well, technically, but sleeping in a pile of loved ones is simply a comfort to share with those I hold dear. I¡ª was hoping for questions more aimed towards things you want to see from a Hero of the Onyx Dawn.¡±


    Someone I hadn¡¯t spotted in the crowd until now, a familiar, lanky, gangly young woman, I hadn¡¯t noticed partially because her lovely hair was completely drowned in gore. Ixeyla queries, ¡°Is it true you¡¯re immune to like six things or more, like four breath weapons, on top of dragonfright, and having your soul stolen?¡±


    I nod towards Ixeyla, flashing a smile her way. Since I don¡¯t need to verbally respond, someone else jumps in to ask, ¡°Is it true that Lady Kinzul calls you her love!?¡±


    Fighting my smile, my face contorts a bit as I battle my chuckle. My expression probably gives me away, but I answer, ¡°I will leave that for our beloved Lady to divulge at an announcement happening sometime in the next forty hours.¡±


    The wave of murmurs that passes through the crowd has me struggling to keep from giggling. I continue to keep my lips clamped down to fight my smile as another queries, ¡°What¡¯s the deal with you being naked a bunch?¡±


    I snort with laughter and don a cheeky grin before responding, ¡°That part¡¯s a bit embarrassing, I used my clothes to try to save Atter¡¯s and Shiz¡¯s lives one time, and my armor is uncomfortable without clothes on underneath. On other occasions, well, let¡¯s just say I¡¯m prone to some mostly innocuous foolish behaviors.¡±


    As I close that answer with a wink, there¡¯s a round of chuckling from the crowd. Farzee, Revvy, and Greggy are wolfing down large sections of Mydraig, or were, and are now returning to expanding the aerie. Another query, from an unforgiving familiar voice asks, ¡°Just why does a gutter-trash troll like yourself think you deserve such special treatment, and adoration?¡±


    I close my eyes and take a deep breath so that Leezahna can¡¯t see my eyeroll and so that I can¡¯t sigh exasperatedly. I respond honestly, ¡°I don¡¯t think that at all. I honestly hate being in the spotlight. I¡¯m more nervous talking to you lot than I was facing down the other six damnations the other day,¡± there¡¯s some chuckling at my admission as I try to continue, ¡°I don¡¯t want adoration, or treatment, I want to know what our people expect out of someone who¡¯s had so much invested in them. I want our people to know what I offer, and for them to feel comfortable coming to me with requests if they have ideas for applications of my powers, or if they have needs that aren¡¯t being met. I promised a wonderful blacksmith that I¡¯d start up a liquors and spirits supply line soon, and I mean it. Oh, holy crap Deli, I didn¡¯t see you under all that gore.¡±


    There¡¯s a hearty round of laughter from everyone, while Deli, wearing a cheeky grin, responds, ¡°Heard Schism was pulling something up on the aerie which was suddenly accessible from the feasting hall for non-fliers. Thought I¡¯d come check it out, arrived just in time to end up in the splash zone. Still, glad to hear you¡¯re keeping my request in mind Schism, it¡¯s much appreciated. I¡¯ll tell you that story over the first drink you bring me.¡±


    A wave of giggling sounds out as Deli calls her arrival point the splash zone. Leezahna poses another question, ¡°You really want to know what you can do for me gutter troll?¡±


    Murmurs from the crowd are accompanied by everyone fearfully backing away from Leezahna, who seems completely oblivious to the fact that people are abandoning her in her continued brazen attempts to insult me. The hostile lass finishes, ¡°You can stop inviting feeble, disgusting heathens into *our* mountain. You can go die, and let a real hero take your place like my father.¡±


    The way Leezahna said, ¡°our,¡± tells me she was entirely using the ¡°royal we¡± more or less, indicating her and her family. Casually, I flip into the air, then use a T K S L to rocket downwards to the empty space surrounding Leezahna, and hold my breath at the last second. I land gracefully on my lead foot with my hands in my pockets, and continue striding towards Leezahna in a smooth motion.


    I approach the woman who now has the good sense to appear a bit frightened. I tell the ill-tempered dragon in human-form, ¡°Take me to your father. If he can beat me at something, anything, even just answering some questions, I¡¯ll ask Lady Kinzul to Administrate a change in my title over to him.¡±


    A hush falls across the crowd, which makes me feel uncomfortably, intimately close with Leezahna, whose face now appears to be coming clean of the gore in rivulets. Tears are working their way down her face as she responds, ¡°I c-can¡¯t. He¡¯s dead! He bravely challenged, brave, b-bravely challenged one of Terrorzin¡¯s generals, trying to earn an Honoris Causa.¡±


    Word from the crowd seems to confirm that he died in an attempt, but there are disparaging words about it as well. It basically sounds like it was completely foolish, not brave at all. I¡¯m not certain if this is supposed to be public knowledge, but I¡¯d never have even tried to keep up on something like whose noble family did what stupid nonsense. I¡¯m not fully convinced that the crowd should be disparaging her father, because I don¡¯t know the circumstances, and I don¡¯t want to take a general crowd-murmur¡¯s word on something like a judgment of character.


    Revvy telepathically informs me, ¡°Pay no heed to that one Schism. Her family, the Dimineros, were never brave heroes. They¡¯re snobs of the worst kind, and remained so until their clan¡¯s leader submitted to Terrorzin¡¯s reign. The family became Terrorzin loyalists, and only fled seeking sanctuary in Mount Solace from Lady Kinzul after Dyrkalt, her father, died, knowing they¡¯d likely have been punished for his failed affront.¡±


    Grumpily, Revvy continues, ¡°The fool didn¡¯t even understand Honoris Causa aren¡¯t for dragons. He was hoping for any sort of titling, but aiming for that. It¡¯s a titling which only Lady Kinzul even knows how to bestow, and he was seeking it as part of the Ice of Rage¡¯s forces, despite having been attempting to usurp a position in those forces. The Dimineros had been fully intending to remain there.¡±


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    Guessing at the father¡¯s motives, Revvy conjectures, ¡°Dyrkalt was out on some sort of bid to achieve, or retain, higher social standing. His desire seemed to spawn from the family¡¯s previous life of luxury, where they¡¯d been afforded a largely unfair proportion of gems, and other rich minerals and wealth.¡±


    Even if her dad was a snobby idiot who threw his life away for glory and luxury, she¡¯s still someone that¡¯s hurting. Leezahna practically doubles over as she weeps aloud. She feebly pounds on my chest for a moment, then drops to her knees, and keeps pounding on my abdomen, waist, pelvis, and eventually knees. Sighing sadly, I do weep several tears of sympathy for her. I¡¯d be devastated if I lost people I consider family members. More than I already have.


    Even though I can already sense that Leezahna would be thinking, ¡°Don¡¯t touch me gutter troll,¡± I pat Leezahna comfortingly at the back of her head. She¡¯s pounding on my legs, and I just want to comfort her about the loss of her father, but I shouldn¡¯t have bothered. She tries to hiss the words that I knew were coming, but it comes out as a burble. Worse, she begins taking her draconic form, causing the crowd to stumble back even further than the space they¡¯d already given her. Leezahna lashes out at me, attempting to bite me.


    I simply, effortlessly avoid her every attempt to harm me now that my reflexes have returned to their former prowess. I¡¯m back in decent combat shape in RS2 form since it lacks the nerve-damage. I¡¯ve got my hands in my pockets and I casually hop around on invisible telekinetic squares that I conjure where my danger wraps think I should change directions at.


    It¡¯s just a jump to the left, whoop, and here¡¯s a step to the right. My hands are in my unarmored pockets at my hips, and I don¡¯t even have to move my knees from their tight position as I maintain relatively straight posture. Mostly simply flexing my ankles, I spring about on T K Squares that are angled properly to avoid attacks. I allow my momentum to carry me over one of her swipes with her foreclaws, and casually perform a vaulting handspring over it, trying to impress upon her how stupid and reckless this is, that I have time to show off.


    I¡¯ve got no idea how to get through to this snobby brat. I feel bad for her, about losing her father, I really do. You can¡¯t violently lash out at other family who accepts and protects you though. Especially not out of some friggin¡¯ crap like nobility and royalty and social standing nonsense.


    Eventually, when Leezahna¡¯s as large as she¡¯s going to get, the size of a young-adult dragon, I land on her snout, light as a feather. Her scales glitter like emerald gemstones, honestly a lot like my draconic form from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Her draconic form isn¡¯t impressive, but it is fairly lovely, sleek, almost regal. I wonder how upset she¡¯d be if she had permanent scarring from an injury. She seems like the type to care about her appearance above a lot of other things. I don¡¯t want to injure her, but I will if I have to, to keep everyone else here safe.


    Almost everyone in the crowd who doesn¡¯t know me is freaking out. Not Ixeyla though. She¡¯s just smirking and rolling her eyes as I lean down to flip around Leezahna¡¯s snout after patting her gently, comfortingly on her cranium. I¡¯m quite tempted to draw Frostburn to appear more threatening, since I¡¯ve given her several minutes of screwing around now.


    I can tell Leezahna is beginning to charge a breath weapon, and I¡¯m getting fed up with trying to be the nice, forgiving person here. She won¡¯t accept comfort in order to calm down, when she laid hands upon me first. I don¡¯t want to touch someone who doesn¡¯t consent as a general rule, but I¡¯m also pretty close to just hauling off and shattering her nose to get her to stop being a brat.


    Instead, I float directly in front of Leezahna, and crackle with lightning, causing her to balk. I irritatedly announce, ¡°Leezahna, Diminero, you will halt your aggression. I am Reggie Shellcracker, Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa.¡±


    Sick of having to repeat myself, I also voice my displeasure as I order, ¡°Failure to come to your senses will force me to knock you senseless, and I don¡¯t guarantee you¡¯ll survive my effort. I very much lack strong non-lethal options. Do *not* force my hand. I am very sorry to hear about your father¡¯s unfortunate death. However brave he was, I¡¯ll never know, and never attempt to question. It¡¯s obvious that you care about your family, at least its name or status.¡±


    Far more sternly, angrily, I add, ¡°Know that I care about mine enough to *kill*. Even enough to kill members of it, to protect the others. I slew my own brother, when he¡¯d succumbed to evil in order to gain devastating powers, and put the rest of our family in harm¡¯s way. You are a member of my family now Leezahna, but you are showing yourself to be a danger to others, others that I hold dear. If I can¡¯t trust my safety around you, I certainly wouldn¡¯t trust their safety around you.¡±


    Staring her dead in the eyes, I couch my parting words with displeasure, ¡°I will slay anyone that would disrupt the safety and peace of our home. You currently survive and remain conscious because of my affection for all of my family members, which includes all who dwell within Mount Solace.¡±


    Leezahna finally calms down, somewhat. She gripes, ¡°Whatever, gutter trash,¡± and I really want to smack her for it, but at least I don¡¯t have to risk nearly killing her, and dragging her to our shop stall. There¡¯s still a chance to salvage this, and get her to agree, but I am *not* risking the stall with her being this hostile. I guess I know why the note drew so much attention to her name though. Friggin¡¯ hell.


    The dragon form recedes, and Leezahna stands before me once again in her human guise, mostly cleaned of the gore due to the changes in her shape from becoming a dragon and returning to human form. Her clothing is completely cleaned due to having swapped to a much less fashionable dress form, it almost resembles a sort of battle-attire, as if she¡¯s defiantly stating she¡¯s not backing down from the idea of fighting me. The slight smirk she wears upon noticing me making note of her attire is all the confirmation I need of her subtle signal.


    I wonder how much Kinzul would hate me if I shattered some of Leezahna¡¯s bones. I¡¯d hate myself quite a lot. The brat is utterly infuriating, and completely convinced of her own, and her family¡¯s, superiority. I know that Lady Kinzul would back my play if I chose to exile her, but what would she do? Go back to Terrorzin¡¯s forces? Then I¡¯d just end up killing her. Would she go raiding human settlements? Then I¡¯d just end up killing her.


    How the hell do you get through to someone like this? She¡¯s insufferable. I¡¯m sure she feels I¡¯m equally insufferable. Should I grovel? Somehow lift her family¡¯s station, and reward her crappy behavior? Screw that. I¡¯ve got a couple of plays left, but I think I¡¯m going straight for the final play.


    Drawing Frostburn, I level it at Leezahna and state, ¡°Perhaps I should have warned everyone, but I¡¯ve spells, enchantments, and abilities to read intent, deceptions, and even minds. Your continued harassment, and your subtle ploy at provoking me by indicating your defiance shows that you¡¯re still a danger to those I love. I think I¡¯ve changed my mind about letting you live.¡±

 B 6 C 72: Answer? Violence

    Why does it seem like the best answer to getting my point across is violence, always violence? Attempting to hide my sigh, I make sure to breathe within my closed mouth using the neckchain. I order my current target, ¡°So tell me why you should survive Leezahna, why you deserve special treatment, why you deserve to live, what makes *you* better than anyone else, special in any way.¡±


    Stuttering as she stares at the sword I have leveled towards her face, Leezahna starts, ¡°M-my my f-family¡ª¡°


    Rolling my eyes, I interrupt, ¡°Wrong answer Leezahna, your family isn¡¯t who you are, it¡¯s not a mask to hide behind, or lord over others. Family is who you care about and protect. Using it the way you just did makes it seem like you only care about and protect yourself. Try again. Why are *you* so much better than anyone you call gutter trash?¡±


    Choking on her words, Leezahna glances around, desperate for someone to bail her out, but even her two flunkies have joined in the desperate attempt to make room for our ongoing hostile engagement. The wide circle of the crowd on the aerie is eerily silent. Revvy, Gresog, and Farzee gaze at me worriedly. They know that I technically need her alive, and I abhor the idea of killing anyone. They know that I¡¯ve skipped several steps, and am playing my biggest threat directly to get through to her.


    Trying to use different words to say the same things, Leezahna begins, ¡°I-I was born to, to the Dim¡ª¡°


    I snarl at her as I furrow my brows before barking, ¡°Stop it! Stop using your family and its name as a tool to batter and bludgeon your way around the social landscape! They deserve better than that! Or perhaps they don¡¯t. Perhaps I should simply exile them all.¡±


    Leezahna starts objecting, ¡°You, you c-can¡¯t! You can¡¯t do that, you don¡¯t have the power, the right! You¡¯re noth¡ª¡°


    Growling at her, I explain, ¡°You have admitted you¡¯re too dangerous to let live by signaling your defiance with your transformation. You¡¯ve shown that you have no concept of empathy for anyone you believe is beneath you, and that you believe nearly everyone is beneath you.¡±


    I scowl as I have to resort to further threat of violence, ¡°I¡¯d be well within my right to kill you and your entire family, in order to drink of their dragonforces to make further progress in the war against Terrorzin. You know, the war to stop the arseholes who are literally going to burn down the entire world. That war? Remember it? The war that your family would have joined in, under Terrorzin¡¯s banner, if he¡¯d have given you enough nummy munchies.¡±


    I know I hit a low blow there, but I didn¡¯t call her father into question specifically. She does look like I¡¯d slapped her across the face however. I advance half a step on her, bringing Frostburn dangerously close to her bangs, and forehead. Glaring into her eyes, I realize wrath is starting to bubble to the surface at the idea that she might harm my loved ones in retaliation if I let her live.


    Gulping down my hatred and fear, I ask, ¡°What proof do I have that you won¡¯t lash out at my family like you lashed out at me? That you won¡¯t try to harm them in subtle or overt ways when they¡¯re most vulnerable? You wouldn¡¯t even make a fit prisoner. Why do you even deserve my mercy, let alone believe you¡¯re above all of the others that I protect?¡±


    I can sense certain psychic wavelengths nearby that I really would rather not have witnessing this, but I sigh and continue what is only partially a farce. I await Leezahna¡¯s response, which is now burbled through tears and snot as she begs, ¡°Stop! Please, please stop! Don¡¯t hurt me!¡±


    Growling at her, I state, ¡°I didn¡¯t ask what you want me to do, I asked you why I should even trust you in the slightest. What makes you think I could ever let you or any member of your family live, knowing the danger you pose, the selfishness you embody?¡±


    Whimpering, Leezahna complains, ¡°B-but, you¡¯re supposed to be a hero, our Hero.¡±


    I flash Leezahna an angry glare as I state, ¡°No. I¡¯ve always hated when people labeled me with that title. I¡¯m no hero. I¡¯m a fuggin¡¯ monster. As far as the capital H Hero, I¡¯m only that to the Order of the Onyx Dawn, and the peace-loving residents of Mount Solace that accept me and my faults to be that for them. Do you know why I consider myself a monster? I¡¯ve taken so many lives that I lost count!¡±


    Slightly softer, angry at myself for using this route, I add, ¡°I hate myself, and this world, and every last person who ever makes a situation life or death, instead of accepting a compromise that doesn¡¯t require the subjugation of someone else¡¯s will. Why should my compromise be anything less than your exile or death, and that of your entire family, when the safety of those I hold dear is on the line?¡±


    In tears, on her knees, Leezahna¡¯s facade cracks, crumbles, and fully collapses as she begs, ¡°Please, please they say you¡¯re kind and merciful. Please spare me¡ªglp, n-no, koff, family. My family, m-my momm- mother.¡±


    I drop onto my arse in front of her and sheathe Frostburn. Drawing a deep breath, I sigh at the shocked, scared little girl I see before me. I blink back a tear in my left eye and ask, ¡°Do you understand why I just sheathed my blade? Why I think you deserve to live? Why I love you just as much as I love all the residents of Mount Solace? Why I will protect you and all the others until my dying breath?¡±


    Leezahna shakes her head nervously, fearfully, so I explain, ¡°You do have compassion, decency, even selflessness. Somewhere deep, deep under that spiteful veneer that you¡¯ve labored to wear, there¡¯s a decent person inside. Everyone who wants peace and happiness, if I can trust them to allow others to seek it, I love them. As much hate and wrath as I have? I have more love, far more.¡±


    I shake my head dubiously at myself before continuing, ¡°You¡¯re right though. I am supposed to be a hero, be merciful, be kind. I try to be. I fail often though. Everyone fails and falters, from time to time, at being who they want, or need, or are meant, to be. Y¡¯know? I¡¯d never have done it, killing you while you lived here. Couldn¡¯t do it. Hate doing it. I¡¯d have exiled your family, and if you went back to Terrorzin¡¯s lands and forces, or raided innocent settlements, I¡¯d have slain you all. I wouldn¡¯t have attacked or slain you here, but my wrath might have.¡±


    I quickly continue in order to explain, ¡°Wrath was pretty close to taking over, and murdering you, and everyone who ever seemed to be your friend or sympathize with you or listen to a word you say. Wrath would have done that out of fear for the retaliation they might dole out upon my family. I fought that off for your sake, to give you the chance to show who you are beneath all the crap.¡±


    Softly, almost whispering consolingly, I request, ¡°So, Leezahna, before I go try to save some more people, I want you to tell me about yourself. Who you truly, really are. No more of the crap.¡±


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    She stares at me like I¡¯ve asked her to swallow a moose whole while in human form. I roll my eyes and gesture for her to continue. She glances around at the circle around us, feeling the ostracizing that could come, that will probably already come from attacking the Order¡¯s Hero, and bringing me to this state. Leezahna pulls her knees to her chest, wraps her arms around them, and sobs into them for several moments before she whimpers, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±


    I let my tears roll down, streaming freely. Finally I feel assured of my family¡¯s safety, as I truly believe her. I draw a shuddered breath from fighting off my own sobs.


    Nodding to whom is essentially a victim of my bullying, I respond, ¡°I know. I¡¯m here if you need help figuring it out. Others too. Mount Solace is meant to offer its namesake, solace. I don¡¯t expect you to become a paragon of our society, or the pinnacle of every value that I hold dear, especially not instantly.¡±


    Calmer, quieter, I lean close as I request, ¡°But please, when finding yourself, try to work kindness and compassion somewhere in there. Even if selflessness isn¡¯t something you can manage a heavy dose of. You obviously have some of it, for at least your mother. Nurture the traits that help you love those around you, and they¡¯ll learn to love you in turn. I¡¯ll admit, after this little stunt, you¡¯ve probably got a little bit of an uphill battle, but I¡¯ll vouch for you. If you¡¯re willing to try. Are you willing to try Leezahna?¡±


    Nodding rapidly, Leezahna doesn¡¯t speak, as she continues crying into her knees, rubbing her eyes on her forearms occasionally. I draw a ragged breath, and rub my own itchy, wet eyes. The person I¡¯d least expect walks to stand beside me, puts one lanky, slender hand on my shoulder, and shoots me a glance that she flicks towards Leezahna questioningly. I nod and smile at Ixeyla, proud of her. She can feel some of it across our psychic wavelength. My pride in her. My gratitude.


    Ixeyla sits next to Leezahna, offering her shoulder, leaning back slightly so that her right arm is behind Leezahna. Ixey mutters, ¡°Come here Princess. Schism vouches for you being a good person inside. References don¡¯t get much better than that.¡±


    Leezahna lifts her face from its perch in her forearms and knees to gaze at me with a furrowed brow. She glances back and forth between me and Ixeyla for several moments. There¡¯s still a slight, mild, underlying fury, resentment of me. I¡¯ve reduced her to this state, I called her out until she couldn¡¯t be called out any more. I disparaged the worth of a family name. I threatened her life, and her family¡¯s life. Something I¡¯d kill someone for doing. Even still, she can¡¯t decide whether to leap into the arms I¡¯ve spread wide, or to lean onto Ixeyla, someone she equally despises, to seek solace in either of us.


    I offer Leezahna a sad half smile, and I see fear too, when her gaze meets mine. I understand that she wouldn¡¯t be able to take comfort in any solace she could find in me, so I nod understandingly. I flick my head towards Ixeyla, and there¡¯s a query on Leezahna¡¯s face, an, ¡°Are you sure?¡± because she¡¯s afraid to snub me at the moment. I simply nod again while wearing that same sad half-smile. So she does take solace in Ixeyla, leaning over to her, resting her face upon Ixeyla¡¯s shoulder.


    Ixeyla, for her part, gives Leezahna a rough hug with her gangly right arm. I whisper telepathically to Ixeyla, ¡°Thank you. You¡¯re amazing. I hope Lil is ready soon. I really do. He seems absolutely head over heels for you, and I¡¯m proud of him for finding someone as awesome as you to be enamored with so dearly. I think Leezahna here could maybe benefit from being out of the spotlight for a little while. Do you think you could take her somewhere quiet, and just be with her for a little while?¡±


    Ixeyla nods my way, and slowly stands, trying to keep Leezahna from falling over, offering her a hand up. When Kinzul parts the crowd for them, there¡¯s gulping, and murmuring from the crowd. Our Lady simply states, ¡°Thank you for handling that with compassion, my love. For fighting your inner turmoil, struggling against the fear for our safety. I love you more each day, and plead that you always remain true to yourself, this version of yourself, and further nurture your compassion, and kindness, always.¡±


    Nodding to Kinzul, I stand and shift in height to approach her. I quickly embrace her so that she can hide her face in my neck and shoulder, to obscure the tears that are about to stream forth. She shakes her head though, rather than hiding her tears, she lets them flow freely, visible to the large crowd from several angles. While crying openly, instead of hiding, she kisses me softly on the lips.


    I sink into the kiss unintentionally. How can I not? She¡¯s remarkable, incredible, amazing, compassionate, kind, loving, and a vision of perfection that carries around the weight of the Worldstorm, and all the pains and sorrows of the past. I love her in ways I still haven¡¯t found words to describe, or boxes to categorize those feelings under.


    The quiet, hushed gasp and whispers and murmurs that follow our embrace are enough that Kinzul smirks playfully. She¡¯s been intentionally feeding the rumor mill. I¡¯m not entirely certain why. It feels like there¡¯s a long game play going on here, by setting the truth of the upcoming announcement to spread before we make it.


    Maybe stoking the rumor mill with the truth is just that, to show our beloved residents that she truly does love me, and isn¡¯t making the marriage for some unknown reason. Even if she does have other reasons in mind. I feel loved, whether or not her primary purpose for our marriage is something else.


    Ixeyla whistles a low note of appreciation as her eyes are wide in staring, since she¡¯d been trying to get Leezahna out to some place quiet and private before anything new happened. She¡¯s thankfully got Leezahna facing the other way, while looking back over her left shoulder at Kinzul and me. I flash her a smile and nod in that regal head-tilt manner. Huh, I wonder if Kinzul does that to save on neck strain, after having had to nod at many things for hundreds of years.


    My wife chuckles across our telepathic wavelength at my silly line of thought, while continuing to smirk, pulling our locked lips in a mild twist. I stroke my wife-to-be¡¯s cheek, and we rest our foreheads together. She¡¯s going out to battle today, soon, while I continue my evacuation efforts. I¡¯m terrified once again, about the¡ª there are other minds around here. I¡¯m terrified of the prospect of possibly losing my wife-to-be, but I¡¯d never try to cage her, or hold her back from any duty or responsibility she¡¯d decided to fulfill.


    I whisper, ¡°Be safe, my love. Bring yourself, and all of them home safely. Nothing is more important than that.¡±


    The Vivant, other than Prinrin, look a bit stunned. Lil rolls his eyes and hangs his tongue out in a joking display of disgust, while Luni chuckles and elbows him playfully. Prinrin sends waves of desires to our bond, things she wants to say, and do, before they head out, but she can¡¯t, with this many people around. Especially not after Kinzul basically just laid claim to me in front of the gathered individuals.


    Farzee accidentally telepathically lets loose a, ¡°Ho-lee-shi¡¯,¡± in that delightful accent that lacks most end-word stop-consonants. I nearly burst into laughter at it, but Farzee covers her mouth in meatspace in embarrassment.


    My delightful friend, the Order¡¯s The Blue, telepathically sends, ¡°Sorry Schism, last night, wasn¡¯t sure what was true and what wasn¡¯t, and haven¡¯t slept, so kinda just assumed I¡¯d maybe made stuff up, to try to convince myself to not chase you. I mean, seduce you. I mean, I already agreed, so wasn¡¯t going to, but maybe thought I was subconsciously psyching myself out to stop myself. Err, ugh, I¡¯m just tired Schism.¡±


    Farzee collects her thoughts and adds, ¡°Broke One¡¯s coming by soon, and we¡¯ll start your evac while the rest of the Sand civvies and some others finish up here. Also, uh, really ¡®preciate you giving me chances, and not laying in as hard as you did Dimineros there. You¡¯re scary when you¡¯re pissed.¡±


    I struggle to keep from smiling at the offhanded compliment. Mostly because I¡¯m not so happy that my love, and several of my beloveds, are taking wing, heading off to battle. Lil, Lu, Kinzul, and the Vivant all take to the sky as Lady Kinzul begins assuming her full size, or at least as much of her full size as I¡¯ve seen. I can¡¯t resist blowing a kiss in the general direction of those that are leaving for the Laotzxhi Citadel.


    Gnawing on the inside of my lip, I offer a weak, nervous chuckle to the stunned crowd before asking, ¡°So, uh, any other questions?¡±

 B 6 C 73: Nurture

    Of course the goofballs around me start with the most inappropriate question, ¡°Well, uh, woah. Are you and Lady Kinzul going to do Clutching and Conjugation?¡±


    I raise an eyebrow very dubiously towards the voice, intimating, ¡°Are you really asking me if I¡¯m going to sex up my wife?¡± I mean, not for the reasons they probably think. The crowd probably thinks that the obvious answer is yes. They should however realize I¡¯ve been seen floating around Mount Solace with no clothing, and no biological parts. Therefore, the obvious answer is no.


    Rolling my eyes and shaking my head incredulously, I await the next question, which ends up being, ¡°Why did you scare her so bad? She didn¡¯t even manage to hit you.¡±


    Huffing a sigh, I explain, ¡°Do you remember what she requested of me? She requested I stop saving people. She requested I literally go die. She implied that anyone I brought back by offering mercy, was worthless, and should simply die instead.¡±


    I further explain why those requests required more than a simple talking-down-to, ¡°That sort of heartlessness is a danger to everyone around her. Sure, she might not have had the personality to actually start tearing into other innocent, weaker people, but she tried against me. She tried against me, and began charging her breath weapon, while we were surrounded by all of you innocent bystanders. I¡¯d have been fine, and she might have slain some of you. Do you not see how effed that is?¡±


    There are some murmurs, so I figure I¡¯d better come to Leezahna¡¯s defense while I can, ¡°That isn¡¯t to say I think she¡¯s evil or deserves to die. I hate that I resort to violence and threat of violence so much, but I don¡¯t know how else to get through to some people when they¡¯re convinced of something deeply to their core. Sometimes, the only way to shake free destructive beliefs are to destroy, or set someone in a state where they feel destroyed, or the terror of imminent destruction.¡±


    Shaking my head, I lament, ¡°I hate it. I absolutely, utterly hate it. I feel horrible, like an absolute monster. And, y¡¯know what? If any of you that witnessed this today, thought I was a horrid piece of fecal matter, I wouldn¡¯t blame you. What I did was atrocious. I sullied my soul in that interaction. And y¡¯know what¡¯s worse? I¡¯d do it again, and likely will do it again many times before this war is over, for the safety of all of you.¡±


    Deli nods appreciatively at me, several Draconiacs cast worried glances at me, and several kobolds shy away towards the rear of the gathering. Yeah, I kinda figured. Who wants that? Who wants the Hero of the Order to make a judgment call that determines you¡¯re such a danger to others, that you deserve to be threatened to within an inch of your life, and sanity. Who wants to be reminded that I¡¯m also holding back a demon, for their benefit, that would simply lash out and kill them if I¡¯d determined them to be awful or dangerous or whatever.


    A younger voice asks, ¡°Schism? Is it true you love all of us, and want to protect us?¡±


    Nodding a bit somberly, I reply, ¡°Yes, most definitely. The safety, health, and happiness of all of you, all those that live under the protection of Mount Solace, are among my top priorities. It hurts to feel like I need to threaten someone to get that point across. I do love you all, even Leezahna like I said.¡±


    A figure that the voice must have belonged to walks into the open space that¡¯d been cleared around me and Leezahna during our confrontation. He whimpers through a mix of emotions, ¡°Then, then why didn¡¯t you save them? Do you even care that they¡¯re gone? Do you even know their na¡ª¡°


    Standing and facing the young lad, I hazard a guess, ¡°Jorro and Lihjro. I was incapacitated when it had happened, trapped in the mind of an enemy. I was out of my mind with grief and resentment at the time, but even still, I felt like a failure for letting them down. Your parents?¡±


    Sniffling, the lad nods hesitantly. He seems unsure what to do, he wasn¡¯t expecting me to know their names. I spread my arms wide, and he hesitates, glancing around, realizing that everyone can see him beginning to cry. He rushes forward to bury his face in my chest to hide his tears, and I try to comfort him, patting him on the back of his head and giving his shoulders a light squeeze.


    Drawing a shuddering breath, with a voice laden with sadness, I ask, ¡°What¡¯s your name then? Do you have other family? How can I help make the world hurt less? What can I do for you?¡±


    The young lad, Yerhjro apparently, shakes his head rapidly in response to my question about having other family while he answers, ¡°Y-koff, Yerhjro. N-no, I don¡¯t. I don¡¯t know what to do, or where to go, or who or how to be. I didn¡¯t even get to say goodbye, there were no bodies. They adopted me, most secret clutches are adopted out to help prevent Terrorzin from killing any specific mother, but he got mine all the same. I miss my dads, I want them back. Bring them back. Please.¡±


    Sighing incredibly sadly, I nod, knowing that I failed Yerhjro on so many levels. I offer up, ¡°I failed you there too. Lady Kinzul was trapped, and had tried to melt her way out, but her prison was unbreakable, so it got flooded with her acid. I should have saved their bodies, moved them, done something, anything, but I was wracked with guilt at their death, at my failure. By the time I had realized what would happen, what did happen, it was too late. I was slow, and stupid. The acid was set loose when the prison disappeared. I¡¯m so sorry Yerhjro. I¡¯ll never, ever be able to make it up to you. I won¡¯t stop trying though.¡±


    I feel the weight of worlds on my shoulders yet again. Everything has far-reaching consequences. Every success and every failure could change the path of someone else¡¯s life. I have no idea how to even start reparations for this. Thankfully, someone I wouldn¡¯t exactly have pegged for the motherly type steps in, rescuing us both in a sense.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Deli asks, ¡°Kid of Yer, how do you feel about smelting and forgeworks?¡±


    Sniffling, rubbing his face on his forearms, Yerhjro looks confused over towards Deli as he responds, ¡°They¡¯re pretty cool I guess.¡±


    Grinning, Deli nods as she cocks her head towards the exit of the aerie, stating, ¡°Oh they¡¯re more than pretty cool son, how about you let me show you just how cool they really are. Sound good?¡±


    Yerhjro nods emphatically, and glances between Deli and me for a moment. I flash him a smile and an understanding nod, while Deli flashes me her own winning smile, and a wink. I¡¯m pretty certain she just informally adopted a son, as I see her usher Yerhjro out of the aerie, down towards the feasting hall. She¡¯s got an enormous heart. I knew I liked her already, but wow. I owe her dearly.


    Some murmurs pass through the crowds to the effect of, ¡°Did Schism just find that orphan kid a mom?¡±, ¡°That was Schism¡¯s blacksmith friend, right?¡±, ¡°Is that what Hero¡¯s are supposed to do?¡±, and even, ¡°Huh, seven for sure, maybe an eight.¡±


    I fight myself to keep from snorting laughter out loud at that last one, and only let it loose in my mindscape. Another question coming my way is, ¡°Schism? Is all that stuff about unlimited resources really true? Does that mean we get to start eating gems again?¡±


    The crowd¡¯s excitement and murmuring reaches almost a fever pitch as I hasten to respond, ¡°Sort of, yes the resources thing is true, unless someone breaks our enchantment. Part of the reason I treated Leezahna so harshly, is because I require her assistance to finalize a part of the enchantment to make it so that even if it¡¯s broken, I can just put it back up. Right now, it¡¯s one of a kind. If it¡¯s destroyed, all of my projects will have been in vain.¡±


    Breathing deeply, I sigh sadly once again as I continue, ¡°I honestly believed that Leezahna would have destroyed it out of spite, to keep me from coming out looking heroic, before I bullied her the way I did. It doesn¡¯t excuse my actions. I¡¯m still a monster, and any one of you that posed a threat to the sustainable happiness of the others, I would find some way to get through to you, or exile you, or my wrath would end you. I¡¯m sorry. I wish those parts of me weren¡¯t true, but I don¡¯t know how to otherwise succeed.¡±


    My face droops in sadness as I finish, ¡°We¡¯re up against world-ending forces on three or more fronts. There¡¯s no room for risky dissenters. I hate feeling like I¡¯m imposing my will on others, because that¡¯s essentially what tyrants do. I don¡¯t know how to get the results quickly enough to keep moving forward in the face of overwhelming odds though. If any of you can come up with any ideas that let me stop being this way, I promise I¡¯ll listen, and try them if they¡¯re remotely viable without hurting others.¡±


    A hush falls over the crowd, and it¡¯s broken only by the occasional whispered conjecture between close groups brainstorming. After a few moments of this hush, there are several false starts at addressing me that trail off before they finish a sentence. My chest feels heavy as I breathe deep, sad, sighing breaths.


    No one seems able to come up with anything in the moment. Closing my eyes, I shake my head, mostly in shame, for being who I am, and acting how I do. Driven by love? Sure. Still a tyrant? Essentially, yeah. I essentially order people to love and tolerate each other, except in the cases of intolerance, injustice, or dangerously selfish behaviors. It sounds so oxymoronic.


    I mean, I¡¯m not a philosopher, or politician, or a leader or a hero. I¡¯m a cryptozoologist, remember? Hah, been a while since I¡¯ve dug that one up. Seriously though, I¡¯m not qualified to direct people how to live their lives, but I¡¯m enforcing peace and safety for others, by demonstrating my might against those that I personally deem to be risks to the social contract I want everyone to uphold. A social contract, that I break by the very nature of wielding my might against others. I don¡¯t know how to stop. I don¡¯t know how to protect those who can¡¯t protect themselves, without lashing out at the bullies, the selfish, the spiteful, and so on.


    A question I didn¡¯t expect to come from a crowd that¡¯d seen me do what I¡¯ve done, is aimed my way, ¡°Do you¡ª do you need help? A hug? Anything?¡± In response to that, there are a few, ¡°Oh hey, yeah!¡±s, and a few other similar statements from the crowd.


    I can¡¯t help donning a sad smile and nodding as I answer, ¡°Hugs? Always. Help? The best help that any of you could give me, is proof that you¡¯re leading happy, safe lives, and looking out for each other.¡±


    A burly, yet handsome kobold steps forth from the crowd, apparently the owner of the voice who¡¯d posed the question. He approaches me with his arms wide, and I work to shrink myself closer to his height in order to accept the embrace. A few others leave the crowd to set a hand on one of my shoulders, or wait their turn to hug me, and I can¡¯t express enough how good it feels that I¡¯m not despised by the people I¡¯m trying to protect.


    Thinking about something, I ask the crowd, ¡°I guess there¡¯s one other bit of help. Can anyone tell me a bit more about the Damnations in case I have to face the other six of the idiots today? Nonnam went down too easy. That¡¯s not me bragging, that¡¯s me saying something is up. I want to know if someone could fake being them, or something.¡±


    I know something that¡¯s about to happen. It¡¯ll come up when I hear the information that I already know. I¡¯d be having a panic attack, in front of a crowd normally. Instead, thanks to that little node I added to my digital brain with Kinzul¡¯s help, I can push panic attacks aside temporarily. They do build up in intensity the longer I put them off, and will eventually break free of the little box that I can shove them into, but it might be enough to save my life during a fight at some point.


    Sure enough, one of the first things called out by the crowd is, ¡°Well, they¡¯ve got red eyes, all seven of them, supposedly glowy red with no hint of a soul, no pupils or anything.¡±


    Another voice adds, ¡°There¡¯s, um, Sibil, Grimsranton, Ferciul, Nonnam, Laombigla, Dazomeus, Ephlomseestiph. Some rumors say they can rip out your dragonforce, your soul, as soon as they can see you, any time you¡¯re within sight range, others say they have to touch you first.¡±


    Yet more voices chip in to add, ¡°If they have Latents, they¡¯ve never needed to show them off, because there¡¯s rarely witnesses or survivors. Once they have your dragonforce, some say that your body keeps going, soulless, secretly under their command. Others say you just drop dead instantly.¡±


    Another individual adds, ¡°The Damnations have thirteen lieutenants mostly commanded by Laombigla, called the Evil Claws. I think their names are Deviltail, Rufflered, Curly Beard, Harlequin, Frostwalker, Bad dog, Lovelace, Laughing Drakk, Porkbelly, Devilhound, Butterfly, Rubicante, and the Callipygian. All supposedly have powerful Latents. Um, you can probably guess what some of them are based on their names, maybe. It¡¯s not like they¡¯ve been seen much in a really long time though.¡±

 B 6 C 74: Evac From Hell

    That¡¯s a lot of names to remember. Fercuil, Grimsranton, Nonnam, Laombigla, Dazomeus, Ephlomseestiph, Deviltail, Rufflered, Curly Beard, Harlequin, Frostwalker, Bad dog, Lovelace, Laughing Drakk, Porkbelly, Devilhound, Butterfly, Rubicante, and the Callipygian. Wait, wait, Deviltail gets me thinking about the other names. Ferciul? Ferciul is totally an anagram for Lucifer.


    Wait, in that case, Grimsranton is an anagram for Morningstar. Then Sibil would be Iblis. Nonnam would be Mannon, that one¡¯s just reversed. Laombigla must be, what, Malbolgia? Dazomeus would be Azmodeus, and I¡¯m guessing the one with all the ph sounds is probably an anagram for Mephistopheles.


    What the hell? Like, seven names that happen to be anagrams for seven words for devils, types of devil, a devil, the devil, or a location in hell, all from Fakeworld? The group happens to be named the Damnations? That can¡¯t be an effing coincidence. Seriously. Can it? There¡¯s no friggin¡¯ way.


    Am I in hell? I didn¡¯t expect to be able to find so much love in hell, if so. Still¡ª. I guess it could just be a coincidence. I mean, friggin¡¯ hell. What the hell could it even possibly mean if it wasn¡¯t? Ugh, I don¡¯t have the brain capacity to conjecture on that kind of a level. What about the Evil Claws? Wait, Rubicante, Harlequin, Laughing Dragon, Curly Beard, those are totally translations, or names of beings in the inferno, the um, eighth circle of hell. What the fudge.


    I don¡¯t think I can afford to spend time thinking about any of this. I need to return to the evacuation effort. Shiz appears to be waiting patiently at the land-entrance to the aerie at this point. He wants to get headed back towards Attey. I think we¡¯re both worried at this point.


    Calling to the assembled, I request, ¡°If any of you, ah, I don¡¯t know how appropriate or inappropriate it is to talk about this, but some of you had asked already. If any of you know someone that would be willing to Conjugate the clutch of eggs belonging to Attraxiaz the Loud, the titled Thunderer, please spread the information around. Sorry if that¡¯s an insensitive request, you all know I¡¯m very unfamiliar with our draconic culture around here. I have to return to the evacuation efforts.¡±


    Thinking that I should perhaps show gratitude, I add, ¡°Thank you all for lending me your ears, or, well, listening to me. Those of you not working directly on traveling to help evacuate, please clear the aerie. If you can spare the time, help prepare the feasting hall to receive newcomers, greet them, get to know them, make them feel safe and at home. I love you all. Thanks again. Ready Shiz?¡±


    Shiz nods, so we take off quickly winging westward towards Attey¡¯s domain. Shiz picks up the speed a little bit, to make up for the time lost during my little bout with Hareslayer, and my spiel afterwards. It was really only a few minutes of activity, but if we continue with this pace, we¡¯ll make it back to Attey¡¯s domain three hours after I¡¯d activated the beginning of my transformation, and then three hours later, when the transformation finishes, we¡¯ll be returning again, having finished a route along the evacuation trail.


    On the flight over, I let loose my panic attack. I¡¯d been holding it back since the red eyes were brought up. They¡¯re one of my strongest triggers. I suffer while Shiz carries me in his claws, instead of me risking falling off of his back. It¡¯s a bad one. I¡¯m fetal, weeping, possibly screaming in fear. I don¡¯t know for how long, maybe half of the trip towards Attraxiaz¡¯s domain.


    The entire time I¡¯m experiencing my panic, my vision is tunneled to the point of a pin. My tinnitus screams into my ears louder than the wind as well. And all the while, my heart hammers strong enough that Shiz can feel my pulse vibrating his talons from where he grips me. If ever there was a time that I looked vulnerable to someone that has surrendered to me, that time is now.


    I¡¯m hoping that things have at least gone safely and smoothly for Attey. The winds that we ride from Mount Solace to Mount Zurrikh afford us a degree of peaceful gliding for a long portion of the journey. It helps me to wind down that I¡¯m not being jostled around constantly when I recover from the panic. If we¡¯re lucky, that same degree of smoothness should also be applying to Attey¡¯s evacuation efforts. We¡¯ll also have the volunteers trailing us, however many that could make it this early. It¡¯ll be something like nine am when we arrive.


    Sure enough, everything seems to have gone mostly fine, with Attraxiaz carefully positioning her several hundred remaining followers along the inside dead-end tunnels that can be accessed from above the Worldstorm. It¡¯s disheartening that something like two hundred were conscripted by Mannon, err, Nonnam yesterday, heavy on the casters. We¡¯re still evacuating nearly a thousand kobolds though.


    Oh, hey, Farzee and Veril are closing in to join us. I¡¯m proud of them. Good, they thought to bring objects that are essentially rafts that can carry a couple dozen kobolds if the kobolds pack in tightly and hang on tighter. I wasn¡¯t sure how many would be able to hang on to the various dragons¡¯ backs and such. I¡¯d figured maybe three per appendage, and a few more on any backs, maybe fifteen per dragon per trip. This is a lot better.


    Depending on how many volunteers we get, this could take as few as two trips. It seems like Atter¡¯s going to be taking a couple dozen that are just tying themselves off to lengths of rope. It appears like we¡¯ve only got about twelve volunteers with any real carrying strength, maybe twenty overall. I¡¯m almost certain those two identical Fires are Ixeyla and Xayla. Their dragon forms are almost as gangly as their human forms.


    Wait, one of them has scales that sparkle like emeralds. Leezahna? Maybe Ixeyla just wants to keep an eye on her for now. I wouldn¡¯t really want to entrust a bunch of kobolds to her care right now. Or¡ª maybe I should trust that I got through to her? I¡¯m not sure. I¡¯ll ask those three to wait til last so that I can look over them with Shiz on our return trip, since Atter is taking the fore, and Shiz and I are bringing up the rear. I¡¯d feel more comfortable with Ixey and Zayzi under my protection than somewhere in the center of the pack.


    Testing telepathically, I call out, ¡°Zayzi? Ixey? Is that you two? Is the emerald one with you who I think she is?¡±


    Zayzi responds, ¡°Depends,¡± and I¡¯d roll my eyes if it were anyone else. I know Xayla is a dragon of few words though. I do suppose it does depend on who I think it is.


    Ixey answers for us, ¡°Yeah, Princess just wants company, her flunkies are a bit scared to be around her right now because of what you said about kinda maybe killing anyone she¡¯d ever talked to that listened to her. You might want to lay off the public speaking for a while Schism.¡±


    Snrk. I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh that becomes full-on laughter. I can¡¯t tell if Ixey was teasing, or offering concerned advice, but either one is perfect, because I basically admitted to sucking at speaking while I was doing it. Then I admitted aloud how much I hated how I bullied Leezahna. Still, I want her to know that her safety is still being looked after by me, so I¡¯d appreciate if you two would hang near the back of the pack for picking up refugees.


    Xayla chatters telepathically my way, not exactly uncharacteristically, since they still manage to frequently be monolsyllabic, or terse, brief, or succinct. One such conversation is, ¡°You didn¡¯t come home tomorrow. Was worried.¡±


    I¡¯d be a lot more confused if it were anyone other than Xayla. They¡¯re referencing how they made me promise to come home tomorrow after the first offensive. I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, our Lady kept me deployed in the field. Do you forgive me?¡±


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Their response, succinct as always, is, ¡°Sure.¡±


    Smiling, shaking my head slightly, I try not to roll my eyes as I ask, ¡°What¡¯d you get up to for the days I was out in the field?¡±


    After a brief moment, Xayla responds, ¡°Dunno. Stuff. I guess. You?¡±


    Oh Zayzi. So numb that your own life doesn¡¯t even register as worth remembering the day to day? I wish I could help you. Lacking any ability to provide substantial help, I simply answer, ¡°Fighting mostly. Offering mercy where I could. Do you want to hang out after we finish today?¡±


    The fact that Zayzi asks, ¡°Why?¡± would normally hurt me coming from anyone else, but for them, it seems like an obvious response.


    I answer, ¡°Because I enjoy being around you and was wondering if you¡¯d like to talk more, when w¡ª.¡±


    Telepathically Xayla sends me the emotive expression of them nodding, and they interrupt to say, ¡°Yes. Please. More talking. It¡¯s nice. With you. Patient. Quiet. In my head. Feels nice too.¡±


    I¡¯m honestly a bit impressed that Xayla was able to admit so much. It means they¡¯re letting themselves feel, remembering why they do and don¡¯t like certain things, even if some of those things might be trauma-informed. I flash smiles and nodding back to Zayzi telepathically in response.


    Surprisingly, before I have to work to continue the conversation, Xayla asks, ¡°Did you get hurt? Um. Are you okay? Good? Are you good? Safe? Um. Can keep going, even after two days gone?¡±


    Fighting my grin to make sure my smile is as warm and comforting as it can be, I nod while telepathically answering, ¡°Yes to all of those. Getting hurt¡¯s part of the job, although I think I got the least hurt of anyone on either day, except maybe Shield and Aegis. I¡¯m quite okay though, definitely. Also I¡¯m safe and can keep going, for sure. Also definitely good, better than when I started the first offensive.¡±


    Realizing things I want to say to Zayzi, I continue, ¡°Things have been getting better and better for me, and I¡¯ve been getting better and better, since joining the Order. You¡¯re one of the reasons, our friendship is one of the things that has made things better. Did you already know that? I want to make sure I make you feel appreciated for your friendship.¡±


    My heart¡¯s warmed by Zayzi¡¯s reply, ¡°Mine too. Since you. Little less suck, like you said. Um, better. Every day since announcement, meeting you. Sorry, embarrassed now. Talk later.¡±


    Sighing softly, then drawing a shuddering breath, I nod understandingly towards Xayla in telepathic-space. I wish there was more that I could do than simply make things suck a little bit less, but people don¡¯t just heal instantly because someone talks to them, or anything like that. Xayla¡¯s got a complex path to follow towards healing. Thankfully, I think they want to, and are willing to attempt that path. I hope I get to be there for them at the end of each milestone of their journey, to welcome them to the other side, to the new step of progress. I care about Zayzi so much th¡ª.


    Apparently Ixeyla had left her incoming walls down for my inane thought train, so she knows the thoughts I¡¯d been sharing with Zayzi. Threatening me almost playfully, Ixey interrupts my thoughts, ¡°You¡¯re alright Schism. I¡¯d still feed you to the storm if you hurt Zayzi, but I¡¯m glad you¡¯re our Hero, and not someone else. Thanks for caring about Zayzi. They have been getting better since meeting you. I can¡¯t tell you how much that means to me. I miss my sis¡ªbling, my sibling.¡±


    With that conversation over, on to checking in with the two Dormir that are present, oh, three, I telepathically call out, ¡°Farzee, Veril, Illy, can you make sure to stick in the front to protect Attey in case anything should show up? Shiz and I have the rear. Well, hopefully Shiz listens to me if I tell him to scram. I¡¯m a lot more powerful without having to worry about hitting my allies. Anyway, I love you three, keep up the great work.¡±


    Privately, Iylynila grumbles, ¡°Gremlin-ass smurf-ass munchkin, just lumping me in with the rest of my Dormies, and not a single word after sleeping with me last night? And on the opposite side of this little convoy from you? You ass.¡±


    Trying to fight my grin, I respond to Illy by teasing, ¡°Are you done fixating on your favorite body part yet my lovely love? When we¡¯re done, I was hoping you¡¯d maybe accompany me down to my vault in Mount Verdimenn for an experiment. Should I spell it out any farther while my telepathic walls are down? You know, the ones that would have prevented Ixey, Zayzi, Veril, and Farzee, from hearing your private message a few seconds ago, if you¡¯d have given me a moment.¡±


    I feel a little mean for teasing Iylynila so hard, because she¡¯s mortified. She whispers a hissed order telepathically to me, ¡°Put them up!¡± so I do.


    Apologizing to her, I start, ¡°Illy, I¡¯m sorry. I love you, I absolutely do. I didn¡¯t know how much you might want the others to be able to piece together if I was doing things like turning off my network and keeping you close. I am sorry. Can you forgive me?¡±


    Grumbling, Illy chokes on her telepathic words for a moment, ¡°You, I, you ass! Ugh, yes, of course, I. I know I can be difficult Schism, um, Reggie. I¡¯m sorry, I probably keep sending mixed messages. I don¡¯t even know how to go about this, with how very public it is that you¡¯re with my mother now. Not that many dragons are into monogamy or anything, but family members is a bit weird. I¡ª. You know you¡¯re my first everything, right? I don¡¯t know how to do this. It¡¯s nothing like our novels. Please¡ª I know how that sounds. Please don¡¯t tease me about it. I get that I¡¯m as naive as a human schoolgirl.¡±


    Drawing a shuddered breath, and sighing sadly, I respond, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Illy. Anything you don¡¯t want me to tease you about, I won¡¯t. I hope I haven¡¯t hurt you. I really, truly love you. If you don¡¯t like that our relationship is built pretty hard on the foundation of mutual teasing, we can work to change it. As for the rest, well, I understand I¡¯m your firsts for a lot of things. I need you to find out what you want, what you expect, what you need, and then to communicate those with me. Maybe I can meet only some of them, maybe not enough of them. I¡¯d hope I could meet all of them, but, well, everyone messes up at least something small, at least once, sooner or later.¡±


    There¡¯s a long telepathic groan before Illy finally replies, ¡°I¡ª, I know. Thank you. Can you, will you, maybe please be patient with me? I like our teasing. I do. I, hell. I love it. I¡¯m just feeling so friggin¡¯ exposed and vulnerable. I¡¯ve played matchmaker and drama instigator and all that for so long, and you know I was worried how I¡¯d be if I fell in love. Stupid gremlin ass munchkin, stealing my stupid fool heart. Sorry. I don¡¯t really feel that way, about you being stupid, or it being a crime, or stealing. I gave it. It might be because our Tenith was wearing me down, or you were so smooth, or, I don¡¯t know. Crap, why am I trying to justify loving you? I do, that¡¯s all. I just do. Let¡¯s just get this done. Yeah?¡±


    I start to whisper, ¡°Oh Illy,¡± but she refuses to speak more at the moment. I leave my walls up for the rest of our return to Mount Solace, the entire contingent between me and Illy. Shiz and I bring up the rear, right behind two volunteers named Shapuackurt, and Lilmbrayur. Ahead of them are Ixeyla, Xayla, and Leezahna. We all drop off our loads of refugees, and return towards Atter¡¯s domain. We¡¯re making good time, so we should be loaded up, and headed back by the time the six hour mark hits.


    I¡¯m beginning to panic, unsure where I need to be for the few seconds I¡¯ll have the form active. Luni wouldn¡¯t prank me about something like this. Did I screw up by dealing with Leezahna, and doing the P R? Gulping, I gaze around, unsure where to expect the attack to come from. There are a few mountain peaks in the region, but it feels as if it¡¯s an endless expanse of stormy sea in every direction, with no enemies in sight.


    I¡¯m gazing around at the moment, the six hour mark is within a few minutes now, and I¡¯m trying to take stock of things. I¡¯m here atop Shiz, Ixey and Zayzi are loading up, about to head out with Leezahna flapping nearby. Shapuackurt, and Lilmbrayur, and Heccinckethmorn are a trio that are loading up before Shiz and I snag the last load of refugees, we¡¯d gotten enough volunteers by the second trip, that Shiz and I are able to pick up the last of the over eight hundred kobolds we¡¯re relocating.


    Instantly a hurricane hits as Shiz is taking off with his load of Atter¡¯s kobold kinsmen. Rather, an entire mountain range arrives seemingly out of nowhere, and the mountain range is pushing deafening, terrifyingly powerful walls of wind. Of course, that mountain range is scaled, and winged. It doesn¡¯t take a lot of brainpower to guess that something so enormous is a Damnation at its full size, or nearly its full size. Nonnam hadn¡¯t had the chance to get this big before I drove him down into the Worldstorm.


    Of fuggin¡¯ course it¡¯s a gorram Damnation, worse, six of the bastards. I almost can¡¯t believe that I¡¯d been able to prep for this. It¡¯s only thanks to Luni, but even still, I get a whole six seconds, and it¡¯ll be down for six months. The form will be up in a few seconds, then only last for six.


    Six seconds? What the hell am I going to do in six seconds? It took six hours, all morning to prep this. I know the cosmic mite-hulk-king has some kind of incredible movement abilities, either teleportation or near-lightspeed motion or something too fast for me to perceive anyway. That¡¯s if we even got the advanced biology right, based on the regular mite-hulk king biology. Even still. Six seconds? I¡¯d better plot these suckers out.

 B 6 C 78: Almost-Sensitive Topics

    Levitating myself back up over the edge of the aerie so that I¡¯ll be able to descend down into Mount Solace without needing to crash into the ground, I hide my emotions by chuckling at myself. Putting on the brave, reassuring face, and joking to the gathered, I quip, ¡°Sorry, felt like going for a dip, I felt dirty after fighting the Damnations, driving them off again. I¡¯m honestly sick of running into those dickweasels and them running off. I need a couple of weeks to look through my artifacts and spells to figure out what I¡¯ve got that¡¯ll put them all down for good. We¡ª. Huff, I can¡¯t do it. I¡¯m not this person.¡±


    Slumping against the cliff face near the tunnel from the aerie down to the feasting hall, I sink til my butt touches my heels. As the kobolds, civilians, and members of the Order murmur around me, I gather my thoughts. Expressing them, I start, ¡°I drove them back, and in record time, but even record time wasn¡¯t enough to save everyone. We lost sixt¡ª, no, that¡¯s not the right phrasing. Sixty refugees and three dragons known as Shapuackurt, Lilmbrayur, and Heccinckethmorn were slain, because I wasn¡¯t powerful enough, wasn¡¯t fast enough to be powerful enough. They were on us in less than six seconds. Hell, they were on us in less than one by the way it seemed, and it took me almost six to put one of them down. I didn¡¯t even finish that one off. I¡¯m sor¡ª¡°


    The slap landed on my face by one of the Sand civilians stuns me in surprise more than any sort of injury. Her voice is pained as she chastises me, ¡°You don¡¯t get to be sorry. Shapua, Shapua sh¡ª, glp. You did the best you could, and your best wasn¡¯t good enough. Just answer me one thing. Are you going to make your best better?¡±


    Nodding solemnly, I offer, ¡°Without question. I try not to operate motivated by anger and vengeance, as it leads to my demon wrath being unleashed, but I want to make them pay. I want them to pay for Shapuackurt, Lilmbrayur, and Heccinckethmorn, and for the centuries of terror they¡¯ve inflicted on dragonkind. I want them to pay especially for taking The P¡ª. Sorry, I don¡¯t know the full story, I should shut up. I have to see to my projects, my friends, my vault, and figure out the most effective use of my time in order to ensure that I can put a stop to them once and for all as soon as possible. I just¡ª. I need to be able to process my emotions. I know it¡¯s a lot to ask for ti¡ª.¡±


    The slap I get from the lady at this point is starting to get on my nerves as she grumps at me, ¡°No it isn¡¯t! You¡¯re our hero. Our Hero! But you¡¯re still a person. What I meant before was that you don¡¯t get to be sorry because it¡¯s not your fault. You slew an ancient that had never been so much as bested in any sort of combat, gave a speech, talked down a harasser, saved a clutch, relocated refugees with the help of volunteers, and kept the Damnations from following your relocation effort. You probably haven¡¯t even had a lunch break yet. You¡¯re not a machine. You have needs, and probably wants that should be met.¡±


    Before she can add more, I retort, ¡°Can one of my wants be met then please? I¡¯d like you to stop slapping me.¡±


    The look of horror on the woman¡¯s face as she draws her hands to her mouth would be funny in most other circumstances, so I quickly add, ¡°It¡¯s not that I¡¯m hurt or anything, but if you felt like you needed my attention, you could just talk to me. That¡¯s what that whole speech was about earlier, trying to make myself approachable, even if public speaking and dealing with strangers gives me anxiety. I appreciate your words though. I do. I¡¯ll try to take them to heart. Huff. I just, I just have to find the right pace, and it seems to keep sliding around on me.¡±


    ¡°Right, um, yes, well, thank you for trying. I¡ª. I wish my son Hex and husband Shapu had made it home. I¡¯m sorry for slapping you. Um. Thank you. Sorry. Good luck Schism.¡± The woman scurries off before I can respond as I¡¯m left stunned realizing what she¡¯s lost.


    It¡¯s like Priss all over again. A husband and a son lost at once. Dropping my head into my hands, I can¡¯t seem to cry the tears I feel like I should be loosing for the losses we¡¯ve already suffered and will likely continue to suffer. I feel too numb and weak to even weep. The assorted gathered individuals continue to murmur about me and the Damnations mostly. Several of the people I consider close friends meander nearby, not approaching, but seemingly not wanting to leave me in this state.


    One person that I wouldn¡¯t expect to do so comes to sit next to me and kisses me for a long moment on the cheek before wrapping one arm around me and leaning her head on my shoulder. I slide my gaze to my right to take in our The Blue, Farzhis. Veril stands a short ways away, rocking back and forth on his heels, looking abashed as he casts his gaze about, avoiding meeting mine. He rubs the back of his head, blushing when he reads my thought train making note of his actions and hesitation.


    Thankfully Farzhis just sits with me for a while before checking in in her delightfully few-stop-consonsants accent, ¡°Schism, what you did, twice now, I can never thank you enough. Reggie. I don¡¯t entirely get it, hurting so much over those you didn¡¯t even know, but it seems such a big part of you. I¡¯m too selfish for that, but it seems such a big part of you. I think the rest of the Mount loves you for it, or will if they don¡¯t already. I¡¯m not good at this whole friendship thing, I¡¯m kinda new to it. You an¡¯ the Broke One are sorta my first real friends, testing the waters, trying not to manipulate you.¡±


    The beautiful airy tone in which Farzhis sighs momentarily actually captivates me and I feel a bit abashed for making note of it. She blushes before continuing, ¡°I guess, um, thanks for steering me right, for protecting us, for everything. I love that you¡¯re our Schism, our Hero. I wouldn¡¯t want anyone else in that spot. I¡¯m going to go hit the sack. I don¡¯t think you should stew if you can help it, but you probably can¡¯t help it. Come on Broke One, let¡¯s head to the Dormie dorms. No, not today, I¡¯m not ready yet, sorry to get your hopes up.¡±


    Now I¡¯m the one blushing at the implications that Veril wanted to sleep with Farzhis, but that she¡¯s actually taking her time in their new relationship, starting with friendship and building from there. I¡¯m really proud of her, despite how awkward it is to be proud of someone for their habits regarding manipulation and sex. I hate myself just a tiny bit that her actions are causing my heart to worm out a spot just a little bit deeper and a little bit bigger for her, with each new act she takes.


    I hate myself just a little bit more for the cynical suspicion that she¡¯s playing a longer game of manipulation. It hurts a lot that there¡¯s a side of me that doesn¡¯t give her the trust she deserves. I can tell it hurts her too when she senses that suspicion in me. But Farzhis takes the lump from reading that particular line of thought, and presses onward, leaving down to the feasting hall with Veril.


    Ixey is standing a ways away with a sullen, stricken Leezahna, as Zayzi approaches. Zayzi¡¯s hug doesn¡¯t surprise me as much as Farzhis¡¯s, but them shuffling our limbs about to sit in my lap and cuddle me does surprise me a bit. Zayzi mutters telepathically, ¡°Just friends, but safe. Sister safe too. Good. You¡¯re good. You¡¯re safe. Safe is good. Feel good, okay? Let¡¯s share sweets tonight. Please?¡±


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    I can¡¯t help smiling and nodding around a faceful of Xayla¡¯s locks of their massive gorgeous curly ¡®fro. I squeeze Zayzi lightly for a few moments, glad that they seem to be shifting from what I¡¯d heard their personality is like, into one that lets themselves experience their feelings enough to comfort others, and project confidence and friendliness. I¡¯m glad they¡¯re on the mend. I know how long of a road it can be to keep working past a trauma. It took me weeks, months, years sometimes for certain ones. I only had the opportunity for that due to accelerated thinkspace.


    Uncertain exactly where Zayzi¡¯s face is, beneath the tremendous mound of hair, when I lean inwards attempting to kiss their forehead, I¡¯m shocked when my lips meet lips that were apparently seeking my cheek. Zayzi uncharacteristically swiftly retreats. With their ridiculously lanky limbs, it¡¯s easy enough for them to smack me atop the head from their standing position. I¡¯m uncertain how to react, but I can feel Ixeyla fuming nearby, so I raise my hands forward placatingly, trying to figure out the best way to apologize.


    Zayzi knows I was attempting to kiss only their forehead, so they aren¡¯t as mad as they might have been, but their muted emotions warble beneath our telepathic wavelength until they put up walls against me. Xayla hesitates a moment, then stalks away as I¡¯m trying to apologize, causing Ixeyla to trail swiftly after while casting a vicious glare my way. Leezahna just looks mildly confused between the sullenness and fear written across her countenance. She edges away from me in a semi-circle, following Ixeyla cautiously.


    Ugh, that certainly could have gone better. I was all proud of Zayzi and happy for them and everything. Before I can mope about the interaction, I¡¯m picked up and dusted off by Shield. Boetah offers, ¡°More good work as our Hero Schism, emotions are harder work, that¡¯s why I think it¡¯s important to be happy and eat well. Everything else sorts itself out. Care for some calcite, or a bit of zircon?¡±


    Chuckling, I shake my head as I hug Boetah about his big round belly. Declining the proffered minerals, I express, ¡°Thanks for the offer Boetah, Shield, but I¡¯ve got a different physiology. Rocks don¡¯t really do it for me. You¡¯re right though, trying to remain happy, and making sure we eat are important things. I guess I¡¯ll go take care of that. My Wings, are you f¡ª.¡±


    Teuila is at my side, sneaking under one of my arms to sidle between me and Boetah in my current embrace in an instant. Te wraps her arms around me as she looses her single elongated laugh of glee, ¡°Heeeee,¡± which leaves me chuckling. I work to remove my arms from Boetah so I can give her a more tender, yet tighter embrace. Boetah nods as he trundles off, with Shaylon following swiftly behind. I should probably thank the eight strategist Draconiacs, and Pawn, for helping take care of the logistics of this, before Teuila and I start wandering off. I¡¯ll need to stop in and see our prisoners at some point too.


    Te gloms onto me as I approach Elshon, Prent, Nietru, and Burshis. Nietru abandons her current conversation to rush to my side, and I¡¯m left blushing a bit at the sudden attention. The sparkle in her eye tells me Nietru is curious if I¡¯d read her missives, so I quickly answer the unspoken question, ¡°Hi Nietru, thank you for the notes, you um, yes, Spymaster¡¯s message was for me, and I understood it, thank you. I look forward to working more with you as well, the eight of you. Perhaps this eve sometime if you have a free moment, you could enlighten me how each of you approach your positions as strategists?¡±


    Figuring I should explain so that it doesn¡¯t come across as me hitting on Nietru in front of everyone, I add, ¡°I have some more plays, and assets, that I¡¯d like to start possibly thinking of ways to deploy, or utilize, and I¡¯d like some more tactically minded opinions on the matter. Also, um, hi, and thank each of you so very much for helping coordinate the evacuation and relocation effort.¡±


    Nietru Devalor comments, ¡°Excited to be a part of your plans Schism, truly! I¡¯d be delighted to let you know about the war council. Our Lady of course has been making decisions for the Order for as long as I can remember, but as wise and calculating as she is, she always takes advisement to heart. I could give you the briefest summary right now, a few words about each of us if you like.¡±


    Seeing me gesture in the affirmative, Nietru offers up, ¡°Elshon over there¡¯s a pragmatist, surprisingly enough, while Prent is fairly close behind. I know I can seem a bit idealistic, and I perhaps am, but I¡¯ve a mind for numbers, which themselves aren¡¯t very idealistic in the best of cases. My Burshee, koff, Burshis is a brutal formations expert, fully studied in both humanoid and draconic battle history. Aktixas is a warrior at heart, and thinks of things at the individual level on the field, a point of view that the rest of us would otherwise lack, very empathetic to the necessity of morale and such.¡±


    Motioning to the pair of lovebirds helping with the refugee intake, Nietru continues, ¡°Geskae and Aaront are of similar minds, I think it¡¯s why they¡¯re such a loving couple, they can see big picture plays and overall strategies that span moves and retaliations that some of the rest of us don¡¯t have the foresight for. Shrulniz is, um, huh. Shrulniz is tactical in a tangential way, the needs of those we¡¯re protecting. I guess if you¡¯ve seen any human sports, perhaps a bit like a goalie from some of their ball related sports. Oh my apologies, a belated hello to you both, you too as well my Tenith. I¡¯m excited to be approached by the pair of you.¡±


    My lower jaw juts forward appreciatively as I nod at Nietru, taking in her information. My response is a simple, ¡°Thank you for that, perhaps I can just say it then, and you could discuss amongst the eight of you, so that you could drop me a letter, or come by to chat later these eve? I¡¯ve got a lot of uncategorized items, loot I guess, and I know we¡¯ve already defeated several dragons who have their own hoards. Ka¡¯thuul is out there, worming her way around, trying to pick up the wealth after we¡¯ve freed it from its owners, but despite wanting to keep our alliance I¡¯d prefer if that wealth and the possible artifacts contained therein were coming to Mount Solace. Could you fill me in on what we¡¯re doing in a sort of reverse-supply-lines kind of deal?¡±


    Before Nietru can start answering in the here and now, so that I can emphasize that I want her to talk it over with the others, I continue, ¡°Also, the two Spellknight prisoners might be willing to take up defense of our home, or perhaps of traveling caravans and supply runs and the like. It¡¯d put dangerous allies in positions where they can use their power in times of need, show our faith in them in a fashion, and also protect the innocents in Mount Solace from them until we¡¯re more certain we can trust them. Only if they¡¯re up for it of course.¡±


    Realizing something else I want to talk to is best not spoken aloud, I put up all my telepathic walls and send directly to Nietru, ¡°There are secrets about Rayileklia that I know, that I need to know who else is in the know about, so it¡¯s quite difficult to subtly ask about them without spilling the beans. Since you¡¯re used to communicating with Spymaster, and interpreting sensitive topics, I¡¯d like you to bring to my attention everyone¡¯s knowledge of certain topics such as storms, temporal anomalies, the routing of the Felgre hordes the first time, anything that you can think of would be a sensitive topic in fact. Assume that I either do know, or should be informed about anything that is normally a matter of secrecy, but also assume I don¡¯t know why each thing should be kept secret at this point, or from whom, so make sure that you have that information ready as well. My plans might change very little, or drastically depending on your answers. Thank you Nietru Devalor.¡±


    Heat emanates from Nietru¡¯s face as I include her last name in addressing her. Crap, is that like when a parent angrily calls out your last name? I didn¡¯t mean to embarrass her. Or are last names a sensitive topic? So very few of the dragons or dragonkin seem to have them. I spread one arm wide, offering Nietru a hug, and thankfully she gladly accepts it. Giving her a firm squeeze, I bob my head once gently in her direction as a sort of farewell. After breaking off the hug, Te and I begin descending from the aerie towards the feasting hall together.

 B 6 C 79: Omni-Potent Teuila Shellcracker

    Trying to distract myself from contemplating my failures, knowing that Teuila is still struggling to come to grips with her own misgivings on various losses of life, I pull some insect meat from the dimensional pouch. Te gladly accepts a hunk and we chow down together while passing the feasting hall. Eating of course only takes about one or two seconds for each of us, being digital critterkin, or Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin adjacent, thankfully. At least as far as digital food is concerned. It¡¯s incredibly weird that the shops can produce non-digital produce, by rezzing them into existence.


    Speaking of the shops, I withdraw the smartphone from the dimensional pouch to check the time. Wow, it¡¯s still not even two p.m. What a morning! I wish I could catch up with Illy to check on her. I hate that she¡¯s suffering about the loss of her sister, but I can¡¯t reach her to console her right now. Instead of focusing on my inability, I let the majority of my psychic walls drop as Teuila and I spend time cuddling in thinkspace and reality while I T K Surf us down to Mount Verdimenn. I stop by the library before heading down too far, to check in with Nala.


    As I near arrival to the library, I hear mentally from Nala, ¡°Fortuitous timing, fortuitous indeed friend Reggie. I¡¯d been about to send for Pawn to fetch you in order to, well, no matter, come come. Apparently I¡¯ve you to thank for this slight bit of bother, though it is rather amusing in a fashion.¡±


    Te and I raise our eyebrows at one another in curiosity at Nala¡¯s statement, but it¡¯s pretty evident what Nala was referring to as we enter the library. A host of kobolds are making their way from stack to stack, checking out all the shelves, feeling up the books¡¯ spines, reading titles aloud, and so on. Apparently some of the refugees are either avid readers, or would like to be. Oh boy, poor Nala. Her refuge is now shared with others.


    Floating up alongside her, I ask, ¡°Nala, are you okay? How are you handling this?¡±


    Her response contains only a hint of the usual gruffness, ¡°Did you know that some of them have never even seen a properly bound book before? The savage conditions by which Terrorzin rules and subjugates those beneath his banner is appalling. I¡¯m endeavoring to withstand the onslaught of questions, but this is after all, a public library, so I¡¯ll be having to make do, until I can perhaps appoint an adequate assistant from amongst their multitudes, or something similarly accommodating along those lines.¡±


    Before I can ask, Nala continues, ¡°That is not the reason I¡¯d been about to request your presence anyway, I have to dutifully handle my own responsibilities after all. No, I¡¯ve sorted more previously owned, and incoming material, and even without my Latent, many of these set off obvious red flags that demand they enter into your custody immediately. Please, take this stack and then shoo, as you can see I¡¯m quite busy with matters to attend to.¡±


    Suddenly addressing a tiny kobold that¡¯s attempting to lift the massive central dictionary from its podium placement, Nala turns away from me to call out, ¡°You there, put that down, you¡¯ll flatten yourself under its heft, that one is meant to be read on the pedestal upon which it sits, it¡¯s a dictionary you audacious diminutive lunatic. If you¡¯d like to read it, there are stools and stepladders all about for you to take advantage of.¡±


    Nala then turns to one sitting at a table dragging his hands across the pages of a delicate-seeming tome, ¡°Do be cautious of your claws you inconsiderate little nincompoop. You need not trace every word with your deadly little digits to read them.¡± She returns her attention to me only momentarily to dismiss me, ¡°Huff, away with you Schism. I¡¯ve matters in hand. Yes yes, you¡¯re all welcome to stay, and I¡¯ll help you find the topics you¡¯ve an interest in, just, please, behave yourselves.¡±


    The chatter from the kobolds makes me chuckle slightly, but Nala¡¯s reaction serves to further lighten my humorous mood from the doldrums I¡¯d been on the way to experiencing. I snag the several tomes that Nala had indicated in one of my telekinetic grips and cast a quick glance her way. She *almost* seems to be enjoying herself, almost. Teuila and I -book it- from the library, and Nala groans over the wordplay in my internal monologue. Another fact which I can¡¯t help chuckling about. Even Teuila half giggles through a groan while riding my mental wavelength. Leaving the library, I float us towards the prison, and Teuila begins to poke and prod for my attention.


    Raising an eyebrow towards her, and pausing our locomotion, I await Teuila, since she seems giddy about something she apparently wanted to share, but hadn¡¯t yet for some reason. I set us on the floor of this seemingly deserted hallway, and Te drags me towards a dead end before planting her lips firmly on mine. I sink into the kiss, and her embrace, accidentally letting slip a short moan of pleasure. Of course I end up blushing furiously at the escaping sound, though Te just grins through the kiss. Teuila and I have not spent anywhere near as much time as either of us would like sharing our physical joys with each other over the last week or two, or really our entire journey on Rayileklia.


    Apparently though, that isn¡¯t why Te requested my attention, she starts, ¡°Sooo, I didn¡¯t want to steal your thunder¡ª,¡± Te pauses, giggling ridiculously hard at some apparent in-joke with herself before continuing, ¡°¡ªlast night Airhead. But you are *not* going to believe what the goons I took down on Friday just had lying around. You know, Missile-whosit and Hairyhousen. I had to scoop it, natch. Check this.¡± Teuila withdraws an ornate battlehammer with a leather-wrapped handle from seemingly nowhere, and sets it on the ground before me.


    The hammer hums with thundrous intensity and crackles with electrical power. Inspecting it, I raise my left brow and query, ¡°Misildyr and Heironymous? Even if they were enemies, I¡¯m surprised you¡¯d joke with their names since they¡¯re dead. You did kill them, right? You¡¯ve had more dragonforce coursing through you since we met up after I returned compared to post-battle on the day of the first offensive, Thursday I think. I can sense at least that much. Yours works differently than mine, it¡¯s like, like yours regenerates itself over time, fills itself back up somehow, while mine keeps eating away at itself, sapping away into some kind of¡ª. Void.¡± I facepalm as Teuila bursts into another fit of giggles. I had that one coming.


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    Still, while Teuila is busy doubling over in laughter, I check out the hammer, finding that I can¡¯t lift it at all. Did Teuila increase its gravity? Wait. No friggin¡¯ way. My eyes fly wide in recognition after spotting something, so I ask, ¡°Te, can you read this? Do you know what it says?¡±


    Teuila shakes her head and shrugs in response, muttering, ¡°Nah, but it was on a big boulder, like they had to move the boulder to be able to move the hammer. Weird, right? Nobody else seemed to be able to pick it up.¡±


    I huff and try not to roll my eyes, since I know that Te doesn¡¯t have the same Fakeworld memories that I do. It¡¯s not her fault for not realizing what this hammer is, and what her picking it up represents, so instead I read aloud the inscription, ¡°Whomsoever bonds to this hammer, should they be worthy, doth possess the power of T¡ª,¡° I feel like copyright ninjas are about to leap out of the shadows and strike me down, so I pause and glance around rather than finishing.


    Wait, the Goldforce Gauntlets, one of the runotypes¡¯ inscriptions could have been interpreted instead as¡ª. They¡¯d be the Godforce Gauntlets. Jarngripr? Then the storming girdle, the belt of strength that Lil wears¡ª. That¡¯d be Megingjord. No friggin¡¯ way. What the everliving fu¡ª. I mean, Teuila pulled this hammer out of something or somewhere, she does have her own extradimensional bag now, ever since Berinon gave her one back in the swamp, but she definitely had it in her hands for at least a few moments before setting it down. Still, to be able to lift this, she¡¯d supposedly need the belt. She has to have the natural strength to lift this, even without Megingjord. That¡¯s insane. That, or some sort of magic prevents anyone unworthy from lifting it, or both. It could be impossibly heavy, on top of being enchanted for only worthy wielders.


    The belt only brings Lil¡¯s strength slightly above Teuila¡¯s, or at least, slightly above the last I remember her having hers at on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. If she has leveled up to twenty as well, since we¡¯ve fought most of the same battles these last four months, then her strength might be on par with what the belt sets it at, at this point. Oh, wait, right, the little stones floating trapped in her hair, her strength already was as high as the belt. Teuila¡¯s monstrous. She might be *stronger* than Lil even with the belt at this point. That¡¯s ridiculous. I wonder if there¡¯s a cap, or upper limit to her strength.


    I¡¯ve always thought of Teuila as a sort of Valkyrie maiden warrior. A warrior-maiden? Something like that. Sure, she¡¯s friggin¡¯ amazing¡ª. Yes, the irony is not lost on me that Frigg is a Norse goddess and my epithet happened to contain most of her name, or rather that her name is most of my epithet. But anyway, Te has the Alias powers of Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, Lady of Storms, on top of her gravity or sky based Latent, and now she¡¯s wielding a hammer straight out of Norse mythology from Fakeworld, Earth. Well, out of the comic books of Fakeworld anyway, and gauntlets that could likely be the same. What is even going on with our lives? Who the hell are we?


    Oh, wait, also, go back. Would this mean that Leviathan is essentially Jormungandr? I, I¡¯m so lost. I mean, I have always said Teuila is the strongest of us, the most powerful, but a literal god or goddess? Holy friggin¡¯ crap. I don¡¯t even know where to begin with this. I¡¯m marrying someone that is essentially a dragon queen, one of the eldest dragons on the planet, a ruler of her own domain, though she forgoes ruling in favor of leading. For years I¡¯ve been in love with someone who handles the fate of the ultimate timeline of our lives, and her sister, my very first love, might literally be the god of storms. My Teuila, My Wings, a literal goddess in the Norse pantheon?


    Teuila butts in to my meandering line of thought with, ¡°No idea what you¡¯re talking about bucko, but I sure am flattered regardless. C¡¯mere babe, mwah.¡±


    I can¡¯t help chuckling as Te distracts me from my rambling thoughts with another kiss. My eyes slowly droop happily closed, and I find myself sighing contentedly in her arms. I feel so safe with Teuila, even though I¡¯m still technically on a timer. We couldn¡¯t just cure my Changeling Fae mana residue sickness, not without turning me from Reggie Shellcracker into just some powerless human. Maybe after I¡¯ve paid the five and five and six more, or however the Sisters had phrased it.


    Still, with three strong dragonforces coursing through me, buttressing my true inner self against the strangulation of the mana residue, it¡¯s only taking about a quarter of a percent or a third of a percent of the current maximum of what resides within me per day to keep me alive at this point. Three to four thousand days is plenty of time to acquire more dragonforces, especially when we¡¯re entering all out open war against a horde of dragons as vast as Terrorzin¡¯s. What are my current dragonforces again? Olashax, Vanathar, Tinth, Hareslayer, right? Yeah. An Ice, a Fire, a Lightning, and an Acid. Once again, a hell of a coincidence.


    Te bonks me lightly on the skull, raps me gingerly upon my cheek, and slugs me playfully in the shoulder, muttering, ¡°Airhead. Shush your brain for a while sweetie. Though, I guess you¡¯re you, and that¡¯ll always be pretty hard, huh? It¡¯s okay Air, let¡¯s go to the prison love. If I can¡¯t keep your big beautiful brain to myself, maybe I can get some twin action going on, wink wink.¡±


    Snorting a laugh, I roll my eyes and shake my head in faux exasperation at Teuila while I resume T K Surfing towards the prison. I bet Te would honestly do it too, if she could convince Ahliyui and Ahliyuri to snog. She¡¯s been, as Illy would put it, rambunctiously sexy as her time on Rayileklia wears on. She misses Lin, and has certain emotional turbulences she¡¯s trying to distract herself from. I can¡¯t blame her at all for any of that. I wouldn¡¯t even if I could. I love My Wings beyond measure. She sets my soul alight.


    Hm, somehow that concept is familiar, burning souls. Why does that seem familiar? A candle? Yes, no, maybe. There¡¯s that, but then there¡¯s something else. A machine? Huh. Weird. I guess more random stupid Fakeworld bullcrap maybe. Who knows? Teuila stores Mjolnir while I¡¯m pondering my strange trains of thought, so I return to surfing towards the prison with her.


    Should I come up with a new nickname for Teuila? Thoruila? Tethora? Teuithor? Maybe just Tenith Grayl? How the hell do the situations around me keep getting even *weirder* than they¡¯d already been? Anyway, we¡¯re almost to the prison so we can speak with Ahliyui and Ahliyuri. There they are, playing cards with four guards now, apparently the previous ones haven¡¯t retired yet, but new volunteers showed up to take over, and they¡¯re all getting along.


    Teuila gives me a gentle noogie as I take in the scene. It¡¯s almost funny to me that Ahliyui and Ahliyuri are hanging out with the guards, their very powerful magically endowed equipment sitting nearby in a footlocker and a sack. Like, is there really any further way we could show how much we desire to trust them? We¡¯ve literally given them access to our deepest reaches, left them with their gear, and basically said, ¡°Hey, please don¡¯t stab us in the back, but here¡¯s your complimentary knife.¡±


    My Wings snickers at my line of thought, but I jokingly shoulder-bash her, and she knocks into me in return, ending up sending me toppling from my telekinetic perch, but I simply catch myself in another telekinetic grip. Smirking at me, she blows a raspberry momentarily before hugging me tightly as we end our approach. I wave to the assembled Draconiacs.


    Before I can strike up a conversation, Te beats me to the punch, calling out, ¡°I hear you two are Spellknights. Think you can teach me some tricks?¡±

 B 6 C 80: Spellknight? No-Spell Fight

    The guards raise their scaled brows, but no one really wants to tell our Tenith that she can¡¯t ask someone something, so they just remain hushed as we all await the twins¡¯ answers. Yui offers up, ¡°You¡¯re with Schism, so I take it you¡¯re pretty powerful in one way or another, there might be a chance I could show you some simple hexes, or fencing charms. That is, if our captor would permit it. I¡¯d want to be equipped to avoid any pointless mishaps instructing an amateur.¡±


    Before I can answer, an almost malicious mischievousness glints in Teuila¡¯s eyes as she retorts, ¡°Honey, I¡¯m Teuila Shellcracker, a Guardian of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, a knight Aliased Tenith, and I¡¯m the Lunar Dragon Honoris Causa. Amateur is nowhere in my titles. Nor my titties for that matter, even if they¡¯re a bit small.¡±


    Snorting with laughter, I shake my head in wild disbelief at Teuila. What the everliving hell has gotten into my beloved? Hah. I gaze between the assembled, and the guards are doing their best to hold in their own laughter, wary of offending two beings with the most powerful titling within the Order.


    Defensively, albeit only slightly, Teuila jokes, ¡°What? Titles is only a couple letters off of titties. I figured I might as well make the joke before anyone else could. Seriously though, my Airhead is always learning new spells and gaining new forms and all sorts of things. I get a new miniature power from a book once in a while or something, or a new weapon here or there, lots of new weapons honestly. Honestly what the hell am I even going to do with them all? I can¡¯t wield a dozen different weapons at once. Can I? Can you two do that? Is it something you could teach? Scratch that, let¡¯s start small. Gear up and come at me, my Airhead doesn¡¯t mind, and neither do I.¡±


    Teuila is almost instantly at the far end of the prison, leaving Yui and Yuri glancing about for a moment. Ahliyuri puts his hands up placatingly and steps aside, letting his sister at their gear, and eyeing me questioningly. I nod my consent to them, so he simply scoots his chair closer to the guards to return to playing cards while keeping an eye on what¡¯s about to unfold.


    I avert my gaze for the brief moment that Ahliyui is nude while swapping from the casual clothing she¡¯d gotten from the barracks, into the under-armor padding she¡¯ll wear beneath her gear. None of the five Draconiacs join me in averting their gaze, not even Yuri. I guess nudity just doesn¡¯t mean the same thing to reptiles as it does to mammals, or, well, humans and some Fae at least.


    Te dons most of her equipment, and hefts Mjolnir from a strange blue sheathe that didn¡¯t appear to be hammer-shaped, and stands at the ready, motioning for Yui to charge. Yui, despite her supposed combat ferocity, or her deranged nature as her brother calls it, instead takes her time approaching Teuila. The Spellknight calls, ¡°Would you consider it a breach of our surrender if I layered spellwork Schism?¡±


    My muscles tense and I inadvertently clench my jaw. This is the exact sort of thing I didn¡¯t want to have happening. If I give them an inch, will they take a mile? Will they hurt innocent denizens of Mount Solace? My breathing begins to flood with anxiety, though I mask it by keeping it shallow and keeping my mouth closed. I flick a casual, ¡°Do as you will,¡± signal to Ahliyui, despite not feeling good about letting her do so at all. Even if I don¡¯t trust the Spellknight twins just yet, I trust Teuila. She wouldn¡¯t let them get away and harm those under our protection if she could help it.


    What if they can teleport though? What if they take hostages? No, hostage-takers aren¡¯t a situation that we need to make special considerations for. Either they¡¯d be willing to be talked down, without proving that they¡¯re willing to kill, or they¡¯re willing to kill their hostages either way. If it¡¯s the latter, the only recourse is to kill them. If they put themselves in the position of having a hostage, then I just need to find a maneuver that kills them before they can harm their victims, if possible. It¡¯s harsh, but that¡¯s the penalty *they* agreed to upon surrendering.


    Seeing Yui do runework now is different than when we¡¯d been in combat, and she isn¡¯t speaking draconic as a mnemonic. Her pace is almost languid. In fact, the more she does, the less it¡¯s like the familiar runework of Rayileklia at all. It¡¯s almost more of some sort of battledance, a series of kata combined with hand-seal gestures. Cranking up my aura vision does reveal however that she is still being layered in spellwork. There are enchantments, alterations, and transmutations being wrought upon her layer by layer, and then those magics are being protected by abjurative effects. Her muscles are being altered to react differently, likely without producing lactic acid buildup. Her scales are being transmuted into a more resilient material, and a number of effects are growing in power by the moment.


    I¡¯m about to call a halt to this, but she stops herself before I get the chance, likely perceiving my agitation with new senses that she¡¯s granted herself. She¡¯s at least as powerful as where she intended to be on the day that we fought inside the ShizTinth Stronghold. Uncomfortable with this level of power now in her hands, I motion for the guards to leave the prison area somewhat, and when they do, I seal the four of us in. My move fills Yuri with anxiety, but he makes no effort to complain or fight back.


    Breaking the tightness of the seal on Frostburn, partially loosing it from its sheathe, I stand with my back to the exit that I¡¯ve now magically locked. I barricade the door in three layers of telekinesis. I do not want to rescind my offer of mercy. Te, why did you do this? What is going on with you? Te makes no effort to respond to my line of thought outwardly or even across our mental wavelength.


    Ahliyui is about to put on her helmet, but to that, I call out, ¡°No. You won¡¯t need that unless you plan to betray us, leave it off. Teuila is accurate enough to never strike an unarmored face unintentionally.¡±


    Yui shrugs, and drops the helmet back into the pile of equipment in the footlocker. Instead of arming herself in the conventional way, Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui performs a gesture with each hand, revealing both a blade of pure radiance humming with intensity, and one of pure umbra dripping with shadow. Her brother gasps out, ¡°Yui! You shouldn¡¯t!¡± as he frantically pats himself down and looks urgently towards the displaced equipment in the open footlocker on the floor.


    As I¡¯m about to ask why she shouldn¡¯t, Radiant Spellknight Alhiyui crosses the blades in a forceful clash, resulting in a cascading wave of blinding light exploding outwards. The light is immediately followed by darkness bubbling up and roiling out over everything in the prison, completely obscuring all of our vision. Thankfully, neither Teuila nor I rely on sight for combat. Also thankfully, neither of the twins is making any moves to escape, or to harm either of us. Yui seems to simply be showing off. The Spellknight waits until the darkness settles in, and though her heavy armor is quieted by both excellent fabrication, and magical enhancements, it¡¯s still quite obvious where she resides from sound alone as she shifts into an attacking stance.


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    In an instant, Yui closes the gap between her and Teuila, but she doesn¡¯t lunge heedlessly. Instead she displays impeccable footwork, bringing her into precise distance that would allow her to capitalize on the reach advantage she has on Te. Yui¡¯s crisscrossing slashes might prove difficult for someone else to parry with a hammer, but as I¡¯d mentioned earlier, Teuila is monstrously powerful. Flashes of light coupled with sizzling hisses flood the darkened prison upon each clash of radiant blade meeting Mjolnir. The darkness surrounding us ripples and roars each time Yui¡¯s umbral blade connects instead.


    Finally I allow myself to breathe a sigh of relief, as Teuila seems to simply be having fun, and neither she nor Yui seem out to slay the other. My silent sonar tells me that Yuri is able to accurately follow the battle with his eyesight alone, so I know he won¡¯t startle as I approach him and sit next to him. He has devilishly good sight to be able to penetrate the darkness with it. I should expect no less of Umbral Spellknight Ahliyuri I suppose.


    Sitting next to him, I casually ask Yuri, ¡°Is your sister always so quick to test boundaries? I wasn¡¯t very far from reacting quite poorly.¡±


    Gulping, Yuri nods and comments, ¡°Yes, yes she¡¯s deranged, demented, but she¡¯s my world, I love my sister more than anything, and I¡¯m grateful you stayed your hand.¡±


    Yui quips back, ¡°You¡¯re the deranged one brother! Always talking of being tired of combat, finished with taking lives and seeing fear, pah! It¡¯s in our blood!¡±


    That sentiment grates on me, and Yuri picks up on it as I tense up. He¡¯s quick to assure me, ¡°She doesn¡¯t truly mean it, not that way. She enjoys the thrill of combat, it¡¯s not taking lives and inspiring fear, just the fighting, which is why she was itching for this chance as soon as it was offered. I swear.¡± Quieter, in a whisper meant only for me, he begs, ¡°Please don¡¯t take her from me in misunderstanding. Kill me first if you don¡¯t believe my words. She seeks thrills, and enjoys proving herself. She¡¯s not a senselessly wanton murderer, I swear it.¡±


    Gritting my teeth, and feeling foolish for the sentimental tear streaking down my right cheek, I allow myself to loose a breath I didn¡¯t realize I was holding as I nod at Yuri. My return whisper is simple, ¡°I believe you. Thank you for understanding me.¡±


    Relief floods Yuri¡¯s system when he can tell I¡¯m not going to preemptively slay Yui in fear of a bloodlust that he claims she doesn¡¯t have. He¡¯s willing to stake his life on it, and his love for his family is nearly immeasurable, so I¡¯ll offer up this trust to him. It takes me a few more deep breaths and sighs of relief to settle in to a point that allows me to take in the combat without knee-jerk reactions.


    Taking in the duel, even with just silent sonar and hearing is a hell of a thing. Yui is an *amazing* swordswoman, whether fencing, or wielding blades akimbo in a Florentine style. Her footwork is leagues above either mine or Teuila¡¯s, but Teuila¡¯s reaction speed, raw talent, and incredible power make up for any missteps or over-plays. It¡¯s honestly a breathtaking fight to spectate, and I can¡¯t even see it. I wonder, would my wrist-crossbow¡¯s glow cancel this darkness? I could equip it to test it out perhaps.


    I don¡¯t feel like throwing a wrench into their funtime yet if it would happen to work, so I sit by for a few minutes. I¡¯m trying to take in the combat as a learning experience for myself. There are even several short patterns that Yui alternates between that seem incredibly efficient that I¡¯m starting to develop a sense of. I try to make note of and memorize them as best I can. I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d have been able to pull them off in cherubic Reggie form, especially not with the nerve damage.


    I¡¯m in RS2 form now though, so I might be able to practice the maneuvers in at least thinkspace, and then perhaps in meatspace as well. Funnily enough, Teuila hasn¡¯t been on the offensive at all yet, and it¡¯s not because Yui¡¯s onslaught leaves her no room for retaliation. Te¡¯s quick enough that she¡¯s had several openings, yet she hasn¡¯t capitalized on any of them. She¡¯s drawing this out. I¡¯m worried she¡¯s going to get cocky and try something too showy, and end up getting one of them hurt.


    Gritting my teeth, I hiss, ¡°Te, be careful!¡±


    As I¡¯d feared, Teuila decides to wrap the fight up in a single move, and I can feel the force of the blow utterly destroy the spellwork layered over Ahliyui as it dents her armor and sends her crashing into the far wall of the prison from their fight. The entire prison rumbles as Yui¡¯s impact leaves a crater in the wall before her body slumps into a twisted seated position on the floor. My breath catches in my throat as I rise from my seat. Yuri and I rush to Yui¡¯s side as the darkness dissipates. At a glance, it looks bad, really bad. There¡¯s blood trickling from Yui¡¯s auditory cavities. I cast my gaze fearfully towards Yuri as he seems to be fighting back waves of alternating fear and anger. He hesitates to retaliate or respond, waiting for my reaction.


    Admonishing Teuila, I try not to bellow as I chastise her, ¡°Damnit Te!¡±


    Her response worries me, ¡°What? I¡¯m not hurt at all. I was careful, just like you said. She wasn¡¯t really showing me any magicky stuff, so I wrapped things up. Are you mad Air?¡±


    As my lower jaw juts forward, it locks up, so I find it difficult to articulate, ¡°Te, I meant for her gorrammit! I knew you¡¯d be fine, you could destroy a meteor before gaining your titles and Honoris Causa and new equipment. I¡ª. Sorry. I love you. Help me out over here.¡±


    Pouting, Teuila trots over as I cradle Ahliyui to check out her skull, and I motion for Yuri to start stripping her of her armor. I¡¯ve never seen a physical attack undo so much magic. I¡¯ve seen spells set to dissipate upon taking certain amounts of damage, like the Steely Body form spell, but this is something else entirely. The amount of force Te can put out is orders of magnitude higher than what should be possible at her size within the bounds of physics. Rules of reality break down around her. On Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, this wouldn¡¯t be an issue, but Rayileklia is a lot closer to Fakeworld, Earth.


    Drawing water and fabric out of the dimensional pouch, I dab at the bloody trail from Yui¡¯s ¡®ear¡¯ areas. The bleeding seems to have stopped, but I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s a good thing or a bad thing. She¡¯s breathing at least, but I¡¯m sure her sternum is going to be bruised at the bare minimum. Yuri finishes stripping Yui, and I can¡¯t find any perforations on her body. She has some cracked scales, but none seem driven into her flesh, so there¡¯s at least no external bleeding.


    As her brother and I are fretting over Yui, she regains enough consciousness to groan in pain, and mutter, ¡°Fu¡ªkoff¡ªck Terrorzin, koff, for making enemies like you monsters.¡±


    Yuri¡¯s immediate response is to grip his sister tightly in a bearhug while admonishing her, ¡°You lunatic! Don¡¯t ever scare me like that! I¡¯d throttle you if you didn¡¯t look so out of it, you heinous little b¡ª!¡±


    The response from Yui, muffled within Yuri¡¯s embrace is, ¡°Koff, love, koff, you too, psycho. Hurts to hug, koff, lay off.¡±


    Yuri immediately loosens his hug on his sister, but doesn¡¯t withdraw it completely. Inappropriately, only looking mildly abashed, Teuila scratches the back of her head and offers up, ¡°Um, all¡¯s well that ends well?¡±

 B 5 C 87: Reggies Somethings

    My Runic Costs/SP Costs when quickening casts:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Double the rune/point or "sorc point" as Bud calls them cost of spells up to 33 runes in length / 33 SP to cast them in 1-10 seconds time. Triple the cost of spells up to 66, quadruple the cost of spells up to 99</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Casting in 10-30 seconds, double up to 66 SP, triple up to 132, quadruple up to 198</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Casting in 30-50 seconds, double up to 99 SP, triple up to 198, quadruple up to 297</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Casting in 50-70 seconds, double up to 132 SP, triple up to 264, quadruple up to 396</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 70-90 seconds, double up to 165 SP, triple up to 330, quadruple up to 495</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 90-110 seconds, double up to 198 SP, triple up to 396</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 110-130 seconds, double up to 231 SP, triple up to 462</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 130-150 seconds, double up to 264, triple up to 528</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 150-170 seconds, double up to 297, triple up to 594</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 170-190 seconds, double up to 330, triple up to 660</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 190-210 seconds, double up to 363, triple up to 726</li>


    </ul>


    My Spells mastered/currently studying:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Frost Ray,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Prestidigitative Legerdemain,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Light,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Mending,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/05 runes mastered: Splatter of Acid</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Scrying, Seemingly able to do this with physical runecrafting on a surface, not costing my own S P</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: Ghostly Steeds, Seemingly they do not require my own Sorc Points when these runes are crafted.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>12/24 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct III</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Summon Swarm.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>24/24 runes mastered: Telepathic Bond,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>08/24 runes mastered: Blast Frost</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Conjuration.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/33 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct V</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/33 runes: Steely Body,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Evocation,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>48/48 runes mastered: Permanency-enhancement.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/64 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VI</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/99 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VII</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/180 runes mastered: Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct VIII</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/360: Theoretically a Conjure Monstrous Mana Construct IX should exist.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/06 runes mastered: Gusty Wind,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/24 runes mastered: Squall Wall,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>15/33 runes mastered: Detect Thoughts,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>012/330 runes mastered: Prescient Moment.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Growth/Reduction.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Fireball.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Lightning Bolt.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>02/33 runes mastered: Hailstorm.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>042/128 runes mastered: Dispellation.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/33 runes mastered: Minor History.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Ghostly Hand.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>06/66 runes mastered: Bypassed-Wall.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>99/99 runes mastered: Telekinesis.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Incendiary Web.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Firewall.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>003/660 runes mastered: Planar Traversal, Ugh, I truly, truly hope that we get enough peaceful time for me to study, master, and take apart this spell. It¡¯s our first solid lead on returning to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, sort of. We still don¡¯t know if we¡¯re on different planes of a reality, or in different realities entirely, or what.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>07/33 runes mastered: Spectral Lock.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>06/33 runes mastered: Spectral Knock.</li>


    </ul>


    My Permanent Effects:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Aura sensing(Detection of magic, souls, and runes)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Telepathic Bond (Currently with Teuila only, bound sentient artifacts can come along for the ride, will try to add Luni, Lil, and Lucky.)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Comprehension of all written Languages</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Quickening of runotypical spells metamagic available</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>I¡¯m fairly worried that I¡¯ve destroyed something within my brain. Conjuration spells just feel like they¡¯re going to be harder even just thinking about their runes now. Everything in me aches whenever I think about them, and my nose starts to bleed. Not exactly a buff, but an effect I need to remain aware of.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Telekinesis, x2. I can create and maintain two telekinetic grips simultaneously, permanently. I¡¯ll be working to get them into subconscious subroutines, so that they¡¯ll work for me even when I¡¯m asleep.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Retrocognition. I can pause time, and, with some difficulty, perfectly recall recent sensory details, to paint a picture in my own mindscape. My mindscape is the only thing active during this paused time, and I can really only analyze things that have occurred, though I can make best guesses as to the future, but that doesn¡¯t take paused time to do. I¡¯m unable to affect anything outside my body, during the paused time.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Technically integrated lightning. I should have counted my reflex-enhancing electrokinesis before. Now it may be too late to count it. I may have gone overboard. I¡¯m not sure such thorough nerve damage is recoverable even for Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin-adjacents.</li>


    </ul>


    My Current Equipment:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Danger Wraps</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Billowy Cloak</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Hyperdimensional Haversack</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Enchanted scrollcase</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Archsorc Staff.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Griffon Figurine, Apheliotes Zephyrus, I think I accidentally left him with Tiktik and the carriage. No big deal.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Cap of Disguising Illusions.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Portable Hole (in my enchanted Scrollcase from Berinon)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Blessed anti-vampire, silvered stake (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Holy Halefire wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Full Valkyrie armor set + <del>dagger</del> and <del>buckler</del>, kite shield</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Pied Pipes of Rodent summoning</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Neckchain, no need to announce what this does amongst present company.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Starmetal Luckrock. This is for Lil, period. Straight up.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x <del>healing potion</del> We used this one on Daffodil. Teuila has the last one in existence as far as we¡¯re aware.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>3x Minor Water Walking Potions.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>undisclosed/unidentified minor equipment from Milbert, as well as several unidentified potions from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that Reggie, uh, I withdrew upon arriving on Rayileklia.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>2x mysterious energy cells Eventually I¡¯ll figure out what these are so that they¡¯re understood, I swear.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Always-smoking bottle. I think Tiktik might have it though.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x <del>Partially broken thunderstick of elemental lightning</del> Fully broken now, and integrated into my body. It hurts to think about. Literally.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Box-like book left by the Sisters of the Mist within our Carriage. In haversack. Do not open until having collected 16 evil elder dragon hearts to consume their dragonforce. If I even live that long. I wonder what sort of knowledge is contained within. Maybe their bubble scrying spell?</li>


    </ul>


    My Current Sentient Artifact Attunement:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Lullaby, Requiem of the Windless Wilds. Bud, oh Bud I hope you¡¯re okay.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Requiem, the Silent Song (Shared with Teuila)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark (Shared with Teuila)</li>


    </ul>

 B 6 C 82: Vault-Time

    Gulping and blushing, I try to apologize, ¡°Te, I, I¡¯m sorry, that wasn¡¯t how I intended to use the time in the orb.  I mean, obviously I don¡¯t regret it, it was fantastic, but it was more distraction than really me being there for you like I wanted to be.  I love you eternally, and¡ª.¡±


    Teuila shuts me up with a firm kiss before nestling her face into the crook of my neck and nuzzling there while holding me tightly.  Telepathically she mutters, ¡°It¡¯s okay Airhead, my Air.  The very air that I breathe.  It¡¯s almost like having accelerated thinkspace back, almost, but it¡¯s, well, I might have been aiming for us to do that, I¡¯m not really sure.  You know I get just a tiny bit jealous.  It sucks, there¡¯s so much going on in the ocean, and I can¡¯t tame it.  I know you were helping me learn to float and ride the waves out til they settled on their own, but that was so much easier when we could have like a month in a couple of minutes.  I hate not having that anymore.  I hate it.  I miss you being in me so bad, err¡ª.¡±


    We both flush heatedly after what we¡¯d just done in the orb.  My breath catches in my throat and I fight to gulp it down.  I know she meant in her mindscape, helping her identify her emotions, but, ah, phrasing.  Huff, phew.  Now she¡¯s giggling nervously across our mental wavelength.  I fight a battle with my blushing cheeks to be able to curl my lips into a loving smile to flash towards Teuila, trying to remain supportive rather than falling into a different state of mind, or mood.


    Cough, right, erm, anyway.  Huff.  Meep!  I find myself swatting one of Te¡¯s hands that¡¯s sneaking around dancing its fingers along certain places, and we end up in a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight, an SFSF, until we¡¯re both giggling.  Phew.  I feel much more assured that we¡¯re okay as a loving couple, despite all that I know Teuila is still dealing with.  I wish I could find a way to be *more* there for her though.  Wait.  Duplication.  Can my space skill duplicate technology?  For the most part, it¡¯s always been more like, umm, how do I describe it?


    Whenever I¡¯ve duplicated things, it mostly seemed like some sort of copy of the dimensions of the object, without any sort of respecting any more than the very basic general makeup of the thing.  I guess basically just an object¡¯s shape.  Plus, even if I completely mimicked circuitry, if it¡¯s all in that strange umbral onyx substance, how would it transmit electricity?  Either it¡¯s all conductive, or none of it is.  Hmm, yeah, I don¡¯t think that¡¯ll work.  Fricklefrack.  I was hoping to give Teuila a phone, so that we could maybe at least text or something.


    I guess that¡¯s a dumb idea for me to have had anyway.  There aren¡¯t cell towers on Rayileklia.  We¡¯d have to happen across a satellite in one of the shops or something, and somehow send it into orbit to be able to have cellular service on Rayileklia to be able to transfer the radio waves aro¡ª.  Waves.  Lu.  Could Luni¡¯s Latent manage receiving and sending cellular signals?  What would that do to Lu though, to have to be an intermediary always on the lookout for signals?  I¡¯ve already placed so much pressure on her by asking her to manage the timeline.


    Anyway, right now I want to focus on Teuila.  Even if the project was an idea for Teuila, it was distracting me further and further from her.  Sighing, I nuzzle my face into her amazingly teased side-flopped undercut.  Kissing Te¡¯s forehead, I try to imagine some way to be *more* present for her.  I can¡¯t find any solutions though.  I could maybe dive into nearly-paused time, seeking the non, but I don¡¯t think that brainstorming solo for some unspecified amount of time is going to bring me any closer to an answer.


    Te jabs me roughly in my torso with her index finger, poking me and prodding me for attention, so I try to shut off my brain as I lean back to gaze upon her face and grant her my undivided attention.  Te starts, ¡°So, I kinda wanted to show off this sheathe, it¡¯s sort of like your dimensional sacks and pouches and bags and stuff, but like, check this.¡±


    Teuila sets Mjolnir on the floor, then reaches for empty space at the top of the teal scabbard with its platinum embellishments.  Te motions as if drawing a weapon, and suddenly a ghostly translucent blue spear shimmers into existence in her hand.  Te then reaches towards the sheath with her non-dominant hand, makes the same motion, but this time draws forth an ethereal, blue-hued translucent spiked-ball flail, which boggles my mind.


    Te offers me the spear, so I accept it, and turn it over and over in my hands to inspect it.  Suddenly it blinks out of my hands and reappears in Teuila¡¯s main hand.  Well that¡¯s a handy hell of a trick.  Hard to be disarmed or have your own weapons used against you if you can just call them back to your hand.  That¡¯s a heck of a neat sheath.  Te grins proudly at her find.  Still, when Teuila is walking around with legendary artifact equipment, sentient weapons, and literal god-weapons, it seems a bit redundant, like she said.  How¡¯s she going to wield a dozen weapons at once?  Unless¡ª.


    Excitedly, I offer, ¡°Te, before we went into orb-time, I¡¯d been about to offer, I, I mean.  I wanted to, and still want to, make things up to you.  I was wondering if maybe a gesture, like, like me making something be only for you, that I¡¯d intended to share with everyone, if that would help.  Like, maybe my myconid form, sharing the sporebrain, the hivemind with just you, and the enchantments I might be able to pick up from the books with just you, I¡ª.¡±


    Jokingly, Teuila wrinkles her nose and complains, ¡°Ew, the squishy mushroom?  Really Air?  That¡¯s what you wanna give me to make me feel better?  I¡¯m kidding.  The idea itself is sweet, but I wouldn¡¯t want you to do that Air.  Your big heart is one of the reasons I koff, lur, koff, loh, luh, koff, y¡¯know.  Sharing that with everyone just makes sense for you.  Plus, doesn¡¯t that one get stronger with more brains?  I don¡¯t want you neutering yourself for me, ah, err, hehe, koff, you know what I mean.¡±


    Snorting a laugh I try not to let my mind drift to what we¡¯d ended up doing in the orb.  I still can¡¯t help smiling and shaking my head incredulously though.  This woman, yeesh.  I love her beyond all doubt, all reason, and all ability to describe.  Still, I wish I could make some gesture to reassure her, or give her something.  Wait, I guess maybe at least let¡¯s check out the random loot we¡¯ve got around here, yeah?


    Huh, I think that¡¯s another Q C R, a quick-change ring.  Yeah, yeah it definitely is.  I toss it to Te, and she dons it immediately, and begins testing out what it¡¯s already bound to, recklessly.  Ugh, I love her but she¡¯s scarily reckless.  Still, she¡¯s suddenly adorned in an amazingly fitted martial arts gi, and I try to catch my jaw so that I don¡¯t end up drooling as I gaze at her amazingly athletic form that ends up being revealed so greatly beneath the sleeveless gi.


    The garb shimmers and shifts in color in the order of the seasons, a cool icy blue to a vibrant spring green into a late summer yellow and finally an autumn orange before returning to blue.  Moreover, the back is decorated in seasonal motifs that shift from one to the next in time with the color.  While it¡¯s in its icy-blue form, Teuila¡¯s fists exude a frosty mist, and seem to drain the heat from around them.  While it¡¯s in its spring green form, green whipping winds whirl about her ankles.  While it¡¯s in its summer stage, Teuila¡¯s fists crackle with minor flames, unharmfully to her thankfully, and when it¡¯s in its autumn stage, I can¡¯t ascertain any special effects it has upon her.  Does this gi make Teuila immune to fire and cold?


    Holy crap, that¡¯s cool as hell.  I mean, Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark already sort of has her covered for the most part, but if she¡¯s going to be swapping out of it, this can keep her¡ª.  Did Teuila just grow an extra pair of translucent ghostly arms?  I blink in surprise.  There were metal bands about Teuila¡¯s wrists that came with the gi, and I can see a faint aura trace from them, up Teuila¡¯s real arms, to her shoulders, which now sprout an extra pair of magical arms.  Just what Te needs, more limbs to punch with.  Hah.  Teuila breaks into a fit of giggles before grinning slyly.


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    A shiver visibly runs up Teuila¡¯s spine and she shakes it out before stating, ¡°I think I¡¯m going to really like this outfit with my Jarngripr.  The spring season of the gi enhances my jumping, hehehe.¡±


    Pft!  I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh and nearly end up spitting as I sputter from the surprise of it.  Teuila has a ring that triples her already ridiculous leaping ability, and now a sexily tailored gi that enhances even that?  Yeesh.  Another thing about the gi is that there¡¯s a purple quiver attached to the hem of its right hip.  The quiver seems to be made of glass, and has a lid with five holes in it that has depictions of elements engraved upon it.  The lid has four buttons in position corresponding to those four elements, water, fire, earth and air.  Teuila fiddles around with it, pressing the buttons, and the plumed nocks of various arrows appear in response to each button press.


    Teuila quips in a goofy, grim voice, ¡°Groovy,¡± but she appears to have sensed something, and is following her nose in a manner of speaking.  She calls out, ¡°Hey Airhead, one for you too, sorta!¡±


    My love tosses me a much smaller quiver, one that could only hold crossbow bolts meant for one as small as my wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow.  It has different elements depicted on buttons, if they could even be called elements.  One depicts a mushroom cloud, one a snowflake, one a skull, and I¡¯d swear one looks like an anti-personnel hand-grenade.  Still, I attach it to my belt with its already myriad pouches and sheaths and other accessories.  On the small quiver is something that looks a bit like a frisbee or chakram, but as if it has a slot for a throwing-knife to be sheathed in it.


    Hm, studying the runework surrounding the frisbee-type object¡¯s aura, it is indeed a sheath for a throwing knife, and as I gaze at it, it takes on a familiar appearance.  Galaxies pass before my eyes as if I¡¯m gazing into deep space with a super-telescope as I move.  I could get lost in observing it, so I turn my attention back to the runework.  There should be an accompanying knife known as Whisper that should vibrate with a pink psychic elemental energy.  The sheath wants to be reunited with it in a way, and in a way it doesn¡¯t.  Whisper takes some of the enchantment and life essence away from this cosmic sheath in some fashion.  If they¡¯re reunited without being directly used together, they¡¯ll each be something different than this base combined enchantment, an odd way to be greater than the sum of their parts.  If I find Whisper, I guess I could enchant it into the Elemental Bandolier somehow, freeing up the sheath to be its own magical item.


    Now that I¡¯m sensing odd enchantments that are part of objects meant to be paired together in various ways, my attention is drawn to two, wait, three, four, five, huh, five platinum, or perhaps titanium bicep bangles.  Each has a large circular surface on its facing side, with grooved slots carved into it.  There¡¯s a tiny wooden box that appears like an old music-box that emanates a paired aura with these bangles.  Tossing one of the empty bangles to Teuila, I carefully lift the lid on the box, and gaze squinting into the box at the myriad blindingly brilliant auras suddenly unleashed against my eyes.


    There are tiny rune-engraved clips that would slide into the surface of the bangles.  There¡¯s such a cornucopia of different types of runework it¡¯s completely overwhelming to try to analyze.  I have to turn my gaze aside and reduce my aura vision as my stomach begins to flop, nauseated from the overwhelming overstimulation.  After burping, I feel a bit better.  Hiccuping and burping one more time help settle my stomach further.  Pulling one clip out of the box at a time, one of them causes me to sink to my knees and weep.


    Between tears I clasp Te¡¯s hands and order her, ¡°Please, please clip this in that bangle, and never, never ever ever ever take it off.  Te, Te I love you so much, if, if we¡¯d had this¡ª, glp, if¡ª.  If we had this on the Night of High Water¡ª,¡± I can¡¯t bring myself to even finish describing its power.


    Teuila immediately understands my tears and the power of the small object.  She does as I request and sinks to her own knees to wrap her arms around me.  We both cry together for several long minutes.  It¡¯s not quite as powerful as the neckchain of the ever-breathing in some ways, in other ways, it¡¯s more powerful, as it offers control over elemental water.  The bearer can breathe water, and cast a few spells per day dealing with water.


    I quickly resolve to find as many of these trinkets as possible that grant spells in order to equip them to Teuila¡¯s bangle, to help overcome the feeling of being left behind that had been building up within her.  I approach my task in a frenetic frenzy.  I¡¯m distraught enough that one might think I¡¯m furious with either the objects or myself, but I just¡ª.  I just need to do this for Teuila.


    One of the trinkets is one of elemental fire, making the bearer completely immune to fire, and granting a few uses of fire spells per day.  Teuila hardly even needs the immunity to fire any longer.  Te¡¯s own thermal resistances, Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark, and now her Gi of Seasonal Elements seems to have her covered versus fire, but it certainly can¡¯t hurt to be permanently completely immune to one side of the thermal equation.  Well, only specifically fire, not necessarily heat, I need to keep that in mind.


    This trinket-clip is one that, hah, it grants flight, which Teuila hardly needs, and some spells related to wind, which is one of Teuila¡¯s dominant elements anyway.  But it also grants extreme resistance to lightning, and a chain lightning spell.  I clip it into her bangle as well, and shove another one in that makes her resistant to negative thermal fluctuation by way of being imbued with an inner flame, basically cold has a harder time affecting her, and she can add even *more* fire to her punches.


    It¡¯s about the time that I¡¯m shoving a fifth trinket into Teuila¡¯s bangle, before having placed any in mine, that Teuila stops my frantic search through the runeworked objects.  The one I¡¯d just placed in it gives her another spell that¡¯s sort of like an incredibly short duration Steely Body spell, well, more like a forcebubble spell that only lasts about two seconds, and it either bends or breaks under any damage, but at least it reduces the force of that damage.


    Teuila grips my hands, closing them into fists that she holds tenderly as she whispers, ¡°Shh, shh my Airhead, it¡¯s okay.  It¡¯s okay.  Thank you.  Thank you so much for loving me so much.  For caring and trying and worrying and doing everything you can to be you.  It means so much to me.  I¡¯ll keep these, this is more than enough babe.  Thank you.  Thank you Air sweetie.  It¡¯s okay.  It means so much to me that I mean so much to you.  Come on, tell me about some of these other ones.¡±


    Te rests her forehead against mine, and I allow myself to calm slightly.  Blushing at my overreaction, I start listing, ¡°Well, um, that little segmented section with like nine¡¯ish of the trinkets has ones that all require someone who has innate sorcerous potential that can use metamagical abilities to adapt spells.  Basically they¡¯d only work when I¡¯m quickening my runework into quick-casted spells, so they¡¯re not much use to anybody else.  There¡¯s, um, well, this one over here is one that I kind of want, I¡ª.  I feel stupid for it, but it lets the user control stone elementals, protects the bearer from them.  It also lets them cast a stonemelding spell, and for some reason intensely increases their resistance to acid, and even lets the bearer sort of rock-walk or something, like, move through stone as if it were thick soup, for maybe five or ten seconds at a time without using any spells, or remaining in stone for up to like eight hours with a spell.¡±


    Hugging me excitedly, Te exclaims, ¡°That¡¯s great for you though Air!  Don¡¯t feel stupid about it!  I was so worried about you when those rock elementals were beating the crap out of you.  I, I don¡¯t want you to feel bad about yourself.  It was scary, and it¡¯s okay to have something shake you up or mess you up.  Right?  I mean, you tell me that sort of thing often enough.  It has to be true for you too, okay?  Right?¡±


    My lower jaw quivers but I nod shakily in response to Teuila.  She¡¯s right.  I wouldn¡¯t want her to beat herself up for being affected by something that shook her up.  Hell, we¡¯re dealing with the consequences of one of those things today.  I could never forgive myself if I held a double standard that made her doubt herself and beat herself up.  Still, it¡¯s difficult to take my own advice sometimes, like now.  I didn¡¯t get a chance to mention the paired stone or earth runic clip, it can prevent being knocked around, and provides immunity to petrification.


    Teuila motions to the books that I¡¯ve had floating around following us as well, that have picked up additional passengers as I snagged others that I no longer trust having in the public library in Mount Verdimenn.  I nabbed those ones on the way to our vaults since I now have use for them.  I guess I could explain what I know about the new ones, since she knows what the older ones are.  If we get a couple of consecutive days off, I¡¯ll have our inner circle and several Order members working in concert to gain some of the enchantments from several of the tomes.


    Taking a gander at the newer stuff, I explain, ¡°These ones are sort of unique, and I understand why Nala wanted them to¡ª.  Holy crap.  Holy crap!  Holy Crap!!¡±

 B 6 C 83: News From Laotzxhi

    My excitement bleeds over into Teuila, but I know it¡¯ll be short-lived when I explain, so I¡¯m tempted to drag it out, just to enjoy the joy and anticipation written upon her beautiful face. I can¡¯t quite bring myself to do that however, so I begin rambling, ¡°So, some of these are spellbooks, sure, but something I just noticed is these weird metallic bookmarks are ensorcelled. They¡¯re tied to certain schools of magic, and they make recording or learning spellwork runes easier, by about half, or twice, however you want to think about it. Twice as easy, or taking half as long. There¡¯s only a little issue of them taking S P in order to attach them to a given spellbook, which sort of reduces their usefulness to me, since I use my S P to learn the spells to begin with. But, if I¡¯m judicious with my applications by analyzing which schools of which spells in which books that I most want to learn, I could speed up my runework learning by a lot. Nala said she¡¯d be helping me with that, but with the influx of kobold readers, well, I¡¯ll probably not be getting her aid after all.¡±


    Sadly, I was right. Teuila¡¯s excitement dies down pretty quickly during my explanation, though she flashes me a proud smile all the while. She chuckles, rolls her eyes, and leans forward to kiss me softly on the lips in response to my acknowledgment of her lost excitement. Teasingly, around a mouthful of my lips, she mutters, ¡°I could still be excited in a different way, wink wink.¡±


    I cough and end up accidentally headbutting Teuila in my effort to not sputter into her lips. She¡¯s certainly incorrigible to say the very least. Yeesh. Hah. I love her to bits though. I mean, it¡¯s not like I *don¡¯t* want to follow her insinuated exci¡ª. Gulp, erm, ahem. Blushing, I try to return my attention to activities that aren¡¯t related to those we did during orb-time.


    Anyway, as much as I truly, truly desire to spend as much time loving and enjoying life with My Wings, there are a lot of things I still want and need to accomplish today. Heck, we¡¯re probably still making a marriage announcement or something between me and Kinzul at some point today as well. There¡¯s so much going on, and so much I need to take care of, and so much power I need to acquire and adapt to, to give us the best shot at winning this war, and eventually taking down the blasted manxome foe.


    Te playfully pouts before frowning and nodding in acceptance of my train of thought. I kiss her softly and nuzzle noses with her for a long moment before returning to planning out the rest of both the day, and this loot. I snag all the trinkets that clip into my bangle that only work for an archmage amplifying their spells with metamagical abilities, and the one that will protect me from stone elementals. I feel selfish, and juvenile, for taking it to deal with my fear, but I just¡ª. I was crushed to within inches of my life, bits of my skull were shattered and exposed. Remembering the pain, the fear that I was dying and leaving Teuila behind, it¡ª. I stop what I¡¯m doing to curl in on myself, weeping.


    Teuila wraps an arm over my shoulders and loosely holds me close, trying to ascertain if I¡¯m going to go into a panic attack that I¡¯ll need space during. Thankfully I¡¯m not, but I¡¯m just¡ª, I feel so weak and frightened, reliving being beaten to death by animated stones. I mean, being blown up by explosives moments later is less frightening to think about and relive. At least with that, I thought I was doing some good by protecting Dippy.


    Oh Dippy, the Gap kobolds and the Aasimovians and Tiktik. I worry how they¡¯re doing. I¡¯m snapped out of my fearful reverie, the fear being replaced with worry. We¡¯re fighting this war in part for them. If the Worldstorm enchantment were to fall, or if Terrorzin¡¯s forces were allowed to marshal completely, they¡¯d overrun the world. No one would be safe.


    Heaving a sigh, I rattle my skull to try to stop thinking about the people we¡¯ve left behind. I don¡¯t want to dwell on lamentations like the fact that Bud has been dormant since Autumn Brook, or any such thing. Instead, I ask, ¡°Te, do you want to maybe be up at the aerie when Lu, Lil, Kinzul, and the Vivant return? I felt really nice knowing that people were waiting for me, even though I ended up showing up late and not seeing them there.¡±


    Nodding emphatically Teuila responds, ¡°Yeah. Yeah definitely. That sounds nice Air. I want to talk to my Spootalu, and Dragbutt, and I¡¯m sure Aunty Zool is looking forward to seeing your goofy grin. Heeee.¡±


    Smirking and snorting half a laugh, I roll my eyes and shake my head at Te. I mean, she might not be wrong, but she¡¯s being a dink about it. Still, when she sounds her elation with that single elongated laugh of glee, the world melts away and I find myself with my gaze transfixed upon her. Drawing a half-shuddered breath, I sigh slowly, smiling into the emerald tunnels of Teuila¡¯s eyes.


    Nodding towards her, I request, ¡°Alright then, we can come back to this stuff later, though that book over there I¡¯d better make sure is in an extradimensional area. Actually, all of these ones should be. They won¡¯t fit in the pouch I borrowed from Lu, can I stuff them in your sack Te?¡±


    Teuila snickers a moment before bursting out laughing. I chuckle and end up rolling my eyes even harder while shaking my head exasperatedly at Teuila. The utter goon. She does thankfully spread wide the opening on her extradimensional bag, so that I can stuff the books inside. The pouch has plenty of space to hold them, but its aperture is too small to place them in or take them out. I think we can get all of our hyperdimensional sacks and pouches linked up if we do it properly, and I forgot that Lu has two more of her own, so she doesn¡¯t really need to borrow my hyperdimensional haversack. Well, at the time she did, because it was the only one linked to the dimensional pouch.


    Heck, we might as well do it right now, linking up more of the extradimensional spaces that we have available. This way, Te and I can at least exchange notes like Lu and I can. Only, how exactly do I go about linking it to more than one dimension at once? Hm, tracing auras around the vault while trying to find a solution leads me to a scarf with similar runostructure.


    It happens to have the basic concept of the ghostly hand spell as well. Interesting. Tossing it about my neck reveals its effects fairly handily. It indeed has extradimensional space, and its frayed ends operate like magical hands, able to enter and leave the extradimensional space, placing objects into or taking objects out of it. I think I¡¯ll give this to Lucky. As much as I¡¯d like to use the scarf myself, Lucky doesn¡¯t exactly have hands. This will give him some semblance of having hands, and disguise the fact that he¡¯s wearing the glacial amulet.


    I¡¯ll need to do more research later to figure out how to enable the dimensional pouch to connect more extradimensional spaces. Speaking of the pouch, the origami giraffe struggles its way out from inside of it carrying a bloodstained, single-word note, ¡°Injured!¡±


    Te and I exchange a fearful glance and she snags me under one arm to begin rocketing back towards the aerie of Mount Solace. I cast my senses about for Pawn, asking Miraina to get Sponge ready and to find volunteers to share an injury. My breathing takes on labored, anxious qualities as I can¡¯t bear blinking for even a moment while awaiting responses from either Miraina, or Luni. I had the giraffe carry back a note asking for details, like she¡¯d done for me, but she hasn¡¯t responded, and I don¡¯t feel her hand or any other inside the interdimensional space. If her hand, or anyone¡¯s hands, were there, I¡¯d rush to Kagired¡¯s infirmary. Instead all I can do is anxiously await atop the aerie with an equally nervous Teuila.


    Teuila begins testing out her new powers of flight, soaring in ever-widening spirals around Mount Solace¡¯s peak, attempting to intercept the returning dragonflight whenever it shows up, from whichever direction. It¡¯s not even four in the afternoon, but it feels like ages pass before we finally see Kinzul, and Kinzul alone, returning. Worse, there are chunks missing from her enormous wings. I¡¯m about to sink into despair when Teuila thankfully informs me that everyone else is on Kinzul¡¯s back, unconscious, but breathing and alive.


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    Flying out to meet her, I telepathically send to Kinzul, ¡°My Lady, my love, what¡¯s going on? Are you in retreat? Should I mount defenses? Do you need me to finish your offensive? Can I take your injuries onto myself by way of Sponge?¡±


    Strained, laboring to communicate, Kinzul responds, ¡°We¡¯ve succeeded, though in the end I stood alone with our Muse, and then she succumbed to her injuries, passing out as well. We woefully, tremendously underestimated the forces mustered at Laotzxhi. Our information network seems to be suffering greatly lacking our dear Seer and Scholar. I don¡¯t want you, or any other Order member volunteering for Sponge¡¯s Latent any longer at all during this war. We cannot spare a single injury, or a single instant of recovery being needed for any of you. Each scrape, each drop of blood lost may be the difference between life and death at this point. I forbid it.¡±


    She forbids it? What the hell? I argue, ¡°Kinzul, I can literally regenerate my own wounds, and apparently I have some sort of artifact that will on occasion spontaneously recover me to my fullest wellness. If anything, I¡¯m the one, the only one, that should be taking on everyone¡¯s wounds. I can, have, and will fight on, even on the brink of death, until my missions are completed. I¡ª. That may be slightly overestimating my abilities, because I¡¯ve certainly lost in the past, or relied on others to finish up when I¡¯d passed out due to injuries, but I¡¯m stronger than ever!¡±


    Hastily, huffily, angrily, Kinzul pleads, ¡°Enough my love! I appreciate your desire to aid us, but I need you in absolutely top form. I¡¯ve dire news, and unfortunately it means sending you into more and more dangerous situations. Eventually these engagements may quite likely be you and you alone, though perhaps accompanied by our Tenith, or our Muse, depending on circumstances.¡±


    More worriedly, Kinzul adds, ¡°My love, two days hence, I¡¯ll need you to launch an offensive with Sun, Muse, and Hound, against the Vorzog Keep. In command of it are Spellknights Vorzog, Zelshiz, Adkre, and Triorgraiz. Theirs is a force set to muster on that day, and march the day after, based on Spymaster¡¯s intelligence. Simultaneously, our Tenith will need to assault the Nedkuxian Conclave, aided by the Dormir and the Vivant. The forces within are commanded by Nedkux, Hargrikaen, Airphalegg, and Nobeoetria. These eight are some of the fiercest, most powerful Draconiacs to ever have lived.¡±


    Sighing across our telepathic wavelength, with more kindness in her tone, Kinzul continues, ¡°I¡¯m beginning to fear that our advantage pressing our offensive will not hold, and that we¡¯ll soon be under siege, so I dare not send out Shield or Aegis, nor of course our Queens. You can see why we cannot spare a single one of our operatives to take on the injuries of the others. They will all be seeing constant battle from here on out, barely allowing enough time to have their injuries lessened and distributed by Sponge.¡±


    My breath catches in my throat as the reality of fighting a war on all fronts against thousands, with a fighting force of dozens begins to truly hit me. My new family, my loved ones, are going to be worn down more and more, fight after fight, and they will recover less and less from each one before the next.


    Saddened waves emanate from Kinzul as she laments, ¡°One thing that has been working to our benefit until now is that Terrozin wouldn¡¯t entirely needlessly waste his forces. He¡¯d cluster groups of like-elements and abilities together, so that friendly fire is less devastating, or even harmless. As the year draws to a close, and we strike down more of his forces, he¡¯s less likely to play so strategically safe, and instead may opt to mix a myriad of abilities together in order to try to catch the elemental weaknesses of our combatants.¡±


    Friggin¡¯ hell that¡¯s right. He had a massive phalanx of fire mages on their own without too many other elemental mages in them, so that they wouldn¡¯t burn or blow up any allies who couldn¡¯t handle it. It was a mass of power that would work on human forces, but isn¡¯t adequate against say a single red or gold dragon. If Terrorzin instead realizes he¡¯s fighting dragons in open warfare, throwing some thunder mages and human-form blue dragons or Thunderers or similar into that mix, suddenly what seemed like an easy victory for a Fire turns into a devastating battle that may end in their death. Sure, it¡¯s likely to have some friendly fire casualties, but what does Terrorzin care, as the hour of his demise approaches during his plan to burn down the whole world? Fricklefrack!


    My anxious, labored breathing only increases as Kinzul finally arrives at the aerie. She requests aid in helping lower the Vivant down into Mount Solace. I equip the appropriate gear so that I can hold my breath and leap high into the sky to catch Fenric, Orthral, and Prinrin in my telekinetic grips, so that I can lower them safely with me. Teuila snags Luni, and Lil who happens to surprisingly be in his spherical form. It¡¯s terrifying to think that Lil could have taken on so much pain and injury that it broke his near-permanent evolution tether. Kinzul is left lowering herself and Gilmeshtu down into Mount Solace, so Teuila and I follow her as rapidly as we can towards the infirmary.


    Thankfully Miraina and Kagired have been working to gather volunteers, and somewhat surprisingly, dozens of the kobolds we¡¯d relocated from Atter¡¯s domain are standing at the ready to be of aid. Atter and Shiz themselves are in the infirmary as well. Their chest wounds aren¡¯t yet healed enough that Kagired would allow them to volunteer, though they¡¯re arguing their cases. I¡¯m touched that we¡¯ve made such an impact after only having known one another for perhaps a day or so. That reminds me that most of the others who volunteered with me to save Shiz and Atter, still have fairly bad chest scrapes, and bruising.


    My whole perception of what is normal, and how long it takes to heal from things is so warped. Between changing forms, artifacts, potions, regeneration, being Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin adjacent, and Sponge¡¯s Latent, and Miza¡¯s recovery-enhancing magic, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever spent a normal biological moment of any of my lives in the usual state of recovery. Though Te and I were pretty roughed up after the radiation purge after the cragbeast warrens when we needed to save Lil. Fudge, I really don¡¯t want to dredge up those memories right now. Te squeezes my shoulder, knowing how much I lament that period of our lives.


    We settle in momentarily as Kagired begins setting everyone up to receive or share treatment. My heart repeatedly catches in my throat. I don¡¯t know who to hold close, or to stand next to to be the first thing they see when they awaken. Lu, Lil, Prinny, Kinzul if she passes out, each of them are so very important to me. Thankfully Kagired allows me to rearrange his infirmary slightly so that the four of them are on cots in the center, each of their heads aimed towards me. Despite my fretting, it seems to go smoothly. I allow myself to breathe a heavy sigh of relief as I see each of them breathing easily.


    Despite the severity of her injuries, Kinzul awakens first, and she rises despite protests from me, Kagired, and Teuila. Distressingly, she explains, ¡°Disconcertingly, mid-battle I sensed a new area in the Worldstorm deep within Terrorzin¡¯s territory parting against my will, much like Autumn Brook, and unlike Autumn Brook, the gap in the clouds is not closing, rather, it appears to be slowly expanding.¡±


    Those of us that are conscious exchange wide-eyed fearful glances at this revelation. Kinzul goes on to whisper softly to me, ¡°My love, I must away to rendezvous with Spymaster¡¯s scouts, in order to have them relay my concern to Spymaster Errissa. She¡¯ll be dispatched on the most dangerous trek, one I cannot send any dragons to, due to its placement in the very heart of Terrorzin¡¯s territory, surrounded on all sides by his most powerful underlings. When she ascertains the severity of the problem, and its cause, we may need to send our non dragons in order to derail whatever plans are being concocted within. We simply cannot fight an offensive that presses that deeply into Terrorzin¡¯s domain yet. We may even lose momentum from this sudden shift in the balance.¡±


    More warmly, lovingly, filled with hope, Kinzul adds, ¡°Upon my return, let us be bonded, wed, my love. Yes?¡±


    Gulping and blushing, I nod silently in response, at a loss for words. I¡¯d thought perhaps there would be more time, an announcement, plans, and the like, but it sounds as if we¡¯re leaping into this within the next few hours, or day, however long it takes Kinzul to rendezvous and return. I squeeze her hand tightly for a long moment, staring into her eyes, those onyx orbs filled with sorrow and longing that are set so perfectly within her features. She offers me an understanding head-tilt in that regal manner of hers, before withdrawing from me, and winging away out of Mount Solace, still quite injured. Several tears stream down my cheeks, and I can¡¯t even parse which emotion is causing them at the moment.

 B 6 C 84: Worse News From Laotzxhi

    As various patients and volunteers groan in pain, Teuila begins pacing around the infirmary, and slowly blows a calming blaze across the patients herein, causing Kagired to panic. I quickly explain, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯re magical flames, they¡¯ll never harm allies, it¡¯s like a gentle massage more than anything else. Te can only do it a couple of times per day, but, well, yeah, there¡¯s nothing to fear.¡±


    Sponge asks the logical question, ¡°Why hadn¡¯t she used this before or told me about it before now?¡±


    Blushing, Te scratches the back of her head as she admits, ¡°I¡ª, I kinda forgot I had the ability. I got it by eating an enchanted platinum scale shard after reading a book called the Apex of Divinity or something like that.¡±


    I stifle my grin at Teuila¡¯s abashedness, trying to not feel amused at her expense. Kagired raises a brow beneath his hooded robe, but shrugs feebly in response to Teuila¡¯s assertion. Huffing a sigh, he continues making rounds, checking on each individual that had participated in his Latent¡¯s distribution of the injuries. Surprisingly, as Kagired is making his way around the infirmary, the sound of claws scraping in the cadence of a trot reaches my ears.


    Lucky bounds into thinkspace, tackling my mental avatar, as he physically trots into the infirmary. My son sits in front of Kagired, wagging his tail. I roughhouse with Lucky in thinkspace while walking over to stroke his skull in meatspace. Kagired similarly scritches behind Lucky¡¯s left ear while taking in the state of his infirmary. I nod solemnly, realizing that this is the worst state it has been in since the start of the war, with the most unconscious individuals suffering the most pain and damage. Kneeling down, I kiss Lucky¡¯s skull roughly before returning to my position between Prinny, Lu, and Lil.


    A voice I hadn¡¯t expected to hear telepathically reaches me, ¡°Came. When I heard. Hi. Sorry for earlier.¡±


    Unable to decide how to respond, I wave feebly across the telepathic wavelength towards Xayla. Gulping, I await anything further Zayzi has to say, and thankfully they continue, ¡°Accident, right? Didn¡¯t want that, don¡¯t want that, right? Didn¡¯t like it?¡±


    Well crap. It was definitely an accident, and I¡¯m not seeking or trying to push for it, but if I tell Zayzi I didn¡¯t like it, I¡¯d be lying. I don¡¯t want to lie to them. I like kissing. I know however that Zayzi absolutely does not want romance, now or ever, and me answering that I liked it might make them avoid me. I gaze towards Teuila who shrugs helplessly at my conundrum. Gnawing on my lip, I try to quickly decide how to respond so I don¡¯t leave Zayzi hanging.


    Going for honesty as best as I can, I start out, ¡°It was definitely an accident. I¡¯m really sorry. I couldn¡¯t see your face. I shouldn¡¯t have even been going to kiss your forehead. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m not seeking that, I wasn¡¯t seeking it. I don¡¯t like lying though. I don¡¯t want to hurt you, or scare you into thinking I¡¯m trying to manipulate you or trying to get you to do things you don¡¯t want. I do like kissing in general. Um. If I said I didn¡¯t like kissing you, it would partially be a lie. I didn¡¯t like doing it, because it felt bad that I was intruding on a boundary of yours. I don¡¯t like that I did that. I¡¯m really sorry. Physically it was nice, but emotionally I felt like crap.¡±


    Zayzi¡¯s telepathic response is, ¡°Lot of words. No kissing. ¡®Kay?¡±


    Breathing a sigh of relief, I nod emphatically across our telepathic wavelength, which earns me a subtle telepathic smile in response. Phew. Unsure where to go from here, I find myself surprised when Xayla continues, ¡°Was going to smooch cheek, glad you were safe. You¡¯re safe. Good. Lot of ways. Sucks less with you. Want it to stay that way. Saw you save us. Saw you win. I know you¡¯ll do it. You¡¯ll get them all. Thank you.¡±


    My breath catches in my throat and I weep several tears. I¡¯m touched at the sentiment, and glad that Xayla isn¡¯t upset with me. Teuila walks my way to brush my tears away with her thumb while cupping my cheek. She kisses me softly and holds me close. Xayla waves from around the edge of a corner where they¡¯re leaning their lanky form up against the wall, their back towards the interior of the infirmary.


    Hopefully Zayzi told Ixeyla about the misunderstanding so that Ixeyla doesn¡¯t try to kill¡ª. Ixey sends across our wavelength, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Schism. I know it was an accident. Sorry I got pissed. Thanks for saving us. Thanks for getting Lil here right away. What even happened? How¡¯d he get so hurt?¡±


    Ixey hugs Zayzi once tightly before striding into the infirmary to stand next to me, watching over Lil. Leezahna looks ill, hanging back around the corner a few steps from Xayla. I¡¯m not sure what happened yet at Laotzxhi that could have caused this. I can only ramble, ¡°I¡¯m not really sure yet. Have you seen Lil¡¯s original form before now? His spherical form, this one? To be so hurt that he reverted, with as powerful as he¡¯d gotten, it must have been pretty bad, especially to take out the entire Vivant, Lil, Lu, and nearly Kinzul. I¡¯m scared for him Ixey. I never thought I¡¯d see him back in this form against his will.¡±


    Ixey jabs me firmly in the chest, punching me rather roughly, but even though she¡¯s a dragon, and has a fair amount of strength belaying her gangly form, it barely adjusts my balance at all. She punches me again and again, and Teuila begins to glare at her, but I shake my head. Eventually Ixey leans against me and growls through tears, ¡°This sucks! I wanna kill the bastards that did this! He¡¯s your best friend right? Don¡¯t you want to too?¡±


    Drawing a shuddered, half-sobbed breath, I nod as I respond, ¡°Yeah, yeah I do. They¡¯re already dead though.¡±


    To which Ixey responds lamely, ¡°Oh,¡± she then adds, ¡°Sorry.¡±


    I try not to smirk or chuckle as I let Ixeyla stand against me. She hides her tears in my shoulder for a while longer, before sniffling and blowing her nose on me. I grimace, but I don¡¯t begrudge her it as she shoves off of me harshly. She kneels next to Lil¡¯s bed, and keeps one hand resting on it, her extremely long digits tenderly touching Lil¡¯s tail. I don¡¯t even recall doing it, but apparently I fished the soapstone out of Luni¡¯s belongings and tapped everyone with it enough times to clear up the blood. They all still have shallow wounds and deep bruises, despite Sponge¡¯s Latent.


    This war is only going to get harder from here on out. I need to start pressing harder for every single advantage, but at this very moment, I can¡¯t imagine abandoning my loved ones before they awaken. I couldn¡¯t forgive myself if I wasn¡¯t the first thing they saw when they awoke. Lucky sits dutifully at my side, and whuffs once quietly in agreement.


    Since he¡¯s here, I remove the dimensional scarf from my neck, and wrap the supremely long, dark, woolen object around Lucky¡¯s, covering up his glacial amulet. I could swear he flashes me a grin. Lucky immediately begins experimenting with the magics of the scarf. It takes him no time at all to master the magic of controlling the ends of the scarf as if they were hands, limbs of his very own. I whisper a tiny, quiet, low note of appreciation. I also attach one of the bicep bangles to his left forelimb. We¡¯ll need to figure out which clips and accessories best befit each of us at some point.


    Speaking of, Teuila blushes and mumbles, ¡°I um, kinda don¡¯t need the one with flying and lightning. Between the lightning-chain spear, Mjolnir, Icey, my powers, and a bunch of other stuff, it¡¯s beyond redundant. It¡¯d be really good for Lucky or Lu to have, so that neither of them ever have to fear falling, but I can¡¯t figure out how to get it out of this bangle, and I¡¯ve been trying for the last half an hour.¡±


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    Oh, crap. I guess that¡¯s why they were in a separate box. Te quickly adds, ¡°Not to be ungrateful, it¡¯s awesome, free-flight was super cool, being able to go get to Aunty Zool while she was incoming, and all that, but I¡¯ve got enough tricks that are close enough to flying anyway. I just, I think like, if maybe Lu had had this, maybe she wouldn¡¯t be laying here like this right now, all beat up.¡±


    Realizing an implication of what she said, in a hoarse whisper, Te hastily corrects, ¡°Not¡ª! Glp! Not to blame anyone! We didn¡¯t know these things were even in our piles of stuff before now, or maybe they came from one of the hoards we looted, I don¡¯t even know. I just mean in the future. I know they have to go to a Shellcracker, but the two Lus are the only ones that can¡¯t fly on their own, and the only ones that don¡¯t have some sort of protection against zappin¡¯.¡±


    Luni groans nearby, and as we turn to her, she mutters, almost slurring, ¡°*Soooo* loud. Unnn. Love you jerkface, but shuu¡¯-up Te. Head hurts so bad.¡±


    Leaning down to kiss her forehead, I¡¯m about to speak, but Luni plaps her left hand over my mouth, requesting that I remain silent. I¡¯d engage in an SFSF with her, but she seems too weak, exhausted, tired, and in pain to enjoy it. Instead, I simply hold her hand for a long moment between mine. Teuila boops Lu on the nose, and Lucky changes shape to become large enough to rest his face across the bed and Lu¡¯s legs. Lu groans for half a second at the attention, but then chuckles and scritches Lucky¡¯s snout with her free hand.


    Now that she¡¯s awake, I slip one of the bangles on Luni¡¯s left bicep as well, up under the sleeve of her robe. Lu catches my hand there with her right hand, keeping it beneath her robe, holding it to the bare flesh of her arm. She looses a murmur of pleasure, which sets me blushing, despite there being nothing all that sensual about my action. Lu grins at my reaction though, having apparently achieved her desired effect. The butt. Her head then slumps towards her left shoulder as she falls back to sleep, leaving me to fish my hand out from within her robe carefully so as not to disturb her. She looks so peaceful laying there with her right arm crossed over her chest, though she happened to ¡®accidentally¡¯ create a shelf for her¡ª. Yeah, that was probably entirely on purpose.


    Ixeyla hip checks me roughly, and brings my attention to Lil. Lil stirs and his eyes comically roll around in their sockets as he groans out, ¡°Wh¡ª what even hit me? Owwww. Oh. Oh, glp, hi.¡±


    Suddenly noticing Ixey¡¯s presence, Lil clams up completely as his eyes drift to her face and his gaze locks upon hers. He immediately begins glowing as he starts to engage an energy tether to regain his second stage evolution. Smirking, I roll my eyes and lightly shake my head twice. Lil¡¯s going to be fine then, if he can overreact like a giddy schoolboy upon seeing his crush. I lean down to roughly kiss him on the forehead, and stroke his tail¡¯s dorsal ridge, before turning my attention to Prinrin.


    Prinrin hasn¡¯t awoken, and she¡¯d suffered one of the worst injuries. There were gaping wounds through her already previously broken arm, her jaw hung slack, far too far to the left. Her legs hung loose at awkward angles from her knees. There were huge gouges across her abdomen. For a biologic entity, a normal living creature, I¡¯d be surprised she was still living if she weren¡¯t also an ancient dragon. As is, I¡¯m still terrified for her recovery. The rest of the Vivant were pretty beat up, but it seems like Prinny took the brunt of it, as she apparently always does, being a runt.


    I think she willingly puts herself out there, knowing the enemies will go after her first and hardest, trying to take out the ¡°easiest¡± target first. Hell, I know she does, because she refused to back down so that Orthral wouldn¡¯t get himself killed. She¡¯s one tough ¡°little old lady,¡± but even still, I don¡¯t want her to be hurt, I don¡¯t want her to need to spend time recovering. I love the little old gal. I don¡¯t want any of us to be getting injured of course, but, but seeing her so roughed up, it¡¯s¡ª. I rub my eyes on the sleeve of my right forearm.


    Prinrin¡¯s eyelids flicker, but don¡¯t manage to open. I gulp in hesitant anticipation. I¡¯d be planting my lips on hers if it weren¡¯t one of our few boundaries and taboos. Instead, I quickly take her right hand between both of mine, and kneel next to her bed, so that my face is on level with where her gaze will be when she opens her eyes. Her head is limply lolled towards her right shoulder, and so much of her muscle structure seems slack and weak.


    I can sense Teuila roughly giving Lil a noogie, apparently to Ixeyla¡¯s and Sponge¡¯s dismay, but my attention remains transfixed on Prinny, and her barely flickering eyelids. My breath catches for several long moments, maybe even minutes, when Prinrin seems to stop breathing. A lump catches in my throat and my wide-eyed gaze turns partially towards Sponge, who can hear my internal monologue. He rushes over to check on Prinrin, taking her pulse, and removing her clothing to see if she has any other injuries that went untreated.


    Unfortunately, we see traces of powerful necromantic magic in Prinrin¡¯s armpits, inner thighs, behind her ears, and at her tailbone. Dark webs are spreading from small spots in all the otherwise hidden locations. Sponge shakes his head in disbelief, his own eyes wide in terror, in helplessness. No. No no no.


    Coughing, Prinrin opens her eyes to gaze into my own terror-stricken ones. She flashes me a weak smile as she sends telepathically, ¡°Sounds, koff, pretty bad Schism my sweet. I guess this old gal¡¯s little runt ticker won¡¯t be seeing many more beats then huh? I¡¯m sorry dearie. Wish I¡¯d gone ahead and been a little more frivolous in the end there after all dearie. Poor Schism sweetie, left with all these weights and hurts. Sorry to add one more to your pile my dear.¡±


    No! No no no no! Begging Sponge, I hiss, ¡°Kagired! Are there any Ice¡¯s in the Order? Any Ice civvies? Can anyone preserve her!? Pawn! Miraina! Can you hear me!? Please, bring an Ice to the infirmary!¡±


    Kagired is too stunned to answer, I can sense the loss welling up within him, the idea that one of his patients is going to die, perhaps the first ever. Gulping, I gaze around frantically, and everyone avoids my wild-eyed stare. Everyone save Prinrin, who takes in my gaze calmly, acceptingly.


    Prinny teases, ¡°I don¡¯t mind breaking my rule now Schism sweetie. I¡¯d rather not go with such a regret.¡±


    Frowning at Prinrin, I can¡¯t even contemplate the idea of giving in to her request right now, because it would mean accepting her fate. I refuse. I haven¡¯t mastered the gorram fugging dispellation magic yet! Hellspit and fel fires! If, if I can just preserve her, I can do it, I can dispel this curse upon her when I finish learning it.


    Prinrin coughs, and weakly attempts to shake her head. She fails at the motion, but mutters, ¡°You don¡¯t have to give an old gal hope Schism sweetie. It¡¯ll be okay. Knowing you has been, it¡¯s been, well, delightful dearie. It¡¯s okay if you don¡¯t want to fulfill my last request. I can see it tearing you up inside. I¡¯m sorry I put such a weight on you.¡±


    Gruffly I chastise, ¡°Gorrammit woman of course I want to! But I refuse to accept it being your last request, and I won¡¯t do something that you¡¯ll regret when you wake up! I won¡¯t lose you! I refuse! Okay? I love you, you crazy little old lady, and I won¡¯t let this be your end. Do you hear me!?¡±


    Prinny offers me a weak smile as she coughs. There¡¯s forgiveness in her gaze as I basically curse her repeatedly. Miraina shows up, trailed by a young man whose snivelling appearance mirrors Yisstendahl, leaving me a bit shocked. A relative? A son? Kagired and Miraina nod at my mental narrative guesses. Hoisting Prinny out of bed carefully, I grab Miraina under one arm, and lift myself, Kagired, and the son of Yisstendahl with my telekinesis as I zip the five of us down towards Mount Verdimenn.


    Calling back to Ixeyla and Zayzi telepathically I plead, ¡°Can you two check Lil for necrotic splotches, and then either you or Lil check Lu for them as well? Then the rest of the Vivant as well.¡±


    I apologize to Miraina for grabbing her, and plead, ¡°Pawn, can you go get the Spellknight twins, and bring them to my vault? Please, as absolutely fast as possible, every bit of speed you can muster. I owe you everything for this.¡±


    Pawn takes off like a rocket, and is gone in an instant. I beg Lucky to follow quickly, and thankfully he does. Teuila leaps into my arms as well. Lucky even speeds our descent, by grabbing the rest of us with the ends of his scarf as he grows to a giant size, sprinting along. The scarf has a weight limit to its limbs, but with my telekinesis and Teuila¡¯s gravity Latent reducing our weight to zero, Lucky¡¯s able to zip along while dragging us behind like a trailing ribbon.


    At the back of my Vault, I point to a wall, and Lucky knows implicitly what to do, as he begins excavating a small chamber for Prinrin. Kagired looks confused as hell, but I begin picking up a host of abjurative potions that I¡¯d had stored in my vault, or various hyperdimensional bags and spaces, for quite some time.

 B 6 C 85: Familys Everything

    Unequipping the potion belt that I hadn¡¯t even bothered to figure out which potions I¡¯d wanted on it yet, I shape a hook in the wall above where I¡¯m going to set Prinrin. I place the potion belt on the hook, such that it hangs loosely and can spin freely. Turning back into my vault, I frantically toss through the items contained herein. The potions I¡¯m looking for prevent the benefactor from freezing to death. Finding one, I plead with Prinny to drink it, and thankfully she doesn¡¯t deny my attempt to save her life.


    My desperate glare speaks enough volumes that Yisstendahl¡¯s son knows what I¡¯m requesting of him, and he carefully begins building a charge that should be enough to freeze Prinny solid. I don¡¯t know if cryo stasis actually works, I don¡¯t know if magic can circumvent the failings that it should probably have, but I¡¯m pleading all that¡¯s good in the world that I can manage this. I¡¯m taking every precaution I can think of.


    Carefully adjusting potions of frost resistance, or similar abjurative potions, I set them up so that when I begin the process, they¡¯ll slowly drip until empty over Prinrin before the next potion falls into place. I¡¯m essentially creating an I V drip with the magical belt. I save one of the potions so that I can analyze it with my myconid form in order to hopefully reproduce it. I¡¯m also starting my myconid form without the non-ambulatory disadvantage, and I¡¯m letting the windup for it take several hours, so that I can keep it up for quite a while without making the refractory period ridiculously long.


    Prinny jokes, ¡°I guess I¡¯ll be stiff as a board while you¡¯re all squish then huh Schism sweetie?¡±


    I flash a sad glance at Prinrin, upset that I can¡¯t enjoy her humor right now when I¡¯m so worried for her. I need to learn dispellation. I need to learn some sort of abjurative effect that dampens necrotic energies and protects from them. I need to learn how to enchant that effect onto items that all of the order can wear. Ugh, so much to do, so little time!


    Miraina arrives with the Spellknight twins, Yuri seems a bit put out that I¡¯ve got Yui running around while she¡¯s a tad banged up. I flash him an apologetic and worried glance, which he catches. Yuri eases up on his stern expression, noticing the stakes and my emotional state. It probably doesn¡¯t hurt to assuage him that I just brought him to the most vulnerable location, where he could hurt us the most. Right here he could pilfer untold wealth, artifacts, and destroy our respawning system, and my other projects.


    Explaining quickly, ¡°This is a beloved Order member, Prinrin the Copper. She¡¯s taken some strange necrotic curses that are worsening her injuries, keeping her from recovering, and killing her. I intend to master a spell of dispellation that *should* be able to remove it when I¡¯ve got it mastered, but I¡¯ve only got forty eight of a hundred twenty eight runes mastered. If I apply an abjuration bookmark to the tome that it¡¯s in, I could maybe master the spell in a week if I didn¡¯t have to use my magic for anything else during that time. But sadly I¡¯ll be going on at least one hunt, toppling at least one stronghold of Terrorzin¡¯s, if not two, three, four, five, or even six in the next week. I¡ª.¡±


    Yuri nods solemnly, and Yui holds up a hand for me to pause. She glances at Yuri, who seems to understand her meaning, but doesn¡¯t give her an answer. Cautiously, Yui asks, ¡°How do you master spells Schism, what method, what mnemonic do you use?¡±


    Grumbling, I frown and answer truthfully, ¡°I¡¯m incapable of using any mnemonic, I was trained by a celestial in the Hidden Heart, who used all manner of methods to deduce or unlock mnemonics for me, and none worked, some nearly killed me. I do it all by rote, by muscle memory, by perfecting the exact motions of learning runes.¡±


    There¡¯s an expression of shock shared by the twins that I¡¯d probably be a bit proud of normally, but at this moment, it only serves to slow down whatever exchange is occurring. If she had an idea, but it¡¯s no longer applicable, I might as well move on with my ask¡ª.


    Before my thoughts can even move forward, interrupting them, Yui continues, ¡°That¡¯s impressive, and probably all the better. If you had some method of examining our muscle memory, I think we could aid you with that particular spell.¡±


    My eyes flash wide. I¡¯m literally in the middle of transforming into a form that gives me a hivemind. Can this please be a lucky break with no strings? Please? I hazard, ¡°I¡¯m about to shapeshift into a myconid, a mushroom-creature that can emit psychic spores to link minds with other creatures, depending on how much consent there is between the creatures, I can access more of their bodies and minds, muscles and memories. I¡ª.¡±


    Slumping, somewhat defeated, realizing that they¡¯re prisoners that we¡¯ve mistreated, I add, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t ask this of you. I¡¯d intended to ask if you could enchant Prinrin with some of your abjurative effects. I saw some of them included resistances to elements. I want her to not die while being frozen. I want to freeze her to buy time to master the spell, but¡ª. If I could master the spell before she would die anyway, I, I, glp. I¡¯d be forever indebted either way.¡±


    It¡¯s right around now that Atter and Shiz show up, having trailed me from the infirmary. This¡ª is bad. Four people who aren¡¯t quite fully accepted into the family yet, four people who were enemies only a day ago, that see me being my most vulnerable, with tears in my eyes, holding the body of a dying woman that I love. Four people whose combined strength could very well end me before I put up any resistance if they attacked while I held Prinrin. Teuila might be able to drive them back or finish them off, but they could very well kill me first in my vulnerable state.


    I don¡¯t think Atter would do that to me, and Shiz seems to be following her lead. However, if the Spellknights decided to take advantage of my moment of weakness, while surrounded by so much wealth and power that¡¯s uncategorized in my vault, I wouldn¡¯t really blame them. Teuila¡¯s hackles rise at my unfairly unfavorable line of thought, but she keeps herself calm-appearing outwardly. Kagired continues checking on Prinrin¡¯s vitals from moment to moment. Lucky finishes his task, and sits dutifully nearby.


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    Miraina edges out of the vault to return to her duties, or at to least to appear to do so. I think she¡¯s staying within psychic range to determine if I¡¯m going to need her to go for backup. She¡¯s extremely intelligent. I can also sense the wealth of overflowing emotions within her about Prinrin being on death¡¯s door. I know their secret and¡ª. I¡¯m doing my best Pawn. I swear.


    At my most recent thought, Pawn comes zooming back, and she leaps into my arms to wrap her own arms around Prinrin, crying, ¡°Momma, it doesn¡¯t matter if Terrorzin finds out anymore. Schism¡¯s gonna kill him. I don¡¯t want to hide it, not if I might lose you. The secret doesn¡¯t matter anymore.¡±


    Everyone who didn¡¯t know Prinny¡¯s secret is stunned, completely unmoving. Atter and Shiz exchange a glance that speaks a million volumes, and they each take a knee, each bringing their dominant fist to their chests. I know that Miraina could have had this conversation with Prinrin telepathically, but the shrewd young woman chose to make it public at this moment intentionally.


    Prinny coughs out, ¡°Guess, koff, cat¡¯s out of the bag now, huh sweetie? Oh my sweet Pawn. I love you so my sweet. Your mum loves you to bits. Sorry if this little old lady koff-kicks it, and isn¡¯t around to see you grow up my sweet. You¡¯re the best daughter a mother koff-could have. You¡¯ll be o-koff-kay. Sch-koff-ism and our Lady will lookoffk after you.¡±


    Through tears, Miraina, Pawn, sniffles out, ¡°You sniff, say that about all of us mommy.¡±


    Smiling, Prinrin chides, ¡°And it¡¯s true, and I mean it about each of you my sweetie.¡±


    Yuri¡¯s gaze softens further, no longer harboring resentment towards me for letting Yui get injured by Teuila. I think he¡¯s confused about Miraina being Prinrin¡¯s daughter, because Terrorzin probably feeds his followers the same propaganda that only he knows how to create Draconiacs, and it¡¯s always only done when he abducts egg clutches. I can sense the wheels turning in his head as he starts to make connections, realizing the propaganda, to some extent.


    Yisstendahl¡¯s son looks supremely uncomfortable with the revelation. I¡¯m not sure how many of the dragons who have direct blood descendants or ancestors normally know them, or are normally allowed to stay with them. I¡¯m surprised Yisstendahl has a son, especially one who hasn¡¯t betrayed the Order or run off to join Terrorzin after we slew the Order''s previous archmage.


    Gritting my teeth, I affirm Miraina¡¯s assertion, ¡°I vow it. Terrorzin¡¯s reign ends. No more clutches stolen, no end of the world, nothing. He doesn¡¯t get a single thing more that he wants. I want this gorram war over with! That includes driving back the Felgre horde once more, and putting a stop to the Celestial Emperor once and for all! Any of you that are with me are welcome to come along for the ride.¡± In a sinister tone I add, ¡°Anyone that stands in my way I¡¯ll destroy on the spot. No more mercy from here on out.¡±


    Atter pleads, ¡°You don¡¯t really mean that Schism, do you? You offer mercy because it¡¯s right, because it¡¯s *just*. I wouldn¡¯t be here if you didn¡¯t.¡±


    Prinrin similarly pleads, ¡°Schism sweetie, don¡¯t koff, let this taint you. Our lady loves you and your mercy.¡±


    I seethe, but I don¡¯t answer either of them. Ahliyui and Ahliyuri both sweat nervously, anxiously. Yisstendahl¡¯s son does as well, now that I¡¯m noticing things with my silent sonar. Oh, my Honoris Causa is slipping out as wrath bubbles up. Sighing belatedly, huffily, angrily, I work to stuff it, and my feelings, down. Everyone else sighs in relief when I suppress it.


    Thankfully, the twins seem to have made up their mind as Ahliyuri offers, ¡°I¡¯m with you Schism, if you can offer a world, a future without our tyrant, where sons and daughters meet their mothers, where families exist, I¡ª. Nothing¡¯s more important than family, in my eyes. Put me where you need me, take of me what you will.¡±


    Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui corrects, ¡°What my deranged brother means to say is, we¡¯ll help you save your little old lady friend, and we¡¯ll fight anything you point us at. You already knew family was the most important thing to me, and fighting was the second. It doesn¡¯t take a mathematician to see two and two adding up to us being on your side, or at it. Set her where you want her, I¡¯ll weave a few abjurative enchantments that¡¯ll prolong her life. Yuri, set up some cold resistance. Little miss, the Order¡¯s The Copper, I¡¯m going to be slowing your heart. Try not to panic, or it¡¯ll ruin the effect. Okay?¡±


    Prinrin strikes a chord as she responds, ¡°What a sweetie you¡¯ve turned out to be my dear, oh yes indeed. You¡¯re one of the clutching ones aren¡¯t you? There are so few of you left. Must be your power that kept you from being snatched up and slain to hide what you are. Oh I can see it, you¡¯re expecting again soon aren¡¯t you? What a delight dearie. You¡¯ll make a fine mother indeed. Thank you my sweet. I¡¯ll trust myself in your hands.¡±


    I think each of us other than Yui, or Shiz, are stunned at Prinrin¡¯s assertion. I certainly find myself blinking in surprise at least. Shiz mumbles an apology, ¡°Yui, I¡¯d figured they were yours. Tinth took them to the Ice of Rage, and I hid whose they were. Tinth probably guessed, but he didn¡¯t push it. But I didn¡¯t stand up for them, for you. I don¡¯t deserve your forgiveness. I guess I¡¯d never have fessed up if that didn¡¯t come out just now. I wanted to pretend I didn¡¯t know you were a clutcher. I just wanted you to live.¡±


    Hell it¡¯s one revelation after another at this point. I¡¯d be floored if I could afford to take my attention away from Prinny. Ahliyui is conflicted at Shiz¡¯s admittance. I would be too, knowing that someone could have possibly saved my eggs, my children, but that it might have just gotten all of us killed if they¡¯d tried. Friggin¡¯ hell. Terrorzin needs to fall.


    Sighing, Ahliyui virtually growls as she mutters, ¡°I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t end up either slain, or snatched up for the breeding pits, or whatever the hell Terrorzin has at the center of his domain. The rumors are vile. I know I¡¯d never have seen my brother, or a combat, ever again. So you do have my forgiveness, and gratitude.¡±


    Gagging at the idea of ¡°breeding pits,¡± I struggle to not vomit. Yuri¡¯s expression contains equal measures of gratitude and horror, at Shiz¡¯s admission and Yui¡¯s forgiveness. Thankfully he is layering up enchantments on Prinrin though. Shiz nods towards Yui with a grim expression of grateful acceptance on his face. I find that I must admit, the twins here, these two Spellknights, are supremely powerful sorcerers, and amazingly adept swordfighters. To be able to have these two, no, these four, alive, safe, and what¡¯s more, on our side, is a miracle.


    Telepathically, to Prinrin alone, I whisper, ¡°Prinny, sweet, beloved Prinny, my little deviant, I love you. You¡¯re going to pull through okay? As much as I want to be able to share future orb time with you ag¡ª,¡± Prinrin¡¯s emotional waves that interrupt my admission are similar to waggling eyebrows, so I grump, ¡°Hey now, it¡¯s not about that.¡±


    I grumble along our mental wavelength, ¡°Keep your mind out of the gutter for a bit you little deviant. I¡¯m trying to admit something. I¡¯m going to cheat the rules of reality again, but the orb has limited uses. It¡¯s cracking more every time it gets used. I¡¯m going to try to use it in a way that hopefully doesn¡¯t crack it to complete uselessness, but that still hopefully lets me master more runes of more spells more quickly. What I¡¯m saying is, despite how much I loved our time in there, and wanted more of it, if the artifact does get destroyed, I don¡¯t care. You¡¯re too precious to me. I love you Prinrin. My deviant little old lass.¡±

 B 5 C 92: Intrusion

    The uncharismatic, uncaring woman clucks her tongue in disappointment as she literally looks down her nose at me slumped in a chair opposite her across her desk. She comments on my lowly state, ¡°Tsk tsk. I must say, I expected more from a class three.¡±


    Unable to help myself, due to my training, I ask, ¡°May I speak in my defense sir?¡±


    Birdbeak McGee here decides to insult me further, ¡°No you may not, and I know you¡¯ve sir drilled into your thick skull, but you will address me as ma¡¯am.¡±


    I grit my teeth to respond, ¡°Yes ma¡¯am.¡±


    Her honorable malarkey gob continues gabbing, ¡°The disciplinary committee will pass judgment soon enough. Honestly, opening your ship to the vacuum of space after an illegal reactivation of proprietary tech. I find it humorous that you set yourself on fire, perhaps in some poetic justice, they shall pick such a suitable punishment for you. A member of our military¡ª.¡±


    Since it¡¯s the reactivation that¡¯s getting me in trouble, I grump as I correct, ¡°Ex-member.¡±


    The death-glare I receive tells me that I¡¯m only digging myself a deeper grave, but I could barely care less at this point. I lost most of my team, my crew, good friends that day. I didn¡¯t realize they¡¯d be able to track the reactivation of my psi-blade, plasma blade sidearm. Me being a Psi-E is what got the rest of my crew out of that mess alive. Me being a Psi-E hardly matters without the special tech in the plastimetal sidearms. Without them, the fact that I have some sort of energy portal in my brain doesn¡¯t matter in the slightest. I¡¯m just a normal person. Fit, from military training, sure, but that¡¯s hardly noteworthy, especially against creeps like the Nedzeds, those ungodly morphs, the Galconners, most any space pirate, hell, most any other spacefaring species.


    I try not to roll my eyes as I sigh, disheartened by the whole mess. I understand why I¡¯m in trouble. It¡¯s pretty much exactly what they feared could happen after decommissioning G-Con 3 psi-ops. Any one of us still alive, with access to our tech, could become a planetary-scale threat, given enough time. The idea doesn¡¯t interest me in the slightest, but for the merest risk, I¡¯m going to face the harshest punishment, to set an example.


    What¡¯s worse? I¡¯d do it all again, in a heartbeat. To save those few lives left in my crew? Joshua lived for a while after at least, but losing his leg was rough on him, he died while getting treatment. Cap, well, she was banged up but good, but she toughed it out, came to the rescue as I was spacing the suckers. Morris, Ramirez, and Kentucky were all already dead when I spaced the cargo bay. Still, it feels awful having left their bodies to rot out in the vac. Adelaide, Jones, and Bishop were all okay. Youngest of the crew, and you wouldn¡¯t believe it, asleep in their quarters for most of the whole shebang. Yeah, any punishment¡¯s fine, as long as they¡¯re safe. They¡¯re good kids, and Cap is the best of us. Maybe I¡¯ll get one of those scenes from the old Earth cinema, ¡°Hanged by the neck until dead.¡±


    Prissy mcwhatsit here wears a surprised expression on her face as she receives a communique. Here it is, here comes my punishment. I¡¯ll accept whatever it is. She starts out, ¡°Apparently, G-Con Three is being reinstated, and your retirement is being revoked. You will have committed no crime, since it will not have been a decommissioned piece of equipment, and you¡¯ll be leading the newest batch of Psi-Es.¡±


    I let the words hang heavy in the air. The worst possible punishment. They got me. Hell, I¡¯d rather they tortured me and sent me to die in some pit. There¡¯s new Psi-Es? Last I heard, humanity stopped producing any, was some sort of freak batch in the gene pool where a generation had the potential. Turns out, we¡¯re longer lived than most, maybe twice as long, but can¡¯t have kids. That means it has to have skipped a generation or two, and they¡¯re saddling me with kids. Kids with psionic energy, to be trained as dogs of the military.


    I shoulda let myself die to the morphs.

 B 6 C 87: Hivemind Temptations

    While grasping Kinzul¡¯s hands, gazing into her eyes gratefully and lovingly, I continue to plot out exactly what I¡¯ll be able to accomplish. Having had Kinzul show up was fortuitous indeed. I¡¯m more assured that the hivemind muscle memory will work. Another fortuitous arrival is Iylynila, and I quickly rush to embrace her as she¡¯s realizing Prinrin is in dire straits. Though I want to apologize for not being there for her, Illy requested the privacy, and she stops my thought train before I can formulate an apology.


    Miraina offers to go snag the eight strategists as well, and at this point, we may as well. We¡¯ll have most of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, and its four newest family members partaking in this hivemind experiment. Boetah, Shaylon, Farzhis, Revvy, Greggy, and Veril would probably volunteer, but they¡¯re exhausted, and that might worsen the hivemind rather than aid it. What else can I do to make use of this incredible amount of brainpower? Huff, I definitely can¡¯t learn the time stopping spell or meteor spell at the moment. Rather, the books would teach me the spells, sort of.


    The meteor and timestopping tomes are like the other books that require dedicated amounts of time reading them in order to teach their secrets. Well, they¡¯re somewhat like the other tomes, only instead of granting an ability, they grant the ability to perceive the hidden runes within the book. That¡¯s dumbing it down a bit, since they also grant minor abilities related to the spells, but anyway, the main reason not to waste my time on those is that the friggin¡¯ spells are nine hundred ninety runes each.


    Even if I could afford to quicken the casting of the meteor or the timestop, I¡¯d pass out after casting one, if I¡¯d casted anything else in the day at all, since I pass out at the one thousand S P mark. Otherwise it¡¯d take all day to cast one of them if I tried to do it without quickening it. The meteor might be worthwhile to just nuke an entire stronghold from a mile away, but I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯d light up like a magical beacon for anyone with any mana-attuned senses, for the entire day-long casting time. I¡¯d virtually need my own private army protecting me to safely get the spell off and not end up blowing most of the runes for nothing. Speaking of private armies. How many people will we have at this point? Sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen going into the orb? Somewhere around there.


    The excitement emanating from Nietru at the idea of sharing minds on a fundamentally intimate level is palpable. I try to refrain from either blushing, chuckling, or grinning at her excitement. She said she has a head for numbers, so I¡¯ll ask for her help making some estimates on best uses of time before going in. Spreading out the resources available to us, I point at the ones that will be necessary to save Prinrin, and those that would move me forwards towards higher tiers of capability, as well as those that might possibly share new powers with everyone involved within the hivemind.


    The ones that interest me most in sharing with the hivemind are those that grant one to three uses per day of certain spells without dipping into anyone¡¯s sorcerous potential pools. The meteor tome has a miniature meteorite spell that conjures six to ten softball sized space rocks to launch at foes. I¡¯m still a bit leery about giving Yui and Yuri access to the knowledge to be able to decipher the meteor spell itself though. One that I¡¯m less hesitant to allow everyone to gain is the quickening of metamagical potential, since they only really apply to non-mnemonically aided spells to begin with. An ability somewhere between those is found in a new tome that I¡¯d just located. It¡¯s conjure monstrous mana construct at the eighth tier, once per day. Another is instant recall. Instant recall is one that simply lets you recall an object that you¡¯ve cast it upon before. It also only works once per day, and only on objects bound to your own soul.


    Sadly, Nietru confirms my suspicions, ¡°Sorry Schism, we¡¯ll need at least one data point bare minimum to even hazard a guess as to what we can make use of overall in terms of how much this sporific form of yours can handle. As elated as I am to have you coming to me for answers, I¡¯m more sorrowful that I don¡¯t have any I can offer until we have more information. Still, you¡¯ll have full access to my mind throughout your experiment. I¡¯m certain you¡¯ll make full use of my capabilities.¡±


    Flashing Nietru a sad half smile I nod. It¡¯s as I expected. There¡¯s no points of reference to even be able to start guessing as to the form¡¯s true capabilities, and there are so many variables, especially with the orb in play. Oof, here it comes. It¡¯s a good thing I¡¯ve been more or less naked since my lava bath. My form begins to squish, distort, morph. My vine-tendrils burst forth from my spore-pack as I sprout a mushroom-cap atop my head. This version of my myconid form does not have limitations to its ambulatory ability, in fact, its limbs are easily at least as responsive as my usual RS2 limbs. Not only is it responsive, but it¡¯s also got the added benefits that its compound eyes, and vine tendrils offer.


    As frightening as it is to ask people I care about to let themselves be subsumed into a hivemind, my sporebrain, I release puffs of spores one by one. After some internal discussion with ourself, we come to the conclusion that this is the best use of our shared mind. Inside will be; Ahliyuri, Atter, Iylynila, Kinzul, Miraina, myself, strategists-eight, Shiz, Teuila, and Vylon. Outside will be; Ahliyui, Kagired, Lucky, and Prinrin herself. This allows us to operate in an interior of eight left brains and eight right brains situated around the central hivemind, the Reggie-mind, while within the orb, while keeping several unique minds outside the orb. Yes, this is most optimal indeed.


    I link our hands, we submit and link our hands, as the main body of Reggie brings us into within the realm of the orb and its dreamlike time. We drink hungrily of distributed learning and processing. We savor the leaps and bounds we make in understandings, in enchantments. We work simultaneously crafting runes, mastering them with a single hand. We utilize our tendrils to disassemble this potion into its constituent humors, and find ourselves quite capable of replicating it, quite capable indeed. We shall do this with many more potions indeed during our time in the orb.


    Trips into the orb repeat, again and again as we absorb enchantments within tomes, master runes, and calculate myriad advantages for the war. The orb cracks further and further and further. From Thainan¡¯s manuscripts, a libram written in pitch upon linen, we absorb the ability to generate a Stony Body, a rock armor similar to our Steely Body spell, several times per day for each of us. From the Astral Enchiridion of Neta, a book bound in some monstrous sort of hide from a creature we know not, we absorb the ability to conjure forth an eighth tier monstrous mana construct for each of us once per day, for the few seconds to several minutes that it is supposed to last.


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    Each of us is attributed a differently leveled duration with which we are gifted Neta¡¯s Enchiridion¡¯s ability to manifest monstrous mana constructs. Even though each of us can only manifest it once per day, our durations differ quite wildly in some cases. The Teuila and Reggie sections of the hivemind last for precisely two minutes each. Lady Kinzul¡¯s manifestation lasts for one hundred sixty two seconds. The manifestation belonging to the Vylon segment of our hivemind lasts for one hundred forty four seconds. That which belongs to the beloved deviant known as Prinrin lasts exactly six seconds longer than the ones belonging to Teuila and Reggie. The beloved Iylynila¡¯s similarly lasts exactly six seconds longer than the ones belonging to Teuila and Reggie.


    Yet other durations exist for the conjuring of the monstrous mana construct of the eighth tier as a supernatural ability as well. The Spellknight twins Ahliyui and Ahliyuri each have a duration of exactly a minute for its power to remain manifest, and Lucky¡¯s would last the same duration. Miraina, Pawn, can manifest hers for approximately eighteen seconds, while the eight strategists can manifest theirs for anywhere from a dozen to a few dozen seconds. Kagired, Sponge¡¯s manifestation would last approximately ninety six seconds. Shiz¡¯s manifestation would last ninety seconds whilst Atter¡¯s would last one hundred thirty two seconds.


    It seems in almost no time at all we gain leaps and bounds, distributed amongst all of us. From a leather-bound tome known as the Articles of Alin, we learn how to fill a small space in the air thick with a lethargy inducing mist several times per day, not sleep inducing, no, sluggishness, heaviness. This slowing mist is certainly one best used on smaller foes in great numbers that would fit within its limited area. It may do nothing at all to a creature large enough to not be weighed down by its magical might.


    From wooden slats known as the Infernal Gimmil Slates, we absorb an ability that benefits the Shellcrackers the most. We can either enchant an item already bound to our souls such that we can recall it on another day, or recall an item of ours, once per day. This ¡°instantaneous recall¡± spell-like ability is one more object on a quest or mission that we might not have been able to bring along, or might have forgotten, that may turn a tide.


    From a fox-fur trimmed leather-bound libram known as the Compendium of Heusandro, we each become potent sorcerers. We find that we can evoke fourth tier or lower shadowy versions of magics, or through Cairbrie¡¯s Scriptures, conjure third tier or lower magics with shadow stuff several times per day each. Not so powerful or deadly as the way Reggie already knows how to do an eighth tier shadowy evocation. It is a lower tier than that of Reggie¡¯s primary known offensive spell, but still potent.


    Through a folio sealed in a lacquered blackthorn box known as the Folio of Leobuleo, we feel as if we are opening a casket of Fimbulvetr from Fakeworld¡¯s Norse mythology. Upon absorbing its enchantment, we can each generate frost in a cone several times per day.


    Through the Cula Esoterica, a rabbit-fur trimmed leather-bound obscure libram, we pick up a familiar enchantment that has been available in several tomes. We can quicken greater, more rune-costly spells for the same volume of sorcerous potential investment. Better yet, after another subsumation of the same sort of ability, from the Eternal Compendium of Glinarv, and the Senau Apocrypha, it now only takes half as much additional power. Instead of doubling the cost of sorcerous potential invested in casting spells to quicken them, it only takes one and a half times their normal cost, rounded up of course. Fifty S P to cast a thirty three rune spell in a timely fashion is far, far, far more achievable, and easy to keep track of for the simple Reggie brain that spends its time not guided by the hivemind.


    We cave, and allow each of us to learn the secrets of generating our small artillery battery of meteorites, too hungry for the knowledge and power to pass up the chance to learn. We feel more at ease with our Spellknight twins regardless, them having given themselves over to ourselves completely. Between our Lady allowing us to Administrate all Latents and learning, that which we learn and absorb in accelerated time is stored safely in the external twin in normal time. That is, it¡¯s safely imbued into Ahliyui¡¯s mind, her mind, our mind, where we all shall be able to retain it all. Our healer and our wounded, protected by our hound, make certain that even our twin on the outside is not overwhelmed or harmed in the process.


    In far too short a time, it would seem that the orb is soon to sheer and shatter the rest of the way through, so we must refrain from abusing it further. We are desperately desirous of utilizing it down to every last second of its capabilities, but then we could never repair it or understand its workings. At least if we stop now there may be some chance to peer within its enchantment to learn how to make use of its accelerated time, its realm of dreamstuff.


    While we were working within the orb, the gems required to absorb spells and enchantments in certain methods seemed to disappear, but then would reappear during spats when we¡¯d returned to reality. Now however, after having fully absorbed the enchantments that we¡¯d shared out into reality, back into ourselves that had learned them in the dream-realm, the gems now disappear for real in this waking world outside the orb.


    Similarly, though in linear reality we¡¯d only experienced several minutes, this form has experienced days upon days upon days that it is not supposed to be able to last through. The form begins to lose cohesion, and the hivemind begins to separate. The sporebrain releases its grasp on each of its parts in turn, carefully, gently, one after another. As we¡¯re doing this, we attempt to coalesce all memories from the events, all the shared accelerated time, all the rote muscle motion, everything we¡¯d learned and become within orb time. We do not ¡°steal¡± it from ourselves that return to individuality, we copy it.


    We eventually become me, I, myself, Reggie Shellcracker the solo myconid once more. Only a moment later, I¡¯m returned to RS2. I¡¯d used the time in the orb to both absorb enchantments, as well as to learn and master somewhere around, or possibly over, three hundred total runes. Eighty or so of the runes I¡¯d mastered were for the dispellation spell, the most important part of what I¡¯d just done, the only part that matters. That¡¯s the part that could possibly save Prinny from this curse. Nervous beyond belief, I gulp and I wait with bated breath as I scour my memories and mind for runes and enchantments, but primarily the runes.

 B 6 C 88: Bonding

    The runes, the spells, they¡¯re here! I know them! Rushing to Prinrin¡¯s side, I crank my aura vision spell to the maximum. Dispellation has a ton of fiddly moving parts to utilize properly. On one side, it requires a hundred twenty eight runes to learn the whole thing, on the other, not all runes are needed in any given casting, never more than ninety nine anyway. It depends on whether one is trying to interrupt a high tier magic, or disrupt one already emplaced for starters. For this blight, I only need utilize about forty four runes per spot of blight on Prinrin to guarantee that they¡¯re gone. Let¡¯s see, armpits, behind ears, inner thighs, and tailbone. How did she get hit with seven fully loaded spells of blight? Unless¡ª. Lil, Lu, Kinzul, the Vivant. Seven spells. She took the hit for each and every one of them. Oooo I could throttle this brave little deviant!


    Let¡¯s see, forty four, plus a half to quicken it, sixty six, times seven, four hundred sixty two. I¡¯ve used up about two hundred so far already today after returning home from collecting the refugees. Between mastering two runes before I¡¯d even started any of this, and empowering and emplacing the abjuration bookmark, I, well, yes. I should have enough safe S P limit to do this for Prinrin, one way or another.


    I¡¯m panting, breathing anxiously, fearfully as I attempt to dispel each of the blights in turn, one after another. We¡¯re letting Prinny thaw out, and thankfully it seems like our efforts to preserve her did stop the spreading of the blighted webs beneath her flesh, or at least slow them down during the time we¡¯d spent working on the ability to save her. Prinrin, pull through gorrammit. Please. Please pull through. I hold Prinrin as tightly as I can despite the weakening of my limbs. My muscles begin to slacken, weary from casting near the edge of my safe limit of S P for the day.


    The last blight mark disappears, and I hold my breath, waiting for signs of Prinrin¡¯s life, her recovery. My eyes widen slowly more and more in fear as she remains unconscious. I glance frantically about the room, but everyone avoids my gaze. I¡¯m about to start throttling Prinrin, shaking her, begging her to wake up, if no one can give me a better idea. Miraina beats me to the punch as she inserts herself into the embrace I¡¯ve got Prinrin in.


    While shaking Prinrin, crying out in frustration, through tears, Miraina shouts a plea, ¡°Mo-ommmm, wake up! Don¡¯t do this to us, don¡¯t leave!¡±


    When Prinrin smiles with her eyes closed, she clues me in to the fact that she¡¯s eating up the attention of having her daughter and me so close to her. I could slap the little deviant for such a prank. Ooo this woman! I was so worried about her! I loose a sigh of relief but also frustration.


    Prinrin thankfully apologizes, ¡°Sorry my dears, was still a bit groggy, and couldn¡¯t resist taking a few moments to enjoy the warmth of your bodies after such a frost. Brrr. Dearie me what a delight to be so loved, to have so many work so hard together for little old me. This runt¡¯s old ticker swells with the joy of it, swells right up I tell you. You¡¯re all such dears, such sweet dears, and I can¡¯t thank you enough. But enough focusing on me, we¡¯ve all got a bonding ceremony to attend to now don¡¯t we my dears? Our sweet Lady Kinzul and Schism my sweet should be wed in no time at all, lickety split.¡±


    At Prinrin¡¯s assertion, my cheeks flush warmly enough to weld tungsten, which she absolutely nuzzles her own face against in order to absorb my warmth. Kinzul, almost demurely, seemingly almost blushing herself, nods in gratitude towards Prinrin. The mixture of reactions from the assembled individuals is a wild ride in and of itself, especially since most of them I¡¯m psychically bonded with.


    Funnily enough, Ahliyuri mutters, ¡°We ah, can see ourselves back to the prison. Schism. We¡¯re happy fo¡ª.¡±


    I frown at Ahliyuri and state, ¡°I¡¯ve literally been inside your head for the last almost a month in non-linear time Yuri. You¡¯re family. You¡¯re all family at this point. I¡¯d live, fight, sully my soul, or die for any one of you. You¡¯ve each journeyed along with me and obtained power that normally would take centuries to share. I can¡¯t think of a better way to symbolize bringing you into our family than to share in this ceremony, erm, though I don¡¯t know what it entails, or how intimate it ends up being. Kinzul my love?¡±


    Seeming a bit abashed, Kinzul offers up, ¡°I¡¯d rather hoped that perhaps you had some custom you wished to partake in from your world, since part of our bond is in order to cement our souls mingling on both worlds. If nothing comes to mind, I could mirror what I¡¯d last shared with my love, The Platinum, when he was last reincarnated as a Draconiac.¡±


    My heart catches in my throat. I¡¯m left stunned for several long moments. To step into those shoes. To follow his footsteps, and to share a love with Kinzul in that manner¡ª. My jaw hangs locked slightly low, my mandible joints stiffening as my jaw attempts to quiver. My eyes mist with tears that do not fall. I nod haltingly, trying to keep my gaze locked with Kinzul¡¯s.


    Breaking the tension, in an odd turn, Atter offers up, ¡°As much as I¡¯d be honored to partake and witness such an event Schism, Conjugation time is short for those of my clutch that remain viable, and it¡¯s, well, a rather involved process. I need to either find a mate before the eve is through, or, well, hold my brother to an uncomfortable bargain.¡±


    Finding myself blushing for new reasons, I recall a conversation with Boetah, or at least something I¡¯d overheard him mention. I glance between Miraina and Atter for a moment, unsure if I should make the suggestion. Gnawing on my lip, I hesitantly mutter, ¡°Atter, did you meet Boetah during the return trip, or when we were acclimating your refugees on the aerie? Aliased Shield, he¡¯s a Rock who''s had a bit of trouble finding a mate, a round, fun-loving fellow, and¡ª.¡±


    The expression on Atter¡¯s face tells me she¡¯s certainly intrigued, and interested in proposing Conjugation with Boetah. Glancing at Miraina, I¡¯m wondering if Pawn would be willing to fetch him, or maybe even to rouse all the Order members, if we¡¯re going to make a big deal out of this. Miraina flashes me a wink, and sets off like a rocket. I guess that answers that question. I wonder if there¡¯s a specific chamber that we should have our bonding ceremony in, or if¡ª.


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    Prinrin pleads to the gathered, ¡°My Lady, Kinzul my sweet, my dear old friend, it would mean the world to my sweet lad, to see you chase this bit of happiness, for you to¡ª.¡±


    Smiling with wet eyes, Kinzul adopts her regal head-tilt that¡¯s barely a nod as she responds, ¡°Say no more my beloved old friend. Yes, of course, his hoard chamber will be where we adjourn to for our ceremony. Please, you¡¯re all invited, and I¡¯ve instructed Pawn to bring the rest of the Order, even those in the infirmary. They were well-enough when last I checked. I shant invite the greater populace as a whole, it¡¯s still a tad more intimate than being an entirely public event mind you. Spellknight twins, Thunderers, welcome to our family. I¡¯m honored that you accepted our Hero¡¯s mercy.¡±


    The four nearly-strangers gulp at being called out. While they know I¡¯m deadly-powerful from witnessing it firsthand, it¡¯s a different matter to be directly addressed by an ancient being, perhaps the eldest left alive on the planet, whose domain you currently reside in. The four hastily nod in an uneven rhythm, and I try not to chuckle at their expense for their nervousness. Hell, I should be the nervous one. Married, right now, right away, to that very same ancient being?


    But she¡¯s not some stranger, some unknowable, elder, ancient being to me. She¡¯s Kinzul the kind. She¡¯s Kinzul the beneficent. She¡¯s Kinzul the nurturer. She¡¯s the Administrator, and Progenitor of the Onyx Dawn, certainly, but she¡¯s a calculating, warm, loving, vastly intelligent, impossibly compassionate woman of unparalleled beauty. I know more of her secrets than perhaps any other living being on the planet at this moment. She¡¯d consented to my learning them, even if she¡¯d earlier lamented my coming to possess those facts. She still has far more secrets than I¡¯ve learned, but even knowing that she has them is something that she hasn¡¯t allowed others to learn yet.


    Not only do I know her deeply, but she knows me as well. She¡¯d read my life story, when she was seeking a way to help me while in our shop bunker. She pushed through the boundaries of time, space, and psychic energy and stumbled across my Changeling Fae¡¯s true inner self, and she read the story thereupon, not entirely getting it all the time. My own unreliable narration of my life¡¯s journey sometimes making it difficult for her. She may have had to skip around in the journey, but for the most part, she saw everything that there had been of my life as I experienced it in linear time.


    I hardly even notice it as I find us being ushered out of my vault. Gathering a few trinkets, and things I want to try to gift to Kinzul as soon as we¡¯re bonded, I think back at the fact that I¡¯d seen Kinzul roll her fate dice just before we utilized the hivemind in order to get the power to save Prinrin. All three dice came up sixes. Things were eighteen percent more likely to succeed because of fate intervening, because of Kinzul¡¯s direct aid and intervention with a magical artifact that I¡¯d given her. Those eighteen percent might be the only reason any of the hivemind orb time worked out at all. That eighteen percent was granted by one of very few things that didn¡¯t come pre-locked as soulbound to Shellcrackers.


    Speaking of locking, I lock the vault behind us, leaving books, librams, folios, scrollcases, and more strewn about the floor. Yisstendahl¡¯s son has the good graces to excuse himself, and return to his civilian life. I could have perhaps extended my trust to him, if I¡¯d subsumed him into the hivemind, but I couldn¡¯t trust someone with that sniveling weaselly look, one that mirrored someone whom I know had betrayed the Order, betrayed Kinzul. I¡¯m even tempted to cast the detect thoughts spell and check into his brain to see how much he knew about the betrayals, but I won¡¯t do it. I¡¯ll try to foster and nurture kindness, compassion, forgiveness, as Kinzul would request of me.


    I¡ª probably should have gotten dressed. I facepalm, and struggle to not laugh along with the others who start giggling about my mental state, and physical state of undress. How does no one ever think to be like, ¡°Hey Reggie, you¡¯re pantsless again.¡±? Blargh. I wonder if¡ª.


    Kinzul smirks as she telepathically sends to me, ¡°Worry not my love, if you would be willing to expend the energy, you could be garbed in your Honoris Causa. I will after all be in my true form. Well, as much of it as will fit in the chamber. As for this Fae body of yours that lies beneath your true dragon heart, I¡¯ve something that might suffice. Though I hesitate to offer it. I know you wouldn¡¯t think ill of me, and yet I worry.¡±


    Knowing Kinzul as well as I do, I suspect it¡¯s something that reminds her of The Platinum, and she worries that I might think she¡¯s only using me to try to fill that hole specifically. However, she knows me well enough to know that I harbor no such thoughts. Kinzul smiles my way at my mental monologue. I flash Kinzul a smile of my own, and apparently she instructs Miraina to pick up whatever the item is from her chambers.


    Del drops her hammer mid-swing upon seeing our procession leaving Mount Verdimenn, and she raises an eyebrow my way, so I try to quickly, subtly motion for her to join our little gathering. She snags Yer and hustles along behind us. As far as I¡¯m concerned, she¡¯s family. She¡¯s like an eccentric aunt who has one hobby or job that she¡¯s amazing at. Anyway, I¡¯m glad that she¡¯s part of all of this. Having her be here for Yerjhro when he¡¯s at a crossroads with no parents, it must mean everything to him, and for having done that, she means everything to me on some levels.


    When Miraina catches up to us, the bundle of platinum fabric in her arms causes my heart to stop and skip several beats. The robe¡¯s tailored in a flowing, ethereal fashion, with a regal, elegant cut. The collar is adorned with scales meticulously crafted with silver and platinum threads, creating a shimmering effect that catches the light.


    The robe''s sleeves are wide and billowing, draping down to the wrists, reminiscent of wings in mid-flight. The body of the robe is adorned with a myriad of small, geometrically shaped platinum dragon-scale patches sewn onto a foundation of shimmering silk. These patches are arranged in interlocking patterns, and the scales themselves possess a subtle iridescence.


    The front of the robe is fastened with a row of clasps, each one intricately designed to resemble a platinum dragon''s talon gripping its opposite. Also upon the front of the robe is a soft, silken, furry mantle. As I don it, the hem of the robe falls to my ankles. The robe¡¯s hem is rendered in silver and platinum threadwork against a backdrop of the finest scale-silk fabric. The robe''s interior and sleeves hold hundreds of arcane runes that have been embroidered with platinum thread. I can virtually hear the robe humming, emanating with sorcerous power. Was The Platinum some kind of sorcerer like me? What was it that Tiktik called me jokingly? An Absensorcerer, based on a name the kids made up when she¡¯d read them storybooks about ancient heroes.


    Shaking her head, Kinzul confirms, ¡°There¡¯s never been a sorcerer quite like you my love. The Platinum was his own special breed as well, but not at all like you or yours. Still, if this garment should in some way empower you, even just with confidence, I¡¯d be glad to have you bear it from now on.¡±

 B 6 C 89: Good. Grief

    In the hoard-lair of our Order¡¯s previous ¡°The Blue,¡± our union is going to take place. I have to admit, it¡¯s a breathtaking location. The Blue¡¯s hoard is located in a vast, ancient lair nestled within a mountainous cavern near the base of Mount Solace. The chamber is adorned with shimmering stalactites and the walls glisten with embedded lichens that cast a soft, ethereal glow. Crystalline pools of water reflect the lichen¡¯s light, creating a kaleidoscope of colors dancing across the chamber.


    The assembled members of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, dragons, Draconiacs, Fae, humanoid otterfolk, a hunter hound, and who knows what else gather. It¡¯s strange to see so many of their eyes gleaming with anticipation. Kinzul is in her natural draconic form, a colossal figure with scales as dark as obsidian, and she¡¯s standing at the heart of the chamber, emanating an aura of wisdom and authority. Nearby lays the Order¡¯s previous, ¡°The Blue,¡± Farzhis¡¯s father. Prinrin lay snuggled against the ancient, decrepit form of the previous ¡°The Blue.¡± He looks so wizened, and aged, far beyond Kinzul¡¯s appearance, though she is older by quite a number of years to my knowledge. I know why he¡¯s so weakened, but it¡¯s a devastating blow to my heart to see Prinrin¡¯s beloved husband in such a state, hammering home what she¡¯d already told me about him.


    I even feel more sympathy for Farzhis, though she¡¯d admitted she acted out in a sort of entitled manner. Still, to know that she went through much of her life with her father so weak, and nearly unmoving, I hurt for her. I can see Farzhis¡¯s eyes misting as she listens in on my internal monologue, and she nods my way acknowledging my sympathy. Ixey, Zayzi, and Leezahna surprisingly of all people, have made it, and are standing near the rear of the chamber with Del, Yer, Atter, Shiz, Ahliyui, and Ahliyuri.


    Then here¡¯s me, Reggie Shellcracker, clad in nothing but this amazing ensorcelled platinum robe. I find myself approaching Kinzul who sits on her haunches near where Prinrin curls up next to The Blue. Upon my approach, Kinzul''s deep voice resonates through the chamber as she delivers some ancient incantation, invoking blessings upon our soon to be cemented bond.


    Apparently Miraina, Pawn, worked at record speed to fish out some bonding-ceremony decorations. A tapestry depicting the intertwined symbols of dragon and Hero is unfurled, signifying the merging of our destinies. I didn¡¯t even know I had a symbol, or, well, that the titled Hero had a specific symbol, but there it is. The tapestry is suspended from above, and it¡¯s hovering in mid-air oddly enough. The merging of these symbols is, well, symbolic. Wow, way to go with redundancy Reggie. I facepalm, which earns me quite the number of odd looks. However, most of the assembled individuals have access to my inner narrative monologue, so they know exactly why I facepalmed. The whole thing leads to a smattering of chuckling about the chamber.


    Kinzul extends a majestic wing over me, enveloping me in a protective gesture, signifying in no small regard, a commitment to safeguard and empower our union. I, in turn, offer a ceremonial token that Miraina slips me, an emblem of valor and loyalty. Much like sliding a ring on the finger of a bride, I clip it to a scale along the talons of Kinzul¡¯s left foreclaw.


    The Shellcrackers are all caught off guard as a chorus of melodious dragon voices fills the chamber. None of us except perhaps Lil could even join in on the song. I don¡¯t think even Lil has learned how to speak Rayileklian Draconic however. A swirl of arcane energy envelops us, and colors cascade around us. The energy settles, creating a resplendent aura that encompasses both of us, and thankfully it includes that odd whirlwind smattering of colors with that base of a creamy green, slashed through with crimson and sapphire, the Shellcracker soul. Finally, the members of the Order loose a subtle hymn, and it feels as if my Honoris Causa swells to the size of Kinzul, matching her in placing a wing across her fore, offering her my protection and loyalty, my power and love. The song¡¯s crescendo solidifies our commitment and cements our shared destiny in the face of challenges yet to come.


    It was simultaneously far simpler, and shorter, than I imagined, and yet far more powerful an event than I¡¯d thought I would be participating in. My Honoris Causa nuzzles cheeks with Kinzul¡¯s full form, kissing the base of the horn along the left side of her brow. Kinzul in turn shrinks to meet my Fae form beneath my Honoris Causa, and we adjust sizes to be on equal footing with one another as we embrace to share a passionate kiss. We¡¯re bonded, bound, wed, and it is good. This is good. The dragonsong dies down, and there are mutterings of mixed emotions about the chamber.


    The worst though, the worst is a happiness from our previous The Blue, the worst sort of happiness. The kind of acceptance at going into that long night, having lived a life fulfilled, lacking in regret. Wheezing, he calls to Kinzul, ¡°To see you with another Hero, I¡¯d held onto hope. Thank you my Lady. It was worth it. It was all worth it. Goodbye, my beloved Copper, my beloved daughter, my beloved Lady.¡±


    My eyes flash wide as The Blue stops speaking, and breathing, as he settles in to his hoard with one last wheeze. There are several gasps in shock. Many of us rush to his side with tears in our eyes. No, oh no. Prinny, Farzhee, oh gods what you must be feeling. I struggle to sense any sort of life signs within him, and there¡¯s nothing, no aura, no heartbeat, no soul, no electrical energy in his brain. It¡¯s like he was standing at the edge of a room, holding his hand upon the lightswitch of his life, and simply flicked it off as he left, saying a happy goodbye.


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    I slump weakly to my knees alongside Prinrin, Kinzul, Farzhis, Te, Lu, Lil, Lucky, Vyela, Kagired, Iylynila, Veril, and several others who¡¯d known our now dearly departed. I hadn¡¯t even met him prior to tonight, but it hurts all the same. I sense the overwhelming sorrow burbling up amongst those who had known him, even though they knew it had been coming for a long, long while. I sense another thing though too, a new weight that drops onto Kinzul¡¯s heart. I won¡¯t speak of it in order to not betray her secrets however. Oh my love. Things never get any easier.


    Taking Farzhis slightly to one side, I can hear Kinzul whisper, ¡°Beloved Blue, can you handle absorbing and feasting? Do you understand what will happen if you do?¡±


    Farzhis doesn¡¯t respond for a long while, so Kinzul simply stands with her arms wrapped around the lass, embracing her. I can sense the numbness within Farzhis. She¡¯s been on a journey lately, and I don¡¯t want to see her become hopeless or heartless, lost or unfeeling. I¡¯m proud that she¡¯s a member of the Order, that she fights for what¡¯s right to begin with, but I¡¯d been becoming so very proud of her as a person. She deserves to be able to be her best self, to be happy, to find what¡¯s right for her.


    Perhaps somewhat sadly, Farzhis shrugs aside Kinzul¡¯s embrace, and waves us all angrily away. She transforms and digs about behind her father¡¯s corpse, revealing several barrels. One that sloshes, she drinks in its entirety, but two that contain a familiar weedy powder, she ignites, sending a massive cloud of smoke into the room. I know enough to motion everyone to depart that doesn¡¯t want to end up addicted to whatever piping substance Farzhis had been supplying to both her father, and Induul. My neckchain prevents me from suffering the cloud¡¯s effects, but I shoo everyone else out of the chamber for Farzhee¡¯s sake.


    I stand near her as she cries her heart out over the burning barrels. She tries not to make note of my presence, then she tries to drum up anger at me for intruding, but in the end she turns to me and resumes her human form in order to sink into my embrace. She wails low and long, until she can only sob and cough. I do my best to keep the area around us clear of the smoke as Farzee continues to cry.


    I can see how flush Farzhis is. She got drunk rather quickly by downing an entire fifty gallon barrel of alcohol. There¡¯s a swirl of thoughts within her mind, near the surface, and I wish I could guide her away from the ones that the alcohol happens to be guiding her towards. I don¡¯t want to have to spurn her while she feels so hurt. I wouldn¡¯t take her up on her advances while she was sober, I most certainly won¡¯t take her up on them while she¡¯s vulnerable. She knows I can sense her desires and her motivations, and she becomes frustrated in my embrace, knowing how futile it would be to try to make moves on me to fill the growing hole in her heart. I worry that Veril would become a target whom would likely give in, and she might come to resent when sober, when she seemed to be forming a good, loving friendship there. I know that Induul would certainly oblige her, but I¡¯m not sure if obliging that side of her grief would be helpful or not overall.


    In the end, I sit in the smoke for a long while yet with Farzhis. I¡¯d wanted to give my new wife Kinzul my undivided attention, but I can sense that she¡¯s grateful that I¡¯m helping Farzhis grieve. She¡¯s doing much the same for Prinrin. After perhaps an hour of crying in my arms, Farzhis resumes her full draconic form, and crawls to her fathers breast, where she peels off the scales on his chest. I know what this means, but I don¡¯t know if she wants privacy for it or not.


    Thankfully, in her few-stop-consonants accent, Farzhis lets me know as she begs, ¡°Stay, please Schism. You guide me right, you protect me. You¡¯ve given me love without asking for sex. Please stay. I can¡¯t do this alone. I wouldn¡¯t do this, couldn¡¯t do this, knowing what it¡¯s going to cost in the long haul. I¡¯m selfish, we both know it. I can only do this if you stay.¡±


    Nodding with tears in my eyes, I advance and lay a hand upon Farzhis¡¯s shoulders as I levitate myself up towards them. I don¡¯t know how much she knows about what she¡¯s taking on. I don¡¯t know if I should warn her, tell her. She admitted she knows it¡¯s going to cost her greatly, but how much will it cost? When will the price be paid? I know that a dragonforce spread out can take months to reclaim.


    Farzhis answers my unspoken questions, ¡°Some day in the future, I¡¯ll be in the same state, when da¡¯s dragonforce finally dissipates. Me taking it in, taking him in, means it¡¯s up to me next, whatever he¡¯s been helping hold up. Months, maybe years, and I¡¯ll start weakening, aging faster, stop moving as much. I couldn¡¯t do this, I wouldn¡¯t be this person without you Schism. I¡¯m scared. I¡¯m so scared. Da¡¯s gone. He¡¯s gone forever, and my life will never be the same.¡±


    My own hot tear droplets slip forth, loosed onto Farzhis¡¯s back as she admits what she knows and feels. I try to blink them back and rub them away so as to not add even more emotional burden to her current dilemma. Farzhis takes deep bites out of her father¡¯s chest, and swallows dutifully as she clears her way towards his heart. I almost can¡¯t bear to watch, but I have to be here for her. It¡¯s what she requested. I wouldn¡¯t abandon her, especially not through this. After taking in his heart, Farzhis shrinks to her human form once more, and sits in her father¡¯s now-open chest cavity, her elbows on her knees, and her face in her hands as she weeps.


    I float down in alongside her, and sit next to Farzhis, wrapping my right arm around her, stroking her right bicep and shoulder gently. Farzhis swats at me, then paws at me, then tries to kiss me, and she rotates through a myriad of emotions in as many moments. I simply remain stoically at her side, holding her gently. She relents, stopping trying to chase whatever emotion burbles up, and leans towards me in order to bury her face in my right clavicle, crying her heart out. Kissing the crown of her head, I hold Farzhis tenderly, comfortingly, consolingly. I feel awful for never having gotten to know the Order¡¯s previous ¡°The Blue,¡± but it¡¯s not about me. My inadequacy doesn¡¯t factor in. I¡¯m here for a friend in need, and that¡¯s all that matters in the moment. Everything else can wait.


    Farzhis is going to be struggling with grief, and with the burden she¡¯s accepted, and she¡¯s going to need someone frequently for a long while to come, because of this. I don¡¯t know if I will, or even can, be here each time she¡¯s in need, but for now, for this bit of grief, I¡¯m here for her. That¡¯s just how it works. This is grief.

 B 6 C 90: Wedded Wind-Down

    As the alcohol finally really hits her, fifty gallons of it taking effect on her human form, Farzhis mumbles, slurring as she attempts to speak, ¡°Schi-hic, ism. I¡¯m, I¡¯m a mana, manip, manipulator, and a bzzzzish, bu¡¯, bu¡¯ hic. Ah wan¡¯, I wan¡¯, umm. Don¡¯ wanna be alone. Bu¡¯, bu¡¯ no¡¯ jus¡¯ no¡¯ alone. Wan¡¯ all yous, prpy, preckly preppy, pretty faces ¡®n¡¯ stuff. No¡¯, hic, koff, no¡¯ askin¡¯ for, fer sex. No¡¯ sayin¡¯ I don¡¯ wan¡¯ sex, jus¡¯, jus¡¯ no¡¯ askin¡¯ fer it. Ah meeeean, if youbodie or otherbody anybody hics up for sex, lesss smash. Jus¡¯, jus¡¯ wan¡¯ sleep close, loved. You love me, righ¡¯? You say you love us all. Includes me, righ¡¯?¡±


    Flashing Farzhis a furtive smile, I nod while agreeing, ¡°Yes Farzhis, I love you dear. No sex though, like you said. Okay? Especially not while you¡¯re in this state. I¡¯d be honored for you to join our sleeping pile. Glp, um, well, koff, yeah. Do you¡ª, have you ever really gotten to know Prinrin? Your, um, stepmother I guess?¡±


    Farzhis motorboats her luscious lips as she responds, ¡°Pffffttttt pshawre, psure, everybubby knows Prinny. Sep, sep maybe me kinda. Nice, always loo-hic-k after da¡¯. Guess I can somma somma, hic, sometimes be sorta jealous. Mebbe bou¡¯ stupid things. Maybzzzz didn¡¯ give her much chance to get to know me. Wonder how someone who loved a mom tha¡¯ look like me, could also love a almos¡¯ flat-chested runt. Spoopid, jealous I guess.¡±


    Oof, I wonder if there¡¯s some sort of sobriety medication for dragons, or at least an anti-hangover med for their human forms. Fifty gallons of alcohol is way more than a humanoid shaped and sized body should be dealing with. I¡¯m a bit worried about Farzhis¡¯s blunt and brutal honesty that even analyzes herself and her past motives at the moment. I don¡¯t want her to regret anything when she sobers up. Still, I think being surrounded by love is probably the best thing for her right now, since she¡¯s open to it. Certainly no one who participates in our cuddlesome love pile would take advantage of her in this state. Plus, it gives her and Prinrin an excuse to be close during their first, likely most intense night of grief.


    I so badly want to be comforting Prinrin as well, but thankfully my love, my¡ª, wow, my *wife*, is handling that. It¡¯s really sinking in. Reggie Shellcracker, actually married. What are the odds? Not just that, but married to Kinzul in a way that visibly mingled our souls. Uh oh, Farzhis is trying to walk around, and teetering all over the place. Offering a hand to steady Farzhis, she instead takes my whole arm, and then swings her legs into the air, forcing me to catch and carry her if I don¡¯t want us toppling over. Farzhis burps loudly in my ear, and begins drooling on me as she starts to pass out only moments later.


    Stealing out of the cloud of narcotics with Farzhee in my arms, I flash a helpless shrug to my inner circle and wife when I leave the hoard of our previous ¡°The Blue.¡± It¡¯s somewhere around nine at night at this point, so it¡¯s not an awful time to head to bed, but I¡¯ve a few other things to attend to. Still, it¡¯s mighty awkward exactly which people are going to end up being in our bed tonight, in the states that they¡¯re in. I still haven¡¯t even asked if I have a quarters in Mount Solace to myself, though I suppose my vault in Mount Verdimenn is good enough in the long run.


    Speaking of my vault, my mind drifts back to the potions I¡¯d disassembled in my myconid form. I¡¯m not entirely certain the ingredients grow on Rayileklia at all, at least not at the current point in Rayileklia¡¯s overall history. I now know the composition of several abjurative potions, on top of the minor water walking potions, but we might never be able to make use of that fact. What else did we gain whilst in orb time in the process of our attempt to save Prinrin from the blight curses?


    In the process of mastering dispellation, I¡¯d also picked out a brainblast-blocking enchantment from Yisstendahl¡¯s primary spellbook. That particular book doesn¡¯t have either the meteor spell, or timestopping spell, or the various enchantments involving them, but rather something like thirty or forty other spells of all the tiers lower than ninth. Blocking brainblasts is a fantastic enchantment of course, and it even lasts for twenty four hours at a time! Though of course, its runic cost is rather high.


    Still that particular spell for blocking brainblasts screws with telepathic bonds while it¡¯s up, so I¡¯ll need to figure out a process for determining when to apply it. Perhaps it¡¯ll be as simple as placing the enchantment on myself the night before going to a battle, since it¡¯s an expensive spell at a hundred thirty two S P. Similarly, during the process of learning the runes for those spells, I¡¯d also mastered a spell that allows me to control water in a wide area for ten minutes at a time. Not only that, but I managed to learn a plethora of runes that apply to a host of spells other than the ones I¡¯d mastered.


    Similarly during the process, those of us that took part gained the ability to conjure anywhere between six, and a dozen mini comets, meteorites. The manifested space-rocks can be unleashed at will, though they can only be conjured once per day. Conversely, as opposed to the once per day abilities, we¡¯ve a slew of abilities that work three times per day each. As far as spell-like abilities that can be manifested thrice per day, we can create slowing fields, or cones of frost, or shadowy evocations, or shadowy conjurations.


    Though, thinking back to a particularly potent single use per day ability that we picked up, we each have an ally we can conjure for less than three minutes. That ally takes the form of an eighth tier monstrous mana construct. Well, with that ability some of us can technically summon three to four monstrous mana constructs of a lower tier, or at least I can, but for the most part, it¡¯s best to stick with the eighth tier one that comes for each of us based on some hidden natural affinities.


    Let¡¯s see, which were the affinities again? Ahliyuri, can conjure forth a radiant triceratops for exactly one minute, while his sister Ahliyui can create an umbral t-rex for the same duration. It¡¯s almost cute that each of them can conjure forth their twin¡¯s Spellknight element in a nearly draconic dinosaur form. Atter can call a radiant dire bear for a hundred thirty two seconds, while her brother Shiz can summon the same, for only ninety seconds. That marks more sibling similarities.


    Iylynila funnily enough can create a hellcat for a hundred twenty six seconds. Such an affinity says so much about her personality in some ways. Similarly, and also funnily enough, Prinrin can conjure the exact same thing for the exact same duration. The two having a similar innate affinity for their mana constructs speaks volumes about the depth of their friendship and shared personality traits.


    My beloved Kinzul can manifest a Liltivilend as a mana construct. That¡¯s a sort of winged, angelic, platinum-scaled naga woman. Moreover, Kinzul can manage the manifestation for almost three minutes. I think she can hold it for a hundred sixty two seconds exactly. Miraina, in a twist similar to her mother Prinrin, can conjure a fiery dire tiger for eighteen seconds. I assume as she ages and becomes stronger, its duration will grow, and it might adopt the same hellish properties that Illy and Prinrin¡¯s mana constructs have.


    Speaking of age, Vylon, one of our greatest fighters, and oldest combatants can summon a fiery ankylosaurus for a hundred forty four seconds. Another older fellow, Kagired, Sponge, has a bit of tough luck. He can call forth an umbral eight-legger that¡¯s between thirty and sixty feet tall, for ninety six seconds. I suppose if he really needs some silk to make bandages for binding wounds, he could certainly get some. Yeesh.


    Me? I myself can call forth a single greater elemental of one of the four basic types, or three huge elementals. Either conjuration only lasts for exactly two minutes. Teuila similarly can conjure a greater wind elemental for exactly two minutes. The eight strategists have it a bit odd, as theirs are a mixture of bugs and bears and tigers for durations from twelve to thirty six seconds. Lucky¡¯s affinity is also a bit of a weird one. Lucky can conjure forth what appear to be three male harpies that themselves are quite capable with spell-like abilities, and his summoning duration is exactly one minute.


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


    All of these summons and this host of new abilities shared between so many of my allies is a massive boon. I regret not awakening the other Order members, or bringing the wounded down to partake in sharing the process, but I wanted to save Prinrin above all else. Everything else was just an experiment. Sadly, now all those tomes are spent for centuries to come. Centuries, minutes, seconds, accelerated time spent learning, time is certainly a concept that pops up a lot in the process of Reggie Shellcracker living their life, making plans. Plans that I make often derail in a matter of seconds from their initial implementations, but oh well.


    A few seconds to a couple of minutes for a powerful ally to appear on the field of battle might not seem like a lot, but at the very least, it could intercept a blow meant for a loved one, or oneself. Those conjurations do have another weakness beyond their time limit though too. They¡¯re susceptible to dispellation, since they are literally constructs of mana, walking spells. Still, an eighth tier mana construct takes eighty eight runes, or S P to dispel, so it¡¯s not a bad use of an ability to make an enemy archmage focus on such a construct in order to wipe out a potent pool of their magic. It¡¯s only mildly ironic that I happened to learn dispellation while also doling out an ability that can be easily dispelled.


    I obviously wouldn¡¯t be dispelling our own mana constructs, but as I¡¯d feared, I¡¯ve been meeting more enemies capable of casting spells as my journey on Rayileklia wends ever onward. I suppose it¡¯s obvious now, in retrospect, why I hadn¡¯t ran into many mages during my earlier journey. Terrorzin had had them all killed, or conscripted, to make sure that he held the most magical might across the entire world. Hell, one of the few archmages he let exist in an enemy faction was secretly an agent of his too. Anyway, my point being that I¡¯ll likely be facing spellcasters who are more potent and capable as we drive our conflict towards the center of Terrorzin¡¯s domain, and they¡¯ll likely have the ability to dispel magics.


    I¡¯m rambling, trying to distract myself from the loss we¡¯d all just experienced. I don¡¯t have the right framework of mind to process grief for the kobolds we¡¯d lost today, the three volunteer dragons from Mount Solace, or Farzhee¡¯s father. I¡¯m not exactly numb to the losses, but they don¡¯t hit me as hard as I feel like they should. I move on too quickly, easily able to distract myself from them while pressing forward with my plans and projects.


    Speaking of, or rather, thinking of distractions, Atter and Boetah aren¡¯t out here. I assume that that means they went off to perform the Conjugation in an attempt to save Atter¡¯s remaining viable eggs. Along that line, according to Prinny, Ahliyui should be expecting to lay a clutch of viable eggs sometime in the near future, which sort of blows my mind. I hope we haven¡¯t ruined their viability due to the duel and damage from earlier. I don¡¯t think Te could live with herself, or forgive herself if that came to pass. Thinking of someone else that has clutched, whether or not they will ever clutch again, Zayzi wanted me to stop by to share sweets tonight, I wonder if they¡¯d still like that.


    The affirmative nod along my telepathic wavelength as Xayla answers, ¡°Yes please, sweets, sharing,¡± is straightforward enough.


    Hm, do I bring Farzhee along, sleeping in my arms, or set her sleeping in the bed we¡¯ll be using? Or something else entirely? Thankfully Kinzul offers, ¡°Let me bring her to our den my love, my Schism. My dear old friend and I will catch up while remaining close. I am weary from the day¡¯s battle, as is she, and we could do with the rest. We¡¯ve accomplished much this day. Please retire with us when soonest you are able. We¡¯ve much to discuss, to share, to confide and comfort one another with and about.¡±


    Nodding to Kinzul, I hand Farzhee over. As Kinzul is awaying with Prinrin and Farzhee, Teuila spooks the crap out of me and several of the other gathered Order members by exclaiming, ¡°Got the sucker! Finally!¡±


    Te blushes as she mutters, almost mumbling, ¡°Was trying to get this rune-clip thingy out without breaking it for hours now. Here¡¯ Lu, now you can fly, do some windy lightningy magic and stuff, and lightning won¡¯t hurt so bad. Keep that bangle thingy on Spootalu, okay?¡± More audibly Te adds, ¡°Lucky, Dragbutt, we¡¯ll find some of these clippy thingies that work for you two too later, when stuff calms down.¡±


    Flashing Teuila a smile, I nod appreciatively. I need to hit up my vault later, dig out some things I¡¯d wanted Kinzul to try, now that our souls are bonded so tightly. While there, hopefully I can find some clips that make sense for the triple L squad¡¯s bangles, and maybe a bangle for Kinzul. Hm, speaking of stuff from the vault, this ensorcelled robe is too amazing to just put away in some pile of clothing. I¡¯m going to have to put it in the sixth slot in the quick change ring, replacing the suit of Valkyrie armor. If I¡¯m taking hits, I might as well be taking them on the Wyverium or Necrometal chestplates, or on my own adamantite body form.


    Then again, I might rearrange the gear somewhat, and get under-armor padding for each set, especially if the rare-metals respawning warrens starts producing. I¡¯ll be able to get some equipment forged from the legendary metals. I¡¯ll be able to add an adamantite or orichalcum chestplate or greaves or vambraces to the various slots in the Q C R that don¡¯t have appropriate equipment in those slots, and I¡¯ll make them full outfits. Honestly though, having them compartmented separately has been nice. Mixing and matching the curse greaves with the different chestplates has been useful. I wonder if I could trick the ring into swapping various chestplates with various other sets that included different legguards if all of the slots were filled with entirely full suits of armor.


    For now, I want to check in with people I care about. Casting out my telepathic bond to her, I ask Iylynila, ¡°Illy, are you going to be okay? Do you want to talk about the hurt from earlier, or about the ceremony, or about what happened after? Anything?¡±


    Through a long sigh across our mental wavelength, Illy replies, ¡°I¡¯m alright Schism, got some air, got some meat, cleared my head. Seeing Farzhee¡¯s father, Prinny¡¯s husband like that, just, just ending like that was awful, but I¡¯m dealing, coping I guess. Farzhee¡¯s one of my Dormie¡¯s and she¡¯s almost as old as me, so we knew each other pretty well. Knowing what she¡¯s going through is tough, but it¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t gone through the same thing. When she wakes up with whatever godawful hangover she¡¯s going to have, I can be there for her, I¡¯m okay enough for that. Thank you, for caring. I don¡¯t feel like myself enough yet to tease or whatever, but I¡¯ll be okay, promise.¡±


    Nodding along to Iylynila¡¯s response, I do my best to understand and accept it. I of course sense the honesty within it, as deep as our own connection is. I still want to reassure Illy further, to let her know how much she means to me, to us, but she¡¯s dealing in her own way right now. I¡¯ll be there for her when she wants to open up about things, because I dearly love her. Hm, I should also really check in with the Spellknight twins. Today has been a hell of a day for them.


    Approaching Yui and Yuri who seem quite discomforted with how out-of-place they are compared to the rest of the Mount Solace residents, I query, ¡°Hey you two, is there some way I can help make you feel like part of the family, and at home? Obviously I¡¯m done with the idea of keeping you at the prison. I brought you to one of our most vulnerable locations, and granted you half a dozen new powers that you could use against us. What can I do for you two to welcome you?¡±


    Despite having normally seemed to be the brazen one of the pair, Yui scratches the back of her head, a mild blush coloring the flesh beneath her teal scales on her face. Yuri offers up, ¡°Schism, today was a wild ride. I¡¯ve no doubt you¡¯re ending the Ice of Rage, our tyrant overlord. The fact that you even had the ability to create or share spells and feats and whatever the hell else you did leaves no room for doubt in my mind. It¡¯s a lot to process. Seeing you bond, wed someone as notorious as Kinzul, and then witnessing an ancient¡¯s light fade is, well, like I said, it¡¯s just a lot to process. I think I¡¯d be most comfortable sticking it out at the prison a bit longer, if that¡¯s alright with you.¡±


    Blinking in surprise at the request, I nod to Yuri, who guides his sister back towards the prison. I¡¯m left stroking my chin thoughtfully when Shiz suddenly approaches, and claps me heartily on the back. The thunderer chuckles before stating, ¡°Seems like I¡¯ll be the first to say congratulations Schism, what with the dour mood set by the loss back there. You¡¯re something else.¡±


    More seriously, in an almost somber tone, he adds, ¡°Thanks for saving my sister and her clutch. Getting to be an uncle, having family, it¡¯s¡ª. Well, it¡¯s something that wouldn¡¯t have happened under the Ice of Rage¡¯s banner. Thanks for keeping my treasonous soul out of the hands of the Damnations back there too. There¡¯s a long road ahead in this war, but I¡¯ve got plenty reason now to want to fight it, and keep the people here at Solace safe. I¡¯ll guard this home of yours, of ours I suppose, with my life Schism, I swear it.¡±


    Taken aback at the congratulations, gratitude, and heartfelt vow, I can only think to offer Shiz a hug, and a pat on the back in reply. Apparently with Shiz having broken the tension over everyone having witnessed the loss of ¡°The Blue,¡± the floodgates have opened. Apparently that¡¯s what everyone all needed to begin bombarding me with congratulations, or playful jabs and teases.

 B 6 C 91: Sons

    Of course Teuila would be the first to tease, ¡°Never thought my Airhead would get hitched, it wasn¡¯t even an idea, a concept to you, for the longest time.  Now ya gotta marry the rest of us, or we¡¯ll all get jealous.  Nyeh.¡±


    I can¡¯t help chuckling as Te sticks her tongue out and raspberries me at the end of her jibe.  I mean, I truly don¡¯t want to make any of my loved ones jealous.  I want them all to be as happy as possible.  I¡¯d do anything to help keep Te, Lu, Lil, Lucky, Prinny, Illy, and Kinzul happy.  Not that I¡¯m romantically involved with all of them.  Well, I nearly am, but not quite everyone.  I love the rest of the Order of the Onyx Dawn too, in a different way, and I wish them happiness as well, though I don¡¯t wish to be so central to the cause of that happiness for the rest of them.


    For example, poor, introverted Kagired, Sponge, has scurried back to the infirmary.  He¡¯s a bit similar to Nala, and I¡¯d like him to be able to pursue what happiness is available to him, even in the comfort of the infirmary.  Another Order member that I¡¯d like to see happy is Shaylon, and they¡¯re hissing a congratulations in my ear both physically and telepathically.


    A tingle runs up my spine at Shaylon¡¯s pleasantly sublime serpentine accent.  There are so very many gathered Order members, most of whom are seeking to bow out for the eve.  Revvy for example begs pardon, taking his leave of me with Greggy, returning to their dormitories.  This entire wind-down from the bonding ceremony seems to be a hell of a rapid cavalcade of social interactions, minor mingling events, for one as antisocial as myself.  One after another, my allies, my family from the Order of the Onyx Dawn approaches me with well-wishes for a prosperous future with my wife, our lady Kinzul.


    I¡¯m only mildly shocked when Vylon offers up, ¡°Don¡¯t suppose it would be right at this point to challenge you to combat Schism.  Losses and joinings and hearing your feats, these things make humble a man whose bulk and brawn tell tale of his experiences.  Would that I could join you on the field, I think it¡¯d be a marvel to behold, but safety for Solace is paramount.  Strike down a thousand foes for me and my sister.  That shouldn¡¯t be too much to ask for.¡±


    Chuckling, I acknowledge the subtle dig, that insinuates that I might let Vylon down by not striking down a thousand foes.  Thankfully he didn¡¯t say slay, because I¡¯m perfectly content knocking a thousand people unconscious across the efforts in this war.  Still, I probably won¡¯t disappoint him in the death toll either.  I nod at Vylon and shake his hand appreciatively while his sister simply passes us and offers up her usual cursory, ¡°Hmn.¡±


    Turning to speak with Lil, I find him being dragged away by Ixeyla, while Leezahna follows the pair uncomfortably rather closely.  She looks exceedingly distraught, and I¡¯m not sure if I should interact with her at all, or if doing so would simply cement my status as a bully to her.  At some point I need to begin recovering a non-hostile relationship with Leezahna, but I laid into her pretty hard.  I sigh and shake my head sadly, unsure how to approach that situation.


    Lu, my beloved Luni, My Anchor, approaches and kisses my cheek before whispering, ¡°You¡¯ve got this Hero, always have, and always will.  Give it time.  Not everything will go how you want or need, but I know you¡¯ll, *we¡¯ll*, come through alright in the end.  I love you Reggie Shellcracker.  Please save the space for me in your heart as you always have?¡±


    Half frowning, I furrow my brow at Luni, feeling hurt that she thinks she even has to ask.  I respond tenderly, ¡°Always Lu, always.  I love you beyond words or reason, beyond time or space.  I love you Luni Shellcracker.  What are you going to do for the rest of the night?¡±


    Sighing, blushing, and fidgeting, Luni admits, ¡°I have to tail Lil to coach him to not be a goober telepathically.  He wants to admit his feelings to Ixey.  I¡¯m not going on their date with him, but it¡¯s still a mess of awkward that won¡¯t add up to much fun tonight.  I¡¯ll be trying to do some portent and divination stuff too, to help make up for our Ayms being gone.  Huff.  I took her for granted.  She was such a sweet kid.  I¡¯m still, even to this moment, jealous of her though.  Being able to maintain that air of innocence, and, what¡¯s the word, levity?  Despite all that she knew and saw, she was always so pure, and mostly full of joy.  Anyway, seems you¡¯ve got a bunch of others who want your attention, so I¡¯ll see you in bed in a few hours, right sweetie?¡±


    Nodding, I kiss Luni¡¯s forehead in response before she ambles away in vaguely the same direction as Lil, Ixeyla, and Leezahna.  Fenric of the Vivant approaches me and sets a hand upon my shoulder.  He¡¯s still looking wounded, not at all fully recovered.  All of the Vivant are still beat to hell.  Furrowing my brow I wear a grim expression as I make note of his injuries, and Fenric mirrors my expression in return, acknowledging my notice.  Only about a week into our war, and we¡¯re already starting to run out of uninjured people brave enough, or simply willing enough, to volunteer to take on enough pain to keep our fighting forces in ship shape.


    Fenric kindly offers up, ¡°I don¡¯t envy the battles ahead that you¡¯ll be left facing, eventually on your lonesome Schism.  Our Lady will be forced to deploy fewer and fewer forces, until you are all that remains at the fore, the knife¡¯s edge of our entire offensive effort.  When it comes down to it, that is perhaps the most economical use of our forces, and Sponge¡¯s latent, simply keeping the single most powerful asset field-capable, but it is certainly not the most kind, or compassionate.  I¡¯m afraid that by now, we¡¯re all certain that that asset is you.  Our Tenith might rival you, perhaps, in many ways, but your versatility lends you capable of a wider array of engagements.  Take heart Schism, Hero.  You¡¯ve the love of our Lady in a way none has had since The Platinum, and a trust that rivals that which she had in him.  There is no higher praise.¡±


    With that, Fenric offers me a slight nod before turning and heading back to the infirmary to rest up.  I don¡¯t even have the time to be floored by the compliment before Orthral lambasts me, ¡°Schism, I don¡¯t like admitting shortcomings, jealousy, or any of the like, but I¡¯ll say this.  The Blue passing just now hits different as a Bronze.  Our rivalry wasn¡¯t friendly per se, but¡ª.  Anyway, he was important to one of the Vivant at least.  Our Copper saves all of our lives, time after time, and you¡¯ve saved hers.  I don¡¯t need to explain further, do I?  Good.  Many happy returns on your new bond with our Lady.¡±


    Passing a breath out through pursed lips and puffed cheeks, I sigh a pfshew as Orthral basically doesn¡¯t want to admit to knowing I¡¯ve helped save his life.  I don¡¯t need or want the gratitude or anything, but it feels so odd to be approached and *told* that the individual doesn¡¯t want to have to be grateful.  Scratching the back of my head, I blush and loose a quarter of a chuckle while shaking my head.  Yeesh.  Everyone¡¯s a personality all their own.  It strikes me that I hardly know much about many of them.  The Vivant especially.  Speaking of¡ª.


    Gilmeshtu approaches me, and sizes me up.  He honestly appears as if he¡¯s trying to figure out where best to strike me with a strong jab, one punch to lay me low.  I¡¯d be disconcerted, but I flash him a furrowed brow, and he relents his analyzing gaze.  Great, is this going to be some social hierarchy power dynamic crap?  As my expression morphs further towards a frown, Gil holds his hands up placatingly.


    Thankfully our, ¡°The Gold,¡± expresses his intentions, ¡°My Vivant have in some ways, shared their faith in you, and I just want to remind you to remain aware of meeting that faith, those expectations.  I think that perhaps you are up to the task.  Perhaps.  Don¡¯t prove me wrong.¡±


    With that, Gilmeshtu ambles away after Orthral and Fenric.  Jeeze, talk about subtle near-open hostility.  Teuila chuckles and slugs me in the shoulder, mentioning, ¡°Seems like you and Aunty Zool should maybe put the foot down and curb some¡ª.  Oh wait.  Should I start calling you Unky Reggie?  Unky-Air?  Wow that¡¯s super weird.  Also, what the heck is a non-gendered aunt or uncle?  Maybe Aunky?  Pibling?  Piblunkle?  Plunkle?  Punkle.  Paunty?  Panky?  Heee.¡±


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Pfft, thanks Teuila.  I snort a laugh while shaking my head incredulously at My Wings.  At least she¡¯s enjoying herself, sounding her elation with the Shellcracker Family Squee, that single elongated laugh of glee.  It always warms my heart to hear it.  Still, her vocabulary attempts themselves are quite hilarious, but what¡¯s more funny is the insinuation that Kinzul and I might treat the Vivant like spoiled children in order to curtail dominance-assertion-related behaviors.  I snirk at the idea and continue shaking my head.


    While I¡¯m recovering from laughing about Teuila¡¯s ramble, I¡¯m approached by each of the eight Draconiac strategists, one at a time as they all congratulate me on the bond with Kinzul.  Nietru waits til last to speak, ¡°Schism, this seems like a momentous occasion, and it is, far beyond what any of the gathered are treating it as.  Lady Kinzul hasn¡¯t opened herself to the idea of something like this in ages.  The way The Platinum was torn from her life, and his sons, their sons, it¡ª.  She hides it well, how it broke her.¡±


    Sighing for a long moment, Nietru seems to space out before remembering she¡¯s in the middle of communicating to me.  Blushing, she continues, ¡°There are more goals that this war should be setting out to accomplish, for her grief, her revenge, but I honestly can¡¯t fathom if Lady Kinzul is approaching the matter with them in mind.  The lack of surviving metallic Draconiacs, and similarly few dragons, it¡¯s¡ª.  Please, in her stead, make things right, grant her that peace.  If ever another of his descendants should be found, they must survive.  I¡¯m sorry for talking your ear off, and not even getting around to everything you¡¯d wanted me to cover.  Perhaps on the morrow?  I think you¡¯re due attending a strategy session.  Be well Schism, don¡¯t overwork it, but put that beautiful mind to use on this problem, I beg of you.¡±


    Nietru kisses me softly on the cheek, blushes, and hurries off, calling after Burshis and Prent.  Hm, that¡¯s a lot to process.  I knew most of it, maybe all of it, but it¡¯s hard to think about and take in all at once as I recollect tidbits I¡¯ve gained in my time being part of the Order of the Onyx Dawn.  Still, descendants of The Platinum, at this point, to have gone unnoticed, they¡¯d have to have been Draconiacs that could ¡ª.


    They¡¯d have to have been Draconiacs that could slip by without attention being drawn to them, like say a latent that literally keeps them from being discovered.  But Errissa is a slate-gray Draconiac, not a metallic.  Though the deeper edges of her scales have this slightly metallic sheen, a mild reflective quality.  Wait.  Could she be filing down her scales?  Can a metallic Draconiac file down their scales from a sheen to a matte appearance?  Is that why they¡¯re sort of powdery and fuzzy?  There¡¯s no way that could be a thing, can it?


    There are things that happened to Errissa before she came to Mount Solace, things Errissa doesn¡¯t want me to know, that Kinzul probably knows.  Could this strange conclusion possibly be one of those things?  I mean, it¡¯s very likely that she endured battles, perhaps even torture at the hands of others out there somewhere in the world.  She had her vocal tract, her voicebox removed for heck¡¯s sakes.  Huff, maybe I¡¯ll get to speak to her again some day, but that probably won¡¯t be until this war is over, since she¡¯s permanently deployed gathering intelligence now, and anywhere that I am deployed to will be a spot that she is no longer at, or never will be at.


    Hm, hopefully I remember to pursue that line of thought at some point.  Then again, I¡¯m me, I probably have half a million lines of thought I¡¯ve forgotten that I intended to continue pursuing.  Blargh.  Induul approaches me as I¡¯m mentally berating myself, and he mutters, ¡°Hey.¡±


    When I turn my attention to him, Induul stands there for several moments before deciding to add, ¡°Things uh, aren¡¯t great, really, at all.  Everything¡¯s been kinda going to shit since you arrived.  Ah, crap, not that it¡¯s you.  Just the war started, Farzhee¡¯s avoiding me, the only good Vivvie nearly died, our Lady is looking haggard, the Damnations have been out and about for the first time in who knows how long.  It¡¯s too real Schism, and I don¡¯t know how to cope, how to handle this.¡±


    More agitatedly, Induul adds, ¡°I¡¯m going through withdrawal, and suffering alone most hours.  Farzhee goes and torches a supply of piping powder right in front of me, and everyone is keeping me from running in and sucking down the fumes.  I¡¯m itchy, and jonesing.  I can¡¯t stand this Schism.  Y¡¯gotta help me.  Do something, end the war, end me, find me some pipe, something, anything.  Just, just, just anything, fuggin¡¯ hell.  I hate begging but I¡¯m begging ya.¡±


    Oh Induul.  Oh man that¡¯s rough.  I can¡¯t feed his addiction though, even if I wanted to.  I don¡¯t even know what substance the piping powder is.  It seemed kinda like gunpowder, but it burned slow, and fairly cool, it had a unique thermal signature.  Its smoke had strange electron bonds that seemed laced with magic.  Necromancy oddly enough.  Almost like they were smoking the remains of cremated undead or something.  That¡¯s just weird.  There¡¯s no way that that¡¯s what was really being smoked, right?  Then again, Farzhis has to sneak away to see her supplier, and the dragons and vampires have been hostile to each other for a fair length of time at this point.


    Induul looks like he¡¯s going to throw up on me as he follows my internal mental monologue.  My inner narrative thinking that someone was smoking reanimated, re-slain *people*, sickens me as well.  Still, I step to Induul¡¯s side and lay a hand on his shoulder while he rides out a wave of nausea.  There¡¯s not much I can do for the man.  I¡¯m certainly not going to kill him, but he¡¯s probably going to be out of action for days, weeks, maybe a month.  It¡¯d be too dangerous to deploy him while he¡¯s going through withdrawals.  If he has an attack, or episode, while in combat, it could get him, and possibly his teammates, killed.  I flash Induul a sad frown, and he lets his head drop to his chest as his muscles sag droopily, defeated, before he walks back to his dormitory.


    From startlingly near, Yerjhro asks, ¡°Schism?  Is he going to be okay?  Can¡¯t you help him?  You helped me meet Del, my, um, new mom, my mom.  Can¡¯t you do anything for him?¡±


    Urgh, Yerjhro¡¯s question twists like a knife in my gut.  Closing my eyes, trying not to let it show how very overwhelmed I am at the possibility of having to be responsible for the wellness of Members of the Order, I respond, ¡°Sadly his is one battle I can¡¯t help fight.  It¡¯s an internal one.  I¡¯m sorry to let him, you, or anyone down, but I¡¯m not going to hurt him to stop his pain, and I¡¯m not powerful enough to just fly out right now and take down the entire rest of Terrorzin¡¯s armies at once.  Sorry Yer.  Are you disappointed to have me as the Order¡¯s Hero?¡±


    Shaking his head, Yerjhro looks abashed at having basically disquieted me.  Something along those lines anyway.  Del steps in and cuffs him lightly, playfully on the back of his head before responding in his place, ¡°Ye¡¯ve got plenty of responsibilities, plans, and all manner of things going on Schism, no one can help, or save, everyone.  That¡¯s why different jobs exist, why there¡¯s shields, armor, swords, medics, poets, authors, crafters.  Some battles though, no one else is suited for.¡±


    Sighing, staring after Induul, Del continues, ¡°Sad to see someone struggling with the pipe, but our, ¡®The Green,¡¯ is a fighter.  He¡¯ll come through on the other side, probably sooner rather than later.  Pay it no mind.  Not everything is on you, despite how it may seem.  Plus, take heart, some things that aren¡¯t on you, you still made better.  For example, I¡¯d never get the chance to be a mother, never would have gotten the chance, if it weren¡¯t for you making that speech.¡±


    Smirking, my blacksmith friend finishes, ¡°As tasty as they are, those legendary metal bits are a bit too dangerous, at best we can give ¡®em a few licks.  Can¡¯t exactly go eating even a thin sliver of something that won¡¯t bend or break as it slides down your gullet unless you desire a painful surgery.  Word from some of the ones keeping an eye on your projects is we¡¯re one or two days out from the budding finishing up in some of the more tantalizing warrens.  We¡¯re working at grinding down the bits you¡¯ve gifted us into a fine enough powder to use as spices, to give all the volunteers just a little taste like you said.  Speaking of tasty treats, c¡¯mon kid, let¡¯s leave the nice Hero alone, I wanna see if you can handle spicy food.¡±


    Excitedly, Yerjhro licks his lips, exclaiming, ¡°Can I!?¡± before racing off apparently towards Del¡¯s home cavern.  I flash her a grateful smile, and we offer each other a strong forearm-gripped handshake.  I¡¯m glad to have such stoic, kind people residing within Mount Solace.  As Del is leaving, chasing after her excitable son, Lucky approaches me and leans heavily against my right hip.  Scratching his skull, I find Lucky¡¯s emotional wavelength warbled and muddied.  I need to spend more time with my own son, it seems.  Zayzi offers me a half-hearted wave from nearby, apparently having been waiting until I was mostly alone before approaching.  Hopefully they won¡¯t mind a bit of company as we share sweets.  Lucky deserves my attention, and Te still needs me.

 B 5 C 98: Assassination

    ¡°McShaw? Yeah I¡¯ve heard of ¡®em. Survivor of the bugs out west. Well, one is anyway. Supposedly marched into town, battered, bloody, bearin¡¯ irons. Talked of a carnie killing a queen, didn¡¯t make no lick of sense. Sat down at a barstool, tipped back one shot, and then fell still as a doornail, passed out on the spot, quiet as the dead.¡±


    This is the most coherent news I¡¯ve heard about the man yet, news was Malta Rocha faced some sort of invasion, talk about behemoth bugs or something, utter hogwash. Or so I thought. A few survivors, an Audrey smith, and an Annabelle Tanner, were sent to the bins for hysteria. After that, other survivors shut up about it, clammed up but good.


    Maybe the town hero will have something to say though? By all accounts, Jessie¡¯s the reason there are any survivors, whatever really happened. Though, by the sounds of this, perhaps the young man has gone and convinced himself the same as the hysterical women.


    On the sly I slip my new ¡®friend¡¯ a whole dollar bill as I ask, ¡°Any idea where one might find the man now?¡±


    There¡¯s a scoff that says the information¡¯s worth a whole lot more than a dollar, which is a tad surprising. That¡¯s ten day¡¯s wages for most of these folk. The man¡¯s privacy is worth this sort of loyalty, from strangers? What charisma does Jessie McShaw possess? I check my wallet, a few more ones, a five, and a ten. If I offer the five, and he scoffs again, he¡¯ll expect a ten. Hopefully I¡¯ll head this shrewd gentleman off at the pass by offering him the ten, to be able to keep my five. Pulling the ten out of my billfold, I slide it to the handsome fellow wearing the sheriff¡¯s badge ¡®round these parts.


    The fellow flashes me a bright smile as he extends his hand, ¡°Name¡¯s Jessie McShaw, pleased to meet ya. This might just be ¡®nuff to bring my sister back. Shaman out west was charging an arm and a leg.¡±


    My jaw hangs low. I¡¯ve been swindled! Well, sort of. What was that about a shaman? I suppose any hope for a grieving man. As long as he didn¡¯t say it was a *bug* medicine man. I ask, ¡°Could you tell me about her? About Malta Rocha?¡±


    Jessie McShaw sighs belatedly, and responds, ¡°Sis was, is, an angel. Straight outta heaven, the only peace of mind I ever had was sitting next to her as she hummed and did her whittlin¡¯. Good with a knife, and a leather punch, she done good craftwork at most anything she tried, but her favorite was whittlin¡¯. Voice pure as heaven, face what god gifted, and hair, like mine, red as tarnation. Y¡¯all won¡¯t believe me ¡®bout Malta Rocha, no one does.¡±


    Huffing, hoping for more than a fluff piece about a dearly departed, I state, ¡°Try me.¡±


    The man wears a grim smirk. Don¡¯t know how you can smirk and still look so dour, grim, dark, but he done it. Takes a while, looks at the ten dollar bill, and the one what I¡¯d given him just before. He holds up the one, and tries to hand it back to me. I shake my head, and try again, ¡°Please, the money¡¯s yours, I just want the truth. I¡¯m a reporter for th¡ª¡°


    Jessie interrupts, ¡°I know who y¡¯are. I been military, I been law, I been a few things outside ¡®n¡¯ inbetween too. I catch news sometimes Mister Jackson. Fine, I¡¯ll tell y¡¯the truth, but y¡¯aint gonna believe me, no one does.¡±


    He seems put-together, sane, shrewd, intelligent, and ten dollars, no, eleven, tends to buy a whole lotta honesty. So I¡¯m prepared to write what he tells me, damn what I believe. Jessie sums it up, ¡°Got home after discharge, Sis been dead only a couple hours. Kicked myself, almost ate the end of a forty four Wesson. Townies told me what done it, giant bugs. So I sat out at the hill, waited for ¡®em to come back, and plugged the suckers one after ¡®nother. Ran outta ammo on I think it was day three guardin¡¯ the pass, and I¡¯m bashin¡¯ some giant ant¡¯s head in with the butt end of that same forty four Wesson, when I hear sizzle, and see nitro sticks flyin¡¯. Look behind me, and Arnie the Carnie done been run through by some hog-suckin¡¯ burrowin¡¯ scorpion. He done loaded up with ammo, and water for me and my foolish, grief-stricken ass.¡±


    Jessie shakes his head, perhaps experiencing some dismay at the supposed memory before he continues, ¡°I still had to bludgeon the damn scorpion to death, to get Arnie¡¯s body off it, and get the ammo, and some sorely needed water for my too-parched throat. Big-ass queen lookin¡¯ thing shiftin¡¯ sand like a dune on the move showed up, and that¡¯s what Arnie threw sticks at. The red went sailin¡¯, and shewee that boom is louder¡¯n¡¯hell up close. After she died, was two more days of shootin¡¯ with the ammo Arnie done brought me, drinkin¡¯ that barrel o¡¯ water, and, after a time, eatin¡¯ some damn bug meat cause my shootin¡¯ arm was gettin¡¯ weak and tired. And no, weren¡¯t all done with a single pistol. Had me a mess o¡¯ guns up there, just brought up the Wesson forty four for the reasons I spelled out.¡±


    His voice quiets, and he leans low, as if speaking a secret for my ears alone, ¡°Had me thinkin¡¯ on those lines the whole time. Just end it Jessie, Sis is gone, just end it. Didn¡¯t do it. Couldn¡¯t do it. Couldn¡¯t imagine what she¡¯da thunk o¡¯ me if I did it. Wouldn¡¯t do that to her if she were alive, couldn¡¯t do it to her while she were dead. Now, I¡¯ma march back out to Malta Rocha, and talk to that goddamn ant shaman, and get the bastard to bring back my baby sis.¡±


    Governor Kyle gave me strict orders if I heard anything about someone dealing with insect medicine men, that I was to shoot anyone that spoke of it. Dangerous delusions supposedly. I gulp as I draw irons on the local sheriff, loathe to cut down a man in his prime, one that¡¯s obviously still hysterical with grief. Never thought anything would come of it. Never, ever thought I¡¯d have to actually go through with a cold-blooded kill, and assassinate someone. I try to reassure myself, that at least I got the story, got his last words. I pull the trigger, my finger trembling the whole time.

 B 6 C 93: Sacrificial Solution

    Cautiously, making sure to always place myself between Induul and the exit, or Induul and Zayzi, I state, ¡°Indy¡ªuul, I can¡¯t begin to understand how hard what you¡¯re going through must be for you. I¡¯m sure that somewhere inside, you don¡¯t want to do things that you¡¯d regret. I want to help you, but I¡¯m going to need your help in order to do so. I need you to drop the line of thought that your symptoms had been pushing. Do you understand me? What they were suggesting is unforgivable. The kind of thing I¡¯d exile or kill someone for committing. I¡ª. Sorry, I¡¯m not intending to scare you or control you. I want to help you. I know you can get through this, but I don¡¯t know what tools you need to make it to the other side. Please help me learn what you need, what you really, really need, to beat this thing. Please?¡±


    I can sense Induul plotting to dash past me as he hisses angrily in response to my attempt to connect with him. I can¡¯t let him roam about freely now, not with his mind locked on seeking relief in the way it is. Trying another tack, I ask, ¡°Can you tell me about your mother? Is Ka¡¯thuul your mother? She¡¯s our ally in the war, but that mostly simply seems to mean a non-aggression pact, and her maneuvering around, claiming some of the wealth we manage to liberate from Terrorzin¡¯s hordes. Does she have abilities, allies, powers, resources, that can help withdrawal and addiction symptoms?¡±


    Feeling Induul¡¯s thoughts sway somewhat, his lust dying down somewhat at being forced to think of his own mother, I¡¯d almost breathe a sigh of relief, but it¡¯s not enough. Induul relents somewhat in order to admit, ¡°I doubt she¡¯s got any resources we don¡¯t, it¡¯s possible she has piping herb, but more likely she¡¯d just lock me up, or feed me to one of her lieutenants. Her follower¡¯s ¡®loyalty¡¯ is bought in meat and gems, displease her, and all you are is meat in her eyes.¡±


    There¡¯s a long pause where no words are exchanged as I try to figure out how to respond to that. Teuila glances nervously between the two of us, ready to intervene, but I try to guide her towards a calmer state telepathically. Zayzi seems uncaring about the danger they¡¯re in, unfazed by Induul¡¯s crazy-eyed glare. Sadly, Induul¡¯s darker thoughts creep to the fore again.


    Gnawing my lip, I offer, "Induul, I can see you''re struggling with the withdrawal, but I''m concerned about the way you¡¯re thinking about the people around you. We need to find a way to prevent you from acting on things you¡¯ll regret later."


    Induul smirks, his voice tinged with defiance, "Schism, I don''t care to even try to control this line of thought. I won¡¯t regret getting relief from the cravings. The pipe¡¯s all I can think about right now except maybe a substitute, and honestly, I don''t give a damn if I do something messed up."


    Struggling to suppress a growl, I bite down harder on my lip as I retort, "Induul, we care about you, and we won¡¯t stand by. We want to help you break free from the addiction to come out on the other side as unscathed as possible. You will regret acting on cravings. Trust me."


    Crossing his arms, Induul scoffs, "Well see, that''s your problem right there. Schism, I don''t want your help. I don''t want to break free. I just want some relief, some pipe, or some pipe, if you catch my drift."


    Taking a deep breath, trying to maintain composure, I respond, "I get that you might feel that way now, but this addiction is messing with your head. It''s taking away your inhibitions, inhibitions that are a good thing like your moral compass."


    Induul rolls his eyes, his voice filled with sarcasm, "Oh, spare me the lecture, oh great valorous Schism. You don''t understand what it''s like. The pipe is all I have."


    Heaving a sigh for a moment, I continue on to state more resolutely, "I may not understand fully, Induul, but I do know that you''re worth more than this. We won''t give up on you, even if you''re giving up on yourself."


    With a defiant tone, and hardened face, Induul snaps, "Save your breath, Schism. I won''t change my mind. I''ll do what I want. I¡¯ll find relief, I swear it."


    With a firm voice, shaking my head, I deny Induul, "We need to keep everyone, you included, safe. Even if it means intervening forcefully."


    Smirking, a glint of rebellion in his eyes, Indy snickers, "Good luck with that. You won''t stop me. You¡¯re too afraid of tarnishing your high and mighty image."


    At that, I actually burst out laughing, causing Induul to flinch and eye me with a strange curiosity. Me? Concerned with image? Hah! I forgot what I looked like for months at a time. I¡¯ve gone through such few periods in my life where there were even other people around, that I¡¯m more used to assuming what others might think of me, and assuming it¡¯s the worst case scenario in any event. Plus, I literally just bullied some poor young woman to the point of tears this morning. I¡¯m far from having a spotless image in anyone¡¯s eyes.


    Sighing, I rely on my usual tactic in order to keep the peace, violence, or threat of it, ¡°Indy. I learned how to summon meteorites today. Not as large or as devastating as the full on meteor spell, but they pack a hell of a punch. I can also manifest elementals on a whim at this point, without even using my staff. I¡¯d be more than happy to demonstrate what it¡¯s like to be buried up to your neck in stone, if that¡¯s what it takes to help you through this. Is that what it¡¯s going to take?¡±


    Thankfully, Induul balks. His mind races for a few moments, trying to calculate the odds that I¡¯d actually conjure a stone elemental to drag him into the rock of some cavern wall or floor. I can tell he¡¯s also trying to determine if he¡¯s strong enough to break free of such a prison without leverage, or if he could safely shapeshift around his own head. Sighing, I continue shaking my head at Induul¡¯s thoughts as they race for a while longer yet. Eventually, his thoughts center on me, and what he remembers about my power, durability, strength, and the rumors he¡¯s heard along the halls today. Funnily enough, there¡¯s a spark of enjoyment that Induul gets as he continuously imagines me to be scarier and scarier. Some tiny bit of dopamine or whatever neurochemical that happens to be responsible for pleasure in dragon brains comes in bits and pulses to Induul. It isn¡¯t enough to replace the cravings, but it gives me hope.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Gnawing on his own inner cheek, Induul requests, ¡°You¡¯re serious about wanting to help, right? You want me to get through this, without smoking pipe or laying it, yeah? Stick with me, stay up with me. Withdrawal gives me insomnia, can¡¯t sleep, even if I could somehow sleep, the cravings would taint it, sour it, give me nightmares and make the cravings and lethargy worse the next day.¡±


    Well crap. I¡¯m certainly not going to deny Induul the help he needs, when he can specifically request something that¡¯s reasonable. I don¡¯t personally do very well on a lack of sleep myself though. My own emotional turbulences and mental health issues tend to amplify the longer I¡¯m awake. Plus, I¡¯d been hoping to comfort Iylynila, Prinrin, and Farzhis tonight, but I don¡¯t want to risk dozing off with Induul unable to sleep as he stands nearby. Oh well, as much as I desire certain comforts, I¡¯ll take this on for Induul.


    Going sleepless is a small sacrifice, though it could have larger, unintended consequences. For example, if my tiredness gets someone else hurt or killed, I¡¯d regret having chosen this route of addressing the challenge Induul faces in coping with his withdrawal. Hopefully we have some time between offensives. Doing one assault with two nights of sleeplessness won¡¯t be utterly impossible.


    After attacking one fortress, and recovering from that one while not having slept, doing any further assaults afterwards could be disastrous. I make mistakes, get sloppy, and am all around not great for combat after being awake for more than two days. In the beaver dam tunnel complex, that¡¯s part of what cost Sylphie her life. Hell, I¡¯d actually gotten a few hours of sleep here and there during times when I was knocked unconscious, or rendered thusly by one thing or another.


    Hoping that I¡¯m not committing to sacrificing someone else¡¯s life for my choice, nodding in response, I offer up, ¡°Yes, correct, and yeah I do. Sure, I¡¯ll do that for you. I guess since you¡¯re already here, we can teach you to make the sweet dumpling things. Is that okay Zayzi?¡±


    A dragon of few words as ever, Xayla¡¯s response is a simple, ¡°Sure.¡±


    Phew, with that, I blow a sigh of relief through pursed lips and puffed cheeks. Tension in the room seems to fade, as Induul¡¯s mind remains fixated on the idea of me being frighteningly powerful. It¡¯s odd, but I think the anxiety, or fear of me, is somehow enjoyable for Induul. There¡¯s some sort of masochistic trait, or something similar, embedded somewhere in Induul, where fear equals pleasure in some small way. I guess it¡¯s a harmless enough thing to provide some mild relief from the cravings.


    Turning towards Teuila, I begin to rest my head against her shoulder, then lift my face to nuzzle her cheek momentarily. Before I even think of doing so, Xayla quickly orders, ¡°No kissing.¡±


    Blinking a bit in surprise, I guess I hadn¡¯t expected Xayla¡¯s order to extend between Teuila and myself. I¡¯d just thought they meant to not kiss them. Blushing and shrugging, I apologize telepathically to Teuila who playfully pouts my way before flashing me a grin and a wink. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s so understanding. Trying to help her tame her ocean of emotions while keeping an eye on Induul, and making sweet-dough with Zayzi is a challenge, but it reminds me how close we are. The fact that Teuila lets me see this part of her mindscape, that she admits these things to me that she¡¯s so scared to release, it¡¯s a testament to how deep our connection really is.


    I mean, Te is just amazing on so many levels, but the things she¡¯s struggling with right now are deep scars upon her soul. They¡¯re volcanic fissures at the very bottom of her ocean of emotions. Teuila deeply regrets hurting me, the few times she¡¯s done something that she realized had hurt me, which I struggle to absolve her of. Addressing that seems easier than addressing the deaths of the kobolds, but even that isn¡¯t going to be solved in a single evening.


    Te and I? We both want to be inseparable, to never be apart. We¡¯re in love, and we¡¯re both as strong as we¡¯ve ever been, so we have a chance right now, to believe that we¡¯ve got time to work through these things. We¡¯re choosing to grasp that chance, to believe we¡¯ll have time together, that we¡¯ll get through all this, and that there will be time after all the apocalypses are done with. This affords us the opportunity to be patient with ourselves, and with each other, when things are tough, as they are right now, emotionally.


    Whispering to Teuila privately, psychically, I mutter, ¡°I love you Teuila Shellcracker. Thank you for being patient with me, and kind with me, for all of our lives together, through both of them. Thank you for staying with me, for loving me, for protecting me, for saving me, for guiding me, for sharing with me, for being excited about me, for me, and with me. I need you to know how much I value you, how deeply in love with you I am and always will be.¡±


    With her avatar blushing in our shared mindscape, Teuila fidgets under such an intense direct admission. Hearing her fidgeting appear in my mental narrative causes Te to grumble, ¡°Stupid emotions, stuff, nice, perfect words and stuff. Wish I could give you the words you deserve Air, my Airhead, my Reggie. I l¡ª. You know I do. I do. Forever and deep and everything too. I¡¯m sorry. Sorry for the times I hurt you, and sorry for not being able to say things all the time, or like, almost at all,¡± she pauses to sniffle several times before finishing, ¡°but really all that same stuff to you. You¡¯ve always been those things, done those things too. Just, just keep being you, please, no matter what the crazy ladies in the mist say. Stupid sexy Sisters.¡±


    I¡¯m deeply touched by Teuila¡¯s words right up until the end there. I can¡¯t help chuckling, which becomes giggling across our mental wavelength with my right brow raised dubiously. I know Teuila¡¯s talking about the Sisters Hidden in the Mist, but this¡ª. Putting up all my walls for a second, I contemplate the phrasing. I think there¡¯s something a bit significant about it, but I can¡¯t recall quite what it is. Wait, Lu told me to stop thinking of her and Te as sisters, right? Ah, no wonder she had me drop this line of thinking, and asked me to forget the conversation ever happened. She¡¯d been worried about stuff coming across like this. Makes sense that Lu wouldn¡¯t want to accidentally make Te think she thought about her in that way. That could get awkward before being cleared up.


    Resuming being open across my psychic wavelengths, my telepathic avatar flashes a smile towards Teuila. While Te and I are having our little mental moment, Zayzi seems to *almost* bond with Induul, over the cooking process, helping keep his mind occupied. The five of us, Lucky included, sit in the larder for several hours, just chatting inanely, though Teuila and Induul do most of the talking. It¡¯s around midnight, perhaps one in the morning when Zayzi yawns and rubs their eyes sleepily. They wander off towards their dormitory with barely a parting statement about being sleepy.


    Zayzi literally just states, ¡°Sleepy,¡± before walking away.


    Induul looses a wry chuckle before scratching the back of his head. Teuila is beginning to nod off on my shoulder repeatedly, but Indy shows no sign of being remotely near capable of falling asleep. That spells pretty bad news for me, but at least I can keep Teuila levitating nearby as she passes out. I¡¯m probably going to have to have Induul shadow me for at least half a week to a week to ride out the worst of his cravings. I¡¯m guessing he¡¯s not going to sleep a wink that entire time. That, unfortunately, means I won¡¯t either. I guess I¡¯ll be sacrificing sleep to help keep Induul on a path he won¡¯t regret.

 B 6 C 94: Morning Musings

    With Te snoozing as she floats next to me, I glance at Induul. He shrugs as he itches his left arm with the knuckles on his right hand. I¡¯ve seen him doing that off and on for hours now. I suppose it¡¯s better than using his rather sharp-seeming nails, since his arm would be bloody by now with all the scratching he¡¯s been doing. I have no idea how to keep the guy company and keep his mind occupied for a solid week straight with no sleep.


    Figuring it¡¯s best to accomplish something, I invite Indy along as I float Teuila and myself down towards Mount Verdimenn. I¡¯ll take a look over some of the things therein, but I¡¯m already so sleepy that I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be making any in-depth analyses of the various runes. I just have to sincerely hope that Induul passes out at some point before the twenty-sixth when I need to assault Vorzog¡¯s keep, so that I can get a nap, and be prepared for it. Perhaps to also leave him behind while I take it down.


    Induul hooks his thumbs in his belt, and rocks back and forth. His cravings and agitation leave him performing all manner of odd antisocial motions. Many of them are similar to signs of introvertedness, an odd thing to display for the cocky, self-assured, social-power-dynamic-ploying Indy. Others though are clear displays of the withdrawal symptoms as I know them from my Fakeworld databank of memories. Hm, speaking of Fakeworld.


    I withdraw the smartphone, and I stare down at it, teary-eyed. This thing breaks me emotionally in a lot of ways. I don¡¯t understand it. Computers and electronics and all of that stuff was just supposed to be some bug in the system of our world, of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It shouldn¡¯t be real, it can¡¯t be real, but I¡¯m holding a smartphone, one I even recognize the approximate year of its release. Induul asks what I¡¯m looking up and what¡¯s got me looking so distraught, but I can¡¯t really explain to him how I¡¯m feeling about this object.


    It¡¯s powerful, in a lot of ways. I¡¯m like some sort of modern Yankee in some king¡¯s court. If I weren¡¯t already fairly decent with arithmetic, its calculation powers alone would be astounding. Even without a network to connect to, its ability to capture pictures, and take notes, they¡¯re just, it just doesn¡¯t make sense. It¡¯s like a dozen magical artifacts stuffed into a barely larger than palm-sized quarter-inch thin slate. Hell, it can record, and has a directional microphone, so it could possibly be used for snooping and spying if I were so inclined.


    Shaking my head at Induul¡¯s question of, ¡°What¡¯s eating you about that thing?¡± I¡¯m still at a loss for words.


    I just bonded, wed, got married to an ancient, nearly divine being, the eldest living dragon on Rayileklia. Rayileklia¡¯s a world that seems to be approximately equivalent to perhaps Fakeworld¡¯s fourteenth or fifteenth century, with the dwarves being ahead in craftsmanship and inventiveness in the way of arms and weapons by nearly a century or more. I should find a way to get word to the Derbrightmine Dominion that we¡¯re fighting back, that we can avenge Don and Paulette, or perhaps even rescue them from their icy entombment if they aren¡¯t dead within its enchanted prison.


    The idea of contacting them leaves me musing about what they¡¯d think about me reaching out to them. The dwarves wouldn¡¯t be people that I¡¯d want to put on the front lines of a war where so many of the forces are capable of scorching the lands for vast distances. Still, if I could have them and the Aasimovian refugees work together, it¡¯d be a great boon for all involved. The Aasimovians should definitely dig in, with the kobolds, in the ruins of Jeegoobotstan.


    Hell, has it really only been about a month since we parted ways with Tiktik and the refugees? It feels like a lifetime since our¡ª. Blinking back tears, I find myself hoping beyond hope that this war doesn¡¯t reach them, that Tiktik doesn¡¯t have to fight to protect the refugees, that the hares, the refugees, the kobolds, and the few remaining Plains Colossi are all able to make it through this unscathed.


    Indy frowns at my wordlessness, since he needs me to distract him from his cravings, so I try to make small talk, something I¡¯m notoriously bad at, ¡°I ah, haven¡¯t been alive all that long on this world, or on the world I¡¯m from either, for that matter. What about you Indy? How many seasons have you seen come and pass?¡±


    Scoffing and rolling his eyes, Induul grumps, ¡°First, don¡¯t call me that. Second, do you have any idea how hard it is to gauge the passage of time when you live inside a mountain on a world where a storm literally never ends? You¡¯re horrible at this Schism.¡±


    Blushing and casting my gaze aside, I nod as I mutter, ¡°I know, it¡¯s something I try to avoid. Talking to anyone that isn¡¯t in my inner circle.¡±


    Grumpily, Indy pries, ¡°Yeah, I noticed that with you and the scrawny Red. She, well, they,¡± he pauses for the briefest of moment to mutter, ¡°sorry I guess,¡± before continuing, ¡°seemed even worse than you, and that¡¯s saying a lot. Single syllable sentences whenever possible, no concept of personal space, eye contact was completely random. You at least have some social graces.¡±


    Frowning, now grumpy myself, defensively-for-Xayla, I deride Induul, ¡°Zazie, erm, Xayla is going through some pretty rough stuff. I don¡¯t know what they were like before they were traumatized, but it¡¯s not really fair to criticize them for how they¡¯re coping, or not coping. Y¡¯know, pot and kettle and all.¡±


    Somewhat stricken, though perhaps mostly humorously-so, Indy mutters, ¡°Touche Schism, touche.¡±


    Returning to blushing, I scratch the back of my head as I try to steer the conversation towards less hurtful topics, ¡°An¡ª, anyway, um. Yes, you¡¯re right, I¡¯m horrible at speaking to others. I do have some small sense of what it might be like to live on this world, having been living here all of this particular life, however short that may have been. I was just curious if¡ª. It doesn¡¯t matter. Anyway, we¡¯re almost to Mount Verdimenn. You think you can handle being around a bunch of volatile, uncategorized magical artifacts and equipment?¡±


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    Scoffing barely half a laugh, Indy¡¯s response is as expected, ¡°What, you think I¡¯ll smoke or snort the first thing I get my hands on?¡±


    I can¡¯t help laughing a bit at that myself, not having meant it that way. I figure I¡¯d better smooth things over, ¡°Not exactly what I meant. You¡¯re a bit erratic, emotionally and physically, I don¡¯t want you bumping into something that turns you into a potted plant or something.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow in suspicion, Induul calls me on my response, ¡°You¡¯re bluffing. There couldn¡¯t be anything like that in your hoard. Could there?¡±


    Shrugging, I half chuckle, hoping that Induul is at least slightly mollified for the moment. I sigh and rest my head wearily against Teuila¡¯s floating form as I try not to lament how I¡¯m not spending my night in bed with those that I love the most, after such an eventful day. As far as I know, it might just be Kinzul, Farzhis, and Prinrin in bed together right now. Teuila¡¯s here with me, Lil was trying to confess his feelings to Ixeyla, and Luni was going to coach him on that.


    Sighing deeply yet again, I notice a scroll case and a note leaned up against my vault door when we finally arrive at the rear of our Mount Verdimenn projects. Hm, apparently Atter had either been by, or had someone drop this off for her. Let¡¯s see what it says.


    ¡°Schism, Reggie, friend, hero, whatever the hell I should call you,


    Thanks for loaning us this, for saving us, for saving them, for introducing me to that right nice Boetah fellow, for everything really. Conjugation will take a couple of weeks with a clutch this size, and I¡¯ll be spending that in Boetah¡¯s quarters, but if there¡¯s anything I can do at all, anything you need to talk to me about, about my kinsmen, or anything, please stop by.


    Humbly yours,


    Loud¡±


    Huh, I thought conjugation was some sort of euphemism for a sex-practice. I mean, I guess it could still be. I wasn¡¯t exactly sure how conjugation took viable eggs from just viable eggs to a fertilized state though. I raise my eyebrows as a mumble, ¡°Conjugation can take a couple of weeks? That uh, seems odd.¡±


    Rolling his eyes, Indy queries, ¡°What¡¯s odd about it? Most will take in only a single egg at a time to soak, and generally let it remain for about a day for the best chances. Even if someone¡¯s fairly sure some of the eggs are past the viable stage, most can¡¯t help trying anyway.¡±


    Take a single egg to soak? That ¡ª. Oh. OH! Jeeze. No wonder Shiz was uncomfortable talking about the specifics around me. Yeesh. I hadn¡¯t thought about how exactly they get fertilized. I know the eggs, once fertile, are supposed to be in a warm sandy environment, a hatching-grounds, until they hatch. Before that though? Yeah, I guess it makes sense that they need to, erm, fertilize in¡ª. I¡¯m going to stop thinking about this.


    The whelps, the little dragonlings, are a mixture of infants in the way that humanoids would think of them, and progeny of an animal species. That is, that they are somewhat capable of actions like walking or gliding or chewing or even belching flame or other elements, almost immediately after hatching.


    So the egg-layer, or someone, has to, erm, keep each egg in a sort of a bath of¡ª. This topic is just too awkward. I guess I now also understand sort of why the rumors are that Terrorzin has breeding queens that he forces to take in the eggs, somewhat literally. Dragons do temporarily take an egg back into themselves to, erm, conjugate. Jeeze. I wonder if it¡¯s the same for clutching-capable Draconiacs. Musing to myself, I suppose there¡¯s one person I could ask about the topic. That¡¯d be Ahliyui, but that seems like asking for trouble in a lot of ways that I don¡¯t need.


    I wouldn¡¯t want Yui thinking I¡¯m coming on to her, or trying to mate with her. Not that she¡¯s not an absolutely lovely lady. Also it¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t already sort of let myself romantically entangle with a Draconiac. One absolutely, utterly gorgeous, smooth-scaled, supple, slate-gray Draconiac who often wears tight-fitted leathers and¡ª. Erm, I¡¯m sidetracking myself. What was I trying to think about?


    Oh, right, reasons approaching Ahliyui about the specifics of clutching in Draconiacs would be bad. Plus, with all the propaganda, she might not even know or be a hundred percent certain exactly what the process should be like. Draconiacs aren¡¯t supposed to be able to clutch at all any more. Or conjugate, or something along those lines anyway. Anyway, I don¡¯t want her feeling like her captor is trying to get her to um, clutch for us or conjugate with her or anything repulsive like that. The power dynamic just makes any sort of mating between us just utterly awful. Erm, not that I think we¡¯re going to mate, or would have had any reason to, or that I would have had any of her interest whatsoever. Friggin¡¯ hell Reggie. Just shut up.


    I facepalm, which earns me a raised eyebrow from Induul, and my steaming face probably tells him enough about where my mind is at to cement my embarrassment. Hell, with the topic I¡¯d just been asking about, unintentionally at least, he¡¯s probably got a pretty accurate guess, though less likely who my mind had accidentally wandered towards. My squirrelly, circuitous mind. Why did it even start to think about Yui in that way anyway? Oh! Right! Because Prinrin exposed a secret, that she¡¯s capable of clutching, and has already done so once, and may be about to lay another clutch. She might be the only living Draconiac capable of doing so in Mount Solace. Maybe. It¡¯s not like I¡¯ve met every single one of them.


    I mean, I suppose I could try to meet everyone in Mount Solace, if I¡¯m supposed to represent them all. Yeah, that¡¯d go over great, ¡°So, Hero, why are you meeting with everyone in Mount Solace?¡± ¡°Oh you know, so that I can ask each of you if you¡¯re capable of mating, and what that process is like for you.¡± Brain. Mhm? Shut up. Heh.


    Rolling my eyes at myself, I shake my head at my own brain before glancing towards Induul and offering a half-hearted shrug. Packing up my portable hole, I realize I should probably get a change of clothing, and do something about the¡ª. Why didn¡¯t I just prestidigitatively clean the clothing? I facepalm once again. I mastered the spell so that¡ª. Oh, right, I wasn¡¯t sure how many S P I was going to need during the evening for things that I wanted to try. It¡¯d have been frivolous to expend them on something I could do with a few seconds in a wash basin.


    Induul simply shakes his head at me after clucking his tongue, realizing just how airheaded I am, even without listening to my internal monologue. The fact that I obviously have my own mental struggles with constant realizations that are facepalm-worthy probably spell out plenty about my character for him. Not that we haven¡¯t already had several hours of joking at my expense, with him and Teuila doing most of the chatting earlier.


    Right, anyway, let¡¯s see what we can do here while we¡¯re stuck being awake anyway, shall we?

 B 6 C 95: Building Exhaustion

    In this state of exhaustion, the answer is not much. I fish out some parchment, and an infinite-ink self-writing quill for at least one task though. I instruct the quill to begin taking down notes of the alchemical composition of the few potions I¡¯d been able to figure out through my myconid form¡¯s hivemind from disassembling them within the orb-time. I wonder if there¡¯s any advantages I can build for us from using alchemical knowledge gained in the myconid form.


    Thinking about alchemy and chemical breakdowns, I find myself thinking of acid and acid specialists. That leads to me thinking about Jazharn. She¡¯s the one true human in our family. At least, that I know of, or recall offhand. I mean, she¡¯s technically not exactly in our family yet, but she¡¯s dating one of the cat tribe, a tribe that we subsumed into the Shellcracker clan. I know it was going extremely well, because they were working at inventing an entire language together to bridge the communication barrier between humans and critterkin. Well, that and because they spent plenty of time together and Dreams of Days had never looked happier.


    Wait, our cat tribe family members. The one dating Jazharn, Dreams was her name, right? Hell it feels like so long since we¡¯ve seen them, I can barely remember their faces or names. I begin to weep at the idea of losing memories that are so precious to me as my family on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Induul grimaces at my show of vulnerability, since he needs me to appear fearsome and frightening for him, to keep his mind off of his cravings. Sighing heavily, I stuff my emotions down deeply into a box to unpack later when I¡¯m not ¡°on the clock,¡± as it were.


    Wait, losing precious memories, gaining memories that push out older ones, something was doing that one time. Crap, that¡¯s probably one of those lines of thought that I can¡¯t chase without Lu. Friggin¡¯ hell. Stupid mysterious memory crap. I find myself growling in frustration, which thankfully zeroes out Induul¡¯s mood, returning his grimace to neutral as he remembers how volatile I am. It reminds him that my emotional displays are as likely to turn into wrath as anything else. I really want to physically vent my frustrations on something, hurt something right now. The idea that I might be losing the memories that I hold dear from my life, my real life, my first life, on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, it breaks my heart, and tears painfully into me.


    Grr, I need to not think that way either though. I¡¯ve forged real memories here on Rayileklia. These people are just as real, just as full of hope and fear and love and anguish. I, I just don¡¯t want to lose anything. I guess I¡¯m selfish that way. I don¡¯t want to give up any of what I have, and anything else that I stumble into, or gain, I want to keep. Doesn¡¯t everyone though? At least, in terms of connections, friendships, loves, the safety of their family, and the like? I don¡¯t even know any more. Heaving another sigh I slam my fist into the ultra-dense stone wall and grunt in pain as I bruise my knuckles.


    I punch the wall again, and again, and again, as my anger rises at the thought of losing my dearest memories, at Rayileklia taking them from me somehow, at not understanding how or why my memories are broken and buggy and dangerous. Somehow, somehow I think it has to do with the Celestial Emperor. My anger spirals as I think about the things he¡¯s done that I know about, or that I¡¯ve conjectured about.


    It feels wrong, but I have people in the world that I definitely want to kill. Killing should be wrong, is wrong, but Terrorzin? The Celestial Emperor? They have to go. They don¡¯t get more chances. They¡¯ve had time and made choices that subjugated and caused suffering. They¡¯ve stolen souls, literally. That isn¡¯t some sort of slap on the wrist and talk down to them kind of offense. That¡¯s a keep them from ever being able to harm another soul ever again kind of offense.


    I know, I know. Who am I to play judge, jury, and executioner? Who the hell else is going to do it? What court would reign over such a trial that would even be safe from the tyranny and power of such heinous evils? I want to be a moral, just, kind, and good person. I truly do. My hands and soul are sullied though. I don¡¯t know if they¡¯ll ever be clean. I think back to the fear I saw in those eyes, the last psion standing that had been attempting to subvert Fenric¡¯s will. That salmon-colored Draconiac was almost assuredly begging for mercy nonverbally, and I slew her. I struck her down. Or maybe I threw her to Salamanderian. It doesn¡¯t really matter which hand carried the knife as it were. Either way her life ended at my behest.


    I vomit against the wall that I¡¯d been striking, feeling sick at the taking of a life that I may have been able to offer mercy to in other circumstances. Induul flinches, and his muscles clench in a semi-fearful reaction. I see his stomach lurch in response to my sickness, so he turns away and takes several strides towards the vault door where he doesn¡¯t have to witness my continued retching. I took lives, I slew people. I took lives, and will have to keep taking lives. It¡¯s all I can think about now. The only punishments I get are the ones I deliver against my own mind, or my body here literally being sick with disgust at my actions.


    I don¡¯t want to be that person. I don¡¯t want to be judge, jury, and executioner. I don¡¯t want there to be war, and strife. Still, I suppose it¡¯s necessary, because I definitely don¡¯t want to see children, or clutched eggs, stolen from people. I definitely don¡¯t want to see the light of the whole world snuffed out after being razed to ash and cinders. As sick as it makes me to be backed into a corner where taking lives seems like the only option, it really is something that I have to do. My stomach heaves and I dry-retch one last time. I know it¡¯s a bit overkill, but I snag my elemental bandolier and toss a fire-enhanced knife at the pool of sick in the corner. The heat of the explosion washes clean the stone, leaving nothing but a dark char where the vomit once was.


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    Induul jumps in surprise at the sudden rush of heat and the fwooshing sound of the flame. Trying to get my mind back to focusing on helping him, I joke, ¡°Had to clean up after myself, figured a fireball was the quickest way to do it.¡±


    Blinking several times, Induul shakes his head incredulously, muttering, ¡°Sure, a Red, I get maybe being lazy and cooking away some mess, but you¡¯ve got limits on your powers, right?¡±


    Shrugging, I respond, ¡°Sure, but I don¡¯t leave for the Vorzog keep or whatever it¡¯s called until about twenty four to thirty hours from now, the knife¡¯s power will have returned by then.¡±


    Rolling his eyes, Indy scoffs, ¡°Right, right, so why not toss fireballs around just because you can?¡±


    Despite not actually feeling that way, I chuckle and nod in agreement, ¡°Exactly.¡±


    I¡¯m putting on a facade for him, and he knows it, but somehow it comforts him nonetheless. Regardless? Nonetheless, regardless, whatever. Sifting through my private hoard, I look around for perhaps another box of the runic clip trinkets that attach into the bangles. I don¡¯t want Induul touching anything in his current state, or I¡¯d ask him to help out by being a second pair of eyes.


    My own eyes are itchy from having cried and then dried in the heat of the flames. I really need to distract myself from the anger that¡¯s building back up again. Our situation, this world, the horrible things that happen, and the horrible people behind them, and possibly losing my memories, and being a murderer, and, and just so much more. I¡¯m getting intrusive thoughts like thinking the only way to quiet my brain about obsessing on these topics would be to stab it with something. That would be pretty bad Reggie. Yeah, I know. Urgh, split psyche stuff, talking to myself in my head.


    More like just talking things out. Cut yourself a little slack and give yourself a break mentally. Intrusive thoughts are intrusive, they¡¯re not what you want to do, or are going to do. Talking through things in your head, even if you address yourself, is a perfectly valid way to handle coming to conclusions. Is it though? Yes. How would you, or I, know that though? Well, think of some psych one oh one stuff, or some psych two oh one stuff. If you wanted to be a therapist for someone, based on what you know from those courses, how would you handle talking someone through this scenario? Hm, true.


    Wait. How the everloving eff would I know the course material for psych one oh one or psych two oh one? That¡¯s Fakeworld contemporary college curriculum. Gods what the hell is even going on with these buggy-ass memories of mine? I slam my head into the wall a bit too hard, trying to dislodge the thoughts, and mostly succeed, though I nearly black out for my effort. Ow. Despite having slammed the top of my forehead into the wall, it¡¯s the sides of my cranium above and near my temples that throbs in pain.


    Induul seems at a loss for words, which is probably for the best, as he sees me massaging the sides of my skull. I shake my head at him, having no rational explanation for my actions. Trying to explain the rabbit-hole that is my brain would take¡ª. Well, then again, I do need to keep him occupied, and distracted. Talking things out might help me figure some things out about myself, even if I¡¯m just using Indy as a sounding board.


    I start covering some of my mental state to Induul, and apparently something about either my words, my delivery, my voice, or something else that I couldn¡¯t even guess, keeps him mostly captivated. That¡¯s a stroke of luck on my part, since I¡¯m only staying awake to try to help him get past his initial cravings. He isn¡¯t exactly sympathizing or empathizing with me, but he¡¯s drawn into the tale of the inanity that is learning about the inner workings of my brain.


    Explaining the hows and the whys of my best guesses as to my neurological states are, well, just guesses on my part. I¡¯m not trying to diagnose myself in any fashion, though it¡¯s pretty obvious to anyone that I suffer from my traumas. The rest of it though? The depressive spells? The intrusive thoughts? The thinking in circles? The fixations and inability to control my focus? I can only begin to take stabs in the dark at those. There¡¯s no telling how much of my neurological state is due to my Changeling Fae nature, the mana corruption sickness, just being a spellcaster and using magic, or from forcing my way through magic, occasionally literally breaking parts of my brain.


    Induul happens to find it amusing when he learns that I¡¯ve literally destroyed portions of my brain, paying the price for my hubris at times. I¡¯m certainly far less amused at having lost what could have played vital roles in pivotal moments of this war. I can¡¯t say I exactly regret doing it. I wouldn¡¯t have survived trying to buy Autumn Brook nearly as much time without sacrificing that part of my brain to call upon the backup that I did. Mana constructs simply weren¡¯t meant to be utilized at those levels in that abundance though, simultaneously, for that length of time. Any one of those rules being broken could have destroyed me, but I broke all of them, and somehow managed to luck out into only losing my ability to ever break those rules again.


    Sighing, I shake my head at myself, lamenting that even my good luck carries weight and responsibility and loss. Lives rested on those choices that I made, and more lives rest on the me that exists after the consequences of them. Everything I do has consequences reaching far farther than I could ever have imagined. Well, that¡¯s sort of a lie, I can imagine quite far. Ridiculously so. I simply mean that I hadn¡¯t contemplated just what sorts of consequences I might be dealing with down the road, when I¡¯d been making certain choices.


    I¡¯m getting nothing done other than burning time with Induul. I so badly just want to close my eyes and cuddle Teuila, or float myself up to Kinzul¡¯s den to spend the night with the rest of my loved ones, my family, hell, my wife. Crap on a cracker that will never not be weird. I still think of myself as an aro ace. I mean, me doing things outside the normal bounds of the spectrum doesn¡¯t invalidate my identity, but it¡¯s still weird. Hell, it¡¯s three thirty in the morning. I¡¯m going to be so friggin¡¯ exhausted by noon, let alone by the time I need to assault Vorzog¡¯s keep tomorrow.

 B 6 C 96: Twins Arent All Morning People

    Since I¡¯m getting dizzy from staying awake so long after a rough day, I figure I¡¯d better eat. Being awake longer takes more calories after all, even if I have been eating giant dragon hearts recently, for some reason I¡¯m operating as if I¡¯ve barely been having a bowl of stew here or there each day. Speaking of stew, hopefully eating can keep Induul¡¯s mind occupied for a while so that I don¡¯t have to. I¡¯m running out of things to say to him. Or rather, I¡¯m stumbling towards incoherent thoughts that would be of no use in trying to keep him distracted from his cravings. I guess I¡¯ll go make a giant pot of stew, and leave it simmering so that it¡¯s ready for those that wake up over the next few hours. Fifty odd gallons of stew or so, over a semi-magical flame, in some sort of legendary artifact cauldron. Yep, absolutely normal way to prepare a midnight snack. Snirk. Heh.


    Hell, "The Four." Am I really the wielder of "The Four"? I mean, I have them, and several are soulbound to Shellcrackers. Is it really me though? The prophecy talked about some sort of true king business, and I hate the idea of royalty. Plus, I¡¯m not exactly ¡°descended from royalty,¡± or any nonsense like that. Though maybe it¡¯s more about power in titling rather than any sort of monarchy business. I mean, Vylon and Vyela are titled Queens, granting them some semblance of mastery of movement in Mount Solace. What the hell would the power of a king be?


    They¡¯re free to move in multiple directions, but limited in the distance traveled, without sacrificing other¡ª. Heh. Wow. Yeah, that does sound sort of familiar now doesn¡¯t it? Reggie Shellcracker, able to make lateral strides, but to travel fast or far, I had to combine abilities, or get help from other players, pieces, people. Trying to be speedy always came at a cost. Sort of like castling in chess. With the aid of a rook, I can cover half of a board, sure. I don¡¯t exactly instantly sacrifice the rook, the power, the friend, whatever helped me achieve speeds, but it tends to take something out of one of the two of us.


    Anyway, that¡¯s tangential. I don¡¯t like monarchy nonsense, but it¡¯s not like anyone¡¯s going to suddenly recognize me as ruler of a region or something. I¡¯d shun the opportunity if given one, and tell the people to govern themselves. Hell, I¡¯ve already done exactly that out on the plains west of Autumn Brook. Sort of anyway. It¡¯s not exactly the same, since that was a regrettable patented Reggie Shellcracker Accidental Assassination Mission, patent pending. Heh. Oy vey, I¡¯m loopy and I¡¯ve only been up about twenty two hours so far. It¡¯s only going to get worse from here on out.


    I can see why Induul would normally be good at his little social dynamic power plays. He¡¯s fairly charming, aside from the occasional angry aside due to his cravings. We while away the time as best we can, each of us getting slightly more irritable and tired by the hour. I¡¯m getting to the point where if I keep forcing myself to be awake without even a nap, I¡¯d snap at anyone who even mildly upset me. Not the worst price to pay to keep someone occupied from their cravings, but it¡¯s a price that will mostly come from those around me. Huff. I don¡¯t like mistreating people. I really, truly don¡¯t. I hate bullying people, snapping at people, abusing or misusing people or their trust.


    As I¡¯m finding it harder and harder to keep Indy¡¯s brain occupied, his behavior is getting more erratic. Disconcertingly, he mumbles, ¡°There¡¯s one escape. Maybe. Not sure I could do it.¡±


    I¡¯m about to address the elephant in the room, when suddenly, Induul comments, ¡°Need something fresher for breakfast. Going for a hunt. Should keep me occupied for a couple of hours without needing a supervisor Schism. Thanks for taking my mind off things for a while. See you in a few.¡±


    With that, Induul begins marching away. Phew, I can get a nap in. I¡¯m not sure I like the idea of him going off by himself especially after what he just said, but I don¡¯t know him well enough to know how much of a danger to himself he is right now. We did learn a bit about each other over the course of the night, but he seems fine, almost amiable, aside from the spurts of ire. I mean, okay, that¡¯s sort of a lie, he doesn¡¯t seem fine at all, because he¡¯s suffering, and the symptoms are more and more apparent. What I meant was more along the lines of his emotional state doesn¡¯t seem to be heading towards self destruction at the moment.


    Is there someone I could get to tail Induul? What could someone even do if he was really determined? They¡¯d need to be an archmage to be able to safely protect him from himself, and I¡¯m the only one the Order has. Ugh. Do I betray his trust, possibly sabotaging my attempts to keep him safe in the long run, to make sure he doesn¡¯t hurt himself in the short term? Plus, I¡¯d be doing it without even a nap. Huff, grr. No, I can¡¯t risk it. I¡¯ve been given an opportunity to catch some sleep that I sorely need in order to keep myself as close to my best as possible for assaulting Vorzog¡¯s keep tomorrow.


    Friggin¡¯ hell, dang it all Indy. This wasn¡¯t part of the plan. Wait. Yui and Yuri are essentially archmages. They¡¯re Draconiacs, so they¡¯d go unnoticed if Indy has his dragonforce senses open. Hm. I feel awkward asking them for a favor right now, but awkward is better than failing to save someone. Off to the prison in the wee hours of the morn¡¯ it is. I close up my vault, having accomplished basically nothing of note in it over the last few hours, and TK Surf my way towards the prison.


    Unsurprisingly, Yui is up, going over her equipment, working an enchantment to repair the dents in the armor, and polishing various inlaid runework. Of course, she¡¯s doing it in naught more than a loincloth, because reptiles don¡¯t need the same modesty as most mammalian humanoids. She¡¯s an absolutely gorgeous teal Draconiac, the firmness of her muscles evident even beneath her scales. I try not to glance at her pectoral ridge, and fail. It¡¯s pert to say the least. Rattling my skull, I roll my eyes at myself. I never fixated on crap like this before Mount Solace and the whammy. I¡¯m going to be stuck second guessing myself forever whenever I notice someone¡¯s physical appearance.


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    Noticing me rattling my skull in the prison entryway, Yui comments without looking my way, ¡°Morn¡¯ Hero. Got a battle you want me to fight already?¡±


    Blinking, a bit stunned, I try to¡ª, ah, right. We bonded in a hivemind, she intimately knows my thought processes, and why I¡¯d be visiting. Chagrined, blushing, I mutter, ¡°Something of the sort, a favor. Our, ¡®The Green,¡¯ Induul, is, well, going through withdrawals of a piping substance, and it¡¯s pretty bad. His head has been in some less than good places over the last night, and he went out for an early morning hunt just now. I¡¯m not sure how good you are at tracking and spying on some¡ª.¡±


    Yui stands up quickly, causing me to cut myself off mid-sentence. She marches into one of the cell¡¯s with its door open, and unceremoniously kicks her brother¡¯s ass, literally. He snorts and grumbles, swatting at her, and she blows a raspberry before commenting, ¡°Up brother. Schism¡¯s got a job you¡¯re better suited for. Sneaky stuff. I¡¯ll tail in case you need backup.¡±


    Continuing to feel a might surprised, and stunned, I try not to chuckle at the simultaneous demonstrations of sibling love and rivalry. Figuring I¡¯d better clear the air, I comment, ¡°I just want to make sure that he¡¯s safe, and doesn¡¯t do something that¡¯ll hurt himself, or that he¡¯ll regret later. I don¡¯t know how confident you two are about¡ª.¡±


    Yui turns to face me, grinning like a lunatic. I¡¯m about to plead that she not go for the kill, when she assures me, ¡°Relax Schism, under the Ice of Rage¡¯s banner, what do you think we got the most practice fighting? Subduing is just as important as the kill. Erm, was. I suppose it¡¯s more important now, with a leader like you.¡±


    Grumbling, I mumble, ¡°I¡¯m not a lea¡ª.¡±


    Scoffing, still grinning, Yui laughs as she cuts me off, ¡°Take it how you will. We pledged ourselves to *you* for your feelings on family. If the Order is one big happy family, then of course we¡¯ll look out for one of our new brothers. Get it?¡±


    My words get stuck in my throat as I literally choke on the sentiment. My eyes water as I nod lamely at Yui. Wow. I really lucked out offering mercy during the Spellknight fight. Hellspit and Fel Fires, I try not to sob as I inhale a ragged breath while my lower jaw quivers. Great, I¡¯m over-emotional probably from the lack of sleep. Maybe. I¡¯d probably be teary eyed at the sentiment regardless though. Ugh, I hate having reasons to second guess myself, moreso when I¡¯m loopy like this.


    Yui begins donning her armor, and motions as if to dismiss or shoo me away. I¡¯d find it rude normally, but it is a bit time sensitive if they are to catch up to a dragon. Speaking of, I hear her comment, ¡°Get your nose out for poisons, we¡¯re tracking ¡®The Green,¡¯ hurry up lazybones. How does that perception misdirection spell work again? Umbral shadow shady sneaky something. Can you teach me on the fly?¡±


    Her brother groans from inside the cell as he starts to rouse himself. He nonchalantly waves my way with his eyes still closed as he staggers towards his own armor. Yuri mutters something in that alien brain-melting hiss that the various dragonkind use, so I figure I¡¯m probably not needed here any longer. It seems they¡¯ve the situation well in-hand. Hopefully. Ahliyui didn¡¯t look happy at the response Ahliyuri had given her, but she¡¯s not motioning for me to stay or asking any questions about the situation, so I¡¯ll leave them to it.


    Floating my way back up Mount Solace I check the walls of my psychic network, finding a number of them lazily half-up, unmaintained due to my unrested state. Thankfully it doesn¡¯t seem like there are any recipients awake to bother hearing my overtired brain.


    In a lighthearted, loving cadence, Luni sends telepathically, ¡°Au contraire mon fr¨¨re. Come rescue me, please?¡±


    My eyes flash wide as I drop from my TK Surfboard to sprint in the vague direction I get of Luni¡¯s whereabouts. She tries to quell my fear by adding, ¡°It¡¯s not urgent sweetie, just awkward, sorry, I just wanted to see you. Didn¡¯t mean to spook you.¡±


    Huffing, I roll my eyes slightly. I¡¯m not annoyed at Lu, but I am a bit tired of my own overreactions to things in my current state. When I arrive at what must be the twin Fires¡¯ dorms, I find an odd sight. Rubbing my eyes to make sure I get the details correct, I cast a glance over Luni and her current predicament.


    I think that that¡¯s Ixey¡¯s hand, firmly grasping her¡ª. I mean, it must be, it¡¯s an arm belonging to whomever is on the other side of Lil, partially spooning him. Zayzi is halfway down the bed in an awkward pile of limbs, wrapped mostly tightly around Ixey¡¯s hips and waist, keeping everyone else distant, and keeping Ixey from being able to spoon Lil entirely. Lil seems to be doing his best to keep Luni and Ixeyla close while still asleep, snoring on his back. Of course, everyone other than Luni is topless. Lu smiles helplessly my way as she tries to pry Ixeyla¡¯s hand free from her breast.


    I¡¯d facepalm, or avert my gaze, but at this point, I¡¯m too tired to care about walking in on the immodest scene. It seems Lil¡¯s confession was successful, that¡¯s for sure. I can¡¯t help snorting a quarter chuckle as I shake my head incredulously at my too-obvious observation. Rolling my eyes at myself, I attempt to use my telekinesis to help Lu extricate herself from the fondling hand of the sleeping Ixey.


    Lu grumbles telepathically, ¡°It¡¯d be one thing if we were flirting and she was awake and did it, but she flopped her arm over in her sleep, and just grabbed and held on for dear life. My titty is sore. Thanks for coming to my rescue my Hero. I suppose you want to go get some sleep with Kinzul, Prinny, and Farzee. Mind if I tag along?¡±


    I blush at Luni¡¯s mention of her sore bodypart, as I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever heard her call it that before. As she finishes with a question, I half pout at Lu as I query mentally, ¡°Why the heck would I mind Lu? I love you you goof, of course I don¡¯t mind. Ugh, I want your snuggles so friggin¡¯ bad. My night was bluh. Yours seems to have been eventful though. Thought you said you weren¡¯t going on their date?¡±


    Lu titters nervously across our mental wavelength before she sticks her tongue out at me. Thinking better on it, she answers, ¡°I wasn¡¯t, and didn¡¯t. Lil just was nervous, and I knew I wasn¡¯t going to get your snuggles, so, well, yeah.¡±

 B 6 C 97: From Lil To Lu To Ill To Luck

    Snorting half a laugh at Lu¡¯s assertion that she didn¡¯t go on Lil¡¯s date, I shake my head incredulously as my smile reaches my ears. If ending up in the same bed, and being fondled by one of the daters, doesn¡¯t count as going on the date with someone, I don¡¯t know what does. Still, I don¡¯t want to make her uncomfortable if she doesn¡¯t want to think of it that way, so I¡¯ll drop it. I sigh wistfully for a moment as I gaze into Luni¡¯s eyes. I¡¯ve missed her so much over the last few months. I haven¡¯t given her nearly as much time as I¡¯d wanted to once we reunited.


    Smirking as she reads my thoughts, Luni grumps, ¡°Haven¡¯t given me nearly as much as I wanted either buster. Nyeh. Still, your telekinesis must be getting really powerful, huh?¡±


    Raising an eyebrow, I¡¯m about to query why Lu thinks that, when she responds, ¡°Did you even remember you have Te floating behind you?¡±


    I can¡¯t help snorting a full laugh while shaking my head further in disbelief at Luni. Despite me having set my telekinesis into a bit of an automatic slide, of course I knew Te was still there. I just didn¡¯t want to wake her. She¡¯s tuckered out. Plus, like me, she¡¯ll be assaulting a keep in about twenty five to thirty hours or so. There¡¯s a bit of a stupid grin plastered on my face as I continue to shake my head at Lu while chuckling. I flick my head in the direction of Kinzul¡¯s den, and Luni smiles brightly before glomming onto my left arm and nuzzling my shoulder.


    As we¡¯re headed to Kinzul¡¯s den, I receive telepathically, ¡°Hey Shism, um, Reggie, could you put your walls up for a second?¡±


    Iylynila sounds rough, so I acquiesce to her request and respond, ¡°Sure Illy, what¡¯s up?¡±


    There¡¯s a long sigh across our telepathic bond, and the silly grin Lu inspired leaves my face. That¡¯s the kind of sigh when you¡¯re about to have a talk you don¡¯t want to have to have. Unfortunately, my read of the situation is correct.


    Illy confirms my suspicion, ¡°Yeah, if I sound rough, I feel rougher. There¡¯s just, there¡¯s just so much. There¡¯s so much going on, and, and it doesn¡¯t even make sense. Prinny¡¯s my oldest, best friend, you know that. She¡¯s mother¡¯s best friend too, hell, she¡¯s probably the best friend of half the people that know her. Y¡¯know, she married The Blue when mother announced we¡¯d be reforming the Dormir, and that I¡¯d be one of the members with Farzhis. My Dormies are the new crew in a sense, despite some of us being as old as almost any other Solace resident. I¡¯m just¡ª. I don¡¯t even know.¡±


    Before I can try to console Iylynila, she continues, ¡°Well, no, I sort of do. That¡¯s the problem. One of them. We¡¯re at war, and I¡¯m spun up tighter than a spring around you. Edgy, antsy, needy. It¡¯s no good. We¡¯re already down one Dormie with Indy having to kick his habit right as everything kicks off. Possibly two if Farzhis is as wrecked by her father¡¯s passing as she seemed. Schism, the Vivant, the freakin¡¯ Vivant, head crew of the Order nearly died today, well, yesterday I guess. Prinny most close amongst them. Not just the Vivant, but Mother, Sun, and Muse. I¡ª.¡±


    I loose a long sigh of my own, seeing where this might be headed that she wanted to do it private telepathically with me. I remain silent though so that Illy can continue her train of thought unhindered by the weight of my emotions. Lu gazes at me with a sad half-frown as I pause our approach to Kinzul¡¯s den. She knows Illy asked me to put my walls up, so she can probably guess as much as I¡¯ve put together too.


    Almost falteringly, Illy further states, ¡°I¡¯m sure you can guess why I¡¯ve been up all night, and why I¡¯m glad I can talk to you in private right now, before everything. It¡¯s, it¡¯s really not you. I¡¯m head over heels for you, really I am. Between you marrying Mother, and us being at war, and me having silly flights of fancy from my romance books, it¡¯s just really the wrong time for there to be an ¡®us.¡¯ Y¡¯know? Don¡¯t think I don¡¯t still love your stupid goofy gremliny crimson-smurf-ass ass. I do. I really do. I just, I think it¡¯s probably best if we both keep our walls up around each other until we¡¯re at a better place in the war, maybe the end of it. If¡ª. If one of us doesn¡¯t make it, I¡ª.¡±


    My eyes wet with tears as I hear Illy choke on her words as she sobs telepathically, and physically only a room away. As I¡¯m choking on my own emotions right now, it takes me too long to formulate a comforting reply, so Iylynila adds, ¡°I don¡¯t want either of us going with a regret, but I¡¯d rather both of us make it through this, than trying to chase whatever it was we have. Had, I guess. If we make it through this, I expect your gremlin crimson-smurf-ass ass to chase me down and remind me why I let my guard down around you in the first place. Please. So, so just win this thing for us. Alright? Win it all, and come home safe.¡±


    Before I can respond at all, Illy puts up a full barrier telepathically. I can still send messages to her, but the signal is clear, we¡¯re done talking, and she doesn¡¯t want me to psychically intrude into her thoughts any more. I squeeze my eyes tightly several times as I blink away tears, and flex a jaw that I hadn¡¯t realized I was clenching. Letting down my walls, except for Illy¡¯s as she¡¯d requested, I slump against Luni, unsure if I¡¯ll be able to get any sleep after all.


    Thankfully, aloud, Illy grumbles in a hoarse-whisper, ¡°I can hear you two shuffling out there, get in here you goons, but be quiet about it.¡±


    When I enter the room, I see Kinzul in a miniature version of her dragon form, one wing holding close Prinny and Farzhi both in their dragon forms. Prinny is similarly gripping her daughter-in-law close with her own wing protectively. Illy¡¯s sitting nearby, reclined at an uncomfortable-looking angle on a sofa, with her left hand over her brow, rubbing her temples.


    Unsure how close Illy wants to allow me to be right now, I set Teuila telekinetically down next to her on the sofa, curled in on herself as she¡¯d been in my TK grip. Lu and I take a different sofa, and I blush as she murmurs contentedly in my arms while laying atop me. I don¡¯t want it to look like I¡¯m trying to rub my affectionate nature in Illy¡¯s face. Maybe I should just go looking for Induul after all.


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    Aloud, Luni mumbles grumbling, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare. S¡¯my turn for snuggles.¡±


    It earns her more of my blushing, but at least I can tell that Illy heard it, so she knows I¡¯m at least¡ª. Well, I guess she doesn¡¯t know, but she should be able to assume that I¡¯m doing this because I love Lu, not because I want to hurt her. Also because I am so freaking tired.


    As I feel the incredible sensation of the gentle rhythmic rise and fall of Lu¡¯s breast against my chest signifying that she¡¯s already fallen asleep atop me, I hear Illy whisper, ¡°Schism, you still awake?¡±


    Opening one eye towards her, I nod while raising that same eyebrow. She gets the signal, and begins to quietly relate, ¡°Just, erm, just wanted to remind you, that, that y¡¯know. I care. I still want to get back to our verbal sparring and sneaking time in cozy places and, and all that. Just, just after. I, hell, frickin¡¯ hell. Prinny¡¯s hubby passing was an awful reminder that all of my blood ¡®n¡¯ brood are gone, the last one slain in battle on the wrong side. Obviously Mother excepting. I was just starting to clear my head about all that sort of thanks in part to your weird mushroom-brain linking.¡±


    At that, I flash a furtive smile towards Illy, glad that the side effect of the mind-linking was helpful to her. She smiles back warmly, with eyes shining and wet. A tear leaves down her left cheek, signaling the start of a cascade, but she quickly blinks back the rest and rubs her eyes dry. She leaves her hand perched on her brow again, and rubs her temples. I feel my own eyes wet with the jumble of emotions I¡¯m trying to sort through about all of this, but I can tell Illy isn¡¯t done speaking, so I simply blink away the shadows of my sadness for the nonce. I¡¯d facepalm at myself for waxing poetic, but Lu¡¯s in the way, very much overtly resting in a position such that I couldn¡¯t slip away without waking her if I¡¯d gotten the notion.


    I crack half a smile at the thought that Luni decided to go for extreme affection to guarantee she got me for longer than a few minutes. The half that¡¯s hidden under her face, so as not to appear smiling at Illy¡¯s lamentation. After a pause, and a sigh, she continues, ¡°Farzhis and I aren¡¯t great friends or anything, but I still always cared about her. She¡¯s one of my Dormies and all. Plus, I don¡¯t know what you did, but she¡¯s been going through something, changing recently. It¡¯s like overnight a switch was flipped and she was a whole new dragon. Mostly. She¡¯s trying to be at least. Or was. I don¡¯t know how this will affect that. This whole thing between her and Indy is messed up, and maybe I should have done something about it before the war really started. It¡¯s too late now. F@&*.¡±


    Despite her voice being as low and quiet as can be, the expletive manages to mildly startle me. I¡¯ve avoided them for so much of my lives, even trying to not think them, that I forget that other people use them more regularly out loud. After swearing, Illy drops her hand from her brow and I get a clear look at how the tiredness and sadness have worn down her visage. She¡¯s still a picture of beauty, but she looks rough, weary.


    Seeing my gaze take her in, Iylynila turns her own gaze away quickly, lest our eyes should lock. I almost let myself loose half a chuckle at the slight overreaction, almost. I understand she¡¯s trying to keep herself from having to deal with being smitten during the war. Hell, I have to do the same thing with Errissa technically. Those alluring silver shimmering orbs of hers¡ª. Huff, oy vey. See what I mean? Yeah me, I see what I mean, y¡¯doofus. Sometimes buddy, sometimes I swear you can just be such a boneheaded goober. Erm, yeah, true. Why am I telling myself this right now? To that I have no answer.


    Luni begins to drool into my clavicle as her lips clamp down on my collarbone, leading to me meeping quietly in surprise. Marshmallow dreams, of course she¡¯d have them the first time we really get to cuddle asleep comfortably together, just us, in ages. I want to let myself just enjoy the oddly intimate affection, but I¡¯m still trying to be here and awake for Illy.


    My once-and-future paramour, gosh that sounds so pretentious, finally asks, ¡°What about you Schism? Your day¡¯s been the same wild ride mine has, a bit more from what I hear. How are you handling it all? Where is your brain that you can just curl up with one of your too-cute girlfriends? I could feel the hurt and confusion in you before I put my walls up, so come on, be honest. I¡ª,¡° she pauses before hesitantly finishing, ¡°still care, like I said.¡±


    How do I sum it all up? Trying to lay it out for Illy succinctly, I quietly begin, ¡°You¡¯re right. I hurt for those that have loved and lost, or lost loved ones already. I hurt because I worried about almost this exact thing happening between us, when I asked repeatedly if you were sure. I¡¯m not blaming you about that. I just want you to know that it wasn¡¯t entirely unexpected, so you haven¡¯t blindsided me or anything like that. I still love you and I can heed your wishes easily enough. I¡¯m fairly confident I¡¯m coming out the other side of this war, somehow, so you¡¯d better do the same. I¡¯m not sure why I¡¯m so confident, seeing what we¡¯re up against. Maybe it¡¯s this strange semi-immortality of having been a soul, then a lifeform, then dying and being resurrected on another world. Maybe I¡¯ll get lucky and be reborn here again before it¡¯s over and help finish the job, if I do die. Or I¡¯ll be reborn on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and see my family again.¡±


    At that, my eyes swell puffily, and a migraine-like pressure builds above them as the tears begin to fall. I mutter, ¡°Lao, Agwai, Sugar, Spice, the Mana twins, the cat tribe, even Dream¡¯s girlfriend Jazharn, I miss them all so much. I don¡¯t know for sure if I¡¯ll ever make it back to them. I have some leads, and some hope, that somehow my nature as a brute-force sorcerer will let me learn the right magics to make my way home. One really big spell, powerful as hell, takes a ton of runes to master, and then has strangely specific requirements. It could maybe do the trick. But yeah, losing people today hurt. Innocent kobold kinsmen of Loud that I never knew. Heccinkethmorn, Shapuackurt, Lilmbrayur, three volunteers that I only overheard the names of. The previous The Blue.¡±


    Pausing, I try to let it sink in that I am affected by what¡¯s going on. Sighing, I continue, hoping to clarify, ¡°Nearly losing Prinny scared me out of my mind to the point that I had to break magical rules and bend reality and artifacts and forms and minds to my will to accomplish what I did. Whatever happens though, I don¡¯t get to grieve until it¡¯s all over. It¡¯s not fair, but I have to just keep moving forward. Cuddling up with one of my gals is one of the only things keeping me sane through that push. If I¡¯m the supposed knife-edge of the Order, Te and Lu and Lil are the handle that keeps me pointing the right direction safely, sanely. Even my son Hunter, Lucky, to some degree.¡±


    Speaking of Lucky¡ª.

 B 6 C 4: Children

    <div>


    My Spells in order of complexity:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Frost Ray,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Prestidigitative Legerdemain.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Light.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Mending.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: S P free Scrying.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>18/18 runes mastered: S P Free Ghostly Steeds.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>24/24 runes mastered: Telepathic Bond.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/33 runes: Steely Body.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>33/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Evocation.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>48/48 runes mastered: Permanency-enhancement.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>99/99 runes mastered: Telekinesis.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/05 runes mastered: Splatter of Acid.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/06 runes mastered: Gusty Wind.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>08/24 runes mastered: Blast Frost.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/24 runes mastered: Squall Wall.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Summon Swarm.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>19/33 runes mastered: Detect Thoughts.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>00/33 runes: Greatest Shadowy Conjuration.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/24 runes mastered: Growth/Reduction.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Fireball.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Lightning Bolt.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>02/33 runes mastered: Hailstorm.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>03/33 runes mastered: Minor History.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>05/05 runes mastered: Ghostly Hand.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>06/66 runes mastered: Bypassed-Wall.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Incendiary Web.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>01/33 runes mastered: Firewall.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>07/33 runes mastered: Spectral Lock.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>06/33 runes mastered: Spectral Knock.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>042/128 runes mastered: Dispellation.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>012/330 runes mastered: Prescient Moment.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>003/660 runes mastered: Planar Traversal. This is its own whole can of worms</li>


    </ul>


    My Permanent Effects:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Aura sensing(Detection of magic, souls, and runes)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Pool of around six hundred S P safe to use each day, or after a good long sleep. I can push it up to a thousand, but over six hundred, my muscles stop responding, taking massive effort to move, and if I hit a thousand, I just pass out.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Telepathic Bonding, I have several loved ones in a telepathic bond, and can now create other bonds between additional individuals, but it costs S P, and a fair amount of time, or a lot of S P, and a bit less time.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Near immunity to thermal fluctuation, so fire or frost don¡¯t bother me much. Lava could hurt after a while.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Vast pain tolerance for lightning specifically, not immunity, but I can shrug it off.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Comprehension of all written Languages</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Quickening of runotypical spells metamagic available, it increases the per-rune S P cost of my spells, but vastly reduces the time it takes to complete a spell.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Conjuration multitasking manipulation portion of my brain broke at Autumn Brook, might never be able to use mana construct spells that require concentration again.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Telekinesis, x2. I can create and maintain two telekinetic grips simultaneously, permanently. I¡¯ll be working to get them into subconscious subroutines, so that they¡¯ll work for me even when I¡¯m asleep.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>I¡¯m technically a Changeling Fae, so I can morph my form around, and apparently I do so subconsciously, frequently, but I¡¯m not good at consciously controlling it.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Retrocognition. Basically paused time in which all I can do is think, and analyze things from sensory memory. Can¡¯t affect anything or move or anything.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>With eight minutes, I can theoretically use abilities from another world. I had over fifty five hundred mana in a numerical interface in that world. Abilities I had there, that I can manifest here, are access to items in a pocket dimension, shapechanging, thermokinesis, a more powerful version of the electrokinesis that I have active at all times on Rayileklia, and a few other things. I had the power to send messages through time, but that would cost a massive sacrifice on this world, one that I¡¯m unwilling to expend.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Internal electrokinesis. I currently have to utilize it to bypass the nerve damage that I took in the fight against the Felgre horde while defending Autumn Brook. Bypassing nerve damage by utilizing it is mostly subconscious to do general movements, but I have to focus on where and how to control the electrical impulses for anything more coordinated. I basically operate on lightning, able to generate it, and do a few things with it.</li>


    </ul>


    My Current Equipment:


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Danger Wraps</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Billowy Cloak</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Hyperdimensional Haversack</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Enchanted scrollcase</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Archsorc Staff.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Cap of Disguising Illusions.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Portable Hole (in my enchanted Scrollcase from Berinon)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Blessed anti-vampire, silvered stake (in my Scrollcase)</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Holy Halefire wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Full Valkyrie armor set + kite shield</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Pied Pipes of Rodent summoning</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>1x Neckchain,</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>3x Minor Water Walking Potions.</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>Undisclosed/unidentified minor equipment from Milbert of Navica, the klepto necromancer in Victo</li>


    </ul>


    <div>


    <ul>


    <li>2x mysterious energy cells</li>


    </ul>

 B 6 C 99: Please

    Across the over one hundred days I¡¯ve been alive on Rayileklia, far too few of them have included waking up with Luni in my arms. Though waking up with Kinzul staring down lovingly at the two of us is a bit surprising. Gods every woman in this room is incredibly beautiful. Holy hell. I¡¯m stunned as I gaze at the vision of radiance smiling down towards me.


    Prinny chuckles telepathically from the seat she¡¯s taken between Teuila and Farzhis on the sofa across from us. She seems to be enjoying herself, keeping her stepdaughter close, and Teuila closer. There¡¯s only a hint of the lingering sadness eating away at her that plays across our telepathic wavelength. My smile droops wearily, sadly as my eyes wet, thinking about how much the two of them, mother and daughter-in-law, are hurting. Farzhis appears to be nursing a hangover as she strokes her temples. Moreover, her clothes have morphed into probably the most modest thing I¡¯ve ever seen her wear, essentially a sweater and long woolen skirt. That¡¯s not to say the sweater doesn¡¯t accentuate her amazing curves, but I¡¯m still proud of her for not feeling the need to leverage her appearance around us.


    Gazing longingly at Prinrin, I don¡¯t know how to approach her any longer. We¡¯ve shared so much of ourselves with each other, but I don¡¯t want to intrude on her grief or grieving process. I¡¯ve seen her near death on several occasions, and I fear losing her, as she¡¯s the smallest, most frequently targeted member of our most aggressive advance force. Teuila nods somberly my way, riding my mental wavelength, reading my thoughts. She has no advice to offer on the matter, but she sympathizes.


    Thankfully, The Copper, Prinrin herself, has some thoughts, ¡°Oh pay it no mind Schism sweetie, you wouldn¡¯t be intruding at all dear. You¡¯re quite welcome to come and go as you see fit in my little life, quite welcome indeed. I¡¯d prefer the coming rather than the going though Schism sweetie if you catch my drift,¡± she pauses for the briefest of moments, virtually winking across our mental wavelength, letting the obvious innuendo sink in before continuing, ¡°I¡¯m at a loss how to feel about the loss of my sweet lad. I knew it was coming, but so soon is such a shock, it barely feels real. You made an apt comparison, apt indeed, when you noticed how instantly his light was snuffed, like a candle upon leaving a room. He must have been preparing himself for it, without wanting to worry me, for such a long time dear. To go out with such a smile on his face, and such joy in his eyes, oh it burdens this little runt¡¯s heart so with joy and sorrow.¡±


    I bite back my own mixed emotions, and my chiding I¡¯d have given Prinrin for that little innuendo in the middle there. She knows it¡¯s not biologically possible for me. She knows quite well. Still, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t want to share intimacy with her, or like I haven¡¯t already. She beams a smile my way that masks the pain beneath, and I flash her a sad smile in return. She is such a beautiful soul, an utter treasure of a person. If I weren¡¯t under Luni, hemmed in by Kinzul, and beaten to the punch by Farzhis and Teuila, I¡¯d have zipped to her side to offer her physical comfort as soon as I¡¯d awoken.


    Teuila smirks and sends a wink my way. I try not to roll my eyes, as she¡¯s intentionally acting a bit like Linti, in a rather silly fashion. She¡¯s offering comfort and consolation though rather than trying to steal love as it were. I wonder if Te still thinks she has a shot with Farzhis, and if she¡¯d want to build that into something of a loving, supportive relationship, or if that was just an off-the-cuff comment when she was being rambunctiously sexy as Illy put it. Speaking of, I¡¯m saddened that she didn¡¯t spend the night with her mother, or, well, me of course.


    Lucky whuffs sleepily from beside us, and Kinzul leans down to lovingly caress his skull. Bleary-eyed, I rub the sleep away with my free hand, one that I¡¯d surreptitiously removed from where Lu had placed it, when I realized I¡¯d awoken under a number of gazes. My other hand is trapped entwined with hers along her belly. Awaking like this is of course wonderful in so many ways.


    I haven¡¯t had a single private moment yet with my wife, but I also cherish every second with each of these people beloved to me. I try to disguise my sigh at this thought as a morning yawn, knowing I¡¯d only gotten a few hours of sleep.


    Telepathically, Kinzul teases, ¡°I fear we won¡¯t have much time for any private moments, however you¡¯re imagining to spend them my love.¡±


    My face reddens hot enough to bind matter at the molecular level. Every single woman in my life¡ª! Before I can try to respond, smirking across her telepathic wavelength, Kinzul explains, ¡°I¡¯m also in fear that we shan¡¯t hear back from Spymaster until late tomorrow at the very earliest, if she is even able to send word back along her subordinate line from on-site at the location of the disturbance in the Worldstorm. I worry that I¡¯ve placed her in the way of great harm, but she knows and accepts the risks. Still, to be sent so deeply into Terrorzin¡¯s lands, so early in the war¡ª,¡± Kinzul sighs deeply, pausing, trying to still the sadness and worry rising within her before continuing, ¡°There is much to do, we must meet with our strategists, and, and so much more. I can¡¯t. I cannot keep this up my love, not any longer. I am so weary. Holding up the enchantments, the Order, the titles, battling, pushing aside emotions to deal with at a later date. Putting my beloved family into harm''s way. It¡¯s all too much. I despise the thought of letting anyone see me this vulnerable, should word find its way out to our enemies. You wouldn¡¯t speak of it though, and for that, I thank you. Please, allow me this moment of weakness.¡±


    Nodding, I agree that I wouldn¡¯t speak of any of Kinzul¡¯s secrets or vulnerabilities. She suddenly looks decades older before me, as she allows herself to appear vulnerable and weary, on her knees before me, stroking Lucky¡¯s skull. Yet it only lasts for a moment. As Luni stirs, Kinzul¡¯s radiant aura of vitality and assuredness returns. Oh my love. The strain you bear. I weep several tears but push my emotions aside. I can certainly empathize. Luni could too I imagine. To have so much responsibility, the fate of so many relying on you, perhaps as much as the world itself relying upon your course of actions¡ª. As she said, it¡¯s too much.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Somehow, even with my walls up, Prinrin observed what transpired between me and Kinzul. She¡¯s one of the most astute people I¡¯ve ever met, at reading and parsing emotions through the simplest, subtlest of tells, and even comprehending what a series of emotions means. She knows how to stay mum about a secret however. Well, around everyone except for me apparently. She let loose many of her, and several of Kinzul¡¯s, secrets over the short time we¡¯d known each other. Apparently something about me, my face, my voice, my expressions, something exudes trustworthiness, and commands attention. I wonder if that¡¯s my Duende score at work. On second thought, no, I don¡¯t think any of my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian passive stats have any sort of external effect on others.


    I suppose I should simply be grateful that I¡¯m able to instill that sort of confidence that I can keep things in good confidence. Actually, it might not be everyone that feels that way around me. Perhaps it is only emotionally intuitive people, those that can see I¡¯m often lost deep in thought, riding a mental journey that likely holds as many secrets as they could ever tell me. I believe that is part of why Kinzul came to me on the battlefield. For some reason, from the moment I¡¯d placed the first psychic bond on her, she¡¯s kept her incoming walls down listening out for my internal monologue. Something about my thoughts intrigued her, or¡ª. Well, I mean, we wed for a reason. We share ideals on a fundamental level. I don¡¯t have the words for a name for the kind of love that comes along with the strong bond formed by sharing such intimate truths about ourselves.


    What can I even say that begins to describe how unworthy I feel for all the happiness and love that surrounds me? How can I even begin to live up to the person I feel I need to be to deserve their kindness? I know, I know they¡¯d berate me gently for this line of thought if my walls were down and they could hear it. It¡¯s just¡ª. Each of these people in my life that I share a connection with are special beyond words I can think or say. My beloved son, whom I took for granted for basically two lifetimes, still he chooses to be by my side, and feels the most happy when he senses Luni and I together.


    Farzhis, a friend that I¡¯m watching bloom into an amazing person, when she was already a confident, charming, driven lass. Her priorities became kinder, gentler, and she admitted failings that she had, that she wanted to no longer have, that she wanted help dealing with. That takes so much strength of character. I shed tears as I think on it. I¡¯m beyond amazed at the growth she¡¯s shown, and beyond destroyed at the loss she¡¯s suffered. Her mother-in-law, Prinrin, suffered that same loss, and is also a being of immense strength of character.


    I could, and would, dote on Prinrin, wanting to help her recover, wanting to share my love with her, wanting to console her about the death of her husband. I¡¯d want to include Iylynila though, the two are important to each other. I suppose I can leave the comforting up to Illy. There¡¯ll likely be teasing, and interplay, that Illy wouldn¡¯t feel comfortable displaying around me now that we¡¯re no longer together. They deserve to be at full comfort at all times, but especially now when both are recovering from losses, while both are grieving.


    Lu and Te I need not even put to words how beloved, how precious, they are to me. We¡¯ve been through everything together, across multiple timelines across multiple lifetimes. There¡¯s something so very endearing about a love that literally transcends life and death. I mean, just imagine it. You think you¡¯re tearfully saying your final farewells, and you feel yourself pulled apart at the molecular level, a screaming agony, and then find yourself hand in hand with¡ª. I know. I know. I weep as I remember those discombobulated moments of arriving on Rayileklia. How fortunate I am that I came to this world with some of those that I love the most in all the universes.


    As the tears begin to fall, they ramp up into a cascade. I¡¯m so lucky. I¡¯m so, so, so very lucky. I can never even begin to express my gratitude for the enduring love granted to me by my inner circle. I can¡¯t begin to express my gratitude for Lil¡¯s forgiveness, when we finally found one another again. I¡ª. Oh Dawn. My heart sinks into the pit of my chest as my tears continue unabated. I was lucky to have you in my life, this one, for the short time I¡¯ve existed, as much of it as I did. I never truly allowed myself to fully mourn her. I let myself be hurt, and then be numb, and then move on, but I made no mourning efforts. Then again, I never did for Har or Sal either. Nor for the thousands upon thousands of people and critterkin lost at Eimsas. Nor for the Chameleonfolk or Nagas that perished as a direct result of my ordering the timeline to occur exactly as it did.


    Suddenly my stomach lurches, remembering the thousands and thousands of lives lost at basically my command, in order for my family to have a chance to survive. It¡¯s only a chance. Then again, there is an apocalypse approaching¡ª. No. I don¡¯t get to do that. I don¡¯t get to diminish their loss by assuming they¡¯d have died anyway. I don¡¯t get to be that selfish. I have to allow this to hurt. It was a choice I made in several timelines. I let so many lives be cut short. Hell, I basically ordered their culling myself almost. My stomach heaves at the thought.


    Why is it like this? Why does my brain hit these patches where, even if I¡¯m trying to be happy and grateful, suddenly I find myself torn asunder emotionally, wrecked, wracked with guilt? It¡¯s depression Reggie. You know this. It¡¯s technically intrusive thoughts. You don¡¯t *have* to allow this to hurt. You are only punishing yourself. You think you deserve this right now, because of a chemical imbalance in your digital brain. You likely had a dopamine rush, then a serotonin reaction was either inhibited, or followed into a reuptake that¡ª. How the hell do you know anything about neurochemistry? I blink several times, stunned at the question.


    I try to grasp at straws in my digital databank of memories, but nothing tells me that I, or other Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Critterkin, should know anything about neurochemical imbalances or any of the like. We could know the definitions of certain neurochemicals at a very basic level, just that they are neurochemicals, if we hear the words. Reggie? Mhm? Let it go. Huff. Heaving a sigh, I acknowledge that I should. The startling revelation helped keep me from spiraling, so I may as well be grateful for it and leave it at that.


    Lu, Te, Lucky, somewhere else in Solace is Lil. We¡¯ve made it this far together. Please, please let¡¯s make it through this. All of us. All of us and our new friends and family. I¡¯m begging everything that is good in the universe. Please let us make it through this.


    Please.

 B 6 C 100: No Promises

    From the doorway to the den, I hear Pawn¡¯s voice, ¡°Momma? I got a surprise for you.¡±


    Judging by the shuffling, there¡¯s quite a few individuals gathered outside the den. Prinrin squeezes out from between Teuila and Farzhis to meet Pawn, and gasps aloud at what she sees. I¡¯m curious myself at what could be so surprising.


    Prinny¡¯s comment fills me in mostly, ¡°But you don¡¯t even all know each other, we¡¯ve always kept the secrets to keep you safe. Oh my sweets, my little darlings, how wonderful, how thoughtful. How just, how?¡±


    They must be Prinrin¡¯s children, adopted out to keep the secret of their clutching safe. I imagine it¡¯s Miraina¡¯s doing. The young woman has a vastly underestimated intelligence. I sense the swelling of Prinrin¡¯s heart metaphorically across our emotional bond. She beckons to me, but I¡¯m helpless to fly to her side, until Luni suddenly relents, stopping pretending that she¡¯s asleep. I wear a lopsided half-frown half-smile at Lu, trying not to shake my head or roll my eyes at her. She wears a cheeky, only-mildly guilty, partially apologetic expression on her face.


    I extricate myself from Lu, and literally fly to Prinrin¡¯s side. All of these young men and women out here would be twenty one, even if their hatchings were spaced out over a couple of weeks. They do look like children however due to their stature. I can see why it would be easy, and necessary, to keep them from all being in one place. It¡¯d be too easy to piece together that a runt had clutched. Prinrin suddenly drags me to her, squeezing me lovingly, overflowing with the joy of seeing her children all in one place.


    A second joy with a hint of mischievous anticipation starts to swell in place alongside that first joy, and my eyes flash wide as I gulp and blush, feeling her very overt signal. Holy crap Prinny, that isn¡¯t subtle at all! There¡¯s a mischievous smirk across our wavelength as she begins to imagine the clutch she¡¯d like to have while squeezing me tightly. I begin to sweat bullets, unable to even be remotely professional and address the gathered young men and women, now that my mind is entirely being corralled into thoughts about¡ª. Gulp.


    Thankfully, well, somewhat thankfully, since I don¡¯t exactly *not* enjoy Prinrin¡¯s insinuations and desires, my wife comes to my rescue. Kinzul stands behind us, and coughs politely, ever so slightly, once. Prinny chuckles somewhat-nervously as her cheeks heat the air between us, though Kinzul only smiles at her long-time friend. Still, there¡¯s the slightest hint of danger in that smile, but even that seems playful, as if the two had gone through this bef¡ª. They did. Prinrin has dropped plenty of hints about how she and Kinzul had shared a love of The Platinum.


    Feeling hot under the collar, I gulp and tug at an imaginary necktie. I feel even more embarrassed when Kinzul, across our telepathic wavelength, including Prinrin, asks, ¡°Perhaps you could at least wait until my spouse and I have consummated our bond, before mating with them, dear old friend?¡±


    I nearly faint at the implications. Both women smirk almost evilly across our telepathic wavelength as Prinrin apologizes. Both of them know very well I can¡¯t physically, biologically¡ª. Grr, I¡¯m being teased, and I can¡¯t help but give them the exact reaction they want. Fudge. Oh well, it¡¯s¡ª. I fight my smile for a bit. It¡¯s flattering that they enjoy so much of me, even my silly overreactions to embarrassment. I, gulp, guess it¡¯s also flattering that they might actually want what they¡¯ve both just hinted at. Yeesh. Phew. It¡¯s hot in here, right? It¡¯s not just me, right? Phew, huff, whew.


    Miraina, adorable, cheeky, wonderful Miraina, sidles up alongside me and waggles one of her scaled brows just once, sensing along the many, many telepathic wavelengths we share, just what emotions I¡¯m feeling. Crap, that¡¯s right, I bound her in no less than at least four wavelengths with me and Kinzul. She and I are even more intimately mentally bound then I am with her moth¡ª. Gulp. Miraina smirks and rolls her eyes at me across one of our mental wavelengths.


    Pawn makes sure to clear the air, ¡°Don¡¯t be goofy Schism, I¡¯m not coming on to you, and mom is just teasing. I think. Or maybe seeing all of her kids in one place really did get her babymaking factory roaring. Um. Sorry if I did that. Sorry if me playing the kid card so much has made things weird for you. We had to. You understand. Right?¡±


    Calming quite a bit, I flash Miraina a sad smile as I nod. I wrap my left arm around her shoulders and bring her into a half-hug, thanking her for clearing the air, or at least trying to. I do find myself blushing heatedly at the turn of phrase, ¡°get her babymaking-factory roaring.¡± Crap on a cracker. Yeesh, the people in my life. Though, I mean, if I could, I¡¯d¡ª. Reggie, don¡¯t even finish that thought. You are standing in a very, very dangerous location, surrounded mentally by people who can read your every thought even when you¡¯re blocking them, more or less.


    I gulp and hesitantly chuckle nervously. Teuila snorts a laugh along our mental wavelength, mostly getting context by leaning around the edge of the den doorway to look at the glare shared between Kinzul and Prinrin while Prinny gloms onto me. Lu pouts along our mental wavelength, and I can¡¯t help but think she somehow knows the exact words that have been flowing through my mental narrative, despite me having put up my walls for this last bit. She¡¯s shown signs, several times on Rayileklia, that she¡¯s able to somehow follow along in my narrative, even without the bond.


    Thankfully, at least Farzhis doesn¡¯t know what¡¯s going through my head. I think. I hope. I really don¡¯t want to rile her up at all, much less when she¡¯s so vulnerable. I try exceedingly hard, and of course fail, to not think about Farzhis and her attempts to seduce me, while my mind is locked into thoughts of mating, because of Prinrin and Kinzul. Facepalming, I shake my head at myself while heaving a weary sigh. Of course, now I can¡¯t help but remember those attempts, and that absolutely glorious form that had been flaunted. Friggin¡¯ hell Reggie. I know!


    There¡¯s chatter going on around me, about losing The Blue, and how they¡¯re glad they get to see their mom, and glad she¡¯s okay. There¡¯s some chiding that they had to learn through Pawn about what Prinrin went through yesterday. I flash a sad smile to those gathered as they thank me for saving Prinny. It wasn¡¯t just me, but I understand how large a role I had to play in saving her. We needed an archmage with the right tools, and there wasn¡¯t one. So I had to quickly become one, in record time. I fight back tears for fear of the loss of Prinny. The worry I¡¯d felt grasps and claws at my heart, leaving me weeping, hiding my face from the crowd of young adults.


    Stolen story; please report.


    My deviant, brave, little old fool. We¡¯ll lose you far before this war ends, if you don¡¯t stop taking the hits for everyone else. I can¡¯t, and wouldn¡¯t change you though Prinrin. You¡¯re amazing, marvelous. I have my walls up, so you shouldn¡¯t be able to hear me, and yet I can see you reading me like an open book, as usual. I need to take my mind off of this, and not replace it with more thoughts of mating, as tantalizing as those mental images might be.


    I guess it¡¯s time for Reggie Shellcracker to strategize. I flash an apologetic, sad smile towards Prinrin as I slowly extricate myself from her loving embrace where she tightly clings to me. I so badly want to take her to a private corner and share passion with her to show her that I appreciate her, and am so grateful that she made it through alright. Such flights of fancy can wait however. We¡ª. Can they though? Prinny is the most likely to¡ª. Stop. Just stop. We can¡¯t think about that.


    My eyes redden and swell puffily, almost painfully. My lower jaw quivers. I don¡¯t want either of us losing the other, or leaving this life behind with any regrets, but¡ª. But pulling her away from this would be beyond selfish, even if she would enjoy it, even if she hinted that she wants it. I lean down to kiss Prinrin on the cheek, and the sneak makes sure to meet my lips, foretelling my action and position by reading my body language. I relent, and kiss her softly for more than the briefest of moments, though only just.


    There¡¯s acknowledgment in her eyes as Prinrin releases me from her tightly clasped embrace. She¡¯s going to spend the day with her children, perhaps the first ever with all of them at once. I turn to my wife with sorrow and apology in my eyes, but I¡¯m met with only love, tenderness, kindness in the gaze that meets mine. She understands what I need to do, to continue to be the Hero that Solace needs. Despite our desire to truly unite, to spend time together, to figure out the path through the emotional minefield of this war, we each have duties that we¡¯ll perform, regardless of our own states and desires.


    I kiss Kinzul tenderly, and we rest our foreheads together. As she cups my face with her right hand, stroking my left cheek with her thumb, she bumps my nose once with hers, and I can¡¯t help smiling at the intimate hint to kiss her again. As she intimated, I do kiss her once more before withdrawing. We clasp hands momentarily as we drift apart. There is so much that she must do to maintain everything that keeps the world safe, that keeps us safe. She regally glides away, following the train of Prinrin and her children.


    Miraina, the last of them leaving, kisses my cheek and whispers, ¡°Thank you for saving her. I love you for it. Stay alive Hero. Please keep staying alive, and keep keeping her alive. Please. I know how hard that might be, how stubborn she is, but, but please. Thank you so much.¡±


    My heart aches at Miraina¡¯s request, but she disappears after Kinzul and Prinrin in the blink of an eye, faster than I can respond, and I don¡¯t have the heart to formulate a telepathic reply. My muscles sag wearily. The burden, the weight is so heavy. Of course I want to meet her request. Of course I do. It¡¯s just such a challenge when I can¡¯t see what the future holds. I can¡¯t make any promises. The only promise I can make, the only guarantee we have about the future is a horrible portent, and I¡¯ll be fighting that fate with every ounce of my being.


    Returning to Lu, Te, and Farzhis, I spot Farzhis leaning over sideways. She¡¯s angled down into Te¡¯s lap, weeping, while Teuila strokes her hair back from her cheek, keeping it from falling in front of her nose or mouth. My heart aches for her. I don¡¯t entirely understand the specific feeling she¡¯s going through, losing a parent, but I do understand loss. I don¡¯t entirely understand the pressure that now weighs down on her, with the task she¡¯s taken up in The Blue¡¯s stead, but I do certainly understand overwhelming responsibility that likely ends in death. Oh Farzhis. I won¡¯t let this war go on that long. I promise you. I promise. We won¡¯t need the Worldstorm forever. We¡¯ll dispel it, and you won¡¯t end up like your father.


    Hell in a handbasket. Gods it hurts to see her hurt so deeply. I barely know her. I intentionally avoided getting to know her, because of assumptions I made about her character. Well, assumptions that turned out to be true, that were based on facts gleaned telepathically anyway. Frick, now I¡¯m backpedaling and screwing things up mentally. I just mean that, I haven¡¯t given her enough time and support in forging a friendship, that I should even offer what I¡¯m about to offer. I haven¡¯t gotten to know her well enough, as well as she deserves of someone that would claim to be a friend.


    Sighing, I glance between the three women in the room. I still have to deal with Induul today, and I¡¯m not sure I should subject any of them to that. Speaking of¡ª.


    Miraina locks onto me telepathically to relay, ¡°Got a weird message from a little birdie, literally, one just flew into solace and sought me out. Says ¡®Schism, The Green ranging far. Keeping an eye out. Seems likely gone for a couple of days. Yui.¡¯¡±


    That¡ª, is oddly convenient. He¡¯s taken on the task of isolating himself from the vulnerable in Mount Solace. Or he could be trying to range far and wide to hunt down the piping powder. I¡¯ll choose to believe the former. I puff a quiet sigh through nearly-closed lips. At least what I¡¯m about to offer then doesn¡¯t also request something from those still in the room.


    Starting off, I wave while wearing a sad half-smile, before asking, ¡°Te, you wanted to spend today together still too, right? So we can keep, y¡¯know, working things out. Lucky, are you um, do you make any sort of plans or anything? Lu, did you want, um, do you have plans today, or would you maybe care to hang out with Te and me as I¡ª.¡±


    Farzhis interrupts, pleading, ¡°Don¡¯ leave me alone, please, don¡¯ go. Schism. Jus¡¯, jus¡ª.¡±


    Cooing, I kneel next to Farzhis as I take her left hand between mine and I respond, ¡°I want you to come with. I was going to ask you too. Are you up for that Farzhis dear? I hope it doesn¡¯t seem heartless, but there¡¯s still so much to prepare for tomorrow¡¯s raids. I love you, and want you to pull through this sadness, so I¡¯ll try to be there for you, however I can. Is, is that okay? I know it¡¯s a lot to ask while you¡¯re hurting, to go around while we get things done, but, but, um.¡±


    Gripping my hands tightly, Farzhis turns to meet my gaze with her tear-streaked face. My breath catches momentarily. The vulnerability she¡¯s displaying touches me so deeply, and reminds me how beautiful she is. I gulp, trying to keep myself centered, hoping to prevent my mind from wandering in stupid directions when I¡¯m trying to be supportive. Farzhee nods ever-so-slightly, almost timidly. She also climbs onto me, into my arms, which isn¡¯t exactly what I meant, or how I intended to bring her along, but I won¡¯t begrudge her this at least for a little while. I flash a blushing apologetic smile towards Lu and Te. Te just smirks while Luni pouts.


    Telepathically, I offer to Lu, ¡°Hey, if you want to carry the buxom lass around, feel free, she¡¯s not too heavy, and rather delightful to hold. I¡¯m sure she¡¯d appreciate you just as much.¡±


    Luni rolls her eyes and scoffs playfully at me before chuckling. Across our mental wavelength, she grumbles, ¡°No, you can keep the pretty lady to yourself, she¡¯s not the first one to claim your arms when I wanted them. Erm, sorry, I know it¡¯s not like that. I¡¯m just groggy is all. Grumpy from waking up with little sleep, promise. At least my titty isn¡¯t sore any more. Thank you. For the massage.¡±


    I blush heatedly, causing Farzhee to nuzzle my warm neck to dry her tears. I want to retort to Lu that I didn¡¯t exactly¡ª. Huff, anyway. I can¡¯t help smiling and rolling my eyes while shaking my head. I can sense Luni grinning along our emotional wavelength that her tease landed. She can be so mean sometimes, but I love her all the same. Maybe I even love her for it.


    I¡¯ll probably pass Farzhee off to Te at some point during the day anyway, because the strategy meeting might be a little difficult to participate in from behind a wild mound of bedhead hair, and a massive pair of¡ª, cough, um, well, anyway.

 B 6 C 101: Everybody

    It seems Kinzul and I are headed the same way anyway as I intend to check in on Lil.  My wife comments, "Yes, Sun needs to be apprised, and I would like to take him aside before we attend to the strategists-eight.  I''ve ill done enough to teach him to be the general I need him to be.  I''ve neglected our wonderful son.  I''m sorry my love.  There is never enough time."


    Don¡¯t I know it.  I clench my eyes shut tightly for a moment, fighting back the flashing stream of raw emotions at all the things I¡¯ve had to pass up, or choose over other missed opportunities.  The worst of all was not having enough time to find out how to save Dawn.  How much I rushed everything else during that period, and still failed.  I¡ª.  I topple to my knees, catching Farzhis and myself in my telekinetic grips, startling her.


    Clenching my eyes shut even more tightly, I pull my lips into a tight grimace to keep from sobbing aloud.  Sighing, all I can do is agree with our beloved lady.  There is never enough time.  Even for Reggie Shellcracker, nearly a master of time itself.  Nearly.  My non existent guts twist and cramp as my emotions war within me.  Lu.  Te.  I haven¡¯t¡ª.  Oh Lucky, my sweet son.  I barely bite back my emotions to keep from wailing aloud in regret.


    There isn¡¯t enough time to be with everyone, let alone protect everyone, or save everyone.  I can¡¯t nurture everyone, or show everyone my undying affection and deeply intimate care for them and their safety.  I feel Farzhis¡¯s heart rate climb rapidly in anxiety, fear at being unable to read my thoughts as I appear unstable, not being the rock that she needs right now.  Or perhaps simply worry for me.


    I have to prioritize becoming powerful enough, adaptable enough, to always win, and always come home safely.  I have to win this all, end this war, these wars.  Their safety matters most.  First and foremost, I need to save them all.  Huff.  That isn¡¯t up to you alone Reggie.  I¡ª!  I know.  I know.  Hero complex, or god complex, or whatever.  But you heard them, even the Vivant thinks that by the end, I¡¯ll be the lone asset deployed, the knife-edge of the Order.  How much more on-my-shoulders can things possibly be stated to be than that?


    I, I¡¯m not trying to diminish anyone else¡¯s roles.  Heavens knows I couldn¡¯t do this without Kinzul, the Worldstorm, my Inner Circle, Nala, Illy, Prinny, Vylon, Vyela, just, just the entire Order.  Hell, even the Spellknight twins are taking on a huge responsibility for me that might be the difference between life and death for one of us.  I just¡ª.  Just need to get out of your own head Reggie.  Be there.  Be in the present.  She needs you.  They need you.  Take it one step at a time.  Don¡¯t get trapped looking at the end goal, forgetting the progress you¡¯ll make, and have to make, along the way.


    Thanks.  Um, me.  I glance around physically and in my mindscape.  This is happening more and more frequently.  I swear I¡¯m not playing up some split psyche bit.  I think.  It doesn¡¯t seem to be a future-me either.  How is there this odd, rational-yet-compassionate side of me looking out for me more and more?  Don¡¯t worry about it Reggie.  It¡¯s all you.  You¡¯re just applying some of the advice you¡¯d give to others for yourself.  I¡ª.  Sure.  I guess.  Look, when you learn a coping mechanism actually works, you¡¯ll lean on it more and more.  Makes sense, right?  Um, sure, I guess.  What do you think this is?  Well, yeah, a coping mechanism I guess.


    I¡¯m a bit weirded out that it seems to be wrapped up in such a simple bow.  A neat and tidy answer.  Nothing is ever as neat and tidy as it appears at first glance Reggie, you don¡¯t have to take it for granted, but you don¡¯t need to spend more time analyzing this.  Be in the present.  Please.  For them, and for yourself.  Sighing, I release muscles I didn¡¯t know I was clenching as I blink and actually notice my surroundings.


    Te and Lu are gazing at me concernedly, while Farzhis appears to be caught between fleeing or clinging to me more tightly.  I flash an apologetic expression to each of them, and gaze down at Lucky, who uses his magical scarf to pat me consolingly on the shoulder.  Even though I gave it to him, *that* might take some getting used to.  Having more dextrous limbs with gripping digits and so on makes it easier to see Lucky as a person rather than a hound.


    I¡¯m suddenly hit by a wave of lethargy, and my muscles sag wearily.  Stabbing pain from a migraine grows in my right occipital lobe.  It lances from my right eye to my right temple, causing me to huff exhaustedly.  Nearly toppling over from the pain, I¡¯m forced to set Farzhis down momentarily, but I hold her close as I kneel where she sits upon the floor.


    Blushing heatedly for my weakness, my display, just everything, I try to apologize, ¡°I, well, I was lost in thought over there never being enough time.  Over needing to get more powerful.  I¡¯m already leaps and bounds more powerful than when I¡¯d started our Rayileklian journey, hell, I¡¯m leaps and bounds more powerful than just a couple of days ago, and I still can¡¯t kill a Damnation.  They probably won¡¯t fall for being knocked into the Worldstorm a third time, they might even stop flying above it entirely.¡±


    As I pause for a breath, Farzee stands out of my embrace, and taps Te almost shyly.  Teuila happily lifts Farzee into her arms, and perhaps a bit inappropriately lifts Farzee enough that Te can snuggle and nuzzle her breasts, but Farzee doesn¡¯t complain.  I glance at Teuila, worried about her having to protect the Vivant and the Dormir tomorrow as she assaults the Nedkuxian Conclave.


    The Dormir are down one with Indy, possibly two with Farzee in her state.  I¡¯m worried for Farzee¡¯s emotional state, and I wouldn¡¯t ask her to be ready by tomorrow.  Yet somehow, I feel like she will be ready tomorrow anyway, or at least will go out regardless.  Possibly to prove something to herself, or to me.  I worry if she¡¯d be trying to prove to me that she¡¯s working on herself, that she might slip up and get hurt.  I don¡¯t want her taking on risks if her emotions might weigh her down in battle to the point where¡ª.  I get it, we get it.  Sighing belatedly, I try to tear my attention away from the pretty lady who clings sadly to Teuila.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    The Vivant are equally in danger for the assault.  Most of them haven¡¯t recovered.  Prinrin better not think I didn¡¯t catch her limping.  I swear to all that¡¯s holy, if she places herself in front of everyone else¡¯s attacks again, I¡¯d¡ª.  You¡¯d what?  Huff.  I¡¯d love her just the same and worry just the same.  She¡¯s brave, selfless, kind, loving, empathetic, intuitive, quick in so many ways.  I assume that¡¯s how she can transpose herself in front of so many attacks too.  Being a runt, being small and quick.  She speaks a hundred miles an hour and can probably move just as quickly.


    I should worry about my own assault though.  It¡¯s the first time ever that it¡¯ll be me, Lil, Lu, and Lucky.  I mean, sure, there¡¯s a lot of configurations of five people in groupings of our inner circle that haven¡¯t been done before, but I mean¡ª.  It¡¯s just that this is the Triple L Squad plus me.  I feel like the odd one out.  I¡¯m not jealous, but I know they¡¯ve had months to bond and become a tighter crew in ways that didn¡¯t involve me.  I might even get in the way of their synergies.  Though, I¡¯m tempted to offer to ask Kinzul if Luni perhaps doesn¡¯t have to come.  Muse might be more¡ª.


    Lu interrupts my thought processes, ¡°No.  I can¡¯t keep running from fighting.  Not now, not anymore.  Lucky¡¯s great at protecting me, so I¡¯ll be okay.  Promise.  Lil, huff, he wishes he was on your level.  He regrets so much, and is so worried that things are all going to end up on you like it always seems to.  He¡¯s still hurting from what happened when you reunited, and is pushing himself harder and harder to try to be able to make it up to you, by trying to get strong enough that it won¡¯t be you alone.¡±


    Oh Lil, oh Lu.  I gaze down at our son, and he bowls me over in meatspace and thinkspace.  I loose half a laugh and wear a sad quarter smile as the big lug laps my face with his enormous tongue.  Shoving him off of me, I roughhouse with him momentarily, and kiss his skull repeatedly.  He tries to use his new limbs to push Luni and me closer together, but their weight limit is far too low to actually move us, but we do get the hint.  Luni steps closer and kneels next to me so that the two of us can hug Lucky together.


    I hear Teuila whispering comforts to Farzee, and I¡¯m a bit happy in ways.  I¡¯m proud of Te, and grateful to her.  Standing, I levitate myself and Luni up to ease our rise.  Farzee turns her gaze towards me, almost pleadingly, and I relent.


    As Te hands Farzee over to me once more, I apologize to her, ¡°Sorry about the tumble Farzhis love.  You know a fair bit about my brain at this point, but I¡¯ll try to keep it on more positive topics.  I want to be able to be the friend you need or want me to be right now.  Are you okay?  I mean, as okay as you can be.¡±


    Nodding, Farzhis mumbles, ¡°Yeah, Schism.  I¡¯m, um, I¡¯m okay I guess.  Will be eventually anyway.  Thanks is all.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.¡±


    She trails off, mumbling thanks repeatedly, over and over, and I gulp down my feelings in response.  I mutter a welcome to Farzee, hoping to interrupt her looped thanks that is almost a plea.  She wants me to be where she¡¯ll be battling at, and I get it.  The Damnations could show up to either of our offensives.  I just have to trust that Teuila, who has immunities and powers comparable to mine, can either finish one off or hold them back long enough for the others to escape.


    I¡¯m almost certain Te can hold her own against the Damnations at this point.  She¡¯s quite literally nearly a goddess.  She has weapons, and equipment from myth and lore of the gods of one pantheon at the bare minimum, and one of those specifically says it grants the powers of one of those gods.


    I glance at Te, trying to put all my pride and love into the look, to emphasize how much I care, and how much I rely on her, and trust her.  I have so much faith in Teuila.  I don¡¯t know if I can impart that faith into Farzee in time for tomorrow¡¯s battle.  I could ask to swap with Te, taking on the Nedkuxian conclave with the Dormir and the Vivant, but I¡¯m almost certain I¡¯d break Lil¡¯s and Lu¡¯s hearts.  Possibly even Lucky¡¯s.  Sighing, I can¡¯t help but picture tomorrow¡¯s battles.  Te will be as absolutely ferocious as she¡¯s ever been, trying to take on and take down everything so that the injured Vivant, or the short-staffed Dormir don¡¯t have to risk themselves.


    Whispering to Farzee, I try to impart the faith I have in Te, ¡°Teuila¡¯s got you.  She¡¯ll have your back.  She¡¯s stronger than me.  She loves you just as much.  It¡¯ll be okay.  It¡¯ll be okay.  I¡¯m so sorry you¡¯re hurting so much, but if you¡¯re really up for it, if you¡¯re really going out tomorrow, as I suspect you are, Teuila will protect you.  I¡¯m here for you Farzee.  Did you want to see Veril?¡±


    Farzee nods in response, and coughs as she tries to compose herself.  Lu, Te, Lucky and I bring Farzee towards the Dormir dorms, before starting everything else we¡¯ll have to do today.  I shouldn¡¯t be surprised, but I still feel awful when Veril spots me, and has a panic attack overtake him.


    Veril crumples in on himself and grabs the back of his head as he curls up.  He¡¯s whimpering, ¡°I didn¡¯t know,¡± over and over again.  I feel so bad for being the center of his trauma trigger.


    Surprisingly, Farzee clambers down from my arms, and she goes to stand near Veril while whispering, ¡°It¡¯s okay Broke.  We¡¯ll be okay.  Tell me when you¡¯re ready.¡±


    After a while, Veril looks up at Farzee with a tear-streaked face in confusion.  He glances over at me, with worry and sorrow in his eyes, feeling bad that he had panic upon seeing me.  I don¡¯t know how to absolve him of that.  I whisper comforts towards him telepathically, but trauma and panic don¡¯t just go away.  They¡¯ll rear their heads eventually.  They might lessen over time, but I don¡¯t know if they¡¯ll ever stop completely.  I don¡¯t believe they will.  Even still, I¡¯m proud of Farzee.


    As hurt as she is, Farzee recognizes a friend in need, and she¡¯s becoming the person she wants to be.  Even if she still believes she¡¯s selfish, and perhaps she might be right, she¡¯s acting near selflessly.  One can¡¯t ask for more from anybody, let alone everybody one meets.  I lean over and kiss Farzee¡¯s forehead, whispering, ¡°I¡¯m proud of you sweetling.  If you still want to come with, we¡¯re headed to the strategists-eight.  Veril, you¡¯re welcome as well, if you want.¡±


    I¡¯d almost say I don¡¯t expect everybody to agree to come, but they all do.  Despite everything, despite the trauma, the panic, the grief, the sadness, every mixed emotion between each and every one of us, we¡¯re all still moving forward.  Everybody is moving forward, together.

 B 6 C 102: Is

    I¡¯m more than a little surprised when I hear the voice of one of the gossipers from the other morning call out, ¡°Schism!¡±


    A young man, seemingly the human form of a green dragon rushes towards us, and bends over to grab his knees while panting after catching up to us when he knows he¡¯s got our attention. I raise an eyebrow, and glance at my traveling partners, but Lu, Te, Lucky, Veril, and Farzee have no idea what¡¯s going on. I wait patiently for the poor fellow to catch his breath, answering with a simple, ¡°Yes?¡±


    Rattling his head momentarily, loosing a rather funny sound, Cal, apparently, tries to regain his composure and relate, ¡°You said, um, like to come with you, and stuff, err to you with stuff. I¡¯m Calixtenumous, uh, just call me Cal, everyone does. I, I¡¯ve been getting a bad feeling. I went out for a hunt, and, and I felt like I was being watched. My friends said the same for when they went out. Um.¡±


    Cal scratches his head, unsure where to go from here, and I¡¯m unsure if it might be my fault. It could have been the Spellknight twins Yui and Yuri, perhaps. Still, I don¡¯t think they¡¯d give their presences away so easily, or project malevolence, such that someone untrained like Cal would be creeped out. I can¡¯t verify it wasn¡¯t them right now though, so I¡¯m not sure what to do.


    Starting out, I try to comfort Cal, ¡°Take it easy, breathe deep. If something is going on around Solace and Solitude, I¡¯ll have to deal with it at some point, so I thank you for bringing this to me. I, erm, we, do have spies and scouts around the area, hidden people keeping an eye on things. Is there any chance it was them?¡±


    Shaking his head vigorously, Cal answers, ¡°No, um, it felt, uh, it definitely had a dragonforce, I think. All our scouts are Draconiacs, or maybe some kobolds, right? Or, or am I just an idiot?¡±


    Crap. I inhale sharply. I don¡¯t know one hundred percent for certain, but I¡¯m almost positive he¡¯s right, for exactly this reason. Our scouts can¡¯t have dragonforces, or they¡¯d be able to be sensed by dragons. Shaking my own head, I respond, ¡°No, no, you¡¯re definitely not an idiot. I believe you¡¯re correct about our scouts. Fudge. Um. I can¡¯t exactly go tearing around the countryside hoping to run into a mysterious observer. Can I ask you a favor Cal? If you or your friends go out for hunts again, please be very careful, and try to make notes of exactly where you feel the presence if you can. Please? If anything seems off, or scary, I want you to return to Solace immediately. Do not risk yourselves. Your safety is more important than my favor.¡±


    Cal nods to my request, and beams a smile at my care for his safety. I offer a wide arm, with my hand near him, for Cal to decide if he¡¯d like a hug or handshake, or to simply ignore my affection. He scratches his head, and shrugs before shaking my hand. Cal mutters, ¡°Can do, um, thanks for hearing me out Schism. I, um, yeah. Sorry about the other day. Just thanks is all. Um, can, can I go? Should I¡ª. Okay, thanks.¡±


    I try not to chuckle at Cal as he struggles his way through figuring out if he should observe any sort of decorum, like waiting to be dismissed, but I simply nod that he can go when he asks. I¡¯ve certainly been in similar positions, not sure how to interact with authority. Oh gods. Oh hell. I¡¯m authority. What the hell Reggie? I know right!? Those riding my mental wavelengths crack up, even those that are still suffering, dealing with their grief or trauma. I can¡¯t help chuckling along with them.


    Drawing a deep breath, I loose a sigh that turns into a yawn, resulting in a circle of yawns from around me. Lu leans in to whisper, ¡°Sweetie? Things are going to get pretty hectic for you. Just keep making time for you though. Please? Staying you, and, and being close to happy is as important as everything else.¡±


    Raising my eyebrow towards Luni, I nod in acquiescence, trying to suss out if she¡¯s acting on foreknowledge, or simply worried about me as the war drags on, while I focus on gaining more advantages. She offers no hints as to which it might be, or if I¡¯m off the mark completely. I yawn again, and attempt to apologize to my gathered friends and family, but other than the resulting circle of yawns, they wave it off. We resume our trek towards the strategy gaming hall and slash or war room. Gnawing on my lip, I keep glancing at these people that I love who happen to be traveling with me. There are so many risks and dangers abounding, that I don¡¯t know whom to offer advice to, whom to offer consoling to, whom to even speak to.


    Continuing to gnaw inside my cheek, I¡ª. Te playfully swats the back of my head, muttering, ¡°No chewing on you, only we get to do that,¡± before loosing a Shellcracker squee, sounding her elation at lightly teasing me.


    I can¡¯t help smiling, and there¡¯s several chuckles from the surrounding friends and family. Lucky whuffs in agreement with Teuila, perhaps joining in on the joke, intimating that he gets to gnaw on me or lick me. Smiling down at my son, I rub his skull firmly, lovingly. I can sense Kinzul beaming with pride towards Lil, wherever she is nearby. Though I also sense a bit of deviousness as she¡¯s apparently teasing him for waking up in a bed with twins, without Muse whom had gone to bed with him. Or something along those lines anyway.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    I can¡¯t sense Lil¡¯s response to the tease though, oddly enough. I think that that means he¡¯s out of range, compared to Kinzul, whose range I¡¯ve extended as much as I could. Since I can¡¯t sense Ixey or Zayzi either, I assume I¡¯m more or less right about that part at least. Luni giggles nervously, a bit abashedly, knowing she technically abandoned Lil to wake up with the twin Reds, causing this ever so slightly comedic situation. She also is wary of me accidentally revealing what Ixey had done in her sleep last night, and shoots me a nervous glance. There¡¯s a silent plea for me to shut up on the subject, so I attempt to move my brain to another topic.


    I wonder where Iylynila is. I¡¯m worried. If there¡¯s some strange presence, an unknown dragon skulking nearby, and she¡¯s going off continuously for solo hunts to clear her head, she¡ª. Drawing a deep breath, I sigh as I try to put the worry out of mind. She¡¯s one of our best fighters, calm down Reggie. If she can¡¯t handle herself against one presence, we¡¯ve got really big problems on our hands. But what if it¡¯s a¡ª.


    Huff, calm down. It can¡¯t be. The Damnations are not stupid enough, and they couldn¡¯t get to this side of Mount Solace this fast. They can¡¯t go over it, so they¡¯d have to have land journeyed all the way around the base of the Spine of the World mountain range. If they tried coming in from above, well, they wouldn¡¯t get through unnoticed. Would they? I mean, it¡¯s hard to imagine them just passing by a bunch of souls and dragonforces.


    Crap, I really want to get some of my projects up and running, like a scrying security center for Solace. I think I can buy enough mirrors, and supplies to start making scrying sensors, and maybe go myconid form, to make the sensors free and fast. Putting them up would be a hassle, figuring out where to put them up as well. I could probably rely on Miraina, Pawn, for that, since she knows the tunnel structures the best of anyone in Mount Solace with how much she runs around. Still, she¡¯s trying to connect with her mom today, after being scared about possibly losing her last night. I might have to handle it myself. If I can even make time to make enough of them to matter.


    Ugh, yeah. I can probably only make a couple dozen, but at the very least that would let me cover the entries slash exits, and the prison, and Mount Verdimenn tunnel. Also, um, the uh, entrances to certain bedrooms, without looking into them. The library as well. I just want to be sure no one can sneak in and hurt the people I love. The mirrors would be facing outwards, so it wouldn¡¯t even be possible to perv on them, since that¡¯s not what I¡¯d be making them for. Icky. Those that want to share their bodies with me do it plenty enough to tease me without me needing to be a creep about it. Plus, I won¡¯t even be the only one with access to the security center. I might even ask for someone, like that one burly kobold, to take turns in the security center, keeping an eye on things.


    Fricklefrack. Yeah. Alright. I need to make a pit stop. I¡¯m too anxious, and worked up. I¡¯ll be enchanting some stuff while in the strategy meeting. Ugh, wait, the refractory period on the myconid, is it up yet? Bluh, do I need Kinzul to help me reach to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas to even check? Let¡¯s see, I did a longer entry period, a few hours to get the myconid up, and I technically only kept it up for a few minutes in linear time, so it should only have been down for a few hours. Gnawing on my lip, I worry about maybe possibly having screwed myself out of my myconid form for over a month, if all the time in the orb is counted up somehow.


    Teuila giggles, ¡°Hehe, maybe don¡¯t screw yourself as a mushroom, you¡¯ve got plenty of¡ª.¡±


    She can¡¯t even carry through with her tease, realizing everyone can hear her through my lowered psychic walls. I can¡¯t help chuckling and rolling my eyes, even though I¡¯m blushing rather thoroughly, as is Teuila. I harken back to one of our recent conversations as I respond jokingly, ¡°Screw you, babe.¡±


    Sounding her elation, Teuila closes her eyes and bobs her head side to side. Lu doesn¡¯t quite get why she¡¯s happy to be told to screw herself, but shrugs. Lucky nudges me from the side, bowling me into Luni on purpose. I¡¯d glare at the very unsubtle hint, but I can¡¯t help chuckling and rolling my eyes at our son as Lu catches me in her arms, against her lovely chest.


    I try to reassure him, ¡°Lucky, I love you, and you know I love ¡®parent¡¯, there¡¯s no need to push buddy. I¡¯m not going anywhere, ever again. No more long periods without seeing any of you guys. Nothing more than quick missions and offensives. I¡¯ll find some way around having to do long journeys apart. Come here you big lug.¡±


    Extricating myself from Luni¡¯s amazing embrace, I kneel down with my arms wide towards Lucky. Thankfully Lucky obliges, and I wrap his neck and shoulders in a tight hug, while he places one paw behind me, and hugs me with his scarf. I sniff and rub my itchy eyes, trying not to imagine having to be apart from my inner circle again. I definitely don¡¯t want us to be without one another for months and months, ever again. Te and Lu reciprocate, nodding along with me. Lucky whuffs in agreement, and I chuckle, still unsure how to be a better parent to him.


    We¡¯ll be fighting together tomorrow for the first time. We technically fought Vanathar together, but it was more like he wrestled Vanathar to play, rather than doing what we¡¯ll have to do tomorrow. We¡¯ll have to fight through, likely killing, an entire horde, an army led by powerful Draconiacs. I wonder how he feels about that, if it registers to him. Does his cragbeast side enjoy destruction? Does he have a sense of morality, or, well, one like my Fakeworld one, where killing is thought of as wrong? I mean, he seems to like protecting people, saving them, helping them. I¡¯ll always think he¡¯s a good person.


    Lucky is¡ª. Lucky is¡ª. I guess he just is. I can¡¯t find a way to learn more about him, only able to sometimes hear his psychic exclamations. As much as I¡¯d like to learn more, and be more, and do more, I¡¯ll just have to satisfice myself with that, that Lucky just is.

 B 6 C 9: Planned Projects

    <div>


    <table style="width: 52.117%" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><colgroup><col style="width: 23.2814%" width="100"><col style="width: 6.69111%" width="25"><col style="width: 13.6572%" width="53"><col style="width: 11.1824%" width="42"><col style="width: 12.099%" width="45"><col style="width: 11.1824%" width="43"><col style="width: 11.2741%" width="44"><col style="width: 9.07424%" width="33"></colgroup>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>MRK Total:</td>


    <td>VV</td>


    <td>BSRGK</td>


    <td>Vivant</td>


    <td>Dormir</td>


    <td>EPBN</td>


    <td>AAGS</td>


    <td>Nala</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>360</td>


    <td>40</td>


    <td>64</td>


    <td>56</td>


    <td>56</td>


    <td>56</td>


    <td>56</td>


    <td>32</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Miraina(Every)</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie(Every)</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Kinzul(Every)</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Vylon</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Vyela</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Boetah</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Shaylon</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Revinth</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Gresog</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Kagired</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Orthral</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Prinrin</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Gilmeshtu</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Fenric</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Iylynila</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Farzhis</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Induul</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Veril</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Elshont</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Prent</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Burshis</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Nietru</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Aaront</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Geskae</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Shrulniz</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Aktixas</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Nala</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Additional Nets</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>XX</td>


    <td>Spy</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie Total:</td>


    <td>40</td>


    <td>24</td>


    <td>16</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Ixeyla</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Xayla</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Errissa</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    <div>


    <table style="width: 54.1786%" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><colgroup><col style="width: 23.0064%" width="100"><col style="width: 6.65113%" width="33"><col style="width: 9.20588%" width="25"><col style="width: 11.1824%" width="42"><col style="width: 11.458%" width="53"><col style="width: 9.56431%" width="44"><col style="width: 10.9859%" width="43"><col style="width: 16.4793%" width="45"></colgroup>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>MRKL Total:</td>


    <td>Nala</td>


    <td>VV</td>


    <td>Vivant</td>


    <td>BSRGK</td>


    <td>AAGS</td>


    <td>EPBN</td>


    <td>Dormir</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>408</td>


    <td>40</td>


    <td>48</td>


    <td>64</td>


    <td>64</td>


    <td>64</td>


    <td>64</td>


    <td>64</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Miraina</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Lil</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie(Every)</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Kinzul(Every)</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Vylon</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Vyela</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Boetah</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Shaylon</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Revinth</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Gresog</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Kagired</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Orthral</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Prinrin</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Gilmeshtu</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Fenric</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Iylynila</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Farzhis</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Induul</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Veril</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Elshont</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Prent</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Burshis</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Nietru</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Aaront</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Geskae</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Shrulniz</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Aktixas</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Nala</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Evening:</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Additional Nets</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>XX</td>


    <td>Spy</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie Total:</td>


    <td>40</td>


    <td>24</td>


    <td>16</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Reggie</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Ixeyla</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Xayla</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Errissa</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>8</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 B 6 C 104: To Be

    Farzee goes to rest her head on Veril¡¯s, and he¡¯s suddenly stricken, as he dearly wants to take her closeness for more than it currently means. I see him fighting the excitement within himself as he embraces her warmly. He¡¯s trying to be the supportive friend she needs, but he¡¯s deeply enamored with her, and attracted to her. I can¡¯t say I don¡¯t know what it¡¯s like to be fighting off physical attraction to someone, or hell, even attraction to Farzee specifically. Still, I see the tears that both of these Dormies shed in each other¡¯s embraces, and I breathe deep, slow, sad sighs for them. They¡¯ll be okay. Eventually they¡¯re going to be okay.


    Leezahna approaches me and quietly, angrily mutters, ¡°I, I don¡¯t get how, how people love you. So many people seem to, when I hate you. I¡¯m. I¡¯m sorry that I hate you. I think. Not a lot makes sense right now. Will things start making sense again?¡±


    Oh wow. That hits like a punch to the gut. I know that feeling of nothing making sense quite well. Whispering softly, I respond, ¡°It¡¯s okay to hate me, or dislike me. I hurt you badly, and it was awful of me to do. Things will start to make sense as you find your own way in the world, your own way to be, and who you are, who you really are underneath it all. I¡¯ll be here if you need me, even if you don¡¯t like me. Leezahna, do you want hugs or physical reassurance, affection of any kind? Would you consent to me offering you hugs, despite your anger at me? You do not have to, at all, you are under no obligation, despite whatever you might think of me, or what I¡¯ve done. You don¡¯t owe me anything.¡±


    Leezahna flashes me a furrowed brow, which slowly morphs into a confused, almost sorrowful glance. She mumbles, ¡°I don¡¯t, I don¡¯t know. I think, I think the tra¡ª. Shit. Sorry. The *Red*. F^&*. Ixeyla. I swear, I¡¯m trying to, to¡ª. I, I learned, and, and I agree, and¡ª. She was kind to me. Nice to me, when everyone else abandoned me. I think maybe just her for now. Um, thank you. I think. Almost? Kind of? I¡ª. I don¡¯t get it. How you can love and be loved. You¡¯re, you¡¯re¡ª. I¡¯m sorry. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you so much. But, but you¡¯re right. I¡¯m so confused. I don¡¯t know who I am, but, but I can¡¯t find that out, if I live with Mother. I¡¯ll just, she¡¯ll just¡ª. Thank you for not hurting her, or killing me. You¡¯re a monster. But, I guess, maybe, sort of a kind one. Maybe.¡±


    That¡¯s about right, and what I expected from her. As I draw a deep breath, before I can respond, Leezahna adds, ¡°This, um, stuff, infinite, um. Am, am I allowed to¡ª. I mean, it¡¯s only fair, as a Dimineros, righ¡ª? Sorry. Shit. I see how awful that sounds now. What do I do to earn what I want?¡±


    Passing that deep breath out through puffed cheeks, I nod to myself at my assessment of the journey Leezahna is on. This could get to be pretty tough, giving her a home right here, right next to everything valuable. On the other hand, if she does start acting out, it¡¯ll be pretty easy to find her, and whatever she decides to claim as her own. Psheww. This is, phew, a hell of a tricky one. She seems to understand to not act out on her anger, her own inability to comprehend me, and so on. If I can just make a few more advancements on my projects, then I can afford to offer her this trust I¡¯m offering her, no matter what she does. I just¡ª. I need to get there. I fear Lu would be heartbroken if the shop was destroyed, with no way to repair it to its magical nature.


    I guess it¡¯s now or never though. She wants to know, so I¡¯ll take her to get some parchment, a quill, and ink, for now. Now that we¡¯ve got that, I start, ¡°Leezahna, if you want to write poetry or a letter that you¡¯re never going to send, or an idea you have, or draw calligraphy letters, or write a story, or anything, go ahead and use any of these supplies. If we ever run out, you¡¯ll have to buy your own, and I¡¯m about to show you how. Go ahead and start on something simple for now, something you can do fairly quickly, then I¡¯ll show you how to make the money that lets you get either more supplies, or whatever you want. Whatever you make will disappear, and be replaced with money, so if it¡¯s something you¡¯re proud of, make sure to make a copy of it first.¡±


    Stuttering, Leezahna responds, ¡°O-okay. Okay. Y-yes. I¡¯ll¡ª. I can do that. Is, um, there¡¯s nowhere¡ª. Can, can I go over there?¡±


    I nod at Leezahna as she spots furniture over in the craftworks area. Yeah, it¡¯s probably easier to do writing or drawing while sitting down at a table or desk. It might be one of the first things she¡¯ll want to buy, a stool or chair, then a desk. I¡¯ll try to make sure there¡¯s help on hand to be able to move her furniture into her new home for her. I guess we could make her home on this side of the library, since there¡¯s no space on the other side, but that does put her right next to our vaults. Will she think I¡¯m being overbearing? Glancing towards my inner circle, my querying glance is asking what they think, and if they¡¯d be willing to help. Leeza could go on to be quite a challenge if I don¡¯t handle this correctly.


    Lucky looses a very short, very quiet growl, almost a grumble with his tail completely still, but then whuffs affirmatively, his tail wagging as normal. So he¡¯s not happy about helping her out, but he¡¯s still happy to help out in general. I gnaw on my lip as I gaze down at Lucky with worry. Does he have any sort of foresight? Or is he mistrusting because she had a bad attitude? Or does he sense something else? Or does he just not like her, because she¡¯s a pretty woman who approached me while I was with Lu? I¡¯d chuckle a bit if it was the last one. Leeza is like a frightened little kid to me, I can¡¯t even comprehend the idea of her being a ¡°romantic threat¡± in any way, and that¡¯s not even counting the fact that we¡¯d have to heal a lot of hurt before we could even build a friendship.


    My Wings, Teuila wears a semi-grim expression as she shakes her head slowly, incredulously, muttering, ¡°Only you Airhead, only you. I think you did good. I¡¯m proud of you. You¡¯re going to take her into the shop next, right? Is she the last piece? Uh, that was insensitive. Not sure how better to phrase it though. Bluh, stupid emotional crap. Sorry.¡±


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    I flash a half smile at Teuila, somberness adorning the rest of my face as I nod and respond, ¡°I¡¯m going to do that, yeah, but no she¡¯s not the last shop owner we need, not entirely, not yet, but depending on what she has, we might already get to see catalogs. Don¡¯t worry My Wings, I know what you meant. Anyway, speaking about the shop owners, let me pull out the phone.¡±


    Drawing out the device, I realize I want to use it to capture pictures of my loved ones, especially my loved ones and myself together. I breathe through my nose, trying to push back waves of the fear of loss. Passing a slow sigh through my lips, I try to remain calm, though my lower jaw quivers. I know that in some ways, taking pictures would be admitting my fear, admitting that I think there¡¯s a possibility that some day, we might never see each other again. I guess¡ª. I guess it¡¯s okay to admit that I¡¯m afraid. I tell everyone else that. Right Reggie? Yeah, yeah you do buddy. It¡¯s okay to be scared. You want to hold on to them, and pictures would honor them if something did happen. It¡¯s okay pal. It¡¯s gonna be okay.


    Breathing deep and sighing again, I look towards Lu, who smiles sadly my way. With her eyes downcast, Luni mutters, ¡°I¡¯m sorry that you¡¯re not going to get to be friends with her. She¡¯s always going to resent you, always. But you did good, my Hero. I¡¯m so proud of you. Remember what I said though.¡±


    Hm, what was it? Not everything will go the way I want, or hope, but we¡¯ll make it through in the end? Or was it want or need? If not everything is going to go the way that I need, I should probably get some more backup contingencies¡ª. Luni shushes my mind with a, ¡°Bup bup, no guessing, it¡¯ll be okay. You¡¯ve got this. Always have, always will.¡±


    I can¡¯t help laughing a bit, feeling like somehow my relationship with Luni is reaching deep into our past, simultaneously strengthening, and expanding, despite the wear our relationship has been through. I stand before her, and once again, Lucky nudges me closer to her, but he needn¡¯t have. I pull her into my embrace and kiss her tenderly, lovingly. Lucky¡¯s tail wags as happily as anything. I fight the smirk at my son¡¯s response to be able to smile warmly into the kiss I share with Luni.


    Luni, rivers and June. Her name means both. I don¡¯t even know which languages those translations might be from. Perhaps Polynesian? It¡¯s Fakeworld stuff though. Still. It encapsulates so much of our lives, both of them. I sift my fingers through Luni¡¯s dark bob-with-bangs haircut to rest my forehead against hers. She presses warmly against me, ever so slightly closer, intentionally pressing her curves into more¡ª. I blush, as she intended to get me to do. Still, I can¡¯t help smiling at her. Te fidgets nearby, angry at herself for feeling needy and jealous again, but oddly, as I release Luni, it¡¯s Lu that Te strides towards to hug tightly. Luni¡¯s eyes sparkle and glee rides beneath the surface of her thoughts, but there¡¯s a certain mistrust, an unsurety. I¡¯m more and more suspicious, and more and more certain I know the answer Luni doesn¡¯t want me to find out, or to accidentally share with Teuila.


    Only a moment later, Teuila leaps at me, forcing me to catch her, even though she drops her gravity to nil. She peppers my face with kisses, until I can catch her lips with mine. Blushing and grinning at her, she offers me her derpy closed-eyed mile-wide grin as she bobs her head side to side. Leezahna returns, and mutters a query about what to do next. I pass a breath through puffed cheeks before yawning, and doing it again, trying to aim away from Leeza so she doesn¡¯t catch me and come to believe that it¡¯s in response to her. I flick my head towards the bunker that Vylon is snoozing up against in his dragon form, while Vyela keeps an eye on it. I motion Vyela to enter the dugout with the shop stall, just for that tiny bit of extra security, an extra mote of reason to be dissuaded from acting out.


    Flicking a glance towards Lu, and then flicking my eyebrows towards the shop stall, Luni giddily leaps behind the counter and begins, ¡°Hello traveler, how can I help you today? Are you looking to buy or sell?¡±


    Leezahna looks confused, so I mouth sell as she glances my way. She turns to Lu and answers that she¡¯d like to sell her writings. Luni motions to the counter, and Leezahna places them down. The writings begin derezzing, and a small stack of bills begins to rez into existence in their place. Later we can tell her that she can sell directly for gems, but for now, this is good enough. Leeza picks up the bills, still confused, unsure what they signify or what to do with them. There¡¯s a couple hundred dollars, so either the shop thought her penmanship was great, or poetry, or whatever she¡¯d written or drawn.


    I give her the tiniest of telekinetic nudges, and mouth buy. Leeza starts to brighten up as she asks, ¡°Could I, maybe buy, a really nice, soft chair? If, if possible, in Desinruth style, with satin lining, and brass trim.¡±


    I¡¯m more than a little surprised when a lovely chair with satin lining and brass trim materializes. That was more specific than I thought the shop could get. It is from Luni¡¯s shop though, so of course it¡¯s absolutely impeccable quality. Leezahna gasps and looks almost giddy momentarily before asking aloud, ¡°Is, is that mine? Can, can I keep that? Do I, is it, is¡ª, what even happened? How? Wh¡ª. Can I keep doing this?¡±


    Trying not to let my smile seem insincere, I nod and answer her questions, ¡°That is absolutely yours Leezahna, you earned it, one hundred percent. We¡¯ll help you move it into your new room. If Lucky and Lu don¡¯t mind, I¡¯ll have them dig and stoneshape it to your specifications, within reason. Please be considerate of their feelings and time. What happened is you earned money for your work or artistry, and you traded that money for a specific good. Not all shops from all people who stand behind the counter will have everything you ask for, but you lucked out this time. That¡¯s why I¡¯m going to ask you to please stand behind the counter, and greet us as if you were a shopkeeper, just for a moment, please, I beg you.¡±


    Leezahna looks at me warily, slightly grumpily, but then looks to the amazingly well-crafted chair, gnaws on her lip and slumps her shoulders momentarily. She then blushes, realizing she¡¯s seeming ungrateful, and scurries behind the counter to be the shopkeep we need. She strokes the chair and marvels at it momentarily before offering up a curt greeting.


    After putting down a large stack of one hundred dollar bills, I ask as I have been asking, ¡°I¡¯d like something that helps to allow me, Reggie Shellcracker, to determine the available shop catalogs.¡±


    I¡¯m a tad surprised when many *thousands* of dollars begin derezzing. I suppose the quality, and size of the goods is to be expected at that price.

 B 6 C 105: Getting

    That¡¯s a till, or shop register, cash register, with an NFC attachment. That over there is a laser copy machine with an NFC attachment as well. There¡¯s reams of paper, and toner cartridges. Huff. Phew, this, this is insane. Grr Fakeworld, why? Still, still I think this might do it. The other names might not be necessary, at least not for all shops. Perhaps certain individual shops. I hastily wave Lu and Lucky and Leezahna out as I begin setting up. I levitate Leezahna¡¯s chair out to her, and remind her to be kind to Luni and Lucky as she has them making a home for her.


    I hear Leeza start, ¡°I¡¯d, I¡¯d like a big open floor plan for the main area, and a private bedroom, with a walk-in closet, and maybe marble columns, and¡ª. I, I, Schism said, I¡ª. I guess I can earn the columns, and maybe get some help with them, maybe, sometime? Then over there¡ª.¡±


    She trails off, describing what might be her little dream home cave to Lu and Lucky. While they¡¯re busy with that, Vyela offers me her usual, ¡°Hmn,¡± while Te helps me make room for the copying machine, and I utilize a bit of stone elemental magic to do some reshaping to make more room in the dugout, so that I can bring the big battery banks down in here, so that I can plug in all these machines.


    I¡¯m giddy, I¡¯m almost ecstatic. If, if any of the shops have the magical equipment to reproduce the shop stalls, or, or, or shop stalls themselves, or, I don¡¯t even know what, there¡¯s so many possibilities. Possibilities that might be able to save the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian aura even if someone destroys this stall, or generate a new one, or, or so many things. Hooking things up, I begin booting up all the devices, but now I¡¯m a bit struck. How are the *devices* going to know who¡¯s behind the sho¡ª.


    I flip through the notes in the phone, and there¡¯s one with nine digit codes assigned to hundreds, maybe thousands of names. I rush to the copier to try to figure out how to get it to print that specific note. It¡¯s rather intuitive, just leave the phone on the NFC hotspot, and use the touch-screen interface to find the file-name of what you¡¯d like to print out. I¡¯m vibrating with anticipation. The names are all alphabetical, and I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s everyone we could possibly have gotten to run the shop for us, since it includes people who¡¯ve perished like Aymeshtu. I hesitate to leave the sheet with her name on it in the stack, but¡ª. Te offers me a sad frown and nods. In case some of these other names are people who live in Mount Solace, who might want to utilize the system, I¡¯d better leave the sheet in the stack.


    Either I, or Nala, will get this printout bound, and we¡¯ll put in tabs to indicate the letter cutoffs, so people can flip to their letter more easily. I¡¯m pretty sure binders and binder tabs are easy enough to get out of the shop system at this point. Thankfully, there¡¯s an option for three-hole-punching the printouts as they occur, and I selected that one, as well as double-siding, though maybe I shouldn¡¯t have chosen that, since it makes the sheets busier, and a little harder to parse quickly and easily.


    Still, with this¡ª, oh wow. I think I don¡¯t even need to have all of these people show up. I think¡ª. I think with Lu, or Kinzul behind the counter, if we plug in their nine digit code, we can drum up anyone¡¯s shop inventory. Or, or maybe even without them? Just, just let¡¯s just see mine first. I hunt down my code in the Rs. Of effing course it is. I start laughing, cackling even. It¡¯s nine zeroes. Hahahah. Teuila giggles along with me, and even Vyela snorts once as she notices, and easily puts two and two together. The Void Dragon Honoris Causa is all null digits.


    Oh my gosh, oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. My heart rate is so frantic, I feel like I¡¯m going to pass out. Teuila nudges me playfully, bopping me softly on the head, slugging me gently in the shoulder, and slapping me ever so lightly on my cheek. I try to calm myself, to breathe deeply. Te smiles proudly at me, not entirely sure what everything is, but trusting that my excitement means we¡¯ve succeeded at something important. I¡ª. I need to commemorate this. Maybe a selfie with Teuila. Te¡ª. She¡¯s at my side, and posing towards where I¡¯ll hold the phone.


    How do you know what a selfie is? Whatever, it¡¯s fine. I ask Vyela, ¡°Would you want to be in a commemorative photo of this partial success of our endeavor? Ah, erm, no problem.¡±


    I probably should have expected the confused brow and the eyeroll from Vyela. Still, I snag a selfie with Teuila, and I¡¯m blown away, both by the quality, and just, just the ability to capture a moment. I have a picture with my beloved Wings. She looks so happy, and excited for me to be as excited as I am. My eyes wet with tears as I hug the phone to my chest. Te rolls her eyes and shoulder bashes me playfully, reminding me that she¡¯s still right next to me.


    I¡¯m beginning to pant a bit exhaustedly, hyperventilating from the excitement. Okay Reggie, calm down. Get it together. Punch in my code, stand behind the shop. Hand the phone to Te so she can hold it near the NFC attachment. Alright, let¡¯s see what shows up on the phone. I¡ª. I don¡¯t recognize that filetype. I mean, why would I? But still¡ª. I frown and furrow my brow. I can¡¯t open that type of file on my phone as far as I¡¯m aware. Do I need a PC, and conversion software? I wonder if the copier knows that filetype.


    Let¡¯s see, is there some sort of note detailing¡ª. Okay, here we go. Non-keyed sequential file. Something something AS400, RPG, COBOL, printable! Okay, okay, okay, calm down. Phew, huff, phew. NFC up to the copier, select the¡ª. Huh. Print source, or result? Well, I guess the source would be just like, code and formatting, and the result would be the actual catalog, or database. Huh. I¡¯m curious about the source, but it says it¡¯s something like a thousand seventy one pages. Or wait, there¡¯s like a line space between the digits that looks like it could hide an entire extra digit, is that ten thousand seventy one? Jeebez. The results are only a few pages. As curious as I am about the source code, I really don¡¯t want to waste ten thousand pages and that much toner.


    Okay, okay, okay. Results it is. What¡¯s this? Standard plus the following, plus unlock¡ªable? I, I definitely didn¡¯t expect this, and I don¡¯t even know what the standard is. Is that just the stuff that everyone was able to sell infinite of back home on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas more or less? Produce mostly, as well as wooden goods, and so on. The really general items that almost every shop seemed to carry an infinite supply of. Perhaps every shop.


    So these are my expanded inventory beyond the standard eh? Huh.


    Mermaid''s Tear


    Crystal Ball with Stand


    Mechanical Gauntlet


    Potions and Brews Recipe Book


    Vintage Diving Helmet


    Spellbound Tarot Deck


    Ancient Egyptian Ankh


    Dragon Claw Letter Opener


    Victorian Phantom Masks


    Time-Traveler''s Pocket Watch


    Werewolf Fur Rug


    Egyptian Hieroglyphics Decoder


    Mechanical Music Box


    Wishing Well Coin Collection


    Enchanted Forest Canvas Art


    Vintage Spyglass Telescope


    Phoenix Feather Quill Pen


    Timeless Hourglass


    Gilded Renaissance Mirror


    Dragon Claw Bookends


    Atlantean Crystal Orb


    Alchemist''s Mortar and Pestle


    Magical Grimoire


    Goggles with Gears


    Potion of Invisibility


    Viking Rune Stones Set


    Victorian Cameo Brooch


    Enchanted Snow Globe


    Elven Leaf Fragment


    Rustic Pirate Treasure Chest


    Time Traveler''s Top Hat


    Vintage World Map


    Crystal Healing Wand


    Antique Brass Compass


    Faerie Wing Hair Clip


    Egyptian Scarab Amulet


    Mechanical Pocket Watch Necklace


    Leprechaun''s Lucky Coin


    Renaissance Knight Chess Set


    Celtic Knot Leather Journal


    Fairy Garden Miniature Set


    Vintage Phonograph Gramophone


    Unicorn Horn Pendant


    Ancient Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet


    Egyptian Cat Statue


    Fortune Teller''s Crystal Ball


    Aztec Sun Stone Calendar


    Mechanical Clockwork Bird


    Werewolf Moon Phase Calendar


    Enchanted Forest Incense Burner


    Potion of Love Elixir


    Samurai Warrior Armor Miniature


    Rustic Celtic Knot Wall Art


    Airship Model


    Greek Mythology Tarot Cards


    Magical Fairy Dust Bottles


    Viking Ship Figurine


    Phoenix Rising Tapestry


    Egyptian Pyramid Puzzle Box


    Astral Projection Guidebook


    Enchanted Crystal Pendant


    Antique Skeleton Key Set


    Pocket Watch Stand


    Haunted House Candle Holder


    Celtic Druid''s Staff


    Wizard''s Potion Cauldron


    Victorian Opera Glasses


    Mythical Creature Wood Carvings


    Pirate Ship in a Bottle


    Fairy Tale Pop-Up Book


    Dreamcatcher Amulet Necklace


    Egyptian Papyrus Scroll


    Gear Bracelet


    Crystal Energy Charging Plate


    Vintage Compass Watch


    Antique Vampire Hunter Kit


    Fairy Tale Storybook Collection


    Dragon''s Eye Gemstone


    Fortune Teller''s Crystal Ball Stand


    Pirate Treasure Map Puzzle


    Time Traveler''s Journal


    Vintage Crystal Decanter Set


    Magical Firefly Jar


    Airship Blueprint


    Egyptian Scarab Bracelet


    Unicorn Tapestry Throw Blanket


    Mermaid Song Music Box


    Antique World Globe


    Mystic Tarot Cloth


    Viking Drinking Horn


    Mechanical Cogwheel Wall Clock


    Sorcerer''s Crystal Ball Stand


    Renaissance Court Jester Doll


    Egyptian Ankh Keychain


    Fairy Tale Pop-Up Card Set


    Astronomical Pocket Watch


    Aviator Goggles


    Celtic Knot Amulet


    Unicorn Enamel Pin


    Alchemist''s Elixir Crafting Set


    A¡ª. A time traveler¡¯s journal!? I shout though Te is right next to me, ¡°Teuila, quick, quick buy from my shop, a time traveler¡¯s journal!¡±


    Teuila starts to chide me for shouting, but her eyes fly wide in realization. There¡¯s also a time traveler¡¯s top-hat, and time traveler¡¯s pocket watch, but I¡¯m not exactly a top-hat kind of person, and I don¡¯t see a pocket watch being as helpful as information. My heart skips beats as I rush back to the other side of the stall to greet Teuila, ¡°Hello my utterly beloved, ultra wonderful customer, please, let me serve you today. How may I be of service?¡±


    Te looses a Shellcracker Family Squee at my over-the-top¡¯ness of my shopkeep introduction, but after a short laugh, she simply responds, ¡°One time traveler¡¯s journal please.¡±


    I gulp, waiting with bated breath as the money on the counter derezzes out, while a journal rezzes in. If, if anything could contain a clue on how to save Kinzul, it would be this. Right? This has to be it. Right? Please. Please be it. I can¡¯t grab it, so Te has to grab it for me, and she¡¯s tantalizingly teasingly keeping it out of my reach. I¡¯m tempted to telekinetically grab it from her, but I don¡¯t want to spoil her fun, or hurt her feelings. I shouldn¡¯t be in quite so much of a rush anyway. Plus, she could read it herself.


    Checking out the journal, Teuila mutters, ¡°Erm, actually, no I can¡¯t. It¡¯s some kinda mooney runies. Bah. When did you learn to write like this? They aren¡¯t even Rayileklian runes.¡±


    I gulp, apprehensive, because I didn¡¯t, I¡¯ve never seen them before. My translation enchantment gets to work though. Wait, are these Hiragana? Or maybe Katakana? Or traditional Chinese? What the everliving¡ª. Okay, okay, calm down, let¡¯s read, hm, hm¡ª. I, I don¡¯t think this is about me, or by me. It, it seems like a piece of fiction. I mean, not like it¡¯s unbelievable or out there or wild or anything, it¡¯s just written more like a story rather than an actual journal. Like, seriously, time traveler¡¯s log, star date yada yada. Plus, it¡¯s mostly about planets in some galactic quadrant or something or other. What the hell?


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    My heart plummets into my stomach, my excitement suddenly abated. Huff. I sigh slowly, and breathe deeply, weeping at the loss of the possibility to save Kinzul. I, I shouldn¡¯t have gotten my hopes up. This does however also end up making me doubt that anything else in here that happens to sound marvelous, actually is marvelous. Like a phoenix-feather quill pen? It¡¯s probably just colored orange or something. A magical grimoire? It¡¯s probably just a fake or empty spellbook. Still, I guess maybe it¡¯s worth snagging them to check them out. Some things are ridiculously high-priced, which leads me to believe that they might actually be magic items. I¡¯m not even sure we can afford to be buying the ones with prices like that. There¡¯s so many zeroes. We¡¯ve got tons of cash, sure, but we¡¯re not infinitillionaires.


    My eyes gloss over as I try to read my shop¡¯s inventory again and again. I beg Vyela to find her number, and punch it in, and Teuila to try hers, to snag the files onto the phone while I¡¯m reading. I¡¯m pretty sure I could just enter them myselves. Erm, myself, bluh, I¡¯m discombobulated from the let-down. Anyway, I might be wrong about being able to enter them myself. It may be more like a sort of combined digital-biological password lock thing that unlocks a certain file when the person whose passcode is punched in, stands behind the counter.


    Still, this information about unlockables leads me to believe we might be able to find people whose shops can contain entire smartphones, fully constructed and charged, or something like that. We¡¯d just have to do whatever task happens to unlock them. What are the conditions on my unlockables? Something something, a thousand sales over fifty dollars. Bluh. It sounds like it¡¯ll produce a new file after I perform some very videogamey achievement style things, and that file will be my unlocked additional inventory. Oy vey. Friggin¡¯ hell. Genre senses are going wild about all this. That one might even have another set of achievements for even more unlocks. Hah. Ugh.


    So much of this stuff sounds like basically cosplay or maybe just intricate costume jewelry or nonsense patterned in ways or named in ways to sound impressive. Hm, Te¡¯s list? Similar. Hell it even has another time traveler¡¯s journal, for a different price. Ugh. Should we even bother? Still¡ª. If there¡¯s any chance, that one of them might be my own, we should take it, right? It¡¯s eight minutes, and we could just snag a bunch of the affordable stuff at once. What all does Te have?


    Moonlit Enchantress Perfume


    Enchanted Evergreen Wreath


    Celestial Crystal Pendant


    Dragon''s Eye Gemstone


    Starlight Elixir


    Timeless Hourglass


    Gilded Fantasy Mirror


    Faerie Whisper Candles


    Ocean''s Song Seashell Necklace


    Ancient Rune Stones


    Mystical Moonstone Ring


    Vintage Locket of Secrets


    Crystal Healing Wand


    Mermaid Tear Fragment


    Enchanted Forest Incense


    Astral Projection Guidebook


    Phoenix Feather Quill


    Serenity Seraph Figurine


    Enchanted Unicorn Figurine


    Time Traveler''s Journal


    Dragonfire Amber Bracelet


    Celestial Zodiac Tapestry


    Sorcerer''s Spellbook


    Crystal Ball with Stand


    Starfall Amulet


    Whimsical Music Box


    Elemental Potion Vials


    Dreamcatcher Wall Art


    Enchanted Oak Wand


    Mystic Moon Phases Wall Hanging


    Vintage Zodiac Constellation Map


    Enchanted Forest Canvas Art


    Celestial Telescope


    Magic Broomstick


    Wishing Well Coin Collection


    Alchemist''s Mortar and Pestle


    Mystical Tarot Deck


    Rustic Dreamcatcher


    Crystal Energy Charging Plate


    Enchanted Crystal Skull


    Moonlit Garden Lanterns


    Mermaid''s Lagoon Perfume


    Dragonfly Wing Fragment


    Celestial Star Fragment


    Ancient Egyptian Scarab Bracelet


    Timekeeper''s Pocket Watch


    Enchanted Sapphire Ring


    Starry Night Sky Projection


    Ocean Waves Sound Machine


    Serpent Serenade Bracelet


    Moonstone Amulet


    Enchanted Serpent Ring


    Vintage Treasure Map


    Crystal Dragon Figurine


    Celestial Moon Mirror


    Mystic Amethyst Cluster


    Enchanted Crystal Key


    Faerie Wings Hairpin


    Dragon Claw Necklace


    Timeless Pocket Watch Necklace


    Mermaid Song Music Box


    Celestial Moon Phase Wall Art


    Astral Traveler''s Guidebook


    Enchanted Moonflower Crown


    Mystical Moon Phase Mirror


    Dreamweaver Quilted Blanket


    Crystal Lotus Incense Holder


    Phoenix Rising Tapestry


    Ocean Tides Seashell Set


    Serenity Bath Salts


    Moonstone Crystal Ball Stand


    Enchanted Rose Amulet


    Dragon Claw Letter Opener


    Celestial Stargazer Globe


    Starry Night Constellation Globe


    Crystal Faerie Figurine


    Timekeeper''s Desk Clock


    Serpent Serenade Gambeson


    Ocean Breeze Scented Oil


    Moonlit Forest Wall Hanging


    Mystic Moonlight Candle Holders


    Enchanted Star Bracelet


    Celestial Moon Phase Journal


    Dragonfire Elixir Flask


    Ancient Egyptian Ankh Necklace


    Timeless Steampunk Pocket Watch


    Enchanted Oak Tree Figurine


    Faerie Dust Sparkler Wand


    Starfall Crystal Chandelier


    Ocean Mist Reed Diffuser


    Moonlit Serenity Oil Burner


    Celestial Zodiac Bracelet


    Dragonfly Dance Wall Art


    Enchanted Crystal Skull Necklace


    Timeless Hourglass Pendant


    Serpent Serenade Ring


    Ocean Treasure Chest Box


    Celestial Crescent Moon Fragment


    Dragon''s Breath Potion


    Crystal Vortex Amulet


    Huh. Te¡¯s does have a Dragon¡¯s Breath Potion though, and I know those exist, and that she has used one in the past. During¡ª. During our last fight against Olashax in The Gap. I bite my lips, and scrunch my eyes to fight back my tears. Gulp. I fight my sadness and gulp back my emotions so as not to burden Teuila with the memories of that period of our Rayileklian journey.


    Some of these items almost sound like, well, like set items from a massively multiplayer roleplaying game. Like, they might seem like cheap costumes or accessories upon purchase, but what if we find all the items in a set, and wearing them actually does confer magic? Ugh, some of them are so friggin¡¯ expensive, I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s worth it to try until we start getting our own wealth generation going on. I¡¯d prefer to get some extra shop stalls, and maybe see if we can automate them without needing someone standing behind them. Then possibly start a bit of an assembly line that takes some resources, turns them into goods, and automatically sells them. Snag that wealth to get more resources, or just wait for them to respawn, or whatever.


    I don¡¯t want to accidentally blow all our wealth before we find out something like the magical tools that could help us make more shop stalls end up costing like umpteen quintillion gold pieces or something. Deep breaths Reggie, keep at it. It¡¯s still progress. I don¡¯t know when we¡¯ll ever have time to do a thousand transactions of over fifty dollars in value, unless we get like five hundred people here at once, to each do two transactions. Y¡¯know. Because doing them one at a time would be eight thousand minutes or so, and that¡¯s, that¡¯s just far too long to invest during the war. I know Reggie, I know. It¡¯s okay, we¡¯ll get through this, we¡¯ll secure things.


    I guess this is one of the reasons Lu said I might not get what I want or need though. The Time Traveler¡¯s Journal was a bust. Definitely not what I need to be able to save Kinzul. Alright, alright, let¡¯s see what Vyela¡¯s inventory is while we¡¯re here, then try to pick out what¡¯s worth purchasing. My eyes are hurting as I try to take in all of these items and lists. So far all of them have said standard plus the following, with like a hundred item list or so, plus a mystery file of unlockables after a list of achievements. Here¡¯s Vyela¡¯s.


    Royal Scepter of Eternity


    Moonlit Palace Tapestry


    Enchanted Crystal Tiara


    Dragon''s Tear Gemstone


    Celestial Starfire Necklace


    Timeless Royal Hourglass


    Gilded Royal Mirror


    Serenity of the Crown Candles


    Ocean''s Embrace Opalescent Shell Necklace


    Royal Elixir of Youth


    Mystical Moonlit Chalice


    Vintage Royal Locket


    Crystal Heart of the Queen


    Mermaid''s Lagoon Perfume


    Enchanted Palace Incense


    Astral Crown Jewel


    Phoenix Feather Quill Pen


    Serpent''s Serenade Bracelet


    Ocean Breeze Scented Oil


    Royal Timekeeper''s Pocket Watch


    Dragonfire Amber Fragment


    Celestial Crested Tapestry


    Regal Queen''s Robes


    Crystal Ball of Prophecy


    Starfall Crown Amulet


    Whispers of the Throne Music Box


    Elemental Harmony Fragment


    Royal Dragon Figurine


    Enchanted Orchid Crown


    Mystical Queen''s Journal


    Vintage Regal Map


    Enchanted Royal Forest Art


    Celestial Observatory Telescope


    Majestic Regal Scepter


    Ancient Royal Crown Jewels


    Timeless Queen''s Pocket Watch


    Mystic Sapphire Amulet


    Whimsical Royal Mask


    Crystal Chalice of Wisdom


    Enchanted Crystal Crest


    Moonlit Queen''s Lanterns


    Regal Lavender Perfume


    Dragon Crested Tapestry


    Celestial Star Bracelet


    Royal Phoenix Figurine


    Timeless Crowned Hourglass


    Enchanted Sapphire Ring


    Serpent Serenade Fragment


    Regal Crested Key


    Ocean Starlight Fragment


    Moonstone Queen''s Mirror


    Enchanted Rose Scepter


    Vintage Royal Scroll


    Crystal Dragonfly Brooch


    Celestial Moonlit Crown


    Whispers of the Throne Candle Holders


    Regal Serpent Crown


    Royal Moon Phase Necklace


    Enchanted Royal Rose


    Mystical Crowned Crystal Ball Stand


    Serenity of the Crown Bath Salts


    Moonlit Queen''s Perfume


    Dragonfire Crested Bracelet


    Celestial Star Pendant


    Timeless Queen''s Desk Clock


    Enchanted Orchid Fragment


    Royal Timekeeper''s Pendant


    Serpent''s Serenade Necklace


    Ocean''s Embrace Seashell Necklace


    Moonstone Crowned Amulet


    Regal Phoenix Bracelet


    Crystal Crested Bookends


    Celestial Moon Phase Journal


    Enchanted Rose Necklace


    Timeless Crowned Pocket Watch


    Royal Moonlit Wall Art


    Mystic Queen''s Tarot Deck


    Whimsical Royal Tea Set


    Ocean''s Embrace Opalescent Shell Fragment


    Serpent Serenade Ring


    Moonlit Queen''s Oil Burner


    Regal Crystal Hairpin


    Dragon''s Tear Fragment


    Celestial Crown Jewel Box


    Enchanted Rose Amulet


    Timeless Queen''s Ring


    Royal Moonlit Chalice


    Serenity of the Crown Keychain


    Ocean Starlight Wall Hanging


    Mystic Queen''s Crystal Ball


    Serpent''s Serenade Bracelet


    Moonlit Palace Wall Mirror


    Enchanted Sapphire Necklace


    Regal Crown Crested Comb


    Celestial Moon Phase Wall Art


    Timeless Queen''s Necklace


    Royal Dragon Crest


    Ocean''s Embrace Perfume


    Whispers of the Throne Incense


    Enchanted Royal Gemstone


    Hm, let¡¯s do an experiment, and try to print out someone that we know. Let¡¯s just try Burshis, early enough in the alphabet. It seems to be working. So apparently anyone with a smartphone who has access to the codes can at least get the list. I wonder if the individual even needs to stand behind the counter to purchase from them. Maybe they won¡¯t get achievement progress towards their unlocks, if people purchase while they aren¡¯t attending the shop? Or what if when we purchase select limited items from their shop without them here, that if they would have had enchantments, they don¡¯t have the enchantment? That would be awful. Gnawing at my lip once more, I lean over the counter from the customer side, and punch in my own code. Or worse, what if like, I punch in my own code, and because I¡¯m the seller, and the buyer, the items will rez in, and permanently sit here forever, uninteractable by anyone?


    Gulping, a bit apprehensive to even learn what happens, I call out to no one, ¡°Hello, um, shop system? Me? I would like to purchase an alchemist¡¯s elixir crafting kit, as well as the crystal healing wand, from Reggie Shellcracker, code 000000000¡¯s shop please.¡±


    Hm, there¡¯s a pleasant tingle in my¡ª. I¡¯m leveling up my shopkeep skill or something. Somehow. I start to hyperventilate as my eyes fly wide. Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, it¡¯s, it¡¯s here somehow, parts of it! The crafting kit rezzes in along with the wand as another wad of hundred dollar bills derezzes. I, I don¡¯t know what this means. We don¡¯t even need the people to be at the shop? Well, I was technically here when I bought from myself. Whew, I can at least grab the items.


    The crystal healing wand has an aura, and it¡ª. Haha. Of course. It heals crystals. It¡¯s even less effective than my mending spell. It only works on absolutely tiny abrasions in crystals, or a few small cracks can be repaired by it. But it is mana-free, and limitless. I guess it could help if someone screws up when gem-cutting if they¡¯re doing enchanted jewelrycrafting.


    I should try someone who isn¡¯t here. Let¡¯s look at Burshis¡¯s printout. Heck, let¡¯s print out her partner Nietru DeValor¡¯s as well. What¡¯s in Nietru¡ª! Holy crap! Holy crap holy crap holy crap holy crap!!

 B 6 C 106: Hurt

    Burshis¡¯s kit, her, her available, um, shop whatsit, the thingy, the inventory, it, it sounds like, like mundane things, like actual, real, usable things, not with fancy fake fantasy names. Nietru¡¯s though, it sounds like tools. Lots and lots of tools that might actually contain magic. Quick, quick, dig through them, come on, come on, come on. Please please please please.


    Enchanted Woodcarving Knife


    Crystal-Infused Paintbrush Set


    Mystical Embroidery Thread Collection


    Dragonfire Forge Anvil


    Celestial Starlight Loom


    Alchemist''s Potion Mixing Cauldron


    Enchanted Quill of Infinite Ink


    Elemental Gemstone Chisel Set


    Whimsical Fairy Dust Glitter


    Timeless Tapestry Loom


    Potion of Endless Creativity


    Gilded Gold Leaf Kit


    Dragon Scale Sewing Needles


    Celestial Moonstone Calligraphy Set


    Enchanted Sculpting Clay


    Phoenix Feather Quill Pen


    Ancient Rune Carving Tools


    Starlight Inkwell of Inspiration


    Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Carpentry Kit


    Time-Traveling Sketchbook


    Crystal Epoxy Resin Kit


    Steampunk Leatherworking Tools


    Enchanted Glassblowing Pipe


    Elemental Crystal Engraving Set


    Alchemist''s Potion Crafting Kit


    Whimsical Woodburning Set


    Dragonfire Pottery Kiln


    Celestial Moonlight Knitting Needles


    Vintage Thread Spool Organizer


    Timeless Engraving Hammer


    Potion of Artistic Vision


    Gilded Calligraphy Ink Set


    Dragon Claw Quilting Hoop


    Celestial Constellation Embosser


    Enchanted Alchemist''s Mortar and Pestle


    Phoenix Feather Pencil Set


    Ancient Rune Stamping Kit


    Starlight Charcoal Sketch Set


    Faerie Wings Stencil Collection


    Time-Traveler''s Weaving Loom


    Crystal Jewelry Making Kit


    Steampunk Metalworking Tools


    Enchanted Needle Felting Kit


    Elemental Gemstone Faceting Set


    Alchemist''s Enchanting Ink Kit


    Whimsical Papercrafting Supplies


    Dragonfire Enameling Kiln


    Celestial Moonlight Embroidery Hoop


    Vintage Paint Tube Organizer


    Timeless Leather Tool Set


    Potion of Color Harmony


    Gilded Quill and Ink Set


    Dragon Scale Embroidery Scissors


    Celestial Moonstone Seal Set


    Enchanted Pottery Wheel


    Phoenix Feather Ink Brush Set


    Ancient Rune Casting Molds


    Starlight Sketching Charms


    Faerie Wings Glitter Glue


    Time-Traveler''s Calligraphy Set


    Crystal Bead Embellishments


    Steampunk Metal Etching Kit


    Enchanted Glass Etching Cream


    Elemental Gemstone Polishing Kit


    Alchemist''s Magical Inkwell


    Whimsical Scrapbooking Supplies


    Dragonfire Jewelry Soldering Kit


    Celestial Moonlight Crochet Hooks


    Vintage Sewing Machine


    Timeless Engraved Wood Block Set


    Potion of Masterful Creations


    Gilded Illumination Set


    Dragon Claw Embroidery Frame


    Celestial Star Gouache Set


    Enchanted Crystal Sculpting Set


    Phoenix Feather Drawing Charcoal


    Ancient Rune Metal Stamps


    Starlight Watercolor Set


    Faerie Wings Craft Punches


    Time-Traveler''s Carving Kit


    Crystal Resin Casting Kit


    Steampunk Gear Stamps


    Enchanted Embroidery Floss


    Elemental Gemstone Wire Wrapping Kit


    Alchemist''s Magical Invisible Ink


    Whimsical Rubber Stamping Set


    Dragonfire Stained Glass Kit


    Celestial Moonlight Cross-Stitch Set


    Vintage Button Assortment


    Timeless Leather Burnishing Set


    Potion of Artistic Inspiration


    Gilded Embossing Powder Set


    Dragon Scale Embroidery Needles


    Celestial Moonstone Inkwell


    Enchanted Pottery Glazing Kit


    Phoenix Feather Charcoal Pencils


    Ancient Rune Engraving Tools


    Starlight Watercolor Brushes


    Faerie Wings Calligraphy Ink


    Time-Traveler''s Magical Sewing Kit


    Leaping high into the air, I scream, ¡°Yes!¡± at the top of my lungs, startling Teuila and Vyela. I need to kiss the hell out of Nietru DeValor. Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Carpentry Kit. Quick, quick, okay, that¡¯s about four-hundred grand, wow, but that¡¯s fine. Hopefully, gulp, hopefully it¡¯s as powerful as Sugar¡¯s carpentry crafting kit from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and can actually make the enchanted buildings. Friggin¡¯ hell, gods, if, if, if, if this is real, if these are real, if any of these things in Nietru¡¯s shop, but especially the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian tools actually contain enchantments, I¡ª. I owe her everything that happens next.


    Okay, okay, okay. If, um, but, well, if¡ª. Fudgeknuckles. Right, right, um, begin the myconid transformation maybe? It¡¯s got my crafting skill baked in. We need a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian crafting skill to be able to utilize the tools if they¡¯re like Sugar¡¯s. The shops didn¡¯t come about until she had like at least a hundred skill or something, and I¡¯ve easily got at least that much, but I don¡¯t know if anyone else does. I can¡¯t remember offhand, because I¡¯m just, I¡¯m just, I¡¯m¡ª. Calm down Reggie, breathe. It¡¯s exciting, and nerve-wracking, and there¡¯s a lot of options to explore. Literally hundreds of thousands of items across all the residents of Mount Solace, and everyone you¡¯ve met on your Rayileklian journey so far. Take it easy. Things should fall into place. I¡¯m distracting myself from actually making the purchase, but I¡¯m breathing so hard.


    Hyperventilating until I can calm my breathing, I agree with myself. That¡ª. That¡¯s just weird. Teuila snirks as she reads my mental monologue, and can¡¯t help giggling after a bit. I manage to chuckle as I slow my breathing. Phew, deep breath Reggie, in, and out, in, and out. Wait, there was a hint, with the tingle. The only reason, ah. Okay, I get it. The only reason I¡¯m able to buy from the shops without the participant actually being the one punching in their code, standing behind the stall, is because of my weird dual digital critterkin-adjacent nature. No one else could¡ª. Dangit all Reggie. I know, I know. It falls to me again.


    Huff. I breathe deeply, and sigh easily as deeply, before my sigh morphs into a yawn. No one else can do it all as fast as you, or even at all without you, unless they coordinate with everyone else. Like, literally everyone. It, um, it seems¡ª. I sniffle. Aloud, still sniffling, I mumble, ¡°It seems like I can even purchase from the, sniff¡ª. The shops of the deceased. I¡ª. I don¡¯t have the heart to look. I¡ª. Te. Teuila, I can¡¯t.¡± I begin crying my heart out. Teuila gulps as she frantically flips through to the Ds alphabetically in the code listing.


    Te gulps, sniffles, and mutters, ¡°Oh my Airhead, my Air. It¡¯s¡ª, she¡¯s here. She¡¯s here. I¡ª. Let¡¯s buy something. Please. From her shop. Quick.¡±


    Teuila quickly punches in Dawn¡¯s code, snags the phone, grabs the file from the till, and passes it to the copier, printing out Dawn¡¯s inventory. Vyela¡¯s eyes bulge as she asks, ¡°Purchasing from the deceased? Someone you¡¯ve lost? That¡ª. That is impressive Schism. I wouldn¡¯t¡ª. Hmn.¡±


    I flash a furtive, saddened smile towards Vyela as I nod. Inhaling a shuddering breath, and loosing it just as shudderingly, I pick myself up to do what Teuila requests. I nod at her, mumbling, ¡°Name it, name anything. I don¡¯t care what it costs, even if it screws us out of everything else for a while. Anything Te.¡±


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Gulping, Te glances through the inventory list quickly, and decides just as quickly, ¡°I¡ª, I think, the, glp. I think the Amulet of the Timeless Woman¡¯s Memories. I think, because, because she, she got known as timeless, ageless, unaging, stuff. Right Air? She did, right? That one. Please babe, please. It¡¯s, um, wow, a hundred grand, no, wait, a million, that¡¯s a lot of zeroes. Please babe, please. Air, I, if I have to, I¡¯ll¡ª.¡±


    Cooing, whispering my love, I mutter, ¡°Shhh, it¡¯s okay Te. We can easily afford it. I¡¯ll go snag some of our cash. We¡¯ve got a few million, each of us. Just in cash, not counting gems and coins. We probably have more value worth in stuff like gems and gold coins. I¡¯ll pull a few stacks of Rands too, in case it¡¯ll do an exchange rate for them. It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay.¡¯


    Vyela balks at the numbers being thrown around, being plenty familiar with basic arithmetic, and realizing I said I had even more than that in coins and gems. I can sense her curiosity about the insides of my vault, and I flash her a smile and a wink, trying not to be too much of a dick about teasing her. She¡¯s welcome anytime, but I¡¯m trying to keep my mood light, by snatching any silly little joy. It seems like Lu, Leeza, and Lucky are done expanding Leeza¡¯s new home. It¡¯s uncomfortably close to my vault, being that mine is the nearest to this main cavern.


    I gnaw on my lip, concerned that Leeza might take it upon herself to sneak into my vault. Even if she isn¡¯t malicious about it, she could get herself hurt by random magic items we haven¡¯t figured out yet. Calm down Reggie. We were giving her the benefit of the doubt, remember? I¡ª. I know. It¡¯s hard though, to not be at least a bit cynical. She¡¯s literally turned over a new leaf in a night. You did sort of break her down on a level most people don¡¯t even come back from. Gulp. Y-yeah, true.


    Phew. Okay. Massive pile of cash, and a few regular old cloth sacks to stuff it into. I¡¯m not even going to count, to see how much there is, nor even care if the shop system decides to take all three bags without leaving any change. It¡¯s¡ª. It¡¯s for Dawn. Our memory of her. I re-lock my vault after exiting with the bags floating behind me telekinetically. Flashing a sad smile their way while I trot back towards the dugout with the shop, I wave to Lu and Lucky, as they seem to be taking a break, and hashing something out with Leezahna. I can still sense Lucky¡¯s apprehension around her, but he¡¯s being his best at our request. He¡¯s such a good boy. He¡¯s so good. I try not to grin too stupidly when his ears perk up and his tail wags when he hears my inner monologue.


    I¡¯m about to hand the cash over to Teuila, when I realize I have to be the one to purchase it. I close my eyes and inhale sharply, still shudderingly, fighting off sobs. Te gives me the code for Dawn¡¯s inventory, and I punch it in. The three of us in the dugout wait with bated breath as I psych myself up to make the request. Gulping, I plead, ¡°Shop system? Please, please let me purchase the Amulet of the Timeless Woman¡¯s Memories from Dawn¡¯s shop inventory?¡±


    There¡¯s a long pause, and for a moment, I¡¯m worried I was wrong about the clue I thought I¡¯d deciphered, but then the sacks begin to deflate, shrink as the money within them derezzes, leaving our reality. A very simple locket, with an ever-lasting durability enchantment on it appears on the shop¡¯s countertop. I pick it up, with tears in my eyes, and go to place it around Te¡¯s neck. Teuila opens the locket, and we both fall to our knees, blubbering at what¡¯s within.


    It¡¯s a multi-image photo, somehow, of us, and Dawn. The photo changes based on the direction it¡¯s viewed at, and shows different events. The best one, the clearest image is the three of us in the carriage when we were leaving the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds together. I don¡¯t understand it. I don¡¯t understand it at all, and all I can manage to do is cry my heart out, grasping Teuila desperately to me, as she does much the same.


    This is too much. It¡¯s just too much. How? Shop system, how? My guts churn, and flop, as I¡¯m disoriented by the emotional turmoil that recalling Dawn puts me through. Our journey together. My failure to stop her curse. The friendship that grew between us. The laughter and the smiles. Her periods senseless, or even completely shut down. There¡¯s so many emotions swirling in me like a vortex at the eye of a storm, its absolute ground zero is my heart. This pain, this torment, is the pinnacle, it¡¯s the apex I¡¯ve ever felt tear my heart apart.


    Even Vyela looks a tad stricken as she stands near, and places fingertips from her left hand on Te¡¯s shoulder, and those from her right hand on mine. She offers her usual cursory, ¡°Hmn,¡± but there¡¯s compassion behind it, knowledge of loss. She¡¯s ancient, and has seen her fair share. I completely lose track of everything else except my desire to keep Teuila close, and safe, to never let either of us suffer like this, ever again. Yet even still, I wouldn¡¯t give up this suffering. Knowing that I nearly did, that I nearly entered a future where we wouldn¡¯t even be able to remember Dawn, it hurts, it breaks me almost as badly as anything else ever could. But we didn¡¯t go down that route. I stopped that, that one, horrid little fate, out of the many befalling us at the time.


    My head is swimming. My forehead and cheeks feel flush. I¡¯m a tad ill from the neurochemical whiplash of the rapid swirl of emotions. Teuila seems similarly ill. I¡ª. I need to be present, in the moment. I need to thank the Queens for their guarding this. I need to quickly get the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Carpentry Kit, before anything else can happen. I rush to snag a ton of money and gold, then return as swiftly as I¡¯m able to.


    With my head swimming, it¡¯s hard to recall whose shop the carpentry kit was in, or their code, but then I recall wanting to kiss Nietru in gratitude for her shop¡¯s inventory, despite her having no control over it. I punch in her code and plead, ¡°Shop system? Please allow me to purchase the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Carpentry Kit from Nietru DeValor¡¯s shop.¡±


    The toolbelt that arrives, packed with tools with brilliant auras, is just like the one that Sugar evolved with. It brings back so many memories. That first party. Giving her geode stones to crack open. How much she loved to break things as much as or more than building them. Her brother Spice, whom she was fiercely protective of. Our beloved family on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and all that we went through together. I snatch the toolbelt and strap it tightly to my waist immediately, and stroke it lovingly, as if I could somehow reach back in time to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, to pet, stroke, and comfort my family back there through this touch.


    This does however leave Luni and Teuila giggling at the mental image of me stroking the area of my belt-buckle. I roll my eyes and chuckles¡ª. Chuckles? Chuckle, as my emotions slowly return and calm from their overexcited tumultuous state of turmoil. My deep inhalation is still a shuddering breath, and my lower jaw still quivers, but we¡¯ve made impossibly important purchases, and strides, and done so much, in such a short time.


    Rushing to gather everyone, I present two quite large sacks of precious coins to Vylon and Vyela, who, despite themselves, lick their chops at the gratitude I¡¯m attempting to pay them. I toss a half smile their way, and nod that I truly mean to give it to them, in gratitude for protecting our asset so far, and in the hopes they¡¯ll continue to do so. I glance at Teuila as she thumbs her smooth silver locket repeatedly, as if she, like my attempt with the tool-belt, could somehow reach back in time, and touch Dawn, by the act of her brushing the now-beloved object. We¡¯re suffering so many hurts, we have suffered so many hurts. Everyone around us is hurt somehow. Yet these little comforts, these successes, these steps forward¡ª. No matter the hurt, our love is always stronger.

 B 6 C 107: Alright

    Alright, let¡¯s see here. I need to determine what might even possibly be useful, if any item¡¯s name maybe holds any candle of truth, from amongst our shop catalogs. Ugh, some of these are dozens of millions apiece. That would be all of our cash wealth, and maybe even some of our gem or coin wealth, per item. Did we even look at Luni¡¯s yet? Crap. Ugh, There¡¯s like, forty to eighty per list that I think might actually be worth checking for enchantments, or info. Most seem like longshot gambles. Like, the phoenix feather quill pen. There¡¯s no way that that¡¯s the active, still-enchanted down of a phoenix. Especially not when it barely costs more than a regular quill from the generic shop catalog.


    Argh, I still need a ton of mirrors too. Hellspit and Fel Fires. I pass an annoyed sigh through puffed cheeks. Poor Lu. She warned me. I might not get what I want or need, and things are hectic as heck as I try to cram every possible chance for every possible advantage into as short a time as possible. That would mean looking through thousands of catalogs, at each of their hundred¡¯ish items, and trying to weigh the¡ª. Huff. I won¡¯t be doing that. It¡¯s far, far, far too much of a timesink. Even at only a few dozen seconds per catalog, to find the number, punch it in, scan the NFC from the till to the phone, then take the file to the copier, and look through the phone for the new file to print out¡ª. That¡¯s still dozens and dozens of thousands of seconds just to print out the catalogs, let alone read or compare them.


    I¡¯ll probably just have to get the most powerful people that I know, and slash or their closest friends among the less powerful, to go through getting their own catalogs. I¡¯ll type up a note, and print out the process. Argh. I need to find a spare cellphone first. I¡¯m not leaving this here to possibly get walked on, smashed, shattered, or stolen. Hm¡ª. I wonder. Kinzul my love, are you¡ª.


    I sigh contentedly at the amazing emotional waves sent my way. She¡¯s taking care of Lil, bonding, and she trusts me. I don¡¯t need to ask for permission. I love you my Lady, my love, my wife. I¡¯m not even sure how, or what kind of love to categorize it as, or what words describe it yet. I¡¯m not sure I ever will. Regardless, I¡¯ll go ahead then.


    Alright, let¡¯s swoop back in here, and print off Kinzul¡¯s catalog. Alright, her code is all sevens. That¡¯s¡ª. Kinda neat. That¡¯s good luck, right? Maybe. Okay, punch in the code, NFC scan, let¡¯s go print it¡ª. Huh. There¡¯s already an unlockables unlocked file. I wonder what the achievements were.


    Oh, oh wow. I, I¡¯d better not let any of the rest of my inner circle see these achievements. Wow, I don¡¯t think I could¡ª. Luni waggles her brows across our telepathic wavelength and digs in in a singsong lilting voice, ¡°And just what achievements are those sweetie?¡±


    Gulping, I¡¯m flustered beyond belief. Please Lu, no. Please. Uh oh. Teuila joins in, similarly lilting in a singsong cadence, ¡°And just what are you begging Lu not to do, hmmmm?¡±


    My heart hammers in my chest as my two gals grin, snicker, and work their way down into the dugout to join me. I, I could burn the page. I¡¯ve got the only, glp. Teuila¡¯s too fast for me, even if I wanted to carry through on the intrusive thought of burning the page, I couldn¡¯t.


    Grumbling, reading aloud, Teuila starts, ¡°What¡¯s this, yada yada family members, Shellcracker family members, yada yada, achievement unlocked, latest one, marry a Shellcracker with a smartphone? So what, we already know you married Aunty Zool Airhead. The one before that? Save a life with a Shellcracker, yeah, sure, Prinny, whatever, no biggy. What¡¯s up Lu, what¡¯re you¡ª. OH! Create a Shellcracker!?¡±


    I nearly faint. My eyes cross, and even Kinzul¡¯s emotional wavelength seems more than just a tad surprised. I hiccup, burp, and nearly topple over as my emotions are thrown out of whack. Can, can I please die of embarrassment? Or, or maybe wake up and realize I was just dreaming about doing so well with the shops? Or, or something? Teuila begins cackling, and alternates between enjoying my discomfort, and suffering her own jealousy and discomfort at the implications.


    We, we haven¡¯t. I can¡¯t. I biologically can¡¯t. It wasn¡¯t me. Kinzul and I aren¡¯t even one of the pairs that¡ª. I mean, she¡¯s not one of the women that I¡¯ve¡ª erk. Glp. Luni eyes me suspiciously at my mental narrative, prodding me to continue, but I let my dizzy spell carry me out of her gaze. Even Kinzul is loosing some rather unreadable emotional wavelengths across our telepathic bond. Though, they seem heavy on perhaps what might be her dismayed embarrassment side.


    Brain, quick, get me out of this! What the hell am I supposed to do about it? I, I don¡¯t know! Think of something! Pft, snrk. You¡¯re losing it Reggie. It¡¯s their fault! Sure pal, sure. You¡¯re the one with the kid on the way. Oh! The phoenix roc egg! I suppose a dracorocnix egg at this point. Huff, phew. Holy crap. Okay. Okay, whew. Yeah they aren¡¯t going to let me get off th¡ª. Guys, I was going to say get off the hook that easily. Dirty little deviant-minded gals.


    I¡ª, I need a distraction. Where¡¯d Farzee and Veril get off to? Oh! Oh Veril, buddy, you really need to learn to keep your emotional walls up. Does Farzee even¡ª, oh, I see. I¡¯ll leave you two be for a while. Phooph. What about Lucky? Erk, Lucky¡¯s giving me the evil-eye, or is it the stink-eye? I forget.


    Trying to clear things up with my son, I try to come up with some sort of argument on my own behalf. It¡¯s not my fault Lucky, pal, come on. I mean, it¡¯s not like I knew that, a¡ª lifeform¡ª that¡ª consisted of many species, in one egg¡ª. I hang my head low in shame. Yeah, okay, I¡¯m an idiot and this isn¡¯t going to get me out of this. I blush as even Lucky seems to chuckle with Lu and Te in my mindscape.


    Anyway. Bluh. I¡¯d like that list back Lu, and Te. Please? I thought I saw¡ª. Teuila interrupts me, ¡°Yep, Aunty Zool has like one or two dozen smartypants phones of a couple types up in her little box thingy here, her achievement unlocked vault, natch. Snatch ¡®em up. Then you can do the thingy you were going to do and shove one down in here to leave in this hole, for anyone else to come and¡ª. Does anyone else feel kinda dirty all of a sudden?¡±


    I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh, as Lu rolls her eyes at Te while Teuila tries to parse her own previous statement. Teuila manages to fluster herself as she realizes the entendres she¡¯d accidentally used. I join Luni in rolling my eyes, and I turn a familiar tease back on Teuila, ¡°Only you babe, only you.¡±


    There¡¯s a moment of bluster for Teuila that quickly ends in her adopting the Shellcracker Family Squee with her closed-eyed mile-wide smile that leaves her rocking her head side to side slightly. I can¡¯t help smiling at her, approaching her, wrapping her up in my arms, and kissing that beautiful smile. Erm, sorry Lu, you okay? Luni harrumphs, but can¡¯t stay mad as Te and I both surround her to kiss her on opposite cheeks. She even manages to blush a tad in response.


    Okay, okay, okay. Enough shenanigans. I¡¯m so sleepy all of a sudden, as I yawn deeply. Oh, right, stayed up late as hell with Indy, trying to keep him away from his cravings. Then I got up arsecrack of dawn early with my wife standing over me. It¡¯s still only early morning. Jebuz. What¡¯d I get, an hour of sleep? Friggin¡¯ hell. I¡¯m glad this is a new body. Cherubic Reggie would be friggin¡¯ wrecked. Can I engage the regeneration without leaning on my dragonforce? Hm. There are some weird caveats to some of my abilities and forms, that Kinzul and I didn¡¯t manage to figure out. Like the prerequisite for the shadow elemental fo¡ª. I sigh and facepalm.


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    Biting my lips, trying not to be annoyed at myself, flustered, or feel stupid, I give myself a few moments to breathe. I snag the glow-lichen from around the room, and push it all into one corner, opposite the shop stall. Luni giggles when she figures out what I mean to do, what my form needs. Te raises her eyebrow for only a moment, before chuckling and catching on as well. I shake my head at myself, and duck down behind the shop stall, in complete shadow. Utter darkness.


    Yep, the form is starting to engage. I draw a deep breath and loose a long sigh, still shaking my head and rolling my eyes at myself incredulously. After several minutes, I suddenly lose tangibility, cohesion, most physicality in any possible sense of the word. As I float along near the floor, I hesitantly, testingly hazard moving into the glow, and thankfully it doesn¡¯t harm me. Continuing my testing, I float along, and up Teuila¡¯s legs, body, and arms. Teuila shudders as her spine tingles, and she bites her lip hard while blushing, trying to keep from breathing heavily.


    I find that I would be blushing if I had the capacity for it at the moment. I¡¯m intangible, so I mostly float along and through Teuila as I explore her form. Feeling fairly confident that I understand how my form interacts, or rather how it doesn¡¯t interact, with anything around, I repeat with Luni. Lu squeaks loudly, and slaps both hands over her mouth as she also shudders. Her eyes roll back a bit, and for a moment I worry, until I realize exactly¡ª. Well, anyway. That¡¯s enough of that. I suppose I can work on the speed at which I transform into this elemental form. Over time. In a few months, perhaps I could get it down under a minute, and in a year or two, I might be able to get it down to under a few seconds. It would almost be useful as a reaction to an incoming attack. As is, I¡¯m unsure what to do with it, except perhaps scout.


    Returning to my form between Lu and Te, I smile at them, until I realize that I don¡¯t have my danger wrap senses, which leaves me frowning. Glancing down at myself, my utter nudity leaves me more than frowning. It leaves me blushing quite heavily. Glancing around, I see my gear in a pile behind the shop stall. I facepalm. The form can¡¯t even subsume my physical belongings. It¡¯s really, really never going to get used unless I get my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers back safely. If I can stow everything in my inventory, then instantly swap to the form, and swap back as needed, re-equipping with my space skill, that¡¯d work. This is just a hassle as is though.


    Breathing deeply and sighing loudly, I shake my head at myself and leave my palm on my forehead. Anyway, let¡¯s get those smartphones, and I think Burshis had some binders and some mundane goods and similar supplies in her shop. I¡¯ll print off an extra copy of the things I¡¯ve printed out so far, or, well, just toss the stuff in the copier to let the copier copy the stuff. Dot dot dot. Yes Reggie, I know. Heh. Rolling my eyes at myself, and my inner monologue, I can¡¯t help shaking my head even more. That sentence was on the way to being a palindrome it was so redundant. Not that palindromes are generally redundant, like, ¡°Warsaw was raw,¡± the words themselves don¡¯t have redundant meanings there, but, well, you get it. Yes Reggie, I know. Erm, right.


    I¡¯m glad those that are laughing, or rather, following my inner narrative, are enjoying themselves. Heh. Butts. The complete lot of you. Erm, sorry my Lady, my love, my wife. I facepalm at having called my brand new wife a butt. You¡¯re tired Reggie. I know! Heh. Being tired like this makes my mind wander all over the place. I¡¯m truly sorry Kinzul.


    Speaking of mind wandering. The Sisters Hidden in the Mist were coy, but the way they said things also mattered, every time. The path to take after meeting up with my doomed friend. The nature of the apocalypses, without revealing the Felgre horde. It makes me wonder why they said that I¡¯ve paid one, but will need to pay five and five and six more. As if those were separate numbers, alluding to something, instead of just sixteen more. It¡¯s incredibly deliberate. I can¡¯t put a pin on it, but it almost reminds me of what TQ said, I think it was TQ. Something about the five souls of origin, and the original soul. They were deliberately separated out, despite sounding similar. Huff. It¡¯s a line of thought that I shouldn¡¯t chase though. I know Lu¡¯s probably freaking out right now, waiting to interrupt me when I get to a point of no-return. Like she did when I started to think about the tom¡ª. Yeah Lu, I hear you.


    Grr, I wish I was allowed to conjecture, and just, just, grr. Sorry Luni, I know it¡¯s not your fault. Sorry My Anchor. I know how much emotional turmoil my brain being like this puts you through, and I wish I could alleviate it for you. Huff. Sniffling, I return to what I was doing, and purchase a few things from various shops now that I¡¯m getting the hang of remembering codes, and who had what. Printing out some instructions, leaving a cell phone, some various charging cables and such, and even an electric stationary bicycle to recharge the battery bank, should the charge start to dwindle without Lil to utilize his sun powers to recharge the solar array. Doot doot doot. I wonder if there¡¯s a list of the standard shop inventory that isn¡¯t listed in any of these individual inventories. It¡¯d be pretty darn long, but might be worth printing out.


    Scroll, scroll scroll scroll. When did I get so many notes? Why are most of them like, a single letter or number for a name, or a couple of them? What is even in these? Empty, empty, empty. Double-eww, tee, eff. Okay, rattling my head to shake loose the lack of thoughts and get back on track. Maybe if someone else boots up one of the newer phones, it¡¯ll have a standard inventory note. I can¡¯t dig through all this right now. My eyes hurt from reading the tightly packed specialized inventory pages over and over. Let¡¯s see, a smartphone for each of us in the SAP, as well as Kinzul, the Dormies, a couple of the other groups, and one here, and a couple of spares. I wish I had a spell that could deliver all these to the people I want to have them. Oh well, I¡¯ll get them handed out over a day or two probably.


    I could make my spellcasting much easier in some essences, if I could think of some object that could hold three dimensional copies of runes, especially those of common spells I use. I wouldn¡¯t have to quicken the casting, though it¡¯s much more affordable now. Hm. I might not need to bother figuring out how to craft something like that. I think I could get the quickening to be free, because some of these strangely named items sound rather legendary, and they¡¯re gems. It took legendary gemstones to read and absorb the last, highest level of the quicken-spell tomes, to enable the best quickening metamagical activity, essentially doing it for free for most spells with sixty six or lower runes for their SP cost.


    Oh, speaking of metamagical activity. I forgot. *All* of my spells are always under metamagical activity. Jarrah said I¡¯m permanently using subtle spell metamagic. It¡¯s why I can cast even when bound, and slash or gagged. I¡¯ll be able to trigger these clips in this bangle any time I cast anything. I¡¯ll have to be a little bit careful, because some of the clips target allies with enhancements or buffs, and some target foes with damage or debuffs.


    There¡¯s so so so so much more I could do, argh. Huff. It¡¯s okay though. It¡¯s okay. Tonight, when I¡¯m sure the myconid form is off of its refractory period, or whenever soonest it ends up being off cooldown, I¡¯ll craft an extra shop or two or three. I¡¯ll make sure to keep one sitting around that I¡¯ll stuff into my otter form to put into my inventory, along with a ton of other stuff that I¡¯ll want to always have around as backup, just in case of something dire or crazy happening. I¡¯ll probably also take an entire day¡¯s worth of the entire respawning resource warrens at some point, so that I¡¯ll always have enough to rebuild them, again, in case of calamity.


    Speaking of contingencies, backups in case of calamity, and so on. Well, the dimensional pouch. It¡¯s kind of bound to a few bags at once, but it can only do like the transdimensional link with one of those bound bags at a time. I think it takes an hour to swap which bag it¡¯s tied to. Sighing heavily, I¡¯m not sure what to do to fix that, or duplicate the pouch.


    Speaking of duplicating, I¡¯ll be snagging a bunch of friggin¡¯ identical or nearly identical mirrors, and putting the same enchantment on pairs of them, over and over and over, when I get my myconid form up, at the same time that I¡¯m crafting the shop stall backups. I might be able to do that during the strategists meeting. Or I can at least do proof of concept while with them, while staying in RS2, and they can help me decide how many, and where to place the scrying sensors.


    Hm, I¡¯ll probably snag a full respawn of the warrens on the morning after tomorrow, so that the dragonkin have a couple days of restocked resources to play with. Whenever I decide to do it, I¡¯ll let some of them know that I¡¯ll get up early, and spend about an hour or so just snagging the stuff straight off the walls with the otter form¡¯s super strength. I might need an adamantite tool for some of the legendary metals, but I¡¯m sure there¡¯ll be some available by that point. Hm, it might take closer to an hour per warren for the metals. Do I want them badly enough to spend that time? Yeah. Yeah I suppose I do. Alright then. Alright, alright alright.

 B 6 C 108: Maybe

    Alright, we¡¯ve got some spare charge packs charged up, and cords, to be able to recharge the phone while we¡¯re away from Mount Solace if necessary. I¡¯ve got the magical tools to be able to make Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian constructions. I¡¯ve got some more craftworks tools that are actually for making enchanted and alchemical things, rather than just crafting normal stuff. I¡¯m tempted to buy out Nietru¡¯s entire stock, though some of that also sounds like stuff that¡¯s just named fancy to sucker people into buying them as well.


    Still, purchasing all of Nietru¡¯s stock, hm. I think that might actually be her achievement to load up her first set of unlockables, come to think of it. But, well, a fair bit of her stuff costs in the millions. I know I could probably sell some raw adamantite, mithril, and orichalcum, and make a few hundred thousand per day, but it¡¯s more important to let the dragonkin who¡¯ve been so kind to volunteer their time, do what they want and need to do with the metals first, and even after, it¡¯d be better to craft them into just about anything to sell, rather than selling them raw.


    Ugh, this is like some of those mobile or browser based games where the income is time-gated, but essentially limitless. Err, what? Build various buildings that produce certain resources endlessly, as long as you¡¯re there to collect them? Huh. That sounds familiar somehow. Meh, whatever. Deep breath Reggie, get back your train of thought on things to accomplish this morning.


    I¡¯m tempted to try to use my once per day instant recall ability on the smartphone to bind it to me, making it recallable on any other day. It feels a bit frivolous, and it might not work, if it¡¯s not actually soulbound. The tome that the instant recall ability came from *implied* that the item needed to be soulbound, but didn¡¯t outright state it. One of us needs to test it. I flash a sorrowful glance at Lu, since she was in the infirmary when I was doing all of the orb-time hivemind enchantment sharing. I wish I¡¯d brought her down. I didn¡¯t realize we¡¯d be successful with any of it. I¡¯m actually just going to put instant recall on the dimensional pouch, that¡¯ll definitely work.


    My Wings derails my train of thoughts as she playfully asks, ¡°So what was it you were thinking about Veril a bit ago? Why should he learn to hide his emotions better?¡±


    Blushing and chuckling, I respond, ¡°Well, he¡¯s, uh, extremely attracted to Farzee as they¡¯re trying to have a heartfelt discussion. His brain is nearly like mine is around Errissa. He¡¯s thinking about how incredibly hot she looks in that semi-tight sweater, even though it¡¯s the most modest thing she¡¯s ever worn. I mean, I can¡¯t disagree with him, but, hey, ow, hah. You asked!¡±


    Chuckling and trying to dodge Teuila¡¯s onslaught of of playful slaps and punches, we end up in a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight, until we¡¯re both giggling. Luni rolls her eyes and shakes her head at the pair of us, until we turn our attention on her, to tickle her from two sides, which gets her squealing in delight before we¡¯re all giggling like mad. Alright, alright, alright. I need to focus for a bit, I¡¯m getting distracted and forgot what I was doing while we were here. Where¡¯d Lucky go?


    Blushing, Luni mumbles, ¡°Leezahna is doting on him, thanking him for digging her home, and he¡¯s eating it up. Traitor.¡±


    Raising my brow, I glance at Luni who averts her gaze as she blushes more deeply. Chuckling, I hug Luni for a moment before Teuila steals her away in a noogie-grasp headlock. Lu bemoans her fate with a long, ¡°Nooooo,¡± as Te playfully noogies her, messing up her hair. Still, to think that Lucky could be so easily swayed, when he seemed so apprehensive of Leezahna, that¡¯s a bit odd to me. Anyway, snag a bunch of mirrors from the various shops. Alright, easily enough. Let¡¯s grab a ton of gems from my personal store. Erm, like, my storehouse in my vault, not my shop. You get it. Yes, yes I do. My gals giggle at my internal monologue, as I blush abashedly at it.


    Out of the blue¡ª, well that¡¯s a funny turn of phrase, our ¡°The Blue,¡± Farzee calls out across our mental wavelength, in her as-usual few-stop-consonants accent, ¡°Schism, you really feel tha¡¯ way? Broke One does too?¡±


    Erk, gulp. I respond hesitantly, ¡°You are a very attractive woman Farzhis sweetling. You¡¯ve sculpted an absolutely lovely human form. Come on, you didn¡¯t not know this already. Why do you ask?¡±


    More humble, Farzhis¡¯s telepathic response is almost a mumble in her usual delightful accent, ¡°Jus¡¯, the sweater. No¡¯ use¡¯ to no¡¯ having to show off. Umm. Thank you. Both.¡±


    I flash Farzee a loving smile across our wavelength, and receive a grateful smile in return. Farzhis is back and forth at being able to read the mental monologues of those around her, as she deals with her grief, and moves back and forth from aware to despondently dissociated. It¡¯s going to take a long time to heal. She and Veril are both dealing with the trauma of the Damnations¡¯ repeated attacks, the grief over the loss of our previous, ¡°The Blue,¡± and the implications of their budding relationship. Veril¡¯s a young enough man that he¡¯s essentially a ball of hormones, and, lacking any previous relationship experience, he¡¯s not sure how to proceed, or even if his relationship with Farzee will become the romantic one he desires.


    Coughing for my attention, telepathically Veril mumbles, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m not *that* young, am I? I mean, sure, I haven¡¯t had a mate yet, or, erm. Schism, what should I do? What if Farzee prefers friendship? I¡¯m kind of falling in love here, but, like, I just sort of want to see her happy? Maybe? My head¡¯s all kinds of messed up. Then there¡¯s this really pretty Green who¡¯s starting off on her own, and doesn¡¯t even seem to have any friends, and, glp. I mean, yeah, both of them are effin¡¯ gorgeous, but, um, ugh. What the hell do I do Schism?¡±


    I draw back my lips in a grimace and gulp as my eyes go wide. Someone asking *me* for relationship advice? That¡¯s only bound to end horribly. I¡¯ve literally lucked into or fallen into the few relationships or even friendships in my life. Heck, even one of those, maybe the first one ever, has been put on hold, if not ended completely, and that one only lasted a few days. I glance side to side, then towards Te and Lu who shrug at me helplessly, unhelpfully. Should I just pull a Lil and tell Veril to follow his heart?


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    Responding cautiously, I try to assuage Veril¡¯s fears, ¡°Whatever happens buddy, things¡¯ll be okay. There¡¯s no wrong answer here. I¡¯m glad you aren¡¯t pressuring Farzee when she¡¯s vulnerable. Approaching things that way is the right thing to do. You are going to have to wait for her if you want to find out if you two might be able to pursue romance together at some point. If you try to get together with Leezahna, and, well, either succeed, or even just the attempt itself, Farzee will likely be jealous, as that¡¯s her nature, but it also doesn¡¯t mean that she was or wasn¡¯t intending to choose romance with you. Hell, Farzee might choose to wait for *you* if you start dating Leezahna, and that ends up seeming to fall through, if what she wants or wanted was romance, and she cares about you and your friendship enough to be there to support you. There¡¯s a million million ways any of this could go. Whatever you feel in your heart is probably the best Veril. You¡¯re a good guy.¡±


    Veril¡¯s response is a muted, ¡°Huh,¡± as he mulls over my non-advice. Poor guy.


    Luni smiles brightly my way and leans up against my left arm, snuggling close, nuzzling and kissing my cheek. Te, instead of taking my right side, muscles in on my left arm as well, and squishes cheeks with Lu to nuzzle and kiss my cheek. This of course causes Lu to roll her eyes and chuckle, which then earns Lu a Shellcracker Family Squee from Teuila.


    Almost jealously, Veril asks, ¡°Like, that, that right there, how do I get that? I mean, can I? Erm, I want Farzee to be happy, and I like her tons, and we¡¯ve been teammates for a long time, and effin¡¯ ay is she sexy as hell, I mean, have you seen her neck in her dragon form? Or her wings? Or that ridge at the base of her horns? Those slender muscles around her jaw. Mm¡ª. Gulp. She can¡¯t hear this, can she Schism? Schism? Please tell me she can¡¯t hear me, that like, your walls are up. Please? Oh hell.¡±


    Biting my lips, I struggle not to laugh at poor Veril¡¯s expense. I sense waves of mixed emotions from Farzee at overhearing Veril¡¯s lusty comments about her. She¡¯s upset that he¡¯s asking me how to pursue someone else at the same time, proud of her appearance, and a whole lot more. Gnawing on my inner cheek, I¡¯m trying to decide if I should respond at all.


    Deciding that it¡¯s best to make sure he¡¯s at least somewhat informed, I do answer Veril, ¡°To have an open relationship, to have polyamory, everyone has to be on board. I know absolutely nothing about Leezahna, except that I¡¯ve hurt her. I cannot give you any advice as to whether or not she might be interested in any relationship, let alone one with multiple branches, or being in a relationship with multiple people. I don¡¯t even know her gender preference, or sexual preference. I don¡¯t even know if that¡¯s a big deal for dragons. You seemed open to Indy or Farzee both when you were thinking about them in Kinzul¡¯s den. Ah, heh, sorry to embarrass you. You¡¯ll be okay Veril buddy, you¡¯ll figure it out. Don¡¯t rush it. You¡¯re doing fine. Be there for your friend, your teammate. Enjoy what you¡¯ve got. Farzee¡¯s an amazing, wonderful woman, and I¡¯m glad you want to see her happy, I do too.¡±


    I sense Veril nodding along our telepathic wavelength, and Farzee mentally mutters quietly to me, ¡°Thanks, um. Thanks for steering us both righ¡¯. I¡¯m not sure ye¡¯. I¡¯m¡ª. Like you sai¡¯. A lot on my min¡¯. Not sure I¡¯m ready to deci¡¯e. I like Broke One. Jus'', jus'' dealing with a lo¡¯ of hur¡¯ an¡¯, and fear. No¡¯ use¡¯ to being scare¡¯. No¡¯ use¡¯ to any of this. Thank you Schism. Thank you. Thank you.¡±


    I attempt to keep Farzee from dissociating into a repetitive plea of gratitude, but she echoes herself for a long while yet. Poor Farzee dear. I do sense Veril comforting her, giving her enough space but showing support as Farzee spaces out, locked in her repetition for some time. Pondering if I should try to accomplish anything else here, I turn up towards the exit of the dugout to see Leezahna standing timidly at the end of the ramp.


    Hesitantly, Leezahna asks, ¡°Is, um. Someone has to be behind the shop, to use it? Right? Who¡ª. I¡¯d like a, a desk, with a vanity. I drew some more, in case, um, this isn¡¯t enough green paper. Then, also, maybe a bed? Satin sheets, and¡ª. I can write more, and draw more when I have a desk of my own. You said, you said I could use the parchment and ink, glp, as much as I want, right? Unless it runs out?¡±


    Nodding to Leezahna, I attempt to respond, ¡°Yes, yes to all of that. As long as you treat others with respect to their feelings, and their time, I¡¯m sure that someone will volunteer to stand in the shop for you. Try to also not react too poorly if their shop¡¯s quality isn¡¯t as high as someone else¡¯s. We¡¯re still trying to get everything ready to be able to understand the catalogs, qualities, prices, and everything. There¡¯s a few more steps to get that all set up, but yours Leezahna, it enabled all of this. Take a look.¡±


    Leezahna gazes confusedly at the machines, but she raptly studies the instructions I¡¯ve left, and nods firmly as she commits them to memory. She mouths unfamiliar words like phone, NFC, and copier, which I¡¯ve labeled, so she needn¡¯t look too far to figure out their context. The most difficult part might be dealing with the touch screen on the copier to find and select the file to print out. As Leeza starts to understand more about the process down here in the dugout for the shop, she seems almost hopeful, almost happy. Leezahna turns her eyes towards Luni, pleadingly. She knows that Lu¡¯s shop contained furniture in a style and quality that appealed to her.


    Luni grumbles mentally to me, but can¡¯t hide her excitement at being appreciated for her shop and its quality. Lu takes her place behind the shop stall and bows with a flourish as she and Leezahna start a short string of transactions. I¡¯m proud of both of them. Leezahna still eyes me with a cold fury underlying everything, and a strong touch of fear. Like Lu said, I suppose we¡¯ll never end up being friends. I¡¯ll do what I can to heal the hurts I¡¯ve caused her, but as long as she doesn¡¯t lash out in retaliation against anyone I love, or find some way to destroy all I¡¯ve worked for, I can live with that.


    Bidding Leeza adieu, I add, ¡°Since we¡¯ll be gone, if you need anyone to run the shop for you, I¡¯m sure most people would be happy to if you ask politely. If they refuse, please don¡¯t treat them poorly. You never know if someone is busy, or upset, or hurting, or in a hurry, or has their own reasons for being uncomfortable or not wanting to run the shop at that time.¡±


    I pause, attempting to let it sink in before finishing, ¡°There are plenty of other people around to ask. Now, if everyone is refusing in large numbers, come to me, and I¡¯ll see what¡¯s up, if people are treating *you* poorly. I¡¯m here for *everyone*. No one deserves to be treated poorly Leezahna. No one. Okay? The kinder you are to your neighbors, the more likely they are to be willing, or even want to help you out.¡±


    Leezahna furrows her brow at me, but nods at my parting words. I know I sort of talked down to her like a child there, a spoiled one at that, but she still sort of is one, at least to me. She¡¯s still slipping up, and *maybe* working to correct that. Likely driven by fear as she remembers me threatening her based on her worth, value, and trustworthiness, every time she says or does something that she realizes I¡¯d look down on. I¡¯m probably an internal subconscious trauma trigger for her, but her response is thankfully to take that fear and use it to better herself and her behavior. I think. Still, she, like everyone else, is free to be angry at me or hate me all she needs to. No one owes me any sort of adoration. Huff. I¡¯m a bully, a monster. She¡¯s right about that. Maybe I¡¯m a kind one, like she also said. Maybe.

 B 6 C 109: Huff, Puff

    Lucky, Lu, Teuila and I begin leaving Mount Verdimenn, and I¡¯m feeling incredibly accomplished for how early it is in the day. I¡¯m trying to temper myself so as not to rush Nietru and kiss the hell out of her for her shop having these tools. I doubt anyone in the strategists-eight would understand why the hell I was doing so. Even explaining it might not¡ª explain it. Bluh. I heave a sigh, then another, huffing, then puffing. I roll my eyes at myself while Lu and Te chuckle at my internal monologue.


    Stopping by to speak with Deli, I offer her a strong forearm handshake as I mention, ¡°In um, I think the morning after tomorrow, if I¡¯ve made it back from Vorzog keep or whatever, I¡¯ll be attempting to take a full day worth of the resource warrens into my magical inventory. Just so that everyone can plan around not having to harvest on that day, unless they just want to help me shove it in my inventory. And so that you can all plan around how much you¡¯ll have to work with. I hope that that doesn¡¯t seem unfair. I¡¯m trying to make sure I have a backup of enough material to restart the warrens in case something tragic happens.¡±


    Deli scoffs, laughing, before responding, ¡°Schism, with today¡¯s material alone, we¡¯ll have weeks worth of raw resources. Tomorrow¡¯s harvest could see us having surplus stockpile to do whatever we could imagine with it. I know you invested a tremendous amount to get the project kickstarted, but even if you hadn¡¯t invested that, and just left us to work with what you originally had, we¡¯d have been set for months if not years. Trust me, two days of harvests before you take one for yourself is plenty. Besides, it¡¯s not like the resources don¡¯t belong to you. You made ¡®em after all.¡±


    Deli pauses before continuing, ¡°I¡¯m actually going to retire early today, and take a couple days off, so I¡¯ll relay the message to some friends. I want to take Yer around, introduce him to some of my friends, find out what else he needs, and get us both a good long sleep early eve, and a few rests. Yesterday took more of a toll out of both of us than I thought, and my usual early rise wiped us out more than I figured it would. Oh, speaking of my boy, he made this for you. It¡¯s, ah, some sort of ornament I suppose. Even if you just use it as a paperweight, it¡¯d mean the world to him if you accepted it.¡±


    I blink several times, and am forced to rub my itchy, wet eyes, as a tear forms. It seems to be an attempt to make a blob of orichalcum into, well, a void dragon. Maybe. I sniffle, nodding rapidly, and gulp, gladly accepting it. Poor Yerjhro looks to be asleep on his feet nearby. I don¡¯t want to wake the poor tired lad up, but I¡¯m incredibly touched. It almost looks like Yerjhro was trying to sculpt this rather than smith it. Hm.


    Gnawing my lip, I glance at Deli as I ask, ¡°Del? I hope this isn¡¯t insulting. I recently got some new craftsworks tools, materials, and uh, stations I guess. Some of them might even be enchanted. Is there any chance Yer enjoys sculpting? Either as much as, more than, or instead of smithing? I in no way¡ª.¡±


    As Deli raises an eyebrow my way, I¡¯m worried I¡¯ve insulted her, that she¡¯s going to berate me for telling her how to raise her child. Gulping, I await Deli¡¯s response of, ¡°Hm, hadn¡¯t put too much thought into it Schism. We¡¯ll see what the lad has to say when we take off early today. Like I said, was going to find out what he needs this eve. He¡¯s free to experiment in your craftsworks room then? I¡¯ll let the lad know. I appreciate it. Takes a village, and all that.¡±


    Noticing my almost-panic, Deli grins and winks, ¡°Seriously, no fret. I could see the worry eating on you there. You¡¯re our Hero, in more ways than one. Glad it¡¯s you. But go on now, git, your gals and Hunter look antsy. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve got plenty to keep you busy. Not that I don¡¯t enjoy the company, but I¡¯m trying to wrap up early, like I said.¡±


    Nodding emphatically, I smile at Deli, and wave as I leave her to it. She seems to be stuck with the position of managing a lot of the smithy volunteers, and other volunteers, despite her obvious preference for doing actual smithing herself. Hm, I wonder if the woman approaching her is Deli¡¯s sister, cousin, or, maybe girlfriend? That kiss on the cheek lasted more than a brief second. None of my business really. I¡¯m just glad someone so wonderful seems to be happy, even if she also seems overworked.


    I wonder if there¡¯s anything I can do for Deli. I mean, I can¡¯t really imagine anything that I can *give* her. The resources are free for them to use, and she¡¯s a better crafter than me by far. Maybe I could enchant something of hers for her at some point? Or something of Yerjhro¡¯s? I imagine she might like it if her son had some sort of magic that helped keep him safe. What about for herself? She¡¯s so muscular, and great looking, I can¡¯t imagine a gift of something dumb like fitness equipment would go over well. Similarly, I doubt anything too¡ª. Bluh. I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ll just try to keep telling her I appreciate her when I remember to and get the chance. I¡¯ll ask if she has anything she desires, or dreams of, or anything. I suppose I could have started setting up the alcohol supply line.


    Pft, heh, I might get Miraina in charge of that, since she is in her twenties after all. I wonder if the shops would have had an age verification to buy spirits and alcohol. Or would they just sell to whomever had the money that knew how to order? Anyway, I¡¯ll need her help to organize some volunteers to haul the ale and spirits around from Mount Verdimenn to Mount Solace, as well as to organize earnings to purchase them regularly. I might have them sell off my ¡°odds and ends respawnables¡± warren materials. Those are mostly organic things, and loot drops from mobs on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that are basically monster parts, bodyparts and such.


    I¡ª, I did notice that the kraken tentacles were, erm, a bit lively, heh. Which I guess is what Deli was hinting at that I should take care of it before next week, before we got too many of them respawning. Ugh, why did I plant that? I mean, it¡¯s a common trope for stuff like that to be reagents in certain high end potions and so on, but still. Now there¡¯s like half a dozen kraken tentacles to either carefully move past, or to fight off every d¡ª. Training. Combat training. Leveling, experience¡ª. Holy crap. I mean, maybe subconsciously? I wonder who¡¯d benefit the most. Lucky? Lil? Lu?


    Te and I are maxed out in the regular system¡¯s levels, so we only have lateral, um, horizontal, growth to be able to do. Unless I can break us out into some sort of epic leveling system. Hm. I mean, not that Te or I really need some mob spawns in Mount Verdimenn to crank up our ee ex pee gains. We¡¯re going to be getting plenty tomorrow. Though, if I can figure some way to break our system by tomorrow¡ª. Hm. Wait. Kinzul is now part Shellcracker. I saw our bond encompass her with the Shellcracker soul, my soul. Could she start leveling up safely down there? Would she start out at level one, in the system of our world? Or would she already be maximum level, or even epic level? Grr, I wish we could see the menus.


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    I was like, what, level seven right after spawning or something? Or wait, but what about the time that I was just a soul? Was I somehow gaining experience during that time? Ugh. Friggin¡¯ hell. I¡¯m such an oddity, that even if I had frames of reference and points of comparison, they might not be how things are supposed to work anyway. Gorramit all. I just, I just want to save Kinzul from¡ª. Huff. Too many minds open to my passive broadcast right now. Let¡¯s just say I want to save her from any hurts or pains. If I could somehow make her more powerful, I¡¯d do it.


    Give your brain a break for a bit Reggie. It¡¯s overheating on overdrive from the frenetic time in the shop bunker in Verdimenn, with as little sleep as you¡¯ve had. Blargh, really? Ow. Yes, yes it is. Ugh, huff, migraines and headaches suck. They suuuuuuuck. I lift myself in my telekinesis instead of continuing to walk with Lu and Te, somehow believing that taking the pressure off my feet will reduce this pressure building inside my head. My gals try not to chuckle at me, because they know I¡¯m suffering in pain at the moment.


    Veril and Farzee are catching up, there we go. Farzee is looking around a bit timidly. Te, I think she¡ª. There you go. Thank you Teuila. Keep being your amazing self. Veril tries to ploy Luni into carrying him, since Farzee¡¯s getting carried, but Lu just shoots him an incredulous look and rolls her eyes. I chuckle, despite my headache, ow. Can¡¯t say I blame him for trying, being in Luni¡¯s arms is heavenly, it¡¯s amazing. Being held to her full, soft chest, loved on by Luni with her beautiful smile aimed down upon you? Utter bliss. Err, sorry, not to make you jealous Veril. Hehe, cute pout though buddy.


    Ugh my friggin¡¯ head. Huff, huff, ow. Hm. If I gave Miraina a ranged weapon, Pawn could be the one benefitting from killing the kraken tentacles every day, and they might even drop loot in addition to being harvestable, which could provide plenty of money to purchase liquor and spirits. Worse than the tentacles though, there are some mite-hulk claw pistol turrets. They aren¡¯t supremely deadly to most anyone with a bit of armor or padding, but they¡¯ve got a lot of knocking force, and could knock someone as small as Miraina to the ground, giving her a concussion, or worse. They could also knock her into the grasp of a tentacle. I¡¯d want her to make sure she always has at least a capable partner for backup, because I couldn¡¯t forgive myself if she got hurt, or, gulp, worse. Do you think she¡¯d be annoyed at the additional responsibility?


    Suddenly, across one of many psychic wavelengths shared with her, Pawn chipperly chirps, ¡°Not at all Schism! I¡¯ve never really gotten to hunt. I¡¯m always running around Mount Solace, always. It might be kinda fun. Talk to me about it before you leave tomorrow for your mission? Hangin¡¯ with momma. Hugs ¡®n¡¯ kisses from both of us!¡±


    I blush to high heavens at Miraina¡¯s response. I forgot that her range is likely nearly as far as Kinzul¡¯s. Hell, either one of them might be able to sense me from practically anywhere in either mountain. I¡¯ve never been able to pin down the exact range on Kinzul¡¯s or Pawn¡¯s telepathy. Lil¡¯s should be pretty incredibly high too, but he¡¯s also more likely to be oblivious and not notice or hear my thoughts, or well, yeah. Still, he felt out of range when Kinzul was within range earlier, which is weird.


    Lil¡¯s and Miraina¡¯s ranges should be pretty comparable. Also, I¡¯m still blushing my brains out at the idea of being kissed by Prinrin and Miraina simultaneously. Based on how well I know her mother, I can almost bet that the gooberific cutie did that on purpose. Anyway, I¡¯d have to puzzle the specifics out later, though I did specifically layer up two multiplicative ranged permanency enhancement enchantments onto Kinzul¡¯s telepathic bond on the first day I met her, if I recall correctly. I¡ª. Oh.


    With one hand I clutch my head in pain. With my other hand, I clutch my chest as I weep. My Lady, my love, my wife. I¡¯ve literally cast a spell upon you, and now you¡¯re mine. I mean, not mine, you¡¯re not an object. It¡¯s just, just that you¡¯ve given yourself over to trying to invest in me, to heal me, to support me, since the very moment we met. Even though you knew. Even though you¡¯d seen it. Oh Kinzul. You¡¯re so kind, supportive, fiercely intelligent, loving, nurturing, wise. Please. Please never perish. I know how selfish a plea that is. I¡¯m only mildly sorry for it.


    Lucky grows in size enough to lap at my face with his enormous tongue while I¡¯m sitting on one of my T K Surfboards, bowling me off of it as he tries to clean off my tears. Oy vey. Flexing my jaw, I rub several pressure points along the base of my neck, jaw, cervical vertebrae, and near my temples. If it¡¯s a muscle tension headache, I might be able to reduce it slightly. Blurgh, now my guts are cramping up too though. Wrapping my arms around Lucky¡¯s neck, I let him help me to my feet before I double over clasping my stomach. Oof, yeah, crampy. I should probably eat breakfast.


    Rolling my eyes at myself, I head back towards Mount Verdimenn to cast a full pot of water into the cauldron, and telekinetically stir it. Helping myself to a bowl of stew, I fill several more to offer to the rest of my party. Most accept and join me in eating stew, even Lucky. Seeing Leezahna milling about, I point to the cauldron, and motion that she can eat if she¡¯d like. I¡¯m sure once she gets more settled, and has enough income to get her home furnished, she¡¯ll probably start exclusively eating gems or gold or something. I really hope she doesn¡¯t lord that over people that she¡¯ll have such easy access to them. Still, the fact that she¡¯s able to earn a couple hundred dollars an hour with her calligraphy or whatever she¡¯s doing is pretty impressive, I hate to admit it.


    Hm, y¡¯know one thing I haven¡¯t tried in a while is my thunder shout. I think maybe not since I was crawling inside a hydra. Now that I¡¯m in RS2 form, I might be able to brace myself and not topple over. If nothing else, I can put a T K Square at my back. I wonder how powerful it is at this point. It isn¡¯t a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian skill per se, but it might be modified by my breath weapon skill bonus. It is technically from a piece of magic equipment from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, despite being baked into my biology currently. I almost forgot that we slipped it in there, since it was just a copy and paste job from certain parts of my biology that must have been altered by the shrapnel of the thunder staff. I mean, it is still here, right?


    Experimenting, I can feel a charge building in my throat, so I¡¯m pretty certain I¡¯m correct. This could leave me feeling nauseous if I don¡¯t go use it up. Hm, probably best to do it in the odds and ends warren, since no one is over there harvesting any of that due to the kraken tentacles. Be right back everybody. Oh, hm, I could definitely train my breath weapon skill multiplier bonus on these. It¡¯d be quicker by a longshot, than just breathing randomly around Mount Solace. Still, I should probably just try to remember to use it almost nonstop during the offensive tomorrow.


    Speaking of training and offensives and abilities to use and such, I should think of multiple names for my best greatest shadowy evocation elements. If someone sees me using one, and decides it¡¯s an illusion, they might fall for it if I sound like I¡¯m casting a different spell. Like, for the Darkest Star¡¯s Event Horizon, I could also call it the Bee Aych Bee, the Black Hole Bomb, or the Dee Ess Ee Aych. Huff, I¡¯m being kind of silly. Anyway, let¡¯s puff like a magic dragon on these creatures who live in the sea. Well, their bodyparts anyway.

 B 6 C 16: Interrogation

lips time.¡±

 B 6 C 111: Tasks

    Of course, of course just as I¡¯m feeling love, and loved, and happy, my mind starts to wander. Don¡¯t do it brain. Don¡¯t do it. I¡¯m warning you. I can tell what you¡¯re about to do. What, little ol¡¯ me? You mean, like focusing on all of our failings, all the people we¡¯ve let down, all the deaths we¡¯ve caused, all of the atrocities that happened during our life or at our hands? Ugh! Screw you! Friggin¡¯! Sniffle. Gorram stupid mrgrgr. I gulp back a sob as my lower jaw quivers, upsetting my tension headache even more. I slump on my T K Surfboard after finishing off the hostiles in the odds ¡®n¡¯ ends warren. My emotions hit full turmoil, and my guts roll to accent the roiling, spinning motion I feel cascading within me mentally.


    Snagging some of the random loot and some of the resources themselves from this warren, I sell it off to my own shop, probably the only person in either universe that can do that. That¡¯s a few dozen grand for what would only be a few seconds of work, if I weren¡¯t screwing around trying to learn new ways to utilize my spells. Yeah, you do waste a lot of time trying to be better than everyone else, don¡¯t you? Arrogant, self-absorbed, entitled, vain¡ª.


    Grr. Screw off. Screw you. No screw you. Grrrr. Reggie? Mhm? You¡¯re arguing with your intrusive thoughts. Oh. Right. There¡¯s no winning against them Reggie. They¡¯ll yell at you for a while, and it¡¯s okay if they hurt. It¡¯s okay to hurt, and it sucks to focus on or recall bad things, but it¡¯s okay to allow yourself to feel them, without responding to them. You¡¯ve already gone through the events.


    Huff. Heaving a sigh, I nod at myself, which must be so weird for anyone riding my mental narrative train. You¡¯re right, coping-me, I¡¯ve already gone through the things that my brain is yelling at me for. It hurt, and I have regrets, I¡¯ve failed to save people, hell, just recently, sixty three people from the Damnations. But it is the present currently, and I¡¯m surrounded by love, and warm feelings like the pride of my inner circle. I need to chase these advantages to be better, to do more, to be more prepared to save people should the need arise. Yeah, keep telling yourself that buddy.


    Erm, which one of you was that? Well, if you heard it sarcastically, it was your intrusive thoughts. If it sounded sincere, comforting, then it was your coping mechanism. Huh, makes sense. I already forgot what it sounded like though. Don¡¯t worry too much about it. You¡¯ve got plenty of other things to keep your mind busy. Gods, I must really seem like I have a split psyche at this point. Give yourself a break about it. Talking to yourself, addressing yourself, is a coping mechanism. Intrusive thoughts are intrusive, they¡¯re not yours, they¡¯re just depression and impostor syndrome and everything else. There¡¯s no other yous in your head. Well, not at the moment anyway. If you get any future personality ghosts again at some point, that¡¯s a whole other ballgame. Hah, true.


    Frowning after a moment, worried though, I glance to Luni with sadness written across my face as I ask, ¡°Lu? Is that side of me right? The coping mechanism stuff? Or am I going crazy? I don¡¯t want to go crazy. I¡¯d be worried I¡¯d be a danger to ev¡ª.¡±


    As Luni pulls me to her, she kisses me softly and coos around the kiss, ¡°Shhh, shh my Hero. It¡¯s okay. You¡¯re not going crazy. You¡¯re not. Te, don¡¯t tease them right now, I know what you were going to say. Reggie¡¯s fragile right now babe. It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay. We love you. You¡¯ll be okay. You¡¯re doing so great, and I¡¯m so proud of you. Keep being you, always. Don¡¯t ever stop. If what you think you need to do is keep getting stronger, then I know you¡¯ll do it for us. You¡¯ve got this. Always have, and always will.¡±


    Melting into Luni¡¯s embrace, I sniffle for a moment, and nod at her reassurances. I hate that I bounce from doing mostly okay, or perfectly fine, to being nearly utterly despondent, or enraged, or disappointed in myself, or whatever other things come up. That¡¯s just what intrusive thoughts do though, I guess. Depression, or maybe bipolar disorder, or so on, they rear their head. Listen to what Lu said. You¡¯ve got this. Always have, always will. It means more coming from her though bud. I know. I know. But yeah, you¡¯re right, she did just say it.


    I smile furtively for a moment, trying to reorient myself to the present, to be present in the present. I facepalm while shaking my head and rolling my eyes at myself. Lu and Te giggle at my thought train. Even Veril snorts a laugh, then claps his hands over his mouth, while Farzee cracks a smile. Lucky rests his face on Farzee¡¯s knees, so she scritches his jowls and ears.


    Quietly, in her usual accent, Farzhis asks, ¡°Broke One, do you think Brains is okay? With Indy ou¡¯ of action I mean, an¡¯ us being sen¡¯ ou¡¯ tomorrow. I¡¯m, I¡¯m scare¡¯, only a little, no¡¯ of the figh¡¯, bu¡¯, bu¡¯ everything hurts. She woul¡¯ say something, right¡¯? Known her a long time, bu¡¯ never really though¡¯ to ge¡¯ to know her. Y¡¯know?¡±


    As Veril¡¯s about to respond, Iylynilya telepathically sends, ¡°You could ask me yourself Farzee. I¡¯m here if you need me Blue. I¡¯m good sweetie. I swear. Just been preoccupied. Sorry I wasn¡¯t there for you this morning. What about you? Are you going to be okay for tomorrow? I won¡¯t bring you along if¡ª.¡±


    Resolutely, in her delightful, few-stop-consonants accent, Farzee replies, ¡°No, yeah. I¡¯m goo¡¯. Enough to figh¡¯ a¡¯ leas¡¯. Thanks Brains. It means a lo¡¯. Coming to strategy meeting? Schism¡¯s been getting a lo¡¯ done way before even lunch. Migh¡¯ maybe be some importan¡¯ changes. Woul¡¯ be nice to have you aroun¡¯ boss.¡±


    Iylynila hesitates before answering, ¡°If that¡¯s what you need, then, yeah. Sure, sure I can be there. See you at the strategist¡¯s council room Blue. You too Red. Tell Schism, tell them¡ª. Sorry, ignore me. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay enough to fight.¡±


    There¡¯s a nearly imperceptible click. That¡¯s the best way I can describe the feeling of Iylynila¡¯s telepathic walls going up. I guess she didn¡¯t realize I was in the party call since she was broadcasting to the Dormir, and that I¡¯m one of their backbones. Or maybe she just didn¡¯t want to admit that she wanted to let me hear her voice? It¡¯s hard to tell with Illy. I do dearly love her. I truly hope I haven¡¯t hurt her. I know she said it wasn¡¯t me, and that I haven¡¯t, that she¡¯s just overwhelmed and doesn¡¯t want to be a needy person while the war is on, but, well¡ª. Yeah, I know buddy. I know. She¡¯s a strong woman. She¡¯ll be okay. Also, maybe don¡¯t get too full of yourself, thinking you¡¯re *that* important to her. Heh, true.


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    Sighing, I lean against Luni for a long few moments, trying to let my headache recede. Our weakest spell has become five times more efficient, ten times actually, and it¡¯s also several times more powerful, with all these runic metamagical adaptation clips in my bangle. We¡¯ve got to commission a bangle on the way out for Kinzul. It should be a fairly simple task. I¡¯ll take a few photos of an empty one like Lucky¡¯s, and print them off at the copier, so that whomever crafts it has essentially blueprints. It might not even end up being the one I give to Kinzul, it could be a failed prototype. I¡¯ll ask them to iterate on it, starting with weaker metals, working their way up to Adamantite.


    Alright, thanks Lucky my boy. I¡¯ll give this right back. Photos in some bright lighting, bodyparts and items for scale. Actually, measuring tape for scale. That¡¯s much better. I¡¯ve got the carpentry kit. I may as well make use of it. It¡¯s also incredibly useful to be able to levitate an object to take pictures from all angles, especially when certain angles would be quite difficult to prop an irregular object on a surface. Alright, let¡¯s print these off, and delete the less useful photos.


    Let¡¯s give these to someone to commission¡ª. Oh, hey, it¡¯s that burly kobold fellow who gave me a hug after the messed up public speaking. Waving to him, I call out, ¡°Hail, friend. I didn¡¯t get your name before. Would you be someone I could commission for some crafting?¡±


    With a raised brow, the kobold man, Charles apparently, answers, ¡°Charlecruthizh, everyone calls me Charlie, or Charles. I can take a look at what you need Schism. Happy to help. Have you got a second to solve a dilemma?¡±


    Nodding, I float over to Charles, while my party mills about the forgeworks. He points to a section of the wall that seems to have tectonic damage. That¡¯s disconcerting. As I¡¯m inspecting it, Charles points to another section a few meters away.


    As I¡¯m about to ask what I can do for him, or start coming up with solutions, Charles states, ¡°Was thinking about filling ¡®em with mithril, since it¡¯s a bit flexible, and sturdier than anything other than ori and adamant. With your permission of course. Mostly wondered if you, or some of your squad or friends wanted to take on the task of hitting up the ¡®Neath, and see if there¡¯s something going on down there for us, to make sure it wasn¡¯t going to get worse. Rather send fighters than crafters to check it out, y¡¯know? If you tell us to handle it ourselves, we will, but¡ª.¡±


    Placing my palms forward placatingly, I interrupt, ¡°No no, no you¡¯re right, definitely. Feel free to use any of the metals, mithril especially. Let me try to think who¡¯d be best to send down there on that task, and get back to you maybe? A lot of our forces are heading out tomorrow, and if it could end up being a multi-day mission, I can¡¯t risk sending any of them, but those that are staying behind, well¡ª. I might attend to it personally. Do you know of a nearby entrance to the ¡®Neath?¡±


    While Charles is accepting and looking over the photos and specifications for the runic bangle, with my notes on desires for iterations, I hear him muttering, ¡°Hm, hm, can do this, easy request, hm? Oh, right. Over by Mah¡¯ruke supposedly. Obelisk is supposed to hide an entrance to the ¡®Neath. Some kind of long forgotten backup plan or something. ¡®Least that¡¯s what the rumors used to say. Hasn¡¯t been talked about in a long time.¡±


    Chuckling all of a sudden, Charles adds, ¡°Even if there¡¯s nothing there, I figure you or Hunter or one or another of your crew could find a way down, or make your own, from there. Let me see what I can do for you about these. Me ¡®n¡¯ the boys, or gals, can probably get some high quality casts made in a few days, and a single prototype as early as tomorrow morning.¡±


    Charles turns about, and waves the photos at another kobold and Draconiac that are working a billows nearby. I¡¯m halfway a bit worried when one of the pages blows out of Charles¡¯ hand since we¡¯re surrounded by burning forges, but he catches it swiftly enough. I call out my thanks to him, and he simply waves over his shoulder without looking back. He appears to be discussing the cracks in the stone wall as he points to them and points to some mithril ore slag gathered nearby. They¡¯re already going about the preparations for the task of filling in the damage.


    I smile, recalling one friend amongst the Order that happens to be incredibly adept at prepping for tasks. Hell, that prep work is her primary task. Ooo, I bet Nala¡¯s appended shop inventory list has books, and if I¡¯m lucky, one or more on gemology or enchantment bindings, or similar. Then I might be able to figure out how to get a fourth, fifth, or even sixth telekinetic grip up. My party shares a collective groan as I contemplate possibly going back to Mount Verdimenn already, after having just left for the umpteenth time already this morning. Blushing, I try to make note of wanting to do it before I engage my myconid form later this eve. I¡¯ll be coming back down anyway to craft some spare shop stalls.


    Thinking about what I¡¯ll need to craft the shop stalls, I could sense that the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian aura wasn¡¯t reaching the full depths of each of the warrens, so I¡¯m a bit afraid for what that means for some of them. Thankfully, we prioritized the more expensive warrens, so it¡¯s not too utterly awful if our wood, clay, copper, and iron only respawn a few nodes per day after the miraculous full load of today.


    Still, who the hell can I safely assign the task to explore the ¡®Neath, to see what¡¯s up down there? If it¡¯s Rayileklian mite-hulk adjacents, it could spell pretty bad news for any Mount Solace resident. Or if it¡¯s a Terrorzin loyalist getting someone to try to tunnel in from below, or any number of things. Whomever goes down is going to need to be able to generate some matter to fill in any sorts of¡ª. Hm. They¡¯re also going to need to not rely on sight, because of first the utter darkness, and second, the mite-hulk adjacents have those confusion-enchantment carapaces.


    Oh. Duh. Revvy and Greggy. Greggy being blind, quick, and a Sand, is almost perfect. Revvy being our, ¡°The Dark,¡± sounds like he¡¯d be at home operating in the ¡®Neath as well. With Boetah tied up with Atter, could, and should I maybe send Shaylon along with them so they have some defensive backup? Would Kinzul consent to me setting up missions to send the Onyx Dawn members on, for stuff like this?


    An overwhelming wash of pride hits me from Kinzul¡¯s emotional wavelength. I actually topple to my knees under the weight of it, and am dazed by its sudden heft. My Lady offers up, ¡°This is precisely the sort of thing I hope you¡¯ll help teach our son, Sun, over time, as you work together to lead the Order, against any threats. Of course my Schism, my Hero, my love. Yours is an authority equal to my own, and I¡¯m in utmost gratitude that you continue to check with me to make certain our plans are congruous, rather than at odds.¡±


    Despite Kinzul¡¯s pride, and acceptance, I do worry about the possibility of a siege beginning while such a large fraction of our most powerful forces are all out. Chuckling about my worry that springs up, Kinzul teases, ¡°I half suspect if a siege should suddenly befall us during your operation, that you¡¯ll destroy it on the return from your mission on the morrow, before we even have need of Aegis¡¯s talents. Perhaps not entirely on your lonesome, being that you¡¯d be returning from your task with the full force of Hunter, Muse, and Sun. As you know, Tenith would be returning from her task with the full force of the Vivant, and the able-bodied Dormir. Still, let us bring this up to the strategists-eight in a few moments, shall we?¡±

 B 6 C 112: Strategies

    Seeing Charles make headway on the mithril slag to fill in the tectonic damage heartens me slightly, though I¡¯m still a bit wary. I make note of other Draconiac crafters working on various tools, and thankfully there are more than just harvesting tools, there¡¯s crafting tools as well. It looks like they¡¯ll be supplying rotary tools and the like to the craftsworks room. Smiling at the volunteers, I take my leave of them, returning to my party.


    Lu, Te, Lucky, Veril, Farzee, and I head swiftly to the location we¡¯ll be meeting up with everyone else to sit in on some discussion by the strategists-eight. It¡¯s odd to think that I was literally picking their brains just yesterday. I think it was yesterday. It seems so long ago now already, when we were trying to save Prinrin by abusing the myconid form¡¯s hivemind sporebrain and the orb time. Anyway, we arrive before Lil, Kinzul, or Iylynila, despite how much I¡¯d let myself get distracted this morning. I almost feel like I should recall the Spellknight Twins from the field, where I have them observing Indy to make sure he¡¯s okay, so that they could sit in on this.


    I loose a contented sigh. It worked. Mercy worked. Four amazing, earnest individuals who value family joined ours. Hell, four powerful individuals, in a time of war. Not only that, they¡¯re bringing new life into the family on top of that already! Children on the way with Boetah and Atter! Plus the hundreds and hundreds of kobolds from Atter¡¯s domain, that, well, I¡¯m hoping we¡¯ve vetted well enough. I think Atter would be heartbroken if any of her kinsmen lashed out, or endangered the safety of what we¡¯ve built up here.


    I have to always keep trying to keep being the me I want to be, despite how much it can hurt, despite how much regret I carry, and how many wrongs I feel I¡¯ve committed. I try to do right by those closest to me first, and then do right by those who can¡¯t stand up for themselves second, and then the most right for the most people third. All I can do is try. I¡¯m no hero, I¡¯m no leader, I¡¯m no philosopher. I¡¯m just a cryptozoologist, remember? Hah. You¡¯re a dork Reggie, but you love it. Yeah, yeah I do.


    Sighing contentedly again, I smile and shake my head incredulously at myself and my own inner monologue. Te shoulder-bashes me to get me out of my own head, so I bump her back, and we trade playful, light bashes until we¡¯re both dizzy and giggling. We¡¯re still, as we have been for the last couple days, working through things in Te¡¯s mindscape in the background of everything else we¡¯re doing. I¡¯m glad we can maintain positivity and levity while we do so.


    I set my gaze on Luni and Lucky, and I¡¯m surprised when I find Lucky is armored up. He¡¯s experimenting with his scarf-hands, taking off and putting on pieces of armor, and putting them into the dimensional storage within his scarf. That¡ª. Well, that solves one issue. Good gods our son is smart. At times, he seems so simple, so much like a regular hound, or even perhaps a child, but then he¡¯ll use critical thinking and solve problems on his own, or surprise me in other ways. His existence is so baffling to me. Though, hah, I¡¯m not exactly one to talk. My own existence defies a lot of logic as well. How can I be *part* digital? Why were ¡°ofbloods¡± a thing on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? Come on Reggie, be in the present. Oh, true, right.


    There¡¯s Elshon, looking as flamboyant as ever, with another oddly framed pair of overly-large sunglasses. Everyone else is sitting, but not Elshon. He¡¯s still standing, yeah, right next to Prent. Yeah, looking better than he ever did before, confident, assured somehow. It seems he¡¯s truly prepared to survive this war, that he¡¯s accepted that somehow we¡¯re going to win, despite us still facing overwhelming odds, and new wrinkles popping up. Has Kinzul informed them about the new hole in the Worldstorm? I wish I could aid Errissa somehow in getting the information and getting it back to us swiftly and safely.


    It might be just Luni and Lucky having to take down some ultra-powerful stronghold that holds the key to turning the tide of battle, if Kinzul can¡¯t send anyone with dragonforces to end that particular threat. I think I¡¯d risk it myself though. I wouldn¡¯t care if every dragon from here to the center of Terrorzin¡¯s domain felt me flying over their regions. Let them come after me, leaving all their ground troops behind. It would complicate the stronghold raid, depending on which sorts of dragons follow me, but it might very well give me a boost in power overall, despite taking resources and risking injury.


    Plus, most domain leaders aren¡¯t going to just leave their entire fortress behind themselves to chase down one or two dragonforces flying over the Worldstorm. They¡¯ll probably only send a lieutenant, or elite squad. Huff. I can see more and more why I¡¯d be the knife edge of the Order¡¯s offensive onslaught. I¡¯m willing, and able, to assess and take those sorts of risks, and I understand exactly what I¡¯d be up against. I can even portion things out, luring out more lieutenants and elite squads, until leaders do decide they need to chase me down themselves.


    Hell, if I throw enough of a wrench into the works of various regions, the ground troops might be rudderless, and end up completely cut off, not being able to muster. I could even sneak in some rests here and there, especially with my new stonemelding runic ability from that anti-petrification clip, and a few other tricks I¡¯ve got up my sleeves now. Hm. It isn¡¯t quite time yet to go that far all-out on soloing the entire rest of the dragon apocalypse though Reggie. Yeah, true. We need more information, and the less time I have to spend solo adventuring, the better. Besides, Teuila could do quite similarly to me, luring out the most powerful. We don¡¯t need these offensives to be complete routs, though Kinzul has been treating that as necessary. I understand why, especially for these domains closest to Mounts Solace and Solitude. The further we range though, the more we only have to take out their highly-mobile threats.


    Though, if they have some sort of ace, like troop teleportation, or an underground railway network, or some other method of translocating large numbers of ground forces, it could end up being a big mistake to leave them in disarray even if we do destroy their leadership. Hm. Again, more information is needed. Genre savvy senses are saying it¡¯s lowball odds that they have something like that, around fifteen percent. Doesn¡¯t mean that I should plan as if they don¡¯t have it though. Expect the worst, and all that.


    Let¡¯s see, there were approximately eighty strongholds, assume anywhere from one to fifteen adult to ancient dragons as leadership, elite squad, or lieutenants, in any given one of them. We¡¯ve taken out the combined forces of Olashax, Astridus, Xinthoz, and Vanathar¡¯s regional stronghold, as well as Shiztinth, and technically Attraxiaz the Loud. We¡¯ve taken out Heironymous Guldstrum¡¯s stronghold, and Laotzxhi citadel. Five domains, seventy five left. We¡¯ve technically left Mydraig Hareslayer¡¯s domain rudderless, leaderless. That¡¯ll come back to haunt us later if we don¡¯t finish off or convert their ground forces, so we¡¯ll have to deal with it sooner rather than later. That one is close enough that we¡¯ll need to rout his ground forces, lieutenants and the like, when they realize their lord hadn¡¯t returned from entreating with us. I wish we could trust Ka¡¯thuul to put some sort of effort into defending the region, and send *her* and hers at easy targets like that. As far as I¡¯m aware though, ours is an uneasy alliance in which she basically only vows non aggression so long as we turn a blind eye to her little scheming and stealing about the regions looting ¡°in the name of the alliance.¡±


    I truly think we need to deal with her and hers before it¡¯s too late. She¡¯s near enough, and there¡¯s enough interplay between our foothills, and hers, that various kobolds and Draconiacs can walk from one to the next, chat, trade stories, and pass on too much information that I don¡¯t want Ka¡¯thuul having access to. We all *know* she¡¯s going to stab us in the back at some point. More overtly than these little resource grabs she¡¯s been doing. Grr. It wouldn¡¯t be very forgiving, merciful, or just, or righteous, to head over there and slaughter her and hers though, just on the expectation of the treachery to come. Friggin¡¯ hell Reggie. Yeah, I know. That one is going to bite us in the ass hard at some point. Kinzul my love, I hope you know what you¡¯re doing with Ka¡¯thuul.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Anyway, back to the math. I¡¯m sure we have access to more concrete numbers, and the strategists-eight will be able to fill me in on them, but let¡¯s just try to plot out a course mentally. Let¡¯s see, go worst case scenario, with fifteen powerful enough entities at each fortress, domain, or region, to give even me pause. That¡¯s eleven hundred twenty five. Supposing it takes me two spells per kill, say one defensive and one offensive, that¡¯s ninety S P if both are quickened, now that we¡¯re advanced in our abilities by quite a bit. Over a hundred thousand S P. That¡¯s over three months if I attempt to do everything alone, and can¡¯t manage to kill some of them without spells. Now the good thing is, I know that the majority of adult dragons, I can kill in melee combat, and that of the fifteen powerful figures in most of those regions, most of them are usually adult, or young adult, rather than ancient. If we say most is just over half, then drop the fifteen down to seven, making it, let¡¯s see. Five hundred twenty five ancients on the board, possibly, of varying power levels. Though some of them might also simply be powerful Draconiac sorcerers and the like. Still over forty-seven thousand S P, over a month and a half if I were to push myself to the absolute limit, every day.


    With Lil at my back, I can take down more targets without going heavy on resource use, and I know Teuila can murder the everliving hell out of our enemy¡¯s forces. Still, if they start taking injuries, they¡¯re possibly out of commission, whereas I¡¯ve baked in my new regeneration, and several combat forms. Oh, also, as my Honoris Causa grows in power, I might be able to literally defeat foes as if I were also an ancient dragon tearing through their forces. Hm. Teuila as well, if she continues to grown in Honoris Causa Calibers, or dragon-ranks.


    Yeah, these numbers are doable, even assuming that somehow the land forces get moved towards Mount Solace to lay siege on Solace after we take out their leadership. With the entire rest of the Order of the Onyx Dawn back at home, mostly rested up, outfitted and fed by our infinite sustainability, they¡¯ll have no trouble laying waste to entire armies worth of siege that attempt to infiltrate. We will have to pull back some of the residents from some of the foothills, and close them off though. It doesn¡¯t make sense to have to guard fifty entrances. We should likely begin doing that as early as tonight, in preparation. Thankfully, Lucky has done amazing work at creating tons and tons of space between Mount Solace and Mount Verdimenn. Atter¡¯s people are settling in, and there¡¯s still room to evacuate our own people into the same areas. Then, any siege only has to be fought on up to two fronts. The long tunnel that most of the foothills tunnels connect to, which can be watched by my security projects, even if they try to re-open tunnels that we stone-shape closed. That, and the aerie. It¡¯s unlikely anyone will be stupid enough to try to attack from the aerie, since it means shrinking down to fall essentially right into the waiting jaws of one of our Queens.


    It¡¯s also incredibly unlikely for the ground forces to be able to make it over here to the valley leading to Mounts Solace and Solitude en masse, or even at all. But, yeah, start prepping as if we¡¯re going to lose momentum. There shouldn¡¯t even be too much of a morale hit with the prep, since we¡¯re actually going to be bolstering people¡¯s rations and such, and gifting equipment, and even spirits and liquor and alcohol and so on. Even those that have to temporarily relocate shouldn¡¯t end up feeling too bad, as they¡¯ll actually end up being incredibly close to the resource warrens, the shops, and so on, making it all the easier to not just recover, but enhance their lives with whatever desires they¡¯ve got.


    Oh, wait, how long has Nietru been staring at me? Her expression is almost one of¡ª, hm, it¡¯s one of awe. Gulp. Ah, and now I¡¯ve embarrassed her. I chuckle with chagrin as I scratch the back of my head and cast my eyes downwards, blushing. At least I wasn¡¯t thinking about how I was going to kiss the everliving hell out of her for her shop stall¡¯s expanded inventory. Argh. I facepalm, and lightly thunk my head into the nearest wall repeatedly. Poor Nietru is beet red beneath her scales at this point. Teuila waggles her brows at me, but I just roll my eyes at her, not taking the bait for the tease. These people have their own complex relationship drama that I want no part of Te, and I¡¯m sure she¡¯s mortified at the implications.


    Mumbling my apology, I turn towards Nietru to explain, ¡°Sorry about my brain. I¡¯ve accomplished some major things for my projects in Mount Verdimenn towards infinite sustainability, and protecting that sustainability. One of the greatest assets, one of the most important things that I could possibly acquire in order to be able to return from a catastrophic scenario, was in your shop stall. I know that likely seems odd, since you weren¡¯t down there for me to check out your inventory. Even without you there, due to my strange nature, I was able to purchase from it.¡±


    Thankfully, Nietru recovers quickly, as she¡¯s more interested in picking my brain about anything and everything, than she is about any sort of flustering that might occur as a potential person of romantic slash kissing interest that I¡¯m not actually chasing. As the strategists-eight begin to field questions to me, about my projects, and their ramifications, I do my best to both summarize what I¡¯ve accomplished this morning. I also try to explain the long term goals and impacts.


    While filling in the strategists-eight, I remind them that they¡¯re technically all sorcerers now, with limited use daily magical abilities that are all quite potent. They¡¯ve got the stony skin ability thrice daily, the conical blasts of frost thrice daily, the slowing magic, the minuscule meteor conjuration and flinging, the summoning of a high tier monstrous mana construct, and several others, such as the low tier shadowy evocations and shadowy conjurations. I want them to remember, and be ready to deploy their new powers in case they¡¯re in danger, or in case they feel like supporting the front lines of siege defense, should it come to that.


    Poor Lil, I wish I had gotten him and Lu in on the abilities that were shared. They were so injured though, I wasn¡¯t sure how that would affect the hivemind, and wasn¡¯t even sure any of it would work at all. I feel bad for leaving him out though, especially since Lu said he feels the way he does, and is trying so hard to catch up to me so that everything doesn¡¯t fall in my lap. I think¡ª. I think I can do some dragon-training. I¡¯m going to need Nala¡¯s help, and Teuila¡¯s. I might have just come up with an idea to share power with Lil. It harkens back to our early days on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, when we first learned about energy tethers for evolutions and supporting mana and so on. Luni won¡¯t necessarily need to be there for the training, since, as far as I¡¯m aware, she doesn¡¯t have an Honoris Causa, or any dragon-forms, but she¡¯ll be able to boost Lil¡¯s output in the field if they¡¯re together, if this will work how I think it will.


    It¡¯s actually going to end up being Teuila and Lil this time, that share and expand each other¡¯s powers. I can¡¯t afford to use my Honoris Causa to do it, since mine depletes over time. Natural dragons, and normal Honoris Causas regenerate over time, hell, natural ones even grow over time. So normally, even performing heavy expenditures like high level dragonfright, isn¡¯t a devastating loss. Mine loses out on the regeneration because I¡¯m burning through it just to stay alive, fighting off my mana residue sickness. Also, possibly because of my void nature perhaps draining some of it away as well.


    Anyway, hm. Te¡¯s going to need to awaken at least her second dragon-rank stage, or second Caliber of her Honoris Causa. That means she¡¯s going to need something like her fifth or sixth dragonforce absorbed overall. I¡¯m also going to need to craft and empower a focus for her. If my suspicions about the cause of the hole in the Worldstorm are anywhere near true, we might be able to utilize what¡¯s there to awaken the bond I want to form between Te and Lil.


    I glance towards Lil with love, gratitude, and sorrow in my eyes, as he arrives with Kinzul. My best buddy, for all of my lives. I want to alleviate his worries, and take away any pain he feels at any sort of thought of letting me down. He¡¯s never let me down, and he never will. If he wants to be more powerful though, to feel like he¡¯s contributing more, and helping take the load off of me, then I¡¯ll help him get there. Te? Yeah, I thought so, My Wings. I knew I could count on you.

 B 6 C 113: Eights

    It seems like we¡¯ll have eight subgroups, or cliques at this meeting.  There¡¯s me and Te, there¡¯s the Triple L Squad, Kinzul is a group unto herself, Revvy and Greggy are here, our Dark and our Quick.  Huh, their acronym is the DQ.  Odd that that sends me into a minor brain BSOD.  What was I¡ª?  Oh, right, that¡¯s four of the subgroups.  We¡¯ve also got most of the Dormir, then most of the Vivant, then of course the strategists-eight themselves, and strangely enough, Shiz has shown up with Shaylon.  I suppose they¡¯ve been bonding while Boetah and Atter are busy with each other.


    Hm, I think I¡¯ve just thought up something that I want to make a prototype of for tonight.  Since I¡¯m going to be making scrying sensors, and a security station, I think I¡¯d also like to create basically a heads-up display, or live-action cam, for those closest to me.  If I create an adamantite goggle frame, and leave several convex, ultra-polished nubs, I can enchant those individual nubs to be sending-sensors.  Essentially they¡¯d be fish-eye lenses, giving a wide-angle shot of whatever the wearer is looking at.  I could have them set to send to a translucent lens on other pairs of goggles, so that we could look in on each other.  We could even pass notes by writing them out, and holding them in front of our goggles.


    Crap on a cracker Reggie, you¡¯re trying to invent a go-pro with magic.  A what?  Nevermind.  Unbreakable goggles with a permanent occular enchantment linking them?  You definitely have to prioritize that one.  Te has been hurting so much as she tries to struggle through her tumultuous emotions over the recent events.  It sucks that we can¡¯t be there for her as much as we¡¯d like, that we don¡¯t have accelerated thinkspace, but being able to see the other¡¯s field of vision is¡ª.  It¡¯s going to be incredibly reassuring for us.  If the proof-of-concept works, I¡¯ll link more pairs together, for the triple L squad, Kinzul, the various subgroups and cliques, and so on.


    The nice thing is, other than the crafting time, working with a legendary metal that I¡¯ve never worked with before, there¡¯s no real cost to making these.  There isn¡¯t even an S P cost as long as I don¡¯t try to quicken the runic empowerments.  If I¡¯m placing those runic empowerments in myconid form, they¡¯ll be applied incredibly swiftly with the like, what, nearly two dozen vine-tendril limbs.  Hm, what?  Oh, pay attention to the world around you Reggie.  Right, right.


    There are some subtle, breathy chuckles as the gathered attempt to hide their laughter as they read my inner narrative.  Blushing, I scratch the back of my head and request, ¡°Sorry, please come again?  I¡¯d gotten rather mentally sidetracked.¡±


    Quipping and gesturing flamboyantly, Elshon responds, ¡°We were saying, oh illustrious entertainer of enlightenment, that this meeting may end up more a Schism setup synopsis than a strategy situational statement.  But please, don¡¯t let that stop you, we¡¯re *all* fascinated to see where your thoughts guide you.  Truly.¡±


    When Elshon winks at me, I find myself unsure if he¡¯s implying anything in an entendre sense, but I don¡¯t have the spare brainpower to make considerations towards that line of thought at the moment.  Despite wanting to only make proof of concept, I think I actually should go ahead and make an entire security center tonight.  The strategists-eight would be the *perfect* people to run the security center.  It could operate like a phone-switching station, only it¡¯d be video instead of audio.  Well, technically audio can come through too, but I don¡¯t know how to adjust volume or anything, and having dozens of mirrors broadcasting the sound from dozens of locations at once would just, erm, not be all that beneficial.


    Still, if instead of personal goggle to goggle scrying sensors, I rather set up all the goggles to peer back to the security center, then any time one of us wrote a message for one of the others, whomever is attending the security center could copy down that note and pass it along to the intended recipient.  The outer nubs on the goggles will send back to particular mirrors set up in an array at, well, perhaps this room.  The lenses will have a translucent display of this room, from sending-mirrors set up on the opposite wall, that face the security center, so that we can get a bit of a look at what¡¯s going on for everyone, all at once, and any particular messages can be passed on to us individually.


    Stroking my chin, I nod along with myself, which must seem horribly conceited, but I can¡¯t spare it any thought at the moment.  To be able to have instant relay of tactical information, and ongoing battle, to the entire rest of the order would be a massive boon.  There¡¯d be no more surprises of people coming home injured and us not being prepared to treat them properly.  Well, at least for the non-shapeshifters.  I don¡¯t know yet how to perfectly create a size-changing enchantment.  I have the spell, but I don¡¯t understand how Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian equipment applies it in a way that lets items change shape and size at the wielder¡¯s whims.


    If I could get in touch with Errissa, we¡¯d have all of her spying and scouting information before she even had to send word back through her scout network.  Regardless, I definitely want one on Miraina.  Despite having provided her with ample sorceress powers in the recent mind-link, she¡¯s still an incredibly valuable asset, and vulnerable individual.  She¡¯s tiny, and squishy as far as combat is concerned.  If the strategists-eight had constant access to her visual stream, we¡¯d always be able to get to her at a moment¡¯s notice if she stumbled across something too tough for her to handle by herself.  I¡¯m going to want more of Mount Solace labeled though.  We¡¯ll need to paint some numbers in various hallways, simply so that when someone is zooming around Mount Solace, if something happens to them, we can get a read on where they last were at a glance.  I¡¯m fairly positive I can set up the scrying sensors to be able to roll back up to an hour of viewing.


    Let¡¯s see, let¡¯s start a list.


    1.  Create spare Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian System Shops.


    2.  Create prototype adamantite goggles.


    3.  Enchant goggles with incoming scry on lenses, and outgoing scry on the exterior surfaces.


    4.  Enchant paired mirrors for a security center in Solace, and additional mirrors as needed.


    5.  Label more of Mount Solace.


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.6.  Set up a security center, including several mirrors at key stationary points in Solace.


    7.  Gather volunteers to helm the security center.


    8.  Disseminate goggles, instructions, and the like.


    Was I going to be doing anything else this eve?  This will keep me incredibly busy, even with the advantage of the myconid form.  It¡¯ll take me several hours of iterating on a headset, or goggles, or circlet, and so-on.  Once I¡¯ve done that, making several more could take a couple more hours, depending on possible available help.  Enchanting them, if I¡¯ve still got myconid-form time available, should only take a few minutes per, but then I¡¯ll also be enchanting two mirrors per set, as well as several additional mirror pairs for around Solace itself.  Perhaps I shouldn¡¯t engage myconid-form until after I¡¯ve got the prototype made.  I¡¯m not as smart without it though, I¡¯d need someone more mechanically minded, one that can see how pieces fit together and¡ª.  Nala.  I need Nala.


    Hm.  How many mirrors am I going to need to have enchanted?  How many goggles?  I think I should perhaps make a set for every prominent order member, though I¡¯ll likely hold off on the full suite of enchantments on them for the dragons, until after I figure out size-changing permanency enchantments.  Considering those of us who don¡¯t frequently change our size to large degrees, there¡¯s Lu, Te, me, Ahliyui, Ahliyuri, Errissa, the strategists-eight, Miraina, and Nala.  That¡¯s sixteen there.  Then let¡¯s see, for dragons, we¡¯ve got Lady Kinzul, the Dormir, the Vivant, Kagired, Gresog, Revinth, Shaylon, Boetah, the Queens, Atter, Shiz, Ixey, Zayzi, Lil.  I know tactically Ixey and Zayzi might seem unimportant to the strategists and others around the room, but they¡¯re friends, and their safety is important to me.  Twenty or twenty-one more when counting the dragons.  Jeeze.  Thirty-six or thirty-seven sets of goggles, seventy-two to seventy-four sets of mirrors before the paired pairs of mirrors I want to have done for Solace itself.


    Let¡¯s see, the myconid form can do a single mirror in about forty-eight to ninety-six seconds, with some lag time for making sure I¡¯ve got the materials prepped and on hand.  Say about a hundred seconds per.  Seventy-two hundred seconds is, hm about two hours, just for the mirrors alone.  I can actually multitask several of them at once, but we¡¯re just doing a baseline amount of work-power hours needed to complete the tasks.  The goggles however will each take two enchantments, and require much more fine motor precision control, requiring the micro-tool-tendril-tips to etch and enchant the miniature scrying sensors.  Say about four times the length of time for the external outgoing enchantment, so about four hundred seconds per goggle on the external, though the internal should only take about ninety six to a hundred seconds per.  So say five hundred seconds per goggle, at thirty six or so goggles, about eighteen-thousand seconds.  That¡¯s around five hours or so.  Seven hours between all of the things, not counting additional mirrors for Mount Solace itself.


    Oof, I¡¯d be pushing the myconid form pretty hard again, after already abusing it through the artifact.  I should really only engage it for about five hours tonight, at most.  I also want to make certain I get the shop stalls done, and I¡¯d like anywhere from four to eight of them, but it¡¯ll take me about an hour apiece.  I can -technically- do the carpentry without the myconid form.  It doesn¡¯t add that much to my construction capabilities.  Hell, I can even subcontract that out completely if we¡¯ve got woodworkers and carpenters available.  I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m ready to entrust the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Carpentry Kit to someone else just yet, but we might need to.  Though, to do that, we¡¯d need the myconid-form to spend about an hour creating blueprints for other carpenters to act on.  Still, that saves us up to eight to ten hours if we let someone else build all the shops.


    I suppose if I prioritize only one set of goggles per group or clique as far as the dragons are concerned, that saves quite a large number that can be done at a later date, since I can¡¯t fully commit to them right yet anyway.  That¡¯d only be about eight goggles for the dragons of Mount Solace, in addition to the sixteen for the Draconiacs, or the SAP, twenty four goggles, and forty eight mirrors.  A bit over three hours for the goggles, and an hour and twenty minutes for the mirrors.  About four hours and forty minutes, leaving me enough time to create a few more paired mirrors for Mount Solace.  Nice!


    I forgot to include Lucky in the dragons and slash or shapechangers, but I¡¯m also assuming that he¡¯ll either be safe in Solace, or with Lu at all times.  It¡¯s eleven AM still?  Good.  Then in eight hours, I can utilize the myconid-form for five hours, and be wrapped up by midnight to be able to get a good sleep before the assault on Vorzog¡¯s Keep.  Hm, there¡¯s still advantages I should look for, during the rest of the day, but¡ª.  Oh, right.  Pay attention Reggie.  I facepalm, realizing that I completely sidetracked myself from the strategy meeting, even if it has only been a couple of minutes of thought.


    To my chagrin, I hear, ¡°Astounding,¡± and ¡°Marvelous,¡± and ¡°Simply stupendous,¡± and ¡°Wow,¡± from several of the strategists-eight who¡¯d ridden my whirlwind of thoughts as I set up plans to create whole new systems of advantages for Solace.  I technically am bringing us into the information-age, with magic.  Still, I feel like an ass for not paying more attention to what¡¯s going on around me.  I understand why the residents of Solace think I look sleepy and lost all the time, when my brain is like this, trying to math out new tactics, advantages, abilities, utilities, powers, items, systems, and so-on and so-forth.


    Gulping and blushing, I ask, ¡°Would any of you be willing to volunteer to operate the security center in shifts, so that you had instant access to all information from all combata¡ª.¡±


    Every last strategist-eight member beams at me as they clamor over one another to accept the responsibility.  I suppose that makes sense.  It¡¯s likely every strategist¡¯s dream to have field-accurate information down to the individual unit level.  With all eight of them taking shifts in pairs, no one needs to operate for too great a length of time, or overwork themselves.  They might even be able to delegate some of the micro-responsibilities of the task to friends or family as well.  They can probably swing shifts of which one of them stays up overnight if any of them want to, since we likely won¡¯t conduct too many offensives that go past midnight.  Though, I would like to start taking advantage of travel time to start taking down more lieutenants and lords amongst Terrorzin¡¯s forces as we begin to range farther and farther.


    Back to Solace though.  I think we can label the tunnels with something along the lines of three digits, the first digit being the approximate floor or elevation number, hm, four digits.  The first two would be the approximate floor or elevation number, while the last two digits could be the approximate location on a clock¡¯s facing, if counting north to be twelve.  There could even be a decimal for something like 0112.5 if there¡¯s a 0112, and a 0101, and a tunnel between them.


    Another bonus is, if we start getting some more security set up around Mount Solace, with scrying mirrors available in various locations, any general populace member that has need of an order member can hold a note up in front of a scrying sensor to get our attention at any time.

 B 6 C 114: Efficiency

    Coughing politely, Prent begs my attention as he states, ¡°I don¡¯t recall whom, but someone had told me that though you¡¯d a keen intellect, you had no head for strategy. Yet listening to your mind as you judge the ability for a single asset to decimate the rest of Terrorzin¡¯s most powerful forces, and the length of time it would take¡ª. Pay no heed to the strategic value of the projects that your mind is wrangling. I dare say Schism, if you weren¡¯t so needed in the field, I¡¯d love to have you in this room at all times.¡±


    I blush at the praise, because I¡¯m pretty sure I was likely the one that said I had no head for strategy, since I¡¯m not truly used to the idea of working with a force of multiple allies beyond my inner circle. At most, I know a bit about human infantry encampments and troop movements and supply lines. Even those are likely irregular since they were on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas and we took away their ugh, meat supplies, and replaced them with the shop structure. Still, recalling what I can of the map that Nala laid out before me on that first day, we¡¯ve been mostly ranging west and southwest so far. There are several forces out to the east, one of which must have been Mydraig Hareslayer¡¯s domain. Those ones would actually have more of a chance of deploying their ground troops to strike out at Mount Solace, once word reached them of our betraying our supposed fealty to Terrorzin.


    Though of course, with Errissa¡¯s scout network, we can intercept, or delay most messages that might be sent from the center of Terrorzin¡¯s domain, past ours towards the east. Speaking of, it¡¯d be quite useful to know the approximate ranges and locations of the scouts in that network. If there are any spots missing coverage, we should assume word has already gotten through, one way or another. In fact, it¡¯s best to assume word has gotten through already, regardless. Like I was thinking earlier, I want Solace prepared for siege sooner rather than later.


    Among those preparations is one that might seem slightly silly, but it¡¯ll help keep morale up as we displace or relocate people. That¡¯d be the alcohol supply lines related preparations. I¡¯ll be making Pawn, Miraina, one of the wealthiest residents of Mount Solace over time, as I allow her full access to the odds ¡®n¡¯ ends warren, with the caveat that I want her to bring backup. I know she¡¯s technically a powerful sorceress now that she¡¯s shared in some of the abilities from the sporebrain, hivemind attempt to save her mother Prinrin, but I don¡¯t feel right endangering someone unused to combat. I know Deli has a friend or two that fancy themselves fighters, and she was crafting mythical-metal foils and rapiers for them. Even just one of those individuals to have her back would put my mind at ease.


    I try to be more *present* as I¡¯m directly addressed several times. Illy, Farzee, and Veril are questioned about their strategies on how to operate when missing a quarter of the Paradox Dormir, and I too worry about their seeming lack of a cohesive answer. Illy¡¯s confident that she can make up for the loss of synergy that Veril and Induul had together, but just in case she¡¯s wrong, I think I can do something for the group to make up for lacking Induul¡¯s breath weapon.


    My myconid form will take almost no time at all to whip up bottled batches of expanding gases that grow on contact with oxygen, propagating and aerosolizing for a time. We did, after all, make the form capable of producing certain reagents within its vine-tendrils. I¡¯ll make sure Farzee and Veril are both loaded down with canisters of compressed gases. I facepalm at once again letting myself get distracted immediately after resolving to try to avoid doing just that.


    Still, it was a worthwhile distraction, to be able to let the Dormir know that I have their back, always. Even Illy smiles furtively my way as Veril and Farzee fill her in on what my brain has been cooking up. Alright Reggie, don¡¯t let yourself get distracted by the gorgeous smile on the beautiful woman, focus up. Pay attention. Hm, the strategists-eight had planned a scenario in which they¡¯d have troop deployment of citizen infantry, out in the valley around Mah¡¯Ruke obelisk. It¡¯s not exactly a bad idea per se, but I¡¯d rather not risk anyone that could simply be sniped by spells or breath weapons, standing out in the open, in case we don¡¯t end up taking care of all the fliers and so on within the enemy forces, before their reprisal.


    Okay, okay here we go, information on how we¡¯re gathering the various hoards of the foes we defeat, the supply lines working their way carefully back around the Spine of the World to get it back to us. Lady Kinzul had already had that set up, but now we¡¯re getting into the nitty gritty of it. Permission for additional individuals and the like. If only we had more of the dimensional bags and pouches and so on, especially the linked ones. Hm. If Berinon can do it, perhaps I can too? Berinon being an active leather-enchanter means the art isn¡¯t lost to time or anything, so it might even be in common texts that Nala might have. If I can do that, especially if I can soul-bind them to certain intended recipients, we¡¯d have a massive advantage in the mobilization of our efforts to keep the hoards out of the reach of Terrorzin¡¯s other forces, and out of Ka¡¯thuul¡¯s hands as well.


    There¡¯s an elephant in the room that no one seems comfortable addressing. The inevitable betrayal of Ka¡¯thuul. She¡¯s an ancient green dragon, and the leader of the Order of the Emerald Dawn, an order fashioned after Kinzul¡¯s Order of the Onyx Dawn, out of envy. She¡¯s also Induul¡¯s mother, apparently. She refuses to actually participate in our war against Terrorzin, and our non-aggression treaty is barely being respected as she sneaks around and has her own forces claiming the hoards we free up from Terrorzin¡¯s hordes. Half the reason I want us to be siege-prepped is because of her. Whatever form her betrayal takes, we¡¯re more likely to be able to survive it, and its aftermath, if we dig-in early.


    Speaking of digging in, I address Revvy and Greggy, ¡°I¡¯d gotten a request from the volunteers at the metalworks for someone to check out the ¡®Neath, to investigate why there were signs of sudden, but minor, tectonic activity inching up from beneath our forgeworks. Charles said that there should be an entrance hidden by the Mah¡¯Ruke obelisk. Would you two be willing to explore the ¡®Neath to ascertain the problem with the backup of Shaylon? I¡¯m expecting tunnel boring creatures such as what I call mite-hulk adjacents. Their carapaces have some sort of confusion enchantment upon them that affects the visual perceptions of, yes, exactly. I knew you¡¯d understand. I expect you can plan a suitable operating procedure, if scouting becomes routing, or if you find yourselves overwhelmed.¡±


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Shaylon, Revvy, and Greggy nod, all smiling slyly, realizing just how efficient their small squad will be together against what I imagine they¡¯ll be facing in the ¡®Neath. Shiz seems a bit dejected, that his new friend is being deployed without him. I don¡¯t exactly want a Thunderer blasting and roaring in the ¡®Neath however. Hm, he is however someone that I would trust with Miraina¡¯s security and protection, against the odds ¡®n¡¯ ends warren. I¡¯m sure he¡¯d appreciate first crack at booze as well. He¡¯s also got the same sorcery empowerments that I¡¯d shared with all the others in the hivemind. I turn to him and whisper my thoughts, which ends up earning me smiles and nods as he agrees to look after Pawn for me.


    I feel a bit abashed basically making executive decisions on what is hopefully efficient asset deployment. Kinzul however looks, or rather, feels, relieved. I sense relief, immense relief coming through our emotional bond in waves. She¡¯d been making these sorts of decisions, and accepting the responsibility that comes with them for ages. Even with throwing herself on the front lines with her forces, she feels personally responsible when any of them come to harm. Such is a leader¡¯s fate I suppose. At least, a caring, empathetic one such as Kinzul. I can¡¯t say I¡¯d feel differently if Revinth the Dark, Gresog the Quick, or Shaylon, Aegis, were injured, or worse, didn¡¯t make it home. I mean, hell, that exact reason is why I¡¯m deploying overkill protection for Miraina, Pawn, to farm some slightly hostile resources.


    I let Shiz know that if the task seems too easy, that as long as Miraina makes contact with at least one of the fencers that Deli had been talking about, and has one of them along, that I¡¯ve got other tasks he could attend to. Mainly, early-warning. Shiz is sturdy enough, and enhanced with magic enough, that even if an entire enemy force showed up out of the blue, that he could get off a fairly charged breath attack. I¡¯d prefer it be him, or Atter, as their breath attacks would end up alerting all of Mount Solace to the thunder. He should also be able to withdraw, with the magics available to him that can conjure temporary backup. I don¡¯t want to necessarily deploy Atter or Shiz on any of our offensives. I didn¡¯t offer them mercy to use them as tools of war. Plus, they¡¯re expecting children. Sort of. I mean, they¡¯d be Shiz¡¯s nieces and nephews and such, but it¡¯s a first for him.


    The more I get filled in on during this meeting, the more that I understand that both this isn¡¯t a conventional war, and our strategists, while brilliant, are having a hard time adapting to the format of our war. It¡¯s as if we¡¯re all striker bombers that are sneaking into enemy airspace to bomb their airfields, to maintain air superiority, but for some reason, we¡¯re parking our bombers and duking it out with the infantry with our fore-guns. When I begin equating our dragon assets and enemies to airships and blimps, I get a few distraught looks from the gathered dragons, but the shift in perspective causes something to click for Burshis.


    Shouting rather suddenly, Burshis exclaims, ¡°Guerrilla aerial combat! No wonder you were attempting to imagine your solo capabilities at facing down each of the regional lords and so forth!¡±


    I gnaw on my lip while nodding slowly, trying not to take the wind out of Burshis¡¯s sails. I throw my telepathic walls up for a moment to simply grumble to myself. I¡¯d said that within the first few moments of learning about the Worldstorm. Our strategists weren¡¯t operating under the same school of thought this entire time!? Wait, was even Kinzul thinking of this as a standard ground war, with some engagement advantages? I mentally facepalm.


    Yes, we can take out, and rout, all the ground forces that could easily make it to Mounts Solace or Verdimenn, but we need not bother expending our resources, or taxing our assets on something like seventy percent of Terrorzin¡¯s forces until all of his generals and so on have fallen. It¡¯s just more efficient to bait the most powerful, and ignore the rest. I attempt to breathe evenly, sighing and laughing to myself. I¡¯m in no way brilliant, or a strategist, but come on people. You¡¯ve known about this battle for a lot longer than me.


    Although¡ª. I look towards Lady Kinzul. I¡¯m almost certain it taxes her, every time she makes adjustments to the Worldstorm. I don¡¯t know how greatly, or how much more it will take out of her with our previous ¡°The Blue,¡± having passed, until Farzhis is able to pick up all of her father¡¯s dragonforce¡¯s slack. I want to save them both from the Worldstorm and the efforts to maintain it. We have to wrap up this war sooner rather than later. The strategists-eight are a whirlwind of excitement at the moment as they reorient themselves on the grand strategy overall, with the idea of air superiority allowing for ignoring of non-priority targets.


    Any domain-leader of Terrorzin¡¯s that doesn¡¯t take the bait to chase us down we can safely ignore until after more pertinent battle victories have been secured. Those that do, abandon their ground troops, saving us the effort of thousands of kills or subduals. It also makes it more likely, as we finish off more of Terrorzin¡¯s leadership circle, that some of the ground troops will accept mercy. I am however hesitant to believe that many of them will attempt to live in peace even after Terrorzin has been deposed, so I¡¯m not naive enough to believe we won¡¯t have to fight a massive percentage of his remaining ground forces after clearing out his generals and whatnot.


    Now that we¡¯re trying to talk about air superiority though, the conversation circles around to the thing balking us from capitalizing on that. The Damnations, and the thirteen Evil Claws. They are essentially why I was envisioning only myself, with perhaps Teuila, pulling off the greater arc of my plan. I guess it¡¯s also why everyone had envisioned the war as something other than a guerrilla aerial war. I¡¯d forgotten that not everyone is as capable of ignoring or punishing the Damnations as I am, or as Teuila might be. If my conjecture is right about the Worldstorm¡¯s malfunction deep within Terrorzin¡¯s land is correct, then Lil and Teuila might be able to pair up and take down Damnations even more efficiently than me.

 B 6 C 21: Alive

    Alive, right.  This was stupid.  Seated in this tavern, I find myself rolling my eyes in incredulity at this job.  This isn¡¯t the type of thing you contact the ¡°Veils¡± for.  Of course everyone else turned it down, because it¡¯s a hassle, and could get really ugly.  No one hires anyone from the Vale for a target to remain alive unless it¡¯s just spying.  Except this family apparently.  I continue shaking my head in disbelief at my own stupidity for signing up for what I know is going to amount to a load of trouble.  I have to sleep at some point, so it might as well be here, and it might as well be as soon as a room frees up in this seedy tavern in this hellhole wayside town.


    The man with the purple jerkin and slacks, with quite the paunch, sitting next to me at the bar, in his pompous feathered cap, is the local robber baron, Marlon Stole.  He founded the town with ill gotten gains from when he¡¯d actually been a highway man.  By all accounts he¡¯s a trash human being, and he¡¯s trying to chat me up like we¡¯re buddy buddy, because I kill for a living, and he¡¯s taken a lot of lives.


    Death might be my business, but I take no pleasure in it.  It¡¯s a bloody business, but it¡¯s the only thing I¡¯m good for, at least as far as I figure.  It¡¯d be a bit late to back out now anyway.  Still, you sometimes meet shmucks like this, that can tell you¡¯re from Vale Valley, and they romanticize the idea of the town of assassins.  They get thrilled when talking about the lives they¡¯ve taken, like they¡¯re proud of it, like that alone would make them suited to become an assassin.  It couldn¡¯t be further from the truth.


    Worse, he¡¯s drunk off his ass, and trying to get me to share his drink, trying to get me to taste his top shelf hooch to butter me up.  The hell does he take me for?  I¡¯m not a recruiter.  Besides, the only reason it¡¯s top shelf is because he sets all the prices, and murders anyone who disagrees with how he runs the place.  I keep pushing it aside, and handing it back to him every time he offers it.


    If I didn¡¯t have the precious bounty in that abandoned barn nearby, and if it weren¡¯t what it was, I¡¯d just go mudcamping.  I¡¯d sleep in the acid rain rather than put up with this if I had to.  I can¡¯t though, because the target would run off again, and I can¡¯t sleep out in the barn as well, because I¡¯d murder anyone I caught doing the same for the implications.


    Wait, is that blood?  Hell¡¯s bells.  Marlon¡¯s gagging up blood like he¡¯s got a razor caught in his throat.  Of course I¡¯m going to be implicated.  If I stand to flee now, I¡¯ll be hunted down, his goons assured of my guilt.  Ugh, that¡¯s a gruesome way to go, the desperate gasps through the sound of burbles and sucking pops as he has to suck down lungfulls of blood to breathe is unpleasant to say the least.  I wince as he paws at my arm, but I avoid eye contact, having no need to see the pleading eyes of a dying man.  I¡¯ve seen it enough times in my life already, when I was the culprit.  No need to add another burden on my soul.


    It¡¯s not like anyone else is rushing to help either.  It¡¯s uneasy in the eerie silence broken only by Marlon¡¯s gasps and gurgles.  As he finally gasps his last, I can feel the intensity of the stares that were directed at his death throes gaze my way.  I could probably kill my way out of this, but some of these people are just trying to get by, and I¡¯d have to leave no witnesses.  I shake my head slowly at myself.  No.  I won¡¯t do that to people who¡¯ve already had it tough enough as it is.


    Everyone says I¡¯m too soft for the job, and they¡¯re right.  I don¡¯t want to harden though.  I¡¯d rather feel the sorrow and guilt than feel nothing at all.  Still, this one isn¡¯t on me, and I¡¯m not exactly a smooth criminal as far as talking my way out of things, so I¡¯m trying to piece together my options, and coming up blank.  If I¡¯d brought Eights in, maybe I¡¯d just have him growl, and they would all pretend they hadn¡¯t seen anything.  Something about a dog protecting a person makes people look the other way a bit more often.  Says they can trust them, or something like that anyway, I suppose.


    Here it comes, biggest of the goons stepping this way to check on his boss.  As if the almost sulfurous stench wasn¡¯t already proof enough of his death.  The big fella reaches for my shoulder, but thinks wisely enough to keep from laying hands upon me.  He contemplates for a moment, perhaps being a bit smarter than I¡¯d have given his brutish form credit for.


    The head lunk, wearing his vest and flannels orders, ¡°You, me, private booth, now.¡±


    I wordlessly stand and head the direction he points, not offering any reason for the tavern¡¯s occupants to form a lynch mob.  Like I said, some of these people are darn-near innocent, struggling to get by.  Sitting on the wooden-slat bench of the booth, I heave a sigh, not letting on how disturbed I am at the course of events.


    Fenthorp apparently, demands with every ounce of authority he can lend his voice, almost growling, ¡°Name¡¯s Fenthorp, and I¡¯d like to politely request you place your weapons on the table.¡±


    I almost laugh at the juxtaposition between words and sounds, but thankfully I¡¯ve still enough wits about me to refrain.  It takes me a moment, but I set an entire bandolier worth of throwing knives, my damascus dagger, a dart blowgun, the darts, my sling, and a piano-wire filament upon the table.


    Fenthorp sits across from me and says, ¡°Hood down,¡± so I comply, extremely uncomfortable, but this is the one time I¡¯ve brought a mask along, so I¡¯m not entirely exposed, not yet.


    Of course the ass orders, ¡°Mask off.¡±


    I refuse, ¡°That¡¯s not going to happen.¡±


    Fenthorp states, ¡°I can¡¯t be sure you don¡¯t have razorblades hidden under it or something.¡±


    I quip, ¡°Then you¡¯re just going to have to take that gamble, because I wasn¡¯t the one who killed the man, and I¡¯m currently unarmed.¡±


    Fenthorp contemplates for a moment, not sure if he can sweep all of my weapons away before I get my hands on one if he were to piss me off.  He decides to play it safe for now, asking, ¡°You¡¯d like me to believe that you get handed a drink by Marlon Stole, a man that anyone would gladly off, you hand it back, he dies from something in that drink, and it wasn¡¯t you?¡±


    Thankfully, Fenthorp can¡¯t see me rolling my eyes behind my mask as I respond, ¡°Yes, because I don¡¯t kill outside of my targets, you know very well our code, and Marlon Stole was not on any list, yet.  My particular target is trussed up, alive, nearby.¡±


    At this, Fenthorp balks and asks, ¡°Alive, why?¡±


    Grimacing, I answer, ¡°That was the job.¡±


    Fenthorp interrogates me a bit more thoroughly than I¡¯d like as he leans close to study my features while declaring, ¡°I¡¯ll have to see this for myself.  Nearby where?¡±


    I bite my tongue momentarily after mouthing off, ¡°I¡¯d really rather you didn¡¯t.¡±


    Thankfully, he seems more confused than pissed as he queries, ¡°Oh, why is that?¡±


    Heaving a sigh, I offer, ¡°Because the noble brat might run off again.  I¡¯d like to get her home safely, without incident.  My dog is guarding her, and she¡¯s loosely bound.  She could free herself, but I¡¯m pretty sure she wouldn¡¯t risk trying to flee from Eights, unless he was distracted, by say, a nosy ¡ª Lawman.¡±


    Fenthorp mulls over my response, because it¡¯s plausible, and he¡¯d rather not get in trouble with the Vale.  It also happens to be the truth, and he can understand why I¡¯m in here, and she¡¯s out there.  I was not going to share a room with, or be woken up lying anywhere near, a bound young lass.  The implications would sentence me worse since she¡¯s a noble.


    The ¡°Lawman¡± decides that discretion is the better part of valor for the both of us, and decides to drop the inquiry.  He suggests, ¡°You¡¯d better leave town while we sort this out, Vale code or no, it¡¯s too clean to pin this on you, and the townies would rather have quick and clean, than true and just.¡±


    I keep my groan to myself, knowing this means I have to mudcamp with the brat even more times, sheltering her from the constant rains of pain that never leave the Rayileklian skies.  I collect my weapons carefully, slowly, methodically putting them away.  I¡¯m happy to warm my bones for the extra few moments before traveling, mudcamping just off the roads in acid rain again.


    Should a carriage happen to take a break nearby, and its occupants wander close enough¡ª.  I do not enjoy the implications.  How she managed to get this far away is almost beyond me, but she¡¯s apparently fit enough to cling to the bottom and backs of carriages, and light enough to strap herself to them while she sleeps.  Precocious little brat.


    Still, I steal away from the tavern, and return to the barn, wanting to put as much distance between me and Marlon¡¯s death as possible, agreeing with Fenthorp¡¯s suggestion.  Oddly, as I enter the loft of the barn, the brat is staring curiously at Eights, unafraid, the hood of the cloak I¡¯d gotten her down.  She isn¡¯t making use of the sleeping bag, nor is she upset at my return.


    There¡¯s a sternness to her gaze when she looks at me, trying to find my eyes beneath my hood and behind my mask.  I¡¯m grateful I¡¯d worn one for once.  Generally our targets aren¡¯t supposed to remain living, so it doesn¡¯t matter as much if they glimpse me in the eyes during the mission.


    I carefully order, ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.  Jump in the bag.  It¡¯s a long walk to the next town.¡±


    She shakes her head, but it isn¡¯t in defiance as she scooches towards the sleeping bag.  Instead, she states, ¡°I didn¡¯t think they cared *this* much that I attend and finish their bullcrap refinement finishing school shiz.¡±


    I blink several times, taken aback as she works to comply with my order.  I ask, ¡°Pardon?  You¡¯re running away from some nobility school?¡±


    She groans and makes a face as if she¡¯d sucked on a lemon before responding, ¡°Blech, yeah.  I¡¯d rather be, I dunno, a pirate or something, anything other than a *lady.*¡±


    The way she spits the word lady with disdain is almost endearing.  I can¡¯t say I¡¯d disagree with the sentiment in her shoes.  I offer, ¡°Alright, fair, but so that I don¡¯t get hired to chase you down again, you¡¯re going to need to be able to support yourself, and change your name.¡±


    I add, explaining, ¡°To even get to that point, take advantage of the money you come from, get someone to hire you a tutor for a skill, something you can ply to earn a living if you run, maybe a few skills if you¡¯ve got the time, and talent.  You should have the time, waiting til you¡¯re old enough to earn a wage.  You¡¯ll also have to change your hair.  Wearing the family style with that bright red hair is a dead giveaway.¡±


    There¡¯s a petite, ¡°Hmf,¡± from my target as she finishes sealing herself in the sleeping bag.  I honestly don¡¯t care what she does, but it¡¯s less trouble for me if she makes the trouble at home, and stays there til she¡¯s old enough to strike out on her own.  Huff, like I said, it¡¯s a long walk to the next town.  Eights and I will take turns carrying her, protecting her from the ceaseless acid rainfall, and barely sleeping a wink in whatever shrubbery we can find.

 B 6 C 116: Enchanting

    Passing the mirrors around, there¡¯s a bit of marveling at the ability to clearly see what the other mirror is pointed at, by peering at where one would expect to see their own reflection. I try to stifle my own desire to giggle about the fact that I could probably blow the minds of everyone here away by showing them the recording and zooming feature on the phone¡¯s camera. I didn¡¯t add the auditory portion of the scrying sensor, as, Like I said, it would simply end up being far too much noise in one small location, with how many sensors we¡¯re going to have in the security center. I might make *one* that has the auditory link, and that one I may put at the Mah¡¯Ruke obelisk.


    If I place one at the obelisk, it should be able to hear if someone like Shiz is engaged with hostiles in the valley around Mount Solace. It should also be able to hear if say, Shaylon, Revvy and Greggy are in retreat from some underground horde, or similar scenarios. Still, it would be annoyingly loud, constantly overhearing Rayileklia¡¯s ever-thundering darkened skies. Oh, wait, go back a tick. The phones.


    Pulling out the phones, I bring the conversation back around to my various projects in Mount Verdimenn. I¡¯m tempted to have us adjourn there to¡ª. I almost giggle as my party who¡¯d been with me over the course of the morning groans mentally at hearing my train of thought. Still, I¡¯m almost tempted to request that we all head to Mount Verdimenn so that I can provide visual aid. Eh, to hell with it, why not. Let¡¯s start getting some major progress on all these projects before we start a new leg of our offensive.


    Putting it out there, I state, ¡°I¡¯d like to request a recess for a few moments in which we reconvene at my Mount Verdimenn project location. During that recess, I¡¯ll be attempting to pry Nala from the library. You don¡¯t necessarily all *need* to reconvene, but I¡¯d appreciate it if you would regardless, because what I¡¯ll be covering, and the pace I¡¯ll be covering it at will benefit everyone. Shiz, in advance of the others, can you head down to the odds ¡®n¡¯ ends warren, and break off some materials that look expensive to you? It doesn¡¯t really matter what you pick, just harvest some things that you don¡¯t mind seeing disappear, make sure to get multiples of things. I already harvested the hostiles, not that I think you couldn¡¯t handle yourself, just letting you know there¡¯s nothing to tussle with. I¡¯ll be with you shortly.¡±


    There¡¯s a bit of grumbling from those that don¡¯t view me favorably, or those that have already made the journey to Verdimenn and back several times already today, but for the most part, everyone heads off towards Mount Verdimenn while discussing security and strategy. Lady Kinzul awaits the leaving of the others to warmly embrace me, still emitting waves of relief across our emotional link. Lil awaits in the hallway, and playfully makes disgusted faces, but can¡¯t hide the love he feels seeing his mother happy, and seeing me happy.


    Kinzul whispers telepathically, privately, ¡°This eve, we needs must take a moment to ourselves, away from Mount Solace. Please make time for this in your plans my love. No more than perhaps half an hour or so, but still. We¡¯ve yet to have any private time to ourselves.¡±


    I gulp, unsure if Kinzul is teasing me, or actually insinuating¡ª. I mean, she likely just wants to inform me something about the operation of the Worldstorm. Still, I can¡¯t help myself as my gaze drinks in her regal, perfect form. I gulp once more, and rattle my skull, blushing to high heavens, trying to not anticipate anything that Kinzul isn¡¯t intentionally implying. Nodding to my wife, I simply acquiesce that I¡¯ll make room for her in my plans of my usage of time. Since I¡¯m combining some of the strategy session with some of the crafting and project work I wanted to do, I¡¯ll have more of it available than I¡¯d otherwise have had.


    Gnawing on my bottom lip, I watch my wife as she glides away. She no longer hides how she dotes on Lil as they walk towards Mount Verdimenn together. To see my best buddy happy, to see him be loved by such an amazing, dynamic, wonderful, compassionate, intelligent woman, as if he truly, truly were her own son¡ª. I draw a shuddered breath as my emotions catch in my throat. I¡¯m so, so, so very happy for Lil. Trying to reorient on the tasks at hand, I TK surf away towards the library.


    Oddly enough, as my mind is picked up by Nala¡¯s telepathic wavelength, she announces, ¡°Ah, good, friend Reggie, perfect. I¡¯ve just sorted out some assistance from assistants, and was wondering if you¡¯d be so kind as to escort me to your gadgetry and workshops.¡±


    Well¡ª, that was a lot easier than expected. I wonder if she anticipated me, or if it was coincidental. I glance around, waiting for another shoe to drop, but none seems to be on the way. Since we¡¯re at the library anyway, I¡¯m intent on asking, ¡°I¡¯d be delighted to take you over to Mount Verdimenn. I was actually on the way to request exactly that, as I think your expertise might be one of the only ones I could rely on to design and or craft certain aspects of my projects. Before going, Nala, do you have any tomes on the creation of magical items? The process that a novice enchanter would use to do something such as placing a durability enhancement enchantment on a structure, or anything like that. That, and the¡ª.¡±


    Nala grins slyly as she offers me a small stack of literature, already set aside for me. She states, ¡°I¡¯ve curated a selection of works based on needs I¡¯ve picked up from your wandering thoughts over the course of the last week or so. Their relevancy scores are dramatically high for what might otherwise be either too esoteric, too complex, too simple, or nearly-useless material to anyone else. Especially this unreadable, near-untranslatable jumble of script. Anyway, yes yes, let us away, I¡¯ll be happy for a reprieve from the multitude of customers, clients, whatever you¡¯d call the patrons partaking of the library. It will be so nice to not be surrounded by so many people.¡±


    Annnd there¡¯s the other shoe I was anticipating. Gulping, I blush and facepalm privately to myself. I¡¯m dragging Nala down to an assembly of nearly the entire Order of the Onyx Dawn. I have a telepathic chuckle at my own lack of luck, for submitting Nala to this lack of reprieve from gathered people. Poor Nala. Right, anyway, we, oh. Nala loops an arm through mine, and apparently expects to be locomoted with me. Should I even tell her that physical contact isn¡¯t necessary for me to utilize telekinesis on both of us? I don¡¯t want to spoil her good mood, or make light of her efforts, or even draw attention to it if it isn¡¯t registering for her. I feel like it¡¯s more akin to Zayzi¡¯s lack of concern at dragging me around by the hand. Plus, there¡¯s no actual contact between Nala and me. Her robes and armor, and my own clothing, prevent any physical contact.


    Anyway, let¡¯s see what¡¯s in these tomes. Hm, yes. That makes sense. Wait, basic-enchanting is¡ª. It takes permanentifying each individual rune on a microscopic level? Empowering them and emplacing and empowering the whole series of enchantment runes again after each ru¡ª. What? Argh. No wonder people say it takes a lifetime to craft magic items. It would take me months of using my S P doing nothing but working on miniaturizing and microscopically repeating and empowering the same runes, over and over, applying permanency to a single rune of the full enchantment, between each empowerment, in order to make a single item. And *I* am actually far more adept than most enchanters at it, with a higher S P pool, and the ability to apply the permanency enhancement enchantment for free. That¡¯s insane.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Though, there is the slight possibility of finding people with untapped S P pools in the populace of Mount Solace. If I do, I can finagle a sort of ritual casting to drain and utilize their S P on a given day, for doing something as simple as repeating the same empowerment over and over. I vaguely remember conjecturing something like this a long time ago too. I remember coming to a similar conclusion, that large scale enchantments would take rituals of multiple casters, either going round-robin, empowering the next rune in sequence, or each doing the full sequence simultaneously, over and over.


    Wait, wait. I recently learned how to make some runes solely be empowered by ambient mana. Plus, one of the runostructures on a lot of enchanted items is the ability to drink ambient mana to recharge its functions. Hm, that might limit the number of uses of the ability in a given day though. Or rather, placing the restriction of having a limited number of uses must in some way make the enchanting of the item itself easier, and tacking on the ability to recharge itself with ambient mana must be a relatively simple, short process compared to the rest of the enchantment.


    Flip, flip flip flip flip. Hm, hm, hm. Okay, okay, yes, I see. Hm, that workaround is a bust, but what about¡ª. Oh, here¡¯s an interesting one, for spells with durations longer than eight hours, like the twenty four hour brainblast aegis spell, I could do this, eh? Hm. That would be better than casting it on myself, because it annoyingly blocks telepathy on top of blocking psychic damage. Can I spare about an hour to do this tonight? I guess the more important question is, can I spare *not* finding a way to get that spell up tonight? If the Vorzog¡¯s Keep Draconiacs have archmages and the like, I *need* to shore up that weakness of mine. A single mid-level spell can take me out of the fight otherwise.


    I¡¯m still not immune to necrotic aura magic either. I¡¯ve got the necrometal chestplate that has its once per day aura of up to ten minutes of semi-immunity to necrotic aura magic. That particular ability can thankfully be doled out in one minute increments, so it does go a good long way over the course of a battle, if I¡¯m prioritizing the necromancers.


    We haven¡¯t tested if I¡¯m immune to thunder damage when I¡¯m almost weightless. It might not shatter my bones, but it could still blow open my eardrums, or rupture other things. Let¡¯s see, cold, heat, poison, lightning, acid when in adamantite body, almost necrotic and almost radiation for brief periods, and psychic for up to twenty four hours at a time, possibly some of thunder¡¯s devastating effects¡ª. Are there other weaknesses I can shore up before tomorrow?


    How is it going to play out with Lil, Lu, and Lucky there? We haven¡¯t really ever fought together as a team, the four of us. I¡¯m so used to basically assuming that I am, or will be soloing everything if Teuila isn¡¯t around, and only thinking tangentially of any party members around me, if any are available. One weakness that I should shore up, is my lack of synergy with the rest of my assigned party.


    I¡¯m used to tossing out area of effects like crazy, and literally standing in the fire. Lil¡¯s able to deal with that by letting me take the lead, and setting things ablaze around me, up to and including me. But where would Lucky and Lu be in that scenario? Hanging out at the back, where everything¡¯s already dead? Lucky¡¯s a scrapper. I think he¡¯s got a breath weapon, but I¡¯ve never seen him use it. Maybe he does hang back, and waits for an opportunity to take down a target that¡¯s too tough to go down to area effect abilities? I can¡¯t in good conscience use the majority of my powers if he barrels on ahead. I¡¯d hurt, or kill, him or Lu. I¡¯m going to need to ask the Triple L Squad how they fight, before the end of the night.


    Trying to once again reorient my brain towards the present, I ask of Nala, ¡°So, I¡¯ve come up with a plan to outfit the majority of our Order members with goggles that have an external scrying sensor. That sensor would link to a mirror that will be in a security center here in Solace. Further, there¡¯d be an internal translucent scry that lets the individual see that same security center from a separate mirror, and therefore everyone else¡¯s outgoing images as well. Well, the zoom might be kind of poor, depending on how the enchantment works on that end, but it should at least reassure any of us that the others are still moving. However, because most of us are combatants, anything less than an unbreakable metal would be a waste of an enchantment, as it¡¯s likely to get damaged or destroyed on our first combat outing.¡±


    With Nala¡¯s attention, anticipating her query, I explain what I¡¯d like of her, ¡°To that end, I was hoping you could iterate on some goggle-frames, if needbe, starting with weaker metals, and working your way up towards adamantite. Based on what I was seeing as we left Mount Verdimenn earlier, we now have even some adamantite crafting tools to work with, including things like a foot-pedal rotary tool.¡±


    Pausing a moment, I consider aloud, ¡°I could possibly simply have the enchantment be on a mirror that clips on to say a circlet or vest pocket, or something. So your designing my request is not specifically entirely necessary, but it will give us the closest view to what¡¯s actually being perceived by our agents. If you think it¡¯s too challenging, or not doable, or not worth your time, I¡¯d entirely understand.¡±


    Chuckling, Nala chides, ¡°Is that some sort of attempt to play on my pride to bait me into carrying out your whim, friend Reggie? No, no, I jest. I know you¡¯re not at all like that. I¡¯ll see what I can do, and I may have an answer to your other dilemma, if my surmising is correct. Simple, repetitive use enchantments of lower tier magics may be able to be inlaid through gems, carvings, gears, and the like, rather than needing to have some sort of empowerment process, at least partially. I may need some sample equip¡ª, yes, thank you, exactly.¡±


    Excitedly digging through my belongings for various magic items that have low tier enchantments, and the ability to recharge from ambient mana, I offer them up to Nala. I forgot that I¡¯m simply brute-forcing things at a basic level, and not taking into account things like gems, reagents, and other powers and shortcuts people might use. My heart and mind both race in anticipation, fully believing that Nala will find a way to circumvent the incredibly lengthy procedure for the size-changing enchantment. That, and durability enhancement enchantments are so common, that there must be ways of doing them relatively quickly.


    Another almost-common enchantment is that of the transdimensional, hyperdimensional, pandimensional, or otherwise extra-dimensional space, generally within a bag. If *anyone* could possibly figure out how to make that enchantment, it would be Nala. Not just because of her keen mind, and aptitude towards artificery, but also because she¡¯s keenly aware of pandimensional spaces existing. I half expect the process to require some sort of incredibly rare reagent for something like that though.


    Actually, that reminds me, there was a book that held a transdimensional enchantment. It was bound in dragon-wing dactyl-leather, or something of the like. I gaze at my hyperdimensional haversack in my mindscape, and the transdimensional traveler¡¯s pouch. Are the leathers that make up these containers also from a dragon¡¯s wings? If anyone, anywhere, could stock up on enchanted items that require dragon parts to create, it¡¯d be us, during this war.

 B 6 C 117: Forgiven

    While I¡¯m considering something that might be blasphemous to Lil, I hear him almost hemming and hawing before he asks, ¡°Erm, Reggie, pal? Do you um, well. I know you¡¯ve got lots of plans today, and like, maybe always. Do you think maybe you could fit some time to maybe help me get a mind brain psychicy connectiony thing to Ixey?¡±


    I was worried for a moment he¡¯d be upset at the idea of using dragon parts. As I¡¯m about to respond to Lil, Ixeyla, apparently riding my mental narrative somewhere nearby, excitedly pleads, ¡°Is¡ª, did Lil just ask that!? Yes oh yes oh yes please please please please. Schism, I¡¯m begging you. If my prince, erm, I mean, if my Sun, erm, uh, if Sun, needs, I mean if you, crap. I¡¯m brain-tied. Please, just please? I won¡¯t even tease you about how fast you¡¯re moving in with Princess, building her a home right next to yours, setting her up with fancy digs.¡±


    While I *was* about to reassure Ixey that I¡¯ll make adding a bond between her and Lil my top priority, I¡¯m now barely maintaining my telekinetic flight as I cough, choke, and sputter. Nala flashes concern my way, before she parses what¡¯s been going on in my head. She offers a droll eyeroll, and looses a terse half-chuckle to herself at my mental misfortune. The implication that I in any way, shape, or form, am harboring any sort of romantic, or infatuatory feelings for Leezahna are just, bleugh. I think of her like a spoiled niece who lost her father, that I¡¯m stuck making sure she grows up to be less of a dick. Sure, I understand she¡¯s a lovely young lady, but for crap¡¯s sakes, just ick. I¡¯m a million times more likely to make advances on Farzhis tha¡ª.


    Whoops. Apparently Farzhis is between moments of despondency, in one of her moments of clarity and lucidity in which she¡¯s capable of riding my mental wavelengths. Before she can respond telepathically as I feel her emotions congesting over hearing my thoughts, I quickly reassure her, ¡°Sorry, sorry, that line of thought was just awkward. A million times nearly zero is still nearly zero. I¡¯m, I¡¯m not going to¡ª, I mean, you¡¯re absolutely wonderful, and lovely, and I¡¯m proud of you, and I love you very much sweetling, but¡ª. Ugh. What I mean is¡ª. Someone help me out here.¡±


    Giggling, Lil calls back, ¡°Hehe, nuh uh buddy, you can dig that foot out of your own mouth. I ain¡¯t going near it with a ten foot pole.¡±


    While I¡¯m facepalming, Teuila and Luni are similarly giggling and agreeing with Lil. Returning my attention to Farhzhis, I try to finish reassuring her, ¡°I don¡¯t want you to ever feel like I¡¯m playing some sort of mind games with you, or long game manipulation, or pressuring you or taking advantage of you. I truly, truly only want you to find your own happiness at your own pace. Blue. And, if there¡¯s anything I can do to facilitate that, I¡¯ll do my best to help out. I apologize for letting myself get worked up over a silly insinuation that I¡¯ve a strong distaste for, and that that distaste decided to use you as an example. Erm, not that I find you distasteful, or that I even find the idea of being with you¡ª. Huff, I¡¯m going to stop while I¡¯m possibly ahead. I hope you can forgive me.¡±


    Cracking half a smile telepathically, and loosing a soft, dry chuckle, Farzhis responds in her delightful accent that skips the tees and dees near the end of most words, ¡°¡¯Sokay Schism. Thanks. You¡¯re no¡¯ my type, like I sai¡¯. I¡¯m no¡¯ sure how to explain it, bu¡¯ wha¡¯ we have feels nice. I like you thinking highly of me. Maybe makes me feel a little prou¡¯ of myself. Also a little safer. I know you protec¡¯ everyone, maybe equally, bu¡¯, well, I know how fierce you are abou¡¯ the people you love. So, um. Thanks is all. Don¡¯t worry abou¡¯ comparing me to Dimineros. I¡¯ll jus¡¯ take it as flattery. She¡¯s a whelp compare¡¯ to me, bu¡¯ a pretty young thing, I ge¡¯ it. I¡¯m gla¡¯ you¡¯re trying to steer her righ¡¯ too.¡±


    Grateful for my reprieve from foot-in-mouth syndrome, bleugh, that really needs a different name. Erm, anyway, grateful for my reprieve, I return to addressing Ixey, ¡°Yes, definitely. Please, come down to Mount Verdimenn if you have time, we¡¯ll be doing a lot of magic and enchanting work and strategy and so on. I¡¯ll prioritize your bond with Lil before I let myself spend all of my magic for the day.¡±


    There¡¯s a smugness to Ixey¡¯s response, ¡°Already most of the way there Schism. Princess wants to show off her new digs. Can¡¯t say I¡¯m impressed by *all* of her chosen company. I hope you know what you¡¯re doing, vouching for her. But, um, really? Really really really really really? And, and you won¡¯t butt in, right? Can it be just private between me and Lil?¡±


    Though I¡¯m tempted to tease Ixey, due to how often she¡¯s a tad hostile to me, I respond truthfully, ¡°When I cast the spell, for the next hour or two, I¡¯ll be part of the bond. However, since I¡¯ll only be placing the permanency enhancement enchantment on you and Lil, it¡¯ll wear off and I¡¯ll drop out of your bond after that point. You¡¯ll have your private bond,¡± I can¡¯t help teasing ever so slightly as I add, ¡°with your prince.¡±


    I¡¯m fairly certain Ixey doesn¡¯t even feel like my addition was a tease, because I can sense her melting mentally as she imagines her private bond with Lil. It¡¯s a good thing that she chose the less-intimate bond, because wow, even on the lower emotional wavelength, the amount of koff, lust, koff, that she¡¯s putting out is insane. Anyway, enough of that distraction. I don¡¯t need to know about Lil¡¯s private entanglements unless he chooses to share that with me specifically.


    Hastening my descent with Nala as I return back towards Mount Verdimenn, I spy Lucky¡¯s mental avatar loafing in our thinkspace once again. He looks mildly despondent. I wish I knew what to do for him. I make sure he¡¯s aware of my presence telepathically, and he seems to acknowledge me with a look before settling his head back on his paws. I sit my telepathic avatar next to Lucky¡¯s in lotus position, and lean my forehead towards his. Thankfully he gently headbutts me so that we can rest our foreheads together.


    Deeply intent on listening to anything Lucky¡¯s trying to communicate, I can vaguely make out, ¡°Worry, worried, worry. Parent smells scared. Parent scared for other parent? Smells like. Digging and fighting, fighting soon? Fighting soon, gotta protect parent. Also have to protect other parent? Parent thinks so? Maybe? Parent worried, so gotta protect other parent? Other parent strong. New powers, all. Mine too. New powers, stronger, clothes, things, armors. Other parent loves me. Lots of proof. Other parent wants me to have more armors, and more things. Things are nice, they mean worry, worry means love. Just want parent and other parent safe. Wish they could talk right, but just want them safe. Want them close. Want them together.¡±


    I choke on a sob that had been building as I worked my way through listening to Lucky¡¯s mind. He¡¯s not just intelligent, but intuitive. He doesn¡¯t understand everything I say all the time, or likely everything anyone says all the time. I can¡¯t seem to just talk to him, nor hear everything he¡¯s thinking or trying to say all the time either. I don¡¯t know how to bridge the gap. I don¡¯t know how to be the parent he deserves. Sniffling, I rub my eyes as they wet and itch, before I devolve into fully crying.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    As far as I can tell, the only thing Lucky really wants from me, from life, is for me and Luni to be together and safe. For us to not be worried, for us to be happy together. I can¡¯t give him that until this war is over. It¡¯s not fair to him. He¡¯s never really asked for anything, and he¡¯s always done anything we¡¯ve ever needed or wanted of him. I draw a ragged breath and rub my wet eyes once more. He has to make it through all this so I can give him what he wants. I need to do everything in my power to ensure that. Lu has to make it through too. Somehow, as much as I worry about her fragility in combat, and her likelihood of taking injury, I feel like if any of us would make it through this, it¡¯s her.


    I¡¯m pretty certain I¡¯ll come out the other side of this, one way or another. But the more powerful I can get between now and then, the more of my allies, my loved ones, my family I¡¯ll be assured of likely making it with me. It feels selfish, and conceited, to believe that my power and my growth are so pivotal to the survival of others, but it also feels true. Sighing slowly, raggedly, I try to clear my mind, so that I can reorient on the present.


    What was it that coping-me said to me? Don¡¯t get so caught up focusing on the end goal that I can¡¯t be present where I¡¯m needed? Something like that. Gods my brain is swiss-cheese. How can I not remember what I said to myself to comfort and cope for myself, if it was truly me? Blurgh. I¡¯m not sure I can afford the cognitive dissonance that might come with trying to suss this out.


    Right, we¡¯re here. Let¡¯s give Nala a sketch, and some¡ª. Heaving a sigh, I try to listen towards what sounds like an emotional disturbance in some nearby wavelengths. Someone¡¯s pleading, ¡°¡ªshm. I, I didn¡¯t know how much it would be. Please, please take it, take it somewhere. I don¡¯t need all this. I get it. I get it. It¡¯s for everyone. I didn¡¯t know it could even be like this. I don¡¯t want them to find out. Please gutt¡ª, I, I mean Ixey. Please help me out here. They¡¯ll kill me, or my family. Or, or exile us.¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I can guess probably almost exactly what happened. I¡¯m sure Leezahna tried to convince some of the volunteers that I told her that she could have whatever she wanted, or something, maybe not quite so over the top. They likely shrugged and started delivering whatever she asked, and she had no idea just *how much* material we¡¯re working with. Thankfully, Ixey sounds like she¡¯s trying to calm Leezahna down rather than play into her fear. I¡¯m not sure if I should make my presence known immediately, or after Ixey has had some time to work on this. Sighing, I figure it¡¯s probably better to address problems and problematic behaviors as soon as possible, so I head in the direction of Leezahna¡¯s new home.


    I drop Nala near the craftsworks as I head towards the disturbance. Of course there¡¯s stacks of baskets full of gems at the entryway to her home. Why am I not surprised? As I round the corner, Leezahna shrieks, and¡ª. Wow. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve inspired that much terror in someone since, um, was it Priss? I don¡¯t remember the last person who wet themselves out of fright because of me. It might have been one of the Derbrightmine dwarves. Leeza¡¯s crying, blubbering, and pleading something. I sit patiently, cross-legged in mid-air, and I flash a sad half-frown towards Ixey as I try to express my gratitude towards her.


    Leezahna seems to regain enough of her faculties to plead her case, ¡°Sch-koff, gulp, Schism. Um, um, there was, I, maybe a misunderstanding. I, um, I said I knew you, and, and, I. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry. I thought, maybe a handful to, to be able to entertain, a, a bit lavishly, in, in order to, to, I¡ª. To get them to like me again. They ran away, again. I¡ª.¡±


    Interrupting Leezahna, I put my hands forward placatingly, whispering and cooing, ¡°It¡¯s okay. I mean, it¡¯s not. Abusing a possible friendship of mine to get what you want, to lord it over others or take advantage of me or them, is exactly the sort of thing I don¡¯t want you doing. Shhh, shh, it¡¯ll be okay. Here, that must be terribly uncomfortable. I¡¯m just going to whip up a tiny little spell for you, okay? There, all dry and clean now. I¡¯m not going to hurt you. You realized it was wrong, by the sounds of it. You took advantage of the kindness and trust of several people by breaking my trust in this way. What do you think I should do in response to that?¡±


    Eying me suspiciously, Ixey tenses up momentarily, seemingly almost worried for Leezahna. Leezahna stares at me wide-eyed in sheer terror. Trying to keep my breathing calm, I await Leeza¡¯s response. It takes her a moment to remember that I¡¯d asked her a question, and longer to come up with a response, ¡°You, you should punish me.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow, wearing a grim expression, I prompt, ¡°How exactly should I punish you Leeza? What¡¯s an appropriate punishment for breaking a trust that had been so dangerously low?¡±


    Shrieking again, Leeza quickly curls in on herself, crying, and Ixey shoots me a worried frown, almost a glare. I hold up my hand towards Ixey, and motion that it¡¯s okay to comfort Leezahna at the moment.


    When it¡¯s clear that Leezahna has calmed down, but can¡¯t seem to come up with a punishment on her own, I offer up, ¡°My punishment is going to be offering you more trust, and more responsibility. I hope that you understand that breaking *that* trust will come with worse consequences. I¡¯m going to give you some errands, some tasks, that I¡¯d like completed. I¡¯m not going to give you *strict* deadlines immediately. You don¡¯t need that kind of stress.¡±


    Sighing, not really wanting to frighten her further, but wanting to impress upon her that it isn¡¯t a false punishment, I add, ¡°Just know that if it seems like you¡¯re completely blowing me off in terms of these responsibilities, I will take it as a personal slight, a sign of disrespect, and a breach of trust. I want you to feel forgiven, but I want you to take it seriously. Are you okay with that Leezahna? Are you willing to try handling some responsibilities for me?¡±


    The terrified lass eyes Ixey queryingly with worry, as if asking Ixeyla mentally if she should say yes. Ixey¡¯s response is a half eyeroll and to barely refrain from shrugging. Ixeyla seems to know that I¡¯ve got no intention of hurting Leezahna, or anyone really. Even the extra emphasis on trust is mostly an empty threat. Mostly. I will probably get more creative next time, and if she breaks my trust again, I¡¯ll probably consider it a third strike, and then actually consider her too untrustworthy to keep around. I¡¯m not even sure what sorts of responsibilities I want to saddle her with though.


    In some ways, I don¡¯t want to trust anything important to her, but if she suspects I¡¯m really just faking this with empty threats, she might not make the progress that she seems to be trying to make. Also, to be the me that I want to be, I¡¯ve said it before and I¡¯ll say it again, I need to offer my trust and love, despite my fears and concerns, even if it¡¯ll end up biting me hard in the arse, or worse, end with me or someone I love stabbed in the back. I can¡¯t let that fear, that worry, my own love for others, take over and prevent me from offering my love, acceptance, and trust.


    What can I do that shows Leezahna that I both trust her, and require her to be better? What task can I saddle her with? One that says, ¡°Do this favor, and do it well, because, like everyone, you are valued, but you in particular are skating on thin ice.¡± I gnaw my lip as I glance over towards our respawning warrens. I don¡¯t even know the number of units we can get produced or harvested in a day, or where all the material goes. I do sort of want to have that information available to me to be able to make more consistent plans. I could benefit from having a quartermaster.

 B 6 C 118: Growth

    Should I lie to Leezahna to keep her in line?  Would it be fair of me to tell her I would know if she miscounts or distributes unfairly?  No.  I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll do that.  I don¡¯t need to add more terror and trauma to her plate.  Violence, or anger, or threat of it, or implication of its possible threat, aren¡¯t all of the solutions available to me.  Despite how often I feel like I end up having to resort to it, it is actually the last resort I ever want to use.


    Wearing a sad half-smile, I explain, ¡°I need a quartermaster.  I need someone who can catalogue and distribute the materials from the warrens fairly.  I need to know where those materials are going, and in what quantities.  There¡¯s an opportunity for you here.  I would not know immediately if you secretly show favor, or if you attempt to skim more than your fair share.¡±


    Sighing, making sure that that doesn¡¯t come across as an invitation to do so, I further explain, ¡°I don¡¯t want to add more terror to your plate, but I want you to think hard on any choice you might make along those lines, and what it would mean for you if it eventually came to light that you broke my trust in such a way.  I¡¯m trusting you Leezahna.  I¡¯m offering you *my* forgiveness when I know I haven¡¯t earned yours yet, because I¡¯m still a source of fear for you.  Maybe I always will be.  Maybe that¡¯s how it has to be.  I don¡¯t know.¡±


    I flash Ixey a raised brow, and she nods at me, so I finish, ¡®So Leezahna D¡ª,¡± I pause, hesitating, realizing I don¡¯t want to use her family name as a bargaining chip, or even for her to put value in it, before finishing, ¡°can I count on you to be my quartermaster?  To make sure that everyone benefits from our work, equally?  To value the trust and responsibility you¡¯ve been offered?¡±


    Sniffling, Leezahna nods and stands as straight as she¡¯s able, reaching impeccable posture, likely due to her haughty upbringing.  She responds, ¡°Yes.  Yes Schism, thank you.  I¡¯m sorry for, for breaking your trust.  I swear, it won¡¯t happen again.  Not on purpose.  On my life.¡±  Realizing she basically put her life on the line, Leeza¡¯s eyes shoot wide as she tries to backpedal momentarily, ¡°I¡ª, glp.  I mean, it¡¯s a, it¡¯s a phrase.  Crap.  P¡ª.  P¡ª.  Please forgive me.  Thank you for this opportunity.¡±


    It¡¯s almost comedic to see her backpedal so suddenly, but it also provides a distraction from a worrying bit of phrasing.  She won¡¯t break my trust on purpose.  Does that mean she broke it on purpose this time, or just that she¡¯s worried that if she screws up, that I might consider it a breach of trust?  Should I assuage her fears that¡ª.  Yes.  I need to operate as if I trust and love everyone.  I can¡¯t allow the cynical side of me to believe that assuaging her fears will lead to her abusing my trust by trying to make things look like accidents or mistakes.


    Drawing a deep breath, sighing, and squeezing tight my puffy, itchy eyes, I respond, ¡°You absolutely have my forgiveness.  We all make mistakes from time to time Leezahna.  Hell, you know very well that I make plenty.  I¡¯m not going to hurt, kill, or exile you over an accident or mistake.  You¡¯re going to be okay.  I¡¯m glad to have your help on our projects.  I¡¯ll let people know that I¡¯ve officially requested you to operate in the capacity of a quartermaster, so that there aren¡¯t any more, hrm, misunderstandings, about what using my name means.  For now, let the volunteers handle everything they¡¯ve been handling, I just want you to keep track of numbers for me, until you and I both have a handle on how much we¡¯re dealing with.  Okay?  We can talk about distribution efforts in a few days.¡±


    Thankfully the young-adult dragon lass in human-form nods swiftly, emphatically.  Flashing Ixey a raised brow in thinkspace, she nods excitedly, realizing I mean to get her bonded to Lil as soon as possible.  Ixeyla gives Leeza¡¯s shoulder a bit of a rough playful punch, before she leans in to whisper something.  Ixey follows me towards the dugout, while Leezahna stands, staring slightly aghast at the still-accumulated baskets of gems that she has almost no idea what to do with.  I guess it¡¯s a bit mean to let her stew in that after having just tried to offer her forgiveness.


    Motioning to a pair of Draconiacs, I wait for them to become free.  They seem to be discussing the needs for lumber supports in some of the upper caverns, around some of the areas beneath various dragon hoards of some of the lesser known ancient dragons who reside within Mount Solace.  Elder dragons who aren¡¯t part of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, simply residents of Solace.  I explain my own needs for a small bit of lumber, and thankfully it won¡¯t be an issue, but that wasn¡¯t really why I called them over.  Explaining the situation with Leezahna, they almost laugh, though they both seem a bit nervous at the prospect of laughing out loud in my presence.  Way to go Reggie, a tyrant ruling through fear and it only took you less than a day of being married to Kinzul.


    I try not to roll my eyes at myself and my intrusive thoughts.  I don¡¯t have the energy right now to spare addressing my self-loathing, and impostor syndrome.  Breathing deeply, and sighing, I take a moment to center myself before trying to alleviate the fears of the two Draconiacs.  They allow themselves a slight chuckle when I return to the topic of the Leezahna situation.  Thankfully they¡¯ll handle passing on the word of what exactly I¡¯m entrusting Leeza with for the moment, that she doesn¡¯t have any further authority than just keeping track of numbers.  I¡¯m glad that they¡¯ve acquiesced to making sure everyone knows to provide her with the information she requests, if she needs any help keeping track of the quantities of outgoing material.  I don¡¯t want to unfairly burden her with a twenty-four hours a-day job.


    Anyway, I express my gratitude to the two as they work towards helping, or sending help to, Leezahna to sort, and remove the near truckload of gems that had been delivered to her doorstep.  Leezahna, for her part, seems to adjust quickly to the idea of gathering writing material to keep track of the numbers.  The cold fury that normally underscores her gaze is overwritten with trepidation, but her own determination keeps her from succumbing to the fear of me.  She¡¯s a proud woman, I¡¯ll give her that much.


    Ixey of course goes topless before I can even bother explaining the situation to her or any of the gathered members of the Onyx Dawn.  I take a slow, deep breath in through my mouth, and pass it out through my nose with my eyes closed, so that I can¡¯t roll my eyes at her.  Snagging gems from my personal stores, I purchase glue from Burshis¡¯s shop as the binding agent, as I show off the capabilities of the shop to the assembled Onyx Dawn members.  I work quickly with the lists available for printouts as I offer instructions on how to proceed in printing out their own lists, and handing out most of the phones.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Thankfully, everyone treats the phones as the precious objects that they are at the moment.  These are induplicable.  Unless someone else has met their secret achievements to unlock a deeper level of their specialized shop, there are no more smartphones or cell phones available from the shop system, as far as I¡¯m aware.  The Onyx Dawn members busy themselves with finding their own shop catalogues, somewhat excitedly.  Shiz motions me aside momentarily, and I¡¯m glad to join him for whatever he needs, despite Ixeyla nearby waiting with anticipation of her bond with Lil that I¡¯ll be setting up.


    Starting out, Shiz chuckles as he states, ¡°I don¡¯t know how in the Platinum¡¯s cracked talons you¡¯ve got bolts of silk growing from walls Schism, and I¡¯m not sure I want to know.  I¡¯m almost sad to think these¡¯ll be disappearing into the aether, though I grabbed some of the stranger, odder things as well, in case you should not want to sell these away to magic.  I had to get a bit of help from some of the folks around here to figure out where and what you wanted me to do, since I¡¯d only been down here the one time to see to the safety of your Order¡¯s ¡®The Copper.¡¯¡±


    I barely refrain from facepalming at my obvious blunder.  Poor Shiz.  I go and ask a favor from him, that of course he wouldn¡¯t know where to go to accomplish it, and yet he took care of it with no complaints.  I¡¯m so glad he took my offer of mercy.  I¡¯ll have to make it up to him later for my own stupidity.  Though he seems mostly to not care about my blunder, I¡¯d still like to make it up to him.  I¡¯m glad he¡¯s amused with everything going on, and the rather eventful, yet peaceful, life within Solace, that seems to dance ever onwards despite the war being waged outside, by the Onyx Dawn, with the rest of dragonkind.


    Why am I not surprised that when I return my attention to the gathered individuals, that Zayzi has shown up, seen their sister shirtless, and immediately taken off their own shirt, assuming a need to do the same?  I lightly thunk my head against the dugout wall several times while out of sight of most of the others save Shiz.  The pair of lanky Red twins are just hanging out topless with members of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, with seemingly not a care in the world.  Lady Kinzul is even addressing Zayzi, but doesn¡¯t seem to be getting through to them any better than I do.  If anything, Zayzi is clamming up more because it¡¯s Kinzul doing the addressing.


    Further, why am I not surprised when Leezahna timidly approaches?  I gnaw the inside of my cheek to keep myself from expressing any exasperation at the string of interruptions to my plans.  Leezahna doesn¡¯t need me appearing in some way that could be interpreted as pissed off at her even accidentally at the moment.  Raising an eyebrow Leeza¡¯s way, I wait for her to address me.


    Gathering her nerves, Leeza holds out several sheets of paper before asking, ¡°Is this the sort of thing you want Schism?  I¡¯ve never been a, I mean, I doubt anyone in my family¡¯s ever been a, a quartermaster.  Sorry, that, I didn¡¯t mean it in a, a¡ª.  I just want to take care of my responsibilities properly.  Please?  I, I mean, tell me if this is okay?¡±


    Taking the proffered sheets of paper, I glance them over.  Holy effing wow her penmanship is beautiful.  No wonder her writings sell for so much to the shop structure.  It¡¯s like gazing upon a masterful work of art, even just looking at this simple list of gems with numbers.  Moreover, the lass has done the smart thing, and calculated approximate volume by shape and size, for each of the¡ª.  Wow.  That¡¯s a lot of complex math that she¡¯s got on these back sheets.  Her summary page is all I¡¯d need, but I cannot say I¡¯m not impressed with her intellect.  Friggin¡¯ hell I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t kill or exile her.  Not that I was ever really going to, but still.


    Still, how do I praise her without it going to her head?  I guess I¡¯ll just do my best as I answer, ¡°Leezahna, these are more than admirable, they¡¯re perfect.  This is well-done, a wonderful job, and I¡¯m proud to call you my quartermaster.  Please keep it up.  I only need to see your summary sheets like this one most of the time, but I¡¯d appreciate if you did keep your work somewhere available so that we can double-check things in case anything seems awry in the future.  Not that I¡¯m expecting *your* work to go awry.  I mean in case someone else misplaces or walks off with something, so that your numbers don¡¯t end up adding up.¡±


    Pausing a beat, letting my praise sink in, without letting her stew on my comment about future possibilities, I add, ¡°Curator, Nala, can help teach you to properly bind materials, if you don¡¯t already know how, and if you don¡¯t want to deal with purchasing binders and three hole punching all of the papers and so-on.  Thank you Leeza, please keep up the great work.  I hope you¡¯re enjoying your new home.  If the responsibilities I¡¯ve tasked you with seem to take up too much of your time, let me know, and I¡¯ll see if I can get you an assistant.  Try it out for a few days first though.¡±


    It¡¯s quite an odd sight to see beaming pride warring simultaneously with sheer terror and unbridled fury on someone¡¯s visage.  I¡¯m not sure I want the possibility of ever hearing Leeza¡¯s thoughts, or her overhearing mine, so I doubt I¡¯d ever offer her a link into the psychic network.  Then again, I do want her to feel safe, to feel like she could reach out at any time in case she needs something.  Hm.  I¡¯ll sleep on it.  Maybe.  There¡¯s still an obvious distaste for me underlying everything she does, but she¡¯s taking the opportunity to grow and become an admirable individual quite handily.


    I¡¯m a bit ashamed to admit that I had a preconceived notion that people with attitudes like hers were probably irredeemable, and likely incapable of this sort of change and growth.  I¡¯m pretty prejudiced against entitled, upper-crust people, apparently.  I can almost imagine how the conversation she had with her mother went down.


    In whatever den currently makes up their home, Leeza would have been speaking to her mother.  She¡¯d have been talking about how awful I was to her, and what I¡¯d said to her, maybe quoting me exactly, maybe embellishing, or misremembering some things due to her fear.  Her mother would have rebutted with something like, ¡°Our name *is* a weapon.  One with sharp blade and heavy haft, that can and should be used to get what we deserve, and want, from anyone.¡±  Or something along those lines at least.  I can imagine the almost tender look Leezahna would give in response, realizing that the mother that she loves so dearly would be looked down on by me.  She¡¯d know that I¡¯d be angered at someone so self-important, and she¡¯d be worried for her mother¡¯s safety if she should continue to remain so entitled.


    Even though I¡¯m seeing it happen, I¡¯m still impressed that Leezahna supposedly had a conversation likely similar to this one that I¡¯ve conjectured, with her mother, and decided that she believed in what I¡¯d said to her.  I stripped her bare to the world, and her friends abandoned her, and her family insists that the world should work the way she¡¯d been raised to believe.  Yet here she is, adapting to independence in order to work up the courage to speak to her mother as an equal at some point.  I bet I have Ixey to thank for a lot of Leeza¡¯s desire to grow and meet my expectations.  Hell, I can see Leeza mouthing a thanks to Ixey out of the corner of my eye as well.  Thanks indeed Ixeyla.

 B 6 C 119: Explosive

    While I¡¯m mulling over Leezahna¡¯s recent history, and ultimate destiny, I¡¯m almost shocked to hear Shiz ask quietly, ¡°Lady Kinzul? I¡¯ve already pledged tooth and talon to your Schism, your Hero. I¡¯m not certain how to go about this, if there¡¯s some proper method, but I¡¯d like to officially join the Onyx Dawn. Consider me at your service for saving my sister and her clutch.¡±


    I nearly melt as I sense the pride from Kinzul as she smiles warmly at Shiz, sets a hand upon him, and simply utters, ¡°Then it is so. Welcome, Shiz, Thunderer, to the Order of the Onyx Dawn.¡±


    I can barely contain myself as I prevent myself from literally leaping and shouting in joy about how mercy is worth it. I vibrate intensely at the restraint. I have to remind myself that it¡¯s a dangerous, risky proposition, that will continue to disappoint me in the field, and break my heart, repeatedly. Each heartbreak will occur over and over as I¡¯m forced to slay those that don¡¯t agree, or those that would simply retain evil, tyrannical tendencies. It¡¯s worth it, but it still exacts a cost on my weary heart.


    Did Leezahna just scope out Ixey and Zayzi? I rattle my skull. It¡¯s none of my business. It¡¯s their own prerogative to be topless, and her own prerogative to enjoy whatever she enjoys visually. Plus, it could have been looking on in disdain for lack of decorum, or something. Regardless, whatever her preferences are, I¡¯m not entitled to know. We¡¯re not even friends, and even if we were, she wouldn¡¯t be obligated to tell me.


    I leave it to Shiz and Kinzul, Luni and Teuila, and Lil and Lucky to help guide the rest of the assembled Onyx Dawn members with the shops. Shiz will be selling things to make money, and they¡¯ll be sorting out what to buy from whomever¡¯s shops. Guiding Leezahna back towards the mass of stockpiled gems, she gulps as she appears abashed. I try to hide my wry smirk while biting my lips. I¡¯m not here to rub her nose in it as it were. I motion towards the craftsworks where Nala is taking stock of all the available tools and stations, and trying her hand at various tasks. Leezahna nods quickly and hauls several baskets while I haul several more manually and telekinetically.


    Upon our approach, Nala calls out, ¡°Schism, yes, good, wonderful. Hm, oh this shall do quite more than nicely. I¡¯d been about to ask. Even with the mistakes I¡¯ve been making, cracking facets and so on, this will more than solve the issue. Is the lovely young lass another of yours Schism?¡±


    Frowning more than blushing, I furrow my brow at Nala, while Leezahna looks mortified. Changing the subject quickly, I respond, ¡°Whatever you¡¯re implying, no. I do however have an even better solution to any mistakes involving crystals or gems. It¡¯s literally called the Crystal Healing Wand. It performs a minor mending of cantrip-level power, specifically on gems and small gemlike, or crystalline, structures. Here, catch.¡±


    Nala deftly snatches the wand out of the air, and I realize I probably should have been more cautious than to throw something fragile towards a heavily-armored librarian in thick robes. Rolling my eyes and chuckling to myself, I add, ¡°As far as I¡¯m concerned, it¡¯s all yours, but you could leave it in the craftsworks in case anyone else tries their hand at jewelry or enchantment creations. I think I remember spying another one in someone else¡¯s shop catalogue. Oh, right, thanks to Leezahna here, we have most of what we need, and can view a large portion of the individual unique items available in everyone¡¯s shop catalogues. I¡¯d like you to check out yours sometime today. Speaking of which, I¡¯d like you to check out yours as well Leezahna. If anything sounds like it could help advance the efforts of the Onyx Dawn, please bring it to my attention.¡±


    Mulling it over, I decide to also offer, ¡°As thanks for your efforts, I¡¯d like to offer you each a stipend of a million in currency for today, to last until some point in the future. I¡¯m not sure when I could offer a refresh of the stipend. Anyway, feel free to purchase anything using my personal currency. There¡¯s a small secret stash in the library, under the third shelf, in a small, locked case that¡¯s bolted into the underside of the stacks. The lock¡¯s code is seven, eight, nine, three. I¡¯ll make sure there¡¯s exactly two million in there later this eve. You can either grab your share, and be responsible for keeping track of it, or leave it there and withdraw needed amounts as necessary.¡±


    Leezahna looks astounded at the number I¡¯ve just tossed her way. I can see her running the math in her head as to how long it would have taken her to earn a million in cash. There¡¯s a spark of fear in her eyes, and a dubious expression crosses her face, wondering if this is some sort of trick, or test. I sigh for a long moment as I ponder how to address her expression.


    Thinking it best to work simply, I mention to Leezahna, ¡°This stipend is an advance for your upcoming work as quartermaster. You¡¯re free to use it as you see fit. If you buy something as an experiment, and realize it benefits the Onyx Dawn, and you donate it to them, I¡¯ll replace whatever you spent on it. We¡¯re starting to dwindle in our total paper currency, but I feel like this is a worthwhile investment, for you to be able to get what you want and need to start your life properly, independently.¡±


    Pondering momentarily, I hazard explaining further, ¡°It¡¯s a one-time deal though, okay? It¡¯s not a present, it¡¯s not a gift, but it doesn¡¯t come with strings. It¡¯s me paying you for the responsibilities you¡¯ve agreed to attend to. You earn it, and my trust, by continuing to do well. Please, have a good day, try to enjoy yourself, check out the available catalogues, help out where you can if you¡¯d like. Relax and settle in. I want you to feel safe, and happy in your new home.¡±


    Almost teasing about the glance I¡¯d seen Leeza cast towards Ixey, I point out, ¡°For example, if there¡¯s someone you want to pursue romantically, perhaps take them aside for a conversation, or write them a letter. Veril, our ¡®The Red,¡¯ thinks you¡¯re attractive, and is worried that you seem friendless right now. Feel free to talk to him, and try to take it easy on him if he flusters easily.¡±


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Feeling gross as I realize it sounds like I¡¯m ordering her to romantically pursue someone, I quickly expound, ¡°I¡¯ve no say, or interest, in what you do with your time, except that which you¡¯ve agreed to spend on the tasks I¡¯ve requested of you. In a few days, when we¡¯ve got a handle on the numbers, I¡¯ll be requesting more of your time in order to handle proper distribution. What I mean to say is, take advantage of your free time, before I put you to work a bit more thoroughly. Like I said before, keep track of how long it¡¯s taking you to attend to the responsibilities, and if you feel the amount of time invested per day is too much, come to me, and we¡¯ll discuss your needs, and the possibility of an assistant.¡±


    When Leezahna realizes that I¡¯m just rambling, and don¡¯t actually need her to stay nearby, she edges away, checking visually with me for any signs of retribution at her desire to leave my presence. I simply flash a half smile of acknowledgment her way in order to reassure her that it¡¯s fine. Turning towards Nala once Leezahna has left, I close my eyes and sigh deeply. Rolling my eyes behind closed lids and shaking my head, I resolve to leave all authority behind me as soon as this war is over. I¡¯m not cut out to lead people, or correct others¡¯ behaviors, and so on.


    Clucking her tongue, Nala half-chuckles as she responds to my train of thought, ¡°Few are, friend-Reggie. Few are. There are some interesting tools and workstations here. The gear-press intrigues me greatly, as I¡¯ve ideas for little clockworks that might amble about, and perhaps carry tools and the like. It seems it requires either a soft metal, like lead, or something along those lines in order to work, at least with my puny strength. The foot-pedal rotary tool is quite ingenious too, for etching, carving, cutting, drilling and the like, with the assortment of adamantite heads provided.¡±


    Nodding to Nala, I¡¯m worried slightly about the idea of her working with lead, since I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s as toxic to dragonkin as it is to everyone else. I¡¯m not sure if they have veins of lead, or stores of it anywhere. I¡¯m rather hoping they don¡¯t. If Nala got lead poisoning, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d forgive myself for having put her in the position to work with it. Thankfully, Nala seems to have only been conjecturing about the particular metal needed. A soft metal would eventually erode and wear out much more quickly than a harder metal, for clockwork gears anyway. We can use the gear press to make casts, and use the casts to make gears in whatever metal she¡¯d like. We¡¯d been doing something similar on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, for pipe fittings and so on.


    Hm, that reminds me, we could make some pretty wicked traps, and with the right structure, have them be remotely deployable, say from the security center itself, so that no one could accidentally trigger them and get themselves hurt. Against a siege, that could be quite valuable indeed. Rigging up the piping to carry and protect the wires to pass the signal to the traps would be an annoyingly lengthy process for one or two people, but we do have a lot of volunteers, several sets of forgeworks, and a lot of processing stations, on top of the ability to buy more, some of which might even be enchanted. Hm.


    Am I about to ask the volunteer Draconiacs to learn to make copper cable, in order to pass electrical signals through non-conductive pipes? Am I attempting to bring Mount Solace into the electrical, and information ages? We¡¯re already in the industrial age basically, with the amount of metallurgical processing we¡¯re capable of doing, and our toes are in the door for the information age and electrical age already. Gnawing on my lip, I glance around. Is it the right thing to do? The entire face of the world could change if the advancements I¡¯m thinking of get spread around over time. The one I least want to spread these advancement to, funnily enough, is Ka¡¯thuul. Terrorzin won¡¯t live long enough to benefit from them.


    Gods I must sound so cocky in my head. It¡¯s just that he¡¯s prophesied to die by year¡¯s end. I already don¡¯t like that the Derbrightmine dwarves are in a metallurgical age that has them constructing firearms. The gunpowder age? I guess. I think we could create a gunpowder warren essentially by planting saltpeter, and sulfur. Then it¡¯s just harvesting or burning things for coal, or well, charcoal. Do I want to risk explosives being readily available? No. No I don¡¯t. I wish I could erase knowledge of their existence from my own, and others¡¯ heads. I really, really don¡¯t need an explosives-delivery arms-race occurring.


    I¡¯m getting distracted. Focus Reggie. Be in the present. Conferring with Nala, I get her thoughts on several projects, and favors I¡¯d like to request of her, while she makes requests of me for resources and tools. It feels like an equitable exchange, thankfully. Erm, I hope that¡¯s the right word. Anyway. I¡¯ve got a promise to keep¡ª. And miles to go before I sleep? Huh. That sounds familiar. Something about northern climes, cold, something. Snow? No. Frost? Maybe. Erm, right, anyway, on to Ixey and Lil.


    Ixeyla is bursting, nearly exploding, with excitement, and Lil is fidgeting nervously, blushing like crazy as he ogles her. I pull them aside as the rest of the Order of the Onyx Dawn continues working on analyzing the shop catalogues and everything else. I need not even ask if Ixeyla is willing to take the more intimate connection this time. Lil¡¯s always willing, but, well, as I said before, Ixey is radiating lust so strongly across her emotional wavelength, even in this muted bond that we share together with Zayzi, that¡ª. Erm, yeah. I¡¯m just glad she¡¯s still wearing pants.


    Placing the bond on Lil and Ixey goes smoothly enough, even with Zayzi wandering nearby, standing around shirtlessly, watching with disinterest. Sighing to myself, I try my best to not make a big deal out of it, since they don¡¯t seem to care, and I don¡¯t want to make them feel uncomfortable or give them complexes about their bodies. Zayzi performs their usual bit of leaning oddly up against nearby walls and surfaces, never seeming to get truly comfortable. I wish I could do more for them.


    As I let Ixey go, she drags Lil away, and I can hear her hoarse-whispering, ¡°Princess! Let us use your bedroom!¡± Leeza¡¯s response of course is, ¡°What? Ew, no. Find your own!¡±


    I try to hide my snort of laughter, and mostly fail. Lil, I hope you know what you¡¯re in for buddy. That¡¯s a heck of a lot of woman to handle being with. The fact that she transforms into her dragon form, and Lil into his, leaves me shaking my head all the more certain that Lil¡¯s in over his own. Especially as she drags him away by clamping her teeth gently on his neck, wrestling him into the farthest vault. Phew. Now I¡¯m steaming with blush. I¡¯m pretty certain that they can¡¯t, erm, y¡¯know, but wow.


    Zayzi nods nearby and mutters, ¡°Kissing. Eugh. No kissing. ¡®Kay?¡±


    Blushing, and trying not to laugh at their expense, I nod in response to Zayzi¡¯s simple request. I¡¯m certainly not expecting explosive passion directed my way from Zayzi or Ixey, or any sort of romance or physical affection. I¡¯m happy to just be their friend.

 B 6 C 120: Efficient Time

    Zayzi surprises me by snagging me by the hand to lead me towards the cauldron, where there¡¯s surprisingly no one else around. I¡¯m more than a bit confused as they stand, holding my hand, heatedly blushing. It leaves me blushing more than a bit as I realize that I don¡¯t even know where Zayzi left their shirt, or Ixey left hers. I think it might have been the dugout, maybe.


    Waiting on them to let me know why they¡¯ve taken me aside, I stand patiently, attempting to cast my gaze anywhere other than Zayzi, so as not to be an ogling creep. Zayzi finally starts, ¡°Thanks. Friends. Safe. Strong. Always? Even if sister takes your friend? Thanks for making sis happy.¡±


    My breath catches momentarily, as I realize what Zayzi is worried about. Smiling towards Zayzi, I squeeze their hand and respond, ¡°Always friends, always. Ixey isn¡¯t stealing Lil from me. Ixey and Lil are making each other happy. They won¡¯t spend every moment of every day together. We¡¯re all still friends, and your sister¡¯s always going to be your sister. Also, yeah, we are safe, and we will be safe. We¡¯ll come home, whenever our offensive engagements end. I¡¯ll bring Lil back for your sis. I want him safe as much as she does. I love him too.¡±


    Zayzi flashes me one of their furtive smiles that fights to remain on their face for more than a split second. Zayzi suddenly reminds me, ¡°No kissing,¡± before leaning into my personal bubble from quite a ways outside of it, and hugging me with their lanky limbs. I awkwardly return half a hug, trying not to chuckle at just how odd their movements are. Nodding at Zayzi¡¯s request, I simply enjoy the hug for the few moments it lasts. Zayzi then simply wanders off, and I¡¯m not even sure they¡¯re going to bother finding their shirt.


    Passing a sigh through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I shake my head slightly. Here¡¯s hoping that Zayzi continues to mend. Of course I¡¯m hoping that when we win this war, they¡¯re able to experience the world in a way that doesn¡¯t hurt, or doesn¡¯t leave them hurting, or wanting to be numb to it all. Zayzi¡¯s sister Ixey is really their tether to the world, and their path to happiness. I hope Ixey realizes that, and doesn¡¯t get too wrapped up in spending time with Lil. Also, I kind of needed Lil¡¯s powers for some of what I wanted to do today, but I¡¯ve got the feeling that even if I could drag Lil away any time soon, he¡¯s likely to be quite disoriented, and perhaps drained. I fight off a chuckle and try to reorient my brain so as not to picture what the two are up to in Lil¡¯s vault.


    Hm, Shiz was right about it being a pity to just sell off these bolts of silk. I¡¯m glad that they haven¡¯t yet. Everyone seems to be getting into, and understanding the shop system. Vyela has traded places with Vylon, and she¡¯s now napping in her dragon form curled around the dugout. Somehow, I bet that even though I had Lucky build this cavern to be massive, that that¡¯s only a fraction of the size that Vylon or Vyela can reach, similar to Kinzul. I¡¯m dealing with beings whose scale I can barely comprehend, and they want *me* to lead, and fight, and, and just, just even do anything on their level? It¡¯s insane. Yet, here I am, Reggie Shellcracker, the insane. Hah. That wasn¡¯t where I meant to go with that. Cough. Erm, yes.


    Teuila catches up to me, wraps an arm around my neck and pulls me in for a playful noogie before smooching my forehead. I pretend to grump at her for the noogie, but can¡¯t hide my joy for long, and we both end up giggling like goons. Trying to find Luni and Lucky, I spot them lazing about in a corner of our Mount Verdimenn space, both looking tuckered out. I know neither of them got much sleep last night. A lot of that is my fault, for dealing with Induul. Though Luni¡¯s partially to blame for her own tiredness, crawling into bed with Lil and the twins. I smirk and try to stifle my chuckle.


    Raising an eyebrow to Teuila, she nods, understanding implicitly, so we rush Luni and Lucky together, and leap as if to bodyslam the pair. There¡¯s a startled snort as Luni half-rouses when she notices us crashing through the air towards her, but of course Teuila drops our weight to nil before impact, so that we land softer than feathers or farts. The two of us smooch Lu¡¯s cheeks from either side, and Lucky yawns while his tail wags despite himself. Rubbing Lucky¡¯s skull playfully, I smooch his forehead repeatedly as well. I don¡¯t have the luxury to catch up on sleep today, so I¡¯ll leave Luni and Lucky to rest, and Teuila to pester them occasionally as she rests as well, preparing for tomorrow.


    Te pouts and grumps my way, ¡°I¡¯m, *yawn* coming with you for the whole¡ª, *yawn.* Dangit Lucky stop that. For the whole day too. *Yawn* not you too Lu, you butt.¡±


    I shrug, happy to have my beloved at my side for the rest of the day, but it¡¯s pretty obvious that the emotional toll of both the events of the last few days, as well as the toll of us working out her emotions in private thinkspace has been wearing her out. It¡¯s her call of course.


    Jokingly, Teuila pulls out a rope and states, ¡°I¡¯ll just lash myself to you, to your back, straight as a stick. I can be a backpack while you run, yawn, around and do errands and stuff. Just don¡¯t let any naughty birds like seagulls nip the cord. I don¡¯t wanna fall on my butt. Also, don¡¯t get hit by any boulders, that¡¯d hurt, y¡¯know, meteors.¡±


    I begin to snort with laughter but my brain has a massive BSOD, leaving me blinking in confusion. Shrugging, I allow Teuila to tie herself to me in a forced piggyback ride. I roll my eyes and shake my head at the silliness of it, but I¡¯m happy to be close to Te all the same. I suppose it is a more efficient way to remain literally together for the day. Hah. Hm, what¡¯s this?


    Browsing one of the many printout sheets now scattered around the dugout, there¡¯s something that might allow me to¡ª. Yes. Yes indeed. Whose shop is this? This one¡¯s Veril¡¯s, and this one¡¯s Farzhis¡¯s? That¡¯s fortuitous, and a heck of a coincidence. Display cases with audio jacks, the perfect size for the mirrors, with soundproof cushioning on all sides save the front. The plexiglass fronts should prevent sound leaking out.


    I can stack these in an array and affix them to walls and such fairly easily. Plus I could make like a mithril or orichalcum or adamantite shelf, or even just an iron or steel shelf. This means I can leave the auditory side of the scrying enchantments all open. That way if someone wants a direct link to someone else auditorily, we can actually operate it like a telephone switching board. Huh. Nice. Let¡¯s see, who has, what are they, three point five millimeter jacks? No, wait, these sound like they¡¯ll be RCA jacks. Can we get RCA cables, and headsets with them?


    Okay, that¡¯s not too hard. I¡¯m worried about constantly using them in switching board style though. They¡¯re not meant to be withdrawn and plugged in repeatedly. They get kind of sloppy over time, forming worse and worse connection if they¡¯re plugged and unplugged repeatedly. I have no idea how or why I know that, or think that I know that. Anyway, let¡¯s stock up on all this stuff. Grabbing some more cash while Teuila naps fitfully on my back is easy enough. I try to hide my smile and the shiver that crawls up my spine occasionally when Te¡¯s teasing me by nibbling on my ears.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Alright, let¡¯s shove two million in cash in the lockbox beneath the third shelf in the stacks. It¡¯s up to Leezahna to use it responsibly, because I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll have spare cash to disburse another stipend. Nala I¡¯m less worried about using it irresponsibly, since she¡¯s likely to only use her share for crafting enchantments and artificery, and I¡¯d reimburse her if any of it bore fruit.


    Let¡¯s get Nala¡¯s code and her shop catalogue so that she can look it over later. I¡ª. Huh. Of course Nala is another person who¡¯s already met their achievements. Also, of course most of what¡¯s in hers sounds like book titles, or at least written or reading material of some fashion or another. Ugh, these obscure names are as bad as the weird-ass tomes that granted sorcerific powers. If any of them could grant new powers to¡ª. Hm. I¡¯d want to make sure Lil and Lu are in on it this time. Shaylon and Boetah and the Vivant as well if able, basically the entire Order. It¡¯s so hard to plan a time when the entire Order is available though in the middle of a war.


    Hm, could I speed up mastery of the runes of spells if I asked everyone to be available in the hivemind, and I tapped into *their* muscles to form the runes until perfect? They need S P pools, in order to craft the runes at all, and to be capable of subtle-casting, bypassing the need for a mnemonic. I think the only two that qualify are the Spellknight twins, Ahliyui and Ahliyuri. Drat. Still, if I could borrow them for a few hours every few days, I could have the three of us practicing runes simultaneously, and I think we¡¯d all learn exponentially more quickly. It¡¯d grant the twins a greater array of tools in their toolbelt on how to produce their spells, as well as which spells they learn. I still don¡¯t exactly want to just hand out the meteor spell to everyone, much less someone that was originally part of Terrorzin¡¯s force, but I¡¯m coming to love them, and rely on them. They helped me save Prinny. That buys a lot of faith from me. Plus, at my request, they¡¯re scouting, sneaking, and spying, looking after their ¡°new brother,¡± which buys more faith yet still.


    Alright, alright, alright already. There¡¯s only so much time we can spend attempting to make the upcoming time we spend more efficient, before it becomes procrastinating and wasting time. Let¡¯s engage the warmup for the myconid transformation, let¡¯s purchase all of these objects, while starting to lay out supplies to perform these crafts, these builds, and these enchantments. Pay at least some attention to the continued discussion of strategy, and war effort that¡¯s going on around you Reggie. I know, I know. My brain is a bit overtaxed at the moment though. I know Reggie, I know.


    Huff, phooph, whew. Panting with exhaustion, I try to square and center my brain, but everything is off-kilter, lopsided. I guess I¡¯ve been at things for a few hours now huh? Yeah, that¡¯s what happens when you shut your brain off Reggie. I know, I know. Is¡ª, is my Honoris Causa leaking out? What¡¯s¡ª. Urgh, it¡¯s tough to reign it in. There¡¯s an audible wave of relief as many gasps and sighs escape some of my friends nearby. Or rather, not even nearby. I¡¯m on the far end of our main cavern in Verdimenn, and those sounds came from the dugout. Just how the hell large can my Honoris Causa get at this point?


    Returning to the dugout, it seems like everyone¡¯s still gathered, and barely anything has changed since I last checked in on them. Raising an eyebrow, I ask, ¡°Were you all taking a lunch break or something? Or planning to? Sorry if my Honoris Causa stopped you from taking one. How many hours was I out before it went active? How long was I out? I feel wiped out.¡±


    After coughing to clear his throat, Gil offers up, ¡°What do you mean hours? You left with your supplies a few minutes ago, and then let loose with that bedamned power of yours, choking the life out of us.¡±


    I blink rapidly before glancing around the room for confirmation. The nods, even from my wife, Kinzul, leave me a bit stunned, and stumped. Teuila is snoring and drooling on my shoulder from her position lashed to my back, seemingly undisturbed. My face contorts as I¡¯m unsure how to process this information. Checking on my dragonforces, I am down a few percent, which is slightly annoying, but at least it¡¯s not life-threatening.


    Did I engage dragonfright? But¡ª, but there¡¯s a ton of carpentry and craftwork and enchanting prep laid out, as if I¡¯d been working for at least a quarter of an hour at an incredibly efficient pace at the very bare minimum, more likely half an hour hour if not a couple of hours. Plus, Gilmeshtu is ancient, incredibly powerful, there¡¯s no way a young dragonforce like mine, even with a few dragonforces contained within it, could nail him with dragonfright, right? I mean, especially not Kinzul. Each of them has likely bested and devoured many other ancient dragons in their years, and cultivated their own dragonforces to be the absolutely most powerful they could be.


    Glancing at my wife for verification, she attempts to rationalize what happened, ¡°It would appear¡ª, hm. Conjecturing, it felt as if we¡¯d been sat on. It was as if your very draconic body were growing to fill the entirety of your second home here in Mount Verdimenn. While in contact with it, there was a draw, some force tugging. I was able to resist with ease, but the others may have been less lucky. Almost as if it were¡ª. Hm. Sorry, simply speculation my love. Regardless, ¡®The Gold¡¯ was exaggerating slightly. Our lives weren¡¯t in danger, it was simply oppressive, and a tad tiresome.¡±


    Is there any chance that I just stole time from everyone else, in order to get more done? Crap! That¡¯s the very thing I trained to be able to avoid in the Temple of Time on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It¡¯s definitely not something I can consciously do. Okay, okay, calm down Reggie, that¡¯s a hell of a leap in logic to assume. It¡¯s more likely that it was my void essence draining something like heat or calories or something. Still, that¡¯d be a hell of a weapon, manifest my Honoris Causa grown to massive size, steal the time, future, energy from my foes, while plowing through them, with them either unable to resist, or literally brought closer to their death by the moment.


    Anyway, Kinzul did say she was just speculating. It might have been memories, or trauma, instead of time, or any number of things. It could have just been drawing out dopamine, adrenaline, epinephrine, norepinephrine, or some other neurochemical or something for all I know. Hell, it might have literally been nothing at all, and just been an annoyance that felt like they were getting sat on.


    I¡¯m going to need to, and I think I understand how to, create a lock for my Honoris Causa, so that it can¡¯t do this again. It should also prevent accidental angstsplosions too. The problem is, it¡¯ll require someone else to enable and disable the lock. Someone as powerful as, or more powerful than me. Gnawing on my lip, do I dare ask anyone other than Kinzul? What if it comes to light that I¡¯m more powerful than everyone other than her? Will their prides and egos get the better of them? Or, less full of myself, what if they do appear stronger than me? Will Gilmeshtu challenge my authority and position within the order even more? Would it be more efficient to skip any possible drama and go straight to Kinzul?


    I¡¯m a tad bit morbidly curious to see if he¡¯s strong enough to pull it off though. Gil¡¯s an ancient, quite possibly one of our top five most powerful combatants amongst the dragons, maybe amongst all of us. What sort of schism might it cause between us if I¡ª. I hang my head and sigh at myself. I¡¯d giggle if it weren¡¯t my own brain doing this to me.

 B 6 C 121: Last Resorts

    Rattling my skull, I orient myself once again. It seems like I¡¯m constantly disoriented today. Right, alright, let¡¯s just work with Kinzul, and get my Honoris Causa under wraps. It shouldn¡¯t be able to manifest at all without me announcing my titles any longer, and should only perform the expected basic effects when I manifest it that way. It does limit me from accessing any potential surprise powers that might give me the edge in a fight, but I¡¯d rather not accidentally get a friend, ally, or family member killed by suddenly disorienting them, or knocking them for a loop, or unleashing some random deadly torrent of void or something beyond my control.


    Holding my wife tenderly for a long moment, grateful that she¡¯s been able to help me lock this side of me away, I sigh momentarily. Her help also prevents my Honoris Causa from causing any further disruptions to others, and prevents me from losing any of the dragonforce that I need to survive. This just never really seems real to me. My best friend is technically my son in law, sort of. I¡¯m married to someone that could have been titled the king of all dragons, and whom I would still consider queen of all dragons, even despite her avoidance of such titles. My closest amorous loves include someone that might literally be a goddess from a Fakeworld pantheon, and someone whose future memories and personality ghosts have helped her shape the ultimate timeline. Everything about this life is insane.


    That doesn¡¯t even begin to cover my little dalliances with a supposedly unnoticeable Spymaster, the whammy that struck me with infatuation for her, or my dalliance with my wife¡¯s daughter, whose recent rejection of me is possibly only temporary. Heck, nor does it cover my dalliance with the sweet, deviant little old lady that is my wife¡¯s best friend. All of this, in the midst of a war against the far overwhelming majority of dragonkin and dragonkind across a planet that I wasn¡¯t born on. Well, not that I was ever born to begin with. We haven¡¯t even gotten to the other two apocalypses we have to deal with yet either!


    Sighing, I chuckle at myself for the shortest of moments. Shaking my head, I try to let it all fall by the wayside, to focus on the present. I¡¯ve got to find myself finishing various projects and plans. I have to further cultivate my own powers, and if I can, those of my loved ones, allies, family members, friends, and everyone around me. I have to make leaps that should take entire eras, in record time. Hah. Reggie Shellcracker, shortcutting time. Yeah, that sounds about right. Rolling my eyes and chuckling at myself while shaking my head further, I continue to feel incredulous at everything that happens to me, around me, or because of me.


    It¡¯s a few more hours til my myconid form emerges. Ixey and Lil are, ahem, having their fun, and I¡¯ll be quite happy to leave their private bond as soon as the telepathic bond spell wears off from me, while remaining permanent between the two of them. Zayzi has wandered off somewhere. The Vivant and strategists-eight are actually working out actionable strategies for various scenarios in and out of battle for the upcoming engagements. I¡¯d almost thought they might perhaps be too proud to listen to anyone¡¯s advice or takes on matters. The Dormir are¡ª.


    I try to hide my smile, but I can¡¯t help it as I feel Illy¡¯s attempts to hide her subtle joy, at seeing her Dormies pulling through. They¡¯re pulling together to work hard to find the advantages hidden within the shop system. The Dormir are pouring through the catalogues, and printing out various random inventories of people they know among the residents of Mount Solace. We¡¯ve got a lot riding on all of us coming home healthy from tomorrow¡¯s offensives, and Errissa returning actionable information on the new hole in the Worldstorm in Terrorzin¡¯s domain. The more assets, and actionable plans we have in place to deal with possible necessary contingencies between now and then, the better.


    I could not ask for a more talented, worthy crew of individuals to be facing the apocalypse with. Even Shaylon and Shiz are¡ª. Well, they aren¡¯t exactly flirting, but I think even Shiz gets a kick out of Shaylon¡¯s accent. Revvy, Greggy, Shaylon, and Shiz, are planning for the trip that Aegis, the Quick, and the Dark are about to take towards the ¡®Neath. I wish I could offer more concrete information as to what they might be facing, but they¡¯re somewhat used to going in to battle uninformed. Two of them are amongst our stealthiest operators, our Quick and our Dark. If they find themselves in over their heads, relying on Aegis¡¯s talent while they reorient, and possibly fall back, should allow them to come home safely. Please come home safely you guys.


    Revvy, Greggy, and Shaylon are all on a psychic subnetwork, so none of them need to make sounds, or use their eyes or ears in the ¡®Neath. That should prove fairly beneficial. What was it that Kinzul said early on? Her investment in my titling is already paying dividends? I can see that. Psychic networks on teams of combatants who synergize, allowing them even greater synergy, further instantaneous communication at long range across noisy battlefields or quiet stealthy segments of missions? Yeah, I¡¯m glad I was able to provide that. I want all of these people to come home safely. Every last bit I can help towards making that a reality is, well, it¡¯s just what I want.


    Hm, these are coming along nicely. I can do some of the basic construction myself too. Let¡¯s see. Wow, Sugar¡¯s tools are so intuitive. No wonder their constructions always came together perfectly according to Spice¡¯s designs. It¡¯s still a bit weird to see things become magically fastened together without screws, nuts, bolts, or adhesives. I¡¯m a bit worried that there might be a daily limit on the magical qualities in the tools, now that I¡¯ve had more experience with magic on Rayileklia. I¡¯d better be sparing with them until I know more, and I get the higher priority tasks done that require them.


    Nala¡¯s prototype looks fantastic. I wonder if I should even comment that they look kind of cool and stylish to me. I doubt Nala gives a rat¡¯s rear end for aesthetics of the accessories she¡¯s designing. Hm, she¡¯s creating diagrams for a few things that¡ª, oh, oh that¡¯s really neat. I¡¯ll get her some kit right away that lets her start on those. They¡¯ll help her create more things more quickly. She really is an innately natural imbuer. She¡¯s an artificer that can see the way that things should line up in order to provide the conduits for ambient mana, or reality to provide whatever spark or essence she desires certain things to have, at least to some degree. Wow, in the system I¡¯m thinking of, she¡¯d absolutely be as high of a tier as me and Teuila, essentially maxed out in level.


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    It¡¯s weird to think that she got this far, without ever having had access to the tools of her trade that would let her utilize or show off her skills. She¡¯s been a librarian this entire time. How the hell do you hit level twenty by only reading books? Well, if anyone could do it, Nala could, and she did. Regardless, I purchase what I can from the shops, and rush to create some gear moulds. As I¡¯ve got a number of the sorts of tools Nala will need to get started, I also rush to pour the moulds repeatedly producing an assortment of gears, screws, springs, cogs, wheels, nuts, bolts, and the like. I¡¯m not even sure she notices me dropping stuff off by the basketfull.


    Regardless, I continue dashing about to and fro, with Teuila occasionally waking. We tease each other while we work on her mindscape, and mine, repairing what we can. I¡¯m burning my candle at both ends, but I won¡¯t look this gift-horse in the mouth, of this manic energy that¡¯s allowing me to rapidly approach and engage all these projects simultaneously. The few times I pass Leezahna, she actually seems worried as she spies me appearing to be some sort of crazed lunatic, dashing about with tools and weapons and crafting materials and projects and so on, with the love of my life strapped to my back.


    Ah, Pawn, Prinny, and the rest of Prinrin¡¯s children! I nearly melt with joy upon spying them. Before I can ask, Prinrin jokes, ¡°Thought perhaps it easier to treat my darlings to lunch with that big pot of yours Schism sweetie. At least if that big heart of yours would allow it my dear. Also, according to my dear Miraina, our sweet Pawn, you could perhaps benefit from slowing down a touch, and maybe having another hand or two in things. What say you Schism sweetie, can me and the fam lend a hand while we all bond?¡±


    I rather wish I had a bit more control over my impulses as I launch myself at Prinrin to pick her up and swirl her around. Muttering through a faceful of her bicep as she wraps her arms around my head, I chuckle and respond, ¡°Of course you can you daft deviant little old lady. I love you to bits and the ends of the world and back. I just didn¡¯t want to risk selfishly taking you away from this. I could tell how rarely you¡¯d gotten to see them. Grr I¡¯m so mad at you for you coming home so near death yesterday. Don¡¯t ever do that again. Please. I know, I know, you¡¯ll always do your best to save everyone else. Neither of us would really have it any other way. Just, just please always come home. Please. Erm, koff, right, yes, sorry.¡±


    Setting Prinrin down, I blush heatedly as her children giggle, snicker, or sneer at me. Pawn actually elbows me and winks. Ugh, devious little deviants, all of them. I¡¯m tempted to tease Pawn back, but I really don¡¯t need the flack I might catch for that. Regardless of all that, I fill the pot for Prinrin and her children. I sense the sadness still lurking within her, this strident joy over the uniting with her children warring with the loss of her husband. Oh Prinny. I draw a shuddering breath and sigh slowly. I¡¯m doing my best to make sure we have no losses, or as few losses as possible, between now and the end of this war. It¡¯s¡ª.


    Echoing the thought I¡¯d been about to have, Prinrin telepathically sends, ¡°It¡¯s not all on you, or up to you deary. Not everyone will come home every time. It will hurt, and you¡¯re allowed to hurt. We¡¯re allowed to hurt. There¡¯s so much room in that big heart of yours, and you¡¯re trying so hard to protect it, and the rest of us. A big a hero as he ever was deary, as ever he was indeed. Breathe Schism sweetie. You absolute dear, you utter cutie, you fantastic fu¡ª.¡±


    I cough, interrupting Prinrin¡¯s telepathic message, flashing her a bit of a glare, though I can¡¯t stay mad at her as she grins delightedly my way. Devious little old deviant. I wear half a smirk while blushing heatedly and shaking my head. Still, I help Prinrin serve herself and her children. Pawn finishes the quickest of all of them, of course she does, and thankfully the absolute sweetheart volunteers to help start setting up some of the things I need done around Solace. It¡¯ll take her almost no time at all to start painting intersections with tunnel labels similar to street signs. That¡¯ll let us start pairing up, and labeling enchanted mirror scrying sensors.


    I really hope no one thinks that this is me trying to turn Solace into some sort of Orwellian tyrannical state. The sensors will be few and far between, mostly set up for near entrances, exits, main thoroughfare intersections, and near assets in need of protection. The only reporting I want done is if something happens like seeing a Damnation skulking about in human form, in which case, me, Te, Lu, Lil, or Lucky would speed to the location to drive them out or slay them. Everything else can likely be handled by our Queens and Pawn as they always already would have done. Let¡¯s see, where are we with everything?


    Hm, poor Nala is having difficulty carving micro-runes into gem-facets to enable the enchanting she¡¯d like to do consistently. Thankfully the Crystal-Healing Wand lets her undo any mistakes. Like me, she¡¯s essentially doing something until she gets it perfect by-rote. Pawn¡¯s painting tunnel names or numbers, while hanging up certain mirrors that I already have enchanted, and I¡¯m placing paired enchantment mirrors into the soundproof cases with audio jacks on this shelf. We¡¯re coordinating to label the ones that are paired, but it¡¯ll be obvious enough since they¡¯ll overlook the hallway signs.


    We¡¯re resorting to using every last thing I can think of. I¡¯m glad that that¡¯s not the intended meaning of last resorts, at least, not in this context. Generally it¡¯s not preparatory that one gets to call in their last resorts. It ends to be using up every last contingency. The Onyx Dawn have gone through dozens of the shop system¡¯s personal-inventories, and similarly made dozens of purchases, though few have bore fruit. Born? Bored? Beared? Meh. Regardless, Nala¡¯s gotten a few sets of goggle-frames completed, and I can produce the lenses myself. I¡¯ll offer them in a few shades, ruby, sapphire, diamond, plain glass, and the like. Ixey and Lil are apparently, ahem, done celebrating their new bond. Lil looks entirely out of it. Ixey isn¡¯t all that much more coherent either, and still shirtless.


    I try to refrain from rolling my eyes or chuckling. I wonder if I should tease or congratulate Lil. They¡¯ve never really gone as hard on teasing me as Lu or Te have. I just want Lil to be happy. Hm, my myconid form is about to engage. Whom, if anyone, should I ask to join into the hivemind to help finish up the projects for the day? I blush as I sense Prinrin¡¯s mind and motives upon overhearing my thoughts. Dirty minded deviant little old lady. She of course cackles joyously at being called out telepathically.

 B 6 C 122: Suffocation

    Seconds become minutes which drift by into hours as we build, craft, enchant, read, write, collate, interpret, extrapolate, and more. Soon we will have the barebones framework, and soon after, a minimalistic network of that which we desire. Soon after that, yet more will transpire in which we come closer to achieving our goals, long term and short. We work in unison, in concert, in perfect harmony within ourself. We are one after all. We accomplish far too little, to win a war outright, yet far more than the few of us might have believed we could. Three, going on four, and a dozen more, and these bear fruit as well. Alchemy, enchanting, building and crafting, clockwork and toil, steamwork and oil, all and more are what we explore and implore.


    We find secrets hidden amongst ourselves, and chastise ourself for keeping them from ourselves. Though chagrined, we continue in unison, despite nearly suffocating under the weight of the shared knowledges. New advantages spring to mind, are brought to light, and come to life. The future dawns on us, and its prospects are tantalizing. In all too short a time though, it is beyond our grasp, as we must relent, and release ourselves. To retain ability to access this form, and its wonders, we must be certain to relinquish it as it demands, lest we lose it forever. We slowly become the me, the I, the am, the solo sporoid Reggie Shellcracker once more, and now this me becomes the Reggie Shellcracker known as the RS2.


    Blinking, I blush at the shared thoughts that coalesce from the myconid hivemind. We¡¯ve certainly accomplished quite a lot in the last few hours. A shop now in each warrens, bolted and protected tightly, deeply secured within the center of each warren. Also appropriate crafting stations in each warrens that can utilize the materials harvested therein, chutes to transport materials from the warrens to other craftsworks in case of need, including lumber and metals and ores to the forgeworks, far simplifying the job for the volunteers. There¡¯s a massive networked array of scrying sensors in a variety of shapes, styles, and applications, most of which reside in a too-large-to-transport shelving unit full of soundproof display cases.


    I do have a solution to that last bit. This might be the first time I¡¯ve engaged this particular form. Thankfully, I won¡¯t need it up very long, so I don¡¯t need to pre-engage it for altogether too grand a length of time. My otter form, complete with platinum scarf, adamantite zipper, super strength, and interdimensional space manifests itself after not too long, and I¡¯m curious to see exactly what happens to the sensors¡¯ links when many of them are in an extradimensional space. Unfortunately, the answer is not much. Or perhaps fortunately.


    The sensors temporarily wink-out when one half of a pair is elsewhere, becoming plain mirrors until they¡¯re returned to the same dimensional plane of existence as each other once more. I acquire one entire shop stall that I place happily within my interdimensional insides, my space skill, my inventory capacity. I similarly snag quite a number of otherwise seemingly useless trinkets that won¡¯t aid us directly in winning the war unless the worst should come to pass, in which case, it¡¯s good that they¡¯re safe elsewhere.


    Experimenting, I *am* capable of using my space skill to duplicate objects into their umbral copies once more. This leads to some rather entertaining new lines of query within myself. It will have to wait however. I¡¯m pressed for time, in order to set up the security center quickly, before this form wears off. I growl at time and its suffocating restraints that I feel entitled to being able to break free of. I wonder if we could once again create umbral copies of Lil that he could control telepathically.


    The copies that were expelled from Lil¡¯s inventory were inert upon Rayileklia so far. That may be because of a need to engage a magical mental passive subroutine for eight minutes and then keep it active for the entire duration of Lil¡¯s life on Rayileklia. I doubt it¡¯s something he¡¯d thought to do before now. I wouldn¡¯t want him to strain himself either, if it didn¡¯t come naturally. Still, to have one or two more nearly indestructible Lils upon the battlefield would be an amazing boon. Or, if Lil should become injured, even having one replacement duplicate-Lil in place of him, while he rests up and controls it remotely, could keep the war rolling in our favor. We¡¯ll burn those bridges when we come to them. Erm, whatever the appropriate phrase might be.


    Focus Reggie, your mind has been split too many ways between too many people and too many forms so far today. You¡¯re scattering. Scatterbrained is certainly an apt way to describe Reggie Shellcracker. Shush, focus. Right. Headsets, speakers, cables, desks, shelves, display units, soundproof cases with scrying sensors, we¡¯ve even got it set up that part of the picture is more easily displayed through the RCA cable to the outgoing box that the incoming picture and audio are coming from, for when we bypass the intermediate space, directly connecting one sensor to another in the security center. Whoops, this form is already wavering. We didn¡¯t spend long engaging it, perhaps half of an hour. It¡¯s still a rather incredibly potent form, despite not being entirely suited to combat with dragons, so it eats into its own mana pool rather quickly.


    Finally returned to the form I¡¯ll be in for the rest of the eve, that of myself, RS2, I, perhaps a bit foolishly, flip and twirl my new adamantite goggle-frames playfully. I can see the picture spin wildly over at the security center, and I giggle, glad no one has to observe it at the moment. I¡¯d certainly get dizzy or a bit sick if I¡¯d been focused on that particular scrying sensor. Flipping it into the air one last time, I plant the goggles firmly into the wild mass of hair upon my head, tucking the frames behind my ears, and tying off a short elastic band between the arms of the frames. It feels *right*, it feels *good*, it feels natural to have goggles upon my head. I don¡¯t mind being a gogglehead. I don¡¯t even have to wear them properly, to provide the benefit I want them to provide, that of feedback to those that will monitor our afield-teams¡¯ progresses from Solace.


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    Still, I¡¯ll keep them on properly most of the time, so that those beloved to me can reach out to me, and so that I can see the security center, and the transmission of all those that I care about. I¡¯m, erm, perhaps a little too excited at the prospect of getting a pair of goggles shipped out along Errissa¡¯s scouts to her. I¡¯ll just attribute that to the whammy, since the goggles should never be pointed at her own body anyway. Unless, erm, she spends a lot of time gazing down at herself. Koff. Uh, what was I¡ª. Erm. Right, anyway.


    Gulping and blushing, I hope I¡¯m far enough away from¡ª. Nope. I blush further heatedly, trying to pay no mind to the teasing thoughts sent my way across a myriad of mental wavelengths. Rattling my skull, and coughing to clear my throat from nothing in particular, I attempt to distract myself, and my teasers, from the previous lines of thought. Let¡¯s just try to take stock though, shall we?


    The massive amount of progress we¡¯ve made today would be incalculable by Fakeworld seventeenth or eighteenth century standards. That¡¯s the approximate era I think we should be near or around, comparatively. I sigh momentarily as I allow myself to make more comparisons to Fakeworld, and my broken buggy memories. Still, without them, I¡¯d not understand how to utilize all of these things. I¡¯d not have had the ideas to make a visual/auditory security center. I¡¯d not have had nearly as many of the progressive ideas that I¡¯ve had in order to create advantages for Solace and its residents.


    Phooph, it¡¯s pretty late in the evening now. I must have spent a lot of time spacing out between various forms¡¯ preparations, and the time spent in each form. I know I promised Kinzul to make myself available for time awa¡ª.


    My wife interrupts my thoughts, ¡°Indeed you did my love. I sincerely hope you aren¡¯t planning to disappoint me on that front. I daresay we both deserve a private moment.¡±


    Gulping and blushing, I glance around as I try to make sure the majority of my mental walls are up before responding, ¡°Of course not Kinzul, my love. I was just trying to recall what still had to be wrapped up before checking in on you to see when you were, erm, ready for that, glp, private time.¡±


    There¡¯s the slightest hint of evil joy at my hesitation, anticipation, and embarrassment, from Kinzul¡¯s emotional wavelength. Thankfully, Kinzul releases me from any of my emotional hangups as she helpfully answers, ¡°You were only able to get approximately a dozen goggles enchanted, due to Curator¡¯s time constraints, and your own excited leaping from project to project. There isn¡¯t much more to be done about that at the moment, as you¡¯ll simply need to finish your pairing enchantments on another day or other days. You¡¯ve crafted, carpentered, and enchanted in vast quantities, while the rest of us have purchased, scoured, examined, explored, and acquainted ourselves with much of what you¡¯ve provided.¡±


    With pride, Kinzul continues, ¡°Pawn, her siblings, and my dear old friend have busied themselves with preparing much of Solace for your security needs. You¡¯ve expressed the desire for, erm, copper cabling conduits? The volunteers have acquiesced, and are beginning work to provide the required end-products, as you¡¯ve provided the materials for what you call your electrification of Solace. Our Aegis, Dark, and Quick, have been dispatched to Mah¡¯Ruke, for their journey into the ¡®Neath, with a pair of pairs of goggles, one on Aegis, one on Dark. You¡¯d been able to get frightfully few enchanted with the ability to change shape and size as necessary, due to the necessity for Curator¡¯s participation, and execution.¡±


    By the sounds of it, there isn¡¯t much or anything else I should attend to tonight in Solace. Gulping, I gaze at my wife as she glides my way with a smirk on her face. I check my back, and Teuila is no longer lashed to it, so she must have disentangled herself at some point earlier in the eve. Though I¡¯d like to ask, it seems like Kinzul isn¡¯t quite ready to share where exactly we¡¯re going, or what she¡¯d like us to do in private. I return to gulping and can¡¯t manage to blink as my eyes remain wide as we walk arm in arm towards the aerie of Solace.


    Making a request that¡¯s almost a plea, Kinzul asks, ¡°My love, would you do me the honor of expending a fraction of your dragonforce, trying to fly under the power of your own Honoris Causa? Then perhaps¡ª.¡±


    She cuts herself off, leaving her words hanging tantalizingly in the air. I certainly can¡¯t imagine refusing her request. Checking the lock on my Honoris Causa that Kinzul provided, I have to manifest it by engaging my titles, so I feel a bit silly as I announce my usual titling in front of Kinzul. She simply smiles however. As my Void Dragon Honoris Causa fully manifests, I extend my senses into the form that takes¡ª form. Sighing, I roll my eyes at myself.


    Regardless, I experimentally leap with the Honoris Causa¡¯s limbs, and feel them as natively as my own. Flapping the wings of my Honoris Causa is as innate as breathing, and it¡¯s exhilarating. It does however burn through my dragonforce at more than a minimalistic rate. Days are cut from the future of my life per second. Still, as Kinzul transforms and rushes up to meet me, I can hardly manage to care about the dragonforce expenditure as my Honoris Causa embraces her dragon form while we spiral and dance about the sky in a south-westerly direction.


    We entwine tails, or necks, or gently butt horns, or even clasp limbs as one or the other of us carries the pair of us as we spiral, depending on whom is on top in the moment. It¡¯s as intimate an experience as I¡¯ve ever had. I¡¯m nearly delirious with joy, for all too brief a time, as we come to rest on a mountaintop with which I am not familiar. Motioning me to rest with her, Kinzul returns to her human form, while I release the manifestation of my Honoris Causa.


    Kinzul performs something of a ritualistic series of motions, and an incredibly tiny secret passageway opens up within the mountaintop. We journey within, and a nearly-suffocating scent of gore reaches my nostrils. When we¡¯re far below any traces of light, in utter darkness, Kinzul rakes my neck with her teeth, gently, as we traverse deeper into the dark, and she does draw blood, in the barest amount. For some reason, I don¡¯t fear it at all as the incredibly ancient being puts me in the most vulnerable of positions, and takes my life in her jaws quite literally. She could suffocate me, if she wanted. I simply smile her way, as tears run down both of our faces.

 B 6 C 123: No Breathing

    After our intimate flight, and more-intimate embrace in the depths of this secreted lair, near a bloody altar, I let myself rest easily against Kinzul as her teeth remain clamped about my jugular. After a time in this embrace, I slowly twist and elongate my neck enough to reach Kinzul¡¯s with my own teeth, raking her neck lightly, not drawing blood as she has. I can sense the urgency, the need Kinzul has for my life essence. I consent, happy to give as much of it as she needs, including all of it if necessary. I know that if she took my life, she¡¯d protect my loved ones with every bit of her soul.


    Of course, that isn¡¯t what Kinzul is doing, but I still feel the waves of emotions overcoming her as she revels in the faith I have in her. Kinzul lays me upon the altar, and lets my few droplets of blood spill forth upon it, as my wound closes up from my innate regeneration. There¡¯s a tiny mixture of smirk and frown from Kinzul as she realizes she must once again sink her lips and teeth into my neck to draw forth blood. She¡¯s intimate, and careful, not intending to actually rend my jugular open deeply. We repeat as she drains more of my blood onto this altar several times, her body, her perfect, regal, amazing body, atop mine.


    Telepathically Kinzul whispers, almost muttering, ¡°I wish I could tell you all of why this must be, my love. I wish for all the worlds that¡ª. I¡¯m sorry for what will come to pass, and the regrets we will harbor. You are every bit my champion, and that of all those who need you. You are ever-beloved to me in ways I cannot express, perhaps might never be able to express. There are things that I¡¯ve accomplished now, that I am accomplishing now, that I will accomplish, that will not come to light until what you might consider perhaps too late. Thank you for your faith, your trust, your life, and your love.¡±


    Suddenly her teeth sink in once more, far more deeply than previously, and I nearly cry out in shock. Kinzul begins to transform, and her draconic maw clamps down around my neck tightly, squeezing, choking me. Or, she would be choking me, if I didn¡¯t have an enchanted item preventing exactly that. Still, having my windpipe crushed is not a pleasant experience.


    Kinzul telepathically begs me to sleep with tears in her eyes, and I wish I could simply acquiesce to her request, but we¡¯d worked together to make this form of mine capable of taking incredible punishment without succumbing. She pleads with me, begging me, and the only way I know how to grant her request is to remove my neckchain, so I do. I trust her completely. If this is what she needs, then so be it. I place my faith, all of it, in the jaws, the heart, the eyes, the mind, and the love of the woman squeezing the life from me.


    I begin to black out as I¡¯m incapable of breathing. When there¡¯s no breathing happening from me any longer, the tears from Kinzul mingle with my own, and though her draconic face is fraught with sadness and grief, I only smile up at my wife. Passing from the waking world into the unconscious one feels as if being enveloped by a familiar, cool, calm, welcoming void.


    ¡°Not yet,¡± speaks the non. It ripples and reverberates around and through me. A voice both everywhere and nowhere all at once, a part of me, yet external.


    Somehow I *am*, and I know that this is somehow an affront to *where* I am, or perhaps *who* I am. The where and the who are the same, somehow. Devoid of life, of light, of sensation, everything is nothing, and the nothing is everything. Somehow, it¡¯s more important than anything. There¡¯s a presence in the non. The presence is, and isn¡¯t me, at the same time. The presence is a triune. Yet it¡¯s more, and simultaneously less. It¡¯s moving, and not. It was sent, but taken. It was bargained, yet stolen.


    Somehow, it both shall never be, yet simultaneously arrives with the light of dawn.


    Awaking in a pile of limbs of those beloved to me, my windpipe still feels rather awful, but I can sense the neckchain of the ever-breathing around it once more. I can sense the sadness within the sleeping form of Kinzul, the feeling of having betrayed me in some way, cheated me, stolen from me in some way. I draw her close and sink my lips into hers, trying to pass my acceptance, my forgiveness to her on every possible level, conscious and subconscious.


    I rest, and lose consciousness once more for a time. When I come to, my neck feels much better. It¡¯s nearing the pre-dawn hour in which we¡¯ll be leaving for our assigned offensives soon. I can sense it without even checking the phone, somehow. Is there anything I can do? Anything I should do? Lil, Lu, and the Vivant are still beat up, barely recovered from their assault two days ago. Kinzul is still hiding her own pain and injuries from that same offensive.


    Kinzul taught me that I can fly under my own power, the power of my Honoris Causa. I could leave, and take on Vorzog¡¯s keep by myself, letting Lu, Lil, and Lucky help out Te, the Dormir, and the Vivant. It would take more of my dragonforce to get to the location, and back, because of how much drains away per second to fully manifest my Void Dragon Honoris Causa form. It¡¯d sap dragonforce that I won¡¯t be able to replenish at the keep, since it¡¯s not home to any ancient dragons, rather some of the most fearsome, most powerful Draconiacs to ever have lived.


    I hate solo adventures, and I hate making Lil feel like he has to catch up to me, to keep things from falling in my lap, to keep things from seemingly being up to me to solo. Isn¡¯t it the safer option though? I don¡¯t have any synergy with the Triple L Squad. I mean, that¡¯s not entirely true. Lil can breathe fire around me for days, granting me both a smokescreen, and protection from melee foes, and even certain ranged weapons like arrows. I don¡¯t see how to include Lucky and Luni though, or what to¡ª.


    Telepathically, Luni grumbles, ¡°If you even think of trying to leave us behind, I will find a way to bury you so deep you can¡¯t get out til the end of this war. Please stop. Rest a little longer my hero, please. We¡¯ve got this, all of us together. We always have, and always will. Please sweetie? I don¡¯t know what happened last night, and Kinzul was incredibly upset when we met up for bed, but just, just stop. Please. You don¡¯t have to do this alone. Never again.¡±


    Gulping back a sob as my heartbeat catches and pauses painfully momentarily, I can only nod slowly towards Lu¡¯s telepathic avatar. Should I tell Luni what happened? Or, well, what I think happened. Maybe I didn¡¯t know exactly what was happening at the time, or after the fact, since I wasn¡¯t going to be conscious. I feel some other areas on my body that must have also¡ª. I guess I¡¯ll just trust Kinzul to reveal things when it¡¯s the right time, even if I supposedly might feel like those are too late.


    Teuila shifting sends her arm flying which ends up sending her forearm slapping into my face. Oof. Yeah, I¡¯m awake now. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be getting to sleep again after that. Levitating myself out of bed, Luni starts to complain, but I assure her I¡¯m not sneaking off to go run a solo mission. At least, I think I¡¯m not. I just want to prepare, and pack. I¡¯ll do any mana free enchanting of objects that I can, while I¡¯ve got some time. I¡¯ve gotten plenty of sleep, based on when I believe I fell asleep yesterday.


    Floating out of Kinzul¡¯s den, towards Mount Verdimenn, I¡¯m surprised when Iylynila stands before me, and seems to patiently await me pausing for her. I lower myself to the ground and stand in front of her, with my head cocked to one side and the opposite eyebrow raised. Illy takes a long moment before inhaling and sighing deeply.


    Suddenly Illy embraces me quickly and mutters, ¡°Keep yourself, and them safe, and get your stupid gremlin munchkin crimson-smurf-ass ass home. Okay? Tenith has your goggles, she¡¯ll keep an eye on us, so you don¡¯t have to worry about us. Just take care of you, and your crew. Thank you, for everything. Especially¡ª. Never mind. Just do it, okay? Win, be safe. See you when we make it back Schism.¡±


    Before I can respond, Illy kisses my cheek with the shortest, quickest peck possible, and she turns swiftly to stride away, seemingly regretting even the briefest of lip contact. I find my hand reluctantly in mid-air before me, reaching towards where Illy had been. My heart catches in my throat, and I¡¯m not even capable of breathing at the moment. Sadness draws across my face, but all I can do is nod to no one in particular, trying to agree to Illy¡¯s request.


    I¡¯m torn in so many ways. Some think it¡¯s entirely up to me to make sure everyone comes home safe. Some seemingly make requests of me that I can¡¯t even be conscious for to be able to agree to. Others are assuring me I don¡¯t have to stand at the top, at the fore, alone. I think¡ª. I think right now, if I could speak with Errissa, that would be about the best thing I could do to get my head on straight, oddly enough. Sadly, I can¡¯t. Oddly, second-best I feel like might be Nala, of all people. Nala views me in an odd light. She¡¯s not one of our combatants, and she doesn¡¯t really rely on me for anything. We benefit from each other¡¯s friendship, but it¡¯s one of the least dependent friendships that I have.


    Taking a detour, I float towards the library, knowing Nala will be up, unless it¡¯s one of the rare times every few months that she accidentally lets herself sleep. Hm, there are some kobolds snoozing in the stacks. I wonder if these are her assistants, or patrons. Well, that snoozing pair was definitely up to something other than curating books, heh. I snirk, trying not to make note of the amorous kobolds intertwined in their sleeping position.


    Huh. Where¡¯s Nala though? Should¡ª. Should I check her room across the hall? Would it be an invasion of privacy? She doesn¡¯t have a door, and I know for a fact, that you can very well see her bed from the doorway. I test sending Nala a direct telepathic message, checking in on her, and get no response. I¡¯m not exactly worried about Curator, especially not since we¡¯ve just enhanced security within Solace by dozens-fold. Still, it¡¯s a bit odd.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Floating my way over towards her bedroom, there¡¯s someone in Nala¡¯s bed, but it¡¯s another kobold. There¡¯s certainly a lot of Atter¡¯s people partaking in the library, and Nala¡¯s little refuge in general. Could Nala still be down at Mount Verdimenn, crafting and enchanting and tinkering? Well, she doesn¡¯t exactly sleep, and I was headed that way anyway before I stopped by here.


    Floating along on my T K Surfboard, I zip through the quiet halls of Solace in the pre-dawn hours of September twenty-sixth. Heh, it¡¯s a Monday I think. The start of the work-week, and we¡¯re about to head to work, busting skulls of Terrorzin¡¯s forces. Hm, that pair look a bit despondent, and lost, and oh¡ª. Those are Leezahna¡¯s erstwhile friends. Should I even do anything to help mend their friendship, since I¡¯m the one that caused the rift? Are they going to be good or bad influences on her?


    Is it my place to care or to judge that? Is it my place to even interfere though in order to rectify things? Blugh, what¡¯s the moral or ethical thing to do here? To choose not to decide, I¡¯ll still have made a choice. I suppose I¡¯ll choose to let free-will reign, and let them figure it out themselves. Sorry ladies. Hopefully you forgive me, and if you patch things up with Leeza, the three of you end up being better than you appeared to be when you were disdainful towards everyone else.


    Oh wow, there¡¯s Nala, and she¡¯s working away with¡ª. What are those!? Wow, that¡¯s just, like a little clockwork armada in the making. Are they¡ª, are they self-replicating? My face contorts. Oh, how odd. It seems that when a new one is made, one of the previous ones seems to stop functioning. It¡¯s as if Nala¡¯s enchantment of them can only sustain a certain number at a time, at least currently.


    Grumbling telepathically, Nala confirms, ¡°That has been my suspicion as well. How do you do it, friend-Reggie? How do you break limits such as these? What must I do to exercise whatever magical muscles allow me to tinker and enchant in such intriguing fashions? How do I expand my capabilities?¡±


    Phew. I pass a breath through puffed cheeks and pursed lips while thinking, seeking an answer for her. Responding as best I can, I guess, ¡°For me, it¡¯s exactly how you¡¯re stating it, exercising those magical muscles, doing exactly what you¡¯re doing, ramming yourself into the end of your limits headfirst, over and over until those limits expand.¡± Nala¡¯s groan at my confirmation of her suspicions leads to me hastily adding, ¡°But there are certain things that aid with, um, what I call lateral growth. Rather than a direct increase in power, what I¡¯d call vertical growth, a lateral, or horizontal growth is extra tools in your toolbelt, metaphysically speaking. It¡¯s a broader array of applications of your powers or talents, or entirely new talents, that don¡¯t require or pull from the same pool of resources as your other talents. Ack, I must sound like I¡¯m talking down to someone as intelligent as you, sorry, sorry. Have you had a chance to pick through any of the shop catalogue material yet, or any of the magic items in our vaults?¡±


    There¡¯s a heated blush that answers my question for me before Nala states, ¡°Erm, no I suppose not. I¡¯d been rather caught up, attempting to see just how far I could go with these intriguing little automatons. It doesn¡¯t seem to matter whether I give them ambulatory limbs, digits, wings, copters, or whatever I¡¯d like, the limit seems to remain the same. I¡¯m partial to this one, it¡¯s a bit adorable if I must say. Let¡¯s see, how did it go again? Yes, if I focus, I can deactivate one of those new ones, and this one will be¡ª. There! Yes, delightful little chap. Or, erm, lass? I¡¯ve no idea.¡±


    Nala does manage to re-activate one that appeared to simply be a slightly-oversized wind-up pocket-watch, but now it¡¯s got legs, arms, hands and feet that extend from inside its inner clockwork-workings. It seems to ¡°sense¡± by somehow seeing out of the area where a single cog makes up a miniature gear-face for a second-hand of its clock-facing. The creature? Erm, clockwork being leaps up to Nala¡¯s shoulder, and gives her a hug, much to her chagrin.


    Lamenting the actions of her automaton, Nala comments, ¡°They seem to have a bit of a mind of their own, and are prone to showing affection, as awkward as that is. Erm, you were saying though? You¡¯d given me a stipend, and I¡¯d been a bit too busy to think of spending it. Have you any hints to offer as to what you think I¡¯d benefit from spending it on?¡±


    Passing another breath through puffed cheeks, I end by gnawing on my bottom lip. What would benefit Nala, that I wouldn¡¯t simply need for myself or the Order? I suppose specifically enchanted clockwork-tools. Perhaps her Latent could help her figure out by offering Curator scores specific to her for items from the shop catalogues? Heck, maybe her automatons have some sort of sapience that would allow them to help her find out.


    Balking, Nala grumps, ¡°I highly doubt my little clockworks have any¡ª, yes thank you darling. Any sort of¡ª. No not that one. Any sort of sapience to, hm, oh yes, quite¡ª. Oh. Oh my. Perhaps my little darlings do. How very odd. I haven¡¯t given them minds, or spirits, as far as I can tell. I was shocked enough when they seemed to be, well, autonomous. Though I suppose I should feel abashed when I consider the word.¡±


    I bite my lips to keep from smirking or chuckling at Nala¡¯s realization that her automatons are autonomous. It seems her current limit is exactly half a dozen active enchanted or clockwork creations or creatures that are in some way empowered by her. For things that she seems to simply be copying and crafting copies of that already exist as types of magic items, she seems to be able to produce an endless quantity of, though it requires rare resources of course, and time, and effort. Hm, that might expand Nala¡¯s horizontal, lateral power growth.


    Which of my magic items are most creative rather than destructive? Not that I don¡¯t trust Nala with destructive powers, it¡¯s just not the type of thing she seems to be working towards expanding upon. As I¡¯m thinking this, one of Nala¡¯s automatons looses a force-bolt blast that knocks a shelf over, causing several other clockworks to quickly leap into action to keep it from causing a chain reaction of toppling shelves. Raising an eyebrow towards Nala, she appears abashed.


    After the briefest of moments, Nala explains, ¡°I thought perhaps it may be interesting to see what one of them could do with a turret, a micro-cannon that moved energy from some aetheric realm, into the air. I, well, wasn¡¯t incorrect. It was interesting to see. Though perhaps not the wisest activity I could have partaken of.¡±


    I can¡¯t help chuckling and smiling at Nala any longer. Snorting a laugh and shaking my head, I¡¯m tempted to simply leave her to it to experiment, completely having forgotten why I came down here, or what suggestions I may have had for her. Thankfully, Nala gets me back on track after a moment, and I show her several enchanted objects that she might be able to reproduce, that could grant her, or possibly anyone in the Onyx Dawn, new suites of abilities.


    We do need Charles and his crew to succeed with their prototype of the bangle however. It might be up to Nala to make sure that it becomes compatible with the runic clips. If it lacks the inherent enchantment quality that lets the runic clips impart their powers onto the bangles¡¯ wielders, then it¡¯s a pointless endeavor. Nala might be the key to preventing that from being a lost-cause. Leaving Nala with that hint, as well as a request that she check out the titles on the various tomes in her own shop catalogue, utilizing an intermediary to purchase them for her from herself if necessary, I wave to Nala as I depart.


    I hadn¡¯t exactly meant to get embroiled in that. I recall feeling like I had some emotional sorting to take care of, but I¡¯m rather disoriented after that whole rigmarole. While disoriented, floating randomly about our project space, I literally bump into Leezahna exiting a respawn-warren, and immediately catch her in a telekinetic grip to prevent her from toppling over due to my clumsy stupidity.


    Apologizing, I start off, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I was distracted and hadn¡¯t realized where I was, or who was around. I hope you¡¯re doing alright, and having a decent morning Leezahna. Has your stipend been helping get you started? Are you okay?¡±


    There¡¯s a short flash of ire, quickly subdued by a flash of fear, before Leeza becomes mostly her prideful self. Once she¡¯s collected herself, Leezahna begins, ¡°Erm, quite yes, Schism. Thank you. The, the um, the very generous stipend has, well, I¡¯ve used up a large portion, but I sort of, well, yes, I have much of what I need, and want. Thank you for the opportunity, and, and everything. Some of what I purchased doesn¡¯t really suit my tastes or needs, but, well, I suppose we don¡¯t know exactly what we¡¯re getting with this magic just yet. You said you were working on that.¡±


    Hesitating only a moment, Leezahna adds, ¡°I¡¯ve got preliminary um, quantities for you, volumes on each of the warrens, or, will, since I asked the volunteers to wake me and let me take stock before they gathered anything today. I¡¯ll be finished in another short while. Perhaps an hour or two? Maybe longer, some of the calculations are more difficult due to odd shapes. Can I turn them over to you then?¡±


    Ah, drat, I¡¯d love to accept them, but I¡¯d better let her know now, ¡°I¡¯m incredibly grateful for your diligence Leezahna, but at that point, I¡¯ll likely be halfway to Vorzog¡¯s keep, or possibly already there,¡± joking a tad darkly, I add, ¡°Hey, if you¡¯re lucky, I might not even make it home breathing.¡±


    Oof, that was way too dark. Even Leezahna looks stricken, realizing that she had previously asked me to die. I start to apologize, but Leezahna beats me to it, ¡°I, I hate you. You¡¯re insufferable, and, and, and ugh. And I deserved that. I, I might hate you, but I don¡¯t, erm, I don¡¯t want you to die. It, it would, it might mean the end of all this. I don¡¯t want to lose Solace, or my new home, or my family, or, or anything. That, okay, I get that that¡¯s a selfish reason to not want you to die, but kindly screw you Schism. You monstrous¡ª ugh.¡±


    Then, realizing she started to tear into me, Leezahna pales with fear, so I quickly respond, ¡°Sorry, sorry, I went overboard there. You¡¯re right, and it¡¯s fair for you to hate me. I¡¯m glad you don¡¯t want to lose this. I hope it becomes a happy home for you, that leads you to a life that you can enjoy and share that joy with others. I did mean it though, that I¡¯ll be off to battle shortly, I apologize for the dark humor, but¡ª.¡±


    Interrupting me to chime in Leezahna gulps repeatedly, seemingly caught in some vision of the past, as she fearfully, haltingly adds, ¡°They¡¯re, glp, powerful, and, and frightening. When Vorzog¡¯s lieutenants paid visits, even father, he¡ª, glp. I¡ª. I wasn¡¯t allowed to make appearences during my youth, not until, well, one time, the most recently. I was taken to¡ª.¡±


    Leezahna¡¯s face further darkens, and she doesn¡¯t explain further, seemingly completely caught in some memory. My ire begins to raise as I suspect what happened to her. Growling, I mutter, ¡°I¡¯ll end them all. Farewell.¡± I leave without a further word. All my muscles lock, I stop breathing beyond enough to seethe with venomous hatred. I¡¯m fully ready to utterly decimate the entirety of Vorzog¡¯s Keep.

 B 6 C 30: Skills, Ideas

    <div>


    <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><colgroup><col width="56"><col width="180"><col width="20"><col width="36"><col width="85"></colgroup>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>REGGIE STATS, SKILLS, AND PARAMETERS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>4200.36</td>


    <td>LEVEL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>17</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.25</td>


    <td>BRAWN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>15</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.1</td>


    <td>AGILITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>12</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.5</td>


    <td>PLUCK</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>20</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.4</td>


    <td>SMARTS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>18</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.2</td>


    <td>WISDOM</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>14</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.7</td>


    <td>DUENDE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>24</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>SKILLS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.02</td>


    <td>ACID GEN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>5</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>ALCHEMY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>202</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>2.292</td>


    <td>BREATH</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>323</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>CAPACITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>32767</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>CRAFTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>420</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>DISENCHANTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>6</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.272</td>


    <td>ELECTROKINESIS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1318</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>2314.628471</td>


    <td>ENERGY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>5543</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>7.452</td>


    <td>S.A./SHAPESHIFTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1613</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.068</td>


    <td>SPACE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3767</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>7.727</td>


    <td>STAMINA</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>6727</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>4.672</td>


    <td>STEALTH</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>918</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.472</td>


    <td>SURVIVAL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1934</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.608</td>


    <td>THERMOKINESIS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3902</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>8073217.54</td>


    <td>TIME</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2,018,304,135</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>OFFENSES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.2</td>


    <td>BLUDGEONING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1300</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>4.72</td>


    <td>PIERCE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>930</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.2</td>


    <td>PUGILISM</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1300</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>8.24</td>


    <td>SLASHING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1810</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>PAIN DEFENSES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.0900090009</td>


    <td>ACID</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1011</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.04045307443</td>


    <td>BLUDGEONING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2372</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.07587253414</td>


    <td>ELECTRO</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1218</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.4524886878</td>


    <td>LUNG CAPACITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>121</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.9900990099</td>


    <td>NEGATIVE ENERGY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.113507378</td>


    <td>PIERCE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>781</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.9803921569</td>


    <td>PSI</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.05892751915</td>


    <td>REFLEXES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1765.38768</td>


    <td>1597</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.09082652134</td>


    <td>SLASHING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1001</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.02777777778</td>


    <td>THERMAL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3500</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.3558718861</td>


    <td>TOXIN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>181</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>KNOWLEDGES/MEMORIES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

 B 6 C 125: Surprise

    More and more surprises by the minute keep showing up. I¡¯m almost flabbergasted when Luni telepathically offers, ¡°If you can keep the Green and the adults occupied, we can take down the ancient Red sweetie.¡±


    Gnawing on my lip, contemplating Lu¡¯s offer, it¡¯s not like that isn¡¯t more or less what I was going to do anyway, so I can¡¯t be mad at her or anything. I withdraw most of my Honoris Causa, so that it¡¯s not manifesting in ways that can become physical any longer, seemingly opening myself up to physical assault. Hopefully it looks like my Honoris Causa was on a time-limit, and that I ran out of one of my big aces in the hole. Huh. Aces in the hole, strategists-eight, Lucky and Lu¡ª. I know Lu, I know, stop guessing and chasing. Bluh.


    Anyway, we need to wrap this up, so I might as well take the help that¡¯s offered. Wait. Lu¡¯s not just carrying Lucky, she¡¯s carrying a spheriform version of Lil as well. Well, Lil is likely shapeshifted down into a compact size, rather than de-evolved. Okay, yeah, fine, the three of them can take down an ancient Red no problem. I¡¯m not sure I want to see them plummeting out of the air towards the ground, but for some reason, Lucky¡¯s transformation is able to absorb impact.


    The ancient Green begins releasing their breath weapon, building a nice large fogbank around me, obscuring me a bit. Using my additional senses to my advantage, I position myself such that when I¡¯m rocked by the explosion I¡¯m about to cause, that I don¡¯t go tumbling into the Worldstorm. Sadly the other dragons back away from the cloud of gaseous vapor, or whatever this breath weapon consists of. All I¡¯m going to manage to do is piss off the ancient Green. Still, that¡¯s more or less what I¡¯m trying to do.


    Click, like an electric lighter I loose a single spark, and the aerosolized vapor goes up in smoke. Well, it goes up in flame rather. I can sense the wide-eyed look of near-terror as the ball of flame rushes back towards the ancient Green while they¡¯re still loosing their breath weapon. They do manage to cut themselves off, before ending up with too much more than a soot-singed face.


    While the ancient Green is recovering from the explosion, I dash through the air using my LBBTKSLs, and get in position to unleash Frostburn¡¯s glacial cone along with an empowered ice-rune knife in a way that¡¯ll remove four foes from the battle. I feel almost bad as the two adult Blues, and their Draconiac riders go crashing towards the ground, their wings covered in thousands of tons of ice. What does that leave us with? One ancient Green, the ancient Red, and one adult Red, ridden by a Spellknight, seemingly the most powerful one, of friggin¡¯ course.


    Hm, narf. Two resources down for two adult dragons and two Spellknights. Not exactly optimal, knowing how much we¡¯re going to be facing today. The ancient Green is trying to get above me, to get in position such that their breath weapon being ignited would send me crashing down through the Worldstorm, but they just don¡¯t have the ease of lift that I do with my LBBTKSL utilizing the Wyverium chestplate. Still, it¡¯s suboptimal to need to keep climbing away from the two Reds. Thankfully, the ancient Red eyes me curiously while the adult Red is spurred to chase me by its Spellknight rider. Perfect, exactly the split that we needed.


    When Luni *chucks* Lucky like putting a soccer-ball back into play from out of bounds, I¡¯m more than a little wide-eyed at seeing a tiny speck that is my son sailing through the air. When Lucky unleashes a glacial frost blast nearly as large as the one I¡¯d unleashed that took an empowered ice-rune knife, I should be stunned, but I remember that he does have the glacial amulet, which amplifies cold abilities, and he was one of the people who¡¯d benefited from gaining the thrice a day powers via the orb-time.


    Trying to keep their attention on me, so that they don¡¯t get distracted by the sudden roar from below, I stop trying to keep my climb above the ancient Green, and soar downwards to the back of the adult Red. Clipping the reins, and harness, that keep the Spellknight tethered to the adult Red, they appear rather shocked at my sudden appearance, and further shocked when I seemingly throw Frostburn, my weapon, off to one side. I of course catch it in one of my *four* telekinetic grips. The benefits of having a day of downtime in order to prepare for an offensive with new outbound strategies.


    Sadly, the Spellknight¡¯s armor is warded against telekinetic gripping, as many of them seem to be. Similarly, it¡¯s locked onto them, so I can¡¯t just pry it off easily. They do manage to quickly craft some sort of flight spell, before they go tumbling into the Worldstorm after losing their seat upon the adult Red. Let¡¯s see if they¡¯re willing to follow me into poison gas, hm? Harass them with Frostburn wielded by my telekinetic grip. Not enough that they might try to snag it, and possibly break my grip, but enough that they realize I¡¯m not just running away from them, giving them free reign to sail down towards my allies.


    Further harassing them all as I alternate breathing fire and lightning down upon the Spellknight, and their adult Red mount, I grimace at the pain in my throat. Thankfully it¡¯s numbed quite a bit by the Skin of Stone enchantment, but it¡¯s still not pleasant. As much as I call myself more or less immune to several elements, it¡¯s not true immunity, it¡¯s just a high percentage damage reduction. I¡¯m still taking damage. The ancient Green is now wary of exhaling, since they¡¯ve noticed me using the breath weapons of every type of dragon that has shown up to the fight so far. My fire-breath is technically started by exhaling a poison-breath, and igniting it, and, well, obviously lightning-breath similar to the two adult Blues who are likely at the very least, crashed into the fortress below, with their wings frozen and shattered.


    Come on, come on, just a little closer. That¡¯s right, I¡¯m a soft squishy target, with only a little stone elemental magic protecting me from all of your vicious, ultra-strong swipes and strikes. Alright! How about a nice little bearhug from a Void Dragon Honoris Causa, followed up by some Voidbreath, eh? After disorienting the Spellknight, I whirl and hurl them like a discus down into the Worldstorm while I return my attention to the adult Red, and ancient Green. Levitating Frostburn back into its sheathe, my Honoris Causa lashes out at the two dragons now frantically trying to retreat from its reach. Too late for the adult Red.


    I shred the wings of the erstwhile Spellknight-mount. As the adult Red tries to course correct into a glide that might allow them to retreat to ground safely, I act monstrously and snap their left scapula with my Void Dragon manifestation. This ends up sending them spinning into a death spiral tumbling into the Worldstorm below, causing them to knock the Spellknight the rest of the way into the Worldstorm from where they¡¯d nearly recovered at its upper edge.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Hissing my challenge towards the ancient Green, I¡¯m surprised when I find them fleeing me in seeming terror. I¡¯m sorry foe. That just will not do. You either accept my mercy, or you die. I can¡¯t risk you informing the rest of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, or rampaging about the lands subjugating those weaker than you, in an effort to survive in exile. Flapping my own manifested wings, I manage to catch up rather swiftly to the fleeing ancient Green, and I draw Frostburn once more. Chucking Frostburn in the direction of my foe, but aim far, far overhead I try to visualize my intent, and what needs to occur.


    I whistle for attention, mostly as a distraction, causing the ancient Green to pause long enough for Frostburn to catch up with telekinesis. I let gravity assist Frostburn in shearing through the dactyl-leather of the ancient Green¡¯s right wing. The slight tear isn¡¯t enough that they can¡¯t continue flying, but it would hurt, so they aren¡¯t willing to risk flying above the Worldstorm long enough to try to find an escape route. This leaves one route for their flight, back the way they came, towards their fortress.


    The problem with that? There¡¯s an ancient Red embroiled in a battle with a monstrously giant draconic-hound creature tumbling through the air towards that selfsame fortress. Sighing, I call out one last time, ¡°I offer you mercy, if you offer your surrender. What say you?¡±


    More surprises still today. The ancient Green nods emphatically. I try to hide my shock as I offer up, ¡°It probably hurts to keep flying like that. If you¡¯re willing to show a sign of trust, by accepting my mercy, and shapeshifting into your humanoid form, I¡¯ll protect you, and carry you myself.¡±


    There¡¯s distrust in the yellowish eyes of the emerald creature before me, but there¡¯s also a grimace of pain each time they flap their wings. It takes only a few more flaps before they resign themselves to being in my care and at my mercy, shapeshifting towards their humanoid form. When what looks like a wispy-haired young elven man begins falling before me, I catch them in my telekinetic grip, and draw them close, in order to keep them safe from the Worldstorm, or the fight raging below. They look more than a tad abashed to be held like some sort of damsel in distress, but it¡¯s better than their wings giving out while above the Worldstorm.


    Deciding to play it safe, I offer, ¡°You are now technically my prisoner, but that confers with it a degree of safety. I don¡¯t know how you would personally treat prisoners of war, but I treat them with dignity, respect, and the care afforded by the protection necessitated by their position at having accepted my mercy. Being such that it is, since you know my name, I¡¯d like to know yours.¡±


    Blinking in surprise, the ancient Green collects himself to offer up, ¡°I¡¯m, erm, Shlendtikuar. This is my domain.¡±


    My face contorting in confusion betrays me. Our intelligence said Shlendtikuar was one of the Draconiac Spellknights. Thankfully, Shlen explains, ¡°I¡¯m guessing you thought one of those Draconiacs was in charge? All four were given my name when they were offered into my service. The Ice of Rage¡¯s sense of humor I suppose. It¡¯s true then? The Onyx Dawn is finally rebelling? Where did they get such powerful allies as yourself?¡±


    Quietly, under my breath, I curse that rumors are already spreading about our open acts of rebellion. That makes it all the more likely that the forces on the east side of the valley past Mah¡¯Ruke might lay siege to Mount Solace. Oh, right, pay attention Reggie, interact with the world and respond to the questions.


    Nodding to Shlen, I explain, fibbing only slightly, ¡°Yes. We¡¯ve The Four, among several heroes of legend, and a whole lot more. Rumor has it that even a reincarnation of The Platinum has returned, as Lady Kinzul has joined in a wedded bond, for the first time in ages. Would your ally, the Red there, surrender along with you?¡±


    Shlendtikuar shakes his head, answering, ¡°No. No, Rahjmeztus is a visiting aspirant to my seat as this domain¡¯s ruler. If he survives, he¡¯ll absorb my followers, and seek to prove himself to the Ice of Rage.¡±


    Nodding grimly, I respond, ¡°Well, I can assure you at least that he won¡¯t survive. I¡¯ll be feasting on his dragonforce momentarily. What of your followers? Will they accept your surrender? Will you order them to stand down?¡±


    Shlendtikuar pales at the request, worry crossing his face as he gulps before clarifying, ¡°It¡¯s unlikely more than a handful would stand down. I¡ª.¡±


    He glances about, seemingly trying to gauge the likelihood that he could resume his terror-stricken flight in order to flee from me. Trying to assuage him, I assure, ¡°I expected as much. I¡¯m surprised anyone accepted my offer of mercy at all. Don¡¯t worry about it. If there are some of your followers that you want me to try to convince, or save from the upcoming slaughter, let me know. We¡¯ll leave them be for the time being. We¡¯re not actually here to destroy all of them, at least not today. We¡¯re simply disrupting Terrorzin¡¯s leadership core. I¡¯m on my way to dismantle Vorzog¡¯s Keep however.¡± Spying Shlen still seeming to seek an escape route, I add, ¡°I don¡¯t recommend fleeing from me. My mercy only extends to prisoners, not fugitives.¡±


    Sighing, I continue, ¡°I¡¯m going to want to keep you safe, to prove my sincerity, as well as to help move this war along towards its conclusion which hopefully doesn¡¯t include simply destroying all dragonkind on Rayileklia. I¡¯d much prefer avoiding that outcome. Don¡¯t worry about the Damnations either. If rumors are already spreading that the Onyx Dawn is rebelling, then you¡¯ve likely heard about the Damnations¡¯ recent setbacks. I¡¯m the one that dropped Nonnam at ShizTinth, and I¡¯m the one that prevented them following the refugee train from¡ª. Well, you get it. If you don¡¯t want to stay within my sight range, or join us in our destruction of Vorzog¡¯s Keep, I recommend you climb into this.¡±


    Experimenting, I¡¯m able to set my portable hole on one of my squares of telekinetic force. It¡¯s ridiculous to see a random black splotch in midair, but there it is. Shlendtikuar looks as if he¡¯s trying to determine if drawing Frostburn from my sheathe, and attempting to stab me with it, might actually slay me. I flash him a slightly more-than-wicked grin, very pointedly observing what he¡¯s observing, as if I could read his mind. Me appearing to possess telepathy¡ª. How was Lu able to send messages to me when I have an enchantment on that blocks telepathic powers?


    I check to make certain that the enchanted circlet is in place, and it is. Hm, well, it specifically blocks psychic related spells, enchantments, and attacks. Lu¡¯s always been a bit squirrelly about how connected she is to my mind. Regardless, Shlen here decides to climb into the portable hole, carefully hanging on to its edge, terrified that he¡¯s just being sent to drop into an endless pit. When his feet reach the bottom, he¡¯s more than a tad perplexed. When I begin folding the edges of the hole up, he¡¯s more than a tad terrified. I try to fold it in such a way that I¡¯m hoping air can get in. If not, I¡¯ll set the hole up every couple of hours or something. There¡¯s a fairly large volume of air within, at least for only one person.


    Alright, enough screwing around, let¡¯s drop out of the sky towards our son Lucky. I¡¯m surprised the ancient Red hasn¡¯t crashed yet.

 B 6 C 126: Rahjmeztus Down

    Hm, it seems the ancient Red did actually crash, and came back up, sans Lucky, or was able to unseat Lucky somehow. Lucky you goober. We don¡¯t need to fight all those down there. Whistling for Lil, I point down at Lucky, and he begrudgingly obliges, despite wanting to face off against the ancient Red. I raise an eyebrow towards Luni, and she blushes while shrugging. Rolling my eyes, I dive to intercept Rahjmeztus, to prevent him from snagging Lil out of the sky. Luni keeps a long ways from the clash, but I can tell that even from here, her music is somehow bolstering me, or weakening Rahjmeztus, or both.


    Loosing my Voidbreath as my Honoris Causa manifests physically once more, I barely manage to keep clinging to Rahjmeztus as one of his thrashing limbs connects with my actual body. My Skin of Stone spell dissipates entirely from the strength of the blow, and I¡¯m left more than a tad winded. Alright, one more use of that for today now that I¡¯ve had to reapply it already.


    I spy an odd aura as Rahjmeztus reaches beneath the edge of one of his scales to pluck forth some artifact, some enchanted object. The ancient Red focuses willpower into the object, and I¡¯m overcome by a rather powerful spell. The only reason the paralysis he induces upon me doesn¡¯t immediately cause me to tumble down into the Worldstorm is because I¡¯m paralyzed with my Void Dragon Honoris Causa physically manifested, with wings splayed, and limbs locked about Rahj¡¯s shoulders and neck.


    Fighting off panic, I struggle to maintain my breathing. Everything in me is locked up. This is a fairly high tier spell, I think fifth or so. Keep calm Reggie, keep calm. Remember, all your magics are always subtly-casted. You can cast even when bound and gagged because you need no mnemonic. Focus, focus. Build the ambient-mana cantrip, while generating an EM field to capture the one rune I¡¯ll need to re-empower. Unfortunately, as I¡¯m about to start casting the one spell I know by rote at this level of power that¡¯s spammable, I¡¯m struck by a sudden massive wave of ice.


    As usual, I¡¯m unharmed by the cold of the ice, but I¡¯m more than a tad inconvenienced. I¡¯m no longer just paralyzed, but now also trapped in a layer of binding rime that coats even my Void Dragon manifestation. If Rahjmeztus breaks free from my manifestation¡¯s grip, he drops me into the Worldstorm, and that might be it for Reggie Shellcracker. Stay calm, just breathe. I¡¯ll be fine. Even if he drops me, paralyzed into the Worldstorm, I¡¯ll survive long enough to get my adamantite body running. It¡¯s a waste of resources to need to start casting such powerful spells so early, but you¡¯ll be okay. Don¡¯t freak out, don¡¯t panic.


    Okay, okay, think. I could disenchant the paralysis on myself, by using moderate dispellation of the fifth tier. Or I could just wait for the flaming ball of fury coming up from below to distract the ancient Red. Snirk. That¡¯s my Lil buddy for ya. Unfortunately, Lil¡¯s blast of frame frees the frost from me and my Honoris Causa, also causing my Void Dragon manifestation to partially dissipate. This sends me tumbling into freefall, apparently straight into the arms of a waiting Luni Shellcracker, My Anchor. She takes full advantage of my inability to move, to tease me thoroughly with her voluptuousness. That¡¯s so unfair Lu.


    Grinning more than just a bit wickedly down upon me while she has me at her mercy, Luni strums several chords on her harp. In almost no-time at all, I feel the enchantment paralyzing me weaken more and more quickly, until it¡¯s destroyed entirely. Flashing Lu a grin, as much as I don¡¯t want to, I extricate myself from her loving embrace. Launching myself back into the fray, I can tell that Rahjmeztus used up the daily allotment of magic in whatever he¡¯d used to monstrously paralyze and hold me in place. Its ice-binding spell is similarly spent. It seems it has one a day of each. Good, no more surprises from that little item at least.


    Lucky leaps off of Lil, and begins growing midair as he sinks his fangs into the back of Rahjmeztus¡¯s neck. I begin peppering the ancient Red with my lowest tier magics, simply proc¡¯ing the runic clips over and over and over, simultaneously bolstering Lil, Lu, Lucky, and myself as well. After twenty disorienting blasts in four seconds, with Lucky chewing on Rahjmeztus¡¯s neck from between his wings, and Lil swiping at his face, the ancient Red is looking nearly-defeated.


    Hm, the frost from my dinky little ray spell didn¡¯t affect him at all, nor did the elemental runic clips of fire and frost, but the necrotic and psychic runic clips really tore into him. These things aren¡¯t intended to be wielded by anyone whose metamagical prowess allows them to spam metamagics all day long. It¡¯s likely assumed that someone might get ten to twenty metamagically enhanced spells in a given day. I¡¯ll need to keep an eye on them to see if there¡¯s a downside to utilizing them far more than they¡¯re likely intended to be able to be used.


    Still, it is nice to be able to see Lu, Lil, and Lucky, covered by a pearlescent sheen of mana that¡¯ll protect them from the next strike that hits them, at least partially. The same embolsterment is applied to me as well of course, there¡¯s no reason not to hit all of the friendly targets nearby. Too bad that particular runic empowerment doesn¡¯t stack with itself. It just overwrites itself when spammed like this.


    Quipping, ¡°Lil, Lu, angle Rahj here a bit, then grab Lucky, I¡¯m going in,¡± I hear groans from all of my party members as they realize what I¡¯m about to do. The slack-jawed ancient Red is more than a tad confused and disoriented as I fly into his mouth, drawing Frostburn. Dashing along the inside of Rahjmeztus¡¯s mouth, and down into his throat, I drag a long score with Frostburn, worsening and worsening the condition of the ancient Red, bringing him closer and closer to death.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Huff. The dragonforce within this fool barely qualifies as an ancient. Manifesting my Void Dragon Honoris Causa¡¯s physical form once more, I begin tearing my way through the esophagus of Rahjmeztus. I can sense the life essence escaping the ancient Red as I put an end to him from within. I barely manage to collect enough dragonforce to pay back my recent expenditures, including those I¡¯d spent with Kinzul last night. There¡¯s more within this fool¡¯s body, but it¡¯s not worth my time. I¡¯d have to impact the ground, and then have to fight my way up out of the horde gathered below.


    Bursting out of Rahjmeztus, I telekinetically snag the enchanted object he¡¯d used against me, and deposit it in my hyperdimensional haversack for later. Somehow, somehow I doubt that that counted as one of the ancient evil lifeforces that I had to pay towards my cure. It¡¯s too bad. His esophagus, and limbs cost me two of my daily uses of my Skin of Stone ability. I spent twenty SP on him, my empowered ice-rune knife, and Frostburn¡¯s daily slash were used up on the fodder before him. Ouch, that¡¯s pretty cold. Hah, accidental wordplay aside, I meant referring to people I¡¯d slain as fodder is cold.


    Sighing for a moment, my emotions take a turn towards the somber, and then even worse. When did killing get so easy? When was I able to start forgiving myself for making accidental jokes about it, or dismissing people¡¯s lives with words like fodder? I suppose the answer is never. I haven¡¯t, and I won¡¯t just let myself forget that lives are lives, no matter how many I take. I may use humor as a coping mechanism, or shortcut terminology when thinking of battle strategy and resource expenditures, but it¡¯ll never stop affecting me. I don¡¯t think any of us would have it any other way. Not my SAP, not Kinzul, or any of the Onyx Dawn. Well, maybe Gilmeshtu or some of the other more snooty members.


    Let¡¯s get the hell out of here. Sighing to myself, I almost giggle when Lil asks, ¡°What happened to the other guy? The big Green?¡±


    Joking, I quip, ¡°Would you believe me if I said I put him in my pocket?¡±


    My wonderful son, Lucky, barks and pants as if laughing. Lil takes a moment to view me quizzically before realizing that I was joking about my portable hole, and Lu just rolls her eyes at me. I catch the rest of my party up on what went down the Shlendtikuar, as we resume our flight towards Vorzog¡¯s Keep. Thankfully, taking off my helmet with the psy-spell blocking enchantment on the circlet is rather easy, so we can return to chatting in thinkspace during our flight. I wonder if I could find a way to add this enchantment to items bound to others¡¯ souls.


    Hm. The problem is, it¡¯s not even supposed to be able to be put on items at all. I had to finagle the spell, by having it mastered, and using Nala¡¯s help, on an item with nearly no enchantment, that was already bound to me, to fill out the rest of the mostly empty enchantment with a self-only spell. Even still, there are some kinks to work out with what I¡¯ve got already, let alone trying to figure out how to break the rules even more to make it not self-only. Oh well, not really the time to be thinking about stuff like that. It¡¯d be better to try to imagine just how underinformed we are about Vorzog¡¯s Keep, since we were malinformed of Shlendtikuar¡¯s domain.


    At some point, I should probably expect to fight kaijus and giant mechas, or other things that make no sense to be on Rayileklia. That just seems to be the way things are going. Soul stealing lights? Celestials hiding away, or hiding in plain sight? Literal Fel hordes? Dragons at war with vampires? Archmages nearly wiped out, save for those impressed into Terrorzin¡¯s service? Terrorzin¡¯s magical manipulators creating chimaeraefic beasts and mingling undeath with draconic and hydra abilities? Dragon lords of domains messing with and corrupting Latents? Yeah, eventually we¡¯re going to end up turning Rayileklia into some giant robot to fight off some giant robot made out of the moon, or a space station, or something. Rolling my eyes at myself, I chuckle at the stupidity of the lines of thought.


    The real takeaway from the line of thought is just that I should prevent myself from being surprised, by expecting almost anything to be capable of happening. What sort of worst-case scenarios might I be able to expect, and counter, should things be far worse than expected at Vorzog¡¯s Keep? Well, the Fel hordes could have a massive portal open there. The nice thing about that one is, we¡¯re having Kinzul fully open the sky over a spot near Vorzog¡¯s Keep, so we don¡¯t have to worry about finding a way to get sunlight down to drive them back. What else? Hm, those fliders and stuff like the mega-dracoliche, or hydracoliche could be there in great quantities. The good thing about that, is that I¡¯ve got a weapon specifically designed to be more detrimental to undead. What else?


    Hm, if Spellknights Vorzog, Zelshiz, Adkre, and Triorgraiz are all archmages, and they all lead with stopped time, and slash or meteors, it could be pretty bothersome. I could break their SP pools though, due to the time it takes to cast those spells, and I¡¯m fairly familiar with their makeup at this point. That¡¯s the major benefit of having mastered the minor to major dispellation technique. Countering spells before they happen, or dispelling them before their effects become altogether too awful. I¡¯d predicted we¡¯d be facing more archmages as our time on Rayileklia went on, and, well, it came true. Sure, the reason why it came to pass took me a while to work out, but that¡¯s because the information wasn¡¯t available previously. I don¡¯t know if even Jarrah knows why there are so few casters left in the lands that aren¡¯t in Terrorzin¡¯s service.


    Still, it makes you wonder how many young adult, adult, or ancient dragons that Terrorzin has had out in the humanoid lands, just mingling with their societies, disrupting them or spying on them and¡ª. Oh no. Tiktik. The Aasimovians. What if Astridus *wasn¡¯t* the only black dragon in human disguise? Tiktik thought she was following a dragon that seemed more like young to young-adult in size. No, no, just calm down. There¡¯s no reason Terrorzin wouldn¡¯t have overplayed his hand by that point, or had his subordinates flee the Felgre hordes. There is no way he could have known some troupe would come by and actually successfully begin an evacuation effort. It makes sense if he assumed Aasimovians would all simply perish to the Felgre hordes, with only a few stragglers being able to flee from sheer fright. It wouldn¡¯t make sense for him to believe he¡¯d have to have spies planted in a successful refugee movement.

 B 6 C 127: Keep Appearances

    As we drop from above the Worldstorm, we draw closer to Vorzog''s Keep, and its details become clearer. Scoping it out reveals an intricate stronghold with formidable defenses, soaring like a spire over the other buildings behind the Keep''s walls.


    Vorzog''s Keep itself, the primary building, is an imposing structure, its walls rise high like sheer cliffs of obsidian. They''re adorned with depictions of scenes of battles and conquests, in a manner that seems oddly artistic. They¡¯re hardly befitting the usual doom and gloom, rage and ire, teeth and fire of the Ice of Rage''s forces.


    The dark stones of Vorzog''s Keep are even polished to an eerie sheen, reflecting the glimmers of lightning from the ever-present Worldstorm, lending the fortress a flickering presence. It''s eerily similar to the fritzing that Dehlia did when she was partially transformed under the sway of the tri-snake. Or, similarly similar to the fritzing that Lil can do with his not-quite-copy of my Space skill, in order to teleport a few feet one direction or another. The walls extend far and wide, enclosing a vast expanse of land, within which smaller buildings and guard towers are scattered like chess pieces upon a massive board.


    Motioning for Lil to remain in cover of the Worldstorm until we have a better grasp on the defenses of the foes we face, we attempt to estimate their number. It appears that the Spellknight leaders have a massive army. From our vantage point, we can see dozens of platoons of Draconiacs patrolling the walls, their numbers appear to total in the hundreds, just those that are visible. The various guard towers suggest that they are well-prepared for any assault from air or ground, unfortunately.


    The buildings within and around the fortress are arranged in a strategic manner that leaves little hope for striking straight to the heart of the domain. Besides the main keep, there are barracks, armories, and more. There are even stables for some sort of giant lizard mounts, perhaps land-based drakes of some sort. Annoyingly, these structures are well-spaced, allowing for maximum defensive capabilities while still maintaining easy access to each other. Grr. I can almost guarantee this place wasn''t designed by the forces that reside here. If nothing else, the fact that nearly all the Draconiacs have to duck whenever they enter or leave a building clinches that assumption for me.


    Some buildings are partially hidden by the shadow of the walls. Bluh, this makes it difficult to discern the full extent of their numbers from above. At some point, we''re going to have to go in, whether or not we''re anticipating the correct number of foes. A glance into my goggles shows Teuila sailing Rayileklia''s skies atop the back of Iylynila. I can virtually sense the discomfort Illy is in at the moment, as she enjoys Teuila''s company in much the way she enjoys mine, but she¡¯s trying not to be clingy or needy. At least I know they''re all safe so far. They''ll be pulling up to their first side-objective any minute now. Their party has slower fliers than Lil, so they¡¯re forced to take a bit longer than we took getting around.


    Back to the task at hand Reggie. Right, right. Checking out these defenses is almost disheartening. They''re varied and seem pretty deadly, even for the likes of Lil and myself. Along the walls, scorpion-like ballistae surrounded by enchantment auras stand ready to rain down deadly bolts. Most of the Draconiacs look like spell-slingers, and the ones that don''t, appear to have enchanted crossbows, or similar powerful ranged weapons, including a few firearms. Ugh, yeah, I was right about the giant lizard mounts. I can spy large, lumbering drakes stationed at key points. They probably serve as living siege weapons for when Terrorzin finishes mustering his forces to march on the lands.


    Peering toward the heart of the fortress, the massive central courtyard is flanked by the main keep and numerous smaller buildings. It¡¯s like a box-canyon, essentially a death trap. I¡¯m not seeing any other methods to traverse though. The entire fortress, and all its walls are heavily warded. There¡¯s some sort of dragonforce field protecting the whole thing. Also, perhaps unsurprisingly, at the courtyard''s center, there¡¯s a colossal statue of an ivory dragon, that must be the Ice of Rage himself, Terrorzin. I¡¯m surprised we haven¡¯t seen more depictions of him yet, given his likely tremendous vanity. I suppose we¡¯re starting to delve nearer to his more fervent supporters. Of course he¡¯d surround himself with, and grant his nearer regions to, those that laud him more. The egotistical sack of crap.


    Huff, focus Reggie. Right. Hm, enchanted barriers shimmer around the walls, and dark runes adorn the ground, imbued with hellish spells based on what I can read from here. We couldn¡¯t even enter through the main gate without an invitation due to how strong the barriers are across the whole fortress. I honestly believe that every Draconiac here is probably capable of sorcery on at least some level. There¡¯s something like the reverse of ley-lines going on. It¡¯s as if these defenses siphon a minuscule amount of mana from each of the fortress¡¯s defenders to remain powered. If I had a day or two to stu¡ª. Heh.


    I can¡¯t help smirking as I try to drink in all the information I can for a future utilization of retrocognition. Observing the dimensions of the buildings, the main keep rises like a towering spire, natch, already noted that. It rivals the height of the nearby mountainous cliff walls. The buildings'' placements appear to be meticulously planned, taking advantage of the defensive position offered by the surrounding mountains. The fortress is constructed in such a way that it harmonizes with the harsh landscape, making it a formidable and nearly impenetrable bastion that¡¯s partially built into the nearest mountain. If needbe, we might be able to land, sneak around to the far side of the mountain, and spend most of a day having Lucky dig through it, to see if they remembered to ward in a full sphere. We won¡¯t need to though.


    Whomever Terrorzin and these Draconiacs stole this fortress from was a fairly talented structural engineer, or had one in their employ long in the past. It does seem like Terrorzin¡¯s forces have updated the decor, the stables, and the enchantments to suit their own needs however. I can¡¯t just pretend that they¡¯re unskilled, barbaric dullards with no talents or powers. W¡ª, what the? What the everliving hell is that? I¡¯m glad we waited before rushing in.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    There¡¯s some sort of, I mean, I¡¯d have thought it was a golem, until two Draconiacs climbed out of it, to trade places with two fresh Draconiac pilots. That¡¯s a mecha. That¡¯s a giant robot mecha. I mean, it¡¯s only about fifteen to thirty feet tall, it¡¯s hard to judge from here, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that that¡¯s essentially a magitek mecha. I was *literally* just joking about having to plan for worst case scenarios in which¡ª. Huff. Relax Reggie, the universe doesn¡¯t add new challenges just because your brain jokes about them. You can at least rest assured that you won¡¯t have to fight off the moon. What about a space station? Not a moon, or a space station.


    Luni giggles at my internal narrative, and I raise an eyebrow towards her. She quickly pretends to whistle and glance anywhere that doesn¡¯t meet my gaze. Right Lu, real smooth. Sure My Anchor, sure. Anyway, that thing looks impressive. The magitek mecha stands close to twenty or so feet tall, and I can get a slightly better estimate of its height by comparing it to nearby creatures and objects. Its colossal form looms over everything except the giant guard-drakes, and the main keep itself.


    The mecha¡¯s metallic surface gleams with lustrous reflections of the lightning of the Worldstorm. Its outer shell bears intricate patterns and engravings, ancient runes etched into its surface, that even my linguistic enchantment is having a hard time deciphering. These arcane markings appear to pulse with a faint glow, indicating what might be considered a heartbeat of immense power that courses through the mecha''s core. It seems virtually alive. What''s more, it seems, hm, trapped. The runes and etchings seem to shift and rearrange, sliding about as panels shift into and out of place to keep it perfectly protected during all of its movements.


    Its broad shoulders are adorned with armored plates that they resemble dragon scales. Yet it doesn''t seem like it was crafted by draconic hands, or that of any dragonkin. Each plate seems to move and shift gracefully, and despite my intense scrutiny, I cannot find any weakpoints in its armor. The resemblence to draconic scales on the shoulder plates seems to be the only thing that one might rely on to tie its creation to dragonkind. Rather, the runework seems more fae in nature, and the metalwork seems dwarven. Oh, hm. Could it have been a cross-cultural project, at some point in the ancient past? Hell, it might have even been developed to fight the Felgre hordes.


    The mecha''s arms extend outward, each limb ends in some sort of aperture, like a cannon. Based on the runework structure, it likely fires pure mana blasts, with no ties to any element. That sort of force could really hurt, and its limbs move fluidly with agility, so it¡¯s likely able to aim efficiently. Thinking about avoiding it doesn''t seem like it''s going to be an option either. Even if it couldn¡¯t just pick us off out of the sky with its blasters, on its back is an array of thrusters and energy emitters that hum with a potential that I can perceive all the way from up here at our vantage within the Worldstorm. The thing can probably leap like some sort of incredible, hulking menace, if not outright fly.


    Oh, oh good, they¡¯re doing some sort of combat drills. This should tire some of them out, and clue us in a bit as to some potential threats and abilities. W-what. The training dummy is the mecha. Every single blast, smash, or element just seems to flow off the thing like water off a duck¡¯s back. I unfold the portable hole just long enough to refresh air, and motion for secrecy and quiet from my prisoner. We¡¯ve been preparing to strike longer than I thought we might take. I hope Teuila doesn¡¯t face anything like this at the Nedkuxian Conclave. Checking in on her, her secondary objective seems to be going smoothly. She does have the full force of the Vivant, and the able-bodied Dormir. Plus, I mean, she *is* Teuila.


    Struggling not to get distracted by being able to view Teuila kicking ass in first person perspective, I reorient on the matter at hand. I¡¯ve seen enough of the runework, the auras, and guard patrols to be able to at least get us past the external dragonforce barrier. I mean, if my surmising is correct, and I¡¯m capable of doing the calculations in paused time in retrocognition. So let¡¯s do it, let¡¯s reach for the non, the time between times, the space between spaces. Stretch ourselves into the lack of time, and contemplate our problems.


    Breathe deeply, slowly Reggie. Take it easy, and take your time on this. Getting it wrong could result in a backlash that could fry your brain, knock you for a loop, or even kill you. That shield must have taken twenty to a hundred dragonforces to construct. Are they still alive somewhere in there? There are a lot of markings for something akin to heart. Could they have still-beating hearts preserved in jars feeding these enchantments? Focus, no time to try to turn this into a rescue mission anyway. This is going to be a hell of a challenging fight, and we haven¡¯t even seen what the domain¡¯s lords are capable of yet. There¡¯s a ton of minor magical equipment here as well.


    Y¡¯know what that means, right? What? The bosses probably have epic loot that they¡¯re going to use on you, Lil, Lu, and Lucky. Fricklefrack. Yeah, probably. Maybe tone it down with the videogame terminology though? Nah. Erm, okay, fine, I guess. You have a smartphone buddy, more stuff is unlocking on it on occasion, to the point where you could probably program yourself a little game on it. You somehow know a fair deal about coding structures and syntax in various programming languages, and various hardware models and operating systems and all this other nonsense from Fakeworld. Lean into it. Be the Connecticut Yankee. Oh. Oh!


    Reorienting myself once more, I try to recall everything I¡¯d seen about the mecha. Dang. Sadly, the heart theory doesn¡¯t hold salt, at least not tying it to the mecha at all. The pulsation wasn¡¯t in any sort of rhythm or timing that lined up with the barrier magics. I remain idly contemplating for quite some time. What can I do that won¡¯t fry my brain to try to get us safely in the door? Hm¡ª, what if I try to slip in intangibly? Disrupting the runework from inside the shield would be far easier than from outside. I¡¯d just be extremely vulnerable if anyone realized that a shadow was forming up into a naked Shellcracker. There was a lot of redundancy and failsafe networking in the runework for the barrier shielding. Let¡¯s see, if I mess with that one though¡ª. Yeah. Okay.


    Breathing deeply, I continue to explore the possible solutions for the barrier to entry problem. Rolling my eyes at myself, I try not to chuckle at the accidental wordplay. It keeps coming back around to being safest for Lil, Lu, Lucky, and myself, for me to infiltrate, and disrupt from within. I have to hope that there¡¯s a dark corner in one of the buildings, that¡¯s close enough to the exterior walls, to slowly return to RS2 form from shadow elemental form. Well pals, here goes nothing.

 B 6 C 128: Crypto-Night

    Returning from the absence of time, I start filling in the Triple L Squad on my plan, which earns me an, ¡°Awe man,¡± from Lil, and an, ¡°Oh sweetie, not again,¡± from Lu.


    Sighing sadly, agreeing, I add, ¡°Yeah, I know. So, um, hold my clothes, gear, and all that for me please Lu? Try to get them to me as quickly as possible when you get the signal?¡±


    Even though Lil knows what my answer will be, he asks jokingly, ¡°What¡¯s the signal supposed to be pal?¡±


    Unable to keep myself from smirking, I toss him the clich¨¦d response of, ¡°You¡¯ll know it when you see it.¡±


    Parsing what I can of the cryptographic rune sequencing that seems to shift and alter in patterns along the outside, I can tell that they¡¯re static, and far easier to crack on the inside. It would take me a dozen nights calculations to come up with a decent chance to possibly predict the sequence in a way that allows me to break the barrier¡¯s channeling network from the outside. Even then, there¡¯s a huge percentage chance that I fry my brain from the backlash of even one misplaced or mis-predicted cryptographic sequencing. Sighing to myself, I admit that I can¡¯t back out of the plan.


    We carefully wheel our way down far out of sight of the stronghold, aiming to work towards a frontal assault while still maintaining some element of surprise, so that they can¡¯t all be mustered on us ahead of time. Taking one last glance through the scrying sensors we¡¯ve got set up, I see that Teuila is in motion, so she¡¯s okay. I breathe a sigh of relief. Te¡¯s okay. I loose another shuddered sigh. I know how codependent we are, but I¡¯m glad we now have a method to check in on each other quickly and discretely, from anywhere on the planet. It helps ease my troubled mind, something I¡¯d walk, run, or fly around the world to do in any other circumstance.


    Utilizing the dark side of Luni, the shadow she casts, and that of Lil and Lucky as well, I begin to leave my body behind. I count down the seconds, the minutes, as if they were sands in an hourglass. I¡¯ll be exceedingly vulnerable as I return to form inside. Hell, we have to hope that my shadow form can pass through the barrier, or this was all a waste of time. If it is a waste of time, I feel there¡¯s nothing I can do about it. Yeah, that would suck.


    I pass through Luni and Lil on my way towards the ground. I¡¯m able to somewhat float three dimensionally as a nearly two dimensional existence. Lu and Lil shudder as I float through them, since I become a literal coldspot that passes over them. It¡¯s so weird to see the always-muddy Rayileklian soil begin to firm up in the sunlight as I flit just above it, floating towards Vorzog¡¯s Keep. Doing my best to not draw attention to myself, I do attempt to remain in the leeward, shadeward side of any little hills, pebbles, outcroppings, luma tulipa, or anything else around.


    Okay Reggie, the moment of truth is coming up. Here goes nothing and everything all at once. Hurk. Gurgle. Koff. If I had anywhere to have had lunch in this form, I¡¯d lose it. Keep pushing Reggie, you¡¯re slipping through the barrier. I¡¯m surprised that, and wonder why, the Draconiacs sheltered here are so regimented, well trained, disciplined, and keep up guard shifts and the like. Between their impeccable magical defenses, and the likelihood of them not having been attacked in decades, or centuries, it seems odd that they remain so at-the-ready. Phooph! I nearly rocket inwards into the compound as I¡¯m shunted through to the inside of the barrier.


    Whew, okay, quickly, find cover, now calm down for a moment. The heart that doesn¡¯t exist in my chest at the moment, the chest that I don¡¯t have at the moment, is beating a thousand miles an hour. There is absolutely so much incredible firepower and magical power and essence contained in this fortress, and its denizens. I could be obliterated by this, if it all came to bear before I was fully ready. Even if I were fully prepped, there¡¯s only so much I can handle at once, before I start getting sloppy, and taking more and more hits. Scout around Reggie. Carefully, carefully.


    Thankfully the shadow-elemental evolutionary form from RS2 at least has a version of the aura senses that has additional tricks to it. They somewhat make up for me not being able to wear my danger-wraps in this form. Somewhat. Take it easy Reggie, try not to pass through any of them. Erm, any more of them. That one¡¯s shivering. Crap on a cracker, there¡¯s just so many of them, and they¡¯re all so alert. It¡¯s almost like they were tipped off somehow. They couldn¡¯t be though, right? Maybe this is in response to the Worldstorm opening up nearby? That doesn¡¯t make sense though.


    Maybe they assume that it¡¯s Terrorzin¡¯s doing, since he has a hole opening up somewhere in the Worldstorm? If they didn¡¯t assume that, it¡¯d make more sense to have scouting parties investigating the area that it opened up to, rather than simply being more on-guard at home. Still, my non-breath catches in my non-throat as I imagine that Lu, Lil, and Lucky, are about to be ambushed by stealthy scouting party assassins who went out to investigate the Worldstorm disturbance.


    Ow, what the what? Ow. Something, something¡¯s calling out to my brain. That¡ª, that¡¯s Whisper. That Draconiac lieutenant has Whisper tucked into a bandolier! There¡¯s a pinkish psionic vibratory aura pulsating around it, and somehow it recognizes the sheath¡¯s scent on me or something like that. Crap! Can it tell its wielder that someone has approached who has its sheath? I don¡¯t think it¡¯s entirely sentient, let alone sapient, but if it has some sort of psychic warning sensation, like the danger-wraps, I could still be quite screwed. Focus Reggie, focus. Whatever happens, be ready to act. Right, right. Phooph. I don¡¯t actually have any breath to pass a sigh through puffed cheeks, but if I did, that¡¯s what I¡¯d be doing right now.


    Grr, about the only places that are safe to transform back that I¡¯ve found so far, happen to be too small for RS2 to manifest in. Too-tight alleyways, behind stone sculptures or furniture, and so on and so forth. Come on Reggie, come on, think, think. There has to be some clue as to a location that¡ª. Well, there isn¡¯t feces and urine all over the yard, so I assume they have a latrine. Ugh.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Hold the phone, we¡¯re not saying you have to dive into the sewage pit, just maybe sit in an unoccupied latrine for a few minutes. That¡¯s what I was ughing about. It¡¯s so corny. It¡¯s as clich¨¦ as the line I tossed to Lil earlier. Heh, get over yourself Reggie. No one¡¯s going to know, or care, if you utilize a common trope to infiltrate an enemy stronghold.


    Hell, no one on this planet has probably even heard of the word trope, or even knows what would make certain things clich¨¦. That¡¯s all just your buggy-ass Fakeworld memory nonsense. Hm, true. Alright. Yeah, there¡¯s several latrines, and there¡¯s one over this way, and it¡¯s unguarded, and seems pretty sparsely used. This is very close to being, ¡°so degrading.¡± Y¡¯know, if you really wanted to infiltrate this place at the moment, you could engage the lycanthrope form, and take on your draconic Reggie form. They might not instantly attack an emerald, winged Draconiac. Eh, I doubt it Reggie. Let¡¯s just stick with the plan for now pal, shall we? Sure, sure sure sure.


    Of. Friggin¡¯. Course. I went to the farthest stall, in the least used latrine and¡ª. Huff. I¡¯d sigh if I could. Okay lovebirds. Please finish up and leave. Wow. Okay that¡¯s, that¡¯s passionate. Friggin¡¯ hell, can I cut off my return to my form so that I don¡¯t out myself? Should I try to slay them while partially manifested? Maybe I can still pass through this wall a bit into the next stall. Okay, whew, holy crap that was clo¡ª. Oh come the hell on! Oh god that¡¯s awful.


    Sure, I managed to use my last few moments of full intangibility to phase through the wall to the next stall, but now this one¡¯s occupied too. I can hear the lovebirds gagging in the next stall. This guy¡¯s either got food poisoning, or his intestines are rotting out from the inside, or something. Oh my friggin¡¯ lord. Hurk. I can¡¯t phase through this wall, and I¡¯m going to vomit if I hear one more rapid plinking splash sound. Well, if I do end up vomiting, it means enough of me is manifested to utilize my breath weapon. I¡¯m sorry Draconiac with the sick stomach, if I¡¯m outed to you, I¡¯m going to have to kill you in probably the most humiliating way possible, by breathing fire to take out all these gases you¡¯re emitting.


    The femme lovebird in the next stall cries out, ¡°Oh gods, is that Upchuck? Why¡¯d you have to hurp, take the stall next to ours sicko?¡±


    Her paramour mumbles, ¡°She¡¯s right Chuck, what the fu(4. Rage¡¯s sakes, take that somewhere else. I mean, feel better, but really, come on.¡±


    Chuck here only groans, moaning in intestinal pain. Blowing up the outhouses is not the signal I intended to send to Lil. I also haven¡¯t broken the barrier yet. Wait. Wait I¡¯ve got an idea. I mean, I¡¯m still probably going to kill these Draconiacs in here. I¡¯m a bit loathe to kill the lovebirds, because, I mean, if they¡¯re capable of love and passion, maybe they¡¯d accept mercy, y¡¯know? Huff. It¡¯s unlikely though. I mean, I¡¯ve also got a bit of sympathy for Chuck. His issue¡¯s gotta suck if he¡¯s got a nickname around lack of intestinal fortitude.


    Anyway, my poison gas can mix with the gas coming out of Chuck here, and it should knock him out through hypoxia. I might even snag the lovebirds in the knockout gas. I can keep spilling a trail of the gas, keeping this latrine fully flooded, and leaving a low trail as I sneak out. Then, when far enough away, I can send a spark to ignite my trail of gas, making for one hell of a distraction. Crap, I know it¡¯s dark in here, and Chuck has his head between his knees, looking at his own feet, but I¡¯m almost fully manifested at this point. Hurp, I¡¯m gonna puke on the back of his head if he, hurp, doesn¡¯t stop with those horrible noises. Start loosing poison gas Reggie. I know, I know. Sorry you three.


    Sighing, I correct myself, sorry you five. Two more male Draconiacs have come in, and are chattering about work detail. They sound extremely friendly, as I can hear the slaps they continue to give one another. Oh god. Am I in a raunchy sitcom? I just realized what the slapping sound was. Screw this lot. Ugh, yes, I know what I just said. I¡¯ve got screwing to the left of me, and screwing to the right, and here I am stuck in the middle with Chuck.


    Finally the newer couple notices as one queries, ¡°Is, is that gas? Chuck came rushing in here before us, right? Is that gas coming from Chuckles¡¯s stall? Chuck, you okay bud? Oh, oh god, we¡¯ll, hrp, come back later. Feel better Chuckles.¡±


    I hear the newer pair of lovers beat a hasty retreat. I feel really, really, really sorry for Chuck at this point. I think he¡¯s been passed out for a bit now, honestly. I¡¯m just keeping myself perfectly still, perched above him on the roof of this darkened stall, utilizing telekinesis now that all of my powers have manifested, in order to keep myself locked in place. Hm, I think the previous pair of lovers has passed out from hypoxia as well. I think they were trying to remain silent while the new pair showed up, and when they tried to gasp for breath after that pair left, there was no clean air to suck down.


    Oh hell. I can¡¯t just leave these people here to die in a flaming fiery farting distraction. That¡¯s an awful way to go. Though, to be fair, Chuck might be on his way out already, based on those intestinal noises. Hrp. Okay, okay, new plan. Awe man, I liked my hair. I suppose I can eventually shapeshift it back. Let¡¯s get a good look at Chuck. Sorry pal, we¡¯re going to have to strip you, hrp, ugh. I find what I¡¯m looking for, based on scent, Chuck indeed keeps a razor on him, which is a bit weird for a Draconiac, but I imagine it¡¯s to eat thinly sliced cheese, since it smells vaguely cheesy, and he¡¯s got a stash of cheese, despite definitely being lactose intolerant.


    Sighing, I make quick work of my hair, loosing my wild mane into the latrine. My SAP are going to make so much fun of me for this. Alright, with spare clothes, we tie up Chuck, and the lovebirds, we steal all of these little bits of equipment, and we practice sounding sick as Chuck. Easy enough, since my stomach is still roiling. Better yet, me trailing gas everywhere will be pretty excusable if anyone notices it. Bury my snout in ¡°my¡± uniform. Sorry Chuck. Keep expelling breath-weapon gas, packing this latrine with more and more compressed gases. Utilize my senses, as best I¡¯m able, to scout the nearby region of the courtyard, and barracks. Okay, if I put up a slowing field at two ends of this area, they won¡¯t realize that time has slowed for them, and won¡¯t notice me dragging bodies around. One more reason I¡¯m grateful for all the abilities we snagged in orb-time.


    Still, I feel naked without at least some powerful equipment. Come on Cla¨ªomh Solais, come on. You show up in my hand randomly now and again, what about when I really need you? Please? Come on come on. Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes! Phew. Okay. Now we have more options. Whew. Slow breaths Reggie, take it one step at a time.

 B 6 C 129: The Signal

    With my archsorc staff, Cla¨ªomh Solais, it has a few spells in it that I rarely, if ever, use. The gigantifying slash minimizing spell that grows and shrinks things is one of them that even happens to be S P free. Now, if I can get these three Draconiacs to be considered a single target, I can shrink them all down, and with a carefully crafted bypassed-wall spell, I can shove them in a cubby that should be nearly impossible to find them in. A cubby that will also hopefully protect them from the upcoming outhouse explosion.


    I know, I know, they¡¯re enemies, and I¡¯d probably have had to kill them anyway, but I saw their vulnerable, or loving, or passionate sides. One could say I saw their humanity. Well, dragonanity? Pft. I have no idea. I hate taking lives to begin with. If there¡¯s the tiniest chance that maybe these three might survive our slaughterfest because of these shenanigans, and might choose to live peacefully, then, then I¡¯ll take it. Plus, I stole Chuck¡¯s tiny extradimensional pouch full of cheese. I kinda feel like I owe him. What a weird guy though. He obviously has to know he has a problem with dairy, but can¡¯t help himself. He even uses magic to hide his cheese obsession.


    Okay, they¡¯re as safe as I can make them, and I¡¯m trying to keep them a little dosed, and a little low on oxygen, but able to breathe again once I¡¯ve committed my explosive diversion. Let¡¯s hussle towards one of the gatehouses, while looking crampy, bloated, and sick. Keep it together Reggie, the eyes aren¡¯t on you any more than they would be on Chuck regularly. He stood out a bit. He was a little dumpy for a Draconiac, probably from all the dairy. Uh oh. Those two are beelining straight for me. Are they the lovers from the bathroom? No, no definitely not, their heights are far too disparate.


    The taller of the two calls out, ¡°Chuckles, heard you weren¡¯t feeling it today private. I¡¯m surprised to see you up and about, what with our arrangement and all.¡±


    Oh crap. I think the startled look on my face is what they¡¯re expecting of Chuck though. I¡¯m getting the sense that these two are a bully and his toadie. The feeling is cemented when the taller one leans in close to ask with malice, ¡°You do recall our arrangement. Don¡¯t you?¡±


    I nod emphatically, and catch the toadie too late as I realize what he¡¯s up to. Oh no. If this Draconiac were human, he¡¯d have an ever-present crap-eating-grin, wild red hair like mine, and a very freckled face. He¡¯s way too proud of himself for what he¡¯s about to do, and I¡¯m petaseconds away from the consequences.


    Everything seems to be in slow motion as the toadie jokes, ¡°Didn¡¯t anyone ever teach you Upchuck? Farts are flammable. Wanna see?¡±


    I can only add one tiny bit of reaction as things are about to become chaos incarnate. I exhale into ¡°my¡± shirt, blowing a massive puff of gas out my left sleeve towards the toadie. Oh my gods the chaos and carnage. The shrieking from toadie over here as he¡¯s consumed by flames, and the confused yelp by the bully, bring down all the unwanted attention on our trio. Oh, wait, I¡¯m on fire, I should react like Chuck would. I pretend to scream in pain, and run off in the opposite direction from the flames, trailing fire the whole while, pretending to try to pat myself down, while I¡¯m actually continuing to spread gas and fire. Of course the outhouse explodes violently, boom goes the dynamite as they say.


    Come on Reggie, come on, lock on, find the runic structures. Come on. Argh, if I want to make the hole last longer than a few seconds, or maybe couple of minutes, I¡¯ll need a ninth tier dispellation. Wait, wait, let¡¯s see this line feeds into this. Let¡¯s roll around here near this wall, pretending to try to put ourselves out while we calculate this. I hope you¡¯re there FFS. Drawing on my archsorc staff, I reach into the ether, into the elemental plane besides our own, and thankfully, apparently Frostfire Salamanderian seeks out the location of the staff like a homing missile, always attempting to remain near it. Welcome back my friend. I¡¯ll gladly pay the extra S P from the staff. Please, come quickly. Don¡¯t try to help me or engage just yet, but if you can look like fire, and spread flames and chaos, that¡¯d be a great help. When I signal, then become your largest form and draw as much attention to you as you can.


    Whew, it¡¯s great to have allies. Lu, Lil, can you telepathically hear me with this barrier in the way, since I don¡¯t have my psychic-blocking equipment on? Dang, didn¡¯t think so. Well, you should be on your way by now, with this commotion. Oh, crap, I look like an enemy. Ugh, but I can¡¯t drop the disguise yet. Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap. Fricklefracks and bandersnacks. Don¡¯t you mean bandersnatch? Only if you¡¯re brillig and the slithy toves. Heh, focus Reggie, focus! Right, right, enough with the nonsense. How do I¡ª? Aha!


    Shouting my titles, I proclaim, ¡°I offer you mercy if you surrender. For I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa!¡±


    Manifesting my full Void Dragon Honoris Causa, I reach its ethereal limbs into the spellwork woven into the castle walls. I grip, and wrest several series of redundant runes that leaves a large hole where the magic has to travel around in a parallel redundant network. Engaging my third and final Skin of Stone buff of the day, I toss a fourth tier Shadowy Conjuration into the midst of the courtyard, adding more confusion on top of everything so far. I¡¯ve got two more of those left today. Tossing a slowing field straight inwards from the gate, I manage to catch about a dozen Draconiacs who¡¯d decided to look my way instead of towards either of the two spreading fires, or my giant dire shadow weasel.


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    I giggle to myself at the limits of the spell, having had to manifest a monstrous mana construct of something with as silly a name as giant dire shadow weasel, but the weasel is tearing around, terrorizing Draconiacs, taking quite a bit of fire from the parapets and elsewhere along the walls. Woah! Okay, okay, uh, focus and respond Reggie. My telekinetic shielding squares are keeping me safe from the rapid assault of ranged weaponry, but each impact is feeling closer and closer to shattering each of the grips.


    Crap, I forgot about the robot! I¡¯m able to block one blast with my telekinetic squares, but they shatter under the might of the blow. The second blast sinks into my Void Dragon manifestation, sending me skidding, almost tumbling to the side. The third blast, I catch on another telekinetic square, cursing the headache and nosebleed I get as it shatters, the fourth blast hits me square in the chest and sends me sailing out of the keep, into inbound traffic.


    Figuratively coughing up a lung, I can barely orient myself as Lu asks, ¡°Reggie? What are you wearing? What even¡ª. Oh sweetie no, your gorgeous hair. Quick get these on, and this, and this.¡±


    Tossing Lucky like a fastball special, Lil sets my stomach lurching with worry for my son. Worse, Lucky¡¯s thrown at the giant magitek mecha, and he gets blasted out of the air loosing a pained yelp in the process. I gear up as swiftly as I¡¯m able, because we¡¯re in the thick of it now. Focus Reggie, breathe. Blinking rapidly to try to get my eyes to literally be able to focus, my heart feels like it can¡¯t slow to a reasonable pace. This is so much more than we bargained for.


    Is¡ª, is that gjallahorn? Please tell me they do not have even more forces laying in wait nearby, or backup within hearing range. Pleading with Lu, I beg, ¡°Can you take the portable hole, sneak along the left wall here, to a spot that I magicked out a small hole in the wall? I shrunk three Draconiacs after knocking them out, and planted them there for safekeeping. I¡¯d feel horrible killing them after going to all the trouble of trying to spare their lives. They¡¯re all naked and bound, and you can tell what¡¯s his face, Shen or Shlen or whatever, to pass on the message of mercy if they wake up. Please?¡±


    Luni wears half a frown as she begrudgingly accepts my request. She seems to fade from my senses, before vanishing entirely. Lil and I are strafing along the interior of the high walls, trying to reduce the number of ranged weapon attacks we have to dodge by taking out the various archers. Lil¡¯s already starting to look like a pincushion, and we¡¯ve only been in battle for a matter of seconds.


    Grunting, Lil grumps, ¡°It¡¯s time to get serious pal, mega mega mega serious.¡±


    Nodding towards Lil, I send mental directions to FFS to follow and pair up with Lil, utilizing his flames as cover. My heart won¡¯t stop racing a mile a min¡ª. Ow! Glp. Whisper is floating in front of me, frozen in place by the psionic shielding enchantment that I¡¯d built into this¡ª. I¡¯d be dead now. I¡¯d straight up have died if I hadn¡¯t mastered the psionic brainblast aegis from Yisstendahl¡¯s tomes during orb-time, and placed it on this gear. Whisper disappears, and reappears in the hand of a Draconiac who happens to appear in the spot Whisper¡¯d just been at. Apparently Whisper has some sort of shadowy teleportation ability in addition to its psionic damage enhancements.


    I¡¯m not too afraid of this fool, since Whisper literally can¡¯t hurt me, due to its reliance on psionic runic empowerment magic. Next time it comes my way, I¡¯m just snagging the artifact for myself. What I am afraid of is the magitek mecha kicking my son¡¯s ass. Lucky¡¯s trying out all of his powers on the thing, and nothing is leaving a dent. Fire does nothing, ice does nothing, acid from nearby Draconiacs does nothing. Lucky¡¯s claws do leave tiny scratch marks, but those scratches heal up within moments. I bet the only thing that would do significant damage is its own arm cannons, with their neutral non-elemental mana blasts.


    Friggin¡¯ hell, I can¡¯t focus on Lucky¡¯s fight right now, I¡¯m still surrounded by dozens of Spellknights, and hundreds of magic-empowered archers. Lil is getting bogged down, tethered by spells. Luni took a sharp blow to her jaw before disappearing again. I, I¡¯m overwhelmed. I can¡¯t figure out where to start. I¡ª. I begin to panic, crying in fear of the thought that I might lose Lucky, or Lil, or Lu. My vision doubles, then triples, and blurs beyond recognition.


    I sink to my knees, just barely accidentally dodging several devastating blasts aimed my way. Wrapping my arms around my torso, I struggle to free myself from this wave of panic. Reggie come on, come on, get it together! If you start fighting, you won¡¯t lose them, okay!? Please, please, please start fighting. Please. As much as I beg myself, I¡¯m not in command of my senses yet. My Skin of Stone spell wears off as I¡¯m rocked by a jagged column of stone slamming upwards from beneath me, launching me into the air, where I¡¯m then met by a flying Spellknight, and spiked back towards the sharp-edged erection beneath me.


    The thing that saves my life? The thing that snaps me to my senses in time to avoid being impaled on the upward-pointed stone edifice? It¡¯s Luni¡¯s snickering across our impossible mental wavelength that should be blocked by my enchantment. I can¡¯t help laughing and rolling my eyes while shaking my head. Lu, you¡¯re a butt, but thank you. I needed that. Rolling ever so slightly to the side, I shunt myself with telekinesis just enough to miss the geokinetically erected stonework. Come on Reggie. Pick a target, and destroy.


    When a commanding voice orders a ceasefire from atop one of the monolithic lizards clad in obviously-enchanted armor, I nearly fall to my own knees. There¡¯s a magical presence behind that voice, similar to Jarrah Bettergrove¡¯s. Lucky me, I know exactly how to resist that sort of commanding presence. Despite my knees¡¯ desire to buckle from beneath me, I fly higher instead, before standing at eye level with this commander while riding one of my T K squares.


    I actually giggle, unintentionally, when Triorgraiz calls out, ¡°I, Triorgraiz of the pallid death order you to cease at once, and surrender if you wish to live!¡±


    Despite not wanting to, I can¡¯t fight the almost evil grin that spreads across my face as I retort, ¡°Buddy, that¡¯s my line!¡±

 B 6 C 130: Mecha High Mecha Low

    Quick Reggie, use retrocognition, find the clues, find the best way to turn the tides, some single masterstroke that takes advantage of this brief breather in order to¡ª. I get it. I know, I know, just do it already! Alright alright already! Breathing deeply, I dive into the non, the space between spaces, the time between moments, I stretch out the absence of time to dwell within it. My Honoris Causa deactivated in that last panic attack, so I¡¯ll be needing to reactivate it in a moment.


    Okay, take a look at the battlefield. Lil¡¯s taking too many little spells, and hasn¡¯t been able to bring many of his abilities to bear at all. Lucky¡¯s going to die if keeps trying to take on the magitek mecha. He¡¯s doing absolutely nothing to it, and it¡¯s hammering him with those blasts every few seconds. He¡¯s plenty tough enough to take a bunch more blasts yet, but it will end him before he so much as inconveniences it. Any of the three of us could take down Commander Triorgraiz. Wait, that¡¯s it.


    Think about the magitek mecha again for a second. There¡¯s auras and perfect seals everywhere, but I know for a fact that there¡¯s two Draconiacs in the cockpit piloting it. I know that it can be opened from within, but what about from outside? Hehe. Hehehe. Hehehehe.


    Reggie? Mhm. You have a spell just for that. Mhm. I know. The arcane-locking and knocking spell. It unlocks doors that aren¡¯t magically locked, instantly, and unlocks doors that are magically locked, in only the shortest of moments. Why try to beat some unbeatable magitek mecha, when you can just melt the pilots inside of it? I¡¯m sure it has weaknesses, but we might not have them available, or they might take too long to find mid-battle to survive against it.


    Okay, okay okay okay. So, that¡¯s what we¡¯ll do. I¡¯ll take on the magitek mecha, Lucky will swap to Lil¡¯s position to take on the hordes of annoying little things, and Lil will dance with Triorgraiz and her mount. Now, how can I communicate this without telepathy, without giving away our strategy to our foes, since my bond is blocked with my enchantment? I can¡¯t risk taking it down right now either, with Whisper¡¯s wielder hot on my tail. A simple code. I¡¯ve got it. Easy enough. Get back to it Reggie.


    Returning to the flow of time from the non, I enter reality at its normal pace. Whoops, hiya gravity. I¡¯m always forgetting about you. I shout what likely sounds like nonsense, ¡°Lucky, Lil, Robin¡¯s dance partner!¡±


    A round robin swap off of dance partners. Lucky gets it immediately, and even if Lil didn¡¯t catch on as quickly, Lucky rushing him with his giant tongue flailing causes Lil to veer towards me anyway. Chuckling, I wink at Triorgraiz as I fly by her towards the magitek mecha while drawing my archsorc staff, Cla¨ªomh Solais. I think her command is the first time I¡¯ve heard someone in Terrorzin¡¯s forces offer what might be mercy. It might be a ploy to get us to stand down, but even that hasn¡¯t been attempted before now. Anyway, she¡¯s Lil¡¯s dance partner now. I hope he can sus out if she¡¯s worth offering mercy to, and if she is, that he can try to get her to surrender.


    I mean, everyone is worth offering mercy to, but they might not be truly deserving of the life that mercy would grant them, if they choose to continue to do evil anyway. The mecha here can¡¯t choose to be evil, but I can¡¯t exactly offer it mercy either. The magitek mecha is agile, I¡¯ll give it that. Even though it looks a bit egg-shaped, its rounded body seems well-balanced, and its limbs are powerful enough that it¡¯s never off-kilter. While Lil swoops low towards Triorgraiz¡¯s mount, it lunges for him while she attempts to maintain control of the situation. Lucky is absolutely tearing through hordes along the wall, swatting them down like flies as he grows larger and larger. Me? Well, I¡¯m giggling about having to enter a back-door to win a fight, instead of having to exit one to flee a fight.


    Grasping the rear of the magitek mecha, between its boosters, I¡¯m exploring to find where the hatch was. Come on, come on! Unless they did some sort of dimensional traversal spell that opened a false door to another dimension that happens to hold the mech¡¯s interior, it should be here! There! Knock knock. Pft. I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh at my own stupidity as I double tap the hatch with the arcane knocking spell from Cla¨ªomh Solais.


    The pall of absolute fear that radiates from within the cockpit is almost immeasurable. I wish I had the time to offer mercy to these pilots. The sheer volume of buttons and devices within the cockpit make it unlikely that anyone untrained would be able to operate the thing at all. The problem is, if I spare them, anywhere I put them other than the portable hole is just somewhere they could sneak back into the cockpit of this near-unbeatable magitek mecha from. I¡¯m sorry you two. You look like you could be siblings, brother and sister maybe. I¡¯ll never know your names, or your stories. Please forgive me.


    Muttering a lower power spell, I loose, ¡°LSE, balefire.¡±


    There¡¯s one less of the lesser shadowy evocation spells available to me for the day, from the orb-time benefits. I¡¯ve got two more of those, and two more shadowy conjurations, three more blastfrosts, my meteorites, my two minute eighth tier conjuration, and maybe a few other things I¡¯m forgetting from that time. I choke back a sob at having taken lives without giving them a chance for mercy. I can¡¯t utilize this mecha, and I can¡¯t spare the time to figure out how it works, since retrocognition doesn¡¯t have any data points to try to fill me in from, and it could be boobytrapped as well. Sadly, all I can do for now is lock away the evidence of my abominable action. Closing the hatch, I layer it up with several arcane locking spells. Finally, I signal an ally I put into the fight a little while ago.


    When Frostfire Salamanderian makes her appearance, after I¡¯d just shut down their near-invincible magitek mecha, while Lucky¡¯s been decimating their ranged forces, it seems like the battle is finally going as planned. Lil has apparently slain, subdued, or knocked out Triorgraiz¡¯s mount, and she¡¯s trying to muster her forces in order to mount a more solid defense against us. There¡¯s a fear, and a sadness in her eyes, but it isn¡¯t just for her life. I feel sick to my stomach. She cares about her troops, and likely her mount.


    The fight is draining out of me pretty quickly, seeing Draconiacs dragging their wounded allies out of the fray, seeing a commander who cares about her people, and is saddened by the loss of her mount, possibly her friend. The shouts are still a mix of fanatical dogma as usual, but there¡¯s also pleas for friends to wake up, to be okay. There¡¯re orders to fall back, to protect the wounded. There are even calls that curse me and my party specifically for our brutality and ruthlessness.


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    Fighting back a sob, I call my own ceasefire, begging Frostfire Salamanderian to take up a position hidden amidst flames, awaiting a possible continuation of the fight. Lil and Lucky back up towards the entrance, both changing shape, shrinking enough that they can back out quickly if needbe.


    My best buddy queries, ¡°What¡¯s up Rej, why¡¯re we stopping? We¡¯re winning.¡±


    Sighing, and motioning to the field, I ask, ¡°Sure, but what are we winning against Lil? Not monsters, people. People that are still capable of empathy, despite half of them being brainwashed.¡±


    Shrugging, Lil responds, ¡°Well tough cookies for them, you offered mercy, I heard you. You keep doing it. Do you want to give it another try?¡±


    Nodding sadly towards Lil, I try to gather my thoughts. Divesting most of my armaments, putting away my weapons, sheathing Cla¨ªomh Solais, I float forward, down towards the ground with my palms up, until I¡¯m striding purposefully towards Triorgraiz. There¡¯s recognition in her eyes. She understands my regret for what I¡¯ve done.


    I don¡¯t get it. Until now, every Terrorzin follower seemed like a fanatical lunatic, or immediately defected, trying to get out from under his reign. Our information said the closer we got to the heart of Terrorzin¡¯s territories, the more fanatical they¡¯d be, but this is the deepest location of any of our offensives yet, even moreso than Teuila¡¯s current assault. Could they be playing me? Do they know that my weakness is sympathy? Sighing, I shake my head at myself. It doesn¡¯t matter whether they are or not. I have to be the me that tries.


    Standing tall, closing my eyes, I telekinetically snap several bolts out of the air that are launched my way, but I don¡¯t retaliate, despite the uneasy ceasefire. I begin, ¡°I¡¯m beyond devastated at having taken so many lives, and having caused so many injuries. Know that there will be many, many more before my war is through. I aim to end the Ice of Rage forever, and all those that would follow his insane plot to burn down the world around him. I¡¯ve not even begun to use a fraction of my true resources and powers yet, in anticipation of the undoubtedly strong defenses and powerful Spellknights awaiting me deeper within your fortress. Is there any chance that you would offer your surrender, in order to accept my mercy, and my vow of protection for those who choose to accompany you?¡±


    Despite my having said it several times already this battle, Triorgraiz asks, ¡°And who the hell are you that should demand the surrender of one of the Ice of Rage¡¯s mightiest fighting forces, in a party of only three?¡±


    Attempting to hide my sharp inhalation, I realize that she hasn¡¯t seen Luni yet, so we have even more aces up our sleeves. She is however layering spellwork, and I can¡¯t grip her with my telekinesis to prevent her from doing so. I answer with my usual titling, though in a far more somber tone than my usual shout, ¡°I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I¡¯ve slain and feasted on ancients, decimated entire strongholds, I wield The Four, and I am the spouse, the mate of Lady Kinzul of the Onyx Dawn. That is our son, Lil Shellcracker, Aliased Sun. That is our hound, Lucky Shellcracker, Aliased Hunter. Though I offer mercy at every engagement, so very few have accepted it. I won¡¯t list the names of those who¡¯ve defected by accepting my mercy, though I will say some have accepted, and are now under my protection, along with the rest of the residents of our home.¡±


    When Whisper appears in the air near my heart, stopped once again by my magics, I snatch it out of the air, draw Frostburn, and slice where the neck of its wielder will be. Whisper annoyingly disappears, to rejoin the hand of its wielder. Still, in the blink of an eye, Whisper¡¯s wielder appears, and is brought to their knees, clasping their neck with a bloody gurgle. I sheathe Frostburn, and pluck Whisper from their dying grasp, pocketing it in Chuck¡¯s extradimensional mini-bag full of cheese. Sighing, I motion at the futile effort of an assassin gifted with a powerful artifact in exasperation.


    Deciding to take some recompense for the interruption, I motion for Lucky to avail himself of the highly-enchanted armor on Triorgraiz¡¯s downed mount. I can tell there¡¯s enchantments related to immunities upon it, mental effects like fear specifically. If I¡¯m right, with that armor Lucky and anyone riding him, and possibly anyone standing really close to him, might be immune to fear effects, like dragonfright.


    The cold calculation that Triorgraiz views me with shows that she¡¯s even still as of yet, trying to determine her odds of subduing or slaying me and mine. I shake my head sadly, and begin to draw my blade once more, far more slowly, purposefully, like a countdown clock to doom. If she won¡¯t even at least try to speak, to plead terms, then this is as futile as Whisper¡¯s wielder¡¯s attack was. When she sighs, and places her hands forward placatingly, I raise a brow, pausing my drawing of Frostburn. When she flicks her glance to it, I let it drop back into its sheathe, and float myself into a lotus position in front of her.


    Gnawing my lip, I try not to react as I hear Lil grumbling about just getting back to fighting. He¡¯s the one that suggested I try one last time. Triorgraiz starts questioningly, ¡°What does surrender to a Hero of the Onyx Dawn look like for a devotee of the Ice of Rage?¡±


    Drawing a deep breath, and passing it through puffed cheeks, I worry that I¡¯m being stalled for time. I¡¯m not oblivious to the fact that a gjallahorn had been blown in staccato blasts earlier in our fight. Still, I have to try. My response is of course, ¡°To accept either shelter, temporary imprisonment in our safest locations until we¡¯re certain you won¡¯t lash out at the peace-loving folks of our home. Or to accept exile to the Untamed Lands, or to prove in some way that you will stick to a vow of non-aggression, abandon following Terrorzin, and cease any raiding or pillaging or mistreatment of those weaker than you.¡±


    The skeptically raised brow Triorgraiz flashes my way speaks plenty before her question, ¡°That last one, how do you expect us to survive?¡±


    Sighing, trying to hide a smile, and trying to prevent myself from chuckling, I answer, ¡°I doubt you¡¯d believe me, but the Onyx Dawn has created a system of magic with unparalleled sustainability. We could offer goods, rations, supplies as part of a peace treaty, and a guarantee of trade, for ongoing non-aggression.¡±


    I shouldn¡¯t be surprised when she literally spits as she spits out, ¡°Too good to be true.¡±


    Holding up a finger, I hold a note up in front of my goggles to get the attention of the security center operators. I want them to focus my outgoing scrying sensor from the security center, on the scrying sensor tied to the original shop in the vault. Hopefully someone is using it. Once I¡¯m certain the view is available, and clear enough, and that the shop is being used, I toss my goggles towards Triorgraiz. Flicking my head, I indicate for her to look through them, even if she doesn¡¯t want to wear them.


    There¡¯s only a moment¡¯s hesitation as Triorgraiz confirms her own suspicions about the abilities of the object I¡¯ve tossed her. Triorgraiz is a rather skilled sorceress, or Spellknight. She also makes note of the durability of the goggles, realizing I¡¯ve just handed her legendary metal as if it was nothing. When she witnesses a transaction occur, I¡¯d almost think we might be coming to an accord. Almost. If it weren¡¯t for what arrived in response to the gjallahorn.

 B 6 C 131: Lets Go Dire Weasel

    Hissing an order to Triorgraiz, I command, ¡°If you want to live, or want any of your subordinates to live, you¡¯ll organize them to get the hell away from this fight. If so much as one of your subordinates steps out of line to stab us in the back while I¡¯m dealing with these effing Damnations again, I¡¯m ending everyone here. Lu, Lucky, Lil, flying V, Lil speartip!¡±


    There¡¯s hesitation in Triorgraiz¡¯s eyes. She wants to see how this will play out, almost positive that there¡¯s no way I¡¯ll survive the encounter with the Damnations, especially if her forces aid them. I scowl, but I can¡¯t fault her. I¡¯d likely be of a similar mind in her position. Regardless, I flick my fingers towards the goggles, and towards her eyes, trying to remind her of the peace and sustainability we offer.


    As Luni begins flying slightly behind Lil and to his right, carrying Lucky as Lucky shrinks, I catch up, dashing towards the fray. Please. Please. Please all be bodybound, locked souls. Please. I¡¯m begging everything good in the world, please don¡¯t take my family from me. I¡¯m trying so hard to be good, to be a good person, to not give in to Wrath. My pulse races as I realize there¡¯s only two of the Damnations here, accompanied by an ancient Black and an ancient Blue. There are at least three more uninjured ones elsewhere.


    Please no. Please let them be anywhere other than near the other members of the Order. Illy, Prinny, Veril, Farzhis, I don¡¯t know if Te could save all of you from three to four Damnations at once. My limbs quake as my lower jaw quivers. FFS hitches a ride with me as we approach the oncoming ancient dragons. Nodding, I aid FFS in surfing towards the ancient Blue, as I don¡¯t want to chance that the Damnations can harvest FFS¡¯s eternal essence that normally returns to the elemental realm after a conjuring. Thankfully, I hear organized commands from Triorgraiz, and the commands include falling back, falling into line, and tending the wounded, and nothing more.


    The Damnations seem to be Ephlomseestiph, and Laombigla. Apparently Laombigla did the smart thing, and shrunk while avoiding the most dangerous pockets of the Worldstorm. They¡¯re battered, and scarred, and acid-pocked, but they¡¯re definitely still alive. So the other two must be high-ranking members of the Evil Claws. These jerks are so friggin¡¯ huge, I don¡¯t think I have anything that could take down a Damnation down here at ground level.


    When I hear a shout that sounds like scolding an underling, I turn around and telekinetically reverse the direction of a projectile back at the offending Draconiac. No mercy, no wasted time, instant death by their own enchanted crossbow bolt. Despite being as far away as she is, I can see Triorgraiz nodding solemnly to me, understanding that the only reason I¡¯m not wiping out everyone is because I can tell she tried to prevent the betrayal. She won¡¯t be getting another chance, because then I¡¯ll just assume she¡¯s only pretending to try to stop backstabbers.


    Whistling a quick note, I have our flying V bunch up momentarily so I can pass on, ¡°Lil, keep the big uninjured Damnation, Ephlomseestiph busy, but don¡¯t engage them. Focus on the acid dragon. Lucky, you and Lu focus on the lightning dragon. If you finish first, help Lil on the acid dragon. Vice versa if you finish first Lil. Watch out for their Latents. I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯re the Evil Claws.¡±


    Being that the ancient Blue is callipygous, I¡¯m going to assume she¡¯s the Callipygian. Really you guys, naming her after the size and shape of her rump? Whatever. The acid dragon could be Deviltail, Bad Dog, Devilhound, or maybe Laughing Drakk. There¡¯s too little information to go on to determine who they are, let alone what their latents might be. Plus, the rest of the thirteen Evil Claws might be laying in wait, or en-route. To prevent that from becoming an issue, I have to end Laombigla once and for all.


    Try as I might, I can¡¯t think of a way to take him down though. Funnily enough, my most powerful resource-using abilities wouldn¡¯t do more than tickle him. My spamming metamagical abilities though might be efficient enough to wear him down. Grr, of course he¡¯s immune to half of the damage provided by my spell. I really need to learn the other¡ª, wait, did I? That¡¯s right, I did. It was only five runes, and it was in several of the newer spellbooks. Necrotic Touch. It¡¯s difficult to keep track of how much I have access to since I¡¯m stuck pursuing lateral growth.


    Let¡¯s see if we can really lean into our powers here. Necrotic energy is the absence of life. It¡¯s devoid of life essence, it¡¯s a void that saps life. Necrotic blasts literally rend a schism both through the air, and in their targets. Come on, psych myself up, work Latent, work! Ugh, it¡¯ll take me a few dozen S P to learn how to make it as cheap as my frosty ray spell. That¡¯s fine. It¡¯ll be worth it to skirt this jerk¡¯s immunities to thermal damages. Two of the metamagical runic clip procs aren¡¯t going to do anything, since one releases a tiny puff of fire, and the other a tiny burst of frost. That¡¯s fine though. Of the several other clips, one releases a necrotic burst and another releases a psychic burst.


    I can almost guarantee these dickweasels don¡¯t have any sort of resistance or immunity to either of those two magical elements. Otherwise they wouldn¡¯t be compromised by the¡ª red eyes. Fricklefrack. Bad timing Reggie. I know. Panic incoming. I know! Hard to sell that invincible conqueror look when you curl fetal and rock back and forth while weeping. I know! I can fight it off for a while. I¡¯ve got the neural node that I made specifically to temporarily box up panic attacks. Huff, huff. Fudge. It¡¯s exhausting fighting off panic. I¡¯m already panting with exertion, and maybe hyperventilating a bit from the panic.


    Alright, alright, focus. Fight it off for a bit. Draw Laombigla¡¯s attention. Here goes twenty¡¯ish SP just to practice using this spell. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever fired it off before. Four Necrotic Touches. Hmf, if they did any damage at all, even with the runic clip enhancements, it¡¯s not noticeable, but at least Lu, Lil, and Lucky, now have that tiny mana film aura protecting them once more. Plus Frostfire Salamanderian has it for the first time. Every last little edge helps.


    Lu and Lucky are doing alright, with Lucky large enough to leap at and ground the ancient Blue, even if she tries to raise all the way up to the base of the Worldstorm. I understand she can risk flying right up against it, due to her immunity to lightning, but Lucky can become massive, and is incredible at leaping. Breathe. They¡¯re okay. They¡¯re okay.


    I can sense the wavelengths of the ancient Blue attempting dragonfright, and for a moment, I worry, but seeing that Lucky, and his two passengers are completely unaffected, I grin. One more ace up our sleeves. Thank you armor from Triorgraiz¡¯s mount. I¡¯m sorry if your mount doesn¡¯t pull through Triorgraiz. I¡¯ll see what I can do about that after this is all over. Lil¡¯s not doing quite so hot. He¡¯s not close enough to benefit from Lucky¡¯s new fear immunity aura, and the Evil Claw captain acid dragon has him pinned in dragonfright, with Ephlomseestiph closing in. Dangit Reggie, pay attention to your own fight!


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    Being that I¡¯m currently in RS2, with no special defenses up, the swipe coming my way from Laombigla would likely crush me, or disembowel me. Time to raven-port. One down, four left today, we are three, three are we. We wheel, we spiral, we disengage, and reconvene. We find a familiar perch on our friend, and an unfamiliar perch on the acid dragon. Which to choose, which to choose? Acid dragon¡¯s scales are shiny like onyx. Shinies and treasures. Acid dragon wears shiny treasures, hidden by horns and scales. We like shinies. We are no longer three, we become Reggie once more.


    Rattling my skull, sitting on the back of this Evil Claw captain, I focus my Honoris Causa to drink of the signals it¡¯s putting out. Oh no. Lil! That looked painful. Focus Reggie, focus. Lil can survive a few hits. Please survive a few hits Lil. I choke back tears, fighting back several fears, and a load of panic. Analyze the signals. Discombobulate them. Reorient them in order to bounce them back and forth against themselves. Let it feel like the dragonfright is still outgoing. Magnetically cage the outgoing signals. While we¡¯re here, let¡¯s give Lil a little help with a good old number four from my QCR.


    As the Worldstorm¡¯s lightning, and the breath weapon of the Callipygian are suddenly directed my way, I swing around to the underside of the throat of this Evil Claw captain. It manages to daze him, while Lil is freed from dragonfright, before this captain can charge a deep acid breath. Lil could protect himself from acid breath as long as he¡¯s not paralyzed. His flames are hot enough to evaporate it on contact. I just had to get him freed before this jerk had enough time to charge up. Back to the Damnations for me. I guess I¡¯ll try to snag Ephlomseestiph¡¯s attention too. Back to number five from my QCR so that I¡¯m not dealing with a constant torrent of lightning damage for no reason.


    Twenty¡¯ish more SP for quick casts of this spell, pinging Ephlomseestiph in the face. Yep, I¡¯ve got both Damnations¡¯ attentions. I¡¯m not much closer to finding the correct structure to pull mana from the ambient nature of the surrounding world and its nearby elemental plane for this spell though. I need to find something that resembles the element of undeath, or void, or darkness, or necrosis, or something. Hm, grim and gruesome, but it might work. I need a corpse. It¡¯s easy enough to telekinetically snag one from the walls where they¡¯d been firing at us from previously.


    Ten¡¯ish more SP, and a new electromagnetic field trapping the runes in place near the corpse. Okay Reggie, think, quickly. The frosty ray spell required pairing of the outer elemental rune, with its nearest operand, and the final two operand runes, in a feedback loop tied to the nearby elemental plane. Does necrotic energy exist on that same plane, or do I need to find existence of another plane, one of life and death? If I do, is a corpse a close enough tie to that plane, in order to sense it?


    Maybe focus on the giant boulder being hurled your way by a Damnation Reggie. Fricklefrack and a crapsack sack of crap. Another raven-port down for the day, because I¡¯m still squishy RS2, with no defensive buffs up. All three of my Skin of Stone uses are down for the day, and I haven¡¯t had time or the desire to use up a quickened cast of Steely Body yet. Plus, I¡¯m not sure if I have more than three¡¯ish casts worth of adamantite shavings. This is going to have to last me.


    We are three, three are we, though only barely. Three of us are smooshed by enormous flying rock. We near-instantly are once again Reggie as RS2 atop the boulder. Well, there goes that corpse. Eugh. Sheesh. I guess I¡¯ll grab another then. I also need to re-cage more runes once more, bluh, another ten¡¯ish SP down while I ponder over this newest corpse from the walls. Hm, my giant dire shadow weasel is gone. Let¡¯s resummon that, and see if we can¡¯t notice some similarities, since it¡¯s both made of shadow-stuff, and we¡¯re imitating a shadow creature with that void-stuff. If I¡¯m lucky, the Damnations might not even realize it¡¯s technically mostly an illusion.


    Hm, I need to buy myself time. It seems too early to do this, but I also need to pull out my once per day eighth tier monstrous mana construct. Pulling out a copy of Frostfire Salamanderian to buy myself time, along with this giant dire shadow weasel, might actually keep the Damnations from realizing that one is an illusion, since the other certainly isn¡¯t. I wish I had my goggles on right now to check on my loved ones, but that fraction of a chance of being able to offer mercy is worth it for them to be in enemy hands momentarily. I¡¯ve no doubt I could retrieve them if I need to kill everyone anyway.


    Focus Reggie. Shut up for a minute and concentrate. The eighth tier monstrous mana construct is, well, absolutely monstrous. It¡¯s like Frostfire Salamanderian fighting at her absolute fiercest, and tossing her a suit of Valkyrie equipment is letting her hold her own against Damnations. That¡¯s insane. Too bad she only lasts for two minutes. We might as well conjure our once per day daily uses of meteorites as well. The twelve chunks of space rock show up, floating around me in helix patterns. Whenever I notice an opportunity for distraction out of the corner of my eye, I launch one off, preventing a Damnation from landing a blow on my temporary summoned allies.


    I¡¯m burning through these new resources like crazy. Uh oh. Muttering a quick shout I call out, ¡°LSE Stonewall!¡±


    Ooph. My brain is rattling from that one. Another daily use of an ability down, and it at least slowed the impact of the tail swept my way. I wasn¡¯t paying attention to Lil¡¯s battle. He let his Evil Claws captain target drift my way. He looks chagrined, embarrassed to have let me take a hit for him, when I¡¯m trying to focus. Hurp. Ugh, my stomach still isn¡¯t settled from that nonsense in the outhouse. Trying to help Lil, and to dissuade this Evil Claws acid dragon idiot from interrupting me further, I unleash two quick blasts of frost, one at each of its wings, grounding it temporarily. Two thirds of the daily uses of that ability gone now too. Crap on a cracker. We¡¯re burning through everything other than our SP.


    Okay, okay, one last time, ten¡¯ish more SP to try to learn this spell inside and out. Breathe Reggie. Breathe deeply, take it easy. Concentrate. Focus. Welp. There goes my giant dire shadow weasel. I resummon it, using my last lesser shadow conjuration for the day, and keep it at my side rather than sending it out to be distraction fodder. Focus, attune to it. Drink in the essence of shadow-stuff, of shadow-creatures, of the voidstuff that makes up semi-illusory shadowy spells. Find the link to necrotic energy, to death and undeath, to the absence of life, to¡ª. Yes! The evil grin that spreads up the left half of my face is too hard to fight, so I let myself wear it. Two runes down, two operand runes to go. Three if I¡¯m lucky, but I doubt I¡¯ll get that lucky.


    This way? No. What about¡ª? No. Grr, how did it work with the other one? It was right after I¡¯d tried the other combinations. Let¡¯s try the other combinations. Oh. Oh the operand rune order is different for this spell. It¡¯s the two directly after the first pair. How odd. Well, at least now I know. Four runes now free for this spell is a massive boon when I¡¯m so often going up against thermally immune foes. Eeny, meeny, miney, mo. Nah, we know who we¡¯re going after. Laombigla has to go down. Hopefully the Evil Claws are less apt to obey the rest of the Damnations. Here goes, well, not quite everything. Let¡¯s go dire weasel.

 B 6 C 132: Panic Finally Does It

    Huff, puff. Fighting off panic for this long during battle is doing a number on me, and going to make it all the worse when I finally succumb. My eyes are drying out and puffing up itchily. That¡¯s right you Damnations, you pieces of crap, surround me to catch me in a crossfire. See what that gets you. I fire off the last of my meteorites, mostly only attempting to keep the attention of the Damnations on me. Let¡¯s go ahead and pull a QCR number four, while pushing outwards.


    The spin created by the path of inertia as my centripetal force meets the curse¡¯s centrifugal force causes me to once again become a giant ball of lightning. Or rather, I¡¯m surrounded by a shell of lightning traversing a specific radius around me. Drawing my lightning-empowered rune knife from my Bandolier, I await the next move by the Damnations, while my summoned allies sneak away to help Lil, Lucky, Lu, and FFS. Blah blah they¡¯re trying their breath weapons and dragonfright combo. They are however smart enough to blow their breath weapons through tightly-pursed scaled-lip apertures. This leads to a high pressure stream instead of a massive roaring cone.


    Still, between my natural resistances, my inclination to not remain in the path of such deadly elements, and the shielding generated by the electromagnetic field surrounding me, I¡¯m quite alright despite their advanced tactics. While they¡¯re attacking, identify the radiation emitted by their attack. Sense the wavelengths that are absorbed into the void of me. How did it go? If a polar opposite radiation meets, in a fashion similar to matter-antimatter annihilation, it releases gamma irradiated neutrinos? Or does it specifically have to be antimatter? Can I fake antimatter with shadowy evocation?


    Hm, on second thought, maybe don¡¯t try to come up with something that could cause a runaway chain reaction that destroys or irradiates all matter on the planet. Even if it¡¯s only an infinitesimally low chance to chain in that manner, it¡¯s about as likely to do that, as to be a useful killing tool. Just be satisfied with the tools you¡¯ve got Reggie. Hm, FFS wants more SP from the staff to keep their body maintained while fighting alongside Lu and Lucky. Sure thing. Your presence is probably the most efficient use of SP I can think of from the staff.


    Okay, blind this one, distract the other with my last free cold cone of the day. Follow it up with more blinding on this one shouting, ¡°LSE Radiant cascade!¡±


    That should keep this one dazed long enough for me to find an auditory canal. Ah, the ear holes are behind the frills provided by the horns. That makes sense, in order to offer some protection from their own roars and breath weapons. Alright, as soon as we unequip four from our QCR, be prepared to throw the lightning empowered-rune knife and direct the path of the freed-up lightning blast along with it. Deep breath Reggie, deep breath. I know you¡¯re fighting off panic pal, and you¡¯re going to have to give in any second. Just hold it for a little bit more, until we¡¯re tucked inside this ear canal. There¡¯s the tympanic membrane. It¡¯s a thundrous drum of immense proportions. Get ready, get ready¡ª. Now!


    Releasing the combined spinning forces by removing my cursed gear, replacing it with number five from my QCR, I toss my lightning knife at the tympanic membrane while directing the massive ball of electricity to follow along after it. Simultaneously I fling myself in the same direction, albeit much slower than the travel rate of my lightning, as I allow myself to succumb to the panic attack that had been building since I accidentally acknowledged one of my worst triggers.


    Tumbling deep into this auditory cavity, the now jagged, torn membrane looks exactly like my worst fears. Despite lightning bouncing around inside this region doing the work I need it to, it only highlights the flickering flashback hallucinations. Every surface is some jagged approximation of a maw. The fact that I¡¯m inside a living creature, inside organic tissue, that¡¯s rent in such a way as to appear like my terror-filled dreams of Day One is only exacerbating the issue. I¡¯m sent tumbling, literally and figuratively, from torn cavity to torn cavity.


    I feel as if I¡¯m chewed and spat from mouth to mouth, maw to maw, jaw to jaw, over and over and over. I run screaming into my mindscape, no escape from this hellish reality. My vision has tunneled to a pinprick, and yet I¡¯m fully capable of seeing all the nightmarish maws ready to rend my flesh from my body. Every surface that could, couldn¡¯t, should, shouldn¡¯t, would, or wouldn¡¯t be able to open into an approximation of a fanged maw, does so anyway. The roaring of the wind blasting through this eerie organic cavern only adds to the terrifying experience. Its otherworldly whooshing is punctuated by the actual roars of the creature whose skull I¡¯m inside of, tumbling further and further into its depths.


    I¡¯m sobbing, screaming in terror, and quite likely unintentionally thunder-shouting as I tumble, roll, fumble, scramble, crawl, shake, and curl fetal inwardly upon myself. Though I can¡¯t afford it, minutes pass by in this hellscape. Worse, I¡¯m pursued. The only thing my body or mind can think to do is to flee, and flee I do, deeper into this territory unknown to me, as unknown as my entire life and the jungles around me on Day One.


    Almost comfortingly, I find a concave spot that¡¯s perfect for my form to crawl in, curl up in a fetal position, and weep, just like Day One. Perhaps disgustingly, I pull a sheet of material over myself, to hide beneath, just like the big leathery leaves on Day One. Only, this material isn¡¯t leathery leaves, it¡¯s moist, torn, inner-ear flesh. The me experiencing the panic isn¡¯t really cognizant of this. I¡¯m halfway into an out-of-body experience, noticing my panic, my terror-stricken self curled up, rocking and weeping. Reggie. Reggie please. Please snap out of it. We¡¯re being followed. We¡¯re being chased. Get up a defensive spell, anything, please.


    Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. The sobs and weeping of the Reggie beneath the ear-flesh are heard by our pursuer. They tear back our ¡°blanket,¡± and grip us by the throat as they lift us into the air. Reggie, you¡¯re going to die if you don¡¯t react! Reggie please! F#(k! My heart¡¯s racing so hard that it feels like it¡¯s bound to collapse or explode at any moment. Do, do something, anything! Wiggle your finger even a little bit, I¡¯ll put the intention into the rune!


    Hah! Oh. Balls. We missed the one gripping our throat. But we did manage to proc the bangle¡¯s runic clips though, including the randomly chaos-magic runic clip. Wh¡ª, what? That aura. It¡¯s, it¡¯s¡ª. It almost looks like reincarnation after a countdown. But it only lasts a scant few moments. Can, glp¡ª. Can I utilize that somehow?


    Frantically trying to resume control over myself, to gain some semblance of safety, of control, to flee the terror-stricken mindscape holding me hostage. Pleading with everything in the world to make the me trapped in a Damnation¡¯s grasp use our raven-porting, or just about anything, nothing responds. I¡ª. I die. Reggie Shellcracker dies in the grip of a Damnation while inside the skull of another. My neck is violently snapped, utterly shattered.


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    I¡¯m nearly beheaded in the grasp of this ancient evil. My corpse is tossed aside with disdain. A sense of calm overtakes me. I¡¯m no longer in control. There¡¯s nothing to be in control of anymore, or ever again. It¡¯s pretty hard to have a panic attack when you¡¯ve actually been slain, and are truly dead. The Damnation says something about a prime something, and fishing my corpse out later when we¡¯ve returned.


    Well. I always did sort of expect my panic attacks to get me killed some day. I can¡¯t say it¡¯s all that much of a surprise really. I didn¡¯t expect it to be so soon, or suddenly. I guess it makes sense, with the foes that I¡¯m currently facing. Well, was currently facing. Wait, can a was be current? Whatever, the foes that I was facing at the time. Sorry Reggie. Sorry everyone. I never meant to die.


    I tried to correct this fatal vulnerability of mine. I truly did. I made a whole magical neuro-electric digital brain-box thing to contain panic attacks, to put them off in case they hit me during a battle, for exactly this situation. I guess it wasn¡¯t good enough though. I wasn¡¯t good enough. Sighing, I gaze down at the broken corpse before me, the neck twisted at an ungodly awful angle.


    So much for that massive pool of hitpoints Reggie. I know, right? I guess a coup de grace while incapacitated is still going to kill me, or pretty much anyone. I suppose that¡¯s how assassins usually work. Funny, that reminds me of Aces, and their dog Eights. Which reminds me of a really lame joke. What joke? Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven eight nine. Wait. Countdown. Nine, eight, seven.


    Six, five, four, three, two, one. The wild, random, chaotic chaos-magic benefit kicks in, and I¡¯m revived, or rather, reincarnated. My body is replaced, and the new one made available to me grows horns, and a long, thick, tapered tail. My hair grows back, or, at least, some head of dark burnished-copper hair adorns my new cranium. My eyes lose their sclera and pupils, becoming a creamy silverish, almost platinum in tone. I become even further attuned to the magic of Rayileklia, though unfortunately, moreso in particular with the hellish, Fel magic of Rayileklia. I suppose that suits my current purpose well-enough.


    Shouting my challenge upon my return to life, I call out to both Ephlomseestiph, and Laombigla, ¡°I am Reggie Shellcracker! I am a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn! I am an archmage Aliased Schism! And, I! Am! The! Void Dragon Honoris Causa!¡±


    Donning ¡°The Platinum¡¯s¡± sorcerous robe, I begin slinging a rapid cavalcade of spells while my manifestation of my Void Dragon form lets loose, clawing its way about towards the brain of the Damnation I¡¯m currently within. What magic I¡¯m able to loose is a virtual artillery battery of elementally empowered blasts backed up by an incessant, nonstop barrage of runic clip procedural effects.


    I begin to levitate, no, I fly without the use of my telekinesis. I am encased in glow of a radiant aura. Further, more and more random magical effects occur from the chaos-magic runic clip. The Damnation that had just slain me actually flees before me, exiting the skull of Laombigla. That¡¯s fine by me. Laombigla begins to shrink around me, but I reinforce myself with my Steely Body spell, becoming an adamantite being within this ear-canal.


    I sling more and more and more and more copies of this necrotic blast at rapid pace, proc¡¯ing the bangle¡¯s runic clips again and again and again. The chaos-magic conjures fireballs centered on myself, which does nothing to me, but likely irritates this inner ear with concussive force. The chaos-magic transforms my skin to blue, and has my hair fall out once more, unfortunately. The magic launches lightning bursts that traverse the inner ear, towards the fleeing Damnation, Ephlomseestiph, shocking both Damnations thoroughly. It also bolsters my protective abilities, and launches missiles of pure condensed mana repeatedly. It looses more necrotic energies that sap both Damnations while reinvigorating me.


    Two strange little starfish robots appear, and they whirl away, scared off by the cavalcade of chaotic magic being unleashed. I find myself on a separate plane of existence that appears akin to a sea of stars several times during my magical mishaps, returning only moments later after each traversal. Several times, I actually become a sheep momentarily, but the constant swarm of fire and lightning damages that form enough to disrupt it, returning myself to my new devilish form. Pink bubbles float from my mouth during my raucous onslaught, preventing me from speaking.


    Thankfully I don¡¯t have or utilize a spoken mnemonic, so it doesn¡¯t prevent me from continuing my magical assault. I¡¯m made invisible for the briefest of moments, and I grow a literal third eye in the middle of my forehead, expanding my situational awareness somehow. Further, Laombigla becomes invisible momentarily, vanishing around me, offering me a view of the lands outside Vorzog¡¯s Keep, but I gain the ability to see invisible creatures shortly after.


    I can feel Laombigla reel, shudder, tip, and topple over. Laombigla¡¯s life-force wanes, and is almost entirely diminished. The Damnation is quite nearly dead, as I continue to rain down necrotic and psychic damage from within its skull, towards its brain. Unfortunately, if I remain within while it continues to shrink, I could very-well perish myself. I have to make a hasty exit with my newfound temporary flight granted by the chaos-magic.


    Funnily enough, some of the chaotic effects were almost entirely useless, like the fact that Laombigla and I were both made temporarily invisible, but I can see invisible creatures right now, and area of effects revealed us, dispelling our invisibility. The terribly vast variety of effects that have befallen the two of us is hilarious. Perhaps the most startling thing to have occurred though, is the fact that I seem to have summoned a unicorn. The beautiful mythic beast looks terribly confused, and a tad frightened to be standing near a convulsing, evil, ancient-dragon Damnation. Well, the unicorn is perhaps less surprising than the two starfish robots that are wheeling away into the sky and¡ª. Whoops. I guess they didn¡¯t notice the Worldstorm.


    Focus Reggie, get a grip. Reorient. Huff. I¡¯m so, I¡¯m so¡ª. Resurrection sickness? Um, maybe. Horf. Yeah probably. Did, did I just puke up gravel? What the¡ª? Adamantite body spell I guess, maybe. Toppling to my knees, I continue to dry-heave as I reel from the experience of dying and returning to life once again. The unicorn appears to glance at me with pity, but something about me, or my current form makes it shy away in disgust, before galloping off.


    I suppose it might detest me because I¡¯m now some blue-skinned devilish creature, that probably doesn¡¯t resemble Reggie Shellcracker at all. Do I still have my powers? Hm, I believe that I do. Yes, probably at least. If I could focus, I could probably shapechange back to myself. I¡ª. This demonic nature, these new ties to the Fel¡ª. I think I¡¯m part incubus or succubus. I guess that makes me either an inkling or a succling.


    Hearing Luni titter across my mindscape causes me to roll my eyes, despite my disoriented, discombobulated nature. Shaking my head, I can¡¯t help smiling that even now, even though she must know that I¡¯ve just died, Lu is finding humor in my mental monologue, my inner narrative. Struggling to my feet, I double over and dry heave once more. Crap on a cracker. I stagger towards the Damnation whose life is mere moments away from slipping into the great beyond. I stumble, and fall to my side, again, and stand again, and fall again.


    Though I¡¯ve powers like telekinesis, and even a temporary ability to fly, my brain is suffering backlash both from the reincarnation, and the absolutely insane torrent of chaos-magic that I unleashed. I can¡¯t manage to manifest any of my powers, or even stand straight. No. No. No! Not again! No!

 B 6 C 133: Zero Dragonforce

    Ephlomseestiph begins to flee with my prize, the still-shrinking body of Laombigla. While Lil is still embroiled in a battle with the acid-dragon captain of the Evil Claws. Sadly, I can¡¯t request his help. Similarly, Lu, and Lucky are still duking it out with the Callipygian, though both parties seem to be doing well with their fights. It seems FFS disappeared when I died. Hurp. If I could just stop puking and dry heaving, and even stand straight, I¡¯d help out my friends, or chase down the Damnation fleeing with the dragonforce that¡¯s rightfully mine. Uh oh, speaking of dragonforces, where are mine?


    Great, the reincarnation kept the changeling mana residue sickness, but not the aegis that had been preventing it from killing me? Part of the reason I¡¯m horfing up my guts is because I¡¯m having a heart attack in an adamantite body with no heart. Friggin¡¯ hell. I had four dragonforces in here dangit! I mean, in, um, my normal, real body, maybe? Crap I¡¯m confused, and disoriented, and going to lose consciousness soon.


    Doffing my psychic brainblast aegis circlet, I telepathically call out, ¡°Guys, I, glp, died again. Some magic brought me back, but I¡¯m dying again, again, because my dragonforces are gone. I don¡¯t have the same reincarnation buff on me again. I lucked out the first time. I¡ª. I¡¯ve got seconds, maybe minutes.¡±


    Sensing the terrible worry that the Triple L Squad has for me, and my current predicament, there¡¯s little I can do to reassure them. Lucky abandons his fight with the Callipygian, and tears off across the battlefield towards Lil, who happens to be closer to me. My son leaps at the distracted Evil Claws captain facing Lil, and grips the obsidian neck of the dragon in his teeth while flipping over to the far side of the captain from his leap, causing him to essentially shoulder toss the captain by its neck, piledriving it into the ground.


    During Lucky¡¯s crazy acrobatic attack-maneuver, Lu grips and hangs on to the edges of Lucky¡¯s new armor for dear life as she¡¯s spun about as if she were on a tilt-a-whirl. Lil and Lucky capitalize on the captain¡¯s downed state, diving for its now weakened neck, tearing into it. I stagger towards the swiftly dying Deviltail, a captain of the Evil Claws.


    Trying to focus my breathing, and to uncross my eyes, I plead with FFS to return, offering up more SP from Cla¨ªomh Solais. Thankfully, he obliges, feeling masculine at the moment. FFS returns to the battlefield, and leaps into the fray to temporarily distract the Callipygian, while Lil pries loose the captain¡¯s chest scales. I stumble, and fall, as my vision begins to fade once more. I¡¯m¡ª. I¡¯m so close. My eyes droop, and sag, as the pain in my chest grows to unbearable levels. My Steely Body spell is the only thing keeping me from succumbing to my current heart attack. I don¡¯t technically need my organs at this exact instant to survive. Of course, preventing my death internally is taxing the spell to its breaking point, and I can feel the aura enabling it begin to flicker.


    Staggering another step, I¡¯m still dozens of meters away from the corpse of the ancient black dragon that lays before me. My eyes droop closed, unable to open. I can sense Lucky¡¯s confusion as he nears me. He sniffs me several times, and makes disgusted faces at my scent. I no longer smell like Reggie Shellcracker. I no longer have the body of Reggie Shellcracker. Lil finishes exposing the heart of the ancient dragon, and has to fly to the aid of FFS in facing the Callipygian, to keep us from being blasted by lightning. My eyes feel so heavy, and my jaw feels slack. Everything feels like it¡¯s bobbing at a fast pace. Oh, it is.


    The telepathic wavelength I share with Lucky as he swiftly carries me is conveying something like, ¡°Other parent, new smell, bad smell over good smell. Other parent needs bath?¡±


    If I weren¡¯t nearly dead, I¡¯d probably laugh, and roughhouse with Lucky for that comment. More of my muscles sag weakly, no longer responding to me as my Steely Body spell wears off. My muscles are no longer supported by the enchantment that makes them both dense as, and strong as metal. We¡¯re so, so close. Just, just a bit¡ª. More¡ª. My hand struggles, desperately trying to reach forth towards the heart that we¡¯re fast approaching.


    Focus Reggie, fo¡ª. Wait, can I even absorb a dragonforce without one of my own? I lose consciousness, toppling free of Lucky¡¯s grip into the chest cavity of the being whose dragonforce could save my life.


    ¡°You¡¯re quite lucky that you are who you are you know. Hurry along now. Wake up. We haven¡¯t yet met for the first time. You¡¯ve so much more living, and so much more dying to do, you strange little thing. Our bargain remains inviolate, as ever it shall.¡± The non ripples and roils in waves as it both speaks to me, yet utters nothing at all.


    The presence of the voice is both a part of me, yet external. Somehow it¡¯s simultaneously contradictions, yet truths, yet also neither. I don¡¯t exist here, yet I¡¯m being ¡°am.¡± I can¡¯t perceive here, because there is neither perception, nor anything to perceive. I¡¯m here both for an eternity, and no time at all, because there is no time here, no concept of such a thing, no concepts at all. That¡¯s when I realize¡ª.


    Gasping for air, I flail as strength returns to my limbs. My gaze darts around wildly as I try to stretch away the pain in several locked muscles. How? What? Other mes? Simultaneous, yet never¡ª. I¡ª. Confused, my head lolls weakly to one side before I realize I¡¯m still alive, that I haven¡¯t died yet. Or, well, at least not again since my neck was snapped.


    Hah. I had my Honoris Causa active without any dragonforce. It became a vacuum, a void. A ceaseless Schism yearning, needing to be filled. Okay, okay, I¡¯m burning through dragonforce incredibly quickly here to draw this one in. I need to drop my Honoris Causa¡¯s manifestation, and to¡ª. Oh, hi Lu. Mmm. Is now really the time?


    Crying over me as she cradles me, Luni releases my lips from hers to grumble, ¡°Shut up. Don¡¯t scare me like that. You bully. You butt. Don¡¯t ever do that again. I thought I lost you. I thought we lost you. Twice! Twice in only a couple of minutes! I hate you!¡±


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Through sobs, Luni shakes her head, correcting herself, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t hate you. I hate this. I hate the fighting, the hurting, the risks. The dying. Please, please try to be more careful sweetie. Please. I don¡¯t think my heart could take it. You can¡¯t die. You just can¡¯t. Okay? Just, just don¡¯t.¡±


    Leaning in to kiss Luni softly, I allow her grip to help me up as she stands. Lucky wags his tail incessantly as his parents embrace and share a tender moment, despite us being covered in dragon¡¯s blood inside a chest cavity. When he¡¯s sure I¡¯m not going to abandon Luni, he rushes off to join Lil and FFS in fighting the Callipygian. If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d say Lucky was having too much fun fighting her to want to finish her off. He seems to be screwing around more than going for the kill. I¡ª. I think he likes her callipyginousness.


    Sighing, I facepalm while shaking my head. I guess Lucky likes big butts, and since he cannot talk, he cannot lie. We¡¯ll have to get Lucky to focus later. For now, I reach towards the dragon¡¯s heart before me. Thinking better on it, knowing I don¡¯t need to eat the hearts to absorb the dragonforce, I decide to try something else out. Are you still there powers? RS2¡¯s shapeshifting benefits? Can I still call on you? It seems to be working. In a few minutes, I¡¯ll be done with this dragonforce, and by then, I¡¯m sure Lil, Lucky, Lu, and FFS will have the Callipygian downed. Then in a few minutes I¡¯ll be back up to almost two thousand days worth of dragonforce. Well, fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred. I somehow burned up a lot of the ambient dragonforce around me, maintaining my Honoris Causa¡¯s manifestation while having no dragonforce to sustain it.


    Hm. I wonder if the Damnations¡¯ dragonforces are worth more than a thousand days apiece. Kissing Luni softly, I pat her on the butt in the direction of the fight. Luni frowns, and sets the portable hole in my lap. Still, she knows they need her, and that I¡¯m not going to go dying on her. Thankfully, Luni loves Lucky and Lil enough that she heads to aid them.


    Wow, it just struck me. Lil, my best buddy is technically my adoptive son in law. Lucky is technically my son. My two sons are out there, battling an ancient dragon in the hopes of killing it fast enough to help keep me alive by offering me its dragonforce. Feeling a shock on my arm startle me from my reverie, I take a look at the bangle, and its runic clips. There¡¯s an obnoxious spark every few seconds, flashing about the runic circuitry. Uh oh. Did I go overboard?


    The various chaos-magic effects have worn off, but there¡¯s still an occasional flicker and spark from my bangle. Poking it, I get zapped for my efforts. I think we can maybe make replacement bangles, but the clips I¡¯m still not so sure about. Even if we can get replacement bangles, it apparently takes an hour of willpower focused almost entirely on removing a clip in order to remove it without breaking it. Then it requires an hour before the benefits fully apply to a new bangle after being clipped in.


    Ugh, It¡¯d take like nine hours for me to transfer all these clips to a new bangle, if they aren¡¯t what¡¯s currently overloaded. I¡¯ve got a few data points, let¡¯s try to slip into the non, a point between points, a time between moments, and figure this out. Inside the lack, the absence of time, I settle in momentarily. I could drop my Honoris Causa from being manifested, since I no longer need it to absorb the dragonforce around me. I¡¯m safe inside a dragon¡¯s chest cavity, my family is relatively safe nearby, battling an ancient lightning dragon. I need to use retrocognition a bit for some answers.


    Question one, is it the bangle or are the runic clips currently overloaded? Hm. Not enough data points. Question two, was the number of spells too many applications of the runic clips in total, in a given day, or in just such a rapid brief period? Question three, What are some solutions to question two¡¯s predicament once it¡¯s figured out?


    Hm, skipping question one for now, I do have several data points on question number two. Since I didn¡¯t need to engage the embolstering clip anywhere near as frequently as the other clips, and I hadn¡¯t been using the flame or frost clips, there¡¯s some clues available. If I continued using the embolstering clip today, would it continue functioning? Let¡¯s draw up some simulations.


    Hm. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Oof. Okay, sure. Right. Right. Good. Okay. So¡ª. Hm. That means there¡¯s about a ten percent chance that it¡¯d break or backfire. There¡¯s about a ten percent chance that it¡¯d temporarily burn out. But, there¡¯s around an eighty percent chance that, as long as I¡¯m not rapidly casting, that the clip retains its functionality just fine, which gives me data points for question number one, in that it¡¯s almost positively the clips, the more important bits, that are overloaded. Crap.


    Right now, it¡¯s the necrotic burst clip, the psionic burst clip, the chaos-magic clip, and the enfeeblement-curse clip that are overloaded, and sparking, if I¡¯m understanding correctly. I probably am understanding correctly. That isn¡¯t bragging, that¡¯s just taking an educated guess based on the percentages. Is it safe to use any of the other clips today, or continue using any of the effects of the bangle at all right now? Retrocognition is saying about at least a seventy percent chance that the answer is no, it¡¯s not entirely safe, that there might be some drawbacks.


    Groaning, I roll my eyes at myself, and the disheartening answer. At least retrocognition¡¯s simulations say that there¡¯s an up to eighty percent chance that at least most of the bangle and most of the clips will keep functioning more or less just fine, even if I continue to use other clips today. The chance for most of the clips to recover fine on their own is higher if I use only the non metamagic oriented clips, though I¡¯ve only got two of those, and I don¡¯t really see them being useful in this combat. No one¡¯s summoning stone elementals out here, thankfully.


    It seems that allowing the currently sparking clips to proc will very likely either backfire, permanently break the clips, or at least burn them out in a way that I don¡¯t know how to recharge them or fix them from. At least, if I allow them to proc while the bangle is sparking like this. That at least seventy percent could be anywhere from seventy to ninety nine point nine percent, depending on how well my retrocognition is understanding the other data points. Odds are, it¡¯s the latter, because my retrocognition doesn¡¯t have enough data, so it¡¯s better to assume the worse-case. Huff. Heaving a sigh in my paused-time thinkspace, I let myself droop wearily for a short while.


    Fine, new question, should I remove the bangle for now, or is keeping it equipped going to help reduce its overload? Hm, opposite percentage. About a thirty percent chance that keeping it equipped is necessary or helpful, while about a seventy percent chance that it either doesn¡¯t matter, or would be detrimental to keep it equipped while it¡¯s sparking like this. Well, maybe I should break that down further. About a thirty percent chance that keeping it equipped is necessary or helpful, about a forty percent chance that it doesn¡¯t matter, and about a thirty percent chance that it¡¯ll backfire spectacularly and nearly literally blow up in my face to continue wearing it. So I¡¯m playing at thirty percent bad odds no matter what I do. If I unequip it, thirty percent chance it was necessary, if I keep it equipped, thirty percent chance I shouldn¡¯t have. Bluh.

 B 6 C 134: You Mean Chuck?

    Returning from nearly-paused time, I loose my grip on the non, the absence of the flow, and slip back to reality.  I¡¯ll deal with the bangle, the clips, and these organs and bodyparts in a bit.  We still technically have a bunch of Draconiac Spellknight lords and ladies to overthrow.  There¡¯s a commotion from the fortress, and Lucky is still screwing around with the Callipygian.  FFS, to me please.  Lil, if Lucky and Lu are safe enough facing off against that ancient Blue, to me as well please.  I¡¯m putting back on my anti-brainblast-enchanted circlet, so I won¡¯t be able to hear telepathy again for a while.


    I stride swiftly back towards the fortress, glancing behind me to make sure that Lucky is okay facing off against the Callipygian.  He doesn¡¯t seem to be taking it too seriously, or really need to either.  It seems he and Luni are plenty a match for the Blue.  Still, if he keeps screwing around, I worry that he¡¯ll get hurt.  I¡¯ll put my faith and trust in the two of them to take care of themselves though.  I need to get back to our original mission.


    Gazing about, it seems like Triorgraiz has done an admirable job of putting out the fires, figuratively and literally.  She¡¯s collected the wounded, stacked the dead, other than the corpses that I stole, and it seems she¡¯s even attending to her mount, as it breathes heavily, weakly, in pain.  I¡¯m assuming the incredibly burly, heavily armored, massively ensorcelled jerk shouting at her is Vorzog.  He¡¯s got that kind of tyrannical-ass air about him, and the vanity that screams, ¡°Name my keep after myself?  Perfect!¡±


    Hm, more and more of the wounded, the healthy, and troops that were stationed near enough to become part of our earlier assault are lining up behind Vorzog.  This isn¡¯t good.  Oh hell¡¯s bells, that¡¯s not fair either.  So¡ª.  Grr.  I made the inside of that magitek-mecha unsafe, by sealing in thousands and thousands of degrees of heat.  I know it¡¯s incredibly well insulated, basically perfectly insulated.  It¡¯s better than any thermos.  Even if the other pilots had the magic available to undo my arcane lockings, they¡¯d have to contend with lava levels of heat to safely pilot it.


    The jerks are circumventing that, by channeling animating magic on the stupid thing.  It¡¯s little more than an ambling, or alternatingly floating, giant bludgeoning weapon.  At the same time though, it¡¯s a nearly-indestructible, giant, ambling-or-floating, bludgeoning weapon.  Heaving a sigh, I roll my eyes.  I can see Triorgraiz, and a small faction that seem to trust her, basically backed up against a wall figuratively, well, and literally.  They¡¯re in the rear of one of the stables that¡¯s been quickly converted into a triage and treatment center.  She seems to be arguing the case for surrender, and has apparently gotten Zelshiz to be at least on the fence, since she¡¯s addressing Zelshiz in particular.


    Vorzog and Adkre are most definitely not having it, and I can feel the tension mounting.  This is about to turn into a bloodbath.  Most of the people siding with Triorgraiz are wounded.  Guess what time it is Reggie.  What time?  You know darn well what time.  Oh, right.  Bluh.  I roll my eyes at myself and suppress a chuckle.  Gods I hate bragging, but here goes.


    Approaching the confluence of the various subfactions at play here, I bark my titles in an authoritative manner, ¡°Stand down and shut up!  I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa!  I also happen to be a slayer of Damnations.  Go on, check for yourself.  Do you see any Damnations hassling my friends behind me?  Laombigla lay dying in the grasp of Ephlomseestiph as the larger flees my wrath.¡±


    Oh, right, I look like a smurf right now, a devilish smurf.  I¡¯m incredibly blue.  That really isn¡¯t selling the threat.  Still, this new body is completely and perfectly uninjured, since it was just created for me a few minutes ago.  Triorgraiz eyes me warily, raising an eyebrow as she tilts her head ever so slightly to attempt to peer beyond me.  Zelshiz similarly tries to take a surreptitious glance beyond me.  I suppose having Lil¡¯s hulking form behind me is playing counter to what I¡¯d just said, but oh well.  Having an almost-undamaged adult Red, after having faced down two ancients, and two Damnations, speaks plenty well enough as to our capabilities.


    Of course Vorzog spits and scoffs, growling in Draconic, likely something sarcastic in the manner of, ¡°Yeah right.¡±


    I¡¯m really too tired to deal with bullcrap like his right now.  Shapeshifting towards my normal RS2 form, I decide to keep the horns and tail, but at least my pigmentation, and hair color return to normal.  Oh, uh oh.  I¡¯m wearing the exploded, burnt tatters of Chuck¡¯s uniform.  I can vaguely recognize the two male lovers that¡¯d stopped briefly in the latrine, and they¡¯re putting two and two together.  There was an explosion from the latrine area, I¡¯m wearing Chuck¡¯s clothing, and some of his private magical equipment.  It doesn¡¯t take a genius to guess where this thought train is going.


    One, rushing towards a pile of weaponry, in order to find his enchanted crossbow, cries out, ¡°You bastards, you killed Chuckie!¡±


    Triorgraiz, to her credit, rushes to intercept the lad, and succeeds, but his lover darts around behind her to finish what he started.  Rolling my eyes, I unfurl the portable hole, and place it on one of my telekinetic squares.  I intercept several quick crossbow bolts by the grief-stricken lover on my TK shield, before leaning the portable hole towards the assembled, out of the way of the incoming crossbow attacks.


    Continuing to roll my eyes, as I respond, ¡°I¡¯m assuming you mean Chuck, the man whose clothes I¡¯m wearing, that I¡¯ve safely bound and stored away in my portable hole?  Hi there Shlendtikuar, sorry, you¡¯re not a bargaining chip or anything.  I¡¯m just trying to prove that I saved and granted mercy to some of these forces already.  Are the other three alright?  Still breathing?  Good.  I¡¯ll get them medical attention as soon as I¡¯m done here and returned home.  Sorry, putting you back in my pocket again.¡±


    There¡¯s a bit of a stunned silence as several of the gathered recognize either Chuck and the lovebirds, or Shlendtikuar, either by name or appearance.  Breathing deeply and loosing a long sigh, I start again, ¡°I am yada yada, etcetera etcetera.  I hereby politely request your surrender so that I don¡¯t have to massacre the lot of you in my ongoing war against Terrorzin and all those who follow his insane plan of razing the world.¡±


    As several of the gathered begin to take aim at me, I growl out, ¡°Seriously.  I will kill every last idiot that stands between me and ending Terrorzin¡¯s reign.  If you don¡¯t at least cease hostilities, and put your weapons down, you will absolutely pay for it.  You offer me no threat, and you have no hope whatsoever.  I hate bragging, but bragging and threatening seem to be the only way I can get through to the mass of idiots I continuously encounter during this war!¡±


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    When Vorzog calls on his forces to fire, I almost laugh.  Making sure I¡¯m equipped for the occasion, I pull a number four from my QCR once again, as I push outward with my internal electrokinesis.  Ow.  Ow.  Ow, that organ is fresh and tender.  Newly created, weak.  My electrokinetic magnetic field organ is not strong enough to do this.  I guess we¡¯re going to take a bit of a blast and put the QCR back to five.  That¡¯s fine, being struck by lightning and standing around like it¡¯s nothing is almost as good as creating a massive spherical shield of lightning.  Almost.


    It takes me a moment to realize who Vorzog¡¯s forces fired on first.  He had them fire on the traitors.  He had them fire on the defectors.  The bastard!  Triorgraiz is now in melee combat with Vorzog, and being overpowered, as she¡¯s not in her armor, and wielding only the nearest sword she could grab.  Friggin¡¯ hell, all of my current abilities are area of effect.  If I tried to help Triorgraiz, I¡¯d get her killed.  I¡¯m so used to having to do things solo!  I can¡¯t protect allies locked in single combat!  She stripped half of her armor to be able to better field-dress the wounds of her subordinates, so she¡¯s too vulnerable for me to even aid.  If I tried to intervene with my sloppy swordsmanship, I¡¯d similarly likely get her distracted and killed.  This, this just, I¡ª.  I¡ª.  Grr!


    Shouting, I plead, ¡°Lil, cover the wounded!  Sorry to ask this of you buddy.  FFS, are you nearby?  Ice walls when you can manage!¡±


    Despite having been working to kill these people only minutes ago, Lil immediately acts on my request.  He shields them with splayed wings, taking crossbow bolts, magical blasts, and even firearm shots to the face, and to his dactyl-leathers to prevent them from suffering any further.  I¡¯m sorry Lil buddy, please be okay.  I sniffle and blink back tears as I gulp back my feelings.


    What the hell can I do?  I, I¡¯m hesitating.  I don¡¯t know what to do.  Watching the swordplay unfold, Triorgraiz is agile, adept, and working out the few advantages she has, but Vorzog is heavily armored, stronger, and quite likely equally as skilled.  He might even have been able to act more skilled than Triorgraiz if he weren¡¯t hampered by his equipment.  He¡¯s beginning to weave spellwork, increasing his powers, while Triorgraiz is¡ª.  I gulp back more of my emotions.  She¡¯s using her spellwork to protect and enhance the resilience of the wounded.  She must be almost certain she¡¯s going to die, and she¡¯s using her final moments to protect her subordinates.  No.  No.


    I throw TK squares in the path of Vorzog¡¯s attacks, trying to trip him up, but he¡¯s so powerful that he¡¯s shattering them, only slowing slightly.  My tears stream forth as Vorzog¡¯s broadsword bites into Triorgraiz¡¯s shoulder, shatters her clavicle, and rends flesh and scales from the area of her neck down nearly to her pectoral ridge.  My TK square just barely reduces his momentum enough to prevent his strike from reaching her heart and lungs.


    The world slows as I engage my Steely Body spell¡¯s adamantite form once more, and LBBTKSL to intercept the next stroke of Vorzog¡¯s sword.  Taking the blow on my now near-invulnerable right forearm, I haul back as I backhand Vorzog away from Triorgraiz.  He only stumbles a few steps.  Glancing back, Triorgraiz lay bleeding out, gasping for breath, gulping down air.  She looks to be in incredible pain and Wrath decides to remind me of another reason to hate these people.


    Growling an order, I try to temper my ire, ¡°What does the name Leezahna Dimineros mean to you?¡±


    The fact that he pauses his battle stance to tap his chin and appear ponderous is as close as I could get to an advantage over someone so much more skilled right now.  My guts twist as Vorzog responds, ¡°Dimineros, Dimineros.  Oh, right, those traitors.  That pretty little thing?  Weren¡¯t my turn, so I let my boys have a bit of the spoils of war if you know what I mean.  Just barely clutching a¡ª.¡±


    Frostburn¡¯s blade enters and exits Vorzog¡¯s skull from beneath his chin, below his ornate helmet, before he can finish his sentence.  Or, an illusion of his skull, or a simulacrum of him.  I¡¯m uncertain, because he claps and whistles from nearby.


    Looking more closely at Vorzog as he struts perpendicular to me, hardly caring about my having slaughtered whatever he¡¯d been using, it¡¯s clear he¡¯s got powerful magical equipment.  The helm alone is made of carved bone and gilded horns from some cunning Fel creature.  Actually, I¡¯m almost certain it¡¯s from a Felcun, and an alpha Felcun at that.  Why is he walking away from me?  He¡¯s walking towards¡ª.  The wounded.


    As Vorzog grasps a weakened individual by driving his claws beneath their ribs, he hurls the wounded man at me, ripping their lungs, shattering their ribs, and evicerating them simultaneously.  As the wounded Draconiac man is dying in midair while sailing at me, he bursts into a column of hellish Fel fires.  It singes even my eyebrows, and painfully dries out my eyes, flashing brightly as the deadly flames lap up everything that could be fuel on the poor Draconiac.


    The helm¡¯s skull¡¯s eyes shone brightly with hellish fire when Vorzog activated this ability.  What¡¯s more, the skeleton of the Draconiac man, still blazing with hellish flames, Stands up and begins to attempt to gnaw at me.  It grapples me, preventing me from pursuing or subduing Vorzog as he picks up, slays, and throws more of the wounded subordinates at me.  When the fourth corpse becomes a skeleton, the first one finishes immolating away to ash.  Upon the fifth throw, the second one sizzles away to ash upon the breeze as well.  It seems he can only keep three hellish skeletons animated simultaneously, but he can just keep creating hellfire bombs out of people.


    It¡¯s taking all I have to keep Triorgraiz shielded from the heat of the Fel fires.  I know their cursed flames would all but ensure her demise.  I can¡¯t think straight, or get a moment¡¯s peace as Lil is now stuck attempting to heard wounded away from their own commander as Vorzog seeks them out to use them as hellish missiles of Fel fires.  Growling in frustration, I smash the skulls of two of the flaming Draconiac skeletons together, and use their now-disintegrating bodies to bludgeon the third that is attacking me, so that I have a moment¡¯s reprieve before the next load of bodies become skeletons.


    Unfurling the portable hole again, I telekinetically swipe a load of medical supplies into it, and carefully lower Triorgraiz into it, pleading, ¡°Save her!  Keep pressure on her wounds.  If you have an anesthetic poison breath, ease her pain, please.¡±


    Having to quickly fold back up the portable hole once more, in order to prevent the next series of explosions from cooking my protected prisoners, I spy the two male lovebirds from the latrine.  This is a gamble.  Calling out to them in a hoarse whisper as I doff my circlet, I request, ¡°Your commander, Triorgraiz, and your friend Chuck, and several others are in here.  Save them!  Get them off of the battlefield!  Hunter and Muse will protect you, the Hound and woman facing the ancient Blue outside.  Run!¡±


    Telepathically sending to Luni and Lucky, I get them to agree to protect the fleeing pair while all hell is breaking loose as a civil war breaks out amongst the subfactions.  Some of the ones previously allied with Vorzog are sickened at his actions, slaying and temporarily reanimating their compatriots.  Some are torn, being ordered to assault and slay wounded, others are on Triorgraiz¡¯s side or Zelshiz¡¯s side, plenty are fanatically loyal.  It¡¯s absolute chaos.  I can¡¯t tell who¡¯s fighting who, or for whom, at the moment.  It seems I sent those two away just in time.


    I don¡¯t know if Shlen can field-dress a wound, much less one that¡¯s as deep as the one on Triorgraiz.  Hopefully her subordinates can do so, if Luni buys them some time.  Maybe Lu can even perform some stop-bleeding song or something.  I have no idea the scope and limits of her powers.  I recognize psionic attack spellwork being crafted.  Crap.  As I feel an immense ripple in the ground, as of some concussive force striking the surface of the land outside the fortress, I could swear I hear the word, ¡°Mercy,¡± across one of the telepathic wavelengths from outside as I¡¯m replacing my circlet.


    If I¡¯m guessing right, the Callipygian was just grounded, for perhaps the final time, and she caused a tremor, a minor earthquake.  Oh hey, those are my goggles over there, what¡¯s her name Zelshiz is looking into them.  What¡ª what¡¯s got her face so aghast?

 B 6 C 135: Lightcycle? Bootcycle?

    Sighing, I should really learn to pay attention to my own fights. My danger wraps tried to warn me, but the broadsword that came up beneath me like some sort of golf-swing catches me off-guard, and sends me sailing through the wall of the stables. Hurk. Oopf. I¡¯m still not a hundred percent from having been reincarnated. That knocked me for a hell of a loop. Jeebez, that stings even in adamantite-body form. Of course, there goes the Steely Body spell, in reaction to the strain of the damage it absorbed. Fricklefrack. Get it together Re¡ª.


    We are three, three are we, and we have no idea what we just avoided, only that it was deadly. We are two, taken down by precision blasts of magic from¡ª. We are one, and one is all we¡ª. Existing as a consciousness without a body is disconcerting, but it only lasts for an instant. Reforming in a space between buildings, out of the line of sight of all of the action, I draw a deep breath. Phew, okay, okay. Get it together Reggie. I¡¯ve got one, two, maybe three casts worth of adamantite shavings left for the Steely Body spell. Put it up, quickly, and do an estimate of the SP you¡¯ve used today.


    Let¡¯s see, there was twenty for rapidly blasting Rahjmeztus. There was twenty attempting to learn my frosty ray spell better at Laombigla. There was another twenty while trying to learn while trying to get Ephlomseestiph¡¯s attention. There were ten caged runes before I got interrupted by a boulder toss. Ten more afterwards that were then interrupted by a tail-swipe. Ten after that finally let me see the inner workings of the necrotic energy for the spell. I loosed about forty of those blasts inside of Laombigla, when I came back to life, and at the same time, spent forty-five SP on an Adamantite Body inside that ear canal. I spent forty five when Vorzog struck Triorgraiz, and another forty-five just now. Let¡¯s tally that, shall we?


    20 SP - rapid blast at Rahjmeztus


    20 SP - rapid blast at Laombigla


    20 SP - rapid blast at Ephlomseestiph


    10 SP - caged runes to figure out ¡®free¡¯ casting


    10 SP - again


    10 SP - after tails wipe


    40 SP - inside Laombigla


    45 SP - Adamantite Body inside Laombigla


    45 SP - Adamantite Body in reaction to Vorzog¡¯s attack on Triorgraiz


    45 SP - Adamantite Body after third bird


    265 SP. Okay, we¡¯re still pretty good. We could probably do another four hundred SP today if needbe. Phoo. Come on Reggie. Breathe air, breathe. Focus. Dangit, my best stuff is on the shelf. Area effects right now would add to the intense chaos, and my single target stuff isn¡¯t really worth casting without the metamagical empowerment from the runic clips. And of course, here comes trouble. Oof. The animated, *not piloted,* magitek mecha swings through my area blindly, managing to knock me about as stone and wood splinter and shatter, flying everywhere.


    At least it can¡¯t fire its mana cannons, but ow, holy hell that hurt. So much for my Adamantite Body recast. Here goes another one, and crap, I felt my pouch, that¡¯s the last of my adamantite shavings, and now I¡¯m at three hundred ten SP spent. Can I alter the shape I¡¯m about to change into? I¡¯d been heading towards the plush otter with the inventory stomach. It¡¯s really not a form I¡¯d feel comfortable bringing into such a chaotic combat. No, the form I need now is my chimaeric lycanthrope. Can we do it? Focus. Focus Reggie, focus. Glide away, buy a moment.


    The form is about to kick in, and it¡¯s going to go on a heck of a long cooldown kicking in, in such a short time, if we use it for longer than a few minutes. Come on, come on. Be the lycanthrope, be the¡ª. Yes! I can tell I¡¯m the lycanthrope, because first of all, I¡¯m not a giant plushie otter right now, secondly, I¡¯m seemingly floating around in what to outsiders would appear to be ordinary RS2 form with no horns or tail. Oh that feels nice. This form has its own health pool, and well-sculpted, practiced muscles, and it¡¯s in tip top condition. Gosh that feels so much better. I think my adamantite enchantment is paused, somehow only on my previous form. Weird. Still, the crazy levels of regeneration we were able to bake into this form are incredible. I wish this was my base form honestly. It¡¯s too powerful though. I¡¯d be comatose between engagements.


    Hm, more chaos ensuing on the battlefield. There are strange glowing blue lines on the ground, zipping about. They¡¯re, huh, in response to the super-speedy dashing about of Adkre apparently. Did Adkre just dash between my legs beneath me? Woah! It¡¯s some sort of magic tied to their boots. Holy crap, I just barely got to the side of that in time. The line of light became a ten foot high wall of impenetrable, unbreakable neon blue energy out of nowhere. That could have bisected me! It¡¯s a lot like the cage of force that was used to ensnare Kinzul.


    Ow. What the? Ow. What is¡ª? Ow. What the hell? Adkre is zipping around, rolling some sort of dice in an enclosed globe, or something, cheating with a magnetic field to make them keep coming up the same number. Moreover, Adkre is sniping me with little necrotic bolts, while a tiny gem floating around their head seems to snipe me with some radiant-energy laser in response to each of those blasts. Well, at least I have an answer to that, and I haven¡¯t even used it today. Nice. Time to swap out to number two on the QCR, and engage the Necrometal Chestplate¡¯s necrotic aura. It dampens radiant energies, and nearly nullifies necrotic energies as it intercepts half of them, to provide me with a minor barrier against the other half. Or something like that anyway.


    Hm, Adkre¡¯s boots seem to be out of magic. Apparently that wall is a once-a-day thing, unless they¡¯ve done it previously during the day. They still glow brightly, and seem to allow Adkre to hover in any direction, as if attached to any surface, but they¡¯re no longer trailing that blue line. Wait, Adkre¡¯s cloak, it¡¯s made of gryphon feathers, and they¡¯re sparking with lightning. Arcs of energy are snapping between the tips of the feathers, and it''s almost as if a line of wispy dark clouds forms between me and Adkre. Oh no. They¡¯re going to¡ª. Argh!


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    Doubling over in pain, I cough up bloody mucus, and charred flesh bits. Staggering to my feet, I swipe uselessly towards where Adkre dances nearby, the location they landed in after zooming through me as a lightning bolt with their cloak. I rattle my skull, trying to orient myself, and thankfully my regeneration restores my senses relatively quickly. Despite being painful, it didn¡¯t really dip into my health pool all that much. What¡¯s that scepter that Adkre is¡ª? Ow! Mother of¡ª! Ow! Ow! It just¡ª! Ow! There¡¯s no end to it! Ow, holy¡ª. Ow!


    The scepter keeps blasting away at me, loosing thundrous booms, knocking me about as Adkre zips around me, keeping me staggered. Occasionally their little orbiting gemstone fires off a little radiant laser at me. To my surprise, the person that comes to my rescue is Zelshiz. She approaches me, and activates some mana to empower something through her collar. Out of nowhere, we¡¯re surrounded by a crystalline field, similar in essence to the wall of light erected by Adkre earlier, though translucent. It seems nearly indestructible. Nearly. Adkre¡¯s assault of unceasing blasts is beginning to form cracks in it already.


    My new companion asks, ¡°Are you alright? Can you tell the Red to ferry the wounded away, while you come to face Vorzog with me?¡±


    Nodding, I cough as I regain my composure, regenerating once more, my bones begin un-breaking, binding and mending themselves. My bruises begin to slowly disappear, and I offer a hand to clasp Zelshiz¡¯s. She takes mine firmly, and I doff my circlet in order to relay the request to Lil to ferry away the wounded. She hands me my adamantite goggles, for which I¡¯m immensely grateful, and she takes one step to one side as Adkre is zipping around us in circles, placing the barrier centered on her, directly in Adkre¡¯s path.


    I can¡¯t help giggling when Adkre rams facefirst into the barrier, finishing shattering it, but nearly knocking themselves out cold. Seizing my chance, I knock the scepter away from Adkre towards Zelshiz, and engage my lycanthropy for the first time. With all the hellfire going about, I don¡¯t want to have the fur of a cat form right now. Similarly, with Draconiacs trained to hunt and slay other Draconiacs, and dragons, I don¡¯t want to engage my draconic lycanthrope form. I guess we¡¯re a giant bipedal landshark today. Here in the streets of Vorzog¡¯s Keep, we are a shark. You know you¡¯re referring to yourself as we a lot today Reggie. I know I know. Shush. Heh.


    With my new, massive, clawed-yet-finned limbs, I grip Adkre just before they regain their composure and senses. This uh, this could get pretty gruesome. Swatting away the annoying laser-firing gemstone, I put half of Adkre into my enormous mouth. Before I can bite down, I¡¯m surprised as Adkre looses a breath weapon from their helm. Sort of. I can sense psionic vibrations emanating in a conical shape from the helm. I should have, koff, put the psionic aegis enchantment, koff, on something I could wear in this form. I also should have put the circlet back on, regardless. I¡¯m temporarily stunned, and drop Adkre from my grip. Their griffon-feathered cloak snags on one of my enormous teeth, and they¡¯re forced to abandon it as they slip away.


    I proably should have made note of it before, but the enchanted helm Adkre is wearing really makes my eyes want to avoid viewing it. Their helm is one of harsh, odd angular shapes that come together into the shape of some manner of aberrant dragon skull. It seems to shift and twist while being gazed upon, without moving at all. Similarly, Adkre¡¯s scales, beneath their armor, have strange, shifting, fractal-like patterns that appear to move without moving. Blurgh. Of course they have some sort of psionic attack, when they¡¯re represented in non-Euclidean geometry, from some far realm of eldritch abominations and aberrant horrors.


    I only just now notice Adkre arguing with themselves, ¡°We should run. No we have them on the ropes! You¡¯re a fool. You¡¯re a weakling! Retrieve the scepter of blasting, they were unable to counter it. Zelshiz is strong, if she wants, she could make it hell to get the scepter back. Then kill him, kill Zelshiz! She¡¯s our ally. He¡¯s a traitor, Zelshiz is a traitor!¡±


    I blink several times as Adkre zips side to side while arguing with themselves. I make sure to carefully pull the electrically sparking cloak off of my fangs. Rolling up their cloak, and tucking it away in one of several multi-dimensional bags, I begin inching away, in no rush to feel another psionic blast of their helm¡¯s breath-weapon-like power. Zelshiz motions to me while Adkre is seemingly distracted with themselves. Nodding, I follow Zelshiz back towards the source of the sounds of clashing and chaos.


    I¡¯m a bit confused at the alternating pronouns being used for Zelshiz, but then again, they are a bit burly femme, or maybe they¡¯re a bit smoother, softer masculine? Huh. They might be genderfluid, or bigender, or something. Not really the time to worry about that right now though, is it Reggie? No, I suppose not.


    Oh my friggin¡¯ heavens. The utter devastation. There¡¯s so many piles of ash. Vorzog is a complete maniac. There are so many spells being slung around, as more and more of the elite forces join from the barracks, or inside the main keep. Vorzog seems happy, ecstatic, euphoric even, to pick up and use allies as a shield against any incoming spells or attacks, and then launch the dying ally as a hellfire missile that becomes a skeleton. Even still, with Vorzog seemingly as a subfaction all his own, there are other groups fighting amongst themselves, or with each other, occasionally trading blows or spells with yet *other* groups beyond the ones they seem to be locked in battle with.


    Whispering to Zelshiz, I ask, ¡°How do I tell who to save?¡±


    Shaking their head, they respond, ¡°Just tell the Red to evacuate all the wounded, we¡¯ll sort out who surrenders after. Please. Join me against Vorzog.¡±


    Oh, that makes sense, and is incredibly rational, perhaps even kind or compassionate. We need to get this bastard to stop senselessly slaughtering everyone and every thing. It seems like the more he uses the helm, the more necrotic energy drapes around him, and suffuses his veins. Checking on Zelshiz, their collar¡¯s weird crystalline barrier seems down for the count, likely for at least the day. I sigh, saddened that a wonderful, defensive artifact is limited to a single use in a given time frame.


    Of course, an item with seemingly limitless potential is incredibly evil, with potent drawbacks, like insanity, or perhaps control of the wearer. Why does it always seem like headwear is the most likely to have mind-altering curses? Reggie. Yep. I heard myself think it. Of course it¡¯s also enchanted with anti-telekinetic runework, like the rest of his gear, preventing it from being removed telekinetically, and similarly it¡¯s locked into place with other runework, unable to be removed by anyone other than him. Well Reggie, I guess it¡¯s time to go grapple the maniac. This is going to hurt.

 B 6 C 136: Yep, This Hurts

    I notice Adkre out of the corner of my eye, dashing around along rooftops and walls, abusing their ability to glide as if sticking to any surface. Further, they pull out a very-plain seeming harp, with very heavily enchanted strings. Recognizing the runework on one of the strings, as one of Tiktik¡¯s most powerful spells, I dive at Zelshiz, crying out, ¡°Get down!¡±


    When Adkre plucks the string I¡¯d been fretting about, I¡¯m only just barely atop Zelshiz. Burying Zelshiz in my semi-amphibious bulk, I take the brunt of a massive storm of fire that sweeps across the courtyard, decimating the battlefield, injuring or slaying another few dozen Draconiacs. Huff, phew. That hurt quite a bit, even with my resistances. Thankfully I¡¯m already recovering from it, and Zelshiz seems okay. Still, Adkre¡¯s about to pluck the rest of those strings. They¡¯re each once-per-day spells. If the others are in the same league of power, we could be in for trouble.


    Suddenly, it seems like a wave of pink mist rolls across the battlefield, and I¡¯m hugging Vorzog to me protectively, just like I should be. Wait, what? No. Kill Vorzog! Wait, no. Yes! Something¡¯s wrong here. Yes, he¡¯s an effing predator! Wait, Reggie, think. What¡¯s the last thing you remember? Um, I leapt to protect Vorzog from a firestorm. Why would you do that? Uh. Huh. No, you¡¯re right, that is weird. Try casting a small spell, and engaging that one runic clip that cleanses mind-altering effects. Oh, oh! Well, I mean. Vorzog is sitting here shivving and shanking me at the moment. Shouldn¡¯t I do something about that first? No, focus! Alright, alright, no need to shout at me. Me.


    Rattling my skull and shaking my head, I produce and empower the runes for prestidigitative legerdemain, in a futile effort to cleanse the clothing I¡¯ve burst through. I owe Chuck a new outfit after this. The embolsterment runic clip helps coat me in a thin film that absorbs the next shanking incoming from¡ª. That¡¯s not Vorzog. The mind-cleansing clip frees my mind of the confusing illusion. Zelshiz is trying to shank me, Vorzog is still over there atop a pile of bones. Only now he¡¯s giving a soliloquy. Funnily, the chaos in the rest of the courtyard is pretty much the same as it had been previously, before the pink confusion mist.


    Uh oh, Adkre¡¯s about to pluck another chord. Quickly, quicken another prestidigitative legerdemain in order to clean, cure, and embolster Zelshiz. Thank spoot for those runic clips being able to target allies. Zelshiz looks abashed, but my wounds are already starting to close, and I¡¯ve got quite a bit of blubber and muscle protecting my innards in this giant landshark form. It definitely friggin¡¯ hurt though.


    What the hell did Adkre just cast? It looked vaguely like¡ª. Like the weather control spell we used in Autumn Brook. Is the Worldstorm getting *closer*!? Holy effing crap. We¡¯ve got to take Adkre out. Wait, where¡¯d they¡ª. One of the strings was invisibility. Crap! Oh come the hell on. Focus Reggie, focus. The aura only shows where they casted the invisibility spell, not where they currently are. It masks all the visible¡ª. I know that doofus, shut up for a second. Take a deep whiff. Ugh, horf, bleugh. Why would you do that to me? Focus!


    Alright, alright already. Taking another deep whiff, I begin to play back the day in my mind, the last few minutes anyway. Diving into the non, into the absence of time, I begin developing scent profiles for everything and everyone around me since the point at which I became a hybridized chimaeric landshark lycanthrope. Adkre was nearby. Their scent has beta zed category fours, and quarrel zed category unknowns. That¡¯s incredibly distinctive. Hell, if nothing else, the scent that screws with my brain like knowledge of an eldritch horror lets me know I¡¯m going in the right direction. Alright, back to reality.


    Apologizing to my new ally, I hiss, ¡°I¡¯ve got to stop Adkre, I can smell where they went, but if we don¡¯t take them down in the next minute, everyone¡¯s going to die when the Worldstorm drops down atop us!¡±


    When Zelshiz¡¯s eyes fly wide, and I direct their gaze upwards, they nod quickly in agreement. Zelshiz is staying on task to take on Vorzog, but hopefully they manage to remain safe for the moment. I leap to the top of the stables so that I can get a cleaner scent profile, away from the gore and musty bone-dust scents of the courtyard. Come on, come on, big whiff. Lighter gases should travel upwards. Then again, they¡¯ve got crazy eldritch scent. Forget logic, just go with it. There. That direction. Plus, I can hear a slight whoosh, and something is disturbing ash, blowing bits of it in a more regular line than the rest of the breeze swirling about. That sound and motion must be Adkre¡¯s weird hovering boot movement.


    Adkre¡¯s wary that I¡¯ve returned, they might not realize that I can track them yet, but they¡¯re becoming more cautious, and shutting up their constant self-arguing. I don¡¯t have them pinned down yet, or even that great of an idea where they are, but I think I can herd them towards where I can corner them. Come on, tell me you¡¯ve never wanted to rip up hunks of stone and chuck boulders around. You can¡¯t, can you? Boulder fastballs that nearly atomize into stone dust spook the hell out of Adkre, I can tell. The effect is the one I¡¯d hoped to have, driving them in the opposite direction of where I¡¯m landing my tosses.


    Gazing up, the Worldstorm is getting dangerously low. Gulping, I try to calculate how long it¡¯s going to take to corner Adkre at this rate. Too long. Do I have anything else left in the tank? Friggin¡¯ hell. No, unless you count the fire empowered-rune knife. I can¡¯t even cast a fireball to enlarge with it, because I¡¯ve got FFS out from the staff¡¯s SP. Then again, I can layer down a massive cloud of gas. Then do that, doofus! I am already, I¡¯m breathing, exhaling combustible gas. Also make sure to fan it in the direction in which I¡¯m cornering Adkre. Duh. When I ignite it, if I toss the knife, heh, well, yeah. Fireworks ahoy matey.


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    Anyway. This might be overkill, sorry Adkre, you¡¯ve brought us too close to doom. I¡¯ve loosed a massive cloud of gas below. I truly hope Lil¡¯s been able to get all the wounded evacuated, because if Lil isn¡¯t¡ª. Okay, good. Lil can hear my thoughts. I need to keep Lil away from here, because even though balefire from a GSE shouldn¡¯t hurt him, the fact that I¡¯m coupling it with explosive gas, and an empowered-rune knife, might. Here goes.


    Begin tossing the knife as I¡¯m finishing the spell, and¡ª. Fwoosh, boom goes the dynamite as I call out, ¡°GSE Balefire!¡±


    Wheeheeheehee. I¡¯m so lucky this form has my resistances, and has a boatload of regeneration. I just cooked off half the dermis over my chest and face, and rocked myself with enough explosive force to crack my bones and send me flying all the way back to the center of the courtyard near the in-progress duel. I land on my back, groaning in pain as my bones begin to mend themselves, knitting slowly. My flesh regrows more quickly. The Worldstorm is no longer advancing, but it¡¯s still hanging relatively low over the keep. I reckon that anyone in the top two floors is probably dying right about now. Well, people inside are dying if there are any sections at all that aren¡¯t perfectly airtight at least.


    I¡¯m pretty certain that Adkre is likely dead, as a good eighth of the lesser domain is now aflame in balefire. Dusting myself off, I reorient myself on the chaos surrounding me. Vorzog is laughing maniacally, shouting something about pride of the Ice of Rage, alternatingly hissing out something in brain-melting Draconic. Zelshiz doesn¡¯t appear to be doing all that well against him, in part because he keeps dancing away to reach down and claim wounded allies as new hellfire missiles.


    It seems the death has to count as coming from Vorzog, or at least being in his grasp, or something similar, in order to trigger the skull¡¯s ability. That¡¯s one of the few downsides of the skull. I mean, the other is that he seems more and more like an addict while he¡¯s literally succumbing to insanity the more he uses it. If he wasn¡¯t insane already. Even while insane though, he continues to manage to utilize his mnemonic and craft runework. Oh gorram friggin¡¯ hell.


    Is that a¡ª. Well, I don¡¯t think we¡¯re going to have many survivors left in the courtyard. Vorzog is opening the sort of portal that summons a meteor. Awe hell. This is going to friggin¡¯ hurt. There¡¯s no Teuila here to even shatter a good sized chunk out of it to prevent ourselves from being flattened. I know I¡¯ll survive it, since I survived one long ago, well, two, well, one and a quarter, but it¡¯s still going to suck.


    Wait! I have a spell for that! Come on, come on, uh, ninety nine, down to ninety, times one and a half, a hundred thirty five¡ª. Ultra quickened dispellation! Counterspell! No ninth tier magics for you you son of a suckering mrgrgr! Huff, huff, phew. Crap and a halfsack in a hat jack. Holy handgrenades budmutt.


    Where, what, who¡ª. That¡¯s, that¡¯s exhausting, and¡ª. My eyes cross as I stagger side to side. That sort of adrenaline rush is, is, is¡ª. Blinking ferociously, I try to come to my senses. Think, focus on something easy to get you to think. Arithmetic? Sure. Uh, three twenties, three tens, a forty, four forty-fives, and one one-thirty-five is uh, four-hundred forty-five SP used up. Wait, five forty-fives, so four-hundred ninety used up. Okay, good, focus. We have a task to complete. Gnawing on my enormous fishy lips, I glance at the adamantite goggles that are too small for my giant shark head to wear. I rather badly want to check in on Teuila. If her task is going anywhere near as chaotically crazy as mine¡ª.


    If it is, there¡¯s nothing you can do about it til yours is done anyway. Her task is many, many miles from here. Huff. Sigh. I know you¡¯re right, but still. Oh, look. Good, good. FFS is getting their icy walls back up. Many had been destroyed in the earlier fracas. Now she¡¯s able to cut off groups of combatants from one another, and also deter Vorzog from being able to get to new victims, slowing his progress slightly.


    Calling out a bit childishly, I ask, ¡°Zelshiz, I hope you don¡¯t take offense, but may I cut in? Vorzog, may I have this dance?¡±


    Biting my lips, to prevent myself from laughing, shreds them with my enormous teeth. It¡¯s too hilarious though when Zelshiz daintily takes my proffered hand in order to be twirled away, out of the reach of Vorzog¡¯s next attack. I¡¯m not used to this form¡¯s combat capabilities, or really any sort of fighting style that I could put to use with it. Vorzog is hacking away at me, and I¡¯m mostly just disrupting his footing, and the fulcrum or leverage of his swings with telekinesis. I¡¯m occasionally landing solid jabs, slashes, and haymakers, but I¡¯m not Teuila. Even this monstrously powerful form is barely disorienting Vorzog on occasion.


    I recognize a footwork pattern employed by Ahliyui, one that I don¡¯t know how to capitalize on because it¡¯s so elegant, and Vorzog utilizes it to feint. As I¡¯m reacting in the wrong direction, Vorzig swipes to my side, where apparently Zelshiz had returned in order to aid me. No! Okay, okay, they¡¯re better armored, and were more prepared for the hit. Zelshiz is nowhere near as badly wounded as Triorgraiz was.


    I¡¯m, huff, just, huff, not good enough. I need to be trained to fight. I¡¯m doing my best to follow the guidance of my danger wraps, but that¡¯s mostly defensive, and even that, I¡¯m far bulkier than I¡¯m used to being. I waste tons of momentum, energy, and effort, attempting to follow the guidance of the danger wraps while still taking plenty of hits anyway. What I wouldn¡¯t do for a few months off to learn everything at my disposal, all the spells and abilities from all the books, and to finish categorizing the magic items, and all that. Ugh. Keep dreaming Reggie. I know, I know. Ow, oh crap. I¡¯m, koff. Run through my, koff, right lung. Of, koff, friggin¡¯ course. Wh-what¡¯s that magic traveling up his arm and blade?


    My eyes flash wide, terrified as petrakinetic magic travels up the haft, hilt, crossguard, and blade of Vorzog¡¯s broadsword. If, if I become a statue, and he shatters me, will this form regenerate? I built the forms to drop me to RS2 if they are bleeding out or have taken similar damage. If I¡¯m a statue though, I¡¯m not the organic me that the shapechanging is built around. Gulping, teary eyed with fear, I watch as the petrakinetic energy enters my chest. Yeah, this is going to hurt.

 B 6 C 137: Losing

    Wh¡ª what? Hah. Haha. Hahaha. I forgot about that runic clip. There were two stone and earth elemental related ones that I kept for myself. Their combined effects include ability to control stone or earth elementals, ability to meld into stone for brief periods, or even up to eight hours or something like that. They also include some minor stoneshaping, and the ability to root myself in position for a minute, sturdier than stone. Last, and most definitely not least, they render me immune to petratransmutive magic and abilities, petrification mostly, like from a basilisk or cockatrice.


    Why does Vorzog keep channeling the magic through me when he sees that it isn¡¯t working? I can definitely sense him pumping more mana and energy into it, spreading the effect¡ª. Oh no, Zelshiz! Turning to my side, I wrench the broadsword from Vorzog¡¯s grasp in a stroke of luck, only having meant to check on my ally. Zelshiz is indeed petrifying incredibly quickly, while the whole world appears to be in slow motion. Their face is one of abject terror as stone creeps over it, completing their transformation. I¡ª. I¡ª. Drawing forth Vorzog¡¯s blade from my own torso, I growl as Wrath bubbles up beneath my skin.


    Hacking away at my temporarily unarmed opponent, with no grace, no skills, simply overpowering brute force, I growl, ¡°This is for the Dimineros! This is for Leezahna! This is for Zelshiz!¡±


    Continuing to clobber Vorzog with his own sword, I trip him up with my telekinesis several of the times that he attempts to dodge, repeatedly driving him into the ground as he stumbles and topples. After a bit of this battering, and his skillful recovery, I manage to get into an advantageous position with more leverage, and knock him down hard enough that he can¡¯t scrabble away or stand. At this point, I¡¯m literally hammering him into the ground of the courtyard with his own blade. Wrath tries to raise further, to claim me as its own, but I struggle to keep my head clear enough to remain myself. I¡¯m forced to call out my titles to activate my Honoris Causa, in the hopes that my Latent will draw Wrath back inwards, to the core of my void-self.


    Shouting in a horrendous growl, I reiterate once more, ¡°I am Reggie Shellcracker! I¡¯m a Hero of the Onyx Dawn! I¡¯m an archmage Aliased Schism! And I! Am! The! Void Dragon Honoris Causa!¡±


    Void within me, grant me this boon, draw Wrath into your ceaseless Schism. Please. While we¡¯ve got this manifested though, there¡¯s two things to do. Rip, and tear. Flinging Vorzog¡¯s weapon high and away, far into the interior of his keep, I hear it shattering stone as it makes its way into the upper levels. Pounding, ripping, and tearing at Vorzog beneath me, with my limbs, and those of my manifested Void Dragon form, I also continually disorient him with both my voidbreath, and my lightning breath.


    It takes me some time to realize I¡¯ve separated the helm from the rest of Vorzog¡¯s armor, and that I¡¯m pulverizing it, along with Vorzog¡¯s head, freed from his shoulders, cradled within it. Sinking to my knees, I glance down at my ashen, bloody, finned, clawed hands. The fight drains out of me as I glance back towards the statue of Zelshiz. My limbs slump wearily to my sides.


    Wait, wait, I have dispellation, right? Is, is it an enchantment that¡¯s on Zelshiz? Glp. No. There¡¯s no lingering enchanted aura on Zelshiz. It was an instant transmutative effect that transformed them into a statue. There¡¯s nothing to dispel. The only thing I know of that could cure this are concoctions made from materials harvested from basilisks and cockatrices. I don¡¯t even know if those exist on Rayileklia. Gulping back a sob, I¡¯m sick of losing earnest people. Keeley Johnston might be dead already, since she was on borrowed time. Tiktik could be dying, because of the cursed wounds that she¡ª. Wait. Tiktik. She gave me a list of her spells. I, I¡¯ve held onto it like a memento, but, but it might actually¡ª.


    As I dig out the parchment with Tiktik¡¯s list of assets and spells, I¡¯m shaking with trepidation. Trying to maintain awareness of my limitations, I drop my landshark transformation. I also have to let loose the chimaeric lycanthrope transformation, slowly dropping from the lycanthrope RS2, down towards regular RS2. I nearly choke as I read Tiktik¡¯s assets list and come across the words: ¡°Fifth Rung: Moderate Cureall. Like the lesser one, but works on more things, even a few magical ailments, like negative transmutations. Being turned to stone, etcetera.¡±


    I sob aloud. I need to protect that statue. A spell exists that can cure Zelshiz. Crap, are the clouds getting heavier again? They¡¯re drooping, and I think a large pool of concentrated acid is going to fall from them, because Adkre messed with the enchantment in this region. I can even see a twister begin to start to spiral downwards. No no no no! I¡¯ve¡ª, I did a thing. Where is it¡ª. What was it? I learned¡ª. I learned¡ª. I learned a spell to control water. Out of fear of drowning, out of fear of losing my family and friends to floods and drowning. Clouds are water vapor, right? Acid still has to have H2O somewhere in its chemical makeup, right? If I move water, an aqueous solution, away from the rest of the chemical bonds that make up the acid, I¡¯m left with what? A crystalline mineral structure in a lot of cases.


    Gulping, I throw caution to the wind and levitate myself into the path of the heavily drooping, bulging cloud above me, with the twister forming only a dozen meters away. Focus, focus, how many runes was it? We¡¯re only in the mid to high four hundreds, we should be able to afford it either way. Oh, good, it¡¯s only a thirty-three rune spell, and it¡¯s elemental, so we can get it down to thirty SP, before the quickening cost drives it up to forty-five SP. Alright Reggie, it¡¯s time to pretend you¡¯re a rainmaker. It¡¯s time to pretend you¡¯re a superhero, as you fly around here, stopping the acid rain, making regular rain.


    It looks like everyone below is stunned. Yeah, they¡¯re stunned, as I work against the calamity of the Worldstorm to save them. Focus Reggie. The water control spell assumes basic water, you would need knowledge of atomic and chemical bonds to find the water within the molecules of acid. Thankfully, you have a sense that grants you exactly that. Your telekinetic senses, short range though they may be, provide you things like ionic charges, atomic bonds, molecular compounds, so that you know what is, and isn¡¯t grabbable with telekinesis.


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    I quiver with anticipation, gulping back my apprehension as I slowly draw more and more water from the massive acid bubble floating above me. It¡¯s slowly losing cohesion as a chemical molecular structure. The fluid is losing acidity, becoming pure water, while a solid is left behind. Pillowing a forming onyx crystalline structure with both the water that I¡¯m drawing from the area, and my own telekinesis, I continue to pull pure water from the clouds and surrounding acid bubbles.


    Oh FFS, you¡¯re wonderful, thank you. FFS is carefully extracting the statue of Zelshiz, evacuating it from beneath this, since I¡¯d have wanted that done either way. Lil, Lu, and Lucky are attending to prisoners and wounded alike, making sure they don¡¯t act up, or betray us. I¡¯ve almost got this done safely, almost, almost¡ª.


    The absolute audacity of these idiots. The remaining elite casters, some of whom seem to only just now be joining the battle from inside the main keep, have grouped up, and combined several massive spells at me. Thankfully, my psionic aegis circlet is back in place, so one of the spells, a terribly massive mindblast, is completely ineffective. Another is a massive swirling dragon conjured out of flame, complicating my water control with its evaporating efforts, though it does little more than annoy me as it bats me about when passing over me. Another spell though, brings the stupid magitek mecha into the air after me. The animated object is launched rapidly, far faster than it should be able to move.


    There¡¯s cries of fear when the survivors who¡¯d thought I might be saving their lives, are now scrabbling against walls of ice, bodies of companions, and whatever else lies in their path as they try to escape. Urgh. I can¡¯t create any more magics or conjure any more spells at the moment while I¡¯m focusing on this. If that thing hits me though, I could black out, or at the very least lose concentration on my water controlling spell. Oh, great, now my de-transformation goes off. Oh, huh. Haha. Hahaha. I forgot about that.


    As I finally fully return to RS2, I return to an RS2 form that has the Steely Body in its adamantite empowerment enchanted upon it. It also happens to have horns and a massive tail, a fact which will take some getting used to. I¡¯ve got the durability to buy a few seconds to figure out what to do here though at least. I¡¯m hoping that Lil and Lu have moved everyone towards the hole in the Worldstorm, so that they¡¯re not threatened by what¡¯s going on over here. FFS is apparently dispatching some justice amongst some of the rowdier ones that are fleeing towards the wounded, and the Triple L Squad. She¡¯s keeping the statue of Zelshiz safe.


    Oof. Stupid magitek mecha, ow. Zippity zappity this mecha and this lightning hurts like crappity! Fudgesickles, my new body, even under this defensive buff is not used to pain, or really anything. Focus, focus. Try to pick apart what¡¯s going on around you. There¡¯s nearly a hundred elite mages in that cluster. Many are wounded, or dead, but there¡¯s still quite a few dozen able-bodied casters, some of them fresh to the fight. A lot of magic is centered on one that has an incredibly ensorcelled robe, and is wearing an enchanted emerald necklace set within a silver chain. Wait, what¡¯s Lucky doing?


    Lucky dug through some walls in the area where I¡¯d loosed the balefire. It¡¯s like he¡¯s just a normal hound digging to bury bones. This is Lucky we¡¯re talking about though. He¡¯s not that simple, nor so foolish as to walk under an immediate threat, to play around. What are you doing Lucky my boy? I¡¯m tempted to take off the circlet to find out, but I¡¯m being targeted by dozens of elite mages, several whom seem to specialize in psionic attacks. Okay, okay, just, just focus. Keep dodging the animated magitek mecha.


    Unfortunately, the lightning striking us both does nothing to deter the magitek mecha, since it¡¯s not being piloted, and isn¡¯t alive, and is a nearly invulnerable enchanted series of hunks of metal. Is¡ª. Is Lucky walking sideways along the walls? My face contorts. Did he find Adkre¡¯s body, and, well, loot it? Should I just give up on rescuing anyone else stuck in this courtyard? It¡¯s mostly just people that want to kill me anyway, by the looks of it. Focus Reggie, if there¡¯s even one more person who wants to be saved by you, you owe it to them to at least try. Wh¡ª. Where is Lucky going now? He¡¯s headed towards all of those elite mages! Lucky they¡¯re dangerous!


    Glancing about, trying to time it right, I dodge towards the cluster of elite mages, barely skirting the edge of a thrust from the animated magitek mecha. I¡¯m drawing a massive cube of water, and a large onyx crystal along with me, as I continue separating the two. Out of nowhere, Lucky leaps towards me, and there¡¯s a blinding flash of light. I suddenly find myself standing on solid ground in the midst of a disoriented, and radiation-burned group of elite mages, while I see Lucky playfully swimming in the cube of water that I have following me. What the devil?


    No time to question it. Water cube? Douse the fire dragon. Giant crystal? I¡¯m sick of trying to carry you with telekinesis. Just drop on top of us right here. As the crystal falls and shatters on the group of elite mages, I find the one with the most intriguing enchanted equipment fleeing by utilizing some sort of method to blink into and out of existence. It¡¯s not teleportation, nor is it invisibility. It¡¯s more like, like they step into that elemental parallel dimension alongside our own for a few moments, then step back into this one. The main reason I know it¡¯s not invisibility or teleportation is that they seem to blink back into existence right where they last blinked out of it.


    The crystal shattering ends up scatters the elite mages, breaking several combined concentration effects. This, in turn, also drops the magitek mecha¡¯s frame in the midst of them. The crashing monolithic mass ends up causing even me to have to leap to the side to dodge its fall. Grumbling, I dust myself off as I rattle my head while trying to reorient myself and figure out what threats are left, and who might be willing to stop being a threat.


    Of course, my Adamantite Body enchantment is flickering already. I did get struck by lightning quite a few times while up there, and battered by a bunch of wind. Plus, I wasn¡¯t able to dodge every single thrust of the magitek mecha. Rolling my eyes, sighing, and shaking my head, I resolve to hopefully wrap this up without too many injuries to my primary body, since I¡¯m now low on runes, out of material reagents for my best defensive spell, and simply weary from a crazy day.


    Wait. What¡¯s this idiot doing with a chalice? She¡¯s rubbing a circle around the rim of the chalice, and whispering something. Huh, it¡¯s filling up with a blue liquid that shimmers beneath the lightning of the Worldstorm. Since your side is losing, one last drink before the end? W¡ª. Nope. I guess not. This is not at all what I was expecting to happen here. Jeeze. Really lady? Welp, I guess it ain¡¯t over til the¡ª. That¡¯s just rude, doubly rude in this case.

 B 6 C 138: Loot, Not Lute

    A quite-valuable-seeming enchanted object, a drinking vessel specifically, is what my senses are currently locked onto. I¡¯m not one for fancy dinnerware or anything, its gold rims don¡¯t appeal to me, but it¡¯s heavily ensorcelled. Yoink. There¡¯s definitely still enchantment in that chalice, a strong conjuration effect that seems to refill over time, likely per day or week. I snag the chalice as the transforming Draconiac woman drops it. Her limbs are now too big, in ways she¡¯s unused to, for her to be able to grip something so small and delicate.


    I¡¯m definitely tossing this artifact into an interdimensional bag space. Hopefully I can figure out how to get it to produce this potion again. This previously yellow-scaled Draconiac woman, is now an adult-edging-onto-ancient Blue. That is, she¡¯s a dragon, and no longer a Draconiac. Gauging by the massive transmutation aura plastered across the entirety of her form, it¡¯s a temporary shapechange, of about maybe an hour.


    Still, an hour per week or day of being able to be a mighty Blue? That¡¯s a hell of a trick. Conjuring a manifestation of a massively powerful transmutation potion. Huh. Who¡¯da thunk? Where¡¯d Lucky get off to? Oh, hah. Hahaha. Thanks boy. That answers my question.


    Divebombing out of the cube of water that I¡¯d still been floating around through my water controlling spell, in order to quell the fire chasing me around, Lucky lands on the lovely Blue. His teeth grip her neck as he positions himself between her shoulderblades, pressing outwards on her scapula, preventing her from taking flight. When the Blue is grounded, Lucky shreds her wings, and she roars in pain.


    The Blue attempts to loose its breath weapon at me, and would very much kill its wounded or sneaking allies nearby if I don¡¯t react quickly. Pulling out the good old QCR number four, I draw all of the electricity from her breath to me, while pushing outward with my internal electrokinesis. Ow, ow, ow. Still tender, still sore. All of my organs and muscles are new, as this body was freshly made for me, while my previous body was disintegrated. I *have* to do this though, I have to endure it.


    Maintaining the spin of my temporary electromagnetic shield, counter to the direction of the spin of the forming twister, I leap and fly up towards the twister while wearing the Wyverium chestplate and holding my breath. This, like many things today, is probably going to hurt. Hurling myself into the eye of the nearly-formed tornado, I feel myself whipped and whirled about.


    I¡¯m left sickeningly dizzied, and I¡¯d be horfing if I could even tell which direction my stomach was in from my mouth. Focus Reggie, you have a power for exactly this. It roots you in position, no matter where you are. There, now that you¡¯re oriented, centered, and locked in place, focus on all this electrical energy amidst this wind. Create a high-pressure backdraft, spinning in the opposite direction of this low-pressure system attempting to touch down. Keep at it. Keep at it.


    There! Huff, huff, okay, quick, stop before you just form a twister going the opposite way that sucks up everything on the ground. Lose the four from the QCR, swapping to number five as usual. Shunt this massive shielding charge back upwards into the worldstorm, in a cone, pushing and evaporating as much as I can, to undo some of the damage Adkre had done with the weather controlling spell. Phew. Huff. Huff. Wow that¡¯s exhausting.


    I drop out of the sky, dropping control of my water controlling spell. My weariness ends up letting many, many thousands of gallons of ultra-pure water splash down heavily upon anyone left in the courtyard. I¡¯m pretty sure the water¡¯s likely knocking out anyone still trying to put up a fight. Holding my breath, I float down the last few feet, and I¡¯m perplexed. Where¡¯d the Blue go that Lucky was fighting? Wait. He¡¯s got a yellow-scaled Draconiac in his jaws. Huh. She looks dazed, and a little bloody, but nowhere near as badly as her dragon form would have been over the bit of time Lucky had available in order to tear into her.


    That means that the potion¡¯s enchantment is a sort of polymorphing that provides its own body overlapping and taking place of that of the drinker. Similar to how some of my forms have their own hitpoint pools. If I get knocked out of them, RS2 still has whatever health and buffs RS2 had when going into them. Huh, nifty. I kind of want to give this chalice to Pawn. If she ever gets into any trouble she can¡¯t handle with the suite of available abilities she¡¯d gotten from our orb-time saving Prinrin, then suddenly becoming a fully fledged, fully-breath-charged dragon ought to help out.


    This, huh. This was a lot more chaotic, and wild, than I was expecting, but somehow we¡¯re also better off than I expected. If we hadn¡¯t incited essentially a civil war, this would have gone down a much different way. Hm, FFS needs more SP from the staff to stick around. It¡¯s probably best to pay the cost for now, since we¡¯re not entirely certain if we¡¯re done, or if there are any surprises awaiting us in the keep itself.


    Also, to prevent the stupid magitek mecha from being used against me again, I¡¯m transforming into my otter form, and I¡¯m going to shunt the thing off into my inventory. Grumble grumble. Jerks realizing they can¡¯t pilot it, so swinging it about like a telekinetic club. Grumble grumble. Grr. Morons. Okay, to be fair, I¡¯d probably have done the same thing if I could provide that much animating force, or telekinetic lift.


    This might be a bit rude, but I¡¯m stripping all of these mages that are hopping and crawling around. I do not need to be blindsided by some artifact that rewinds the battle in their favor, or swaps their damaged and dead for our healthy states, or does any other number of crazy things. Plus, I can bind their hands with their clothes, so they can¡¯t produce their mnemonics or craft runes, unless they¡¯re capable of subtle-spell metamagical enhancement. The fewer of these jerks that can cast, or reach any sort of unseen items, the better.


    Hm, there¡¯s that scepter Adkre was using against me. Zelshiz must have dropped it before becoming petrified. Yoinking that. Definitely don¡¯t feel like having it used against me again, when all of my defenses are down. That thing could cave in my ribs, skull, eardrums, just about everything. My lycanthrope form took such a hellacious pounding, and every time I started to recover from something, I got hit with something else, up to and including getting my right lung run through yet again. I can tell you, my armpit gils did not like the feeling of my blood and various humors spilling out of them.


    Crap on a cracker, we¡¯ve got two raven-ports left, a few SP, and, like, nothing else. There are a few runic clip things still available, but we need to take the bangle off and let it sort out its overloaded runic circuits. Ugh, scan the courtyard, is there anyone left that isn¡¯t bound and gagged? Holy halefire double-barreled wrist-mounted crossbow, and fire.


    Yeah, I heard you you invisible idiot. There¡¯s so much water, you¡¯re sploshing with every step. Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯re just kneecaps. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re fine. Oh, hey, look, it¡¯s that goof that was trying to get away while blinking between realities. Annnd down you go. They¡¯ve got that silver neckchain and enchanted set of robes. It looks like they were recovering from Lucky slamming into them several times.


    I¡¯ve been at this, tying these fools up by hand and telekinetically, for thirty minutes! Alright, *now* do I have everyone stripped, bound, and gagged out here? Seems like it, and I¡¯ve a pile of enchanted trinkets too. Huh. What¡¯s our plan with prisoners, or even just, more survivors accepting mercy than just a couple? Can¡ª, can my inventory take in people? Gnawing on my lip, I fret about the implications, worried what Lil will think if I bring it up as a suggestion. Doffing my circlet, I try to hide my recent thought, so I can just get a gauge as to how everyone¡¯s feeling.


    Lucky is trotting around with the yellow Draconiac woman in his mouth like she¡¯s his new favorite stick, or other chew toy. Oof. At least she¡¯s alive, for now, I guess. Not that she necessarily accepted mercy. The Callipygian is being somewhat amicable, which I did not expect at all. I also didn¡¯t expect him to be a man. I guess anybody can have a big butt. That¡¯s my bad for assuming. Let¡¯s see, where are the other minds that I¡¯m looking for. Seriously, where the hell are Lil and Lu?


    Starting to panic, I jab the goggles onto my face, and quickly scribble a sign to re-center my scrying sensor for the security center. It won¡¯t do any good, since I didn¡¯t give more than one set of goggles to a single group right now. Did I give one to Lu for the Triple L Squad? I can¡¯t remember while I¡¯m this panicked. Diving into my thinkspace, terrified that I¡¯ve lost them somehow, I find Lu and Lil cuddled up, lazing happily against the tree atop our hill.


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    Shouting as I rush towards them, I call out, ¡°You butts! I was so worried! I took off the circlet and couldn¡¯t find your minds!¡±


    Blinking slowly, Lil yawns and offers, ¡°Sorry Rej. Was just kind of bored pal, mega mega mega bored since your brain was offline with that psychic blocker thingy. You didn¡¯t want us to keep fighting, so it¡¯s mostly just been sitting around chatting with weirdos that actually like Terrorzin. There¡¯s only so many sayings like, ¡®hail to the Ice of Rage,¡¯ I can take before my brain just shuts off, y¡¯know?¡±


    Sighing, I glance towards Luni, who nods confirmation, affirming she feels more or less the same. I can¡¯t exactly blame them for that. I admit, I probably overreacted. Still, I¡¯d have felt better if they had been able to hear and respond to my mental monologue right away when I took off the circlet. I suppose that¡¯s a bit full of myself to expect them to be listening out for when my brain goes from off to on.


    Despite me starting to get a bit down on myself, Luni rebutts, ¡°No sweetie, we could have been, and should have been. Today just did not go at all like how it was planned. It¡¯s still not even close to noon. What sort of magic and plans are you working on right now? What¡¯s next?¡±


    Blushing as Luni presses her telepathic avatar¡¯s curves tightly up against my avatar, I try to remember what my plans were. Oh, right, I answer, ¡°I¡¯m going to, um, see if maybe¡ª. I¡¯m starting another transformation, one I was going to go into earlier, but didn¡¯t. It¡ª. We still need to check out the keep, see if there are any subterranean levels, or anything that survived that¡¯s hostile in the levels that got hit when the Worldstorm descended. Y¡¯think Lil¡¯s up for exploring a spooky, acid-soaked keep?¡±


    Perking up, Lil quips, ¡°Am I!?¡±


    The two of us can¡¯t help grinning at Lil¡¯s jubilant nature. Luni and I hug tightly via our telepathic avatars as I continue rounding up fallen or surrendered foes. Lucky trots into my mindscape while I¡¯m busying myself with this, and has his telepathic avatar depicted as if it were equipped with his magic scarf. Lucky fishes about in his scarf, with the magical hands of the frayed ends, and presents several strings to Luni¡¯s avatar. Oh. Oh wow. I catch up to the pair in meatspace.


    Sure enough, Lucky definitely found and looted Adkre. Lucky¡¯s wearing the boot-coverings that produce the weird neon blue, and allow him to hover. Lucky¡¯s handing over a bunch of heavily enchanted harp strings to Luni. My son is also wearing something I think I spied under Adkre¡¯s armor, though it was hard to tell with that weird, shifting, aberrant nature to their scales. It¡¯s a golden disk on a fine gold chain. The golden disk is surrounded by its own circular platter of emerald, and that itself is yet surrounded by a halo of gold. It seems to be enchanted with a shallow pool of SP that recharges daily, and has some movement effects. Examining its aura, and runework, I find very familiar runes, some of which are on my own¡ª. I drop to my knees and wrap my arms around Lucky.


    Sobbing, I¡¯m so glad he found that disk. Tears stream forth unbidden, but I can¡¯t help it. The bearer of that disk, and everyone they deem friendly within thirty feet, can breathe water, and swim through any strength of current, as if it were still water. I sob and weep openly. More and more of these items are surfacing that could have saved our family, that could have saved so many people on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Lucky is supposed to be Lao¡¯s hunter hound. He needs to always wear that disk, never take it off, and be reunited with her. He needs to never leave her side, ever again. I continue kissing Lucky¡¯s snout and the bridge of his nose while crying and hugging his neck.


    It¡¯s not like Luni is silent either as she hears my mental monologue. She gasped, and then hiccuped as she held back a sob. Now she¡¯s weeping silently next to me as she rests a hand on my shoulder. Still, trying to take her mind off of the same sadness that I want to escape right now, I offer several things to Luni.


    Gulping back my sadness, blinking back tears, I turn to Lu while fishing out certain magical items I¡¯d found. I hand over the silver chain that¡¯s set with the emerald, and the incredibly gorgeous, heavily ensorcelled robes that I found. My Anchor flashes me a loving smile and half shakes her head with faux exasperation. She still accepts the magical equipment, but is rolling her eyes playfully at me for trying to distract her with gifts.


    Sighing, I know of at least three other fairly powerful magic items that were used against me, two of which I want to make sure get destroyed. The hellfire skeleton helmet, and the psionic aberrant dragon helmet both need to be destroyed. They¡¯re incredibly obviously cursed. The second one fractured Adkre¡¯s personality, making them argue with themselves in a manner that even I could sense was more than just coping mechanisms. The hellfire skeleton helmet seemed to be corrupting Vorzog the more he used it, seemingly making him desire nothing more than to use it more and more. I think honestly that it¡¯s one of the only reasons that I beat him. By the end of the fight, it¡¯s like he was an addict with his gaze darting around searching for a fix. He was too distracted to focus on defending himself from my final assault since his gaze couldn¡¯t find any wounded allies to toss, due to FFS¡¯s ice walls.


    The odd, floating, orbital-laser-firing gemstone that Adkre had been using is somewhere near the area that I destroyed with balefire. I don¡¯t really care whether it gets found or not, either by us, or by our foes. It¡¯s a tiny advantage for whomever has it, but meh. This cape, and this chalice though. Even just once per day, their abilities are incredible. I really don¡¯t want to be run-through by someone turning into lightning again, so I don¡¯t want this lightning-gryphon cape to fall into enemy hands. I want to give this chalice to Pawn, and have her use it to create the specific potion that transforms its imbiber into a dragon whenever she¡¯s in need.


    Oh, this scepter. It¡¯s unlimited thunder, or sonic damage. This goes to Lu too. I almost want to giggle at the idea of her with it, since she also has sonic-enhancing equipment and abilities. Luni getting equipment that falls under her specialty is almost perfect in a sense. She¡¯s the mistress of waves, soundwaves mostly. Lu snorts at my brain calling her a mistress of anything, due to the implications of the word. I glare at her suspiciously, but she quickly avoids my gaze and pretends to whistle. Sure Lu, real smooth. Anyway, it¡¯s still neat to find things that we might be able to swap the binding over to the Shellcracker soul relatively quickly, now that I¡¯m learning more about magic items. Well, things with dead prior owners thankfully don¡¯t have any special requirements, a new user simply attunes the item to their will.


    Then there¡¯s the perfect bonus of Lucky having new armor that makes him, and those near him, immune to frightening mental effects. It couples well with him also now having an aura, or radius of area in which he provides the ability to breathe water, and swim effortlessly. I think there¡¯s a pennant, a weird banner thing, back at Solace, that Lucky might be able to use, with his scarf. It lets those near the wielder see invisible creatures or something like that. I¡¯ll have to figure it out later. Thankfully Lucky apparently dragged Triorgraiz¡¯s mount out here with the rest of the wounded, or maybe Lil did.


    Anyway, Lucky, Lu, and FFS can handle it out here. Let¡¯s help Lil check out the keep. I rush towards the keep in order to catch up with Lil. Ugh, poor Lil. It looks like he¡¯s caught in some sort of psionic emblem trap. The thing literally has its claws in his brain. Fudge, do I have enough S P to dispel it? Hm, I can just destroy the glyph. Heading back towards the entrance, I pick up a long-poled warhammer dropped by one of the many Draconiacs. Now suitably equipped for smashing, I return to free Lil from the magical trap. Shattering the glyphed tile with the offending enchantment thankfully frees my best buddy, so I flash him a smile, and motion to his invisible goggles.


    Even if Lil can¡¯t see auras as well as he could on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, he¡¯s got amazing observational skills, and his powerful analysis skill. He should be able to see the runes themselves, even if they¡¯re microscopically carved, with those goggles of his. They magnify vision up to like a hundred times or something ridiculous. Since I don¡¯t want to accidentally get caught permanently in a psionic trap, I re-equip my psychic-aegis-enchanted circlet, sadly cutting myself off from my beloved telepathic bonds once more.


    Lil and I continue exploring, room by room, one or the other of us pointing out dangerous glyphs that I shatter from a distance with the warhammer. I don¡¯t even need to be personally wielding the hammer, since I just float it telekinetically in range for a strike from a dozen meters away or so. There is a *lot* of ruined magical reagents in here, which sucks a bit. There¡¯s gem-binding paste, gem dust, powdered bone of dragon and other powerful magical creatures, various herbs, minerals, organs from supernatural foes, ectoplasm, and all sorts of things, and it¡¯s all ruined by having been washed through by acid. If I felt like taking a few days, I could maybe salvage a fair amount of it, but I¡¯m neither that patient, nor free for that much time to spend on such triviality.


    Okay Reggie, think for a moment. What are the odds that something survived in here? These floors are looking more and more damaged, as we get to the level where the Worldstorm touched down upon. Anything still up here would have had to have been incredibly durable. Something like, oh, that incredibly cursed-looking gong with a demon-face upon it. Nope. Nope nope nope.


    As Lil heads towards it, I hiss, ¡°Lil, get the hell away from that. Can¡¯t you¡ª. F@(k.¡±

 B 6 C 139: Split

    There¡¯s a pink, smokish aura from the gong that digs into Lil¡¯s eyes. No. No no no no no! Is it an enchantment? Can I dispel it? I don¡¯t see any runework! It¡¯s more like a spirit reaching out¡ª, glp. A spirit reaching out and possessing Lil, making him approach the gong to ring it. If¡ª, if that¡¯s a spirit in the gong, and it¡¯s already possessing Lil partially¡ª. What happens when it¡¯s completely freed? Does it materialize a body, manifesting it for itself? Or, glp¡ª. Or does it finish fully possessing the host?


    My world begins to shatter, time breaks into pieces as Lil continues trotting all the more hastily towards the gong. As I rush to catch up, Lil headbutts the gong before I can even get within a few paces of him. The massive wash of smoky spiritual aura that encompasses him answers my prior questions. It answers and confirms my worst fears. The only thing I can think to do in the moment is to smash and shatter the majority of this gong, at least its frame, as Lil begins to turn upon me, grinning maliciously.


    Gulping, I can¡¯t help giving in to the cliche as I shout something that never works, ¡°No, no no no no! Lil, Lil buddy, snap out of it! Come on pal, come to your senses. Kick that thing out!¡±


    Dodging a swipe of Lil¡¯s fore-claws, I shout once more, ¡°Lil, come on! Take control! Take control, and cast that pinkish punk-ish, hellhole smoke rollin¡¯ on in, back out of you!¡±


    This¡ª, glp, this isn¡¯t working. Worse, a voice I recognize calls out through Lil¡¯s mouth, ¡°What¡¯s the matter dance partner? I thought you asked to cut in.¡±


    Vorzog? In, wh-what? But, but, but¡ª. How? Focus Reggie, genre senses. Right. The gong, it¡¯s a phylactery. Launching myself at the gong, I begin laying into it, hammering away at the framework, unable to more than lightly dent the mass of bronzeish metal itself. I ignore my danger wraps¡¯ sensory warnings, hoping to find a way to shatter this thing and free Lil, before too late. Lil¡¯s head is gyrating and vibrating crazily, as if he¡¯s got a split personality that he¡¯s fighting with almost physically over control of his body.


    No, no no no no! If Vorzog wanted revenge, if he wanted to hurt me, this is it. This is the way. Taking Lil from me, taking and corrupting my best buddy, and turning him against me, using him to attack me. Choking back sobs, I can¡¯t afford to¡ª Oof! Koff, koff. I forgot how strong Lil is, especially with that storming girdle. What, what¡¯s going on? Something¡¯s happening. Something¡¯s draining from me after the impact.


    Dazed from slamming facefirst sideways into the wall, coughing from the impact of Lil¡¯s claws shattering my right ribs yet again, I stagger to my feet, trying to make sense of what my senses are sensing. Blargh. Brain, redundant, hurt. Can¡¯t, can¡¯t dodge in time! Horf! I¡¯m uppercut, sent sailing towards the ceiling, and barely avoid having my skull caved in by the ceiling as I tilt in midair, slamming only lightly up against it as I hit the apex of my climb. Another point of contact from Lil, and something else is draining, something¡¯s happening. I¡ª, I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t think. I can¡¯t orient myself.


    Vorzog nearly decapitated me with that earlier uppercut. Now my neck is nearly split and snapped sideways by a haymaker from Lil to my chin, knocking my helmet and circlet off. I¡¯m sent spinning and reeling. I end up skidding on my back across the floor, coughing and spitting up blood. More, more is leaving me, I don¡¯t know what. What am I missing? What, what don¡¯t I remember having? What did I use? I, I had powers, right? I¡¯m, I¡¯m just some humanoid, with some magic gear. How did I get tossed into the deep end of a war with dragonkind? Something is wrong. That¡¯s not right. I¡¯m, I¡¯m married to someone. She wouldn¡¯t have done that. She wouldn¡¯t have sent me to die senselessly, unable to defend myself.


    How did I defend myself? Shouldn¡¯t I have some sort of abilities, or powers? I¡ª. Spells, enchanting, shapechanging, that¡¯s right. I had those things. That¡¯s how I infiltrated the keep. Why don¡¯t I remember them? What¡¯s going on? Wait. Oh no. What about dragonforce? That¡¯s a thing I needed, right? Do I still have that? Hooooof!


    Blurp. I vomit a torrent of blood as Lil drives his dominant claw into my stomach. Gushing blood, and crying, I fight to stagger away, off of Lil¡¯s limb. Wait, brain, no, don¡¯t do this, please. Please don¡¯t do this. Don¡¯t blame Lil, don¡¯t think of it as Lil¡¯s limb. Remember, it¡¯s Vorzog. Right, right. I, I don¡¯t get it. My muscles feel weaker, I can¡¯t sense any abilities, or figure out how to make magic, or anything. Lil looks more powerful by the second. What¡¯s¡ª.


    Vorzog is draining me, my skills, spells, powers, abilities, probably even stats and levels, maybe even memories, in order to gain an even stronger hold over Lil. He¡¯s turning every bit of me into some sort of energy that lets him oppress or suppress Lil further. If Vorzog finishes me, he will completely subsume Lil¡¯s will, trapping, or finishing off Lil¡¯s consciousness, forever.


    My limbs quiver with effort as I drag myself away from Vorzog-Lil. I struggle in an attempt to stand, and make it to a mostly hunched crawl. It doesn¡¯t last long though. Slumping, I tumble after limping, and drag myself once more. I¡¯m little more than a bloody lump, leaving a gory smear across the floor of this room. Every bit of motion is a hellish agony as I struggle against the worst weakness I¡¯ve ever felt. My muscles quiver under the strain of even moving the slightest bit of me.


    Didn¡¯t, didn¡¯t I have things? Items, magic items, stuff. How. How did they work? Vorzog¡¯s getting closer, oh god. Vorzog has Lil, and he¡¯s going to get me, and he¡¯ll have Lil forever because of my weakness. He sneers while stalking me slowly, toying with me the way a cat plays with a half-dead mouse. I double over from my already hunched position to vomit another torrent of blood. My vision crosses and blurs no matter how hard I try to focus. I prop myself against a wall, trying to fight and struggle to my feet. I can¡¯t, can¡¯t just keep crawling, and dragging.


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    Just¡ª, just head, head towards, a, a trap, anything. A commanding voice reaches my psyche, ¡°Sweetie, you¡¯ve gotta split. Jump out the window, now!¡±


    Wh-what? Someone I trust. Something, a silhouette plays a shaky, staticy image in my mind. It¡¯s a flipbook, or stop motion animation, a memory. The person is cheeky. Do what they say when they say it. Bob with bangs. Smiling face. Trust. Believe. Trust. Dragging myself up the edge of the stone wall to the windowsill, the stained glass broken and shattered from the earlier storm, I hurl myself out into the open sky, eleven stories off the ground, as Vorzog-Lil observes me with bemusement.


    Plummeting through the sky towards the ground, I should react somehow, I should know something, somehow, do something. Memories, magic, abilities, everything is drained. Didn¡¯t I have something for situations like this? I can¡¯t help hyperventilating in fear. What looks like a river of lightning approaches me. Lightning strikes me. I think.


    I find myself surprised that I¡¯m not dead from the lightning strike. Or, whatever is now carrying me. It¡¯s¡ª, it¡¯s a someone, not a thing. She¡¯s a someone. Someone precious, loving, protective. I know her. I know this. She gazes at me with worry, fear and sadness in her eyes. She¡¯s choking back tears, and gulping down her sobs. She needs me to remember. Someone that needs me to remember something. Luni!


    As we drift further from where Vorzog-Lil stands at the window of his keep, memories begin flooding back to me, but my powers, abilities, and stats do not. I limply curl into Luni¡¯s embrace, too tired, and hurt, to even cry. My limbs are too weary to even wrap around her, my savior, My Anchor. Oh Lil. Luni¡¯s beloved Lil, my best buddy, my adoptive son in law. No. No. I gain back just enough strength to cry, to sob my heart out.


    Vorzog-Lil shapeshifts, and leaps out the window, crashing down into a strong three-point landing, seemingly completely unfazed as he dusts himself off to begin pursuing us at a leisurely pace. His form is a combination of Lil¡¯s human shape, and his own Draconiac scaled visage. We¡¯re approaching the wounded. Lu, what are we doing? We¡¯re going to get people killed. Lil could just breathe fire on all of these wounded people. Sniffling, choking and sobbing, I try pushing myself out of Lu¡¯s embrace, begging her to stop.


    Pleading, I cry out, ¡°Lu, stop, please! We can¡¯t let him just kill everyone!¡±


    Desperate to not bring harm to others, I wriggle, and drop from Luni¡¯s embrace. She lands next to me and her voice seems to fritz as she coughs while she whispers, ¡°It¡¯s okay sweetie. Look. K¡ª. He¡¯s coming, and everything is going to be okay¡ª. K¡ª. He¡¯s going to take care of everything.¡±


    My gaze is frantic as it turns towards Luni in wide-eyed horror, momentarily believing she¡¯d set me up, that she¡¯s somehow on Vorzog-Lil¡¯s side. There¡¯s heartbreak in her eyes at the accusatory nature of my thoughts. She¡¯s pointing somewhere, at someone. Oh. Our son. Lucky. Lucky¡¯s coming, and everything is going to be okay. Lucky¡¯s going to take care of everything. Lucky sails through the air, and meets Vorzog-Lil head on. I, I can¡¯t watch. I can¡¯t bear it if one of them kills the other. Lu, what are you thinking?


    I crumple further inward on myself and sob, bawling my eyes out into my palms. Lucky begins engaging a slew of abilities, abilities that I¡¯d granted him. Lucky manifests an eighth tier monstrous mana construct, but his are special. Lucky calls into being three creatures that seem like male eagle-harpies. They¡¯re all endowed with seemingly enchanted platemail, and their shields and armor are adorned with sigils, symbols of faith, belief, strength in unity. My genre senses say that they¡¯re paladins of some unknown faith or deity.


    Wait. Paladins. Hellfire-skeletons? Undead? Phylactery? Lich. Phylactery. Lich, phylactery. Lucky you¡¯re a genius! Struggling against Lu¡¯s comforting hand that feels so heavy a weight atop my shoulders, I reach my full height, and fight every inch of myself for every last bit of energy I can muster. I spy FFS taking care of the prisoners, the wounded. That¡¯s quite an odd job for an elemental whose nature I usually rely on to cause carnage and chaos. It¡¯s also not what I need to pay attention to though. Every bit of me aching, I agonizingly slowly work to equip my holy halefire double-barreled wrist crossbow.


    My eyes cross, my vision doubles, and I wobble once more. I try to raise my arm, to take aim, but Luni stops me, shaking her head. What? But, but¡ª. She shakes her head and smiles softly at me as she whispers, ¡°Not yet, Hero, not yet. Just a little longer. You¡¯re so brave, and so good. You¡¯re so good. You always have been, and always will be. It¡¯s okay sweetie. I love you, Lucky and Lil do too. We¡¯ve all got this, always have, and always will.¡±


    I choke on a sob as I lean into Luni¡¯s embrace. My limbs quiver and quake with the strain of even existing. Gazing down, I even appear emaciated. I¡¯ve been drained of most everything. I¡ª, I need moisture, nutrients. I¡ª, hah, thank you Chuck. I could almost cry, no, I do cry, as I loose a few laughs, and begin eating soft, moist cheeses. Wow, these are fragrant, and have an incredibly strong flavor. I¡¯m suddenly feeling much more alert. I¡¯d almost think these were laced with cocaine or something to¡ª. Crap. Haha. No wonder Chuck seemed to be nearly dying on the toilet. Someone laced his cheese with stimulants, and perhaps laxatives. My guts burble incessantly, despite having no sort of gastric system to speak of.


    My body decides that it can¡¯t handle the chemical concoction lacing the cheese, and I loose up my sick once more, though with far less blood than the last few times. Gazing down at myself, I¡¯m surprised when I see talons covered in armor. They aren¡¯t mine, but it¡¯s a surprise that something has invaded my personal bubble so closely so quickly without me taking note of it until now. An eagle-like humanoid has landed before me. He makes squawking noises at me, but, as usual for Reggie Shellcracker, there¡¯s a language barrier to overcome. I sigh quietly to myself, unsure what exactly to do here. Luni nudges me, and nods towards the bird-man.


    I tip, and tumble into the bird-man¡¯s grasp, and begin to feel vitalized and invigorated. I don¡¯t think anything is really returning, but I feel healthier, and much-less like I¡¯m going to drop dead any moment from weariness and muscle-exhaustion. Perhaps he did remove some of the curses that Vorzog was able to layer upon me that prevented me from accessing some of my statistics or abilities though. At the very least, I¡¯m pretty certain I recall how to use my equipment again, and the majority of my magic items no longer seem to be mysteriously non-functional upon me.


    Despite the curative magics, my guts burble a bit, and I¡¯m caught burping up some disgusting gases and acidic, bile-like liquid. Loosing the grossness to my side, I find myself hoisted by the bird-man. I¡¯m still worried though. I don¡¯t know what or when I should be looking out for, in order to strike back against Vorzog. The bird-man flies us into a position where we can watch Lucky holding his own against Vorzog-Lil, as Vorzog attempts to learn and commandeer more and more of Lil¡¯s powers and abilities. We need to split Vorzog¡¯s essence from Lil in the next few moments, or I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll lose Lil forever.

 B 6 C 140: Mileage, Barrels

    The bird-man casts a spell on me, which leaves me floating in the air. I think perhaps he¡¯s allowed me to fly, or levitate, but my brain still isn¡¯t working out how to activate or use things other than my most basic muscles, and even those it¡¯s struggling with. Lucky, and his triple-paladin squad, take turns casting magic at Vorzog-Lil, and eventually, he¡¯s pinned down by enough magic, that the birdmen feel safe approaching him, apparently.


    Laying hands upon Vorzog-Lil, I see one of the paladins glow, and shake his head, seemingly unable to accomplish whatever he¡¯d tried. The three bird-men step back, and begin layering more spellwork upon Vorzog-Lil. Runic circles appear floating around Vorzog-Lil, as well as on the ground around him. The three once more approach Vorzog-Lil, and a second attempt is made, by a different bird-man who glows. Once more, that paladin shakes his head, and panic takes root deep within my heart. If, if Lucky¡¯s plan, if Lu¡¯s plan, if, if they can¡¯t¡ª.


    Trust Lu, trust Lu, trust Lu. Please. Please work. Sniffling, I fight my fears, and take aim at Lil, from my position above him, about the only place I¡¯d be able to hold my arm up enough to aim at him. I watch, nearly in despair as the three eagle paladins work spellwork once more, at a distance from Vorzog-Lil. It seems the first two have used up whatever abilities that allowed them to channel their previous attempts. My breath catches in my throat as I am certain that this is the last attempt to break Lil free.


    Clenching every muscle in my body as thoroughly as I can muster, I begin to squeeze my eyes shut tightly in fear as I watch the final birdman lay hands upon Lil, and begin to glow. My eyelids vibrate and quiver under the strain of attempting to shield my eyes from the sight I fear will come to pass. I can¡¯t close out the vision entirely, because I can¡¯t clench my eyelids thoroughly. There¡¯s startled squawking, and an immediate effort to shove Lil heavily to one side by Lucky, and all three birdmen. The birdmen are moments away from disappearing, as is all the magic they¡¯ve put in place, but¡ª. Lil is free! Inside the circle is, hurk, hoopf. It¡¯s the undead essence of Vorzog, trapped in the circle. Now, now now now! Fire fire fire fire!


    Squeezing off as many shots as I can into the pinkish, purplish smoky spiritual aura that makes up Vorzog¡¯s current form, I¡¯m unrelenting as more and more of my strength returns. Perhaps a tad uncharacteristically, I scream, ¡°Die you bastard! Die and stay dead!¡±


    Dropping next to the circles that are flickering out, I continue firing into the mist. The holy halefire crossbow bolts tear holes through the mist, disintegrating large portions of it, over and over. I keep firing off shots until my limbs quiver once again under the strain of standing. I accept the aid of FFS in order to make certain we¡¯ve burned away every last spec of Vorzog¡¯s essence. Before any reunions can happen, before anyone can make any plans, I take off like a rocket, headed for the eleventh floor of Vorzog¡¯s Keep. Reclaiming my fallen equipment, I struggle to contain my fury, and fail quite spectacularly.


    Growling out something that is probably pretty stupid of me, I work one more offensive spell for the day as my guttural utterance is loosed, ¡°GSE Antimatter Burst!¡±


    Reggie. Mhm? You¡¯re a psychotic idiot. Mhm. You¡¯re lucky that you know that spell is an illusion made up of voidstuff. I know. It¡¯ll probably never work around living targets anyway. They have to have some concept of what element is damaging them, to be susceptible to it. Anyway, I¡¯m now standing, floating on a TK square in something like a forty-meter-radius sphere of absolute nothingness. Air rushes in to fill the sudden void in space. All matter was instantly annihilated, but it couldn¡¯t create the usual, actual byproducts such a reaction would normally incur. That was recklessly stupid Reggie. I know. Hey, at least it got rid of the gong, the phylactery, right? Heh.


    Oh, or it could have just been an illusion that it worked. That was a rather convincing illusion. Fricklefrack. I¡¯m the only sapient lifeform that noticed the area of effect, and I knew it was illusory stuff, so it was just an illusion. Or maybe it just can¡¯t replicate something as powerful as antimatter. The matter appears perfectly fine, and I¡¯m once more standing in the gong-room. I guess that was too convenient. I¡¯d have been able to dispose of things like extra copies of Gae Buidhe safely. Hell, I could probably take down ancients more reliably than with balefire if antimatter had worked. Fudgeknuckles.


    What the hell do I do to end this phylactery? What if you rockwalk, or stone-meld, and leave it under a billion tons of mountain? Hm, would that break it over time, or just hide it? If it¡¯s hidden deep in rock, is his spirit ethereal enough that he can just float out, and possess someone new, with his phylactery technically protected til the end of time? Grr, come on Reggie, just summon up all your strength, and give it another go at destroying this piece of crap. Make sure your psi-blocking is in place. I¡¯m sure all I need to do is crack it at least a fair way through to end its enchantment.


    Wait. They had firearms. Firearms require ammunition. There¡¯s probably either an ammo store, or gunpowder storage somewhere that we missed in one of the exterior buildings. Heheh. It¡¯s probably on the far side from the flaming outhouse, and balefire that I loosed. Yeah, I didn¡¯t check out the far side as well as I should have. Alright, another quick sweep is worthwhile regardless, so let¡¯s do that.


    Yeah, I missed this smaller side-building, it even has a little basement, a root cellar, more or less. Of course the gunpowder and ammo are all down here. Let¡¯s make sure we grab those two awful cursed magic helms, telekinetically so we don¡¯t actually touch them, and bury them in gunpowder too.


    Okay, let¡¯s put all these bedeviled objects into this trunk, and compress this gunpowder down around it, with a good thick layer underneath them. Alright, good, good. Now lets take some of this spare gunpowder, and compress it down into these jars, and toss a bunch of bullets in here. Now, let¡¯s leave a trail of gunpowder to the trunk, with all the extra shrapnel in it, and surround that trunk with the other gunpowder barrels. Huff, phew. Let¡¯s get as far the hell away from here as possible, and levitate a torch to chuck in towards the building. Thirty meters, I¡¯ll go forty or fifty meters, and place a building or two between myself and the gunpowder shed, then chuck the torch with a TK grip from as far as it¡¯ll reach.


    Hoohoooho-holy crap. Boom goes the dynamite indeed, for at least the second time today. I¡¯m getting some mileage out of that phrase. A series of smaller kabooms punctuates the massive overarching thundrous blast of the ignition of all the other explosive material at once. The stone building atop the gunpowder cellar is blown to pieces, and the missiles formed are deadly projectiles that rocket away from the blast site, possibly as far as miles away. I¡¯m hoping none of that shrapnel retains any deadly force past a short distance. I¡¯m also hoping enough of the shrapnel was packed in such a way as to destroy the gong. Let¡¯s go check it out.


    Nice, just¡ª nice. I don¡¯t think Vorzog will be draining anyone else, or coming back, ever again. I also just realized, that the gong had dozens of dragon¡¯s hearts used in its construction, likely suffusing the material with raw, or well, refined dragonforce. Basically, dragonforce that can only be used for items, objects, and enchantments. It was probably powering all the wards, and definitely powering the phylactery. Huh, I wonder how old Vorzog really was, or if a Draconiac was even his original body. It could have been some human archmage that Terrorzin conscripted long, long, long ago. He might have been burning through bodies every few decades or centuries. Or a dragon archmage, or a Draconiac archmage, take your pick.


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    Huh. Y¡¯know one thing Vorzog didn¡¯t, or maybe couldn¡¯t drain from me? What? My species, with its ability to shapeshift. Okay, I guess. So? So, I¡¯m still in the middle of transforming into my otter form. Hah. How would that have worked out if it had gone off in the middle of that battle while I was weak as hell? It¡¯s not one of the forms with regeneration is it? No, at least I don¡¯t think so. I think it¡¯s one of the ones that has a new hitpoint pool each time it¡¯s assumed. Sort of like how that chalice created a potion that creates a fully healthy adult blue dragon form for your consciousness to occupy.


    Huh, then the inventory-otter form might have been fully healthy, undrained, and unstrained by Vorzog¡¯s abilities. Still, I wouldn¡¯t have wanted to try to take it into a fight against Lil, or Vorzog-Lil, or whatever. There¡¯s got to be a better name for the form too than just otter plushie, or inventory-otter, or otter-for-my-space-skill-activation-form. Hm, games where there¡¯s carry weight, sometimes there¡¯s tricks with barrels, and jokes about barrelmancy. My barrelmancer form? Bluh, no. That doesn¡¯t make sense at all. What about Backpack Otter? My BO form? Oh, bleugh, Lu would never stop laughing. Okay, what about, uh, Backpotter? Hah, that one¡¯s kind of cute.


    Huff. Ooftah, what a friggin¡¯ day so far, am I right? Still, I¡¯m pretty seriously injured, even though my strength and abilities are returning. Even regeneration as powerful as mine in RS2 should take a few days to recover from these hits. Ow, ow, ow. Stop complaining. I¡¯m not, I¡¯m just saying the broken ribs, broken jaw, bruised lungs, and punctured guts hurt is all. Heh. Anyway. Might as well get in position, and check out this mecha for a moment while we¡¯re at it. Landing next to it, I unlock the magitek mecha¡¯s rear hatch once more, and open it, letting it air out. As I study all the runework and auras running throughout the creation, it feels almost alive to me, almost.


    What¡¯s that FFS? Oh, sure. It was good seeing you. Thank you for helping us, and saving me, as usual. I¡¯m so lucky to have an elemental spirit that¡¯s willing to join me so often, to partake of ambient mana, and combat, on this side of the veil. It *might* be because I wield Frostburn, or Cla¨ªomh Solais, but I don¡¯t exactly know for sure. Hm, I could swear I can almost feel the magitek mecha attempting to communicate with me. Maybe I¡¯m imagining things. Anyway, it needs a name other than magitek mecha. Huh, for some reason, a name imemdiately came to me, Big-O¡¯Keul. Weird. I guess it doesn¡¯t sound too bad. Oh, whoopf!


    Well now. This is my otter form, huh? I guess I can refer to it as my Backpotter form. This is nearly as tall as the magitek mecha, but nearly as tall isn¡¯t tall enough, or big enough to drag it into my inventory. Good thing we¡¯ve got a spell that can change that, hah. Hahah. Hahah. Oy vey, I¡¯m cracking up a bit today. Anyway, I use the opposite side of the shrinking spell, to embiggen, or enlarge my Backpotter form, doubling my size in all directions, cubing my volume. Heheh.


    Alrighty, standing at approximately thirty-six feet tall or so, I¡¯m feeling pretty good about my chances of transporting things and people. I unzip my now incredibly enormous adamantite zipper, giggling slightly to myself as I stare at a void within me. This just can¡¯t be real. Oh well, hah, anyway, Big-O¡¯Keul, you¡¯re insanely heavy, but how about I mostly lean over you so that, hupf, there we go. As more and more of you is in my interdimensional space, you weigh less and less on this side of it. Friggin¡¯ weird, but hey, it works.


    Checking in telepathically with my fam, it seems that they¡¯ve caught on and are letting the prisoners and wounded know what I¡¯m about to try. I feel a little monstrous as I begin grabbing a handful of people to shove into my belly. One handful goes in easily enough, but the second one seems to bounce off of an invisible field. Testing by swapping hands, that group of individuals still keeps me from being able to move my hand into my interdimensional space. Checking with the Callipygian, he is able to walk in on his own, so my interdimensional space is neither full, nor broken. It¡¯s just this group of prisoners at the moment.


    I check their enchantments, and no one has anything up that should screw with extradimensional travel. Consent. It requires consent. There¡¯s a tiny possibility I might be able to get someone unconscious into my Backpotter form, if they hadn¡¯t previously consented, but about as much chance that even if someone offers prior consent, that it won¡¯t be able to drag unconscious people into its space.


    So one of these people doesn¡¯t consent. Fine, one at a time. Ah-hah, and now we¡¯ve found our culprit. Just what are you planning? Voicing my concern, I state, ¡°I can only offer security, safety, and transport for those who consent to becoming our prisoners of war, a status which confers protection, provisions, and even prosperity, for those that accept it. Everyone else, I¡¯m going to need to make demands of, and likely slay, if they don¡¯t agree to them.¡±


    The Draconiac that wasn¡¯t consenting glares at me, and I sense their bindings stretched taut over a sharp rock. Rolling my eyes, when the fool frees up their hands, and begins spellwork, I simply smash him flat. I¡¯m a giant Backpotter with adamantite wristlets, and zipper, and a scarf of platinum-scales from The Platinum himself. What did you expect? That I was just going to sit still while you chucked a fireball at my soft fuzzy form?


    Huffing, I grump, ¡°Anyone else want to resist our request?¡±


    There are several groans, several chuckles, and several nervous glances. For the most part, no one is brave enough to announce their intentions. I shrink Triorgraiz¡¯s enormous mount with the archsorc staff, and he clambers into me after I show him that I¡¯m trying to get Triorgraiz healed. As far as everyone else, I¡¯m able to get about seventy percent of the wounded or defeated or seemingly surrendered into my interdimensional space. The other thirty percent are those that bounce off, not consenting.


    When Lil, in a bloodthirsty tone, asks, ¡°Does that mean I can kill ¡®em Rej?¡± I just nod, not having the energy to deal with this nonsense right now.


    Normally, I¡¯d try to plead my case to these people. I could even understand hesitancy to follow a command when staring down the barrel of a literal void that all your friends are being tossed into. But I¡¯ve given them chance after chance after chance already today, and their leader nearly took my best friend from me. I don¡¯t have many clucks left to give, much less any more mercy.


    Plus, I¡¯ve got Zelshiz¡¯s statue, or, body I guess, inside me, and I want to get it to Tiktik somehow, as soon as possible. I know that she knows a spell that can reverse petrification transmutations. Basically, I don¡¯t have time to wiffle-waffle about the fate of these lunatics. I¡¯ll regret it later, but it¡¯s war, and they chose their side by not surrendering. I¡¯ll start dropping my Backpotter form when I calm down for at least a split second. I¡¯m hoping that with the long windup time, and the short time I used it, that I¡¯ll be able to engage it again today, to free these people.


    The only aid I offer Lil and Lucky in vanquishing their now-terrified foes, is to box them in with my telekinetic grips when they try to flee. I¡¯m not letting merciless, unremorseful jerks free to roam the countryside. Not today, not after this whole mess. Lil and Lucky don¡¯t exactly take joy in their chore, thankfully. They act with grim determination, and a hint of vengeful justice.


    Checking my phone, the strange programming attempt I made with Kinzul actually worked. The NFC chip I created biologically within the Backpotter form logged the addition of each, erm, heh, item, to my inventory. Now it can be read in a small spreadsheet since I passed my phone over that NFC chip. At least this way, I won¡¯t accidentally forget someone inside my inventory for eons with no way to view my mental menu interface. Sighing as I return to RS2, the pain returns as I resume my heavily-injured state.


    Limping towards my friends, I lean up against Lil as he leans up against Lucky. Lu sways nearby, performing a rather provocative dance as she loops music from her harp. I gulp and blush as she changes out her robes, to the new ones we¡¯d found for her, with the swath of enchantments on them. After all that, we deserve a breather, and I can¡¯t say I¡¯m not enjoying watching Luni. I can¡¯t say that at all. Rattling my skull, I dig out Whisper. Making sure my helm and circlet are in place, I contemplate doing something that¡¯s probably pretty stupid.

 B 6 C 141: Mindfires Home

    Firstly, I reunite Whisper with the Cosmic Roundsheath, both seem to simultaneously rejoice, and rebel at the action.  There¡¯s newfound power, in some sort of link, but it exists just outside of both of their grasps.  One has to be permanently cut from the link in order to allow the other to access that power.  I know the rune for psi-energy.  Elemental or energy runes empowered with my total will, without a spelliform are incredibly-powerful, potent multipliers of energies and forces, or even just explosive in their own right.


    Drawing Whisper once more, I set down the Elemental Bandolier.  I can overwrite or add one dagger onto this, making it a psionic energy instead of a normal element.  To top it off, it¡¯ll have Whisper¡¯s transportation benefits, and have a pre-empowered energy rune to multiply psi-effects.  Not that I have any of those other than Whisper personally, but I could pick some up at some point.


    The problem is, I have to suffer psionic rune empowerment backlash to set that up.  I¡¯m currently immune to psychic damage.  Will that prevent the backlash?  Will it just delay it until the next time I take off the circlet?  Let¡¯s run some calculations.  Hm, hm, mhm.  Diving into the non, into the absence of the flow of time, the absence of time itself, I begin to work, drawing out what I know, and letting retrocognition fill in the rest.


    Okay, retrocognition says something like eighty five to eighty nine percent chance that the psionic backlash is pushed off and stretched out for as long as I continue to be immune to psionic.  If I wear the enchantment long enough, it¡¯ll be stretched out for an equivalent amount of time, and spread out over that time.  So, say it was going to do a million damage to me in ten seconds, but I wear the helmet¡¯s psionic-immunity circlet for a million seconds, then over the next million seconds after doffing it, it¡¯d only do a single damage per second.  This has the added benefit as counting as prolonged, or reoccurring sources of psionic damage, which will increase my base psi-resist.  I like that.  I like that a lot.


    There are drawbacks though.  It¡¯ll put a strain on my SP recovery, if I don¡¯t finish taking all the psi damage before my next rest.  I might not recover *any* SP at all, if I let it take too long.  Even if I keep the immunity up during my sleep, it will pause my SP recovery entirely.  Essentially, any time I spend resting, that I haven¡¯t finished taking all of the psi damage, I won¡¯t be benefiting from, at least not in terms of SP recovery.  Speaking of SP, being at five-hundred eighty today already is a bit scary.


    Having only twenty to a hundred twenty SP that I might be able to spend before my muscles start resenting responding to me, means that any more tussles we get into would be basically without my most versatile powers.  I didn¡¯t see any subterranean levels, or hints of any, but that doesn¡¯t mean there were none.  Still, we succeeded at routing the leadership core here, securing a swath of surrenders slash prisoners.  We also ended up destroying most of the fortress¡¯s defenses, and defenders.  I¡¯ve got a massive stack of enchanted crossbows, ballistae, and other silly nonsense in my inventory now as well.


    Speaking of enchanted crossbows, one thing I did forget to both count, and try out, is the crossbow bolts from this mini quiver that the Cosmic Roundsheath is attached to.  I¡¯ll get to that later though.  Alright, let¡¯s do it, let¡¯s enchant Whisper as a new psi-knife attachment to my Elemental Bandolier.  It¡¯ll only be usable once per day, as opposed to seemingly almost endlessly the way the assassin was using it against me, but it¡¯ll be ridiculously leagues more powerful.  The other benefit will be that separating it from the Cosmic Roundsheath gives the sheath access to this weird paired power, that Whisper will no longer be tugging away from the sheath.  I¡¯m curious to see what that is.  As is, the thing is just a badly-weighted frisbee.  Anyway, drop from the non, back to reality.  Let¡¯s dig around and get this set up while checking in on Te and the rest.


    Blurgh, checking in on Te is making me sick.  She¡¯s leaping all over at super speeds.  I¡¯m getting motion sickness trying to see what she¡¯s up to.  If she doesn¡¯t have some sort of super hyperactive reactionary perception senses, I have no idea how she¡¯s even able to function that fast.  I know that occasionally time seems to slow for me, so that I can perceive, orient, and react more quickly, but for Te, that must be on, like, at all times when she¡¯s moving around.  As far as I can tell, everyone seems okay.  No one¡¯s holding up any signs in any of the locations indicating losses or anything.


    Alright, so with enough of this dust, and this binding agent I can¡ª.  Wow, myconid-me really thought of everything.  Well, I mean, hivemind-everyone, thought of everything.  We filled dozens and dozens of vials with reagents, and binding agents, and pre-mixed solutions, potions, and partial potions and so much more, all while crafting, enchanting, learning, and just¡ª.  Just wow.  Phew, okay, anyway.  Let¡¯s see what we can do about this.


    Woah.  Okay, this thing is already rippling with psi energy as I attempt to transfix it and allocate this recovery enchantment.  I¡¯m scooting away from my friends in case this gets a bit hairy.  That, huh, that part looks wrong.  Are we sure we calculated correctly?  Hm, it¡¯s hard accounting for that weird binding link between Whisper and the Cosmic Roundsheath.  We do want to break the binding though, and that part does indicate breakage.  Gnawing on my lip, I¡¯m just hoping that it indicates breakage of the correct linkage.


    Huff, phew, okay, everything is prepped.  Just¡ª, gulp, just have to empower the psi-rune now, and finish the last detachment slash attachment bit.  Come on, come on, please don¡¯t blow up my brain, or the brains of my loved ones.  Please.  We¡¯ve got this.  We¡¯ve got this.  We can do this.  Please.  Trust, faith, strength in unity¡ª.  Wait!  That¡¯s it!  Whew, holy crap holy crap holy crap.


    Okay, there has to be a feedback loop here, and here, that mimics their respective partners, and it safely closes the circuit on both sides.  Holy crap that was almost bad.  Wow.  Just, just wow.  Phew.  Final touches, and huzzah!  We¡¯re golden!  Woohoo!  New, additional power in my literal toolbelt of elemental throwing knives, as well as in my figurative toolbelt by way of separating whisper from this weird mini quiver¡¯s Cosmic Roundsheathe.  Ah, I needed to do that anyway before I messed with the ¡°elemental¡± crossbow bolts.  I¡¯m kind of glad I forgot about it accidentally then.  That could have been disastrous.  Let¡¯s see what you do, shall we?


    Huh, the Cosmic Roundsheath¡¯s runes read almost like a story.  Something something creation or fabrication at the dawn of time, but like, creation and fabrication are basically separately highlighted, or underlined, as if they were activatable.  I¡¯m almost positive they¡¯re spells.  Further when the stars spread, one such celestial body would endure a Starlight Crash.  Similarly, those two words are activatable, each different effects.  Let¡¯s see, the rest of it is saying something about closing the distance between self and star, the pairing enabling a Wormhole-Warpstrike.  That¡¯s a single ability by the looks of it.  It seems that there are maybe five to seven uses worth of SP for these abilities in this Cosmic Roundsheath per day.  Each of those abilities or spells takes up one use¡¯s worth, though the Starlight can have more pumped into it.  Based on the rate of return, it doesn¡¯t seem worth it to pump more energy into it for a tiny bit more damage.


    Still, if I was lamenting not being able to warp to where I toss Whisper as often as that assassin, it seems like I¡¯ll be able to warp to where I toss the Cosmic Roundsheath a few times per day.  Whisper actually needs a new name, because its current enchantment is anything but a whisper.  It¡¯s more like a fiery brain explosion, a mind-fire.  Mindfire.  That works.  Welcome to your new home Mindfire.  You¡¯ll seemingly disappear to warp back to it once per day.  I have no idea where you exist in the meantime though.  Speaking of warping, what the hell did Lucky do earlier?  Replay that in retrocognition.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Hm, mhm, okay.  Oh, it was one of the things he looted from Adkre.  Lucky can sort of dimensionally shunt himself, and allies within fifteen feet, to anywhere else within that fifteen feet, like shuffling us around on a chessboard, and where we land, there¡¯s a slightly radioactive blinding explosion on our foes.  It¡¯s kind of like the limitations of Lil¡¯s fritzing warping ability.  Actually stronger than Lil¡¯s, since Lil seemed to have to focus for a while to engage it.


    Lucky¡¯s warp seems likely a once per day ability though.  Oh, wait, no, similar to the CRS, it has about seven uses worth of SP that can be stored in it.  It was just low on charges due to Adkre.  How interesting.  It also has another ability that deals with freedom of movement, clearing off the effects of restraints, or paralysis, on either Lucky himself, or an ally that he can touch.  Too bad paralysis and petrification aren¡¯t the same things.


    Huh.  Being who he is, I imagine Lucky might someday see someone paralyzed, in trouble, and rush towards them.  On his way, he¡¯d teleport partway while teleporting them partway onto his back, then engage the paralysis curing ability.  That¡¯s a hell of a nice item for Lucky to be in possession of.  Our son is fairly heroic, and kind-hearted.  I know he treated the wounded with respect at my request.  Oh, crap, stop being distracted Reggie!  We have wounded!  Back to reality buddy!


    Fricklefrack, crapsnack.  Shnibbshnobble dingdanggobble.  Friggin¡¯ hell.  Oh Triorgraiz please be okay.  Opening the portable hole to check on my captives, Everyone appears to be breathing, though Shlend looks a bit annoyed.  In mere moments though, Shlendtikuar¡¯s expression adopts a more fearful tone, when the stench of gore and ash reaches his nose.  Triorgraiz looks incredibly pale though.  She¡¯s not going to last much longer, maybe not even long enough to get back to Mount Solace.  No no no no.  I¡ª, I should ask for advice, or help, from someone back at Solace, with our new communications system.


    What¡¯s, wait, what¡¯s that note?  Trouble?  What kind of trouble!?  I gulp back my panic as I read a note that leaves me no information back at the security center.  Okay, okay, someone¡¯s returning.  It seems they rushed off to handle the trouble.  Holding up a note for the scrying sensor, I ask what kind of trouble, and Aktixas patches me through for an auditory connection.


    While I¡¯m trying not to hyperventilate, Aktixas, in his usual accent with hard ah sounds replacing several vowels, explains, ¡°Schism, Sponge was assaulted while out hunting.  The culprit wasn¡¯t caught, but we only found Kagired in time because Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui swiftly reported it to a nearby scout who got word back to Solace.  He¡¯s in a bad way, and may not recover, or even wake for quite some time, if ever.  It seems he gave as good as he got, like a true warrior, but though he drove off his attacker, was still bested, and succumbed to his wounds on his way home.  With all the abilities you granted him, granted us, I fear what could have put him in such a state.¡±


    My heart plummets into the pit of my stomach.  The one chance we might have had to save Triorgraiz is now bloody, in recovery himself, quite possibly comatose.  My world begins to spin.  One of my friends, my new family in the Onyx Dawn might never recover.  I *knew* there was a hostile, dragonforce-filled presence in the surrounding area, I was warned, but I didn¡¯t do anything about it!  I¡ª.  Sniffling, and gulping back a sob, I can¡¯t waste time berating myself.  I asked for a favor to help pinpointing the presence, and it didn¡¯t pan out in time to prevent this.  I need to look for solutions.  Teuila seems to still be embroiled in battle, a lot longer than I¡¯d have expected her to be.


    Mumbling, I respond, ¡°I¡ª, I¡¯m grateful for you filling me in Aktix.  You can resume normal security center operations, putting me back to soundproof, unless there¡¯s anything else you wanted to share.  Um, our sitrep is our mission was successful.  We¡¯ve captured a lot of Draconiacs, many wounded.  Two of the leaders are dead, one leader petrified, one leader badly wounded.  I¡¯m doing what I can about that last bit, since I can¡¯t ask Sponge for help.  Will reach out again at some point.  Schism over and out.¡±


    Crap, I need to buy time.  Shoving my goggles to perch up between my horns¡ª.  Wow, that will take some getting used to.  My hair almost feels finer than I recall where it sprouts from around my horns, but still as much of a wild mass as usual though.  I hold my forehead with my left palm as I try to come up with ideas.  I, I think we¡¯re nearer to Jeegoobotstan than we are to Solace, or at least closer than I¡¯ve been since I first made it to Solace.  Maybe we should visit after all, to see if the refugees have made it, and started setting up?  It has been almost a month and a half, or something like that.


    It was probably going to take two to four weeks to get most of the refugees through the swamp, utilizing the burrows and dugouts.  Then, after that, it would be a two to four week land journey to the ruins of Alta Vista, if they continued to travel at the slow foot-pace of a caravan.  Huff, I¡¯m not even sure if¡ª, glp, if they¡¯re alive, let alone if they¡¯ve had enough time to make it to their new home.


    Focus Reggie, focus in the moment for the moment!  Right, right.  Triorgraiz needs blood.  I doubt anyone here even knows what a blood-type is, much less what hers is.  Good thing myconid hivemind prepared so much random chemical and alchemical crap.  Sampling Triorgraiz¡¯s blood, since there¡¯s absolutely plenty of it in the portable hole, I get to testing it to see if there are any Rh factors, or anything that might potentially cause complications from a donation or transfusion.  Seems negative on that front, okay, good.  What about my own blood?  Can I¡ª?  Hm, yes.  I can shapechange even on a biomolecular level in some sense, with RS2¡¯s enhanced shapeshifting.


    Does this¡ª?  No.  What about¡ª?  No.  Argh, hurry!  Don¡¯t rush me!  If I screw up, I could kill her!  She¡¯ll die soon if you don¡¯t do something!  I know!  Shut up for a second and let me think!  I just¡ª, ugh, I¡¯m arguing with myself, cracking up out of the fear of losing more family, friends, and even just people I¡¯m supposed to protect, people that I agreed or promised to protect.  Huff, okay, calm down.  Try again.  Keep trying, until your blood returns negative to all the same tests hers did.  Okay, one down.  Three to go.


    Nope.  Nope.  Not that.  Nice, close try, but not quite.  Okay, better, almost.  Okay, okay, nope.  Huff, huff, this is exhausting.  How the hell do shapechangers do this all the time?  Snrk.  I doubt most shapechangers are trying to change the blood-type in their entire body all the time Reggie.  Oh, true, hah.  Anyway, phew, one more down, two to go.


    Crap, I¡¯m going cross-eyed again.  My vision blurring is not helping me focus on the transformation.  I¡¯m not exactly uninjured myself here.  Triorgraiz though, she¡¯s lost so much blood, and if I weren¡¯t so sensitive to vibrations, I¡¯d think she wasn¡¯t even breathing.  No, no, focus, don¡¯t get caught up in that.  I shoved most of a dragon corpse, Deviltail¡¯s, I think, into my inventory, could that help?  Would that blood be okay?  You don¡¯t have the time to transform back into Backpotter to even check, and don¡¯t you dare go trying to scrape blood out of the acid-pocked muddy ground.  Alright alright alright already.  Third test is getting closer to returning all negative.


    Oh, crap, I¡¯m still injured.  This is putting a strain on my recovery and regeneration.  Hurp.  Urph.  Can I¡ª?  I think so.  Yes.  I¡¯m pretty sure.  Heh.  Lil¡¯s going to be so pissed.


    Begging my best pal, I request, ¡°Lil, can you hit me with a sun-powered flame, purifyingly hot?¡±


    Grumpily, Lil looks at me like I asked him to swallow a moose.  Well, as if I¡¯d asked him to swallow a moose while he was still in his tiny spheriform evolutionary stage.  Lil rolls his eyes as he comments, ¡°Awe man.¡±


    I love my best Lil buddy so much.  He hates breathing fire on me, and I¡¯m touched that both he cares, not wanting to do it, and that he does it anyway.  He¡¯s the best friend an insane changeling Fae could ask for.  Standing aside, I wait as Lil ramps up his heat, and begins to bestow his flames with his Latent.  Now that they¡¯re white-hot, I walk into his flames as I continue to work on neutralizing all possible factors in my blood that would keep it from being universally compatible.  I choke on my own dry, sizzling throat, unable to even cough as my skin blisters from the intense heat.  Falling to my knees, I can¡¯t even signal for Lil to stop.  I forgot how injured I was, how weak I¡¯d gotten over the course of the day.  I¡¯ve got my circlet on, I can¡¯t even telepathically reach out.  If I knocked it off, I¡¯d suffer the psi-explosion from empowering the psi-rune for the Whisper-to-bandolier Mindfire enchantment.


    Falling to one side, thankfully Lil spies me toppling, and cuts out his flames.  He looks so pissed, sad, scared, and upset.  I just flash him a thumbs up, weakly.  Third test now comes back negative for discrepant blood-factors.  Okay, huff, let¡¯s, huff, get some fluids, and share some blood, shall we?

 B 6 C 142: In-Flight Moving

    Luni looks like she wants to knock me upside my head but-good. I can¡¯t say I blame her, for the stupid stunts I¡¯m pulling right now. Empowering an energy rune without a spelliform, changing my blood-type manually, with the aid of purifying flames, after having taken injuries from someone as powerful as Lil who¡¯d been being piloted by Vorzog? Yeah, this is me at my most heinously reckless and stupid. Why am I fighting so hard for someone that was my enemy a few hours ago?


    Sighing to myself, I know the answer, despite not admitting it. Because that¡¯s what heroes do. I don¡¯t consider myself one, but I still want to try to live up to the standard. Guzzling down water, I focus on speeding my body¡¯s translation of fluids to vital fluids. I¡¯m utilizing shapeshifting to move the water along steadily through the normal biological processes, through biology that I don¡¯t even have! I have to chuckle at myself, as it¡¯s still hastening the fluid translation dozens-fold in speed. I¡¯m ridiculous. This is simply ridiculous. Bodies don¡¯t work like this. Shapeshifting isn¡¯t meant for this. Magic isn¡¯t supposed to do the things I bend and break it to make it do. Screw it all, I reject the rules of all realities and substitute my own.


    Heh, it¡¯s like a dungeon master having so many homebrew house rules that the tabletop game isn¡¯t even recognizable as its source having me around. Oh, crap, I forgot I don¡¯t recover mana when people are in my inventory, because it drains through my inventory to suffuse them. Worse, if they¡¯re in there too long, they¡¯ll be supercharged on my mana.


    First of all, we really don¡¯t need to let a ton of superpowered overcharged hostile mages out, anywhere. Second of all, if I take too long, they¡¯ll be coming out as mana time-bombs. I think that because there¡¯s more people to spread my mana around to, that the effect will take longer to overcharge them, but I don¡¯t want to risk it. I¡¯ve already got parallel processing going on for separate mana pools for my extra transformation forms. I don¡¯t want to even think about what sort of mana residue sickness I could rack up if I suddenly had hundreds of new mana pools of my five thousand plus limit, after expelling people from my inventory.


    We definitely have to make for Jeegoobotstan and hope that some of the refugees are already setting up, especially Tiago. For now, I¡¯m going to rig a transfusion with some of the alchemy equipment that I¡¯ve got packed away. I don¡¯t think the shop system expected me to use cork-needles and distillery tubes to become a walking IV-bag, and yet here we are. I¡¯m not a phlebotomist, not even an amateur at it, but this patch-job will have to hold. Come on Triorgraiz, hang in there. Chuck and the two lovebirds look mortified, but I can¡¯t exactly afford to pay them any mind at the moment.


    Similarly, Shlen looks like he¡¯s once again contemplating escape, due to my weakened state, but I just roll my eyes and use my archsorc staff to glow with mana. I don¡¯t really have any resources to waste on showing off to keep him in line, so I¡¯ll have to use the SP-free stuff available to me. Once I¡¯m glowing, I summon the ghostly hand, and have it wag a finger shamefully at him. There, that cowed him at least enough to get him to stop looking around for the best way to incapacitate me while I¡¯m vulnerable. I do allow Chuck to run to the nearest bushes to relieve himself though. None of us wants to see what happens if he can¡¯t expel.


    I¡¯m not exactly afraid he¡¯ll make a break for it, with his intestinal issues. Even if he does, he seems like one of the lesser evils to possibly loose upon the lands. I can¡¯t imagine him doing more than stealing a few cows or yaks or something to make some cheese, and some chickens for eggs or meat, and maybe a bit of gold or some other coinage. He¡¯s not exactly the most imposing-looking Draconiac, so I doubt he¡¯d try to use fear to terrorize a region and get it under thumb. He might be incredibly powerful, based on the average power of the people from Vorzog¡¯s Keep, but it doesn¡¯t feel like he¡¯s the type to murder his way towards food and wealth. He was being bullied for crap¡¯s sakes. Oh, oh that bully and toadie are totally dead. I hope Chuck didn¡¯t think of them as friends.


    Is Chuck the type of guy to feel like you¡¯re a friend to him, even if you¡¯re blackmailing him and playing horrible, awful pranks on him? He might be, but I have no data points to guess that. Anyway, I need to focus, and attempt to heal up from providing my blood to someone else, when I¡¯m already injured myself.


    Ugh, crap, I can¡¯t really regenerate with my mana locked up in all these people inside of me. We¡¯re going to have to let them out in Jeegoobotstan, but I won¡¯t even be able to produce the mana required to engage the Backpotter form. Fricklefrack! How the hell can I¡ª? Hm, I was able to cross the streams a bit earlier, and I do have other parallel mana pools set up. If I borrow from one of them, and pay an up-front cost, with an unfortunately long downtime, can I re-engage the Backpotter form? Hm¡ª. It¡¯s worth a shot, but I can¡¯t test it til we get there.


    Announcing my intentions to my party, as I bleed away to help keep Triorgraiz alive, I comment, ¡°Guys, I think we need to make a pit-stop in Jeegoobotstan. If we¡¯re lucky, I can introduce you to some of my friends from Aasimovia, and even a Fae from the Hidden Heart that I really love. We really, really, really need to get lucky, because I didn¡¯t realize how screwed our prisoners are with my current mana d¡ª.¡±


    No sense announcing to Shlen, Chuck, and the two lovebirds that it¡¯s actually *me* that¡¯s relatively screwed. Rethinking what to add, I continue, ¡°Anyway, are you okay with that Lil? I need to get a message back to Kinzul for her to¡ª crap.¡±


    Fudge, can¡¯t really let on to the secrets of the Worldstorm either. This is incredibly inconvenient. Plus, if we open a permanent hole over Jeegoobotstan, dragons from Terrorzin¡¯s faction could fly from their aeries above the Worldstorm, and land there. It¡¯d be easy for them to wipe out the refugees we worked so hard to save. Triorgraiz seems to be stabilizing slightly, but shows no signs of improvement. At least her condition is no longer worsening by the moment. Huff, that¡¯s going to have to be good enough. Time to get Chuck back in here and close up the portable hole, so I can talk to Lu and Lil in private.


    Frowning as I share my plans, needs, and requests, Lil grumps, ¡°Of course we¡¯ll do the thing pal. It¡¯d be mega bad, mega mega mega bad if you explode, or can¡¯t heal, or regen, or whatever. I don¡¯t really care about your prisoners blowing up, bleeding out, or dying, because I¡¯m not that kind of hero like you. Terrorzin¡¯s cronies can all go suck an egg¡ª, wait, no, they can all go eat dirt. But, but Rej, I can¡¯t stand the thought of you dying again pal, we almost lost you. I felt our connection, and it really hurt me to my core. I mean, like, my feelings. It hurt bad, mega bad, mega mega mega bad.¡±


    Hugging and comforting Lil as best I can, I coo to him, apologizing for dying again. I lucked out, but there¡¯s only so many ways and so many times my luck can hold out. Even if I¡¯m like a cat, and have nine lives, how many times have I come back from a death or near death by now? Probably thousands times that, likely at least over nine thousand times. Lucky nudges Lu into me, and I just now realized that he¡¯s still got the Draconiac woman in his mouth, that he¡¯s been carrying around like a stick, or chew-toy. Facepalming, I turn to Lu, and she shrugs helplessly as she tries not to giggle. I guess Lil¡¯s going to have another passenger. We can¡¯t just abandon her here. I don¡¯t think Lucky¡¯s going to give her up, honestly.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Calling up to our dazed, unwitting guest, I ask, ¡°So, I apologize for not asking earlier, or, helping you out of my son¡¯s mouth, but do you have a name we could call you by?¡±


    That was stupid Reggie, of course she¡¯s probably got a name, this isn¡¯t Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. The Draconiac woman chuckles nervously as she gently pats Lucky¡¯s snout from between his teeth, taking care not to anger the giant draconic hound who has her trapped in his jaws. She offers up, ¡°I¡¯m Kelsinzecktrix. Most call me Kelsie, my friends call me Trixxie.¡±


    Oh, oh wow, those are adorable nicknames for her. Rattling my skull privately to myself, I respond, ¡°Pleased to meet you Trixxie. Um, I truly, truly hope you accept my mercy and offer your surrender, because Lucky there¡ª.¡±


    Rapidly interrupting me, with her palms placatingly forward, waving wildly, Trixxie answers, ¡°Yes! Yes, definitely. No qualms. I, I surrender. Glp. I am at your mercy. Please don¡¯t eat me.¡±


    Snorting back a laugh, choking on it for my troubles, I try to maintain composure. I was going to say because Lucky there seems rather fond of her. He¡¯s being exceedingly gentle, despite essentially having her trapped between viciously razor-sharp fangs. Lucky finally drops Trixxie, and bowls her over with his absolutely enormous tongue as he laps at her. Trixxie appears a bit freaked out, worried that Lucky¡¯s getting a taste before eating her, so she stands ramrod straight, stiff as a board, and incredibly still, after resuming standing.


    Unable to help myself, I smile and shake my head while rolling my eyes at Lucky. Laughing, I offer up, ¡°This is going to sound unusual, but welcome to the family Trixxie. You¡¯ve got nothing to fear. We¡¯ll get you set up at our home, because Lucky seems to like you. I hope you learn to enjoy his company and get along with him. He¡¯s my son, and very precious to me, and all of us in our family. For now, we¡¯re visiting some refugees before returning home. You¡¯re our prisoner, but that means you¡¯re safe. I¡¯ll fight the forces of hell themselves to protect those under my care. Capisce? Am I clear?¡±


    Nervously smiling, Trixxie answers, ¡°As crystal,¡± before offering me a tentative handshake with her hand visibly quivering.


    I probably shouldn¡¯t waste any more S P today, since I¡¯m so close to six hundred, but Trixxie looks miserable covered in Lucky saliva. As I¡¯m about to cast a spell, Lu beats me to the punch and taps Trixxie with the soapstone, and offers her a polite smile, and even a kiss on the cheek. Luni trundles away back towards Lil, as Lucky begins to shrink, engaging more or less his spheriform stage, leaving Trixxie bewildered.


    Raising a brow towards Luni, she shrugs at my curiosity. I guess she just wants to make sure Lucky¡¯s new favorite friend is feeling welcomed, and safe. Waving towards Lil, Lu helps Trixxie aboard, as Lil begins to grow, before Lucky leaps into Lu¡¯s arms, and I levitate the two of us up the rest of the way. We still haven¡¯t figured out exactly how we¡¯re going to do the things necessary to even get to Jeegoobotstan, let alone to save our prisoners, especially Triorgraiz. I whisper the directional heading, and distance, to Lil, from my strangely atlas-like memory of Rayileklia that has been developing over time. Sighing, I cast a last glance about at Vorzog¡¯s keep, much of it in ruins, from what was actually an incredibly short engagement.


    Gods, I can just picture it now, having to do an after action report about this. It¡¯d begin, ¡°It all started with an outhouse, a lot of gas, and a little fire¡ª.¡± Snirk. Rolling my eyes, I can¡¯t believe how cliche, silly, and stupid some of the events of today were. Others though, others nearly got me. My panic got me killed for once, literally. I absolutely, fully died, possibly for the first time in my¡ª life. Sighing and hanging my head in shame, I shake my head and roll my eyes at myself and my mental monologue.


    Laughing to myself, I correct myself to indicate that I mean, as much as I consider myself having died to the lightning blast from Lluxop and Rastoc, that a red potion doesn¡¯t return someone to life, it just regenerates tissue. So, basically, I couldn¡¯t have actually died there in this timeline from anything other than the tomes. Still, I¡¯m surprised, and grateful, that actually dying, didn¡¯t harm Lil the way that nearly dying did back there. Maybe the death from the tomes on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas changed things.


    I also nearly died of my mana residue sickness when I got to Mount Solace, and Lil seemed fine, other than a twinge of pain in his chest. I¡¯ve got no idea how Lil felt when I was blown to smithereens in The Gap, when Dippy saved me from the stone elementals. I guess our bond could just be different on Rayileklia, or maybe I¡¯m different since I absorbed my first dragonforce from Kozzurth. Honestly, that¡¯s probably it.


    Hell, for all I know, Lil¡¯s dragonforce was what was keeping me alive against my mana residue sickness on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, then obtaining one of my own on Rayileklia severed a part of the reliance on that bond. I¡ª. Oh, yeah, probably. I didn¡¯t start getting really weary and weak on Rayileklia until Lil had been gone for a while, hell, I didn¡¯t start getting my mana laceration stuff on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas until Lil and I had been apart for quite a while. Then when we got to Rayileklia, in such a short time, I got my hands on a new dragonforce. I was likely assimilating Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce slowly, to build that aegis around my inner self, against the strangling mana residue.


    I suppose that¡¯s also part of how I lasted so long, on Kozzurth¡¯s semi-weakened dragonforce. Unlike the dragonforces I¡¯m siphoning these days, Kozzurth¡¯s I only got a chunk of, sort of claiming it as my own. It became tied to me, and was slowly siphoned to me, over the next few weeks, before I obtained all of her dragonforce. Similarly to how dragonforce can be tied to people, their titling, or enchantments or effects, and recalling it can take weeks to months, from anywhere on the planet.


    That¡ª explains a lot. Oh crap. Kozzurth had infused her blood with dragonforce to provide the benefits to the Plains Colossi. No wonder they¡¯re dying while rationing and running out of her blood. Hellspit and Fel Fires. They might have been dying *in place of me.* The dragonforce reclamation going on that probably happened quicker as I needed more to prolong my life, or to recover from injuries, likely ended up screwing them over. Crap! That¡¯s also probably why Kozzurth seemed to have such a weaker dragonforce, and that it was so quickly absorbed into me. Firstly I¡¯d been a complete void at that time, empty and needing to be filled, secondly, her dragonforce was already spread out, in a way sort of similarly to Kinzul¡¯s.


    Facepalming, I realize how obvious it should have been, once I met Kinzul and started understanding more about her secrets. I might not have the logistics of it exactly right, but I¡¯m closer to understanding what has actually happened to me since my rebirth on Rayileklia. The reasons I was passing out a lot, and why that seemed to stop after a few weeks as I likely absorbed more of the dragonforce from Kozzurth, reclaiming it from halfway across the continent.


    It would definitely explain the reasons I was able to recover from terrible injuries, despite being denied access to so much of our power from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It¡¯d explain the reasons that my estimates on how long I had to live kept wiggling around, because I was still absorbing more of Kozzurth¡¯s leftover dragonforce as it made its way to me, over a couple of months. Just like how someone, Nala I think, told me reabsorbing dragonforce from revoking the titling of someone occurs over months. Oh, that might also explain how I was seemingly topped off almost out of nowhere, after the ShizTinth raid. I could still technically be drawing in tiny fragments of Kozzurth¡¯s, Yisstendahl¡¯s, or anyone else¡¯s dragonforce, if they were tied up in other things, like titling. I wonder what¡¯d happen if Lil titled someone, actually. Wait. Did Lil title me by naming me Reggie!?


    Huh. Thinking about Lil¡¯s dragonforce, and my bond with him, there¡¯s a lot to unpack. Dehlia did say she was pretty sure Lil would die if I got seriously injured, near death, or killed again while bound to Lil in the same way. My bond with Lil is partially broken due to my having, and needing my own dragonforce? Did¡ª? Did that have something to do with our emotional states on Rayileklia?


    It could explain part of why, on a subconscious level, I was so driven to reunite with Lil and patch things up with Lil. It would also go a bit towards explaining Lil¡¯s reaction upon our reunion, where he wasn¡¯t really understanding me, or being as compassionate, or even feeling me die through our connection.


    While I¡¯m lost in reverie, Luni takes my goggles and passes notes back to the security center, and seemingly checks in on Te and the other group. She doesn¡¯t look horrified or anything, so I assume the news is at least neutral, if not good. Similarly, I assume she¡¯d look stricken if Kagired, or anyone else from home, had perished since I last checked in with Mount Solace.

 B 6 C 143: Responses

    We¡¯re approaching where I¡¯d like to set down through the Worldstorm, to make it to Alta Vista the rest of the way below the clouds, but there¡¯s no sign of there being an opening anywhere nearby. Scrunching my face and furrowing my brow, I glance towards Luni, having thought she¡¯d have been requesting Kinzul¡¯s aid with this. My asking Luni about it gets me a response that twists like a dagger to my guts.


    Luni smiles and brightly asks, ¡°Do you trust me?¡± Before I can respond, she orders, ¡°Now Lil, dive right there!¡±


    There is no hole, there is no safe passage through the Worldstorm where Lu is pointing. Trixxie, who happens to be hugging Luni¡¯s waist in order to maintain her perch on Lil, shrieks, ¡°No, no I don¡¯t trust you at all!¡±


    I can¡¯t help laughing as Luni laughs and turns partially to wrap one arm around Trixxie. She passes Lucky off to perch between the two of them. Luni then pulls out her harp, the scepter we¡¯d just acquired, and a few other magical trinkets. Lucky barks in response to Luni¡¯s harp as it begins to play, and uses his scarf to fish out some magic items I barely recognize as well. He helps Lil equip something that I can¡¯t catch through my vision that¡¯s being obscured by too many up-close flashes of bright lightning.


    Struggling with my new EM Field organ, to use electrokinesis to keep the lightning away from Lil, and the rest of us, I double over in pain. Luni harumphs, and begins unleashing a constant string of magic that blasts a very short hole in the Worldstorm below Lil¡¯s diving form. Between the three of them, the Triple L Squad seems to currently be able to shunt aside a minuscule tiny window of the Worldstorm. It¡¯s a window just barely capable of carrying a dive-bombing Lil, with wings furled, through it. It definitely wouldn¡¯t work on the way back up, since Lil would have to be flapping to gain altitude, having his wingspan extended much wider, and he¡¯d take much longer per amount of distance covered to gain height.


    Apparently, Luni also somehow chose a path that had none of the hidden twisters, or pockets of incredibly dense acid, through the Worldstorm. I¡¯ll chalk that one up to her being the Muse of the Onyx Dawn, and maybe a bit to her wheedling around in the hivemind sporebrain of my myconid form, with Kinzul present, yesterday. Still, getting home is going to be a pain in the arse. I probably shouldn¡¯t focus on that right now. Focus on the present Reggie.


    Well, the present becomes the future, or rather, the past, while the future becomes the present. At least, as long as I keep living it. Well, probably after too. That¡¯s not what I meant. Anyway, speaking of continuing living, how much dragonforce do I have left? If each ancient provides about a thousand days, I¡ª. Sighing, I¡¯m glad Luni¡¯s not in my head right now. I have six hundred ninety days of dragonforce left currently. Sixty-nine percent of a usual ancient¡¯s dragonforce. Probably all because of burning through dragonforce before even collecting it, because of having my Honoris Causa activated, maybe. Over thirty percent burned away in the few moments, or minutes, between my reincarnation, and my collecting the dragonforce. Well, some of it might have been used up to prevent me from catastrophic organ failure, or total death, at the hands of Vorzogil. Gonna call the ass that from now on, so I don¡¯t tie him to Lil at all. Some might also have been tied up in other things by Deviltail himself, need to not forget that. Highly talented dragons can imbue their dragonforces into things that it¡¯ll take months for the new owners to reclaim all of the energy from.


    Being able to vacuum up dragonforce spread in an ambient region would be too-convenient a weapon. I probably can¡¯t actually do much of that, since I was only able to nearly drain it, and seemingly only from Deviltail. That might not even have been what happened at all. I keep forgetting that dragonforces have a lot more uses than simply existing as power batteries for the dragons who own them. I wonder if he had a Latent that suffused the air around him with dragonforce. Oh, probably.


    His tail seemed to be able to strike impossible locations, bend, flex, or stretch far too far, while retaining full strength. I think it might have even bent space slightly, or ripped tiny portals to make some of the swings that it made. Or maybe his tail cursed the air to repeat his strikes with it later, or something. If he had to set up a region of space in which his tail was more capable of striking, or even portals in the nearby air, then yeah, he¡¯d have to have had his dragonforce extended even further than Mydraig had had his. I didn¡¯t pay enough attention to Lil¡¯s battle with Deviltail, since I had my own foes to worry about. Foes that killed me, even without me being too distracted.


    Erm, anyway, it¡¯s weird being able to follow a thought train while diving headlong into an ultra-deadly storm, with a Draconiac woman, Trixxie, screaming in my ear. Even with that weirdness being possible, I¡¯d still prefer it if my brain focused on more useful things. Like, despite her being afraid, can we really trust Trixxie? Lucky enjoys having her around, and I trust Lucky, but is he a good judge of character? He seemed to mistrust Leezahna, until she started sweet-talking him after he dug her home. Frowning, I glance towards my son, whose tongue is flapping wildly out the side of his mouth as we continue our dive. Whatever the case, I want him to be happy.


    My mind is racing now that we¡¯re carefully gliding below the worldstorm towards Jeegoobotstan. What if no one¡¯s here? What if, even if a few are, we can¡¯t find Tiktik or Tiago? What if they see a dragon, and freak out? Hell, what if they see me with horns, and freak out? Maybe I should have gotten rid of them with shapeshifting when I was doing that.


    Let¡¯s see. I¡ª. Uh. I can¡¯t. What the? They won¡¯t go away. There¡¯s Fel, cursed magic at play here. Apparently the byproduct of my reincarnation. I wonder if all my forms have horns and a tail now. I didn¡¯t really check during the raid. I was pretty sure my chimaeric lycanthrope form¡¯s RS2 base body didn¡¯t, but I didn¡¯t pay attention to the land shark form of that sidegrade evolution. Actually, for all I know, my lycanthropic base RS2 form may have been in the process of growing the horns and tail while I was using it to become the land shark. Wait, am I blue again? I thought I¡ª. Alright, maybe I didn¡¯t. Let¡¯s fix that.


    Anyway, let¡¯s think for a minute. The maps I¡¯ve seen of Rayileklia are pretty distorted, like a bad projection of a globe that stretches out certain sections. The little lake up north of us looks like a vast sea, nearly an ocean on the maps. I mean, it¡¯s not really just a little lake, it¡¯s a fairly large lake, but the scale is incredibly off on the maps. Similarly, the Spine of the World mountain range extends a lot further north and south in locations than it looks like on a flattened map. We might not have been closer to Jeegoobotstan from where we were, but we weren¡¯t much farther from there than from Solace when we were at Vorzog¡¯s Keep.


    Still, I worry that I¡¯ve been inefficient with our time, in my desire to see Tiktik again, or some other subconscious yearning. Do I gaslight myself, and convince myself of things? Well, I mean, I guess we all convince ourselves of things. We all have to believe the things we think are facts about the natural world and so on. Sometimes we take our own opinions as facts too. It doesn¡¯t mean I gaslight myself. Though, to be fair, I think I in particular might actually do so, but in a more unrelated way. I can¡¯t get into that right now. It¡¯ll come back naturally. Supposedly.


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    Huff, focus Reggie, make use of the time you¡¯ve got. Clear your head. Picture where things would likely result in natural patterns. Focus. Breathe air, breathe. There¡¯s so many logistical problems right now, it¡¯s a friggin¡¯ nightmare, and it¡¯s all my doing. I abandoned the Aasimovian refugees to the care of the swamp hares. I left poor, weakened, dying Keeley, and cursed, injured Tiktik. I left them all with almost no useful resources to survive on, no provisions, and here I am coming to beg them for more favors, for more help.


    Worse, I¡¯m bringing prisoners to them that are powerful, violent spellcasters, and hoping for them to solve the problem I created by letting them get injured. I can¡¯t even get the ones out of my inventory without breaking more rules of magic and systems that are in place. Maybe. If only we had somewhere safe to put them, somewhere that they couldn¡¯t even interact with anyone else on Rayileklia, like a pocket dimension, or something, that wasn¡¯t just floating in the void of my inventory.


    People weren¡¯t kidding when they say this country, this city-state was razed. It¡¯s like some apocalyptic wasteland of ruins. Hell, if I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d think that the Fel hordes have been through here recently. Wait. I gulp. They haven¡¯t, have they? There¡¯s no way. No. No. It can¡¯t have happened. There is just no way. The Fel dislike the water, they, they would have had to contend with hydras that get stronger in the presence of flames. Yeah, no, it wasn¡¯t the Fel. Still, these scorch marks look like more than just burning buildings spreading flame from one to another.


    Rather, these scorch marks look like, well, blasts of flame, cones, roars, breaths of flame. Could dragons have been responsible for this? Would it have been in response to something Jeegoobotstan citizenry or nobility did? Or, more sickeningly, possibly more likely, was Jeegoobotstan a test run for Terrorzin¡¯s plan to simply destroy the rest of sapient life on Rayileklia? If that¡¯s the case, then the Aasimovian refugees are in just as much danger here from dragons as they were from the Fel hordes back home.


    Huff. Come on, think, think. Okay, there¡¯s a small patch of mountains near the heart of the city-state. That would be where the capitol, the metropolitan center, was. Hm. That¡¯s both the logical place for the Aasimovians to dig-in, for themselves and the kobolds, as well as the logical place for there to have been a dragon¡¯s lair. If a lair is there, it¡¯s one that perhaps wasn¡¯t marked as a Terrorzin faction on the maps I¡¯d seen. What was it I was told? Any neutral factions are at best, enemies-in-waiting, and more likely, straight up enemies?


    Is that a¡ª? There¡¯s a standing building, a watchtower, on the horizon-line. That seems like an odd thing to have survived the razing. It¡¯s much more likely it was raised, erected by those that¡¯ve come to settle the ruins. Maybe I¡¯m worrying for nothing? I mean, if they¡¯re already capable of erecting watchtowers, then maybe they have shelter, and sustainable living arrangements, and all of that? I mean, that¡¯s what we were hoping for, right? We wanted them isolated from the foes that could pursue them, while simultaneously setting them up for a stable life.


    Beginning to calm my breathing, I try to picture the types of people likely to be placed in such a tower, and if they¡¯d sound alarms at the prospect of a dragon in-flight arriving. If it were Tiktik, she might be able to recognize our party as the Triple L Squad arriving, and maybe even me if her vision is good enough. She at least knows *of* Lu, Lil, and Lucky, based on her knowledge of people from when the Triple L Squad was at the Hidden Heart. I think. Or did she leave the Hidden Heart before they arrived? Crap, I forget. I know Te and I shared stories of them at least.


    Gnawing on my lip, and the insides of my cheeks, I start to get nervous again. If we set off a panic that gets the Aasimovians to unleash whatever defenses they have stored up, will it leave them vulnerable for later? We can¡¯t afford to approach in-flight any longer. It¡¯s too risky. There are too many unknowns. I beg Lu to get Lil to land, so that we can approach on foot. It¡¯ll be quite a bit slower, but I¡¯ll manifest some horses for us. It¡¯s been a while since I used this power anyway.


    When we land, I realize we have a problem. I can conjure three horses. We¡¯ve got Lil, me, Lu, and Trixxie, and a spheriform Lucky. Lil could shrink down, and Lu could carry either Lil or Lucky, while I carry the other, but then I¡¯m giving Trixxie a horse, and free reign to just ride off into the sunset. If Lil doesn¡¯t shrink down, but instead takes his human form, Trixxie has to either stay put, walk after us, or we have to risk one of our horses being slower with a double load. I suppose that¡¯s safest. I don¡¯t want to lose sight of Trixxie while we haven¡¯t really cleared her trustworthiness yet. Lucky likes the way she tastes or something, but I¡¯m still not willing to let her go freely roaming around the countryside.


    Plus, I¡¯d feel bad if Lucky¡¯s new chew toy escaped. Heh. That¡¯s a bit of an evil thought Reggie. I know, I know. I just want Lucky to be happy though. Anyway, let¡¯s go. Three horses, five people. Although¡ª. Creation, and fabrication. I run my thumb along the Cosmic Roundsheath. Sure, why not. It¡¯ll be temporary, based on the limits of the spells, but it should last long enough. Let¡¯s see, so, vegetable, or plant matter lasts the longest. Next would be processed materials softer than ores, then would be ores, then processed metals, then rare metals or gemstones, then rare gemstones. Huff. Each stage reduces the potential volume, and duration of the created matter.


    Well, what if we bend the rules a little? Genre senses tell me that in some fantasy settings, there are things like ironwood trees that are literally as hard as iron, or steel. Manipulating a spell with so many moving parts like this is all about intent anyway. What if we take it a step further? Lighter, and more resilient wood? That should still last the full twenty four hour duration of the spell, as long as I don¡¯t botch it. Then I can fabricate it into a familiar shape. We¡¯ll make that shape be the wagon we used to travel in with¡ª. I gulp back tears as I recall Dawn.


    I just have to remind myself that she¡¯s alive in my memories. I succeeded in that much, and only that much, but at least I succeeded in that. Alright creation, I want you to conjure into existence a massive block of what I¡¯ll call Featherlight Titanwood. Light as a feather, strong as titanium, but, it¡¯s organic, it¡¯s wood, so vegetable, or plant matter. Can you do that for me? A seventh of the SP in the CRS disappearing says yes, yes it can. Further, a block of impressive wood coalescing into beings cements it as fact. Grinning, I picture our old carriage in my mind as I focus on the fabrication spell. Another seventh of the SP from the CRS gets used up as the block of wood turns into a finely crafted carriage, with yolk, wheels, and so on. It doesn¡¯t have cushions for the seats, but oh well, we can make do.


    Chuckling, I motion towards the carriage, mumbling silly things like, ¡°After you good sir,¡± to Lil, and, ¡°Ladies first,¡± to Lu and Trixxie. I¡¯ll let the four of them take the interior, while I hook up the horses, and sit in the jockey¡¯s seat, or driver¡¯s seat. I¡¯ve made a few mental adjustments to make it work slightly better on Rayileklia¡¯s always-muddy ground, so we might even be faster with the horses pulling the cart than if we¡¯d been riding. It¡¯s certainly far lighter than the one we used to have. Well, the one Teuila, Dawn, and I used to have. Sighing, I rattle my skull, trying not to go down memory lane in a way that saddens me. I still haven¡¯t really grieved her properly. Sometimes I worry that I never will. Anyway, hyah horsies.


    We are almost sailing along at a rapid clip. It¡¯s too bad that this uses up a combination of spells, abilities, and resources, and only lasts for a day. Carriages like this would be a fantastic boon to the refugees. Finally in more conventional sight-range of the watchtower, I begin to notice other things dotting the distance to the southeast. They¡¯re camps. Refugees are still filtering in from Jaggedfen Bog. They¡¯re moving from camp to camp in order¡ª. A gjallahorn sounding off in response to our approach startles me from my observation. The watchtower has definitely noticed us.


    The flapping of enormous leathery wings is not the sound I¡¯d expected to hear in response to a warning horn being blown. Shaking my head, why am I even surprised any more? Groaning, I pull the carriage to a halt, and stand at the ready for what approaches.

 B 6 C 144: She Who Burns

    Groaning, and rolling my eyes behind closed lids, I watch as a mighty Sand lands in front of me, a yellowish dragon of adult, nearing ancient stage. Sighing quietly to myself, I gnaw on my bottom lip, wondering if I should go straight for the kill. Then again, they are at least cooperating with the humans and kobold refugees. I think. Unless¡ª.


    Yeah, I spoke to soon, mentally anyway. The dragon announces, ¡°I Driezyln demand to know what you¡¯re doing in the lands of She Who Burns.¡±


    Trying not to be too snarky, I ask, ¡°Is that your title then? Are you She Who Burns? Or are you a page, messenger, stooge, or something along those lines?¡±


    Driezyln balks at my complete disregard of, or fear of, their dragon-ness. They wear a slight sneer before responding, ¡°She Who Burns is the title of the ruler of this land, because if I spoke her true name to you in our tongue, your mind could scarce comprehend it, and would likely burst from its mere utterance.¡±


    Unable to help myself, I begin giggling. Enough with this farce. This¡¯ll let them know I already deal with dragons plenty, and that the draconic tongue is nothing new to me. Sighing, rolling my eyes, I announce, ¡°Please announce to your supposed ruler that I, Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, the Void Dragon Honoris Causa, would like to have a chat regarding the safety of the Aasimovian refugees. Oh, sorry, you can stop pissing yourself, I¡¯ll rescind my Honoris Causa.¡±


    I can¡¯t be fully certain if Driezyln actually pissed themselves, but they were quivering when my Honoris Causa activated. Feeling only slightly chagrined at having caused someone else to possibly wet themselves, I make note to try to find a way to be better. I would like to act like less of a bully, but what can ya do when people are trying to intimidate you when you¡¯re on a time crunch?


    Surprisingly, Driezyln alters shape, shrinking down to that of an androgynous, yellow-robed monk-like human. The being hurries towards me, shuffling my way, but does not look to be dashing as if in an attempt to attack. Rather, their hurried shuffle looks like one of urgency and secrecy. Raising my brow, the skin of my forehead to scalp region tightens around my horns, an unfamiliar feeling, reminding me that those will take some getting used-to.


    After approaching me, Driezyln leans towards me to whisper conspiratorially, ¡°The Onyx Dawn is on the move? A Hero of the Onyx Dawn is out and about? You seem to rival ancients. Could you depose one that threatens the safety of the refugees you¡¯re curious about?¡±


    Fighting my smirk, I nod as I answer, ¡°If She Who Burns threatens the lives of those I love, I¡¯ll end her as soon as possible. Just point the way. By the sounds of it, you¡¯re not so fond of your ruler. What do you know about the Onyx Dawn, and what we represent?¡±


    There¡¯s a conspiratorial side-eye as Driezyln glances about, seemingly worried for the security of this conversation as they admit, ¡°The Onyx Dawn detests Terrorzin¡¯s rule. Lady Kinzul is infamous, and could have been king. She didn¡¯t want the title, but we¡¯ve all assumed she would rebel one day. She¡¯s always taken in anyone, absolutely anyone, that didn¡¯t want to scrape-scale and bow to Terrorzin¡¯s every whim. I¡¯d guess life is precious to her. It is not as precious to She Who Burns. You might be able to guess by the state of the surrounding countryside.¡±


    Seeming abashed, Driezyln adds, ¡°Auntie, erm, She Who Burns, has slain even her own direct descendants, or, at least her clutches, rather than hand them over to Terrorzin, but still¡ª. If the lives of these softskins, and kobolds, are precious to you, I beg you to slay my aunt. She can be found roosting in her hoard, at the base of Mount Pyrepeak, the dormant volcano.¡±


    Struggling to keep myself from facepalming, I call back, ¡°Lil, Lu, Lucky, you guys hear all that? Looks like we have a local overlord to depose before we can rendezvous with my friends.¡±


    The whuff, and dual replies of, ¡°Sure thing,¡± let me know all I need to. I¡¯m not entirely certain what to do about Trixxie. Shrugging, I decide to request a favor, ¡°Driezyln? Would you mind looking after a prisoner for us? Protect her, treat her kindly, keep her safe, and the like. We really, really shouldn¡¯t be long. We just got done destroying one of Terrorzin¡¯s fortresses, Vorzog¡¯s Keep, and, well, I tried to spare as many lives as I could, but, well, you know how things go.¡±


    Chuckling that I accidentally implied I was only able to spare one life, I hold up a hand as Driezyln appears aghast. Gnawing on my lip, I ask, ¡°Also, is there any chance that you¡¯d be willing to take a portable hole, containing wounded, to a man named Tiago, possibly referred to as Santiago or San Tiago, or a Fae goblin woman named Tiktik? If, glp, if they have survived their journey. I don¡¯t recommend freeing Shlendtikuar from the portable hole, just retrieving the wounded and ill from it. Err, yes, I can see the question, I guess technically we took out two fortresses today.¡±


    There¡¯s the tiniest fear creeping up my spine that Driezyln¡¯s eyes will pop out of their sockets. Thankfully though, Driezyln is willing to accommodate as they offer, ¡°Those two names are fairly well known amongst the enforcers. They¡¯re, well, not exactly troublesome, but they¡¯re well known. You may face two enforcers, as well as two of She Who Burns¡¯, erm,¡± he pauses to blush heatedly before hesitantly finishing by hazarding a guess as to the term, ¡°consorts? I believe I can sway the rest who patrol the softskins, if you can handle those five.¡±


    Nodding, I sense Lil shapeshifting, and Lucky as well, since we¡¯re no longer worried about stealth. Trixxie eyes Driezyln warily, but accepts a hand out of the carriage regardless. This is a fight that Lil and I will excel in. Unless She Who Burns means chemical burns like acid. It didn¡¯t sound like that though from Driezyln¡¯s comment about making note of the surrounding countryside. I mount Lil as Lu mounts Lucky, and we ride hastily away, not caring about the temporary carriage or ghostly horses any longer. Hell, I can probably dismiss both of them if I cared enough. I might as well, as a tiny show of power. There. With a snap of my fingers, the ghostly steeds are gone, and the carriage quickly begins to dissolve.


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    The four of us make haste to the nearby mountains, seeking out the one that looks to be most obviously volcanic in nature. Of course, that means we¡¯ve got to traverse over hill and over dale, figuratively. We cross several foothills, and dodge through several narrow valleys by skirting the Worldstorm as Lil and Lucky are able to virtually race horizontally along cliff¡¯s faces. Lucky is able to literally do so with his new boot-coverings. It¡¯s weird to see him armor up over a minute or so as he resumes his normal shape, but he¡¯s incredibly adept at wielding the magic in the scarf in order to dig out and equip various bits of armor and magical trinkets.


    Feeling like we¡¯re in the early afternoon, I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s between one and four pm right now. I could check my phone, but I don¡¯t want to pull it out while I¡¯m racing headlong into battle. I guess I can check in on¡ª. My eyes stare wide at the note in the security center. It feels as if my breathing stops. There¡¯s only one word, and that word is siege. I made us go the opposite direction from Solace. I engaged in a promise to help remove a different threat, to a different group of people, and my new family are forced to suffer for my choice, without me to aid them against¡ª. Snap out of it Reggie. You put plans and contingencies into place for exactly this situation.


    Plans and contingencies may be in place, but Revvy and Greggy and Shaylon aren¡¯t. They haven¡¯t returned back from the ¡®Neath yet, but that doesn¡¯t mean that Solace is defenseless though either. Though, the Dormir and the Vivant are still out with Teuila, the Triple L Squad are with me, and I have a feeling Kinzul didn¡¯t stay at Solace today, with everything going on. She¡¯s been secretive, about something that needs to be done, something that needs to happen, that keeps requiring her attention. Crap, uh, okay, Pawn, and the Queens are there, for sure. The strategists-eight must have abandoned the security center in order to aid them in defending Solace from the siege. Of the Spellknight twins, Yui might be back at Solace, or she might have simply used her messenger-bird spell to tell a scout that Kagired was injured, or she may have stopped by in person to deliver the message, but returned to the task of watching Induul with Yuri.


    Honestly, I¡¯m worried that Ixey might choose to fight, and if she does, that Zayzi might choose to fight to defend Solace with their sibling. I¡¯m almost certain that Shiz will put up a good fight in defense of the new home for his sister and her kinsmen, and her soon-to-be new children. Plus Atter would go full mama-bear mode on anyone that made it far enough to disturb her and Boetah. Atter and Boetah, whew, they¡¯d decimate anything that made it that far, though I¡¯m hoping nothing does make it that far. Okay, okay, it¡¯s a war, you have to expect that there will be injuries, and, and¡ª. I gulp, not wanting to admit the next word. Injuries, and fatalities. We may lose lives in defense of Solace. Any of us that returns, Kinzul, Teuila with the Dormir and the Vivant, or me and the Triple L Squad, will drive back the siege quite a ways. Just hang in there guys.


    Hm, there¡¯s a new volunteer that I don¡¯t recognize starting to operate the security center. As they patch me in, I¡¯m almost too worried to ask for a sitrep about the siege. Sighing, trying not to sniffle, and trying to keep my eyes from wetting despite the high-velocity winds flowing up my cheeks beneath my goggles, I blink repeatedly while awaiting the connection.


    The volunteer begins, ¡°Schism? Can you hear me? Oh, the visual is nodding, okay. There¡¯s a lot of noise from your end, like high winds. I¡¯m guessing with that motion on the back of Sun, that I caught you at a bad time. The Eight send their apologies for the hasty note. Defenses being mounted are successful so far, no casualties. Do you expect you¡¯ll return soon? Oh, that¡¯s unfortunate. Well, we are prepared for siege after all. It simply means you¡¯ll have to fight your way in, one way or another, depending on whether you come in from above or below. The assault is heavier from below, obviously. I¡¯m uncertain about protocols for this sort of thing, I¡¯m just filling in. Pawn suggested I let you know that Tenith, the Dormir, and the Vivant are all fine, so, I¡¯m doing that. They are. Good luck out there Schism. Get home safely.¡±


    Trying not to chuckle, as mixed feelings swarm about within me, I¡¯m grateful when the volunteer pulls the audio jack on his headphones out of my scrying sensor¡¯s soundproof box, returning me to the silence of my own mind. Well, not that my mind is ever really silent. Lil could hear what was said, because the goggles aren¡¯t exactly the quietest thing around, but Lucky and Lu would probably have had to have been filled in by Lil psychically, due to the high winds and distance between us. Gnawing on my lip, I¡¯m starting to worry. Do I really bring anything to this next series of fights? Five dragons who are ancient, or at least darn near, and any attendants or underlings they have, when I¡¯m slowly regenerating from a beatdown that I received at the hands of Vorzogil.


    What resources do I have? I¡¯ve got the psychic empowerment rune on Whisper, I¡¯ve got five more charges on the Cosmic Roundsheathe, and¡ª. Hm. I¡¯ve got a few charges, or SP worth of actions still in the staff, but not many. I could possibly call FFS again today, maybe, if they were able to rush this far this fast. I¡¯ve got two more charges of raven-porting, but that¡¯s defenses. Well, I could sort of use it offensively comically if I get several attackers to engage me via a crossfire. I, hm, I do have those strange ¡°elemental¡± crossbow bolts. I mean, the icons are pretty wicked, almost silly. I do technically have sixty nine percent of my dragonforce left. My Honoris Causa is fairly powerful, though not quite on par with ancient dragons just yet. Maybe after another Caliber, possibly two. Genre senses are saying that it¡¯s going to take three more actual ancients, that Rahjmeztus didn¡¯t count. The little glow in my head seems to indicate pretty much the same thing.


    Sighing and rolling my eyes, I¡¯m guessing that only She Who Burns, if any of them, will count as a full ancient for the purposes of my Honoris Causa and my cure. If I¡¯m truly lucky, all five would count, but I won¡¯t be that lucky. If I¡¯ve got a fair stroke of luck, I might get three here. I assume She Who Burns would only take ancients as consorts. It strikes me as odd that she has consorts if she doesn¡¯t want younglings, torching her own eggs and such. I guess she just enjoys¡ª. Please don¡¯t think about that brain. I really don¡¯t want to know about the proclivities of people I¡¯m fighting. Hell, I don¡¯t even want to know that about most of the people that I *like.*

 B 6 C 145: Into Her Domain

    As we venture deeper into the heart of the mountain, the air grows heavy with the scent of molten rock and ancient earth. The walls of the cavern are rugged and uneven, coated with layers of obsidian and glistening minerals, their textures rough to the touch. The flickering light of Lil''s fiery breath casts eerie shadows upon the stone, painting an almost ethereal tapestry of dancing silhouettes.


    The tunnel widens as we progress, revealing a colossal expanse that stretches far into the belly of the mountain. Stalactites and stalagmites adorn the chamber, their jagged forms resembling the fangs of a slumbering titan, and I barely direct my mind to imagine them to be the teeth of a gentle creature such as Maka-Akari, Gaea''s Cradle. The distant echoes of water dripping from the ceiling resonate like a haunting melody, odd for the interior of a volcano, especially an ancient Fire''s domain. The juxtaposition just barely keeps my mind away from a panic trigger.


    As we press on, the path begins to decline, leading us ever closer to the heart of the dormant volcano. The ground beneath us is an unendingly turbulent cracked surface, more akin to stacks of ancient stones than a properly carved tunnel floor. The walls take on a reddish hue, the heat becoming evident as we delve deeper. I worry for Lu, but she likely senses my worry, and flashes a thumbs up my way, from beneath a plate of Lucky''s armor.


    The tunnel opens up into a vast chamber once more. The ceiling soars high above, vanishing into an abyss of shadow. Massive stalactites hang like chandeliers, their pointed tips nearly grazing the ground, glowing with a seemingly internal heat source. While glow-lichen is unlikely to flourish, or even survive in such conditions, it seems like the ambient warmth has brought fire-elemental spirits exceedingly close to some thin portion of the veil between our realms, lending an eerie glow across everything, including enormous geodes that cast sporadic bursts of rainbow-hued light across the space.


    The air grows even hotter as we advance, and the ground beneath us trembles with a faint rumble, likely the tremor of the enforcers that we were warned about that roam the tunnels. The walls of the chamber are marred by deep fissures, and igneous rock has formed over the centuries since likely long before this place has lain dormant. I mean, igneous rock forms from the cooling of molten rock, right? So it had to have happened before it went dormant. Or am I misremembering? Eh, what am I, a geologist? No, I¡¯m a cryptozoologist. Heh. Anyway¡ª.


    The distant sounds of echoing roars and the flap of wings reverberate through the chamber. The scent of smoldering scales wafts through the air. Surprisingly, we don''t run into the enforcers, at least not yet. Either they have a difficult time navigating from their position, to that of intruders, or they haven''t yet noticed us somehow. Before us, the true heart of the lair is revealed. Much closer to an intentionally carved cavern, a vaulted chamber opens up, somewhere deeper than I expected, yet altogether not so far from where we entered. My odd genre-sense-of-direction guided us fairly quickly down the correct tunnels apparently.


    We''ve reached a hoard room with the usual piles of gleaming gold and silver coins glittering in towering mounds. There were likely many more in ages past, slowly consumed as snack and spice over the years. I recognize the shapes and facets of precut precious gems from Can''Z''aas, so I know that She Who Burns has either requested, or required tithes. If this is another greedy junkmonkey extorting their neighbors, so help me--. There are several relics, and artifacts of likely notable worth, but they are strewn haphazardly, an indicator of both laziness, and greed.


    Sighing only momentarily, my attention is drawn to the titanic forms of the enforcers. Two adult, nearing-ancient, white dragons patrol the chamber. It seems they rushed here, rather than seeking out the intruders within the tunnels themselves. They appear to be panting in the heat, as they trail frosty patterns upon the ground beneath their gaping jaws loosing exhausted breath. Their scales do glimmer yet seem dulled somehow, likely due to the unfavorable clime in which they reside.


    Of course, at the heart of it all, upon a throne of molten rock and precious metals, are the consorts of "She Who Burns." It doesn''t bode well that the ancient blue dragon and ancient black dragon sit side by side, their eyes gleaming with recognition that intruders have arrived. Their massive forms exude an aura of power, and their serpentine bodies are coiled with a regal grace, but I was hoping we''d face them separately from the enforcers. Worse, it seems we''ve reached her honorable burninator herself as well. All five at once? Not how I pictured starting things off.


    Unintentionally, I yawn while standing atop the back of Lil as we cautiously approach. I¡¯m glad we haven¡¯t been attacked yet, but it¡¯s obvious everybody knows we¡¯re here. Maybe Lil and Lucky¡¯s draconic appearances, and perhaps even my horns and tail, let us appear as emissaries. Ugh, if we¡¯re emissaries of someone that she might expect, or be willing to deign fit to see, it¡¯s likely of Terrorzin. I begin to announce myself, but of course I¡¯m interrupted.


    She Who Burns roars, ¡°Speak only when spoken to worm! Dismount the handsome young man at once!¡±


    Oh boy, I can see where this is going. Poor Lil. Lil¡¯s giggling for me getting told off, but we¡¯re still probably going to end up killing this woman, this ancient dragon, if she¡¯s subjugating the refugees. I do of course dismount as requested, trying to see if I can seek a peaceful solution, in order to not waste further resources today. Sadly, it doesn¡¯t seem like I¡¯ll get much of a chance, as She Who burns motions to her enforcers to hem Lucky and me into an alcove, while she addresses Lil.


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    In an exceedingly flirtatious tone, She Who Burns coyly begs of Lil, ¡°What brings you to my domain you delicious young man?¡±


    Please don¡¯t do what I think you¡¯re going to do Lil. Lil responds, ¡°Well hottie, I¡¯m just here with my pal Rej and my pup bud, and my Gal Pal. I guess Rej wanted to know if you were treating some people okay or something. They¡¯re all heroic and stuff, and I try to be a hero too most of the time, but it¡¯s hard, like Rej wants to save all these people that surrendered, but they were working for Terrorzin! We beat ¡®em up, and now need a place to put ¡®em, even though I think we should just put ¡®em all face down in the dirt. Six feet under. Rej did let me kill a bunch of ¡®em though that weren¡¯t really going to cooperate with the surrender, so I guess that makes it okay, maybe? I dunno. My pal thinks of things way differently than me, but that¡¯s okay. Oh I can talk all day, sorry, I¡¯ve got otter breath boost from being a Shellcracker. I don¡¯t really need to stop to breathe for quite a while, or have to charge my breath, because I¡¯m Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, so I can just breathe longer and longer, and my flames just keep getting stronger and stronger. That¡¯s why I¡¯m Aliased Sun of the Onyx Dawn. My momma aliased me, she¡¯s the best! Did you want a turn to talk, ¡®cause I can just keep going, or stop whenever, I don¡¯t really know how to talk to ladies, especially not hotties, so I either clam up, or just keep talking and talking.¡±


    Biting my lips, I can see She Who Burns¡¯ scaled eyelid twitching as Lil rambles, and I fight to keep from laughing. Lil spilled a bunch of pretty vital info, but it may work out in our favor. I know She Who Burns will act to spite Terrorzin. Luni is still hidden from view, but Lil did mention that there were four of us by announcing that he¡¯s here with his gal-pal. She Who Burns seems to be peering around for a young-adult female Red. I¡¯m still struggling not to giggle. I¡¯m glad the young-adult female Red that Lil is enamored with isn¡¯t here. I wouldn¡¯t want to expose Ixeyla to this kind of danger. Plus, I get the vague hint that She Who Burns might kill a rival lover out of jealousy pre-emptively.


    Gathering herself to appear imposing, not impressing Lil in the slightest, She Who Burns attempts to coerce more info out of him, ¡°You say this, ¡®Rej¡¯, let you kill some of your foes? You answer to them? Some tiny little abomination, the one that rode upon your back perhaps? What say do they have in your battles? Why should you answer to anyone save perhaps a woman your elder? What forces of Terrorzin were you fighting?¡±


    Shaking my head, I know Lil¡¯s going to answer every single question honestly, and he does, ¡°Yup! Rej is a great pal. I mean, answer to is a weird term, but like, Rej has got the mega best brains, mega mega mega best brains. That¡¯s Rej, right now they have horns and a tail, because of magic, Rej is always doing more and more magic stuff, and I don¡¯t even know what to expect like a tenth of the time. I guess that¡¯s why they¡¯re an archmage. Though momma gave Rej that title, but Rej was always spooky super good with magic, mega mega mega super good with magic. I mean, Rej does like, lots of the planning, and sometimes lots of the fighting, sometimes even more than any of the rest of us. I think Rej probably took down half of a fortress a couple days ago, and then like, today they¡¯re out there with me, and pup, and Gal-Pal, and we¡¯re all rahh you¡¯re going down Vorzog and your whole keep! Rej is like, ¡®We¡¯ll spare some of you because I am a Hero of the Onyx Dawn, and all my other six bajillion titles, and I offer mercy to everyone, even if you don¡¯t deserve it,¡¯ and I¡¯m all whatevs Rej wants, because I accidentally killed Rej before, and thankfully momma saved their life. I¡¯da been so sad if Rej stayed dead, mega mega mega sad. I mean, I guess they kind of die plenty, but they always bounce back. I mean, they died again today, can you believe it? Really, what¡¯s a guy supposed to do with a pal that keeps dying all the time? I¡¯m worried that one time, they won¡¯t pop back from it, y¡¯know? Then again, Rej always comes through, always always always comes through. They¡¯re the best at magics, the absolute mega best, mega mega mega best. Well, I guess I do answer to an elder woman, kinda? My momma, Kinzul is probably like the oldest person on the planet, I think, but I don¡¯t think of her as elder, I just think of her as my wonderful beautiful momma. I guess I kinda already answered what forces we were fighting. Rej kinda goes out of their way to fight, save, or kill, whoever needs to be fought, saved, or killed. Today it was Vorzog¡¯s keep, and¡ª.¡±


    She Who Burns holds up a hand as she barks, ¡°Enough!¡± before stroking her enormous scaled temples as if she¡¯s got a migraine.


    Bursting with laughter, though I try not to, I have a fit of the giggles as Lil basically calls me either immortal, undying, or infinitely reincarnating, by the way he makes it sound like I die and come back so much. She Who Burns gazes warily my way for a moment, contemplating whether it¡¯s worth attempting to have her enforcers fight me. Wait, wait. Wasn¡¯t there a thing? Kinzul commented on how me having telekinetic grips as a matter of fact was something incredibly impressive. Swapping gear, I hold my breath and leap to the roof of the cavern.


    Now that I¡¯m here, I leap sideways across the roof of the cavern, and then rocket down towards the throne, behind She Who Burns. I catch myself in one of my telekinetic grips, as another telekinetic grip draws Frostburn. After fishing out a tome from one of my dimensional bags, I open it to the beginning. Using another telekinetic grip, I levitate the tome near me, and I reserve the secret of my fourth telekinetic grip. I flip through the tome, simply pointing my finger at it, reading as I float lazily, appearing to lounge upon, or at least just above, the throne of She Who Burns, between her consorts.


    The fury I sense burbling up within She Who Burns is almost as intense as the wariness which now cautions her. Perhaps a tad too cheekily, I comment, ¡°Oh no no, pay no mind to me, please, keep flirting with my best friend, and son-in-law, Lil. I¡¯m sure you¡¯d make an excellent daughter-in-law.¡±

 B 6 C 146: Crisis of Qlaxianna

    Before She Who Burns can even deign to comment on my infuriating, yet confusing statement, Lil blurts out, ¡°Awe Rej I think that¡¯s a little fast. I mean, she¡¯s a hottie, but like, I hardly even know her. I mean, give a pal at least a couple dates or somethin¡¯. Like, sure, we aren¡¯t humans or whatever, but I really wasn¡¯t expecting to bring a new girlfriend back home to momma out of nowhere today, let alone wife. I mean, we were fighting Terrorzin¡¯s peeps today, I didn¡¯t want to bring anyone back, y¡¯know? I mean, except you guys, safe and sound, because we¡¯re the inner circle.¡±


    Turning his attention back towards She Who Burns, Lil continues, ¡°Sorry about my, um, parent in-law miss Burns. Rej married momma like, I dunno, just yesterday or somethin¡¯, so it¡¯s taking some getting used-to. Like seriously, we¡¯ve been pals for most of my life, and all of theirs, and then I go find a momma, and then Rej goes and marries her! I guess Rej has all those titles, and keeps doing things momma likes, and like, it¡¯s nice to see her happy, I think Rej likes making everyone happy. Well, happy or dead. If you¡¯re nice, Rej wants you happy, and will make the whole world better to make that happen if they have to. If you¡¯re mean, and hurting people, Rej makes you dead. Like, there¡¯s no inbetweens, and no one really escapes. I think. Huh. Has anyone ever gotten away that you didn¡¯t want to let get away Rej?¡±


    Snorting with laughter, trying to compose myself, I respond, ¡°No Lil, my best buddy, son-in-law, *no one,* has escaped both me and my Wrath. One perhaps, but not the other. Not even Kozzurth, Yisstendahl, Olashax, Vanathar, Tinth, Mydraig, Deviltail of the Evil Claws, Vorzog, Adkre, or anyone else that I can think of. Everyone who subjugates someone else, terrorizes people, harms, threatens, or kills to sate their own greed or lust for power. Every one I¡¯ve ever met,¡± I pause for effect before finishing, ¡°Is dead.¡±


    She Who Burns *nearly* explodes with fury. The fear creeping up in her nearly catches up with the wariness that skyrockets however. Pondering something, I call out, ¡°Hey Lu, I know you said you buried them, but you¡¯ve always had foresight. Did you happen to keep a copy of Gae Buidhe, so that I can show She Who Burns that I wield The Four?¡±


    The flub as She Who Burns states, ¡°You hwhat,¡± with no questioning inflection nearly has me bursting with laughter yet again.


    Sighing almost sadly, I spot Lu tossing a scrollcase high into the air towards me. I of course catch it in my fourth telekinetic grip, and do a bit of shuffling. I work so that I can sheathe Frostburn, and put away the book while landing so that I can levitate out Gae Buidhe, to its full length.


    Growling, I announce, ¡°I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I am the mate and spouse of Kinzul, and I wield The Four. Gae Buidhe,¡± I brandish the spear telekinetically, spinning it, ¡°Cla¨ªomh Solais,¡± I similarly brandish the archsorch staff and twirl it telekinetically, ¡°The Stone In Two Parts,¡± I hold up my hand with the Fae ring on it, while levitating the stone on Lil¡¯s neck, ¡°and, well, Daghda¡¯s Cauldron, though I haven¡¯t quite figured out how to carry the sucker around everywhere.¡±


    Floating towards She Who Burns, from her own throne, I approach her with a deadly spinning spear. Also upon approach is a legendary spinning staff. Beyond that, I continue to impress upon her my ability to simply will objects and myself to move around with no discernible cause, or necessity for even my own vision to be on the target of my telekinesis as I allow the legendary weapons to rotate around me.


    Flinching, She Who Burns eyes up her subordinates, so I interject, ¡°I don¡¯t recommend attacking. Like Lil told you, everyone who has ever angered me, has ended up dead. Even those who¡¯ve slain me. I simply brush it off, and slay them in return. Can you do the same?¡±


    It is so friggin¡¯ hard not to burst out laughing at how cocky I am and how full of horsecrap I am. Friggin¡¯ hell, thanks Lil. Just great. Hah. Ugh, it¡¯s so hard to fight this laughter. I really am so full of horsecrap right now though. Hah. I sheathe the archsorc staff in my double-ended drop sheath, not wanting to do something stupid while pretending to be so full of myself.


    Barely maintaining my composure, I ask, ¡°So, about those weaker than you. You wouldn¡¯t happen to know how a group of refugees that I¡¯d sent this way are doing, would you? I figured I¡¯d stop in and check with this domain¡¯s regional ruler rather than hunting them all down myself, as I¡¯m sure you must keep very abreast of what happens in your lands. Mustn¡¯t you?¡±


    Wow, I did not think Fires could sweat bullets, but there She Who Burns goes proving me wrong. She responds, ¡°As you must also be aware, that the refugees you¡¯ve sent have ended up in the domain of Qlaxianna, She Who Burns, I indeed am aware of these¡ª beings,¡± but balks as I raise my eyebrow, prompting her to continue, ¡°I¡¯ve, ahem, required an appropriate tithe, and labor from any unable to pay that, koff, tithe.¡±


    Sighing, I¡¯d figured as much. Fighting to control my wrath, as my eyes flash red with anger, I demand, ¡°And the lives of anyone and everyone who has entered your domain? Have any of them ended since they arrived!?¡±


    Really, I shouldn¡¯t be surprised when She Who Burns screams out, ¡°Attack!¡±


    Sighing, I might as well use this stupidly deadly spear. That way, even if one of these foes manages to flee, they¡¯ll either die by bleeding out over time, or hopefully at least be unable to really attack or harm others if appropriately weakened and injured. Lil engages the two Ices, while Lucky leaps from where he¡¯d been backed into a corner, in order to take on the Blue consort. I¡¯m left facing She Who Burns, and the Acid consort. Thankfully, as they both turn their breath weapons on me, I simply hasten my approach towards Qlaxianna, letting her evaporate the incoming acid. I can tell they¡¯re both trying to engage their dragonfright, which would be affecting my companions, if Lucky weren¡¯t wearing his new armor. Neither of the two can see my companions, or me from their current vantage point, so they can only assume that I¡¯m frozen in place as I should be, from the dragonfright.


    The two dragons I¡¯m facing close in on each other, but Qlaxianna realizes she¡¯s approaching a moving object within her blaze. I¡¯d sigh as Qlaxianna does the smart thing, to keep me from getting into her mouth, she closes it. However, her consort is still belching acid, an incredibly potent, compressed stream of it, directly at her neck and face. Hey, guess what came to pass? Raven-porting time? Raven-porting time.


    We are three, three are we, we wheel, we dance the sky of this cavern. We spot friends fighting, and foes in pain. We are curious about shinies, and realize we¡¯ve left a shiny to get destroyed. Pointy stick, hated pointy stick sits in a nasty hurty puddle. We are in no rush to rescue it. Burning lady¡¯s eyes are burning, and she is shrinking. Painful stream is being shot, and hits one of us, two of us. We must stop the dark liquid one, the Acid one.


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    Rattling my skull as I return to myself atop the back of the ancient Acid, I withdraw Frostburn once again. She Who Burns is taking her human form in order to try to find a way to mend the chemical burns on her face. Her eyes are horribly scarred. I grimace at the injury that I sort of technically caused. She screams out an order that causes the Acid I¡¯m perched atop to also begin assuming his human form. This just got a whole hell of a lot easier.


    Sure, they¡¯re still far, far, far more durable than humans in these forms. That¡¯s probably because they have some strange dragonforce energy defenses available to them when compressed so small, but they¡¯re still flesh and blood, hair and bone. It¡¯s almost sad that so very few of them think to make their scales into any sort of armor or battle equipment in their human forms, foolishly leaving spots like their necks exposed.


    Now, I¡¯m not strong enough, even in RS2, to pierce the condensed flesh of dragons in their human forms, at least not easily. I do however have my Honoris Causa activated. Manifesting it, I viciously tear at She Who Burns, and her acid consort, aiming for their jugulars. I aim my fore, my maw, and my claws, at the Acid, to keep him from being able to hurt any of my loved ones. She Who Qlaxiwhatever isn¡¯t really a threat to any of them, due to most of us being nearly heat immune, but I still aim my tail and dominant rear leg claws at her.


    To keep them from being able to react or back away, I place the still-steaming Gae Buidhe behind the skull of She Who Burns, and Frostburn behind the skull of the consort, telekinetically. She who burns can¡¯t tell what¡¯s attacking her, since she can¡¯t see, and hadn¡¯t seen my Honoris Causa manifest before, so she unwittingly partially impales herself, the back of her neck, and part of her skull on Gae Buidhe, as she recoils from my assault. This also manages to drive a decent glob of acid into the back of her neck as she scrabbles away from my assault.


    Grimacing at what I¡¯m sure is soon to be a gruesome death, I turn my senses away from She Who Burns. She attempts to resume her dragon form once again, abandoning the search for something to mend her eyes, hoping to simply be able to flee with her life at this point. She won¡¯t be getting very far, and I¡¯ve got a more actively dangerous opponent to put down first. With Qlaxianna out of the picture, the ancient Acid is resuming his dragon form as well, no longer paying heed to her order to shrink and help wipe her eyes, or whatever she¡¯d asked. Still, I¡¯ve managed to gouge at the sides of his throat pretty thoroughly, though I can tell he¡¯s maneuvering his scales to protect the weakened, rent fleshy areas.


    This will put me into the six hundreds, but it¡¯s worth it. I mutter under my breath, ¡°GSE Balefire,¡± before the ancient Acid can finish transforming, with my palm in his face. I picture the point of origin to be inside his nasal cavity as it flares to life, cooking his skull from the inside, incinerating his brain. I was not going to let that jerk get full size again and possibly put Lu, Lucky, or Lil in danger by jetting out more streams of acid.


    Speaking of, Lil is perfectly fine, Ices can¡¯t do crap against him when he¡¯s prepared, especially when he¡¯s immune to dragonfright by being somewhat near Lucky. Lucky is taking this fight seriously, pinning down the Lightning¡¯s maw, keeping him from being able to raise it to breathe on Lu, Lil, or himself. Luni looks sad, and upset, but she¡¯s hammering away at the blue magically as she floats about its head, unleashing boom after boom after boom with her new scepter.


    Deciding to risk it, since it¡¯s been at least a couple of hours at this point, I remove my helm, and psionic protection circlet. The psionic pain feels like that of an encroaching migraine, the building pressure behind one eye, or even above or near one temple, but it¡¯s steady. Calling out to Lu telepathically, I offer, ¡°My Anchor, if you want, I can take over, you¡ª.¡±


    Stubbornly, Lu replies, ¡°No. No. Let me do this one. Please. I have to fight. I have to be able to, to¡ª. I just have to. Okay? For, for reasons. Thank you sweetie, but it¡¯s okay. I¡¯m okay. It¡¯s scary, but I¡¯m okay. Thank you. Thank you for caring so much. Maybe finish your own fight anyway.¡±


    Blanching, I dart my gaze around. The Acid seems to be starting to disbelieve the balefire, but the damage is already done, mostly. They¡¯re still as good as dead because of it. It has disoriented them enough that they¡¯d been unable to complete their transformation, and their neck is bleeding out on both sides. Plus, I¡¯m pretty sure it literally melted their frontal lobe.


    Hm, then Lu is referring to She Who Burns. I guess I¡¯ll dart off that way. I didn¡¯t do much damage to her neck with my tail and one hind claw. I probably should have focused more on her, but I thought Gae Buidhe would finish her if she backed into it. I guess it only dug in a half an inch or so, before she figured to slide away from both my tail, and it, taking a bit of a kick to the neck.


    Let¡¯s see, if she¡¯s going for the surface, if I remember, this heads a long ways that way, and loops, and the loop is really tight, so this wall is probably only a few feet thick. Here¡¯s an ability we haven¡¯t really put to use yet. I don¡¯t bother stoneshaping. Rockwalk or earthwalk or whatever the hell this is called, stone melding, something or other, is all I need. Hoof, that¡¯s, wow that¡¯s a doozy, it feels like I left my eyeballs stuck in the wall. Ow. All my muscles along my neck and jaw are locked up. Gotta stretch them out while, ah, there she is.


    Standing in front of the fleeing Qlaxxi whoever, I call out, ¡°Halt. I offer you mercy, if you offer your surrender, and agree to discuss terms. Like Lil said. I want everyone to be able to¡ª. Okay, fine, the hard way it is.¡±


    When she tries to barrel straight through me, I manifest my Void Dragon form to its fullest, and catch Qlaxianna in a wrestling grip that might not work the best on dragons. I should ask Ixeyla for some pointers, since apparently she¡¯s somewhat pro at the wrestling that goes on in Mount Solace. Seeking a point of leverage, I do manage to lock down Qlaxianna¡¯s wings, so she¡¯s forced to try to overpower me with her hind claws, as her forelimbs work to free her from my grip and defend her from my assault.


    Qlaxianna is literally lashing out blindly, snapping at bodyparts that are points of contact in touch with her, but incapable of finding my center of balance, or my vulnerable spots, as she¡¯s unused to being blind. Not to mention the difficulty that comes with fighting a dragon whose tangibility is only in the places most necessary. I feel bad for this, and for her. I was going to try to offer to work things out, let her maybe rule like some sort of monarch, as long as she was fair about it. Sighing, I shake my head as I sink my form¡¯s fangs into her neck and twist hard to the side, slamming her into the tunnel walls.


    Now that she¡¯s got one leg in the air, she¡¯s completely off balance, so I leap forward into a forceful push. This has the effect of sending Qlaxianna sprawling on her back, with me and my form pinning her to the ground. I manage to get additional leverage to tear into her neck with my form¡¯s maw. Rending her scales from her neck, I¡¯m able to tear gashes in it with my fangs. If it weren¡¯t for the bloody, brutal nature of the battle, it¡¯d resemble certain intimate activities, some of which I¡¯ve even recently participated in.


    Through tears comes laughter as Qlaxianna mutters, ¡°It¡¯s funny, koff, he always said, I¡¯d go out on my back. The bastard. Finish him for me, would you?¡±


    Gulping back a sudden wave of emotion, I can¡¯t help myself as I release Qlaxianna. I rescind my form, my Honoris Causa, and float above her with telekinesis. She¡¯s in a bad way, and maybe dying, but I can tell she just requested that I finish Terrorzin off. Taking lives always feels horrible, but it feels worse when you share sentiments with them, or hear or see things that humanize them, or, uh, dragonize them I guess. I¡¯m unable to speak or make sounds at the moment as I bear witness to her laying there, dying. Seconds seem to stretch by into an eternity, while I¡¯m unable to do more than observe. Perhaps minutes pass, perhaps more, as Qlaxianna continues to bleed out, only spasming, and twitching, making no attempts to otherwise move.


    There¡¯s fear in the query, in the raspy breath of Qlaxianna as she asks, ¡°Are, koff, you there little hero?¡±


    Since she can¡¯t see me, I respond in the affirmative, ¡°Aye. I¡¯m here Qlaxianna. If you meant Terrorzin, I swear it.¡±


    Wheezing one last breath, and one last word, she responds, ¡°Good.¡±

 B 6 C 147: Wheel of Morality

    Gulping down sadness, I feel the life passing from her form as Qlaxianna allows herself to perish, to stop fighting the few, but devastating injuries she¡¯s taken. I sit atop her breast, patting her chest scales as if I could comfort her in this last dying instant. I wish I could take it back. I wish I didn¡¯t do¡ª, hadn¡¯t done this. I feel a bit like Lil now. I don¡¯t really want to desecrate her body to get at, and feast on her dragonforce. Friggin¡¯ hell. Ugh, this is so brutal of me. It¡¯s going to take me minutes of prying at a chest scale to even get to some flesh I can hack through to dig towards her heart.


    I suppose I am pretty low on blood myself. I guess I should go through with it, and imbibe and ingest her blood and heart. We managed to secure one without me needing to eat it, while still claiming a dragonforce. That was Deviltail¡¯s I think. I probably still should have eaten it, but I want to try some alchemy that I¡¯ve been learning, as well as some enchanting. Ugh, I feel so heartless, brutalizing corpses for parts. That¡ª. That¡¯s ironic. Crap on a cracker. This can¡¯t be how things normally go.


    Pft, hah, no duh Reggie. Nothing about this whole situation is normal. You¡¯re some weird glitchy Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Changeling Fae, with some sort of Fel form that you¡¯ve been reincarnated into from recently dying. You have a need for, and ability to consume dragonforces, and, and just so much more insanity on top of all that! Huff. Whatever. Should I offer a sign of trust by not going to check in on the Triple L Squad, or should I go back before harvesting Qlaxi¡¯s dragonforce? Ugh, don¡¯t give her nicknames bud, it¡¯s only going to make you feel worse. I know! It was an accident. It¡¯s easier to say shorter names, err, think them. I know bud, I know.


    Sighing, I do decide to show trust to Luni and Lucky, letting them handle the ancient Blue. Plus, Lil¡¯s probably done with the adult Ices by now too, so he can help them if they want or need help. As expected, it¡¯s taking me minutes to even pry off a scale, or even loosen one enough to get far enough under it to be able to dig at flesh. I could engage my Honoris Causa again, but that feels like a waste of dragonforce for something that can be done with a little effort, and elbow grease. Plus, oddly, I¡¯m in no rush to consume Qlaxianna¡¯s dragonforce, or desecrate her body any swifter than I already am. In some small way, I¡¯m trying to seek solace in pretending I¡¯m partaking of her company, rather than robbing her dead body of its essence.


    Why does it have to be like this? Why¡¯d she have to scream attack, instead of just offering an explanation? Why did I retaliate so brutally and swiftly? Are we predisposed to assuming everything is life or death? I know I was pissed, and wrath was leaking forth, when I imagined that she might have killed some of the refugees, but¡ª. There¡¯s no way for her to have known that if I¡¯d seen her feel remorse, that I would have been on her side. I was coming across as a brutal, always-victorious conqueror, demanding perfection. This is my fault.


    Sighing, I sit upon Qlaxianna¡¯s bare breast, one scale peeled away, and I drop my face into my hands to mourn. The sorrow hits me full force, though I can¡¯t weep, as much as I¡¯d like to. Between being low on fluids from donating blood, being inside a volcano, and on top of a Fire¡¯s corpse, I¡¯m a tad dehydrated. Still, that¡¯s not exactly the whole story either. I almost wish Qlaxianna had flirted with Lil more, and chased him romantically. I like to see Lil happy, and he seemed to be enjoying talking to her. I¡¯m more upset with having stolen that possibility from Lil, I think, than most anything else about the situation. Maybe. I guess a lot of the reasons mingle together in importance towards my grief.


    I¡¯d beg her forgiveness if I could. I¡¯d at least go back a few moments to converse, to listen to her tale, as she lay dying, instead of floating numbly nearby. I did her such a disservice. What can I even do to reconcile this act with how I want to be, and who I want to be? With who I want to perceive myself as? There are only so many ways one can interpret killing someone, and none of them seem adequate in this situation. Sighing, I rub my itchy eyes, trying to remind myself that her ordering her subordinates to attack us implied her guilt, her complicity, in taking the lives of some of the refugees. If I can at least make myself angry at Qlaxi, I might be able to move on for now.


    Finally, as I¡¯m about to start really hacking away at Qlaxi¡¯s chest, Lil arrives and asks, ¡°Hey partner, need some help with that?¡±


    Chuckling, rolling my eyes, and heaving an exhausted sigh, I nod to Lil, who thankfully opens a wide path through Qlaxianna¡¯s chest cavity for me. He mumbles to the corpse, ¡°Sorry hottie. Told you no bad people get away from Rej. We¡¯ve gotta get done, and go home because they¡¯re under siege. It was nice talking to you. You seemed like you maybe could have been fun, if you weren¡¯t also evil. I dunno. This time it was weird, because you don¡¯t follow Terrorzin, so I¡¯m not sure how I feel right now. I guess I kinda thought only bad people followed Terrorzin, and only Terrorzin¡¯s followers were bad people. I guess I see why Rej is always struggling, asking people if they¡¯re good, or willing to be good. Rej really is a hero, even if they hate people calling ¡®em that other than Gal-Pal. I sorta think of myself as one too, kinda, some days. Just not the same type as Rej. Just never really thought as much about good and bad. Home, on Can¡¯z¡¯aas, my first home, it was eat or be eaten, y¡¯know? There¡¯s no good or bad, there¡¯s just survival. Then we started making friends, and family, and suddenly what¡¯s good is important, because it means being nice and being treated nice, and family being safe. Anyway, sorry again hottie.¡±


    Blushing at having overheard Lil¡¯s seemingly private admission, I try to immerse myself in absorbing Qlaxi¡¯s dragonforce. Stop that you goon, stop giving in to giving her a nickname. I can¡¯t help it after Lil goes and calls her hottie repeatedly, of course I¡¯m going to use Qlaxi. Sighing, I try to keep my attention focused on the heart that I¡¯m eating, but my brain is all over the place.


    Lil mutters to me, ¡°Hey pal, partner, um. I kinda meant for you to hear Rej, sorta, maybe. I dunno. I guess maybe I thought you¡¯d be able to help me figure out my feelings, like you¡¯re always doing for my It¡¯s-A-Secret.¡±


    Gulping for several reasons, I nearly choke as I try to immediately answer, ¡°Yes, of course, yes Lil, always, any time. I love you beyond most anything or anyone. Anything you need help with. Is, is it about the good and evil, good and bad stuff?¡±


    There¡¯s a hint of shame as Lil nods my way, from outside Qlaxi¡¯s chest cavity. I try to assuage him, ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be ashamed of, you were honest, and true to yourself. Good and bad were different, like you said. It¡¯s only my buggy Fakeworld memories that give me a different perspective than other Can¡¯Z¡¯aasians. Even that is only morality as mostly defined by one society in one section of Fakeworld in one era of its history. I¡¯m sorry that I¡¯m always asking you to let me do things my moral way, instead of asking what your morals say pal. I¡¯m no one¡¯s lesson on perfect morality. I feel like crap for doing that to you now that I realize what I¡¯ve been putting you through. I¡¯m sorry Lil.¡±


    Half scoffing, half chuckling, Lil rolls his eyes as he responds, ¡°Doofus, I don¡¯t need you to apologize for being right. Just, just thanks for always being willing to to do things, and look at things, and hear things out. You¡¯re the best friend, and parent, and dragon-pal that a little dragon could ask for, and more! I just, I guess I was just wondering how you do it. But then I remembered, or realized, you kinda don¡¯t. It eats you up, doesn¡¯t it? That sucks pal. That mega sucks, mega mega mega sucks. What are you supposed to do with that?¡±


    Phooph. Hell of a question Lil, hell of a question. I answer as best I can, ¡°It¡¯s rough, yeah, it does eat me up. Even if I want to be the most right, and the most good in my own eyes, sometimes the choices are hard, or aren¡¯t clear. I make mistakes. I make mistakes on things that I feel are hugely important sometimes, things that I massively regret. The only way I can keep moving forward, is to focus on keeping moving forward, if that makes sense. If I let myself overthink in the moment, of what the right choice is, or if I start to think too much about the wrong choices I¡¯ve made in the past, or maybe not wrong, but regretful ones, then I¡¯ll get trapped in my head, and, well, yeah. That¡¯s when it¡¯d definitely start eating me up inside again even more.¡±


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    Pausing a beat, I figure I should lay out one of the examples, ¡°Like, there was this salmon-pink colored Draconiac lady who was one of a few trying to psychically dominate Fenric. I slew a bunch of them quickly, but one, I saw the fear and sadness in her eyes, the desire to live, but I killed her or let her die anyway. I can¡¯t really come to grips with it. I can rationalize it, it was the heat of battle, she was someone who if I let go on the battlefield could maybe even have turned the tide against us by sneaking off, and on and on, but the could haves and should haves and would haves will eat me up forever if I don¡¯t just stop and look at the next step in front of me. When I get to that next step, I have to focus on the next one, and the next.¡±


    Thinking momentarily about how I sometimes sound or maybe brag to others, I add, ¡°I mean, sometimes I pretend like I¡¯m looking dozens, hundreds, thousands of steps ahead or something. Those times when I get absorbed in plans and ideas, but really they¡¯re just single next steps, for some future point, that I need to get to. So I have to focus on getting there. Each time, each step, I try to make the next choice that feels the most right, the most good. It¡¯s not easy, but few things are. There¡¯s entire schools of thought surrounding this stuff, like moral versus ethical duty, and so on. There isn¡¯t even one agreed ruling of what¡¯s good and what¡¯s bad in every situation. I mean, in a deontological thought process, you¡¯re using rules for morality of each individual action itself. In a teleology, or uh teleological thought process, you¡¯re considering the end-goals or results of those actions. You kinda sorta can¡¯t satisfy both. If killing is bad, but killing stops other killings, saving lives, then¡ª. Get it? Like, if you¡¯re in a position to save lives, by taking action, and ending someone else¡¯s life, but you *don¡¯t* do it, then you made a choice and took an action that still technically ended lives. In one school, the actions might be good or bad, or at least right or wrong, but in the other, they might be necessary to provide a good or bad, or right or wrong outcome. All I really want to tell you about you and your feelings Lil is that they¡¯re valid, and you are good. You¡¯ve always been good, and always will be good. You¡¯re the best bud a weird lost little creamy green souled goof could ask for.¡±


    Beaming with pride, Lil deigns to enter the chest cavity to nuzzle me as he exclaims, ¡°Rej pal, you¡¯re so smart, and good with talking, and feelings. You¡¯re such a hottie now too, more dragon than ever. Can I kiss ya?¡±


    My smile tells Lil enough as he shifts forms for us to be able to embrace. I¡¯m a bit embarrassed to be kissing Lil after having just swallowed what I know he thinks of as sacred dragon flesh, but he¡¯s been adjusting his worldview in order to fit me into it. While Lil and I kiss, I realize Lil hasn¡¯t had much experience kissing in passionate ways. I can¡¯t help grinning a bit as he blushes before he pulls away, to mumble a few things and scratch the back of his head.


    Trying to keep my chuckling to myself, I offer, ¡°If Ixeyla the other night was where you got your practice, I can totally understand. It¡¯s all good pal. Everything¡¯s okay between us. I love you as much as I always have, and always will. Nothing has to change with us, or everything can, if that¡¯s what you need, or anywhere in-between. Best buds for life, even if that¡¯s immortal eternity.¡±


    Lil cracks a grin and nods before nudging me to remind me that I¡¯m done with this dragonforce, and have more to claim. After he returns to his form, he offers me a lift back to the hoard room, but I cheekily, almost jokingly quip, ¡°Race ya. You get a three second headstart! Three, two, one.¡±


    Unable to keep myself from grinning and chuckling as Lil takes off like a gleeful rocket, I walk over to the wall that is fairly near the far end of the tunnel, and begin to stonemeld through it. Stepping through on the other side is still an unpleasant sensation, but I might be able to get used to it with some practice. It¡¯s worth it to see Lil look astounded as he rounds the corner and catches me sauntering back to the hoard room ahead of him. He looks back around the corner then back towards me again, and yells, ¡°Cheater!¡±


    Heh. Gnawing on the insides of my cheeks to try to suppress my grin, I await Lil at the entrance to the hoard room. He bowls me over, giggling like a goof. Through a mouthful of dragonslobber as Lil licks my face, I playfully joke, ¡°Neither of us won, we entered at the same time. Also, what is it with my family and licking me?¡±


    Lil just grins and helps me up, shrugging about people licking me. He aids me in claiming the four other hearts, and dragonforces available, simply ferrying me around and rending scales and flesh at my request, despite his own discomfort with bodies, corpses in general. I lean down to hug the back of Lil¡¯s neck as tightly as I can from atop him, trying to impart all my love for him into the motion. He means worlds to me. Wiping several tears from my eyes, I check on Lu and Lucky. Luni seems subdued, but fine, and Lucky is his usual mostly-jovial self, especially as he keeps nudging Luni closer and closer to me every time I move.


    Almost afraid to ask, I begin to form a query, but Luni beats me to it, ¡°I¡¯m actually okay, really really. It¡¯s just, it¡¯s weird. Being scared, but doing things anyway. I¡¯ve done it a few times, and it¡¯s always weird. I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll ever stop being weird. It¡¯s part of why I¡¯m so proud of you, and so proud of Lil. You both always fight for us, always, no matter how scary the odds. Yes Lucky, I¡¯m proud of you too boy, settle down, Reggie¡¯s right here. We don¡¯t need to get any oof, closer. Hi sweetie.¡±


    Blushing and chuckling, I can¡¯t fight my overly-wide smile as Luni is the one sent toppling into me for once. Seriously, the smile keeps getting wider and I can¡¯t stop it, like trying to control the muscles is a quivering, quaking effort, to no avail. Luni shrugs, grins, and presses up firmly against me. I have to laugh as Lil is standing around in his human form, and he gets bowled over as he gets licked by Lucky¡¯s enormous tongue for once. Lil seems indignant, but none of us can keep from laughing.


    Sighing, I try not to make too much note of the regrets I hold as I finish siphoning dragonforces, eating hearts, drinking blood, and packing away the gems I recognize as being from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, along with a little more, to return to the refugees. I snag the few things that shine with the brightest magical auras as well, but don¡¯t have the heart to even identify what I¡¯m pilfering from Qlaxi¡¯s hoard right now. I hope that in some small way, that I can somehow honor her, by having one of these trinkets help us defeat Terrorzin. Her last request was for him to fall, and if I can make it so that she was a part of that, it might work in some small regard to be part of a penance I can pay towards my guilt at taking her life.


    As I finish absorbing the third ancient¡¯s dragonforce though, something flashes within me, brightly. That warmth, that glow within me is attempting to share new information. Huh, apparently I am at ten dragonforces obtained, of high enough power or quality, to be able to increase my Caliber, despite having had several get burned up, used up, or disappear. It feels like, despite Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce having been gone before I received my titling and Honoris Causa, that somehow each new dragonforce of a certain tier of power shapes that part of me.


    Deeply within me on some spiritual level, my inner dragon-self resides alongside my inner Changeling Fae, not just the aegis that protects that part of me from mana residue. Ancient dragonforces shape and mould my form, driving it towards, well, perfection of my form I suppose. Not that I think my form would ever be perfect in any way, but each dragonforce should always increase it in beneficial ways. I mean, each ancient dragonforce that fully counts anyway.


    The two adult dragonforces mostly just paid for my expenditures from this fight, and maybe some of what I¡¯d lost from Deviltail¡¯s, but the three ancients were apparently elder enough, or evil enough, or something, that they counted. I¡¯m sitting at well-over three thousand days worth of survival from dragonforce yet again. I mean, not that I recall being at this exact number previously, I just mean that I¡¯m back up over a couple thousand.


    I feel a bit like a yo-yo, or rubberband. My dragonforce rockets up and gets blown away in an instant, repeatedly. Still, it¡¯s exciting reaching a new Caliber, and tantalizing being closer to my cure. Regardless, let¡¯s get the heck out of here while I parse this information, shall we? Thankfully, my beloved friends in the Triple L Squad are just as eager to leave.

 B 6 C 148: TTCTUBE

    Returning towards the watchtower, the warning horn blows again, and I roll my eyes, but at least it suits our purpose.  Driezyln¡¯s approach is accompanied by fifteen other dragons ranging from young adult into adults nearing ancient status.  That seems a bit overkill for patrolling some humans and kobolds, but whatever I guess.


    Apparently chagrined and somewhat able to guess what I¡¯m thinking, Driezyln resumes human form in order to address me, ¡°Welcome back, that erm, was really quick.  I assume auntie¡ª?¡±


    Sighing and nodding, I barely have the heart to start to respond, but thankfully Driezyln cuts me off to announce, ¡°She Who Burns has been slain!  We have the Hero of the Onyx Dawn to thank, having taken time from their war against Terrorzin to aid us.  How shall we show our gratitude cousins?¡±


    Furrowing my brow, I¡¯m starting to wonder if auntie and cousins are just terms of endearment rather than biological relations to Driezyln.  I guess I don¡¯t really care one way or another though.  I¡¯m worried that this might start some trouble, or some hassle that I don¡¯t need, but Driezyln once again beats me to the punch by answering their own posed question, ¡°I propose, we protect, and serve, because the Onyx Dawn values life, all of it!  Come, head home to claim, then distribute auntie¡¯s hoard, share with, and protect those weaker than us!¡±


    Blinking several times, my lower jaw juts forward appreciatively as I take in Driezyln¡¯s words.  More importantly, I¡¯m able to take in and ascertain that the other fifteen dragons are in agreement, seemingly swayed to do just about anything Driezyln might ask.  Hey, if they¡¯re up for protecting the Aasimovians and kobolds, that''s just fantastic by me.


    A nervous Trixxie is delivered by a dragon whose scale-color I can¡¯t tell in the flickering lightning of the Worldstorm.  She hops down to be caught by Driezyln, and blushes furiously in the arms of the Sand.  Driezyln makes nothing of it while helping Trixxie to her feet, in order to rejoin us.


    Curious where to go to find my friends amongst the refugees, I ask, ¡°Driezyln, were you able to deliver the hole to Tiago?  Where is he set up currently?¡±


    Pointing to the southwest, Driezyln states, ¡°Three and a half or so miles that way, you¡¯ll find the remains of the capitol, up against the next batch of mountains from this range.  I hope I¡¯ve done your Lady proud.  The other twelve would like to join the Onyx Dawn.¡±


    I barely refrain from choking on my own tongue or coughing in surprise.  Raising an eyebrow, I ask, ¡°The other twelve?¡±


    Nodding emphatically, Driezyln states, ¡°Auntie¡¯s other consorts.  I suppose some of them are hoping to be chosen as your lady Kinzul¡¯s consorts, but they are all powerful, if a bit rusty at displaying it.  It comes with being as ancient as they are I suppose.¡±


    My face won¡¯t stop twitching, as my eyebrow tries to raise beyond my ability to control it.  I¡¯m not worried or jealous.  Kinzul can have as many mates and consorts as she likes, but I¡¯m more than a tad surprised that there are twelve other ancient dragons out here somewhere just hanging around.  I¡ª, ugh.  I bet they¡¯re in human form, sent to sort of emphasize the ever-present threat.  Oh, wait.  Fourteen consorts?  I¡ª.  Two for each day of the week.  Oh ew, I really didn¡¯t need to know that about her.  I barely fight facepalming.  Still, as awkward as having that knowledge is, it does humanize Qlaxi further, err, dragonize her, whatever.  Huff.  I mean, she had a sexual appetite, and worked out ways to have her needs filled I guess.  Ew, phrasing, I mean met, have her needs met.


    My own nodding is less emphatic, and more a muted acceptance of fact, a grateful motion to prompt any continued speech.  When none is offered, I offer up, ¡°Thank you, yes, I suppose we¡¯ll find them at the same location, in human form then?¡±


    Driezyln¡¯s nod is affirmation enough as he answers, ¡°Aye.  Sharp mind you¡¯ve got.  The old ones sit in on the human council of elders after, um, the incidents.  I hope you won¡¯t hold it against us.  We¡ª.  It¡¯s awful to say this.  We were just following¡ª.  I can¡¯t even finish it.  It¡¯s horrible.  Not many lives were lost, but lives were lost.  No, I¡¯m sorry, taken.  When they first arrived, auntie wanted to impress upon them the threat of settling here, while also demanding that they do so.  We offered assistance finishing their sojourn from the swamps to the ruins, but at a price.  It was extortion, but it only needed to be extortion, not escalate.  A small band of humans, a very burly, angry woman at their fore, they¡ª.¡±


    Holding up a hand, I gulp back my feelings.  I know how this story is going to end, and I know who is being spoken of.  I can¡¯t handle it right now.  Driezyln has done everything possible to be on my best side.  I can¡¯t let my wrath out at this news.  He¡¯s regretful, and may not even have been one of the ones to take lives.  He¡¯s offering up responsibility by owning up to this and delivering the news.  I need to remind myself, the person behind the extortion, and assault, or response to the attack, lay slain in her domain.  Even that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth though.  Senseless death surrounds me.  Sighing, I nod at Driezyln when they ask if they can go facilitate things.


    Conjuring our horses, Lil assumes his human form, and Trixxie abashedly mounts up behind him as Lu carries Lucky, while I ride at the fore of our procession.  It¡¯s only a few moments of quiet ride to our destination.  Well, as quiet as anything can be beneath Rayileklia¡¯s ever-present, always-thundering Worldstorm.  Oh wait.  Crap.  No one¡¯s going to recognize me with these horns and this tail, are they?  Ugh.  They don¡¯t know Lu or Lil or Lucky either.


    Maybe they¡¯ll recognize my ghostly horses?  I¡¯d been using them, and providing them, often, while with the refugees.  I¡¯m the only archmage that most of these people know, and I do have most of my features intact, plus some fairly distinct armor¡ª.  If I were wearing Valkyrie armor.  I forgot that I switched it out of the QCR for The Platinum¡¯s robe.  I could swap into a set of Valkyrie armor that I keep around for FFS, but that would mean dismounting, disrobing, and then equipping things.  That seems pointless.


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    At this point, I just want to reunite with Tiktik, even if I have to prove that I am who I say I am.  Well, I mean, we are psychically bonded.  The headache should only interfere with that a little bit.  I¡¯m not sure I want to risk sharing psychic pain with her or my inner circle by communicating or reaching out too much with my brain though.  Plus, Tiktik knows at least one brainblast aegis spell, and those interfere with psychic communications if she has one up.  If¡ª, I gulp, if she survived.


    Full of lamentations at the moment, I¡¯m imagining how I¡¯ll approach Tiktik after having spent months apart.  I sigh sadly, feeling like a jerk for showing up when I want to request a favor, instead of having found a way to be able to get here earlier during this war.  I¡¯ve had like, one or two free days since the start of the war.  I could have requested someone transport me out here, right?  Huff, maybe.


    Distracted by my own thoughts, I almost don¡¯t hear a familiar voice exclaim, ¡°Dios!¡± as we trot our horses through ruins of what might have been a fortress city, a great and enterprising metropolitan capitol in the past.  My eyes fly wide as my head flits side to side, glancing about for the source of the voice.


    Almost crying, Tiago lambasts me, ¡°Little Shellcracker, friend, Reggie, is it you?  What ever happened to you?  Por que los estos?  Queremos a¡ª.  Sorry, oh no.  Where is your Teuila?  Not after all that.  Not after all that heartbreak you suffered.¡±


    Gulping back a quick sob, remembering how lost I¡¯d felt when I thought I¡¯d lost Teuila permanently to Olashax¡¯s ice, I quickly respond, ¡°No, yes, I mean, it¡¯s me, Tiago, yes.  These are the rest of my inner circle, our Shellcracker Adventuring Party that I¡¯d told you about.  That¡¯s Lil, please don¡¯t freak out that he¡¯s a dragon, they aren¡¯t all like these ones, I swear.  Luni is over there with our son Lucky in her arms.  The um, lovely scaly woman is our prisoner of war, Trixxie to her friends, which I hope we can become, to drop the prisoner nonsense eventually.  As far as my current state.  I uh.  Hell I can¡¯t lie to you.  Crap.¡±


    Sighing for a moment, I dismount and fall into Tiago¡¯s offered hug, sweeping him into a rocking embrace in return.  I whisper, ¡°It doesn¡¯t need to get around, but I died again, just barely under the boon of a reincarnation effect of chaos magic.  So now I think I¡¯m part succubus, or incubus.¡±


    There¡¯s more than a hint of blush and surprise crossing Tiago¡¯s visage as he hears my admittance.  He steps out of our embrace to raise an eyebrow at me.  Chagrined, I offer up, ¡°Erm, well, we¡¯re kind of here about maybe delivering some people into your care, like the injured woman that the dragon brought.  Only, well, one of them is petrified, and I know Tiktik can cure that.  I, I just.  Is, glp, is she okay?¡±


    When Tiago puffs a sigh as his visage brightens into a smile, my worries begin to melt away.  He further assuages me by confirming, ¡°Dios that little rascal.  Okay?  Is she okay?  That should be, are *we* okay?  Dealing with regularly scheduled pranks spooking the hell out of us.  Like clockwork.  Actually any minute now, *something* should happen, not that I¡¯ve any clue what to expect from the deranged little woman, delightful though the young miss Clocktok is.¡±


    Like clockwork indeed, as if summoned by Tiago¡¯s statement, I hear a familiar voice yelling out, ¡°Clear the way!  Clear the way!  Goose on the loose!  Don¡¯t slip on the feathers or poop!¡±


    Lil begins giggling immediately, but I¡¯m a tad mortified as I see Tiktik chasing a horse-sized goose through the shambled streets of the once-great city.  Tiktik spies me, does a double take, looks me up and down again, and does a double take again.  Then she looks between her scheduled prank, and me, and does a doubletake again, before she blasts the goose with some massive spell that sends it poofing into the ether in a flurry of feathers.  She ends her visual comedy to dash at me with crazed, wild eyes.


    Smiling her way, I spread my arms wide as I greet her, ¡°Heya Kitten.  Long time no see.¡±


    The gleeful shout of, ¡°Tiger!¡± could probably be heard all the way out to the watchtower from here, but I couldn¡¯t really care less about that right now.  The gorgeous goblinoid gal that I call my Kitten leaps at me with the ferocity of a tiger pouncing on its prey.  I¡¯m giddy as I catch and then swing Tiktik about in an embrace.  My Kitten wriggles free of my grip, uses her giant magical hand to twirl her hair before picking herself up by the tush with it.  She grabs me by the face, and leans in to lay one on me passionately.


    Sinking into the kiss, one we hadn¡¯t shared on our final night together in the swamps, I blush to high heavens.  I¡¯m at the point where I could weld tungsten with my cheeks, and I can feel Luni getting the slightest bit jealous behind me, when Tiktik finally lets me loose of her wild kiss.  I¡¯m a bit dazed.  I mean, I love the affection, and I love this adorable, zany Fae woman, but I wasn¡¯t expecting that sort of hello.  I blink rapidly as I try not to stagger around in a drunken stupor from the effect.


    While I¡¯m dazed, Tiktik floats around me to ponder, ¡°Let me guess, these would be Luni with Lucky, and, uh, I guess if all dragons can do what these dragons can do, you¡¯re Lil?¡± before greeting them, ¡°Anyway, Tiktik Clocktok urban bountyhunter extraordinaire, put ¡®er there!¡±


    Before I can warn him, Lil puts out a hand to shake Tiktik¡¯s hand, meeting the whoopee cushion she instantly conjures, loosing the trademark pfpfpfpfttt sound.  Lil giggles as Tiktik teases about passing gas, but I stand agog when Tiktik introduces herself to Luni, in the same way, and Lu falls for the exact same stunt.


    Luni grumps telepathically, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect her to do it again!  She¡¯s, hah, she¡¯s so silly!  Okay, fine, I get why you like her.  She¡¯s stupid-adorbs.¡±


    At first I thought Luni was insulting Tiktik, but it took me only a moment to realize she meant massively adorable.  It¡¯s true, Tiktik is exactly that.  Poking around my far-too-many psychic wavelengths, I cast my senses around for the one that lines up with Tiktik.  Thankfully, in not-too-long a time, I¡¯m able to find it, and even spot Tiktik materializing her telepathic avatar into thinkspace, since she shares Teuila¡¯s link into the Shellcracker thinkspace that Bud formed for us.  Poor Bud.  Still no change since Autumn Brook.


    Sighing, knowing we have to get home to deal with a siege, that we¡¯re on a time limit, I start to try to address reasons I¡¯ve stopped by, ¡°Kitten, I¡¯ve got someone who¡¯s been petrified by magic, and I really need your greater moderate cureall thingy¡ª.¡±


    Sadly, Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar pouts towards me with puppydog eyes as she responds, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry Tiger.  That spell costs a bunch of diamond dust as a reagent to be able to cast, and the kobolds have been needing and eating all the few gems we had left with the dragon business going on, and, and stuff.  I, I don¡¯t think we have any.¡±


    Smiling down into Tiktik¡¯s big, wide, sad eyes, I¡¯m able to retort, ¡°On that front, my dear Kitten, I¡¯ve got you covered.¡±


    Returning to meatspace, I begin to fish out the hoard of gems I¡¯d saved from, well, Qlaxi¡¯s hoard.  Sighing, I rattle my skull at myself, unable to stop using a cutesie nickname for the, erm, domain¡¯s previous overlord.  I barely caught myself in time to refrain from calling her the sex-crazed dragon lady.  Facepalming, I shake my head at myself.

 B 6 C 149: TtT

    Frowning as I pull sacks filled with gems out of another sack, or rather out of a hyperdimensional handysack, I¡¯m not sure what the best course of action here is.  I should probably meet the elders, and this circle of twelve ancient consorts, but I really don¡¯t want to sit around waiting for a gathering of elders to come together, or to decide stuff.  I¡¯ve got a siege to fight.  We.  Right, we¡¯ve got a siege to fight.  Try to be better about that Reggie.  Sure, but then you rag on me for using we in my own mind.  I mean I rag on me.  I mean¡ª.  Argh.


    The Aasimovians are looking rough, the ones aboveground anyway.  I see a few obvious trapdoors that lead into cellars or catacombs or something, and occasionally straight up holes in the ground that obviously lead into caverns below.  Tiago looks weary, and I¡¯m afraid to ask him the status of the patient I provided him.  He does hand me back the portable hole, which I peek inside of.  Thankfully Shlen, Chuck, and the lovebirds are in it, and doing fine.


    Before I need to ask, Tiago responds, ¡°It¡¯s grim, dear sweet friend.  You did well with that transfusion.  It was the right choice, she¡¯d definitely have died without it.  As is, I¡¯m unsure if she will wake at all.  I¡¯m not fully used to the biology of, um, scaly humanoids yet, though I¡¯ve had some practice with the kobolds amongst our numbers.¡±


    Gulping back sadness, worry for the kobolds, I glance sadly at Tiago as he continues, ¡°I see it in your eyes, yes, the ones you know are fine, Elder, Miza, Dippy, Scrap, Timbik, the children.  Most everyone you know is fine.  Except¡ª,¡± Tiago sighs sadly, shaking his head before going on, ¡°I¡¯ll come back to that in a moment, my dear, dear friend.  Your, erm, prisoner I suppose, she wasn¡¯t injured by you wa¡ª, okay, good.  I hope she won¡¯t lash out if she does rouse then.  I will do my best, though we¡¯ve little in the way of supplies these days.¡±


    There¡¯s hesitation before Tiago returns to what he said he¡¯d return to.  Sighing sadly, he finishes what he started, ¡°Keeley.  She led a suicidal charge with a small number of the more militaristic amongst us, against the dragons when they made their demands of our band of refugees.  It made sense to give up wealth for the aid and protection of the dragons, for their offer of transporting us from the edge of the swamp to the capitol.  The labor that we¡¯d be doing was simply rebuilding the capitol anyway, for the most part, being that we¡¯d be able to keep all common minerals from the mining.  The elders had already agreed that it would be wise to acquiesce, despite misgivings, but she was having none of it.  First Keeley, then with his wife and child gone, Marshal as well led a handful more to their doom.  It¡ª.  It was awful.¡±


    Closing my eyes, slowing my breathing, and stilling my heart, I try to let the news wash past, and over me.  I¡¯d been informed of this, I knew the news was coming.  I can¡¯t afford to break down.  She was a good woman, despite our differences, and the anger she harbored towards me.  Marshal was a wonderful man, and they made a fantastic couple.  She was already on borrowed time, but still.


    Loosing several tears, they become a stream, which becomes a river, which becomes a cascading waterfall.  Good people keep dying.  Good people keep getting hurt, or being abused.  Life isn¡¯t¡ª, it isn¡¯t fair.  I sob for several moments on Tiago¡¯s shoulder as Tiktik pats me on my back comfortingly.


    Rattling my skull, I have to get back to it.  I have to get on with things, and address issues.  If possible, I want to leave the Aasimovians in a better state than I found them in.  Hm, there is one way to definitely help provide for them, but it needs top notch security.  Taking Tiago and Tiktik to the side, I ask, ¡°Do either of you have, or know of a safe place, and I¡¯m talking so safe, that maybe only you could get into it?¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s eyes widen and brighten as she hoarse-whispers, ¡°Ah Tiger!  You¡¯re never gonna guess what I just found!¡±


    When I motion for Tiktik to continue, she pouts, but she realizes that I don¡¯t have the heart for guessing games right now.  Half frowning sympathetically at me, Tiktik continues, ¡°Okay, so there I was, helping out digging, unearthing some cellars and caverns and catacombs and whatever, y¡¯dig?  Only don¡¯t, ¡®cause you¡¯ll get all dirty.  Hehe, anyway, digging, right?  Little ol¡¯ me, swinging away, and a wall crumbles, and what do I spy?  Okay, maybe I didn¡¯t so much spy it as fell into it like a doofy goon, but that¡¯s besides the point.  Can you guess what it was?¡±  Clamping my lips together so as not to frown at Tiktik, I attempt to keep a neutral facial expression until she finishes, ¡°An entrance to the ¡®Twixt!¡±


    My eyes flash wide with comprehension.  Now that would definitely be a safe space.  Tiktik¡¯s the only Fae here as far as I¡¯m aware.  Even if she wasn¡¯t, there¡¯s another caveat to being able to enter the ¡®Twixt.  Something about Tiktik¡¯s heritage is required, something or other, so she¡¯s likely the only one that can access it.  Does Tiago understand what the ¡®Twixt is?  I glance his way, but he shrugs.  I gnaw on the inside of my cheeks as Tiktik gets distracted by my tail, and chases it around as I try to keep it from her.  I have no idea why we¡¯re playing around in the middle of a conversation, but this is Tiktik we¡¯re talking about.  I love the little goon to death.


    Taking a deep breath, and loosing it through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I wait a moment before beginning, ¡°Okay, do either of you remember my stories about our home world?  The magic that allowed us to pretty much have infinite food for the Lavaborn Alliance?  I can, and want to, provide that to the Aasimovian refugees, but only if we can get it someplace safe, where only someone I trust can access it.  I trust you two, George, Tim, Harriet, Berinon, Daffodil, and, well, huff, two that are no longer with us.  I also trust Elder, Dippy, Miza, and Scrap, oh, and maybe, maybe Hellga Hellridge if she¡¯s okay.  It¡¯s not entirely fragile, but it¡¯s not safe from damage either.  If it gets too damaged, boom, no more enchantment.  You sort of need two people to operate it, but if I recall correctly, Tiktik you can bring one person with you into the ¡®Twixt, yes?¡±


    Chirping chipperly, Tiktik responds, ¡°Yep yep!  Got that right buster!  Oo Tiger, does this mean I get to take you into the ¡®Twixt?  Like, like right now?  Soon?¡±


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Glancing at the rest of my party, they shrug, listening in on my mental monologue.  Tiago leans away from our conspiratorial huddle, and flashes me a sad smile, knowing that I¡¯ll be off.  I¡¯m sure he hopes I¡¯ll return to say farewell before leaving, but neither of us know if I¡¯ll be able to.  Tiktik leads me towards what might have been a central castle, and I¡¯m only slightly surprised when I see what could literally be called a circle of elders beneath a large tarp.  It¡¯s rather easy to determine which ones are the twelve consorts, as they all stiffen at sensing my dragonforce, which apparently I¡¯d forgotten to stifle.


    Another familiar voice from another familiar face approaching me calls out, ¡°If it isn¡¯t the conquering hero, returning once more to pull us from the almost literal fire.  I¡¯d had a feeling we hadn¡¯t seen the last of you, adventurer.  Though it seems you¡¯ve undergone some changes since last we spoke.  I hear we¡¯ve you to thank for the concessions just made, and the about-face of the rest of the dragons just now.  Really, going from extorter to protector in the blink of an eye?  If it hadn¡¯t come somehow by your hand, I¡¯d have had a harder time believing it.  Once you were mentioned, woosh, all doubts cast aside.  I can, and will always do that much for you, my young friend.  I¡¯m sorry if it ever seemed otherwise.¡±


    Gulping back a bit of sentimentality, I nod to Harriet before responding, ¡°Yeah, I, well, I kind of figured.  I¡¯ve been fighting a war against dragons, with dragons, in the Spine of the World, to stop them from loosing more horrors across the land like the Fel hordes.  I happened to be in the neighborhood, so I¡ª.¡±


    Harriet bursts into laughter, almost nearly doubling over as she guffaws.  She has to wipe a tear from her eye as she stands.  Through humorously labored breathing, Harriet queries, ¡°Let me guess, you accidentally stumbled into a region with an evil ruler, and assassinated them?¡±


    My jaw hangs slack while my right index finger can¡¯t decide whether to point, or curl.  That, well, yeah, that is a Reggie Shellcracker patented accidental assassination mission.  I mean, it is a running pattern in my life.  Really, it¡¯s a tad too frequent for my liking.  Though, I mean, these days, I¡¯m just a straight up assassin, rather than an accidental one.  I literally topple strongholds a few times a week by slaying their leaders.  I would probably find it funny, if it weren¡¯t so grim.  Harriet¡¯s heard all the stories though.  Hell, it¡¯s the thing she berated me about before we left Autumn Brook the first time.  She¡¯s also probably spent plenty of time talking to Tiago or Tiktik, or even George.  Speaking of, I wave at him as he glances my way with a startled curious expression, one brow fit to raise off his head.


    Nodding to Harriet, admitting culpability, or responsibility, I¡¯m not sure of the difference in this particular case¡ª.  I went and confused myself.  George mouths, ¡°Reggie?¡± and I nod in return to him as well.  I¡¯ve been raising more than a few eyebrows as I wander around, looking like this.  I don¡¯t really have the time to explain to everyone that I think I¡¯m now half incubus, or succubus.  Wait, when did I turn blue again?  Let¡¯s fix that.  I could just say that now I¡¯m an Inkling, or a Succling, but that could get¡ª.


    Attempting to hide my sigh as Tiktik bursts into laughter, I have a quiet chuckle to myself.  Tiktik quickly interrupts, ¡°You have to go with, haha, that last one.  Big T¡¯s going to love it.  Speaking of, where is she?  I don¡¯t feel her brain around, but, but you¡¯d have told me right away, right?¡±


    Gulping down a quick breath, I rapidly reassure Tiktik, ¡°Definitely, Te¡¯s fine, she¡¯s off fighting a fortress of Draconiacs like the wounded woman right now, we had different assignments today.  There¡¯s something like seventy three more fortresses with hundreds to thousands of dragonkind in each of them left to topple.  It¡¯s been a busy couple of weeks since we got reunited with the Triple L Squad.¡±


    Her eyes widening cartoonishly large on her telepathic avatar, Tiktik quips, ¡°I¡¯ll say!¡±


    After sharing a few more details with Harriet, so that she can make some plans around what I¡¯ll be setting up, I give George a hug when he approaches me.  We share some of the same exchanges I¡¯d just had with Tiago and Harriet, much to my chagrin.  I really should have just sought out everyone I know and brought them together.  That feels a bit presumptuous to believe I should be able to just drop into their lives and summon a meeting of people that I like though.


    I spy Daffodil a ways off, and she¡¯s hard at work, despite having one arm.  She does apparently at least have a rudimentary leather-and-wood prosthesis for her missing arm.  I assume it was likely at least partially constructed by Berinon Tanner.  I wish I could afford to pick his brain, or bring him back to Solace, but the refugees need every skilled craftsperson they can get while rebuilding their lives.


    Regardless, Tiktik leads me down into a cellar past the elders, and through that cellar into catacombs.  We pass by several kobold families munching and digging away as we wind our way deeper into these eerie subterranean hallways.  There¡¯s a fair bit of echo of the noise of picks hitting stone, or even lumber creaking as it¡¯s heaved into place, or as it strains under the weight of some load or another.


    Arriving at what really does appear to be simply a recently busted hole in a catacomb wall, there is a bit of empty space beyond, before the natural stone of the landscape resumes behind where the wall had been covering it up.  Cranking my aura vision to the max though, reveals something of a yearning void in space.  Tendrils of energy, etheric mana, seem to wobble and undulate as if in response to some unseen stimulus.  Reaching forth my hand, Tiktik leaps to intercept me a tad too late as my hand brushes one of the tendrils, and I suddenly disappear just before she makes contact, as my hand meets the tendril first.  That¡¯s not supposed to ha¡ª.  Son of a!


    Heaving a sigh, I should really probably be laughing right now.  Remember what Tiktik said the key to entering the ¡®Twixt was?  Mixbreeds.  Half Fae half something elses with ties to other realms can enter a segment of the ¡®Twixt, meant for them or their species or something like that.  Gorram friggin¡¯.  Of course now I¡¯m half something else.  I mean, then again, I was always Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, and Changeling Fae, and that¡¯s another realm.  Still, I don¡¯t think it¡¯d have counted.  I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s this new half-Fel reincarnated body.  Huh, I could call myself a Halffel to try to make it sound like I¡¯m saying I¡¯m a half-elf, while admitting to people that I went through some changes.  Heh, half changeling having half gone through some changes I fell into, making me half Fel.


    Imagine that conversation though.  Hypothetical party asking me, ¡°My my, your biology speaks to perhaps quite an unusual heritage, would you mind elucidating me as to what particularly that is?¡±


    Then I¡¯d respond a mumbled, ¡°Halffel.¡±


    They¡¯d then perhaps semi-jokingly ask, ¡°Half-elf half what else?¡± before postulating guesses, ¡°Minotaur?  Dragon?¡±


    Snrk.  Anyway.  Okay, well, at least I learned that I can enter the ¡®Twixt on my own, now to turn around and¡ª.  Of friggin¡¯ course.  I knew it before I looked.  Genre senses were screaming it.  Sighing, I laugh to myself in this dark empty space that appears to be slowly materializing into something, something with no discernible entrance or exit.  Certainly with no exit the direction I¡¯d arrived from.

 B 6 C 150: Nichtshire Dlocke

    The glow in my brain is trying to remind me that I have new information to process. It had been a bit of a whirlwind of activity since reuniting with the refugees however. So, while we wait in this darkened void, we may as well make use of the time to figure out what it means. Wait. What? An expression of my Latent?


    Casting my senses out, I tug at the nothing that¡¯s taking shape around me, and it pauses. My eyes flash wide, but I feel my dragonforce rapidly slipping away from me just from this simple act of holding on to some nothing. Loosing my grip upon it, I gaze down at my own hands, lost in an essentially empty thought.


    When I stop spacing out, I¡¯m a little startled to hear, ¡°Hail traveler, well met. Please, try a free sample, on the house. Mana potions are the specialty.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow, I appear to be in a bit of a shifty alleyway, in a run-down part of a European-esque cobblestone-pathed town. There is however, a wrought-iron bannister railing leading down several steps into an open doorway. It¡¯s from this doorway that the voice originated. A shuffling tells me that whomever it was seemed to have greeted me at the entrance, and retreated into the shop.


    Muttering to myself aloud, I state, ¡°This seems like the exact sort of thing you shouldn¡¯t do, or take. Like accepting, or eating food from the Fae of the Unseelie courts ends up with either you becoming dinner, or trapped as a houseguest for eternity, or required to serve their meals for a number of millennia equal to the portions of food you¡¯d eaten, or some other nonsense. Or offering your name to them, which ends up with them literally stealing it, and you being unable to remember your name, or anyone who¡¯d ever uttered it. I grumble aloud, unable to keep my thoughts to myself. Oh great, now my entire inner narrative monologue is on display. Why do I keep speaking? This is exceedingly uncomfortable.¡±


    Thankfully, I¡¯m able to wrest back control of my voice and my mental monologue, from whatever tricks the ¡®Twixt had been playing. Less thankfully, the shopkeep calls out, ¡°Nonsense, nonsense friend. I¡¯ll do no such thing, and even offer you my word and bond that I shall in no way meet any of those expectations you¡¯d listed for trickery or the like. Please, peruse my wares, what little I have. I can tell your body is badly in need of pure mana. Please, partake.¡±


    Razzafrazzan. The ¡®Twixt knows the people inside of me are keeping my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian mana pools that I¡¯d set up for my forms from regenerating. Is it helpful this time, or is this a test? Tiktik said it¡¯s got a way of playing with you, but also helping you grow, and providing what you need. Do I need a test of my gullibility, or do I need the mana? I mean, huff. Sighing, I admit to myself, I do need the mana. The prisoners are screwed without it. Cranking up my aura vision to the maximum, I glance around for any hidden runes, spellwork, enchantment, glyphs, or anything that might resemble a trap as I descend the steps.


    I balk at the entrance to the ¡°shop.¡± It¡¯s only a few cubic feet of space, a short shop counter, with a very seedy looking gentleman behind the counter, and two very bright blue potions that appear identical. Yeah, I guess you could call mana potions your specialty in that case. Still, I have to fight my laughter about it, and prevent myself from shaking my head incredulously. Gnawing my bottom lip, I peer intently at the potions, attempting to discern any dangers, or any differences between the two. Upon a thorough inspection, they are identical, and appear to be just what he claims they are, infusions of pure mana. This is very odd, and very video-gamey.


    Glancing around inside the exceedingly tiny space that is this man¡¯s shop, I apologize to the shopkeeper, ¡°Sorry for my rude presumptions. I¡¯m a little surprised to find myself here. Do you know where here is exactly?¡±


    Tapping his nose, the shady man responds, ¡°Ah, when you say here, do you mean the ¡®Twixt, or this town it¡¯s so lovingly crafted for you?¡±


    My guts twist a bit anxiously at the confirmation, as well as the guilt trip that¡¯s implied. I was testing if he was some sort of NPC that didn¡¯t know he was in a realm that was so¡ª special. Gathering my wits, I answer, ¡°That uh answers part of it already, so the latter, if you would so kindly share. I¡¯m indeed grateful for the ¡®Twixt¡¯s intervention on my behalf. For a while, it appeared as if I had no way out. You don¡¯t happen to know where an exit to Rayileklia is from here, do you?¡±


    My more than sporting shopkeep taps his nose once more before hazarding, ¡°We¡¯re in Nichtshire D¡¯Locke of course. As for exits, I suppose I must ask you once again, which one? Though I would disappoint you in whichever you requested, for though there are many, I know not in which direction they lay. Please, won¡¯t you sample my wares? You¡¯ve already my guarantee that I shall not harm you, steal from you, trap you into a bargain, or otherwise play a trick upon you.¡±


    Glancing around, I know I could just exit the shop and go exploring. This man might kindly stay here at this shop waiting for me. On the other hand, if he didn¡¯t, or if the shop disappeared after I passed a certain distance from it, I¡¯d be passing up an opportunity at a potion that would massively help. Two of them even. Why did the ¡®Twixt make it so shifty though? Sighing, I wish Tiktik was here to tell me more about the ¡¯Twixt so that I can¡¯t go making any newbie blunders. She knew not to make pacts with sentient weapons, but had to do it anyway, due to a situation the ¡®Twixt cooked up. As far as I¡¯m aware, that now means that either Bizzenblade, or the ¡®Twixt itself, has some claim on Tiktik¡¯s soul.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Taking another moment to decide, I motion as if to take one or the other of the two potions, and the shady shopkeep nods, agreeing to either. Huffing a sigh, I hope I¡¯m not making a massive mistake. My genre senses tell me that I am, based on Fakeworld mythological logic, and I really should start listening to them more, but those senses worked fairly well on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas and on Rayileklia. It doesn¡¯t necessarily translate that they¡¯re as accurate in a place as weird as the ¡®Twixt. I shake my head at my own rationalization as I take one of the potions. The shopkeep mimes throwing it back like a shot of whiskey, and I grimace.


    I¡¯m not sure if I want to imbibe it in his presence, despite his guarantees. Then again, the ¡®Twixt could just put me inside the mouth of a giant monster that it creates around me. What does it get from screwing me the instant I start my journey here? Alright, down the hatch. Erk. I can¡¯t tell if that¡¯s pleasantly unpleasant, or unpleasantly pleasant. It¡¯s less a flavor, and more an emotion dancing across my tongue as it goes down. It carries a certain zing to it though, one that feels vaguely familiar, like I should know it from somewhere.


    Despite that, from what I can tell, it works its way into my nonexistent multidimensional gastric system, and seemingly likely does what it¡¯s supposed to, offering a refuel of the mana in my currently non-regenerative mana pools. I strive to focus and attempt to direct it specifically towards the Backpotter form¡¯s mana pool. Whether that worked or not, I can¡¯t check unless I get access to my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian menu interface. Scratching my head, I turn to leave the shop.


    As expected, the shopkeep interrupts my departure by querying, ¡°If that was to your satisfaction, wouldn¡¯t you like to buy another?¡±


    More than a little nervous, I respond, ¡°How much?¡±


    The number doesn¡¯t astound me too awfully much as the shopkeep answers, ¡°One hundred thousand.¡±


    Gnawing on my lip, I¡¯m starting to get the picture, so I ask, ¡°Of what currency?¡±


    A more-than-a-little evil grin spreads across the face of the shady shopkeep as he retorts, ¡°Why souls of course.¡±


    Despite wanting to run him through on the spot for the malicious seeming behavior, and equally suspicious intent, I ask for clarification, ¡°And by souls, do you mean the everliving essence of unique individuals that they each only have one of, or is it a word that correlates to something else here in the ¡®Twixt?¡±


    Shaking his head, the shopkeeper grimaces before offering a clarification, ¡°No no no, why of course not, how ever would you collect a hundred thousand of *those* souls? I¡¯d scarce be able to maintain my composure around someone capable of doing such a thing. Souls of course meaning the little floating currency your foes upon your adventures in the ¡®Twixt will leave upon their death in scads. You might also earn some in trade, or from various tasks and jobs.¡±


    Trying not to chuckle, I don¡¯t want to brag that I think it¡¯s entirely possible that I might end up harvesting or slaying very near a hundred thousand beings by the time we¡¯ve ended two of the apocalypses on Rayileklia. The draconic hordes of Terrorzin alone make up nearly enough, though I won¡¯t be responsible for slaying them all, and I¡¯d like to spare as many as I can. The Felgre hordes however are almost innumerable. Worse, I know of someone that I think has near or more than a hundred thousand of those souls already, the bastard.


    Regardless, sighing softly to myself, I apologize, ¡°I hadn¡¯t realized the currency of the land when you¡¯d invited me into your shop. You appear to know enough about the ¡®Twixt to understand I¡¯m entirely new here. I hope you won¡¯t hold it against me that I have none of the currency of which you speak. I¡¯m not averse to going on adventures to gather some however.¡±


    Turning to leave, I feel a shiver run down my spine as the shopkeep queries, ¡°Are you sure about that?¡±


    When I turn to answer, the Shopkeep is gone, and the stairwell leads to a cobblestone wall, rather than the tiny shop. Brr. Great creepy last words my dude, as Lil might say. Actually, who uses my dude? I forget which of my friends uses it. Maybe we all do at this point. Worse, the ambiguity of the words leaves me wondering if I¡¯m in possession of souls of one form or another that count as the currency here in the ¡®Twixt. Or the vaguely threatening hint that maybe I shouldn¡¯t be possibly okay with going on adventures to gather some. This place likes to play with you, remember that Reggie. I know, I know.


    Thankfully, we know that we can play back. Testing it out once again, my Latent grips at the edges of nothing, and the entire world around me seems to quake at the mere contact. I immediately loose my hold upon it. Yeah, if the ¡®Twixt decides to get a little too tricky, I suppose I¡¯ve got a weapon in reserve, as long as I don¡¯t run out of dragonforce between now and some point that I possibly need to rely on such an ace up my sleeve. Hm, aces up sleeves. Aces and eights up sleeves. Erm, better not. Can¡¯t follow random brain thought trails that lead to those memories and dreams without Luni around. Haven¡¯t had one in a long time anyway, so maybe all my conclusions were wrong, if I¡¯d even made any.


    Leaving the dingy alleyway, I arrive on a street that might be straight out of Oliver Twist. Out of who? What? Anyway. Where was I again? Nichtshire D¡¯locke? Wait. Nicht means nothing. Nothing town of the lock? Lock of nothing. Flip it. Key to everything? Sighing, I facepalm. The ¡®Twixt really does know how to screw with ya. Still, wouldn¡¯t that just beat all if this town really did contain all the answers to all those problems I¡¯m dealing with. What¡¯s, what¡¯s happening? I¡¯m being pulled in two different¡ª.


    Out of half my vision, I see Tiktik leaping at me to tackle me away from the portal, just now coming into contact with me in this paused instant. Out of the other half of my vision, I see the dreary streets of what could be old-London-town, Nichtshire D¡¯locke. My non-existent guts twist and cramp as my consciousness begins to sheer. I¡ª. I don¡¯t know if I can survive this. Will I be me? Will either half of me be me? Which half of me will I be? I feel like I¡¯m screaming in existential dread, in utter horror. I can¡¯t even tell though as my senses are so far beyond sensical at this point, they¡¯re nonsensical. I¡¯d probably facepalm at that if I weren¡¯t in sheer terror at the idea of being split into two me, not knowing which me I will be.

 B 6 C 151: Twixty-motions

    Focus Reggie, focus. Breathe air, breathe. Flex and loosen your muscles which have all spasmed and cramped in terror. On which body? Who knows. On all of them, one of them, whichever you have control over. Struggling against the split in my skull that¡¯s passing two entire realities into my brain, I grip and tug at the non, the nothing, the empty space. Surprisingly, Tiktik and I tumble into the ¡®Twixt as it rumbles and quakes hard enough to shake even the small cavern it¡¯s located in on Rayileklia, sending us toppling towards it.


    Returning to being a single entity as Tiktik plummets out of the sky towards me is a bit awkward, as I¡¯m still disoriented. I¡¯m further disoriented when I¡¯m nearly-flattened to the cobblestone path as I unwittingly catch Tiktik with my face. Please tell me we¡¯re not positioned how I think we¡¯re positioned.


    This could not be any more cliche. Could it? Wait, don¡¯t tempt fate. Mumbling, muffled from between Tiktik¡¯s legs, I ask, ¡°Coof oo geh off pfeef, Kiheh?¡±


    Thankfully Tiktik understands I asked, ¡°Could you get off please, Kitten?¡± and is kind enough to not rub our precarious position in my face, figuratively or literally. I mean, well, not that I¡¯d, y¡¯know, be all that upset¡ª. Erm. We¡¯re¡ª we definitely love each other, and that sort of thing isn¡¯t necessarily out of the question for either of us as far as the other is concerned as a partner, but now is not the time. There is however a strangely warm pressure building around the edges of my skull, that I would like to be able to pass off as simply blush, but it feels more like it¡¯s emanating from the base of my horns. Horns which of course, Tiktik grips to help steady herself as she stands off of me.


    Struggling to fight a sudden spasm, I vibrate momentarily while Tiktik¡¯s grip and weight are on my horns, before rattling my skull after Tiktik dismounts my face. She suddenly exclaims in a rapid barrage of questions, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me you could go into the ¡®Twixt Tiger!? We coulda been adventure pals, and brought in like a whole party between the two of us! Oh, where the heckydoodle is this place? This isn¡¯t my town. How long before me did you get here?¡±


    Chuckling and rolling my eyes, I answer, ¡°I didn¡¯t know until it happened, somehow I existed both in the ¡®Twixt, and in reality simultaneously, but I think several hours passed in here in the split second it took for you to jump at me. Nicthshire D¡¯Locke here sprung up around me, from literal nothing. Nothing which I seem to be able to touch by the way. I mean, when it¡¯s nothing, but also when it¡¯s not. Argh, that makes no sense. My Latent, a native affinity, an ability of mine is one word, Nothing. My Honoris Causa, that¡¯s my dragon form, is a Void Dragon, and it reached a new Caliber when we took out Qlaxianna, which somehow allows me to express control over my Latent in new ways, using my dragonforce. The energy that¡¯s keeping my heart safe and alive.¡±


    Rubbing the back of my head, chagrined, I realize I look a bit like a demon parading around with an imp, with our current appearances. I also feel a bit bad that Tiktik is technically sort of stranded here with me. At least we know we won¡¯t miss out on a lot of action, since the timeflow in the ¡®Twixt is¡ª. Wait. Temporal zones¡ª. Nope, stop, stop, stop, no brain exploding. Lu isn¡¯t here, so you¡¯ve got to remind yourself. Back on track. However long our adventures last in here, not too awfully long should pass back on Rayileklia is the point. If the ¡®Twixt decides to try to screw with us by reversing that, I will absolutely obliterate this place.


    Glancing around, I see an intersection that must meet a town square, which should lead to a main thoroughfare. Flicking my head that way, Tiktik agrees, and jubilantly bounces along beside me, skipping in delight. I¡¯m¡ª. I¡¯m happy. All of a sudden, I get to see this wonderful, beloved friend of mine being her cheerful, zany self. It¡¯s one of the things that I desperately wanted during my Rayileklian journey. We do exit out little side-street towards the town square in short order, joyously I might add.


    From virtually nowhere, one teenage-seeming punk asks another, ¡°Hey is that Thundernut Clocktok?¡±


    I blink rapidly as I can barely parse what I heard in order to ask, ¡°Thunder?¡± I pause as my face contorts several different ways rather strenuously. I try to control my raised brow as I glance to Tiktik before continuing, ¡°Nut?¡±


    Giggling, Tiktik grabs my hand and drags me along while responding, ¡°Funny story for another time, come on, we¡¯ve gotta get you up to speed buster. Tiger, you¡¯re gonna love it here! You and that big ol¡¯ adventure spirit of yours. If you get some time off later, you should come back again with big T, and we could do a whole party, with um, you two I guess could enter on your own, since you can get in here. I guess. I guess. I guess you don¡¯t really need me.¡±


    It¡¯s easy to sense that Tiktik begins to feel dejected by her own conclusion as her voice and even her adorable pointy ears droop. I quickly interject to reassure her, ¡°Hey now Kitten, don¡¯t even think like that. Whether or not need was a thing, I want you. I want you at my side. I want you in my arms. I want us to be adventuring buddies, partners. I¡¯d only come back here to do this with you, I¡¯d never leave you out.¡±


    Sniffling myself now, since Tiktik¡¯s partially crying, I add, ¡°Hell, if it weren¡¯t so important to guard the refugees, I¡¯d absolutely beg you to come back to Mount Solace with me and the Triple L Squad. I love, love, love, love the hell out of you, and miss you to bits. Or miss you like hell, and love you to bits. Whichever sounds better. You¡¯re my Kitten. If we ever have to go into the ¡®Twixt without you, I¡¯d try to find a way to get to you as soon as possible so that I could make it up to you.¡±


    Trying to regain my composure, I return to a previous topic, ¡°Anyway, about that nickname. How could anyone know you from your time adventuring in other towns, here in a town that didn¡¯t exist until a few minutes ago?¡±


    Kitten sniffles once more, before wiping her nose on her sleeve and grinning my way. While turning towards someone else, she answers over her shoulder, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, here, check this.¡± She then addresses the man she¡¯s facing, ¡°Hey chief, gimme the deets on the scrubs.¡±


    Sizing Tiktik up and down, the portly fellow with an impressive moustache that Tiktik had addressed offers up, ¡°Chump change bountygal. Loitering, misdemeanors. Nothin¡¯ big enough for one like you in a few years ¡®round these parts. Could sell you the scoop on the wider market if y¡¯like though. A few dozen souls.¡±


    Tiktik scratches her brow as she fishes around in midair, her hand disappearing into her invisible hyperdimensional handysack. She drags out several copper disks and a few silver disks that appear to be regular coins. She asks, ¡°Souls are what we¡¯re calling ¡®em in this town? Sure thing pops. What¡¯s the sitch worldwide?¡±


    Was the ¡®Twixt trolling me about the coins and souls business? Those seriously look like any regular old Rayileklian copper and silver coins. Or is Tiktik pranking me right now?


    ¡°Pops¡± accepts Tiktik¡¯s coins, but holds up a hand as he responds, ¡°Worldwide¡¯s a bit more, and I don¡¯t even have it to sell honestly. These parts though, Klangen Rackhoof¡¯s somewhere in the country, big price on his head. Jermaine Jivonnyah¡¯s around too, another fair cop. Those two are the biggest, some nasty biz that they¡¯ve been into lately. Destruction of lives and towns. Different ones. I¡¯d shudder to think what they could do if they met up and decided to work together. A few big-time bandits and killers running around too. Not the same challenge, danger, or pay, but still. Here¡¯s the scribs.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow at the term, I realize it¡¯s simply short for scribbles, as ¡°Pops¡± offers Tiktik several wanted-poster looking dossiers with hand-drawn portraits. Glancing over Tiktik¡¯s shoulder, I¡¯m able to read the dossier-posters with her. Wait, Klangen Rackhoof is a minotaur that wears heavy plate, making a distinctive racket as he approaches a town to demolish it? Jermaine Jivonnyah¡¯s a woman who stabs basically everyone in her path? Shiv on ya? Oh for crying out loud¡¯s crap¡¯s sakes. Who¡¯s the next bounty sheet in the list, Amanda¡ª?


    Straight-faced, Tiktik interrupts my thoughts as she responds, ¡°Nah, I already caught Huggenkiss unless she broke out. I don¡¯t see news about it in the scribs tho.¡±


    I cannot tell whether or not I¡¯m being screwed with here, by either Tiktik or the ¡®Twixt, or both. While my face is wildly contorted, Tiktik jokes, ¡°Hey, your face is gonna get stuck like that.¡± At least, I hope she¡¯s joking. Who knows when it comes to the ¡®Twixt?


    Sighing, I allow myself to smile slightly while shaking my head incredulously. Despite having fun with someone I utterly adore, I need to figure things out, so I ask, ¡°Hey Kitten? How do we get out?¡±


    Guilt gnaws away at me as Tiktik turns to me with wide wet eyes to ask, ¡°Awe, Tiger, why so rushed? Don¡¯t you,¡± she pauses to sniffle before finishing, ¡°want to adventure with me any more?¡±


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Trying not to suddenly burst into tears, it¡¯s difficult to maintain my composure as I answer, ¡°Oh Kitten, sweetie, gods I do, of course I do, I¡ª¡°


    Pouting at me, with her bottom lip quivering, Tiktik pleads, ¡°Then why not do some adventuring here since almost no time passes outside, and we¡¯re already here?¡±


    Gulping back guilt and sadness, I offer up, ¡°Kitten, I, I¡¯d never want to leave. I love you. I absolutely fully love you. I¡¯d want to grow old in here with you, to spend a lifetime with you. I¡¯m ageless, I can¡¯t grow old, and my lifetime is infinite. I would never leave.¡±


    Dejectedly, Tiktik almost pleads, ¡°But what¡¯s wrong with maybe a couple centuries together Tiger? We could stop whenever we wanted, right?¡±


    Her question twists like a dagger in my heart. Could I allow myself to have a full lifetime of experiences without Te, Lucky, Lu, or Lil, when we¡¯d promised to not leave each other behind for long periods again? On the other hand, can I deny a lifetime with this amazing, charming, funny, brilliant, vibrant, vivacious, beautiful woman who was with me during one of my life¡¯s most difficult journeys? A lifetime that Tiktik is right, has almost no consequences to spend together, so long as we leave before eons pass.


    There¡¯s one consequence though. Memories. I could begin losing them, or have them overwritten. I¡¯m vaguely aware of it having happened already. Similarly, the longer I¡¯m away from Luni, the more likely my brain accidentally guesses at the thing that makes it literally explode. Lu¡¯s been protecting me from that for apparently two lifetimes already, and those were short ones! I can¡¯t imagine not accidentally stumbling arse-first into the minefield of broken mirrors in an actual century.


    This is breaking my heart, shattering it to pieces. I could, and would give hundreds of years over to loving Tiktik in a heartbeat, and I still might do just that without paying heed to the possible consequences. Who knows if the ¡®Twixt stays operating by relatively the same rules during that whole time though? I¡¯m not sure I can risk it, especially with the threat of my brain literally exploding hanging over my head.


    As she follows along with my mental narrative, Tiktik looks as sad as I¡¯ve ever seen her. She grumps at me, pushes on me slightly in a half-hearted shove attempt, and runs away, tears streaming behind her. I choke on my emotions as my own tears swiftly go from stream, to river, to cascading falls. Stumbling blindly in the direction Tiktik headed, unable to see through my own tears, I do my best to track the sound of her sobs and sniffles.


    As I approach what must be a dead end alleyway by the echoes of Tiktik¡¯s sobs, I hear her shout at me, ¡°Go away, just go on then!¡±


    It hurts so badly to hear her say that, though I know she doesn¡¯t mean it. She¡¯s hurting exactly because she¡¯s worried I¡¯m going to just go away. I can¡¯t approach though. I respect her, and everything about her. She made a request of me, an order. I¡¯m torn. I never wanted to hurt Tiktik. I don¡¯t want to hurt or disrespect her or her wishes at any point. I don¡¯t know the right thing to do here.


    Growling between sobs, she calls out, ¡°Figure,¡± she pauses to sniffle, ¡°it out somewhere else!¡±


    Bawling my eyes out, I turn, in order to adhere to Tiktik¡¯s request. I can sense her lift her hand after me, and her lips quivering as she struggles to call out for me to stop. I¡¯m frozen in my tracks. I want to give her everything. Anything she asks for, from now until the end of time. I can¡¯t both stay and go though. She didn¡¯t ask for me to stay though, so I¡ª. I gulp, admitting to myself that Tiktik told me to go, twice. I¡¯d break if she repeated it a third time.


    Her voice cracking, Tiktik interrupts me as I lean forward to begin sprinting away, ¡°P,please don¡¯t. I¡¯m sorry Tiger,¡± I fall flat on my face, having lifted my leg and begun shifting my weight, which earns a half giggle from Tiktik as she apologizes again, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. It hurt so much to be alone, and it feels so much like no one wants to stay with me, to have fun with me. Littlebit hates me, and now I think I¡¯m making you hate me too. If you hate me, Big T will hate me. Please, please, please don¡¯t hate me, please.¡±


    My eyes flood with further tears at Tiktik¡¯s plea. My lip, no, my entire lower jaw quivers as I struggle to respond, ¡°Kitten, I¡¯d never, could never, ever hate you. I love you. I love you so much it hurts. You know about the times when my brain was doing a thing, right? Where I thought about something, and suddenly my brain started bleeding or whatever? That¡¯s still a risk, including one that kills me. At least until I find my cure, I think, maybe even after. Plus, I guess I have no idea how long my dragonforce will last in here, with the acceleration and possible accidental uses of my Latent or whatnot.¡±


    Growling again, Tiktik almost whines, ¡°Then go already! Wait, I¡¯m sorry. I know you¡¯re giving good reasons. Tiger I missed you so much. I thought you might die, and I might never see you again. I thought Big T might die of a broken heart, somewhere fighting off apocalypses. I don¡¯t want to be alone. I, I know I could maybe be with someone in the refugees, but they aren¡¯t you Tiger, or Big T, or Littlebit. I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t give my heart to anyone else any more. It hurts so much that they all leave me. You all left me, and you always will.¡±


    I¡¯m weeping into the cold cobblestone path of the alleyway, still laying face down upon the stones. I know those fears, those feelings. They eat me alive if I¡¯m without at least someone from my inner circle for more than a few days, someone that I¡¯ve given my heart to. Gods I want to rush to Tiktik so badly, but between her telling me to go every few seconds, my heart feels torn in shreds about whether that might even be an okay thing to do.


    Hearing her sob, I can¡¯t stand being apart any longer, when I could have her in my arms to be comforting her. If she hates me for going against her wishes, then I¡¯ll accept whatever she says next. Floating myself up, I flip around and kick off into a TKSL towards my beloved impish Kitten. Startling her somewhat, I wrap her up in my arms, and she nestles in, slowly crying herself to sleep.


    With as emotionally exhausting as this episode was, I feel like I could use a sleep as well. I carry Tiktik cradled against me as I wander Nicht-whatevertown. Seeking an inn, I find both an inn, and a town exit towards the countryside. Rolling my eyes at the name of the inn, ¡°Ze Roost,¡± I enter, trying not to shake my head incredulously at the ¡®Twixt. Really ¡®Twixt. Zero in the name of the inn, in a town whose name includes the word for nothing? That¡¯s not a little too on the nose? Actually, don¡¯t change a thing. I¡¯m being snarky, but I kind of love it. It¡¯s like a little private in-joke of the whole world, just for me.


    Worried that my coinage might not be considered the appropriate currency, despite Tiktik¡¯s coins appearing to be almost exactly the same, I scan a job-board along the wall near the door. Of course. Rats in the basement of the local inn. I can¡¯t help laughing, rolling my eyes and shaking my head. I give up. It¡¯s funny, and it¡¯s cute. Sure it¡¯s cliche, but who gives a rat¡¯s ass? Hah, I guess I¡¯ll be giving some, since they want the tails as proof.


    Snirking, I¡¯d facepalm, but I¡¯m carrying Tiktik in one arm as I sift through the bounties and jobs with the other. I suppose I could facepalm if I wanted to, I have options. I snag the job posting telekinetically, and hand it to the innkeep before being directed towards the basement. I continue imagining ways I could facepalm while I dump out Chuck¡¯s cocain-laced cheese as bait.


    Drawing Frostburn, I¡¯m surprised at how difficult it is to see down here. I suppose I could cast some light with my archsorc staff and just wield Frostburn telekineti¡ª. Those are some big rats. That is a very unusual size for a rodent. How many stairs did I go down to get into this basement that the ceiling is like forty feet above me, with rodents nearly as tall? Holy crap they¡¯re fast!


    Okay, so, the ¡®Twixt isn¡¯t really pulling any punches at the moment. I¡¯m about to be drawn and quartered by enormous rats that are dozens of feet in size each. Thankfully, they¡¯re averse to pain, and not very durable. I really don¡¯t need even more injuries to recover from. If the ¡®Twixt works like the orb time, you can¡¯t exactly recover physical health in the orb, at least not the broken bones, ruptured organs, and the like. You return exactly as you went in, or worse if you got roughed up or more exhausted or whatnot within. I think, unless I was missing details and misinterpreting things. I suppose my zero state, or full state, are determined at my point of entry, maybe.


    I should be paying a bit more attention, and maybe should have put Tiktik down somewhere, now I¡¯m keeping her close to my chest with one telekinetic grip, while another aids me in mobility, and another wields Frostburn for me, hacking at various paws and snouts. My fourth grip is being a multi-purpose shield at the moment, mostly being used in order to slightly angle the rats¡¯ rushes so that it takes less effort to dodge them. I don¡¯t want to try to block their attacks head on, because they¡¯re powerful enough to shatter my psi-shields, my TK Squares.


    Despite it being fairly harrowing for a few moments, it doesn¡¯t take long to subdue the mighty menaces between Frostburn, and my holy halefire double-barreled wrist-mounted crossbow. The new bolts are hilariously effective against things as squishy as giant rats. Too bad I only have a few of them per day. I should have been keeping track of what they do. Hitting the buttons, I let them regenerate inside the quiver, figuring I¡¯ll deal with them later. It seems the regeneration utilization of the crossbow bolts is used up for the day now though. One set per day, hm.


    Feeling a little awkward, and kind of mean for doing it, I slice off the tails of the giant creatures. This apparently causes the corpses themselves to mysteriously poof a few moments later, leaving behind several coins, and small bits of useless junk, like whiskers or rodent meat. I guess it couldn¡¯t hurt to collect it.


    Tiktik alternates between sniffling and snoozing, so I speed along to turn in my ¡°quest¡± completion proof to get some additional ¡°souls¡± as rewards. I use the quest reward in order to pay for room and board for the night, and there isn¡¯t much left over, but I wasn¡¯t expecting a lot. I feel like it would be more appropriate to pay for two rooms. Yet I also feel that, if Tiktik awoke in a bed alone, that it could shatter her heart into a million pieces right now. Hell, mine would be shattered if I woke up alone in a bed right now after all those emotions.


    I¡¯m not sure what Tiktik prefers to wear to bed, when she finally has an actual bed to sleep in. We never got the chance when we were adventuring together before. I don¡¯t know if I should help her out of her armor beneath her robes or not. Setting my Kitten softly into the bed, I turn back towards some bags that I¡¯ve left by the door in order to begin divesting my equipment. I do it because I want to both get a bit more comfortable, and be a better cuddling partner for the night. When I turn back towards the bed, my jaw drops and I nearly topple over. My vision goes blurry and crosses several times, and I blink rapidly in order to try to see straight. My heart is hammering, racing as I struggle to not stare at the one location on the bed containing the beautiful sight before me.

 B 6 C 152: Twixt Here and Heart

    Despite our mutterings in the cool dead of night, the promises we¡¯d already made to each other, Tiktik pleads once more, ¡°Could, could we maybe, just maybe have a few days, like a week together, to last me until I get to see you again? Or at the very least, a weekend? Please Tiger?¡±


    The guilt twisting my heart like a knife is too strong to resist as I acquiesce once again, perhaps having to reassure Tiktik that what I said in the dead of night wasn¡¯t just false pillow-talk, ¡°A whole week Kitten. Six more days. I¡¯m honored to get to spend them with you. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m not recovering mana, or even SP, from sleeping in here, nor is my body regenerating, but as long as we¡¯re careful, it shouldn¡¯t affect my ability to get back to the war when we leave. I¡¯m surprised you were able to adventure so much, for so long. Did you have to return to the Hidden Heart to sleep to get your SP pools back?¡±


    Scrunching her adorably upturned nose while furrowing her brow curiously, Tiktik shakes her head while responding, ¡°No, I got my SP and everything back every night. Well, I mean, I always went in with it full. I mean, I wasn¡¯t even a sorceress of much of any power when I first started going in. Like I said, I¡¯ve been adventuring for decades, maybe a couple centuries. Do you think that mattered?¡±


    Nodding, since I¡¯d figured about as much, I answer, ¡°Yeah. Yeah I¡¯m pretty sure you can only recover up to as well as when you entered the ¡®Twixt. Something prevents you from abusing it to speed up healing, or doing heavy muscular activity, or a few things like that. Things that it would take you normally a while to recover from. I¡¯m not sure the exact reasonings, or exact rules, but I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ve got about the basics of it down. Then again, it might be because my ¡®Twixt is new, and being generated. Maybe I can¡¯t use it as a method to heal, or really recover in it until it has been around for a few decades? Ah well, I¡¯m just making wild mass guesses. Come on Kitten, how about some breakfast? Do you want me to bring it to you in bed?¡±


    Her eyes go wide as her mouth forms a moue before asking, ¡°Really?!¡±


    Smiling and nodding, I gear up and begin to head towards the door as I let Tiktik luxuriate in bed for a while longer yet. They¡¯re amazingly comfortable beds, and I figured she could use a bit more rest after both our emotional turmoil of yesterday, and the, erm, physical toil of, ah, heh, well, y¡¯know. As I¡¯m closing the door to our room, I hear her playfully, quietly yell out, ¡°See if they have muffins!¡±


    Approaching what seems to be more or less a continental breakfast buffet shelf, and muffin rack, I glance around for signage. Thankfully it appears to be all-you-can-eat for the breakfast buffet for those who¡¯ve paid for room and board. Returning to our room with a platter loaded with food, especially muffins, I¡¯m only slightly surprised to see Tiktik¡¯s current state of attire. I raise an eyebrow, and my quirky Kitten grins mischievously. Rolling my eyes, I set the tray aside for a while.


    After another fair while of making our quiet promises to each other, bonding and doing our best to heal the hurts that have been formed by absence, we begin eating breakfast together. Or at least try to. I close my eyes and sigh, trying not to roll my eyes or shake my head as I find my ear being nommed on. Wearing a wry grin, I comment, ¡°You know, you¡¯ve literally got muffins right there.¡±


    It takes quite a lot of willpower to not burst out laughing as Tiktik tries to say, ¡°But you¡¯re the best muffin, muffin,¡± into my ear, while her lips and teeth are wrapped around it. Mostly because it comes out, ¡°muh err ve meft mfm mfm.¡±


    Suddenly, despite having eaten very little, Tiktik shoots up, extremely alert as she announces, ¡°Le gasp! Look at the time! It¡¯s already prank o¡¯clock!¡±


    As Tiktik attempts to leap off the bed, to no doubt prank some hapless bystander, I snag her in my arms mid-leap. In my embrace, she bemoans in a long drone, ¡°Must prank.¡±


    Feeling bad, since I know it¡¯s fairly likely a compulsion with Tiktik, I free her of my grip, which leaves her pouting as she glances back and forth between me and the door. It looks like she¡¯s about to tear her hair out as she virtually vibrates while trying to fight herself. After a few moments though, Tiktik rapidly fires off, ¡°KaykaythankyouTigerloveyouseeyouinafewminutesberightbackstayrighthereplease.¡±


    I¡¯m left blinking several times as I try to parse what Tiktik said that she¡¯d squashed into a single breath, with no spaces between syllables. Shaking my head, I smile as she rushes off to set up her regularly scheduled pranking. Laying back on the bed, I yawn and roll my muscles, stretching slowly, enjoying the softness and warmth of the bed in a way I wasn¡¯t able to do last night. At least, I wasn¡¯t able to do it very much. We¡¯d been laying awake talking for a long, long while, before falling asleep in each other¡¯s arms. Unintentionally I begin to let myself doze.


    Awakening to Tiktik yelling out a saddened moan of, ¡°Tiiiiger, open up, let me innnnn,¡± I¡¯m a bit abashed, realizing that apparently Tiktik didn¡¯t take the key with her, and apparently the doors lock automatically in a way that¡¯s nearly impenetrable.


    As I quickly gather my wits, I rush to the door to open it for Kitten, who lunges at me immediately upon its opening. We¡¯d probably go tumbling if I didn¡¯t catch us both in telekinetic grips as Tiktik kicks the door closed behind us. Rolling my eyes, I try not to act like a jerk as a smile fights its way across my face. Apparently Tiktik wants a snuggly little nap, and some breakfast, before we actually get around to doing anything. I can¡¯t say I¡¯m averse to it, or the rest of the, erm, benefits that come with it. The evil smirk I get from Tiktik is clue enough for me to shut my mind off again for a little bit.


    After some finesse, Tiktik agrees to show me a bit more about how the ¡®Twixt works. We manage to get me set up bound at a citystone, and complete a ¡°quest¡± to acquire the means to return to it at virtually any time, almost. They¡¯re magic items bound to the ¡®Twixt that remain here when leaving that let us navigate to the citystone. They have an hour long casting time of course. That does end up meaning you really have to be in a safe location, or be able to concentrate for an hour, whatever you¡¯re doing. It is incredibly video-gamey. Then again, maybe video-gameyness is based on something like this? Ugh, why am I even comparing Fakeworld to the magic of the ¡®Twixt?


    Apparently, regular coins do work here, but any coins obtained here that my town calls souls, won¡¯t leave the ¡®Twixt with me. But at least they¡¯ll be in any container I used if I bring the same container back, or if I leave one here. I¡¯m a tad leary, wary of the fact that the ¡®Twixt trolled me with the name for coins in this town.


    Gnawing on my cheek, I ask Tiktik, ¡°Is there a way that we could generate another town? One that can¡¯t really get to this town? Or like, a mini demiplane, or transdimensional storage vault or something?¡±


    Tapping her chin, gazing skyward ponderously, Tiktik shrugs before offering up, ¡°Not entirely sure if I¡¯m understanding what you need. It depends on what you need it for. What¡¯s up Tiger? Is this that security thing you needed for the present you wanted to give the refugees?¡±


    Nodding, I¡¯m forced to clarify, ¡°Yeah, that, and I¡¯ve got all those prisoners inside me. Two separate places, that can¡¯t interact with each other, would be the most ideal. I don¡¯t exactly want to let a bunch of powerful Spellknights loose in a realm where they can train up their magic and become stronger and whatever else they might be able to do, but if they can never get out without a Fae, and never get to the asset I want to deploy, it won¡¯t matter too much.¡±


    Grinning like a goon, Tiktik bobs her head aggressively in confirmation before responding, ¡°Yeah, yeah I think I can do something about that. Have I got a magnificent mansion for you to see! Boy howdy buster! Hehe, I suppose I could have saved us the price of an inn stay or two, but what¡¯s the fun in robbing you of the experience? Ah, an-,anyways. So, well, if we start traveling, looking for a city that¡¯s like, a prison city, or guarded city, or something, one is bound to spring up, literally.¡±


    More than a tad abashed, she continues explaining, ¡°We can let your, um, friends out there. I have no idea how you¡¯re going to do that. If it¡¯s like when you and Big T were reaching out to your homeworld powers, I can¡¯t even imagine what that¡¯s going to do to you with dozens or hundreds of people coming out of you. Just, just please be okay? Okay? So, um, anyway, come on Tiger, let¡¯s go!¡±


    Plenty happy to be journeying with a once-more jubilant Tiktik, she and I set out across the countryside, accepting several jobs posted on crossroads signs and the like. Most of them sound fairly simple, routing wild animals that have taken over a barn, clearing out an aqueduct bypass, or even defending a town from a war party of rampaging orcs. Each time though, the creatures are far more powerful than you¡¯d expect for such banal, entry-level quests. We aren¡¯t in awfully too much danger, but the rewards aren¡¯t so great either, though they are scaling up faster and faster the further we get from town.


    Of course, every quest related person we meet, Tiktik has to introduce herself to in her adorably silly fashion. She also has to pull at least two pranks a day, and thankfully they¡¯re not all directed at me. Though having fun, Tiktik¡¯s constantly on the lookout for Bizzenblade, which worries me. If some semi-omnipotent sentient weapon comes seeking her and her soul, I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m fast enough or powerful enough to stop it. Of course, that¡¯s one more reason for us to not spend centuries together in the ¡®Twixt just yet.


    Plus, none of my resources are recovering at all in the ¡®Twixt. Not the charge in my magical items, nothing. Well, perhaps there might be some things that I¡¯m not noticing that are acquiring some sort of lessened ambient mana or something. We do have to remember that my ¡®Twixt realm has only *just* been created, from almost nothing, which likely means it¡¯s not very mana-rich yet, or at all. It¡¯s still expanding, constantly. Maybe if we stayed in place for a few weeks, months, or years, the ¡®Twixt could build up residual and ambient mana for the locations I frequent, but we don¡¯t have that luxury.


    Besides, I have a feeling that if I found a way to abuse the ¡®Twixt and cheat in order to gain advantages like I did with the orb, the ¡®Twixt would find a way to cheat me back, and negate the progress, possibly even sending me further back. Hell, for all I know, the orb could have been a gateway to the ¡®Twixt, and it¡¯s pissed at me for abusing it which might have led to the trolling, and lack of even basic recovery. My bruises aren¡¯t healing, and my bones aren¡¯t mending, at least, not noticeably at the rate I¡¯m expected to with my regeneration. Plus, I think I¡¯ve got deeper internal contusions. It makes adventuring a tad bit painful, which I think the ¡®Twixt might just be delighting in. That possible sadistic joy might even be why I¡¯m not recovering in the physical manner.


    Even simple activities freshly spawned for me are scaled up massively in power or size. As much as Tiktik thinks it¡¯d be fun to chase a big bounty together, I don¡¯t think I want her chasing any of the bounties from my town. I know she¡¯s incredibly powerful, and can take care of herself, but if those things are scaled off of our combined abilities, I¡¯m afraid she¡¯d be in over her head, especially if I couldn¡¯t keep up with her tracking abilities. I¡¯m terrified of the idea of something that¡¯s got the combined strength of a supposed challenge for her, with things that are supposed to be challenging for me. The things that challenge me these days are creatures like the Damnations, or phylactery-empowered hellfire-skeleton-bombing Spellknight-liches.


    When an ocean virtually springs up in front of us, I¡¯m pretty sure I get the idea of how the ¡®Twixt is going to help us. When there¡¯s a job-posting to rescue an ex-pirate from sahuagin, with the reward being a, ¡°kraken-proof-sailboat,¡± I¡¯m fairly certain I know what¡¯s next. Tiktik and I rush off to save the poor man. We¡¯re accompanied by the target¡¯s wife, a burly, older sailor lass by the name of Brunhild. The woman appears to be in her late sixties, and still quite fierce, but she¡¯s essentially a reckless escort NPC that we have to keep safe against the spell-slinging sahuagin.


    Reuniting Brunhild with Ziegdrif, her husband, earns us their ¡°kraken-proof-sailboat,¡± stationed at the nearby pier. Tiktik is downright giddy as she switches over to nautical speak and piratical accents, ¡°Avast lad or lass, shiver me timbers we arrrrr going to set sail o¡¯er the briny deep, past Davy Jones locker. Ahoy me hearty Tiger, hoist the mainsails, strike the yardarm, boon the jib, and other such things!¡±


    Snorting with laughter, I can¡¯t get enough of my goonish, goofy friend. Sighing contentedly, I watch her struggling to figure out how to sail the ship. Oddly enough, some of what she said is correct, but I¡¯m busy studying a map that is stationed within the tiny covered helm, near its three seats. Shivers run down my spine, when a massive circle of the sea simply says, ¡°Here there be krakens.¡±


    It doesn¡¯t take a genius to see that the ¡®Twixt is herding us towards the kraken-circle center. Setting sail isn¡¯t too difficult an affair, with my Fakeworld genre senses. Navigating I can actually leave up to Tiktik, since she¡¯s better with a sextant, and that isn¡¯t a euphemism. Though, come to think of it, she¡¯s probably better with that too. I don¡¯t even want to picture what a sex tent might be though.


    Several hours of sailing across the sea lead us to what feels like hell on blue water. Colossal, massive tentacles thrash about everywhere. Stormclouds thunder and crack with lightning incessantly, and the sea itself roils, tossing what seem like mile high waves at us, one after another. Thankfully, there¡¯s truth in advertising, and the ship seems to be enchanted to repel the waves, the tentacles, and even the odd lightning strike or two. There¡¯s a sphere of safety around the ship that barely perfectly encapsulates the whole thing. My heart is racing a mile a minute as it takes us what seems like days, but is at minimum about an hour of sailing through such treacherous waters before we return to reasonably calm seas in the center of the ring of krakens. It might have taken a lot longer. It was hard to tell, because I think I held my breath almost the entire time, taking only a deep breath when I ran out on occasion.


    The shining beacon of a seemingly floating island of wonder is like gazing upon a miracle, or mystery of the ancient world. A near-continental sized landmass floats above the central region of this sea, though only slightly, and it¡¯s covered in a massive translucent blue dome. The blue coloration might not actually be the dome, but rather the clear skies above it. It¡¯s hard to tell from our angle. Anyway¡ª.


    There¡¯s a pier, and what look to be floating steps that will lead up to a landing, high up on a shelf which contains a path to the city proper. Docking our sailboat, Tiktik and I carefully hop, climb, levitate, and fly our way up the floating steps. As we carefully scale the rocky terrain towards the city-proper, Tiktik seems more giddy by the moment. When some of the buildings begin to come into view as we¡¯re cresting a final rise, I¡¯d swear Tiktik was about to burst.


    Hugging me tightly, Tiktik exclaims, ¡°Your ¡®Twixt is the best ¡®Twixt! It¡¯s so crazy adventurous! Thank you for sharing this with me Tiger. This place is amazing! Look at that, oo and that, and that. Oh look over there! Oh I could have soooo much fun pranking those guys! You better bet your muster buster. Look they look so stuffy, like border guards or something. I¡¯ma go do that!¡±


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    W¡ªwait. Crap. Hah. It¡¯s impossible to fight the smile spread across my face, as I watch Tiktik do her usual greeting, somehow finagling even completely stoic guards into shaking her hand, resulting in the whoopee cushion gag. Twice, right next to each other. She is right though, this place is like some sort of Laputian wonder of a long lost bygone civilization of the ancient world. It¡¯s definitely amazing, and crazy-adventure-filled. Hell, I bet there¡¯s plenty of secrets to discover just in this section of this city on this island alone.


    Runic technology or something that¡¯s indistinguishable from unknowable magics are intertwined in every facet of all of the architecture. It looks honestly like a bit of a paradise. I do however feel almost certain that a place like this, in the ¡®Twixt, is what you make of it. If you live well, happily, and peacefully, it could very well be a paradise. If instead, you¡¯re warlike, constantly trying to ¡°escape,¡± or harm or subjugate others, it could turn hellish pretty quickly.


    None of the residents care as we ask if we can drop off several hundred newcomers. Shrugging, I begin engaging my Backpotter form as we explore this island in the sky. Its base is barely above sea-level, but it must have been a mile of climbing floating steps to reach the first landing, and then another mile of twisting paths up a rocky cliffside to reach the city itself. Tiktik jubilantly rushes from location to location, greeting denizens and marveling at every last spectacle or oddity. It¡¯s so amazing to see her precious joy and sense of wonder. My smile becomes tender as I sigh contentedly once more.


    When I reach what I can sense is essentially a naturally respawning mining system dug into the core of the island, I grin more intensely, knowing this is the right place to free the Draconiacs. They can harvest their own mineral food. The ¡®Twixt will probably provide them custom tailored jobs or something, allowing them to earn income, on top of the citizenry here allowing them to mine for their daily needs or their lavish wants. What I wouldn¡¯t give to be able to just bring every peace loving person here, from both worlds. That would take several millenia though. If I even could convince and gather and transport people to the ¡®Twixt one at a time from around both worlds, then navigate the regions to sail them through kraken infested waters to get here.


    Querying, I poke Tiktik in the arm, ¡°Kitten? If we don¡¯t tell the Draconiacs that this is the ¡®Twixt, will the ¡®Twixt keep it secret for us? The less they know about their situation, the less they¡¯re likely to be able to try to escape, or even want to.¡±


    Pontificating, wearing a thoughtful expression, Tiktik takes a moment to think before shrugging and guessing, ¡°Maybe. Not sure. Never really been done before, ya dig? Only don¡¯t, because you¡¯ll get dirty.¡±


    Snirking and rolling my eyes, I shrug as well, having figured about as much on my own. When my Backpotter form manifests, Tiktik giddily lunges at it, and climbs my soft furry features to nuzzle whatever parts of me she can reach. She squeals with further delight when I double in size via my archsorc staff. When I begin to unzip my chest, my Kitten marvels at my internals being revealed to be voidspace. Testingly, I attempt to draw Big-O¡¯Keul from my internal inventory space, but, surprisingly, I can¡¯t lift it out, and I can¡¯t get leverage on it to find some other way to slide it out.


    That¡¯s unfortunate. I won¡¯t be able to place it anywhere until I either risk bleeding light and life, or return to my normal connection with my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers. Since I can¡¯t pull out Big-O¡¯Keul, I instead start by pulling out the statue of Zelshiz, carefully, and setting it down next to Tiktik. Loading Tiktik up with a heaping helping of diamonds and diamond dust, her eyes sparkle at the vast wealth of gems and material, but she quickly gets to work using her moderate cureall upon Zelshiz.


    I could weep as my emotions lodge in my throat, when Zelshiz, screaming in terror, returns to life. She, or he paws and claws at herself, or himself, and gazes around in wild-eyed terror that becomes wide-eyed wonder. I owe her or him a bunch of explanations, but I might as well retrieve their comrades first. Some of them could use medical attention, for sure.


    Still, it¡¯s easy enough to begin grabbing, and dumping out a horde of Draconiac Spellknights, all in their skivvies. Is there anything I should provide them with other than info? Nah, I mean, other than getting some locals to offer them some medical aid anyway. It¡¯s relatively easy to request help from these peace-loving Laputian residents. Thankfully, at least for right now, no one from Vorzog¡¯s Keep is dumb enough to start any trouble while their allies still require healing and help.


    I call out, ¡°Welcome back everybody. Yes, it¡¯s me, Schism, still. I¡¯m sorry to put you through that, but I¡¯ve brought you to a place that can be a paradise for you, if you choose it to be. The people here are peaceful, the land itself protected, and plentiful. Far more than you could imagine. It is however an island surrounded on all sides by storms and kraken. That means you¡¯ll never have to fear being invaded, or harmed.¡±


    The drone of chatter becomes almost too much for me to bear as emotions on all lengths of the spectrum abound. Fear and anger are plentiful, but so too are wonder, and curiosity. There¡¯s a fair amount of poignant observations that it looks like the Worldstorm exists in a giant circle around this island, while having a massive sunny hole above it, despite that not technically being what it is. That observation though leads to many of the reptilian people relishing the sunlight.


    There¡¯s also plenty of sadness for the losses incurred in our assault on Vorzog¡¯s keep, joy at being spared such a fate, and so much more. Unsure if there¡¯s anything I should really do, other than let them go in peace, I turn towards leaving. Zelshiz however politely begs my attention.


    Turning towards them, I raise one of my enormous brows, and motion for them to continue, so she requests, ¡°I, I suppose this isn¡¯t Solace, or anywhere near it. I take it you are responsible for the downfall of ShizTinth? Or, one of your number anyway. I, I saw him, through your magical lenses, in good health, chatting with a shopkeep, seemingly happily. Um, Lord Shiz that is. I know you owe me nothing, and you must have saved my life in more ways than one, but I¡¯d dearly, dearly like to be reunited. If, if I could somehow beg that of you, to join you at Solace.¡±


    Oh! That¡¯s why Zelshiz looked so shocked when they looked through the goggles. Suddenly there come a few shouts of, ¡°Here here!¡± in response to Zelshiz¡¯s admission of wanting to accompany me to solace. A small group breaks off from the main body of the Draconiacs to stand behind Zelshiz, apparently wanting to accompany them. This once again complicates matters, but it¡¯s a complication I¡¯m happy to work around. Smiling, I nod at Zelshiz, happy to help reunite them with Shiz, in whatever form that takes. He¡¯s been a good ally, and friend, since he accepted our mercy.


    Answering Zelshiz, I ask, ¡°Sorry about everything. Welcome back. I hope this isn¡¯t rude, but do you have a preferred gender terminology? I heard Adkre refering to you both as he and she. But, well, yes, you and this troop of yours can definitely come with to Solace. I left Triorgraiz to get more swift expert medical attention with some people I cherish and trust. I¡¯m hoping she recovers, and also that she doesn¡¯t lash out if she¡¯s capable of returning to good health.¡±


    We¡¯ve got to also get Triorgraiz¡¯s mount back to her somehow. I¡¯m fairly certain that he¡¯ll dutifully stay at her side, while Tiago tends to the wounded woman. She seems like she¡¯s seen reason well enough, and cares enough about other people to not lash out at the refugees, especially when they¡¯re now protected by something like sixteen dragons. I feel like, if Triorgraiz ever wakes, she¡¯ll be fine, and maybe Tiktik can get someone to give her a lift to Mount Solace if needbe. Or Tiktik could bring her here, to this paradise island within the kraken circle sea or whatever the hell you¡¯d call this region.


    Zelshiz clues me in cordially enough, ¡°Either or, both really, but it¡¯s hard to put ¡®em both in a sentence, y¡¯know? Adkre, despite the craziness, wasn¡¯t disrespecting me or anything. Trio¡¯s alive though? I¡¯m surprised. That hit¡ª. It looked bad. Really bad. She¡ª, she didn¡¯t deserve that. Vorzog¡¯s an ass, his whole troop was, and whatever payback you dealt him could never have been enough.¡±


    Nodding somberly, I agree, it did look bad, and still does, according to Tiago. Gazing out across the several dozen Draconiac Spellknights gathered up behind Zelshiz, I gnaw on my lip. I¡¯m not sure if I should mention the fact that we slew Adkre and Vorzog, when I don¡¯t know whom of these individuals was loyal to whom. If we can get at least this party of Zelshiz¡¯s troops out of the ¡®Twixt, we can at least get them transported home to Solace, by the twelve ancient consorts.


    We still have a siege to deal with though too. I also wanted to deploy a shop that Tiktik could reach, while I had access to this form. I won¡¯t have access to it, for quite a while again after this, depending on how the ¡®Twixt decides to work with that potion having been the reason I had enough mana to use the form.


    Before I even have to ask, since she was riding my mind to hear my mental monologue, Tiktik quips, ¡°Oh yeah, almost forgot! Check this out Tiger, and other palsie walsies! Um, eeny meeny. You and you and you, okay, all of you are coming with, yeah? Okay, I hereby invite you to my magnificent mansion!¡±


    Tiktik runs towards a wall and I¡¯m about to lash her in a telekinetic grip to keep her from hurting herself when she slaps the wall like delivering a high five, causing a door to appear upon it. Opening the door, Tiktik motions us inside, and I can see a rather plush living space on its far side. I have to drop my enlargening spell, and apply the shrinking spell, to be able to fit through it, but that¡¯s no big deal. Once inside, there¡¯s plenty of space to resume my enormous height. This feels like a demi-plane. Its own minor pocket dimension. This is *exactly* the sort of place I want to deploy the shop, so that only Tiktik can access it, with whatever people she allows in.


    Quipping chipperly, Tiktik responds to my thoughts, ¡°Yep yep! It¡¯s my spell, and it can keep things in it, but not people, for as long as I want. There¡¯s some other rules ¡®n¡¯ stuff, but it¡¯s boring, and you can probably guess enough. Nothing that should interfere with your propagatious plans buster. So, go on, show me this thingy you¡¯re excited to gift to the refugees!¡±


    Struggling to restrain my smile, I watch as Tiktik raptly awaits my deployment. The Draconiacs explore different facets of the mansion, including exiting and entering the door, while some of their companions from the contingent outside, are incapable of entering. Zelshiz eyes me with curiosity, and I suppose they¡¯ll find out sooner or later about the shop system anyway, since they¡¯re coming home with us.


    Zelshiz did already see it in action partially through the goggles as well, so I beckon for Tiktik to invite her, or him and me to Tiktik¡¯s private study. It¡¯s an even *more* private sanctum that has another layer of security that similarly allows only Tiktik and those she invites in, upon it. Reaching inside myself, deep down, I scrounge around and withdraw a fully carpentered Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magical digital shop stall.


    After setting it up, both women look a bit perplexed as I hand Tiktik a wad of hundred dollar bills. At least until I call out, ¡°Greetings handsome and lovely travelers, how may this humble shopkeep be of service on this fine day?¡±


    Grinning like a madbeast, Tiktik slams down the cash and playfully demands, ¡°I want your finest hooch good ¡®keep!¡±


    Most of the money derezzes, swiftly, and is replaced by a crystal decanter filled with an amber liquid that smells of ambrosia. There¡¯s something odd going on with the interplay between the ¡®Twixt and Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that¡¯s changing things up, but seemingly for the better. Usually my goods are roughly the quality of crap. Motioning for Tiktik to take the liquid, then tend the shop, I step to the other side, and request to sell my trash-loot from the ¡®Twixt, curious to see if the coinage follows me out or not. Placing my earnings inside a sack, to keep it separate from my other coinage, I nod gratefully at Tiktik.


    Zelshiz takes in the scene with a fair bit of wonder. Despite being able to wield magic, and knowing plenty about magic her-or-him-self, the idea of trading equitably with nothing, producing goods from thin air, despite them having witnessed it through the goggles as well, is catching them off guard. I can see their sharp mind racing as they piece together the implications. I¡¯m so glad he, or she, surrendered, or allied themself with me, however you want to think of it. Also of course I¡¯m glad that Tiktik was able to save them. The two pour shots from the decanter, and toast to the purchase before throwing back the shots. Both of them gag and cough, and stick their tongues out. Yeah, that¡¯s more of what I expected from my shop. I¡¯m glad I don¡¯t really drink alcohol, heh.


    I make certain I¡¯ve deployed or released everyone and everything that I need to, that I can, for now. When I¡¯m certain I¡¯m as done as can be with my inventory magic, I allow the Backpotter form to dissolve, leaving me in my horned, tailed RS2 form. Tiktik waves everyone out of her mansion, and motions behind her after leaving it, causing the door to disappear entirely. Triorgraiz¡¯s mount looks weary, pained, and confused, but thankfully Zelshiz is able to convince him to come along, as our now much larger party returns to the ¡°kraken-proof-sailboat.¡± Thankfully, there¡¯s room belowdecks for the new crew to squeeze in a bit tightly together.


    The return journey is just as seemingly perilous, but yet again, the vessel itself protects us from the otherwise treacherous waters and storms. Zelshiz comments on how unlikely it is their allies will ever leave that island, and I nod in agreement. I didn¡¯t have the time to personally do a psych eval for each of the several hundred Draconiac Spellknights, to invite them back to our home. This is the better solution. Since we still have wounded, I keep Triorgraiz¡¯s mount, Fennel apparently, shrunk, and I summon horses whilst using the Cosmic Roundsheathe to create Featherlight Titanwood, and fabricate that into three carriages. It¡¯s slower going, with only one horse pulling each carriage, but the wounded seem fairly grateful.


    Sighing, I look back on the time I¡¯ve spent with Tiktik in the ¡®Twixt. It was immensely enjoyable, but I can¡¯t keep giving in to spending more time here as much as I desperately want Tiktik to ask me to, and to agree to any desire she requests of me. Though I have actually benefited one way from the ¡®Twixt at least. I¡¯ve found my current precise SP limit, where my muscles begin to slack. It¡¯s just after six-hundred ninety-six SP. Going beyond that, my muscles start to hate me. I guess I at least rejuvenate one SP per day here, but ugh, I am not going to spend millenia trying to abuse that in order to learn spells or expand my SP pool.


    There are a few topics Tiktik has refused to talk about while we were here, like her recovery from her injuries, and certain feelings she¡¯s had pent up. I can tell she feels that even friends like Keeley and Marshal have left her. I understand her abandonment issues quite well. I don¡¯t want to argue with her, and tell her that Te and I haven¡¯t abandoned her, or that Littlebit didn¡¯t abandon her, since she ran away from the Hidden Heart. Even still, I wish I could help her combat those issues, to reassure her, and comfort her.


    Tiktik knows it¡¯s an irrational fear, and that it makes her want to push away the people she cares about most, so that she doesn¡¯t have to take the heartbreak of feeling like she¡¯s being abandoned, if she¡¯s the one choosing it. It¡¯s a touchy topic, one that we can¡¯t really address, despite us both loving the other, and me wanting to reassure her. The days flew by altogether too fast, and both of us lament our agreement, but we have to keep to it, or I¡¯d never leave.


    Taking one last quest from a job-board with Tiktik, it sounds like the reward is permanent access to an exit, by investing in the town. Essentially, our ¡°fetch quest¡± objective is a few hundred thousand coins, with our reward being a gateway or something. Thankfully, reward scaling began ramping up while Tiktik and I did more and more quests together here in the ¡®Twixt. It doesn¡¯t take much time at all for me to scrounge up the money, and take it to a construction site. The foreman accepts my ¡°investment,¡± and immediately begins to order workers to start on the project. Over the course of a few hours, a dais appears, with nearly a dozen archways. Each one holds an odd tear in space. Most of them are grey, neutral, unassuming, and seemingly inert. Two however, are not.


    What the hell is going on here? Through that rift, I see the catacombs and I see Tiktik and me frozen during our tumbling into the ¡®Twixt¡¯s entryway, with what appear to be aura outlines of the Draconiacs and Fennel popping into existence. Through this other rift, I see what appears to be the Hidden Heart, and what might be the hands of me and Tiktik as we roll tumbling out of it. Both of them are like a freeze-frame of a film. If we try to go through the one, back to the catacombs of Jeegoobotstan, we¡¯ll just fall back into the ¡®Twixt. If we go through the other, we¡¯re going to be falling into the Hidden Heart.


    The heartache and fear painted across Tiktik¡¯s visage sends an ache through my core. She¡¯s not ready to face her home yet. Sighing sadly, I agree to try leaving back the way we came with her. Unfortunately, though our consciousnesses and perceptions are able to view the Jeegoobotstan catacombs for the briefest of flickering instants, we end up falling through the sky near the alleyway I¡¯d originally arrived at. Of course, the ¡®Twixt decides to angle us such that Tiktik lands upon my face again. Shaking my head and rolling my eyes at the nature of the realm, I levitate Kitten and myself up to our feet, and walk to the nearest stoop to sit on. Resting my elbows on my knees, and head in my palms, I¡¯m unsure what to do.


    After some sniffling, and likely some saddened soul-searching, Tiktik guesses, ¡°Tiger? I¡ª. I guess we¡¯ve gotta go home. To my home I mean.¡±


    Wiping her tears away and pulling her to me, I kiss Tiktik lovingly for a long moment, only slightly embarrassed to be doing it in front of a crowd of people that are technically my prisoners. Still confused though, I ask, ¡°Can they leave on their own though? It looks like they¡¯re supposed to appear back in Jeegoobotstan.¡±


    Giggling, Tiktik exclaims, ¡°Oh that one¡¯s easy! One of us has to just boot ¡®em through the portal, like this, watch!¡±


    Tiktik starts shoving, pushing, nudging, and outright tackling people through the portal, fulfilling the jumbled pile of auras that foretells of their arrival in Jeegoobotstan. Zelshiz chuckles abashedly, and accepts being knocked through the portal as well, leaving Tiktik and I a last few moments alone in the ¡®Twixt. Sadness and apprehension in her eyes, she takes my hand, and we step through towards the Hidden Heart.

 B 6 C 153: Heard From the Heart

    The cool, damp air of my very English countryside style town of Nichtshire D¡¯Locke is immediately replaced by the fragrant, humming, calming warmth of the Hidden Heart. Something I¡¯d been holding out hope for, for a long time begins to occur about my neck. Bud¡¯s pulse, within his enchanted aura, slowly begins to regain the most minuscule amount of strength. It could take him decades to recover here, but at least he¡¯ll be able to recover. The lush dark greens of the canopy overhead that protect the entirety of the Heart from the ceaseless Worldstorm are a welcome sight, despite not having intended to visit here again for quite some time.


    When a pitchy, adorable voice that¡¯s fighting back sadness cries out in surprise, ¡°Tiki!?¡± I know I¡¯m about to need to give Tiktik privacy.


    Wide-eyed and slack jawed, Tiktik gulps before querying, ¡°Bitty!?¡± Terror overtakes Tiktik as her eyes dart about, looking for an opportunity to flee, but she fights to collect her wits so that she can offer up, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry about before. I didn¡¯t mean to make you uncomfortable, or make you hate me. You don¡¯t have to worry. I, I know I¡¯m like a sister to you, or, or was.¡±


    The adorably vivacious goblin woman¡¯s skin is a beautiful matte moss. She¡¯s wearing grease-stained overalls, and what might be considered a tube-top. She¡¯s got a toolbelt on, fully stocked with a variety of tools, and she¡¯s wearing some heavy-duty stompers. This must be the goblin gal known as Littlebit. She stalks up to Tiktik, followed by several clanking contraptions. From the intensity of her gaze, the intellect behind her eyes, the care, love, and adoration visible in this woman¡¯s countenance, and her obvious drive, creativity, and inventiveness, I could definitely understand why Tiktik is smitten with this incredible, adorable, and frankly sexy woman.


    The two just stand staring at each other, both crying silently for a fair length of time. I try to excuse myself, but Tiktik is still gripping my hand tightly. Littlebit makes the first move by grasping Tiktik¡¯s gorgeous face in both hands, and bringing it to hers. Through the passionate kiss, she mumbles, ¡°Idiot.¡±


    I can sense the confusion within Tiktik welling up, and that this could probably take a while to work out. I really don¡¯t want to intrude on something so personal, so deep for her. As much as we both love each other, I know her heart belongs to Littlebit. Tiktik has some irrationalities or conclusions that she jumped to too quickly, in the way she perceived things, so there¡¯s probably a bit of air to clear. I still can¡¯t withdraw my hand from her deathgrip though, so I bring it to my lips to kiss her fingers softly several times, until she relents and releases me.


    Whispering, ¡°I¡¯ll keep checking back here for you once in a while Kitten. Do what you need to do. I¡¯m not abandoning you. I¡¯ll never leave you, but you deserve this. You deserve to get to be happy with Littlebit. Take all the time you need.¡±


    Stifling my own emotions, my own sadness and tears, I leave the two to catch up and clear the air. I don¡¯t want my love for her to intrude on whatever is going to transpire. Reaching into the magic of the Hidden Heart, I tug a string that leads to Jarrah Bettergrove, and the Enochian Enclave.


    I receive plenty of stares, raised eyebrows, and gaping jaws as I stroll out of the courts, the section of town reserved for the more political-ploying highbrow families of the Hidden Heart. With my horns, I could be mistaken for some subspecies of satyr, but my thick, smooth, tapered tail gives away the Fel nature of my current mixbreed species. I¡¯m lucky I don¡¯t have any of the other traits of demonic creatures. Wait, am I blue again? When did that happen? Well, anyway, just shapeshift it back I guess. I really don¡¯t pay attention to or notice myself all that much.


    There¡¯s the slightest bit of temptation to check in on Percival the Potted Plant, or Flint or Alanea, but, well¡ª. Like with the Aasimovians, I think it¡¯s presumptuous of me to believe I can just drop back into their lives unannounced for what might be only a few seconds of conversation, only to leave again. Plus, I can¡¯t exactly converse with Percival unless he summons his celestial meerkat familiar, Tinpu. Deciding that it¡¯s best to just let them go on with their lives, without the disruptions that I seem to bring with me, I need to at least catch Jarrah up to speed on the state of things. He¡¯s a large reason for my successes so far in some ways, and he and I share common goals that we both have to work for on the larger scale, the safety of the Enochian Enclave amongst them.


    There are less gaping jaws as I enter the Enochian Enclave, though I still draw stares. The people of the Enclave are much more welcoming than the courts. For the most part anyway. Ascending the spiral of the great tree that makes up the Enclave, I make my way towards where I know Jarrah Bettergrove will be located, or will return to shortly if he¡¯s off on some other errand. It¡¯s strangely dark, almost opaque in his room. I¡¯m worried I might be walking into some new warding spell, so I cautiously press a fingertip into the odd obscurement within my mentor¡¯s crazy magical room. Nothing seems to occur, so I step inside. As I¡¯m about to call out, I sense a rush of movement, the rustle of fabric, a sharp object piercing the wind between the aggressor and me.


    Rolling my eyes, groaning, I allow my danger wraps to guide me away from Jarrah¡¯s strike as I utilize telekinesis to carefully nudge him in ways that prevent him from injuring either of us. Grumbling, I request, ¡°Stay your hand Jarrah you crazy old coot, it¡¯s me. Mentor, it¡¯s me, I¡¯m not¡ª.¡±


    The darkness recedes, and Jarrah stands before me, a hand splayed across his mouth as his wild, never-settling eyes take me in. At least, I think they¡¯re taking me in as he cuts me off, ¡°Flames of the Fel, so it¡¯s true, your source is infernal.¡±


    Rolling my eyes further once more, I respond, ¡°No. Look, I died while chaotic magic was going wild around me, or, well, I loosed a spell and purposely triggered chaos magic, because I was dying to a Damnation while having a panic attack. That chaotic magic burst happened to hit me with a very very very short term reincarnation enchantment. As luck would have it, I died during its short duration. When I came back, well, that reincarnation enchantment apparently destroys your previous body, and anything physically wrong with it, in order to provide it a healthy body of a random species. Stupid thing left my cursed illness intact though. Still no source, absolutely no source. Check my runework, roll your dice, or whatever. Please don¡¯t try to attack me again Jarrah. I don¡¯t want to accidentally hurt you.¡±


    My mentor paces around, keeping me in the periphery of his crazy-eyed vision as he mutters to himself, ¡°The gall on this child, the ego, and yet¡ª,¡± his pacing stops only momentarily as I can feel his senses probing me, ,¡±¡ª Yet perhaps they might. Their potency is leagues beyond what it was when last they were here. I haven¡¯t felt threatened, ever perhaps, but this is perhaps the closest I¡¯ve ever come. How very odd a sensation.¡±


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Sighing to myself, I could almost laugh as Jarrah appears to think that I can¡¯t hear his self-mutterings. Perhaps he forgot about my hypersensitive hearing. Remember that Jarrah? My hypersensitive hearing, and the fact that I know you¡¯re telepathic? Remember those things? I¡¯d never intentionally harm you or the Enclave, or anyone from it, if I could help it. I just came by to¡ª.


    Sighing, I shrug, realizing that Jarrah likely doesn¡¯t need me to inform him on the state of things. I don¡¯t even know. I¡¯m sorry for dropping by unannounced. I was hoping to catch you up on the state of things, but you don¡¯t seem interested in speaking with me. I¡¯m grateful for everything you¡¯ve done for me, and I¡¯m happy to see you¡¯re well. I guess I¡¯ve got a war to return to. Thank you for seeing me.


    Suddenly Jarrah ceases muttering, and in a demanding tone, offers, ¡°Sit, please, a cup of tea with your mentor. Fill me in on your war, your travels, these Damnations you speak of.¡±


    Oy vey, where do I start. I feel like I could fill a book, hell, several books since the last time we spoke. I glance side to side suspiciously for a moment. My brain feels suspiciously near a BSOD, but I¡¯m not sure what¡¯s causing it. I suppose it¡¯s best to start with my failure, and work my way up from there. With a few motions, Jarrah has the room maneuver a table and two chairs into position for us. He then proceeds to work some magic in a small alcove over a tea kettle. If I weren¡¯t at my exact limit of safe SP spent for the day, I¡¯d love to show off my progress to my mentor, but alas that will have to happen another day, should we ever see one another again.


    Still, Jarrah could use some more comfortable seats, so I think I¡¯ll sit in my own levitating telekinetic grip rather than on the chair itself. When Jarrah turns to face me, after hearing my thoughts, and seeing the proof of my ability, his brows are quite piqued from curiosity. Or, his brows are peaked because his curiosity is piqued. Something along those lines.


    Despite attempting not to, as I begin with my failure to protect Dawn, my inability to save her from the curse, I break down in tears for a short while. Jarrah nods grimly at the news, having feared as such. Worse, when I let him know the Fel hordes have overrun Aasimovia, that I had to battle them with Tiktik Clocktok and Teuila at Autumn Brook, barely buying time for an evacuation, and fleeing with our lives, he looks stricken. I never thought I¡¯d see my mentor look worriedly ill, but here he is. When Jarrah presses me for details, I fill him in as best I can, but I don¡¯t truly know much about the forces I faced, other than the names that I gave them. I still share their abilities and so on. Their aversion to sunlight, and seemingly water for the smaller ones.


    Sighing, I continue on, retelling my tale once more, as is apparently a reoccurring theme in my life as well in addition to the accidental assassinations. Skimming over the time in The Gap that broke my soul upon seemingly losing Teuila, and the short stint in the swamps when she was returned to me by the graces of some noblewoman, I pause a moment, soaking in my good luck to have Teuila back. Stifling my tears as I blink them rapidly away, I share that the hydras are more easily taken down not by the mythologically assumed way of providing fire or cauterization, but by utilizing frost, sapping their heat, or necrotic magics, thunder, or bludgeoning force. Well, or of course, copies of Gae Buidhe. We¡¯re trying not to flood the world with those though.


    My mind harkens back to various prophecies that I¡¯d been given, or at least prophetic statements made by the Sisters Hidden in the Mist. Revealing my Latent to Jarrah, and what a Latent is, he nods and waves dismissively as if it was obvious. I roll my eyes at the fact that I could have benefited from the information if he¡¯d known it prior to my leaving.


    Catching Jarrah up on the Order of the Onyx Dawn, our war against Terrorzin, the abilities I¡¯ve earned or created or gathered and so on, I skim over the interpersonal nonsense that has happened in Mount Solace. I let him know about each of the offensives I¡¯ve been on, the powers that I gained through titling, how I keep getting closer to my cure, and then having dragonforce stripped from me or wasted. I guess I¡¯m technically at ten out of fifteen or sixteen or seventeen paid so far, if the Sisters¡¯ portent is accurate in that I just have to have absorbed them to pay the price. Since it seemed obvious that Kozzurth¡¯s wouldn¡¯t last until I got all the rest.


    I¡¯d had Kozzurth¡¯s, and it was nearly gone, when the sister said I¡¯d paid one, and must now pay five and five and six. That¡¯s a total of seventeen, right? Yeah. My brain feels mushy. I lament the fact that I probably caused the deaths of the Plains Colossi, by subconsciously, or unintentionally slowly drawing in the dragonforce that Kozzurth had imbued them with.


    Jarrah¡¯s crazy eyes seem to take in the whole of me in a new light when he hears how I¡¯ve been struggling, striving to grant mercy to our foes. Especially that I just granted mercy to perhaps hundreds of Draconiacs this very morning. I¡¯m debating whether or not to let him in on one of the biggest secrets of the world. I know I can trust him. I know he wants the best for the people under his care, and he wants to stop the evils of the world, but¡ª. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s fair for me to do the telling of something so private and secret to someone else.


    Sighing, I admit, ¡°Jarrah, one of the possibly most ancient secrets kept, it¡ª. It belongs to my lady, my wife, Kinzul, Administrator of the Order of the Onyx Dawn. To protect the rest of Rayileklia from dragons, to keep them from being able to fly and land freely anywhere on the continent, to reduce their ability to level the continent with each landing, she devised, and holds up, the¡ª. Huff, I¡ª.¡±


    Gulping back sadness, I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s right for me to share this with anyone. Kinzul technically didn¡¯t even share it with me. My mind pieced it together, and she confirmed my logical leaps. I try to gauge Jarrah¡¯s feelings on my intent, or desire to continue, and his face is as inscrutable as always, especially with those wildly shifting eyes.


    As I¡¯m about to speak, Jarrah guesses, ¡°If this is about those acid-dragon-breath clouds permanently darkening our skies, then don¡¯t fret over it. I can put two and two well enough together. Keeping dragons at bay? I¡¯d not thought it so benevolent. Given the state of your war though, I can see its need. Forces in those numbers, with that much hatred and power behind them, yes, it¡¯s good they¡¯ve been balked. Hellspit and Fel fires though child. You crossed half the world in what was a week for you, but only an instant in time if your surmisings on this ¡®Twixt are correct. I knew there were odd things in the courts, but to think, a gateway to a realm that has other exits across our land. It¡¯s simultaneously a most enticing, yet utterly terrifying prospect. Should our foes gain access to it¡ª.¡±


    Breathing deeply and sighing, I nod. If they could access such a thing, they could overrun the Heart. Thankfully, the only entrances and exits we currently know of are the two, one here, and one in Jeegoobotstan. The one in Jeegoobotstan is going to be well-protected, and as far as we¡¯re aware, only very specific mixbreeds of Fae can even enter the ¡®Twixt. Plus, since you can only bring in one person at a time, the first person you bring in could be decades, or centuries older by the time you get a large number of people into the ¡®Twixt.


    For all I know, the Draconiacs I left in the ¡®Twixt have all perished of old age already, based on how much faster time passes there. Though, time might pause entirely while the originator of that segment of the ¡®Twixt is outside of it. I have no idea. I think that for now, Jarrah and I can make some contingency plans, without having to focus entirely on the prospect of foes invading the Heart through the ¡®Twixt. Plus, there are some pretty easy ways to keep it from becoming a big issue if needbe. Spike walls surrounding the portal to the ¡®Twixt for example.

 B 6 C 154: From Heart to Heart

    It really was nice to see Jarrah again, to sit, and be treated well, listened to and respected, by someone I admire so much. As he stalks around the room, muttering to himself, I bow towards him and take my leave. I¡¯m glad I got to fill him in, and I hope that some of the information I brought proves useful in some way. Ah crap. I forgot to ask him to look after Bud. He seems fairly engrossed in his mutterings though. Sighing, I begin wending my way down the Enochian Enclave. Perhaps I could give Bud to Sindred, to make up for accidentally stealing Dirge and Balchar¡¯s Flame? Eugh. I¡¯d rather not though. She¡¯s friggin¡¯ psychotic.


    When I nearly trip over a beautiful woman, and we both go tumbling down the stairs, *again*, I catch us both in telekinetic grips. Setting us both on the nearest landing of the staircase, I¡¯m at a loss for words. This woman with almond-shaped eyes radiates an aura of calm, of peace. Her gaze carries the care and concern of a mother for all that she meets. Her eyes are alight the color of coffee with cream. Her thick, straight, hair is worn in a style reminiscent of flower petals. Her delicate, slightly-pointed ears peak out beneath her luxuriously styled dark brown hair. Her wardrobe is flattering as it rests upon her short, extremely compact frame. My emotions and breath catch in my throat as I once more stand before Alanea Whifflewillow.


    The several moments that pass before recognition sparks across her face almost hurt. The fact that she turns to flee, does hurt. Sighing, I watch as she runs the opposite direction she¡¯d been heading, in order to evade me. She pauses on the next landing, and facepalms, before slowly walking back my way. Her tightly compact body is nearly forced to hop down each step so as not to topple forward. I¡¯d of course catch her again, no matter how she felt about me.


    My face likely hangs slack in its saddened expression. I feel my cheeks and brow drooping, while my jaw is locked tightly back, my mouth not entirely closed. Surprisingly, Alanea asks, ¡°Dearling? You¡¯re so different. Can¡ª. Do you have a moment?¡±


    Gulping down what emotions I can, I nod slowly, dumbly. Alanea barely tugs at my fingertips with hers, not exactly grabbing my hand, but still passing along the sentiment of her desire for me to follow. We wend our way down the staircase, to a familiar room, where she¡¯d once been stacking books. Something happens to my brain as we arrive¡ª.


    When I come to, Alanea is asking, ¡°Really?¡±


    Huh? Where¡¯s the room with the books? Something, something was. Books? My brain hurts. As Alanea leaps towards me, I¡¯m forced to catch her in my arms, and catch us in a telekinetic grip to keep from toppling over. Her hug fills me with warmth, and joy. I¡¯m more than a little lost yet though. What is she asking confirmation about?


    Thankfully, despite my muteness, Alanea answers, ¡°Yes, yes of course. Well, well Gerald and Flint can handle things here without me, and they¡¯d be honored to take care of Bud for you, and nurse him back to health. And, well, our mission hasn¡¯t changed, but it has stalled out a bit. Well, not stalled so much as, well, as it feels like the eye of a storm passing over, or forming. Erm, well, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m explaining it right, it feels like something big is coming, but, well, like there¡¯s nothing really to do to prepare, because it¡¯s too mysterious to guess what¡¯s coming.¡±


    As she plops down from my embrace, Alanea leads me by the hand towards the infirmary, almost giddily. Wh¡ª. What¡¯s going on? Did, did I invite Alanea to come with us back to Solace? I, well, I mean, I¡¯m not averse to it. Hell, I¡¯m rather stoked about the idea. Te will tease me mercilessly about it, and Lu might be a bit grumpy for a few minutes before teasing me as well, but, how did this even come about? I remember bumping into her on the stairwell, and now suddenly we¡¯re down near the infirmary, talking as if we¡¯d been conversing for almost half an hour. Scratching my head, I guess I¡¯ll ask for clarification at some point, when my head isn¡¯t so fuzzy and itchy inside.


    Hearing a familiar voice call out, ¡°Sakes alive! Shellcracker? Erm, it¡¯s good to see you well. You¡ª are well, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    Snorting back a laugh while smirking, I nod towards Flint Darklace. He¡¯s as dapper as ever, and his resting-creepy-face is as potent as always. His licentious gaze drinks me in as he undresses me with his eyes from bottom to top, where he meets my humorously stern gaze and raised-brow before he quickly averts his own gaze to cough and blush. Shaking my head incredulously, I can¡¯t help smiling as I reach out a hand to grasp his forearm and pull him into a tight embrace.


    Thankfully, Alanea takes over catching up Flint for me, which also helps clue me in to what we¡¯d discussed during the period of time that I can¡¯t recall. Flint¡¯s visage becomes one of duty and honor when he¡¯s requested to take care of Bud for me, nurturing Lullaby back to health. It warms my heart when he accepts the task, because Bud needs to stay in the Heart to recover. I don¡¯t know how many years, decades, or centuries it will take for him to return to his full glory. I don¡¯t even know how many months or years it might take before he¡¯s even able to waken slightly at all. I¡¯m sorry if it seems like I¡¯m abandoning you here Bud. You¡¯re a wonderful friend. I¡¯m honored you chose to fight by my side.


    The three of us chat, and catch up for a while, though Flint does cast several awkward gazes across Alanea when she mentions she¡¯ll be joining me to aid Solace now that we¡¯re down our primary healer. Those gazes contain longing, lust, virtual undressing, and a true apologetic sorrow. I know they¡¯ve been friends for a very long time, and perhaps on again off again lovers. I hope he doesn¡¯t feel like I¡¯m stealing Alanea away. I want us all to remain friends. Regardless, Alanea and I meander through the Hidden Heart. Well, the Wild Heart, to those that dwell here, mostly, but the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds for everyone else, or Hidden Heart for short.


    I¡¯d forgotten how adorably nervous that Alanea can come across with her affectation of interjecting the word well in almost every sentence. Despite the seeming verbal tic, almost a stutter, she leans warmly up against me as she guides me around, touring the Hidden Heart on our way back to the courts, and the entrance to the ¡®Twixt. I¡¯m almost hesitant to reach out mentally for Tiktik, to see if she¡¯s ready, or even wants to try to return to Jeegoobotstan with me.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Alanea and I stop at her home, and I blush hot enough to weld titanium when she drags me to her bedroom in order to start packing. Even though I avert my gaze, I can¡¯t help catching glimpses of, glp, various clothing articles, and various parts of Alanea¡¯s form as she rapidly changes clothing. Surprisingly, she has some slightly armored articles of clothing that look like they might provide a bit of defense against impact. With how mousey she is, I forget that she¡¯s also one of the Enochian Enclave¡¯s lead operatives. Sighing at the thought, it brings to mind how another wonderful Fae woman, my Kitten, is full of surprises, despite her adorable, prankstery nature. It¡¯s remarkable how serious she can be, and just how powerful she really is.


    Still, when Alanea requests that we spend some time here in her bedroom, um, bidding it a fond farewell, my brain fritzes out for a while, completely lost. Coming to, it appears we both need to erm, towel off. As I mentioned when I arrived here, the Heart is pleasantly warm, with that sort of jungle dewy moistness to the air. Now I¡¯m picturing certain glistening sweat I¡¯ve seen on various Fae over the course of my journey across Rayileklia, great. Facepalming, I rattle my skull at myself, trying to stop myself from picturing the smoky-indigo hue of certain portions of Tiktik¡¯s body that I¡¯d started to get used to in the ¡®Twixt.


    My heart aches at the idea that this might be the last I ever see of my Kitten, yet I want her to find her best happiness. I knew anyone that loved Tiktik as much as it sounded like Littlebit did, couldn¡¯t possibly hate Kitten, or want to never see her again. I was pretty sure Tiktik misread the situation too, because she¡¯s gun-shy on certain topics, emotions, feelings, and so on. She didn¡¯t want to be rejected by Littlebit, so she convinced herself she *was* rejected by Littlebit, so that she had an excuse to run away, and never face the possibility of actually knowing if she truly was rejected.


    I¡¯m fairly certain she fled before Littlebit could figure out how she really wanted to respond. I just didn¡¯t want to alienate Tiktik by insisting on things, when I was trying to be supportive of her, through the negative feelings she¡¯d been suffering from the rejection she¡¯d thought she experienced.


    Surprisingly, Tiktik cheerily calls across our mental wavelength, ¡°Hey Tiger, you ready yet? Have I got a surprise for you!¡±


    Blinking rapidly, I respond, ¡°I was headed back to see if you were still¡ª. Well, yes I suppose. Alanea and I are both ready.¡±


    My heart stops beating for a while, as my mind rapidly guesses what the surprise could be. I suppose the best surprise would be if Tiktik and Littlebit were coming to help out against the dragons, despite the Aasimovians needing protectors. I¡¯d normally argue against it, but I almost wish it was exactly that, since the Aasimovians technically now have over a dozen dragons protecting them, instead of extorting them.


    When we arrive in the courtyard with the rift to the ¡®Twixt, I have to fight my surprise at what I see. Tiktik and Littlebit, and a bunch of clanking little automaton creations, are all loaded down with what I can only describe as completely random crap. I feel awful for saying it, but it¡¯s like Littlebit somehow found an early nineteen hundreds scrapyard on Fakeworld, and raided it for anything she thought looked cool. It¡¯s obvious that she¡¯s a tinker though, and a good one at that.


    One of her automatons is, well, I can only describe it as a robot dog, or tiger, with cable-tendrils that spark on occasion as they drift or explore their area. Actually, it might be a robot version of a displacerbeast, from Fakeworld¡¯s tabletop gaming stuff. Huh. Yeah. I think it is. Littlebit¡¯s adjusting all of her clanking automatons and folding them up in ways that defy logic as I gaze on at the pair. Rattling my skull, I wave to the lovely Fae ladies awaiting us near the tear to the ¡®Twixt.


    Grinning wider than I think I¡¯ve ever seen her, Tiktik announces, ¡°Bitty, this is Reggie, my Tiger! You¡¯re gonna love ¡®em. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re gonna say yes. If you can do the thingy, then it¡¯ll be even better! Tiger, this is the woman of my dreams, Littlebit! Aint she the greatest, cutest, sexiest little lady you¡¯ve ever seen? Don¡¯t answer that, she¡¯s m¡ª. Sorry, hah, forget me. I¡¯m being dumb. Um, but, um, just, please, please say yes Tiger. Please.¡±


    While my jaw hangs slightly slack, I want to say yes immediately, before even hearing whatever the request is. Turning towards Littlebit though, she thankfully fills me in, ¡°Tikki and I, um, we hashed things out. Thank you for the privacy, um, earlier. Uh, it¡¯s, it¡¯s an honor. I heard you¡¯re kind of a wiz with science, and magic. I was sort of hoping that I could accompany you and maybe learn from you, and help out with whatever you might need. There¡¯s a, well, a theory that I have, well a couple. You see the readings on this? I¡¯m fairly certain they only activate in proximity to rifts to the ¡®Twixt. I had a lot of time to study the rift while Tikki was gone.¡±


    Littlebit chokes on her emotions a moment before continuing, ¡°I, I guess I was hoping to find a way to enter, myself, or find a different rift somewhere that wasn¡¯t as strict an entry requirement as this one. Tiktik¡¯s the only one that I know that can even enter. I thought maybe, just maybe if she ran away, she might have found a rift somewhere, and, and¡ª. I just wanted her to be there, and to find my way to her.¡±


    Rattling her skull momentarily, Littlebit gets back on track to add, ¡°I might be able to find other rifts, or, there¡¯s a tiny tiny tiny smidgen of a possibility that I might be able to replicate a rift, in short bursts. I¡¯d need a lot of quality materials and stuff that I don¡¯t have access to here in the Heart. Oh gosh I could probably just ask you to¡ª. That is to say, please?¡±


    Littlebit, like several of my family, and Prinrin, can rattle off speech nonstop without pausing for a breath, leaving me blinking in order to catch up. With Tiktik and Littlebit both pulling puppydog eyes, and both begging with an exceedingly elongated, ¡°Pleeeeease?¡± my heartstrings are tugged far more than they needed to be. I was already going to acquiesce to any request.


    Nodding to the two, I¡¯m beset upon by two incredibly sexy Fae women, nearly toppling over. Thankfully, Alanea helps prop me up, and helps me disentangle myself politely from the flailing, grasping limbs. There are a few, erm, mishaps, but we¡¯re all Fae, it hardly means anything. They might have even been intentional, but no one¡¯s speaking as to the veracity of such claims or accusations. After a few moments of introductions all around, and discussion, we figure out the logistics.


    I¡¯m disheartened to remember that Tiktik is actually going to stay with the Aasimovians in Jeegoobotstan. She¡¯s doing that for me, because she has the access to the shop. Still, having Alanea and Littlebit come with me is amazing. We take off into the ¡®Twixt, attempting to focus on landing in Nichtshire D¡¯Locke, and thankfully, arrival goes smoothly, as does departure from my ¡®Twixt town.


    This detour to Jeegoobotstan has re-established my loving relationship with Tiktik, and with Alanea as well. It¡¯s also managed to secure the curing and the cooperation of Zelshiz and a large platoon of Spellknights. Plus, as well, we¡¯ve acquired a dozen ancient dragon consorts, and last but certainly not least, an amazing goblin inventor by the name of Littlebit. Plus, we¡¯ve set up Tiktik and the Aasimovians in such a way as to begin cultivating endless sustainability. If we all make it home safely, this was a massively beneficial side-mission.


    I¡¯m only hoping that it was all worth the delay in returning home, when my beloved new family, the Onyx Dawn, are suffering a siege.

 B 6 C 155: Spaced

    Whilst in the ¡®Twixt, the goggles don¡¯t work, nor any other scrying sensor paired with a sensor in the normal physiplanar region of Rayileklia, of course, as expected. I¡¯d almost wonder if the ¡®Twixt were a spiritual realm, but it can¡¯t be. The coinage I made in the shop followed me out of the ¡®Twixt, and any materials or equipment that I kept from the ¡®Twixt also stayed with me, other than coins earned from creatures, or quests. Plus, most of Tiktik¡¯s magical gear came from quests in the ¡®Twixt as she¡¯d mentioned, err, well, all of hers did.


    It would probably take near a century before the ¡®Twixt started propagating dungeons or such for me. At least any that would provide me with enchanted equipment as loot. I can¡¯t risk spending that much time there. I¡¯ve only got about ten years of dragonforce, if I don¡¯t use any of it doing anything other than surviving. Not to mention the whole brain exploding and memories thing.


    Sighing, I¡¯d love to be able to just move everyone to the ¡®Twixt, and simply live out our lives there, taking on low-stakes adventures if we choose to, for amusement. That would mean abandoning Rayileklia, and any innocent people we haven¡¯t met yet, to several apocalypses, not to mention, probably never seeing Can¡¯Z¡¯aas and our family again. Drawing a shuddering breath, I barely refrain from sobbing as I think about Lao, Ag, Lightning, the several sets of twins, Fawns, Jaz, Dreams, and all the wonderful people around the Miracle Oak. Someday. Someday, somehow, I¡¯ll make it back there but not right now. Though I¡¯ll always be wondering when.


    Rattling my skull from a BSOD, I realize that I¡¯m missing out on things as I hear Littlebit request, ¡°Could you set that one up just like I showed you Tikki? No pranks on these please, they¡¯re sensitive, and not great quality. Thanks honeybuns. I¡¯ll take some readings, and leave this batch here with you, keep them on, especially any time you¡¯re taking trips in and out. If they fritz out, you know how to adjust them. Careful with the positronics though. They¡¯re a little zaphappy if they need to be adjusted. I couldn¡¯t exactly afford shielding. Mmmrrr I missed your goonish grinning face so bad you dummy. I¡¯m gonna miss you again, but I promise if I can¡¯t figure things out, I¡¯ll beg for a ride back this way.¡±


    Blushing, I avert my gaze as the lovers embrace. Alanea does the same, though not quite with as much expedience as me, and perhaps a bit of an obviously piqued curiosity. The passion literally raises the temperature in this catacomb alcove we¡¯re standing in. More to my chagrin, after a few moments of smooching Littlebit, Tiktik launches herself at me with her magical hand, and plasters herself to my face. I don¡¯t want to mess things up for her with Littlebit, but then again we¡¯re all Fae, and monogamy isn¡¯t really a big thing with us. Still, despite how hungrily Tiktik kisses me, I kiss her softly, tenderly in response. There¡¯s playful pouting beneath her adorably upturned nose as her lips tug downwards and back away from our kiss.


    Kitten mutters, ¡°Be good Tiger. Protect her, like I¡¯m sure you will. Stay safe too. You¡¯re the best thing in the world next to her. Thank you so much. Tell Big T hi for me. With lots of lips, and tongue. ¡®N¡¯ if Bitty gets lonely, keep her company. Please.¡±


    Sharply inhaling a ragged breath, I barely refrain from sobbing at the heartfelt farewell from Tiktik. My lower jaw quivers, and Alanea pats me on the hip comfortingly. Tiktik and Littlebit embrace, again, and it seriously looks like it¡¯s about to turn into a constant circle of Tiktik trying to make sure she evens out affection between the two of us. The Draconiacs led by Zelshiz are nearby though. Thankfully, Zelshiz coughs for attention, breaking the cycle.


    As much as I¡¯d give in, and repeat hugging and kissing Tiktik til the end of time, it¡¯s better this way. The poor Draconiacs have been patiently waiting on this side of the ¡®Twixt portal for however many hours my visit to the Heart lasted. It probably wasn¡¯t too many, since I summarized more than told a full tale to Jarrah.


    Still, at this point, I¡¯m anxious to get headed back towards Mount Solace. Directing everyone out, I glance over my shoulder as Tiktik stares down contraptions with her tongue poking slightly out of her mouth. She turns a sheet of instructions sideways, and upside down, repeatedly, and I can¡¯t tell if she¡¯s just pranking me and Littlebit, since she¡¯s probably sure we¡¯re watching her as we leave. The two of us can¡¯t help smiling at the woman we both love, and we each shake our heads. Sighing, I flash a raised brow at Littlebit, who nods, completely understanding, and agreeing entirely, so we share a chuckle.


    When we reunite with Luni, Lil, and Lucky, they¡¯ve been introduced to most of the people I know, and the twelve ancients. Surprisingly, no one seems ready to leave. I begin to facepalm, realizing we need a route above the Worldstorm to get back home, and Kinzul doesn¡¯t seem to be at Solace, to be reachable. Sighing to myself, I shake my head sadly at my own stupidity. At least we can reunite Triorgraiz¡¯s mount with her, sort of. Hopefully he remains placid, and recovers alongside her. He¡¯s been rather weak this entire time, and I¡¯ve been keeping him shrunk. Now that we¡¯ve got them reunited, I get to go back to thinking about how I¡¯m an idiot that had Luni use a one-way ticket below the storm.


    Actually, wait. My new Caliber. Expression of my Latent¡ª. Hm. If they can all hold their breath, I¡¯m almost certain I can nullify the storm. Maybe. It could potentially possibly blow through a hell of a lot of dragonforce though, if it works.


    Clucking her tongue at me, Luni offers up, ¡°If we sleep here tonight, I can control the clouds tomorrow with the magic harp strings Lucky found for me. Really sweetie, you don¡¯t have to do, and think of, everything.¡±


    Oh, that is true, but I¡¯m antsy to return home since there¡¯s a siege going on. Blushing, I respond, ¡°I¡ª, you¡¯re right. Thanks Lu. You keep me anchored, as always. Still, would you be willing to organize everyone? I guess you and Alanea know each other already, and Lil and Lucky too. Anyway, um, for organizing everyone. Could you tell them they need to be as small as they can be while still carrying passengers and being able to provide lift? They¡¯ll need to fit more or less inside my Honoris Causa¡¯s manifested Void Dragon form. I guess I might be flying back to Solace under my own power, because everyone¡¯s going to need to take at least three passengers. Um. Littlebit, if you want, I can carry you, if that isn¡¯t too awkward.¡±


    Littlebit shrugs, completely unfazed, though I¡¯m not sure if it came across that I¡¯d have to physically carry and hold her close, while my manifestation does the flying. This is going to be an extremely odd exercise. I¡¯ll be manifesting and maintaining the physicality, or tangibility, of most of my wings, most of the time, while the rest of my manifested form remains mostly intangible, so that the other dragons, Lil included, can fit within my wingspan. Phooph. I pass a breath out through puffed cheeks and pursed lips before sighing.


    What if I get people injured doing this though? Should I just take Luni¡¯s suggestion? Gnawing on the inside of my cheek, I glance towards my Anchor who simply shrugs in response while wearing a half-frown. Glancing towards Lil, he similarly shrugs. I roll my eyes momentarily, but I glance at Lucky, wondering if he has any input on whether we should risk leaving immediately, taking a gamble on an ability I¡¯ve never really used before.


    My son transforms, gaining a tremendous size, startling plenty of refugees, and plenty of our current party. He picks up Trixxie in his jaws, and brings her to me like a stick he¡¯s hoping that I¡¯ll throw. I can¡¯t help but burst out laughing at the mental imagery. Still, he sets her down in front of me, facing me, before shrinking, and leaping at her, to perch with his front paws on her shoulders, while his hind legs reach the ground.


    Raising an eyebrow at Trixxie, I motion for her to speak her mind. She glances around nervously and queries, ¡°When um, when can we¡ª. Will I have a, glp, quarters? Or, or will I be in some sort of kennel with your, erm, son?¡±


    Pft. Unable to prevent it, I find myself snorting with laughter at the idea of keeping either Lucky, or Trixxie in a kennel. Still, if she¡¯s nervous about staying out here, and wanting to get to her new accommodations, then that answers my question, because the other Draconiacs are likely feeling the same. Glancing around, reading the room as best I can, that does seem to be the case.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Smirking unintentionally, I answer, ¡°Never fear Trixxie, we¡¯ll get you set up in some quarters. Lucky doesn¡¯t sleep in a kennel, or even have one, he has access to all of our rooms, and sleeps with whomever he chooses. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he chose yours frequently. Anyway, saddle up everyone! We ride, and fly!¡±


    I quietly, quickly mutter my titles so as not to come off like a bragging idiot, so that I¡¯m able to manifest my Honoris Causa. As I¡¯m doing so, I TKSL upwards towards the Worldstorm, taking several deep breaths until my lungs are full enough to hold my breath for quite some time. Holding Littlebit tightly to my torso is incredibly similar to holding Tiktik in the same position. The fact that she has her limbs wrapped tightly around me, and is firmly pressing her overalls-covered chest to mine is, well, delightful. Though I do suppose I¡¯d have liked to be in a cozy cave, comfortably clothed, rather than outside, dressed in armor, beneath the Worldstorm, to experience such an embrace. Rattling my skull, I try to dissuade myself from thinking about Tiktik¡¯s lover in that manner.


    Apparently, Littlebit, when wrapped in my arms, benefits from the near-weightlessness of the Wyverian chestplate enchantment. Wyverium? I forget. It hardly matters. She¡¯s tucked her various clanking automatons into an interdimensional bag, thankfully, since it¡¯d have been hard to carry them all at all, let alone with our smaller load capacities as I attempt to keep everyone within a safe distance of my center.


    As the flight of dragons raises up to meet me where I wait just beneath the Worldstorm, I focus on manifesting my Void Dragon form to its greatest size, and bringing its wings to tangibility. The size I¡¯m capable of manifesting at astounds me, and I¡¯m grateful that most of my form is intangible, because much of it is already in the Worldstorm. My Honoris Causa¡¯s Void Dragon form is definitely, definitely at the level and size of ancients now. Not necessarily Damnations, or even someone like Qlaxi, but perhaps closer to Illy or Farzhis, or at least Prinrin.


    Focusing on my Latent, an expression of Nothing, I struggle to grasp the concept in such a way as to make our passage through a region of nothing. No dangers, but also no gravity, and no air. I essentially turn the space around me, well, the space within the manifested form of my draconic-self, into actual space. I¡¯m able to perch within it, from several sources of abilities actually, but everyone else will have to have their acceleration carry them upward. Anyone lagging slightly, I¡¯ll try to boost with telekinesis, or TK Squares at least, to give them something to push off of.


    It¡¯s a tad risky. None of us are exactly the pinnacle of choreography, but I focus on all my various enhanced senses while we begin, and throughout. Sure enough, not everyone has the exact same acceleration. I¡¯m able to match up my own with the fastest amongst us, due to being able to actually grip onto nothing, and use it as easily as water or air to swim or fly through. I¡¯m able to bolster the slowest, by providing telekinetic squares. My dragonforce is rapidly being stripped away by the manifestation of this power, the degree to which I¡¯m controlling it, and just, so many factors that I likely don¡¯t even comprehend. I¡¯m under thirty-five-hundred days of dragonforce, and losing another fifty to a hundred days worth every few seconds during this climb.


    I¡¯m fairly certain that Lil is growing as we edge closer to the top of the Worldstorm, which is good, because I¡¯m going to need a place to land, and a ride to Solace, so that I don¡¯t burn through all of my dragonforce flying home. I didn¡¯t expect it to take *this much* dragonforce to get through the storm. I accidentally allow myself to take a deep breath and sigh momentarily, messing up my momentum slightly, but not for the exact reason I¡¯d normally expect. There¡¯s no gravity, or air, in my current bubble, but the shock of being able to breathe with no atmosphere startles me, and I nearly mess up my control, despite knowing I have an enchanted neckchain that provides this exact benefit. I¡¯m forced to quickly reattune my senses to everyone around me, in order to maintain their rates of acceleration and so on.


    It only occurs to me as we¡¯re breaking through, that I probably could have physically manifested folds of my wings, or my talons, for the other dragons to sit on, so that I didn¡¯t need to do so much acceleration management. When we break through, above the Worldstorm, and I¡¯m certain everyone has gotten above it, the dozen ancients begin growing at my signal. They¡¯re exclaiming things like, ¡°Ah, the sun,¡± and, ¡°it feels so good to be flying again,¡± and so on.


    As everyone adjusts, I drop my Latent, and my Honoris Causa, causing me to have to perch on a TKS while I await Lil, or someone else, to be available to board. Lil is already currently ferrying Luni, Lucky, Alanea, and Trixxie, but he rolls his eyes at me, as if another couple of people is even remotely a problem for him. Smirking at my best pal, I leap and float over his way, to sit next to Luni, who happens to be in the death-grip of Trixxie once again. There¡¯s a similar smirk playing across Luni¡¯s features, as she mentally points out Littlebit is both looking a little bit blue in the face from holding her breath, and she¡¯s got me in as equally tight a death grip as Trixxie has Luni in.


    Chuckling, I tap Littlebit¡¯s cheeks, poking them so that she¡¯ll exhale and breathe. Apologizing, I start, ¡°Sorry about that Littlebit, I should have traded you my neckchain temporarily. Are you alright?¡±


    Nodding, Littlebit doesn¡¯t respond, though she gasps a few deep breaths. Gulping, she glances over the side of Lil, and suddenly wraps her legs and arms around me even tighter, which I didn¡¯t think was possible. I can hear her muttering, ¡°Don¡¯t look down, don¡¯t look down,¡± to herself, over and over. Grimacing a bit, I feel like a jerk for bringing her on a flight if she has, what is it, acrophobia?


    I¡¯m not certain how affectionate I should be with Tiktik¡¯s lover, but I do want to console her. Stroking her dark hair, I coo affectionately, comfortingly down into her amazing, lovely large ears, while my chin rests atop her head, just above her goggles that are perched atop it. I¡¯m getting a massive urge to nibble on these ears, or clamp them in my mouth. Is this the desire that Teuila feels all the time? Tiktik was right though. Littlebit is definitely a koff, sexy, koff, woman.


    Luni grumps my way telepathically, and I can¡¯t help grinning that my tease landed, because I knew she¡¯d be listening in. Her jaw drops, and her telepathic avatar swats at mine, realizing I¡¯d turned the tables for once by playing at her jealousy. Besides, Lu has her arms around Alanea¡¯s waist, which is short enough that they¡¯re also pillowing Alanea¡¯s, well, pillows. I can¡¯t help smirking as this nets me further flabbergasted reactions from Luni. I wonder if Lu remembers what I¡¯d said about Alanea. I know they¡¯ve met, from the Triple L Squad¡¯s time in the Hidden Heart, but I don¡¯t know how well they know each other. They were at least friendly enough to spend a few moments catching up before I had us lift off.


    The flight home is smooth, and checking in on Teuila several times seems to indicate that she¡¯s already home. She¡¯s dashing about tunnels that are being painted and numbered, so that it¡¯s easier to figure out where people, or threats, are in relation to the security center, and so on. I doubt any other mountain has that currently, plus, I spot a blurry figure zooming past several other scrying windows on occasion, when Teuila would be passing them. I¡¯m so glad she¡¯s okay, and there are no further notes about anyone being injured, or the siege going poorly.


    The scrying is better than an HD webcam, far more accurate than a normally low FPS security camera, and all, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that to be able to see the whole security center, we had to set up the sensors connected to the goggles a ways away, which makes all of the mirrors slightly small viewing screens comparatively. Still, it¡¯s easy enough to request an operator slide our display box out of the shelf, and hold our sensor up to someone else¡¯s, in order to be able to get a full view of what they¡¯re seeing, or of a particular hallway, and so on.


    So many of my resources are spent, that I need to rest before doing much else. Hopefully though, I can get some crafting and enchanting done tonight, with the myconid form, as long as I don¡¯t use it for too long. It feels foolish to be resting, during a siege, but I need to be at my best to really offer much help against it. As is, I¡¯m simply equivalent to one of our stronger dragons when they¡¯re exhausted and beat to hell, with no powers, and a weaker breath weapon.


    I haven¡¯t been using my breath weapon as much as I should, or could, but it¡¯s mostly only to disorient, and I¡¯ve got injuries to recover from, which I don¡¯t want to exacerbate by requiring more regeneration of my own throat. The bruises, broken bones, and even perforated torso are starting to recover decently, but there¡¯s still a few days of recovery left for them to heal up fully. To be honest, I¡¯m surprised at how fit, and rested I feel. I don¡¯t know whether that¡¯s because I was getting plenty of sleep in the ¡®Twixt, if my regeneration perhaps did something in there, or if it¡¯s because I¡¯m surrounded by people that I love, and stoked to be heading home with yet more new family.


    As we draw up to the aerie, I¡¯m greeted by a most-welcome sight, my wife, the Vivant, the Dormir, Teuila, all seeming more or less alive and well. Though Te, the Dormies, and Vivvies all seem a bit haggard. Well, more like beat to sh!7 honestly. Wearing a bit of a wry smile, I make note of a bunch of civilians on the aerie as well, and I really hope this isn¡¯t going to turn into some sort of big public event.

 B 6 C 156: Several Returns

    Leaping off of Lil, I flip down towards the aerie, probably spooking the crap out of Littlebit, having forgotten I¡¯ve got her latched onto me like a vice. Room is slowly cleared for the unexpected swathe of guests, or, well, new arrivals. Whatever you¡¯d like to call them.


    I¡¯m about to start explaining, when I begin hearing murmurs from the civilians of things like, ¡°Woah, no way. Is that Schism? Does Schism look super-hot to anyone else with those horns and that, mm tail?¡±


    Blushing, I try to focus on what I was going to do in order to fill people in. Instead, one of the ancients that lands assumes his human form, after unloading his passengers, and attempts to muscle me aside to speak to my wife. He¡¯s unsuccessful in muscling me aside, but he certainly has both of our attention. He waves towards the other eleven ancients landing, indicating them as he bows before Kinzul.


    Furrowing her brow, my wife muses, ¡°Harrelk? I¡ª, hadn¡¯t expected to ever see you again. The answer is still no, but, I¡¯m glad to see you¡¯re well.¡±


    A bit cheekily, the ancient responds, ¡°Well, since apparently your spouse murdered mine, I figured it was worth a shot at least. Besides. It¡¯s good to see Solace again, knowing it¡¯s been doing well under your care all this time.¡±


    Flushing with embarrassment at having been called out as a murderer, I struggle to maintain my calm. I beat myself up about the very same thought, quite constantly, but Harrelk passed it off as a joke. I can¡¯t say I¡¯m fond of the idea of joking with someone¡¯s morality identity.


    When Kinzul turns to me, and jokes, ¡°Really my love, you bring me a dozen new suitors, such a short time after we¡¯d wed? It almost seems like you don¡¯t desire our bond after all,¡± I nearly trip over to fall flat on my face.


    Choking on my own tongue, I cough and sputter, while Kinzul grins deviously across our mental wavelengths. Right, I forgot. That¡¯s where Illy gets it from. I can hear Iylynila snickering quietly beneath her breath from a short ways away. And of course, Prinrin is cackling along our telepathic wavelength.


    One wavelength I did not expect, and especially didn¡¯t expect in the current emotion, glp, is Farzhis¡¯s. I¡¯m feeling waves of, erm, I hope I¡¯m wrong, but lust, I think aimed my direction. I can sense her attempting to corral her wits, and rattle her senses though.


    Across our telepathic bond, in her delightful accent, Farzhis responds to my senses, ¡°It¡¯s jus¡¯, you¡¯re blue, an¡¯ those horns, an¡¯ tha¡¯ tail¡ª. I, uh, jus¡¯ don¡¯ wan¡¯ to misrea¡¯ things.¡±


    My eyes flash wide, not even realizing my skin pigment had returned to the chaotic magic color without my noticing yet again! No wonder people weren¡¯t sure I was me when looking at me! It keeps on doing this! How much time have I spent blue since dying, despite having attempted to transform it away?


    Unthinkingly, I quickly verbally assure Farzhis aloud, ¡°Oh, oh crap! I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s just, I died, and was reincarnated, and cursed by chaotic magic to turn blue and¡ª, erk! Not that it¡¯s a curse to be blue! Blue¡¯s an incredibly lovely color and looks beautiful on you, absolutely, I, I mean, crap. Wild, crazy, chaotic magic hit me with a bunch of random effects. One of those was apparently to set my default pigmentation to be blue, such that I have to be actively fighting to remain any other pigment apparently.¡±


    There¡¯s more than a little bit of sudden silence on the aerie, and startlement along telepathic wavelengths at hearing my admitting to Farzhis that I died. Whoops. I was going to be more delicate about that. Now everyone on the aerie knows. Kinzul gazes on at me worriedly, and I don¡¯t know what to do to comfort her, or assuage her fears. I attempt to approach her, but I¡¯m balked for several reasons.


    I realize I¡¯ve still got a gorgeous goblin woman clinging to me for dear life, which causes me to facepalm. Struggling to return to my normal pigmentation with my shapechanging, and gently attempting to set Littlebit on firm ground, I¡¯m about to try to start defusing the situations that are rapidly spiraling out of control at this conflux of events and meetings.


    Of course, as I¡¯m about to do that, I hear gasping, and Shiz asking, ¡°Little Zel? I¡¯ve not seen you since I was training you and sparring. Star pupil you were!¡±


    Gnawing my lip, I spy Zel almost glowing, or even perhaps blushing at the praise as they respond, ¡°Zelshiz now, my lord.¡±


    Woah. Shiz is now definitely blushing as he stares wide-eyed at Zelshiz. Coughing to compose himself, Shiz offers up, ¡°I¡¯m, err, flattered. You sure about that? I, I don¡¯t object mind you. I mean, at all. I¡¯m actually, koff. I just, I mean, I¡¯m a dragon, and you¡¯re a Drakk. We¡¯d, koff, um, what I mean is¡ª.¡±


    There¡¯s timidity, blushing, pride, and a whole lot more coming off of Zelshiz in waves. Oh. I¡¯m guessing that taking on his name as part of hers, or his, like that, um, wow. I¡¯m still not sure the best way to approach Zelshiz¡¯s bigender terminology, but at least I think that¡¯s not going to get in the way of what¡¯s happening here.


    Mumbling apologetically, I offer, ¡°I¡¯ll, um, maybe you two want some privacy to catch up? I¡¯m¡ª, yeah, glad you¡¯re okay Zel. Neither of you are obligated to stay up here while I fill everyone in, if, erm, yeah. If you don¡¯t need privacy, don¡¯t mind me.¡±


    Of course, my loving wife asks aloud, what everyone is thinking, ¡°So my love, what exactly happened today that you return to Solace with so many new faces? New and old alike.¡±


    Blushing now myself, once again, I start off, ¡°Right, erm, those of you that are new to Solace, that came with from Vorzog¡¯s Keep, you¡¯re technically our prisoners, because you surrendered and accepted mercy, which means we will protect you, and that you do not have to fight in this war. You may choose to fight alongside us if you so wish, and it seems that that may be the case, since you elected not to stay in the ¡®Twixt. Whichever you choose, you¡¯ll be sheltered, fed, cared for, and protected, like family. Thank you for accepting my mercy. Thank you for choosing to accompany me and Zelshiz back to my home.¡±


    Turning slightly, I further address, ¡°To the dozen ancients, I haven¡¯t yet gotten your names, sorry. You are here because we slew Qlaxianna, two of her consorts, and two of her enforcers, that were extorting the refugees in the ruins of Jeegoobotstan. You came of your own free will after being convinced by Driezyln. Whether you simply seek shelter at Solace, a home, a place to belong, to aid us in battle, or to court my wife Kinzul, you are welcome here so long as you remain peaceful and respectful to all its denizens. Lady Kinzul will handle sorting out any courting she does or does not want to allow. I respect her wishes, autonomy, and every last bit of her.¡±


    Addressing the goblin cutie that¡¯s returned to clinging to me, despite us having been landed for a while, I whisper directly into one of her amazing, gorgeous massive ears, almost silently, with my psychic walls temporarily up, almost entirely for Kinzul¡¯s benefit so as not to call out Littlebit to everyone on the aerie, ¡°And you Littlebit, lover of my beloved Tiktik, inventor, artificer, I will be introducing you to someone whose talents are similar to your own, as well as to a wealth of both materials, and tools of the finest qualities. You don¡¯t have to fight, ever, if you don¡¯t wish, though it seems like your automatons, your robots, your golems, might be combat capable. For Tiktik¡¯s heart, I will protect you with all that I have, and all that I am. You¡¯re safe.¡±


    Blushing, chagrined when she realizes she¡¯s clinging desperately to the spouse of the domain¡¯s ruler, right in front of that ruler, Littlebit scratches the back of her head, appearing abashed. She mutters, ¡°Clankers,¡± and as I raise my eyebrow, having overheard her muttering, she explains, ¡°That¡¯s what I call them, anyway. They¡¯re my clankers. Your names are good for them too.¡±


    Smiling at Littlebit, I¡¯m happy calling them whatever she¡¯d like. Hm, speaking of the inventor that I want to introduce her to¡ª. Kinzul telepathically interrupts me, chiding, ¡°It seems that since you¡¯ve started her on various projects, and granted her tools, boons, and magical equipment, Nala has been somewhat remiss in her duties as librarian. She¡¯s been apparently spending every waking moment in your craftworks in Mount Verdimenn.¡±


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I¡¯m incredibly grateful when Kinzul smirks and looses the tiniest chuckle, indicating she¡¯s not actually upset by the situation wherein Nala has been exploring her new interest in artificery. Sighing, I take in the sight of so many people so utterly beloved to me, gathered in one spot. I wish Iylynila didn¡¯t request or require me to have my walls up on our psychic wavelength, but I trust her to look after her own emotions and what¡¯s best for her.


    Suddenly, Kinzul announces, ¡°As my spouse, our Hero has said, welcome all. To those of you interested in courting me, the answer of course is no. We¡¯ve a war to fight, I¡¯ve no time for such things. If you wish to in some small way curry my favor, then serve the Order itself as if it were your lady, your mistress, your master. Sun, my beloved son, I¡¯ve need of you for a short moment. Muse, my beloved bard, I¡¯ve need of you for the eve as soon as you¡¯re able. The rest of you either rest, or engage the siege below to rout any of its remaining forces still near our domain that have not already fallen back or been felled.¡±


    Rattling my skull, I double check my portable hole, in order to make sure Shlendtikuar, Chuck, and the lovebirds are out of it. Okay, apparently I let them out earlier, whew. There they are over there. Once I¡¯m certain that everyone is on the aerie, I pack it back up.


    Sighing, I¡¯ll be attempting to head towards rest as soon as I¡¯m able to, but I¡¯ve got things to wrap up. When Pawn comes streaking up to the aerie, I expect her to zoom straight to Prinrin, but I¡¯m surprised to find her in my arms, with tear-streaked face. She¡¯s muttering thanks to me, and I can only hazard a guess as to why. I stroke her back and comfort her as best I¡¯m able, cooing softly as I rest my chin along her jaw, nuzzling her lightly.


    Miraina telepathically sends to both me and Prinrin, ¡°Schism, the powers you shared saved me today, probably saved a lot of us. Me and Shiz and the Eight¡ª. It was so scary. I¡¯ve never been so scared.¡± Though she continues to sob for a while, her eyes open and dry enough to take me in, leading to her musing, ¡°I¡ª. What¡¯s this now? Blue, and horns and a tail? Not exactly scales, but¡ª.¡±


    Flustering, I recall how Miraina had said that any mate of hers needs to have scales at least most of the time. Prinrin frowns at Miraina across our telepathic wavelength, when her daughter went from frightened to¡ª foxy in the blink of an eye. A tad chagrined, Pawn withdraws, and rushes to her mother. I rattle my skull, attempting to shake loose any rude or indecent thoughts. Though I¡¯d dearly like to check in with so many of these people that are so beloved to me, there¡¯s enough of a cluster of a social gathering that I¡¯m beyond uncomfortable, and it would take too much time to interject into conversations to talk to them individually.


    Sighing, I float down into the feasting hall from the aerie while carrying Littlebit. Prinrin and Pawn apparently rush after me. I really hope I¡¯m not about to be tag teamed by another mother daughter tease fest. I¡¯ve already got one of those going on. Not that Miraina isn¡¯t an absolutely wonderful young woman, but¡ª, erk, never mind. Yes, I can sense the two of you smirking. You aren¡¯t subtle at all. Not that any of us wants you to be, but I think we all need some rest, and I¡¯ve got too many irons in too many fires to be able to spare the time blushing. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re both okay. I¡¯ll trust you to forgive me if I happen to accidentally think about Pawn¡¯s implication of dating or mating me.


    Whispering telepathically to Miraina I add, ¡°Seriously though, I¡¯m so glad the powers were helpful to you Pawn. I¡¯d be devastated if you were hurt, or worse, no longer here when I returned. Obviously your mother would be as well, and that would doubly break my heart. You¡¯re so brave, and thoughtful, and kind. Please stay safe.¡±


    Apparently the blue pigmentation comes back within a minute of me changing it out to my normal pigmentation. I facepalm, because I see Farzhis leaning around a corner to gaze after me, struggling with her own feelings. She¡¯s still got grief on her plate, and went to battle today, she really doesn¡¯t need whatever confusing signals I¡¯m unintentionally sending to have to deal with on top of all that. Poor sweetling. Rattling my skull, I organize a few volunteers to help with intake, including Alanea, since she¡¯ll be heading up the infirmary, and most of our new Draconiac Spellknights need to be taken to the infirmary.


    I feel more than a tad abashed that I haven¡¯t really spoken to Alanea since we left the Heart. Plus, I¡¯m still missing at least ten minutes, up to an hour of memories with her. I feel even worse yet, that I¡¯m basically assigning her a task, and heading off a different direction. I don¡¯t know all of what we spoke about for an hour, but would it have prepared her to be basically tossed into work without us spending time together? It¡¯s insane that a block of time is just missing. Gods, I¡ª. I fell in love with her when I was first in the Heart. I truly did, and I¡¯ve barely said a word to her, despite having apparently requested that she come to join my war effort. I must seem so heartless. Oh, here she comes.


    Before I can apologize, Alanea cuts me off, ¡°Well, I um, I figured it would be sort of, well, like this. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay. I¡¯m not unused to seeing, um, my, well, lover only rarely. Well, I mean, not that we, but, well, not that we aren¡¯t, if, I mean, well. I mean lover. I mean you lover. I mean your lover. I mean my lover. Erm. Eep!¡± After squeaking mousily, Alanea tenses to mumble, ¡°I¡¯ll be in the infirmary.¡±


    When her face ignites into a virtual blaze, I can certainly sympathize. Immediately after, Alanea suddenly rushes off, and I don¡¯t think she even knows where she¡¯s going, because the infirmary isn¡¯t in that direction. I facepalm, because I certainly felt secondhand embarrassment from that brief conversation on her behalf, and I¡¯d have been equally as mortified to accidentally admit the same thing. Still, I mean¡ª. I sigh sadly for a while. It¡¯s not like either of us don¡¯t want that sort of future together. I sort of forget that she can read me like an open book. I suppose all the people I let get close to me can all do that in one way or another.


    Kinzul can literally hear my inner monologue, apparently every minute of every day, no matter where I am or what walls are up. Prinrin¡¯s a whirlwind ride of emotions that can suss out the emotional meanings behind every subtle twitch of the face, and intuit the thoughts behind them. Luni knows me inside and out, thoroughly enough to prevent my brain from destroying itself. Te and I have been together, building our lives¡¯ stories together, almost the entirety of our lives. Iylynila struck some chord in me that let me learn about a part of myself that I didn¡¯t even know I¡¯d had, or would enjoy. Errissa, well, that was a whammy, but I can¡¯t say it¡¯s undeserving. She observed me for a while, maybe a few days straight for all I know, with her being the unobservable Spymaster. Alanea of course can read the story written on my inner changeling-Fae self.


    Sighing, I¡¯m fighting myself again for feeling like some sort of harem-seeking weirdo. I have to remind myself that I¡¯m no such thing. I¡¯m close with dozens and dozens of people. I know hundreds and hundreds of people at least acquaintedly, and I know thousands of people tangentially. I just give my love freely, and that doesn¡¯t necessarily mean romance, or romantic affection. Those that fall within my circles of romantic affection make up a tiny, tiny fraction of the people I know. I¡¯m not just chasing every person that¡¯s aesthetically pleasing to my eye, or attractive visually, or any other such thing, despite how it may seem. It¡¯s not even anywhere on my priorities to find new romantic partners. I barely find time for the ones I have, despite having every desire to be able to do so. Hell, I couldn¡¯t even drag Teuila, My Wings, away from the gathering that¡¯s debriefing and socializing on the aerie.


    I¡¯m only a little surprised at how seemingly little worry they¡¯re paying to the siege, but I know our Queens, Vylon and Vyela, are tremendously powerful, and likely have been deployed to guard the entrances now, rather than guarding the initial shop dugout. Some of the assembled back on the aerie are probably even talking about relief order I suppose. Kinzul would let me know if I needed to hasten to the front in order to break up the siege. One thing I did notice, is that for the first time ever, the Worldstorm is seemingly randomly oscillating close enough to touch Mount Solace, providing no clear path up the mountainside, when there¡¯d always been at least a thin enough trail for someone humanoid-sized to drop down previously. I¡¯m assuming that¡¯s intentional by Kinzul, and not a sign of worse control over the Worldstorm. Hopefully.


    Across our wavelength, in her delectable accent, Farzhis asks, ¡°Schism? D¡¯you¡ª. Sorry. Earlier I hear¡¯ you thinking abou¡¯ the skin. My brain¡¯s jus¡¯, jus¡¯ grasping a¡¯ anything I suppose, with da¡¯ being gone. I like the color on you. A lo¡¯. A lo¡¯ a lo¡¯. Thank you for caring, for no¡¯ wanting to confuse me. I¡¯m worrie¡¯ tha¡¯ you die¡¯ though. Don¡¯ do tha¡¯ again. Please? Please? Jus¡¯, jus¡¯ please? Sorry.¡±


    Gulping back my own emotions to try to present a stable front for Farzhis, I respond, ¡°It¡¯s okay sweetling. I¡¯ll do my best. Sorry to worry you, and sorry about the confusing signals. I swear it¡¯s chaos magic. It saved my life, but, well, side effects. I mean, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t¡ª, erm, anyway. Focus on healing, on taking care of yourself. I¡¯m here for you if you need me.¡±


    Putting my walls up, I just barely stopped myself from pursuing Farzhis. I rattle my skull, frowning at myself. She needs friendship, not someone lusting after her. When she¡¯s healed, at some point after that, if she¡¯s ready to seek romance on her own, she¡¯ll land pretty much anyone she desires. Neither she nor I need me to insert myself anywhere in that process. The reasons she¡¯d land anyone aren¡¯t just because she¡¯s insanely attractive with a delicious accent. She¡¯s charming, endearing, driven, a good person, a hero, warm, funny, and even loving, even though, in her own words, in her own selfish ways.


    Friggin¡¯ a though, Veril is right. Yeesh. Poor guy. I kind of hope they get together in the end, and that they feel sort of monogamous towards each other. They¡¯re sweet together. There¡¯s a bit of cute juxtaposition in the couple too, in that Farzhis is just a bit taller than average, and has a tiny hint of brawn by having the slightest bit more meat on her bones than average, while Veril is shorter and more effeminate than average.

 B 6 C 63: Perfect Form

    <div>


    <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><colgroup><col width="56"><col width="180"><col width="20"><col width="36"><col width="85"></colgroup>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>REGGIE STATS, SKILLS, AND PARAMETERS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>4200.36</td>


    <td>LEVEL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>17</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.25</td>


    <td>BRAWN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>15</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.1</td>


    <td>AGILITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>12</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.5</td>


    <td>PLUCK</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>20</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.4</td>


    <td>SMARTS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>18</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.2</td>


    <td>WISDOM</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>14</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.7</td>


    <td>DUENDE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>24</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>SKILLS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.02</td>


    <td>ACID GEN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>5</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>ALCHEMY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>202</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>2.292</td>


    <td>BREATH</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>323</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>CAPACITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>32767</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>CRAFTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>420</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>DISENCHANTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>6</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.272</td>


    <td>ELECTROKINESIS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1318</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>2314.628471</td>


    <td>ENERGY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>5543</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>7.452</td>


    <td>S.A./SHAPESHIFTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1613</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.068</td>


    <td>SPACE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3767</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>7.727</td>


    <td>STAMINA</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>6727</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>4.672</td>


    <td>STEALTH</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>918</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.472</td>


    <td>SURVIVAL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1934</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.608</td>


    <td>THERMOKINESIS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3902</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>8073217.54</td>


    <td>TIME</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2,018,304,135</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>OFFENSES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.2</td>


    <td>BLUDGEONING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1300</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>4.72</td>


    <td>PIERCE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>930</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.2</td>


    <td>PUGILISM</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1300</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>8.24</td>


    <td>SLASHING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1810</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>PAIN DEFENSES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.0900090009</td>


    <td>ACID</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1011</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.04045307443</td>


    <td>BLUDGEONING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2372</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.07587253414</td>


    <td>ELECTRO</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1218</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.4524886878</td>


    <td>LUNG CAPACITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>121</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.9900990099</td>


    <td>NEGATIVE ENERGY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.113507378</td>


    <td>PIERCE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>781</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.9803921569</td>


    <td>PSI</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.05892751915</td>


    <td>REFLEXES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1765.38768</td>


    <td>1597</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.09082652134</td>


    <td>SLASHING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1001</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.02777777778</td>


    <td>THERMAL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3500</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.3558718861</td>


    <td>TOXIN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>181</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>KNOWLEDGES/MEMORIES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <div>


    <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><colgroup><col width="56"><col width="180"><col width="20"><col width="36"><col width="85"></colgroup>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>REGGIE STATS, SKILLS, AND PARAMETERS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>5229.6</td>


    <td>LEVEL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>20</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.25</td>


    <td>BRAWN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>15</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.1</td>


    <td>AGILITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>12</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.5</td>


    <td>PLUCK</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>20</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.4</td>


    <td>SMARTS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>18</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.2</td>


    <td>WISDOM</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>14</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.8</td>


    <td>DUENDE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>26</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>SKILLS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>1.02</td>


    <td>ACID GEN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>5</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>ALCHEMY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>202</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>2.292</td>


    <td>BREATH</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>323</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>CAPACITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>32767</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>CRAFTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>420</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>DISENCHANTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>6</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>7.112</td>


    <td>ELECTROKINESIS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1528</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>2737.276691</td>


    <td>ENERGY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>5663</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>7.532</td>


    <td>S.A./SHAPESHIFTING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1633</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.164</td>


    <td>SPACE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3791</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>7.847</td>


    <td>STAMINA</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>6847</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>5.152</td>


    <td>STEALTH</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1038</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>17.432</td>


    <td>SURVIVAL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2054</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>16.704</td>


    <td>THERMOKINESIS</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3926</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>8073217.54</td>


    <td>TIME</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2,018,304,135</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>OFFENSES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.68</td>


    <td>BLUDGEONING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1420</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>4.76</td>


    <td>PIERCE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>940</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>6.68</td>


    <td>PUGILISM</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1420</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>8.48</td>


    <td>SLASHING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1870</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>PAIN DEFENSES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.06743088334</td>


    <td>ACID</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1383</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.03858024691</td>


    <td>BLUDGEONING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>2492</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.05917159763</td>


    <td>ELECTRO</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1590</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.4524886878</td>


    <td>LUNG CAPACITY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>121</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.8849557522</td>


    <td>NEGATIVE ENERGY</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>13</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.1097694841</td>


    <td>PIERCE</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>811</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.8928571429</td>


    <td>PSI</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>12</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.05636978579</td>


    <td>REFLEXES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1793.05488</td>


    <td>1674</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.08764241893</td>


    <td>SLASHING</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>1041</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.02747252747</td>


    <td>THERMAL</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>3540</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>0.3558718861</td>


    <td>TOXIN</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td>181</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>KNOWLEDGES/MEMORIES</td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    <td> </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

 B 6 C 158: Loot and Love

    Despite them both knowing that I literally mean for them to help me finish up crafting, Prinrin and Pawn stick around anyway. They probably feel that they owe me, since they¡¯ve been distracting me while I was trying to touch base with necessary people at Solace and Verdimenn. Having been working at assuming this form since I arrived on the aerie, the myconid form finally coalesces after a bit of stew dinner via the cauldron, after I cast a full pot of water into it and stir it.


    I catch Leezahna spying us curiously when she sees the pleasure that Prinrin and Pawn experience at giving themselves over to the hivemind sporebrain so that we can work efficiently. Her brow is quite furrowed. She¡¯s mildly disturbed, confused, and repulsed. No one¡¯s asking you to participate Leeza. Or even to watch. Still, we need not snark at her. If we are what she chooses to entertain herself observing, then so be it.


    Sensing within ourselves, of our three parts, one, a youthful, quick-witted, quick-footed one, is feeling sorry, apologetic. The sorrow is many-fold, sorrow for feeling to appear weak or scared, sorrow for playing off that fear the way they had, sorrow for pretending to string along a portion of our whole, with frequently reversing signals. This part, this Pawn, yields more of ourself, herself, into the hivemind, the sporebrain, to allow us to delve into the emotions, the complexities, the uncertainties, while we work to craft, enchant, create, and theorize.


    Another third, the eldest by far, has been mostly silent, and keeping her feelings muted, as she mulls over her grief, seeking small joys to remain distracted. There is some not insignificant joy at being in the presence of the other two thirds, at being connected so closely to beloved individuals, at becoming a single individual. This elder third is conflicted about so many things, and seeks to avoid coming to conclusions, despite her sagacity, clarity of thought, and wisdom in most matters.


    Exploring our sorrow, and mixed signals, from our youthful, quick third, we are surprised to find that we, they, did not know, or realize facts about themselves. Facts only mulled over as possibilities ever-so-recently due to witnessing and experiencing conversations since arriving at Mount Verdimenn. We support ourself, this third, proud for them to come to this realization. When we become separate individuals once more, we will show this support. A blur streaks into view, and harrumphs, announcing annoyance at, ¡°not having been invited to the party.¡±


    We of course subsume the Valkyrie into our consciousness. We¡¯ve recreated a spare shop that we shall need to bring into our Backpotter form in the morning, when it has hopefully recovered enough to do so, and we can hopefully grab a load of materials from the most important warrens. Our Pawn-self is worried about engaging in combat again, but rests assured that the Thunderer known as Shiz will be in attendance, acquiescing to defender status. Though chagrined at the results of their distribution of alcohol from today, they now understand what our whole would like to see in terms of distribution. Our Valkyrie is amused when we become aware of what transpired a short while ago.


    Further, our Valkyrie shares with ourself some intriguing news. We¡¯re being informed by a glow in our Valkyrie brain that we¡¯re close in terms of dragonforce to expanding the sum of our being. More information includes that the one known as Gilmeshtu is currently suffering a curse from having taken on a magical item similar in appearance to our danger wraps. The wraps are similar only in appearance, and now irremovable, causing intense pain and pulling at flesh or scale if attempts are made to remove them. They provide benefits, but also weaken the user against the undead. Having made a fool of himself, The Gold relinquished responsibility for determining best methods of distributing the spoils of battle to our Valkyrie self.


    The Vivant have acquired several items apparently cursed in some manner. This is in part why our The Copper has spoken little. The curse upon her new artifact requires she not speak of it, or most any matter that might reveal the curse, though it has few other downsides. Our The Copper self is mildly chagrined at this fact coming to light however. Our abilities supersede the curse in some ways. Our The Silver and our The Bronze, have a paired artifact, useless when apart, but a fair boon when together.


    Our beloved Dormir¡¯s leader is given something more akin to homework than equipment. Enchanted paper that bears the ability to absorb spells in some fashion, and she wracks her mind on how to apply them without requiring our Hero to utilize their very limited magical resources filling them. Our The Blue, and our The Red, now also bear a shared artifact, both of mild power in their own right, some semblance of manipulation of polarity of the equipment born by the artifact. Paired, the results can be explosive. Funnily, one portion aids our The Red in resisting injury from electricity and lightning. Another portion aids our The Blue in resisting injury from fire and explosions. Our Valkyrie portion thought it poetic to distribute thusly, while perhaps playing matchmaker in a fashion.


    The Valkyrie portion of ourself has bound to an ushanka, a wintery hat, and due to this, can now manifest a brilliant spectral winter wolf the size of a grand steed that remains her faithful companion until it perishes or is unsummoned. The wolven steed and the hat remain bound to our Valkyrie self, allowing this portion of our self to treat this wolf, this steed as an extension of their will. We suggest empowering this spirit wolf, this steed with a storming crown that our Valkyrie has found, in order to keep it safe from the storms, the lightning our Valkyrie self is coming to wield more and more. The ability for the bearer of the crown to briefly act as an avatar of storms once per day for the wolf will also aid our Valkyrie self in more ways than one.


    We are coming undone, before we finish assessing new information flowing in from our various parts, our selves. Soon each of us leaves, one by one, until we are solo once more, and then we are no longer a myconid. Rattling my skull, I blink rapidly for a bit, trying to clear the mind-altering effects from my brain. The myconid form is powerful, but it¡¯s a hell of a trip having the very way I perceive and think and react be altered so strongly.


    Finally myself, I smile as Teuila leaps at me to hug me close before she rambles, ¡°So, like, I dunno how much you saw, but things went so good, and so smooth today, except for like, the siege, ugh, I felt so bad when I saw the message. I wanted to rush home. I knew it wouldn¡¯t make a difference though, because of the time it took to get back. Anyway, like, so now I have kind of a pet wolf girl spirit thingy. I call her Selene Frostflash. She¡¯s my SFF, hehehe. Seriously, she¡¯s super cool, which, I guess you already sort of know about from the mushroom brain, but look. Pchew!¡±


    Snapping her fingers, Teuila manifests a frosty, furry, semi-translucent wolf, the size of a Clydesdale or possibly even larger. Te leaps onto the back of her pet and slash or mount, and she fishes out a crown that looks to be made of arcing lightning, in order to gift it to Selene. Selene seems to appear to simply be a mana construct, a manifestation and extension of Teuila¡¯s will, virtually no autonomy, except to whatever subprocess or simple instructions Teuila can give her. But appearances can be deceiving, and still, she¡¯s an impressive creation of magic to be sure either way. It¡¯s kind of cute seeing Te loving up on her new friend, beaming with pride.


    Dismounting Selene, Te nearly tackles me to return to excitedly rambling, ¡°So, I gave Aunty ¡®Zool like, a bracelet thingy, that I hope keeps her safe. It¡¯s some kind of defensive thing, with sharp magic. Like, when I punched the guy who had it, I had to break through a like, almost invisible shield, and the friggin¡¯ shards zoomed at me and hurt like heck. Anyway, he went down in one, natch. Let¡¯s see, what else, oh, I got you these two things, ¡®cause I wanted to see how you react.¡±


    When Teuila scampers away to find her pouch at Selene¡¯s side, I¡¯m not exactly caught off guard as she throws things at me. What does catch me off guard is the fact that what she appears to throw at me, is, well, a bladeless hilt. It honestly looks like the sort of thing a plasma-saber would jump out of at the press of a button. Just in case it can do exactly that, I catch it in my telekinetic grip so that I don¡¯t hurt myself.


    I barely notice the other small object traveling my way. It looks like some sort of char-iron icon. Like something you¡¯d put on the end of a branding iron to, well, brand things. It has definitely seen its fair share of fires. The icon, a stamp I guess, seems to resemble a fox. Wait, foxfire stamp? F¡ª. I sigh and roll my eyes, glancing around suspiciously for several moments. For Fox¡¯ Sakes. Heh.


    Chuckling while shaking my head I roll my eyes while grinning like an idiot. Still, the hilt is interesting. I carefully float it to my hand, and focus on activating it. I suddenly hear a, ¡°Hey, what the?¡± from a nearby Draconiac who¡¯d been drinking from a barrel of water that they¡¯d rolled up to the cauldron. Looking that way, I have to laugh as a whip of water travels through the air towards the hilt. When it¡¯s done floating towards me, the water forms a fifteen foot long katana blade, completely, utterly, ridiculously impractical, if it weren¡¯t weightless.


    Still, if it¡¯s weightless, will it apply any force? I suppose the telekinetic force that holds the water in place and shapes it will be exerting pressure without necessarily any leverage points. It opens up a fighting style that could surprise even trained fighters, by not needing to meet parries with appropriate leverage. I¡¯d still benefit from formal training though. Raising an eye towards Teuila, she nods along her psychic wavelength that she wants me to have it.


    It looks like I¡¯m going to need to carry around a water skin, or actually keep out that weird sandstorm cloak, to cast a bunch of water once in a while. I suppose I¡¯m one of few people who could make use of it, at any time, due to my various elemental spells, and other equipment. Actually, I might get it to be able to generate water on its own, since I have other equipment that can do so, if I tinker with its enchantment. Or, get it to be able to control water in a large area, since I have a spell that specifically does that. Intriguing ideas for a later date.


    Still, this foxfire stamp, this other FFS, one of many in my life, I guess I can toss it into the fire beneath the cauldron to see what happens. I do take a moment to roll my eyes and chuckle at the fact that Teuila named her wolf SFF, almost assuredly poking fun at me. Hm, the foxfire thing seems to be taking a while to activate, but I can sense mana traveling to it. I guess I¡¯ll leave it there for a bit.


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Poking and prodding me, Te orders, ¡°Put on your thingy, the one with the birds and feathers and stuff, that sexy coat. Quick.¡±


    Fighting my grin to pretend to grump at being bossed around, I can¡¯t even make a dejected pose with how giddy Teuila is. Switching into my raven feather coat, Teuila fishes out what looks like a rough. That is, like the rough of a coat, or a bird¡¯s rough. She laces it along the one that already exists on my coat, and suddenly I sprout wings. Sort of. They just kind of pop up when the magic in the rough intertwines with the magic in the coat.


    Giggling like a madbeast, Teuila snorts while commenting, ¡°Didn¡¯t think I got you that excited, but then I forgot that dressing turns you on more than undressing.¡±


    Snorting and rolling my eyes, I shake my head at Te. Suddenly though, I feel an odd sense of sickness, an emptiness. I feel lightheaded and dizzy. It feels beneficial though. Something is happening. Let¡¯s see, a benefit where I suddenly feel like I¡¯m less healthy, or have less hitpoints. It increased my maximum health? That¡¯s so weird and esoteric for Rayileklia. After a minute, the wings disappear. Hm, I don¡¯t seem to be able to get them to come back out. I guess in an emergency, I could get a minute of flight once during a day. There¡¯s also some weird interplay with poison and disease that I can¡¯t quite parse from the runework.


    Teuila drops a tombstone out of a multi-dimensional bag. Or what looks like one anyway. A bit surprisingly, when she stands on it, she begins zooming around as if she were surfing the stone surface of the floor. Teuila¡¯s now doing a kick flip, and tossing it up into her hands. She¡¯s probably the only person that could do that, because it looks like it weighs hundreds of pounds. She shrugs, and tosses it to one side which leaves me grimacing, bracing for impact, but apparently she¡¯d reduced its gravity enough that it lands with a soft thud. Teuila then shoves a pair of knitting needles in my pocket, which causes my face to contort as my brow raises. She shrugs again while smiling like a loon.


    Suddenly Te exclaims, ¡°The feathery thing, the rough stuff, was on a cloak, but the cloak was cursed, so I cut it off. I figured it¡¯d go on your coat just fine. Oh, right, this thingy! Where¡¯s Lucky? Gah I gotta put these frosty guards on his gauntlet thingies on his armor, and ink him up with this tatt. Ah I gotta go put this in the visor on the big lug¡¯s helm too! This falcony birdy visor attachment mask thingy. Pup¡¯s gonna love it. I think he¡¯s the last one of us that can¡¯t fly. But not anymore!¡±


    Before I can thank her, or parse what she said, or respond, Teuila zooms off in search of Lucky. Selene stands stoically, nearly completely still, but does appear to at least glance around, observing her surroundings. Since Te didn¡¯t give her any orders, I guess that¡¯s just her existence as a mana construct. When Selene begins wandering and sniffing things, my brain breaks a little bit. I guess she¡¯s autonomous after all? Actually, can I sense anything about her? Hm, I¡¯m not sure. I¡¯d almost think she were somewhat like Tinpu of the Mambo tribe of celestial meerkats.


    It sounds like Teuila faced forces with at least as much magical equipment as the ones we¡¯d faced at Vorzog¡¯s Keep. I wonder if she faced all of these items in battle, or if some of them were in vaults or storages. Wait. She¡¯s giving Lucky a tattoo? Hopefully it¡¯s one of those magically applying ones. I don¡¯t want to imagine her sitting around trying to chisel a tattoo into my son¡¯s stony, scaly flesh. The idea makes me laugh a little bit, but also sets me to frowning, imagining that it might hurt him.


    Wait. Wait wait wait. Milbert. I¡¯d been curious how he could have just been coming into possession of so many magical items, when no one else really seemed to have any. Terrorzin locked down mages and archmages, and confiscated eggs and magic items. The more of his forces we face, the more magical equipment, enchanted gear, and artifacts we encounter deeper within his domains, or upon his more trusted subordinates.


    Terrorzin has had human-form dragons, or Draconiacs with illusion magic or illusionary magic items, planted in human cities for decades, maybe centuries. Milbert had likely stolen the souls, and magical treasure troves, of dragons that were in, around, and passed near both Navica, and Victo. I almost want to laugh at the near-karma of it all.


    Hm, anyway, I think we should donate that weird tombstone surfboard to either the Draconiac volunteers here, or to the strategists-eight. As I¡¯m pondering who specifically to gift it to, suddenly, the strangest tiny yipping meets my ears, but doesn¡¯t travel as a soundwave. It¡¯s almost telepathic. At the same time, a tiny figure leaps out of the fire beneath the cauldron and dashes at me. Oh my heavens. This little sweetie is so precious, and adorable. A little fennec fox of fire. Hah, I get a tiny fiery fox, Te gets a ginormous frosty wolf. Sounds about right.


    Te¡¯s elemental canid might be autonomous, mine though, seems to definitely be autonomous, like an actually bound elemental spirit. Checking its aura, I do believe it is indeed a living creature, in a sense. It¡¯s also almost entirely intangible, since it¡¯s literally made of fire. I have no idea if there¡¯s a way to leverage being bound to such an adorable little creature, and I¡¯m not even sure I could bring myself to put it in harm¡¯s way.


    The fox scrabbles up me, and tugs at a leather cord about my neck, the one attached to the enhanced-durability-enchanted leather pouch that contains the dracorocnix egg. When it has access to the barest fraction of an opening towards the pouch, the fox shrinks down to a tiny mote of flame, and floats inside the pouch, nestling up against the egg. Huh.


    From the cauldron¡¯s cooking fire, I fish out the stamp, or charm, that created the little elemental, and check to make sure the mote of flame is okay after removing it. Thankfully it seems fine, so I pocket the hunk of iron into an interdimensional space. I can sense Prinrin smiling at my coming into possession of the adorable little lifeform.


    For seemingly quite possibly the first time today, Prinrin addresses me telepathically, ¡°Oh Schism my sweet. Dearie me, hearing that you died again, it was just awful my dear. Now here you are, banged up, bruised up, and all blue in the face.¡±


    Before I can so much as think about snickering, Prinrin quips, ¡°Oh hush now Schism dear. You know what I meant.¡± She then continues, ¡°I¡¯ve been struggling all night to find a time and way to tell you how upset I am with you, and realizing how hypocritical it makes me. I know, I know dearie. I¡¯m rather roughed up myself, and as always, I¡¯ve taken a few for the team today. Though of course our sweet Tenith went above and beyond to keep us all safe. Ferocious as anything she is. Quite the sight to behold in battle, and such a sweet dear too. She¡¯s every bit as impressive as your mind makes her out to be, the utter dear, the impressive ally, the conquering confidante.¡±


    Smiling, despite knowing that Prinrin suffered worry for me, I nuzzle the top of her head. Miraina sits nearby, contemplating the discovery she¡¯d made about herself while we were a myconid. I can see Miraina¡¯s gaze continue to wander towards Leeza¡¯s room, and she frowns each time it does. After a while, she rattles her head, trying to get a grip on her thoughts. The poor dear.


    Here¡¯s hoping she finds someone wonderful. Miraina turns her gaze towards me, and eyes me up and down, torn, because technically, I don¡¯t qualify, but I also don¡¯t present the disqualifications. She frowns, pouts, and drops her chin into her palms to sit frumpily, grousing about her revelation. I almost wonder if I should tell her to try to ask Leeza anyway, despite Leezahna¡¯s earlier denial. I guess she¡¯ll have to find her own way through the emotional minefield of romance though.


    Telepathically whispering what little support I can offer up, I mutter, ¡°I¡¯m here for you Pawn, if you ever want to talk about it. I¡¯m fairly positive you¡¯re not alone in your preferences at Solace, but I don¡¯t know if you want or need to hear that right now. Whatever you need though, just let me know.¡±


    Miraina nods gratefully my way for a moment, before returning to her frumpy, grousing, hunched seated position. Turning towards Prinrin, I respond, ¡°Te is. She really, really is. I¡¯m sorry I made you worry. I mean, trust me, dying wasn¡¯t something I wanted to do. I don¡¯t know how many times I¡¯ll luck out, but that feels dangerously close to a last ditch final lucky break. My first time using chaos magic, happening to hit that particular benefit, and happening to die within that timeframe? It¡¯s a one in a million fluke. I¡ª.¡±


    While Prinny looks torn between slapping me and laughing, I realize how bad what I just said sounded, so I continue, ¡°Sorry, that¡¯s not reassuring. I didn¡¯t mean to die. It sucked. The Damnations are starting to falter though at least. I nearly ruined some magical equipment almost taking this one down today, but, huff, I didn¡¯t finish it off, yet again. Oh holy crap, where the hell did I leave the Callipygian?¡±


    Checking my phone, I let them out of my inventory at the same time as the others, so I let them out in the ¡®Twixt. I know they surrendered, and wanted to return with us. Did I just accidentally abandon them in the ¡®Twixt? Or did I leave them in Jeegoobotstan? Or were they just mixed in with the Draconiacs, trying to lay low when they got to Solace? If the latter, do I need to hunt them down and lock them up for everyone else¡¯s safety, to keep them from infiltrating Solace? I know they didn¡¯t join the flight home, though I suppose their dragon form was pretty wrecked by Lucky. Maybe I¡¯m overreacting, and they were just one of the humanoid ones that rode with one of the consorts.


    Interjecting into my now paranoid train of thoughts, Prinrin offers up, ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding about so many irons in so many fires Schism dearie. I dare say you¡¯re about as scattered as you¡¯ve ever been. I hope it¡¯s not because of the reincarnation Schism my sweet. Still, as much as she was teasing, my dear sweet Pawn was right, on you, this blue, tail, and these horns¡ª, you deviant little tease.¡±


    Facepalming, I know, and knew, that Prinrin, like Farzhis was grieving the death of our previous The Blue. I did not even think about the fact that the chaos magic pigmentation was blue. Ugh, I feel like a complete jackass walking around, pigmented like this, looking a bit like a Draconiac version of our previous The Blue. Huh¡ª. Could his death have influenced chaos¡ª? Nah. No way. Right?


    Regardless, I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry my dear sweet Prinny, my deviant little old lady. I didn¡¯t even realize the pigmentation would be reminiscent¡ª. I mean, hell, I thought I shapechanged it away, but apparently the chaos magic won¡¯t let me do that, and keeps returning it to blue. As far as I¡¯m aware, minor effects like this tend to only last a day to a month, usually twenty-four hours. If you want, I could cove¡ª¡°


    Biting me suddenly in the shoulder, Prinrin telepathically communicates, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare go hiding your beautiful self from me Schism dearie. Your offer is as sweet as you dear, but I don¡¯t need you pulling away dearie. I¡ª.¡±


    Prinrin runs through a whirlwind of emotions as she parses her own feelings and needs. I¡¯m honored to be a part of those considerations, but I mostly want her to heal, to feel loved. Her teeth in my shoulder loosen their grip and she lays her face along my neck, loosing several tears.


    Finally addressing it, Prinny somberly starts, ¡°I¡¯d been prepared, we¡¯d both been prepared, for so long now, for my sweet lad¡¯s passing. It felt like I¡¯d already grieved his loss. Is it heartless that I want to move on, after so long missing him already deary? I know the answers, of course. You don¡¯t get to be as old as I am, observing so many emotions of so many wonderful people, without learning a thing or two about feelings. Yet it both seems so fresh, and so long ago, far away Schism deary. I¡¯d admitted my heart had found a place for you, my sweet Schism, before his passing. You know this. I know you wouldn¡¯t think less of me, or that I¡¯m using you, but I just want your closeness Schism my sweet." She then much more suggestively adds, ¡°As close as I can get.¡±


    My emotions catch in my throat for a while, right up until those last six words, when Prinrin¡¯s telepathic voice changes from a mournful sadness, into a salacious subtext. Though I wear incredulity on my face, my heart still feels warmed by her. Nothing keeps this little old lady from being her deviant self. Heck, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d have it any other way anyway.

 B 6 C 65: Parental Love

    I¡¯m more than a little embarrassed by the idea of trying to show off the new powers, since it would mean standing around for up to an hour just to see me turn into a shape temporarily.  Shapes that I didn¡¯t exactly craft for attractiveness, or showiness.  Worse, I¡¯d be putting them into cooldowns and lockouts.  I guess I can test one thing first.


    Aiming away from everyone, up into the air, I breathe a stream of lightning, without costing a loss of my reflex-enhancing internal electrokinesis.  I was wrong about the multiplier, my breath weapon is only a two or so times multiplier, but that¡¯s still twice as effective as just pointing and blasting.  Farzee, um, quivers, and clenches her legs together, seeing me breathe a stream of lightning that seems to have no limit, that takes no charging time, while in my humanoid form.


    The lightning does have one drawback, I¡¯m not immune to it, so it does hurt, and burn my throat like chili-covered razorblades, so I am taking some damage from it.  Thankfully, with my new baked-in regeneration, since my base health pool is so high, I think in an hour I¡¯ll probably recover the couple minutes worth of damage done to my throat.  I¡¯m worried about Farzee¡¯s reaction, because I feel like we¡¯re becoming friends, and like she¡¯s on a good path.  I hope I¡¯m not scaring her into thinking I¡¯d be trying to take her title of The Blue.  Or¡ª.  Oh.  Prinrin¡¯s perceptiveness confirms my possible other suspicions.  Ahem.  I probably should have started with any other display of power while I¡¯m getting dressed.  Moving on.


    I can exhale a bit of flammable gas, but I¡¯m not sure I want to ignite it by swapping my organ back to lightning.  Lil ignites it while I¡¯m pondering, causing the puff of flame to blow up in my face.  I chuckle and roll my eyes before I pretend to angrily glare at my buddy.  My ice breath works in reverse, drawing in atomic motion, cooling the area in a bit of a cone in front of me, packing that heat into my organ.  I really need to think of another word for that body part.  The snickers along my mental wavelength are getting out of hand every time I think the word organ.  Especially with phrases like pack that heat into my organ.  Jeeze you guys.


    My cooling breath isn¡¯t as good as my flash freeze storms, nor is it an ice breath, nor anything that¡¯s really usable in battle, but, it could rescue someone else from a painful fire, or even reduce the effects of a fire, or lava, on me, down to almost nothing, beyond the already ninety seven point three percent reduction.  I¡¯m not willing to try my acid breath.  I probably shouldn¡¯t use or call on my poison breath.  I¡¯m nowhere near immune to either, though the poison breath might not be able to affect me, due to my neckchain making it impossible to inhale it as I¡¯m exhaling it.  It¡¯s really just my fire breath anyway, without igniting the gas, gas that¡¯s generated by packing heat into my organ.  Oh come on guys.


    Heh, I can¡¯t help laughing along with them for a moment.  Okay, what about my natural Changeling Fae gift?  Oh, oh that transformation is much smoother, much easier to control.  Oh wow.  Wow I¡ª.  I find myself mimicking the incredibly beautiful and handsome forms around me, gaining gasps from the assembled.  When Veril licks his lips during the moments that I shapeshift into Farzee¡¯s amazingly gorgeous form, in the flattering padded under-armor I¡¯m wearing, it earns him a dubious glare from the real Farzee herself.  She doesn¡¯t slap him, despite wanting to, because there¡¯s a tiny hint of pride in her appearance getting that reaction, something she¡¯d have wanted to do when she was more into her games.  Regardless, Farzee wanted some demonstrations, or info on what we¡¯d been doing, right?  Which forms are worth thinking about right now?


    One thing I ¡°programmed¡± into the plushy form, was a few computer chips, using some spare adamantite as a circuit-board essentially.  Computer chips with a mini processor, and network interface card.  I¡¯m hoping, that with the smartphone working eventually, if I put things into the inventory belly of the plushy form, that I can keep track of it on a spreadsheet on my smartphone, without having to manually enter everything.  I won¡¯t be able to use my space skill to put things in or fire things out or duplicate things, not without having Kinzul¡¯s aid, and using eight minutes to call out to the powers of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    None of this would be possible, I wouldn¡¯t survive any of these attempts to refine my powers, without Kinzul¡¯s aid.  Without my whole inner circle, and Kinzul Administrating with her Latent.  Even after I find my cure, my power from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas had grown too fast for my body to keep up with, so it might be deadly to try using on my own.  I might be less prone to dying now that I¡¯m Reggie Stage Two, RS2, as a baseline, but it¡¯s not a given.  I touch my neck, where I¡¯d bound the platinum scarf as I¡¯d worked it into the otter plushy form.  Kinzul passing on such a priceless memento to me means so many worlds to me.  I felt her heartache upon seeing it when it was retrieved.  I don¡¯t know what to do with the swirl of emotions both of us feel about the matter.  The Platinum, the true hero of dragonkind.  Me, with a symbol of his legacy?  Pieces from his actual body, his scales, given form?  It¡¯s¡ª it¡¯s beyond an honor.


    If I find Tiktik again someday, I could possibly enchant the platinum scarf with her neat platinum scale spell that causes a scale to try to intercept attacks.  I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d want to risk it though, to risk damaging something that means so much to me, and is so beyond priceless to both me and Kinzul.  Placing such an enchantment on the scarf, so that it protects the otter form in a semi-animate manner would, huff, probably be a last ditch effort at making it into a suitable combat form, if everything else were down and I still needed to be on the offensive.  I mean, the scarf was something like thirty, fifty, or a hundred feet long, I couldn¡¯t really tell.  It was likely meant to be able to wrap around Kinzul¡¯s neck even in her mountainous form.


    Since Farzee had asked for a demonstration, I¡¯ve been spending time trying to work out how to change into the shadow elemental form.  There¡¯s a prerequisite that I¡¯m not understanding, and it¡¯s not working, which is disheartening.  I don¡¯t want to put other forms in cooldown, just to show off.  I do want to go into my myconid form though, and begin examining these books Nala had passed me.  They¡¯re the kind that require dedicated time to pass on their enchantment, but my myconid form can possibly shave off some of that time with speed-reading.  Gaining these abilities from Yisstendahl¡¯s hoard is one of my top priorities for expanding my powers.


    There¡¯s something on the tip of my tongue, or brain, and I¡¯m almost certain it¡¯s something I knew once, or thought of once, that could be of aid.  I can¡¯t quite recall it at this second though, instead, feeling like a bad parent, for always neglecting him, I reach out to Lucky.  When he bounds into my mindscape, bowling over my telepathic avatar, I love up on him, roughhousing, hearing something that apparently no one else hears.  I hear Lucky excitedly asking, ¡°Other parent? Other parent? Other parent? Parent near?  Near parent?¡±


    When I speak in my mindscape, saying, ¡°Luni¡¯s close, but not here right this second.  I¡¯m so lucky to have you in my life Lucky.  You¡¯re too good to be true,¡± I hear Lucky bark and see him circle in response to hearing his name.


    His words that seem only audible to me are, ¡°My name, that¡¯s my name!  That means love!  They love me.  Happy.  I¡¯m happy.¡±


    I hold tightly to Lucky for several minutes, not even caring about the revelation I¡¯d almost made.  Of course, that¡¯s when it comes back.  Lucky forgives me as my mind wanders, and he returns to his task, almost joyously.  There¡¯s¡ª.  My mind is racing with new knowledge, or, or rather perhaps, forgotten knowledge.  There¡¯s, there¡¯s something, things that I missed.  I make a mad skitter around a bundle of bodies and leap into the air while summoning a T K Surfboard.  Zooming out towards our personal library, I dig through some of the tomes I¡¯d thought perhaps not so useful, or forgotten their potential use, since they contained a duplicate ability to one I already had.


    Hah.  Hahaha.  Hahahaha!  Yes!  Okay, so, a bunch of the things in Milbert¡¯s hoard were books that had this same enchantment, one that grants the ability to use extra S P to quicken runic crafting.  Depending on how I read them, what I surround myself with, I can change the benefits of reading extra copies of the same enchantment more or less.  My loved ones are rushing after me, to see what¡¯s got me so giddy.  Okay, okay, I¡¯ll need, um, hm, okay it¡¯ll, ah crap.  It¡¯ll take some resources, and burn them up into the enchantment, so I¡¯ll be needing to sit in one spot, reading with the book placed on those resources.


    Let¡¯s see, if I want to make it stop costing additional S P to quicken low rune-count spells down to the shortest casting time, it takes legendary gems?  Ahhhh what are those!?  Still, if I can figure it out, it basically doubles the amount of spells I can use in combat in a day.  If I want slightly less useful changes to the quickening ability, I can make the number of runes covered per S P multiplier level change.  That would mean that, instead of say, a 128 rune spell taking four times the S P to quicken, I could get it down to requiring three times, or even twice the S P instead.  Which, sure, is still a big boon, but I¡¯m not running around with a lot of high S P spells.  Dispellation comes to mind, but I don¡¯t even have it mastered yet, and it has a whole host of things that reduce its S P cost and number of runes used on its own, based on how it¡¯s intended to be used at the time of casting.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Oh man, if I could master the prescient moment spell though, and afford to actually cast it before or during a battle?  That could literally be the difference between victory and defeat.  A flash of foresight with a guaranteed positive outcome.  Could I save Kinzul?  If I focused and wanted that to be the specific task that I succeeded at?  Huff, genre senses are telling me that it wouldn¡¯t give me such a specific task that might take more than a quick flash to find the correct path to.  It¡¯s basically a single second worth of foresight, before an event, then a flash during a moment when it¡¯s correct to execute what was seen.  If I recall correctly.  Still, it would be such a powerful spell if I could cut down on the amount of runes to use it, and still cast it occasionally.  The S P cost is too high though, even if it didn¡¯t cost more to quicken it.


    I sigh, trying not to feel let down about my revelation.  I¡¯d been reminded of a power that I hadn¡¯t tapped yet, that still broadens my horizons, so I should feel grateful.  Even if I can¡¯t realistically chase those horizons at this very moment.  I hustle back towards the party, struggling with my disappointment, not paying attention.  Crouching low, leaning forward with my arms back for balance, on my telekinetic surfboard, I zoom back in the direction of my vault.


    Of course, the nearest person in the pack right now, is the one who was farthest away, who¡¯d been standing farthest back in the vault towards its entrance, unsure of herself.  Veril had come in all the way hoping to catch eyefuls of handsomeness and loveliness.  Farzee had almost been using him as a shield.  I feel like a complete arsehole when I ram into her face first at chest level and we tumble over, bowling over into Veril, ending up in a mess of limbs.


    Fuggin¡¯ hell, ow.  Shaking my head, sighing, I apologize quickly before doing anything else, ¡°I am so, so sorry you two.  I¡ª, I¡¯m an idiot, a lot.  I get distracted by a lot.  I¡ª, like right now, I should have gotten up first, instead of shaking my head in your chest.  Sorry Farzee.  I¡¯m floating up, I¡¯ll help you two up too.  Gorrammit I¡¯m so sorry.  Sorry, sorry.  Fuggin¡¯ ay.  Sorry.  Really, truly.  Please forgive me you two.  Farzee, I did not mean to, to, I don¡¯t want you thinking I¡¯m playing head games with you.  I¡¯m not trying to send mixed signals.  I¡¯m proud of the direction you¡¯re headed.  I don¡¯t want to screw up your journey.¡±


    Beginning to roll her eyes, almost settling into disdain, Farzee catches herself, and holds up a hand placatingly.  In her wonderful accent, she offers, ¡°I could have been in less hurry myself Schism, got excited about you revealing new leaps and bounds in powers.  Could have avoided being right where you¡¯d have to round a corner.  Um.  Thank you.  For that.  Um, pride.¡±


    I really hope that didn¡¯t sound condescending, or dismissive of her as a person or devaluing of who she currently is, ugh.  I thunk my head into the wall to my right several times.  Right, anyway.  I need a whole mess of gems, and a lot less time to do something incredibly important, than I¡¯d needed to do before all these changes.  What would have taken eight hours, will take, let¡¯s see, about forty eight seconds per, times sixty if just doing those priority ones, about forty eight minutes in my myconid form.  I can probably afford to hit all the warrens except the experimental one, if I limit myself to only ten nodes per for tonight, in just an hour.  I can do that while reading Yisstendahl¡¯s spell-like tomes.


    If the tomes were fifty-six hour tomes like I¡¯d thought, I might be able to read them in seven or eight hours.  Possibly nine and a half, or sixteen¡¯ish, depending on how much the speed reading affects things.  I¡¯d be putting my myconid form out of commission for several days, if I use only an hour to transform, and try to keep it for eight hours.  I wouldn¡¯t be getting any sleep, but this form I¡¯m in is brand new, only a few minutes old, and I¡¯d be in my myconid form for those eight hours, one that¡¯s pretty heavy on regeneration, so it might not get tired.


    All of this does technically give me access to more time in the day too, because of this.  Some of the forms don¡¯t get sleepy, or tired, or need to sleep at all.  Just when my base form has been awake for like a total of forty eight hours on its own, between other form uses, I¡¯ll definitely need to sleep.  I¡¯m not sure how I feel about abusing this particular potential of having new forms.  I don¡¯t want to give up on cuddling and sleeping with my beloveds.  It would settle the one bit of drama that Illy brought up, but I¡¯d feel so lonely, and hurt, like I were abandoning the ones that I love, to chase all these projects and power.  I can¡¯t do it.


    From next to me, where I hadn¡¯t noticed everyone catching up and arriving, my wife, my beloved Lady Kinzul comments aloud, ¡°I¡¯m glad of that my love.  My spouse.  Nurture your love more than your power.  It will keep you through the darkest of times, more than the other.  Especially with those deep hurts within that ail you.¡±


    Smiling sadly at Kinzul, I nod and float my way into her offered embrace, realizing I now stand eight feet tall all of a sudden, having shapeshifted over the last fifteen seconds or so to accommodate her without even making note of the effort.  I¡¯m fairly certain I hear Farzee and Veril choking on their tongues at the confirmation of the marriage arrangement between me and our Lady.  Or maybe at the fact that we¡¯re kissing softly, and embracing so tenderly.


    Oh, right, blushing, I ask, ¡°So, um, you two wanted to talk, to hear something straight from me?¡±


    A bit stunned, shaking her head in disbelief, Farzee pinches her own cheeks several times to make certain she¡¯s awake.  In her always delicious accent, Farzee mutters, ¡°Well that answers one question.  Volunteers?  Pawn said ye need dragons specifically.  I know I could have, should have listened to her, the rest of it, to hear, but¡ª.  I¡¯m still selfish Schism.  I can admit it, but I don¡¯t know if I can change it.  Having an excuse to see ye, when I¡¯m still shook up, well, I took advantage of it.  Was hoping for, I don¡¯t know.  Comfort for The Broke One and me.¡±


    Floating towards Farzhis The Blue, and shrinking myself only slightly, so that I stand well over a head taller than her or so, perhaps a foot and a half, I spread my arms wide.  She takes the offered hug, and I embrace her warmly, in a kind of love that has no hints of anything save the desire to comfort someone in need.  I¡¯ve reasons for not shrinking down further, while she¡¯s as vulnerable as she is.  I turn slightly to welcome Veril into the same embrace, and hug them both at my fore.  Veril¡¯s about half a head shorter than Farzhis, so there¡¯s room for arms about me so that we¡¯re not a smashed up pile of limbs.


    Answering why I need volunteers, the reason Farzhis came down here in the first place, I state, ¡°We¡¯re going to rescue a lot of people tomorrow, evacuate them from Terrorzin¡¯s lands, here to Mount Solace.  What I need most is dragons willing to fly to Attraxiaz the Loud¡¯s domain, pick up groups of kobolds and Draconiacs, and fly back, as long during the day as necessary, while I patrol back and forth across the skies, keeping the procession safe.  I want us to expand our aerie, our landing, before that though, by say, mid-morning.  I think Gresog can help with that.  He¡¯s some sort of sand-dragon, right?  Does his breath generate silicates?  Could it become stone or mortar?¡±


    Quick on her feet, cunningly, Farzhis, as always in that delightful few-stop-consonants accent, offers, ¡°Could do fulgurite, strong glass, with the right heat, lightning, yeah, that¡¯s Greggy¡¯s breath.  Melting it could bind together certain surfaces when it cools, for sure.  We¡¯ve a few other Sands as well, if the civvies are up for it.¡±


    Nodding along, I squeeze Farzhis a bit more into our embrace in gratitude before loosening my embrace of the two Dormir dragons.  I ask, ¡°I¡¯m afraid I might already know the answer to this, but do we have *any* stoneshapers or other spellcasters?  Any casters at all?¡±


    With a grimace, Farzee confirms my suspicions, ¡°No, a titled archmage is, was, all we could get away with without sparking retaliation from Terrorzin.  He had agents all over the world, killing new mages, taking down or conscripting archmages.  Kept everyone else down, made rules as our supposed king, laws to follow on pain of death.¡±


    Farzee nearly spits disdainfully before continuing, ¡°To keep him from massively outpacing us in magic, at most we could get away with killing some of theirs in a few duels now and again, playing it off as personal disputes, taking down some of theirs.  He kept us limited, in-check, so we couldn¡¯t get to a point where we might stand a chance of opposing him.  Any time we started to grow beyond twenty or thirty members, or had any hint of magic more than our single archmage, he cracked down on us, hard.  Lot of pain, lot of death.¡±


    Thinking on it, Farzee adds, ¡°When our duels would kill leaders of a faction, possibly freeing up their people?  His other factions would always just absorb all the forces, or kill any that might have been willing to defect.  Now that we¡¯re openly hostile?  I¡¯m thinking the killing is going to be swifter.¡±


    I squeeze the two Dormir dragons one more time, rubbing their backs and ruffling their hair in a bit of a loving, almost parental manner.  Oh goodness.  Is this how Kin¡ª?  I glance at my wife, and she nods my way.  Huh.  Reggie Shellcracker, falling into these positions, over and over.  I shake my head in disbelief of myself and the situations I get myself into.

 B 6 C 66: Sporebrain? Hivemind? Sleep.

    It takes only a bit of doing, but I actually have Farzee and her slightly devious, slightly manipulative mind to thank for making quick work of my plans. She¡¯ll handle organizing the volunteers come early morning after dawn. Shiz and Atter and I will be heading off first, before that, pre-dawn, to make sure we get the most precious cargo first. We¡¯ll leave Atter in her domain while she organizes her people, as Shiz and I evacuate the precious cargo. We won¡¯t have access to Kinzul, Luni, Lil, or the Vivant, sadly. So, as much as I love her presence, and would love to have her help, I won¡¯t be seeing Prinrin during this excursion. That group is headed off to the Laotzxchi Citadel.


    Farzee begs a moment of my time at her size, I relent seeing no harm in it, and she queries consent beforehand, so I agree. Farzee makes sure to stand a few steps away, so that we lean for our faces to meet, rather than pressing our bodies tightly together. We share a tender, non-romantic kiss, little more than a peck on the lips. It¡¯s one of gratitude going both ways. I then assume a taller stature once again, and kiss her forehead, before sending her on her way with a pat on her head, and a gentle hand on her back.


    I offer Veril a hug, and kiss his forehead as well, sending him on his way much the same as Farzee. He¡¯s privately mentally marveling at my restraint, because he¡¯d very much like to be smooshing faces with Farzee, whereas I am working to cut back on any lascivious behavior between the two of us. I can¡¯t help chuckling and shaking my head incredulously at him, when Veril forgets his psychic walls are down. I still flash him a bright smile as I send him along on his way.


    Prinrin attempts to resume her perch, but Kinzul steals me away momentarily, and I barely manage to catch Prinny telekinetically before she falls on her face. She flashes me a cheeky grin, while offering Kinzul a wry smile on the sly. There¡¯s something about that, um, corrupt away, from earlier, between the two of them going on. It¡¯s mildly weird seeing Kinzul be almost playful at this point, but also heartwarming. There¡¯s so much to life, there¡¯s always more pain and sorrow, but there is joy too. I suppose one really has to embrace it when one can.


    Though, the particular joy that these two women are sharing is, ahem, at my expense in some ways. Not that I mind in the slightest. I mean, one of them is my wife and the other is one of her oldest friends by the sounds of things. I mean, Kinzul isn¡¯t necessarily my wife, yet, but, just, yeesh. What the hell even is my life? I guess, kind of amazing in some ways. Two of the eldest ladies in the domain, are taking some subtle plays against each other about teasing me, or something. I¡¯m not entirely sure what to make of most of this.


    I rattle my skull, trying to reorient my brain, because I was going to¡ª oh. Apparently Kinzul and I are having a private moment in the stacks of the library while Prinrin distracts Lu Te and Lil. So that¡¯s what that little bit was about a moment ago.


    Stroking my cheek, our Lady Kinzul comments, ¡°My love, Schism, I take it you¡¯re about to make use of that which we¡¯d just worked together to create, despite your desire, and my desire, for you to nurture your love rather than your powers. I¡¯m weary from managing our Latents, and I would see us both rest, all of us rest. You¡¯ve committed yourself to protecting an evacuation, and there are so very many things to attend to. While you must protect those under your charge that you¡¯ve granted sanctuary to, you must also see to it that our home, our domain is protected. I know you¡¯ve already had the same wariness, that not all who are granted refuge may truly be seeking it.¡±


    Before I have a chance to respond, Kinzul continues, ¡°I simply beg of you this one night my love. Rest, hope for the best but prepare for the worst for the morrow. If you do rest, I would¡ª. I should like to take my rest with thee.¡±


    I¡¯m only a little bit torn. Rapid advancements in abilities, powers, and sustainability for Mount Solace, by placing their needs ahead of mine and those of my loves, or resting with those I hold dear, to maintain my sanity, and share my love. I¡¯ve got to be honest, a personal request from the woman soon to be my wife really makes the choice easy. I feel like any choice I make, I¡¯m letting someone down, so I might as well try to make the best choices that I can, and try to live without regret.


    Knowing what I might like to ask before I ask it, Kinzul adds, ¡°I think we can agree that petty dramatics are unnecessary. You will of course be in my bed.¡±


    I gulp slightly as a devious smirk crosses Kinzul¡¯s face, before she looses a delightful titter of mirth. Kinzul continues, ¡°As will the rest of those closest to us. I dare say the emotive looks upon your face are as Prinrin claims, so expressive, and lovely to gaze upon. I especially enjoy those in the realm of shy, embarrassed, mortified, and the like.¡±


    Seems like you and every other woman in my life, yeesh heh. I feel mean for having thought the thought though. Honestly, I just delight in seeing your smile, sharing in any of your joys, and if those joys are because of me, it¡¯s all the more enrapturing to be a part of the experience.


    Anyway, there are a few things I can do without having to stay up all night to accomplish them. I can put in some of the reading time with the myconid form, I¡¯d also like to take one day¡¯s worth of harvests at some point into my inventory through my plushy form. It¡¯s not going to be one of tonight¡¯s things though. I can check out these two notes from Nietru though.


    Let¡¯s see, She wrote this one,


    ¡°Dear Schism,


    I admire you more than I¡¯m comfortable communicating in front of the others. I hope it doesn¡¯t come off as hero-worship, or romantic infatuation. As part of the strategist¡¯s council, the workings of your mind fascinate me on levels few others do. I¡­ may find the workings of such a mind, or a mind that contains those workings, to be a highly attractive part of someone, but I wouldn¡¯t ogle someone for their physical appearance, even one as pleasant as yours. I might snog them for their brains, but not intentionally ogle them.


    I would be lying if I said I didn¡¯t also find you to be lovely in other ways, but I promise you that if you catch me staring at you, I¡¯m lost in thought, marveling at something I¡¯ve realized about you, your decisions, your plans, or your abilities.


    It will do wonders for the Order¡¯s war efforts to have you in a position of high esteem within Mount Solace. I think you may need, no, let me apologize. I believe it would benefit the Order for you to make public appearances in which you performed debriefings, and sitreps, or simply answered questions about your plans, for the wider audience of the populace of our home.


    I am truly excited to work alongside you in the capacity that I¡¯m afforded. I understand that you are one of our most valuable field assets as well, so I know that our interplay will be brief and far-between, but I look forward to it regardless.


    Excitedly, yet cordially yours,


    Nietru-Devalor¡±


    Wow, that was really lovely. It feels nice to read someone¡¯s honest thoughts about me that are praising without being too hero-worshipy. Her suggestion of public events for P R is, eugh, not my cup of tea, but she¡¯s probably right. I¡¯ll put some thought into maybe considering possibly doing it at some point. What was the other letter?


    ¡°Dear Schism, again(sorry!),


    Spymaster¡¯s regular reports contained an oddity that I interpreted to be some form of code meant for your attention. She frequently, somewhat infuriatingly, will rely on pictograms or other forms of foreshortening her communiques. It¡¯s a fairly useful communication technique that would make intercepted communications less useful to our enemy, but Errissa literally cannot be intercepted, so it seems redundant.


    Spymaster¡¯s message meant to be passed on to you could be interpreted a few ways, but I didn¡¯t want to make any assumptions, so I¡¯ll lay them out for you.


    Chasm, gap, or Schism


    Thankful, or grateful, or thanks, or gratitude, or enjoyment, or the looking forward to of something.


    The number four.


    A thin wooden object, such as a broom, a cane, a pencil, or possibly a single-plank bench.


    Space, place, or a room of some sort.


    Interception of facial expression intended for one target, such as a scowl, a smirk, a wink, or so forth.


    My apologies for a second communique when I haven¡¯t even delivered the first I¡¯d wanted to give you. I hope that an informal thank you for your receiving them might make it up to you. That will probably include affection of some sort, based on what I¡¯ve heard of your preferred methods of communication and gratitude.


    Gratefully yours,


    Nietru-Devalor¡±


    Snrk. I snort back a laugh. I got sexted by Spymaster. Hah! Jeeze. Really Errissa, ¡°Schism, thanks for the(and looking forward to the next) broom closet face-time, wink.¡± I shake my head incredulously at the state of my life. Still, it was pretty spectacular.


    My Lady, reading over my shoulder, and reading my internal monologue, teases, ¡°So I¡¯ve something to try to surpass for my spouse¡¯s attention due to our Tenith¡¯s Latent after all.¡±


    I wilt under the tease, the implication that Kinzul easily picked apart what the face-time was, but also the implication that she¡¯d be trying to top it. My throat and the roof of my mouth has dried out, so I gulp down sticky saliva to try to return my breathing passageways to their normally moist state.


    Inappropriately, yet hilariously, Teuila comments, ¡°I dunno Aunty Zool, my Airhead is pretty smitten by my latent. Might be hard to top. I could give you some pointers. Go for their ears, or neck. Wink.¡±


    Friggin¡¯ hell Teuila. Jeeze, hah. She shoots me her mile-wide closed-eyed smile and rocks her head side to side derpily. Almost equally inappropriately, Kinzul responds, ¡°Thank you my beloved Tenith, I shall take that under advisement, though I may perhaps have some advantages I could leverage, or allow my spouse to leverage. I believe you called them exhibit double ds?¡±


    I snort a laugh, choke, cough, sputter, and topple over into midair, catching myself in my telekinetic grip. Teuila¡¯s giggle morphs fairly quickly into a short cackle. Luni chuckles uncomfortably, while Iylynila simply returns to a state of blushing so hard she can¡¯t interact with reality. Lil looks aghast, dismayed, or perhaps disgusted, but mostly playfully so.


    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    Prinny though, she¡¯s ah, found her way back to her perch clinging to the right side of my torso, with her legs wrapped around my waist, essentially sitting on my hip. I think she must have taken advantage of my toppling over, to cover the distance Kinzul had put between us a moment prior.


    Grumbling through my blush, I almost want to tease Kinzul, but the only ways I can come up with sound exceedingly mean to even my subconscious, and I¡¯d never intentionally hurt her. I am wondering if she really wanted all of us to retire to her chambers for our sleep tonight. Kinzul offers her regal subtle head-tilt in response to my thoughts.


    Ah, at this point, Iylynila and I are both being ganged up on, in order to keep us blushing. I want to get some things accomplished, and this is quite distracting, so I¡¯ve been moving into the Myconid alchemist form for a while now. One thing I can do to shorten the refractory period, or recharge time, or casting cost, whatever you want to think of it as, for the Myconid form is I can make it an immobile version of itself. Basically only the tendrils move, but it can¡¯t amble or anything like that. I know I¡¯m a bit of a cheater, since I can just levitate myself around with telekinesis and so on. I would prefer most times to have it be able to amble, but I¡¯m trying to just make a quick short use of it.


    When I finally slip into the Myconid form, Prinrin exclaims, ¡°Oo you¡¯re such a cutie Schism. So soft though, almost a shame that. Almost feels like you¡¯re naught but squish, as if I could sink right in dearie. Not that I think I¡¯d mind, mind you. Oo I really can sink right in Schism my sweetie, just feel right here, and here. You¡¯ve got me all atingle again my dear.¡±


    I try not to let on to the wry smirk that would cross my face normally, during the point that Prinrin complains about my having become soft. In a truly private wavelength, with my walls up elsewhere, I jokingly, teasingly, joyously think one word at her, ¡°Deviant.¡±


    Her own emotional private wavelength indicates she¡¯d be cackling if she weren¡¯t trying to be subtle. While Prinny¡¯s amusing herself with the squish of my new, currently immobile form, I mention to everyone, ¡°I¡¯ll be ready to follow everyone to bed in a few minutes, I just want to test a few things, and grab the phone.¡±


    Floating back to the battery banks where the phone is plugged in, on a T K Surfboard, I realize a bit of a flaw with checking in on the phone at the moment. Realizing I can¡¯t activate its touch-screen features, I simply stow telekinetically with the dimensional pocket into the hyperdimensional haversack. While at the battery bank though, I check through the various types of energy devices, and I find several power packs that have USB-micro outs, and regular USB ins. I should have had these charging too, so I take the time to plug them into the powered USB-port hub. I snag a USB-micro cord for the phone, and place it alongside the phone in the hyperdimensional haversack.


    Okay, some quick mathing, an¡ª holy crap. The weird swarmbrain hivemind is so good at math! I think it¡¯d be better if I linked up more brains too! Gosh, I almost want to ask for volun¡ª.


    Beloved, adorable, deviant Prinrin offers, ¡°Oh Schism sweetie you needn¡¯t even ask, of course I volunteer for whatever little things you need my dear. Can¡¯t have our Hero going without volunteers now can we? I¡¯m sure knowing you Schism sweetie, it¡¯ll be a unique experience to be sure as well. I¡¯m all yours for the attempt dearie.¡±


    Wanting to explain to Prinny the process, and possible dangers, I start, ¡°Okay Prinrin, I¡¯ll be loosing a small puff of spores, try not to inhale too awfully much of them, you really only need one tiny spore of me to make its way inside y¡ª.¡±


    Wonderful, sly, adorable, beloved, deviant Prinrin quips, ¡°Oh Schism sweetie I think it¡¯s a bit too early in our relationship dearie, for me to be taking you inside me. But then again for you our Hero my sweet, I suppose I can make an exception.¡±


    If this form could cough, and sputter, right now, it would. Devious little minx. My train of thought gets another private emotional wavelength cackle from Prinny while I¡¯m shaking my head mentally, smiling and eye-rolling towards her telepathically. Especially because of¡ª. Well, anyway. I suppose I can just go ahead and try it then. I¡¯m new to this form, so when I attempt to release a small puff of spores, it might be more than a little. Worse, Prinny inhales deeply, taking most of the cloud into her lungs. I begin to panic in worry for my sweet little old deviant gal.


    I can sense every bit of Prinrin, and I feel her contentedly giving herself over to the pleasant numbness, the faint tingling of surrendering her senses and limbs to the spores. I have to actively send wavelengths into her body to keep her muscles in place to maintain her grip about me. Oh Prinny sweetie, I¡¯m so worried about you dearie. Wait, is my brain picking up on my sweet Prinrin¡¯s speech? Oh why so it is. Well this little test is giving this odd little old pair one heck of a new connection now isn¡¯t it dearie?


    Oh my sweet, my foolhardy little old deviant dear, this isn¡¯t meant to be surrendered to, nor taken in so much at once Prinrin sweetie. Oh please be alright you daft little dear. I worry that I¡¯ve absorbed your consciousness my dear. That¡¯s no good, no good, no good at all. My beloved little old lass, why would you go and do such a thing as drinking so deeply of me, and then surrendering so much of yourself to me Prinrin dearie?


    It¡¯s all on your will Prinrin my sweetie, you can take it back, but you¡¯re reveling in this. The spores only work on consenting parties dearie, but why did you consent to every last one of them? Oh, oh I believe it¡¯s starting to clarify. Oh you really are a little deviant now aren¡¯t you Prinrin sweetie. Letting me into you like this, after the moments we shared earlier, letting me know your joy and excitement, and the honesty of that statement on an intimately deep level¡ª. You¡¯re just full of spunk aren¡¯t you my dear?


    Grinning, I¡¯m glad it got the response I desired as Prinrin begins to retake some semblance of control over herself to giggle delighfully. Still, she worried me, so I grump, ¡°You had me so worried for you, you lusty little deviant you! You near gave me a heart attack, and for a second, I thought you might start growing a mushroom cap permanently, and end up stuck as a thrall forever. You know I was trying to warn you not to do that. Why would you risk it, my beloved devious little old lady?¡±


    Prinrin¡¯s response is, ¡°Oh Schism my sweetie, I knew you wouldn¡¯t let anything awful happen to me, or take advantage of the connection. Surrendering to it was blissful my dear, utterly blissful dearie. It felt like the days of floating along soft clouds long before the storm was ever used, back when dragons were heavy, before we were even mountains in size. Why, back then it took real power to not destroy whatever spot you¡¯d landed in, and falling was much, much faster, so being such a runt, and gliding along in the warmth of the sun, skirting the clouds and dipping my wings into them, it was pure delight dearie, so it was. My poor Schism sweetie, I¡¯m sorry I gave you a fright, I¡¯ll strive to make it up to you the next time we can take a look at your artifact, after I¡¯ve spoken with my sweet lad.¡±


    I¡¯m really regretting shifting into the immobile version of this form at this point. I¡¯d definitely be coughing and sputtering at the mention of what happened inside the¡ª. Wait. That would explain why a mile of clouds felt like it took thirty minutes to fall through without even counting the vortexes keeping us aloft occasionally. It would explain why the Damnation causing a minor earthquake didn¡¯t also leave a crater the size of Tokyo. The Worldstorm enchantment has more and more layers to it that I¡¯m constantly learning, all designed to reduce dragonkind¡¯s ability to rampage around the world, lording over and destroying everything. Oh Kinzul my love. What it must cost you to have created this, and continuously cost you to maintain it.


    Trying to divert my mind from the sad path it¡¯s about to go down, Prinrin redirects my thoughts, ¡°So Schism sweetie, what were you thinking of doing with this deviant little old runt¡¯s body and mind now that you¡¯ve got access to it? Ahem, I of course mean what was this test of your abilities that you¡¯d intended to perform? Before I went and got a little carried away that is my dearie.¡±


    Internally I¡¯m wearing a wry grin and shaking my head dubiously. A little carried away is putting it lightly my beloved Prinrin. I lightly admonish Prinny while communicating my concern for her, ¡°I¡¯d have never forgiven myself if something had gone horribly wrong. I know you trust me, but that was more than a leap of faith, that was an unnecessary risk. I love you and don¡¯t want to see you harmed.¡±


    Prinrin nods along and assures me, ¡°I know Schism sweetie, I know. Sorry my dearie. I suppose I let myself get a little swept away by certain thoughts and feelings that we both undoubtedly reciprocate. Trust, love, lust, and so on.¡±


    Yep, really regretting having a form that can¡¯t shake its head right now, or cough or sputter. Anyway, the test will be more noticeable with more volun¡ª. Of course you all would. Fine, fine, gather close, but don¡¯t take as deep a dose as Prinny. Just inhale a tiny¡ª. Every last one of you. Of course. I. Oh my.


    My head swims with the sensations of over half a dozen bodies and minds, our head, our bodies, our minds. We¡¯re all linked, and each of us feels that joy of surrender, giving over to the sporebrain, the hivemind, floating within a sea of ourselves. This could be dangerous. Still, while they give themselves over freely, I¡¯m able to distribute calculations across our combinations of brains, and manipulate our Latents on levels I¡¯d never dreamed of, with Kinzul¡¯s Administration Latent essentially at my command. Kinzul does balk slightly, and withdraws a large portion of herself from the hivemind, preventing me from maintaining such strict control over everyone else¡¯s Latents.


    I toss my senses towards Kinzul, and she acknowledges that she doesn¡¯t want me to divulge what I¡¯ve figured out from the action, so I maintain a mum state of mind. Still, with so many brains working in tandem, in concert, on the problems of exactly how to efficiently apply permanency to resource nodes, is almost simple, almost. We¡¯re set about the problem to be able to hopefully maintain some of the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital aura upon the nodes, should the worst come to pass ending in the shop being destroyed. It¡¯s experimental, and we don¡¯t actually want to test the results, but we manage to utilize some gem dust permanency enhancement enchantments on the more pressing resource nodes in a relatively short time.


    One last thing to test before bed, I begin flipping through one of Yisstendahl¡¯s tomes. I can¡¯t tell if Nala gave me three, four, five, or six, based on some of these bindings seeming to be possibly all one book. Friggin¡¯ hell, a tome of comets and meteors, and a tome of time. Nala was friggin¡¯ right, these are tip toppity relevancy. Let¡¯s see, one of these tomes Teuila hadn¡¯t used yet is a forty hour tome. We¡¯ve got me, Kinzul, Lucky, Lil, Lu, Te, Prinrin, and Illy. If I were able to take five hours, possibly all forty, with all of us linked like this, I believe we would all be granted the benefits of the tome¡¯s enchantment. There¡¯s something about the hivemind and the speedreading combination that has some unexpected interplay, that I¡¯d need at least one data point to determine a likely pattern, at the very minimum. Anything right now is conjecture, but it¡¯s still likely that we can share enchantment benefits to some degree at least.


    I¡¯m almost upset at myself now for having read some of these tomes that won¡¯t be re-empowered for decades or centuries. I wouldn¡¯t have made it this far without them though. I wouldn¡¯t have come up with the ideas that I did, to even create a new form like this.


    Let¡¯s enhance the cultivation of the glow-lichen while we¡¯re over here, the more fresh-air the better. Alright, let¡¯s drop this form, so that the spores dissipate from our loved ones, before we get too caught up in this. Our Lady wants us to adjourn to her chambers for rest, and all of us are more than okay with this. We¡¯re all exhausted, and some of us will be wakening in four to seven hours to start missions.


    Once we¡¯ve returned to form, Lady Kinzul makes use of Teuila¡¯s Latent, by clasping us all to her breast. Essentially weightless, Kinzul spreads her wings, revealing most of her legs as her dress¡¯s form changes to accommodate the missing mass. She takes flight, swiftly bringing us near to the top of Mount Solace from Mount Verdimenn in almost no time at all.


    Too tired for modesty, those of us that are more comfortable, or used to, sleeping in the nude, do. Illy and Teuila snuggle intimately to one side of Kinzul, while Prinrin settles in between Kinzul and myself, glommed onto my wife. I manage to rest one arm over Prinrin, laying my hand gently on Kinzul¡¯s abdomen. Luni is beside me, and Lil beside her, and I manage to snag both of them in a tight embrace, while Lucky remains down near all of our feet.


    Drifting off to sleep in a pile of so much love, affection, and perhaps a smattering of other emotions, is pure and utter bliss. It¡¯s heaven. My mind races as I begin to think of more applications for my old powers and new forms, and I hear groans from nearly everyone in the bed. I chuckle as I feel several walls partially go up to block my narrative stream from their incoming reception. We all want to sleep, me included, but this form of mine is brand new, fresh, and it¡¯s excited in so many ways. Still, sleep does manage to take me before long, due to the calm that being surrounded by so much love instills me with.

 B 6 C 67: Five, Six, Maybe Seven?

    Waking pre-dawn in this bed where our pile of bodies has somehow become more-tightly entangled and intimately cuddling over the course of a few hours of sleep, is amazing. Still, I extricate myself from the pile of my loved ones, and, unable to help myself, I kiss each of them softly on the lips, save Prinrin. I wouldn¡¯t steal a kiss from someone whose one explicit boundary was the sharing of her lips with anyone else. For Prinrin, I simply squeeze her left shoulder once in a gentle caress before leaving bed. Well, I don¡¯t kiss Lucky on the lips either, I kiss him on his forehead.


    Leaving Kinzul¡¯s chambers, heading towards the feasting hall, I find myself a bit surprised by the hustle and bustle of how many people are awake and active. Some of them do look haggard, as if they¡¯re on their way to bed, or as if sleep wasn¡¯t kind to them, but I can certainly empathize. I sit on a bench in one of the hallways leading into the feasting hall as I dig into the dimensional pocket to pull the smartphone out of the hyperdimensional haversack.


    I can¡¯t help holding my breath in anticipation and excitement as I hold the power button, unsure of if it will turn on, boot up, load, or what. It feels like a full minute passes before the screen suddenly, blindingly brightens as the phone powers on. I don¡¯t recognize the name for the O S, but why would I? It feels like an eternity as several minute pass while the phone is booting up for the first time. Hopefully it doesn¡¯t require this much patience each time I turn it on.


    Okay, wow, having an accurate clock is nice to start. I don¡¯t know how it knew the time, but that feels approximately appropriately accurate, and it is the correct day of the correct month. There¡¯s an N F C app, near field communication, a notepad app, and very little else that¡¯s currently accessible. Most of the things I can think to do with a smartphone aren¡¯t yielding results yet, as if parts of it are locked off to me. Perhaps in an effort to keep me from accidentally screwing myself out of the ability to use it. I know I¡¯d fiddle around in the settings right away, especially to check out things like networking, brightness, languages supported, and so on.


    Well, I suppose I can make a note of some of the th¡ª. There are already notes in the notepad app. One is ¡°Shops Required For Catalogue Setup.¡± I hesitantly open it, holding my breath in anticipation once more. It¡¯s a list of names, with Luni, Te, Kinzul, me, Attraxiaz, Lil, and a few names I don¡¯t know. The last one is bolded and underlined three times, Leezahna. That¡¯s ominous. Does that mean it¡¯s someone that¡¯s dead? Someone that¡¯s in Terrorzin¡¯s forces that I need to make sure to offer mercy to, to rescue?


    Phew, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m ready to accept the possibility that we might already be screwed. I need to take a few deep breaths and relax while waiting on the two Thunderers. Trying to relax a ways away from the feasting hall, I sense a large group of bodies, and my hypersensitive hearing kicks in, despite me not wanting to eavesdrop. I sense about six conversants, there¡¯s a bunch of early-morning chatter, but when the topic of conversation maneuvers its way to me, I can¡¯t help paying a bit of attention. I¡¯ve just decided to refer to them in my head as numbers arbitrarily, based on who was speaking earlier in their gossip gabbing.


    The first voice complains, ¡°Nobody goes out, fights two dragons, wins both fights, and fights a horde of underestimated mages, and comes back healthier than when they left. No one.¡±


    Voice numero dos quietly mutters, ¡°Schism did.¡±


    The third voice, a familiar, higher pitched, very full of themselves, angrier voice comments, ¡°There¡¯s no way that ugly little troll did any such thing. He probably had our Lady and our Star do all the work, if anything.¡±


    The second voice, one I couldn¡¯t really hear while it was quiet, a cracked, reedy, feminine, familiar voice, more audibly retorts, ¡°Schism isn¡¯t a he, but whatever you need to believe to feel better about yourself.¡±


    That third voice snips back, ¡°Ugh, screw you. Nasty little freak will get an even bigger head and float around here like he owns the place if people start buying into the propaganda of him being such a badass. Just expecting people to go along with his plans because our Lady sees her old flame in him.¡±


    The second voice chimes in, ¡°You did not just say that about our Lady. She could kill you for that.¡±


    The third voice quails ever so slightly, ¡°Erm, no, you¡¯re right. She could, but she wouldn¡¯t,¡± until she adds, ¡°Anyway, why am I even giving you the time of day? Ugh, this whole mountain is screwed up. Know your place, trash.¡±


    The second voice responds, ¡°Right, whatever Leezahna. Nobody cares who your parents were. Good luck maintaining your social status in a place like Mount Solace.¡±


    Wait, Leezahna? Crap. The note. Huff, great. Gotta convince that person to tend the shop. Just lovely. She sounds like the type who¡¯d sabotage it so that my reputation couldn¡¯t benefit from it. She also sounds like that lady with the emerald tresses.


    Voice number six chuckles and whispers almost conspiratorially, ¡°I heard that our Lady began calling him Schism my love.¡±


    The first voice grumps, ¡°She calls everyone that, what¡¯s that got to do with anything?¡±


    The response from the sixth voice is almost childish, ¡°Nuh uh, she calls everybody my beloved followed by their name or title. Schism is her *luuuuurve*.¡±


    I can almost feel the eyeroll of the third voice that steps in, ¡°I¡¯m sure if our Lady does refer to the gutter trash as anything different than anyone else, it¡¯s to show her distaste, you absolute neanderthals. Disgusting besmirching our Lady so, implying our Lady would have anything less than perfect taste by favoring a disgustingly ugly little troglodytic troll.¡±


    The cracked, reedy, feminine second voice says, ¡°So which is it, does she see The Platinum in Schism, or does she think Schism¡¯s an ugly gutter trash troll? Go shove your head in a hole Leezahna, or better yet, boil it.¡±


    The third voice blusters, and its owner, a figure surrounded by two other figures, stalks away huffily. I¡¯m pretty sure I know who Leezahna is. I¡¯m fairly certain she¡¯s that queen-bee type with the emerald tresses. Am I in an episode of a high school drama from Fakeworld?


    The first voice offers, ¡°I agree with her about one thing, he¡¯s an ugly little troll. Maybe a goblin. I mean, half the reason he¡¯s so ugly is that sleepy look of his, always dazed, like he¡¯s not even there, not watching where he¡¯s going. Like he doesn¡¯t even have a brain to turn on. Oh, that and the crying.¡±


    I try not to snort in laughter at the idea that my brain isn¡¯t turned on at basically all times. The reason I look dazed is because I¡¯m distracted devising ways to grow in power, in order to end these stupid apocalyptic scenarios, because no one else is going to step up to the plate besides my inner circle, and the members of the Order. The members of the Order are a bit stagnant in power though, it seems to just be us Can¡¯Z¡¯aasians that can achieve rapid growth.


    Voice four that hadn¡¯t spoken in a while, giggles in agreement, ¡°Hehe. Yeah, Schism¡¯s scrawny and pale, and apparently been shirtless or pantsless, or even naked all over the mountain. Isn¡¯t that supposed to be like, tabboo for actual humans? But yeah, seriously! What kinda hero cries?¡±


    The second voice grumbles, ¡°The Platinum did. Cried plenty.¡±


    Voice number four backpedals a bit, ¡°Okay, sure, but that was like, stoic crying over a field of defeated foes, weeping for their souls or some stuff.¡±


    I can virtually feel the eyeroll of the second voice as she responds, ¡°Who¡¯s saying Schism¡¯s crying is any different? Any of us know how many people Schism¡¯s killed? Why are you all hung up on Schism¡¯s looks anyway?¡±


    The fifth voice offers, ¡°He¡¯s not so bad to look at, for a human. Pretty eyes, cute pointy ears. Though, I guess that¡¯s it, maybe the hair, if he¡¯d brush it. I suppose it¡¯s fifty fifty. He could maybe be a five on a good day with less of a mess on his head, I don¡¯t see him being even a six without some sun, some meat on his bones, and more fashion like that one coat.¡±


    I can sense the second voice¡¯s owner rolling their eyes yet again as they respond, ¡°Not a human, not a troll, not a goblin, not even a he. You guys are all kind of pathetic. I¡¯ve heard of hero worship, but I didn¡¯t know the opposite, hero disdain, existed until now. Schism isn¡¯t my cup of tea, but I¡¯m not going to badmouth them to score popularity points with spiteful wenches like Leezahna and her crew.¡±


    The first voice grumps, ¡°I only said I agree with her that he¡¯s ugly, I couldn¡¯t care less what she personally thinks. I still doubt he did all that much in the first battle. Sun, Hunter, Muse, our Lady, and the Vivant were there.¡±


    The eye-rolling in the second voice reoccurs, ¡°You forgot to mention our Tenith. Way I hear it, Schism saved one of the Vivant, and was the only one that could defeat some weird special foe, and took out a contingent of mages in eight minutes when the Vivant couldn¡¯t end them in thirty. Word is the next day, Schism didn¡¯t make it back from their second mission, because they fought off a Damnation so everyone else could get away. They showed up a couple hours later, stronger than ever.¡±


    The fifth voice giggles, ¡°Tehe, you sound so naive. There is no way that that¡¯s true. Nobody comes back from an encounter with a Damnation. Even The Platinum didn¡¯t. Definitely not stronger. Hehe, you¡¯ve got some weird wish fulfillment going on or something. He probably just napped and missed the mission, and was punished for making the Dormir, Shield, and Aegis do all the work, making him fly home alone later. He looks sleepy all the time, always distracted.¡±


    Our one defender, the second voice responds, ¡°He¡ª damnit now I¡¯m doing it. They! Aren¡¯t my favorite person, but they¡¯re powerful, and kind. Go ahead and open your eyes, really, literally, use your dragon senses when you see Schism next time. There¡¯s a reason they¡¯re an archmage on top of all their other titles. They gave me¡ª us, Zayzi and me¡ª,¡± the second voice, almost assuredly Ixeyla, hesitates to divulge what I¡¯d supposedly given her before finishing, ¡°something, and an offer of something else. They¡¯re forgiving too. So forgiving that they don¡¯t even blink when I threaten to kill them.¡±


    The first voice flubs, ¡°You what?¡±


    The second voice¡¯s owner, probably Ixeyla, right? Flusters, blushing. She then turns and walks away. That had to be, right? Yeah, that must have been Ixeyla. Huh, she was defending me. I¡¯m touched. She doesn¡¯t exactly like me, by her tone, but I guess I have some of her respect, and gratitude. Also, since pretty much only Ixeyla knew I didn¡¯t like being called he, I use my changeling gift to grow a pectoral-ridge like I¡¯ve seen on femme Draconiacs. It¡¯s in the hopes that I¡¯d maybe be able to dissuade further people from assuming I¡¯m male, despite not being female either.


    Hopefully Lil is ready for that private bond with Ixeyla sometime when I have some safe S P left in a day, when we¡¯ve got time to get them together. I won¡¯t layer myself permanently into their private bond. I do like her all the more now though. Despite not really having cared about what the other voices thought of me, it was nice of her to defend me.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    A new voice joins the crowd, Atter the Loud, and she¡¯s laughing at the ones that sound like gossiping teenagers, shaking her head. She comments, ¡°I surrendered to *Schism* and no one else in your Order lads and lasses. I¡¯m a titled Thunderer. Take that how you will.¡±


    Shiz must have been near as he quips, ¡°I surrendered too, but for different reasons. Rock dragon broke my jaw, and Schism was being reasonable, offering a ceasefire. My partner was going to attack while we were talking truce, did attack, me ¡®n¡¯ Attey took the hit. Then I saw Schism completely obliterate my partner Tinth when he turned on us, in rage for injuring us, us, Schism¡¯s enemies, Schism¡¯s captives.¡±


    Shaking his head, Shiz continues, ¡°Schism did something I¡¯ve never even heard of. Fire and ice as powerful as any fully charged breath attack condensed into a single moment. In a single instant, Tinth, my partner, the ancient blue¡¯s face was blown clear off and body sealed to a wall in a glacier. Most impressive thing? Schism was *frantic* about trying to save our lives. Their enemies¡¯ lives. Schism took away our near-death injuries, took ¡®em on with their allies, some magic connecting them to a guy called Sponge. Oh, that¡¯s before we got put into a magic pocket and carried away to safety while apparently a Damnation was closing in.¡±


    Chuckling, Atter conjectures, ¡°We were in the pocket, so couldn¡¯t tell you for sure, but if someone said Schism took down a Damnation, and walked away whistling a tune, feeling even better than before, I¡¯d believe it if I were you.¡±


    I can¡¯t help smiling as I wait around the corner for the two Thunderers to show up. The Thunderers don¡¯t need to clear up rumors about me for me, but it¡¯s endearing. We have to get their clutch to safety immediately. I really shouldn¡¯t step in, but at this point I am feeling kind of full of myself, so I want to at least correct that last bit to play it down a little.


    Sliding around the corner from where I¡¯d been sitting the entire time, I chuckle loudly enough that my presence is noted, before correcting, ¡°Well, I took the Damnation *down* but didn¡¯t finish the bugger. His friends arrived and got to him while he was still breathing. They ran off with him. I¡¯m not saying they were scared of me, no, not at all, there was something going on. Like it was more about keeping his dragonforce away from me than anything else. I walked away, but I wasn¡¯t whistling. I was spent. Everything but my most emergency resources. Hey Loud. Hey Shiz. Thanks for standing up for me. You didn¡¯t have to.¡±


    Grinning, trying to stifle a chuckle, Shiz quips, ¡°Yeah but it¡¯s fun seeing the looks on people¡¯s faces when they learn that truth is scarier than the rumors. You figure out a way to get them here safely yet?¡±


    Nodding hesitantly, I query, ¡°Still probably the same idea. Illy gave you the magic pocket to hold onto, right? Do they need a lot of oxygen? We can use the same magic pocket if they¡¯d be fine with the amount of air that¡¯s in there. I wouldn¡¯t dare risk them though if they need to breathe in some way. I do want to get them as soon as possible. I¡¯m worried that the Damnations were in your area. As long as we¡¯re above the Worldstorm as I call it, I¡¯m confident I can get you home safely. If they try to go up incredibly high to reduce the risk of the storm? I¡¯ve got an even better advantage up there. I¡¯m a Void Dragon.¡±


    Shiz begins to say, ¡°About the Damnations, us too¡ª,¡± but Atter laments, ¡°I know that I¡¯ve said things that¡ª, I understand that you know how important they are to me. Even if they are lost to us, I still surrender, and plead that any of my people you can rescue, you take in. I¡¯ve no right to ask, but if they¡¯re missing, I¡¯d beg you to blaze a trail to find them.¡±


    Tensing up a moment, trying not to let my eyes wet, I nod, ¡°I¡¯d do it. If they¡¯re missing. If I knew which location, I¡¯d set out. Solo if I had to, but the Onyx Dawn are all good people. There¡¯d probably be volunteers. Let¡¯s make haste and hope it doesn¡¯t become an issue.¡±


    As we¡¯re leaving, I hear the fifth voice grumble, ¡°Did Schism look different to anyone else? Maybe they¡¯re a six after all. Well, okay, talking about mounting a solo rescue or something? The badass factor is pretty hot, maybe even a seven.¡±


    I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh. I shake my head as I work at trying to keep my mind on task. Shiz smirks, but Atter¡¯s face remains grim, neutral. I lift all three of us up out of the feasting hall on invisible telekinetic squares. I¡¯m surprised that Revvy, Gresog, and Farzee are already at the aerie, starting work on carefully trying to expand its edges. Revvy¡¯s hauling stone into place from somewhere below, while Greggy and Farzee work together to melt sand into the cracks, below, above, and around new stone blocks, locking it into place. It looks like Farzee might have even been up all night.


    Calling out to her telepathically, I ask Farzee, ¡°Are you alright? Have you even slept? I¡¯m grateful to you, and proud of you, but don¡¯t burn yourself out. We need you, our The Blue.¡±


    With a hint of pride, Farzee responds in that delightful accent, ¡°Not slept a wink, sorry Schism, but I¡¯ll make sure to hit the sack early. Won¡¯t even try to find anyone for it. I¡¯ll be exhausted. Revvy and Greggy have been up too, got me in touch with some Sand civvies. Pawn went to bed late, but she¡¯ll still be up sometime mid morning, and she¡¯ll handle routing the other civvie volunteers that you wanted. Thanks for the concern Schism. ¡®Preciate it.¡±


    Nodding to her, I wave at Farzee, Gresog, and Revinth, as Atter and Shiz take their draconic forms. It feels good to know that there¡¯re five dragons, six if you count me, up in the pre-dawn hours around five or six am, trying to be hard at work in ways that save lives. The Thunderer siblings take wing westward, angling in the direction of Attraxiaz¡¯s burrows, but they veer slightly with Atter in the lead, towards where there must be a nearby mountain instead, a fair hike from where I¡¯d seen her troops on the surface. It must be at least half a dozen miles away, but still, she was housing a thousand or so kobolds, though no Draconiacs oddly enough, unless I misjudged.


    I dare say, the entrance is fairly well hidden, because it¡¯s lined up with the top of the Worldstorm, as if it were a raft floating at just below sea-level. I wonder if Attraxiaz has managed to keep this secret from Terrorzin, or if it was meant to prevent people like us, the Onyx Dawn, from laying siege, or raiding. Somehow I doubt she¡¯s had much lucky keeping more than one big secret from Terrorzin.


    I think that, in Atter¡¯s shoes, I¡¯d probably make sure to seem like I was accidentally letting slip my biggest secret at some point, or rather, like I was trying desperately to hide one thing, when in reality I was making a subtler play to hide something more important to me. I¡¯d gladly focus efforts on appearing like I care about the secrecy of say, an extra base entrance or exit, if it meant hiding a clutch of eggs without drawing attention to the fact that I was hiding something else. I¡¯d try to keep like half a dozen fake priorities of what constitutes needing the most secrecy that made it seem like any secret I¡¯d try to keep, that I¡¯d go over the top about.


    Either way, when we begin landing in the almost-hidden tunnel structure, the Thunderers flinch as an inordinate amount of lightning worms its way towards the entrance. I¡¯m a bit surprised both at the sudden stream of lightning, and at the surprise the Thunderers show at it, as if they weren¡¯t expecting it. It doesn¡¯t take much of anything for my internal electrokinesis to extend several meters at this point, redirecting the lightning around us entirely. Apparently my new channels in place of my old physical nervous system, and tweaks to my organs that include magnetics and E M Fields let me literally channel my lightning powers biologically.


    Having my actual nervous system be located in whatever digital space contains my other organs is working out to be incredibly beneficial. I¡¯m back to my boosted reaction speed from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. The amount of time it takes for me to react to something is as low as anywhere from five to six or seven percent of the time of an average human, or perhaps an average Changeling Fae. The boost to my basic abilities and passive capabilities by becoming RS2 as a base is incredible. I¡¯m slightly excited to find out the rest of the effects of the changes we¡¯d accomplished last night.


    I¡¯ve been sort of wondering about what sort of personal possessions the kobolds and any other residents might have, if there were any non-combatants. I am however reminded that there are no non-combatants in any Terrorzin-allied faction. He mandated all eggs, and basically all living beings, all be remanded to his control and pledge their loyalty to him, and he treats them all as combatant pawns, disposable shock troops, and so on. So it¡¯s not too much of a surprise when Atter leads us through the tunnels, and everything is spartan as hell.


    When we get to a deeper area within the burrows, a place that is obviously Attraxiaz¡¯s private den, I realize that Atter¡¯s faction might even be considered poor. Even as the leader, as a titled Thunderer, Loud has little of anything one could call as wealth displayed.


    Curious about what we might need to transport, I ask, ¡°Atter, how much help are you going to need transporting materials, belongings, wealth, resources, food, and so on?¡±


    With a sullen look, Atter admits, ¡°Sadly, not much Schism, Reggie. We¡¯d been about to raid on Terrorzin¡¯s orders, forming up to head out the day you invaded ShizTinth in fact, in order to replenish somewhat. Terrorzin¡¯d have been hoping we lost enough forces in the raid to be more manageable for the amount of resources we could bring in, always favoring losing ground-troops without magic. My kinsmen, sent out essentially in the hopes that the non casters would die, it¡ª. It was fortuitous you arrived when you did.¡±


    As she continues to admit things that she knows I have strong feelings about, Atter wears a serious expression, ¡°I¡¯m only slightly ashamed that we would have raided for our survival, not as much as I should be, perhaps. Seeing your sustainability though, I¡¯d be glad to never risk it, or harm another to take what¡¯s theirs, ever again. We¡¯re almost there. Let me just blast this wall. Better yet, Shizzy you do it, low as you could, please brother.¡±


    At her request, Shiz charges a short blast to knock down a well-disguised false-wall. It¡¯s plain to see why Atter had Shiz do it, if she¡¯s a titled Thunderer, and thus her breath is of a higher caliber. The clutch of her eggs is in an incredibly tightly packed alcove just on the other side of a wall. If someone had x-ray vision, they might mistake it for a natural pocket of stone within the wall. I suppose that¡¯s exactly the point. Several of the egg-shaped or oblong objects appear to be rocks, packed in along the eggs. I think there are thirteen of the ovaloid, coarse, grayish objects that are actual eggs.


    Commenting mostly to her brother, I think, Atter laments, ¡°Only five, six, maybe seven will be viable even if I¡¯d find a mate as soon as tonight. The folks at Mount Solace seem the type to volunteer, for the chance to save lives, offer chances at life. What about you though Shizzy, you still feeling off about our deal?¡±


    Shiz looks away and grunts before grumbling, ¡°It¡¯s uncouth to speak about such deals in front of uninvolved parties, especially non-dragons.¡±


    There¡¯s a bit of a smirk from Atter as she corrects, ¡°Reggie here¡¯s as much dragon as you or me brother. Might even have been worth approaching about the Conjugation, but apparently doesn¡¯t come equipped with the parts. Not that I¡¯d have expected them to agree, what with already apparently being the mate of the leader of the Onyx Dawn, after having known them for less than a week. Still, what powerful whelps would spawn from such a Conjugation Shizzy? Fun to imagine kids that can take care of themselves inside half a year, a tenth as well as Schism can in that same time.¡±


    There¡¯s a look of distaste across Shiz¡¯s face as he responds, ¡°Alright, alright, enough with the conjecture. Yes, I¡¯d Conjugate, to make sure they had a chance before they all lost viability. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find someone in Mount Solace though, so I¡¯d prefer to not hear about the issue again, unless it¡¯s absolutely dire Attey.¡±


    I¡¯ve got a fairly strong feeling that it¡¯d be a pretty good guess to assume the Conjugation is essentially fertilization of eggs. I can see why the siblings would make a deal that such a thing was only a last resort, why the eggs haven¡¯t already been Conjugated, and so on. Still, it¡¯s a shame that apparently already half are likely to have lost viability.


    We unfold the portable hole, and begin quickly loading the eggs carefully into it, as well as the few meager possessions belonging to Atter. I also find myself blushing about the fact that I¡¯m already coming to be known as Kinzul¡¯s mate, despite, like Attey said, me having only been with the Order for less than a week. It has really only been what, five, six, maybe seven days since Kinzul had found us and brought us into the Order?


    Still, I also suggest we should snag as much glow-lichen and glow-moss to pack in with the eggs as possible. I know the pocket dimension itself doesn¡¯t really shake around, but better safe than sorry, and some extra oxygen and warmth couldn¡¯t hurt. I want us to protect every life that we can.


    It¡¯s time for Atter to begin organizing her people, now that we¡¯ve got the eggs. She should be able to take care of herself for the couple of hours it¡¯ll take for Shiz and I to get to Mount Solace, set these in a safe location amongst the Order members, and head back with the beginnings of the volunteer train. Hopefully things go smoothly, but I¡¯m already expecting a combat today.


    I¡¯m hoping that any combat that might happen is not all seven Damnations, but there¡¯s a fair chance that it could be the six uninjured ones at least. I¡¯d really rather it not be any of them, but right now? Right now I¡¯m more powerful than I was yesterday, with less limitations, and I¡¯ve got all of my resources, and new resources that Kinzul and my inner circle helped invent last night basically. I might be able to take out a Damnation or two, without needing to abuse the Worldstorm, maybe, but at least with the help of the Worldstorm, I should be able to take out at least one. Maybe. Right?

 B 6 C 68: Lotta Sixes

    As I¡¯m pondering about whether or not I could defeat a Damnation with or without the help of the Worldstorm, if the need arose, I try to stretch out my muscles, since they¡¯re brand new. I¡¯d rather get used to them, before having to face such a difficult fight. Shiz seems a bit concerned that I¡¯m walking around, light as a feather on his back while he¡¯s sailing the skies, but I¡¯m not overly worried. Let¡¯s see, deltoids, biceps, triceps, my trapezoids, wait, isn¡¯t that a shape, trapeziums, that¡¯s it, my quadriceps, and my calf muscles. Six groups that I want to make sure are limber and fully responsive before any fighting today.


    I know I technically don¡¯t need to come back with Shiz. I¡¯d never forgive myself though if he were slain or injured or lost the eggs because he got jumped by a Terrorzin loyalist that had been laying in wait, somewhere off of our first flight path. For all I know, us moving the eggs might have triggered some Psion or scrying action that alerted Terrorzin to send out a nearby force to intercept them. We don¡¯t know enough about what he really has at his disposal, because for most of Rayileklia¡¯s history, he¡¯s had pretty much everything at his disposal.


    Heaving a weighty sigh, I huff for a moment before remembering to breathe deeply. My exhalation this time is more of a yawn, despite this body being fresh, new, newly rested, and in great condition, I do feel a tad sleepy. Mostly I¡¯d just like to be enjoying this day with my loved ones, like Kinzul had wanted me to. Or making use of my new advantages to continue growing more powerful and versatile in leaps and bounds.


    While I¡¯m distracted with thoughts of what I¡¯d like to be doing, I almost don¡¯t notice it as the paper giraffe pops its head out of the dimensional pouch with a note from Luni. She wants me to start engaging my ultimate form right this instant. I trust Lu more than anything in any universe, so I do. It¡¯s going to take six hours for it to do anything more than just fizzling. I¡¯ll get a mere few seconds out of the form. Or I could maybe put the form out of commission for several years, six or so, and get a minute or couple of minutes out of the form. Possibly. It¡¯d take a lot of willpower though, and I¡¯d be risking possibly being taken over by whatever alien biology is required to operate the form. We couldn¡¯t do away with that when building it.


    It¡¯s disconcerting knowing Lu is having future foreknowledge once again. Or maybe has been this entire time. It¡¯s kind of funny. Someone who keeps more secrets than possibly anyone else, and begs us to not force her to lie, and probably lies quite a bit casually by this point, is the person I trust most of all to make decisions or guide my actions. I love Lu, and Te, above all else, with Lil and Lucky near them, and then people like Kinzul, Illy, Prinrin, Tiktik, Alanea Whifflewillow, and even though she¡¯s gone, in some ways, Dawn.


    I¡¯m distracting myself from the fact that I¡¯m likely facing a big battle in less than six hours, but I don¡¯t know how to prepare for something that requires my absolutely highest power already just after having created it. Shiz and I are flying, well, Shiz is doing the flying, but I¡¯m sticking with him in order to¡ª. Are you serious?


    Upon approach to the Onyx Dawn¡¯s aerie, I hear someone I don¡¯t know calling out, ¡°In the name of Terrorzin, I Mydraig the Hareslayer demand you all yield under his might, we prepare to march on the world, and will send yours to the front lines. We¡ª.¡±


    Hareslayer seems to be addressing six dragons working on the aerie. While three other volunteers remain on the aerie, Farzee, Gresog, and Revvinth take wing to bring their obvious refusal to this idiot¡¯s face, but I can barely comprehend his attack that knocks them all out of the sky tumbling back to the Aerie suddenly in their human forms. It¡¯s the fact that there are only three of them, and that they¡¯re in their human forms that allows me to save them with my telekinesis as I switch into battle gear and leap off of Shiz while holding my breath.


    The Hareslayer is an enormous dragon, his scales gleaming like burnished copper in the pale early morning light above the Worldstorm. The scales themselves are large, overlapping, and iridescent, reflecting different colors as Mydraig moves, their rainbow-like reflections cluing me in to what powerful Latent he might have. Mydraig''s head is long and narrow, tapering to a pointed snout that bristles with sharp teeth. His eyes are enormous blobs of amber, glowing with an inner fire that seems to burn with frightening intensity. Two long, curved horns protrude from the dragon''s forehead, adding to his already fearsome appearance.


    The dragon''s wings are massive, easily spanning the length of several tall buildings. The wings are a mottled brown, with occasional hints of green and red in the mix. As Mydraig beats his wings, the sound is deafening, causing a ripple effect throughout the surrounding foggy cloudbank beneath him of the Worldstorm. Further, Mydraig''s body is muscular and powerful, with thick, sinewy limbs that end in razor-sharp talons. The dragon''s tail is long and whip-like, ending in a spade-shaped appendage that seems perfectly designed for crushing and maiming victims.


    Thankfully, Mydraig didn¡¯t decide to maim the falling human-formed dragons. I puff a breath at that in a bit of grateful relief, falling faster suddenly. I chuckle at myself for a moment before I fight my own automatic responses so that I can hold my breath.


    When I¡¯m within a few meters of the aerie, I shout to Shiz, ¡°Get *them* from the magic pocket inside and unpacked in Lady Kinzul¡¯s demolished den, take these three with you. Make sure no-one else leaves Mount Solace until I finish him. I¡¯ve got this chump.¡±


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    Eyeing me curiously, Shiz queries, ¡°You sure You don¡¯t want a hand? Hareslayer¡¯s able to reverse and revert breaths, Latents and some other powers. Somehow has a counter to just about anything ever thrown at him. Never been defeated. Doesn¡¯t leave his home much, so it¡¯s odd that he¡¯s here.¡±


    I begin giggling madly. Nemesis. He¡¯s got a nemesis power, a counter power. Almost assuredly doesn¡¯t leave his home so that no one finds out it¡¯s probably a defensive counter only. People coming to attack him are obviously going to start crap. Shiz takes my laugh as cue enough, so he simply shrugs and accepts Farzee, Gresog, and Revvy as I set them on his back. They each grumble that they¡¯re fine, and can help, but I reassure them that I¡¯ve got this. I¡¯m certainly not going to spend four and a half hours stalling this guy, and Lu must have known that, so this isn¡¯t even the big combat that¡¯s going to happen today.


    What¡¯s more, Hareslayer is speaking as if he doesn¡¯t know we¡¯ve already begun our offensive, that we¡¯re now at open war with Terrorzin¡¯s forces. In that case, I need to take him out, so that he gets no chance to report our disobedience to his forces. With any luck, the report of him not returning from Mount Solace will take as long to reach Terrorzin as the news of our continued assaults on various fortresses, citadels, and land forces. The Damnations could have told Terrorzin about us, but I don¡¯t think they¡¯re actually working for him. They¡¯re dominated by our manxome foe in some way, possibly even on autopilot.


    I can¡¯t use any other combat forms, since I¡¯m still in the middle of transforming into the cosmic king form. Worse, parts of my biology are beginning to alter and show signs of the transformation that¡¯s coming, so I need to keep him from reversing that particular power of mine. I¡¯m pretty certain that him reversing my Latent is going to go horribly, horribly wrong for him, so I just keep giggling as I float up towards Mydraiglewhatsit.


    The numbskull who¡¯d hurt my allies begins to call out to me but I interrupt with the usual, ¡°I am Reggie Shellcracker, Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I give you this one, and only opportunity to surrender, or I¡¯ll rip you open and drink of your dragonforce. Go ahead and sense the dragonforces inside of me, and guess if I¡¯m bluffing.¡±


    Mydraig huffs and calls me out, ¡°Hmf, an impressive little selection you¡¯ve got in there, an Ice, a Fire, and a Lightning.¡±


    Woah, wait, what? Holy crap. That¡¯s right. My current dragonforces happen to be the elements I most specialize in. Moreover, in their order of power. That-- that has to be a coincidence, right? I¡¯m almost too distracted to make note of Mydraig continuing, ¡°Still, none before you have succeeded, I Mydraig Hareslayer am undefeated.¡±


    Grumbling, I quip, ¡°Yeah yeah and you¡¯re a poet and don¡¯t even know it, I get it. I gave you your one shot at mercy, so go ahead then, try to attack me.¡±


    Mydraig balks, not making the first move. Haha! I friggin¡¯ knew it! His most powerful ability is to only counter abilities that are actively being used against him, including a shapeshifter¡¯s more powerful form if used in combat. I stand smirking slyly at Mydraig until my expression morphs into a devious, evil grin.


    Anyway, I don¡¯t want to be here all morning, so I¡¯ll play along. I¡¯ll throw some easy to counter abilities that I¡¯m essentially immune to, then, ¡°give up,¡± to Mydraig, conceding defeat. Then the real fun begins.


    Starting off slowly, I simply T K Surf in Mydraig¡¯s general direction, testing a theory. Either he can¡¯t counter what he can¡¯t see, which would be far too easy a victory for me, or it doesn¡¯t count if it¡¯s only being tangentially used, rather than offensively against him. Either one is fine, hell, even having no weaknesses is fine, because I¡¯m going to get him to finish himself off if my other theories hold true.


    I begin inhaling, siphoning the heat from Mydraig¡¯s vicinity, and his face. Suddenly my inhalation becomes a roaring flame that¡¯s rushing my way, towards my face. I grin and begin cackling as I stand in an impressive blast of flame, technically of my own making. He can¡¯t counter my immunities or resistances, because they aren¡¯t offenses aimed at him. I suppose it was a bit of a stupid risk, if I had been wrong, I¡¯d have been roasted. Still, I can¡¯t help laughing almost maniacally. I¡¯m trying to sell an image to Mydraig as too dangerous and crazy to let live.


    Commenting on my crazy-factor, Mydraig queries, ¡°Never had to face the heat before? Going crazy from the pain? Is this the best Mount Solace can offer? I¡¯d have thought having a Red¡¯s dragonforce within you would at le¡ª. What.¡±


    I try not giggling at his obvious flub, and fail slightly. When the fire dies down, I blow a puff of gas towards Mydraig, which for some reason, he doesn¡¯t counter. I guess because it isn¡¯t offensively used just yet. It¡¯s not a really harmful gas unless I purposely pump a lot of volume into a small area, then it¡¯s a toxin. Since he isn¡¯t countering it, I continue exhaling it for a good while, getting a nice little cloud around the two of us. He hasn¡¯t done anything more than flap in front of me, looking a bit stunned. Still, I ignite the gas with a spark, and I notice an eye-twitch that might signify something.


    The gas explodes into a ball of fire between the two of us, but all of a sudden, before all of my breath weapon can finish igniting, it all becomes a glacier in midair. Some of that glacier is stuck to Mydraig¡¯s face, which causes him to become top-heavy in the worst way. He shakes free of it almost immediately, and casts a glare my way. That was easy, and proves one of my later theories. His counters seem to be exact opposites, and, he doesn¡¯t necessarily control what that counter does, at least not perfectly, or he¡¯d have never been the one that had to break himself free of falling ice just now.


    The ice plummets into the Worldstorm, and ends up destroyed immediately. Mydraig jokes, ¡°So you do have a few tricks up your sleeve after all. Can¡¯t say I¡¯m surprised with all those titles. Still, you¡¯re not even a tiny morsel. You should call out some backup, so that I¡¯ve got a reason to go all out, and so that I have something to eat when this battle concludes.¡±


    Still smirking at the confident Hareslayer, I retort, ¡°No, no I don¡¯t think I should. In fact, I¡¯ll make you a deal, if you can survive all of my elements when I go all out, I¡¯ll let you eat me.¡±

 B 6 C 69: Hareslayer? Hareslain

    The snort of confident disdain that Mydraig unleashes causes me to giggle further. I¡¯m in no way going to go anywhere near all out on this doofus. I¡¯m not even going to use *any* of my actual resources. I just have to not oversell it by saying something stupid like, ¡°Oh gosh, it seems you really do have me beat, please spare me mister Hareslayer,¡± or anything else as over-the-top.


    This one¡¯s just going to be fun. I begin streaming a long lightning bolt breath past Mydraig, intentionally missing him, but only just barely. He can¡¯t help it, can he? The fool calls out, ¡°Hah, missed me!¡± as I equip number four from my Q C R while floating slightly closer to Mydraig, continuing to breathe lightning just past him. My blinding flash of lightning keeps him from seeing the fact that the Worldstorm is pounding me with lightning, charging me up.


    Sure enough, the bolt of lightning breath curves slightly as it¡¯s summoned directly in reverse towards me. Better yet, as I¡¯d hoped, Mydraig is shocked in two ways. One, he gets the crap blasted out of his right wing and part of his tail as it¡¯s whipping side to side. Two, he did not see that coming. It doesn¡¯t quite confirm whether he needs to see it coming or not though. Mydraig lifts a good fifty feet upwards from his current position in response to the blast, oddly.


    The lack of confirmation on the precise nature of his counter ability is mostly because there¡¯s too many variables to account for. It could still be that it was that he can¡¯t counter any tangential attack, or that he can¡¯t counter cursed objects, or natural hazards. Any of them is fine for my purpose. I want him to counter my Latent when I use it on him.


    Alright Reggie, don¡¯t oversell it. First, Q C R back to number five. Start off sounding pissed and impressed, ¡°Hm, seems like I might actually have to consider you a threat after all. I guess I should be using more than thirty percent of my power on an ancient. Alright, I¡¯ll show you that much respect, and go all out to finish it!¡±


    Hehe. I¡¯m only using fractions of a percent of my powers. Though, to be fair, that was about thirty percent of a random lightning breath, so it wasn¡¯t exactly a lie. Still, alright Reggie, ramp it up, try to hit him directly with the lightning and see how he counters it. I begin exhaling a more potent blast of lightning directly at Mydraig. Just as it¡¯s about to hit him, it turns into a massive jet of water, and reverses directions. Holding my breath, I raise my shield up to block the watery blast. The torrent strikes my shield dead on, and it sends me flying ridiculously far away.


    The effect ends up appearing as if the blast of water struck me with far more force than it did, and as if I¡¯m bedraggled, and hurt, by my own breath that did nothing more than move me around a tiny bit. Floating back towards Mydraig, huffing, panting, and wheezing, I make sure that my telekinetic grip on myself bobs and falters. My grip also veers side to side as if I were drunk, or losing my balance and wits.


    Grinning evilly, my foe queries, ¡°Looks like your breath weapon does pack a bit of a punch after all, but can you not see? It¡¯ll only ever hurt you, not me. So, about that conceding of victory you were going to give me. Are you about there yet? Ready to give up, Hero of the Onyx Dawn?¡±


    Ah, the idiot doesn¡¯t even realize it was my breath weapon that struck him from the rear. He must think that the Worldstorm randomly shot lightning up towards him. So that¡¯s why he flew up. Hah. Okay, phew, keep up the act Reggie.


    Calling out to Mydraig, I respond, ¡°I¡¯m, huff, not even close to through with you yet. You¡¯re going huff, down Hareslayer! You won¡¯t set a claw inside my mountain! Your own ability to turn breath weapons back on me will work against you, you¡¯ll see. Huff. You¡¯ve just made me more powerful, that¡¯s all.¡±


    Snirk. Careful Reggie, don¡¯t overplay. Anyway, I float back as close to him as he¡¯ll allow me to get. He does begin backing away after a certain point, upwards away from me and the Worldstorm. I continue meeting his gaze with a wild-eyed stare, as if I¡¯m desperately searching for an advantage, looking like I¡¯m hoping a plan I¡¯ve thought up will actually work. I begin inhaling once again, cooling the area between us, and part of Mydraig¡¯s face.


    The inhalation, my cold breath, is met with the same response, fire coming my way, but I make as if I¡¯m eating it, swallowing more and more flames. Mydraig does pause slightly, curious about what I¡¯m up to, so he flaps sideways a bit to be able to get a look at what I¡¯m doing around the brightness of the flames. Good, he can see me ¡°eating¡± them. My foe furrows his brow, trying to determine if I might have any tricks he didn¡¯t consider. These dragonforces are friggin¡¯ perfect to get someone like this to underestimate me.


    After a long moment, I begin spewing flame directly from my mouth, igniting my gas before sending it out, making it look like the breath is a much more ramped up version of my fire. It does look as if I¡¯m recycling the fire that I just inhaled. It does however hurt the hell out of my throat. I¡¯m *near* immune to thermal damage, not entirely, and my own, when ignited too early, is some of the hottest stuff around below Lil¡¯s flames.


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    Mydraig doesn¡¯t dodge, because of course he wouldn¡¯t, a more powerful fire breath is just going to result in a more powerful icy retaliation. The flames begin to near those coppery, iridescent scales, each one is large and domed, overlapping with the one beside it, providing excellent protection to his likely much-more vulnerable flesh beneath. The scales are also intricately patterned, with wavy ridges that follow the contours of Mydraig''s body, giving it a sense of fluidity even when the dippy-dimwit is flapping here. The scales on his back are slightly larger than those on his belly, and they curve slightly upward towards his spine, further enhancing his spine¡¯s ridged dorsal ridge¡¯s appearance.


    The fire becomes a glacier once again, from near Mydraig¡¯s head, all the way into my throat. This could hurt a bit, if I wasn¡¯t a digital Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin adjacent lifeform. As is, I just intend to take a bite of the ice, and everything that¡¯s in my mouth or further inside of me is teleported to my nebulous digital organs. I try to wear an expression of terror upon my face as I glance at Mydraig¡¯s big dumb head, avoiding looking him in the eyes. Hopefully it appears as if I¡¯m almost afraid to meet his gaze. It¡¯s a bit difficult to fight the smile, and harder to remember what fear should look like on my face, but hopefully I pull it off.


    As for Mydraig''s stupid head, his eyes are large and oval-shaped, with a deep amber hue with that unnatural glow behind them. His pupils are slitted and catlike, oddly enough. This ends up giving his long, pointed snout, filled with row upon row of razor-sharp teeth a bit of the vibe of a predatory fox or similar animal. Mydraig¡¯s nostrils are large and flared, allowing him to take in large amounts of air. Also upon his dumb face is a malicious grin, as he seems to believe he¡¯s got me cornered.


    I begin frantically glancing around, attempting to appear panicked. Drawing Frostburn, I level it shakily towards Hareslayer, which causes him to chuckle heavily before quipping, ¡°What ever happened to conceding defeat if your precious three elements didn¡¯t work on me? Or does the word of a Hero mean nothing to the Onyx Dawn.¡±


    Annoyingly, there are quite a number of spectators that had been watching from a side tunnel that I hadn¡¯t noticed that leads up to the aerie. In fact, I think it¡¯s new, and must be where Greggy and Revvy were getting the extra stone. Worse, it means people from the feasting hall can just walk up to the aerie, when normally only fliers could exit to the balcony-esque fixture above the Worldstorm.


    This new development of course means that that idiot Leezahna is about to see me admit defeat, adding fuel to her flames. Hopefully Revvy doesn¡¯t have walls up blocking his passive reception of my internal monologue, so that he¡¯ll know my plans, and can start explaining it to the panic-stricken crowd gathered on the aerie.


    I slump my shoulders and droop my head in shame, as I pretend to admit defeat, ¡°You¡¯re right, my word is my bond. I must allow you to eat me. Hopefully another hero will pick up my legendary blade to take up the mantle of hero after me.¡±


    I casually chuck Frostburn down to the aerie, making sure to use telekinesis to drive it point-first into the stone near the crowd, so that even if someone is dumb enough and brave enough to try to help, it¡¯ll take them at least a split second. I float myself dejectedly, resignedly towards Hareslayer¡¯s snout. When I¡¯m within range, he lunges, attempting to bite into me with his enormous teeth.


    I¡¯d be lying if I said I didn¡¯t anticipate this. I perform a T K S L directly forward towards Hareslayer¡¯s throat. I perch in the roof of his mouth, causing him to ask, ¡°Wha¡ª?¡± before I begin activating my Latent, empowered by the Honoris Causa that I¡¯ve had activated. Either his counter ability doesn¡¯t work in here, in which case the vacuum of my power tears apart his throat and cranium from the inside, or, I become surrounded by crushing, incredibly dense mass, breaking his jaw to pieces, tearing open his throat, or, I become surrounded by the opposite of my implosion. That would of course be an explosion.


    The gruesome shower of gore as Mydraig Hareslayer¡¯s Latent tries to save his life, by reversing my Latent is one I¡¯m grateful to not have seen from the outside. His jaw is blown clean off, and his throat torn open down to his chest. The sides of Mydraig¡¯s skull are fractured, cracked, and exposed, as all the scales and flesh from his face has been violently expelled from within. The once glowing amber orbs of his eyes are missing, having been vigorously discharged from the force applied from beneath them on the inside.


    I levitate Frostburn back to my hand, as Mydraig attempts to make sense of what just happened. I calmly explain, ¡°I said I¡¯d let you eat me if I went all out. I didn¡¯t go anywhere near all out, but I did let you eat me anyway. I didn¡¯t say I¡¯d die from it, or even let you survive.¡±


    For some reason, my brain decides to announce, ¡°Itadakimasu. Oh, that more or less means thanks for the meal by the way. Sorta, kinda. Y¡¯know, for your dragonforce that I¡¯m about to consume, along with your heart. I have no idea why I said it, that was weird.¡±


    If Mydraig still had eyes, I can sense the panic that would be displayed in them. Before he can make even a paltry attempt at fleeing, I T K S L towards a crack in his skull, and jab away at it ferociously until Frostburn will fit through it into his cranial cavity. One might be amazed at how little pressure it takes to insert an incredibly sharp, incredibly deadly object into someone¡¯s brain. I simply float Frostburn into his skull and telekinetically thrust with it.


    Mydraig the Hareslayer is no more, and his corpse plummets to the aerie. Thankfully Revvie did indeed hear my thought train, so he knew what was coming. He and Gresog carefully lower the incoming corpse to the aerie, and they peel away his chest scales, and chest tissue to allow access towards his heart flesh for me.

 B 6 C 70: Recapturing Solace

    I try not to giggle as I see the stunned looks on the assembled peanut gallery¡¯s faces. They¡¯re completely drenched in the splattered gore, every last one of them. As I¡¯m landing, I¡¯m hearing shocked queries like, ¡°But how? He was countering everything you threw at him!¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I grumble, ¡°Please tell me that you¡¯re not all so simple-minded that none of you could figure out his power. He reversed things. I was toying with him to get him to eat me. Remember who I am? I¡¯m the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. Can anyone guess what a void existing in space does? It implodes. What¡¯s the opposite of an implosion? Anyone? An explosion. I haven¡¯t even used any of my daily resources up, because I¡¯m saving them to protect the refugee train that¡¯ll be incoming. You all should have been made aware of it. Anyway, pardon me while I feast. If you¡¯re hungry, help yourselves to anything other than his heart.¡±


    Stepping into the proferred chest cavity, as Revvy and Greggy step aside, allowing me to claim my prize, I realize that Mydraig might have been a metallic dragon. Possibly. His scales had a coppery sheen. Their reflection was the kind that casted a rainbow hue in a way that the roundness of the scales gave off blueish or greenish tones depending on which angle they were viewed at. They¡¯re fairly lovely, too bad they were on an idiot who worked for Terrorzin.


    I kind of thought that all metallics would oppose Terrorzin due to The Platinum having been the hero of dragonkind. I guess every group of people is, as always, filled with unique individuals, none of whom should be treated as anything less than unique. It is why I should, and want to, offer mercy to everyone in Terrorzin¡¯s hordes, even if most of them seem brainwashed. Anyway, time to chow down.


    Oh with RS2, it is much, much faster to absorb dragonforce from Mydraig than it would have been as cherubic Reggie. Even though his dragonforce was thoroughly spread throughout both his body, and his immediate vicinity. It makes sense, that it was probably the contact with his dragonforce that made certain abilities simply revert, since he didn¡¯t need to see them after all. It¡¯s a good thing I didn¡¯t try to use anything that might have been considered my cosmic-king form¡¯s power in a hostile manner during the fight while up close.


    Ugh, still, chowing down on massive dragon hearts, and being drenched in dragon blood while absorbing a dragonforce from within isn¡¯t exactly a pleasant, or immediate activity. Despite that, I¡¯ve absorbed his in record time. Seems he was an acid dragon, and never even had a chance to use it.


    Huh, an Ice, a Fire, a Lightning, and an Acid? In that order? The order in which I gained my first elemental spells in Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? That¡¯s a friggin¡¯ hell of a weird coincidence. Anyway, since it was quick enough, and the peanut gallery is still gawping as they clean themselves off, I might as well try something. I need to earn enough of Leezahna¡¯s respect that she isn¡¯t going to eff over our shop stall when I eventually try to get her down to Mount Verdimenn. I¡¯ll work on Nietru¡¯s request.


    Floating out to Mydraig¡¯s shoulder, I call out loudly, ¡°Alright everybody, story time! I¡¯ll answer questions in a few moments. If any of you want to know who your Hero is, why Schism cries, weeps, floats around seeming dazed, any of that, stick around. I¡¯ll be working to relocate a thousand refugees here today, refugees from a faction led by Attraxiaz the Loud, a Thunderer that I offered mercy to. Mercy, deaths, and love are the primary reasons I weep. I¡¯ve offered a fair bit of the latter, and received quite a bit as well. The former I¡¯ve similarly offered a lot of, but it has been rarely accepted. Central amongst them is death, something I¡¯ve caused incalculable numbers of across two lifetimes.¡±


    I allow myself to weep a scant few tears as I draw a deep breath and sigh. Drawing a shuddering breath, I continue, ¡°I¡¯m not even from your world, this planet, Rayileklia. I¡¯m similar to Changeling Fae from your Fae¡¯s Wilds, but even that isn¡¯t a perfect comparison for what I am. Words that describe me, my birth, and my powers, don¡¯t exist, and don¡¯t mean anything on this world. Digital. Know what that means? Nothing to do with fingers, and only tangentially related to numbers. Electricity has positive and negative states, ons or offs, ones or zeros. With a wise enough application of ones and zeroes, you can make any number with only a few of them, and with any number, you can make any letter, or word. With any and every word at your disposal, a digital being at our base level, is made of ones and zeros. I guess it hardly matters. Point is, you don¡¯t understand who I am yet, much less what I am. I¡¯d like you all to give me a chance.¡±


    I barely refrain from rolling my eyes at having to ask for a chance from people whose opinions I mostly don¡¯t give a rat¡¯s ass about. Still, I attempt to explain where I¡¯m coming from, ¡°On my world, I took a thousand lives in an instant, then I reversed time and undid that action, but still came to take dozens of lives. I caused the death and downfall of entire cities and civilizations. I saved several as well. I came to this world after dying on my world in an attempt to save it from a calamity, an apocalyptic union of four gods, three of whom were my, well, allies at least, and one was definitely a friend. They were at the mercy of fate, and the fourth god¡¯s summoning, a hateful, spiteful sea serpent. I¡¯d only been alive on my own world for a couple of years, two, three, maybe four, I forget. I arrived after my death on my world, here on Rayileklia this last June. Within days of my arrival, I slew an ancient purple named Kozzurth.¡±


    There are gasps and murmurs, but before they can start asking questions, I maneuver my monologue, ¡°Rayileklia hasn¡¯t been kind to me, but that only makes me stronger. I defeated the Cult of the Bright Lord in their Cathedral of Blood, me and a blue kobold named Dippy basically slew them all, while Teuila and another friend tried to infiltrate to find their leader. Their leader was a bloated pile of excrement, figuratively, and he was hiding behind a massive spell of radiance, disintegrating radiation. I walked through it and slew him by holding him within it. It was one of the most excruciating pains of my life, and I¡¯ve suffered a lot of excruciating pains.¡±


    Sighing, I gloss over a lot of details, ¡°In a human city known as Victo, a necromancer tried and failed to steal my soul, his trove of stolen knowledge is how I began learning Rayileklian magic, to replace the magic from my world that I could no longer reach out to. I foiled assassination attempts in the Hidden at the Heart of the Wild¡¯s, I entreated with the Sisters Hidden in the Mists. I battled the Felgre hordes with my ally Tiktik, and my beloved Teuila, holding them off for half a day on my own, when Tiktik was out of commission, and Teuila hadn¡¯t yet arrived from where she¡¯d gone to relay the evacuation order. We fought for several more hours before we opened a hole in the sky, a hole in what I call the Worldstorm. The sunlight bought the Aasimovians of Autumn Brook more time to evacuate.¡±


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    I draw another shuddering breath, attempting to skip a lot of details, ¡°We fled Autumn Brook, because while Teuila and I were capable of laying waste to thousands and thousands of Felgres, and we did, they were endless. Felgre Portalspawn just continue to release more of their kind onto our world. We fled through The Gap, trying to rescue our kobold friends from there, where we ran into Astridus and Olashax repeatedly. They fled from their every encounter with us. I took Olashax¡¯s left eye, Teuila shattered both of his hands. I later took Olashax¡¯s life on the first offensive of the war, the first open engagement. I destroyed Yisstendahl, usurping the betrayer as your archmage, secretly at the behest of our Lady Kinzul. My¡ª. Someone very special to me.¡±


    Smirking, I wait for the murmurs and conjectures about that last bit to die down a tad before trying to wrap up, ¡°Teuila, who later became our Tenith, was there to help me fight Yisstendahl, creating the opening I needed to utterly destroy him. Sun was at my side to help me defeat Olashax, providing a counter-heat that kept my magical explosion from being directed away from the ancient Ice. My son Lucky, our Hunter, and another special person to me, Luni, our Muse, were there at my side keeping Vanathar grounded which allowed me to finish him more easily. I had to koff, assist, some of the Paradox Vivant on that engagement. There¡¯s no reason to injure anyone¡¯s pride, it was a massive engagement that was underestimated.¡±


    Ugh, I hate bragging, even if I try to downplay it. Still, I attempt to convey, ¡°Let¡¯s just say, in under two minutes time total, I managed to traverse most of a battlefield, free two friends from dragonfright, which I¡¯m immune to, learn an entirely new form of an ally that I can summon with my magics, disrupt what was it, seventeen? Psychic mages, Psions, that were pinning down an ally, killing a majority of them, and then killing Vanathar. I¡¯d offered Vanathar mercy, but he spat in my face, literally, so I ended him.¡±


    I try to still my breathing as I admit something I¡¯d rather not have to share, ¡°There¡¯s a dangerous part of me that was accidentally freed during that battle. Someone dear to me was injured, and while some of you may think that you might go berserk with rage in such a place, my wrath actually does take over control of my body. It had me slay roughly one hundred to three hundred fire mages in the course of eight minutes. We could have been more efficient, but I wasn¡¯t in control.¡±


    Recalling another thing from the engagement, I add, ¡°Also, Sun and I defeated a magma worm in that engagement, with everyone¡¯s help. Well, mostly so that Sun would have an escape route, since he wouldn¡¯t have faired as well against the explosion I caused inside the magma worm.¡±


    Chuckling for a bit, I shake my head at myself. Rolling my eyes while I keep them closed, so as not to show the facial gesture to anyone, I recollect, ¡°From that engagement, I was to travel solo to Mount Horatzchi for an assault on the ShizTinth stronghold. Along that path, as is my prerogative in the field, I made a judgment call to speak with a faction leader that I had spied marshaling her troops. I requested her surrender, and offered her mercy, much like I had offered Vanathar, much like I try to find the time to offer to those that I can. She, Attraxiaz the Loud, wisely accepted it.¡±


    Flashing a smile towards some faces in the crowd that I recognize, I almost reminisce about the time I¡¯d spent with Atter, ¡°Over the course of a day, we built up a rapport, and I took her as my prisoner in a fashion, in order to grant her the safety that comes with such a status. We¡¯ll be rescuing her people today, but the prisoner status was to provide safety to Atter, Attraxiaz. Her, and her clutch, that we¡¯ve managed to rescue today already.¡±


    At this, the gasps are widespread, and louder than any murmur. Nodding at the appreciation of the idea that we¡¯ve offered sanctuary to a titled Thunderer, and her unborn clutch, I work towards finishing my external deeds with, ¡°The assault on the stronghold went smoothly. I, undamaged from my fights with Vanathar, Olashax, psychic mages, fire mages, and the magma worm, slew my way up the insides from the bottom, the very front door while Shield and Aegis were late, and the Dormir were slaying their way down in from the top. I tried to offer mercy at nearly every turn. Unfortunately, so very few accepted it. One that accepted it said he would survive by raiding villages and taking humans as cattle. I had to slay him, which sickens me to my very soul. Two that accepted my mercy are in our prison, earning my trust by keeping their distance from those of you that might be vulnerable to the magics they can wield.¡±


    Scowling at the memory of Tinth breaking a ceasefire, I finish recalling my deeds at ShizTinth, mostly, ¡°Two others that seemed to accept my mercy were Shiz, and Tinth. Tinth betrayed our ceasefire, our peacetalks, and nearly slew Atter and Shiz in an effort to slay me. I destroyed him utterly and completely in an instant for this affront to my mercy, for this affront to people I had offered protection and safety to. We thankfully have many brave and wonderful volunteers, and an amazing man by the Alias of Sponge, that allowed us to save the lives of the Thunderers that will be living amongst us from now on.¡±


    Grumbling, trying to downplay it, I angrily mutter about our flight from ShizTinth, ¡°Of course the stupid Damnation showed up, just as I was finishing absorbing Tinth¡¯s dragonforce, Nonnam, so I called for a retreat, having accomplished our goals in the stronghold. Nonnam was going to pursue, so I risked my life, and drove him into the Worldstorm with the aid of Induul the Green¡¯s breath weapon that was ignited to give me enough explosive force to wrest control over Nonnam¡¯s descent from him. Bugger got away after we landed out the bottom of the Worldstorm, because his six buddies showed up and stole his body from me before I could finish him off. Then I was stuck below the Worldstorm, so it took me a while to find a way up a mountain and get above it to travel towards home. I got picked up by Sun and Muse on the way, thankfully.¡±


    Sighing deeply, I know I need to explain how we¡¯re going to be able to handle the refugees that I¡¯ve said were coming, so I do, ¡°I break the rules of reality, magic, time and space. I¡¯ve created a project in Mount Verdimenn that allows us to grow limitless resources. Wood, clay, stone, eventually metals, and eventually gems. We even currently have unlimited stew, technically. With the help of our Muse, we¡¯ve set up a special location that transforms wealth into goods, or goods into wealth. We have unlimited resources to produce goods with, in order to earn wealth from this magical location, and even unlimited wealth in the way of gems eventually.¡±


    Pausing a moment to let it sink in, I take a short breather before explaining, ¡°This gives us access to unprecedented sustainability, a problem that had been facing dragonkin and dragonkind for most of Rayileklia¡¯s history. This is why there has been hustle and bustle in the lower caverns of Mount Solace, and why many of your friends, family, and acquaintances have been spending their days volunteering, to help this project of infinite sustainability get off the ground.¡±


    I finally end my stupid public address with, ¡°There are a few key people I still need to recruit, to finalize certain magics, to protect the area, and the ability to retain the infinite sustainability forever. So yeah, that¡¯s me, that¡¯s what your Schism is out there doing for you, for those that I can save and offer mercy to. Any questions?¡±

 B 6 C 71: Dimineros Fall

    A precocious young lass calls out, ¡°Is it true you¡¯re sleeping with like, seven people?¡±


    Coughing, and blushing a bit, I respond, ¡°Well, technically, but sleeping in a pile of loved ones is simply a comfort to share with those I hold dear. I¡ª was hoping for questions more aimed towards things you want to see from a Hero of the Onyx Dawn.¡±


    Someone I hadn¡¯t spotted in the crowd until now, a familiar, lanky, gangly young woman, I hadn¡¯t noticed partially because her lovely hair was completely drowned in gore. Ixeyla queries, ¡°Is it true you¡¯re immune to like six things or more, like four breath weapons, on top of dragonfright, and having your soul stolen?¡±


    I nod towards Ixeyla, flashing a smile her way. Since I don¡¯t need to verbally respond, someone else jumps in to ask, ¡°Is it true that Lady Kinzul calls you her love!?¡±


    Fighting my smile, my face contorts a bit as I battle my chuckle. My expression probably gives me away, but I answer, ¡°I will leave that for our beloved Lady to divulge at an announcement happening sometime in the next forty hours.¡±


    The wave of murmurs that passes through the crowd has me struggling to keep from giggling. I continue to keep my lips clamped down to fight my smile as another queries, ¡°What¡¯s the deal with you being naked a bunch?¡±


    I snort with laughter and don a cheeky grin before responding, ¡°That part¡¯s a bit embarrassing, I used my clothes to try to save Atter¡¯s and Shiz¡¯s lives one time, and my armor is uncomfortable without clothes on underneath. On other occasions, well, let¡¯s just say I¡¯m prone to some mostly innocuous foolish behaviors.¡±


    As I close that answer with a wink, there¡¯s a round of chuckling from the crowd. Farzee, Revvy, and Greggy are wolfing down large sections of Mydraig, or were, and are now returning to expanding the aerie. Another query, from an unforgiving familiar voice asks, ¡°Just why does a gutter-trash troll like yourself think you deserve such special treatment, and adoration?¡±


    I close my eyes and take a deep breath so that Leezahna can¡¯t see my eyeroll and so that I can¡¯t sigh exasperatedly. I respond honestly, ¡°I don¡¯t think that at all. I honestly hate being in the spotlight. I¡¯m more nervous talking to you lot than I was facing down the other six damnations the other day,¡± there¡¯s some chuckling at my admission as I try to continue, ¡°I don¡¯t want adoration, or treatment, I want to know what our people expect out of someone who¡¯s had so much invested in them. I want our people to know what I offer, and for them to feel comfortable coming to me with requests if they have ideas for applications of my powers, or if they have needs that aren¡¯t being met. I promised a wonderful blacksmith that I¡¯d start up a liquors and spirits supply line soon, and I mean it. Oh, holy crap Deli, I didn¡¯t see you under all that gore.¡±


    There¡¯s a hearty round of laughter from everyone, while Deli, wearing a cheeky grin, responds, ¡°Heard Schism was pulling something up on the aerie which was suddenly accessible from the feasting hall for non-fliers. Thought I¡¯d come check it out, arrived just in time to end up in the splash zone. Still, glad to hear you¡¯re keeping my request in mind Schism, it¡¯s much appreciated. I¡¯ll tell you that story over the first drink you bring me.¡±


    A wave of giggling sounds out as Deli calls her arrival point the splash zone. Leezahna poses another question, ¡°You really want to know what you can do for me gutter troll?¡±


    Murmurs from the crowd are accompanied by everyone fearfully backing away from Leezahna, who seems completely oblivious to the fact that people are abandoning her in her continued brazen attempts to insult me. The hostile lass finishes, ¡°You can stop inviting feeble, disgusting heathens into *our* mountain. You can go die, and let a real hero take your place like my father.¡±


    The way Leezahna said, ¡°our,¡± tells me she was entirely using the ¡°royal we¡± more or less, indicating her and her family. Casually, I flip into the air, then use a T K S L to rocket downwards to the empty space surrounding Leezahna, and hold my breath at the last second. I land gracefully on my lead foot with my hands in my pockets, and continue striding towards Leezahna in a smooth motion.


    I approach the woman who now has the good sense to appear a bit frightened. I tell the ill-tempered dragon in human-form, ¡°Take me to your father. If he can beat me at something, anything, even just answering some questions, I¡¯ll ask Lady Kinzul to Administrate a change in my title over to him.¡±


    A hush falls across the crowd, which makes me feel uncomfortably, intimately close with Leezahna, whose face now appears to be coming clean of the gore in rivulets. Tears are working their way down her face as she responds, ¡°I c-can¡¯t. He¡¯s dead! He bravely challenged, brave, b-bravely challenged one of Terrorzin¡¯s generals, trying to earn an Honoris Causa.¡±


    Word from the crowd seems to confirm that he died in an attempt, but there are disparaging words about it as well. It basically sounds like it was completely foolish, not brave at all. I¡¯m not certain if this is supposed to be public knowledge, but I¡¯d never have even tried to keep up on something like whose noble family did what stupid nonsense. I¡¯m not fully convinced that the crowd should be disparaging her father, because I don¡¯t know the circumstances, and I don¡¯t want to take a general crowd-murmur¡¯s word on something like a judgment of character.


    Revvy telepathically informs me, ¡°Pay no heed to that one Schism. Her family, the Dimineros, were never brave heroes. They¡¯re snobs of the worst kind, and remained so until their clan¡¯s leader submitted to Terrorzin¡¯s reign. The family became Terrorzin loyalists, and only fled seeking sanctuary in Mount Solace from Lady Kinzul after Dyrkalt, her father, died, knowing they¡¯d likely have been punished for his failed affront.¡±


    Grumpily, Revvy continues, ¡°The fool didn¡¯t even understand Honoris Causa aren¡¯t for dragons. He was hoping for any sort of titling, but aiming for that. It¡¯s a titling which only Lady Kinzul even knows how to bestow, and he was seeking it as part of the Ice of Rage¡¯s forces, despite having been attempting to usurp a position in those forces. The Dimineros had been fully intending to remain there.¡±


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    Guessing at the father¡¯s motives, Revvy conjectures, ¡°Dyrkalt was out on some sort of bid to achieve, or retain, higher social standing. His desire seemed to spawn from the family¡¯s previous life of luxury, where they¡¯d been afforded a largely unfair proportion of gems, and other rich minerals and wealth.¡±


    Even if her dad was a snobby idiot who threw his life away for glory and luxury, she¡¯s still someone that¡¯s hurting. Leezahna practically doubles over as she weeps aloud. She feebly pounds on my chest for a moment, then drops to her knees, and keeps pounding on my abdomen, waist, pelvis, and eventually knees. Sighing sadly, I do weep several tears of sympathy for her. I¡¯d be devastated if I lost people I consider family members. More than I already have.


    Even though I can already sense that Leezahna would be thinking, ¡°Don¡¯t touch me gutter troll,¡± I pat Leezahna comfortingly at the back of her head. She¡¯s pounding on my legs, and I just want to comfort her about the loss of her father, but I shouldn¡¯t have bothered. She tries to hiss the words that I knew were coming, but it comes out as a burble. Worse, she begins taking her draconic form, causing the crowd to stumble back even further than the space they¡¯d already given her. Leezahna lashes out at me, attempting to bite me.


    I simply, effortlessly avoid her every attempt to harm me now that my reflexes have returned to their former prowess. I¡¯m back in decent combat shape in RS2 form since it lacks the nerve-damage. I¡¯ve got my hands in my pockets and I casually hop around on invisible telekinetic squares that I conjure where my danger wraps think I should change directions at.


    It¡¯s just a jump to the left, whoop, and here¡¯s a step to the right. My hands are in my unarmored pockets at my hips, and I don¡¯t even have to move my knees from their tight position as I maintain relatively straight posture. Mostly simply flexing my ankles, I spring about on T K Squares that are angled properly to avoid attacks. I allow my momentum to carry me over one of her swipes with her foreclaws, and casually perform a vaulting handspring over it, trying to impress upon her how stupid and reckless this is, that I have time to show off.


    I¡¯ve got no idea how to get through to this snobby brat. I feel bad for her, about losing her father, I really do. You can¡¯t violently lash out at other family who accepts and protects you though. Especially not out of some friggin¡¯ crap like nobility and royalty and social standing nonsense.


    Eventually, when Leezahna¡¯s as large as she¡¯s going to get, the size of a young-adult dragon, I land on her snout, light as a feather. Her scales glitter like emerald gemstones, honestly a lot like my draconic form from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Her draconic form isn¡¯t impressive, but it is fairly lovely, sleek, almost regal. I wonder how upset she¡¯d be if she had permanent scarring from an injury. She seems like the type to care about her appearance above a lot of other things. I don¡¯t want to injure her, but I will if I have to, to keep everyone else here safe.


    Almost everyone in the crowd who doesn¡¯t know me is freaking out. Not Ixeyla though. She¡¯s just smirking and rolling her eyes as I lean down to flip around Leezahna¡¯s snout after patting her gently, comfortingly on her cranium. I¡¯m quite tempted to draw Frostburn to appear more threatening, since I¡¯ve given her several minutes of screwing around now.


    I can tell Leezahna is beginning to charge a breath weapon, and I¡¯m getting fed up with trying to be the nice, forgiving person here. She won¡¯t accept comfort in order to calm down, when she laid hands upon me first. I don¡¯t want to touch someone who doesn¡¯t consent as a general rule, but I¡¯m also pretty close to just hauling off and shattering her nose to get her to stop being a brat.


    Instead, I float directly in front of Leezahna, and crackle with lightning, causing her to balk. I irritatedly announce, ¡°Leezahna, Diminero, you will halt your aggression. I am Reggie Shellcracker, Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa.¡±


    Sick of having to repeat myself, I also voice my displeasure as I order, ¡°Failure to come to your senses will force me to knock you senseless, and I don¡¯t guarantee you¡¯ll survive my effort. I very much lack strong non-lethal options. Do *not* force my hand. I am very sorry to hear about your father¡¯s unfortunate death. However brave he was, I¡¯ll never know, and never attempt to question. It¡¯s obvious that you care about your family, at least its name or status.¡±


    Far more sternly, angrily, I add, ¡°Know that I care about mine enough to *kill*. Even enough to kill members of it, to protect the others. I slew my own brother, when he¡¯d succumbed to evil in order to gain devastating powers, and put the rest of our family in harm¡¯s way. You are a member of my family now Leezahna, but you are showing yourself to be a danger to others, others that I hold dear. If I can¡¯t trust my safety around you, I certainly wouldn¡¯t trust their safety around you.¡±


    Staring her dead in the eyes, I couch my parting words with displeasure, ¡°I will slay anyone that would disrupt the safety and peace of our home. You currently survive and remain conscious because of my affection for all of my family members, which includes all who dwell within Mount Solace.¡±


    Leezahna finally calms down, somewhat. She gripes, ¡°Whatever, gutter trash,¡± and I really want to smack her for it, but at least I don¡¯t have to risk nearly killing her, and dragging her to our shop stall. There¡¯s still a chance to salvage this, and get her to agree, but I am *not* risking the stall with her being this hostile. I guess I know why the note drew so much attention to her name though. Friggin¡¯ hell.


    The dragon form recedes, and Leezahna stands before me once again in her human guise, mostly cleaned of the gore due to the changes in her shape from becoming a dragon and returning to human form. Her clothing is completely cleaned due to having swapped to a much less fashionable dress form, it almost resembles a sort of battle-attire, as if she¡¯s defiantly stating she¡¯s not backing down from the idea of fighting me. The slight smirk she wears upon noticing me making note of her attire is all the confirmation I need of her subtle signal.


    I wonder how much Kinzul would hate me if I shattered some of Leezahna¡¯s bones. I¡¯d hate myself quite a lot. The brat is utterly infuriating, and completely convinced of her own, and her family¡¯s, superiority. I know that Lady Kinzul would back my play if I chose to exile her, but what would she do? Go back to Terrorzin¡¯s forces? Then I¡¯d just end up killing her. Would she go raiding human settlements? Then I¡¯d just end up killing her.


    How the hell do you get through to someone like this? She¡¯s insufferable. I¡¯m sure she feels I¡¯m equally insufferable. Should I grovel? Somehow lift her family¡¯s station, and reward her crappy behavior? Screw that. I¡¯ve got a couple of plays left, but I think I¡¯m going straight for the final play.


    Drawing Frostburn, I level it at Leezahna and state, ¡°Perhaps I should have warned everyone, but I¡¯ve spells, enchantments, and abilities to read intent, deceptions, and even minds. Your continued harassment, and your subtle ploy at provoking me by indicating your defiance shows that you¡¯re still a danger to those I love. I think I¡¯ve changed my mind about letting you live.¡±

 B 6 C 72: Answer? Violence

    Why does it seem like the best answer to getting my point across is violence, always violence? Attempting to hide my sigh, I make sure to breathe within my closed mouth using the neckchain. I order my current target, ¡°So tell me why you should survive Leezahna, why you deserve special treatment, why you deserve to live, what makes *you* better than anyone else, special in any way.¡±


    Stuttering as she stares at the sword I have leveled towards her face, Leezahna starts, ¡°M-my my f-family¡ª¡°


    Rolling my eyes, I interrupt, ¡°Wrong answer Leezahna, your family isn¡¯t who you are, it¡¯s not a mask to hide behind, or lord over others. Family is who you care about and protect. Using it the way you just did makes it seem like you only care about and protect yourself. Try again. Why are *you* so much better than anyone you call gutter trash?¡±


    Choking on her words, Leezahna glances around, desperate for someone to bail her out, but even her two flunkies have joined in the desperate attempt to make room for our ongoing hostile engagement. The wide circle of the crowd on the aerie is eerily silent. Revvy, Gresog, and Farzee gaze at me worriedly. They know that I technically need her alive, and I abhor the idea of killing anyone. They know that I¡¯ve skipped several steps, and am playing my biggest threat directly to get through to her.


    Trying to use different words to say the same things, Leezahna begins, ¡°I-I was born to, to the Dim¡ª¡°


    I snarl at her as I furrow my brows before barking, ¡°Stop it! Stop using your family and its name as a tool to batter and bludgeon your way around the social landscape! They deserve better than that! Or perhaps they don¡¯t. Perhaps I should simply exile them all.¡±


    Leezahna starts objecting, ¡°You, you c-can¡¯t! You can¡¯t do that, you don¡¯t have the power, the right! You¡¯re noth¡ª¡°


    Growling at her, I explain, ¡°You have admitted you¡¯re too dangerous to let live by signaling your defiance with your transformation. You¡¯ve shown that you have no concept of empathy for anyone you believe is beneath you, and that you believe nearly everyone is beneath you.¡±


    I scowl as I have to resort to further threat of violence, ¡°I¡¯d be well within my right to kill you and your entire family, in order to drink of their dragonforces to make further progress in the war against Terrorzin. You know, the war to stop the arseholes who are literally going to burn down the entire world. That war? Remember it? The war that your family would have joined in, under Terrorzin¡¯s banner, if he¡¯d have given you enough nummy munchies.¡±


    I know I hit a low blow there, but I didn¡¯t call her father into question specifically. She does look like I¡¯d slapped her across the face however. I advance half a step on her, bringing Frostburn dangerously close to her bangs, and forehead. Glaring into her eyes, I realize wrath is starting to bubble to the surface at the idea that she might harm my loved ones in retaliation if I let her live.


    Gulping down my hatred and fear, I ask, ¡°What proof do I have that you won¡¯t lash out at my family like you lashed out at me? That you won¡¯t try to harm them in subtle or overt ways when they¡¯re most vulnerable? You wouldn¡¯t even make a fit prisoner. Why do you even deserve my mercy, let alone believe you¡¯re above all of the others that I protect?¡±


    I can sense certain psychic wavelengths nearby that I really would rather not have witnessing this, but I sigh and continue what is only partially a farce. I await Leezahna¡¯s response, which is now burbled through tears and snot as she begs, ¡°Stop! Please, please stop! Don¡¯t hurt me!¡±


    Growling at her, I state, ¡°I didn¡¯t ask what you want me to do, I asked you why I should even trust you in the slightest. What makes you think I could ever let you or any member of your family live, knowing the danger you pose, the selfishness you embody?¡±


    Whimpering, Leezahna complains, ¡°B-but, you¡¯re supposed to be a hero, our Hero.¡±


    I flash Leezahna an angry glare as I state, ¡°No. I¡¯ve always hated when people labeled me with that title. I¡¯m no hero. I¡¯m a fuggin¡¯ monster. As far as the capital H Hero, I¡¯m only that to the Order of the Onyx Dawn, and the peace-loving residents of Mount Solace that accept me and my faults to be that for them. Do you know why I consider myself a monster? I¡¯ve taken so many lives that I lost count!¡±


    Slightly softer, angry at myself for using this route, I add, ¡°I hate myself, and this world, and every last person who ever makes a situation life or death, instead of accepting a compromise that doesn¡¯t require the subjugation of someone else¡¯s will. Why should my compromise be anything less than your exile or death, and that of your entire family, when the safety of those I hold dear is on the line?¡±


    In tears, on her knees, Leezahna¡¯s facade cracks, crumbles, and fully collapses as she begs, ¡°Please, please they say you¡¯re kind and merciful. Please spare me¡ªglp, n-no, koff, family. My family, m-my momm- mother.¡±


    I drop onto my arse in front of her and sheathe Frostburn. Drawing a deep breath, I sigh at the shocked, scared little girl I see before me. I blink back a tear in my left eye and ask, ¡°Do you understand why I just sheathed my blade? Why I think you deserve to live? Why I love you just as much as I love all the residents of Mount Solace? Why I will protect you and all the others until my dying breath?¡±


    Leezahna shakes her head nervously, fearfully, so I explain, ¡°You do have compassion, decency, even selflessness. Somewhere deep, deep under that spiteful veneer that you¡¯ve labored to wear, there¡¯s a decent person inside. Everyone who wants peace and happiness, if I can trust them to allow others to seek it, I love them. As much hate and wrath as I have? I have more love, far more.¡±


    I shake my head dubiously at myself before continuing, ¡°You¡¯re right though. I am supposed to be a hero, be merciful, be kind. I try to be. I fail often though. Everyone fails and falters, from time to time, at being who they want, or need, or are meant, to be. Y¡¯know? I¡¯d never have done it, killing you while you lived here. Couldn¡¯t do it. Hate doing it. I¡¯d have exiled your family, and if you went back to Terrorzin¡¯s lands and forces, or raided innocent settlements, I¡¯d have slain you all. I wouldn¡¯t have attacked or slain you here, but my wrath might have.¡±


    I quickly continue in order to explain, ¡°Wrath was pretty close to taking over, and murdering you, and everyone who ever seemed to be your friend or sympathize with you or listen to a word you say. Wrath would have done that out of fear for the retaliation they might dole out upon my family. I fought that off for your sake, to give you the chance to show who you are beneath all the crap.¡±


    Softly, almost whispering consolingly, I request, ¡°So, Leezahna, before I go try to save some more people, I want you to tell me about yourself. Who you truly, really are. No more of the crap.¡±


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    She stares at me like I¡¯ve asked her to swallow a moose whole while in human form. I roll my eyes and gesture for her to continue. She glances around at the circle around us, feeling the ostracizing that could come, that will probably already come from attacking the Order¡¯s Hero, and bringing me to this state. Leezahna pulls her knees to her chest, wraps her arms around them, and sobs into them for several moments before she whimpers, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±


    I let my tears roll down, streaming freely. Finally I feel assured of my family¡¯s safety, as I truly believe her. I draw a shuddered breath from fighting off my own sobs.


    Nodding to whom is essentially a victim of my bullying, I respond, ¡°I know. I¡¯m here if you need help figuring it out. Others too. Mount Solace is meant to offer its namesake, solace. I don¡¯t expect you to become a paragon of our society, or the pinnacle of every value that I hold dear, especially not instantly.¡±


    Calmer, quieter, I lean close as I request, ¡°But please, when finding yourself, try to work kindness and compassion somewhere in there. Even if selflessness isn¡¯t something you can manage a heavy dose of. You obviously have some of it, for at least your mother. Nurture the traits that help you love those around you, and they¡¯ll learn to love you in turn. I¡¯ll admit, after this little stunt, you¡¯ve probably got a little bit of an uphill battle, but I¡¯ll vouch for you. If you¡¯re willing to try. Are you willing to try Leezahna?¡±


    Nodding rapidly, Leezahna doesn¡¯t speak, as she continues crying into her knees, rubbing her eyes on her forearms occasionally. I draw a ragged breath, and rub my own itchy, wet eyes. The person I¡¯d least expect walks to stand beside me, puts one lanky, slender hand on my shoulder, and shoots me a glance that she flicks towards Leezahna questioningly. I nod and smile at Ixeyla, proud of her. She can feel some of it across our psychic wavelength. My pride in her. My gratitude.


    Ixeyla sits next to Leezahna, offering her shoulder, leaning back slightly so that her right arm is behind Leezahna. Ixey mutters, ¡°Come here Princess. Schism vouches for you being a good person inside. References don¡¯t get much better than that.¡±


    Leezahna lifts her face from its perch in her forearms and knees to gaze at me with a furrowed brow. She glances back and forth between me and Ixeyla for several moments. There¡¯s still a slight, mild, underlying fury, resentment of me. I¡¯ve reduced her to this state, I called her out until she couldn¡¯t be called out any more. I disparaged the worth of a family name. I threatened her life, and her family¡¯s life. Something I¡¯d kill someone for doing. Even still, she can¡¯t decide whether to leap into the arms I¡¯ve spread wide, or to lean onto Ixeyla, someone she equally despises, to seek solace in either of us.


    I offer Leezahna a sad half smile, and I see fear too, when her gaze meets mine. I understand that she wouldn¡¯t be able to take comfort in any solace she could find in me, so I nod understandingly. I flick my head towards Ixeyla, and there¡¯s a query on Leezahna¡¯s face, an, ¡°Are you sure?¡± because she¡¯s afraid to snub me at the moment. I simply nod again while wearing that same sad half-smile. So she does take solace in Ixeyla, leaning over to her, resting her face upon Ixeyla¡¯s shoulder.


    Ixeyla, for her part, gives Leezahna a rough hug with her gangly right arm. I whisper telepathically to Ixeyla, ¡°Thank you. You¡¯re amazing. I hope Lil is ready soon. I really do. He seems absolutely head over heels for you, and I¡¯m proud of him for finding someone as awesome as you to be enamored with so dearly. I think Leezahna here could maybe benefit from being out of the spotlight for a little while. Do you think you could take her somewhere quiet, and just be with her for a little while?¡±


    Ixeyla nods my way, and slowly stands, trying to keep Leezahna from falling over, offering her a hand up. When Kinzul parts the crowd for them, there¡¯s gulping, and murmuring from the crowd. Our Lady simply states, ¡°Thank you for handling that with compassion, my love. For fighting your inner turmoil, struggling against the fear for our safety. I love you more each day, and plead that you always remain true to yourself, this version of yourself, and further nurture your compassion, and kindness, always.¡±


    Nodding to Kinzul, I stand and shift in height to approach her. I quickly embrace her so that she can hide her face in my neck and shoulder, to obscure the tears that are about to stream forth. She shakes her head though, rather than hiding her tears, she lets them flow freely, visible to the large crowd from several angles. While crying openly, instead of hiding, she kisses me softly on the lips.


    I sink into the kiss unintentionally. How can I not? She¡¯s remarkable, incredible, amazing, compassionate, kind, loving, and a vision of perfection that carries around the weight of the Worldstorm, and all the pains and sorrows of the past. I love her in ways I still haven¡¯t found words to describe, or boxes to categorize those feelings under.


    The quiet, hushed gasp and whispers and murmurs that follow our embrace are enough that Kinzul smirks playfully. She¡¯s been intentionally feeding the rumor mill. I¡¯m not entirely certain why. It feels like there¡¯s a long game play going on here, by setting the truth of the upcoming announcement to spread before we make it.


    Maybe stoking the rumor mill with the truth is just that, to show our beloved residents that she truly does love me, and isn¡¯t making the marriage for some unknown reason. Even if she does have other reasons in mind. I feel loved, whether or not her primary purpose for our marriage is something else.


    Ixeyla whistles a low note of appreciation as her eyes are wide in staring, since she¡¯d been trying to get Leezahna out to some place quiet and private before anything new happened. She¡¯s thankfully got Leezahna facing the other way, while looking back over her left shoulder at Kinzul and me. I flash her a smile and nod in that regal head-tilt manner. Huh, I wonder if Kinzul does that to save on neck strain, after having had to nod at many things for hundreds of years.


    My wife chuckles across our telepathic wavelength at my silly line of thought, while continuing to smirk, pulling our locked lips in a mild twist. I stroke my wife-to-be¡¯s cheek, and we rest our foreheads together. She¡¯s going out to battle today, soon, while I continue my evacuation efforts. I¡¯m terrified once again, about the¡ª there are other minds around here. I¡¯m terrified of the prospect of possibly losing my wife-to-be, but I¡¯d never try to cage her, or hold her back from any duty or responsibility she¡¯d decided to fulfill.


    I whisper, ¡°Be safe, my love. Bring yourself, and all of them home safely. Nothing is more important than that.¡±


    The Vivant, other than Prinrin, look a bit stunned. Lil rolls his eyes and hangs his tongue out in a joking display of disgust, while Luni chuckles and elbows him playfully. Prinrin sends waves of desires to our bond, things she wants to say, and do, before they head out, but she can¡¯t, with this many people around. Especially not after Kinzul basically just laid claim to me in front of the gathered individuals.


    Farzee accidentally telepathically lets loose a, ¡°Ho-lee-shi¡¯,¡± in that delightful accent that lacks most end-word stop-consonants. I nearly burst into laughter at it, but Farzee covers her mouth in meatspace in embarrassment.


    My delightful friend, the Order¡¯s The Blue, telepathically sends, ¡°Sorry Schism, last night, wasn¡¯t sure what was true and what wasn¡¯t, and haven¡¯t slept, so kinda just assumed I¡¯d maybe made stuff up, to try to convince myself to not chase you. I mean, seduce you. I mean, I already agreed, so wasn¡¯t going to, but maybe thought I was subconsciously psyching myself out to stop myself. Err, ugh, I¡¯m just tired Schism.¡±


    Farzee collects her thoughts and adds, ¡°Broke One¡¯s coming by soon, and we¡¯ll start your evac while the rest of the Sand civvies and some others finish up here. Also, uh, really ¡®preciate you giving me chances, and not laying in as hard as you did Dimineros there. You¡¯re scary when you¡¯re pissed.¡±


    I struggle to keep from smiling at the offhanded compliment. Mostly because I¡¯m not so happy that my love, and several of my beloveds, are taking wing, heading off to battle. Lil, Lu, Kinzul, and the Vivant all take to the sky as Lady Kinzul begins assuming her full size, or at least as much of her full size as I¡¯ve seen. I can¡¯t resist blowing a kiss in the general direction of those that are leaving for the Laotzxhi Citadel.


    Gnawing on the inside of my lip, I offer a weak, nervous chuckle to the stunned crowd before asking, ¡°So, uh, any other questions?¡±

 B 6 C 73: Nurture

    Of course the goofballs around me start with the most inappropriate question, ¡°Well, uh, woah. Are you and Lady Kinzul going to do Clutching and Conjugation?¡±


    I raise an eyebrow very dubiously towards the voice, intimating, ¡°Are you really asking me if I¡¯m going to sex up my wife?¡± I mean, not for the reasons they probably think. The crowd probably thinks that the obvious answer is yes. They should however realize I¡¯ve been seen floating around Mount Solace with no clothing, and no biological parts. Therefore, the obvious answer is no.


    Rolling my eyes and shaking my head incredulously, I await the next question, which ends up being, ¡°Why did you scare her so bad? She didn¡¯t even manage to hit you.¡±


    Huffing a sigh, I explain, ¡°Do you remember what she requested of me? She requested I stop saving people. She requested I literally go die. She implied that anyone I brought back by offering mercy, was worthless, and should simply die instead.¡±


    I further explain why those requests required more than a simple talking-down-to, ¡°That sort of heartlessness is a danger to everyone around her. Sure, she might not have had the personality to actually start tearing into other innocent, weaker people, but she tried against me. She tried against me, and began charging her breath weapon, while we were surrounded by all of you innocent bystanders. I¡¯d have been fine, and she might have slain some of you. Do you not see how effed that is?¡±


    There are some murmurs, so I figure I¡¯d better come to Leezahna¡¯s defense while I can, ¡°That isn¡¯t to say I think she¡¯s evil or deserves to die. I hate that I resort to violence and threat of violence so much, but I don¡¯t know how else to get through to some people when they¡¯re convinced of something deeply to their core. Sometimes, the only way to shake free destructive beliefs are to destroy, or set someone in a state where they feel destroyed, or the terror of imminent destruction.¡±


    Shaking my head, I lament, ¡°I hate it. I absolutely, utterly hate it. I feel horrible, like an absolute monster. And, y¡¯know what? If any of you that witnessed this today, thought I was a horrid piece of fecal matter, I wouldn¡¯t blame you. What I did was atrocious. I sullied my soul in that interaction. And y¡¯know what¡¯s worse? I¡¯d do it again, and likely will do it again many times before this war is over, for the safety of all of you.¡±


    Deli nods appreciatively at me, several Draconiacs cast worried glances at me, and several kobolds shy away towards the rear of the gathering. Yeah, I kinda figured. Who wants that? Who wants the Hero of the Order to make a judgment call that determines you¡¯re such a danger to others, that you deserve to be threatened to within an inch of your life, and sanity. Who wants to be reminded that I¡¯m also holding back a demon, for their benefit, that would simply lash out and kill them if I¡¯d determined them to be awful or dangerous or whatever.


    A younger voice asks, ¡°Schism? Is it true you love all of us, and want to protect us?¡±


    Nodding a bit somberly, I reply, ¡°Yes, most definitely. The safety, health, and happiness of all of you, all those that live under the protection of Mount Solace, are among my top priorities. It hurts to feel like I need to threaten someone to get that point across. I do love you all, even Leezahna like I said.¡±


    A figure that the voice must have belonged to walks into the open space that¡¯d been cleared around me and Leezahna during our confrontation. He whimpers through a mix of emotions, ¡°Then, then why didn¡¯t you save them? Do you even care that they¡¯re gone? Do you even know their na¡ª¡°


    Standing and facing the young lad, I hazard a guess, ¡°Jorro and Lihjro. I was incapacitated when it had happened, trapped in the mind of an enemy. I was out of my mind with grief and resentment at the time, but even still, I felt like a failure for letting them down. Your parents?¡±


    Sniffling, the lad nods hesitantly. He seems unsure what to do, he wasn¡¯t expecting me to know their names. I spread my arms wide, and he hesitates, glancing around, realizing that everyone can see him beginning to cry. He rushes forward to bury his face in my chest to hide his tears, and I try to comfort him, patting him on the back of his head and giving his shoulders a light squeeze.


    Drawing a shuddering breath, with a voice laden with sadness, I ask, ¡°What¡¯s your name then? Do you have other family? How can I help make the world hurt less? What can I do for you?¡±


    The young lad, Yerhjro apparently, shakes his head rapidly in response to my question about having other family while he answers, ¡°Y-koff, Yerhjro. N-no, I don¡¯t. I don¡¯t know what to do, or where to go, or who or how to be. I didn¡¯t even get to say goodbye, there were no bodies. They adopted me, most secret clutches are adopted out to help prevent Terrorzin from killing any specific mother, but he got mine all the same. I miss my dads, I want them back. Bring them back. Please.¡±


    Sighing incredibly sadly, I nod, knowing that I failed Yerhjro on so many levels. I offer up, ¡°I failed you there too. Lady Kinzul was trapped, and had tried to melt her way out, but her prison was unbreakable, so it got flooded with her acid. I should have saved their bodies, moved them, done something, anything, but I was wracked with guilt at their death, at my failure. By the time I had realized what would happen, what did happen, it was too late. I was slow, and stupid. The acid was set loose when the prison disappeared. I¡¯m so sorry Yerhjro. I¡¯ll never, ever be able to make it up to you. I won¡¯t stop trying though.¡±


    I feel the weight of worlds on my shoulders yet again. Everything has far-reaching consequences. Every success and every failure could change the path of someone else¡¯s life. I have no idea how to even start reparations for this. Thankfully, someone I wouldn¡¯t exactly have pegged for the motherly type steps in, rescuing us both in a sense.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Deli asks, ¡°Kid of Yer, how do you feel about smelting and forgeworks?¡±


    Sniffling, rubbing his face on his forearms, Yerhjro looks confused over towards Deli as he responds, ¡°They¡¯re pretty cool I guess.¡±


    Grinning, Deli nods as she cocks her head towards the exit of the aerie, stating, ¡°Oh they¡¯re more than pretty cool son, how about you let me show you just how cool they really are. Sound good?¡±


    Yerhjro nods emphatically, and glances between Deli and me for a moment. I flash him a smile and an understanding nod, while Deli flashes me her own winning smile, and a wink. I¡¯m pretty certain she just informally adopted a son, as I see her usher Yerhjro out of the aerie, down towards the feasting hall. She¡¯s got an enormous heart. I knew I liked her already, but wow. I owe her dearly.


    Some murmurs pass through the crowds to the effect of, ¡°Did Schism just find that orphan kid a mom?¡±, ¡°That was Schism¡¯s blacksmith friend, right?¡±, ¡°Is that what Hero¡¯s are supposed to do?¡±, and even, ¡°Huh, seven for sure, maybe an eight.¡±


    I fight myself to keep from snorting laughter out loud at that last one, and only let it loose in my mindscape. Another question coming my way is, ¡°Schism? Is all that stuff about unlimited resources really true? Does that mean we get to start eating gems again?¡±


    The crowd¡¯s excitement and murmuring reaches almost a fever pitch as I hasten to respond, ¡°Sort of, yes the resources thing is true, unless someone breaks our enchantment. Part of the reason I treated Leezahna so harshly, is because I require her assistance to finalize a part of the enchantment to make it so that even if it¡¯s broken, I can just put it back up. Right now, it¡¯s one of a kind. If it¡¯s destroyed, all of my projects will have been in vain.¡±


    Breathing deeply, I sigh sadly once again as I continue, ¡°I honestly believed that Leezahna would have destroyed it out of spite, to keep me from coming out looking heroic, before I bullied her the way I did. It doesn¡¯t excuse my actions. I¡¯m still a monster, and any one of you that posed a threat to the sustainable happiness of the others, I would find some way to get through to you, or exile you, or my wrath would end you. I¡¯m sorry. I wish those parts of me weren¡¯t true, but I don¡¯t know how to otherwise succeed.¡±


    My face droops in sadness as I finish, ¡°We¡¯re up against world-ending forces on three or more fronts. There¡¯s no room for risky dissenters. I hate feeling like I¡¯m imposing my will on others, because that¡¯s essentially what tyrants do. I don¡¯t know how to get the results quickly enough to keep moving forward in the face of overwhelming odds though. If any of you can come up with any ideas that let me stop being this way, I promise I¡¯ll listen, and try them if they¡¯re remotely viable without hurting others.¡±


    A hush falls over the crowd, and it¡¯s broken only by the occasional whispered conjecture between close groups brainstorming. After a few moments of this hush, there are several false starts at addressing me that trail off before they finish a sentence. My chest feels heavy as I breathe deep, sad, sighing breaths.


    No one seems able to come up with anything in the moment. Closing my eyes, I shake my head, mostly in shame, for being who I am, and acting how I do. Driven by love? Sure. Still a tyrant? Essentially, yeah. I essentially order people to love and tolerate each other, except in the cases of intolerance, injustice, or dangerously selfish behaviors. It sounds so oxymoronic.


    I mean, I¡¯m not a philosopher, or politician, or a leader or a hero. I¡¯m a cryptozoologist, remember? Hah, been a while since I¡¯ve dug that one up. Seriously though, I¡¯m not qualified to direct people how to live their lives, but I¡¯m enforcing peace and safety for others, by demonstrating my might against those that I personally deem to be risks to the social contract I want everyone to uphold. A social contract, that I break by the very nature of wielding my might against others. I don¡¯t know how to stop. I don¡¯t know how to protect those who can¡¯t protect themselves, without lashing out at the bullies, the selfish, the spiteful, and so on.


    A question I didn¡¯t expect to come from a crowd that¡¯d seen me do what I¡¯ve done, is aimed my way, ¡°Do you¡ª do you need help? A hug? Anything?¡± In response to that, there are a few, ¡°Oh hey, yeah!¡±s, and a few other similar statements from the crowd.


    I can¡¯t help donning a sad smile and nodding as I answer, ¡°Hugs? Always. Help? The best help that any of you could give me, is proof that you¡¯re leading happy, safe lives, and looking out for each other.¡±


    A burly, yet handsome kobold steps forth from the crowd, apparently the owner of the voice who¡¯d posed the question. He approaches me with his arms wide, and I work to shrink myself closer to his height in order to accept the embrace. A few others leave the crowd to set a hand on one of my shoulders, or wait their turn to hug me, and I can¡¯t express enough how good it feels that I¡¯m not despised by the people I¡¯m trying to protect.


    Thinking about something, I ask the crowd, ¡°I guess there¡¯s one other bit of help. Can anyone tell me a bit more about the Damnations in case I have to face the other six of the idiots today? Nonnam went down too easy. That¡¯s not me bragging, that¡¯s me saying something is up. I want to know if someone could fake being them, or something.¡±


    I know something that¡¯s about to happen. It¡¯ll come up when I hear the information that I already know. I¡¯d be having a panic attack, in front of a crowd normally. Instead, thanks to that little node I added to my digital brain with Kinzul¡¯s help, I can push panic attacks aside temporarily. They do build up in intensity the longer I put them off, and will eventually break free of the little box that I can shove them into, but it might be enough to save my life during a fight at some point.


    Sure enough, one of the first things called out by the crowd is, ¡°Well, they¡¯ve got red eyes, all seven of them, supposedly glowy red with no hint of a soul, no pupils or anything.¡±


    Another voice adds, ¡°There¡¯s, um, Sibil, Grimsranton, Ferciul, Nonnam, Laombigla, Dazomeus, Ephlomseestiph. Some rumors say they can rip out your dragonforce, your soul, as soon as they can see you, any time you¡¯re within sight range, others say they have to touch you first.¡±


    Yet more voices chip in to add, ¡°If they have Latents, they¡¯ve never needed to show them off, because there¡¯s rarely witnesses or survivors. Once they have your dragonforce, some say that your body keeps going, soulless, secretly under their command. Others say you just drop dead instantly.¡±


    Another individual adds, ¡°The Damnations have thirteen lieutenants mostly commanded by Laombigla, called the Evil Claws. I think their names are Deviltail, Rufflered, Curly Beard, Harlequin, Frostwalker, Bad dog, Lovelace, Laughing Drakk, Porkbelly, Devilhound, Butterfly, Rubicante, and the Callipygian. All supposedly have powerful Latents. Um, you can probably guess what some of them are based on their names, maybe. It¡¯s not like they¡¯ve been seen much in a really long time though.¡±

 B 6 C 74: Evac From Hell

    That¡¯s a lot of names to remember. Fercuil, Grimsranton, Nonnam, Laombigla, Dazomeus, Ephlomseestiph, Deviltail, Rufflered, Curly Beard, Harlequin, Frostwalker, Bad dog, Lovelace, Laughing Drakk, Porkbelly, Devilhound, Butterfly, Rubicante, and the Callipygian. Wait, wait, Deviltail gets me thinking about the other names. Ferciul? Ferciul is totally an anagram for Lucifer.


    Wait, in that case, Grimsranton is an anagram for Morningstar. Then Sibil would be Iblis. Nonnam would be Mannon, that one¡¯s just reversed. Laombigla must be, what, Malbolgia? Dazomeus would be Azmodeus, and I¡¯m guessing the one with all the ph sounds is probably an anagram for Mephistopheles.


    What the hell? Like, seven names that happen to be anagrams for seven words for devils, types of devil, a devil, the devil, or a location in hell, all from Fakeworld? The group happens to be named the Damnations? That can¡¯t be an effing coincidence. Seriously. Can it? There¡¯s no friggin¡¯ way.


    Am I in hell? I didn¡¯t expect to be able to find so much love in hell, if so. Still¡ª. I guess it could just be a coincidence. I mean, friggin¡¯ hell. What the hell could it even possibly mean if it wasn¡¯t? Ugh, I don¡¯t have the brain capacity to conjecture on that kind of a level. What about the Evil Claws? Wait, Rubicante, Harlequin, Laughing Dragon, Curly Beard, those are totally translations, or names of beings in the inferno, the um, eighth circle of hell. What the fudge.


    I don¡¯t think I can afford to spend time thinking about any of this. I need to return to the evacuation effort. Shiz appears to be waiting patiently at the land-entrance to the aerie at this point. He wants to get headed back towards Attey. I think we¡¯re both worried at this point.


    Calling to the assembled, I request, ¡°If any of you, ah, I don¡¯t know how appropriate or inappropriate it is to talk about this, but some of you had asked already. If any of you know someone that would be willing to Conjugate the clutch of eggs belonging to Attraxiaz the Loud, the titled Thunderer, please spread the information around. Sorry if that¡¯s an insensitive request, you all know I¡¯m very unfamiliar with our draconic culture around here. I have to return to the evacuation efforts.¡±


    Thinking that I should perhaps show gratitude, I add, ¡°Thank you all for lending me your ears, or, well, listening to me. Those of you not working directly on traveling to help evacuate, please clear the aerie. If you can spare the time, help prepare the feasting hall to receive newcomers, greet them, get to know them, make them feel safe and at home. I love you all. Thanks again. Ready Shiz?¡±


    Shiz nods, so we take off quickly winging westward towards Attey¡¯s domain. Shiz picks up the speed a little bit, to make up for the time lost during my little bout with Hareslayer, and my spiel afterwards. It was really only a few minutes of activity, but if we continue with this pace, we¡¯ll make it back to Attey¡¯s domain three hours after I¡¯d activated the beginning of my transformation, and then three hours later, when the transformation finishes, we¡¯ll be returning again, having finished a route along the evacuation trail.


    On the flight over, I let loose my panic attack. I¡¯d been holding it back since the red eyes were brought up. They¡¯re one of my strongest triggers. I suffer while Shiz carries me in his claws, instead of me risking falling off of his back. It¡¯s a bad one. I¡¯m fetal, weeping, possibly screaming in fear. I don¡¯t know for how long, maybe half of the trip towards Attraxiaz¡¯s domain.


    The entire time I¡¯m experiencing my panic, my vision is tunneled to the point of a pin. My tinnitus screams into my ears louder than the wind as well. And all the while, my heart hammers strong enough that Shiz can feel my pulse vibrating his talons from where he grips me. If ever there was a time that I looked vulnerable to someone that has surrendered to me, that time is now.


    I¡¯m hoping that things have at least gone safely and smoothly for Attey. The winds that we ride from Mount Solace to Mount Zurrikh afford us a degree of peaceful gliding for a long portion of the journey. It helps me to wind down that I¡¯m not being jostled around constantly when I recover from the panic. If we¡¯re lucky, that same degree of smoothness should also be applying to Attey¡¯s evacuation efforts. We¡¯ll also have the volunteers trailing us, however many that could make it this early. It¡¯ll be something like nine am when we arrive.


    Sure enough, everything seems to have gone mostly fine, with Attraxiaz carefully positioning her several hundred remaining followers along the inside dead-end tunnels that can be accessed from above the Worldstorm. It¡¯s disheartening that something like two hundred were conscripted by Mannon, err, Nonnam yesterday, heavy on the casters. We¡¯re still evacuating nearly a thousand kobolds though.


    Oh, hey, Farzee and Veril are closing in to join us. I¡¯m proud of them. Good, they thought to bring objects that are essentially rafts that can carry a couple dozen kobolds if the kobolds pack in tightly and hang on tighter. I wasn¡¯t sure how many would be able to hang on to the various dragons¡¯ backs and such. I¡¯d figured maybe three per appendage, and a few more on any backs, maybe fifteen per dragon per trip. This is a lot better.


    Depending on how many volunteers we get, this could take as few as two trips. It seems like Atter¡¯s going to be taking a couple dozen that are just tying themselves off to lengths of rope. It appears like we¡¯ve only got about twelve volunteers with any real carrying strength, maybe twenty overall. I¡¯m almost certain those two identical Fires are Ixeyla and Xayla. Their dragon forms are almost as gangly as their human forms.


    Wait, one of them has scales that sparkle like emeralds. Leezahna? Maybe Ixeyla just wants to keep an eye on her for now. I wouldn¡¯t really want to entrust a bunch of kobolds to her care right now. Or¡ª maybe I should trust that I got through to her? I¡¯m not sure. I¡¯ll ask those three to wait til last so that I can look over them with Shiz on our return trip, since Atter is taking the fore, and Shiz and I are bringing up the rear. I¡¯d feel more comfortable with Ixey and Zayzi under my protection than somewhere in the center of the pack.


    Testing telepathically, I call out, ¡°Zayzi? Ixey? Is that you two? Is the emerald one with you who I think she is?¡±


    Zayzi responds, ¡°Depends,¡± and I¡¯d roll my eyes if it were anyone else. I know Xayla is a dragon of few words though. I do suppose it does depend on who I think it is.


    Ixey answers for us, ¡°Yeah, Princess just wants company, her flunkies are a bit scared to be around her right now because of what you said about kinda maybe killing anyone she¡¯d ever talked to that listened to her. You might want to lay off the public speaking for a while Schism.¡±


    Snrk. I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh that becomes full-on laughter. I can¡¯t tell if Ixey was teasing, or offering concerned advice, but either one is perfect, because I basically admitted to sucking at speaking while I was doing it. Then I admitted aloud how much I hated how I bullied Leezahna. Still, I want her to know that her safety is still being looked after by me, so I¡¯d appreciate if you two would hang near the back of the pack for picking up refugees.


    Xayla chatters telepathically my way, not exactly uncharacteristically, since they still manage to frequently be monolsyllabic, or terse, brief, or succinct. One such conversation is, ¡°You didn¡¯t come home tomorrow. Was worried.¡±


    I¡¯d be a lot more confused if it were anyone other than Xayla. They¡¯re referencing how they made me promise to come home tomorrow after the first offensive. I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, our Lady kept me deployed in the field. Do you forgive me?¡±


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


    Their response, succinct as always, is, ¡°Sure.¡±


    Smiling, shaking my head slightly, I try not to roll my eyes as I ask, ¡°What¡¯d you get up to for the days I was out in the field?¡±


    After a brief moment, Xayla responds, ¡°Dunno. Stuff. I guess. You?¡±


    Oh Zayzi. So numb that your own life doesn¡¯t even register as worth remembering the day to day? I wish I could help you. Lacking any ability to provide substantial help, I simply answer, ¡°Fighting mostly. Offering mercy where I could. Do you want to hang out after we finish today?¡±


    The fact that Zayzi asks, ¡°Why?¡± would normally hurt me coming from anyone else, but for them, it seems like an obvious response.


    I answer, ¡°Because I enjoy being around you and was wondering if you¡¯d like to talk more, when w¡ª.¡±


    Telepathically Xayla sends me the emotive expression of them nodding, and they interrupt to say, ¡°Yes. Please. More talking. It¡¯s nice. With you. Patient. Quiet. In my head. Feels nice too.¡±


    I¡¯m honestly a bit impressed that Xayla was able to admit so much. It means they¡¯re letting themselves feel, remembering why they do and don¡¯t like certain things, even if some of those things might be trauma-informed. I flash smiles and nodding back to Zayzi telepathically in response.


    Surprisingly, before I have to work to continue the conversation, Xayla asks, ¡°Did you get hurt? Um. Are you okay? Good? Are you good? Safe? Um. Can keep going, even after two days gone?¡±


    Fighting my grin to make sure my smile is as warm and comforting as it can be, I nod while telepathically answering, ¡°Yes to all of those. Getting hurt¡¯s part of the job, although I think I got the least hurt of anyone on either day, except maybe Shield and Aegis. I¡¯m quite okay though, definitely. Also I¡¯m safe and can keep going, for sure. Also definitely good, better than when I started the first offensive.¡±


    Realizing things I want to say to Zayzi, I continue, ¡°Things have been getting better and better for me, and I¡¯ve been getting better and better, since joining the Order. You¡¯re one of the reasons, our friendship is one of the things that has made things better. Did you already know that? I want to make sure I make you feel appreciated for your friendship.¡±


    My heart¡¯s warmed by Zayzi¡¯s reply, ¡°Mine too. Since you. Little less suck, like you said. Um, better. Every day since announcement, meeting you. Sorry, embarrassed now. Talk later.¡±


    Sighing softly, then drawing a shuddering breath, I nod understandingly towards Xayla in telepathic-space. I wish there was more that I could do than simply make things suck a little bit less, but people don¡¯t just heal instantly because someone talks to them, or anything like that. Xayla¡¯s got a complex path to follow towards healing. Thankfully, I think they want to, and are willing to attempt that path. I hope I get to be there for them at the end of each milestone of their journey, to welcome them to the other side, to the new step of progress. I care about Zayzi so much th¡ª.


    Apparently Ixeyla had left her incoming walls down for my inane thought train, so she knows the thoughts I¡¯d been sharing with Zayzi. Threatening me almost playfully, Ixey interrupts my thoughts, ¡°You¡¯re alright Schism. I¡¯d still feed you to the storm if you hurt Zayzi, but I¡¯m glad you¡¯re our Hero, and not someone else. Thanks for caring about Zayzi. They have been getting better since meeting you. I can¡¯t tell you how much that means to me. I miss my sis¡ªbling, my sibling.¡±


    With that conversation over, on to checking in with the two Dormir that are present, oh, three, I telepathically call out, ¡°Farzee, Veril, Illy, can you make sure to stick in the front to protect Attey in case anything should show up? Shiz and I have the rear. Well, hopefully Shiz listens to me if I tell him to scram. I¡¯m a lot more powerful without having to worry about hitting my allies. Anyway, I love you three, keep up the great work.¡±


    Privately, Iylynila grumbles, ¡°Gremlin-ass smurf-ass munchkin, just lumping me in with the rest of my Dormies, and not a single word after sleeping with me last night? And on the opposite side of this little convoy from you? You ass.¡±


    Trying to fight my grin, I respond to Illy by teasing, ¡°Are you done fixating on your favorite body part yet my lovely love? When we¡¯re done, I was hoping you¡¯d maybe accompany me down to my vault in Mount Verdimenn for an experiment. Should I spell it out any farther while my telepathic walls are down? You know, the ones that would have prevented Ixey, Zayzi, Veril, and Farzee, from hearing your private message a few seconds ago, if you¡¯d have given me a moment.¡±


    I feel a little mean for teasing Iylynila so hard, because she¡¯s mortified. She whispers a hissed order telepathically to me, ¡°Put them up!¡± so I do.


    Apologizing to her, I start, ¡°Illy, I¡¯m sorry. I love you, I absolutely do. I didn¡¯t know how much you might want the others to be able to piece together if I was doing things like turning off my network and keeping you close. I am sorry. Can you forgive me?¡±


    Grumbling, Illy chokes on her telepathic words for a moment, ¡°You, I, you ass! Ugh, yes, of course, I. I know I can be difficult Schism, um, Reggie. I¡¯m sorry, I probably keep sending mixed messages. I don¡¯t even know how to go about this, with how very public it is that you¡¯re with my mother now. Not that many dragons are into monogamy or anything, but family members is a bit weird. I¡ª. You know you¡¯re my first everything, right? I don¡¯t know how to do this. It¡¯s nothing like our novels. Please¡ª I know how that sounds. Please don¡¯t tease me about it. I get that I¡¯m as naive as a human schoolgirl.¡±


    Drawing a shuddered breath, and sighing sadly, I respond, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Illy. Anything you don¡¯t want me to tease you about, I won¡¯t. I hope I haven¡¯t hurt you. I really, truly love you. If you don¡¯t like that our relationship is built pretty hard on the foundation of mutual teasing, we can work to change it. As for the rest, well, I understand I¡¯m your firsts for a lot of things. I need you to find out what you want, what you expect, what you need, and then to communicate those with me. Maybe I can meet only some of them, maybe not enough of them. I¡¯d hope I could meet all of them, but, well, everyone messes up at least something small, at least once, sooner or later.¡±


    There¡¯s a long telepathic groan before Illy finally replies, ¡°I¡ª, I know. Thank you. Can you, will you, maybe please be patient with me? I like our teasing. I do. I, hell. I love it. I¡¯m just feeling so friggin¡¯ exposed and vulnerable. I¡¯ve played matchmaker and drama instigator and all that for so long, and you know I was worried how I¡¯d be if I fell in love. Stupid gremlin ass munchkin, stealing my stupid fool heart. Sorry. I don¡¯t really feel that way, about you being stupid, or it being a crime, or stealing. I gave it. It might be because our Tenith was wearing me down, or you were so smooth, or, I don¡¯t know. Crap, why am I trying to justify loving you? I do, that¡¯s all. I just do. Let¡¯s just get this done. Yeah?¡±


    I start to whisper, ¡°Oh Illy,¡± but she refuses to speak more at the moment. I leave my walls up for the rest of our return to Mount Solace, the entire contingent between me and Illy. Shiz and I bring up the rear, right behind two volunteers named Shapuackurt, and Lilmbrayur. Ahead of them are Ixeyla, Xayla, and Leezahna. We all drop off our loads of refugees, and return towards Atter¡¯s domain. We¡¯re making good time, so we should be loaded up, and headed back by the time the six hour mark hits.


    I¡¯m beginning to panic, unsure where I need to be for the few seconds I¡¯ll have the form active. Luni wouldn¡¯t prank me about something like this. Did I screw up by dealing with Leezahna, and doing the P R? Gulping, I gaze around, unsure where to expect the attack to come from. There are a few mountain peaks in the region, but it feels as if it¡¯s an endless expanse of stormy sea in every direction, with no enemies in sight.


    I¡¯m gazing around at the moment, the six hour mark is within a few minutes now, and I¡¯m trying to take stock of things. I¡¯m here atop Shiz, Ixey and Zayzi are loading up, about to head out with Leezahna flapping nearby. Shapuackurt, and Lilmbrayur, and Heccinckethmorn are a trio that are loading up before Shiz and I snag the last load of refugees, we¡¯d gotten enough volunteers by the second trip, that Shiz and I are able to pick up the last of the over eight hundred kobolds we¡¯re relocating.


    Instantly a hurricane hits as Shiz is taking off with his load of Atter¡¯s kobold kinsmen. Rather, an entire mountain range arrives seemingly out of nowhere, and the mountain range is pushing deafening, terrifyingly powerful walls of wind. Of course, that mountain range is scaled, and winged. It doesn¡¯t take a lot of brainpower to guess that something so enormous is a Damnation at its full size, or nearly its full size. Nonnam hadn¡¯t had the chance to get this big before I drove him down into the Worldstorm.


    Of fuggin¡¯ course it¡¯s a gorram Damnation, worse, six of the bastards. I almost can¡¯t believe that I¡¯d been able to prep for this. It¡¯s only thanks to Luni, but even still, I get a whole six seconds, and it¡¯ll be down for six months. The form will be up in a few seconds, then only last for six.


    Six seconds? What the hell am I going to do in six seconds? It took six hours, all morning to prep this. I know the cosmic mite-hulk-king has some kind of incredible movement abilities, either teleportation or near-lightspeed motion or something too fast for me to perceive anyway. That¡¯s if we even got the advanced biology right, based on the regular mite-hulk king biology. Even still. Six seconds? I¡¯d better plot these suckers out.

 B 6 C 169: Overwhelming Odds

    Well, Teuila was definitely right. We needed to see this. Yep, Te was spot on¡ªthis sight is staggering. I''m struggling to find the words to analyze or describe the view before us. We''re nestled in a recess of a passageway leading into the vast cavern that houses Thunderpeak Citadel. But here, looking up from our covert spot, the scene is nothing short of surreal. It''s as if we''re staring into an overflowing blender full of dragons where the cavern''s ceiling should be, lost to a dense swarm of the flying creatures. The sheer number of them is mind-boggling, blanketing what I imagine to be the cavern''s distant roof. The idea that we''re still inside a mountain baffles me. The space is so expansive that the creatures seem to swarm miles above us, engulfing the summit of this colossal hollow.


    Between the courtyard, and the sky, there are thousands of wyverns, drakes, and dragons, all seemingly preparing for something big happening soon. We don¡¯t have the resources, or the time to take them all out, by the looks of things. Hell, I¡¯m not even sure we have the ability to face so many foes at once with any chance of coming out on the other side of the battle unscathed, or even alive. This is so, so, so much more than we bargained for. We¡¯re in trouble way worse than I would have ever expected. I need to get a gander at the whole situation as best I can, and figure out our options. Ugh. Is this going to turn into a three pronged assault in which one of us heads deep within the citadel to infiltrate Stormheart Keep and assassinate Alpaca, or Al¡¯pa¡¯ca or whatever?


    There¡¯s only two ways I can see that going down. Either I drop off all my gear with Teuila and Lil, and go shadow-form to infiltrate, and hope to hell my naked abilities are enough to best an evil ancient archmage at the heart and height of his power, or Teuila streaks through with super speed. We¡¯ll come back to that when I get a better sense of the overall picture, and more of the pertinent, salient details.


    The citadel¡¯s construction seems almost oxymoronic, buried deep within a mountain, yet surrounded by towering walls with ramparts and parapets and guard-towers, like old castle forts of yore. In places, I can see where the fortress was originally constructed, through cracks in its current facade. It must have been made with obsidian that was polished and gleaming to perfection some many long ages ago. It still technically is, but now all that obsidian is encased in silicates, an artificial sedimentary process caused by the breath of sand dragons. Multi-layer insulation seems to be a key component of much of this inner cavern¡¯s design, and the courtyard as well.


    Stormheart Keep''s main fortress and spire are especially thickly coated with silicates, which makes sense, because those ultra-condensed storm-bolts are blasting down into it from above every few seconds. I think Kinzul told me that he was a Sand, but I¡¯d honestly have pegged Alpaca as a blue, if I hadn¡¯t been told. The archmage being able to provide his own grounding and insulation though makes as much, or more, sense though. Oh, wow, through brief glimpses above the swarm of bodies in the sky of this cavern, I can see a perpetual mini Worldstorm cracking off bolts of lightning. And over the din of the flying mass, I can hear it sounding thundrously on occasion.


    This is insane. Just from what I can see, these forces seem insurmountable, and I¡¯m worried about things that I can¡¯t tell are hostile yet. The walls are adorned with gargoyles and grotesque statues, weathered by countless storms over the ages, but they could very well house animating magic that brings them to life if we get too close, that I can¡¯t see from here. Then there¡¯s the rest of the army of Al''pa''ca''s minions. The courtyard leading to the citadel is teeming with monsters, kobolds, and draconian subordinates, all slaveringly frenzied in their fanatical devotion to either the storm, or Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, or Terrorzin.


    There is simply no chance that I¡¯ll be able to offer mercy, and survive my attempts at showing off that vulnerable, caring side of me today. We have no idea who Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s lieutenants or leadership core are. I can¡¯t afford to address every single person in the air, nor risk addressing groups as they lock onto me as a threat. Even all of that is just creatures that I know offhand are sapient. I can¡¯t tell if those large wolves covered in electrified fur are sapient or not, nor those towering elementals of thunderstorm energy that have a nearly humanoid shape within their flowing foggy roiling clouds that make up their being.


    We¡¯ve never faced more than perhaps one and a half, maybe two percent of Terrorzin¡¯s eighty-thousand-plus forces in any given assault, this is easily five to ten times what we¡¯ve faced elsewhere. Why didn¡¯t Errissa¡¯s warning contain any hint at all that we¡¯d be facing something like ten percent of Terrorzin¡¯s forces in a single location? In the air alone, there has to be several thousand creatures, and several thousand more in the courtyard region, and who knows how many more indoors and in the tunnel structures of the mountain. Five, six, seven, eight, even nine thousand or more creatures is entirely feasible.


    The fact that there are hundreds and hundreds of blue kobolds in various outfits that look like mobile Faraday cages is lamentable. There must be some brilliant inventors among these people. Some are carrying around what I can only describe as looking like giant batteries on their backs, hooked up to rubber leads that likely blast forth electricity from their gauntlets, or power up whatever segment of their outfit that the leads are fastened into. Plus, there¡¯re plenty of kobolds that are just straight up walking around naked wreathed in lightning, seemingly unfazed by the ambient ionic charge in the air, or even the odd lightning strike or two that finds them.


    Spying more figures that I can make out as I observe them more thoroughly, I can tell that there are Draconiacs in the air, piloting jetpack-like wing-suits. They have a variety of different styles as well, similar to the kobolds with the different types of backpacks. Some look like they could fire lightning forward while gliding forward, via the top of their backpacks, while others look like they have to attack with cattle-prod-looking staves. Further, atop several of the largest dragons, those closest to ancient, are elite warriors clad in armor that¡¯s suffused throughout with electrical charge and lightning magic. Their halberds crackle with electricity even simply remaining in their sheathes along their backs.


    It¡¯s no subtle irony that Stormheart Keep¡¯s silicate insulation gives it the appearance of a jagged lightning bolt rising from the ground as a spire towards the skies that seems to merge with the dark clouds above. I almost wonder¡ª. If the silicates are dragonforce-infused, in order to keep them as protective as they are, which I believe they must be¡ª. Can we pull an archvillain¡¯s self-destruct button gambit? If we can get to and slay Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, then get Te to harness his dragonforce, and get her in tune with the citadel¡ª. Does he have a ¡°seat of power¡± here? I bet he does. Probably even a private vault with his most powerful, most coveted, most carefully guarded treasures, tomes, artifacts, knowledge, and the like. If we¡¯re really lucky, the two might be relatively the same place, or actually the same room.


    We might be able to bring the entire mountain down on everyone, ourselves included. I¡¯ve no qualms about doing that. I can survive a few billion tons of rock, and simply walk through it at this point. I have to be careful with the magic in certain items, but a few different ones should place me on the other side of an endless mound of rock if used in tandem, very carefully. Te could just smash her way out from under a mountain. It¡¯d take a while, but she could do it. Lil too for that matter. It¡¯s not like he hasn¡¯t dug miles and miles of stone tunnels before.


    At least navigating to where I bet a seat of power is won¡¯t be too difficult. We just keep heading towards the very center of the citadel, the bottom of the bolts of lightning that continuously funnel in through the top. We might take a chance to smash a few walls if it¡¯ll help us get to our destination. It¡¯s funny, rather than walls being in our way, they¡¯ll be our way in, and make it so we¡¯re not fighting thousands and thousands of goons at once. We have to get inside, past all of the goons, and then do a fighting retreat deeper into the interior of the citadel. Though I¡¯d prefer to not alert them at all.


    Ugh, as much as it pains me, I¡¯m going to have to leave clearing the way in to Te and Lil. I¡¯m also going to have to leave Alpaca to them as well, though I¡¯ll need to keep my attention on their fight so that they don¡¯t get timefrozen or meteored or have any other insanely deadly, overpowered magic placed upon them. Hm, before even thinking that far though, I¡ª. I think I have to ask Teuila to risk herself further without our aid. I hate this. I know Te¡¯s immensely powerful, and can handle herself, but none of us are immune to storms. I think. Does Mjolnir absorb lightning for Te? Does she have to block the blast dead on with Mjolnir¡¯s head in order for it to absorb lightning?


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    I don¡¯t know if I want Te experimenting right now. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m fully immune either. Between only having about ninety-six percent resistance, the fact that lightning or electricity seems to be the easiest element to add resistance-piercing to, and my EM-Field organ being a bit weak since I got reincarnated, I¡¯m more than a little worried about the prospect of taking on a few too many lightning blasts. Huff, yeah, I¡¯m going to have to ask Te to do what I¡¯d just been thinking of asking her to do.


    Sighing sadly, I start out, ¡°Guys, remember the Cragbeast Warrens?¡±


    Immediately Teuila¡¯s eyes alight with recognition as to where I¡¯m going with this, and Lil mutters, ¡°Awe man.¡±


    Nodding, I continue, ¡°Yeah. I think we need your It¡¯s-A-Secret to sneak in to find us a dead-end, blitzing past anything in her way. Only, this time, there¡¯s no chance she¡¯ll have to defend herself in the dead end alone long enough to get hurt. She¡¯ll have us in her pocket. Not only that, but I¡¯ve got a trick that¡¯ll screw with any forces following her.¡±


    Raising her eyebrow, Teuila prompts me about the trick, so I spill, ¡°So, the bypassed-wall spell, I can leave it in place¡ª,¡± I pause, leaving the hint lingering in the air before finishing, ¡°Or I can let it drop after we walk through the empty wall, returning the wall to its original state. If the floor happens to be less than five or eight feet deep, one of the two, I can do that as well. I¡¯d like to have Te use her senses to, if possible, find a dead end, where turning the dead end into a walkway will lead us to another hallway, and that hallway is directly above another hallway on the floor below. It should confuse the hell out of anyone following us.¡±


    Fighting the smirk that tries to claw its way across my face is too difficult, so I give in. My best bud looks suitably impressed after the worry for Te leaves his face. Teuila¡¯s grinning at me like a lunatic, certainly on board with my plan. While we still have a few seconds to strategize, before Te folds the hole back over us, I add, ¡°If anyone can see us in the second hallway, I¡¯ll let loose a few magic abilities in order to obscure us from view while we drop to the floor below. The entirety of all of Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s forces will be bearing down on us, and we have to assume we¡¯ll be facing them, while facing him at the same time, no matter where we fight, but it¡¯s far easier to fight eight thousand enemies when only a handful of them at a time can reach you, y¡¯know?¡±


    Facepalming, I recall a weakness of ours, well, of theirs, so I continue, ¡°I¡¯ll make sure you guys don¡¯t stay dragon-feared, but I¡¯ll be holding off the horde while you take him out.¡±


    Figuring it¡¯s better to lay out the whole plan, including the actual fight, I finish up, ¡°When I¡¯m lower on area of effect abilities, I¡¯ll swap with Lil, hoping that his breath buys us enough time to finish up if I can manage to offer him a bit of defense. Lil, I¡¯m thinking we¡¯ll be in a larger room, and if we¡¯re lucky, everything will be coming from one hallway. Don¡¯t stand directly in front of the hallway, because someone could sling spells through your flames at you. Stand around the corner, blasting flames at the hallway wall across from you, letting your flames funnel into the hallway.¡±


    Raising his eyebrow, Lil grumps, ¡°Why don¡¯t I just start with that then?¡±


    Sighing, I answer, ¡°Because I¡¯m less powerful than you against single targets. If you two synergize well, and Al¡¯pa¡¯ca goes down swiftly, we need you to buy Teuila enough time to absorb his whole dragonforce.¡±


    Sensing Teuila¡¯s frown, I¡¯d like to cut in but she asks what I expect, ¡°Me absorbing it? You¡¯re sure Airhead? You need them more than me.¡±


    Shaking my head, I clarify, ¡°Like I mentioned earlier, this is part of a plan to get you and Lil to be able to reach new heights. You¡¯ll have an archmage of storms¡¯ dragonforce, and I¡¯ll use an item I had Nala craft, to focus and channel energy into you, if Lil wants the power boost, and then I¡¯ll have you channel your power through that item into Lil like the reverse of the evolutionary energy tether I would grant you guys long ago. Lil, you¡¯re our ticket out of here. I don¡¯t want to force your hand, but¡ª.¡±


    Frowning, Lil nods along, agreeing, ¡°I get it. It was an offer, but now it¡¯s a need. We didn¡¯t know we¡¯d be facing all this. I¡¯m guessing you want to bring everything down on their heads like you were thinking about earlier?¡±


    I nod at my best pal, answering in the affirmative, so he turns to Te and explains, ¡°It¡¯s-A-Secret? I don¡¯t want to hurt you. I don¡¯t want to have to risk you to get stronger, but if you¡¯re really willing, and Rej says we need this to win and get home safe, I wanna get home safe. I don¡¯t want Gal-Pal or momma or Ixey to worry, or worse, make them sad by not coming home.¡±


    My-Wings, my everything simply smiles lovingly at Lil and nods while cupping his big scaly cheek. Her thumb brushes it as Lil nuzzles her palm. Teuila¡¯s a hero, through and through, for everyone, to everyone, in every way. She will, and has made mistakes, I mean, we all do, and will, but I don¡¯t think this will be one of them. At least, I hope not. I¡¯ll do everything in my power to keep this from hurting her. But what I have to prevent from hurting her is magical lightning channeled down through an entire citadel whose sole purpose seems to be condensing it to power some nefarious spellwork.


    The citadel, with its spire slashing skyward, is a leviathan of stone and storm, its silhouette a jagged scar. That reminds me of that jerk, Leviathan. I suppose I shouldn''t badmouth a god, even in my head an entire world away, but really, out of the four lesser gods of Can''Z''aas, he''s the only bad one. Anyway, let''s not get sucked into memories. We need to look ahead instead. Speaking of, gazing ahead, I can see it now, the heart of the storm, the eye of the chaos we''re about to enter. If Al''pa''ca''s storm manipulations are a battle cry, a declaration of war, we''re about to answer it, one way or another.


    Tentatively, hesitantly, I ask, ¡°Do um, either of you have plans? Mine seems reckless in a lot of ways, but I¡¯m drawing blanks that make me feel like the choices are, my plan, or trying to fight eight thousand or more foes at once out here.¡±


    Sighing, Lil slumps his shoulders and responds, ¡°It really looks that way Rej. I don¡¯t like my It¡¯s-A-Secret going alone again, looking for a good fighting spot. She got hurt back then. Y¡¯know? We don¡¯t heal the same, and I don¡¯t think you can hold them off for an entire day of us resting up. Can you?¡± My shaking my head prompts Lil to continue, ¡°So, well, yeah. I dunno buddy. I can¡¯t think of any mega cool, mega mega mega cool plans, or even just strong plans. Heck, I can¡¯t think of any plans except maybe digging in, but I don¡¯t wanna be here for weeks, y¡¯know?¡±


    Te and I both nod, and my glancing at Teuila prompts her to add, ¡°I was really just kind of thinking of fighting our way in, maybe making a staging grounds out here somehow, but I realize like, even with how powerful the three of us are, that could take foreeeeever. Aunty ¡®Zool seemed to think we had to deal with this sitch asap from the way she was worrying. So, yeah, let¡¯s sneak as close to the boss room as we can, and maybe we¡¯ll piss him off enough that he blows his top like the queenie did at the Cragbeast Warrens. Anyway, get comfortable Dragbutt, Airhead, I¡¯ll get us in there.¡±


    "So, that''s it then. That¡¯s the plan," I start, my voice betraying none of the butterflies doing aerobatics in my stomach. "Te, you¡¯re right, Kinzul needs us to do this asap. I can sense something building in the magic woven throughout Rayileklia now that we''ve been here a bit, and it isn''t good."


    I steal a look at Te and Lil, two thirds of my beloved inner circle, my family, our bonds strong and full of love. Their expressions are carved from a ceaseless well of resolve, something I wish I had personally. I don''t have resolve so much as tenacity, and the fallback of wrath. Still, we''re together in this, a trio against a torrent.


    As Te folds the portable hole back over us, I ready myself for the battle ahead. It''s a gamble, all of it. I guess that''s true of anything really, but still, this time feels different. We failed against the Fel hordes, and they didn''t have the advantages these foes do. Have I accounted for every possibility? No. Nowhere even close. This one, like every other plan, has its flaws.


    Despite wanting to stay in contact with my beloved SAP members telepathically, I know I¡¯d better make use of every tool in my belt. I equip my psi-blocking circlet. If there are some psionic mages that drop area of effect mental stunning powers, or other strong mental effects like illusions, this will prevent me from succumbing to them, enabling me to end those sorts of effects if any land on Te and Lil. It sucks to go even a short time without them in my head, but I hug Lil fiercely and love on him as much as I can while Teuila finds us a staging grounds for the beginning of our assault.


    Unintentionally, nervously, I grit my teeth, worried for Te. I¡¯m mainly worried that there will be no dead-end that she can reach alone, swiftly, before being spotted and hounded by all the forces of Terrorzin and Al¡¯pa¡¯ca. Can we pull this off? I wouldn''t put money on us. But I know we''ll tackle it together, come hell or high water. Here''s to hoping we weather this better than the tides and flames that we''ve gone through before. But I suppose that''s what we do, isn¡¯t it? Us Shellcrackers? We endure. But still¡ªcan we do this?

 B 6 C 170: Demon Daze

    Well, the answer to my question of if we can do this is, ¡°Sort of.¡± Orientation''s out the window as Lil and I tumble from my portable hole¡ªsideways. Thanks, Te, for the topsy-turvy entrance.  It¡¯s definitely an odd thing to have gravity suddenly be at ninety degrees.  I can see why Te placed the portable hole on a wall instead of the floor though.  We¡¯re in a throng of bodies that are all swinging wildly.


    I quickly telekinetically ravel up my portable hole, sticking it in a scroll-case on my belt, and snag my hyperdimensional pouch from Te simultaneously. The moment Lil and I staggered out of the portable hole, it was like stepping onto a stage mid-play, where the scene is a cacophony of zaps and smacks and cracks and whacks. If we¡¯re in a play though, the scene''s a crackling mess, obsidian bricks and lightning veins, all sharp edges and electric shocks. Argh, the air''s alive, buzzing, ready to singe the hairs off of pretty much anyone that isn¡¯t the three of us. Not the kind of buzz I enjoy.


    Lil and I¡ªwe''re scrambling now, trying to find our footing in this electric dance. The foes? It''s like they''ve all taken a dip in a lightning beach. Oh, hey, that¡¯s right. I turned an entire beach to glass with lightning onc¡ª, twice. Heh, focus Reggie. Right. Anyway, a yellow sandy beach along a lake of blue lightning would account for the types of breath weapons, and colors of scales that I see as Draconiacs, buzzing with static, all humanoid-shaped but dragon-hearted unleash upon us. And then there¡¯s our charming hosts, the actual dragons in human guises, their scales traded for skin, their eyes crackling with the same electricity that''s passing through conduits along the walls, draconic fury packed into human frames. Then the kobolds¡¯re zipping around like they''ve got shocks to spare. The storm myrmidons, though, they''re something else¡ªa swirling mess of fury, like living hurricanes in armor.


    I''d laugh at the guard drakes'' discipline as they wait their turns to attack us, if I wasn''t so busy trying not to become a crispy critter. And through it all, combat''s a mess. If I had to rely on sight, all I¡¯d see would be a canvas splashed with blues and yellows, constantly whited out by streaks of lightning aimed for my face. Hell, this hallway battlefield¡¯s a storm itself, a wild dance of elemental rage, and here come Lil and me, just two gusts in this gale while Teuila rocks their socks off like a hurricane with each blow of her fists and hammer, throwing punches and swings that could turn a storm''s head.


    As for me? I''ve got to get my head in the game. This isn''t a time to be an onlooker, it¡¯s time to participate. And participate I shall¡ªbecause if I don''t grab the reins of this chaos, I¡¯m just a leaf on the wind, and I''ve never been one to let nature dictate my path. Not without arguing, at least.


    Welllll, unless you count those early days¡ªthe ones where the main river of Can''Z''aas practically seemed to have a personal vendetta against me. I swear, every time I so much as met a new creature, I''d end up in a white-knuckled waltz with rapids, each time narrowly avoiding a less-than-graceful ballet with the boulders. I had more waterlogged moments than a sunken log. But hey, look at me now¡ªnot even a tempest, or death apparently, can keep me down.


    Hah. Okay, okay Reggie, reign it in. Don''t get cocky. I know, it¡¯s just using humor to cope with the chaos of the situation pal, but don¡¯t let yourself actually believe the joke. Anyway, this hallway''s like being inside the belly of a thundercloud, if that cloud had a bad temper, and a taste for Gothic architecture. A feeling with which I am very familiar. Well, except that last bit about the architecture. Heh. Speaking of¡ª. I perform a QCR number four, drawing all the lightning in our little battlefield to me, and press outward with my weakened electrokinetic EM-field organ.


    Ow, ow, ow. My newly reincarnated body¡¯s organ definitely isn¡¯t strong enough yet to hold up to this kind of punishment. But the curse of the greaves is doing what I need it to do, keeping the lightning in the area directed at me, freeing up Lil from shocks, to give him a chance to orient. Lil¡¯s already catching his balance, but taking a bit to reorient and grasp the situation as he takes a few test swings, smashing and thrashing and slashing foes that come to call.


    Despite wanting to lash out, and hurt those that are attacking Teuila, or hurting Lil, I need to focus and carry through on our plan, quickly.  Drawing Cla¨ªomh Solais, I bypass the wall of the dead end in which we find ourselves, and curse our bad luck.  The hallway to which we now have a path, is full of doorways, some as close to us as our immediate right and left.  Worse, there¡¯s nearly as many bodies filtering out of these rooms, as there were attacking Teuila to begin with, and now they¡¯re converging on us from two sides.


    Grunting as I¡¯m smashed across the chin, I hoarse-whisper, ¡°Lil, empty the new hallway pal!¡±


    Thankfully, Lil¡¯s got the good sense to grab a deep lungful of air and begin doing just that.  Now, most creatures don¡¯t react well to even the briefest burst of a blaze.  To say that most creatures attempt to remove themselves from continuous rivers of flames would be putting it mildly.  Of course, we¡¯re up against archmages, specialized elite knights, and who-knows what else, so some might actually live through the initial minutes of Lil¡¯s blasting breath as he ramps up in power.  Sighing, I build up pockets of explosive gas within my organ, momentarily glad no one¡¯s able to hear my inner monologue.  Bracing Lil and myself, I begin causing a rapid-fire series of explosions, using my TK grips to angle as much of the force forwards into our new hallway as possible.


    Glancing over my shoulder, I see Teuila rapidly switching back and forth from Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark¡¯s banded plate armor to that gorgeously tailored seasonal gi with her own Quick-Change Ring, based on whether she needs the defense, the resistance, or other passive benefits more in any given moment. Te needs to make it two more steps this way for me to be able to drop the bypassed-wall.  The spell might refuse to reset the wall though with people in it, so we need to buy at least a split second where there¡¯s no one bearing down on us from that side either.  I can¡¯t ask Lil to turn his back on this hallway, for fear of him being slain as he casts his attention in reverse, and we need this hallway to remain mostly clear as well for our gambit to pay off.


    Loathe to be using resources so early, I¡¯m about to lean into my own more precious, more powerful tools and abilities.  We preferably need all these people, the ones who¡¯ve seen me use a bypassed-wall spell, to be dead.  We¡¯ve got to get to that state, so they can¡¯t share knowledge that we can open up walls with the rest of Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s forces.  My gambit and ploy would be useless if they could just surmise to immediately bust through the floor or ceiling after us.


    Teuila begins hurling Mjolnir in a rapid pace as it returns to her hand over and over again. It¡¯s sometimes boomeranging back, other times simply being summoned to instantly reappear in her hand due to her dimensional sheath¡¯s enchantment, so that she can quickly smash an encroaching kobold or Draconiac.  That is one extreme benefit of battling deep inside the fortress, we don¡¯t have to fight fully sized near-ancient dragons in their draconic forms while dealing with everything else. They lose a bit of durability, just a bit, in their human forms.


    Sadly, Teuila has had to advance back into the far side of the removed wall, returning the way she came once again.  She¡¯s fighting to drive back the foes on that side, so I still can¡¯t drop the spell, at least not without trapping Teuila apart from us with a huge horde of forces between us.


    Glancing at Lil, I want to ask if he¡¯s been able to devise any new tricks, or powers, on Rayileklia, especially since the start of the war.  I¡¯m afraid the answer might be no, and that he might feel dejected having to confirm that to me.  Okay, breathe Reggie, think.  Two directions, two massively tightly packed hallways full of enemies that both need to die, and then need to have their vision blocked off.  Lil¡¯s managing to keep one hallway fairly clear, though I have to step in to blast some of the braver, stronger foes who are able to walk through his flames towards him, either with thunder shouts, or pockets of poison gas explosions.


    Motioning to Teuila, I suggest that she deploy her slowing fields, and cones of cold, since they will be less useful against Al¡¯pa¡¯ca.  He¡¯s big enough and powerful enough to ignore or walk through the slowing fields, and her cold cones aren¡¯t boosted by any of her special abilities.  Thankfully, we¡¯re on such a tight wavelength, that Teuila can guess my poor charades easily enough, and she looses several of the powers I¡¯d granted her when we worked to save Prinrin.


    Now, new bodies attempting to clamber into that hallway are going to be disoriented and slowed, and have to fight through the frozen, cracking bodies of their comrades.  Phew.  Jerking my head this way, thankfully Teuila obliges.  Turning her way, I loose all the crossbow bolts I can, of each of the strange elements from this miniature quiver.  It¡¯s got the desired effect of putting a bunch of semi-lethal, tiny area effects at the corner of the hallway we¡¯d been fighting in, keeping anyone alive from peering this direction.


    I plead for a massive block of Titanwood, without the featherlight component, from the Cosmic Roundsheath as I drop the bypassed-wall spell.  Now, the people fighting their way into that hallway are going to have to fight through slowing fields, frozen corpses of their own allies, a few minor lingering area-effects from the crossbow bolts, and then dig through a giant block of wood as strong as titanium, to realize we¡¯re no longer in that dead end.  Whew.  As the dead end reappears behind us, sealing us off from that side of it, Teuila wipes sweat from her brow before tossing me a cheeky grin, and flashing me an equally cheeky thumbs up.


    Are Lil¡¯s flames hot enough yet to do it?  Testing out their temperature with my own body, yes, they¡¯re damaging enough to melt, evaporate, and explode cold vapor that comes into existence, and to do it instantly.  Teuila doesn¡¯t even need to be told to use her other cold blast, and her other slowing field of the day, rocking the hallway with massive steam explosions that seem to happen in, well, slow-motion.  I guess they do.  Thankfully, this buys Lil the reprieve we need, and I conjure a second block of Titanwood, to keep the explosion¡¯s blowback from pummeling us, as well as to block sight of our upcoming escape.


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    My beloved Wings and Heart are both panting already, a bad sign when we¡¯ve got thousands of enemies left to face. We¡¯re deep within the main keep, a labyrinthine structure that has exits on all sides to the majority of the rest of the citadel. The rest of the citadel, within the walls of Mount Thunderpeak proper, was a vast expanse that rivaled small cities. The sheer volume of foes we can end up facing throughout this offensive is staggering. I can hardly imagine how many troops that I *didn¡¯t* see, in all of those external buildings with minor courtyards and open spaces that intertwine with natural contours of the mountain to form paths like roads to this, the main keep. Some were basic cubical dwellings, while others were towering stalagmites carved hollow.


    Checking in on my friends, both seem uninjured, at least, no more injured than when we started the offensive. Making certain we¡¯ve taken enough of a breather for them, I listen for the clang I should hear from the other side of the Titanwood cube, and thankfully, it arrives. Now I need to cast out my senses, in order to feel the thermal fluctuative flow, and take that into a moment between moments to let retrocognition do its thing. Taking a deep breath, I nod at Lil and Te. To them, no time will pass at all, but this might take a while.


    Diving into the non, the space between spaces, the moment between moments, the absence of the flow of time, I revel in absence, and allow the pause in the flow to virtually wash over me.  I feel more connected than ever to absence, to missing bits, to emptiness, void, space. It¡¯s so strange that as my Honoris Causa develops, more of me evolves and changes overall, not just my Void Dragon form. Hm, another thing harkening back to that hint from the Sisters Hidden in the Mist. I won¡¯t know what I am, or will become, by the time I¡¯ve found my cure. I¡¯m certainly changing, rapidly, in ways I¡¯d never have anticipated.  My connection to the Fel has¡ª.  Sonnova!


    Panting with exertion, I don¡¯t know whether to giggle maniacally, or to, to, to, I don¡¯t even know! The Celestial Emperor knew where I was, once we¡¯d started open engagements.  That¡¯s why the Damnations keep showing up to our offensives! Or, why they did anyway.  He¡¯s known where I was at all times ever since the Cathedral of Blood with the Cult of the Bright Lord. When I stepped into that radiant cascade of disintegrating energy, I felt a presence lock onto me, take root in me as an observer. Of course it was our damn manxome foe. I¡¯m pretty certain I was fairly certain of it even back then. Curse me for forgetting that, and not taking care of it before putting my beloved new family at risk. That part¡¯s on me.  The Damnations showing up repeatedly is on me.


    The bastard¡¯s been letting me mature in ways, for some reason, before truly trying to take me out. That¡¯s why the Damnations keep fleeing. He wants something from me. He¡¯s been sculpting my progress in secret, like some shadowy puppeteer. No. No. Shadows are mine.  Fv(4 him. He doesn¡¯t get that analogy. He doesn¡¯t get any sort of darkness, absence, calm or cool.  He¡¯s fire and fury, brightness and scorn. I¡¯m the dark, the absence. I¡¯ll be the one to snuff out *his* candle.


    Gritting my teeth, my resolve doubles, and doubles again, and again, thinking about how I¡¯ve been played. He may have been orchestrating my ascension to new heights on some levels, but my SAP and the Onyx Dawn are the ones who¡¯ve overcome the adversities to make the progress and growth we have. Whatever ways he¡¯s been sculpting and tempering me will be nothing compared to the growth I¡¯ve achieved, and will achieve, with the aid of those beloved to me, outside of his influence.


    A chill runs down the metaphorical spine of my mental avatar. It''s like there''s a second, quieter Reggie, one that''s watching all this unfold with the weight of centuries on their shoulders. This Reggie isn''t chuckling or plotting the next move. They''re just... feeling the enormity of it all, the endless tug-of-war with fate. A part of me, a part I shove down to keep fighting, to keep loving, to keep being the Reggie everyone needs.


    I won¡¯t let the CE change me. I¡¯ll have surprises in store for the arsehole. I¡¯m pretty certain that with my new connection to the Fel, and having had my previous body disintegrated, he no longer has that spy, that presence, that observing energy within me. How much does he know about Mount Solace? Was he only aware of my location, or could he have divined more? Could he listen in? Hm, I doubt it.


    It does explain Harlequin having had a plan to make me succumb to my past traumas though. Harlequin is part of the Evil Claws, the Evil Claws report to the Damnations, and the CE has had the Damnations under sway since the ancient times of The Platinum, bare minimum. In one way or another, the CE has had fragments out gathering information about me, either here, or on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, for all of my lifetimes. I think there¡¯s still a fragment trapped on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, but I don¡¯t know if he has gained all the knowledge that it¡¯s gained.


    What is it with this guy and his obsession with me? What did the one Damnation, Ephlomseestiph I think, say? Priming something? Could that have referred to me? Wait. Are they trying to get me to become some sort of bomb? Crap. Do I have to actively *not* grow and strengthen myself if I want to counter their plans? Crap crap crap. Come on genre senses, give me the odds. Please?


    Okay, twenty five percent odds that I¡¯m becoming some sort of bomb secretly guided to that destination by their hands. Three percent odds that the Sisters were in on such a plan, helping it along. Not impossible, but highly unlikely. That¡¯s not the worst thing I¡¯ve ever concluded. Alright, what else can we figure out about this? What are the odds that my new Fel body has had its ties to the Emperor severed?


    Oh good. Ninety nine point seven percent chance that whatever energy allowed him to know where I was, has gone away with my old body. I like those odds. I bet the bag of dicks never thought killing me would backfire. Wait, or was he trying to get this outcome? Oof, fifty fifty odds based on currently available data points. That sucks. Ugh, now I¡¯m going to be second guessing myself on if I¡¯m playing into his hands or not. Hm. Then again¡ª.


    Casting my mind back into myself, into my memories of my Rayileklian journey, taking care to avoid the thoughts that destroy my mindscape, I seek out a certain series of events.  Teuila¡¯s growth. Teuila¡¯s joy.  Every bit of her is every bit of me. Our hearts, souls, joy, sorrow, strength, past and future are intertwined cosmically. I think¡ª. I think I know how all of this is going to end. I wear a sad smile, shaking my head at myself with this half-cracked grin. Of course it would. Of course it would. That¡¯s fine. Proph¡ª. Let¡¯s just leave it where it lies, so that we don¡¯t risk destroying our brain. Let¡¯s focus on the moment, in the moment, for the moment, shall we?


    Right, right right righty-oh. So, let¡¯s take those thermal scans, and try to account for Lil¡¯s flames. Teuila¡¯s fairly sure we¡¯re above another hallway, or she wouldn¡¯t have set us loose here. This gives us a few data points. Two dead ends on opposite sides of a wall, their hallways and nearest splits, as well as being above another hallway. The map is coming into view fairly nicely. Hm, to be able to perform a simultaneous fighting-retreat, and infiltration slaughter, towards the seat of power¡ª. How is that going to go?


    I¡¯ve got a few more casts worth of creation in the Cosmic Roundsheath. I can also use starlight or crash, or whisper, or raven-porting, to get past some seemingly insurmountable odds to reunite with Te or Lil in case we get separated. Am I wearing or holding anyth¡ª? Wait. Am I blue again? Okay, this is getting out of hand. Wait. Wait wait. What if¡ª. Am I some sort of frozen-Fel? Genre senses say something like seventy percent odds with so few data points. Think back to that tabletop roleplaying game. Player-character species had subspecies. The ones with horns and tails had ties to¡ª. Certain archdevils. One of which is about cold fury, literally.


    Am I on the side of the Fel in the cosmic-scale of things? Have I just been the great evil, all along, growing into my position unwittingly? Thankfully genre senses say something like zero point zero one percent. Then again, I¡¯d probably have crafted a genre sense that would tell me that too, if I didn¡¯t want to clue me in to me having been the big bad all along. The Sisters did say I wouldn¡¯t know what I¡¯d be.


    Hm. Okay, okay, I can laugh at that one. I¡¯ve got Lil, Lu, and Te, to keep me in check, and always will. There¡¯s no way that any of them would ever ¡°go darkside.¡± With all of them being as wonderful, compassionate, and heroic as they are, it¡¯s highly unlikely that any gambit to get me to ¡°go darkside,¡± would pay off.


    What are some scenarios in which it would? Hm. I dunno, ultimate fate of the universe sort of stuff? Like whole planets worth of life threatened or something, where I had to sit on the throne of the Fel in order to stop it or something. Even then, I mean, the path to Hell and all that. I¡¯d be doing it with good intentions, as I have with most everything in my life.


    I¡¯ll always struggle with the morality of things, even in just simplified schools of thought. This whole line of thought needs my whole inner circle to get feedback from anyway. Hopefully I remember to bring it up when we get home. Maybe Kinzul could weigh in too, or Tiktik or Jarrah Bettergrove if I head back to the Heart.


    Right, back to things, we¡ª. We might have our, erm, I might have my SIPs back. My Subzero Ice Punches. We keep becoming a shade of blue that is more and more frosty, every time the blue returns. I can¡¯t help the stupid grin that sneaks along and creeps its way up the left side of my face. I was trying to avoid baking too many powers into RS2 as a base form, to be able to allow it to have access to the other forms as easy Rayileklian shapechanging sidegrades. With an entirely new body, one with a weaker EM-field organ, I didn¡¯t even think to examine myself to find out if I might have other, new assets.


    Let¡¯s play around with that idea back in real time. For now, let¡¯s try our best to consolidate this map, to correct any omissions or mistakes, and commit it to memory. Three Cs of retrocognition eh? Sure, whatever helps you visualize it pal. Actualize everything you can, always. Ever since Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, whenever ideas could pay off, and did pay off, it always seemed sparked by some revelation, some actualization. Still, let¡¯s stop getting distracted by random things like being blue despite attempts to be any other pigment.


    Poor Farzhis. I¡¯m going to keep sending mixed signals since I can¡¯t stop being blue.  Hopefully she won¡¯t be quite so, erm, turned on? Mrgrgr. Bluh. So awkward. I love the hell out of her for how much strength of character she has. I don¡¯t want there to be any lusty stuff between us. She¡¯s been benefiting from having a friend that isn¡¯t seeking that from her, and I want to keep providing that. It doesn¡¯t matter how crazily gorgeous she is, or even how much I actually have grown to like her. I¡¯m proud of her, and happy with the path she¡¯s chosen to walk, and I want to support her and cheer her on, every step of the way, without inserting myself deeply into that process. I¡ª. Yes I heard it after I thought it. I¡¯m glad no one else is in my head right now. Yeesh.


    What was I do¡ª? Oh, right. Stop getting distracted thinking about the heroic, brave, kind, stoic, beautiful buxom lass whose life is on a hard, grieving journey Reggie. Snirk. Snort.  Yes, I know, I heard myself. Okay, Reggie, snap out of the daze and ditch the ditzy detour¡ªfocus. This chilly new veneer? Not exactly demon, but devil''s in the details, right? Heh, Lil¡¯s and Te''s expressions¡¯re gonna be priceless when I break it to ¡®em that my inner demon''s gone and become an outer one. Just another day in the life of, eh Reggie?

 B 6 C 171: Stealth Action

    Hm, one last thing to make note of, this might not be the most efficient path. Genre senses are telling me that there¡¯s likely a ninety nine percent chance that I¡¯ve missed things with my thermal senses. Stuff like hidden, or secret doors, and so on. I guess we¡¯ll have to keep our eyes out, and I¡¯ll need to correct anything I can on the fly, if we spy ways we could be more efficient.


    Snapping back to reality, letting go of the flow of the non, opening myself to existence at the normal rate, I flash a smile at Lil and Teuila before starting, ¡°So, uh, a few things. I do have a path in mind, but I also realized some things. First, this body might have cold powers, which is cool, erm, heh.¡±


    Pausing, I chuckle at the accidental wordplay while shaking my head at myself. Lil and Te both blow silent raspberries by sticking their tongues out at me, and I return the expression. They can tell it was accidental even though I¡¯m currently wearing my psychic-blocking circlet. At least I think they can.


    Rattling my skull to get back on track, I continue, ¡°Well, the cold powers would be great, though I don¡¯t think I should test unless we¡¯re in a battle, so I don¡¯t leave any clues around, like random patches of ice. Secondly, it being a new body, likely no longer has a spy within it that my old body had that I¡¯d forgotten about.¡±


    Sighing, recalling how Dawn was still with us, still alive, when I walked into that radiant cascade of disintegrating energy, I bite back tears for a moment before addressing Teuila, ¡°Te, remember um, gosh I hate bringing this up.  Remember the Cathedral of Blood? I walked into that light, and picked up a passenger sort of, like a homing beacon or something for the CE. I¡¯d forgotten all about it, since he never seemed to make a move on it. Except, he had been making moves on it. The Damnations kept showing up to *my* offensives, but not yours or Kinzul¡¯s.¡± When Te¡¯s eyes fly wide at the shock of the realization¡¯s likelihood, I add, ¡°I know, right?¡±


    Sighing, I worry about all the unforeseen consequences that may have come about during the time that I¡¯d had that energy riding along inside me. I¡¯m also a tad worried. I had a vague feeling that a certain world, that was a certain soul, had been riding around with me.  Ow, ow, ow, brain. Okay, okay, I get it. Stuff I shouldn¡¯t know about, or believe, or whatever. There was that other conclusion I¡¯d come to in paused time though. I drink in Teuila with my gaze, her impossibly adorable face, its slight freckling, those perfect emerald eyes, that sporty ruby-red side-swept high-fade undercut that flops to frame the right half of her face. Staring at her lovingly, I¡¯m almost positive I¡¯m right about my guess about how all this ends. I can¡¯t help wearing a¡ª, oh well, anyway. I disguise my thoughts as a plotting grin. My expression only passes along seeming-confidence in my planned route to Te and Lil.


    Lil tilts his large draconic cranium side to side, cracking his neck, before he rolls his shoulders and wiggles like a bulldog preparing to sit. His wings are furled, yet I¡¯m half tempted to suggest he shapechange them away entirely so they don¡¯t get damaged in any of the battles. I¡¯m not sure if their frailer leathery nature has to somehow transfer to the rest of his sturdier scaled body in order to do that though. Draconic shapechanging is pretty weird stuff. Some of them can make clothing out of their scales, some can¡¯t, some have a fair degree of control and leeway over their human form, and just¡ª. Focus Reggie. Right. Not the time to be trying to puzzle out a type of magic that isn¡¯t going to impact the upcoming battles.


    Here¡¯s hoping this works. I¡¯ll just be bypassing one more wall, that being the floor immediately beneath us. At least, when I don¡¯t sense any thermal fluctuations in the hallway below us. And¡ª go. Whew, okay, dropping the spell, allowing it to return the missing matter to the floor, or ceiling, however you want to look at it. Right, right, whew. I flick my brows towards a darkened nook, so Lil and Te quickly take up hiding positions for a moment while I parse everything that I can.


    The longer we can go without alerting our foes¡¯ forces that we¡¯re further along in, and deeper into the citadel, the better. This means no witnesses once we start coming into certain clumps of heat signatures I¡¯d had to make note of. That means no mercy. Sighing, I clench my eyes tightly momentarily as my jaw locks up from accidentally gritting my teeth. I¡¯ll try to make up for it in some cosmic karmic fashion someday.


    Whether by design, intention, choice, or what have you, it seems I¡¯m destined to pull off assassination missions. We make our own destinies though. Don¡¯t we? I think. But what about time travel, and the primary timeline, needing to keep it unfractured? What about portents of the future? Argh, no time to have an existential philosophical crisis Reggie, get it together. This really isn¡¯t the time to be spacing out and getting lost in unwinnable thought arguments.


    None of us are used to stealth missions, and this one is going to be weird even beyond being a type of mission we¡¯re not used to. We¡¯re going to call everything down on our heads intentionally at some point by ringing the dinnerbell as it were even if we do somehow make it to our target undetected. My most fervent hope is that we can drive Al¡¯pa¡¯ca towards his vault, or something similar, that likely only has one way in and one way out. If we manage that, then I¡¯ll hold off the horde at the entryway, while Te and Lil fight the archmage, and I¡¯ll try to keep my eye out for ninth tier magics and the like.


    Huff, if only I had my inventory magic and space skill as available as I used to on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, before things started to go south with my Changeling Fae mana residue sickness. I could scoop out sections of these walls and tunnels, and rearrange them, making it nearly impossible to track or follow us. While we took on Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, if the horde did still manage to catch up, I could flood a hallway with dozens of thousands of knives or spears. Sighing, I know I shouldn¡¯t waste time lamenting such trivial things. I¡¯ve come a long way on Rayileklia. My powers have grown and expanded laterally, for which I should be, and am, grateful. No one else is lucky enough to have the natural growth inclination that we Can¡¯Z¡¯aasians do here on Rayileklia. Not at the rates we¡¯re capable of anyway.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Lil and Te have become monstrous powerhouses of raw strength and physical force. Not to mention their various masteries over certain magical items, or entirely new abilities. Lil¡¯s breath weapon is beyond amazing at this point, and after a bit of ramping up, should make it so that Al¡¯pa¡¯ca doesn¡¯t risk using his own breath weapon any further, lest the ancient Sand end up with his jaw and throat glassed open from the melted silicates. That¡¯s the hope anyway. I also need to hope that Lil and Te can purposely succumb to dragonfright close enough to me that my Honoris Causa can reach into them to negate the signals paralyzing them.


    I kind of wish Lucky was here, but Lucky and Luni need to stick together, and there is no way in hell I¡¯d want Lu to have to deal with this mess. She was so upset, just forcing herself to fight a single foe, when we were fighting a handful at once. Fighting off thousands on one front, while trying to face someone far more powerful hemming us in on another front?  I don¡¯t want to imagine the sort of trauma she¡¯d suffer, or anxiety she¡¯d put herself through.  Plus, sighing, I have to admit that Solace needs Damnation defenses. The SAP can no longer afford to all be deployed at once. We¡¯re the only ones that can keep the Damnations from simply waltzing through Solace and stealing everyone¡¯s souls or dragonforces.


    Perhaps kobold and Draconiac ground forces might be immune to having their souls stolen by the Damnations? Could that be part of the reason that Terrorzin has made such an abundance of them? I suppose that could keep them in check, keeping the CE from simply taking the throne of the King of Dragons. Hm. I don¡¯t want to risk any of our Draconiac allies testing that however. It¡¯s better if we handle it as the SAP. Besides, it could simply be a numbers thing, if they take more than a split instant to steal a soul, going up against thousands still isn¡¯t in their best interest.


    Taking off my psi-blocking circlet for far-too-short a time, I let Te and Lil know the route I¡¯d like us to take. Of course it¡¯s best communicating telepathically, silently. Hopefully no one can hear thoughts nearby. Plus, I intend to change the route at least once anyway. I¡¯m not intentionally misleading Teuila and Lil, but I¡¯ve just got this sneaking suspicion that we¡¯re going to find ourselves passing rooms with secret exits and entrances. Atter¡¯s was the first domain I really encountered them in.


    Hm, speaking of, or rather, thinking of, Atter¡ª. I wonder how the eggs are doing. Heck, I wonder how Atter and Boetah are doing. Now thinking about them, I wonder how Shaylon and Revvy and Greggy are doing too. Their goggles still display absolutely nothing due to the pitch blackness of the ¡®Neath. As much as I¡¯d like to be able to check in on any and every friend, not all of them have goggles yet. Also, it¡¯s not like I was going to have Atter wear goggles while she was conjugating. That¡¯s just¡ª. No. Sighing, I rattle my skull, attempting to reorient myself and focus on the task at hand.


    Gnawing on my lips, I¡¯m worried that our luck has been too good to hold, lasting as long as it has. We¡¯ve been able to dart by several rooms that were each occupied by large clusters of heat signatures. My plotted path does take us through one cluster however, so we¡¯re going to need to prepare to fight as quietly as we can. I don¡¯t recall ever doing a stealth takedown, but for some reason, sneaking along with the intention of taking lives feels almost second nature to me. I guess I do have a stealth skill from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Maybe that¡¯s it. Or maybe it¡¯s all those stealth-action RPGs your brain is filled with from Fakeworld? Meh, kindly screw off with the Fakeworld crap right now. This is too dangerous for distractions.


    I¡ª what¡¯s that sound? There¡¯s a skittering, skritching sound, accompanied by clanking. It¡¯s as if¡ª. There are robots, clankers, that don¡¯t put out heat signatures large enough to register on my senses. They¡¯re patrolling the hallways. Crap! I tap Lil and Teuila and flick my brows and forehead forward swiftly, indicating we need to hurry. We still need to be as silent as possible, to reduce how much time we need to spend fighting for our lives as we head down to the Chamber of Storms.


    Hm, based on runic fragments, I¡¯m picking up some of the history of this place. So Al¡¯Pa¡¯Ca had ruled it, and it was originally a site dedicated to attunement with storms to begin with, but he¡¯d chosen a vain domain name, and cast aside the old ways, early during Terrorzin¡¯s reign. I guess that¡¯s why Kinzul was surprised that he¡¯d reverted the name sometime in recent history. Of course, she wasn¡¯t going to be fed news about this, without learning it through her spy network, so it makes a sort of sense that it took her by surprise. Still, when she put all of her faith, and trust, in a Worldstorm that she concocted, wouldn¡¯t taking over a seat of power involving storms be one of the first things you do? Or at least, knocking the pieces off the board that knew of its original connections.


    I dunno, I don¡¯t want to fault Kinzul, but it¡¯s another one of those things that doesn¡¯t quite add up right for me. What did she need my blood for? Why did she need me unconscious for part of it, when I¡¯d already consented to giving as much blood as she desired? Huff. She was right. There will be things she¡¯ll have wished she¡¯d shared before it¡¯s too late, and things that I probably won¡¯t learn of until it¡¯s likely too late.


    My eyes droop wearily as I¡¯m overcome by a sadness at the prospect of losing our beloved Administrator, my beloved wife, Kinzul. It¡¯s fated. We know it is. Being in a war as badly outmatched as we are, it¡¯s likely that it could occur any day, as opposed to being in a time of peace, when it wouldn¡¯t make sense to expect some powerful force to gather against Kinzul. Just¡ª. Just don¡¯t think about it Reggie. Carry on. Forget it for now. It¡¯s a pain that you can¡¯t do anything about beyond ignoring it at the moment.


    As the three of us burst into the room leading to the next floor, a floor apparently known as the Nexus of Tempests, I¡¯m sad to say that we brutally, efficiently murder the guardians of the stairwell before they can so much as stand to react to our presence. Drawing a deep breath, sighing, I make certain the door¡¯s latch is mended, and returned. I also bar the door from this side, and set the corpses in the approximate positions they were in when we¡¯d busted in. Hopefully no one is due to check in on them any time soon. Every last second, minute, hour not spent fighting off the thousands of foes as we seek out Al¡¯Pa¡¯Ca could be the difference between victory and defeat, life and death.


    Oddly, I feel a strong breeze from the stairwell. I suppose, the next floor is known as the Nexus of Tempests, so perhaps it¡¯s not that odd. Doing my best to make certain we¡¯re leaving as few obvious clues as to our whereabouts as possible, I check in visually with Lil and Teuila. They both nod silently, so we carry on. The mission¡¯s going about as smoothly as it possibly can, but I¡¯m sure we¡¯re about to hit a snag any second now. Heck, I¡¯m curious what sorts of dangers lurk below, awaiting us on the uniquely named floor. I guess we¡¯ll find out in a few seconds.

 B 6 C 78: Almost-Sensitive Topics

    Levitating myself back up over the edge of the aerie so that I¡¯ll be able to descend down into Mount Solace without needing to crash into the ground, I hide my emotions by chuckling at myself. Putting on the brave, reassuring face, and joking to the gathered, I quip, ¡°Sorry, felt like going for a dip, I felt dirty after fighting the Damnations, driving them off again. I¡¯m honestly sick of running into those dickweasels and them running off. I need a couple of weeks to look through my artifacts and spells to figure out what I¡¯ve got that¡¯ll put them all down for good. We¡ª. Huff, I can¡¯t do it. I¡¯m not this person.¡±


    Slumping against the cliff face near the tunnel from the aerie down to the feasting hall, I sink til my butt touches my heels. As the kobolds, civilians, and members of the Order murmur around me, I gather my thoughts. Expressing them, I start, ¡°I drove them back, and in record time, but even record time wasn¡¯t enough to save everyone. We lost sixt¡ª, no, that¡¯s not the right phrasing. Sixty refugees and three dragons known as Shapuackurt, Lilmbrayur, and Heccinckethmorn were slain, because I wasn¡¯t powerful enough, wasn¡¯t fast enough to be powerful enough. They were on us in less than six seconds. Hell, they were on us in less than one by the way it seemed, and it took me almost six to put one of them down. I didn¡¯t even finish that one off. I¡¯m sor¡ª¡°


    The slap landed on my face by one of the Sand civilians stuns me in surprise more than any sort of injury. Her voice is pained as she chastises me, ¡°You don¡¯t get to be sorry. Shapua, Shapua sh¡ª, glp. You did the best you could, and your best wasn¡¯t good enough. Just answer me one thing. Are you going to make your best better?¡±


    Nodding solemnly, I offer, ¡°Without question. I try not to operate motivated by anger and vengeance, as it leads to my demon wrath being unleashed, but I want to make them pay. I want them to pay for Shapuackurt, Lilmbrayur, and Heccinckethmorn, and for the centuries of terror they¡¯ve inflicted on dragonkind. I want them to pay especially for taking The P¡ª. Sorry, I don¡¯t know the full story, I should shut up. I have to see to my projects, my friends, my vault, and figure out the most effective use of my time in order to ensure that I can put a stop to them once and for all as soon as possible. I just¡ª. I need to be able to process my emotions. I know it¡¯s a lot to ask for ti¡ª.¡±


    The slap I get from the lady at this point is starting to get on my nerves as she grumps at me, ¡°No it isn¡¯t! You¡¯re our hero. Our Hero! But you¡¯re still a person. What I meant before was that you don¡¯t get to be sorry because it¡¯s not your fault. You slew an ancient that had never been so much as bested in any sort of combat, gave a speech, talked down a harasser, saved a clutch, relocated refugees with the help of volunteers, and kept the Damnations from following your relocation effort. You probably haven¡¯t even had a lunch break yet. You¡¯re not a machine. You have needs, and probably wants that should be met.¡±


    Before she can add more, I retort, ¡°Can one of my wants be met then please? I¡¯d like you to stop slapping me.¡±


    The look of horror on the woman¡¯s face as she draws her hands to her mouth would be funny in most other circumstances, so I quickly add, ¡°It¡¯s not that I¡¯m hurt or anything, but if you felt like you needed my attention, you could just talk to me. That¡¯s what that whole speech was about earlier, trying to make myself approachable, even if public speaking and dealing with strangers gives me anxiety. I appreciate your words though. I do. I¡¯ll try to take them to heart. Huff. I just, I just have to find the right pace, and it seems to keep sliding around on me.¡±


    ¡°Right, um, yes, well, thank you for trying. I¡ª. I wish my son Hex and husband Shapu had made it home. I¡¯m sorry for slapping you. Um. Thank you. Sorry. Good luck Schism.¡± The woman scurries off before I can respond as I¡¯m left stunned realizing what she¡¯s lost.


    It¡¯s like Priss all over again. A husband and a son lost at once. Dropping my head into my hands, I can¡¯t seem to cry the tears I feel like I should be loosing for the losses we¡¯ve already suffered and will likely continue to suffer. I feel too numb and weak to even weep. The assorted gathered individuals continue to murmur about me and the Damnations mostly. Several of the people I consider close friends meander nearby, not approaching, but seemingly not wanting to leave me in this state.


    One person that I wouldn¡¯t expect to do so comes to sit next to me and kisses me for a long moment on the cheek before wrapping one arm around me and leaning her head on my shoulder. I slide my gaze to my right to take in our The Blue, Farzhis. Veril stands a short ways away, rocking back and forth on his heels, looking abashed as he casts his gaze about, avoiding meeting mine. He rubs the back of his head, blushing when he reads my thought train making note of his actions and hesitation.


    Thankfully Farzhis just sits with me for a while before checking in in her delightfully few-stop-consonsants accent, ¡°Schism, what you did, twice now, I can never thank you enough. Reggie. I don¡¯t entirely get it, hurting so much over those you didn¡¯t even know, but it seems such a big part of you. I¡¯m too selfish for that, but it seems such a big part of you. I think the rest of the Mount loves you for it, or will if they don¡¯t already. I¡¯m not good at this whole friendship thing, I¡¯m kinda new to it. You an¡¯ the Broke One are sorta my first real friends, testing the waters, trying not to manipulate you.¡±


    The beautiful airy tone in which Farzhis sighs momentarily actually captivates me and I feel a bit abashed for making note of it. She blushes before continuing, ¡°I guess, um, thanks for steering me right, for protecting us, for everything. I love that you¡¯re our Schism, our Hero. I wouldn¡¯t want anyone else in that spot. I¡¯m going to go hit the sack. I don¡¯t think you should stew if you can help it, but you probably can¡¯t help it. Come on Broke One, let¡¯s head to the Dormie dorms. No, not today, I¡¯m not ready yet, sorry to get your hopes up.¡±


    Now I¡¯m the one blushing at the implications that Veril wanted to sleep with Farzhis, but that she¡¯s actually taking her time in their new relationship, starting with friendship and building from there. I¡¯m really proud of her, despite how awkward it is to be proud of someone for their habits regarding manipulation and sex. I hate myself just a tiny bit that her actions are causing my heart to worm out a spot just a little bit deeper and a little bit bigger for her, with each new act she takes.


    I hate myself just a little bit more for the cynical suspicion that she¡¯s playing a longer game of manipulation. It hurts a lot that there¡¯s a side of me that doesn¡¯t give her the trust she deserves. I can tell it hurts her too when she senses that suspicion in me. But Farzhis takes the lump from reading that particular line of thought, and presses onward, leaving down to the feasting hall with Veril.


    Ixey is standing a ways away with a sullen, stricken Leezahna, as Zayzi approaches. Zayzi¡¯s hug doesn¡¯t surprise me as much as Farzhis¡¯s, but them shuffling our limbs about to sit in my lap and cuddle me does surprise me a bit. Zayzi mutters telepathically, ¡°Just friends, but safe. Sister safe too. Good. You¡¯re good. You¡¯re safe. Safe is good. Feel good, okay? Let¡¯s share sweets tonight. Please?¡±


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


    I can¡¯t help smiling and nodding around a faceful of Xayla¡¯s locks of their massive gorgeous curly ¡®fro. I squeeze Zayzi lightly for a few moments, glad that they seem to be shifting from what I¡¯d heard their personality is like, into one that lets themselves experience their feelings enough to comfort others, and project confidence and friendliness. I¡¯m glad they¡¯re on the mend. I know how long of a road it can be to keep working past a trauma. It took me weeks, months, years sometimes for certain ones. I only had the opportunity for that due to accelerated thinkspace.


    Uncertain exactly where Zayzi¡¯s face is, beneath the tremendous mound of hair, when I lean inwards attempting to kiss their forehead, I¡¯m shocked when my lips meet lips that were apparently seeking my cheek. Zayzi uncharacteristically swiftly retreats. With their ridiculously lanky limbs, it¡¯s easy enough for them to smack me atop the head from their standing position. I¡¯m uncertain how to react, but I can feel Ixeyla fuming nearby, so I raise my hands forward placatingly, trying to figure out the best way to apologize.


    Zayzi knows I was attempting to kiss only their forehead, so they aren¡¯t as mad as they might have been, but their muted emotions warble beneath our telepathic wavelength until they put up walls against me. Xayla hesitates a moment, then stalks away as I¡¯m trying to apologize, causing Ixeyla to trail swiftly after while casting a vicious glare my way. Leezahna just looks mildly confused between the sullenness and fear written across her countenance. She edges away from me in a semi-circle, following Ixeyla cautiously.


    Ugh, that certainly could have gone better. I was all proud of Zayzi and happy for them and everything. Before I can mope about the interaction, I¡¯m picked up and dusted off by Shield. Boetah offers, ¡°More good work as our Hero Schism, emotions are harder work, that¡¯s why I think it¡¯s important to be happy and eat well. Everything else sorts itself out. Care for some calcite, or a bit of zircon?¡±


    Chuckling, I shake my head as I hug Boetah about his big round belly. Declining the proffered minerals, I express, ¡°Thanks for the offer Boetah, Shield, but I¡¯ve got a different physiology. Rocks don¡¯t really do it for me. You¡¯re right though, trying to remain happy, and making sure we eat are important things. I guess I¡¯ll go take care of that. My Wings, are you f¡ª.¡±


    Teuila is at my side, sneaking under one of my arms to sidle between me and Boetah in my current embrace in an instant. Te wraps her arms around me as she looses her single elongated laugh of glee, ¡°Heeeee,¡± which leaves me chuckling. I work to remove my arms from Boetah so I can give her a more tender, yet tighter embrace. Boetah nods as he trundles off, with Shaylon following swiftly behind. I should probably thank the eight strategist Draconiacs, and Pawn, for helping take care of the logistics of this, before Teuila and I start wandering off. I¡¯ll need to stop in and see our prisoners at some point too.


    Te gloms onto me as I approach Elshon, Prent, Nietru, and Burshis. Nietru abandons her current conversation to rush to my side, and I¡¯m left blushing a bit at the sudden attention. The sparkle in her eye tells me Nietru is curious if I¡¯d read her missives, so I quickly answer the unspoken question, ¡°Hi Nietru, thank you for the notes, you um, yes, Spymaster¡¯s message was for me, and I understood it, thank you. I look forward to working more with you as well, the eight of you. Perhaps this eve sometime if you have a free moment, you could enlighten me how each of you approach your positions as strategists?¡±


    Figuring I should explain so that it doesn¡¯t come across as me hitting on Nietru in front of everyone, I add, ¡°I have some more plays, and assets, that I¡¯d like to start possibly thinking of ways to deploy, or utilize, and I¡¯d like some more tactically minded opinions on the matter. Also, um, hi, and thank each of you so very much for helping coordinate the evacuation and relocation effort.¡±


    Nietru Devalor comments, ¡°Excited to be a part of your plans Schism, truly! I¡¯d be delighted to let you know about the war council. Our Lady of course has been making decisions for the Order for as long as I can remember, but as wise and calculating as she is, she always takes advisement to heart. I could give you the briefest summary right now, a few words about each of us if you like.¡±


    Seeing me gesture in the affirmative, Nietru offers up, ¡°Elshon over there¡¯s a pragmatist, surprisingly enough, while Prent is fairly close behind. I know I can seem a bit idealistic, and I perhaps am, but I¡¯ve a mind for numbers, which themselves aren¡¯t very idealistic in the best of cases. My Burshee, koff, Burshis is a brutal formations expert, fully studied in both humanoid and draconic battle history. Aktixas is a warrior at heart, and thinks of things at the individual level on the field, a point of view that the rest of us would otherwise lack, very empathetic to the necessity of morale and such.¡±


    Motioning to the pair of lovebirds helping with the refugee intake, Nietru continues, ¡°Geskae and Aaront are of similar minds, I think it¡¯s why they¡¯re such a loving couple, they can see big picture plays and overall strategies that span moves and retaliations that some of the rest of us don¡¯t have the foresight for. Shrulniz is, um, huh. Shrulniz is tactical in a tangential way, the needs of those we¡¯re protecting. I guess if you¡¯ve seen any human sports, perhaps a bit like a goalie from some of their ball related sports. Oh my apologies, a belated hello to you both, you too as well my Tenith. I¡¯m excited to be approached by the pair of you.¡±


    My lower jaw juts forward appreciatively as I nod at Nietru, taking in her information. My response is a simple, ¡°Thank you for that, perhaps I can just say it then, and you could discuss amongst the eight of you, so that you could drop me a letter, or come by to chat later these eve? I¡¯ve got a lot of uncategorized items, loot I guess, and I know we¡¯ve already defeated several dragons who have their own hoards. Ka¡¯thuul is out there, worming her way around, trying to pick up the wealth after we¡¯ve freed it from its owners, but despite wanting to keep our alliance I¡¯d prefer if that wealth and the possible artifacts contained therein were coming to Mount Solace. Could you fill me in on what we¡¯re doing in a sort of reverse-supply-lines kind of deal?¡±


    Before Nietru can start answering in the here and now, so that I can emphasize that I want her to talk it over with the others, I continue, ¡°Also, the two Spellknight prisoners might be willing to take up defense of our home, or perhaps of traveling caravans and supply runs and the like. It¡¯d put dangerous allies in positions where they can use their power in times of need, show our faith in them in a fashion, and also protect the innocents in Mount Solace from them until we¡¯re more certain we can trust them. Only if they¡¯re up for it of course.¡±


    Realizing something else I want to talk to is best not spoken aloud, I put up all my telepathic walls and send directly to Nietru, ¡°There are secrets about Rayileklia that I know, that I need to know who else is in the know about, so it¡¯s quite difficult to subtly ask about them without spilling the beans. Since you¡¯re used to communicating with Spymaster, and interpreting sensitive topics, I¡¯d like you to bring to my attention everyone¡¯s knowledge of certain topics such as storms, temporal anomalies, the routing of the Felgre hordes the first time, anything that you can think of would be a sensitive topic in fact. Assume that I either do know, or should be informed about anything that is normally a matter of secrecy, but also assume I don¡¯t know why each thing should be kept secret at this point, or from whom, so make sure that you have that information ready as well. My plans might change very little, or drastically depending on your answers. Thank you Nietru Devalor.¡±


    Heat emanates from Nietru¡¯s face as I include her last name in addressing her. Crap, is that like when a parent angrily calls out your last name? I didn¡¯t mean to embarrass her. Or are last names a sensitive topic? So very few of the dragons or dragonkin seem to have them. I spread one arm wide, offering Nietru a hug, and thankfully she gladly accepts it. Giving her a firm squeeze, I bob my head once gently in her direction as a sort of farewell. After breaking off the hug, Te and I begin descending from the aerie towards the feasting hall together.

 B 6 C 79: Omni-Potent Teuila Shellcracker

    Trying to distract myself from contemplating my failures, knowing that Teuila is still struggling to come to grips with her own misgivings on various losses of life, I pull some insect meat from the dimensional pouch. Te gladly accepts a hunk and we chow down together while passing the feasting hall. Eating of course only takes about one or two seconds for each of us, being digital critterkin, or Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin adjacent, thankfully. At least as far as digital food is concerned. It¡¯s incredibly weird that the shops can produce non-digital produce, by rezzing them into existence.


    Speaking of the shops, I withdraw the smartphone from the dimensional pouch to check the time. Wow, it¡¯s still not even two p.m. What a morning! I wish I could catch up with Illy to check on her. I hate that she¡¯s suffering about the loss of her sister, but I can¡¯t reach her to console her right now. Instead of focusing on my inability, I let the majority of my psychic walls drop as Teuila and I spend time cuddling in thinkspace and reality while I T K Surf us down to Mount Verdimenn. I stop by the library before heading down too far, to check in with Nala.


    As I near arrival to the library, I hear mentally from Nala, ¡°Fortuitous timing, fortuitous indeed friend Reggie. I¡¯d been about to send for Pawn to fetch you in order to, well, no matter, come come. Apparently I¡¯ve you to thank for this slight bit of bother, though it is rather amusing in a fashion.¡±


    Te and I raise our eyebrows at one another in curiosity at Nala¡¯s statement, but it¡¯s pretty evident what Nala was referring to as we enter the library. A host of kobolds are making their way from stack to stack, checking out all the shelves, feeling up the books¡¯ spines, reading titles aloud, and so on. Apparently some of the refugees are either avid readers, or would like to be. Oh boy, poor Nala. Her refuge is now shared with others.


    Floating up alongside her, I ask, ¡°Nala, are you okay? How are you handling this?¡±


    Her response contains only a hint of the usual gruffness, ¡°Did you know that some of them have never even seen a properly bound book before? The savage conditions by which Terrorzin rules and subjugates those beneath his banner is appalling. I¡¯m endeavoring to withstand the onslaught of questions, but this is after all, a public library, so I¡¯ll be having to make do, until I can perhaps appoint an adequate assistant from amongst their multitudes, or something similarly accommodating along those lines.¡±


    Before I can ask, Nala continues, ¡°That is not the reason I¡¯d been about to request your presence anyway, I have to dutifully handle my own responsibilities after all. No, I¡¯ve sorted more previously owned, and incoming material, and even without my Latent, many of these set off obvious red flags that demand they enter into your custody immediately. Please, take this stack and then shoo, as you can see I¡¯m quite busy with matters to attend to.¡±


    Suddenly addressing a tiny kobold that¡¯s attempting to lift the massive central dictionary from its podium placement, Nala turns away from me to call out, ¡°You there, put that down, you¡¯ll flatten yourself under its heft, that one is meant to be read on the pedestal upon which it sits, it¡¯s a dictionary you audacious diminutive lunatic. If you¡¯d like to read it, there are stools and stepladders all about for you to take advantage of.¡±


    Nala then turns to one sitting at a table dragging his hands across the pages of a delicate-seeming tome, ¡°Do be cautious of your claws you inconsiderate little nincompoop. You need not trace every word with your deadly little digits to read them.¡± She returns her attention to me only momentarily to dismiss me, ¡°Huff, away with you Schism. I¡¯ve matters in hand. Yes yes, you¡¯re all welcome to stay, and I¡¯ll help you find the topics you¡¯ve an interest in, just, please, behave yourselves.¡±


    The chatter from the kobolds makes me chuckle slightly, but Nala¡¯s reaction serves to further lighten my humorous mood from the doldrums I¡¯d been on the way to experiencing. I snag the several tomes that Nala had indicated in one of my telekinetic grips and cast a quick glance her way. She *almost* seems to be enjoying herself, almost. Teuila and I -book it- from the library, and Nala groans over the wordplay in my internal monologue. Another fact which I can¡¯t help chuckling about. Even Teuila half giggles through a groan while riding my mental wavelength. Leaving the library, I float us towards the prison, and Teuila begins to poke and prod for my attention.


    Raising an eyebrow towards her, and pausing our locomotion, I await Teuila, since she seems giddy about something she apparently wanted to share, but hadn¡¯t yet for some reason. I set us on the floor of this seemingly deserted hallway, and Te drags me towards a dead end before planting her lips firmly on mine. I sink into the kiss, and her embrace, accidentally letting slip a short moan of pleasure. Of course I end up blushing furiously at the escaping sound, though Te just grins through the kiss. Teuila and I have not spent anywhere near as much time as either of us would like sharing our physical joys with each other over the last week or two, or really our entire journey on Rayileklia.


    Apparently though, that isn¡¯t why Te requested my attention, she starts, ¡°Sooo, I didn¡¯t want to steal your thunder¡ª,¡± Te pauses, giggling ridiculously hard at some apparent in-joke with herself before continuing, ¡°¡ªlast night Airhead. But you are *not* going to believe what the goons I took down on Friday just had lying around. You know, Missile-whosit and Hairyhousen. I had to scoop it, natch. Check this.¡± Teuila withdraws an ornate battlehammer with a leather-wrapped handle from seemingly nowhere, and sets it on the ground before me.


    The hammer hums with thundrous intensity and crackles with electrical power. Inspecting it, I raise my left brow and query, ¡°Misildyr and Heironymous? Even if they were enemies, I¡¯m surprised you¡¯d joke with their names since they¡¯re dead. You did kill them, right? You¡¯ve had more dragonforce coursing through you since we met up after I returned compared to post-battle on the day of the first offensive, Thursday I think. I can sense at least that much. Yours works differently than mine, it¡¯s like, like yours regenerates itself over time, fills itself back up somehow, while mine keeps eating away at itself, sapping away into some kind of¡ª. Void.¡± I facepalm as Teuila bursts into another fit of giggles. I had that one coming.


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    Still, while Teuila is busy doubling over in laughter, I check out the hammer, finding that I can¡¯t lift it at all. Did Teuila increase its gravity? Wait. No friggin¡¯ way. My eyes fly wide in recognition after spotting something, so I ask, ¡°Te, can you read this? Do you know what it says?¡±


    Teuila shakes her head and shrugs in response, muttering, ¡°Nah, but it was on a big boulder, like they had to move the boulder to be able to move the hammer. Weird, right? Nobody else seemed to be able to pick it up.¡±


    I huff and try not to roll my eyes, since I know that Te doesn¡¯t have the same Fakeworld memories that I do. It¡¯s not her fault for not realizing what this hammer is, and what her picking it up represents, so instead I read aloud the inscription, ¡°Whomsoever bonds to this hammer, should they be worthy, doth possess the power of T¡ª,¡° I feel like copyright ninjas are about to leap out of the shadows and strike me down, so I pause and glance around rather than finishing.


    Wait, the Goldforce Gauntlets, one of the runotypes¡¯ inscriptions could have been interpreted instead as¡ª. They¡¯d be the Godforce Gauntlets. Jarngripr? Then the storming girdle, the belt of strength that Lil wears¡ª. That¡¯d be Megingjord. No friggin¡¯ way. What the everliving fu¡ª. I mean, Teuila pulled this hammer out of something or somewhere, she does have her own extradimensional bag now, ever since Berinon gave her one back in the swamp, but she definitely had it in her hands for at least a few moments before setting it down. Still, to be able to lift this, she¡¯d supposedly need the belt. She has to have the natural strength to lift this, even without Megingjord. That¡¯s insane. That, or some sort of magic prevents anyone unworthy from lifting it, or both. It could be impossibly heavy, on top of being enchanted for only worthy wielders.


    The belt only brings Lil¡¯s strength slightly above Teuila¡¯s, or at least, slightly above the last I remember her having hers at on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. If she has leveled up to twenty as well, since we¡¯ve fought most of the same battles these last four months, then her strength might be on par with what the belt sets it at, at this point. Oh, wait, right, the little stones floating trapped in her hair, her strength already was as high as the belt. Teuila¡¯s monstrous. She might be *stronger* than Lil even with the belt at this point. That¡¯s ridiculous. I wonder if there¡¯s a cap, or upper limit to her strength.


    I¡¯ve always thought of Teuila as a sort of Valkyrie maiden warrior. A warrior-maiden? Something like that. Sure, she¡¯s friggin¡¯ amazing¡ª. Yes, the irony is not lost on me that Frigg is a Norse goddess and my epithet happened to contain most of her name, or rather that her name is most of my epithet. But anyway, Te has the Alias powers of Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending, Lady of Storms, on top of her gravity or sky based Latent, and now she¡¯s wielding a hammer straight out of Norse mythology from Fakeworld, Earth. Well, out of the comic books of Fakeworld anyway, and gauntlets that could likely be the same. What is even going on with our lives? Who the hell are we?


    Oh, wait, also, go back. Would this mean that Leviathan is essentially Jormungandr? I, I¡¯m so lost. I mean, I have always said Teuila is the strongest of us, the most powerful, but a literal god or goddess? Holy friggin¡¯ crap. I don¡¯t even know where to begin with this. I¡¯m marrying someone that is essentially a dragon queen, one of the eldest dragons on the planet, a ruler of her own domain, though she forgoes ruling in favor of leading. For years I¡¯ve been in love with someone who handles the fate of the ultimate timeline of our lives, and her sister, my very first love, might literally be the god of storms. My Teuila, My Wings, a literal goddess in the Norse pantheon?


    Teuila butts in to my meandering line of thought with, ¡°No idea what you¡¯re talking about bucko, but I sure am flattered regardless. C¡¯mere babe, mwah.¡±


    I can¡¯t help chuckling as Te distracts me from my rambling thoughts with another kiss. My eyes slowly droop happily closed, and I find myself sighing contentedly in her arms. I feel so safe with Teuila, even though I¡¯m still technically on a timer. We couldn¡¯t just cure my Changeling Fae mana residue sickness, not without turning me from Reggie Shellcracker into just some powerless human. Maybe after I¡¯ve paid the five and five and six more, or however the Sisters had phrased it.


    Still, with three strong dragonforces coursing through me, buttressing my true inner self against the strangulation of the mana residue, it¡¯s only taking about a quarter of a percent or a third of a percent of the current maximum of what resides within me per day to keep me alive at this point. Three to four thousand days is plenty of time to acquire more dragonforces, especially when we¡¯re entering all out open war against a horde of dragons as vast as Terrorzin¡¯s. What are my current dragonforces again? Olashax, Vanathar, Tinth, Hareslayer, right? Yeah. An Ice, a Fire, a Lightning, and an Acid. Once again, a hell of a coincidence.


    Te bonks me lightly on the skull, raps me gingerly upon my cheek, and slugs me playfully in the shoulder, muttering, ¡°Airhead. Shush your brain for a while sweetie. Though, I guess you¡¯re you, and that¡¯ll always be pretty hard, huh? It¡¯s okay Air, let¡¯s go to the prison love. If I can¡¯t keep your big beautiful brain to myself, maybe I can get some twin action going on, wink wink.¡±


    Snorting a laugh, I roll my eyes and shake my head in faux exasperation at Teuila while I resume T K Surfing towards the prison. I bet Te would honestly do it too, if she could convince Ahliyui and Ahliyuri to snog. She¡¯s been, as Illy would put it, rambunctiously sexy as her time on Rayileklia wears on. She misses Lin, and has certain emotional turbulences she¡¯s trying to distract herself from. I can¡¯t blame her at all for any of that. I wouldn¡¯t even if I could. I love My Wings beyond measure. She sets my soul alight.


    Hm, somehow that concept is familiar, burning souls. Why does that seem familiar? A candle? Yes, no, maybe. There¡¯s that, but then there¡¯s something else. A machine? Huh. Weird. I guess more random stupid Fakeworld bullcrap maybe. Who knows? Teuila stores Mjolnir while I¡¯m pondering my strange trains of thought, so I return to surfing towards the prison with her.


    Should I come up with a new nickname for Teuila? Thoruila? Tethora? Teuithor? Maybe just Tenith Grayl? How the hell do the situations around me keep getting even *weirder* than they¡¯d already been? Anyway, we¡¯re almost to the prison so we can speak with Ahliyui and Ahliyuri. There they are, playing cards with four guards now, apparently the previous ones haven¡¯t retired yet, but new volunteers showed up to take over, and they¡¯re all getting along.


    Teuila gives me a gentle noogie as I take in the scene. It¡¯s almost funny to me that Ahliyui and Ahliyuri are hanging out with the guards, their very powerful magically endowed equipment sitting nearby in a footlocker and a sack. Like, is there really any further way we could show how much we desire to trust them? We¡¯ve literally given them access to our deepest reaches, left them with their gear, and basically said, ¡°Hey, please don¡¯t stab us in the back, but here¡¯s your complimentary knife.¡±


    My Wings snickers at my line of thought, but I jokingly shoulder-bash her, and she knocks into me in return, ending up sending me toppling from my telekinetic perch, but I simply catch myself in another telekinetic grip. Smirking at me, she blows a raspberry momentarily before hugging me tightly as we end our approach. I wave to the assembled Draconiacs.


    Before I can strike up a conversation, Te beats me to the punch, calling out, ¡°I hear you two are Spellknights. Think you can teach me some tricks?¡±

 B 6 C 80: Spellknight? No-Spell Fight

    The guards raise their scaled brows, but no one really wants to tell our Tenith that she can¡¯t ask someone something, so they just remain hushed as we all await the twins¡¯ answers. Yui offers up, ¡°You¡¯re with Schism, so I take it you¡¯re pretty powerful in one way or another, there might be a chance I could show you some simple hexes, or fencing charms. That is, if our captor would permit it. I¡¯d want to be equipped to avoid any pointless mishaps instructing an amateur.¡±


    Before I can answer, an almost malicious mischievousness glints in Teuila¡¯s eyes as she retorts, ¡°Honey, I¡¯m Teuila Shellcracker, a Guardian of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, a knight Aliased Tenith, and I¡¯m the Lunar Dragon Honoris Causa. Amateur is nowhere in my titles. Nor my titties for that matter, even if they¡¯re a bit small.¡±


    Snorting with laughter, I shake my head in wild disbelief at Teuila. What the everliving hell has gotten into my beloved? Hah. I gaze between the assembled, and the guards are doing their best to hold in their own laughter, wary of offending two beings with the most powerful titling within the Order.


    Defensively, albeit only slightly, Teuila jokes, ¡°What? Titles is only a couple letters off of titties. I figured I might as well make the joke before anyone else could. Seriously though, my Airhead is always learning new spells and gaining new forms and all sorts of things. I get a new miniature power from a book once in a while or something, or a new weapon here or there, lots of new weapons honestly. Honestly what the hell am I even going to do with them all? I can¡¯t wield a dozen different weapons at once. Can I? Can you two do that? Is it something you could teach? Scratch that, let¡¯s start small. Gear up and come at me, my Airhead doesn¡¯t mind, and neither do I.¡±


    Teuila is almost instantly at the far end of the prison, leaving Yui and Yuri glancing about for a moment. Ahliyuri puts his hands up placatingly and steps aside, letting his sister at their gear, and eyeing me questioningly. I nod my consent to them, so he simply scoots his chair closer to the guards to return to playing cards while keeping an eye on what¡¯s about to unfold.


    I avert my gaze for the brief moment that Ahliyui is nude while swapping from the casual clothing she¡¯d gotten from the barracks, into the under-armor padding she¡¯ll wear beneath her gear. None of the five Draconiacs join me in averting their gaze, not even Yuri. I guess nudity just doesn¡¯t mean the same thing to reptiles as it does to mammals, or, well, humans and some Fae at least.


    Te dons most of her equipment, and hefts Mjolnir from a strange blue sheathe that didn¡¯t appear to be hammer-shaped, and stands at the ready, motioning for Yui to charge. Yui, despite her supposed combat ferocity, or her deranged nature as her brother calls it, instead takes her time approaching Teuila. The Spellknight calls, ¡°Would you consider it a breach of our surrender if I layered spellwork Schism?¡±


    My muscles tense and I inadvertently clench my jaw. This is the exact sort of thing I didn¡¯t want to have happening. If I give them an inch, will they take a mile? Will they hurt innocent denizens of Mount Solace? My breathing begins to flood with anxiety, though I mask it by keeping it shallow and keeping my mouth closed. I flick a casual, ¡°Do as you will,¡± signal to Ahliyui, despite not feeling good about letting her do so at all. Even if I don¡¯t trust the Spellknight twins just yet, I trust Teuila. She wouldn¡¯t let them get away and harm those under our protection if she could help it.


    What if they can teleport though? What if they take hostages? No, hostage-takers aren¡¯t a situation that we need to make special considerations for. Either they¡¯d be willing to be talked down, without proving that they¡¯re willing to kill, or they¡¯re willing to kill their hostages either way. If it¡¯s the latter, the only recourse is to kill them. If they put themselves in the position of having a hostage, then I just need to find a maneuver that kills them before they can harm their victims, if possible. It¡¯s harsh, but that¡¯s the penalty *they* agreed to upon surrendering.


    Seeing Yui do runework now is different than when we¡¯d been in combat, and she isn¡¯t speaking draconic as a mnemonic. Her pace is almost languid. In fact, the more she does, the less it¡¯s like the familiar runework of Rayileklia at all. It¡¯s almost more of some sort of battledance, a series of kata combined with hand-seal gestures. Cranking up my aura vision does reveal however that she is still being layered in spellwork. There are enchantments, alterations, and transmutations being wrought upon her layer by layer, and then those magics are being protected by abjurative effects. Her muscles are being altered to react differently, likely without producing lactic acid buildup. Her scales are being transmuted into a more resilient material, and a number of effects are growing in power by the moment.


    I¡¯m about to call a halt to this, but she stops herself before I get the chance, likely perceiving my agitation with new senses that she¡¯s granted herself. She¡¯s at least as powerful as where she intended to be on the day that we fought inside the ShizTinth Stronghold. Uncomfortable with this level of power now in her hands, I motion for the guards to leave the prison area somewhat, and when they do, I seal the four of us in. My move fills Yuri with anxiety, but he makes no effort to complain or fight back.


    Breaking the tightness of the seal on Frostburn, partially loosing it from its sheathe, I stand with my back to the exit that I¡¯ve now magically locked. I barricade the door in three layers of telekinesis. I do not want to rescind my offer of mercy. Te, why did you do this? What is going on with you? Te makes no effort to respond to my line of thought outwardly or even across our mental wavelength.


    Ahliyui is about to put on her helmet, but to that, I call out, ¡°No. You won¡¯t need that unless you plan to betray us, leave it off. Teuila is accurate enough to never strike an unarmored face unintentionally.¡±


    Yui shrugs, and drops the helmet back into the pile of equipment in the footlocker. Instead of arming herself in the conventional way, Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui performs a gesture with each hand, revealing both a blade of pure radiance humming with intensity, and one of pure umbra dripping with shadow. Her brother gasps out, ¡°Yui! You shouldn¡¯t!¡± as he frantically pats himself down and looks urgently towards the displaced equipment in the open footlocker on the floor.


    As I¡¯m about to ask why she shouldn¡¯t, Radiant Spellknight Alhiyui crosses the blades in a forceful clash, resulting in a cascading wave of blinding light exploding outwards. The light is immediately followed by darkness bubbling up and roiling out over everything in the prison, completely obscuring all of our vision. Thankfully, neither Teuila nor I rely on sight for combat. Also thankfully, neither of the twins is making any moves to escape, or to harm either of us. Yui seems to simply be showing off. The Spellknight waits until the darkness settles in, and though her heavy armor is quieted by both excellent fabrication, and magical enhancements, it¡¯s still quite obvious where she resides from sound alone as she shifts into an attacking stance.


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    In an instant, Yui closes the gap between her and Teuila, but she doesn¡¯t lunge heedlessly. Instead she displays impeccable footwork, bringing her into precise distance that would allow her to capitalize on the reach advantage she has on Te. Yui¡¯s crisscrossing slashes might prove difficult for someone else to parry with a hammer, but as I¡¯d mentioned earlier, Teuila is monstrously powerful. Flashes of light coupled with sizzling hisses flood the darkened prison upon each clash of radiant blade meeting Mjolnir. The darkness surrounding us ripples and roars each time Yui¡¯s umbral blade connects instead.


    Finally I allow myself to breathe a sigh of relief, as Teuila seems to simply be having fun, and neither she nor Yui seem out to slay the other. My silent sonar tells me that Yuri is able to accurately follow the battle with his eyesight alone, so I know he won¡¯t startle as I approach him and sit next to him. He has devilishly good sight to be able to penetrate the darkness with it. I should expect no less of Umbral Spellknight Ahliyuri I suppose.


    Sitting next to him, I casually ask Yuri, ¡°Is your sister always so quick to test boundaries? I wasn¡¯t very far from reacting quite poorly.¡±


    Gulping, Yuri nods and comments, ¡°Yes, yes she¡¯s deranged, demented, but she¡¯s my world, I love my sister more than anything, and I¡¯m grateful you stayed your hand.¡±


    Yui quips back, ¡°You¡¯re the deranged one brother! Always talking of being tired of combat, finished with taking lives and seeing fear, pah! It¡¯s in our blood!¡±


    That sentiment grates on me, and Yuri picks up on it as I tense up. He¡¯s quick to assure me, ¡°She doesn¡¯t truly mean it, not that way. She enjoys the thrill of combat, it¡¯s not taking lives and inspiring fear, just the fighting, which is why she was itching for this chance as soon as it was offered. I swear.¡± Quieter, in a whisper meant only for me, he begs, ¡°Please don¡¯t take her from me in misunderstanding. Kill me first if you don¡¯t believe my words. She seeks thrills, and enjoys proving herself. She¡¯s not a senselessly wanton murderer, I swear it.¡±


    Gritting my teeth, and feeling foolish for the sentimental tear streaking down my right cheek, I allow myself to loose a breath I didn¡¯t realize I was holding as I nod at Yuri. My return whisper is simple, ¡°I believe you. Thank you for understanding me.¡±


    Relief floods Yuri¡¯s system when he can tell I¡¯m not going to preemptively slay Yui in fear of a bloodlust that he claims she doesn¡¯t have. He¡¯s willing to stake his life on it, and his love for his family is nearly immeasurable, so I¡¯ll offer up this trust to him. It takes me a few more deep breaths and sighs of relief to settle in to a point that allows me to take in the combat without knee-jerk reactions.


    Taking in the duel, even with just silent sonar and hearing is a hell of a thing. Yui is an *amazing* swordswoman, whether fencing, or wielding blades akimbo in a Florentine style. Her footwork is leagues above either mine or Teuila¡¯s, but Teuila¡¯s reaction speed, raw talent, and incredible power make up for any missteps or over-plays. It¡¯s honestly a breathtaking fight to spectate, and I can¡¯t even see it. I wonder, would my wrist-crossbow¡¯s glow cancel this darkness? I could equip it to test it out perhaps.


    I don¡¯t feel like throwing a wrench into their funtime yet if it would happen to work, so I sit by for a few minutes. I¡¯m trying to take in the combat as a learning experience for myself. There are even several short patterns that Yui alternates between that seem incredibly efficient that I¡¯m starting to develop a sense of. I try to make note of and memorize them as best I can. I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d have been able to pull them off in cherubic Reggie form, especially not with the nerve damage.


    I¡¯m in RS2 form now though, so I might be able to practice the maneuvers in at least thinkspace, and then perhaps in meatspace as well. Funnily enough, Teuila hasn¡¯t been on the offensive at all yet, and it¡¯s not because Yui¡¯s onslaught leaves her no room for retaliation. Te¡¯s quick enough that she¡¯s had several openings, yet she hasn¡¯t capitalized on any of them. She¡¯s drawing this out. I¡¯m worried she¡¯s going to get cocky and try something too showy, and end up getting one of them hurt.


    Gritting my teeth, I hiss, ¡°Te, be careful!¡±


    As I¡¯d feared, Teuila decides to wrap the fight up in a single move, and I can feel the force of the blow utterly destroy the spellwork layered over Ahliyui as it dents her armor and sends her crashing into the far wall of the prison from their fight. The entire prison rumbles as Yui¡¯s impact leaves a crater in the wall before her body slumps into a twisted seated position on the floor. My breath catches in my throat as I rise from my seat. Yuri and I rush to Yui¡¯s side as the darkness dissipates. At a glance, it looks bad, really bad. There¡¯s blood trickling from Yui¡¯s auditory cavities. I cast my gaze fearfully towards Yuri as he seems to be fighting back waves of alternating fear and anger. He hesitates to retaliate or respond, waiting for my reaction.


    Admonishing Teuila, I try not to bellow as I chastise her, ¡°Damnit Te!¡±


    Her response worries me, ¡°What? I¡¯m not hurt at all. I was careful, just like you said. She wasn¡¯t really showing me any magicky stuff, so I wrapped things up. Are you mad Air?¡±


    As my lower jaw juts forward, it locks up, so I find it difficult to articulate, ¡°Te, I meant for her gorrammit! I knew you¡¯d be fine, you could destroy a meteor before gaining your titles and Honoris Causa and new equipment. I¡ª. Sorry. I love you. Help me out over here.¡±


    Pouting, Teuila trots over as I cradle Ahliyui to check out her skull, and I motion for Yuri to start stripping her of her armor. I¡¯ve never seen a physical attack undo so much magic. I¡¯ve seen spells set to dissipate upon taking certain amounts of damage, like the Steely Body form spell, but this is something else entirely. The amount of force Te can put out is orders of magnitude higher than what should be possible at her size within the bounds of physics. Rules of reality break down around her. On Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, this wouldn¡¯t be an issue, but Rayileklia is a lot closer to Fakeworld, Earth.


    Drawing water and fabric out of the dimensional pouch, I dab at the bloody trail from Yui¡¯s ¡®ear¡¯ areas. The bleeding seems to have stopped, but I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s a good thing or a bad thing. She¡¯s breathing at least, but I¡¯m sure her sternum is going to be bruised at the bare minimum. Yuri finishes stripping Yui, and I can¡¯t find any perforations on her body. She has some cracked scales, but none seem driven into her flesh, so there¡¯s at least no external bleeding.


    As her brother and I are fretting over Yui, she regains enough consciousness to groan in pain, and mutter, ¡°Fu¡ªkoff¡ªck Terrorzin, koff, for making enemies like you monsters.¡±


    Yuri¡¯s immediate response is to grip his sister tightly in a bearhug while admonishing her, ¡°You lunatic! Don¡¯t ever scare me like that! I¡¯d throttle you if you didn¡¯t look so out of it, you heinous little b¡ª!¡±


    The response from Yui, muffled within Yuri¡¯s embrace is, ¡°Koff, love, koff, you too, psycho. Hurts to hug, koff, lay off.¡±


    Yuri immediately loosens his hug on his sister, but doesn¡¯t withdraw it completely. Inappropriately, only looking mildly abashed, Teuila scratches the back of her head and offers up, ¡°Um, all¡¯s well that ends well?¡±

 B 6 C 81: Emotional Rollercoaster

    Across our mental wavelength, Teuila tries to defend herself against the disappointment she perceives me feeling towards her, ¡°I, I mean, they¡¯re enemies, prisoners, right? Like, like she¡¯s okay, and she wanted a fight, and I didn¡¯t even kill her, and roughing up prisoners is a part of war anyway, right?¡±


    I don¡¯t know whether I¡¯m more shocked at how Teuila is trying to defend herself, disappointed in her logic, her actions, or what emotion I¡¯m trying to parse right now. Responding telepathically, my mental avatar frowns at hers, ¡°Te, we offered them mercy, that¡¯s the same as *rescuing* them, saving them from Terrorzin, adopting them into our friends and family. I¡ª!¡±


    Pausing for only an instant to huff and breathe deeply to collect my thoughts, I continue, ¡°I¡¯m trying to not overreact here, because I know you¡¯re¡ª. Huff, well, I know you miss Lin, and other things have been happening for you, but this was still overboard, okay? I, I love you, I utterly love you always and forever, okay? First and foremost, remember that. Above everything else, know that I love you Te. Look at these two though, alright? Look at how much love they have for each other. They submitted to our¡ª, to my mercy. It¡¯s my responsibility to see that they make it through this war okay. Hurting them hurts me. Do you¡ª.¡±


    Regretting what I said immediately, I think that last bit was a blow struck too low, because Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar is aghast at the idea of hurting me. If it weren¡¯t for the magical lock I¡¯d only just placed on the prison door at the start of their duel, Te would already be gone. She burst through all three layers of telekinetic barrier I¡¯d had erected in a single instant trying to flee so that none of us could see the tears that started streaming. I¡¯m left reeling, and my nose is bleeding heavily as I topple to my side, no longer helping prop Ahliyui into Ahliyuri¡¯s arms.


    Groaning through the immediate intense migraine that shears its way into my brain, I endeavor to pick myself up off the floor. The Spellknight twins look stricken and confused, seeing me suddenly struggling in a shallow modest pool of my own blood. Te¡¯s visage is similar in appearance to theirs, confused and stricken, worried for me, upset at herself, and a host of other expressions that war against one another to take their place upon her face.


    I want to make things right with Te immediately, I do, I really do, but I have to salvage this first. Groaning through the pain, I offer, ¡°Please let me apologize on behal¡ª.¡±


    Suddenly Teuila barks out, ¡°No! No. I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s not my Air¡¯s fault. They shouldn¡¯t have to apologize for me. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m, sniff, koff, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m always screwing up and hurting people, I¡ª.¡±


    Oh Teuila, my love. As my telepathic grips re-manifest, I lift myself with them, since my muscles are wobbling and weak due to the migraine. Quietly I request, ¡°It might seem unfair, but Ahliyui, Ahliyuri, would you mind please staying down here for at least one more day? I¡¯ll send someone to look in on you if you¡¯d like, or you can have the guards send for Pawn to get either me or Sponge. I¡¯m¡ª. I know Te doesn¡¯t want me to apologize on her behalf, so I¡¯ll apologize for my own part in not welcoming you to our family quickly enough. Please be at ease, I beg of you. Te, Teuila, let¡¯s head to our vault, I haven¡¯t been there for you as much as I should have, and I¡¯m so, so very sorry my love. Excuse us you two. Please forgive me for rushing off.¡±


    Yui isn¡¯t in any condition to stop us, and Yuri is too concerned for his sister to argue as I undo the magical locking spell with my archsorc staff, and usher Teuila out of the prison. The guards look intensely confused and worried about the fact that it sounded like two explosions went off only a few moments ago, but relieved that the two of us are leaving relatively unharmed. I motion to them that things are okay, that they can return to cards if they want, or whatever they¡¯d like to do, and I tell one of them that if the twins want anything, to try to send for Pawn to get me as soon as possible.


    Drawing a ragged, half-sobbed breath, I surf myself and Teuila quickly out of the prison towards Mount Verdimenn, as she struggles to keep her emotions at bay, or to come to grips with them. Holding her close, and cooing softly, I whisper, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Te, I¡¯m sorry. I haven¡¯t been considerate enough of you and your feelings, I¡¯m sorry. I know what you¡¯re still struggling with, what you¡¯ll always be facing. I didn¡¯t mean to make you feel the way I did back there. I feel awful about it. I want to make it up to you.¡±


    Sniffling, Te punches me rather roughly in the shoulder, but can¡¯t bring herself to speak for several long minutes as she tries to talk around telepathic sobs. Tears stream freely both in the physical and mental realm, but eventually she¡¯s able to get out, ¡°I hurt you, and *you* want to make it up to *me*? My Airhead, I don¡¯t, I¡ª. I¡¯m sorry. I shouldn¡¯t have, have tried to justify it like I did. I knew I went overboard, that I hurt someone. I¡ª. I didn¡¯t want to face that. I did it, and I¡¯m going to keep doing it aren¡¯t I? She called me a monster, and she¡¯s right, because so did you.¡±


    Erk! S4!7! I did sort of say that about her, but I meant it as a compliment. I¡¯m such an awful partner. Friggin¡¯ hell. Frick frick frick frick. How do I make this right? I knew Teuila was already struggling with that, that she wouldn¡¯t want to have faced hurting someone. Fuggin¡¯ hell. Frigg fugg fricklefrack gorram mrgrgr. I need help to help Teuila, but Te doesn¡¯t seem to know or be attached to anyone here other than our inner circle. Except maybe Illy, but Illy is hurting too, off on some solo meat hunt. The other members of our inner circle are off fighting some Laotzxhi Citadel, so I can¡¯t get Lil or Lu to help me help Te either. Our inner circle is scattered, except for Lucky I guess. Lucky isn¡¯t a son to Teuila like he is to me and Lu though, not completely. Part of her biology and her transformation powers are still a large portion of what makes Lucky who he is, but I don¡¯t think she feels the same way. Does she?


    Answering my unspoken question, through tears, Teuila laments, ¡°Sniff, not really, no. It¡¯s like you¡¯re leaving me behind. We can¡¯t have kids, because we¡¯re not biologic, but you¡¯ve had one with Lu. We aren¡¯t biologic, so we can¡¯t do the nasty, but apparently you¡¯ve done it with Illy, and maybe Prinny, or something, somehow, something to do with that orb she had me dig up that you had me hide. There¡¯s something going on with you guys. You¡¯ve never seemed to want to get married, but you¡¯re marrying Aunty Zool. It hurts. It hurts so bad. I¡¯m so scared. I don¡¯t like admitting being scared, or being jealous. Reggie, My Airhead. Where do I fit? Am I just a monster you have to aim carefully at the bad guys? Keep me sorta sane between fights?¡±


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Oh my gods that hurts. That hurts so much to have made Teuila feel this way. I break down and we topple from our telekinetic surfing, and end up rolling down a ramp towards the forgeworks. I¡¯ve hurt Teuila so much. I¡¯ve neglected her, and haven¡¯t been there for her when she was already hurting. I clasp Te tightly as I try to take the brunt of the fall, coming to rest at the base of the ramping that¡¯s only one short turn away from the forgeworks. I sob and weep openly while holding my first love.


    I don¡¯t know how to make this right. I beg, ¡°Te, Te please tell me how to help, tell me what you need, for a moment don¡¯t worry about anything else, just tell me what you need, anything.¡±


    Stricken, fighting her own tears, Te tries to come up with an answer other than, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I, I. I want to belong to you, with you, to know I have a place, to know I mean something more than just power and fighting. I want to forget how I murdered innocent people because of Olashax. I, urf¡±


    Somewhat surprisingly, Teuila vomits on me. We both stop crying, and are a bit stunned. I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s ever vomited before. Whether she has or hasn¡¯t though, I¡¯m pretty drenched, and feeling a bit sickly myself between the anxiety, the overwhelming emotions, and the sticky feeling of being covered in someone else¡¯s sick. I want to laugh at my own state to maybe lighten the mood, but I¡¯m not sure how it would affect Teuila right now. I just want Teuila to know that she¡¯s the most important being to me in every universe, that I¡¯ll never ever be able to express enough how much I love her, or how deeply in love with her I am.


    We¡¯ve spent years, decades, maybe even centuries together in accelerated thinkspace, building and perfecting our emotional bond, but then we died and ended up on Rayileklia. Everything since then has been a chaotic mess. We couldn¡¯t keep our promises to each other, because one crisis after another arose, and she¡¯s just too much of a true hero to let down those that need our protection, or to hold it against me when I do the same.


    As I try to begin begging and apologizing again, Teuila interrupts me, ¡°Um, maybe let¡¯s get you cleaned up Airhead, you smell absolutely vile. Eugh. I can¡¯t believe that came out of me.¡±


    I loose a sad half-chuckle as Teuila wrinkles her nose, her adorable, pert, smooth little nose, situated above those perfect lips upon the beautiful face that carries her caring, understanding eyes that convey her loving gaze. Teuila slugs me once playfully in the shoulder, then wears a disgusted expression, nearly gagging when she realizes her fist sunk into wetness of her own sick that¡¯s clinging to my cloak. Yeah, this is pretty gross. Too bad Lu has the soap stone. I need to learn how to enchant an object to carry that prestidigitative legerdemain aspect. Urp, oh gods, yeah, this is really gross. Te¡¯s right. Now that I have a sense of smell again, for absolutely for certain, due to being in RS2 form, the smell is atrocious, vile.


    I lift us into the air on a T K Square again to surf downwards into the forgeworks, and much to the dismay of many around me, I toss aside my clothes and hurl myself into the runoff molten slag from one of the forges to essentially bathe in lava for a brief second. Scrubbing up quickly, I hop out, entirely bare, and gather my disturbing smelling clothing, knowing I need to wash them in something other than lava to take care of them. Teuila is blinking in astonishment at my stupidity, or, well, something like that. I can tell how badly she wants to laugh, but she¡¯s buried beneath the weight of so many heavier emotions that humor can¡¯t rise to the fore.


    Apparently Yerjhro is getting lectured about safety from Del as she concludes, ¡°And that is exactly the sort of reason that we¡¯ll be building railings around the slag pit, and something you should never do.¡± She jokingly sarcastically adds, ¡°Thanks for setting a great example for my kid Schism.¡±


    Blushing, I try to apologize, ¡°Sorry Del, I uh, got kinda filthy, you can probably smell it on my clothes. Needed something strong to get clean quick. I¡¯m¡ª. I¡¯m a bit of an idiot that overreacts pretty hard sometimes. I mean, you witnessed my attempt at public speaking, and talking down a¡ª. Well, yeah. Sorry, hi Yerjhro, but um, that sounded pretty official. You two feel like family already? I¡¯m really happy if so.¡±


    Del flashes me a wry grin and a wink as she responds, ¡°Damn right we do Schism, kid¡¯s a natural. I¡¯ll have him drinking with us and talking about his first screwups in no time. He already nearly lost a hand, aint that right son? It feeling okay now sweetie?¡±


    Yerjhro flushes with embarrassment, not used to having a mother, being doted on, or being called sweetie, or having his mistakes advertised to friends or acquaintances. He nods quickly yet shyly to Del as she offers him a tight hug about his shoulders. I do notice that the scales on his dominant palm are charred, and they swell slightly as if the flesh beneath is blistered and bubbled. Smithing is a dangerous profession, but then again, on a world like Rayileklia, most are I suppose. It looks like Del was in the middle of changing out bandages for him.


    Teuila is fidgeting nearby, upset at herself for feeling needy in the moment, feeling too shy to request the attention that she wants and needs. I bow and wave towards Del and Yer, quietly begging my leave of them before resuming surfing with Teuila towards Mount Verdimenn. One thing that surprises me to find is a pile of wealth and objects sitting *outside* my vault door, but not wealth from the respawning warrens, nor objects that look remotely familiar. I¡¯m about to express my confusion when Teuila facepalms.


    Te offers up, ¡°I forgot, Aunty Zool has a supply chain set up, says the spoils of our victories all go to your vault, that she trusts you to distribute things in fashions that best befit Mount Solace and the Order. Or something like that anyway. It¡¯s why I nabbed the nifty hammer, because it was supposed to come back with us, but no one could lift it. What was that stuff about earlier that you were thinking about me and the hammer?¡±


    Oh, wow, this could take a while. Unlocking the vault door, and ushering her inside, I snag the orb to share some accelerated time with Teuila. I think the orb is cracking ever so slightly each time it gets used. That sucks, there¡¯ll be a finite amount to this accelerated dreamlike space. I¡¯ll try to analyze it at some point, in order to hopefully weave its effects, or ones like them, into our telepathic bond, and the thinkspace contained therein.


    Still, within orb-time, I begin recounting to Teuila some of the strange pop-culture references and memories that I have from Fakeworld about a particular cinematic universe, its comic book counterpart, and its Norse mythological origins. Teuila begins to experience a side-effect of the orb that has seemed to overtake me, Illy, and Prinrin each time it had been used. Despite my intention only being to speed along my sharing of knowledge, we of course give in to its effects, and our own impulses. The explanation, and the giving in both certainly provide a distraction from the more difficult emotions we¡¯d been struggling to cope with.

 B 6 C 82: Vault-Time

    Gulping and blushing, I try to apologize, ¡°Te, I, I¡¯m sorry, that wasn¡¯t how I intended to use the time in the orb.  I mean, obviously I don¡¯t regret it, it was fantastic, but it was more distraction than really me being there for you like I wanted to be.  I love you eternally, and¡ª.¡±


    Teuila shuts me up with a firm kiss before nestling her face into the crook of my neck and nuzzling there while holding me tightly.  Telepathically she mutters, ¡°It¡¯s okay Airhead, my Air.  The very air that I breathe.  It¡¯s almost like having accelerated thinkspace back, almost, but it¡¯s, well, I might have been aiming for us to do that, I¡¯m not really sure.  You know I get just a tiny bit jealous.  It sucks, there¡¯s so much going on in the ocean, and I can¡¯t tame it.  I know you were helping me learn to float and ride the waves out til they settled on their own, but that was so much easier when we could have like a month in a couple of minutes.  I hate not having that anymore.  I hate it.  I miss you being in me so bad, err¡ª.¡±


    We both flush heatedly after what we¡¯d just done in the orb.  My breath catches in my throat and I fight to gulp it down.  I know she meant in her mindscape, helping her identify her emotions, but, ah, phrasing.  Huff, phew.  Now she¡¯s giggling nervously across our mental wavelength.  I fight a battle with my blushing cheeks to be able to curl my lips into a loving smile to flash towards Teuila, trying to remain supportive rather than falling into a different state of mind, or mood.


    Cough, right, erm, anyway.  Huff.  Meep!  I find myself swatting one of Te¡¯s hands that¡¯s sneaking around dancing its fingers along certain places, and we end up in a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight, an SFSF, until we¡¯re both giggling.  Phew.  I feel much more assured that we¡¯re okay as a loving couple, despite all that I know Teuila is still dealing with.  I wish I could find a way to be *more* there for her though.  Wait.  Duplication.  Can my space skill duplicate technology?  For the most part, it¡¯s always been more like, umm, how do I describe it?


    Whenever I¡¯ve duplicated things, it mostly seemed like some sort of copy of the dimensions of the object, without any sort of respecting any more than the very basic general makeup of the thing.  I guess basically just an object¡¯s shape.  Plus, even if I completely mimicked circuitry, if it¡¯s all in that strange umbral onyx substance, how would it transmit electricity?  Either it¡¯s all conductive, or none of it is.  Hmm, yeah, I don¡¯t think that¡¯ll work.  Fricklefrack.  I was hoping to give Teuila a phone, so that we could maybe at least text or something.


    I guess that¡¯s a dumb idea for me to have had anyway.  There aren¡¯t cell towers on Rayileklia.  We¡¯d have to happen across a satellite in one of the shops or something, and somehow send it into orbit to be able to have cellular service on Rayileklia to be able to transfer the radio waves aro¡ª.  Waves.  Lu.  Could Luni¡¯s Latent manage receiving and sending cellular signals?  What would that do to Lu though, to have to be an intermediary always on the lookout for signals?  I¡¯ve already placed so much pressure on her by asking her to manage the timeline.


    Anyway, right now I want to focus on Teuila.  Even if the project was an idea for Teuila, it was distracting me further and further from her.  Sighing, I nuzzle my face into her amazingly teased side-flopped undercut.  Kissing Te¡¯s forehead, I try to imagine some way to be *more* present for her.  I can¡¯t find any solutions though.  I could maybe dive into nearly-paused time, seeking the non, but I don¡¯t think that brainstorming solo for some unspecified amount of time is going to bring me any closer to an answer.


    Te jabs me roughly in my torso with her index finger, poking me and prodding me for attention, so I try to shut off my brain as I lean back to gaze upon her face and grant her my undivided attention.  Te starts, ¡°So, I kinda wanted to show off this sheathe, it¡¯s sort of like your dimensional sacks and pouches and bags and stuff, but like, check this.¡±


    Teuila sets Mjolnir on the floor, then reaches for empty space at the top of the teal scabbard with its platinum embellishments.  Te motions as if drawing a weapon, and suddenly a ghostly translucent blue spear shimmers into existence in her hand.  Te then reaches towards the sheath with her non-dominant hand, makes the same motion, but this time draws forth an ethereal, blue-hued translucent spiked-ball flail, which boggles my mind.


    Te offers me the spear, so I accept it, and turn it over and over in my hands to inspect it.  Suddenly it blinks out of my hands and reappears in Teuila¡¯s main hand.  Well that¡¯s a handy hell of a trick.  Hard to be disarmed or have your own weapons used against you if you can just call them back to your hand.  That¡¯s a heck of a neat sheath.  Te grins proudly at her find.  Still, when Teuila is walking around with legendary artifact equipment, sentient weapons, and literal god-weapons, it seems a bit redundant, like she said.  How¡¯s she going to wield a dozen weapons at once?  Unless¡ª.


    Excitedly, I offer, ¡°Te, before we went into orb-time, I¡¯d been about to offer, I, I mean.  I wanted to, and still want to, make things up to you.  I was wondering if maybe a gesture, like, like me making something be only for you, that I¡¯d intended to share with everyone, if that would help.  Like, maybe my myconid form, sharing the sporebrain, the hivemind with just you, and the enchantments I might be able to pick up from the books with just you, I¡ª.¡±


    Jokingly, Teuila wrinkles her nose and complains, ¡°Ew, the squishy mushroom?  Really Air?  That¡¯s what you wanna give me to make me feel better?  I¡¯m kidding.  The idea itself is sweet, but I wouldn¡¯t want you to do that Air.  Your big heart is one of the reasons I koff, lur, koff, loh, luh, koff, y¡¯know.  Sharing that with everyone just makes sense for you.  Plus, doesn¡¯t that one get stronger with more brains?  I don¡¯t want you neutering yourself for me, ah, err, hehe, koff, you know what I mean.¡±


    Snorting a laugh I try not to let my mind drift to what we¡¯d ended up doing in the orb.  I still can¡¯t help smiling and shaking my head incredulously though.  This woman, yeesh.  I love her beyond all doubt, all reason, and all ability to describe.  Still, I wish I could make some gesture to reassure her, or give her something.  Wait, I guess maybe at least let¡¯s check out the random loot we¡¯ve got around here, yeah?


    Huh, I think that¡¯s another Q C R, a quick-change ring.  Yeah, yeah it definitely is.  I toss it to Te, and she dons it immediately, and begins testing out what it¡¯s already bound to, recklessly.  Ugh, I love her but she¡¯s scarily reckless.  Still, she¡¯s suddenly adorned in an amazingly fitted martial arts gi, and I try to catch my jaw so that I don¡¯t end up drooling as I gaze at her amazingly athletic form that ends up being revealed so greatly beneath the sleeveless gi.


    The garb shimmers and shifts in color in the order of the seasons, a cool icy blue to a vibrant spring green into a late summer yellow and finally an autumn orange before returning to blue.  Moreover, the back is decorated in seasonal motifs that shift from one to the next in time with the color.  While it¡¯s in its icy-blue form, Teuila¡¯s fists exude a frosty mist, and seem to drain the heat from around them.  While it¡¯s in its spring green form, green whipping winds whirl about her ankles.  While it¡¯s in its summer stage, Teuila¡¯s fists crackle with minor flames, unharmfully to her thankfully, and when it¡¯s in its autumn stage, I can¡¯t ascertain any special effects it has upon her.  Does this gi make Teuila immune to fire and cold?


    Holy crap, that¡¯s cool as hell.  I mean, Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark already sort of has her covered for the most part, but if she¡¯s going to be swapping out of it, this can keep her¡ª.  Did Teuila just grow an extra pair of translucent ghostly arms?  I blink in surprise.  There were metal bands about Teuila¡¯s wrists that came with the gi, and I can see a faint aura trace from them, up Teuila¡¯s real arms, to her shoulders, which now sprout an extra pair of magical arms.  Just what Te needs, more limbs to punch with.  Hah.  Teuila breaks into a fit of giggles before grinning slyly.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    A shiver visibly runs up Teuila¡¯s spine and she shakes it out before stating, ¡°I think I¡¯m going to really like this outfit with my Jarngripr.  The spring season of the gi enhances my jumping, hehehe.¡±


    Pft!  I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh and nearly end up spitting as I sputter from the surprise of it.  Teuila has a ring that triples her already ridiculous leaping ability, and now a sexily tailored gi that enhances even that?  Yeesh.  Another thing about the gi is that there¡¯s a purple quiver attached to the hem of its right hip.  The quiver seems to be made of glass, and has a lid with five holes in it that has depictions of elements engraved upon it.  The lid has four buttons in position corresponding to those four elements, water, fire, earth and air.  Teuila fiddles around with it, pressing the buttons, and the plumed nocks of various arrows appear in response to each button press.


    Teuila quips in a goofy, grim voice, ¡°Groovy,¡± but she appears to have sensed something, and is following her nose in a manner of speaking.  She calls out, ¡°Hey Airhead, one for you too, sorta!¡±


    My love tosses me a much smaller quiver, one that could only hold crossbow bolts meant for one as small as my wrist-mounted double-barreled crossbow.  It has different elements depicted on buttons, if they could even be called elements.  One depicts a mushroom cloud, one a snowflake, one a skull, and I¡¯d swear one looks like an anti-personnel hand-grenade.  Still, I attach it to my belt with its already myriad pouches and sheaths and other accessories.  On the small quiver is something that looks a bit like a frisbee or chakram, but as if it has a slot for a throwing-knife to be sheathed in it.


    Hm, studying the runework surrounding the frisbee-type object¡¯s aura, it is indeed a sheath for a throwing knife, and as I gaze at it, it takes on a familiar appearance.  Galaxies pass before my eyes as if I¡¯m gazing into deep space with a super-telescope as I move.  I could get lost in observing it, so I turn my attention back to the runework.  There should be an accompanying knife known as Whisper that should vibrate with a pink psychic elemental energy.  The sheath wants to be reunited with it in a way, and in a way it doesn¡¯t.  Whisper takes some of the enchantment and life essence away from this cosmic sheath in some fashion.  If they¡¯re reunited without being directly used together, they¡¯ll each be something different than this base combined enchantment, an odd way to be greater than the sum of their parts.  If I find Whisper, I guess I could enchant it into the Elemental Bandolier somehow, freeing up the sheath to be its own magical item.


    Now that I¡¯m sensing odd enchantments that are part of objects meant to be paired together in various ways, my attention is drawn to two, wait, three, four, five, huh, five platinum, or perhaps titanium bicep bangles.  Each has a large circular surface on its facing side, with grooved slots carved into it.  There¡¯s a tiny wooden box that appears like an old music-box that emanates a paired aura with these bangles.  Tossing one of the empty bangles to Teuila, I carefully lift the lid on the box, and gaze squinting into the box at the myriad blindingly brilliant auras suddenly unleashed against my eyes.


    There are tiny rune-engraved clips that would slide into the surface of the bangles.  There¡¯s such a cornucopia of different types of runework it¡¯s completely overwhelming to try to analyze.  I have to turn my gaze aside and reduce my aura vision as my stomach begins to flop, nauseated from the overwhelming overstimulation.  After burping, I feel a bit better.  Hiccuping and burping one more time help settle my stomach further.  Pulling one clip out of the box at a time, one of them causes me to sink to my knees and weep.


    Between tears I clasp Te¡¯s hands and order her, ¡°Please, please clip this in that bangle, and never, never ever ever ever take it off.  Te, Te I love you so much, if, if we¡¯d had this¡ª, glp, if¡ª.  If we had this on the Night of High Water¡ª,¡± I can¡¯t bring myself to even finish describing its power.


    Teuila immediately understands my tears and the power of the small object.  She does as I request and sinks to her own knees to wrap her arms around me.  We both cry together for several long minutes.  It¡¯s not quite as powerful as the neckchain of the ever-breathing in some ways, in other ways, it¡¯s more powerful, as it offers control over elemental water.  The bearer can breathe water, and cast a few spells per day dealing with water.


    I quickly resolve to find as many of these trinkets as possible that grant spells in order to equip them to Teuila¡¯s bangle, to help overcome the feeling of being left behind that had been building up within her.  I approach my task in a frenetic frenzy.  I¡¯m distraught enough that one might think I¡¯m furious with either the objects or myself, but I just¡ª.  I just need to do this for Teuila.


    One of the trinkets is one of elemental fire, making the bearer completely immune to fire, and granting a few uses of fire spells per day.  Teuila hardly even needs the immunity to fire any longer.  Te¡¯s own thermal resistances, Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark, and now her Gi of Seasonal Elements seems to have her covered versus fire, but it certainly can¡¯t hurt to be permanently completely immune to one side of the thermal equation.  Well, only specifically fire, not necessarily heat, I need to keep that in mind.


    This trinket-clip is one that, hah, it grants flight, which Teuila hardly needs, and some spells related to wind, which is one of Teuila¡¯s dominant elements anyway.  But it also grants extreme resistance to lightning, and a chain lightning spell.  I clip it into her bangle as well, and shove another one in that makes her resistant to negative thermal fluctuation by way of being imbued with an inner flame, basically cold has a harder time affecting her, and she can add even *more* fire to her punches.


    It¡¯s about the time that I¡¯m shoving a fifth trinket into Teuila¡¯s bangle, before having placed any in mine, that Teuila stops my frantic search through the runeworked objects.  The one I¡¯d just placed in it gives her another spell that¡¯s sort of like an incredibly short duration Steely Body spell, well, more like a forcebubble spell that only lasts about two seconds, and it either bends or breaks under any damage, but at least it reduces the force of that damage.


    Teuila grips my hands, closing them into fists that she holds tenderly as she whispers, ¡°Shh, shh my Airhead, it¡¯s okay.  It¡¯s okay.  Thank you.  Thank you so much for loving me so much.  For caring and trying and worrying and doing everything you can to be you.  It means so much to me.  I¡¯ll keep these, this is more than enough babe.  Thank you.  Thank you Air sweetie.  It¡¯s okay.  It means so much to me that I mean so much to you.  Come on, tell me about some of these other ones.¡±


    Te rests her forehead against mine, and I allow myself to calm slightly.  Blushing at my overreaction, I start listing, ¡°Well, um, that little segmented section with like nine¡¯ish of the trinkets has ones that all require someone who has innate sorcerous potential that can use metamagical abilities to adapt spells.  Basically they¡¯d only work when I¡¯m quickening my runework into quick-casted spells, so they¡¯re not much use to anybody else.  There¡¯s, um, well, this one over here is one that I kind of want, I¡ª.  I feel stupid for it, but it lets the user control stone elementals, protects the bearer from them.  It also lets them cast a stonemelding spell, and for some reason intensely increases their resistance to acid, and even lets the bearer sort of rock-walk or something, like, move through stone as if it were thick soup, for maybe five or ten seconds at a time without using any spells, or remaining in stone for up to like eight hours with a spell.¡±


    Hugging me excitedly, Te exclaims, ¡°That¡¯s great for you though Air!  Don¡¯t feel stupid about it!  I was so worried about you when those rock elementals were beating the crap out of you.  I, I don¡¯t want you to feel bad about yourself.  It was scary, and it¡¯s okay to have something shake you up or mess you up.  Right?  I mean, you tell me that sort of thing often enough.  It has to be true for you too, okay?  Right?¡±


    My lower jaw quivers but I nod shakily in response to Teuila.  She¡¯s right.  I wouldn¡¯t want her to beat herself up for being affected by something that shook her up.  Hell, we¡¯re dealing with the consequences of one of those things today.  I could never forgive myself if I held a double standard that made her doubt herself and beat herself up.  Still, it¡¯s difficult to take my own advice sometimes, like now.  I didn¡¯t get a chance to mention the paired stone or earth runic clip, it can prevent being knocked around, and provides immunity to petrification.


    Teuila motions to the books that I¡¯ve had floating around following us as well, that have picked up additional passengers as I snagged others that I no longer trust having in the public library in Mount Verdimenn.  I nabbed those ones on the way to our vaults since I now have use for them.  I guess I could explain what I know about the new ones, since she knows what the older ones are.  If we get a couple of consecutive days off, I¡¯ll have our inner circle and several Order members working in concert to gain some of the enchantments from several of the tomes.


    Taking a gander at the newer stuff, I explain, ¡°These ones are sort of unique, and I understand why Nala wanted them to¡ª.  Holy crap.  Holy crap!  Holy Crap!!¡±

 B 6 C 83: News From Laotzxhi

    My excitement bleeds over into Teuila, but I know it¡¯ll be short-lived when I explain, so I¡¯m tempted to drag it out, just to enjoy the joy and anticipation written upon her beautiful face. I can¡¯t quite bring myself to do that however, so I begin rambling, ¡°So, some of these are spellbooks, sure, but something I just noticed is these weird metallic bookmarks are ensorcelled. They¡¯re tied to certain schools of magic, and they make recording or learning spellwork runes easier, by about half, or twice, however you want to think about it. Twice as easy, or taking half as long. There¡¯s only a little issue of them taking S P in order to attach them to a given spellbook, which sort of reduces their usefulness to me, since I use my S P to learn the spells to begin with. But, if I¡¯m judicious with my applications by analyzing which schools of which spells in which books that I most want to learn, I could speed up my runework learning by a lot. Nala said she¡¯d be helping me with that, but with the influx of kobold readers, well, I¡¯ll probably not be getting her aid after all.¡±


    Sadly, I was right. Teuila¡¯s excitement dies down pretty quickly during my explanation, though she flashes me a proud smile all the while. She chuckles, rolls her eyes, and leans forward to kiss me softly on the lips in response to my acknowledgment of her lost excitement. Teasingly, around a mouthful of my lips, she mutters, ¡°I could still be excited in a different way, wink wink.¡±


    I cough and end up accidentally headbutting Teuila in my effort to not sputter into her lips. She¡¯s certainly incorrigible to say the very least. Yeesh. Hah. I love her to bits though. I mean, it¡¯s not like I *don¡¯t* want to follow her insinuated exci¡ª. Gulp, erm, ahem. Blushing, I try to return my attention to activities that aren¡¯t related to those we did during orb-time.


    Anyway, as much as I truly, truly desire to spend as much time loving and enjoying life with My Wings, there are a lot of things I still want and need to accomplish today. Heck, we¡¯re probably still making a marriage announcement or something between me and Kinzul at some point today as well. There¡¯s so much going on, and so much I need to take care of, and so much power I need to acquire and adapt to, to give us the best shot at winning this war, and eventually taking down the blasted manxome foe.


    Te playfully pouts before frowning and nodding in acceptance of my train of thought. I kiss her softly and nuzzle noses with her for a long moment before returning to planning out the rest of both the day, and this loot. I snag all the trinkets that clip into my bangle that only work for an archmage amplifying their spells with metamagical abilities, and the one that will protect me from stone elementals. I feel selfish, and juvenile, for taking it to deal with my fear, but I just¡ª. I was crushed to within inches of my life, bits of my skull were shattered and exposed. Remembering the pain, the fear that I was dying and leaving Teuila behind, it¡ª. I stop what I¡¯m doing to curl in on myself, weeping.


    Teuila wraps an arm over my shoulders and loosely holds me close, trying to ascertain if I¡¯m going to go into a panic attack that I¡¯ll need space during. Thankfully I¡¯m not, but I¡¯m just¡ª, I feel so weak and frightened, reliving being beaten to death by animated stones. I mean, being blown up by explosives moments later is less frightening to think about and relive. At least with that, I thought I was doing some good by protecting Dippy.


    Oh Dippy, the Gap kobolds and the Aasimovians and Tiktik. I worry how they¡¯re doing. I¡¯m snapped out of my fearful reverie, the fear being replaced with worry. We¡¯re fighting this war in part for them. If the Worldstorm enchantment were to fall, or if Terrorzin¡¯s forces were allowed to marshal completely, they¡¯d overrun the world. No one would be safe.


    Heaving a sigh, I rattle my skull to try to stop thinking about the people we¡¯ve left behind. I don¡¯t want to dwell on lamentations like the fact that Bud has been dormant since Autumn Brook, or any such thing. Instead, I ask, ¡°Te, do you want to maybe be up at the aerie when Lu, Lil, Kinzul, and the Vivant return? I felt really nice knowing that people were waiting for me, even though I ended up showing up late and not seeing them there.¡±


    Nodding emphatically Teuila responds, ¡°Yeah. Yeah definitely. That sounds nice Air. I want to talk to my Spootalu, and Dragbutt, and I¡¯m sure Aunty Zool is looking forward to seeing your goofy grin. Heeee.¡±


    Smirking and snorting half a laugh, I roll my eyes and shake my head at Te. I mean, she might not be wrong, but she¡¯s being a dink about it. Still, when she sounds her elation with that single elongated laugh of glee, the world melts away and I find myself with my gaze transfixed upon her. Drawing a half-shuddered breath, I sigh slowly, smiling into the emerald tunnels of Teuila¡¯s eyes.


    Nodding towards her, I request, ¡°Alright then, we can come back to this stuff later, though that book over there I¡¯d better make sure is in an extradimensional area. Actually, all of these ones should be. They won¡¯t fit in the pouch I borrowed from Lu, can I stuff them in your sack Te?¡±


    Teuila snickers a moment before bursting out laughing. I chuckle and end up rolling my eyes even harder while shaking my head exasperatedly at Teuila. The utter goon. She does thankfully spread wide the opening on her extradimensional bag, so that I can stuff the books inside. The pouch has plenty of space to hold them, but its aperture is too small to place them in or take them out. I think we can get all of our hyperdimensional sacks and pouches linked up if we do it properly, and I forgot that Lu has two more of her own, so she doesn¡¯t really need to borrow my hyperdimensional haversack. Well, at the time she did, because it was the only one linked to the dimensional pouch.


    Heck, we might as well do it right now, linking up more of the extradimensional spaces that we have available. This way, Te and I can at least exchange notes like Lu and I can. Only, how exactly do I go about linking it to more than one dimension at once? Hm, tracing auras around the vault while trying to find a solution leads me to a scarf with similar runostructure.


    It happens to have the basic concept of the ghostly hand spell as well. Interesting. Tossing it about my neck reveals its effects fairly handily. It indeed has extradimensional space, and its frayed ends operate like magical hands, able to enter and leave the extradimensional space, placing objects into or taking objects out of it. I think I¡¯ll give this to Lucky. As much as I¡¯d like to use the scarf myself, Lucky doesn¡¯t exactly have hands. This will give him some semblance of having hands, and disguise the fact that he¡¯s wearing the glacial amulet.


    I¡¯ll need to do more research later to figure out how to enable the dimensional pouch to connect more extradimensional spaces. Speaking of the pouch, the origami giraffe struggles its way out from inside of it carrying a bloodstained, single-word note, ¡°Injured!¡±


    Te and I exchange a fearful glance and she snags me under one arm to begin rocketing back towards the aerie of Mount Solace. I cast my senses about for Pawn, asking Miraina to get Sponge ready and to find volunteers to share an injury. My breathing takes on labored, anxious qualities as I can¡¯t bear blinking for even a moment while awaiting responses from either Miraina, or Luni. I had the giraffe carry back a note asking for details, like she¡¯d done for me, but she hasn¡¯t responded, and I don¡¯t feel her hand or any other inside the interdimensional space. If her hand, or anyone¡¯s hands, were there, I¡¯d rush to Kagired¡¯s infirmary. Instead all I can do is anxiously await atop the aerie with an equally nervous Teuila.


    Teuila begins testing out her new powers of flight, soaring in ever-widening spirals around Mount Solace¡¯s peak, attempting to intercept the returning dragonflight whenever it shows up, from whichever direction. It¡¯s not even four in the afternoon, but it feels like ages pass before we finally see Kinzul, and Kinzul alone, returning. Worse, there are chunks missing from her enormous wings. I¡¯m about to sink into despair when Teuila thankfully informs me that everyone else is on Kinzul¡¯s back, unconscious, but breathing and alive.


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    Flying out to meet her, I telepathically send to Kinzul, ¡°My Lady, my love, what¡¯s going on? Are you in retreat? Should I mount defenses? Do you need me to finish your offensive? Can I take your injuries onto myself by way of Sponge?¡±


    Strained, laboring to communicate, Kinzul responds, ¡°We¡¯ve succeeded, though in the end I stood alone with our Muse, and then she succumbed to her injuries, passing out as well. We woefully, tremendously underestimated the forces mustered at Laotzxhi. Our information network seems to be suffering greatly lacking our dear Seer and Scholar. I don¡¯t want you, or any other Order member volunteering for Sponge¡¯s Latent any longer at all during this war. We cannot spare a single injury, or a single instant of recovery being needed for any of you. Each scrape, each drop of blood lost may be the difference between life and death at this point. I forbid it.¡±


    She forbids it? What the hell? I argue, ¡°Kinzul, I can literally regenerate my own wounds, and apparently I have some sort of artifact that will on occasion spontaneously recover me to my fullest wellness. If anything, I¡¯m the one, the only one, that should be taking on everyone¡¯s wounds. I can, have, and will fight on, even on the brink of death, until my missions are completed. I¡ª. That may be slightly overestimating my abilities, because I¡¯ve certainly lost in the past, or relied on others to finish up when I¡¯d passed out due to injuries, but I¡¯m stronger than ever!¡±


    Hastily, huffily, angrily, Kinzul pleads, ¡°Enough my love! I appreciate your desire to aid us, but I need you in absolutely top form. I¡¯ve dire news, and unfortunately it means sending you into more and more dangerous situations. Eventually these engagements may quite likely be you and you alone, though perhaps accompanied by our Tenith, or our Muse, depending on circumstances.¡±


    More worriedly, Kinzul adds, ¡°My love, two days hence, I¡¯ll need you to launch an offensive with Sun, Muse, and Hound, against the Vorzog Keep. In command of it are Spellknights Vorzog, Zelshiz, Adkre, and Triorgraiz. Theirs is a force set to muster on that day, and march the day after, based on Spymaster¡¯s intelligence. Simultaneously, our Tenith will need to assault the Nedkuxian Conclave, aided by the Dormir and the Vivant. The forces within are commanded by Nedkux, Hargrikaen, Airphalegg, and Nobeoetria. These eight are some of the fiercest, most powerful Draconiacs to ever have lived.¡±


    Sighing across our telepathic wavelength, with more kindness in her tone, Kinzul continues, ¡°I¡¯m beginning to fear that our advantage pressing our offensive will not hold, and that we¡¯ll soon be under siege, so I dare not send out Shield or Aegis, nor of course our Queens. You can see why we cannot spare a single one of our operatives to take on the injuries of the others. They will all be seeing constant battle from here on out, barely allowing enough time to have their injuries lessened and distributed by Sponge.¡±


    My breath catches in my throat as the reality of fighting a war on all fronts against thousands, with a fighting force of dozens begins to truly hit me. My new family, my loved ones, are going to be worn down more and more, fight after fight, and they will recover less and less from each one before the next.


    Saddened waves emanate from Kinzul as she laments, ¡°One thing that has been working to our benefit until now is that Terrozin wouldn¡¯t entirely needlessly waste his forces. He¡¯d cluster groups of like-elements and abilities together, so that friendly fire is less devastating, or even harmless. As the year draws to a close, and we strike down more of his forces, he¡¯s less likely to play so strategically safe, and instead may opt to mix a myriad of abilities together in order to try to catch the elemental weaknesses of our combatants.¡±


    Friggin¡¯ hell that¡¯s right. He had a massive phalanx of fire mages on their own without too many other elemental mages in them, so that they wouldn¡¯t burn or blow up any allies who couldn¡¯t handle it. It was a mass of power that would work on human forces, but isn¡¯t adequate against say a single red or gold dragon. If Terrorzin instead realizes he¡¯s fighting dragons in open warfare, throwing some thunder mages and human-form blue dragons or Thunderers or similar into that mix, suddenly what seemed like an easy victory for a Fire turns into a devastating battle that may end in their death. Sure, it¡¯s likely to have some friendly fire casualties, but what does Terrorzin care, as the hour of his demise approaches during his plan to burn down the whole world? Fricklefrack!


    My anxious, labored breathing only increases as Kinzul finally arrives at the aerie. She requests aid in helping lower the Vivant down into Mount Solace. I equip the appropriate gear so that I can hold my breath and leap high into the sky to catch Fenric, Orthral, and Prinrin in my telekinetic grips, so that I can lower them safely with me. Teuila snags Luni, and Lil who happens to surprisingly be in his spherical form. It¡¯s terrifying to think that Lil could have taken on so much pain and injury that it broke his near-permanent evolution tether. Kinzul is left lowering herself and Gilmeshtu down into Mount Solace, so Teuila and I follow her as rapidly as we can towards the infirmary.


    Thankfully Miraina and Kagired have been working to gather volunteers, and somewhat surprisingly, dozens of the kobolds we¡¯d relocated from Atter¡¯s domain are standing at the ready to be of aid. Atter and Shiz themselves are in the infirmary as well. Their chest wounds aren¡¯t yet healed enough that Kagired would allow them to volunteer, though they¡¯re arguing their cases. I¡¯m touched that we¡¯ve made such an impact after only having known one another for perhaps a day or so. That reminds me that most of the others who volunteered with me to save Shiz and Atter, still have fairly bad chest scrapes, and bruising.


    My whole perception of what is normal, and how long it takes to heal from things is so warped. Between changing forms, artifacts, potions, regeneration, being Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin adjacent, and Sponge¡¯s Latent, and Miza¡¯s recovery-enhancing magic, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever spent a normal biological moment of any of my lives in the usual state of recovery. Though Te and I were pretty roughed up after the radiation purge after the cragbeast warrens when we needed to save Lil. Fudge, I really don¡¯t want to dredge up those memories right now. Te squeezes my shoulder, knowing how much I lament that period of our lives.


    We settle in momentarily as Kagired begins setting everyone up to receive or share treatment. My heart repeatedly catches in my throat. I don¡¯t know who to hold close, or to stand next to to be the first thing they see when they awaken. Lu, Lil, Prinny, Kinzul if she passes out, each of them are so very important to me. Thankfully Kagired allows me to rearrange his infirmary slightly so that the four of them are on cots in the center, each of their heads aimed towards me. Despite my fretting, it seems to go smoothly. I allow myself to breathe a heavy sigh of relief as I see each of them breathing easily.


    Despite the severity of her injuries, Kinzul awakens first, and she rises despite protests from me, Kagired, and Teuila. Distressingly, she explains, ¡°Disconcertingly, mid-battle I sensed a new area in the Worldstorm deep within Terrorzin¡¯s territory parting against my will, much like Autumn Brook, and unlike Autumn Brook, the gap in the clouds is not closing, rather, it appears to be slowly expanding.¡±


    Those of us that are conscious exchange wide-eyed fearful glances at this revelation. Kinzul goes on to whisper softly to me, ¡°My love, I must away to rendezvous with Spymaster¡¯s scouts, in order to have them relay my concern to Spymaster Errissa. She¡¯ll be dispatched on the most dangerous trek, one I cannot send any dragons to, due to its placement in the very heart of Terrorzin¡¯s territory, surrounded on all sides by his most powerful underlings. When she ascertains the severity of the problem, and its cause, we may need to send our non dragons in order to derail whatever plans are being concocted within. We simply cannot fight an offensive that presses that deeply into Terrorzin¡¯s domain yet. We may even lose momentum from this sudden shift in the balance.¡±


    More warmly, lovingly, filled with hope, Kinzul adds, ¡°Upon my return, let us be bonded, wed, my love. Yes?¡±


    Gulping and blushing, I nod silently in response, at a loss for words. I¡¯d thought perhaps there would be more time, an announcement, plans, and the like, but it sounds as if we¡¯re leaping into this within the next few hours, or day, however long it takes Kinzul to rendezvous and return. I squeeze her hand tightly for a long moment, staring into her eyes, those onyx orbs filled with sorrow and longing that are set so perfectly within her features. She offers me an understanding head-tilt in that regal manner of hers, before withdrawing from me, and winging away out of Mount Solace, still quite injured. Several tears stream down my cheeks, and I can¡¯t even parse which emotion is causing them at the moment.

 B 6 C 84: Worse News From Laotzxhi

    As various patients and volunteers groan in pain, Teuila begins pacing around the infirmary, and slowly blows a calming blaze across the patients herein, causing Kagired to panic. I quickly explain, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯re magical flames, they¡¯ll never harm allies, it¡¯s like a gentle massage more than anything else. Te can only do it a couple of times per day, but, well, yeah, there¡¯s nothing to fear.¡±


    Sponge asks the logical question, ¡°Why hadn¡¯t she used this before or told me about it before now?¡±


    Blushing, Te scratches the back of her head as she admits, ¡°I¡ª, I kinda forgot I had the ability. I got it by eating an enchanted platinum scale shard after reading a book called the Apex of Divinity or something like that.¡±


    I stifle my grin at Teuila¡¯s abashedness, trying to not feel amused at her expense. Kagired raises a brow beneath his hooded robe, but shrugs feebly in response to Teuila¡¯s assertion. Huffing a sigh, he continues making rounds, checking on each individual that had participated in his Latent¡¯s distribution of the injuries. Surprisingly, as Kagired is making his way around the infirmary, the sound of claws scraping in the cadence of a trot reaches my ears.


    Lucky bounds into thinkspace, tackling my mental avatar, as he physically trots into the infirmary. My son sits in front of Kagired, wagging his tail. I roughhouse with Lucky in thinkspace while walking over to stroke his skull in meatspace. Kagired similarly scritches behind Lucky¡¯s left ear while taking in the state of his infirmary. I nod solemnly, realizing that this is the worst state it has been in since the start of the war, with the most unconscious individuals suffering the most pain and damage. Kneeling down, I kiss Lucky¡¯s skull roughly before returning to my position between Prinny, Lu, and Lil.


    A voice I hadn¡¯t expected to hear telepathically reaches me, ¡°Came. When I heard. Hi. Sorry for earlier.¡±


    Unable to decide how to respond, I wave feebly across the telepathic wavelength towards Xayla. Gulping, I await anything further Zayzi has to say, and thankfully they continue, ¡°Accident, right? Didn¡¯t want that, don¡¯t want that, right? Didn¡¯t like it?¡±


    Well crap. It was definitely an accident, and I¡¯m not seeking or trying to push for it, but if I tell Zayzi I didn¡¯t like it, I¡¯d be lying. I don¡¯t want to lie to them. I like kissing. I know however that Zayzi absolutely does not want romance, now or ever, and me answering that I liked it might make them avoid me. I gaze towards Teuila who shrugs helplessly at my conundrum. Gnawing on my lip, I try to quickly decide how to respond so I don¡¯t leave Zayzi hanging.


    Going for honesty as best as I can, I start out, ¡°It was definitely an accident. I¡¯m really sorry. I couldn¡¯t see your face. I shouldn¡¯t have even been going to kiss your forehead. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m not seeking that, I wasn¡¯t seeking it. I don¡¯t like lying though. I don¡¯t want to hurt you, or scare you into thinking I¡¯m trying to manipulate you or trying to get you to do things you don¡¯t want. I do like kissing in general. Um. If I said I didn¡¯t like kissing you, it would partially be a lie. I didn¡¯t like doing it, because it felt bad that I was intruding on a boundary of yours. I don¡¯t like that I did that. I¡¯m really sorry. Physically it was nice, but emotionally I felt like crap.¡±


    Zayzi¡¯s telepathic response is, ¡°Lot of words. No kissing. ¡®Kay?¡±


    Breathing a sigh of relief, I nod emphatically across our telepathic wavelength, which earns me a subtle telepathic smile in response. Phew. Unsure where to go from here, I find myself surprised when Xayla continues, ¡°Was going to smooch cheek, glad you were safe. You¡¯re safe. Good. Lot of ways. Sucks less with you. Want it to stay that way. Saw you save us. Saw you win. I know you¡¯ll do it. You¡¯ll get them all. Thank you.¡±


    My breath catches in my throat and I weep several tears. I¡¯m touched at the sentiment, and glad that Xayla isn¡¯t upset with me. Teuila walks my way to brush my tears away with her thumb while cupping my cheek. She kisses me softly and holds me close. Xayla waves from around the edge of a corner where they¡¯re leaning their lanky form up against the wall, their back towards the interior of the infirmary.


    Hopefully Zayzi told Ixeyla about the misunderstanding so that Ixeyla doesn¡¯t try to kill¡ª. Ixey sends across our wavelength, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Schism. I know it was an accident. Sorry I got pissed. Thanks for saving us. Thanks for getting Lil here right away. What even happened? How¡¯d he get so hurt?¡±


    Ixey hugs Zayzi once tightly before striding into the infirmary to stand next to me, watching over Lil. Leezahna looks ill, hanging back around the corner a few steps from Xayla. I¡¯m not sure what happened yet at Laotzxhi that could have caused this. I can only ramble, ¡°I¡¯m not really sure yet. Have you seen Lil¡¯s original form before now? His spherical form, this one? To be so hurt that he reverted, with as powerful as he¡¯d gotten, it must have been pretty bad, especially to take out the entire Vivant, Lil, Lu, and nearly Kinzul. I¡¯m scared for him Ixey. I never thought I¡¯d see him back in this form against his will.¡±


    Ixey jabs me firmly in the chest, punching me rather roughly, but even though she¡¯s a dragon, and has a fair amount of strength belaying her gangly form, it barely adjusts my balance at all. She punches me again and again, and Teuila begins to glare at her, but I shake my head. Eventually Ixey leans against me and growls through tears, ¡°This sucks! I wanna kill the bastards that did this! He¡¯s your best friend right? Don¡¯t you want to too?¡±


    Drawing a shuddered, half-sobbed breath, I nod as I respond, ¡°Yeah, yeah I do. They¡¯re already dead though.¡±


    To which Ixey responds lamely, ¡°Oh,¡± she then adds, ¡°Sorry.¡±


    I try not to smirk or chuckle as I let Ixeyla stand against me. She hides her tears in my shoulder for a while longer, before sniffling and blowing her nose on me. I grimace, but I don¡¯t begrudge her it as she shoves off of me harshly. She kneels next to Lil¡¯s bed, and keeps one hand resting on it, her extremely long digits tenderly touching Lil¡¯s tail. I don¡¯t even recall doing it, but apparently I fished the soapstone out of Luni¡¯s belongings and tapped everyone with it enough times to clear up the blood. They all still have shallow wounds and deep bruises, despite Sponge¡¯s Latent.


    This war is only going to get harder from here on out. I need to start pressing harder for every single advantage, but at this very moment, I can¡¯t imagine abandoning my loved ones before they awaken. I couldn¡¯t forgive myself if I wasn¡¯t the first thing they saw when they awoke. Lucky sits dutifully at my side, and whuffs once quietly in agreement.


    Since he¡¯s here, I remove the dimensional scarf from my neck, and wrap the supremely long, dark, woolen object around Lucky¡¯s, covering up his glacial amulet. I could swear he flashes me a grin. Lucky immediately begins experimenting with the magics of the scarf. It takes him no time at all to master the magic of controlling the ends of the scarf as if they were hands, limbs of his very own. I whisper a tiny, quiet, low note of appreciation. I also attach one of the bicep bangles to his left forelimb. We¡¯ll need to figure out which clips and accessories best befit each of us at some point.


    Speaking of, Teuila blushes and mumbles, ¡°I um, kinda don¡¯t need the one with flying and lightning. Between the lightning-chain spear, Mjolnir, Icey, my powers, and a bunch of other stuff, it¡¯s beyond redundant. It¡¯d be really good for Lucky or Lu to have, so that neither of them ever have to fear falling, but I can¡¯t figure out how to get it out of this bangle, and I¡¯ve been trying for the last half an hour.¡±


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    Oh, crap. I guess that¡¯s why they were in a separate box. Te quickly adds, ¡°Not to be ungrateful, it¡¯s awesome, free-flight was super cool, being able to go get to Aunty Zool while she was incoming, and all that, but I¡¯ve got enough tricks that are close enough to flying anyway. I just, I think like, if maybe Lu had had this, maybe she wouldn¡¯t be laying here like this right now, all beat up.¡±


    Realizing an implication of what she said, in a hoarse whisper, Te hastily corrects, ¡°Not¡ª! Glp! Not to blame anyone! We didn¡¯t know these things were even in our piles of stuff before now, or maybe they came from one of the hoards we looted, I don¡¯t even know. I just mean in the future. I know they have to go to a Shellcracker, but the two Lus are the only ones that can¡¯t fly on their own, and the only ones that don¡¯t have some sort of protection against zappin¡¯.¡±


    Luni groans nearby, and as we turn to her, she mutters, almost slurring, ¡°*Soooo* loud. Unnn. Love you jerkface, but shuu¡¯-up Te. Head hurts so bad.¡±


    Leaning down to kiss her forehead, I¡¯m about to speak, but Luni plaps her left hand over my mouth, requesting that I remain silent. I¡¯d engage in an SFSF with her, but she seems too weak, exhausted, tired, and in pain to enjoy it. Instead, I simply hold her hand for a long moment between mine. Teuila boops Lu on the nose, and Lucky changes shape to become large enough to rest his face across the bed and Lu¡¯s legs. Lu groans for half a second at the attention, but then chuckles and scritches Lucky¡¯s snout with her free hand.


    Now that she¡¯s awake, I slip one of the bangles on Luni¡¯s left bicep as well, up under the sleeve of her robe. Lu catches my hand there with her right hand, keeping it beneath her robe, holding it to the bare flesh of her arm. She looses a murmur of pleasure, which sets me blushing, despite there being nothing all that sensual about my action. Lu grins at my reaction though, having apparently achieved her desired effect. The butt. Her head then slumps towards her left shoulder as she falls back to sleep, leaving me to fish my hand out from within her robe carefully so as not to disturb her. She looks so peaceful laying there with her right arm crossed over her chest, though she happened to ¡®accidentally¡¯ create a shelf for her¡ª. Yeah, that was probably entirely on purpose.


    Ixeyla hip checks me roughly, and brings my attention to Lil. Lil stirs and his eyes comically roll around in their sockets as he groans out, ¡°Wh¡ª what even hit me? Owwww. Oh. Oh, glp, hi.¡±


    Suddenly noticing Ixey¡¯s presence, Lil clams up completely as his eyes drift to her face and his gaze locks upon hers. He immediately begins glowing as he starts to engage an energy tether to regain his second stage evolution. Smirking, I roll my eyes and lightly shake my head twice. Lil¡¯s going to be fine then, if he can overreact like a giddy schoolboy upon seeing his crush. I lean down to roughly kiss him on the forehead, and stroke his tail¡¯s dorsal ridge, before turning my attention to Prinrin.


    Prinrin hasn¡¯t awoken, and she¡¯d suffered one of the worst injuries. There were gaping wounds through her already previously broken arm, her jaw hung slack, far too far to the left. Her legs hung loose at awkward angles from her knees. There were huge gouges across her abdomen. For a biologic entity, a normal living creature, I¡¯d be surprised she was still living if she weren¡¯t also an ancient dragon. As is, I¡¯m still terrified for her recovery. The rest of the Vivant were pretty beat up, but it seems like Prinny took the brunt of it, as she apparently always does, being a runt.


    I think she willingly puts herself out there, knowing the enemies will go after her first and hardest, trying to take out the ¡°easiest¡± target first. Hell, I know she does, because she refused to back down so that Orthral wouldn¡¯t get himself killed. She¡¯s one tough ¡°little old lady,¡± but even still, I don¡¯t want her to be hurt, I don¡¯t want her to need to spend time recovering. I love the little old gal. I don¡¯t want any of us to be getting injured of course, but, but seeing her so roughed up, it¡¯s¡ª. I rub my eyes on the sleeve of my right forearm.


    Prinrin¡¯s eyelids flicker, but don¡¯t manage to open. I gulp in hesitant anticipation. I¡¯d be planting my lips on hers if it weren¡¯t one of our few boundaries and taboos. Instead, I quickly take her right hand between both of mine, and kneel next to her bed, so that my face is on level with where her gaze will be when she opens her eyes. Her head is limply lolled towards her right shoulder, and so much of her muscle structure seems slack and weak.


    I can sense Teuila roughly giving Lil a noogie, apparently to Ixeyla¡¯s and Sponge¡¯s dismay, but my attention remains transfixed on Prinny, and her barely flickering eyelids. My breath catches for several long moments, maybe even minutes, when Prinrin seems to stop breathing. A lump catches in my throat and my wide-eyed gaze turns partially towards Sponge, who can hear my internal monologue. He rushes over to check on Prinrin, taking her pulse, and removing her clothing to see if she has any other injuries that went untreated.


    Unfortunately, we see traces of powerful necromantic magic in Prinrin¡¯s armpits, inner thighs, behind her ears, and at her tailbone. Dark webs are spreading from small spots in all the otherwise hidden locations. Sponge shakes his head in disbelief, his own eyes wide in terror, in helplessness. No. No no no.


    Coughing, Prinrin opens her eyes to gaze into my own terror-stricken ones. She flashes me a weak smile as she sends telepathically, ¡°Sounds, koff, pretty bad Schism my sweet. I guess this old gal¡¯s little runt ticker won¡¯t be seeing many more beats then huh? I¡¯m sorry dearie. Wish I¡¯d gone ahead and been a little more frivolous in the end there after all dearie. Poor Schism sweetie, left with all these weights and hurts. Sorry to add one more to your pile my dear.¡±


    No! No no no no! Begging Sponge, I hiss, ¡°Kagired! Are there any Ice¡¯s in the Order? Any Ice civvies? Can anyone preserve her!? Pawn! Miraina! Can you hear me!? Please, bring an Ice to the infirmary!¡±


    Kagired is too stunned to answer, I can sense the loss welling up within him, the idea that one of his patients is going to die, perhaps the first ever. Gulping, I gaze around frantically, and everyone avoids my wild-eyed stare. Everyone save Prinrin, who takes in my gaze calmly, acceptingly.


    Prinny teases, ¡°I don¡¯t mind breaking my rule now Schism sweetie. I¡¯d rather not go with such a regret.¡±


    Frowning at Prinrin, I can¡¯t even contemplate the idea of giving in to her request right now, because it would mean accepting her fate. I refuse. I haven¡¯t mastered the gorram fugging dispellation magic yet! Hellspit and fel fires! If, if I can just preserve her, I can do it, I can dispel this curse upon her when I finish learning it.


    Prinrin coughs, and weakly attempts to shake her head. She fails at the motion, but mutters, ¡°You don¡¯t have to give an old gal hope Schism sweetie. It¡¯ll be okay. Knowing you has been, it¡¯s been, well, delightful dearie. It¡¯s okay if you don¡¯t want to fulfill my last request. I can see it tearing you up inside. I¡¯m sorry I put such a weight on you.¡±


    Gruffly I chastise, ¡°Gorrammit woman of course I want to! But I refuse to accept it being your last request, and I won¡¯t do something that you¡¯ll regret when you wake up! I won¡¯t lose you! I refuse! Okay? I love you, you crazy little old lady, and I won¡¯t let this be your end. Do you hear me!?¡±


    Prinny offers me a weak smile as she coughs. There¡¯s forgiveness in her gaze as I basically curse her repeatedly. Miraina shows up, trailed by a young man whose snivelling appearance mirrors Yisstendahl, leaving me a bit shocked. A relative? A son? Kagired and Miraina nod at my mental narrative guesses. Hoisting Prinny out of bed carefully, I grab Miraina under one arm, and lift myself, Kagired, and the son of Yisstendahl with my telekinesis as I zip the five of us down towards Mount Verdimenn.


    Calling back to Ixeyla and Zayzi telepathically I plead, ¡°Can you two check Lil for necrotic splotches, and then either you or Lil check Lu for them as well? Then the rest of the Vivant as well.¡±


    I apologize to Miraina for grabbing her, and plead, ¡°Pawn, can you go get the Spellknight twins, and bring them to my vault? Please, as absolutely fast as possible, every bit of speed you can muster. I owe you everything for this.¡±


    Pawn takes off like a rocket, and is gone in an instant. I beg Lucky to follow quickly, and thankfully he does. Teuila leaps into my arms as well. Lucky even speeds our descent, by grabbing the rest of us with the ends of his scarf as he grows to a giant size, sprinting along. The scarf has a weight limit to its limbs, but with my telekinesis and Teuila¡¯s gravity Latent reducing our weight to zero, Lucky¡¯s able to zip along while dragging us behind like a trailing ribbon.


    At the back of my Vault, I point to a wall, and Lucky knows implicitly what to do, as he begins excavating a small chamber for Prinrin. Kagired looks confused as hell, but I begin picking up a host of abjurative potions that I¡¯d had stored in my vault, or various hyperdimensional bags and spaces, for quite some time.

 B 6 C 85: Familys Everything

    Unequipping the potion belt that I hadn¡¯t even bothered to figure out which potions I¡¯d wanted on it yet, I shape a hook in the wall above where I¡¯m going to set Prinrin. I place the potion belt on the hook, such that it hangs loosely and can spin freely. Turning back into my vault, I frantically toss through the items contained herein. The potions I¡¯m looking for prevent the benefactor from freezing to death. Finding one, I plead with Prinny to drink it, and thankfully she doesn¡¯t deny my attempt to save her life.


    My desperate glare speaks enough volumes that Yisstendahl¡¯s son knows what I¡¯m requesting of him, and he carefully begins building a charge that should be enough to freeze Prinny solid. I don¡¯t know if cryo stasis actually works, I don¡¯t know if magic can circumvent the failings that it should probably have, but I¡¯m pleading all that¡¯s good in the world that I can manage this. I¡¯m taking every precaution I can think of.


    Carefully adjusting potions of frost resistance, or similar abjurative potions, I set them up so that when I begin the process, they¡¯ll slowly drip until empty over Prinrin before the next potion falls into place. I¡¯m essentially creating an I V drip with the magical belt. I save one of the potions so that I can analyze it with my myconid form in order to hopefully reproduce it. I¡¯m also starting my myconid form without the non-ambulatory disadvantage, and I¡¯m letting the windup for it take several hours, so that I can keep it up for quite a while without making the refractory period ridiculously long.


    Prinny jokes, ¡°I guess I¡¯ll be stiff as a board while you¡¯re all squish then huh Schism sweetie?¡±


    I flash a sad glance at Prinrin, upset that I can¡¯t enjoy her humor right now when I¡¯m so worried for her. I need to learn dispellation. I need to learn some sort of abjurative effect that dampens necrotic energies and protects from them. I need to learn how to enchant that effect onto items that all of the order can wear. Ugh, so much to do, so little time!


    Miraina arrives with the Spellknight twins, Yuri seems a bit put out that I¡¯ve got Yui running around while she¡¯s a tad banged up. I flash him an apologetic and worried glance, which he catches. Yuri eases up on his stern expression, noticing the stakes and my emotional state. It probably doesn¡¯t hurt to assuage him that I just brought him to the most vulnerable location, where he could hurt us the most. Right here he could pilfer untold wealth, artifacts, and destroy our respawning system, and my other projects.


    Explaining quickly, ¡°This is a beloved Order member, Prinrin the Copper. She¡¯s taken some strange necrotic curses that are worsening her injuries, keeping her from recovering, and killing her. I intend to master a spell of dispellation that *should* be able to remove it when I¡¯ve got it mastered, but I¡¯ve only got forty eight of a hundred twenty eight runes mastered. If I apply an abjuration bookmark to the tome that it¡¯s in, I could maybe master the spell in a week if I didn¡¯t have to use my magic for anything else during that time. But sadly I¡¯ll be going on at least one hunt, toppling at least one stronghold of Terrorzin¡¯s, if not two, three, four, five, or even six in the next week. I¡ª.¡±


    Yuri nods solemnly, and Yui holds up a hand for me to pause. She glances at Yuri, who seems to understand her meaning, but doesn¡¯t give her an answer. Cautiously, Yui asks, ¡°How do you master spells Schism, what method, what mnemonic do you use?¡±


    Grumbling, I frown and answer truthfully, ¡°I¡¯m incapable of using any mnemonic, I was trained by a celestial in the Hidden Heart, who used all manner of methods to deduce or unlock mnemonics for me, and none worked, some nearly killed me. I do it all by rote, by muscle memory, by perfecting the exact motions of learning runes.¡±


    There¡¯s an expression of shock shared by the twins that I¡¯d probably be a bit proud of normally, but at this moment, it only serves to slow down whatever exchange is occurring. If she had an idea, but it¡¯s no longer applicable, I might as well move on with my ask¡ª.


    Before my thoughts can even move forward, interrupting them, Yui continues, ¡°That¡¯s impressive, and probably all the better. If you had some method of examining our muscle memory, I think we could aid you with that particular spell.¡±


    My eyes flash wide. I¡¯m literally in the middle of transforming into a form that gives me a hivemind. Can this please be a lucky break with no strings? Please? I hazard, ¡°I¡¯m about to shapeshift into a myconid, a mushroom-creature that can emit psychic spores to link minds with other creatures, depending on how much consent there is between the creatures, I can access more of their bodies and minds, muscles and memories. I¡ª.¡±


    Slumping, somewhat defeated, realizing that they¡¯re prisoners that we¡¯ve mistreated, I add, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t ask this of you. I¡¯d intended to ask if you could enchant Prinrin with some of your abjurative effects. I saw some of them included resistances to elements. I want her to not die while being frozen. I want to freeze her to buy time to master the spell, but¡ª. If I could master the spell before she would die anyway, I, I, glp. I¡¯d be forever indebted either way.¡±


    It¡¯s right around now that Atter and Shiz show up, having trailed me from the infirmary. This¡ª is bad. Four people who aren¡¯t quite fully accepted into the family yet, four people who were enemies only a day ago, that see me being my most vulnerable, with tears in my eyes, holding the body of a dying woman that I love. Four people whose combined strength could very well end me before I put up any resistance if they attacked while I held Prinrin. Teuila might be able to drive them back or finish them off, but they could very well kill me first in my vulnerable state.


    I don¡¯t think Atter would do that to me, and Shiz seems to be following her lead. However, if the Spellknights decided to take advantage of my moment of weakness, while surrounded by so much wealth and power that¡¯s uncategorized in my vault, I wouldn¡¯t really blame them. Teuila¡¯s hackles rise at my unfairly unfavorable line of thought, but she keeps herself calm-appearing outwardly. Kagired continues checking on Prinrin¡¯s vitals from moment to moment. Lucky finishes his task, and sits dutifully nearby.


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    Miraina edges out of the vault to return to her duties, or at to least to appear to do so. I think she¡¯s staying within psychic range to determine if I¡¯m going to need her to go for backup. She¡¯s extremely intelligent. I can also sense the wealth of overflowing emotions within her about Prinrin being on death¡¯s door. I know their secret and¡ª. I¡¯m doing my best Pawn. I swear.


    At my most recent thought, Pawn comes zooming back, and she leaps into my arms to wrap her own arms around Prinrin, crying, ¡°Momma, it doesn¡¯t matter if Terrorzin finds out anymore. Schism¡¯s gonna kill him. I don¡¯t want to hide it, not if I might lose you. The secret doesn¡¯t matter anymore.¡±


    Everyone who didn¡¯t know Prinny¡¯s secret is stunned, completely unmoving. Atter and Shiz exchange a glance that speaks a million volumes, and they each take a knee, each bringing their dominant fist to their chests. I know that Miraina could have had this conversation with Prinrin telepathically, but the shrewd young woman chose to make it public at this moment intentionally.


    Prinny coughs out, ¡°Guess, koff, cat¡¯s out of the bag now, huh sweetie? Oh my sweet Pawn. I love you so my sweet. Your mum loves you to bits. Sorry if this little old lady koff-kicks it, and isn¡¯t around to see you grow up my sweet. You¡¯re the best daughter a mother koff-could have. You¡¯ll be o-koff-kay. Sch-koff-ism and our Lady will lookoffk after you.¡±


    Through tears, Miraina, Pawn, sniffles out, ¡°You sniff, say that about all of us mommy.¡±


    Smiling, Prinrin chides, ¡°And it¡¯s true, and I mean it about each of you my sweetie.¡±


    Yuri¡¯s gaze softens further, no longer harboring resentment towards me for letting Yui get injured by Teuila. I think he¡¯s confused about Miraina being Prinrin¡¯s daughter, because Terrorzin probably feeds his followers the same propaganda that only he knows how to create Draconiacs, and it¡¯s always only done when he abducts egg clutches. I can sense the wheels turning in his head as he starts to make connections, realizing the propaganda, to some extent.


    Yisstendahl¡¯s son looks supremely uncomfortable with the revelation. I¡¯m not sure how many of the dragons who have direct blood descendants or ancestors normally know them, or are normally allowed to stay with them. I¡¯m surprised Yisstendahl has a son, especially one who hasn¡¯t betrayed the Order or run off to join Terrorzin after we slew the Order''s previous archmage.


    Gritting my teeth, I affirm Miraina¡¯s assertion, ¡°I vow it. Terrorzin¡¯s reign ends. No more clutches stolen, no end of the world, nothing. He doesn¡¯t get a single thing more that he wants. I want this gorram war over with! That includes driving back the Felgre horde once more, and putting a stop to the Celestial Emperor once and for all! Any of you that are with me are welcome to come along for the ride.¡± In a sinister tone I add, ¡°Anyone that stands in my way I¡¯ll destroy on the spot. No more mercy from here on out.¡±


    Atter pleads, ¡°You don¡¯t really mean that Schism, do you? You offer mercy because it¡¯s right, because it¡¯s *just*. I wouldn¡¯t be here if you didn¡¯t.¡±


    Prinrin similarly pleads, ¡°Schism sweetie, don¡¯t koff, let this taint you. Our lady loves you and your mercy.¡±


    I seethe, but I don¡¯t answer either of them. Ahliyui and Ahliyuri both sweat nervously, anxiously. Yisstendahl¡¯s son does as well, now that I¡¯m noticing things with my silent sonar. Oh, my Honoris Causa is slipping out as wrath bubbles up. Sighing belatedly, huffily, angrily, I work to stuff it, and my feelings, down. Everyone else sighs in relief when I suppress it.


    Thankfully, the twins seem to have made up their mind as Ahliyuri offers, ¡°I¡¯m with you Schism, if you can offer a world, a future without our tyrant, where sons and daughters meet their mothers, where families exist, I¡ª. Nothing¡¯s more important than family, in my eyes. Put me where you need me, take of me what you will.¡±


    Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui corrects, ¡°What my deranged brother means to say is, we¡¯ll help you save your little old lady friend, and we¡¯ll fight anything you point us at. You already knew family was the most important thing to me, and fighting was the second. It doesn¡¯t take a mathematician to see two and two adding up to us being on your side, or at it. Set her where you want her, I¡¯ll weave a few abjurative enchantments that¡¯ll prolong her life. Yuri, set up some cold resistance. Little miss, the Order¡¯s The Copper, I¡¯m going to be slowing your heart. Try not to panic, or it¡¯ll ruin the effect. Okay?¡±


    Prinrin strikes a chord as she responds, ¡°What a sweetie you¡¯ve turned out to be my dear, oh yes indeed. You¡¯re one of the clutching ones aren¡¯t you? There are so few of you left. Must be your power that kept you from being snatched up and slain to hide what you are. Oh I can see it, you¡¯re expecting again soon aren¡¯t you? What a delight dearie. You¡¯ll make a fine mother indeed. Thank you my sweet. I¡¯ll trust myself in your hands.¡±


    I think each of us other than Yui, or Shiz, are stunned at Prinrin¡¯s assertion. I certainly find myself blinking in surprise at least. Shiz mumbles an apology, ¡°Yui, I¡¯d figured they were yours. Tinth took them to the Ice of Rage, and I hid whose they were. Tinth probably guessed, but he didn¡¯t push it. But I didn¡¯t stand up for them, for you. I don¡¯t deserve your forgiveness. I guess I¡¯d never have fessed up if that didn¡¯t come out just now. I wanted to pretend I didn¡¯t know you were a clutcher. I just wanted you to live.¡±


    Hell it¡¯s one revelation after another at this point. I¡¯d be floored if I could afford to take my attention away from Prinny. Ahliyui is conflicted at Shiz¡¯s admittance. I would be too, knowing that someone could have possibly saved my eggs, my children, but that it might have just gotten all of us killed if they¡¯d tried. Friggin¡¯ hell. Terrorzin needs to fall.


    Sighing, Ahliyui virtually growls as she mutters, ¡°I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t end up either slain, or snatched up for the breeding pits, or whatever the hell Terrorzin has at the center of his domain. The rumors are vile. I know I¡¯d never have seen my brother, or a combat, ever again. So you do have my forgiveness, and gratitude.¡±


    Gagging at the idea of ¡°breeding pits,¡± I struggle to not vomit. Yuri¡¯s expression contains equal measures of gratitude and horror, at Shiz¡¯s admission and Yui¡¯s forgiveness. Thankfully he is layering up enchantments on Prinrin though. Shiz nods towards Yui with a grim expression of grateful acceptance on his face. I find that I must admit, the twins here, these two Spellknights, are supremely powerful sorcerers, and amazingly adept swordfighters. To be able to have these two, no, these four, alive, safe, and what¡¯s more, on our side, is a miracle.


    Telepathically, to Prinrin alone, I whisper, ¡°Prinny, sweet, beloved Prinny, my little deviant, I love you. You¡¯re going to pull through okay? As much as I want to be able to share future orb time with you ag¡ª,¡± Prinrin¡¯s emotional waves that interrupt my admission are similar to waggling eyebrows, so I grump, ¡°Hey now, it¡¯s not about that.¡±


    I grumble along our mental wavelength, ¡°Keep your mind out of the gutter for a bit you little deviant. I¡¯m trying to admit something. I¡¯m going to cheat the rules of reality again, but the orb has limited uses. It¡¯s cracking more every time it gets used. I¡¯m going to try to use it in a way that hopefully doesn¡¯t crack it to complete uselessness, but that still hopefully lets me master more runes of more spells more quickly. What I¡¯m saying is, despite how much I loved our time in there, and wanted more of it, if the artifact does get destroyed, I don¡¯t care. You¡¯re too precious to me. I love you Prinrin. My deviant little old lass.¡±

 B 6 C 86: Clutching Secrets

    Sniffling, trying not to get wrapped up in emotions, or to worry so much that I start making mistakes, I try to calculate the size of the crack in the orb, versus how long each of the encounters within it lasted. Let¡¯s dive into the non, the absence of time, a moment between moments. While here, let¡¯s calculate that as accurately as possible. I wish I had some tools, and didn¡¯t just have to roughly eyeball something that could have microscopic differences. Plus, I didn¡¯t exactly keep track of how long Prinrin, Illy, or Teuila and I were, um, fooling around, in the orb.


    Ugh, alright, I¡¯m fairly sure there¡¯s approximately three hundred fifty to five hundred fifty hours of orb time left, if the orb lasts until it is cracked all the way through, and continues functioning at the same rate the entire time until that point. There¡¯s about a seventy to eighty percent chance that it¡¯s closer to the four hundred fifty hour mark, and that it will indeed continue to function that long. I don¡¯t think anything I do within the orb has any physical consequences, which would include muscle memory or muscle atrophy though. At least not normally. That¡¯s where the myconid form comes in.


    If I can get eight volunteers to join me within the orb, well, seven other than me, there¡¯ll be a balanced hivemind, sporebrain. If I can have one or two brains bonded that don¡¯t join in on the orb time, they *should* pick up on the memories, and new motions gained within the orb. Then, when rejoining regular time, the distributed mind should be able to to share that growth and gain. Of the people here, I don¡¯t really know, or trust Yisstendahl¡¯s son, and don¡¯t feel like empowering him by teaching him sorcerous runes, based on who his father was.


    Prinrin can¡¯t be coming into the orb with me, because we don¡¯t know if that might accelerate the necrotic magic killing her. She can however be one of the bonded minds that remains outside of the orb. Lucky can stay out with her as well. He¡¯s protective, smart, loving. He¡¯ll watch over her. As far as eight brains to receive a distributed load, Yui, Yuri, Atter, and Shiz are four, while Te, me, Kagired, and Miraina are four others. The one I¡¯m least sure that would consent to the experiment at the moment is Miraina.


    The others besides Miraina are pretty easy to rely on being willing to join in. Shiz and Atter literally took knees bowing in allegiance, while Yui and Yuri basically claimed they¡¯d let me use them in any way I see fit, after realizing that I stand for family above almost all else. Kagired almost goes without speaking, since Prinrin is his patient. Te¡¯s resolute response does go without speaking. She¡¯s a hero, through and through.


    I release my grip on the absence of time, letting myself rejoin its normal flow, falling back into reality. When I arrive, I send telepathically to Miraina, ¡°Pawn? I know you¡¯re incredibly intelligent, and I need eight bright minds for what I¡¯m going to try to do to save Prinrin, and she can¡¯t be one of them. Lucky might or might not work, but I¡¯d rather have him out here guarding Prinrin anyway. I need to take seven others into the orb, and I don¡¯t really know or trust Yisstendahl¡¯s son.¡±


    Admonishing me in a teasing tone, Prinrin cuts in on my telepathic communication with her daughter, ¡°Schism sweetie, I¡¯d appreciate it if you could keep your wonderful little deviant thoughts out of reach of Pawn, my dear Miraina.¡±


    Before I can react beyond blushing, Pawn steps in to respond telepathically to Prinrin, ¡°Momma, I turned twenty one in June. I¡¯d be clutching already if I weren¡¯t a runt like you, and Schism isn¡¯t going to perv on me anyway.¡±


    The amount of surprise, and shock that I blink in borders on vast to say the least. I have no words. Not only is Miraina not a child, she¡¯s an adult whose¡ª. I really, truly hope the events in the orb were simply coincidental. I mean, Prinrin and I went in wanting to do what we did. Teuila went in jealous and wanting to have done the same. The only data point that makes me uncertain is Illy.


    Prinrin and Teuila both come clean, ¡°Orb had nothing to do with it dearie,¡± and ¡°I was totally aiming for that before we went in,¡± respectively.


    Okay, whew. Alright. At least I¡¯m pretty certain it¡¯s not going to devolve into some sort of escapades. Though, maybe I should have words with at least one of my paramours. That¡¯s a topic for a different time though. Miraina isn¡¯t going to be one of them, a paramour of mine that is. I figured that if she was a child, the orb maybe couldn¡¯t affect her, if it had that sort of effect I¡¯d been worried about, but it turns out she¡¯s an adult playing up the role. Do the dragons around here just forget how much time passes, and not realize that Pawn has been a kid for twenty years? I mean, even Kinzul wanted me to take into account her youth as if she were a child.


    Miraina¡¯s response is cheeky, ¡°Yep! Pretty much exactly that Schism! Also, awe, why won¡¯t I be one of them? You rubbed me all day three days ago!¡±


    My face flushes hot enough to ignite titanium. Every friggin¡¯ woman in my life. I swear. I frown across my telepathic wavelength at Pawn. I¡¯m a bit skeeved out at the notion of being romantically entangled with anyone who could pass for a child, especially one that intentionally passes herself off as one.


    To my most recent train of thought, Miraina grumbles, ¡°You and every other eligible mate, ugh. It¡¯s half the reason I stay playing the kid card, so people don¡¯t realize I¡¯m a runt, and immediately write me off forever like they did my momma. I¡¯m kinda hoping that I¡¯ll hit a second p¡ª. Never mind.¡±


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    As a twinge of sympathy sparks for Miraina¡¯s plight. Was she about to say a second puberty? Oof is all I can say to that. I find myself thinking back to when I¡¯d been cherubic Reggie for most of my life. I can certainly sympathize, or empathize, with the idea that others, or even I, might think of myself, or treat me as a child, or herself in her case. Since I know she isn¡¯t one, it¡¯s less disconcerting.


    Pawn¡¯s driven, friendly, ambitious, and an absolutely adorable, brilliant little woman. Since she¡¯s a Draconiac rather than a dragon, she doesn¡¯t get their shapeshifting ability, but might get a minor breath-weapon organ. That means she doesn¡¯t have the benefit Prinrin does of being able to subtly alter her form over the years to put obvious signs of age into the hair and smile lines and so on. Not that Miraina or any other Draconiac has hair in the usual sense that I¡¯m aware of, some have ridges, some have fins, some have tendrils, Miraina¡¯s scaled scalp could almost be confused for hair in the right light, with the way certain bits layer and rest, or hang.


    Still, I¡¯m starting to understand why Prinrin felt the way she did about being a runt during her life, and why she¡¯d said some of the things she had to me. Great, am I now starting to try to convince myself to pursue Miraina? What the hell? Ugh. Rattling my skull, I try to keep myself from getting distracted further than I¡¯d already allowed myself to get.


    Pawn thankfully stops stringing me along on this extremely awkward ride, ¡°Relax Schism. First, you and momma are a cute couple. I¡¯m not interested in getting mixed up in that, or the rest of what you have going on. Second, any mate of mine has to have scales most of the time, minimum. Don¡¯t go shapeshifting and showing off to prove a point that just ends up distracting yourself again though.¡±


    That was a whole heaping helping of a slew of unnecessary awkward. Friggin¡¯ heck. Teuila¡¯s giggling across my mental wavelength. I¡¯d ask her what¡¯s funny, but she beats me to the punch, ¡°I knew Pawn was an adult woman like a week ago.¡±


    I facepalm as I roll my eyes. We¡¯ve only been here about a week. Teuila agrees, insinuating that she knew from the moment she met Pawn. Pawn must have been one of the Draconiacs that threw nets over us on the day we were intercepted by Kinzul. Teuila, Pawn, and Prinrin all smirk across my mental wavelength, confirming my suspicions.


    Phew, okay, fine, right, yeesh. Trying to get back on topic, thankfully Miraina returns to the matter at hand, ¡°Yes, of course I¡¯ll mix minds with you to save my momma. My secrets are out in the open now anyway.¡±


    I hesitate to point out that Pawn was the one who divulged her own secrets into the open, but it doesn¡¯t really matter. I¡¯m grateful for her choices and actions, hell, I needed things to go this way to be able to save Prinrin. I need to plot this out, assuming I go all out, and use my thousand S P limit in say sixteen hours, then rest for eight inside the orb, that¡¯s a day. I can get a little more than eighteen days out of the orb without utterly destroying it, if my calculations are correct, and if it doesn¡¯t shatter early. Since I¡¯ve got people gathered, I flip through my tomes to one of the ones with dispellation in it. Grr, I figured out the one that Yisstendahl used to grant the sleep-spell to Tairkul from. Kirosam¡¯s Scripture, a monstrous-hide bound tome. Too bad it lost its charge by being granted to Tairkul.


    Hm, come to think of it, how and who I¡¯m granting access to the muscle memory of these runes to might matter. In case it doesn¡¯t work out for Prinrin to be able to have the perfect muscle memory for the runes, Yui should stay out here. Her being out here is both to look after Prinrin, and because she should be able to interpret the muscle memory that Yuri picks up without issue. In that case, I still need an eighth to enter the orb.


    Calling over to telepathically Vylon and Vyela, I request, ¡°Vylon, would you be willing to meld minds with several of us in order to learn spells that will save Prinrin the Copper¡¯s life?¡± I don¡¯t request both of them, simply because I need one to remain consciously guarding the shop stall and vaults.


    I¡¯m grateful for Vylon¡¯s snarky response, ¡°Hmf, as if there were any doubt. Be there in a but a moment Schism.¡±


    Vylon arrives in short order as he¡¯d said he would. Good, good, one less thing to worry about, one more layer of security in and out of the orb. While coughing, Prinrin jokes, ¡°All this fuss over little old me? Touched, really I am.¡±


    Vylon makes verbal jabs at Prinny, ¡°Come off it you old codger, no runt¡¯s getting off that easy.¡±


    I can sense the dirty joke Prinrin¡¯s about to make but I flash her a bit of a glare, so she stifles it with a telepathic giggle. Rolling my eyes, I shake my head incredulously. We¡¯re literally in life or death stakes, and those beloved to me are still acting like total horndog goofballs. Yeesh. It¡¯s closing in on six thirty pm, and the form is almost ready to be coalesced, though I think it¡¯ll take closer to seven thirty, or eight, so that the refractory period doesn¡¯t end up ridiculously long. Trying to take stock of everyone and their positions, I make as many detailed mental notes as I can.


    Yisstendahl¡¯s son is over there slowly blowing a cooling breath over Prinrin, slowing her vitals more and more, even beyond the enchantments that Yui had layered up upon her. I need her conscious for a bit longer yet, until my myconid form appears, so I signal for him to slow down as Prinny looks closer and closer to unconsciousness. One arrival heralds a much higher likely degree of success that leaves me loosing an elongated sigh of relief.


    Our Lady, my love, my wife-to-be, Kinzul states, ¡°I¡¯ve apprised Spymaster¡¯s scout network, and rushed here after speaking with those in the infirmary. My love, I¡¯ll Administrate whatever you need to save my dear old friend. Then perhaps we shall finally have a moment¡¯s peace in which to join our bond and wed.¡±


    Nodding emphatically, I struggle to right my breathing, and calm it. We can do this. My myconid form will be engaging any moment now, and hopefully it continues to physically last despite experiencing additional time in a dreamlike state in the orb realm. If it doesn¡¯t, then I¡¯m sure that I¡¯ll be making progress anyway, and can rest up multiple times in the orb. If it does, then I¡¯m leaning on the distributed multi-brain in order to pass along the muscle memory of what I learn within the orb. Quickly attaching the abjuration-centric metallic plate bookmark to a spellbook containing dispellation, and several other abjurative spells, I imbue it with enough S P to lock it into place. Its effects are immediate. I can sense that when I look at a rune for a spell within the school of abjuration magic, that there are now hints at how to more accurately, more precisely replicate that rune.

 B 6 C 87: Hivemind Temptations

    While grasping Kinzul¡¯s hands, gazing into her eyes gratefully and lovingly, I continue to plot out exactly what I¡¯ll be able to accomplish. Having had Kinzul show up was fortuitous indeed. I¡¯m more assured that the hivemind muscle memory will work. Another fortuitous arrival is Iylynila, and I quickly rush to embrace her as she¡¯s realizing Prinrin is in dire straits. Though I want to apologize for not being there for her, Illy requested the privacy, and she stops my thought train before I can formulate an apology.


    Miraina offers to go snag the eight strategists as well, and at this point, we may as well. We¡¯ll have most of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, and its four newest family members partaking in this hivemind experiment. Boetah, Shaylon, Farzhis, Revvy, Greggy, and Veril would probably volunteer, but they¡¯re exhausted, and that might worsen the hivemind rather than aid it. What else can I do to make use of this incredible amount of brainpower? Huff, I definitely can¡¯t learn the time stopping spell or meteor spell at the moment. Rather, the books would teach me the spells, sort of.


    The meteor and timestopping tomes are like the other books that require dedicated amounts of time reading them in order to teach their secrets. Well, they¡¯re somewhat like the other tomes, only instead of granting an ability, they grant the ability to perceive the hidden runes within the book. That¡¯s dumbing it down a bit, since they also grant minor abilities related to the spells, but anyway, the main reason not to waste my time on those is that the friggin¡¯ spells are nine hundred ninety runes each.


    Even if I could afford to quicken the casting of the meteor or the timestop, I¡¯d pass out after casting one, if I¡¯d casted anything else in the day at all, since I pass out at the one thousand S P mark. Otherwise it¡¯d take all day to cast one of them if I tried to do it without quickening it. The meteor might be worthwhile to just nuke an entire stronghold from a mile away, but I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯d light up like a magical beacon for anyone with any mana-attuned senses, for the entire day-long casting time. I¡¯d virtually need my own private army protecting me to safely get the spell off and not end up blowing most of the runes for nothing. Speaking of private armies. How many people will we have at this point? Sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen going into the orb? Somewhere around there.


    The excitement emanating from Nietru at the idea of sharing minds on a fundamentally intimate level is palpable. I try to refrain from either blushing, chuckling, or grinning at her excitement. She said she has a head for numbers, so I¡¯ll ask for her help making some estimates on best uses of time before going in. Spreading out the resources available to us, I point at the ones that will be necessary to save Prinrin, and those that would move me forwards towards higher tiers of capability, as well as those that might possibly share new powers with everyone involved within the hivemind.


    The ones that interest me most in sharing with the hivemind are those that grant one to three uses per day of certain spells without dipping into anyone¡¯s sorcerous potential pools. The meteor tome has a miniature meteorite spell that conjures six to ten softball sized space rocks to launch at foes. I¡¯m still a bit leery about giving Yui and Yuri access to the knowledge to be able to decipher the meteor spell itself though. One that I¡¯m less hesitant to allow everyone to gain is the quickening of metamagical potential, since they only really apply to non-mnemonically aided spells to begin with. An ability somewhere between those is found in a new tome that I¡¯d just located. It¡¯s conjure monstrous mana construct at the eighth tier, once per day. Another is instant recall. Instant recall is one that simply lets you recall an object that you¡¯ve cast it upon before. It also only works once per day, and only on objects bound to your own soul.


    Sadly, Nietru confirms my suspicions, ¡°Sorry Schism, we¡¯ll need at least one data point bare minimum to even hazard a guess as to what we can make use of overall in terms of how much this sporific form of yours can handle. As elated as I am to have you coming to me for answers, I¡¯m more sorrowful that I don¡¯t have any I can offer until we have more information. Still, you¡¯ll have full access to my mind throughout your experiment. I¡¯m certain you¡¯ll make full use of my capabilities.¡±


    Flashing Nietru a sad half smile I nod. It¡¯s as I expected. There¡¯s no points of reference to even be able to start guessing as to the form¡¯s true capabilities, and there are so many variables, especially with the orb in play. Oof, here it comes. It¡¯s a good thing I¡¯ve been more or less naked since my lava bath. My form begins to squish, distort, morph. My vine-tendrils burst forth from my spore-pack as I sprout a mushroom-cap atop my head. This version of my myconid form does not have limitations to its ambulatory ability, in fact, its limbs are easily at least as responsive as my usual RS2 limbs. Not only is it responsive, but it¡¯s also got the added benefits that its compound eyes, and vine tendrils offer.


    As frightening as it is to ask people I care about to let themselves be subsumed into a hivemind, my sporebrain, I release puffs of spores one by one. After some internal discussion with ourself, we come to the conclusion that this is the best use of our shared mind. Inside will be; Ahliyuri, Atter, Iylynila, Kinzul, Miraina, myself, strategists-eight, Shiz, Teuila, and Vylon. Outside will be; Ahliyui, Kagired, Lucky, and Prinrin herself. This allows us to operate in an interior of eight left brains and eight right brains situated around the central hivemind, the Reggie-mind, while within the orb, while keeping several unique minds outside the orb. Yes, this is most optimal indeed.


    I link our hands, we submit and link our hands, as the main body of Reggie brings us into within the realm of the orb and its dreamlike time. We drink hungrily of distributed learning and processing. We savor the leaps and bounds we make in understandings, in enchantments. We work simultaneously crafting runes, mastering them with a single hand. We utilize our tendrils to disassemble this potion into its constituent humors, and find ourselves quite capable of replicating it, quite capable indeed. We shall do this with many more potions indeed during our time in the orb.


    Trips into the orb repeat, again and again as we absorb enchantments within tomes, master runes, and calculate myriad advantages for the war. The orb cracks further and further and further. From Thainan¡¯s manuscripts, a libram written in pitch upon linen, we absorb the ability to generate a Stony Body, a rock armor similar to our Steely Body spell, several times per day for each of us. From the Astral Enchiridion of Neta, a book bound in some monstrous sort of hide from a creature we know not, we absorb the ability to conjure forth an eighth tier monstrous mana construct for each of us once per day, for the few seconds to several minutes that it is supposed to last.


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    Each of us is attributed a differently leveled duration with which we are gifted Neta¡¯s Enchiridion¡¯s ability to manifest monstrous mana constructs. Even though each of us can only manifest it once per day, our durations differ quite wildly in some cases. The Teuila and Reggie sections of the hivemind last for precisely two minutes each. Lady Kinzul¡¯s manifestation lasts for one hundred sixty two seconds. The manifestation belonging to the Vylon segment of our hivemind lasts for one hundred forty four seconds. That which belongs to the beloved deviant known as Prinrin lasts exactly six seconds longer than the ones belonging to Teuila and Reggie. The beloved Iylynila¡¯s similarly lasts exactly six seconds longer than the ones belonging to Teuila and Reggie.


    Yet other durations exist for the conjuring of the monstrous mana construct of the eighth tier as a supernatural ability as well. The Spellknight twins Ahliyui and Ahliyuri each have a duration of exactly a minute for its power to remain manifest, and Lucky¡¯s would last the same duration. Miraina, Pawn, can manifest hers for approximately eighteen seconds, while the eight strategists can manifest theirs for anywhere from a dozen to a few dozen seconds. Kagired, Sponge¡¯s manifestation would last approximately ninety six seconds. Shiz¡¯s manifestation would last ninety seconds whilst Atter¡¯s would last one hundred thirty two seconds.


    It seems in almost no time at all we gain leaps and bounds, distributed amongst all of us. From a leather-bound tome known as the Articles of Alin, we learn how to fill a small space in the air thick with a lethargy inducing mist several times per day, not sleep inducing, no, sluggishness, heaviness. This slowing mist is certainly one best used on smaller foes in great numbers that would fit within its limited area. It may do nothing at all to a creature large enough to not be weighed down by its magical might.


    From wooden slats known as the Infernal Gimmil Slates, we absorb an ability that benefits the Shellcrackers the most. We can either enchant an item already bound to our souls such that we can recall it on another day, or recall an item of ours, once per day. This ¡°instantaneous recall¡± spell-like ability is one more object on a quest or mission that we might not have been able to bring along, or might have forgotten, that may turn a tide.


    From a fox-fur trimmed leather-bound libram known as the Compendium of Heusandro, we each become potent sorcerers. We find that we can evoke fourth tier or lower shadowy versions of magics, or through Cairbrie¡¯s Scriptures, conjure third tier or lower magics with shadow stuff several times per day each. Not so powerful or deadly as the way Reggie already knows how to do an eighth tier shadowy evocation. It is a lower tier than that of Reggie¡¯s primary known offensive spell, but still potent.


    Through a folio sealed in a lacquered blackthorn box known as the Folio of Leobuleo, we feel as if we are opening a casket of Fimbulvetr from Fakeworld¡¯s Norse mythology. Upon absorbing its enchantment, we can each generate frost in a cone several times per day.


    Through the Cula Esoterica, a rabbit-fur trimmed leather-bound obscure libram, we pick up a familiar enchantment that has been available in several tomes. We can quicken greater, more rune-costly spells for the same volume of sorcerous potential investment. Better yet, after another subsumation of the same sort of ability, from the Eternal Compendium of Glinarv, and the Senau Apocrypha, it now only takes half as much additional power. Instead of doubling the cost of sorcerous potential invested in casting spells to quicken them, it only takes one and a half times their normal cost, rounded up of course. Fifty S P to cast a thirty three rune spell in a timely fashion is far, far, far more achievable, and easy to keep track of for the simple Reggie brain that spends its time not guided by the hivemind.


    We cave, and allow each of us to learn the secrets of generating our small artillery battery of meteorites, too hungry for the knowledge and power to pass up the chance to learn. We feel more at ease with our Spellknight twins regardless, them having given themselves over to ourselves completely. Between our Lady allowing us to Administrate all Latents and learning, that which we learn and absorb in accelerated time is stored safely in the external twin in normal time. That is, it¡¯s safely imbued into Ahliyui¡¯s mind, her mind, our mind, where we all shall be able to retain it all. Our healer and our wounded, protected by our hound, make certain that even our twin on the outside is not overwhelmed or harmed in the process.


    In far too short a time, it would seem that the orb is soon to sheer and shatter the rest of the way through, so we must refrain from abusing it further. We are desperately desirous of utilizing it down to every last second of its capabilities, but then we could never repair it or understand its workings. At least if we stop now there may be some chance to peer within its enchantment to learn how to make use of its accelerated time, its realm of dreamstuff.


    While we were working within the orb, the gems required to absorb spells and enchantments in certain methods seemed to disappear, but then would reappear during spats when we¡¯d returned to reality. Now however, after having fully absorbed the enchantments that we¡¯d shared out into reality, back into ourselves that had learned them in the dream-realm, the gems now disappear for real in this waking world outside the orb.


    Similarly, though in linear reality we¡¯d only experienced several minutes, this form has experienced days upon days upon days that it is not supposed to be able to last through. The form begins to lose cohesion, and the hivemind begins to separate. The sporebrain releases its grasp on each of its parts in turn, carefully, gently, one after another. As we¡¯re doing this, we attempt to coalesce all memories from the events, all the shared accelerated time, all the rote muscle motion, everything we¡¯d learned and become within orb time. We do not ¡°steal¡± it from ourselves that return to individuality, we copy it.


    We eventually become me, I, myself, Reggie Shellcracker the solo myconid once more. Only a moment later, I¡¯m returned to RS2. I¡¯d used the time in the orb to both absorb enchantments, as well as to learn and master somewhere around, or possibly over, three hundred total runes. Eighty or so of the runes I¡¯d mastered were for the dispellation spell, the most important part of what I¡¯d just done, the only part that matters. That¡¯s the part that could possibly save Prinny from this curse. Nervous beyond belief, I gulp and I wait with bated breath as I scour my memories and mind for runes and enchantments, but primarily the runes.

 B 6 C 88: Bonding

    The runes, the spells, they¡¯re here! I know them! Rushing to Prinrin¡¯s side, I crank my aura vision spell to the maximum. Dispellation has a ton of fiddly moving parts to utilize properly. On one side, it requires a hundred twenty eight runes to learn the whole thing, on the other, not all runes are needed in any given casting, never more than ninety nine anyway. It depends on whether one is trying to interrupt a high tier magic, or disrupt one already emplaced for starters. For this blight, I only need utilize about forty four runes per spot of blight on Prinrin to guarantee that they¡¯re gone. Let¡¯s see, armpits, behind ears, inner thighs, and tailbone. How did she get hit with seven fully loaded spells of blight? Unless¡ª. Lil, Lu, Kinzul, the Vivant. Seven spells. She took the hit for each and every one of them. Oooo I could throttle this brave little deviant!


    Let¡¯s see, forty four, plus a half to quicken it, sixty six, times seven, four hundred sixty two. I¡¯ve used up about two hundred so far already today after returning home from collecting the refugees. Between mastering two runes before I¡¯d even started any of this, and empowering and emplacing the abjuration bookmark, I, well, yes. I should have enough safe S P limit to do this for Prinrin, one way or another.


    I¡¯m panting, breathing anxiously, fearfully as I attempt to dispel each of the blights in turn, one after another. We¡¯re letting Prinny thaw out, and thankfully it seems like our efforts to preserve her did stop the spreading of the blighted webs beneath her flesh, or at least slow them down during the time we¡¯d spent working on the ability to save her. Prinrin, pull through gorrammit. Please. Please pull through. I hold Prinrin as tightly as I can despite the weakening of my limbs. My muscles begin to slacken, weary from casting near the edge of my safe limit of S P for the day.


    The last blight mark disappears, and I hold my breath, waiting for signs of Prinrin¡¯s life, her recovery. My eyes widen slowly more and more in fear as she remains unconscious. I glance frantically about the room, but everyone avoids my gaze. I¡¯m about to start throttling Prinrin, shaking her, begging her to wake up, if no one can give me a better idea. Miraina beats me to the punch as she inserts herself into the embrace I¡¯ve got Prinrin in.


    While shaking Prinrin, crying out in frustration, through tears, Miraina shouts a plea, ¡°Mo-ommmm, wake up! Don¡¯t do this to us, don¡¯t leave!¡±


    When Prinrin smiles with her eyes closed, she clues me in to the fact that she¡¯s eating up the attention of having her daughter and me so close to her. I could slap the little deviant for such a prank. Ooo this woman! I was so worried about her! I loose a sigh of relief but also frustration.


    Prinrin thankfully apologizes, ¡°Sorry my dears, was still a bit groggy, and couldn¡¯t resist taking a few moments to enjoy the warmth of your bodies after such a frost. Brrr. Dearie me what a delight to be so loved, to have so many work so hard together for little old me. This runt¡¯s old ticker swells with the joy of it, swells right up I tell you. You¡¯re all such dears, such sweet dears, and I can¡¯t thank you enough. But enough focusing on me, we¡¯ve all got a bonding ceremony to attend to now don¡¯t we my dears? Our sweet Lady Kinzul and Schism my sweet should be wed in no time at all, lickety split.¡±


    At Prinrin¡¯s assertion, my cheeks flush warmly enough to weld tungsten, which she absolutely nuzzles her own face against in order to absorb my warmth. Kinzul, almost demurely, seemingly almost blushing herself, nods in gratitude towards Prinrin. The mixture of reactions from the assembled individuals is a wild ride in and of itself, especially since most of them I¡¯m psychically bonded with.


    Funnily enough, Ahliyuri mutters, ¡°We ah, can see ourselves back to the prison. Schism. We¡¯re happy fo¡ª.¡±


    I frown at Ahliyuri and state, ¡°I¡¯ve literally been inside your head for the last almost a month in non-linear time Yuri. You¡¯re family. You¡¯re all family at this point. I¡¯d live, fight, sully my soul, or die for any one of you. You¡¯ve each journeyed along with me and obtained power that normally would take centuries to share. I can¡¯t think of a better way to symbolize bringing you into our family than to share in this ceremony, erm, though I don¡¯t know what it entails, or how intimate it ends up being. Kinzul my love?¡±


    Seeming a bit abashed, Kinzul offers up, ¡°I¡¯d rather hoped that perhaps you had some custom you wished to partake in from your world, since part of our bond is in order to cement our souls mingling on both worlds. If nothing comes to mind, I could mirror what I¡¯d last shared with my love, The Platinum, when he was last reincarnated as a Draconiac.¡±


    My heart catches in my throat. I¡¯m left stunned for several long moments. To step into those shoes. To follow his footsteps, and to share a love with Kinzul in that manner¡ª. My jaw hangs locked slightly low, my mandible joints stiffening as my jaw attempts to quiver. My eyes mist with tears that do not fall. I nod haltingly, trying to keep my gaze locked with Kinzul¡¯s.


    Breaking the tension, in an odd turn, Atter offers up, ¡°As much as I¡¯d be honored to partake and witness such an event Schism, Conjugation time is short for those of my clutch that remain viable, and it¡¯s, well, a rather involved process. I need to either find a mate before the eve is through, or, well, hold my brother to an uncomfortable bargain.¡±


    Finding myself blushing for new reasons, I recall a conversation with Boetah, or at least something I¡¯d overheard him mention. I glance between Miraina and Atter for a moment, unsure if I should make the suggestion. Gnawing on my lip, I hesitantly mutter, ¡°Atter, did you meet Boetah during the return trip, or when we were acclimating your refugees on the aerie? Aliased Shield, he¡¯s a Rock who''s had a bit of trouble finding a mate, a round, fun-loving fellow, and¡ª.¡±


    The expression on Atter¡¯s face tells me she¡¯s certainly intrigued, and interested in proposing Conjugation with Boetah. Glancing at Miraina, I¡¯m wondering if Pawn would be willing to fetch him, or maybe even to rouse all the Order members, if we¡¯re going to make a big deal out of this. Miraina flashes me a wink, and sets off like a rocket. I guess that answers that question. I wonder if there¡¯s a specific chamber that we should have our bonding ceremony in, or if¡ª.


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    Prinrin pleads to the gathered, ¡°My Lady, Kinzul my sweet, my dear old friend, it would mean the world to my sweet lad, to see you chase this bit of happiness, for you to¡ª.¡±


    Smiling with wet eyes, Kinzul adopts her regal head-tilt that¡¯s barely a nod as she responds, ¡°Say no more my beloved old friend. Yes, of course, his hoard chamber will be where we adjourn to for our ceremony. Please, you¡¯re all invited, and I¡¯ve instructed Pawn to bring the rest of the Order, even those in the infirmary. They were well-enough when last I checked. I shant invite the greater populace as a whole, it¡¯s still a tad more intimate than being an entirely public event mind you. Spellknight twins, Thunderers, welcome to our family. I¡¯m honored that you accepted our Hero¡¯s mercy.¡±


    The four nearly-strangers gulp at being called out. While they know I¡¯m deadly-powerful from witnessing it firsthand, it¡¯s a different matter to be directly addressed by an ancient being, perhaps the eldest left alive on the planet, whose domain you currently reside in. The four hastily nod in an uneven rhythm, and I try not to chuckle at their expense for their nervousness. Hell, I should be the nervous one. Married, right now, right away, to that very same ancient being?


    But she¡¯s not some stranger, some unknowable, elder, ancient being to me. She¡¯s Kinzul the kind. She¡¯s Kinzul the beneficent. She¡¯s Kinzul the nurturer. She¡¯s the Administrator, and Progenitor of the Onyx Dawn, certainly, but she¡¯s a calculating, warm, loving, vastly intelligent, impossibly compassionate woman of unparalleled beauty. I know more of her secrets than perhaps any other living being on the planet at this moment. She¡¯d consented to my learning them, even if she¡¯d earlier lamented my coming to possess those facts. She still has far more secrets than I¡¯ve learned, but even knowing that she has them is something that she hasn¡¯t allowed others to learn yet.


    Not only do I know her deeply, but she knows me as well. She¡¯d read my life story, when she was seeking a way to help me while in our shop bunker. She pushed through the boundaries of time, space, and psychic energy and stumbled across my Changeling Fae¡¯s true inner self, and she read the story thereupon, not entirely getting it all the time. My own unreliable narration of my life¡¯s journey sometimes making it difficult for her. She may have had to skip around in the journey, but for the most part, she saw everything that there had been of my life as I experienced it in linear time.


    I hardly even notice it as I find us being ushered out of my vault. Gathering a few trinkets, and things I want to try to gift to Kinzul as soon as we¡¯re bonded, I think back at the fact that I¡¯d seen Kinzul roll her fate dice just before we utilized the hivemind in order to get the power to save Prinrin. All three dice came up sixes. Things were eighteen percent more likely to succeed because of fate intervening, because of Kinzul¡¯s direct aid and intervention with a magical artifact that I¡¯d given her. Those eighteen percent might be the only reason any of the hivemind orb time worked out at all. That eighteen percent was granted by one of very few things that didn¡¯t come pre-locked as soulbound to Shellcrackers.


    Speaking of locking, I lock the vault behind us, leaving books, librams, folios, scrollcases, and more strewn about the floor. Yisstendahl¡¯s son has the good graces to excuse himself, and return to his civilian life. I could have perhaps extended my trust to him, if I¡¯d subsumed him into the hivemind, but I couldn¡¯t trust someone with that sniveling weaselly look, one that mirrored someone whom I know had betrayed the Order, betrayed Kinzul. I¡¯m even tempted to cast the detect thoughts spell and check into his brain to see how much he knew about the betrayals, but I won¡¯t do it. I¡¯ll try to foster and nurture kindness, compassion, forgiveness, as Kinzul would request of me.


    I¡ª probably should have gotten dressed. I facepalm, and struggle to not laugh along with the others who start giggling about my mental state, and physical state of undress. How does no one ever think to be like, ¡°Hey Reggie, you¡¯re pantsless again.¡±? Blargh. I wonder if¡ª.


    Kinzul smirks as she telepathically sends to me, ¡°Worry not my love, if you would be willing to expend the energy, you could be garbed in your Honoris Causa. I will after all be in my true form. Well, as much of it as will fit in the chamber. As for this Fae body of yours that lies beneath your true dragon heart, I¡¯ve something that might suffice. Though I hesitate to offer it. I know you wouldn¡¯t think ill of me, and yet I worry.¡±


    Knowing Kinzul as well as I do, I suspect it¡¯s something that reminds her of The Platinum, and she worries that I might think she¡¯s only using me to try to fill that hole specifically. However, she knows me well enough to know that I harbor no such thoughts. Kinzul smiles my way at my mental monologue. I flash Kinzul a smile of my own, and apparently she instructs Miraina to pick up whatever the item is from her chambers.


    Del drops her hammer mid-swing upon seeing our procession leaving Mount Verdimenn, and she raises an eyebrow my way, so I try to quickly, subtly motion for her to join our little gathering. She snags Yer and hustles along behind us. As far as I¡¯m concerned, she¡¯s family. She¡¯s like an eccentric aunt who has one hobby or job that she¡¯s amazing at. Anyway, I¡¯m glad that she¡¯s part of all of this. Having her be here for Yerjhro when he¡¯s at a crossroads with no parents, it must mean everything to him, and for having done that, she means everything to me on some levels.


    When Miraina catches up to us, the bundle of platinum fabric in her arms causes my heart to stop and skip several beats. The robe¡¯s tailored in a flowing, ethereal fashion, with a regal, elegant cut. The collar is adorned with scales meticulously crafted with silver and platinum threads, creating a shimmering effect that catches the light.


    The robe''s sleeves are wide and billowing, draping down to the wrists, reminiscent of wings in mid-flight. The body of the robe is adorned with a myriad of small, geometrically shaped platinum dragon-scale patches sewn onto a foundation of shimmering silk. These patches are arranged in interlocking patterns, and the scales themselves possess a subtle iridescence.


    The front of the robe is fastened with a row of clasps, each one intricately designed to resemble a platinum dragon''s talon gripping its opposite. Also upon the front of the robe is a soft, silken, furry mantle. As I don it, the hem of the robe falls to my ankles. The robe¡¯s hem is rendered in silver and platinum threadwork against a backdrop of the finest scale-silk fabric. The robe''s interior and sleeves hold hundreds of arcane runes that have been embroidered with platinum thread. I can virtually hear the robe humming, emanating with sorcerous power. Was The Platinum some kind of sorcerer like me? What was it that Tiktik called me jokingly? An Absensorcerer, based on a name the kids made up when she¡¯d read them storybooks about ancient heroes.


    Shaking her head, Kinzul confirms, ¡°There¡¯s never been a sorcerer quite like you my love. The Platinum was his own special breed as well, but not at all like you or yours. Still, if this garment should in some way empower you, even just with confidence, I¡¯d be glad to have you bear it from now on.¡±

 B 6 C 89: Good. Grief

    In the hoard-lair of our Order¡¯s previous ¡°The Blue,¡± our union is going to take place. I have to admit, it¡¯s a breathtaking location. The Blue¡¯s hoard is located in a vast, ancient lair nestled within a mountainous cavern near the base of Mount Solace. The chamber is adorned with shimmering stalactites and the walls glisten with embedded lichens that cast a soft, ethereal glow. Crystalline pools of water reflect the lichen¡¯s light, creating a kaleidoscope of colors dancing across the chamber.


    The assembled members of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, dragons, Draconiacs, Fae, humanoid otterfolk, a hunter hound, and who knows what else gather. It¡¯s strange to see so many of their eyes gleaming with anticipation. Kinzul is in her natural draconic form, a colossal figure with scales as dark as obsidian, and she¡¯s standing at the heart of the chamber, emanating an aura of wisdom and authority. Nearby lays the Order¡¯s previous, ¡°The Blue,¡± Farzhis¡¯s father. Prinrin lay snuggled against the ancient, decrepit form of the previous ¡°The Blue.¡± He looks so wizened, and aged, far beyond Kinzul¡¯s appearance, though she is older by quite a number of years to my knowledge. I know why he¡¯s so weakened, but it¡¯s a devastating blow to my heart to see Prinrin¡¯s beloved husband in such a state, hammering home what she¡¯d already told me about him.


    I even feel more sympathy for Farzhis, though she¡¯d admitted she acted out in a sort of entitled manner. Still, to know that she went through much of her life with her father so weak, and nearly unmoving, I hurt for her. I can see Farzhis¡¯s eyes misting as she listens in on my internal monologue, and she nods my way acknowledging my sympathy. Ixey, Zayzi, and Leezahna surprisingly of all people, have made it, and are standing near the rear of the chamber with Del, Yer, Atter, Shiz, Ahliyui, and Ahliyuri.


    Then here¡¯s me, Reggie Shellcracker, clad in nothing but this amazing ensorcelled platinum robe. I find myself approaching Kinzul who sits on her haunches near where Prinrin curls up next to The Blue. Upon my approach, Kinzul''s deep voice resonates through the chamber as she delivers some ancient incantation, invoking blessings upon our soon to be cemented bond.


    Apparently Miraina, Pawn, worked at record speed to fish out some bonding-ceremony decorations. A tapestry depicting the intertwined symbols of dragon and Hero is unfurled, signifying the merging of our destinies. I didn¡¯t even know I had a symbol, or, well, that the titled Hero had a specific symbol, but there it is. The tapestry is suspended from above, and it¡¯s hovering in mid-air oddly enough. The merging of these symbols is, well, symbolic. Wow, way to go with redundancy Reggie. I facepalm, which earns me quite the number of odd looks. However, most of the assembled individuals have access to my inner narrative monologue, so they know exactly why I facepalmed. The whole thing leads to a smattering of chuckling about the chamber.


    Kinzul extends a majestic wing over me, enveloping me in a protective gesture, signifying in no small regard, a commitment to safeguard and empower our union. I, in turn, offer a ceremonial token that Miraina slips me, an emblem of valor and loyalty. Much like sliding a ring on the finger of a bride, I clip it to a scale along the talons of Kinzul¡¯s left foreclaw.


    The Shellcrackers are all caught off guard as a chorus of melodious dragon voices fills the chamber. None of us except perhaps Lil could even join in on the song. I don¡¯t think even Lil has learned how to speak Rayileklian Draconic however. A swirl of arcane energy envelops us, and colors cascade around us. The energy settles, creating a resplendent aura that encompasses both of us, and thankfully it includes that odd whirlwind smattering of colors with that base of a creamy green, slashed through with crimson and sapphire, the Shellcracker soul. Finally, the members of the Order loose a subtle hymn, and it feels as if my Honoris Causa swells to the size of Kinzul, matching her in placing a wing across her fore, offering her my protection and loyalty, my power and love. The song¡¯s crescendo solidifies our commitment and cements our shared destiny in the face of challenges yet to come.


    It was simultaneously far simpler, and shorter, than I imagined, and yet far more powerful an event than I¡¯d thought I would be participating in. My Honoris Causa nuzzles cheeks with Kinzul¡¯s full form, kissing the base of the horn along the left side of her brow. Kinzul in turn shrinks to meet my Fae form beneath my Honoris Causa, and we adjust sizes to be on equal footing with one another as we embrace to share a passionate kiss. We¡¯re bonded, bound, wed, and it is good. This is good. The dragonsong dies down, and there are mutterings of mixed emotions about the chamber.


    The worst though, the worst is a happiness from our previous The Blue, the worst sort of happiness. The kind of acceptance at going into that long night, having lived a life fulfilled, lacking in regret. Wheezing, he calls to Kinzul, ¡°To see you with another Hero, I¡¯d held onto hope. Thank you my Lady. It was worth it. It was all worth it. Goodbye, my beloved Copper, my beloved daughter, my beloved Lady.¡±


    My eyes flash wide as The Blue stops speaking, and breathing, as he settles in to his hoard with one last wheeze. There are several gasps in shock. Many of us rush to his side with tears in our eyes. No, oh no. Prinny, Farzhee, oh gods what you must be feeling. I struggle to sense any sort of life signs within him, and there¡¯s nothing, no aura, no heartbeat, no soul, no electrical energy in his brain. It¡¯s like he was standing at the edge of a room, holding his hand upon the lightswitch of his life, and simply flicked it off as he left, saying a happy goodbye.


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    I slump weakly to my knees alongside Prinrin, Kinzul, Farzhis, Te, Lu, Lil, Lucky, Vyela, Kagired, Iylynila, Veril, and several others who¡¯d known our now dearly departed. I hadn¡¯t even met him prior to tonight, but it hurts all the same. I sense the overwhelming sorrow burbling up amongst those who had known him, even though they knew it had been coming for a long, long while. I sense another thing though too, a new weight that drops onto Kinzul¡¯s heart. I won¡¯t speak of it in order to not betray her secrets however. Oh my love. Things never get any easier.


    Taking Farzhis slightly to one side, I can hear Kinzul whisper, ¡°Beloved Blue, can you handle absorbing and feasting? Do you understand what will happen if you do?¡±


    Farzhis doesn¡¯t respond for a long while, so Kinzul simply stands with her arms wrapped around the lass, embracing her. I can sense the numbness within Farzhis. She¡¯s been on a journey lately, and I don¡¯t want to see her become hopeless or heartless, lost or unfeeling. I¡¯m proud that she¡¯s a member of the Order, that she fights for what¡¯s right to begin with, but I¡¯d been becoming so very proud of her as a person. She deserves to be able to be her best self, to be happy, to find what¡¯s right for her.


    Perhaps somewhat sadly, Farzhis shrugs aside Kinzul¡¯s embrace, and waves us all angrily away. She transforms and digs about behind her father¡¯s corpse, revealing several barrels. One that sloshes, she drinks in its entirety, but two that contain a familiar weedy powder, she ignites, sending a massive cloud of smoke into the room. I know enough to motion everyone to depart that doesn¡¯t want to end up addicted to whatever piping substance Farzhis had been supplying to both her father, and Induul. My neckchain prevents me from suffering the cloud¡¯s effects, but I shoo everyone else out of the chamber for Farzhee¡¯s sake.


    I stand near her as she cries her heart out over the burning barrels. She tries not to make note of my presence, then she tries to drum up anger at me for intruding, but in the end she turns to me and resumes her human form in order to sink into my embrace. She wails low and long, until she can only sob and cough. I do my best to keep the area around us clear of the smoke as Farzee continues to cry.


    I can see how flush Farzhis is. She got drunk rather quickly by downing an entire fifty gallon barrel of alcohol. There¡¯s a swirl of thoughts within her mind, near the surface, and I wish I could guide her away from the ones that the alcohol happens to be guiding her towards. I don¡¯t want to have to spurn her while she feels so hurt. I wouldn¡¯t take her up on her advances while she was sober, I most certainly won¡¯t take her up on them while she¡¯s vulnerable. She knows I can sense her desires and her motivations, and she becomes frustrated in my embrace, knowing how futile it would be to try to make moves on me to fill the growing hole in her heart. I worry that Veril would become a target whom would likely give in, and she might come to resent when sober, when she seemed to be forming a good, loving friendship there. I know that Induul would certainly oblige her, but I¡¯m not sure if obliging that side of her grief would be helpful or not overall.


    In the end, I sit in the smoke for a long while yet with Farzhis. I¡¯d wanted to give my new wife Kinzul my undivided attention, but I can sense that she¡¯s grateful that I¡¯m helping Farzhis grieve. She¡¯s doing much the same for Prinrin. After perhaps an hour of crying in my arms, Farzhis resumes her full draconic form, and crawls to her fathers breast, where she peels off the scales on his chest. I know what this means, but I don¡¯t know if she wants privacy for it or not.


    Thankfully, in her few-stop-consonants accent, Farzhis lets me know as she begs, ¡°Stay, please Schism. You guide me right, you protect me. You¡¯ve given me love without asking for sex. Please stay. I can¡¯t do this alone. I wouldn¡¯t do this, couldn¡¯t do this, knowing what it¡¯s going to cost in the long haul. I¡¯m selfish, we both know it. I can only do this if you stay.¡±


    Nodding with tears in my eyes, I advance and lay a hand upon Farzhis¡¯s shoulders as I levitate myself up towards them. I don¡¯t know how much she knows about what she¡¯s taking on. I don¡¯t know if I should warn her, tell her. She admitted she knows it¡¯s going to cost her greatly, but how much will it cost? When will the price be paid? I know that a dragonforce spread out can take months to reclaim.


    Farzhis answers my unspoken questions, ¡°Some day in the future, I¡¯ll be in the same state, when da¡¯s dragonforce finally dissipates. Me taking it in, taking him in, means it¡¯s up to me next, whatever he¡¯s been helping hold up. Months, maybe years, and I¡¯ll start weakening, aging faster, stop moving as much. I couldn¡¯t do this, I wouldn¡¯t be this person without you Schism. I¡¯m scared. I¡¯m so scared. Da¡¯s gone. He¡¯s gone forever, and my life will never be the same.¡±


    My own hot tear droplets slip forth, loosed onto Farzhis¡¯s back as she admits what she knows and feels. I try to blink them back and rub them away so as to not add even more emotional burden to her current dilemma. Farzhis takes deep bites out of her father¡¯s chest, and swallows dutifully as she clears her way towards his heart. I almost can¡¯t bear to watch, but I have to be here for her. It¡¯s what she requested. I wouldn¡¯t abandon her, especially not through this. After taking in his heart, Farzhis shrinks to her human form once more, and sits in her father¡¯s now-open chest cavity, her elbows on her knees, and her face in her hands as she weeps.


    I float down in alongside her, and sit next to Farzhis, wrapping my right arm around her, stroking her right bicep and shoulder gently. Farzhis swats at me, then paws at me, then tries to kiss me, and she rotates through a myriad of emotions in as many moments. I simply remain stoically at her side, holding her gently. She relents, stopping trying to chase whatever emotion burbles up, and leans towards me in order to bury her face in my right clavicle, crying her heart out. Kissing the crown of her head, I hold Farzhis tenderly, comfortingly, consolingly. I feel awful for never having gotten to know the Order¡¯s previous ¡°The Blue,¡± but it¡¯s not about me. My inadequacy doesn¡¯t factor in. I¡¯m here for a friend in need, and that¡¯s all that matters in the moment. Everything else can wait.


    Farzhis is going to be struggling with grief, and with the burden she¡¯s accepted, and she¡¯s going to need someone frequently for a long while to come, because of this. I don¡¯t know if I will, or even can, be here each time she¡¯s in need, but for now, for this bit of grief, I¡¯m here for her. That¡¯s just how it works. This is grief.

 B 6 C 90: Wedded Wind-Down

    As the alcohol finally really hits her, fifty gallons of it taking effect on her human form, Farzhis mumbles, slurring as she attempts to speak, ¡°Schi-hic, ism. I¡¯m, I¡¯m a mana, manip, manipulator, and a bzzzzish, bu¡¯, bu¡¯ hic. Ah wan¡¯, I wan¡¯, umm. Don¡¯ wanna be alone. Bu¡¯, bu¡¯ no¡¯ jus¡¯ no¡¯ alone. Wan¡¯ all yous, prpy, preckly preppy, pretty faces ¡®n¡¯ stuff. No¡¯, hic, koff, no¡¯ askin¡¯ for, fer sex. No¡¯ sayin¡¯ I don¡¯ wan¡¯ sex, jus¡¯, jus¡¯ no¡¯ askin¡¯ fer it. Ah meeeean, if youbodie or otherbody anybody hics up for sex, lesss smash. Jus¡¯, jus¡¯ wan¡¯ sleep close, loved. You love me, righ¡¯? You say you love us all. Includes me, righ¡¯?¡±


    Flashing Farzhis a furtive smile, I nod while agreeing, ¡°Yes Farzhis, I love you dear. No sex though, like you said. Okay? Especially not while you¡¯re in this state. I¡¯d be honored for you to join our sleeping pile. Glp, um, well, koff, yeah. Do you¡ª, have you ever really gotten to know Prinrin? Your, um, stepmother I guess?¡±


    Farzhis motorboats her luscious lips as she responds, ¡°Pffffttttt pshawre, psure, everybubby knows Prinny. Sep, sep maybe me kinda. Nice, always loo-hic-k after da¡¯. Guess I can somma somma, hic, sometimes be sorta jealous. Mebbe bou¡¯ stupid things. Maybzzzz didn¡¯ give her much chance to get to know me. Wonder how someone who loved a mom tha¡¯ look like me, could also love a almos¡¯ flat-chested runt. Spoopid, jealous I guess.¡±


    Oof, I wonder if there¡¯s some sort of sobriety medication for dragons, or at least an anti-hangover med for their human forms. Fifty gallons of alcohol is way more than a humanoid shaped and sized body should be dealing with. I¡¯m a bit worried about Farzhis¡¯s blunt and brutal honesty that even analyzes herself and her past motives at the moment. I don¡¯t want her to regret anything when she sobers up. Still, I think being surrounded by love is probably the best thing for her right now, since she¡¯s open to it. Certainly no one who participates in our cuddlesome love pile would take advantage of her in this state. Plus, it gives her and Prinrin an excuse to be close during their first, likely most intense night of grief.


    I so badly want to be comforting Prinrin as well, but thankfully my love, my¡ª, wow, my *wife*, is handling that. It¡¯s really sinking in. Reggie Shellcracker, actually married. What are the odds? Not just that, but married to Kinzul in a way that visibly mingled our souls. Uh oh, Farzhis is trying to walk around, and teetering all over the place. Offering a hand to steady Farzhis, she instead takes my whole arm, and then swings her legs into the air, forcing me to catch and carry her if I don¡¯t want us toppling over. Farzhis burps loudly in my ear, and begins drooling on me as she starts to pass out only moments later.


    Stealing out of the cloud of narcotics with Farzhee in my arms, I flash a helpless shrug to my inner circle and wife when I leave the hoard of our previous ¡°The Blue.¡± It¡¯s somewhere around nine at night at this point, so it¡¯s not an awful time to head to bed, but I¡¯ve a few other things to attend to. Still, it¡¯s mighty awkward exactly which people are going to end up being in our bed tonight, in the states that they¡¯re in. I still haven¡¯t even asked if I have a quarters in Mount Solace to myself, though I suppose my vault in Mount Verdimenn is good enough in the long run.


    Speaking of my vault, my mind drifts back to the potions I¡¯d disassembled in my myconid form. I¡¯m not entirely certain the ingredients grow on Rayileklia at all, at least not at the current point in Rayileklia¡¯s overall history. I now know the composition of several abjurative potions, on top of the minor water walking potions, but we might never be able to make use of that fact. What else did we gain whilst in orb time in the process of our attempt to save Prinrin from the blight curses?


    In the process of mastering dispellation, I¡¯d also picked out a brainblast-blocking enchantment from Yisstendahl¡¯s primary spellbook. That particular book doesn¡¯t have either the meteor spell, or timestopping spell, or the various enchantments involving them, but rather something like thirty or forty other spells of all the tiers lower than ninth. Blocking brainblasts is a fantastic enchantment of course, and it even lasts for twenty four hours at a time! Though of course, its runic cost is rather high.


    Still that particular spell for blocking brainblasts screws with telepathic bonds while it¡¯s up, so I¡¯ll need to figure out a process for determining when to apply it. Perhaps it¡¯ll be as simple as placing the enchantment on myself the night before going to a battle, since it¡¯s an expensive spell at a hundred thirty two S P. Similarly, during the process of learning the runes for those spells, I¡¯d also mastered a spell that allows me to control water in a wide area for ten minutes at a time. Not only that, but I managed to learn a plethora of runes that apply to a host of spells other than the ones I¡¯d mastered.


    Similarly during the process, those of us that took part gained the ability to conjure anywhere between six, and a dozen mini comets, meteorites. The manifested space-rocks can be unleashed at will, though they can only be conjured once per day. Conversely, as opposed to the once per day abilities, we¡¯ve a slew of abilities that work three times per day each. As far as spell-like abilities that can be manifested thrice per day, we can create slowing fields, or cones of frost, or shadowy evocations, or shadowy conjurations.


    Though, thinking back to a particularly potent single use per day ability that we picked up, we each have an ally we can conjure for less than three minutes. That ally takes the form of an eighth tier monstrous mana construct. Well, with that ability some of us can technically summon three to four monstrous mana constructs of a lower tier, or at least I can, but for the most part, it¡¯s best to stick with the eighth tier one that comes for each of us based on some hidden natural affinities.


    Let¡¯s see, which were the affinities again? Ahliyuri, can conjure forth a radiant triceratops for exactly one minute, while his sister Ahliyui can create an umbral t-rex for the same duration. It¡¯s almost cute that each of them can conjure forth their twin¡¯s Spellknight element in a nearly draconic dinosaur form. Atter can call a radiant dire bear for a hundred thirty two seconds, while her brother Shiz can summon the same, for only ninety seconds. That marks more sibling similarities.


    Iylynila funnily enough can create a hellcat for a hundred twenty six seconds. Such an affinity says so much about her personality in some ways. Similarly, and also funnily enough, Prinrin can conjure the exact same thing for the exact same duration. The two having a similar innate affinity for their mana constructs speaks volumes about the depth of their friendship and shared personality traits.


    My beloved Kinzul can manifest a Liltivilend as a mana construct. That¡¯s a sort of winged, angelic, platinum-scaled naga woman. Moreover, Kinzul can manage the manifestation for almost three minutes. I think she can hold it for a hundred sixty two seconds exactly. Miraina, in a twist similar to her mother Prinrin, can conjure a fiery dire tiger for eighteen seconds. I assume as she ages and becomes stronger, its duration will grow, and it might adopt the same hellish properties that Illy and Prinrin¡¯s mana constructs have.


    Speaking of age, Vylon, one of our greatest fighters, and oldest combatants can summon a fiery ankylosaurus for a hundred forty four seconds. Another older fellow, Kagired, Sponge, has a bit of tough luck. He can call forth an umbral eight-legger that¡¯s between thirty and sixty feet tall, for ninety six seconds. I suppose if he really needs some silk to make bandages for binding wounds, he could certainly get some. Yeesh.


    Me? I myself can call forth a single greater elemental of one of the four basic types, or three huge elementals. Either conjuration only lasts for exactly two minutes. Teuila similarly can conjure a greater wind elemental for exactly two minutes. The eight strategists have it a bit odd, as theirs are a mixture of bugs and bears and tigers for durations from twelve to thirty six seconds. Lucky¡¯s affinity is also a bit of a weird one. Lucky can conjure forth what appear to be three male harpies that themselves are quite capable with spell-like abilities, and his summoning duration is exactly one minute.


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    All of these summons and this host of new abilities shared between so many of my allies is a massive boon. I regret not awakening the other Order members, or bringing the wounded down to partake in sharing the process, but I wanted to save Prinrin above all else. Everything else was just an experiment. Sadly, now all those tomes are spent for centuries to come. Centuries, minutes, seconds, accelerated time spent learning, time is certainly a concept that pops up a lot in the process of Reggie Shellcracker living their life, making plans. Plans that I make often derail in a matter of seconds from their initial implementations, but oh well.


    A few seconds to a couple of minutes for a powerful ally to appear on the field of battle might not seem like a lot, but at the very least, it could intercept a blow meant for a loved one, or oneself. Those conjurations do have another weakness beyond their time limit though too. They¡¯re susceptible to dispellation, since they are literally constructs of mana, walking spells. Still, an eighth tier mana construct takes eighty eight runes, or S P to dispel, so it¡¯s not a bad use of an ability to make an enemy archmage focus on such a construct in order to wipe out a potent pool of their magic. It¡¯s only mildly ironic that I happened to learn dispellation while also doling out an ability that can be easily dispelled.


    I obviously wouldn¡¯t be dispelling our own mana constructs, but as I¡¯d feared, I¡¯ve been meeting more enemies capable of casting spells as my journey on Rayileklia wends ever onward. I suppose it¡¯s obvious now, in retrospect, why I hadn¡¯t ran into many mages during my earlier journey. Terrorzin had had them all killed, or conscripted, to make sure that he held the most magical might across the entire world. Hell, one of the few archmages he let exist in an enemy faction was secretly an agent of his too. Anyway, my point being that I¡¯ll likely be facing spellcasters who are more potent and capable as we drive our conflict towards the center of Terrorzin¡¯s domain, and they¡¯ll likely have the ability to dispel magics.


    I¡¯m rambling, trying to distract myself from the loss we¡¯d all just experienced. I don¡¯t have the right framework of mind to process grief for the kobolds we¡¯d lost today, the three volunteer dragons from Mount Solace, or Farzhee¡¯s father. I¡¯m not exactly numb to the losses, but they don¡¯t hit me as hard as I feel like they should. I move on too quickly, easily able to distract myself from them while pressing forward with my plans and projects.


    Speaking of, or rather, thinking of distractions, Atter and Boetah aren¡¯t out here. I assume that that means they went off to perform the Conjugation in an attempt to save Atter¡¯s remaining viable eggs. Along that line, according to Prinny, Ahliyui should be expecting to lay a clutch of viable eggs sometime in the near future, which sort of blows my mind. I hope we haven¡¯t ruined their viability due to the duel and damage from earlier. I don¡¯t think Te could live with herself, or forgive herself if that came to pass. Thinking of someone else that has clutched, whether or not they will ever clutch again, Zayzi wanted me to stop by to share sweets tonight, I wonder if they¡¯d still like that.


    The affirmative nod along my telepathic wavelength as Xayla answers, ¡°Yes please, sweets, sharing,¡± is straightforward enough.


    Hm, do I bring Farzhee along, sleeping in my arms, or set her sleeping in the bed we¡¯ll be using? Or something else entirely? Thankfully Kinzul offers, ¡°Let me bring her to our den my love, my Schism. My dear old friend and I will catch up while remaining close. I am weary from the day¡¯s battle, as is she, and we could do with the rest. We¡¯ve accomplished much this day. Please retire with us when soonest you are able. We¡¯ve much to discuss, to share, to confide and comfort one another with and about.¡±


    Nodding to Kinzul, I hand Farzhee over. As Kinzul is awaying with Prinrin and Farzhee, Teuila spooks the crap out of me and several of the other gathered Order members by exclaiming, ¡°Got the sucker! Finally!¡±


    Te blushes as she mutters, almost mumbling, ¡°Was trying to get this rune-clip thingy out without breaking it for hours now. Here¡¯ Lu, now you can fly, do some windy lightningy magic and stuff, and lightning won¡¯t hurt so bad. Keep that bangle thingy on Spootalu, okay?¡± More audibly Te adds, ¡°Lucky, Dragbutt, we¡¯ll find some of these clippy thingies that work for you two too later, when stuff calms down.¡±


    Flashing Teuila a smile, I nod appreciatively. I need to hit up my vault later, dig out some things I¡¯d wanted Kinzul to try, now that our souls are bonded so tightly. While there, hopefully I can find some clips that make sense for the triple L squad¡¯s bangles, and maybe a bangle for Kinzul. Hm, speaking of stuff from the vault, this ensorcelled robe is too amazing to just put away in some pile of clothing. I¡¯m going to have to put it in the sixth slot in the quick change ring, replacing the suit of Valkyrie armor. If I¡¯m taking hits, I might as well be taking them on the Wyverium or Necrometal chestplates, or on my own adamantite body form.


    Then again, I might rearrange the gear somewhat, and get under-armor padding for each set, especially if the rare-metals respawning warrens starts producing. I¡¯ll be able to get some equipment forged from the legendary metals. I¡¯ll be able to add an adamantite or orichalcum chestplate or greaves or vambraces to the various slots in the Q C R that don¡¯t have appropriate equipment in those slots, and I¡¯ll make them full outfits. Honestly though, having them compartmented separately has been nice. Mixing and matching the curse greaves with the different chestplates has been useful. I wonder if I could trick the ring into swapping various chestplates with various other sets that included different legguards if all of the slots were filled with entirely full suits of armor.


    For now, I want to check in with people I care about. Casting out my telepathic bond to her, I ask Iylynila, ¡°Illy, are you going to be okay? Do you want to talk about the hurt from earlier, or about the ceremony, or about what happened after? Anything?¡±


    Through a long sigh across our mental wavelength, Illy replies, ¡°I¡¯m alright Schism, got some air, got some meat, cleared my head. Seeing Farzhee¡¯s father, Prinny¡¯s husband like that, just, just ending like that was awful, but I¡¯m dealing, coping I guess. Farzhee¡¯s one of my Dormie¡¯s and she¡¯s almost as old as me, so we knew each other pretty well. Knowing what she¡¯s going through is tough, but it¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t gone through the same thing. When she wakes up with whatever godawful hangover she¡¯s going to have, I can be there for her, I¡¯m okay enough for that. Thank you, for caring. I don¡¯t feel like myself enough yet to tease or whatever, but I¡¯ll be okay, promise.¡±


    Nodding along to Iylynila¡¯s response, I do my best to understand and accept it. I of course sense the honesty within it, as deep as our own connection is. I still want to reassure Illy further, to let her know how much she means to me, to us, but she¡¯s dealing in her own way right now. I¡¯ll be there for her when she wants to open up about things, because I dearly love her. Hm, I should also really check in with the Spellknight twins. Today has been a hell of a day for them.


    Approaching Yui and Yuri who seem quite discomforted with how out-of-place they are compared to the rest of the Mount Solace residents, I query, ¡°Hey you two, is there some way I can help make you feel like part of the family, and at home? Obviously I¡¯m done with the idea of keeping you at the prison. I brought you to one of our most vulnerable locations, and granted you half a dozen new powers that you could use against us. What can I do for you two to welcome you?¡±


    Despite having normally seemed to be the brazen one of the pair, Yui scratches the back of her head, a mild blush coloring the flesh beneath her teal scales on her face. Yuri offers up, ¡°Schism, today was a wild ride. I¡¯ve no doubt you¡¯re ending the Ice of Rage, our tyrant overlord. The fact that you even had the ability to create or share spells and feats and whatever the hell else you did leaves no room for doubt in my mind. It¡¯s a lot to process. Seeing you bond, wed someone as notorious as Kinzul, and then witnessing an ancient¡¯s light fade is, well, like I said, it¡¯s just a lot to process. I think I¡¯d be most comfortable sticking it out at the prison a bit longer, if that¡¯s alright with you.¡±


    Blinking in surprise at the request, I nod to Yuri, who guides his sister back towards the prison. I¡¯m left stroking my chin thoughtfully when Shiz suddenly approaches, and claps me heartily on the back. The thunderer chuckles before stating, ¡°Seems like I¡¯ll be the first to say congratulations Schism, what with the dour mood set by the loss back there. You¡¯re something else.¡±


    More seriously, in an almost somber tone, he adds, ¡°Thanks for saving my sister and her clutch. Getting to be an uncle, having family, it¡¯s¡ª. Well, it¡¯s something that wouldn¡¯t have happened under the Ice of Rage¡¯s banner. Thanks for keeping my treasonous soul out of the hands of the Damnations back there too. There¡¯s a long road ahead in this war, but I¡¯ve got plenty reason now to want to fight it, and keep the people here at Solace safe. I¡¯ll guard this home of yours, of ours I suppose, with my life Schism, I swear it.¡±


    Taken aback at the congratulations, gratitude, and heartfelt vow, I can only think to offer Shiz a hug, and a pat on the back in reply. Apparently with Shiz having broken the tension over everyone having witnessed the loss of ¡°The Blue,¡± the floodgates have opened. Apparently that¡¯s what everyone all needed to begin bombarding me with congratulations, or playful jabs and teases.

 B 6 C 91: Sons

    Of course Teuila would be the first to tease, ¡°Never thought my Airhead would get hitched, it wasn¡¯t even an idea, a concept to you, for the longest time.  Now ya gotta marry the rest of us, or we¡¯ll all get jealous.  Nyeh.¡±


    I can¡¯t help chuckling as Te sticks her tongue out and raspberries me at the end of her jibe.  I mean, I truly don¡¯t want to make any of my loved ones jealous.  I want them all to be as happy as possible.  I¡¯d do anything to help keep Te, Lu, Lil, Lucky, Prinny, Illy, and Kinzul happy.  Not that I¡¯m romantically involved with all of them.  Well, I nearly am, but not quite everyone.  I love the rest of the Order of the Onyx Dawn too, in a different way, and I wish them happiness as well, though I don¡¯t wish to be so central to the cause of that happiness for the rest of them.


    For example, poor, introverted Kagired, Sponge, has scurried back to the infirmary.  He¡¯s a bit similar to Nala, and I¡¯d like him to be able to pursue what happiness is available to him, even in the comfort of the infirmary.  Another Order member that I¡¯d like to see happy is Shaylon, and they¡¯re hissing a congratulations in my ear both physically and telepathically.


    A tingle runs up my spine at Shaylon¡¯s pleasantly sublime serpentine accent.  There are so very many gathered Order members, most of whom are seeking to bow out for the eve.  Revvy for example begs pardon, taking his leave of me with Greggy, returning to their dormitories.  This entire wind-down from the bonding ceremony seems to be a hell of a rapid cavalcade of social interactions, minor mingling events, for one as antisocial as myself.  One after another, my allies, my family from the Order of the Onyx Dawn approaches me with well-wishes for a prosperous future with my wife, our lady Kinzul.


    I¡¯m only mildly shocked when Vylon offers up, ¡°Don¡¯t suppose it would be right at this point to challenge you to combat Schism.  Losses and joinings and hearing your feats, these things make humble a man whose bulk and brawn tell tale of his experiences.  Would that I could join you on the field, I think it¡¯d be a marvel to behold, but safety for Solace is paramount.  Strike down a thousand foes for me and my sister.  That shouldn¡¯t be too much to ask for.¡±


    Chuckling, I acknowledge the subtle dig, that insinuates that I might let Vylon down by not striking down a thousand foes.  Thankfully he didn¡¯t say slay, because I¡¯m perfectly content knocking a thousand people unconscious across the efforts in this war.  Still, I probably won¡¯t disappoint him in the death toll either.  I nod at Vylon and shake his hand appreciatively while his sister simply passes us and offers up her usual cursory, ¡°Hmn.¡±


    Turning to speak with Lil, I find him being dragged away by Ixeyla, while Leezahna follows the pair uncomfortably rather closely.  She looks exceedingly distraught, and I¡¯m not sure if I should interact with her at all, or if doing so would simply cement my status as a bully to her.  At some point I need to begin recovering a non-hostile relationship with Leezahna, but I laid into her pretty hard.  I sigh and shake my head sadly, unsure how to approach that situation.


    Lu, my beloved Luni, My Anchor, approaches and kisses my cheek before whispering, ¡°You¡¯ve got this Hero, always have, and always will.  Give it time.  Not everything will go how you want or need, but I know you¡¯ll, *we¡¯ll*, come through alright in the end.  I love you Reggie Shellcracker.  Please save the space for me in your heart as you always have?¡±


    Half frowning, I furrow my brow at Luni, feeling hurt that she thinks she even has to ask.  I respond tenderly, ¡°Always Lu, always.  I love you beyond words or reason, beyond time or space.  I love you Luni Shellcracker.  What are you going to do for the rest of the night?¡±


    Sighing, blushing, and fidgeting, Luni admits, ¡°I have to tail Lil to coach him to not be a goober telepathically.  He wants to admit his feelings to Ixey.  I¡¯m not going on their date with him, but it¡¯s still a mess of awkward that won¡¯t add up to much fun tonight.  I¡¯ll be trying to do some portent and divination stuff too, to help make up for our Ayms being gone.  Huff.  I took her for granted.  She was such a sweet kid.  I¡¯m still, even to this moment, jealous of her though.  Being able to maintain that air of innocence, and, what¡¯s the word, levity?  Despite all that she knew and saw, she was always so pure, and mostly full of joy.  Anyway, seems you¡¯ve got a bunch of others who want your attention, so I¡¯ll see you in bed in a few hours, right sweetie?¡±


    Nodding, I kiss Luni¡¯s forehead in response before she ambles away in vaguely the same direction as Lil, Ixeyla, and Leezahna.  Fenric of the Vivant approaches me and sets a hand upon my shoulder.  He¡¯s still looking wounded, not at all fully recovered.  All of the Vivant are still beat to hell.  Furrowing my brow I wear a grim expression as I make note of his injuries, and Fenric mirrors my expression in return, acknowledging my notice.  Only about a week into our war, and we¡¯re already starting to run out of uninjured people brave enough, or simply willing enough, to volunteer to take on enough pain to keep our fighting forces in ship shape.


    Fenric kindly offers up, ¡°I don¡¯t envy the battles ahead that you¡¯ll be left facing, eventually on your lonesome Schism.  Our Lady will be forced to deploy fewer and fewer forces, until you are all that remains at the fore, the knife¡¯s edge of our entire offensive effort.  When it comes down to it, that is perhaps the most economical use of our forces, and Sponge¡¯s latent, simply keeping the single most powerful asset field-capable, but it is certainly not the most kind, or compassionate.  I¡¯m afraid that by now, we¡¯re all certain that that asset is you.  Our Tenith might rival you, perhaps, in many ways, but your versatility lends you capable of a wider array of engagements.  Take heart Schism, Hero.  You¡¯ve the love of our Lady in a way none has had since The Platinum, and a trust that rivals that which she had in him.  There is no higher praise.¡±


    With that, Fenric offers me a slight nod before turning and heading back to the infirmary to rest up.  I don¡¯t even have the time to be floored by the compliment before Orthral lambasts me, ¡°Schism, I don¡¯t like admitting shortcomings, jealousy, or any of the like, but I¡¯ll say this.  The Blue passing just now hits different as a Bronze.  Our rivalry wasn¡¯t friendly per se, but¡ª.  Anyway, he was important to one of the Vivant at least.  Our Copper saves all of our lives, time after time, and you¡¯ve saved hers.  I don¡¯t need to explain further, do I?  Good.  Many happy returns on your new bond with our Lady.¡±


    Passing a breath out through pursed lips and puffed cheeks, I sigh a pfshew as Orthral basically doesn¡¯t want to admit to knowing I¡¯ve helped save his life.  I don¡¯t need or want the gratitude or anything, but it feels so odd to be approached and *told* that the individual doesn¡¯t want to have to be grateful.  Scratching the back of my head, I blush and loose a quarter of a chuckle while shaking my head.  Yeesh.  Everyone¡¯s a personality all their own.  It strikes me that I hardly know much about many of them.  The Vivant especially.  Speaking of¡ª.


    Gilmeshtu approaches me, and sizes me up.  He honestly appears as if he¡¯s trying to figure out where best to strike me with a strong jab, one punch to lay me low.  I¡¯d be disconcerted, but I flash him a furrowed brow, and he relents his analyzing gaze.  Great, is this going to be some social hierarchy power dynamic crap?  As my expression morphs further towards a frown, Gil holds his hands up placatingly.


    Thankfully our, ¡°The Gold,¡± expresses his intentions, ¡°My Vivant have in some ways, shared their faith in you, and I just want to remind you to remain aware of meeting that faith, those expectations.  I think that perhaps you are up to the task.  Perhaps.  Don¡¯t prove me wrong.¡±


    With that, Gilmeshtu ambles away after Orthral and Fenric.  Jeeze, talk about subtle near-open hostility.  Teuila chuckles and slugs me in the shoulder, mentioning, ¡°Seems like you and Aunty Zool should maybe put the foot down and curb some¡ª.  Oh wait.  Should I start calling you Unky Reggie?  Unky-Air?  Wow that¡¯s super weird.  Also, what the heck is a non-gendered aunt or uncle?  Maybe Aunky?  Pibling?  Piblunkle?  Plunkle?  Punkle.  Paunty?  Panky?  Heee.¡±


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Pfft, thanks Teuila.  I snort a laugh while shaking my head incredulously at My Wings.  At least she¡¯s enjoying herself, sounding her elation with the Shellcracker Family Squee, that single elongated laugh of glee.  It always warms my heart to hear it.  Still, her vocabulary attempts themselves are quite hilarious, but what¡¯s more funny is the insinuation that Kinzul and I might treat the Vivant like spoiled children in order to curtail dominance-assertion-related behaviors.  I snirk at the idea and continue shaking my head.


    While I¡¯m recovering from laughing about Teuila¡¯s ramble, I¡¯m approached by each of the eight Draconiac strategists, one at a time as they all congratulate me on the bond with Kinzul.  Nietru waits til last to speak, ¡°Schism, this seems like a momentous occasion, and it is, far beyond what any of the gathered are treating it as.  Lady Kinzul hasn¡¯t opened herself to the idea of something like this in ages.  The way The Platinum was torn from her life, and his sons, their sons, it¡ª.  She hides it well, how it broke her.¡±


    Sighing for a long moment, Nietru seems to space out before remembering she¡¯s in the middle of communicating to me.  Blushing, she continues, ¡°There are more goals that this war should be setting out to accomplish, for her grief, her revenge, but I honestly can¡¯t fathom if Lady Kinzul is approaching the matter with them in mind.  The lack of surviving metallic Draconiacs, and similarly few dragons, it¡¯s¡ª.  Please, in her stead, make things right, grant her that peace.  If ever another of his descendants should be found, they must survive.  I¡¯m sorry for talking your ear off, and not even getting around to everything you¡¯d wanted me to cover.  Perhaps on the morrow?  I think you¡¯re due attending a strategy session.  Be well Schism, don¡¯t overwork it, but put that beautiful mind to use on this problem, I beg of you.¡±


    Nietru kisses me softly on the cheek, blushes, and hurries off, calling after Burshis and Prent.  Hm, that¡¯s a lot to process.  I knew most of it, maybe all of it, but it¡¯s hard to think about and take in all at once as I recollect tidbits I¡¯ve gained in my time being part of the Order of the Onyx Dawn.  Still, descendants of The Platinum, at this point, to have gone unnoticed, they¡¯d have to have been Draconiacs that could ¡ª.


    They¡¯d have to have been Draconiacs that could slip by without attention being drawn to them, like say a latent that literally keeps them from being discovered.  But Errissa is a slate-gray Draconiac, not a metallic.  Though the deeper edges of her scales have this slightly metallic sheen, a mild reflective quality.  Wait.  Could she be filing down her scales?  Can a metallic Draconiac file down their scales from a sheen to a matte appearance?  Is that why they¡¯re sort of powdery and fuzzy?  There¡¯s no way that could be a thing, can it?


    There are things that happened to Errissa before she came to Mount Solace, things Errissa doesn¡¯t want me to know, that Kinzul probably knows.  Could this strange conclusion possibly be one of those things?  I mean, it¡¯s very likely that she endured battles, perhaps even torture at the hands of others out there somewhere in the world.  She had her vocal tract, her voicebox removed for heck¡¯s sakes.  Huff, maybe I¡¯ll get to speak to her again some day, but that probably won¡¯t be until this war is over, since she¡¯s permanently deployed gathering intelligence now, and anywhere that I am deployed to will be a spot that she is no longer at, or never will be at.


    Hm, hopefully I remember to pursue that line of thought at some point.  Then again, I¡¯m me, I probably have half a million lines of thought I¡¯ve forgotten that I intended to continue pursuing.  Blargh.  Induul approaches me as I¡¯m mentally berating myself, and he mutters, ¡°Hey.¡±


    When I turn my attention to him, Induul stands there for several moments before deciding to add, ¡°Things uh, aren¡¯t great, really, at all.  Everything¡¯s been kinda going to shit since you arrived.  Ah, crap, not that it¡¯s you.  Just the war started, Farzhee¡¯s avoiding me, the only good Vivvie nearly died, our Lady is looking haggard, the Damnations have been out and about for the first time in who knows how long.  It¡¯s too real Schism, and I don¡¯t know how to cope, how to handle this.¡±


    More agitatedly, Induul adds, ¡°I¡¯m going through withdrawal, and suffering alone most hours.  Farzhee goes and torches a supply of piping powder right in front of me, and everyone is keeping me from running in and sucking down the fumes.  I¡¯m itchy, and jonesing.  I can¡¯t stand this Schism.  Y¡¯gotta help me.  Do something, end the war, end me, find me some pipe, something, anything.  Just, just, just anything, fuggin¡¯ hell.  I hate begging but I¡¯m begging ya.¡±


    Oh Induul.  Oh man that¡¯s rough.  I can¡¯t feed his addiction though, even if I wanted to.  I don¡¯t even know what substance the piping powder is.  It seemed kinda like gunpowder, but it burned slow, and fairly cool, it had a unique thermal signature.  Its smoke had strange electron bonds that seemed laced with magic.  Necromancy oddly enough.  Almost like they were smoking the remains of cremated undead or something.  That¡¯s just weird.  There¡¯s no way that that¡¯s what was really being smoked, right?  Then again, Farzhis has to sneak away to see her supplier, and the dragons and vampires have been hostile to each other for a fair length of time at this point.


    Induul looks like he¡¯s going to throw up on me as he follows my internal mental monologue.  My inner narrative thinking that someone was smoking reanimated, re-slain *people*, sickens me as well.  Still, I step to Induul¡¯s side and lay a hand on his shoulder while he rides out a wave of nausea.  There¡¯s not much I can do for the man.  I¡¯m certainly not going to kill him, but he¡¯s probably going to be out of action for days, weeks, maybe a month.  It¡¯d be too dangerous to deploy him while he¡¯s going through withdrawals.  If he has an attack, or episode, while in combat, it could get him, and possibly his teammates, killed.  I flash Induul a sad frown, and he lets his head drop to his chest as his muscles sag droopily, defeated, before he walks back to his dormitory.


    From startlingly near, Yerjhro asks, ¡°Schism?  Is he going to be okay?  Can¡¯t you help him?  You helped me meet Del, my, um, new mom, my mom.  Can¡¯t you do anything for him?¡±


    Urgh, Yerjhro¡¯s question twists like a knife in my gut.  Closing my eyes, trying not to let it show how very overwhelmed I am at the possibility of having to be responsible for the wellness of Members of the Order, I respond, ¡°Sadly his is one battle I can¡¯t help fight.  It¡¯s an internal one.  I¡¯m sorry to let him, you, or anyone down, but I¡¯m not going to hurt him to stop his pain, and I¡¯m not powerful enough to just fly out right now and take down the entire rest of Terrorzin¡¯s armies at once.  Sorry Yer.  Are you disappointed to have me as the Order¡¯s Hero?¡±


    Shaking his head, Yerjhro looks abashed at having basically disquieted me.  Something along those lines anyway.  Del steps in and cuffs him lightly, playfully on the back of his head before responding in his place, ¡°Ye¡¯ve got plenty of responsibilities, plans, and all manner of things going on Schism, no one can help, or save, everyone.  That¡¯s why different jobs exist, why there¡¯s shields, armor, swords, medics, poets, authors, crafters.  Some battles though, no one else is suited for.¡±


    Sighing, staring after Induul, Del continues, ¡°Sad to see someone struggling with the pipe, but our, ¡®The Green,¡¯ is a fighter.  He¡¯ll come through on the other side, probably sooner rather than later.  Pay it no mind.  Not everything is on you, despite how it may seem.  Plus, take heart, some things that aren¡¯t on you, you still made better.  For example, I¡¯d never get the chance to be a mother, never would have gotten the chance, if it weren¡¯t for you making that speech.¡±


    Smirking, my blacksmith friend finishes, ¡°As tasty as they are, those legendary metal bits are a bit too dangerous, at best we can give ¡®em a few licks.  Can¡¯t exactly go eating even a thin sliver of something that won¡¯t bend or break as it slides down your gullet unless you desire a painful surgery.  Word from some of the ones keeping an eye on your projects is we¡¯re one or two days out from the budding finishing up in some of the more tantalizing warrens.  We¡¯re working at grinding down the bits you¡¯ve gifted us into a fine enough powder to use as spices, to give all the volunteers just a little taste like you said.  Speaking of tasty treats, c¡¯mon kid, let¡¯s leave the nice Hero alone, I wanna see if you can handle spicy food.¡±


    Excitedly, Yerjhro licks his lips, exclaiming, ¡°Can I!?¡± before racing off apparently towards Del¡¯s home cavern.  I flash her a grateful smile, and we offer each other a strong forearm-gripped handshake.  I¡¯m glad to have such stoic, kind people residing within Mount Solace.  As Del is leaving, chasing after her excitable son, Lucky approaches me and leans heavily against my right hip.  Scratching his skull, I find Lucky¡¯s emotional wavelength warbled and muddied.  I need to spend more time with my own son, it seems.  Zayzi offers me a half-hearted wave from nearby, apparently having been waiting until I was mostly alone before approaching.  Hopefully they won¡¯t mind a bit of company as we share sweets.  Lucky deserves my attention, and Te still needs me.

 B 6 C 92: Greens

    Almost ashamed to ask, I turn to my newer, red-hued, agendered friend in order to quietly request, ¡°Zayzi? Do you mind if Te joins us? Or Lucky? I¡¯m happy to get a chance to spend more time with you, but Lucky seems down, and, well, Teuila is pretty much my most special someone. My first love. I need to be there for her right now. Te, you wanted to keep sticking together tonight by your wavelength, yeah?¡±


    Teuila nods my way while Xayla asks in an unusual tone, ¡°No kissing?¡±


    As I¡¯m trying to parse how to respond, since I¡¯d already promised to not chase Xayla¡¯s lips, Zayzi beats me to the punch by turning towards Teuila and ordering, ¡°No kissing. Come eat,¡± then, turning to Lucky, she adds, ¡°Nice doggy, come Hound.¡±


    Teuila seems a bit put out at being ordered around, but I try to reassure her that brusqueness is just part of how Xayla is coping with interacting with reality. When Xayla grips my left hand, and Teuila¡¯s right, and begins marching us along towards the larder, in that lanky, gangly, near limbo-style of ambulatory motion, Teuila seems to relax, realizing Xayla is rather unique.


    Trying to confirm with me, Te asks, ¡°Xayla here? This is the one that identifies as they? Just making sure to get the right pronoun.¡±


    Glad that Teuila is sensitive and caring enough to ask about such a topic, I respond, ¡°Aye, yeah, they are. They¡¯re really numbed to the world in a lot of ways, so seeing them out and around, interacting, speaking more than a single word at a time, it¡¯s huge Te, really huge. Thanks for letting me drag you along. I¡¯m sorry I haven¡¯t been there for you more intimately more often lately. Your ocean is all kinds of tumultuous, and I¡¯m a horrible partner for not having been available to help you wrangle it.¡±


    Teasingly, Teuila replies, ¡°Darn right! Kidding. You were on a mission, left to camp overnight in enemy territory on your own. Then you had apparently the scariest seven dragons on the planet breathing down your neck while you¡¯re trying to do things. You¡¯re busy setting up a literal mountain of resources, and you¡¯ve made friends, and care about people, and, and, and stuff. And you¡¯re my Airhead, so of course you¡¯re also being kind, and supportive, and falling in lurve, and all that.¡±


    More salaciously, Teuila waggles her eyebrows while adding, ¡°Also apparently shtupping some major hotties, which, I mean, props, credit where it¡¯s due, but that was kinda unexpected to say the least. Sorry, I¡¯m being crass, I know it¡¯s not like that. Yeesh, Zayzi gave me the most hostile grossed out look when I talked about it like that. Huff, anyway, point being, it sucks, but I know it sucks, and I know you¡¯re trying your best. You want to be your best for everyone, and that means so much to me. You being you is so, so, so, so very important to me Airhead. My Airhead, my Air, the very air that I breathe.¡±


    I¡¯d lean my head against Teuila¡¯s at the moment if I could, but we¡¯re being dragged along at Xayla¡¯s incongruous jerky pace, separated at a fairly wide angle behind Zayzi. Lucky is plodding along dutifully beside me, and in thinkspace, he¡¯s simply wandering circles around the hill in my mindscape. I wear a lopsided half frown, unsure how to interpret what¡¯s going on with Lucky. I think he might be worried about Prinrin, since he helped us save her, and the whole wedding thing might be weirding him out.


    The faintest hint of words coming from Lucky are hard to intercept, let alone understand. I could swear they equate to, ¡°Other parent doesn¡¯t love parent the most? Parent loves other parent the most.¡±


    If I recall correctly, I¡¯m, ¡°other parent,¡± while Luni is, ¡°parent.¡± Does Lucky think I don¡¯t love Luni enough? Fudge. I¡¯ve been neglecting the people I care most about. This reunion has gone all kinds of wrong. I barely get to spend any time with my inner circle other than some of the nights we get to sleep together.


    Seemingly out of left field, Zayzi asks, ¡°Not Kinzul?¡± When it takes me more than a moment to respond, realizing they¡¯d left me confused, they add, ¡°Most special. Married.¡±


    Blushing heatedly, I have no idea how to respond. I don¡¯t like the idea of quantifying the love I have for various members of my beloved inner circle, or romantic partners.


    Trying my best to answer, I ramble, ¡°It¡¯s, well, it¡¯s hard to say something like most special. Like I said earlier, in a lot of ways, Teuila is my most special someone, because she¡¯s the first woman I fell in love with. She¡ª.¡±


    Teuila grins wickedly my way as she viciously waggles her brows in an unrelenting tease, abusing her spot as having been mentioned as my more or less most special. Te pouts momentarily when my inner narrative labels her actions abuse, but thankfully she knows I don¡¯t really mean that. What else can I even say about this? I *still* haven¡¯t categorized the love I have for Kinzul. I¡¯m married to the woman, and I don¡¯t even have names for appropriate boxes to place my feelings for her within.


    Some of the difficulty now that we¡¯re bonded might be because it seems like an impossibility. My cynical side thinks of it more like an ancient being simply deigning to amuse herself with my company on a whim, rather than the sort of deeply abiding affection we have towards one another for our shared desire to see peace, joy, and love be fostered throughout the lands. Huff. Heaving a sigh I shake my head almost imperceptibly.


    Doing my best to return to responding to Xayla¡¯s question, I guess, ¡°I don¡¯t really have real numbers to say who I love the most in which way. Teuila is my first love though, the person who first set my heart fluttering in the way that being in love does. I never want to lose that. She¡¯s special to me, she needs me, wants me, and I need for her to be happy. I want her to be happy, and to be near, and safe, and, just so many things. I mean, I want that for you too, to be happy, and safe, but I¡¯m not trying to¡ª.¡±


    Zayzi interrupts me to remind me, ¡°No kissing. No dating.¡±


    Nodding, I respond, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I was going to say. Just because I want similar things, doesn¡¯t mean I want to achieve them in the same way, or even think that I should. I think you¡¯re swell. I really like you Zayzi, and I understand only a tiny bit of what you¡¯re going through, but when I get to see you smile, or just share things together with you, either words, emotions, thoughts, or sweets, well, it¡¯s really nice, it¡¯s enjoyable. I hope you¡¯re benefiting from my friendship. I don¡¯t know what more to add to that.¡±


    Xayla stops, drops our hands, and turns to face me. Their face is beet red, and their eyes are downcast for a moment. Zayzi apparently struggles with their facial features, until they¡¯re wearing a nearly full smile. Bearing that smile, Xayla then struggles with softening their gaze, which they turn towards me, Teuila, and Lucky, for a moment. Their face resumes its usually placid expression, and they resume gripping our hands to continue leading us towards the larder. Wearing an emotionally-touched half-smile myself, I share a glance with Teuila, who seems to be understanding fairly well just how much Xayla might be struggling at the moment, considering how deeply Teuila knows my own emotional struggles.


    Arriving in the larder, clattering noises and cussing alerts us to the presence of someone within. From the flavor of the strained, hissed cursing of the voice, it¡¯s obvious to me that it¡¯s Induul. Furrowing my brow, and frowning, I gently extricate my hand from Xayla¡¯s as I try to approach the larder alone, first. Sadly, Xayla ignores caution, and enters alongside me, dragging Teuila and Lucky along behind.


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    Induul¡¯s eyes are bloodshot. He¡¯s fidgeting and scratching, and when his gaze takes in Xayla, the way his crazed eyes drink in Xayla¡¯s form is supremely unsettling to me. I know he¡¯s not in his right mind, but the emotions that flow forth across his mental wavelength are¡ª. They¡¯re despicable. That desire to drown himself in carnal pleasure in order to seek relief from his symptoms, at anyone else¡¯s expense is something I cannot abide. Xayla doesn¡¯t even seem to understand the danger they¡¯re currently in, due to their dissociated nature, barely noticing reality around them.


    Sensing the lust struggling to Induul¡¯s foremost thoughts, I growl a warning, ¡°Induul, I think you should return to your dorm and try to get some sleep. I know it¡¯s rough on you right now, you¡¯re in a bad way, but the thoughts going through your head right now are only going to end in a heap of hurt.¡±


    Snearing, Induul asks, ¡°Hurting more than *this*!? Pah, I doubt it. I need it Schism, I need something. I begged you. Maybe if Tenith over there had scales¡ª.¡±


    My eyes flash with growing anger, but Induul doesn¡¯t back down, ¡°Nah, she doesn¡¯t quite do it. The Fire next to you isn¡¯t normally quite my type, but any port¡ª.¡±


    Gritting my teeth, I exclaim, ¡°Induul, if you finish that sentence as a way to refer to any resident of Mount Solace, I¡¯m warning you, I will knock you senseless and chain you in the dungeon to ride out your withdrawal.¡±


    Weaseling away from me slightly, placing his hands up placatingly in front of him, Induul pretends to back down, ¡°Right, right, sorry, mighty Schism, oh great pinnacle of virtue. I¡¯ll head to the infirmary. I¡¯m sure something,¡± under his breath he adds, ¡°or someone,¡± before finishing, ¡°there will take the edge off.¡±


    Friggin¡¯ hell. I can sense exactly what he¡¯s planning due to his warped state of mind letting his emotions rest fully visibly across our mental wavelength. What the hell is the right thing to do here? He¡¯s out of his mind with desire to escape his symptoms. He¡¯s going to do unforgivable things if he¡¯s given an opportunity. I don¡¯t know if I could forgive myself if I let him go, knowing he¡¯s going to do them.


    This is so effed up. He¡¯s screwed up because Farzhee introduced him to something that¡¯s more addicting to Poisons, to Greens. Farzhee regrets the hell out of it, and cut him off, as part of her path towards attempting to redeem herself, but I¡¯m sure she¡¯d realize her hand in this if it turned out Induul did something awful after I ended up letting him go. Would she feel appropriately guilty? Would I want that for her, when she¡¯s struggling to be a better person already?


    I said only a short while ago that I¡¯m not going to hurt him to reduce this other pain he¡¯s suffering. We barely have any resources that could be brought to bear however. Chaining him up is quite literally one of the only things I can think of, except for possibly screwing around with magics that I don¡¯t understand. I¡¯d be attempting those magics in order to mess with biology that I also don¡¯t understand, in order to reduce chemical pollution of a piping substance that I also don¡¯t understand, within Induul¡¯s mind and body.


    Diving into a moment between moments, seeking the non, the absence of the flow of time, I try to puzzle out what I can do. I could, and should definitely inform the other members of the Order about Induul''s struggle and the danger he currently seems to pose. They could maybe help devise a plan to keep an eye on him. I need a safe environment for Indy where he can detox without harming anyone. The only secluded area with limited access to vulnerable individuals that I can think of is the prison, or my personal vault. I do not want someone riding out waves of withdrawal around a bunch of unidentified magical potions and artifacts. Who knows what harm he could accidentally do to himself, or others.


    I really wish magical cureall healers were a thing. I could benefit from even just knowing a skilled healer or mage who can handle addiction or mental health. Friggin¡¯ hell, I have no way to know if there are remedies, potions, or magical interventions that can help alleviate Induul''s symptoms and redirect his thoughts. I mean, I doubt it, magic has never been simply, ¡°Here, top off your hitpoints and wipe away all afflictions,¡± to my understanding.


    Gods, poor Indy needs a support system. Right now, all his friends are going through stages of grief and loss. Veril might be the only one that he knows that is in a state of mind to maybe look out for him, but he thinks of Veril almost as a joke, based on the emotional wavelengths I got from him. He feels snubbed by Farzhee, and in a way he is. The two definitely aren¡¯t right for meeting each other¡¯s needs right now though.


    Farzhis is suffering, and she regrets introducing Induul to the piping herb, but she¡¯s not emotionally well enough to provide the emotional support that Indy needs right now. Having companions who understand his struggle would be a huge boon, but I don¡¯t know if anyone does. Del seemed to have some knowledge, but she has a new son to look after, and I wouldn¡¯t want him subjected to Induul¡¯s condition or possible hostilities.


    I can try to tone down my own aggression towards Induul, expressing concern and emphasizing the need for him to control his own actions. Then again, I¡¯m me, and I so often end up having to resort to violence, or threat of it. Can I help him regain some control over his thoughts and behavior with words alone? Huff, probably not unless they¡¯re some really scary damned words.


    I don¡¯t have the capacity or energy to keep a close eye on Induul, particularly when he¡¯s vulnerable and aggressive like this. I¡¯m fairly sure I should be prepared to physically restrain him, which sucks. Is there anyone within Mount Solace that might have advice? Did Kinzul or Prinrin know that our previous ¡°The Blue¡± was being medicated for his pain by Farzhee providing piping herb? Well, maybe it¡¯s not even herb, if it¡¯s like, seared necromantic undead flesh grits or something. Friggin¡¯ heck, I wish someone could provide guidance on handling these sorts of things, but I literally don¡¯t even know what I¡¯m dealing with.


    I¡¯m pretty sure Kinzul expects me to be able to handle something like this on my own. Induul is a danger to himself and others in this state. He¡¯s agitated, looking for release and relief in any way possible. Preventing him from achieving that relief or release is going to be seen as personally hurting him, *at the very least* until he returns to his right mind. He might always bear the grudge though, because I don¡¯t know enough about his personality when not on the drug, or how the drug affects someone long term.


    Whatever the plan needs to end up being, I can¡¯t do it alone. Induul needs help, and I¡¯m just not enough to help him in the ways he needs right now, without sacrificing something of myself, in order to keep him from committing terrible acts that he might live to regret. Alright, return to the regular flow of time, and get Teuila, and maybe Kinzul to help. I hate that this is how it has to be. I wish I could do more for Induul, but it¡¯s probably going to devolve into violence.


    Returning to the flow of time, I reach out simultaneously to Teuila, and testingly towards Kinzul, ¡°Kinzul my love? Are you awake and in range? Induul is in a bad way. He¡¯s going to commit unforgivable acts if something isn¡¯t done to prevent him from seeking relief from his withdrawal symptoms. I don¡¯t know the compassionate thing to do to help him, while protecting everyone else, especially the vulnerable, from his current state of mind.¡±


    The sadness in the wavelength I receive from Kinzul speaks volumes that she¡¯d feared as much might be going on before she responds, ¡°I had hoped it might not come to such a conclusion. I of course knew that Farzhis provided her father the piping substance to dull his pains, and that she introduced it to Induul. I choose to not rule Mount Solace, or those within it, so I thought not to interfere, but this is most dire.¡±


    After a brief pause, Kinzul continues with a half-hearted suggestion, ¡°Induul¡¯s mother may be better suited to handling this situation, but I¡¯m loathe to send him back to Ka¡¯thuul, especially in this state. Ka¡¯thuul¡¯s ability to handle Induul¡¯s addiction is not even a guarantee however. She may simply do what I imagine you¡¯re planning to do, isolating him from everyone else. Or perhaps she has access to a supply of the drug, and would simply let him resume partaking. Beloved Schism, Reggie my love, I am weary. I must ask of you to deal with this as you see fit. Guiding and guarding Induul, subduing him, or sending him to his only other family.¡±


    Teuila¡¯s eyes are fairly wide at hearing Kinzul¡¯s statement through my internal mental narrative, and she¡¯s not any better equipped than I am to make a choice about how to handle Induul right now. This whole situation is pretty awful. I¡¯ll try my best though. It¡¯s not like I can just get Induul to eat some vegetables that magically remove withdrawal symptoms. I don¡¯t think any greens on any world would do that. Funnily enough, he¡¯s our, ¡°The Green,¡± and his mother is the one Green, or Poison, that I don¡¯t think any member of the Order should be around. Heck, it¡¯s almost ironic that I think of Ka¡¯thuul as toxic, and drugs as a kind of poison, with poor Indy suffering his way through this. I¡¯m distracting myself. I need to pay attention to reality, and handle this.

 B 6 C 93: Sacrificial Solution

    Cautiously, making sure to always place myself between Induul and the exit, or Induul and Zayzi, I state, ¡°Indy¡ªuul, I can¡¯t begin to understand how hard what you¡¯re going through must be for you. I¡¯m sure that somewhere inside, you don¡¯t want to do things that you¡¯d regret. I want to help you, but I¡¯m going to need your help in order to do so. I need you to drop the line of thought that your symptoms had been pushing. Do you understand me? What they were suggesting is unforgivable. The kind of thing I¡¯d exile or kill someone for committing. I¡ª. Sorry, I¡¯m not intending to scare you or control you. I want to help you. I know you can get through this, but I don¡¯t know what tools you need to make it to the other side. Please help me learn what you need, what you really, really need, to beat this thing. Please?¡±


    I can sense Induul plotting to dash past me as he hisses angrily in response to my attempt to connect with him. I can¡¯t let him roam about freely now, not with his mind locked on seeking relief in the way it is. Trying another tack, I ask, ¡°Can you tell me about your mother? Is Ka¡¯thuul your mother? She¡¯s our ally in the war, but that mostly simply seems to mean a non-aggression pact, and her maneuvering around, claiming some of the wealth we manage to liberate from Terrorzin¡¯s hordes. Does she have abilities, allies, powers, resources, that can help withdrawal and addiction symptoms?¡±


    Feeling Induul¡¯s thoughts sway somewhat, his lust dying down somewhat at being forced to think of his own mother, I¡¯d almost breathe a sigh of relief, but it¡¯s not enough. Induul relents somewhat in order to admit, ¡°I doubt she¡¯s got any resources we don¡¯t, it¡¯s possible she has piping herb, but more likely she¡¯d just lock me up, or feed me to one of her lieutenants. Her follower¡¯s ¡®loyalty¡¯ is bought in meat and gems, displease her, and all you are is meat in her eyes.¡±


    There¡¯s a long pause where no words are exchanged as I try to figure out how to respond to that. Teuila glances nervously between the two of us, ready to intervene, but I try to guide her towards a calmer state telepathically. Zayzi seems uncaring about the danger they¡¯re in, unfazed by Induul¡¯s crazy-eyed glare. Sadly, Induul¡¯s darker thoughts creep to the fore again.


    Gnawing my lip, I offer, "Induul, I can see you''re struggling with the withdrawal, but I''m concerned about the way you¡¯re thinking about the people around you. We need to find a way to prevent you from acting on things you¡¯ll regret later."


    Induul smirks, his voice tinged with defiance, "Schism, I don''t care to even try to control this line of thought. I won¡¯t regret getting relief from the cravings. The pipe¡¯s all I can think about right now except maybe a substitute, and honestly, I don''t give a damn if I do something messed up."


    Struggling to suppress a growl, I bite down harder on my lip as I retort, "Induul, we care about you, and we won¡¯t stand by. We want to help you break free from the addiction to come out on the other side as unscathed as possible. You will regret acting on cravings. Trust me."


    Crossing his arms, Induul scoffs, "Well see, that''s your problem right there. Schism, I don''t want your help. I don''t want to break free. I just want some relief, some pipe, or some pipe, if you catch my drift."


    Taking a deep breath, trying to maintain composure, I respond, "I get that you might feel that way now, but this addiction is messing with your head. It''s taking away your inhibitions, inhibitions that are a good thing like your moral compass."


    Induul rolls his eyes, his voice filled with sarcasm, "Oh, spare me the lecture, oh great valorous Schism. You don''t understand what it''s like. The pipe is all I have."


    Heaving a sigh for a moment, I continue on to state more resolutely, "I may not understand fully, Induul, but I do know that you''re worth more than this. We won''t give up on you, even if you''re giving up on yourself."


    With a defiant tone, and hardened face, Induul snaps, "Save your breath, Schism. I won''t change my mind. I''ll do what I want. I¡¯ll find relief, I swear it."


    With a firm voice, shaking my head, I deny Induul, "We need to keep everyone, you included, safe. Even if it means intervening forcefully."


    Smirking, a glint of rebellion in his eyes, Indy snickers, "Good luck with that. You won''t stop me. You¡¯re too afraid of tarnishing your high and mighty image."


    At that, I actually burst out laughing, causing Induul to flinch and eye me with a strange curiosity. Me? Concerned with image? Hah! I forgot what I looked like for months at a time. I¡¯ve gone through such few periods in my life where there were even other people around, that I¡¯m more used to assuming what others might think of me, and assuming it¡¯s the worst case scenario in any event. Plus, I literally just bullied some poor young woman to the point of tears this morning. I¡¯m far from having a spotless image in anyone¡¯s eyes.


    Sighing, I rely on my usual tactic in order to keep the peace, violence, or threat of it, ¡°Indy. I learned how to summon meteorites today. Not as large or as devastating as the full on meteor spell, but they pack a hell of a punch. I can also manifest elementals on a whim at this point, without even using my staff. I¡¯d be more than happy to demonstrate what it¡¯s like to be buried up to your neck in stone, if that¡¯s what it takes to help you through this. Is that what it¡¯s going to take?¡±


    Thankfully, Induul balks. His mind races for a few moments, trying to calculate the odds that I¡¯d actually conjure a stone elemental to drag him into the rock of some cavern wall or floor. I can tell he¡¯s also trying to determine if he¡¯s strong enough to break free of such a prison without leverage, or if he could safely shapeshift around his own head. Sighing, I continue shaking my head at Induul¡¯s thoughts as they race for a while longer yet. Eventually, his thoughts center on me, and what he remembers about my power, durability, strength, and the rumors he¡¯s heard along the halls today. Funnily enough, there¡¯s a spark of enjoyment that Induul gets as he continuously imagines me to be scarier and scarier. Some tiny bit of dopamine or whatever neurochemical that happens to be responsible for pleasure in dragon brains comes in bits and pulses to Induul. It isn¡¯t enough to replace the cravings, but it gives me hope.


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    Gnawing on his own inner cheek, Induul requests, ¡°You¡¯re serious about wanting to help, right? You want me to get through this, without smoking pipe or laying it, yeah? Stick with me, stay up with me. Withdrawal gives me insomnia, can¡¯t sleep, even if I could somehow sleep, the cravings would taint it, sour it, give me nightmares and make the cravings and lethargy worse the next day.¡±


    Well crap. I¡¯m certainly not going to deny Induul the help he needs, when he can specifically request something that¡¯s reasonable. I don¡¯t personally do very well on a lack of sleep myself though. My own emotional turbulences and mental health issues tend to amplify the longer I¡¯m awake. Plus, I¡¯d been hoping to comfort Iylynila, Prinrin, and Farzhis tonight, but I don¡¯t want to risk dozing off with Induul unable to sleep as he stands nearby. Oh well, as much as I desire certain comforts, I¡¯ll take this on for Induul.


    Going sleepless is a small sacrifice, though it could have larger, unintended consequences. For example, if my tiredness gets someone else hurt or killed, I¡¯d regret having chosen this route of addressing the challenge Induul faces in coping with his withdrawal. Hopefully we have some time between offensives. Doing one assault with two nights of sleeplessness won¡¯t be utterly impossible.


    After attacking one fortress, and recovering from that one while not having slept, doing any further assaults afterwards could be disastrous. I make mistakes, get sloppy, and am all around not great for combat after being awake for more than two days. In the beaver dam tunnel complex, that¡¯s part of what cost Sylphie her life. Hell, I¡¯d actually gotten a few hours of sleep here and there during times when I was knocked unconscious, or rendered thusly by one thing or another.


    Hoping that I¡¯m not committing to sacrificing someone else¡¯s life for my choice, nodding in response, I offer up, ¡°Yes, correct, and yeah I do. Sure, I¡¯ll do that for you. I guess since you¡¯re already here, we can teach you to make the sweet dumpling things. Is that okay Zayzi?¡±


    A dragon of few words as ever, Xayla¡¯s response is a simple, ¡°Sure.¡±


    Phew, with that, I blow a sigh of relief through pursed lips and puffed cheeks. Tension in the room seems to fade, as Induul¡¯s mind remains fixated on the idea of me being frighteningly powerful. It¡¯s odd, but I think the anxiety, or fear of me, is somehow enjoyable for Induul. There¡¯s some sort of masochistic trait, or something similar, embedded somewhere in Induul, where fear equals pleasure in some small way. I guess it¡¯s a harmless enough thing to provide some mild relief from the cravings.


    Turning towards Teuila, I begin to rest my head against her shoulder, then lift my face to nuzzle her cheek momentarily. Before I even think of doing so, Xayla quickly orders, ¡°No kissing.¡±


    Blinking a bit in surprise, I guess I hadn¡¯t expected Xayla¡¯s order to extend between Teuila and myself. I¡¯d just thought they meant to not kiss them. Blushing and shrugging, I apologize telepathically to Teuila who playfully pouts my way before flashing me a grin and a wink. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s so understanding. Trying to help her tame her ocean of emotions while keeping an eye on Induul, and making sweet-dough with Zayzi is a challenge, but it reminds me how close we are. The fact that Teuila lets me see this part of her mindscape, that she admits these things to me that she¡¯s so scared to release, it¡¯s a testament to how deep our connection really is.


    I mean, Te is just amazing on so many levels, but the things she¡¯s struggling with right now are deep scars upon her soul. They¡¯re volcanic fissures at the very bottom of her ocean of emotions. Teuila deeply regrets hurting me, the few times she¡¯s done something that she realized had hurt me, which I struggle to absolve her of. Addressing that seems easier than addressing the deaths of the kobolds, but even that isn¡¯t going to be solved in a single evening.


    Te and I? We both want to be inseparable, to never be apart. We¡¯re in love, and we¡¯re both as strong as we¡¯ve ever been, so we have a chance right now, to believe that we¡¯ve got time to work through these things. We¡¯re choosing to grasp that chance, to believe we¡¯ll have time together, that we¡¯ll get through all this, and that there will be time after all the apocalypses are done with. This affords us the opportunity to be patient with ourselves, and with each other, when things are tough, as they are right now, emotionally.


    Whispering to Teuila privately, psychically, I mutter, ¡°I love you Teuila Shellcracker. Thank you for being patient with me, and kind with me, for all of our lives together, through both of them. Thank you for staying with me, for loving me, for protecting me, for saving me, for guiding me, for sharing with me, for being excited about me, for me, and with me. I need you to know how much I value you, how deeply in love with you I am and always will be.¡±


    With her avatar blushing in our shared mindscape, Teuila fidgets under such an intense direct admission. Hearing her fidgeting appear in my mental narrative causes Te to grumble, ¡°Stupid emotions, stuff, nice, perfect words and stuff. Wish I could give you the words you deserve Air, my Airhead, my Reggie. I l¡ª. You know I do. I do. Forever and deep and everything too. I¡¯m sorry. Sorry for the times I hurt you, and sorry for not being able to say things all the time, or like, almost at all,¡± she pauses to sniffle several times before finishing, ¡°but really all that same stuff to you. You¡¯ve always been those things, done those things too. Just, just keep being you, please, no matter what the crazy ladies in the mist say. Stupid sexy Sisters.¡±


    I¡¯m deeply touched by Teuila¡¯s words right up until the end there. I can¡¯t help chuckling, which becomes giggling across our mental wavelength with my right brow raised dubiously. I know Teuila¡¯s talking about the Sisters Hidden in the Mist, but this¡ª. Putting up all my walls for a second, I contemplate the phrasing. I think there¡¯s something a bit significant about it, but I can¡¯t recall quite what it is. Wait, Lu told me to stop thinking of her and Te as sisters, right? Ah, no wonder she had me drop this line of thinking, and asked me to forget the conversation ever happened. She¡¯d been worried about stuff coming across like this. Makes sense that Lu wouldn¡¯t want to accidentally make Te think she thought about her in that way. That could get awkward before being cleared up.


    Resuming being open across my psychic wavelengths, my telepathic avatar flashes a smile towards Teuila. While Te and I are having our little mental moment, Zayzi seems to *almost* bond with Induul, over the cooking process, helping keep his mind occupied. The five of us, Lucky included, sit in the larder for several hours, just chatting inanely, though Teuila and Induul do most of the talking. It¡¯s around midnight, perhaps one in the morning when Zayzi yawns and rubs their eyes sleepily. They wander off towards their dormitory with barely a parting statement about being sleepy.


    Zayzi literally just states, ¡°Sleepy,¡± before walking away.


    Induul looses a wry chuckle before scratching the back of his head. Teuila is beginning to nod off on my shoulder repeatedly, but Indy shows no sign of being remotely near capable of falling asleep. That spells pretty bad news for me, but at least I can keep Teuila levitating nearby as she passes out. I¡¯m probably going to have to have Induul shadow me for at least half a week to a week to ride out the worst of his cravings. I¡¯m guessing he¡¯s not going to sleep a wink that entire time. That, unfortunately, means I won¡¯t either. I guess I¡¯ll be sacrificing sleep to help keep Induul on a path he won¡¯t regret.

 B 6 C 94: Morning Musings

    With Te snoozing as she floats next to me, I glance at Induul. He shrugs as he itches his left arm with the knuckles on his right hand. I¡¯ve seen him doing that off and on for hours now. I suppose it¡¯s better than using his rather sharp-seeming nails, since his arm would be bloody by now with all the scratching he¡¯s been doing. I have no idea how to keep the guy company and keep his mind occupied for a solid week straight with no sleep.


    Figuring it¡¯s best to accomplish something, I invite Indy along as I float Teuila and myself down towards Mount Verdimenn. I¡¯ll take a look over some of the things therein, but I¡¯m already so sleepy that I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be making any in-depth analyses of the various runes. I just have to sincerely hope that Induul passes out at some point before the twenty-sixth when I need to assault Vorzog¡¯s keep, so that I can get a nap, and be prepared for it. Perhaps to also leave him behind while I take it down.


    Induul hooks his thumbs in his belt, and rocks back and forth. His cravings and agitation leave him performing all manner of odd antisocial motions. Many of them are similar to signs of introvertedness, an odd thing to display for the cocky, self-assured, social-power-dynamic-ploying Indy. Others though are clear displays of the withdrawal symptoms as I know them from my Fakeworld databank of memories. Hm, speaking of Fakeworld.


    I withdraw the smartphone, and I stare down at it, teary-eyed. This thing breaks me emotionally in a lot of ways. I don¡¯t understand it. Computers and electronics and all of that stuff was just supposed to be some bug in the system of our world, of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It shouldn¡¯t be real, it can¡¯t be real, but I¡¯m holding a smartphone, one I even recognize the approximate year of its release. Induul asks what I¡¯m looking up and what¡¯s got me looking so distraught, but I can¡¯t really explain to him how I¡¯m feeling about this object.


    It¡¯s powerful, in a lot of ways. I¡¯m like some sort of modern Yankee in some king¡¯s court. If I weren¡¯t already fairly decent with arithmetic, its calculation powers alone would be astounding. Even without a network to connect to, its ability to capture pictures, and take notes, they¡¯re just, it just doesn¡¯t make sense. It¡¯s like a dozen magical artifacts stuffed into a barely larger than palm-sized quarter-inch thin slate. Hell, it can record, and has a directional microphone, so it could possibly be used for snooping and spying if I were so inclined.


    Shaking my head at Induul¡¯s question of, ¡°What¡¯s eating you about that thing?¡± I¡¯m still at a loss for words.


    I just bonded, wed, got married to an ancient, nearly divine being, the eldest living dragon on Rayileklia. Rayileklia¡¯s a world that seems to be approximately equivalent to perhaps Fakeworld¡¯s fourteenth or fifteenth century, with the dwarves being ahead in craftsmanship and inventiveness in the way of arms and weapons by nearly a century or more. I should find a way to get word to the Derbrightmine Dominion that we¡¯re fighting back, that we can avenge Don and Paulette, or perhaps even rescue them from their icy entombment if they aren¡¯t dead within its enchanted prison.


    The idea of contacting them leaves me musing about what they¡¯d think about me reaching out to them. The dwarves wouldn¡¯t be people that I¡¯d want to put on the front lines of a war where so many of the forces are capable of scorching the lands for vast distances. Still, if I could have them and the Aasimovian refugees work together, it¡¯d be a great boon for all involved. The Aasimovians should definitely dig in, with the kobolds, in the ruins of Jeegoobotstan.


    Hell, has it really only been about a month since we parted ways with Tiktik and the refugees? It feels like a lifetime since our¡ª. Blinking back tears, I find myself hoping beyond hope that this war doesn¡¯t reach them, that Tiktik doesn¡¯t have to fight to protect the refugees, that the hares, the refugees, the kobolds, and the few remaining Plains Colossi are all able to make it through this unscathed.


    Indy frowns at my wordlessness, since he needs me to distract him from his cravings, so I try to make small talk, something I¡¯m notoriously bad at, ¡°I ah, haven¡¯t been alive all that long on this world, or on the world I¡¯m from either, for that matter. What about you Indy? How many seasons have you seen come and pass?¡±


    Scoffing and rolling his eyes, Induul grumps, ¡°First, don¡¯t call me that. Second, do you have any idea how hard it is to gauge the passage of time when you live inside a mountain on a world where a storm literally never ends? You¡¯re horrible at this Schism.¡±


    Blushing and casting my gaze aside, I nod as I mutter, ¡°I know, it¡¯s something I try to avoid. Talking to anyone that isn¡¯t in my inner circle.¡±


    Grumpily, Indy pries, ¡°Yeah, I noticed that with you and the scrawny Red. She, well, they,¡± he pauses for the briefest of moment to mutter, ¡°sorry I guess,¡± before continuing, ¡°seemed even worse than you, and that¡¯s saying a lot. Single syllable sentences whenever possible, no concept of personal space, eye contact was completely random. You at least have some social graces.¡±


    Frowning, now grumpy myself, defensively-for-Xayla, I deride Induul, ¡°Zazie, erm, Xayla is going through some pretty rough stuff. I don¡¯t know what they were like before they were traumatized, but it¡¯s not really fair to criticize them for how they¡¯re coping, or not coping. Y¡¯know, pot and kettle and all.¡±


    Somewhat stricken, though perhaps mostly humorously-so, Indy mutters, ¡°Touche Schism, touche.¡±


    Returning to blushing, I scratch the back of my head as I try to steer the conversation towards less hurtful topics, ¡°An¡ª, anyway, um. Yes, you¡¯re right, I¡¯m horrible at speaking to others. I do have some small sense of what it might be like to live on this world, having been living here all of this particular life, however short that may have been. I was just curious if¡ª. It doesn¡¯t matter. Anyway, we¡¯re almost to Mount Verdimenn. You think you can handle being around a bunch of volatile, uncategorized magical artifacts and equipment?¡±


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Scoffing barely half a laugh, Indy¡¯s response is as expected, ¡°What, you think I¡¯ll smoke or snort the first thing I get my hands on?¡±


    I can¡¯t help laughing a bit at that myself, not having meant it that way. I figure I¡¯d better smooth things over, ¡°Not exactly what I meant. You¡¯re a bit erratic, emotionally and physically, I don¡¯t want you bumping into something that turns you into a potted plant or something.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow in suspicion, Induul calls me on my response, ¡°You¡¯re bluffing. There couldn¡¯t be anything like that in your hoard. Could there?¡±


    Shrugging, I half chuckle, hoping that Induul is at least slightly mollified for the moment. I sigh and rest my head wearily against Teuila¡¯s floating form as I try not to lament how I¡¯m not spending my night in bed with those that I love the most, after such an eventful day. As far as I know, it might just be Kinzul, Farzhis, and Prinrin in bed together right now. Teuila¡¯s here with me, Lil was trying to confess his feelings to Ixeyla, and Luni was going to coach him on that.


    Sighing deeply yet again, I notice a scroll case and a note leaned up against my vault door when we finally arrive at the rear of our Mount Verdimenn projects. Hm, apparently Atter had either been by, or had someone drop this off for her. Let¡¯s see what it says.


    ¡°Schism, Reggie, friend, hero, whatever the hell I should call you,


    Thanks for loaning us this, for saving us, for saving them, for introducing me to that right nice Boetah fellow, for everything really. Conjugation will take a couple of weeks with a clutch this size, and I¡¯ll be spending that in Boetah¡¯s quarters, but if there¡¯s anything I can do at all, anything you need to talk to me about, about my kinsmen, or anything, please stop by.


    Humbly yours,


    Loud¡±


    Huh, I thought conjugation was some sort of euphemism for a sex-practice. I mean, I guess it could still be. I wasn¡¯t exactly sure how conjugation took viable eggs from just viable eggs to a fertilized state though. I raise my eyebrows as a mumble, ¡°Conjugation can take a couple of weeks? That uh, seems odd.¡±


    Rolling his eyes, Indy queries, ¡°What¡¯s odd about it? Most will take in only a single egg at a time to soak, and generally let it remain for about a day for the best chances. Even if someone¡¯s fairly sure some of the eggs are past the viable stage, most can¡¯t help trying anyway.¡±


    Take a single egg to soak? That ¡ª. Oh. OH! Jeeze. No wonder Shiz was uncomfortable talking about the specifics around me. Yeesh. I hadn¡¯t thought about how exactly they get fertilized. I know the eggs, once fertile, are supposed to be in a warm sandy environment, a hatching-grounds, until they hatch. Before that though? Yeah, I guess it makes sense that they need to, erm, fertilize in¡ª. I¡¯m going to stop thinking about this.


    The whelps, the little dragonlings, are a mixture of infants in the way that humanoids would think of them, and progeny of an animal species. That is, that they are somewhat capable of actions like walking or gliding or chewing or even belching flame or other elements, almost immediately after hatching.


    So the egg-layer, or someone, has to, erm, keep each egg in a sort of a bath of¡ª. This topic is just too awkward. I guess I now also understand sort of why the rumors are that Terrorzin has breeding queens that he forces to take in the eggs, somewhat literally. Dragons do temporarily take an egg back into themselves to, erm, conjugate. Jeeze. I wonder if it¡¯s the same for clutching-capable Draconiacs. Musing to myself, I suppose there¡¯s one person I could ask about the topic. That¡¯d be Ahliyui, but that seems like asking for trouble in a lot of ways that I don¡¯t need.


    I wouldn¡¯t want Yui thinking I¡¯m coming on to her, or trying to mate with her. Not that she¡¯s not an absolutely lovely lady. Also it¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t already sort of let myself romantically entangle with a Draconiac. One absolutely, utterly gorgeous, smooth-scaled, supple, slate-gray Draconiac who often wears tight-fitted leathers and¡ª. Erm, I¡¯m sidetracking myself. What was I trying to think about?


    Oh, right, reasons approaching Ahliyui about the specifics of clutching in Draconiacs would be bad. Plus, with all the propaganda, she might not even know or be a hundred percent certain exactly what the process should be like. Draconiacs aren¡¯t supposed to be able to clutch at all any more. Or conjugate, or something along those lines anyway. Anyway, I don¡¯t want her feeling like her captor is trying to get her to um, clutch for us or conjugate with her or anything repulsive like that. The power dynamic just makes any sort of mating between us just utterly awful. Erm, not that I think we¡¯re going to mate, or would have had any reason to, or that I would have had any of her interest whatsoever. Friggin¡¯ hell Reggie. Just shut up.


    I facepalm, which earns me a raised eyebrow from Induul, and my steaming face probably tells him enough about where my mind is at to cement my embarrassment. Hell, with the topic I¡¯d just been asking about, unintentionally at least, he¡¯s probably got a pretty accurate guess, though less likely who my mind had accidentally wandered towards. My squirrelly, circuitous mind. Why did it even start to think about Yui in that way anyway? Oh! Right! Because Prinrin exposed a secret, that she¡¯s capable of clutching, and has already done so once, and may be about to lay another clutch. She might be the only living Draconiac capable of doing so in Mount Solace. Maybe. It¡¯s not like I¡¯ve met every single one of them.


    I mean, I suppose I could try to meet everyone in Mount Solace, if I¡¯m supposed to represent them all. Yeah, that¡¯d go over great, ¡°So, Hero, why are you meeting with everyone in Mount Solace?¡± ¡°Oh you know, so that I can ask each of you if you¡¯re capable of mating, and what that process is like for you.¡± Brain. Mhm? Shut up. Heh.


    Rolling my eyes at myself, I shake my head at my own brain before glancing towards Induul and offering a half-hearted shrug. Packing up my portable hole, I realize I should probably get a change of clothing, and do something about the¡ª. Why didn¡¯t I just prestidigitatively clean the clothing? I facepalm once again. I mastered the spell so that¡ª. Oh, right, I wasn¡¯t sure how many S P I was going to need during the evening for things that I wanted to try. It¡¯d have been frivolous to expend them on something I could do with a few seconds in a wash basin.


    Induul simply shakes his head at me after clucking his tongue, realizing just how airheaded I am, even without listening to my internal monologue. The fact that I obviously have my own mental struggles with constant realizations that are facepalm-worthy probably spell out plenty about my character for him. Not that we haven¡¯t already had several hours of joking at my expense, with him and Teuila doing most of the chatting earlier.


    Right, anyway, let¡¯s see what we can do here while we¡¯re stuck being awake anyway, shall we?

 B 6 C 95: Building Exhaustion

    In this state of exhaustion, the answer is not much. I fish out some parchment, and an infinite-ink self-writing quill for at least one task though. I instruct the quill to begin taking down notes of the alchemical composition of the few potions I¡¯d been able to figure out through my myconid form¡¯s hivemind from disassembling them within the orb-time. I wonder if there¡¯s any advantages I can build for us from using alchemical knowledge gained in the myconid form.


    Thinking about alchemy and chemical breakdowns, I find myself thinking of acid and acid specialists. That leads to me thinking about Jazharn. She¡¯s the one true human in our family. At least, that I know of, or recall offhand. I mean, she¡¯s technically not exactly in our family yet, but she¡¯s dating one of the cat tribe, a tribe that we subsumed into the Shellcracker clan. I know it was going extremely well, because they were working at inventing an entire language together to bridge the communication barrier between humans and critterkin. Well, that and because they spent plenty of time together and Dreams of Days had never looked happier.


    Wait, our cat tribe family members. The one dating Jazharn, Dreams was her name, right? Hell it feels like so long since we¡¯ve seen them, I can barely remember their faces or names. I begin to weep at the idea of losing memories that are so precious to me as my family on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Induul grimaces at my show of vulnerability, since he needs me to appear fearsome and frightening for him, to keep his mind off of his cravings. Sighing heavily, I stuff my emotions down deeply into a box to unpack later when I¡¯m not ¡°on the clock,¡± as it were.


    Wait, losing precious memories, gaining memories that push out older ones, something was doing that one time. Crap, that¡¯s probably one of those lines of thought that I can¡¯t chase without Lu. Friggin¡¯ hell. Stupid mysterious memory crap. I find myself growling in frustration, which thankfully zeroes out Induul¡¯s mood, returning his grimace to neutral as he remembers how volatile I am. It reminds him that my emotional displays are as likely to turn into wrath as anything else. I really want to physically vent my frustrations on something, hurt something right now. The idea that I might be losing the memories that I hold dear from my life, my real life, my first life, on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, it breaks my heart, and tears painfully into me.


    Grr, I need to not think that way either though. I¡¯ve forged real memories here on Rayileklia. These people are just as real, just as full of hope and fear and love and anguish. I, I just don¡¯t want to lose anything. I guess I¡¯m selfish that way. I don¡¯t want to give up any of what I have, and anything else that I stumble into, or gain, I want to keep. Doesn¡¯t everyone though? At least, in terms of connections, friendships, loves, the safety of their family, and the like? I don¡¯t even know any more. Heaving another sigh I slam my fist into the ultra-dense stone wall and grunt in pain as I bruise my knuckles.


    I punch the wall again, and again, and again, as my anger rises at the thought of losing my dearest memories, at Rayileklia taking them from me somehow, at not understanding how or why my memories are broken and buggy and dangerous. Somehow, somehow I think it has to do with the Celestial Emperor. My anger spirals as I think about the things he¡¯s done that I know about, or that I¡¯ve conjectured about.


    It feels wrong, but I have people in the world that I definitely want to kill. Killing should be wrong, is wrong, but Terrorzin? The Celestial Emperor? They have to go. They don¡¯t get more chances. They¡¯ve had time and made choices that subjugated and caused suffering. They¡¯ve stolen souls, literally. That isn¡¯t some sort of slap on the wrist and talk down to them kind of offense. That¡¯s a keep them from ever being able to harm another soul ever again kind of offense.


    I know, I know. Who am I to play judge, jury, and executioner? Who the hell else is going to do it? What court would reign over such a trial that would even be safe from the tyranny and power of such heinous evils? I want to be a moral, just, kind, and good person. I truly do. My hands and soul are sullied though. I don¡¯t know if they¡¯ll ever be clean. I think back to the fear I saw in those eyes, the last psion standing that had been attempting to subvert Fenric¡¯s will. That salmon-colored Draconiac was almost assuredly begging for mercy nonverbally, and I slew her. I struck her down. Or maybe I threw her to Salamanderian. It doesn¡¯t really matter which hand carried the knife as it were. Either way her life ended at my behest.


    I vomit against the wall that I¡¯d been striking, feeling sick at the taking of a life that I may have been able to offer mercy to in other circumstances. Induul flinches, and his muscles clench in a semi-fearful reaction. I see his stomach lurch in response to my sickness, so he turns away and takes several strides towards the vault door where he doesn¡¯t have to witness my continued retching. I took lives, I slew people. I took lives, and will have to keep taking lives. It¡¯s all I can think about now. The only punishments I get are the ones I deliver against my own mind, or my body here literally being sick with disgust at my actions.


    I don¡¯t want to be that person. I don¡¯t want to be judge, jury, and executioner. I don¡¯t want there to be war, and strife. Still, I suppose it¡¯s necessary, because I definitely don¡¯t want to see children, or clutched eggs, stolen from people. I definitely don¡¯t want to see the light of the whole world snuffed out after being razed to ash and cinders. As sick as it makes me to be backed into a corner where taking lives seems like the only option, it really is something that I have to do. My stomach heaves and I dry-retch one last time. I know it¡¯s a bit overkill, but I snag my elemental bandolier and toss a fire-enhanced knife at the pool of sick in the corner. The heat of the explosion washes clean the stone, leaving nothing but a dark char where the vomit once was.


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    Induul jumps in surprise at the sudden rush of heat and the fwooshing sound of the flame. Trying to get my mind back to focusing on helping him, I joke, ¡°Had to clean up after myself, figured a fireball was the quickest way to do it.¡±


    Blinking several times, Induul shakes his head incredulously, muttering, ¡°Sure, a Red, I get maybe being lazy and cooking away some mess, but you¡¯ve got limits on your powers, right?¡±


    Shrugging, I respond, ¡°Sure, but I don¡¯t leave for the Vorzog keep or whatever it¡¯s called until about twenty four to thirty hours from now, the knife¡¯s power will have returned by then.¡±


    Rolling his eyes, Indy scoffs, ¡°Right, right, so why not toss fireballs around just because you can?¡±


    Despite not actually feeling that way, I chuckle and nod in agreement, ¡°Exactly.¡±


    I¡¯m putting on a facade for him, and he knows it, but somehow it comforts him nonetheless. Regardless? Nonetheless, regardless, whatever. Sifting through my private hoard, I look around for perhaps another box of the runic clip trinkets that attach into the bangles. I don¡¯t want Induul touching anything in his current state, or I¡¯d ask him to help out by being a second pair of eyes.


    My own eyes are itchy from having cried and then dried in the heat of the flames. I really need to distract myself from the anger that¡¯s building back up again. Our situation, this world, the horrible things that happen, and the horrible people behind them, and possibly losing my memories, and being a murderer, and, and just so much more. I¡¯m getting intrusive thoughts like thinking the only way to quiet my brain about obsessing on these topics would be to stab it with something. That would be pretty bad Reggie. Yeah, I know. Urgh, split psyche stuff, talking to myself in my head.


    More like just talking things out. Cut yourself a little slack and give yourself a break mentally. Intrusive thoughts are intrusive, they¡¯re not what you want to do, or are going to do. Talking through things in your head, even if you address yourself, is a perfectly valid way to handle coming to conclusions. Is it though? Yes. How would you, or I, know that though? Well, think of some psych one oh one stuff, or some psych two oh one stuff. If you wanted to be a therapist for someone, based on what you know from those courses, how would you handle talking someone through this scenario? Hm, true.


    Wait. How the everloving eff would I know the course material for psych one oh one or psych two oh one? That¡¯s Fakeworld contemporary college curriculum. Gods what the hell is even going on with these buggy-ass memories of mine? I slam my head into the wall a bit too hard, trying to dislodge the thoughts, and mostly succeed, though I nearly black out for my effort. Ow. Despite having slammed the top of my forehead into the wall, it¡¯s the sides of my cranium above and near my temples that throbs in pain.


    Induul seems at a loss for words, which is probably for the best, as he sees me massaging the sides of my skull. I shake my head at him, having no rational explanation for my actions. Trying to explain the rabbit-hole that is my brain would take¡ª. Well, then again, I do need to keep him occupied, and distracted. Talking things out might help me figure some things out about myself, even if I¡¯m just using Indy as a sounding board.


    I start covering some of my mental state to Induul, and apparently something about either my words, my delivery, my voice, or something else that I couldn¡¯t even guess, keeps him mostly captivated. That¡¯s a stroke of luck on my part, since I¡¯m only staying awake to try to help him get past his initial cravings. He isn¡¯t exactly sympathizing or empathizing with me, but he¡¯s drawn into the tale of the inanity that is learning about the inner workings of my brain.


    Explaining the hows and the whys of my best guesses as to my neurological states are, well, just guesses on my part. I¡¯m not trying to diagnose myself in any fashion, though it¡¯s pretty obvious to anyone that I suffer from my traumas. The rest of it though? The depressive spells? The intrusive thoughts? The thinking in circles? The fixations and inability to control my focus? I can only begin to take stabs in the dark at those. There¡¯s no telling how much of my neurological state is due to my Changeling Fae nature, the mana corruption sickness, just being a spellcaster and using magic, or from forcing my way through magic, occasionally literally breaking parts of my brain.


    Induul happens to find it amusing when he learns that I¡¯ve literally destroyed portions of my brain, paying the price for my hubris at times. I¡¯m certainly far less amused at having lost what could have played vital roles in pivotal moments of this war. I can¡¯t say I exactly regret doing it. I wouldn¡¯t have survived trying to buy Autumn Brook nearly as much time without sacrificing that part of my brain to call upon the backup that I did. Mana constructs simply weren¡¯t meant to be utilized at those levels in that abundance though, simultaneously, for that length of time. Any one of those rules being broken could have destroyed me, but I broke all of them, and somehow managed to luck out into only losing my ability to ever break those rules again.


    Sighing, I shake my head at myself, lamenting that even my good luck carries weight and responsibility and loss. Lives rested on those choices that I made, and more lives rest on the me that exists after the consequences of them. Everything I do has consequences reaching far farther than I could ever have imagined. Well, that¡¯s sort of a lie, I can imagine quite far. Ridiculously so. I simply mean that I hadn¡¯t contemplated just what sorts of consequences I might be dealing with down the road, when I¡¯d been making certain choices.


    I¡¯m getting nothing done other than burning time with Induul. I so badly just want to close my eyes and cuddle Teuila, or float myself up to Kinzul¡¯s den to spend the night with the rest of my loved ones, my family, hell, my wife. Crap on a cracker that will never not be weird. I still think of myself as an aro ace. I mean, me doing things outside the normal bounds of the spectrum doesn¡¯t invalidate my identity, but it¡¯s still weird. Hell, it¡¯s three thirty in the morning. I¡¯m going to be so friggin¡¯ exhausted by noon, let alone by the time I need to assault Vorzog¡¯s keep tomorrow.

 B 6 C 96: Twins Arent All Morning People

    Since I¡¯m getting dizzy from staying awake so long after a rough day, I figure I¡¯d better eat. Being awake longer takes more calories after all, even if I have been eating giant dragon hearts recently, for some reason I¡¯m operating as if I¡¯ve barely been having a bowl of stew here or there each day. Speaking of stew, hopefully eating can keep Induul¡¯s mind occupied for a while so that I don¡¯t have to. I¡¯m running out of things to say to him. Or rather, I¡¯m stumbling towards incoherent thoughts that would be of no use in trying to keep him distracted from his cravings. I guess I¡¯ll go make a giant pot of stew, and leave it simmering so that it¡¯s ready for those that wake up over the next few hours. Fifty odd gallons of stew or so, over a semi-magical flame, in some sort of legendary artifact cauldron. Yep, absolutely normal way to prepare a midnight snack. Snirk. Heh.


    Hell, "The Four." Am I really the wielder of "The Four"? I mean, I have them, and several are soulbound to Shellcrackers. Is it really me though? The prophecy talked about some sort of true king business, and I hate the idea of royalty. Plus, I¡¯m not exactly ¡°descended from royalty,¡± or any nonsense like that. Though maybe it¡¯s more about power in titling rather than any sort of monarchy business. I mean, Vylon and Vyela are titled Queens, granting them some semblance of mastery of movement in Mount Solace. What the hell would the power of a king be?


    They¡¯re free to move in multiple directions, but limited in the distance traveled, without sacrificing other¡ª. Heh. Wow. Yeah, that does sound sort of familiar now doesn¡¯t it? Reggie Shellcracker, able to make lateral strides, but to travel fast or far, I had to combine abilities, or get help from other players, pieces, people. Trying to be speedy always came at a cost. Sort of like castling in chess. With the aid of a rook, I can cover half of a board, sure. I don¡¯t exactly instantly sacrifice the rook, the power, the friend, whatever helped me achieve speeds, but it tends to take something out of one of the two of us.


    Anyway, that¡¯s tangential. I don¡¯t like monarchy nonsense, but it¡¯s not like anyone¡¯s going to suddenly recognize me as ruler of a region or something. I¡¯d shun the opportunity if given one, and tell the people to govern themselves. Hell, I¡¯ve already done exactly that out on the plains west of Autumn Brook. Sort of anyway. It¡¯s not exactly the same, since that was a regrettable patented Reggie Shellcracker Accidental Assassination Mission, patent pending. Heh. Oy vey, I¡¯m loopy and I¡¯ve only been up about twenty two hours so far. It¡¯s only going to get worse from here on out.


    I can see why Induul would normally be good at his little social dynamic power plays. He¡¯s fairly charming, aside from the occasional angry aside due to his cravings. We while away the time as best we can, each of us getting slightly more irritable and tired by the hour. I¡¯m getting to the point where if I keep forcing myself to be awake without even a nap, I¡¯d snap at anyone who even mildly upset me. Not the worst price to pay to keep someone occupied from their cravings, but it¡¯s a price that will mostly come from those around me. Huff. I don¡¯t like mistreating people. I really, truly don¡¯t. I hate bullying people, snapping at people, abusing or misusing people or their trust.


    As I¡¯m finding it harder and harder to keep Indy¡¯s brain occupied, his behavior is getting more erratic. Disconcertingly, he mumbles, ¡°There¡¯s one escape. Maybe. Not sure I could do it.¡±


    I¡¯m about to address the elephant in the room, when suddenly, Induul comments, ¡°Need something fresher for breakfast. Going for a hunt. Should keep me occupied for a couple of hours without needing a supervisor Schism. Thanks for taking my mind off things for a while. See you in a few.¡±


    With that, Induul begins marching away. Phew, I can get a nap in. I¡¯m not sure I like the idea of him going off by himself especially after what he just said, but I don¡¯t know him well enough to know how much of a danger to himself he is right now. We did learn a bit about each other over the course of the night, but he seems fine, almost amiable, aside from the spurts of ire. I mean, okay, that¡¯s sort of a lie, he doesn¡¯t seem fine at all, because he¡¯s suffering, and the symptoms are more and more apparent. What I meant was more along the lines of his emotional state doesn¡¯t seem to be heading towards self destruction at the moment.


    Is there someone I could get to tail Induul? What could someone even do if he was really determined? They¡¯d need to be an archmage to be able to safely protect him from himself, and I¡¯m the only one the Order has. Ugh. Do I betray his trust, possibly sabotaging my attempts to keep him safe in the long run, to make sure he doesn¡¯t hurt himself in the short term? Plus, I¡¯d be doing it without even a nap. Huff, grr. No, I can¡¯t risk it. I¡¯ve been given an opportunity to catch some sleep that I sorely need in order to keep myself as close to my best as possible for assaulting Vorzog¡¯s keep tomorrow.


    Friggin¡¯ hell, dang it all Indy. This wasn¡¯t part of the plan. Wait. Yui and Yuri are essentially archmages. They¡¯re Draconiacs, so they¡¯d go unnoticed if Indy has his dragonforce senses open. Hm. I feel awkward asking them for a favor right now, but awkward is better than failing to save someone. Off to the prison in the wee hours of the morn¡¯ it is. I close up my vault, having accomplished basically nothing of note in it over the last few hours, and TK Surf my way towards the prison.


    Unsurprisingly, Yui is up, going over her equipment, working an enchantment to repair the dents in the armor, and polishing various inlaid runework. Of course, she¡¯s doing it in naught more than a loincloth, because reptiles don¡¯t need the same modesty as most mammalian humanoids. She¡¯s an absolutely gorgeous teal Draconiac, the firmness of her muscles evident even beneath her scales. I try not to glance at her pectoral ridge, and fail. It¡¯s pert to say the least. Rattling my skull, I roll my eyes at myself. I never fixated on crap like this before Mount Solace and the whammy. I¡¯m going to be stuck second guessing myself forever whenever I notice someone¡¯s physical appearance.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Noticing me rattling my skull in the prison entryway, Yui comments without looking my way, ¡°Morn¡¯ Hero. Got a battle you want me to fight already?¡±


    Blinking, a bit stunned, I try to¡ª, ah, right. We bonded in a hivemind, she intimately knows my thought processes, and why I¡¯d be visiting. Chagrined, blushing, I mutter, ¡°Something of the sort, a favor. Our, ¡®The Green,¡¯ Induul, is, well, going through withdrawals of a piping substance, and it¡¯s pretty bad. His head has been in some less than good places over the last night, and he went out for an early morning hunt just now. I¡¯m not sure how good you are at tracking and spying on some¡ª.¡±


    Yui stands up quickly, causing me to cut myself off mid-sentence. She marches into one of the cell¡¯s with its door open, and unceremoniously kicks her brother¡¯s ass, literally. He snorts and grumbles, swatting at her, and she blows a raspberry before commenting, ¡°Up brother. Schism¡¯s got a job you¡¯re better suited for. Sneaky stuff. I¡¯ll tail in case you need backup.¡±


    Continuing to feel a might surprised, and stunned, I try not to chuckle at the simultaneous demonstrations of sibling love and rivalry. Figuring I¡¯d better clear the air, I comment, ¡°I just want to make sure that he¡¯s safe, and doesn¡¯t do something that¡¯ll hurt himself, or that he¡¯ll regret later. I don¡¯t know how confident you two are about¡ª.¡±


    Yui turns to face me, grinning like a lunatic. I¡¯m about to plead that she not go for the kill, when she assures me, ¡°Relax Schism, under the Ice of Rage¡¯s banner, what do you think we got the most practice fighting? Subduing is just as important as the kill. Erm, was. I suppose it¡¯s more important now, with a leader like you.¡±


    Grumbling, I mumble, ¡°I¡¯m not a lea¡ª.¡±


    Scoffing, still grinning, Yui laughs as she cuts me off, ¡°Take it how you will. We pledged ourselves to *you* for your feelings on family. If the Order is one big happy family, then of course we¡¯ll look out for one of our new brothers. Get it?¡±


    My words get stuck in my throat as I literally choke on the sentiment. My eyes water as I nod lamely at Yui. Wow. I really lucked out offering mercy during the Spellknight fight. Hellspit and Fel Fires, I try not to sob as I inhale a ragged breath while my lower jaw quivers. Great, I¡¯m over-emotional probably from the lack of sleep. Maybe. I¡¯d probably be teary eyed at the sentiment regardless though. Ugh, I hate having reasons to second guess myself, moreso when I¡¯m loopy like this.


    Yui begins donning her armor, and motions as if to dismiss or shoo me away. I¡¯d find it rude normally, but it is a bit time sensitive if they are to catch up to a dragon. Speaking of, I hear her comment, ¡°Get your nose out for poisons, we¡¯re tracking ¡®The Green,¡¯ hurry up lazybones. How does that perception misdirection spell work again? Umbral shadow shady sneaky something. Can you teach me on the fly?¡±


    Her brother groans from inside the cell as he starts to rouse himself. He nonchalantly waves my way with his eyes still closed as he staggers towards his own armor. Yuri mutters something in that alien brain-melting hiss that the various dragonkind use, so I figure I¡¯m probably not needed here any longer. It seems they¡¯ve the situation well in-hand. Hopefully. Ahliyui didn¡¯t look happy at the response Ahliyuri had given her, but she¡¯s not motioning for me to stay or asking any questions about the situation, so I¡¯ll leave them to it.


    Floating my way back up Mount Solace I check the walls of my psychic network, finding a number of them lazily half-up, unmaintained due to my unrested state. Thankfully it doesn¡¯t seem like there are any recipients awake to bother hearing my overtired brain.


    In a lighthearted, loving cadence, Luni sends telepathically, ¡°Au contraire mon fr¨¨re. Come rescue me, please?¡±


    My eyes flash wide as I drop from my TK Surfboard to sprint in the vague direction I get of Luni¡¯s whereabouts. She tries to quell my fear by adding, ¡°It¡¯s not urgent sweetie, just awkward, sorry, I just wanted to see you. Didn¡¯t mean to spook you.¡±


    Huffing, I roll my eyes slightly. I¡¯m not annoyed at Lu, but I am a bit tired of my own overreactions to things in my current state. When I arrive at what must be the twin Fires¡¯ dorms, I find an odd sight. Rubbing my eyes to make sure I get the details correct, I cast a glance over Luni and her current predicament.


    I think that that¡¯s Ixey¡¯s hand, firmly grasping her¡ª. I mean, it must be, it¡¯s an arm belonging to whomever is on the other side of Lil, partially spooning him. Zayzi is halfway down the bed in an awkward pile of limbs, wrapped mostly tightly around Ixey¡¯s hips and waist, keeping everyone else distant, and keeping Ixey from being able to spoon Lil entirely. Lil seems to be doing his best to keep Luni and Ixeyla close while still asleep, snoring on his back. Of course, everyone other than Luni is topless. Lu smiles helplessly my way as she tries to pry Ixeyla¡¯s hand free from her breast.


    I¡¯d facepalm, or avert my gaze, but at this point, I¡¯m too tired to care about walking in on the immodest scene. It seems Lil¡¯s confession was successful, that¡¯s for sure. I can¡¯t help snorting a quarter chuckle as I shake my head incredulously at my too-obvious observation. Rolling my eyes at myself, I attempt to use my telekinesis to help Lu extricate herself from the fondling hand of the sleeping Ixey.


    Lu grumbles telepathically, ¡°It¡¯d be one thing if we were flirting and she was awake and did it, but she flopped her arm over in her sleep, and just grabbed and held on for dear life. My titty is sore. Thanks for coming to my rescue my Hero. I suppose you want to go get some sleep with Kinzul, Prinny, and Farzee. Mind if I tag along?¡±


    I blush at Luni¡¯s mention of her sore bodypart, as I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever heard her call it that before. As she finishes with a question, I half pout at Lu as I query mentally, ¡°Why the heck would I mind Lu? I love you you goof, of course I don¡¯t mind. Ugh, I want your snuggles so friggin¡¯ bad. My night was bluh. Yours seems to have been eventful though. Thought you said you weren¡¯t going on their date?¡±


    Lu titters nervously across our mental wavelength before she sticks her tongue out at me. Thinking better on it, she answers, ¡°I wasn¡¯t, and didn¡¯t. Lil just was nervous, and I knew I wasn¡¯t going to get your snuggles, so, well, yeah.¡±

 B 6 C 97: From Lil To Lu To Ill To Luck

    Snorting half a laugh at Lu¡¯s assertion that she didn¡¯t go on Lil¡¯s date, I shake my head incredulously as my smile reaches my ears. If ending up in the same bed, and being fondled by one of the daters, doesn¡¯t count as going on the date with someone, I don¡¯t know what does. Still, I don¡¯t want to make her uncomfortable if she doesn¡¯t want to think of it that way, so I¡¯ll drop it. I sigh wistfully for a moment as I gaze into Luni¡¯s eyes. I¡¯ve missed her so much over the last few months. I haven¡¯t given her nearly as much time as I¡¯d wanted to once we reunited.


    Smirking as she reads my thoughts, Luni grumps, ¡°Haven¡¯t given me nearly as much as I wanted either buster. Nyeh. Still, your telekinesis must be getting really powerful, huh?¡±


    Raising an eyebrow, I¡¯m about to query why Lu thinks that, when she responds, ¡°Did you even remember you have Te floating behind you?¡±


    I can¡¯t help snorting a full laugh while shaking my head further in disbelief at Luni. Despite me having set my telekinesis into a bit of an automatic slide, of course I knew Te was still there. I just didn¡¯t want to wake her. She¡¯s tuckered out. Plus, like me, she¡¯ll be assaulting a keep in about twenty five to thirty hours or so. There¡¯s a bit of a stupid grin plastered on my face as I continue to shake my head at Lu while chuckling. I flick my head in the direction of Kinzul¡¯s den, and Luni smiles brightly before glomming onto my left arm and nuzzling my shoulder.


    As we¡¯re headed to Kinzul¡¯s den, I receive telepathically, ¡°Hey Shism, um, Reggie, could you put your walls up for a second?¡±


    Iylynila sounds rough, so I acquiesce to her request and respond, ¡°Sure Illy, what¡¯s up?¡±


    There¡¯s a long sigh across our telepathic bond, and the silly grin Lu inspired leaves my face. That¡¯s the kind of sigh when you¡¯re about to have a talk you don¡¯t want to have to have. Unfortunately, my read of the situation is correct.


    Illy confirms my suspicion, ¡°Yeah, if I sound rough, I feel rougher. There¡¯s just, there¡¯s just so much. There¡¯s so much going on, and, and it doesn¡¯t even make sense. Prinny¡¯s my oldest, best friend, you know that. She¡¯s mother¡¯s best friend too, hell, she¡¯s probably the best friend of half the people that know her. Y¡¯know, she married The Blue when mother announced we¡¯d be reforming the Dormir, and that I¡¯d be one of the members with Farzhis. My Dormies are the new crew in a sense, despite some of us being as old as almost any other Solace resident. I¡¯m just¡ª. I don¡¯t even know.¡±


    Before I can try to console Iylynila, she continues, ¡°Well, no, I sort of do. That¡¯s the problem. One of them. We¡¯re at war, and I¡¯m spun up tighter than a spring around you. Edgy, antsy, needy. It¡¯s no good. We¡¯re already down one Dormie with Indy having to kick his habit right as everything kicks off. Possibly two if Farzhis is as wrecked by her father¡¯s passing as she seemed. Schism, the Vivant, the freakin¡¯ Vivant, head crew of the Order nearly died today, well, yesterday I guess. Prinny most close amongst them. Not just the Vivant, but Mother, Sun, and Muse. I¡ª.¡±


    I loose a long sigh of my own, seeing where this might be headed that she wanted to do it private telepathically with me. I remain silent though so that Illy can continue her train of thought unhindered by the weight of my emotions. Lu gazes at me with a sad half-frown as I pause our approach to Kinzul¡¯s den. She knows Illy asked me to put my walls up, so she can probably guess as much as I¡¯ve put together too.


    Almost falteringly, Illy further states, ¡°I¡¯m sure you can guess why I¡¯ve been up all night, and why I¡¯m glad I can talk to you in private right now, before everything. It¡¯s, it¡¯s really not you. I¡¯m head over heels for you, really I am. Between you marrying Mother, and us being at war, and me having silly flights of fancy from my romance books, it¡¯s just really the wrong time for there to be an ¡®us.¡¯ Y¡¯know? Don¡¯t think I don¡¯t still love your stupid goofy gremliny crimson-smurf-ass ass. I do. I really do. I just, I think it¡¯s probably best if we both keep our walls up around each other until we¡¯re at a better place in the war, maybe the end of it. If¡ª. If one of us doesn¡¯t make it, I¡ª.¡±


    My eyes wet with tears as I hear Illy choke on her words as she sobs telepathically, and physically only a room away. As I¡¯m choking on my own emotions right now, it takes me too long to formulate a comforting reply, so Iylynila adds, ¡°I don¡¯t want either of us going with a regret, but I¡¯d rather both of us make it through this, than trying to chase whatever it was we have. Had, I guess. If we make it through this, I expect your gremlin crimson-smurf-ass ass to chase me down and remind me why I let my guard down around you in the first place. Please. So, so just win this thing for us. Alright? Win it all, and come home safe.¡±


    Before I can respond at all, Illy puts up a full barrier telepathically. I can still send messages to her, but the signal is clear, we¡¯re done talking, and she doesn¡¯t want me to psychically intrude into her thoughts any more. I squeeze my eyes tightly several times as I blink away tears, and flex a jaw that I hadn¡¯t realized I was clenching. Letting down my walls, except for Illy¡¯s as she¡¯d requested, I slump against Luni, unsure if I¡¯ll be able to get any sleep after all.


    Thankfully, aloud, Illy grumbles in a hoarse-whisper, ¡°I can hear you two shuffling out there, get in here you goons, but be quiet about it.¡±


    When I enter the room, I see Kinzul in a miniature version of her dragon form, one wing holding close Prinny and Farzhi both in their dragon forms. Prinny is similarly gripping her daughter-in-law close with her own wing protectively. Illy¡¯s sitting nearby, reclined at an uncomfortable-looking angle on a sofa, with her left hand over her brow, rubbing her temples.


    Unsure how close Illy wants to allow me to be right now, I set Teuila telekinetically down next to her on the sofa, curled in on herself as she¡¯d been in my TK grip. Lu and I take a different sofa, and I blush as she murmurs contentedly in my arms while laying atop me. I don¡¯t want it to look like I¡¯m trying to rub my affectionate nature in Illy¡¯s face. Maybe I should just go looking for Induul after all.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Aloud, Luni mumbles grumbling, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare. S¡¯my turn for snuggles.¡±


    It earns her more of my blushing, but at least I can tell that Illy heard it, so she knows I¡¯m at least¡ª. Well, I guess she doesn¡¯t know, but she should be able to assume that I¡¯m doing this because I love Lu, not because I want to hurt her. Also because I am so freaking tired.


    As I feel the incredible sensation of the gentle rhythmic rise and fall of Lu¡¯s breast against my chest signifying that she¡¯s already fallen asleep atop me, I hear Illy whisper, ¡°Schism, you still awake?¡±


    Opening one eye towards her, I nod while raising that same eyebrow. She gets the signal, and begins to quietly relate, ¡°Just, erm, just wanted to remind you, that, that y¡¯know. I care. I still want to get back to our verbal sparring and sneaking time in cozy places and, and all that. Just, just after. I, hell, frickin¡¯ hell. Prinny¡¯s hubby passing was an awful reminder that all of my blood ¡®n¡¯ brood are gone, the last one slain in battle on the wrong side. Obviously Mother excepting. I was just starting to clear my head about all that sort of thanks in part to your weird mushroom-brain linking.¡±


    At that, I flash a furtive smile towards Illy, glad that the side effect of the mind-linking was helpful to her. She smiles back warmly, with eyes shining and wet. A tear leaves down her left cheek, signaling the start of a cascade, but she quickly blinks back the rest and rubs her eyes dry. She leaves her hand perched on her brow again, and rubs her temples. I feel my own eyes wet with the jumble of emotions I¡¯m trying to sort through about all of this, but I can tell Illy isn¡¯t done speaking, so I simply blink away the shadows of my sadness for the nonce. I¡¯d facepalm at myself for waxing poetic, but Lu¡¯s in the way, very much overtly resting in a position such that I couldn¡¯t slip away without waking her if I¡¯d gotten the notion.


    I crack half a smile at the thought that Luni decided to go for extreme affection to guarantee she got me for longer than a few minutes. The half that¡¯s hidden under her face, so as not to appear smiling at Illy¡¯s lamentation. After a pause, and a sigh, she continues, ¡°Farzhis and I aren¡¯t great friends or anything, but I still always cared about her. She¡¯s one of my Dormies and all. Plus, I don¡¯t know what you did, but she¡¯s been going through something, changing recently. It¡¯s like overnight a switch was flipped and she was a whole new dragon. Mostly. She¡¯s trying to be at least. Or was. I don¡¯t know how this will affect that. This whole thing between her and Indy is messed up, and maybe I should have done something about it before the war really started. It¡¯s too late now. F@&*.¡±


    Despite her voice being as low and quiet as can be, the expletive manages to mildly startle me. I¡¯ve avoided them for so much of my lives, even trying to not think them, that I forget that other people use them more regularly out loud. After swearing, Illy drops her hand from her brow and I get a clear look at how the tiredness and sadness have worn down her visage. She¡¯s still a picture of beauty, but she looks rough, weary.


    Seeing my gaze take her in, Iylynila turns her own gaze away quickly, lest our eyes should lock. I almost let myself loose half a chuckle at the slight overreaction, almost. I understand she¡¯s trying to keep herself from having to deal with being smitten during the war. Hell, I have to do the same thing with Errissa technically. Those alluring silver shimmering orbs of hers¡ª. Huff, oy vey. See what I mean? Yeah me, I see what I mean, y¡¯doofus. Sometimes buddy, sometimes I swear you can just be such a boneheaded goober. Erm, yeah, true. Why am I telling myself this right now? To that I have no answer.


    Luni begins to drool into my clavicle as her lips clamp down on my collarbone, leading to me meeping quietly in surprise. Marshmallow dreams, of course she¡¯d have them the first time we really get to cuddle asleep comfortably together, just us, in ages. I want to let myself just enjoy the oddly intimate affection, but I¡¯m still trying to be here and awake for Illy.


    My once-and-future paramour, gosh that sounds so pretentious, finally asks, ¡°What about you Schism? Your day¡¯s been the same wild ride mine has, a bit more from what I hear. How are you handling it all? Where is your brain that you can just curl up with one of your too-cute girlfriends? I could feel the hurt and confusion in you before I put my walls up, so come on, be honest. I¡ª,¡° she pauses before hesitantly finishing, ¡°still care, like I said.¡±


    How do I sum it all up? Trying to lay it out for Illy succinctly, I quietly begin, ¡°You¡¯re right. I hurt for those that have loved and lost, or lost loved ones already. I hurt because I worried about almost this exact thing happening between us, when I asked repeatedly if you were sure. I¡¯m not blaming you about that. I just want you to know that it wasn¡¯t entirely unexpected, so you haven¡¯t blindsided me or anything like that. I still love you and I can heed your wishes easily enough. I¡¯m fairly confident I¡¯m coming out the other side of this war, somehow, so you¡¯d better do the same. I¡¯m not sure why I¡¯m so confident, seeing what we¡¯re up against. Maybe it¡¯s this strange semi-immortality of having been a soul, then a lifeform, then dying and being resurrected on another world. Maybe I¡¯ll get lucky and be reborn here again before it¡¯s over and help finish the job, if I do die. Or I¡¯ll be reborn on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and see my family again.¡±


    At that, my eyes swell puffily, and a migraine-like pressure builds above them as the tears begin to fall. I mutter, ¡°Lao, Agwai, Sugar, Spice, the Mana twins, the cat tribe, even Dream¡¯s girlfriend Jazharn, I miss them all so much. I don¡¯t know for sure if I¡¯ll ever make it back to them. I have some leads, and some hope, that somehow my nature as a brute-force sorcerer will let me learn the right magics to make my way home. One really big spell, powerful as hell, takes a ton of runes to master, and then has strangely specific requirements. It could maybe do the trick. But yeah, losing people today hurt. Innocent kobold kinsmen of Loud that I never knew. Heccinkethmorn, Shapuackurt, Lilmbrayur, three volunteers that I only overheard the names of. The previous The Blue.¡±


    Pausing, I try to let it sink in that I am affected by what¡¯s going on. Sighing, I continue, hoping to clarify, ¡°Nearly losing Prinny scared me out of my mind to the point that I had to break magical rules and bend reality and artifacts and forms and minds to my will to accomplish what I did. Whatever happens though, I don¡¯t get to grieve until it¡¯s all over. It¡¯s not fair, but I have to just keep moving forward. Cuddling up with one of my gals is one of the only things keeping me sane through that push. If I¡¯m the supposed knife-edge of the Order, Te and Lu and Lil are the handle that keeps me pointing the right direction safely, sanely. Even my son Hunter, Lucky, to some degree.¡±


    Speaking of Lucky¡ª.

 B 6 C 98: Finally, Some Sleep

    My son whuffs grumpily, quietly from beside the sofa Luni and I are resting on. He can¡¯t hide the wag of his tail though, or his giddy thoughts of, ¡°Parent and other parent together, parent and other parent! Best smell, parents together!¡±


    I smile as I try not to chuckle at Lucky¡¯s expense. I don¡¯t know how to be a better parent for him. I don¡¯t know if just having him near, following along as I take care of other things counts as spending time with him. I don¡¯t know how much of a normal ¡°person¡± life his sapience confers to him. He¡¯s wildly intelligent for someone we¡¯d expected to be simply an animal protector, but as instead a family member, he¡¯s more similar to, well, a child.


    I mean, even Kinzul in some way knows how special Lucky is, she Titled and Aliased him. What does one do with a supremely powerful childlike being that¡¯s meant to be the protector of a loved one? Lucky seems to love being able to work with us, to use his talents and skills, to save and protect others. He¡¯s not just a good boy in the dog or hound sense, he¡¯s a good person overall as well. I love him beyond the ways I¡¯ve ever taken time to describe. Even the parts of him¡ª.


    I choke on the sentiment as I recall Lucky¡¯s exact makeup. An egg from the first creature I ever met on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, one that tried to kill me. If I think about it just like that, and don¡¯t think any further about the surrounding event, it¡¯s emotional, but it isn¡¯t trauma-panic-attack inducing. A part of Lucky, no, two parts of Lucky tried to kill me. His cragbeast hound side as well, since that was another egg we used and combined and fused in our weird magical creation of him.


    Somehow, a vast portion of my corrupted power from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas lies within Lucky. Lil¡¯s and Te¡¯s powers dwell there as well. Yet he thinks of me and Lu as his primary parents. We were the ones conscious when the effort came to fruition I suppose. The two actively acting to ensure that his egg safely came into being. That¡¯s about as close to mating as two Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin can get. I blush heatedly beneath Luni as the idea of mating with her or copulating in some way to create a life floods my mind. Hell¡¯s bells this is an inappropriate time for this line of thought, with her gorgeous, ample form resting atop me, and its various softnesses squishing against me in a heavenly fashion. Well, moreso because Illy and I are still sort of in the middle of a breakup conversation. Even if it might be temporary.


    I still have so much more to say to Iylynila, but I can¡¯t really formulate all of it, so I mumble, ¡°There¡¯s, well, you¡¯re right. There¡¯s so much going on, and so much at stake. People we love, we may see die, or they might not come home one time when they leave. The thought shakes me to my core and fills my eyes with tears. I¡¯m absolutely smitten by you Illy, so don¡¯t think I¡¯m just immediately over what we have, or had, either. I just want you to know that you aren¡¯t causing me great harm, or locking my mind into something distracting that could get me killed. I also don¡¯t want either of us to go with regrets, but like you, I¡¯d prefer we both come out the other side of this thing, and tackle any strong emotions afterwards. Really. Please. Please make it through this. I¡ª.¡±


    I can¡¯t finish making my ask as my eyes well with tears. I hear Illy sniffle as she nods, knowing what I mean. I press my tear-wet cheeks into Lu¡¯s, somewhat cheekily using her face to dry mine, since she¡¯s using my clavicle as a pool. I wear a quarter of a wry smirk at the idea of there being enough drool on me to swim in. The thought is as ridiculous as so many others that cross my mind, but at least it¡¯s distractingly amusing, almost humorous even.


    Erm, Lu *is* asleep, right? What¡¯s she doing with my hand? I¡ª. I guess she¡¯s used to having a hand there from the last few hours in bed, so she could be guiding my hand subconsciously, maybe. I squint at Luni from beneath her, but she makes no obvious signs that she¡¯s awake or doing this consciously. Illy and I both steam with blush at the impression that the current position of my right hand gives off. I flash an apologetic, semi-nervous grimace towards Illy, but she simply averts her gaze while blushing, instead of meeting mine.


    I huff quietly towards myself. More bad timing. Or at least awkward timing. It¡¯s exceedingly inappropriate to be fondling someone else, or anyone really, in the middle of a breakup discussion. I could swear I feel Luni¡¯s lips curl into a smile, or mischievous grin. I squint once more at her, but the even rhythm of the rise and fall of her chest pressing her breast into both my chest and my hand never falters. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m mad at her, or like I wouldn¡¯t want to do this at some point. I¡¯m just feeling awkward since I¡¯m trying to have a heart-to-heart with Illy.


    As I¡¯m about to try to verbally apologize, Iylynila coughs quietly and interrupts me, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Rej¡ª Schism. I get it. Your gals are adorable, and I don¡¯t own you or your hands or whatever. No no, don¡¯t worry, I know it wasn¡¯t on purpose, I saw Muse there moving your hand. I¡¯d be more suspicious of her motives if I thought she was awake. We never really bonded or got to know each other though. She mostly kept to herself when she wasn¡¯t at Sun¡¯s side. She¡¯s kind of a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma to me.¡±


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Passing a breath blown out through puffed cheeks I accidentally agree, ¡°You and me both Illy, you and me both. Lu works in mysterious ways, and I¡¯m not just talking about how someone might misinterpret the romantic emotions of others. She¡¯s¡ª. She¡¯s special in ways I can¡¯t describe. You were in the hivemind. How much did you explore about our relationships? It¡¯s okay to admit, or to not want to say. I know you enjoy the thrill of learning about other, well, romances and stuff.¡±


    Illy blushes once again before grumbling, ¡°Ugh, you¡¯ve got me pegged. I hate it. Not really, but really. Ugh, stupid gremlin crimson smurf-ass ass. Yeah, you got me, I kinda let myself soak in it, marinate in the shroom brain thing, especially reveling in your tasty little dramas. Hell, I think I¡¯m *more* in lo¡ª. Damn it all. You know just the right buttons to push, you know that? Now I¡¯m regretting th¡ª. Ugh, jerk. Screw you Schism. I love you you ass. Get some sleep. Stupid smurf. Uggggghhh. Better come back alive and let me¡ª. Grr, just, shut up. I love you you ass.¡±


    I don¡¯t get a word in edgewise before Illy gets up and stalks off while grumbling backhanded compliments about me. That was not exactly the end of the conversation that I expected, or intended to bring about. I can¡¯t chase after her to apologize or anything either. I sigh softly as I let my tensed muscles relax. This causes my head to droop lazily to one side, suddenly meeting both the gaze, and lips, of Luni. The utter sneak!


    Before I can ask how much she was conscious for, around our mouthfuls of each other¡¯s lips, our drawn-out kiss, Lu telepathically sends, ¡°Illy got loud and woke me up just now. Why am I a sneak?¡±


    Oh, that makes sense. I blush at having been suspicious of Lu, wonderful, innocent, sometimes-scheming Lu. I let my brain think towards where she guided my hand, and she murmurs in pleasure before meeping in surprise and embarrassment when she realizes exactly what she did. I can sense Luni wanting to facepalm as the heat rises between our faces. The embarrassment of her reaction spells out as plain as day how subconscious the guidance was. I can¡¯t help smiling and shaking my head ever so slightly, just barely rolling my mostly-lidded eyes as we continue to kiss for a long while yet.


    Since she¡¯s awake, and conscious of it now, I begin to retract my hand, but Luni pouts at me while tugging lightly at my wrist indicating¡ª. Well, alright Lu. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s unpleasant. Hell, it¡¯s quite the opposite. It¡¯s friggin¡¯ heavenly. I do squint slightly at her though.


    I tease, ¡°I thought you said it was sore?¡±


    Pouting, and blushing, Lu mumbles, ¡°You¡¯re gentle though. Ixey was squeezing the life out of it.¡±


    I snirk at the exaggeration, but I can¡¯t fault Luni for it. If somebody were gripping a part of me too long and too hard, I¡¯d¡ª. Luni bursts out laughing telepathically at my thought train. I roll my eyes at the juvenile humor but can¡¯t help loosing a half chuckle along with Luni. I love this woman to the ends of time and back. I haven¡¯t really portrayed that through my words or actions though.


    I¡¯m struck with a mournful longing, a sadness that sweeps over me as I admit, ¡°Lu, Luni Shellcracker. I love you so very dearly. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m so, so, so sorry for what I¡¯ve done to you. What I put on you. What I put you through. I can¡¯t¡ª.¡±


    She shuts up my apology and admittance with her lips in a ferociously passionate manner. I¡¯m only mildly startled, but I melt into the kiss, sinking into the depths of her on an almost spiritual level. I blush when I realize how much Lucky¡¯s tail is wagging as he senses our passion from less than a meter away.


    Luni rolls her eyes and chides teasingly, ¡°Just had to go and spoil it, didn¡¯t ya? Thinking about our kid. Booger.¡±


    I snort as I jibe, ¡°The way you were acting Lu, it¡¯s like you wanted to make another.¡±


    Whoops. That might have been too far. We both steam as our faces redden beyond crimson. My beloved Anchor pouts and grumps. Before I can warn her though, she attempts to hide her face by burying it in my clavicle. She suddenly pulls away with an, ¡°Ewww, slimy.¡±


    I bite back my laugh and clench my lips tight to not smile at Lu¡¯s misfortune as I mutter, ¡°Hey, it¡¯s your drool missy.¡±


    My cuddlesome love sticks her tongue out at me before teasing, ¡°Gross, why would you let me drool on you so much?¡±


    Smirking, I respond, ¡°As if I had any choice with how you positioned yourself atop me.¡±


    Speaking of positioning herself atop me, Lu shuffles slightly, but drags my hand along with her, causing me to bang my elbow into one of the sofa¡¯s hard supports. I grunt and bite my lips trying to keep from making any further noise about the sharp, short, ulnar pain. Lu wears an apologetic grimace mixed with a nervous smile, but I just flash a smile her way, not blaming her at all for banging my elbow.


    From the couch where Illy had been sitting, Teuila mutters grumpily, quite sleepily, across our telepathic wavelength, ¡°Keep it down you two, if you¡¯re going to be banging, do it in another room.¡±


    Luni and I both fight our fit of the giggles in response to Te¡¯s implication, mine more nervous, while Lu¡¯s seems jovial at the prospect. Te is right though, we should probably only be speaking telepathically since Kinzul, Prinny, Farzhis, and Te are trying to sleep. Plus, I¡¯m not long for the waking world anyway, exhaustion is catching up with me.


    Luni pouts and mutters, ¡°I¡¯ve only had you for a couple of minutes, and you¡¯re already dozing off?¡±


    Flashing Lu an incredulous glance, I shake my head while trying not to laugh or roll my eyes as I respond, ¡°Uh, pot, meet kettle? You passed out atop me first.¡±


    My Anchor chuckles and mumbles, ¡°Oh, right. Whoops.¡±


    I barely manage to suppress my snorted laugh, nearly coughing and sputtering for my effort. Lu fights herself to loose her Shellcracker Family Squee only across our telepathic wavelength, instead of out loud. I¡¯m so glad to be able to share joy with her, even over silly things like teasing each other about who is more tired. Smiling, I nuzzle my left cheek against Luni¡¯s, while my nose nestles against her ear, breathing lightly along its outer ridges. Contentedly, I let myself drift to sleep as Luni shifts herself, dragging my arms about her in a love-embrace.

 B 6 C 99: Please

    Across the over one hundred days I¡¯ve been alive on Rayileklia, far too few of them have included waking up with Luni in my arms. Though waking up with Kinzul staring down lovingly at the two of us is a bit surprising. Gods every woman in this room is incredibly beautiful. Holy hell. I¡¯m stunned as I gaze at the vision of radiance smiling down towards me.


    Prinny chuckles telepathically from the seat she¡¯s taken between Teuila and Farzhis on the sofa across from us. She seems to be enjoying herself, keeping her stepdaughter close, and Teuila closer. There¡¯s only a hint of the lingering sadness eating away at her that plays across our telepathic wavelength. My smile droops wearily, sadly as my eyes wet, thinking about how much the two of them, mother and daughter-in-law, are hurting. Farzhis appears to be nursing a hangover as she strokes her temples. Moreover, her clothes have morphed into probably the most modest thing I¡¯ve ever seen her wear, essentially a sweater and long woolen skirt. That¡¯s not to say the sweater doesn¡¯t accentuate her amazing curves, but I¡¯m still proud of her for not feeling the need to leverage her appearance around us.


    Gazing longingly at Prinrin, I don¡¯t know how to approach her any longer. We¡¯ve shared so much of ourselves with each other, but I don¡¯t want to intrude on her grief or grieving process. I¡¯ve seen her near death on several occasions, and I fear losing her, as she¡¯s the smallest, most frequently targeted member of our most aggressive advance force. Teuila nods somberly my way, riding my mental wavelength, reading my thoughts. She has no advice to offer on the matter, but she sympathizes.


    Thankfully, The Copper, Prinrin herself, has some thoughts, ¡°Oh pay it no mind Schism sweetie, you wouldn¡¯t be intruding at all dear. You¡¯re quite welcome to come and go as you see fit in my little life, quite welcome indeed. I¡¯d prefer the coming rather than the going though Schism sweetie if you catch my drift,¡± she pauses for the briefest of moments, virtually winking across our mental wavelength, letting the obvious innuendo sink in before continuing, ¡°I¡¯m at a loss how to feel about the loss of my sweet lad. I knew it was coming, but so soon is such a shock, it barely feels real. You made an apt comparison, apt indeed, when you noticed how instantly his light was snuffed, like a candle upon leaving a room. He must have been preparing himself for it, without wanting to worry me, for such a long time dear. To go out with such a smile on his face, and such joy in his eyes, oh it burdens this little runt¡¯s heart so with joy and sorrow.¡±


    I bite back my own mixed emotions, and my chiding I¡¯d have given Prinrin for that little innuendo in the middle there. She knows it¡¯s not biologically possible for me. She knows quite well. Still, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t want to share intimacy with her, or like I haven¡¯t already. She beams a smile my way that masks the pain beneath, and I flash her a sad smile in return. She is such a beautiful soul, an utter treasure of a person. If I weren¡¯t under Luni, hemmed in by Kinzul, and beaten to the punch by Farzhis and Teuila, I¡¯d have zipped to her side to offer her physical comfort as soon as I¡¯d awoken.


    Teuila smirks and sends a wink my way. I try not to roll my eyes, as she¡¯s intentionally acting a bit like Linti, in a rather silly fashion. She¡¯s offering comfort and consolation though rather than trying to steal love as it were. I wonder if Te still thinks she has a shot with Farzhis, and if she¡¯d want to build that into something of a loving, supportive relationship, or if that was just an off-the-cuff comment when she was being rambunctiously sexy as Illy put it. Speaking of, I¡¯m saddened that she didn¡¯t spend the night with her mother, or, well, me of course.


    Lucky whuffs sleepily from beside us, and Kinzul leans down to lovingly caress his skull. Bleary-eyed, I rub the sleep away with my free hand, one that I¡¯d surreptitiously removed from where Lu had placed it, when I realized I¡¯d awoken under a number of gazes. My other hand is trapped entwined with hers along her belly. Awaking like this is of course wonderful in so many ways.


    I haven¡¯t had a single private moment yet with my wife, but I also cherish every second with each of these people beloved to me. I try to disguise my sigh at this thought as a morning yawn, knowing I¡¯d only gotten a few hours of sleep.


    Telepathically, Kinzul teases, ¡°I fear we won¡¯t have much time for any private moments, however you¡¯re imagining to spend them my love.¡±


    My face reddens hot enough to bind matter at the molecular level. Every single woman in my life¡ª! Before I can try to respond, smirking across her telepathic wavelength, Kinzul explains, ¡°I¡¯m also in fear that we shan¡¯t hear back from Spymaster until late tomorrow at the very earliest, if she is even able to send word back along her subordinate line from on-site at the location of the disturbance in the Worldstorm. I worry that I¡¯ve placed her in the way of great harm, but she knows and accepts the risks. Still, to be sent so deeply into Terrorzin¡¯s lands, so early in the war¡ª,¡± Kinzul sighs deeply, pausing, trying to still the sadness and worry rising within her before continuing, ¡°There is much to do, we must meet with our strategists, and, and so much more. I can¡¯t. I cannot keep this up my love, not any longer. I am so weary. Holding up the enchantments, the Order, the titles, battling, pushing aside emotions to deal with at a later date. Putting my beloved family into harm''s way. It¡¯s all too much. I despise the thought of letting anyone see me this vulnerable, should word find its way out to our enemies. You wouldn¡¯t speak of it though, and for that, I thank you. Please, allow me this moment of weakness.¡±


    Nodding, I agree that I wouldn¡¯t speak of any of Kinzul¡¯s secrets or vulnerabilities. She suddenly looks decades older before me, as she allows herself to appear vulnerable and weary, on her knees before me, stroking Lucky¡¯s skull. Yet it only lasts for a moment. As Luni stirs, Kinzul¡¯s radiant aura of vitality and assuredness returns. Oh my love. The strain you bear. I weep several tears but push my emotions aside. I can certainly empathize. Luni could too I imagine. To have so much responsibility, the fate of so many relying on you, perhaps as much as the world itself relying upon your course of actions¡ª. As she said, it¡¯s too much.


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    Somehow, even with my walls up, Prinrin observed what transpired between me and Kinzul. She¡¯s one of the most astute people I¡¯ve ever met, at reading and parsing emotions through the simplest, subtlest of tells, and even comprehending what a series of emotions means. She knows how to stay mum about a secret however. Well, around everyone except for me apparently. She let loose many of her, and several of Kinzul¡¯s, secrets over the short time we¡¯d known each other. Apparently something about me, my face, my voice, my expressions, something exudes trustworthiness, and commands attention. I wonder if that¡¯s my Duende score at work. On second thought, no, I don¡¯t think any of my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian passive stats have any sort of external effect on others.


    I suppose I should simply be grateful that I¡¯m able to instill that sort of confidence that I can keep things in good confidence. Actually, it might not be everyone that feels that way around me. Perhaps it is only emotionally intuitive people, those that can see I¡¯m often lost deep in thought, riding a mental journey that likely holds as many secrets as they could ever tell me. I believe that is part of why Kinzul came to me on the battlefield. For some reason, from the moment I¡¯d placed the first psychic bond on her, she¡¯s kept her incoming walls down listening out for my internal monologue. Something about my thoughts intrigued her, or¡ª. Well, I mean, we wed for a reason. We share ideals on a fundamental level. I don¡¯t have the words for a name for the kind of love that comes along with the strong bond formed by sharing such intimate truths about ourselves.


    What can I even say that begins to describe how unworthy I feel for all the happiness and love that surrounds me? How can I even begin to live up to the person I feel I need to be to deserve their kindness? I know, I know they¡¯d berate me gently for this line of thought if my walls were down and they could hear it. It¡¯s just¡ª. Each of these people in my life that I share a connection with are special beyond words I can think or say. My beloved son, whom I took for granted for basically two lifetimes, still he chooses to be by my side, and feels the most happy when he senses Luni and I together.


    Farzhis, a friend that I¡¯m watching bloom into an amazing person, when she was already a confident, charming, driven lass. Her priorities became kinder, gentler, and she admitted failings that she had, that she wanted to no longer have, that she wanted help dealing with. That takes so much strength of character. I shed tears as I think on it. I¡¯m beyond amazed at the growth she¡¯s shown, and beyond destroyed at the loss she¡¯s suffered. Her mother-in-law, Prinrin, suffered that same loss, and is also a being of immense strength of character.


    I could, and would, dote on Prinrin, wanting to help her recover, wanting to share my love with her, wanting to console her about the death of her husband. I¡¯d want to include Iylynila though, the two are important to each other. I suppose I can leave the comforting up to Illy. There¡¯ll likely be teasing, and interplay, that Illy wouldn¡¯t feel comfortable displaying around me now that we¡¯re no longer together. They deserve to be at full comfort at all times, but especially now when both are recovering from losses, while both are grieving.


    Lu and Te I need not even put to words how beloved, how precious, they are to me. We¡¯ve been through everything together, across multiple timelines across multiple lifetimes. There¡¯s something so very endearing about a love that literally transcends life and death. I mean, just imagine it. You think you¡¯re tearfully saying your final farewells, and you feel yourself pulled apart at the molecular level, a screaming agony, and then find yourself hand in hand with¡ª. I know. I know. I weep as I remember those discombobulated moments of arriving on Rayileklia. How fortunate I am that I came to this world with some of those that I love the most in all the universes.


    As the tears begin to fall, they ramp up into a cascade. I¡¯m so lucky. I¡¯m so, so, so very lucky. I can never even begin to express my gratitude for the enduring love granted to me by my inner circle. I can¡¯t begin to express my gratitude for Lil¡¯s forgiveness, when we finally found one another again. I¡ª. Oh Dawn. My heart sinks into the pit of my chest as my tears continue unabated. I was lucky to have you in my life, this one, for the short time I¡¯ve existed, as much of it as I did. I never truly allowed myself to fully mourn her. I let myself be hurt, and then be numb, and then move on, but I made no mourning efforts. Then again, I never did for Har or Sal either. Nor for the thousands upon thousands of people and critterkin lost at Eimsas. Nor for the Chameleonfolk or Nagas that perished as a direct result of my ordering the timeline to occur exactly as it did.


    Suddenly my stomach lurches, remembering the thousands and thousands of lives lost at basically my command, in order for my family to have a chance to survive. It¡¯s only a chance. Then again, there is an apocalypse approaching¡ª. No. I don¡¯t get to do that. I don¡¯t get to diminish their loss by assuming they¡¯d have died anyway. I don¡¯t get to be that selfish. I have to allow this to hurt. It was a choice I made in several timelines. I let so many lives be cut short. Hell, I basically ordered their culling myself almost. My stomach heaves at the thought.


    Why is it like this? Why does my brain hit these patches where, even if I¡¯m trying to be happy and grateful, suddenly I find myself torn asunder emotionally, wrecked, wracked with guilt? It¡¯s depression Reggie. You know this. It¡¯s technically intrusive thoughts. You don¡¯t *have* to allow this to hurt. You are only punishing yourself. You think you deserve this right now, because of a chemical imbalance in your digital brain. You likely had a dopamine rush, then a serotonin reaction was either inhibited, or followed into a reuptake that¡ª. How the hell do you know anything about neurochemistry? I blink several times, stunned at the question.


    I try to grasp at straws in my digital databank of memories, but nothing tells me that I, or other Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Critterkin, should know anything about neurochemical imbalances or any of the like. We could know the definitions of certain neurochemicals at a very basic level, just that they are neurochemicals, if we hear the words. Reggie? Mhm? Let it go. Huff. Heaving a sigh, I acknowledge that I should. The startling revelation helped keep me from spiraling, so I may as well be grateful for it and leave it at that.


    Lu, Te, Lucky, somewhere else in Solace is Lil. We¡¯ve made it this far together. Please, please let¡¯s make it through this. All of us. All of us and our new friends and family. I¡¯m begging everything that is good in the universe. Please let us make it through this.


    Please.

 B 6 C 100: No Promises

    From the doorway to the den, I hear Pawn¡¯s voice, ¡°Momma? I got a surprise for you.¡±


    Judging by the shuffling, there¡¯s quite a few individuals gathered outside the den. Prinrin squeezes out from between Teuila and Farzhis to meet Pawn, and gasps aloud at what she sees. I¡¯m curious myself at what could be so surprising.


    Prinny¡¯s comment fills me in mostly, ¡°But you don¡¯t even all know each other, we¡¯ve always kept the secrets to keep you safe. Oh my sweets, my little darlings, how wonderful, how thoughtful. How just, how?¡±


    They must be Prinrin¡¯s children, adopted out to keep the secret of their clutching safe. I imagine it¡¯s Miraina¡¯s doing. The young woman has a vastly underestimated intelligence. I sense the swelling of Prinrin¡¯s heart metaphorically across our emotional bond. She beckons to me, but I¡¯m helpless to fly to her side, until Luni suddenly relents, stopping pretending that she¡¯s asleep. I wear a lopsided half-frown half-smile at Lu, trying not to shake my head or roll my eyes at her. She wears a cheeky, only-mildly guilty, partially apologetic expression on her face.


    I extricate myself from Lu, and literally fly to Prinrin¡¯s side. All of these young men and women out here would be twenty one, even if their hatchings were spaced out over a couple of weeks. They do look like children however due to their stature. I can see why it would be easy, and necessary, to keep them from all being in one place. It¡¯d be too easy to piece together that a runt had clutched. Prinrin suddenly drags me to her, squeezing me lovingly, overflowing with the joy of seeing her children all in one place.


    A second joy with a hint of mischievous anticipation starts to swell in place alongside that first joy, and my eyes flash wide as I gulp and blush, feeling her very overt signal. Holy crap Prinny, that isn¡¯t subtle at all! There¡¯s a mischievous smirk across our wavelength as she begins to imagine the clutch she¡¯d like to have while squeezing me tightly. I begin to sweat bullets, unable to even be remotely professional and address the gathered young men and women, now that my mind is entirely being corralled into thoughts about¡ª. Gulp.


    Thankfully, well, somewhat thankfully, since I don¡¯t exactly *not* enjoy Prinrin¡¯s insinuations and desires, my wife comes to my rescue. Kinzul stands behind us, and coughs politely, ever so slightly, once. Prinny chuckles somewhat-nervously as her cheeks heat the air between us, though Kinzul only smiles at her long-time friend. Still, there¡¯s the slightest hint of danger in that smile, but even that seems playful, as if the two had gone through this bef¡ª. They did. Prinrin has dropped plenty of hints about how she and Kinzul had shared a love of The Platinum.


    Feeling hot under the collar, I gulp and tug at an imaginary necktie. I feel even more embarrassed when Kinzul, across our telepathic wavelength, including Prinrin, asks, ¡°Perhaps you could at least wait until my spouse and I have consummated our bond, before mating with them, dear old friend?¡±


    I nearly faint at the implications. Both women smirk almost evilly across our telepathic wavelength as Prinrin apologizes. Both of them know very well I can¡¯t physically, biologically¡ª. Grr, I¡¯m being teased, and I can¡¯t help but give them the exact reaction they want. Fudge. Oh well, it¡¯s¡ª. I fight my smile for a bit. It¡¯s flattering that they enjoy so much of me, even my silly overreactions to embarrassment. I, gulp, guess it¡¯s also flattering that they might actually want what they¡¯ve both just hinted at. Yeesh. Phew. It¡¯s hot in here, right? It¡¯s not just me, right? Phew, huff, whew.


    Miraina, adorable, cheeky, wonderful Miraina, sidles up alongside me and waggles one of her scaled brows just once, sensing along the many, many telepathic wavelengths we share, just what emotions I¡¯m feeling. Crap, that¡¯s right, I bound her in no less than at least four wavelengths with me and Kinzul. She and I are even more intimately mentally bound then I am with her moth¡ª. Gulp. Miraina smirks and rolls her eyes at me across one of our mental wavelengths.


    Pawn makes sure to clear the air, ¡°Don¡¯t be goofy Schism, I¡¯m not coming on to you, and mom is just teasing. I think. Or maybe seeing all of her kids in one place really did get her babymaking factory roaring. Um. Sorry if I did that. Sorry if me playing the kid card so much has made things weird for you. We had to. You understand. Right?¡±


    Calming quite a bit, I flash Miraina a sad smile as I nod. I wrap my left arm around her shoulders and bring her into a half-hug, thanking her for clearing the air, or at least trying to. I do find myself blushing heatedly at the turn of phrase, ¡°get her babymaking-factory roaring.¡± Crap on a cracker. Yeesh, the people in my life. Though, I mean, if I could, I¡¯d¡ª. Reggie, don¡¯t even finish that thought. You are standing in a very, very dangerous location, surrounded mentally by people who can read your every thought even when you¡¯re blocking them, more or less.


    I gulp and hesitantly chuckle nervously. Teuila snorts a laugh along our mental wavelength, mostly getting context by leaning around the edge of the den doorway to look at the glare shared between Kinzul and Prinrin while Prinny gloms onto me. Lu pouts along our mental wavelength, and I can¡¯t help but think she somehow knows the exact words that have been flowing through my mental narrative, despite me having put up my walls for this last bit. She¡¯s shown signs, several times on Rayileklia, that she¡¯s able to somehow follow along in my narrative, even without the bond.


    Thankfully, at least Farzhis doesn¡¯t know what¡¯s going through my head. I think. I hope. I really don¡¯t want to rile her up at all, much less when she¡¯s so vulnerable. I try exceedingly hard, and of course fail, to not think about Farzhis and her attempts to seduce me, while my mind is locked into thoughts of mating, because of Prinrin and Kinzul. Facepalming, I shake my head at myself while heaving a weary sigh. Of course, now I can¡¯t help but remember those attempts, and that absolutely glorious form that had been flaunted. Friggin¡¯ hell Reggie. I know!


    There¡¯s chatter going on around me, about losing The Blue, and how they¡¯re glad they get to see their mom, and glad she¡¯s okay. There¡¯s some chiding that they had to learn through Pawn about what Prinrin went through yesterday. I flash a sad smile to those gathered as they thank me for saving Prinny. It wasn¡¯t just me, but I understand how large a role I had to play in saving her. We needed an archmage with the right tools, and there wasn¡¯t one. So I had to quickly become one, in record time. I fight back tears for fear of the loss of Prinny. The worry I¡¯d felt grasps and claws at my heart, leaving me weeping, hiding my face from the crowd of young adults.


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    My deviant, brave, little old fool. We¡¯ll lose you far before this war ends, if you don¡¯t stop taking the hits for everyone else. I can¡¯t, and wouldn¡¯t change you though Prinrin. You¡¯re amazing, marvelous. I have my walls up, so you shouldn¡¯t be able to hear me, and yet I can see you reading me like an open book, as usual. I need to take my mind off of this, and not replace it with more thoughts of mating, as tantalizing as those mental images might be.


    I guess it¡¯s time for Reggie Shellcracker to strategize. I flash an apologetic, sad smile towards Prinrin as I slowly extricate myself from her loving embrace where she tightly clings to me. I so badly want to take her to a private corner and share passion with her to show her that I appreciate her, and am so grateful that she made it through alright. Such flights of fancy can wait however. We¡ª. Can they though? Prinny is the most likely to¡ª. Stop. Just stop. We can¡¯t think about that.


    My eyes redden and swell puffily, almost painfully. My lower jaw quivers. I don¡¯t want either of us losing the other, or leaving this life behind with any regrets, but¡ª. But pulling her away from this would be beyond selfish, even if she would enjoy it, even if she hinted that she wants it. I lean down to kiss Prinrin on the cheek, and the sneak makes sure to meet my lips, foretelling my action and position by reading my body language. I relent, and kiss her softly for more than the briefest of moments, though only just.


    There¡¯s acknowledgment in her eyes as Prinrin releases me from her tightly clasped embrace. She¡¯s going to spend the day with her children, perhaps the first ever with all of them at once. I turn to my wife with sorrow and apology in my eyes, but I¡¯m met with only love, tenderness, kindness in the gaze that meets mine. She understands what I need to do, to continue to be the Hero that Solace needs. Despite our desire to truly unite, to spend time together, to figure out the path through the emotional minefield of this war, we each have duties that we¡¯ll perform, regardless of our own states and desires.


    I kiss Kinzul tenderly, and we rest our foreheads together. As she cups my face with her right hand, stroking my left cheek with her thumb, she bumps my nose once with hers, and I can¡¯t help smiling at the intimate hint to kiss her again. As she intimated, I do kiss her once more before withdrawing. We clasp hands momentarily as we drift apart. There is so much that she must do to maintain everything that keeps the world safe, that keeps us safe. She regally glides away, following the train of Prinrin and her children.


    Miraina, the last of them leaving, kisses my cheek and whispers, ¡°Thank you for saving her. I love you for it. Stay alive Hero. Please keep staying alive, and keep keeping her alive. Please. I know how hard that might be, how stubborn she is, but, but please. Thank you so much.¡±


    My heart aches at Miraina¡¯s request, but she disappears after Kinzul and Prinrin in the blink of an eye, faster than I can respond, and I don¡¯t have the heart to formulate a telepathic reply. My muscles sag wearily. The burden, the weight is so heavy. Of course I want to meet her request. Of course I do. It¡¯s just such a challenge when I can¡¯t see what the future holds. I can¡¯t make any promises. The only promise I can make, the only guarantee we have about the future is a horrible portent, and I¡¯ll be fighting that fate with every ounce of my being.


    Returning to Lu, Te, and Farzhis, I spot Farzhis leaning over sideways. She¡¯s angled down into Te¡¯s lap, weeping, while Teuila strokes her hair back from her cheek, keeping it from falling in front of her nose or mouth. My heart aches for her. I don¡¯t entirely understand the specific feeling she¡¯s going through, losing a parent, but I do understand loss. I don¡¯t entirely understand the pressure that now weighs down on her, with the task she¡¯s taken up in The Blue¡¯s stead, but I do certainly understand overwhelming responsibility that likely ends in death. Oh Farzhis. I won¡¯t let this war go on that long. I promise you. I promise. We won¡¯t need the Worldstorm forever. We¡¯ll dispel it, and you won¡¯t end up like your father.


    Hell in a handbasket. Gods it hurts to see her hurt so deeply. I barely know her. I intentionally avoided getting to know her, because of assumptions I made about her character. Well, assumptions that turned out to be true, that were based on facts gleaned telepathically anyway. Frick, now I¡¯m backpedaling and screwing things up mentally. I just mean that, I haven¡¯t given her enough time and support in forging a friendship, that I should even offer what I¡¯m about to offer. I haven¡¯t gotten to know her well enough, as well as she deserves of someone that would claim to be a friend.


    Sighing, I glance between the three women in the room. I still have to deal with Induul today, and I¡¯m not sure I should subject any of them to that. Speaking of¡ª.


    Miraina locks onto me telepathically to relay, ¡°Got a weird message from a little birdie, literally, one just flew into solace and sought me out. Says ¡®Schism, The Green ranging far. Keeping an eye out. Seems likely gone for a couple of days. Yui.¡¯¡±


    That¡ª, is oddly convenient. He¡¯s taken on the task of isolating himself from the vulnerable in Mount Solace. Or he could be trying to range far and wide to hunt down the piping powder. I¡¯ll choose to believe the former. I puff a quiet sigh through nearly-closed lips. At least what I¡¯m about to offer then doesn¡¯t also request something from those still in the room.


    Starting off, I wave while wearing a sad half-smile, before asking, ¡°Te, you wanted to spend today together still too, right? So we can keep, y¡¯know, working things out. Lucky, are you um, do you make any sort of plans or anything? Lu, did you want, um, do you have plans today, or would you maybe care to hang out with Te and me as I¡ª.¡±


    Farzhis interrupts, pleading, ¡°Don¡¯ leave me alone, please, don¡¯ go. Schism. Jus¡¯, jus¡ª.¡±


    Cooing, I kneel next to Farzhis as I take her left hand between mine and I respond, ¡°I want you to come with. I was going to ask you too. Are you up for that Farzhis dear? I hope it doesn¡¯t seem heartless, but there¡¯s still so much to prepare for tomorrow¡¯s raids. I love you, and want you to pull through this sadness, so I¡¯ll try to be there for you, however I can. Is, is that okay? I know it¡¯s a lot to ask while you¡¯re hurting, to go around while we get things done, but, but, um.¡±


    Gripping my hands tightly, Farzhis turns to meet my gaze with her tear-streaked face. My breath catches momentarily. The vulnerability she¡¯s displaying touches me so deeply, and reminds me how beautiful she is. I gulp, trying to keep myself centered, hoping to prevent my mind from wandering in stupid directions when I¡¯m trying to be supportive. Farzhee nods ever-so-slightly, almost timidly. She also climbs onto me, into my arms, which isn¡¯t exactly what I meant, or how I intended to bring her along, but I won¡¯t begrudge her this at least for a little while. I flash a blushing apologetic smile towards Lu and Te. Te just smirks while Luni pouts.


    Telepathically, I offer to Lu, ¡°Hey, if you want to carry the buxom lass around, feel free, she¡¯s not too heavy, and rather delightful to hold. I¡¯m sure she¡¯d appreciate you just as much.¡±


    Luni rolls her eyes and scoffs playfully at me before chuckling. Across our mental wavelength, she grumbles, ¡°No, you can keep the pretty lady to yourself, she¡¯s not the first one to claim your arms when I wanted them. Erm, sorry, I know it¡¯s not like that. I¡¯m just groggy is all. Grumpy from waking up with little sleep, promise. At least my titty isn¡¯t sore any more. Thank you. For the massage.¡±


    I blush heatedly, causing Farzhee to nuzzle my warm neck to dry her tears. I want to retort to Lu that I didn¡¯t exactly¡ª. Huff, anyway. I can¡¯t help smiling and rolling my eyes while shaking my head. I can sense Luni grinning along our emotional wavelength that her tease landed. She can be so mean sometimes, but I love her all the same. Maybe I even love her for it.


    I¡¯ll probably pass Farzhee off to Te at some point during the day anyway, because the strategy meeting might be a little difficult to participate in from behind a wild mound of bedhead hair, and a massive pair of¡ª, cough, um, well, anyway.

 B 6 C 101: Everybody

    It seems Kinzul and I are headed the same way anyway as I intend to check in on Lil.  My wife comments, "Yes, Sun needs to be apprised, and I would like to take him aside before we attend to the strategists-eight.  I''ve ill done enough to teach him to be the general I need him to be.  I''ve neglected our wonderful son.  I''m sorry my love.  There is never enough time."


    Don¡¯t I know it.  I clench my eyes shut tightly for a moment, fighting back the flashing stream of raw emotions at all the things I¡¯ve had to pass up, or choose over other missed opportunities.  The worst of all was not having enough time to find out how to save Dawn.  How much I rushed everything else during that period, and still failed.  I¡ª.  I topple to my knees, catching Farzhis and myself in my telekinetic grips, startling her.


    Clenching my eyes shut even more tightly, I pull my lips into a tight grimace to keep from sobbing aloud.  Sighing, all I can do is agree with our beloved lady.  There is never enough time.  Even for Reggie Shellcracker, nearly a master of time itself.  Nearly.  My non existent guts twist and cramp as my emotions war within me.  Lu.  Te.  I haven¡¯t¡ª.  Oh Lucky, my sweet son.  I barely bite back my emotions to keep from wailing aloud in regret.


    There isn¡¯t enough time to be with everyone, let alone protect everyone, or save everyone.  I can¡¯t nurture everyone, or show everyone my undying affection and deeply intimate care for them and their safety.  I feel Farzhis¡¯s heart rate climb rapidly in anxiety, fear at being unable to read my thoughts as I appear unstable, not being the rock that she needs right now.  Or perhaps simply worry for me.


    I have to prioritize becoming powerful enough, adaptable enough, to always win, and always come home safely.  I have to win this all, end this war, these wars.  Their safety matters most.  First and foremost, I need to save them all.  Huff.  That isn¡¯t up to you alone Reggie.  I¡ª!  I know.  I know.  Hero complex, or god complex, or whatever.  But you heard them, even the Vivant thinks that by the end, I¡¯ll be the lone asset deployed, the knife-edge of the Order.  How much more on-my-shoulders can things possibly be stated to be than that?


    I, I¡¯m not trying to diminish anyone else¡¯s roles.  Heavens knows I couldn¡¯t do this without Kinzul, the Worldstorm, my Inner Circle, Nala, Illy, Prinny, Vylon, Vyela, just, just the entire Order.  Hell, even the Spellknight twins are taking on a huge responsibility for me that might be the difference between life and death for one of us.  I just¡ª.  Just need to get out of your own head Reggie.  Be there.  Be in the present.  She needs you.  They need you.  Take it one step at a time.  Don¡¯t get trapped looking at the end goal, forgetting the progress you¡¯ll make, and have to make, along the way.


    Thanks.  Um, me.  I glance around physically and in my mindscape.  This is happening more and more frequently.  I swear I¡¯m not playing up some split psyche bit.  I think.  It doesn¡¯t seem to be a future-me either.  How is there this odd, rational-yet-compassionate side of me looking out for me more and more?  Don¡¯t worry about it Reggie.  It¡¯s all you.  You¡¯re just applying some of the advice you¡¯d give to others for yourself.  I¡ª.  Sure.  I guess.  Look, when you learn a coping mechanism actually works, you¡¯ll lean on it more and more.  Makes sense, right?  Um, sure, I guess.  What do you think this is?  Well, yeah, a coping mechanism I guess.


    I¡¯m a bit weirded out that it seems to be wrapped up in such a simple bow.  A neat and tidy answer.  Nothing is ever as neat and tidy as it appears at first glance Reggie, you don¡¯t have to take it for granted, but you don¡¯t need to spend more time analyzing this.  Be in the present.  Please.  For them, and for yourself.  Sighing, I release muscles I didn¡¯t know I was clenching as I blink and actually notice my surroundings.


    Te and Lu are gazing at me concernedly, while Farzhis appears to be caught between fleeing or clinging to me more tightly.  I flash an apologetic expression to each of them, and gaze down at Lucky, who uses his magical scarf to pat me consolingly on the shoulder.  Even though I gave it to him, *that* might take some getting used to.  Having more dextrous limbs with gripping digits and so on makes it easier to see Lucky as a person rather than a hound.


    I¡¯m suddenly hit by a wave of lethargy, and my muscles sag wearily.  Stabbing pain from a migraine grows in my right occipital lobe.  It lances from my right eye to my right temple, causing me to huff exhaustedly.  Nearly toppling over from the pain, I¡¯m forced to set Farzhis down momentarily, but I hold her close as I kneel where she sits upon the floor.


    Blushing heatedly for my weakness, my display, just everything, I try to apologize, ¡°I, well, I was lost in thought over there never being enough time.  Over needing to get more powerful.  I¡¯m already leaps and bounds more powerful than when I¡¯d started our Rayileklian journey, hell, I¡¯m leaps and bounds more powerful than just a couple of days ago, and I still can¡¯t kill a Damnation.  They probably won¡¯t fall for being knocked into the Worldstorm a third time, they might even stop flying above it entirely.¡±


    As I pause for a breath, Farzee stands out of my embrace, and taps Te almost shyly.  Teuila happily lifts Farzee into her arms, and perhaps a bit inappropriately lifts Farzee enough that Te can snuggle and nuzzle her breasts, but Farzee doesn¡¯t complain.  I glance at Teuila, worried about her having to protect the Vivant and the Dormir tomorrow as she assaults the Nedkuxian Conclave.


    The Dormir are down one with Indy, possibly two with Farzee in her state.  I¡¯m worried for Farzee¡¯s emotional state, and I wouldn¡¯t ask her to be ready by tomorrow.  Yet somehow, I feel like she will be ready tomorrow anyway, or at least will go out regardless.  Possibly to prove something to herself, or to me.  I worry if she¡¯d be trying to prove to me that she¡¯s working on herself, that she might slip up and get hurt.  I don¡¯t want her taking on risks if her emotions might weigh her down in battle to the point where¡ª.  I get it, we get it.  Sighing belatedly, I try to tear my attention away from the pretty lady who clings sadly to Teuila.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    The Vivant are equally in danger for the assault.  Most of them haven¡¯t recovered.  Prinrin better not think I didn¡¯t catch her limping.  I swear to all that¡¯s holy, if she places herself in front of everyone else¡¯s attacks again, I¡¯d¡ª.  You¡¯d what?  Huff.  I¡¯d love her just the same and worry just the same.  She¡¯s brave, selfless, kind, loving, empathetic, intuitive, quick in so many ways.  I assume that¡¯s how she can transpose herself in front of so many attacks too.  Being a runt, being small and quick.  She speaks a hundred miles an hour and can probably move just as quickly.


    I should worry about my own assault though.  It¡¯s the first time ever that it¡¯ll be me, Lil, Lu, and Lucky.  I mean, sure, there¡¯s a lot of configurations of five people in groupings of our inner circle that haven¡¯t been done before, but I mean¡ª.  It¡¯s just that this is the Triple L Squad plus me.  I feel like the odd one out.  I¡¯m not jealous, but I know they¡¯ve had months to bond and become a tighter crew in ways that didn¡¯t involve me.  I might even get in the way of their synergies.  Though, I¡¯m tempted to offer to ask Kinzul if Luni perhaps doesn¡¯t have to come.  Muse might be more¡ª.


    Lu interrupts my thought processes, ¡°No.  I can¡¯t keep running from fighting.  Not now, not anymore.  Lucky¡¯s great at protecting me, so I¡¯ll be okay.  Promise.  Lil, huff, he wishes he was on your level.  He regrets so much, and is so worried that things are all going to end up on you like it always seems to.  He¡¯s still hurting from what happened when you reunited, and is pushing himself harder and harder to try to be able to make it up to you, by trying to get strong enough that it won¡¯t be you alone.¡±


    Oh Lil, oh Lu.  I gaze down at our son, and he bowls me over in meatspace and thinkspace.  I loose half a laugh and wear a sad quarter smile as the big lug laps my face with his enormous tongue.  Shoving him off of me, I roughhouse with him momentarily, and kiss his skull repeatedly.  He tries to use his new limbs to push Luni and me closer together, but their weight limit is far too low to actually move us, but we do get the hint.  Luni steps closer and kneels next to me so that the two of us can hug Lucky together.


    I hear Teuila whispering comforts to Farzee, and I¡¯m a bit happy in ways.  I¡¯m proud of Te, and grateful to her.  Standing, I levitate myself and Luni up to ease our rise.  Farzee turns her gaze towards me, almost pleadingly, and I relent.


    As Te hands Farzee over to me once more, I apologize to her, ¡°Sorry about the tumble Farzhis love.  You know a fair bit about my brain at this point, but I¡¯ll try to keep it on more positive topics.  I want to be able to be the friend you need or want me to be right now.  Are you okay?  I mean, as okay as you can be.¡±


    Nodding, Farzhis mumbles, ¡°Yeah, Schism.  I¡¯m, um, I¡¯m okay I guess.  Will be eventually anyway.  Thanks is all.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.¡±


    She trails off, mumbling thanks repeatedly, over and over, and I gulp down my feelings in response.  I mutter a welcome to Farzee, hoping to interrupt her looped thanks that is almost a plea.  She wants me to be where she¡¯ll be battling at, and I get it.  The Damnations could show up to either of our offensives.  I just have to trust that Teuila, who has immunities and powers comparable to mine, can either finish one off or hold them back long enough for the others to escape.


    I¡¯m almost certain Te can hold her own against the Damnations at this point.  She¡¯s quite literally nearly a goddess.  She has weapons, and equipment from myth and lore of the gods of one pantheon at the bare minimum, and one of those specifically says it grants the powers of one of those gods.


    I glance at Te, trying to put all my pride and love into the look, to emphasize how much I care, and how much I rely on her, and trust her.  I have so much faith in Teuila.  I don¡¯t know if I can impart that faith into Farzee in time for tomorrow¡¯s battle.  I could ask to swap with Te, taking on the Nedkuxian conclave with the Dormir and the Vivant, but I¡¯m almost certain I¡¯d break Lil¡¯s and Lu¡¯s hearts.  Possibly even Lucky¡¯s.  Sighing, I can¡¯t help but picture tomorrow¡¯s battles.  Te will be as absolutely ferocious as she¡¯s ever been, trying to take on and take down everything so that the injured Vivant, or the short-staffed Dormir don¡¯t have to risk themselves.


    Whispering to Farzee, I try to impart the faith I have in Te, ¡°Teuila¡¯s got you.  She¡¯ll have your back.  She¡¯s stronger than me.  She loves you just as much.  It¡¯ll be okay.  It¡¯ll be okay.  I¡¯m so sorry you¡¯re hurting so much, but if you¡¯re really up for it, if you¡¯re really going out tomorrow, as I suspect you are, Teuila will protect you.  I¡¯m here for you Farzee.  Did you want to see Veril?¡±


    Farzee nods in response, and coughs as she tries to compose herself.  Lu, Te, Lucky and I bring Farzee towards the Dormir dorms, before starting everything else we¡¯ll have to do today.  I shouldn¡¯t be surprised, but I still feel awful when Veril spots me, and has a panic attack overtake him.


    Veril crumples in on himself and grabs the back of his head as he curls up.  He¡¯s whimpering, ¡°I didn¡¯t know,¡± over and over again.  I feel so bad for being the center of his trauma trigger.


    Surprisingly, Farzee clambers down from my arms, and she goes to stand near Veril while whispering, ¡°It¡¯s okay Broke.  We¡¯ll be okay.  Tell me when you¡¯re ready.¡±


    After a while, Veril looks up at Farzee with a tear-streaked face in confusion.  He glances over at me, with worry and sorrow in his eyes, feeling bad that he had panic upon seeing me.  I don¡¯t know how to absolve him of that.  I whisper comforts towards him telepathically, but trauma and panic don¡¯t just go away.  They¡¯ll rear their heads eventually.  They might lessen over time, but I don¡¯t know if they¡¯ll ever stop completely.  I don¡¯t believe they will.  Even still, I¡¯m proud of Farzee.


    As hurt as she is, Farzee recognizes a friend in need, and she¡¯s becoming the person she wants to be.  Even if she still believes she¡¯s selfish, and perhaps she might be right, she¡¯s acting near selflessly.  One can¡¯t ask for more from anybody, let alone everybody one meets.  I lean over and kiss Farzee¡¯s forehead, whispering, ¡°I¡¯m proud of you sweetling.  If you still want to come with, we¡¯re headed to the strategists-eight.  Veril, you¡¯re welcome as well, if you want.¡±


    I¡¯d almost say I don¡¯t expect everybody to agree to come, but they all do.  Despite everything, despite the trauma, the panic, the grief, the sadness, every mixed emotion between each and every one of us, we¡¯re all still moving forward.  Everybody is moving forward, together.

 B 6 C 102: Is

    I¡¯m more than a little surprised when I hear the voice of one of the gossipers from the other morning call out, ¡°Schism!¡±


    A young man, seemingly the human form of a green dragon rushes towards us, and bends over to grab his knees while panting after catching up to us when he knows he¡¯s got our attention. I raise an eyebrow, and glance at my traveling partners, but Lu, Te, Lucky, Veril, and Farzee have no idea what¡¯s going on. I wait patiently for the poor fellow to catch his breath, answering with a simple, ¡°Yes?¡±


    Rattling his head momentarily, loosing a rather funny sound, Cal, apparently, tries to regain his composure and relate, ¡°You said, um, like to come with you, and stuff, err to you with stuff. I¡¯m Calixtenumous, uh, just call me Cal, everyone does. I, I¡¯ve been getting a bad feeling. I went out for a hunt, and, and I felt like I was being watched. My friends said the same for when they went out. Um.¡±


    Cal scratches his head, unsure where to go from here, and I¡¯m unsure if it might be my fault. It could have been the Spellknight twins Yui and Yuri, perhaps. Still, I don¡¯t think they¡¯d give their presences away so easily, or project malevolence, such that someone untrained like Cal would be creeped out. I can¡¯t verify it wasn¡¯t them right now though, so I¡¯m not sure what to do.


    Starting out, I try to comfort Cal, ¡°Take it easy, breathe deep. If something is going on around Solace and Solitude, I¡¯ll have to deal with it at some point, so I thank you for bringing this to me. I, erm, we, do have spies and scouts around the area, hidden people keeping an eye on things. Is there any chance it was them?¡±


    Shaking his head vigorously, Cal answers, ¡°No, um, it felt, uh, it definitely had a dragonforce, I think. All our scouts are Draconiacs, or maybe some kobolds, right? Or, or am I just an idiot?¡±


    Crap. I inhale sharply. I don¡¯t know one hundred percent for certain, but I¡¯m almost positive he¡¯s right, for exactly this reason. Our scouts can¡¯t have dragonforces, or they¡¯d be able to be sensed by dragons. Shaking my own head, I respond, ¡°No, no, you¡¯re definitely not an idiot. I believe you¡¯re correct about our scouts. Fudge. Um. I can¡¯t exactly go tearing around the countryside hoping to run into a mysterious observer. Can I ask you a favor Cal? If you or your friends go out for hunts again, please be very careful, and try to make notes of exactly where you feel the presence if you can. Please? If anything seems off, or scary, I want you to return to Solace immediately. Do not risk yourselves. Your safety is more important than my favor.¡±


    Cal nods to my request, and beams a smile at my care for his safety. I offer a wide arm, with my hand near him, for Cal to decide if he¡¯d like a hug or handshake, or to simply ignore my affection. He scratches his head, and shrugs before shaking my hand. Cal mutters, ¡°Can do, um, thanks for hearing me out Schism. I, um, yeah. Sorry about the other day. Just thanks is all. Um, can, can I go? Should I¡ª. Okay, thanks.¡±


    I try not to chuckle at Cal as he struggles his way through figuring out if he should observe any sort of decorum, like waiting to be dismissed, but I simply nod that he can go when he asks. I¡¯ve certainly been in similar positions, not sure how to interact with authority. Oh gods. Oh hell. I¡¯m authority. What the hell Reggie? I know right!? Those riding my mental wavelengths crack up, even those that are still suffering, dealing with their grief or trauma. I can¡¯t help chuckling along with them.


    Drawing a deep breath, I loose a sigh that turns into a yawn, resulting in a circle of yawns from around me. Lu leans in to whisper, ¡°Sweetie? Things are going to get pretty hectic for you. Just keep making time for you though. Please? Staying you, and, and being close to happy is as important as everything else.¡±


    Raising my eyebrow towards Luni, I nod in acquiescence, trying to suss out if she¡¯s acting on foreknowledge, or simply worried about me as the war drags on, while I focus on gaining more advantages. She offers no hints as to which it might be, or if I¡¯m off the mark completely. I yawn again, and attempt to apologize to my gathered friends and family, but other than the resulting circle of yawns, they wave it off. We resume our trek towards the strategy gaming hall and slash or war room. Gnawing on my lip, I keep glancing at these people that I love who happen to be traveling with me. There are so many risks and dangers abounding, that I don¡¯t know whom to offer advice to, whom to offer consoling to, whom to even speak to.


    Continuing to gnaw inside my cheek, I¡ª. Te playfully swats the back of my head, muttering, ¡°No chewing on you, only we get to do that,¡± before loosing a Shellcracker squee, sounding her elation at lightly teasing me.


    I can¡¯t help smiling, and there¡¯s several chuckles from the surrounding friends and family. Lucky whuffs in agreement with Teuila, perhaps joining in on the joke, intimating that he gets to gnaw on me or lick me. Smiling down at my son, I rub his skull firmly, lovingly. I can sense Kinzul beaming with pride towards Lil, wherever she is nearby. Though I also sense a bit of deviousness as she¡¯s apparently teasing him for waking up in a bed with twins, without Muse whom had gone to bed with him. Or something along those lines anyway.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I can¡¯t sense Lil¡¯s response to the tease though, oddly enough. I think that that means he¡¯s out of range, compared to Kinzul, whose range I¡¯ve extended as much as I could. Since I can¡¯t sense Ixey or Zayzi either, I assume I¡¯m more or less right about that part at least. Luni giggles nervously, a bit abashedly, knowing she technically abandoned Lil to wake up with the twin Reds, causing this ever so slightly comedic situation. She also is wary of me accidentally revealing what Ixey had done in her sleep last night, and shoots me a nervous glance. There¡¯s a silent plea for me to shut up on the subject, so I attempt to move my brain to another topic.


    I wonder where Iylynila is. I¡¯m worried. If there¡¯s some strange presence, an unknown dragon skulking nearby, and she¡¯s going off continuously for solo hunts to clear her head, she¡ª. Drawing a deep breath, I sigh as I try to put the worry out of mind. She¡¯s one of our best fighters, calm down Reggie. If she can¡¯t handle herself against one presence, we¡¯ve got really big problems on our hands. But what if it¡¯s a¡ª.


    Huff, calm down. It can¡¯t be. The Damnations are not stupid enough, and they couldn¡¯t get to this side of Mount Solace this fast. They can¡¯t go over it, so they¡¯d have to have land journeyed all the way around the base of the Spine of the World mountain range. If they tried coming in from above, well, they wouldn¡¯t get through unnoticed. Would they? I mean, it¡¯s hard to imagine them just passing by a bunch of souls and dragonforces.


    Crap, I really want to get some of my projects up and running, like a scrying security center for Solace. I think I can buy enough mirrors, and supplies to start making scrying sensors, and maybe go myconid form, to make the sensors free and fast. Putting them up would be a hassle, figuring out where to put them up as well. I could probably rely on Miraina, Pawn, for that, since she knows the tunnel structures the best of anyone in Mount Solace with how much she runs around. Still, she¡¯s trying to connect with her mom today, after being scared about possibly losing her last night. I might have to handle it myself. If I can even make time to make enough of them to matter.


    Ugh, yeah. I can probably only make a couple dozen, but at the very least that would let me cover the entries slash exits, and the prison, and Mount Verdimenn tunnel. Also, um, the uh, entrances to certain bedrooms, without looking into them. The library as well. I just want to be sure no one can sneak in and hurt the people I love. The mirrors would be facing outwards, so it wouldn¡¯t even be possible to perv on them, since that¡¯s not what I¡¯d be making them for. Icky. Those that want to share their bodies with me do it plenty enough to tease me without me needing to be a creep about it. Plus, I won¡¯t even be the only one with access to the security center. I might even ask for someone, like that one burly kobold, to take turns in the security center, keeping an eye on things.


    Fricklefrack. Yeah. Alright. I need to make a pit stop. I¡¯m too anxious, and worked up. I¡¯ll be enchanting some stuff while in the strategy meeting. Ugh, wait, the refractory period on the myconid, is it up yet? Bluh, do I need Kinzul to help me reach to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas to even check? Let¡¯s see, I did a longer entry period, a few hours to get the myconid up, and I technically only kept it up for a few minutes in linear time, so it should only have been down for a few hours. Gnawing on my lip, I worry about maybe possibly having screwed myself out of my myconid form for over a month, if all the time in the orb is counted up somehow.


    Teuila giggles, ¡°Hehe, maybe don¡¯t screw yourself as a mushroom, you¡¯ve got plenty of¡ª.¡±


    She can¡¯t even carry through with her tease, realizing everyone can hear her through my lowered psychic walls. I can¡¯t help chuckling and rolling my eyes, even though I¡¯m blushing rather thoroughly, as is Teuila. I harken back to one of our recent conversations as I respond jokingly, ¡°Screw you, babe.¡±


    Sounding her elation, Teuila closes her eyes and bobs her head side to side. Lu doesn¡¯t quite get why she¡¯s happy to be told to screw herself, but shrugs. Lucky nudges me from the side, bowling me into Luni on purpose. I¡¯d glare at the very unsubtle hint, but I can¡¯t help chuckling and rolling my eyes at our son as Lu catches me in her arms, against her lovely chest.


    I try to reassure him, ¡°Lucky, I love you, and you know I love ¡®parent¡¯, there¡¯s no need to push buddy. I¡¯m not going anywhere, ever again. No more long periods without seeing any of you guys. Nothing more than quick missions and offensives. I¡¯ll find some way around having to do long journeys apart. Come here you big lug.¡±


    Extricating myself from Luni¡¯s amazing embrace, I kneel down with my arms wide towards Lucky. Thankfully Lucky obliges, and I wrap his neck and shoulders in a tight hug, while he places one paw behind me, and hugs me with his scarf. I sniff and rub my itchy eyes, trying not to imagine having to be apart from my inner circle again. I definitely don¡¯t want us to be without one another for months and months, ever again. Te and Lu reciprocate, nodding along with me. Lucky whuffs in agreement, and I chuckle, still unsure how to be a better parent to him.


    We¡¯ll be fighting together tomorrow for the first time. We technically fought Vanathar together, but it was more like he wrestled Vanathar to play, rather than doing what we¡¯ll have to do tomorrow. We¡¯ll have to fight through, likely killing, an entire horde, an army led by powerful Draconiacs. I wonder how he feels about that, if it registers to him. Does his cragbeast side enjoy destruction? Does he have a sense of morality, or, well, one like my Fakeworld one, where killing is thought of as wrong? I mean, he seems to like protecting people, saving them, helping them. I¡¯ll always think he¡¯s a good person.


    Lucky is¡ª. Lucky is¡ª. I guess he just is. I can¡¯t find a way to learn more about him, only able to sometimes hear his psychic exclamations. As much as I¡¯d like to learn more, and be more, and do more, I¡¯ll just have to satisfice myself with that, that Lucky just is.

 B 6 C 103: Going

    I¡¯ve been meaning to stop by to see Shield and Aegis for more than a brief hello at some point, but can never seem to make enough time for doing so. I¡¯m going to at some point though, I swear. It¡¯s not like I don¡¯t like them or anything, Shield is adorable, and Aegis¡¯s hiss, well, it sends shivers down my spine, literally. Pleasant ones at that. I kind of wonder if Shaylon might enjoy the Naga good-luck wishing¡ª, erm, koff. The raised eyebrows from around me are things I¡¯m not going to answer at the moment for those that have been riding my mental narrative.


    Returning to getting on with going towards the strategists-eight, I¡¯m interrupted again. I try to hide my sigh of frustration, because this could be important. The person standing demurely before me is Leezahna. I, I need to somehow repair this relationship so that we can get her to tend the shop, without sabotaging it. Yet more than that, I just need to somehow undo some of the hurt I¡¯d done to the poor lass.


    The emerald-tressed lass starts, ¡°Schism, I um, kind of hate you. Wait, let me finish. I was talking to mother, and she doesn¡¯t believe what you said, or, um. It¡¯s hard to explain. She doesn¡¯t agree with you. But I realized that I do. I¡¯m confused. I don¡¯t want to be at odds with Mother. But you did this, so I hate you for it. How do I fix this? I can¡¯t change my agreement, but I¡ª. I can¡¯t do what you did to me, to my mother.¡±


    Fuuuuuu¡ª. Crap. I should have considered the rest of her family were going to likely be as obstinate as she originally was. The one thing I praised her on was her love of her family. Fricklefrack. Crap crap crap crap crap. Argh. I bullied this poor girl something fierce. Well, young woman I guess. She just seems like a little girl to me at this point though. So demure, scared to come to me and admit this, just, argh.


    Trying to maintain a sincere yet calm facade, I start, ¡°I¡¯m truly sorry that what I convinced you of put you at odds with your mother. I¡¯m proud of you, and grateful, that you decided to stick with these new convictions, instead of instantly agreeing with her, despite your love for her. You know how hard it was for me to get you to see that social standing isn¡¯t important in times like these, in a place like this. I imagine it will be that hard to convince the rest of your family too. Wait, now let me be the one to finish.¡±


    I try to smile reassuringly at Leezahna, before continuing, ¡°I can come by and, no no no, hold on. I can come by and talk to them once or twice, to explain why you¡¯re important to me, why they¡¯re important to me, because of being important to you. It might not let them see things my way, but maybe they¡¯ll open up to accept you feeling differently, so that you don¡¯t have to either be lying and hiding your feelings from your mother, or butting heads. Would that be something you¡¯d like me to do?¡±


    I feel waves of emotion from Kinzul that wash over me and nearly leave me breathless. I try not to evince my gulping to Leezahna as I stand before her. My Lady¡¯s, my wife¡¯s pride at my compassion is overwhelming. Lucky growls shortly at Leezahna, and I¡¯m about to berate him for it, but he cuts himself off almost immediately. I furrow my brow towards him in my mindscape, as he seems to be saying something like, ¡°ploy,¡± or ¡°trap.¡± I sincerely hope he¡¯s wrong, and that Leezahna hasn¡¯t gone back on her turning over a new leaf. It would probably be more believable than deciding to side with her bully over her own mother though. At least my cynical side thinks so.


    I open wide my senses, to try to ascertain any duplicity from Leezahna as she decides her answer. Oddly enough, though she hesitates, and seems to put serious thought into it, she sighs and shakes her head before responding, ¡°I, I don¡¯t think it would work. I don¡¯t think they¡¯d give you the time of day, or listen to a word you say, without you being like you were with me. I don¡¯t want that. Please, please don¡¯t do that to Mother. I think, um, I think maybe I need to, to, to, glp. Um. I think I need to move out, show my independence. Then, then maybe if we talk, I mean me and her. Do you think, um, would¡ª. Does that sound like it could¡ª. I¡ª.¡±


    I try to gulp back my feelings. I¡¯m so proud of Leezahna. Holy crap. Fudge my feelings are caught in my throat, and weighing heavy in my chest. To think of a way to work it out on her own, a way that puts her at her most vulnerable, and throws her entire life into disarray, changing her entire¡ª. I¡¯d really like my heart to start beating again, and my feelings to exit my throat. This is painful. My right arm spasms and twitches. Dangit. I was hoping that RS2 would have gotten rid of this with the nerve changes.


    Sighing inwardly, I nod slowly at Leezahna with a raised eyebrow. I¡¯m not sure if I should offer her a hug. There¡¯s still the hint of underlying fury as she looks at me, a mild spark of disdain. What¡¯s more though is confusion, a sense of being lost and unsure how to proceed. This is someone that I doubt ever had thought of moving away from her parents or family before. In mount Solace, it¡¯s not so bad, since unlike human society, she doesn¡¯t need to apartment-hunt, or job-hunt, to be able to support herself, but it¡¯s still a massive change for her.


    Stutteringly, haltingly, Leezahna asks, ¡°Do, do, um, do you have¡ª. Is there room in, in, glp, the, the other mountain? A room? Um, could I. How do I earn a. I¡ª. I don¡¯t know how to¡ª. I¡¯m sorry. I should figure this out on my own, but, but I¡¯m scared, and, and angry at you, and¡ª.¡±


    I tense up at the idea of putting Leezahna exceedingly close to our most precious projects, and try not to show her how the idea sets me on edge. I need to display the compassion and trust that she deserves if she¡¯s really turning over this leaf. I have to be the me that I want to be, that I want to see. I have to be the me that offers the trust, even if it could truly destroy me if it bites me in the ass and backfires. I just, I can¡¯t be anyone else. I wouldn¡¯t be me. I want everyone to have the chances to seek their own happiness, so long as it doesn¡¯t tread on the happiness of others. I nod slowly at Leezahna, trying to work out how I¡¯m going to help her exactly.


    I feel more pride swell from Kinzul¡¯s emotional wavelength, and I nearly topple over from the mixture of emotions between Kinzul, Te, Lu, and Lucky. Farzee looks dubious, while Veril is, eh, being Veril. The goon is trying to figure out if he could date Leezahna if Farzee doesn¡¯t want their friendship to turn into romance. I try not to laugh at the poor young man¡¯s expense.


    Taking a deep, slow breath, I attempt to answer Leezahna¡¯s questions, ¡°We, well, we have the space to make a room, if that¡¯s truly what you¡¯d like. Would you prefer to be near books? Near the craftworks? Near lumber or metal or¡ª. I hesitate to ask if you¡¯d like to be near the gems, but I assume that you understand that they¡¯re for everyone, and they have to finish budding before anyone is allowed to harvest them. I¡¯m sorry if it sounds unfairly suspicious of you to not offer that, even if it¡¯s only a few hundred meters difference from other locations. When you were asking about earning, did you mean the room itself, or a living to be able to have things like furniture, and food?¡¯


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    After a quick gulp, she mutters, ¡°Um, the latter, and, and clothes, and books, and finery, and¡ª.¡±


    Well, she is still an upper-crust socialite. I can¡¯t expect her to drop all that over night. Still, how does one provide for oneself in a place that¡¯s so egalitarian, in order to distinguish oneself from the others? Well, in Mount Verdimenn, as long as she doesn¡¯t destroy it, the shop system can take care of that. If she¡¯s willing to put in some work. She could buy finer furniture than what¡¯s available for free for everyone from the infinite lumber warrens, through the shop system, if we can get the catalog working, so that we can see whose shop has what. I gnaw on the inside of my cheek, because it still seems almost too good to be true, that she wants to earn her way. I still want to nurture the possibility though, even if I¡¯m being played.


    Addressing Leezahna once more, I decide we¡¯re going to be making a detour to Mount Verdimenn after all, ¡°If you would like to come with us, I can show you something magical, something very, very, very important, that must be guarded at all costs, that could help you with what you want. Do you have a hobby? One that might be considered a craft, not simply socializing or reading. Even if you don¡¯t, are you willing to learn one? Whittling, or pottery, or carpentry, or forgeworks, or any number of things that turn resources into goods. Oh, even writing! Or even art or calligraphy! We have near limitless paper and ink and quills.¡±


    Leezahna perks up at the mention of writing, art, and calligraphy. They¡¯re far lower-stress jobs, that rely on creativity more than manual labor, so it makes sense that she¡¯d be more interested in those. I, I think we might actually be getting through to her. I think this might work. Please work. Please don¡¯t backfire. Please don¡¯t destroy the shop system or break the spawning warrens before they¡¯re done budding. My inner circle follows my lead, along with Farzee and Veril as well, since we don¡¯t have any specific time we¡¯re supposed to meet the strategists-eight, as they¡¯ll be at it all day.


    Taking a deep breath, I sigh slowly before flashing a warm, loving smile at Leezahna. She furrows her brow only momentarily, slightly feeling that ire for me that boils beneath the surface, but follows her reaction with involuntarily blushing, and averting her gaze. Her gaze checks to see if I¡¯m still smiling once, twice, and on the third time, she allows herself to smile demurely in my direction for the briefest of moments, almost abashedly so. I nod, knowing that I likely cause more negative emotions in her than positive ones.


    As we wind our way down towards Mount Verdimenn, I offer up, ¡°Leezahna. What I did hurt me to have done, but I understand that it must have hurt you terribly. I¡¯d like someday to ask for your forgiveness, but I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve earned it yet, so I don¡¯t expect it this soon. Hey Deli, hey Yer, you¡¯re both at it early, I take it good news?¡±


    Deli seems almost excited, and Yerjhro definitely seems excited, as Del responds, ¡°The best Schism! All the warrens, all the budding, overnight, hit maximum. We¡¯ve got volunteers trying to figure out how to mine all those legendary metals and precious gems as we speak. Hero, when I say we¡¯ve never seen the like, I can¡¯t even begin to do it justice. Though¡ª.¡±


    Deli waves me aside momentarily to speak more quietly, privately, ¡°I do suspect it has something to do with The Blue¡¯s passing. I¡¯m not sure how, or why, but I just get that feeling. The timing was too coincidental to actually be a coincidence. Still, everything is going smoothly, hell, going amazingly. We went from resources starting to dwindle, to eyes-bright unsure of how to even utilize it all. I figure start with picks, tools for the volunteers, sieves for gem sorting, and the like. Legendary for the tools that¡¯ll take punishment, mostly adamantite, simple metals for the less demanding things. You have any hard rules, or feedback?¡±


    I can¡¯t help how brightly I smile, and how quickly I alternate between smiling, and wearing a sad frown at the loss of the order¡¯s previous ¡°The Blue.¡± Still, it¡¯s easy enough to answer, ¡°At this point Deli, no more rules really, except don¡¯t go breaking the shop stall that makes this all possible. Maybe some extra security around it, so that the Queens can afford to take their eyes off of it once in a while. I¡¯m so grateful for your help. Also, I¡ª. What you did for¡ª.¡±


    Deli smiles and claps me on the shoulder, winking as she interrupts me, ¡°Think naught of it. I¡¯m sorry he¡¯d lost his dads, but the kid¡¯s becoming the light of my life Schism. I never, never really even dreamed I¡¯d get the chance. Thank *you* for everything you do Hero. I¡¯ll organize some smiths and other crafters to get some things done that I think I¡¯d heard you or yours mention in passing, and as always, I¡¯m glad to be at your service, whenever you¡¯ve a request or need of me. It seems like you have something pretty important to attend to, so I¡¯ll let you get back to it. Let me know how that goes over our first pint.¡±


    I can¡¯t help smiling at Deli as she slaps me hard on the shoulder while sending me back to my group. I can barely contain my excitement. This is it. This is worldbreaking levels of sustainability. We did it! Ahhh, we¡¯re going to be okay! We¡¯re going to be able to last through sieges, and, and we¡¯re going to have the best equipment, and we¡¯re going to have everyone be the best fed, and, and¡ª. Ahh!


    Lu and Te are beaming at me with pride, while Farzee gazes at me in shocked awe. Veril¡¯s a little caught up trying to decide if he should start romancing Leezahna before or after he verifies if Farzee might not end up wanting to take their friendship into romance. He doesn¡¯t want to blow his chances with Farzee, but he also doesn¡¯t want to pass up the chances with Leezahna if his relationship with Farzee isn¡¯t going to be of the romantic variety. I can kind of understand where he¡¯s coming from. He should *probably* learn to mask his emotions and hide his thought processes though. Farzee¡¯s a bit too caught up with everything else going on in her head to react to Veril¡¯s thoughts right now, and too in the middle of grieving to decide one way or another on progressing friendship into romance.


    Speaking of, as Farzee begins to cry, having overheard my internal monologue as Deli told me her suspicions about the timing of the projects, I rush to her side and offer her my embrace. She sinks into my embrace and cries on my shoulder and pectoral. Oh sweetheart. Poor Farzee. Cooing soft comforts into her left ear, I rest my nose in her hair upon her scalp. I stroke her hair and back, paying no mind to the¡ª. She¡¯s a very lovely woman, and needs comfort, and I don¡¯t need to make note of every point of contact. Leezahna actually looks at me with confusion, seeing me tenderly addressing the grief of our ¡°The Blue¡± after I¡¯d been so brutal to her.


    Farzee hiccups, and slowly, slowly pulls away from our embrace. She flashes me a mixed smile of gratitude, laced with utmost sadness. Eyeing me questioningly, I nod assent to whatever it is she needs or is thinking about, though I¡¯m pretty sure I know what it is. Yep. Gulping, I attempt to make sure that I convey only the kind of love and support that she needs, despite the sudden jealous flash from Veril as he witnesses Farzee expressing her gratitude.


    I draw a deep, slow breath after the kiss, smiling softly and nodding ever-just-so at Farzee. It¡¯s not romantic, it¡¯s simply the only way she knows how to be for now. She¡¯s not chasing me, nor I her, but I do love her all the same. Almost like the love one would have for, well, some relation, some blood family. Almost. Not quite. Regardless, we¡¯re going in a good direction with the friendship we¡¯d been building, and I think she and Veril are going in a good direction as well. Whether or not Veril wants to also possibly pursue romance with Leezahna.

 B 6 C 104: To Be

    Farzee goes to rest her head on Veril¡¯s, and he¡¯s suddenly stricken, as he dearly wants to take her closeness for more than it currently means. I see him fighting the excitement within himself as he embraces her warmly. He¡¯s trying to be the supportive friend she needs, but he¡¯s deeply enamored with her, and attracted to her. I can¡¯t say I don¡¯t know what it¡¯s like to be fighting off physical attraction to someone, or hell, even attraction to Farzee specifically. Still, I see the tears that both of these Dormies shed in each other¡¯s embraces, and I breathe deep, slow, sad sighs for them. They¡¯ll be okay. Eventually they¡¯re going to be okay.


    Leezahna approaches me and quietly, angrily mutters, ¡°I, I don¡¯t get how, how people love you. So many people seem to, when I hate you. I¡¯m. I¡¯m sorry that I hate you. I think. Not a lot makes sense right now. Will things start making sense again?¡±


    Oh wow. That hits like a punch to the gut. I know that feeling of nothing making sense quite well. Whispering softly, I respond, ¡°It¡¯s okay to hate me, or dislike me. I hurt you badly, and it was awful of me to do. Things will start to make sense as you find your own way in the world, your own way to be, and who you are, who you really are underneath it all. I¡¯ll be here if you need me, even if you don¡¯t like me. Leezahna, do you want hugs or physical reassurance, affection of any kind? Would you consent to me offering you hugs, despite your anger at me? You do not have to, at all, you are under no obligation, despite whatever you might think of me, or what I¡¯ve done. You don¡¯t owe me anything.¡±


    Leezahna flashes me a furrowed brow, which slowly morphs into a confused, almost sorrowful glance. She mumbles, ¡°I don¡¯t, I don¡¯t know. I think, I think the tra¡ª. Shit. Sorry. The *Red*. F^&*. Ixeyla. I swear, I¡¯m trying to, to¡ª. I, I learned, and, and I agree, and¡ª. She was kind to me. Nice to me, when everyone else abandoned me. I think maybe just her for now. Um, thank you. I think. Almost? Kind of? I¡ª. I don¡¯t get it. How you can love and be loved. You¡¯re, you¡¯re¡ª. I¡¯m sorry. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you so much. But, but you¡¯re right. I¡¯m so confused. I don¡¯t know who I am, but, but I can¡¯t find that out, if I live with Mother. I¡¯ll just, she¡¯ll just¡ª. Thank you for not hurting her, or killing me. You¡¯re a monster. But, I guess, maybe, sort of a kind one. Maybe.¡±


    That¡¯s about right, and what I expected from her. As I draw a deep breath, before I can respond, Leezahna adds, ¡°This, um, stuff, infinite, um. Am, am I allowed to¡ª. I mean, it¡¯s only fair, as a Dimineros, righ¡ª? Sorry. Shit. I see how awful that sounds now. What do I do to earn what I want?¡±


    Passing that deep breath out through puffed cheeks, I nod to myself at my assessment of the journey Leezahna is on. This could get to be pretty tough, giving her a home right here, right next to everything valuable. On the other hand, if she does start acting out, it¡¯ll be pretty easy to find her, and whatever she decides to claim as her own. Psheww. This is, phew, a hell of a tricky one. She seems to understand to not act out on her anger, her own inability to comprehend me, and so on. If I can just make a few more advancements on my projects, then I can afford to offer her this trust I¡¯m offering her, no matter what she does. I just¡ª. I need to get there. I fear Lu would be heartbroken if the shop was destroyed, with no way to repair it to its magical nature.


    I guess it¡¯s now or never though. She wants to know, so I¡¯ll take her to get some parchment, a quill, and ink, for now. Now that we¡¯ve got that, I start, ¡°Leezahna, if you want to write poetry or a letter that you¡¯re never going to send, or an idea you have, or draw calligraphy letters, or write a story, or anything, go ahead and use any of these supplies. If we ever run out, you¡¯ll have to buy your own, and I¡¯m about to show you how. Go ahead and start on something simple for now, something you can do fairly quickly, then I¡¯ll show you how to make the money that lets you get either more supplies, or whatever you want. Whatever you make will disappear, and be replaced with money, so if it¡¯s something you¡¯re proud of, make sure to make a copy of it first.¡±


    Stuttering, Leezahna responds, ¡°O-okay. Okay. Y-yes. I¡¯ll¡ª. I can do that. Is, um, there¡¯s nowhere¡ª. Can, can I go over there?¡±


    I nod at Leezahna as she spots furniture over in the craftworks area. Yeah, it¡¯s probably easier to do writing or drawing while sitting down at a table or desk. It might be one of the first things she¡¯ll want to buy, a stool or chair, then a desk. I¡¯ll try to make sure there¡¯s help on hand to be able to move her furniture into her new home for her. I guess we could make her home on this side of the library, since there¡¯s no space on the other side, but that does put her right next to our vaults. Will she think I¡¯m being overbearing? Glancing towards my inner circle, my querying glance is asking what they think, and if they¡¯d be willing to help. Leeza could go on to be quite a challenge if I don¡¯t handle this correctly.


    Lucky looses a very short, very quiet growl, almost a grumble with his tail completely still, but then whuffs affirmatively, his tail wagging as normal. So he¡¯s not happy about helping her out, but he¡¯s still happy to help out in general. I gnaw on my lip as I gaze down at Lucky with worry. Does he have any sort of foresight? Or is he mistrusting because she had a bad attitude? Or does he sense something else? Or does he just not like her, because she¡¯s a pretty woman who approached me while I was with Lu? I¡¯d chuckle a bit if it was the last one. Leeza is like a frightened little kid to me, I can¡¯t even comprehend the idea of her being a ¡°romantic threat¡± in any way, and that¡¯s not even counting the fact that we¡¯d have to heal a lot of hurt before we could even build a friendship.


    My Wings, Teuila wears a semi-grim expression as she shakes her head slowly, incredulously, muttering, ¡°Only you Airhead, only you. I think you did good. I¡¯m proud of you. You¡¯re going to take her into the shop next, right? Is she the last piece? Uh, that was insensitive. Not sure how better to phrase it though. Bluh, stupid emotional crap. Sorry.¡±


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    I flash a half smile at Teuila, somberness adorning the rest of my face as I nod and respond, ¡°I¡¯m going to do that, yeah, but no she¡¯s not the last shop owner we need, not entirely, not yet, but depending on what she has, we might already get to see catalogs. Don¡¯t worry My Wings, I know what you meant. Anyway, speaking about the shop owners, let me pull out the phone.¡±


    Drawing out the device, I realize I want to use it to capture pictures of my loved ones, especially my loved ones and myself together. I breathe through my nose, trying to push back waves of the fear of loss. Passing a slow sigh through my lips, I try to remain calm, though my lower jaw quivers. I know that in some ways, taking pictures would be admitting my fear, admitting that I think there¡¯s a possibility that some day, we might never see each other again. I guess¡ª. I guess it¡¯s okay to admit that I¡¯m afraid. I tell everyone else that. Right Reggie? Yeah, yeah you do buddy. It¡¯s okay to be scared. You want to hold on to them, and pictures would honor them if something did happen. It¡¯s okay pal. It¡¯s gonna be okay.


    Breathing deep and sighing again, I look towards Lu, who smiles sadly my way. With her eyes downcast, Luni mutters, ¡°I¡¯m sorry that you¡¯re not going to get to be friends with her. She¡¯s always going to resent you, always. But you did good, my Hero. I¡¯m so proud of you. Remember what I said though.¡±


    Hm, what was it? Not everything will go the way I want, or hope, but we¡¯ll make it through in the end? Or was it want or need? If not everything is going to go the way that I need, I should probably get some more backup contingencies¡ª. Luni shushes my mind with a, ¡°Bup bup, no guessing, it¡¯ll be okay. You¡¯ve got this. Always have, always will.¡±


    I can¡¯t help laughing a bit, feeling like somehow my relationship with Luni is reaching deep into our past, simultaneously strengthening, and expanding, despite the wear our relationship has been through. I stand before her, and once again, Lucky nudges me closer to her, but he needn¡¯t have. I pull her into my embrace and kiss her tenderly, lovingly. Lucky¡¯s tail wags as happily as anything. I fight the smirk at my son¡¯s response to be able to smile warmly into the kiss I share with Luni.


    Luni, rivers and June. Her name means both. I don¡¯t even know which languages those translations might be from. Perhaps Polynesian? It¡¯s Fakeworld stuff though. Still. It encapsulates so much of our lives, both of them. I sift my fingers through Luni¡¯s dark bob-with-bangs haircut to rest my forehead against hers. She presses warmly against me, ever so slightly closer, intentionally pressing her curves into more¡ª. I blush, as she intended to get me to do. Still, I can¡¯t help smiling at her. Te fidgets nearby, angry at herself for feeling needy and jealous again, but oddly, as I release Luni, it¡¯s Lu that Te strides towards to hug tightly. Luni¡¯s eyes sparkle and glee rides beneath the surface of her thoughts, but there¡¯s a certain mistrust, an unsurety. I¡¯m more and more suspicious, and more and more certain I know the answer Luni doesn¡¯t want me to find out, or to accidentally share with Teuila.


    Only a moment later, Teuila leaps at me, forcing me to catch her, even though she drops her gravity to nil. She peppers my face with kisses, until I can catch her lips with mine. Blushing and grinning at her, she offers me her derpy closed-eyed mile-wide grin as she bobs her head side to side. Leezahna returns, and mutters a query about what to do next. I pass a breath through puffed cheeks before yawning, and doing it again, trying to aim away from Leeza so she doesn¡¯t catch me and come to believe that it¡¯s in response to her. I flick my head towards the bunker that Vylon is snoozing up against in his dragon form, while Vyela keeps an eye on it. I motion Vyela to enter the dugout with the shop stall, just for that tiny bit of extra security, an extra mote of reason to be dissuaded from acting out.


    Flicking a glance towards Lu, and then flicking my eyebrows towards the shop stall, Luni giddily leaps behind the counter and begins, ¡°Hello traveler, how can I help you today? Are you looking to buy or sell?¡±


    Leezahna looks confused, so I mouth sell as she glances my way. She turns to Lu and answers that she¡¯d like to sell her writings. Luni motions to the counter, and Leezahna places them down. The writings begin derezzing, and a small stack of bills begins to rez into existence in their place. Later we can tell her that she can sell directly for gems, but for now, this is good enough. Leeza picks up the bills, still confused, unsure what they signify or what to do with them. There¡¯s a couple hundred dollars, so either the shop thought her penmanship was great, or poetry, or whatever she¡¯d written or drawn.


    I give her the tiniest of telekinetic nudges, and mouth buy. Leeza starts to brighten up as she asks, ¡°Could I, maybe buy, a really nice, soft chair? If, if possible, in Desinruth style, with satin lining, and brass trim.¡±


    I¡¯m more than a little surprised when a lovely chair with satin lining and brass trim materializes. That was more specific than I thought the shop could get. It is from Luni¡¯s shop though, so of course it¡¯s absolutely impeccable quality. Leezahna gasps and looks almost giddy momentarily before asking aloud, ¡°Is, is that mine? Can, can I keep that? Do I, is it, is¡ª, what even happened? How? Wh¡ª. Can I keep doing this?¡±


    Trying not to let my smile seem insincere, I nod and answer her questions, ¡°That is absolutely yours Leezahna, you earned it, one hundred percent. We¡¯ll help you move it into your new room. If Lucky and Lu don¡¯t mind, I¡¯ll have them dig and stoneshape it to your specifications, within reason. Please be considerate of their feelings and time. What happened is you earned money for your work or artistry, and you traded that money for a specific good. Not all shops from all people who stand behind the counter will have everything you ask for, but you lucked out this time. That¡¯s why I¡¯m going to ask you to please stand behind the counter, and greet us as if you were a shopkeeper, just for a moment, please, I beg you.¡±


    Leezahna looks at me warily, slightly grumpily, but then looks to the amazingly well-crafted chair, gnaws on her lip and slumps her shoulders momentarily. She then blushes, realizing she¡¯s seeming ungrateful, and scurries behind the counter to be the shopkeep we need. She strokes the chair and marvels at it momentarily before offering up a curt greeting.


    After putting down a large stack of one hundred dollar bills, I ask as I have been asking, ¡°I¡¯d like something that helps to allow me, Reggie Shellcracker, to determine the available shop catalogs.¡±


    I¡¯m a tad surprised when many *thousands* of dollars begin derezzing. I suppose the quality, and size of the goods is to be expected at that price.

 B 6 C 105: Getting

    That¡¯s a till, or shop register, cash register, with an NFC attachment. That over there is a laser copy machine with an NFC attachment as well. There¡¯s reams of paper, and toner cartridges. Huff. Phew, this, this is insane. Grr Fakeworld, why? Still, still I think this might do it. The other names might not be necessary, at least not for all shops. Perhaps certain individual shops. I hastily wave Lu and Lucky and Leezahna out as I begin setting up. I levitate Leezahna¡¯s chair out to her, and remind her to be kind to Luni and Lucky as she has them making a home for her.


    I hear Leeza start, ¡°I¡¯d, I¡¯d like a big open floor plan for the main area, and a private bedroom, with a walk-in closet, and maybe marble columns, and¡ª. I, I, Schism said, I¡ª. I guess I can earn the columns, and maybe get some help with them, maybe, sometime? Then over there¡ª.¡±


    She trails off, describing what might be her little dream home cave to Lu and Lucky. While they¡¯re busy with that, Vyela offers me her usual, ¡°Hmn,¡± while Te helps me make room for the copying machine, and I utilize a bit of stone elemental magic to do some reshaping to make more room in the dugout, so that I can bring the big battery banks down in here, so that I can plug in all these machines.


    I¡¯m giddy, I¡¯m almost ecstatic. If, if any of the shops have the magical equipment to reproduce the shop stalls, or, or, or shop stalls themselves, or, I don¡¯t even know what, there¡¯s so many possibilities. Possibilities that might be able to save the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian aura even if someone destroys this stall, or generate a new one, or, or so many things. Hooking things up, I begin booting up all the devices, but now I¡¯m a bit struck. How are the *devices* going to know who¡¯s behind the sho¡ª.


    I flip through the notes in the phone, and there¡¯s one with nine digit codes assigned to hundreds, maybe thousands of names. I rush to the copier to try to figure out how to get it to print that specific note. It¡¯s rather intuitive, just leave the phone on the NFC hotspot, and use the touch-screen interface to find the file-name of what you¡¯d like to print out. I¡¯m vibrating with anticipation. The names are all alphabetical, and I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s everyone we could possibly have gotten to run the shop for us, since it includes people who¡¯ve perished like Aymeshtu. I hesitate to leave the sheet with her name on it in the stack, but¡ª. Te offers me a sad frown and nods. In case some of these other names are people who live in Mount Solace, who might want to utilize the system, I¡¯d better leave the sheet in the stack.


    Either I, or Nala, will get this printout bound, and we¡¯ll put in tabs to indicate the letter cutoffs, so people can flip to their letter more easily. I¡¯m pretty sure binders and binder tabs are easy enough to get out of the shop system at this point. Thankfully, there¡¯s an option for three-hole-punching the printouts as they occur, and I selected that one, as well as double-siding, though maybe I shouldn¡¯t have chosen that, since it makes the sheets busier, and a little harder to parse quickly and easily.


    Still, with this¡ª, oh wow. I think I don¡¯t even need to have all of these people show up. I think¡ª. I think with Lu, or Kinzul behind the counter, if we plug in their nine digit code, we can drum up anyone¡¯s shop inventory. Or, or maybe even without them? Just, just let¡¯s just see mine first. I hunt down my code in the Rs. Of effing course it is. I start laughing, cackling even. It¡¯s nine zeroes. Hahahah. Teuila giggles along with me, and even Vyela snorts once as she notices, and easily puts two and two together. The Void Dragon Honoris Causa is all null digits.


    Oh my gosh, oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. My heart rate is so frantic, I feel like I¡¯m going to pass out. Teuila nudges me playfully, bopping me softly on the head, slugging me gently in the shoulder, and slapping me ever so lightly on my cheek. I try to calm myself, to breathe deeply. Te smiles proudly at me, not entirely sure what everything is, but trusting that my excitement means we¡¯ve succeeded at something important. I¡ª. I need to commemorate this. Maybe a selfie with Teuila. Te¡ª. She¡¯s at my side, and posing towards where I¡¯ll hold the phone.


    How do you know what a selfie is? Whatever, it¡¯s fine. I ask Vyela, ¡°Would you want to be in a commemorative photo of this partial success of our endeavor? Ah, erm, no problem.¡±


    I probably should have expected the confused brow and the eyeroll from Vyela. Still, I snag a selfie with Teuila, and I¡¯m blown away, both by the quality, and just, just the ability to capture a moment. I have a picture with my beloved Wings. She looks so happy, and excited for me to be as excited as I am. My eyes wet with tears as I hug the phone to my chest. Te rolls her eyes and shoulder bashes me playfully, reminding me that she¡¯s still right next to me.


    I¡¯m beginning to pant a bit exhaustedly, hyperventilating from the excitement. Okay Reggie, calm down. Get it together. Punch in my code, stand behind the shop. Hand the phone to Te so she can hold it near the NFC attachment. Alright, let¡¯s see what shows up on the phone. I¡ª. I don¡¯t recognize that filetype. I mean, why would I? But still¡ª. I frown and furrow my brow. I can¡¯t open that type of file on my phone as far as I¡¯m aware. Do I need a PC, and conversion software? I wonder if the copier knows that filetype.


    Let¡¯s see, is there some sort of note detailing¡ª. Okay, here we go. Non-keyed sequential file. Something something AS400, RPG, COBOL, printable! Okay, okay, okay, calm down. Phew, huff, phew. NFC up to the copier, select the¡ª. Huh. Print source, or result? Well, I guess the source would be just like, code and formatting, and the result would be the actual catalog, or database. Huh. I¡¯m curious about the source, but it says it¡¯s something like a thousand seventy one pages. Or wait, there¡¯s like a line space between the digits that looks like it could hide an entire extra digit, is that ten thousand seventy one? Jeebez. The results are only a few pages. As curious as I am about the source code, I really don¡¯t want to waste ten thousand pages and that much toner.


    Okay, okay, okay. Results it is. What¡¯s this? Standard plus the following, plus unlock¡ªable? I, I definitely didn¡¯t expect this, and I don¡¯t even know what the standard is. Is that just the stuff that everyone was able to sell infinite of back home on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas more or less? Produce mostly, as well as wooden goods, and so on. The really general items that almost every shop seemed to carry an infinite supply of. Perhaps every shop.


    So these are my expanded inventory beyond the standard eh? Huh.


    Mermaid''s Tear


    Crystal Ball with Stand


    Mechanical Gauntlet


    Potions and Brews Recipe Book


    Vintage Diving Helmet


    Spellbound Tarot Deck


    Ancient Egyptian Ankh


    Dragon Claw Letter Opener


    Victorian Phantom Masks


    Time-Traveler''s Pocket Watch


    Werewolf Fur Rug


    Egyptian Hieroglyphics Decoder


    Mechanical Music Box


    Wishing Well Coin Collection


    Enchanted Forest Canvas Art


    Vintage Spyglass Telescope


    Phoenix Feather Quill Pen


    Timeless Hourglass


    Gilded Renaissance Mirror


    Dragon Claw Bookends


    Atlantean Crystal Orb


    Alchemist''s Mortar and Pestle


    Magical Grimoire


    Goggles with Gears


    Potion of Invisibility


    Viking Rune Stones Set


    Victorian Cameo Brooch


    Enchanted Snow Globe


    Elven Leaf Fragment


    Rustic Pirate Treasure Chest


    Time Traveler''s Top Hat


    Vintage World Map


    Crystal Healing Wand


    Antique Brass Compass


    Faerie Wing Hair Clip


    Egyptian Scarab Amulet


    Mechanical Pocket Watch Necklace


    Leprechaun''s Lucky Coin


    Renaissance Knight Chess Set


    Celtic Knot Leather Journal


    Fairy Garden Miniature Set


    Vintage Phonograph Gramophone


    Unicorn Horn Pendant


    Ancient Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet


    Egyptian Cat Statue


    Fortune Teller''s Crystal Ball


    Aztec Sun Stone Calendar


    Mechanical Clockwork Bird


    Werewolf Moon Phase Calendar


    Enchanted Forest Incense Burner


    Potion of Love Elixir


    Samurai Warrior Armor Miniature


    Rustic Celtic Knot Wall Art


    Airship Model


    Greek Mythology Tarot Cards


    Magical Fairy Dust Bottles


    Viking Ship Figurine


    Phoenix Rising Tapestry


    Egyptian Pyramid Puzzle Box


    Astral Projection Guidebook


    Enchanted Crystal Pendant


    Antique Skeleton Key Set


    Pocket Watch Stand


    Haunted House Candle Holder


    Celtic Druid''s Staff


    Wizard''s Potion Cauldron


    Victorian Opera Glasses


    Mythical Creature Wood Carvings


    Pirate Ship in a Bottle


    Fairy Tale Pop-Up Book


    Dreamcatcher Amulet Necklace


    Egyptian Papyrus Scroll


    Gear Bracelet


    Crystal Energy Charging Plate


    Vintage Compass Watch


    Antique Vampire Hunter Kit


    Fairy Tale Storybook Collection


    Dragon''s Eye Gemstone


    Fortune Teller''s Crystal Ball Stand


    Pirate Treasure Map Puzzle


    Time Traveler''s Journal


    Vintage Crystal Decanter Set


    Magical Firefly Jar


    Airship Blueprint


    Egyptian Scarab Bracelet


    Unicorn Tapestry Throw Blanket


    Mermaid Song Music Box


    Antique World Globe


    Mystic Tarot Cloth


    Viking Drinking Horn


    Mechanical Cogwheel Wall Clock


    Sorcerer''s Crystal Ball Stand


    Renaissance Court Jester Doll


    Egyptian Ankh Keychain


    Fairy Tale Pop-Up Card Set


    Astronomical Pocket Watch


    Aviator Goggles


    Celtic Knot Amulet


    Unicorn Enamel Pin


    Alchemist''s Elixir Crafting Set


    A¡ª. A time traveler¡¯s journal!? I shout though Te is right next to me, ¡°Teuila, quick, quick buy from my shop, a time traveler¡¯s journal!¡±


    Teuila starts to chide me for shouting, but her eyes fly wide in realization. There¡¯s also a time traveler¡¯s top-hat, and time traveler¡¯s pocket watch, but I¡¯m not exactly a top-hat kind of person, and I don¡¯t see a pocket watch being as helpful as information. My heart skips beats as I rush back to the other side of the stall to greet Teuila, ¡°Hello my utterly beloved, ultra wonderful customer, please, let me serve you today. How may I be of service?¡±


    Te looses a Shellcracker Family Squee at my over-the-top¡¯ness of my shopkeep introduction, but after a short laugh, she simply responds, ¡°One time traveler¡¯s journal please.¡±


    I gulp, waiting with bated breath as the money on the counter derezzes out, while a journal rezzes in. If, if anything could contain a clue on how to save Kinzul, it would be this. Right? This has to be it. Right? Please. Please be it. I can¡¯t grab it, so Te has to grab it for me, and she¡¯s tantalizingly teasingly keeping it out of my reach. I¡¯m tempted to telekinetically grab it from her, but I don¡¯t want to spoil her fun, or hurt her feelings. I shouldn¡¯t be in quite so much of a rush anyway. Plus, she could read it herself.


    Checking out the journal, Teuila mutters, ¡°Erm, actually, no I can¡¯t. It¡¯s some kinda mooney runies. Bah. When did you learn to write like this? They aren¡¯t even Rayileklian runes.¡±


    I gulp, apprehensive, because I didn¡¯t, I¡¯ve never seen them before. My translation enchantment gets to work though. Wait, are these Hiragana? Or maybe Katakana? Or traditional Chinese? What the everliving¡ª. Okay, okay, calm down, let¡¯s read, hm, hm¡ª. I, I don¡¯t think this is about me, or by me. It, it seems like a piece of fiction. I mean, not like it¡¯s unbelievable or out there or wild or anything, it¡¯s just written more like a story rather than an actual journal. Like, seriously, time traveler¡¯s log, star date yada yada. Plus, it¡¯s mostly about planets in some galactic quadrant or something or other. What the hell?


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    My heart plummets into my stomach, my excitement suddenly abated. Huff. I sigh slowly, and breathe deeply, weeping at the loss of the possibility to save Kinzul. I, I shouldn¡¯t have gotten my hopes up. This does however also end up making me doubt that anything else in here that happens to sound marvelous, actually is marvelous. Like a phoenix-feather quill pen? It¡¯s probably just colored orange or something. A magical grimoire? It¡¯s probably just a fake or empty spellbook. Still, I guess maybe it¡¯s worth snagging them to check them out. Some things are ridiculously high-priced, which leads me to believe that they might actually be magic items. I¡¯m not even sure we can afford to be buying the ones with prices like that. There¡¯s so many zeroes. We¡¯ve got tons of cash, sure, but we¡¯re not infinitillionaires.


    My eyes gloss over as I try to read my shop¡¯s inventory again and again. I beg Vyela to find her number, and punch it in, and Teuila to try hers, to snag the files onto the phone while I¡¯m reading. I¡¯m pretty sure I could just enter them myselves. Erm, myself, bluh, I¡¯m discombobulated from the let-down. Anyway, I might be wrong about being able to enter them myself. It may be more like a sort of combined digital-biological password lock thing that unlocks a certain file when the person whose passcode is punched in, stands behind the counter.


    Still, this information about unlockables leads me to believe we might be able to find people whose shops can contain entire smartphones, fully constructed and charged, or something like that. We¡¯d just have to do whatever task happens to unlock them. What are the conditions on my unlockables? Something something, a thousand sales over fifty dollars. Bluh. It sounds like it¡¯ll produce a new file after I perform some very videogamey achievement style things, and that file will be my unlocked additional inventory. Oy vey. Friggin¡¯ hell. Genre senses are going wild about all this. That one might even have another set of achievements for even more unlocks. Hah. Ugh.


    So much of this stuff sounds like basically cosplay or maybe just intricate costume jewelry or nonsense patterned in ways or named in ways to sound impressive. Hm, Te¡¯s list? Similar. Hell it even has another time traveler¡¯s journal, for a different price. Ugh. Should we even bother? Still¡ª. If there¡¯s any chance, that one of them might be my own, we should take it, right? It¡¯s eight minutes, and we could just snag a bunch of the affordable stuff at once. What all does Te have?


    Moonlit Enchantress Perfume


    Enchanted Evergreen Wreath


    Celestial Crystal Pendant


    Dragon''s Eye Gemstone


    Starlight Elixir


    Timeless Hourglass


    Gilded Fantasy Mirror


    Faerie Whisper Candles


    Ocean''s Song Seashell Necklace


    Ancient Rune Stones


    Mystical Moonstone Ring


    Vintage Locket of Secrets


    Crystal Healing Wand


    Mermaid Tear Fragment


    Enchanted Forest Incense


    Astral Projection Guidebook


    Phoenix Feather Quill


    Serenity Seraph Figurine


    Enchanted Unicorn Figurine


    Time Traveler''s Journal


    Dragonfire Amber Bracelet


    Celestial Zodiac Tapestry


    Sorcerer''s Spellbook


    Crystal Ball with Stand


    Starfall Amulet


    Whimsical Music Box


    Elemental Potion Vials


    Dreamcatcher Wall Art


    Enchanted Oak Wand


    Mystic Moon Phases Wall Hanging


    Vintage Zodiac Constellation Map


    Enchanted Forest Canvas Art


    Celestial Telescope


    Magic Broomstick


    Wishing Well Coin Collection


    Alchemist''s Mortar and Pestle


    Mystical Tarot Deck


    Rustic Dreamcatcher


    Crystal Energy Charging Plate


    Enchanted Crystal Skull


    Moonlit Garden Lanterns


    Mermaid''s Lagoon Perfume


    Dragonfly Wing Fragment


    Celestial Star Fragment


    Ancient Egyptian Scarab Bracelet


    Timekeeper''s Pocket Watch


    Enchanted Sapphire Ring


    Starry Night Sky Projection


    Ocean Waves Sound Machine


    Serpent Serenade Bracelet


    Moonstone Amulet


    Enchanted Serpent Ring


    Vintage Treasure Map


    Crystal Dragon Figurine


    Celestial Moon Mirror


    Mystic Amethyst Cluster


    Enchanted Crystal Key


    Faerie Wings Hairpin


    Dragon Claw Necklace


    Timeless Pocket Watch Necklace


    Mermaid Song Music Box


    Celestial Moon Phase Wall Art


    Astral Traveler''s Guidebook


    Enchanted Moonflower Crown


    Mystical Moon Phase Mirror


    Dreamweaver Quilted Blanket


    Crystal Lotus Incense Holder


    Phoenix Rising Tapestry


    Ocean Tides Seashell Set


    Serenity Bath Salts


    Moonstone Crystal Ball Stand


    Enchanted Rose Amulet


    Dragon Claw Letter Opener


    Celestial Stargazer Globe


    Starry Night Constellation Globe


    Crystal Faerie Figurine


    Timekeeper''s Desk Clock


    Serpent Serenade Gambeson


    Ocean Breeze Scented Oil


    Moonlit Forest Wall Hanging


    Mystic Moonlight Candle Holders


    Enchanted Star Bracelet


    Celestial Moon Phase Journal


    Dragonfire Elixir Flask


    Ancient Egyptian Ankh Necklace


    Timeless Steampunk Pocket Watch


    Enchanted Oak Tree Figurine


    Faerie Dust Sparkler Wand


    Starfall Crystal Chandelier


    Ocean Mist Reed Diffuser


    Moonlit Serenity Oil Burner


    Celestial Zodiac Bracelet


    Dragonfly Dance Wall Art


    Enchanted Crystal Skull Necklace


    Timeless Hourglass Pendant


    Serpent Serenade Ring


    Ocean Treasure Chest Box


    Celestial Crescent Moon Fragment


    Dragon''s Breath Potion


    Crystal Vortex Amulet


    Huh. Te¡¯s does have a Dragon¡¯s Breath Potion though, and I know those exist, and that she has used one in the past. During¡ª. During our last fight against Olashax in The Gap. I bite my lips, and scrunch my eyes to fight back my tears. Gulp. I fight my sadness and gulp back my emotions so as not to burden Teuila with the memories of that period of our Rayileklian journey.


    Some of these items almost sound like, well, like set items from a massively multiplayer roleplaying game. Like, they might seem like cheap costumes or accessories upon purchase, but what if we find all the items in a set, and wearing them actually does confer magic? Ugh, some of them are so friggin¡¯ expensive, I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s worth it to try until we start getting our own wealth generation going on. I¡¯d prefer to get some extra shop stalls, and maybe see if we can automate them without needing someone standing behind them. Then possibly start a bit of an assembly line that takes some resources, turns them into goods, and automatically sells them. Snag that wealth to get more resources, or just wait for them to respawn, or whatever.


    I don¡¯t want to accidentally blow all our wealth before we find out something like the magical tools that could help us make more shop stalls end up costing like umpteen quintillion gold pieces or something. Deep breaths Reggie, keep at it. It¡¯s still progress. I don¡¯t know when we¡¯ll ever have time to do a thousand transactions of over fifty dollars in value, unless we get like five hundred people here at once, to each do two transactions. Y¡¯know. Because doing them one at a time would be eight thousand minutes or so, and that¡¯s, that¡¯s just far too long to invest during the war. I know Reggie, I know. It¡¯s okay, we¡¯ll get through this, we¡¯ll secure things.


    I guess this is one of the reasons Lu said I might not get what I want or need though. The Time Traveler¡¯s Journal was a bust. Definitely not what I need to be able to save Kinzul. Alright, alright, let¡¯s see what Vyela¡¯s inventory is while we¡¯re here, then try to pick out what¡¯s worth purchasing. My eyes are hurting as I try to take in all of these items and lists. So far all of them have said standard plus the following, with like a hundred item list or so, plus a mystery file of unlockables after a list of achievements. Here¡¯s Vyela¡¯s.


    Royal Scepter of Eternity


    Moonlit Palace Tapestry


    Enchanted Crystal Tiara


    Dragon''s Tear Gemstone


    Celestial Starfire Necklace


    Timeless Royal Hourglass


    Gilded Royal Mirror


    Serenity of the Crown Candles


    Ocean''s Embrace Opalescent Shell Necklace


    Royal Elixir of Youth


    Mystical Moonlit Chalice


    Vintage Royal Locket


    Crystal Heart of the Queen


    Mermaid''s Lagoon Perfume


    Enchanted Palace Incense


    Astral Crown Jewel


    Phoenix Feather Quill Pen


    Serpent''s Serenade Bracelet


    Ocean Breeze Scented Oil


    Royal Timekeeper''s Pocket Watch


    Dragonfire Amber Fragment


    Celestial Crested Tapestry


    Regal Queen''s Robes


    Crystal Ball of Prophecy


    Starfall Crown Amulet


    Whispers of the Throne Music Box


    Elemental Harmony Fragment


    Royal Dragon Figurine


    Enchanted Orchid Crown


    Mystical Queen''s Journal


    Vintage Regal Map


    Enchanted Royal Forest Art


    Celestial Observatory Telescope


    Majestic Regal Scepter


    Ancient Royal Crown Jewels


    Timeless Queen''s Pocket Watch


    Mystic Sapphire Amulet


    Whimsical Royal Mask


    Crystal Chalice of Wisdom


    Enchanted Crystal Crest


    Moonlit Queen''s Lanterns


    Regal Lavender Perfume


    Dragon Crested Tapestry


    Celestial Star Bracelet


    Royal Phoenix Figurine


    Timeless Crowned Hourglass


    Enchanted Sapphire Ring


    Serpent Serenade Fragment


    Regal Crested Key


    Ocean Starlight Fragment


    Moonstone Queen''s Mirror


    Enchanted Rose Scepter


    Vintage Royal Scroll


    Crystal Dragonfly Brooch


    Celestial Moonlit Crown


    Whispers of the Throne Candle Holders


    Regal Serpent Crown


    Royal Moon Phase Necklace


    Enchanted Royal Rose


    Mystical Crowned Crystal Ball Stand


    Serenity of the Crown Bath Salts


    Moonlit Queen''s Perfume


    Dragonfire Crested Bracelet


    Celestial Star Pendant


    Timeless Queen''s Desk Clock


    Enchanted Orchid Fragment


    Royal Timekeeper''s Pendant


    Serpent''s Serenade Necklace


    Ocean''s Embrace Seashell Necklace


    Moonstone Crowned Amulet


    Regal Phoenix Bracelet


    Crystal Crested Bookends


    Celestial Moon Phase Journal


    Enchanted Rose Necklace


    Timeless Crowned Pocket Watch


    Royal Moonlit Wall Art


    Mystic Queen''s Tarot Deck


    Whimsical Royal Tea Set


    Ocean''s Embrace Opalescent Shell Fragment


    Serpent Serenade Ring


    Moonlit Queen''s Oil Burner


    Regal Crystal Hairpin


    Dragon''s Tear Fragment


    Celestial Crown Jewel Box


    Enchanted Rose Amulet


    Timeless Queen''s Ring


    Royal Moonlit Chalice


    Serenity of the Crown Keychain


    Ocean Starlight Wall Hanging


    Mystic Queen''s Crystal Ball


    Serpent''s Serenade Bracelet


    Moonlit Palace Wall Mirror


    Enchanted Sapphire Necklace


    Regal Crown Crested Comb


    Celestial Moon Phase Wall Art


    Timeless Queen''s Necklace


    Royal Dragon Crest


    Ocean''s Embrace Perfume


    Whispers of the Throne Incense


    Enchanted Royal Gemstone


    Hm, let¡¯s do an experiment, and try to print out someone that we know. Let¡¯s just try Burshis, early enough in the alphabet. It seems to be working. So apparently anyone with a smartphone who has access to the codes can at least get the list. I wonder if the individual even needs to stand behind the counter to purchase from them. Maybe they won¡¯t get achievement progress towards their unlocks, if people purchase while they aren¡¯t attending the shop? Or what if when we purchase select limited items from their shop without them here, that if they would have had enchantments, they don¡¯t have the enchantment? That would be awful. Gnawing at my lip once more, I lean over the counter from the customer side, and punch in my own code. Or worse, what if like, I punch in my own code, and because I¡¯m the seller, and the buyer, the items will rez in, and permanently sit here forever, uninteractable by anyone?


    Gulping, a bit apprehensive to even learn what happens, I call out to no one, ¡°Hello, um, shop system? Me? I would like to purchase an alchemist¡¯s elixir crafting kit, as well as the crystal healing wand, from Reggie Shellcracker, code 000000000¡¯s shop please.¡±


    Hm, there¡¯s a pleasant tingle in my¡ª. I¡¯m leveling up my shopkeep skill or something. Somehow. I start to hyperventilate as my eyes fly wide. Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, it¡¯s, it¡¯s here somehow, parts of it! The crafting kit rezzes in along with the wand as another wad of hundred dollar bills derezzes. I, I don¡¯t know what this means. We don¡¯t even need the people to be at the shop? Well, I was technically here when I bought from myself. Whew, I can at least grab the items.


    The crystal healing wand has an aura, and it¡ª. Haha. Of course. It heals crystals. It¡¯s even less effective than my mending spell. It only works on absolutely tiny abrasions in crystals, or a few small cracks can be repaired by it. But it is mana-free, and limitless. I guess it could help if someone screws up when gem-cutting if they¡¯re doing enchanted jewelrycrafting.


    I should try someone who isn¡¯t here. Let¡¯s look at Burshis¡¯s printout. Heck, let¡¯s print out her partner Nietru DeValor¡¯s as well. What¡¯s in Nietru¡ª! Holy crap! Holy crap holy crap holy crap holy crap!!

 B 6 C 106: Hurt

    Burshis¡¯s kit, her, her available, um, shop whatsit, the thingy, the inventory, it, it sounds like, like mundane things, like actual, real, usable things, not with fancy fake fantasy names. Nietru¡¯s though, it sounds like tools. Lots and lots of tools that might actually contain magic. Quick, quick, dig through them, come on, come on, come on. Please please please please.


    Enchanted Woodcarving Knife


    Crystal-Infused Paintbrush Set


    Mystical Embroidery Thread Collection


    Dragonfire Forge Anvil


    Celestial Starlight Loom


    Alchemist''s Potion Mixing Cauldron


    Enchanted Quill of Infinite Ink


    Elemental Gemstone Chisel Set


    Whimsical Fairy Dust Glitter


    Timeless Tapestry Loom


    Potion of Endless Creativity


    Gilded Gold Leaf Kit


    Dragon Scale Sewing Needles


    Celestial Moonstone Calligraphy Set


    Enchanted Sculpting Clay


    Phoenix Feather Quill Pen


    Ancient Rune Carving Tools


    Starlight Inkwell of Inspiration


    Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Carpentry Kit


    Time-Traveling Sketchbook


    Crystal Epoxy Resin Kit


    Steampunk Leatherworking Tools


    Enchanted Glassblowing Pipe


    Elemental Crystal Engraving Set


    Alchemist''s Potion Crafting Kit


    Whimsical Woodburning Set


    Dragonfire Pottery Kiln


    Celestial Moonlight Knitting Needles


    Vintage Thread Spool Organizer


    Timeless Engraving Hammer


    Potion of Artistic Vision


    Gilded Calligraphy Ink Set


    Dragon Claw Quilting Hoop


    Celestial Constellation Embosser


    Enchanted Alchemist''s Mortar and Pestle


    Phoenix Feather Pencil Set


    Ancient Rune Stamping Kit


    Starlight Charcoal Sketch Set


    Faerie Wings Stencil Collection


    Time-Traveler''s Weaving Loom


    Crystal Jewelry Making Kit


    Steampunk Metalworking Tools


    Enchanted Needle Felting Kit


    Elemental Gemstone Faceting Set


    Alchemist''s Enchanting Ink Kit


    Whimsical Papercrafting Supplies


    Dragonfire Enameling Kiln


    Celestial Moonlight Embroidery Hoop


    Vintage Paint Tube Organizer


    Timeless Leather Tool Set


    Potion of Color Harmony


    Gilded Quill and Ink Set


    Dragon Scale Embroidery Scissors


    Celestial Moonstone Seal Set


    Enchanted Pottery Wheel


    Phoenix Feather Ink Brush Set


    Ancient Rune Casting Molds


    Starlight Sketching Charms


    Faerie Wings Glitter Glue


    Time-Traveler''s Calligraphy Set


    Crystal Bead Embellishments


    Steampunk Metal Etching Kit


    Enchanted Glass Etching Cream


    Elemental Gemstone Polishing Kit


    Alchemist''s Magical Inkwell


    Whimsical Scrapbooking Supplies


    Dragonfire Jewelry Soldering Kit


    Celestial Moonlight Crochet Hooks


    Vintage Sewing Machine


    Timeless Engraved Wood Block Set


    Potion of Masterful Creations


    Gilded Illumination Set


    Dragon Claw Embroidery Frame


    Celestial Star Gouache Set


    Enchanted Crystal Sculpting Set


    Phoenix Feather Drawing Charcoal


    Ancient Rune Metal Stamps


    Starlight Watercolor Set


    Faerie Wings Craft Punches


    Time-Traveler''s Carving Kit


    Crystal Resin Casting Kit


    Steampunk Gear Stamps


    Enchanted Embroidery Floss


    Elemental Gemstone Wire Wrapping Kit


    Alchemist''s Magical Invisible Ink


    Whimsical Rubber Stamping Set


    Dragonfire Stained Glass Kit


    Celestial Moonlight Cross-Stitch Set


    Vintage Button Assortment


    Timeless Leather Burnishing Set


    Potion of Artistic Inspiration


    Gilded Embossing Powder Set


    Dragon Scale Embroidery Needles


    Celestial Moonstone Inkwell


    Enchanted Pottery Glazing Kit


    Phoenix Feather Charcoal Pencils


    Ancient Rune Engraving Tools


    Starlight Watercolor Brushes


    Faerie Wings Calligraphy Ink


    Time-Traveler''s Magical Sewing Kit


    Leaping high into the air, I scream, ¡°Yes!¡± at the top of my lungs, startling Teuila and Vyela. I need to kiss the hell out of Nietru DeValor. Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Carpentry Kit. Quick, quick, okay, that¡¯s about four-hundred grand, wow, but that¡¯s fine. Hopefully, gulp, hopefully it¡¯s as powerful as Sugar¡¯s carpentry crafting kit from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and can actually make the enchanted buildings. Friggin¡¯ hell, gods, if, if, if, if this is real, if these are real, if any of these things in Nietru¡¯s shop, but especially the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian tools actually contain enchantments, I¡ª. I owe her everything that happens next.


    Okay, okay, okay. If, um, but, well, if¡ª. Fudgeknuckles. Right, right, um, begin the myconid transformation maybe? It¡¯s got my crafting skill baked in. We need a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian crafting skill to be able to utilize the tools if they¡¯re like Sugar¡¯s. The shops didn¡¯t come about until she had like at least a hundred skill or something, and I¡¯ve easily got at least that much, but I don¡¯t know if anyone else does. I can¡¯t remember offhand, because I¡¯m just, I¡¯m just, I¡¯m¡ª. Calm down Reggie, breathe. It¡¯s exciting, and nerve-wracking, and there¡¯s a lot of options to explore. Literally hundreds of thousands of items across all the residents of Mount Solace, and everyone you¡¯ve met on your Rayileklian journey so far. Take it easy. Things should fall into place. I¡¯m distracting myself from actually making the purchase, but I¡¯m breathing so hard.


    Hyperventilating until I can calm my breathing, I agree with myself. That¡ª. That¡¯s just weird. Teuila snirks as she reads my mental monologue, and can¡¯t help giggling after a bit. I manage to chuckle as I slow my breathing. Phew, deep breath Reggie, in, and out, in, and out. Wait, there was a hint, with the tingle. The only reason, ah. Okay, I get it. The only reason I¡¯m able to buy from the shops without the participant actually being the one punching in their code, standing behind the stall, is because of my weird dual digital critterkin-adjacent nature. No one else could¡ª. Dangit all Reggie. I know, I know. It falls to me again.


    Huff. I breathe deeply, and sigh easily as deeply, before my sigh morphs into a yawn. No one else can do it all as fast as you, or even at all without you, unless they coordinate with everyone else. Like, literally everyone. It, um, it seems¡ª. I sniffle. Aloud, still sniffling, I mumble, ¡°It seems like I can even purchase from the, sniff¡ª. The shops of the deceased. I¡ª. I don¡¯t have the heart to look. I¡ª. Te. Teuila, I can¡¯t.¡± I begin crying my heart out. Teuila gulps as she frantically flips through to the Ds alphabetically in the code listing.


    Te gulps, sniffles, and mutters, ¡°Oh my Airhead, my Air. It¡¯s¡ª, she¡¯s here. She¡¯s here. I¡ª. Let¡¯s buy something. Please. From her shop. Quick.¡±


    Teuila quickly punches in Dawn¡¯s code, snags the phone, grabs the file from the till, and passes it to the copier, printing out Dawn¡¯s inventory. Vyela¡¯s eyes bulge as she asks, ¡°Purchasing from the deceased? Someone you¡¯ve lost? That¡ª. That is impressive Schism. I wouldn¡¯t¡ª. Hmn.¡±


    I flash a furtive, saddened smile towards Vyela as I nod. Inhaling a shuddering breath, and loosing it just as shudderingly, I pick myself up to do what Teuila requests. I nod at her, mumbling, ¡°Name it, name anything. I don¡¯t care what it costs, even if it screws us out of everything else for a while. Anything Te.¡±


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    Gulping, Te glances through the inventory list quickly, and decides just as quickly, ¡°I¡ª, I think, the, glp. I think the Amulet of the Timeless Woman¡¯s Memories. I think, because, because she, she got known as timeless, ageless, unaging, stuff. Right Air? She did, right? That one. Please babe, please. It¡¯s, um, wow, a hundred grand, no, wait, a million, that¡¯s a lot of zeroes. Please babe, please. Air, I, if I have to, I¡¯ll¡ª.¡±


    Cooing, whispering my love, I mutter, ¡°Shhh, it¡¯s okay Te. We can easily afford it. I¡¯ll go snag some of our cash. We¡¯ve got a few million, each of us. Just in cash, not counting gems and coins. We probably have more value worth in stuff like gems and gold coins. I¡¯ll pull a few stacks of Rands too, in case it¡¯ll do an exchange rate for them. It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay.¡¯


    Vyela balks at the numbers being thrown around, being plenty familiar with basic arithmetic, and realizing I said I had even more than that in coins and gems. I can sense her curiosity about the insides of my vault, and I flash her a smile and a wink, trying not to be too much of a dick about teasing her. She¡¯s welcome anytime, but I¡¯m trying to keep my mood light, by snatching any silly little joy. It seems like Lu, Leeza, and Lucky are done expanding Leeza¡¯s new home. It¡¯s uncomfortably close to my vault, being that mine is the nearest to this main cavern.


    I gnaw on my lip, concerned that Leeza might take it upon herself to sneak into my vault. Even if she isn¡¯t malicious about it, she could get herself hurt by random magic items we haven¡¯t figured out yet. Calm down Reggie. We were giving her the benefit of the doubt, remember? I¡ª. I know. It¡¯s hard though, to not be at least a bit cynical. She¡¯s literally turned over a new leaf in a night. You did sort of break her down on a level most people don¡¯t even come back from. Gulp. Y-yeah, true.


    Phew. Okay. Massive pile of cash, and a few regular old cloth sacks to stuff it into. I¡¯m not even going to count, to see how much there is, nor even care if the shop system decides to take all three bags without leaving any change. It¡¯s¡ª. It¡¯s for Dawn. Our memory of her. I re-lock my vault after exiting with the bags floating behind me telekinetically. Flashing a sad smile their way while I trot back towards the dugout with the shop, I wave to Lu and Lucky, as they seem to be taking a break, and hashing something out with Leezahna. I can still sense Lucky¡¯s apprehension around her, but he¡¯s being his best at our request. He¡¯s such a good boy. He¡¯s so good. I try not to grin too stupidly when his ears perk up and his tail wags when he hears my inner monologue.


    I¡¯m about to hand the cash over to Teuila, when I realize I have to be the one to purchase it. I close my eyes and inhale sharply, still shudderingly, fighting off sobs. Te gives me the code for Dawn¡¯s inventory, and I punch it in. The three of us in the dugout wait with bated breath as I psych myself up to make the request. Gulping, I plead, ¡°Shop system? Please, please let me purchase the Amulet of the Timeless Woman¡¯s Memories from Dawn¡¯s shop inventory?¡±


    There¡¯s a long pause, and for a moment, I¡¯m worried I was wrong about the clue I thought I¡¯d deciphered, but then the sacks begin to deflate, shrink as the money within them derezzes, leaving our reality. A very simple locket, with an ever-lasting durability enchantment on it appears on the shop¡¯s countertop. I pick it up, with tears in my eyes, and go to place it around Te¡¯s neck. Teuila opens the locket, and we both fall to our knees, blubbering at what¡¯s within.


    It¡¯s a multi-image photo, somehow, of us, and Dawn. The photo changes based on the direction it¡¯s viewed at, and shows different events. The best one, the clearest image is the three of us in the carriage when we were leaving the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds together. I don¡¯t understand it. I don¡¯t understand it at all, and all I can manage to do is cry my heart out, grasping Teuila desperately to me, as she does much the same.


    This is too much. It¡¯s just too much. How? Shop system, how? My guts churn, and flop, as I¡¯m disoriented by the emotional turmoil that recalling Dawn puts me through. Our journey together. My failure to stop her curse. The friendship that grew between us. The laughter and the smiles. Her periods senseless, or even completely shut down. There¡¯s so many emotions swirling in me like a vortex at the eye of a storm, its absolute ground zero is my heart. This pain, this torment, is the pinnacle, it¡¯s the apex I¡¯ve ever felt tear my heart apart.


    Even Vyela looks a tad stricken as she stands near, and places fingertips from her left hand on Te¡¯s shoulder, and those from her right hand on mine. She offers her usual cursory, ¡°Hmn,¡± but there¡¯s compassion behind it, knowledge of loss. She¡¯s ancient, and has seen her fair share. I completely lose track of everything else except my desire to keep Teuila close, and safe, to never let either of us suffer like this, ever again. Yet even still, I wouldn¡¯t give up this suffering. Knowing that I nearly did, that I nearly entered a future where we wouldn¡¯t even be able to remember Dawn, it hurts, it breaks me almost as badly as anything else ever could. But we didn¡¯t go down that route. I stopped that, that one, horrid little fate, out of the many befalling us at the time.


    My head is swimming. My forehead and cheeks feel flush. I¡¯m a tad ill from the neurochemical whiplash of the rapid swirl of emotions. Teuila seems similarly ill. I¡ª. I need to be present, in the moment. I need to thank the Queens for their guarding this. I need to quickly get the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Carpentry Kit, before anything else can happen. I rush to snag a ton of money and gold, then return as swiftly as I¡¯m able to.


    With my head swimming, it¡¯s hard to recall whose shop the carpentry kit was in, or their code, but then I recall wanting to kiss Nietru in gratitude for her shop¡¯s inventory, despite her having no control over it. I punch in her code and plead, ¡°Shop system? Please allow me to purchase the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Carpentry Kit from Nietru DeValor¡¯s shop.¡±


    The toolbelt that arrives, packed with tools with brilliant auras, is just like the one that Sugar evolved with. It brings back so many memories. That first party. Giving her geode stones to crack open. How much she loved to break things as much as or more than building them. Her brother Spice, whom she was fiercely protective of. Our beloved family on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and all that we went through together. I snatch the toolbelt and strap it tightly to my waist immediately, and stroke it lovingly, as if I could somehow reach back in time to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, to pet, stroke, and comfort my family back there through this touch.


    This does however leave Luni and Teuila giggling at the mental image of me stroking the area of my belt-buckle. I roll my eyes and chuckles¡ª. Chuckles? Chuckle, as my emotions slowly return and calm from their overexcited tumultuous state of turmoil. My deep inhalation is still a shuddering breath, and my lower jaw still quivers, but we¡¯ve made impossibly important purchases, and strides, and done so much, in such a short time.


    Rushing to gather everyone, I present two quite large sacks of precious coins to Vylon and Vyela, who, despite themselves, lick their chops at the gratitude I¡¯m attempting to pay them. I toss a half smile their way, and nod that I truly mean to give it to them, in gratitude for protecting our asset so far, and in the hopes they¡¯ll continue to do so. I glance at Teuila as she thumbs her smooth silver locket repeatedly, as if she, like my attempt with the tool-belt, could somehow reach back in time, and touch Dawn, by the act of her brushing the now-beloved object. We¡¯re suffering so many hurts, we have suffered so many hurts. Everyone around us is hurt somehow. Yet these little comforts, these successes, these steps forward¡ª. No matter the hurt, our love is always stronger.

 B 6 C 107: Alright

    Alright, let¡¯s see here. I need to determine what might even possibly be useful, if any item¡¯s name maybe holds any candle of truth, from amongst our shop catalogs. Ugh, some of these are dozens of millions apiece. That would be all of our cash wealth, and maybe even some of our gem or coin wealth, per item. Did we even look at Luni¡¯s yet? Crap. Ugh, There¡¯s like, forty to eighty per list that I think might actually be worth checking for enchantments, or info. Most seem like longshot gambles. Like, the phoenix feather quill pen. There¡¯s no way that that¡¯s the active, still-enchanted down of a phoenix. Especially not when it barely costs more than a regular quill from the generic shop catalog.


    Argh, I still need a ton of mirrors too. Hellspit and Fel Fires. I pass an annoyed sigh through puffed cheeks. Poor Lu. She warned me. I might not get what I want or need, and things are hectic as heck as I try to cram every possible chance for every possible advantage into as short a time as possible. That would mean looking through thousands of catalogs, at each of their hundred¡¯ish items, and trying to weigh the¡ª. Huff. I won¡¯t be doing that. It¡¯s far, far, far too much of a timesink. Even at only a few dozen seconds per catalog, to find the number, punch it in, scan the NFC from the till to the phone, then take the file to the copier, and look through the phone for the new file to print out¡ª. That¡¯s still dozens and dozens of thousands of seconds just to print out the catalogs, let alone read or compare them.


    I¡¯ll probably just have to get the most powerful people that I know, and slash or their closest friends among the less powerful, to go through getting their own catalogs. I¡¯ll type up a note, and print out the process. Argh. I need to find a spare cellphone first. I¡¯m not leaving this here to possibly get walked on, smashed, shattered, or stolen. Hm¡ª. I wonder. Kinzul my love, are you¡ª.


    I sigh contentedly at the amazing emotional waves sent my way. She¡¯s taking care of Lil, bonding, and she trusts me. I don¡¯t need to ask for permission. I love you my Lady, my love, my wife. I¡¯m not even sure how, or what kind of love to categorize it as, or what words describe it yet. I¡¯m not sure I ever will. Regardless, I¡¯ll go ahead then.


    Alright, let¡¯s swoop back in here, and print off Kinzul¡¯s catalog. Alright, her code is all sevens. That¡¯s¡ª. Kinda neat. That¡¯s good luck, right? Maybe. Okay, punch in the code, NFC scan, let¡¯s go print it¡ª. Huh. There¡¯s already an unlockables unlocked file. I wonder what the achievements were.


    Oh, oh wow. I, I¡¯d better not let any of the rest of my inner circle see these achievements. Wow, I don¡¯t think I could¡ª. Luni waggles her brows across our telepathic wavelength and digs in in a singsong lilting voice, ¡°And just what achievements are those sweetie?¡±


    Gulping, I¡¯m flustered beyond belief. Please Lu, no. Please. Uh oh. Teuila joins in, similarly lilting in a singsong cadence, ¡°And just what are you begging Lu not to do, hmmmm?¡±


    My heart hammers in my chest as my two gals grin, snicker, and work their way down into the dugout to join me. I, I could burn the page. I¡¯ve got the only, glp. Teuila¡¯s too fast for me, even if I wanted to carry through on the intrusive thought of burning the page, I couldn¡¯t.


    Grumbling, reading aloud, Teuila starts, ¡°What¡¯s this, yada yada family members, Shellcracker family members, yada yada, achievement unlocked, latest one, marry a Shellcracker with a smartphone? So what, we already know you married Aunty Zool Airhead. The one before that? Save a life with a Shellcracker, yeah, sure, Prinny, whatever, no biggy. What¡¯s up Lu, what¡¯re you¡ª. OH! Create a Shellcracker!?¡±


    I nearly faint. My eyes cross, and even Kinzul¡¯s emotional wavelength seems more than just a tad surprised. I hiccup, burp, and nearly topple over as my emotions are thrown out of whack. Can, can I please die of embarrassment? Or, or maybe wake up and realize I was just dreaming about doing so well with the shops? Or, or something? Teuila begins cackling, and alternates between enjoying my discomfort, and suffering her own jealousy and discomfort at the implications.


    We, we haven¡¯t. I can¡¯t. I biologically can¡¯t. It wasn¡¯t me. Kinzul and I aren¡¯t even one of the pairs that¡ª. I mean, she¡¯s not one of the women that I¡¯ve¡ª erk. Glp. Luni eyes me suspiciously at my mental narrative, prodding me to continue, but I let my dizzy spell carry me out of her gaze. Even Kinzul is loosing some rather unreadable emotional wavelengths across our telepathic bond. Though, they seem heavy on perhaps what might be her dismayed embarrassment side.


    Brain, quick, get me out of this! What the hell am I supposed to do about it? I, I don¡¯t know! Think of something! Pft, snrk. You¡¯re losing it Reggie. It¡¯s their fault! Sure pal, sure. You¡¯re the one with the kid on the way. Oh! The phoenix roc egg! I suppose a dracorocnix egg at this point. Huff, phew. Holy crap. Okay. Okay, whew. Yeah they aren¡¯t going to let me get off th¡ª. Guys, I was going to say get off the hook that easily. Dirty little deviant-minded gals.


    I¡ª, I need a distraction. Where¡¯d Farzee and Veril get off to? Oh! Oh Veril, buddy, you really need to learn to keep your emotional walls up. Does Farzee even¡ª, oh, I see. I¡¯ll leave you two be for a while. Phooph. What about Lucky? Erk, Lucky¡¯s giving me the evil-eye, or is it the stink-eye? I forget.


    Trying to clear things up with my son, I try to come up with some sort of argument on my own behalf. It¡¯s not my fault Lucky, pal, come on. I mean, it¡¯s not like I knew that, a¡ª lifeform¡ª that¡ª consisted of many species, in one egg¡ª. I hang my head low in shame. Yeah, okay, I¡¯m an idiot and this isn¡¯t going to get me out of this. I blush as even Lucky seems to chuckle with Lu and Te in my mindscape.


    Anyway. Bluh. I¡¯d like that list back Lu, and Te. Please? I thought I saw¡ª. Teuila interrupts me, ¡°Yep, Aunty Zool has like one or two dozen smartypants phones of a couple types up in her little box thingy here, her achievement unlocked vault, natch. Snatch ¡®em up. Then you can do the thingy you were going to do and shove one down in here to leave in this hole, for anyone else to come and¡ª. Does anyone else feel kinda dirty all of a sudden?¡±


    I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh, as Lu rolls her eyes at Te while Teuila tries to parse her own previous statement. Teuila manages to fluster herself as she realizes the entendres she¡¯d accidentally used. I join Luni in rolling my eyes, and I turn a familiar tease back on Teuila, ¡°Only you babe, only you.¡±


    There¡¯s a moment of bluster for Teuila that quickly ends in her adopting the Shellcracker Family Squee with her closed-eyed mile-wide smile that leaves her rocking her head side to side slightly. I can¡¯t help smiling at her, approaching her, wrapping her up in my arms, and kissing that beautiful smile. Erm, sorry Lu, you okay? Luni harrumphs, but can¡¯t stay mad as Te and I both surround her to kiss her on opposite cheeks. She even manages to blush a tad in response.


    Okay, okay, okay. Enough shenanigans. I¡¯m so sleepy all of a sudden, as I yawn deeply. Oh, right, stayed up late as hell with Indy, trying to keep him away from his cravings. Then I got up arsecrack of dawn early with my wife standing over me. It¡¯s still only early morning. Jebuz. What¡¯d I get, an hour of sleep? Friggin¡¯ hell. I¡¯m glad this is a new body. Cherubic Reggie would be friggin¡¯ wrecked. Can I engage the regeneration without leaning on my dragonforce? Hm. There are some weird caveats to some of my abilities and forms, that Kinzul and I didn¡¯t manage to figure out. Like the prerequisite for the shadow elemental fo¡ª. I sigh and facepalm.


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    Biting my lips, trying not to be annoyed at myself, flustered, or feel stupid, I give myself a few moments to breathe. I snag the glow-lichen from around the room, and push it all into one corner, opposite the shop stall. Luni giggles when she figures out what I mean to do, what my form needs. Te raises her eyebrow for only a moment, before chuckling and catching on as well. I shake my head at myself, and duck down behind the shop stall, in complete shadow. Utter darkness.


    Yep, the form is starting to engage. I draw a deep breath and loose a long sigh, still shaking my head and rolling my eyes at myself incredulously. After several minutes, I suddenly lose tangibility, cohesion, most physicality in any possible sense of the word. As I float along near the floor, I hesitantly, testingly hazard moving into the glow, and thankfully it doesn¡¯t harm me. Continuing my testing, I float along, and up Teuila¡¯s legs, body, and arms. Teuila shudders as her spine tingles, and she bites her lip hard while blushing, trying to keep from breathing heavily.


    I find that I would be blushing if I had the capacity for it at the moment. I¡¯m intangible, so I mostly float along and through Teuila as I explore her form. Feeling fairly confident that I understand how my form interacts, or rather how it doesn¡¯t interact, with anything around, I repeat with Luni. Lu squeaks loudly, and slaps both hands over her mouth as she also shudders. Her eyes roll back a bit, and for a moment I worry, until I realize exactly¡ª. Well, anyway. That¡¯s enough of that. I suppose I can work on the speed at which I transform into this elemental form. Over time. In a few months, perhaps I could get it down under a minute, and in a year or two, I might be able to get it down to under a few seconds. It would almost be useful as a reaction to an incoming attack. As is, I¡¯m unsure what to do with it, except perhaps scout.


    Returning to my form between Lu and Te, I smile at them, until I realize that I don¡¯t have my danger wrap senses, which leaves me frowning. Glancing down at myself, my utter nudity leaves me more than frowning. It leaves me blushing quite heavily. Glancing around, I see my gear in a pile behind the shop stall. I facepalm. The form can¡¯t even subsume my physical belongings. It¡¯s really, really never going to get used unless I get my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers back safely. If I can stow everything in my inventory, then instantly swap to the form, and swap back as needed, re-equipping with my space skill, that¡¯d work. This is just a hassle as is though.


    Breathing deeply and sighing loudly, I shake my head at myself and leave my palm on my forehead. Anyway, let¡¯s get those smartphones, and I think Burshis had some binders and some mundane goods and similar supplies in her shop. I¡¯ll print off an extra copy of the things I¡¯ve printed out so far, or, well, just toss the stuff in the copier to let the copier copy the stuff. Dot dot dot. Yes Reggie, I know. Heh. Rolling my eyes at myself, and my inner monologue, I can¡¯t help shaking my head even more. That sentence was on the way to being a palindrome it was so redundant. Not that palindromes are generally redundant, like, ¡°Warsaw was raw,¡± the words themselves don¡¯t have redundant meanings there, but, well, you get it. Yes Reggie, I know. Erm, right.


    I¡¯m glad those that are laughing, or rather, following my inner narrative, are enjoying themselves. Heh. Butts. The complete lot of you. Erm, sorry my Lady, my love, my wife. I facepalm at having called my brand new wife a butt. You¡¯re tired Reggie. I know! Heh. Being tired like this makes my mind wander all over the place. I¡¯m truly sorry Kinzul.


    Speaking of mind wandering. The Sisters Hidden in the Mist were coy, but the way they said things also mattered, every time. The path to take after meeting up with my doomed friend. The nature of the apocalypses, without revealing the Felgre horde. It makes me wonder why they said that I¡¯ve paid one, but will need to pay five and five and six more. As if those were separate numbers, alluding to something, instead of just sixteen more. It¡¯s incredibly deliberate. I can¡¯t put a pin on it, but it almost reminds me of what TQ said, I think it was TQ. Something about the five souls of origin, and the original soul. They were deliberately separated out, despite sounding similar. Huff. It¡¯s a line of thought that I shouldn¡¯t chase though. I know Lu¡¯s probably freaking out right now, waiting to interrupt me when I get to a point of no-return. Like she did when I started to think about the tom¡ª. Yeah Lu, I hear you.


    Grr, I wish I was allowed to conjecture, and just, just, grr. Sorry Luni, I know it¡¯s not your fault. Sorry My Anchor. I know how much emotional turmoil my brain being like this puts you through, and I wish I could alleviate it for you. Huff. Sniffling, I return to what I was doing, and purchase a few things from various shops now that I¡¯m getting the hang of remembering codes, and who had what. Printing out some instructions, leaving a cell phone, some various charging cables and such, and even an electric stationary bicycle to recharge the battery bank, should the charge start to dwindle without Lil to utilize his sun powers to recharge the solar array. Doot doot doot. I wonder if there¡¯s a list of the standard shop inventory that isn¡¯t listed in any of these individual inventories. It¡¯d be pretty darn long, but might be worth printing out.


    Scroll, scroll scroll scroll. When did I get so many notes? Why are most of them like, a single letter or number for a name, or a couple of them? What is even in these? Empty, empty, empty. Double-eww, tee, eff. Okay, rattling my head to shake loose the lack of thoughts and get back on track. Maybe if someone else boots up one of the newer phones, it¡¯ll have a standard inventory note. I can¡¯t dig through all this right now. My eyes hurt from reading the tightly packed specialized inventory pages over and over. Let¡¯s see, a smartphone for each of us in the SAP, as well as Kinzul, the Dormies, a couple of the other groups, and one here, and a couple of spares. I wish I had a spell that could deliver all these to the people I want to have them. Oh well, I¡¯ll get them handed out over a day or two probably.


    I could make my spellcasting much easier in some essences, if I could think of some object that could hold three dimensional copies of runes, especially those of common spells I use. I wouldn¡¯t have to quicken the casting, though it¡¯s much more affordable now. Hm. I might not need to bother figuring out how to craft something like that. I think I could get the quickening to be free, because some of these strangely named items sound rather legendary, and they¡¯re gems. It took legendary gemstones to read and absorb the last, highest level of the quicken-spell tomes, to enable the best quickening metamagical activity, essentially doing it for free for most spells with sixty six or lower runes for their SP cost.


    Oh, speaking of metamagical activity. I forgot. *All* of my spells are always under metamagical activity. Jarrah said I¡¯m permanently using subtle spell metamagic. It¡¯s why I can cast even when bound, and slash or gagged. I¡¯ll be able to trigger these clips in this bangle any time I cast anything. I¡¯ll have to be a little bit careful, because some of the clips target allies with enhancements or buffs, and some target foes with damage or debuffs.


    There¡¯s so so so so much more I could do, argh. Huff. It¡¯s okay though. It¡¯s okay. Tonight, when I¡¯m sure the myconid form is off of its refractory period, or whenever soonest it ends up being off cooldown, I¡¯ll craft an extra shop or two or three. I¡¯ll make sure to keep one sitting around that I¡¯ll stuff into my otter form to put into my inventory, along with a ton of other stuff that I¡¯ll want to always have around as backup, just in case of something dire or crazy happening. I¡¯ll probably also take an entire day¡¯s worth of the entire respawning resource warrens at some point, so that I¡¯ll always have enough to rebuild them, again, in case of calamity.


    Speaking of contingencies, backups in case of calamity, and so on. Well, the dimensional pouch. It¡¯s kind of bound to a few bags at once, but it can only do like the transdimensional link with one of those bound bags at a time. I think it takes an hour to swap which bag it¡¯s tied to. Sighing heavily, I¡¯m not sure what to do to fix that, or duplicate the pouch.


    Speaking of duplicating, I¡¯ll be snagging a bunch of friggin¡¯ identical or nearly identical mirrors, and putting the same enchantment on pairs of them, over and over and over, when I get my myconid form up, at the same time that I¡¯m crafting the shop stall backups. I might be able to do that during the strategists meeting. Or I can at least do proof of concept while with them, while staying in RS2, and they can help me decide how many, and where to place the scrying sensors.


    Hm, I¡¯ll probably snag a full respawn of the warrens on the morning after tomorrow, so that the dragonkin have a couple days of restocked resources to play with. Whenever I decide to do it, I¡¯ll let some of them know that I¡¯ll get up early, and spend about an hour or so just snagging the stuff straight off the walls with the otter form¡¯s super strength. I might need an adamantite tool for some of the legendary metals, but I¡¯m sure there¡¯ll be some available by that point. Hm, it might take closer to an hour per warren for the metals. Do I want them badly enough to spend that time? Yeah. Yeah I suppose I do. Alright then. Alright, alright alright.

 B 6 C 108: Maybe

    Alright, we¡¯ve got some spare charge packs charged up, and cords, to be able to recharge the phone while we¡¯re away from Mount Solace if necessary. I¡¯ve got the magical tools to be able to make Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian constructions. I¡¯ve got some more craftworks tools that are actually for making enchanted and alchemical things, rather than just crafting normal stuff. I¡¯m tempted to buy out Nietru¡¯s entire stock, though some of that also sounds like stuff that¡¯s just named fancy to sucker people into buying them as well.


    Still, purchasing all of Nietru¡¯s stock, hm. I think that might actually be her achievement to load up her first set of unlockables, come to think of it. But, well, a fair bit of her stuff costs in the millions. I know I could probably sell some raw adamantite, mithril, and orichalcum, and make a few hundred thousand per day, but it¡¯s more important to let the dragonkin who¡¯ve been so kind to volunteer their time, do what they want and need to do with the metals first, and even after, it¡¯d be better to craft them into just about anything to sell, rather than selling them raw.


    Ugh, this is like some of those mobile or browser based games where the income is time-gated, but essentially limitless. Err, what? Build various buildings that produce certain resources endlessly, as long as you¡¯re there to collect them? Huh. That sounds familiar somehow. Meh, whatever. Deep breath Reggie, get back your train of thought on things to accomplish this morning.


    I¡¯m tempted to try to use my once per day instant recall ability on the smartphone to bind it to me, making it recallable on any other day. It feels a bit frivolous, and it might not work, if it¡¯s not actually soulbound. The tome that the instant recall ability came from *implied* that the item needed to be soulbound, but didn¡¯t outright state it. One of us needs to test it. I flash a sorrowful glance at Lu, since she was in the infirmary when I was doing all of the orb-time hivemind enchantment sharing. I wish I¡¯d brought her down. I didn¡¯t realize we¡¯d be successful with any of it. I¡¯m actually just going to put instant recall on the dimensional pouch, that¡¯ll definitely work.


    My Wings derails my train of thoughts as she playfully asks, ¡°So what was it you were thinking about Veril a bit ago? Why should he learn to hide his emotions better?¡±


    Blushing and chuckling, I respond, ¡°Well, he¡¯s, uh, extremely attracted to Farzee as they¡¯re trying to have a heartfelt discussion. His brain is nearly like mine is around Errissa. He¡¯s thinking about how incredibly hot she looks in that semi-tight sweater, even though it¡¯s the most modest thing she¡¯s ever worn. I mean, I can¡¯t disagree with him, but, hey, ow, hah. You asked!¡±


    Chuckling and trying to dodge Teuila¡¯s onslaught of of playful slaps and punches, we end up in a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight, until we¡¯re both giggling. Luni rolls her eyes and shakes her head at the pair of us, until we turn our attention on her, to tickle her from two sides, which gets her squealing in delight before we¡¯re all giggling like mad. Alright, alright, alright. I need to focus for a bit, I¡¯m getting distracted and forgot what I was doing while we were here. Where¡¯d Lucky go?


    Blushing, Luni mumbles, ¡°Leezahna is doting on him, thanking him for digging her home, and he¡¯s eating it up. Traitor.¡±


    Raising my brow, I glance at Luni who averts her gaze as she blushes more deeply. Chuckling, I hug Luni for a moment before Teuila steals her away in a noogie-grasp headlock. Lu bemoans her fate with a long, ¡°Nooooo,¡± as Te playfully noogies her, messing up her hair. Still, to think that Lucky could be so easily swayed, when he seemed so apprehensive of Leezahna, that¡¯s a bit odd to me. Anyway, snag a bunch of mirrors from the various shops. Alright, easily enough. Let¡¯s grab a ton of gems from my personal store. Erm, like, my storehouse in my vault, not my shop. You get it. Yes, yes I do. My gals giggle at my internal monologue, as I blush abashedly at it.


    Out of the blue¡ª, well that¡¯s a funny turn of phrase, our ¡°The Blue,¡± Farzee calls out across our mental wavelength, in her as-usual few-stop-consonants accent, ¡°Schism, you really feel tha¡¯ way? Broke One does too?¡±


    Erk, gulp. I respond hesitantly, ¡°You are a very attractive woman Farzhis sweetling. You¡¯ve sculpted an absolutely lovely human form. Come on, you didn¡¯t not know this already. Why do you ask?¡±


    More humble, Farzhis¡¯s telepathic response is almost a mumble in her usual delightful accent, ¡°Jus¡¯, the sweater. No¡¯ use¡¯ to no¡¯ having to show off. Umm. Thank you. Both.¡±


    I flash Farzee a loving smile across our wavelength, and receive a grateful smile in return. Farzhis is back and forth at being able to read the mental monologues of those around her, as she deals with her grief, and moves back and forth from aware to despondently dissociated. It¡¯s going to take a long time to heal. She and Veril are both dealing with the trauma of the Damnations¡¯ repeated attacks, the grief over the loss of our previous, ¡°The Blue,¡± and the implications of their budding relationship. Veril¡¯s a young enough man that he¡¯s essentially a ball of hormones, and, lacking any previous relationship experience, he¡¯s not sure how to proceed, or even if his relationship with Farzee will become the romantic one he desires.


    Coughing for my attention, telepathically Veril mumbles, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m not *that* young, am I? I mean, sure, I haven¡¯t had a mate yet, or, erm. Schism, what should I do? What if Farzee prefers friendship? I¡¯m kind of falling in love here, but, like, I just sort of want to see her happy? Maybe? My head¡¯s all kinds of messed up. Then there¡¯s this really pretty Green who¡¯s starting off on her own, and doesn¡¯t even seem to have any friends, and, glp. I mean, yeah, both of them are effin¡¯ gorgeous, but, um, ugh. What the hell do I do Schism?¡±


    I draw back my lips in a grimace and gulp as my eyes go wide. Someone asking *me* for relationship advice? That¡¯s only bound to end horribly. I¡¯ve literally lucked into or fallen into the few relationships or even friendships in my life. Heck, even one of those, maybe the first one ever, has been put on hold, if not ended completely, and that one only lasted a few days. I glance side to side, then towards Te and Lu who shrug at me helplessly, unhelpfully. Should I just pull a Lil and tell Veril to follow his heart?


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    Responding cautiously, I try to assuage Veril¡¯s fears, ¡°Whatever happens buddy, things¡¯ll be okay. There¡¯s no wrong answer here. I¡¯m glad you aren¡¯t pressuring Farzee when she¡¯s vulnerable. Approaching things that way is the right thing to do. You are going to have to wait for her if you want to find out if you two might be able to pursue romance together at some point. If you try to get together with Leezahna, and, well, either succeed, or even just the attempt itself, Farzee will likely be jealous, as that¡¯s her nature, but it also doesn¡¯t mean that she was or wasn¡¯t intending to choose romance with you. Hell, Farzee might choose to wait for *you* if you start dating Leezahna, and that ends up seeming to fall through, if what she wants or wanted was romance, and she cares about you and your friendship enough to be there to support you. There¡¯s a million million ways any of this could go. Whatever you feel in your heart is probably the best Veril. You¡¯re a good guy.¡±


    Veril¡¯s response is a muted, ¡°Huh,¡± as he mulls over my non-advice. Poor guy.


    Luni smiles brightly my way and leans up against my left arm, snuggling close, nuzzling and kissing my cheek. Te, instead of taking my right side, muscles in on my left arm as well, and squishes cheeks with Lu to nuzzle and kiss my cheek. This of course causes Lu to roll her eyes and chuckle, which then earns Lu a Shellcracker Family Squee from Teuila.


    Almost jealously, Veril asks, ¡°Like, that, that right there, how do I get that? I mean, can I? Erm, I want Farzee to be happy, and I like her tons, and we¡¯ve been teammates for a long time, and effin¡¯ ay is she sexy as hell, I mean, have you seen her neck in her dragon form? Or her wings? Or that ridge at the base of her horns? Those slender muscles around her jaw. Mm¡ª. Gulp. She can¡¯t hear this, can she Schism? Schism? Please tell me she can¡¯t hear me, that like, your walls are up. Please? Oh hell.¡±


    Biting my lips, I struggle not to laugh at poor Veril¡¯s expense. I sense waves of mixed emotions from Farzee at overhearing Veril¡¯s lusty comments about her. She¡¯s upset that he¡¯s asking me how to pursue someone else at the same time, proud of her appearance, and a whole lot more. Gnawing on my inner cheek, I¡¯m trying to decide if I should respond at all.


    Deciding that it¡¯s best to make sure he¡¯s at least somewhat informed, I do answer Veril, ¡°To have an open relationship, to have polyamory, everyone has to be on board. I know absolutely nothing about Leezahna, except that I¡¯ve hurt her. I cannot give you any advice as to whether or not she might be interested in any relationship, let alone one with multiple branches, or being in a relationship with multiple people. I don¡¯t even know her gender preference, or sexual preference. I don¡¯t even know if that¡¯s a big deal for dragons. You seemed open to Indy or Farzee both when you were thinking about them in Kinzul¡¯s den. Ah, heh, sorry to embarrass you. You¡¯ll be okay Veril buddy, you¡¯ll figure it out. Don¡¯t rush it. You¡¯re doing fine. Be there for your friend, your teammate. Enjoy what you¡¯ve got. Farzee¡¯s an amazing, wonderful woman, and I¡¯m glad you want to see her happy, I do too.¡±


    I sense Veril nodding along our telepathic wavelength, and Farzee mentally mutters quietly to me, ¡°Thanks, um. Thanks for steering us both righ¡¯. I¡¯m not sure ye¡¯. I¡¯m¡ª. Like you sai¡¯. A lot on my min¡¯. Not sure I¡¯m ready to deci¡¯e. I like Broke One. Jus'', jus'' dealing with a lo¡¯ of hur¡¯ an¡¯, and fear. No¡¯ use¡¯ to being scare¡¯. No¡¯ use¡¯ to any of this. Thank you Schism. Thank you. Thank you.¡±


    I attempt to keep Farzee from dissociating into a repetitive plea of gratitude, but she echoes herself for a long while yet. Poor Farzee dear. I do sense Veril comforting her, giving her enough space but showing support as Farzee spaces out, locked in her repetition for some time. Pondering if I should try to accomplish anything else here, I turn up towards the exit of the dugout to see Leezahna standing timidly at the end of the ramp.


    Hesitantly, Leezahna asks, ¡°Is, um. Someone has to be behind the shop, to use it? Right? Who¡ª. I¡¯d like a, a desk, with a vanity. I drew some more, in case, um, this isn¡¯t enough green paper. Then, also, maybe a bed? Satin sheets, and¡ª. I can write more, and draw more when I have a desk of my own. You said, you said I could use the parchment and ink, glp, as much as I want, right? Unless it runs out?¡±


    Nodding to Leezahna, I attempt to respond, ¡°Yes, yes to all of that. As long as you treat others with respect to their feelings, and their time, I¡¯m sure that someone will volunteer to stand in the shop for you. Try to also not react too poorly if their shop¡¯s quality isn¡¯t as high as someone else¡¯s. We¡¯re still trying to get everything ready to be able to understand the catalogs, qualities, prices, and everything. There¡¯s a few more steps to get that all set up, but yours Leezahna, it enabled all of this. Take a look.¡±


    Leezahna gazes confusedly at the machines, but she raptly studies the instructions I¡¯ve left, and nods firmly as she commits them to memory. She mouths unfamiliar words like phone, NFC, and copier, which I¡¯ve labeled, so she needn¡¯t look too far to figure out their context. The most difficult part might be dealing with the touch screen on the copier to find and select the file to print out. As Leeza starts to understand more about the process down here in the dugout for the shop, she seems almost hopeful, almost happy. Leezahna turns her eyes towards Luni, pleadingly. She knows that Lu¡¯s shop contained furniture in a style and quality that appealed to her.


    Luni grumbles mentally to me, but can¡¯t hide her excitement at being appreciated for her shop and its quality. Lu takes her place behind the shop stall and bows with a flourish as she and Leezahna start a short string of transactions. I¡¯m proud of both of them. Leezahna still eyes me with a cold fury underlying everything, and a strong touch of fear. Like Lu said, I suppose we¡¯ll never end up being friends. I¡¯ll do what I can to heal the hurts I¡¯ve caused her, but as long as she doesn¡¯t lash out in retaliation against anyone I love, or find some way to destroy all I¡¯ve worked for, I can live with that.


    Bidding Leeza adieu, I add, ¡°Since we¡¯ll be gone, if you need anyone to run the shop for you, I¡¯m sure most people would be happy to if you ask politely. If they refuse, please don¡¯t treat them poorly. You never know if someone is busy, or upset, or hurting, or in a hurry, or has their own reasons for being uncomfortable or not wanting to run the shop at that time.¡±


    I pause, attempting to let it sink in before finishing, ¡°There are plenty of other people around to ask. Now, if everyone is refusing in large numbers, come to me, and I¡¯ll see what¡¯s up, if people are treating *you* poorly. I¡¯m here for *everyone*. No one deserves to be treated poorly Leezahna. No one. Okay? The kinder you are to your neighbors, the more likely they are to be willing, or even want to help you out.¡±


    Leezahna furrows her brow at me, but nods at my parting words. I know I sort of talked down to her like a child there, a spoiled one at that, but she still sort of is one, at least to me. She¡¯s still slipping up, and *maybe* working to correct that. Likely driven by fear as she remembers me threatening her based on her worth, value, and trustworthiness, every time she says or does something that she realizes I¡¯d look down on. I¡¯m probably an internal subconscious trauma trigger for her, but her response is thankfully to take that fear and use it to better herself and her behavior. I think. Still, she, like everyone else, is free to be angry at me or hate me all she needs to. No one owes me any sort of adoration. Huff. I¡¯m a bully, a monster. She¡¯s right about that. Maybe I¡¯m a kind one, like she also said. Maybe.

 B 6 C 109: Huff, Puff

    Lucky, Lu, Teuila and I begin leaving Mount Verdimenn, and I¡¯m feeling incredibly accomplished for how early it is in the day. I¡¯m trying to temper myself so as not to rush Nietru and kiss the hell out of her for her shop having these tools. I doubt anyone in the strategists-eight would understand why the hell I was doing so. Even explaining it might not¡ª explain it. Bluh. I heave a sigh, then another, huffing, then puffing. I roll my eyes at myself while Lu and Te chuckle at my internal monologue.


    Stopping by to speak with Deli, I offer her a strong forearm handshake as I mention, ¡°In um, I think the morning after tomorrow, if I¡¯ve made it back from Vorzog keep or whatever, I¡¯ll be attempting to take a full day worth of the resource warrens into my magical inventory. Just so that everyone can plan around not having to harvest on that day, unless they just want to help me shove it in my inventory. And so that you can all plan around how much you¡¯ll have to work with. I hope that that doesn¡¯t seem unfair. I¡¯m trying to make sure I have a backup of enough material to restart the warrens in case something tragic happens.¡±


    Deli scoffs, laughing, before responding, ¡°Schism, with today¡¯s material alone, we¡¯ll have weeks worth of raw resources. Tomorrow¡¯s harvest could see us having surplus stockpile to do whatever we could imagine with it. I know you invested a tremendous amount to get the project kickstarted, but even if you hadn¡¯t invested that, and just left us to work with what you originally had, we¡¯d have been set for months if not years. Trust me, two days of harvests before you take one for yourself is plenty. Besides, it¡¯s not like the resources don¡¯t belong to you. You made ¡®em after all.¡±


    Deli pauses before continuing, ¡°I¡¯m actually going to retire early today, and take a couple days off, so I¡¯ll relay the message to some friends. I want to take Yer around, introduce him to some of my friends, find out what else he needs, and get us both a good long sleep early eve, and a few rests. Yesterday took more of a toll out of both of us than I thought, and my usual early rise wiped us out more than I figured it would. Oh, speaking of my boy, he made this for you. It¡¯s, ah, some sort of ornament I suppose. Even if you just use it as a paperweight, it¡¯d mean the world to him if you accepted it.¡±


    I blink several times, and am forced to rub my itchy, wet eyes, as a tear forms. It seems to be an attempt to make a blob of orichalcum into, well, a void dragon. Maybe. I sniffle, nodding rapidly, and gulp, gladly accepting it. Poor Yerjhro looks to be asleep on his feet nearby. I don¡¯t want to wake the poor tired lad up, but I¡¯m incredibly touched. It almost looks like Yerjhro was trying to sculpt this rather than smith it. Hm.


    Gnawing my lip, I glance at Deli as I ask, ¡°Del? I hope this isn¡¯t insulting. I recently got some new craftsworks tools, materials, and uh, stations I guess. Some of them might even be enchanted. Is there any chance Yer enjoys sculpting? Either as much as, more than, or instead of smithing? I in no way¡ª.¡±


    As Deli raises an eyebrow my way, I¡¯m worried I¡¯ve insulted her, that she¡¯s going to berate me for telling her how to raise her child. Gulping, I await Deli¡¯s response of, ¡°Hm, hadn¡¯t put too much thought into it Schism. We¡¯ll see what the lad has to say when we take off early today. Like I said, was going to find out what he needs this eve. He¡¯s free to experiment in your craftsworks room then? I¡¯ll let the lad know. I appreciate it. Takes a village, and all that.¡±


    Noticing my almost-panic, Deli grins and winks, ¡°Seriously, no fret. I could see the worry eating on you there. You¡¯re our Hero, in more ways than one. Glad it¡¯s you. But go on now, git, your gals and Hunter look antsy. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve got plenty to keep you busy. Not that I don¡¯t enjoy the company, but I¡¯m trying to wrap up early, like I said.¡±


    Nodding emphatically, I smile at Deli, and wave as I leave her to it. She seems to be stuck with the position of managing a lot of the smithy volunteers, and other volunteers, despite her obvious preference for doing actual smithing herself. Hm, I wonder if the woman approaching her is Deli¡¯s sister, cousin, or, maybe girlfriend? That kiss on the cheek lasted more than a brief second. None of my business really. I¡¯m just glad someone so wonderful seems to be happy, even if she also seems overworked.


    I wonder if there¡¯s anything I can do for Deli. I mean, I can¡¯t really imagine anything that I can *give* her. The resources are free for them to use, and she¡¯s a better crafter than me by far. Maybe I could enchant something of hers for her at some point? Or something of Yerjhro¡¯s? I imagine she might like it if her son had some sort of magic that helped keep him safe. What about for herself? She¡¯s so muscular, and great looking, I can¡¯t imagine a gift of something dumb like fitness equipment would go over well. Similarly, I doubt anything too¡ª. Bluh. I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ll just try to keep telling her I appreciate her when I remember to and get the chance. I¡¯ll ask if she has anything she desires, or dreams of, or anything. I suppose I could have started setting up the alcohol supply line.


    Pft, heh, I might get Miraina in charge of that, since she is in her twenties after all. I wonder if the shops would have had an age verification to buy spirits and alcohol. Or would they just sell to whomever had the money that knew how to order? Anyway, I¡¯ll need her help to organize some volunteers to haul the ale and spirits around from Mount Verdimenn to Mount Solace, as well as to organize earnings to purchase them regularly. I might have them sell off my ¡°odds and ends respawnables¡± warren materials. Those are mostly organic things, and loot drops from mobs on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that are basically monster parts, bodyparts and such.


    I¡ª, I did notice that the kraken tentacles were, erm, a bit lively, heh. Which I guess is what Deli was hinting at that I should take care of it before next week, before we got too many of them respawning. Ugh, why did I plant that? I mean, it¡¯s a common trope for stuff like that to be reagents in certain high end potions and so on, but still. Now there¡¯s like half a dozen kraken tentacles to either carefully move past, or to fight off every d¡ª. Training. Combat training. Leveling, experience¡ª. Holy crap. I mean, maybe subconsciously? I wonder who¡¯d benefit the most. Lucky? Lil? Lu?


    Te and I are maxed out in the regular system¡¯s levels, so we only have lateral, um, horizontal, growth to be able to do. Unless I can break us out into some sort of epic leveling system. Hm. I mean, not that Te or I really need some mob spawns in Mount Verdimenn to crank up our ee ex pee gains. We¡¯re going to be getting plenty tomorrow. Though, if I can figure some way to break our system by tomorrow¡ª. Hm. Wait. Kinzul is now part Shellcracker. I saw our bond encompass her with the Shellcracker soul, my soul. Could she start leveling up safely down there? Would she start out at level one, in the system of our world? Or would she already be maximum level, or even epic level? Grr, I wish we could see the menus.


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    I was like, what, level seven right after spawning or something? Or wait, but what about the time that I was just a soul? Was I somehow gaining experience during that time? Ugh. Friggin¡¯ hell. I¡¯m such an oddity, that even if I had frames of reference and points of comparison, they might not be how things are supposed to work anyway. Gorramit all. I just, I just want to save Kinzul from¡ª. Huff. Too many minds open to my passive broadcast right now. Let¡¯s just say I want to save her from any hurts or pains. If I could somehow make her more powerful, I¡¯d do it.


    Give your brain a break for a bit Reggie. It¡¯s overheating on overdrive from the frenetic time in the shop bunker in Verdimenn, with as little sleep as you¡¯ve had. Blargh, really? Ow. Yes, yes it is. Ugh, huff, migraines and headaches suck. They suuuuuuuck. I lift myself in my telekinesis instead of continuing to walk with Lu and Te, somehow believing that taking the pressure off my feet will reduce this pressure building inside my head. My gals try not to chuckle at me, because they know I¡¯m suffering in pain at the moment.


    Veril and Farzee are catching up, there we go. Farzee is looking around a bit timidly. Te, I think she¡ª. There you go. Thank you Teuila. Keep being your amazing self. Veril tries to ploy Luni into carrying him, since Farzee¡¯s getting carried, but Lu just shoots him an incredulous look and rolls her eyes. I chuckle, despite my headache, ow. Can¡¯t say I blame him for trying, being in Luni¡¯s arms is heavenly, it¡¯s amazing. Being held to her full, soft chest, loved on by Luni with her beautiful smile aimed down upon you? Utter bliss. Err, sorry, not to make you jealous Veril. Hehe, cute pout though buddy.


    Ugh my friggin¡¯ head. Huff, huff, ow. Hm. If I gave Miraina a ranged weapon, Pawn could be the one benefitting from killing the kraken tentacles every day, and they might even drop loot in addition to being harvestable, which could provide plenty of money to purchase liquor and spirits. Worse than the tentacles though, there are some mite-hulk claw pistol turrets. They aren¡¯t supremely deadly to most anyone with a bit of armor or padding, but they¡¯ve got a lot of knocking force, and could knock someone as small as Miraina to the ground, giving her a concussion, or worse. They could also knock her into the grasp of a tentacle. I¡¯d want her to make sure she always has at least a capable partner for backup, because I couldn¡¯t forgive myself if she got hurt, or, gulp, worse. Do you think she¡¯d be annoyed at the additional responsibility?


    Suddenly, across one of many psychic wavelengths shared with her, Pawn chipperly chirps, ¡°Not at all Schism! I¡¯ve never really gotten to hunt. I¡¯m always running around Mount Solace, always. It might be kinda fun. Talk to me about it before you leave tomorrow for your mission? Hangin¡¯ with momma. Hugs ¡®n¡¯ kisses from both of us!¡±


    I blush to high heavens at Miraina¡¯s response. I forgot that her range is likely nearly as far as Kinzul¡¯s. Hell, either one of them might be able to sense me from practically anywhere in either mountain. I¡¯ve never been able to pin down the exact range on Kinzul¡¯s or Pawn¡¯s telepathy. Lil¡¯s should be pretty incredibly high too, but he¡¯s also more likely to be oblivious and not notice or hear my thoughts, or well, yeah. Still, he felt out of range when Kinzul was within range earlier, which is weird.


    Lil¡¯s and Miraina¡¯s ranges should be pretty comparable. Also, I¡¯m still blushing my brains out at the idea of being kissed by Prinrin and Miraina simultaneously. Based on how well I know her mother, I can almost bet that the gooberific cutie did that on purpose. Anyway, I¡¯d have to puzzle the specifics out later, though I did specifically layer up two multiplicative ranged permanency enhancement enchantments onto Kinzul¡¯s telepathic bond on the first day I met her, if I recall correctly. I¡ª. Oh.


    With one hand I clutch my head in pain. With my other hand, I clutch my chest as I weep. My Lady, my love, my wife. I¡¯ve literally cast a spell upon you, and now you¡¯re mine. I mean, not mine, you¡¯re not an object. It¡¯s just, just that you¡¯ve given yourself over to trying to invest in me, to heal me, to support me, since the very moment we met. Even though you knew. Even though you¡¯d seen it. Oh Kinzul. You¡¯re so kind, supportive, fiercely intelligent, loving, nurturing, wise. Please. Please never perish. I know how selfish a plea that is. I¡¯m only mildly sorry for it.


    Lucky grows in size enough to lap at my face with his enormous tongue while I¡¯m sitting on one of my T K Surfboards, bowling me off of it as he tries to clean off my tears. Oy vey. Flexing my jaw, I rub several pressure points along the base of my neck, jaw, cervical vertebrae, and near my temples. If it¡¯s a muscle tension headache, I might be able to reduce it slightly. Blurgh, now my guts are cramping up too though. Wrapping my arms around Lucky¡¯s neck, I let him help me to my feet before I double over clasping my stomach. Oof, yeah, crampy. I should probably eat breakfast.


    Rolling my eyes at myself, I head back towards Mount Verdimenn to cast a full pot of water into the cauldron, and telekinetically stir it. Helping myself to a bowl of stew, I fill several more to offer to the rest of my party. Most accept and join me in eating stew, even Lucky. Seeing Leezahna milling about, I point to the cauldron, and motion that she can eat if she¡¯d like. I¡¯m sure once she gets more settled, and has enough income to get her home furnished, she¡¯ll probably start exclusively eating gems or gold or something. I really hope she doesn¡¯t lord that over people that she¡¯ll have such easy access to them. Still, the fact that she¡¯s able to earn a couple hundred dollars an hour with her calligraphy or whatever she¡¯s doing is pretty impressive, I hate to admit it.


    Hm, y¡¯know one thing I haven¡¯t tried in a while is my thunder shout. I think maybe not since I was crawling inside a hydra. Now that I¡¯m in RS2 form, I might be able to brace myself and not topple over. If nothing else, I can put a T K Square at my back. I wonder how powerful it is at this point. It isn¡¯t a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian skill per se, but it might be modified by my breath weapon skill bonus. It is technically from a piece of magic equipment from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, despite being baked into my biology currently. I almost forgot that we slipped it in there, since it was just a copy and paste job from certain parts of my biology that must have been altered by the shrapnel of the thunder staff. I mean, it is still here, right?


    Experimenting, I can feel a charge building in my throat, so I¡¯m pretty certain I¡¯m correct. This could leave me feeling nauseous if I don¡¯t go use it up. Hm, probably best to do it in the odds and ends warren, since no one is over there harvesting any of that due to the kraken tentacles. Be right back everybody. Oh, hm, I could definitely train my breath weapon skill multiplier bonus on these. It¡¯d be quicker by a longshot, than just breathing randomly around Mount Solace. Still, I should probably just try to remember to use it almost nonstop during the offensive tomorrow.


    Speaking of training and offensives and abilities to use and such, I should think of multiple names for my best greatest shadowy evocation elements. If someone sees me using one, and decides it¡¯s an illusion, they might fall for it if I sound like I¡¯m casting a different spell. Like, for the Darkest Star¡¯s Event Horizon, I could also call it the Bee Aych Bee, the Black Hole Bomb, or the Dee Ess Ee Aych. Huff, I¡¯m being kind of silly. Anyway, let¡¯s puff like a magic dragon on these creatures who live in the sea. Well, their bodyparts anyway.

 B 6 C 110: Great

    Okay, alright, huff, phew. I¡¯m fed, I¡¯ve got more tools, more resources, more supplies, more plans, and just a whole lot more. Is there anything else I should be doing before heading to the strategists-eight? I kinda wish I could find Illy and just see how she¡¯s doing, and if there¡¯s any mending I can do between us. She wants me to keep my walls up around her though.


    What about what Cal said? A presence somewhere around Mount Solace? One with a dragonforce? Kinzul must have overheard, since she¡¯s apparently been in range to hear me the entire time, and she doesn¡¯t seem all that concerned. Maybe she just expects me to handle it, since she¡¯s got her hands full, and like she said, there¡¯s never enough time for everything. I mean, it is sort of exactly why I did that little public speaking nonsense the other day. Other than to try to build a bridge to Leezahna, which crashed and burned hard.


    I should start making daily ¡°To-do¡± lists. I could roll over anything I don¡¯t get completed by the end of one day, into the next day¡¯s list. Eh, I¡¯d probably overwhelm myself and get depressed as more and more piled up. I¡¯m sure the fact that I forget tons of stuff all the time is actually keeping me from freaking out over not accomplishing everything I think up.


    For now, let¡¯s love on Lucky for a little bit once we¡¯re done clearing out the hostiles from the odds ¡®n¡¯ ends warren. Wait. Mite-hulk claw pistol turrets. Mite-hulk adjacents. ¡°The Neath.¡± Who mentioned ¡°The Neath?¡± I think it was Jarrah. That must be the name of the subterranean world beneath Rayileklia¡¯s surface. Teuila said she felt a pull, like something she needed, or was supposed to accomplish was down there. I can sense Luni fretting, so I likely shouldn¡¯t go too much farther with this topic.


    Still¡ª. At some point, we¡¯re going to need to accomplish whatever it was Te felt when she was fighting off those creatures to protect the kobolds of The Gap. We might also need to meet with the Aasimovian refugees, and possibly the Archfey of the Heart. That¡¯d be in order to get them to prep defenses against one or more of the apocalypses, either should we fail, or should we simply not have enough time to finish them all before they start rolling across Rayileklia.


    Blargh, what was I up to? Oh, right, kill these things after testing out my boom breath, my thunder shout. For some reason, I want to yell ¡°Fuzz, Rhoda.¡± Weird. Deep breath Reggie, lean into it, aim, and¡ª. Shout! Shout Reggie, let it all out! Holy graphic novels budmud. I¡¯m so glad things from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas derez rather than splatter into gore. I can¡¯t say that that helped my headache any, but it was pretty effective, against the weakest looking tentacle, from just outside of melee range. It was probably only a few points worth of damage, since the thing looked pretty scraggly. It might be able to help me out in a pinch if I¡¯m dogpiled. Or if I¡¯m walking around inside the auditory canal of a giant dragon. That one¡¯s just mean.


    Let¡¯s test a thing. We can craft them slowly, it¡¯s only a few runes, but let¡¯s use our new internal electromagnetic organs to make an E M field to pause the runes in space, locking them in position. Alright, easy enough, now, for Tiktik, these sorts of low rune spells are supposed to be ambient mana cantrips. How do I go about making it so that it doesn¡¯t cost me anything to fling the frost bolts, or do the mending, or prestidigitative legerdemain? Let¡¯s go ahead and empower this once, while it¡¯s trapped here, and really pay attention to what happens to the runes as they¡¯re locked in place. Hell, empower it three times in a row quickly.


    Fifteen runes, err, S P, down for the day, but I think it¡¯s worth it. I mean, first of all, it procced a bunch of clips in my bangle, because it was technically three subtle-casting-metamagic spells. Second of all, that tentacle is nearly finished off. Third of all, I¡¯m coming closer to understanding the spellwork. I forgot to sort and go through the rest of the clips. I¡ª. Crap, I need to commission another bangle, one for Kinzul, at the very least. But I¡¯ll need to make sure I put the size-change enhancement enchantment on it permanently. I¡¯d also like one on Illy, and Prinrin. Well, hell, I¡¯d like one on everyone in the order, or even everyone in Mount Solace. Hmm. Gnawing on my lip, I¡¯m getting distracted. Focus Reggie, focus!


    But Reggie, there were tools like, ancient runecarving kit and so on in Nietru¡¯s shop, and the runic clips, you might be able to copy them if you¡¯re careful. Either your myconid form, or maybe someone who¡¯s a more masterful crafter amongst the Draconiacs here in Mount Verdimenn, or Mount Solace. If you could grant everyone here immunity to fire, cold, and lightning, and resistance to acid, half or more of Terrorzin¡¯s forces would be completely ineffectual. Hell, Terrorzin¡¯s breath weapon himself would be completely negated.


    Crap, which clip gave cold immunity. Wait, did one? Shiznit, fudgeknuckles. I don¡¯t think one did. Then again, we do know one that gives fire immunity. Do you think if you learned how to duplicate the clips, that it would be as easy as changing the rune from fire to the rune for cold? No, no, because it¡¯s not heat, it¡¯s fire. Crap, that¡¯s right. Would ice be¡ª, no, it¡¯d require different sets of protection, because it¡¯s an energy versus a manifestation.


    Reggie? Mhm? Maybe focus on the pistol turrets blasting you in the head? Huh. That¡¯s probably something I should take care of. Wait, no, not yet. I was trying to figure out these low level spells, how to get them to cast with only ambient mana, instead of my own S P. Hm, okay, I think, I think I at least understand how to get the elemental rune, to call to the elemental plane next to ours, to use the ambient mana to lure an elemental along a path. I don¡¯t understand how to get the operand runes to operate off of ambient mana though. Still, one fifth of the spell is free now, if my surmising is correct.


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    Hell, if my surmising is correct, I might be able to shave off a thirty third of some of my other spells, maybe, possibly. There¡¯s an interaction here that I¡¯m not understanding. Hm, so, erm, how do I¡ª? Right, maybe like this? Nope. What about¡ª? Nope. I think my conjecture is *almost* correct. Almost. The guiding an elemental along the nearby plane to coalesce the ambient mana is close to what I¡¯m supposed to be doing to make that rune free.


    I mean, if I can even just get it down to a single rune that still has an S P cost, and I utilize my new electromagnetic rune barrier organ, I can trap a single rune and rapidly spam the spell for a single S P. Just empowering that single rune over and over would be proccing my bangle¡¯s runic metamagical clips repeatedly. One of them damages the foe as it singes the target of the spell, another damages them as it chills them, another disorients their next movement, another actually does a minor brainblast at the target of the spell. One does a tiny bit of minor necrotizing blast.


    Several of those metamagical runic clips target me, the caster, or a nearby ally. One of those does something like Tiktik¡¯s embolsterment, or her minor blessing of the Fae, by providing some sort of short-term, thin mana film forcefield that can coalesce to absorb a certain amount of impact. Another one is able to undo a bunch of negative mental enchantments, which just seems amazing. Like, if I¡¯m somehow dominated mentally, and the fool has me cast a spell, it¡¯ll immediately remove the mental domination, the charming effect. It can also remove some other effects as well, negative conditions, and so on.


    There¡¯s one clip that has entirely random effects, that one I¡¯m a little worried to engage. I really don¡¯t want to become a potted plant. I don¡¯t know if it can truly do that, but it¡¯s something I joked to Induul about, so my genre senses say now that it¡¯s like, eighty percent chance that the random one has the ability for that to be one of the random effects.


    Focus Reggie! Oh, right, right. Uh. Okay, what if we do this with the slipenth? Hm, closer. Wait, is there a willpower focus requirement? Probably pretty hard with a headache. Doesn¡¯t help that my skull¡¯s being blasted repeatedly. Still, that doesn¡¯t seem like all there is to it either. Okay. What about? Hm, no, entirely off the mark, I¡¯m worse off than when I started. My gals are giggling behind me, and Lucky is scratching himself in a bit of a bored manner. Veril and Farzee are facing each other as they¡¯re sitting on the stone ground with their knees partway up to their chests, just being there for each other, occasionally chatting or comforting each other. They¡¯re supporting and balancing each other. There¡¯s a co¡ª. Aha!


    I rush over and kiss Veril intensely, and then rush to kiss Farzee equally intensely. You two are geniuses, I love you both! That¡¯s it! The elemental rune and the first operand rune *together* have to be fed into that effect, to become free, ambient mana runes. They have to balance and support each other. Yes! It works! That¡¯s two of five S P saved per cast of my frosty ray spell. Ahhhh I love you guys! Oh, erm, sorry Veril. Sorry Farzee. Lu, why are you pouting? Come here. Mwah. Anyway, what about the other three operand runes? Okay, fine Luni, a bit longer before I go back to focusing on the spellwork. Mmm. You know I love you My Anchor. Gosh, I¡¯m sorry Farzee. I hope that wasn¡¯t a mixed signal or anything.


    Blushing, Farzhis responds to my mental narrative, ¡°No, no Schism. It¡¯s okay. I sai¡¯ before that it¡¯s a way I show appreciation. I understan¡¯. I won¡¯ chase you. No¡¯ my type. Bu¡¯ it¡¯s nice feeling love¡¯. Feeling tha¡¯ withou¡¯ needing to offer up something or change myself. So, um, thanks. It¡¯s nice. You¡¯re no¡¯ ba¡¯ at kissin¡¯ either. Hell, Broke One is spacing ou¡¯ because of it. Look a¡¯ his face. Grinning like a goon.¡±


    Now I¡¯m blushing, as I realize it¡¯s true, Veril¡¯s got a goofy grin on his face. Poor guy. My bad. Hopefully he finds a romantic partner that¡¯ll share plenty of kissing with him. Hm, but what about the other operand runes? I¡¯d be fine only figuring out one or two of them. This one and this one? No. This one and this one? No. This one and¡ª ah hah! I have absolutely no clue! Erm, how to get the last one to be free. But these four I can produce as ambient mana runes, fairly quickly and easily, meaning I can either slowly or quickened craft this middle rune, and then spam the spell for a single S P. Let¡¯s see how rapidly I can cast this.


    Drawing a deep breath, I pull on the edges of time, reveling in the space between spaces, the time between moments. I don¡¯t approach anywhere near stopped time. I¡¯m just trying to see how fast my internal-electrokinetic reaction time can make my re-empowering of the runes to cast the spell over and over. Ow my freakin¡¯ head. For a minute there, I forgot I have a migraine or headache going on. Right, anyway, let¡¯s test this out, wrap this up, and get our arses to the strategists-eight. Oh. Oh! I can shave three S P off of my thirty three rune spells, or six off of my sixty six rune spells! So it¡¯ll only be forty five S P to quicken my regular spells, with the new quickening enhancement enchantments from the tomes utilized within the orb, or ninety for the slightly bigger spells. Ahhh, this is so good! Focus Reggie! Oh, right.


    Breathe deep. One one thou¡ª blast blast blast blast blast, ¡ªsand. Nice! Yeah, I¡¯m happy with that. Five icy rays, and five sets of procs of the metamagic runic bangle clips in a single second. Alright, let go of the flow of time, the non, the absence, join the regular pace of the fourth dimension. Heh, I sound like such a dork. It¡¯s okay, I love it. I love being me. I¡¯ve got a great life, a great son, great friends, great loves. Heck, let¡¯s go see those great strategists-eight.

 B 6 C 111: Tasks

    Of course, of course just as I¡¯m feeling love, and loved, and happy, my mind starts to wander. Don¡¯t do it brain. Don¡¯t do it. I¡¯m warning you. I can tell what you¡¯re about to do. What, little ol¡¯ me? You mean, like focusing on all of our failings, all the people we¡¯ve let down, all the deaths we¡¯ve caused, all of the atrocities that happened during our life or at our hands? Ugh! Screw you! Friggin¡¯! Sniffle. Gorram stupid mrgrgr. I gulp back a sob as my lower jaw quivers, upsetting my tension headache even more. I slump on my T K Surfboard after finishing off the hostiles in the odds ¡®n¡¯ ends warren. My emotions hit full turmoil, and my guts roll to accent the roiling, spinning motion I feel cascading within me mentally.


    Snagging some of the random loot and some of the resources themselves from this warren, I sell it off to my own shop, probably the only person in either universe that can do that. That¡¯s a few dozen grand for what would only be a few seconds of work, if I weren¡¯t screwing around trying to learn new ways to utilize my spells. Yeah, you do waste a lot of time trying to be better than everyone else, don¡¯t you? Arrogant, self-absorbed, entitled, vain¡ª.


    Grr. Screw off. Screw you. No screw you. Grrrr. Reggie? Mhm? You¡¯re arguing with your intrusive thoughts. Oh. Right. There¡¯s no winning against them Reggie. They¡¯ll yell at you for a while, and it¡¯s okay if they hurt. It¡¯s okay to hurt, and it sucks to focus on or recall bad things, but it¡¯s okay to allow yourself to feel them, without responding to them. You¡¯ve already gone through the events.


    Huff. Heaving a sigh, I nod at myself, which must be so weird for anyone riding my mental narrative train. You¡¯re right, coping-me, I¡¯ve already gone through the things that my brain is yelling at me for. It hurt, and I have regrets, I¡¯ve failed to save people, hell, just recently, sixty three people from the Damnations. But it is the present currently, and I¡¯m surrounded by love, and warm feelings like the pride of my inner circle. I need to chase these advantages to be better, to do more, to be more prepared to save people should the need arise. Yeah, keep telling yourself that buddy.


    Erm, which one of you was that? Well, if you heard it sarcastically, it was your intrusive thoughts. If it sounded sincere, comforting, then it was your coping mechanism. Huh, makes sense. I already forgot what it sounded like though. Don¡¯t worry too much about it. You¡¯ve got plenty of other things to keep your mind busy. Gods, I must really seem like I have a split psyche at this point. Give yourself a break about it. Talking to yourself, addressing yourself, is a coping mechanism. Intrusive thoughts are intrusive, they¡¯re not yours, they¡¯re just depression and impostor syndrome and everything else. There¡¯s no other yous in your head. Well, not at the moment anyway. If you get any future personality ghosts again at some point, that¡¯s a whole other ballgame. Hah, true.


    Frowning after a moment, worried though, I glance to Luni with sadness written across my face as I ask, ¡°Lu? Is that side of me right? The coping mechanism stuff? Or am I going crazy? I don¡¯t want to go crazy. I¡¯d be worried I¡¯d be a danger to ev¡ª.¡±


    As Luni pulls me to her, she kisses me softly and coos around the kiss, ¡°Shhh, shh my Hero. It¡¯s okay. You¡¯re not going crazy. You¡¯re not. Te, don¡¯t tease them right now, I know what you were going to say. Reggie¡¯s fragile right now babe. It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay. We love you. You¡¯ll be okay. You¡¯re doing so great, and I¡¯m so proud of you. Keep being you, always. Don¡¯t ever stop. If what you think you need to do is keep getting stronger, then I know you¡¯ll do it for us. You¡¯ve got this. Always have, and always will.¡±


    Melting into Luni¡¯s embrace, I sniffle for a moment, and nod at her reassurances. I hate that I bounce from doing mostly okay, or perfectly fine, to being nearly utterly despondent, or enraged, or disappointed in myself, or whatever other things come up. That¡¯s just what intrusive thoughts do though, I guess. Depression, or maybe bipolar disorder, or so on, they rear their head. Listen to what Lu said. You¡¯ve got this. Always have, always will. It means more coming from her though bud. I know. I know. But yeah, you¡¯re right, she did just say it.


    I smile furtively for a moment, trying to reorient myself to the present, to be present in the present. I facepalm while shaking my head and rolling my eyes at myself. Lu and Te giggle at my thought train. Even Veril snorts a laugh, then claps his hands over his mouth, while Farzee cracks a smile. Lucky rests his face on Farzee¡¯s knees, so she scritches his jowls and ears.


    Quietly, in her usual accent, Farzhis asks, ¡°Broke One, do you think Brains is okay? With Indy ou¡¯ of action I mean, an¡¯ us being sen¡¯ ou¡¯ tomorrow. I¡¯m, I¡¯m scare¡¯, only a little, no¡¯ of the figh¡¯, bu¡¯, bu¡¯ everything hurts. She woul¡¯ say something, right¡¯? Known her a long time, bu¡¯ never really though¡¯ to ge¡¯ to know her. Y¡¯know?¡±


    As Veril¡¯s about to respond, Iylynilya telepathically sends, ¡°You could ask me yourself Farzee. I¡¯m here if you need me Blue. I¡¯m good sweetie. I swear. Just been preoccupied. Sorry I wasn¡¯t there for you this morning. What about you? Are you going to be okay for tomorrow? I won¡¯t bring you along if¡ª.¡±


    Resolutely, in her delightful, few-stop-consonants accent, Farzee replies, ¡°No, yeah. I¡¯m goo¡¯. Enough to figh¡¯ a¡¯ leas¡¯. Thanks Brains. It means a lo¡¯. Coming to strategy meeting? Schism¡¯s been getting a lo¡¯ done way before even lunch. Migh¡¯ maybe be some importan¡¯ changes. Woul¡¯ be nice to have you aroun¡¯ boss.¡±


    Iylynila hesitates before answering, ¡°If that¡¯s what you need, then, yeah. Sure, sure I can be there. See you at the strategist¡¯s council room Blue. You too Red. Tell Schism, tell them¡ª. Sorry, ignore me. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay enough to fight.¡±


    There¡¯s a nearly imperceptible click. That¡¯s the best way I can describe the feeling of Iylynila¡¯s telepathic walls going up. I guess she didn¡¯t realize I was in the party call since she was broadcasting to the Dormir, and that I¡¯m one of their backbones. Or maybe she just didn¡¯t want to admit that she wanted to let me hear her voice? It¡¯s hard to tell with Illy. I do dearly love her. I truly hope I haven¡¯t hurt her. I know she said it wasn¡¯t me, and that I haven¡¯t, that she¡¯s just overwhelmed and doesn¡¯t want to be a needy person while the war is on, but, well¡ª. Yeah, I know buddy. I know. She¡¯s a strong woman. She¡¯ll be okay. Also, maybe don¡¯t get too full of yourself, thinking you¡¯re *that* important to her. Heh, true.


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    Sighing, I lean against Luni for a long few moments, trying to let my headache recede. Our weakest spell has become five times more efficient, ten times actually, and it¡¯s also several times more powerful, with all these runic metamagical adaptation clips in my bangle. We¡¯ve got to commission a bangle on the way out for Kinzul. It should be a fairly simple task. I¡¯ll take a few photos of an empty one like Lucky¡¯s, and print them off at the copier, so that whomever crafts it has essentially blueprints. It might not even end up being the one I give to Kinzul, it could be a failed prototype. I¡¯ll ask them to iterate on it, starting with weaker metals, working their way up to Adamantite.


    Alright, thanks Lucky my boy. I¡¯ll give this right back. Photos in some bright lighting, bodyparts and items for scale. Actually, measuring tape for scale. That¡¯s much better. I¡¯ve got the carpentry kit. I may as well make use of it. It¡¯s also incredibly useful to be able to levitate an object to take pictures from all angles, especially when certain angles would be quite difficult to prop an irregular object on a surface. Alright, let¡¯s print these off, and delete the less useful photos.


    Let¡¯s give these to someone to commission¡ª. Oh, hey, it¡¯s that burly kobold fellow who gave me a hug after the messed up public speaking. Waving to him, I call out, ¡°Hail, friend. I didn¡¯t get your name before. Would you be someone I could commission for some crafting?¡±


    With a raised brow, the kobold man, Charles apparently, answers, ¡°Charlecruthizh, everyone calls me Charlie, or Charles. I can take a look at what you need Schism. Happy to help. Have you got a second to solve a dilemma?¡±


    Nodding, I float over to Charles, while my party mills about the forgeworks. He points to a section of the wall that seems to have tectonic damage. That¡¯s disconcerting. As I¡¯m inspecting it, Charles points to another section a few meters away.


    As I¡¯m about to ask what I can do for him, or start coming up with solutions, Charles states, ¡°Was thinking about filling ¡®em with mithril, since it¡¯s a bit flexible, and sturdier than anything other than ori and adamant. With your permission of course. Mostly wondered if you, or some of your squad or friends wanted to take on the task of hitting up the ¡®Neath, and see if there¡¯s something going on down there for us, to make sure it wasn¡¯t going to get worse. Rather send fighters than crafters to check it out, y¡¯know? If you tell us to handle it ourselves, we will, but¡ª.¡±


    Placing my palms forward placatingly, I interrupt, ¡°No no, no you¡¯re right, definitely. Feel free to use any of the metals, mithril especially. Let me try to think who¡¯d be best to send down there on that task, and get back to you maybe? A lot of our forces are heading out tomorrow, and if it could end up being a multi-day mission, I can¡¯t risk sending any of them, but those that are staying behind, well¡ª. I might attend to it personally. Do you know of a nearby entrance to the ¡®Neath?¡±


    While Charles is accepting and looking over the photos and specifications for the runic bangle, with my notes on desires for iterations, I hear him muttering, ¡°Hm, hm, can do this, easy request, hm? Oh, right. Over by Mah¡¯ruke supposedly. Obelisk is supposed to hide an entrance to the ¡®Neath. Some kind of long forgotten backup plan or something. ¡®Least that¡¯s what the rumors used to say. Hasn¡¯t been talked about in a long time.¡±


    Chuckling all of a sudden, Charles adds, ¡°Even if there¡¯s nothing there, I figure you or Hunter or one or another of your crew could find a way down, or make your own, from there. Let me see what I can do for you about these. Me ¡®n¡¯ the boys, or gals, can probably get some high quality casts made in a few days, and a single prototype as early as tomorrow morning.¡±


    Charles turns about, and waves the photos at another kobold and Draconiac that are working a billows nearby. I¡¯m halfway a bit worried when one of the pages blows out of Charles¡¯ hand since we¡¯re surrounded by burning forges, but he catches it swiftly enough. I call out my thanks to him, and he simply waves over his shoulder without looking back. He appears to be discussing the cracks in the stone wall as he points to them and points to some mithril ore slag gathered nearby. They¡¯re already going about the preparations for the task of filling in the damage.


    I smile, recalling one friend amongst the Order that happens to be incredibly adept at prepping for tasks. Hell, that prep work is her primary task. Ooo, I bet Nala¡¯s appended shop inventory list has books, and if I¡¯m lucky, one or more on gemology or enchantment bindings, or similar. Then I might be able to figure out how to get a fourth, fifth, or even sixth telekinetic grip up. My party shares a collective groan as I contemplate possibly going back to Mount Verdimenn already, after having just left for the umpteenth time already this morning. Blushing, I try to make note of wanting to do it before I engage my myconid form later this eve. I¡¯ll be coming back down anyway to craft some spare shop stalls.


    Thinking about what I¡¯ll need to craft the shop stalls, I could sense that the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian aura wasn¡¯t reaching the full depths of each of the warrens, so I¡¯m a bit afraid for what that means for some of them. Thankfully, we prioritized the more expensive warrens, so it¡¯s not too utterly awful if our wood, clay, copper, and iron only respawn a few nodes per day after the miraculous full load of today.


    Still, who the hell can I safely assign the task to explore the ¡®Neath, to see what¡¯s up down there? If it¡¯s Rayileklian mite-hulk adjacents, it could spell pretty bad news for any Mount Solace resident. Or if it¡¯s a Terrorzin loyalist getting someone to try to tunnel in from below, or any number of things. Whomever goes down is going to need to be able to generate some matter to fill in any sorts of¡ª. Hm. They¡¯re also going to need to not rely on sight, because of first the utter darkness, and second, the mite-hulk adjacents have those confusion-enchantment carapaces.


    Oh. Duh. Revvy and Greggy. Greggy being blind, quick, and a Sand, is almost perfect. Revvy being our, ¡°The Dark,¡± sounds like he¡¯d be at home operating in the ¡®Neath as well. With Boetah tied up with Atter, could, and should I maybe send Shaylon along with them so they have some defensive backup? Would Kinzul consent to me setting up missions to send the Onyx Dawn members on, for stuff like this?


    An overwhelming wash of pride hits me from Kinzul¡¯s emotional wavelength. I actually topple to my knees under the weight of it, and am dazed by its sudden heft. My Lady offers up, ¡°This is precisely the sort of thing I hope you¡¯ll help teach our son, Sun, over time, as you work together to lead the Order, against any threats. Of course my Schism, my Hero, my love. Yours is an authority equal to my own, and I¡¯m in utmost gratitude that you continue to check with me to make certain our plans are congruous, rather than at odds.¡±


    Despite Kinzul¡¯s pride, and acceptance, I do worry about the possibility of a siege beginning while such a large fraction of our most powerful forces are all out. Chuckling about my worry that springs up, Kinzul teases, ¡°I half suspect if a siege should suddenly befall us during your operation, that you¡¯ll destroy it on the return from your mission on the morrow, before we even have need of Aegis¡¯s talents. Perhaps not entirely on your lonesome, being that you¡¯d be returning from your task with the full force of Hunter, Muse, and Sun. As you know, Tenith would be returning from her task with the full force of the Vivant, and the able-bodied Dormir. Still, let us bring this up to the strategists-eight in a few moments, shall we?¡±

 B 6 C 112: Strategies

    Seeing Charles make headway on the mithril slag to fill in the tectonic damage heartens me slightly, though I¡¯m still a bit wary. I make note of other Draconiac crafters working on various tools, and thankfully there are more than just harvesting tools, there¡¯s crafting tools as well. It looks like they¡¯ll be supplying rotary tools and the like to the craftsworks room. Smiling at the volunteers, I take my leave of them, returning to my party.


    Lu, Te, Lucky, Veril, Farzee, and I head swiftly to the location we¡¯ll be meeting up with everyone else to sit in on some discussion by the strategists-eight. It¡¯s odd to think that I was literally picking their brains just yesterday. I think it was yesterday. It seems so long ago now already, when we were trying to save Prinrin by abusing the myconid form¡¯s hivemind sporebrain and the orb time. Anyway, we arrive before Lil, Kinzul, or Iylynila, despite how much I¡¯d let myself get distracted this morning. I almost feel like I should recall the Spellknight Twins from the field, where I have them observing Indy to make sure he¡¯s okay, so that they could sit in on this.


    I loose a contented sigh. It worked. Mercy worked. Four amazing, earnest individuals who value family joined ours. Hell, four powerful individuals, in a time of war. Not only that, they¡¯re bringing new life into the family on top of that already! Children on the way with Boetah and Atter! Plus the hundreds and hundreds of kobolds from Atter¡¯s domain, that, well, I¡¯m hoping we¡¯ve vetted well enough. I think Atter would be heartbroken if any of her kinsmen lashed out, or endangered the safety of what we¡¯ve built up here.


    I have to always keep trying to keep being the me I want to be, despite how much it can hurt, despite how much regret I carry, and how many wrongs I feel I¡¯ve committed. I try to do right by those closest to me first, and then do right by those who can¡¯t stand up for themselves second, and then the most right for the most people third. All I can do is try. I¡¯m no hero, I¡¯m no leader, I¡¯m no philosopher. I¡¯m just a cryptozoologist, remember? Hah. You¡¯re a dork Reggie, but you love it. Yeah, yeah I do.


    Sighing contentedly again, I smile and shake my head incredulously at myself and my own inner monologue. Te shoulder-bashes me to get me out of my own head, so I bump her back, and we trade playful, light bashes until we¡¯re both dizzy and giggling. We¡¯re still, as we have been for the last couple days, working through things in Te¡¯s mindscape in the background of everything else we¡¯re doing. I¡¯m glad we can maintain positivity and levity while we do so.


    I set my gaze on Luni and Lucky, and I¡¯m surprised when I find Lucky is armored up. He¡¯s experimenting with his scarf-hands, taking off and putting on pieces of armor, and putting them into the dimensional storage within his scarf. That¡ª. Well, that solves one issue. Good gods our son is smart. At times, he seems so simple, so much like a regular hound, or even perhaps a child, but then he¡¯ll use critical thinking and solve problems on his own, or surprise me in other ways. His existence is so baffling to me. Though, hah, I¡¯m not exactly one to talk. My own existence defies a lot of logic as well. How can I be *part* digital? Why were ¡°ofbloods¡± a thing on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? Come on Reggie, be in the present. Oh, true, right.


    There¡¯s Elshon, looking as flamboyant as ever, with another oddly framed pair of overly-large sunglasses. Everyone else is sitting, but not Elshon. He¡¯s still standing, yeah, right next to Prent. Yeah, looking better than he ever did before, confident, assured somehow. It seems he¡¯s truly prepared to survive this war, that he¡¯s accepted that somehow we¡¯re going to win, despite us still facing overwhelming odds, and new wrinkles popping up. Has Kinzul informed them about the new hole in the Worldstorm? I wish I could aid Errissa somehow in getting the information and getting it back to us swiftly and safely.


    It might be just Luni and Lucky having to take down some ultra-powerful stronghold that holds the key to turning the tide of battle, if Kinzul can¡¯t send anyone with dragonforces to end that particular threat. I think I¡¯d risk it myself though. I wouldn¡¯t care if every dragon from here to the center of Terrorzin¡¯s domain felt me flying over their regions. Let them come after me, leaving all their ground troops behind. It would complicate the stronghold raid, depending on which sorts of dragons follow me, but it might very well give me a boost in power overall, despite taking resources and risking injury.


    Plus, most domain leaders aren¡¯t going to just leave their entire fortress behind themselves to chase down one or two dragonforces flying over the Worldstorm. They¡¯ll probably only send a lieutenant, or elite squad. Huff. I can see more and more why I¡¯d be the knife edge of the Order¡¯s offensive onslaught. I¡¯m willing, and able, to assess and take those sorts of risks, and I understand exactly what I¡¯d be up against. I can even portion things out, luring out more lieutenants and elite squads, until leaders do decide they need to chase me down themselves.


    Hell, if I throw enough of a wrench into the works of various regions, the ground troops might be rudderless, and end up completely cut off, not being able to muster. I could even sneak in some rests here and there, especially with my new stonemelding runic ability from that anti-petrification clip, and a few other tricks I¡¯ve got up my sleeves now. Hm. It isn¡¯t quite time yet to go that far all-out on soloing the entire rest of the dragon apocalypse though Reggie. Yeah, true. We need more information, and the less time I have to spend solo adventuring, the better. Besides, Teuila could do quite similarly to me, luring out the most powerful. We don¡¯t need these offensives to be complete routs, though Kinzul has been treating that as necessary. I understand why, especially for these domains closest to Mounts Solace and Solitude. The further we range though, the more we only have to take out their highly-mobile threats.


    Though, if they have some sort of ace, like troop teleportation, or an underground railway network, or some other method of translocating large numbers of ground forces, it could end up being a big mistake to leave them in disarray even if we do destroy their leadership. Hm. Again, more information is needed. Genre savvy senses are saying it¡¯s lowball odds that they have something like that, around fifteen percent. Doesn¡¯t mean that I should plan as if they don¡¯t have it though. Expect the worst, and all that.


    Let¡¯s see, there were approximately eighty strongholds, assume anywhere from one to fifteen adult to ancient dragons as leadership, elite squad, or lieutenants, in any given one of them. We¡¯ve taken out the combined forces of Olashax, Astridus, Xinthoz, and Vanathar¡¯s regional stronghold, as well as Shiztinth, and technically Attraxiaz the Loud. We¡¯ve taken out Heironymous Guldstrum¡¯s stronghold, and Laotzxhi citadel. Five domains, seventy five left. We¡¯ve technically left Mydraig Hareslayer¡¯s domain rudderless, leaderless. That¡¯ll come back to haunt us later if we don¡¯t finish off or convert their ground forces, so we¡¯ll have to deal with it sooner rather than later. That one is close enough that we¡¯ll need to rout his ground forces, lieutenants and the like, when they realize their lord hadn¡¯t returned from entreating with us. I wish we could trust Ka¡¯thuul to put some sort of effort into defending the region, and send *her* and hers at easy targets like that. As far as I¡¯m aware though, ours is an uneasy alliance in which she basically only vows non aggression so long as we turn a blind eye to her little scheming and stealing about the regions looting ¡°in the name of the alliance.¡±


    I truly think we need to deal with her and hers before it¡¯s too late. She¡¯s near enough, and there¡¯s enough interplay between our foothills, and hers, that various kobolds and Draconiacs can walk from one to the next, chat, trade stories, and pass on too much information that I don¡¯t want Ka¡¯thuul having access to. We all *know* she¡¯s going to stab us in the back at some point. More overtly than these little resource grabs she¡¯s been doing. Grr. It wouldn¡¯t be very forgiving, merciful, or just, or righteous, to head over there and slaughter her and hers though, just on the expectation of the treachery to come. Friggin¡¯ hell Reggie. Yeah, I know. That one is going to bite us in the ass hard at some point. Kinzul my love, I hope you know what you¡¯re doing with Ka¡¯thuul.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Anyway, back to the math. I¡¯m sure we have access to more concrete numbers, and the strategists-eight will be able to fill me in on them, but let¡¯s just try to plot out a course mentally. Let¡¯s see, go worst case scenario, with fifteen powerful enough entities at each fortress, domain, or region, to give even me pause. That¡¯s eleven hundred twenty five. Supposing it takes me two spells per kill, say one defensive and one offensive, that¡¯s ninety S P if both are quickened, now that we¡¯re advanced in our abilities by quite a bit. Over a hundred thousand S P. That¡¯s over three months if I attempt to do everything alone, and can¡¯t manage to kill some of them without spells. Now the good thing is, I know that the majority of adult dragons, I can kill in melee combat, and that of the fifteen powerful figures in most of those regions, most of them are usually adult, or young adult, rather than ancient. If we say most is just over half, then drop the fifteen down to seven, making it, let¡¯s see. Five hundred twenty five ancients on the board, possibly, of varying power levels. Though some of them might also simply be powerful Draconiac sorcerers and the like. Still over forty-seven thousand S P, over a month and a half if I were to push myself to the absolute limit, every day.


    With Lil at my back, I can take down more targets without going heavy on resource use, and I know Teuila can murder the everliving hell out of our enemy¡¯s forces. Still, if they start taking injuries, they¡¯re possibly out of commission, whereas I¡¯ve baked in my new regeneration, and several combat forms. Oh, also, as my Honoris Causa grows in power, I might be able to literally defeat foes as if I were also an ancient dragon tearing through their forces. Hm. Teuila as well, if she continues to grown in Honoris Causa Calibers, or dragon-ranks.


    Yeah, these numbers are doable, even assuming that somehow the land forces get moved towards Mount Solace to lay siege on Solace after we take out their leadership. With the entire rest of the Order of the Onyx Dawn back at home, mostly rested up, outfitted and fed by our infinite sustainability, they¡¯ll have no trouble laying waste to entire armies worth of siege that attempt to infiltrate. We will have to pull back some of the residents from some of the foothills, and close them off though. It doesn¡¯t make sense to have to guard fifty entrances. We should likely begin doing that as early as tonight, in preparation. Thankfully, Lucky has done amazing work at creating tons and tons of space between Mount Solace and Mount Verdimenn. Atter¡¯s people are settling in, and there¡¯s still room to evacuate our own people into the same areas. Then, any siege only has to be fought on up to two fronts. The long tunnel that most of the foothills tunnels connect to, which can be watched by my security projects, even if they try to re-open tunnels that we stone-shape closed. That, and the aerie. It¡¯s unlikely anyone will be stupid enough to try to attack from the aerie, since it means shrinking down to fall essentially right into the waiting jaws of one of our Queens.


    It¡¯s also incredibly unlikely for the ground forces to be able to make it over here to the valley leading to Mounts Solace and Solitude en masse, or even at all. But, yeah, start prepping as if we¡¯re going to lose momentum. There shouldn¡¯t even be too much of a morale hit with the prep, since we¡¯re actually going to be bolstering people¡¯s rations and such, and gifting equipment, and even spirits and liquor and alcohol and so on. Even those that have to temporarily relocate shouldn¡¯t end up feeling too bad, as they¡¯ll actually end up being incredibly close to the resource warrens, the shops, and so on, making it all the easier to not just recover, but enhance their lives with whatever desires they¡¯ve got.


    Oh, wait, how long has Nietru been staring at me? Her expression is almost one of¡ª, hm, it¡¯s one of awe. Gulp. Ah, and now I¡¯ve embarrassed her. I chuckle with chagrin as I scratch the back of my head and cast my eyes downwards, blushing. At least I wasn¡¯t thinking about how I was going to kiss the everliving hell out of her for her shop stall¡¯s expanded inventory. Argh. I facepalm, and lightly thunk my head into the nearest wall repeatedly. Poor Nietru is beet red beneath her scales at this point. Teuila waggles her brows at me, but I just roll my eyes at her, not taking the bait for the tease. These people have their own complex relationship drama that I want no part of Te, and I¡¯m sure she¡¯s mortified at the implications.


    Mumbling my apology, I turn towards Nietru to explain, ¡°Sorry about my brain. I¡¯ve accomplished some major things for my projects in Mount Verdimenn towards infinite sustainability, and protecting that sustainability. One of the greatest assets, one of the most important things that I could possibly acquire in order to be able to return from a catastrophic scenario, was in your shop stall. I know that likely seems odd, since you weren¡¯t down there for me to check out your inventory. Even without you there, due to my strange nature, I was able to purchase from it.¡±


    Thankfully, Nietru recovers quickly, as she¡¯s more interested in picking my brain about anything and everything, than she is about any sort of flustering that might occur as a potential person of romantic slash kissing interest that I¡¯m not actually chasing. As the strategists-eight begin to field questions to me, about my projects, and their ramifications, I do my best to both summarize what I¡¯ve accomplished this morning. I also try to explain the long term goals and impacts.


    While filling in the strategists-eight, I remind them that they¡¯re technically all sorcerers now, with limited use daily magical abilities that are all quite potent. They¡¯ve got the stony skin ability thrice daily, the conical blasts of frost thrice daily, the slowing magic, the minuscule meteor conjuration and flinging, the summoning of a high tier monstrous mana construct, and several others, such as the low tier shadowy evocations and shadowy conjurations. I want them to remember, and be ready to deploy their new powers in case they¡¯re in danger, or in case they feel like supporting the front lines of siege defense, should it come to that.


    Poor Lil, I wish I had gotten him and Lu in on the abilities that were shared. They were so injured though, I wasn¡¯t sure how that would affect the hivemind, and wasn¡¯t even sure any of it would work at all. I feel bad for leaving him out though, especially since Lu said he feels the way he does, and is trying so hard to catch up to me so that everything doesn¡¯t fall in my lap. I think¡ª. I think I can do some dragon-training. I¡¯m going to need Nala¡¯s help, and Teuila¡¯s. I might have just come up with an idea to share power with Lil. It harkens back to our early days on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, when we first learned about energy tethers for evolutions and supporting mana and so on. Luni won¡¯t necessarily need to be there for the training, since, as far as I¡¯m aware, she doesn¡¯t have an Honoris Causa, or any dragon-forms, but she¡¯ll be able to boost Lil¡¯s output in the field if they¡¯re together, if this will work how I think it will.


    It¡¯s actually going to end up being Teuila and Lil this time, that share and expand each other¡¯s powers. I can¡¯t afford to use my Honoris Causa to do it, since mine depletes over time. Natural dragons, and normal Honoris Causas regenerate over time, hell, natural ones even grow over time. So normally, even performing heavy expenditures like high level dragonfright, isn¡¯t a devastating loss. Mine loses out on the regeneration because I¡¯m burning through it just to stay alive, fighting off my mana residue sickness. Also, possibly because of my void nature perhaps draining some of it away as well.


    Anyway, hm. Te¡¯s going to need to awaken at least her second dragon-rank stage, or second Caliber of her Honoris Causa. That means she¡¯s going to need something like her fifth or sixth dragonforce absorbed overall. I¡¯m also going to need to craft and empower a focus for her. If my suspicions about the cause of the hole in the Worldstorm are anywhere near true, we might be able to utilize what¡¯s there to awaken the bond I want to form between Te and Lil.


    I glance towards Lil with love, gratitude, and sorrow in my eyes, as he arrives with Kinzul. My best buddy, for all of my lives. I want to alleviate his worries, and take away any pain he feels at any sort of thought of letting me down. He¡¯s never let me down, and he never will. If he wants to be more powerful though, to feel like he¡¯s contributing more, and helping take the load off of me, then I¡¯ll help him get there. Te? Yeah, I thought so, My Wings. I knew I could count on you.

 B 6 C 113: Eights

    It seems like we¡¯ll have eight subgroups, or cliques at this meeting.  There¡¯s me and Te, there¡¯s the Triple L Squad, Kinzul is a group unto herself, Revvy and Greggy are here, our Dark and our Quick.  Huh, their acronym is the DQ.  Odd that that sends me into a minor brain BSOD.  What was I¡ª?  Oh, right, that¡¯s four of the subgroups.  We¡¯ve also got most of the Dormir, then most of the Vivant, then of course the strategists-eight themselves, and strangely enough, Shiz has shown up with Shaylon.  I suppose they¡¯ve been bonding while Boetah and Atter are busy with each other.


    Hm, I think I¡¯ve just thought up something that I want to make a prototype of for tonight.  Since I¡¯m going to be making scrying sensors, and a security station, I think I¡¯d also like to create basically a heads-up display, or live-action cam, for those closest to me.  If I create an adamantite goggle frame, and leave several convex, ultra-polished nubs, I can enchant those individual nubs to be sending-sensors.  Essentially they¡¯d be fish-eye lenses, giving a wide-angle shot of whatever the wearer is looking at.  I could have them set to send to a translucent lens on other pairs of goggles, so that we could look in on each other.  We could even pass notes by writing them out, and holding them in front of our goggles.


    Crap on a cracker Reggie, you¡¯re trying to invent a go-pro with magic.  A what?  Nevermind.  Unbreakable goggles with a permanent occular enchantment linking them?  You definitely have to prioritize that one.  Te has been hurting so much as she tries to struggle through her tumultuous emotions over the recent events.  It sucks that we can¡¯t be there for her as much as we¡¯d like, that we don¡¯t have accelerated thinkspace, but being able to see the other¡¯s field of vision is¡ª.  It¡¯s going to be incredibly reassuring for us.  If the proof-of-concept works, I¡¯ll link more pairs together, for the triple L squad, Kinzul, the various subgroups and cliques, and so on.


    The nice thing is, other than the crafting time, working with a legendary metal that I¡¯ve never worked with before, there¡¯s no real cost to making these.  There isn¡¯t even an S P cost as long as I don¡¯t try to quicken the runic empowerments.  If I¡¯m placing those runic empowerments in myconid form, they¡¯ll be applied incredibly swiftly with the like, what, nearly two dozen vine-tendril limbs.  Hm, what?  Oh, pay attention to the world around you Reggie.  Right, right.


    There are some subtle, breathy chuckles as the gathered attempt to hide their laughter as they read my inner narrative.  Blushing, I scratch the back of my head and request, ¡°Sorry, please come again?  I¡¯d gotten rather mentally sidetracked.¡±


    Quipping and gesturing flamboyantly, Elshon responds, ¡°We were saying, oh illustrious entertainer of enlightenment, that this meeting may end up more a Schism setup synopsis than a strategy situational statement.  But please, don¡¯t let that stop you, we¡¯re *all* fascinated to see where your thoughts guide you.  Truly.¡±


    When Elshon winks at me, I find myself unsure if he¡¯s implying anything in an entendre sense, but I don¡¯t have the spare brainpower to make considerations towards that line of thought at the moment.  Despite wanting to only make proof of concept, I think I actually should go ahead and make an entire security center tonight.  The strategists-eight would be the *perfect* people to run the security center.  It could operate like a phone-switching station, only it¡¯d be video instead of audio.  Well, technically audio can come through too, but I don¡¯t know how to adjust volume or anything, and having dozens of mirrors broadcasting the sound from dozens of locations at once would just, erm, not be all that beneficial.


    Still, if instead of personal goggle to goggle scrying sensors, I rather set up all the goggles to peer back to the security center, then any time one of us wrote a message for one of the others, whomever is attending the security center could copy down that note and pass it along to the intended recipient.  The outer nubs on the goggles will send back to particular mirrors set up in an array at, well, perhaps this room.  The lenses will have a translucent display of this room, from sending-mirrors set up on the opposite wall, that face the security center, so that we can get a bit of a look at what¡¯s going on for everyone, all at once, and any particular messages can be passed on to us individually.


    Stroking my chin, I nod along with myself, which must seem horribly conceited, but I can¡¯t spare it any thought at the moment.  To be able to have instant relay of tactical information, and ongoing battle, to the entire rest of the order would be a massive boon.  There¡¯d be no more surprises of people coming home injured and us not being prepared to treat them properly.  Well, at least for the non-shapeshifters.  I don¡¯t know yet how to perfectly create a size-changing enchantment.  I have the spell, but I don¡¯t understand how Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian equipment applies it in a way that lets items change shape and size at the wielder¡¯s whims.


    If I could get in touch with Errissa, we¡¯d have all of her spying and scouting information before she even had to send word back through her scout network.  Regardless, I definitely want one on Miraina.  Despite having provided her with ample sorceress powers in the recent mind-link, she¡¯s still an incredibly valuable asset, and vulnerable individual.  She¡¯s tiny, and squishy as far as combat is concerned.  If the strategists-eight had constant access to her visual stream, we¡¯d always be able to get to her at a moment¡¯s notice if she stumbled across something too tough for her to handle by herself.  I¡¯m going to want more of Mount Solace labeled though.  We¡¯ll need to paint some numbers in various hallways, simply so that when someone is zooming around Mount Solace, if something happens to them, we can get a read on where they last were at a glance.  I¡¯m fairly positive I can set up the scrying sensors to be able to roll back up to an hour of viewing.


    Let¡¯s see, let¡¯s start a list.


    1.  Create spare Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian System Shops.


    2.  Create prototype adamantite goggles.


    3.  Enchant goggles with incoming scry on lenses, and outgoing scry on the exterior surfaces.


    4.  Enchant paired mirrors for a security center in Solace, and additional mirrors as needed.


    5.  Label more of Mount Solace.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it6.  Set up a security center, including several mirrors at key stationary points in Solace.


    7.  Gather volunteers to helm the security center.


    8.  Disseminate goggles, instructions, and the like.


    Was I going to be doing anything else this eve?  This will keep me incredibly busy, even with the advantage of the myconid form.  It¡¯ll take me several hours of iterating on a headset, or goggles, or circlet, and so-on.  Once I¡¯ve done that, making several more could take a couple more hours, depending on possible available help.  Enchanting them, if I¡¯ve still got myconid-form time available, should only take a few minutes per, but then I¡¯ll also be enchanting two mirrors per set, as well as several additional mirror pairs for around Solace itself.  Perhaps I shouldn¡¯t engage myconid-form until after I¡¯ve got the prototype made.  I¡¯m not as smart without it though, I¡¯d need someone more mechanically minded, one that can see how pieces fit together and¡ª.  Nala.  I need Nala.


    Hm.  How many mirrors am I going to need to have enchanted?  How many goggles?  I think I should perhaps make a set for every prominent order member, though I¡¯ll likely hold off on the full suite of enchantments on them for the dragons, until after I figure out size-changing permanency enchantments.  Considering those of us who don¡¯t frequently change our size to large degrees, there¡¯s Lu, Te, me, Ahliyui, Ahliyuri, Errissa, the strategists-eight, Miraina, and Nala.  That¡¯s sixteen there.  Then let¡¯s see, for dragons, we¡¯ve got Lady Kinzul, the Dormir, the Vivant, Kagired, Gresog, Revinth, Shaylon, Boetah, the Queens, Atter, Shiz, Ixey, Zayzi, Lil.  I know tactically Ixey and Zayzi might seem unimportant to the strategists and others around the room, but they¡¯re friends, and their safety is important to me.  Twenty or twenty-one more when counting the dragons.  Jeeze.  Thirty-six or thirty-seven sets of goggles, seventy-two to seventy-four sets of mirrors before the paired pairs of mirrors I want to have done for Solace itself.


    Let¡¯s see, the myconid form can do a single mirror in about forty-eight to ninety-six seconds, with some lag time for making sure I¡¯ve got the materials prepped and on hand.  Say about a hundred seconds per.  Seventy-two hundred seconds is, hm about two hours, just for the mirrors alone.  I can actually multitask several of them at once, but we¡¯re just doing a baseline amount of work-power hours needed to complete the tasks.  The goggles however will each take two enchantments, and require much more fine motor precision control, requiring the micro-tool-tendril-tips to etch and enchant the miniature scrying sensors.  Say about four times the length of time for the external outgoing enchantment, so about four hundred seconds per goggle on the external, though the internal should only take about ninety six to a hundred seconds per.  So say five hundred seconds per goggle, at thirty six or so goggles, about eighteen-thousand seconds.  That¡¯s around five hours or so.  Seven hours between all of the things, not counting additional mirrors for Mount Solace itself.


    Oof, I¡¯d be pushing the myconid form pretty hard again, after already abusing it through the artifact.  I should really only engage it for about five hours tonight, at most.  I also want to make certain I get the shop stalls done, and I¡¯d like anywhere from four to eight of them, but it¡¯ll take me about an hour apiece.  I can -technically- do the carpentry without the myconid form.  It doesn¡¯t add that much to my construction capabilities.  Hell, I can even subcontract that out completely if we¡¯ve got woodworkers and carpenters available.  I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m ready to entrust the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Carpentry Kit to someone else just yet, but we might need to.  Though, to do that, we¡¯d need the myconid-form to spend about an hour creating blueprints for other carpenters to act on.  Still, that saves us up to eight to ten hours if we let someone else build all the shops.


    I suppose if I prioritize only one set of goggles per group or clique as far as the dragons are concerned, that saves quite a large number that can be done at a later date, since I can¡¯t fully commit to them right yet anyway.  That¡¯d only be about eight goggles for the dragons of Mount Solace, in addition to the sixteen for the Draconiacs, or the SAP, twenty four goggles, and forty eight mirrors.  A bit over three hours for the goggles, and an hour and twenty minutes for the mirrors.  About four hours and forty minutes, leaving me enough time to create a few more paired mirrors for Mount Solace.  Nice!


    I forgot to include Lucky in the dragons and slash or shapechangers, but I¡¯m also assuming that he¡¯ll either be safe in Solace, or with Lu at all times.  It¡¯s eleven AM still?  Good.  Then in eight hours, I can utilize the myconid-form for five hours, and be wrapped up by midnight to be able to get a good sleep before the assault on Vorzog¡¯s Keep.  Hm, there¡¯s still advantages I should look for, during the rest of the day, but¡ª.  Oh, right.  Pay attention Reggie.  I facepalm, realizing that I completely sidetracked myself from the strategy meeting, even if it has only been a couple of minutes of thought.


    To my chagrin, I hear, ¡°Astounding,¡± and ¡°Marvelous,¡± and ¡°Simply stupendous,¡± and ¡°Wow,¡± from several of the strategists-eight who¡¯d ridden my whirlwind of thoughts as I set up plans to create whole new systems of advantages for Solace.  I technically am bringing us into the information-age, with magic.  Still, I feel like an ass for not paying more attention to what¡¯s going on around me.  I understand why the residents of Solace think I look sleepy and lost all the time, when my brain is like this, trying to math out new tactics, advantages, abilities, utilities, powers, items, systems, and so-on and so-forth.


    Gulping and blushing, I ask, ¡°Would any of you be willing to volunteer to operate the security center in shifts, so that you had instant access to all information from all combata¡ª.¡±


    Every last strategist-eight member beams at me as they clamor over one another to accept the responsibility.  I suppose that makes sense.  It¡¯s likely every strategist¡¯s dream to have field-accurate information down to the individual unit level.  With all eight of them taking shifts in pairs, no one needs to operate for too great a length of time, or overwork themselves.  They might even be able to delegate some of the micro-responsibilities of the task to friends or family as well.  They can probably swing shifts of which one of them stays up overnight if any of them want to, since we likely won¡¯t conduct too many offensives that go past midnight.  Though, I would like to start taking advantage of travel time to start taking down more lieutenants and lords amongst Terrorzin¡¯s forces as we begin to range farther and farther.


    Back to Solace though.  I think we can label the tunnels with something along the lines of three digits, the first digit being the approximate floor or elevation number, hm, four digits.  The first two would be the approximate floor or elevation number, while the last two digits could be the approximate location on a clock¡¯s facing, if counting north to be twelve.  There could even be a decimal for something like 0112.5 if there¡¯s a 0112, and a 0101, and a tunnel between them.


    Another bonus is, if we start getting some more security set up around Mount Solace, with scrying mirrors available in various locations, any general populace member that has need of an order member can hold a note up in front of a scrying sensor to get our attention at any time.

 B 6 C 114: Efficiency

    Coughing politely, Prent begs my attention as he states, ¡°I don¡¯t recall whom, but someone had told me that though you¡¯d a keen intellect, you had no head for strategy. Yet listening to your mind as you judge the ability for a single asset to decimate the rest of Terrorzin¡¯s most powerful forces, and the length of time it would take¡ª. Pay no heed to the strategic value of the projects that your mind is wrangling. I dare say Schism, if you weren¡¯t so needed in the field, I¡¯d love to have you in this room at all times.¡±


    I blush at the praise, because I¡¯m pretty sure I was likely the one that said I had no head for strategy, since I¡¯m not truly used to the idea of working with a force of multiple allies beyond my inner circle. At most, I know a bit about human infantry encampments and troop movements and supply lines. Even those are likely irregular since they were on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas and we took away their ugh, meat supplies, and replaced them with the shop structure. Still, recalling what I can of the map that Nala laid out before me on that first day, we¡¯ve been mostly ranging west and southwest so far. There are several forces out to the east, one of which must have been Mydraig Hareslayer¡¯s domain. Those ones would actually have more of a chance of deploying their ground troops to strike out at Mount Solace, once word reached them of our betraying our supposed fealty to Terrorzin.


    Though of course, with Errissa¡¯s scout network, we can intercept, or delay most messages that might be sent from the center of Terrorzin¡¯s domain, past ours towards the east. Speaking of, it¡¯d be quite useful to know the approximate ranges and locations of the scouts in that network. If there are any spots missing coverage, we should assume word has already gotten through, one way or another. In fact, it¡¯s best to assume word has gotten through already, regardless. Like I was thinking earlier, I want Solace prepared for siege sooner rather than later.


    Among those preparations is one that might seem slightly silly, but it¡¯ll help keep morale up as we displace or relocate people. That¡¯d be the alcohol supply lines related preparations. I¡¯ll be making Pawn, Miraina, one of the wealthiest residents of Mount Solace over time, as I allow her full access to the odds ¡®n¡¯ ends warren, with the caveat that I want her to bring backup. I know she¡¯s technically a powerful sorceress now that she¡¯s shared in some of the abilities from the sporebrain, hivemind attempt to save her mother Prinrin, but I don¡¯t feel right endangering someone unused to combat. I know Deli has a friend or two that fancy themselves fighters, and she was crafting mythical-metal foils and rapiers for them. Even just one of those individuals to have her back would put my mind at ease.


    I try to be more *present* as I¡¯m directly addressed several times. Illy, Farzee, and Veril are questioned about their strategies on how to operate when missing a quarter of the Paradox Dormir, and I too worry about their seeming lack of a cohesive answer. Illy¡¯s confident that she can make up for the loss of synergy that Veril and Induul had together, but just in case she¡¯s wrong, I think I can do something for the group to make up for lacking Induul¡¯s breath weapon.


    My myconid form will take almost no time at all to whip up bottled batches of expanding gases that grow on contact with oxygen, propagating and aerosolizing for a time. We did, after all, make the form capable of producing certain reagents within its vine-tendrils. I¡¯ll make sure Farzee and Veril are both loaded down with canisters of compressed gases. I facepalm at once again letting myself get distracted immediately after resolving to try to avoid doing just that.


    Still, it was a worthwhile distraction, to be able to let the Dormir know that I have their back, always. Even Illy smiles furtively my way as Veril and Farzee fill her in on what my brain has been cooking up. Alright Reggie, don¡¯t let yourself get distracted by the gorgeous smile on the beautiful woman, focus up. Pay attention. Hm, the strategists-eight had planned a scenario in which they¡¯d have troop deployment of citizen infantry, out in the valley around Mah¡¯Ruke obelisk. It¡¯s not exactly a bad idea per se, but I¡¯d rather not risk anyone that could simply be sniped by spells or breath weapons, standing out in the open, in case we don¡¯t end up taking care of all the fliers and so on within the enemy forces, before their reprisal.


    Okay, okay here we go, information on how we¡¯re gathering the various hoards of the foes we defeat, the supply lines working their way carefully back around the Spine of the World to get it back to us. Lady Kinzul had already had that set up, but now we¡¯re getting into the nitty gritty of it. Permission for additional individuals and the like. If only we had more of the dimensional bags and pouches and so on, especially the linked ones. Hm. If Berinon can do it, perhaps I can too? Berinon being an active leather-enchanter means the art isn¡¯t lost to time or anything, so it might even be in common texts that Nala might have. If I can do that, especially if I can soul-bind them to certain intended recipients, we¡¯d have a massive advantage in the mobilization of our efforts to keep the hoards out of the reach of Terrorzin¡¯s other forces, and out of Ka¡¯thuul¡¯s hands as well.


    There¡¯s an elephant in the room that no one seems comfortable addressing. The inevitable betrayal of Ka¡¯thuul. She¡¯s an ancient green dragon, and the leader of the Order of the Emerald Dawn, an order fashioned after Kinzul¡¯s Order of the Onyx Dawn, out of envy. She¡¯s also Induul¡¯s mother, apparently. She refuses to actually participate in our war against Terrorzin, and our non-aggression treaty is barely being respected as she sneaks around and has her own forces claiming the hoards we free up from Terrorzin¡¯s hordes. Half the reason I want us to be siege-prepped is because of her. Whatever form her betrayal takes, we¡¯re more likely to be able to survive it, and its aftermath, if we dig-in early.


    Speaking of digging in, I address Revvy and Greggy, ¡°I¡¯d gotten a request from the volunteers at the metalworks for someone to check out the ¡®Neath, to investigate why there were signs of sudden, but minor, tectonic activity inching up from beneath our forgeworks. Charles said that there should be an entrance hidden by the Mah¡¯Ruke obelisk. Would you two be willing to explore the ¡®Neath to ascertain the problem with the backup of Shaylon? I¡¯m expecting tunnel boring creatures such as what I call mite-hulk adjacents. Their carapaces have some sort of confusion enchantment upon them that affects the visual perceptions of, yes, exactly. I knew you¡¯d understand. I expect you can plan a suitable operating procedure, if scouting becomes routing, or if you find yourselves overwhelmed.¡±


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    Shaylon, Revvy, and Greggy nod, all smiling slyly, realizing just how efficient their small squad will be together against what I imagine they¡¯ll be facing in the ¡®Neath. Shiz seems a bit dejected, that his new friend is being deployed without him. I don¡¯t exactly want a Thunderer blasting and roaring in the ¡®Neath however. Hm, he is however someone that I would trust with Miraina¡¯s security and protection, against the odds ¡®n¡¯ ends warren. I¡¯m sure he¡¯d appreciate first crack at booze as well. He¡¯s also got the same sorcery empowerments that I¡¯d shared with all the others in the hivemind. I turn to him and whisper my thoughts, which ends up earning me smiles and nods as he agrees to look after Pawn for me.


    I feel a bit abashed basically making executive decisions on what is hopefully efficient asset deployment. Kinzul however looks, or rather, feels, relieved. I sense relief, immense relief coming through our emotional bond in waves. She¡¯d been making these sorts of decisions, and accepting the responsibility that comes with them for ages. Even with throwing herself on the front lines with her forces, she feels personally responsible when any of them come to harm. Such is a leader¡¯s fate I suppose. At least, a caring, empathetic one such as Kinzul. I can¡¯t say I¡¯d feel differently if Revinth the Dark, Gresog the Quick, or Shaylon, Aegis, were injured, or worse, didn¡¯t make it home. I mean, hell, that exact reason is why I¡¯m deploying overkill protection for Miraina, Pawn, to farm some slightly hostile resources.


    I let Shiz know that if the task seems too easy, that as long as Miraina makes contact with at least one of the fencers that Deli had been talking about, and has one of them along, that I¡¯ve got other tasks he could attend to. Mainly, early-warning. Shiz is sturdy enough, and enhanced with magic enough, that even if an entire enemy force showed up out of the blue, that he could get off a fairly charged breath attack. I¡¯d prefer it be him, or Atter, as their breath attacks would end up alerting all of Mount Solace to the thunder. He should also be able to withdraw, with the magics available to him that can conjure temporary backup. I don¡¯t want to necessarily deploy Atter or Shiz on any of our offensives. I didn¡¯t offer them mercy to use them as tools of war. Plus, they¡¯re expecting children. Sort of. I mean, they¡¯d be Shiz¡¯s nieces and nephews and such, but it¡¯s a first for him.


    The more I get filled in on during this meeting, the more that I understand that both this isn¡¯t a conventional war, and our strategists, while brilliant, are having a hard time adapting to the format of our war. It¡¯s as if we¡¯re all striker bombers that are sneaking into enemy airspace to bomb their airfields, to maintain air superiority, but for some reason, we¡¯re parking our bombers and duking it out with the infantry with our fore-guns. When I begin equating our dragon assets and enemies to airships and blimps, I get a few distraught looks from the gathered dragons, but the shift in perspective causes something to click for Burshis.


    Shouting rather suddenly, Burshis exclaims, ¡°Guerrilla aerial combat! No wonder you were attempting to imagine your solo capabilities at facing down each of the regional lords and so forth!¡±


    I gnaw on my lip while nodding slowly, trying not to take the wind out of Burshis¡¯s sails. I throw my telepathic walls up for a moment to simply grumble to myself. I¡¯d said that within the first few moments of learning about the Worldstorm. Our strategists weren¡¯t operating under the same school of thought this entire time!? Wait, was even Kinzul thinking of this as a standard ground war, with some engagement advantages? I mentally facepalm.


    Yes, we can take out, and rout, all the ground forces that could easily make it to Mounts Solace or Verdimenn, but we need not bother expending our resources, or taxing our assets on something like seventy percent of Terrorzin¡¯s forces until all of his generals and so on have fallen. It¡¯s just more efficient to bait the most powerful, and ignore the rest. I attempt to breathe evenly, sighing and laughing to myself. I¡¯m in no way brilliant, or a strategist, but come on people. You¡¯ve known about this battle for a lot longer than me.


    Although¡ª. I look towards Lady Kinzul. I¡¯m almost certain it taxes her, every time she makes adjustments to the Worldstorm. I don¡¯t know how greatly, or how much more it will take out of her with our previous ¡°The Blue,¡± having passed, until Farzhis is able to pick up all of her father¡¯s dragonforce¡¯s slack. I want to save them both from the Worldstorm and the efforts to maintain it. We have to wrap up this war sooner rather than later. The strategists-eight are a whirlwind of excitement at the moment as they reorient themselves on the grand strategy overall, with the idea of air superiority allowing for ignoring of non-priority targets.


    Any domain-leader of Terrorzin¡¯s that doesn¡¯t take the bait to chase us down we can safely ignore until after more pertinent battle victories have been secured. Those that do, abandon their ground troops, saving us the effort of thousands of kills or subduals. It also makes it more likely, as we finish off more of Terrorzin¡¯s leadership circle, that some of the ground troops will accept mercy. I am however hesitant to believe that many of them will attempt to live in peace even after Terrorzin has been deposed, so I¡¯m not naive enough to believe we won¡¯t have to fight a massive percentage of his remaining ground forces after clearing out his generals and whatnot.


    Now that we¡¯re trying to talk about air superiority though, the conversation circles around to the thing balking us from capitalizing on that. The Damnations, and the thirteen Evil Claws. They are essentially why I was envisioning only myself, with perhaps Teuila, pulling off the greater arc of my plan. I guess it¡¯s also why everyone had envisioned the war as something other than a guerrilla aerial war. I¡¯d forgotten that not everyone is as capable of ignoring or punishing the Damnations as I am, or as Teuila might be. If my conjecture is right about the Worldstorm¡¯s malfunction deep within Terrorzin¡¯s land is correct, then Lil and Teuila might be able to pair up and take down Damnations even more efficiently than me.

 B 6 C 115: Reliance

    So, what I imagine causing the hole in the Worldstorm is likely one of Terrorzin¡¯s dragon archmages. He¡¯s said to have conscripted, or killed, all archmages over the last few centuries. If Teuila absorbs an archmage dragonforce, while being imbued with an elemental focus, she should be able to, once she has enough dragonforces, utilize a dragonforce-tether, similar to our old energy tethers, to allow Lil to advance to new, higher stages of evolution, specifically different elemental evolutions, based on what Teuila has available. I¡¯m assuming it¡¯ll be lightning though. If the¡ª what is¡ª.


    I find Teuila playing around in our mindscape as she spars with an elemental she¡¯s conjured, telepathically anyway. Querying her, I ask, ¡°Te, where¡¯d you get the idea for that particular elemental?¡±


    Te shrugs as she responds, ¡°It¡¯s the one that comes when I use that swanky power you gave me the other day. Monstrous mana constructywhatsit level eight.¡±


    Shaking my head, I correct, ¡°Te, no, you supposedly construct an eighth tier wind elemental.¡±


    Grumping, Teuila pouts and points at the elemental and states, ¡°Uh, Earth to Air, that is a wind elemental,¡± as I shake my head at Teuila¡¯s statement, she asks, ¡°If not that, then what do you call it then, huh?¡±


    Smiling at Te, trying not to be too much of a jerk about it, I answer, ¡°That my dear, is a storm elemental. Wind *and* lightning. Combined elementals are rarer, and more powerful, like my buddy the FFS. Snirk, you goober, I¡¯m talking about Frostfire Salamanderian. Seriously Te, you have no idea how impressive that is. You¡¯re positive that¡¯s the one that you conjure when using your ability?¡±


    Nodding almost shyly, Teuila starts to beam with pride when she realizes I¡¯m excited for her, and proud of, her. What¡¯s more, her monstrous mana construct being able to manifest a greater-elemental, dual-elemental, greater elemental¡ª. I facepalm for my own mental redundancy momentarily, heaving a sigh at my own brain. Anyway, the fact that Te can manifest her construct as something of essentially a rarer, higher tier of power, and maintain it for the same duration, means that her natural affinity and power over storms is so strong, that she bends the rules of the spell-like ability we¡¯d gotten. It¡¯s just a construct of our own, and ambient mana, that takes a subconscious shape, with some abilities inherent to that shape, but it¡¯s still dictated by certain limitations of the powers of tiers of magic, and Teuila just straight up ignores one of those limitations.


    For example, the hellcats can breathe and walk through fire, and even phase through, or around, certain solid matter, like enemies, as if they were a fire washing over them. The radiant and umbral dinosaurs actually have breath weapons, funnily enough. Kagired¡¯s enormous eight-legger, can spin miraculous silk out of mana. Lucky¡¯s, and Kinzul¡¯s summons can actually *cast their own spells.*


    To say I¡¯m impressed with Lucky or Kinzul, and their manifestations is incredibly underselling my response. Having Teuila also be able to manifest something that¡¯s beyond the usual scope of a mana construct is similarly amazing. It also increases the odds that my plan to provide her with an elemental focus as she imbibes the dragonforce of an ancient dragon archmage will work, and grant her the ability I¡¯d want it to. She¡¯d still need to hit second Caliber before being able to create and share the tether, but I¡¯m almost positive she¡¯ll be able to do it.


    Snapping my focus back to reality and the present, and those gathered around me, the strategists do have valuable information on tactics, and more of what to expect from Terrorzin¡¯s forces. That is more helpful to me than the idea of having them work out who to send where, when. Like Kinzul had said the other day, for now, Terrorzin is clustering like forces together, to reduce friendly fire. Soon though, he might give up worrying about friendly fire, in order to make more use of elements to catch the weaknesses of his foes, when he realizes that we¡¯re his foes, to punish our hubris in challenging such an overwhelming number of foes, with such a variety of abilities, relying on our immunities to small subsections of that group of foes.


    Hm, if I could learn the meteor spell, and we could pretend to siege fortresses, we could decimate entire forces without ever needing to risk one of our allies, our assets, actually stepping into a bad matchup. Sadly that¡¯s going to have to be a last resort. Nine hundred ninety runes, and I¡¯d need the legendary gem quickening-spell metamagic enhancement enchantment to be able to quicken it to less than two hours without paying additional S P to empower the runes. Even then, I¡¯d be within inches of knocking myself out for the day on S P usage. Let¡¯s see, what were the multipliers again now that I¡¯ve gotten several more layers of the quickening enchantment?


    Runic Costs/SP Costs when quickening casts:


    <ul>


    <li>Cast in 1-10 seconds, 1.5 spells up to 33</li>


    <li>Cast in 10-30 seconds, 1.5x up to 66</li>


    <li>Cast in 30-50 seconds, 1.5x up to 99</li>


    <li>Cast in 50-70 seconds, 1.5x up to 132</li>


    <li>Cast in 70-90 seconds, 1.5x up to 165</li>


    <li>Cast in 90-110 seconds, 1.5x up to 198</li>


    <li>Cast in 110-130 seconds, 1.5x up to 231</li>


    <li>Cast in 130-150 seconds, 1.5x up to 264</li>


    <li>Cast in 150-170 seconds, 1.5x up to 297</li>


    <li>Cast in 170-190 seconds, 1.5x up to 330</li>


    <li>Cast in 190-210 seconds, 1.5x up to 363</li>


    <li>Cast in 210-230 seconds, 1.5x up to 396</li>


    <li>Cast in 230-250 seconds, 1.5x up to 429</li>


    <li>Cast in 250-270 seconds, 1.5x up to 462</li>


    <li>Cast in 270-290 seconds, 1.5x up to 495</li>


    <li>Cast in 290-310 seconds, 1.5x up to 528</li>


    <li>Cast in 310-330 seconds, 1.5x up to 561</li>


    <li>Cast in 330-350 seconds, 1.5x up to 594</li>


    <li>Cast in 350-370 seconds, 1.5x up to 627</li>


    <li>Cast in 370-390 seconds, 1.5x up to 660</li>


    <li>Cast in 390-410 seconds, 1.5x up to 693</li>


    <li>Cast in 410-430 seconds, 1.5x up to 726</li>


    <li>Cast in 430-450 seconds, 1.5x up to 759</li>


    <li>Cast in 450-470 seconds, 1.5x up to 792</li>


    <li>Cast in 470-490 seconds, 1.5x up to 825</li>


    <li>Cast in 490-510 seconds, 1.5x up to 858</li>


    <li>Cast in 510-530 seconds, 1.5x up to 891</li>


    <li>Cast in 530-550 seconds, 1.5x up to 924</li>


    <li>Cast in 550-570 seconds, 1.5x up to 957</li>


    <li>Cast in 570-590 seconds, 1.5x up to 990</li>


    </ul>


    Hm, if I purchase enough of the correct legendary gems to be able to absorb the final enchantment to bring that quickening down to free, I could theoretically cast the meteor spell in ten minutes. I don¡¯t even need to lay a fake siege if it¡¯s that short of a casting time. Hell, I¡¯ve had plans to stall for eight minutes to call out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas before, mid-battle. Stalling for ten minutes isn¡¯t that much different, and the range on it is something like a mile, so there¡¯s a chance I might not even get spotted before finishing casting the spell.


    Everyone else was surprised that Te and I survived a meteor spell, because their health values, if transferred to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, would only be in the several hundred, instead of the thousands that Te and I are rocking. There¡¯s also some sort of inverse resistance thing going on. Larger, denser attacks bypass more resistance, or something, because even with the amount of power at Te¡¯s disposal, or at mine, we still have a bit of a hard time felling our draconic foes, despite their low health values.


    I¡¯m getting distracted again, planning as if everything is going to fall into my lap. Planning as if I¡¯ll be solely responsible, with perhaps the help of my inner circle, for ending this war. At least, if I don¡¯t want to see precious allies, loved ones, family members dying to newer, more varied tactics.


    Shaking me from my reverie, I hear myself addressed, ¡°What say you to that, Schism?¡±


    Well crap. Blushing, I ask, ¡°Uh, what say I to what? Sorry, I¡¯d been lost in thought, trying to determine efficient uses of time and power.¡±


    Aaront chuckles while Geskae reiterates, ¡°We were speaking of a rotation, notation method, and a reporting pattern, to keep you and our Lady apprised of security within Mount Solace, if your magical scrying sensors work out.¡±


    Oh, whew. Smiling and nodding, I respond, ¡°Oh that sounds fantastic, yes, I¡¯m certain you¡¯ll all handle the details splendidly. I don¡¯t know your personal habits well enough to truly comment on any engagements or uses of your time, though your efforts are appreciated.¡±


    Addressing me somewhat hostilely, Gilmeshtu ¡°The Gold,¡± of the Paradox Vivant, states, ¡°Your words are as empty as your head. Dragonkind ill needs a savior such as you. Vivant, come, our time here is wasted.¡±


    My face contorts as Gilmeshtu spins on his heel to begin marching away. I can sense Lady Kinzul wanting me to address this issue, so I bark an order, ¡°Paradox Vivant! Take a seat. All of you. Everyone in fact. While I may be distractible and distracted, and I certainly don¡¯t care whether or not you respect me, you will respect the time investment of everyone else who has chosen to attend.¡±


    Heaving a sigh, I close my eyes momentarily. I don¡¯t like authority, or authority figures, much less being one, but here goes nothing. Mustering myself, I start, ¡°You¡¯re right, my words of praise for the strategists-eight¡¯s proposed rotation method were technically empty, because I hadn¡¯t actually heard what was proffered. What I allow myself to be distracted by, at least currently, is for the good of all. Let¡¯s start over, shall we? Aktixas, you first. As someone with a warrior¡¯s mindset and mentality, how does my proposed security center feel to you? How does it affect how you approach life in Mount Solace during this time of war?¡±


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    In his accent that replaces several vowel sounds with hard ¡®o¡¯ sounds similar to the ¡®ah¡¯ sound, Aktixas responds, ¡°I have no qualms of course. I see only benefits overall, but it does not affect the warrior, the infantry. I still gladly pledge my time to viewing, early mornings, each day, with Shrulniz.¡±


    Turning my attention to Shrulniz, they simply silently nod, but my expectant gaze draws forth a comment, ¡°Right, yes Schism, the needs of those we¡¯re protecting, the strategies that can be utilized to keep the greater populace safe are very much my purview. This answers needs I¡¯ve long since thought may never be addressed. Security concerns and the like. Not to mention disaster response efforts. I can¡¯t offer much in the way of comment on your plans to engage in aerial combat, and the luring of Terrorzin¡¯s generals and the like, but this, this plan for Solace¡¯s solace and security, it¡¯s extraordinary.¡±


    Not having been fishing for praise, I try to hide my blush as I flick my gaze from Shrulniz to Aktixas and back, indicating I¡¯d meant more of what Aktixas had said. Shrulniz catches on quickly enough to add, ¡°Oh, yes, of course, I give my time freely, and mornings with Aktixas are perfectly within my schedule to adhere to. You can rely on us.¡±


    Casting my gaze to Aaront and Geskae, Geskae answers for the two of them, ¡°In an overarching scheme, being able to send you and our Tenith about, destroying the enemy¡¯s leadership core, is like taking a queen behind the enemy¡¯s pawns in chess. It¡¯s a gambit that could pay off quite heavily, if you take out their most mobile, most powerful pieces. Our worry is that the Damnations might capitalize on your mobility, and your possible absence. They are in essence, Terrorzin¡¯s queen, or fleet of queens on the board. Are there no other deployment methods that¡ª.¡±


    Grinning, I offer up, ¡°You¡¯re right. Teuila *should* stay here,¡± before Te can look too heartbroken, I continue, ¡°After we deal with our deployments tomorrow, and we take care of what I assume to be causing the disturbance in the Worldstorm at least. After those, Teuila and Lil can be in charge of defense against the Damnations. They¡¯ll have a combined power that should rival the entire pack of Damnations at that point, or relatively soon after, as soon as we can get Teuila far enough along in her Honoris Causa. This leaves me with a partial mobility issue. I¡¯ve never been as fast at deploying myself long distances as the rest of my family, without some sort of aid.¡±


    Glad that I can see understanding cross the faces of several of the gathered, for what I¡¯m about to suggest, I explain, ¡°To that end, I suggest a rotation of flights of the various groups and cliques within the Order. None should be translocating me to multiple offensives in a row. There are enough groupings, that I trust well enough to handle themselves, that they can take turns, without needing to engage the ground troops wastefully. This ends up simultaneously leaving us with a nearly fully membered Order present back at Solace in case of siege. Thank you Geskae, Aaront. Elshon, Prent, the security features? Deployment concerns?¡±


    Elshon, despite being boisterous and flamboyant, mulls over my calling him out, tapping his chin while resting his face on his thumb. Prent however responds, ¡°Only a few practical concerns. The likelihood of your success at providing these heretofore unmentioned trinkets, baubles, or hell, even artifacts, within your own time constraints. Are you truly so confident that your own, or our Curator¡¯s inventiveness, and prowess, is so great, that you rest assured that you¡¯ll have such made available to us? Nevermind the deployment, or sending three of our most valuable defenders into the ¡®Neath.¡±


    There¡¯s a bit of gasping as Prent essentially calls me out, but I simply find myself grinning at him. Smiling, I respond, ¡°It¡¯s fantastic of you to doubt me, and to express your concerns. You¡¯re right that sending Gresog, Revvinth, and Shaylon into the ¡®Neath is a gamble that we won¡¯t be besieged before they¡¯re back, depending on the severity of the problem in the lands below. Look at it this way though. What if the current problem in the ¡®Neath *is* a horde of Terrorzin¡¯s forces intending to lay siege to Mount Solace? Relying on them is suddenly what we¡¯d have done anyway. Even if not, if there is a problem that takes more than a few moments to solve, for the likes of those three, then it¡¯s equivalent to sending them on assignment on an offensive against Terrorzin¡¯s forces anyway.¡±


    Letting it sink in, that I¡¯ve put consideration into my assignments before doling them out, I take a breath before returning to the practical concern, to address it, ¡°As far as my confidence? Well, while I¡¯m confident that I can rely on Nala¡¯s *ability*, I¡¯m less confident that I can rely on her *availability* or desire to help. I¡¯m sure she wouldn¡¯t outright refuse, but I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ve done enough to earn her trust and faith to be able to request that she prioritize certain things. I¡¯ll work to make my case to Curator after we¡¯re done here. Without Nala, I¡¯ll still succeed, but I¡¯ll have less work to show for tonight¡¯s effort than I would with her. Plus, if you want proof of concept, I can do that while we chat. Hell, I have been working on it quietly for a while now. In a few minutes, I¡¯ll be finished with the paired scrying sensor, and you¡¯ll be able to see how they operate.¡±


    There are a few surprised looks that I¡¯d been busying myself enchanting while we¡¯ve been talking, especially since I appeared to be more or less not even present at the meeting at all, let alone enough to be crafting. Hey. I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker. Multitasking is just a state of being for me. I¡¯m distractible as hell, sure, but I tend to chase multiple trains of thought in the time it takes for most¡ª. Well now I¡¯m bragging. Yuck. Bleugh.


    Oh, right. Jarrah did sort of warn me that most mages who¡¯d reached my tier of power, or beyond, gave up their emotions, at least the positive ones, like humility, happiness, and so on, along the way to doing so. I facepalm, recalling how I nearly burned away my emotions on the carriage-ride towards the Sisters Hidden in the Mist compound. Heaving a sigh, I roll my eyes at myself. There¡¯s a bit of uneasy laughter, so I might as well explain the segue from one thought to the next. Jarrah was telepathic, and read my thoughts about my distaste for braggarts, and bragging. He muttered and mumbled things, and then clued me in to what I¡¯d just covered mentally.


    Returning my awareness to those around me, I begin to address Burshis, but she beats me to the punch, ¡°When you¡¯d clued me in to the airship metaphor, it immediately brought to mind records of ancient battles. Not only that, I immediately saw the benefit with the Worldstorm, equating it akin to a nearly impenetrable jungle, or forest, in which guerrilla fighters took on overwhelmingly larger forces. As far as your security measures at home, my dea¡ª, ahem. Nietru has utmost faith that we can rely on you, so I do as well, we¡¯re happy to serve in a security capacity in the evenings, after Prent and Elshon in the noontimes.¡±


    Blushing, coughing for my attention, Nietru adds, ¡°Yes, um, what my Burshee¡ª, koff, Burshis said. Moreover, I can get word, or small objects, to Spymaster for you, should you finish your prototype, and wish for her to be one of the recipients of these mobile scrying sensors. I tend to handle most of Spymaster¡¯s scout network, its provisions, and other needs, as sort of a combination quartermaster, and head intelligence gatherer and interpreter. So long as you¡¯d not be averse to taking guidance as to which fortresses contain priority targets, your deployment tactics sound good as gold to me Schism. Erm, pardon the turn of phrase Gil."


    There¡¯s a smirk that crosses Gilmeshtu¡¯s face, and a bit of good-natured laughter shared by several of those in attendance. I guess his little dramatic stunt earlier was simply another of those testing-social-dynamics power-plays. I roll my eyes at the stupidity of it. Anyway, more importantly, I haven¡¯t gotten around to the biggest part of the deployment plan yet though. Consent. If no one consents to transporting me deep into enemy territory, and hanging around above the Worldstorm as we bait foes to us, then half of that part of my plan is for naught. It might be worth figuring out a way to fake as if I¡¯m casting the meteor spell to really bait out the best and strongest at each fortress, or how to actually cast it.


    Perhaps Veril or Farzhis told Iylynila what was on my mind, because, almost surprisingly, Illy steps up, addressing that particular concern, ¡°As far as getting you to those priority targets, and drawing them out, you can always count on the Dormir, Schism. Anything you need to end this war, the sooner, the better. Mother, will it work? Allowing our foes above the storm, to face them?¡±


    All eyes turn towards Lady Kinzul, and I must admit, I am worried that I perhaps hadn¡¯t foreseen that she might not be willing to act in such a way as to let our foes above the Worldstorm anywhere outside their own aeries. Not every domain-holder of Terrorzin¡¯s has access to a route above the Worldstorm. Several have domains that aren¡¯t even in mountains, but rather, old ground fortresses, long-since abandoned castles built by humans or other humanoids, and the like. Even the ones whose domains are in mountains, don¡¯t always dwell in a mountain tall enough to have an aerie above the clouds.


    I wasn¡¯t actually entirely relying on Kinzul acting upon that though. I was perhaps thinking of traversing beneath the Worldstorm, at cloud level. A greater expenditure of energy for our poor dragons, instead of being able to glide at high speeds, for sure, but one that I¡¯m sure most of them are capable of. The rub would be in navigating mountainous terrain beneath the Worldstorm, in some cases, adding dozens or hundreds of miles to our flight plan.


    Thankfully, Kinzul nods to me and Iylynila, unwilling to divulge exactly what she might be able to do, to the entirety of those gathered. Kinzul comments to me, deeply privately telepathically, ¡°I can rescind some of my effort to keep in-place the Worldstorm above priority targets my love. It would be much like parting the clouds for our descent and ascent in order to quite literally get the drop on our foes. Only, it would let me recall some infinitesimal fraction of my dragonforce, leaving those areas of the Worldstorm bare, as we would no longer have to fear our foes rising from those domains and dwellings. Even should there be some foes that remain capable of such flights above the storm, they can not set down anywhere beneath the Worldstorm across the rest of Rayileklia.¡±


    That¡¯s exactly what I was hoping for. I want to alleviate stress from Kinzul and Farzee. I want to reduce the reliance on the Worldstorm, and micromanagement of it. I want to break the tides of fate that¡ª. Sighing, I keep my thought to myself, since not everyone here is privy to that information. Even though my telepathic walls are up for Kinzul¡¯s private admission, I don¡¯t want to risk alerting others to the portent. Oh, hey, look, one of the pairs of scrying sensors is done. I¡¯m glad I can still rely on my multitasking mind. I¡¯m also glad that the enchantment which gave me the ability to make the scrying sensors, basically taught me all the runes I¡¯d need to emplace with various qualities of gem-paste, to make permanent pairs of sensors and the like.

 B 6 C 116: Enchanting

    Passing the mirrors around, there¡¯s a bit of marveling at the ability to clearly see what the other mirror is pointed at, by peering at where one would expect to see their own reflection. I try to stifle my own desire to giggle about the fact that I could probably blow the minds of everyone here away by showing them the recording and zooming feature on the phone¡¯s camera. I didn¡¯t add the auditory portion of the scrying sensor, as, Like I said, it would simply end up being far too much noise in one small location, with how many sensors we¡¯re going to have in the security center. I might make *one* that has the auditory link, and that one I may put at the Mah¡¯Ruke obelisk.


    If I place one at the obelisk, it should be able to hear if someone like Shiz is engaged with hostiles in the valley around Mount Solace. It should also be able to hear if say, Shaylon, Revvy and Greggy are in retreat from some underground horde, or similar scenarios. Still, it would be annoyingly loud, constantly overhearing Rayileklia¡¯s ever-thundering darkened skies. Oh, wait, go back a tick. The phones.


    Pulling out the phones, I bring the conversation back around to my various projects in Mount Verdimenn. I¡¯m tempted to have us adjourn there to¡ª. I almost giggle as my party who¡¯d been with me over the course of the morning groans mentally at hearing my train of thought. Still, I¡¯m almost tempted to request that we all head to Mount Verdimenn so that I can provide visual aid. Eh, to hell with it, why not. Let¡¯s start getting some major progress on all these projects before we start a new leg of our offensive.


    Putting it out there, I state, ¡°I¡¯d like to request a recess for a few moments in which we reconvene at my Mount Verdimenn project location. During that recess, I¡¯ll be attempting to pry Nala from the library. You don¡¯t necessarily all *need* to reconvene, but I¡¯d appreciate it if you would regardless, because what I¡¯ll be covering, and the pace I¡¯ll be covering it at will benefit everyone. Shiz, in advance of the others, can you head down to the odds ¡®n¡¯ ends warren, and break off some materials that look expensive to you? It doesn¡¯t really matter what you pick, just harvest some things that you don¡¯t mind seeing disappear, make sure to get multiples of things. I already harvested the hostiles, not that I think you couldn¡¯t handle yourself, just letting you know there¡¯s nothing to tussle with. I¡¯ll be with you shortly.¡±


    There¡¯s a bit of grumbling from those that don¡¯t view me favorably, or those that have already made the journey to Verdimenn and back several times already today, but for the most part, everyone heads off towards Mount Verdimenn while discussing security and strategy. Lady Kinzul awaits the leaving of the others to warmly embrace me, still emitting waves of relief across our emotional link. Lil awaits in the hallway, and playfully makes disgusted faces, but can¡¯t hide the love he feels seeing his mother happy, and seeing me happy.


    Kinzul whispers telepathically, privately, ¡°This eve, we needs must take a moment to ourselves, away from Mount Solace. Please make time for this in your plans my love. No more than perhaps half an hour or so, but still. We¡¯ve yet to have any private time to ourselves.¡±


    I gulp, unsure if Kinzul is teasing me, or actually insinuating¡ª. I mean, she likely just wants to inform me something about the operation of the Worldstorm. Still, I can¡¯t help myself as my gaze drinks in her regal, perfect form. I gulp once more, and rattle my skull, blushing to high heavens, trying to not anticipate anything that Kinzul isn¡¯t intentionally implying. Nodding to my wife, I simply acquiesce that I¡¯ll make room for her in my plans of my usage of time. Since I¡¯m combining some of the strategy session with some of the crafting and project work I wanted to do, I¡¯ll have more of it available than I¡¯d otherwise have had.


    Gnawing on my bottom lip, I watch my wife as she glides away. She no longer hides how she dotes on Lil as they walk towards Mount Verdimenn together. To see my best buddy happy, to see him be loved by such an amazing, dynamic, wonderful, compassionate, intelligent woman, as if he truly, truly were her own son¡ª. I draw a shuddered breath as my emotions catch in my throat. I¡¯m so, so, so very happy for Lil. Trying to reorient on the tasks at hand, I TK surf away towards the library.


    Oddly enough, as my mind is picked up by Nala¡¯s telepathic wavelength, she announces, ¡°Ah, good, friend Reggie, perfect. I¡¯ve just sorted out some assistance from assistants, and was wondering if you¡¯d be so kind as to escort me to your gadgetry and workshops.¡±


    Well¡ª, that was a lot easier than expected. I wonder if she anticipated me, or if it was coincidental. I glance around, waiting for another shoe to drop, but none seems to be on the way. Since we¡¯re at the library anyway, I¡¯m intent on asking, ¡°I¡¯d be delighted to take you over to Mount Verdimenn. I was actually on the way to request exactly that, as I think your expertise might be one of the only ones I could rely on to design and or craft certain aspects of my projects. Before going, Nala, do you have any tomes on the creation of magical items? The process that a novice enchanter would use to do something such as placing a durability enhancement enchantment on a structure, or anything like that. That, and the¡ª.¡±


    Nala grins slyly as she offers me a small stack of literature, already set aside for me. She states, ¡°I¡¯ve curated a selection of works based on needs I¡¯ve picked up from your wandering thoughts over the course of the last week or so. Their relevancy scores are dramatically high for what might otherwise be either too esoteric, too complex, too simple, or nearly-useless material to anyone else. Especially this unreadable, near-untranslatable jumble of script. Anyway, yes yes, let us away, I¡¯ll be happy for a reprieve from the multitude of customers, clients, whatever you¡¯d call the patrons partaking of the library. It will be so nice to not be surrounded by so many people.¡±


    Annnd there¡¯s the other shoe I was anticipating. Gulping, I blush and facepalm privately to myself. I¡¯m dragging Nala down to an assembly of nearly the entire Order of the Onyx Dawn. I have a telepathic chuckle at my own lack of luck, for submitting Nala to this lack of reprieve from gathered people. Poor Nala. Right, anyway, we, oh. Nala loops an arm through mine, and apparently expects to be locomoted with me. Should I even tell her that physical contact isn¡¯t necessary for me to utilize telekinesis on both of us? I don¡¯t want to spoil her good mood, or make light of her efforts, or even draw attention to it if it isn¡¯t registering for her. I feel like it¡¯s more akin to Zayzi¡¯s lack of concern at dragging me around by the hand. Plus, there¡¯s no actual contact between Nala and me. Her robes and armor, and my own clothing, prevent any physical contact.


    Anyway, let¡¯s see what¡¯s in these tomes. Hm, yes. That makes sense. Wait, basic-enchanting is¡ª. It takes permanentifying each individual rune on a microscopic level? Empowering them and emplacing and empowering the whole series of enchantment runes again after each ru¡ª. What? Argh. No wonder people say it takes a lifetime to craft magic items. It would take me months of using my S P doing nothing but working on miniaturizing and microscopically repeating and empowering the same runes, over and over, applying permanency to a single rune of the full enchantment, between each empowerment, in order to make a single item. And *I* am actually far more adept than most enchanters at it, with a higher S P pool, and the ability to apply the permanency enhancement enchantment for free. That¡¯s insane.


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    Though, there is the slight possibility of finding people with untapped S P pools in the populace of Mount Solace. If I do, I can finagle a sort of ritual casting to drain and utilize their S P on a given day, for doing something as simple as repeating the same empowerment over and over. I vaguely remember conjecturing something like this a long time ago too. I remember coming to a similar conclusion, that large scale enchantments would take rituals of multiple casters, either going round-robin, empowering the next rune in sequence, or each doing the full sequence simultaneously, over and over.


    Wait, wait. I recently learned how to make some runes solely be empowered by ambient mana. Plus, one of the runostructures on a lot of enchanted items is the ability to drink ambient mana to recharge its functions. Hm, that might limit the number of uses of the ability in a given day though. Or rather, placing the restriction of having a limited number of uses must in some way make the enchanting of the item itself easier, and tacking on the ability to recharge itself with ambient mana must be a relatively simple, short process compared to the rest of the enchantment.


    Flip, flip flip flip flip. Hm, hm, hm. Okay, okay, yes, I see. Hm, that workaround is a bust, but what about¡ª. Oh, here¡¯s an interesting one, for spells with durations longer than eight hours, like the twenty four hour brainblast aegis spell, I could do this, eh? Hm. That would be better than casting it on myself, because it annoyingly blocks telepathy on top of blocking psychic damage. Can I spare about an hour to do this tonight? I guess the more important question is, can I spare *not* finding a way to get that spell up tonight? If the Vorzog¡¯s Keep Draconiacs have archmages and the like, I *need* to shore up that weakness of mine. A single mid-level spell can take me out of the fight otherwise.


    I¡¯m still not immune to necrotic aura magic either. I¡¯ve got the necrometal chestplate that has its once per day aura of up to ten minutes of semi-immunity to necrotic aura magic. That particular ability can thankfully be doled out in one minute increments, so it does go a good long way over the course of a battle, if I¡¯m prioritizing the necromancers.


    We haven¡¯t tested if I¡¯m immune to thunder damage when I¡¯m almost weightless. It might not shatter my bones, but it could still blow open my eardrums, or rupture other things. Let¡¯s see, cold, heat, poison, lightning, acid when in adamantite body, almost necrotic and almost radiation for brief periods, and psychic for up to twenty four hours at a time, possibly some of thunder¡¯s devastating effects¡ª. Are there other weaknesses I can shore up before tomorrow?


    How is it going to play out with Lil, Lu, and Lucky there? We haven¡¯t really ever fought together as a team, the four of us. I¡¯m so used to basically assuming that I am, or will be soloing everything if Teuila isn¡¯t around, and only thinking tangentially of any party members around me, if any are available. One weakness that I should shore up, is my lack of synergy with the rest of my assigned party.


    I¡¯m used to tossing out area of effects like crazy, and literally standing in the fire. Lil¡¯s able to deal with that by letting me take the lead, and setting things ablaze around me, up to and including me. But where would Lucky and Lu be in that scenario? Hanging out at the back, where everything¡¯s already dead? Lucky¡¯s a scrapper. I think he¡¯s got a breath weapon, but I¡¯ve never seen him use it. Maybe he does hang back, and waits for an opportunity to take down a target that¡¯s too tough to go down to area effect abilities? I can¡¯t in good conscience use the majority of my powers if he barrels on ahead. I¡¯d hurt, or kill, him or Lu. I¡¯m going to need to ask the Triple L Squad how they fight, before the end of the night.


    Trying to once again reorient my brain towards the present, I ask of Nala, ¡°So, I¡¯ve come up with a plan to outfit the majority of our Order members with goggles that have an external scrying sensor. That sensor would link to a mirror that will be in a security center here in Solace. Further, there¡¯d be an internal translucent scry that lets the individual see that same security center from a separate mirror, and therefore everyone else¡¯s outgoing images as well. Well, the zoom might be kind of poor, depending on how the enchantment works on that end, but it should at least reassure any of us that the others are still moving. However, because most of us are combatants, anything less than an unbreakable metal would be a waste of an enchantment, as it¡¯s likely to get damaged or destroyed on our first combat outing.¡±


    With Nala¡¯s attention, anticipating her query, I explain what I¡¯d like of her, ¡°To that end, I was hoping you could iterate on some goggle-frames, if needbe, starting with weaker metals, and working your way up towards adamantite. Based on what I was seeing as we left Mount Verdimenn earlier, we now have even some adamantite crafting tools to work with, including things like a foot-pedal rotary tool.¡±


    Pausing a moment, I consider aloud, ¡°I could possibly simply have the enchantment be on a mirror that clips on to say a circlet or vest pocket, or something. So your designing my request is not specifically entirely necessary, but it will give us the closest view to what¡¯s actually being perceived by our agents. If you think it¡¯s too challenging, or not doable, or not worth your time, I¡¯d entirely understand.¡±


    Chuckling, Nala chides, ¡°Is that some sort of attempt to play on my pride to bait me into carrying out your whim, friend Reggie? No, no, I jest. I know you¡¯re not at all like that. I¡¯ll see what I can do, and I may have an answer to your other dilemma, if my surmising is correct. Simple, repetitive use enchantments of lower tier magics may be able to be inlaid through gems, carvings, gears, and the like, rather than needing to have some sort of empowerment process, at least partially. I may need some sample equip¡ª, yes, thank you, exactly.¡±


    Excitedly digging through my belongings for various magic items that have low tier enchantments, and the ability to recharge from ambient mana, I offer them up to Nala. I forgot that I¡¯m simply brute-forcing things at a basic level, and not taking into account things like gems, reagents, and other powers and shortcuts people might use. My heart and mind both race in anticipation, fully believing that Nala will find a way to circumvent the incredibly lengthy procedure for the size-changing enchantment. That, and durability enhancement enchantments are so common, that there must be ways of doing them relatively quickly.


    Another almost-common enchantment is that of the transdimensional, hyperdimensional, pandimensional, or otherwise extra-dimensional space, generally within a bag. If *anyone* could possibly figure out how to make that enchantment, it would be Nala. Not just because of her keen mind, and aptitude towards artificery, but also because she¡¯s keenly aware of pandimensional spaces existing. I half expect the process to require some sort of incredibly rare reagent for something like that though.


    Actually, that reminds me, there was a book that held a transdimensional enchantment. It was bound in dragon-wing dactyl-leather, or something of the like. I gaze at my hyperdimensional haversack in my mindscape, and the transdimensional traveler¡¯s pouch. Are the leathers that make up these containers also from a dragon¡¯s wings? If anyone, anywhere, could stock up on enchanted items that require dragon parts to create, it¡¯d be us, during this war.

 B 6 C 117: Forgiven

    While I¡¯m considering something that might be blasphemous to Lil, I hear him almost hemming and hawing before he asks, ¡°Erm, Reggie, pal? Do you um, well. I know you¡¯ve got lots of plans today, and like, maybe always. Do you think maybe you could fit some time to maybe help me get a mind brain psychicy connectiony thing to Ixey?¡±


    I was worried for a moment he¡¯d be upset at the idea of using dragon parts. As I¡¯m about to respond to Lil, Ixeyla, apparently riding my mental narrative somewhere nearby, excitedly pleads, ¡°Is¡ª, did Lil just ask that!? Yes oh yes oh yes please please please please. Schism, I¡¯m begging you. If my prince, erm, I mean, if my Sun, erm, uh, if Sun, needs, I mean if you, crap. I¡¯m brain-tied. Please, just please? I won¡¯t even tease you about how fast you¡¯re moving in with Princess, building her a home right next to yours, setting her up with fancy digs.¡±


    While I *was* about to reassure Ixey that I¡¯ll make adding a bond between her and Lil my top priority, I¡¯m now barely maintaining my telekinetic flight as I cough, choke, and sputter. Nala flashes concern my way, before she parses what¡¯s been going on in my head. She offers a droll eyeroll, and looses a terse half-chuckle to herself at my mental misfortune. The implication that I in any way, shape, or form, am harboring any sort of romantic, or infatuatory feelings for Leezahna are just, bleugh. I think of her like a spoiled niece who lost her father, that I¡¯m stuck making sure she grows up to be less of a dick. Sure, I understand she¡¯s a lovely young lady, but for crap¡¯s sakes, just ick. I¡¯m a million times more likely to make advances on Farzhis tha¡ª.


    Whoops. Apparently Farzhis is between moments of despondency, in one of her moments of clarity and lucidity in which she¡¯s capable of riding my mental wavelengths. Before she can respond telepathically as I feel her emotions congesting over hearing my thoughts, I quickly reassure her, ¡°Sorry, sorry, that line of thought was just awkward. A million times nearly zero is still nearly zero. I¡¯m, I¡¯m not going to¡ª, I mean, you¡¯re absolutely wonderful, and lovely, and I¡¯m proud of you, and I love you very much sweetling, but¡ª. Ugh. What I mean is¡ª. Someone help me out here.¡±


    Giggling, Lil calls back, ¡°Hehe, nuh uh buddy, you can dig that foot out of your own mouth. I ain¡¯t going near it with a ten foot pole.¡±


    While I¡¯m facepalming, Teuila and Luni are similarly giggling and agreeing with Lil. Returning my attention to Farhzhis, I try to finish reassuring her, ¡°I don¡¯t want you to ever feel like I¡¯m playing some sort of mind games with you, or long game manipulation, or pressuring you or taking advantage of you. I truly, truly only want you to find your own happiness at your own pace. Blue. And, if there¡¯s anything I can do to facilitate that, I¡¯ll do my best to help out. I apologize for letting myself get worked up over a silly insinuation that I¡¯ve a strong distaste for, and that that distaste decided to use you as an example. Erm, not that I find you distasteful, or that I even find the idea of being with you¡ª. Huff, I¡¯m going to stop while I¡¯m possibly ahead. I hope you can forgive me.¡±


    Cracking half a smile telepathically, and loosing a soft, dry chuckle, Farzhis responds in her delightful accent that skips the tees and dees near the end of most words, ¡°¡¯Sokay Schism. Thanks. You¡¯re no¡¯ my type, like I sai¡¯. I¡¯m no¡¯ sure how to explain it, bu¡¯ wha¡¯ we have feels nice. I like you thinking highly of me. Maybe makes me feel a little prou¡¯ of myself. Also a little safer. I know you protec¡¯ everyone, maybe equally, bu¡¯, well, I know how fierce you are abou¡¯ the people you love. So, um. Thanks is all. Don¡¯t worry abou¡¯ comparing me to Dimineros. I¡¯ll jus¡¯ take it as flattery. She¡¯s a whelp compare¡¯ to me, bu¡¯ a pretty young thing, I ge¡¯ it. I¡¯m gla¡¯ you¡¯re trying to steer her righ¡¯ too.¡±


    Grateful for my reprieve from foot-in-mouth syndrome, bleugh, that really needs a different name. Erm, anyway, grateful for my reprieve, I return to addressing Ixey, ¡°Yes, definitely. Please, come down to Mount Verdimenn if you have time, we¡¯ll be doing a lot of magic and enchanting work and strategy and so on. I¡¯ll prioritize your bond with Lil before I let myself spend all of my magic for the day.¡±


    There¡¯s a smugness to Ixey¡¯s response, ¡°Already most of the way there Schism. Princess wants to show off her new digs. Can¡¯t say I¡¯m impressed by *all* of her chosen company. I hope you know what you¡¯re doing, vouching for her. But, um, really? Really really really really really? And, and you won¡¯t butt in, right? Can it be just private between me and Lil?¡±


    Though I¡¯m tempted to tease Ixey, due to how often she¡¯s a tad hostile to me, I respond truthfully, ¡°When I cast the spell, for the next hour or two, I¡¯ll be part of the bond. However, since I¡¯ll only be placing the permanency enhancement enchantment on you and Lil, it¡¯ll wear off and I¡¯ll drop out of your bond after that point. You¡¯ll have your private bond,¡± I can¡¯t help teasing ever so slightly as I add, ¡°with your prince.¡±


    I¡¯m fairly certain Ixey doesn¡¯t even feel like my addition was a tease, because I can sense her melting mentally as she imagines her private bond with Lil. It¡¯s a good thing that she chose the less-intimate bond, because wow, even on the lower emotional wavelength, the amount of koff, lust, koff, that she¡¯s putting out is insane. Anyway, enough of that distraction. I don¡¯t need to know about Lil¡¯s private entanglements unless he chooses to share that with me specifically.


    Hastening my descent with Nala as I return back towards Mount Verdimenn, I spy Lucky¡¯s mental avatar loafing in our thinkspace once again. He looks mildly despondent. I wish I knew what to do for him. I make sure he¡¯s aware of my presence telepathically, and he seems to acknowledge me with a look before settling his head back on his paws. I sit my telepathic avatar next to Lucky¡¯s in lotus position, and lean my forehead towards his. Thankfully he gently headbutts me so that we can rest our foreheads together.


    Deeply intent on listening to anything Lucky¡¯s trying to communicate, I can vaguely make out, ¡°Worry, worried, worry. Parent smells scared. Parent scared for other parent? Smells like. Digging and fighting, fighting soon? Fighting soon, gotta protect parent. Also have to protect other parent? Parent thinks so? Maybe? Parent worried, so gotta protect other parent? Other parent strong. New powers, all. Mine too. New powers, stronger, clothes, things, armors. Other parent loves me. Lots of proof. Other parent wants me to have more armors, and more things. Things are nice, they mean worry, worry means love. Just want parent and other parent safe. Wish they could talk right, but just want them safe. Want them close. Want them together.¡±


    I choke on a sob that had been building as I worked my way through listening to Lucky¡¯s mind. He¡¯s not just intelligent, but intuitive. He doesn¡¯t understand everything I say all the time, or likely everything anyone says all the time. I can¡¯t seem to just talk to him, nor hear everything he¡¯s thinking or trying to say all the time either. I don¡¯t know how to bridge the gap. I don¡¯t know how to be the parent he deserves. Sniffling, I rub my eyes as they wet and itch, before I devolve into fully crying.


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    As far as I can tell, the only thing Lucky really wants from me, from life, is for me and Luni to be together and safe. For us to not be worried, for us to be happy together. I can¡¯t give him that until this war is over. It¡¯s not fair to him. He¡¯s never really asked for anything, and he¡¯s always done anything we¡¯ve ever needed or wanted of him. I draw a ragged breath and rub my wet eyes once more. He has to make it through all this so I can give him what he wants. I need to do everything in my power to ensure that. Lu has to make it through too. Somehow, as much as I worry about her fragility in combat, and her likelihood of taking injury, I feel like if any of us would make it through this, it¡¯s her.


    I¡¯m pretty certain I¡¯ll come out the other side of this, one way or another. But the more powerful I can get between now and then, the more of my allies, my loved ones, my family I¡¯ll be assured of likely making it with me. It feels selfish, and conceited, to believe that my power and my growth are so pivotal to the survival of others, but it also feels true. Sighing slowly, raggedly, I try to clear my mind, so that I can reorient on the present.


    What was it that coping-me said to me? Don¡¯t get so caught up focusing on the end goal that I can¡¯t be present where I¡¯m needed? Something like that. Gods my brain is swiss-cheese. How can I not remember what I said to myself to comfort and cope for myself, if it was truly me? Blurgh. I¡¯m not sure I can afford the cognitive dissonance that might come with trying to suss this out.


    Right, we¡¯re here. Let¡¯s give Nala a sketch, and some¡ª. Heaving a sigh, I try to listen towards what sounds like an emotional disturbance in some nearby wavelengths. Someone¡¯s pleading, ¡°¡ªshm. I, I didn¡¯t know how much it would be. Please, please take it, take it somewhere. I don¡¯t need all this. I get it. I get it. It¡¯s for everyone. I didn¡¯t know it could even be like this. I don¡¯t want them to find out. Please gutt¡ª, I, I mean Ixey. Please help me out here. They¡¯ll kill me, or my family. Or, or exile us.¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I can guess probably almost exactly what happened. I¡¯m sure Leezahna tried to convince some of the volunteers that I told her that she could have whatever she wanted, or something, maybe not quite so over the top. They likely shrugged and started delivering whatever she asked, and she had no idea just *how much* material we¡¯re working with. Thankfully, Ixey sounds like she¡¯s trying to calm Leezahna down rather than play into her fear. I¡¯m not sure if I should make my presence known immediately, or after Ixey has had some time to work on this. Sighing, I figure it¡¯s probably better to address problems and problematic behaviors as soon as possible, so I head in the direction of Leezahna¡¯s new home.


    I drop Nala near the craftsworks as I head towards the disturbance. Of course there¡¯s stacks of baskets full of gems at the entryway to her home. Why am I not surprised? As I round the corner, Leezahna shrieks, and¡ª. Wow. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve inspired that much terror in someone since, um, was it Priss? I don¡¯t remember the last person who wet themselves out of fright because of me. It might have been one of the Derbrightmine dwarves. Leeza¡¯s crying, blubbering, and pleading something. I sit patiently, cross-legged in mid-air, and I flash a sad half-frown towards Ixey as I try to express my gratitude towards her.


    Leezahna seems to regain enough of her faculties to plead her case, ¡°Sch-koff, gulp, Schism. Um, um, there was, I, maybe a misunderstanding. I, um, I said I knew you, and, and, I. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry. I thought, maybe a handful to, to be able to entertain, a, a bit lavishly, in, in order to, to, I¡ª. To get them to like me again. They ran away, again. I¡ª.¡±


    Interrupting Leezahna, I put my hands forward placatingly, whispering and cooing, ¡°It¡¯s okay. I mean, it¡¯s not. Abusing a possible friendship of mine to get what you want, to lord it over others or take advantage of me or them, is exactly the sort of thing I don¡¯t want you doing. Shhh, shh, it¡¯ll be okay. Here, that must be terribly uncomfortable. I¡¯m just going to whip up a tiny little spell for you, okay? There, all dry and clean now. I¡¯m not going to hurt you. You realized it was wrong, by the sounds of it. You took advantage of the kindness and trust of several people by breaking my trust in this way. What do you think I should do in response to that?¡±


    Eying me suspiciously, Ixey tenses up momentarily, seemingly almost worried for Leezahna. Leezahna stares at me wide-eyed in sheer terror. Trying to keep my breathing calm, I await Leeza¡¯s response. It takes her a moment to remember that I¡¯d asked her a question, and longer to come up with a response, ¡°You, you should punish me.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow, wearing a grim expression, I prompt, ¡°How exactly should I punish you Leeza? What¡¯s an appropriate punishment for breaking a trust that had been so dangerously low?¡±


    Shrieking again, Leeza quickly curls in on herself, crying, and Ixey shoots me a worried frown, almost a glare. I hold up my hand towards Ixey, and motion that it¡¯s okay to comfort Leezahna at the moment.


    When it¡¯s clear that Leezahna has calmed down, but can¡¯t seem to come up with a punishment on her own, I offer up, ¡°My punishment is going to be offering you more trust, and more responsibility. I hope that you understand that breaking *that* trust will come with worse consequences. I¡¯m going to give you some errands, some tasks, that I¡¯d like completed. I¡¯m not going to give you *strict* deadlines immediately. You don¡¯t need that kind of stress.¡±


    Sighing, not really wanting to frighten her further, but wanting to impress upon her that it isn¡¯t a false punishment, I add, ¡°Just know that if it seems like you¡¯re completely blowing me off in terms of these responsibilities, I will take it as a personal slight, a sign of disrespect, and a breach of trust. I want you to feel forgiven, but I want you to take it seriously. Are you okay with that Leezahna? Are you willing to try handling some responsibilities for me?¡±


    The terrified lass eyes Ixey queryingly with worry, as if asking Ixeyla mentally if she should say yes. Ixey¡¯s response is a half eyeroll and to barely refrain from shrugging. Ixeyla seems to know that I¡¯ve got no intention of hurting Leezahna, or anyone really. Even the extra emphasis on trust is mostly an empty threat. Mostly. I will probably get more creative next time, and if she breaks my trust again, I¡¯ll probably consider it a third strike, and then actually consider her too untrustworthy to keep around. I¡¯m not even sure what sorts of responsibilities I want to saddle her with though.


    In some ways, I don¡¯t want to trust anything important to her, but if she suspects I¡¯m really just faking this with empty threats, she might not make the progress that she seems to be trying to make. Also, to be the me that I want to be, I¡¯ve said it before and I¡¯ll say it again, I need to offer my trust and love, despite my fears and concerns, even if it¡¯ll end up biting me hard in the arse, or worse, end with me or someone I love stabbed in the back. I can¡¯t let that fear, that worry, my own love for others, take over and prevent me from offering my love, acceptance, and trust.


    What can I do that shows Leezahna that I both trust her, and require her to be better? What task can I saddle her with? One that says, ¡°Do this favor, and do it well, because, like everyone, you are valued, but you in particular are skating on thin ice.¡± I gnaw my lip as I glance over towards our respawning warrens. I don¡¯t even know the number of units we can get produced or harvested in a day, or where all the material goes. I do sort of want to have that information available to me to be able to make more consistent plans. I could benefit from having a quartermaster.

 B 6 C 118: Growth

    Should I lie to Leezahna to keep her in line?  Would it be fair of me to tell her I would know if she miscounts or distributes unfairly?  No.  I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll do that.  I don¡¯t need to add more terror and trauma to her plate.  Violence, or anger, or threat of it, or implication of its possible threat, aren¡¯t all of the solutions available to me.  Despite how often I feel like I end up having to resort to it, it is actually the last resort I ever want to use.


    Wearing a sad half-smile, I explain, ¡°I need a quartermaster.  I need someone who can catalogue and distribute the materials from the warrens fairly.  I need to know where those materials are going, and in what quantities.  There¡¯s an opportunity for you here.  I would not know immediately if you secretly show favor, or if you attempt to skim more than your fair share.¡±


    Sighing, making sure that that doesn¡¯t come across as an invitation to do so, I further explain, ¡°I don¡¯t want to add more terror to your plate, but I want you to think hard on any choice you might make along those lines, and what it would mean for you if it eventually came to light that you broke my trust in such a way.  I¡¯m trusting you Leezahna.  I¡¯m offering you *my* forgiveness when I know I haven¡¯t earned yours yet, because I¡¯m still a source of fear for you.  Maybe I always will be.  Maybe that¡¯s how it has to be.  I don¡¯t know.¡±


    I flash Ixey a raised brow, and she nods at me, so I finish, ¡®So Leezahna D¡ª,¡± I pause, hesitating, realizing I don¡¯t want to use her family name as a bargaining chip, or even for her to put value in it, before finishing, ¡°can I count on you to be my quartermaster?  To make sure that everyone benefits from our work, equally?  To value the trust and responsibility you¡¯ve been offered?¡±


    Sniffling, Leezahna nods and stands as straight as she¡¯s able, reaching impeccable posture, likely due to her haughty upbringing.  She responds, ¡°Yes.  Yes Schism, thank you.  I¡¯m sorry for, for breaking your trust.  I swear, it won¡¯t happen again.  Not on purpose.  On my life.¡±  Realizing she basically put her life on the line, Leeza¡¯s eyes shoot wide as she tries to backpedal momentarily, ¡°I¡ª, glp.  I mean, it¡¯s a, it¡¯s a phrase.  Crap.  P¡ª.  P¡ª.  Please forgive me.  Thank you for this opportunity.¡±


    It¡¯s almost comedic to see her backpedal so suddenly, but it also provides a distraction from a worrying bit of phrasing.  She won¡¯t break my trust on purpose.  Does that mean she broke it on purpose this time, or just that she¡¯s worried that if she screws up, that I might consider it a breach of trust?  Should I assuage her fears that¡ª.  Yes.  I need to operate as if I trust and love everyone.  I can¡¯t allow the cynical side of me to believe that assuaging her fears will lead to her abusing my trust by trying to make things look like accidents or mistakes.


    Drawing a deep breath, sighing, and squeezing tight my puffy, itchy eyes, I respond, ¡°You absolutely have my forgiveness.  We all make mistakes from time to time Leezahna.  Hell, you know very well that I make plenty.  I¡¯m not going to hurt, kill, or exile you over an accident or mistake.  You¡¯re going to be okay.  I¡¯m glad to have your help on our projects.  I¡¯ll let people know that I¡¯ve officially requested you to operate in the capacity of a quartermaster, so that there aren¡¯t any more, hrm, misunderstandings, about what using my name means.  For now, let the volunteers handle everything they¡¯ve been handling, I just want you to keep track of numbers for me, until you and I both have a handle on how much we¡¯re dealing with.  Okay?  We can talk about distribution efforts in a few days.¡±


    Thankfully the young-adult dragon lass in human-form nods swiftly, emphatically.  Flashing Ixey a raised brow in thinkspace, she nods excitedly, realizing I mean to get her bonded to Lil as soon as possible.  Ixeyla gives Leeza¡¯s shoulder a bit of a rough playful punch, before she leans in to whisper something.  Ixey follows me towards the dugout, while Leezahna stands, staring slightly aghast at the still-accumulated baskets of gems that she has almost no idea what to do with.  I guess it¡¯s a bit mean to let her stew in that after having just tried to offer her forgiveness.


    Motioning to a pair of Draconiacs, I wait for them to become free.  They seem to be discussing the needs for lumber supports in some of the upper caverns, around some of the areas beneath various dragon hoards of some of the lesser known ancient dragons who reside within Mount Solace.  Elder dragons who aren¡¯t part of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, simply residents of Solace.  I explain my own needs for a small bit of lumber, and thankfully it won¡¯t be an issue, but that wasn¡¯t really why I called them over.  Explaining the situation with Leezahna, they almost laugh, though they both seem a bit nervous at the prospect of laughing out loud in my presence.  Way to go Reggie, a tyrant ruling through fear and it only took you less than a day of being married to Kinzul.


    I try not to roll my eyes at myself and my intrusive thoughts.  I don¡¯t have the energy right now to spare addressing my self-loathing, and impostor syndrome.  Breathing deeply, and sighing, I take a moment to center myself before trying to alleviate the fears of the two Draconiacs.  They allow themselves a slight chuckle when I return to the topic of the Leezahna situation.  Thankfully they¡¯ll handle passing on the word of what exactly I¡¯m entrusting Leeza with for the moment, that she doesn¡¯t have any further authority than just keeping track of numbers.  I¡¯m glad that they¡¯ve acquiesced to making sure everyone knows to provide her with the information she requests, if she needs any help keeping track of the quantities of outgoing material.  I don¡¯t want to unfairly burden her with a twenty-four hours a-day job.


    Anyway, I express my gratitude to the two as they work towards helping, or sending help to, Leezahna to sort, and remove the near truckload of gems that had been delivered to her doorstep.  Leezahna, for her part, seems to adjust quickly to the idea of gathering writing material to keep track of the numbers.  The cold fury that normally underscores her gaze is overwritten with trepidation, but her own determination keeps her from succumbing to the fear of me.  She¡¯s a proud woman, I¡¯ll give her that much.


    Ixey of course goes topless before I can even bother explaining the situation to her or any of the gathered members of the Onyx Dawn.  I take a slow, deep breath in through my mouth, and pass it out through my nose with my eyes closed, so that I can¡¯t roll my eyes at her.  Snagging gems from my personal stores, I purchase glue from Burshis¡¯s shop as the binding agent, as I show off the capabilities of the shop to the assembled Onyx Dawn members.  I work quickly with the lists available for printouts as I offer instructions on how to proceed in printing out their own lists, and handing out most of the phones.


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    Thankfully, everyone treats the phones as the precious objects that they are at the moment.  These are induplicable.  Unless someone else has met their secret achievements to unlock a deeper level of their specialized shop, there are no more smartphones or cell phones available from the shop system, as far as I¡¯m aware.  The Onyx Dawn members busy themselves with finding their own shop catalogues, somewhat excitedly.  Shiz motions me aside momentarily, and I¡¯m glad to join him for whatever he needs, despite Ixeyla nearby waiting with anticipation of her bond with Lil that I¡¯ll be setting up.


    Starting out, Shiz chuckles as he states, ¡°I don¡¯t know how in the Platinum¡¯s cracked talons you¡¯ve got bolts of silk growing from walls Schism, and I¡¯m not sure I want to know.  I¡¯m almost sad to think these¡¯ll be disappearing into the aether, though I grabbed some of the stranger, odder things as well, in case you should not want to sell these away to magic.  I had to get a bit of help from some of the folks around here to figure out where and what you wanted me to do, since I¡¯d only been down here the one time to see to the safety of your Order¡¯s ¡®The Copper.¡¯¡±


    I barely refrain from facepalming at my obvious blunder.  Poor Shiz.  I go and ask a favor from him, that of course he wouldn¡¯t know where to go to accomplish it, and yet he took care of it with no complaints.  I¡¯m so glad he took my offer of mercy.  I¡¯ll have to make it up to him later for my own stupidity.  Though he seems mostly to not care about my blunder, I¡¯d still like to make it up to him.  I¡¯m glad he¡¯s amused with everything going on, and the rather eventful, yet peaceful, life within Solace, that seems to dance ever onwards despite the war being waged outside, by the Onyx Dawn, with the rest of dragonkind.


    Why am I not surprised that when I return my attention to the gathered individuals, that Zayzi has shown up, seen their sister shirtless, and immediately taken off their own shirt, assuming a need to do the same?  I lightly thunk my head against the dugout wall several times while out of sight of most of the others save Shiz.  The pair of lanky Red twins are just hanging out topless with members of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, with seemingly not a care in the world.  Lady Kinzul is even addressing Zayzi, but doesn¡¯t seem to be getting through to them any better than I do.  If anything, Zayzi is clamming up more because it¡¯s Kinzul doing the addressing.


    Further, why am I not surprised when Leezahna timidly approaches?  I gnaw the inside of my cheek to keep myself from expressing any exasperation at the string of interruptions to my plans.  Leezahna doesn¡¯t need me appearing in some way that could be interpreted as pissed off at her even accidentally at the moment.  Raising an eyebrow Leeza¡¯s way, I wait for her to address me.


    Gathering her nerves, Leeza holds out several sheets of paper before asking, ¡°Is this the sort of thing you want Schism?  I¡¯ve never been a, I mean, I doubt anyone in my family¡¯s ever been a, a quartermaster.  Sorry, that, I didn¡¯t mean it in a, a¡ª.  I just want to take care of my responsibilities properly.  Please?  I, I mean, tell me if this is okay?¡±


    Taking the proffered sheets of paper, I glance them over.  Holy effing wow her penmanship is beautiful.  No wonder her writings sell for so much to the shop structure.  It¡¯s like gazing upon a masterful work of art, even just looking at this simple list of gems with numbers.  Moreover, the lass has done the smart thing, and calculated approximate volume by shape and size, for each of the¡ª.  Wow.  That¡¯s a lot of complex math that she¡¯s got on these back sheets.  Her summary page is all I¡¯d need, but I cannot say I¡¯m not impressed with her intellect.  Friggin¡¯ hell I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t kill or exile her.  Not that I was ever really going to, but still.


    Still, how do I praise her without it going to her head?  I guess I¡¯ll just do my best as I answer, ¡°Leezahna, these are more than admirable, they¡¯re perfect.  This is well-done, a wonderful job, and I¡¯m proud to call you my quartermaster.  Please keep it up.  I only need to see your summary sheets like this one most of the time, but I¡¯d appreciate if you did keep your work somewhere available so that we can double-check things in case anything seems awry in the future.  Not that I¡¯m expecting *your* work to go awry.  I mean in case someone else misplaces or walks off with something, so that your numbers don¡¯t end up adding up.¡±


    Pausing a beat, letting my praise sink in, without letting her stew on my comment about future possibilities, I add, ¡°Curator, Nala, can help teach you to properly bind materials, if you don¡¯t already know how, and if you don¡¯t want to deal with purchasing binders and three hole punching all of the papers and so-on.  Thank you Leeza, please keep up the great work.  I hope you¡¯re enjoying your new home.  If the responsibilities I¡¯ve tasked you with seem to take up too much of your time, let me know, and I¡¯ll see if I can get you an assistant.  Try it out for a few days first though.¡±


    It¡¯s quite an odd sight to see beaming pride warring simultaneously with sheer terror and unbridled fury on someone¡¯s visage.  I¡¯m not sure I want the possibility of ever hearing Leeza¡¯s thoughts, or her overhearing mine, so I doubt I¡¯d ever offer her a link into the psychic network.  Then again, I do want her to feel safe, to feel like she could reach out at any time in case she needs something.  Hm.  I¡¯ll sleep on it.  Maybe.  There¡¯s still an obvious distaste for me underlying everything she does, but she¡¯s taking the opportunity to grow and become an admirable individual quite handily.


    I¡¯m a bit ashamed to admit that I had a preconceived notion that people with attitudes like hers were probably irredeemable, and likely incapable of this sort of change and growth.  I¡¯m pretty prejudiced against entitled, upper-crust people, apparently.  I can almost imagine how the conversation she had with her mother went down.


    In whatever den currently makes up their home, Leeza would have been speaking to her mother.  She¡¯d have been talking about how awful I was to her, and what I¡¯d said to her, maybe quoting me exactly, maybe embellishing, or misremembering some things due to her fear.  Her mother would have rebutted with something like, ¡°Our name *is* a weapon.  One with sharp blade and heavy haft, that can and should be used to get what we deserve, and want, from anyone.¡±  Or something along those lines at least.  I can imagine the almost tender look Leezahna would give in response, realizing that the mother that she loves so dearly would be looked down on by me.  She¡¯d know that I¡¯d be angered at someone so self-important, and she¡¯d be worried for her mother¡¯s safety if she should continue to remain so entitled.


    Even though I¡¯m seeing it happen, I¡¯m still impressed that Leezahna supposedly had a conversation likely similar to this one that I¡¯ve conjectured, with her mother, and decided that she believed in what I¡¯d said to her.  I stripped her bare to the world, and her friends abandoned her, and her family insists that the world should work the way she¡¯d been raised to believe.  Yet here she is, adapting to independence in order to work up the courage to speak to her mother as an equal at some point.  I bet I have Ixey to thank for a lot of Leeza¡¯s desire to grow and meet my expectations.  Hell, I can see Leeza mouthing a thanks to Ixey out of the corner of my eye as well.  Thanks indeed Ixeyla.

 B 6 C 119: Explosive

    While I¡¯m mulling over Leezahna¡¯s recent history, and ultimate destiny, I¡¯m almost shocked to hear Shiz ask quietly, ¡°Lady Kinzul? I¡¯ve already pledged tooth and talon to your Schism, your Hero. I¡¯m not certain how to go about this, if there¡¯s some proper method, but I¡¯d like to officially join the Onyx Dawn. Consider me at your service for saving my sister and her clutch.¡±


    I nearly melt as I sense the pride from Kinzul as she smiles warmly at Shiz, sets a hand upon him, and simply utters, ¡°Then it is so. Welcome, Shiz, Thunderer, to the Order of the Onyx Dawn.¡±


    I can barely contain myself as I prevent myself from literally leaping and shouting in joy about how mercy is worth it. I vibrate intensely at the restraint. I have to remind myself that it¡¯s a dangerous, risky proposition, that will continue to disappoint me in the field, and break my heart, repeatedly. Each heartbreak will occur over and over as I¡¯m forced to slay those that don¡¯t agree, or those that would simply retain evil, tyrannical tendencies. It¡¯s worth it, but it still exacts a cost on my weary heart.


    Did Leezahna just scope out Ixey and Zayzi? I rattle my skull. It¡¯s none of my business. It¡¯s their own prerogative to be topless, and her own prerogative to enjoy whatever she enjoys visually. Plus, it could have been looking on in disdain for lack of decorum, or something. Regardless, whatever her preferences are, I¡¯m not entitled to know. We¡¯re not even friends, and even if we were, she wouldn¡¯t be obligated to tell me.


    I leave it to Shiz and Kinzul, Luni and Teuila, and Lil and Lucky to help guide the rest of the assembled Onyx Dawn members with the shops. Shiz will be selling things to make money, and they¡¯ll be sorting out what to buy from whomever¡¯s shops. Guiding Leezahna back towards the mass of stockpiled gems, she gulps as she appears abashed. I try to hide my wry smirk while biting my lips. I¡¯m not here to rub her nose in it as it were. I motion towards the craftsworks where Nala is taking stock of all the available tools and stations, and trying her hand at various tasks. Leezahna nods quickly and hauls several baskets while I haul several more manually and telekinetically.


    Upon our approach, Nala calls out, ¡°Schism, yes, good, wonderful. Hm, oh this shall do quite more than nicely. I¡¯d been about to ask. Even with the mistakes I¡¯ve been making, cracking facets and so on, this will more than solve the issue. Is the lovely young lass another of yours Schism?¡±


    Frowning more than blushing, I furrow my brow at Nala, while Leezahna looks mortified. Changing the subject quickly, I respond, ¡°Whatever you¡¯re implying, no. I do however have an even better solution to any mistakes involving crystals or gems. It¡¯s literally called the Crystal Healing Wand. It performs a minor mending of cantrip-level power, specifically on gems and small gemlike, or crystalline, structures. Here, catch.¡±


    Nala deftly snatches the wand out of the air, and I realize I probably should have been more cautious than to throw something fragile towards a heavily-armored librarian in thick robes. Rolling my eyes and chuckling to myself, I add, ¡°As far as I¡¯m concerned, it¡¯s all yours, but you could leave it in the craftsworks in case anyone else tries their hand at jewelry or enchantment creations. I think I remember spying another one in someone else¡¯s shop catalogue. Oh, right, thanks to Leezahna here, we have most of what we need, and can view a large portion of the individual unique items available in everyone¡¯s shop catalogues. I¡¯d like you to check out yours sometime today. Speaking of which, I¡¯d like you to check out yours as well Leezahna. If anything sounds like it could help advance the efforts of the Onyx Dawn, please bring it to my attention.¡±


    Mulling it over, I decide to also offer, ¡°As thanks for your efforts, I¡¯d like to offer you each a stipend of a million in currency for today, to last until some point in the future. I¡¯m not sure when I could offer a refresh of the stipend. Anyway, feel free to purchase anything using my personal currency. There¡¯s a small secret stash in the library, under the third shelf, in a small, locked case that¡¯s bolted into the underside of the stacks. The lock¡¯s code is seven, eight, nine, three. I¡¯ll make sure there¡¯s exactly two million in there later this eve. You can either grab your share, and be responsible for keeping track of it, or leave it there and withdraw needed amounts as necessary.¡±


    Leezahna looks astounded at the number I¡¯ve just tossed her way. I can see her running the math in her head as to how long it would have taken her to earn a million in cash. There¡¯s a spark of fear in her eyes, and a dubious expression crosses her face, wondering if this is some sort of trick, or test. I sigh for a long moment as I ponder how to address her expression.


    Thinking it best to work simply, I mention to Leezahna, ¡°This stipend is an advance for your upcoming work as quartermaster. You¡¯re free to use it as you see fit. If you buy something as an experiment, and realize it benefits the Onyx Dawn, and you donate it to them, I¡¯ll replace whatever you spent on it. We¡¯re starting to dwindle in our total paper currency, but I feel like this is a worthwhile investment, for you to be able to get what you want and need to start your life properly, independently.¡±


    Pondering momentarily, I hazard explaining further, ¡°It¡¯s a one-time deal though, okay? It¡¯s not a present, it¡¯s not a gift, but it doesn¡¯t come with strings. It¡¯s me paying you for the responsibilities you¡¯ve agreed to attend to. You earn it, and my trust, by continuing to do well. Please, have a good day, try to enjoy yourself, check out the available catalogues, help out where you can if you¡¯d like. Relax and settle in. I want you to feel safe, and happy in your new home.¡±


    Almost teasing about the glance I¡¯d seen Leeza cast towards Ixey, I point out, ¡°For example, if there¡¯s someone you want to pursue romantically, perhaps take them aside for a conversation, or write them a letter. Veril, our ¡®The Red,¡¯ thinks you¡¯re attractive, and is worried that you seem friendless right now. Feel free to talk to him, and try to take it easy on him if he flusters easily.¡±


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    Feeling gross as I realize it sounds like I¡¯m ordering her to romantically pursue someone, I quickly expound, ¡°I¡¯ve no say, or interest, in what you do with your time, except that which you¡¯ve agreed to spend on the tasks I¡¯ve requested of you. In a few days, when we¡¯ve got a handle on the numbers, I¡¯ll be requesting more of your time in order to handle proper distribution. What I mean to say is, take advantage of your free time, before I put you to work a bit more thoroughly. Like I said before, keep track of how long it¡¯s taking you to attend to the responsibilities, and if you feel the amount of time invested per day is too much, come to me, and we¡¯ll discuss your needs, and the possibility of an assistant.¡±


    When Leezahna realizes that I¡¯m just rambling, and don¡¯t actually need her to stay nearby, she edges away, checking visually with me for any signs of retribution at her desire to leave my presence. I simply flash a half smile of acknowledgment her way in order to reassure her that it¡¯s fine. Turning towards Nala once Leezahna has left, I close my eyes and sigh deeply. Rolling my eyes behind closed lids and shaking my head, I resolve to leave all authority behind me as soon as this war is over. I¡¯m not cut out to lead people, or correct others¡¯ behaviors, and so on.


    Clucking her tongue, Nala half-chuckles as she responds to my train of thought, ¡°Few are, friend-Reggie. Few are. There are some interesting tools and workstations here. The gear-press intrigues me greatly, as I¡¯ve ideas for little clockworks that might amble about, and perhaps carry tools and the like. It seems it requires either a soft metal, like lead, or something along those lines in order to work, at least with my puny strength. The foot-pedal rotary tool is quite ingenious too, for etching, carving, cutting, drilling and the like, with the assortment of adamantite heads provided.¡±


    Nodding to Nala, I¡¯m worried slightly about the idea of her working with lead, since I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s as toxic to dragonkin as it is to everyone else. I¡¯m not sure if they have veins of lead, or stores of it anywhere. I¡¯m rather hoping they don¡¯t. If Nala got lead poisoning, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d forgive myself for having put her in the position to work with it. Thankfully, Nala seems to have only been conjecturing about the particular metal needed. A soft metal would eventually erode and wear out much more quickly than a harder metal, for clockwork gears anyway. We can use the gear press to make casts, and use the casts to make gears in whatever metal she¡¯d like. We¡¯d been doing something similar on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, for pipe fittings and so on.


    Hm, that reminds me, we could make some pretty wicked traps, and with the right structure, have them be remotely deployable, say from the security center itself, so that no one could accidentally trigger them and get themselves hurt. Against a siege, that could be quite valuable indeed. Rigging up the piping to carry and protect the wires to pass the signal to the traps would be an annoyingly lengthy process for one or two people, but we do have a lot of volunteers, several sets of forgeworks, and a lot of processing stations, on top of the ability to buy more, some of which might even be enchanted. Hm.


    Am I about to ask the volunteer Draconiacs to learn to make copper cable, in order to pass electrical signals through non-conductive pipes? Am I attempting to bring Mount Solace into the electrical, and information ages? We¡¯re already in the industrial age basically, with the amount of metallurgical processing we¡¯re capable of doing, and our toes are in the door for the information age and electrical age already. Gnawing on my lip, I glance around. Is it the right thing to do? The entire face of the world could change if the advancements I¡¯m thinking of get spread around over time. The one I least want to spread these advancement to, funnily enough, is Ka¡¯thuul. Terrorzin won¡¯t live long enough to benefit from them.


    Gods I must sound so cocky in my head. It¡¯s just that he¡¯s prophesied to die by year¡¯s end. I already don¡¯t like that the Derbrightmine dwarves are in a metallurgical age that has them constructing firearms. The gunpowder age? I guess. I think we could create a gunpowder warren essentially by planting saltpeter, and sulfur. Then it¡¯s just harvesting or burning things for coal, or well, charcoal. Do I want to risk explosives being readily available? No. No I don¡¯t. I wish I could erase knowledge of their existence from my own, and others¡¯ heads. I really, really don¡¯t need an explosives-delivery arms-race occurring.


    I¡¯m getting distracted. Focus Reggie. Be in the present. Conferring with Nala, I get her thoughts on several projects, and favors I¡¯d like to request of her, while she makes requests of me for resources and tools. It feels like an equitable exchange, thankfully. Erm, I hope that¡¯s the right word. Anyway. I¡¯ve got a promise to keep¡ª. And miles to go before I sleep? Huh. That sounds familiar. Something about northern climes, cold, something. Snow? No. Frost? Maybe. Erm, right, anyway, on to Ixey and Lil.


    Ixeyla is bursting, nearly exploding, with excitement, and Lil is fidgeting nervously, blushing like crazy as he ogles her. I pull them aside as the rest of the Order of the Onyx Dawn continues working on analyzing the shop catalogues and everything else. I need not even ask if Ixeyla is willing to take the more intimate connection this time. Lil¡¯s always willing, but, well, as I said before, Ixey is radiating lust so strongly across her emotional wavelength, even in this muted bond that we share together with Zayzi, that¡ª. Erm, yeah. I¡¯m just glad she¡¯s still wearing pants.


    Placing the bond on Lil and Ixey goes smoothly enough, even with Zayzi wandering nearby, standing around shirtlessly, watching with disinterest. Sighing to myself, I try my best to not make a big deal out of it, since they don¡¯t seem to care, and I don¡¯t want to make them feel uncomfortable or give them complexes about their bodies. Zayzi performs their usual bit of leaning oddly up against nearby walls and surfaces, never seeming to get truly comfortable. I wish I could do more for them.


    As I let Ixey go, she drags Lil away, and I can hear her hoarse-whispering, ¡°Princess! Let us use your bedroom!¡± Leeza¡¯s response of course is, ¡°What? Ew, no. Find your own!¡±


    I try to hide my snort of laughter, and mostly fail. Lil, I hope you know what you¡¯re in for buddy. That¡¯s a heck of a lot of woman to handle being with. The fact that she transforms into her dragon form, and Lil into his, leaves me shaking my head all the more certain that Lil¡¯s in over his own. Especially as she drags him away by clamping her teeth gently on his neck, wrestling him into the farthest vault. Phew. Now I¡¯m steaming with blush. I¡¯m pretty certain that they can¡¯t, erm, y¡¯know, but wow.


    Zayzi nods nearby and mutters, ¡°Kissing. Eugh. No kissing. ¡®Kay?¡±


    Blushing, and trying not to laugh at their expense, I nod in response to Zayzi¡¯s simple request. I¡¯m certainly not expecting explosive passion directed my way from Zayzi or Ixey, or any sort of romance or physical affection. I¡¯m happy to just be their friend.

 B 6 C 120: Efficient Time

    Zayzi surprises me by snagging me by the hand to lead me towards the cauldron, where there¡¯s surprisingly no one else around. I¡¯m more than a bit confused as they stand, holding my hand, heatedly blushing. It leaves me blushing more than a bit as I realize that I don¡¯t even know where Zayzi left their shirt, or Ixey left hers. I think it might have been the dugout, maybe.


    Waiting on them to let me know why they¡¯ve taken me aside, I stand patiently, attempting to cast my gaze anywhere other than Zayzi, so as not to be an ogling creep. Zayzi finally starts, ¡°Thanks. Friends. Safe. Strong. Always? Even if sister takes your friend? Thanks for making sis happy.¡±


    My breath catches momentarily, as I realize what Zayzi is worried about. Smiling towards Zayzi, I squeeze their hand and respond, ¡°Always friends, always. Ixey isn¡¯t stealing Lil from me. Ixey and Lil are making each other happy. They won¡¯t spend every moment of every day together. We¡¯re all still friends, and your sister¡¯s always going to be your sister. Also, yeah, we are safe, and we will be safe. We¡¯ll come home, whenever our offensive engagements end. I¡¯ll bring Lil back for your sis. I want him safe as much as she does. I love him too.¡±


    Zayzi flashes me one of their furtive smiles that fights to remain on their face for more than a split second. Zayzi suddenly reminds me, ¡°No kissing,¡± before leaning into my personal bubble from quite a ways outside of it, and hugging me with their lanky limbs. I awkwardly return half a hug, trying not to chuckle at just how odd their movements are. Nodding at Zayzi¡¯s request, I simply enjoy the hug for the few moments it lasts. Zayzi then simply wanders off, and I¡¯m not even sure they¡¯re going to bother finding their shirt.


    Passing a sigh through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I shake my head slightly. Here¡¯s hoping that Zayzi continues to mend. Of course I¡¯m hoping that when we win this war, they¡¯re able to experience the world in a way that doesn¡¯t hurt, or doesn¡¯t leave them hurting, or wanting to be numb to it all. Zayzi¡¯s sister Ixey is really their tether to the world, and their path to happiness. I hope Ixey realizes that, and doesn¡¯t get too wrapped up in spending time with Lil. Also, I kind of needed Lil¡¯s powers for some of what I wanted to do today, but I¡¯ve got the feeling that even if I could drag Lil away any time soon, he¡¯s likely to be quite disoriented, and perhaps drained. I fight off a chuckle and try to reorient my brain so as not to picture what the two are up to in Lil¡¯s vault.


    Hm, Shiz was right about it being a pity to just sell off these bolts of silk. I¡¯m glad that they haven¡¯t yet. Everyone seems to be getting into, and understanding the shop system. Vyela has traded places with Vylon, and she¡¯s now napping in her dragon form curled around the dugout. Somehow, I bet that even though I had Lucky build this cavern to be massive, that that¡¯s only a fraction of the size that Vylon or Vyela can reach, similar to Kinzul. I¡¯m dealing with beings whose scale I can barely comprehend, and they want *me* to lead, and fight, and, and just, just even do anything on their level? It¡¯s insane. Yet, here I am, Reggie Shellcracker, the insane. Hah. That wasn¡¯t where I meant to go with that. Cough. Erm, yes.


    Teuila catches up to me, wraps an arm around my neck and pulls me in for a playful noogie before smooching my forehead. I pretend to grump at her for the noogie, but can¡¯t hide my joy for long, and we both end up giggling like goons. Trying to find Luni and Lucky, I spot them lazing about in a corner of our Mount Verdimenn space, both looking tuckered out. I know neither of them got much sleep last night. A lot of that is my fault, for dealing with Induul. Though Luni¡¯s partially to blame for her own tiredness, crawling into bed with Lil and the twins. I smirk and try to stifle my chuckle.


    Raising an eyebrow to Teuila, she nods, understanding implicitly, so we rush Luni and Lucky together, and leap as if to bodyslam the pair. There¡¯s a startled snort as Luni half-rouses when she notices us crashing through the air towards her, but of course Teuila drops our weight to nil before impact, so that we land softer than feathers or farts. The two of us smooch Lu¡¯s cheeks from either side, and Lucky yawns while his tail wags despite himself. Rubbing Lucky¡¯s skull playfully, I smooch his forehead repeatedly as well. I don¡¯t have the luxury to catch up on sleep today, so I¡¯ll leave Luni and Lucky to rest, and Teuila to pester them occasionally as she rests as well, preparing for tomorrow.


    Te pouts and grumps my way, ¡°I¡¯m, *yawn* coming with you for the whole¡ª, *yawn.* Dangit Lucky stop that. For the whole day too. *Yawn* not you too Lu, you butt.¡±


    I shrug, happy to have my beloved at my side for the rest of the day, but it¡¯s pretty obvious that the emotional toll of both the events of the last few days, as well as the toll of us working out her emotions in private thinkspace has been wearing her out. It¡¯s her call of course.


    Jokingly, Teuila pulls out a rope and states, ¡°I¡¯ll just lash myself to you, to your back, straight as a stick. I can be a backpack while you run, yawn, around and do errands and stuff. Just don¡¯t let any naughty birds like seagulls nip the cord. I don¡¯t wanna fall on my butt. Also, don¡¯t get hit by any boulders, that¡¯d hurt, y¡¯know, meteors.¡±


    I begin to snort with laughter but my brain has a massive BSOD, leaving me blinking in confusion. Shrugging, I allow Teuila to tie herself to me in a forced piggyback ride. I roll my eyes and shake my head at the silliness of it, but I¡¯m happy to be close to Te all the same. I suppose it is a more efficient way to remain literally together for the day. Hah. Hm, what¡¯s this?


    Browsing one of the many printout sheets now scattered around the dugout, there¡¯s something that might allow me to¡ª. Yes. Yes indeed. Whose shop is this? This one¡¯s Veril¡¯s, and this one¡¯s Farzhis¡¯s? That¡¯s fortuitous, and a heck of a coincidence. Display cases with audio jacks, the perfect size for the mirrors, with soundproof cushioning on all sides save the front. The plexiglass fronts should prevent sound leaking out.


    I can stack these in an array and affix them to walls and such fairly easily. Plus I could make like a mithril or orichalcum or adamantite shelf, or even just an iron or steel shelf. This means I can leave the auditory side of the scrying enchantments all open. That way if someone wants a direct link to someone else auditorily, we can actually operate it like a telephone switching board. Huh. Nice. Let¡¯s see, who has, what are they, three point five millimeter jacks? No, wait, these sound like they¡¯ll be RCA jacks. Can we get RCA cables, and headsets with them?


    Okay, that¡¯s not too hard. I¡¯m worried about constantly using them in switching board style though. They¡¯re not meant to be withdrawn and plugged in repeatedly. They get kind of sloppy over time, forming worse and worse connection if they¡¯re plugged and unplugged repeatedly. I have no idea how or why I know that, or think that I know that. Anyway, let¡¯s stock up on all this stuff. Grabbing some more cash while Teuila naps fitfully on my back is easy enough. I try to hide my smile and the shiver that crawls up my spine occasionally when Te¡¯s teasing me by nibbling on my ears.


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    Alright, let¡¯s shove two million in cash in the lockbox beneath the third shelf in the stacks. It¡¯s up to Leezahna to use it responsibly, because I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll have spare cash to disburse another stipend. Nala I¡¯m less worried about using it irresponsibly, since she¡¯s likely to only use her share for crafting enchantments and artificery, and I¡¯d reimburse her if any of it bore fruit.


    Let¡¯s get Nala¡¯s code and her shop catalogue so that she can look it over later. I¡ª. Huh. Of course Nala is another person who¡¯s already met their achievements. Also, of course most of what¡¯s in hers sounds like book titles, or at least written or reading material of some fashion or another. Ugh, these obscure names are as bad as the weird-ass tomes that granted sorcerific powers. If any of them could grant new powers to¡ª. Hm. I¡¯d want to make sure Lil and Lu are in on it this time. Shaylon and Boetah and the Vivant as well if able, basically the entire Order. It¡¯s so hard to plan a time when the entire Order is available though in the middle of a war.


    Hm, could I speed up mastery of the runes of spells if I asked everyone to be available in the hivemind, and I tapped into *their* muscles to form the runes until perfect? They need S P pools, in order to craft the runes at all, and to be capable of subtle-casting, bypassing the need for a mnemonic. I think the only two that qualify are the Spellknight twins, Ahliyui and Ahliyuri. Drat. Still, if I could borrow them for a few hours every few days, I could have the three of us practicing runes simultaneously, and I think we¡¯d all learn exponentially more quickly. It¡¯d grant the twins a greater array of tools in their toolbelt on how to produce their spells, as well as which spells they learn. I still don¡¯t exactly want to just hand out the meteor spell to everyone, much less someone that was originally part of Terrorzin¡¯s force, but I¡¯m coming to love them, and rely on them. They helped me save Prinny. That buys a lot of faith from me. Plus, at my request, they¡¯re scouting, sneaking, and spying, looking after their ¡°new brother,¡± which buys more faith yet still.


    Alright, alright, alright already. There¡¯s only so much time we can spend attempting to make the upcoming time we spend more efficient, before it becomes procrastinating and wasting time. Let¡¯s engage the warmup for the myconid transformation, let¡¯s purchase all of these objects, while starting to lay out supplies to perform these crafts, these builds, and these enchantments. Pay at least some attention to the continued discussion of strategy, and war effort that¡¯s going on around you Reggie. I know, I know. My brain is a bit overtaxed at the moment though. I know Reggie, I know.


    Huff, phooph, whew. Panting with exhaustion, I try to square and center my brain, but everything is off-kilter, lopsided. I guess I¡¯ve been at things for a few hours now huh? Yeah, that¡¯s what happens when you shut your brain off Reggie. I know, I know. Is¡ª, is my Honoris Causa leaking out? What¡¯s¡ª. Urgh, it¡¯s tough to reign it in. There¡¯s an audible wave of relief as many gasps and sighs escape some of my friends nearby. Or rather, not even nearby. I¡¯m on the far end of our main cavern in Verdimenn, and those sounds came from the dugout. Just how the hell large can my Honoris Causa get at this point?


    Returning to the dugout, it seems like everyone¡¯s still gathered, and barely anything has changed since I last checked in on them. Raising an eyebrow, I ask, ¡°Were you all taking a lunch break or something? Or planning to? Sorry if my Honoris Causa stopped you from taking one. How many hours was I out before it went active? How long was I out? I feel wiped out.¡±


    After coughing to clear his throat, Gil offers up, ¡°What do you mean hours? You left with your supplies a few minutes ago, and then let loose with that bedamned power of yours, choking the life out of us.¡±


    I blink rapidly before glancing around the room for confirmation. The nods, even from my wife, Kinzul, leave me a bit stunned, and stumped. Teuila is snoring and drooling on my shoulder from her position lashed to my back, seemingly undisturbed. My face contorts as I¡¯m unsure how to process this information. Checking on my dragonforces, I am down a few percent, which is slightly annoying, but at least it¡¯s not life-threatening.


    Did I engage dragonfright? But¡ª, but there¡¯s a ton of carpentry and craftwork and enchanting prep laid out, as if I¡¯d been working for at least a quarter of an hour at an incredibly efficient pace at the very bare minimum, more likely half an hour hour if not a couple of hours. Plus, Gilmeshtu is ancient, incredibly powerful, there¡¯s no way a young dragonforce like mine, even with a few dragonforces contained within it, could nail him with dragonfright, right? I mean, especially not Kinzul. Each of them has likely bested and devoured many other ancient dragons in their years, and cultivated their own dragonforces to be the absolutely most powerful they could be.


    Glancing at my wife for verification, she attempts to rationalize what happened, ¡°It would appear¡ª, hm. Conjecturing, it felt as if we¡¯d been sat on. It was as if your very draconic body were growing to fill the entirety of your second home here in Mount Verdimenn. While in contact with it, there was a draw, some force tugging. I was able to resist with ease, but the others may have been less lucky. Almost as if it were¡ª. Hm. Sorry, simply speculation my love. Regardless, ¡®The Gold¡¯ was exaggerating slightly. Our lives weren¡¯t in danger, it was simply oppressive, and a tad tiresome.¡±


    Is there any chance that I just stole time from everyone else, in order to get more done? Crap! That¡¯s the very thing I trained to be able to avoid in the Temple of Time on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It¡¯s definitely not something I can consciously do. Okay, okay, calm down Reggie, that¡¯s a hell of a leap in logic to assume. It¡¯s more likely that it was my void essence draining something like heat or calories or something. Still, that¡¯d be a hell of a weapon, manifest my Honoris Causa grown to massive size, steal the time, future, energy from my foes, while plowing through them, with them either unable to resist, or literally brought closer to their death by the moment.


    Anyway, Kinzul did say she was just speculating. It might have been memories, or trauma, instead of time, or any number of things. It could have just been drawing out dopamine, adrenaline, epinephrine, norepinephrine, or some other neurochemical or something for all I know. Hell, it might have literally been nothing at all, and just been an annoyance that felt like they were getting sat on.


    I¡¯m going to need to, and I think I understand how to, create a lock for my Honoris Causa, so that it can¡¯t do this again. It should also prevent accidental angstsplosions too. The problem is, it¡¯ll require someone else to enable and disable the lock. Someone as powerful as, or more powerful than me. Gnawing on my lip, do I dare ask anyone other than Kinzul? What if it comes to light that I¡¯m more powerful than everyone other than her? Will their prides and egos get the better of them? Or, less full of myself, what if they do appear stronger than me? Will Gilmeshtu challenge my authority and position within the order even more? Would it be more efficient to skip any possible drama and go straight to Kinzul?


    I¡¯m a tad bit morbidly curious to see if he¡¯s strong enough to pull it off though. Gil¡¯s an ancient, quite possibly one of our top five most powerful combatants amongst the dragons, maybe amongst all of us. What sort of schism might it cause between us if I¡ª. I hang my head and sigh at myself. I¡¯d giggle if it weren¡¯t my own brain doing this to me.

 B 6 C 121: Last Resorts

    Rattling my skull, I orient myself once again. It seems like I¡¯m constantly disoriented today. Right, alright, let¡¯s just work with Kinzul, and get my Honoris Causa under wraps. It shouldn¡¯t be able to manifest at all without me announcing my titles any longer, and should only perform the expected basic effects when I manifest it that way. It does limit me from accessing any potential surprise powers that might give me the edge in a fight, but I¡¯d rather not accidentally get a friend, ally, or family member killed by suddenly disorienting them, or knocking them for a loop, or unleashing some random deadly torrent of void or something beyond my control.


    Holding my wife tenderly for a long moment, grateful that she¡¯s been able to help me lock this side of me away, I sigh momentarily. Her help also prevents my Honoris Causa from causing any further disruptions to others, and prevents me from losing any of the dragonforce that I need to survive. This just never really seems real to me. My best friend is technically my son in law, sort of. I¡¯m married to someone that could have been titled the king of all dragons, and whom I would still consider queen of all dragons, even despite her avoidance of such titles. My closest amorous loves include someone that might literally be a goddess from a Fakeworld pantheon, and someone whose future memories and personality ghosts have helped her shape the ultimate timeline. Everything about this life is insane.


    That doesn¡¯t even begin to cover my little dalliances with a supposedly unnoticeable Spymaster, the whammy that struck me with infatuation for her, or my dalliance with my wife¡¯s daughter, whose recent rejection of me is possibly only temporary. Heck, nor does it cover my dalliance with the sweet, deviant little old lady that is my wife¡¯s best friend. All of this, in the midst of a war against the far overwhelming majority of dragonkin and dragonkind across a planet that I wasn¡¯t born on. Well, not that I was ever born to begin with. We haven¡¯t even gotten to the other two apocalypses we have to deal with yet either!


    Sighing, I chuckle at myself for the shortest of moments. Shaking my head, I try to let it all fall by the wayside, to focus on the present. I¡¯ve got to find myself finishing various projects and plans. I have to further cultivate my own powers, and if I can, those of my loved ones, allies, family members, friends, and everyone around me. I have to make leaps that should take entire eras, in record time. Hah. Reggie Shellcracker, shortcutting time. Yeah, that sounds about right. Rolling my eyes and chuckling at myself while shaking my head further, I continue to feel incredulous at everything that happens to me, around me, or because of me.


    It¡¯s a few more hours til my myconid form emerges. Ixey and Lil are, ahem, having their fun, and I¡¯ll be quite happy to leave their private bond as soon as the telepathic bond spell wears off from me, while remaining permanent between the two of them. Zayzi has wandered off somewhere. The Vivant and strategists-eight are actually working out actionable strategies for various scenarios in and out of battle for the upcoming engagements. I¡¯d almost thought they might perhaps be too proud to listen to anyone¡¯s advice or takes on matters. The Dormir are¡ª.


    I try to hide my smile, but I can¡¯t help it as I feel Illy¡¯s attempts to hide her subtle joy, at seeing her Dormies pulling through. They¡¯re pulling together to work hard to find the advantages hidden within the shop system. The Dormir are pouring through the catalogues, and printing out various random inventories of people they know among the residents of Mount Solace. We¡¯ve got a lot riding on all of us coming home healthy from tomorrow¡¯s offensives, and Errissa returning actionable information on the new hole in the Worldstorm in Terrorzin¡¯s domain. The more assets, and actionable plans we have in place to deal with possible necessary contingencies between now and then, the better.


    I could not ask for a more talented, worthy crew of individuals to be facing the apocalypse with. Even Shaylon and Shiz are¡ª. Well, they aren¡¯t exactly flirting, but I think even Shiz gets a kick out of Shaylon¡¯s accent. Revvy, Greggy, Shaylon, and Shiz, are planning for the trip that Aegis, the Quick, and the Dark are about to take towards the ¡®Neath. I wish I could offer more concrete information as to what they might be facing, but they¡¯re somewhat used to going in to battle uninformed. Two of them are amongst our stealthiest operators, our Quick and our Dark. If they find themselves in over their heads, relying on Aegis¡¯s talent while they reorient, and possibly fall back, should allow them to come home safely. Please come home safely you guys.


    Revvy, Greggy, and Shaylon are all on a psychic subnetwork, so none of them need to make sounds, or use their eyes or ears in the ¡®Neath. That should prove fairly beneficial. What was it that Kinzul said early on? Her investment in my titling is already paying dividends? I can see that. Psychic networks on teams of combatants who synergize, allowing them even greater synergy, further instantaneous communication at long range across noisy battlefields or quiet stealthy segments of missions? Yeah, I¡¯m glad I was able to provide that. I want all of these people to come home safely. Every last bit I can help towards making that a reality is, well, it¡¯s just what I want.


    Hm, these are coming along nicely. I can do some of the basic construction myself too. Let¡¯s see. Wow, Sugar¡¯s tools are so intuitive. No wonder their constructions always came together perfectly according to Spice¡¯s designs. It¡¯s still a bit weird to see things become magically fastened together without screws, nuts, bolts, or adhesives. I¡¯m a bit worried that there might be a daily limit on the magical qualities in the tools, now that I¡¯ve had more experience with magic on Rayileklia. I¡¯d better be sparing with them until I know more, and I get the higher priority tasks done that require them.


    Nala¡¯s prototype looks fantastic. I wonder if I should even comment that they look kind of cool and stylish to me. I doubt Nala gives a rat¡¯s rear end for aesthetics of the accessories she¡¯s designing. Hm, she¡¯s creating diagrams for a few things that¡ª, oh, oh that¡¯s really neat. I¡¯ll get her some kit right away that lets her start on those. They¡¯ll help her create more things more quickly. She really is an innately natural imbuer. She¡¯s an artificer that can see the way that things should line up in order to provide the conduits for ambient mana, or reality to provide whatever spark or essence she desires certain things to have, at least to some degree. Wow, in the system I¡¯m thinking of, she¡¯d absolutely be as high of a tier as me and Teuila, essentially maxed out in level.


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    It¡¯s weird to think that she got this far, without ever having had access to the tools of her trade that would let her utilize or show off her skills. She¡¯s been a librarian this entire time. How the hell do you hit level twenty by only reading books? Well, if anyone could do it, Nala could, and she did. Regardless, I purchase what I can from the shops, and rush to create some gear moulds. As I¡¯ve got a number of the sorts of tools Nala will need to get started, I also rush to pour the moulds repeatedly producing an assortment of gears, screws, springs, cogs, wheels, nuts, bolts, and the like. I¡¯m not even sure she notices me dropping stuff off by the basketfull.


    Regardless, I continue dashing about to and fro, with Teuila occasionally waking. We tease each other while we work on her mindscape, and mine, repairing what we can. I¡¯m burning my candle at both ends, but I won¡¯t look this gift-horse in the mouth, of this manic energy that¡¯s allowing me to rapidly approach and engage all these projects simultaneously. The few times I pass Leezahna, she actually seems worried as she spies me appearing to be some sort of crazed lunatic, dashing about with tools and weapons and crafting materials and projects and so on, with the love of my life strapped to my back.


    Ah, Pawn, Prinny, and the rest of Prinrin¡¯s children! I nearly melt with joy upon spying them. Before I can ask, Prinrin jokes, ¡°Thought perhaps it easier to treat my darlings to lunch with that big pot of yours Schism sweetie. At least if that big heart of yours would allow it my dear. Also, according to my dear Miraina, our sweet Pawn, you could perhaps benefit from slowing down a touch, and maybe having another hand or two in things. What say you Schism sweetie, can me and the fam lend a hand while we all bond?¡±


    I rather wish I had a bit more control over my impulses as I launch myself at Prinrin to pick her up and swirl her around. Muttering through a faceful of her bicep as she wraps her arms around my head, I chuckle and respond, ¡°Of course you can you daft deviant little old lady. I love you to bits and the ends of the world and back. I just didn¡¯t want to risk selfishly taking you away from this. I could tell how rarely you¡¯d gotten to see them. Grr I¡¯m so mad at you for you coming home so near death yesterday. Don¡¯t ever do that again. Please. I know, I know, you¡¯ll always do your best to save everyone else. Neither of us would really have it any other way. Just, just please always come home. Please. Erm, koff, right, yes, sorry.¡±


    Setting Prinrin down, I blush heatedly as her children giggle, snicker, or sneer at me. Pawn actually elbows me and winks. Ugh, devious little deviants, all of them. I¡¯m tempted to tease Pawn back, but I really don¡¯t need the flack I might catch for that. Regardless of all that, I fill the pot for Prinrin and her children. I sense the sadness still lurking within her, this strident joy over the uniting with her children warring with the loss of her husband. Oh Prinny. I draw a shuddering breath and sigh slowly. I¡¯m doing my best to make sure we have no losses, or as few losses as possible, between now and the end of this war. It¡¯s¡ª.


    Echoing the thought I¡¯d been about to have, Prinrin telepathically sends, ¡°It¡¯s not all on you, or up to you deary. Not everyone will come home every time. It will hurt, and you¡¯re allowed to hurt. We¡¯re allowed to hurt. There¡¯s so much room in that big heart of yours, and you¡¯re trying so hard to protect it, and the rest of us. A big a hero as he ever was deary, as ever he was indeed. Breathe Schism sweetie. You absolute dear, you utter cutie, you fantastic fu¡ª.¡±


    I cough, interrupting Prinrin¡¯s telepathic message, flashing her a bit of a glare, though I can¡¯t stay mad at her as she grins delightedly my way. Devious little old deviant. I wear half a smirk while blushing heatedly and shaking my head. Still, I help Prinrin serve herself and her children. Pawn finishes the quickest of all of them, of course she does, and thankfully the absolute sweetheart volunteers to help start setting up some of the things I need done around Solace. It¡¯ll take her almost no time at all to start painting intersections with tunnel labels similar to street signs. That¡¯ll let us start pairing up, and labeling enchanted mirror scrying sensors.


    I really hope no one thinks that this is me trying to turn Solace into some sort of Orwellian tyrannical state. The sensors will be few and far between, mostly set up for near entrances, exits, main thoroughfare intersections, and near assets in need of protection. The only reporting I want done is if something happens like seeing a Damnation skulking about in human form, in which case, me, Te, Lu, Lil, or Lucky would speed to the location to drive them out or slay them. Everything else can likely be handled by our Queens and Pawn as they always already would have done. Let¡¯s see, where are we with everything?


    Hm, poor Nala is having difficulty carving micro-runes into gem-facets to enable the enchanting she¡¯d like to do consistently. Thankfully the Crystal-Healing Wand lets her undo any mistakes. Like me, she¡¯s essentially doing something until she gets it perfect by-rote. Pawn¡¯s painting tunnel names or numbers, while hanging up certain mirrors that I already have enchanted, and I¡¯m placing paired enchantment mirrors into the soundproof cases with audio jacks on this shelf. We¡¯re coordinating to label the ones that are paired, but it¡¯ll be obvious enough since they¡¯ll overlook the hallway signs.


    We¡¯re resorting to using every last thing I can think of. I¡¯m glad that that¡¯s not the intended meaning of last resorts, at least, not in this context. Generally it¡¯s not preparatory that one gets to call in their last resorts. It ends to be using up every last contingency. The Onyx Dawn have gone through dozens of the shop system¡¯s personal-inventories, and similarly made dozens of purchases, though few have bore fruit. Born? Bored? Beared? Meh. Regardless, Nala¡¯s gotten a few sets of goggle-frames completed, and I can produce the lenses myself. I¡¯ll offer them in a few shades, ruby, sapphire, diamond, plain glass, and the like. Ixey and Lil are apparently, ahem, done celebrating their new bond. Lil looks entirely out of it. Ixey isn¡¯t all that much more coherent either, and still shirtless.


    I try to refrain from rolling my eyes or chuckling. I wonder if I should tease or congratulate Lil. They¡¯ve never really gone as hard on teasing me as Lu or Te have. I just want Lil to be happy. Hm, my myconid form is about to engage. Whom, if anyone, should I ask to join into the hivemind to help finish up the projects for the day? I blush as I sense Prinrin¡¯s mind and motives upon overhearing my thoughts. Dirty minded deviant little old lady. She of course cackles joyously at being called out telepathically.

 B 6 C 122: Suffocation

    Seconds become minutes which drift by into hours as we build, craft, enchant, read, write, collate, interpret, extrapolate, and more. Soon we will have the barebones framework, and soon after, a minimalistic network of that which we desire. Soon after that, yet more will transpire in which we come closer to achieving our goals, long term and short. We work in unison, in concert, in perfect harmony within ourself. We are one after all. We accomplish far too little, to win a war outright, yet far more than the few of us might have believed we could. Three, going on four, and a dozen more, and these bear fruit as well. Alchemy, enchanting, building and crafting, clockwork and toil, steamwork and oil, all and more are what we explore and implore.


    We find secrets hidden amongst ourselves, and chastise ourself for keeping them from ourselves. Though chagrined, we continue in unison, despite nearly suffocating under the weight of the shared knowledges. New advantages spring to mind, are brought to light, and come to life. The future dawns on us, and its prospects are tantalizing. In all too short a time though, it is beyond our grasp, as we must relent, and release ourselves. To retain ability to access this form, and its wonders, we must be certain to relinquish it as it demands, lest we lose it forever. We slowly become the me, the I, the am, the solo sporoid Reggie Shellcracker once more, and now this me becomes the Reggie Shellcracker known as the RS2.


    Blinking, I blush at the shared thoughts that coalesce from the myconid hivemind. We¡¯ve certainly accomplished quite a lot in the last few hours. A shop now in each warrens, bolted and protected tightly, deeply secured within the center of each warren. Also appropriate crafting stations in each warrens that can utilize the materials harvested therein, chutes to transport materials from the warrens to other craftsworks in case of need, including lumber and metals and ores to the forgeworks, far simplifying the job for the volunteers. There¡¯s a massive networked array of scrying sensors in a variety of shapes, styles, and applications, most of which reside in a too-large-to-transport shelving unit full of soundproof display cases.


    I do have a solution to that last bit. This might be the first time I¡¯ve engaged this particular form. Thankfully, I won¡¯t need it up very long, so I don¡¯t need to pre-engage it for altogether too grand a length of time. My otter form, complete with platinum scarf, adamantite zipper, super strength, and interdimensional space manifests itself after not too long, and I¡¯m curious to see exactly what happens to the sensors¡¯ links when many of them are in an extradimensional space. Unfortunately, the answer is not much. Or perhaps fortunately.


    The sensors temporarily wink-out when one half of a pair is elsewhere, becoming plain mirrors until they¡¯re returned to the same dimensional plane of existence as each other once more. I acquire one entire shop stall that I place happily within my interdimensional insides, my space skill, my inventory capacity. I similarly snag quite a number of otherwise seemingly useless trinkets that won¡¯t aid us directly in winning the war unless the worst should come to pass, in which case, it¡¯s good that they¡¯re safe elsewhere.


    Experimenting, I *am* capable of using my space skill to duplicate objects into their umbral copies once more. This leads to some rather entertaining new lines of query within myself. It will have to wait however. I¡¯m pressed for time, in order to set up the security center quickly, before this form wears off. I growl at time and its suffocating restraints that I feel entitled to being able to break free of. I wonder if we could once again create umbral copies of Lil that he could control telepathically.


    The copies that were expelled from Lil¡¯s inventory were inert upon Rayileklia so far. That may be because of a need to engage a magical mental passive subroutine for eight minutes and then keep it active for the entire duration of Lil¡¯s life on Rayileklia. I doubt it¡¯s something he¡¯d thought to do before now. I wouldn¡¯t want him to strain himself either, if it didn¡¯t come naturally. Still, to have one or two more nearly indestructible Lils upon the battlefield would be an amazing boon. Or, if Lil should become injured, even having one replacement duplicate-Lil in place of him, while he rests up and controls it remotely, could keep the war rolling in our favor. We¡¯ll burn those bridges when we come to them. Erm, whatever the appropriate phrase might be.


    Focus Reggie, your mind has been split too many ways between too many people and too many forms so far today. You¡¯re scattering. Scatterbrained is certainly an apt way to describe Reggie Shellcracker. Shush, focus. Right. Headsets, speakers, cables, desks, shelves, display units, soundproof cases with scrying sensors, we¡¯ve even got it set up that part of the picture is more easily displayed through the RCA cable to the outgoing box that the incoming picture and audio are coming from, for when we bypass the intermediate space, directly connecting one sensor to another in the security center. Whoops, this form is already wavering. We didn¡¯t spend long engaging it, perhaps half of an hour. It¡¯s still a rather incredibly potent form, despite not being entirely suited to combat with dragons, so it eats into its own mana pool rather quickly.


    Finally returned to the form I¡¯ll be in for the rest of the eve, that of myself, RS2, I, perhaps a bit foolishly, flip and twirl my new adamantite goggle-frames playfully. I can see the picture spin wildly over at the security center, and I giggle, glad no one has to observe it at the moment. I¡¯d certainly get dizzy or a bit sick if I¡¯d been focused on that particular scrying sensor. Flipping it into the air one last time, I plant the goggles firmly into the wild mass of hair upon my head, tucking the frames behind my ears, and tying off a short elastic band between the arms of the frames. It feels *right*, it feels *good*, it feels natural to have goggles upon my head. I don¡¯t mind being a gogglehead. I don¡¯t even have to wear them properly, to provide the benefit I want them to provide, that of feedback to those that will monitor our afield-teams¡¯ progresses from Solace.


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    Still, I¡¯ll keep them on properly most of the time, so that those beloved to me can reach out to me, and so that I can see the security center, and the transmission of all those that I care about. I¡¯m, erm, perhaps a little too excited at the prospect of getting a pair of goggles shipped out along Errissa¡¯s scouts to her. I¡¯ll just attribute that to the whammy, since the goggles should never be pointed at her own body anyway. Unless, erm, she spends a lot of time gazing down at herself. Koff. Uh, what was I¡ª. Erm. Right, anyway.


    Gulping and blushing, I hope I¡¯m far enough away from¡ª. Nope. I blush further heatedly, trying to pay no mind to the teasing thoughts sent my way across a myriad of mental wavelengths. Rattling my skull, and coughing to clear my throat from nothing in particular, I attempt to distract myself, and my teasers, from the previous lines of thought. Let¡¯s just try to take stock though, shall we?


    The massive amount of progress we¡¯ve made today would be incalculable by Fakeworld seventeenth or eighteenth century standards. That¡¯s the approximate era I think we should be near or around, comparatively. I sigh momentarily as I allow myself to make more comparisons to Fakeworld, and my broken buggy memories. Still, without them, I¡¯d not understand how to utilize all of these things. I¡¯d not have had the ideas to make a visual/auditory security center. I¡¯d not have had nearly as many of the progressive ideas that I¡¯ve had in order to create advantages for Solace and its residents.


    Phooph, it¡¯s pretty late in the evening now. I must have spent a lot of time spacing out between various forms¡¯ preparations, and the time spent in each form. I know I promised Kinzul to make myself available for time awa¡ª.


    My wife interrupts my thoughts, ¡°Indeed you did my love. I sincerely hope you aren¡¯t planning to disappoint me on that front. I daresay we both deserve a private moment.¡±


    Gulping and blushing, I glance around as I try to make sure the majority of my mental walls are up before responding, ¡°Of course not Kinzul, my love. I was just trying to recall what still had to be wrapped up before checking in on you to see when you were, erm, ready for that, glp, private time.¡±


    There¡¯s the slightest hint of evil joy at my hesitation, anticipation, and embarrassment, from Kinzul¡¯s emotional wavelength. Thankfully, Kinzul releases me from any of my emotional hangups as she helpfully answers, ¡°You were only able to get approximately a dozen goggles enchanted, due to Curator¡¯s time constraints, and your own excited leaping from project to project. There isn¡¯t much more to be done about that at the moment, as you¡¯ll simply need to finish your pairing enchantments on another day or other days. You¡¯ve crafted, carpentered, and enchanted in vast quantities, while the rest of us have purchased, scoured, examined, explored, and acquainted ourselves with much of what you¡¯ve provided.¡±


    With pride, Kinzul continues, ¡°Pawn, her siblings, and my dear old friend have busied themselves with preparing much of Solace for your security needs. You¡¯ve expressed the desire for, erm, copper cabling conduits? The volunteers have acquiesced, and are beginning work to provide the required end-products, as you¡¯ve provided the materials for what you call your electrification of Solace. Our Aegis, Dark, and Quick, have been dispatched to Mah¡¯Ruke, for their journey into the ¡®Neath, with a pair of pairs of goggles, one on Aegis, one on Dark. You¡¯d been able to get frightfully few enchanted with the ability to change shape and size as necessary, due to the necessity for Curator¡¯s participation, and execution.¡±


    By the sounds of it, there isn¡¯t much or anything else I should attend to tonight in Solace. Gulping, I gaze at my wife as she glides my way with a smirk on her face. I check my back, and Teuila is no longer lashed to it, so she must have disentangled herself at some point earlier in the eve. Though I¡¯d like to ask, it seems like Kinzul isn¡¯t quite ready to share where exactly we¡¯re going, or what she¡¯d like us to do in private. I return to gulping and can¡¯t manage to blink as my eyes remain wide as we walk arm in arm towards the aerie of Solace.


    Making a request that¡¯s almost a plea, Kinzul asks, ¡°My love, would you do me the honor of expending a fraction of your dragonforce, trying to fly under the power of your own Honoris Causa? Then perhaps¡ª.¡±


    She cuts herself off, leaving her words hanging tantalizingly in the air. I certainly can¡¯t imagine refusing her request. Checking the lock on my Honoris Causa that Kinzul provided, I have to manifest it by engaging my titles, so I feel a bit silly as I announce my usual titling in front of Kinzul. She simply smiles however. As my Void Dragon Honoris Causa fully manifests, I extend my senses into the form that takes¡ª form. Sighing, I roll my eyes at myself.


    Regardless, I experimentally leap with the Honoris Causa¡¯s limbs, and feel them as natively as my own. Flapping the wings of my Honoris Causa is as innate as breathing, and it¡¯s exhilarating. It does however burn through my dragonforce at more than a minimalistic rate. Days are cut from the future of my life per second. Still, as Kinzul transforms and rushes up to meet me, I can hardly manage to care about the dragonforce expenditure as my Honoris Causa embraces her dragon form while we spiral and dance about the sky in a south-westerly direction.


    We entwine tails, or necks, or gently butt horns, or even clasp limbs as one or the other of us carries the pair of us as we spiral, depending on whom is on top in the moment. It¡¯s as intimate an experience as I¡¯ve ever had. I¡¯m nearly delirious with joy, for all too brief a time, as we come to rest on a mountaintop with which I am not familiar. Motioning me to rest with her, Kinzul returns to her human form, while I release the manifestation of my Honoris Causa.


    Kinzul performs something of a ritualistic series of motions, and an incredibly tiny secret passageway opens up within the mountaintop. We journey within, and a nearly-suffocating scent of gore reaches my nostrils. When we¡¯re far below any traces of light, in utter darkness, Kinzul rakes my neck with her teeth, gently, as we traverse deeper into the dark, and she does draw blood, in the barest amount. For some reason, I don¡¯t fear it at all as the incredibly ancient being puts me in the most vulnerable of positions, and takes my life in her jaws quite literally. She could suffocate me, if she wanted. I simply smile her way, as tears run down both of our faces.

 B 6 C 123: No Breathing

    After our intimate flight, and more-intimate embrace in the depths of this secreted lair, near a bloody altar, I let myself rest easily against Kinzul as her teeth remain clamped about my jugular. After a time in this embrace, I slowly twist and elongate my neck enough to reach Kinzul¡¯s with my own teeth, raking her neck lightly, not drawing blood as she has. I can sense the urgency, the need Kinzul has for my life essence. I consent, happy to give as much of it as she needs, including all of it if necessary. I know that if she took my life, she¡¯d protect my loved ones with every bit of her soul.


    Of course, that isn¡¯t what Kinzul is doing, but I still feel the waves of emotions overcoming her as she revels in the faith I have in her. Kinzul lays me upon the altar, and lets my few droplets of blood spill forth upon it, as my wound closes up from my innate regeneration. There¡¯s a tiny mixture of smirk and frown from Kinzul as she realizes she must once again sink her lips and teeth into my neck to draw forth blood. She¡¯s intimate, and careful, not intending to actually rend my jugular open deeply. We repeat as she drains more of my blood onto this altar several times, her body, her perfect, regal, amazing body, atop mine.


    Telepathically Kinzul whispers, almost muttering, ¡°I wish I could tell you all of why this must be, my love. I wish for all the worlds that¡ª. I¡¯m sorry for what will come to pass, and the regrets we will harbor. You are every bit my champion, and that of all those who need you. You are ever-beloved to me in ways I cannot express, perhaps might never be able to express. There are things that I¡¯ve accomplished now, that I am accomplishing now, that I will accomplish, that will not come to light until what you might consider perhaps too late. Thank you for your faith, your trust, your life, and your love.¡±


    Suddenly her teeth sink in once more, far more deeply than previously, and I nearly cry out in shock. Kinzul begins to transform, and her draconic maw clamps down around my neck tightly, squeezing, choking me. Or, she would be choking me, if I didn¡¯t have an enchanted item preventing exactly that. Still, having my windpipe crushed is not a pleasant experience.


    Kinzul telepathically begs me to sleep with tears in her eyes, and I wish I could simply acquiesce to her request, but we¡¯d worked together to make this form of mine capable of taking incredible punishment without succumbing. She pleads with me, begging me, and the only way I know how to grant her request is to remove my neckchain, so I do. I trust her completely. If this is what she needs, then so be it. I place my faith, all of it, in the jaws, the heart, the eyes, the mind, and the love of the woman squeezing the life from me.


    I begin to black out as I¡¯m incapable of breathing. When there¡¯s no breathing happening from me any longer, the tears from Kinzul mingle with my own, and though her draconic face is fraught with sadness and grief, I only smile up at my wife. Passing from the waking world into the unconscious one feels as if being enveloped by a familiar, cool, calm, welcoming void.


    ¡°Not yet,¡± speaks the non. It ripples and reverberates around and through me. A voice both everywhere and nowhere all at once, a part of me, yet external.


    Somehow I *am*, and I know that this is somehow an affront to *where* I am, or perhaps *who* I am. The where and the who are the same, somehow. Devoid of life, of light, of sensation, everything is nothing, and the nothing is everything. Somehow, it¡¯s more important than anything. There¡¯s a presence in the non. The presence is, and isn¡¯t me, at the same time. The presence is a triune. Yet it¡¯s more, and simultaneously less. It¡¯s moving, and not. It was sent, but taken. It was bargained, yet stolen.


    Somehow, it both shall never be, yet simultaneously arrives with the light of dawn.


    Awaking in a pile of limbs of those beloved to me, my windpipe still feels rather awful, but I can sense the neckchain of the ever-breathing around it once more. I can sense the sadness within the sleeping form of Kinzul, the feeling of having betrayed me in some way, cheated me, stolen from me in some way. I draw her close and sink my lips into hers, trying to pass my acceptance, my forgiveness to her on every possible level, conscious and subconscious.


    I rest, and lose consciousness once more for a time. When I come to, my neck feels much better. It¡¯s nearing the pre-dawn hour in which we¡¯ll be leaving for our assigned offensives soon. I can sense it without even checking the phone, somehow. Is there anything I can do? Anything I should do? Lil, Lu, and the Vivant are still beat up, barely recovered from their assault two days ago. Kinzul is still hiding her own pain and injuries from that same offensive.


    Kinzul taught me that I can fly under my own power, the power of my Honoris Causa. I could leave, and take on Vorzog¡¯s keep by myself, letting Lu, Lil, and Lucky help out Te, the Dormir, and the Vivant. It would take more of my dragonforce to get to the location, and back, because of how much drains away per second to fully manifest my Void Dragon Honoris Causa form. It¡¯d sap dragonforce that I won¡¯t be able to replenish at the keep, since it¡¯s not home to any ancient dragons, rather some of the most fearsome, most powerful Draconiacs to ever have lived.


    I hate solo adventures, and I hate making Lil feel like he has to catch up to me, to keep things from falling in my lap, to keep things from seemingly being up to me to solo. Isn¡¯t it the safer option though? I don¡¯t have any synergy with the Triple L Squad. I mean, that¡¯s not entirely true. Lil can breathe fire around me for days, granting me both a smokescreen, and protection from melee foes, and even certain ranged weapons like arrows. I don¡¯t see how to include Lucky and Luni though, or what to¡ª.


    Telepathically, Luni grumbles, ¡°If you even think of trying to leave us behind, I will find a way to bury you so deep you can¡¯t get out til the end of this war. Please stop. Rest a little longer my hero, please. We¡¯ve got this, all of us together. We always have, and always will. Please sweetie? I don¡¯t know what happened last night, and Kinzul was incredibly upset when we met up for bed, but just, just stop. Please. You don¡¯t have to do this alone. Never again.¡±


    Gulping back a sob as my heartbeat catches and pauses painfully momentarily, I can only nod slowly towards Lu¡¯s telepathic avatar. Should I tell Luni what happened? Or, well, what I think happened. Maybe I didn¡¯t know exactly what was happening at the time, or after the fact, since I wasn¡¯t going to be conscious. I feel some other areas on my body that must have also¡ª. I guess I¡¯ll just trust Kinzul to reveal things when it¡¯s the right time, even if I supposedly might feel like those are too late.


    Teuila shifting sends her arm flying which ends up sending her forearm slapping into my face. Oof. Yeah, I¡¯m awake now. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be getting to sleep again after that. Levitating myself out of bed, Luni starts to complain, but I assure her I¡¯m not sneaking off to go run a solo mission. At least, I think I¡¯m not. I just want to prepare, and pack. I¡¯ll do any mana free enchanting of objects that I can, while I¡¯ve got some time. I¡¯ve gotten plenty of sleep, based on when I believe I fell asleep yesterday.


    Floating out of Kinzul¡¯s den, towards Mount Verdimenn, I¡¯m surprised when Iylynila stands before me, and seems to patiently await me pausing for her. I lower myself to the ground and stand in front of her, with my head cocked to one side and the opposite eyebrow raised. Illy takes a long moment before inhaling and sighing deeply.


    Suddenly Illy embraces me quickly and mutters, ¡°Keep yourself, and them safe, and get your stupid gremlin munchkin crimson-smurf-ass ass home. Okay? Tenith has your goggles, she¡¯ll keep an eye on us, so you don¡¯t have to worry about us. Just take care of you, and your crew. Thank you, for everything. Especially¡ª. Never mind. Just do it, okay? Win, be safe. See you when we make it back Schism.¡±


    Before I can respond, Illy kisses my cheek with the shortest, quickest peck possible, and she turns swiftly to stride away, seemingly regretting even the briefest of lip contact. I find my hand reluctantly in mid-air before me, reaching towards where Illy had been. My heart catches in my throat, and I¡¯m not even capable of breathing at the moment. Sadness draws across my face, but all I can do is nod to no one in particular, trying to agree to Illy¡¯s request.


    I¡¯m torn in so many ways. Some think it¡¯s entirely up to me to make sure everyone comes home safe. Some seemingly make requests of me that I can¡¯t even be conscious for to be able to agree to. Others are assuring me I don¡¯t have to stand at the top, at the fore, alone. I think¡ª. I think right now, if I could speak with Errissa, that would be about the best thing I could do to get my head on straight, oddly enough. Sadly, I can¡¯t. Oddly, second-best I feel like might be Nala, of all people. Nala views me in an odd light. She¡¯s not one of our combatants, and she doesn¡¯t really rely on me for anything. We benefit from each other¡¯s friendship, but it¡¯s one of the least dependent friendships that I have.


    Taking a detour, I float towards the library, knowing Nala will be up, unless it¡¯s one of the rare times every few months that she accidentally lets herself sleep. Hm, there are some kobolds snoozing in the stacks. I wonder if these are her assistants, or patrons. Well, that snoozing pair was definitely up to something other than curating books, heh. I snirk, trying not to make note of the amorous kobolds intertwined in their sleeping position.


    Huh. Where¡¯s Nala though? Should¡ª. Should I check her room across the hall? Would it be an invasion of privacy? She doesn¡¯t have a door, and I know for a fact, that you can very well see her bed from the doorway. I test sending Nala a direct telepathic message, checking in on her, and get no response. I¡¯m not exactly worried about Curator, especially not since we¡¯ve just enhanced security within Solace by dozens-fold. Still, it¡¯s a bit odd.


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    Floating my way over towards her bedroom, there¡¯s someone in Nala¡¯s bed, but it¡¯s another kobold. There¡¯s certainly a lot of Atter¡¯s people partaking in the library, and Nala¡¯s little refuge in general. Could Nala still be down at Mount Verdimenn, crafting and enchanting and tinkering? Well, she doesn¡¯t exactly sleep, and I was headed that way anyway before I stopped by here.


    Floating along on my T K Surfboard, I zip through the quiet halls of Solace in the pre-dawn hours of September twenty-sixth. Heh, it¡¯s a Monday I think. The start of the work-week, and we¡¯re about to head to work, busting skulls of Terrorzin¡¯s forces. Hm, that pair look a bit despondent, and lost, and oh¡ª. Those are Leezahna¡¯s erstwhile friends. Should I even do anything to help mend their friendship, since I¡¯m the one that caused the rift? Are they going to be good or bad influences on her?


    Is it my place to care or to judge that? Is it my place to even interfere though in order to rectify things? Blugh, what¡¯s the moral or ethical thing to do here? To choose not to decide, I¡¯ll still have made a choice. I suppose I¡¯ll choose to let free-will reign, and let them figure it out themselves. Sorry ladies. Hopefully you forgive me, and if you patch things up with Leeza, the three of you end up being better than you appeared to be when you were disdainful towards everyone else.


    Oh wow, there¡¯s Nala, and she¡¯s working away with¡ª. What are those!? Wow, that¡¯s just, like a little clockwork armada in the making. Are they¡ª, are they self-replicating? My face contorts. Oh, how odd. It seems that when a new one is made, one of the previous ones seems to stop functioning. It¡¯s as if Nala¡¯s enchantment of them can only sustain a certain number at a time, at least currently.


    Grumbling telepathically, Nala confirms, ¡°That has been my suspicion as well. How do you do it, friend-Reggie? How do you break limits such as these? What must I do to exercise whatever magical muscles allow me to tinker and enchant in such intriguing fashions? How do I expand my capabilities?¡±


    Phew. I pass a breath through puffed cheeks and pursed lips while thinking, seeking an answer for her. Responding as best I can, I guess, ¡°For me, it¡¯s exactly how you¡¯re stating it, exercising those magical muscles, doing exactly what you¡¯re doing, ramming yourself into the end of your limits headfirst, over and over until those limits expand.¡± Nala¡¯s groan at my confirmation of her suspicions leads to me hastily adding, ¡°But there are certain things that aid with, um, what I call lateral growth. Rather than a direct increase in power, what I¡¯d call vertical growth, a lateral, or horizontal growth is extra tools in your toolbelt, metaphysically speaking. It¡¯s a broader array of applications of your powers or talents, or entirely new talents, that don¡¯t require or pull from the same pool of resources as your other talents. Ack, I must sound like I¡¯m talking down to someone as intelligent as you, sorry, sorry. Have you had a chance to pick through any of the shop catalogue material yet, or any of the magic items in our vaults?¡±


    There¡¯s a heated blush that answers my question for me before Nala states, ¡°Erm, no I suppose not. I¡¯d been rather caught up, attempting to see just how far I could go with these intriguing little automatons. It doesn¡¯t seem to matter whether I give them ambulatory limbs, digits, wings, copters, or whatever I¡¯d like, the limit seems to remain the same. I¡¯m partial to this one, it¡¯s a bit adorable if I must say. Let¡¯s see, how did it go again? Yes, if I focus, I can deactivate one of those new ones, and this one will be¡ª. There! Yes, delightful little chap. Or, erm, lass? I¡¯ve no idea.¡±


    Nala does manage to re-activate one that appeared to simply be a slightly-oversized wind-up pocket-watch, but now it¡¯s got legs, arms, hands and feet that extend from inside its inner clockwork-workings. It seems to ¡°sense¡± by somehow seeing out of the area where a single cog makes up a miniature gear-face for a second-hand of its clock-facing. The creature? Erm, clockwork being leaps up to Nala¡¯s shoulder, and gives her a hug, much to her chagrin.


    Lamenting the actions of her automaton, Nala comments, ¡°They seem to have a bit of a mind of their own, and are prone to showing affection, as awkward as that is. Erm, you were saying though? You¡¯d given me a stipend, and I¡¯d been a bit too busy to think of spending it. Have you any hints to offer as to what you think I¡¯d benefit from spending it on?¡±


    Passing another breath through puffed cheeks, I end by gnawing on my bottom lip. What would benefit Nala, that I wouldn¡¯t simply need for myself or the Order? I suppose specifically enchanted clockwork-tools. Perhaps her Latent could help her figure out by offering Curator scores specific to her for items from the shop catalogues? Heck, maybe her automatons have some sort of sapience that would allow them to help her find out.


    Balking, Nala grumps, ¡°I highly doubt my little clockworks have any¡ª, yes thank you darling. Any sort of¡ª. No not that one. Any sort of sapience to, hm, oh yes, quite¡ª. Oh. Oh my. Perhaps my little darlings do. How very odd. I haven¡¯t given them minds, or spirits, as far as I can tell. I was shocked enough when they seemed to be, well, autonomous. Though I suppose I should feel abashed when I consider the word.¡±


    I bite my lips to keep from smirking or chuckling at Nala¡¯s realization that her automatons are autonomous. It seems her current limit is exactly half a dozen active enchanted or clockwork creations or creatures that are in some way empowered by her. For things that she seems to simply be copying and crafting copies of that already exist as types of magic items, she seems to be able to produce an endless quantity of, though it requires rare resources of course, and time, and effort. Hm, that might expand Nala¡¯s horizontal, lateral power growth.


    Which of my magic items are most creative rather than destructive? Not that I don¡¯t trust Nala with destructive powers, it¡¯s just not the type of thing she seems to be working towards expanding upon. As I¡¯m thinking this, one of Nala¡¯s automatons looses a force-bolt blast that knocks a shelf over, causing several other clockworks to quickly leap into action to keep it from causing a chain reaction of toppling shelves. Raising an eyebrow towards Nala, she appears abashed.


    After the briefest of moments, Nala explains, ¡°I thought perhaps it may be interesting to see what one of them could do with a turret, a micro-cannon that moved energy from some aetheric realm, into the air. I, well, wasn¡¯t incorrect. It was interesting to see. Though perhaps not the wisest activity I could have partaken of.¡±


    I can¡¯t help chuckling and smiling at Nala any longer. Snorting a laugh and shaking my head, I¡¯m tempted to simply leave her to it to experiment, completely having forgotten why I came down here, or what suggestions I may have had for her. Thankfully, Nala gets me back on track after a moment, and I show her several enchanted objects that she might be able to reproduce, that could grant her, or possibly anyone in the Onyx Dawn, new suites of abilities.


    We do need Charles and his crew to succeed with their prototype of the bangle however. It might be up to Nala to make sure that it becomes compatible with the runic clips. If it lacks the inherent enchantment quality that lets the runic clips impart their powers onto the bangles¡¯ wielders, then it¡¯s a pointless endeavor. Nala might be the key to preventing that from being a lost-cause. Leaving Nala with that hint, as well as a request that she check out the titles on the various tomes in her own shop catalogue, utilizing an intermediary to purchase them for her from herself if necessary, I wave to Nala as I depart.


    I hadn¡¯t exactly meant to get embroiled in that. I recall feeling like I had some emotional sorting to take care of, but I¡¯m rather disoriented after that whole rigmarole. While disoriented, floating randomly about our project space, I literally bump into Leezahna exiting a respawn-warren, and immediately catch her in a telekinetic grip to prevent her from toppling over due to my clumsy stupidity.


    Apologizing, I start off, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I was distracted and hadn¡¯t realized where I was, or who was around. I hope you¡¯re doing alright, and having a decent morning Leezahna. Has your stipend been helping get you started? Are you okay?¡±


    There¡¯s a short flash of ire, quickly subdued by a flash of fear, before Leeza becomes mostly her prideful self. Once she¡¯s collected herself, Leezahna begins, ¡°Erm, quite yes, Schism. Thank you. The, the um, the very generous stipend has, well, I¡¯ve used up a large portion, but I sort of, well, yes, I have much of what I need, and want. Thank you for the opportunity, and, and everything. Some of what I purchased doesn¡¯t really suit my tastes or needs, but, well, I suppose we don¡¯t know exactly what we¡¯re getting with this magic just yet. You said you were working on that.¡±


    Hesitating only a moment, Leezahna adds, ¡°I¡¯ve got preliminary um, quantities for you, volumes on each of the warrens, or, will, since I asked the volunteers to wake me and let me take stock before they gathered anything today. I¡¯ll be finished in another short while. Perhaps an hour or two? Maybe longer, some of the calculations are more difficult due to odd shapes. Can I turn them over to you then?¡±


    Ah, drat, I¡¯d love to accept them, but I¡¯d better let her know now, ¡°I¡¯m incredibly grateful for your diligence Leezahna, but at that point, I¡¯ll likely be halfway to Vorzog¡¯s keep, or possibly already there,¡± joking a tad darkly, I add, ¡°Hey, if you¡¯re lucky, I might not even make it home breathing.¡±


    Oof, that was way too dark. Even Leezahna looks stricken, realizing that she had previously asked me to die. I start to apologize, but Leezahna beats me to it, ¡°I, I hate you. You¡¯re insufferable, and, and, and ugh. And I deserved that. I, I might hate you, but I don¡¯t, erm, I don¡¯t want you to die. It, it would, it might mean the end of all this. I don¡¯t want to lose Solace, or my new home, or my family, or, or anything. That, okay, I get that that¡¯s a selfish reason to not want you to die, but kindly screw you Schism. You monstrous¡ª ugh.¡±


    Then, realizing she started to tear into me, Leezahna pales with fear, so I quickly respond, ¡°Sorry, sorry, I went overboard there. You¡¯re right, and it¡¯s fair for you to hate me. I¡¯m glad you don¡¯t want to lose this. I hope it becomes a happy home for you, that leads you to a life that you can enjoy and share that joy with others. I did mean it though, that I¡¯ll be off to battle shortly, I apologize for the dark humor, but¡ª.¡±


    Interrupting me to chime in Leezahna gulps repeatedly, seemingly caught in some vision of the past, as she fearfully, haltingly adds, ¡°They¡¯re, glp, powerful, and, and frightening. When Vorzog¡¯s lieutenants paid visits, even father, he¡ª, glp. I¡ª. I wasn¡¯t allowed to make appearences during my youth, not until, well, one time, the most recently. I was taken to¡ª.¡±


    Leezahna¡¯s face further darkens, and she doesn¡¯t explain further, seemingly completely caught in some memory. My ire begins to raise as I suspect what happened to her. Growling, I mutter, ¡°I¡¯ll end them all. Farewell.¡± I leave without a further word. All my muscles lock, I stop breathing beyond enough to seethe with venomous hatred. I¡¯m fully ready to utterly decimate the entirety of Vorzog¡¯s Keep.

 B 6 C 124: Argh

    When I return, everyone has awoken, and my party has assembled. There¡¯s trepidation as those beloved to me witness the ire drawn across my face, the utter hatred devoid of mercy that¡¯s ready to slaughter everything in my path. My lady worries she¡¯s darkened me somehow, that she has hurt me and soiled my mercy, but it wasn¡¯t her. I don¡¯t have the heart to explain why I suddenly care naught at all to offer any mercy today. My gut roils tumultuously, sickeningly at the thought of what occurred. No mercy. Not today.


    Equipping, and suiting up, funnily enough, Lucky shrinks down to his near-spherical form, stowing most of his equipment in his magical scarf, save the scarf itself, and the glacial amulet. Lucky hops into Lu¡¯s arms, as Lu, Lil, and I make our way up towards the aerie. As much as I wish I could show my love to Kinzul to assuage her fears right now, all I can think about is wrathfully decimating the entirety of Vorzog¡¯s Keep. Every last soul that dwells within. I¡¯m sure my wife can retrace my steps, or find out what drove me to this point this morning easily enough, if anyone overheard the conversation in Mount Verdimenn. I doubt she¡¯d be any less full of wrath at the moment if she knew.


    I¡¯m struggling to keep from shouting my titles to manifest my Honoris Causa. It¡¯s taking a great deal of willpower to not leap forward into the storm to race into the fray ahead of my party. If I knew the meteor spell already, fully, I¡¯d simply rush ahead, then sic it upon Vorzog¡¯s Keep and be done with the day. There¡¯s some discussion of the defenses that the Keep has, that will prevent us from infiltrating directly to its leaders, but I don¡¯t care at the moment enough to pay attention. Hell, I¡¯m half willing to adopt my shadow form, leave all my gear behind, and penetrate to the heart of the keep, and just go wild with magic and manifestation, tearing apart the heart of their citadel from within.


    Reign it in Reggie, you¡¯re edging dangerously close to giving in to Wrath. Your eyes are even bloodshot. Have you even been blinking? Huff. Huff. I suppose not. Ow. It hurts to blink. Yeah, it¡¯ll do that when you don¡¯t blink for several minutes on end. Unclench your jaw, stretch out, and blink a few times, rest your locked and clenched muscles. Huff. Thanks. Anytime. Well, as long as you retain enough sanity to call on your coping mechanisms anyway. Keep it together. You¡¯re surrounded by love. You¡¯ll get justice for Leezahna, and anyone else that those lieutenants have¡ª. Grr. Okay, okay, calm down. My stomach is flopping again. I know, I know, it makes us sick to even think about the implications, even if we¡¯re wrong in our assumptions.


    How often are we wrong in our assumptions though? Okay, don¡¯t get a big head, we¡¯re wrong pretty often. Oh. Right. Rattling my skull, I try to reorient. When did we even get into flight? I¡¯ve been trapped in a battle with myself, preventing myself from giving in to Wrath for a while now. Leaning down, I hug Lil tightly from atop him. Lu squeezes me and Lucky tightly to her in return. I¡¯m sorry guys. I¡¯m sorry Te and Illy and Prinny and Veril and Farzhis, for not being cognizant enough to wish you guys safety and luck before we separated.


    Telepathically, Lu whispers assurances, ¡°It¡¯s okay sweetie, it¡¯s okay. It was pretty easy to guess what set you off. Everyone understood. I know you went towards Mount Verdimenn, and stopped by the library. You were mostly out of range when you got to Verdimenn, but I sort of picked up on things on your way back. It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay. Shh. They understand. No one¡¯s upset with you for feeling angry about this. We all want them to pay. They will. We¡¯ve got this hero. All of us. Always have, and always will.¡±


    I half-frown as my expression saddens. Sighing raggedly, I just lean in to the embrace shared with Lu, Lil, and Lucky. I really, really do wish I had been present in my own mind enough to wish the other party good luck though. I¡¯m so terrified of losing them, and worse, losing them without having ever said, glp, anything kind on what might be their final day.


    I need to distract myself from these tumultuous emotions, so I telepathically ask something I should have learned before now, ¡°Guys, what sort of synergy do we have? How are we even going to fight together? I mostly specialize in blowing stuff up with big area effect spells, some of which could really hurt you. I know Lucky¡¯s immune to fire, so Lil could breathe on and around him just fine, and I am too, but Lu isn¡¯t. Neither of you are immune to my lightning, and only Lil is immune to my cold or ice magics, though Lucky¡¯s partway there too. Lucky and I have some neat magical tricks we gained while you guys were resting in the infirmary the other day, but those aren¡¯t enough, even combined, for a whole fortress. Though I guess Lucky being able to blast three cones of cold that will be amplified by his glacial amulet will be pretty cool.¡±


    When Luni asks, ¡°It¡¯s okay my hero, sweetie, do you trust me?¡± it hits me like a stab in the gut. Of course I do.


    My Anchor smiles warmly my way, and nearly giggles when she instructs, ¡°Then just do what I say, when I say it, nyeh.¡±


    I¡¯m the one forced to giggle when Lu attempts to blow a raspberry during high speed flight, resulting in her making blech sounds when she realizes she sputtered all over her own face. Still, as much as she¡¯s now grumping that only she gets to have fun at my expense, the absolute butt, I¡¯m worried for us all the same. I can somehow sense the new areas of Worldstorm release as Kinzul is allowing herself to drop control over small pockets of the Worldstorm above, or at least near, certain fortresses and keeps. We¡¯re actually about to pass over one in a few moments, or, well, within a fairly close distance to one.


    It doesn¡¯t really come as any surprise when an adult Red peaks its head above the clouds, as it carefully skirts the constantly arcing lightning. Glancing at Lu for permission, when she gives me the nod, I leap off of Lil while donning the appropriate gear. Lil knows to veer away so that Luni doesn¡¯t get crisped by a breath weapon. My task is much simpler than maintaining a prolonged flight above the Worldstorm. Poor Lil has to keep at a high glide for hours from location to location.


    There¡¯s almost a wicked sneer across my face as I call out my challenge, ¡°Hail foe, I offer you and your lord one chance at mercy, for I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I suggest you fetch them for parley, unless you¡¯d like me to use your falling corpse to send my greeting.¡±


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    At first, there¡¯s no response to my statement, at least not until my Honoris Causa fully manifests. I¡¯m pretty certain that the Red crapped himself or herself, because I heard what sounded like a falling projectile. This isn¡¯t even one of the major fortresses, but it¡¯s part of our new strategy to demoralize and confuse Terrorzin¡¯s ground forces, to take down the leadership core at every location that we can, as we make our way to our actual targets on a given day. There are no ancients at this fortress, it¡¯s one by the name of Shlendtikuar, another powerful Draconiac, with some young-adult dragons in their service. It¡¯s almost not even worth my time to try to carefully harvest the dragonforce of the few dragons within, since I¡¯d have to do it during freefall from above the Worldstorm.


    When three more adult dragons, closing in power-wise to ancient dragons show up, ridden by three spellknight Draconiacs, I can¡¯t say I¡¯m not at least a little surprised. Once again, our information network is underinformed, at least slightly. Still, there¡¯s something that sets ancient dragonforces apart from adults, or even elder adults. I¡¯m so, so, so very glad that I placed the brainblast-aegis enchantment on this circlet that slots along my helm.


    While I recognize some of the spellwork being thrown my way, and I¡¯m unaffected by some of their mid-tier to higher power spells, due to having an enchantment that blocks psychic energy attacks, I¡¯m not entirely safe. Chains of shadow lash at and bind me from seemingly nowhere, locking me in place. Well, locking my physical RS2 body in place. I almost giggle when several of the assembled dragons lunge in order to take advantage of my seeming vulnerability. These ones hadn¡¯t seen my Honoris Causa manifest, they only sense my dragonforce.


    Manifesting the full physical aspect of several of my limbs, and my Void Dragon breath weapon, I rend at the snouts, scapula, and wings of the two Blues closing in on me. When they realize I¡¯m not entirely helpless, while my smaller body is locked in place, they withdraw, slightly battered and beaten, in order to charge their breath weapons. Heh. Now is when things get fun. Careful Reggie, don¡¯t get cocky now. You¡¯re still physically locked in place by magic, and even raven-porting might not manage to free you from the enchantment.


    Calling out once again, I offer, ¡°Since your scout didn¡¯t deliver my message, I¡¯ll deliver it personally, now that you¡¯re here. I am Reggie Shellcracker, Titled and Aliased, yada yada. You may call me Schism, and I¡¯m here to demand that you accept my mercy, abandoning service to Terrorzin.¡±


    There¡¯s snickering and sneers from the assembled dragons and Draconiacs. Well, you can¡¯t say Reggie Shellcracker doesn¡¯t at least try to grant mercy, even when I¡¯m pissed to all hell. Also, maybe stop talking about yourself in the third person in your own head Reggie. It¡¯s one thing to do it for the whole titling and manifesting process, but it¡¯s an entire other ballgame when you¡¯re doing it to yourself in your own head. Erm, hah, true. Regardless, here comes a barrage of breath weapons that thankfully, I don¡¯t need to waste S P preparing for.


    Equipping my cursed greaves, I push outward on my internal electrokinesis. Thankfully, the enchantment locking me in place is broken because of either the line of sight being broken by a massive ball of lightning, or the electromagnetic barrier that forms in a sphere around me as I push outward while lightning from breath weapons and the Worldstorm seeks me. Free to move from the location I¡¯d been trapped in the air, I don¡¯t think anyone expects it when I fly into the first Red¡¯s face, and unload a massive spherical discharge of electricity, stunning them so thoroughly that they fall tumbling into the Worldstorm below, skirting the edge of the hole that¡¯d opened in it. They¡¯re decimated by acid, winds, and further lightning during their fall.


    It¡¯s not even worth trying to make it to ground level to harvest that dragonforce. Pity. I swap back to my non-cursed leg armor. To say I¡¯m a bit surprised when an ancient Red comes soaring, roaring out of the fortress below in response to the death of the one I¡¯d sent tumbling, would be an understatement. Once again, our intelligence is woefully inadequate. Could this be a visiting lord? I glance towards the horizon where Lil is now a tiny spec swooping circles, waiting for me to finish up what should have been a few moments worth of activity. I might have to use up some resources after all. Maybe.


    As the ancient Red unleashes a blast of flame at me that sends the adult Blues, and even the remaining adult Red back, I just calmly call out my challenge once again through the roar of the blaze. I doubt anyone can hear me though. When I allow my Void Dragon manifestation to launch a haymaker at the snout of the ancient Red, it does a smart thing that I haven¡¯t seen any dragon do before when they¡¯d charged a breath weapon. He closes his mouth, and stifles his breath. His loosing of a wild roar of frustration at my seeming impertinence for surviving his breath weapon unscathed leaves me rolling my eyes. I¡¯m about to reiterate my challenge, and offer of mercy, when another visitor arrives from below.


    As an elegant ancient Green shows up, I know better than to take lightly the combination of breath weapons that can occur. I should probably go immediately into adamantite body form, but I haven¡¯t collected many shavings since I¡¯d used up so many in the last offensives. I¡¯d been letting the volunteer Draconiacs and kobolds grind them down into powder as spices. Let¡¯s check on what we have access to off the top of our head for the day, eh Reggie? Yeah, we¡¯ll pop into a brief, exceedingly brief moment of retrocognition. It¡¯s painful to use when I¡¯ve got my Honoris Causa manifested at all.


    [*]1/1 Conjure 12 meteorites, small but still potent.


    [*]1/1 Conjure a greater elemental for 2 minutes.


    [*]3/3 Conjure a slowing field.


    [*]3/3 Emit a blast of frost in a cone.


    [*]3/3 Shadowy Evocations of ~4th tier.


    [*]3/3 Shadowy Conjurations of ~4th tier.


    [*]3/3 Skin of Stone.


    [*]RS2 Subform¡¯s.


    [*]1/1 Fire Knife.


    [*]1/1 Ice Knife.


    [*]1/1 Lightning Knife.


    [*]1/1 Frostburn¡¯s Slashblast.


    [*]5/5 Raven-porting.


    Alright, so, first thing¡¯s first, let¡¯s get a handle on how well this Skin of Stone spell handles explosions and attacks from ancient dragons. At least we don¡¯t have any acid dragons in the mix. Layering the Skin of Stone spell over my enchanted armor defenses doesn¡¯t leave me feeling as sturdy as even being naked in my adamantite body form does. Still, when powerful stone elemental magic manifests and encases your foe, far, far above the ground, thankfully it gives pause to even the ancient dragons, as they realize I¡¯m more than just some annoyance with a dragonforce.


    One last time, shall we? As I begin calling out my titles and challenges once more, I realize I shouldn¡¯t have even bothered. Alright, I¡¯m done screwing around. I can¡¯t even ask Lil, Lu, or Lucky for help on this, because the ancient Green¡¯s breath weapon could kill them if they inhale too much of it, and that¡¯s to say nothing of the explosion that could rock them wildly into the Worldstorm if the ancient Red ignited that breath weapon. Thankfully I know they¡¯ll be at least slightly cautious about igniting the Green¡¯s breath weapon, since it might knock themselves or their subordinates into the Worldstorm as well, as there isn¡¯t a whole hell of a lot of safe area to drop down through yet.


    I really didn¡¯t anticipate there being so much power awaiting being baited out, and willing to rise above the storm at this location. It¡¯s not supposed to have any ancients at all. Wait. Is that Luni flying my way, holding Lucky? What in the everloving¡ª. Argh. Te gave her the runic clip with the flight and lightning powers.

 B 6 C 125: Surprise

    More and more surprises by the minute keep showing up. I¡¯m almost flabbergasted when Luni telepathically offers, ¡°If you can keep the Green and the adults occupied, we can take down the ancient Red sweetie.¡±


    Gnawing on my lip, contemplating Lu¡¯s offer, it¡¯s not like that isn¡¯t more or less what I was going to do anyway, so I can¡¯t be mad at her or anything. I withdraw most of my Honoris Causa, so that it¡¯s not manifesting in ways that can become physical any longer, seemingly opening myself up to physical assault. Hopefully it looks like my Honoris Causa was on a time-limit, and that I ran out of one of my big aces in the hole. Huh. Aces in the hole, strategists-eight, Lucky and Lu¡ª. I know Lu, I know, stop guessing and chasing. Bluh.


    Anyway, we need to wrap this up, so I might as well take the help that¡¯s offered. Wait. Lu¡¯s not just carrying Lucky, she¡¯s carrying a spheriform version of Lil as well. Well, Lil is likely shapeshifted down into a compact size, rather than de-evolved. Okay, yeah, fine, the three of them can take down an ancient Red no problem. I¡¯m not sure I want to see them plummeting out of the air towards the ground, but for some reason, Lucky¡¯s transformation is able to absorb impact.


    The ancient Green begins releasing their breath weapon, building a nice large fogbank around me, obscuring me a bit. Using my additional senses to my advantage, I position myself such that when I¡¯m rocked by the explosion I¡¯m about to cause, that I don¡¯t go tumbling into the Worldstorm. Sadly the other dragons back away from the cloud of gaseous vapor, or whatever this breath weapon consists of. All I¡¯m going to manage to do is piss off the ancient Green. Still, that¡¯s more or less what I¡¯m trying to do.


    Click, like an electric lighter I loose a single spark, and the aerosolized vapor goes up in smoke. Well, it goes up in flame rather. I can sense the wide-eyed look of near-terror as the ball of flame rushes back towards the ancient Green while they¡¯re still loosing their breath weapon. They do manage to cut themselves off, before ending up with too much more than a soot-singed face.


    While the ancient Green is recovering from the explosion, I dash through the air using my LBBTKSLs, and get in position to unleash Frostburn¡¯s glacial cone along with an empowered ice-rune knife in a way that¡¯ll remove four foes from the battle. I feel almost bad as the two adult Blues, and their Draconiac riders go crashing towards the ground, their wings covered in thousands of tons of ice. What does that leave us with? One ancient Green, the ancient Red, and one adult Red, ridden by a Spellknight, seemingly the most powerful one, of friggin¡¯ course.


    Hm, narf. Two resources down for two adult dragons and two Spellknights. Not exactly optimal, knowing how much we¡¯re going to be facing today. The ancient Green is trying to get above me, to get in position such that their breath weapon being ignited would send me crashing down through the Worldstorm, but they just don¡¯t have the ease of lift that I do with my LBBTKSL utilizing the Wyverium chestplate. Still, it¡¯s suboptimal to need to keep climbing away from the two Reds. Thankfully, the ancient Red eyes me curiously while the adult Red is spurred to chase me by its Spellknight rider. Perfect, exactly the split that we needed.


    When Luni *chucks* Lucky like putting a soccer-ball back into play from out of bounds, I¡¯m more than a little wide-eyed at seeing a tiny speck that is my son sailing through the air. When Lucky unleashes a glacial frost blast nearly as large as the one I¡¯d unleashed that took an empowered ice-rune knife, I should be stunned, but I remember that he does have the glacial amulet, which amplifies cold abilities, and he was one of the people who¡¯d benefited from gaining the thrice a day powers via the orb-time.


    Trying to keep their attention on me, so that they don¡¯t get distracted by the sudden roar from below, I stop trying to keep my climb above the ancient Green, and soar downwards to the back of the adult Red. Clipping the reins, and harness, that keep the Spellknight tethered to the adult Red, they appear rather shocked at my sudden appearance, and further shocked when I seemingly throw Frostburn, my weapon, off to one side. I of course catch it in one of my *four* telekinetic grips. The benefits of having a day of downtime in order to prepare for an offensive with new outbound strategies.


    Sadly, the Spellknight¡¯s armor is warded against telekinetic gripping, as many of them seem to be. Similarly, it¡¯s locked onto them, so I can¡¯t just pry it off easily. They do manage to quickly craft some sort of flight spell, before they go tumbling into the Worldstorm after losing their seat upon the adult Red. Let¡¯s see if they¡¯re willing to follow me into poison gas, hm? Harass them with Frostburn wielded by my telekinetic grip. Not enough that they might try to snag it, and possibly break my grip, but enough that they realize I¡¯m not just running away from them, giving them free reign to sail down towards my allies.


    Further harassing them all as I alternate breathing fire and lightning down upon the Spellknight, and their adult Red mount, I grimace at the pain in my throat. Thankfully it¡¯s numbed quite a bit by the Skin of Stone enchantment, but it¡¯s still not pleasant. As much as I call myself more or less immune to several elements, it¡¯s not true immunity, it¡¯s just a high percentage damage reduction. I¡¯m still taking damage. The ancient Green is now wary of exhaling, since they¡¯ve noticed me using the breath weapons of every type of dragon that has shown up to the fight so far. My fire-breath is technically started by exhaling a poison-breath, and igniting it, and, well, obviously lightning-breath similar to the two adult Blues who are likely at the very least, crashed into the fortress below, with their wings frozen and shattered.


    Come on, come on, just a little closer. That¡¯s right, I¡¯m a soft squishy target, with only a little stone elemental magic protecting me from all of your vicious, ultra-strong swipes and strikes. Alright! How about a nice little bearhug from a Void Dragon Honoris Causa, followed up by some Voidbreath, eh? After disorienting the Spellknight, I whirl and hurl them like a discus down into the Worldstorm while I return my attention to the adult Red, and ancient Green. Levitating Frostburn back into its sheathe, my Honoris Causa lashes out at the two dragons now frantically trying to retreat from its reach. Too late for the adult Red.


    I shred the wings of the erstwhile Spellknight-mount. As the adult Red tries to course correct into a glide that might allow them to retreat to ground safely, I act monstrously and snap their left scapula with my Void Dragon manifestation. This ends up sending them spinning into a death spiral tumbling into the Worldstorm below, causing them to knock the Spellknight the rest of the way into the Worldstorm from where they¡¯d nearly recovered at its upper edge.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Hissing my challenge towards the ancient Green, I¡¯m surprised when I find them fleeing me in seeming terror. I¡¯m sorry foe. That just will not do. You either accept my mercy, or you die. I can¡¯t risk you informing the rest of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, or rampaging about the lands subjugating those weaker than you, in an effort to survive in exile. Flapping my own manifested wings, I manage to catch up rather swiftly to the fleeing ancient Green, and I draw Frostburn once more. Chucking Frostburn in the direction of my foe, but aim far, far overhead I try to visualize my intent, and what needs to occur.


    I whistle for attention, mostly as a distraction, causing the ancient Green to pause long enough for Frostburn to catch up with telekinesis. I let gravity assist Frostburn in shearing through the dactyl-leather of the ancient Green¡¯s right wing. The slight tear isn¡¯t enough that they can¡¯t continue flying, but it would hurt, so they aren¡¯t willing to risk flying above the Worldstorm long enough to try to find an escape route. This leaves one route for their flight, back the way they came, towards their fortress.


    The problem with that? There¡¯s an ancient Red embroiled in a battle with a monstrously giant draconic-hound creature tumbling through the air towards that selfsame fortress. Sighing, I call out one last time, ¡°I offer you mercy, if you offer your surrender. What say you?¡±


    More surprises still today. The ancient Green nods emphatically. I try to hide my shock as I offer up, ¡°It probably hurts to keep flying like that. If you¡¯re willing to show a sign of trust, by accepting my mercy, and shapeshifting into your humanoid form, I¡¯ll protect you, and carry you myself.¡±


    There¡¯s distrust in the yellowish eyes of the emerald creature before me, but there¡¯s also a grimace of pain each time they flap their wings. It takes only a few more flaps before they resign themselves to being in my care and at my mercy, shapeshifting towards their humanoid form. When what looks like a wispy-haired young elven man begins falling before me, I catch them in my telekinetic grip, and draw them close, in order to keep them safe from the Worldstorm, or the fight raging below. They look more than a tad abashed to be held like some sort of damsel in distress, but it¡¯s better than their wings giving out while above the Worldstorm.


    Deciding to play it safe, I offer, ¡°You are now technically my prisoner, but that confers with it a degree of safety. I don¡¯t know how you would personally treat prisoners of war, but I treat them with dignity, respect, and the care afforded by the protection necessitated by their position at having accepted my mercy. Being such that it is, since you know my name, I¡¯d like to know yours.¡±


    Blinking in surprise, the ancient Green collects himself to offer up, ¡°I¡¯m, erm, Shlendtikuar. This is my domain.¡±


    My face contorting in confusion betrays me. Our intelligence said Shlendtikuar was one of the Draconiac Spellknights. Thankfully, Shlen explains, ¡°I¡¯m guessing you thought one of those Draconiacs was in charge? All four were given my name when they were offered into my service. The Ice of Rage¡¯s sense of humor I suppose. It¡¯s true then? The Onyx Dawn is finally rebelling? Where did they get such powerful allies as yourself?¡±


    Quietly, under my breath, I curse that rumors are already spreading about our open acts of rebellion. That makes it all the more likely that the forces on the east side of the valley past Mah¡¯Ruke might lay siege to Mount Solace. Oh, right, pay attention Reggie, interact with the world and respond to the questions.


    Nodding to Shlen, I explain, fibbing only slightly, ¡°Yes. We¡¯ve The Four, among several heroes of legend, and a whole lot more. Rumor has it that even a reincarnation of The Platinum has returned, as Lady Kinzul has joined in a wedded bond, for the first time in ages. Would your ally, the Red there, surrender along with you?¡±


    Shlendtikuar shakes his head, answering, ¡°No. No, Rahjmeztus is a visiting aspirant to my seat as this domain¡¯s ruler. If he survives, he¡¯ll absorb my followers, and seek to prove himself to the Ice of Rage.¡±


    Nodding grimly, I respond, ¡°Well, I can assure you at least that he won¡¯t survive. I¡¯ll be feasting on his dragonforce momentarily. What of your followers? Will they accept your surrender? Will you order them to stand down?¡±


    Shlendtikuar pales at the request, worry crossing his face as he gulps before clarifying, ¡°It¡¯s unlikely more than a handful would stand down. I¡ª.¡±


    He glances about, seemingly trying to gauge the likelihood that he could resume his terror-stricken flight in order to flee from me. Trying to assuage him, I assure, ¡°I expected as much. I¡¯m surprised anyone accepted my offer of mercy at all. Don¡¯t worry about it. If there are some of your followers that you want me to try to convince, or save from the upcoming slaughter, let me know. We¡¯ll leave them be for the time being. We¡¯re not actually here to destroy all of them, at least not today. We¡¯re simply disrupting Terrorzin¡¯s leadership core. I¡¯m on my way to dismantle Vorzog¡¯s Keep however.¡± Spying Shlen still seeming to seek an escape route, I add, ¡°I don¡¯t recommend fleeing from me. My mercy only extends to prisoners, not fugitives.¡±


    Sighing, I continue, ¡°I¡¯m going to want to keep you safe, to prove my sincerity, as well as to help move this war along towards its conclusion which hopefully doesn¡¯t include simply destroying all dragonkind on Rayileklia. I¡¯d much prefer avoiding that outcome. Don¡¯t worry about the Damnations either. If rumors are already spreading that the Onyx Dawn is rebelling, then you¡¯ve likely heard about the Damnations¡¯ recent setbacks. I¡¯m the one that dropped Nonnam at ShizTinth, and I¡¯m the one that prevented them following the refugee train from¡ª. Well, you get it. If you don¡¯t want to stay within my sight range, or join us in our destruction of Vorzog¡¯s Keep, I recommend you climb into this.¡±


    Experimenting, I¡¯m able to set my portable hole on one of my squares of telekinetic force. It¡¯s ridiculous to see a random black splotch in midair, but there it is. Shlendtikuar looks as if he¡¯s trying to determine if drawing Frostburn from my sheathe, and attempting to stab me with it, might actually slay me. I flash him a slightly more-than-wicked grin, very pointedly observing what he¡¯s observing, as if I could read his mind. Me appearing to possess telepathy¡ª. How was Lu able to send messages to me when I have an enchantment on that blocks telepathic powers?


    I check to make certain that the enchanted circlet is in place, and it is. Hm, well, it specifically blocks psychic related spells, enchantments, and attacks. Lu¡¯s always been a bit squirrelly about how connected she is to my mind. Regardless, Shlen here decides to climb into the portable hole, carefully hanging on to its edge, terrified that he¡¯s just being sent to drop into an endless pit. When his feet reach the bottom, he¡¯s more than a tad perplexed. When I begin folding the edges of the hole up, he¡¯s more than a tad terrified. I try to fold it in such a way that I¡¯m hoping air can get in. If not, I¡¯ll set the hole up every couple of hours or something. There¡¯s a fairly large volume of air within, at least for only one person.


    Alright, enough screwing around, let¡¯s drop out of the sky towards our son Lucky. I¡¯m surprised the ancient Red hasn¡¯t crashed yet.

 B 6 C 126: Rahjmeztus Down

    Hm, it seems the ancient Red did actually crash, and came back up, sans Lucky, or was able to unseat Lucky somehow. Lucky you goober. We don¡¯t need to fight all those down there. Whistling for Lil, I point down at Lucky, and he begrudgingly obliges, despite wanting to face off against the ancient Red. I raise an eyebrow towards Luni, and she blushes while shrugging. Rolling my eyes, I dive to intercept Rahjmeztus, to prevent him from snagging Lil out of the sky. Luni keeps a long ways from the clash, but I can tell that even from here, her music is somehow bolstering me, or weakening Rahjmeztus, or both.


    Loosing my Voidbreath as my Honoris Causa manifests physically once more, I barely manage to keep clinging to Rahjmeztus as one of his thrashing limbs connects with my actual body. My Skin of Stone spell dissipates entirely from the strength of the blow, and I¡¯m left more than a tad winded. Alright, one more use of that for today now that I¡¯ve had to reapply it already.


    I spy an odd aura as Rahjmeztus reaches beneath the edge of one of his scales to pluck forth some artifact, some enchanted object. The ancient Red focuses willpower into the object, and I¡¯m overcome by a rather powerful spell. The only reason the paralysis he induces upon me doesn¡¯t immediately cause me to tumble down into the Worldstorm is because I¡¯m paralyzed with my Void Dragon Honoris Causa physically manifested, with wings splayed, and limbs locked about Rahj¡¯s shoulders and neck.


    Fighting off panic, I struggle to maintain my breathing. Everything in me is locked up. This is a fairly high tier spell, I think fifth or so. Keep calm Reggie, keep calm. Remember, all your magics are always subtly-casted. You can cast even when bound and gagged because you need no mnemonic. Focus, focus. Build the ambient-mana cantrip, while generating an EM field to capture the one rune I¡¯ll need to re-empower. Unfortunately, as I¡¯m about to start casting the one spell I know by rote at this level of power that¡¯s spammable, I¡¯m struck by a sudden massive wave of ice.


    As usual, I¡¯m unharmed by the cold of the ice, but I¡¯m more than a tad inconvenienced. I¡¯m no longer just paralyzed, but now also trapped in a layer of binding rime that coats even my Void Dragon manifestation. If Rahjmeztus breaks free from my manifestation¡¯s grip, he drops me into the Worldstorm, and that might be it for Reggie Shellcracker. Stay calm, just breathe. I¡¯ll be fine. Even if he drops me, paralyzed into the Worldstorm, I¡¯ll survive long enough to get my adamantite body running. It¡¯s a waste of resources to need to start casting such powerful spells so early, but you¡¯ll be okay. Don¡¯t freak out, don¡¯t panic.


    Okay, okay, think. I could disenchant the paralysis on myself, by using moderate dispellation of the fifth tier. Or I could just wait for the flaming ball of fury coming up from below to distract the ancient Red. Snirk. That¡¯s my Lil buddy for ya. Unfortunately, Lil¡¯s blast of frame frees the frost from me and my Honoris Causa, also causing my Void Dragon manifestation to partially dissipate. This sends me tumbling into freefall, apparently straight into the arms of a waiting Luni Shellcracker, My Anchor. She takes full advantage of my inability to move, to tease me thoroughly with her voluptuousness. That¡¯s so unfair Lu.


    Grinning more than just a bit wickedly down upon me while she has me at her mercy, Luni strums several chords on her harp. In almost no-time at all, I feel the enchantment paralyzing me weaken more and more quickly, until it¡¯s destroyed entirely. Flashing Lu a grin, as much as I don¡¯t want to, I extricate myself from her loving embrace. Launching myself back into the fray, I can tell that Rahjmeztus used up the daily allotment of magic in whatever he¡¯d used to monstrously paralyze and hold me in place. Its ice-binding spell is similarly spent. It seems it has one a day of each. Good, no more surprises from that little item at least.


    Lucky leaps off of Lil, and begins growing midair as he sinks his fangs into the back of Rahjmeztus¡¯s neck. I begin peppering the ancient Red with my lowest tier magics, simply proc¡¯ing the runic clips over and over and over, simultaneously bolstering Lil, Lu, Lucky, and myself as well. After twenty disorienting blasts in four seconds, with Lucky chewing on Rahjmeztus¡¯s neck from between his wings, and Lil swiping at his face, the ancient Red is looking nearly-defeated.


    Hm, the frost from my dinky little ray spell didn¡¯t affect him at all, nor did the elemental runic clips of fire and frost, but the necrotic and psychic runic clips really tore into him. These things aren¡¯t intended to be wielded by anyone whose metamagical prowess allows them to spam metamagics all day long. It¡¯s likely assumed that someone might get ten to twenty metamagically enhanced spells in a given day. I¡¯ll need to keep an eye on them to see if there¡¯s a downside to utilizing them far more than they¡¯re likely intended to be able to be used.


    Still, it is nice to be able to see Lu, Lil, and Lucky, covered by a pearlescent sheen of mana that¡¯ll protect them from the next strike that hits them, at least partially. The same embolsterment is applied to me as well of course, there¡¯s no reason not to hit all of the friendly targets nearby. Too bad that particular runic empowerment doesn¡¯t stack with itself. It just overwrites itself when spammed like this.


    Quipping, ¡°Lil, Lu, angle Rahj here a bit, then grab Lucky, I¡¯m going in,¡± I hear groans from all of my party members as they realize what I¡¯m about to do. The slack-jawed ancient Red is more than a tad confused and disoriented as I fly into his mouth, drawing Frostburn. Dashing along the inside of Rahjmeztus¡¯s mouth, and down into his throat, I drag a long score with Frostburn, worsening and worsening the condition of the ancient Red, bringing him closer and closer to death.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Huff. The dragonforce within this fool barely qualifies as an ancient. Manifesting my Void Dragon Honoris Causa¡¯s physical form once more, I begin tearing my way through the esophagus of Rahjmeztus. I can sense the life essence escaping the ancient Red as I put an end to him from within. I barely manage to collect enough dragonforce to pay back my recent expenditures, including those I¡¯d spent with Kinzul last night. There¡¯s more within this fool¡¯s body, but it¡¯s not worth my time. I¡¯d have to impact the ground, and then have to fight my way up out of the horde gathered below.


    Bursting out of Rahjmeztus, I telekinetically snag the enchanted object he¡¯d used against me, and deposit it in my hyperdimensional haversack for later. Somehow, somehow I doubt that that counted as one of the ancient evil lifeforces that I had to pay towards my cure. It¡¯s too bad. His esophagus, and limbs cost me two of my daily uses of my Skin of Stone ability. I spent twenty SP on him, my empowered ice-rune knife, and Frostburn¡¯s daily slash were used up on the fodder before him. Ouch, that¡¯s pretty cold. Hah, accidental wordplay aside, I meant referring to people I¡¯d slain as fodder is cold.


    Sighing for a moment, my emotions take a turn towards the somber, and then even worse. When did killing get so easy? When was I able to start forgiving myself for making accidental jokes about it, or dismissing people¡¯s lives with words like fodder? I suppose the answer is never. I haven¡¯t, and I won¡¯t just let myself forget that lives are lives, no matter how many I take. I may use humor as a coping mechanism, or shortcut terminology when thinking of battle strategy and resource expenditures, but it¡¯ll never stop affecting me. I don¡¯t think any of us would have it any other way. Not my SAP, not Kinzul, or any of the Onyx Dawn. Well, maybe Gilmeshtu or some of the other more snooty members.


    Let¡¯s get the hell out of here. Sighing to myself, I almost giggle when Lil asks, ¡°What happened to the other guy? The big Green?¡±


    Joking, I quip, ¡°Would you believe me if I said I put him in my pocket?¡±


    My wonderful son, Lucky, barks and pants as if laughing. Lil takes a moment to view me quizzically before realizing that I was joking about my portable hole, and Lu just rolls her eyes at me. I catch the rest of my party up on what went down the Shlendtikuar, as we resume our flight towards Vorzog¡¯s Keep. Thankfully, taking off my helmet with the psy-spell blocking enchantment on the circlet is rather easy, so we can return to chatting in thinkspace during our flight. I wonder if I could find a way to add this enchantment to items bound to others¡¯ souls.


    Hm. The problem is, it¡¯s not even supposed to be able to be put on items at all. I had to finagle the spell, by having it mastered, and using Nala¡¯s help, on an item with nearly no enchantment, that was already bound to me, to fill out the rest of the mostly empty enchantment with a self-only spell. Even still, there are some kinks to work out with what I¡¯ve got already, let alone trying to figure out how to break the rules even more to make it not self-only. Oh well, not really the time to be thinking about stuff like that. It¡¯d be better to try to imagine just how underinformed we are about Vorzog¡¯s Keep, since we were malinformed of Shlendtikuar¡¯s domain.


    At some point, I should probably expect to fight kaijus and giant mechas, or other things that make no sense to be on Rayileklia. That just seems to be the way things are going. Soul stealing lights? Celestials hiding away, or hiding in plain sight? Literal Fel hordes? Dragons at war with vampires? Archmages nearly wiped out, save for those impressed into Terrorzin¡¯s service? Terrorzin¡¯s magical manipulators creating chimaeraefic beasts and mingling undeath with draconic and hydra abilities? Dragon lords of domains messing with and corrupting Latents? Yeah, eventually we¡¯re going to end up turning Rayileklia into some giant robot to fight off some giant robot made out of the moon, or a space station, or something. Rolling my eyes at myself, I chuckle at the stupidity of the lines of thought.


    The real takeaway from the line of thought is just that I should prevent myself from being surprised, by expecting almost anything to be capable of happening. What sort of worst-case scenarios might I be able to expect, and counter, should things be far worse than expected at Vorzog¡¯s Keep? Well, the Fel hordes could have a massive portal open there. The nice thing about that one is, we¡¯re having Kinzul fully open the sky over a spot near Vorzog¡¯s Keep, so we don¡¯t have to worry about finding a way to get sunlight down to drive them back. What else? Hm, those fliders and stuff like the mega-dracoliche, or hydracoliche could be there in great quantities. The good thing about that, is that I¡¯ve got a weapon specifically designed to be more detrimental to undead. What else?


    Hm, if Spellknights Vorzog, Zelshiz, Adkre, and Triorgraiz are all archmages, and they all lead with stopped time, and slash or meteors, it could be pretty bothersome. I could break their SP pools though, due to the time it takes to cast those spells, and I¡¯m fairly familiar with their makeup at this point. That¡¯s the major benefit of having mastered the minor to major dispellation technique. Countering spells before they happen, or dispelling them before their effects become altogether too awful. I¡¯d predicted we¡¯d be facing more archmages as our time on Rayileklia went on, and, well, it came true. Sure, the reason why it came to pass took me a while to work out, but that¡¯s because the information wasn¡¯t available previously. I don¡¯t know if even Jarrah knows why there are so few casters left in the lands that aren¡¯t in Terrorzin¡¯s service.


    Still, it makes you wonder how many young adult, adult, or ancient dragons that Terrorzin has had out in the humanoid lands, just mingling with their societies, disrupting them or spying on them and¡ª. Oh no. Tiktik. The Aasimovians. What if Astridus *wasn¡¯t* the only black dragon in human disguise? Tiktik thought she was following a dragon that seemed more like young to young-adult in size. No, no, just calm down. There¡¯s no reason Terrorzin wouldn¡¯t have overplayed his hand by that point, or had his subordinates flee the Felgre hordes. There is no way he could have known some troupe would come by and actually successfully begin an evacuation effort. It makes sense if he assumed Aasimovians would all simply perish to the Felgre hordes, with only a few stragglers being able to flee from sheer fright. It wouldn¡¯t make sense for him to believe he¡¯d have to have spies planted in a successful refugee movement.

 B 6 C 127: Keep Appearances

    As we drop from above the Worldstorm, we draw closer to Vorzog''s Keep, and its details become clearer. Scoping it out reveals an intricate stronghold with formidable defenses, soaring like a spire over the other buildings behind the Keep''s walls.


    Vorzog''s Keep itself, the primary building, is an imposing structure, its walls rise high like sheer cliffs of obsidian. They''re adorned with depictions of scenes of battles and conquests, in a manner that seems oddly artistic. They¡¯re hardly befitting the usual doom and gloom, rage and ire, teeth and fire of the Ice of Rage''s forces.


    The dark stones of Vorzog''s Keep are even polished to an eerie sheen, reflecting the glimmers of lightning from the ever-present Worldstorm, lending the fortress a flickering presence. It''s eerily similar to the fritzing that Dehlia did when she was partially transformed under the sway of the tri-snake. Or, similarly similar to the fritzing that Lil can do with his not-quite-copy of my Space skill, in order to teleport a few feet one direction or another. The walls extend far and wide, enclosing a vast expanse of land, within which smaller buildings and guard towers are scattered like chess pieces upon a massive board.


    Motioning for Lil to remain in cover of the Worldstorm until we have a better grasp on the defenses of the foes we face, we attempt to estimate their number. It appears that the Spellknight leaders have a massive army. From our vantage point, we can see dozens of platoons of Draconiacs patrolling the walls, their numbers appear to total in the hundreds, just those that are visible. The various guard towers suggest that they are well-prepared for any assault from air or ground, unfortunately.


    The buildings within and around the fortress are arranged in a strategic manner that leaves little hope for striking straight to the heart of the domain. Besides the main keep, there are barracks, armories, and more. There are even stables for some sort of giant lizard mounts, perhaps land-based drakes of some sort. Annoyingly, these structures are well-spaced, allowing for maximum defensive capabilities while still maintaining easy access to each other. Grr. I can almost guarantee this place wasn''t designed by the forces that reside here. If nothing else, the fact that nearly all the Draconiacs have to duck whenever they enter or leave a building clinches that assumption for me.


    Some buildings are partially hidden by the shadow of the walls. Bluh, this makes it difficult to discern the full extent of their numbers from above. At some point, we''re going to have to go in, whether or not we''re anticipating the correct number of foes. A glance into my goggles shows Teuila sailing Rayileklia''s skies atop the back of Iylynila. I can virtually sense the discomfort Illy is in at the moment, as she enjoys Teuila''s company in much the way she enjoys mine, but she¡¯s trying not to be clingy or needy. At least I know they''re all safe so far. They''ll be pulling up to their first side-objective any minute now. Their party has slower fliers than Lil, so they¡¯re forced to take a bit longer than we took getting around.


    Back to the task at hand Reggie. Right, right. Checking out these defenses is almost disheartening. They''re varied and seem pretty deadly, even for the likes of Lil and myself. Along the walls, scorpion-like ballistae surrounded by enchantment auras stand ready to rain down deadly bolts. Most of the Draconiacs look like spell-slingers, and the ones that don''t, appear to have enchanted crossbows, or similar powerful ranged weapons, including a few firearms. Ugh, yeah, I was right about the giant lizard mounts. I can spy large, lumbering drakes stationed at key points. They probably serve as living siege weapons for when Terrorzin finishes mustering his forces to march on the lands.


    Peering toward the heart of the fortress, the massive central courtyard is flanked by the main keep and numerous smaller buildings. It¡¯s like a box-canyon, essentially a death trap. I¡¯m not seeing any other methods to traverse though. The entire fortress, and all its walls are heavily warded. There¡¯s some sort of dragonforce field protecting the whole thing. Also, perhaps unsurprisingly, at the courtyard''s center, there¡¯s a colossal statue of an ivory dragon, that must be the Ice of Rage himself, Terrorzin. I¡¯m surprised we haven¡¯t seen more depictions of him yet, given his likely tremendous vanity. I suppose we¡¯re starting to delve nearer to his more fervent supporters. Of course he¡¯d surround himself with, and grant his nearer regions to, those that laud him more. The egotistical sack of crap.


    Huff, focus Reggie. Right. Hm, enchanted barriers shimmer around the walls, and dark runes adorn the ground, imbued with hellish spells based on what I can read from here. We couldn¡¯t even enter through the main gate without an invitation due to how strong the barriers are across the whole fortress. I honestly believe that every Draconiac here is probably capable of sorcery on at least some level. There¡¯s something like the reverse of ley-lines going on. It¡¯s as if these defenses siphon a minuscule amount of mana from each of the fortress¡¯s defenders to remain powered. If I had a day or two to stu¡ª. Heh.


    I can¡¯t help smirking as I try to drink in all the information I can for a future utilization of retrocognition. Observing the dimensions of the buildings, the main keep rises like a towering spire, natch, already noted that. It rivals the height of the nearby mountainous cliff walls. The buildings'' placements appear to be meticulously planned, taking advantage of the defensive position offered by the surrounding mountains. The fortress is constructed in such a way that it harmonizes with the harsh landscape, making it a formidable and nearly impenetrable bastion that¡¯s partially built into the nearest mountain. If needbe, we might be able to land, sneak around to the far side of the mountain, and spend most of a day having Lucky dig through it, to see if they remembered to ward in a full sphere. We won¡¯t need to though.


    Whomever Terrorzin and these Draconiacs stole this fortress from was a fairly talented structural engineer, or had one in their employ long in the past. It does seem like Terrorzin¡¯s forces have updated the decor, the stables, and the enchantments to suit their own needs however. I can¡¯t just pretend that they¡¯re unskilled, barbaric dullards with no talents or powers. W¡ª, what the? What the everliving hell is that? I¡¯m glad we waited before rushing in.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    There¡¯s some sort of, I mean, I¡¯d have thought it was a golem, until two Draconiacs climbed out of it, to trade places with two fresh Draconiac pilots. That¡¯s a mecha. That¡¯s a giant robot mecha. I mean, it¡¯s only about fifteen to thirty feet tall, it¡¯s hard to judge from here, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that that¡¯s essentially a magitek mecha. I was *literally* just joking about having to plan for worst case scenarios in which¡ª. Huff. Relax Reggie, the universe doesn¡¯t add new challenges just because your brain jokes about them. You can at least rest assured that you won¡¯t have to fight off the moon. What about a space station? Not a moon, or a space station.


    Luni giggles at my internal narrative, and I raise an eyebrow towards her. She quickly pretends to whistle and glance anywhere that doesn¡¯t meet my gaze. Right Lu, real smooth. Sure My Anchor, sure. Anyway, that thing looks impressive. The magitek mecha stands close to twenty or so feet tall, and I can get a slightly better estimate of its height by comparing it to nearby creatures and objects. Its colossal form looms over everything except the giant guard-drakes, and the main keep itself.


    The mecha¡¯s metallic surface gleams with lustrous reflections of the lightning of the Worldstorm. Its outer shell bears intricate patterns and engravings, ancient runes etched into its surface, that even my linguistic enchantment is having a hard time deciphering. These arcane markings appear to pulse with a faint glow, indicating what might be considered a heartbeat of immense power that courses through the mecha''s core. It seems virtually alive. What''s more, it seems, hm, trapped. The runes and etchings seem to shift and rearrange, sliding about as panels shift into and out of place to keep it perfectly protected during all of its movements.


    Its broad shoulders are adorned with armored plates that they resemble dragon scales. Yet it doesn''t seem like it was crafted by draconic hands, or that of any dragonkin. Each plate seems to move and shift gracefully, and despite my intense scrutiny, I cannot find any weakpoints in its armor. The resemblence to draconic scales on the shoulder plates seems to be the only thing that one might rely on to tie its creation to dragonkind. Rather, the runework seems more fae in nature, and the metalwork seems dwarven. Oh, hm. Could it have been a cross-cultural project, at some point in the ancient past? Hell, it might have even been developed to fight the Felgre hordes.


    The mecha''s arms extend outward, each limb ends in some sort of aperture, like a cannon. Based on the runework structure, it likely fires pure mana blasts, with no ties to any element. That sort of force could really hurt, and its limbs move fluidly with agility, so it¡¯s likely able to aim efficiently. Thinking about avoiding it doesn''t seem like it''s going to be an option either. Even if it couldn¡¯t just pick us off out of the sky with its blasters, on its back is an array of thrusters and energy emitters that hum with a potential that I can perceive all the way from up here at our vantage within the Worldstorm. The thing can probably leap like some sort of incredible, hulking menace, if not outright fly.


    Oh, oh good, they¡¯re doing some sort of combat drills. This should tire some of them out, and clue us in a bit as to some potential threats and abilities. W-what. The training dummy is the mecha. Every single blast, smash, or element just seems to flow off the thing like water off a duck¡¯s back. I unfold the portable hole just long enough to refresh air, and motion for secrecy and quiet from my prisoner. We¡¯ve been preparing to strike longer than I thought we might take. I hope Teuila doesn¡¯t face anything like this at the Nedkuxian Conclave. Checking in on her, her secondary objective seems to be going smoothly. She does have the full force of the Vivant, and the able-bodied Dormir. Plus, I mean, she *is* Teuila.


    Struggling not to get distracted by being able to view Teuila kicking ass in first person perspective, I reorient on the matter at hand. I¡¯ve seen enough of the runework, the auras, and guard patrols to be able to at least get us past the external dragonforce barrier. I mean, if my surmising is correct, and I¡¯m capable of doing the calculations in paused time in retrocognition. So let¡¯s do it, let¡¯s reach for the non, the time between times, the space between spaces. Stretch ourselves into the lack of time, and contemplate our problems.


    Breathe deeply, slowly Reggie. Take it easy, and take your time on this. Getting it wrong could result in a backlash that could fry your brain, knock you for a loop, or even kill you. That shield must have taken twenty to a hundred dragonforces to construct. Are they still alive somewhere in there? There are a lot of markings for something akin to heart. Could they have still-beating hearts preserved in jars feeding these enchantments? Focus, no time to try to turn this into a rescue mission anyway. This is going to be a hell of a challenging fight, and we haven¡¯t even seen what the domain¡¯s lords are capable of yet. There¡¯s a ton of minor magical equipment here as well.


    Y¡¯know what that means, right? What? The bosses probably have epic loot that they¡¯re going to use on you, Lil, Lu, and Lucky. Fricklefrack. Yeah, probably. Maybe tone it down with the videogame terminology though? Nah. Erm, okay, fine, I guess. You have a smartphone buddy, more stuff is unlocking on it on occasion, to the point where you could probably program yourself a little game on it. You somehow know a fair deal about coding structures and syntax in various programming languages, and various hardware models and operating systems and all this other nonsense from Fakeworld. Lean into it. Be the Connecticut Yankee. Oh. Oh!


    Reorienting myself once more, I try to recall everything I¡¯d seen about the mecha. Dang. Sadly, the heart theory doesn¡¯t hold salt, at least not tying it to the mecha at all. The pulsation wasn¡¯t in any sort of rhythm or timing that lined up with the barrier magics. I remain idly contemplating for quite some time. What can I do that won¡¯t fry my brain to try to get us safely in the door? Hm¡ª, what if I try to slip in intangibly? Disrupting the runework from inside the shield would be far easier than from outside. I¡¯d just be extremely vulnerable if anyone realized that a shadow was forming up into a naked Shellcracker. There was a lot of redundancy and failsafe networking in the runework for the barrier shielding. Let¡¯s see, if I mess with that one though¡ª. Yeah. Okay.


    Breathing deeply, I continue to explore the possible solutions for the barrier to entry problem. Rolling my eyes at myself, I try not to chuckle at the accidental wordplay. It keeps coming back around to being safest for Lil, Lu, Lucky, and myself, for me to infiltrate, and disrupt from within. I have to hope that there¡¯s a dark corner in one of the buildings, that¡¯s close enough to the exterior walls, to slowly return to RS2 form from shadow elemental form. Well pals, here goes nothing.

 B 6 C 128: Crypto-Night

    Returning from the absence of time, I start filling in the Triple L Squad on my plan, which earns me an, ¡°Awe man,¡± from Lil, and an, ¡°Oh sweetie, not again,¡± from Lu.


    Sighing sadly, agreeing, I add, ¡°Yeah, I know. So, um, hold my clothes, gear, and all that for me please Lu? Try to get them to me as quickly as possible when you get the signal?¡±


    Even though Lil knows what my answer will be, he asks jokingly, ¡°What¡¯s the signal supposed to be pal?¡±


    Unable to keep myself from smirking, I toss him the clich¨¦d response of, ¡°You¡¯ll know it when you see it.¡±


    Parsing what I can of the cryptographic rune sequencing that seems to shift and alter in patterns along the outside, I can tell that they¡¯re static, and far easier to crack on the inside. It would take me a dozen nights calculations to come up with a decent chance to possibly predict the sequence in a way that allows me to break the barrier¡¯s channeling network from the outside. Even then, there¡¯s a huge percentage chance that I fry my brain from the backlash of even one misplaced or mis-predicted cryptographic sequencing. Sighing to myself, I admit that I can¡¯t back out of the plan.


    We carefully wheel our way down far out of sight of the stronghold, aiming to work towards a frontal assault while still maintaining some element of surprise, so that they can¡¯t all be mustered on us ahead of time. Taking one last glance through the scrying sensors we¡¯ve got set up, I see that Teuila is in motion, so she¡¯s okay. I breathe a sigh of relief. Te¡¯s okay. I loose another shuddered sigh. I know how codependent we are, but I¡¯m glad we now have a method to check in on each other quickly and discretely, from anywhere on the planet. It helps ease my troubled mind, something I¡¯d walk, run, or fly around the world to do in any other circumstance.


    Utilizing the dark side of Luni, the shadow she casts, and that of Lil and Lucky as well, I begin to leave my body behind. I count down the seconds, the minutes, as if they were sands in an hourglass. I¡¯ll be exceedingly vulnerable as I return to form inside. Hell, we have to hope that my shadow form can pass through the barrier, or this was all a waste of time. If it is a waste of time, I feel there¡¯s nothing I can do about it. Yeah, that would suck.


    I pass through Luni and Lil on my way towards the ground. I¡¯m able to somewhat float three dimensionally as a nearly two dimensional existence. Lu and Lil shudder as I float through them, since I become a literal coldspot that passes over them. It¡¯s so weird to see the always-muddy Rayileklian soil begin to firm up in the sunlight as I flit just above it, floating towards Vorzog¡¯s Keep. Doing my best to not draw attention to myself, I do attempt to remain in the leeward, shadeward side of any little hills, pebbles, outcroppings, luma tulipa, or anything else around.


    Okay Reggie, the moment of truth is coming up. Here goes nothing and everything all at once. Hurk. Gurgle. Koff. If I had anywhere to have had lunch in this form, I¡¯d lose it. Keep pushing Reggie, you¡¯re slipping through the barrier. I¡¯m surprised that, and wonder why, the Draconiacs sheltered here are so regimented, well trained, disciplined, and keep up guard shifts and the like. Between their impeccable magical defenses, and the likelihood of them not having been attacked in decades, or centuries, it seems odd that they remain so at-the-ready. Phooph! I nearly rocket inwards into the compound as I¡¯m shunted through to the inside of the barrier.


    Whew, okay, quickly, find cover, now calm down for a moment. The heart that doesn¡¯t exist in my chest at the moment, the chest that I don¡¯t have at the moment, is beating a thousand miles an hour. There is absolutely so much incredible firepower and magical power and essence contained in this fortress, and its denizens. I could be obliterated by this, if it all came to bear before I was fully ready. Even if I were fully prepped, there¡¯s only so much I can handle at once, before I start getting sloppy, and taking more and more hits. Scout around Reggie. Carefully, carefully.


    Thankfully the shadow-elemental evolutionary form from RS2 at least has a version of the aura senses that has additional tricks to it. They somewhat make up for me not being able to wear my danger-wraps in this form. Somewhat. Take it easy Reggie, try not to pass through any of them. Erm, any more of them. That one¡¯s shivering. Crap on a cracker, there¡¯s just so many of them, and they¡¯re all so alert. It¡¯s almost like they were tipped off somehow. They couldn¡¯t be though, right? Maybe this is in response to the Worldstorm opening up nearby? That doesn¡¯t make sense though.


    Maybe they assume that it¡¯s Terrorzin¡¯s doing, since he has a hole opening up somewhere in the Worldstorm? If they didn¡¯t assume that, it¡¯d make more sense to have scouting parties investigating the area that it opened up to, rather than simply being more on-guard at home. Still, my non-breath catches in my non-throat as I imagine that Lu, Lil, and Lucky, are about to be ambushed by stealthy scouting party assassins who went out to investigate the Worldstorm disturbance.


    Ow, what the what? Ow. Something, something¡¯s calling out to my brain. That¡ª, that¡¯s Whisper. That Draconiac lieutenant has Whisper tucked into a bandolier! There¡¯s a pinkish psionic vibratory aura pulsating around it, and somehow it recognizes the sheath¡¯s scent on me or something like that. Crap! Can it tell its wielder that someone has approached who has its sheath? I don¡¯t think it¡¯s entirely sentient, let alone sapient, but if it has some sort of psychic warning sensation, like the danger-wraps, I could still be quite screwed. Focus Reggie, focus. Whatever happens, be ready to act. Right, right. Phooph. I don¡¯t actually have any breath to pass a sigh through puffed cheeks, but if I did, that¡¯s what I¡¯d be doing right now.


    Grr, about the only places that are safe to transform back that I¡¯ve found so far, happen to be too small for RS2 to manifest in. Too-tight alleyways, behind stone sculptures or furniture, and so on and so forth. Come on Reggie, come on, think, think. There has to be some clue as to a location that¡ª. Well, there isn¡¯t feces and urine all over the yard, so I assume they have a latrine. Ugh.


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    Hold the phone, we¡¯re not saying you have to dive into the sewage pit, just maybe sit in an unoccupied latrine for a few minutes. That¡¯s what I was ughing about. It¡¯s so corny. It¡¯s as clich¨¦ as the line I tossed to Lil earlier. Heh, get over yourself Reggie. No one¡¯s going to know, or care, if you utilize a common trope to infiltrate an enemy stronghold.


    Hell, no one on this planet has probably even heard of the word trope, or even knows what would make certain things clich¨¦. That¡¯s all just your buggy-ass Fakeworld memory nonsense. Hm, true. Alright. Yeah, there¡¯s several latrines, and there¡¯s one over this way, and it¡¯s unguarded, and seems pretty sparsely used. This is very close to being, ¡°so degrading.¡± Y¡¯know, if you really wanted to infiltrate this place at the moment, you could engage the lycanthrope form, and take on your draconic Reggie form. They might not instantly attack an emerald, winged Draconiac. Eh, I doubt it Reggie. Let¡¯s just stick with the plan for now pal, shall we? Sure, sure sure sure.


    Of. Friggin¡¯. Course. I went to the farthest stall, in the least used latrine and¡ª. Huff. I¡¯d sigh if I could. Okay lovebirds. Please finish up and leave. Wow. Okay that¡¯s, that¡¯s passionate. Friggin¡¯ hell, can I cut off my return to my form so that I don¡¯t out myself? Should I try to slay them while partially manifested? Maybe I can still pass through this wall a bit into the next stall. Okay, whew, holy crap that was clo¡ª. Oh come the hell on! Oh god that¡¯s awful.


    Sure, I managed to use my last few moments of full intangibility to phase through the wall to the next stall, but now this one¡¯s occupied too. I can hear the lovebirds gagging in the next stall. This guy¡¯s either got food poisoning, or his intestines are rotting out from the inside, or something. Oh my friggin¡¯ lord. Hurk. I can¡¯t phase through this wall, and I¡¯m going to vomit if I hear one more rapid plinking splash sound. Well, if I do end up vomiting, it means enough of me is manifested to utilize my breath weapon. I¡¯m sorry Draconiac with the sick stomach, if I¡¯m outed to you, I¡¯m going to have to kill you in probably the most humiliating way possible, by breathing fire to take out all these gases you¡¯re emitting.


    The femme lovebird in the next stall cries out, ¡°Oh gods, is that Upchuck? Why¡¯d you have to hurp, take the stall next to ours sicko?¡±


    Her paramour mumbles, ¡°She¡¯s right Chuck, what the fu(4. Rage¡¯s sakes, take that somewhere else. I mean, feel better, but really, come on.¡±


    Chuck here only groans, moaning in intestinal pain. Blowing up the outhouses is not the signal I intended to send to Lil. I also haven¡¯t broken the barrier yet. Wait. Wait I¡¯ve got an idea. I mean, I¡¯m still probably going to kill these Draconiacs in here. I¡¯m a bit loathe to kill the lovebirds, because, I mean, if they¡¯re capable of love and passion, maybe they¡¯d accept mercy, y¡¯know? Huff. It¡¯s unlikely though. I mean, I¡¯ve also got a bit of sympathy for Chuck. His issue¡¯s gotta suck if he¡¯s got a nickname around lack of intestinal fortitude.


    Anyway, my poison gas can mix with the gas coming out of Chuck here, and it should knock him out through hypoxia. I might even snag the lovebirds in the knockout gas. I can keep spilling a trail of the gas, keeping this latrine fully flooded, and leaving a low trail as I sneak out. Then, when far enough away, I can send a spark to ignite my trail of gas, making for one hell of a distraction. Crap, I know it¡¯s dark in here, and Chuck has his head between his knees, looking at his own feet, but I¡¯m almost fully manifested at this point. Hurp, I¡¯m gonna puke on the back of his head if he, hurp, doesn¡¯t stop with those horrible noises. Start loosing poison gas Reggie. I know, I know. Sorry you three.


    Sighing, I correct myself, sorry you five. Two more male Draconiacs have come in, and are chattering about work detail. They sound extremely friendly, as I can hear the slaps they continue to give one another. Oh god. Am I in a raunchy sitcom? I just realized what the slapping sound was. Screw this lot. Ugh, yes, I know what I just said. I¡¯ve got screwing to the left of me, and screwing to the right, and here I am stuck in the middle with Chuck.


    Finally the newer couple notices as one queries, ¡°Is, is that gas? Chuck came rushing in here before us, right? Is that gas coming from Chuckles¡¯s stall? Chuck, you okay bud? Oh, oh god, we¡¯ll, hrp, come back later. Feel better Chuckles.¡±


    I hear the newer pair of lovers beat a hasty retreat. I feel really, really, really sorry for Chuck at this point. I think he¡¯s been passed out for a bit now, honestly. I¡¯m just keeping myself perfectly still, perched above him on the roof of this darkened stall, utilizing telekinesis now that all of my powers have manifested, in order to keep myself locked in place. Hm, I think the previous pair of lovers has passed out from hypoxia as well. I think they were trying to remain silent while the new pair showed up, and when they tried to gasp for breath after that pair left, there was no clean air to suck down.


    Oh hell. I can¡¯t just leave these people here to die in a flaming fiery farting distraction. That¡¯s an awful way to go. Though, to be fair, Chuck might be on his way out already, based on those intestinal noises. Hrp. Okay, okay, new plan. Awe man, I liked my hair. I suppose I can eventually shapeshift it back. Let¡¯s get a good look at Chuck. Sorry pal, we¡¯re going to have to strip you, hrp, ugh. I find what I¡¯m looking for, based on scent, Chuck indeed keeps a razor on him, which is a bit weird for a Draconiac, but I imagine it¡¯s to eat thinly sliced cheese, since it smells vaguely cheesy, and he¡¯s got a stash of cheese, despite definitely being lactose intolerant.


    Sighing, I make quick work of my hair, loosing my wild mane into the latrine. My SAP are going to make so much fun of me for this. Alright, with spare clothes, we tie up Chuck, and the lovebirds, we steal all of these little bits of equipment, and we practice sounding sick as Chuck. Easy enough, since my stomach is still roiling. Better yet, me trailing gas everywhere will be pretty excusable if anyone notices it. Bury my snout in ¡°my¡± uniform. Sorry Chuck. Keep expelling breath-weapon gas, packing this latrine with more and more compressed gases. Utilize my senses, as best I¡¯m able, to scout the nearby region of the courtyard, and barracks. Okay, if I put up a slowing field at two ends of this area, they won¡¯t realize that time has slowed for them, and won¡¯t notice me dragging bodies around. One more reason I¡¯m grateful for all the abilities we snagged in orb-time.


    Still, I feel naked without at least some powerful equipment. Come on Cla¨ªomh Solais, come on. You show up in my hand randomly now and again, what about when I really need you? Please? Come on come on. Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes! Phew. Okay. Now we have more options. Whew. Slow breaths Reggie, take it one step at a time.

 B 6 C 129: The Signal

    With my archsorc staff, Cla¨ªomh Solais, it has a few spells in it that I rarely, if ever, use. The gigantifying slash minimizing spell that grows and shrinks things is one of them that even happens to be S P free. Now, if I can get these three Draconiacs to be considered a single target, I can shrink them all down, and with a carefully crafted bypassed-wall spell, I can shove them in a cubby that should be nearly impossible to find them in. A cubby that will also hopefully protect them from the upcoming outhouse explosion.


    I know, I know, they¡¯re enemies, and I¡¯d probably have had to kill them anyway, but I saw their vulnerable, or loving, or passionate sides. One could say I saw their humanity. Well, dragonanity? Pft. I have no idea. I hate taking lives to begin with. If there¡¯s the tiniest chance that maybe these three might survive our slaughterfest because of these shenanigans, and might choose to live peacefully, then, then I¡¯ll take it. Plus, I stole Chuck¡¯s tiny extradimensional pouch full of cheese. I kinda feel like I owe him. What a weird guy though. He obviously has to know he has a problem with dairy, but can¡¯t help himself. He even uses magic to hide his cheese obsession.


    Okay, they¡¯re as safe as I can make them, and I¡¯m trying to keep them a little dosed, and a little low on oxygen, but able to breathe again once I¡¯ve committed my explosive diversion. Let¡¯s hussle towards one of the gatehouses, while looking crampy, bloated, and sick. Keep it together Reggie, the eyes aren¡¯t on you any more than they would be on Chuck regularly. He stood out a bit. He was a little dumpy for a Draconiac, probably from all the dairy. Uh oh. Those two are beelining straight for me. Are they the lovers from the bathroom? No, no definitely not, their heights are far too disparate.


    The taller of the two calls out, ¡°Chuckles, heard you weren¡¯t feeling it today private. I¡¯m surprised to see you up and about, what with our arrangement and all.¡±


    Oh crap. I think the startled look on my face is what they¡¯re expecting of Chuck though. I¡¯m getting the sense that these two are a bully and his toadie. The feeling is cemented when the taller one leans in close to ask with malice, ¡°You do recall our arrangement. Don¡¯t you?¡±


    I nod emphatically, and catch the toadie too late as I realize what he¡¯s up to. Oh no. If this Draconiac were human, he¡¯d have an ever-present crap-eating-grin, wild red hair like mine, and a very freckled face. He¡¯s way too proud of himself for what he¡¯s about to do, and I¡¯m petaseconds away from the consequences.


    Everything seems to be in slow motion as the toadie jokes, ¡°Didn¡¯t anyone ever teach you Upchuck? Farts are flammable. Wanna see?¡±


    I can only add one tiny bit of reaction as things are about to become chaos incarnate. I exhale into ¡°my¡± shirt, blowing a massive puff of gas out my left sleeve towards the toadie. Oh my gods the chaos and carnage. The shrieking from toadie over here as he¡¯s consumed by flames, and the confused yelp by the bully, bring down all the unwanted attention on our trio. Oh, wait, I¡¯m on fire, I should react like Chuck would. I pretend to scream in pain, and run off in the opposite direction from the flames, trailing fire the whole while, pretending to try to pat myself down, while I¡¯m actually continuing to spread gas and fire. Of course the outhouse explodes violently, boom goes the dynamite as they say.


    Come on Reggie, come on, lock on, find the runic structures. Come on. Argh, if I want to make the hole last longer than a few seconds, or maybe couple of minutes, I¡¯ll need a ninth tier dispellation. Wait, wait, let¡¯s see this line feeds into this. Let¡¯s roll around here near this wall, pretending to try to put ourselves out while we calculate this. I hope you¡¯re there FFS. Drawing on my archsorc staff, I reach into the ether, into the elemental plane besides our own, and thankfully, apparently Frostfire Salamanderian seeks out the location of the staff like a homing missile, always attempting to remain near it. Welcome back my friend. I¡¯ll gladly pay the extra S P from the staff. Please, come quickly. Don¡¯t try to help me or engage just yet, but if you can look like fire, and spread flames and chaos, that¡¯d be a great help. When I signal, then become your largest form and draw as much attention to you as you can.


    Whew, it¡¯s great to have allies. Lu, Lil, can you telepathically hear me with this barrier in the way, since I don¡¯t have my psychic-blocking equipment on? Dang, didn¡¯t think so. Well, you should be on your way by now, with this commotion. Oh, crap, I look like an enemy. Ugh, but I can¡¯t drop the disguise yet. Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap. Fricklefracks and bandersnacks. Don¡¯t you mean bandersnatch? Only if you¡¯re brillig and the slithy toves. Heh, focus Reggie, focus! Right, right, enough with the nonsense. How do I¡ª? Aha!


    Shouting my titles, I proclaim, ¡°I offer you mercy if you surrender. For I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa!¡±


    Manifesting my full Void Dragon Honoris Causa, I reach its ethereal limbs into the spellwork woven into the castle walls. I grip, and wrest several series of redundant runes that leaves a large hole where the magic has to travel around in a parallel redundant network. Engaging my third and final Skin of Stone buff of the day, I toss a fourth tier Shadowy Conjuration into the midst of the courtyard, adding more confusion on top of everything so far. I¡¯ve got two more of those left today. Tossing a slowing field straight inwards from the gate, I manage to catch about a dozen Draconiacs who¡¯d decided to look my way instead of towards either of the two spreading fires, or my giant dire shadow weasel.


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    I giggle to myself at the limits of the spell, having had to manifest a monstrous mana construct of something with as silly a name as giant dire shadow weasel, but the weasel is tearing around, terrorizing Draconiacs, taking quite a bit of fire from the parapets and elsewhere along the walls. Woah! Okay, okay, uh, focus and respond Reggie. My telekinetic shielding squares are keeping me safe from the rapid assault of ranged weaponry, but each impact is feeling closer and closer to shattering each of the grips.


    Crap, I forgot about the robot! I¡¯m able to block one blast with my telekinetic squares, but they shatter under the might of the blow. The second blast sinks into my Void Dragon manifestation, sending me skidding, almost tumbling to the side. The third blast, I catch on another telekinetic square, cursing the headache and nosebleed I get as it shatters, the fourth blast hits me square in the chest and sends me sailing out of the keep, into inbound traffic.


    Figuratively coughing up a lung, I can barely orient myself as Lu asks, ¡°Reggie? What are you wearing? What even¡ª. Oh sweetie no, your gorgeous hair. Quick get these on, and this, and this.¡±


    Tossing Lucky like a fastball special, Lil sets my stomach lurching with worry for my son. Worse, Lucky¡¯s thrown at the giant magitek mecha, and he gets blasted out of the air loosing a pained yelp in the process. I gear up as swiftly as I¡¯m able, because we¡¯re in the thick of it now. Focus Reggie, breathe. Blinking rapidly to try to get my eyes to literally be able to focus, my heart feels like it can¡¯t slow to a reasonable pace. This is so much more than we bargained for.


    Is¡ª, is that gjallahorn? Please tell me they do not have even more forces laying in wait nearby, or backup within hearing range. Pleading with Lu, I beg, ¡°Can you take the portable hole, sneak along the left wall here, to a spot that I magicked out a small hole in the wall? I shrunk three Draconiacs after knocking them out, and planted them there for safekeeping. I¡¯d feel horrible killing them after going to all the trouble of trying to spare their lives. They¡¯re all naked and bound, and you can tell what¡¯s his face, Shen or Shlen or whatever, to pass on the message of mercy if they wake up. Please?¡±


    Luni wears half a frown as she begrudgingly accepts my request. She seems to fade from my senses, before vanishing entirely. Lil and I are strafing along the interior of the high walls, trying to reduce the number of ranged weapon attacks we have to dodge by taking out the various archers. Lil¡¯s already starting to look like a pincushion, and we¡¯ve only been in battle for a matter of seconds.


    Grunting, Lil grumps, ¡°It¡¯s time to get serious pal, mega mega mega serious.¡±


    Nodding towards Lil, I send mental directions to FFS to follow and pair up with Lil, utilizing his flames as cover. My heart won¡¯t stop racing a mile a min¡ª. Ow! Glp. Whisper is floating in front of me, frozen in place by the psionic shielding enchantment that I¡¯d built into this¡ª. I¡¯d be dead now. I¡¯d straight up have died if I hadn¡¯t mastered the psionic brainblast aegis from Yisstendahl¡¯s tomes during orb-time, and placed it on this gear. Whisper disappears, and reappears in the hand of a Draconiac who happens to appear in the spot Whisper¡¯d just been at. Apparently Whisper has some sort of shadowy teleportation ability in addition to its psionic damage enhancements.


    I¡¯m not too afraid of this fool, since Whisper literally can¡¯t hurt me, due to its reliance on psionic runic empowerment magic. Next time it comes my way, I¡¯m just snagging the artifact for myself. What I am afraid of is the magitek mecha kicking my son¡¯s ass. Lucky¡¯s trying out all of his powers on the thing, and nothing is leaving a dent. Fire does nothing, ice does nothing, acid from nearby Draconiacs does nothing. Lucky¡¯s claws do leave tiny scratch marks, but those scratches heal up within moments. I bet the only thing that would do significant damage is its own arm cannons, with their neutral non-elemental mana blasts.


    Friggin¡¯ hell, I can¡¯t focus on Lucky¡¯s fight right now, I¡¯m still surrounded by dozens of Spellknights, and hundreds of magic-empowered archers. Lil is getting bogged down, tethered by spells. Luni took a sharp blow to her jaw before disappearing again. I, I¡¯m overwhelmed. I can¡¯t figure out where to start. I¡ª. I begin to panic, crying in fear of the thought that I might lose Lucky, or Lil, or Lu. My vision doubles, then triples, and blurs beyond recognition.


    I sink to my knees, just barely accidentally dodging several devastating blasts aimed my way. Wrapping my arms around my torso, I struggle to free myself from this wave of panic. Reggie come on, come on, get it together! If you start fighting, you won¡¯t lose them, okay!? Please, please, please start fighting. Please. As much as I beg myself, I¡¯m not in command of my senses yet. My Skin of Stone spell wears off as I¡¯m rocked by a jagged column of stone slamming upwards from beneath me, launching me into the air, where I¡¯m then met by a flying Spellknight, and spiked back towards the sharp-edged erection beneath me.


    The thing that saves my life? The thing that snaps me to my senses in time to avoid being impaled on the upward-pointed stone edifice? It¡¯s Luni¡¯s snickering across our impossible mental wavelength that should be blocked by my enchantment. I can¡¯t help laughing and rolling my eyes while shaking my head. Lu, you¡¯re a butt, but thank you. I needed that. Rolling ever so slightly to the side, I shunt myself with telekinesis just enough to miss the geokinetically erected stonework. Come on Reggie. Pick a target, and destroy.


    When a commanding voice orders a ceasefire from atop one of the monolithic lizards clad in obviously-enchanted armor, I nearly fall to my own knees. There¡¯s a magical presence behind that voice, similar to Jarrah Bettergrove¡¯s. Lucky me, I know exactly how to resist that sort of commanding presence. Despite my knees¡¯ desire to buckle from beneath me, I fly higher instead, before standing at eye level with this commander while riding one of my T K squares.


    I actually giggle, unintentionally, when Triorgraiz calls out, ¡°I, Triorgraiz of the pallid death order you to cease at once, and surrender if you wish to live!¡±


    Despite not wanting to, I can¡¯t fight the almost evil grin that spreads across my face as I retort, ¡°Buddy, that¡¯s my line!¡±

 B 6 C 130: Mecha High Mecha Low

    Quick Reggie, use retrocognition, find the clues, find the best way to turn the tides, some single masterstroke that takes advantage of this brief breather in order to¡ª. I get it. I know, I know, just do it already! Alright alright already! Breathing deeply, I dive into the non, the space between spaces, the time between moments, I stretch out the absence of time to dwell within it. My Honoris Causa deactivated in that last panic attack, so I¡¯ll be needing to reactivate it in a moment.


    Okay, take a look at the battlefield. Lil¡¯s taking too many little spells, and hasn¡¯t been able to bring many of his abilities to bear at all. Lucky¡¯s going to die if keeps trying to take on the magitek mecha. He¡¯s doing absolutely nothing to it, and it¡¯s hammering him with those blasts every few seconds. He¡¯s plenty tough enough to take a bunch more blasts yet, but it will end him before he so much as inconveniences it. Any of the three of us could take down Commander Triorgraiz. Wait, that¡¯s it.


    Think about the magitek mecha again for a second. There¡¯s auras and perfect seals everywhere, but I know for a fact that there¡¯s two Draconiacs in the cockpit piloting it. I know that it can be opened from within, but what about from outside? Hehe. Hehehe. Hehehehe.


    Reggie? Mhm. You have a spell just for that. Mhm. I know. The arcane-locking and knocking spell. It unlocks doors that aren¡¯t magically locked, instantly, and unlocks doors that are magically locked, in only the shortest of moments. Why try to beat some unbeatable magitek mecha, when you can just melt the pilots inside of it? I¡¯m sure it has weaknesses, but we might not have them available, or they might take too long to find mid-battle to survive against it.


    Okay, okay okay okay. So, that¡¯s what we¡¯ll do. I¡¯ll take on the magitek mecha, Lucky will swap to Lil¡¯s position to take on the hordes of annoying little things, and Lil will dance with Triorgraiz and her mount. Now, how can I communicate this without telepathy, without giving away our strategy to our foes, since my bond is blocked with my enchantment? I can¡¯t risk taking it down right now either, with Whisper¡¯s wielder hot on my tail. A simple code. I¡¯ve got it. Easy enough. Get back to it Reggie.


    Returning to the flow of time from the non, I enter reality at its normal pace. Whoops, hiya gravity. I¡¯m always forgetting about you. I shout what likely sounds like nonsense, ¡°Lucky, Lil, Robin¡¯s dance partner!¡±


    A round robin swap off of dance partners. Lucky gets it immediately, and even if Lil didn¡¯t catch on as quickly, Lucky rushing him with his giant tongue flailing causes Lil to veer towards me anyway. Chuckling, I wink at Triorgraiz as I fly by her towards the magitek mecha while drawing my archsorc staff, Cla¨ªomh Solais. I think her command is the first time I¡¯ve heard someone in Terrorzin¡¯s forces offer what might be mercy. It might be a ploy to get us to stand down, but even that hasn¡¯t been attempted before now. Anyway, she¡¯s Lil¡¯s dance partner now. I hope he can sus out if she¡¯s worth offering mercy to, and if she is, that he can try to get her to surrender.


    I mean, everyone is worth offering mercy to, but they might not be truly deserving of the life that mercy would grant them, if they choose to continue to do evil anyway. The mecha here can¡¯t choose to be evil, but I can¡¯t exactly offer it mercy either. The magitek mecha is agile, I¡¯ll give it that. Even though it looks a bit egg-shaped, its rounded body seems well-balanced, and its limbs are powerful enough that it¡¯s never off-kilter. While Lil swoops low towards Triorgraiz¡¯s mount, it lunges for him while she attempts to maintain control of the situation. Lucky is absolutely tearing through hordes along the wall, swatting them down like flies as he grows larger and larger. Me? Well, I¡¯m giggling about having to enter a back-door to win a fight, instead of having to exit one to flee a fight.


    Grasping the rear of the magitek mecha, between its boosters, I¡¯m exploring to find where the hatch was. Come on, come on! Unless they did some sort of dimensional traversal spell that opened a false door to another dimension that happens to hold the mech¡¯s interior, it should be here! There! Knock knock. Pft. I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh at my own stupidity as I double tap the hatch with the arcane knocking spell from Cla¨ªomh Solais.


    The pall of absolute fear that radiates from within the cockpit is almost immeasurable. I wish I had the time to offer mercy to these pilots. The sheer volume of buttons and devices within the cockpit make it unlikely that anyone untrained would be able to operate the thing at all. The problem is, if I spare them, anywhere I put them other than the portable hole is just somewhere they could sneak back into the cockpit of this near-unbeatable magitek mecha from. I¡¯m sorry you two. You look like you could be siblings, brother and sister maybe. I¡¯ll never know your names, or your stories. Please forgive me.


    Muttering a lower power spell, I loose, ¡°LSE, balefire.¡±


    There¡¯s one less of the lesser shadowy evocation spells available to me for the day, from the orb-time benefits. I¡¯ve got two more of those, and two more shadowy conjurations, three more blastfrosts, my meteorites, my two minute eighth tier conjuration, and maybe a few other things I¡¯m forgetting from that time. I choke back a sob at having taken lives without giving them a chance for mercy. I can¡¯t utilize this mecha, and I can¡¯t spare the time to figure out how it works, since retrocognition doesn¡¯t have any data points to try to fill me in from, and it could be boobytrapped as well. Sadly, all I can do for now is lock away the evidence of my abominable action. Closing the hatch, I layer it up with several arcane locking spells. Finally, I signal an ally I put into the fight a little while ago.


    When Frostfire Salamanderian makes her appearance, after I¡¯d just shut down their near-invincible magitek mecha, while Lucky¡¯s been decimating their ranged forces, it seems like the battle is finally going as planned. Lil has apparently slain, subdued, or knocked out Triorgraiz¡¯s mount, and she¡¯s trying to muster her forces in order to mount a more solid defense against us. There¡¯s a fear, and a sadness in her eyes, but it isn¡¯t just for her life. I feel sick to my stomach. She cares about her troops, and likely her mount.


    The fight is draining out of me pretty quickly, seeing Draconiacs dragging their wounded allies out of the fray, seeing a commander who cares about her people, and is saddened by the loss of her mount, possibly her friend. The shouts are still a mix of fanatical dogma as usual, but there¡¯s also pleas for friends to wake up, to be okay. There¡¯re orders to fall back, to protect the wounded. There are even calls that curse me and my party specifically for our brutality and ruthlessness.


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    Fighting back a sob, I call my own ceasefire, begging Frostfire Salamanderian to take up a position hidden amidst flames, awaiting a possible continuation of the fight. Lil and Lucky back up towards the entrance, both changing shape, shrinking enough that they can back out quickly if needbe.


    My best buddy queries, ¡°What¡¯s up Rej, why¡¯re we stopping? We¡¯re winning.¡±


    Sighing, and motioning to the field, I ask, ¡°Sure, but what are we winning against Lil? Not monsters, people. People that are still capable of empathy, despite half of them being brainwashed.¡±


    Shrugging, Lil responds, ¡°Well tough cookies for them, you offered mercy, I heard you. You keep doing it. Do you want to give it another try?¡±


    Nodding sadly towards Lil, I try to gather my thoughts. Divesting most of my armaments, putting away my weapons, sheathing Cla¨ªomh Solais, I float forward, down towards the ground with my palms up, until I¡¯m striding purposefully towards Triorgraiz. There¡¯s recognition in her eyes. She understands my regret for what I¡¯ve done.


    I don¡¯t get it. Until now, every Terrorzin follower seemed like a fanatical lunatic, or immediately defected, trying to get out from under his reign. Our information said the closer we got to the heart of Terrorzin¡¯s territories, the more fanatical they¡¯d be, but this is the deepest location of any of our offensives yet, even moreso than Teuila¡¯s current assault. Could they be playing me? Do they know that my weakness is sympathy? Sighing, I shake my head at myself. It doesn¡¯t matter whether they are or not. I have to be the me that tries.


    Standing tall, closing my eyes, I telekinetically snap several bolts out of the air that are launched my way, but I don¡¯t retaliate, despite the uneasy ceasefire. I begin, ¡°I¡¯m beyond devastated at having taken so many lives, and having caused so many injuries. Know that there will be many, many more before my war is through. I aim to end the Ice of Rage forever, and all those that would follow his insane plot to burn down the world around him. I¡¯ve not even begun to use a fraction of my true resources and powers yet, in anticipation of the undoubtedly strong defenses and powerful Spellknights awaiting me deeper within your fortress. Is there any chance that you would offer your surrender, in order to accept my mercy, and my vow of protection for those who choose to accompany you?¡±


    Despite my having said it several times already this battle, Triorgraiz asks, ¡°And who the hell are you that should demand the surrender of one of the Ice of Rage¡¯s mightiest fighting forces, in a party of only three?¡±


    Attempting to hide my sharp inhalation, I realize that she hasn¡¯t seen Luni yet, so we have even more aces up our sleeves. She is however layering spellwork, and I can¡¯t grip her with my telekinesis to prevent her from doing so. I answer with my usual titling, though in a far more somber tone than my usual shout, ¡°I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I¡¯ve slain and feasted on ancients, decimated entire strongholds, I wield The Four, and I am the spouse, the mate of Lady Kinzul of the Onyx Dawn. That is our son, Lil Shellcracker, Aliased Sun. That is our hound, Lucky Shellcracker, Aliased Hunter. Though I offer mercy at every engagement, so very few have accepted it. I won¡¯t list the names of those who¡¯ve defected by accepting my mercy, though I will say some have accepted, and are now under my protection, along with the rest of the residents of our home.¡±


    When Whisper appears in the air near my heart, stopped once again by my magics, I snatch it out of the air, draw Frostburn, and slice where the neck of its wielder will be. Whisper annoyingly disappears, to rejoin the hand of its wielder. Still, in the blink of an eye, Whisper¡¯s wielder appears, and is brought to their knees, clasping their neck with a bloody gurgle. I sheathe Frostburn, and pluck Whisper from their dying grasp, pocketing it in Chuck¡¯s extradimensional mini-bag full of cheese. Sighing, I motion at the futile effort of an assassin gifted with a powerful artifact in exasperation.


    Deciding to take some recompense for the interruption, I motion for Lucky to avail himself of the highly-enchanted armor on Triorgraiz¡¯s downed mount. I can tell there¡¯s enchantments related to immunities upon it, mental effects like fear specifically. If I¡¯m right, with that armor Lucky and anyone riding him, and possibly anyone standing really close to him, might be immune to fear effects, like dragonfright.


    The cold calculation that Triorgraiz views me with shows that she¡¯s even still as of yet, trying to determine her odds of subduing or slaying me and mine. I shake my head sadly, and begin to draw my blade once more, far more slowly, purposefully, like a countdown clock to doom. If she won¡¯t even at least try to speak, to plead terms, then this is as futile as Whisper¡¯s wielder¡¯s attack was. When she sighs, and places her hands forward placatingly, I raise a brow, pausing my drawing of Frostburn. When she flicks her glance to it, I let it drop back into its sheathe, and float myself into a lotus position in front of her.


    Gnawing my lip, I try not to react as I hear Lil grumbling about just getting back to fighting. He¡¯s the one that suggested I try one last time. Triorgraiz starts questioningly, ¡°What does surrender to a Hero of the Onyx Dawn look like for a devotee of the Ice of Rage?¡±


    Drawing a deep breath, and passing it through puffed cheeks, I worry that I¡¯m being stalled for time. I¡¯m not oblivious to the fact that a gjallahorn had been blown in staccato blasts earlier in our fight. Still, I have to try. My response is of course, ¡°To accept either shelter, temporary imprisonment in our safest locations until we¡¯re certain you won¡¯t lash out at the peace-loving folks of our home. Or to accept exile to the Untamed Lands, or to prove in some way that you will stick to a vow of non-aggression, abandon following Terrorzin, and cease any raiding or pillaging or mistreatment of those weaker than you.¡±


    The skeptically raised brow Triorgraiz flashes my way speaks plenty before her question, ¡°That last one, how do you expect us to survive?¡±


    Sighing, trying to hide a smile, and trying to prevent myself from chuckling, I answer, ¡°I doubt you¡¯d believe me, but the Onyx Dawn has created a system of magic with unparalleled sustainability. We could offer goods, rations, supplies as part of a peace treaty, and a guarantee of trade, for ongoing non-aggression.¡±


    I shouldn¡¯t be surprised when she literally spits as she spits out, ¡°Too good to be true.¡±


    Holding up a finger, I hold a note up in front of my goggles to get the attention of the security center operators. I want them to focus my outgoing scrying sensor from the security center, on the scrying sensor tied to the original shop in the vault. Hopefully someone is using it. Once I¡¯m certain the view is available, and clear enough, and that the shop is being used, I toss my goggles towards Triorgraiz. Flicking my head, I indicate for her to look through them, even if she doesn¡¯t want to wear them.


    There¡¯s only a moment¡¯s hesitation as Triorgraiz confirms her own suspicions about the abilities of the object I¡¯ve tossed her. Triorgraiz is a rather skilled sorceress, or Spellknight. She also makes note of the durability of the goggles, realizing I¡¯ve just handed her legendary metal as if it was nothing. When she witnesses a transaction occur, I¡¯d almost think we might be coming to an accord. Almost. If it weren¡¯t for what arrived in response to the gjallahorn.

 B 6 C 131: Lets Go Dire Weasel

    Hissing an order to Triorgraiz, I command, ¡°If you want to live, or want any of your subordinates to live, you¡¯ll organize them to get the hell away from this fight. If so much as one of your subordinates steps out of line to stab us in the back while I¡¯m dealing with these effing Damnations again, I¡¯m ending everyone here. Lu, Lucky, Lil, flying V, Lil speartip!¡±


    There¡¯s hesitation in Triorgraiz¡¯s eyes. She wants to see how this will play out, almost positive that there¡¯s no way I¡¯ll survive the encounter with the Damnations, especially if her forces aid them. I scowl, but I can¡¯t fault her. I¡¯d likely be of a similar mind in her position. Regardless, I flick my fingers towards the goggles, and towards her eyes, trying to remind her of the peace and sustainability we offer.


    As Luni begins flying slightly behind Lil and to his right, carrying Lucky as Lucky shrinks, I catch up, dashing towards the fray. Please. Please. Please all be bodybound, locked souls. Please. I¡¯m begging everything good in the world, please don¡¯t take my family from me. I¡¯m trying so hard to be good, to be a good person, to not give in to Wrath. My pulse races as I realize there¡¯s only two of the Damnations here, accompanied by an ancient Black and an ancient Blue. There are at least three more uninjured ones elsewhere.


    Please no. Please let them be anywhere other than near the other members of the Order. Illy, Prinny, Veril, Farzhis, I don¡¯t know if Te could save all of you from three to four Damnations at once. My limbs quake as my lower jaw quivers. FFS hitches a ride with me as we approach the oncoming ancient dragons. Nodding, I aid FFS in surfing towards the ancient Blue, as I don¡¯t want to chance that the Damnations can harvest FFS¡¯s eternal essence that normally returns to the elemental realm after a conjuring. Thankfully, I hear organized commands from Triorgraiz, and the commands include falling back, falling into line, and tending the wounded, and nothing more.


    The Damnations seem to be Ephlomseestiph, and Laombigla. Apparently Laombigla did the smart thing, and shrunk while avoiding the most dangerous pockets of the Worldstorm. They¡¯re battered, and scarred, and acid-pocked, but they¡¯re definitely still alive. So the other two must be high-ranking members of the Evil Claws. These jerks are so friggin¡¯ huge, I don¡¯t think I have anything that could take down a Damnation down here at ground level.


    When I hear a shout that sounds like scolding an underling, I turn around and telekinetically reverse the direction of a projectile back at the offending Draconiac. No mercy, no wasted time, instant death by their own enchanted crossbow bolt. Despite being as far away as she is, I can see Triorgraiz nodding solemnly to me, understanding that the only reason I¡¯m not wiping out everyone is because I can tell she tried to prevent the betrayal. She won¡¯t be getting another chance, because then I¡¯ll just assume she¡¯s only pretending to try to stop backstabbers.


    Whistling a quick note, I have our flying V bunch up momentarily so I can pass on, ¡°Lil, keep the big uninjured Damnation, Ephlomseestiph busy, but don¡¯t engage them. Focus on the acid dragon. Lucky, you and Lu focus on the lightning dragon. If you finish first, help Lil on the acid dragon. Vice versa if you finish first Lil. Watch out for their Latents. I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯re the Evil Claws.¡±


    Being that the ancient Blue is callipygous, I¡¯m going to assume she¡¯s the Callipygian. Really you guys, naming her after the size and shape of her rump? Whatever. The acid dragon could be Deviltail, Bad Dog, Devilhound, or maybe Laughing Drakk. There¡¯s too little information to go on to determine who they are, let alone what their latents might be. Plus, the rest of the thirteen Evil Claws might be laying in wait, or en-route. To prevent that from becoming an issue, I have to end Laombigla once and for all.


    Try as I might, I can¡¯t think of a way to take him down though. Funnily enough, my most powerful resource-using abilities wouldn¡¯t do more than tickle him. My spamming metamagical abilities though might be efficient enough to wear him down. Grr, of course he¡¯s immune to half of the damage provided by my spell. I really need to learn the other¡ª, wait, did I? That¡¯s right, I did. It was only five runes, and it was in several of the newer spellbooks. Necrotic Touch. It¡¯s difficult to keep track of how much I have access to since I¡¯m stuck pursuing lateral growth.


    Let¡¯s see if we can really lean into our powers here. Necrotic energy is the absence of life. It¡¯s devoid of life essence, it¡¯s a void that saps life. Necrotic blasts literally rend a schism both through the air, and in their targets. Come on, psych myself up, work Latent, work! Ugh, it¡¯ll take me a few dozen S P to learn how to make it as cheap as my frosty ray spell. That¡¯s fine. It¡¯ll be worth it to skirt this jerk¡¯s immunities to thermal damages. Two of the metamagical runic clip procs aren¡¯t going to do anything, since one releases a tiny puff of fire, and the other a tiny burst of frost. That¡¯s fine though. Of the several other clips, one releases a necrotic burst and another releases a psychic burst.


    I can almost guarantee these dickweasels don¡¯t have any sort of resistance or immunity to either of those two magical elements. Otherwise they wouldn¡¯t be compromised by the¡ª red eyes. Fricklefrack. Bad timing Reggie. I know. Panic incoming. I know! Hard to sell that invincible conqueror look when you curl fetal and rock back and forth while weeping. I know! I can fight it off for a while. I¡¯ve got the neural node that I made specifically to temporarily box up panic attacks. Huff, huff. Fudge. It¡¯s exhausting fighting off panic. I¡¯m already panting with exertion, and maybe hyperventilating a bit from the panic.


    Alright, alright, focus. Fight it off for a bit. Draw Laombigla¡¯s attention. Here goes twenty¡¯ish SP just to practice using this spell. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever fired it off before. Four Necrotic Touches. Hmf, if they did any damage at all, even with the runic clip enhancements, it¡¯s not noticeable, but at least Lu, Lil, and Lucky, now have that tiny mana film aura protecting them once more. Plus Frostfire Salamanderian has it for the first time. Every last little edge helps.


    Lu and Lucky are doing alright, with Lucky large enough to leap at and ground the ancient Blue, even if she tries to raise all the way up to the base of the Worldstorm. I understand she can risk flying right up against it, due to her immunity to lightning, but Lucky can become massive, and is incredible at leaping. Breathe. They¡¯re okay. They¡¯re okay.


    I can sense the wavelengths of the ancient Blue attempting dragonfright, and for a moment, I worry, but seeing that Lucky, and his two passengers are completely unaffected, I grin. One more ace up our sleeves. Thank you armor from Triorgraiz¡¯s mount. I¡¯m sorry if your mount doesn¡¯t pull through Triorgraiz. I¡¯ll see what I can do about that after this is all over. Lil¡¯s not doing quite so hot. He¡¯s not close enough to benefit from Lucky¡¯s new fear immunity aura, and the Evil Claw captain acid dragon has him pinned in dragonfright, with Ephlomseestiph closing in. Dangit Reggie, pay attention to your own fight!


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    Being that I¡¯m currently in RS2, with no special defenses up, the swipe coming my way from Laombigla would likely crush me, or disembowel me. Time to raven-port. One down, four left today, we are three, three are we. We wheel, we spiral, we disengage, and reconvene. We find a familiar perch on our friend, and an unfamiliar perch on the acid dragon. Which to choose, which to choose? Acid dragon¡¯s scales are shiny like onyx. Shinies and treasures. Acid dragon wears shiny treasures, hidden by horns and scales. We like shinies. We are no longer three, we become Reggie once more.


    Rattling my skull, sitting on the back of this Evil Claw captain, I focus my Honoris Causa to drink of the signals it¡¯s putting out. Oh no. Lil! That looked painful. Focus Reggie, focus. Lil can survive a few hits. Please survive a few hits Lil. I choke back tears, fighting back several fears, and a load of panic. Analyze the signals. Discombobulate them. Reorient them in order to bounce them back and forth against themselves. Let it feel like the dragonfright is still outgoing. Magnetically cage the outgoing signals. While we¡¯re here, let¡¯s give Lil a little help with a good old number four from my QCR.


    As the Worldstorm¡¯s lightning, and the breath weapon of the Callipygian are suddenly directed my way, I swing around to the underside of the throat of this Evil Claw captain. It manages to daze him, while Lil is freed from dragonfright, before this captain can charge a deep acid breath. Lil could protect himself from acid breath as long as he¡¯s not paralyzed. His flames are hot enough to evaporate it on contact. I just had to get him freed before this jerk had enough time to charge up. Back to the Damnations for me. I guess I¡¯ll try to snag Ephlomseestiph¡¯s attention too. Back to number five from my QCR so that I¡¯m not dealing with a constant torrent of lightning damage for no reason.


    Twenty¡¯ish more SP for quick casts of this spell, pinging Ephlomseestiph in the face. Yep, I¡¯ve got both Damnations¡¯ attentions. I¡¯m not much closer to finding the correct structure to pull mana from the ambient nature of the surrounding world and its nearby elemental plane for this spell though. I need to find something that resembles the element of undeath, or void, or darkness, or necrosis, or something. Hm, grim and gruesome, but it might work. I need a corpse. It¡¯s easy enough to telekinetically snag one from the walls where they¡¯d been firing at us from previously.


    Ten¡¯ish more SP, and a new electromagnetic field trapping the runes in place near the corpse. Okay Reggie, think, quickly. The frosty ray spell required pairing of the outer elemental rune, with its nearest operand, and the final two operand runes, in a feedback loop tied to the nearby elemental plane. Does necrotic energy exist on that same plane, or do I need to find existence of another plane, one of life and death? If I do, is a corpse a close enough tie to that plane, in order to sense it?


    Maybe focus on the giant boulder being hurled your way by a Damnation Reggie. Fricklefrack and a crapsack sack of crap. Another raven-port down for the day, because I¡¯m still squishy RS2, with no defensive buffs up. All three of my Skin of Stone uses are down for the day, and I haven¡¯t had time or the desire to use up a quickened cast of Steely Body yet. Plus, I¡¯m not sure if I have more than three¡¯ish casts worth of adamantite shavings. This is going to have to last me.


    We are three, three are we, though only barely. Three of us are smooshed by enormous flying rock. We near-instantly are once again Reggie as RS2 atop the boulder. Well, there goes that corpse. Eugh. Sheesh. I guess I¡¯ll grab another then. I also need to re-cage more runes once more, bluh, another ten¡¯ish SP down while I ponder over this newest corpse from the walls. Hm, my giant dire shadow weasel is gone. Let¡¯s resummon that, and see if we can¡¯t notice some similarities, since it¡¯s both made of shadow-stuff, and we¡¯re imitating a shadow creature with that void-stuff. If I¡¯m lucky, the Damnations might not even realize it¡¯s technically mostly an illusion.


    Hm, I need to buy myself time. It seems too early to do this, but I also need to pull out my once per day eighth tier monstrous mana construct. Pulling out a copy of Frostfire Salamanderian to buy myself time, along with this giant dire shadow weasel, might actually keep the Damnations from realizing that one is an illusion, since the other certainly isn¡¯t. I wish I had my goggles on right now to check on my loved ones, but that fraction of a chance of being able to offer mercy is worth it for them to be in enemy hands momentarily. I¡¯ve no doubt I could retrieve them if I need to kill everyone anyway.


    Focus Reggie. Shut up for a minute and concentrate. The eighth tier monstrous mana construct is, well, absolutely monstrous. It¡¯s like Frostfire Salamanderian fighting at her absolute fiercest, and tossing her a suit of Valkyrie equipment is letting her hold her own against Damnations. That¡¯s insane. Too bad she only lasts for two minutes. We might as well conjure our once per day daily uses of meteorites as well. The twelve chunks of space rock show up, floating around me in helix patterns. Whenever I notice an opportunity for distraction out of the corner of my eye, I launch one off, preventing a Damnation from landing a blow on my temporary summoned allies.


    I¡¯m burning through these new resources like crazy. Uh oh. Muttering a quick shout I call out, ¡°LSE Stonewall!¡±


    Ooph. My brain is rattling from that one. Another daily use of an ability down, and it at least slowed the impact of the tail swept my way. I wasn¡¯t paying attention to Lil¡¯s battle. He let his Evil Claws captain target drift my way. He looks chagrined, embarrassed to have let me take a hit for him, when I¡¯m trying to focus. Hurp. Ugh, my stomach still isn¡¯t settled from that nonsense in the outhouse. Trying to help Lil, and to dissuade this Evil Claws acid dragon idiot from interrupting me further, I unleash two quick blasts of frost, one at each of its wings, grounding it temporarily. Two thirds of the daily uses of that ability gone now too. Crap on a cracker. We¡¯re burning through everything other than our SP.


    Okay, okay, one last time, ten¡¯ish more SP to try to learn this spell inside and out. Breathe Reggie. Breathe deeply, take it easy. Concentrate. Focus. Welp. There goes my giant dire shadow weasel. I resummon it, using my last lesser shadow conjuration for the day, and keep it at my side rather than sending it out to be distraction fodder. Focus, attune to it. Drink in the essence of shadow-stuff, of shadow-creatures, of the voidstuff that makes up semi-illusory shadowy spells. Find the link to necrotic energy, to death and undeath, to the absence of life, to¡ª. Yes! The evil grin that spreads up the left half of my face is too hard to fight, so I let myself wear it. Two runes down, two operand runes to go. Three if I¡¯m lucky, but I doubt I¡¯ll get that lucky.


    This way? No. What about¡ª? No. Grr, how did it work with the other one? It was right after I¡¯d tried the other combinations. Let¡¯s try the other combinations. Oh. Oh the operand rune order is different for this spell. It¡¯s the two directly after the first pair. How odd. Well, at least now I know. Four runes now free for this spell is a massive boon when I¡¯m so often going up against thermally immune foes. Eeny, meeny, miney, mo. Nah, we know who we¡¯re going after. Laombigla has to go down. Hopefully the Evil Claws are less apt to obey the rest of the Damnations. Here goes, well, not quite everything. Let¡¯s go dire weasel.

 B 6 C 132: Panic Finally Does It

    Huff, puff. Fighting off panic for this long during battle is doing a number on me, and going to make it all the worse when I finally succumb. My eyes are drying out and puffing up itchily. That¡¯s right you Damnations, you pieces of crap, surround me to catch me in a crossfire. See what that gets you. I fire off the last of my meteorites, mostly only attempting to keep the attention of the Damnations on me. Let¡¯s go ahead and pull a QCR number four, while pushing outwards.


    The spin created by the path of inertia as my centripetal force meets the curse¡¯s centrifugal force causes me to once again become a giant ball of lightning. Or rather, I¡¯m surrounded by a shell of lightning traversing a specific radius around me. Drawing my lightning-empowered rune knife from my Bandolier, I await the next move by the Damnations, while my summoned allies sneak away to help Lil, Lucky, Lu, and FFS. Blah blah they¡¯re trying their breath weapons and dragonfright combo. They are however smart enough to blow their breath weapons through tightly-pursed scaled-lip apertures. This leads to a high pressure stream instead of a massive roaring cone.


    Still, between my natural resistances, my inclination to not remain in the path of such deadly elements, and the shielding generated by the electromagnetic field surrounding me, I¡¯m quite alright despite their advanced tactics. While they¡¯re attacking, identify the radiation emitted by their attack. Sense the wavelengths that are absorbed into the void of me. How did it go? If a polar opposite radiation meets, in a fashion similar to matter-antimatter annihilation, it releases gamma irradiated neutrinos? Or does it specifically have to be antimatter? Can I fake antimatter with shadowy evocation?


    Hm, on second thought, maybe don¡¯t try to come up with something that could cause a runaway chain reaction that destroys or irradiates all matter on the planet. Even if it¡¯s only an infinitesimally low chance to chain in that manner, it¡¯s about as likely to do that, as to be a useful killing tool. Just be satisfied with the tools you¡¯ve got Reggie. Hm, FFS wants more SP from the staff to keep their body maintained while fighting alongside Lu and Lucky. Sure thing. Your presence is probably the most efficient use of SP I can think of from the staff.


    Okay, blind this one, distract the other with my last free cold cone of the day. Follow it up with more blinding on this one shouting, ¡°LSE Radiant cascade!¡±


    That should keep this one dazed long enough for me to find an auditory canal. Ah, the ear holes are behind the frills provided by the horns. That makes sense, in order to offer some protection from their own roars and breath weapons. Alright, as soon as we unequip four from our QCR, be prepared to throw the lightning empowered-rune knife and direct the path of the freed-up lightning blast along with it. Deep breath Reggie, deep breath. I know you¡¯re fighting off panic pal, and you¡¯re going to have to give in any second. Just hold it for a little bit more, until we¡¯re tucked inside this ear canal. There¡¯s the tympanic membrane. It¡¯s a thundrous drum of immense proportions. Get ready, get ready¡ª. Now!


    Releasing the combined spinning forces by removing my cursed gear, replacing it with number five from my QCR, I toss my lightning knife at the tympanic membrane while directing the massive ball of electricity to follow along after it. Simultaneously I fling myself in the same direction, albeit much slower than the travel rate of my lightning, as I allow myself to succumb to the panic attack that had been building since I accidentally acknowledged one of my worst triggers.


    Tumbling deep into this auditory cavity, the now jagged, torn membrane looks exactly like my worst fears. Despite lightning bouncing around inside this region doing the work I need it to, it only highlights the flickering flashback hallucinations. Every surface is some jagged approximation of a maw. The fact that I¡¯m inside a living creature, inside organic tissue, that¡¯s rent in such a way as to appear like my terror-filled dreams of Day One is only exacerbating the issue. I¡¯m sent tumbling, literally and figuratively, from torn cavity to torn cavity.


    I feel as if I¡¯m chewed and spat from mouth to mouth, maw to maw, jaw to jaw, over and over and over. I run screaming into my mindscape, no escape from this hellish reality. My vision has tunneled to a pinprick, and yet I¡¯m fully capable of seeing all the nightmarish maws ready to rend my flesh from my body. Every surface that could, couldn¡¯t, should, shouldn¡¯t, would, or wouldn¡¯t be able to open into an approximation of a fanged maw, does so anyway. The roaring of the wind blasting through this eerie organic cavern only adds to the terrifying experience. Its otherworldly whooshing is punctuated by the actual roars of the creature whose skull I¡¯m inside of, tumbling further and further into its depths.


    I¡¯m sobbing, screaming in terror, and quite likely unintentionally thunder-shouting as I tumble, roll, fumble, scramble, crawl, shake, and curl fetal inwardly upon myself. Though I can¡¯t afford it, minutes pass by in this hellscape. Worse, I¡¯m pursued. The only thing my body or mind can think to do is to flee, and flee I do, deeper into this territory unknown to me, as unknown as my entire life and the jungles around me on Day One.


    Almost comfortingly, I find a concave spot that¡¯s perfect for my form to crawl in, curl up in a fetal position, and weep, just like Day One. Perhaps disgustingly, I pull a sheet of material over myself, to hide beneath, just like the big leathery leaves on Day One. Only, this material isn¡¯t leathery leaves, it¡¯s moist, torn, inner-ear flesh. The me experiencing the panic isn¡¯t really cognizant of this. I¡¯m halfway into an out-of-body experience, noticing my panic, my terror-stricken self curled up, rocking and weeping. Reggie. Reggie please. Please snap out of it. We¡¯re being followed. We¡¯re being chased. Get up a defensive spell, anything, please.


    Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. The sobs and weeping of the Reggie beneath the ear-flesh are heard by our pursuer. They tear back our ¡°blanket,¡± and grip us by the throat as they lift us into the air. Reggie, you¡¯re going to die if you don¡¯t react! Reggie please! F#(k! My heart¡¯s racing so hard that it feels like it¡¯s bound to collapse or explode at any moment. Do, do something, anything! Wiggle your finger even a little bit, I¡¯ll put the intention into the rune!


    Hah! Oh. Balls. We missed the one gripping our throat. But we did manage to proc the bangle¡¯s runic clips though, including the randomly chaos-magic runic clip. Wh¡ª, what? That aura. It¡¯s, it¡¯s¡ª. It almost looks like reincarnation after a countdown. But it only lasts a scant few moments. Can, glp¡ª. Can I utilize that somehow?


    Frantically trying to resume control over myself, to gain some semblance of safety, of control, to flee the terror-stricken mindscape holding me hostage. Pleading with everything in the world to make the me trapped in a Damnation¡¯s grasp use our raven-porting, or just about anything, nothing responds. I¡ª. I die. Reggie Shellcracker dies in the grip of a Damnation while inside the skull of another. My neck is violently snapped, utterly shattered.


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    I¡¯m nearly beheaded in the grasp of this ancient evil. My corpse is tossed aside with disdain. A sense of calm overtakes me. I¡¯m no longer in control. There¡¯s nothing to be in control of anymore, or ever again. It¡¯s pretty hard to have a panic attack when you¡¯ve actually been slain, and are truly dead. The Damnation says something about a prime something, and fishing my corpse out later when we¡¯ve returned.


    Well. I always did sort of expect my panic attacks to get me killed some day. I can¡¯t say it¡¯s all that much of a surprise really. I didn¡¯t expect it to be so soon, or suddenly. I guess it makes sense, with the foes that I¡¯m currently facing. Well, was currently facing. Wait, can a was be current? Whatever, the foes that I was facing at the time. Sorry Reggie. Sorry everyone. I never meant to die.


    I tried to correct this fatal vulnerability of mine. I truly did. I made a whole magical neuro-electric digital brain-box thing to contain panic attacks, to put them off in case they hit me during a battle, for exactly this situation. I guess it wasn¡¯t good enough though. I wasn¡¯t good enough. Sighing, I gaze down at the broken corpse before me, the neck twisted at an ungodly awful angle.


    So much for that massive pool of hitpoints Reggie. I know, right? I guess a coup de grace while incapacitated is still going to kill me, or pretty much anyone. I suppose that¡¯s how assassins usually work. Funny, that reminds me of Aces, and their dog Eights. Which reminds me of a really lame joke. What joke? Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven eight nine. Wait. Countdown. Nine, eight, seven.


    Six, five, four, three, two, one. The wild, random, chaotic chaos-magic benefit kicks in, and I¡¯m revived, or rather, reincarnated. My body is replaced, and the new one made available to me grows horns, and a long, thick, tapered tail. My hair grows back, or, at least, some head of dark burnished-copper hair adorns my new cranium. My eyes lose their sclera and pupils, becoming a creamy silverish, almost platinum in tone. I become even further attuned to the magic of Rayileklia, though unfortunately, moreso in particular with the hellish, Fel magic of Rayileklia. I suppose that suits my current purpose well-enough.


    Shouting my challenge upon my return to life, I call out to both Ephlomseestiph, and Laombigla, ¡°I am Reggie Shellcracker! I am a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn! I am an archmage Aliased Schism! And, I! Am! The! Void Dragon Honoris Causa!¡±


    Donning ¡°The Platinum¡¯s¡± sorcerous robe, I begin slinging a rapid cavalcade of spells while my manifestation of my Void Dragon form lets loose, clawing its way about towards the brain of the Damnation I¡¯m currently within. What magic I¡¯m able to loose is a virtual artillery battery of elementally empowered blasts backed up by an incessant, nonstop barrage of runic clip procedural effects.


    I begin to levitate, no, I fly without the use of my telekinesis. I am encased in glow of a radiant aura. Further, more and more random magical effects occur from the chaos-magic runic clip. The Damnation that had just slain me actually flees before me, exiting the skull of Laombigla. That¡¯s fine by me. Laombigla begins to shrink around me, but I reinforce myself with my Steely Body spell, becoming an adamantite being within this ear-canal.


    I sling more and more and more and more copies of this necrotic blast at rapid pace, proc¡¯ing the bangle¡¯s runic clips again and again and again. The chaos-magic conjures fireballs centered on myself, which does nothing to me, but likely irritates this inner ear with concussive force. The chaos-magic transforms my skin to blue, and has my hair fall out once more, unfortunately. The magic launches lightning bursts that traverse the inner ear, towards the fleeing Damnation, Ephlomseestiph, shocking both Damnations thoroughly. It also bolsters my protective abilities, and launches missiles of pure condensed mana repeatedly. It looses more necrotic energies that sap both Damnations while reinvigorating me.


    Two strange little starfish robots appear, and they whirl away, scared off by the cavalcade of chaotic magic being unleashed. I find myself on a separate plane of existence that appears akin to a sea of stars several times during my magical mishaps, returning only moments later after each traversal. Several times, I actually become a sheep momentarily, but the constant swarm of fire and lightning damages that form enough to disrupt it, returning myself to my new devilish form. Pink bubbles float from my mouth during my raucous onslaught, preventing me from speaking.


    Thankfully I don¡¯t have or utilize a spoken mnemonic, so it doesn¡¯t prevent me from continuing my magical assault. I¡¯m made invisible for the briefest of moments, and I grow a literal third eye in the middle of my forehead, expanding my situational awareness somehow. Further, Laombigla becomes invisible momentarily, vanishing around me, offering me a view of the lands outside Vorzog¡¯s Keep, but I gain the ability to see invisible creatures shortly after.


    I can feel Laombigla reel, shudder, tip, and topple over. Laombigla¡¯s life-force wanes, and is almost entirely diminished. The Damnation is quite nearly dead, as I continue to rain down necrotic and psychic damage from within its skull, towards its brain. Unfortunately, if I remain within while it continues to shrink, I could very-well perish myself. I have to make a hasty exit with my newfound temporary flight granted by the chaos-magic.


    Funnily enough, some of the chaotic effects were almost entirely useless, like the fact that Laombigla and I were both made temporarily invisible, but I can see invisible creatures right now, and area of effects revealed us, dispelling our invisibility. The terribly vast variety of effects that have befallen the two of us is hilarious. Perhaps the most startling thing to have occurred though, is the fact that I seem to have summoned a unicorn. The beautiful mythic beast looks terribly confused, and a tad frightened to be standing near a convulsing, evil, ancient-dragon Damnation. Well, the unicorn is perhaps less surprising than the two starfish robots that are wheeling away into the sky and¡ª. Whoops. I guess they didn¡¯t notice the Worldstorm.


    Focus Reggie, get a grip. Reorient. Huff. I¡¯m so, I¡¯m so¡ª. Resurrection sickness? Um, maybe. Horf. Yeah probably. Did, did I just puke up gravel? What the¡ª? Adamantite body spell I guess, maybe. Toppling to my knees, I continue to dry-heave as I reel from the experience of dying and returning to life once again. The unicorn appears to glance at me with pity, but something about me, or my current form makes it shy away in disgust, before galloping off.


    I suppose it might detest me because I¡¯m now some blue-skinned devilish creature, that probably doesn¡¯t resemble Reggie Shellcracker at all. Do I still have my powers? Hm, I believe that I do. Yes, probably at least. If I could focus, I could probably shapechange back to myself. I¡ª. This demonic nature, these new ties to the Fel¡ª. I think I¡¯m part incubus or succubus. I guess that makes me either an inkling or a succling.


    Hearing Luni titter across my mindscape causes me to roll my eyes, despite my disoriented, discombobulated nature. Shaking my head, I can¡¯t help smiling that even now, even though she must know that I¡¯ve just died, Lu is finding humor in my mental monologue, my inner narrative. Struggling to my feet, I double over and dry heave once more. Crap on a cracker. I stagger towards the Damnation whose life is mere moments away from slipping into the great beyond. I stumble, and fall to my side, again, and stand again, and fall again.


    Though I¡¯ve powers like telekinesis, and even a temporary ability to fly, my brain is suffering backlash both from the reincarnation, and the absolutely insane torrent of chaos-magic that I unleashed. I can¡¯t manage to manifest any of my powers, or even stand straight. No. No. No! Not again! No!

 B 6 C 133: Zero Dragonforce

    Ephlomseestiph begins to flee with my prize, the still-shrinking body of Laombigla. While Lil is still embroiled in a battle with the acid-dragon captain of the Evil Claws. Sadly, I can¡¯t request his help. Similarly, Lu, and Lucky are still duking it out with the Callipygian, though both parties seem to be doing well with their fights. It seems FFS disappeared when I died. Hurp. If I could just stop puking and dry heaving, and even stand straight, I¡¯d help out my friends, or chase down the Damnation fleeing with the dragonforce that¡¯s rightfully mine. Uh oh, speaking of dragonforces, where are mine?


    Great, the reincarnation kept the changeling mana residue sickness, but not the aegis that had been preventing it from killing me? Part of the reason I¡¯m horfing up my guts is because I¡¯m having a heart attack in an adamantite body with no heart. Friggin¡¯ hell. I had four dragonforces in here dangit! I mean, in, um, my normal, real body, maybe? Crap I¡¯m confused, and disoriented, and going to lose consciousness soon.


    Doffing my psychic brainblast aegis circlet, I telepathically call out, ¡°Guys, I, glp, died again. Some magic brought me back, but I¡¯m dying again, again, because my dragonforces are gone. I don¡¯t have the same reincarnation buff on me again. I lucked out the first time. I¡ª. I¡¯ve got seconds, maybe minutes.¡±


    Sensing the terrible worry that the Triple L Squad has for me, and my current predicament, there¡¯s little I can do to reassure them. Lucky abandons his fight with the Callipygian, and tears off across the battlefield towards Lil, who happens to be closer to me. My son leaps at the distracted Evil Claws captain facing Lil, and grips the obsidian neck of the dragon in his teeth while flipping over to the far side of the captain from his leap, causing him to essentially shoulder toss the captain by its neck, piledriving it into the ground.


    During Lucky¡¯s crazy acrobatic attack-maneuver, Lu grips and hangs on to the edges of Lucky¡¯s new armor for dear life as she¡¯s spun about as if she were on a tilt-a-whirl. Lil and Lucky capitalize on the captain¡¯s downed state, diving for its now weakened neck, tearing into it. I stagger towards the swiftly dying Deviltail, a captain of the Evil Claws.


    Trying to focus my breathing, and to uncross my eyes, I plead with FFS to return, offering up more SP from Cla¨ªomh Solais. Thankfully, he obliges, feeling masculine at the moment. FFS returns to the battlefield, and leaps into the fray to temporarily distract the Callipygian, while Lil pries loose the captain¡¯s chest scales. I stumble, and fall, as my vision begins to fade once more. I¡¯m¡ª. I¡¯m so close. My eyes droop, and sag, as the pain in my chest grows to unbearable levels. My Steely Body spell is the only thing keeping me from succumbing to my current heart attack. I don¡¯t technically need my organs at this exact instant to survive. Of course, preventing my death internally is taxing the spell to its breaking point, and I can feel the aura enabling it begin to flicker.


    Staggering another step, I¡¯m still dozens of meters away from the corpse of the ancient black dragon that lays before me. My eyes droop closed, unable to open. I can sense Lucky¡¯s confusion as he nears me. He sniffs me several times, and makes disgusted faces at my scent. I no longer smell like Reggie Shellcracker. I no longer have the body of Reggie Shellcracker. Lil finishes exposing the heart of the ancient dragon, and has to fly to the aid of FFS in facing the Callipygian, to keep us from being blasted by lightning. My eyes feel so heavy, and my jaw feels slack. Everything feels like it¡¯s bobbing at a fast pace. Oh, it is.


    The telepathic wavelength I share with Lucky as he swiftly carries me is conveying something like, ¡°Other parent, new smell, bad smell over good smell. Other parent needs bath?¡±


    If I weren¡¯t nearly dead, I¡¯d probably laugh, and roughhouse with Lucky for that comment. More of my muscles sag weakly, no longer responding to me as my Steely Body spell wears off. My muscles are no longer supported by the enchantment that makes them both dense as, and strong as metal. We¡¯re so, so close. Just, just a bit¡ª. More¡ª. My hand struggles, desperately trying to reach forth towards the heart that we¡¯re fast approaching.


    Focus Reggie, fo¡ª. Wait, can I even absorb a dragonforce without one of my own? I lose consciousness, toppling free of Lucky¡¯s grip into the chest cavity of the being whose dragonforce could save my life.


    ¡°You¡¯re quite lucky that you are who you are you know. Hurry along now. Wake up. We haven¡¯t yet met for the first time. You¡¯ve so much more living, and so much more dying to do, you strange little thing. Our bargain remains inviolate, as ever it shall.¡± The non ripples and roils in waves as it both speaks to me, yet utters nothing at all.


    The presence of the voice is both a part of me, yet external. Somehow it¡¯s simultaneously contradictions, yet truths, yet also neither. I don¡¯t exist here, yet I¡¯m being ¡°am.¡± I can¡¯t perceive here, because there is neither perception, nor anything to perceive. I¡¯m here both for an eternity, and no time at all, because there is no time here, no concept of such a thing, no concepts at all. That¡¯s when I realize¡ª.


    Gasping for air, I flail as strength returns to my limbs. My gaze darts around wildly as I try to stretch away the pain in several locked muscles. How? What? Other mes? Simultaneous, yet never¡ª. I¡ª. Confused, my head lolls weakly to one side before I realize I¡¯m still alive, that I haven¡¯t died yet. Or, well, at least not again since my neck was snapped.


    Hah. I had my Honoris Causa active without any dragonforce. It became a vacuum, a void. A ceaseless Schism yearning, needing to be filled. Okay, okay, I¡¯m burning through dragonforce incredibly quickly here to draw this one in. I need to drop my Honoris Causa¡¯s manifestation, and to¡ª. Oh, hi Lu. Mmm. Is now really the time?


    Crying over me as she cradles me, Luni releases my lips from hers to grumble, ¡°Shut up. Don¡¯t scare me like that. You bully. You butt. Don¡¯t ever do that again. I thought I lost you. I thought we lost you. Twice! Twice in only a couple of minutes! I hate you!¡±


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    Through sobs, Luni shakes her head, correcting herself, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t hate you. I hate this. I hate the fighting, the hurting, the risks. The dying. Please, please try to be more careful sweetie. Please. I don¡¯t think my heart could take it. You can¡¯t die. You just can¡¯t. Okay? Just, just don¡¯t.¡±


    Leaning in to kiss Luni softly, I allow her grip to help me up as she stands. Lucky wags his tail incessantly as his parents embrace and share a tender moment, despite us being covered in dragon¡¯s blood inside a chest cavity. When he¡¯s sure I¡¯m not going to abandon Luni, he rushes off to join Lil and FFS in fighting the Callipygian. If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d say Lucky was having too much fun fighting her to want to finish her off. He seems to be screwing around more than going for the kill. I¡ª. I think he likes her callipyginousness.


    Sighing, I facepalm while shaking my head. I guess Lucky likes big butts, and since he cannot talk, he cannot lie. We¡¯ll have to get Lucky to focus later. For now, I reach towards the dragon¡¯s heart before me. Thinking better on it, knowing I don¡¯t need to eat the hearts to absorb the dragonforce, I decide to try something else out. Are you still there powers? RS2¡¯s shapeshifting benefits? Can I still call on you? It seems to be working. In a few minutes, I¡¯ll be done with this dragonforce, and by then, I¡¯m sure Lil, Lucky, Lu, and FFS will have the Callipygian downed. Then in a few minutes I¡¯ll be back up to almost two thousand days worth of dragonforce. Well, fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred. I somehow burned up a lot of the ambient dragonforce around me, maintaining my Honoris Causa¡¯s manifestation while having no dragonforce to sustain it.


    Hm. I wonder if the Damnations¡¯ dragonforces are worth more than a thousand days apiece. Kissing Luni softly, I pat her on the butt in the direction of the fight. Luni frowns, and sets the portable hole in my lap. Still, she knows they need her, and that I¡¯m not going to go dying on her. Thankfully, Luni loves Lucky and Lil enough that she heads to aid them.


    Wow, it just struck me. Lil, my best buddy is technically my adoptive son in law. Lucky is technically my son. My two sons are out there, battling an ancient dragon in the hopes of killing it fast enough to help keep me alive by offering me its dragonforce. Feeling a shock on my arm startle me from my reverie, I take a look at the bangle, and its runic clips. There¡¯s an obnoxious spark every few seconds, flashing about the runic circuitry. Uh oh. Did I go overboard?


    The various chaos-magic effects have worn off, but there¡¯s still an occasional flicker and spark from my bangle. Poking it, I get zapped for my efforts. I think we can maybe make replacement bangles, but the clips I¡¯m still not so sure about. Even if we can get replacement bangles, it apparently takes an hour of willpower focused almost entirely on removing a clip in order to remove it without breaking it. Then it requires an hour before the benefits fully apply to a new bangle after being clipped in.


    Ugh, It¡¯d take like nine hours for me to transfer all these clips to a new bangle, if they aren¡¯t what¡¯s currently overloaded. I¡¯ve got a few data points, let¡¯s try to slip into the non, a point between points, a time between moments, and figure this out. Inside the lack, the absence of time, I settle in momentarily. I could drop my Honoris Causa from being manifested, since I no longer need it to absorb the dragonforce around me. I¡¯m safe inside a dragon¡¯s chest cavity, my family is relatively safe nearby, battling an ancient lightning dragon. I need to use retrocognition a bit for some answers.


    Question one, is it the bangle or are the runic clips currently overloaded? Hm. Not enough data points. Question two, was the number of spells too many applications of the runic clips in total, in a given day, or in just such a rapid brief period? Question three, What are some solutions to question two¡¯s predicament once it¡¯s figured out?


    Hm, skipping question one for now, I do have several data points on question number two. Since I didn¡¯t need to engage the embolstering clip anywhere near as frequently as the other clips, and I hadn¡¯t been using the flame or frost clips, there¡¯s some clues available. If I continued using the embolstering clip today, would it continue functioning? Let¡¯s draw up some simulations.


    Hm. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Oof. Okay, sure. Right. Right. Good. Okay. So¡ª. Hm. That means there¡¯s about a ten percent chance that it¡¯d break or backfire. There¡¯s about a ten percent chance that it¡¯d temporarily burn out. But, there¡¯s around an eighty percent chance that, as long as I¡¯m not rapidly casting, that the clip retains its functionality just fine, which gives me data points for question number one, in that it¡¯s almost positively the clips, the more important bits, that are overloaded. Crap.


    Right now, it¡¯s the necrotic burst clip, the psionic burst clip, the chaos-magic clip, and the enfeeblement-curse clip that are overloaded, and sparking, if I¡¯m understanding correctly. I probably am understanding correctly. That isn¡¯t bragging, that¡¯s just taking an educated guess based on the percentages. Is it safe to use any of the other clips today, or continue using any of the effects of the bangle at all right now? Retrocognition is saying about at least a seventy percent chance that the answer is no, it¡¯s not entirely safe, that there might be some drawbacks.


    Groaning, I roll my eyes at myself, and the disheartening answer. At least retrocognition¡¯s simulations say that there¡¯s an up to eighty percent chance that at least most of the bangle and most of the clips will keep functioning more or less just fine, even if I continue to use other clips today. The chance for most of the clips to recover fine on their own is higher if I use only the non metamagic oriented clips, though I¡¯ve only got two of those, and I don¡¯t really see them being useful in this combat. No one¡¯s summoning stone elementals out here, thankfully.


    It seems that allowing the currently sparking clips to proc will very likely either backfire, permanently break the clips, or at least burn them out in a way that I don¡¯t know how to recharge them or fix them from. At least, if I allow them to proc while the bangle is sparking like this. That at least seventy percent could be anywhere from seventy to ninety nine point nine percent, depending on how well my retrocognition is understanding the other data points. Odds are, it¡¯s the latter, because my retrocognition doesn¡¯t have enough data, so it¡¯s better to assume the worse-case. Huff. Heaving a sigh in my paused-time thinkspace, I let myself droop wearily for a short while.


    Fine, new question, should I remove the bangle for now, or is keeping it equipped going to help reduce its overload? Hm, opposite percentage. About a thirty percent chance that keeping it equipped is necessary or helpful, while about a seventy percent chance that it either doesn¡¯t matter, or would be detrimental to keep it equipped while it¡¯s sparking like this. Well, maybe I should break that down further. About a thirty percent chance that keeping it equipped is necessary or helpful, about a forty percent chance that it doesn¡¯t matter, and about a thirty percent chance that it¡¯ll backfire spectacularly and nearly literally blow up in my face to continue wearing it. So I¡¯m playing at thirty percent bad odds no matter what I do. If I unequip it, thirty percent chance it was necessary, if I keep it equipped, thirty percent chance I shouldn¡¯t have. Bluh.

 B 6 C 134: You Mean Chuck?

    Returning from nearly-paused time, I loose my grip on the non, the absence of the flow, and slip back to reality.  I¡¯ll deal with the bangle, the clips, and these organs and bodyparts in a bit.  We still technically have a bunch of Draconiac Spellknight lords and ladies to overthrow.  There¡¯s a commotion from the fortress, and Lucky is still screwing around with the Callipygian.  FFS, to me please.  Lil, if Lucky and Lu are safe enough facing off against that ancient Blue, to me as well please.  I¡¯m putting back on my anti-brainblast-enchanted circlet, so I won¡¯t be able to hear telepathy again for a while.


    I stride swiftly back towards the fortress, glancing behind me to make sure that Lucky is okay facing off against the Callipygian.  He doesn¡¯t seem to be taking it too seriously, or really need to either.  It seems he and Luni are plenty a match for the Blue.  Still, if he keeps screwing around, I worry that he¡¯ll get hurt.  I¡¯ll put my faith and trust in the two of them to take care of themselves though.  I need to get back to our original mission.


    Gazing about, it seems like Triorgraiz has done an admirable job of putting out the fires, figuratively and literally.  She¡¯s collected the wounded, stacked the dead, other than the corpses that I stole, and it seems she¡¯s even attending to her mount, as it breathes heavily, weakly, in pain.  I¡¯m assuming the incredibly burly, heavily armored, massively ensorcelled jerk shouting at her is Vorzog.  He¡¯s got that kind of tyrannical-ass air about him, and the vanity that screams, ¡°Name my keep after myself?  Perfect!¡±


    Hm, more and more of the wounded, the healthy, and troops that were stationed near enough to become part of our earlier assault are lining up behind Vorzog.  This isn¡¯t good.  Oh hell¡¯s bells, that¡¯s not fair either.  So¡ª.  Grr.  I made the inside of that magitek-mecha unsafe, by sealing in thousands and thousands of degrees of heat.  I know it¡¯s incredibly well insulated, basically perfectly insulated.  It¡¯s better than any thermos.  Even if the other pilots had the magic available to undo my arcane lockings, they¡¯d have to contend with lava levels of heat to safely pilot it.


    The jerks are circumventing that, by channeling animating magic on the stupid thing.  It¡¯s little more than an ambling, or alternatingly floating, giant bludgeoning weapon.  At the same time though, it¡¯s a nearly-indestructible, giant, ambling-or-floating, bludgeoning weapon.  Heaving a sigh, I roll my eyes.  I can see Triorgraiz, and a small faction that seem to trust her, basically backed up against a wall figuratively, well, and literally.  They¡¯re in the rear of one of the stables that¡¯s been quickly converted into a triage and treatment center.  She seems to be arguing the case for surrender, and has apparently gotten Zelshiz to be at least on the fence, since she¡¯s addressing Zelshiz in particular.


    Vorzog and Adkre are most definitely not having it, and I can feel the tension mounting.  This is about to turn into a bloodbath.  Most of the people siding with Triorgraiz are wounded.  Guess what time it is Reggie.  What time?  You know darn well what time.  Oh, right.  Bluh.  I roll my eyes at myself and suppress a chuckle.  Gods I hate bragging, but here goes.


    Approaching the confluence of the various subfactions at play here, I bark my titles in an authoritative manner, ¡°Stand down and shut up!  I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa!  I also happen to be a slayer of Damnations.  Go on, check for yourself.  Do you see any Damnations hassling my friends behind me?  Laombigla lay dying in the grasp of Ephlomseestiph as the larger flees my wrath.¡±


    Oh, right, I look like a smurf right now, a devilish smurf.  I¡¯m incredibly blue.  That really isn¡¯t selling the threat.  Still, this new body is completely and perfectly uninjured, since it was just created for me a few minutes ago.  Triorgraiz eyes me warily, raising an eyebrow as she tilts her head ever so slightly to attempt to peer beyond me.  Zelshiz similarly tries to take a surreptitious glance beyond me.  I suppose having Lil¡¯s hulking form behind me is playing counter to what I¡¯d just said, but oh well.  Having an almost-undamaged adult Red, after having faced down two ancients, and two Damnations, speaks plenty well enough as to our capabilities.


    Of course Vorzog spits and scoffs, growling in Draconic, likely something sarcastic in the manner of, ¡°Yeah right.¡±


    I¡¯m really too tired to deal with bullcrap like his right now.  Shapeshifting towards my normal RS2 form, I decide to keep the horns and tail, but at least my pigmentation, and hair color return to normal.  Oh, uh oh.  I¡¯m wearing the exploded, burnt tatters of Chuck¡¯s uniform.  I can vaguely recognize the two male lovers that¡¯d stopped briefly in the latrine, and they¡¯re putting two and two together.  There was an explosion from the latrine area, I¡¯m wearing Chuck¡¯s clothing, and some of his private magical equipment.  It doesn¡¯t take a genius to guess where this thought train is going.


    One, rushing towards a pile of weaponry, in order to find his enchanted crossbow, cries out, ¡°You bastards, you killed Chuckie!¡±


    Triorgraiz, to her credit, rushes to intercept the lad, and succeeds, but his lover darts around behind her to finish what he started.  Rolling my eyes, I unfurl the portable hole, and place it on one of my telekinetic squares.  I intercept several quick crossbow bolts by the grief-stricken lover on my TK shield, before leaning the portable hole towards the assembled, out of the way of the incoming crossbow attacks.


    Continuing to roll my eyes, as I respond, ¡°I¡¯m assuming you mean Chuck, the man whose clothes I¡¯m wearing, that I¡¯ve safely bound and stored away in my portable hole?  Hi there Shlendtikuar, sorry, you¡¯re not a bargaining chip or anything.  I¡¯m just trying to prove that I saved and granted mercy to some of these forces already.  Are the other three alright?  Still breathing?  Good.  I¡¯ll get them medical attention as soon as I¡¯m done here and returned home.  Sorry, putting you back in my pocket again.¡±


    There¡¯s a bit of a stunned silence as several of the gathered recognize either Chuck and the lovebirds, or Shlendtikuar, either by name or appearance.  Breathing deeply and loosing a long sigh, I start again, ¡°I am yada yada, etcetera etcetera.  I hereby politely request your surrender so that I don¡¯t have to massacre the lot of you in my ongoing war against Terrorzin and all those who follow his insane plan of razing the world.¡±


    As several of the gathered begin to take aim at me, I growl out, ¡°Seriously.  I will kill every last idiot that stands between me and ending Terrorzin¡¯s reign.  If you don¡¯t at least cease hostilities, and put your weapons down, you will absolutely pay for it.  You offer me no threat, and you have no hope whatsoever.  I hate bragging, but bragging and threatening seem to be the only way I can get through to the mass of idiots I continuously encounter during this war!¡±


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    When Vorzog calls on his forces to fire, I almost laugh.  Making sure I¡¯m equipped for the occasion, I pull a number four from my QCR once again, as I push outward with my internal electrokinesis.  Ow.  Ow.  Ow, that organ is fresh and tender.  Newly created, weak.  My electrokinetic magnetic field organ is not strong enough to do this.  I guess we¡¯re going to take a bit of a blast and put the QCR back to five.  That¡¯s fine, being struck by lightning and standing around like it¡¯s nothing is almost as good as creating a massive spherical shield of lightning.  Almost.


    It takes me a moment to realize who Vorzog¡¯s forces fired on first.  He had them fire on the traitors.  He had them fire on the defectors.  The bastard!  Triorgraiz is now in melee combat with Vorzog, and being overpowered, as she¡¯s not in her armor, and wielding only the nearest sword she could grab.  Friggin¡¯ hell, all of my current abilities are area of effect.  If I tried to help Triorgraiz, I¡¯d get her killed.  I¡¯m so used to having to do things solo!  I can¡¯t protect allies locked in single combat!  She stripped half of her armor to be able to better field-dress the wounds of her subordinates, so she¡¯s too vulnerable for me to even aid.  If I tried to intervene with my sloppy swordsmanship, I¡¯d similarly likely get her distracted and killed.  This, this just, I¡ª.  I¡ª.  Grr!


    Shouting, I plead, ¡°Lil, cover the wounded!  Sorry to ask this of you buddy.  FFS, are you nearby?  Ice walls when you can manage!¡±


    Despite having been working to kill these people only minutes ago, Lil immediately acts on my request.  He shields them with splayed wings, taking crossbow bolts, magical blasts, and even firearm shots to the face, and to his dactyl-leathers to prevent them from suffering any further.  I¡¯m sorry Lil buddy, please be okay.  I sniffle and blink back tears as I gulp back my feelings.


    What the hell can I do?  I, I¡¯m hesitating.  I don¡¯t know what to do.  Watching the swordplay unfold, Triorgraiz is agile, adept, and working out the few advantages she has, but Vorzog is heavily armored, stronger, and quite likely equally as skilled.  He might even have been able to act more skilled than Triorgraiz if he weren¡¯t hampered by his equipment.  He¡¯s beginning to weave spellwork, increasing his powers, while Triorgraiz is¡ª.  I gulp back more of my emotions.  She¡¯s using her spellwork to protect and enhance the resilience of the wounded.  She must be almost certain she¡¯s going to die, and she¡¯s using her final moments to protect her subordinates.  No.  No.


    I throw TK squares in the path of Vorzog¡¯s attacks, trying to trip him up, but he¡¯s so powerful that he¡¯s shattering them, only slowing slightly.  My tears stream forth as Vorzog¡¯s broadsword bites into Triorgraiz¡¯s shoulder, shatters her clavicle, and rends flesh and scales from the area of her neck down nearly to her pectoral ridge.  My TK square just barely reduces his momentum enough to prevent his strike from reaching her heart and lungs.


    The world slows as I engage my Steely Body spell¡¯s adamantite form once more, and LBBTKSL to intercept the next stroke of Vorzog¡¯s sword.  Taking the blow on my now near-invulnerable right forearm, I haul back as I backhand Vorzog away from Triorgraiz.  He only stumbles a few steps.  Glancing back, Triorgraiz lay bleeding out, gasping for breath, gulping down air.  She looks to be in incredible pain and Wrath decides to remind me of another reason to hate these people.


    Growling an order, I try to temper my ire, ¡°What does the name Leezahna Dimineros mean to you?¡±


    The fact that he pauses his battle stance to tap his chin and appear ponderous is as close as I could get to an advantage over someone so much more skilled right now.  My guts twist as Vorzog responds, ¡°Dimineros, Dimineros.  Oh, right, those traitors.  That pretty little thing?  Weren¡¯t my turn, so I let my boys have a bit of the spoils of war if you know what I mean.  Just barely clutching a¡ª.¡±


    Frostburn¡¯s blade enters and exits Vorzog¡¯s skull from beneath his chin, below his ornate helmet, before he can finish his sentence.  Or, an illusion of his skull, or a simulacrum of him.  I¡¯m uncertain, because he claps and whistles from nearby.


    Looking more closely at Vorzog as he struts perpendicular to me, hardly caring about my having slaughtered whatever he¡¯d been using, it¡¯s clear he¡¯s got powerful magical equipment.  The helm alone is made of carved bone and gilded horns from some cunning Fel creature.  Actually, I¡¯m almost certain it¡¯s from a Felcun, and an alpha Felcun at that.  Why is he walking away from me?  He¡¯s walking towards¡ª.  The wounded.


    As Vorzog grasps a weakened individual by driving his claws beneath their ribs, he hurls the wounded man at me, ripping their lungs, shattering their ribs, and evicerating them simultaneously.  As the wounded Draconiac man is dying in midair while sailing at me, he bursts into a column of hellish Fel fires.  It singes even my eyebrows, and painfully dries out my eyes, flashing brightly as the deadly flames lap up everything that could be fuel on the poor Draconiac.


    The helm¡¯s skull¡¯s eyes shone brightly with hellish fire when Vorzog activated this ability.  What¡¯s more, the skeleton of the Draconiac man, still blazing with hellish flames, Stands up and begins to attempt to gnaw at me.  It grapples me, preventing me from pursuing or subduing Vorzog as he picks up, slays, and throws more of the wounded subordinates at me.  When the fourth corpse becomes a skeleton, the first one finishes immolating away to ash.  Upon the fifth throw, the second one sizzles away to ash upon the breeze as well.  It seems he can only keep three hellish skeletons animated simultaneously, but he can just keep creating hellfire bombs out of people.


    It¡¯s taking all I have to keep Triorgraiz shielded from the heat of the Fel fires.  I know their cursed flames would all but ensure her demise.  I can¡¯t think straight, or get a moment¡¯s peace as Lil is now stuck attempting to heard wounded away from their own commander as Vorzog seeks them out to use them as hellish missiles of Fel fires.  Growling in frustration, I smash the skulls of two of the flaming Draconiac skeletons together, and use their now-disintegrating bodies to bludgeon the third that is attacking me, so that I have a moment¡¯s reprieve before the next load of bodies become skeletons.


    Unfurling the portable hole again, I telekinetically swipe a load of medical supplies into it, and carefully lower Triorgraiz into it, pleading, ¡°Save her!  Keep pressure on her wounds.  If you have an anesthetic poison breath, ease her pain, please.¡±


    Having to quickly fold back up the portable hole once more, in order to prevent the next series of explosions from cooking my protected prisoners, I spy the two male lovebirds from the latrine.  This is a gamble.  Calling out to them in a hoarse whisper as I doff my circlet, I request, ¡°Your commander, Triorgraiz, and your friend Chuck, and several others are in here.  Save them!  Get them off of the battlefield!  Hunter and Muse will protect you, the Hound and woman facing the ancient Blue outside.  Run!¡±


    Telepathically sending to Luni and Lucky, I get them to agree to protect the fleeing pair while all hell is breaking loose as a civil war breaks out amongst the subfactions.  Some of the ones previously allied with Vorzog are sickened at his actions, slaying and temporarily reanimating their compatriots.  Some are torn, being ordered to assault and slay wounded, others are on Triorgraiz¡¯s side or Zelshiz¡¯s side, plenty are fanatically loyal.  It¡¯s absolute chaos.  I can¡¯t tell who¡¯s fighting who, or for whom, at the moment.  It seems I sent those two away just in time.


    I don¡¯t know if Shlen can field-dress a wound, much less one that¡¯s as deep as the one on Triorgraiz.  Hopefully her subordinates can do so, if Luni buys them some time.  Maybe Lu can even perform some stop-bleeding song or something.  I have no idea the scope and limits of her powers.  I recognize psionic attack spellwork being crafted.  Crap.  As I feel an immense ripple in the ground, as of some concussive force striking the surface of the land outside the fortress, I could swear I hear the word, ¡°Mercy,¡± across one of the telepathic wavelengths from outside as I¡¯m replacing my circlet.


    If I¡¯m guessing right, the Callipygian was just grounded, for perhaps the final time, and she caused a tremor, a minor earthquake.  Oh hey, those are my goggles over there, what¡¯s her name Zelshiz is looking into them.  What¡ª what¡¯s got her face so aghast?

 B 6 C 135: Lightcycle? Bootcycle?

    Sighing, I should really learn to pay attention to my own fights. My danger wraps tried to warn me, but the broadsword that came up beneath me like some sort of golf-swing catches me off-guard, and sends me sailing through the wall of the stables. Hurk. Oopf. I¡¯m still not a hundred percent from having been reincarnated. That knocked me for a hell of a loop. Jeebez, that stings even in adamantite-body form. Of course, there goes the Steely Body spell, in reaction to the strain of the damage it absorbed. Fricklefrack. Get it together Re¡ª.


    We are three, three are we, and we have no idea what we just avoided, only that it was deadly. We are two, taken down by precision blasts of magic from¡ª. We are one, and one is all we¡ª. Existing as a consciousness without a body is disconcerting, but it only lasts for an instant. Reforming in a space between buildings, out of the line of sight of all of the action, I draw a deep breath. Phew, okay, okay. Get it together Reggie. I¡¯ve got one, two, maybe three casts worth of adamantite shavings left for the Steely Body spell. Put it up, quickly, and do an estimate of the SP you¡¯ve used today.


    Let¡¯s see, there was twenty for rapidly blasting Rahjmeztus. There was twenty attempting to learn my frosty ray spell better at Laombigla. There was another twenty while trying to learn while trying to get Ephlomseestiph¡¯s attention. There were ten caged runes before I got interrupted by a boulder toss. Ten more afterwards that were then interrupted by a tail-swipe. Ten after that finally let me see the inner workings of the necrotic energy for the spell. I loosed about forty of those blasts inside of Laombigla, when I came back to life, and at the same time, spent forty-five SP on an Adamantite Body inside that ear canal. I spent forty five when Vorzog struck Triorgraiz, and another forty-five just now. Let¡¯s tally that, shall we?


    20 SP - rapid blast at Rahjmeztus


    20 SP - rapid blast at Laombigla


    20 SP - rapid blast at Ephlomseestiph


    10 SP - caged runes to figure out ¡®free¡¯ casting


    10 SP - again


    10 SP - after tails wipe


    40 SP - inside Laombigla


    45 SP - Adamantite Body inside Laombigla


    45 SP - Adamantite Body in reaction to Vorzog¡¯s attack on Triorgraiz


    45 SP - Adamantite Body after third bird


    265 SP. Okay, we¡¯re still pretty good. We could probably do another four hundred SP today if needbe. Phoo. Come on Reggie. Breathe air, breathe. Focus. Dangit, my best stuff is on the shelf. Area effects right now would add to the intense chaos, and my single target stuff isn¡¯t really worth casting without the metamagical empowerment from the runic clips. And of course, here comes trouble. Oof. The animated, *not piloted,* magitek mecha swings through my area blindly, managing to knock me about as stone and wood splinter and shatter, flying everywhere.


    At least it can¡¯t fire its mana cannons, but ow, holy hell that hurt. So much for my Adamantite Body recast. Here goes another one, and crap, I felt my pouch, that¡¯s the last of my adamantite shavings, and now I¡¯m at three hundred ten SP spent. Can I alter the shape I¡¯m about to change into? I¡¯d been heading towards the plush otter with the inventory stomach. It¡¯s really not a form I¡¯d feel comfortable bringing into such a chaotic combat. No, the form I need now is my chimaeric lycanthrope. Can we do it? Focus. Focus Reggie, focus. Glide away, buy a moment.


    The form is about to kick in, and it¡¯s going to go on a heck of a long cooldown kicking in, in such a short time, if we use it for longer than a few minutes. Come on, come on. Be the lycanthrope, be the¡ª. Yes! I can tell I¡¯m the lycanthrope, because first of all, I¡¯m not a giant plushie otter right now, secondly, I¡¯m seemingly floating around in what to outsiders would appear to be ordinary RS2 form with no horns or tail. Oh that feels nice. This form has its own health pool, and well-sculpted, practiced muscles, and it¡¯s in tip top condition. Gosh that feels so much better. I think my adamantite enchantment is paused, somehow only on my previous form. Weird. Still, the crazy levels of regeneration we were able to bake into this form are incredible. I wish this was my base form honestly. It¡¯s too powerful though. I¡¯d be comatose between engagements.


    Hm, more chaos ensuing on the battlefield. There are strange glowing blue lines on the ground, zipping about. They¡¯re, huh, in response to the super-speedy dashing about of Adkre apparently. Did Adkre just dash between my legs beneath me? Woah! It¡¯s some sort of magic tied to their boots. Holy crap, I just barely got to the side of that in time. The line of light became a ten foot high wall of impenetrable, unbreakable neon blue energy out of nowhere. That could have bisected me! It¡¯s a lot like the cage of force that was used to ensnare Kinzul.


    Ow. What the? Ow. What is¡ª? Ow. What the hell? Adkre is zipping around, rolling some sort of dice in an enclosed globe, or something, cheating with a magnetic field to make them keep coming up the same number. Moreover, Adkre is sniping me with little necrotic bolts, while a tiny gem floating around their head seems to snipe me with some radiant-energy laser in response to each of those blasts. Well, at least I have an answer to that, and I haven¡¯t even used it today. Nice. Time to swap out to number two on the QCR, and engage the Necrometal Chestplate¡¯s necrotic aura. It dampens radiant energies, and nearly nullifies necrotic energies as it intercepts half of them, to provide me with a minor barrier against the other half. Or something like that anyway.


    Hm, Adkre¡¯s boots seem to be out of magic. Apparently that wall is a once-a-day thing, unless they¡¯ve done it previously during the day. They still glow brightly, and seem to allow Adkre to hover in any direction, as if attached to any surface, but they¡¯re no longer trailing that blue line. Wait, Adkre¡¯s cloak, it¡¯s made of gryphon feathers, and they¡¯re sparking with lightning. Arcs of energy are snapping between the tips of the feathers, and it''s almost as if a line of wispy dark clouds forms between me and Adkre. Oh no. They¡¯re going to¡ª. Argh!


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    Doubling over in pain, I cough up bloody mucus, and charred flesh bits. Staggering to my feet, I swipe uselessly towards where Adkre dances nearby, the location they landed in after zooming through me as a lightning bolt with their cloak. I rattle my skull, trying to orient myself, and thankfully my regeneration restores my senses relatively quickly. Despite being painful, it didn¡¯t really dip into my health pool all that much. What¡¯s that scepter that Adkre is¡ª? Ow! Mother of¡ª! Ow! Ow! It just¡ª! Ow! There¡¯s no end to it! Ow, holy¡ª. Ow!


    The scepter keeps blasting away at me, loosing thundrous booms, knocking me about as Adkre zips around me, keeping me staggered. Occasionally their little orbiting gemstone fires off a little radiant laser at me. To my surprise, the person that comes to my rescue is Zelshiz. She approaches me, and activates some mana to empower something through her collar. Out of nowhere, we¡¯re surrounded by a crystalline field, similar in essence to the wall of light erected by Adkre earlier, though translucent. It seems nearly indestructible. Nearly. Adkre¡¯s assault of unceasing blasts is beginning to form cracks in it already.


    My new companion asks, ¡°Are you alright? Can you tell the Red to ferry the wounded away, while you come to face Vorzog with me?¡±


    Nodding, I cough as I regain my composure, regenerating once more, my bones begin un-breaking, binding and mending themselves. My bruises begin to slowly disappear, and I offer a hand to clasp Zelshiz¡¯s. She takes mine firmly, and I doff my circlet in order to relay the request to Lil to ferry away the wounded. She hands me my adamantite goggles, for which I¡¯m immensely grateful, and she takes one step to one side as Adkre is zipping around us in circles, placing the barrier centered on her, directly in Adkre¡¯s path.


    I can¡¯t help giggling when Adkre rams facefirst into the barrier, finishing shattering it, but nearly knocking themselves out cold. Seizing my chance, I knock the scepter away from Adkre towards Zelshiz, and engage my lycanthropy for the first time. With all the hellfire going about, I don¡¯t want to have the fur of a cat form right now. Similarly, with Draconiacs trained to hunt and slay other Draconiacs, and dragons, I don¡¯t want to engage my draconic lycanthrope form. I guess we¡¯re a giant bipedal landshark today. Here in the streets of Vorzog¡¯s Keep, we are a shark. You know you¡¯re referring to yourself as we a lot today Reggie. I know I know. Shush. Heh.


    With my new, massive, clawed-yet-finned limbs, I grip Adkre just before they regain their composure and senses. This uh, this could get pretty gruesome. Swatting away the annoying laser-firing gemstone, I put half of Adkre into my enormous mouth. Before I can bite down, I¡¯m surprised as Adkre looses a breath weapon from their helm. Sort of. I can sense psionic vibrations emanating in a conical shape from the helm. I should have, koff, put the psionic aegis enchantment, koff, on something I could wear in this form. I also should have put the circlet back on, regardless. I¡¯m temporarily stunned, and drop Adkre from my grip. Their griffon-feathered cloak snags on one of my enormous teeth, and they¡¯re forced to abandon it as they slip away.


    I proably should have made note of it before, but the enchanted helm Adkre is wearing really makes my eyes want to avoid viewing it. Their helm is one of harsh, odd angular shapes that come together into the shape of some manner of aberrant dragon skull. It seems to shift and twist while being gazed upon, without moving at all. Similarly, Adkre¡¯s scales, beneath their armor, have strange, shifting, fractal-like patterns that appear to move without moving. Blurgh. Of course they have some sort of psionic attack, when they¡¯re represented in non-Euclidean geometry, from some far realm of eldritch abominations and aberrant horrors.


    I only just now notice Adkre arguing with themselves, ¡°We should run. No we have them on the ropes! You¡¯re a fool. You¡¯re a weakling! Retrieve the scepter of blasting, they were unable to counter it. Zelshiz is strong, if she wants, she could make it hell to get the scepter back. Then kill him, kill Zelshiz! She¡¯s our ally. He¡¯s a traitor, Zelshiz is a traitor!¡±


    I blink several times as Adkre zips side to side while arguing with themselves. I make sure to carefully pull the electrically sparking cloak off of my fangs. Rolling up their cloak, and tucking it away in one of several multi-dimensional bags, I begin inching away, in no rush to feel another psionic blast of their helm¡¯s breath-weapon-like power. Zelshiz motions to me while Adkre is seemingly distracted with themselves. Nodding, I follow Zelshiz back towards the source of the sounds of clashing and chaos.


    I¡¯m a bit confused at the alternating pronouns being used for Zelshiz, but then again, they are a bit burly femme, or maybe they¡¯re a bit smoother, softer masculine? Huh. They might be genderfluid, or bigender, or something. Not really the time to worry about that right now though, is it Reggie? No, I suppose not.


    Oh my friggin¡¯ heavens. The utter devastation. There¡¯s so many piles of ash. Vorzog is a complete maniac. There are so many spells being slung around, as more and more of the elite forces join from the barracks, or inside the main keep. Vorzog seems happy, ecstatic, euphoric even, to pick up and use allies as a shield against any incoming spells or attacks, and then launch the dying ally as a hellfire missile that becomes a skeleton. Even still, with Vorzog seemingly as a subfaction all his own, there are other groups fighting amongst themselves, or with each other, occasionally trading blows or spells with yet *other* groups beyond the ones they seem to be locked in battle with.


    Whispering to Zelshiz, I ask, ¡°How do I tell who to save?¡±


    Shaking their head, they respond, ¡°Just tell the Red to evacuate all the wounded, we¡¯ll sort out who surrenders after. Please. Join me against Vorzog.¡±


    Oh, that makes sense, and is incredibly rational, perhaps even kind or compassionate. We need to get this bastard to stop senselessly slaughtering everyone and every thing. It seems like the more he uses the helm, the more necrotic energy drapes around him, and suffuses his veins. Checking on Zelshiz, their collar¡¯s weird crystalline barrier seems down for the count, likely for at least the day. I sigh, saddened that a wonderful, defensive artifact is limited to a single use in a given time frame.


    Of course, an item with seemingly limitless potential is incredibly evil, with potent drawbacks, like insanity, or perhaps control of the wearer. Why does it always seem like headwear is the most likely to have mind-altering curses? Reggie. Yep. I heard myself think it. Of course it¡¯s also enchanted with anti-telekinetic runework, like the rest of his gear, preventing it from being removed telekinetically, and similarly it¡¯s locked into place with other runework, unable to be removed by anyone other than him. Well Reggie, I guess it¡¯s time to go grapple the maniac. This is going to hurt.

 B 6 C 136: Yep, This Hurts

    I notice Adkre out of the corner of my eye, dashing around along rooftops and walls, abusing their ability to glide as if sticking to any surface. Further, they pull out a very-plain seeming harp, with very heavily enchanted strings. Recognizing the runework on one of the strings, as one of Tiktik¡¯s most powerful spells, I dive at Zelshiz, crying out, ¡°Get down!¡±


    When Adkre plucks the string I¡¯d been fretting about, I¡¯m only just barely atop Zelshiz. Burying Zelshiz in my semi-amphibious bulk, I take the brunt of a massive storm of fire that sweeps across the courtyard, decimating the battlefield, injuring or slaying another few dozen Draconiacs. Huff, phew. That hurt quite a bit, even with my resistances. Thankfully I¡¯m already recovering from it, and Zelshiz seems okay. Still, Adkre¡¯s about to pluck the rest of those strings. They¡¯re each once-per-day spells. If the others are in the same league of power, we could be in for trouble.


    Suddenly, it seems like a wave of pink mist rolls across the battlefield, and I¡¯m hugging Vorzog to me protectively, just like I should be. Wait, what? No. Kill Vorzog! Wait, no. Yes! Something¡¯s wrong here. Yes, he¡¯s an effing predator! Wait, Reggie, think. What¡¯s the last thing you remember? Um, I leapt to protect Vorzog from a firestorm. Why would you do that? Uh. Huh. No, you¡¯re right, that is weird. Try casting a small spell, and engaging that one runic clip that cleanses mind-altering effects. Oh, oh! Well, I mean. Vorzog is sitting here shivving and shanking me at the moment. Shouldn¡¯t I do something about that first? No, focus! Alright, alright, no need to shout at me. Me.


    Rattling my skull and shaking my head, I produce and empower the runes for prestidigitative legerdemain, in a futile effort to cleanse the clothing I¡¯ve burst through. I owe Chuck a new outfit after this. The embolsterment runic clip helps coat me in a thin film that absorbs the next shanking incoming from¡ª. That¡¯s not Vorzog. The mind-cleansing clip frees my mind of the confusing illusion. Zelshiz is trying to shank me, Vorzog is still over there atop a pile of bones. Only now he¡¯s giving a soliloquy. Funnily, the chaos in the rest of the courtyard is pretty much the same as it had been previously, before the pink confusion mist.


    Uh oh, Adkre¡¯s about to pluck another chord. Quickly, quicken another prestidigitative legerdemain in order to clean, cure, and embolster Zelshiz. Thank spoot for those runic clips being able to target allies. Zelshiz looks abashed, but my wounds are already starting to close, and I¡¯ve got quite a bit of blubber and muscle protecting my innards in this giant landshark form. It definitely friggin¡¯ hurt though.


    What the hell did Adkre just cast? It looked vaguely like¡ª. Like the weather control spell we used in Autumn Brook. Is the Worldstorm getting *closer*!? Holy effing crap. We¡¯ve got to take Adkre out. Wait, where¡¯d they¡ª. One of the strings was invisibility. Crap! Oh come the hell on. Focus Reggie, focus. The aura only shows where they casted the invisibility spell, not where they currently are. It masks all the visible¡ª. I know that doofus, shut up for a second. Take a deep whiff. Ugh, horf, bleugh. Why would you do that to me? Focus!


    Alright, alright already. Taking another deep whiff, I begin to play back the day in my mind, the last few minutes anyway. Diving into the non, into the absence of time, I begin developing scent profiles for everything and everyone around me since the point at which I became a hybridized chimaeric landshark lycanthrope. Adkre was nearby. Their scent has beta zed category fours, and quarrel zed category unknowns. That¡¯s incredibly distinctive. Hell, if nothing else, the scent that screws with my brain like knowledge of an eldritch horror lets me know I¡¯m going in the right direction. Alright, back to reality.


    Apologizing to my new ally, I hiss, ¡°I¡¯ve got to stop Adkre, I can smell where they went, but if we don¡¯t take them down in the next minute, everyone¡¯s going to die when the Worldstorm drops down atop us!¡±


    When Zelshiz¡¯s eyes fly wide, and I direct their gaze upwards, they nod quickly in agreement. Zelshiz is staying on task to take on Vorzog, but hopefully they manage to remain safe for the moment. I leap to the top of the stables so that I can get a cleaner scent profile, away from the gore and musty bone-dust scents of the courtyard. Come on, come on, big whiff. Lighter gases should travel upwards. Then again, they¡¯ve got crazy eldritch scent. Forget logic, just go with it. There. That direction. Plus, I can hear a slight whoosh, and something is disturbing ash, blowing bits of it in a more regular line than the rest of the breeze swirling about. That sound and motion must be Adkre¡¯s weird hovering boot movement.


    Adkre¡¯s wary that I¡¯ve returned, they might not realize that I can track them yet, but they¡¯re becoming more cautious, and shutting up their constant self-arguing. I don¡¯t have them pinned down yet, or even that great of an idea where they are, but I think I can herd them towards where I can corner them. Come on, tell me you¡¯ve never wanted to rip up hunks of stone and chuck boulders around. You can¡¯t, can you? Boulder fastballs that nearly atomize into stone dust spook the hell out of Adkre, I can tell. The effect is the one I¡¯d hoped to have, driving them in the opposite direction of where I¡¯m landing my tosses.


    Gazing up, the Worldstorm is getting dangerously low. Gulping, I try to calculate how long it¡¯s going to take to corner Adkre at this rate. Too long. Do I have anything else left in the tank? Friggin¡¯ hell. No, unless you count the fire empowered-rune knife. I can¡¯t even cast a fireball to enlarge with it, because I¡¯ve got FFS out from the staff¡¯s SP. Then again, I can layer down a massive cloud of gas. Then do that, doofus! I am already, I¡¯m breathing, exhaling combustible gas. Also make sure to fan it in the direction in which I¡¯m cornering Adkre. Duh. When I ignite it, if I toss the knife, heh, well, yeah. Fireworks ahoy matey.


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    Anyway. This might be overkill, sorry Adkre, you¡¯ve brought us too close to doom. I¡¯ve loosed a massive cloud of gas below. I truly hope Lil¡¯s been able to get all the wounded evacuated, because if Lil isn¡¯t¡ª. Okay, good. Lil can hear my thoughts. I need to keep Lil away from here, because even though balefire from a GSE shouldn¡¯t hurt him, the fact that I¡¯m coupling it with explosive gas, and an empowered-rune knife, might. Here goes.


    Begin tossing the knife as I¡¯m finishing the spell, and¡ª. Fwoosh, boom goes the dynamite as I call out, ¡°GSE Balefire!¡±


    Wheeheeheehee. I¡¯m so lucky this form has my resistances, and has a boatload of regeneration. I just cooked off half the dermis over my chest and face, and rocked myself with enough explosive force to crack my bones and send me flying all the way back to the center of the courtyard near the in-progress duel. I land on my back, groaning in pain as my bones begin to mend themselves, knitting slowly. My flesh regrows more quickly. The Worldstorm is no longer advancing, but it¡¯s still hanging relatively low over the keep. I reckon that anyone in the top two floors is probably dying right about now. Well, people inside are dying if there are any sections at all that aren¡¯t perfectly airtight at least.


    I¡¯m pretty certain that Adkre is likely dead, as a good eighth of the lesser domain is now aflame in balefire. Dusting myself off, I reorient myself on the chaos surrounding me. Vorzog is laughing maniacally, shouting something about pride of the Ice of Rage, alternatingly hissing out something in brain-melting Draconic. Zelshiz doesn¡¯t appear to be doing all that well against him, in part because he keeps dancing away to reach down and claim wounded allies as new hellfire missiles.


    It seems the death has to count as coming from Vorzog, or at least being in his grasp, or something similar, in order to trigger the skull¡¯s ability. That¡¯s one of the few downsides of the skull. I mean, the other is that he seems more and more like an addict while he¡¯s literally succumbing to insanity the more he uses it. If he wasn¡¯t insane already. Even while insane though, he continues to manage to utilize his mnemonic and craft runework. Oh gorram friggin¡¯ hell.


    Is that a¡ª. Well, I don¡¯t think we¡¯re going to have many survivors left in the courtyard. Vorzog is opening the sort of portal that summons a meteor. Awe hell. This is going to friggin¡¯ hurt. There¡¯s no Teuila here to even shatter a good sized chunk out of it to prevent ourselves from being flattened. I know I¡¯ll survive it, since I survived one long ago, well, two, well, one and a quarter, but it¡¯s still going to suck.


    Wait! I have a spell for that! Come on, come on, uh, ninety nine, down to ninety, times one and a half, a hundred thirty five¡ª. Ultra quickened dispellation! Counterspell! No ninth tier magics for you you son of a suckering mrgrgr! Huff, huff, phew. Crap and a halfsack in a hat jack. Holy handgrenades budmutt.


    Where, what, who¡ª. That¡¯s, that¡¯s exhausting, and¡ª. My eyes cross as I stagger side to side. That sort of adrenaline rush is, is, is¡ª. Blinking ferociously, I try to come to my senses. Think, focus on something easy to get you to think. Arithmetic? Sure. Uh, three twenties, three tens, a forty, four forty-fives, and one one-thirty-five is uh, four-hundred forty-five SP used up. Wait, five forty-fives, so four-hundred ninety used up. Okay, good, focus. We have a task to complete. Gnawing on my enormous fishy lips, I glance at the adamantite goggles that are too small for my giant shark head to wear. I rather badly want to check in on Teuila. If her task is going anywhere near as chaotically crazy as mine¡ª.


    If it is, there¡¯s nothing you can do about it til yours is done anyway. Her task is many, many miles from here. Huff. Sigh. I know you¡¯re right, but still. Oh, look. Good, good. FFS is getting their icy walls back up. Many had been destroyed in the earlier fracas. Now she¡¯s able to cut off groups of combatants from one another, and also deter Vorzog from being able to get to new victims, slowing his progress slightly.


    Calling out a bit childishly, I ask, ¡°Zelshiz, I hope you don¡¯t take offense, but may I cut in? Vorzog, may I have this dance?¡±


    Biting my lips, to prevent myself from laughing, shreds them with my enormous teeth. It¡¯s too hilarious though when Zelshiz daintily takes my proffered hand in order to be twirled away, out of the reach of Vorzog¡¯s next attack. I¡¯m not used to this form¡¯s combat capabilities, or really any sort of fighting style that I could put to use with it. Vorzog is hacking away at me, and I¡¯m mostly just disrupting his footing, and the fulcrum or leverage of his swings with telekinesis. I¡¯m occasionally landing solid jabs, slashes, and haymakers, but I¡¯m not Teuila. Even this monstrously powerful form is barely disorienting Vorzog on occasion.


    I recognize a footwork pattern employed by Ahliyui, one that I don¡¯t know how to capitalize on because it¡¯s so elegant, and Vorzog utilizes it to feint. As I¡¯m reacting in the wrong direction, Vorzig swipes to my side, where apparently Zelshiz had returned in order to aid me. No! Okay, okay, they¡¯re better armored, and were more prepared for the hit. Zelshiz is nowhere near as badly wounded as Triorgraiz was.


    I¡¯m, huff, just, huff, not good enough. I need to be trained to fight. I¡¯m doing my best to follow the guidance of my danger wraps, but that¡¯s mostly defensive, and even that, I¡¯m far bulkier than I¡¯m used to being. I waste tons of momentum, energy, and effort, attempting to follow the guidance of the danger wraps while still taking plenty of hits anyway. What I wouldn¡¯t do for a few months off to learn everything at my disposal, all the spells and abilities from all the books, and to finish categorizing the magic items, and all that. Ugh. Keep dreaming Reggie. I know, I know. Ow, oh crap. I¡¯m, koff. Run through my, koff, right lung. Of, koff, friggin¡¯ course. Wh-what¡¯s that magic traveling up his arm and blade?


    My eyes flash wide, terrified as petrakinetic magic travels up the haft, hilt, crossguard, and blade of Vorzog¡¯s broadsword. If, if I become a statue, and he shatters me, will this form regenerate? I built the forms to drop me to RS2 if they are bleeding out or have taken similar damage. If I¡¯m a statue though, I¡¯m not the organic me that the shapechanging is built around. Gulping, teary eyed with fear, I watch as the petrakinetic energy enters my chest. Yeah, this is going to hurt.

 B 6 C 137: Losing

    Wh¡ª what? Hah. Haha. Hahaha. I forgot about that runic clip. There were two stone and earth elemental related ones that I kept for myself. Their combined effects include ability to control stone or earth elementals, ability to meld into stone for brief periods, or even up to eight hours or something like that. They also include some minor stoneshaping, and the ability to root myself in position for a minute, sturdier than stone. Last, and most definitely not least, they render me immune to petratransmutive magic and abilities, petrification mostly, like from a basilisk or cockatrice.


    Why does Vorzog keep channeling the magic through me when he sees that it isn¡¯t working? I can definitely sense him pumping more mana and energy into it, spreading the effect¡ª. Oh no, Zelshiz! Turning to my side, I wrench the broadsword from Vorzog¡¯s grasp in a stroke of luck, only having meant to check on my ally. Zelshiz is indeed petrifying incredibly quickly, while the whole world appears to be in slow motion. Their face is one of abject terror as stone creeps over it, completing their transformation. I¡ª. I¡ª. Drawing forth Vorzog¡¯s blade from my own torso, I growl as Wrath bubbles up beneath my skin.


    Hacking away at my temporarily unarmed opponent, with no grace, no skills, simply overpowering brute force, I growl, ¡°This is for the Dimineros! This is for Leezahna! This is for Zelshiz!¡±


    Continuing to clobber Vorzog with his own sword, I trip him up with my telekinesis several of the times that he attempts to dodge, repeatedly driving him into the ground as he stumbles and topples. After a bit of this battering, and his skillful recovery, I manage to get into an advantageous position with more leverage, and knock him down hard enough that he can¡¯t scrabble away or stand. At this point, I¡¯m literally hammering him into the ground of the courtyard with his own blade. Wrath tries to raise further, to claim me as its own, but I struggle to keep my head clear enough to remain myself. I¡¯m forced to call out my titles to activate my Honoris Causa, in the hopes that my Latent will draw Wrath back inwards, to the core of my void-self.


    Shouting in a horrendous growl, I reiterate once more, ¡°I am Reggie Shellcracker! I¡¯m a Hero of the Onyx Dawn! I¡¯m an archmage Aliased Schism! And I! Am! The! Void Dragon Honoris Causa!¡±


    Void within me, grant me this boon, draw Wrath into your ceaseless Schism. Please. While we¡¯ve got this manifested though, there¡¯s two things to do. Rip, and tear. Flinging Vorzog¡¯s weapon high and away, far into the interior of his keep, I hear it shattering stone as it makes its way into the upper levels. Pounding, ripping, and tearing at Vorzog beneath me, with my limbs, and those of my manifested Void Dragon form, I also continually disorient him with both my voidbreath, and my lightning breath.


    It takes me some time to realize I¡¯ve separated the helm from the rest of Vorzog¡¯s armor, and that I¡¯m pulverizing it, along with Vorzog¡¯s head, freed from his shoulders, cradled within it. Sinking to my knees, I glance down at my ashen, bloody, finned, clawed hands. The fight drains out of me as I glance back towards the statue of Zelshiz. My limbs slump wearily to my sides.


    Wait, wait, I have dispellation, right? Is, is it an enchantment that¡¯s on Zelshiz? Glp. No. There¡¯s no lingering enchanted aura on Zelshiz. It was an instant transmutative effect that transformed them into a statue. There¡¯s nothing to dispel. The only thing I know of that could cure this are concoctions made from materials harvested from basilisks and cockatrices. I don¡¯t even know if those exist on Rayileklia. Gulping back a sob, I¡¯m sick of losing earnest people. Keeley Johnston might be dead already, since she was on borrowed time. Tiktik could be dying, because of the cursed wounds that she¡ª. Wait. Tiktik. She gave me a list of her spells. I, I¡¯ve held onto it like a memento, but, but it might actually¡ª.


    As I dig out the parchment with Tiktik¡¯s list of assets and spells, I¡¯m shaking with trepidation. Trying to maintain awareness of my limitations, I drop my landshark transformation. I also have to let loose the chimaeric lycanthrope transformation, slowly dropping from the lycanthrope RS2, down towards regular RS2. I nearly choke as I read Tiktik¡¯s assets list and come across the words: ¡°Fifth Rung: Moderate Cureall. Like the lesser one, but works on more things, even a few magical ailments, like negative transmutations. Being turned to stone, etcetera.¡±


    I sob aloud. I need to protect that statue. A spell exists that can cure Zelshiz. Crap, are the clouds getting heavier again? They¡¯re drooping, and I think a large pool of concentrated acid is going to fall from them, because Adkre messed with the enchantment in this region. I can even see a twister begin to start to spiral downwards. No no no no! I¡¯ve¡ª, I did a thing. Where is it¡ª. What was it? I learned¡ª. I learned¡ª. I learned a spell to control water. Out of fear of drowning, out of fear of losing my family and friends to floods and drowning. Clouds are water vapor, right? Acid still has to have H2O somewhere in its chemical makeup, right? If I move water, an aqueous solution, away from the rest of the chemical bonds that make up the acid, I¡¯m left with what? A crystalline mineral structure in a lot of cases.


    Gulping, I throw caution to the wind and levitate myself into the path of the heavily drooping, bulging cloud above me, with the twister forming only a dozen meters away. Focus, focus, how many runes was it? We¡¯re only in the mid to high four hundreds, we should be able to afford it either way. Oh, good, it¡¯s only a thirty-three rune spell, and it¡¯s elemental, so we can get it down to thirty SP, before the quickening cost drives it up to forty-five SP. Alright Reggie, it¡¯s time to pretend you¡¯re a rainmaker. It¡¯s time to pretend you¡¯re a superhero, as you fly around here, stopping the acid rain, making regular rain.


    It looks like everyone below is stunned. Yeah, they¡¯re stunned, as I work against the calamity of the Worldstorm to save them. Focus Reggie. The water control spell assumes basic water, you would need knowledge of atomic and chemical bonds to find the water within the molecules of acid. Thankfully, you have a sense that grants you exactly that. Your telekinetic senses, short range though they may be, provide you things like ionic charges, atomic bonds, molecular compounds, so that you know what is, and isn¡¯t grabbable with telekinesis.


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    I quiver with anticipation, gulping back my apprehension as I slowly draw more and more water from the massive acid bubble floating above me. It¡¯s slowly losing cohesion as a chemical molecular structure. The fluid is losing acidity, becoming pure water, while a solid is left behind. Pillowing a forming onyx crystalline structure with both the water that I¡¯m drawing from the area, and my own telekinesis, I continue to pull pure water from the clouds and surrounding acid bubbles.


    Oh FFS, you¡¯re wonderful, thank you. FFS is carefully extracting the statue of Zelshiz, evacuating it from beneath this, since I¡¯d have wanted that done either way. Lil, Lu, and Lucky are attending to prisoners and wounded alike, making sure they don¡¯t act up, or betray us. I¡¯ve almost got this done safely, almost, almost¡ª.


    The absolute audacity of these idiots. The remaining elite casters, some of whom seem to only just now be joining the battle from inside the main keep, have grouped up, and combined several massive spells at me. Thankfully, my psionic aegis circlet is back in place, so one of the spells, a terribly massive mindblast, is completely ineffective. Another is a massive swirling dragon conjured out of flame, complicating my water control with its evaporating efforts, though it does little more than annoy me as it bats me about when passing over me. Another spell though, brings the stupid magitek mecha into the air after me. The animated object is launched rapidly, far faster than it should be able to move.


    There¡¯s cries of fear when the survivors who¡¯d thought I might be saving their lives, are now scrabbling against walls of ice, bodies of companions, and whatever else lies in their path as they try to escape. Urgh. I can¡¯t create any more magics or conjure any more spells at the moment while I¡¯m focusing on this. If that thing hits me though, I could black out, or at the very least lose concentration on my water controlling spell. Oh, great, now my de-transformation goes off. Oh, huh. Haha. Hahaha. I forgot about that.


    As I finally fully return to RS2, I return to an RS2 form that has the Steely Body in its adamantite empowerment enchanted upon it. It also happens to have horns and a massive tail, a fact which will take some getting used to. I¡¯ve got the durability to buy a few seconds to figure out what to do here though at least. I¡¯m hoping that Lil and Lu have moved everyone towards the hole in the Worldstorm, so that they¡¯re not threatened by what¡¯s going on over here. FFS is apparently dispatching some justice amongst some of the rowdier ones that are fleeing towards the wounded, and the Triple L Squad. She¡¯s keeping the statue of Zelshiz safe.


    Oof. Stupid magitek mecha, ow. Zippity zappity this mecha and this lightning hurts like crappity! Fudgesickles, my new body, even under this defensive buff is not used to pain, or really anything. Focus, focus. Try to pick apart what¡¯s going on around you. There¡¯s nearly a hundred elite mages in that cluster. Many are wounded, or dead, but there¡¯s still quite a few dozen able-bodied casters, some of them fresh to the fight. A lot of magic is centered on one that has an incredibly ensorcelled robe, and is wearing an enchanted emerald necklace set within a silver chain. Wait, what¡¯s Lucky doing?


    Lucky dug through some walls in the area where I¡¯d loosed the balefire. It¡¯s like he¡¯s just a normal hound digging to bury bones. This is Lucky we¡¯re talking about though. He¡¯s not that simple, nor so foolish as to walk under an immediate threat, to play around. What are you doing Lucky my boy? I¡¯m tempted to take off the circlet to find out, but I¡¯m being targeted by dozens of elite mages, several whom seem to specialize in psionic attacks. Okay, okay, just, just focus. Keep dodging the animated magitek mecha.


    Unfortunately, the lightning striking us both does nothing to deter the magitek mecha, since it¡¯s not being piloted, and isn¡¯t alive, and is a nearly invulnerable enchanted series of hunks of metal. Is¡ª. Is Lucky walking sideways along the walls? My face contorts. Did he find Adkre¡¯s body, and, well, loot it? Should I just give up on rescuing anyone else stuck in this courtyard? It¡¯s mostly just people that want to kill me anyway, by the looks of it. Focus Reggie, if there¡¯s even one more person who wants to be saved by you, you owe it to them to at least try. Wh¡ª. Where is Lucky going now? He¡¯s headed towards all of those elite mages! Lucky they¡¯re dangerous!


    Glancing about, trying to time it right, I dodge towards the cluster of elite mages, barely skirting the edge of a thrust from the animated magitek mecha. I¡¯m drawing a massive cube of water, and a large onyx crystal along with me, as I continue separating the two. Out of nowhere, Lucky leaps towards me, and there¡¯s a blinding flash of light. I suddenly find myself standing on solid ground in the midst of a disoriented, and radiation-burned group of elite mages, while I see Lucky playfully swimming in the cube of water that I have following me. What the devil?


    No time to question it. Water cube? Douse the fire dragon. Giant crystal? I¡¯m sick of trying to carry you with telekinesis. Just drop on top of us right here. As the crystal falls and shatters on the group of elite mages, I find the one with the most intriguing enchanted equipment fleeing by utilizing some sort of method to blink into and out of existence. It¡¯s not teleportation, nor is it invisibility. It¡¯s more like, like they step into that elemental parallel dimension alongside our own for a few moments, then step back into this one. The main reason I know it¡¯s not invisibility or teleportation is that they seem to blink back into existence right where they last blinked out of it.


    The crystal shattering ends up scatters the elite mages, breaking several combined concentration effects. This, in turn, also drops the magitek mecha¡¯s frame in the midst of them. The crashing monolithic mass ends up causing even me to have to leap to the side to dodge its fall. Grumbling, I dust myself off as I rattle my head while trying to reorient myself and figure out what threats are left, and who might be willing to stop being a threat.


    Of course, my Adamantite Body enchantment is flickering already. I did get struck by lightning quite a few times while up there, and battered by a bunch of wind. Plus, I wasn¡¯t able to dodge every single thrust of the magitek mecha. Rolling my eyes, sighing, and shaking my head, I resolve to hopefully wrap this up without too many injuries to my primary body, since I¡¯m now low on runes, out of material reagents for my best defensive spell, and simply weary from a crazy day.


    Wait. What¡¯s this idiot doing with a chalice? She¡¯s rubbing a circle around the rim of the chalice, and whispering something. Huh, it¡¯s filling up with a blue liquid that shimmers beneath the lightning of the Worldstorm. Since your side is losing, one last drink before the end? W¡ª. Nope. I guess not. This is not at all what I was expecting to happen here. Jeeze. Really lady? Welp, I guess it ain¡¯t over til the¡ª. That¡¯s just rude, doubly rude in this case.

 B 6 C 138: Loot, Not Lute

    A quite-valuable-seeming enchanted object, a drinking vessel specifically, is what my senses are currently locked onto. I¡¯m not one for fancy dinnerware or anything, its gold rims don¡¯t appeal to me, but it¡¯s heavily ensorcelled. Yoink. There¡¯s definitely still enchantment in that chalice, a strong conjuration effect that seems to refill over time, likely per day or week. I snag the chalice as the transforming Draconiac woman drops it. Her limbs are now too big, in ways she¡¯s unused to, for her to be able to grip something so small and delicate.


    I¡¯m definitely tossing this artifact into an interdimensional bag space. Hopefully I can figure out how to get it to produce this potion again. This previously yellow-scaled Draconiac woman, is now an adult-edging-onto-ancient Blue. That is, she¡¯s a dragon, and no longer a Draconiac. Gauging by the massive transmutation aura plastered across the entirety of her form, it¡¯s a temporary shapechange, of about maybe an hour.


    Still, an hour per week or day of being able to be a mighty Blue? That¡¯s a hell of a trick. Conjuring a manifestation of a massively powerful transmutation potion. Huh. Who¡¯da thunk? Where¡¯d Lucky get off to? Oh, hah. Hahaha. Thanks boy. That answers my question.


    Divebombing out of the cube of water that I¡¯d still been floating around through my water controlling spell, in order to quell the fire chasing me around, Lucky lands on the lovely Blue. His teeth grip her neck as he positions himself between her shoulderblades, pressing outwards on her scapula, preventing her from taking flight. When the Blue is grounded, Lucky shreds her wings, and she roars in pain.


    The Blue attempts to loose its breath weapon at me, and would very much kill its wounded or sneaking allies nearby if I don¡¯t react quickly. Pulling out the good old QCR number four, I draw all of the electricity from her breath to me, while pushing outward with my internal electrokinesis. Ow, ow, ow. Still tender, still sore. All of my organs and muscles are new, as this body was freshly made for me, while my previous body was disintegrated. I *have* to do this though, I have to endure it.


    Maintaining the spin of my temporary electromagnetic shield, counter to the direction of the spin of the forming twister, I leap and fly up towards the twister while wearing the Wyverium chestplate and holding my breath. This, like many things today, is probably going to hurt. Hurling myself into the eye of the nearly-formed tornado, I feel myself whipped and whirled about.


    I¡¯m left sickeningly dizzied, and I¡¯d be horfing if I could even tell which direction my stomach was in from my mouth. Focus Reggie, you have a power for exactly this. It roots you in position, no matter where you are. There, now that you¡¯re oriented, centered, and locked in place, focus on all this electrical energy amidst this wind. Create a high-pressure backdraft, spinning in the opposite direction of this low-pressure system attempting to touch down. Keep at it. Keep at it.


    There! Huff, huff, okay, quick, stop before you just form a twister going the opposite way that sucks up everything on the ground. Lose the four from the QCR, swapping to number five as usual. Shunt this massive shielding charge back upwards into the worldstorm, in a cone, pushing and evaporating as much as I can, to undo some of the damage Adkre had done with the weather controlling spell. Phew. Huff. Huff. Wow that¡¯s exhausting.


    I drop out of the sky, dropping control of my water controlling spell. My weariness ends up letting many, many thousands of gallons of ultra-pure water splash down heavily upon anyone left in the courtyard. I¡¯m pretty sure the water¡¯s likely knocking out anyone still trying to put up a fight. Holding my breath, I float down the last few feet, and I¡¯m perplexed. Where¡¯d the Blue go that Lucky was fighting? Wait. He¡¯s got a yellow-scaled Draconiac in his jaws. Huh. She looks dazed, and a little bloody, but nowhere near as badly as her dragon form would have been over the bit of time Lucky had available in order to tear into her.


    That means that the potion¡¯s enchantment is a sort of polymorphing that provides its own body overlapping and taking place of that of the drinker. Similar to how some of my forms have their own hitpoint pools. If I get knocked out of them, RS2 still has whatever health and buffs RS2 had when going into them. Huh, nifty. I kind of want to give this chalice to Pawn. If she ever gets into any trouble she can¡¯t handle with the suite of available abilities she¡¯d gotten from our orb-time saving Prinrin, then suddenly becoming a fully fledged, fully-breath-charged dragon ought to help out.


    This, huh. This was a lot more chaotic, and wild, than I was expecting, but somehow we¡¯re also better off than I expected. If we hadn¡¯t incited essentially a civil war, this would have gone down a much different way. Hm, FFS needs more SP from the staff to stick around. It¡¯s probably best to pay the cost for now, since we¡¯re not entirely certain if we¡¯re done, or if there are any surprises awaiting us in the keep itself.


    Also, to prevent the stupid magitek mecha from being used against me again, I¡¯m transforming into my otter form, and I¡¯m going to shunt the thing off into my inventory. Grumble grumble. Jerks realizing they can¡¯t pilot it, so swinging it about like a telekinetic club. Grumble grumble. Grr. Morons. Okay, to be fair, I¡¯d probably have done the same thing if I could provide that much animating force, or telekinetic lift.


    This might be a bit rude, but I¡¯m stripping all of these mages that are hopping and crawling around. I do not need to be blindsided by some artifact that rewinds the battle in their favor, or swaps their damaged and dead for our healthy states, or does any other number of crazy things. Plus, I can bind their hands with their clothes, so they can¡¯t produce their mnemonics or craft runes, unless they¡¯re capable of subtle-spell metamagical enhancement. The fewer of these jerks that can cast, or reach any sort of unseen items, the better.


    Hm, there¡¯s that scepter Adkre was using against me. Zelshiz must have dropped it before becoming petrified. Yoinking that. Definitely don¡¯t feel like having it used against me again, when all of my defenses are down. That thing could cave in my ribs, skull, eardrums, just about everything. My lycanthrope form took such a hellacious pounding, and every time I started to recover from something, I got hit with something else, up to and including getting my right lung run through yet again. I can tell you, my armpit gils did not like the feeling of my blood and various humors spilling out of them.


    Crap on a cracker, we¡¯ve got two raven-ports left, a few SP, and, like, nothing else. There are a few runic clip things still available, but we need to take the bangle off and let it sort out its overloaded runic circuits. Ugh, scan the courtyard, is there anyone left that isn¡¯t bound and gagged? Holy halefire double-barreled wrist-mounted crossbow, and fire.


    Yeah, I heard you you invisible idiot. There¡¯s so much water, you¡¯re sploshing with every step. Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯re just kneecaps. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re fine. Oh, hey, look, it¡¯s that goof that was trying to get away while blinking between realities. Annnd down you go. They¡¯ve got that silver neckchain and enchanted set of robes. It looks like they were recovering from Lucky slamming into them several times.


    I¡¯ve been at this, tying these fools up by hand and telekinetically, for thirty minutes! Alright, *now* do I have everyone stripped, bound, and gagged out here? Seems like it, and I¡¯ve a pile of enchanted trinkets too. Huh. What¡¯s our plan with prisoners, or even just, more survivors accepting mercy than just a couple? Can¡ª, can my inventory take in people? Gnawing on my lip, I fret about the implications, worried what Lil will think if I bring it up as a suggestion. Doffing my circlet, I try to hide my recent thought, so I can just get a gauge as to how everyone¡¯s feeling.


    Lucky is trotting around with the yellow Draconiac woman in his mouth like she¡¯s his new favorite stick, or other chew toy. Oof. At least she¡¯s alive, for now, I guess. Not that she necessarily accepted mercy. The Callipygian is being somewhat amicable, which I did not expect at all. I also didn¡¯t expect him to be a man. I guess anybody can have a big butt. That¡¯s my bad for assuming. Let¡¯s see, where are the other minds that I¡¯m looking for. Seriously, where the hell are Lil and Lu?


    Starting to panic, I jab the goggles onto my face, and quickly scribble a sign to re-center my scrying sensor for the security center. It won¡¯t do any good, since I didn¡¯t give more than one set of goggles to a single group right now. Did I give one to Lu for the Triple L Squad? I can¡¯t remember while I¡¯m this panicked. Diving into my thinkspace, terrified that I¡¯ve lost them somehow, I find Lu and Lil cuddled up, lazing happily against the tree atop our hill.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Shouting as I rush towards them, I call out, ¡°You butts! I was so worried! I took off the circlet and couldn¡¯t find your minds!¡±


    Blinking slowly, Lil yawns and offers, ¡°Sorry Rej. Was just kind of bored pal, mega mega mega bored since your brain was offline with that psychic blocker thingy. You didn¡¯t want us to keep fighting, so it¡¯s mostly just been sitting around chatting with weirdos that actually like Terrorzin. There¡¯s only so many sayings like, ¡®hail to the Ice of Rage,¡¯ I can take before my brain just shuts off, y¡¯know?¡±


    Sighing, I glance towards Luni, who nods confirmation, affirming she feels more or less the same. I can¡¯t exactly blame them for that. I admit, I probably overreacted. Still, I¡¯d have felt better if they had been able to hear and respond to my mental monologue right away when I took off the circlet. I suppose that¡¯s a bit full of myself to expect them to be listening out for when my brain goes from off to on.


    Despite me starting to get a bit down on myself, Luni rebutts, ¡°No sweetie, we could have been, and should have been. Today just did not go at all like how it was planned. It¡¯s still not even close to noon. What sort of magic and plans are you working on right now? What¡¯s next?¡±


    Blushing as Luni presses her telepathic avatar¡¯s curves tightly up against my avatar, I try to remember what my plans were. Oh, right, I answer, ¡°I¡¯m going to, um, see if maybe¡ª. I¡¯m starting another transformation, one I was going to go into earlier, but didn¡¯t. It¡ª. We still need to check out the keep, see if there are any subterranean levels, or anything that survived that¡¯s hostile in the levels that got hit when the Worldstorm descended. Y¡¯think Lil¡¯s up for exploring a spooky, acid-soaked keep?¡±


    Perking up, Lil quips, ¡°Am I!?¡±


    The two of us can¡¯t help grinning at Lil¡¯s jubilant nature. Luni and I hug tightly via our telepathic avatars as I continue rounding up fallen or surrendered foes. Lucky trots into my mindscape while I¡¯m busying myself with this, and has his telepathic avatar depicted as if it were equipped with his magic scarf. Lucky fishes about in his scarf, with the magical hands of the frayed ends, and presents several strings to Luni¡¯s avatar. Oh. Oh wow. I catch up to the pair in meatspace.


    Sure enough, Lucky definitely found and looted Adkre. Lucky¡¯s wearing the boot-coverings that produce the weird neon blue, and allow him to hover. Lucky¡¯s handing over a bunch of heavily enchanted harp strings to Luni. My son is also wearing something I think I spied under Adkre¡¯s armor, though it was hard to tell with that weird, shifting, aberrant nature to their scales. It¡¯s a golden disk on a fine gold chain. The golden disk is surrounded by its own circular platter of emerald, and that itself is yet surrounded by a halo of gold. It seems to be enchanted with a shallow pool of SP that recharges daily, and has some movement effects. Examining its aura, and runework, I find very familiar runes, some of which are on my own¡ª. I drop to my knees and wrap my arms around Lucky.


    Sobbing, I¡¯m so glad he found that disk. Tears stream forth unbidden, but I can¡¯t help it. The bearer of that disk, and everyone they deem friendly within thirty feet, can breathe water, and swim through any strength of current, as if it were still water. I sob and weep openly. More and more of these items are surfacing that could have saved our family, that could have saved so many people on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Lucky is supposed to be Lao¡¯s hunter hound. He needs to always wear that disk, never take it off, and be reunited with her. He needs to never leave her side, ever again. I continue kissing Lucky¡¯s snout and the bridge of his nose while crying and hugging his neck.


    It¡¯s not like Luni is silent either as she hears my mental monologue. She gasped, and then hiccuped as she held back a sob. Now she¡¯s weeping silently next to me as she rests a hand on my shoulder. Still, trying to take her mind off of the same sadness that I want to escape right now, I offer several things to Luni.


    Gulping back my sadness, blinking back tears, I turn to Lu while fishing out certain magical items I¡¯d found. I hand over the silver chain that¡¯s set with the emerald, and the incredibly gorgeous, heavily ensorcelled robes that I found. My Anchor flashes me a loving smile and half shakes her head with faux exasperation. She still accepts the magical equipment, but is rolling her eyes playfully at me for trying to distract her with gifts.


    Sighing, I know of at least three other fairly powerful magic items that were used against me, two of which I want to make sure get destroyed. The hellfire skeleton helmet, and the psionic aberrant dragon helmet both need to be destroyed. They¡¯re incredibly obviously cursed. The second one fractured Adkre¡¯s personality, making them argue with themselves in a manner that even I could sense was more than just coping mechanisms. The hellfire skeleton helmet seemed to be corrupting Vorzog the more he used it, seemingly making him desire nothing more than to use it more and more. I think honestly that it¡¯s one of the only reasons that I beat him. By the end of the fight, it¡¯s like he was an addict with his gaze darting around searching for a fix. He was too distracted to focus on defending himself from my final assault since his gaze couldn¡¯t find any wounded allies to toss, due to FFS¡¯s ice walls.


    The odd, floating, orbital-laser-firing gemstone that Adkre had been using is somewhere near the area that I destroyed with balefire. I don¡¯t really care whether it gets found or not, either by us, or by our foes. It¡¯s a tiny advantage for whomever has it, but meh. This cape, and this chalice though. Even just once per day, their abilities are incredible. I really don¡¯t want to be run-through by someone turning into lightning again, so I don¡¯t want this lightning-gryphon cape to fall into enemy hands. I want to give this chalice to Pawn, and have her use it to create the specific potion that transforms its imbiber into a dragon whenever she¡¯s in need.


    Oh, this scepter. It¡¯s unlimited thunder, or sonic damage. This goes to Lu too. I almost want to giggle at the idea of her with it, since she also has sonic-enhancing equipment and abilities. Luni getting equipment that falls under her specialty is almost perfect in a sense. She¡¯s the mistress of waves, soundwaves mostly. Lu snorts at my brain calling her a mistress of anything, due to the implications of the word. I glare at her suspiciously, but she quickly avoids my gaze and pretends to whistle. Sure Lu, real smooth. Anyway, it¡¯s still neat to find things that we might be able to swap the binding over to the Shellcracker soul relatively quickly, now that I¡¯m learning more about magic items. Well, things with dead prior owners thankfully don¡¯t have any special requirements, a new user simply attunes the item to their will.


    Then there¡¯s the perfect bonus of Lucky having new armor that makes him, and those near him, immune to frightening mental effects. It couples well with him also now having an aura, or radius of area in which he provides the ability to breathe water, and swim effortlessly. I think there¡¯s a pennant, a weird banner thing, back at Solace, that Lucky might be able to use, with his scarf. It lets those near the wielder see invisible creatures or something like that. I¡¯ll have to figure it out later. Thankfully Lucky apparently dragged Triorgraiz¡¯s mount out here with the rest of the wounded, or maybe Lil did.


    Anyway, Lucky, Lu, and FFS can handle it out here. Let¡¯s help Lil check out the keep. I rush towards the keep in order to catch up with Lil. Ugh, poor Lil. It looks like he¡¯s caught in some sort of psionic emblem trap. The thing literally has its claws in his brain. Fudge, do I have enough S P to dispel it? Hm, I can just destroy the glyph. Heading back towards the entrance, I pick up a long-poled warhammer dropped by one of the many Draconiacs. Now suitably equipped for smashing, I return to free Lil from the magical trap. Shattering the glyphed tile with the offending enchantment thankfully frees my best buddy, so I flash him a smile, and motion to his invisible goggles.


    Even if Lil can¡¯t see auras as well as he could on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, he¡¯s got amazing observational skills, and his powerful analysis skill. He should be able to see the runes themselves, even if they¡¯re microscopically carved, with those goggles of his. They magnify vision up to like a hundred times or something ridiculous. Since I don¡¯t want to accidentally get caught permanently in a psionic trap, I re-equip my psychic-aegis-enchanted circlet, sadly cutting myself off from my beloved telepathic bonds once more.


    Lil and I continue exploring, room by room, one or the other of us pointing out dangerous glyphs that I shatter from a distance with the warhammer. I don¡¯t even need to be personally wielding the hammer, since I just float it telekinetically in range for a strike from a dozen meters away or so. There is a *lot* of ruined magical reagents in here, which sucks a bit. There¡¯s gem-binding paste, gem dust, powdered bone of dragon and other powerful magical creatures, various herbs, minerals, organs from supernatural foes, ectoplasm, and all sorts of things, and it¡¯s all ruined by having been washed through by acid. If I felt like taking a few days, I could maybe salvage a fair amount of it, but I¡¯m neither that patient, nor free for that much time to spend on such triviality.


    Okay Reggie, think for a moment. What are the odds that something survived in here? These floors are looking more and more damaged, as we get to the level where the Worldstorm touched down upon. Anything still up here would have had to have been incredibly durable. Something like, oh, that incredibly cursed-looking gong with a demon-face upon it. Nope. Nope nope nope.


    As Lil heads towards it, I hiss, ¡°Lil, get the hell away from that. Can¡¯t you¡ª. F@(k.¡±

 B 6 C 139: Split

    There¡¯s a pink, smokish aura from the gong that digs into Lil¡¯s eyes. No. No no no no no! Is it an enchantment? Can I dispel it? I don¡¯t see any runework! It¡¯s more like a spirit reaching out¡ª, glp. A spirit reaching out and possessing Lil, making him approach the gong to ring it. If¡ª, if that¡¯s a spirit in the gong, and it¡¯s already possessing Lil partially¡ª. What happens when it¡¯s completely freed? Does it materialize a body, manifesting it for itself? Or, glp¡ª. Or does it finish fully possessing the host?


    My world begins to shatter, time breaks into pieces as Lil continues trotting all the more hastily towards the gong. As I rush to catch up, Lil headbutts the gong before I can even get within a few paces of him. The massive wash of smoky spiritual aura that encompasses him answers my prior questions. It answers and confirms my worst fears. The only thing I can think to do in the moment is to smash and shatter the majority of this gong, at least its frame, as Lil begins to turn upon me, grinning maliciously.


    Gulping, I can¡¯t help giving in to the cliche as I shout something that never works, ¡°No, no no no no! Lil, Lil buddy, snap out of it! Come on pal, come to your senses. Kick that thing out!¡±


    Dodging a swipe of Lil¡¯s fore-claws, I shout once more, ¡°Lil, come on! Take control! Take control, and cast that pinkish punk-ish, hellhole smoke rollin¡¯ on in, back out of you!¡±


    This¡ª, glp, this isn¡¯t working. Worse, a voice I recognize calls out through Lil¡¯s mouth, ¡°What¡¯s the matter dance partner? I thought you asked to cut in.¡±


    Vorzog? In, wh-what? But, but, but¡ª. How? Focus Reggie, genre senses. Right. The gong, it¡¯s a phylactery. Launching myself at the gong, I begin laying into it, hammering away at the framework, unable to more than lightly dent the mass of bronzeish metal itself. I ignore my danger wraps¡¯ sensory warnings, hoping to find a way to shatter this thing and free Lil, before too late. Lil¡¯s head is gyrating and vibrating crazily, as if he¡¯s got a split personality that he¡¯s fighting with almost physically over control of his body.


    No, no no no no! If Vorzog wanted revenge, if he wanted to hurt me, this is it. This is the way. Taking Lil from me, taking and corrupting my best buddy, and turning him against me, using him to attack me. Choking back sobs, I can¡¯t afford to¡ª Oof! Koff, koff. I forgot how strong Lil is, especially with that storming girdle. What, what¡¯s going on? Something¡¯s happening. Something¡¯s draining from me after the impact.


    Dazed from slamming facefirst sideways into the wall, coughing from the impact of Lil¡¯s claws shattering my right ribs yet again, I stagger to my feet, trying to make sense of what my senses are sensing. Blargh. Brain, redundant, hurt. Can¡¯t, can¡¯t dodge in time! Horf! I¡¯m uppercut, sent sailing towards the ceiling, and barely avoid having my skull caved in by the ceiling as I tilt in midair, slamming only lightly up against it as I hit the apex of my climb. Another point of contact from Lil, and something else is draining, something¡¯s happening. I¡ª, I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t think. I can¡¯t orient myself.


    Vorzog nearly decapitated me with that earlier uppercut. Now my neck is nearly split and snapped sideways by a haymaker from Lil to my chin, knocking my helmet and circlet off. I¡¯m sent spinning and reeling. I end up skidding on my back across the floor, coughing and spitting up blood. More, more is leaving me, I don¡¯t know what. What am I missing? What, what don¡¯t I remember having? What did I use? I, I had powers, right? I¡¯m, I¡¯m just some humanoid, with some magic gear. How did I get tossed into the deep end of a war with dragonkind? Something is wrong. That¡¯s not right. I¡¯m, I¡¯m married to someone. She wouldn¡¯t have done that. She wouldn¡¯t have sent me to die senselessly, unable to defend myself.


    How did I defend myself? Shouldn¡¯t I have some sort of abilities, or powers? I¡ª. Spells, enchanting, shapechanging, that¡¯s right. I had those things. That¡¯s how I infiltrated the keep. Why don¡¯t I remember them? What¡¯s going on? Wait. Oh no. What about dragonforce? That¡¯s a thing I needed, right? Do I still have that? Hooooof!


    Blurp. I vomit a torrent of blood as Lil drives his dominant claw into my stomach. Gushing blood, and crying, I fight to stagger away, off of Lil¡¯s limb. Wait, brain, no, don¡¯t do this, please. Please don¡¯t do this. Don¡¯t blame Lil, don¡¯t think of it as Lil¡¯s limb. Remember, it¡¯s Vorzog. Right, right. I, I don¡¯t get it. My muscles feel weaker, I can¡¯t sense any abilities, or figure out how to make magic, or anything. Lil looks more powerful by the second. What¡¯s¡ª.


    Vorzog is draining me, my skills, spells, powers, abilities, probably even stats and levels, maybe even memories, in order to gain an even stronger hold over Lil. He¡¯s turning every bit of me into some sort of energy that lets him oppress or suppress Lil further. If Vorzog finishes me, he will completely subsume Lil¡¯s will, trapping, or finishing off Lil¡¯s consciousness, forever.


    My limbs quiver with effort as I drag myself away from Vorzog-Lil. I struggle in an attempt to stand, and make it to a mostly hunched crawl. It doesn¡¯t last long though. Slumping, I tumble after limping, and drag myself once more. I¡¯m little more than a bloody lump, leaving a gory smear across the floor of this room. Every bit of motion is a hellish agony as I struggle against the worst weakness I¡¯ve ever felt. My muscles quiver under the strain of even moving the slightest bit of me.


    Didn¡¯t, didn¡¯t I have things? Items, magic items, stuff. How. How did they work? Vorzog¡¯s getting closer, oh god. Vorzog has Lil, and he¡¯s going to get me, and he¡¯ll have Lil forever because of my weakness. He sneers while stalking me slowly, toying with me the way a cat plays with a half-dead mouse. I double over from my already hunched position to vomit another torrent of blood. My vision crosses and blurs no matter how hard I try to focus. I prop myself against a wall, trying to fight and struggle to my feet. I can¡¯t, can¡¯t just keep crawling, and dragging.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Just¡ª, just head, head towards, a, a trap, anything. A commanding voice reaches my psyche, ¡°Sweetie, you¡¯ve gotta split. Jump out the window, now!¡±


    Wh-what? Someone I trust. Something, a silhouette plays a shaky, staticy image in my mind. It¡¯s a flipbook, or stop motion animation, a memory. The person is cheeky. Do what they say when they say it. Bob with bangs. Smiling face. Trust. Believe. Trust. Dragging myself up the edge of the stone wall to the windowsill, the stained glass broken and shattered from the earlier storm, I hurl myself out into the open sky, eleven stories off the ground, as Vorzog-Lil observes me with bemusement.


    Plummeting through the sky towards the ground, I should react somehow, I should know something, somehow, do something. Memories, magic, abilities, everything is drained. Didn¡¯t I have something for situations like this? I can¡¯t help hyperventilating in fear. What looks like a river of lightning approaches me. Lightning strikes me. I think.


    I find myself surprised that I¡¯m not dead from the lightning strike. Or, whatever is now carrying me. It¡¯s¡ª, it¡¯s a someone, not a thing. She¡¯s a someone. Someone precious, loving, protective. I know her. I know this. She gazes at me with worry, fear and sadness in her eyes. She¡¯s choking back tears, and gulping down her sobs. She needs me to remember. Someone that needs me to remember something. Luni!


    As we drift further from where Vorzog-Lil stands at the window of his keep, memories begin flooding back to me, but my powers, abilities, and stats do not. I limply curl into Luni¡¯s embrace, too tired, and hurt, to even cry. My limbs are too weary to even wrap around her, my savior, My Anchor. Oh Lil. Luni¡¯s beloved Lil, my best buddy, my adoptive son in law. No. No. I gain back just enough strength to cry, to sob my heart out.


    Vorzog-Lil shapeshifts, and leaps out the window, crashing down into a strong three-point landing, seemingly completely unfazed as he dusts himself off to begin pursuing us at a leisurely pace. His form is a combination of Lil¡¯s human shape, and his own Draconiac scaled visage. We¡¯re approaching the wounded. Lu, what are we doing? We¡¯re going to get people killed. Lil could just breathe fire on all of these wounded people. Sniffling, choking and sobbing, I try pushing myself out of Lu¡¯s embrace, begging her to stop.


    Pleading, I cry out, ¡°Lu, stop, please! We can¡¯t let him just kill everyone!¡±


    Desperate to not bring harm to others, I wriggle, and drop from Luni¡¯s embrace. She lands next to me and her voice seems to fritz as she coughs while she whispers, ¡°It¡¯s okay sweetie. Look. K¡ª. He¡¯s coming, and everything is going to be okay¡ª. K¡ª. He¡¯s going to take care of everything.¡±


    My gaze is frantic as it turns towards Luni in wide-eyed horror, momentarily believing she¡¯d set me up, that she¡¯s somehow on Vorzog-Lil¡¯s side. There¡¯s heartbreak in her eyes at the accusatory nature of my thoughts. She¡¯s pointing somewhere, at someone. Oh. Our son. Lucky. Lucky¡¯s coming, and everything is going to be okay. Lucky¡¯s going to take care of everything. Lucky sails through the air, and meets Vorzog-Lil head on. I, I can¡¯t watch. I can¡¯t bear it if one of them kills the other. Lu, what are you thinking?


    I crumple further inward on myself and sob, bawling my eyes out into my palms. Lucky begins engaging a slew of abilities, abilities that I¡¯d granted him. Lucky manifests an eighth tier monstrous mana construct, but his are special. Lucky calls into being three creatures that seem like male eagle-harpies. They¡¯re all endowed with seemingly enchanted platemail, and their shields and armor are adorned with sigils, symbols of faith, belief, strength in unity. My genre senses say that they¡¯re paladins of some unknown faith or deity.


    Wait. Paladins. Hellfire-skeletons? Undead? Phylactery? Lich. Phylactery. Lich, phylactery. Lucky you¡¯re a genius! Struggling against Lu¡¯s comforting hand that feels so heavy a weight atop my shoulders, I reach my full height, and fight every inch of myself for every last bit of energy I can muster. I spy FFS taking care of the prisoners, the wounded. That¡¯s quite an odd job for an elemental whose nature I usually rely on to cause carnage and chaos. It¡¯s also not what I need to pay attention to though. Every bit of me aching, I agonizingly slowly work to equip my holy halefire double-barreled wrist crossbow.


    My eyes cross, my vision doubles, and I wobble once more. I try to raise my arm, to take aim, but Luni stops me, shaking her head. What? But, but¡ª. She shakes her head and smiles softly at me as she whispers, ¡°Not yet, Hero, not yet. Just a little longer. You¡¯re so brave, and so good. You¡¯re so good. You always have been, and always will be. It¡¯s okay sweetie. I love you, Lucky and Lil do too. We¡¯ve all got this, always have, and always will.¡±


    I choke on a sob as I lean into Luni¡¯s embrace. My limbs quiver and quake with the strain of even existing. Gazing down, I even appear emaciated. I¡¯ve been drained of most everything. I¡ª, I need moisture, nutrients. I¡ª, hah, thank you Chuck. I could almost cry, no, I do cry, as I loose a few laughs, and begin eating soft, moist cheeses. Wow, these are fragrant, and have an incredibly strong flavor. I¡¯m suddenly feeling much more alert. I¡¯d almost think these were laced with cocaine or something to¡ª. Crap. Haha. No wonder Chuck seemed to be nearly dying on the toilet. Someone laced his cheese with stimulants, and perhaps laxatives. My guts burble incessantly, despite having no sort of gastric system to speak of.


    My body decides that it can¡¯t handle the chemical concoction lacing the cheese, and I loose up my sick once more, though with far less blood than the last few times. Gazing down at myself, I¡¯m surprised when I see talons covered in armor. They aren¡¯t mine, but it¡¯s a surprise that something has invaded my personal bubble so closely so quickly without me taking note of it until now. An eagle-like humanoid has landed before me. He makes squawking noises at me, but, as usual for Reggie Shellcracker, there¡¯s a language barrier to overcome. I sigh quietly to myself, unsure what exactly to do here. Luni nudges me, and nods towards the bird-man.


    I tip, and tumble into the bird-man¡¯s grasp, and begin to feel vitalized and invigorated. I don¡¯t think anything is really returning, but I feel healthier, and much-less like I¡¯m going to drop dead any moment from weariness and muscle-exhaustion. Perhaps he did remove some of the curses that Vorzog was able to layer upon me that prevented me from accessing some of my statistics or abilities though. At the very least, I¡¯m pretty certain I recall how to use my equipment again, and the majority of my magic items no longer seem to be mysteriously non-functional upon me.


    Despite the curative magics, my guts burble a bit, and I¡¯m caught burping up some disgusting gases and acidic, bile-like liquid. Loosing the grossness to my side, I find myself hoisted by the bird-man. I¡¯m still worried though. I don¡¯t know what or when I should be looking out for, in order to strike back against Vorzog. The bird-man flies us into a position where we can watch Lucky holding his own against Vorzog-Lil, as Vorzog attempts to learn and commandeer more and more of Lil¡¯s powers and abilities. We need to split Vorzog¡¯s essence from Lil in the next few moments, or I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll lose Lil forever.

 B 6 C 140: Mileage, Barrels

    The bird-man casts a spell on me, which leaves me floating in the air. I think perhaps he¡¯s allowed me to fly, or levitate, but my brain still isn¡¯t working out how to activate or use things other than my most basic muscles, and even those it¡¯s struggling with. Lucky, and his triple-paladin squad, take turns casting magic at Vorzog-Lil, and eventually, he¡¯s pinned down by enough magic, that the birdmen feel safe approaching him, apparently.


    Laying hands upon Vorzog-Lil, I see one of the paladins glow, and shake his head, seemingly unable to accomplish whatever he¡¯d tried. The three bird-men step back, and begin layering more spellwork upon Vorzog-Lil. Runic circles appear floating around Vorzog-Lil, as well as on the ground around him. The three once more approach Vorzog-Lil, and a second attempt is made, by a different bird-man who glows. Once more, that paladin shakes his head, and panic takes root deep within my heart. If, if Lucky¡¯s plan, if Lu¡¯s plan, if, if they can¡¯t¡ª.


    Trust Lu, trust Lu, trust Lu. Please. Please work. Sniffling, I fight my fears, and take aim at Lil, from my position above him, about the only place I¡¯d be able to hold my arm up enough to aim at him. I watch, nearly in despair as the three eagle paladins work spellwork once more, at a distance from Vorzog-Lil. It seems the first two have used up whatever abilities that allowed them to channel their previous attempts. My breath catches in my throat as I am certain that this is the last attempt to break Lil free.


    Clenching every muscle in my body as thoroughly as I can muster, I begin to squeeze my eyes shut tightly in fear as I watch the final birdman lay hands upon Lil, and begin to glow. My eyelids vibrate and quiver under the strain of attempting to shield my eyes from the sight I fear will come to pass. I can¡¯t close out the vision entirely, because I can¡¯t clench my eyelids thoroughly. There¡¯s startled squawking, and an immediate effort to shove Lil heavily to one side by Lucky, and all three birdmen. The birdmen are moments away from disappearing, as is all the magic they¡¯ve put in place, but¡ª. Lil is free! Inside the circle is, hurk, hoopf. It¡¯s the undead essence of Vorzog, trapped in the circle. Now, now now now! Fire fire fire fire!


    Squeezing off as many shots as I can into the pinkish, purplish smoky spiritual aura that makes up Vorzog¡¯s current form, I¡¯m unrelenting as more and more of my strength returns. Perhaps a tad uncharacteristically, I scream, ¡°Die you bastard! Die and stay dead!¡±


    Dropping next to the circles that are flickering out, I continue firing into the mist. The holy halefire crossbow bolts tear holes through the mist, disintegrating large portions of it, over and over. I keep firing off shots until my limbs quiver once again under the strain of standing. I accept the aid of FFS in order to make certain we¡¯ve burned away every last spec of Vorzog¡¯s essence. Before any reunions can happen, before anyone can make any plans, I take off like a rocket, headed for the eleventh floor of Vorzog¡¯s Keep. Reclaiming my fallen equipment, I struggle to contain my fury, and fail quite spectacularly.


    Growling out something that is probably pretty stupid of me, I work one more offensive spell for the day as my guttural utterance is loosed, ¡°GSE Antimatter Burst!¡±


    Reggie. Mhm? You¡¯re a psychotic idiot. Mhm. You¡¯re lucky that you know that spell is an illusion made up of voidstuff. I know. It¡¯ll probably never work around living targets anyway. They have to have some concept of what element is damaging them, to be susceptible to it. Anyway, I¡¯m now standing, floating on a TK square in something like a forty-meter-radius sphere of absolute nothingness. Air rushes in to fill the sudden void in space. All matter was instantly annihilated, but it couldn¡¯t create the usual, actual byproducts such a reaction would normally incur. That was recklessly stupid Reggie. I know. Hey, at least it got rid of the gong, the phylactery, right? Heh.


    Oh, or it could have just been an illusion that it worked. That was a rather convincing illusion. Fricklefrack. I¡¯m the only sapient lifeform that noticed the area of effect, and I knew it was illusory stuff, so it was just an illusion. Or maybe it just can¡¯t replicate something as powerful as antimatter. The matter appears perfectly fine, and I¡¯m once more standing in the gong-room. I guess that was too convenient. I¡¯d have been able to dispose of things like extra copies of Gae Buidhe safely. Hell, I could probably take down ancients more reliably than with balefire if antimatter had worked. Fudgeknuckles.


    What the hell do I do to end this phylactery? What if you rockwalk, or stone-meld, and leave it under a billion tons of mountain? Hm, would that break it over time, or just hide it? If it¡¯s hidden deep in rock, is his spirit ethereal enough that he can just float out, and possess someone new, with his phylactery technically protected til the end of time? Grr, come on Reggie, just summon up all your strength, and give it another go at destroying this piece of crap. Make sure your psi-blocking is in place. I¡¯m sure all I need to do is crack it at least a fair way through to end its enchantment.


    Wait. They had firearms. Firearms require ammunition. There¡¯s probably either an ammo store, or gunpowder storage somewhere that we missed in one of the exterior buildings. Heheh. It¡¯s probably on the far side from the flaming outhouse, and balefire that I loosed. Yeah, I didn¡¯t check out the far side as well as I should have. Alright, another quick sweep is worthwhile regardless, so let¡¯s do that.


    Yeah, I missed this smaller side-building, it even has a little basement, a root cellar, more or less. Of course the gunpowder and ammo are all down here. Let¡¯s make sure we grab those two awful cursed magic helms, telekinetically so we don¡¯t actually touch them, and bury them in gunpowder too.


    Okay, let¡¯s put all these bedeviled objects into this trunk, and compress this gunpowder down around it, with a good thick layer underneath them. Alright, good, good. Now lets take some of this spare gunpowder, and compress it down into these jars, and toss a bunch of bullets in here. Now, let¡¯s leave a trail of gunpowder to the trunk, with all the extra shrapnel in it, and surround that trunk with the other gunpowder barrels. Huff, phew. Let¡¯s get as far the hell away from here as possible, and levitate a torch to chuck in towards the building. Thirty meters, I¡¯ll go forty or fifty meters, and place a building or two between myself and the gunpowder shed, then chuck the torch with a TK grip from as far as it¡¯ll reach.


    Hoohoooho-holy crap. Boom goes the dynamite indeed, for at least the second time today. I¡¯m getting some mileage out of that phrase. A series of smaller kabooms punctuates the massive overarching thundrous blast of the ignition of all the other explosive material at once. The stone building atop the gunpowder cellar is blown to pieces, and the missiles formed are deadly projectiles that rocket away from the blast site, possibly as far as miles away. I¡¯m hoping none of that shrapnel retains any deadly force past a short distance. I¡¯m also hoping enough of the shrapnel was packed in such a way as to destroy the gong. Let¡¯s go check it out.


    Nice, just¡ª nice. I don¡¯t think Vorzog will be draining anyone else, or coming back, ever again. I also just realized, that the gong had dozens of dragon¡¯s hearts used in its construction, likely suffusing the material with raw, or well, refined dragonforce. Basically, dragonforce that can only be used for items, objects, and enchantments. It was probably powering all the wards, and definitely powering the phylactery. Huh, I wonder how old Vorzog really was, or if a Draconiac was even his original body. It could have been some human archmage that Terrorzin conscripted long, long, long ago. He might have been burning through bodies every few decades or centuries. Or a dragon archmage, or a Draconiac archmage, take your pick.


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    Huh. Y¡¯know one thing Vorzog didn¡¯t, or maybe couldn¡¯t drain from me? What? My species, with its ability to shapeshift. Okay, I guess. So? So, I¡¯m still in the middle of transforming into my otter form. Hah. How would that have worked out if it had gone off in the middle of that battle while I was weak as hell? It¡¯s not one of the forms with regeneration is it? No, at least I don¡¯t think so. I think it¡¯s one of the ones that has a new hitpoint pool each time it¡¯s assumed. Sort of like how that chalice created a potion that creates a fully healthy adult blue dragon form for your consciousness to occupy.


    Huh, then the inventory-otter form might have been fully healthy, undrained, and unstrained by Vorzog¡¯s abilities. Still, I wouldn¡¯t have wanted to try to take it into a fight against Lil, or Vorzog-Lil, or whatever. There¡¯s got to be a better name for the form too than just otter plushie, or inventory-otter, or otter-for-my-space-skill-activation-form. Hm, games where there¡¯s carry weight, sometimes there¡¯s tricks with barrels, and jokes about barrelmancy. My barrelmancer form? Bluh, no. That doesn¡¯t make sense at all. What about Backpack Otter? My BO form? Oh, bleugh, Lu would never stop laughing. Okay, what about, uh, Backpotter? Hah, that one¡¯s kind of cute.


    Huff. Ooftah, what a friggin¡¯ day so far, am I right? Still, I¡¯m pretty seriously injured, even though my strength and abilities are returning. Even regeneration as powerful as mine in RS2 should take a few days to recover from these hits. Ow, ow, ow. Stop complaining. I¡¯m not, I¡¯m just saying the broken ribs, broken jaw, bruised lungs, and punctured guts hurt is all. Heh. Anyway. Might as well get in position, and check out this mecha for a moment while we¡¯re at it. Landing next to it, I unlock the magitek mecha¡¯s rear hatch once more, and open it, letting it air out. As I study all the runework and auras running throughout the creation, it feels almost alive to me, almost.


    What¡¯s that FFS? Oh, sure. It was good seeing you. Thank you for helping us, and saving me, as usual. I¡¯m so lucky to have an elemental spirit that¡¯s willing to join me so often, to partake of ambient mana, and combat, on this side of the veil. It *might* be because I wield Frostburn, or Cla¨ªomh Solais, but I don¡¯t exactly know for sure. Hm, I could swear I can almost feel the magitek mecha attempting to communicate with me. Maybe I¡¯m imagining things. Anyway, it needs a name other than magitek mecha. Huh, for some reason, a name imemdiately came to me, Big-O¡¯Keul. Weird. I guess it doesn¡¯t sound too bad. Oh, whoopf!


    Well now. This is my otter form, huh? I guess I can refer to it as my Backpotter form. This is nearly as tall as the magitek mecha, but nearly as tall isn¡¯t tall enough, or big enough to drag it into my inventory. Good thing we¡¯ve got a spell that can change that, hah. Hahah. Hahah. Oy vey, I¡¯m cracking up a bit today. Anyway, I use the opposite side of the shrinking spell, to embiggen, or enlarge my Backpotter form, doubling my size in all directions, cubing my volume. Heheh.


    Alrighty, standing at approximately thirty-six feet tall or so, I¡¯m feeling pretty good about my chances of transporting things and people. I unzip my now incredibly enormous adamantite zipper, giggling slightly to myself as I stare at a void within me. This just can¡¯t be real. Oh well, hah, anyway, Big-O¡¯Keul, you¡¯re insanely heavy, but how about I mostly lean over you so that, hupf, there we go. As more and more of you is in my interdimensional space, you weigh less and less on this side of it. Friggin¡¯ weird, but hey, it works.


    Checking in telepathically with my fam, it seems that they¡¯ve caught on and are letting the prisoners and wounded know what I¡¯m about to try. I feel a little monstrous as I begin grabbing a handful of people to shove into my belly. One handful goes in easily enough, but the second one seems to bounce off of an invisible field. Testing by swapping hands, that group of individuals still keeps me from being able to move my hand into my interdimensional space. Checking with the Callipygian, he is able to walk in on his own, so my interdimensional space is neither full, nor broken. It¡¯s just this group of prisoners at the moment.


    I check their enchantments, and no one has anything up that should screw with extradimensional travel. Consent. It requires consent. There¡¯s a tiny possibility I might be able to get someone unconscious into my Backpotter form, if they hadn¡¯t previously consented, but about as much chance that even if someone offers prior consent, that it won¡¯t be able to drag unconscious people into its space.


    So one of these people doesn¡¯t consent. Fine, one at a time. Ah-hah, and now we¡¯ve found our culprit. Just what are you planning? Voicing my concern, I state, ¡°I can only offer security, safety, and transport for those who consent to becoming our prisoners of war, a status which confers protection, provisions, and even prosperity, for those that accept it. Everyone else, I¡¯m going to need to make demands of, and likely slay, if they don¡¯t agree to them.¡±


    The Draconiac that wasn¡¯t consenting glares at me, and I sense their bindings stretched taut over a sharp rock. Rolling my eyes, when the fool frees up their hands, and begins spellwork, I simply smash him flat. I¡¯m a giant Backpotter with adamantite wristlets, and zipper, and a scarf of platinum-scales from The Platinum himself. What did you expect? That I was just going to sit still while you chucked a fireball at my soft fuzzy form?


    Huffing, I grump, ¡°Anyone else want to resist our request?¡±


    There are several groans, several chuckles, and several nervous glances. For the most part, no one is brave enough to announce their intentions. I shrink Triorgraiz¡¯s enormous mount with the archsorc staff, and he clambers into me after I show him that I¡¯m trying to get Triorgraiz healed. As far as everyone else, I¡¯m able to get about seventy percent of the wounded or defeated or seemingly surrendered into my interdimensional space. The other thirty percent are those that bounce off, not consenting.


    When Lil, in a bloodthirsty tone, asks, ¡°Does that mean I can kill ¡®em Rej?¡± I just nod, not having the energy to deal with this nonsense right now.


    Normally, I¡¯d try to plead my case to these people. I could even understand hesitancy to follow a command when staring down the barrel of a literal void that all your friends are being tossed into. But I¡¯ve given them chance after chance after chance already today, and their leader nearly took my best friend from me. I don¡¯t have many clucks left to give, much less any more mercy.


    Plus, I¡¯ve got Zelshiz¡¯s statue, or, body I guess, inside me, and I want to get it to Tiktik somehow, as soon as possible. I know that she knows a spell that can reverse petrification transmutations. Basically, I don¡¯t have time to wiffle-waffle about the fate of these lunatics. I¡¯ll regret it later, but it¡¯s war, and they chose their side by not surrendering. I¡¯ll start dropping my Backpotter form when I calm down for at least a split second. I¡¯m hoping that with the long windup time, and the short time I used it, that I¡¯ll be able to engage it again today, to free these people.


    The only aid I offer Lil and Lucky in vanquishing their now-terrified foes, is to box them in with my telekinetic grips when they try to flee. I¡¯m not letting merciless, unremorseful jerks free to roam the countryside. Not today, not after this whole mess. Lil and Lucky don¡¯t exactly take joy in their chore, thankfully. They act with grim determination, and a hint of vengeful justice.


    Checking my phone, the strange programming attempt I made with Kinzul actually worked. The NFC chip I created biologically within the Backpotter form logged the addition of each, erm, heh, item, to my inventory. Now it can be read in a small spreadsheet since I passed my phone over that NFC chip. At least this way, I won¡¯t accidentally forget someone inside my inventory for eons with no way to view my mental menu interface. Sighing as I return to RS2, the pain returns as I resume my heavily-injured state.


    Limping towards my friends, I lean up against Lil as he leans up against Lucky. Lu sways nearby, performing a rather provocative dance as she loops music from her harp. I gulp and blush as she changes out her robes, to the new ones we¡¯d found for her, with the swath of enchantments on them. After all that, we deserve a breather, and I can¡¯t say I¡¯m not enjoying watching Luni. I can¡¯t say that at all. Rattling my skull, I dig out Whisper. Making sure my helm and circlet are in place, I contemplate doing something that¡¯s probably pretty stupid.

 B 6 C 141: Mindfires Home

    Firstly, I reunite Whisper with the Cosmic Roundsheath, both seem to simultaneously rejoice, and rebel at the action.  There¡¯s newfound power, in some sort of link, but it exists just outside of both of their grasps.  One has to be permanently cut from the link in order to allow the other to access that power.  I know the rune for psi-energy.  Elemental or energy runes empowered with my total will, without a spelliform are incredibly-powerful, potent multipliers of energies and forces, or even just explosive in their own right.


    Drawing Whisper once more, I set down the Elemental Bandolier.  I can overwrite or add one dagger onto this, making it a psionic energy instead of a normal element.  To top it off, it¡¯ll have Whisper¡¯s transportation benefits, and have a pre-empowered energy rune to multiply psi-effects.  Not that I have any of those other than Whisper personally, but I could pick some up at some point.


    The problem is, I have to suffer psionic rune empowerment backlash to set that up.  I¡¯m currently immune to psychic damage.  Will that prevent the backlash?  Will it just delay it until the next time I take off the circlet?  Let¡¯s run some calculations.  Hm, hm, mhm.  Diving into the non, into the absence of the flow of time, the absence of time itself, I begin to work, drawing out what I know, and letting retrocognition fill in the rest.


    Okay, retrocognition says something like eighty five to eighty nine percent chance that the psionic backlash is pushed off and stretched out for as long as I continue to be immune to psionic.  If I wear the enchantment long enough, it¡¯ll be stretched out for an equivalent amount of time, and spread out over that time.  So, say it was going to do a million damage to me in ten seconds, but I wear the helmet¡¯s psionic-immunity circlet for a million seconds, then over the next million seconds after doffing it, it¡¯d only do a single damage per second.  This has the added benefit as counting as prolonged, or reoccurring sources of psionic damage, which will increase my base psi-resist.  I like that.  I like that a lot.


    There are drawbacks though.  It¡¯ll put a strain on my SP recovery, if I don¡¯t finish taking all the psi damage before my next rest.  I might not recover *any* SP at all, if I let it take too long.  Even if I keep the immunity up during my sleep, it will pause my SP recovery entirely.  Essentially, any time I spend resting, that I haven¡¯t finished taking all of the psi damage, I won¡¯t be benefiting from, at least not in terms of SP recovery.  Speaking of SP, being at five-hundred eighty today already is a bit scary.


    Having only twenty to a hundred twenty SP that I might be able to spend before my muscles start resenting responding to me, means that any more tussles we get into would be basically without my most versatile powers.  I didn¡¯t see any subterranean levels, or hints of any, but that doesn¡¯t mean there were none.  Still, we succeeded at routing the leadership core here, securing a swath of surrenders slash prisoners.  We also ended up destroying most of the fortress¡¯s defenses, and defenders.  I¡¯ve got a massive stack of enchanted crossbows, ballistae, and other silly nonsense in my inventory now as well.


    Speaking of enchanted crossbows, one thing I did forget to both count, and try out, is the crossbow bolts from this mini quiver that the Cosmic Roundsheath is attached to.  I¡¯ll get to that later though.  Alright, let¡¯s do it, let¡¯s enchant Whisper as a new psi-knife attachment to my Elemental Bandolier.  It¡¯ll only be usable once per day, as opposed to seemingly almost endlessly the way the assassin was using it against me, but it¡¯ll be ridiculously leagues more powerful.  The other benefit will be that separating it from the Cosmic Roundsheath gives the sheath access to this weird paired power, that Whisper will no longer be tugging away from the sheath.  I¡¯m curious to see what that is.  As is, the thing is just a badly-weighted frisbee.  Anyway, drop from the non, back to reality.  Let¡¯s dig around and get this set up while checking in on Te and the rest.


    Blurgh, checking in on Te is making me sick.  She¡¯s leaping all over at super speeds.  I¡¯m getting motion sickness trying to see what she¡¯s up to.  If she doesn¡¯t have some sort of super hyperactive reactionary perception senses, I have no idea how she¡¯s even able to function that fast.  I know that occasionally time seems to slow for me, so that I can perceive, orient, and react more quickly, but for Te, that must be on, like, at all times when she¡¯s moving around.  As far as I can tell, everyone seems okay.  No one¡¯s holding up any signs in any of the locations indicating losses or anything.


    Alright, so with enough of this dust, and this binding agent I can¡ª.  Wow, myconid-me really thought of everything.  Well, I mean, hivemind-everyone, thought of everything.  We filled dozens and dozens of vials with reagents, and binding agents, and pre-mixed solutions, potions, and partial potions and so much more, all while crafting, enchanting, learning, and just¡ª.  Just wow.  Phew, okay, anyway.  Let¡¯s see what we can do about this.


    Woah.  Okay, this thing is already rippling with psi energy as I attempt to transfix it and allocate this recovery enchantment.  I¡¯m scooting away from my friends in case this gets a bit hairy.  That, huh, that part looks wrong.  Are we sure we calculated correctly?  Hm, it¡¯s hard accounting for that weird binding link between Whisper and the Cosmic Roundsheath.  We do want to break the binding though, and that part does indicate breakage.  Gnawing on my lip, I¡¯m just hoping that it indicates breakage of the correct linkage.


    Huff, phew, okay, everything is prepped.  Just¡ª, gulp, just have to empower the psi-rune now, and finish the last detachment slash attachment bit.  Come on, come on, please don¡¯t blow up my brain, or the brains of my loved ones.  Please.  We¡¯ve got this.  We¡¯ve got this.  We can do this.  Please.  Trust, faith, strength in unity¡ª.  Wait!  That¡¯s it!  Whew, holy crap holy crap holy crap.


    Okay, there has to be a feedback loop here, and here, that mimics their respective partners, and it safely closes the circuit on both sides.  Holy crap that was almost bad.  Wow.  Just, just wow.  Phew.  Final touches, and huzzah!  We¡¯re golden!  Woohoo!  New, additional power in my literal toolbelt of elemental throwing knives, as well as in my figurative toolbelt by way of separating whisper from this weird mini quiver¡¯s Cosmic Roundsheathe.  Ah, I needed to do that anyway before I messed with the ¡°elemental¡± crossbow bolts.  I¡¯m kind of glad I forgot about it accidentally then.  That could have been disastrous.  Let¡¯s see what you do, shall we?


    Huh, the Cosmic Roundsheath¡¯s runes read almost like a story.  Something something creation or fabrication at the dawn of time, but like, creation and fabrication are basically separately highlighted, or underlined, as if they were activatable.  I¡¯m almost positive they¡¯re spells.  Further when the stars spread, one such celestial body would endure a Starlight Crash.  Similarly, those two words are activatable, each different effects.  Let¡¯s see, the rest of it is saying something about closing the distance between self and star, the pairing enabling a Wormhole-Warpstrike.  That¡¯s a single ability by the looks of it.  It seems that there are maybe five to seven uses worth of SP for these abilities in this Cosmic Roundsheath per day.  Each of those abilities or spells takes up one use¡¯s worth, though the Starlight can have more pumped into it.  Based on the rate of return, it doesn¡¯t seem worth it to pump more energy into it for a tiny bit more damage.


    Still, if I was lamenting not being able to warp to where I toss Whisper as often as that assassin, it seems like I¡¯ll be able to warp to where I toss the Cosmic Roundsheath a few times per day.  Whisper actually needs a new name, because its current enchantment is anything but a whisper.  It¡¯s more like a fiery brain explosion, a mind-fire.  Mindfire.  That works.  Welcome to your new home Mindfire.  You¡¯ll seemingly disappear to warp back to it once per day.  I have no idea where you exist in the meantime though.  Speaking of warping, what the hell did Lucky do earlier?  Replay that in retrocognition.


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    Hm, mhm, okay.  Oh, it was one of the things he looted from Adkre.  Lucky can sort of dimensionally shunt himself, and allies within fifteen feet, to anywhere else within that fifteen feet, like shuffling us around on a chessboard, and where we land, there¡¯s a slightly radioactive blinding explosion on our foes.  It¡¯s kind of like the limitations of Lil¡¯s fritzing warping ability.  Actually stronger than Lil¡¯s, since Lil seemed to have to focus for a while to engage it.


    Lucky¡¯s warp seems likely a once per day ability though.  Oh, wait, no, similar to the CRS, it has about seven uses worth of SP that can be stored in it.  It was just low on charges due to Adkre.  How interesting.  It also has another ability that deals with freedom of movement, clearing off the effects of restraints, or paralysis, on either Lucky himself, or an ally that he can touch.  Too bad paralysis and petrification aren¡¯t the same things.


    Huh.  Being who he is, I imagine Lucky might someday see someone paralyzed, in trouble, and rush towards them.  On his way, he¡¯d teleport partway while teleporting them partway onto his back, then engage the paralysis curing ability.  That¡¯s a hell of a nice item for Lucky to be in possession of.  Our son is fairly heroic, and kind-hearted.  I know he treated the wounded with respect at my request.  Oh, crap, stop being distracted Reggie!  We have wounded!  Back to reality buddy!


    Fricklefrack, crapsnack.  Shnibbshnobble dingdanggobble.  Friggin¡¯ hell.  Oh Triorgraiz please be okay.  Opening the portable hole to check on my captives, Everyone appears to be breathing, though Shlend looks a bit annoyed.  In mere moments though, Shlendtikuar¡¯s expression adopts a more fearful tone, when the stench of gore and ash reaches his nose.  Triorgraiz looks incredibly pale though.  She¡¯s not going to last much longer, maybe not even long enough to get back to Mount Solace.  No no no no.  I¡ª, I should ask for advice, or help, from someone back at Solace, with our new communications system.


    What¡¯s, wait, what¡¯s that note?  Trouble?  What kind of trouble!?  I gulp back my panic as I read a note that leaves me no information back at the security center.  Okay, okay, someone¡¯s returning.  It seems they rushed off to handle the trouble.  Holding up a note for the scrying sensor, I ask what kind of trouble, and Aktixas patches me through for an auditory connection.


    While I¡¯m trying not to hyperventilate, Aktixas, in his usual accent with hard ah sounds replacing several vowels, explains, ¡°Schism, Sponge was assaulted while out hunting.  The culprit wasn¡¯t caught, but we only found Kagired in time because Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui swiftly reported it to a nearby scout who got word back to Solace.  He¡¯s in a bad way, and may not recover, or even wake for quite some time, if ever.  It seems he gave as good as he got, like a true warrior, but though he drove off his attacker, was still bested, and succumbed to his wounds on his way home.  With all the abilities you granted him, granted us, I fear what could have put him in such a state.¡±


    My heart plummets into the pit of my stomach.  The one chance we might have had to save Triorgraiz is now bloody, in recovery himself, quite possibly comatose.  My world begins to spin.  One of my friends, my new family in the Onyx Dawn might never recover.  I *knew* there was a hostile, dragonforce-filled presence in the surrounding area, I was warned, but I didn¡¯t do anything about it!  I¡ª.  Sniffling, and gulping back a sob, I can¡¯t waste time berating myself.  I asked for a favor to help pinpointing the presence, and it didn¡¯t pan out in time to prevent this.  I need to look for solutions.  Teuila seems to still be embroiled in battle, a lot longer than I¡¯d have expected her to be.


    Mumbling, I respond, ¡°I¡ª, I¡¯m grateful for you filling me in Aktix.  You can resume normal security center operations, putting me back to soundproof, unless there¡¯s anything else you wanted to share.  Um, our sitrep is our mission was successful.  We¡¯ve captured a lot of Draconiacs, many wounded.  Two of the leaders are dead, one leader petrified, one leader badly wounded.  I¡¯m doing what I can about that last bit, since I can¡¯t ask Sponge for help.  Will reach out again at some point.  Schism over and out.¡±


    Crap, I need to buy time.  Shoving my goggles to perch up between my horns¡ª.  Wow, that will take some getting used to.  My hair almost feels finer than I recall where it sprouts from around my horns, but still as much of a wild mass as usual though.  I hold my forehead with my left palm as I try to come up with ideas.  I, I think we¡¯re nearer to Jeegoobotstan than we are to Solace, or at least closer than I¡¯ve been since I first made it to Solace.  Maybe we should visit after all, to see if the refugees have made it, and started setting up?  It has been almost a month and a half, or something like that.


    It was probably going to take two to four weeks to get most of the refugees through the swamp, utilizing the burrows and dugouts.  Then, after that, it would be a two to four week land journey to the ruins of Alta Vista, if they continued to travel at the slow foot-pace of a caravan.  Huff, I¡¯m not even sure if¡ª, glp, if they¡¯re alive, let alone if they¡¯ve had enough time to make it to their new home.


    Focus Reggie, focus in the moment for the moment!  Right, right.  Triorgraiz needs blood.  I doubt anyone here even knows what a blood-type is, much less what hers is.  Good thing myconid hivemind prepared so much random chemical and alchemical crap.  Sampling Triorgraiz¡¯s blood, since there¡¯s absolutely plenty of it in the portable hole, I get to testing it to see if there are any Rh factors, or anything that might potentially cause complications from a donation or transfusion.  Seems negative on that front, okay, good.  What about my own blood?  Can I¡ª?  Hm, yes.  I can shapechange even on a biomolecular level in some sense, with RS2¡¯s enhanced shapeshifting.


    Does this¡ª?  No.  What about¡ª?  No.  Argh, hurry!  Don¡¯t rush me!  If I screw up, I could kill her!  She¡¯ll die soon if you don¡¯t do something!  I know!  Shut up for a second and let me think!  I just¡ª, ugh, I¡¯m arguing with myself, cracking up out of the fear of losing more family, friends, and even just people I¡¯m supposed to protect, people that I agreed or promised to protect.  Huff, okay, calm down.  Try again.  Keep trying, until your blood returns negative to all the same tests hers did.  Okay, one down.  Three to go.


    Nope.  Nope.  Not that.  Nice, close try, but not quite.  Okay, better, almost.  Okay, okay, nope.  Huff, huff, this is exhausting.  How the hell do shapechangers do this all the time?  Snrk.  I doubt most shapechangers are trying to change the blood-type in their entire body all the time Reggie.  Oh, true, hah.  Anyway, phew, one more down, two to go.


    Crap, I¡¯m going cross-eyed again.  My vision blurring is not helping me focus on the transformation.  I¡¯m not exactly uninjured myself here.  Triorgraiz though, she¡¯s lost so much blood, and if I weren¡¯t so sensitive to vibrations, I¡¯d think she wasn¡¯t even breathing.  No, no, focus, don¡¯t get caught up in that.  I shoved most of a dragon corpse, Deviltail¡¯s, I think, into my inventory, could that help?  Would that blood be okay?  You don¡¯t have the time to transform back into Backpotter to even check, and don¡¯t you dare go trying to scrape blood out of the acid-pocked muddy ground.  Alright alright alright already.  Third test is getting closer to returning all negative.


    Oh, crap, I¡¯m still injured.  This is putting a strain on my recovery and regeneration.  Hurp.  Urph.  Can I¡ª?  I think so.  Yes.  I¡¯m pretty sure.  Heh.  Lil¡¯s going to be so pissed.


    Begging my best pal, I request, ¡°Lil, can you hit me with a sun-powered flame, purifyingly hot?¡±


    Grumpily, Lil looks at me like I asked him to swallow a moose.  Well, as if I¡¯d asked him to swallow a moose while he was still in his tiny spheriform evolutionary stage.  Lil rolls his eyes as he comments, ¡°Awe man.¡±


    I love my best Lil buddy so much.  He hates breathing fire on me, and I¡¯m touched that both he cares, not wanting to do it, and that he does it anyway.  He¡¯s the best friend an insane changeling Fae could ask for.  Standing aside, I wait as Lil ramps up his heat, and begins to bestow his flames with his Latent.  Now that they¡¯re white-hot, I walk into his flames as I continue to work on neutralizing all possible factors in my blood that would keep it from being universally compatible.  I choke on my own dry, sizzling throat, unable to even cough as my skin blisters from the intense heat.  Falling to my knees, I can¡¯t even signal for Lil to stop.  I forgot how injured I was, how weak I¡¯d gotten over the course of the day.  I¡¯ve got my circlet on, I can¡¯t even telepathically reach out.  If I knocked it off, I¡¯d suffer the psi-explosion from empowering the psi-rune for the Whisper-to-bandolier Mindfire enchantment.


    Falling to one side, thankfully Lil spies me toppling, and cuts out his flames.  He looks so pissed, sad, scared, and upset.  I just flash him a thumbs up, weakly.  Third test now comes back negative for discrepant blood-factors.  Okay, huff, let¡¯s, huff, get some fluids, and share some blood, shall we?

 B 6 C 142: In-Flight Moving

    Luni looks like she wants to knock me upside my head but-good. I can¡¯t say I blame her, for the stupid stunts I¡¯m pulling right now. Empowering an energy rune without a spelliform, changing my blood-type manually, with the aid of purifying flames, after having taken injuries from someone as powerful as Lil who¡¯d been being piloted by Vorzog? Yeah, this is me at my most heinously reckless and stupid. Why am I fighting so hard for someone that was my enemy a few hours ago?


    Sighing to myself, I know the answer, despite not admitting it. Because that¡¯s what heroes do. I don¡¯t consider myself one, but I still want to try to live up to the standard. Guzzling down water, I focus on speeding my body¡¯s translation of fluids to vital fluids. I¡¯m utilizing shapeshifting to move the water along steadily through the normal biological processes, through biology that I don¡¯t even have! I have to chuckle at myself, as it¡¯s still hastening the fluid translation dozens-fold in speed. I¡¯m ridiculous. This is simply ridiculous. Bodies don¡¯t work like this. Shapeshifting isn¡¯t meant for this. Magic isn¡¯t supposed to do the things I bend and break it to make it do. Screw it all, I reject the rules of all realities and substitute my own.


    Heh, it¡¯s like a dungeon master having so many homebrew house rules that the tabletop game isn¡¯t even recognizable as its source having me around. Oh, crap, I forgot I don¡¯t recover mana when people are in my inventory, because it drains through my inventory to suffuse them. Worse, if they¡¯re in there too long, they¡¯ll be supercharged on my mana.


    First of all, we really don¡¯t need to let a ton of superpowered overcharged hostile mages out, anywhere. Second of all, if I take too long, they¡¯ll be coming out as mana time-bombs. I think that because there¡¯s more people to spread my mana around to, that the effect will take longer to overcharge them, but I don¡¯t want to risk it. I¡¯ve already got parallel processing going on for separate mana pools for my extra transformation forms. I don¡¯t want to even think about what sort of mana residue sickness I could rack up if I suddenly had hundreds of new mana pools of my five thousand plus limit, after expelling people from my inventory.


    We definitely have to make for Jeegoobotstan and hope that some of the refugees are already setting up, especially Tiago. For now, I¡¯m going to rig a transfusion with some of the alchemy equipment that I¡¯ve got packed away. I don¡¯t think the shop system expected me to use cork-needles and distillery tubes to become a walking IV-bag, and yet here we are. I¡¯m not a phlebotomist, not even an amateur at it, but this patch-job will have to hold. Come on Triorgraiz, hang in there. Chuck and the two lovebirds look mortified, but I can¡¯t exactly afford to pay them any mind at the moment.


    Similarly, Shlen looks like he¡¯s once again contemplating escape, due to my weakened state, but I just roll my eyes and use my archsorc staff to glow with mana. I don¡¯t really have any resources to waste on showing off to keep him in line, so I¡¯ll have to use the SP-free stuff available to me. Once I¡¯m glowing, I summon the ghostly hand, and have it wag a finger shamefully at him. There, that cowed him at least enough to get him to stop looking around for the best way to incapacitate me while I¡¯m vulnerable. I do allow Chuck to run to the nearest bushes to relieve himself though. None of us wants to see what happens if he can¡¯t expel.


    I¡¯m not exactly afraid he¡¯ll make a break for it, with his intestinal issues. Even if he does, he seems like one of the lesser evils to possibly loose upon the lands. I can¡¯t imagine him doing more than stealing a few cows or yaks or something to make some cheese, and some chickens for eggs or meat, and maybe a bit of gold or some other coinage. He¡¯s not exactly the most imposing-looking Draconiac, so I doubt he¡¯d try to use fear to terrorize a region and get it under thumb. He might be incredibly powerful, based on the average power of the people from Vorzog¡¯s Keep, but it doesn¡¯t feel like he¡¯s the type to murder his way towards food and wealth. He was being bullied for crap¡¯s sakes. Oh, oh that bully and toadie are totally dead. I hope Chuck didn¡¯t think of them as friends.


    Is Chuck the type of guy to feel like you¡¯re a friend to him, even if you¡¯re blackmailing him and playing horrible, awful pranks on him? He might be, but I have no data points to guess that. Anyway, I need to focus, and attempt to heal up from providing my blood to someone else, when I¡¯m already injured myself.


    Ugh, crap, I can¡¯t really regenerate with my mana locked up in all these people inside of me. We¡¯re going to have to let them out in Jeegoobotstan, but I won¡¯t even be able to produce the mana required to engage the Backpotter form. Fricklefrack! How the hell can I¡ª? Hm, I was able to cross the streams a bit earlier, and I do have other parallel mana pools set up. If I borrow from one of them, and pay an up-front cost, with an unfortunately long downtime, can I re-engage the Backpotter form? Hm¡ª. It¡¯s worth a shot, but I can¡¯t test it til we get there.


    Announcing my intentions to my party, as I bleed away to help keep Triorgraiz alive, I comment, ¡°Guys, I think we need to make a pit-stop in Jeegoobotstan. If we¡¯re lucky, I can introduce you to some of my friends from Aasimovia, and even a Fae from the Hidden Heart that I really love. We really, really, really need to get lucky, because I didn¡¯t realize how screwed our prisoners are with my current mana d¡ª.¡±


    No sense announcing to Shlen, Chuck, and the two lovebirds that it¡¯s actually *me* that¡¯s relatively screwed. Rethinking what to add, I continue, ¡°Anyway, are you okay with that Lil? I need to get a message back to Kinzul for her to¡ª crap.¡±


    Fudge, can¡¯t really let on to the secrets of the Worldstorm either. This is incredibly inconvenient. Plus, if we open a permanent hole over Jeegoobotstan, dragons from Terrorzin¡¯s faction could fly from their aeries above the Worldstorm, and land there. It¡¯d be easy for them to wipe out the refugees we worked so hard to save. Triorgraiz seems to be stabilizing slightly, but shows no signs of improvement. At least her condition is no longer worsening by the moment. Huff, that¡¯s going to have to be good enough. Time to get Chuck back in here and close up the portable hole, so I can talk to Lu and Lil in private.


    Frowning as I share my plans, needs, and requests, Lil grumps, ¡°Of course we¡¯ll do the thing pal. It¡¯d be mega bad, mega mega mega bad if you explode, or can¡¯t heal, or regen, or whatever. I don¡¯t really care about your prisoners blowing up, bleeding out, or dying, because I¡¯m not that kind of hero like you. Terrorzin¡¯s cronies can all go suck an egg¡ª, wait, no, they can all go eat dirt. But, but Rej, I can¡¯t stand the thought of you dying again pal, we almost lost you. I felt our connection, and it really hurt me to my core. I mean, like, my feelings. It hurt bad, mega bad, mega mega mega bad.¡±


    Hugging and comforting Lil as best I can, I coo to him, apologizing for dying again. I lucked out, but there¡¯s only so many ways and so many times my luck can hold out. Even if I¡¯m like a cat, and have nine lives, how many times have I come back from a death or near death by now? Probably thousands times that, likely at least over nine thousand times. Lucky nudges Lu into me, and I just now realized that he¡¯s still got the Draconiac woman in his mouth, that he¡¯s been carrying around like a stick, or chew-toy. Facepalming, I turn to Lu, and she shrugs helplessly as she tries not to giggle. I guess Lil¡¯s going to have another passenger. We can¡¯t just abandon her here. I don¡¯t think Lucky¡¯s going to give her up, honestly.


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Calling up to our dazed, unwitting guest, I ask, ¡°So, I apologize for not asking earlier, or, helping you out of my son¡¯s mouth, but do you have a name we could call you by?¡±


    That was stupid Reggie, of course she¡¯s probably got a name, this isn¡¯t Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. The Draconiac woman chuckles nervously as she gently pats Lucky¡¯s snout from between his teeth, taking care not to anger the giant draconic hound who has her trapped in his jaws. She offers up, ¡°I¡¯m Kelsinzecktrix. Most call me Kelsie, my friends call me Trixxie.¡±


    Oh, oh wow, those are adorable nicknames for her. Rattling my skull privately to myself, I respond, ¡°Pleased to meet you Trixxie. Um, I truly, truly hope you accept my mercy and offer your surrender, because Lucky there¡ª.¡±


    Rapidly interrupting me, with her palms placatingly forward, waving wildly, Trixxie answers, ¡°Yes! Yes, definitely. No qualms. I, I surrender. Glp. I am at your mercy. Please don¡¯t eat me.¡±


    Snorting back a laugh, choking on it for my troubles, I try to maintain composure. I was going to say because Lucky there seems rather fond of her. He¡¯s being exceedingly gentle, despite essentially having her trapped between viciously razor-sharp fangs. Lucky finally drops Trixxie, and bowls her over with his absolutely enormous tongue as he laps at her. Trixxie appears a bit freaked out, worried that Lucky¡¯s getting a taste before eating her, so she stands ramrod straight, stiff as a board, and incredibly still, after resuming standing.


    Unable to help myself, I smile and shake my head while rolling my eyes at Lucky. Laughing, I offer up, ¡°This is going to sound unusual, but welcome to the family Trixxie. You¡¯ve got nothing to fear. We¡¯ll get you set up at our home, because Lucky seems to like you. I hope you learn to enjoy his company and get along with him. He¡¯s my son, and very precious to me, and all of us in our family. For now, we¡¯re visiting some refugees before returning home. You¡¯re our prisoner, but that means you¡¯re safe. I¡¯ll fight the forces of hell themselves to protect those under my care. Capisce? Am I clear?¡±


    Nervously smiling, Trixxie answers, ¡°As crystal,¡± before offering me a tentative handshake with her hand visibly quivering.


    I probably shouldn¡¯t waste any more S P today, since I¡¯m so close to six hundred, but Trixxie looks miserable covered in Lucky saliva. As I¡¯m about to cast a spell, Lu beats me to the punch and taps Trixxie with the soapstone, and offers her a polite smile, and even a kiss on the cheek. Luni trundles away back towards Lil, as Lucky begins to shrink, engaging more or less his spheriform stage, leaving Trixxie bewildered.


    Raising a brow towards Luni, she shrugs at my curiosity. I guess she just wants to make sure Lucky¡¯s new favorite friend is feeling welcomed, and safe. Waving towards Lil, Lu helps Trixxie aboard, as Lil begins to grow, before Lucky leaps into Lu¡¯s arms, and I levitate the two of us up the rest of the way. We still haven¡¯t figured out exactly how we¡¯re going to do the things necessary to even get to Jeegoobotstan, let alone to save our prisoners, especially Triorgraiz. I whisper the directional heading, and distance, to Lil, from my strangely atlas-like memory of Rayileklia that has been developing over time. Sighing, I cast a last glance about at Vorzog¡¯s keep, much of it in ruins, from what was actually an incredibly short engagement.


    Gods, I can just picture it now, having to do an after action report about this. It¡¯d begin, ¡°It all started with an outhouse, a lot of gas, and a little fire¡ª.¡± Snirk. Rolling my eyes, I can¡¯t believe how cliche, silly, and stupid some of the events of today were. Others though, others nearly got me. My panic got me killed for once, literally. I absolutely, fully died, possibly for the first time in my¡ª life. Sighing and hanging my head in shame, I shake my head and roll my eyes at myself and my mental monologue.


    Laughing to myself, I correct myself to indicate that I mean, as much as I consider myself having died to the lightning blast from Lluxop and Rastoc, that a red potion doesn¡¯t return someone to life, it just regenerates tissue. So, basically, I couldn¡¯t have actually died there in this timeline from anything other than the tomes. Still, I¡¯m surprised, and grateful, that actually dying, didn¡¯t harm Lil the way that nearly dying did back there. Maybe the death from the tomes on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas changed things.


    I also nearly died of my mana residue sickness when I got to Mount Solace, and Lil seemed fine, other than a twinge of pain in his chest. I¡¯ve got no idea how Lil felt when I was blown to smithereens in The Gap, when Dippy saved me from the stone elementals. I guess our bond could just be different on Rayileklia, or maybe I¡¯m different since I absorbed my first dragonforce from Kozzurth. Honestly, that¡¯s probably it.


    Hell, for all I know, Lil¡¯s dragonforce was what was keeping me alive against my mana residue sickness on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, then obtaining one of my own on Rayileklia severed a part of the reliance on that bond. I¡ª. Oh, yeah, probably. I didn¡¯t start getting really weary and weak on Rayileklia until Lil had been gone for a while, hell, I didn¡¯t start getting my mana laceration stuff on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas until Lil and I had been apart for quite a while. Then when we got to Rayileklia, in such a short time, I got my hands on a new dragonforce. I was likely assimilating Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce slowly, to build that aegis around my inner self, against the strangling mana residue.


    I suppose that¡¯s also part of how I lasted so long, on Kozzurth¡¯s semi-weakened dragonforce. Unlike the dragonforces I¡¯m siphoning these days, Kozzurth¡¯s I only got a chunk of, sort of claiming it as my own. It became tied to me, and was slowly siphoned to me, over the next few weeks, before I obtained all of her dragonforce. Similarly to how dragonforce can be tied to people, their titling, or enchantments or effects, and recalling it can take weeks to months, from anywhere on the planet.


    That¡ª explains a lot. Oh crap. Kozzurth had infused her blood with dragonforce to provide the benefits to the Plains Colossi. No wonder they¡¯re dying while rationing and running out of her blood. Hellspit and Fel Fires. They might have been dying *in place of me.* The dragonforce reclamation going on that probably happened quicker as I needed more to prolong my life, or to recover from injuries, likely ended up screwing them over. Crap! That¡¯s also probably why Kozzurth seemed to have such a weaker dragonforce, and that it was so quickly absorbed into me. Firstly I¡¯d been a complete void at that time, empty and needing to be filled, secondly, her dragonforce was already spread out, in a way sort of similarly to Kinzul¡¯s.


    Facepalming, I realize how obvious it should have been, once I met Kinzul and started understanding more about her secrets. I might not have the logistics of it exactly right, but I¡¯m closer to understanding what has actually happened to me since my rebirth on Rayileklia. The reasons I was passing out a lot, and why that seemed to stop after a few weeks as I likely absorbed more of the dragonforce from Kozzurth, reclaiming it from halfway across the continent.


    It would definitely explain the reasons I was able to recover from terrible injuries, despite being denied access to so much of our power from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It¡¯d explain the reasons that my estimates on how long I had to live kept wiggling around, because I was still absorbing more of Kozzurth¡¯s leftover dragonforce as it made its way to me, over a couple of months. Just like how someone, Nala I think, told me reabsorbing dragonforce from revoking the titling of someone occurs over months. Oh, that might also explain how I was seemingly topped off almost out of nowhere, after the ShizTinth raid. I could still technically be drawing in tiny fragments of Kozzurth¡¯s, Yisstendahl¡¯s, or anyone else¡¯s dragonforce, if they were tied up in other things, like titling. I wonder what¡¯d happen if Lil titled someone, actually. Wait. Did Lil title me by naming me Reggie!?


    Huh. Thinking about Lil¡¯s dragonforce, and my bond with him, there¡¯s a lot to unpack. Dehlia did say she was pretty sure Lil would die if I got seriously injured, near death, or killed again while bound to Lil in the same way. My bond with Lil is partially broken due to my having, and needing my own dragonforce? Did¡ª? Did that have something to do with our emotional states on Rayileklia?


    It could explain part of why, on a subconscious level, I was so driven to reunite with Lil and patch things up with Lil. It would also go a bit towards explaining Lil¡¯s reaction upon our reunion, where he wasn¡¯t really understanding me, or being as compassionate, or even feeling me die through our connection.


    While I¡¯m lost in reverie, Luni takes my goggles and passes notes back to the security center, and seemingly checks in on Te and the other group. She doesn¡¯t look horrified or anything, so I assume the news is at least neutral, if not good. Similarly, I assume she¡¯d look stricken if Kagired, or anyone else from home, had perished since I last checked in with Mount Solace.

 B 6 C 143: Responses

    We¡¯re approaching where I¡¯d like to set down through the Worldstorm, to make it to Alta Vista the rest of the way below the clouds, but there¡¯s no sign of there being an opening anywhere nearby. Scrunching my face and furrowing my brow, I glance towards Luni, having thought she¡¯d have been requesting Kinzul¡¯s aid with this. My asking Luni about it gets me a response that twists like a dagger to my guts.


    Luni smiles and brightly asks, ¡°Do you trust me?¡± Before I can respond, she orders, ¡°Now Lil, dive right there!¡±


    There is no hole, there is no safe passage through the Worldstorm where Lu is pointing. Trixxie, who happens to be hugging Luni¡¯s waist in order to maintain her perch on Lil, shrieks, ¡°No, no I don¡¯t trust you at all!¡±


    I can¡¯t help laughing as Luni laughs and turns partially to wrap one arm around Trixxie. She passes Lucky off to perch between the two of them. Luni then pulls out her harp, the scepter we¡¯d just acquired, and a few other magical trinkets. Lucky barks in response to Luni¡¯s harp as it begins to play, and uses his scarf to fish out some magic items I barely recognize as well. He helps Lil equip something that I can¡¯t catch through my vision that¡¯s being obscured by too many up-close flashes of bright lightning.


    Struggling with my new EM Field organ, to use electrokinesis to keep the lightning away from Lil, and the rest of us, I double over in pain. Luni harumphs, and begins unleashing a constant string of magic that blasts a very short hole in the Worldstorm below Lil¡¯s diving form. Between the three of them, the Triple L Squad seems to currently be able to shunt aside a minuscule tiny window of the Worldstorm. It¡¯s a window just barely capable of carrying a dive-bombing Lil, with wings furled, through it. It definitely wouldn¡¯t work on the way back up, since Lil would have to be flapping to gain altitude, having his wingspan extended much wider, and he¡¯d take much longer per amount of distance covered to gain height.


    Apparently, Luni also somehow chose a path that had none of the hidden twisters, or pockets of incredibly dense acid, through the Worldstorm. I¡¯ll chalk that one up to her being the Muse of the Onyx Dawn, and maybe a bit to her wheedling around in the hivemind sporebrain of my myconid form, with Kinzul present, yesterday. Still, getting home is going to be a pain in the arse. I probably shouldn¡¯t focus on that right now. Focus on the present Reggie.


    Well, the present becomes the future, or rather, the past, while the future becomes the present. At least, as long as I keep living it. Well, probably after too. That¡¯s not what I meant. Anyway, speaking of continuing living, how much dragonforce do I have left? If each ancient provides about a thousand days, I¡ª. Sighing, I¡¯m glad Luni¡¯s not in my head right now. I have six hundred ninety days of dragonforce left currently. Sixty-nine percent of a usual ancient¡¯s dragonforce. Probably all because of burning through dragonforce before even collecting it, because of having my Honoris Causa activated, maybe. Over thirty percent burned away in the few moments, or minutes, between my reincarnation, and my collecting the dragonforce. Well, some of it might have been used up to prevent me from catastrophic organ failure, or total death, at the hands of Vorzogil. Gonna call the ass that from now on, so I don¡¯t tie him to Lil at all. Some might also have been tied up in other things by Deviltail himself, need to not forget that. Highly talented dragons can imbue their dragonforces into things that it¡¯ll take months for the new owners to reclaim all of the energy from.


    Being able to vacuum up dragonforce spread in an ambient region would be too-convenient a weapon. I probably can¡¯t actually do much of that, since I was only able to nearly drain it, and seemingly only from Deviltail. That might not even have been what happened at all. I keep forgetting that dragonforces have a lot more uses than simply existing as power batteries for the dragons who own them. I wonder if he had a Latent that suffused the air around him with dragonforce. Oh, probably.


    His tail seemed to be able to strike impossible locations, bend, flex, or stretch far too far, while retaining full strength. I think it might have even bent space slightly, or ripped tiny portals to make some of the swings that it made. Or maybe his tail cursed the air to repeat his strikes with it later, or something. If he had to set up a region of space in which his tail was more capable of striking, or even portals in the nearby air, then yeah, he¡¯d have to have had his dragonforce extended even further than Mydraig had had his. I didn¡¯t pay enough attention to Lil¡¯s battle with Deviltail, since I had my own foes to worry about. Foes that killed me, even without me being too distracted.


    Erm, anyway, it¡¯s weird being able to follow a thought train while diving headlong into an ultra-deadly storm, with a Draconiac woman, Trixxie, screaming in my ear. Even with that weirdness being possible, I¡¯d still prefer it if my brain focused on more useful things. Like, despite her being afraid, can we really trust Trixxie? Lucky enjoys having her around, and I trust Lucky, but is he a good judge of character? He seemed to mistrust Leezahna, until she started sweet-talking him after he dug her home. Frowning, I glance towards my son, whose tongue is flapping wildly out the side of his mouth as we continue our dive. Whatever the case, I want him to be happy.


    My mind is racing now that we¡¯re carefully gliding below the worldstorm towards Jeegoobotstan. What if no one¡¯s here? What if, even if a few are, we can¡¯t find Tiktik or Tiago? What if they see a dragon, and freak out? Hell, what if they see me with horns, and freak out? Maybe I should have gotten rid of them with shapeshifting when I was doing that.


    Let¡¯s see. I¡ª. Uh. I can¡¯t. What the? They won¡¯t go away. There¡¯s Fel, cursed magic at play here. Apparently the byproduct of my reincarnation. I wonder if all my forms have horns and a tail now. I didn¡¯t really check during the raid. I was pretty sure my chimaeric lycanthrope form¡¯s RS2 base body didn¡¯t, but I didn¡¯t pay attention to the land shark form of that sidegrade evolution. Actually, for all I know, my lycanthropic base RS2 form may have been in the process of growing the horns and tail while I was using it to become the land shark. Wait, am I blue again? I thought I¡ª. Alright, maybe I didn¡¯t. Let¡¯s fix that.


    Anyway, let¡¯s think for a minute. The maps I¡¯ve seen of Rayileklia are pretty distorted, like a bad projection of a globe that stretches out certain sections. The little lake up north of us looks like a vast sea, nearly an ocean on the maps. I mean, it¡¯s not really just a little lake, it¡¯s a fairly large lake, but the scale is incredibly off on the maps. Similarly, the Spine of the World mountain range extends a lot further north and south in locations than it looks like on a flattened map. We might not have been closer to Jeegoobotstan from where we were, but we weren¡¯t much farther from there than from Solace when we were at Vorzog¡¯s Keep.


    Still, I worry that I¡¯ve been inefficient with our time, in my desire to see Tiktik again, or some other subconscious yearning. Do I gaslight myself, and convince myself of things? Well, I mean, I guess we all convince ourselves of things. We all have to believe the things we think are facts about the natural world and so on. Sometimes we take our own opinions as facts too. It doesn¡¯t mean I gaslight myself. Though, to be fair, I think I in particular might actually do so, but in a more unrelated way. I can¡¯t get into that right now. It¡¯ll come back naturally. Supposedly.


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    Huff, focus Reggie, make use of the time you¡¯ve got. Clear your head. Picture where things would likely result in natural patterns. Focus. Breathe air, breathe. There¡¯s so many logistical problems right now, it¡¯s a friggin¡¯ nightmare, and it¡¯s all my doing. I abandoned the Aasimovian refugees to the care of the swamp hares. I left poor, weakened, dying Keeley, and cursed, injured Tiktik. I left them all with almost no useful resources to survive on, no provisions, and here I am coming to beg them for more favors, for more help.


    Worse, I¡¯m bringing prisoners to them that are powerful, violent spellcasters, and hoping for them to solve the problem I created by letting them get injured. I can¡¯t even get the ones out of my inventory without breaking more rules of magic and systems that are in place. Maybe. If only we had somewhere safe to put them, somewhere that they couldn¡¯t even interact with anyone else on Rayileklia, like a pocket dimension, or something, that wasn¡¯t just floating in the void of my inventory.


    People weren¡¯t kidding when they say this country, this city-state was razed. It¡¯s like some apocalyptic wasteland of ruins. Hell, if I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d think that the Fel hordes have been through here recently. Wait. I gulp. They haven¡¯t, have they? There¡¯s no way. No. No. It can¡¯t have happened. There is just no way. The Fel dislike the water, they, they would have had to contend with hydras that get stronger in the presence of flames. Yeah, no, it wasn¡¯t the Fel. Still, these scorch marks look like more than just burning buildings spreading flame from one to another.


    Rather, these scorch marks look like, well, blasts of flame, cones, roars, breaths of flame. Could dragons have been responsible for this? Would it have been in response to something Jeegoobotstan citizenry or nobility did? Or, more sickeningly, possibly more likely, was Jeegoobotstan a test run for Terrorzin¡¯s plan to simply destroy the rest of sapient life on Rayileklia? If that¡¯s the case, then the Aasimovian refugees are in just as much danger here from dragons as they were from the Fel hordes back home.


    Huff. Come on, think, think. Okay, there¡¯s a small patch of mountains near the heart of the city-state. That would be where the capitol, the metropolitan center, was. Hm. That¡¯s both the logical place for the Aasimovians to dig-in, for themselves and the kobolds, as well as the logical place for there to have been a dragon¡¯s lair. If a lair is there, it¡¯s one that perhaps wasn¡¯t marked as a Terrorzin faction on the maps I¡¯d seen. What was it I was told? Any neutral factions are at best, enemies-in-waiting, and more likely, straight up enemies?


    Is that a¡ª? There¡¯s a standing building, a watchtower, on the horizon-line. That seems like an odd thing to have survived the razing. It¡¯s much more likely it was raised, erected by those that¡¯ve come to settle the ruins. Maybe I¡¯m worrying for nothing? I mean, if they¡¯re already capable of erecting watchtowers, then maybe they have shelter, and sustainable living arrangements, and all of that? I mean, that¡¯s what we were hoping for, right? We wanted them isolated from the foes that could pursue them, while simultaneously setting them up for a stable life.


    Beginning to calm my breathing, I try to picture the types of people likely to be placed in such a tower, and if they¡¯d sound alarms at the prospect of a dragon in-flight arriving. If it were Tiktik, she might be able to recognize our party as the Triple L Squad arriving, and maybe even me if her vision is good enough. She at least knows *of* Lu, Lil, and Lucky, based on her knowledge of people from when the Triple L Squad was at the Hidden Heart. I think. Or did she leave the Hidden Heart before they arrived? Crap, I forget. I know Te and I shared stories of them at least.


    Gnawing on my lip, and the insides of my cheeks, I start to get nervous again. If we set off a panic that gets the Aasimovians to unleash whatever defenses they have stored up, will it leave them vulnerable for later? We can¡¯t afford to approach in-flight any longer. It¡¯s too risky. There are too many unknowns. I beg Lu to get Lil to land, so that we can approach on foot. It¡¯ll be quite a bit slower, but I¡¯ll manifest some horses for us. It¡¯s been a while since I used this power anyway.


    When we land, I realize we have a problem. I can conjure three horses. We¡¯ve got Lil, me, Lu, and Trixxie, and a spheriform Lucky. Lil could shrink down, and Lu could carry either Lil or Lucky, while I carry the other, but then I¡¯m giving Trixxie a horse, and free reign to just ride off into the sunset. If Lil doesn¡¯t shrink down, but instead takes his human form, Trixxie has to either stay put, walk after us, or we have to risk one of our horses being slower with a double load. I suppose that¡¯s safest. I don¡¯t want to lose sight of Trixxie while we haven¡¯t really cleared her trustworthiness yet. Lucky likes the way she tastes or something, but I¡¯m still not willing to let her go freely roaming around the countryside.


    Plus, I¡¯d feel bad if Lucky¡¯s new chew toy escaped. Heh. That¡¯s a bit of an evil thought Reggie. I know, I know. I just want Lucky to be happy though. Anyway, let¡¯s go. Three horses, five people. Although¡ª. Creation, and fabrication. I run my thumb along the Cosmic Roundsheath. Sure, why not. It¡¯ll be temporary, based on the limits of the spells, but it should last long enough. Let¡¯s see, so, vegetable, or plant matter lasts the longest. Next would be processed materials softer than ores, then would be ores, then processed metals, then rare metals or gemstones, then rare gemstones. Huff. Each stage reduces the potential volume, and duration of the created matter.


    Well, what if we bend the rules a little? Genre senses tell me that in some fantasy settings, there are things like ironwood trees that are literally as hard as iron, or steel. Manipulating a spell with so many moving parts like this is all about intent anyway. What if we take it a step further? Lighter, and more resilient wood? That should still last the full twenty four hour duration of the spell, as long as I don¡¯t botch it. Then I can fabricate it into a familiar shape. We¡¯ll make that shape be the wagon we used to travel in with¡ª. I gulp back tears as I recall Dawn.


    I just have to remind myself that she¡¯s alive in my memories. I succeeded in that much, and only that much, but at least I succeeded in that. Alright creation, I want you to conjure into existence a massive block of what I¡¯ll call Featherlight Titanwood. Light as a feather, strong as titanium, but, it¡¯s organic, it¡¯s wood, so vegetable, or plant matter. Can you do that for me? A seventh of the SP in the CRS disappearing says yes, yes it can. Further, a block of impressive wood coalescing into beings cements it as fact. Grinning, I picture our old carriage in my mind as I focus on the fabrication spell. Another seventh of the SP from the CRS gets used up as the block of wood turns into a finely crafted carriage, with yolk, wheels, and so on. It doesn¡¯t have cushions for the seats, but oh well, we can make do.


    Chuckling, I motion towards the carriage, mumbling silly things like, ¡°After you good sir,¡± to Lil, and, ¡°Ladies first,¡± to Lu and Trixxie. I¡¯ll let the four of them take the interior, while I hook up the horses, and sit in the jockey¡¯s seat, or driver¡¯s seat. I¡¯ve made a few mental adjustments to make it work slightly better on Rayileklia¡¯s always-muddy ground, so we might even be faster with the horses pulling the cart than if we¡¯d been riding. It¡¯s certainly far lighter than the one we used to have. Well, the one Teuila, Dawn, and I used to have. Sighing, I rattle my skull, trying not to go down memory lane in a way that saddens me. I still haven¡¯t really grieved her properly. Sometimes I worry that I never will. Anyway, hyah horsies.


    We are almost sailing along at a rapid clip. It¡¯s too bad that this uses up a combination of spells, abilities, and resources, and only lasts for a day. Carriages like this would be a fantastic boon to the refugees. Finally in more conventional sight-range of the watchtower, I begin to notice other things dotting the distance to the southeast. They¡¯re camps. Refugees are still filtering in from Jaggedfen Bog. They¡¯re moving from camp to camp in order¡ª. A gjallahorn sounding off in response to our approach startles me from my observation. The watchtower has definitely noticed us.


    The flapping of enormous leathery wings is not the sound I¡¯d expected to hear in response to a warning horn being blown. Shaking my head, why am I even surprised any more? Groaning, I pull the carriage to a halt, and stand at the ready for what approaches.

 B 6 C 144: She Who Burns

    Groaning, and rolling my eyes behind closed lids, I watch as a mighty Sand lands in front of me, a yellowish dragon of adult, nearing ancient stage. Sighing quietly to myself, I gnaw on my bottom lip, wondering if I should go straight for the kill. Then again, they are at least cooperating with the humans and kobold refugees. I think. Unless¡ª.


    Yeah, I spoke to soon, mentally anyway. The dragon announces, ¡°I Driezyln demand to know what you¡¯re doing in the lands of She Who Burns.¡±


    Trying not to be too snarky, I ask, ¡°Is that your title then? Are you She Who Burns? Or are you a page, messenger, stooge, or something along those lines?¡±


    Driezyln balks at my complete disregard of, or fear of, their dragon-ness. They wear a slight sneer before responding, ¡°She Who Burns is the title of the ruler of this land, because if I spoke her true name to you in our tongue, your mind could scarce comprehend it, and would likely burst from its mere utterance.¡±


    Unable to help myself, I begin giggling. Enough with this farce. This¡¯ll let them know I already deal with dragons plenty, and that the draconic tongue is nothing new to me. Sighing, rolling my eyes, I announce, ¡°Please announce to your supposed ruler that I, Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, the Void Dragon Honoris Causa, would like to have a chat regarding the safety of the Aasimovian refugees. Oh, sorry, you can stop pissing yourself, I¡¯ll rescind my Honoris Causa.¡±


    I can¡¯t be fully certain if Driezyln actually pissed themselves, but they were quivering when my Honoris Causa activated. Feeling only slightly chagrined at having caused someone else to possibly wet themselves, I make note to try to find a way to be better. I would like to act like less of a bully, but what can ya do when people are trying to intimidate you when you¡¯re on a time crunch?


    Surprisingly, Driezyln alters shape, shrinking down to that of an androgynous, yellow-robed monk-like human. The being hurries towards me, shuffling my way, but does not look to be dashing as if in an attempt to attack. Rather, their hurried shuffle looks like one of urgency and secrecy. Raising my brow, the skin of my forehead to scalp region tightens around my horns, an unfamiliar feeling, reminding me that those will take some getting used-to.


    After approaching me, Driezyln leans towards me to whisper conspiratorially, ¡°The Onyx Dawn is on the move? A Hero of the Onyx Dawn is out and about? You seem to rival ancients. Could you depose one that threatens the safety of the refugees you¡¯re curious about?¡±


    Fighting my smirk, I nod as I answer, ¡°If She Who Burns threatens the lives of those I love, I¡¯ll end her as soon as possible. Just point the way. By the sounds of it, you¡¯re not so fond of your ruler. What do you know about the Onyx Dawn, and what we represent?¡±


    There¡¯s a conspiratorial side-eye as Driezyln glances about, seemingly worried for the security of this conversation as they admit, ¡°The Onyx Dawn detests Terrorzin¡¯s rule. Lady Kinzul is infamous, and could have been king. She didn¡¯t want the title, but we¡¯ve all assumed she would rebel one day. She¡¯s always taken in anyone, absolutely anyone, that didn¡¯t want to scrape-scale and bow to Terrorzin¡¯s every whim. I¡¯d guess life is precious to her. It is not as precious to She Who Burns. You might be able to guess by the state of the surrounding countryside.¡±


    Seeming abashed, Driezyln adds, ¡°Auntie, erm, She Who Burns, has slain even her own direct descendants, or, at least her clutches, rather than hand them over to Terrorzin, but still¡ª. If the lives of these softskins, and kobolds, are precious to you, I beg you to slay my aunt. She can be found roosting in her hoard, at the base of Mount Pyrepeak, the dormant volcano.¡±


    Struggling to keep myself from facepalming, I call back, ¡°Lil, Lu, Lucky, you guys hear all that? Looks like we have a local overlord to depose before we can rendezvous with my friends.¡±


    The whuff, and dual replies of, ¡°Sure thing,¡± let me know all I need to. I¡¯m not entirely certain what to do about Trixxie. Shrugging, I decide to request a favor, ¡°Driezyln? Would you mind looking after a prisoner for us? Protect her, treat her kindly, keep her safe, and the like. We really, really shouldn¡¯t be long. We just got done destroying one of Terrorzin¡¯s fortresses, Vorzog¡¯s Keep, and, well, I tried to spare as many lives as I could, but, well, you know how things go.¡±


    Chuckling that I accidentally implied I was only able to spare one life, I hold up a hand as Driezyln appears aghast. Gnawing on my lip, I ask, ¡°Also, is there any chance that you¡¯d be willing to take a portable hole, containing wounded, to a man named Tiago, possibly referred to as Santiago or San Tiago, or a Fae goblin woman named Tiktik? If, glp, if they have survived their journey. I don¡¯t recommend freeing Shlendtikuar from the portable hole, just retrieving the wounded and ill from it. Err, yes, I can see the question, I guess technically we took out two fortresses today.¡±


    There¡¯s the tiniest fear creeping up my spine that Driezyln¡¯s eyes will pop out of their sockets. Thankfully though, Driezyln is willing to accommodate as they offer, ¡°Those two names are fairly well known amongst the enforcers. They¡¯re, well, not exactly troublesome, but they¡¯re well known. You may face two enforcers, as well as two of She Who Burns¡¯, erm,¡± he pauses to blush heatedly before hesitantly finishing by hazarding a guess as to the term, ¡°consorts? I believe I can sway the rest who patrol the softskins, if you can handle those five.¡±


    Nodding, I sense Lil shapeshifting, and Lucky as well, since we¡¯re no longer worried about stealth. Trixxie eyes Driezyln warily, but accepts a hand out of the carriage regardless. This is a fight that Lil and I will excel in. Unless She Who Burns means chemical burns like acid. It didn¡¯t sound like that though from Driezyln¡¯s comment about making note of the surrounding countryside. I mount Lil as Lu mounts Lucky, and we ride hastily away, not caring about the temporary carriage or ghostly horses any longer. Hell, I can probably dismiss both of them if I cared enough. I might as well, as a tiny show of power. There. With a snap of my fingers, the ghostly steeds are gone, and the carriage quickly begins to dissolve.


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    The four of us make haste to the nearby mountains, seeking out the one that looks to be most obviously volcanic in nature. Of course, that means we¡¯ve got to traverse over hill and over dale, figuratively. We cross several foothills, and dodge through several narrow valleys by skirting the Worldstorm as Lil and Lucky are able to virtually race horizontally along cliff¡¯s faces. Lucky is able to literally do so with his new boot-coverings. It¡¯s weird to see him armor up over a minute or so as he resumes his normal shape, but he¡¯s incredibly adept at wielding the magic in the scarf in order to dig out and equip various bits of armor and magical trinkets.


    Feeling like we¡¯re in the early afternoon, I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s between one and four pm right now. I could check my phone, but I don¡¯t want to pull it out while I¡¯m racing headlong into battle. I guess I can check in on¡ª. My eyes stare wide at the note in the security center. It feels as if my breathing stops. There¡¯s only one word, and that word is siege. I made us go the opposite direction from Solace. I engaged in a promise to help remove a different threat, to a different group of people, and my new family are forced to suffer for my choice, without me to aid them against¡ª. Snap out of it Reggie. You put plans and contingencies into place for exactly this situation.


    Plans and contingencies may be in place, but Revvy and Greggy and Shaylon aren¡¯t. They haven¡¯t returned back from the ¡®Neath yet, but that doesn¡¯t mean that Solace is defenseless though either. Though, the Dormir and the Vivant are still out with Teuila, the Triple L Squad are with me, and I have a feeling Kinzul didn¡¯t stay at Solace today, with everything going on. She¡¯s been secretive, about something that needs to be done, something that needs to happen, that keeps requiring her attention. Crap, uh, okay, Pawn, and the Queens are there, for sure. The strategists-eight must have abandoned the security center in order to aid them in defending Solace from the siege. Of the Spellknight twins, Yui might be back at Solace, or she might have simply used her messenger-bird spell to tell a scout that Kagired was injured, or she may have stopped by in person to deliver the message, but returned to the task of watching Induul with Yuri.


    Honestly, I¡¯m worried that Ixey might choose to fight, and if she does, that Zayzi might choose to fight to defend Solace with their sibling. I¡¯m almost certain that Shiz will put up a good fight in defense of the new home for his sister and her kinsmen, and her soon-to-be new children. Plus Atter would go full mama-bear mode on anyone that made it far enough to disturb her and Boetah. Atter and Boetah, whew, they¡¯d decimate anything that made it that far, though I¡¯m hoping nothing does make it that far. Okay, okay, it¡¯s a war, you have to expect that there will be injuries, and, and¡ª. I gulp, not wanting to admit the next word. Injuries, and fatalities. We may lose lives in defense of Solace. Any of us that returns, Kinzul, Teuila with the Dormir and the Vivant, or me and the Triple L Squad, will drive back the siege quite a ways. Just hang in there guys.


    Hm, there¡¯s a new volunteer that I don¡¯t recognize starting to operate the security center. As they patch me in, I¡¯m almost too worried to ask for a sitrep about the siege. Sighing, trying not to sniffle, and trying to keep my eyes from wetting despite the high-velocity winds flowing up my cheeks beneath my goggles, I blink repeatedly while awaiting the connection.


    The volunteer begins, ¡°Schism? Can you hear me? Oh, the visual is nodding, okay. There¡¯s a lot of noise from your end, like high winds. I¡¯m guessing with that motion on the back of Sun, that I caught you at a bad time. The Eight send their apologies for the hasty note. Defenses being mounted are successful so far, no casualties. Do you expect you¡¯ll return soon? Oh, that¡¯s unfortunate. Well, we are prepared for siege after all. It simply means you¡¯ll have to fight your way in, one way or another, depending on whether you come in from above or below. The assault is heavier from below, obviously. I¡¯m uncertain about protocols for this sort of thing, I¡¯m just filling in. Pawn suggested I let you know that Tenith, the Dormir, and the Vivant are all fine, so, I¡¯m doing that. They are. Good luck out there Schism. Get home safely.¡±


    Trying not to chuckle, as mixed feelings swarm about within me, I¡¯m grateful when the volunteer pulls the audio jack on his headphones out of my scrying sensor¡¯s soundproof box, returning me to the silence of my own mind. Well, not that my mind is ever really silent. Lil could hear what was said, because the goggles aren¡¯t exactly the quietest thing around, but Lucky and Lu would probably have had to have been filled in by Lil psychically, due to the high winds and distance between us. Gnawing on my lip, I¡¯m starting to worry. Do I really bring anything to this next series of fights? Five dragons who are ancient, or at least darn near, and any attendants or underlings they have, when I¡¯m slowly regenerating from a beatdown that I received at the hands of Vorzogil.


    What resources do I have? I¡¯ve got the psychic empowerment rune on Whisper, I¡¯ve got five more charges on the Cosmic Roundsheathe, and¡ª. Hm. I¡¯ve got a few charges, or SP worth of actions still in the staff, but not many. I could possibly call FFS again today, maybe, if they were able to rush this far this fast. I¡¯ve got two more charges of raven-porting, but that¡¯s defenses. Well, I could sort of use it offensively comically if I get several attackers to engage me via a crossfire. I, hm, I do have those strange ¡°elemental¡± crossbow bolts. I mean, the icons are pretty wicked, almost silly. I do technically have sixty nine percent of my dragonforce left. My Honoris Causa is fairly powerful, though not quite on par with ancient dragons just yet. Maybe after another Caliber, possibly two. Genre senses are saying that it¡¯s going to take three more actual ancients, that Rahjmeztus didn¡¯t count. The little glow in my head seems to indicate pretty much the same thing.


    Sighing and rolling my eyes, I¡¯m guessing that only She Who Burns, if any of them, will count as a full ancient for the purposes of my Honoris Causa and my cure. If I¡¯m truly lucky, all five would count, but I won¡¯t be that lucky. If I¡¯ve got a fair stroke of luck, I might get three here. I assume She Who Burns would only take ancients as consorts. It strikes me as odd that she has consorts if she doesn¡¯t want younglings, torching her own eggs and such. I guess she just enjoys¡ª. Please don¡¯t think about that brain. I really don¡¯t want to know about the proclivities of people I¡¯m fighting. Hell, I don¡¯t even want to know that about most of the people that I *like.*

 B 6 C 145: Into Her Domain

    As we venture deeper into the heart of the mountain, the air grows heavy with the scent of molten rock and ancient earth. The walls of the cavern are rugged and uneven, coated with layers of obsidian and glistening minerals, their textures rough to the touch. The flickering light of Lil''s fiery breath casts eerie shadows upon the stone, painting an almost ethereal tapestry of dancing silhouettes.


    The tunnel widens as we progress, revealing a colossal expanse that stretches far into the belly of the mountain. Stalactites and stalagmites adorn the chamber, their jagged forms resembling the fangs of a slumbering titan, and I barely direct my mind to imagine them to be the teeth of a gentle creature such as Maka-Akari, Gaea''s Cradle. The distant echoes of water dripping from the ceiling resonate like a haunting melody, odd for the interior of a volcano, especially an ancient Fire''s domain. The juxtaposition just barely keeps my mind away from a panic trigger.


    As we press on, the path begins to decline, leading us ever closer to the heart of the dormant volcano. The ground beneath us is an unendingly turbulent cracked surface, more akin to stacks of ancient stones than a properly carved tunnel floor. The walls take on a reddish hue, the heat becoming evident as we delve deeper. I worry for Lu, but she likely senses my worry, and flashes a thumbs up my way, from beneath a plate of Lucky''s armor.


    The tunnel opens up into a vast chamber once more. The ceiling soars high above, vanishing into an abyss of shadow. Massive stalactites hang like chandeliers, their pointed tips nearly grazing the ground, glowing with a seemingly internal heat source. While glow-lichen is unlikely to flourish, or even survive in such conditions, it seems like the ambient warmth has brought fire-elemental spirits exceedingly close to some thin portion of the veil between our realms, lending an eerie glow across everything, including enormous geodes that cast sporadic bursts of rainbow-hued light across the space.


    The air grows even hotter as we advance, and the ground beneath us trembles with a faint rumble, likely the tremor of the enforcers that we were warned about that roam the tunnels. The walls of the chamber are marred by deep fissures, and igneous rock has formed over the centuries since likely long before this place has lain dormant. I mean, igneous rock forms from the cooling of molten rock, right? So it had to have happened before it went dormant. Or am I misremembering? Eh, what am I, a geologist? No, I¡¯m a cryptozoologist. Heh. Anyway¡ª.


    The distant sounds of echoing roars and the flap of wings reverberate through the chamber. The scent of smoldering scales wafts through the air. Surprisingly, we don''t run into the enforcers, at least not yet. Either they have a difficult time navigating from their position, to that of intruders, or they haven''t yet noticed us somehow. Before us, the true heart of the lair is revealed. Much closer to an intentionally carved cavern, a vaulted chamber opens up, somewhere deeper than I expected, yet altogether not so far from where we entered. My odd genre-sense-of-direction guided us fairly quickly down the correct tunnels apparently.


    We''ve reached a hoard room with the usual piles of gleaming gold and silver coins glittering in towering mounds. There were likely many more in ages past, slowly consumed as snack and spice over the years. I recognize the shapes and facets of precut precious gems from Can''Z''aas, so I know that She Who Burns has either requested, or required tithes. If this is another greedy junkmonkey extorting their neighbors, so help me--. There are several relics, and artifacts of likely notable worth, but they are strewn haphazardly, an indicator of both laziness, and greed.


    Sighing only momentarily, my attention is drawn to the titanic forms of the enforcers. Two adult, nearing-ancient, white dragons patrol the chamber. It seems they rushed here, rather than seeking out the intruders within the tunnels themselves. They appear to be panting in the heat, as they trail frosty patterns upon the ground beneath their gaping jaws loosing exhausted breath. Their scales do glimmer yet seem dulled somehow, likely due to the unfavorable clime in which they reside.


    Of course, at the heart of it all, upon a throne of molten rock and precious metals, are the consorts of "She Who Burns." It doesn''t bode well that the ancient blue dragon and ancient black dragon sit side by side, their eyes gleaming with recognition that intruders have arrived. Their massive forms exude an aura of power, and their serpentine bodies are coiled with a regal grace, but I was hoping we''d face them separately from the enforcers. Worse, it seems we''ve reached her honorable burninator herself as well. All five at once? Not how I pictured starting things off.


    Unintentionally, I yawn while standing atop the back of Lil as we cautiously approach. I¡¯m glad we haven¡¯t been attacked yet, but it¡¯s obvious everybody knows we¡¯re here. Maybe Lil and Lucky¡¯s draconic appearances, and perhaps even my horns and tail, let us appear as emissaries. Ugh, if we¡¯re emissaries of someone that she might expect, or be willing to deign fit to see, it¡¯s likely of Terrorzin. I begin to announce myself, but of course I¡¯m interrupted.


    She Who Burns roars, ¡°Speak only when spoken to worm! Dismount the handsome young man at once!¡±


    Oh boy, I can see where this is going. Poor Lil. Lil¡¯s giggling for me getting told off, but we¡¯re still probably going to end up killing this woman, this ancient dragon, if she¡¯s subjugating the refugees. I do of course dismount as requested, trying to see if I can seek a peaceful solution, in order to not waste further resources today. Sadly, it doesn¡¯t seem like I¡¯ll get much of a chance, as She Who burns motions to her enforcers to hem Lucky and me into an alcove, while she addresses Lil.


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    In an exceedingly flirtatious tone, She Who Burns coyly begs of Lil, ¡°What brings you to my domain you delicious young man?¡±


    Please don¡¯t do what I think you¡¯re going to do Lil. Lil responds, ¡°Well hottie, I¡¯m just here with my pal Rej and my pup bud, and my Gal Pal. I guess Rej wanted to know if you were treating some people okay or something. They¡¯re all heroic and stuff, and I try to be a hero too most of the time, but it¡¯s hard, like Rej wants to save all these people that surrendered, but they were working for Terrorzin! We beat ¡®em up, and now need a place to put ¡®em, even though I think we should just put ¡®em all face down in the dirt. Six feet under. Rej did let me kill a bunch of ¡®em though that weren¡¯t really going to cooperate with the surrender, so I guess that makes it okay, maybe? I dunno. My pal thinks of things way differently than me, but that¡¯s okay. Oh I can talk all day, sorry, I¡¯ve got otter breath boost from being a Shellcracker. I don¡¯t really need to stop to breathe for quite a while, or have to charge my breath, because I¡¯m Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, so I can just breathe longer and longer, and my flames just keep getting stronger and stronger. That¡¯s why I¡¯m Aliased Sun of the Onyx Dawn. My momma aliased me, she¡¯s the best! Did you want a turn to talk, ¡®cause I can just keep going, or stop whenever, I don¡¯t really know how to talk to ladies, especially not hotties, so I either clam up, or just keep talking and talking.¡±


    Biting my lips, I can see She Who Burns¡¯ scaled eyelid twitching as Lil rambles, and I fight to keep from laughing. Lil spilled a bunch of pretty vital info, but it may work out in our favor. I know She Who Burns will act to spite Terrorzin. Luni is still hidden from view, but Lil did mention that there were four of us by announcing that he¡¯s here with his gal-pal. She Who Burns seems to be peering around for a young-adult female Red. I¡¯m still struggling not to giggle. I¡¯m glad the young-adult female Red that Lil is enamored with isn¡¯t here. I wouldn¡¯t want to expose Ixeyla to this kind of danger. Plus, I get the vague hint that She Who Burns might kill a rival lover out of jealousy pre-emptively.


    Gathering herself to appear imposing, not impressing Lil in the slightest, She Who Burns attempts to coerce more info out of him, ¡°You say this, ¡®Rej¡¯, let you kill some of your foes? You answer to them? Some tiny little abomination, the one that rode upon your back perhaps? What say do they have in your battles? Why should you answer to anyone save perhaps a woman your elder? What forces of Terrorzin were you fighting?¡±


    Shaking my head, I know Lil¡¯s going to answer every single question honestly, and he does, ¡°Yup! Rej is a great pal. I mean, answer to is a weird term, but like, Rej has got the mega best brains, mega mega mega best brains. That¡¯s Rej, right now they have horns and a tail, because of magic, Rej is always doing more and more magic stuff, and I don¡¯t even know what to expect like a tenth of the time. I guess that¡¯s why they¡¯re an archmage. Though momma gave Rej that title, but Rej was always spooky super good with magic, mega mega mega super good with magic. I mean, Rej does like, lots of the planning, and sometimes lots of the fighting, sometimes even more than any of the rest of us. I think Rej probably took down half of a fortress a couple days ago, and then like, today they¡¯re out there with me, and pup, and Gal-Pal, and we¡¯re all rahh you¡¯re going down Vorzog and your whole keep! Rej is like, ¡®We¡¯ll spare some of you because I am a Hero of the Onyx Dawn, and all my other six bajillion titles, and I offer mercy to everyone, even if you don¡¯t deserve it,¡¯ and I¡¯m all whatevs Rej wants, because I accidentally killed Rej before, and thankfully momma saved their life. I¡¯da been so sad if Rej stayed dead, mega mega mega sad. I mean, I guess they kind of die plenty, but they always bounce back. I mean, they died again today, can you believe it? Really, what¡¯s a guy supposed to do with a pal that keeps dying all the time? I¡¯m worried that one time, they won¡¯t pop back from it, y¡¯know? Then again, Rej always comes through, always always always comes through. They¡¯re the best at magics, the absolute mega best, mega mega mega best. Well, I guess I do answer to an elder woman, kinda? My momma, Kinzul is probably like the oldest person on the planet, I think, but I don¡¯t think of her as elder, I just think of her as my wonderful beautiful momma. I guess I kinda already answered what forces we were fighting. Rej kinda goes out of their way to fight, save, or kill, whoever needs to be fought, saved, or killed. Today it was Vorzog¡¯s keep, and¡ª.¡±


    She Who Burns holds up a hand as she barks, ¡°Enough!¡± before stroking her enormous scaled temples as if she¡¯s got a migraine.


    Bursting with laughter, though I try not to, I have a fit of the giggles as Lil basically calls me either immortal, undying, or infinitely reincarnating, by the way he makes it sound like I die and come back so much. She Who Burns gazes warily my way for a moment, contemplating whether it¡¯s worth attempting to have her enforcers fight me. Wait, wait. Wasn¡¯t there a thing? Kinzul commented on how me having telekinetic grips as a matter of fact was something incredibly impressive. Swapping gear, I hold my breath and leap to the roof of the cavern.


    Now that I¡¯m here, I leap sideways across the roof of the cavern, and then rocket down towards the throne, behind She Who Burns. I catch myself in one of my telekinetic grips, as another telekinetic grip draws Frostburn. After fishing out a tome from one of my dimensional bags, I open it to the beginning. Using another telekinetic grip, I levitate the tome near me, and I reserve the secret of my fourth telekinetic grip. I flip through the tome, simply pointing my finger at it, reading as I float lazily, appearing to lounge upon, or at least just above, the throne of She Who Burns, between her consorts.


    The fury I sense burbling up within She Who Burns is almost as intense as the wariness which now cautions her. Perhaps a tad too cheekily, I comment, ¡°Oh no no, pay no mind to me, please, keep flirting with my best friend, and son-in-law, Lil. I¡¯m sure you¡¯d make an excellent daughter-in-law.¡±

 B 6 C 146: Crisis of Qlaxianna

    Before She Who Burns can even deign to comment on my infuriating, yet confusing statement, Lil blurts out, ¡°Awe Rej I think that¡¯s a little fast. I mean, she¡¯s a hottie, but like, I hardly even know her. I mean, give a pal at least a couple dates or somethin¡¯. Like, sure, we aren¡¯t humans or whatever, but I really wasn¡¯t expecting to bring a new girlfriend back home to momma out of nowhere today, let alone wife. I mean, we were fighting Terrorzin¡¯s peeps today, I didn¡¯t want to bring anyone back, y¡¯know? I mean, except you guys, safe and sound, because we¡¯re the inner circle.¡±


    Turning his attention back towards She Who Burns, Lil continues, ¡°Sorry about my, um, parent in-law miss Burns. Rej married momma like, I dunno, just yesterday or somethin¡¯, so it¡¯s taking some getting used-to. Like seriously, we¡¯ve been pals for most of my life, and all of theirs, and then I go find a momma, and then Rej goes and marries her! I guess Rej has all those titles, and keeps doing things momma likes, and like, it¡¯s nice to see her happy, I think Rej likes making everyone happy. Well, happy or dead. If you¡¯re nice, Rej wants you happy, and will make the whole world better to make that happen if they have to. If you¡¯re mean, and hurting people, Rej makes you dead. Like, there¡¯s no inbetweens, and no one really escapes. I think. Huh. Has anyone ever gotten away that you didn¡¯t want to let get away Rej?¡±


    Snorting with laughter, trying to compose myself, I respond, ¡°No Lil, my best buddy, son-in-law, *no one,* has escaped both me and my Wrath. One perhaps, but not the other. Not even Kozzurth, Yisstendahl, Olashax, Vanathar, Tinth, Mydraig, Deviltail of the Evil Claws, Vorzog, Adkre, or anyone else that I can think of. Everyone who subjugates someone else, terrorizes people, harms, threatens, or kills to sate their own greed or lust for power. Every one I¡¯ve ever met,¡± I pause for effect before finishing, ¡°Is dead.¡±


    She Who Burns *nearly* explodes with fury. The fear creeping up in her nearly catches up with the wariness that skyrockets however. Pondering something, I call out, ¡°Hey Lu, I know you said you buried them, but you¡¯ve always had foresight. Did you happen to keep a copy of Gae Buidhe, so that I can show She Who Burns that I wield The Four?¡±


    The flub as She Who Burns states, ¡°You hwhat,¡± with no questioning inflection nearly has me bursting with laughter yet again.


    Sighing almost sadly, I spot Lu tossing a scrollcase high into the air towards me. I of course catch it in my fourth telekinetic grip, and do a bit of shuffling. I work so that I can sheathe Frostburn, and put away the book while landing so that I can levitate out Gae Buidhe, to its full length.


    Growling, I announce, ¡°I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I am the mate and spouse of Kinzul, and I wield The Four. Gae Buidhe,¡± I brandish the spear telekinetically, spinning it, ¡°Cla¨ªomh Solais,¡± I similarly brandish the archsorch staff and twirl it telekinetically, ¡°The Stone In Two Parts,¡± I hold up my hand with the Fae ring on it, while levitating the stone on Lil¡¯s neck, ¡°and, well, Daghda¡¯s Cauldron, though I haven¡¯t quite figured out how to carry the sucker around everywhere.¡±


    Floating towards She Who Burns, from her own throne, I approach her with a deadly spinning spear. Also upon approach is a legendary spinning staff. Beyond that, I continue to impress upon her my ability to simply will objects and myself to move around with no discernible cause, or necessity for even my own vision to be on the target of my telekinesis as I allow the legendary weapons to rotate around me.


    Flinching, She Who Burns eyes up her subordinates, so I interject, ¡°I don¡¯t recommend attacking. Like Lil told you, everyone who has ever angered me, has ended up dead. Even those who¡¯ve slain me. I simply brush it off, and slay them in return. Can you do the same?¡±


    It is so friggin¡¯ hard not to burst out laughing at how cocky I am and how full of horsecrap I am. Friggin¡¯ hell, thanks Lil. Just great. Hah. Ugh, it¡¯s so hard to fight this laughter. I really am so full of horsecrap right now though. Hah. I sheathe the archsorc staff in my double-ended drop sheath, not wanting to do something stupid while pretending to be so full of myself.


    Barely maintaining my composure, I ask, ¡°So, about those weaker than you. You wouldn¡¯t happen to know how a group of refugees that I¡¯d sent this way are doing, would you? I figured I¡¯d stop in and check with this domain¡¯s regional ruler rather than hunting them all down myself, as I¡¯m sure you must keep very abreast of what happens in your lands. Mustn¡¯t you?¡±


    Wow, I did not think Fires could sweat bullets, but there She Who Burns goes proving me wrong. She responds, ¡°As you must also be aware, that the refugees you¡¯ve sent have ended up in the domain of Qlaxianna, She Who Burns, I indeed am aware of these¡ª beings,¡± but balks as I raise my eyebrow, prompting her to continue, ¡°I¡¯ve, ahem, required an appropriate tithe, and labor from any unable to pay that, koff, tithe.¡±


    Sighing, I¡¯d figured as much. Fighting to control my wrath, as my eyes flash red with anger, I demand, ¡°And the lives of anyone and everyone who has entered your domain? Have any of them ended since they arrived!?¡±


    Really, I shouldn¡¯t be surprised when She Who Burns screams out, ¡°Attack!¡±


    Sighing, I might as well use this stupidly deadly spear. That way, even if one of these foes manages to flee, they¡¯ll either die by bleeding out over time, or hopefully at least be unable to really attack or harm others if appropriately weakened and injured. Lil engages the two Ices, while Lucky leaps from where he¡¯d been backed into a corner, in order to take on the Blue consort. I¡¯m left facing She Who Burns, and the Acid consort. Thankfully, as they both turn their breath weapons on me, I simply hasten my approach towards Qlaxianna, letting her evaporate the incoming acid. I can tell they¡¯re both trying to engage their dragonfright, which would be affecting my companions, if Lucky weren¡¯t wearing his new armor. Neither of the two can see my companions, or me from their current vantage point, so they can only assume that I¡¯m frozen in place as I should be, from the dragonfright.


    The two dragons I¡¯m facing close in on each other, but Qlaxianna realizes she¡¯s approaching a moving object within her blaze. I¡¯d sigh as Qlaxianna does the smart thing, to keep me from getting into her mouth, she closes it. However, her consort is still belching acid, an incredibly potent, compressed stream of it, directly at her neck and face. Hey, guess what came to pass? Raven-porting time? Raven-porting time.


    We are three, three are we, we wheel, we dance the sky of this cavern. We spot friends fighting, and foes in pain. We are curious about shinies, and realize we¡¯ve left a shiny to get destroyed. Pointy stick, hated pointy stick sits in a nasty hurty puddle. We are in no rush to rescue it. Burning lady¡¯s eyes are burning, and she is shrinking. Painful stream is being shot, and hits one of us, two of us. We must stop the dark liquid one, the Acid one.


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    Rattling my skull as I return to myself atop the back of the ancient Acid, I withdraw Frostburn once again. She Who Burns is taking her human form in order to try to find a way to mend the chemical burns on her face. Her eyes are horribly scarred. I grimace at the injury that I sort of technically caused. She screams out an order that causes the Acid I¡¯m perched atop to also begin assuming his human form. This just got a whole hell of a lot easier.


    Sure, they¡¯re still far, far, far more durable than humans in these forms. That¡¯s probably because they have some strange dragonforce energy defenses available to them when compressed so small, but they¡¯re still flesh and blood, hair and bone. It¡¯s almost sad that so very few of them think to make their scales into any sort of armor or battle equipment in their human forms, foolishly leaving spots like their necks exposed.


    Now, I¡¯m not strong enough, even in RS2, to pierce the condensed flesh of dragons in their human forms, at least not easily. I do however have my Honoris Causa activated. Manifesting it, I viciously tear at She Who Burns, and her acid consort, aiming for their jugulars. I aim my fore, my maw, and my claws, at the Acid, to keep him from being able to hurt any of my loved ones. She Who Qlaxiwhatever isn¡¯t really a threat to any of them, due to most of us being nearly heat immune, but I still aim my tail and dominant rear leg claws at her.


    To keep them from being able to react or back away, I place the still-steaming Gae Buidhe behind the skull of She Who Burns, and Frostburn behind the skull of the consort, telekinetically. She who burns can¡¯t tell what¡¯s attacking her, since she can¡¯t see, and hadn¡¯t seen my Honoris Causa manifest before, so she unwittingly partially impales herself, the back of her neck, and part of her skull on Gae Buidhe, as she recoils from my assault. This also manages to drive a decent glob of acid into the back of her neck as she scrabbles away from my assault.


    Grimacing at what I¡¯m sure is soon to be a gruesome death, I turn my senses away from She Who Burns. She attempts to resume her dragon form once again, abandoning the search for something to mend her eyes, hoping to simply be able to flee with her life at this point. She won¡¯t be getting very far, and I¡¯ve got a more actively dangerous opponent to put down first. With Qlaxianna out of the picture, the ancient Acid is resuming his dragon form as well, no longer paying heed to her order to shrink and help wipe her eyes, or whatever she¡¯d asked. Still, I¡¯ve managed to gouge at the sides of his throat pretty thoroughly, though I can tell he¡¯s maneuvering his scales to protect the weakened, rent fleshy areas.


    This will put me into the six hundreds, but it¡¯s worth it. I mutter under my breath, ¡°GSE Balefire,¡± before the ancient Acid can finish transforming, with my palm in his face. I picture the point of origin to be inside his nasal cavity as it flares to life, cooking his skull from the inside, incinerating his brain. I was not going to let that jerk get full size again and possibly put Lu, Lucky, or Lil in danger by jetting out more streams of acid.


    Speaking of, Lil is perfectly fine, Ices can¡¯t do crap against him when he¡¯s prepared, especially when he¡¯s immune to dragonfright by being somewhat near Lucky. Lucky is taking this fight seriously, pinning down the Lightning¡¯s maw, keeping him from being able to raise it to breathe on Lu, Lil, or himself. Luni looks sad, and upset, but she¡¯s hammering away at the blue magically as she floats about its head, unleashing boom after boom after boom with her new scepter.


    Deciding to risk it, since it¡¯s been at least a couple of hours at this point, I remove my helm, and psionic protection circlet. The psionic pain feels like that of an encroaching migraine, the building pressure behind one eye, or even above or near one temple, but it¡¯s steady. Calling out to Lu telepathically, I offer, ¡°My Anchor, if you want, I can take over, you¡ª.¡±


    Stubbornly, Lu replies, ¡°No. No. Let me do this one. Please. I have to fight. I have to be able to, to¡ª. I just have to. Okay? For, for reasons. Thank you sweetie, but it¡¯s okay. I¡¯m okay. It¡¯s scary, but I¡¯m okay. Thank you. Thank you for caring so much. Maybe finish your own fight anyway.¡±


    Blanching, I dart my gaze around. The Acid seems to be starting to disbelieve the balefire, but the damage is already done, mostly. They¡¯re still as good as dead because of it. It has disoriented them enough that they¡¯d been unable to complete their transformation, and their neck is bleeding out on both sides. Plus, I¡¯m pretty sure it literally melted their frontal lobe.


    Hm, then Lu is referring to She Who Burns. I guess I¡¯ll dart off that way. I didn¡¯t do much damage to her neck with my tail and one hind claw. I probably should have focused more on her, but I thought Gae Buidhe would finish her if she backed into it. I guess it only dug in a half an inch or so, before she figured to slide away from both my tail, and it, taking a bit of a kick to the neck.


    Let¡¯s see, if she¡¯s going for the surface, if I remember, this heads a long ways that way, and loops, and the loop is really tight, so this wall is probably only a few feet thick. Here¡¯s an ability we haven¡¯t really put to use yet. I don¡¯t bother stoneshaping. Rockwalk or earthwalk or whatever the hell this is called, stone melding, something or other, is all I need. Hoof, that¡¯s, wow that¡¯s a doozy, it feels like I left my eyeballs stuck in the wall. Ow. All my muscles along my neck and jaw are locked up. Gotta stretch them out while, ah, there she is.


    Standing in front of the fleeing Qlaxxi whoever, I call out, ¡°Halt. I offer you mercy, if you offer your surrender, and agree to discuss terms. Like Lil said. I want everyone to be able to¡ª. Okay, fine, the hard way it is.¡±


    When she tries to barrel straight through me, I manifest my Void Dragon form to its fullest, and catch Qlaxianna in a wrestling grip that might not work the best on dragons. I should ask Ixeyla for some pointers, since apparently she¡¯s somewhat pro at the wrestling that goes on in Mount Solace. Seeking a point of leverage, I do manage to lock down Qlaxianna¡¯s wings, so she¡¯s forced to try to overpower me with her hind claws, as her forelimbs work to free her from my grip and defend her from my assault.


    Qlaxianna is literally lashing out blindly, snapping at bodyparts that are points of contact in touch with her, but incapable of finding my center of balance, or my vulnerable spots, as she¡¯s unused to being blind. Not to mention the difficulty that comes with fighting a dragon whose tangibility is only in the places most necessary. I feel bad for this, and for her. I was going to try to offer to work things out, let her maybe rule like some sort of monarch, as long as she was fair about it. Sighing, I shake my head as I sink my form¡¯s fangs into her neck and twist hard to the side, slamming her into the tunnel walls.


    Now that she¡¯s got one leg in the air, she¡¯s completely off balance, so I leap forward into a forceful push. This has the effect of sending Qlaxianna sprawling on her back, with me and my form pinning her to the ground. I manage to get additional leverage to tear into her neck with my form¡¯s maw. Rending her scales from her neck, I¡¯m able to tear gashes in it with my fangs. If it weren¡¯t for the bloody, brutal nature of the battle, it¡¯d resemble certain intimate activities, some of which I¡¯ve even recently participated in.


    Through tears comes laughter as Qlaxianna mutters, ¡°It¡¯s funny, koff, he always said, I¡¯d go out on my back. The bastard. Finish him for me, would you?¡±


    Gulping back a sudden wave of emotion, I can¡¯t help myself as I release Qlaxianna. I rescind my form, my Honoris Causa, and float above her with telekinesis. She¡¯s in a bad way, and maybe dying, but I can tell she just requested that I finish Terrorzin off. Taking lives always feels horrible, but it feels worse when you share sentiments with them, or hear or see things that humanize them, or, uh, dragonize them I guess. I¡¯m unable to speak or make sounds at the moment as I bear witness to her laying there, dying. Seconds seem to stretch by into an eternity, while I¡¯m unable to do more than observe. Perhaps minutes pass, perhaps more, as Qlaxianna continues to bleed out, only spasming, and twitching, making no attempts to otherwise move.


    There¡¯s fear in the query, in the raspy breath of Qlaxianna as she asks, ¡°Are, koff, you there little hero?¡±


    Since she can¡¯t see me, I respond in the affirmative, ¡°Aye. I¡¯m here Qlaxianna. If you meant Terrorzin, I swear it.¡±


    Wheezing one last breath, and one last word, she responds, ¡°Good.¡±

 B 6 C 147: Wheel of Morality

    Gulping down sadness, I feel the life passing from her form as Qlaxianna allows herself to perish, to stop fighting the few, but devastating injuries she¡¯s taken. I sit atop her breast, patting her chest scales as if I could comfort her in this last dying instant. I wish I could take it back. I wish I didn¡¯t do¡ª, hadn¡¯t done this. I feel a bit like Lil now. I don¡¯t really want to desecrate her body to get at, and feast on her dragonforce. Friggin¡¯ hell. Ugh, this is so brutal of me. It¡¯s going to take me minutes of prying at a chest scale to even get to some flesh I can hack through to dig towards her heart.


    I suppose I am pretty low on blood myself. I guess I should go through with it, and imbibe and ingest her blood and heart. We managed to secure one without me needing to eat it, while still claiming a dragonforce. That was Deviltail¡¯s I think. I probably still should have eaten it, but I want to try some alchemy that I¡¯ve been learning, as well as some enchanting. Ugh, I feel so heartless, brutalizing corpses for parts. That¡ª. That¡¯s ironic. Crap on a cracker. This can¡¯t be how things normally go.


    Pft, hah, no duh Reggie. Nothing about this whole situation is normal. You¡¯re some weird glitchy Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Changeling Fae, with some sort of Fel form that you¡¯ve been reincarnated into from recently dying. You have a need for, and ability to consume dragonforces, and, and just so much more insanity on top of all that! Huff. Whatever. Should I offer a sign of trust by not going to check in on the Triple L Squad, or should I go back before harvesting Qlaxi¡¯s dragonforce? Ugh, don¡¯t give her nicknames bud, it¡¯s only going to make you feel worse. I know! It was an accident. It¡¯s easier to say shorter names, err, think them. I know bud, I know.


    Sighing, I do decide to show trust to Luni and Lucky, letting them handle the ancient Blue. Plus, Lil¡¯s probably done with the adult Ices by now too, so he can help them if they want or need help. As expected, it¡¯s taking me minutes to even pry off a scale, or even loosen one enough to get far enough under it to be able to dig at flesh. I could engage my Honoris Causa again, but that feels like a waste of dragonforce for something that can be done with a little effort, and elbow grease. Plus, oddly, I¡¯m in no rush to consume Qlaxianna¡¯s dragonforce, or desecrate her body any swifter than I already am. In some small way, I¡¯m trying to seek solace in pretending I¡¯m partaking of her company, rather than robbing her dead body of its essence.


    Why does it have to be like this? Why¡¯d she have to scream attack, instead of just offering an explanation? Why did I retaliate so brutally and swiftly? Are we predisposed to assuming everything is life or death? I know I was pissed, and wrath was leaking forth, when I imagined that she might have killed some of the refugees, but¡ª. There¡¯s no way for her to have known that if I¡¯d seen her feel remorse, that I would have been on her side. I was coming across as a brutal, always-victorious conqueror, demanding perfection. This is my fault.


    Sighing, I sit upon Qlaxianna¡¯s bare breast, one scale peeled away, and I drop my face into my hands to mourn. The sorrow hits me full force, though I can¡¯t weep, as much as I¡¯d like to. Between being low on fluids from donating blood, being inside a volcano, and on top of a Fire¡¯s corpse, I¡¯m a tad dehydrated. Still, that¡¯s not exactly the whole story either. I almost wish Qlaxianna had flirted with Lil more, and chased him romantically. I like to see Lil happy, and he seemed to be enjoying talking to her. I¡¯m more upset with having stolen that possibility from Lil, I think, than most anything else about the situation. Maybe. I guess a lot of the reasons mingle together in importance towards my grief.


    I¡¯d beg her forgiveness if I could. I¡¯d at least go back a few moments to converse, to listen to her tale, as she lay dying, instead of floating numbly nearby. I did her such a disservice. What can I even do to reconcile this act with how I want to be, and who I want to be? With who I want to perceive myself as? There are only so many ways one can interpret killing someone, and none of them seem adequate in this situation. Sighing, I rub my itchy eyes, trying to remind myself that her ordering her subordinates to attack us implied her guilt, her complicity, in taking the lives of some of the refugees. If I can at least make myself angry at Qlaxi, I might be able to move on for now.


    Finally, as I¡¯m about to start really hacking away at Qlaxi¡¯s chest, Lil arrives and asks, ¡°Hey partner, need some help with that?¡±


    Chuckling, rolling my eyes, and heaving an exhausted sigh, I nod to Lil, who thankfully opens a wide path through Qlaxianna¡¯s chest cavity for me. He mumbles to the corpse, ¡°Sorry hottie. Told you no bad people get away from Rej. We¡¯ve gotta get done, and go home because they¡¯re under siege. It was nice talking to you. You seemed like you maybe could have been fun, if you weren¡¯t also evil. I dunno. This time it was weird, because you don¡¯t follow Terrorzin, so I¡¯m not sure how I feel right now. I guess I kinda thought only bad people followed Terrorzin, and only Terrorzin¡¯s followers were bad people. I guess I see why Rej is always struggling, asking people if they¡¯re good, or willing to be good. Rej really is a hero, even if they hate people calling ¡®em that other than Gal-Pal. I sorta think of myself as one too, kinda, some days. Just not the same type as Rej. Just never really thought as much about good and bad. Home, on Can¡¯z¡¯aas, my first home, it was eat or be eaten, y¡¯know? There¡¯s no good or bad, there¡¯s just survival. Then we started making friends, and family, and suddenly what¡¯s good is important, because it means being nice and being treated nice, and family being safe. Anyway, sorry again hottie.¡±


    Blushing at having overheard Lil¡¯s seemingly private admission, I try to immerse myself in absorbing Qlaxi¡¯s dragonforce. Stop that you goon, stop giving in to giving her a nickname. I can¡¯t help it after Lil goes and calls her hottie repeatedly, of course I¡¯m going to use Qlaxi. Sighing, I try to keep my attention focused on the heart that I¡¯m eating, but my brain is all over the place.


    Lil mutters to me, ¡°Hey pal, partner, um. I kinda meant for you to hear Rej, sorta, maybe. I dunno. I guess maybe I thought you¡¯d be able to help me figure out my feelings, like you¡¯re always doing for my It¡¯s-A-Secret.¡±


    Gulping for several reasons, I nearly choke as I try to immediately answer, ¡°Yes, of course, yes Lil, always, any time. I love you beyond most anything or anyone. Anything you need help with. Is, is it about the good and evil, good and bad stuff?¡±


    There¡¯s a hint of shame as Lil nods my way, from outside Qlaxi¡¯s chest cavity. I try to assuage him, ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be ashamed of, you were honest, and true to yourself. Good and bad were different, like you said. It¡¯s only my buggy Fakeworld memories that give me a different perspective than other Can¡¯Z¡¯aasians. Even that is only morality as mostly defined by one society in one section of Fakeworld in one era of its history. I¡¯m sorry that I¡¯m always asking you to let me do things my moral way, instead of asking what your morals say pal. I¡¯m no one¡¯s lesson on perfect morality. I feel like crap for doing that to you now that I realize what I¡¯ve been putting you through. I¡¯m sorry Lil.¡±


    Half scoffing, half chuckling, Lil rolls his eyes as he responds, ¡°Doofus, I don¡¯t need you to apologize for being right. Just, just thanks for always being willing to to do things, and look at things, and hear things out. You¡¯re the best friend, and parent, and dragon-pal that a little dragon could ask for, and more! I just, I guess I was just wondering how you do it. But then I remembered, or realized, you kinda don¡¯t. It eats you up, doesn¡¯t it? That sucks pal. That mega sucks, mega mega mega sucks. What are you supposed to do with that?¡±


    Phooph. Hell of a question Lil, hell of a question. I answer as best I can, ¡°It¡¯s rough, yeah, it does eat me up. Even if I want to be the most right, and the most good in my own eyes, sometimes the choices are hard, or aren¡¯t clear. I make mistakes. I make mistakes on things that I feel are hugely important sometimes, things that I massively regret. The only way I can keep moving forward, is to focus on keeping moving forward, if that makes sense. If I let myself overthink in the moment, of what the right choice is, or if I start to think too much about the wrong choices I¡¯ve made in the past, or maybe not wrong, but regretful ones, then I¡¯ll get trapped in my head, and, well, yeah. That¡¯s when it¡¯d definitely start eating me up inside again even more.¡±


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Pausing a beat, I figure I should lay out one of the examples, ¡°Like, there was this salmon-pink colored Draconiac lady who was one of a few trying to psychically dominate Fenric. I slew a bunch of them quickly, but one, I saw the fear and sadness in her eyes, the desire to live, but I killed her or let her die anyway. I can¡¯t really come to grips with it. I can rationalize it, it was the heat of battle, she was someone who if I let go on the battlefield could maybe even have turned the tide against us by sneaking off, and on and on, but the could haves and should haves and would haves will eat me up forever if I don¡¯t just stop and look at the next step in front of me. When I get to that next step, I have to focus on the next one, and the next.¡±


    Thinking momentarily about how I sometimes sound or maybe brag to others, I add, ¡°I mean, sometimes I pretend like I¡¯m looking dozens, hundreds, thousands of steps ahead or something. Those times when I get absorbed in plans and ideas, but really they¡¯re just single next steps, for some future point, that I need to get to. So I have to focus on getting there. Each time, each step, I try to make the next choice that feels the most right, the most good. It¡¯s not easy, but few things are. There¡¯s entire schools of thought surrounding this stuff, like moral versus ethical duty, and so on. There isn¡¯t even one agreed ruling of what¡¯s good and what¡¯s bad in every situation. I mean, in a deontological thought process, you¡¯re using rules for morality of each individual action itself. In a teleology, or uh teleological thought process, you¡¯re considering the end-goals or results of those actions. You kinda sorta can¡¯t satisfy both. If killing is bad, but killing stops other killings, saving lives, then¡ª. Get it? Like, if you¡¯re in a position to save lives, by taking action, and ending someone else¡¯s life, but you *don¡¯t* do it, then you made a choice and took an action that still technically ended lives. In one school, the actions might be good or bad, or at least right or wrong, but in the other, they might be necessary to provide a good or bad, or right or wrong outcome. All I really want to tell you about you and your feelings Lil is that they¡¯re valid, and you are good. You¡¯ve always been good, and always will be good. You¡¯re the best bud a weird lost little creamy green souled goof could ask for.¡±


    Beaming with pride, Lil deigns to enter the chest cavity to nuzzle me as he exclaims, ¡°Rej pal, you¡¯re so smart, and good with talking, and feelings. You¡¯re such a hottie now too, more dragon than ever. Can I kiss ya?¡±


    My smile tells Lil enough as he shifts forms for us to be able to embrace. I¡¯m a bit embarrassed to be kissing Lil after having just swallowed what I know he thinks of as sacred dragon flesh, but he¡¯s been adjusting his worldview in order to fit me into it. While Lil and I kiss, I realize Lil hasn¡¯t had much experience kissing in passionate ways. I can¡¯t help grinning a bit as he blushes before he pulls away, to mumble a few things and scratch the back of his head.


    Trying to keep my chuckling to myself, I offer, ¡°If Ixeyla the other night was where you got your practice, I can totally understand. It¡¯s all good pal. Everything¡¯s okay between us. I love you as much as I always have, and always will. Nothing has to change with us, or everything can, if that¡¯s what you need, or anywhere in-between. Best buds for life, even if that¡¯s immortal eternity.¡±


    Lil cracks a grin and nods before nudging me to remind me that I¡¯m done with this dragonforce, and have more to claim. After he returns to his form, he offers me a lift back to the hoard room, but I cheekily, almost jokingly quip, ¡°Race ya. You get a three second headstart! Three, two, one.¡±


    Unable to keep myself from grinning and chuckling as Lil takes off like a gleeful rocket, I walk over to the wall that is fairly near the far end of the tunnel, and begin to stonemeld through it. Stepping through on the other side is still an unpleasant sensation, but I might be able to get used to it with some practice. It¡¯s worth it to see Lil look astounded as he rounds the corner and catches me sauntering back to the hoard room ahead of him. He looks back around the corner then back towards me again, and yells, ¡°Cheater!¡±


    Heh. Gnawing on the insides of my cheeks to try to suppress my grin, I await Lil at the entrance to the hoard room. He bowls me over, giggling like a goof. Through a mouthful of dragonslobber as Lil licks my face, I playfully joke, ¡°Neither of us won, we entered at the same time. Also, what is it with my family and licking me?¡±


    Lil just grins and helps me up, shrugging about people licking me. He aids me in claiming the four other hearts, and dragonforces available, simply ferrying me around and rending scales and flesh at my request, despite his own discomfort with bodies, corpses in general. I lean down to hug the back of Lil¡¯s neck as tightly as I can from atop him, trying to impart all my love for him into the motion. He means worlds to me. Wiping several tears from my eyes, I check on Lu and Lucky. Luni seems subdued, but fine, and Lucky is his usual mostly-jovial self, especially as he keeps nudging Luni closer and closer to me every time I move.


    Almost afraid to ask, I begin to form a query, but Luni beats me to it, ¡°I¡¯m actually okay, really really. It¡¯s just, it¡¯s weird. Being scared, but doing things anyway. I¡¯ve done it a few times, and it¡¯s always weird. I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll ever stop being weird. It¡¯s part of why I¡¯m so proud of you, and so proud of Lil. You both always fight for us, always, no matter how scary the odds. Yes Lucky, I¡¯m proud of you too boy, settle down, Reggie¡¯s right here. We don¡¯t need to get any oof, closer. Hi sweetie.¡±


    Blushing and chuckling, I can¡¯t fight my overly-wide smile as Luni is the one sent toppling into me for once. Seriously, the smile keeps getting wider and I can¡¯t stop it, like trying to control the muscles is a quivering, quaking effort, to no avail. Luni shrugs, grins, and presses up firmly against me. I have to laugh as Lil is standing around in his human form, and he gets bowled over as he gets licked by Lucky¡¯s enormous tongue for once. Lil seems indignant, but none of us can keep from laughing.


    Sighing, I try not to make too much note of the regrets I hold as I finish siphoning dragonforces, eating hearts, drinking blood, and packing away the gems I recognize as being from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, along with a little more, to return to the refugees. I snag the few things that shine with the brightest magical auras as well, but don¡¯t have the heart to even identify what I¡¯m pilfering from Qlaxi¡¯s hoard right now. I hope that in some small way, that I can somehow honor her, by having one of these trinkets help us defeat Terrorzin. Her last request was for him to fall, and if I can make it so that she was a part of that, it might work in some small regard to be part of a penance I can pay towards my guilt at taking her life.


    As I finish absorbing the third ancient¡¯s dragonforce though, something flashes within me, brightly. That warmth, that glow within me is attempting to share new information. Huh, apparently I am at ten dragonforces obtained, of high enough power or quality, to be able to increase my Caliber, despite having had several get burned up, used up, or disappear. It feels like, despite Kozzurth¡¯s dragonforce having been gone before I received my titling and Honoris Causa, that somehow each new dragonforce of a certain tier of power shapes that part of me.


    Deeply within me on some spiritual level, my inner dragon-self resides alongside my inner Changeling Fae, not just the aegis that protects that part of me from mana residue. Ancient dragonforces shape and mould my form, driving it towards, well, perfection of my form I suppose. Not that I think my form would ever be perfect in any way, but each dragonforce should always increase it in beneficial ways. I mean, each ancient dragonforce that fully counts anyway.


    The two adult dragonforces mostly just paid for my expenditures from this fight, and maybe some of what I¡¯d lost from Deviltail¡¯s, but the three ancients were apparently elder enough, or evil enough, or something, that they counted. I¡¯m sitting at well-over three thousand days worth of survival from dragonforce yet again. I mean, not that I recall being at this exact number previously, I just mean that I¡¯m back up over a couple thousand.


    I feel a bit like a yo-yo, or rubberband. My dragonforce rockets up and gets blown away in an instant, repeatedly. Still, it¡¯s exciting reaching a new Caliber, and tantalizing being closer to my cure. Regardless, let¡¯s get the heck out of here while I parse this information, shall we? Thankfully, my beloved friends in the Triple L Squad are just as eager to leave.

 B 6 C 148: TTCTUBE

    Returning towards the watchtower, the warning horn blows again, and I roll my eyes, but at least it suits our purpose.  Driezyln¡¯s approach is accompanied by fifteen other dragons ranging from young adult into adults nearing ancient status.  That seems a bit overkill for patrolling some humans and kobolds, but whatever I guess.


    Apparently chagrined and somewhat able to guess what I¡¯m thinking, Driezyln resumes human form in order to address me, ¡°Welcome back, that erm, was really quick.  I assume auntie¡ª?¡±


    Sighing and nodding, I barely have the heart to start to respond, but thankfully Driezyln cuts me off to announce, ¡°She Who Burns has been slain!  We have the Hero of the Onyx Dawn to thank, having taken time from their war against Terrorzin to aid us.  How shall we show our gratitude cousins?¡±


    Furrowing my brow, I¡¯m starting to wonder if auntie and cousins are just terms of endearment rather than biological relations to Driezyln.  I guess I don¡¯t really care one way or another though.  I¡¯m worried that this might start some trouble, or some hassle that I don¡¯t need, but Driezyln once again beats me to the punch by answering their own posed question, ¡°I propose, we protect, and serve, because the Onyx Dawn values life, all of it!  Come, head home to claim, then distribute auntie¡¯s hoard, share with, and protect those weaker than us!¡±


    Blinking several times, my lower jaw juts forward appreciatively as I take in Driezyln¡¯s words.  More importantly, I¡¯m able to take in and ascertain that the other fifteen dragons are in agreement, seemingly swayed to do just about anything Driezyln might ask.  Hey, if they¡¯re up for protecting the Aasimovians and kobolds, that''s just fantastic by me.


    A nervous Trixxie is delivered by a dragon whose scale-color I can¡¯t tell in the flickering lightning of the Worldstorm.  She hops down to be caught by Driezyln, and blushes furiously in the arms of the Sand.  Driezyln makes nothing of it while helping Trixxie to her feet, in order to rejoin us.


    Curious where to go to find my friends amongst the refugees, I ask, ¡°Driezyln, were you able to deliver the hole to Tiago?  Where is he set up currently?¡±


    Pointing to the southwest, Driezyln states, ¡°Three and a half or so miles that way, you¡¯ll find the remains of the capitol, up against the next batch of mountains from this range.  I hope I¡¯ve done your Lady proud.  The other twelve would like to join the Onyx Dawn.¡±


    I barely refrain from choking on my own tongue or coughing in surprise.  Raising an eyebrow, I ask, ¡°The other twelve?¡±


    Nodding emphatically, Driezyln states, ¡°Auntie¡¯s other consorts.  I suppose some of them are hoping to be chosen as your lady Kinzul¡¯s consorts, but they are all powerful, if a bit rusty at displaying it.  It comes with being as ancient as they are I suppose.¡±


    My face won¡¯t stop twitching, as my eyebrow tries to raise beyond my ability to control it.  I¡¯m not worried or jealous.  Kinzul can have as many mates and consorts as she likes, but I¡¯m more than a tad surprised that there are twelve other ancient dragons out here somewhere just hanging around.  I¡ª, ugh.  I bet they¡¯re in human form, sent to sort of emphasize the ever-present threat.  Oh, wait.  Fourteen consorts?  I¡ª.  Two for each day of the week.  Oh ew, I really didn¡¯t need to know that about her.  I barely fight facepalming.  Still, as awkward as having that knowledge is, it does humanize Qlaxi further, err, dragonize her, whatever.  Huff.  I mean, she had a sexual appetite, and worked out ways to have her needs filled I guess.  Ew, phrasing, I mean met, have her needs met.


    My own nodding is less emphatic, and more a muted acceptance of fact, a grateful motion to prompt any continued speech.  When none is offered, I offer up, ¡°Thank you, yes, I suppose we¡¯ll find them at the same location, in human form then?¡±


    Driezyln¡¯s nod is affirmation enough as he answers, ¡°Aye.  Sharp mind you¡¯ve got.  The old ones sit in on the human council of elders after, um, the incidents.  I hope you won¡¯t hold it against us.  We¡ª.  It¡¯s awful to say this.  We were just following¡ª.  I can¡¯t even finish it.  It¡¯s horrible.  Not many lives were lost, but lives were lost.  No, I¡¯m sorry, taken.  When they first arrived, auntie wanted to impress upon them the threat of settling here, while also demanding that they do so.  We offered assistance finishing their sojourn from the swamps to the ruins, but at a price.  It was extortion, but it only needed to be extortion, not escalate.  A small band of humans, a very burly, angry woman at their fore, they¡ª.¡±


    Holding up a hand, I gulp back my feelings.  I know how this story is going to end, and I know who is being spoken of.  I can¡¯t handle it right now.  Driezyln has done everything possible to be on my best side.  I can¡¯t let my wrath out at this news.  He¡¯s regretful, and may not even have been one of the ones to take lives.  He¡¯s offering up responsibility by owning up to this and delivering the news.  I need to remind myself, the person behind the extortion, and assault, or response to the attack, lay slain in her domain.  Even that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth though.  Senseless death surrounds me.  Sighing, I nod at Driezyln when they ask if they can go facilitate things.


    Conjuring our horses, Lil assumes his human form, and Trixxie abashedly mounts up behind him as Lu carries Lucky, while I ride at the fore of our procession.  It¡¯s only a few moments of quiet ride to our destination.  Well, as quiet as anything can be beneath Rayileklia¡¯s ever-present, always-thundering Worldstorm.  Oh wait.  Crap.  No one¡¯s going to recognize me with these horns and this tail, are they?  Ugh.  They don¡¯t know Lu or Lil or Lucky either.


    Maybe they¡¯ll recognize my ghostly horses?  I¡¯d been using them, and providing them, often, while with the refugees.  I¡¯m the only archmage that most of these people know, and I do have most of my features intact, plus some fairly distinct armor¡ª.  If I were wearing Valkyrie armor.  I forgot that I switched it out of the QCR for The Platinum¡¯s robe.  I could swap into a set of Valkyrie armor that I keep around for FFS, but that would mean dismounting, disrobing, and then equipping things.  That seems pointless.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    At this point, I just want to reunite with Tiktik, even if I have to prove that I am who I say I am.  Well, I mean, we are psychically bonded.  The headache should only interfere with that a little bit.  I¡¯m not sure I want to risk sharing psychic pain with her or my inner circle by communicating or reaching out too much with my brain though.  Plus, Tiktik knows at least one brainblast aegis spell, and those interfere with psychic communications if she has one up.  If¡ª, I gulp, if she survived.


    Full of lamentations at the moment, I¡¯m imagining how I¡¯ll approach Tiktik after having spent months apart.  I sigh sadly, feeling like a jerk for showing up when I want to request a favor, instead of having found a way to be able to get here earlier during this war.  I¡¯ve had like, one or two free days since the start of the war.  I could have requested someone transport me out here, right?  Huff, maybe.


    Distracted by my own thoughts, I almost don¡¯t hear a familiar voice exclaim, ¡°Dios!¡± as we trot our horses through ruins of what might have been a fortress city, a great and enterprising metropolitan capitol in the past.  My eyes fly wide as my head flits side to side, glancing about for the source of the voice.


    Almost crying, Tiago lambasts me, ¡°Little Shellcracker, friend, Reggie, is it you?  What ever happened to you?  Por que los estos?  Queremos a¡ª.  Sorry, oh no.  Where is your Teuila?  Not after all that.  Not after all that heartbreak you suffered.¡±


    Gulping back a quick sob, remembering how lost I¡¯d felt when I thought I¡¯d lost Teuila permanently to Olashax¡¯s ice, I quickly respond, ¡°No, yes, I mean, it¡¯s me, Tiago, yes.  These are the rest of my inner circle, our Shellcracker Adventuring Party that I¡¯d told you about.  That¡¯s Lil, please don¡¯t freak out that he¡¯s a dragon, they aren¡¯t all like these ones, I swear.  Luni is over there with our son Lucky in her arms.  The um, lovely scaly woman is our prisoner of war, Trixxie to her friends, which I hope we can become, to drop the prisoner nonsense eventually.  As far as my current state.  I uh.  Hell I can¡¯t lie to you.  Crap.¡±


    Sighing for a moment, I dismount and fall into Tiago¡¯s offered hug, sweeping him into a rocking embrace in return.  I whisper, ¡°It doesn¡¯t need to get around, but I died again, just barely under the boon of a reincarnation effect of chaos magic.  So now I think I¡¯m part succubus, or incubus.¡±


    There¡¯s more than a hint of blush and surprise crossing Tiago¡¯s visage as he hears my admittance.  He steps out of our embrace to raise an eyebrow at me.  Chagrined, I offer up, ¡°Erm, well, we¡¯re kind of here about maybe delivering some people into your care, like the injured woman that the dragon brought.  Only, well, one of them is petrified, and I know Tiktik can cure that.  I, I just.  Is, glp, is she okay?¡±


    When Tiago puffs a sigh as his visage brightens into a smile, my worries begin to melt away.  He further assuages me by confirming, ¡°Dios that little rascal.  Okay?  Is she okay?  That should be, are *we* okay?  Dealing with regularly scheduled pranks spooking the hell out of us.  Like clockwork.  Actually any minute now, *something* should happen, not that I¡¯ve any clue what to expect from the deranged little woman, delightful though the young miss Clocktok is.¡±


    Like clockwork indeed, as if summoned by Tiago¡¯s statement, I hear a familiar voice yelling out, ¡°Clear the way!  Clear the way!  Goose on the loose!  Don¡¯t slip on the feathers or poop!¡±


    Lil begins giggling immediately, but I¡¯m a tad mortified as I see Tiktik chasing a horse-sized goose through the shambled streets of the once-great city.  Tiktik spies me, does a double take, looks me up and down again, and does a double take again.  Then she looks between her scheduled prank, and me, and does a doubletake again, before she blasts the goose with some massive spell that sends it poofing into the ether in a flurry of feathers.  She ends her visual comedy to dash at me with crazed, wild eyes.


    Smiling her way, I spread my arms wide as I greet her, ¡°Heya Kitten.  Long time no see.¡±


    The gleeful shout of, ¡°Tiger!¡± could probably be heard all the way out to the watchtower from here, but I couldn¡¯t really care less about that right now.  The gorgeous goblinoid gal that I call my Kitten leaps at me with the ferocity of a tiger pouncing on its prey.  I¡¯m giddy as I catch and then swing Tiktik about in an embrace.  My Kitten wriggles free of my grip, uses her giant magical hand to twirl her hair before picking herself up by the tush with it.  She grabs me by the face, and leans in to lay one on me passionately.


    Sinking into the kiss, one we hadn¡¯t shared on our final night together in the swamps, I blush to high heavens.  I¡¯m at the point where I could weld tungsten with my cheeks, and I can feel Luni getting the slightest bit jealous behind me, when Tiktik finally lets me loose of her wild kiss.  I¡¯m a bit dazed.  I mean, I love the affection, and I love this adorable, zany Fae woman, but I wasn¡¯t expecting that sort of hello.  I blink rapidly as I try not to stagger around in a drunken stupor from the effect.


    While I¡¯m dazed, Tiktik floats around me to ponder, ¡°Let me guess, these would be Luni with Lucky, and, uh, I guess if all dragons can do what these dragons can do, you¡¯re Lil?¡± before greeting them, ¡°Anyway, Tiktik Clocktok urban bountyhunter extraordinaire, put ¡®er there!¡±


    Before I can warn him, Lil puts out a hand to shake Tiktik¡¯s hand, meeting the whoopee cushion she instantly conjures, loosing the trademark pfpfpfpfttt sound.  Lil giggles as Tiktik teases about passing gas, but I stand agog when Tiktik introduces herself to Luni, in the same way, and Lu falls for the exact same stunt.


    Luni grumps telepathically, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect her to do it again!  She¡¯s, hah, she¡¯s so silly!  Okay, fine, I get why you like her.  She¡¯s stupid-adorbs.¡±


    At first I thought Luni was insulting Tiktik, but it took me only a moment to realize she meant massively adorable.  It¡¯s true, Tiktik is exactly that.  Poking around my far-too-many psychic wavelengths, I cast my senses around for the one that lines up with Tiktik.  Thankfully, in not-too-long a time, I¡¯m able to find it, and even spot Tiktik materializing her telepathic avatar into thinkspace, since she shares Teuila¡¯s link into the Shellcracker thinkspace that Bud formed for us.  Poor Bud.  Still no change since Autumn Brook.


    Sighing, knowing we have to get home to deal with a siege, that we¡¯re on a time limit, I start to try to address reasons I¡¯ve stopped by, ¡°Kitten, I¡¯ve got someone who¡¯s been petrified by magic, and I really need your greater moderate cureall thingy¡ª.¡±


    Sadly, Tiktik¡¯s telepathic avatar pouts towards me with puppydog eyes as she responds, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry Tiger.  That spell costs a bunch of diamond dust as a reagent to be able to cast, and the kobolds have been needing and eating all the few gems we had left with the dragon business going on, and, and stuff.  I, I don¡¯t think we have any.¡±


    Smiling down into Tiktik¡¯s big, wide, sad eyes, I¡¯m able to retort, ¡°On that front, my dear Kitten, I¡¯ve got you covered.¡±


    Returning to meatspace, I begin to fish out the hoard of gems I¡¯d saved from, well, Qlaxi¡¯s hoard.  Sighing, I rattle my skull at myself, unable to stop using a cutesie nickname for the, erm, domain¡¯s previous overlord.  I barely caught myself in time to refrain from calling her the sex-crazed dragon lady.  Facepalming, I shake my head at myself.

 B 6 C 149: TtT

    Frowning as I pull sacks filled with gems out of another sack, or rather out of a hyperdimensional handysack, I¡¯m not sure what the best course of action here is.  I should probably meet the elders, and this circle of twelve ancient consorts, but I really don¡¯t want to sit around waiting for a gathering of elders to come together, or to decide stuff.  I¡¯ve got a siege to fight.  We.  Right, we¡¯ve got a siege to fight.  Try to be better about that Reggie.  Sure, but then you rag on me for using we in my own mind.  I mean I rag on me.  I mean¡ª.  Argh.


    The Aasimovians are looking rough, the ones aboveground anyway.  I see a few obvious trapdoors that lead into cellars or catacombs or something, and occasionally straight up holes in the ground that obviously lead into caverns below.  Tiago looks weary, and I¡¯m afraid to ask him the status of the patient I provided him.  He does hand me back the portable hole, which I peek inside of.  Thankfully Shlen, Chuck, and the lovebirds are in it, and doing fine.


    Before I need to ask, Tiago responds, ¡°It¡¯s grim, dear sweet friend.  You did well with that transfusion.  It was the right choice, she¡¯d definitely have died without it.  As is, I¡¯m unsure if she will wake at all.  I¡¯m not fully used to the biology of, um, scaly humanoids yet, though I¡¯ve had some practice with the kobolds amongst our numbers.¡±


    Gulping back sadness, worry for the kobolds, I glance sadly at Tiago as he continues, ¡°I see it in your eyes, yes, the ones you know are fine, Elder, Miza, Dippy, Scrap, Timbik, the children.  Most everyone you know is fine.  Except¡ª,¡± Tiago sighs sadly, shaking his head before going on, ¡°I¡¯ll come back to that in a moment, my dear, dear friend.  Your, erm, prisoner I suppose, she wasn¡¯t injured by you wa¡ª, okay, good.  I hope she won¡¯t lash out if she does rouse then.  I will do my best, though we¡¯ve little in the way of supplies these days.¡±


    There¡¯s hesitation before Tiago returns to what he said he¡¯d return to.  Sighing sadly, he finishes what he started, ¡°Keeley.  She led a suicidal charge with a small number of the more militaristic amongst us, against the dragons when they made their demands of our band of refugees.  It made sense to give up wealth for the aid and protection of the dragons, for their offer of transporting us from the edge of the swamp to the capitol.  The labor that we¡¯d be doing was simply rebuilding the capitol anyway, for the most part, being that we¡¯d be able to keep all common minerals from the mining.  The elders had already agreed that it would be wise to acquiesce, despite misgivings, but she was having none of it.  First Keeley, then with his wife and child gone, Marshal as well led a handful more to their doom.  It¡ª.  It was awful.¡±


    Closing my eyes, slowing my breathing, and stilling my heart, I try to let the news wash past, and over me.  I¡¯d been informed of this, I knew the news was coming.  I can¡¯t afford to break down.  She was a good woman, despite our differences, and the anger she harbored towards me.  Marshal was a wonderful man, and they made a fantastic couple.  She was already on borrowed time, but still.


    Loosing several tears, they become a stream, which becomes a river, which becomes a cascading waterfall.  Good people keep dying.  Good people keep getting hurt, or being abused.  Life isn¡¯t¡ª, it isn¡¯t fair.  I sob for several moments on Tiago¡¯s shoulder as Tiktik pats me on my back comfortingly.


    Rattling my skull, I have to get back to it.  I have to get on with things, and address issues.  If possible, I want to leave the Aasimovians in a better state than I found them in.  Hm, there is one way to definitely help provide for them, but it needs top notch security.  Taking Tiago and Tiktik to the side, I ask, ¡°Do either of you have, or know of a safe place, and I¡¯m talking so safe, that maybe only you could get into it?¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s eyes widen and brighten as she hoarse-whispers, ¡°Ah Tiger!  You¡¯re never gonna guess what I just found!¡±


    When I motion for Tiktik to continue, she pouts, but she realizes that I don¡¯t have the heart for guessing games right now.  Half frowning sympathetically at me, Tiktik continues, ¡°Okay, so there I was, helping out digging, unearthing some cellars and caverns and catacombs and whatever, y¡¯dig?  Only don¡¯t, ¡®cause you¡¯ll get all dirty.  Hehe, anyway, digging, right?  Little ol¡¯ me, swinging away, and a wall crumbles, and what do I spy?  Okay, maybe I didn¡¯t so much spy it as fell into it like a doofy goon, but that¡¯s besides the point.  Can you guess what it was?¡±  Clamping my lips together so as not to frown at Tiktik, I attempt to keep a neutral facial expression until she finishes, ¡°An entrance to the ¡®Twixt!¡±


    My eyes flash wide with comprehension.  Now that would definitely be a safe space.  Tiktik¡¯s the only Fae here as far as I¡¯m aware.  Even if she wasn¡¯t, there¡¯s another caveat to being able to enter the ¡®Twixt.  Something about Tiktik¡¯s heritage is required, something or other, so she¡¯s likely the only one that can access it.  Does Tiago understand what the ¡®Twixt is?  I glance his way, but he shrugs.  I gnaw on the inside of my cheeks as Tiktik gets distracted by my tail, and chases it around as I try to keep it from her.  I have no idea why we¡¯re playing around in the middle of a conversation, but this is Tiktik we¡¯re talking about.  I love the little goon to death.


    Taking a deep breath, and loosing it through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I wait a moment before beginning, ¡°Okay, do either of you remember my stories about our home world?  The magic that allowed us to pretty much have infinite food for the Lavaborn Alliance?  I can, and want to, provide that to the Aasimovian refugees, but only if we can get it someplace safe, where only someone I trust can access it.  I trust you two, George, Tim, Harriet, Berinon, Daffodil, and, well, huff, two that are no longer with us.  I also trust Elder, Dippy, Miza, and Scrap, oh, and maybe, maybe Hellga Hellridge if she¡¯s okay.  It¡¯s not entirely fragile, but it¡¯s not safe from damage either.  If it gets too damaged, boom, no more enchantment.  You sort of need two people to operate it, but if I recall correctly, Tiktik you can bring one person with you into the ¡®Twixt, yes?¡±


    Chirping chipperly, Tiktik responds, ¡°Yep yep!  Got that right buster!  Oo Tiger, does this mean I get to take you into the ¡®Twixt?  Like, like right now?  Soon?¡±


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Glancing at the rest of my party, they shrug, listening in on my mental monologue.  Tiago leans away from our conspiratorial huddle, and flashes me a sad smile, knowing that I¡¯ll be off.  I¡¯m sure he hopes I¡¯ll return to say farewell before leaving, but neither of us know if I¡¯ll be able to.  Tiktik leads me towards what might have been a central castle, and I¡¯m only slightly surprised when I see what could literally be called a circle of elders beneath a large tarp.  It¡¯s rather easy to determine which ones are the twelve consorts, as they all stiffen at sensing my dragonforce, which apparently I¡¯d forgotten to stifle.


    Another familiar voice from another familiar face approaching me calls out, ¡°If it isn¡¯t the conquering hero, returning once more to pull us from the almost literal fire.  I¡¯d had a feeling we hadn¡¯t seen the last of you, adventurer.  Though it seems you¡¯ve undergone some changes since last we spoke.  I hear we¡¯ve you to thank for the concessions just made, and the about-face of the rest of the dragons just now.  Really, going from extorter to protector in the blink of an eye?  If it hadn¡¯t come somehow by your hand, I¡¯d have had a harder time believing it.  Once you were mentioned, woosh, all doubts cast aside.  I can, and will always do that much for you, my young friend.  I¡¯m sorry if it ever seemed otherwise.¡±


    Gulping back a bit of sentimentality, I nod to Harriet before responding, ¡°Yeah, I, well, I kind of figured.  I¡¯ve been fighting a war against dragons, with dragons, in the Spine of the World, to stop them from loosing more horrors across the land like the Fel hordes.  I happened to be in the neighborhood, so I¡ª.¡±


    Harriet bursts into laughter, almost nearly doubling over as she guffaws.  She has to wipe a tear from her eye as she stands.  Through humorously labored breathing, Harriet queries, ¡°Let me guess, you accidentally stumbled into a region with an evil ruler, and assassinated them?¡±


    My jaw hangs slack while my right index finger can¡¯t decide whether to point, or curl.  That, well, yeah, that is a Reggie Shellcracker patented accidental assassination mission.  I mean, it is a running pattern in my life.  Really, it¡¯s a tad too frequent for my liking.  Though, I mean, these days, I¡¯m just a straight up assassin, rather than an accidental one.  I literally topple strongholds a few times a week by slaying their leaders.  I would probably find it funny, if it weren¡¯t so grim.  Harriet¡¯s heard all the stories though.  Hell, it¡¯s the thing she berated me about before we left Autumn Brook the first time.  She¡¯s also probably spent plenty of time talking to Tiago or Tiktik, or even George.  Speaking of, I wave at him as he glances my way with a startled curious expression, one brow fit to raise off his head.


    Nodding to Harriet, admitting culpability, or responsibility, I¡¯m not sure of the difference in this particular case¡ª.  I went and confused myself.  George mouths, ¡°Reggie?¡± and I nod in return to him as well.  I¡¯ve been raising more than a few eyebrows as I wander around, looking like this.  I don¡¯t really have the time to explain to everyone that I think I¡¯m now half incubus, or succubus.  Wait, when did I turn blue again?  Let¡¯s fix that.  I could just say that now I¡¯m an Inkling, or a Succling, but that could get¡ª.


    Attempting to hide my sigh as Tiktik bursts into laughter, I have a quiet chuckle to myself.  Tiktik quickly interrupts, ¡°You have to go with, haha, that last one.  Big T¡¯s going to love it.  Speaking of, where is she?  I don¡¯t feel her brain around, but, but you¡¯d have told me right away, right?¡±


    Gulping down a quick breath, I rapidly reassure Tiktik, ¡°Definitely, Te¡¯s fine, she¡¯s off fighting a fortress of Draconiacs like the wounded woman right now, we had different assignments today.  There¡¯s something like seventy three more fortresses with hundreds to thousands of dragonkind in each of them left to topple.  It¡¯s been a busy couple of weeks since we got reunited with the Triple L Squad.¡±


    Her eyes widening cartoonishly large on her telepathic avatar, Tiktik quips, ¡°I¡¯ll say!¡±


    After sharing a few more details with Harriet, so that she can make some plans around what I¡¯ll be setting up, I give George a hug when he approaches me.  We share some of the same exchanges I¡¯d just had with Tiago and Harriet, much to my chagrin.  I really should have just sought out everyone I know and brought them together.  That feels a bit presumptuous to believe I should be able to just drop into their lives and summon a meeting of people that I like though.


    I spy Daffodil a ways off, and she¡¯s hard at work, despite having one arm.  She does apparently at least have a rudimentary leather-and-wood prosthesis for her missing arm.  I assume it was likely at least partially constructed by Berinon Tanner.  I wish I could afford to pick his brain, or bring him back to Solace, but the refugees need every skilled craftsperson they can get while rebuilding their lives.


    Regardless, Tiktik leads me down into a cellar past the elders, and through that cellar into catacombs.  We pass by several kobold families munching and digging away as we wind our way deeper into these eerie subterranean hallways.  There¡¯s a fair bit of echo of the noise of picks hitting stone, or even lumber creaking as it¡¯s heaved into place, or as it strains under the weight of some load or another.


    Arriving at what really does appear to be simply a recently busted hole in a catacomb wall, there is a bit of empty space beyond, before the natural stone of the landscape resumes behind where the wall had been covering it up.  Cranking my aura vision to the max though, reveals something of a yearning void in space.  Tendrils of energy, etheric mana, seem to wobble and undulate as if in response to some unseen stimulus.  Reaching forth my hand, Tiktik leaps to intercept me a tad too late as my hand brushes one of the tendrils, and I suddenly disappear just before she makes contact, as my hand meets the tendril first.  That¡¯s not supposed to ha¡ª.  Son of a!


    Heaving a sigh, I should really probably be laughing right now.  Remember what Tiktik said the key to entering the ¡®Twixt was?  Mixbreeds.  Half Fae half something elses with ties to other realms can enter a segment of the ¡®Twixt, meant for them or their species or something like that.  Gorram friggin¡¯.  Of course now I¡¯m half something else.  I mean, then again, I was always Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, and Changeling Fae, and that¡¯s another realm.  Still, I don¡¯t think it¡¯d have counted.  I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s this new half-Fel reincarnated body.  Huh, I could call myself a Halffel to try to make it sound like I¡¯m saying I¡¯m a half-elf, while admitting to people that I went through some changes.  Heh, half changeling having half gone through some changes I fell into, making me half Fel.


    Imagine that conversation though.  Hypothetical party asking me, ¡°My my, your biology speaks to perhaps quite an unusual heritage, would you mind elucidating me as to what particularly that is?¡±


    Then I¡¯d respond a mumbled, ¡°Halffel.¡±


    They¡¯d then perhaps semi-jokingly ask, ¡°Half-elf half what else?¡± before postulating guesses, ¡°Minotaur?  Dragon?¡±


    Snrk.  Anyway.  Okay, well, at least I learned that I can enter the ¡®Twixt on my own, now to turn around and¡ª.  Of friggin¡¯ course.  I knew it before I looked.  Genre senses were screaming it.  Sighing, I laugh to myself in this dark empty space that appears to be slowly materializing into something, something with no discernible entrance or exit.  Certainly with no exit the direction I¡¯d arrived from.

 B 6 C 150: Nichtshire Dlocke

    The glow in my brain is trying to remind me that I have new information to process. It had been a bit of a whirlwind of activity since reuniting with the refugees however. So, while we wait in this darkened void, we may as well make use of the time to figure out what it means. Wait. What? An expression of my Latent?


    Casting my senses out, I tug at the nothing that¡¯s taking shape around me, and it pauses. My eyes flash wide, but I feel my dragonforce rapidly slipping away from me just from this simple act of holding on to some nothing. Loosing my grip upon it, I gaze down at my own hands, lost in an essentially empty thought.


    When I stop spacing out, I¡¯m a little startled to hear, ¡°Hail traveler, well met. Please, try a free sample, on the house. Mana potions are the specialty.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow, I appear to be in a bit of a shifty alleyway, in a run-down part of a European-esque cobblestone-pathed town. There is however, a wrought-iron bannister railing leading down several steps into an open doorway. It¡¯s from this doorway that the voice originated. A shuffling tells me that whomever it was seemed to have greeted me at the entrance, and retreated into the shop.


    Muttering to myself aloud, I state, ¡°This seems like the exact sort of thing you shouldn¡¯t do, or take. Like accepting, or eating food from the Fae of the Unseelie courts ends up with either you becoming dinner, or trapped as a houseguest for eternity, or required to serve their meals for a number of millennia equal to the portions of food you¡¯d eaten, or some other nonsense. Or offering your name to them, which ends up with them literally stealing it, and you being unable to remember your name, or anyone who¡¯d ever uttered it. I grumble aloud, unable to keep my thoughts to myself. Oh great, now my entire inner narrative monologue is on display. Why do I keep speaking? This is exceedingly uncomfortable.¡±


    Thankfully, I¡¯m able to wrest back control of my voice and my mental monologue, from whatever tricks the ¡®Twixt had been playing. Less thankfully, the shopkeep calls out, ¡°Nonsense, nonsense friend. I¡¯ll do no such thing, and even offer you my word and bond that I shall in no way meet any of those expectations you¡¯d listed for trickery or the like. Please, peruse my wares, what little I have. I can tell your body is badly in need of pure mana. Please, partake.¡±


    Razzafrazzan. The ¡®Twixt knows the people inside of me are keeping my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian mana pools that I¡¯d set up for my forms from regenerating. Is it helpful this time, or is this a test? Tiktik said it¡¯s got a way of playing with you, but also helping you grow, and providing what you need. Do I need a test of my gullibility, or do I need the mana? I mean, huff. Sighing, I admit to myself, I do need the mana. The prisoners are screwed without it. Cranking up my aura vision to the maximum, I glance around for any hidden runes, spellwork, enchantment, glyphs, or anything that might resemble a trap as I descend the steps.


    I balk at the entrance to the ¡°shop.¡± It¡¯s only a few cubic feet of space, a short shop counter, with a very seedy looking gentleman behind the counter, and two very bright blue potions that appear identical. Yeah, I guess you could call mana potions your specialty in that case. Still, I have to fight my laughter about it, and prevent myself from shaking my head incredulously. Gnawing my bottom lip, I peer intently at the potions, attempting to discern any dangers, or any differences between the two. Upon a thorough inspection, they are identical, and appear to be just what he claims they are, infusions of pure mana. This is very odd, and very video-gamey.


    Glancing around inside the exceedingly tiny space that is this man¡¯s shop, I apologize to the shopkeeper, ¡°Sorry for my rude presumptions. I¡¯m a little surprised to find myself here. Do you know where here is exactly?¡±


    Tapping his nose, the shady man responds, ¡°Ah, when you say here, do you mean the ¡®Twixt, or this town it¡¯s so lovingly crafted for you?¡±


    My guts twist a bit anxiously at the confirmation, as well as the guilt trip that¡¯s implied. I was testing if he was some sort of NPC that didn¡¯t know he was in a realm that was so¡ª special. Gathering my wits, I answer, ¡°That uh answers part of it already, so the latter, if you would so kindly share. I¡¯m indeed grateful for the ¡®Twixt¡¯s intervention on my behalf. For a while, it appeared as if I had no way out. You don¡¯t happen to know where an exit to Rayileklia is from here, do you?¡±


    My more than sporting shopkeep taps his nose once more before hazarding, ¡°We¡¯re in Nichtshire D¡¯Locke of course. As for exits, I suppose I must ask you once again, which one? Though I would disappoint you in whichever you requested, for though there are many, I know not in which direction they lay. Please, won¡¯t you sample my wares? You¡¯ve already my guarantee that I shall not harm you, steal from you, trap you into a bargain, or otherwise play a trick upon you.¡±


    Glancing around, I know I could just exit the shop and go exploring. This man might kindly stay here at this shop waiting for me. On the other hand, if he didn¡¯t, or if the shop disappeared after I passed a certain distance from it, I¡¯d be passing up an opportunity at a potion that would massively help. Two of them even. Why did the ¡®Twixt make it so shifty though? Sighing, I wish Tiktik was here to tell me more about the ¡¯Twixt so that I can¡¯t go making any newbie blunders. She knew not to make pacts with sentient weapons, but had to do it anyway, due to a situation the ¡®Twixt cooked up. As far as I¡¯m aware, that now means that either Bizzenblade, or the ¡®Twixt itself, has some claim on Tiktik¡¯s soul.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Taking another moment to decide, I motion as if to take one or the other of the two potions, and the shady shopkeep nods, agreeing to either. Huffing a sigh, I hope I¡¯m not making a massive mistake. My genre senses tell me that I am, based on Fakeworld mythological logic, and I really should start listening to them more, but those senses worked fairly well on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas and on Rayileklia. It doesn¡¯t necessarily translate that they¡¯re as accurate in a place as weird as the ¡®Twixt. I shake my head at my own rationalization as I take one of the potions. The shopkeep mimes throwing it back like a shot of whiskey, and I grimace.


    I¡¯m not sure if I want to imbibe it in his presence, despite his guarantees. Then again, the ¡®Twixt could just put me inside the mouth of a giant monster that it creates around me. What does it get from screwing me the instant I start my journey here? Alright, down the hatch. Erk. I can¡¯t tell if that¡¯s pleasantly unpleasant, or unpleasantly pleasant. It¡¯s less a flavor, and more an emotion dancing across my tongue as it goes down. It carries a certain zing to it though, one that feels vaguely familiar, like I should know it from somewhere.


    Despite that, from what I can tell, it works its way into my nonexistent multidimensional gastric system, and seemingly likely does what it¡¯s supposed to, offering a refuel of the mana in my currently non-regenerative mana pools. I strive to focus and attempt to direct it specifically towards the Backpotter form¡¯s mana pool. Whether that worked or not, I can¡¯t check unless I get access to my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian menu interface. Scratching my head, I turn to leave the shop.


    As expected, the shopkeep interrupts my departure by querying, ¡°If that was to your satisfaction, wouldn¡¯t you like to buy another?¡±


    More than a little nervous, I respond, ¡°How much?¡±


    The number doesn¡¯t astound me too awfully much as the shopkeep answers, ¡°One hundred thousand.¡±


    Gnawing on my lip, I¡¯m starting to get the picture, so I ask, ¡°Of what currency?¡±


    A more-than-a-little evil grin spreads across the face of the shady shopkeep as he retorts, ¡°Why souls of course.¡±


    Despite wanting to run him through on the spot for the malicious seeming behavior, and equally suspicious intent, I ask for clarification, ¡°And by souls, do you mean the everliving essence of unique individuals that they each only have one of, or is it a word that correlates to something else here in the ¡®Twixt?¡±


    Shaking his head, the shopkeeper grimaces before offering a clarification, ¡°No no no, why of course not, how ever would you collect a hundred thousand of *those* souls? I¡¯d scarce be able to maintain my composure around someone capable of doing such a thing. Souls of course meaning the little floating currency your foes upon your adventures in the ¡®Twixt will leave upon their death in scads. You might also earn some in trade, or from various tasks and jobs.¡±


    Trying not to chuckle, I don¡¯t want to brag that I think it¡¯s entirely possible that I might end up harvesting or slaying very near a hundred thousand beings by the time we¡¯ve ended two of the apocalypses on Rayileklia. The draconic hordes of Terrorzin alone make up nearly enough, though I won¡¯t be responsible for slaying them all, and I¡¯d like to spare as many as I can. The Felgre hordes however are almost innumerable. Worse, I know of someone that I think has near or more than a hundred thousand of those souls already, the bastard.


    Regardless, sighing softly to myself, I apologize, ¡°I hadn¡¯t realized the currency of the land when you¡¯d invited me into your shop. You appear to know enough about the ¡®Twixt to understand I¡¯m entirely new here. I hope you won¡¯t hold it against me that I have none of the currency of which you speak. I¡¯m not averse to going on adventures to gather some however.¡±


    Turning to leave, I feel a shiver run down my spine as the shopkeep queries, ¡°Are you sure about that?¡±


    When I turn to answer, the Shopkeep is gone, and the stairwell leads to a cobblestone wall, rather than the tiny shop. Brr. Great creepy last words my dude, as Lil might say. Actually, who uses my dude? I forget which of my friends uses it. Maybe we all do at this point. Worse, the ambiguity of the words leaves me wondering if I¡¯m in possession of souls of one form or another that count as the currency here in the ¡®Twixt. Or the vaguely threatening hint that maybe I shouldn¡¯t be possibly okay with going on adventures to gather some. This place likes to play with you, remember that Reggie. I know, I know.


    Thankfully, we know that we can play back. Testing it out once again, my Latent grips at the edges of nothing, and the entire world around me seems to quake at the mere contact. I immediately loose my hold upon it. Yeah, if the ¡®Twixt decides to get a little too tricky, I suppose I¡¯ve got a weapon in reserve, as long as I don¡¯t run out of dragonforce between now and some point that I possibly need to rely on such an ace up my sleeve. Hm, aces up sleeves. Aces and eights up sleeves. Erm, better not. Can¡¯t follow random brain thought trails that lead to those memories and dreams without Luni around. Haven¡¯t had one in a long time anyway, so maybe all my conclusions were wrong, if I¡¯d even made any.


    Leaving the dingy alleyway, I arrive on a street that might be straight out of Oliver Twist. Out of who? What? Anyway. Where was I again? Nichtshire D¡¯locke? Wait. Nicht means nothing. Nothing town of the lock? Lock of nothing. Flip it. Key to everything? Sighing, I facepalm. The ¡®Twixt really does know how to screw with ya. Still, wouldn¡¯t that just beat all if this town really did contain all the answers to all those problems I¡¯m dealing with. What¡¯s, what¡¯s happening? I¡¯m being pulled in two different¡ª.


    Out of half my vision, I see Tiktik leaping at me to tackle me away from the portal, just now coming into contact with me in this paused instant. Out of the other half of my vision, I see the dreary streets of what could be old-London-town, Nichtshire D¡¯locke. My non-existent guts twist and cramp as my consciousness begins to sheer. I¡ª. I don¡¯t know if I can survive this. Will I be me? Will either half of me be me? Which half of me will I be? I feel like I¡¯m screaming in existential dread, in utter horror. I can¡¯t even tell though as my senses are so far beyond sensical at this point, they¡¯re nonsensical. I¡¯d probably facepalm at that if I weren¡¯t in sheer terror at the idea of being split into two me, not knowing which me I will be.

 B 6 C 151: Twixty-motions

    Focus Reggie, focus. Breathe air, breathe. Flex and loosen your muscles which have all spasmed and cramped in terror. On which body? Who knows. On all of them, one of them, whichever you have control over. Struggling against the split in my skull that¡¯s passing two entire realities into my brain, I grip and tug at the non, the nothing, the empty space. Surprisingly, Tiktik and I tumble into the ¡®Twixt as it rumbles and quakes hard enough to shake even the small cavern it¡¯s located in on Rayileklia, sending us toppling towards it.


    Returning to being a single entity as Tiktik plummets out of the sky towards me is a bit awkward, as I¡¯m still disoriented. I¡¯m further disoriented when I¡¯m nearly-flattened to the cobblestone path as I unwittingly catch Tiktik with my face. Please tell me we¡¯re not positioned how I think we¡¯re positioned.


    This could not be any more cliche. Could it? Wait, don¡¯t tempt fate. Mumbling, muffled from between Tiktik¡¯s legs, I ask, ¡°Coof oo geh off pfeef, Kiheh?¡±


    Thankfully Tiktik understands I asked, ¡°Could you get off please, Kitten?¡± and is kind enough to not rub our precarious position in my face, figuratively or literally. I mean, well, not that I¡¯d, y¡¯know, be all that upset¡ª. Erm. We¡¯re¡ª we definitely love each other, and that sort of thing isn¡¯t necessarily out of the question for either of us as far as the other is concerned as a partner, but now is not the time. There is however a strangely warm pressure building around the edges of my skull, that I would like to be able to pass off as simply blush, but it feels more like it¡¯s emanating from the base of my horns. Horns which of course, Tiktik grips to help steady herself as she stands off of me.


    Struggling to fight a sudden spasm, I vibrate momentarily while Tiktik¡¯s grip and weight are on my horns, before rattling my skull after Tiktik dismounts my face. She suddenly exclaims in a rapid barrage of questions, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me you could go into the ¡®Twixt Tiger!? We coulda been adventure pals, and brought in like a whole party between the two of us! Oh, where the heckydoodle is this place? This isn¡¯t my town. How long before me did you get here?¡±


    Chuckling and rolling my eyes, I answer, ¡°I didn¡¯t know until it happened, somehow I existed both in the ¡®Twixt, and in reality simultaneously, but I think several hours passed in here in the split second it took for you to jump at me. Nicthshire D¡¯Locke here sprung up around me, from literal nothing. Nothing which I seem to be able to touch by the way. I mean, when it¡¯s nothing, but also when it¡¯s not. Argh, that makes no sense. My Latent, a native affinity, an ability of mine is one word, Nothing. My Honoris Causa, that¡¯s my dragon form, is a Void Dragon, and it reached a new Caliber when we took out Qlaxianna, which somehow allows me to express control over my Latent in new ways, using my dragonforce. The energy that¡¯s keeping my heart safe and alive.¡±


    Rubbing the back of my head, chagrined, I realize I look a bit like a demon parading around with an imp, with our current appearances. I also feel a bit bad that Tiktik is technically sort of stranded here with me. At least we know we won¡¯t miss out on a lot of action, since the timeflow in the ¡®Twixt is¡ª. Wait. Temporal zones¡ª. Nope, stop, stop, stop, no brain exploding. Lu isn¡¯t here, so you¡¯ve got to remind yourself. Back on track. However long our adventures last in here, not too awfully long should pass back on Rayileklia is the point. If the ¡®Twixt decides to try to screw with us by reversing that, I will absolutely obliterate this place.


    Glancing around, I see an intersection that must meet a town square, which should lead to a main thoroughfare. Flicking my head that way, Tiktik agrees, and jubilantly bounces along beside me, skipping in delight. I¡¯m¡ª. I¡¯m happy. All of a sudden, I get to see this wonderful, beloved friend of mine being her cheerful, zany self. It¡¯s one of the things that I desperately wanted during my Rayileklian journey. We do exit out little side-street towards the town square in short order, joyously I might add.


    From virtually nowhere, one teenage-seeming punk asks another, ¡°Hey is that Thundernut Clocktok?¡±


    I blink rapidly as I can barely parse what I heard in order to ask, ¡°Thunder?¡± I pause as my face contorts several different ways rather strenuously. I try to control my raised brow as I glance to Tiktik before continuing, ¡°Nut?¡±


    Giggling, Tiktik grabs my hand and drags me along while responding, ¡°Funny story for another time, come on, we¡¯ve gotta get you up to speed buster. Tiger, you¡¯re gonna love it here! You and that big ol¡¯ adventure spirit of yours. If you get some time off later, you should come back again with big T, and we could do a whole party, with um, you two I guess could enter on your own, since you can get in here. I guess. I guess. I guess you don¡¯t really need me.¡±


    It¡¯s easy to sense that Tiktik begins to feel dejected by her own conclusion as her voice and even her adorable pointy ears droop. I quickly interject to reassure her, ¡°Hey now Kitten, don¡¯t even think like that. Whether or not need was a thing, I want you. I want you at my side. I want you in my arms. I want us to be adventuring buddies, partners. I¡¯d only come back here to do this with you, I¡¯d never leave you out.¡±


    Sniffling myself now, since Tiktik¡¯s partially crying, I add, ¡°Hell, if it weren¡¯t so important to guard the refugees, I¡¯d absolutely beg you to come back to Mount Solace with me and the Triple L Squad. I love, love, love, love the hell out of you, and miss you to bits. Or miss you like hell, and love you to bits. Whichever sounds better. You¡¯re my Kitten. If we ever have to go into the ¡®Twixt without you, I¡¯d try to find a way to get to you as soon as possible so that I could make it up to you.¡±


    Trying to regain my composure, I return to a previous topic, ¡°Anyway, about that nickname. How could anyone know you from your time adventuring in other towns, here in a town that didn¡¯t exist until a few minutes ago?¡±


    Kitten sniffles once more, before wiping her nose on her sleeve and grinning my way. While turning towards someone else, she answers over her shoulder, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, here, check this.¡± She then addresses the man she¡¯s facing, ¡°Hey chief, gimme the deets on the scrubs.¡±


    Sizing Tiktik up and down, the portly fellow with an impressive moustache that Tiktik had addressed offers up, ¡°Chump change bountygal. Loitering, misdemeanors. Nothin¡¯ big enough for one like you in a few years ¡®round these parts. Could sell you the scoop on the wider market if y¡¯like though. A few dozen souls.¡±


    Tiktik scratches her brow as she fishes around in midair, her hand disappearing into her invisible hyperdimensional handysack. She drags out several copper disks and a few silver disks that appear to be regular coins. She asks, ¡°Souls are what we¡¯re calling ¡®em in this town? Sure thing pops. What¡¯s the sitch worldwide?¡±


    Was the ¡®Twixt trolling me about the coins and souls business? Those seriously look like any regular old Rayileklian copper and silver coins. Or is Tiktik pranking me right now?


    ¡°Pops¡± accepts Tiktik¡¯s coins, but holds up a hand as he responds, ¡°Worldwide¡¯s a bit more, and I don¡¯t even have it to sell honestly. These parts though, Klangen Rackhoof¡¯s somewhere in the country, big price on his head. Jermaine Jivonnyah¡¯s around too, another fair cop. Those two are the biggest, some nasty biz that they¡¯ve been into lately. Destruction of lives and towns. Different ones. I¡¯d shudder to think what they could do if they met up and decided to work together. A few big-time bandits and killers running around too. Not the same challenge, danger, or pay, but still. Here¡¯s the scribs.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow at the term, I realize it¡¯s simply short for scribbles, as ¡°Pops¡± offers Tiktik several wanted-poster looking dossiers with hand-drawn portraits. Glancing over Tiktik¡¯s shoulder, I¡¯m able to read the dossier-posters with her. Wait, Klangen Rackhoof is a minotaur that wears heavy plate, making a distinctive racket as he approaches a town to demolish it? Jermaine Jivonnyah¡¯s a woman who stabs basically everyone in her path? Shiv on ya? Oh for crying out loud¡¯s crap¡¯s sakes. Who¡¯s the next bounty sheet in the list, Amanda¡ª?


    Straight-faced, Tiktik interrupts my thoughts as she responds, ¡°Nah, I already caught Huggenkiss unless she broke out. I don¡¯t see news about it in the scribs tho.¡±


    I cannot tell whether or not I¡¯m being screwed with here, by either Tiktik or the ¡®Twixt, or both. While my face is wildly contorted, Tiktik jokes, ¡°Hey, your face is gonna get stuck like that.¡± At least, I hope she¡¯s joking. Who knows when it comes to the ¡®Twixt?


    Sighing, I allow myself to smile slightly while shaking my head incredulously. Despite having fun with someone I utterly adore, I need to figure things out, so I ask, ¡°Hey Kitten? How do we get out?¡±


    Guilt gnaws away at me as Tiktik turns to me with wide wet eyes to ask, ¡°Awe, Tiger, why so rushed? Don¡¯t you,¡± she pauses to sniffle before finishing, ¡°want to adventure with me any more?¡±


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Trying not to suddenly burst into tears, it¡¯s difficult to maintain my composure as I answer, ¡°Oh Kitten, sweetie, gods I do, of course I do, I¡ª¡°


    Pouting at me, with her bottom lip quivering, Tiktik pleads, ¡°Then why not do some adventuring here since almost no time passes outside, and we¡¯re already here?¡±


    Gulping back guilt and sadness, I offer up, ¡°Kitten, I, I¡¯d never want to leave. I love you. I absolutely fully love you. I¡¯d want to grow old in here with you, to spend a lifetime with you. I¡¯m ageless, I can¡¯t grow old, and my lifetime is infinite. I would never leave.¡±


    Dejectedly, Tiktik almost pleads, ¡°But what¡¯s wrong with maybe a couple centuries together Tiger? We could stop whenever we wanted, right?¡±


    Her question twists like a dagger in my heart. Could I allow myself to have a full lifetime of experiences without Te, Lucky, Lu, or Lil, when we¡¯d promised to not leave each other behind for long periods again? On the other hand, can I deny a lifetime with this amazing, charming, funny, brilliant, vibrant, vivacious, beautiful woman who was with me during one of my life¡¯s most difficult journeys? A lifetime that Tiktik is right, has almost no consequences to spend together, so long as we leave before eons pass.


    There¡¯s one consequence though. Memories. I could begin losing them, or have them overwritten. I¡¯m vaguely aware of it having happened already. Similarly, the longer I¡¯m away from Luni, the more likely my brain accidentally guesses at the thing that makes it literally explode. Lu¡¯s been protecting me from that for apparently two lifetimes already, and those were short ones! I can¡¯t imagine not accidentally stumbling arse-first into the minefield of broken mirrors in an actual century.


    This is breaking my heart, shattering it to pieces. I could, and would give hundreds of years over to loving Tiktik in a heartbeat, and I still might do just that without paying heed to the possible consequences. Who knows if the ¡®Twixt stays operating by relatively the same rules during that whole time though? I¡¯m not sure I can risk it, especially with the threat of my brain literally exploding hanging over my head.


    As she follows along with my mental narrative, Tiktik looks as sad as I¡¯ve ever seen her. She grumps at me, pushes on me slightly in a half-hearted shove attempt, and runs away, tears streaming behind her. I choke on my emotions as my own tears swiftly go from stream, to river, to cascading falls. Stumbling blindly in the direction Tiktik headed, unable to see through my own tears, I do my best to track the sound of her sobs and sniffles.


    As I approach what must be a dead end alleyway by the echoes of Tiktik¡¯s sobs, I hear her shout at me, ¡°Go away, just go on then!¡±


    It hurts so badly to hear her say that, though I know she doesn¡¯t mean it. She¡¯s hurting exactly because she¡¯s worried I¡¯m going to just go away. I can¡¯t approach though. I respect her, and everything about her. She made a request of me, an order. I¡¯m torn. I never wanted to hurt Tiktik. I don¡¯t want to hurt or disrespect her or her wishes at any point. I don¡¯t know the right thing to do here.


    Growling between sobs, she calls out, ¡°Figure,¡± she pauses to sniffle, ¡°it out somewhere else!¡±


    Bawling my eyes out, I turn, in order to adhere to Tiktik¡¯s request. I can sense her lift her hand after me, and her lips quivering as she struggles to call out for me to stop. I¡¯m frozen in my tracks. I want to give her everything. Anything she asks for, from now until the end of time. I can¡¯t both stay and go though. She didn¡¯t ask for me to stay though, so I¡ª. I gulp, admitting to myself that Tiktik told me to go, twice. I¡¯d break if she repeated it a third time.


    Her voice cracking, Tiktik interrupts me as I lean forward to begin sprinting away, ¡°P,please don¡¯t. I¡¯m sorry Tiger,¡± I fall flat on my face, having lifted my leg and begun shifting my weight, which earns a half giggle from Tiktik as she apologizes again, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. It hurt so much to be alone, and it feels so much like no one wants to stay with me, to have fun with me. Littlebit hates me, and now I think I¡¯m making you hate me too. If you hate me, Big T will hate me. Please, please, please don¡¯t hate me, please.¡±


    My eyes flood with further tears at Tiktik¡¯s plea. My lip, no, my entire lower jaw quivers as I struggle to respond, ¡°Kitten, I¡¯d never, could never, ever hate you. I love you. I love you so much it hurts. You know about the times when my brain was doing a thing, right? Where I thought about something, and suddenly my brain started bleeding or whatever? That¡¯s still a risk, including one that kills me. At least until I find my cure, I think, maybe even after. Plus, I guess I have no idea how long my dragonforce will last in here, with the acceleration and possible accidental uses of my Latent or whatnot.¡±


    Growling again, Tiktik almost whines, ¡°Then go already! Wait, I¡¯m sorry. I know you¡¯re giving good reasons. Tiger I missed you so much. I thought you might die, and I might never see you again. I thought Big T might die of a broken heart, somewhere fighting off apocalypses. I don¡¯t want to be alone. I, I know I could maybe be with someone in the refugees, but they aren¡¯t you Tiger, or Big T, or Littlebit. I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t give my heart to anyone else any more. It hurts so much that they all leave me. You all left me, and you always will.¡±


    I¡¯m weeping into the cold cobblestone path of the alleyway, still laying face down upon the stones. I know those fears, those feelings. They eat me alive if I¡¯m without at least someone from my inner circle for more than a few days, someone that I¡¯ve given my heart to. Gods I want to rush to Tiktik so badly, but between her telling me to go every few seconds, my heart feels torn in shreds about whether that might even be an okay thing to do.


    Hearing her sob, I can¡¯t stand being apart any longer, when I could have her in my arms to be comforting her. If she hates me for going against her wishes, then I¡¯ll accept whatever she says next. Floating myself up, I flip around and kick off into a TKSL towards my beloved impish Kitten. Startling her somewhat, I wrap her up in my arms, and she nestles in, slowly crying herself to sleep.


    With as emotionally exhausting as this episode was, I feel like I could use a sleep as well. I carry Tiktik cradled against me as I wander Nicht-whatevertown. Seeking an inn, I find both an inn, and a town exit towards the countryside. Rolling my eyes at the name of the inn, ¡°Ze Roost,¡± I enter, trying not to shake my head incredulously at the ¡®Twixt. Really ¡®Twixt. Zero in the name of the inn, in a town whose name includes the word for nothing? That¡¯s not a little too on the nose? Actually, don¡¯t change a thing. I¡¯m being snarky, but I kind of love it. It¡¯s like a little private in-joke of the whole world, just for me.


    Worried that my coinage might not be considered the appropriate currency, despite Tiktik¡¯s coins appearing to be almost exactly the same, I scan a job-board along the wall near the door. Of course. Rats in the basement of the local inn. I can¡¯t help laughing, rolling my eyes and shaking my head. I give up. It¡¯s funny, and it¡¯s cute. Sure it¡¯s cliche, but who gives a rat¡¯s ass? Hah, I guess I¡¯ll be giving some, since they want the tails as proof.


    Snirking, I¡¯d facepalm, but I¡¯m carrying Tiktik in one arm as I sift through the bounties and jobs with the other. I suppose I could facepalm if I wanted to, I have options. I snag the job posting telekinetically, and hand it to the innkeep before being directed towards the basement. I continue imagining ways I could facepalm while I dump out Chuck¡¯s cocain-laced cheese as bait.


    Drawing Frostburn, I¡¯m surprised at how difficult it is to see down here. I suppose I could cast some light with my archsorc staff and just wield Frostburn telekineti¡ª. Those are some big rats. That is a very unusual size for a rodent. How many stairs did I go down to get into this basement that the ceiling is like forty feet above me, with rodents nearly as tall? Holy crap they¡¯re fast!


    Okay, so, the ¡®Twixt isn¡¯t really pulling any punches at the moment. I¡¯m about to be drawn and quartered by enormous rats that are dozens of feet in size each. Thankfully, they¡¯re averse to pain, and not very durable. I really don¡¯t need even more injuries to recover from. If the ¡®Twixt works like the orb time, you can¡¯t exactly recover physical health in the orb, at least not the broken bones, ruptured organs, and the like. You return exactly as you went in, or worse if you got roughed up or more exhausted or whatnot within. I think, unless I was missing details and misinterpreting things. I suppose my zero state, or full state, are determined at my point of entry, maybe.


    I should be paying a bit more attention, and maybe should have put Tiktik down somewhere, now I¡¯m keeping her close to my chest with one telekinetic grip, while another aids me in mobility, and another wields Frostburn for me, hacking at various paws and snouts. My fourth grip is being a multi-purpose shield at the moment, mostly being used in order to slightly angle the rats¡¯ rushes so that it takes less effort to dodge them. I don¡¯t want to try to block their attacks head on, because they¡¯re powerful enough to shatter my psi-shields, my TK Squares.


    Despite it being fairly harrowing for a few moments, it doesn¡¯t take long to subdue the mighty menaces between Frostburn, and my holy halefire double-barreled wrist-mounted crossbow. The new bolts are hilariously effective against things as squishy as giant rats. Too bad I only have a few of them per day. I should have been keeping track of what they do. Hitting the buttons, I let them regenerate inside the quiver, figuring I¡¯ll deal with them later. It seems the regeneration utilization of the crossbow bolts is used up for the day now though. One set per day, hm.


    Feeling a little awkward, and kind of mean for doing it, I slice off the tails of the giant creatures. This apparently causes the corpses themselves to mysteriously poof a few moments later, leaving behind several coins, and small bits of useless junk, like whiskers or rodent meat. I guess it couldn¡¯t hurt to collect it.


    Tiktik alternates between sniffling and snoozing, so I speed along to turn in my ¡°quest¡± completion proof to get some additional ¡°souls¡± as rewards. I use the quest reward in order to pay for room and board for the night, and there isn¡¯t much left over, but I wasn¡¯t expecting a lot. I feel like it would be more appropriate to pay for two rooms. Yet I also feel that, if Tiktik awoke in a bed alone, that it could shatter her heart into a million pieces right now. Hell, mine would be shattered if I woke up alone in a bed right now after all those emotions.


    I¡¯m not sure what Tiktik prefers to wear to bed, when she finally has an actual bed to sleep in. We never got the chance when we were adventuring together before. I don¡¯t know if I should help her out of her armor beneath her robes or not. Setting my Kitten softly into the bed, I turn back towards some bags that I¡¯ve left by the door in order to begin divesting my equipment. I do it because I want to both get a bit more comfortable, and be a better cuddling partner for the night. When I turn back towards the bed, my jaw drops and I nearly topple over. My vision goes blurry and crosses several times, and I blink rapidly in order to try to see straight. My heart is hammering, racing as I struggle to not stare at the one location on the bed containing the beautiful sight before me.

 B 6 C 152: Twixt Here and Heart

    Despite our mutterings in the cool dead of night, the promises we¡¯d already made to each other, Tiktik pleads once more, ¡°Could, could we maybe, just maybe have a few days, like a week together, to last me until I get to see you again? Or at the very least, a weekend? Please Tiger?¡±


    The guilt twisting my heart like a knife is too strong to resist as I acquiesce once again, perhaps having to reassure Tiktik that what I said in the dead of night wasn¡¯t just false pillow-talk, ¡°A whole week Kitten. Six more days. I¡¯m honored to get to spend them with you. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m not recovering mana, or even SP, from sleeping in here, nor is my body regenerating, but as long as we¡¯re careful, it shouldn¡¯t affect my ability to get back to the war when we leave. I¡¯m surprised you were able to adventure so much, for so long. Did you have to return to the Hidden Heart to sleep to get your SP pools back?¡±


    Scrunching her adorably upturned nose while furrowing her brow curiously, Tiktik shakes her head while responding, ¡°No, I got my SP and everything back every night. Well, I mean, I always went in with it full. I mean, I wasn¡¯t even a sorceress of much of any power when I first started going in. Like I said, I¡¯ve been adventuring for decades, maybe a couple centuries. Do you think that mattered?¡±


    Nodding, since I¡¯d figured about as much, I answer, ¡°Yeah. Yeah I¡¯m pretty sure you can only recover up to as well as when you entered the ¡®Twixt. Something prevents you from abusing it to speed up healing, or doing heavy muscular activity, or a few things like that. Things that it would take you normally a while to recover from. I¡¯m not sure the exact reasonings, or exact rules, but I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ve got about the basics of it down. Then again, it might be because my ¡®Twixt is new, and being generated. Maybe I can¡¯t use it as a method to heal, or really recover in it until it has been around for a few decades? Ah well, I¡¯m just making wild mass guesses. Come on Kitten, how about some breakfast? Do you want me to bring it to you in bed?¡±


    Her eyes go wide as her mouth forms a moue before asking, ¡°Really?!¡±


    Smiling and nodding, I gear up and begin to head towards the door as I let Tiktik luxuriate in bed for a while longer yet. They¡¯re amazingly comfortable beds, and I figured she could use a bit more rest after both our emotional turmoil of yesterday, and the, erm, physical toil of, ah, heh, well, y¡¯know. As I¡¯m closing the door to our room, I hear her playfully, quietly yell out, ¡°See if they have muffins!¡±


    Approaching what seems to be more or less a continental breakfast buffet shelf, and muffin rack, I glance around for signage. Thankfully it appears to be all-you-can-eat for the breakfast buffet for those who¡¯ve paid for room and board. Returning to our room with a platter loaded with food, especially muffins, I¡¯m only slightly surprised to see Tiktik¡¯s current state of attire. I raise an eyebrow, and my quirky Kitten grins mischievously. Rolling my eyes, I set the tray aside for a while.


    After another fair while of making our quiet promises to each other, bonding and doing our best to heal the hurts that have been formed by absence, we begin eating breakfast together. Or at least try to. I close my eyes and sigh, trying not to roll my eyes or shake my head as I find my ear being nommed on. Wearing a wry grin, I comment, ¡°You know, you¡¯ve literally got muffins right there.¡±


    It takes quite a lot of willpower to not burst out laughing as Tiktik tries to say, ¡°But you¡¯re the best muffin, muffin,¡± into my ear, while her lips and teeth are wrapped around it. Mostly because it comes out, ¡°muh err ve meft mfm mfm.¡±


    Suddenly, despite having eaten very little, Tiktik shoots up, extremely alert as she announces, ¡°Le gasp! Look at the time! It¡¯s already prank o¡¯clock!¡±


    As Tiktik attempts to leap off the bed, to no doubt prank some hapless bystander, I snag her in my arms mid-leap. In my embrace, she bemoans in a long drone, ¡°Must prank.¡±


    Feeling bad, since I know it¡¯s fairly likely a compulsion with Tiktik, I free her of my grip, which leaves her pouting as she glances back and forth between me and the door. It looks like she¡¯s about to tear her hair out as she virtually vibrates while trying to fight herself. After a few moments though, Tiktik rapidly fires off, ¡°KaykaythankyouTigerloveyouseeyouinafewminutesberightbackstayrighthereplease.¡±


    I¡¯m left blinking several times as I try to parse what Tiktik said that she¡¯d squashed into a single breath, with no spaces between syllables. Shaking my head, I smile as she rushes off to set up her regularly scheduled pranking. Laying back on the bed, I yawn and roll my muscles, stretching slowly, enjoying the softness and warmth of the bed in a way I wasn¡¯t able to do last night. At least, I wasn¡¯t able to do it very much. We¡¯d been laying awake talking for a long, long while, before falling asleep in each other¡¯s arms. Unintentionally I begin to let myself doze.


    Awakening to Tiktik yelling out a saddened moan of, ¡°Tiiiiger, open up, let me innnnn,¡± I¡¯m a bit abashed, realizing that apparently Tiktik didn¡¯t take the key with her, and apparently the doors lock automatically in a way that¡¯s nearly impenetrable.


    As I quickly gather my wits, I rush to the door to open it for Kitten, who lunges at me immediately upon its opening. We¡¯d probably go tumbling if I didn¡¯t catch us both in telekinetic grips as Tiktik kicks the door closed behind us. Rolling my eyes, I try not to act like a jerk as a smile fights its way across my face. Apparently Tiktik wants a snuggly little nap, and some breakfast, before we actually get around to doing anything. I can¡¯t say I¡¯m averse to it, or the rest of the, erm, benefits that come with it. The evil smirk I get from Tiktik is clue enough for me to shut my mind off again for a little bit.


    After some finesse, Tiktik agrees to show me a bit more about how the ¡®Twixt works. We manage to get me set up bound at a citystone, and complete a ¡°quest¡± to acquire the means to return to it at virtually any time, almost. They¡¯re magic items bound to the ¡®Twixt that remain here when leaving that let us navigate to the citystone. They have an hour long casting time of course. That does end up meaning you really have to be in a safe location, or be able to concentrate for an hour, whatever you¡¯re doing. It is incredibly video-gamey. Then again, maybe video-gameyness is based on something like this? Ugh, why am I even comparing Fakeworld to the magic of the ¡®Twixt?


    Apparently, regular coins do work here, but any coins obtained here that my town calls souls, won¡¯t leave the ¡®Twixt with me. But at least they¡¯ll be in any container I used if I bring the same container back, or if I leave one here. I¡¯m a tad leary, wary of the fact that the ¡®Twixt trolled me with the name for coins in this town.


    Gnawing on my cheek, I ask Tiktik, ¡°Is there a way that we could generate another town? One that can¡¯t really get to this town? Or like, a mini demiplane, or transdimensional storage vault or something?¡±


    Tapping her chin, gazing skyward ponderously, Tiktik shrugs before offering up, ¡°Not entirely sure if I¡¯m understanding what you need. It depends on what you need it for. What¡¯s up Tiger? Is this that security thing you needed for the present you wanted to give the refugees?¡±


    Nodding, I¡¯m forced to clarify, ¡°Yeah, that, and I¡¯ve got all those prisoners inside me. Two separate places, that can¡¯t interact with each other, would be the most ideal. I don¡¯t exactly want to let a bunch of powerful Spellknights loose in a realm where they can train up their magic and become stronger and whatever else they might be able to do, but if they can never get out without a Fae, and never get to the asset I want to deploy, it won¡¯t matter too much.¡±


    Grinning like a goon, Tiktik bobs her head aggressively in confirmation before responding, ¡°Yeah, yeah I think I can do something about that. Have I got a magnificent mansion for you to see! Boy howdy buster! Hehe, I suppose I could have saved us the price of an inn stay or two, but what¡¯s the fun in robbing you of the experience? Ah, an-,anyways. So, well, if we start traveling, looking for a city that¡¯s like, a prison city, or guarded city, or something, one is bound to spring up, literally.¡±


    More than a tad abashed, she continues explaining, ¡°We can let your, um, friends out there. I have no idea how you¡¯re going to do that. If it¡¯s like when you and Big T were reaching out to your homeworld powers, I can¡¯t even imagine what that¡¯s going to do to you with dozens or hundreds of people coming out of you. Just, just please be okay? Okay? So, um, anyway, come on Tiger, let¡¯s go!¡±


    Plenty happy to be journeying with a once-more jubilant Tiktik, she and I set out across the countryside, accepting several jobs posted on crossroads signs and the like. Most of them sound fairly simple, routing wild animals that have taken over a barn, clearing out an aqueduct bypass, or even defending a town from a war party of rampaging orcs. Each time though, the creatures are far more powerful than you¡¯d expect for such banal, entry-level quests. We aren¡¯t in awfully too much danger, but the rewards aren¡¯t so great either, though they are scaling up faster and faster the further we get from town.


    Of course, every quest related person we meet, Tiktik has to introduce herself to in her adorably silly fashion. She also has to pull at least two pranks a day, and thankfully they¡¯re not all directed at me. Though having fun, Tiktik¡¯s constantly on the lookout for Bizzenblade, which worries me. If some semi-omnipotent sentient weapon comes seeking her and her soul, I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m fast enough or powerful enough to stop it. Of course, that¡¯s one more reason for us to not spend centuries together in the ¡®Twixt just yet.


    Plus, none of my resources are recovering at all in the ¡®Twixt. Not the charge in my magical items, nothing. Well, perhaps there might be some things that I¡¯m not noticing that are acquiring some sort of lessened ambient mana or something. We do have to remember that my ¡®Twixt realm has only *just* been created, from almost nothing, which likely means it¡¯s not very mana-rich yet, or at all. It¡¯s still expanding, constantly. Maybe if we stayed in place for a few weeks, months, or years, the ¡®Twixt could build up residual and ambient mana for the locations I frequent, but we don¡¯t have that luxury.


    Besides, I have a feeling that if I found a way to abuse the ¡®Twixt and cheat in order to gain advantages like I did with the orb, the ¡®Twixt would find a way to cheat me back, and negate the progress, possibly even sending me further back. Hell, for all I know, the orb could have been a gateway to the ¡®Twixt, and it¡¯s pissed at me for abusing it which might have led to the trolling, and lack of even basic recovery. My bruises aren¡¯t healing, and my bones aren¡¯t mending, at least, not noticeably at the rate I¡¯m expected to with my regeneration. Plus, I think I¡¯ve got deeper internal contusions. It makes adventuring a tad bit painful, which I think the ¡®Twixt might just be delighting in. That possible sadistic joy might even be why I¡¯m not recovering in the physical manner.


    Even simple activities freshly spawned for me are scaled up massively in power or size. As much as Tiktik thinks it¡¯d be fun to chase a big bounty together, I don¡¯t think I want her chasing any of the bounties from my town. I know she¡¯s incredibly powerful, and can take care of herself, but if those things are scaled off of our combined abilities, I¡¯m afraid she¡¯d be in over her head, especially if I couldn¡¯t keep up with her tracking abilities. I¡¯m terrified of the idea of something that¡¯s got the combined strength of a supposed challenge for her, with things that are supposed to be challenging for me. The things that challenge me these days are creatures like the Damnations, or phylactery-empowered hellfire-skeleton-bombing Spellknight-liches.


    When an ocean virtually springs up in front of us, I¡¯m pretty sure I get the idea of how the ¡®Twixt is going to help us. When there¡¯s a job-posting to rescue an ex-pirate from sahuagin, with the reward being a, ¡°kraken-proof-sailboat,¡± I¡¯m fairly certain I know what¡¯s next. Tiktik and I rush off to save the poor man. We¡¯re accompanied by the target¡¯s wife, a burly, older sailor lass by the name of Brunhild. The woman appears to be in her late sixties, and still quite fierce, but she¡¯s essentially a reckless escort NPC that we have to keep safe against the spell-slinging sahuagin.


    Reuniting Brunhild with Ziegdrif, her husband, earns us their ¡°kraken-proof-sailboat,¡± stationed at the nearby pier. Tiktik is downright giddy as she switches over to nautical speak and piratical accents, ¡°Avast lad or lass, shiver me timbers we arrrrr going to set sail o¡¯er the briny deep, past Davy Jones locker. Ahoy me hearty Tiger, hoist the mainsails, strike the yardarm, boon the jib, and other such things!¡±


    Snorting with laughter, I can¡¯t get enough of my goonish, goofy friend. Sighing contentedly, I watch her struggling to figure out how to sail the ship. Oddly enough, some of what she said is correct, but I¡¯m busy studying a map that is stationed within the tiny covered helm, near its three seats. Shivers run down my spine, when a massive circle of the sea simply says, ¡°Here there be krakens.¡±


    It doesn¡¯t take a genius to see that the ¡®Twixt is herding us towards the kraken-circle center. Setting sail isn¡¯t too difficult an affair, with my Fakeworld genre senses. Navigating I can actually leave up to Tiktik, since she¡¯s better with a sextant, and that isn¡¯t a euphemism. Though, come to think of it, she¡¯s probably better with that too. I don¡¯t even want to picture what a sex tent might be though.


    Several hours of sailing across the sea lead us to what feels like hell on blue water. Colossal, massive tentacles thrash about everywhere. Stormclouds thunder and crack with lightning incessantly, and the sea itself roils, tossing what seem like mile high waves at us, one after another. Thankfully, there¡¯s truth in advertising, and the ship seems to be enchanted to repel the waves, the tentacles, and even the odd lightning strike or two. There¡¯s a sphere of safety around the ship that barely perfectly encapsulates the whole thing. My heart is racing a mile a minute as it takes us what seems like days, but is at minimum about an hour of sailing through such treacherous waters before we return to reasonably calm seas in the center of the ring of krakens. It might have taken a lot longer. It was hard to tell, because I think I held my breath almost the entire time, taking only a deep breath when I ran out on occasion.


    The shining beacon of a seemingly floating island of wonder is like gazing upon a miracle, or mystery of the ancient world. A near-continental sized landmass floats above the central region of this sea, though only slightly, and it¡¯s covered in a massive translucent blue dome. The blue coloration might not actually be the dome, but rather the clear skies above it. It¡¯s hard to tell from our angle. Anyway¡ª.


    There¡¯s a pier, and what look to be floating steps that will lead up to a landing, high up on a shelf which contains a path to the city proper. Docking our sailboat, Tiktik and I carefully hop, climb, levitate, and fly our way up the floating steps. As we carefully scale the rocky terrain towards the city-proper, Tiktik seems more giddy by the moment. When some of the buildings begin to come into view as we¡¯re cresting a final rise, I¡¯d swear Tiktik was about to burst.


    Hugging me tightly, Tiktik exclaims, ¡°Your ¡®Twixt is the best ¡®Twixt! It¡¯s so crazy adventurous! Thank you for sharing this with me Tiger. This place is amazing! Look at that, oo and that, and that. Oh look over there! Oh I could have soooo much fun pranking those guys! You better bet your muster buster. Look they look so stuffy, like border guards or something. I¡¯ma go do that!¡±


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    W¡ªwait. Crap. Hah. It¡¯s impossible to fight the smile spread across my face, as I watch Tiktik do her usual greeting, somehow finagling even completely stoic guards into shaking her hand, resulting in the whoopee cushion gag. Twice, right next to each other. She is right though, this place is like some sort of Laputian wonder of a long lost bygone civilization of the ancient world. It¡¯s definitely amazing, and crazy-adventure-filled. Hell, I bet there¡¯s plenty of secrets to discover just in this section of this city on this island alone.


    Runic technology or something that¡¯s indistinguishable from unknowable magics are intertwined in every facet of all of the architecture. It looks honestly like a bit of a paradise. I do however feel almost certain that a place like this, in the ¡®Twixt, is what you make of it. If you live well, happily, and peacefully, it could very well be a paradise. If instead, you¡¯re warlike, constantly trying to ¡°escape,¡± or harm or subjugate others, it could turn hellish pretty quickly.


    None of the residents care as we ask if we can drop off several hundred newcomers. Shrugging, I begin engaging my Backpotter form as we explore this island in the sky. Its base is barely above sea-level, but it must have been a mile of climbing floating steps to reach the first landing, and then another mile of twisting paths up a rocky cliffside to reach the city itself. Tiktik jubilantly rushes from location to location, greeting denizens and marveling at every last spectacle or oddity. It¡¯s so amazing to see her precious joy and sense of wonder. My smile becomes tender as I sigh contentedly once more.


    When I reach what I can sense is essentially a naturally respawning mining system dug into the core of the island, I grin more intensely, knowing this is the right place to free the Draconiacs. They can harvest their own mineral food. The ¡®Twixt will probably provide them custom tailored jobs or something, allowing them to earn income, on top of the citizenry here allowing them to mine for their daily needs or their lavish wants. What I wouldn¡¯t give to be able to just bring every peace loving person here, from both worlds. That would take several millenia though. If I even could convince and gather and transport people to the ¡®Twixt one at a time from around both worlds, then navigate the regions to sail them through kraken infested waters to get here.


    Querying, I poke Tiktik in the arm, ¡°Kitten? If we don¡¯t tell the Draconiacs that this is the ¡®Twixt, will the ¡®Twixt keep it secret for us? The less they know about their situation, the less they¡¯re likely to be able to try to escape, or even want to.¡±


    Pontificating, wearing a thoughtful expression, Tiktik takes a moment to think before shrugging and guessing, ¡°Maybe. Not sure. Never really been done before, ya dig? Only don¡¯t, because you¡¯ll get dirty.¡±


    Snirking and rolling my eyes, I shrug as well, having figured about as much on my own. When my Backpotter form manifests, Tiktik giddily lunges at it, and climbs my soft furry features to nuzzle whatever parts of me she can reach. She squeals with further delight when I double in size via my archsorc staff. When I begin to unzip my chest, my Kitten marvels at my internals being revealed to be voidspace. Testingly, I attempt to draw Big-O¡¯Keul from my internal inventory space, but, surprisingly, I can¡¯t lift it out, and I can¡¯t get leverage on it to find some other way to slide it out.


    That¡¯s unfortunate. I won¡¯t be able to place it anywhere until I either risk bleeding light and life, or return to my normal connection with my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers. Since I can¡¯t pull out Big-O¡¯Keul, I instead start by pulling out the statue of Zelshiz, carefully, and setting it down next to Tiktik. Loading Tiktik up with a heaping helping of diamonds and diamond dust, her eyes sparkle at the vast wealth of gems and material, but she quickly gets to work using her moderate cureall upon Zelshiz.


    I could weep as my emotions lodge in my throat, when Zelshiz, screaming in terror, returns to life. She, or he paws and claws at herself, or himself, and gazes around in wild-eyed terror that becomes wide-eyed wonder. I owe her or him a bunch of explanations, but I might as well retrieve their comrades first. Some of them could use medical attention, for sure.


    Still, it¡¯s easy enough to begin grabbing, and dumping out a horde of Draconiac Spellknights, all in their skivvies. Is there anything I should provide them with other than info? Nah, I mean, other than getting some locals to offer them some medical aid anyway. It¡¯s relatively easy to request help from these peace-loving Laputian residents. Thankfully, at least for right now, no one from Vorzog¡¯s Keep is dumb enough to start any trouble while their allies still require healing and help.


    I call out, ¡°Welcome back everybody. Yes, it¡¯s me, Schism, still. I¡¯m sorry to put you through that, but I¡¯ve brought you to a place that can be a paradise for you, if you choose it to be. The people here are peaceful, the land itself protected, and plentiful. Far more than you could imagine. It is however an island surrounded on all sides by storms and kraken. That means you¡¯ll never have to fear being invaded, or harmed.¡±


    The drone of chatter becomes almost too much for me to bear as emotions on all lengths of the spectrum abound. Fear and anger are plentiful, but so too are wonder, and curiosity. There¡¯s a fair amount of poignant observations that it looks like the Worldstorm exists in a giant circle around this island, while having a massive sunny hole above it, despite that not technically being what it is. That observation though leads to many of the reptilian people relishing the sunlight.


    There¡¯s also plenty of sadness for the losses incurred in our assault on Vorzog¡¯s keep, joy at being spared such a fate, and so much more. Unsure if there¡¯s anything I should really do, other than let them go in peace, I turn towards leaving. Zelshiz however politely begs my attention.


    Turning towards them, I raise one of my enormous brows, and motion for them to continue, so she requests, ¡°I, I suppose this isn¡¯t Solace, or anywhere near it. I take it you are responsible for the downfall of ShizTinth? Or, one of your number anyway. I, I saw him, through your magical lenses, in good health, chatting with a shopkeep, seemingly happily. Um, Lord Shiz that is. I know you owe me nothing, and you must have saved my life in more ways than one, but I¡¯d dearly, dearly like to be reunited. If, if I could somehow beg that of you, to join you at Solace.¡±


    Oh! That¡¯s why Zelshiz looked so shocked when they looked through the goggles. Suddenly there come a few shouts of, ¡°Here here!¡± in response to Zelshiz¡¯s admission of wanting to accompany me to solace. A small group breaks off from the main body of the Draconiacs to stand behind Zelshiz, apparently wanting to accompany them. This once again complicates matters, but it¡¯s a complication I¡¯m happy to work around. Smiling, I nod at Zelshiz, happy to help reunite them with Shiz, in whatever form that takes. He¡¯s been a good ally, and friend, since he accepted our mercy.


    Answering Zelshiz, I ask, ¡°Sorry about everything. Welcome back. I hope this isn¡¯t rude, but do you have a preferred gender terminology? I heard Adkre refering to you both as he and she. But, well, yes, you and this troop of yours can definitely come with to Solace. I left Triorgraiz to get more swift expert medical attention with some people I cherish and trust. I¡¯m hoping she recovers, and also that she doesn¡¯t lash out if she¡¯s capable of returning to good health.¡±


    We¡¯ve got to also get Triorgraiz¡¯s mount back to her somehow. I¡¯m fairly certain that he¡¯ll dutifully stay at her side, while Tiago tends to the wounded woman. She seems like she¡¯s seen reason well enough, and cares enough about other people to not lash out at the refugees, especially when they¡¯re now protected by something like sixteen dragons. I feel like, if Triorgraiz ever wakes, she¡¯ll be fine, and maybe Tiktik can get someone to give her a lift to Mount Solace if needbe. Or Tiktik could bring her here, to this paradise island within the kraken circle sea or whatever the hell you¡¯d call this region.


    Zelshiz clues me in cordially enough, ¡°Either or, both really, but it¡¯s hard to put ¡®em both in a sentence, y¡¯know? Adkre, despite the craziness, wasn¡¯t disrespecting me or anything. Trio¡¯s alive though? I¡¯m surprised. That hit¡ª. It looked bad. Really bad. She¡ª, she didn¡¯t deserve that. Vorzog¡¯s an ass, his whole troop was, and whatever payback you dealt him could never have been enough.¡±


    Nodding somberly, I agree, it did look bad, and still does, according to Tiago. Gazing out across the several dozen Draconiac Spellknights gathered up behind Zelshiz, I gnaw on my lip. I¡¯m not sure if I should mention the fact that we slew Adkre and Vorzog, when I don¡¯t know whom of these individuals was loyal to whom. If we can get at least this party of Zelshiz¡¯s troops out of the ¡®Twixt, we can at least get them transported home to Solace, by the twelve ancient consorts.


    We still have a siege to deal with though too. I also wanted to deploy a shop that Tiktik could reach, while I had access to this form. I won¡¯t have access to it, for quite a while again after this, depending on how the ¡®Twixt decides to work with that potion having been the reason I had enough mana to use the form.


    Before I even have to ask, since she was riding my mind to hear my mental monologue, Tiktik quips, ¡°Oh yeah, almost forgot! Check this out Tiger, and other palsie walsies! Um, eeny meeny. You and you and you, okay, all of you are coming with, yeah? Okay, I hereby invite you to my magnificent mansion!¡±


    Tiktik runs towards a wall and I¡¯m about to lash her in a telekinetic grip to keep her from hurting herself when she slaps the wall like delivering a high five, causing a door to appear upon it. Opening the door, Tiktik motions us inside, and I can see a rather plush living space on its far side. I have to drop my enlargening spell, and apply the shrinking spell, to be able to fit through it, but that¡¯s no big deal. Once inside, there¡¯s plenty of space to resume my enormous height. This feels like a demi-plane. Its own minor pocket dimension. This is *exactly* the sort of place I want to deploy the shop, so that only Tiktik can access it, with whatever people she allows in.


    Quipping chipperly, Tiktik responds to my thoughts, ¡°Yep yep! It¡¯s my spell, and it can keep things in it, but not people, for as long as I want. There¡¯s some other rules ¡®n¡¯ stuff, but it¡¯s boring, and you can probably guess enough. Nothing that should interfere with your propagatious plans buster. So, go on, show me this thingy you¡¯re excited to gift to the refugees!¡±


    Struggling to restrain my smile, I watch as Tiktik raptly awaits my deployment. The Draconiacs explore different facets of the mansion, including exiting and entering the door, while some of their companions from the contingent outside, are incapable of entering. Zelshiz eyes me with curiosity, and I suppose they¡¯ll find out sooner or later about the shop system anyway, since they¡¯re coming home with us.


    Zelshiz did already see it in action partially through the goggles as well, so I beckon for Tiktik to invite her, or him and me to Tiktik¡¯s private study. It¡¯s an even *more* private sanctum that has another layer of security that similarly allows only Tiktik and those she invites in, upon it. Reaching inside myself, deep down, I scrounge around and withdraw a fully carpentered Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian magical digital shop stall.


    After setting it up, both women look a bit perplexed as I hand Tiktik a wad of hundred dollar bills. At least until I call out, ¡°Greetings handsome and lovely travelers, how may this humble shopkeep be of service on this fine day?¡±


    Grinning like a madbeast, Tiktik slams down the cash and playfully demands, ¡°I want your finest hooch good ¡®keep!¡±


    Most of the money derezzes, swiftly, and is replaced by a crystal decanter filled with an amber liquid that smells of ambrosia. There¡¯s something odd going on with the interplay between the ¡®Twixt and Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that¡¯s changing things up, but seemingly for the better. Usually my goods are roughly the quality of crap. Motioning for Tiktik to take the liquid, then tend the shop, I step to the other side, and request to sell my trash-loot from the ¡®Twixt, curious to see if the coinage follows me out or not. Placing my earnings inside a sack, to keep it separate from my other coinage, I nod gratefully at Tiktik.


    Zelshiz takes in the scene with a fair bit of wonder. Despite being able to wield magic, and knowing plenty about magic her-or-him-self, the idea of trading equitably with nothing, producing goods from thin air, despite them having witnessed it through the goggles as well, is catching them off guard. I can see their sharp mind racing as they piece together the implications. I¡¯m so glad he, or she, surrendered, or allied themself with me, however you want to think of it. Also of course I¡¯m glad that Tiktik was able to save them. The two pour shots from the decanter, and toast to the purchase before throwing back the shots. Both of them gag and cough, and stick their tongues out. Yeah, that¡¯s more of what I expected from my shop. I¡¯m glad I don¡¯t really drink alcohol, heh.


    I make certain I¡¯ve deployed or released everyone and everything that I need to, that I can, for now. When I¡¯m certain I¡¯m as done as can be with my inventory magic, I allow the Backpotter form to dissolve, leaving me in my horned, tailed RS2 form. Tiktik waves everyone out of her mansion, and motions behind her after leaving it, causing the door to disappear entirely. Triorgraiz¡¯s mount looks weary, pained, and confused, but thankfully Zelshiz is able to convince him to come along, as our now much larger party returns to the ¡°kraken-proof-sailboat.¡± Thankfully, there¡¯s room belowdecks for the new crew to squeeze in a bit tightly together.


    The return journey is just as seemingly perilous, but yet again, the vessel itself protects us from the otherwise treacherous waters and storms. Zelshiz comments on how unlikely it is their allies will ever leave that island, and I nod in agreement. I didn¡¯t have the time to personally do a psych eval for each of the several hundred Draconiac Spellknights, to invite them back to our home. This is the better solution. Since we still have wounded, I keep Triorgraiz¡¯s mount, Fennel apparently, shrunk, and I summon horses whilst using the Cosmic Roundsheathe to create Featherlight Titanwood, and fabricate that into three carriages. It¡¯s slower going, with only one horse pulling each carriage, but the wounded seem fairly grateful.


    Sighing, I look back on the time I¡¯ve spent with Tiktik in the ¡®Twixt. It was immensely enjoyable, but I can¡¯t keep giving in to spending more time here as much as I desperately want Tiktik to ask me to, and to agree to any desire she requests of me. Though I have actually benefited one way from the ¡®Twixt at least. I¡¯ve found my current precise SP limit, where my muscles begin to slack. It¡¯s just after six-hundred ninety-six SP. Going beyond that, my muscles start to hate me. I guess I at least rejuvenate one SP per day here, but ugh, I am not going to spend millenia trying to abuse that in order to learn spells or expand my SP pool.


    There are a few topics Tiktik has refused to talk about while we were here, like her recovery from her injuries, and certain feelings she¡¯s had pent up. I can tell she feels that even friends like Keeley and Marshal have left her. I understand her abandonment issues quite well. I don¡¯t want to argue with her, and tell her that Te and I haven¡¯t abandoned her, or that Littlebit didn¡¯t abandon her, since she ran away from the Hidden Heart. Even still, I wish I could help her combat those issues, to reassure her, and comfort her.


    Tiktik knows it¡¯s an irrational fear, and that it makes her want to push away the people she cares about most, so that she doesn¡¯t have to take the heartbreak of feeling like she¡¯s being abandoned, if she¡¯s the one choosing it. It¡¯s a touchy topic, one that we can¡¯t really address, despite us both loving the other, and me wanting to reassure her. The days flew by altogether too fast, and both of us lament our agreement, but we have to keep to it, or I¡¯d never leave.


    Taking one last quest from a job-board with Tiktik, it sounds like the reward is permanent access to an exit, by investing in the town. Essentially, our ¡°fetch quest¡± objective is a few hundred thousand coins, with our reward being a gateway or something. Thankfully, reward scaling began ramping up while Tiktik and I did more and more quests together here in the ¡®Twixt. It doesn¡¯t take much time at all for me to scrounge up the money, and take it to a construction site. The foreman accepts my ¡°investment,¡± and immediately begins to order workers to start on the project. Over the course of a few hours, a dais appears, with nearly a dozen archways. Each one holds an odd tear in space. Most of them are grey, neutral, unassuming, and seemingly inert. Two however, are not.


    What the hell is going on here? Through that rift, I see the catacombs and I see Tiktik and me frozen during our tumbling into the ¡®Twixt¡¯s entryway, with what appear to be aura outlines of the Draconiacs and Fennel popping into existence. Through this other rift, I see what appears to be the Hidden Heart, and what might be the hands of me and Tiktik as we roll tumbling out of it. Both of them are like a freeze-frame of a film. If we try to go through the one, back to the catacombs of Jeegoobotstan, we¡¯ll just fall back into the ¡®Twixt. If we go through the other, we¡¯re going to be falling into the Hidden Heart.


    The heartache and fear painted across Tiktik¡¯s visage sends an ache through my core. She¡¯s not ready to face her home yet. Sighing sadly, I agree to try leaving back the way we came with her. Unfortunately, though our consciousnesses and perceptions are able to view the Jeegoobotstan catacombs for the briefest of flickering instants, we end up falling through the sky near the alleyway I¡¯d originally arrived at. Of course, the ¡®Twixt decides to angle us such that Tiktik lands upon my face again. Shaking my head and rolling my eyes at the nature of the realm, I levitate Kitten and myself up to our feet, and walk to the nearest stoop to sit on. Resting my elbows on my knees, and head in my palms, I¡¯m unsure what to do.


    After some sniffling, and likely some saddened soul-searching, Tiktik guesses, ¡°Tiger? I¡ª. I guess we¡¯ve gotta go home. To my home I mean.¡±


    Wiping her tears away and pulling her to me, I kiss Tiktik lovingly for a long moment, only slightly embarrassed to be doing it in front of a crowd of people that are technically my prisoners. Still confused though, I ask, ¡°Can they leave on their own though? It looks like they¡¯re supposed to appear back in Jeegoobotstan.¡±


    Giggling, Tiktik exclaims, ¡°Oh that one¡¯s easy! One of us has to just boot ¡®em through the portal, like this, watch!¡±


    Tiktik starts shoving, pushing, nudging, and outright tackling people through the portal, fulfilling the jumbled pile of auras that foretells of their arrival in Jeegoobotstan. Zelshiz chuckles abashedly, and accepts being knocked through the portal as well, leaving Tiktik and I a last few moments alone in the ¡®Twixt. Sadness and apprehension in her eyes, she takes my hand, and we step through towards the Hidden Heart.

 B 6 C 153: Heard From the Heart

    The cool, damp air of my very English countryside style town of Nichtshire D¡¯Locke is immediately replaced by the fragrant, humming, calming warmth of the Hidden Heart. Something I¡¯d been holding out hope for, for a long time begins to occur about my neck. Bud¡¯s pulse, within his enchanted aura, slowly begins to regain the most minuscule amount of strength. It could take him decades to recover here, but at least he¡¯ll be able to recover. The lush dark greens of the canopy overhead that protect the entirety of the Heart from the ceaseless Worldstorm are a welcome sight, despite not having intended to visit here again for quite some time.


    When a pitchy, adorable voice that¡¯s fighting back sadness cries out in surprise, ¡°Tiki!?¡± I know I¡¯m about to need to give Tiktik privacy.


    Wide-eyed and slack jawed, Tiktik gulps before querying, ¡°Bitty!?¡± Terror overtakes Tiktik as her eyes dart about, looking for an opportunity to flee, but she fights to collect her wits so that she can offer up, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry about before. I didn¡¯t mean to make you uncomfortable, or make you hate me. You don¡¯t have to worry. I, I know I¡¯m like a sister to you, or, or was.¡±


    The adorably vivacious goblin woman¡¯s skin is a beautiful matte moss. She¡¯s wearing grease-stained overalls, and what might be considered a tube-top. She¡¯s got a toolbelt on, fully stocked with a variety of tools, and she¡¯s wearing some heavy-duty stompers. This must be the goblin gal known as Littlebit. She stalks up to Tiktik, followed by several clanking contraptions. From the intensity of her gaze, the intellect behind her eyes, the care, love, and adoration visible in this woman¡¯s countenance, and her obvious drive, creativity, and inventiveness, I could definitely understand why Tiktik is smitten with this incredible, adorable, and frankly sexy woman.


    The two just stand staring at each other, both crying silently for a fair length of time. I try to excuse myself, but Tiktik is still gripping my hand tightly. Littlebit makes the first move by grasping Tiktik¡¯s gorgeous face in both hands, and bringing it to hers. Through the passionate kiss, she mumbles, ¡°Idiot.¡±


    I can sense the confusion within Tiktik welling up, and that this could probably take a while to work out. I really don¡¯t want to intrude on something so personal, so deep for her. As much as we both love each other, I know her heart belongs to Littlebit. Tiktik has some irrationalities or conclusions that she jumped to too quickly, in the way she perceived things, so there¡¯s probably a bit of air to clear. I still can¡¯t withdraw my hand from her deathgrip though, so I bring it to my lips to kiss her fingers softly several times, until she relents and releases me.


    Whispering, ¡°I¡¯ll keep checking back here for you once in a while Kitten. Do what you need to do. I¡¯m not abandoning you. I¡¯ll never leave you, but you deserve this. You deserve to get to be happy with Littlebit. Take all the time you need.¡±


    Stifling my own emotions, my own sadness and tears, I leave the two to catch up and clear the air. I don¡¯t want my love for her to intrude on whatever is going to transpire. Reaching into the magic of the Hidden Heart, I tug a string that leads to Jarrah Bettergrove, and the Enochian Enclave.


    I receive plenty of stares, raised eyebrows, and gaping jaws as I stroll out of the courts, the section of town reserved for the more political-ploying highbrow families of the Hidden Heart. With my horns, I could be mistaken for some subspecies of satyr, but my thick, smooth, tapered tail gives away the Fel nature of my current mixbreed species. I¡¯m lucky I don¡¯t have any of the other traits of demonic creatures. Wait, am I blue again? When did that happen? Well, anyway, just shapeshift it back I guess. I really don¡¯t pay attention to or notice myself all that much.


    There¡¯s the slightest bit of temptation to check in on Percival the Potted Plant, or Flint or Alanea, but, well¡ª. Like with the Aasimovians, I think it¡¯s presumptuous of me to believe I can just drop back into their lives unannounced for what might be only a few seconds of conversation, only to leave again. Plus, I can¡¯t exactly converse with Percival unless he summons his celestial meerkat familiar, Tinpu. Deciding that it¡¯s best to just let them go on with their lives, without the disruptions that I seem to bring with me, I need to at least catch Jarrah up to speed on the state of things. He¡¯s a large reason for my successes so far in some ways, and he and I share common goals that we both have to work for on the larger scale, the safety of the Enochian Enclave amongst them.


    There are less gaping jaws as I enter the Enochian Enclave, though I still draw stares. The people of the Enclave are much more welcoming than the courts. For the most part anyway. Ascending the spiral of the great tree that makes up the Enclave, I make my way towards where I know Jarrah Bettergrove will be located, or will return to shortly if he¡¯s off on some other errand. It¡¯s strangely dark, almost opaque in his room. I¡¯m worried I might be walking into some new warding spell, so I cautiously press a fingertip into the odd obscurement within my mentor¡¯s crazy magical room. Nothing seems to occur, so I step inside. As I¡¯m about to call out, I sense a rush of movement, the rustle of fabric, a sharp object piercing the wind between the aggressor and me.


    Rolling my eyes, groaning, I allow my danger wraps to guide me away from Jarrah¡¯s strike as I utilize telekinesis to carefully nudge him in ways that prevent him from injuring either of us. Grumbling, I request, ¡°Stay your hand Jarrah you crazy old coot, it¡¯s me. Mentor, it¡¯s me, I¡¯m not¡ª.¡±


    The darkness recedes, and Jarrah stands before me, a hand splayed across his mouth as his wild, never-settling eyes take me in. At least, I think they¡¯re taking me in as he cuts me off, ¡°Flames of the Fel, so it¡¯s true, your source is infernal.¡±


    Rolling my eyes further once more, I respond, ¡°No. Look, I died while chaotic magic was going wild around me, or, well, I loosed a spell and purposely triggered chaos magic, because I was dying to a Damnation while having a panic attack. That chaotic magic burst happened to hit me with a very very very short term reincarnation enchantment. As luck would have it, I died during its short duration. When I came back, well, that reincarnation enchantment apparently destroys your previous body, and anything physically wrong with it, in order to provide it a healthy body of a random species. Stupid thing left my cursed illness intact though. Still no source, absolutely no source. Check my runework, roll your dice, or whatever. Please don¡¯t try to attack me again Jarrah. I don¡¯t want to accidentally hurt you.¡±


    My mentor paces around, keeping me in the periphery of his crazy-eyed vision as he mutters to himself, ¡°The gall on this child, the ego, and yet¡ª,¡± his pacing stops only momentarily as I can feel his senses probing me, ,¡±¡ª Yet perhaps they might. Their potency is leagues beyond what it was when last they were here. I haven¡¯t felt threatened, ever perhaps, but this is perhaps the closest I¡¯ve ever come. How very odd a sensation.¡±


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Sighing to myself, I could almost laugh as Jarrah appears to think that I can¡¯t hear his self-mutterings. Perhaps he forgot about my hypersensitive hearing. Remember that Jarrah? My hypersensitive hearing, and the fact that I know you¡¯re telepathic? Remember those things? I¡¯d never intentionally harm you or the Enclave, or anyone from it, if I could help it. I just came by to¡ª.


    Sighing, I shrug, realizing that Jarrah likely doesn¡¯t need me to inform him on the state of things. I don¡¯t even know. I¡¯m sorry for dropping by unannounced. I was hoping to catch you up on the state of things, but you don¡¯t seem interested in speaking with me. I¡¯m grateful for everything you¡¯ve done for me, and I¡¯m happy to see you¡¯re well. I guess I¡¯ve got a war to return to. Thank you for seeing me.


    Suddenly Jarrah ceases muttering, and in a demanding tone, offers, ¡°Sit, please, a cup of tea with your mentor. Fill me in on your war, your travels, these Damnations you speak of.¡±


    Oy vey, where do I start. I feel like I could fill a book, hell, several books since the last time we spoke. I glance side to side suspiciously for a moment. My brain feels suspiciously near a BSOD, but I¡¯m not sure what¡¯s causing it. I suppose it¡¯s best to start with my failure, and work my way up from there. With a few motions, Jarrah has the room maneuver a table and two chairs into position for us. He then proceeds to work some magic in a small alcove over a tea kettle. If I weren¡¯t at my exact limit of safe SP spent for the day, I¡¯d love to show off my progress to my mentor, but alas that will have to happen another day, should we ever see one another again.


    Still, Jarrah could use some more comfortable seats, so I think I¡¯ll sit in my own levitating telekinetic grip rather than on the chair itself. When Jarrah turns to face me, after hearing my thoughts, and seeing the proof of my ability, his brows are quite piqued from curiosity. Or, his brows are peaked because his curiosity is piqued. Something along those lines.


    Despite attempting not to, as I begin with my failure to protect Dawn, my inability to save her from the curse, I break down in tears for a short while. Jarrah nods grimly at the news, having feared as such. Worse, when I let him know the Fel hordes have overrun Aasimovia, that I had to battle them with Tiktik Clocktok and Teuila at Autumn Brook, barely buying time for an evacuation, and fleeing with our lives, he looks stricken. I never thought I¡¯d see my mentor look worriedly ill, but here he is. When Jarrah presses me for details, I fill him in as best I can, but I don¡¯t truly know much about the forces I faced, other than the names that I gave them. I still share their abilities and so on. Their aversion to sunlight, and seemingly water for the smaller ones.


    Sighing, I continue on, retelling my tale once more, as is apparently a reoccurring theme in my life as well in addition to the accidental assassinations. Skimming over the time in The Gap that broke my soul upon seemingly losing Teuila, and the short stint in the swamps when she was returned to me by the graces of some noblewoman, I pause a moment, soaking in my good luck to have Teuila back. Stifling my tears as I blink them rapidly away, I share that the hydras are more easily taken down not by the mythologically assumed way of providing fire or cauterization, but by utilizing frost, sapping their heat, or necrotic magics, thunder, or bludgeoning force. Well, or of course, copies of Gae Buidhe. We¡¯re trying not to flood the world with those though.


    My mind harkens back to various prophecies that I¡¯d been given, or at least prophetic statements made by the Sisters Hidden in the Mist. Revealing my Latent to Jarrah, and what a Latent is, he nods and waves dismissively as if it was obvious. I roll my eyes at the fact that I could have benefited from the information if he¡¯d known it prior to my leaving.


    Catching Jarrah up on the Order of the Onyx Dawn, our war against Terrorzin, the abilities I¡¯ve earned or created or gathered and so on, I skim over the interpersonal nonsense that has happened in Mount Solace. I let him know about each of the offensives I¡¯ve been on, the powers that I gained through titling, how I keep getting closer to my cure, and then having dragonforce stripped from me or wasted. I guess I¡¯m technically at ten out of fifteen or sixteen or seventeen paid so far, if the Sisters¡¯ portent is accurate in that I just have to have absorbed them to pay the price. Since it seemed obvious that Kozzurth¡¯s wouldn¡¯t last until I got all the rest.


    I¡¯d had Kozzurth¡¯s, and it was nearly gone, when the sister said I¡¯d paid one, and must now pay five and five and six. That¡¯s a total of seventeen, right? Yeah. My brain feels mushy. I lament the fact that I probably caused the deaths of the Plains Colossi, by subconsciously, or unintentionally slowly drawing in the dragonforce that Kozzurth had imbued them with.


    Jarrah¡¯s crazy eyes seem to take in the whole of me in a new light when he hears how I¡¯ve been struggling, striving to grant mercy to our foes. Especially that I just granted mercy to perhaps hundreds of Draconiacs this very morning. I¡¯m debating whether or not to let him in on one of the biggest secrets of the world. I know I can trust him. I know he wants the best for the people under his care, and he wants to stop the evils of the world, but¡ª. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s fair for me to do the telling of something so private and secret to someone else.


    Sighing, I admit, ¡°Jarrah, one of the possibly most ancient secrets kept, it¡ª. It belongs to my lady, my wife, Kinzul, Administrator of the Order of the Onyx Dawn. To protect the rest of Rayileklia from dragons, to keep them from being able to fly and land freely anywhere on the continent, to reduce their ability to level the continent with each landing, she devised, and holds up, the¡ª. Huff, I¡ª.¡±


    Gulping back sadness, I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s right for me to share this with anyone. Kinzul technically didn¡¯t even share it with me. My mind pieced it together, and she confirmed my logical leaps. I try to gauge Jarrah¡¯s feelings on my intent, or desire to continue, and his face is as inscrutable as always, especially with those wildly shifting eyes.


    As I¡¯m about to speak, Jarrah guesses, ¡°If this is about those acid-dragon-breath clouds permanently darkening our skies, then don¡¯t fret over it. I can put two and two well enough together. Keeping dragons at bay? I¡¯d not thought it so benevolent. Given the state of your war though, I can see its need. Forces in those numbers, with that much hatred and power behind them, yes, it¡¯s good they¡¯ve been balked. Hellspit and Fel fires though child. You crossed half the world in what was a week for you, but only an instant in time if your surmisings on this ¡®Twixt are correct. I knew there were odd things in the courts, but to think, a gateway to a realm that has other exits across our land. It¡¯s simultaneously a most enticing, yet utterly terrifying prospect. Should our foes gain access to it¡ª.¡±


    Breathing deeply and sighing, I nod. If they could access such a thing, they could overrun the Heart. Thankfully, the only entrances and exits we currently know of are the two, one here, and one in Jeegoobotstan. The one in Jeegoobotstan is going to be well-protected, and as far as we¡¯re aware, only very specific mixbreeds of Fae can even enter the ¡®Twixt. Plus, since you can only bring in one person at a time, the first person you bring in could be decades, or centuries older by the time you get a large number of people into the ¡®Twixt.


    For all I know, the Draconiacs I left in the ¡®Twixt have all perished of old age already, based on how much faster time passes there. Though, time might pause entirely while the originator of that segment of the ¡®Twixt is outside of it. I have no idea. I think that for now, Jarrah and I can make some contingency plans, without having to focus entirely on the prospect of foes invading the Heart through the ¡®Twixt. Plus, there are some pretty easy ways to keep it from becoming a big issue if needbe. Spike walls surrounding the portal to the ¡®Twixt for example.

 B 6 C 154: From Heart to Heart

    It really was nice to see Jarrah again, to sit, and be treated well, listened to and respected, by someone I admire so much. As he stalks around the room, muttering to himself, I bow towards him and take my leave. I¡¯m glad I got to fill him in, and I hope that some of the information I brought proves useful in some way. Ah crap. I forgot to ask him to look after Bud. He seems fairly engrossed in his mutterings though. Sighing, I begin wending my way down the Enochian Enclave. Perhaps I could give Bud to Sindred, to make up for accidentally stealing Dirge and Balchar¡¯s Flame? Eugh. I¡¯d rather not though. She¡¯s friggin¡¯ psychotic.


    When I nearly trip over a beautiful woman, and we both go tumbling down the stairs, *again*, I catch us both in telekinetic grips. Setting us both on the nearest landing of the staircase, I¡¯m at a loss for words. This woman with almond-shaped eyes radiates an aura of calm, of peace. Her gaze carries the care and concern of a mother for all that she meets. Her eyes are alight the color of coffee with cream. Her thick, straight, hair is worn in a style reminiscent of flower petals. Her delicate, slightly-pointed ears peak out beneath her luxuriously styled dark brown hair. Her wardrobe is flattering as it rests upon her short, extremely compact frame. My emotions and breath catch in my throat as I once more stand before Alanea Whifflewillow.


    The several moments that pass before recognition sparks across her face almost hurt. The fact that she turns to flee, does hurt. Sighing, I watch as she runs the opposite direction she¡¯d been heading, in order to evade me. She pauses on the next landing, and facepalms, before slowly walking back my way. Her tightly compact body is nearly forced to hop down each step so as not to topple forward. I¡¯d of course catch her again, no matter how she felt about me.


    My face likely hangs slack in its saddened expression. I feel my cheeks and brow drooping, while my jaw is locked tightly back, my mouth not entirely closed. Surprisingly, Alanea asks, ¡°Dearling? You¡¯re so different. Can¡ª. Do you have a moment?¡±


    Gulping down what emotions I can, I nod slowly, dumbly. Alanea barely tugs at my fingertips with hers, not exactly grabbing my hand, but still passing along the sentiment of her desire for me to follow. We wend our way down the staircase, to a familiar room, where she¡¯d once been stacking books. Something happens to my brain as we arrive¡ª.


    When I come to, Alanea is asking, ¡°Really?¡±


    Huh? Where¡¯s the room with the books? Something, something was. Books? My brain hurts. As Alanea leaps towards me, I¡¯m forced to catch her in my arms, and catch us in a telekinetic grip to keep from toppling over. Her hug fills me with warmth, and joy. I¡¯m more than a little lost yet though. What is she asking confirmation about?


    Thankfully, despite my muteness, Alanea answers, ¡°Yes, yes of course. Well, well Gerald and Flint can handle things here without me, and they¡¯d be honored to take care of Bud for you, and nurse him back to health. And, well, our mission hasn¡¯t changed, but it has stalled out a bit. Well, not stalled so much as, well, as it feels like the eye of a storm passing over, or forming. Erm, well, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m explaining it right, it feels like something big is coming, but, well, like there¡¯s nothing really to do to prepare, because it¡¯s too mysterious to guess what¡¯s coming.¡±


    As she plops down from my embrace, Alanea leads me by the hand towards the infirmary, almost giddily. Wh¡ª. What¡¯s going on? Did, did I invite Alanea to come with us back to Solace? I, well, I mean, I¡¯m not averse to it. Hell, I¡¯m rather stoked about the idea. Te will tease me mercilessly about it, and Lu might be a bit grumpy for a few minutes before teasing me as well, but, how did this even come about? I remember bumping into her on the stairwell, and now suddenly we¡¯re down near the infirmary, talking as if we¡¯d been conversing for almost half an hour. Scratching my head, I guess I¡¯ll ask for clarification at some point, when my head isn¡¯t so fuzzy and itchy inside.


    Hearing a familiar voice call out, ¡°Sakes alive! Shellcracker? Erm, it¡¯s good to see you well. You¡ª are well, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    Snorting back a laugh while smirking, I nod towards Flint Darklace. He¡¯s as dapper as ever, and his resting-creepy-face is as potent as always. His licentious gaze drinks me in as he undresses me with his eyes from bottom to top, where he meets my humorously stern gaze and raised-brow before he quickly averts his own gaze to cough and blush. Shaking my head incredulously, I can¡¯t help smiling as I reach out a hand to grasp his forearm and pull him into a tight embrace.


    Thankfully, Alanea takes over catching up Flint for me, which also helps clue me in to what we¡¯d discussed during the period of time that I can¡¯t recall. Flint¡¯s visage becomes one of duty and honor when he¡¯s requested to take care of Bud for me, nurturing Lullaby back to health. It warms my heart when he accepts the task, because Bud needs to stay in the Heart to recover. I don¡¯t know how many years, decades, or centuries it will take for him to return to his full glory. I don¡¯t even know how many months or years it might take before he¡¯s even able to waken slightly at all. I¡¯m sorry if it seems like I¡¯m abandoning you here Bud. You¡¯re a wonderful friend. I¡¯m honored you chose to fight by my side.


    The three of us chat, and catch up for a while, though Flint does cast several awkward gazes across Alanea when she mentions she¡¯ll be joining me to aid Solace now that we¡¯re down our primary healer. Those gazes contain longing, lust, virtual undressing, and a true apologetic sorrow. I know they¡¯ve been friends for a very long time, and perhaps on again off again lovers. I hope he doesn¡¯t feel like I¡¯m stealing Alanea away. I want us all to remain friends. Regardless, Alanea and I meander through the Hidden Heart. Well, the Wild Heart, to those that dwell here, mostly, but the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds for everyone else, or Hidden Heart for short.


    I¡¯d forgotten how adorably nervous that Alanea can come across with her affectation of interjecting the word well in almost every sentence. Despite the seeming verbal tic, almost a stutter, she leans warmly up against me as she guides me around, touring the Hidden Heart on our way back to the courts, and the entrance to the ¡®Twixt. I¡¯m almost hesitant to reach out mentally for Tiktik, to see if she¡¯s ready, or even wants to try to return to Jeegoobotstan with me.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Alanea and I stop at her home, and I blush hot enough to weld titanium when she drags me to her bedroom in order to start packing. Even though I avert my gaze, I can¡¯t help catching glimpses of, glp, various clothing articles, and various parts of Alanea¡¯s form as she rapidly changes clothing. Surprisingly, she has some slightly armored articles of clothing that look like they might provide a bit of defense against impact. With how mousey she is, I forget that she¡¯s also one of the Enochian Enclave¡¯s lead operatives. Sighing at the thought, it brings to mind how another wonderful Fae woman, my Kitten, is full of surprises, despite her adorable, prankstery nature. It¡¯s remarkable how serious she can be, and just how powerful she really is.


    Still, when Alanea requests that we spend some time here in her bedroom, um, bidding it a fond farewell, my brain fritzes out for a while, completely lost. Coming to, it appears we both need to erm, towel off. As I mentioned when I arrived here, the Heart is pleasantly warm, with that sort of jungle dewy moistness to the air. Now I¡¯m picturing certain glistening sweat I¡¯ve seen on various Fae over the course of my journey across Rayileklia, great. Facepalming, I rattle my skull at myself, trying to stop myself from picturing the smoky-indigo hue of certain portions of Tiktik¡¯s body that I¡¯d started to get used to in the ¡®Twixt.


    My heart aches at the idea that this might be the last I ever see of my Kitten, yet I want her to find her best happiness. I knew anyone that loved Tiktik as much as it sounded like Littlebit did, couldn¡¯t possibly hate Kitten, or want to never see her again. I was pretty sure Tiktik misread the situation too, because she¡¯s gun-shy on certain topics, emotions, feelings, and so on. She didn¡¯t want to be rejected by Littlebit, so she convinced herself she *was* rejected by Littlebit, so that she had an excuse to run away, and never face the possibility of actually knowing if she truly was rejected.


    I¡¯m fairly certain she fled before Littlebit could figure out how she really wanted to respond. I just didn¡¯t want to alienate Tiktik by insisting on things, when I was trying to be supportive of her, through the negative feelings she¡¯d been suffering from the rejection she¡¯d thought she experienced.


    Surprisingly, Tiktik cheerily calls across our mental wavelength, ¡°Hey Tiger, you ready yet? Have I got a surprise for you!¡±


    Blinking rapidly, I respond, ¡°I was headed back to see if you were still¡ª. Well, yes I suppose. Alanea and I are both ready.¡±


    My heart stops beating for a while, as my mind rapidly guesses what the surprise could be. I suppose the best surprise would be if Tiktik and Littlebit were coming to help out against the dragons, despite the Aasimovians needing protectors. I¡¯d normally argue against it, but I almost wish it was exactly that, since the Aasimovians technically now have over a dozen dragons protecting them, instead of extorting them.


    When we arrive in the courtyard with the rift to the ¡®Twixt, I have to fight my surprise at what I see. Tiktik and Littlebit, and a bunch of clanking little automaton creations, are all loaded down with what I can only describe as completely random crap. I feel awful for saying it, but it¡¯s like Littlebit somehow found an early nineteen hundreds scrapyard on Fakeworld, and raided it for anything she thought looked cool. It¡¯s obvious that she¡¯s a tinker though, and a good one at that.


    One of her automatons is, well, I can only describe it as a robot dog, or tiger, with cable-tendrils that spark on occasion as they drift or explore their area. Actually, it might be a robot version of a displacerbeast, from Fakeworld¡¯s tabletop gaming stuff. Huh. Yeah. I think it is. Littlebit¡¯s adjusting all of her clanking automatons and folding them up in ways that defy logic as I gaze on at the pair. Rattling my skull, I wave to the lovely Fae ladies awaiting us near the tear to the ¡®Twixt.


    Grinning wider than I think I¡¯ve ever seen her, Tiktik announces, ¡°Bitty, this is Reggie, my Tiger! You¡¯re gonna love ¡®em. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re gonna say yes. If you can do the thingy, then it¡¯ll be even better! Tiger, this is the woman of my dreams, Littlebit! Aint she the greatest, cutest, sexiest little lady you¡¯ve ever seen? Don¡¯t answer that, she¡¯s m¡ª. Sorry, hah, forget me. I¡¯m being dumb. Um, but, um, just, please, please say yes Tiger. Please.¡±


    While my jaw hangs slightly slack, I want to say yes immediately, before even hearing whatever the request is. Turning towards Littlebit though, she thankfully fills me in, ¡°Tikki and I, um, we hashed things out. Thank you for the privacy, um, earlier. Uh, it¡¯s, it¡¯s an honor. I heard you¡¯re kind of a wiz with science, and magic. I was sort of hoping that I could accompany you and maybe learn from you, and help out with whatever you might need. There¡¯s a, well, a theory that I have, well a couple. You see the readings on this? I¡¯m fairly certain they only activate in proximity to rifts to the ¡®Twixt. I had a lot of time to study the rift while Tikki was gone.¡±


    Littlebit chokes on her emotions a moment before continuing, ¡°I, I guess I was hoping to find a way to enter, myself, or find a different rift somewhere that wasn¡¯t as strict an entry requirement as this one. Tiktik¡¯s the only one that I know that can even enter. I thought maybe, just maybe if she ran away, she might have found a rift somewhere, and, and¡ª. I just wanted her to be there, and to find my way to her.¡±


    Rattling her skull momentarily, Littlebit gets back on track to add, ¡°I might be able to find other rifts, or, there¡¯s a tiny tiny tiny smidgen of a possibility that I might be able to replicate a rift, in short bursts. I¡¯d need a lot of quality materials and stuff that I don¡¯t have access to here in the Heart. Oh gosh I could probably just ask you to¡ª. That is to say, please?¡±


    Littlebit, like several of my family, and Prinrin, can rattle off speech nonstop without pausing for a breath, leaving me blinking in order to catch up. With Tiktik and Littlebit both pulling puppydog eyes, and both begging with an exceedingly elongated, ¡°Pleeeeease?¡± my heartstrings are tugged far more than they needed to be. I was already going to acquiesce to any request.


    Nodding to the two, I¡¯m beset upon by two incredibly sexy Fae women, nearly toppling over. Thankfully, Alanea helps prop me up, and helps me disentangle myself politely from the flailing, grasping limbs. There are a few, erm, mishaps, but we¡¯re all Fae, it hardly means anything. They might have even been intentional, but no one¡¯s speaking as to the veracity of such claims or accusations. After a few moments of introductions all around, and discussion, we figure out the logistics.


    I¡¯m disheartened to remember that Tiktik is actually going to stay with the Aasimovians in Jeegoobotstan. She¡¯s doing that for me, because she has the access to the shop. Still, having Alanea and Littlebit come with me is amazing. We take off into the ¡®Twixt, attempting to focus on landing in Nichtshire D¡¯Locke, and thankfully, arrival goes smoothly, as does departure from my ¡®Twixt town.


    This detour to Jeegoobotstan has re-established my loving relationship with Tiktik, and with Alanea as well. It¡¯s also managed to secure the curing and the cooperation of Zelshiz and a large platoon of Spellknights. Plus, as well, we¡¯ve acquired a dozen ancient dragon consorts, and last but certainly not least, an amazing goblin inventor by the name of Littlebit. Plus, we¡¯ve set up Tiktik and the Aasimovians in such a way as to begin cultivating endless sustainability. If we all make it home safely, this was a massively beneficial side-mission.


    I¡¯m only hoping that it was all worth the delay in returning home, when my beloved new family, the Onyx Dawn, are suffering a siege.

 B 6 C 155: Spaced

    Whilst in the ¡®Twixt, the goggles don¡¯t work, nor any other scrying sensor paired with a sensor in the normal physiplanar region of Rayileklia, of course, as expected. I¡¯d almost wonder if the ¡®Twixt were a spiritual realm, but it can¡¯t be. The coinage I made in the shop followed me out of the ¡®Twixt, and any materials or equipment that I kept from the ¡®Twixt also stayed with me, other than coins earned from creatures, or quests. Plus, most of Tiktik¡¯s magical gear came from quests in the ¡®Twixt as she¡¯d mentioned, err, well, all of hers did.


    It would probably take near a century before the ¡®Twixt started propagating dungeons or such for me. At least any that would provide me with enchanted equipment as loot. I can¡¯t risk spending that much time there. I¡¯ve only got about ten years of dragonforce, if I don¡¯t use any of it doing anything other than surviving. Not to mention the whole brain exploding and memories thing.


    Sighing, I¡¯d love to be able to just move everyone to the ¡®Twixt, and simply live out our lives there, taking on low-stakes adventures if we choose to, for amusement. That would mean abandoning Rayileklia, and any innocent people we haven¡¯t met yet, to several apocalypses, not to mention, probably never seeing Can¡¯Z¡¯aas and our family again. Drawing a shuddering breath, I barely refrain from sobbing as I think about Lao, Ag, Lightning, the several sets of twins, Fawns, Jaz, Dreams, and all the wonderful people around the Miracle Oak. Someday. Someday, somehow, I¡¯ll make it back there but not right now. Though I¡¯ll always be wondering when.


    Rattling my skull from a BSOD, I realize that I¡¯m missing out on things as I hear Littlebit request, ¡°Could you set that one up just like I showed you Tikki? No pranks on these please, they¡¯re sensitive, and not great quality. Thanks honeybuns. I¡¯ll take some readings, and leave this batch here with you, keep them on, especially any time you¡¯re taking trips in and out. If they fritz out, you know how to adjust them. Careful with the positronics though. They¡¯re a little zaphappy if they need to be adjusted. I couldn¡¯t exactly afford shielding. Mmmrrr I missed your goonish grinning face so bad you dummy. I¡¯m gonna miss you again, but I promise if I can¡¯t figure things out, I¡¯ll beg for a ride back this way.¡±


    Blushing, I avert my gaze as the lovers embrace. Alanea does the same, though not quite with as much expedience as me, and perhaps a bit of an obviously piqued curiosity. The passion literally raises the temperature in this catacomb alcove we¡¯re standing in. More to my chagrin, after a few moments of smooching Littlebit, Tiktik launches herself at me with her magical hand, and plasters herself to my face. I don¡¯t want to mess things up for her with Littlebit, but then again we¡¯re all Fae, and monogamy isn¡¯t really a big thing with us. Still, despite how hungrily Tiktik kisses me, I kiss her softly, tenderly in response. There¡¯s playful pouting beneath her adorably upturned nose as her lips tug downwards and back away from our kiss.


    Kitten mutters, ¡°Be good Tiger. Protect her, like I¡¯m sure you will. Stay safe too. You¡¯re the best thing in the world next to her. Thank you so much. Tell Big T hi for me. With lots of lips, and tongue. ¡®N¡¯ if Bitty gets lonely, keep her company. Please.¡±


    Sharply inhaling a ragged breath, I barely refrain from sobbing at the heartfelt farewell from Tiktik. My lower jaw quivers, and Alanea pats me on the hip comfortingly. Tiktik and Littlebit embrace, again, and it seriously looks like it¡¯s about to turn into a constant circle of Tiktik trying to make sure she evens out affection between the two of us. The Draconiacs led by Zelshiz are nearby though. Thankfully, Zelshiz coughs for attention, breaking the cycle.


    As much as I¡¯d give in, and repeat hugging and kissing Tiktik til the end of time, it¡¯s better this way. The poor Draconiacs have been patiently waiting on this side of the ¡®Twixt portal for however many hours my visit to the Heart lasted. It probably wasn¡¯t too many, since I summarized more than told a full tale to Jarrah.


    Still, at this point, I¡¯m anxious to get headed back towards Mount Solace. Directing everyone out, I glance over my shoulder as Tiktik stares down contraptions with her tongue poking slightly out of her mouth. She turns a sheet of instructions sideways, and upside down, repeatedly, and I can¡¯t tell if she¡¯s just pranking me and Littlebit, since she¡¯s probably sure we¡¯re watching her as we leave. The two of us can¡¯t help smiling at the woman we both love, and we each shake our heads. Sighing, I flash a raised brow at Littlebit, who nods, completely understanding, and agreeing entirely, so we share a chuckle.


    When we reunite with Luni, Lil, and Lucky, they¡¯ve been introduced to most of the people I know, and the twelve ancients. Surprisingly, no one seems ready to leave. I begin to facepalm, realizing we need a route above the Worldstorm to get back home, and Kinzul doesn¡¯t seem to be at Solace, to be reachable. Sighing to myself, I shake my head sadly at my own stupidity. At least we can reunite Triorgraiz¡¯s mount with her, sort of. Hopefully he remains placid, and recovers alongside her. He¡¯s been rather weak this entire time, and I¡¯ve been keeping him shrunk. Now that we¡¯ve got them reunited, I get to go back to thinking about how I¡¯m an idiot that had Luni use a one-way ticket below the storm.


    Actually, wait. My new Caliber. Expression of my Latent¡ª. Hm. If they can all hold their breath, I¡¯m almost certain I can nullify the storm. Maybe. It could potentially possibly blow through a hell of a lot of dragonforce though, if it works.


    Clucking her tongue at me, Luni offers up, ¡°If we sleep here tonight, I can control the clouds tomorrow with the magic harp strings Lucky found for me. Really sweetie, you don¡¯t have to do, and think of, everything.¡±


    Oh, that is true, but I¡¯m antsy to return home since there¡¯s a siege going on. Blushing, I respond, ¡°I¡ª, you¡¯re right. Thanks Lu. You keep me anchored, as always. Still, would you be willing to organize everyone? I guess you and Alanea know each other already, and Lil and Lucky too. Anyway, um, for organizing everyone. Could you tell them they need to be as small as they can be while still carrying passengers and being able to provide lift? They¡¯ll need to fit more or less inside my Honoris Causa¡¯s manifested Void Dragon form. I guess I might be flying back to Solace under my own power, because everyone¡¯s going to need to take at least three passengers. Um. Littlebit, if you want, I can carry you, if that isn¡¯t too awkward.¡±


    Littlebit shrugs, completely unfazed, though I¡¯m not sure if it came across that I¡¯d have to physically carry and hold her close, while my manifestation does the flying. This is going to be an extremely odd exercise. I¡¯ll be manifesting and maintaining the physicality, or tangibility, of most of my wings, most of the time, while the rest of my manifested form remains mostly intangible, so that the other dragons, Lil included, can fit within my wingspan. Phooph. I pass a breath out through puffed cheeks and pursed lips before sighing.


    What if I get people injured doing this though? Should I just take Luni¡¯s suggestion? Gnawing on the inside of my cheek, I glance towards my Anchor who simply shrugs in response while wearing a half-frown. Glancing towards Lil, he similarly shrugs. I roll my eyes momentarily, but I glance at Lucky, wondering if he has any input on whether we should risk leaving immediately, taking a gamble on an ability I¡¯ve never really used before.


    My son transforms, gaining a tremendous size, startling plenty of refugees, and plenty of our current party. He picks up Trixxie in his jaws, and brings her to me like a stick he¡¯s hoping that I¡¯ll throw. I can¡¯t help but burst out laughing at the mental imagery. Still, he sets her down in front of me, facing me, before shrinking, and leaping at her, to perch with his front paws on her shoulders, while his hind legs reach the ground.


    Raising an eyebrow at Trixxie, I motion for her to speak her mind. She glances around nervously and queries, ¡°When um, when can we¡ª. Will I have a, glp, quarters? Or, or will I be in some sort of kennel with your, erm, son?¡±


    Pft. Unable to prevent it, I find myself snorting with laughter at the idea of keeping either Lucky, or Trixxie in a kennel. Still, if she¡¯s nervous about staying out here, and wanting to get to her new accommodations, then that answers my question, because the other Draconiacs are likely feeling the same. Glancing around, reading the room as best I can, that does seem to be the case.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Smirking unintentionally, I answer, ¡°Never fear Trixxie, we¡¯ll get you set up in some quarters. Lucky doesn¡¯t sleep in a kennel, or even have one, he has access to all of our rooms, and sleeps with whomever he chooses. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he chose yours frequently. Anyway, saddle up everyone! We ride, and fly!¡±


    I quietly, quickly mutter my titles so as not to come off like a bragging idiot, so that I¡¯m able to manifest my Honoris Causa. As I¡¯m doing so, I TKSL upwards towards the Worldstorm, taking several deep breaths until my lungs are full enough to hold my breath for quite some time. Holding Littlebit tightly to my torso is incredibly similar to holding Tiktik in the same position. The fact that she has her limbs wrapped tightly around me, and is firmly pressing her overalls-covered chest to mine is, well, delightful. Though I do suppose I¡¯d have liked to be in a cozy cave, comfortably clothed, rather than outside, dressed in armor, beneath the Worldstorm, to experience such an embrace. Rattling my skull, I try to dissuade myself from thinking about Tiktik¡¯s lover in that manner.


    Apparently, Littlebit, when wrapped in my arms, benefits from the near-weightlessness of the Wyverian chestplate enchantment. Wyverium? I forget. It hardly matters. She¡¯s tucked her various clanking automatons into an interdimensional bag, thankfully, since it¡¯d have been hard to carry them all at all, let alone with our smaller load capacities as I attempt to keep everyone within a safe distance of my center.


    As the flight of dragons raises up to meet me where I wait just beneath the Worldstorm, I focus on manifesting my Void Dragon form to its greatest size, and bringing its wings to tangibility. The size I¡¯m capable of manifesting at astounds me, and I¡¯m grateful that most of my form is intangible, because much of it is already in the Worldstorm. My Honoris Causa¡¯s Void Dragon form is definitely, definitely at the level and size of ancients now. Not necessarily Damnations, or even someone like Qlaxi, but perhaps closer to Illy or Farzhis, or at least Prinrin.


    Focusing on my Latent, an expression of Nothing, I struggle to grasp the concept in such a way as to make our passage through a region of nothing. No dangers, but also no gravity, and no air. I essentially turn the space around me, well, the space within the manifested form of my draconic-self, into actual space. I¡¯m able to perch within it, from several sources of abilities actually, but everyone else will have to have their acceleration carry them upward. Anyone lagging slightly, I¡¯ll try to boost with telekinesis, or TK Squares at least, to give them something to push off of.


    It¡¯s a tad risky. None of us are exactly the pinnacle of choreography, but I focus on all my various enhanced senses while we begin, and throughout. Sure enough, not everyone has the exact same acceleration. I¡¯m able to match up my own with the fastest amongst us, due to being able to actually grip onto nothing, and use it as easily as water or air to swim or fly through. I¡¯m able to bolster the slowest, by providing telekinetic squares. My dragonforce is rapidly being stripped away by the manifestation of this power, the degree to which I¡¯m controlling it, and just, so many factors that I likely don¡¯t even comprehend. I¡¯m under thirty-five-hundred days of dragonforce, and losing another fifty to a hundred days worth every few seconds during this climb.


    I¡¯m fairly certain that Lil is growing as we edge closer to the top of the Worldstorm, which is good, because I¡¯m going to need a place to land, and a ride to Solace, so that I don¡¯t burn through all of my dragonforce flying home. I didn¡¯t expect it to take *this much* dragonforce to get through the storm. I accidentally allow myself to take a deep breath and sigh momentarily, messing up my momentum slightly, but not for the exact reason I¡¯d normally expect. There¡¯s no gravity, or air, in my current bubble, but the shock of being able to breathe with no atmosphere startles me, and I nearly mess up my control, despite knowing I have an enchanted neckchain that provides this exact benefit. I¡¯m forced to quickly reattune my senses to everyone around me, in order to maintain their rates of acceleration and so on.


    It only occurs to me as we¡¯re breaking through, that I probably could have physically manifested folds of my wings, or my talons, for the other dragons to sit on, so that I didn¡¯t need to do so much acceleration management. When we break through, above the Worldstorm, and I¡¯m certain everyone has gotten above it, the dozen ancients begin growing at my signal. They¡¯re exclaiming things like, ¡°Ah, the sun,¡± and, ¡°it feels so good to be flying again,¡± and so on.


    As everyone adjusts, I drop my Latent, and my Honoris Causa, causing me to have to perch on a TKS while I await Lil, or someone else, to be available to board. Lil is already currently ferrying Luni, Lucky, Alanea, and Trixxie, but he rolls his eyes at me, as if another couple of people is even remotely a problem for him. Smirking at my best pal, I leap and float over his way, to sit next to Luni, who happens to be in the death-grip of Trixxie once again. There¡¯s a similar smirk playing across Luni¡¯s features, as she mentally points out Littlebit is both looking a little bit blue in the face from holding her breath, and she¡¯s got me in as equally tight a death grip as Trixxie has Luni in.


    Chuckling, I tap Littlebit¡¯s cheeks, poking them so that she¡¯ll exhale and breathe. Apologizing, I start, ¡°Sorry about that Littlebit, I should have traded you my neckchain temporarily. Are you alright?¡±


    Nodding, Littlebit doesn¡¯t respond, though she gasps a few deep breaths. Gulping, she glances over the side of Lil, and suddenly wraps her legs and arms around me even tighter, which I didn¡¯t think was possible. I can hear her muttering, ¡°Don¡¯t look down, don¡¯t look down,¡± to herself, over and over. Grimacing a bit, I feel like a jerk for bringing her on a flight if she has, what is it, acrophobia?


    I¡¯m not certain how affectionate I should be with Tiktik¡¯s lover, but I do want to console her. Stroking her dark hair, I coo affectionately, comfortingly down into her amazing, lovely large ears, while my chin rests atop her head, just above her goggles that are perched atop it. I¡¯m getting a massive urge to nibble on these ears, or clamp them in my mouth. Is this the desire that Teuila feels all the time? Tiktik was right though. Littlebit is definitely a koff, sexy, koff, woman.


    Luni grumps my way telepathically, and I can¡¯t help grinning that my tease landed, because I knew she¡¯d be listening in. Her jaw drops, and her telepathic avatar swats at mine, realizing I¡¯d turned the tables for once by playing at her jealousy. Besides, Lu has her arms around Alanea¡¯s waist, which is short enough that they¡¯re also pillowing Alanea¡¯s, well, pillows. I can¡¯t help smirking as this nets me further flabbergasted reactions from Luni. I wonder if Lu remembers what I¡¯d said about Alanea. I know they¡¯ve met, from the Triple L Squad¡¯s time in the Hidden Heart, but I don¡¯t know how well they know each other. They were at least friendly enough to spend a few moments catching up before I had us lift off.


    The flight home is smooth, and checking in on Teuila several times seems to indicate that she¡¯s already home. She¡¯s dashing about tunnels that are being painted and numbered, so that it¡¯s easier to figure out where people, or threats, are in relation to the security center, and so on. I doubt any other mountain has that currently, plus, I spot a blurry figure zooming past several other scrying windows on occasion, when Teuila would be passing them. I¡¯m so glad she¡¯s okay, and there are no further notes about anyone being injured, or the siege going poorly.


    The scrying is better than an HD webcam, far more accurate than a normally low FPS security camera, and all, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that to be able to see the whole security center, we had to set up the sensors connected to the goggles a ways away, which makes all of the mirrors slightly small viewing screens comparatively. Still, it¡¯s easy enough to request an operator slide our display box out of the shelf, and hold our sensor up to someone else¡¯s, in order to be able to get a full view of what they¡¯re seeing, or of a particular hallway, and so on.


    So many of my resources are spent, that I need to rest before doing much else. Hopefully though, I can get some crafting and enchanting done tonight, with the myconid form, as long as I don¡¯t use it for too long. It feels foolish to be resting, during a siege, but I need to be at my best to really offer much help against it. As is, I¡¯m simply equivalent to one of our stronger dragons when they¡¯re exhausted and beat to hell, with no powers, and a weaker breath weapon.


    I haven¡¯t been using my breath weapon as much as I should, or could, but it¡¯s mostly only to disorient, and I¡¯ve got injuries to recover from, which I don¡¯t want to exacerbate by requiring more regeneration of my own throat. The bruises, broken bones, and even perforated torso are starting to recover decently, but there¡¯s still a few days of recovery left for them to heal up fully. To be honest, I¡¯m surprised at how fit, and rested I feel. I don¡¯t know whether that¡¯s because I was getting plenty of sleep in the ¡®Twixt, if my regeneration perhaps did something in there, or if it¡¯s because I¡¯m surrounded by people that I love, and stoked to be heading home with yet more new family.


    As we draw up to the aerie, I¡¯m greeted by a most-welcome sight, my wife, the Vivant, the Dormir, Teuila, all seeming more or less alive and well. Though Te, the Dormies, and Vivvies all seem a bit haggard. Well, more like beat to sh!7 honestly. Wearing a bit of a wry smile, I make note of a bunch of civilians on the aerie as well, and I really hope this isn¡¯t going to turn into some sort of big public event.

 B 6 C 156: Several Returns

    Leaping off of Lil, I flip down towards the aerie, probably spooking the crap out of Littlebit, having forgotten I¡¯ve got her latched onto me like a vice. Room is slowly cleared for the unexpected swathe of guests, or, well, new arrivals. Whatever you¡¯d like to call them.


    I¡¯m about to start explaining, when I begin hearing murmurs from the civilians of things like, ¡°Woah, no way. Is that Schism? Does Schism look super-hot to anyone else with those horns and that, mm tail?¡±


    Blushing, I try to focus on what I was going to do in order to fill people in. Instead, one of the ancients that lands assumes his human form, after unloading his passengers, and attempts to muscle me aside to speak to my wife. He¡¯s unsuccessful in muscling me aside, but he certainly has both of our attention. He waves towards the other eleven ancients landing, indicating them as he bows before Kinzul.


    Furrowing her brow, my wife muses, ¡°Harrelk? I¡ª, hadn¡¯t expected to ever see you again. The answer is still no, but, I¡¯m glad to see you¡¯re well.¡±


    A bit cheekily, the ancient responds, ¡°Well, since apparently your spouse murdered mine, I figured it was worth a shot at least. Besides. It¡¯s good to see Solace again, knowing it¡¯s been doing well under your care all this time.¡±


    Flushing with embarrassment at having been called out as a murderer, I struggle to maintain my calm. I beat myself up about the very same thought, quite constantly, but Harrelk passed it off as a joke. I can¡¯t say I¡¯m fond of the idea of joking with someone¡¯s morality identity.


    When Kinzul turns to me, and jokes, ¡°Really my love, you bring me a dozen new suitors, such a short time after we¡¯d wed? It almost seems like you don¡¯t desire our bond after all,¡± I nearly trip over to fall flat on my face.


    Choking on my own tongue, I cough and sputter, while Kinzul grins deviously across our mental wavelengths. Right, I forgot. That¡¯s where Illy gets it from. I can hear Iylynila snickering quietly beneath her breath from a short ways away. And of course, Prinrin is cackling along our telepathic wavelength.


    One wavelength I did not expect, and especially didn¡¯t expect in the current emotion, glp, is Farzhis¡¯s. I¡¯m feeling waves of, erm, I hope I¡¯m wrong, but lust, I think aimed my direction. I can sense her attempting to corral her wits, and rattle her senses though.


    Across our telepathic bond, in her delightful accent, Farzhis responds to my senses, ¡°It¡¯s jus¡¯, you¡¯re blue, an¡¯ those horns, an¡¯ tha¡¯ tail¡ª. I, uh, jus¡¯ don¡¯ wan¡¯ to misrea¡¯ things.¡±


    My eyes flash wide, not even realizing my skin pigment had returned to the chaotic magic color without my noticing yet again! No wonder people weren¡¯t sure I was me when looking at me! It keeps on doing this! How much time have I spent blue since dying, despite having attempted to transform it away?


    Unthinkingly, I quickly verbally assure Farzhis aloud, ¡°Oh, oh crap! I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s just, I died, and was reincarnated, and cursed by chaotic magic to turn blue and¡ª, erk! Not that it¡¯s a curse to be blue! Blue¡¯s an incredibly lovely color and looks beautiful on you, absolutely, I, I mean, crap. Wild, crazy, chaotic magic hit me with a bunch of random effects. One of those was apparently to set my default pigmentation to be blue, such that I have to be actively fighting to remain any other pigment apparently.¡±


    There¡¯s more than a little bit of sudden silence on the aerie, and startlement along telepathic wavelengths at hearing my admitting to Farzhis that I died. Whoops. I was going to be more delicate about that. Now everyone on the aerie knows. Kinzul gazes on at me worriedly, and I don¡¯t know what to do to comfort her, or assuage her fears. I attempt to approach her, but I¡¯m balked for several reasons.


    I realize I¡¯ve still got a gorgeous goblin woman clinging to me for dear life, which causes me to facepalm. Struggling to return to my normal pigmentation with my shapechanging, and gently attempting to set Littlebit on firm ground, I¡¯m about to try to start defusing the situations that are rapidly spiraling out of control at this conflux of events and meetings.


    Of course, as I¡¯m about to do that, I hear gasping, and Shiz asking, ¡°Little Zel? I¡¯ve not seen you since I was training you and sparring. Star pupil you were!¡±


    Gnawing my lip, I spy Zel almost glowing, or even perhaps blushing at the praise as they respond, ¡°Zelshiz now, my lord.¡±


    Woah. Shiz is now definitely blushing as he stares wide-eyed at Zelshiz. Coughing to compose himself, Shiz offers up, ¡°I¡¯m, err, flattered. You sure about that? I, I don¡¯t object mind you. I mean, at all. I¡¯m actually, koff. I just, I mean, I¡¯m a dragon, and you¡¯re a Drakk. We¡¯d, koff, um, what I mean is¡ª.¡±


    There¡¯s timidity, blushing, pride, and a whole lot more coming off of Zelshiz in waves. Oh. I¡¯m guessing that taking on his name as part of hers, or his, like that, um, wow. I¡¯m still not sure the best way to approach Zelshiz¡¯s bigender terminology, but at least I think that¡¯s not going to get in the way of what¡¯s happening here.


    Mumbling apologetically, I offer, ¡°I¡¯ll, um, maybe you two want some privacy to catch up? I¡¯m¡ª, yeah, glad you¡¯re okay Zel. Neither of you are obligated to stay up here while I fill everyone in, if, erm, yeah. If you don¡¯t need privacy, don¡¯t mind me.¡±


    Of course, my loving wife asks aloud, what everyone is thinking, ¡°So my love, what exactly happened today that you return to Solace with so many new faces? New and old alike.¡±


    Blushing now myself, once again, I start off, ¡°Right, erm, those of you that are new to Solace, that came with from Vorzog¡¯s Keep, you¡¯re technically our prisoners, because you surrendered and accepted mercy, which means we will protect you, and that you do not have to fight in this war. You may choose to fight alongside us if you so wish, and it seems that that may be the case, since you elected not to stay in the ¡®Twixt. Whichever you choose, you¡¯ll be sheltered, fed, cared for, and protected, like family. Thank you for accepting my mercy. Thank you for choosing to accompany me and Zelshiz back to my home.¡±


    Turning slightly, I further address, ¡°To the dozen ancients, I haven¡¯t yet gotten your names, sorry. You are here because we slew Qlaxianna, two of her consorts, and two of her enforcers, that were extorting the refugees in the ruins of Jeegoobotstan. You came of your own free will after being convinced by Driezyln. Whether you simply seek shelter at Solace, a home, a place to belong, to aid us in battle, or to court my wife Kinzul, you are welcome here so long as you remain peaceful and respectful to all its denizens. Lady Kinzul will handle sorting out any courting she does or does not want to allow. I respect her wishes, autonomy, and every last bit of her.¡±


    Addressing the goblin cutie that¡¯s returned to clinging to me, despite us having been landed for a while, I whisper directly into one of her amazing, gorgeous massive ears, almost silently, with my psychic walls temporarily up, almost entirely for Kinzul¡¯s benefit so as not to call out Littlebit to everyone on the aerie, ¡°And you Littlebit, lover of my beloved Tiktik, inventor, artificer, I will be introducing you to someone whose talents are similar to your own, as well as to a wealth of both materials, and tools of the finest qualities. You don¡¯t have to fight, ever, if you don¡¯t wish, though it seems like your automatons, your robots, your golems, might be combat capable. For Tiktik¡¯s heart, I will protect you with all that I have, and all that I am. You¡¯re safe.¡±


    Blushing, chagrined when she realizes she¡¯s clinging desperately to the spouse of the domain¡¯s ruler, right in front of that ruler, Littlebit scratches the back of her head, appearing abashed. She mutters, ¡°Clankers,¡± and as I raise my eyebrow, having overheard her muttering, she explains, ¡°That¡¯s what I call them, anyway. They¡¯re my clankers. Your names are good for them too.¡±


    Smiling at Littlebit, I¡¯m happy calling them whatever she¡¯d like. Hm, speaking of the inventor that I want to introduce her to¡ª. Kinzul telepathically interrupts me, chiding, ¡°It seems that since you¡¯ve started her on various projects, and granted her tools, boons, and magical equipment, Nala has been somewhat remiss in her duties as librarian. She¡¯s been apparently spending every waking moment in your craftworks in Mount Verdimenn.¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I¡¯m incredibly grateful when Kinzul smirks and looses the tiniest chuckle, indicating she¡¯s not actually upset by the situation wherein Nala has been exploring her new interest in artificery. Sighing, I take in the sight of so many people so utterly beloved to me, gathered in one spot. I wish Iylynila didn¡¯t request or require me to have my walls up on our psychic wavelength, but I trust her to look after her own emotions and what¡¯s best for her.


    Suddenly, Kinzul announces, ¡°As my spouse, our Hero has said, welcome all. To those of you interested in courting me, the answer of course is no. We¡¯ve a war to fight, I¡¯ve no time for such things. If you wish to in some small way curry my favor, then serve the Order itself as if it were your lady, your mistress, your master. Sun, my beloved son, I¡¯ve need of you for a short moment. Muse, my beloved bard, I¡¯ve need of you for the eve as soon as you¡¯re able. The rest of you either rest, or engage the siege below to rout any of its remaining forces still near our domain that have not already fallen back or been felled.¡±


    Rattling my skull, I double check my portable hole, in order to make sure Shlendtikuar, Chuck, and the lovebirds are out of it. Okay, apparently I let them out earlier, whew. There they are over there. Once I¡¯m certain that everyone is on the aerie, I pack it back up.


    Sighing, I¡¯ll be attempting to head towards rest as soon as I¡¯m able to, but I¡¯ve got things to wrap up. When Pawn comes streaking up to the aerie, I expect her to zoom straight to Prinrin, but I¡¯m surprised to find her in my arms, with tear-streaked face. She¡¯s muttering thanks to me, and I can only hazard a guess as to why. I stroke her back and comfort her as best I¡¯m able, cooing softly as I rest my chin along her jaw, nuzzling her lightly.


    Miraina telepathically sends to both me and Prinrin, ¡°Schism, the powers you shared saved me today, probably saved a lot of us. Me and Shiz and the Eight¡ª. It was so scary. I¡¯ve never been so scared.¡± Though she continues to sob for a while, her eyes open and dry enough to take me in, leading to her musing, ¡°I¡ª. What¡¯s this now? Blue, and horns and a tail? Not exactly scales, but¡ª.¡±


    Flustering, I recall how Miraina had said that any mate of hers needs to have scales at least most of the time. Prinrin frowns at Miraina across our telepathic wavelength, when her daughter went from frightened to¡ª foxy in the blink of an eye. A tad chagrined, Pawn withdraws, and rushes to her mother. I rattle my skull, attempting to shake loose any rude or indecent thoughts. Though I¡¯d dearly like to check in with so many of these people that are so beloved to me, there¡¯s enough of a cluster of a social gathering that I¡¯m beyond uncomfortable, and it would take too much time to interject into conversations to talk to them individually.


    Sighing, I float down into the feasting hall from the aerie while carrying Littlebit. Prinrin and Pawn apparently rush after me. I really hope I¡¯m not about to be tag teamed by another mother daughter tease fest. I¡¯ve already got one of those going on. Not that Miraina isn¡¯t an absolutely wonderful young woman, but¡ª, erk, never mind. Yes, I can sense the two of you smirking. You aren¡¯t subtle at all. Not that any of us wants you to be, but I think we all need some rest, and I¡¯ve got too many irons in too many fires to be able to spare the time blushing. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re both okay. I¡¯ll trust you to forgive me if I happen to accidentally think about Pawn¡¯s implication of dating or mating me.


    Whispering telepathically to Miraina I add, ¡°Seriously though, I¡¯m so glad the powers were helpful to you Pawn. I¡¯d be devastated if you were hurt, or worse, no longer here when I returned. Obviously your mother would be as well, and that would doubly break my heart. You¡¯re so brave, and thoughtful, and kind. Please stay safe.¡±


    Apparently the blue pigmentation comes back within a minute of me changing it out to my normal pigmentation. I facepalm, because I see Farzhis leaning around a corner to gaze after me, struggling with her own feelings. She¡¯s still got grief on her plate, and went to battle today, she really doesn¡¯t need whatever confusing signals I¡¯m unintentionally sending to have to deal with on top of all that. Poor sweetling. Rattling my skull, I organize a few volunteers to help with intake, including Alanea, since she¡¯ll be heading up the infirmary, and most of our new Draconiac Spellknights need to be taken to the infirmary.


    I feel more than a tad abashed that I haven¡¯t really spoken to Alanea since we left the Heart. Plus, I¡¯m still missing at least ten minutes, up to an hour of memories with her. I feel even worse yet, that I¡¯m basically assigning her a task, and heading off a different direction. I don¡¯t know all of what we spoke about for an hour, but would it have prepared her to be basically tossed into work without us spending time together? It¡¯s insane that a block of time is just missing. Gods, I¡ª. I fell in love with her when I was first in the Heart. I truly did, and I¡¯ve barely said a word to her, despite having apparently requested that she come to join my war effort. I must seem so heartless. Oh, here she comes.


    Before I can apologize, Alanea cuts me off, ¡°Well, I um, I figured it would be sort of, well, like this. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay. I¡¯m not unused to seeing, um, my, well, lover only rarely. Well, I mean, not that we, but, well, not that we aren¡¯t, if, I mean, well. I mean lover. I mean you lover. I mean your lover. I mean my lover. Erm. Eep!¡± After squeaking mousily, Alanea tenses to mumble, ¡°I¡¯ll be in the infirmary.¡±


    When her face ignites into a virtual blaze, I can certainly sympathize. Immediately after, Alanea suddenly rushes off, and I don¡¯t think she even knows where she¡¯s going, because the infirmary isn¡¯t in that direction. I facepalm, because I certainly felt secondhand embarrassment from that brief conversation on her behalf, and I¡¯d have been equally as mortified to accidentally admit the same thing. Still, I mean¡ª. I sigh sadly for a while. It¡¯s not like either of us don¡¯t want that sort of future together. I sort of forget that she can read me like an open book. I suppose all the people I let get close to me can all do that in one way or another.


    Kinzul can literally hear my inner monologue, apparently every minute of every day, no matter where I am or what walls are up. Prinrin¡¯s a whirlwind ride of emotions that can suss out the emotional meanings behind every subtle twitch of the face, and intuit the thoughts behind them. Luni knows me inside and out, thoroughly enough to prevent my brain from destroying itself. Te and I have been together, building our lives¡¯ stories together, almost the entirety of our lives. Iylynila struck some chord in me that let me learn about a part of myself that I didn¡¯t even know I¡¯d had, or would enjoy. Errissa, well, that was a whammy, but I can¡¯t say it¡¯s undeserving. She observed me for a while, maybe a few days straight for all I know, with her being the unobservable Spymaster. Alanea of course can read the story written on my inner changeling-Fae self.


    Sighing, I¡¯m fighting myself again for feeling like some sort of harem-seeking weirdo. I have to remind myself that I¡¯m no such thing. I¡¯m close with dozens and dozens of people. I know hundreds and hundreds of people at least acquaintedly, and I know thousands of people tangentially. I just give my love freely, and that doesn¡¯t necessarily mean romance, or romantic affection. Those that fall within my circles of romantic affection make up a tiny, tiny fraction of the people I know. I¡¯m not just chasing every person that¡¯s aesthetically pleasing to my eye, or attractive visually, or any other such thing, despite how it may seem. It¡¯s not even anywhere on my priorities to find new romantic partners. I barely find time for the ones I have, despite having every desire to be able to do so. Hell, I couldn¡¯t even drag Teuila, My Wings, away from the gathering that¡¯s debriefing and socializing on the aerie.


    I¡¯m only a little surprised at how seemingly little worry they¡¯re paying to the siege, but I know our Queens, Vylon and Vyela, are tremendously powerful, and likely have been deployed to guard the entrances now, rather than guarding the initial shop dugout. Some of the assembled back on the aerie are probably even talking about relief order I suppose. Kinzul would let me know if I needed to hasten to the front in order to break up the siege. One thing I did notice, is that for the first time ever, the Worldstorm is seemingly randomly oscillating close enough to touch Mount Solace, providing no clear path up the mountainside, when there¡¯d always been at least a thin enough trail for someone humanoid-sized to drop down previously. I¡¯m assuming that¡¯s intentional by Kinzul, and not a sign of worse control over the Worldstorm. Hopefully.


    Across our wavelength, in her delectable accent, Farzhis asks, ¡°Schism? D¡¯you¡ª. Sorry. Earlier I hear¡¯ you thinking abou¡¯ the skin. My brain¡¯s jus¡¯, jus¡¯ grasping a¡¯ anything I suppose, with da¡¯ being gone. I like the color on you. A lo¡¯. A lo¡¯ a lo¡¯. Thank you for caring, for no¡¯ wanting to confuse me. I¡¯m worrie¡¯ tha¡¯ you die¡¯ though. Don¡¯ do tha¡¯ again. Please? Please? Jus¡¯, jus¡¯ please? Sorry.¡±


    Gulping back my own emotions to try to present a stable front for Farzhis, I respond, ¡°It¡¯s okay sweetling. I¡¯ll do my best. Sorry to worry you, and sorry about the confusing signals. I swear it¡¯s chaos magic. It saved my life, but, well, side effects. I mean, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t¡ª, erm, anyway. Focus on healing, on taking care of yourself. I¡¯m here for you if you need me.¡±


    Putting my walls up, I just barely stopped myself from pursuing Farzhis. I rattle my skull, frowning at myself. She needs friendship, not someone lusting after her. When she¡¯s healed, at some point after that, if she¡¯s ready to seek romance on her own, she¡¯ll land pretty much anyone she desires. Neither she nor I need me to insert myself anywhere in that process. The reasons she¡¯d land anyone aren¡¯t just because she¡¯s insanely attractive with a delicious accent. She¡¯s charming, endearing, driven, a good person, a hero, warm, funny, and even loving, even though, in her own words, in her own selfish ways.


    Friggin¡¯ a though, Veril is right. Yeesh. Poor guy. I kind of hope they get together in the end, and that they feel sort of monogamous towards each other. They¡¯re sweet together. There¡¯s a bit of cute juxtaposition in the couple too, in that Farzhis is just a bit taller than average, and has a tiny hint of brawn by having the slightest bit more meat on her bones than average, while Veril is shorter and more effeminate than average.

 B 6 C 157: Wasted

    As a blur streaks past me, she calls out telepathically, ¡°I¡¯m gonna go kick some siege butt if I can find any more baddies my Airhead. Take it easy, maybe tune in on your goggles to watch the show! Give Big A some smoochin¡¯ for me, rawr!¡±


    Blushing at Teuila¡¯s, uh, impertinence I guess, I roll my eyes, shake my head and grin like an idiot. Prinrin catches up to me, and frowns, realizing her favorite perch is already held by an adorable goblin woman. She hops to my other side to glom onto me to sit on my left hip with her legs and arms wrapped around me. I¡¯m about to remark on it, when Miraina decides to one-up her mother by glomming onto my front, causing me to nearly topple over for a number of reasons. The¡ª. I can¡¯t say I¡¯m not at least somewhat delighted at the attention, and closeness, of three amazing people whom I¡¯m very enamored of, but this is getting out of hand.


    The young woman is certainly capable of flustering me, and her mother. I understand why she had to play the child card, acting like one for years to keep it from appearing like the only known runt had had a clutch. But it makes it difficult to even accept, or play along with, what might be harmless flirtations that are perhaps more about teasing or annoying her mother than about attracting me. Seemingly abashed, Pawn erm, koff, dismounts me, and instead, goes to ride my tail while clinging to my back.


    I¡¯m¡ª. The way Pawn situates herself is¡ª. This is incredibly awkwardly intimate, to have three short women grasping me nearly for dear life. Three very attractive, short women, some of whom I consider off-limits. A shiver runs down my spine, and I¡¯m not making any progress towards getting Littlebit acquainted with Solace, with Nala, or with Mount Verdimenn. Then again, right now I also want to comfort Miraina, and seek solace in Prinrin¡¯s embrace.


    Today was harrowing for many of us. I shake loose any inappropriate thoughts, and simply tenderly touch Pawn¡¯s hands where they clasp each other in front of my neck. Leaning my head to my left, I rest it on Prinrin¡¯s scalp, feeling her short, mildly spiky hair prickle my chin and jaw. TK Surfing down through Mount Solace is no more difficult with the three women latched onto me than it would be normally though at least.


    Waving at the folks in the forgeworks, I continue onwards to Mount Verdimenn, and unsurprisingly, I see a rather-terrified-looking Leezahna awaiting me near the entrance to the main cavern. When her gaze takes me in, she flinches, but gathers herself upon my approach. I pause my surfing in order to await hearing about any needs that Leeza needs to have addressed. Her face is contorted as she tries to take in my current appearance, but she gathers her wits quickly enough.


    When Leezahna begins, ¡°Schism, there, there, there was a, a, a siege today, is, is a siege. My, my family. They chose a dwelling closest to the exit, they¡ª.¡± My eyes flash wide in horror.


    I interrupt quickly, ¡°Are they alright? Do they need extra protection? Have they been abducted? I¡¯ll go immediately. Tell me whatever you need.¡±


    Balking momentarily, Leezahna blinks at me before answering, ¡°I, I, sorry. I forget that, um, th-that you really mean that. About everyone. They¡¯re, I think they¡¯re fine. I¡¯m just so scared for mother. She¡¯s t-too stubborn t-to move t-to a more interior dwelling. I worry th-that, I¡ª, it¡¯s strange, but not just for her. I got t-to, t-to thinking about numbers, and things. If, if, well, if our defenders have to cover more distance, or t-territory because she refuses to evacuate, is¡ª. Is she going to get someone hurt? I mean, not directly, but, but is th-that, is th-that selfish? Could someone get hurt if she doesn¡¯t listen? I, I hate th-that I even think about stuff like this. It¡¯s your fault, but, but I think it¡¯s the right thing to think about. I hate you more every day. Glp. Th-thank you for, for not killing me for it.¡±


    Well that¡¯s another dagger of guilt twisting in my guts. I mean, I guess I¡¯m honored that she blames me for her having a wider social conscience. I understand how it can be difficult, even painful, to realize that your actions, or the actions of those you care about, affect other people. I sigh softly. Yeah. I¡¯d blame the person who introduced me to or forced me to find or face my conscience as well. Luni was right. We¡¯ll never be friends. And the only reason we won¡¯t be enemies, is because Leeza actually *is* a good person, deep down. She¡¯ll resent me forever though. I accept the papers in Leezahna¡¯s hands to review them momentarily while I think of what to say.


    Passing a breath through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I start, ¡°Leeza, I¡¯m impressed, honored, touched that you would think with such wide social conscience. I¡¯m proud of you. I¡ª, I don¡¯t think the difference in distance is great enough that she¡¯s specifically causing problems for our defenders, such that someone else might get hurt, thankfully. It¡¯s astute of you to try to determine that. She¡ª, she should evacuate, for her own safety, and that of any of your other family, but we¡¯ll protect them regardless. Thank you for your hard work on these. Can you keep gathering them for a few days, and compare numbers of spawns, with the output and where it goes? Collate them, um, bind them together in a relevant order for me, please? You¡¯re doing great work.¡±


    There¡¯s more than a hint of satisfaction, and a bit of beaming pride burbling up within Leezahna. It fights with the resentment, and cold fury that she has for me, but doesn¡¯t win out. She reclaims the paperwork with the volumes of respawning warrens outputs, and does a snooty about-face with a, ¡°hmph,¡± before realizing that she¡¯s displaying obnoxious snubbing behavior. I can spot the exact moment when it dawns on her what she just did as her posture tenses up so hard that she freezes in place as a shiver travels down her spine. I can sense her gulping before she quickly scurries away towards her new home.


    Not altogether too surprisingly, a reedy, cracked, familiar feminine telepathic voice reaches out to me, calling out in a singsong, teasy, almost flirty manner, ¡°Schism! Heeyyy pal. These swanky digs like the one you got made up for Princess, do you think I could get one next to Lil¡¯s room? Or maybe me and Zayzi? I know you like them too, and then they¡¯d be right next to your bedroom too.¡± Almost salaciously, she adds, ¡°For whatever you two do when you¡¯re alone. They¡¯re happier than they¡¯ve been in a long, long time y¡¯know.¡±


    Trying not to facepalm, I respond, ¡°Ixey, if you want a room next to Lil¡¯s, you can ask Lil or Lucky. I¡¯m not some ruler or tyrant or something. I don¡¯t command everything that happens, even if a lot of the area was¡ª, okay all of the area was created at my request, but that¡¯s just because Lil and Lucky are wonderful guys who¡¯ll help out almost anyone that asks. Also, as much as I love you, and Zayzi, you¡¯re being a dork. Don¡¯t use Zayzi like a bargaining chip you goober. Plus you and I both know they don¡¯t want romance, much less like, bedroom private time.¡±


    While it might be a fun insinuation at most times, at the moment it grates against me slightly when Ixey responds in a long singsong, ¡°Are you suuuure about that? I mean, if nothing else, *I¡¯d* be right next to your bedroom tooooo.¡±


    I don¡¯t know how Lil or Ixey feel about monogamous relationships or their dating status. I¡¯m flattered by the insinuation, and I do actually like Zayzi, and by extension, Ixey, or, well, maybe I even just like Ixey for herself, but¡ª. If I didn¡¯t know any better, I¡¯d think Ixey was dru¡ª. I facepalm. We started up liquor supply lines. She is drunk. Now I¡¯m not even sure I want to respond to her at all, because I don¡¯t want to cause her to say, or do something she¡¯ll regret. Or worse, help her do something she¡¯ll regret.


    Ugh, she¡¯s kind of fun and flirty while she¡¯s drunk, and I could totally see enjoying her company, and her chatter in my head, if I weren¡¯t pretty sure that she¡¯d have regrets when she sobered up. I understand more and more why Lil likes her, but this is just awkward. Will she be okay with even what she¡¯s just said, or implied so far, if she remembers it come tomorrow? Poor Ixey. I know that her flirting towards Lil isn¡¯t too different from this, but her having no inhibitions about who she¡¯s aiming it towards has to be the alcohol. I think.


    She¡¯s really, extremely friendly across our telepathic wavelength right now, and it feels *nice*. I¡¯m pretty sure that when she sobers up, she¡¯s going to be pissed at herself for what she just implied. If our friendship was a bit tighter, I might even tease her about it, because she¡¯d be mortified with embarrassment if I brought it up. Ugh, she¡¯s even cutely giggling and hiccuping into our telepathic bond at this point. I carefully, softly slam my head into the nearest wall, repeatedly, taking care not to jostle or injure my three passengers.


    Shaking my head, I ask, ¡°Ixey, do you want me to bring you some water? I think you should maybe get some water and rest up. You¡¯re¡ª, you¡¯re not yourself right now. I don¡¯t want you saying or doing things you¡¯d regret.¡±


    Floating along in the direction of Leeza¡¯s room, where I can tell Ixey must be telepathically communicating from, I balk at the entryway. Leeza¡¯s never explicitly invited me in, and barging in would tell her that I don¡¯t respect her privacy. In fact, I hear what sounds like exaggeratedly wet, or sloppy, kissing. It ends after only a moment though, so perhaps I was simply hearing things.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Sighing, as I¡¯m about to knock on the exterior wall, Ixeyla saunters out, looking for all the world to be a sultry drunk human college girl. Even the way her shirt hangs loose on her gangly form, off of one shoulder, has its own appeal. Rattling my skull, I shake my head at both Ixey and myself. As I¡¯m about to sigh exasperatedly, Ixey takes in my current form and her eyes go wide.


    I swear to gumshoes, if one of the chaos magic side effects was a temporary, or worse, permanent, lust aura, I¡¯m going to break magic in half. Ixey stumbles forward towards me, intending to dance her lanky digits up my chest but ends up toppling into my arms. I carefully set her down at arms length as I reach out telepathically for Lil. Thankfully, he appears to be on his way. Apparently whatever Kinzul needed to say to him was extremely short after all.


    Biting my lips, I struggle to not respond as Ixey pouts and asks telepathically, ¡°What, don¡¯cha think I¡¯m pretty?¡±


    There¡¯s no good answer to that. I don¡¯t want to invite any further drunken advances, but I also don¡¯t want to lie and hurt her feelings by telling her I think she¡¯s not pretty, or worse, unappealing or ugly. She¡¯s not any of those things. Her human form has odd proportions, but she¡¯s still cute despite them. Hell, she is actually really pretty when you get down to thinking about it and admiring her form, even with its unusual proportions. The distinctive uniqueness almost makes¡ª. Huff, this is really not the time to be building up an admiration for her physical features.


    Honestly, the way she¡¯s wearing her shirt loose off one shoulder like that is kind of sexy too, ugh. Ixey struggles to do a bit of drunken stagger dodging to make it closer to me, to get her face right up to mine where she can whisper in my ear. I catch her to keep her from toppling, but she still leans herself against me firmly to get her lips up next to my ear.


    When Ixeyla dejectedly pleads, ¡°Come awn, I¡¯m in heeeeeat.¡ª,¡± I¡¯m barely keeping my composure. Out of nowhere, apparently Ixey spies Lil as she shouts, ¡°Lil, my prince!¡±


    First of all, I¡¯m pretty sure dragons don¡¯t go into heat. I think. Then again, what if dragonkind go into a sort of heat after consuming alcohol? In that case, what have I done by providing spirits to Mount Solace?


    Ixey interrupts my thoughts to, with a hell of an insinuation, salaciously offer up, ¡°Lil¡¯s good at sharing, did you know that? Me, not so much, but I¡¯m sure there¡¯s room for one more in our bed.¡±


    Facepalming, I barely refrain from ramming my forehead into the wall again and again. Prinrin grins deviously, yet Miraina attempts to hide her emotions across our mental wavelengths. I can sense Miraina trying not to giggle though, but even that seems almost like an attempt to cover up something. She seems deep in thought.


    Thankfully Littlebit has no idea what¡¯s going on right now. Lil arrives, and Ixey literally jumps him, throwing herself at him. Since Lil is in dragon form, and Ixey in human form, I do her the favor of catching her in the air telekinetically, so she doesn¡¯t impale herself on Lil¡¯s upturned tusks from his underbite-jaw. Lil casts a grateful look my way as he quickly assumes a human form in order to catch Ixey, who wraps her long, gangly limbs around him. Lil carries her away, her mind now entirely occupied by thoughts of her boyfriend, and what she wants to do to him for the rest of the night.


    Yeesh. Even with our less intimate bond, Ixey exudes lust. Passing a sigh through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I shake my head incredulously. What in the everliving hell have I done, by providing alcohol to these goobers? Prinrin and Pawn both snicker.


    Pawn telepathically adds, ¡°Sorry. You didn¡¯t stop by this morning to tell me how you wanted it set up, so I just sort of bought a bunch of things and set them out. It seems like she hit the hooch pretty hard. I guess she was probably pretty worried about Lil today. Also, maybe a bit worried about you too? It¡¯s hard to know.¡±


    Oh, that makes sense. Crap. Now I feel like an ass for not at least trying to respond to her advances a bit in a way that reassured her. Oh well, she¡¯s got Lil, and she knows he¡¯s fine. Casting my senses behind me, I attempt to suss out whether or not Miraina has partaken of any alcohol, if that¡¯s why she¡¯s suddenly clinging to me. When I feel her playing her fears through her mind again and again, I realize alcohol has nothing to do with it. Despite her using teasing and playfulness to cover it up, Miraina is terrified, and just wants to feel safe, comforted, and close to someone.


    Though she attempts to do so quietly, I hear a far-too-loud sigh of relief coming from Leeza¡¯s domicile. I try not to snicker when I hear her quietly exclaim, ¡°Oh thank Platinum the wasted Red left. No more booze in my home after that.¡± More quietly, my hypersensitive hearing picks up Leeza muttering, ¡°I don¡¯t even like girls.¡±


    At that last bit, I blush slightly and keep my lips pursed tightly. The implications are¡ª, well, whatever. Other people¡¯s social lives are their own. Whether it was harmless flirting, making out, or whatever¡ª. People have to deal with the consequences of their own actions, and I have no need to know what those actions were, or consequences are. I really don¡¯t need my brain trying to picture the implied scene. I distract myself by reminding myself that Pawn was terrified, and is still clinging to me for comfort.


    Poor Pawn. It takes a really brave person to act through the fears that she had to face today. I hate that this war is scaring, scarring, and hurting the people I love. Floating us back towards the craftworks, I spy Nala, and I finally get Littlebit to disentangle herself from me, mostly. She grips my cloak like a lost child, afraid to be anywhere without her guide and protector.


    Oh jeeze. Other than the ¡®Twixt, with Tiktik, Littlebit has probably never left the Heart. And worse, her time in the ¡®Twixt had her getting mesmerized by a vampire, one of her fears come to life, so the one place she has visited exterior to home was a frightening experience. Of course she¡¯s going to be as skittish as a frightened child. Holy crap. I¡¯m an ass for not realizing earlier. And here I am, continually trying to pry her off of me in order to assuage my own guilt for feeling attracted to my friend¡¯s lover. Blugh, it¡¯s not like I even really want her off of me. She¡¯s an incredible woman, but I was sort of trying to disentangle us out of respect for Tiktik¡¯s relationship with her.


    Quickly wrapping up my friend¡¯s lover in a tight embrace, and then releasing her, I attempt to introduce the pair, ¡°Curator? Nala? This is Littlebit. She¡¯s an inventor, an artificer, similar to yourself, specializing in things a bit like your clockwork automatons from what I can tell. Littlebit, this is Nala, probably the most brilliant mind in all of Mounts Solace and Verdimenn. If she takes a while to open up, or doesn¡¯t want to collaborate, please don¡¯t hold it against her. Nala, I, well, I won¡¯t ask you to just be friends with someone new, I know you prefer solitude, just, um, I want to give her free reign of the craftworks. She¡¯s very important to someone beloved to me, and some of her ideas, if they pan out, could be huge game changers.¡±


    Nala raises a scaled brow my way, and simply nods at Littlebit, who, after being introduced, now no longer feels the need to latch onto me. She approaches Nala, offers a hand, and announces, ¡°Pleased to meetcha, put¡¯er there square.¡±


    I grimace, unsure if that sounds as insulting to Nala as it did to me. I¡¯m certain it wasn¡¯t meant as such. I think. I¡¯m worried that the meeting of minds is going to go horribly, until Littlebit starts reaching into her own interdimensional bag to deploy her robots. They come out as the small cubes she¡¯d folded them down into. After about a minute¡¯s work on each, having to attach some parts that were separated into their own smaller cubes on the larger clankers, the robots resume their original shapes. Nala drops what she¡¯s doing to stand up, pace around and peer at the metallic creatures before her. All save one are much larger and more complex than any of the little clockwork automatons that Nala has puttering around.


    Of the four currently on display, Littlebit has one clanker of a similar size and complexity to Nala¡¯s, but the other three clankers seem quite more advanced. One looks like a combination between a kangaroo, a dragon, and a firefly. That one¡¯s about as tall as Nala. Littlebit also has of course the one that I¡¯m pretty certain is a robotic displacerbeast. There¡¯s also some sort of flighty faerie-drake-hawk that¡¯s at least twice the size of Nala¡¯s little contraptions. While Littlebit only has four clankers out, I think she either has more, or can make more. Additionaly, I think she can grant them autonomy, without quite the same limits to potential that Nala has. Despite that, Littlebit still makes sure to carefully inspect the artistry of all of Nala¡¯s mini clankers up close, intensely.


    Despite the fact that I actually understand the terminology that¡¯s suddenly dropped between the two like an ambuscade of technobabble facts, I find myself politely bowing out of the abruptly intense¡ª. Rivalry? Friendship? That blossoms in mere moments. As I¡¯m backing away, there¡¯s a sudden shifting, as Pawn and Prinrin race each other to my right hip. Pawn beats her mother due to her Latent, which leaves Prinrin casting a dubious, devious glare across our telepathic wavelengths as she returns to my left hip.


    I roll my eyes, fairly certain that Pawn is playing things up in order to tease her mother, to pay her back for coming home so hurt the other day, and not looking in best-form today either. Shaking my head, I sigh as I¡¯m virtually being used as some sort of psychological battlegrounds between the two women. Floating around Mount Verdimenn with them on my hips, I¡¯m trying to remember what my plans were. I find myself remaining near the hall that leads to our vaults, consequently, unintentionally also near Leeza¡¯s home.


    Alright, anyway, enough nonsense. There¡¯s too much to get done to be focusing on other people¡¯s relationships and such. No matter how much I love Prinrin and Pawn, Solace needs some of the things I can bring to it, and despite wanting to spend time with them, I¡¯ve got to get back to crafting, enchanting, and whatever else I can do. Pawn and Prinrin both pout that I haven¡¯t made so much as a single attempt to call them on their obvious plays for my attention, and they both seem to be about to leave dejectedly.


    Grinning deviously, I demand, ¡°Excuse me? Where do you two think you¡¯re going? After those little stunts, you¡¯re helping me,¡± in a bit too singsongy, teasing voice I finish, ¡°Alll night long.¡±


    The three of us have a round of blushing and devious grinning at one another.

 B 6 C 158: Loot and Love

    Despite them both knowing that I literally mean for them to help me finish up crafting, Prinrin and Pawn stick around anyway. They probably feel that they owe me, since they¡¯ve been distracting me while I was trying to touch base with necessary people at Solace and Verdimenn. Having been working at assuming this form since I arrived on the aerie, the myconid form finally coalesces after a bit of stew dinner via the cauldron, after I cast a full pot of water into it and stir it.


    I catch Leezahna spying us curiously when she sees the pleasure that Prinrin and Pawn experience at giving themselves over to the hivemind sporebrain so that we can work efficiently. Her brow is quite furrowed. She¡¯s mildly disturbed, confused, and repulsed. No one¡¯s asking you to participate Leeza. Or even to watch. Still, we need not snark at her. If we are what she chooses to entertain herself observing, then so be it.


    Sensing within ourselves, of our three parts, one, a youthful, quick-witted, quick-footed one, is feeling sorry, apologetic. The sorrow is many-fold, sorrow for feeling to appear weak or scared, sorrow for playing off that fear the way they had, sorrow for pretending to string along a portion of our whole, with frequently reversing signals. This part, this Pawn, yields more of ourself, herself, into the hivemind, the sporebrain, to allow us to delve into the emotions, the complexities, the uncertainties, while we work to craft, enchant, create, and theorize.


    Another third, the eldest by far, has been mostly silent, and keeping her feelings muted, as she mulls over her grief, seeking small joys to remain distracted. There is some not insignificant joy at being in the presence of the other two thirds, at being connected so closely to beloved individuals, at becoming a single individual. This elder third is conflicted about so many things, and seeks to avoid coming to conclusions, despite her sagacity, clarity of thought, and wisdom in most matters.


    Exploring our sorrow, and mixed signals, from our youthful, quick third, we are surprised to find that we, they, did not know, or realize facts about themselves. Facts only mulled over as possibilities ever-so-recently due to witnessing and experiencing conversations since arriving at Mount Verdimenn. We support ourself, this third, proud for them to come to this realization. When we become separate individuals once more, we will show this support. A blur streaks into view, and harrumphs, announcing annoyance at, ¡°not having been invited to the party.¡±


    We of course subsume the Valkyrie into our consciousness. We¡¯ve recreated a spare shop that we shall need to bring into our Backpotter form in the morning, when it has hopefully recovered enough to do so, and we can hopefully grab a load of materials from the most important warrens. Our Pawn-self is worried about engaging in combat again, but rests assured that the Thunderer known as Shiz will be in attendance, acquiescing to defender status. Though chagrined at the results of their distribution of alcohol from today, they now understand what our whole would like to see in terms of distribution. Our Valkyrie is amused when we become aware of what transpired a short while ago.


    Further, our Valkyrie shares with ourself some intriguing news. We¡¯re being informed by a glow in our Valkyrie brain that we¡¯re close in terms of dragonforce to expanding the sum of our being. More information includes that the one known as Gilmeshtu is currently suffering a curse from having taken on a magical item similar in appearance to our danger wraps. The wraps are similar only in appearance, and now irremovable, causing intense pain and pulling at flesh or scale if attempts are made to remove them. They provide benefits, but also weaken the user against the undead. Having made a fool of himself, The Gold relinquished responsibility for determining best methods of distributing the spoils of battle to our Valkyrie self.


    The Vivant have acquired several items apparently cursed in some manner. This is in part why our The Copper has spoken little. The curse upon her new artifact requires she not speak of it, or most any matter that might reveal the curse, though it has few other downsides. Our The Copper self is mildly chagrined at this fact coming to light however. Our abilities supersede the curse in some ways. Our The Silver and our The Bronze, have a paired artifact, useless when apart, but a fair boon when together.


    Our beloved Dormir¡¯s leader is given something more akin to homework than equipment. Enchanted paper that bears the ability to absorb spells in some fashion, and she wracks her mind on how to apply them without requiring our Hero to utilize their very limited magical resources filling them. Our The Blue, and our The Red, now also bear a shared artifact, both of mild power in their own right, some semblance of manipulation of polarity of the equipment born by the artifact. Paired, the results can be explosive. Funnily, one portion aids our The Red in resisting injury from electricity and lightning. Another portion aids our The Blue in resisting injury from fire and explosions. Our Valkyrie portion thought it poetic to distribute thusly, while perhaps playing matchmaker in a fashion.


    The Valkyrie portion of ourself has bound to an ushanka, a wintery hat, and due to this, can now manifest a brilliant spectral winter wolf the size of a grand steed that remains her faithful companion until it perishes or is unsummoned. The wolven steed and the hat remain bound to our Valkyrie self, allowing this portion of our self to treat this wolf, this steed as an extension of their will. We suggest empowering this spirit wolf, this steed with a storming crown that our Valkyrie has found, in order to keep it safe from the storms, the lightning our Valkyrie self is coming to wield more and more. The ability for the bearer of the crown to briefly act as an avatar of storms once per day for the wolf will also aid our Valkyrie self in more ways than one.


    We are coming undone, before we finish assessing new information flowing in from our various parts, our selves. Soon each of us leaves, one by one, until we are solo once more, and then we are no longer a myconid. Rattling my skull, I blink rapidly for a bit, trying to clear the mind-altering effects from my brain. The myconid form is powerful, but it¡¯s a hell of a trip having the very way I perceive and think and react be altered so strongly.


    Finally myself, I smile as Teuila leaps at me to hug me close before she rambles, ¡°So, like, I dunno how much you saw, but things went so good, and so smooth today, except for like, the siege, ugh, I felt so bad when I saw the message. I wanted to rush home. I knew it wouldn¡¯t make a difference though, because of the time it took to get back. Anyway, like, so now I have kind of a pet wolf girl spirit thingy. I call her Selene Frostflash. She¡¯s my SFF, hehehe. Seriously, she¡¯s super cool, which, I guess you already sort of know about from the mushroom brain, but look. Pchew!¡±


    Snapping her fingers, Teuila manifests a frosty, furry, semi-translucent wolf, the size of a Clydesdale or possibly even larger. Te leaps onto the back of her pet and slash or mount, and she fishes out a crown that looks to be made of arcing lightning, in order to gift it to Selene. Selene seems to appear to simply be a mana construct, a manifestation and extension of Teuila¡¯s will, virtually no autonomy, except to whatever subprocess or simple instructions Teuila can give her. But appearances can be deceiving, and still, she¡¯s an impressive creation of magic to be sure either way. It¡¯s kind of cute seeing Te loving up on her new friend, beaming with pride.


    Dismounting Selene, Te nearly tackles me to return to excitedly rambling, ¡°So, I gave Aunty ¡®Zool like, a bracelet thingy, that I hope keeps her safe. It¡¯s some kind of defensive thing, with sharp magic. Like, when I punched the guy who had it, I had to break through a like, almost invisible shield, and the friggin¡¯ shards zoomed at me and hurt like heck. Anyway, he went down in one, natch. Let¡¯s see, what else, oh, I got you these two things, ¡®cause I wanted to see how you react.¡±


    When Teuila scampers away to find her pouch at Selene¡¯s side, I¡¯m not exactly caught off guard as she throws things at me. What does catch me off guard is the fact that what she appears to throw at me, is, well, a bladeless hilt. It honestly looks like the sort of thing a plasma-saber would jump out of at the press of a button. Just in case it can do exactly that, I catch it in my telekinetic grip so that I don¡¯t hurt myself.


    I barely notice the other small object traveling my way. It looks like some sort of char-iron icon. Like something you¡¯d put on the end of a branding iron to, well, brand things. It has definitely seen its fair share of fires. The icon, a stamp I guess, seems to resemble a fox. Wait, foxfire stamp? F¡ª. I sigh and roll my eyes, glancing around suspiciously for several moments. For Fox¡¯ Sakes. Heh.


    Chuckling while shaking my head I roll my eyes while grinning like an idiot. Still, the hilt is interesting. I carefully float it to my hand, and focus on activating it. I suddenly hear a, ¡°Hey, what the?¡± from a nearby Draconiac who¡¯d been drinking from a barrel of water that they¡¯d rolled up to the cauldron. Looking that way, I have to laugh as a whip of water travels through the air towards the hilt. When it¡¯s done floating towards me, the water forms a fifteen foot long katana blade, completely, utterly, ridiculously impractical, if it weren¡¯t weightless.


    Still, if it¡¯s weightless, will it apply any force? I suppose the telekinetic force that holds the water in place and shapes it will be exerting pressure without necessarily any leverage points. It opens up a fighting style that could surprise even trained fighters, by not needing to meet parries with appropriate leverage. I¡¯d still benefit from formal training though. Raising an eye towards Teuila, she nods along her psychic wavelength that she wants me to have it.


    It looks like I¡¯m going to need to carry around a water skin, or actually keep out that weird sandstorm cloak, to cast a bunch of water once in a while. I suppose I¡¯m one of few people who could make use of it, at any time, due to my various elemental spells, and other equipment. Actually, I might get it to be able to generate water on its own, since I have other equipment that can do so, if I tinker with its enchantment. Or, get it to be able to control water in a large area, since I have a spell that specifically does that. Intriguing ideas for a later date.


    Still, this foxfire stamp, this other FFS, one of many in my life, I guess I can toss it into the fire beneath the cauldron to see what happens. I do take a moment to roll my eyes and chuckle at the fact that Teuila named her wolf SFF, almost assuredly poking fun at me. Hm, the foxfire thing seems to be taking a while to activate, but I can sense mana traveling to it. I guess I¡¯ll leave it there for a bit.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Poking and prodding me, Te orders, ¡°Put on your thingy, the one with the birds and feathers and stuff, that sexy coat. Quick.¡±


    Fighting my grin to pretend to grump at being bossed around, I can¡¯t even make a dejected pose with how giddy Teuila is. Switching into my raven feather coat, Teuila fishes out what looks like a rough. That is, like the rough of a coat, or a bird¡¯s rough. She laces it along the one that already exists on my coat, and suddenly I sprout wings. Sort of. They just kind of pop up when the magic in the rough intertwines with the magic in the coat.


    Giggling like a madbeast, Teuila snorts while commenting, ¡°Didn¡¯t think I got you that excited, but then I forgot that dressing turns you on more than undressing.¡±


    Snorting and rolling my eyes, I shake my head at Te. Suddenly though, I feel an odd sense of sickness, an emptiness. I feel lightheaded and dizzy. It feels beneficial though. Something is happening. Let¡¯s see, a benefit where I suddenly feel like I¡¯m less healthy, or have less hitpoints. It increased my maximum health? That¡¯s so weird and esoteric for Rayileklia. After a minute, the wings disappear. Hm, I don¡¯t seem to be able to get them to come back out. I guess in an emergency, I could get a minute of flight once during a day. There¡¯s also some weird interplay with poison and disease that I can¡¯t quite parse from the runework.


    Teuila drops a tombstone out of a multi-dimensional bag. Or what looks like one anyway. A bit surprisingly, when she stands on it, she begins zooming around as if she were surfing the stone surface of the floor. Teuila¡¯s now doing a kick flip, and tossing it up into her hands. She¡¯s probably the only person that could do that, because it looks like it weighs hundreds of pounds. She shrugs, and tosses it to one side which leaves me grimacing, bracing for impact, but apparently she¡¯d reduced its gravity enough that it lands with a soft thud. Teuila then shoves a pair of knitting needles in my pocket, which causes my face to contort as my brow raises. She shrugs again while smiling like a loon.


    Suddenly Te exclaims, ¡°The feathery thing, the rough stuff, was on a cloak, but the cloak was cursed, so I cut it off. I figured it¡¯d go on your coat just fine. Oh, right, this thingy! Where¡¯s Lucky? Gah I gotta put these frosty guards on his gauntlet thingies on his armor, and ink him up with this tatt. Ah I gotta go put this in the visor on the big lug¡¯s helm too! This falcony birdy visor attachment mask thingy. Pup¡¯s gonna love it. I think he¡¯s the last one of us that can¡¯t fly. But not anymore!¡±


    Before I can thank her, or parse what she said, or respond, Teuila zooms off in search of Lucky. Selene stands stoically, nearly completely still, but does appear to at least glance around, observing her surroundings. Since Te didn¡¯t give her any orders, I guess that¡¯s just her existence as a mana construct. When Selene begins wandering and sniffing things, my brain breaks a little bit. I guess she¡¯s autonomous after all? Actually, can I sense anything about her? Hm, I¡¯m not sure. I¡¯d almost think she were somewhat like Tinpu of the Mambo tribe of celestial meerkats.


    It sounds like Teuila faced forces with at least as much magical equipment as the ones we¡¯d faced at Vorzog¡¯s Keep. I wonder if she faced all of these items in battle, or if some of them were in vaults or storages. Wait. She¡¯s giving Lucky a tattoo? Hopefully it¡¯s one of those magically applying ones. I don¡¯t want to imagine her sitting around trying to chisel a tattoo into my son¡¯s stony, scaly flesh. The idea makes me laugh a little bit, but also sets me to frowning, imagining that it might hurt him.


    Wait. Wait wait wait. Milbert. I¡¯d been curious how he could have just been coming into possession of so many magical items, when no one else really seemed to have any. Terrorzin locked down mages and archmages, and confiscated eggs and magic items. The more of his forces we face, the more magical equipment, enchanted gear, and artifacts we encounter deeper within his domains, or upon his more trusted subordinates.


    Terrorzin has had human-form dragons, or Draconiacs with illusion magic or illusionary magic items, planted in human cities for decades, maybe centuries. Milbert had likely stolen the souls, and magical treasure troves, of dragons that were in, around, and passed near both Navica, and Victo. I almost want to laugh at the near-karma of it all.


    Hm, anyway, I think we should donate that weird tombstone surfboard to either the Draconiac volunteers here, or to the strategists-eight. As I¡¯m pondering who specifically to gift it to, suddenly, the strangest tiny yipping meets my ears, but doesn¡¯t travel as a soundwave. It¡¯s almost telepathic. At the same time, a tiny figure leaps out of the fire beneath the cauldron and dashes at me. Oh my heavens. This little sweetie is so precious, and adorable. A little fennec fox of fire. Hah, I get a tiny fiery fox, Te gets a ginormous frosty wolf. Sounds about right.


    Te¡¯s elemental canid might be autonomous, mine though, seems to definitely be autonomous, like an actually bound elemental spirit. Checking its aura, I do believe it is indeed a living creature, in a sense. It¡¯s also almost entirely intangible, since it¡¯s literally made of fire. I have no idea if there¡¯s a way to leverage being bound to such an adorable little creature, and I¡¯m not even sure I could bring myself to put it in harm¡¯s way.


    The fox scrabbles up me, and tugs at a leather cord about my neck, the one attached to the enhanced-durability-enchanted leather pouch that contains the dracorocnix egg. When it has access to the barest fraction of an opening towards the pouch, the fox shrinks down to a tiny mote of flame, and floats inside the pouch, nestling up against the egg. Huh.


    From the cauldron¡¯s cooking fire, I fish out the stamp, or charm, that created the little elemental, and check to make sure the mote of flame is okay after removing it. Thankfully it seems fine, so I pocket the hunk of iron into an interdimensional space. I can sense Prinrin smiling at my coming into possession of the adorable little lifeform.


    For seemingly quite possibly the first time today, Prinrin addresses me telepathically, ¡°Oh Schism my sweet. Dearie me, hearing that you died again, it was just awful my dear. Now here you are, banged up, bruised up, and all blue in the face.¡±


    Before I can so much as think about snickering, Prinrin quips, ¡°Oh hush now Schism dear. You know what I meant.¡± She then continues, ¡°I¡¯ve been struggling all night to find a time and way to tell you how upset I am with you, and realizing how hypocritical it makes me. I know, I know dearie. I¡¯m rather roughed up myself, and as always, I¡¯ve taken a few for the team today. Though of course our sweet Tenith went above and beyond to keep us all safe. Ferocious as anything she is. Quite the sight to behold in battle, and such a sweet dear too. She¡¯s every bit as impressive as your mind makes her out to be, the utter dear, the impressive ally, the conquering confidante.¡±


    Smiling, despite knowing that Prinrin suffered worry for me, I nuzzle the top of her head. Miraina sits nearby, contemplating the discovery she¡¯d made about herself while we were a myconid. I can see Miraina¡¯s gaze continue to wander towards Leeza¡¯s room, and she frowns each time it does. After a while, she rattles her head, trying to get a grip on her thoughts. The poor dear.


    Here¡¯s hoping she finds someone wonderful. Miraina turns her gaze towards me, and eyes me up and down, torn, because technically, I don¡¯t qualify, but I also don¡¯t present the disqualifications. She frowns, pouts, and drops her chin into her palms to sit frumpily, grousing about her revelation. I almost wonder if I should tell her to try to ask Leeza anyway, despite Leezahna¡¯s earlier denial. I guess she¡¯ll have to find her own way through the emotional minefield of romance though.


    Telepathically whispering what little support I can offer up, I mutter, ¡°I¡¯m here for you Pawn, if you ever want to talk about it. I¡¯m fairly positive you¡¯re not alone in your preferences at Solace, but I don¡¯t know if you want or need to hear that right now. Whatever you need though, just let me know.¡±


    Miraina nods gratefully my way for a moment, before returning to her frumpy, grousing, hunched seated position. Turning towards Prinrin, I respond, ¡°Te is. She really, really is. I¡¯m sorry I made you worry. I mean, trust me, dying wasn¡¯t something I wanted to do. I don¡¯t know how many times I¡¯ll luck out, but that feels dangerously close to a last ditch final lucky break. My first time using chaos magic, happening to hit that particular benefit, and happening to die within that timeframe? It¡¯s a one in a million fluke. I¡ª.¡±


    While Prinny looks torn between slapping me and laughing, I realize how bad what I just said sounded, so I continue, ¡°Sorry, that¡¯s not reassuring. I didn¡¯t mean to die. It sucked. The Damnations are starting to falter though at least. I nearly ruined some magical equipment almost taking this one down today, but, huff, I didn¡¯t finish it off, yet again. Oh holy crap, where the hell did I leave the Callipygian?¡±


    Checking my phone, I let them out of my inventory at the same time as the others, so I let them out in the ¡®Twixt. I know they surrendered, and wanted to return with us. Did I just accidentally abandon them in the ¡®Twixt? Or did I leave them in Jeegoobotstan? Or were they just mixed in with the Draconiacs, trying to lay low when they got to Solace? If the latter, do I need to hunt them down and lock them up for everyone else¡¯s safety, to keep them from infiltrating Solace? I know they didn¡¯t join the flight home, though I suppose their dragon form was pretty wrecked by Lucky. Maybe I¡¯m overreacting, and they were just one of the humanoid ones that rode with one of the consorts.


    Interjecting into my now paranoid train of thoughts, Prinrin offers up, ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding about so many irons in so many fires Schism dearie. I dare say you¡¯re about as scattered as you¡¯ve ever been. I hope it¡¯s not because of the reincarnation Schism my sweet. Still, as much as she was teasing, my dear sweet Pawn was right, on you, this blue, tail, and these horns¡ª, you deviant little tease.¡±


    Facepalming, I know, and knew, that Prinrin, like Farzhis was grieving the death of our previous The Blue. I did not even think about the fact that the chaos magic pigmentation was blue. Ugh, I feel like a complete jackass walking around, pigmented like this, looking a bit like a Draconiac version of our previous The Blue. Huh¡ª. Could his death have influenced chaos¡ª? Nah. No way. Right?


    Regardless, I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry my dear sweet Prinny, my deviant little old lady. I didn¡¯t even realize the pigmentation would be reminiscent¡ª. I mean, hell, I thought I shapechanged it away, but apparently the chaos magic won¡¯t let me do that, and keeps returning it to blue. As far as I¡¯m aware, minor effects like this tend to only last a day to a month, usually twenty-four hours. If you want, I could cove¡ª¡°


    Biting me suddenly in the shoulder, Prinrin telepathically communicates, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare go hiding your beautiful self from me Schism dearie. Your offer is as sweet as you dear, but I don¡¯t need you pulling away dearie. I¡ª.¡±


    Prinrin runs through a whirlwind of emotions as she parses her own feelings and needs. I¡¯m honored to be a part of those considerations, but I mostly want her to heal, to feel loved. Her teeth in my shoulder loosen their grip and she lays her face along my neck, loosing several tears.


    Finally addressing it, Prinny somberly starts, ¡°I¡¯d been prepared, we¡¯d both been prepared, for so long now, for my sweet lad¡¯s passing. It felt like I¡¯d already grieved his loss. Is it heartless that I want to move on, after so long missing him already deary? I know the answers, of course. You don¡¯t get to be as old as I am, observing so many emotions of so many wonderful people, without learning a thing or two about feelings. Yet it both seems so fresh, and so long ago, far away Schism deary. I¡¯d admitted my heart had found a place for you, my sweet Schism, before his passing. You know this. I know you wouldn¡¯t think less of me, or that I¡¯m using you, but I just want your closeness Schism my sweet." She then much more suggestively adds, ¡°As close as I can get.¡±


    My emotions catch in my throat for a while, right up until those last six words, when Prinrin¡¯s telepathic voice changes from a mournful sadness, into a salacious subtext. Though I wear incredulity on my face, my heart still feels warmed by her. Nothing keeps this little old lady from being her deviant self. Heck, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d have it any other way anyway.

 B 6 C 159: A-genda

    As I¡¯m staring down towards Prinrin, and gazing into her eyes, able to see her emotions swim back and forth from grief, to lust, to safe comfort, and all around a whirlpool of mixed feelings, my son leaps into my mindscape.  Roughhousing with Lucky in my mindscape, I¡¯m not altogether too surprised when he arrives, with Trixxie and the Callipygian in tow.  Whew, at least that¡¯s one less mystery and worry.  For me anyway.  Trixxie looks as worried as anything could be, while the Callipygian seems weary, curious, but weary.


    Standing, almost regretting it as Prinrin clamps her teeth deeply into my neck, causing me to nearly lose a mouthful of flesh, I levitate Prinrin as she resumes her perch on my hip.  Blushing, I introduce the lot, ¡°Pawn, Prinrin, these are the Callipygian, and, um, it was Kelsinzecktrix, right Trixxie?  Vice versa, welcome to our home you two, these are our beloved Pawn, and my beloved The Copper, Prinrin.¡±


    Suddenly mentally facepalming once more, I contact Miraina telepathically, ¡°Hey, stick around in private after these two leave, please Pawn?  I¡¯ve got something I want to give you.  It, well, it might just help you feel safer.¡±  She perks up a bit, raising a scaled brow towards me, so I just flash her a warm, loving smile, as she continues to mull over her recent revelation.


    Trixxie answers my greeting, ¡°Yes, um, Kelsie.  Or Trixxie if we¡¯re friends please.  You¡¯ve uh, you¡¯ve been calling me Trixxie, and everyone here seems really, really friendly.  But your do¡ª son,  your son, um.  I find myself at the end of his enormous snout very, very, very frequently, terrifyingly frequently.¡±


    Biting my lips I accidentally snort a laugh as I try to fight finding her admission humorous in order to prevent myself from grinning.  Apologizing, I start off, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry.  I¡¯ve never seen Lucky take to someone like you.  He really, really likes you.  His tail won¡¯t stop wagging, and across our psychic wavelength, he keeps thinking the words tasty, and pretty, over and over.  Erm, I guess that one probably isn¡¯t very reassuring if you reverse it.¡±  Realizing that I probably made things worse, I quickly add, ¡°He thinks his whole family is tasty though, and spends a lot of time knocking us over with his enormous tongue.  If you start to bond with him, I¡¯m sure he¡¯d respond to your desires if you tell him you have preferences, like less licking or less being carried around in his mouth.  He might not stop entirely.  He certainly hasn¡¯t stopped entirely with any of us, but, well, he is still part hound after all.¡±


    Trixxie contemplates what I¡¯ve said, while the Callipygian announces, ¡°If we¡¯re being informal, I¡¯d prefer Pidge, rather than my, erm, title.  I¡¯d, well, I¡¯ve been bested in a way no other has ever been capable of when traveling with master Laombigla.  I submit myself to your desires.¡±


    My face contorts.  That sounds like he expects me to¡ª, bleh.  Raising a brow, I respond, ¡°My only desire for you or anyone is to lead a happy, peaceful life, where you don¡¯t harm others, especially not those weaker than you.  Obviously defending yourself, or our home, is fine, that¡¯s not the type of harm I¡¯m talking about.  I¡¯m talking about a peace that leaves others, innocents essentially, free from pain, or from tyranny.  That¡¯s what this entire war is about.  Freedom to pursue a happy, peaceful life, for everyone amongst dragonkind, and honestly the whole of Rayileklia.  It sucks that I¡¯m going to have to murder so many of you to get the point across.¡±


    Facepalming, I could definitely have worded that better.  Trying to apologize, I clarify, ¡°Sorry, I mean murder so many dragonkind under Terrorzin¡¯s forces.  Not you two specifically.  I must sound awful half the time.  I¡¯m horrible at speaking to others.  I consider myself a murderer, despite having titles like Hero.  Anyway, anyone who starts trouble in Solace, well, you can guess what I¡¯d do.  I had to threaten one of our own citizens to death, more or less, because she was a danger to everyone else.  I¡¯ll be less merciful to anyone who¡¯s accepted my mercy, or surrendered, that attempts to harm any Solace resident.¡±


    I really can¡¯t stop facepalming today.  I should just never speak.  Poor Leeza.  I¡¯m pretty sure she heard me basically say I threatened her to death.  I wonder if she¡¯d laugh that off, or think I¡¯m full of myself, or at least, if she would have, before she was a victim of my rage.  Still, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m comfortable having one of the Evil Claws just roaming around, being herded down to our project spaces in Mount Verdimenn.


    I do trust Lucky to be able to handle Pidge though.  Apparently, now with whatever equipment Te just gave him, he can fly, and let loose boosted cones of cold almost non stop for a while, and his foreclaws have a brisk chilling mist that add frost to his attacks.  Plus, that tattoo looks cool as hell on him, though I¡¯ve no idea what the hell it does.  It seems to somehow have a reactionary trigger on its own, that has something to do with injury and movement, once per day.


    Startling me slightly, Pawn stalks back over to me, and leans against me, pressing her chest into my shoulder to use my head as a pillow.  I can feel her frowning, almost pouting, as she¡¯s stuck trying to figure out her emotions about realizing her gender preferences, or sexuality.  I¡¯ve never been in contact with someone who was starting that part of their journey of their identity, so I don¡¯t know how to help her.  I wish I could.  Poor Miraina.  Still, while she¡¯s fumbling through that journey, she¡¯s starting to latch onto me as a safe space, which, well, I¡¯ll try to be for her, but the way she¡¯s doing it¡ª.  Sighing, I¡¯ll just try my best to not react poorly to the things she¡¯s doing that I know are more about testing her own emotions, than anything to do with me.


    I can sense Prinrin¡¯s gratitude for how much I love, care for, and want to help out Pawn.  Prinny could perhaps coach Miraina in ways, but I doubt Pawn wants to have those talks with her mother right now, while she¡¯s figuring herself out.  I know Pawn and Prinny are the sort of ¡°everybody¡¯s friend¡± type people, but I do worry that Pawn doesn¡¯t have any of the intimate ties to people within a subgroup that might let her explore her identity¡ª.  Well, I guess that¡¯s why she¡¯s latching onto me.


    Drawing Lucky over to me, he nudges Trixxie my way, but I make sure she can sit comfortably nearby while I roughhouse with Lucky, and kiss his snoot repeatedly.  He maintains a large enough size to bowl me over with his enormous tongue, knocking Miraina and Prinrin from their positions, though I catch them with my telekinetic grips.  I jokingly make a, ¡°See?¡± gesture to Trixxie.


    After observing this, Trixxie seems to calm slightly as she asks, ¡°So, so this really isn¡¯t some long, drawn out, death by dragondog bite?  He really just likes doing that?  I¡ª.¡±  At least she was calming until Lucky turned away from me to bring his snout close to Trixxie, after which she squeals and rambles, ¡°Eek!  S-sorry.  Hi, Lucky is it?  Hi.  Hi there.  Um, I¡¯m, hi, I¡¯m Trixxie.  Why am I talking to a¡ª.  A son, of course, right.¡±


    Loosing a single scoffing laugh, I fight a smirk.  I¡¯m glad Trixxie caught herself.  Lucky is not just some dog or hound.  While some pet owners might think their pets are ¡°people too,¡± Lucky literally has proven sapience, and some telepathic speech ability.  He really is a family member, that was created through a strange combined semi-biological-semi-magic process.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Listening in, I hear Trixxie questioning quietly, ¡°You¡¯re, you¡¯re really friendly aren¡¯t you big guy?  You only hurt your enemies, right?  I¡¯m a friend now, right?  And, I guess Pidge too?  That feels so weird, to be calling one of the Evil Claws by a nickname.  What sort of things are you thinking about Lucky?  Why was I in your mouth and teeth so much?¡±


    When Lucky whuffs quietly in answer to Trixxie¡¯s questions, the yeses or noes, I¡¯m struggling to keep my face straight, and to not smile.  When he can¡¯t answer Trixxie¡¯s non yes-or-no questions, I hear him simply thinking tasty and pretty again.  Sometimes he¡¯s a bit simple in some ways.  At least, simple to please.  Still, I¡¯ll let her figure it out.  Or maybe Lucky will figure out how to write with his scarf, and learn to read and write.


    When Pawn tugs at me, and sends emotional wavelengths begging privacy, I¡¯m confused, but I relent.  Prinrin remains behind with Lucky, Trixxie, and Pidge.  Where did Teuila get off to anyway?  Well, I¡¯ll check in on her in a while.  I¡¯ve got a migraine and my jaw is starting to lock up and form a tension headache, so it probably won¡¯t be that long til I start looking to head to bed with those that want to bed together for the night.  I can at least attend to whatever Miraina needs for now though, I think, probably.  I¡¯ll be back soon Prinrin, I think.


    Unable to find anywhere else without volunteers meandering around, or milling about, the only place with any privacy that I can think of, is my vault.  I feel more than a little like an ass, or a creep, for leading Miraina to my vault, especially when I sense Prinrin¡¯s very deviant-minded teases.  Sighing to myself, I sit on the bed we¡¯d created in my vault, and Miraina sits a ways away, facing me.


    Almost surprisingly, Miraina straightforwardly asks, ¡°You, you¡¯re neither, like, as an identity, right?  You straight up don¡¯t want to be called, or be a him or her, right?¡±


    Nodding, I start to respond, but before I can explain, Miraina continues, ¡°Even though you¡¯re a shapeshifter, a changeling, you could, but don¡¯t want to be.  So, so if someone wanted you to be, it would be unfair to you.  I don¡¯t know how to, to¡ª.  I didn¡¯t know I like girls until I heard Leezahna say she didn¡¯t.  Then I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about her and Ixeyla, and what they might have been doing after getting tipsy.¡±


    Now I begin flushing heatedly, as I was trying to not picture that exact scenario.  I grimace, trying not to make Pawn feel bad or awkward for bringing it up.  I wait patiently as she continues, ¡°I kind of thought, that maybe I¡¯d be a clutcher, a late one, from being a runt, but, but I don¡¯t know.  Thinking about it now, I don¡¯t want most of that.  I do still want¡ª.  Ugh.  Schism, you don¡¯t even¡ª.  Half the reason I wasn¡¯t interested, was because of, of not being able to have that.  But now I¡¯m not sure about that half of the reason.  But the other half of the reason, I didn¡¯t even know until now, and now I don¡¯t know what that means.  Do you know what I mean?¡±


    As much as I¡¯d like to tease and joke with Miraina right now, I respond, ¡°I do, I get it.  Identity is hard.  Sometimes you might feel like you have to stick to, or adhere to, a strict definition of an identity for yourself, and maybe for you, that¡¯s the true way to be you.  For other people, that¡¯s not necessarily the case.  Only you can really know that though.  I generally don¡¯t like to think in absolutes, though I¡¯m sure I do it as frequently as anyone else.  If you feel though, and what I¡¯m guessing at is, that you¡¯re attracted to women, and just realizing it, and you¡¯re confused on whether or not you¡¯re attracted to, well, someone with my default state of identity or my non-biology, you don¡¯t owe anyone any explanations as you piece that together.  I¡¯m not a man, but I¡¯m also not a woman, you¡¯re right.¡±


    Holding my hand up placatingly, I continue, ¡°You don¡¯t have to let possibly being attracted to someone matter to your identity necessarily.  Or if you¡¯re certain you are attracted to someone, but you have mixed feelings about it, because it clashes with your identity, you can go the path of least resistance.  That might be to simply ignore whatever feelings in that realm might pop up.  Even if you have fallen for someone, or are attracted to someone, of a gender that doesn¡¯t fit your identity, despite feeling like you¡¯ve narrowed in on an identity for yourself.  You don¡¯t have to act on that.  Y¡¯know?  If it hurts or confuses you to have to question this new identity that you¡¯ve just stumbled into for yourself, because your definition of it is strict, I¡¯m certainly not going to hold it against you for not pursuing someone agender or sexless or anything.  I mean, it¡¯s probably better if you don¡¯t act on any confusing attraction, y¡¯know?  You¡¯re a wonderful lady though Pawn.  I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m helping, or just rambling.¡±


    Pawn mulls it over while frowning at me.  I kind of want her to tell me I¡¯m full of myself, that she was just using me as a sounding board after realizing she feels like she identifies as a lesbian.  If that is the case, she¡¯s remaining silent to let me stew on the subject.  Now we¡¯re sitting here on my bed, facing each other, and it¡¯s getting more than a little awkward.  Worse, my hypersensitive hearing is beginning to pick up sounds from Lil¡¯s vault.  I didn¡¯t want to shut the giant vault door behind us, because I didn¡¯t want Miraina to feel trapped.  Or to imply to anyone outside that I was¡ª, yeah.


    It feels like minutes tick by before Miraina speaks, so I motion as if to leave, to see if she wants to, but instead she motions to the door while blushing, requesting that I close it to block out the sounds of Lil and Ixeyla.  Once done, she muses, ¡°So, maybe I don¡¯t for sure know what title or label I want for that part of me, yet, I guess.  I mean, it¡¯s not like I¡¯ve even tried to date anyone of any gender, I was playing the kid card to hide being a runt.  I just never thought as long and hard about a¡ª.  Please forget I said that that way.  Do you think I should date someone, a guy¡ª.  I just suddenly can¡¯t imagine it though.  Being with a guy.  I always sort of thought I would, and was just hoping that I¡¯d have¡ª, well, grow out of being a runt.  Now I specifically can¡¯t stop thinking about two ladies.  What the heck am I supposed to do?¡±


    My tension headache begins to throb harder, making it difficult to focus, but I do my best to respond, ¡°Well, that¡¯s the thing Pawn, there¡¯s no supposed to, for what you do.  You just be you.  If you¡¯re thinking about them, and you¡¯re extroverted enough, you can ask them out, or ask them to be a makeout partner, or whatever sounds right at the time.  Rejection can happen, which I know sucks, but you¡¯re an amazing, charming, lovely lady.  If they even say no, it could sting.  They might say yes though.  Anyway, when the sting of rejection heals, if you even have to go through feeling it, you¡¯ll find someone that suits who you are with enough patience.  Despite me not being the type of person who could do what I¡¯m suggesting, I recommend you ask the two women you¡¯re thinking about.  I¡¯d just, uh, wait til Ixey¡¯s sober, to get an honest answer.¡±


    Pawn snorts a laugh and rolls her eyes before responding, ¡°Duh.¡±


    Despite her response, I can tell she¡¯s picturing talking to Ixey while Ixey is in flirty fun drunk mode, hoping that Ixey¡¯ll want to make out.  She flushes heatedly in embarrassment as she realizes how open her emotions are to me, while she hears my internal monologue.  I can¡¯t blame Pawn though, Ixey was incredibly enticing to spend time with.  She was coherent, but exuding desire with her inhibitions down as far as they were.  Being desired is a really nice feeling, so I could see wanting to be on the end of that.  Hm.  Pawn¡¯s predicament makes me think about Zayzi, and wonder where they are.


    Zayzi might fit Pawn¡¯s ideals, between looking like Ixey, and, well, yeah, the specific thing Pawn is struggling with, while also giving Pawn a way to explore her own comfort with an agendered individual.  Zayzi of course would have the no kissing rule, and I¡¯m sure Pawn can respect boundaries, but I don¡¯t know how long she¡¯d last in a relationship like that, with how much her hormones seem to be raging with desire tonight.  This really is none of my business, and I¡¯d definitely not push anyone towards Zayzi though, because of Zayzi¡¯s extreme discomfort with most social things.  Plus, pointing someone at an agendered person, and saying they¡¯re your bio-attracted type is kinda crappy.  It seems like maybe that¡¯d kind of be disrespecting or invalidating their gender identity, maybe?  It depends on how heavily they identify their gender in opposition to their sex, instead of in addition to it.  Seems like maybe a case-by-case basis sort of thing.

 B 6 C 160: Out of Danger

    Oh, right!  I¡¯ve got a present for Pawn to help keep her safe.  When I fish out the chalice that smells faintly of a spiced wine, Pawn spies it, and, knowing I want to give it to her, teases, ¡°What, trying to get me drunk now Schism?  No need for that if you want to make out.¡±


    Flustering, blushing, I tease in reverse, ¡°Fine, fine, if you don¡¯t want the magic artifact, but would rather have my lips instead, I¡¯m more than happy to oblige, you relentless flirt.¡±


    There¡¯s a hint of sadness in Pawn¡¯s eyes as she struggles to figure out how to respond.  Letting her off the hook, I pass her the chalice, and explain its use, ¡°It seems to be able to produce a drink, once per day, almost anything, including a remarkable type of potion.  Remember, it can only be used to produce something once per day, so I¡¯d recommend saving it until absolutely necessary.  When you feel out of options, and in great danger, summon a potion I¡¯d seen an enemy use.  If you run your finger along its edge, and speak, ¡®Majesty of the Dragons,¡¯ it¡¯ll fill with a potion that, when imbibed, transforms you into a fully fledged adult blue dragon with a fully charged breath.  It lasts for maybe about an hour, and any injuries you take in that form won¡¯t carry over when you revert to yourself.  If your dragon form dies, you¡¯ll revert early, but, like Trixxie when Lucky was fighting her with this potion on, as long as your attacker doesn¡¯t keep attacking your primary form, you¡¯re as fine as you were when you became a dragon.¡±


    Pawn¡¯s eyes fly wide apprehensively, in shock and surprise as she realizes how powerful of an item I¡¯m giving to her.  The implication of how important she is to me, how much I want to keep her safe, and to help protect her from her fears is easily evident.  We¡ª.


    ~~~


    Holding Pawn tenderly, stroking her back as she cries into my chest, I nod and nuzzle her cranium.  I coo, ¡°You¡¯ll be okay.  You¡¯ll make it through all this Pawn.  We all want you safe.  You do so much for us, the Order.  You are so, so, so very loved.  Are you feeling any better now?¡±  When she nods while sniffling, I further ask, ¡°Should we head back to Prinny?¡±


    Thankfully, Miraina nods, and hops off the bed, racing me towards Prinrin, beating me by leagues.  Chuckling, I surf along to catch up.  When I reunite with Lucky, Pawn, Pidge, Prinrin, and Trixxie, I slow to a halt on my TK Square.  Slightly surprised to still not see Teuila returned, I settle my goggles upon my face, and stare into the security center for the panel that displays her activity.  Hm, Te is fighting a dragon out near Mah¡¯Ruke.  Or, was.  It¡¯s dead now.  I guess she¡¯ll be returning when she¡¯s done absorbing that dragonforce.  It¡¯s probably best to keep that area clear since Shaylon, Revinth, and Gresog aren¡¯t back from their ¡®Neath expedition yet.  We might need to send a crew to head down there to recall them tomorrow.


    Oh, weird, Selene¡¯s not here.  Ah, I see, Teuila can summon her to where she is in the blink of an eye, or reform her as a mana construct, however that works.  Or maybe Selene really is like Tinpu, and can be called to Te anytime, anywhere, like Percy can call his familiar.  Hm, since Te named her elemental canid, I suppose I should name mine.  What about Zorro Motomoto Renard?  Renard Motomoto Zorro?  Yes, I know, I¡¯m a basic bozo, just taking words for fox from other languages, and squishing hot-fire in there from another language.


    Peeking into the pouch with the egg, I ask, ¡°How do you like those names, Renard Motomoto Zorro?  Sound good to you?¡±


    The elemental, erm, flares happily is the best way I can describe the way its pulse brightens momentarily while flickering near the egg.  Zorro also trills pleasantly inside my head, sort of.  There¡¯s a sound, and it¡¯s not the same as telepathy, but not the same as regular sound waves.  The sound spontaneously exists where my auditory nerves translate vibrations into sound for my brain.  That¡¯s a heaping helping of weirdness, but anyway¡ª.  I wonder¡ª.


    If I were throwing a fire-rune-empowered rune knife, and had Zorro riding it, could he take control of the resulting flame?  I feel like that¡¯s within his purview.  Hm, intriguing, very intriguing.  A few seconds of incredibly powerful elemental aid, if Zorro feels like aiding me in battle.  Similarly if I use Frostburn¡¯s fire slash, or even Frostburn¡¯s fire slash aided by an elemental rune knife.  That one would be a monstrous walking flame for a short period.  I¡¯ll try to hopefully remember to ask Renard if he¡¯s up to that the next time I need to bring some heat.


    Dropping off a bunch of goggles with Nala and Littlebit, I¡¯m hoping they can get them ready to receive the size-changing enchantment, in a way that¡¯ll work for shapechangers.  Over the next two days, we should be able to get just about everyone equipped with goggles.  Too bad I can¡¯t figure out a more efficient way to get them to communicate with other goggles wearers than to be patched through by audio cables, and manually moved into position to view the other mirror.


    Maybe Littlebit will be able to automate it with machines or robots at some point.  We could hold up notes, and if the thing had video recognition, it could figure out a preset motion to move one sensor to another, while connecting their audio.  Or something like that.  Huh, I guess it¡¯d be easier with audio recognition, but then the device itself would have to have an audio splitter, and¡ª.  I¡¯m talking about telephone service.  Hah.


    I never thought I¡¯d be leveraging so many concepts from my weird as hell Fakeworld memories.  Yet here we are.  Yep, yet here we are.  Hm, what¡¯s that in Te¡¯s visual range?  Is that Induul?  If it is, we need to get his ass back in here, so he¡¯s not assaulted by the siege.  I wonder what we¡¯re up against.  Nothing seems to be directly near the entrance within Te¡¯s visual range, nor around the Mah¡¯Ruke sensor, or the entrance sensor.


    Maybe what showed up to lay siege at first were simply advanced scout forces, and were either all defeated, or have fallen back?  There¡¯s plenty of crispy corpses around the entrance, which I guess would be the work of Vylon and Vyela.  Yeah, if you assault Solace, where two of the strongest Golds in existence reside, laying in wait specifically for siege, what did you expect?


    Still, even if we didn¡¯t suffer any casualties today beyond Kagired¡¯s injuries, if Pawn had to use her powers, and the strategists-eight used theirs, we need to start operating with the idea that most of the Order needs to remain at Solace, while we continue our assaults.  I¡¯ll be cooking up whatever I can in order to prepare for that.  I think right now, we need Lucky and Lu permanently on Damnation defense, in case they show up.  Even if Lucky can¡¯t completely beat them, with his new armor, and new equipment, he should be able to land a few injuries on them, enough that they don¡¯t find it worth sticking around.


    Plus, Lu has more offensive options now.  Wrecking a Damnation¡¯s skull with incessant thundrous blasts would probably put a damper on its desire to remain assisting the siege¡¯s forces.  Between Lucky and Luni working together, as they have been, I think they can keep our defenders safe from the worst of the Damnations¡¯ abilities.


    Alright, every last tool in my toolkit, what else do we have?  Hm, let¡¯s go try out these crossbow bolts quick.  I wasn¡¯t paying much attention to them in the ¡®Twixt.  It seems like there¡¯s a set already within the quiver, ready to be expelled, and that once per day, a new set can be generated.  Did they refill their ability to regenerate in the ¡®Twixt after all? Huh. Alright, well, what do we have here?


    The mushroom cloud one, let¡¯s fire these off.  Hm, small explosions.  Not exactly mushroom-cloud worthy, but I guess I get the icon now.  The skull?  Hm, a tiny, tiny necrotic pulse, that likely only affects the target.  Okay, what about the snowflake?  Yeah, that one was pretty obvious.  It looks like it might do a little more if it connects with a creature, but it at least fills a small area with shards of ice for a few seconds.  And last, the pineapple one that might be a grenade?  Yep, should have seen that coming.  Shrapnel.


    Well, at least now I know what those do.  They¡¯re regenerating now, so I¡¯ve got two more of each again.  As long as I leave them in the quiver, I¡¯ll be able to use up to sixteen tomorrow if I need to.  If I have to use them all several days in a row though, I¡¯ll only have eight per day, when they regenerate once upon request.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    It¡¯s kind of weird to see Prinrin chatting with Pidge, someone who theoretically is part of one of the most evil, powerful groups on the planet.  Pawn is eyeing him warily, but snuggling up against her mother, and thumbing the chalice I gave her.  Trixxie eyes the chalice a bit wistfully, since it is a magic item I took from her, but if she¡¯s got Lucky¡¯s affection, she probably doesn¡¯t need any help remaining safe unless she wants to join the war effort at the front.  Lucky¡¯ll look out for her, if she even wants to start dealing with heading into battle ever again.  Plus, well, she hasn¡¯t exactly earned my trust yet to the point where I consider her enough of a member of the family that I want to be bestowing artifacts and powers on her.


    Sighing, I suppose I should start wrapping things up for the night.  It¡¯ll be a relief to be heading towards bed, even though I should probably take responsibility for the intake of the dozens of Spellknights that I brought.  I¡¯m pretty bad about foisting that responsibility off onto others, hoping that they¡¯ll vet them.  Could you imagine someone failing at being vetted before being brought down from the aerie to Solace proper?  Our citizens would haul that person over the edge of the aerie and just toss them off the side into the Worldstorm.


    I spent quite a while crafting and enchanting again.  My myconid form created a few more oddball contingencies too, some of which I don¡¯t even understand now that I¡¯m normal RS2 again, without the hivemind.  Hm, speaking of new Spellknights, Zelshiz and Shiz are wandering down this way.


    Unintentionally overhearing their conversation, I hear Zelshiz retelling my earlier assault, part of it at least, as they exclaim, ¡°Your Schism had just tossed an enchanted object made of adamantite to Triorgraiz as if it was nothing, completely unconcerned.  She looked through, and must have seen what I saw later.  After Triorgraiz had fallen, I looked through them myself, and saw you, using that strange shop stall, and food just materializing into existence.  Schism later showed me one of those up close, though I still didn¡¯t quite understand it yet.  Regardless, you were chatting and eating, and along came someone else, and more food materialized for them, and alcohol too!  This little black Draconiac kept coming back and purchasing more and more alcohol!  I mean, you know this, you were there, but I saw it, on a magic item Schism just threw at one of us, their enemies.¡±


    Chuckling, Shiz responds, ¡°Aye, sounds like Schism alright.  Atty was saying something similar, about food just coming out of nowhere on the night she spent surrendering to Schism.  I¡¯d teased her about spending the night with the Hero, but she actually entertains the idea that they¡¯re as eligible as any dragon.  Well, I suppose since Kinzul married ¡®em, might be true.  I¡¯ve come to like Onyx Dawn, and their Hero.  Sure as hell beats beating the hell out of others to steal their food to survive.¡±


    After clucking their tongue in the affirmative, continuing their tale, Zel recounts, ¡°And the ways Schism fought!  From the guard tower, I¡¯d seen their original assault, when they¡¯d been disguised as one of ours, then after losing their disguise, they¡¯d been some sort of human or elf looking thing, infiltrating, and apparently rescuing some of our own from an explosive diversion they caused.  They sling around magic aplenty, before calling a ceasefire, and asking Trio to surrender.  Next, they¡¯re going *into* a Damnation, and they come out as some sort of blue, horned-devil.  When all hell breaks loose, and Vorzog turns on Trio¡¯s wounded, Schism fought him for a bit.  As much as I didn¡¯t want to, I saw Schism being annoyed by Adkre, and knew if I wanted to keep Vorzog from killing any more of our subordinates, I¡¯d need Schism¡¯s help, so I stepped in to ward Adkre off.  I was pretty certain Adkre was in over their head anyway, especially once I saw how Schism later dealt with them, igniting an eighth of our fortress.   At some point, Schism became some sort of, I¡¯m not even certain, sea-dwelling biped, with an enormous jaw, and some kind of razor fin.  It seemed to recover from any injury in mere moments.¡±


    Still laughing, Shiz nods along and replies, ¡°Aye, that¡¯s not one I¡¯ve seen or heard yet, but Schism apparently just makes up new powers, Latents, magic or whatever on the fly.  So that¡¯s when you were turned to stone by that bastard?  Remind me to thank Schism for ending him for me, and saving you.  I¡ª.  I¡¯m glad you¡¯re here Zelshiz.¡±


    When Shiz rapidly sobers, emotion lacing his voice, I feel the weight of his words even from the distance we¡¯re currently at, where I¡¯m only overhearing due to my oversensitive hypersensitive auditory nerves or whatnot.  After approaching slowly for a bit longer, Shiz notices my gathering, and calls out, ¡°Speak of the devil, Schism!  Good to see you.  Wanted to thank you for rescuing my, well¡ª.¡±  Shiz pauses and scratches his chin before continuing more quietly, ¡°My mate.  I mean, not like, just a mate.  My mate.  Now that is.  Hell this is awkward.  Zel, you know the whole thing, tell ¡®em.¡±


    Almost teasingly, Zelshiz explains for him, ¡°What my lord Shiz means to say is bedmate, and later wedmate.  I¡¯m humbled and grateful to my lord for accepting my proposition, especially with my gender notwithstanding.¡±


    I nearly choke on a laugh that I refrain from loosing as Shiz suddenly looks hot under the collar.  He mutters, ¡°Gender aint got anything to do with it.  I mean, I guess just tell me how to call you little Zel.  And quit it with that my lord stuff now.  At Solace, only one titled like that is her Ladyship Kinzul.  Not that I think she gives a rats rear end one way or another, but I¡¯m no one¡¯s lord anymore anyway.¡±


    There¡¯s the faintest hint of a devious smirk on Zelshiz¡¯s face as they retort, ¡°Either way to refer to me is fine, and as you wish my lord.¡±


    Shiz spies the smirk, and grumbles about the cheek of Zelshiz before hiding his face behind a large mug, pretending to nurse whatever booze might still be within.  I guess Zelshiz really is bigender though.  Interesting.  Hm.  That¡¯s most of the people I wanted to check in on.  Well, I can think of at least one more.  I¡¯m leary of letting Shlendtikuar wander around unsupervised.  He was the least receptive to actually surrendering, constantly looking for an escape route.


    Turning to address me more directly, his face still hidden behind his large, likely empty, mug, Shiz offers up, ¡°I know you had me guarding her with the weirdness Schism, but Pawn¡¯s as brave a person as I¡¯ve ever known.  First notice of the siege, she blazed through Solace spreading word, and was the first to the front lines, standing before everything come to call, alone.  Anyone could tell she was terrified out of her mind, but she did it all the same, and those that came up against her met those powers you¡¯d shared with us.  Shortly, when those of us that could catch up, did, we made the rest of the siege regret thinking about harming the poor dear.  Stayed fighting at our sides the entire time, until the siege began to fall back, though I could see tears of fright in her eyes at every turn.  Young lady deserves some kind of commendation, award, something.  Damned if I wouldn¡¯t reward someone so impressive in my subordinates.¡±


    Seemingly sticking up for me, Pawn explains, ¡°Schism kind of did already, in private.  Um, a few ways, but specifically this magic artifact.  One drink per day, possibly any drink, including a legendary potion that lets me become an adult Blue for a while.  I¡ª.  I¡¯m so honored, and feel so loved.  It¡¯s an amazing artifact.  I think, if anyone wanted to thank me any more, I¡¯d want them to give momma something to keep her safe.  I¡¯m so angry at her for coming back worse than everyone else all the time, because she¡¯s the best there is, and always just, grr.  Snfl.¡±


    While Shiz nods contemplatively, thinking about our The Copper, I realize I do have something I¡¯d like Prinrin to have for just such a reason.  I flash Pawn a loving smile full of warmth and gratitude as I address Prinny, ¡°You my dear, are going to wear this cloak, and never take it off.  The tempest gryphons whose feathers adorn it are adept at being adapted to lightning, and the cloak shares some of their resilience towards it to its bearer.  Not only that, but once per day, you can become a streak of lightning, up to around a hundred feet away, where you reform.  I want you to use that to get *out* of danger, not to put yourself into more of it for your team love.  Please.¡±


    Miraina grumbles, ¡°You heard Schism momma.  *Out* of danger.  Please.  Please momma.  You have to make it home.¡±


    Before Prinrin can speak, she has to compose herself as her lower jaw quivers.  After a few moments, she responds, ¡°Oh dear me my dears.  I¡¯m so touched, and more than a bit abashed.  More than a tad I tell you.  My sweet Pawn, Pawn my sweet, my brave, kind, beautiful daughter.  Oh Schism deary, I can¡¯t take it feeling you and my lovely daughter feeling so irate with me.  Mark me I understand why you¡¯re cross I tell you.  I don¡¯t ever want to not make it home my sweets.  Of course not.  I¡¯m trying to fight for that for Fen and Orth and Gil of course though my dears.  I¡¯ll be more careful, and use those powers Schism granted us more liberally.  I saved them too long I did, just so.¡±


    Facepalming, I don¡¯t want to even imagine how many magical resources Prinrin might have left today.  If she has all of them, because she kept saving them, instead of using them to cut down on the injuries she took¡ª.  I furrow my brow and cast a glare towards Prinny.  Irate, and cross, is right.  I can sense at how close to the mark I¡¯ve hit.  Standing, and striding to the sweet little old lady herself, I wrap her in my arms, and in the cloak, securing its magics to her.


    Whispering sadly into her ear, I lament, ¡°Prinny, you are so, so, so beloved.  If this war ends, without you being there to see it, I¡¯d feel like it was a loss, no matter the outcome.¡±


    Prinrin hiccups as a sob catches in her throat.  It feels like it¡¯s quite likely the most emotional I¡¯ve ever caught her at, and perhaps the first time I¡¯ve caught her off guard enough to leave her speechless.

 B 6 C 161: In Bed By Midnight

    Today was fairly emotionally exhausting, if you count a week ago when today was still today before I went into the ¡®Twixt. There¡¯s a head-spinner. Now I¡¯m just hoping that Luni and Kinzul are free to adjourn to bed. Though, it¡¯d be nice to know Ahliyui and Ahliyuri are safe, and Induul too I suppose. I don¡¯t see any signs of them in the halls anywhere though, and didn¡¯t notice them enter. I¡¯ll drop off these additional mirrors for the new sets of goggles, to the security center though at least.


    Should I check in with the Dormir? I¡¯m afraid to send mixed signals to Farzhis. Should I check on Atter and Boetah? They¡¯re supposedly going to be conjugating for most of two weeks still. I kind of really don¡¯t want to walk in on any of that process. I¡¯ve already checked with Prinny, and she¡¯s the only Vivant member I¡¯m close with.


    Lil seems likely to bed down here privately with Ixey. I¡¯ve got a feeling Zayzi will be sitting or wandering around dissociating, sadly. Or maybe they¡¯ll be amusing themselves until late at night or early in the morning, at which point they¡¯ll either return to their dorm, or seek out Ixey to snuggle her, despite being in Lil¡¯s bed.


    Oh, hey, look, it¡¯s Te. Waving her over, I introduce everyone, ¡°Hey babe, these are the Callipygian, prefers Pidge, Kelsinzecktrix, call her Trixxie if you want to be friends, and Zelshiz. Everyone, this is¡ª.¡±


    Grinning like a loon, Teuila interrupts me to list her titles, ¡°I¡¯m Teuila Shellcracker, the Valkyrie, a Guardian of the Onyx Dawn, knight, and Lunar Sky Storm Dragon Honoris Causa, you can call me Tenith¡±


    Raising my brow, I¡¯m trying to determine if Teuila was fibbing about her Honoris Causa. I mean, honestly, I wouldn¡¯t be all that surprised if Kinzul did invest more titling into her Honoris Causa to keep up with Teuila¡¯s enormous power and potential. Still, I think she was just joking around, the goof. When she turns to me to loose a Shellcracker Family Squee, I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m dead on the money on that thought. I roll my eyes and place one of my hands in her face, which gets chased away and replaced, and we end up in an SFSF until we¡¯re both giggling like idiots.


    Not exactly projecting that image of invincible conquerors to whom you should honor your surrender to, but eh, screw it, at this point, I just want to be surrounded by love. Anyone that interrupts that gets a one way ticket to hell. Woah. That got dark. I know that what I meant was, anyone who breaks their surrender to go hostile in Solace I¡¯ll work to defeat, by whatever means necessary, but still. I rattle my skull at myself, the tiniest bit worried about my body¡¯s new connection to the Fel.


    While I¡¯m distracted with my own thoughts, Teuila chats with the assembled group for several minutes. I space out for a while, trying to determine if I was having an intrusive thought, if my baseline thoughts are changing, or if I was just mentally misspeaking or shortcutting a bit jokingly. It¡¯s exceedingly hard to determine, as myself, if my *self* is changing.


    I¡¯m startled out of my reverie as Miraina hops up to kiss my cheek before zooming away. Blinking a few times, I check to see where¡ª. Of course she is. Chuckling, I utter, "Hi Prinny."


    I¡¯m just smirking down at the little old lady clinging to me like a koala, or sloth, on my right side. Loosing a few chuckles, I glance around. I don¡¯t know if I can be the me that I want to be, and offer Pidge such a large blanket of trust. I didn¡¯t even let Yui or Yuri wander around without supervision, or even Shiz, for at least a night. It seems like Pidge is sticking near Trixxie at least, and Trixxie is stuck with Lucky, one way or another, so at least Lucky is technically keeping an eye on him.


    Choosing to trust the residents of Solace and Verdimenn, and our new security center, to be able to adapt to surprises from within, I decide to begin surfing back towards Solace. I bow out of the conversations, but Teuila decides to join me anyway, and slightly mimics Prinrin, though she stands nuzzled up against my left side, instead of perching on me like some sort of feral tree creature. Prinny telepathically cackles at my description of her, and Te and I both giggle at her laughing acknowledgement of my thought train. Regardless, we check to see if Lucky¡¯s staying with Trixxie and Pidge and Shiz and Zelshiz. He is, so I begin floating towards my intended destination.


    Spying Pawn speaking to Iylynila at an intersection ahead, I pause when Illy motions for my attention. Or, perhaps not my attention, as Illy requests, ¡°Prinny? Can I snag you and Pawn tonight?¡±


    Though Prinrin¡¯s desires are quite evident, she hops down and saunters to her dear friend, my dear friend, Illy. Pawn seems really in her own head, but also angry at me suddenly, which causes me to balk. Even with Iylynila¡¯s walls up, I get the tiniest sense of her emotions, on top of what¡¯s written across her face as she avoids meeting my gaze. They differ heavily, but both don¡¯t seem to be doing well.


    Oh Illy. I didn¡¯t know it¡¯d get this hard for you. I tried to dissuade you in orb time, asking again and again if you were sure. I¡¯m sorry. What¡¯s weird is, her telepathic wavelength of emotions seems far away, like, literally further away than standing right in front of me, as if she¡¯s closer to the edge of my range.


    Sighing, I float away, because it seems like Iylynila is too tensed up to even speak to Prinny in order to disclose her reasoning during our small gathering, while I¡¯m around. I can tell Teuila looks and feels perplexed, but I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve hurt Illy even worse by going and dying again. I mean, not my fault, right? But still¡ª. I¡¯m so full of myself. Maybe she just wanted to discuss something privately with Prinny and Pawn.


    Rolling my eyes at myself, I nuzzle into Te¡¯s embrace as we float towards Kinzul¡¯s den, and bedroom. Surprisingly, neither Kinzul nor Luni are here yet, which leaves Te and me feeling a bit awkward about whether or not we should start settling in, into her bed. Instead, we snuggle in seated positions on one of the sofas in the adjacent room. It¡¯s basically all one room, since there¡¯s no door on the large archway from the den to the bedroom anyway.


    Querying my beloved Wings, I ask, ¡°So babe, whadja get up to today beyond the planned? Did your fortress have a ton of magical defenses, and a Damnation interruption?¡±


    Shaking her head, Teuila responds, ¡°Nah, nothing like that. More numbers than we expected by a little bit, and a bit more magic than we expected. The um, the other stops, the secondary targets, we hit up two of them. One didn¡¯t have any dragons, the other had a couple of ancient jerks that let me chow down on their dragonforces. I mean, they didn¡¯t let me, obvee. Had to lay the smack down first, natch. Anyway. Umm, I guess I¡¯m at four big ones now? Maybe five? I forget. Can¡¯t even tell if some count or not. My glowy brain feeling is pretty sure I¡¯m close to something though.¡±


    Stroking Teuila¡¯s bicep, I nod along with her. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s making progress, and that she¡¯s so confident, and capable. We both divest everything besides some comfortable nightclothes before continuing to curl up on the couch, with Te leaning up against my torso, with my arms wrapped around her. I start to nod off, dozing a bit, despite not everyone being here yet to head to sleep.


    As I just barely begin to pass out, suddenly I¡¯m startled awake as Te shouts, ¡°Wait, that sexy goblin gal was Littlebit, wasn¡¯t she?! That was *the* Littlebit!? Tiktik¡¯s Littlebit!? You butt, why didn¡¯t you introduce us!¡±


    Snorting awake, I catch a whiff of the aroma of the cavern, a blend of ancient earth and cool, damp stone, like rain-soaked mountainsides. Overlaying this is the glow-lichen¡¯s fresh scent. Of course, moving while snorting grants me a whiff of Teuila, waking up with her nestled close is a warm comfort, and her scent is a blend of wild and familiar. There''s a hint of the riverbank in her, a soft, earthy aroma like wet stones and fresh water, similar to the streams that run through Solace.


    Realizing Te asked me a question, I groggily mumble, ¡°Huh? Wha? I thought I introduced her to everybody, sort of. Maybe kinda quietly, because she was shy and scared at the time, not having been out of the Hidden Heart.¡±


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    Rolling her eyes, Te slaps me playfully on the shoulder before responding, ¡°But it¡¯s *the* Littlebit, I want to know how things went! Is Little T okay? Are they finally together? How¡¯d Tiktik¡¯s lips taste? Don¡¯t even try to deny it when I¡¯m sure she was smooching up on you. She told me she was going to make up for you not giving in on our last night in the swamp, if she ever saw you again. How did you see Tiktik, or at least the refugees, but also get Littlebit, if Littlebit has never been out of the Heart? What the heck happened today?¡±


    Oh, right, all that. I get another playful slap for my previous thought, but can¡¯t help chuckling as I gather my thoughts. I¡¯m tempted to tease her for just realizing it now as we¡¯re nearly sleeping, but I refrain. Still, it takes me more than a mere instant to gather my thoughts.


    Blushing, I attempt to answer, ¡°Oh, uh, things went, well, the battle went sort of poorly, but also great? I mean, you see how many we brought with me? I dumped several hundred more off on a paradise island surrounded by impassable krakens and storms. I¡¯ll get to that in a bit. Tiktik¡¯s fine. She, huff, she was feeling some super strong abandonment issues. Keeley and Marshal are, they¡¯re¡ª.¡±


    Pausing, I sigh again and try to be able to say the words, ¡°Keeley and Marshal died, to dragons that were going to extort like the Colossi used to before we intervened. They¡¯re two of the very few that died, but they¡¯re gone. Tiktik felt abandoned by me, you, Keeley, Marshal, and Littlebit. Even though it was her choice to leave the Heart on that last point. At one point, she started lashing out and pushing me away, when she realized I wasn¡¯t going to stay, but she regretted that pretty quickly, more or less. I don¡¯t want to speak for her on the subject. She wasn¡¯t willing to really speak on it, so I don¡¯t want to put words in her mouth, or label the emotions I think she was having any more than I already have.¡±


    Since Te¡¯s pouting at me, I figure I¡¯d better clarify a few things, ¡°Right, Tiktik¡¯s lips were wonderful, obvee, babe,¡± I can barely hear myself think over Teuila¡¯s Shellcracker Family Squee, as I try to continue, ¡°As far as getting to the Hidden Heart, we got there through a surprise entrance to the ¡®Twixt that Tiktik had found. The ¡®Twixt is also where I left all those other Draconiacs. They couldn¡¯t even get out if they tried, without me or Tiktik helping them. They also might be several millenia old by now? The ¡®Twixt is really weird. Time may or may not be passing there like an accelerated thinkspace level of speed. I¡ª. Tiktik offered, and it hurt so much to refuse. I¡ª.¡±


    When Te¡¯s face contorts, with one brow raised high, I explain, ¡°Time outside the ¡®Twixt was basically frozen for us, but the ¡®Twixt still has consequences. It¡¯s real. Our bodies are there, taking damage, wearing down my dragonforce, using up my daily spells and resources, and so on. That also means risking my weird memory brain explodey things. Tiktik, before we found a way to exit to the Heart, begged me to stay, to try out a few months, years, maybe centuries together. My heart shattered trying to rationalize and reason with her. You know how amazing she is, how fun, and warm, and loving, and¡ª.¡±


    Teuila winks as she interrupts, ¡°and an absolutely smokin¡¯ hot bombshell of a shortstack Fae babe.¡±


    Coughing halfway between a sputter and snorting a laugh, I roll my eyes but can¡¯t help agreeing, ¡°Yeah, that too. Anyway, it just, it hurt to say no. Then she felt hurt, and ran away sad, and told me to go away, so I just kind of stood there like an idiot while she was riding her feelings out, until she realized she didn¡¯t want me to actually go away. Not that I could anyway, it was my ¡®Twixt town, and it didn¡¯t have an exit yet. When she calmed down, we, had a, erm, very, very, very intimate talk into the long hours of the night, in which I agreed to stay for a week. It was so that Tiktik could show me the ropes, and so that I could get to spend time with her, and her with me. Tiktik had to show me how to quest and get the ¡®Twixt to start generating more to my realm, and we went on some silly adventures, like, like beginner Fakeworld newbie quest adventures, but like when clearing out rats, they were like twenty to forty feet tall. Everything was scaled up, except the rewards at first.¡±


    Snorting with laughter, Teuila can¡¯t help imagining me facing down a horde of tremendously monstrous rodents for a few copper. That¡¯s pretty much exactly what happened. It was really fun doing it with Tiktik¡ª. Adventuring with Tiktik. Teuila eyes me suspiciously at my previous phrasing, but I reveal nothing.


    Fighting my own smirk, I try to near finishing up, ¡°Right, so, we earned a kraken-proof-sailboat, because the ¡®Twixt kind of provided what we were looking for at the end of a quest line, since I was sort of hoping for like, a jail type city or something that would keep the Draconiacs safe and happy, but not able to get out and mess around. So yeah, we sailed a kraken-proof-sailboat through a ring of krakens, to a floating island, and I let them out there.¡±


    Facepalming for a minute, I add, ¡°Oh, two of my big bads, Zelshiz, you met, and Triorgraiz who is injured and being tended by Tiago, surrendered, so, of course I saved them as best I could. Part of why I had to even get to Jeegoobotstan was because Vorzog used petrification magic on Zelshiz, and Tiktik¡¯s the only person I knew that could cure it. Plus I used my Backpotter form to put people into my inventory, which stops my mana regeneration, which screws me from being able to get them *out* of my inventory. Ugh, it was a whole thing.¡±


    My love, Te, giggles when she hears my name for my inventory otter form. I shrug, but smile at her laughter nonetheless. Hopefully finishing, I ramble, ¡°Right, so, my final quest reward was an exit for my town from the ¡®Twixt. Only, when we got it made, it showed Tiktik and me falling into the ¡®Twixt from Jeegoobotstan in one portal, and out of the ¡®Twixt into the Heart in another portal. We semi sort of existed in all three places at once maybe. Or it was just a snapshot of before and a fated future, or something. Tiktik was afraid to go home, so we tried to go back to Jeegoobotstan, but couldn¡¯t. We *fell* back into the ¡®Twixt, Tiktik landing on my face *again.* Sure, laugh it up. Heh. Anyway, so that¡¯s why we had to go to the Heart, and how Alanea and Littlebit got here. I mean, we had to come back through the ¡®Twixt again, but you get it.¡±


    Nodding along with me, Teuila gets a dreamy look in her eyes as she salaciously jokes, ¡°Mhm, I get it alright, and Alanea got it goin¡¯ on. Her lips are still perf. When they weren¡¯t on mine though, she couldn¡¯t stop nervously talking. About you, obvee. If I wasn¡¯t the one with the whammy powers, I¡¯d think you hit that girl with one. Woman. Short, tight-packed, hot ay eff woman. I¡¯m so happy you brought her along though. I mean, Kagired needs someone to look after him now. He¡¯s in rough shape. Specifically though, Alanea, because I like smooching her. Hm, you think Littlebit is down for a little bit of this, this? A little bit of that, that?¡±


    My brain blue screens of death pretty hard while I¡¯m blinking repeatedly. Half frowning, I tease Te, ¡°I specifically took a hands-off approach to any relationship with Littlebit. I know Tiktik isn¡¯t super big on monogamy, but you know how absolutely in love with Littlebit she is. I don¡¯t want to mess that up, when yes, they just got together like, today. We didn¡¯t even do like a romantic honeymoon weekend for the two in the ¡®Twixt or anything like that. Well, actually, they *could* have done that, since I was giving them privacy for a couple hours, catching up with Jarrah, Flint, and Alanea. Oh, Flint¡¯s taking care of Bud! Now instead of Bud, tengo uno peque?o Zorro en mi bolsa. Erm, a little fox in my pouch. Check it. He came from that little iron stamp thing you tossed at me. I named him Renard Motomoto Zorro. We both have elemental canids, hehe.¡±


    Renard hops out at being addressed by his full name, and delivers the absolutely cutest, most precious yawn possible. Teuila¡¯s face is so drawn back and her eyes are so wide as she almost wails, ¡°Awwwwwe, he¡¯s so cute!¡±


    Before I can warn her, Teuila tries to tickle Zorro¡¯s chin, which singes her fingertip slightly, but she doesn¡¯t seem to care. Even without the equipment that helps give her fire resistances and immunities, she¡¯s one tough cookie. Hearing my thought train, Te telepathically jokes, ¡°Darn tootin¡¯, and straight shootin¡¯.¡±


    Snorting a laugh and rolling my eyes, I have no idea where Te picks up some of her slang, or phrases. Things like natch, and obvee, and that last phrase. Regardless, she¡¯s utterly wonderful. I kind of wanted her to catch me up more specifically on the events that transpired during her battles today, but I¡¯m starting to nod off again as Teuila plays with Zorro on my chest.


    Just as I''m about to return to sleep, Te somberly asks, "Really though, Keeley and Marshal? They were good people."


    Loosing a sad sigh, I nod while drawing a deep breath that hitches once. Swallowing my emotions, I respond, "Yeah, Tiago and a few others told me, including one of the dragons who''s now helping take care of and protect the refugees. I can''t even remember their name at the moment. Something dragony, obvee."


    When Te offers me a half smile and quarter snorted laugh at my groggy brain not recalling the name, I can tell she''s processing her emotions. Further, when she kisses me softly, and whispers words too quiet for me to hear, I''m fairly certain she''s expressing her worry should I ever join Keeley and Marshal in the being dead category of friends. My brain is too foggy right now from being sleepy and in a half-wakened state to make more sense, I even yawn wide enough to forget a thought mid-sentence. Teuila resumes playing with Zorro on my chest, and I kiss her forehead while stroking the rear of her scalp, sifting my fingers through her silky, ruby-red, wonderfully teased undercut hair. Before I know it, I drift to dreamland.

 B 6 C 162: Not Offal

    As Kinzul arrives with Luni, the sweep of her skirt against my face as she passes by the sofa wakes me and Teuila.  I become quickly alert as I glance around in worry for Zorro, but apparently he¡¯s nestled back inside my pouch next to the dracorocnix egg again.  He¡¯s either quite a well behaved, or quite a sleepy elemental, or maybe both. I¡¯m not sure elementals can actually get sleepy, so he¡¯s a bit weird, but it¡¯s endearing.


    As Kinzul directs us to her bed, she chooses an odd arrangement.  Motioning us in, Kinzul has Teuila take the wall spot, then me, then Luni, and she takes her largest human form, while extending her wings, in order to cover the three of us with a wing, and to hold us all close as Te spoons me and I spoon Lu.  Yawning, I¡¯m about to ask Kinzul if she wants or needs me to catch her up on anything specific, but she can already hear my brain, and she wears a sad, grateful smile as she shakes her head.  Teuila¡¯s out like a light instantly, while Luni is buried under a pile of emotions such that I can¡¯t reach her, and I¡¯m swiftly drifting off to dreamland once more.


    Waking at what is probably an unreasonably early hour, I find Teuila sneaking away to either go exercise to train, or find more siege forces to fight.  Which, I guess *would* just be exercise training for her at this point.  She smirks at me and offers me the shush gesture while using odd combinations of her powers to move around silently.  Since I don¡¯t feel like I can get back to sleep again now, I levitate myself out of bed, pausing momentarily to kiss Luni lovingly, tenderly, and then kiss Kinzul similarly.


    When Teuila hears my brain, she pauses outside the den, and waits with her lips puckered for her own good-morning kiss.  Chuckling, I tease her for only a moment, so she gets me back by lunging at me, and I¡¯m forced to catch us in a telekinetic grip so we don¡¯t go crashing back into the room and waking everyone.  Still, I happily give myself over to the passionate kiss as I float us around, away from the room.  Teuila then kisses the pouch about my neck, before we both get geared up in our usual adventuring equipment and clothes.


    My Wings has been doing a lot better, since getting to fight, and now having another outlet for her affection in Alanea.  Her tumultuous ocean of emotions is easily half as turbulent, or even less, than it was when we were still struggling to deal with it just the other day.  I¡¯m glad for her, and proud of her.  Her happiness is a precious gift that I want to preserve for eternity.  Barring that, it¡¯s a favorite song on a well-loved cassette tape I want to repeat as often as possible.  I¡¯ll treasure it, and be wary of harming it, aware of its fragile nature.


    Te slugs me playfully in the shoulder, bops me gently on the skull, and taps my face as if slapping it, before smooching my nose and rushing off towards Solace¡¯s entrance, and Mah¡¯Ruke.  As I¡¯m about to head about my own tasks for the day, to seek out priority targets to set up further raids, and start coordinating things, I¡¯m suddenly aware of Kinzul coughing for my attention from behind me.  The pose that she¡¯s striking in the doorway is¡ª.  I gulp.  Glancing around, I make certain no one else can see the vision of radiant splendor, of perfect beauty, of marvelous magnificence, of¡ª.


    Smirking, Kinzul draws me to her to interrupt my train of thoughts in its mostly pointless spiral of flattery.  Interrupt she does.  Now, incredibly disoriented, I wobble as I try to get my bearings.  My wife beckons to take a seat on the nearest sofa, so I do.  Gazing at her with curiosity written in my furrowed brow, I await her speaking, but instead, she awaits Luni.  Lu grumbles, and is very obviously not feeling like a morning person, once again, as she staggers out towards us, and hisses at the mild brightness of the glow-lichen.


    It¡¯s almost comical, but I feel bad for her.  Kinzul motions to Luni who grumbles, grunts, sits, and turns to address me grumpily, ¡°You could have taken your time.  Either at the Heart, in the ¡®Twixt, or in Jeegoobotstan, or all three.  You rushed all three.  You deserve the connections you make sweetie.  Gorramit all.  Huff.  I get that¡ª, that you want to be everywhere you¡¯re needed, at all times, and be present any time there¡¯s danger to someone else, but you can¡¯t be.  How much dragonforce did you burn getting us above the storm sweetie?  How much?¡±


    Flustered, blushing, my gaze is downcast as I admit, ¡°I, um, went from three-thousand six-hundred ninety days, down to twenty-nine-hundred days worth of mana-sickness aegis.  There may or may not be more filtering in from some of the dragons whose forces I¡¯ve collected, but, yeah.  When I died, something like four thousand days of dragonforce disappeared.  I¡¯m¡ª, sorry.¡±


    She¡¯s right.  I do keep treating what is, for me, a very finite resource, as if it¡¯s expendable, disposable.  Seven-hundred ninety days worth of dragonforce, to take a trip through the Worldstorm safely.  I certainly couldn¡¯t do that too many more times.  I inhale a shuddering breath.  I¡¯m struggling not to drop into a spiral of self-loathing for upsetting the ones I love.  I¡¯m shaking with the effort of it.  I know Lu isn¡¯t trying to cause that, and she¡¯d be upset if I did spiral.  I, I just.  She¡¯s so right.  I¡¯m so careless, and, and flippant with my own life.  Who was it that said my life is worth more than the offal I treat it as?  Was it my mentor Jarrah Bettergrove?  I¡ª.


    Motorboating the air to help wake herself, Luni interrupts my train of thought, ¡°I¡¯m sorry sweetie.  I¡¯m grumpy in the mornings.  That came out way harsher than I intended.  Jarrah¡¯s right though.  It is.  You don¡¯t know what your cure entails, if you¡¯ll magically instantly have it, or instantly know it, after the right number of dragonforces.  Or, worse, if you need to collect and maintain seventeen of them, you¡¯ll never get there by burning through them so quickly!  There¡¯s still plenty, but there are only so many ancient dragons on Rayileklia babe.  Sorry, Kinzul and I talked about it.  She was worried about what happened to those two portions of the storm, the one that got weather controlled during the fight, then whatever you did with your new Latent stuff.  She figured I¡¯d know, even if I wasn¡¯t right there when they were done.  I did, of course, but still.  Argh, I¡¯m sorry sweetie.¡±


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    Gulping back a sob, I fight my saddened frown to nod along with Luni.  Struggling to speak, I apologize, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m so sorry.  You¡¯re right, Lu, Kinzul.  I did, I do hurry, and, and in some ways, I think I¡¯m always rushing headlong towards death, whether I know or think it at the time or not.  I don¡¯t know how to be different, to be better than that.  I can¡¯t imagine not putting everything of myself on the line, every minute, until all these stupid dangers are resolved.¡±


    Tears drip from Kinzul¡¯s cheeks, and I¡¯m aghast at myself for having caused them.  She mops them momentarily before addressing me, ¡°My love.  There is always danger in the world.  In any world.  Your candle can only be re-buttressed so many times.  There is no end to danger, but there is an end to you.  There is an end to all of us.  I wish to¡ª.¡±


    Resolutely, I nod as I interrupt, ¡°As you, I wish to delay it as long as possible for all of you.  Obviously myself included, but¡ª.  But I don¡¯t prioritize my survival.  I guess that¡¯s the issue, huh?¡±


    The two, amazing, thoughtful women both nod in response.  I sigh for quite a while.  In total, I lost four thousand seven hundred ninety days of dragonforce, maybe five thousand seven hundred ninety, depending on if Rahjmeztus counted, yesterday.  I wouldn¡¯t even survive that cost if it occurred again today.  I¡¯m still uncertain if Rahjmeztus counted, but I don¡¯t think he did.  They¡¯re right.  It¡¯s like every time I go out, I rush more, and use up more and more dragonforce than each time I did before.  We at least curtailed some of the accidental expenditures, like preventing further angstsplosions.  I try not to rely on it in most fights, other than a brief manifestation of my Honoris Causa against ancients, or in order to try to request surrender, except against things like the Damnations, for the most part.


    I feel miserable.  I know that¡¯s not what they¡¯re trying to do.  They¡¯re trying to get me to look for the other options.  They¡¯re trying to get me to stop seeing my very life as a cheap tool to throw at problems.  They¡¯re right.  Burning through a precious resource to get home twelve hours earlier, when the siege was obviously handled, was¡ª, huff, it wasn¡¯t smart.  I wasn¡¯t desperately needed.  In what amounts to the tiniest bit of my defense, I didn¡¯t know how much it would cost when I tried it, but that works as much against my defense as for it.  It was a stupid gamble.  That¡¯s kind of how I play everything though.  I gamble it all, at all times.  I hate the metaphor playing and gambling, since it reinforces the idea that I don¡¯t value my life.  I do though.


    All I can do is promise to try to be better, to be more patient when there is less danger, in order to assess needs and risks.  Kinzul responds to my thoughts, ¡°That is all I ask my love.  You do so much, at all times, for all of us.  You¡¯ve brought miracle after miracle to Solace, and new family as well!  Even should the miracles somehow persist past your own life, that¡ª.  I¡¯m sorry.  You¡¯ve already agreed to try, and that is all any of us can do.  This situation brings to light a promise that I need you to make my love.  Though he hasn¡¯t done it even once yet, of any other body, Lil must eat my heart from mine upon my death.  I know he intends to disregard the promise I requested of him upon adopting him.  If he fails to do this¡ª.  Should all else fail, if he will not eat of my heart to imbibe my dragonforce, you must at least imbibe the force, but my heart is for him.¡±


    A full artillery battery shells my heart from inside my chest.  I¡¯m struck by violent, twisting explosions internally.  The sorrow and worry across my face stretches and contorts it as my tears begin to form.  Why, why would she ask this of m¡ª.  The prophetic painting.  She knows, of course she knows, we all do, that I¡¯ll be standing near her corpse some day.  My muscles twitch, spasm, then tighten and lock.  I can¡¯t breathe, let alone speak, or think clearly.


    Sensing Luni hiding her own face as tears run down it, and Kinzul still shedding the occasional tear, I struggle against myself.  Fighting the weight of my emotions, the paralysis in my muscles, the fate of the world that I wish to deny, I respond, ¡°Of, of course.  I promise.  I will beg Lil to eat your heart upon your death, should it ever come to pass, and, failing that, I¡¯ll¡ª.  I¡¯ll drink of you.  I will fight heaven, hell, and fate itself, to avoid it coming to pass, but I promise to do as you¡¯ve asked.¡±


    There¡¯s an accepting smile that conveys, ¡°I know you will,¡± despite Kinzul saying nothing.


    Feeling utterly wrecked, emotionally destroyed, I no longer feel capable of tackling any of the things I wanted to accomplish today.  My eyes spin in their sockets as my head lolls weakly.  Luni sits closer to tug my head to her breast, while Kinzul stands to glide past us, and set a hand momentarily on each of our shoulders tenderly.  My wife smoothly, regally glides away to administrate, to do what needs to be done.  I could almost find humor in the slight hypocrisy of it all, since Kinzul was involved.  Out of everyone in the world, she¡¯s the one who has doled out the most of her own life force.  It¡¯s not the same though.  She¡¯s right.


    Heaving a sigh, I nuzzle, forgetting where my face is, and Luni smirks, but doesn¡¯t tease me just yet.  We¡¯re both still hurting.  I wrap one arm around her belly for a short while, before I start to recover my senses, and my muscles.  Luni mentions something about seeing me soon, or maybe later, but she heads off while my brain is still parsing what she¡¯d said.  Slowly standing, I rattle my skull, and head out of this more private den, towards Kinzul¡¯s destroyed, exploded den, and the hallways past it.

 B 6 C 163: 221 B Derby Cap

    Huh, Illy, Prinny, and Pawn are up at the next intersection past the Den. They all look at least sour, if not downright mad. All their walls are up too, though oddly, once again, Illy¡¯s walls feel further away than being right in front of me. My innards twist as my guts, and instincts tell me that it¡¯s about me, and that they¡¯re mad at me. Maybe those are intrusive, paranoid thoughts, but the way their gazes seem almost dangerously hateful as they land on me, I somehow doubt it.


    When Prinrin marches up, and uses shapeshifting to become tall enough to slap me hard across the face, I¡¯m beyond stunned. Pawn eyes me with teary-eyed fury. Confusedly, I glance between each of them, and Illy simply doesn¡¯t meet my gaze. I choke on a dry-sob, because I¡¯m already fairly cried-out for this morning, and none of my mucus glands are working at the moment.


    Prinrin starts addressing me, ¡°I thought I¡¯d a better read of you Schism. I can¡¯t believe¡ª.¡±


    When Prinrin nearly sobs as she gulps angrily, I want to die. I have no idea what I did to cause this. Pawn won¡¯t speak, Illy won¡¯t look at me, and it takes Prinny a moment to continue, ¡°To think, you have even our dear sweet Lady fooled. For shame. I should *grind* you up until you¡¯re *wriggling* and *squeeze* the life out of you.¡±


    I can¡¯t breathe. My tongue swells up from being so dry, and the only reason I¡¯m not suffocating is my neckchain. I want to squeeze my own heart til it pops to get it to stop aching. I¡ª. Wait. The words she emphasized. Those were our signs, our private signs for¡ª. My face contorts as I stare at Prinrin. I can still only read anger in her eyes. It¡¯s like she¡¯s signaling me somehow, but if she is, she¡¯s too good of an actor. Is she just using those words to hurt me more? To throw in my face how intimate we were, and for some reason never will be again?


    When Prinrin grips Pawn¡¯s hand to drag her partway past me, she addresses Illy, ¡°Go on now deary. We¡¯ll take it from here, see Schism gets what¡¯s coming, what they deserve. You don¡¯t need to be here for this.¡±


    Iylynila seems to smile, almost evilly while still avoiding my gaze. She hurries away, towards the dormitories. Unable to form words to call out after her with my swollen tongue, I resort to telepathy, since walls only block passive broadcasts, not incoming direct messages. Begging, pleading with Iylynila mentally, I ask, ¡°Could you, could you just, just please come back here for a second please? I¡¯d like to apologize. I just, I just want the chance. I¡¯m begging. Please let me apologize.¡±


    When Illy responds telepathically, ¡°Back where? Apologize for what?¡± with no hint of malice in her telepathic voice, my confusion reaches new levels, but various fears manifest as well. Fears from as far back as my first foray into the beavers¡¯ dam tunnel complex.


    Still choking on my emotions, I plead to her in response, ¡°Erm, the intersection past the exploded den.¡±


    When Iylynila comes from a different tunnel, trotting relatively swiftly, wearing curiosity as her only expression, my brain begins to shatter. Not again. No. No not again. I begin to fall inward on myself.


    Pawn is the one to ask, ¡°How¡¯d you come from that direction? Why¡¯d you come back when you told us to get Lady Kinzul to banish Schism for you?¡±


    The startled expression on Illy¡¯s face continues to hammer home my fears as she answers, ¡°When I told you to get mother to do *what*!? I came from this direction because I was with Blue and Broke One all night. They were both in the dumps, so we slept in Blue¡¯s hoard-pile instead of our human-sized dorms. Farzhis¡¯s been getting real mixed signals from Schism from the blue and horns and tail. She wanted you Schism, to be comforted by you at least, anyway, but it was confusing her and tearing her up, so she wasn¡¯t sure she could ask without it being awkward. I guess I was second best, because she came to me. Veril¡¯s been a bit worked up, and I take him under wing for comfort once in a while, so this isn¡¯t new with him, but Blue was new. Hey, is Schism¡ª are you alright? Something¡¯s going on.¡±


    I¡¯m scrabbling, clawing at the edge of my own mind to keep from hurtling into the abyss. Prinrin exclaims, ¡°I knew it! I couldn¡¯t get my sweet Pawn away from that impostor fast enough! She was all over my dear sweet Miraina, and oozed threat.¡± and with a quiet fury, she adds in a hiss, ¡°Oh I will end her.¡±


    Iylynila looks confused yet, and I¡¯m losing my grip at the edge of the abyss. My mental avatar dangles precariously over the edge of my own mindscape, poised above an endless abyss, one hand is cut and scraped on the edge, causing me to recoil it, and I sway violently on just four fingers of my other hand.


    Pawn looks to her mother, confused, but seems to be piecing things together quickly as she asks, ¡°That Illy was fake? I thought her walls were just up. She was holding me hostage all night? Schism didn¡¯t really do those things?¡±


    I could choke at the faith Prinrin expresses, ¡°Of course deary. Schism would never, ever, ever do such a thing my sweet Pawn, Pawn my sweet. Yes, that¡¯s why she was hanging onto you, not for comfort. I¡¯m sorry my dear, Illy does love you of course, but that wasn¡¯t her, nor for comfort, and the things you told her, those private, new things, she might use them against you if we don¡¯t find her soon.¡±


    Three fingers are all that¡¯s left gripping the edge of my sanity, and they¡¯re bleeding, slipping, as Illy growls, ¡°Who the hell was impersonating me? How¡¯d they fool you for a whole night? Plus, it takes years to copy a form, decades!¡±


    When Prinrin surmises, ¡°Unless it¡¯s their Latent deary, unless it¡¯s their Latent. Though I¡¯m not sure who would have such a one,¡± my own abyss spits me out with the conclusion.


    Gasping for breath, struggling at the edge of my sanity, I growl, ¡°Evil Claws. Harlequin, Lovelace, Laughing Drakk, or Butterfly. Betting the former. I¡ª.¡±


    When Prinrin rushes to me to take my head in her hands and hold it to her chest, she coos comfortingly, as she senses everything I¡¯ve been going through the last few minutes. The sadness that laces her entire essence, at what she did to me, helps keep me tethered to reality, but just barely. It feels like my void is swapping locations, and reversing gravity, trying to drag me up off the edge of the abyss into the unknown.


    Pawn looks mortified, and like she doesn¡¯t know what to focus on. Illy looks furious one moment, then sad, wistful, the next, as she chances a glance at me. Choking still, as my throat can only produce a tiny swath of dry, sticky mucus, I¡¯m struggling to maintain my grip, and I think I might literally be gripping Prinrin for dear life.


    Coughing, barely able to think, let alone speak, I plead, ¡°Find Pidge, ask about Claws. Get, koff, blehp, glp, koff, word to, koff, koff, security center. Be, glk, careful.¡±


    Pawn takes off like a rocket, the best suited for the mission, but also the most vulnerable amongst us, and I can tell she¡¯s utterly terrified at the moment, realizing she was in the claws of an enemy all night long. Nearly puking, my head lolls, and Prinrin supports me against her chest as we sink lower to the ground. Illy looks distraught, and I¡¯m so close to losing myself. If I¡¯m shut down now, I might never come back, because I doubt I¡¯d live through this war on autopilot. I¡ª I can¡¯t keep hold. I¡¯m trying so hard. Tears flow faster and faster as I slip more and more against the pull of my own void, the formation of a new trauma. Someone wearing a face I love in order to hate and torment me, to tear me apart, figuratively or literally.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    My mind alights on something, ¡°Find me Shlendtikuar. If they can¡¯t be found, they¡¯re likely the base form of the Claw.¡±


    It could be anyone, except perhaps Zelshiz, Trixxie, or Pidge. They were in Verdimenn when I ran into the fake Illy last night. I¡¯ve got a strong feeling that the reason Shlendtikuar went along with surrendering so quickly, was because they were going to be a plant. The reason they kept looking for escape routes from the portable hole, was probably that they thought they were caught, found out. There probably *is* no Shlendtikuar the ancient ruler of that domain. It was likely an Evil Claw, and their consort Rahjmeztus either visiting, or somehow tipped off that we would be there.


    Crap. I lost hold on reality. Right now the thing tethering me to near-sanity is wrath. I¡ª I¡¯m slipping. I think wrath wants to let me slip. It¡¯s holding my sanity hostage. It, I¡ª. When Illy asks aloud, ¡°Really?¡± Prinrin nods, and she quickly drops to her knees to wrap me in her arms.


    My muscles tense, and spasm. I choke as my throat swells. Wrath growls within me as it slams me against the edge of sanity, annoyed that it can¡¯t take me over without consent. It leaves me panting, hyperventilating, exhausted on the precipice. Wrath stalks away, and I¡¯m pretty sure it flips me the bird on its way out. Colorful. Wait, is that term one with problematic etymology or usage history? Crap. I¡¯m not sure. Wait¡ª.


    Someone knows my weakness. Someone somehow told the Evil Claws how to get me to snap. This plan was never going to get Kinzul to banish me. They had to know that she knows me too well, and that she¡¯d just talk to Iylynila, and straighten things out. Someone did this explicitly to hurt me.


    When Prinrin blinks a few times in surprise, it only takes her a moment to nod in agreement. Iylynila nods in agreement after Prinrin fills her in apparently, and Illy¡¯s walls come down. I¡¯m flooded with intense emotions, mostly confusion and sorrow from Illy.


    Dropping my walls to Iylynila, I¡¯m similarly riding intense waves of confusion. I know she¡¯s not ready yet, that this is an even worse time for us to be hyper-emotional with each other, but she understands how she¡¯s saving me. I can¡¯t express my gratitude enough. She caught me in time. Just in time. I sink into a shared embrace as I weep. Wait.


    Fake Illy headed to the dorms. There¡¯s no exit from the dorms. If we close off the path, and require whomever blocks the path to check telepathically for anyone that approaches, while the others explore the dorms, we¡¯ll get the impostor. Unless they also have invisibility. Crap, they could have just rounded a single corner, gone invisible, and taken off. They might not even be in Mount Solace anymore. There¡¯s one person in the dorms that doesn¡¯t have a telepathic link to me, and I¡¯d be afraid to falsely accuse her if she was stretching her legs or something. The plan isn¡¯t fully airtight.


    Alright, still. Let me gather some furniture, and block off this hallway a bit. Aloud I ask, ¡°Are you two game to stick together and check each dorm? If you don¡¯t personally have a telepathic link with any person you see, but you know they have one set up, telepathically ask me for a password to give them to say aloud to you.¡±


    The pair of friends nod, and aid me in quickly gathering some furniture so that I can block the rest of the hallway with my body. I also place my telekinetic squares strategically to catch anyone that might think they might be able to slip through openings if they¡¯re invisible, and perhaps stretchy. Rattling my skull, I watch as Illy and Prinny go room by room down this hallway that has two intersections up ahead, and a lot of doorways, many of which lead to rooms used by Order members past.


    It¡¯s nerve wracking, seeing them checking room by room. Wearing my goggles, I check to make sure I don¡¯t see any pairs of goggles that might be stolen, or moving erratically. Thankfully, there aren¡¯t any. There are however strange blurs that move slowly in some of the hallway cameras. Well, one. It¡¯s vaguely reminiscent of¡ª. My stealth form! My chromatophores and iridophores! Crap, I¡¯m almost sure that the impostor is already leaving Mount Solace, or looking for a spot far enough from the scene of the crime to assume a new form and return to infiltrating.


    Telepathically I send to everyone that can hear me, ¡°Shapechanging impostor with a Latent that lets them maybe take any form almost instantly, and quite likely appearing near-invisible is on the loose. Likely suspected to be one of the Evil Claws, extremely dangerous! Verify your telepathic connections with everyone you see if you have one. Security team, see that blur moving from, frick, it should be on the next camera in a few seconds. Sorry, sensor. Or, if anyone begins walking on that sensor suddenly, the shifter has changed. The one that faces intersection 221B. There, in the derby cap!¡±


    Prinny and Illy start rushing back to me, and I take off with all haste towards the exit that the posh gentleman is meandering to at a leisurely pace. When Pawn confronts him on camera though, the two stumble off camera for a second, and now there are two Pawns on the next camera. You have *got* to be kidding me! This clich¨¦ isn¡¯t going to work on people who are telepathic with each other ar$eho13!


    Half of the Order of the Onyx Dawn closes in on the location, surprising the hell out of our guest who isn¡¯t yet aware of our new security system. They arrived just last night after all, so their info has to be at least two or three days old at the minimum. When the two begin arguing that they¡¯re the real Pawn, I just think a telepathic message to the actual Pawn linked to all of our mental networks to flip me off.


    Shouting quickly, ¡°There, bird flipper is the real Pawn. *Kill* the other!¡±


    The fake¡¯s eyes fly wide and she begins to bolt. I hate to admit it, but she¡¯s agile, and maybe almost as fast as Pawn. While several of us just barely manage to nick her, or scrape her flesh, she makes it past us, towards the exit, as we¡¯re too cautious, not wanting to hit one another in crossfires with breaths or abilities. I can¡¯t manage to snag her in a grip with my telekinesis, and the one telekinetic grip that gets remotely close to snagging her shatters instantly, sending a shearing pain through my skull. Groaning, I rattle my skull, reassessing. My allies are in a jumble next to me, but the fake Pawn is fleeing, far down the tunnel leading out of Mount Solace.


    Since she¡¯s now far out of reach of being in any sort of crossfire, I loose a long blast of lightning, scarring the hell out of my throat, filling the entire hallway towards the foothills. Making it so large dilutes its power vastly, but I do manage to nick the fleeing villain. It¡¯s too bad I lack the fine control I¡¯d had on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, or even just in my most recent body prior to dying. I¡¯d have dropped a time-delayed spark into that connection to destroy her heart and insides.


    Growling out commands, I bark, ¡°Adamantite or orichalcum gate, main door, commission, stoneshaping and Teuila to get it into place. No one without telepathy leaves Solace. Anyone trying to get in, if they can¡¯t respond to telepathy, are a fake. Goggles. Everyone. Now. Do *not* lose them! Security center, keep an eye on everyone¡¯s sensors, if you see a blur that they don¡¯t seem to notice, patch in and warn them immediately. Lil, glad you¡¯re here. Take a long friggin¡¯ breath buddy, because I need you filling this hallway with fire until we¡¯re done with the door.¡±


    Heaving with exhaustion from the rapid adrenaline rushes, I begin to crash. I barely sustained my sanity through that. There were too many allies for me to whip out my area of effect abilities, and even at my best I¡¯m not accurate enough with most of my single target ones to hit someone that quick. I¡¯m definitely not at my best. I¡¯d have hit my friends, my family. I need to get new telepathic bonds on all the Spellknights, and all the new family members like Atter and Shiz and Pidge. I rapidly scratch my scalp and the base of my horns like an addict fiending for a hit. Plans, plans, so many plans. Huff, huff.


    When friends and family tell me to calm down, the crazy-eyed glare I give them speaks volumes about how that won¡¯t be happening any time soon. No bastard will ever do that to anyone else, ever. No one should have to suffer what I just went through. Huff, huff. First thing¡¯s first, check in with Leeza, possibly Charles, and Deli and Yerj if they¡¯re in as well. Commission the gate in two stages. A quick, first layer, to relieve Lil, basically just welded sheetmetal, then an actual full gate.

 B 6 C 164: Truth or Consequence

    Starting my Backpotter transformation, I have so much to do, but at least I can queue a lot of it up in the meantime while this transformation slowly engages.  Alright, Charles is in, and as promised, he¡¯s got a prototype of the design I want.  Those bangles need to be able to have a clip inserted in all of those spaces though, so we¡¯ll have to make another attempt before finalizing it.  Right now they¡¯re more like embellishment grooves.  Next, I¡¯ve got to request two stages of main gate, to the main tunnel specifications.


    Huff, huff. My brain¡¯s fritzing, what¡¯s next? Hold up a note telling the security team to tell Te to get the hell home, and to blitz through Lil¡¯s fire with her seasonal gi on.  Oh, wait, she¡¯s got a clip that provides fire immunity too I think.  We should get that clip transferred to Lu, since Te¡¯s seasonal gi provides the heat immunity, and Luni isn¡¯t yet immune to fire.  That¡¯d let the entire SAP, our entire inner circle, finally be immune to the blaze of flames.  Te¡¯ll agree, happy to show off her immunity, even if Lil bypasses a few percentage of that immunity as he ramps up.  She¡¯ll be in and out and through in the blink of an eye anyway.  Lil¡¯s is one of the stronger Latents, but so is this shapechanger¡¯s.


    Latents like this are stronger than we¡¯ve prepared for.  Hell, they¡¯re stranger than what we¡¯d prepared for.  Hell, we should call them that, stranger Latents.  We need protocols in place to deal with them, stranger protocols.


    Still panting with exhaustion, my chest heaving with exertion, I meet up with Nala, who¡¯d heard some of the confrontation and my recent plans.  I beg, ¡°Nala, are you okay?  Have you had time to rest?  To work on the goggles to make them able to receive the size-changing enchantment?¡±


    Curator¡¯s response is almost chipper, ¡°Hm?  Oh, yes, yes.  It took a bit, and a bit of insight from this delightful young woman to my¡ª.  Side?  Hm, she was just here.¡±


    When a backpack tips over, causing massive clanging, crashing noises, as Littlebit¡¯s random tin, bronze, and brass material falls out, she stumbles out from under the weight of it, yawning.  Nala seems completely unfazed by the noise, as if she¡¯s just grown accustomed to clanging occurring already.  I wear a wry smile, but then prompt Nala to continue.


    Gazing at me curiously, Nala takes a moment to realize the social cue I¡¯m giving her before continuing, ¡°Oh, right, I believe with Miss Bittie¡¯s help, I can continue other projects and still finish about one goggle per hour to be able to receive your enchantment, and give you the exact specifications of reagents you¡¯ll need to be able to apply it in a way that won¡¯t tax you.  I do so hope you¡¯ve a stock of high quality gems available.  Also, Schism, about this, this protocol, and having an enemy in our midst¡ª.  Are you alright, friend Reggie?  You, well honestly, look awful, just terrible, utterly dreadful.¡±


    For a moment there, and I¡¯m mostly joking about this assertion, I was worried Nala¡¯d been replaced.  That however is the level of tact I expect from Curator.  Smiling at Nala, I nod in response.  Hm, oh, right.


    Turning to Littlebit, I ask, ¡°This might seem forward Littlebit, but I need to provide you with a telepathic link for your own safety.  We¡¯ve had a shapechanger scare, and I¡ª.¡±


    Nala interrupts to add, ¡°Oh, yes, and I¡¯ve found a solution to your telepathic bonds costing you to apply as well, though, once again, the compound is costly, but I¡¯ve found how to prevent you from needing additional layers for each network.  I wrote all this down for you here somewhere.  Ah, right.  Oh.  Drat.  Covered in oil.  Fret not, I¡¯ll reproduce it by the time you¡¯re ready to begin.  Oh, Miss Bittie, Schism is asking your consent to touch your bare back and such, to apply the rune paste I was mentioning.¡±


    Chipperly chirping, Littlebit jokes, ¡°Don¡¯t even gotta ask, *Tiger*, winkwink.  Hehe, but no seriously, yeah it¡¯s fine.  Come get me when you need me.  Nala¡¯s mad rad with her thinkpad.  I¡¯m gonna love it here!  Hey, can I talk to Nala with that telepathy?¡±


    Glancing at Nala, I¡¯m essentially asking Nala for consent to put something like five or six other new voices in her head that she might have to put walls up for.  She pauses to consider it thoroughly rather than jumping to a yes or a no.  After a while, she acquiesces.


    With Nala¡¯s consent, I respond, ¡°Yep, we¡¯ll get Nala on that network.  Also probably some people that are normally down here near you guys.  Some of the blacksmiths, maybe Shiz, maybe Zelshiz, Leeza, and the like.  Before I get sidetracked by some *other* emergency, I need some sort of storm-elemental focus, that can bind the power to the target of the focus.  Specifically elemental planar power, attached to a specific wavelength of energy, the signature would look like, hm, here, I¡¯ll draw it.  That¡¯s the format for an energy-based evolution-tether.  The range of the frequency is marked down, and oscillation patterns and so on.  That should tell you everything about the tether.  I¡¯m pretty certain we can supercharge Lil¡¯s evolutions with Te¡¯s powers if I first get her to absorb what I think is causing the current Worldstorm disruption.¡±


    Before I can converse too much more with them about the projects I need them on, I notice Induul approaching the entrance, and being balked by Lil¡¯s flames.  Lil grumps, but pauses to take a breath, letting Indy through after verifying it¡¯s really him telepathically.  *I hope* Lil verified first anyway.  Since Lil is on almost everyone¡¯s network.  Fudgesickle.  If that¡¯s the real Induul, Yui and Yuri are due back at some point relatively soon, and they aren¡¯t networked yet.  Mother of crap.


    Looking over my shoulder, Leeza appears to be quite done taking inventory of the spawns for the morning, she appears to be sitting patiently, waiting for me.  The volunteers thankfully aren¡¯t taking anything from the warrens, only harvesting them to set them down for me.  As I¡¯m about to try to take care of that, I hear, ¡°We¡¯ve got a problem here,¡± from the security center.


    Growling in frustration, I look, and sure enough, there¡¯s Ahliyuri, without his sister.  I know they were stealthing separately because Yuri is stealthier than Yui, and Yui didn¡¯t want to tip off Induul, but still, this is about the worst time for this.  Is Te back yet?  This might be a bit mean.  What if I get Teuila to ask for a trust exercise, of leaping into Lil¡¯s flame holding Yuri?  Would that prove anything?  Hm, if our shapeshifter is naturally a Red or Gold, it won¡¯t mean anything.  If Yuri is still harboring a bit of mistrust of Teuila for hurting Yui, he might also simply refuse.  Oh, we could trick-question him.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Passing along a note to get to Teuila, I want her to ask, ¡°When I dueled you two the other day, which sword did you use, and which sword did your sister use?¡±


    It¡¯ll hurt to bring it up, for both of them, but it¡¯ll also help them breach the topic, to start rebuilding trust.  Broach the topic?  One or the other.  If it¡¯s any other answer than something like, ¡°Is this a trick, or did you hurt your head?  Yui used both,¡± then it¡¯s the impostor.


    My guts twist as I relay the information to get it told to Teuila.  I feel horrible for making her face this topic.  I *am* horrible for making her face this topic like this.  I can¡¯t help watching how this unfolds.  Crap, I need two more pair of goggles, pairs?  For the Spellknight twins, and a bunch more for the, grr.  Keep calm Reggie, keep calm.  Yuri is looking for ways around the flames.  Not a good sign if he doesn¡¯t know we¡¯re under a siege.  Or rather, not a good look on him to act as if he doesn¡¯t know we¡¯re under a siege, when we¡¯ve had him scouting and spying nearby over the last couple days.


    Vylon and Vyela are backing up Lil, so Lil is safe even if he needs to take a breather, as they keep alternating charges.  It is kind of amusing seeing the twin golds raise their scaled brows further and further as Lil¡¯s flames keep going, and keep increasing, minute after minute.  The power of the freakin¡¯ Sun peeps, the power of the freakin¡¯ Sun.


    Wait, okay, there¡¯s Teuila.  Gods she looks so sad as she¡¯s approaching Yuri.  Crap, what the hell?  Watching the events unfold from a hidden mirrored scrying sensor at the entrance leaves me feeling helpless and confused at the events as they transpire, or unfold. My brain is too addled to think of the difference at the moment.


    Regardless, Yui appeared almost out of nowhere, and is rushing Yuri, shouting something to Te.  Te looking aghast, turns her ire towards Yuri, who suddenly seems to disappear, the exact opposite of what Yui just did.  Fudge!  Now is that because of his spells and abilities, because Yui is an impostor, or is that because he¡¯s the shapeshifter Latent wielder?  Crap!


    Security patches Teuila through to me and she rattles off, ¡°Air, babe, I gotta go on a rescue mission.  Yui¡¯s bro got flattened by the siege or something unexpectedly, and she dropped your mission, trying to get her brother back.  When she saw him out here, looking fine, she knew it was a trick.  I believe her.  She¡¯s showing me the, sniffle, scars where I punched her.  I can do that, right?  Go rescue him?¡±


    My breath catches in my throat, realizing that I¡¯ve forced Teuila to face this hurt of hers on multiple levels in the last few minutes, and my eyes spring a leak.  My tears stream forth, and as Te is about to ask again, I haltingly respond, ¡°Y-yeah.  Of course Te.  My Wings.  I¡ª.  I¡¯m so, so, so sorry.  Get home safe, bring them home safe.  Be careful of impostors.  Someone with a superpowered Latent for shapeshifting is out there.  I don¡¯t know if it gives them much info about their victim or not though.  They might have semi-accurate information up to a couple of days ago.  I think it¡¯s Shlendtikuar.¡±


    Gulping back sadness, I refrain from bemoaning to Teuila that it¡¯s my fault.  I have to face up to the fact and take ownership of the responsibility for this issue.  I mean, unless Shlendtikuar is just sleeping somewhere, and I¡¯m overreacting I guess.  Still, genre senses are saying almost eighty percent odds that it¡¯s either him, or he¡¯s a patsy that may or may not know the part he plays, based on current information.  Well, him, or that he¡¯s a red herring if this were a mystery novel.  Also the senses are putting fifteen percent odds that Pidge is in on it, for not telling us earlier. It¡¯s a tad surprising that that¡¯s not higher.


    Seeing Teuila sweep Yui off her feet would almost be cute any other time, but both are putting their faith in the other right now in order to rescue Yuri.  No wonder Yui didn¡¯t use her animal spell to get back in contact during the siege, or warn us about it.  She had to have gone off-mission.  That¡¯s probably why she even happened to find Kagired, injured, because she¡¯d left off tracking Induul.  They must have been far out of range of her spell, or something, as they took Yuri captive and dragged him further away.


    How did Induul escape notice if Yuri got flattened?  Maybe he just out-flew them? I understand Yui, practicing her brother¡¯s stealth techniques, escaping notice, since she was following her brother at tracking distance, quite a ways off.  I wonder if Yuri got captured trying to keep the siege distracted from seeking out Induul maybe?


    Calling across the psychic network, I request, ¡°Someone get a full sitrep from Induul, even if he¡¯s a bit belligerent from withdrawal.  Be thorough.  Something isn¡¯t sitting right.¡±


    Huff.  Grr.  Okay.  I¡¯ve got a few more quick details to attend to, then I need to touch base with Leeza, and start prepping for new psychic networks while snagging all the materials and the extra shop to my Backpotter inventory.  Hopefully, in that time, Te can rescue Yuri, and Yui can prove that it¡¯s him.  I want them in on a network as soon as possible, and to grant them each goggles, even if they never leave Mount Solace again.


    Let¡¯s see¡ª, crap.  I did not lock my vault after Miraina and I left it, and it¡¯s ajar.  Who the¡ª.  Oh.  Blushing, I cough, announcing my presence as I face away to avert my gaze and mutter, ¡°Morning, Shiz, Zel.  I uh, guess I haven¡¯t provided you two with a private room yet, huh?¡±


    Nervous chuckling comes from Shiz as he responds, ¡°Aye, I¡¯m, ah, sorry Schism.  Figured you might not mind too much, since you let us in here when The Copper was hurt and all, and it wasn¡¯t locked.  Lil and the other Red were getting frisky a couple doors down, so we thought maybe the one with an actual door on it.  Erm.  If, if I¡¯ve angered you, it¡¯s my fault.  Zel had no way to know.¡±


    Turning around, Zel still isn¡¯t fully dressed, nor is Shiz, but at least they aren¡¯t mid-passion at the moment.  Casting my gaze elsewhere, while facing Shiz now, I offer up, ¡°Sorry, no, I wasn¡¯t mad, was just trying to give you privacy but let you know I need to catch you up on things.  We had a shapeshifter loose, more than just any dragon, one with an impressive Latent for it.  I¡¯m almost certain it¡¯s a member of the Evil Claws.  I want to bring you two into a psychic network.  I trust you both and want you to be safe.  Zel, I¡¯d like you to vet your subordinates, get them all down here to be added to psychic networks.  Make sure you¡¯re positive they are who they say they are, in case there¡¯s more than one of these bastards.  I¡¯d be obliged if you could get Alanea to come down here too.  Any idea where Trixxie, Pidge, and Lucky are?¡±


    Chuckling, Shiz responds, ¡°Pretty sure Lucky¡¯s playing a prank on that pair by having them sleep in the nasty weirdos warren with him.  Doubt Pawn and I¡¯ll have much left to fight in there when she arrives.¡±


    My jaw hangs slack, and my index finger can¡¯t decide whether to point or curl.  I clamp my mouth shut, spin on my heel, and just start walking while shaking my head.  When I hear a familiar shriek, I¡¯m pretty certain Shiz is right.

 B 6 C 165: Consort Conspiracy

    Hastily jogging into the warrens, to keep anyone from getting hurt by mite-pistol-turrets, or kraken-tentacles, I see that there¡¯s absolutely no need.  Lucky¡¯s blocking every single attack that might head towards Pidge or Trixxie.  He¡¯s¡ª.  The goober is showing off.  He wanted to show off, and maybe score brownie points for protecting them.  I slam my head into the nearest wall, not quite as softly as I¡¯d liked to have.  Ow.  Facepalming, I await a moment when Lucky stops goofing off, while I cast a dubious glance his way. My son catches my glance, but seems all the happier for my attention, his tail wagging.


    Despite panting, and his tongue hanging out derpily, Lucky seems to smile, happy to see me to show off to me as well.  He suddenly, and very quickly, clears out all the hostiles in the warrens with a combination of abilities and magic items.  I can¡¯t even pretend to be mad at him.  It was impressive.  Walking up to Lucky, I roughhouse with him and kiss his snoot repeatedly for only a few moments. Weirdest parent-child relationship ever. A recently-Fel-bodied Changeling Fae and their Hunter Hound-Cragbeast-Dragon-Valkyrie-Otter-Fae hybrid pup.


    A bit more demanding than I mean to be, I order, ¡°Trixxie, Pidge, I¡¯ll be setting up psychic networks, Lucky trusts you enough to want you around.  We had a shapeshifter infiltrate last night and act this morning.  Powerful Latent, not just any dragon.  I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s a member of the Evil Claws.  I¡¯m guessing Harlequin, Lovelace, Laughing Drakk, or Butterfly.  My money¡¯s on the former.  Anything you can tell me Pidge?¡±


    Blinking, Pidge scratches his chin with thumb and index finger before responding, ¡°I do think that sounds like Harle.  Most of us haven¡¯t used our Latents in ages, what with fighting under the Damnations never really needing to fight.¡±


    My jaw drops as I hear the nickname for Harlequin that matches a pronunciation I heard last night on the aerie.  I gasp, ¡°Harle, like, Harrelk?¡±


    Pidge nods for a moment in thought, rather than agreement, but then seems to alight on a memory before exclaiming, ¡°Yeah, yeah I do think that¡¯s Harle¡¯s name, before we all got titled and started going by them.  Long, long time ago now.  Memory¡¯s fuzzy on some things for some reason too, beyond just age.  Not sure why that is.¡±


    Facepalming, I ask, ¡°Were any of the other twelve ancients that were consorts any of the Evil Claws?  Did you *know* Harrelk was Harlequin?¡¯


    Scratching his head, furrowing his brow, and frowning, Pidge shakes his head while responding, ¡°No, no I don¡¯t think so.  If anything, Harle probably wasn¡¯t even one of that Red¡¯s consorts.  Likely slit their throat, imbibed, and took their place.  Maybe.  Not sure.  Don¡¯t really know the other Claws¡¯ private lives.  Could have been his or her real identity maybe.¡±


    Growling to myself, I send my mind reaching out for Kinzul¡¯s, but sense she¡¯s nowhere to be found within Solace.  Crap, really?  At a time like this, my love?  Friggin¡¯ hell.  I don¡¯t think Pidge is playing me here.  Oddly enough.  My genre senses have swung from eighty percent odds it being Shlendtikuar, to ninety five percent odds that it¡¯s Harrelk.  I need to find the ancient consorts, and I need to find Shlendtikuar, or Shlend¡¯s body.  I¡¯m worried that Harrelk might have been planning a longer game, and killed Shlen in order to pin the blame on him, insinuating the culprit escaped, and then be able to remain here as Harrelk for a while.


    One of the strategists-eight hearing my thoughts, connects to me from the security center, and offers up, ¡°Eleven ancient consorts in the feasting hall, having more than a grand old time on your resources and wine Schism.  Lazy old bloaters are living it up.  No sign of Shlen.  Doubt there¡¯s any reason for the twelve not to stick together and gorge.  I¡¯d say you¡¯re on the money.  I¡¯ve got volunteers out looking for signs of a fight, or bodies right now.¡±


    Bodies.  Plural.  Oh god.  Alanea.  I drop everything and spin around to rush towards Mount Solace with tears streaming behind me.  Lucky shapeshifts, picks up Trixxie and Pidge in his mouth, and nudges me up onto his skull with his snoot while dashing my way.  I land in a fold of armor on his back, and reach out with my telekinetic grips to catch Trixxie and Pidge when Lucky tosses them up over his head back towards me, still dashing the whole time.  I love you Lucky.  Thank you.


    We tear up the tunnels of Mount Solace towards the infirmary.  Kagired¡¯s alive, in bed, healing, still roughed up bad, but I can tell he¡¯s healing.  I think all of the Draconiac Spellknights other than Zelshiz are here, even the non wounded ones are just sitting or sleeping next to their wounded comrades, on gurneys or stretchers or infirmary beds or whatever.  I don¡¯t see Alanea though.  Leaping off of Lucky, I point towards one hallway past the infirmary, while I check another.


    A few moments later, I find Alanea in bed, in a room that might have been Kagired¡¯s.  She¡¯s so still, that for a moment, fear drives its chilly claws into my heart like five icy daggers.  I rush to her side, and she turns towards the sound of my approach, to reach out a hand towards my face.  I hadn¡¯t meant to be doing this, just to check that she¡¯s alright.


    Sinking into her embrace, and kiss, I weep softly for a bit before explaining to Alanea what¡¯s been happening.  As I¡¯m drawing ragged, sobbed breaths, Alanea, while looking terrified shakes her head several times to collect her thoughts.  Wearing a fierce expression for a few moments, Alanea seems deep in thought before something sets her upon a resolution.


    Alanea locks gazes with me, and firmly nods once before stating, ¡°Well, it¡¯s, it¡¯s not unlike what we were already dealing with.  In, well, the Enclave, we had to be on the lookout for people who weren¡¯t themselves.  I know it¡¯s, well, not quite the same, but, well, you get it, right dearling?¡±


    Taking a few moments to collect myself as Alanea strokes my hair, and horns, I blush a bit, both at my own overreaction, and the strange tingle I get when she strokes my horns.  Nodding, I kiss her softly before responding, ¡°You¡¯re right.  You¡¯re right.  If you can think of any ways the Enclave acts to help keep this sort of thing from turning disastrous, please let any of us know.  I want you protected by someone at all times.  Maybe have Lucky and his pals stay with you until I¡¯m sure we¡¯ve got this matter settled.¡±


    Glancing down the hallway, I see Lucky trotting towards us, still carrying Pidge and Trixxie on his back, his tail wagging now that he knows I¡¯m no longer distressed. He¡¯s got his two new friends essentially held hostage, so they¡¯re going to learn to like him whether they like it or not, it seems. Heh. I wonder if I should try to have a talk with him about that? Then again, I need him to keep an eye on them, since they were enemies only a day ago. I¡¯ll try to put more thought into that later when I¡¯ve got some time to figure out this whole parenting thing. Yeesh. Reggie Shellcracker, trying to do parenting. There¡¯s a catastrophe waiting to happen.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    As Lucky sits in the doorway to this dragon-sized bedroom, I motion towards him while announcing him to Alanea, ¡°Here¡¯s Lucky now.  Is what I suggested to Alanea okay boy?  Can you watch after my dearling as well as your two new friends?¡±


    When Lucky whuffs happily while wagging his tail, I hug him tightly about his snout whispering, ¡°Thank you boy, thank you Lucky.  You¡¯re so good.  You¡¯re so good.  I love you so much.¡±


    My ears have popped from the stress, anxiety, adrenaline and rushing around different elevations repeatedly.  Seething at the impostor for endangering Pawn, threatening her, using Illy¡¯s face against me, causing Prinrin to have to play a horrible, horrible part¡ª.  Cool it Reggie.  We can also probably just say Harrelk at this point.  I just need a few data points from Kinzul for confirmation.  I¡¯m betting the bastard really does have an identity as Harrelk.  And maybe even maintained it most of the time, only becoming Harlequin when the Damnations had need of him in battle, or that he had to report to them, or Terrorzin.


    Mumbling to the three other than Lucky, I ramble, ¡°I, I need you all down in Mount Verdimenn, and all the patients other than Kagired too.  We need to start getting you all set up for psychic links, telepathy, so that this can¡¯t happen again.  I¡¯m going to be at it all day, or at least a couple of hours.  I¡¯m so lightheaded, and dizzy.  Harrelk got me so bad.  I almost lost my mind.  I almost retreated into a void that I might not have come back from.  Pidge, did you know of any plan like this, or any other plans by the Damnations?¡±


    Shaking his head, Pidge responds, ¡°Haven¡¯t been called to duty for a long time.  I¡¯m usually one of the last ones called.  Was odd to be called in, honestly.  I think I¡¯ve been hibernating for, hm, years?  Decades?  Not sure.  Then there¡¯s that weird fuzzy feeling in my memories too.  Anyway, my Latent isn¡¯t especially useful.  It just sort of generally, well, it¡¯s a bit embarrassing.¡±


    My raised brow prompts Pidge to explain, ¡°Well, I don¡¯t exactly have totally a hundred percent full control of it, in that I can¡¯t shut it all the way down.  It¡¯s not dangerous though. Maybe?  Well, I can boost it, but I¡¯ve seen no need to, and done no such thing in a very, very long time.  It¡¯s never really been much of a battle changer. Doesn¡¯t do much worth mentioning at all.¡±


    For the umpteenth time recently, I begin ramming my forehead into a wall, and once again, not quite as softly as I¡¯d like.  I¡¯m exaggerating when I call it ramming, I¡¯m just dropping my head at an angle against it lightly, but it still smarts.


    Sighing, I express my gratitude, ¡°Thank you for keeping it that way.  So what you¡¯re saying is, if something weird happens, it might be your Latent, but you wouldn¡¯t have meant it to cause any harm.  Can knocking you out stop it?  Does it stay when you¡¯re asleep?  Not sure how you¡¯d know that.  I don¡¯t want to have to slay you if it goes rampantly out of control.¡±


    Lucky frowns at me, while Trixxie¡¯s eyes widen in frightened shock. Pidge holds his hands up, palms forward placatingly, before answering, ¡°No idea about sleeping or being knocked out, like you said.  If that becomes an issue, you could confine me in the other mountain, or in a prison, it¡¯s only a couple hundred meters in range at the very most, and much weaker the further out from me, which is saying something, with how weak I keep it already.¡¯


    I guess as long as it¡¯s at it¡¯s lowest setting, and he¡¯s mostly in places like the edges of battles, or the project space at Verdimenn, I suppose it¡¯ll be mostly fine. Lucky, it¡¯ll be your duty to keep Pidge away from people if Pidge or other people start acting weird all of a sudden, alright? I know you already understand boy, but I just need to make sure it¡¯s said. Or, well, telepathically said, thought. I don¡¯t want it haunting me later worrying if anyone has an eye on Pidge and has this situation handled. He seems to be your new friend, along with Trixxie, so just take care of them, okay? I love you Lucky.


    Lucky offers a sharp bark affirmatively, and nods my way while panting, before scratching himself behind his ears with his rear paws. Or maybe his talons? Or his claws? I never know what to call Lucky¡¯s appendages or bodyparts, since he¡¯s such an amalgamation of creatures, his own unique species, and a shapeshifter to boot. Lucky seems to almost be snickering at my mental monologue and my confusion. In fact, I¡¯m pretty certain he is. I flash him a wry smirk and roll my eyes, but spend several moments roughhousing with him as our mental avatars in thinkspace.


    Glancing over towards Alanea, I notice that her breathing has become a bit quickened.  Her pulse is racing, and there¡¯s certain beads of sweat trickling down her neck that are usually only evident when¡ª.  Ahem, koff.  Right.  Alanea furiously blushes when our gazes meet, but she can¡¯t help licking her lips to wet them.  Sighing, I rattle my skull.  Just one more weird as hell little wrinkle to plan around, but thankfully it¡¯s not one that changes any outcomes I can think of at the moment.


    Turning to kiss Alanea, the passion of the moment catches us both off guard, and we end up blinking in surprise, wide-eyed, aware of our audience. Color drains from my cheeks, leaving me ashen momentarily, before it comes rushing back with the heat of a thousand suns.  I¡¯d meant to just kiss her a short farewell, then head back to Mount Verdimenn to continue setting things up.


    Rattling my skull, I take a moment to sigh, hoping to release the wave of embarrassment that just hit. The wave that was caused when my relief about Alanea¡¯s well-being got the better of me. We both know I care. Erm, well, at this point, everyone in this room knows I care. While there¡¯s a bit of coughing and throat clearing from Pidge and Trixxie who both rub the back of their heads and pretend to at least attempt to avert their gazes, I¡¯m grateful for their, erm¡ª tact.


    I need to take a few moments to think some things through. So much has happened in what I think has been less than an hour since I woke up, it¡¯s still unreasonably early in the morning. Waking up to Te sneaking off wasn¡¯t that unusual. Being chastised by Lu and Kinzul hurt, but it had to happen. That really wasn¡¯t much time at all, and, despite me trying to take their words to heart, it probably didn¡¯t change the course of my day at all.


    Being slapped by Prinrin as she played along with Harlequin in order to get Pawn out of the grasp of the Evil Claw was a huge blow to my heart, but we¡¯re past it. I nearly slipped over the edge of my own sanity when I realized some being, some creature, was wearing a face of someone I love, to mess with me. Again! The very thing that sent me spiraling into the abyss of my own mind for months on end early in my life on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Once I staggered away from the precipice, we were all rushing into a flurry to find the shapeshifter. We were attempting to kill or contain them, but ended up chasing them out of Mount Solace. Then I started putting newer measures in place to prevent anything like that from ever being able to happen again. All in so short a time.


    Gods, Lil is probably huffing and puffing his brains out with how much fire I asked him to fill the corridor with for as long as I asked him to, and he¡¯s probably glassed the whole entry tunnel smooth.  Hah. I hadn¡¯t thought about that when I¡¯d asked him to do it. We might be able to use -that- to our advantage too, against siege.  Hm, yes, electrification of Solace, traps, siege prep, and so much more.  Good, keep these ideas in mind Reggie Shellcracker. You need to keep your mind focused on things to accomplish. Use that drive to move past this morning.


    Okay, enough screwing around.  My Backpotter form is almost here.  I issue a few warnings, and instructions, to Lucky, Alanea, Pidge, and Trixxie. With that out of the way, I TK Surf my way back towards Mount Verdimenn.

 B 6 C 166: Absolutions Edge

    Rushing towards her, I catch Leezahna''s eye, the words ¡°I¡¯m sorry Leeza,¡± stumbling out, my gaze dropping to the ground, unable to bear the weight of her stare. It takes me a moment to collect myself to explain, ¡°for making you wait.  Also, crap, sorry for not asking your permission to use a nickname.  My apologies Leezahna.  We¡¯ve had a major security breach by a Latent-empowered shapeshifter.  I¡¯m trying to get all the people I care about on telepathic networks as soon as possible, and I¡¯d like you on one with the others that spend most of their time around Mount Verdimenn.  I¡ª.  Crap.  It is not an order.  You do not have to consent to this.  It will complicate matters for your, and other people¡¯s safety, if you say no, but I promise you I will work around it.¡±


    As Leeza¡¯s face contorts she nods, a barely perceptible dip of her head, her voice a tangled knot of resignation and confusion. ¡°Fine, um, to both first things. Whatever. I guess.¡± Her fingers twitch at her side, a silent drumming of unease as she continues, ¡°What¡¯s the, what consent do you need?¡±


    I should really stop ramming my forehead into walls.  Pausing my light thunking of the wall with my skull, I address Leeza, ¡°The consent would be to enchant you with telepathy to a small group of people, eight people, one of which would be me.  Any time I¡¯m within something like half a mile of you, you could send a message to me instantly, and I¡¯d be able to instantly respond or send help.¡±


    Then, recalling that she probably doesn¡¯t know how setting up the enchantment works, I clarify, ¡°Before you say yes or no to that, it does require me enchanting you, which is a process which requires putting at least one of my fingers on you with runic paste, in order to draw the runes upon your flesh, mostly your back.¡± The horror with which Leezahna gazes at me as color drains from her face and her breath catches makes me gulp as I finish, ¡±I completely understand your hesitation and that look.  My apologies.  We¡¯ll figu¡ª.¡±


    Furrowing her brow, Leeza seems to fight an internal struggle before responding, ¡°N-n-no.  We-,we¡¯ll.  No.  We won¡¯t need t-t-to.  I¡¯ll, I¡¯ll consent, t-t-to it.  T-to your t-touch.¡±


    Holy crap she¡¯s terrified of me. I verbally bullied her near to death to break her out of the dangerous disdain she had for the lives of others, and now she¡¯s shaking like a leaf at the mere thought of me having to touch her.  Oh god, I have some of Vorzog¡¯s troops coming down here.  I¡¯m a friggin¡¯ monster!  Wait, no, they¡¯re Triorgraiz¡¯s and Zelshiz¡¯s subordinates as far as I¡¯m aware.  They all seemed to be slightly different in disposition honestly.  Is *she* going to recognize that though?  Or am I just going to traumatize her even more?


    Wearing a sad, supremely apologetic face, I begin to try to explain, ¡°I, I killed Vorzog, and Adkre, and I have no idea how many dozens or hundreds of their troops died in the battle.  I spared Triorgraiz and, well, you¡¯ve seen Zelshiz wandering around with Shiz.  I¡ª.  I don¡¯t know how to ask your forgiveness for bringing home some of Zelshiz¡¯s subordinates.  I feel like an absolute, utter monster.  If you want to take a swing at me with this, I¡¯d understand. I won¡¯t stop you. Just, don¡¯t try to use its magic.¡± My words are delivered with a weight akin to the stones of Mount Verdimenn itself.


    The heft of Frostburn in my grasp feels heavier than it ought to, like it carries the weight of my sins. The blade¡¯s dual elements a testament to the lives I''ve taken, that I¡¯ve had to take the entirety of both of my lives, since even before I gained thermokinesis. As if the blade itself is judging me as far back as the first times I¡¯d gained control over freezing and fires, or even beyond. I get lost in a reverie of self-recrimination, guilt. Grasping Frostburn by the blade as I offer its hilt to Leeza, she flinches at the sight of it at first.


    I can¡¯t help but see it as an olive branch, a plea for absolution I¡¯m not sure I deserve. The way Leeza gazes at Frostburn before tentatively plucking it from my grasp by its handle speaks volumes. She isn¡¯t really a rebellious warrior with disdain for life, unlike her portrayal on the aerie that day. When Leezahna chews on a strand of hair that falls into her face, and grips the waistband of her fashionable, well-fitted dress so hard that the knuckles of her left hand go white, I can tell that the offer, and the choice, is forcing her to confront emotions that she¡¯s struggling with.


    Rather than simply sating my guilty conscience, my offer to her, I hope, is more about giving her the chance to see that I don¡¯t see myself as better than her, or above retribution. I¡¯d already told her as much while we faced off on the aerie, but I wouldn¡¯t blame her if it didn¡¯t sink in back then. If she wants to scar my face, or gouge a hand, or stab me, I¡¯d understand.  Still, she just seems to be looking the blade over, over and over again. I think I should survive anything she throws at me other than a direct beheading, but I¡¯d raven-port away before I let that happen. Despite wanting absolution, I¡¯ve got too many people to protect to let myself die to get it.


    Shaking her head, Leeza throws the legendary sword off to the side somewhere and rolls her eyes while scoffing. Her refusal to strike, the way she discards the sword, it''s a reprieve that feels like a condemnation. I''m grateful, yet the guilt clings to me as tangible as the cool air of the cavern around us. Her shoulders droop, letting out tension I hadn¡¯t even noticed she¡¯d been carrying before she mutters, ¡°You are so o-overdramat-tic.  Everything is so over the t-t-top with you.  Here are the numbers.  T-t-Triorgraiz was f-fine.  Zelshiz is, is a, a weird, thing.  Person!  Person.  Sorry.  The Red, um, Ixey would kill me if I didn¡¯t, um, do the, be respectful thing, t-to someone with a gender issue.  S-so it¡¯s fine.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow towards Leeza at her assertion that Ixey would kill her, I can tell she recognizes the irony in the exaggeration of her statement after calling me overdramatic.  Still, I check over the numbers as my Backpotter form manifests, while drawing Frostburn back to me telekinetically. I stow Frostburn in its sheathe as I realize my Backpotter form has been fully manifesting, and is now finished.  Huh.  Y¡¯know what?  The water katana with its fifteen foot long blade actually makes sense at this size.  It¡¯s still ridiculous though.  Leeza gawks at me in this form.  I don¡¯t think she¡¯d seen it up close before, or maybe even at all.  Surprisingly, she reaches out to touch the form, well, me, to either determine my veracity, tangibility, or maybe my soft fuzziness.


    Startled when she realizes she¡¯s grabbing a handful of soft fur that¡¯s attached to me, Leeza flinches back away. Still, she watches me collect the materials, and the spare shop, and store them in my inventory. I¡¯m tempted to jokingly offer her an opportunity to float around the void inside of me. Maybe she¡¯d learn something about me that even I don¡¯t know.  Suddenly I¡¯m struck with another worry when I recall some people I¡¯d had floating around the void of my inventory recently. Vorzog¡¯s troops. Triorgraiz¡¯s troops.


    Very few of Terrorzin¡¯s forces seem at all interested in taking prisoners, and plenty seem quite willing to kill traitors. Triorgraiz was the only one that even offered a ceasefire and terms of surrender. What if, glp, what if Yuri is dead? Yui would go mad with grief, and I think I would too, because I sent him on the mission to keep track of Induul, who¡¯s behaving a bit oddly still. Inhaling a ragged, sobbed breath, I struggle to keep my sadness at bay.  I¡¯m not even sure we programmed this form with tear ducts.


    Trying to cast my gaze anywhere else so as not to be seen suddenly crying about my worry for the Spellknight twins Ahliyui and Ahliyuri, I drink in my surroundings. The cavern''s vastness echoes with the sounds of projects and volunteers, a cacophony like the turmoil within me. The glow lichen casts a light over the chaos of materials and makeshift library. I barely notice the soft luminescence of the lichen as I pass by in the shadows of the pillars, their stoic presence witnessing the tumultuousness of my choices. The bunker-like dome in the center of our project space is so smooth, round, and alien, being this raised bubble of stone sitting in the middle of an otherwise flat expanse, surrounded by pillars. On the opposite side from me, the crafting stations lie scattered, a haphazard sprawl, out of both creativity and necessity. Volunteers experiment with them and work tirelessly, much like my mind refuses to rest.


    Letting my mind shut off for a bit, to help keep the sadness at bay during the monotony of simply lifting and picking up material to put inside my cavernous chest¡¯s portal to my digital inventory void over and over and over, time flows by smoothly.  Almost seemingly too quickly, I¡¯m done with all the important warrens.  Most of them in general.  Checking the NFC tracking through my phone, I scroll through the available numbers, and compare them to Leeza¡¯s sheets.  They¡¯re all perfect.  All except Orichalcum.  I¡¯ve got three less sheets than what she calculated.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    How do I approach her about this, without making it seem like I blame her?  I¡¯m sure she¡¯s accurate, at least as accurate as she can be.  But what happened to the other three sheets?  Frowning, I look around, and fish around in my inventory, trying to see if any of my inventory or Backpotter form mechanisms are faulty.  Nothing seems off.  Maybe one of the volunteers figured three sheets wouldn¡¯t hurt, when they were harvesting the materials to set aside for me to take today?


    Before I can figure out how I want to approach her, Leezahna¡¯s astute gaze catches my hesitation. She questions in an almost accusing tone, ¡°Something¡¯s wrong isn¡¯t it?  I swear I checked and double checked my calculations.¡±


    Trying to be honest, yet holding a hand forward placatingly, while conveying what I need to, I quickly respond, ¡°Yours, your calculations are perfect, all of them, every single one.  I, I think.  There¡¯s one that I¡¯m wondering if you saw anyone walking away with three units of.  The Orichalcum sheets.¡±


    Pausing, I decide I should add something to clarify how I don¡¯t find her at fault, ¡°I¡¯m not blaming you at all and you¡¯re not responsible for keeping track of them yet. We haven¡¯t set up a supply depot for you to own and operate yet. I didn¡¯t want to throw that much responsibility at you at once. I¡¯m proud of, impressed by, and grateful for your work so far.  Again, you did nothing wrong. There¡¯s only the one number that doesn¡¯t match up.¡±


    Frowning at me, Leezahna glares momentarily, before catching herself.  Averting her gaze, she mutters, ¡°I¡¯d have marked it if I saw it.  But, well¡ª.  I, I guess there were a few minutes, I was hiding in my room.  The Green, ugh, he¡¯s not as smooth as he thinks he is.  I had to get away from him after he tried t-t-to ugh, flirt I guess.  Normally I¡¯d be flattered t-to be hit on by a t-titled, but something¡¯s off about him.¡± After briefly collecting her wits and catching her breath, Leeza follows with asking, ¡°You really want me t-to be a supply depot quartermaster?  That wasn¡¯t just¡ª.  I don¡¯t know.  You t-t-trust me with that?¡±


    Gnawing on my lip, I¡¯m trying to figure out how far along in our trust relationship we are, and what I need to remind her of, about trust and responsibility interplaying.  Going out on a limb, I offer up, ¡°It¡¯s not so much whether I trust you or not, because I do.  It¡¯s about what you do with that trust.  Giving you the extra responsibility is essentially the punishment you chose for yourself.  The opportunity to prove to me you won¡¯t break my trust again, and even more power over things that matter in a way that breaking my trust could be a very big deal.  I¡¯ll never hurt you for a mistake or¡ª.¡±


    My muscles slump and droop wearily as my features sag from realizing how I¡¯m still treating Leezahna like a rebellious prisoner that¡¯s a threat to everyone. I change tack, ¡°I won¡¯t hurt you.  I¡¯m done threatening you.  I¡¯m a monster, and I threatened you, and I¡¯m awful.  I don¡¯t know how to set consequences and boundary limits for broken trust, but there will be harsh consequences if it happens at some point.¡±


    Leezahna seems to be waiting for me to describe that trust, or those harsh punishments, as she awaits silently with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow. I¡¯m not sure where to begin, so I ramble, ¡°I¡¯m not saying you can¡¯t do something like keep a secret if a friend doesn¡¯t want you to tell me they were drinking or that you have to tell me every detail of your private life, or whatever.  That¡¯s not the trust I¡¯m¡ª.  Huff, sorry.  I¡¯m rambling.  I trust you, the answer is yes.  You are trusted, and important to me.  I¡¯m hoping that that makes *me* worth trusting, believing in, and acting in good faith towards.¡±


    That wall over there is looking really tempting for a forehead bashing.  Really tempting.  I am horrible at talking, at giving orders, and, and just so much.  Ugh.  Surprisingly, all Leeza says is, ¡°Okay.¡±  Her brow remains furrowed, and she coldly looks me up and down, but she nods my way, before accepting the papers back, to keep collating them to compare data from day to day.


    Did I remember to tell her I¡¯m impressed by her work ethic and stuff?  Crap.  I¡¯m a crap boss too. Really tempting wall. Really tempting. I¡¯d laugh at myself for mentally telling a wall that I was tempted to ram my head into it, if I hadn¡¯t been slamming my head into walls figuratively and literally all morning today so far. Speaking of slamming figuratively into walls, getting nearly impossible things done is easier with magic powers like the Backpotter form. Quick Reggie, figure out if there¡¯s anything else we needed to do with Backpotter form to¡ª. The doors.  The frame has to be wider than the hallway, and we have to stone-shape around it. I should be able to get the frame in my inventory, and place it with my enlarged Backpotter form. The doors can be rolled up on rollers, or that tombstone surfboard thing, and carefully lifted into place.


    Rushing back to the forgeworks, they do have the frame done already, in two parts, because it¡¯s the simplest piece, so that¡¯s good, extremely good. I wave to Charles the kobold I¡¯d been working with before enlarging myself. Now, huge, I grip the adamantite frame and slide it into my inventory one piece at a time, though it hurts the hell out of my wrists to try to lift and move it. I mostly have to tilt, angle, and lean it into the cavernous void in my chest that leads to my Can¡¯z¡¯aasian digital inventory. Hopefully this doesn¡¯t turn into another Big-O¡¯Keul situation. Huh, did that just suddenly go in easier?  Scratching my head, I shrug.


    Where the heck is Lu? Oh thank heavens. Lu is standing with the Queens Vylon and Vyela at the entrance, while Lil is slightly closer to the foothills, still exhaling flame, or exhaling once again. He really did glass a long section of the hallway with how much heat he put out. Melting and crystallizing stone with his fire breath, phew, that¡¯s our Star of the Onyx Dawn for you, Sun, my best buddy Lil. Regardless, I point for the area I need cleared, and with Luni¡¯s, Vylon¡¯s, and Vyela¡¯s help, I get the Orichalcum door-frame in place. I¡¯d say I wonder why they didn¡¯t have doors in the first place, but wood doors would be almost entirely useless.  Like, four fifths of dragons can blow up even giant wooden gates from a young age.  And they eat metal and minerals, so metal or stone doors would be like wasting food.


    The whirlwind of errands, tasks, commands, craftings, and situations that I become and plow through spins my mind so hard, that I can¡¯t even keep track of what¡¯s going on.  I know at this point, my Backpotter form has worn off, but I can¡¯t even recall everything I accomplished with it.  I need a moment to recover, because I can¡¯t afford to dissociate when I might be walking up to a shapeshifter at any moment.  Heaving a sigh, I sit on my arse with my knees halfway up towards my chin, my elbows on my knees, and my face in my palms.


    When several lanky digits rest upon my shoulder, I glance up, somewhat surprised to see Ixey before she asks, ¡°Schism, did I¡ª.  Did I say anything to you last night, before Lil showed up?¡±


    Gulping, and frowning, I try to let Ixey off the hook gently, ¡°You, ah, we talked, for a few moments.  It wasn¡¯t anything earth-shattering.  No worries.¡±


    Frowning herself now, a bit more angrily than my expression, Ixeyla glares at me before prodding telepathically, ¡°Is that your final answer Schism?¡±


    My eyes flash wide at the thinly-veiled threat as I hold my hands forward placatingly.  Gulping, I answer, ¡°I, you were, I guess just kind of flirty?  You were sort of just being a fun, overly-friendly flirt maybe.  Or I might have just misinterpreted some things.  There were things that had implications and maybe insinuations that I wasn¡¯t sure if you were intentionally implying, so I tried to¡ª.  What I mean is, I respect you, and I have love for you and Lil¡¯s relationship, and I mean you as well.¡±


    When Ixey leans down and drapes an arm over my shoulders before setting her face along my shoulder, I¡¯m more than perplexed.  While hugging me awkwardly, she mumbles, ¡°You pass.¡±


    Before I can react further, Ixey leans in to smooch my cheek and add, ¡°Not taking advantage of me is pretty hot Schism.  Honesty is even hotter.  My prince is lucky to have you as a best friend.  I don¡¯t lie, or say things I don¡¯t mean.  Just so you know.¡±


    At first, my heart is melting from the deeply touching compliment about my friendship with Lil.  Wait, what was that about not lying?  Did she mean she didn¡¯t lie just now by complimenting me, or while she was flirting last night?  As Ixey saunters away however, I¡¯m suddenly choking on my own tongue, coughing and sputtering.  I¡¯m pretty sure that that was *another* test.  Still, jeeze.  Now I¡¯m completely lost and entirely distracted from whatever I was trying to gather my thoughts for.  Darnit Ixey, your lanky-arse-ass doesn¡¯t really suit that sort of movement in those tight denim pants, but it¡¯s still cute as hell.  Erm, why am I staring at her butt?  Friggin¡¯ hell.  I¡¯m just gonna blame Pidge and his awkward supposedly useless mystery weirdness Latent. I just realized, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen Ixeyla¡¯s natural red dragon form, the form that has Lil gaga over her as his girlfriend. I wonder if¡ª.


    I nearly jump out of my skin when Zayzi appears near me and telepathically mutters, ¡°No kissing,¡± before simply walking in the direction of their twin sister. It¡¯s a reminder of their dragon-of-few-words nature, and a reminder of a rule they¡¯d set previously. They do offer me a polite telepathic smile as a morning greeting though.


    Well that got my heart pumping.  Friggin¡¯ hell.  Was Zayzi telling me not to kiss Ixeyla?  I hadn¡¯t planned on it, well, necessarily anyway.  Or were they acting out of self-defense at being a twin to someone I¡¯d been eyeing up unintentionally?  I get the feeling it¡¯s the latter.  Zayzi doesn¡¯t mind Lil dating and kissing Ixey, but would be upset if Lil wanted to smooch just because Zayzi and Ixey look alike.  Though, they might also be worried about losing the little time we spend together, or the time they spend with Ixey, if I were suddenly enamored of their sister, and spending time with Ixey instead.  Anyway, none of that is anywhere in my plans right now.


    Blargh, I let myself get distracted again.  What even *were* my plans at this point?

 B 6 C 167: Enchanting Yet Strategic

    Oh, right, I need to prep and enchant a ton of stuff, and a ton of people. Alright, let¡¯s see, group one should be¡ª. Littlebit, Nala, Shiz, Zelshiz, Leezahna, Trixxie, Pidge, and me. I think other groups should be combinations of me and Shiz or me and Zelshiz, along with the other Spellknights, six at a time. That only requires six groups to get all three dozen Spellknights networked up. I want an additional network with Alanea and Yui and Yuri, and some overlap with some of our other strong protectors, so that Alanea has defenders on-call and close at hand. Maybe Shiz and Atter. Yeah, Alanea, Yui, Yuri, Lucky, Shiz, Atter, me, and one more, maybe Leeza, so that she can get ahold of Lucky if she needs to, or Alanea for medical attention down here, or maybe Pawn. Perhaps Pawn instead of Shiz, and still Leeza? Her having two networks would show my faith in her, and give her more access to things she might need, on demand, while having more minds to answer to if she¡¯s being bratty.


    Yeah I¡¯m going to have to swap that around a little bit. Lucky¡¯s going to want to be in on any network with Trixxie and Pidge I bet. At least one of Pawn, or Lil, or Kinzul should be on *every* network as a secondary backbone, since I¡¯m not always available. I might need to do a few more groups with fewer non-static members, to get Shiz or Zelshiz in touch with all their subordinates, while also having Lil to answer to as a secondary backbone. Hell, I forgot to count Chuck and the two pairs of lovebirds, and to see if Shlendtikuar is still alive. Mrgrgr.


    Alright, this sheet looks doable. Maybe? Leeza gets three networks, so that she gets in touch with two other backbones than me, and Littlebit gets on two. Shiz and Zelshiz are on a whole bunch. Huff, huff. It¡¯s exhausting as my brain powers through all these literally thousands of possible combinations of groups of eight, weighing pros and cons, trying to offer benefits to the people I care about most. I know it¡¯s a bit selfish or callous to have ¡°people I care about most,¡± because it makes it sound like I value other peoples¡¯ lives less than those of my loved ones. I don¡¯t know how else to phrase it though. Plus, I mean, there¡¯s people like Leezahna on that list, and neither of us even like each other, so it¡¯s not entirely selfish. Though, that might be trying to assuage my own guilt at bullying her.


    Is, is that Ixey again? Testing telepathically, she responds in a flirty long drawl, ¡°Heyyy Schism,¡± and for a moment, I worry that she¡¯s already tipsy again, but she laughs it off and comes to lean over the table I¡¯m working at, throwing an arm over my shoulder.


    Before I can question it, Ixey says, ¡°Lil¡¯s worried about how hard you¡¯re working your brain. Since he¡¯s busy blowing his brains out¡ª. Uh, breathing fire nonstop, he wanted us to keep each other company, or me to go hang out with princess. Hm, I wouldn¡¯t leave those two on that particular psychic thing together without one of those two if I were you. Sorry, this is your work. I can be quiet.¡±


    My eyes raise in surprise. No, no Ixey is definitely right, so I respond, ¡°Oh, no, please don¡¯t be. You¡¯re right. Thank you. I missed that. Um, well, like I¡¯ve said or thought before, Lil is lucky to have you. You¡¯re pretty awesome.¡±


    When Ixey does several showy bows and flourishes at being called awesome, I snort a laugh at the false bravado. She¡¯s got a cheeky cheeriness that¡¯s a bit like Teuila when she¡¯s not testing me or threatening me. She responds, ¡°Thanks, in a bunch of ways. Being compared to Tenith is¡ª. I¡¯unno. I¡¯m honored. Listen, about what I said before, and testing you, sorry about that. I¡¯m not really trying to, well, I don¡¯t even know what I thought I was trying to do. Hearing my prince say how badly you needed someone right now screwed my head on straight, because Zayzi can be the same way. Lost, so freakin¡¯ lost in their own head. I, glp, I hate seeing that. You¡¯re really decent Schism. I don¡¯t want that for you either.¡±


    My lower jaw quivers as I¡¯m touched deeply to my core. Ixey wraps her arms around my head and offers me a tight hug to her slightly bony chest, with its pleasant, erm, resiliences and softnesses. I didn¡¯t expect to have company while I slammed my head into the brick walls of logistics, but Ixeyla makes for excellent company anyway. She¡¯s plenty sharp, flirty, and fun, without there being any sort of tension or anything between us.


    After a while of helping keep me from destroying my own brain accidentally, Ixey mutters, ¡°I should probably go apologize to princess. I went too far last night. Maybe just a little, but still¡ª. Thanks for being cool about stuff Schism. Thanks for being our Hero, and looking out for Zayzi and me. You can poke my brain any time you need a reminder to calm your goofy head down.¡±


    Once again, I¡¯m touched by Ixey. I knew she had more depth than just being boy-crazy about Lil, and overprotective of Zayzi, but I¡¯m touched and honored that she let *me* see any of that depth. Maybe I¡¯ll try to remember to ask her about her interests sometime, like her matches on the wrestling circuit. Whenever Lil¡¯s chattered about her, she always sounded really proud of those. Huh. Friendship is awesome. It definitely helps to have as many friends as I do in Mount Solace, when so many responsibilities seem to fall in my lap. Even if I¡¯m the one creating many of those responsibilities. Hell, especially because of that. Ixey¡¯s a great person to count amongst that number.


    Blinking several times, I¡¯m a bit stunned. My morning has been all over the place. Anyway, working with the security center, to get them to get Miraina, we begin setting up the groups, with the alterations Ixey helped me make. People begin arriving for their assigned groups, or for the oddball group here or there, we travel to them, just to prep them on how the enchantments are going to be set up, and what it¡¯s going to take.


    Placing the telepathic enchantment *is* slightly easier with Nala¡¯s formula adjustments to the solutions, but more monetarily costly in a sense. My personal gem reserves are rapidly dwindling, other than the mass of gems I¡¯d placed into my inventory. Though I hadn¡¯t counted exactly, and don¡¯t have access to my Can¡¯z¡¯aasian inventory interface to know how much currency I had near the end of our lives on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, I had a few million in paper cash, and quite a few million worth of gems. I¡¯m now bereft of either of those, though we do still have a lot of coinage in copper and silver, and a bit of gold. Between setting up a stipend for Nala and Leeza, the purchases I¡¯d made from the shops, and had others do with my cash for me, and the frequent enchanting I¡¯ve been doing, or otherwise utilizing gems, I¡¯m going broke fast. Also, my brain still feels a bit like it¡¯s hemorrhaging, with how intense everything has been so far today, but we¡¯re getting protocols in place, enchantments, equipment, and so much more. On a day when¡ª.


    Of course, as I¡¯m starting to feel like I can let my brain slow down and cool down, Kinzul arrives with terrible news, ¡°My love, I¡¯ve fetched word from our scout chain. Spymaster has been able to ascertain the cause of the Worldstorm¡¯s misbehavior my love, and it¡¯s dire. Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, a Sand, or yellow dragon, one of Terrorzin¡¯s greatest archmages had apparently sometime in recent history changed the name of his domain to the Thunderpeak range, mountains deep along the Spine of the World.¡±


    Before I can do much more than blink at the name Alpaca, Kinzul continues, ¡°Nestled within, built into the tallest mount is Thunderpeak Citadel, and within an interior cavern courtyard lies the largest building, Stormheart Keep. I believe somewhere within Stormheart Keep lies the, well, heart of the problem. Being so deep in Terrorzin¡¯s domain, we will be unable to send any dragons, nor even Lucky, as he could be sensed in a similar fashion. Else you would face all his forces from here to there. Being such that it is, suppressing your dragonforces, you, our Tenith, and our Muse¡ª.¡±


    Shaking my head quickly, I respond, ¡°No. Luni isn¡¯t going anywhere if Lucky can¡¯t be there to protect her, and we need Lucky on Damnation defense here at home anyway. I¡¯m sorry my Lady, my love. Teuila and I will do this with Lil, I need him on hand at the end of the fight. As amazing and powerful as Luni can be, we couldn¡¯t protect her that far from any support for her, and she¡¯s far, far, far more vulnerable than either of us, and in ways, quite possibly, far more valuable.¡±


    Blinking back a tear that forms as I think about all the danger Luni has faced for us, I draw a quick breath and continue, ¡°Point me in the direction Kinzul my love. We¡¯ll chance drawing out any forces willing to fly beneath the Worldstorm to chase us to Alpaca¡¯s keep, just like our new strategy of hitting the leadership core. We¡¯ll leave immediately. Besides, Te, Lil, and I will hopefully have new¡ª, well, we¡¯re looking forward to things to try out by the end of the assault.¡±


    Though my wife frowns at my disagreeing with her, she takes a moment to analyze my conclusion, and agrees in short order, especially once she realizes why I need Lil and Teuila together. Speaking of, I need the elemental focus, or my plan is for naught. Oof. If it isn¡¯t complete, or isn¡¯t doable yet, that would be more than a little bit of a bummer.


    At that point, we could actually let Lil stay home and just have me and Te try to duo the mission. Though I¡¯m hesitant to suggest that, since even as powerful as Teuila is, I¡¯m not sure exactly what we¡¯re up against. Plus my genre senses are clamoring like a klaxon. The warning bell in my head says it¡¯s going to be big, and that my guesses about the archmage and the Worldstorm disturbance are probably correct. Like, ninety-nine point nine repeating percent chance I¡¯m correct. My genre senses usually don¡¯t go that high, so I¡¯m inclined to trust their intuition on this one. Plus, we need a speedy ride. And right now, Lil¡¯s the safest, speediest ride above the Worldstorm in the entire Onyx Dawn.


    I rush towards the craftsworks area, a symphony of clinks and whirs greeting me like an old friend. It''s a cave, sure, but it''s a cave I had built specifically as a sanctuary for creation. The walls are lined with shelves, each crammed with an assortment of supplies that would make a magpie¡¯s nest seem minimalist. Spools of wire in every gauge imaginable, a cornucopia of nuts, bolts, and screws, and more tools than I could name if I had a lexicon for it. It''s medieval tech meets Reggie Shellcracker''s patented rule-bending¡ªlike someone gave a Renaissance fair a tech upgrade and forgot to tell anyone.


    Nala''s at her bench, a picture of perfect order in her focused craftsmanship. Her little automatons are bustling around her, each one a little genius its own right, and more affectionate towards her than she¡¯d like to admit. They''re quirky little things, like brass and copper pets gleaming under the flickering light. They¡¯re a personal entourage of mini golems dedicated to tasks she assigns them telepathically, subconsciously. They switch focus at her whims, needs, and desires. Her equipment and diagrams are splayed out neatly, in a meticulous fashion, just what you¡¯d expect from the Curator of the Onyx Dawn.


    Gazing just beyond Nala, I can hardly keep from chuckling as I spy Littlebit''s corner, which, in its disarray is a stark contrast to Nala¡¯s organization. It¡¯s a haphazard pile that looks like someone raided an auto-salvage yard. Littlebit¡¯s cybernetic creatures have the appearance of chrome-polished scrapyard rejects. They hover near her protectively, guardians of her little junkyard realm. That amalgamation of bots is all patchwork metal and wires, somehow still fairly beautiful in their imperfection. They¡¯re her rough around the edges crew, and they fit her like a glove¡ªor at least like her adorably soot-and-oil stained overalls.


    There''s no forgeworks here fully rebuilt yet, that''s still over in Solace, but we¡¯re working on that, as we have time and money to buy and move forges and billows and crucibles and slag pits and all that. Manual drill presses are going up and down non-stop between the Draconiac volunteers, and the nine or so automatons that the pair of artificers is using to help with their projects. The cranks and handles of the drill presses were brand new when I bought them, but they¡¯re already worn smooth from use.


    Listening as I approach, the way Nala utilizes the foot-pedal-powered pneumatic rotary tool, it almost seems to hum a tune. Rather than, y¡¯know, just emit a high-pitched squeal of compressed air. Knowing her, she probably could conduct an orchestra of pneumatic pedal equipment with her feet. Her Latent is Curating after all. Finding where things fit in schemes. Isn¡¯t conducting all about finding where the instruments each fit?


    Anyway, deep breath Reggie. Oof, the air smells like oil and metal, a perfume that''s a heavily industrial tang. It clings to the back of my throat, and I¡¯m trying not to be a jerk about how awful that tastes, since Nala can hear my passive thought broadcasts. The light of the glow-lichen''s dim, but it''s coupled with candles, torches, and what I¡¯m really hoping isn¡¯t lit piles of dragon poo. Eugh. At least it¡¯s enough to cast a glow on the workbenches, each one a stage for the day''s projects.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I can''t help but feel a bit of awe at the ingenuity of Nala and Littlebit. As artificers, they, like me, bend the rules of time and technology, blending ages in a way that would have historians throwing up their hands in surrender. There''s a defiance here, a rebellion against the limitations of the age, and it''s exhilarating. It¡¯s exactly what I¡¯m always doing or trying to do when I combine abilities, spells, and items in new unique ways. Amidst the hum of activity and the presence of my friends, I feel the weight of what¡¯s being built here. It''s a refuge from more than just the Worldstorm, and the war outside, but also one against the limitations of the age.


    Hastening to address Nala, I¡¯m hoping she has the elemental focus done, and thankfully Nala offers up, ¡°This is a prototype Schism, friend Reggie. I¡¯m not certain I could even reach the same conclusion again without it, but if you¡¯re certain you need it immediately, it should be good for two uses. Possibly three, but unlikely more than two, and almost impossibly unlikely more than three.¡±


    Pausing before handing it to me, Nala advises, ¡°The¡ª confluence of component ideas that came together in an effort to coalesce into the creation of this prototype was a fluke of timing, and positioning of materials and diagrams and ideas that are no longer in those same positions and timings. There may never be another of these.¡±


    Sighing, I nod somberly to Nala. She carefully cleans sawdust away from gem dust, keeping the gem dust for enchantment purposes, as she continues to carve into gems and wood, making wands I suppose. Taking the elemental focus now, before she can find a way to replicate it while it¡¯s fully functional, means we might never be able to replicate it. If I¡¯m very lucky, I¡¯ll only need two uses of it. I gratefully accept it, and nearly lean in to kiss Nala on the cheek before catching myself. I blush abashedly as I flinch away from our grumpy librarian, Curator, while apologizing. Nala doesn¡¯t even seem to have noticed, or be paying any attention to my continued existence as she returns to formulas and fascinations.


    Begging Iylynila to bring the spell-paper that she¡¯d gotten in yesterday¡¯s assault, I¡¯m glad when she arrives swiftly. The whole of Solace and Verdimenn both seem to be bristling in energetic activity. Everyone¡¯s been jumping at my every whim today, and I feel awful for requesting so much of them. Illy simply wears a sad half smile as she nods my way understandingly. My breath hitches momentarily as I catch sight of her. She, like her mother Kinzul, is a vision of splendor to gaze upon. Her raven hair and onyx features and curves that seem to be sculpted from marble by master-craftsman of yore, are¡ª. Ahem, yeah.


    When she produces a stack of spell-paper, I begin passing enchantments into sheets. It feels bad to be using them up like this, but I can¡¯t stick around to apply all the enchantments. We need to get to Alpaca¡¯s domain, or whatever his name is, ay to the ess to the ay to the pee, despite wishing I could spend more time mending my relationship with Iylynila.


    Though I begin to admit my feelings, ¡°Illy, I¡ª,¡± she interrupts me, shaking her head as she gulps and blinks back tears. She¡¯s not ready, and it¡¯d be selfish of me to press the issue. Nodding sadly, I let it go, so that Illy can continue to make headway here around Solace, and with her own feelings.


    If she, or Kinzul, are willing, they can follow the instructions on several of these spellsheets to emplace several of the psychic networks, taking my place, in one or two of those that I haven¡¯t been able to complete yet, but we can¡¯t afford the massive swath of resources it would cost in order to replace me on all of them that I¡¯ve not finished yet. Forgetting myself, I do lean in to kiss Illy¡¯s cheek after leaving her with instructions on how to either apply the enchantments herself, or to get others to finish enchanting the goggles, and other things I¡¯ve gotten set up for the day.


    I grimace momentarily, but she simply touches her cheek and casts her gaze downward, averting it from meeting mine. Whispering my apologies, I take off. Blitzing about, I set forth more instructions on how to prep people to receive the rest of the telepathic enchantments that I¡¯ll have to set up on my return. Their work will reduce the amount of time it¡¯ll take at the point of my return, by dozens-fold. I need to find Teuila, and get the door in place, and get relief for Lil, and¡ª.


    My brain swirls as I rush about, preparing to leave for an unplanned assault deep into the heart of Terrorzin¡¯s territory. The massive adamantite gate is placed, situated, and barred, allowing our Queens to alternate taking turns keeping an eye on it up close. They won¡¯t even need to do that when all the goggles finish getting enchanted. I¡¯ve got those scrying sensors almost camouflaged into the stone of the tunnel walls and ceilings.


    Lil preps, making sure to share intimate moments with Ixey, and get all his best equipment out. I blush as Ixey approaches me while Lil is equipping his gear. She holds out a hand, and, though a bit confused, I take it. Ixey uses it to pull me into a tight hug, and kisses my cheek before winking at me as she skips almost daintily away towards Lil to watch him dress. I snort a laugh, but I still feel honored.


    Viewing through the goggles, Teuila¡¯s almost back, and Yuri is in bad, bad shape. We have to deal with whatever siege forces are entrenched such a far ways out from us, that are somehow also so amassed that even Teuila and Yui seem haggard from their rescue mission. Speeding out to greet them, my apologies fall on deaf ears as Yuri is rushed to the infirmary. My heart aches, as I feel directly responsible for this.


    We haven¡¯t had word from Revvy, Greggy, or Aegis either, which causes my gut to clench in fear. Kinzul assures me that she can tell that they aren¡¯t dead at least, which only slightly takes the edge off my nerves. The goggles I had sent with them only show pure blackness, with perhaps some occasional motion. When I set up instructions on what to do, in case we¡¯re not back by tomorrow, and the three in the ¡®Neath aren¡¯t either, I¡¯m probably only half-assing it, or half-braining it, because of how much my mind has been through already today.


    When I try again to apologize to Yui, she shoves me violently out of the infirmary, jabbing an index finger into my chest repeatedly before she mutters, ¡°Just, just shut up. We did it for family. The ungrateful Green. Something¡¯s going on with him, but I had to drop mission, so I couldn¡¯t find out what. Huff. Yuri¡¯ll pull through. I¡¯ve roughed him up worse than that. It pisses me off that someone else would do it though, and they¡¯ve got his gear, somewhere. We ransacked the camp he was at, but it wasn¡¯t there. Neither were the jerks that took him down, though the guards were fairly tough. Maybe you or some other brain here at Solace can figure out a way to help me track down his gear, so I can retrieve it, and get some revenge. Just¡ª. Thank you for taking us in. Making us family. What¡¯s all the hustle?¡±


    Passing a sigh through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I try to figure out where to start. Shortcutting it as best I can, I describe who¡¯s here, what we¡¯re up against, and where Te and I are going. I won¡¯t assign any tasks to Yui right now. I¡¯m sure all she wants to do is stay beside her twin brother¡¯s bedside. Forgetting myself, I hug the armored teal Draconiac woman. She raises a scaled brow, but smirks before slapping my butt in a ¡°go get ¡®em,¡± manner. Seeing My Anchor, my beloved Luni as I leave the hallway near the infirmary, I quickly give her a short kiss farewell. Of course, she takes the opportunity to tease and fluster me with her curves covered in her fluffy, soft robes.


    Calling out telepathically, I check in, ¡°Lil, Te, you both as ready as you can be? It¡¯s a long ride, and we¡¯re probably up against the hardest of everything yet. There are too many irons in too many fires for it to be anybody but us. Te, save your storm elemental until I tell you, please, if you can find a way to do so. It might get controlled by someone else if you try to use it early. Lil, if you¡¯re willing, I¡¯m giving you a choice. Te already consents, but it¡¯s risky to her. She might be able to offer you a massive boost in power to your evolved forms, if this works the way I think it will, if what I expect to find is there. I won¡¯t think any less of you no matter what you choose buddy.¡±


    Lil mulls over the choice that I¡¯ve placed in his figurative hands, or rather his scaled claws, as the three of us exit the feasting hall towards the aerie at the top of Mount Solace. Teuila¡¯s boots clack on the stone as we make my our way up, the noise a stark contrast to the muted fury outside. It''s a clatter of armor and hum of her Valkyrie magic that helps keep me grounded as I feel Lil shifting his shape next to me. But the storm outside, it takes up a dauntingly larger and larger portion of my senses. I can¡¯t afford it to be more than a low hum in the back of my mind, one that would buzz away harmlessly while I continue to plan, prepare, and protect.


    Sighing, I rattle my skull as we step out of the gray stone tunnel, emerging onto the aerie that''s perched atop Mount Solace. The sky before us is its usual orchestra of chaos, the Worldstorm''s acid clouds roiling beneath us, and the never-ending tumult of the streams and rivers of lightning. I¡¯ve fallen through it once, and survived, but a lot of that was pure luck, being able to use my foe¡¯s body to shield mine. It¡¯s both terrifying and gratifying to recall. Each flash illuminates the storm like veins of life in the belly of darkness, a network of power that''s as dangerous as it is necessary.


    It¡¯s a canvas of mercy and fury, Kinzul¡¯s life-blood powering it with the very elements that bind the dragons to the ground. Her mercy to the rest of Rayileklia, and all its peaceful denizens, yet her fury over the loss of ¡°The Platinum,¡± and her children, and so much more over her long lifetime. I know she says that I¡¯m vast, and infinite, but I can¡¯t help but feel small against the backdrop of all she¡¯s done and all that she is. In linear time, I¡¯m just a single soul, a strand, a thread amidst the weave of destruction and creation. For a moment, the enormity of it all weighs on me, and I feel that familiar tug in my chest, the gravity of responsibility and the pressure of the impending mission. Teuila glances my way, her brow furrowed in worry, and I flash her a sad half-smile.


    Te can tell how much I feel I¡¯m responsible for. She can sense the tumultuous emotions burbling up within me. Lil takes longer to catch on, partially because he¡¯s focusing on his transformation, partially because we still haven¡¯t really reconnected on our emotional wavelength as much as we used to be, before we died. Still, catch on he does, and he offers me a similarly sad half-smile before quipping, ¡°It¡¯s not all on you pal. Not all of it.¡±


    Smiling at my best buddy, I shrug helplessly. I know he¡¯s right, but it¡¯s hard to pull back, when I¡¯m capable of so much more than so many others. I¡¯m the only archmage on our side of the war, possibly the only living archmage other than a few under Terrorzin¡¯s control. Because my skillset, powers, and spells are so versatile, I feel the need to apply them everywhere I can think of, as efficiently as possible, since some of them are limited resources, even if they¡¯re renewable mostly. As I lean over the edge of the aerie, propping myself up with my TK grip, holding my breath to maintain my Wyverium Chestplate¡¯s featherfall enchantment, I stare down into the tempest. It seems to gaze back, an endless eye that contains galaxies. Hmf, like I once thought when gazing on Laomati while she cried. Someday. Someday we¡¯ll make it home to you Lao, Ag, and all the rest. I rub my eyes on my forearm, fighting back tears.


    Drawing a deep breath, I¡¯m inundated with the scent of ozone and a tangy whiff of dragon¡¯s acid. The platform here on the aerie, usually a bastion of calm above the wild sky, seems to vibrate. I worry for a moment that our expansion efforts are losing cohesion, but they hold. Still, it¡¯s a reminder that tranquility here is a temporary balm amidst all the chaos of this turbulent world. Heh. Solace indeed. Kinzul certainly knows how to Administrate. Every Alias she¡¯s bestowed, or Latent she¡¯s awakened, or name she¡¯s passed on to someone or something seems perfect. Even her daughter Iylynila, I couldn¡¯t imagine calling her anything else, other than Illy. I space out while gazing over the edge, almost losing myself in the spectacle, the way the lightning seems to seek something out there in the dark, like it''s hunting.


    I shake off the trance, the urgency clawing back, that sense of responsibility that¡¯s always with me, always claiming that I have to do everything I can at every moment possible. Then again, like Kinzul and Luni said only recently, there¡¯s no end to danger, but there is an end to me. My candle can be re-buttressed only so many times. There¡¯s no time to be lost in contemplation about the Worldstorm at large. The storm within me¡¯s enough to contend with. Yeesh. But still, I allow myself a short instant, a second of reprieve as I cast my gaze over Teuila and Lil as Lil finishes his transformation.


    It¡¯s funny, we¡¯re all shapeshifters, and I¡¯m at least still part Changeling Fae. Shifting, changing, transforming, we¡¯ve always had to do it, in so many ways, literally and figuratively, to keep moving forward. Ever since we stumbled across Luna while journeying south when she first attacked us, before we became friends. Lil spontaneously evolving to their Agnewt form, back when he was still a they, is the only reason we¡¯re alive.


    It¡¯d only been about a second, but you know me, guys, I can get caught in my brain for what feels like hours of thoughts in the blink of an eye. Te nods while slugging me gently in the shoulder, acknowledging that yeah, she knows me. Heh. To the very depths of both of our cores. Lil rolls his eyes at my flowery description of my bond with Teuila, but he¡¯s just as important to me, and he knows it. Lil flicks his head in a draconic, ¡°Come on already,¡± gesture, and I smile at my best buddy, nodding.


    It¡¯s almost like letting go as Te and I leap atop Lil, intending to rocket away from Solace, the mountain we¡¯ve called home these last few weeks since arriving. I turn my head to glance back over my shoulder, capturing Solace¡¯s peak, and the Medusa Falls. The image is etched into my mind¡ªa reminder of what we protect, what we face, and what we¡¯re a part of.


    We aim towards the distant horizon, and I can picture what we¡¯ll be flying towards already. We¡¯re headed to an incredible maelstrom within the Worldstorm, with an eye at its center containing a massive mountain that hides a tremendous fortress, probably shielded by more magic than anything we¡¯ve faced thus far. Bring it on.

 B 6 C 168: Foreboding Skies

    Despite me and Teuila having methods of travel to try out, like our Honoris Causas, the most efficient use of our energy at the moment is to let Lil ferry us towards our destination. His elongated draconic side-evolution stage is marvelous to behold, but I understand that he can¡¯t keep it engaged permanently like he can his Agnewt stage. Well, his Dragnewt stage by this point. Or maybe Dragni? Point being, Lilagni¡¯s a fully fledged dragon these days, no longer a soft nearly-amphibian appearing winged lizard.


    Sighing, I wish I could comfort my best bud more, or offer more to him than a chance at power at a risk to Teuila. Worse than not being able to offer him more, I¡¯m worried my request and plan will get Te or him hurt. All three of us are actually fairly heavily injured, Lil the least of us for once, though not by much. I might be able to get side-evolved into a combat form by preparing a long time before we get to Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s lair, in order to minimize my own weakness from my own injuries though.


    The weird thing is, the file from earlier, from scanning my Backpotter¡¯s form¡¯s inventory had what I thought was just some vague numeric identifiers at the top, but I¡¯m just now realizing¡ª. I think those numbers were my current and max health, at least in hitpoint values from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I suppose it makes sense that the Backpotter¡¯s form¡¯s health was maximum, but I get the vague sense that it meant my hitpoints are also full as well. I¡¯m certainly not fully recovered from my injuries, but then again, I guess injuries and hitpoints are only tangentially related, aren¡¯t they?


    Certain injuries are immediate death, no matter your hitpoint total, while conversely, Teuila and I are both living proof that you can be murderously, heinously damaged, and still recover to full hitpoints, long, long, long before your body can put itself back together. I mean, it also probably makes sense that most people would have died of shock at having their legs atomized, left in limp lumpy noodle flesh casings, rather than surviving that, and being able to recover at all, much less doing so in a reasonable period of time.


    At least I¡¯ve also got¡ª.  Crap. I pass a note along back to Solace that I need bags of Adamantite shavings placed into our interdimensional storage ASAP, for my defensive magic. I hope there¡¯s some left after the door project, and me having taken a warren full. I might have to settle for Orichalcum. Anyway, hopefully my defensive magic can protect my base form, but we¡¯re going up against archmages.


    Eugh, enemy archmages. They could perhaps possibly strip away enchantments, or attack with forms of magic that can¡¯t be protected against, or who knows what else. I haven¡¯t learned every single spell on Rayileklia, there could be thousands for all I know. It¡¯s why I learned the dispellation magic that allows for countering spells. Sadly, it also means I should save almost all of my SP until the final battle, except in cases of dire need in order to counter deadly things like meteors.


    If I do almost nothing else with my SP, I can counter five devastating greatest tier magics.  That¡¯ll put me at six-hundred seventy-five SP used out of six-hundred ninety-six. Twenty-one free can¡¯t do a lot normally, but as long as I don¡¯t try to burn through them as rapidly as the blasts I was using yesterday, my runic clips should be able to handle proc¡¯ing around twenty or so times. Ugh, if they¡¯ve recovered well enough. Fudge. Just assume I can only get maybe ten safe blasts out for proc¡¯ing purposes. Save them to do things like clear mental effects from the three of us, embolster us, and ping powerful things I¡¯m having a hard time getting the attention of to bring down.


    It¡¯s us. For the first time in so, so, so very long, it¡¯s the three of us. The main muscle of the SAP, the Shellcracker Adventuring Party. Letting a few tears fall, I hug Lil¡¯s back from atop him, and Te smiles down at me. She¡¯s helping conserve Lil¡¯s energy by reducing gravity and drag on him to zero or near zero, but that doesn¡¯t really take focus for her, or any of her mana, since it¡¯s her Latent. We¡¯re making excellent time, and even Lil¡¯s burning almost no more energy than if we were all sitting on a sofa.


    Discussing our strategies, synergies, and contingencies, we don¡¯t have a lot that plays into one another¡¯s abilities any longer. We can mostly survive if one or the other of us throws something heavily area-damaging in a space we happen to be fighting at, but that¡¯s less synergy, and more just lack of need to worry about friendly fire too much. I¡¯m a little worried that a lot of our foes are going to have storm related powers, so Teuila using Mjolnir or related things might either be nullified against them, or worse, empower them. Or even worse, our foes might be able to assume control of those powers that Teuila displays or utilizes.


    Te and I also can¡¯t let loose our shadowy evocations and conjurations while within sight range of any spellcaster, and most enemies are likely to be spellcasters. They¡¯d see from Teuila¡¯s mana aura that she was using illusion magic, and so the rest of our uses of those abilities would be foiled, if they spread word around that we had illusions.


    If it were just me, my spellcasting mana aura¡¯s signature is obscured, or hidden, according to Jarrah, by something called a subtle spelling metamagical rigor or something like that. The subtle spelling metamagical rigor is why I can even use Rayileklian magic at all, since I can¡¯t use a mnemonic, and it¡¯s also what allows me to proc the runic clips in my bangle on every spell, without needing to add further metamagic to them. Te doesn¡¯t have any of those benefits, but she could possibly cast from out of line of sight, around corners, especially if she utilizes her Mirage Flash.


    Focus up Reggie, I can sense we¡¯re approaching an edge of the Worldstorm, one that shouldn¡¯t be possible. The amount of magic and mana at play is nearly overwhelming.  I imagine Lil and Te would be being bombarded visually if their senses were still the same as back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas when they saw auras and souls as a matter of fact. From where we are, gliding just above the Worldstorm, it honestly looks like we¡¯re sailing off the edge of the world into an abyss, with the sun at our backs. The way the storm buckles and bends at its edges gives the appearance of a raging cascade of waterfalls in this massive several-mile circumference.  Of course, at the center of this circle is, as predicted, a spire of rock that virtually pierces the heavens, signifying a gargantuan mountain, one that we¡¯ll have to infiltrate.


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    I¡¯m almost certain that if we were willing to risk taking a lot of resistance-piercing lightning hits, Teuila or I could perhaps infiltrate from above, because I see arcs of lightning leaping like spokes of a bicycle wheel from the exterior circumference of the storm, to the spire every few moments. I bet there¡¯s a path down in through the top, that might be wide enough for a body to drop through, but that body would need to be able to take repeated arcs of the most deadly, concentrated lightning imaginable. All of the power that would, and should be spread across this enormous circle gouged out of the Worldstorm, is instead channeled into those strikes, and those are fueling something even more nefarious deeper within. This is more or less exactly what I expected when I¡¯d first theorized what might be causing this.


    If my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers are able to increase things in an exponentially multiplicative manner, such that my highest tier powers are thousands of times what¡¯s available to anyone else, this set of reactions is thousands of times what I¡¯m capable of, maybe even millions.  I doubt even I¡¯d survive a single bolt of this ultra-condensed, primed lightning where all of the spokes are funneling together before they¡¯re filtered down into the mountain. Well, maybe I could, I¡¯d have to do some math. Still, that¡¯s before even factoring in that it also possesses some resistance-piercing or immunity-piercing properties on top of its ungodly power. There¡¯s something like a thousand cubic miles of storm compressed into each of these streaks, these rivers of nature¡¯s unbridled fury, that flash across this circle.


    I can understand quite well why there¡¯s no one in the foothills or along the smaller mountains within this radius of the Thunderpeak range. As we approach Stormspire itself, even finding a point of entry seems challenging if I don¡¯t want to see Lil, Teuila, and myself fried to a crisp. We¡¯re going to have to divebomb, but only one of us can safely divebomb fast enough to avoid, or ride lightning. That¡¯s Teuila and her gravity-assisted diving capability. She might also be able to literally ride lightning with Mjolnir, but who the hell knows the limits to her powers at this point. I¡¯m not willing to risk her trying to drop down the center funnel of lightning to test those limits though.


    Scanning diligently, I see the faint traces of what might be exterior cavern entrances, far below the Worldstorm, along the Thunderpeak range. Gnawing on my lips, I announce telepathically, ¡°Guys, I think I have a pretty stupid idea that might work to get us in.¡±


    The fact that Te grins and giggles, while Lil rolls his eyes, huffing as if already accepting the prospect of my plan being crazy, lets me know how much faith my beloved inner circle has in me. Chuckling, I start, ¡°Yes Te, you get to show off how much of a badass you are. Lil and I will take a deep breath, and climb into my portable hole. You fold us up, and put us in your pocket. Not one of your pockets with any other interdimensional bag or anything though!¡±


    The raised brow and eyeroll I get from Teuila at my overreaction is her reminder that she¡¯s a seasoned adventurer too. Blushing, abashed, I continue, ¡°I, I know you know, sorry. Anyway, after that, you go be you Te, be awesome, and take a ride down to that crevasse right there. I¡¯ll leave it up to you whether to try to infiltrate a ways before letting us out, or to try getting us out right away when you touch down.¡±


    Lil grumbles, and rolls his eyes, but he can¡¯t help smiling at Te as she beams proudly at him.  He quips, ¡°Save some for us, It¡¯s-a-secret,¡± which earns him an SFS from Teuila, as she sounds her elation at the backhanded, veiled praise.


    As Lil flaps to break free of our forward glide, Teuila helps pause his gravity, allowing him to remain in the air effortlessly. I set out our portable hole on one of my TK Squares, then hop in, and make sure to verify that either I, or Lu, managed to clean up all the blood inside last night. Thankfully I don¡¯t slip in a mess of gore, so we seem good. Lil shrinks down to his humanoid form, subsuming his equipment into his shapechanging, in that way that many dragons seem capable of, and joins me inside. I can¡¯t say I¡¯m not at least a tiny bit panicked as Teuila folds the portable hole¡¯s edges up. Mostly since it cuts off the view from my goggles, reminding me that this is some sort of pocket dimension, or other plane of existence.


    Struggling to hold my breath, so that I don¡¯t hyperventilate at the sudden fear that I have for Teuila¡¯s safety, and our possible eternity trapped, with a limited supply of oxygen, I try to focus on anything else. Lil distracts me pleasantly, which, okay, I probably needed, but normally I¡¯d chastise him that this isn¡¯t the time. He smirks and rolls his eyes though.


    Around a mouthful of my lips, Lil quips, ¡°At least we can¡¯t suffocate pal, we can just take turns breathing with your neck thingy. Besides, It¡¯s-A-Secret¡¯s too smart and strong to not let us out if there¡¯s trouble.¡±


    This is true. I¡¯m ashamed of the lack of faith my brief fear and paranoia showed for Teuila.  Lil absolves me of this as well, stating, ¡°Eh, don¡¯t worry, she knows you know she¡¯s strong.  She just likes showing it off. She¡¯s kind of a hottie in a lot of ways. Oh, speaking of hotties, Ixey said she thinks you¡¯re pretty swell pal. Thanks for not being jealous of her or mean to her. Ixey¡¯s so great. I¡¯m glad you two get along. Mm, she¡¯s so great.¡±


    When Lil begins spacing out, going googly eyed as he thinks of Ixeyla and her red dragon form, I can¡¯t help chuckling. Still, I also find myself silently agreeing with him that Ixey¡¯s pretty great. I¡¯m really happy for him, though a bit embarrassed at several implications.  She¡¯s incredibly friendly, and exceedingly flirty when she¡¯s comfortable with, and likes someone. It seems that it takes a fair bit to get her to see you as decent though, so I¡¯m pretty honored to get to see that side of her. I feel like she doesn¡¯t take on a lot of friends, perhaps because of her desire to be there for her sibling.


    Hm, yeah. Ixey took on Leeza as a friend for me, basically at my request, salvaging that whole situation. She only got to know me because Lil basically makes it an impossibility not to. Well, that and she had to deal with me since I grew fond of her oddball twin sibling Zayzi relatively quickly. I know Ixey has some friends on the wrestling circuit, though I don¡¯t recall Lil ever naming names.  Even those though, it feels like she must keep at a fair distance, because, well, I mean, I¡¯ve never seen her with anyone other than Lil, Zayzi, or Leeza, and I¡¯ve been seeing more of her lately.


    To be fair, if I were dating Lil, I¡¯d probably be spending a lot of time trying to spend more time with him than anyone else in my life too. Then, yeah, I¡¯d probably shmooze and tease his friends a bit to make sure we¡¯re all on one another¡¯s good sides. I mean, I¡¯m not trying to insinuate she¡¯s disingenuous, or a manipulator, far from it. I just think that I¡¯m lucky to get to see more sides of her than she originally showed, with her over-protectiveness of Zayzi.


    Starting to get lost in thought about Lil¡¯s life, and all I¡¯ve missed out on, I¡¯m not quite ready for it when Teuila unexpectedly unfolds the hole rather quickly, and telepathically calls out to us, ¡°Guys, I think you¡¯re gonna need to see this.¡±

 B 6 C 169: Overwhelming Odds

    Well, Teuila was definitely right. We needed to see this. Yep, Te was spot on¡ªthis sight is staggering. I''m struggling to find the words to analyze or describe the view before us. We''re nestled in a recess of a passageway leading into the vast cavern that houses Thunderpeak Citadel. But here, looking up from our covert spot, the scene is nothing short of surreal. It''s as if we''re staring into an overflowing blender full of dragons where the cavern''s ceiling should be, lost to a dense swarm of the flying creatures. The sheer number of them is mind-boggling, blanketing what I imagine to be the cavern''s distant roof. The idea that we''re still inside a mountain baffles me. The space is so expansive that the creatures seem to swarm miles above us, engulfing the summit of this colossal hollow.


    Between the courtyard, and the sky, there are thousands of wyverns, drakes, and dragons, all seemingly preparing for something big happening soon. We don¡¯t have the resources, or the time to take them all out, by the looks of things. Hell, I¡¯m not even sure we have the ability to face so many foes at once with any chance of coming out on the other side of the battle unscathed, or even alive. This is so, so, so much more than we bargained for. We¡¯re in trouble way worse than I would have ever expected. I need to get a gander at the whole situation as best I can, and figure out our options. Ugh. Is this going to turn into a three pronged assault in which one of us heads deep within the citadel to infiltrate Stormheart Keep and assassinate Alpaca, or Al¡¯pa¡¯ca or whatever?


    There¡¯s only two ways I can see that going down. Either I drop off all my gear with Teuila and Lil, and go shadow-form to infiltrate, and hope to hell my naked abilities are enough to best an evil ancient archmage at the heart and height of his power, or Teuila streaks through with super speed. We¡¯ll come back to that when I get a better sense of the overall picture, and more of the pertinent, salient details.


    The citadel¡¯s construction seems almost oxymoronic, buried deep within a mountain, yet surrounded by towering walls with ramparts and parapets and guard-towers, like old castle forts of yore. In places, I can see where the fortress was originally constructed, through cracks in its current facade. It must have been made with obsidian that was polished and gleaming to perfection some many long ages ago. It still technically is, but now all that obsidian is encased in silicates, an artificial sedimentary process caused by the breath of sand dragons. Multi-layer insulation seems to be a key component of much of this inner cavern¡¯s design, and the courtyard as well.


    Stormheart Keep''s main fortress and spire are especially thickly coated with silicates, which makes sense, because those ultra-condensed storm-bolts are blasting down into it from above every few seconds. I think Kinzul told me that he was a Sand, but I¡¯d honestly have pegged Alpaca as a blue, if I hadn¡¯t been told. The archmage being able to provide his own grounding and insulation though makes as much, or more, sense though. Oh, wow, through brief glimpses above the swarm of bodies in the sky of this cavern, I can see a perpetual mini Worldstorm cracking off bolts of lightning. And over the din of the flying mass, I can hear it sounding thundrously on occasion.


    This is insane. Just from what I can see, these forces seem insurmountable, and I¡¯m worried about things that I can¡¯t tell are hostile yet. The walls are adorned with gargoyles and grotesque statues, weathered by countless storms over the ages, but they could very well house animating magic that brings them to life if we get too close, that I can¡¯t see from here. Then there¡¯s the rest of the army of Al''pa''ca''s minions. The courtyard leading to the citadel is teeming with monsters, kobolds, and draconian subordinates, all slaveringly frenzied in their fanatical devotion to either the storm, or Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, or Terrorzin.


    There is simply no chance that I¡¯ll be able to offer mercy, and survive my attempts at showing off that vulnerable, caring side of me today. We have no idea who Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s lieutenants or leadership core are. I can¡¯t afford to address every single person in the air, nor risk addressing groups as they lock onto me as a threat. Even all of that is just creatures that I know offhand are sapient. I can¡¯t tell if those large wolves covered in electrified fur are sapient or not, nor those towering elementals of thunderstorm energy that have a nearly humanoid shape within their flowing foggy roiling clouds that make up their being.


    We¡¯ve never faced more than perhaps one and a half, maybe two percent of Terrorzin¡¯s eighty-thousand-plus forces in any given assault, this is easily five to ten times what we¡¯ve faced elsewhere. Why didn¡¯t Errissa¡¯s warning contain any hint at all that we¡¯d be facing something like ten percent of Terrorzin¡¯s forces in a single location? In the air alone, there has to be several thousand creatures, and several thousand more in the courtyard region, and who knows how many more indoors and in the tunnel structures of the mountain. Five, six, seven, eight, even nine thousand or more creatures is entirely feasible.


    The fact that there are hundreds and hundreds of blue kobolds in various outfits that look like mobile Faraday cages is lamentable. There must be some brilliant inventors among these people. Some are carrying around what I can only describe as looking like giant batteries on their backs, hooked up to rubber leads that likely blast forth electricity from their gauntlets, or power up whatever segment of their outfit that the leads are fastened into. Plus, there¡¯re plenty of kobolds that are just straight up walking around naked wreathed in lightning, seemingly unfazed by the ambient ionic charge in the air, or even the odd lightning strike or two that finds them.


    Spying more figures that I can make out as I observe them more thoroughly, I can tell that there are Draconiacs in the air, piloting jetpack-like wing-suits. They have a variety of different styles as well, similar to the kobolds with the different types of backpacks. Some look like they could fire lightning forward while gliding forward, via the top of their backpacks, while others look like they have to attack with cattle-prod-looking staves. Further, atop several of the largest dragons, those closest to ancient, are elite warriors clad in armor that¡¯s suffused throughout with electrical charge and lightning magic. Their halberds crackle with electricity even simply remaining in their sheathes along their backs.


    It¡¯s no subtle irony that Stormheart Keep¡¯s silicate insulation gives it the appearance of a jagged lightning bolt rising from the ground as a spire towards the skies that seems to merge with the dark clouds above. I almost wonder¡ª. If the silicates are dragonforce-infused, in order to keep them as protective as they are, which I believe they must be¡ª. Can we pull an archvillain¡¯s self-destruct button gambit? If we can get to and slay Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, then get Te to harness his dragonforce, and get her in tune with the citadel¡ª. Does he have a ¡°seat of power¡± here? I bet he does. Probably even a private vault with his most powerful, most coveted, most carefully guarded treasures, tomes, artifacts, knowledge, and the like. If we¡¯re really lucky, the two might be relatively the same place, or actually the same room.


    We might be able to bring the entire mountain down on everyone, ourselves included. I¡¯ve no qualms about doing that. I can survive a few billion tons of rock, and simply walk through it at this point. I have to be careful with the magic in certain items, but a few different ones should place me on the other side of an endless mound of rock if used in tandem, very carefully. Te could just smash her way out from under a mountain. It¡¯d take a while, but she could do it. Lil too for that matter. It¡¯s not like he hasn¡¯t dug miles and miles of stone tunnels before.


    At least navigating to where I bet a seat of power is won¡¯t be too difficult. We just keep heading towards the very center of the citadel, the bottom of the bolts of lightning that continuously funnel in through the top. We might take a chance to smash a few walls if it¡¯ll help us get to our destination. It¡¯s funny, rather than walls being in our way, they¡¯ll be our way in, and make it so we¡¯re not fighting thousands and thousands of goons at once. We have to get inside, past all of the goons, and then do a fighting retreat deeper into the interior of the citadel. Though I¡¯d prefer to not alert them at all.


    Ugh, as much as it pains me, I¡¯m going to have to leave clearing the way in to Te and Lil. I¡¯m also going to have to leave Alpaca to them as well, though I¡¯ll need to keep my attention on their fight so that they don¡¯t get timefrozen or meteored or have any other insanely deadly, overpowered magic placed upon them. Hm, before even thinking that far though, I¡ª. I think I have to ask Teuila to risk herself further without our aid. I hate this. I know Te¡¯s immensely powerful, and can handle herself, but none of us are immune to storms. I think. Does Mjolnir absorb lightning for Te? Does she have to block the blast dead on with Mjolnir¡¯s head in order for it to absorb lightning?


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    I don¡¯t know if I want Te experimenting right now. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m fully immune either. Between only having about ninety-six percent resistance, the fact that lightning or electricity seems to be the easiest element to add resistance-piercing to, and my EM-Field organ being a bit weak since I got reincarnated, I¡¯m more than a little worried about the prospect of taking on a few too many lightning blasts. Huff, yeah, I¡¯m going to have to ask Te to do what I¡¯d just been thinking of asking her to do.


    Sighing sadly, I start out, ¡°Guys, remember the Cragbeast Warrens?¡±


    Immediately Teuila¡¯s eyes alight with recognition as to where I¡¯m going with this, and Lil mutters, ¡°Awe man.¡±


    Nodding, I continue, ¡°Yeah. I think we need your It¡¯s-A-Secret to sneak in to find us a dead-end, blitzing past anything in her way. Only, this time, there¡¯s no chance she¡¯ll have to defend herself in the dead end alone long enough to get hurt. She¡¯ll have us in her pocket. Not only that, but I¡¯ve got a trick that¡¯ll screw with any forces following her.¡±


    Raising her eyebrow, Teuila prompts me about the trick, so I spill, ¡°So, the bypassed-wall spell, I can leave it in place¡ª,¡± I pause, leaving the hint lingering in the air before finishing, ¡°Or I can let it drop after we walk through the empty wall, returning the wall to its original state. If the floor happens to be less than five or eight feet deep, one of the two, I can do that as well. I¡¯d like to have Te use her senses to, if possible, find a dead end, where turning the dead end into a walkway will lead us to another hallway, and that hallway is directly above another hallway on the floor below. It should confuse the hell out of anyone following us.¡±


    Fighting the smirk that tries to claw its way across my face is too difficult, so I give in. My best bud looks suitably impressed after the worry for Te leaves his face. Teuila¡¯s grinning at me like a lunatic, certainly on board with my plan. While we still have a few seconds to strategize, before Te folds the hole back over us, I add, ¡°If anyone can see us in the second hallway, I¡¯ll let loose a few magic abilities in order to obscure us from view while we drop to the floor below. The entirety of all of Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s forces will be bearing down on us, and we have to assume we¡¯ll be facing them, while facing him at the same time, no matter where we fight, but it¡¯s far easier to fight eight thousand enemies when only a handful of them at a time can reach you, y¡¯know?¡±


    Facepalming, I recall a weakness of ours, well, of theirs, so I continue, ¡°I¡¯ll make sure you guys don¡¯t stay dragon-feared, but I¡¯ll be holding off the horde while you take him out.¡±


    Figuring it¡¯s better to lay out the whole plan, including the actual fight, I finish up, ¡°When I¡¯m lower on area of effect abilities, I¡¯ll swap with Lil, hoping that his breath buys us enough time to finish up if I can manage to offer him a bit of defense. Lil, I¡¯m thinking we¡¯ll be in a larger room, and if we¡¯re lucky, everything will be coming from one hallway. Don¡¯t stand directly in front of the hallway, because someone could sling spells through your flames at you. Stand around the corner, blasting flames at the hallway wall across from you, letting your flames funnel into the hallway.¡±


    Raising his eyebrow, Lil grumps, ¡°Why don¡¯t I just start with that then?¡±


    Sighing, I answer, ¡°Because I¡¯m less powerful than you against single targets. If you two synergize well, and Al¡¯pa¡¯ca goes down swiftly, we need you to buy Teuila enough time to absorb his whole dragonforce.¡±


    Sensing Teuila¡¯s frown, I¡¯d like to cut in but she asks what I expect, ¡°Me absorbing it? You¡¯re sure Airhead? You need them more than me.¡±


    Shaking my head, I clarify, ¡°Like I mentioned earlier, this is part of a plan to get you and Lil to be able to reach new heights. You¡¯ll have an archmage of storms¡¯ dragonforce, and I¡¯ll use an item I had Nala craft, to focus and channel energy into you, if Lil wants the power boost, and then I¡¯ll have you channel your power through that item into Lil like the reverse of the evolutionary energy tether I would grant you guys long ago. Lil, you¡¯re our ticket out of here. I don¡¯t want to force your hand, but¡ª.¡±


    Frowning, Lil nods along, agreeing, ¡°I get it. It was an offer, but now it¡¯s a need. We didn¡¯t know we¡¯d be facing all this. I¡¯m guessing you want to bring everything down on their heads like you were thinking about earlier?¡±


    I nod at my best pal, answering in the affirmative, so he turns to Te and explains, ¡°It¡¯s-A-Secret? I don¡¯t want to hurt you. I don¡¯t want to have to risk you to get stronger, but if you¡¯re really willing, and Rej says we need this to win and get home safe, I wanna get home safe. I don¡¯t want Gal-Pal or momma or Ixey to worry, or worse, make them sad by not coming home.¡±


    My-Wings, my everything simply smiles lovingly at Lil and nods while cupping his big scaly cheek. Her thumb brushes it as Lil nuzzles her palm. Teuila¡¯s a hero, through and through, for everyone, to everyone, in every way. She will, and has made mistakes, I mean, we all do, and will, but I don¡¯t think this will be one of them. At least, I hope not. I¡¯ll do everything in my power to keep this from hurting her. But what I have to prevent from hurting her is magical lightning channeled down through an entire citadel whose sole purpose seems to be condensing it to power some nefarious spellwork.


    The citadel, with its spire slashing skyward, is a leviathan of stone and storm, its silhouette a jagged scar. That reminds me of that jerk, Leviathan. I suppose I shouldn''t badmouth a god, even in my head an entire world away, but really, out of the four lesser gods of Can''Z''aas, he''s the only bad one. Anyway, let''s not get sucked into memories. We need to look ahead instead. Speaking of, gazing ahead, I can see it now, the heart of the storm, the eye of the chaos we''re about to enter. If Al''pa''ca''s storm manipulations are a battle cry, a declaration of war, we''re about to answer it, one way or another.


    Tentatively, hesitantly, I ask, ¡°Do um, either of you have plans? Mine seems reckless in a lot of ways, but I¡¯m drawing blanks that make me feel like the choices are, my plan, or trying to fight eight thousand or more foes at once out here.¡±


    Sighing, Lil slumps his shoulders and responds, ¡°It really looks that way Rej. I don¡¯t like my It¡¯s-A-Secret going alone again, looking for a good fighting spot. She got hurt back then. Y¡¯know? We don¡¯t heal the same, and I don¡¯t think you can hold them off for an entire day of us resting up. Can you?¡± My shaking my head prompts Lil to continue, ¡°So, well, yeah. I dunno buddy. I can¡¯t think of any mega cool, mega mega mega cool plans, or even just strong plans. Heck, I can¡¯t think of any plans except maybe digging in, but I don¡¯t wanna be here for weeks, y¡¯know?¡±


    Te and I both nod, and my glancing at Teuila prompts her to add, ¡°I was really just kind of thinking of fighting our way in, maybe making a staging grounds out here somehow, but I realize like, even with how powerful the three of us are, that could take foreeeeever. Aunty ¡®Zool seemed to think we had to deal with this sitch asap from the way she was worrying. So, yeah, let¡¯s sneak as close to the boss room as we can, and maybe we¡¯ll piss him off enough that he blows his top like the queenie did at the Cragbeast Warrens. Anyway, get comfortable Dragbutt, Airhead, I¡¯ll get us in there.¡±


    "So, that''s it then. That¡¯s the plan," I start, my voice betraying none of the butterflies doing aerobatics in my stomach. "Te, you¡¯re right, Kinzul needs us to do this asap. I can sense something building in the magic woven throughout Rayileklia now that we''ve been here a bit, and it isn''t good."


    I steal a look at Te and Lil, two thirds of my beloved inner circle, my family, our bonds strong and full of love. Their expressions are carved from a ceaseless well of resolve, something I wish I had personally. I don''t have resolve so much as tenacity, and the fallback of wrath. Still, we''re together in this, a trio against a torrent.


    As Te folds the portable hole back over us, I ready myself for the battle ahead. It''s a gamble, all of it. I guess that''s true of anything really, but still, this time feels different. We failed against the Fel hordes, and they didn''t have the advantages these foes do. Have I accounted for every possibility? No. Nowhere even close. This one, like every other plan, has its flaws.


    Despite wanting to stay in contact with my beloved SAP members telepathically, I know I¡¯d better make use of every tool in my belt. I equip my psi-blocking circlet. If there are some psionic mages that drop area of effect mental stunning powers, or other strong mental effects like illusions, this will prevent me from succumbing to them, enabling me to end those sorts of effects if any land on Te and Lil. It sucks to go even a short time without them in my head, but I hug Lil fiercely and love on him as much as I can while Teuila finds us a staging grounds for the beginning of our assault.


    Unintentionally, nervously, I grit my teeth, worried for Te. I¡¯m mainly worried that there will be no dead-end that she can reach alone, swiftly, before being spotted and hounded by all the forces of Terrorzin and Al¡¯pa¡¯ca. Can we pull this off? I wouldn''t put money on us. But I know we''ll tackle it together, come hell or high water. Here''s to hoping we weather this better than the tides and flames that we''ve gone through before. But I suppose that''s what we do, isn¡¯t it? Us Shellcrackers? We endure. But still¡ªcan we do this?

 B 6 C 170: Demon Daze

    Well, the answer to my question of if we can do this is, ¡°Sort of.¡± Orientation''s out the window as Lil and I tumble from my portable hole¡ªsideways. Thanks, Te, for the topsy-turvy entrance.  It¡¯s definitely an odd thing to have gravity suddenly be at ninety degrees.  I can see why Te placed the portable hole on a wall instead of the floor though.  We¡¯re in a throng of bodies that are all swinging wildly.


    I quickly telekinetically ravel up my portable hole, sticking it in a scroll-case on my belt, and snag my hyperdimensional pouch from Te simultaneously. The moment Lil and I staggered out of the portable hole, it was like stepping onto a stage mid-play, where the scene is a cacophony of zaps and smacks and cracks and whacks. If we¡¯re in a play though, the scene''s a crackling mess, obsidian bricks and lightning veins, all sharp edges and electric shocks. Argh, the air''s alive, buzzing, ready to singe the hairs off of pretty much anyone that isn¡¯t the three of us. Not the kind of buzz I enjoy.


    Lil and I¡ªwe''re scrambling now, trying to find our footing in this electric dance. The foes? It''s like they''ve all taken a dip in a lightning beach. Oh, hey, that¡¯s right. I turned an entire beach to glass with lightning onc¡ª, twice. Heh, focus Reggie. Right. Anyway, a yellow sandy beach along a lake of blue lightning would account for the types of breath weapons, and colors of scales that I see as Draconiacs, buzzing with static, all humanoid-shaped but dragon-hearted unleash upon us. And then there¡¯s our charming hosts, the actual dragons in human guises, their scales traded for skin, their eyes crackling with the same electricity that''s passing through conduits along the walls, draconic fury packed into human frames. Then the kobolds¡¯re zipping around like they''ve got shocks to spare. The storm myrmidons, though, they''re something else¡ªa swirling mess of fury, like living hurricanes in armor.


    I''d laugh at the guard drakes'' discipline as they wait their turns to attack us, if I wasn''t so busy trying not to become a crispy critter. And through it all, combat''s a mess. If I had to rely on sight, all I¡¯d see would be a canvas splashed with blues and yellows, constantly whited out by streaks of lightning aimed for my face. Hell, this hallway battlefield¡¯s a storm itself, a wild dance of elemental rage, and here come Lil and me, just two gusts in this gale while Teuila rocks their socks off like a hurricane with each blow of her fists and hammer, throwing punches and swings that could turn a storm''s head.


    As for me? I''ve got to get my head in the game. This isn''t a time to be an onlooker, it¡¯s time to participate. And participate I shall¡ªbecause if I don''t grab the reins of this chaos, I¡¯m just a leaf on the wind, and I''ve never been one to let nature dictate my path. Not without arguing, at least.


    Welllll, unless you count those early days¡ªthe ones where the main river of Can''Z''aas practically seemed to have a personal vendetta against me. I swear, every time I so much as met a new creature, I''d end up in a white-knuckled waltz with rapids, each time narrowly avoiding a less-than-graceful ballet with the boulders. I had more waterlogged moments than a sunken log. But hey, look at me now¡ªnot even a tempest, or death apparently, can keep me down.


    Hah. Okay, okay Reggie, reign it in. Don''t get cocky. I know, it¡¯s just using humor to cope with the chaos of the situation pal, but don¡¯t let yourself actually believe the joke. Anyway, this hallway''s like being inside the belly of a thundercloud, if that cloud had a bad temper, and a taste for Gothic architecture. A feeling with which I am very familiar. Well, except that last bit about the architecture. Heh. Speaking of¡ª. I perform a QCR number four, drawing all the lightning in our little battlefield to me, and press outward with my weakened electrokinetic EM-field organ.


    Ow, ow, ow. My newly reincarnated body¡¯s organ definitely isn¡¯t strong enough yet to hold up to this kind of punishment. But the curse of the greaves is doing what I need it to do, keeping the lightning in the area directed at me, freeing up Lil from shocks, to give him a chance to orient. Lil¡¯s already catching his balance, but taking a bit to reorient and grasp the situation as he takes a few test swings, smashing and thrashing and slashing foes that come to call.


    Despite wanting to lash out, and hurt those that are attacking Teuila, or hurting Lil, I need to focus and carry through on our plan, quickly.  Drawing Cla¨ªomh Solais, I bypass the wall of the dead end in which we find ourselves, and curse our bad luck.  The hallway to which we now have a path, is full of doorways, some as close to us as our immediate right and left.  Worse, there¡¯s nearly as many bodies filtering out of these rooms, as there were attacking Teuila to begin with, and now they¡¯re converging on us from two sides.


    Grunting as I¡¯m smashed across the chin, I hoarse-whisper, ¡°Lil, empty the new hallway pal!¡±


    Thankfully, Lil¡¯s got the good sense to grab a deep lungful of air and begin doing just that.  Now, most creatures don¡¯t react well to even the briefest burst of a blaze.  To say that most creatures attempt to remove themselves from continuous rivers of flames would be putting it mildly.  Of course, we¡¯re up against archmages, specialized elite knights, and who-knows what else, so some might actually live through the initial minutes of Lil¡¯s blasting breath as he ramps up in power.  Sighing, I build up pockets of explosive gas within my organ, momentarily glad no one¡¯s able to hear my inner monologue.  Bracing Lil and myself, I begin causing a rapid-fire series of explosions, using my TK grips to angle as much of the force forwards into our new hallway as possible.


    Glancing over my shoulder, I see Teuila rapidly switching back and forth from Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark¡¯s banded plate armor to that gorgeously tailored seasonal gi with her own Quick-Change Ring, based on whether she needs the defense, the resistance, or other passive benefits more in any given moment. Te needs to make it two more steps this way for me to be able to drop the bypassed-wall.  The spell might refuse to reset the wall though with people in it, so we need to buy at least a split second where there¡¯s no one bearing down on us from that side either.  I can¡¯t ask Lil to turn his back on this hallway, for fear of him being slain as he casts his attention in reverse, and we need this hallway to remain mostly clear as well for our gambit to pay off.


    Loathe to be using resources so early, I¡¯m about to lean into my own more precious, more powerful tools and abilities.  We preferably need all these people, the ones who¡¯ve seen me use a bypassed-wall spell, to be dead.  We¡¯ve got to get to that state, so they can¡¯t share knowledge that we can open up walls with the rest of Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s forces.  My gambit and ploy would be useless if they could just surmise to immediately bust through the floor or ceiling after us.


    Teuila begins hurling Mjolnir in a rapid pace as it returns to her hand over and over again. It¡¯s sometimes boomeranging back, other times simply being summoned to instantly reappear in her hand due to her dimensional sheath¡¯s enchantment, so that she can quickly smash an encroaching kobold or Draconiac.  That is one extreme benefit of battling deep inside the fortress, we don¡¯t have to fight fully sized near-ancient dragons in their draconic forms while dealing with everything else. They lose a bit of durability, just a bit, in their human forms.


    Sadly, Teuila has had to advance back into the far side of the removed wall, returning the way she came once again.  She¡¯s fighting to drive back the foes on that side, so I still can¡¯t drop the spell, at least not without trapping Teuila apart from us with a huge horde of forces between us.


    Glancing at Lil, I want to ask if he¡¯s been able to devise any new tricks, or powers, on Rayileklia, especially since the start of the war.  I¡¯m afraid the answer might be no, and that he might feel dejected having to confirm that to me.  Okay, breathe Reggie, think.  Two directions, two massively tightly packed hallways full of enemies that both need to die, and then need to have their vision blocked off.  Lil¡¯s managing to keep one hallway fairly clear, though I have to step in to blast some of the braver, stronger foes who are able to walk through his flames towards him, either with thunder shouts, or pockets of poison gas explosions.


    Motioning to Teuila, I suggest that she deploy her slowing fields, and cones of cold, since they will be less useful against Al¡¯pa¡¯ca.  He¡¯s big enough and powerful enough to ignore or walk through the slowing fields, and her cold cones aren¡¯t boosted by any of her special abilities.  Thankfully, we¡¯re on such a tight wavelength, that Teuila can guess my poor charades easily enough, and she looses several of the powers I¡¯d granted her when we worked to save Prinrin.


    Now, new bodies attempting to clamber into that hallway are going to be disoriented and slowed, and have to fight through the frozen, cracking bodies of their comrades.  Phew.  Jerking my head this way, thankfully Teuila obliges.  Turning her way, I loose all the crossbow bolts I can, of each of the strange elements from this miniature quiver.  It¡¯s got the desired effect of putting a bunch of semi-lethal, tiny area effects at the corner of the hallway we¡¯d been fighting in, keeping anyone alive from peering this direction.


    I plead for a massive block of Titanwood, without the featherlight component, from the Cosmic Roundsheath as I drop the bypassed-wall spell.  Now, the people fighting their way into that hallway are going to have to fight through slowing fields, frozen corpses of their own allies, a few minor lingering area-effects from the crossbow bolts, and then dig through a giant block of wood as strong as titanium, to realize we¡¯re no longer in that dead end.  Whew.  As the dead end reappears behind us, sealing us off from that side of it, Teuila wipes sweat from her brow before tossing me a cheeky grin, and flashing me an equally cheeky thumbs up.


    Are Lil¡¯s flames hot enough yet to do it?  Testing out their temperature with my own body, yes, they¡¯re damaging enough to melt, evaporate, and explode cold vapor that comes into existence, and to do it instantly.  Teuila doesn¡¯t even need to be told to use her other cold blast, and her other slowing field of the day, rocking the hallway with massive steam explosions that seem to happen in, well, slow-motion.  I guess they do.  Thankfully, this buys Lil the reprieve we need, and I conjure a second block of Titanwood, to keep the explosion¡¯s blowback from pummeling us, as well as to block sight of our upcoming escape.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    My beloved Wings and Heart are both panting already, a bad sign when we¡¯ve got thousands of enemies left to face. We¡¯re deep within the main keep, a labyrinthine structure that has exits on all sides to the majority of the rest of the citadel. The rest of the citadel, within the walls of Mount Thunderpeak proper, was a vast expanse that rivaled small cities. The sheer volume of foes we can end up facing throughout this offensive is staggering. I can hardly imagine how many troops that I *didn¡¯t* see, in all of those external buildings with minor courtyards and open spaces that intertwine with natural contours of the mountain to form paths like roads to this, the main keep. Some were basic cubical dwellings, while others were towering stalagmites carved hollow.


    Checking in on my friends, both seem uninjured, at least, no more injured than when we started the offensive. Making certain we¡¯ve taken enough of a breather for them, I listen for the clang I should hear from the other side of the Titanwood cube, and thankfully, it arrives. Now I need to cast out my senses, in order to feel the thermal fluctuative flow, and take that into a moment between moments to let retrocognition do its thing. Taking a deep breath, I nod at Lil and Te. To them, no time will pass at all, but this might take a while.


    Diving into the non, the space between spaces, the moment between moments, the absence of the flow of time, I revel in absence, and allow the pause in the flow to virtually wash over me.  I feel more connected than ever to absence, to missing bits, to emptiness, void, space. It¡¯s so strange that as my Honoris Causa develops, more of me evolves and changes overall, not just my Void Dragon form. Hm, another thing harkening back to that hint from the Sisters Hidden in the Mist. I won¡¯t know what I am, or will become, by the time I¡¯ve found my cure. I¡¯m certainly changing, rapidly, in ways I¡¯d never have anticipated.  My connection to the Fel has¡ª.  Sonnova!


    Panting with exertion, I don¡¯t know whether to giggle maniacally, or to, to, to, I don¡¯t even know! The Celestial Emperor knew where I was, once we¡¯d started open engagements.  That¡¯s why the Damnations keep showing up to our offensives! Or, why they did anyway.  He¡¯s known where I was at all times ever since the Cathedral of Blood with the Cult of the Bright Lord. When I stepped into that radiant cascade of disintegrating energy, I felt a presence lock onto me, take root in me as an observer. Of course it was our damn manxome foe. I¡¯m pretty certain I was fairly certain of it even back then. Curse me for forgetting that, and not taking care of it before putting my beloved new family at risk. That part¡¯s on me.  The Damnations showing up repeatedly is on me.


    The bastard¡¯s been letting me mature in ways, for some reason, before truly trying to take me out. That¡¯s why the Damnations keep fleeing. He wants something from me. He¡¯s been sculpting my progress in secret, like some shadowy puppeteer. No. No. Shadows are mine.  Fv(4 him. He doesn¡¯t get that analogy. He doesn¡¯t get any sort of darkness, absence, calm or cool.  He¡¯s fire and fury, brightness and scorn. I¡¯m the dark, the absence. I¡¯ll be the one to snuff out *his* candle.


    Gritting my teeth, my resolve doubles, and doubles again, and again, thinking about how I¡¯ve been played. He may have been orchestrating my ascension to new heights on some levels, but my SAP and the Onyx Dawn are the ones who¡¯ve overcome the adversities to make the progress and growth we have. Whatever ways he¡¯s been sculpting and tempering me will be nothing compared to the growth I¡¯ve achieved, and will achieve, with the aid of those beloved to me, outside of his influence.


    A chill runs down the metaphorical spine of my mental avatar. It''s like there''s a second, quieter Reggie, one that''s watching all this unfold with the weight of centuries on their shoulders. This Reggie isn''t chuckling or plotting the next move. They''re just... feeling the enormity of it all, the endless tug-of-war with fate. A part of me, a part I shove down to keep fighting, to keep loving, to keep being the Reggie everyone needs.


    I won¡¯t let the CE change me. I¡¯ll have surprises in store for the arsehole. I¡¯m pretty certain that with my new connection to the Fel, and having had my previous body disintegrated, he no longer has that spy, that presence, that observing energy within me. How much does he know about Mount Solace? Was he only aware of my location, or could he have divined more? Could he listen in? Hm, I doubt it.


    It does explain Harlequin having had a plan to make me succumb to my past traumas though. Harlequin is part of the Evil Claws, the Evil Claws report to the Damnations, and the CE has had the Damnations under sway since the ancient times of The Platinum, bare minimum. In one way or another, the CE has had fragments out gathering information about me, either here, or on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, for all of my lifetimes. I think there¡¯s still a fragment trapped on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, but I don¡¯t know if he has gained all the knowledge that it¡¯s gained.


    What is it with this guy and his obsession with me? What did the one Damnation, Ephlomseestiph I think, say? Priming something? Could that have referred to me? Wait. Are they trying to get me to become some sort of bomb? Crap. Do I have to actively *not* grow and strengthen myself if I want to counter their plans? Crap crap crap. Come on genre senses, give me the odds. Please?


    Okay, twenty five percent odds that I¡¯m becoming some sort of bomb secretly guided to that destination by their hands. Three percent odds that the Sisters were in on such a plan, helping it along. Not impossible, but highly unlikely. That¡¯s not the worst thing I¡¯ve ever concluded. Alright, what else can we figure out about this? What are the odds that my new Fel body has had its ties to the Emperor severed?


    Oh good. Ninety nine point seven percent chance that whatever energy allowed him to know where I was, has gone away with my old body. I like those odds. I bet the bag of dicks never thought killing me would backfire. Wait, or was he trying to get this outcome? Oof, fifty fifty odds based on currently available data points. That sucks. Ugh, now I¡¯m going to be second guessing myself on if I¡¯m playing into his hands or not. Hm. Then again¡ª.


    Casting my mind back into myself, into my memories of my Rayileklian journey, taking care to avoid the thoughts that destroy my mindscape, I seek out a certain series of events.  Teuila¡¯s growth. Teuila¡¯s joy.  Every bit of her is every bit of me. Our hearts, souls, joy, sorrow, strength, past and future are intertwined cosmically. I think¡ª. I think I know how all of this is going to end. I wear a sad smile, shaking my head at myself with this half-cracked grin. Of course it would. Of course it would. That¡¯s fine. Proph¡ª. Let¡¯s just leave it where it lies, so that we don¡¯t risk destroying our brain. Let¡¯s focus on the moment, in the moment, for the moment, shall we?


    Right, right right righty-oh. So, let¡¯s take those thermal scans, and try to account for Lil¡¯s flames. Teuila¡¯s fairly sure we¡¯re above another hallway, or she wouldn¡¯t have set us loose here. This gives us a few data points. Two dead ends on opposite sides of a wall, their hallways and nearest splits, as well as being above another hallway. The map is coming into view fairly nicely. Hm, to be able to perform a simultaneous fighting-retreat, and infiltration slaughter, towards the seat of power¡ª. How is that going to go?


    I¡¯ve got a few more casts worth of creation in the Cosmic Roundsheath. I can also use starlight or crash, or whisper, or raven-porting, to get past some seemingly insurmountable odds to reunite with Te or Lil in case we get separated. Am I wearing or holding anyth¡ª? Wait. Am I blue again? Okay, this is getting out of hand. Wait. Wait wait. What if¡ª. Am I some sort of frozen-Fel? Genre senses say something like seventy percent odds with so few data points. Think back to that tabletop roleplaying game. Player-character species had subspecies. The ones with horns and tails had ties to¡ª. Certain archdevils. One of which is about cold fury, literally.


    Am I on the side of the Fel in the cosmic-scale of things? Have I just been the great evil, all along, growing into my position unwittingly? Thankfully genre senses say something like zero point zero one percent. Then again, I¡¯d probably have crafted a genre sense that would tell me that too, if I didn¡¯t want to clue me in to me having been the big bad all along. The Sisters did say I wouldn¡¯t know what I¡¯d be.


    Hm. Okay, okay, I can laugh at that one. I¡¯ve got Lil, Lu, and Te, to keep me in check, and always will. There¡¯s no way that any of them would ever ¡°go darkside.¡± With all of them being as wonderful, compassionate, and heroic as they are, it¡¯s highly unlikely that any gambit to get me to ¡°go darkside,¡± would pay off.


    What are some scenarios in which it would? Hm. I dunno, ultimate fate of the universe sort of stuff? Like whole planets worth of life threatened or something, where I had to sit on the throne of the Fel in order to stop it or something. Even then, I mean, the path to Hell and all that. I¡¯d be doing it with good intentions, as I have with most everything in my life.


    I¡¯ll always struggle with the morality of things, even in just simplified schools of thought. This whole line of thought needs my whole inner circle to get feedback from anyway. Hopefully I remember to bring it up when we get home. Maybe Kinzul could weigh in too, or Tiktik or Jarrah Bettergrove if I head back to the Heart.


    Right, back to things, we¡ª. We might have our, erm, I might have my SIPs back. My Subzero Ice Punches. We keep becoming a shade of blue that is more and more frosty, every time the blue returns. I can¡¯t help the stupid grin that sneaks along and creeps its way up the left side of my face. I was trying to avoid baking too many powers into RS2 as a base form, to be able to allow it to have access to the other forms as easy Rayileklian shapechanging sidegrades. With an entirely new body, one with a weaker EM-field organ, I didn¡¯t even think to examine myself to find out if I might have other, new assets.


    Let¡¯s play around with that idea back in real time. For now, let¡¯s try our best to consolidate this map, to correct any omissions or mistakes, and commit it to memory. Three Cs of retrocognition eh? Sure, whatever helps you visualize it pal. Actualize everything you can, always. Ever since Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, whenever ideas could pay off, and did pay off, it always seemed sparked by some revelation, some actualization. Still, let¡¯s stop getting distracted by random things like being blue despite attempts to be any other pigment.


    Poor Farzhis. I¡¯m going to keep sending mixed signals since I can¡¯t stop being blue.  Hopefully she won¡¯t be quite so, erm, turned on? Mrgrgr. Bluh. So awkward. I love the hell out of her for how much strength of character she has. I don¡¯t want there to be any lusty stuff between us. She¡¯s been benefiting from having a friend that isn¡¯t seeking that from her, and I want to keep providing that. It doesn¡¯t matter how crazily gorgeous she is, or even how much I actually have grown to like her. I¡¯m proud of her, and happy with the path she¡¯s chosen to walk, and I want to support her and cheer her on, every step of the way, without inserting myself deeply into that process. I¡ª. Yes I heard it after I thought it. I¡¯m glad no one else is in my head right now. Yeesh.


    What was I do¡ª? Oh, right. Stop getting distracted thinking about the heroic, brave, kind, stoic, beautiful buxom lass whose life is on a hard, grieving journey Reggie. Snirk. Snort.  Yes, I know, I heard myself. Okay, Reggie, snap out of the daze and ditch the ditzy detour¡ªfocus. This chilly new veneer? Not exactly demon, but devil''s in the details, right? Heh, Lil¡¯s and Te''s expressions¡¯re gonna be priceless when I break it to ¡®em that my inner demon''s gone and become an outer one. Just another day in the life of, eh Reggie?

 B 6 C 171: Stealth Action

    Hm, one last thing to make note of, this might not be the most efficient path. Genre senses are telling me that there¡¯s likely a ninety nine percent chance that I¡¯ve missed things with my thermal senses. Stuff like hidden, or secret doors, and so on. I guess we¡¯ll have to keep our eyes out, and I¡¯ll need to correct anything I can on the fly, if we spy ways we could be more efficient.


    Snapping back to reality, letting go of the flow of the non, opening myself to existence at the normal rate, I flash a smile at Lil and Teuila before starting, ¡°So, uh, a few things. I do have a path in mind, but I also realized some things. First, this body might have cold powers, which is cool, erm, heh.¡±


    Pausing, I chuckle at the accidental wordplay while shaking my head at myself. Lil and Te both blow silent raspberries by sticking their tongues out at me, and I return the expression. They can tell it was accidental even though I¡¯m currently wearing my psychic-blocking circlet. At least I think they can.


    Rattling my skull to get back on track, I continue, ¡°Well, the cold powers would be great, though I don¡¯t think I should test unless we¡¯re in a battle, so I don¡¯t leave any clues around, like random patches of ice. Secondly, it being a new body, likely no longer has a spy within it that my old body had that I¡¯d forgotten about.¡±


    Sighing, recalling how Dawn was still with us, still alive, when I walked into that radiant cascade of disintegrating energy, I bite back tears for a moment before addressing Teuila, ¡°Te, remember um, gosh I hate bringing this up.  Remember the Cathedral of Blood? I walked into that light, and picked up a passenger sort of, like a homing beacon or something for the CE. I¡¯d forgotten all about it, since he never seemed to make a move on it. Except, he had been making moves on it. The Damnations kept showing up to *my* offensives, but not yours or Kinzul¡¯s.¡± When Te¡¯s eyes fly wide at the shock of the realization¡¯s likelihood, I add, ¡°I know, right?¡±


    Sighing, I worry about all the unforeseen consequences that may have come about during the time that I¡¯d had that energy riding along inside me. I¡¯m also a tad worried. I had a vague feeling that a certain world, that was a certain soul, had been riding around with me.  Ow, ow, ow, brain. Okay, okay, I get it. Stuff I shouldn¡¯t know about, or believe, or whatever. There was that other conclusion I¡¯d come to in paused time though. I drink in Teuila with my gaze, her impossibly adorable face, its slight freckling, those perfect emerald eyes, that sporty ruby-red side-swept high-fade undercut that flops to frame the right half of her face. Staring at her lovingly, I¡¯m almost positive I¡¯m right about my guess about how all this ends. I can¡¯t help wearing a¡ª, oh well, anyway. I disguise my thoughts as a plotting grin. My expression only passes along seeming-confidence in my planned route to Te and Lil.


    Lil tilts his large draconic cranium side to side, cracking his neck, before he rolls his shoulders and wiggles like a bulldog preparing to sit. His wings are furled, yet I¡¯m half tempted to suggest he shapechange them away entirely so they don¡¯t get damaged in any of the battles. I¡¯m not sure if their frailer leathery nature has to somehow transfer to the rest of his sturdier scaled body in order to do that though. Draconic shapechanging is pretty weird stuff. Some of them can make clothing out of their scales, some can¡¯t, some have a fair degree of control and leeway over their human form, and just¡ª. Focus Reggie. Right. Not the time to be trying to puzzle out a type of magic that isn¡¯t going to impact the upcoming battles.


    Here¡¯s hoping this works. I¡¯ll just be bypassing one more wall, that being the floor immediately beneath us. At least, when I don¡¯t sense any thermal fluctuations in the hallway below us. And¡ª go. Whew, okay, dropping the spell, allowing it to return the missing matter to the floor, or ceiling, however you want to look at it. Right, right, whew. I flick my brows towards a darkened nook, so Lil and Te quickly take up hiding positions for a moment while I parse everything that I can.


    The longer we can go without alerting our foes¡¯ forces that we¡¯re further along in, and deeper into the citadel, the better. This means no witnesses once we start coming into certain clumps of heat signatures I¡¯d had to make note of. That means no mercy. Sighing, I clench my eyes tightly momentarily as my jaw locks up from accidentally gritting my teeth. I¡¯ll try to make up for it in some cosmic karmic fashion someday.


    Whether by design, intention, choice, or what have you, it seems I¡¯m destined to pull off assassination missions. We make our own destinies though. Don¡¯t we? I think. But what about time travel, and the primary timeline, needing to keep it unfractured? What about portents of the future? Argh, no time to have an existential philosophical crisis Reggie, get it together. This really isn¡¯t the time to be spacing out and getting lost in unwinnable thought arguments.


    None of us are used to stealth missions, and this one is going to be weird even beyond being a type of mission we¡¯re not used to. We¡¯re going to call everything down on our heads intentionally at some point by ringing the dinnerbell as it were even if we do somehow make it to our target undetected. My most fervent hope is that we can drive Al¡¯pa¡¯ca towards his vault, or something similar, that likely only has one way in and one way out. If we manage that, then I¡¯ll hold off the horde at the entryway, while Te and Lil fight the archmage, and I¡¯ll try to keep my eye out for ninth tier magics and the like.


    Huff, if only I had my inventory magic and space skill as available as I used to on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, before things started to go south with my Changeling Fae mana residue sickness. I could scoop out sections of these walls and tunnels, and rearrange them, making it nearly impossible to track or follow us. While we took on Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, if the horde did still manage to catch up, I could flood a hallway with dozens of thousands of knives or spears. Sighing, I know I shouldn¡¯t waste time lamenting such trivial things. I¡¯ve come a long way on Rayileklia. My powers have grown and expanded laterally, for which I should be, and am, grateful. No one else is lucky enough to have the natural growth inclination that we Can¡¯Z¡¯aasians do here on Rayileklia. Not at the rates we¡¯re capable of anyway.


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    Lil and Te have become monstrous powerhouses of raw strength and physical force. Not to mention their various masteries over certain magical items, or entirely new abilities. Lil¡¯s breath weapon is beyond amazing at this point, and after a bit of ramping up, should make it so that Al¡¯pa¡¯ca doesn¡¯t risk using his own breath weapon any further, lest the ancient Sand end up with his jaw and throat glassed open from the melted silicates. That¡¯s the hope anyway. I also need to hope that Lil and Te can purposely succumb to dragonfright close enough to me that my Honoris Causa can reach into them to negate the signals paralyzing them.


    I kind of wish Lucky was here, but Lucky and Luni need to stick together, and there is no way in hell I¡¯d want Lu to have to deal with this mess. She was so upset, just forcing herself to fight a single foe, when we were fighting a handful at once. Fighting off thousands on one front, while trying to face someone far more powerful hemming us in on another front?  I don¡¯t want to imagine the sort of trauma she¡¯d suffer, or anxiety she¡¯d put herself through.  Plus, sighing, I have to admit that Solace needs Damnation defenses. The SAP can no longer afford to all be deployed at once. We¡¯re the only ones that can keep the Damnations from simply waltzing through Solace and stealing everyone¡¯s souls or dragonforces.


    Perhaps kobold and Draconiac ground forces might be immune to having their souls stolen by the Damnations? Could that be part of the reason that Terrorzin has made such an abundance of them? I suppose that could keep them in check, keeping the CE from simply taking the throne of the King of Dragons. Hm. I don¡¯t want to risk any of our Draconiac allies testing that however. It¡¯s better if we handle it as the SAP. Besides, it could simply be a numbers thing, if they take more than a split instant to steal a soul, going up against thousands still isn¡¯t in their best interest.


    Taking off my psi-blocking circlet for far-too-short a time, I let Te and Lil know the route I¡¯d like us to take. Of course it¡¯s best communicating telepathically, silently. Hopefully no one can hear thoughts nearby. Plus, I intend to change the route at least once anyway. I¡¯m not intentionally misleading Teuila and Lil, but I¡¯ve just got this sneaking suspicion that we¡¯re going to find ourselves passing rooms with secret exits and entrances. Atter¡¯s was the first domain I really encountered them in.


    Hm, speaking of, or rather, thinking of, Atter¡ª. I wonder how the eggs are doing. Heck, I wonder how Atter and Boetah are doing. Now thinking about them, I wonder how Shaylon and Revvy and Greggy are doing too. Their goggles still display absolutely nothing due to the pitch blackness of the ¡®Neath. As much as I¡¯d like to be able to check in on any and every friend, not all of them have goggles yet. Also, it¡¯s not like I was going to have Atter wear goggles while she was conjugating. That¡¯s just¡ª. No. Sighing, I rattle my skull, attempting to reorient myself and focus on the task at hand.


    Gnawing on my lips, I¡¯m worried that our luck has been too good to hold, lasting as long as it has. We¡¯ve been able to dart by several rooms that were each occupied by large clusters of heat signatures. My plotted path does take us through one cluster however, so we¡¯re going to need to prepare to fight as quietly as we can. I don¡¯t recall ever doing a stealth takedown, but for some reason, sneaking along with the intention of taking lives feels almost second nature to me. I guess I do have a stealth skill from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Maybe that¡¯s it. Or maybe it¡¯s all those stealth-action RPGs your brain is filled with from Fakeworld? Meh, kindly screw off with the Fakeworld crap right now. This is too dangerous for distractions.


    I¡ª what¡¯s that sound? There¡¯s a skittering, skritching sound, accompanied by clanking. It¡¯s as if¡ª. There are robots, clankers, that don¡¯t put out heat signatures large enough to register on my senses. They¡¯re patrolling the hallways. Crap! I tap Lil and Teuila and flick my brows and forehead forward swiftly, indicating we need to hurry. We still need to be as silent as possible, to reduce how much time we need to spend fighting for our lives as we head down to the Chamber of Storms.


    Hm, based on runic fragments, I¡¯m picking up some of the history of this place. So Al¡¯Pa¡¯Ca had ruled it, and it was originally a site dedicated to attunement with storms to begin with, but he¡¯d chosen a vain domain name, and cast aside the old ways, early during Terrorzin¡¯s reign. I guess that¡¯s why Kinzul was surprised that he¡¯d reverted the name sometime in recent history. Of course, she wasn¡¯t going to be fed news about this, without learning it through her spy network, so it makes a sort of sense that it took her by surprise. Still, when she put all of her faith, and trust, in a Worldstorm that she concocted, wouldn¡¯t taking over a seat of power involving storms be one of the first things you do? Or at least, knocking the pieces off the board that knew of its original connections.


    I dunno, I don¡¯t want to fault Kinzul, but it¡¯s another one of those things that doesn¡¯t quite add up right for me. What did she need my blood for? Why did she need me unconscious for part of it, when I¡¯d already consented to giving as much blood as she desired? Huff. She was right. There will be things she¡¯ll have wished she¡¯d shared before it¡¯s too late, and things that I probably won¡¯t learn of until it¡¯s likely too late.


    My eyes droop wearily as I¡¯m overcome by a sadness at the prospect of losing our beloved Administrator, my beloved wife, Kinzul. It¡¯s fated. We know it is. Being in a war as badly outmatched as we are, it¡¯s likely that it could occur any day, as opposed to being in a time of peace, when it wouldn¡¯t make sense to expect some powerful force to gather against Kinzul. Just¡ª. Just don¡¯t think about it Reggie. Carry on. Forget it for now. It¡¯s a pain that you can¡¯t do anything about beyond ignoring it at the moment.


    As the three of us burst into the room leading to the next floor, a floor apparently known as the Nexus of Tempests, I¡¯m sad to say that we brutally, efficiently murder the guardians of the stairwell before they can so much as stand to react to our presence. Drawing a deep breath, sighing, I make certain the door¡¯s latch is mended, and returned. I also bar the door from this side, and set the corpses in the approximate positions they were in when we¡¯d busted in. Hopefully no one is due to check in on them any time soon. Every last second, minute, hour not spent fighting off the thousands of foes as we seek out Al¡¯Pa¡¯Ca could be the difference between victory and defeat, life and death.


    Oddly, I feel a strong breeze from the stairwell. I suppose, the next floor is known as the Nexus of Tempests, so perhaps it¡¯s not that odd. Doing my best to make certain we¡¯re leaving as few obvious clues as to our whereabouts as possible, I check in visually with Lil and Teuila. They both nod silently, so we carry on. The mission¡¯s going about as smoothly as it possibly can, but I¡¯m sure we¡¯re about to hit a snag any second now. Heck, I¡¯m curious what sorts of dangers lurk below, awaiting us on the uniquely named floor. I guess we¡¯ll find out in a few seconds.

 B 6 C 172: Past Tempest

    As we descend the stairs to the Nexus of Tempests, the sound of raging winds assaults our ears, and the tempest only grows louder every step of our approach. The temperature drops suddenly, and I can see my breath fog before me. I can feel the wind whipping against my face and the thrum of power coursing through the air. My heart thunders in my chest as we approach the bottom of the stairs, and I can''t tell what''s louder, my heart hammering, or the howling winds that are almost deafening, drowning out my thoughts and making it difficult to hear anything else. The air is thick with the smell of ozone and the taste of static electricity, making me feel slightly lightheaded as we reach the bottom of the stairs. I can feel the wind picking up around us. It''s like standing in the center of a hurricane, but without any of the chaos or destruction that comes with it.


    The stairwell ends abruptly, the door to the Nexus of Tempests looming before us. It''s made of dark wood, decorated with carvings of lightning bolts and swirling winds. I hesitate, a sudden feeling of dread settling in my gut. Who knows what sort of horrors lie beyond this door? Lil and Teuila share a quick glance, and I can tell they''re feeling just as apprehensive as I am. I grip the handle of the door, twisting it open. A rush of cold air hits us full force, and I have to take a step back to keep from stumbling.


    The room we enter is massive, taking up most of this entire sub level of the fortress, with towering walls covered in intricate runes and symbols. A network of pipes and wires snake across the ceiling, feeding into a massive machine at the center of the room. The machine pulses with energy, crackling with lightning and emitting a low hum that seems to vibrate the very air around us.


    In the corners of the room, storm spirits dance and frolic, their forms flickering like lightning. They seem to be drawn to the energy of the machine, swirling around it in a frenzy of motion, though they appear less like denizens of this realm, and more like trapped, bound elemental spirits. Checking my pouch, my own bound elemental spirit is still curled up inside alongside the dracorocnix egg. The foxfire elemental that I call Zorro trills pleasantly, seeming content. These storm spirits seem anything but content however. What first appeared to be a nearly frolicking dance seems more like agonized spasms, as they''re drawn somehow out of their home plane, in order to do -something- for this machine, against their will.


    Huh, thinking on it, unless Al''Pa''Ca has some artificers as powerful as Nala and Littlebit, those robots, those clankers in the hallways probably have to run on something, some source of power. Gazing at the elemental spirits trapped in this realm against their will, I know what I feel the right course of action is, despite how much it''s going to cost us. We''d be losing the element of surprise, and have to contend with the thousands of foes bearing down on us from above, back the way we came. I don''t think it''d sit well with me to leave these beings, these elemental essences, trapped like this.


    I suppose if we make a big enough boom, we could collapse some of the fortress in on itself, buying us a few minutes as our pursuers would have to dig their way through to us, if this is the only way down to the lower levels. My worry though is that it isn''t, that there was some other path that could lead the horde outside straight down to us. Worse yet, that it might come out ahead of us, and block our path deeper into the complex series of tunnels that make up the Stormheart Keep or whatever it was that Al''Pa''Ca named this place again. If I act now, I might screw us out of being able to complete our mission at all, if there are any paths from the surface that lead down out ahead of us.


    Glancing at Te and Lil, I see Te''s face etched with worry, but she flashes me a half-grin of pride, acquiescing to whatever choice I make, even if she couldn''t hear my thoughts as I struggled my way to a conclusion. I know she''d be down even if my plan meant we''d have to face the assembled horde above, the several thousand foes that we''re attempting to bypass. Lil''s expression is stern, resolute. I can tell he''s focused on our goal, on not disappointing his momma, my wife, Kinzul. Failure on this mission is not an option. If Al''Pa''Ca wrests control of the Worldstorm, that''s it, that''s the end of everything for everyone, because Terrorzin is free to unleash flights of dragons across the land, in order to raze the entire world.


    Leezahna thinks I''m overdramatic? Sure, she''s probably right for the most part, but I''m not far exaggerating when I say that our success here is critical, too important to jeopardize. As much as I want to free these bound spirits, and possibly strike a blow against any automoton forces within this keep, it''s too big a risk right now. Hopefully as we''re destroying this entire place, the elementals can get free and return to their realm, before the whole mountain comes crashing down atop them. If they weren''t bound here, I''d normally assume that even just squashing them would return them to the elemental plane adjacent to ours. As that¡¯s happens with FFS when I summon her and she gets dissipated by an attack. As is, I''m not sure that''s the case while this machine is intact.


    I take a deep breath and shake my head. We can''t risk destroying the machine yet, we need to focus on the mission. We can''t jeopardize it for the sake of these spirits. Te and Lil nod solemnly, apparently aware of my conclusion, and definitely understanding the gravity of our situation. I can feel the weight of our decision settling heavily on my shoulders. With a weary heart, focusing on the task at hand, I turn away from the bound storm spirits, trying to ignore their writhing.


    I know it''s not the right thing to do to leave them here, but we don''t have the luxury of time to figure out a safe way to free them right now. One that doesn¡¯t involve destroying the machine and alerting everyone to our presence. We need to press forward if we''re going to have a chance at stopping Al''Pa''Ca. I try to steady myself and motion for Lil and Teuila to follow me. We move forward, cautiously, as we approach the machine, intending to skirt around it to avoid detection of anything that might not be registering to our senses hidden in the room. I can feel the power coursing through it growing stronger. The hair on my arms stands on end, and I can see the same reaction mirrored on the few bits of Te''s bare skin that are exposed. Seeing Teuila''s skin prickle in some sort of anticipatory or agitated reaction is enough verification for me that our caution was, -is- warranted.


    Taking a deep breath, I work to center myself, trying to keep my thoughts focused on the here and now, the next few moments, each new step. Like I¡¯ve told Lil recently, focus on every new step ahead of you Reggie, it¡¯s the only way to keep moving forward. We¡¯ll survive this room, and make it to the next floor, and then try to cast my senses about, in order to paint a picture of the next floor. If there aren¡¯t too many mysterious areas, or surprises, we might be able to blow this thing up after all. For now, focus up Reggie, keep moving, one step at a time.


    The way the mist swirls about us in this room sends chills down my spine as it¡¯s reminiscent of eddies in a fast-flowing body of water. Worse, being buffeted by such strong, fast, powerful winds, is eerily similar to being cast about by the current of such a flow. It¡¯s okay Reggie, it¡¯s okay. We¡¯ll never lose family to that again. We have magic items now that are bound to Shellcracker souls. A wave like the Night of High Water can¡¯t take them from us ever again. I inhale a ragged, shuddering breath, trying to cast the thoughts aside, out of sight and out of mind. My family, Agwai, Laomati, Sugar, Spice, M-Squared, ¡®Naia, Spring Blossom, Dreams of Days, Fawns at Sunsets, Six Thunder, Curious Branch, Elder Winter, and all the others we¡¯ve left behind, I¡ª. I¡¯ll make it back to you someday, I swear it. I won¡¯t give up on either world, Rayileklia or Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    As we approach the machine, I can feel the tension in the air, like a coiled spring ready to snap. My heart races as we move closer, and I can hear my breathing quickening with each step. As we move around the machine, I see the glowing runes etched into its surface. Cranking up my aura vision, they pulse with a sickly green light, and I can feel an eldritch power emanating from them. I can''t help but shudder at the thought of what kind of being could create something like this.


    As we skirt around the machine, a sense of unease settles in and gnaws at my stomach. The power emanating from this device feels almost alive, like a beast waiting to be unleashed. I can feel the agitation, the excitement of the electrons in the air as we move cautiously through the room, trying to avoid detection. Hm, my electrokinetic and telekinetic senses. I''d almost forgotten about them, with this new body that I''d reincarnated into, my EM Field organ is weaker, and so I hadn''t been spending as much time focusing on what I could learn related to atomics and subatomics.


    If--, if I absorbed them, these spirits, I could not only reinforce that part of me, that EM Field organ, I might reach an entire side evolution to my Honoris Causa. Could I do that? They''re simple spirits, they exist within another realm, and are drawn to the energies in our realm. As far as I''m aware, they can''t be anything less than perfectly innocent. They''ve never had a chance to be evil. I don''t think I could do it. I couldn''t live with myself, despite the opportunity to become more powerful. What if... what if they were willing? If they consented to becoming a part of me, would that be much different than being trapped here? Would it be better?


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    I guess there''s only one way to find out. Grumbling internally, I curse my own foolishness, and chastise myself for my inability to stay focused on a single line of thought, being unable to carry through on a straightforward plan. Sighing, I motion for Lil and Teuila to flank the doorway into the next section of the keep, as I attempt something foolish, quite possibly even stupid.


    Now... how the hell does one go about speaking in lightning? Well, if anyone could do it Reggie, it''s you. Well, you, or Teuila, or Linti, Lightning Hunter. Heh, shut up. Anyway, I get it, just do it without getting a big head about it. I spend a few moments concentrating in order to dive into the space between spaces, a moment between moments, I slip into the lack, the non, the absence of the flow of time. There is something occurring more and more frequently as I visit this realm of thinkspace, this supposed schism between seconds, but it¡¯s probably something I¡¯m not supposed to explore without Luni. We¡¯ll work on that at some point if I remember, hopefully, maybe.


    Right, can I ask these elementals for their cooperation? Do they understand that they¡¯re trapped, and want to be free? Would my offer be the same as killing them? Ugh, so many questions. Coming to conclusions in retrocognition is just as thrilling and exhilarating as ever. Yes, I¡¯m being snarky and sarcastic with myself, in my own paused time. No, it¡¯s not productive, shut up. Heh, Reggie, my pal, you¡¯ve really got to get a grip. Huff, you think I don¡¯t know that? Erm, yeah, I heard myself think it. This isn¡¯t a coping mechanism, this is just me being bonkers. I don¡¯t think I have the wherewithal to utilize retrocognition at the moment.


    Too much has gone on in too short a time. I died, got reincarnated, reunited with Tiktik, adventured in the ¡®Twixt, reunited Tiktik with her true love who has joined our cause, reunited with Alanea, left Bud in the Hidden Heart to finally begin to heal, got back home with a bunch of prisoners, at least one of whom was working to undermine us, to hurt me especially specifically, and of course we found out about this whole crap with Al¡¯Pa¡¯Ca and the Worldstorm. Alright, alright, enough feeling sorry for yourself. Get back to it Reggie.


    At the very least, I want to offer to be a battery for the spirits, in able to carry them to freedom personally, so that they aren¡¯t trapped, bound to the machine when the fortress falls. I should be able to do this. It should just be like my electrokinetic thought-bubbles, my encapsulated dreams that carry my knowledge and will in the shape of a spark, right? It''s not like I haven''t communicated that way a few times in my life, either with Linti, or Teuila. Is it that simple? I encapsulate the electrical frequencies of certain neurons firing into a single time-delayed spark, and send it out to these elementals? Huh, I guess I can drop out of retrocognition-time.


    Rattling my skull, I breathe deeply and center myself as I begin to return from the non, the absence, the lack of the flow of time. I¡¯m not well in the head right now, and I don¡¯t have the luxury of the time and support it¡¯d take to get myself to a better emotional headspace. Sadly, that doesn¡¯t change how much relies upon me. Reign it in Reggie, breathe air, breathe. One step at a time. Seek the spirits, their desires, and perhaps consent, before we move on from this Nexus of Tempests.


    Fully returning to the flow of time, I cast my senses about the room, to, well, read the room. Sighing, I mentally facepalm at the unintentional redundancy. It doesn''t take long to feel the confusion and fear within the energies that are coalesced into beings, creatures, that shouldn''t be a part of this realm. Extending my consciousness, I work at searching for any sign of the trapped spirits that I can feel undulating within the flow energy around me.


    I need to be aware of them on more than just the base visual level of seeing the masses of sparks floating about the edges of the room. I begin sending a pulse of energy through the air. It''s a gesture, a greeting, a way of letting them know that I''m here and that I mean them no harm. As I send the energy outward, I also reach out with my mind, searching for the spirits, attempting to understand if and how they respond.


    At first, there''s nothing but static, an electric signal that could only be interpreted at best as a jumbled mess of thoughts and feelings, but then I manage to hone in on consciousness. There''s a moment of silence, of stillness, and then I feel a response. It''s faint, almost imperceptible, but it''s there. A spark of recognition, a flicker of understanding. I take that as a good sign. Though it''s faint, and barely there, it''s enough. I focus my energy on it, and press on, sending more pulses of energy through the air trying to make contact.


    Breathing deeply, I focus, stretching out this contact. It takes a few moments, but I soon feel their presence around me, like tiny bolts of lightning dancing on the edge of my consciousness. A spark of electricity jump from my fingertips, and I take it as a sign that the spirits are listening. I close my eyes and concentrate, picturing myself as a conduit of lightning, a messenger between this world and the realm of elemental energies that these spirits are native to. I feel a flicker of energy that echoes in my mind, crackling with static like the sound of a radio tuned to a distant station.


    I take another deep breath and focus my thoughts, I need to be able to communicate in a language of lightning and energy. It''s a language that''s foreign to most everyone I imagine. Well, most everyone other than elementals I guess. But I''m me, and I''ve been talking to, and dealing with esoteric concepts like energy, mana, inventories, magic itself, and hell, even the void at the edges of the universe, all my life more or less. As my thoughts take shape, I feel the spirits begin to stir, drawn in by the energy and the power of my electrokinetically shared thoughts.


    As I continue to speak, or spark I suppose, the spirits start to coalesce around me, their energies dancing at and tickling at the edges of my own. There''s an effect that begins to cloud my senses, a rush like being caught in an avalanche, a white-out. For a moment, I''m lost in the surge, the whirlwind of power and energy, but then something pierces through the noise. It''s not a sound, yet it''s still a voice in some manner. Moreover, it''s one that''s not my own. "Who are you?" is what it seems to ask, its entirety encapsulated by the static thrum and crackle of electiricity.


    Grinning, feeling pretty used to answering that exact question at this point in my life, I respond, "I''m Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. Moreover, I''m someone that wanted to know your desires, and what you consent to, in regards to your being trapped here. Would you be willing to merge, with me to escape your current confines? I don¡¯t know exactly what would happen if we unite, if you¡¯d fuse with me, or simply ride along as if I were a capacitor. I don''t know what you''d experience beyond that point, if you''d be subsumed entirely by my will, but I wanted to offer you this chance before we destroyed this domain."


    There''s a long pause, and I''m beginning to wonder if I can even spare these precious seconds making this offer. And then, just like that, I feel a connection. It''s unlike anything I''ve ever experienced before in my own body, a merging of consciousnesses, a melding of souls. It''s exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, because it''s like accessing the sporebrain, the hivemind, without my myconid form, but more voltaic, charged and stimulating, while retaining my sense of self. For now at least.


    I can feel the spirits inside, their presence now a part of me. I can sense their energy, their power, their knowledge. It''s overwhelming, and I''m not sure if I can handle it, this isn¡¯t exactly what I was expecting. I was hoping to simply be a conduit that could store them until I could get them out of here. I¡¯ll just have to push on. I¡¯m determined to make the most of this. Despite wanting to believe I¡¯d been entirely altruistic in my offer, I can¡¯t deny a small part of me wanted this outcome, the possible increase in power, resilience, reliability, and more.


    I feel the power of the storming spirits surging through me, strengthening my connection to the natural world around me, the harshness of the elements, the pervasiveness of the Worldstorm. It''s a strange sensation, like being plugged into a vast network, able to detect leylines of mana. Well, at least those that are electric in nature, running throughout the entirety of Rayileklia. Between my new connection to the Fel magics of Rayileklia with my recently reincarnated body, and now a direct electrical connection to the natural world, I''m feeling more and more like I''m becoming a part of Rayileklia itself, or it is becoming a part of me, inseparable, and indiscernible where one begins and the other ends.


    Rattling my skull, I balk, attempting to collect my thoughts for the briefest of moments. I won¡¯t let my sense of self be overridden by elemental spirits, Rayileklia, or anything else for that matter. Still, taking in these spirits of pure energy has sapped me deeply. If I had to take a guess, I''d say I lost half my health from my Can''Z''aasian stats page, maybe more. What''s more is, I''m not sure if it''s just temporarily not regenerating, or if they''ve cut my maximum in half as well. I''ve survived some encounters with what was probably single digits of hitpoints already on Rayileklia. I don''t think I''ll survive many upcoming battles if the answer is the latter.


    Gulping, I hope that it¡¯s just halted regeneration, and that it¡¯s merely a minor, temporary effect suppressing it as my body acclimates to the energy beings that are merging with my EM Field organ, heart, spine, and other electrically significant areas. I do my best to prevent them from permeating my brain, as I don''t want to chance having one of them overwrite my will and personality. It feels cruel in some ways.


    After a short time, as I acclimate to them, and they to me, I can sense that they''re no longer separate beings, no longer spirits with individual wills. They''re now an accumulation of energy that can ebb and flow, dwindle and grow, pulse and thrum within me. It may have some semblance of its own consciousness as a living energy, but at the same time, it¡¯s also mine, fully and completely, entirely at my beck and call.


    I''ve turned lives, a type of existence at least, into a battery for my body and my powers. Even if it was unintentional, what kind of monster does that make me?

 B 6 C 173: Voids Mockery

    Caught up in my own mind, worried about my own morality, I almost don¡¯t notice it when the three of us nearly cross an obvious thin silver magical aura. Crap, I¡¯m almost positive that¡¯s an alarm type spell. Something about this is nagging at me, tugging at the rear edges of my mind. Wait!


    Te and Lil glance back at me in confusion as I whisper-shout, ¡°Wait! Crap, be right back guys!¡±


    After my exclamation, I turn on my heel and spring back through the Nexus of Storms or whatever the hell the machine room was called again. I leave Lil and Teuila looking bewildered as they stare after me, but they know to trust my random impulses, even if there is a palpable tension in the air as I disappear past the edge of their view, back the way we came.


    Dashing into the room where we¡¯d left corpses stationed to look like the guards of the room were still sitting around, or just sleeping drunk, I begin stripping the guards, keenly aware of a genre trope that¡ª. Fudge. I knew it! The guards have black-char tattoos of an identical nature. My aura vision can tell that these identical brands on them are magical, a magic I don¡¯t know how to replicate right now, but a magic that is probably keyed to all the defenses on the lower floors. Ugh, genre-senses, why did you have to be right about this? Grr!


    Huffing and rolling my eyes, I set the corpses back the way we¡¯d left them, and groan as I trudge back to my companions. Shaking my head exasperatedly I motion for Te and Lil to head back my ways a ways away from the alarm type spells and traps up ahead. Grumbling to myself, I take a minute to gather my thoughts so that I can express them to Lil and Te.


    Loosing a long sigh, I start out, ¡°Ugh, I knew it. Guys, realistically, you don¡¯t trap your own home, because you live there, you¡¯ve got to walk through it, you don¡¯t want to have to be dodging swinging axes or buzzsaws or vats of acid or whatever the hell else.  Unless¡ª.¡±


    Half grinning, but facepalming regardless, Te interrupts, ¡°Unless you have some sort of key card, or magic that tells your traps to leave you alone, and only bother intruders.¡±


    Lil gasps and drops his head, grumbling and shaking it exasperatedly as I respond, ¡°Yup. From what I can guess, just guessing, if we take a decent path, we¡¯ve got maybe nine or so things between us, and Al¡¯Pa¡¯Ca, if we take the most direct route. An indirect route might seem safer, but it might have even more traps. I can¡¯t afford to be blowing through a ton of magic dispelling each magical trap, and we can¡¯t afford to be getting our limbs hacked off by non magical traps. This friggin¡¯ suuuucks.¡±


    When Lil shrugs and responds, ¡°Well, at least look on the bright side pal,¡± I glance at him incredulously, my left brow raised fit to fly off my forehead, before he continues, ¡°I mean, he probably didn¡¯t brand -all- of those thousands of mooks out there, right? So if we -can- sneak by some of the traps without disabling them, they¡¯ll help thin the heard that¡¯s gonna be after our butts when we take on ol¡¯ Alpackers. Seems like the kind of thing you¡¯d have done anyway Rej. A mega smooth move, mega mega mega smooth.¡±


    Unable to keep myself from grinning, I nod and shove my hand in Lil¡¯s face playfully. He chuckles and licks my hand to get me to withdraw it, which I grimace jokingly about. He¡¯s right though, it¡¯s definitely one of the few upsides to the situation, and a move I¡¯d be planning to try. If we can just manage to¡ª. Antisorcery. A field of null magic that travels with me, but¡ª. But I don¡¯t have the spell mastered yet. I¡¯ve been hit with it once or twice, and I know the number of runes, and approximately what the runes are, but I would need a lot of days to practice the spell. But then again, I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker, Aliased Schism, the Void Dragon Honoris Causa, with the Latent ¡°Nothing.¡±


    Alright, let¡¯s do this. We¡¯re more and more in touch with voids, absences, lacks. Heh, we certainly lack plenty. Shut up Reggie, now isn¡¯t the time. Right, sorry. Rattling my skull, I try to get back on topic. Whew, this is something alright. This is gonna be rough. I¡¯m me, I¡¯m a Changeling Fae now in a half-Fel body, devilishly smooth-skinned, horned and tailed, blue, like a certain infernal set of playable creatures in a popular tabletop RPG. I¡¯ve got this new connection with Fel magics that I haven¡¯t explored at all, and a very new connection to the lightning-leylines of Rayileklia. I know that electromagnetics, at least a giant spherical shield of lightning around me, can mess with spells a bit, either due to line of sight, or maybe something more. Think Reggie, think.


    Gorrammit all, Lu and Kinzul are gonna be pissed. I think I can maybe use a fractional release of my Void Dragon Honoris Causa, lashed to the Fel, and to Rayileklia¡¯s leylines. Hm, yeah. I might just be able to mimic anti-sorcery, the spell. If I¡¯m lucky, it won¡¯t even cost me hundreds of days of Dragonforce. Passing a breath through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I sigh several times, collecting my thoughts, steeling myself.


    As I approach the shimmering barrier of the alarm spell, I pause, taking a deep breath. I''ve never tried this before, but if there''s ever a time to experiment while hoping for miracles, it''s now when everything is on the line. Closing my eyes, I reach deep within, tapping into the void, the "Nothing" that is my Latent power. It''s a sensation of emptiness, of absence, a stark contrast to the vibrant energy of the leylines of Rayileklia that I¡¯m now connected to through the lightning elemental spiritswarm housed within me.


    I mutter my titles to manifest my Honoris Causa, ¡°I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa.¡±


    Thankfully, the manifestation itself isn¡¯t costing me too heavily, especially as I tie it to these other sources of energy, and how saturated and permeated this entire fortress is with Dragonforce. If I were really ingenious, I might be able to slowly siphon off and gain Dragonforce, while here, but I don¡¯t have the luxury of experimenting when it might cost us our mission if I trigger some sort of warning. Rattling my skull, I center myself and focus on continuing my attempt to anti-sorcerize myself. Drawing upon the Fel magics, I attempt to weave them with my Latent, trying to mimic the effects of the antisorcery spell. I can feel the push and pull, the opposing forces of the Fel, Rayileklia itself, and the void, but I persist, focusing on the runes of the antisorcery spell that I''ve studied but never mastered.


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    Slowly, my Void Dragon aspect manifests as compactly as I can manage. Within its intangible presence, a bubble of null magic envelops me, creating a zone where magic is suppressed, if not entirely negated. It''s not as stable or as potent as the true antisorcery spell, but it might just be enough. It certainly disorients the hell out of me, being cut off from my own magics, and my magic items being currently nullified. Taking a tentative step forward, I pass through the barrier of the alarm spell. No alarms sound, no magical energies lash out. It worked. At least for now.


    I can''t help but let out a sigh of relief, but I''m also acutely aware that this makeshift solution is temporary and unstable. I need to move quickly and cautiously, making the most of this advantage while it lasts. Motioning to Te and Lil, we begin rushing quickly towards the next level, navigating by my retrocognitive senses, and the combinations of all of our best senses and perceptions. We¡¯re able to bypass several series of these alarm enchantments, it¡¯d have taken me over a hundred thirty SP already, just to dispel these, not counting the other magic I sense up ahead, that we¡¯re hoping to leave active, rather than dispel.


    Gnawing on my lip, I worry that I¡¯m putting too many eggs in the baskets of needing to, and being able to, counter Al¡¯Pa¡¯Ca¡¯s spells. I¡¯m seeking out solutions that might be limiting what else I can do in the fight, attempting to preempt the possible highest tier magics he might throw at us. I have to though. I just have to. Magics of the ninth circle are incredibly powerful and deadly. Even some of the ones along the sixth, seventh, and eighth circles are game changers.


    I¡ª. I couldn¡¯t bear it. If Lil and Teuila were frozen in time as he summoned a meteor, or something ridiculously potent like that, if Al¡¯pa¡¯ca tore into them with a barrage of other potent magics. I know I might be letting my feelings cloud my judgment on the most efficient course of action, but¡ª. Who can blame me? It¡¯s Te and Lil for crying out loud! We¡¯re going into the single most deadly situation any of us have ever been in, with the odds stacked against us by the thousands. My innards tighten at the thought of what could happen to Lil and Te.


    Sighing, I try to calm myself, and reorient on the present. I can feel the antisorcery flickering, and I don¡¯t know whether that¡¯s because it has an incredibly short duration when done like this, or if my emotional turmoil is messing with it, or what. Annnd there it goes. Crap. Drawing a deep breath, I sigh again while shaking my head incredulously and exasperatedly at myself.


    Te and Lil notice me pausing, so thankfully they hold up before triggering the trap that¡¯s right ahead of us. I mutter, ¡°Sorry guys, I¡¯m trying to keep it reined in, but my thoughts are getting jumbled, and I can¡¯t keep this antisorcery patchwork shenanigan going. I need a second. I¡¯m just, I¡¯m just worried about this. Everything, absolutely everything is riding on this. There aren¡¯t second chances for this one.¡±


    Teuila slugs me gently in the shoulder and murmurs, ¡°I know, my Airhead, I know. We¡¯ll win though. We have to. It¡¯s us, the SAP, the strongest there ever was, the strongest we ever were. I¡¯ll carry your asses out of here myself if I have to, after dropping Packananny like a sack of rocks.¡±


    Of course, Lil chipperly chimes in, ¡°Me too pal, no matter what, we¡¯re all getting out of this, even if I gotta tear through a hundred, no, a thousand, no, a million evil mage dragon dorks to do it.¡±


    Between Teuila and I, I can¡¯t tell which of us is snorting harder with laughter at Lil¡¯s assertion, but we both hug my best bud, the goofy dragon that he is. They¡¯re right, I know they¡¯re right. Any of the three of us is going to look out for the others, and pull out our ultimate stops, nearly killing ourselves, if the others are hurt. Te and I both have our Honoris Causas, while Lil can call out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas for an evolution, one that might be charged up enough at this point for him to be able to loose his Wrath of Godsbreath. Plus he also has an evolutionary form that, if I recall correctly, Kinzul and Lu helped him design. The one that looks a bit like a fighter jet when viewed from above while in flight. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s incredibly powerful.


    We¡¯re going to make it through. I mean, aren¡¯t we fated to? Sort of? We¡¯ve still got other apocalypses to worry about. We have to be on the primary timeline, right? I¡¯d have found something, some way, to somehow course correct, if we weren¡¯t, wouldn¡¯t I? We¡¯re supposed to make it home someday. Although, I don¡¯t know if that was so much prophecy, as estimation by Lu. I wish I understood her foreknowledge better. Though, if I did, apparently my brain would literally explode. Ugh.


    Right, right, fuhgedabout it. For now at least. Focus, try to¡ª, nope. I can¡¯t stop thinking about all the things left undone, and left unsaid. My throat closes momentarily as my heart races at the thought of all those I might leave behind. If this is the last I might ever interact with anyone, I¡ª. I scribble a note, and hold it up to the outgoing scrying sensor of my goggles, a simple four word message, ¡°I love you all.¡±


    Te offers me a sad half frown, realizing why I¡¯m emotional and sappy at the moment. If we fail, but survive, everyone else suffers. If we fail, and die, we¡¯re never seen again, and maybe, just maybe, someone steps in after us and finishes where we left off. More likely, if we fail, there¡¯s no one who can make it here in time, and face down Al¡¯Pa¡¯Ca with a horde over ten thousand strong on high alert.


    Get a grip, Reggie. Great, now I''m back to chiding myself. Yeah, because distractions and panic got you killed once already. Let''s not encore that performance, eh? Ouch, below the belt Reggie, easy there, champ. Back then, I was trying to wrest back control and keep the panic from getting me killed, and I¡ª. I''m arguing with myself, and using entertainment metaphors.


    It''s a veritable circus act in here. And there''s Reggie Shellcracker, folks. Let''s have a round of applause for Schism, the Void Dragon Honoris Causa! I jest internally, complete with an imaginary bow and the echo of an absent crowd. I''m on the marquee 24/7 in the theater of my mind¡ªno intermissions, no understudies.


    I loose a breath that¡¯s part laugh, part resignation. Mocking myself? Sure, but I''m allowed. It''s the dark comedy of my reality, and laughter is the wildcard I play against the deck stacked with anxiety and dread. It¡¯s a fine line, teetering on the edge of insanity and insight, and guess who''s got front-row seats?


    So here¡¯s to the headliner of today¡¯s tragicomedy¡ªme, Reggie, doing a balancing act on the precipice of what feels like the end of the world. I can''t afford to fall, not when the stakes are this high. So I chuckle, because if you can''t laugh at the absurdity of being your own toughest critic in the face of armageddon, when can you?

 B 6 C 174: Gargoyles Gears

    Breathe air, breathe. Focus Reggie. Take a deep breath, let everything flow by the wayside, falling off you like water off a duck¡¯s back. Or an otter¡¯s back, since, y¡¯know, Shellcracker. Heh, I snort a laugh at my own stupid inner narrative, shaking my head. It¡¯s probably the closest I¡¯m going to get to being relaxed about this situation though. Come on Reggie, get this antisorcery stuff started again before some random goon from above decides to come down and check in with their lord Al¡¯pa¡¯ca.


    Grr, I just can¡¯t keep it working for more than a split second at a time, and engaging it is taking like a minute at a time. Grumbling, I admit to my pals, ¡°Guys, this ability is harder to get working than I thought. We¡¯re going to have to basically hop through a trap exactly in the split second I can manage to keep it up, then wait for me to get it up again,¡ª.¡±


    Teuila smirks, cutting me off with a mischievous glint in her eyes, simply sounding out in a teasing lilt, ¡°Phraaaasing,¡± after which she chuckles. Her laughter as always is light, melodious, infectious, and I can''t help rolling my eyes and chuckling along with her while shaking my head incredulously. She shouldn''t even have a concept of-- then again we''ve been away from Can''Z''aas long enough, and she hangs out with Iylynila who reads smutty romance novels. At this point, I should probably just stop expecting my inner circle to be innocent Can''Z''aasians any longer. Besides, even Lil is snickering along with her, and he¡¯s always been the most innocent of all of us.


    Sighing while attempting to stifle my own chuckle, I joke, ¡°Stow it you two goons, this is serious. I¡¯m constantly bending and breaking the rules of magic, and I never know what the prices are going to be. I need your guys¡¯s help on this. Lil, can you shrink down to sphere form? Te, can you grab us both? I¡¯ll signal with a shock as I¡¯m activating the ability. We¡¯ll have fractions of seconds to make it past traps. None of us will have our magic or our items active, except maybe our Latents, so it¡¯ll all be based on your actual muscles, and their speed. Which, y¡¯know, for you is still ridiculous.¡±


    Of course Te looses a Shellcracker Family Squee at having her hard work and abilities acknowledged. I can¡¯t help smiling broadly at how pleased she is from such a simple off-handed compliment. Sighing contentedly for a moment, I wish I could bask in the radiant joy of seeing and feeling Teuila¡¯s happiness, but hopefully there¡¯ll be time for that later. For now, we need to get a move on. Glancing between the two, they make note of my shift in demeanor, and nod solemnly. No more time for joking around. Now¡¯s the time to get things done.


    Seeing Lil fluidly shapeshift, when I remember on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas that the last times he¡¯d been able to practice, he wasn¡¯t very adept at it, reminds me how far we¡¯ve come, and grown, since we died. Friggin¡¯ heck that thought is so weird. My dragon best friend got better at shapeshifting after dying. How in the world¡ª. Who else could possibly ever think that thought, and have it not be a hallucination? Sighing and rattling my skull, I grasp Lil¡¯s spherical body close in my arms as he wraps his tail around them. Te gets into position, in something like a modified runner¡¯s stance, and she grasps me under one arm, while the other touches the ground. I feel her Latent activating, reducing our gravitational impedances to zero.


    When I¡¯m sure Te is in position, I begin focusing on trying to engage the wildly specific combination of Fel magic, Honoris Causa, Latent, and Rayileklian leyline binding that lets me mimic anti-sorcery for the briefest of moments. Thankfully my internal electrokinesis is biological at this point, so I can send the signal to Teuila at essentially light-speed, or thought-speed, by sending a nervous system spark from mine to hers. The instant my Honoris Causa manifests enough Void to encapsulate the three of us, Teuila takes off like a rocket, covering two hallways before I have to signal for her to stop near the edge of another trap. She¡¯s ridiculously fast and powerful, easily hitting cheetah top speeds, or better, even without her magic.


    Even still, my senses pick up an elongated trap, down the entire next hallway, and possibly around the corner. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be able to make it through the entire thing in the duration of my anti-sorcery flicker. Sighing, I analyze my senses in retrocognition, attempting to determine another route through this floor¡¯s complex layout, from our current position. Thankfully, it seems like we can bypass that hallway, if we take a right over here, and then head into a room on our left. The room does have some ornate stonework, possibly statuary.


    My genre senses are saying seventy five percent chance that the room itself has, or is, some kind of trap, or guardian. Yeah, thanks genre senses, I could figure that one out on my own. Still, better than whatever hell of magics would rain down on us in that hallway, probably alerting the entirety of the assembled horde up above that we¡¯re down here. Mentally chuckling to myself, I roll my eyes at being snarky with myself and my own senses.


    Flicking my head towards the open room, Te and Lil understand my silent intentions immediately. Lil begins to revert to his bulldog-dragon-like form, which takes only moments. Puffing air out through my cheeks, I steel myself, fairly certain we¡¯re about to be in at least a mild spot of trouble. Breathing as deeply as I can, yawning and sighing, I nod to my companions, and we advance into the room together.


    I¡¯m not even surprised when the entrance of the room slams shut behind us, and its exit slams shut ahead of us. It leaves us in pitch-black darkness for a moment, but that¡¯s hardly an issue for adventurers with our suites of magical items, abilities, and powers. Darkness doesn¡¯t scare us, hell, it¡¯s a comfort. Nine times out of ten, my senses work better than an enemy¡¯s in pure darkness. So no, the room shutting on us didn¡¯t manage to scare me. What does set me on edge is the number of presences I feel in the room, and how I¡¯m certain all of their eyes lock onto me for some reason.


    The moment we¡¯d stepped into the room, I felt it. A shift, a subtle change in the air, a prickling sensation at the back of my neck. I crank my aura senses to the max, and auras flare all about the room, highlighting the presences in the room with the unmistakable glow of magic. Sighing, I nod while rolling my eyes. Yeah, that¡¯s about what I should have expected for the ¡®easier¡¯ route closer and closer to Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s seat of power.


    The room''s lack of light hadn''t prepared me for the sights that greet me now that my eyes have adjusted. There, in the corners, several massive somethings stir. As usual on Rayileklia, at least, in the latter half of my journey, I¡¯m met with creatures straight out of dark fairy tales, their skin a stormy blue-gray, like the belly of a thundercloud, ironic. Or maybe the opposite of ironic, considering where we are. Regardless, they''re crouched low, muscles coiled, and there''s a hostility in their postures that tells me these won¡¯t be something I can offer mercy to.


    Even just examining one of them is enough to verify my worst hunches. Looking at the nearest one, its eyes catch the light of crackling electricity in the darkness. They, like every pair of aggressive, hostile eyes in this room, are fixed on me, and they¡¯re two bright spots in the gloom. I hate that their gazes convey intelligence, but also malevolence. I¡¯d rather they be obviously mindless killing machines. They¡¯re sizing us up, seeing us as prey, or threats. The ridges above those eyes are drawn down in a scowl, and despite this being a single room on a long path deeper into the fortress, I can''t help feeling a tad bit daunted at trying to get out of this without using any resources.


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    The gargoyle-esque things are built like tanks, all power and raw strength. Their hides look like they could shrug off anything I threw at ¡®em if I were some ordinary Rayileklian adventurer. Unfortunately, when trying to conserve my resources, I might just be only as powerful as an average ordinary Rayileklian adventurer. Chuckling silently, I roll my eyes and shake my head incredulously at myself. No time to get self-deprecating Reggie, focus. Right, right. See if there¡¯s anything else you can learn about them before they pounce.


    Hm. Well, the stone spines along their backs are bristling and crackling with electricity that dances between pairs of them like Jacob¡¯s ladders. That¡¯s a pretty good way to signify danger, almost as directly as holding up an orange sign with the word itself printed across it, heh. The gargoyle things aren¡¯t making any vocal sounds, but the silence is worse¡ªit means they¡¯re trying to be stealthy, and something that big trying to be stealthy is only ever bad news.


    Focusing on the nearest one again, I can¡¯t decide whether to frown, or grimace. Its mouth is slightly open, and even from here, I can see the glint of teeth that could tear through flesh and bone without effort. It doesn''t have wings, but it doesn''t need them¡ªnot with that kind of muscle. I can see its tail now, stubby, short, yet thick and powerful, swishing slowly from side to side. The whole creature''s like a living weapon, and I¡¯ve got no doubts it could snap me like a twig if I didn¡¯t engage some of my defensive magics.


    I still have to preserve my resources, we¡¯ve got probably at least seven more obstacles between us and Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, so I¡¯m more of a hindrance, a liability here, than an asset. I wonder if I could bypass some more obstacles safely, using only a few resources by say, dropping us down a floor. I can¡¯t sense a level beneath us, though I know we¡¯re not at the bottom level yet, so there¡¯s likely too much distance between us and the floor below to get there in a single casting of bypassed-wall. It¡¯s been like that ever since our first drop down a level, once we got past crew-quarters levels, into these more trapped labyrinthine structures.


    I need to think fast. I take a slow, quiet breath, trying not to make any sudden moves. I''ve got to come up with a plan, because if those things decide I''m their next meal, I''m not sure I''d bet on my chances. This looks like it might get rough for me even with Te and Lil at my side. If either of them get pinned or distracted for more than a few instants, I¡¯m dog-chow, or uh, gargoyle-dog chow, or something. Sighing, I can¡¯t think of anything more I can glean in the split instant it¡¯s taking me to analyze their appearances.


    It¡¯s only been fractions of an instant since we stepped into the room, my thoughts and senses taking things in at light speed, but that¡¯s all the time I¡¯m going to get to analyze the gargoyles. Groaning quietly, I mutter, "Uh, guys?" My voice barely audible, even to my own ears. I try not to laugh as I grumble a clich¨¦ line, "We''ve got company."


    My Wings, the Valkyrie, Te, nods as she draws Mjolnir, her eyes scanning the room as she adjusts to the darkness a split second later than me. "Stone gargoyles with¡ª, lightning powers?" she murmurs, her gaze fixed on the sparks crackling up the creatures¡¯ spines, and around one of the gargoyle''s mouths. "That''s a new one."


    Chuckling, I nod to Te as I try to take a deep breath and focus. There¡¯s other hostiles in the room, other creatures, if they could be called that. Okay, focus. What the hell are they? It''s like someone raided a tech museum and went nuts with the parts. A little bit like Littlebit¡¯s automatons. Sighing, I facepalm and try not to chuckle, realizing how easy her name is to get redundant with.


    So, anyway, these other foes are brass and copper metallic juggernauts. Similar to the canine-like gargoyle creatures, they¡¯re standing on four legs. Only these robotic automaton things are all gleaming metal and wires. They look quite a bit like Triorgraiz¡¯s drake mount, Fennel, only out of some retro-futuristic nightmare. They¡¯ve got coils on their backs, sparking with electricity, making my hair stand on end just looking at ¡®em.


    The bodies¡¯re armored, covered in this mesh that looks like it could take a sledgehammer hit from someone with my level of strength without denting. And the eyes are like old vacuum tubes, glowing with this eerie blue that''s probably supposed to be intimidating. Well, congrats Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, it''d be working for anyone who wasn¡¯t as seasoned as us, and even I¡¯m not all that happy about their appearances. As I begin to wonder how they got the glass to make vacuum tubes, I roll my eyes at myself. Right, sand dragon. Silicates.


    Ugh, I¡¯m taking too long to come up with a plan. Now they¡¯re moving, gears and pistons whirring quietly. Too quiet for something in their size. They¡¯ve got cables running down their sides, thick as my wrists, and they''re pulsing. If these things¡¯re as dangerous as they look, I''ve got to come up with something fast if I want to help Lil and Te in this fight. Which, of course I do, because right now, I''m feeling about as useful, and safe, as a kite in a thunderstorm. The irony of the analogy is not lost on me.


    Lil, towering beside me, catching my gaze, follows it, appraising the robotic drakes himself. He lets out a low growl, his nostrils flaring. "And those rustbuckets... they''re not just any robots. They''re dragon-bots. I can feel it."


    I nod, my mind racing. We have to be careful. Al''pa''ca and his horde are close, and the last thing we need is to alert them to our presence. "Alright guys, let¡¯s handle this quietly, and efficiently. We can''t afford to waste too many resources here."


    Lil''s fiery eyes meet mine, and of course they flash with comprehension. Lil agrees as best he can, "I''ll try Rej pal. But if things get dicey¡ª."


    I raise a hand, cutting him off. "I know, buddy. Just, let''s try to be subtle, okay?"


    Teuila smirks, twirling Mjolnir effortlessly as she cracks wise, "Subtlety''s my middle name."


    Fighting my laughter to keep from snorting wildly, I can''t help but at least loose a chuckle, despite the situation. Te, and subtle, in the same sentence? Hah. A creature of subtlety she is not. She may be graceful, fast, and powerful, but she¡¯s also full of explosive force, quite literally. As the stone gargoyles and draconic robotic constructs continue to animate, beginning their predatory prowl around us, Lil''s eyes narrow, his fiery gaze assessing the situation further.


    Groaning himself now, like I¡¯d been, Lil grumbles, "Grr, these stupid buckets of bolts," he begins, his voice low and throaty, with a sort of anger I¡¯ve heard from him only a few times before, "they''ve got dragonforce inside ¡®em, desecrating dead dragons, stolen heart¡¯s-blood, on something inside ¡®em. Onyx Dawn dead dragons at that, momma¡¯s old friends. If we don''t do something about it, they''ll just rebuild after we break ¡®em. That¡¯d be mega annoying, mega mega mega annoying."


    I blink in surprise at Lil¡¯s revelation. Lil picked up that the dragonforces inside our foes have hints of Kinzul on them, a fact even I didn¡¯t pick up on right away. His massively potent analysis skill from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas must be bleeding over into Rayileklia the longer we¡¯re here, or maybe he just loves his adoptive mother, my wife, that intensely. I¡¯m going to choose to believe the former.


    In that same instant, Teuila, as cheekily as possible, smirks and cracks her knuckles, her eyes alight with mischief. With faux-innocence, she begins, "Buckets of bolts, rustbuckets, nuts and bolts, whatever, doesn¡¯t matter. So, what you''re saying is, first we crack the shell, then we crack the nuts inside?"


    My mind slams into a brick wall and goes blank for a moment, the familiar sensation of a mental BSOD hitting me like, well, a ton of bricks. Images of early system OS error screens flash before my eyes, and I can almost hear the droning beep of a system failure. Shaking my head to clear the unexpected pop-culture reference from my mind, I manage to sputter out, "Te... did you just...? Never mind. Focus, Reggie. Focus."


    Lil look between the two of us, a hint of confusion in his eyes but apparently decides it¡¯s probably better not to ask. "Right," he rumbles, taking a deep breath, preparing for battle. As he snorts like a bull preparing for a charge, Lil offers up one of my favorite clich¨¦ lines, "Let''s do this."

 B 6 C 175: Subtle Thunder

    The room, despite its vastness, feels suddenly too small as the gargoyle guard dogs and electro-mecha-drakes spring into action. The eerie blue glow from the gargoyle''s eyes casts a spectral light, making the metallic sheen of the mecha-drakes even more pronounced beneath their own yellowish glows and sparks. The soft whirring of gears grows louder, almost deafening in what only moments ago was a tense silence.


    Teuila, always one to leap headlong boldly into combat, lunges forward, her movements a blur. With a powerful swing of Mjolnir, she smashes into the nearest mecha-drake, sending it crashing into a wall. She flashes a cheeky blushing grin apologetically my way for the noise and the vibration of the impact, the sort of nervous laugh you¡¯d share when you realized it was your fault something went awry. The impact is so forceful that the bot crumples like a tin can, but as Lil warned, a soft glow emanates from somewhere within the scrap-heap, likely its core, and it begins to slowly reform.


    Lil, not to be outdone, unleashes a torrent of flames towards a pair of gargoyles. The stone creatures, despite their elemental affinity, are caught off guard. Their stony exteriors crack and splinter under the intense heat, but they''re not down for the count, far from it. From the cracks, arcs of electricity blast forth haphazardly, most of which leap towards Lil.


    Oh no, that¡¯s not happening. Out of the three of us, Lil¡¯s the only one who doesn¡¯t yet have some sort of storm powers, or storm resistance, or lightning or electric resist. I quickly pull a QCR number four, drawing all loose electricity in the room to me with the curse on my leg-guards. I push back against the influx of current with my weakened electrokinetic EM-field organ, but I can''t keep it up for long, and even with my high resistance, I¡¯d rather not take all the punishment coming my way. This new body of mine doesn¡¯t have the same¡ª. This new body of mine. Grinning almost evilly, I use my Quick-Change Ring to swap out of the cursed greaves, back to my glacial greaves.


    Feeling for the Fel, I snatch power from some archdevil of cold, the pure, unyielding nature of ice. It¡¯s a force of survival, of return. Melt the ice, even evaporate the water, eventually it freezes again. Hell, in an entropic system, everything eventually freezes. Talk about the perfect symbolism for a Reggie Shellcracker whose new fiendish blue body was crafted of reincarnation magic. Someone who has on several occasions, entombed themselves in a block of ice for their own survival. Smirking, I try to shake free my slightly self-absorbed thought-train, and focus on the battle.


    Smoothing out the ground before me by freezing it, I slide low along the now-slick surface, performing something of a limbo under one of the gargoyle dogs. On my way beneath it, I unleash a flurry of jabs to the underside of its torso, each laced simultaneously with frost, and electricity. The electricity is mostly to enhance my muscle acceleration, delivering more force from the meager kinetics of my smaller form, but the ice has the desired effect. Where Lil¡¯s fire was able to over-harden, and rend several cracks in the hides of these creatures, my Frost-Burn Fist, my FBF style SIPs sheer and shatter fist-sized chunks out of them in rapid order. I can actually use my thick, tapered, fleshy tail to propel myself back to a fully standing position from my near-limbo skating glide, a fun little trait of my new body.


    My friends realize I¡¯ve got the gargoyles handled now that I¡¯m back in my element, literally back in my element, the first one I¡¯d ever displayed on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Drawing on the frigid nature of my gelid greaves, and my connection to some unknown Fel force, I skate about, causing the gargoyle guard dogs to slip on the ice-slicked sections of floor I leave in my wake. I steal bits of energy and electricity pouring out of wounds in the gargoyle guard dogs, using it to fuel my muscles, my reactions, my acceleration, helping rejuvenate, or rather build up for the first time, my new electrokinetic EM-field organ. The lightning spirits within me, well, the spirit-swarm within me, crackles and tingles, pleased at either the combat, or the influx of electricity, or perhaps the nature of electricity flowing in, and out, cyclically like a circuit.


    Teuila flashes a proud smile my way, seeing me confidently back in action. Knowing she doesn¡¯t have to worry about me, she focuses on her own fight, her eyes scanning her foes for signs of the mecha-drakes'' power sources. With a swift motion, she lobs Mjolnir towards another bot. The hammer crashes into the side of it, smashing through its exterior and ejecting a glowing orb, rending the bot''s shell and propelling its power orb through the air to burst against the far wall. With its core destroyed, the bot''s frame goes limp and topples.


    Lil, using his immense strength, augmented by Megingjord, grapples with one of the gargoyle guard dogs, his claws digging into its stone flesh. With a mighty heave, he rolls and hurls the gargoyle into one of the mecha-drakes, crumpling the robot. The damage ends up revealing its dragonforce-infused core somewhere in the pile of flattened scrap, visible to Lil¡¯s eagle-eyed analysis-skill augmented by his invisible goggles. Before it can rebuild itself, Lil, seizing the moment, snaps his maw shut around the core shattering it between his teeth. The sparks of the core fizzle out as the gargoyle guard dog shakes its head, staggering to its feet as it recovers from the impact of Lil¡¯s throw.


    The fight¡¯s going our way, it¡¯s even a good chance to practice with my renewed connection to frost and ice magics. Still, the gargoyle guard dogs, and mecha-drakes are relentless. They just keep coming, and for every one we take down it¡¯s like the walls themselves spit out and build two more in their place. Grumbling, I¡¯m about to suggest we do something a bit reckless, that might draw attention from the horde of eight to twelve thousand foes above and around us. As I¡¯m contemplating making this suggestion, Teuila plunges Essie, her sentient Lucerne hammer known as Requiem, the Silent Song into the wall. Te¡¯s thrust is so forceful that she leaves Essie buried deep, anchoring her firmly within the masonry.


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    I¡¯m grinning with pride at Teuila as she winks at me. She mouths the word, ¡°Subtlety,¡± teasing me for my earlier lack of faith in her. I forgot the training she¡¯d done with Iylynila both on isolating the vibrations of her impacts, as well as simply utilizing Essie¡¯s silence aura to keep from bothering other people with her sonic booms. Still, that silence aura only covers a small portion of the room. Thankfully, Teuila does something I hadn¡¯t really seen her do yet. Te physically manifests her Lunar Dragon Honoris Causa. Invoking both Essie¡¯s silence aura, and her Lunar Dragon form, our battle is suddenly as quiet as the depths of space, where no one can hear you scream.


    Now that Teuila no longer needs to hold back, for fear of alerting the horde to our presence, seeing her go wild with her manifested Honoris Causa is, well, a sight to behold. Te¡¯s muscles ripple beneath the surface of her skin, each movement defined and precise, like those of an Olympic swimmer, or, heh, an otter, cutting through water. But it''s not water she''s slicing through, it''s the very fabric of reality. The semi-translucent dragon that emerges is a masterpiece of pearlescent off-white scales that seem to absorb the scant, flickering sparks of light in the room and refract it into a soft glow, like moonlight distilled into solid form.


    The sleekness of Te¡¯s muscles isn''t lost in this larger, more imposing form. If anything, it''s accentuated. The power in her limbs is evident in her readily-coiled stance. Her wings, vast and membranous, unfurl with a grace that belies their strength, each movement sending ripples through the air that I swear send our foes skidding back along the icy patches of floor I¡¯d left behind.


    I find myself momentarily lost in the details¡ªthe way the edges of her scales catch and refract the electric sparks, our only light in this room save when Lil is breathing fire, or the almost imperceptible twitch of any singular one of her muscles ready to spring into action. No wonder Veril was talking about how attractive he found Farzhis¡¯s neck to be in her dragon form, or other aspects around her neck, wings, and cranium. The elegant curve of Te¡¯s neck is simultaneously beautiful and powerful.


    And yet, despite the grandeur, right in the center of this partially translucent, partially intangible form is My Wings, Teuila. This is still Te, just with a bit more¡ª scale. I mentally facepalm and chuckle at myself for the accidental wordplay. Her Honoris Causa¡¯s eyes, like her own, still sparkle with that same mischievous glint I know all too well. It''s a strange comfort, seeing the entirety of Teuila¡¯s essence encapsulated by her draconic form.


    Still shaking my head slightly, chuckling under my breath, I muse to myself. "If only our Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian family could see her now, they''d be green with envy¡ªor maybe just green, considering the company I keep."


    With Teuila and Lil being able to both go all out, the battle is over in a flash. The entire room and all its walls are pretty much demolished. It wrapped up quicker than I thought it might, leaving me with the responsibility of trying to map out the newest, best path in retrocognition. I notice Teuila sheathing Mjolnir and Essie, sticking her tongue out at me, reminding me how I¡¯d called her unsubtle as I¡¯m drifting into a moment between moments. She¡¯s rescinding her Honoris Causa as she approaches, but still partially clad in her draconic form as I enter the non. The lack of the flow of time.


    Something is different in my mindscape, and I wonder how much of it has to do with being in the vicinity of Teuila¡¯s Lunar Dragon Honoris Causa. Grunting, I¡¯m met with images, flashes, a battlefield that I¡¯m not familiar with. The images are inside of a storming cavern, filled with glittering gems and coins, treasure. I can hazard a guess that it¡¯s probably Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s lair deep within Stormheart Keep, or whatever this place is called again. I suddenly feel empty, void of nourishment, hungrier than I¡¯ve ever felt. The irony is not lost on me that it feels like a void is tearing apart my insides, starting with my stomach eating itself.


    Then a worse pain hits. I see our battle ending victoriously, but there¡¯s a blip, a skip in the vision. It¡¯s the type of thing you see in a movie when a hacker implants a false camera feed to fool the security guards. First there¡¯s that blip, then the camera, the viewing angle of the images pans and turns, and it focuses on Teuila. It focuses on her body laying on the ground, charred, like a lightning-fried corpse in the moments before derezzing.


    I can¡¯t bear the imagery, so I retreat from the non, the lack of the flow of time to the ordinary timestream. Even as I¡¯m leaving, I¡¯m beset upon by yet another image, Teuila laying, looking like a corpse, on a barren, lifeless, cold hunk of rock, somewhere alone in the dark. Panting heavily, I slump to the ground, exhaustion threatening to pull me under. Teuila and Lil rush to my side, their faces etched with concern.


    "Reggie, are you okay?" Teuila asks, her voice filled with worry. Lil echoes the sentiment asking, ¡°Yeah Rej pal, you okay?¡±


    I refuse to believe what I saw when attempting retrocognition, though somehow the hunger I¡¯d gained within remains. I manage a weak smile, nodding. "Yeah, just hungry, drained, starving even. But good job Te, really good job. You too Lil, buddy. I saw something that freaked me out in retrocognition too, but it doesn¡¯t make sense, so I¡¯m going to ignore it. It was Te derezzing, but it¡¯s just not going to happen. I¡¯m positive. Maybe it was a warning for if we do something that diverts from the primary timeline up ahead.¡±


    When my inner circle members raise their eyebrows, I explain, ¡°I¡¯m guessing that means there¡¯s a choice coming up where we¡¯ll be given an opportunity to act uncharacteristically or something. The only problem is, is the warning for if we act as we usually would, or if we take the option we usually wouldn¡¯t? I hate prophecies. Friggin¡¯ useless pieces of crap."


    Lil suddenly appears stricken, conflicted. Sighing, I close my eyes and shake my head, apologizing, ¡°No, I know, I know. Lu¡¯s been prophetic, Aymeshtu was a prophet before we came to the Onyx Dawn, I don¡¯t really hate prophecies. I just hate prophecies about my loved ones dying without enough info on how to change it. Y¡¯know? Anyway, let¡¯s scarf down some grub and hit the road. Also.¡±


    I pause, flashing a faux-serious glance with a partially furrowed, partially raised brow, hinting at the teasing nature of what I¡¯m about to say, ¡°I think you should lead with that last move next time Te,¡± remarking on how she used a combination of abilities to make our fight silent, after we¡¯d already been fighting for several minutes.


    When Te realizes I¡¯m teasing her, I have to try to dodge her hands as she initiates an SFSF, a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight. I continue dodging while simultaneously digging food out of my hyperdimensional haversack. We¡¯re both giggling immaturely while eating as I chase her hands away from my face one after the other. Even while eating she manages to continuously return the other hand to my face any time I chase one away. Lil rolls his eyes nearby, but chuckles anyway while scarfing down a plate of food himself.

 B 6 C 176: Save Rock

    Huh, my senses are telling me to expect something soon, something clich¨¦, but they aren¡¯t zeroing in specifically on what. Lil, Te, and I dust ourselves off and continue our stealthy infiltration mission after taking only a few seconds to eat. I¡¯m worried more by the moment that someone¡¯s going to realize we¡¯re not behind those giant blocks of titanwood back up on the first floor. Once they do, how long will it be before they decide to search deeper in the fortress? Even if normally they wouldn¡¯t be allowed down to these floors, a horde of thousands strong bearing down on us, spreading out and searching the fortress is bound to figure out we might be down here.


    I wonder if I should set some more titanwood blocks up along the path we¡¯d come up. Was my prophetic warning telling me to do that? Or maybe to not do that. Maybe if Teuila gets cocky because we don¡¯t have the horde breathing down our throat, she acts rash and makes a move she normally wouldn¡¯t? Friggin¡¯ hell, stupid prophecies! Sighing, I roll my eyes and grumble quietly to myself, trying not to laugh in a hysterically nervous manner. Glancing over at Teuila, she seems undisturbed by the nature of my vision, which, yeah, being Teuila, makes sense. Lil seems slightly more unnerved by the possibility that his ¡°It¡¯s-A-Secret¡± could derez shortly after facing Al¡¯pa¡¯ca. You and me both Lil buddy, you and me both.


    When Teuila asks, ¡°Guys, don¡¯t you think this is going a little too well?¡± My heart sinks as I facepalm. There it is. The clich¨¦ that was coming.


    While Lil and Te see nothing wrong with the innocent question, and should honestly be questioning the ease with which our plan has been succeeding, I groan. The moment Teuila voiced her doubts, musing on our smooth progress, a chill ran down my spine, and my pulse quickened. Yup, there it is alright, the red flag, the harbinger, the trope, the metaphorical other shoe that drops. Like a cold splash of water, I feel a knot tighten in my stomach as a cascade of alarms runs through my cranium, escalating the sonorous klaxon of my genre senses to a deafening crescendo.


    Dragging my palm down my face, I tease Teuila as I quip, ¡°Te, do you have absolutely no sense of foreboding whatsoever?¡±


    My best pal, my buddy, Lil, starts, ¡°Hey pal, no worries, we¡¯ve got everything¡ª,¡±


    I interrupt him, my eyes wide in terror as I clasp the sides of my face, pleading, ¡°Are you kidding? Please tell me you were not about to finish that sentence the way I think you were.¡±


    When Lil casts aside his gaze, and his expression droops, his face looks dejected, and I feel awful for chastising him. Even Teuila seems a bit put off by my outburst, so I apologize, ¡°Sorry guys, genre senses, those phrases get people killed. Never comment on how easy a job is before it¡¯s done, and never claim you have everything under control until it¡¯s so finished that it couldn¡¯t possibly ever become an issue again.¡±


    When a hissing sound reaches my ears, I¡¯m worried we¡¯ve got either a serpent to deal with, or Lil is being gassy, neither of which would be pleasant. Then it hits me, firstly, Lil is Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, he can¡¯t get gassy in that way. That¡¯s because he doesn¡¯t have a butt, none of us do. The hissing is a caustic, likely toxic, definitely explosive, gas, and it¡¯s leaking from a ruptured pipe somewhere within the demolished walls of the mecha-drake auto-building room. That explosive gas is leaking into a fortress full of sparks, lightning, electricity, and the occasional open flame from somebody like Lil. Te and Lil both know better than to joke around and goof off now that they¡¯ve noticed the same sound.


    Motioning for Lil and Te to hurry, I plot our path avoiding as many magical auras and traps as I can. If we¡¯re lucky, we might be able to put enough distance between us and the explosion before it occurs that we can still proceed as planned. If we¡¯re really lucky, the gas will go inert as it mixes with oxygen, and not explode at all. After Lil¡¯s and Teuila¡¯s statements though, I¡¯m not feeling all that lucky. Speaking of, now I¡¯m thinking about my son. Checking my goggles, the security center mirror with Lucky¡¯s view on it seems to be doing well. He¡¯s watching Pidge and Trixxie. Hm, thinking of those two now, I see someone¡¯s got goggles aimed towards Shiz and Zelshiz as they work together in the forgeworks for some reason, on some project or another.


    Suddenly a pang of guilt hits me. I¡¯m stuck gripping my chest as I think about the fact that I could be checking in on nearly everyone, nearly every minute of every day, and I haven¡¯t been. Then Kinzul and Luni¡¯s conversation echoes in my mind. There is always danger, and never an end to it, but there is an end to me. I only have so many frayed mental threads to assign to monitoring and checking in on allies or assimilating information, or calculating odds in battle, or any number of things my mind is constantly doing. Still, I glance at the scrying output from the security center to my goggles, and I notice Lucky¡¯s view with Trixxie and Pidge hovering near Alanea in the infirmary as she looks after everyone. She¡¯s caring for Kagired, and several of Zelshiz¡¯s injured Spellknights. The vision of Alanea, safe and aiding our allies warms my heart.


    Through the scrying sensors, I notice several unworn goggles focusing on Nala and Littlebit. That makes sense, as I¡¯d left them for Nala to work on setting their size-changing enchantments in place. Even though Nala appears intensely focused on her tinkering, she also looks the most amiable I¡¯ve ever seen her. Her resting angry face that always contained hints of longing, loss, and sorrow, could almost be confused for a happy expression at the moment, almost. Littlebit looks downright overjoyed, and seems to be rambling a mile a minute, though I can¡¯t hear what she¡¯s saying.


    Only somewhat surprisingly, I spy Iylynila standing near the pair of tinkerers, working with the spellsheets, the spellwrought paper, attempting to work literal magic with limited resources. Sighing, I nod slowly to myself, attempting to pull back from my reverie and focus on the present, in my current location.


    My present, in the current location though? I might as well be sitting in a gray cubicle. The gray monotony is broken only by the occasional flicker of lightning, captured and channeled through crystalline conduits embedded in the stone, and even those are sparsely placed, likely buried within the tunnel walls for the most part. Plus, if it weren¡¯t for our additional senses, these endlessly monotonous corridors would be a labyrinth of sameness. But it''s not just the layout that''s oppressive, it''s the conformity.


    I mean, Can¡¯Z¡¯aas was one thing, and Solace is kind of bad about being samey samey, but here it¡¯s just awful. There¡¯s this unrelenting uniformity of gray stone, lifeless in the way it seems to absorb sound and hope. I¡¯m really not one to speak on interior design, especially since my own hoard room, my vault is just a gray box with some glow lichen in the corners, and a mass of unsorted random trinkets and wealth and crap. But even I find myself longing for a splash of color, a patch of glow-lichen, anything to break up the monotony. But Al''pa''ca''s lair is probably like his own heart, devoid of such simple joys as even a smattering color. Yeesh.


    As we reach an intersection, the path ahead forks, leading deeper into our archmage foe¡¯s domain. To the right, a wider passage, the air within it vibrating with the hum of machinery and the scent of ozone. To the left, a narrow tunnel, its entrance framed by jagged stone teeth. The left path, this narrow passage that seems to leer with a stony grin, its entrance is an unsettling echo of a memory I''d rather leave buried. I hesitate, a chill tracing the ridge of my spine¡ªnot from the cool subterranean air, but from the ghost of Day One that seems to walk back and forth over my grave repeatedly.


    The sight of the jagged stone teeth framing the tunnel''s maw sets dagger-like claws sinking into me and gripping my heart with a building terror, a primal alarm that sets my heart to racing. Frick. Crap. I¡¯d better let the panic attack happen here, where we¡¯re relatively safe, or at least not mid-combat, rather than trying to bottle it up.


    I can feel the familiar onset of dread, the edges of my vision narrowing, tunneling. I¡¯m grasping at the straws of my sanity as I¡¯m confronted by the full horror of the memory. The tinnitus that usually hums quietly in the background now roars to the forefront, a deafening cacophony drowning out nearly all else. This left path, it just had to be a grimacing gape in the earth''s flesh, didn¡¯t it? It¡¯s like it¡¯s already gnawing, pulling at my composure¡¯s frayed edges. Hah, Reggie Shellcracker, composed? As if. I try to use self-deprecating humor, I try to fight the terror, the panic rising within me. It doesn¡¯t end it though. At most I bought myself a few split seconds while it continued to build.


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    Of course My Wings and My Heart instantly react, rushing to find the appropriate distance from me, whether I need nearness, or space. They can both tell that nearness will do me better than the space at the moment. Despite their speedy reactions, despite Teuila having almost literal super speed, it¡¯s like they¡¯re moving in slow motion as Lil and Te turn towards me. My terror has me experiencing every instant drawn out into an eternity, contemplating the horror that drags me under, beneath my own psyche.


    The sight of the jagged stone teeth, a grotesque mockery of a fanged maw, sends shivers down my spine. Day One, it had to remind me of Day One. I can feel the onset of the nightmare, the world narrowing to a single point of terror as my vision tunnels to the width of a pinprick. My heart¡¯s drumming, hammering in panic, each thud echoing in my ears, louder than the hiss of escaping gas that I¡¯d noted a few hallways back. The tinnitus crescendos as I clutch at my chest, gasping, my jaw locking painfully back and to the side, my face etched with the terror taking over my brain. My breath is hitching, stuttering, refusing to obey me, so I can¡¯t even try to focus on deep breathing.


    Great, now the jagged bolts of lightning in the conduits twist and writhe like grinding jaws. The tunnel is no longer just a tunnel¡ªit''s a gauntlet of gaping maws, each one ready to swallow me whole, to chew and spit me out like my worst, feverish nightmares. Everything that could, couldn¡¯t, should, shouldn¡¯t, would, or wouldn¡¯t, be able to be a gaping maw suddenly is. The hallucinations grip me, a vivid terror augmenting my reality.


    I''m vaguely aware of Te speaking soothing, comforting sounds, words probably, and Lil''s voice, distant and distorted, as if through water. My companions are close, but they feel miles away. I''m slipping, falling back into the abyss, the cavernous maws that opened beneath me on Day One. Then, suddenly, the world explodes.


    The hissing gas from the mecha-drake room must have found a spark, and the resulting blast rocks the very foundation of the keep. The shockwave slams into me, a physical force that shatters the illusionary teeth encroaching upon my sanity, as well as the physical stalactites and rough edges of the tunnel ahead. The roar of the explosion drowns out my pounding heartbeat, and screaming tinnitus, grounding me back into brutal reality. I was saved from deeper trauma by being rocked out of my panicked stupor.


    I''m on the ground, the cold stone against my cheek a stark contrast to the heat of the blast. My ears are still ringing with the aftermath, certainly a familiar sound by this point in my life. But it''s a different tone, temporary, short-lived. I draw in a ragged breath, the air tasting of dust and sickeningly diffused chemicals spread by the blast.


    Te is here, her hand on my shoulder, grounding me, my rock at times like these, despite Luni being My-Anchor specifically, and Teuila being My-Wings. The concern, the love, in those eyes¡ª twin emeralds, deep and comforting as the verdant sanctuary of a glade hidden by spring¡¯s first leaves, is a lifeline. I clutch at it, pulling myself back from the brink with her help. Her and Lil both. My Heart, my best buddy Lil has his wings about me, about Te and I, like a shield, an aegis, despite my near thermal immunity. The gesture itself is love, kindness, self-sacrifice, it¡¯s all the best parts of Lil.


    Te and Lil are huddled over me, forming a protective circle, waiting for my recovery, despite the danger and urgency of our situation that now, more than ever, requires us to be hasty. The thousands of foes above us, Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s hordes will have heard or felt the blast. And, unless he¡¯s regularly rocking his fortress with explosions, I¡¯m guessing they¡¯ll bet we¡¯re the cause, and be after us in short order.


    The explosion has cleared more than just the hallucinations, funnily enough. I have to roll my eyes at how so simple a thing as clearing some stalactites can help against my panic triggers. The left tunnel, once a mouth of madness, is now just a passage. With my heart still pounding, but now in my chest where it belongs, I push myself to my feet. Huh. The rocks being rocked by that rocking really rocked. Hehe. I mean, the stalactites being knocked down by the explosion is awesome, obviously. You can be such a dink sometimes Reggie. I know, I know.


    My breath catches, a hitch that I consciously smooth into a slow, deliberate rhythm. In, and out, breathe Air, breathe. I anchor myself to the moment, to the solidity of the ground beneath my feet, to the presence of my SAP, My-Wings, and My-Heart at my side. Lil''s concerned gaze meets mine, a silent question that I answer with a subtle shake of my head. Not now. Not here. We can¡¯t afford another break now, even though our last one only lasted the few seconds it takes Can¡¯Z¡¯aasians to eat food. I focus on the details of the here and now¡ªthe coolness of the air, with its new chemical tang, the distant hum of machinery, the faint scent of ozone, a sign of lightning unrestrained.


    I pause, taking a moment to center myself. The stone beneath my feet is cold, unyielding. The air is thick with the tang of metal and the sharp, clean smell of lightning, now dirtied by the scent of whatever chemical got spread by the explosion. It had been a sterile scent, now it¡¯s almost sickeningly sweet, probably something my allies should avoid inhaling. My neckchain of the ever-breathing keeps it from being problematic for me, but I don¡¯t want their lungs to rot, or anything else like that.


    Sighing and running my hand through my hair, I accidentally end up stroking my left horn, having forgotten it existed. Those are still taking some getting used-to. After puffing out a lungful of air, I groan and suggest, ¡°Come on guys, we¡¯ve got a dragon to face, and we¡¯re going to have his hordes breathing down our necks any minute now.¡±


    Of course my best buddy¡¯s reply is supportive yet succinct, ¡°Sure thing pal.¡±


    My-Wings¡¯ reply is tinged with surprising solemnity, ¡°My Airhead, the very Air that I breathe, I wish we could get rid of those for you, forever. We were all sure they¡¯d get you killed one day, and they did. I¡ª. Huff, anyway, you¡¯re right, let¡¯s go kick some evil dragon archmage Alpacker ass.¡±


    Flashing Teuila a sad smile, knowing how she struggles with her literal ocean of emotions in her mindscape, I nod as I respond, ¡°I know Te, I know. Yeah, let¡¯s go win this thing.¡±


    With each step into the tunnel, I feel the walls pressing closer, the shadows stretching to meet us. I keep my gaze fixed ahead, avoiding the peripheral visions that threaten to coalesce into the nightmarish jaws of my dreams. I continue passing breaths through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, puffing one phooph after another. The ground beneath us is uneven, rough-hewn, but still relatively easy to traverse.


    The tunnel begins to descend, the air growing denser, heavier. I can almost literally feel the weight of the mountain above us with my telekinetic senses. As we move deeper, the passage opens up, granting us a brief respite from the claustrophobic grip of the tunnel. Here, the stone is less menacing, worn smooth by time and the passage of countless feet, an unsettling hint that Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s forces may have a path down ahead of us, which could destroy our chances at infiltration. The flicker of lightning from the crystalline conduits casts a soothing rhythm of light and shadow, a counterpoint to the earlier pounding of my heart, a reminder of my Latent, Nothing. The Void, the darkness, those soothing moments in the dead of night, when all is calm, embraced by those you love.


    What was it Laomati once told me? Despite whatever fire and fury may come, I¡¯m the soothing, cooling shadow my family will rally under? Something like that. That was oddly a lot more prophetic than I¡¯d realized for quite a long time. Hell, even just the Night of All Burn, the lava was plenty of fire and fury, burning everything we loved. And it was going to stay that way, if I hadn¡¯t freed Vesuviform, and turned into my fourth evolutionary stage as a giant kaiju, and absorbed all that mana from all those human mages attacking me, to cast my Black Ice Limit Break finisher. Huh. Even that singular event was pretty much exactly what she¡¯d said as I cooled and darkened dozens, maybe hundreds of square miles of lava. Yet it continues to ring true, more and more as I embrace my Latent, Nothing.


    Sighing, I shake my head and blink back tears. I¡¯ve been thinking more and more about the family we left behind when we¡¯d died on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It wasn¡¯t all that long ago when looking down over the Worldstorm that I¡¯d thought about Laomati crying. I can still picture the constellations of tears on her lashes. That was before we¡¯d ever even suffered when the lava burned everything we loved, let alone when the gods themselves threatened to burn even the ashes. I could really use one of Luni¡¯s songs right now, here in the dark. She somehow always knows the right thing to sing, the right thing to say, the right thing to play. No matter what I did in dark moments like these. Everything collided, one moment to the next, one life to the next even. Still, even just thinking about Luni, My-Anchor, helps.


    I take a deep breath, letting the cool air fill my lungs, feeling the steadiness return to my pulse. The tinnitus recedes, a change I¡¯m quite grateful for. Between breathing deeply, mental coping mechanisms, and my SAP, my Shellcracker Adventuring Party teammates, the inner circle, I¡¯m able to work towards calming down from the panic attack. I¡¯m here, I¡¯m with Lil and Te. I¡¯m in the now, and I am Reggie Shellcracker, Schism, the Void Dragon Honoris Causa.

 B 6 C 177: And Roll Out of the Skillet

    As we delve into the Keep''s labyrinthine depths, the air subtly changes¡ªa gradual thinning, as though the Keep''s essence is being siphoned away. Abruptly, a dense gray mist engulfs us, billowing from the walls and ground as if exhaled by the stone itself.


    "Guys, do you see this?" I whisper, my words nearly swallowed by the thick fog. I follow up, addressing a plea to the fog, "Please don¡¯t be what I think you are."


    Not up for more prophecies at the moment, I¡¯m trying to remain respectful as I expect a psychic Sister to pop up any moment now. We were, and are on good terms, and I¡¯d rather not change that by accidentally lashing out due to my own snark or unsettledness. Even shielded by my psionic aegis circlet, I bet there are ways they could hear my thoughts, maybe reading a log of them from the future or the story written on the heart of my inner changeling self. Before anyone can answer, a voice wafts through the mist, uncanny and otherworldly, "Our young Nothing, friend of the Mists, the echo of Rayileklia''s heartbeat, its pulse, begins to fade in our ears, in too soon a time we hear a silence that follows the storm."


    The mist pulses with the cadence of the voice, and a figure materializes before us, well, me, as I¡¯m cut off from my allies in a field of fog, once again. Just like the last time I was visited by a Sister Hidden In the Mist, I don¡¯t see my allies, and they probably can¡¯t see or hear me, nor hear her, even if they can see her. She¡¯s draped in the same gray as the fog, her features obscured, though vaguely feminine, as usual. She extends a hand, and though I can''t see her eyes, I feel her gaze upon me.


    Her voice echoes and rolls in the mist, "Hero, Reggie, friend, your destiny has always aligned with the prime path, and yet yours and it converge upon a precipice from which there is no continuance, and no path of return."


    The figure''s form ripples as if in pain, and the voice continues, "The heart of the storm beats with a fury that will soon be silenced. The echo of its wrath will be felt across the realm, the whole of Rayileklia.¡±


    A shudder runs through the apparition, and the mist around us thickens. "The threads of fate, friend Reggie, Hero, Void Dragon, grow taut and fray at the edges. Even as we stand upon the primary thread, even as we weave and mend, Rayileklia''s tapestry yet unravels."


    With a final convulsion, the figure seems to unravel, the mist swallowing them whole, a final warning uttered, "The loom of time grinds towards a halt, its weft and warp untangling, the pattern of the prime path unwinds, leaving Rayileklia bereft of a tomorrow at a date all too near." leaving behind a silence that¡¯s almost deafening. The fog recedes as quickly as it came, the energy from the walls flickering and then stabilizing once more.


    Teuila breaks the silence, "Did¡ª, did a spooky sexy Sister speak to you again Airhead? Why could I see her but not you, and not hear her? Again! I thought they liked me. We kinda had a thing going.¡±


    Despite the seriousness of the matter, I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh as Teuila references snogging the faceless sisters with their terrifying featureless forms. Lil snorts a laugh along with me before he starts chortling at Teuila¡¯s implication. And that¡¯s despite him not even knowing the full context of Teuila¡¯s attempts to smooch the Sisters for ¡°novel experiences¡± as they called them. The time we spent in the Sisters Hidden In the Mists¡¯ compound, seemingly outside of Rayileklia¡¯s primary plane, was certainly eventful.


    My features droop as my muscles sag, recalling Dawn. We lost her there. I failed her there. Magic, the curse unmade her, nearly stealing even her memory from us. I still don¡¯t know anything that could have cured her. I haven¡¯t stopped looking, always cataloging new powers and abilities, always the thought of her somewhere in the back of my mind, wondering if something new that I learn could have saved her. It¡¯s not like I¡¯ll ever stop looking, just in case I can somehow create a divergent timeline or something in the future that then rejoins the primary timeline, just with me having saved Dawn somehow.


    Wait¡ª. Wait. No. Could¡ª? No. Right? There¡¯s no way. What if I already did? No. That doesn¡¯t make any sense. Dawn is gone. I saw her disintegrating, dusted, even her atoms demolished. I¡¯d only managed to snag about three atoms of her soul itself, to prevent the curse from taking that, and our memories of her.


    Poking me in the forehead, Te mutters, ¡°Hey, Airhead, earth to Airhead, you got all sad before telling us what she said. What¡¯d she say that got your face all screwy? Come on, you already had a prophecy of me dying today, it can¡¯t be much worse than that for your emotions.¡±


    Shaking my head quickly, sniffling, blinking back tears from thinking about our friend Dawn, I don¡¯t need to burden Teuila with that sadness. Seeing a sister might remind her of Dawn on her own anyway. So instead I motion for us to resume walking, which gets us back in on track.


    An instant later, since we¡¯re on the move, I answer, ¡°Oh, right, sorry, just more apocalyptic sounding prophecies, though she mentioned a storm a couple of times, so, I mean, if we kick Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s ass, and stop him from wresting control of the Worldstorm from Kinzul, we¡¯re gold I think. Right? Why would they risk dying to contact me to tell us to do what we¡¯re already doing though? Plus, they¡¯ve always been deliberate, and exceedingly intentional with their word choices. Though, again that circles back around to¡ª.¡±


    My Wings, Teuila,  pauses her descent down the tunnel momentarily to cross her arms and tap her foot, raising an eyebrow towards me, and I realize I¡¯d been literally about to talk myself in logic circles as she asks, ¡°Are you going to be done figuring out that prophecy before or after the horde catches up to us Airhead? Maybe put it on the back burner. Yeah? Come on Air. Reggie. She¡ª, she didn¡¯t say anything too bad, did she? What exactly did she say?¡±


    Perking up as his curiosity is piqued, we all continue our downward journey as Lil quips, ¡°Yeah Rej, what¡¯d she say pal? Give me something to think about other than how boring these gray tunnels are, and how much I want to kick Alpacker¡¯s ass just for making me walk down ¡®em.¡±


    Both Teuila and I snort a laugh, roll our eyes and shake our heads incredulously at Lil, but I oblige my beloved Heart and My-Wings as best I¡¯m able, ¡°Okay, without writing it down, it was something like, uh, my destiny, and the path of the prime timeline are both about to like, come to a precipice, or hurtle over its edge or something, somewhere with no path forward, and no path back. Then also uh, something about an echo once or twice, like a pulse echoes in their ears for Rayileklia¡¯s prime timeline, but that it¡¯s going to cut out soon, them no longer able to hear it. Hm, a heart or pulse was mentioned a couple times too, though one was like, the heart of the storm, which is why I was thinking the storm stuff might fix everything. Uh, sorry, I¡¯ll try to be verbatim as best I can.¡±


    Taking a minuscule momentary break from rambling, I attempt to retrocognitively recall the Sister¡¯s exact phrasing. I dive into the non, the absence, the lack of the flow of time, and take a brief pause in my mindscape, pulling up iterations of what she might have said, until I get the exact wording. This would be so much easier if we still had access to our Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian mental logs, or if any of the three of us could read my heart¡¯s story within my Inner Changeling Self. Grumbling, I suppose I could get Alanea to take a look at that when we get home, since she¡¯s the only Changeling Fae I know, and she knows how to read our stories. Bud knew as well, after a time. Sighing, I try not to get bogged down worrying about Bud. He¡¯s at home in the Hidden Heart, recovering finally, after months of journeying with me with no hope of recovery.


    Rattling my skull, or the skull of my mental avatar in my time-paused mindscape anyway, I return to focusing on recalling the Sister¡¯s words. Huffing, I spend what feels like hours pulling and sifting through phrasing and wordings, despite no time passing in the rest of reality. Right, alright, this is about as perfect as I can get it right now, and my genre senses say that other than maybe some spelling, maybe some punctuation, and some capitalization, which I couldn¡¯t have heard phonetically anyway, this is about ninety eight or so percent exactly what was said to me. Time to let go of the flow of time, to slip back from the non, rejoin reality, and gorrammit, try to remember gravity exists. Good thing I¡¯ve got the wyverium chestplate, and my four telekinetic grips. I¡¯m such a klutz sometimes.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Deciding jokingly that walking¡¯s for suckers, that I may as well save every bit of energy and every calorie I can for the battle ahead, I hop on my TK surfboard, drawing Teuila to me, and I provide a lift for Lil as well. Lil shrinks only partially, in order to use his, and his bulk still requires multiple squares, my TK grips. Since there¡¯re no psychic spells, spellcasters, or traps nearby, I take off my psionic aegis circlet that blocks psychic energies, so I can visit Te and Lil in our shared mindscape.


    I actually catch them doing something I¡¯ve usually either tuned out, or always missed out on, because it¡¯s the thing they do to privately bond with each other. It¡¯s Lil¡¯s ¡°It¡¯s-A-Secret¡± time with Te. I can¡¯t help rolling my eyes and shaking my head incredulously while smiling a mile wide, listening in on the two goobers while they pilot their telepathic avatars in our mindscape simultaneously as we continue our journey.


    It starts off simply enough, with Lil¡¯s avatar complaining, "If these tunnels were any more boring, they''d be a lecture on rock formations. And I''ve read about rocks. They don''t do much."


    Teuila¡¯s avatar¡¯s response is a tad snarky, just a bit teasing, "Well, if you paid attention, you''d know they last longer than dragon attention spans. Maybe you could learn a thing or two."


    Lil offers up, "I''d rather learn how to make these tunnels more exciting. Maybe with a race? I bet I could beat you to the next turn," and he had better be joking.


    Thankfully Te keeps him from rushing on ahead, though more incidentally than intentionally, "Only if I carry you. Remember, no loud dragon footsteps¡ªwe''re sneaking, remember? Or did that slip your mind like everything not Ixeyla?"


    At first Lil begins to retort, "Hey, I can be sneaky! I''m like a whisper on the wind, a silent,¡± but then my poor, goofy, lovestruck dragon pal¡¯s telepathic avatar makes googly eyes in our mindscape as Lil fawns over his red-dragon girlfriend, ¡°Mm hehe Ixey."


    Bringing Lil back to reality a little harshly, though endearingly so, Te quips, "A whisper on the wind that gets distracted by even the thought of his shiny new girlfriend. Keep it up, and I''ll start calling you ''Magpie'' instead of ''Dragon''. Or maybe Magbutt instead of Dragbutt."


    Rattling his skull, rousing from his lovestruck stupor, Lil seems smugly cheerful while responding, "Magpies are clever, I''ll take it. But I''m still a dragon. A clever, shiny-loving dragon. Speaking of shiny, how''s your armor so polished when we''re underground?"


    Honestly I¡¯d like to know the answer to Lil¡¯s question myself. I¡¯m pretty sure Luni has the soap stone. I really need to learn how to duplicate that magic item. Oh, wait, my prestidigitative legerdemain spell. Did Teuila somehow learn it? Or maybe one of the benefits of the Quick Change Rings is cleanliness. I don¡¯t look at my own garb often enough to take note of it. Rattling my skull, I continue to listen in.


    Teuila answers Lil¡¯s query, "It''s called maintenance, Lil. You should try it sometime instead of hoarding dirt like it''s gold," and she simultaneously manages a playful dig at his hygiene.


    Almost dejectedly, Lil childishly calls back, "Hey, dirt can be useful! You can grow things in it, hide things under it...¡± he trails off for a moment before concluding, ¡°lose your friends in it if you''re not careful."


    I¡¯m worried that this might start escalating when Teuila raises one eyebrow coolly, calmly towards Lil as she asks, "Is that a threat or a promise?¡± I¡¯m further worried when she adds an edge of hostility to her voice while stating, ¡°Because if you bury me, I''m taking you down with me. And I fight dirty."


    Lil seems chipper as ever as he responds with his forthright, sincere nature, "I wouldn''t dream of it. Who else would I have to tease?"


    Teuila seems mollified as she rolls her eyes before answering, "Just remember Dragbutt, no roars. We''re like shadows, deadly, silent shadows."


    Still playful in our mindscape, while I¡¯m maneuvering us along telekinetically, Lil nods solemnly, seemingly agreeing, "Got it. Silent as a,¡± until he interrupts himself to joke, ¡°Wait, did you hear that? Just kidding!"


    Rolling her eyes again, Teuila stifles a half chuckle as her mental avatar leaps at and tackles Lil¡¯s while she teasingly chastises, "One of these days, your ''just kidding'' will be a dragon-sized problem. And I''ll be the one saying ''I told you so.''"


    Laughing while wrestling across the grassy hill in our shared mindscape, Lil blows a raspberry before responding, "Until then, I''ll be the life of the party. Even if it''s a quiet, sneaky, shadowy party."


    Rolling her own mental avatar to throw Lil¡¯s, and rolling her eyes once more, Te grumbles, "Keep it up, and the next party will be a search party¡ªfor you. Now come on, let''s focus. Reggie¡¯s probably bored to tears without their psychic network on."


    Pouting, Lil acquiesces, "Fine, fine. But if we find a treasure room, I''m calling dibs on anything that Ixey might like."


    Snirking, y¡¯know, smirking with a half snorted laugh, Te starts an eyeroll but thinks better of it before agreeing, "Deal. But let''s focus on not becoming permanent residents down here first, okay?"


    When Lil nods I simply smile and set my circlet back on, as we¡¯re nearing an area with more magical traps. As much as I wish I could be a part of their teasing and banter, right now our mission is too important to risk all three of us simultaneously getting caught in any kind of psychic trap. Firstly, it¡¯s one of my few weaknesses in general, secondly, all of us are vulnerable to getting locked down by our brains, trapped in illusions, mentally dominated with control spells, and a whole lot more. It¡¯s too bad that the same principle that enables those spells, is what enables the psychic network, the telepathic bonds I¡¯ve put up on us. To be immune to those spells, I have to cut myself off from our bond, one of the favorite things I have in all of existence, the telepathic connection with my inner circle.


    While we continue downward, I do my best to use my additional senses to map the shortest, safest route for us towards where I sense all the lightning being funneled down to. As I¡¯m doing that, I recite aloud the Sister¡¯s words verbatim for Lil and Teuila¡¯s benefit. Or at least as close as I could guess to verbatim, with the skills I have. We all feel the pain in our chests as this prophecy reminds us of the fact that Kinzul is fated to die, for me to stand over her corpse someday, though I know not why. I couldn¡¯t have handled telling Lil about it. I¡¯m glad he¡¯s got Luni and Kinzul as well, and not just me for emotional support.


    When Lil¡¯s lower jaw quivers and his voice trembles out a single word, ¡°Momma,¡± it hangs in the air, a longing that¡¯s already prepared for the loss he knows he¡¯ll have to suffer one day.


    My heart aches and tears well in my eyes. I know Kinzul is my wife now, but she adopted my best friend first. Her love for him, his happiness that he found in her means worlds to me. Thinking about Kinzul brings my brain back around to the prophecy though. Kinzul could definitely be the heart of the storm. She¡¯s the Administrator, the originator and maintainer of the Worldstorm. She wouldn¡¯t unleash an echo of hatred or wrath though, not after fostering and nurturing mercy and kindness, even in me, even in my darkest moments, for all this time. There¡¯s no way she¡¯d put something in place that would bring about an armageddon after she died.


    Then again, I say, ¡°for all this time,¡± as if I¡¯ve known her forever, when I¡¯ve only been in the Spine of the World, Mount Solace specifically, for something like three weeks. I only met Kinzul the day she pretended to kidnap me and Teuila to save us from being food for Ka¡¯thuul and the Emerald Dawn order. My genre senses tell me that deeper cons have gone on longer. But this is Kinzul we¡¯re talking about. Ancient dragons, empathetic, whirlwinds-of-emotion ancient dragons feel the same way about her that I do, and they¡¯ve known her since maybe the dawn of Rayileklia for all I know.


    Anyway, huff, focus on the present Reggie. We¡¯re down another level, quite likely the last, or second to last level before whatever chamber Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s main sorcery takes place in. Or at least darn near. Hm, based on my senses, there should be an extra path off here to our left, but it looks like a wall. Testing it out by cautiously floating up to it, and sticking a dagger through where a wall appears to be, sure enough, it¡¯s an illusion. I knew we¡¯d find at least one of these in a place like this. I think there are also some rooms that seem to not have exits, that my three dimensional retrocognition say, floor-plan-wise, must have a secret exit into a neighboring hallway or neighboring dead end as well.


    So ol¡¯ Alpackers is packing tricks aplenty, hiding paths with fake, illusory walls, and making actual paths seem like dead ends. Clever, but not clever enough to stop us. I glance back at Teuila and Lil, who are both giving me that ''we''re ready for anything'' look. It''s a look I''ve come to rely on. It warms my heart, soothes my soul, and keeps me pushing forward.

 B 6 C 178: And Into the Fire

    I¡¯m still not doing great, despite Te and Lil helping anchor my thoughts in the now, preventing me from descending into self-doubt, self-loathing, and endless introspection. They¡¯re both perfection incarnate to someone like me, yet they can''t assist with the deluge of sensory data I''m sifting through, juggling, both in the immediacy of the moment and through retrocognitive analysis. They do definitely help in my coping with the anxious nature of everything going on, in, and through my mind right now at least.


    My fears, however, are rapidly gaining on us¡ªliterally. My thermal senses reveal at least four figures moving swiftly through the lower levels. While they¡¯re moving systematically behind us, their search is purposeful, patterned, methodical, and targeted. It''s a relief they''re not the full legion of eight to twelve thousand that could be swarming after us, but it''s troubling nonetheless.


    With a sigh and a furrowed brow, I pose the question, ¡°Guys, there¡¯s at least four enemies following us, or at least searching the bottom floors for us. What do you think the odds are better for? Heading back and taking them out so that they can¡¯t find and report on our position, or trying to outmaneuver them while continuing forward, hoping they don¡¯t catch up or catch on to where we are? If we go back to take ¡®em out, and one gets away, it¡¯ll have been worse than a waste of time, it¡¯ll be us screwing ourselves.¡±


    I should have expected Teuila bursting into laughter at my phrasing. I rest my cheek on my thumb, cradling my forehead with three fingers, shaking my head in disbelief. Lil''s snicker joins the chorus, resulting in me loosing a dry half-chuckle while continuing to shake my head. These two goons were not made for assassination missions, yeesh heh. No wonder I always stumbled into them alone before. Hah.


    Oof. Now I¡¯m depressed recalling how often I¡¯ve figuratively and literally fallen into situations or locations in which I had to assassinate a leader figure of some region. A patented Reggie Shellcracker accidental assassination attempt this is not. Thinking of those lonesome solo missions though, they¡¯re not exactly a highlight reel I want played to anyone if one were to sum up my life.


    After they¡¯ve had their brief laugh, their giggle fit, I wait for their amusement to subside. Shooting them a pointed look, I seek a serious response. Te crosses her right arm beneath her breast, rests her left elbow on her forearm, and cups her chin with her thumb, stroking it. The fact that she dons the classic thinker pose essentially is a bit endearing in and of itself, as Te gives the question thorough consideration. Lil sticks his tongue out derpily and gazes up-leftwards while contemplating. Despite only a few moments passing, and me not begrudging my beloved inner circle time to process or think, we¡¯re in more of a time crunch than ever, with that thorough, well-organized search party looming behind us.


    Hm, crap, I left out, or rather, didn¡¯t know or think of, some useful data. I need to make sure Te doesn''t underestimate our pursuers. Given that they''re moving unimpeded through the rooms¡ªjudging from the constant updates of their thermal signatures¡ªthey''re probably Spellknights or even archmages. They haven''t sprung any of the traps we''ve carefully avoided, which suggests they''re among Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s elite, branded, trusted, and likely very powerful minions.


    Before I can impress this upon Teuila, she crouches ever so slightly, leaning just noticeably forward. Pounding her right fist into her left palm, Te cracks her knuckles upon impact. As I¡¯d expected from Te, her eyes narrow in focus as she answers, ¡°Airhead, Reggie," she says with a steely edge, "if we take them out, we buy ourselves more time before we¡¯re doing a fighting retreat against thousands. Yeah? I can zip back, handle it, and catch up before you even notice I''m gone. We can''t have tails wagging behind us, not when we''re this close."


    Lil first casts a glance at his own wagging tail, and blushes. Recovering quickly, and shrugging his large draconic shoulders, Lil offers up, ¡°Maybe, but do you remember where all the traps are, It¡¯s-A-Secret? Yeah, me neither. Rej is the only one that can see ¡®em. There¡¯s like three big prophecies that might all happen today. One or two might be about Momma, but one or two might be about you. What if you going off on your own¡ª,¡± Lil pauses, his voice cracking. Despite their rivalry, each of us is so deeply enamored of the others that they¡¯re etched into our hearts and souls. Gulping, Lil finishes, ¡°What if that¡¯s the thing that triggers the one vision Rej had in their brain-time thing, when your dragon-causa thingy was manifested?¡±


    The weight of his words hits hard. Teuila''s silent, and her eyes slowly lift to lock with mine. I can see the ''oh crap'' written all over her face. Her usual bravado is replaced by a tangible sense of guilt. I clear my throat, the gravity of the situation settling in, the idea she¡¯d leave me behind, or be the cause of my grief and sorrow. Gulping back dry, sticky mucus, I nod to her, agreeing with Lil. It¡¯s plausible.


    Continuing on that point of plausibility, I ask, ¡°Te, what¡¯s your plans if they¡¯re archmages? If they have teleportation spells? Or¡ª or dominating psychic spells? Mind whammy stuff?¡±


    My heart sinks through the pit of my stomach at the horror in Teuila¡¯s eyes as she realizes what that would do to me. Seeing her realization mirror my fears, my eyes well with tears. She knows how devastated I¡¯d be to have to face any version of her turned against me, real or illusion. She knows I might, once again, simply instantly cave inwards on myself, mentally speaking. I¡¯d fall into despair and retreat into my own mind, going catatonic, comatose maybe. The thought alone threatens to send me spiraling into a dark recess of my mind, a place from which I might never emerge. It¡¯d be like reuniting after the beaver dam tunnel complex the first time all over again.


    The silence that follows is thick with unspoken fears. I can almost hear the cogs turning in Teuila''s head, the weight of past horrors pressing down on us both. I blink back the sting of tears, forcing my mind into overdrive. We need a plan, a good one, not just a reaction. I gather as many thermal sense imaging points as I can, and take a deep, smooth breath before diving into the non. I slip into the absence of the flow of time, the space between spaces, the moment between moments, and sit in my mind in frozen time.


    Replaying all of my thermal scans like watching a 3-D movie, I start piecing together the enemies'' movements, their patterns¡ªthere''s a rhythm to their search, a predictability that we can exploit. But as I plot their trajectories, the ghost of that day¡ªthe day Teuila''s face became a nightmare¡ªclaws at the edges of my focus. I can''t afford to lose myself in that memory, not now.


    I shove the recollection aside with a mental grunt, but it''s like pushing back against a tidal wave with my bare hands. I can¡¯t handle being alone here in thinkspace right now. I can¡¯t fully use retrocognition with one of my worst fears so heavily on my mind, only a few minutes after a different PTSD-triggered panic attack. Sighing, I let go of the flow of time, or rather, its lack, sliding back into reality and its normal pace.


    After a few deep breaths, and glances at my best friends for comfort, I return to analyzing the patterns. Teuila''s watching me, her expression a mix of determination and dread. She knows what''s at stake, what we''ve both lost to fear before. I continue with my analysis, yet another fear gnawing hungrily at my gut, as our time to react dwindles. Suddenly I¡¯ve got it.


    "We''ll do it together," I say, the words barely scraping out as I explain, "Set a trap where they''ll converge. We control the game, not them."


    It''s more a framework than a solid plan, but the reassurance I offer is as much for myself as for her. The thought of facing another Teuila, even a false one, chills me to the bone. Yet, I can''t let that fear paralyze me again. I won''t. The memory of my breakdown, the months lost to a catatonic haze, they''re a hell all their own, and a reminder of what''s at risk. I can''t crumble, not when they need me, not when *she* needs me. My eyes meet Teuila¡¯s, and through those emerald tunnels upon her face, I see deep into her soul, her literal ocean of emotions that makes up her mindscape, how tumultuous it¡¯s suddenly become in the last few minutes.


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    Teuila nods, a silent vow passing between us. We''ve been through hell and back, but we''re here, together, and that counts for a hell of a lot at this point in our lives. We''ll face this, as we''ve faced everything else¡ªwith a determination to come out on top, and always be better, do better than we had in the past. And most importantly? Together.


    A smirk tugs at the corner of my mouth as the plan crystallizes, the dim light of the crystalline conduits in the corridor casting long shadows that dance with the anticipation of the coming conflagration. "Lil, you''re our ace in the hole," I praise, the image of the fiery corridor already blazing in my mind. "Make it blaze, and make it big." I request, my voice echoing slightly in the stone-clad hallway.


    The air in this alcove where we hatch our plan is already thick with the scent of old dust and the burgeoning tang of sulfur from Lil''s growing excitement. The walls, ancient and etched with the stories of a thousand years, seem to lean in, as if eager to witness the fiery spectacle about to unfold. With the plan hastily forged between heartbeats, we each slip into our roles.


    Teuila''s fingers dance over her weapons while she performs a battle kata that will initiate her Mirage Flash, and she¡¯s already poised to strike before we¡¯ve even finished getting into position or locking down the plan. Lil''s eyes gleam with a draconic spark, his youthful exuberance barely contained. "Remember, no resources except each other," I murmur, more to myself than to them. "We''re in this together."


    Lil''s chest swells with pride, scales shimmering with the promise of the inferno to come, with his bulldog-esque build, he stands stands ready, his strong forearms and broad shoulders silhouetted against the flickering light escaping his nostrils. His underbite, crowned with upturned tusks, gives him a permanent look of fierce determination, despite how much of a goober he can be. The soft, rubbery ridge along his spine flops to one side, a whimsical mimicry of Teuila''s distinctive haircut, signifies his adoration for her, how much she means to him, that his very form adopted something, a unique part of her.


    The air around Lil already shimmering with heat, his grin a mile wide, he boasts, "I''ll light up their world,"


    Teuila nods, her smirk almost feral, her emerald eyes glinting like jewels in the light of Lil¡¯s growing blaze exuding prematurely from his nostrils. Her fiery-copper peach-fuzz catches the light as she moves, a silent, graceful predator. Her armor, a sleek ensemble of silver accented with gold, clings to her sporty form like a second skin, the white and blue highlights shimmering with each subtle shift of her lithe body. The freckles across the bridge of her nose and cheekbones, a rare sight, speak of days long past with a sun we haven''t had much time under in ages.


    Mischief and the thrill of the hunt glinting in her eyes, Te adds, "And we''ll be smoke monsters."


    Gazing at Teuila, as her side-flopped shoulder-length undercut frames her gorgeous face on her right side, I loose a contented sigh. Despite how whimsical and silly it is for Teuila to be flexing her muscles, showing them off, I can''t help but feel a surge of confidence as she strikes a pose. We''re a trio of fire-forged warriors, and this hallway is about to become a crucible. With Lil''s fire to blind and bind, Teuila and I¡¯ll be phantoms in the flames, unseen and lethally efficient. Our foes won''t know what hit ¡®em.


    "Remember, stay sharp," I caution, not wanting to sustain any injuries or waste resources before we even get to the main event, "Sure, the fire won''t hurt us much, but let''s not give them a chance to regroup."


    We scatter like shadows, each to our position. The corridor where we''ll confront them is quiet, the stillness deceptive, almost seeming to hold its breath. The only hint of our presence a mild tang of sulfur beneath the strong sterile scent of ozone. The crystalline conduits carrying the lightning throughout the entire keep flicker and jolt with an endless stream of power. I can feel the thrum of my pulse, the electric anticipation of the impending clash. Either that or the lightning-spiritswarm symbiotically exploring my electrokinetic EM-field organ. Maybe both. Anyway, we''ve laid the bait, now we wait for the bite.


    As we take our positions, I can feel the heat building. Lil inhales deeply, the prelude to the conflagration to come. Teuila and I exchange a look, a silent agreement passing between us. We''re ready. In this breathless moment, I find a sliver of solace in the readiness of my companions. We¡¯re a party, a family shaped by trials and terror, perhaps not unbroken, but always reforged. I nod to Te, her silhouette sleek and still against the flickering dim light. The trap is set, the stage is ours, and the fire is our ally. It''s showtime.


    Wearing a wry smile, I do have to giggle at myself a bit internally at how dramatic my brain is getting. I know it¡¯s probably in response to edging near traumas, but still, I get a bit clich¨¦ and poetic sometimes. I alliterate, or go overboard hyping myself up, in a lot of situations. No wonder I¡¯ve been called overdramatic, especially when near the edge of a trauma. I guess it¡¯s another coping mechanism. Hey, coping me, are you here? Is that a good guess? No, I¡¯m not there, but yeah, it is. Ah, thanks. Wait. Wha¡ª?


    Then, the silence shatters. The trap is sprung with a flash of flame, and the dance of death begins. There''s no turning back now¡ªonly forward, into the fray. With a roar that echoes through the stone, Lil exhales, and the world turns to fire. The hallway becomes a river of flame, a barrier no ordinary creature could cross. But we''re not ordinary. Through the blaze, Teuila and I move with purpose, guided by senses honed for situations just like this one.


    The corridor ahead, bathed in the flickering light of the flames, reveals the silhouettes of our pursuers. Four Draconiacs, their scales colorfully diverse, stand ready, their eyes reflecting the inferno that roars behind us, the inferno engulfing us and approaching them in rapid order. In this split instant, I can take in their appearances as Teuila and I move with the flames to flank them.


    The first Spellknight looms like a bastion, his scales a deep, oceanic teal, reminiscent of stormy skies. Ironic, or maybe the opposite of that. His armor is masterwork in quality, of course. The heavy plates interlock with the precision of a puzzle, each segment engraved with the swirling patterns of clouds. With one hand, he draws a great axe from its holster on his back, its blade etched with runes that hum with latent power. The haft is adorned with intricate carvings of tempests and lightning, and the whole thing begins to crackle with power, blueish sparks flying freely even in this split instant of sight. That would definitely hurt Lil if it hit him. Let¡¯s prevent that from happening, shall we?


    Plus, his counterpart, a Spellknight of sun-baked yellow scales, stands with a shield raised¡ªa shield bearing the emblem of a withered tree, its branches barren and held together by a knotted cord. That cord and tree rely on a single thread remaining in a nearly bisected knot to hold together its fate. The sword in his other hand is no less impressive, its blade gleaming, intricately runed, and shaped uniquely.


    The other two seem to be less Spellknights, and more just spellcasters. They¡¯re a study in contrasts. One, draped in robes that flow like liquid magma, moves with grace. The fabric of her garment is vibrant orange. That same symbol of the withered tree is subtly woven into the hem, glinting with a metallic sheen. Her eyes, cold and calculating, scan the environment, taking in every detail in this split instant she has to survey everything before the fire engulfs her, as analytically quick as me.


    The other mage wears assassin''s leathers, similar to Errissa¡¯s, Spymaster¡¯s. I can¡¯t afford to think about Errissa¡¯s beautiful slate-gray features, the way her form was accentuated by her supple leathers, and the sway of her hips and serpentine tail¡ª. I just said I can¡¯t afford to think about that. Rattling my skull, I return to analyzing the leathered mage. He¡¯s a sleek silhouette of practicality and menace. His scales are velvety maroon, the hue of blood and wine. The leathers hug his form, and each movement he makes promises swift, lethal magic. His hands, free of any encumbrance, flicker with the beginnings of his first arcane weavings, ready to unleash his fury. Thankfully though, the fire balks him, disrupting the runes of his first spell as he fumbles his mnemonics and somatics in surprise.


    Together, they advance, a deadly quartet. Much like our trio, most of their resolve is unshaken by the fiery barrier that rages before and rapidly approaches them. The robed mage is likely about to weave a fire resistance or immunity spell. Heh, she¡¯s in for a shock when she realizes Lil¡¯s heat pierces resistances, and keeps ramping up the longer he breathes. The two in the armor are similarly probably sure of the enchantments on their plate armor to protect them from a blaze, they are trained to hunt dragons after all. Still, I can¡¯t help a bit of a malicious grin, knowing that Lil, if given enough time, will cook them like sardines in a can. They¡¯ve never met my best bud Lilagni, the Star of the Onyx Dawn before, a red dragon Aliased Sun, with his Latent, Solar.

 B 6 C 179: Bangarang

    Well, let¡¯s get to it then. Aiming my holy halefire double-barreled wrist-mounted crossbow up the tunneled hallway, I fire off radiant bolts just to be annoying, knowing that they don¡¯t do much damage to anything that isn¡¯t undead. Annoying spellcasters is great though, because it takes away one of their biggest assets in battle. Spellcasting. At least, if you¡¯re annoying enough. Glancing side to side, despite not being able to see anything in the flame, I have another giggle to myself as I admit that I can be plenty annoying, glad for the moment that my psionic aegis prevents anyone else from riding along in my brain to overhear my thoughts.


    Honestly, all I need to do to make sure we don¡¯t waste any resources, is keep these foes in Lil¡¯s flames, making sure that they can¡¯t cast any teleportation spells to flee. Other than a few abilities I¡¯d granted Teuila, her powers, or at least her power doesn¡¯t really have a resource cost. She¡¯s just monstrously, magnificently strong, and intensely trained. I¡¯ve barely had time to raise my arm to level my crossbow at the leathered and robed mages, and I can already hear Teuila creating craters in the floor and nearest wall, bashing and smashing the armored Spellknights.


    One thing I forgot to even take into account, is how some of Lil¡¯s and Teuila¡¯s magic items provide fairly strong passive benefits. Like Lil¡¯s Salamander gauntlets? They provide great forearm protection for him, which is awesome, since he can¡¯t wear a lot of types of armors due to his draconic shape, but I didn¡¯t even really know all of their effects. Apparently, one of them is to allow the user to shape flames into weapons. Specifically javelins, darts and scimitars. The limitation to most adventurers benefiting from them, would be how much fire they can collect and condense to make decent weapons out of. Hah. I recall identifying something along those lines about them, when we¡¯d found them in our hoard, but this is just too perfect.


    Lil, my best buddy, a digital dragon with an endlessly regenerating mana source for perpetual flames with links to sunlight or the sun itself, is over here filling the hallway with a perpetual roiling blaze that increases in brightness, intensity, heat, and color, as long as he can exhale. He¡¯s got a breath boost from training his lungs as a skill as a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, and from joining the Shellcracker Otter family party.


    There¡¯s a reason why even Vylon and Vyela, two of the eldest Golds alive on the planet, were speechless while bearing witness to him filling a tunnel with flames for dozens of minutes at my request. Anyway, here he is now, doing almost the same thing, only adding in the occasional manifestation of solid flame in the form of a flying javelin, as he practices utilizing a magic item he¡¯d never really got to put into use before.


    Annoyingly, all four of these punks are warded against telekinetic grips, so my strongest passively infinitely usable ability is neutered. But I can still manifest the TK Squares in strategic positions, to help trip them up. The robed one though, I can¡¯t seem to trip up her spellcasting, and she¡¯s set up a series of buffs that I don¡¯t recognize. While I can fairly easily disrupt the leathered caster, the robed one is planning something, and she might actually succeed. That¡¯s daunting, because I very well know how powerful the magic of Rayileklia can be.


    Hearing and sensing Teuila still hammering away on the Spellknights, and them surviving her blows as she ramps up, escalating her own attacks, is disconcerting as well. We wanted to be quick, efficient, and quiet enough to not alert the rest of the horde, but now we¡¯re going to need to start relying on some extra tricks. I whistle and yell a single name, ¡°Essie!¡±


    Thankfully, Teuila understands what I mean, and whips out Requiem, the Silent Song Shellcracker, otherwise known as her sentient artifact weapon called Essie. She drives Essie into the nearest wall, and emplaces an aura of silence. This allows Teuila to stop holding back, and has the surprise benefit of screwing up the draconic humming mnemonic of the robed caster, finally interrupting her spellwork. Phooph. I loose a sigh of relief.


    Repositioning myself to cut off any attempts from our foes to flee, I level Frostburn at the leathered mage, and find myself needing to parry attacks from telekinetically charged floating daggers. It seemed like he was fleeing to get out of the flames, but maybe he was gunning for me in the first place. Hm, no, his scales are cracking, beginning to peel off as the tissue beneath them blisters, boils, and bubbles. He¡¯s making a mad attempt, using up anything he can think of, to try to flee Lil¡¯s continuously intensifying flames. I can tell he tries to keep manipulating fire, and layering elemental resistances with short, subtle spellwork, but it can¡¯t keep up with Lil¡¯s output.


    Growling, I hate how amazingly well enchanted the more elite Spellknight armor sets are, because Teuila¡¯s ferocious blows haven¡¯t ended them yet. The armor¡¯s enchanted to prevent others from tearing off the helmet, and nearly impervious to blunt or sharp impacts. With Teuila having to dance back and forth between two of them as they struggle to withstand Lil¡¯s flames, and there not being enough height clearance for her to use her usual leaping spear divebombing style attacks, she¡¯s hung up on them, and can¡¯t finish them off.


    I saw a flicker of lightning that didn¡¯t seem to belong to the Spellknights, which means Te tried to use Mjolnir, to no effect. The Spellknights are of course immune to lightning, being in Stormheart Keep, it was probably the first enchantment their armor was blessed with, or might even be a natural product of the type of material within their armor.


    Wait, the robed mage is¡ª. Crap! She disappeared, and I sense mana trails heading closer to Lil. Suddenly the blaze engulfing the hallway, which has done serious damage to several of our foes, and a bit of damage to me as well, vanishes, poof, gone up in smoke in an instant. Teuila is standing in a stupor, while Lil looks equally dazed. Both share faint traces of enchantment auras about their minds. Even Essie¡¯s silence aura dissipates. Frick!


    Huff, okay, take it easy Reggie, figure this out. They¡¯re all closing in on you, except the leathered mage is trying to circle around to flee from you. While I gather my thoughts to concoct a strategy, I quip, ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯d be interested in surrendering yet, would you?¡±


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    When the Spellknight with the torn-rope iconography responds, ¡°I¡¯m afraid not,¡± I could almost swear¡ª. Actually, with that image on their shield, maybe they do mean it the other way.


    Curiosity getting the better of me, I ask, ¡°Wait, did you say you¡¯re a frayed knot, or you¡¯re afraid not?¡±


    Sighing, when the robed mage yells to the leathered mage, ¡°Go!¡± I realize the time for talking¡¯s over. Well, maybe I can say one more thing.


    Trying not to smirk too maliciously, I use the cheesy lines, ¡°Hey pal, I think you need to chill out,¡± and, ¡°that fire was pretty rough on you, huh? Here, I can help you cool off,¡± as I lance the fleeing mage with two frosty rays.


    My spells have the benefit of activating nearly all the clips in my runic bangle twice, blowing the legs off my fleeing foe gruesomely with necrotic, psychic, fire, and icy energy on top of the spell itself. Eugh. Then there¡¯s the positive reinforcement benefits. Teuila and Lil are now freed of any mental magical effects, and coated in a tiny thin sheathe of mana that¡¯ll absorb some of the impact of the next attack they suffer. Two SP down for the day, still around six hundred ninety available. That was definitely worth it, to see the look on the robed mage¡¯s face as Lil starts moving before the spell was supposed to wear of.


    My best buddy tears into the robed mage, clawing through sheathes of mana, and wreathes of, heh, flame, that spring to life between her body and his talons. Suddenly however, she vanishes, and I don¡¯t get the sense she teleported anywhere nearby. Well, crap. She had a contingency spell that, what, teleported her to her room? Sent her to a pocket dimension? Err, I¡¯d better show mercy to, and finish off, the leathered mage while I figure out how to track the robed one.


    Between Lil¡¯s flames, my sword-work, and my spells enhanced by the runic clips, this foe seems far more interested in scrabbling away with his life, than pu¡ª. I spoke too soon. Tilting my head only barely to one side, I only just scantily manage to avoid a disintegrating ray aimed for my face. The problem with aiming for the head of someone whose reaction speed is enhanced by their own electrokinesis, and the jolting of a lightning spirit-swarm is, well, what just happened. My head¡¯s a smaller target, all I had to do was lean it a fraction. Telekinetically maneuvering several daggers, and Frostburn, I have them finish off the downed mage like a magician¡¯s stage act, plunging into him from several angles. He¡¯d been trying to do similar to me earlier with his own levitating daggers after all.


    Thankfully, Teuila has re-activated Essie¡¯s silence aura, and she¡¯s going ham on the Spellknights once more. With Lil at her side, they can¡¯t put up much resistance, even if they are resilient as hell. The Dragon and the Valkyrie. It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve referenced them as a duo, but they¡¯re the main reason we survived our final encounter with Octorochi, and finished it off for good. In physical combat, they seem perfectly designed to synergize with each other. Both are monstrous powerhouses of absolute strength, capable of delivering strikes that¡¯d shatter walls and buildings with ease.


    Teuila¡¯s already ridiculous force, enhanced by Jarngripr is starting to dent and destroy the Spellknight¡¯s seemingly nearly invincible plate armor now. She¡¯s also just used her QCR to don her seasonal gi, with the metallic armbands. I chuckle as she activates them so that she¡¯s got an extra pair of phantom fists with which to pummel her foe.


    Lil pauses his own assault to boggle at Teuila¡¯s extra limbs for the briefest of moments, so I use my TK grips to mess with the Spellknight he¡¯d been attacking. I¡¯m diverting a single greataxe slash by angling my TK Squares where the Spellknight¡¯s cleave would be, resulting in him sliding just off-target from Lil¡¯s face, and slamming his greataxe into the floor, cleaving a cleft, and temporarily trapping his weapon.


    There¡¯s a sickening crunch, and I¡¯m pretty sure I see Teuila puffing out her cheeks as if she¡¯s going to lose her lunch, as her fists finally make their way through her foes defenses. Eugh. Yeah, if anything could make Te queasy, that¡¯d do it. She leaps towards Lil¡¯s foe to get the Spellknight in several arm-locks, simultaneously. I¡¯d chuckle if it weren¡¯t kinda badass. My best buddy, Lil, just opens his maw over the helmeted head of the Spellknight, and roasts him like a can of spam up close and personal-like. That just leaves one.


    Scratch that, that just leaves a half dozen or so. The robed mage reappears from whatever pocket dimension she¡¯d been in, based on the aura trail that tears its way into being. But, along with her are newly summoned constructs that she must have spent time conjuring while she had a temporary respite. These things are like animate walls of indestructible force, just solidified mana into vaguely humanoid shapes, and they¡¯re in a defensive perimeter around an incredibly adept mage whose analytical eyes are taking in the changed situation. Crap, not good. Te and Lil can¡¯t get any attacks, or themselves, around the magic-elemental masses that are trading blow-for-blow with them.


    Y¡¯know what time it is Reggie? Huff, sighing, yeah, I guess I¡¯d better use a resource. Drawing a deep breath, I perform an LBB TKSL directly into the path of an attacking mana construct, confusing it as I pull a QCR number one. Suddenly I¡¯m not in the way of the now-hesitating attacker, and am instead three ravens on the far side of the foes, each of me pecking at the robed mage. Reforming into Reggie Shellcracker once more, with a Valkyrie dagger, and Frostburn, I lay into the robed mage, our final foe, hacking at her neck and torso as I try to bypass her enchanted wards that she¡¯d renewed. I¡¯m positive the mana constructs will disappear when she dies.


    Gurgling her last breaths, the robed Draconiac mage asserts, ¡°It matters not, you¡¯ll never survive d¡¯ rude room,¡± before collapsing, her spellwork dissipating with her death.


    Did she say, ¡°The rude room?¡± Almost as if in answer to my mental question, as the last of the mana constructs dissipates, one of them, echoing its master¡¯s last spoken words in the throes of defeat, manages to croak out an ethereal utterance, "It matters not, you¡¯ll never survive d¡¯ rude room," and then it vanishes, its voice echoing and trailing off into silence.


    Lil snorts, stomping all over his fallen foe, the Spellknight, as he quips, "What''s it gonna do, hurl insults at us?" He wears a big goofy grin as he further sasses, "Pal, we tease each other for breakfast," then, licking his lips, giggling, he adds, ¡°and lunch, and dinner, mm dinner.¡±


    Chuckling, Te rolls her shoulders and cracks her neck side to side as she adds, "A room with a bad attitude? Please. Me ¡®n¡¯ Dragbutt''ve got thicker skins than those tin cans you call armor."


    We share a moment of levity, the tension easing from our shoulders like mist in the morning sun. But as we check the bodies for useful magics, potions, trinkets and the like, my brain is veritably itching for some reason. Still, we return to making our advance through the labyrinthine corridors of Stormheart Keep. Yet I still can''t shake the weirdness of the mana construct echoing the mage¡¯s last words. The rude room. It nags at me, a splinter in my mind, right along with the Sister¡¯s prophecy, and my vision of Teuila derezzing, and my lightning-leyline senses of Rayileklia. My brain¡¯s buzzing to the point that it¡¯s getting a little full with preoccupied thoughts. Not the best thing for the brain of an already distractable Reggie Shellcracker to be.

 B 6 C 180: Chain Gang

    We continue our infiltration, and I navigate as speedily as I can, but the pathing is getting trickier. My senses aren¡¯t updating well enough to guess the safest routes towards the bottom of Al''pa¡¯ca¡¯s keep any longer, due to how distracted I am. That¡¯s a bummer, and means I¡¯m going to have to start guessing, if Te and Lil have no ideas to offer up better plans. Glancing between them, it looks like they aren¡¯t taking this seriously, but I know nothing could be further from the truth. They might be bantering quietly, or even telepathically, but they¡¯re as on-edge as I am, and even though we¡¯re all hustling, we each know it could be mere minutes before a horde several thousand strong bears down on us. Huff, Hellspit and Fel fires it¡¯s a rough mission.


    It¡¯s too bad we had to destroy those Spellknights¡¯ suits of armor and some of their other equipment to finish them off. Some equipment retains enchantments while damaged, but theirs, much like electrical circuitry, when a single piece is too heavily damaged, the whole thing fails. I mean, if it doesn¡¯t have parallel redundancies. Circuits in series fail is what I¡¯m trying to¡ª. Why am I explaining myself to myself? Ugh. Because you¡¯re stressed Reggie, trying to keep from dwelling on heavy issues, and the implications of all the revelations and prophecies and everything else going on. What about the rude room? What about it? You¡¯re just being weird clinging on to that one.


    Am I¡ª, yeah, yeah I¡¯m having full on conversations with myself now. This isn¡¯t even a coping mechanism any more. Rattling my skull, I try to orient on the path ahead of us, and just focus on taking one step at a time. Figuratively. I¡¯m TK Surfing, because why wouldn¡¯t I be? Every last bit of energy saved between here and the final confrontation could be that last push we need to succeed or survive. Hm, okay, the next intersection has a few options, all of them go through rooms.


    Ahead and to the left is a room that looks like maybe it¡¯s an unoccupied prison or torture chamber. There¡¯s a lot of chains attached to the walls. Straight ahead, my thermal senses are picking up something hot, large, and moving, and my electrokinetic senses are picking up some kind of frequency off of it. If that¡¯s some sort of robot that has radio communication or something, we do not want to alert it to our presence. Off to the right, the room that way seems like it might house active electrical experiments, and my retrocognitive senses are guessing that the tunnel on its other side wraps back around the way we came to an intersection we passed up previously to avoid several magical traps.


    Well, left it is then I guess. Te glances about, and flicks her head towards the left path and the prison-looking room, and I nod for confirmation. We¡¯d both come to the same conclusion. Lil¡¯s attempting to not complain about the monotony of the gray tunnels that are nearly endless, broken up only by intersections, crystalline lightning conduits, or traps. As we¡¯re approaching the room we¡¯d elected to go through, I notice something¡­ off. I can¡¯t quite put my finger on it, or rather, my nose on it, since it seems to relate to scent.


    Wait, nearly everything has the same odor, the same scent, the overpowering sterility of ozone, but this room we¡¯re entering lacks it. A room in a lightning-keep with no trace of lightning? Crap. As I¡¯m realizing a moment too late, it feels like the gravity of a thousand suns pulls me towards the floor, shattering my TK Square, sending a wave of pain shearing through my brain, and blood trickling out my nose. Gasping for breath from the pain of my own body flattening me, I try to hold my breath for the Wyverium chestplate featherlight enchantment to take hold, but there¡¯s two problems with that. One, it¡¯s really only active when elevated off the ground, two, it¡¯s not an increase in weight that¡¯s drawing me downward, it¡¯s magnetics. Worse, the magnetics are attempting to draw the electricity out of my body painfully through my flesh.


    Horrifyingly, Teuila is similarly being dragged to the floor. My Wings, the lightest, most agile, most powerful person I know, succumbing to the grounding force of a trap must feel humiliating for her. I¡¯ll have to help her with her mindscape later. Fortunately, Lil isn¡¯t affected by the room¡¯s magnetic flooring, unfortunately, the chains along the walls have sprung to life and sought each of us out. The chains are trying to siphon electricity from me and Teuila, in order to electrify Lil, as we both have electric powers and electrical charges running through us, while he doesn¡¯t. If the chains succeeded, that would likely cause him to be susceptible to the floor then as well, since the floor seems to drag down those with lightning powers. This room seems to be Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s insurance against betrayers within the keep.


    Well, as I¡¯ve said before about electricity being directed towards Lil, that ain¡¯t happening. Using my QCR I swap to the lightning-curse greaves, dragging all free-flowing electricity in the area towards me as concentrated lightning strikes. Painful, but it keeps Lil from becoming susceptible to the trapped floor. My best bud, my dragon pal Lil grunts quietly, trying to keep from roaring in frustration as he begins tearing chains out of the wall, and shattering them in his powerful jaws, or simply by flexing the muscles they¡¯re wrapped around.


    Teuila, seeing Lil¡¯s muscles bulge effectively enough to shatter chains, does the same thing, flexing her own slender, sleek muscles against the chains that had been tightening more and more roughly around our throats and arms. The chains don¡¯t immediately snap, since Teuila¡¯s muscles, while impressive, aren¡¯t many inches across each, the way that Lil¡¯s are.


    However, when Teuila begins inching her way up in order to stand anyway, while still chained, while the floor is still exerting hundreds of tons of force on us, I can¡¯t begin to describe how impressed I am. She had no leverage, and is fighting this force with sheer, sweat-inducing determination. It¡¯s pouring down her brow and off her slightly-freckled nose in rivulets. She begins to break a single chain with her indomitable spirit. Let no one ever tell Te that she¡¯ll never break the chain.


    When Te looks my way, still rising from a three point position, she calls out, ¡°Hey, huff, Airhead. Remember. It¡¯s only an illusion. You too Dragbutt.¡±


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    Doing my best to draw breath while my lungs feel like they¡¯re being compressed into pancakes, I can¡¯t nod or acknowledge Teuila in any way, but I get it. We¡¯ve each got three uses per day of Lesser Shadowy Evocation, and Lesser Shadowy Conjuration. The spells can mimic anything within those schools, to a lesser degree of power, but the versatility comes with a trade-off, they¡¯re technically only illusions. There¡¯s some interplay with objects not being able to sense illusions, so the spells always *seem* to work on them, but then after the spells end, are revealed to not have had any effect, unless you get the desired effect and outcome before the spell wears off. For example, like dragging people and objects crashing through walls shattering those walls beyond repair, or creating an enormous steam explosion, blowing a magma worm sky high. Heh.


    Mjolnir teleports to Teuila¡¯s hand, from her dimensional sheath, a benefit I didn¡¯t think would be coming in so handy so soon. Still, it seems to be taking all of her strength and willpower just to stand, as Lil fights his way through endless animated chains on his way to us, to help her out. I watch, heart thudding in my chest, as Teuila rises, her eyes narrowing with that fierce determination that could scare the scales off a dragon. There''s a deep focus in her, a storm of her own brewing behind those determined eyes. Suddenly, I see crackles of power pouring from Teuila¡¯s eyes. They¡¯re less a color, and more an absence of light. As soon as I realize what she¡¯s doing, I use my QCR to swap back to number five, the Glacial Greaves, so that I¡¯m not wearing the lightning-cursed leg-guards any longer.


    "Anti-lightning," Te murmurs, more to herself than to us. And as she does, the air around her starts to hum, a low vibration that seems to suck at the very light. She¡¯s always been the storm, unbridled fury, and lately, lightning incarnate. But this? This is her becoming the eye, the void, where light and lightning go to die. I¡¯d jokingly complain that that¡¯s my domain, my purview, but holy freaking hell this is hot. Erm, I mean, impressive. Koff.


    The chains around Te hesitate, as if sensing the shift, the impending doom of their purpose. She''s not just resisting the magnetic pull; she''s becoming anathema to it, an absence where force becomes futility. Around her, a shroud of darkness gathers, not the thick, oppressive shadow of my Void Dragon Honoris Causa that swallows sound and space, but a living, breathing absence. It''s like watching the night sky without stars, the Worldstorm with the lightning inverted to dark-ning. It moves with her, writhes around her like a living thing, tendrils of obsidian energy that seep into the very chains that seek to bind her.


    The darkness around her lashes out, a negative image of Thor wreathed in his crackling aura. Where his lightning dances and destroys, her anti-lightning devours and nullifies. The chains become brittle, fragile as they''re starved of their purpose, of their power. She stands, and the darkness surges outward, a wave of negation that crashes against the magnetic trap, breaking its hold on us with the sheer impossibility of its existence.


    The anti-lightning doesn''t flash or crackle; it whispers, a purr of silk against steel, of night against day. It''s the antithesis of blinding light, the soft, inexorable pull of oblivion where energy doesn''t explode but implodes, collapsing into nothingness. Lil whistles a low note of appreciation, his expression one of mixed horror and admiration.


    My best buddy queries, "Te, you''re... what are you?"


    She doesn''t answer, but her smile is all the response we need. She''s the anti-storm, the shadow to the lightning''s gleam. And as she stands there, wreathed in her cloak of anti-lightning, I feel a flicker of hope. With Te wielding the absence of storm, maybe, just maybe, I can ignore the prophetic vision I¡¯d had of her derezzing. Te¡¯s anti lightning can only last about sixty seconds, but sixty seconds for Teuila, wielding Mjolnir and Jarngripr, wreathed in anti-lightning? Yeah, that¡¯s plenty of time for her to demolish a room, before the illusory effects wear off and the state of the room returns to normal.


    Thankfully Teuila plays it even smarter than that. She rescues my lame butt and ushers Lil through the trapped room out the other side. If she didn¡¯t have Mjolnir, and whatever other affinity to storms she has, to boost her lightning, or anti-lightning, powers, that probably wouldn¡¯t have worked so well, or at all. With this room in the way of one of the paths required to follow us, the horde behind us will either be thinned out of a good few foes who aren¡¯t branded, or funneled through the other room, having to take even longer to catch up to us due to bottlenecking.


    Before I even have to ask, grinning, Teuila answers the obvious question, ¡°I got it from you, natch. The idea to use an opposite, an absence. Heee. Whatsamatter, you¡¯re not jealous that you¡¯re not the only one who gets to be cool and dark and edgy anymore, are you?¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh at Teuila¡¯s tease, especially since she sticks her tongue out immediately after, while Lil is approaching to nuzzle her cheek. Lil ends up with a cheek full of Teuila-tongue on accident, and they both blame each other for it. I¡¯m just trying to not double over with laughter as the two initiate their version of a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight, an SFSF. My lungs and ribs still hurt too much from that pancaking.


    All in all, we were probably in the chain room from the time it activated until we exited for maybe around ten seconds, possibly less. Not even enough time for Lil to fill his lungs in case he wanted to do a full fire blast, let alone enough time for Lil to ramp up his flames hot enough to melt enchanted metal and stone. It¡¯s a good thing we didn¡¯t have to wait until he¡¯d have been able to. I¡¯d have been taking too much lingering damage. Although, I think between the gargoyle guard dogs, and that room, the lightning spirit-swarm within me, my newest symbiote, has settled in rather contentedly into my EM-field organ, and, my regeneration has started back up again. Phew. Still, being down to around two thousand or less health, out of well-over five thousand, is not a great place to be right now.


    While I¡¯d like to be able to blame the damage I¡¯ve been taking for what I¡¯m detecting, that wouldn¡¯t make any more sense than any other explanation. My thermal scans after a long tunnel up ahead are¡­ fuzzy. It¡¯s like there¡¯s static in a room up ahead. I have no idea how to rationalize static in thermal sensations. Determined to be better than useless, I try again with my abilities and retrocognitive data. As I stretch out my senses, probing for the lay of the land ahead, I''m met with a baffling feedback. My thermal scans, usually so precise, so revealing, are now betraying me with an indecipherable muddle. It''s as though the heat signatures ahead are being scrambled.


    It''s like trying to listen to a radio station on a long ride when you¡¯re leaving its range. Trying to make out one last song through a cacophony of static ¡ª each note, each instrument, normally clear and distinct, instead lost in a haze of interference. Grr, come on Reggie, figure it out. This isn''t the stagnancy of a landscape chilled by a permanent dampness, nor a stable ebb and flow of living bodies nor the simmering heat of machinery. No, this is something else. I¡¯ve got a bad feeling about this.

 B 6 C 181: Da Rude Room

    As we approach the room ahead at the end of this long wind in the tunnel, the warmth that should paint a clear picture of the world around me is now a miasma of fluctuating, chaotic patterns. It¡¯s as if the air itself is in turmoil, the very heat signatures rebelling against the order of my perceptions. What could turn my reliable scans into this tempest of confusion?


    Glancing at my companions as we levitate closer and closer to the source of the disturbance, I ask, ¡°Te, Lil, you guys have any idea what could be jamming my thermal senses with static?¡±


    Lil, sticking his tongue out sideways, and gazing up-leftwards, thinks hard on it for several moments while Te ponders aloud, ¡°I¡¯unno Air, are they magical senses? Could it be like, more anti-sorcery anti magic field-y nonsense?¡± Since I¡¯m shaking my head, Te continues to guess, ¡°What about, I dunno, you said thermal, right? What blocks thermal stuff, cold stuff, insulated stuff, stuff like that? What are some insulated thi¡ª you¡¯re getting that look, that look that you have when you just brained something out.¡±


    Gnawing my lips, I nod as I close my eyes. I imagine I do have a look of realization on my face as I pose, ¡°Really, brained something out? Anyway, heh. Insulation is right Te. Remember how the outside of this fortress is insulated?¡±


    Raising an eyebrow, Teuila answers in a querying tone, ¡°Yeah, I guess. It was all sandy, why¡ª? Oh.¡±


    Glancing between the two of us, it takes a few seconds longer to dawn on Lil. When it does, he rolls his eyes and grumbles, ¡°So we¡¯re about to go to the beach? Ugh. I hate sand. It¡¯s rough, and coarse, and it gets everywhere. It¡¯s so irritating.¡±


    My brain train decides to derail and flip off a cliff into a blue screen of death. After my momentary BSOD, I try to get back on track, both in my mind, and on our course of action. When my senses return to me, I hear Lil finishing, ¡°Besides, do you know how hard it is to get sand out of scales if Lu isn¡¯t around with Reggie¡¯s magic soap stone?¡±


    Smirking, Te slaps Lil¡¯s flank and offers, ¡°If you ever need help with a big scrubdown, you can hop in next time I¡¯m giving Lucky a bath, and I¡¯ll scrub yer scales out Dragbutt.¡±


    Despite the teasing nature of Teuila¡¯s offer, Lil graciously accepts, beaming a smile at her as he responds, ¡°Will do, It¡¯s-A-Secret!¡±


    While I understand that we¡¯re going into an ancient Sand¡¯s lair, I¡¯m still surprised that somewhere up ahead, soon, there¡¯s so much sand that it fritzes out my thermal senses. Does he have a room that¡¯s magically packed with sand that he swims through? Are we going to have to dig out way to the next segment of his stronghold? I think we¡¯re only seconds, to a couple of minutes, from more pursuers checking in on the group that we slew earlier. We¡¯ve probably got at most an hour between now and when the horde starts to nip at our heels. I don¡¯t think we can make progress fast enough if we have to dig through several hundred meters of shifting sands to make it from room to room from here on out.


    Unintentionally holding my breath, I cast a glance towards Teuila, wondering if I should have her try to rush us forward, and just deal with the consequences of any traps she accidentally triggers along the way. She¡¯s fast enough, she might be able to evade some of their effects regardless. Maybe. Then again, some spells just need a triggering target, and don¡¯t need to aim to hit that target. For all I know, there could be spells that cause instant death to whomever trips them. I shudder at the thought, since I know that in a certain tabletop roleplaying game, there is actually a spell that does exactly that. In fact, most of the spells I¡¯ve learned are from that very roleplaying game, so I¡¯m quite terrified of the implications of the possible spells that may exist on Rayileklia, especially that death word.


    Thankfully it has some limitations that would make it difficult to land on Teuila, namely it requiring the target to have sub three digit hitpoints, or somewhere around there. If I recall my estimates of her stats pages, adjusted for the growth she¡¯s done on Rayileklia, she has, what was it, almost ten thousand? Over ten thousand max health? Definitely over nine thousand for sure. Not that she¡¯s been at max health much since the war started, as far as I know. I don¡¯t know what her regeneration values are like, or even were like. Regardless, I don¡¯t want to risk something like that occurring. I can¡¯t take chances. Not after what I saw in retrocognitive time. I know I said I refused to believe it, but it still shook me all the same.


    Remembering that breathing is a thing, I exhale and gasp for breath momentarily, while rolling my shoulders, trying to let loose the tension in my muscles. Yet try as I may, I can¡¯t shake the edge that continually creeps up in me, keeping me on, well, edge. Bluh. Rattling my head, I pat Lil¡¯s flank, stroking it for comfort, more for me than for him, but he wiggles gleefully all the same. We haven¡¯t spent as much time bonding or reconnecting as I¡¯d like, since we reunited.


    As if reading my mind, despite my psychic-blocking circlet being in place, Lil laments, ¡°We should be hanging out more when we¡¯re not on missions pal. You¡¯re my mega best pal still Rej, mega mega mega best. I¡¯m sorry about all that stuff, y¡¯know, when we got here, this world. And the stuff when momma had to save you. I missed you a mega bunch, mega mega mega bunches. I don¡¯t know how you do it, be so sweet, such a sweetie, so good to everyone. Even the baddies. I guess I never got that, until Qlaxi.¡±


    My eyes wet with still-forming tears, I nod along with Lil as he draws a shuddering breath, both of us regretting my slaying of Qlaxianna, She Who Burns. I only gave her the one chance. I didn¡¯t try to de-escalate the situation when she attacked us, because of my personal stakes in who she had killed. Gripping Lil¡¯s neck, I weep into it for several moments as we continue levitating down the corridor. I¡¯m grateful for his strong claw upon my back and wings that wrap me up in an embrace. Sighing softly, I draw back from the hug, and Teuila raps me gently on the skull, taps my face in a mock slap, and lightly socks me in the shoulder as she casts her gaze aside, avoiding meeting mine.


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    Nodding to Teuila, I agree, ¡°Yeah, I love you too Te,¡± and I¡¯m only slightly sorry for the blush this induces. Wearing a half smile, I nod along to no one in particular, trying to collect myself and my thoughts.


    Even with Lil half-shrunk like this, since he¡¯s retaining his draconic form, it takes three of my TK-squares to levitate him along, while Teuila and I stand with an arm about each other¡¯s waists on a single square. Honestly I should probably be using all four for Lil like this, because they¡¯re so small that he has to sit like some kind of tricycle.


    I¡¯ve got one TK-grip under each of his rear limbs, and he¡¯s got to squash his foreclaws together to balance on the one in front of him. Not that he can see where it is, but he trusts me. That, and thankfully my TK senses help me automate some of the process of what I want to do with my telekinesis.


    Interjecting some humor to the tedium, Teuila begins making her play for a new title, ¡°Foley Expert of the Onyx Dawn,¡± providing swooshes and swishes as if we were the food on teaspoons aimed for¡ª. I can¡¯t help rolling my eyes and loosing a chuckle. Here she is, Teuila the mighty, floating along at my side making gooberific sound effects that might entice a toddler to clap their hands and open their mouth for a bite of food.


    Muttering, I jokingly chastise her, ¡°Focus up Te, we¡¯re almost there. No telling what we¡¯ll find up ahead.¡±


    Grinning cheekily, Teuila simply shoulder bashes me in response. This causes a chain reaction in which I have to shuffle my telekinetic grips in order to catch myself, keep Lil from falling, and catch Teuila since I dropped her to catch myself. So of course I respond in kind, shoulder bashing her, causing me to have to do the whole thing again. The elation on her face is worth it. We haven¡¯t roughhoused enough for her in a long time. I¡ª. I haven¡¯t been who I¡¯m most happy being, with my beloved inner circle, in a long, long time. Since before we died on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, long before. My eyes wet with tears and I cast aside my gaze to blink them away.


    I want peace and happiness for everyone who desires it, so long as it doesn¡¯t come at the expense of others. Why do there have to be wars, apocalyptic scenarios, dangers untold, and everything else that¡¯s constantly pouring forth into our lives? My heart pinches, and aches painfully, distracting me further from what I should be focused on. I can¡¯t help it though. I¡¯m me, distractable as ever, Reggie Shellcracker. It¡¯s not even that though. It¡¯s all of this. Rayileklia often seems more fever-dream than reality. I know Luni would try to keep my mind from going down this path, but what if¡ª. Huff. No. That¡¯s not a constructive line of thinking.


    Focus up Reggie. We have to do this. We will do this. Only a couple, maybe a few more obstacles between us and Al¡¯pa¡¯ca. If there¡¯s anything we can do to prep, we should be doing it. Hm, what about our RS2 side-stage forms? We should have been engaging one this entire time, but it¡¯s hard to estimate when we¡¯ll get somewhere, so that I don¡¯t have to maintain it for longer than it¡¯s capable of being maintained. My lycan form would be pretty good for defending a single hallway, just blocking a horde with my constantly regenerating bulk. Huff, no. I can¡¯t risk being in a form that can¡¯t wear my mind-blanking psychic aegis circlet.


    In a horde of thousands of foes, I¡¯m sure some of them specialize in psionics, psychic effects, mental domination, brain blasting, or other related powers. Being immune to that is far too important to give up for some physical durability. It¡¯s such a balancing act though, a gamble and guessing games. If I don¡¯t choose right now, I probably won¡¯t have the form up in time for it to matter at all. If I don¡¯t live through enough physical punishment to get to the point that I¡¯m facing any of the psychic mages in the hordes, then it would have been better to go with regenerating bulk. Hm, the lightning cat form. My form based on Linti, Lightning Hunter. I could wear the circlet and my armor in it.


    That brings to mind another thought though. I¡¯ve got a lightning-spiritswarm riding around within me, bonding to my organs. I¡¯m already part lightning, more than most people, and was even before I took in the spiritswarm. I¡¯d been using passive internal electrokinesis to augment myself since before I ever even died on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas With my new symbiote, am I at risk for being controlled and manipulated like the elements I¡¯m sure our foes wield? It¡¯s the same reason I didn¡¯t want Teuila to summon her storm elemental. If a foe could wrest control of it¡ª wrest control of me¡ª. Drawing a ragged breath, I shudder at the thought.


    There is a slight possibility that elemental mages, archmages in the horde above us could manipulate the lightning within me, to possibly manipulate me. If that¡¯s the case though, then I should do my absolute best to be as in control of myself and my internal lightning as possible. I guess my hunter cat form is the best play in that case. A massively high dose of regeneration, and focused control over my own internal lightning, and¡ª. My lightning-cursed leg-guards. Their curse might just prevent me from being controllable by external elemental manipulators. It¡¯s a gamble, but it¡¯s like a deuce in the hole for me. Not quite an ace, because I¡¯m not certain it¡¯ll trump anything they can throw at me. It¡¯s something at least though.


    Finally, we arrive at the next obstacle between us and Al¡¯pa¡¯ca. Frankly, I¡¯m a bit stunned. It appears to be a brightly lit, sprawling desert. The air is relatively thick with winds whipping sand about. I guess that accounts for my thermal senses going wonky. Checking the interior and exterior edges of the tunnel leading to this desert doesn¡¯t yield any hints at transportation magic or anything. This desert is actually here, deep within Stormspire Peak. Or whatever the hell the name of this place was, or is.


    Glancing at Teuila and Lil with a raised eyebrow, Teuila shrugs, and Lil offers an approximation of a shrug with his draconic shoulders. If all we have to do is cross a desert, swiftly, then we might be able to actually gain some distance on the horde that will be bearing down on us soon. Drawing a deep breath, I loose a sigh of relief. Still, it¡¯s better safe than sorry, so we should enter and explore a ways inwards before committing to what might be a risky tactic that could get Teuila hurt.


    If I weren¡¯t worried about magical traps that might lock her down, temporarily or permanently, I¡¯d have her snag Lil and me in the portable hole again, and ask her to book it down to Al¡¯pa¡¯ca. There¡¯s still too many risks between here and there though, all of them unknown, and I¡¯m not willing to gamble Teuila¡¯s life, our lives, the fate of the world, on none of them being one of the things she¡¯s weak to. Flicking my head inwards, Teuila and Lil both nod silently, so I continue to float us into this wide-open desert. I¡¯m curious if this is some sort of spa room for Al¡¯pa¡¯ca or something, just some place that an ancient Sand would like to hang out.


    Then, a realization dawns on me, a memory of the desert''s breath, the whisper of a thousand grains of sand rubbing shoulders in their frenetic dance. A prelude to the storm, a sandstorm''s birth, unseen but felt, a ghost in the machine of my thermal senses. It''s the only explanation that fits the entropy before me ¡ª the land is about to unleash its fury, and we''re in the path of its impending wrath. I hear coughing, choking, and I turn all too slowly, as if fighting a time dilation.

 B 6 C 182: Sandstorm

    We¡¯ve entered this vast desert chamber, and the air itself seems to shimmer with a coarse, gritty energy. The sands beneath our feet stir, rising in whorls and eddies, coalescing into threatening forms. The room comes alive with a swirling sandstorm, grains dancing to an unheard rhythm. My neckchain of the ever-breathing prevents it from being an issue for me, but it¡¯s like the winds of this sandstorm spring to life with malicious intent, attempting to flood Lil¡¯s and Teuila¡¯s lungs with sand, to prevent them from breathing. They¡¯re both clutching their throats and trying to plug their noses and mouths, but the damage is already done. I can sense the sand fluctuating about within them, as if it were still alive, trying to irritate and scour their lungs from the insides.


    And that''s when it hits me. The pun, the reference, the sheer audacity of it all. My brain stutters to a halt, a blue screen of disbelief flickering behind my eyes. The distraction slams into me with the force of a gale. I stand there, mouth agape, as the realization dawns on me. To myself, more than anyone else, I grumble, "Oh, you''ve got to be kidding me!"


    But as the animated sands continue to rise like serpents preparing to strike, I grit my teeth in the familiar focus of battle-readiness. Pleading over the chaos, I beg, "Come on guys, show this rude room you can handle a little breeze."


    Despite the bravado of my plea, the joking nature with which I try to dismiss the danger, in the heart of the sandstorm, the world becomes a maelstrom of chaos and fear. Being here in the now''s a vivid depiction of my worst fears come to life. The sandstorm rages with a fury I¡¯ve never felt before, a living beast with a mind of its own. The grains whip around us, stinging my skin, blurring my vision. But it''s not the physical pain that seizes me ¨C it''s the sight of Teuila, my Teuila, My-Wings, being torn away from me. The sand grips her like countless tiny hands, dragging her into its swirling heart. She''s reaching out to me with her free hand, her eyes wide with fear as her other hand clutches at her throat, and there''s nothing I can do.


    My heart hammers against my chest, a frantic drumbeat in the cacophony of the storm. The terror is icy, paralyzing, as I struggle against the force pulling me in the opposite direction. My thoughts are a whirlwind as chaotic as the sand that ensnares us. I can barely breathe, each gasp a figurative battle against the sand that attempts to infiltrate my lungs, despite my necklace''s protection, because each gasp is one of terror for the life of the one most beloved to me.


    Tears mix with the grit in my eyes, rendering the world a hazy, nightmarish blur. All I can see is Teuila, her form spinning, helpless in the grip of the storm. She looks like a marionette in the hands of a cruel puppeteer, tossed about without mercy. The sight is gut-wrenching, a physical ache that joins the maelstrom of emotions threatening to overwhelm me. Seeing the most powerful woman, person I know, tossed about like a ship on an ocean, or a ragdoll in a storm¡ª. Sighing, I try to pull myself together, and fail.


    In my mind, a dreadful prophecy replays, a haunting echo amidst the roar of the storm ¨C the fear of losing Teuila, of seeing her derezzed, erased from existence. It''s a possibility I''ve dreaded in the darkest corners of my mind, and now it feels terrifyingly close to reality. The world spins, a dizzying, disorienting dance of sand and wind. I can barely make out Teuila¡¯s figure now, her body contorted and flung about by the merciless storm. The helplessness is suffocating, more so than the sand trying to invade my lungs. It''s a nightmare come to life, my worst fears playing out before my eyes.


    I want to scream, to call out to Te, but even if I could, the storm would swallow the sound. I¡¯m being dragged further away, my telekinetic grips faltering, unable to anchor me. Every attempt to reach out, to pull her back, is thwarted by the relentless force of the sandstorm. In this moment, I¡¯m not a sorcerer, not a hero. I¡¯m just Reggie, raw and scared, faced with the potential loss of someone I can''t bear to live without. The feeling is an eternity, an ageless life, threatening to swallow me whole, absent of everything I''ve ever fought for, every dream I''ve ever had. It''s more than fear; it''s a descent into despair, a fall, a plunge, with no bottom in sight.


    Lil somehow remains motionless throughout the ordeal, or rather, hunkered, rooted to the spot, unwavering, taking his time with a massive lungful of air. Lil is planted like a boulder, standing his ground to weather the storm as he tries to think of his own solution. Of course Lil would be prepared to have to hold his breath for a long time, it¡¯s his main weapon. There¡¯s no reason he wouldn¡¯t keep his lungs nearly full at all times, barring a few moments here and there to refresh it and swap out for newer, cleaner air. Plus, doing that all the time keeps increasing his lung capacity and breath skills from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, so he just gets even better at doing it. Still, I can¡¯t look to Lil to help me save, or even reach Teuila, even if he is weathering the storm better than either of us.


    My eyes desperately trace Teuila''s form, trying to etch every detail into my memory ¨C as if by sheer will, I could anchor her to me. But the sand distorts everything, turning my world into a swirling, chaotic hellscape. I can see her struggling, fighting against the storm, but she''s getting farther away, her figure smaller, more indistinct.


    In the relentless grip of the storm, my mind races, flipping through every ability, every spell, every item I possess. But each thought is quickly dismissed, no match for the storm''s fury. My staff? It¡¯s got what, walls of fire, wind, stone, none of which provide an option for even buying time, let alone making it through this mess. The sand just flies wherever it wants, it¡¯d avoid elemental walls, or fill in through the cracks in stone. If only I had my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian¡ª. I do, but does Teuila have eight minutes? I don¡¯t think she really does, worse, it would take sixteen to twenty-four minutes to do what I want to do.


    Ugh, next. Telekinesis? Already failing against the storm¡¯s might. What about a use of my Honoris Causa? There¡¯d be no sand within the voidspace, but no air either. Not much of an improvement, if one at all. Plus, it¡¯d cost me hundreds, if not thousands of days of dragonforce to engage it to do something like that. Each option, once a beacon of hope in past battles, now feels like a flickering candle in a hurricane.


    The desperation builds, a crescendo of helplessness. I can''t stop my mind from spiraling ¨C what if I use Frostburn¡¯s Slashblast to, to I dunno, freeze enough air to keep the sand out for a minute? No, worthless, the same problem with the wall spells. The sand would just go around. The fireburst blast? I could glass a bunch of sand, but not the entire room. Even if I -were- powerful enough to glass the entire desert at once, anything I created large enough to glass the whole of it would kill us, or at the very least, bring the horde, and citadel, down on top of us.


    Raven-porting? Can I leverage it, transferring the coat to Teuila temporarily? Maybe if she were still within arms reach, but I can¡¯t even get to her at the moment. I could use it myself to move ten feet closer, but the raven forms would instantly dissipate under the onslaught of sand. The litany of discarded ideas is a weight, dragging me deeper into despair. It''s a stark realization ¨C for all my power, for all my knowledge, I''m just a spectator in this chaotic event of untold horror unfolding before me.


    The realization hits me like a physical blow ¨C I might lose her, lose her to this beast of sand and wind. The thought is unbearable, a gnawing, gnashing, soul-tearing, rending within my chest. I''ve faced down dragons, defied odds, bent the fabric of reality to my will, but in this moment, I''m powerless, a leaf in a tempest. And then, there''s a moment of eerie silence in my mind, a lull in the storm of my thoughts. It''s a moment of clarity, terrifying in its simplicity. This could be it ¨C the end of a journey, the loss of a part of my soul I''ll never recover. The sandstorm could tear what amounts to nearly everything I love away from me. Te and Lil both. How would Luni react? How would Kinzul react, if I returned, a failure, my inner circle perished? Or even if I went on to succeed on my own?


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    I strain against the pull, every muscle tensed, every spell at my disposal racing through my mind, but none are right, none can save her. It''s a helplessness that eats at me, a bitter pill of reality in the fantastical world we''ve inhabited. In the swirling sands, Teuila''s figure is now just a shadow, a ghost being consumed by the storm. My heart feels like it''s being torn out, each grain of sand another piece of me being stripped away.


    And then, amidst the despair, a glimmer of hope ¨C not from my magic, not from my abilities, but from Teuila herself. Her resilience, her strength, her refusal to be defeated. It''s a reminder that she''s more than just a force in her own right, she transcends force, literal fundamental forces of reality. Maybe, just maybe, she''ll find her way through this, through sheer strength of will. And if she can fight, then so can I. For her, for us, I have to believe there''s a way out of this storm. She somehow made it to ground, and got one leap off in my direction, her own tremendous force hurtling her against the winds and sands dragging her away, inching her closer back to me.


    Te''s doing something gutsy, her waterskin uncapped, she¡¯s pouring its contents straight down her throat. She¡¯s gasping, water replacing air in her lungs. There¡¯s a wild, almost reckless look in her eyes, one that screams she¡¯s making this up as she goes. But it¡¯s working, buying her precious time. I can''t help but admire her quick wit in the face of suffocating sand. She¡¯s got that runic clip that allows her to breathe and manipulate water. I made sure she had that clip. The tears of gratitude in both of our eyes signify both of us recall my frantic search through the box of runic clips, me shoving them into Teuila¡¯s bangle, her armband. I might have given it to her, but she remembered it, and she figured out how to use it to her advantage while I was a panicky mess.


    Lil¡¯s chest swells, puffed up like a giant balloon, each breath measured, each exhale calculated. His eyes are narrowed, focused, counting down the minutes, no, seconds of safe air he has left. He¡¯s like a ticking time bomb, only instead of exploding, he''s fighting to keep from imploding.


    The storm feels alive, almost sentient. I squint, trying to sense any magical aura, any pattern in its wild dance. But it''s a maelstrom of confusion, a blur of gritty particles. There''s a rhythm here, I''m sure of it, hidden beneath the chaos. If only I could see it, understand it. The room pulses, vibrating with an energy that feels both alien and menacing. The sound of the storm grows, a crescendo of howling winds and hissing sands. It¡¯s as if the room itself is feeding on our fear, our uncertainty, growing stronger, more ferocious.


    ?


    Shifting all of my focus to Teuila and Lil, and their predicament adds an additional edge of urgency towards finding a solution. Removing my circlet with a hesitant touch, I expose my mind to the storm, both literal and psychic. It''s a risk, but necessary. "Te, Lil, can you hear me?" I think, hoping the telepathic link cuts through the chaos. Their mental avatars¡¯ nods, amidst the howling sands, are tiny islands of relief in a sea of panic. But I''m faltering, the storm''s ferocity overwhelming even my telekinesis. Desperation creeps in, a cold hand around my heart. This time, I might not be the one with the answers.


    Teuila''s coughing, the mud in her lungs barely breathable with her runic clip, her silhouette blurred by the sand. Then, she stops, goes still. Is she...? No, she''s thinking, planning. She''s gotten through everything until now, she¡¯s been through so much. This can¡¯t defeat her, it just can¡¯t. And there it is - a sudden, forceful clap of her hands. The shockwave it creates pushes back the sand, carving a momentary bubble of clarity. It''s not a solution, but it''s a start, a statement: We''re not done yet.


    Lil, too, seems to find his resolve, his wings unfurling with a newfound purpose. With a powerful flap, he sends waves of air cutting through the storm. It''s an echo of Teuila''s defiance, a dragon''s roar without sound. They''re fighting back, in their own way, not waiting for me to save them. It''s a sobering, yet oddly uplifting realization. My friends, my family, they''re heroes, warriors, survivors, through and through.


    Teuila''s struggles are heart-wrenching to witness. Each cough, each spasm as she tries to expel the mud from her lungs, is a stab to my heart. The water from her waterskin mixes with the sand, creating a sludge that she chokes on, retching with a ferocity that speaks of her iron will to survive. Her body convulses with the effort, each heave a battle against the suffocating mixture. The sight is one of raw survival, of her indomitable spirit, yet so harrowing that it''s etched into my memory, a nightmarish tableau of struggle and resilience.


    The sandstorm''s intensity doesn''t let up, but we push through, a trio united against the odds. Each step is a battle, each breath a victory. But the real challenge awaits outside this room - how to rid their lungs and ears of the intrusive sand. I rack my brain, but it''s not me who finds the answer this time. It''s each of the pair of them, Teuila, her runic clip of water elemental command glowing with purpose. With a concentrated effort, she summons a persistent flow of water, a cleansing tide that begins to flush the sand and mud from her system as she carefully, willfully controls it. The whole time, she¡¯s horfing mud and salty-looking water from her innards, gasping for breaths around each retch and heave.


    Lil''s next, his innate fire offering a solution as unique as it is drastic. A controlled, focused breath, just hot enough to melt the sand, and turn only the tiniest particles to glass, but not harm his insides. It''s a delicate balance, one that requires all his concentration. As the tiny glass particles form, he coughs them out, a dragon ridding himself of a foreign invader. That¡¯s an amazing show of Lil¡¯s ingenuity, his strength, his adaptability.


    Lil, in his own battle, is a study in controlled fury. The heat from his breath, usually a weapon, is now a delicate tool. He breathes with precision, a dragon taming his own nature to save himself. Each cough brings out small crystalline flickers, or molten dewdrops, glinting in the dim light, remnants of the sandstorm turned weapon. His eyes are focused, intense, a dragon¡¯s resolve. The effort leaves him gasping, his great chest heaving in a rhythm of exertion and relief.


    After we¡¯d staggered out of the sandstorm room, the air felt like a balm, a gentle caress compared to the abrasive assault we¡¯d just endured. Lil¡¯s and Teuila¡¯s labored breaths are the sweetest symphony to my ears, a sign of life, of victory against impossible odds. It¡¯s a moment of triumph, over our own fears, my fears.


    And there I am, watching in awe as my friends save themselves. A humbling reminder that I don''t always have to be the one with the plan, the magic solution. Sometimes, all I need to do is stand by them, support them as they find their own way. We''re a team, not because of what I can do, but because of what we can do together. Now that we¡¯ve emerged from the room, the air clear and our lungs free of sand, I feel a weight lift off my shoulders. It''s not just the relief of survival, but the gratitude I feel towards both of them for being able to take care of themselves when I couldn¡¯t take care of them.


    I want to be there, for everyone, at all times, and I can¡¯t be. Knowing that is an icy dagger twisting in my guts every moment of every day. But at least for right now, this very moment, I can trust that Te and Lil will be okay. My belief in them overriding any of my own doubts. It''s okay to rely on others, on them, to share the burdens. We''re stronger together, and sometimes, the best thing I can do is let them shine.


    In the aftermath, as we catch our breaths, the reality of what just happened sinks in. I¡¯ve always, always said my strongest power has been having the friends that I have, loving the people that I love, and having their love in return. But having it hit home like this, how all of my power was for naught, as my friends struggled for their lives, it¡¯s friggin¡¯ humbling, I¡¯ll tell you that much. The strength of my friends, my SAP, my inner circle saw us through. Let¡¯s hurry up and finish this already.


    Nodding resolutely, Teuila and Lil agree with the last of my inner monologue that they can overhear as I slip my psychic-aegis circlet back on. I motion forward, telekinetically levitating us onwards so that we can return to our quest, our journey into the bowels of this mountain.

 B 6 C 183: Radioactive

    Te and Lil are still coughing up ash and dust on occasion, but the danger is passed, for now at least. I wipe my brow, sweating anxiously, so grateful for their survival. It looks like I¡¯m sweating blood, or rust, as I scrub my brow, with how thoroughly the reddish sand grated and pitted itself into my flesh.


    Of course, there¡¯s no time to relax. No time to catch our bearings, no time to do anything more than hurtle myself into the way of oncoming spells, setting my TK-Squares into an overlapping diamond pattern directly ahead of me. First one falls, then another, then another, and as the last TK-Square falls, the shearing pain that lances through my brain sends a thick spurt of blood gushing out my nostrils, clearing out some of the grit and grain and mud that¡¯d built up within them. Before I can be disintegrated, I QCR to a number one, and raven-port, intentionally taking beams aimed for my allies with my temporary raven bodies, while my third self, small, bird self, lands behind dastardly just-arrived foes.


    Two do not notice, a third that did not notice is my target, however a fourth is smart, it understood the bird is, was me, and kept an eye on me. Drawing Frostburn, and Riptide, I uncork my waterskin and parry an onslaught of necromantic bolts while switching to my Necrosteel chestplate with my Quick-Change-Ring. Despite the danger to myself, despite knowing my friends can handle themselves, and having my faith in them recently bolstered, I can¡¯t let these casters continue to aim disintegrating beams and bubbles of disintegrating light at my beloved inner circle. Thankfully, Riptide is ridiculously long, so even though I¡¯m caught off-guard, and pushed away from my target, I¡¯m still able to run him through from behind, from over four meters away. This weapon is ridiculous.


    I¡¯m struck with several bolts of chain lightning, enough to make my systems blow. It feels like it shuts me down, knocking me out for a short instant. Waking from the shocked stupor, I can feel the jolting energy coursing through me, deep into my bones. The snarls of my foes reach my ears, making little sense, ¡°All will fray, all will fall, what you do matters not at all. The time draws near, the beast of the end is almost here.¡±


    Or rather, I think that¡¯s what they said, because something magical that I picked up from the last group of goons seems to be translating their draconic hisses. Now, did I inhale some chemicals, or are they actually rhyming? Or is that the magic of the¡ª.


    F^&*! What I feared just happened. Two of the three that were targeting Lil and Teuila just hit them with mental domination powers. No. No! No! Don¡¯t think about it, don¡¯t look at Lil and Teuila as they slowly rouse under the command of your foes. Don¡¯t think, just act, go Reggie, go. Slash, slice, slide, slip, FBF style SIP, jab, block, tumble, kick up into a kip-up, uppercut, lunge, dodge, pivot, parry, cleave-in-twain. Huff, huff. Brain¡ª, huff. I¡ª.


    Huffing, panting, I drop to my knees, my chest heaving with exertion, three of four foes laying dead before me. I was reckless. I glance at the blood pooling in my hand where I keep it pressed against a sizable wound, and siphon a layer of frost to coat the injury above my hip with. Our fourth foe attempts to strike me down while I¡¯m seemingly vulnerable. Our fourth foe seems to have forgotten that the reason I just went ballistic was to prevent my friends from being locked down or dominated. My very, very, powerful, very angry friends.


    To best describe what happens, I think I could put it colloquially to say, Teuila pastes the guy. As in, she turns him into paste with the power of her onslaught in a single volley of four simultaneous strikes. Huffing and puffing, I flash Teuila a thumbs up, even though she flashes me a disturbed, repulsed expression at having put her fists through someone again.


    When my best buddy asks, ¡°Rej, how¡¯d you get hurt?¡± I try not to laugh at him.


    Instead, I answer, ¡°Just took a hit getting you out of a brain spell big guy. You okay Lil? Did it leave anything behind when the whammy hit you?¡±


    Before he can answer, Teuila jokes, "A brain spell on Lil? That¡¯s like using a lockpick on an open door ¨C pointless and a bit sad, really."


    Biting my lips, I struggle to not laugh, because that sounds pretty mean. But Lil¡¯s response is only, ¡°Hey!¡± followed by blowing a raspberry at Teuila, not overly bothered. I forget how much of a dynamic they¡¯ve built up over the years of thinkspace time we¡¯d had, they¡¯d had. It¡¯s comforting knowing that they¡¯re at where they left off, any hurts between them fully healed. I¡¯d almost say I wish I knew Teuila¡¯s secret, but firstly, that¡¯d be a bad joke, since she¡¯s Lil¡¯s ¡°It¡¯s-A-Secret,¡± and secondly I know she doesn¡¯t have one.


    Despite being unable to say the words, and express the feelings in the usual ways, Teuila loves passionately, intensely, and when you¡¯ve built up trust and loyalty with her, time apart won¡¯t change that. Nor even some arguments or heated words, or unkind exchanges. Te forgives others more easily than she forgives herself, by far. I suppose that¡¯s probably true of a lot of us, or at least a lot of us in the SAP and the Onyx Dawn. Still, I wish the way her relationship with Lil works, worked that way for Lil and me too. We¡¯re both still nursing hurts, both still trying to get the other to forgive us, or to forgive each other, or ourselves. It¡¯s complicated.


    Rattling my skull, I check the corpses. It¡¯s so gruesome, but when the fate of the world¡¯s at stake, rolling corpses for loot is just¡ª, it¡¯s just what you¡¯ve got to do as an adventurer. Oddly, there¡¯s that motif, or logo, again, on each of these elite guards. A withered, dying tree, held together by a rope, tied in several locations, a knotted cord, I guess. One knot is sheared nearly all the way through, a single thread holding this rope. It almost seems hopeful in a way. Though, maybe I¡¯m interpreting it wrong. Anyway, between the two groups, what do we have.


    Hm, spiritswarm, how would you feel about doing something similar to carbon-dating for me? I don¡¯t know if Rayileklia has ever had C-14, at least I know it hasn¡¯t really had sunlight in ages. Anyway, I want to mix a few of our, well, my, senses together, my telekinetic, telepresent senses, my thermo and electrokinetic senses, and my danger and aura senses. Hell, my genre senses too while we¡¯re at it, though that¡¯s more figurative. We¡¯ve got some magical stuff from these elite guards that were following us, let¡¯s try to suss out what info we can about the items, yeah?


    Loosing a soft sigh, I know the spiritswarm can¡¯t respond to me. Unlike King, or Bud, our symbiosis doesn¡¯t give them an individual will aside from mine. They¡¯re subsumed into my will, so any answer I had them give, would just be me giving it to myself. Anyway, let¡¯s look over this pile of stuff while we¡¯re on the move. Hm, unfortunately, several of these items have runes tied directly into the local artificial leylines. They¡¯d do nothing outside of this mountain. Can I siphon off the excess enchantment power somehow, converting it to something useful? Hm, if so, the answer is not immediately. I¡¯ll keep my spiritswarm working at it. Phooph. *My* spiritswarm. Friggin¡¯ heck I feel like a monster.


    Sighing and rattling my skull, I try to focus on the items while we continue away from the deadly sandstorm room. Pft, sandstorm. I can¡¯t believe¡ª. How in the¡ª? Seriously. The rude room? D¡¯rude room. It doesn¡¯t make sense. No one on Rayileklia should have¡ª. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Yeah, and I¡¯m a one eyed, one horned, flying, purple people eater.


    Hm, there¡¯s a spell-parchment scroll here, like the stuff Illy was using that I placed enchantments into, for her to be able to place. It¡¯s got a spell in it already. That¡¯s good and bad, I guess. Good, because it¡¯s an extra resource in our tool-belt, without costing us resources to load it, bad because I don¡¯t get to choose what goes into it. It¡¯s some kind of arcane ward breaker. Wardbreaker. Yeah, that sounds about right for a spell name. Too bad it¡¯s in a spell sheet, and not a spellbook with a rune-list. It sounds like one I¡¯d like to learn.


    There are some potions, elixirs I guess, that seem to be basically arcane enhancement temporary steroids. That¡ª. That sounds dangerous for someone like me. Possibly addictive. I can¡¯t risk getting addicted to something that I¡¯ve got no supply of, or really anything at all, no matter what advantages it might give me in a pinch. Leaning on and relying on literally juicing up, doesn¡¯t seem wise. I guess I¡¯ll put them in that potion belt when we get home, and save them as a literal break glass in case of emergencies. There are ten full bottles, and six empties. I¡¯m guessing each had two bottles of the ¡®juice,¡¯ and six out of eight used one of their bottles when fighting us, or just before engaging us more likely.


    There¡¯s a small, rounded prism, and a triangular crystal here as well. They both remind me vaguely of the elemental gemstones that, when broken, cause elementals to be able to slip into our side of reality. So I¡¯m guessing they¡¯re also break-in-case-of-emergencies. The rounded prism seems defenses, the triangular one seems offensive. These I¡¯ll probably use as soon as the horde starts closing in on us.


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    Well, whatever we¡¯ve got, I¡¯ll try to make use of it on the go. I ask, ¡°Hey Lil, big buddy, mind shrinking down so that I¡¯ve only gotta use one square for you, in case more mooks surprise and jump us up ahead? I¡¯d have a shield free and each of us could be farther apart that way, less easy targets.¡±


    Lil acquiesces, shrinking, so I catch him and Teuila on separate squares with my TK grips, and myself on a third, as we return to our journey deeper down Stormspire. Rushing us as swiftly as I can, making best guesses in retrocognition about the routes available to us, we avoid more and more traps, utilizing more and more secret doors and illusory-walled paths.


    Trying to draw Te and Lil¡¯s attentions, I clear my throat. Thankfully, both look my way in meatspace immediately. "Alright, guys," I say, taking a deep breath and sighing for a moment. My voice thankfully remains steady despite the epinephrine, norepinephrine and other neurochemicals coursing through me as I finish, "illusory walls and a few secret doors helped us bypass a few things, but let''s not get distracte¡ª, yes, I see the irony in me being the one to tell us to not get distracted.¡±


    Huffily glaring at my two most beloved friends, I don¡¯t sink to their level as they snicker. Instead I return to my point, ¡°Alright goons, my point is, we¡¯re almost there. My retrocognition says with bypasses like these, there¡¯s only maybe a couple more snags between us and the seat of power. So we¡¯re close, soon we¡¯ll find Al''pa''ca, and end this."


    Teuila nods, ever the Valkyrie, every bit a warrior. With her resolve clear in her eyes, Te demands, "I¡¯m itching to brain Alpackers at this point. Point me where to smash Reggie. And hurry it up, would ya?"


    An irrepressible dragon of unbridled optimism, Lil, jokingly adds with a grin, "Hey, don¡¯t be bossy It¡¯s-A-Secret. We''ve got bigger fish to fry."


    Quipping her reply so quickly that even I¡¯m caught off guard, Te responds, ¡°I¡¯m not bossy, I¡¯m just aggressively helpful.¡±


    I can''t help but chuckle, the tension easing ever so slightly as I tease, "That¡¯s certainly one way to describe you Te, heh."


    Since I¡¯m levitating us with my telekinetic grips, floating us along, I¡¯m beyond arms¡¯ reach, and Teuila can¡¯t initiate an SFSF, a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight with me, so she playfully fumes my way before sticking her tongue out at me. Shaking my head while still chuckling, I direct us through yet another illusory wall. Passing through reveals a narrow, winding tunnel leading further into the depths of the stronghold, bypassing yet more magical traps.


    The air grows colder, the energy more intense as we traverse. I can feel the raw power of the storm coursing through the walls, the lightning in the crystalline tubes seeming to pulse in time with my own heartbeat. Oh, it might literally be pulsing in time with my heartbeat, because of my new symbiote, the lightning-spirit spiritswarm riding within me, coursing through my veins as it revels in my electrokinetic EM-field organ.


    As we move, I keep the Sister''s prophecy at the back of my mind. It''s a puzzle, a riddle wrapped in enigma, but I know that deciphering the intentions behind their as-always deliberate word choices holds the key to understanding what''s to come. For now, even though it¡¯s eating up a portion of my attention, I focus on the mission. We''re here to stop Al''pa''ca, to prevent the storm from being silenced, in the first place.


    Hopefully that¡¯s enough to keep the threads of fate from unraveling. Wait. Threads. Strings to hearts. My Heart. Lil is My Heart. Heart of the storm? Teuila is My Wings, and was temporarily the Storm Dragon Honoris Causa I think, unless she was joking about that being mixed into her titles. Even if she was joking, she¡¯s virtually a goddess of storms at this point with Mjolnir, Jarngripr, and her suites of abilities.


    Gazing back and forth between Lil and Teuila for a moment, my heart pounds, racing, as panic rises within me yet again. A prophecy in which Teuila dies, followed by a prophecy that could be maybe interpreted as the world ending in an echo of wrath unleashed upon her death!? Panting, my breathing becomes further labored until I¡¯m left gasping for air, clutching my chest and kneeling on my TK Surfboard. Shake it off Reggie, get a grip. Get ahold of yourself. That can¡¯t be what the Sister¡¯s warning meant. There were more parts to the prophecy, and their word choices are deliberate. Something that only fulfills one reading of one of the sentences probably isn¡¯t the right interpretation.


    Right, sure, just¡ª just gotta convince myself of that, of the logical¡ª. Huffing, rubbing my itchy eyes on my forearm, I catch Teuila frowning worriedly at me. Flashing her an apologetic smile, I shake my head, not wanting to bother filling her in on my random panicky thought train. I can hear Lil grumbling under his breath that floating along is even more boring than walking down the monotonous gray stone hallways. Before I can warn him, as we¡¯re just arriving in another room, he hops off of the telekinetic platform I¡¯d been using to have him surf around through the air with us. Of course, he lands on a mechanical pressure plate.


    Chuckling and fidgeting nervously, Lil utters, ¡°Ohhhhh crap,¡± before his voice takes on a high pitch with a questioning lilt, ¡°Whoops?¡±


    Immediately after Lil¡¯s blunder, the entrance and exit of the room we¡¯re in abruptly slam shut and seal with a hissing noise like a pressurized air lock. Shortly after, the rumbling sound of high-pressure fluid rushes through the pipes in the walls, filling the room. I¡¯m guessing the fluid itself will be filling the room next. Sighing, I cast a slightly annoyed glare at my best buddy who offers me an apologetic shrug accompanied by a nervous chuckle. Teuila¡¯s glare is quite a bit more annoyed than mine, but she just cracks her knuckles, and mimes rolling up her sleeves as she glances towards the far door.


    Te mimics Lil, leaping from her TK Surfboard before my warning can even form. My palm meets my face as Teuila''s landing echoes Lil''s earlier misstep with a telltale click. I shake my head, biting back laughter at our comedy of errors, while Teuila dons a bashful grin. A torrential wave bursts forth, Lil''s mishap now a gushing reality, as water engulfs the room, and a pack of giant electric eels is loosed into the water thanks to Teuila¡¯s blunder. Thankfully, our Shellcracker otter lineage and an arsenal of magic items turn dealing with a single flooded room into a non-issue.


    Similarly, as adventurers rivaling ancient dragons in strength, a pack of lightning-flinging eels, even in water, doesn¡¯t faze us or slow us down in the slightest. Lil morphs full-dragon, snapping up several eels at once, unfazed by the electric frenzy jolting his skull. While Lil is doing that, Teuila is taking an unusual stance, which I think might be a modified version of her Mirage Flash. Echoes of Teuila flicker around the room. In a blink, her fists connect, a simultaneous strike. Eels are decimated, and the exit shatters open, freeing us while simultaneously flooding the hallway we¡¯re about to traverse.


    Well, at least my friends know how to take responsibility for their choices. They offer me their best ''oops'' faces, and despite the gravity of our quest, laughter bubbles up. It''s absurd, this juxtaposition of goof and gloom. We¡¯ve got several prophecies breathing down our necks, and several thousand foes searching for us the way we¡¯d come from, yet here we stand drenched in water and irony. On top of all that, we¡¯re about to fight an evil ancient sand dragon archmage who may or may not possibly control hundreds of square miles of Worldstorm power condensed into a single room, or even object. These two goons, I love them to death. Oof. Let¡¯s just hope that that¡¯s not today.


    Lil, as cheerily as ever, pipes up, "Well, that was refreshing! Who knew this mission included a swim?"


    As we¡¯re starting to situate ourselves, catch our bearings, and dry off, Teuila snipes back, "Only you could find getting drenched in a dungeon ''refreshing.'' Next time, let''s stick to traps that don''t require a towel, huh?"


    Grinning like the utter goon he is, Lil responds, "Hey, at least I found the trap, right? That''s helpful... in a wet sort of way."


    Smirking and half-rolling her eyes, Teuila sarcastically agrees, "Oh, definitely. Next time we need a bath, we''ll just follow you blindly into a room. Who needs a spa day?"


    I honestly can¡¯t tell if Lil¡¯s serious as he answers Te, "Exactly! Always looking on the bright side. No more sand in the cracks of my scales! And look, now we''re all squeaky clean for the big fight."


    Teuila walks over and slaps Lil on the rump while grumbling, "Squeaky clean and waterlogged. You''re lucky we can all breathe water, or hold our breath, or you''d be on dish duty for a year."


    I¡¯m guessing at this point we¡¯re done trying to be stealthy. Between the explosion, the two groups of elites that had caught up to us, and us flooding a room and destroying several more walls, I¡¯m pretty sure the horde is onto us. So I don¡¯t stop the pair¡¯s joking bickering as Lil pleads, "Dish duty? But my claws scratch the plates. You wouldn''t want that, would you?"


    Snorting huffily, Te retorts, "I''d risk it. Might be worth it to teach you a lesson about trap detection."


    More quick-witted than I¡¯d usually give my buddy credit for, Lil quips, "Lesson learned: next time, send a water-proof scout ahead. Got any volunteers?"


    Not missing a beat, My-Wings proposes, "How about we volunteer you for trap-testing from now on? You seem to have a knack for finding them with your face."


    I can¡¯t help snorting with laughter while floating us down the tunnel as Lil agrees, "My face is very talented,¡± before he continues, ¡°But I think I''ll stick to using my eyes next time. Speaking of, does this water make my scales look shinier?"


    Snarkily, Te analogizes, "Sure, if by ''shinier'' you mean ''dripping wet and utterly clueless.'' But don''t worry, your scales are always... sparkly."


    It¡¯s really hard to tell if Lil is always playing along, or if he sometimes doesn¡¯t even get that he¡¯s being teased, as he chipperly chirps, "That''s the spirit! Always look for the silver lining. Or in my case, the shiny, wet scale lining."


    Teuila beans Lil in the back of his head with a tiny pebble while grumbling, "Sure, just keep your scales and your sense of humor intact. But if you trigger one more trap..."


    Interrupting her, making me question if Lil is ever as clueless as he sometimes seems, Lil queries, "You''ll what? Make me swim laps? Because I could use the exercise."


    Losing steam, Te comes back weakly with, "No, I''ll make you carry all our gear. Wet gear. See how you like being waterlogged."


    Since they¡¯re both monstrously strong, Te¡¯s last comment doesn¡¯t really come off as witty enough to need a comeback, but Lil shrugs and replies, "Challenge accepted! But let''s not make a habit of it. I prefer my adventures less... aquatic."


    Snorting half a laugh, Te mutters, "Agreed. Now shake off like a dog, Dragbutt, we''ve got a world to save. And try to keep the tidal waves to a minimum."


    My pair of gooberific goons continue their banter as we approach yet another obstacle. This one might actually require their attention though.

 B 6 C 184: Imagined Dragons

    At least the upcoming room isn¡¯t big enough to have an ultra-deadly sandstorm, but it¡¯s still packed full of sand, and Sands. That is, there¡¯s a pair of ancient yellow dragons that didn¡¯t show up on my thermal senses, because they¡¯re covered in warm sand. Fudge. Sighing, glancing at my companions, my sigh drops from exasperation to contentment, seeing Teuila. It¡¯s easy to forget that she¡¯s so stunning, and beautiful, when we spend so much time fighting, training, bleeding, pixelating, and nearly dying together. Still, I can¡¯t spend time ogling My-Wings right now, this is serious.


    Gazing towards Lil, my best buddy, I smile wide with a tear in my eye. Mostly, as with Teuila, just so grateful that he¡¯s alive after d¡¯rude room. Let¡¯s not get caught up in laughing at the absurdity of the coincidence of that name. Maybe we can turn this obstacle into an advantage. I mean, Shiz joined up with us, and even took a life-threatening hit for me, just on Atter¡¯s words. Do I have words good enough to convince these two? Or at least one of these two? Grimacing, full of self doubt, at the moment, I¡¯m not too certain of my chances.


    Still, I wouldn¡¯t be Reggie Shellcracker, the me that I want to be, if I didn¡¯t t¡ª. Try. Is this it? Is this the moment? My pulse escalates rapidly, and I struggle to refrain from hyperventilating as I gaze towards Teuila once again. Is this a point where I make a choice that might be in or out of character, and it costs Teuila her life? Does she? Does Lil? Gorram prophecies. Worse than useless, they¡¯re a deadly distraction filling me with worry, anxiety, doubt, dread, an¡ª. And that¡¯s what the sister wanted. She wanted me on edge.


    Her prophecy -is- important. But maybe the one about Teuila isn¡¯t. Was she trying to help me out by distracting me, by reminding me of a bigger picture? To keep me from wallowing in the self-doubt that might make the earlier prediction a self-fulfilling prophecy? Genre senses are saying around eighty to eighty-eight percent. Huh. Thanks Sisters Hidden in the Mists. Again. So the Teuila prediction is probably for if we act out of character for ourselves, or against one of my morals, or something. Something I wouldn¡¯t have done anyway, if it weren¡¯t for the prediction making me second-guess myself.


    Having another, larger, more-ominous prophecy hanging over us is its own foreboding, and bears looking into after we¡¯re done here. Am I sure we¡¯re all going to make it out of this, and succeed, because of my new revelation? No. Not at all. The sisters¡¯ prophecy could mean the three of us die here and fail. If -I¡¯m- the heart of the storm, its eye, its void at its center, upon my death, a wraith of wrath being unleashed is entirely plausible. Phooph. Alright. Back-burner it Reggie. Way too heavy to deal with right now. Right, right, righty right rightyo.


    He needn¡¯t even ask, but Lil jokes, ¡°So Rej, how¡¯d¡¯ya wanna handle this, boss?¡±


    Smirking and rolling my eyes, I shake my head and respond, ¡°The same way we do everytime Buddy, try to talk over these wyrms.¡±


    For some reason, after Lil comments, ¡°Big brain move Rej,¡± while sticking his tongue out at me, I expect him to continue, ¡®poit, narf, egad.¡¯


    Rattling my skull at the weirdness I launch myself into the room ahead of Lil and Teuila as I start in my usual fashion, ¡°I am Reggie Shellcracker, Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I am willing to offer you mercy, shelter, a home, and a peaceful life, should you simply let us pass to finish our mission of stopping Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, and his spellwork.¡±


    One of the ancient Sands snorts a laugh so hard that she blows dust devils my way. At least, I think that was a laugh. The other doesn¡¯t respond, but makes subtle eye contact, narrowing their eyes and casting a glance, flicking it towards the other. Huh. If I¡¯m reading this right, that one is willing to talk, if the other one is dead. Maybe not join our side or anything, and entirely unwilling to give away their possible defection if the laughing Sand might live to report on it. That makes sense I suppose.


    I¡¯m certainly not going to take off my psychic-blocking circlet when we know for a fact that at least one ancient Sand in this domain is an archmage. How the hell do I communicate the possibly dissension, or desertion, to my party, or signal my acknowledgment withou¡ª. A simple code. If I can get Te thinking about common hypotheticals, she¡¯s sure to figure it out. One hand out of two. How can I get her to think about the sound of one hand clapping, without outright saying it? It¡¯d be too obvious that I¡¯m signaling my friends, and might cost us the chance to talk to the silent dragon. Ah. Silence. Another hypothetical about silence. Easy.


    Pretending to be uninterested in their responses, I casually call back to my party members, ¡°Hey Te, Lil, do you guys remember? How does it go¡ª? If a single tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?¡±


    Crap, I shouldn¡¯t have added the word single. Well, the subtle Sand is remaining placid for the moment at least. The laughing Sand asks, ¡°What sense does that make? Of course it does.¡±


    Grinning cheekily, I float closer as I retort, ¡°So I assume you¡¯re not a fan of quantum theory or Schr?dinger''s cat?¡±


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    She boggles at me, her scaly face contorting, since none of what I said has any meaning on Rayileklia. I can¡¯t say I blame her. Fakeworld nonsense is pretty screwy. As I continue floating towards the pair, she growls, ¡°Enough! One more step and I¡¯ll¡ª¡°


    Smirking, snorting my own laugh, I know it¡¯s going to get me in trouble, but I can¡¯t help myself as I interrupt her with far more smarm than I¡¯m usually capable of, "Erm, sorry to interrupt, but technically, I''m not stepping¡ªI''m gliding. It''s something I guess you could call ''loophole locomotion''."


    Whoops. Yep, that cost me. Hah. Great. Smooth move Reggie. At least it got a laugh out of the subtle Sand on the other side. But now I¡¯ve got a pair of dragon jaws rushing my way. And that pair of dragon jaws has a pair of powerful allies rushing its way. Welp. Time for combat. Somehow, I feel like I¡¯m not taking this seriously enough, as I chuckle to myself. My emotions have been all over the place in this¡­ place. Blargh. Oh, yeah. Lotta trauma and flashbacks and¡ª, yeah, stuff. Yeah my mind¡¯s not screwed onto my shoulders right right now. Or into my head even, apparently.


    My thermal senses are picking up a massive heatwave closing in from its furthest edges. It¡¯s roiling, tumultuous, and it¡¯s headed this way from above. The bodies of the horde are packed so tightly that they¡¯re pushing a wave of heat ahead of them at extreme speeds. You¡¯d think at least some of them¡¯d have better things to do than just chase a trio of intruders. The horde is right behind us now. Crap. We probably won¡¯t have time to absorb either of the dragonforces from either of these ancients.


    Whistling for attention, I shunt myself aside with an LBBTKSL, god that acronym is unwieldy, but saying lightning burst boosted telekinetic square leap in my own head is just so much more mental clutter that I¡ª. Focus Reggie. Right, right. I¡¯ve got to give the subtle Sand some plausible deniability. Putting our butts further away from the horde at the same time is a good idea too.


    Calling out to Te and Lil, I shout, ¡°Better idea, change of plans, blast by to book it to the big bad boss battle, buddies!¡±


    Did I mean to do that? Friggin¡¯ hell my brain is weird. First, hearing rhyming zealotous Draconiacs, now me alliterating mid-battle like some comic-book superdoof. Teuila¡¯s lunge has her shattering scales on the laughing Sand¡¯s face, knocking the ancient yellow dragon for a loop, as Lil charges in with a belly full of, you guessed it, sand-meltingly-hot fire. Seems he¡¯d been stoking it even in his shrunken form. How the hell does that even work? He literally had less lung size, but I bet digitally it¡ª. Why do I even try to rationalize Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian things by Fakeworldian standards? Bluh.


    When the laughing Sand stops laughing, and instead cries out, ¡°What are you waiting for!? Get them Scirocco!¡± the subtle Sand calls back sarcastically, ¡°Of course Quicksand, your sagacity knows no bounds.¡±


    Huh, no love lost there I guess. I guess I know their names now too, rather than laughing Sand and subtle Sand, they¡¯re Quicksand and Scirroco. Which¡­ yeah. I honestly can¡¯t tell if this is one of those universal irony moments where it feels like reality is playing a joke on me, or if it just made sense to get named that way, being Sands after all. Calling them ancient Yellows feels awkward even if just mentally. It feels kinda, eh, racist somehow. Not sure why. Probably Fakeworld stuff. I dunno. Anyway, focus up Reggie.


    There are still traps up ahead, magical wardings, sigils, explosive glyphs and runes, spells set to go off if intruders are nearing. If we¡¯re being pursued, Quicksand will be on us more¡ª, well,¡ª quickly, pft. I mean she¡¯ll be the one hot on our tails, so we might be able to leverage the explosions and spells to our advantage, while possibly ingratiating ourselves to Scirocco. Though Scirocco has that sort of weasel-ey-ness that Yisstendahl had, that Ka¡¯thuul has. You just know they¡¯re going to stab us in the back.


    Genre senses are saying one-hundred percent. That doesn¡¯t happen. Except when it does, I guess. Not that I really needed some number to pop up in my head to confirm my gut instinct on that. One of Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s most trusted confidantes, nearest to his deepest sanctum, signaling me with their eyes in a way to indicate needing their companion to be dead before being willing to speak? Yeah, they¡¯re totally the type to use up, betray, and toss out anyone that stands in their way.


    Huh, that¡¯s the moment. Or rather, the choice. I can diverge from canon, make an out-of-character choice, and if I do, I lose Teuila. So, that¡¯s how it is huh Sisters? Me, the Reggie I want to be, is going to accept Scirocco¡¯s help, knowing they¡¯ll stab us in the back as soon as we take down Al¡¯pa¡¯ca. Somehow, I¡¯m supposed to believe that that¡¯s the option that doesn¡¯t end with Teuila derezzing. In this accelerated, slowed time, I breathe and sigh deeply, biting back my emotions. I can¡¯t even communicate any of this to my party, to the people that it matters most to, that matter the most to me.


    In this split instant as Teuila is buying us a momentary distraction by braining Quicksand heavily, I focus on the tunnels ahead of us. Drink it in Reggie. Sort this out. The path ahead is more perfectly paved, probably predictably posing a perilous pitfall to underestimate its perfidiousness preemptively. Did¡ª did I just do it again? Friggin¡¯ hell I need a nap. Today has been hell on my brain. We¡¯ve got a few dozen minutes before we¡¯re doing a fighting retreat the rest of the way to Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, with the horde hauling-ass our way as it were.


    Y¡¯know, based on their archetype, I bet Scirocco has a Latent, and it¡¯s probably mirage related. Mentally I¡¯m shaking my head and rolling my eyes at myself, but my genre senses are saying high seventies, low eighties percent that I¡¯m on the money. Imagine that, dragons with Latents that are thematic to their typing. Yeah, they¡¯ve got thematic Latents, and I¡¯ve got a Latent that required an imaginary dragon type that my dragon wife imagined up to be my Honoris Causa.


    Scirocco is moving slowly, or rather, at least not as fast as Quicksand, intentionally letting her catch up to us first. This¡¯ll buy Scirocco some plausible deniability if we fail, I understand their need for subtlety, whether or not they actually want mercy or to join the less evil side of this war. They seem to be making good on their signal at least. So, they want to join us to overthrow Al¡¯pa¡¯ca? Well, that¡¯s a revolution I suppose. Or, well, similar to one at least.

 B 6 C 185: Prelude to Peril on the Precipice of Power

    Phooph. I¡¯m using up a lot more figurative energy now. Well, no, literal energy, just not my mana pool from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, that I also call energy. I mean I¡¯m burning more calories as I LBBTKSL down through the tunnels, with Lil glassing the hallway around us as we go. I hear the occasional hiss of pain as melting stone lands on the sore snout of Quicksand as she chases us. Good job Lil buddy.


    Lil¡¯s breath wreathing the entire corridor downwards in flames is also setting off some of the spell-sigil traps as we approach them. That¡¯s a mixed bag of good and bad. Most of them are simple explosions. Some are less simple, and quite dangerous to intruders like us. I have to rapidly toggle into and out of my Void Dragon Honoris Causa, trying to keep pace with Lil and Teuila, so that they¡¯re enveloped in my void for the moments they¡¯re passing through the deadlier effects. It¡¯s no easy feat, and I¡¯m getting lightheaded, dizzy as I try to keep up with necessity during the chase.


    There¡¯s a lot of petrakinetic and petratransmutative magic along these halls, which makes sense for a sand dragon archmage. It just sucks for us. I¡¯m terrified of seeing Lil or Teuila suddenly turn to stone mid-flight, crashing into the ground and shattering before I have a chance to so much as react. Drawing shuddering breaths, I try to loose them as calmly and smoothly as possible to still my rattled nerves. It¡¯s not helping very much.


    Come on, come on, how much further? Hey Reggie. What is it now? What are you going to do if Al¡¯pa¡¯ca is behind some super powerful, magically sealed entrance? Please tell me you¡¯re effing joking. Well, think about it. Sand dragon archmage, deep within the belly of a place whose magical energies, and inner workings are off the charts. Shut up, please. No no, hold on a second, put some thought into it. Now!? You think about this, now!? Of all times!? Better late than never, right? Ugh, screw you, me.


    They¡¯re right though. Erm, I mean, I¡¯m right. Could my Honoris Causa tear a hole through some seemingly impenetrable defense? Almost definitely, but, depending on how much magic is flowing in per second, it could cost me dearly, possibly more than I can afford to pay. But¡­ Casting my senses back, Scirocco is following, a few moments behind Quicksand. Enough lag to be out of sight during a critical moment when Quicksand calls for aid. Enough time to give us a chance to finish Quicksand off if we pull out all the stops.


    If we can even just convince Scirocco to open the way to Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, even if they intend to betray us with the idea to trap us in with Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, that would be enough. Hell, it would be an optimal situation. Quicksand¡¯s corpse might even be near enough to where I make my stand, that I could siphon some of her dragonforce slowly over the battle.


    Crap, either the horde is getting even larger, or it¡¯s picking up speed. We¡¯ve got way less of a lead than I¡¯d hoped for, than I thought we did. We have to wrap up Quicksand quick, or there¡¯s no way Scirocco will talk to us with a horde of thousands strong as witnesses. They definitely seem like a weaselly, survival-of-themselves type. Teuila¡¯s sweating, and I know she hasn¡¯t even started physically exerting herself yet. I¡¯ve never seen her this nervous on Rayileklia. Until we started dealing with dragons, she probably felt invincible, and she seemed to be. Compared to everything else we ran into, humans, kobolds, dwarves, mite-hulk-adjacents, Teuila was¡ª is, unstoppable.


    Even once we¡¯d joined the Onyx Dawn¡¯s war against Terrorzin Teuila didn¡¯t seem bothered. She never really seems scared, unless it¡¯s about an emotional issue, but even less does she ever seem nervous. Yet at this moment in time, My-Wings, one of the most powerful people on this planet, is sweating anxiously. Her gorgeous, ruby-red, top-fade undercut, normally falling playfully to one side, is matted about her brow, bangs obscuring her vision. I¡¯d only ever seen it like this once before. At the end of everything. When we were headed to the Temple of Time on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas on our last day alive. That was a mixture of extreme perspiration from exertion, and anxiety, knowing that I believed Luni hinted at something with finality.


    Right now? She¡¯s not physically exerted at all. That speaks volumes about how anxious she is. What¡¯s going through your head right now Te? I wish I could risk taking off my circlet to find out, but I¡¯ve already seen psychic energies in some of the traps that we¡¯ve triggered. I can¡¯t risk getting locked down psychically, because you and Lil would be vulnerable. Are you worried about having to rely on me? Or are you worried for me? I know you aren¡¯t worried about the possibility of your own death. I wish I could reassure you, be there in your ocean of emotions, your mindscape, right now. It must be in so much turmoil to have your bangs and sweat stinging your eyes.


    My own eyes, now stinging with sweat and tears, I¡¯m forced to clench closed momentarily. Gulping, I try to blink away my emotions. Casting a gaze through the flames, towards Lil. He¡¯s come so far since his spheriform stage, the day I met him in Fire Biome. A little red sphere with a tail is now one of the most powerful red dragons to ever have lived¡ª on a planet he wasn¡¯t even born on. Not that he was ever born at all. Ugh, I¡¯m distracting myself. Still, with everything on the line, I need him to know. I¡ª. My tears flow freely, unbidden, and I can¡¯t stop them. Someone¡¯s waving a note in front of the scrying sensors back at the security center, but I can¡¯t read it through my tears.


    This is it, my retrocognition-built map says we¡¯ve just got one giant room before a tremendous vault door, sealed by incredible quantities of magic. If we bust in on Al¡¯pa¡¯ca straight away, we¡¯ll be facing him, Quicksand, and Scirocco, and gambling we can finish three ancient dragons before the horde arrives, or even finish them at all. If we face Quicksand out here, we might at least not have to face Scirocco, depending on how their betrayal plays out.


    Lil and Teuila are starting to outpace me, since they¡¯re both generally faster in a straight line, but I¡¯m more maneuverable, I stop them both with TK squares. Of course, this leaves me with an aching cranium, my skull pounding like renovations are going on inside, because my two SAP members easily shatter my TK squares, but the sudden telekinetic resistance ahead of them is enough to give them pause.


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    Just glancing into the antechamber, it''s like walking into a thundercloud''s heart ¨C if that heart was made of stone and magic. The air is electric, literally. My skin tingles with the static charge, a sensation that''s become all too familiar in this lightning-themed keep. The sharp tang of ozone is there, sure, but there''s something else under it, something... herbal? Yeah, notes of sage and something sharper, maybe juniper? It''s like walking into an apothecary during a storm.


    The room is just stupidly tremendous, with far too much open space. It¡¯s circular, and imposing, an echoing space that feels both empty, organically, spatially, yet filled, charged with danger. The walls, lined with crystalline conduits, pulse with lightning, casting eerie, flickering shadows everywhere. It''s like the entire room is alive with the dragon''s power, a network of electric veins feeding the heart of the fortress.


    I¡¯d half expect the fortress, or entire mountain to get up and start walking around with this much energy buzzing through it. Brr, I shudder at the thought. I convinced myself we wouldn¡¯t be fighting moon-sized monstrosities, or mechas, back before Vorz-whosit¡¯s Keep. Please don¡¯t let my initial joke have been correct.


    My eyes are drawn to the vault door. My senses were right about it. Enormous doesn''t do it justice; it''s colossal, a towering slab of what looks like reinforced obsidian, etched with runes that even from here, I can tell are no joke. I don''t need my thermal senses to know there''s serious power in, around, and behind that door. Fricklefrack. Yeah, yeah we were right. I cannot afford to spend the amount of runes it¡¯d take to dispel, or unlace even half of the magical wa¡ª. Wards. Hmf, well, whaddaya know? Still, if we can get away without using a limited resource before the big fight even starts, that¡¯d be better. Scirocco might be willing to open the way for us, in order to give us a chance at Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, hoping we finish each other off, intending to take out whoever¡¯s standing in the aftermath.


    Yeah, that¡¯s almost absolutely how it¡¯s going to go down. We¡¯ve got to watch out for Scirocco, but we can use every advantage we can get towards building our best staging-grounds. This room would be awful on the merits of just the far-too-open space alone, having to fight completely surrounded by foes. But it''s the traps that really catch my attention. Spells woven so intricately they''re almost beautiful ¨C if you ignore their deadly purpose. I can see the telltale shimmer of magical wards, glyphs that probably explode if you so much as breathe on them wrong. It''s a lethal tapestry, each thread a promise of pain or worse.


    The room ahead is lined with so much magic, and so many spells, I can¡¯t make heads or tails of it. I don¡¯t want to give Quicksand the space to move around in, where she¡¯ll have the home-court advantage, and an untold amount of magical backup at her disposal. Nor the horde, when they catch up to us. Plus, despite two of us being nearly immune to lightning, we¡¯re not immune, and if those conduits channeling lightning throughout the mountain were to break, unleashing everything? I¡¯m not sure even I¡¯d survive long. I can hear the overpowering hum of the lightning in the conduits, a constant, thrumming that resonates in my chest, or perhaps in my spiritswarm. It''s unsettling, like the keep is talking to us, to me, warning me. And that scent, the blend of magic and nature, it''s getting stronger, mingling with the metallic taste the air always has around so much electricity.


    I glance back at Teuila and Lil, my eyes saying what we all know: this is it, the final stretch. We''re standing on the edge of a knife, in the eye of the storm. We''ve faced a lot, but this? This is something else. I can feel the weight of the moment settling on us, heavy as the mountain above our heads.


    We face her, Quicksand, here, in the tunnel, as she¡¯s bearing down on us, not the room ahead. It takes only a glance, Teuila and Lil both nod, knowing what my signal meant. It¡¯s time. From here on out, we¡¯re fighting. No more running, no more sneaking and hiding. Everything that comes to call, we kill or be killed by. Everything is on the line.


    The Valkyrie, My-Wings, Teuila, a pure and powerful battle-maiden whose strength rivals dragons and demigods, dances the motions of a kata to end in her battle-stance. There she stands, poised for combat, with Mirage-Flash prepared as she wields Mjolnir. Lil melts a section of the tunnel around us to buy himself time to take a deep breath, his enormous chest heaving from exertion at having been flaming and flying down this long tunnel. His flames were powerful enough near the end there that even I was roasting, starting to char and sizzle.


    I know Lil can get hotter though, more deadly, more powerful. He was holding back, for our sakes. Shaking my head softly towards him, I wear a grim, sad frown, and he blinks in surprise, understanding completely. I nod, and though his lower lip quivers, he nods resolutely in response.


    There¡¯s no holding back this time. The odds are stacked against us by the thousandfold, several-thousandfold. If ever there were a time for us to push ourselves to our limits, and go, what was it Teuila called it so long ago now? A hundred plus a hundred, plus a hundred, plus she doesn¡¯t know, ultra percent? Yeah, if ever there was a time to go plus ultra percent, this is it. It¡¯s like she can hear me thinking about her, despite my psychic-blocking aegis being in place, as I see her flash me half of a wry smirk. When I catch the glint of a tear in her eye, she averts her gaze quickly, ready to meet Quicksand head on as the dragon finally reaches us.


    If ever there was a time for us to tap deep, deep into the reservoirs of our Latents, those basically superpowered abilities we have ¨C what''s the word I''m looking for ¨C our own personal quirks? Yeah, now''s that time. It feels like those times of intense training, pushing past limits. Sort of like when I went overboard with infinite mana on Lord Deckard Agni¡¯s back, or Teuila faced off against cragbeasts to find us a suitable staging ground, or when I had to face them alone, for days on end, my mind half-shut-off. In a story, it¡¯d be where the underdogs somehow find a way to overcome the insurmountable. Time for us to have that moment. I hope.


    Of course, then again, this isn¡¯t some training montage, this isn¡¯t us facing things that we outclass, that just outnumber us, this is us fighting the most elite, most powerful creatures on this planet, in numbers that are beyond insane. Rather than hoping to decimate our way through them like some spectacle-fighter action RPG, I¡ª. It¡¯d be like, if I had much more powerful versions of those weird little powercells, and I supercharged to overload them in a devastating nuclear sized blast after luring the horde away from innocents and allies, there''s that moment of sacrifice, where heroes give their all for something bigger than themselves. Looks like that¡¯s the moment we¡¯re in now, rather than the hopeful one.


    "Alright, guys," my voice uneasy, my conflicted shambles of sanity barely holding together, "Let''s dance with dragons."


    I don¡¯t expect it when Lil, Teuila, and Quicksand all break into laughter. That¡¯s for sure. Quicksand¡¯s still aiming for us, with deadly intent, yet her laughter is full of mirth, not malice. It wasn¡¯t *that* funny, was it? Sighing, I shake my head, but the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Magic. A lot of it. Being set off from a distance. F^&*!

 B 6 C 186: Sworn Enemies

    Things don¡¯t always¡ª, scratch that, they almost never, go exactly how you expect them to, or want them to. There¡¯s mental magic springing up all around us, it¡¯s like the walls themselves are erupting with hideous laughter. Lil and Teuila are virtually doubled-over at this point, and the laughter is screwing with Lil¡¯s breath-weapon lung-prep. He doesn¡¯t need to charge it, but he still needs to have a lungful of air to exhale.


    Well, at least this little wrinkle is something I can do something about, without wasting too many resources. Firing off two frosty lances into Quicksand¡¯s face, I proc the runic clips in my bangle, dousing her with a host of elements, bolstering Lil and Teuila, and freeing their minds from the unending laughter. It¡¯s weird that it¡¯s a runic shard clip of the essence of law that lets me free their minds, but hey, whatever works, right?


    To say Quicksand isn¡¯t pleased with this turn of events, this development, is an understatement. To say she¡¯s royally pissed, is barely cutting it close to the level of fury she suddenly displays at our audacity for being able to overcome the magical traps she triggered remotely from the room that sought our minds. Tough cookies Quicksand, mm, have I ever even eaten a cookie? In either lifetime? Friggin¡¯ hell, I could go for a snickerdoodle right about now. Or molasses, or good old fashioned chocolate chip. I¡¯d settle for friggin¡¯ raisin bran oatmeal cookies. Why the hell do I even know what those things are? Reggie, more important question. Yeah? Why aren¡¯t you paying attention to the ancient dragon whose jaw is inches from your face?


    Crap! LBBTKSL¡¯ing to the side, I manifest my Honoris Causa quickly under my breath, and catch Quicksand¡¯s right side, preventing the yellow-scaled behemoth of a woman from making it past us into the room where she¡¯d have an enormous advantage. My Void Dragon¡¯s form isn¡¯t strong enough to go against hers, she¡¯s more ancient, more powerful than anyone we¡¯ve faced thus far, save the Damnations, and she¡¯s not even the ruler of the domain. Thankfully, I¡¯m not in this alone, and, strength was never my - heh, - strong suit, but it is theirs.


    Teuila¡¯s Lunar Dragon form manifesting is still entrancing, enchanting to behold. I can¡¯t tell if the translucent scales are more opalescent, or pearlescent. Her scales are lucent, casting a radiant glow about them, despite being nearly transparent, and the musculature of her shoulders and neck as she catches Quicksand for a quick-toss¡ª. Ahem, right, focus. Lil hunkers low, gathers his breath, and clamps into Quicksand¡¯s front with his strong forelimbs, and the magnificent tusks of his underbite-protruding jaw. Immediately upon gripping her, he starts roasting her up close and personal-like.


    Of course, the second-in-command of a domain this powerful, and this large, has tricks of her own. As Quicksand begins to exhale a sandstorm that seems virtually alive, I bite my lips but hastily dig into several resources that I¡¯d been hoping to save for the horde. First, since she seems to lose cohesion in some ways, becoming partially intangible, almost made of sand, particles able to drift around us, I seal the entrance of the tunnel towards the open room with a mass of titanwood. Not great in the long-run, but I can¡¯t have her getting that advantage, especially since she¡¯s even more mobile than I had anticipated. Second, I ask Zorro how he¡¯s feeling about trying to lend a hand. My little vulpine elemental trills somewhere between sonically and telepathically.


    Casting out with Cla¨ªomh Solais, I¡¯m relieved that FFS is able to answer my call. Things are about to get really messy, and really hot. They have to do it fast, because Teuila¡¯s already working a bubble of water around her face to protect herself, but it¡¯s quickly turning to mud in Quicksand¡¯s onslaught. Lil¡¯s not doing much better as her animate sand breath seems to be trying to worm its way down his auditory canals and into crevices in his scales. I¡¯m really, really starting to hate sand. I think I agree with Lil. It¡¯s coarse, and it¡¯s rough, and it gets everywhere. It¡¯s quite irritating. Especially when wielded as a deadly living weapon.


    Teuila is trying to glass sand with the lightning she can produce via Mjolnir, and other effects she has available to her, but this magical, dragon-breath sand refuses to balk to lightning, as if its entire purpose is¡ª. Yeah. I get it. Sighing, I¡¯d facepalm if I weren¡¯t so focused on trying to end this threat. Her breath weapon is one of the main catalysts in the lightning-immunity of the keep. Its entire purpose *is* to not be balked by lightning, to protect against it.


    Alright, let¡¯s see how we do this, be careful Zorro. Lil, and Teuila are friends. You met Teuila last night. Lil¡¯s providing a bunch of extra fire. How much can I risk doing here? Or rather, how much am I risking the lives of my beloveds if I don¡¯t use everything at my disposal? We can leverage Lil¡¯s Latent, and Frostburn¡¯s slashblast, that offensive consumable we found on the Spellknights, FFS helping Zorro to pilot the flame as I enhance it with an elemental-rune dagger¡ª. Can I double up the enhancement by risking myself and empowering a single elemental rune with my will? My internals will be on fire until I find a way to cool them down. Let¡¯s see, cube the two¡ª. Slashblast to the eighth power? Holy crap. Please make sure you don¡¯t hurt Teuila or Lil you guys. Please, Zorro, FFS?


    There¡¯s a presence next to me, invisible, but massive. I see Scirocco far up the hallway, chasing along after Quicksand, but¡ª. But that Scirocco doesn¡¯t project the normal signs of life that would reach my extra senses. The one up the hallway is an illusion, a mirage. I think the real Scirocco is at my back. Probably for the best, with what¡¯s about to happen. Let¡¯s see, square, quad, to the eighth power. Blinking several times. I think I¡¯m about to need to use that protective consumable charm. This should produce an explosion with a several kilometer radius. Not enough to glass a whole desert like we fought our way through in the rude room, unrestrained, it¡¯d cool too quickly to melt and glass sand. In this hallway, with Lil breathing into it, with two fire elementals coaxing it into a contained area though? Phew.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Signaling Lil and Teuila, I begin backing up the tunnel, letting Quicksand think she¡¯s got us caught in a pincer with the approaching illusion of Scirocco. Focusing, I let the Titanwood block dissolve that had been blocking our way down into the room with all the magical wards and traps. With her back turned to it, Quicksand doesn¡¯t realize I¡¯ve unblocked the path. I did it to focus the force of this blast all the way down into that room, to destroy all those magical wards and spell glyphs and traps. Here goes,¡ªgulp¡ª pretty much everything. Te and Lil launch my way as the the savage storm of silicates that is Quicksand chases them furiously, her animate breath still trying to strangle or scour them or their insides.


    I pre-craft a rune of fire, building my will, my essence, my need into it. Drawing Frostburn in my non-dominant hand, I draw the fire-rune dagger with my other, and ask Zorro to hop out of my pouch down onto it. Good luck you little cutie. Come back to me, okay? FFS, time to come on out. Fishing out the two breakable consumables from the Spellknights, I chuck them at the nearest wall as I¡¯m thrusting Frostburn and tossing my fire-rune-enhanced knife. Spending a single SP, I ignite my own innards painfully, empowering an elemental rune without a spelliform.


    The two small magical items shatter against the wall, becoming a burst of light and colors, one forming a translucent shield where I will it, between us and Quicksand, the other becoming a myriad of sparkling prisms that trace the mana flowing through the air along the path of my fire-rune-enhanced knife. I¡¯m trying to keep my breathing steady, so as to not aggravate or excite the flames consuming me internally. Maybe if I carefully empower a cold rune to enhance a blast of frost, along with the ice-rune-enhanced knife, I can bring the burning down to equilibrium. That sort of maneuver is to fight the prolonged battle against the horde though.


    Zorro and FFS become a combined elemental, a living explosion with unheard-of ferocity and power, Lil¡¯s Latent, Solar, leveraged with my multipliers. It would be a sight to behold, probably. But Teuila and I shield our eyes as the world goes white. Even Lil folds a wing over his face. A thick, acrid scent assaults our nostrils, smoke filled with ammonia, sulfur, and a hint of an irritating dry earthy odor is a lingering assailant as the shriek of Quicksand fills our ears. Her scream of fury quickly becomes one of pain and terror as she begs Scirocco and Al¡¯pa¡¯ca for aid. Her body completely resolidifies, incapable of maintaining its semi-intangibility when so much of her is clumping into crystals and falling off as she¡¯s baked alive.


    The roiling blaze punches through Quicksand¡¯s defenses, literally striking like a fist, and slams her into the wall as she resumes her normal draconic shape, albeit, one small enough to fit in this tunnel. I cast my will down into the room with the spellwork and traps, pleading for FFS and Zorro to go wild within, destroying everything they can. I might not need to use Wardbreaker after all, in order to get us into Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s vault, but I¡¯m fairly certain I¡¯ll use it before our mission is over. The fire moves onwards, flowing gracefully like a dancer, and I wish I could spare time to admire it, to praise FFS and Zorro. Instead, I turn my attention back to the injured, very angry ancient sand dragon.


    Teuila¡¯s busy flushing out her nostrils and lungs with water, Lil and I are dazed, our ears ringing. So, when an invisible Scirocco starts to finish the job for us, engaging Quicksand, intent on slaying her, I¡¯m more than a bit surprised. I know he backed up with me, sensing I had a plan. He¡¯s keenly observant, and noticed my subtle signals to Teuila, so he was protected by the same magics I used to safeguard them. He¡¯s also tougher than I¡¯d have given him credit for, based on his subterfuge and weasily nature. Given that he doesn¡¯t seem dazed at all. Still, Quicksand isn¡¯t going down without a fight, though Scirocco has his jaw clamped around her maw in order to silence her, keeping her from screaming out his treachery, or calling for Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s aid.


    That¡ª would have worked for him, if the explosion, and my elementals, hadn¡¯t just blown through the enormous vault door, revealing Al¡¯pa¡¯ca right on the other side, staring this way in disbelief. Ohhhh crap. Things are about to get messy indeed. I need to force Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯ either out, or further into his vault, so I can use either this tunnel, or the entrance to his vault, as my staging grounds against the oncoming horde. Scirocco¡¯s treachery is on full display, but how¡¯s he going to play this, after seeing me use a single maneuver to produce all that power?


    There¡¯s so much magic going off chaotically, wildly between us, and Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s vault. And there¡¯s so much free lightning as well, from all the shattered crystalline conduits. I know I said I wouldn¡¯t want to take the hits, but my alternate form of lycanthrope RS2 is almost manifested. The one based on Linti, Lightning Hunter. Bzzt, ow. Ow. What¡¯s¡ª ow. What¡¯s going on? Oh no. My eyes flash wide.


    Pull Reggie, pull! I¡¯m¡ª, I¡¯m being stretched, like taffy, electrically. I¡¯m¡ª. Spiritswarm, please, please help. My EM-field organ isn¡¯t strong enough yet. If my form fully manifests, I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll disperse, and be dragged along into whatever nefarious spellwork Al¡¯pa¡¯ca is doing. The acrid scent of blazing char of Quicksand¡¯s burning scales and flesh is entirely replaced, washed out by fresh ozone as more and more electricity is loosed into the area.


    Gazing wildly towards Teuila, tears in my eyes, I reach for her, flicking my gaze towards her dimensional sheathe. I need her to know¡ª. She has to use Mjolnir. I can¡¯t speak, because half of my face is being pulled one way while different quarters of my head and face are being pulled in other directions entirely. I must look horrifying, because Teuila¡¯s face is aghast. Please Te, focus on¡ª. Scirocco turns towards me, us, and blankets us with layers of illusion, fog, and sand. It dampens the pull of the keep¡¯s inner workings, allowing me to regain control of myself. Not that he likely knew he was doing that.


    Hissing nearly silently, Scirocco offers, ¡°Say that you¡¯ll slay Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, and leave his dragonforce for me, and I¡¯ll see to it you make it out of here safely.¡±


    This is the moment. Te and Lil both know we need Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s dragonforce. They both know I hate being duplicitous. If I accept, I have to make the offer in good faith. The Sisters¡¯ prophecy rings repeatedly in my mind, helping ground me. Despite my gut feeling, despite knowing deep in my bones, he¡¯s going to betray us, I have to try. I have to offer that branch of trust. That¡¯s the me I have to be, if we don¡¯t want to lose Teuila.


    Gulping, I nod hesitantly and announce, ¡°I swear it.¡±

 B 6 C 187: Dragons Dilemma

    Scirocco nods, and responds rather quietly, sounding like he believes me. His cadence is almost conversational, as if talking about the weather as he says, ¡°Then you may leave this citadel alive. Do what I told you to do though, or you won¡¯t leave it at all."


    I glance over towards Teuila again, and then back towards Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s vault door.


    Lil whispers in my ear, hissing softly, as he gently nudges me with one of his taloned fists, "We''re getting outta here, partner. We''ve got this!"


    I blink away a tear. Chuckling, I nod at my best pal. We''ve got to defeat Quicksand and get into Al''pa''ca''s vault ay to the ess to the ay to the pee. Friggin'' heck my brain is weird. Spelling out acronyms like a highschool cheer. Anyway, Lil''s right, let''s do this thing. Scirocco has our backs, in more ways than one. Not all of which are good, mind you, and all of which ends with him stabbing us in them. I''m fairly positive on that last part. But for now, maybe his aid comes at a critical moment that prevents Teuila''s demise, so I have to give him the benefit of the doubt.


    Quicksand continues to writhe and thrash as Lil lets loose on her. She''s still alive, somehow. Her scales continue to smolder and burn, and her flesh is charred and blackened in places. She''s trying to build up another breath weapon charge, but hopefully she won''t live long enough to use it. Sighing, I hate how that sounds, even in my head, but she''s our foe, a deadly one at that, so I can''t let Fakeworld moral shenanigans get in my way right now. She''s going down.


    Lil continues to attack Quicksand with his fangs and claws, only grazing her scales, but where her scales are ashed, tearing into her flesh like it''s made of paper. I can only imagine how hard it must normally be to bite through an armored dragon''s tough skin, when it''s burning from being bathed in Lil''s flames, of all things. Gazing at her, I take in her draconic form, analyzing it once more. She''s a lot bigger than Lil is, and not nearly as agile or flexible, though she does appear to be able to move much quicker than Lil can, oddly enough. I''ll have to make a note of that, if we get out of this alive.


    As Lil relentlessly tears away at her body, using his heat and flame to cause damage, I begin to realize something. I''m not sure why it took me so long to figure it out. Based on the power of her breath weapon, Quicksand is probably a Bombastic, a Bellicose, or worse, and most likely, a Behemoth class dragon. She''s shrunken down, fitting into the rooms and tunnels of the keep, probably far more than was obvious at first glance. Ugh, her being a Behemoth class would explain why she¡¯s still hanging in there, despite the pain and damage she¡¯s suffered. Based on some charts Nala showed me, dragons generally classify each other in categories based on their respective strengths and intensities and such. What did it look like again? Oh yeah.


    <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><colgroup><col width="112"><col width="68"><col width="60"><col width="46"><col width="48"><col width="69"><col width="52"><col width="58"><col width="51"><col width="100"><col width="39"></colgroup>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td> </td>


    <td>Behemoth</td>


    <td>Bellicose</td>


    <td>Binder</td>


    <td>Blaster</td>


    <td>Bombastic</td>


    <td>Brawler</td>


    <td>Breather</td>


    <td>Bristled</td>


    <td>Brobdingnagian</td>


    <td>Brute</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Agility</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>A</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>A</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>C</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>C</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Alertness</td>


    <td>C</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>A</td>


    <td>A</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>C</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>B</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>BW_AOE</td>


    <td>C</td>


    <td>C</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>A</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>SSS</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>SS</td>


    <td>D</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>BW_Power</td>


    <td>SS</td>


    <td>SS</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>SS</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>SSS</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>SSS</td>


    <td>S</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Cooldown</td>


    <td>C</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>SSS</td>


    <td>A</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>A</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>DF_Radius</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>A</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>A</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>A</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>SSS</td>


    <td>A</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Overall Size</td>


    <td>SSS</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>C</td>


    <td>SSS+</td>


    <td>A</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Physical Power</td>


    <td>SSS+</td>


    <td>SSS</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>C</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>SSS</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>C</td>


    <td>SSS+</td>


    <td>S</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Toughness</td>


    <td>SSS</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>B</td>


    <td>S</td>


    <td>A</td>


    <td>C</td>


    <td>D</td>


    <td>SSS+</td>


    <td>SS</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Anyway, right, focus Reggie, focus. Teuila and Lil are going to town on Quicksand now, and it''s my job to get that chaotic mess of spells and lightning under control so we can get to Al''pa''ca. I start by casting my will down into the room with the vault doors, hoping the various traps and wards there were damaged enough by FFS and Zorro to allow me to wipe away the magic without using any SP. I attempt to bring my pulse under control, low and quiet, as I attempt to calm my mind and heart enough to work the magic. Sticking my tongue out of one corner of my mouth, like Lil does when he''s trying to focus hard on thinking, I furrow my brow, trying to remember what I planned the next step to be.


    Right, a QCR to number four, the lightning-cursed leg guards. Ah wonderful, yup, just great. A torrent of the highest quantity of unrestrained lightning likely in the history of Rayileklia, other than across the entire Worldstorm itself, is now headed straight for me. Come on electro-lycan form, EM-Field organ, Spiritswarm, come on. We can do this. Focus on your breathing. Take slow breaths in, slowly exhale, repeat. Let go of everything else except focusing on the task at hand. You can do this Reggie. Breathe in, breathe out. And maybe wish yourself luck for good measure. Yeah, good luck me, pft.


    Spinning with the electron pull, I focus on getting the lightning angled, so that the curse''s pull works like gravity on objects in orbit. Gravity pulls downward, but if you position an object correctly, it will naturally align with its orbital path, or where it wants to go. The same goes for lightning curses in this case, they pull toward their source, but also wrap around it, if positioned with their velocity angled just-so.


    Using a QCR back to number five, my Glacial Greaves, just as the mass of lightning is mostly concentrated at the three-hundredth degree or so of its swing, I''m a living lightning slingshot. Or maybe a discus? Whatever. As the mass of charged particles nears the end of its arc, I shift my weight slightly, shifting my center of gravity forward. This puts me exactly where I want to be, and without the curse drawing the lightning to me, I release it, sending it forward, down into the room with the chaotic surges of mana and broken spells.


    The electrical discharge causes further wild variations in the untamed spellwork, but, well, I''m me, wild variations are half of what I do. Figuratively anyway. If I can just--. Whoops. Probably shouldn¡¯t have been cocky even in my own head. The resulting shockwave knocks me and Lil down, toppling the two of us flat onto our backsides. Zorro and FFS are diminished and separated by the concussive force. FFS gets her bearings in her normal form, and Zorro races, scampering back towards me, frightened apparently. Within moments, Al¡¯pa¡¯ca dissipates FFS, which sucks, but I could call them back with the staff again. Not the effect I intended, but hey, I guess it worked, minus losing one of our bigger advantages. At least the traps, or the various magics from them, are tamed now, mostly.


    Glancing at Te, who''d somehow managed to plant herself against the blast, probably through raw strength, or one of her runic clips, she''s hammering on Quicksand''s cranium, literally. Despite how immensely powerful Te is, with every strike, her opponent seems to grow angrier and more agitated. Te''s blows are clearly hurting her badly too, causing her to grimace in pain each time she strikes, and stagger from exhaustion afterwards.


    Teuila manages to land a few solid hits before Quicksand grabs her in one massive, taloned hand. I might be worried for Teuila, if it weren''t for the fact that Quicksand seems to be virtually on death''s door. Still, I don''t exactly like seeing Teuila in a dangerous or vulnerable position, but I trust her to handle this. Her and Lil. I need to start preparing for the oncoming horde.


    Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s attention is starting to turn our way, and I can tell he¡¯s pondering spells to aid Quicksand out. The right spell, from this distance, I wouldn¡¯t be able to counter, and it could turn the tide against us. Our plan isn''t going exactly according to--plan. Sighing, I roll my eyes at my redundant mental narrative. Me being the first to engage Al''pa''ca'' is not how this is supposed to go. Yet here we are, with Lil and Te busy, maybe I can get Al''pa''ca to charge and waste his breath weapon on me, since they''re far more vulnerable if he''s also got a living-sand breath like Quicksand.


    That suffocating animation is no laughing matter. It''s gonna suck for anyone caught inside it that doesn''t have immunity from something like my neckchain of the ever-breathing. My descent towards the vault in my feline form is swift, faster than I¡¯m used to moving under my own power at ground level. It makes sense. I based the form on Linti, Lightning Hunter, and she was the fastest amongst us in the SAP. I wonder if she considered herself a member of our inner circle by the end? Sighing, I try to clear her from my thoughts. I can¡¯t afford to be caught up in reminiscing right now.


    Smirking, albeit a bit ruefully, knowing I won''t convince Al''pa''ca of all people, erm, dragons, to back down, I still announce my titles, "I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa! Cease your spellwork, surrender, and you may yet live."


    Al''pa''ca laughs loudly, and snorts. His retort is derisive as he responds, "You are no dragon. You are nothing cat, a child, a kitten. Your pathetic attempts to incite fear in me are laughable. I may be busy weaving the magic of the endless storm, but I can still crush you like the insect you are."


    Hearing that, I feel somewhat better about myself. I am nothing? He has no idea how right he is. Heh. My Void Dragon Honoris Causa manifests around me as Al''pa''ca continues his insults. Alright, let''s eff up his spellwork, so that he has to start taking us seriously. I risk a brief expenditure of dragonforce to call forth an actual void within my semi-tangible form, as I step towards the series of crystals and gauges and levers and valves that Al''pa''ca seems focused on.


    My Void Dragon Honoris Causa surrounds me. Between my electro-lycan form, and the Spiritswarm, and whatever other weird things are going on inside me, even my Honoris Causa begins to crackle with electricity. I begin to focus my will on the various mechanisms. They''re far too dangerous to simply just smash and hope for the best. They''re all different types of magical energy conduits, some that are tapped into or creating artificial leylines, and I''m pretty sure most of them are active, or at least partially functional.


    I begin to channel the energies of the Spiritswarm and my electro-lycan form, and carefully funnel them into the various mechanisms while my void nullifies oxygen and leyline connections and whatever else. Sparks fly, and the machinery starts to hum. I''m not sure if it''s because of my intervention or just the natural workings of the mechanisms themselves, but the rage that suddenly bubbles up within Al''pa''ca at my interference is virtually palpable. Oh, right he''s probably trying dragonfear on me, heh. Yeah, even if I weren¡¯t in a voidspace right now Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, those signals you¡¯re emitting wouldn¡¯t do a dang thing to me.


    That''s right Al''pa''ca, see that I''m immune to it, and assume that Lil and Teuila are as well, so we have one less wrinkle to deal with later. Going straight for ninth tier magic, eh Alpackers? I don''t blame you. I wouldn''t have expected anything less. Well, let''s see what we¡¯re up against.


    Hm, what the hell spell is he casting? Should I just counter it to be safe? Come on Reggie, focus, what runes are those? Is it better to save up your own SP, in case he has things that you know are deadly to Lil and Te, or to simply counter everything he casts until you''re out of SP? The spell he''s casting has the rune for psychic energy in it. Heh. Maybe if he casts it, and sees it does nothing on me, he''ll decide to stop casting spells in general? Worth a shot. I think.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    As Al''pa''ca''s spell begins to coalesce, I take a deep breath. He''s reversing while I''m advancing, which is perfect, now that he''s away from whatever tampering he''d been doing with the Worldstorm, we''re finally making progress on the objectives Kinzul needs us to accomplish here. Still, he''s surprisingly agile for someone in the middle of casting a ninth tier magic. The name Psychic Scream leaps into my mind, a moment too late, realizing it''s a psychic spell that covers a massive area.


    Psychic Scream? Crap. There''s a mind-shattering stun component to the spell along with psychic damage. It doesn''t effect me, and Al''pa''ca can exclude his allies, but Lil, and Te--. Where''s Lil? Teuila''s definitely stunned, virtually drooling as she''s once again grabbed by Quicksand. Apparently she''d broken free for at least a little bit. I--darn it all, friggin'' adorable goblinoid womens¡¯ names being common words and phrases. This is no time to be thinking of anyone that isn''t right here in the fight. Speaking of, where the crap is Lil?


    Oh Lil, my best buddy, my great pal, way to go. Being out of range when the spell landed, he was apparently trying to set something up. Now that he''s returned, he sees Teuila unmoving in Quicksand''s grasp. Come on buddy, finish off Quicksand, then get your arse in here with Te.


    Lil''s eyes widen, recognizing that his "It''s-A-Secret" is in danger, and he takes a step towards Quicksand, who''s now turned her attention towards him. Dang it Lil, I know you''ve got a lot of love for Te, but you need to finish Quicksand off quick! Yes, I heard myself, yet again. Lil''s distracted, making mistakes and taking hits as he prioritizes rescuing Te in her vulnerable state.


    Quicksand''s claws dig into Lil''s chest, tearing up several of his precious scales. I grimace, hardly able to focus on my own fight, falling victim to the same distraction Lil''d just succumbed to. Alright, alright, trust him Reggie, trust him. You traversed a whole world to be back together. You can trust Lil. Focus on your ow--Oof! Yeah, I shoulda seen that coming. A Psychic Scream is something that you don''t want to be hit with. I''m lucky that I''m not affected by it, due to my psi-blocking aegis circlet, but I''m not sure how much longer that luck will hold up. Especially since I just took an uppercut to my Honoris Causa, and a tail whipcrack to my actual face. Ow.


    Awe crap, Lil''s distracted again. He''s taken another step forward, and Quicksand has her jaws open wide, ready to bite down on Lil''s head, or at least try. She''s got his wings pinned to his torso though, and is slowly pulling him closer. But, Lil caught his breath, literally, while he was out of range for a moment. I don''t think I want to watch as Quicksand''s skull gets fried open from the inside now that Lil''s exhaling up into her throat.


    Al''pa''ca is attempting another ninth tier spell, not convinced that I''m immune to magic just yet, though he''s seen me immune to both dragonfear, and psychic spells. Which, hey, fair, I''m not, but he doesn''t know that, and if I can convince him I am, all the better. What spell is it this time? There are some runes in common with my Steely Body spell, but it''s much more intricate. Do I dare waste SP countering a defensive spell? What''d he just grab from his hoard? It looked like--crap--a miniature adamantite ingot.


    I can''t afford to waste any SP on a defensive spell. No, I need to focus on the offensive side of things. Plus it''s too late anyway, there goes the adamantite. Now Al''pa''ca''s skin has a metallic sheen. And since it''s a ninth tier spell, I''m guessing it''s way, way more powerful than Steely Body and Stoneskin. Hm, let''s test this. Sending a few attacks Al''pa''ca''s way, he brazenly takes them head on, and by that I mean he rams his face into them to show off his complete and total invulnerability.


    Well crap. Way to go Reggie. You let him become entirely invincible, an ancient dragon who can now charge his animate sand breath weapon, at his leisure. Oh, wait. Duh. Dispellation both dispels or counterspells. Heh, heh. Let''s see if I can get him to accept a few blows to the face, by lining up some attacks to land. Hey Reggie. Yeah? Remember when Fenric was pinned down? Of course, wh--ah. Yup. That is always gonna be friggin'' weird. Myself reminding myself of something that I don''t realize why it''s reminding me of it, until after the fact. How brain, how? Anyway, ugh, I have my Honoris Causa up, so Retrocognition would be a pain in the arse. I''ll just have to come up with a plan on the fly.


    Al''pa''ca keeps me on my toes, and I''m too distracted with dodging attacks he sends my way, and the other things rattling around in my skull to make plans. The best plan I can come up with, on the fly, is, well, I''ve already got my Honoris Causa up, and Al''pa''ca seems fixated on using his body, and not his breath, despite the fact that I can tell he¡¯s charging it. I do draw out my seeming inability to affect him a bit, wondering if his invulnerability will just wear off on its own relatively soon.


    If it''s anything like that impenetrable cage of force that Kinzul was entrapped in, it''s probably got a ten minute timer. I don''t want to give him ten minutes to think up a better strategy than me though. So I''ll just buy a minute or so, and hope Te recovers while Lil looks out for her. I still want to save my resources for the horde, so I''ll just prep some pummeling and a quickened cast of dispellation to wipe out his invulnerability.


    Quickening a maximum tier dispellation, so as to end his invulnerability is, well, quick enough of course, at least there''s that. But it''s expensive SP-wise. There goes a whole hundred thirty five SP. What is that, a hundred thirty nine down for the day? I did, what, four cantrip level spells to proc my runic clips twice two times, and one elemental empowerment rune, so a hundred forty down. Crap. I need to keep better track of these things. You''ve been a bit distracted today Reggie, plus your insides are aflame from that elemental empowerment. I know, I know, but that''s really just an excuse. Give yourself a break, you went into trauma headspace at least once. That screws with your head quite a bit. Alright, alright.


    Firing off a few freeform spiritual and physical frozen-fist-style subzero ice punches, along with my breath weapons, and swipes of my Honoris Causa''s claws, they all strike ol'' Alpackers here directly. I try not to giggle when I end up surprising the hell out of him. His invulnerability ends just as the blows are landing, while he''s leaning into them to take them on the chin. Like Jarrah once said, subtle spellcasting metamagical rigor or whatever-the-crap he called it. Al''pa''ca didn''t even see me dispelling his buffed up buff. Each hit cracks his nose, and causes him to flinch. It''s not nearly enough though, not even a start really. He''s a lot tougher than that. Despite the fact that Al''pa''ca''s not used to taking a beating, or even the idea that someone might want to hit him, and keep hitting him, he''s mostly fine. Sadly, a bit of pummeling''s not gonna cut it.


    I can sense he''s charging his breath weapon, so I''d like him to direct it all at me. To do that, I pull a Reggie Shellcracker special. I annoy him as I quip, "You know, you can''t keep this up forever. Sooner or later, one of us will probably tire. Here''s a spoiler, ain''t gonna be me, ''cause I can do this all day."


    He growls at me, snarling, "And I shall prevail over a child such as you, whelp."


    Trying to piss him off, I retort, "Blah blah blah. We''ve heard this all before. You''re not the first ancient that I¡¯ve defeated. Not the first. Not even the third, and you''re already getting predictable. Let''s get on with it. Or are you gonna waste all our time, hoping that we die of old age? Another spoiler? I''ve got as much longevity as you do, probably even more."


    Al''pa''ca spits a bit of blood, and chuckles, "You''re right. It''s not a race to the end of our lifespans, but to the moment I rend your skull from your torso. So let''s get on with it. We will fight, and you will perish."


    Glancing behind me, grinning, noticing Teuila''s recovered from her psychically stunned daze, I almost give up the cat in the bag? The ghost? The goat in the moat? What the hell''s the phrase for accidentally spilling a secret? Whatever. I nearly let on that I was just buying time with my not-so-witty repartee, as Te and Lil work together to put an end to Quicksand.


    Frustratingly, Quicksand had apparently taken a moment to regain her senses, and is now back in the fight. She''s got a nasty wound where Te''d been battering her skull with her hammer, and her face looks more than half cooked off. I''m honestly surprised at how resilient she is. Of course, she might have magic items on her person--age? Dragon--age? Whatever. She might have some boosts from something or other. That, and I¡¯m almost certain now that she¡¯s a Behemoth class dragon, just forced to be far, far smaller than her actual size. Plus, the ones closer to the center of Terrorzin''s domain are going to be more and more powerful than whatever we''ve faced thus far. Annoyingly enough.


    Being a complete doofus, I try to keep Al''pa''ca distracted a bit longer, by snarking a nit-pick, "Y''know, I don''t think my skull is connected to my torso anyway, technically it''s only partially attached, or however it is the spinal column works, with all the little vertebrae. So, no matter what, if you try to pull my head off of my torso specifically, you''re still gonna fail."


    The ire and fury in his face as I get pedantic with him would be priceless if this weren''t so serious. He roars, and his animate sand breath explodes outward. At the same time, Teuila and Lil''s combined might is finally too much for Quicksand. She''d managed to fend them off a few times, but in the end, she falls. It stings my eyes a bit, and isn''t the most pleasant experience, as it weathers my flesh, but I do manage to clock him a good one with my Honoris Causa''s claws, while he''s got his sand breath seeking out direct paths to my true body within the manifested form. To say he''s beginning to get pissed off that none of his abilities are working on me? That''s more than an understatement, heh.


    Al''pa''ca''s breath ends, and the room begins to fill with the sand. As his sandstorm clears, and the air settles once more, Al''pa''ca''s not even winded. But my attacks on him weren''t meant to be the heroic victory. I''m just the distraction. I giggle and wink at him as Lil and Te approach him. Teuila''s got her hammer held high, and Lil''s jaw¡¯s gaping, his tusks gleaming in the dim light, his eyes narrowed in a menacing manner. I roll my eyes at my SAP, but however they want to take him on is their business.


    Thankfully, Lil did the smart thing after finishing off Quicksand, and ripped open her chest for me, and dragged her corpse to the vault entrance. Now, I can prep for the horde, while also siphoning as much of her dragonforce as possible, to help keep myself topped off for the expenditures I''ve had today. Thanks buddy. Not that you can hear me right now.


    As I''m preparing for the horde, Al''pa''ca tries a different tact, "If you leave me the female, and your young pet red, you may live."


    Shaking my head, I respond, "Nope. Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, I¡¯m not here to bargain, for my life or otherwise. Even if I wanted to, they¡¯re not objects for me to own and decide on their fate, much less you."


    Lil adds, "Yeah! They''re not a bargaining chip. I mean, I''m not a bargaining chip. Err, I mean, we''re not bargaining chips!"


    Teuila probably shouldn''t be bursting out laughing right now, but I can''t exactly blame her after Lil''s outburst. Al''pa''ca seems a bit put off by her laughter too, because he looks confused as he glares at her. He''s also a bit wary, given her reaction.


    As Al''pa''ca''s gaze shifts towards me, to ascertain if I¡¯d given him my final answer, Teuila smirks and says, "Dragbutt¡¯s right, We''re not barganing chips. Here¡¯s a counteroffer. Surrender, and you''ll live. Or, keep fighting, and you''ll die."


    Al''pa''ca¡¯s attention returns to Teuila as laughs and responds, "I am the mighty Al''pa''ca, and you''re a human. A weak, pitiful human. You and your young red are no threat to me. This cat-child, this kitten, is hardly a challenge. You will die, and I will claim your corpses and artifacts for my hoard."


    Now it''s my turn to burst out laughing. First of all, hearing him pronounce his own name is effing hilarious. Secondly, Teuila ain''t a human Alpackers. I''ll let him find that out on his own, as she ignites her Honoris Causa. I mean, she''s actually not a dragon either, she''s an otter, but, heh-- never mind, not important right now. Focus Reggie. Focus.


    Te''s Honoris Causa manifests fully, and her eyes begin to glow as her dragonforce begins to coalesce. As her draconic energies flare, her Honoris Causa takes the form of a lithe, enormous, luminescent, lunar dragon. Teuila''s eyes are the most radiant they''ve ever been, and she''s glowing with an inner light. She''s absolutely stunning. Lil''s staring in awe, and even Al''pa''ca, an ancient dragon, is momentarily agape at her transcendent beauty. Or at least a beauty I find to be transcendent. Or maybe the audacity that yet another humanoid has a draconic spirit projection on par with ancient dragons, heh.


    Taking advantage of the brief window, Teuila strikes, launching Mjolnir at the stunned ancient, catching him square in the jaw. With a resounding crack, the hammer''s blow forces Al''pa''ca''s head to twist to one side. He staggers backwards a bit, and Teuila catches her returning hammer in one hand. Her hammer continues to glow brightly as she advances towards the stunned dragon.


    Al''pa''ca growls and begins to cast another spell. It doesn''t look like he''s attempting a ninth tier spell, but the runes seem familiar, and I can''t quite place it. I''m pretty sure it''s a utility or defensive spell, or a counterspell. Maybe he''s trying to dispel Te''s Honoris Causa, since it shares a fair number of runes with Dispellation. Fat chance Alpackers. It''s not a spell. Dispellation won''t do a dang thing to her Honoris Causa. I suppose you wouldn''t know that, since only Kinzul knows how to create and bequeath Honoris Causas. You probably wouldn''t have had a chance to experiment on them before.


    The spell fizzles, and Al''pa''ca grunts, as Lil launches himself into the air. His wings unfurl, and he''s suddenly soaring over the ancient, breathing fire on him. Lil hasn''t done a lot of aerial combat, and isn''t the best at it, but he''s decent. Plus, even his opening flame is still enough to singe, distract, and anger Al''pa''ca. That anger is enough though, impressively, annoyingly, Al¡¯pa¡¯ca has more ninth tier spells available, almost like me, able to just cast whatever within a large pool of resources. He starts to stop time.

 B 6 C 188: Meatier Mob

    Al''pa''ca starting to stop time steps into my purview, and since I don''t know all that he can do during stopped time, I don''t like it one bit. So, guess what? That ain''t happenin'' palsy walsy. Pft, I snort a laugh at my mental monologue as I drop another hundred thirty five SP on countering a maximum tier spell once more. Since I hadn''t shown off that I had the countering side of dispellation mastered yet, Al''pa''ca is surprised once more that his spell turns out useless. That''s what, 285 SP down for the day? And of course, infuriated as Lil and Te attempt to take advantage of his surprised state, he starts another spell.


    Welp. He is an archmage after all. This spell though? This is one I''ve definitely been saving my SP to stop. He begins summoning a meteor. Nope. Nope nope nope. Not gonna happen. Ah crap the advance runners of the horde are here, and my attention is split already, and I haven''t even started to siphon Quicksand''s dragonforce. Anyway, counter the spell Reggie, yet another one thirty five SP down. That''s four-twenty SP down for the day already. Snrk. Sighing, I recall the significance of that particular value on Fakeworld.


    Oh, wait, my math is wrong anyway. I was only at 275 SP down after that second dispellation, the one that countered the time stop. That puts me at four-ten, not four-twenty. Kinda almost unimportant, but, might be the difference between thinking I¡¯m out of SP, and having a couple more safe casts in me to proc my runic clips.


    The oncoming horde swells like a tidal wave of malice, a sea of scales, claws, and snarling maws, illuminated by the intermittent flashes of lightning-powered weapons, breath attacks, and minor spellwork from casters amidst their ranks. Ducking aside several blows, I make eye contact with several foes. Sighing, yes I heard the rhyme even in my head. Meeting their gazes shows that they''re glinting with savage intent.


    The boogers rush our way in a chaotic orchestra of roars and hisses, an overwhelming surge of bodies that seems to roll and undulate across the tunnel on the far side of the room I''m trying to block off, and the floor of that room. They''re rabid, fervent, each creature vying for its place at the forefront of the assault. As more and more of the friggin'' foes near, the clamor of their approach crescendos - a cacophony of guttural growls and the clashing of scales. It¡¯s an obnoxiously discordant tune of their thirst for battle, or rather, their thirst for my head and the heads of the rest of the SAP. They likely don''t think we''re that much of a threat that it''ll be an actual battle.


    This unruly swarm, no, mob, is vicious in ways I¡¯ve never seen before. Lightning lances are jabbed my way, which, thankfully are no more effective than regular lances in my current form. Less thankfully, regular lances still effing hurt. But at least this form regenerates. Hm, crap, how long can I keep it up? Side-eyeing, I''m glad no one''s in my head right now, seeing as Teuila already burst into laughter once today at that particular turn of phrase. What I meant to ask was; how long do my lycanthrope forms last again? Friggin'' crap on a cracker, he''s trying another meteor already.


    Al''pa''ca''s incantation conjures a nascent meteor, its fiery mass coalescing above, a swirling vortex of molten rock and flame that rapidly takes a more solidified mass, cooling the molten mass into solid stone yet pushing its released heat before it. Where''s he getting all this juice to be able to pump out ninth tier spells over and ov--. Oh, right, duh. He''s got his own artificial leylines to tap into. I can''t risk just popping them open, and letting all hell break loose though. I''d probably survive for a while. Te might survive with Mjolnir absorbing lightning, but Lil would be toast. Whether figuratively, or literally, that''s something I''d like my best bud to never be. Fudging heck. I''m getting surrounded because I''m getting distracted.


    My void dragon form lashes out, loosing its disorienting, and semi-nullifying, void-breath as I sweep about with its claws, clearing away the rabble that''d been able to sneak by me. I also manage to have it start consuming Quicksand''s heart, so that I can claim her dragonforce, and so that neither Al''pa''ca, nor any of the human-form dragons approaching can do so. Of course, I also blow another hundred-thirty-five SP, preventing Al''pa''ca''s newest meteor. A surge of my counterspell unravels it, dissipating the fiery orb into a shower of harmless sparks.


    It''s a bit odd that my only-semi-tangible form can masticate and swallow. Speaking of swallowing--so very glad Teuila isn''t in my head at the moment. Speaking of swallowing, dragons from the hoard are chewing at and pulling apart Quicksand''s corpse to make more room to join the assault on our SAP. I¡¯m drawing on her dragonforce as fast as I can, but I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m going to get enough of it to be considered one towards my cure. Also, this isn''t tenable. I''m up to five-forty-five SP used for the day already. One more spell and I''m--crap!


    Al''pa''ca is using magic and trinkets from his hoard to stave off Lil and Teuila, and he''s friggin'' calling another meteor. The ancient dickweasel weaves the fabric of his spell, a churning sphere of destructive energy takes shape, crackling with impending doom. Or at least impending ouchies. Pft. Come on Reggie, take this seriously. It''s another meteor. That, and several adult blues and sands are in their full dragon forms, loosing their breath weapons into the vault chamber from atop Quicksand''s corpse. Something I really don''t want happening.


    Te and Lil are being balked by temporary invisible walls of telekinetic force, and other tricks that Al''pa''ca is deploying from trinkets he''s got on him, or scattered about his hoard. Worse, an aperture is opening up in the vault. Ah, crap on a cracker, this just went from bad to a friggin'' nightmare! The aperture in the roof of this room is stretching wider, like the maw of some cosmic beast


    Ugh, of course it is. Yup, there it is, it looks like the Worldstorm is coming down atop our heads ¨C a slice of the Worldstorm at least, writhing and howling like it''s been personally offended by our existence. Of course, it''s under ol'' Alpacker''s control. It''s a chaotic dance of lightning and wind, all directed by our spellweave-tampering foe. The air''s thick with static, making every hair on my body stand on end, and not in a good way. That scent of ozone that''d been kinda obvious all over the place? Especially in the last room with the broken lightning conduits? Yeah, it''s hellaciously overpowering now.


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    The storm''s roar is like a thousand angry dragons screaming into the void, y''know, like the thousands of angry buttheads on one side me, screaming at me, Reggie the void Shellcracker. And it''s all funneling down right here, where we''re standing. Great, just great. As if dealing with one ancient, power-hungry, spell-slinging ancient sand dragon archmage protected by magic items, and his horde of thousands of followers crashing in against me, wasn''t enough, now we''ve got a chunk of the friggin'' Worldstorm to contend with. ''Cause why the hell not? Let''s just pile on the problems, shall we?


    This is beyond insane. It''s like Al''pa''ca''s got the worst weather of the century on speed-dial and thought, ''Hey, why not invite it to the party?'' And the worst part? This stormy gatecrasher is tearing through the chamber with a vengeance, zapping and swirling like it''s got a personal vendetta against us. Me in particular, of course, because I keep effing with and countering his spells, not that he can see me casting, but he''s smart enough to know it''s me messing with him. The river of lightning flowing my way and the acid clouds carrying it, reminds me vaguely of the main river on Can¡¯z¡¯aas, especially how I once jokingly thought that that particular body of water basically had it in for me. Because this body of water and lightning certainly does.


    I swear, if we get out of this, after I find my cure, I''m gonna need a vacation. Like, a long one, in the least stormy, least dragon-infested place I can find. A sunny beach, maybe? Yeah, sunny for sure at least. Somewhere with sunlight and absolutely, positively, no world-ending catastrophes.


    Well, the meteor takes priority for the moment. I know Te can weather one or two of ''em at this point easily enough. But the three of us being rocked by them? Especially since he seems to be able to just call down one after another after another? That''s just, ugh. How the hell should I deal with it? I mean, obviously, counter this one, but then I''m out of SP I can safely spend before another cast would end up with my muscles starting to falter and responding erratically at best.


    Alright, I need to buy myself a second to friggin'' think. All these breath weapons and physical weapons coming my way are too big a distraction, and my insides are still flame from the earlier empowerment of a fire rune without a spelliform. So, let''s start off with one of our free uses per day of our cold blast, use ice cold knife, and layer it up with an empowered ice rune on top of that. A glacier, and a few dozen frozen corpses of their allies, should take the hoard a few seconds to dig through at least.


    Gathering my focus, I unleash the cone of cold, a spiraling tempest of frost that multiplies as it expands. Time seems to slow as I observe it. Or maybe it does, layering up that much cold while being my void-like self with my Honoris Causa active, and attuned to, and so near the artificial electric leylines. It''s like watching a thousand icy fingers stretch out, each one branching into more, a fractal pattern of relentless cold. The air crackles with the shift in temperature, a visible mist forming as the moisture in the air succumbs to the sudden freeze. It''s a cascading wave of ice, enveloping everything in its path, turning the vault¡¯s antechamber into a frozen tableau.


    The cold takes a bite out of my thermal senses. It appears in them like a piercing, numbing growth absent of heat. It''s both exhilarating and daunting. It''s like commanding the glacier that sunk the Titanic to slide over, across, and through our foes, loosed upon them in this underground stronghold at Al''pa''ca''s seat of power.


    There, I can at least counter Al''pa''ca''s current spell, before he manages to pull a meteor through the spatial vortex that''s forming. Each attempt by Al''pa''ca thus far to summon his meteoric fury ended in frustration; the fiery orb would start to form, growing, threatening, before being undone by my swift intervention, unraveling like a dream at dawn. Not the Onyx Dawn though, they''re plenty dreamy, and not unraveled. Yet at least.


    Huff. Oh Dawn, we¡ª, I, can¡¯t afford to think about you right now. I countered his most recent meteor as well, and that¡¯s it. That¡¯s all I can really cast for the day. Another one-thirty-five SP down, putting me at six-eighty spent for the day. Sixteen SP left, not much I can do except some little pinging shots that I need to save on the off-chance that Lil and Teuila need to be freed from mental domination effects.


    In a safe location behind invisible barriers, Al''pa''ca looms large, a towering behemoth, though hopefully not another Behemoth class dragon. That''d suck having him be that durable. His scales are like weathered stone, his eyes burning like embers in a sandstorm. His presence, despite being a tad on the cowardly side, is still impressive, exuding ancient power and a cunning forged through centuries. His movements are deceptively graceful for his size, each frustrating gesture imbued with the ferocity of a desert wind, his voice a raspy wheedling rumble that resonates through the stone around us. His hide bears the scars of age-old battles, a tapestry of survival.


    Despite me hoping that, like members of the Onyx Dawn, he might not be all that familiar, or adept with magic items, since even Kinzul was impressed by my ability to pick up on the uses and applications of enchanted items quickly, Al''pa''ca wields his magical trinkets with the finesse of a seasoned mage. The thing that springs to life at his command, forming invisible barriers, looks like, well, a mcguffin from a certain cinematic universe. It''s a glowy cube, and it provides those barriers that repel Lil''s and Te''s attacks with a resonant hum.


    He deftly manipulates yet more arcane objects, each unleashing its own unique power or spell-like ability. There''s barriers, blasts of force, and shields of light, all orchestrating a defense as complex as it is formidable creating layers of magical protection that shimmer around him like a mirage. With a mere flick of his claw, Al''pa''ca activates another trinket, its glow intensifying as it augments his spellcasting, and he pops one of those magical might steroid potions. Oh no. Oh heck. Fudge. No no no no.


    I¡¯m pretty sure I recognize the auras enveloping Al¡¯pa¡¯ca. They maximize the damage of a spell, and bypass resistances, and possibly immunities as well. Could he tell that I¡¯d be past my safe SP limit if I cast another counterspell? Is that why he¡¯s risking using consumables or temporary charges of items? Or does he think one of them would make his spell uncounterable?


    We have to outlast him, and contend with the horde, with him behind completely invulnerable invisible barriers of force. If I counter it though, the horde¡¯s gonna break through and tear me to shreds before he even opens himself up to attacks by Lil and Teuila. Should I try another ice-rune empowered cone of cold to make a glacier? It¡¯d be smaller than the one that was also enhanced by my knife, but, could it maybe halt the meteor?


    I somehow doubt it. Rather, I think it¡¯d melt under the meteor¡¯s heat and pressure, and then cause a deadly as hell steam explosion in addition to the meteor¡¯s maximized, resistance-piercing damage. This is bad. This is really, really bad. Lil, Teuila, and Te''s Honoris Causa are trying to pierce the barriers, but it''s futile.


    As if Al''pa''ca could read my mind, he turns his gaze on me, his eyes afire, a sinister smile on his muzzle. The cocky bugger declares, "Now you face your fate, little kitten. It¡¯s time to meet your maker."


    Well crap. The meteor begins to descend, a roaring column of flame, an infernal deluge that sears the air, leaving the stench of burnt flesh and ozone in its wake.

 B 6 C 189: Meteor Maker

    I don''t know how much damage this meteor would do, but I''m guessing a whole lot. Actually, I can math it out, if it''s based on that one system. Combine all four meteors into one, max out that damage, and then double the damage from his magical steroid. Oh crap. Two-forty damage per meteor, four of them up to nine-sixty, doubled up to nineteen-twenty. Fun year supposedly, but not a fun number of damage to take in a single blow.


    Lil¡¯s already taken some bad hits today, and back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, his last max hp value that I recall was around twenty-two-hundred or so. My estimates with his growth on Rayileklia through Retrocognition said his new max health was around three k. If the hits he¡¯s suffered so far today have done over a third of his health in damage, Lil could die to this. I can¡¯t let that happen. What¡¯s this? Lil¡¯s evolving. I¡ª.


    Wait. Why does that seem familiar? Well, this might give him more of a buffer. He must have been working on reaching out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas for a while, since, well about eight minutes ago or so. Maybe that was why he¡¯d disappeared for a bit? So that he could figure out how to start focusing on it and keep up his focus during battle? Sounds plausible.


    Still, even if we assume that that doubles his max health, Lil¡¯s new form still has his injuries. Best case scenario, his new form adds three thousand health, putting him at maybe close to five k. More likely, it proportionately raised his health, so he¡¯s probably around four k. That¡¯s all assuming that this stage evolution for Lil is double his max health, which I have no basis of information for, and it¡¯s pure speculation. Even with best-case scenarios though, it¡¯s well-over a third of his best projected current health, and Al¡¯pa¡¯ca seems like he can keep slinging more of these meteors.


    Trying to glean any advantage I can, I study Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s clothing and magical equipment, and his motions. He¡¯s definitely got some kind of sash on, hidden in his scales, and at least one amulet. I¡¯m not sure if the skull and feathers are part of the same amulet or not, the cord seems like it could be looped a couple of times. The main feather almost looks like a, how do I put it, a burnt phoenix feather? But phoenixes can¡¯t burn, and that doesn¡¯t describe it properly. A charred phoenix feather? It¡¯s black as coal is what I¡¯m trying to get at.


    He¡¯s also been fiddling with dials and gauges and valves along the walls as he moved about, picking up trinkets and potions to utilize against us. His hoard of magical equipment seems to virtually swim around his ankles, carried by sand. Which, yeah, it probably is, and does, based on his ability to animate his sand breath and so on. Handy that, when you¡¯re nuking a whole room, to be able to keep your items from getting nuked along with your enemies in your little forcefield bubble. Well, it¡¯s not even little, it¡¯s pretty massive, all things considered.


    Boasting cockily, the archmage calls out, ¡°I am the ultimate storm lord, I need not even tap into my true potential to destroy you insects. Enjoy this astral tempest.¡±


    Ugh, instead of calling it meteor swarm or meteor storm, he¡ª. Yeah yeah, I get it. I even see the jerkwad archmage floating several more steroid potions towards himself. So he probably assumed that he¡¯d either overpower my counterspells, or just run me out of power before he did, with his artificial leyline network. I think Te¡¯s probably around six k health right now herself, but she can mitigate some of the damage with Shellcracker¡¯s Iceflame Spark, due to how it works not being resistance or immunity, but a partial absorption with a temp HP buffer aura.


    Then there¡¯s me. I¡¯m at, or was at, about fifty-two hundred health, before a couple of gut-wounds, in my lightning lycanthrope form. I don¡¯t know the exact value of HP per second that this form can regenerate, but let¡¯s just assume best case scenario, that I¡¯m back to max HP. If he spams three of these back to back, even I¡¯m toast. This one, it¡¯s too late to do anything about. Each of us in the SAP is gonna have to take it on the chin.


    Al¡¯pa¡¯ca has us cornered like rats in a maze I think is the phrase. Yes, I heard the rhyme, shut up me. I have no idea how Lil and Te are gonna be able to deal with this. But, I can tell he''s got a bunch of his steroids or whatever on him, and he''s just waiting for this one meteor to hit before he pops another one, and starts spamming ''em. He''s trying to overwhelm our defenses. I''m not even sure that I can do anything to counteract this or prevent our annihilation. This one''s going through, and it''s going to punch a hole in us, period, nothing I can do about it now. But what can I do against the next one, or the one after that, without running me out of safe SP?


    Cra-ap, what''s he doing now!? Al''pa''ca''s summoning an earthen golem. I can sense the vibrations from its approach, the earth shaking beneath my feet. It''s huge, gargantuan, a behemoth even. He''s got it forming up next to him, probably intending to have it protect him like an elite guard, standing at the ready. Just in case we do somehow weather all his meteors and whatever else he throws at us, until his barriers drop. Just friggin'' lovely. At least it''s taking time to form up and get its bearings. Maybe, if we could get in there, before it finished forming entirely, we could at least nip one problem in the bud.


    Hm, two problems, one stone. Or rather, two problems, one coat, one red dragon buddy. As the roaring, scorching, astral tempest bears down on us pushed ahead of this mountain of rock about to cave in our skulls, I do a dumb. Yes, a dumb. I doff my psi-blocking aegis circlet, so that I can contact my SAP.


    Reaching out to Lil, I plead, "Lil, buddy, shapeshift to your humanoid form. I''m going to get my Ravencoat over to you. Use it to teleport into the other side of the barriers with Al''pa''ca, and glass that sandy elemental before it can finish forming up. He''ll probably back off, and form up new barriers with that cube. But the Ravencoat''s got four charges in it. If you can either get him to burn out that cube, or get it away from him within four teleports, he''ll probably stop spamming meteors. I doubt he wants to take them on the chin himself. Plus, you''ll be inside his invulnerable barriers as the next meteors drop on me and Te."


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    Glancing my way, Lil frowns, and responds telepathically, "Okay Nilnil, if you''re sure. It sounds like a big brain Reggie plan to me. You and Te''ll be alright, won''t you?"


    My eyes watering at Lil''s concern, and also a bit at the resistance-piercing heat of the blazing meteor about to crush me, I nod, hoping I''m telling the truth when I answer, "Sure we will big guy. I love you pal. Grab the coat, feel that full Shellcracker family essence to utilize it, get in there and kick his ass. Priority one, the golem before it finishes forming, so that you can focus on priority two, the cube. Smash it if ya gotta."


    Before Lil can respond further, I have to don my psi-aegis circlet, because the meteor''s hitting right n--. Ow. Ow ow ow ow. My bones ache. The meteor begins to dissipate after achieving its goal of landing atop us. My Honoris Causa flickers out, dissipating with it, winking out and, I think going on cooldown or something. I suppose it was too much to hope that it could weather that much damage, when most ancient dragons have under a thousand max health. It might have prevented some of the damage from making it through to me, but I''m not holding my breath, or going to count on it, when strategizing.


    My skin''s crisped, my muscles feel like they''ve been cooked in the microwave. The ground is scorched, and the floor of the vault has a smoking hole, a crater the size of, well, most of the room. Lil looks like he was rocked by a hurricane, and has felt the pain of fire for the first time in his life. He''s looking rough as hell, and Te''s looking more than a little pissed off, and winded. Shellcracker''s Iceflame Spark, Iceyhot as she sometimes calls him, really helped her weather the blaze, but couldn''t do much against the crushing impact.


    A door from this storm vault into Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s treasure chamber is completely blown off its hinges, and likely going to be destroyed in the next impact. My glacier somehow held up fairly well, if you count losing a vast number of cubic feet, without dissipating entirely, holding up well. Rattling my skull as I lift my weary, aching body off the floor, I LBBTKSL towards Lil, using a number one from my QCR to don the Ravencoat. Oh, hey, side-benefit, I can feel my regeneration increasing with it on, since it''s got that strange rough Teuila had attached to it for me.


    I guess it really does increase my max health, and therefore my percentage regen, in this form at least. Doffing and chucking it towards Lil, I''m holding my breath while wearing my Wyverium chestplate. I flip around in reverse in the air, to head back towards my post at the entrance, because I see sparks and sand beginning to make it through the glacier.


    Lil does the coolest clothing donning transformation I have ever friggin'' seen. He grabs the Ravencoat midair, and it kinda swallows him, as he spins midair while adopting his humanoid form. He slips his arms flawlessly into the sleeves while they''re billowing from my toss, and he tugs down the coat into a perfect fit. It''s almost like his limbs move through an extra dimension within the coat, and they''re being shifted around to fit the form of the coat, not the other way around. His smirk tells me he can guess almost exactly what I''m thinking about as I gawk at him, grinning like a doofus.


    The Worldstorm chunk, this one that''s been on my arse for a while now, is starting to wear on me, and get on my nerves. Worse, exactly as expected, Al''pa''ca begins to put another meteor into play, quite pleased with himself, seeing how much devastation it wrought against us. Ugh, it sucks that his mnemonic is silent, and so good that his casting is way faster with meteor swarm than if I had to manually craft the runes. Kinda wish I could learn and utliize a mnemonic after seeing just how powerful they can be. I wouldn''t have to be quickening and increasing the costs of my spells all the friggin'' time, and some spells would be even faster than I can quicken ''em.


    Oh, right, focus Reggie. Worldstorm about to melt my face off with acid cloud, and lightning strikes, and another meteor rocketing down towards me ''n'' Te. The storm''s fury is an unending tempest, and the thunder''s roar is deafening. Teuila is doing her best to shield Lil from the worst of it as he figures out the mechanics of the ability of the coat, while I''ve gotta contend with the worst of everything. I mean, I''m trying to focus, and not just get swept up in the moment, but, it''s hard not to get distracted, and swept up. I mean, did you see how friggin'' cool Lil just was? Focus Reggie, more important things right now. Right, right. But seriously, did you? Shut up doofus.


    Just before impact, Lil vanishes, and a trio of ravens appears atop the still-forming huge earthen elemental myrmidon guard. As the second meteor hits, the ground shakes, and the air burns, igniting in a pure O2 or ozone explosion. I''m fairly positive they don''t make pancakes flatter than I feel right now. Crepes? Maybe. Pancakes? Nah. Plus the Worldstorm is unrelenting, an assault on the senses, a cacophonous roar and an explosion of acidic vapors that stings the nostrils, and causes my eyes to water painful streams of what I hope isn''t my vitreous fluid. Humor? Humour? I forget what it''s called. Not important at the moment.


    This is painful. Te and I are about to die. Al''pa''ca''s sending a third meteor in a row our way, max-power, resistance-piercing, damage-potential-boosted, and roided out the waz--huh? My spiritswarm is done consuming the magic from the items that''d be worthless outside Stormheart Keep. Phew, okay, that''s about enough raw magic to convert into enough temp-SP, for one more counterspell. Well, what''re ya waitin'' for Reggie? No time like the present to y''know, not get yer arse killed. I can sense Scirocco grimacing somewhere out in the antechamber, invisibly perched up along the ceiling in a corner.


    Yeah, thanks Roccy. Huff, huff. I kinda figured he wouldn''t do much to help after he''d already accidentally showed his hand to Al''pa''ca aiding us against Quicksand. But at least he is one less ancient we fought before taking on Al''pa''ca. That alone is worth something. Heck, he''s probably going to find some way to finish off Al''pa''ca while all of us are weakened, if we make it to that point, which might spare one or more of us from... dying. Yeah. That''s almost definitely what happens right before or right after he stabs us in the back. That''s what the prophecy about Teuila was about. That''s why I had to stay true to myself, and not second guess myself. That''s why the Sisters tossed me a further overwhelming prophecy that was confusing enough to get me to focus. So, there''s that too.


    A third meteor is bearing down, the roar of the Worldstorm and the crackle of flames, the rumbling of the ground and the shriek of the lightning, all intensify as Lil begins roasting Al''pa''ca and the huge earth elemental myrmidon guard simultaneously. It''s weird to see him doing it in a humanoid form, wearing my coat. But also kinda... sexy? Heh, erm, anyway. I''d better counter this stupid meteor before Te and I friggin'' die. Te''s fairing a bit better than me, she''s only taking like two thirds of the damage per hit due to Icey¡¯s buffer, but still, she''s sporting some bone fractures by the way she''s wincing, and she''s easily lost close to half of the health she had when she started the fight.


    If I wait til the last second to counter this meteor, my regeneration might just be enough to barely scrape by and survive a third. Even if we survive that one, I doubt Teuila or I will survive a fourth.

 B 6 C 190: Deadly Impact

    Thankfully my repeatedly broken bones and pulverized bodyparts regenerate quickly in this form. But still, ow, friggin'' ow. My body''s starting to rebel at the repeated abuse. My bones are still mending from the repeated fracturing, and I can''t feel half my extremities. The pain is excruciating, my mind is screaming at me, and it feels like a thousand knives are piercing through every part of me.


    Oh crap, the horde''s breaking through the glacier. Of course it is. Alright Reggie, counter this meteor. I begin to loose my magic, the runic matrix that unravels the meteor''s spellweave, and it starts to dissipate. It''s been a long time since I''ve really had to worry about heat or fire at all. The flaming heat of these resistance-piercing meteors is intense. But that''s two super meteors weathered, and another countered. Maybe, just maybe, he''s out of maximizing charges or potions or whatever? Panting, and gasping for breath, I can''t, huff, phew, read his aura right now. But I wouldn''t bet the farm on it.


    Lil, my gooberific pal, is haranguing and harassing Al''pa''ca, as he does a spinning axe kick to send this enormous mountain of glassed, crystallized sandy stone that used to be an elemental, careening into Al''pa''ca''s face. Thankfully, Al''pa''ca drops his primary barrier, and shuffles about to re-establish it, just like I planned. Way to go Lil, good job buddy. Three more charges in the coat. If you can keep his arse movin'', he won''t risk many more meteors. I''ve gotta focus on the swarm of the horde though. I trust you pal. Keep up the great work.


    Speaking of the swar--. Crap! I''ve gotta get ready for the next wave. A couple of them are wielding lightning-powered lances again, but they look more like they''re being wielded as spell foci rather than purely as weapons. Those''re gonna hurt. But, maybe, just maybe, I can get some good use outta a couple of them. I can siphon the lightning, so I''m not too worried about that part. The lances themselves don''t amount to a lot of HP worth of damage, so I don''t have to worry too much about that, as long as I keep moving, and don''t take another meteor to the face. But the fact that elite Spellknights are showing up, is bad juju. Wait, is that term offensive? Crap, I dunno. Bad mojo? Wait, ugh. Bad stuff. That''s one''ll work at least.


    Probably not the thing to be focusing on Reggie. I know, I know. Heh. Ugh, this brain, am I right? Yup. Get back to it. Spellknights incoming, with their own personal guards. Okay, so, maybe a few dozen. Not a full company, or an army, but a sizable force of ''em. There''s a couple with those fancy spears, a handful of lightning casters, and the rest are wielding swords or daggers. Huh, there¡¯s that iconography again. A nearly severed cord, or rope, held together by the barest thread of one knot, holding together a withered, ruined tree.


    What kind of spells ar-- sonnova. Another radiant lasermeister. I do not wanna see what that does to me or Teuila right now, and I don''t have Aegis here to throw off this one''s aim. At least the Worldstorm cloud following me around makes them balk. No one wants to suck down the acid from it ramming into their face, and I can drag it through packs of foes while I''m dodging around with my LBBTKSLs.


    Alright Reggie, stoneskin up, because you''re gonna have to take some of these hits to take down Spellknights efficiently. You''re also gonna need to be rocking some internal fire and frost a few times, pumping out some empowered elemental runes without spelliforms. One stoneskin down, two left for the¡ªyowch ow ow ow, lasers hurt. Two stoneskins down, one left for the day. Let''s buy ourselves some time with another mini glacier.


    Another cone of cold down, one left for the day, and now my insides are beginning to frost over, slowing my movements, but I bought myself some... time...? Well, I''d thought I did. But apparently some of these jerks can teleport even while frozen. Probably via contingency spells or one-use protective charms or something. Let''s see how they handle a fireball from Claiomh Solais, with a non spelliform, empowered, fire rune. Another one seventh of the staff''s charges down.


    Where are we at? Two bypassed wall spells, one summoning of FFS, and one fireball? Friggin'' hell I need to keep better track of this stuff. I''m pretty sure it''s just below about half of its total power. I could call FFS two more times safely, or drop three more fireballs or lightning bolts. Not that I''m gonna waste my time trying to use lightning bolts here. But you get the idea. Wait, did I use any charges earlier in the day, with the impostor and stuff? Crap, I can''t recall. Anyway, these Spellknights, or, rather, spellcasters, who made it through the ice after being hit by it, how''d they fare against the empowered fireball?


    Okay. Nice. They were not expecting to have to swap in to explosive resistance apparently. Now I''ve got a second to breathe, figure out what the hell to do about the next meteor. If there is anything I can do. I''m -still- dealing with the friggin'' chunk of Worldstorm too. But at least my insides aren''t frosted over. Yay for balancing out elements. Hm, balancing. Dark lightning? Negative lightning? Anti-lightning, that was it.


    I''ve gotta get my Giant Dire Shadow Weasel out. Well, after the point when Al''pa''ca stops spamming meteors, so that it can last more than a half second. Te''s menacing Al''pa''ca, keeping him from being able to get this way and screw with me or my blockade at the entrance, while Lil harries him. He''s actually starting to look a teensy bit worried that we''ve weathered or countered so many friggin'' meteors. I would be too pal. I would be too. Heh.


    Just audible over the din, I can barely hear Al¡¯pa¡¯ca claiming something, ¡°Fools! Terrorzin need not even the Beast of the End when I unleash my true potential. Just die like the gnats you are before I choose to get serious.¡±


    Right. I¡¯m supposed to believe that spamming the most powerful magic in almost any universe, while chugging consumables to buff it out the wazoo is not getting serious? But anyway. I''m going to abuse this heat-seeking, or, well, Reggie-seeking, Worldstorm cloud for a bit. Then use a Greatest Shadow Evocation of anti-lightning, boosted by a spiritswarm, my affinity for absence, and my lightning-lycanthrope form. I think being a higher level spell, and having those multipliers, should put it on par with what Teuila pulled off in the animated chain room. Maybe a bit more if I''m lucky. If I''m really lucky, it might refresh the cooldown on my Honoris Causa''s revival.


    If it looks like they''re going to fully get through the glaciers, I''ll pack in some slowing fields, and if they cluster up in those, I''ll loose a GSE Darkest Star''s Event Horizon. What else is, huh. Security center''s holding up a note that says Kinzul was frantic, panicking, thinking Te and I had died, but confused, since she could sense we were still active living members of the Order. Probably because our Honoris Causas were extinguished for the first time ever. I doubt anyone she''d bequeathed an Honoris Causa to before now had more HP than the Honoris Causa itself. Heh. Poor Administrator, my dear Kinzul.


    Wait, crap. I can''t do any GSEs for the same reason I can''t counter any more meteors. I don''t have the free safe SP, or, do I? The spiritswarm wasn''t very exact with letting me know how many safe free temp SP was generated by the consumption of the enchantments on those useless magic items. I''m positive that it was more than one counterspell worth of SP, but not confident it was equal to, let alone more, than two. There''s a fair degree of wiggle room in there, that might be able to fire off one or two GSEs.


    I think it''ll be worth it, by the time we''re running on backup resources and weird tricks like the slowing fields to group up enemies and stuff. Well, assuming we live that long. Lil''s doing great, but I haven''t been able to keep track of how many times he''s gotten Al''pa''ca to move, or how many charges of the coat he''d used. Hm. I wonder what a wall of stone boosted by an empowered, non-spelliform stone rune would do, with the runic clips that protect me from petrification. I think they might protect me from the backlash of empowering the rune. Woah. That could be huge for this battle.


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    Plus, I forget that I can walk through stone. I can be pinging off big AoEs while they''re working away at my glacier. Guess what Reggie? What? Strategy just levelled up a bit. Things just went from, "How the hell am I gonna handle this?" to, "I might possibly be able to handle this." It''s somethin'' at least. Though I''ve gotta make sure I''m not in any part of stone that gets hit by a meteor, or that''s it, instant death. My bodyparts separate, as partially melded stone. I''ve also gotta make sure not to pop out in predictable locations that the horde might think to attack, for the same reason.


    Hm. I wonder. Oh, hey, Lil''s using one more charge, and, he''s forming up while Al''pa''ca is trying something new. Even from here, it looks like the Ravencoat is out of charges. Phooph. Not great. If Lil can just manage to swipe that frickin'' cube, or run it out of charges--. Yes! Al''pa''ca still has some temporary barriers to beat through, from the various consumables he''d been popping, and trinkets he''d been fiddling with, but Lil just destroyed that cube. No more semi-permanent, completely indestructible walls for you Alpackers. Shame the item had to be destroyed, but better it than us.


    The horde is starting to break through the glacier. I''m gonna need to start taking some big risks, but at least I''m not dead. Yet. Al''pa''ca and Lil are going at it, and Teuila is ready to cave Alpacker''s friggin'' skull in, for a lot of reasons. I don''t blame her one bit. The Worldstorm cloud is still bearing down on me. Its acid vapors are beginning to corrode the ceiling, and it''s a constant, unrelenting torrent of noise. The storm''s roar is deafening, and the air reeks of ozone, the crackle of lightning is similarly relentless to the roar of thunder.


    Slipping into the stone, ugh, it feels like I''m dragging my eyeballs through the rear of my skull. But it''s letting me position myself to unleash a little bit of hell. Holy hell. I mean, not what I''ll be unleashing, but friggin'' ay. The throng of bodies on this side of the wall is a stampede. It''s all shoulder to shoulder, tail to chest, and even talon or wingtip to head, as the horde surges forth towards my glacier covering Quicksand''s corpse, and the corpses of some of their friends. Or, well, allies at least. I''ve got no idea if any of these mooks are friends with each other.


    Oh, hey, would-ya look-at that. The cloud is still chasing me, but now it''s causing a bit of turmoil in the ranks of the buttheads up front. I''ve gotta be careful. If they can tell it''s headed towards me, they can figure out my position, and shatter the stone I''m in. Or, if I let it catch up to me, it could dissolve or shatter the stone I''m in. Hm, heck, the whole chamber''s stone. If I''m careful, and do things just right, I could buy us a lot of time. It could end up caving in the whole friggin'' antechamber, which would be perfect, if I was that lucky. I doubt I''m that lucky. But, I might not have a choice. It''s not like they''re gonna give me a ton of space to maneuver.


    So, I''ll use some non-spelliform empowerment, to cast a Greater Stone Wall, and-- oh, hey Scirocco. I literally bumped into him. I almost want to joke, and say something about it to him out loud, but then I''d reveal both of our positions, and neither of us wants that. Hm, seems he realizes Al''pa''ca isn''t likely to use any more maximized meteors, now that he''d hit himself too. There goes Roccy, into the danger zone. Or, well, out of it. Then again, it''s hard to tell which area is more dangerous right now, but at least in there, he''ll have more room to breathe. I''ll head back that way, and let the horde break through just enough so that he can get through before I start layering down my abilities.


    It''s a delicate balance. If I let them through too much, they''ll swarm in on me and tear me apart. I only want to let just enough through for Scirocco to be able to squeeze into the vault. I have a feeling that he knows some of the magic items Al''pa''ca keeps, and he might either keep them out of Al''pa''ca''s hands, or use them against the archmage. Or maybe against us, or maybe against both. Hard to say. He did help us, in his own way, against Quicksand. So I''m inclined to try to assume the best. Well, that¡¯s a lie. Not the best, but, at least not the most awful most immediate betrayal.


    Scirocco''s been tagging along with us for a while now, but he''s mostly more of a lurker in the shadows, watching and waiting. Other than a couple brief moments of help against Quicksand, he hasn¡¯t participated much in our conflict at all, on either side. He hasn''t yet directly acted against the SAP. His involvement with Quicksand was, well, indirect, at best for most of the fight. At worst, it was him just letting another ancient dragon and the horde do his work for him, in case we were going to fail anyway. Not a vote of confidence, but not betrayal technically either.


    Te and Lil are pounding the hell out of the temp barriers and other stuff Al''pa''ca had conjured to protect himself, but still not making a dent or headway on the ancient himself. It''s disconcerting, and I sort of wish I had saved the Wardbreaker, for this, instead of using it on the vault door. Wait, did I use it? Heh, nope. I was going to use it on the vault door, but Zorro and FFS blew the crap out of it. Awesome.


    Ol¡¯ Packbutt''s layering up some more barrier stuff, and I don''t know exactly how much he has, but I can''t wait until I''m positive he''s used up everything in his hoard. That might give the horde the time to turn the tide. Alrighty. Let''s just hope offering a window of opportunity for Lil and Teuila to take advantage of, works out for us, eh? LBBTKSL''ing towards Al''pa''ca, I whip out the Wardbreaker single use spellpaper.


    Seeming to catch a break, I loose the Wardbreaker enchantment on Al''pa''ca as Lil and Te are both about to land a solid strike. But apparently he didn''t want to take that strike even with his wards up. The weasel popped a twinned psychic dazing enchantment spell on my beloved Teuila and best pal Lil. Fudge. Well. Two SP to deal with that, plinking him in the snout with rays of frost and proc''ing all the metamagical runic clips in my bangle, I free Lil and Teuila from their dazes. It offers them the tiny buffer of a few temp hp in the form of that shimmery translucent ultra-thin ward, and, it screws up Al''pa''ca''s next two fumblesome attempts at combat maneuvers.


    Of course, seeing Teuila and Lil free, he immediately starts popping and chugging potions and other abilities to get new wards up, after I''d just destroyed all his over-stacked wards. Grr, an archmage in his seat of power is a pain in the arse to take down. Well, we expected that Reggie. Back to it. Get to the horde. Pop down some Titanwood in a couple of strategic places, spending everything you have left in the Cosmic Roundsheath. Walk around through the wall, and unleash the rest of your cold powers and empower the casting. Now empower a summoning of a greater fire elemental in order to keep the frost from effing me over.


    Alright. That should buy me a few minutes. At least two, because that empowered burninator is wreaking havoc as it flows through the horde like liquid magma. I can see a bunch of casters starting to put up fire resistances and immunities on themselves and others. But, while focusing on that, they''re not focusing on tunneling through the glacier and bodies of their fallen allies to get to the vault. Plus, the elemental can still punch them, since it can achieve full tangibility.


    The minutes start to flow into each other, as I monitor all the situations that I can, and continue popping abilities as necessary to prolong the amount of time we have before we''re facing essentially nearly the full might of the horde. I''ve got the vault antechamber nearly clear of enemies, and packed with an empowered cast of a stone wall. It''ll take them a bit to chip into it and dig into it, then dig through all the corpses, since they''re now funneled back into the tunnel, where they can''t manage nearly as many bodies simultaneously in the lead. I''ve also rigged a little rockslide for when they do get through. Whew. Running low on resources though.


    Right after that thought? That¡¯s when I sense it. The magical weave that makes up the foundation of Rayileklia¡¯s spellworking system, magic itself? It gets tugged on, hard. Ninth tier magic, again. Even if I had the resources, I¡¯m not in position to see or counter the spell. It goes off, and all I can do is pray that the effects weren¡¯t devastating as I turn back to race towards the vault to see what Al¡¯pa¡¯ca had cast. Then, before I¡¯ve even covered half the distance, I feel it, ninth tier magic, again, and I¡¯m overcome with a sense of dread.

 B 6 C 191: Going Mythic: Chromatic Awakening

    As I race, the floor, the walls, and the ceiling all shudder. An ominous rumbling begins, and it shakes the whole gorram Keep. My senses are overwhelmed as the magical weave is twisted and distorted. My stomach turns. I don''t have any way to prepare for this. The tremors are nearly lethal while I''m walking slowly through stone. Trudging through solid stone, feeling like I''m gonna barf my brains out, or like I¡¯m trailing my eyeballs behind me, is unpleasant enough. Having to worry that My torso might be rent in two out of nowhere is more than I can handle right now.


    Ahead, somewhere beyond my temporary shaking stone prison, Al''pa''ca looms larger in my other senses, since I can¡¯t see anything but stone at the moment. His aura is exuding a feeling of pride, a sense of self-righteousness, and an overconfident cockiness, but there''s something off about him. Finally the shaking stops for a moment, so I break free of the wall before it starts again, so that I¡¯m not in constant risk of instant decapitation or separation of my torso or limbs. Eugh, bad memories.


    What. That¡­ is Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, right? He''s just inky. Like, pure black, matte black, no color whatsoever. That, and there''s a large black dome that Te and Lil are hammering on instead of Al''pa''ca. I want to cry out a warning to them, but they seem plenty aware of his weird inky form. Te and Lil both look like hell warmed over, like they took some really nasty hits while I was focusing on the horde. Wait, is it hell warmed over, death froze over, hell froze over, or death warmed over, when someone looks dead as shiz? Reggie! Focus! Right, right, sorry.


    I feel the tugging again, on the magical weave, but it''s not coming from the shadow of Al''pa''ca, sort of. It''s coming from inside the black dome, but funneled through the--. It''s like a simulacrum, and I think that while it''s alive, that dome is gonna stay impenetrable. Not only that, but he can use it as his point of origin for his spellcasting while he remains safe inside. Have they tried hitting the shade of him yet? Is it invulnerable too?


    Scirocco doesn''t seem to think so, but he''s waiting us out. Al''pa''ca is basically dead, ripe for the picking, and he''s hoping Al''pa''ca finishes one or more of us off with Te and Lil looking like they''re on death''s door too. That dirty rotten sneaking scoundrel. Oh if only somebody could have guessed he''d try to backstab us. Oh, wait, we all did. Grr, technically he''s not doing anything, but that''s exactly the problem. He could finish this in our favor. Do I call the deal off? Is the moment passed? Or does he make a last minute, eleventh hour heel face turn or something?


    Scirocco''s getting greedy and antsy, sneaking up on Te and Lil, getting himself in prime position to finish off both them and Al''pa''ca at the same time. I''ve gotta take out Al''pa''ca first, or something. I don''t know if Te and Lil can sense our invisible erstwhile ally. Come on Reggie. What''ve ya got left? Well, we''ve, heh, got, haha, Giant Dire Shadow Weasels. A bit more than that too, but, huff, let''s see if I can pick apart that shadow before it takes Lil and Te out, or before Scirocco ends all three of them. Come on Reggie, quick, do the math. Scope it out, figure out what it''s likely got. Dip your brain into the non. Slip into the absence of the flow of time.


    Sliding into a frozen moment between moments, I look to Retrocognition to tell me about what the shadow is. Huh, it''s... a copy of Al''pa''ca? No. That''s not quite exactly the case. It''s¡ªuh¡ªmore like an extension of Al''pa''ca and temporary life force. A temporary life-force that will rejoin and bolster him, sometime soon. Likely from a contingency item. Based on the shade¡¯s locations as it repositions, it can only go so far safely away from him, for some reason or another. Whether it''s an absolute tether, or if he''s just trying to keep in range to use it as a spellcasting point of origin, or something else entirely, I can''t tell for sure.


    Retrocognition says about sixty percent chance, that the shade has low health, and that Al''pa''ca has even lower. Like, tabletop-wise, Packbutt might be in single digits. I can see why Te and Lil want to get it over with, and get to him. Especially looking through Retrocognition, and seeing how evasive his shade has been.


    So how did it go in the first place? Play it back in Retrocognition based on the senses we weren¡¯t fully paying attention to. Alright, a little bit ago, Te¡¯s going in for a strike, when Lil roasts Al¡¯pa¡¯ca enough that he topples in exhaustion. Teuila slams into a surprise dome of invulnerable darkness, and winces, nursing her hand.


    There was an eerie moment, where everything was still, then bam, they¡¯re suddenly in the presence of this shadow version of Al''pa''ca that starts rising from the orb around his beaten body like something out of a nightmare. It''s kinda like his evil twin made of pure darkness and spite, his own personal bogeyman, all of a sudden decided to join the party. It really looks a bit like a bad photocopy or underexposed photograph.


    This shadow Al''pa''ca is all kinds of nightmare fuel. It''s like his sinister soul decided to go for a midnight stroll after crawling straight out of the underworld for a bit of fun. It''s shrouded in this impossible blackness, darker than the ocean¡¯s timorous depths, which somehow makes it -seem- impervious, since you can¡¯t tell if your attacks are doing anything, and it¡¯s definitely more resilient than regular Packbutt defensively. Ugh, resilient, and evasive? Friggin¡¯ heck. Stupid thing is moving smoothly and eerily, like a ghost waltzing through a graveyard.


    Picture a dragon-shaped void, a hole in the world where Al''pa''ca used to be. That''s my schtick! This thing seemed virtually immune to just about everything they threw at it, though they were pretty exhausted, and maybe not realizing they were making any headway. They''d chased it at first, annoyed at its evasiveness, then hit it once or twice, and figured their attacks weren¡¯t doing anything, so they returned to hammer on the dome. They know his body''s under there since they saw him go down before it popped up.


    Al''pa''ca is untouchable under that dome. Like, literally, they can''t even get to him to try to lay a scratch on him. The dome or orb of darkness is invulnerable. But the shade thing''s tough too, evidenced by the fact that Te¡¯s and Lil¡¯s hits barely seemed to faze it, like it was made of smoke and bad attitudes. It''d been floating around, all high and mighty, practically thumbing its nose at them.


    My poor pals are stuck accepting more spells and danger from Packbutt through his shade. Meanwhile, it¡¯s enjoying relative safety, high evasive maneuverability, and toughness out the wazoo. This shadow Al''pa''ca is throwing down, dishing out hurt like it''s going out of style, as only a full-on ancient dragon can. The bugger had also been dishing out mid-level spells that I wasn¡¯t paying attention for, and then of course two ninth level evocations that really wrecked house. I don¡¯t think they were meteors, but maybe they were and Lil and Te both just happened to have just enough to survive two. I dunno, I doubt it, since Scirocco is standing, and I know he couldn¡¯t weather two of ¡®em.


    This whole turn of events is like watching your worst fears get a power-up. And the whole time, there''s this sense of dread, like if this shadow survives, Al''pa''ca''s gonna pop back up fresher than a daisy in spring. It''s the kind of thing that makes you want to scream, "Cheater!" Though I¡¯ve had one or two of those occasions myself, hmf. Still sucks for us though. The battlefield had been this ridiculous swirling of a chaotic tango of destiny and doom already by this point. It''s the kind of spectacle that would make a killer scene in a movie, but living it? Yeah, not so fun when you''re the one having to deal with a dragon''s shadow on steroids.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Could I just bypass this stupid part of the fight? Hm, my senses say it''s a full sphere, not a dome, so I couldn''t stonewalk down through the ground and pop up under Al''pa''ca to finish him. The buggering bugger. He is or nearly¡ªgrr¡ªwas nearly finished, but he''s got a ghostly hand, or invisible servant, or a couple, shoving potions either down his throat, or splashing them over him inside the shadow orb. He''s fully juiced. The next spell''s going to be devastating as hell. If he decides on a meteor, that''s it. All of us are toast. Except him of course, in his invulnerable bubble.


    Catching up to the present in Retrocognition, the state of things hasn¡¯t gotten any better. With Al''pa''ca''s real body just lying there under this dome of darkness, smug and safe in his shadowy cocoon, it''s frustrating as all heck. Here we are, giving it our all, and this sneaky dragon is just napping under a blanket of invulnerability.


    Meanwhile, his shadow double is still wreaking havoc. It''s like Al''pa''ca just hit the jackpot on ''How to be an Even Bigger Pain in the Butt 101''. If we don''t figure out how to deal with Shadow Al''pa''ca quickly, the real one is going to spring back up, ready to turn us into dragon chow, if he doesn¡¯t just nuke us with a meteor before then to be done with us. It''s a dirty trick, and I can''t help but grudgingly admit it¡¯s a good one. But admiration doesn''t mean I''m not cursing in every PG-13 way I know, because seriously, this is the kind of thing that makes you want to flip the game board and storm off.


    Only, you know, we can''t. Because dragons. And apocalypses. And duty. So, here we are, trying to outsmart a shadow while the real threat is just lying there, smirking in his sleep. Smirking, and juicing up to probably loose one last meteor to win this whole thing. Friggin¡¯ Alpackers. I need to piss him off enough that he decides to use something else. What though?


    What would the supposedly greatest storm sorcerer, someone who almost assuredly was within a few inches or hours of usurping the Worldstorm, be prideful enough about, that I could goad him into using, instead of the almighty meteor spell? Well, let''s brag about our lightning for a bit. His shadow doesn''t have his innate lightning safety, or any of those enchantments or whatever else he''s cooked up to protect himself from the storm. Though, even if I can take it out before he full commits to his next spell, he might commit to meteor anyway, just to guarantee he gets us all, even if it takes himself out. So, yeah, Reggie. Time to go be annoying.


    Sliding back into the flow of time, leaving the moment between moments, the space between spaces, I do my best to still my breathing as I cry out a challenge, "Al''pa''ca! You thought -you- could wrest control of the Worldstorm? I -am- the Worldstorm! The Worldstorm is -my- domain, and you''re an intruder!" I''ve gotta keep taunting him, to keep him from going for the sure thing, the meteor. I engage my lightning lycanthrope''s full abilities within view of him, for the first time. Well, within view of his shade, but I can tell he''s got visual on me.


    Keeping up my charade, while also accomplishing a fantastic job of effing up his shade, I unleash a full barrage of living lightning into it while crying out, "Fear the storm, storm summoner! You''d never have been able to tame it! Your control over my element is pitiful at best!" I''m actually having to focus on making sure my bolts, my breath, and my claws strike his shade, and don''t bounce off and hit Lil or Te. It''s not an easy feat, but my extra senses can tell the shade''s taking damage from the impacts. It¡¯s a bit disorienting, since I''m not used to being as fast as Linti, or crashing around as wildly as she does after all.


    His shade is completely silent, I mean, impacts give off no sound, his motion gives off no sound, nothing, nada. But, based on the expression of its maw, I can tell I''m pissing him off, and he''s ready to show me who the ultimate storm lord is. Things are about to get stupid. Whipping out the Riptide katana, the ludicrous fifteen foot long water katana, I finish running his shade through as I loose nearly my entire personal charge of lightning through the water blade into the shade. I feel Al¡¯pa¡¯ca tapping into the ninth circle of the weave, committed to lightning.


    Pulling a good old QCR number four, I try to make sure he can''t target Lil or Te even if he wanted to, though I''ve got to keep repositioning as they keep hopping about trying to find a weakness in the orb, so that I don''t drag lightning through them. Wait, Scirocco, you greedy idiot¡ªTeuila bumped into him, and bounced off of him. Well, I did say it was about to get stupid. Scirocco had taken another step, and aimed to hit Te, Lil, and with the shadow orb faltering, Al''pa''ca simultaneously, in order to finish them all off. Al''pa''ca, not sensing him, looses a multiplicative bouncing single-target chain-lightning bolt, towards me.


    That is to say, chain lightning normally bounces from target to target, but he''s got all those magic roids and enchantments and metamagical effects on him. The spell''s so messed with, that he twisted it to be able to strike the same target over and over, at maximum potency, doubled, with resistance and immunity piercing. That''s about as much damage as his meteors would have done before the double-up buff. Yeah, nine-sixty damage. That''s enough to take out ancients. No wonder he''s a friggin'' feared archmage.


    There¡¯s a hiss and a curse under Packbutt¡¯s breath as he utters, ¡°Treacherous fool, you got what you deserve. Don¡¯t worry, your new friends will soon join you, one way or another.¡±


    Scirocco now a crispy-fried corpse, has accidentally saved Teuila. It¡¯s the darndest thing. He did it by being in her way, so she couldn¡¯t readjust into a position in the line of fire of an attack. Well, I can QCR back to number five, yeesh. Oh hell, now what? Suddenly, the horde starts breaking through in a way I didn''t expect, meaning I''ve gotta trust Te and Lil to take out Al''pa''ca. Dashing back to the vault entrance, I veer to a small side tunnel they''d made. They chose to dig and cast through that, rather than digging through seemingly constantly respawning glaciers and rockslides and everything else I kept putting in front of them.


    A couple of them must have banded together to start stoneshaping or wall-bypassing with all of their mana or spell slots or whatever. Crap, they''re going to try to undo my work from this side, to get their allies through en masse. I''ve got my Giant Dire Shadow Weasel out, and it''s honestly better than you might think, for something with such a silly name. I fight alongside the goofy critter in this tightly enclosed tunnel space that¡¯d been bored through by the Spellknights and whatnot. It¡¯s like it was made to fight in such tight quarters. Well, maybe it was. I have no idea how weasels act in the wild. Weasels or stoats or, y¡¯know, what are they, mustelids? Huh. Otters are mustelids too.


    Blowing through all of the resources I have left, to prevent this from turning into an all-out massacre on us, I''m tapped out of nearly everything, nearly. Huffing and panting, I try to focus on my own task as Te and Lil dive for the kill. I could swear Packbutt¡¯s grinning, and not even trying to dodge this final blitz. Al''pa''ca''s got some new vitality in him, or temporary ward around him, but he¡¯s not stupid. He wouldn¡¯t underestimate foes this late into a battle after getting to know our limits versus him. Yet he stands there brazenly relying on his warded defense after fiddling with another set of controls near crystal lightning conduits. Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s new defense topples like a house of cards beneath the onslaught of Lil and Teuila. He should be dead. Why¡¯s he moving?


    What. What? What!? Are you kidding me!? What just happened? Was he a Brobdingnagian after all? No. No, he couldn''t have been. This is something else. We''re in his seat of power, and the lights have all dimmed. I''m talking maybe billions of joules or something of energy just sucked up at once, and Al''pa''ca exploding with a chromatic array of magical glimmering lights as his body raises up at the moment of impact from one of Teuila''s strikes. His muscle mass ripples, his eyes spark with lightning, his wings unfurl. We just got, "This isn''t even my final form"ed.

 B 6 C 192: Final Form Summit

    F.F.S. For Frigg¡¯s sakes. Alright, let¡¯s walk through it again, step by step. Here¡¯s your instant replay Reggie. Picture this: Al''pa''ca, the ancient, power-hungry sand dragon, reduced to a whimpering heap, and then-some. It''s like watching a prideful king topple from his throne, only to find out the throne was made of cardboard all along. He''s sprawled out, looking more pitiful than a kicked puppy. Al''pa''ca, this ancient sand dragon who''s been a thorn in our sides for what feels like forever, is finally on his last legs, hell, past them, on his belly. But of course, he''s got one last trick up his scaly sleeve.


    So there he is, all battered and bruised, looking like he''s about to keel over any second, right? Wrong. Al''pa''ca''s transformation is something right out of a cosmic horror story, mixed with a fantasy epic''s final boss scene. Just when we think we''ve got him finally downed, this ancient sand dragon decides to pull a "hold my beer" moment. The air around him crackles with an energy that''s palpable, as if the very fabric of reality is buckling under his newfound power. This isn''t just a dragon going all-out; it''s like he''s tapped into the core of Rayileklia itself, or at least the Worldstorm.


    His form elongates, muscles bulging and reshaping into something more terrifying, more powerful. It''s like watching a dragon from those old legends, the kind that could tear worlds apart just by flexing. His scales shimmer with a kaleidoscope of colors, each one glinting like a different gemstone under the sun. It''s not just a display of power; it''s an intimidation tactic. And grr, crap, I hate to admit it, but it''s working a bit. Speaking of intimidating, his eyes are like twin lightning storms, crackling with raw, unbridled energy. They pierce through the dimness of the Keep like searchlights, illuminating our battered forms with a light that''s utterly terrifying. It''s like he''s seeing right through us, into our very souls. I really hope not. I don''t need another soul stealing jerkwad to deal with.


    His wings, unfurled, are a spectacle of their own. Each membrane glows with an unnatural, maybe even a bit otherworldly, iridescence. It''s like every color you can imagine, and some you can''t, are dancing upon his wings. They flutter with a grace that belies their massive size, casting prismatic shadows that dance and twist around the chamber. And then there''s the chromatic aura that surrounds him, a swirling vortex of magical energy that seems to be feeding him, making him stronger. I''m fairly sure he''s drawing from the Keep itself, siphoning energy from the very stones and air. The lights dim around us as if the Keep itself is bowing to his will, acknowledging his reign. And honestly? It probably is. This is his seat of power after all.


    This isn''t just a dragon anymore. It''s like he''s become a living conduit for the storm-made-flesh, a vessel for all that ancient, primal power. Instead of wielding it like energy, like Te or I would, he¡¯s turned it into friggin¡¯ muscle mass and matter. And the worst part? He knows he has us cornered now. He knows just how outclassed we are, and he''s reveling in it. The smirk on his snout says it all.


    In my head, I''m screaming every PG-13 curse I know, because, let''s face it, this is the kind of twist that you expect in a video game when the final boss suddenly gets a second health bar. It''s not just unfair; it''s like the universe itself decided to play a cruel joke on us. And as much as I want to throw my hands up and shout, "I didn''t sign up for this!", there''s a part of me that''s just... dumbfounded. But, well, c''mon, you''ve at least gotta admit, it''s pretty darn cool in a terrifying, we''re-probably-going-to-die sort of way.


    I''m not sure if he''s doing it on purpose or not, but the very ground trembles under his weight, each step shaking the whole Keep like an earthquake. The one benefit to his new size is that it temporarily collapses a small section of the tunnels that his horde had made to get around my blockade. The air around him is charged with electricity, tiny arcs of lightning crackling along his scales. But it''s like the lightning can''t escape him. As if he''s continually sucking up the storm energy in the keep to build that mass of muscle he must call his new body. It''s a sight that would send shivers down most anyone''s spine. It''s a lot to take in, and honestly, I''m not sure where to start. Huff.


    Well, crap. We''re screwed. I don''t have anything left. There''s a few tricks I''ve been saving, but nothing that would stand a chance against this. The Riptide katana? Pshaw, it''d be like throwing a water balloon at a brick wall, expecting the thing to tumble. My lightning lycanthrope form? Ha, he''d probably just absorb it, and use the extra juice to fuel his next strike. Even my Honoris Causa, while powerful, wouldn''t do much against his form like this, even if it were off cooldown. I''m going to need to be wearing my QCR number four, just to make sure I don''t get sucked up into his body and end up empowering him further.


    Or am I? What would happen if I were to take my shot at taking him out from the inside, now? What if I waited til he absorbed me, and then swapped to my QCR number four? The lightning-cursed leg guards would draw all free elctricity around me, to me, and his body is somehow simultaneously physical matter, yet lightning as well. Would it sap his strength? Or would he just absorb me and the lightning curse, and be even stronger than before? It''s a risk. A big one. But I can''t see any other way we''re going to win this.


    Te and Lil are hammering on Al''pa''ca, even taking chunks out of him, but he hardly seems bothered. It''s like he can administer a change in the phase state of the electro--. That son of a bleeping bleep. That''s my wife''s dragonforce and Latent you''re messing around with pal! Oh I am going to friggin'' end him. Or, well, I want to try to anyway.


    It''s like he''s playing with Lil and Teuila, toying with them by accepting their attacks. He''s not even trying to dodge. He''s just standing there, letting them hit him, as if their attacks are doing nothing more than tickling him. His slow swipes as he gets used to his new mass, his new body, are easy for Lil and Te to dodge, for now. If he suddenly gets a bit quicker though? He''s going to flatten one or both of my SAP. Come on Reggie. Time to lightning leap like you''ve never lightning leapt before.


    Al¡¯pa¡¯ca attempts to shout something, likely intending to get us to cower in fear, but it only comes out as, ¡°Oo sssou ehel eore ee.¡± Right, I¡¯ll get right on that Alpackers. Right after lightning leaping my heart out, to try to take your heart out.


    Oof. Oh yeah. I¡¯m not that great at lightning leaping. Leave speed to the speedsters Reggie. I''m not sure which of us is surprised more, when I manage to land a hit on ol¡¯ Packbutt, before being knocked flying back towards the wall. Well, I guess that was the second hit. The first one, was him trying to draw a breath to inhale and absorb me, and getting a full charge of my fully charged, charging lightning lycanthrope¡¯s lightning form, straight into the back of his throat. Then I was knocked flying towards the wall. Again. Whatever. You get it, order of operations, suck, charge, smack. He''s coughing and gagging, but the effect is minimal. Also, yes, I realize how redundant that earlier sentence was.


    It''s not enough to stop him, but it''s something. Te and Lil have started working on a plan. They''ve figured out the trick to Al''pa''ca''s newfound muscle mass. He''s still a dragon, and still has the instincts of one. He''s not used to his new form, and is a little sluggish. It''s like he has a hard time processing his body, and where his limbs are. Hello. Proprioception is an interesting concept, is a thought I find myself having once again. Like the time I was racing towards the beach, hand in hand with Teuila, oh-so long ago.


    He''s lacking proprioception, his somatosensory cortex can''t keep up with the expanded growth. He''s got the strength of a titan, and the grace of a newborn foal. I''m not going to lie. It''s funny as heck. Watching him lumber around the place, flinging himself around as if his limbs are made of lead, is hilarious. I mean, he''s imposing as all get-out, and if he could manage to tap into any more SP, we''d probably be toast, but he''s channeling all his energy into that new form, in order to keep us from finishing him off. He''s not gonna be slinging any more meteors any time soon without that endless supply of SP. Well, that, and since he needs intricate dexterity in order to perform the somatic components of his mnemonic.


    Huh. I guess I can just let Lil and Te handle it, like we originally planned. Glancing at them, they both flash me resolute nods, so I''ll trust them to finish him off. My duty is still the horde, to make sure we don''t get overrun. Especially when Lil and Te are closing in on death''s door like they are. I can''t risk that some other Sand might have an animate breath weapon attack that tries to strangle them, distracting them at an inopportune moment.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    With my lightning form, I can still use my lightning breath, my poison breath, and my fire breath, and I''m going to need that to help thin out the herd. So, I''ll focus on my job, and let my beloved and my best pal handle Al''pa''ca. Besides, if they can''t get the job done, then there''s not much else I can do anyway. Returning a silent nod, I slip away from them, and focus on the horde. There are a couple of mages back there trying to undo the wall, and it''s taking everything I''ve got to keep them from breaking through.


    As has been the case nearly the entire time, the air''s filled with the scent of ozone, and the sound of thunder. My ears are ringing from the noise, and the world feels like it''s vibrating around me. Which is to say basically nothing has changed, the entire time we''ve been in this battle. Heh. Huff. Reggie, shut up. Yeah yeah, I know. I''m crackin'' up. It''s been a stressful day, and it''s not even over yet. We''re far from guaranteed victory, let alone, guaranteed survival and escape. Still, I feel a weight lifted from my shoulders, despite the increasingly oppressive force directed my way.


    If nothing else, Lil and Te should be able to finish Al''pa''ca, and hopefully, that''ll mean he won''t be able to do anything else to the Worldstorm, and Kinzul''s dragonforce, or her Latent. Though, if I''m honest, Kinzul''s Latent''s the least of my worries at the moment. As much as I love Administrator, I''m sure she''ll be fine, with this tiny spec of dragonforce stolen from her, and from her overall spell. She''s a tough one. And she''s got the best support anyone could ever ask for.


    But still, the thought nags at me. This sort of abstract thinking of combining powers is my domain, and yet, there''s something about it. It''s something I can''t quite put a finger on, that makes me uncomfortable. The focus. Focus Reggie, focus. No not that doofus. The elemental focus I had Nala craft. What about it? We get maybe two uses out of it, maybe. We need one to set up a new tether between Te and Lil to get out of here alive after Al''pa''ca is dead. But we need to survive til then. Needing to survive until then is important, with Te and Lil courting death at pretty much the next hit either of them takes.


    Oh boy. I''m gonna do something stupid. Because Te and Lil still aren''t really making any progress on Al''pa''ca, as I work against the horde, and the horde is starting to get harder to work against, as they basically snipe me from far up the tunnel, from behind the bodies of their fallen comrades. I can''t risk Al''pa''ca getting used to his new form. Giving him enough time to do that could be quite disastrous. I know I said I''d trust Lil and Te, but that doesn''t mean I can''t give them a bit of help, while helping out myself with my own problem simultaneously.


    Taking a moment, I switch to my QCR number four, and, with my eyes closed, I envision the elemental focus I had Nala craft. It''s easy enough to dig out of my packs. My lightning cursed leg guards are surprisingly not strong enough to pull in any lightning right now. It''s all going to Al''pa''ca, to keep up with his expanding growth. But, I''m not just relying on them. I''ve got my lightning lycanthrope powers, my lightning breath, my internal electrokinesis, my lightning spiritswarm, and my lightning empowered-rune knife.


    Plus, I''ve got Whisper. If I fight with Whisper, one handed, it''s actually far more effective than I realized it could be. I thought of the throwing knives slash daggers as only projectile weapons, but Whisper has foes grabbing their brains from the slightest knick. Anyway, point being, I can throw it, and, with a little finesse, or cheating with telekinesis, I can have it hit a target quite a ways away. And, since I allocated it to the elemental bandolier, once per day at said throw, I can bamf to that target.


    The last piece of the puzzle, is Teuila with Mjolnir, and her own greater storm elemental conjuration. Deep breath Reggie. Call out to her, "Te! Remember the thing I told you not to use until I told you to use it? Now! After following me!"


    Anyone else besides Teuila might question me, or not understand what I was referring to. But this is Te, My Wings, love of my life, a huge portion of my soul. My Wings glances at My Heart, checking that he''ll be okay handling Al''pa''ca for a moment by himself, and the two nod at each other resolutely before Te leaps my way. We make eye contact, and I cast my glance towards Mjolnir, then tap my lightning empowered-rune knife while handing over Nala''s elemental focus. While focusing my focus to transfer the lightning empowered-rune knife to her after handing her the focus¡ªugh, yes, I heard myself¡ªwe both whisper anti-lightning as we barrel through the enemies up the tunnel they''d carved.


    So much needs to happen at once, and so much does happens at once, that it''s like a friggin'' slide show. Frame one. Te and me gearing up, aiming in the right direction, and getting the images in our heads, of our anti-lightning to keep ourselves from instantly getting crisped doing what we¡¯re trying to do. Frame two, us rocketing into the tunnel together. Frame three, my spiritswarm and I have a conversation consisting of one word, "Pull."


    Frame four, far up the tunnel, Teuila spawns her greater storm elemental while boosting it with the lightning elemental empowered-rune knife, and I hug the bugger as a lightning-breathing lightning-cat. Frame five, Teuila gets in position at the corner of the bend in the tunnel made by our foes while I make sure Whisper is levitating safely near the target I need it to hit. Frame six, we unleash our anti-lightning, and my Honoris Causa thankfully recovers enough to flicker into existence briefly, thanks to my spiritswarm''s help.


    Frame seven, huge masses of Al''pa''ca''s extra flesh becomes a river of lightning more deadly than anything else in the entire realm, and heads straight for me and Teuila, bound to pass through the focus into Mjolnir, without touching Teuila. Frame eight, the lightning hits the focus, Whisper hits its target, Al''pa''ca, and I bamf to Al''pa''ca, whose form is now compromised. Frame nine, Lil and I plunge towards the ancient Sand, as Teuila fights to slow the flow of the lightning as it chases back after me, her empowered storm elemental helping her out.


    Frame ten, Al''pa''ca dies, Teuila has to let loose the lightning to chase me, and I jet skyward, holding my breath. The lightning is instants away from striking me as I QCR to number five, take a breath, and LBBTKSL the hell out of the way before it strikes the ceiling, just above where I''d just been. My heart is pounding, and it''s all I can do to keep from hyperventilating. Holy. Friggin''. Crap. That was close. Way too close.


    If I''d been just a little slower, or had misjudged, I would have died. We took a huge bite out of the horde, and we killed Al''pa''ca. The energy is returning to the Keep, which still ain''t the greatest thing to be happening, but we''ll work on that in a bit, after Teuila siphons Alpacker''s dragonforce. Phew. I want to catch my breath, but it''s my duty to hold off the horde while Lil and Te work on getting her that dragonforce. Te and I switch places, leaping past each other.


    Te grins wildly as she rushes back, calling to me in passing, ¡°Gonna get to work on Packbutt''s dragonforce babe, knock ¡®em dead Air!¡±


    My own grin creeps up the left half of my face at Teuila¡¯s vote of confidence. I unleash another torrent of magic up the tunnel, risking a GSE Darkest Star''s Event Horizon. I do it hesitantly. I¡¯m trying to see if the temp SP that my spiritswarm was able to convert, from the consumption of the useless enchanted items, were enough for a safe cast. Phew, thankfully, they were. Now that''s a crowd killer, and even though it buys me a minute, I''ve got no time to catch my breath as more of the mooks in the mob try to magick or dig their way around me and my shadow-black-hole, into the vault.


    To stop the ones not caught in my GSE, I''m exhaling to unleash noxious gas, void breath, and the occasional puff of flame to ignite the gas if my foes¡¯ own tech and electric powers don¡¯t do it for me in advance. My breath comes in ragged gasps, the air heavy with the scent of ozone and the distant, ever-continuous clamor of battle.


    I shout over my shoulder to Lil, "Okay, Lil buddy, grab our extradimensional bags and sacks, and shove as much of Al''pa''ca''s crap into them as you can, and don''t forget to use your Can''Z''aasian inventory too. Do that while Te''s busy with Packbutt¡¯s dragonforce then hustle back here¡ªI could use an extra hand holding off the horde!"


    A javelin, massive and barbed, hurtles towards me. I conjure my T K squares in defense, but the impact is too¡­ impactful. Ugh. They shatter like glass, sending shards of mental agony shearing through my mind and a trickle of blood spurting from my nose. I manage to raise my buckler just in time to intercept the javelin, and the blow knocks me over rather than impaling me. I roll my eyes at my earlier redundant mental narrative, and begin to stand.


    As I steady myself, a sudden, horrific thought strikes me. Wait. Lil knows I meant Al''pa''ca''s belongings, right? Not his literal¡ªCrap. I''d better clarify, just in case, so I do, "Hey, Lil! Not his actual crap, okay? Just the valuables!" I yell, hoping my voice doesn''t betray the absurdity of the situation.


    I mean, dragon dung is plenty useful, it helped thaw Teuila out of her seemingly permanently frozen prison, and it fires forges hot enough to mould legendary metals, but we¡¯ve got hundreds of dragons back home to poop as much as we¡­ want. Bluh. That thought got weird.


    I can almost hear the smirk in Lil''s reply, even amidst the chaos as he quips, "Got it, no dragon droppings! Just the shiny stuff!" his cheeky response to my plea. Said response, thankfully, is followed by the clinking of loot and the whoosh of displaced air as items vanish into the void of our magical storage.


    I can''t help but snort, the brief humor a welcome distraction from the pain and the pressure. Focus, Reggie, focus. Breathe Air, breathe. With a shake of my head, I prepare another spell, the laughter a tiny joy during a haggard and wearying moment. A smile plays on my lips as the chaos and clamor fades into the background, replaced by the comforting sensation of recalling my family, my beloved and my best pal.

 B 6 C 193: Hook Me Up A New Evolution

    It''s time to get serious. No more fun and games. I''ve got a horde to deal with, and no matter how many of them I kill, there''s always more. There''s a lot of things I need to keep track of, and the only reason we''ve put down as many as we have, is that our opponents are still not quite on our level, despite being some of Terrorzin''s best. We''re running low on everything though. If I had to equate it to that one tabletop system, since Lil, Te, and I are all level twenties, I¡¯m guessing they¡¯d mostly be about half that. There¡¯s a lot of disparity in destructive power between those two levels, especially when you factor in that we¡¯re from a different system entirely. That last fact is the only reason we¡¯re still alive, with our hitpoint pools being ridiculously overblown compared to what¡¯s normally available in the system that Rayileklia seems to use.


    I can''t get time to get a full draw on Scirocco''s corpse, so I won''t be able to siphon his dragonforce enough to count towards my cure, which is frustrating. That''s two ancients¡ªpowerful ancients¡ªdown today, that I can''t get to, to finish siphoning off enough of their dragonforce. The best I can do is help refill what I''d used up manipulating my Honoris Causa today.


    Plus, even with all the gear I''ve looted, and all the resources I''ve gained from the slain, there''s just too many foes to face. Other than the quite possibly addictive magical steroids, and a couple of things I''ve been snagging, I''ve immediately used or chucked any loose consumables I''d seen members of the horde carrying around. I¡¯ve paid no heed to what the magic items might actually do.


    It''s kinda like playing a ROGUE-like, like the original ones, y''know, like NetHack, where all the stuff is unidentified, and you''ve just gotta hope for the best when you''re chucking or chugging consumables. Wait, what? Is that a... game? Like a specific videogame? It''s... almost a memory. Weird, and mysterious that¡­ that memory. Those memories.


    Ugh my friggin'' head. It''s probably just all the crap we''ve been through today. Anyway, just... just keep going. Huff. My eyelids begin to droop wearily. I find myself yawning, mid-battle, which infuriates the few mooks that''ve made it through once more. Sorry fellas and lasses and whatnot, it''s not you, I swear, it''s me. Hahah. Yawn.


    Minute after minute ticks by, me and Lil baking and roasting and blowing up the horde as Te finishes siphoning off Al''pa''ca''s dragonforce. We had to have slain hundreds of members of the horde. Heck, maybe even well over a thousand or two, what with my earlier big tricks, and Lil now buying me breathing room here and there, me covering him against fireproof whosits and whatnots. But I know that there''s roughly eight thou or so of the buggers that I could see in the exterior of Stormheart''s main keep. Then, there''s the however many I couldn''t see, up to another fifty percent of that.


    Snarking between breaths as he refills his lungs for another long blast of flame, Lil quips, "Hey Reggie, if we survive this, remind me to never accept an invitation to a dragon''s housewarming party again!" Moments later, as a new tunnel opens up from combinations of digging and magic, Lil adds, "I''m getting real tired of playing ''whack-a-mole'' with these guys. Can''t they just stay down for a nap?"


    I wish I could reassure Lil, or even spare the breath to respond to him. We''ve maybe, maaaybe taken out an eighth of the foes in the swarming horde, and they''re regrouping and widening areas to make their assault on us more effective, and easier for themselves. What we¡¯ve taken down so far was with using up every last tool and trick that I came in with, and some that I didn''t. Te even unleashed her own last few abilities she was banking.


    I''m about to, huff, pass out. Lil''s having a harder and harder time, keeping his lungs full enough to do a good long blast of flame, and it''s not like he''s uninjured from all the meteors and crap. He''s nearly dead. Broken, bruised and pixelating. Teuila too. I''m almost tempted to have one of those, "Been nice knowing ya pal," or, "It''s been an honor to fight at your side," moments.


    Let''s not jinx things worse than we already have though, huh? Te''s calling out, "Reggie, I got it, now what!? Airhead, Dragbutt, hang on!"


    Well, that''s some good news. Now what, indeed though. Lil, Teuila and I work up a barrage to cave in even more of the tunnel structure and antechamber, and part of the vault. With Teuila''s help, we manage a pretty significant cavein. We retreat almost all the way into Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s former treasure chamber, next to the Worldstorm aperture that opened up early in the fight. It buys us a few minutes at least. To get out of here, we need a ride up the Worldstorm bolts that all of us can survive through. We need something new, something powerful, and protective.


    I sense Lil''s tether on himself dropping, it''s about to send him back to his usual evolutionary stage that I used to call Lilagnewt. Good timing honestly. Remember how I said I couldn''t risk just smashing open all those conduits and valves and who knows what else? Heh, yeah, we''re about to get a little crazy in here.


    My plan this entire time''s been to get Teuila able to put a legendary godly tether onto Lil filled with storm energy, Worldstorm energy, focused and augmented through layer after layer of protection so as not to hurt him. Rather, it would alter the course of his normal evolution, granting him, hopefully, a form completely immune to the lightning of even the Worldstorm. And, if either my guesses or surmising are correct, or if Lil self-actualizes and hopes enough, he should be able to confer that temporarily onto us, or protect us from it one way or another. Te''s got the focus tied on Mjolnir, but I motion for her to hand it over to me.


    Y''know how someone asking for the bill will sometimes ask, "Alright, so what''s the damage?" Yeah, that''s pretty much what I''ve gotta ask myself right now. That, and, "Do ya feel lucky Rej? Huh? Do ya?"


    Doing the math, there¡¯s no way Teuila would survive holding the focus, while also being the focal point of the energies, not that she could even physically do so, being that there needs to be about twenty feet of distance from the target to focus the energies properly. Even if she has some sort of lightning damage immunity artifact or power like Mjolnir, she can¡¯t have it activated to be able to absorb the energy anyway, she has to channel it out through Mjolnir though towards Lil. Thus it can¡¯t be Lil, or Teuila, because Teuila has to accept the energy, and transform it into a tether to pass to Lil after she refines it on her own. So the real, and only question, is, ¡°Can I survive it?¡±


    I take a little less than six percent of the damage from lightning, electrical damage, and so on. Or, I did, before I accepted a new source of elemental spiritual essence into my very being. Will that help or hurt with this attempt? I guess in some ways, it doesn¡¯t matter. This evolution is our only hope. We need to do this, because Teuila and Lil won¡¯t survive the collapse otherwise, and we can¡¯t fight our way out. We¡¯re already tapped out. As soon as the next wave digs through the bodies of their allies, and the small cave-ins we¡¯ve already caused, they¡¯ll be upon us. I¡¯d still like to know in advance if I¡¯m going to survive. I, well, I would want to make my peace otherwise.


    Six percent of damage, on something that looks hundreds of times the normal potency of lightning on Rayileklia, which is already painful enough. Even if I engage my tricks to reduce how much of the power forces its way through me, I won¡¯t be able to redirect all of it. Gnawing on my lip, and factoring in the Worldstorm¡¯s immunity and resistances piercing nature, I attempt to calculate the average damage of the stream that¡¯ll be making its way past my active defenses, and partially penetrating my passive ones. On a completely, totally low end estimate, my passive defenses would have to contend with what would be nearing three thousand damage per second for its average. If that estimate is too lowball, and it turns out to be the next subset, that¡¯d be fifty-eight hundred damage per second or so.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Gulping, I press further with my math as quickly as I can. Approximately six percent of the lower damage is about a hundred seventy-one or one seventy-two damage per second that I¡¯d be taking, double that if I¡¯m estimating wrong. I need to survive for at minimum ten seconds, but also enough time to figure out how to properly activate the focus, direct energy through it, and then however much time it takes Teuila to attune to the frequency of the energy I¡¯m sending her way. I¡¯m thinking at minimum twenty seconds if we¡¯re both completely in-sync mentally and emotionally while quick-witted enough to figure out exactly what needs to happen. One estimate is survivable at my current health. The other¡ªgulp¡ªis not, not even if I were fully topped off.


    The math on whether to go ahead or not, is simple. We don''t have time to do anything else. We''re surrounded, and we need the power of the Worldstorm''s energy to fuel the next stage of Lil''s evolution. That means we need to tap into the bolts. More specifically, I need to. Phooph.


    Passing a breath out through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I loose a long puff, and another, and another. Lil glances at me like he''s wondering if I''m making fun of him for his breath weapon, but I shake my head. I''m trying to psych myself up to try to wrangle the Worldstorm itself, condensed into such refined bolts of lightning. I''ve gotta do it while I''ve still got my lightning-lycanthrope form active, so I can''t dawdle though either.


    Taking off my psi-blocking aegis circlet, I fill in Lil and Te on how I expect it to go down. Te''s consumption of Al''pa''ca''s dragonforce should let her tap into this being the seat of his power, and, well, we''ve seen that he was attuned to it enough to turn lightning into physical mass, so my theory isn''t even really a theory anymore. It''s pretty much a verified fact that we can boost Lil in one way or another, but we''re doing it in Can''Z''aasian style, half digital, half screwy, all us. The three of us snicker at my goofy thought train.


    Grumping and slumping, Lil claims, "Well, that was a blast and a half. I need a vacation. Like, a five-year-long vacation. You sure you''re up for wrangling lightning you two? I mean, I''m used to fire, but lightning''s still sorta new for Te, right? Oh, Te, did you see me out there? I was like a barbecue, serving up roasted baddies left and right!"


    Not one to let Lil disparage her, or boast much, Teuila snarks, "Oh, I saw you alright. You looked more like a dragon trying to light a birthday candle in a hurricane."


    Grumpily, Lil retorts, "Hey, at least I didn''t almost get my tail singed off by a meteor like someone I know. How''s your ''rear heat shield'' holding up, Te?"


    Referencing the fact that, for the first time ever, Lil has burns and is charred all over, Teuila jibes, "Better than your ''flame-broiled face'', Lil. You know, you really should consider a career as a dragon-sized candle."


    I feel like I should stop this and get them to focus, but I''m starting to lose it to a fit of the giggles as Lil rebutts, "Ha! Coming from you, ''Miss I-can''t-decide-if-I''m-a-thundercloud-or-a-sunbeam''. Make up your mind, will ya?"


    Almost beaming with pride at Lil''s attempt to antagonize her, Te chuckles while commenting, "Well, I might switch between thunder and sunshine, but at least I don''t puff like a steam train and drag my rear on the ground when I''m out of breath, ''Dragbutt Locomotive Breath''."


    There''s probably something more important we should be focusing on, but I''m doubling over as Lil responds, "True, true, but I''d rather be a train than a walking weather forecast. What''s the report for today, Te? Partly cloudy with a chance of mood swings?"


    That was a bit of a low blow Lil, and Te''s fuming a tad, so it sounds like their snark off is over as she claims, "I''ll give you ''partly cloudy''! You just wait till the next time we''re in battle. I''ll show you a real storm!"


    Sighing as I catch my breath, I ask, "Are you two goons finished? We''re not exactly safe here. They''re seconds from busting in. Come on, get in position, I''m about to hope and pray, that my lower estimates are correct. Or, if my higher estimates are correct, that my regen is stupidly ridiculously massive in terms of HP, but I can''t gauge that."


    A bit dejectedly, both mumble apologies about which I feel bad for eliciting from them. Making them feel sorry wasn''t the point, but they take their positions anyway, wearing rueful smiles. And me? I head to the last segment of controls and conduits that I''d seen Al''pa''ca fiddle with in my Retrocognitive senses. Hoo boy. This is gonna hurt.


    Alright, Reggie, deep breaths. You''ve done some crazy stuff before, but this? This is like trying to lasso a hurricane with a wet spaghetti noodle. You''ve got your EM-Field organ pulsing, ready to play chicken with the mother of all lightning bolts. The lightning spiritswarm is buzzing in your head like a hive of electrified bees, ready to help or maybe just to watch the show. We''re knee-deep in our lightning-lycanthrope form, feeling every hair standing up in anticipation, or maybe that''s just the static.


    The conduit''s right in front of me. All I need to do, is crack it slightly, and the torrent, the stream of lightning that pours forth, will be relatively about as deadly and dangerous as the one we needed me, Te, and her greater elemental to wrangle earlier. But this time, I have to do it by myself. I have to catch it, and funnel and focus it, and make it safe. Here it comes, a jolting stream of Worldstorm bolts, crackling with enough juice to power a city or fry me to a crisp. Start the countdown, twenty.


    Come on Reggie, reach out, pulse the EM-Field with your internal electrokinesis at full throttle, trying to coax the bolt towards the focus. Nineteen. It''s like trying to persuade a wild animal by waving a magnet in its face, or, trying to persuade a lightning bolt, by waving meat in front of it. Me, I''m the meat. This is not exactly going to plan. Eighteen.


    The bolt dances, flickers, almost playful, but I can feel sickening levels of untamed power.


    Focus Reggie, breathe Air, breathe. Seventeen. Te''s there, Mjolnir in hand, a look of fierce concentration on her face. She''s ready, ready to take this storm and mold it, ready to be the hammer to my anvil. Sixteen. She''s counting on you Reggie. Lil''s there, nervous anticipation eating him up as he worries about me. Fifteen. He''s counting you Reggie. You''ve got to do this right, for Lil, for Te, for all of you.


    Fourteen. Y''hear that? You can almost hear the spiritswarm chanting, a chorus of electric whispers urging you on. They''re grateful to have been freed from that room. Thirteen. After this, the whole citadel, the entire mountain, is coming down, one way or another. We''re transferring Al''pa''ca''s seat of power into a mobile tether. Ripping the very foundation out from under this mountain. Almost literally. Twelve.


    Rotate Reggie. Cast it forth. Keep spinning, even if it makes you sick. Fight to arc the stream of lightning around you through the focus into Teuila. It isn''t working. Crap. Eleven. My brain aches, and it''s a good thing I didn''t try using my telekinesis to hold the focus in place. It would have shattered, and blown our only chance at escape. Ten. The focus only has this one use left.


    The unending bolt, or stream of bolts, however you want to think about it, lashes out, a serpentine dragon of pure energy. Despite hoping to keep it in orbit around you, you catch it, your lightning lycanthrope form absorbing the initial shock, channeling it through the focus. It''s like holding onto a firehose full of dynamite. Every cell in your body screams, but you hold on, redirecting the energy towards Teuila. Nine.


    Eight. She catches it, Mjolnir shining so radiantly that it''s hard to gaze upon, requiring us both to shield our eyes. Seven. She''s the eye of the storm now, the center of a maelstrom of power. Six. Her figure is a silhouette against the blinding light, but you can see her determination, unyielding, unbreakable. Five. She''s transforming the energy, refining it, preparing to pass it to Lil. Four.


    Three. You''re almost dead Rej. Everything in you is trembling and coming apart. There''s Lil, standing ready, anticipation and a touch of fear in his eyes. Two. He knows this is it, the moment of truth. One. Teuila releases the energy, a tether of lightning, a bridge of raw, primal force connecting her to Lil. I tumble, incapable of fighting back the pain or holding on any longer. My lightning-lycanthrope form is overloaded, my EM-Field organ overburdened, my spiritswarm swelling. The energy stream I''d been channeling through the focus finishes leaving my grasp. Lil glows with an otherworldly light as he accepts Te¡¯s evolutionary tether, and the focus begins to crumble as does the stone wall separating us from the horde. I crumple in a heap. Zero.

 B 6 C 194: Open Air

    Despite me being on the way to dying, my consciousness fading from me, I witness Lil¡¯s ascension. The transformation begins. It''s like watching a miracle and a cataclysm rolled into one. Lil''s form shimmers, outlined in a corona of lightning. His scales start to glow, turning from their usual red to a vibrant, pulsating crimson, like the heart of a star. They''re etched with patterns of lightning, a living tapestry of storm and fire. His wings unfurl, magnificent and terrifying. They''re larger now, more powerful, each beat sending ripples of electricity through the air. They''re like sails crafted from the night sky itself, dotted with constellations of sparking energy.


    His eyes, once warm and friendly, are now windows to a storm, swirling with blues and whites, crackling with lightning. There''s a depth to them, a wisdom and a wildness that wasn''t there before. It''s like looking into the heart of the storm, seeing the raw, unbridled chaos and beauty of nature itself. His body ripples with newfound power, muscles coiling and uncoiling with an easy grace. There''s a sense of immense strength there, a force of nature given form. He''s bigger, fiercer, more dragon than ever, but still Lil. There''s a playful glint in those new wild eyes, a reminder that beneath the storm, he''s still your best pal.


    The horde finishes breaking through once more, and it¡¯s upon us. Each of us are probably one or two small injuries away from death. Well, Lil was. Now he¡¯s something else. Lil lets out a roar, and it''s like thunder cracking the sky in half. It''s a sound of triumph, of change, of a new beginning. The air crackles around him, the very atmosphere bending to his will. He''s not just a dragon anymore; he''s a living storm, a red dragon reborn in lightning and flame. Lil deserves this. Lil has fought so hard, for so long, to be a big dragon, basically his one and only desire.


    That desire''s always been to be a dragon powerful enough to protect himself and his family from everything. This is Lil, just... more of him. He''s something beyond now, something extraordinary. I can feel even his mental avatar swelling to colossal proportions, taking up more bandwidth in our thinkspace. He¡¯s new, bigger Lil, easily in the Behemoth class, if not Brobdingnagian class, and he''s on our side. Imagine Lil trying to help Te with her ocean of emotions in thinkspace? Yeah, you''re definitely going to need a bigger boat. Or maybe just a sturdier umbrella.


    Suddenly I¡¯m in RS2, my lycanthrope form faded, and the Stone in Two Parts feels like I¡¯m wearing the core of a star on my finger. Friggin¡¯ hot, ow, ow, ow. Wait. When the Sun shone a specific way, the true Hero is restored? Friggin¡¯ prophecies. I think I just lost my lycanthrope transformation entirely though, I think it died as I was dropping back to RS2. Gorram it all. I got two fights out of the thing before losing it. I never even got to use its draconic lycanthropy. Just how much did the Stone in Two Parts restore me in this stone temple pit?


    I feel at the top of my game, in every way. Sort of, mostly. Physically anyway. Today¡¯s still gotten me more than a bit addle-brained. My electrokinesis and cryokinesis are easier to use than ever, and a heady feeling is washing over me, causing me to swell with unearned confidence. Parts of me want to be cocky and face down the horde together. Those parts of me are idiots, and would get Teuila killed at the very least.


    I can already see sand dragons returning to their natural forms as they swell, charging their breath weapons. If any of them have animate breath¡­ I shake my head quickly, rattling my skull. No time to think about that. Lil, I hope you¡¯re getting used to your new body buddy. I hope it¡¯s permanent too, but based on the strain in our mental realm, I don¡¯t think Teuila, me, or Lil could handle it being permanent yet.


    Stumbling as I¡¯m run through by several javelins rather surprisingly¡ªso much for being physically refreshed¡ªI cough and burble, stuck on the barbed lances now shunted through my form. Wow. Just wow. One thing you never want to do? Back a good dragon into a corner. Another thing you never want to do? Let him achieve a new evolution. Lastly, the thing you should really, really, never ever do? Nearly kill that dragon¡¯s best pal in front of them as they¡¯re acclimating to a new tier of power.


    I could cry with joy at the ferocity with which Lil saves me. It feels like having my best friend back, seeing the love and hurt in his eyes as he witnesses me being injured. I¡¯m so touched by his love. Touched, and being dragged away into a snarling mass of zealotous horde on chained, hooked javelins. Oh, right, that one effect of that one runic clip. OW!


    Oh holy fekking gods, ow ow ow. Okay, so, good news, the runic clip that locks me in place like an immovable object still works¡ªfunctions really well actually¡ªbut the bad news is barbed large objects running through parts of your body don¡¯t stop moving just because you do. Nor does the horde of maniacs stop slinging painful, near-disintegrating spells your way, nor do they stop swinging their lightning-laced weapons at you.


    Holy effing crap. Okay, that was agony on another new level I never want to experience again. Been a few of those today. Of course, I¡¯m also getting a migraine now, maybe from the sudden change in the amount of blood in my body, or lack thereof.


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    Lil and Te aren¡¯t taking it sitting down either, but I¡¯m seeing Teuila flinch and falter. Pleading, I call out, ¡°Lil, grab us and get us out of here! Teuila, focus on the seat of power with Packbutt¡¯s dragonforce, and nuke the site from orbit! It¡¯s the only way to get clear.¡±


    It seems that the shouting was too much for my poor body to take with my rapid back and forth between near death, full resuscitation, and back to the former. I¡¯m blinking slower and slower as I see Teuila trying to buy herself time while flying¡ªmaybe just leaping, can¡¯t tell in this much pain¡ªto Lil¡¯s back. Lil makes a mad blitz through the horde. Unfortunately, despite his ferocity, his new storm related powers aren¡¯t really helping him out here. Fortunately, Lil¡¯s still one of the most ferocious Reds to ever have lived, and now more powerful, more full of air in his lungs than ever. I welcome the flames that wash over me as he rushes to pick me from the ashes of the horde as more swarm through to finish us off.


    Focusing on my internal electrokinesis, I try to work on patching up the damage as quickly as I can while I¡¯m still conscious. I hear Teuila screaming, ¡°Air!¡± with tears in her eyes, but can¡¯t see her for some reason. I can hear Lil¡¯s rumbling and the roar of his flames, but it sounds so far away. I feel like I¡¯m falling, slipping, being pulled or sucked into someth¡ªI am¡ªsomething bad, maybe. There¡¯s a memory, something calling out to me.


    Forgetting myself, forgetting the dangers that memories pose to me, I start to give in and let it happen, curious what the force is trying to tell me. Then I remember, that remembering could get me killed, could get Te killed. I struggle against this unseen force, this pull, and it feels like it takes years to fight it. I¡¯m clawing and scrabbling at nothing, as more and more of my hair falls into my face. Wait, no, not more hair, longer hair. More white hair. What? Ow, my brain. Holy crap ow. I¡­ I can¡¯t. I¡¯m slipping.


    Thankfully, I¡¯m not alone. Two of the strongest people in any universe, that care about me as deeply as I care about them, fight through¡ªsomething¡ªto get to me. Everything is hazy, but when Teuila drags me into her arms, and Lil wraps us both in his limbs against his chest, and wraps his wings around his limbs, I feel safe, content, warm, happy even. There¡¯s a pain as we become a shared lightning bolt. But it¡¯s hardly one we¡¯re unfamiliar with.


    The entire world is rumbling as we leave it behind. I¡¯m not using hyperbole. I mean, as far as I can tell anyway. It feels like it takes no time at all before Lil is high above the clouds of the Worldstorm. He¡¯s grunting, and struggling with something, so Te and I climb out of his grip onto his back to free his limbs and wings. Below us is absolute chaos as a storm¡ªthe Worldstorm obviously¡ªswallows a mountain, and the mountain tries to fight back, to no avail. All of that coalesced, collected energy, the missing chunk of the Worldstorm? It¡¯s breaking free as Teuila hits the figurative self-destruct button on the supervillain¡¯s lair.


    It seems like Rayileklia itself is pissed off at the confrontation, shaking and spasming beneath us as it tries to make room for the soon-to-be-crater that was once Stormspire Peak. There¡¯s a cacophony that I can¡¯t describe, and somehow the scent of death, of gore, overpowers everything else, even the impressively intense aroma that is the odor of ozone of the ever-present lightning of the Worldstorm, or the acrid tinge of its acidic clouds. Then, it¡¯s as if thousands of voices cried out at once, and were suddenly silenced. Oh, wait, they probably were. Gruesome, but effective.


    Way to go Teuila, way to go Lil. Because of you two, we took down over ten percent of Terrorzin¡¯s forces in a single offensive. Their mental avatars smile my way, but each of us has a pounding headache as Te and Lil try to maintain Lil¡¯s new form. This isn¡¯t tenable. We¡¯re going to be okay, but we¡¯re not strong enough yet to give Lil the form he deserves permanently.


    Flashing him a sad expression, my telepathic avatar¡¯s eyes wet, I start to apologize, but Lil interrupts me with an unholy pained whine and a shriek of agony as he has to begin letting go of his enhanced form. It isn¡¯t fair. I¡¯m sorry Lil. I whisper, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry buddy.¡±


    A half-sob catches in my throat, Te and Lil similarly gulp back their emotions as the overwhelmingly powerful tether between them begins to fade, shrinking down to the thin filament of energy we¡¯re used to sharing with each other. Whispering to Lil, I console, ¡°You¡¯re still the best, bravest dragon pal I could ever ask for Lil. I love you so much. Can you still get us home pal?¡±


    With a sad half smile, Lil nods, responding, ¡°Sure thing Rej, ain¡¯t no problem pal. I think Te and I have this little tether stable. I can be a mega cool, mega mega mega cool jet-dragon long enough to get us home with it in a snap. You good for that Sunshine? Sunshine?¡±


    My eyes go wide when Teuila doesn¡¯t immediately respond or snark back at Lil using a nickname on her. We¡¯re holding each other tightly, so I know she¡¯s not derezzing, and her limbs are vibrating, moving, she¡¯s not unconscious, she¡¯s¡ªoh Te¡ªjust crying her heart out silently into my chest.


    I know exactly what she¡¯s feeling, and my eyes well with tears as Te and I hold each other atop Lil. I whisper over and over, ¡°You didn¡¯t fail him. You didn¡¯t. You didn¡¯t fail him. You didn¡¯t.¡±


    Lil sucks back a sniffle as he wings us away towards Mount Solace, towards home. We were victorious, but the battle wasn¡¯t won without its scars. Physical and emotional. Each of us has been pushed to our breaking points and beyond. I whisper to Te, ¡°You did it Te. We did it. We went a hundred plus a hundred plus a hundred plus ultra percent.¡±


    There¡¯s a snotty, burbly laugh that cuts through the silent tears, the first sound I¡¯ve heard Te make since we got free. I join her in making one of my own. I feel like I''m forgetting something though.

 B 6 C 195: Wounded Withdrawal, Home, Alone

    Upon approach to Mount Solace, it¡¯s curious to see a flight of dragons, more curious that it appears to be a skirmish, mostly between dragons I don¡¯t recognize. I¡¯m guessing that some of them are the ancients we¡¯d taken in from Jeegoobotstan after slaying Qlaxianna. That means they are willing to defend Solace, our home, their new home. The others then¡ªTerrorzin¡¯s lackeys are starting to make bigger moves, larger plays, acting more outwardly directly against the Onyx Dawn. At least, it seems the various ancients are willing to defend Solace, until a mighty roar from below sends them scattering.


    Oh, that mighty roar belongs to my wife, our beloved Administrator, Lil¡¯s mother, Kinzul. I¡¯m beginning to understand why Terrorzin hadn¡¯t acted against the Onyx Dawn directly often before now, except to enforce his egg-related rules or keep the Onyx Dawn from raising archmages. I whistle a low note of appreciation, and even Teuila blinks, stunned, as we witness Kinzul swelling to Brobdingnagian proportions. Kinzul¡¯s breath weapon sends our foes scattering while Lil, Teuila, and I, are still on approach. More than that, it virtually disintegrates the wing membranes of many of them, sending them crashing into the Worldstorm.


    Whispering his own appreciation after a sharp inhalation, Lil utters a single word, ¡°Momma,¡± with a drawn out pause attached to it.


    Simultaneously as if only now aware of our approach, yet also as if she¡¯d been planning to welcome us this very instant, Kinzul takes wing from Solace in our direction, shrinking as she does. She meets Lil in a tender spiraling flight, showering him with love, and by extension, Teuila and myself as well. We need exchange no words. She understands our victory, and the costs it entailed. Today has been harrowing, but we did it. We made it home, to her, to them, to all of the denizens of Solace relying on us, to all of those that we love.


    I weep with gratitude, and leap skyward off of Lil, angling towards the aerie, startling Lil, Teuila, and Kinzul. Drawing a ragged breath, I hold it, and float down gently, after telekinetically boosting the angle of my descent. I¡¯m not ready. I want to be there, to comfort and console Lil and Teuila, to work through our day together, but I¡¯m not ready. I¡¯m certainly not ready to receive the praise that awaits as more and more dragonkin assemble on the aerie. I swiftly, stealthily as I¡¯m able, rocket down into Solace proper.


    I don¡¯t know where to go to take the time I need to, to prepare to be my best self for the others. I find myself tempted to put on my psi-blocking circlet, to keep from drawing telepathic attention to myself, but I don¡¯t truly want to be alone, not really. Still, my outgoing passive-broadcast walls are up, so that hopefully no one is inundated with my thoughts as I try to collect them and get them in order. There¡¯s so much to do yet today, to take care of.


    I try to piece together where everyone is, and I¡¯m surprised at how many are, or were in the security center. I hadn¡¯t been able to spare much thought or vision to the goggles during the final moments of Al¡¯pa¡¯ca and our defense against the siege of his horde. I shouldn¡¯t be all that surprised when Illy corners me as I¡¯m wandering about, since she could see the general path I was ambling, through the display of the scrying sensor¡¯s output from my goggles.


    Trying to acknowledge her in passing, without getting too deeply into things, I begin to float past Illy, but she¡¯s not having it. Iylynila backs me into a corner, and leans her forehead down to mine as she mutters, ¡°Thank you. We saw. We all saw, or were told. I get you¡¯re probably not ready to talk right now, but I need you to know. Okay? I need you to know that I¡¯m glad you did it, that you made it back. Keep it up Schism. Please. Always. Lots of people want to see you right now, but I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re going to lock yourself in your vault, huh?¡±


    Nodding numbly, I lean against Iylynila for a while longer yet. I shouldn¡¯t be surprised at how well she¡¯s got me figured out, since we shared hivemind time. That, and she really is a remarkable, intuitive woman. Just¡ªwe get it, you¡¯re not ready, shut up and deal with it already¡ªyeah. My stomach aches, as does my heart. I nod, tears in my eyes, as Iylynila moves aside to let me pass. She flashes me a weak smile, her own eyes wet, with gratitude, or perhaps something else¡ªat the moment, I can¡¯t bear to leave my heart open enough to sense her feelings¡ªas I float by.


    Processing this is going to take at least a few minutes. Minutes I don¡¯t really want to spend in solitude, but I have to. Lucky is annoyed in our mindscape, at my need for solitude, my seemingly ignoring him and his excitement at my return. I wish I could just give him the love he deserves, and forget about everything else at the moment, but he understands. He knows me well enough, to know that my mind isn¡¯t always able to handle what I or anyone else might want of it. My lower jaw quivers, and my lower lip along with it.


    Grateful for Lucky¡¯s understanding, and his dutiful watch over Alanea and the injured in the infirmary, I continue my path, as predicted by Illy. I sense Pawn and Prinrin about, as I near Mount Verdimenn. They¡¯re both empathetic enough, intuitive enough, that they understand where I¡¯m at mentally, emotionally. I nearly lost Teuila today, Lil as well, several times over. I had panic attacks, trauma flashbacks today, I think several times over as well.


    Skating and surfing along in towards Mount Verdimenn, Nala pays me no mind as I scoop a bunch of unfinished items waiting for enchantments into my bags. Littlebit gazes my way, excitedly approaching, but somehow Nala knows. Nala puts out a hand to redirect Littlebit¡¯s attention, to keep her distracted and keep her from feeling dejected or rejected by my current state. Maybe my passive walls aren¡¯t up as thoroughly as I thought. I¡¯m not certain. I¡¯m surprised at Nala¡¯s savviness, but grateful for it nonetheless.


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    Vyela, whom appeared to be sleeping in her massive gold dragon form, curled around the dugout, offers me her cursory, ¡°Hmm,¡± as I pass towards my vault. I could almost laugh if I were in a better state of mind.


    I can sense Leezahna peeking out of her abode at me, since her home is basically right across the hall from my vault. Paying her no mind, I slip inside and close the adamantite vault door behind me as I finally allow myself to lose my composure. I slide down against the interior of the vault door, sobbing to myself. Not all of us will make it back every time, and it¡¯s all the more clear to me, now more than ever.


    There are still dozens of thousands of foes to face within Terrorzin¡¯s ranks outnumbering us thousands to one still. The Damnations are still on the loose, and each could kill nearly any of my family members outside of my inner circle, with but a touch to steal their souls. I can¡¯t bear losing any of them, my new family, my loved ones.


    I even have people like Yui and Yuri whom I barely know, that I¡¯d be devastated to lose. Hell, I already nearly lost Yuri. Zelshiz and their Spellknights, I might want to be able to think of as just Terrorzin¡¯s forces, under temporary surrender, so as not to get attached, but it¡¯s not true. They¡¯re as much family now as anyone else within Solace.


    Shiz is going to get to be an uncle. Atter¡¯s going to get to be a mother. Yui might even clutch! After this strike against Terrorzin, this brazen, out-and-out attack that decimated a huge chunk of his force, and one of his most dangerous weapons-in-the-making, he¡¯s sure to retaliate. How many of us will survive a retaliatory attack by the overwhelming percentage of dragonkind loyal to Terrorzin?


    I know that Solace is largely infused with Kinzul¡¯s dragonforce, and the dragonforces of several elders I¡¯d never met. Thus it would be difficult to outright destroy it by conventional means. Still, could it withstand the destructive fury of fifty thousand foes? Foes that include the Damnations and even possibly Terrorzin himself?


    My spiritswarm buzzes sickeningly within me. I wonder if I could somehow free them¡ªit, now, I guess¡ªback into the ether. It seems unlikely. One of my many failures today I guess. Though, without them¡ªit¡ªwould I have been able to aid in defeating Al¡¯pa¡¯ca? Would we have succeeded at all?


    It doesn¡¯t seem likely in retrospect. Still, it feels awful to have absorbed them, and made them a part of me. Though, at least it seems relatively happy, zooming around my system, almost playing with the electrically driven parts of my body.


    Another thing that feels awful is to have abandoned Lil and Teuila into Kinzul¡¯s care upon returning to Solace. Kinzul and those on the aerie needed heroes to cheer for though, to laud and praise. Lil and Teuila are much better at receiving that sort of attention than I am. Plus, it was far more their victory than mine. Stop that. Hm? It was a team effort and you know it. Everyone had parts to play. I know, but¡ªno. No buts. Just stop.


    Focus on enchanting, and gathering your thoughts. You had a rough day in a lot of ways. Cut yourself some emotional slack. There¡¯s a lot to prepare for. Things only get harder, deadlier, from here on out. Breathe, and get it handled.


    I so badly want¡ªyou want to be able to be there for them, but you yourself need help right now. Cutting yourself off isn¡¯t the best way to deal with it, but right now, you¡¯re handling it, and coping the only way you can think of. You¡¯ll be alright. You¡¯ll pull through this. This is the primary timeline. Teuila is alive. You all made it home.


    Heaving a sigh, I nod along to no one but myself I suppose. We did. If Te and Lil weren¡¯t so close to death¡¯s door, I¡¯d call it a pretty much grand slam victory for us. I mean, in a lot of ways, it was, even with our injuries and setbacks. Over eight thousand foes, and Terrorzin¡¯s most powerful archmage down, along with however many resources sapped, and the extinction of his Worldstorm domination plan.


    What about you, hm? Me? Well, hm. Well, my physical injuries are patching more quickly than ever. I think losing my lycanthrope form absorbed some of its regeneration to my base form, or its side-mana-pool is now split between my base form and my other side forms, or something. Between that, whatever strange effect the Stone In Two Parts has, the spiritswarm, my somehow renewed connection to my thermokinesis, and improved electrokinesis, I¡¯m likely to be ready for battle again by morning.


    Good. They were right. You¡¯re going to be the knife¡¯s edge, applied to nearly every engagement. Tears roll down my cheeks in an unending cascade. It keeps coming back to this, doesn¡¯t it? Sooner or later, Reggie Shellcracker has to go it alone, if they don¡¯t want the people around them to die in the process. Shut up doofus. Hey, I¡¯m¡ªshut up. You¡¯re hurting, and scared. Those are okay things to be at any time, but especially in a time of war, when the future is so uncertain. You aren¡¯t doomed to taking this on alone. They wouldn¡¯t let you even if you wanted to.


    But how can I make sure they come home, that they all survive til the end? You can¡¯t! Okay? Just breathe. There are no guarantees. It¡¯s going to hurt. You¡¯ll likely suffer losses, and likely sooner rather than later. You don¡¯t have to just accept that, but it will be better to be prepared for it.


    You won¡¯t get time to grieve. Not any time soon anyway. Of course you don¡¯t want to lose anyone, of course you don¡¯t. You aren¡¯t powerful enough to take on fifty-thousand plus dragonkin all at once on your own though. It¡¯s stupid and insane to even remotely think otherwise.


    Tell me Reggie, is your Honoris Causa even healed? Hm. Whispering my titles to myself, it seems to be flickering in and out, not quite able to manifest yet. I¡¯m guessing a day or two before it¡¯s back at close to full strength.


    I could swear there was a slight shriek when I recited my titles, and my Honoris Causa started to manifest. Or maybe an extremely loud shriek, dulled and quieted, muffled by the thick adamantite slab of a vault door. In fact, there might be a tremulous knocking happening as well.


    I guess that¡¯s all the time you get to pull yourself together Reggie. You might as well see who¡¯s knocking, though based on the fearful state of the knock, we¡¯re pretty sure we know who it is. Yeah, pretty sure indeed. I wonder what she wants or needs. Best collect myself and respond quickly if I don¡¯t want things to fall apart.

 B 6 C 196: Grouping, Regrouping

    Opening my vault door, I¡¯m not all that surprised to see Leezahna timidly standing there, hopping back several feet to make way for my exit. I¡¯m only slightly surprised to see Ixey, whose face is drawn over in a mixture of excitement, joy, and sorrow. Her half smile is comforting in a lot of ways. It shows that she knows me well enough that I can¡¯t handle a lot of positivity at the moment. I¡¯m almost surprised at that, since other than hanging out the one time, I hadn¡¯t thought she¡¯d spent any time getting to know me.


    Still, I inhale a shuddering breath, unintentionally broadcasting my vulnerability to Leezahna who blinks in surprise. Passing the breath out through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I raise an eyebrow her way, which tenses the skin around my forehead and the horns located thereupon. That¡¯s still taking time to get used to. How can I be both tiefling and changeling simultaneously? Huff, not the time to try to figure it out Reggie. I know, I know.


    When Leezahna addresses me, it¡¯s with a fear and timidness that isn¡¯t for herself as she pleads, ¡°Schism, are we¡ªis m-my m-m-mother going to make it through this war? Y-you w-w-wanted t-to¡ª.¡°


    Ixeyla interrupts her, setting a calming hand on her shoulder to help her out as she offers up, ¡°Schism, Princess here knows she¡¯s gotta get in on these brain link things you set up. No one else could finish them off, even with Illy having spell paper stuff. She¡¯s worried that she should be spending what time we have left with her fam, despite distancing herself for good reasons. Are we winning?¡±


    Well $%17. The honest answer is, currently, right now, probably yeah. I don¡¯t want to give her false hope though, and take away her chance to choose to bond with her family, in case it does come down to last regrets. What the hell¡¯s the right thing to do here? I guess I¡¯ll just be as honest as I can.


    Drawing and puffing another ragged breath, I start, ¡°Right now? Yeah, yeah we are. Lil, Teuila, and I just got back from taking down over eight thousand of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, and his greatest, most powerful archmage, and ending an experiment that could have stripped one of our greatest advantages. That play carries its own risk though. We¡¯ve painted a target on our backs. He might not have known the Onyx Dawn was striking out before now, but Stormspire Peak disappearing into a crater will leave him pretty damn sure who¡¯s acting against him now. If the previous siege was individual agents not reporting directly to him, he¡¯s likely to now send closer to the full might of his forces this way.¡±


    While Leezahna¡¯s expression droops more and more, Ixey curses under her breath. Muttering, Ixey queries, ¡°I guess no more kid gloves for anyone now, huh Schism?¡±


    Nodding her way, I agree. I can¡¯t give people a sugar-coated truth when they might need to make their final choices. And Terrorzin isn¡¯t going to be holding back against us any longer, if he had been before now. It might take a day or two for news to really reach him, and another day or two for him to organize, since no one else can really safely traverse up and down above and below the Worldstorm. I¡¯m sure there were witnesses though, forces at the edge of the collapse, or scouts outside Stormspire when it cratered. They¡¯ll be reporting its fall.


    Leeza turns and buries her face in Ixey¡¯s shoulder, quivering, shaking, likely silently sobbing. Ixeyla pats her gingerly on the back and offers me a sad frown with a furrowed brow. Our dismal congregation in the dim light of the glow lichen feels as somber an affair as pretty much any could be right now. I make as if to leave, but Ixey shoots me a stern glance and shakes her head. Now my own brow is furrowed, but I think I understand.


    I make sure to gather what¡¯s left of my wealth, and anything that¡¯ll sell decently well, because my external gem supplies are dwindling, and the non-casted versions of the runic gem-paste are ridiculously expensive. I can maybe chance casting a few of the networks nearer to the end of the night, when I¡¯ve gotten most groups done. But most of the groups are going to need to be done without me spending SP, so that I can function throughout the eve.


    Whispering telepathically to Ixeyla, I express, ¡°Ixey, thank you. Thank you for helping steer Leezahna right, and showing her you care, and being there for her while she¡¯s working on herself. I couldn¡¯t¡ª¡°


    Her response interrupts me, ¡°Stuff it Schism, it¡¯s not even a thing. I made a friend, a weird one I wouldn¡¯t normally have picked, but she¡¯s nice enough. Get your head on right bud. It sucks, but it seems like the whole mountain, maybe the whole effing world is counting on you. You cracking under the pressure?¡±


    Smirking, I snort a laugh as I nod in response, ¡°Yeah, yeah I probably am. No choice but to keep moving forward though, right? Did¡ªIxey? Did you watch what¡ªoh my gods. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    I can¡¯t even finish asking Ixeyla if she¡¯d watched what happened during our mission from the security center. When her emotional wavelength wobbles violently and her chest spasms, wracked with a huge sob, I know. I know she saw what nearly happened to Lil, and what did happen to Lil. Drawing a ragged breath, I loose a nearly sobbed sigh myself as I set a hand on her shoulder. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t have made the goggles after all. Not if they¡¯re going to cause this much hurt.


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    Before I can wander further down the rabbit-hole of self-doubt, Ixeyla chastises, ¡°I bet I know where your brain¡¯s headed. I watched, I saw, and I don¡¯t regret getting to see it. If my prince¡ªif Sun¡ªnever came home, I¡¯d have cherished every last second. So don¡¯t you dare take it back, or unmake them, or whatever. Come on, let¡¯s get those groups together, some of ¡®em have been waiting since you left, to get those brain links up and running.¡±


    Nodding a bit numbly, I agree and follow along behind Ixeyla as she leads Leezahna away towards the crafting area where some seating has been arranged. A host of Draconiacs and kobolds and a few human form dragons are hanging out. They¡¯re nearly all members that I¡¯d had Ixey¡¯s help with plotting out the separate groups to link up in psychic networks, and some friends and acquaintances just chilling out with them as well.


    When I sense Lucky approaching with Trixey, Pidge, and Alanea, my heart could soar. I know I wasn¡¯t ready to see him, only a short while ago, but I rush to embrace him in thinkspace and meatspace. My son. Tears begin to flow once more, and my nostrils itch inside, causing me to sniffle. Does Lucky know how close we were to losing Lil or Teuila?


    As if answering my unspoken question, I hear a vague telepathic voice querying, ¡°Dragon okay? Lady-knight okay?¡±


    Or at least, that¡¯s about as much as I can make out, as far as what it sounds like he¡¯s thinking. I nod to Lucky as I roughhouse with him, stroking his jowls and skull. I rest my forehead on his for a while, and my heart freezes momentarily in my chest.


    Kinzul, my wife, tentatively asks, ¡°My love? Are you well enough to speak?¡±


    It breaks my heart that she has to ask, and it¡¯s my own fault. Stop that. Hm? It¡¯s no one¡¯s fault that you struggle with your emotional health and mental wellbeing. She¡¯s kind, compassionate, considerate. That¡¯s all. Just be grateful that she is who she is.


    Nodding along to myself, but also in response to Kinzul, I witness what seems like a grand procession approaching Mount Verdimenn from Mount Solace, led by Kinzul, Lil, and Teuila. It seems like pretty much everyone from the Onyx Dawn, or its newest allies and family members, are here. Well, except Aegis, Shield, our Quick, and our Dark, and Atter. Three of them are in the ¡®Neath, while the other two are, ahem, conjugating.


    A faint yet devious smirk plays across the faces of Kinzul, Illy, and Prinrin, simultaneously, in near-identical manners, as they catch wind of me thinking of conjugation. Ugh. Heh. Well, if anything was going to get me out of my own head, embarrassment over biological procreation processes would certainly be one of the things to do it. Oh stop, yes I heard myself you deviants. Loosing an internalized chuckle, I roll my eyes.


    Still, I¡¯m slightly apprehensive, waiting for Kinzul to speak. She offers up, ¡°My love, feeling your Honoris Causa suffer, and dissipate, was a shock I nearly couldn¡¯t bear. I thought for certain we¡¯d lost you. I suppose I shouldn¡¯t be quite so surprised that you¡¯re more resilient than even an ancient dragon, with all you¡¯ve been through. Yet still, that makes my heart ache for you all the more. Then upon your return, to feel your heart in turmoil, and your mind closing itself off¡ªI. Please, know that I truly love you, and wish for your success and safe return, not solely to further the goal of the Order.¡±


    Choking on my emotions, I gulp and blink away tears. I¡¯d never have accused Kinzul of using me solely for the Order¡¯s goals, or not loving me. Still, to hear her outright admit her love, in such a tender, vulnerable way, I, I just. Drawing a ragged breath, I rub my eyes on my bicep. Suddenly I¡¯m catching an incoming missile in the form of Teuila as she sails my way gleefully. They¡¯re ganging up on me to keep me unsteady on my feet and keep me from retreating into myself. If that¡¯s the case though, then where¡¯s¡ª.


    Her voice telepathically chimes like a chorus of angels, ¡°I¡¯m here too, my Hero. I knew you¡¯d make it home. You¡¯ll always come home to me. Always have, and always will. Won¡¯t you?¡±


    Hiccuping, I nod to Luni in thinkspace. How could I suggest otherwise? It¡¯s not like I don¡¯t want to return to them, to her, always. She, well, they, are what I¡¯m fighting for, by and large. The congregation is frenetic, and I worry that I won¡¯t be able to maintain my sanity as I attend to what needs to be done. Still, as I¡¯m surrounded by Lil, Lu, Te, Lucky, Kinzul, Illy, Prinny, and more, my world is a little softer at the edges. I feel a little safer, warmer, and more stable.


    Alanea surprises me by tugging on my sleeve and asking, ¡°Well, um, dearling, are you, well, um, well? It sounds like you¡¯ve, well, had an awful lot of excitement already for one day. Well, and, well, I think you need some time to breathe and decompress.¡±


    Flashing a sad smile her way, I nod and agree. I really could use some time to breathe and decompress, but the war is only picking up speed. We need to finish every last preparation we can. I spy Farzhis and Veril standing near Littlebit, listening to her spiel about some trinket or another. That reminds me, our artificers are¡ª. I need to thank Nala. She saved us all. The focus was key to our success against Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, and to our escape.


    Crouching, I wrap my arms around Alanea for a moment and whisper, ¡°You¡¯re right, I really could, but I won¡¯t get the chance. I hope you¡¯ll forgive me, and try to help me stay sane throughout the rest of this war as it only gets harder from here. There¡¯s still two more apocalypses to deal with after this one too.¡±


    Alanea pales only slightly before she nods resolutely and hugs me tightly. Ixeyla and Lil are embracing as Teuila nuzzles against Alanea, group hugging the two of us. Lucky attempts to bowl us all over, while Illy stands nearby, and Kinzul wraps us all in her regal, massive embrace as her wings spring forth. It¡¯s a small, short moment of affection. It¡¯s the kind of feeling I need to remember. It¡¯s what I want most in the world. To be safe, in the arms of those I love, and for them to be safe, healthy, and happy, in mine.


    Nothing good lasts forever though.

 B 6 C 197: Warning

    Luni, behind Lil, seems demure, especially after my overly-dramatic recent thought of nothing good lasting forever. Lu, My Anchor, I want to get us all through this, but the reality of the situation hits home harder and harder. Kagired is out cold, maybe in a permanent coma. The siege is now starting to hit Solace from the ground and air simultaneously. And I¡¯m the only one of us that can realistically reliably recover between engagements.


    She locks eyes with me, hers glistening with tears as she nods, acknowledging the facts. I try not to imagine what the losses of any of these people would do to me on individual levels. They¡¯ve all grown to be part of my heart. Farzhis and Veril would leave me crushed, not getting to see them blossom into the best versions of themselves, or explore what their relationship might become. Illy would leave my heart shredded. Kinzul¡ªwe know it¡¯s coming, and I still rail against fate.


    Nala, Curator, our grumpy librarian-turned-inventor, her new friend; Tiktik¡¯s lover, Littlebit, losing either would torment me. My eyes itch as my vision blurs, wetness abounding on my lids. Everyone, everyone here is precious. Yui, Yuri, Shiz, Atter, Zelshiz, Miraina, Prinrin, the strategists-eight, our Queens, and more and more. But this is as much wallowing as I can afford, as much time as I can spare to contemplate the upcoming grief in advance.


    Xayla hangs out at the edges of the crowd, intensely uncomfortable, and I can certainly relate. Even moreso when Kinzul begins, ¡°All gathered, please heed Schism, for anything that need be said or done this eve. Like our Sun and Tenith, they were instrumental in our salvation this day.¡±


    I wilt more than slightly when all attention suddenly turns towards me. I can feel a thousand eyes boring into me. Well, closer to a few hundred, since there¡¯s not that much space to be surrounded by¡ªReggie just focus. Right, yeah. Kinzul has done me a favor and gotten people ready to pay attention and return to doing what needs to be done. Alright, let¡¯s get to it Reggie.


    Poor Leezahna, she¡¯ll have a permanent tie to my mind in a few minutes. The mind of someone that bullied and terrifies her. Hopefully it comes across the way it¡¯s meant to though, that she¡¯s cared for, appreciated, and protected. I mean, she accepted. I wouldn¡¯t be adding her to psychic networks without her consent. So she, on at least some levels, knows what it means.


    While I¡¯m setting up psychic networks, I have Lil work on dumping out the loot he managed to snag from Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s hoard. And as he¡¯s doing that, I toss everything I¡¯d been able to snag from the horde into the pile as well. There¡¯s a lot of magic in that mound of trinkets, and a fair bit of wealth, which is going to be spent enchanting.


    Before I get too caught up in other tasks, or forget, I approach Nala to express my gratitude, ¡°Nala, the elemental focus was, well, pivotal. It won us the engagement, and saved our lives.¡±


    Nodding, Nala¡¯s terse response is, ¡°Yes yes, fine, good that it served its purpose. Unless you need something, shoo shoo Schism, I¡¯ve almost got something here.¡±


    She then balks, and lifts her head from her project to turn her gaze to me as she adds, ¡°Oh, friend Reggie, that was fairly rude of me wasn¡¯t it? I¡¯m sorry. I really am glad you¡¯d been able to put it to use, and made it home. It wouldn¡¯t do to lose our Hero, Sun, or Tenith, let alone all three. I¡¯ll always prioritize projects you hand me, knowing how vital a role they might possibly play.¡±


    Offering her a half smile, I nod gratefully while commenting, ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear it. We¡¯re good, and it really is thanks to you and Littlebit, and whatever confluence of events led to the focus. If you have some time, or can split your own focus, could you curate the items we liberated from Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s hoard, with the idea of imagining who they¡¯d best go to?¡±


    As I¡¯m asking this, Lucky¡¯s roughhousing with Lil while Lil stacks items and trinkets. Unfortunately, they¡¯re both big, and a bit clumsy when not in battle-focus mode. Disaster strikes. My heart drops into the pit of my stomach when I hear shattering glass. Thankfully, it isn¡¯t accompanied by the sound of metal chains shearing that would indicate derezzing. Less thankfully, what shattered apparently contained something dangerous, or some dangerous things.


    A tar-like gelatinous ooze begins to wrap itself around Lucky. There¡¯s no shortage of people attempting to tear it off of him or burn it off of him, but it seems to seep into his fur and flesh, his eyes and nostrils. No. No please no. Not my son. Several voices cry out, ¡°Lucky,¡± or, ¡°Hound,¡± or, ¡°Hunter!¡± with dismay.


    Lucky whimpers and whines, but seemingly more from the attention than any sense of danger or self-preservation. As I race to his side, I telekinetically surf above people¡¯s heads to get to him as quickly as I can. Despite being desperately worried for him, most of what I sense coming off of Lucky¡¯s telepathic wavelength is simple embarrassment, or shame. Like any other pup, he lays down and covers his snoot with his massive paws, his tail curled inwards, and his ears flopped low.


    The way the goop moved, it was almost like some sort of venomous symbiote finding itself a home. Almost like¡ªKing¡ªlike a certain form I once had. That smoky-voiced sludge that crept about inside of me in my mite-hulk-king form. Oh Lucky. I hope it isn¡¯t trying to convince you to give up control of yourself. I shoo everyone else away as I lay my forehead on my son¡¯s. I cast about my psychic senses into our bond, but, as in the physical world, Lucky is simply laying down embarrassedly in our shared thinkspace.


    Whispering a question into our bond, I ask, ¡°Are you okay boy? You¡¯re a good boy Lucky, no one¡¯s mad. We¡¯re just worried about you. I love you. We all do. Even Pidge and Trixie were trying to get the goop off of you.¡±


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    The only responses I can get from Lucky seem like words for sorrow and embarrassment. He¡¯s basically apologizing. Alanea steps up to our side and comments, ¡°Well you¡¯ve certainly gotten a lot bigger since the Heart, huh boy? But not, well, any more graceful it seems. Well, aren¡¯t you such a sweetheart though anyway? When, well, when you and Luni and Lil were at the Enclave, before we ever met, well, I guess your other parent, we certainly went through, well, our share of adventure didn¡¯t we? You¡¯re alright now, well, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    Lucky whuffs quietly in agreement. Someday when we¡¯re not so bogged down with everything, I should really get the story of what happened in the Heart with the Triple L Squad. As is, I¡¯m just grateful to Alanea for the assist. It seems she¡¯s gotten Lucky out of his temporary shame spiral. He¡¯s nuzzling her, and he¡¯s licking her with his enormous tongue. The waves I get from Lucky¡¯s mind are something along the lines of, ¡°Smells like parent.¡±


    That last bit has me blushing to high heavens. I think Lucky means Alanea smells like a Changeling Fae, since she is one, but the implication that my scent is on her, is, ahem, an intimate embarrassment I don¡¯t need to share with anyone else at the moment. Though the minds riding along on mine flash devious grins along our shared psychic networks. Ugh, deviants, the lot of them.


    Right, anyway, enough of that. Nala has come out to see the commotion, and is now inspecting the various artifacts and magical items and trinkets we¡¯d picked up from Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, and¡ª. My eyes flash wide. I slump to the ground as my head lolls weakly in a daze. Vacuum tubes. Al¡¯pa¡¯ca had vacuum tube technology. The other place I¡¯d seen vacuum, besides my own voids, was Daffodil¡¯s pump. My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach as dread washes over my countenance I find myself uttering, ¡°Daffodil¡¯s pump. No, no, oh no.¡±


    Having listened in on my thought train, Te puts it together remarkably quickly as well, her own dawning horror painting her face aghast. The others on our psychic links are completely baffled. Teuila¡¯s got that oft-hidden brilliant scientist side of herself, and I plead that she takes the lead on this one. I can¡¯t bear to share the possibility right now. The possibility that we doomed Rayileklia.


    Eyebrows around me raise fit to fly off in a flock of their own as the eyes beneath them widen in shock. Thankfully, Teuila handles explaining, ¡°So, when we were at the storming peaky nonsense, my Airhead got a call from the Seck¡ª¡° cutting herself off from saying sexy, Teuila pretends to cough, ¡°ahem, Sisters from the mist. Doom and gloom prophecies as usual, wanting poor Airhead to take care of fates of whole worlds and stuff. Go fig. Didn¡¯t really make much sense at the time, since we were on our way to handle it already. But they made it sound like a catch twenty two, like a damned if ya don¡¯t, damned if ya do. Like, all of the possible futures just vanish at some point soon.¡±


    Above the gasps and startled questions, Teuila continues around the sudden cacophony in order to explain our current theory, ¡°Do any of you know how to drill for water, and different ways to pull it up once you¡¯ve hit ground water? Never mind. So fluid volume is displaced by equal volume of¡ªokay, I¡¯m losing you already. If you fill a hole with something, and you yank that something out of that hole, it can drag stuff up with it. Get it? Airhead¡¯s worried that we didn¡¯t know how far down Alpacker¡¯s biz went beneath the crust. Leylines and stuff, maybe all the way to the mantle or core? I don¡¯t know. If it did, yanking free all that Worldstorm energy¡ª.¡±


    Surprisingly, Luni mutters, ¡°Vesuvius¡­¡±


    Do I even want to know why Lu knows the name of the mountain that steamrolled Pompei on Fakeworld? Or did I tell her about it when I named Vesuviform way back in the day? Blargh. I¡¯ll leave it be. Could this be what the sisters were referring to? Was it a no-win scenario? We save Rayileklia from an overpowered storm-sorcerer, only to doom it to a fiery cataclysm spilling forth from its own bowels?


    The snickers and giggles I hear at my mental thought line¡¯s turn of phrase has me rolling my eyes at how un-seriously it sounds like some of my allies and loved ones are taking the news. I know they aren¡¯t though. Humor helps us cope. What do you even do if you believe you¡¯ve doomed the world, or that it was doomed no matter what you did? Glancing towards Luni, hoping for guidance, for some foresight that she possesses, she offers nothing save a sad frown. I silently apologize to her with my eyes for trying to put such pressure and responsibility on her to alleviate my worry.


    Shrugging, Kinzul, her voice quiet, and full of regret, yet somehow also carrying a hint of resolve, and hope, says, "I know we can''t undo it, and can''t go back in time to fix things--."


    At that, I begin to giggle, cracking up slightly. Could I do it? Should I do it? Should I risk the egg? A precious, miraculous life like Lucky''s, destined to one-day hatch? Risk it on the off-chance that my Time skill allows me to send a message to myself at the right point in my own history to change the course of events? What could the message possibly even be, to which me at which point in time, in order to change this? Maybe the me during my Cosmic King transformation could warp to the depths of Stormspire, slay Al''pa''ca, and return? Just hope that no one else knows how to keep up his experimental spells? Then we''d lose¡ª. I can''t bare to think of it.


    Ixeyla and Xayla realize what that would mean. My eyes wet with tears. There¡¯s no guarantee that I¡¯m even on the right track with what¡¯s dooming Rayileklia from having a future timeline. Would I really risk our child, the dracorocnix? Would I risk it, and the lives of everyone from the last line of evacuees? I can¡¯t imagine doing so. Tears roll down my face in a ceaseless cascade. I don¡¯t know how to even begin to apologize for even contemplating such a line of thought with Ixeyla and Xayla listening in.


    Ixeyla attempts to absolve me, ¡°Hey, Schism, I¡¯d get it. If it were down to it, between the world, and me, no hard feelings if you do what you¡¯ve gotta do.¡±


    Ixey¡¯s sibling Xayla nods numbly along with her in agreement, but I shake my head. Through tears I respond, ¡°It¡¯s not. It won¡¯t come to that. I could be entirely wrong about this prophecy stuff. I don¡¯t even know if I could succeed at altering the course of events if I got a message to myself back at that point in time anyway. If I didn¡¯t? Then I¡¯d lose both of you, and our unborn dracorocnix for no reason.¡±


    I hesitate to add, ¡°Not to mention Shiz, Leezahna, and so many more,¡± keeping the thought to myself¡ªwell, trying to, since my brain is always on display.


    Alright Reggie, get it together. People are counting on you. Stop cracking up, and stop contemplating a solution you¡¯d never allow yourself to take anyway. Go on living, without worrying about a dire warning that you could be entirely wrong about. A warning that the sisters gave, in part, to keep you from obsessing, like this, at an inopportune moment.

 B 6 C 198: Live Without Warnings

    For now, I have to do it. I have to take my own advice. None of us here are powerful enough to act against a planet tearing itself apart. None save perhaps Kinzul, if she didn¡¯t need to maintain the Worldstorm, and had months, years, maybe decades to reabsorb her dragonforce. Glancing at my wife, my eyes wet, she confirms what I fear, both of us believe she doesn¡¯t live out the year. Just like Terrorzin. Prophecies of both of their deaths¡ªwait. Prophecies. It keeps coming back to prophecies. Fricklefrack. I¡¯m a time traveler.


    Closing my eyes, stilling my breathing, I reach out to the non. I dive into the lack of the flow of time. I slip into the moment between moments, the space between spaces. Could I pull a trope? Could I set it up so that the prophecy technically is fulfilled, or at least looks like it is, while coming back in time from some point far, far in the future, when I¡¯m massively much more powerful? If this is the prime timeline, we¡¯re destined to succeed. Aren¡¯t we?


    I¡ªI know I died, but I feel like, like it must be inevitable that we succeed somehow, isn¡¯t it? Lu had feelings about more beyond this. There¡¯s more she¡¯s hiding. I can¡¯t¡ªglp, I can¡¯t let that all be for nothing. I guess we table the idea for now. If Kinzul¡ªI rub my eyes fiercely¡ªperishes, and her body disappears or something, maybe I succeeded at this. This half-baked plan. I have an infinite lifespan, right?


    There¡¯s no way I¡¯d ever give up, is there? Give up on Kinzul? If I live for eternity, there has to be some solution somewhere, that bends the rules of fate, right? Lil would say there goes Reggie, trying to break the rules again. Heh. Yeah, yeah there goes me, trying to break the rules again. And I will keep trying. Forever.


    Loosing my grip on the lack of the flow of time, I slip back to reality, and allow gravity to bring me to my son¡¯s snoot. Somehow Reggie, somehow. Do whatever it takes. Take every moment of every reality, for as long as eternity, and always keep trying. Always. Keep living, keep living as if there¡¯ll never be an end in sight, and work to make that a reality. Live without heeding the warnings the way you normally would. Live without them, and keep your hands on the reins, on the loom of fate.


    I¡¯ve been told, or accused, of being alone at the loom of fate before. The Sisters are watching the threads of destiny like Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis? The Moirai? Then they¡¯d better watch me. Because I¡¯m going to dance on those threads, even if it looks like they all come to an end. It¡¯s cocky, but I won¡¯t let myself ever end, because that would mean giving up, and letting all the past hurts happen. I¡¯ll live, with or without their warnings, somehow. Even if I die. Yes I know how stupid that sounds.


    There¡¯s a round of chuckling across my mental wavelengths, and I wear a grim grin in response. Alright. No more time for fooling around, or feeling bad. If Rayileklia is ending, we need plans in place. I won¡¯t let a planet getting destroyed take my loved ones from me.


    There¡¯s a round of confusion from everyone, and my wife starts, ¡°Beloved, what could you possibly mean by that? It sounds an impossible paradox.¡±


    I know I¡¯m going to sound cocky, but my response is, ¡°Hey, I¡¯m the Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, right? An archmage Aliased Schism, with the Latent, Nothing? And your Void Dragon Honoris Causa. Impossible is half of what I do, and we¡¯ve got quite a number of Paradoxes right here. I¡¯m going to need to help Littlebit¡¯s research.¡±


    The assembled Paradox Dormir and Paradox Vivant either grin or roll their eyes at my calling them out. Everyone shuffles back as my Honoris Causa expands. It was showy, and it¡¯ll cost me a bit, but there¡¯s a lot of new faces around here. New faces, and old, that aren¡¯t yet on psychic networks, that could use reassurances that their Schism isn¡¯t giving up on them. Now, how do you suppose we go on living, if parts of a planet are destroyed? Move to another part, of course. Evacuate. Maybe all of Rayileklia won¡¯t be destroyed, maybe just the northern hemisphere, or something. If all else fails, evacuate the whole damn world.


    Starting off as friendly as I can, I request, ¡°Littlebit, any luck so far with that ¡®Twixt portal research?¡±


    The adorable, vivacious, intelligent goblin woman perks up, her emerald cheeks wide and tinged with a blush of pride as she realizes immediately what I mean. Her response surprises me, ¡°I¡¯ve been hitting a wall, because I¡¯ve been getting a lot of feedback, signals that overwhelm my sensors and gadgets, stuff that¡¯d blow the most amped up circuits and speakers. But uh, you think you can keep this trick running for a while? Like you did on our way from Jeegoobotstan?¡±


    My smile fights its way across my face. We can do this. We¡¯ll save everyone. No matter what it takes, or what it costs me. I glance to Luni and Kinzul, their lips part as both of their jaws drop ever so slightly, as they realize what I¡¯m saying, and what I¡¯m going to do. Despite what I¡¯d promised them only this morning. Yet neither of them wants to stop me now. I¡¯ll always, always do whatever it takes, if I have it in me. Right now? I have about as much in me as I¡¯ve ever had before.


    The snorting and laughter across my telepathic wavelengths has me rolling my eyes, but I loose a half chuckle through a snort as I shake my head. Turning to Kinzul, I plead, ¡°Can you get word out, my love? That at the drop of a hat, everyone, everyone needs to be ready to make it to Mount Verdimenn if the word goes out. Calmly, orderly. Take care not to harm each other. I don¡¯t expect it immediately, or even within the next few days, but we should have scouts watching the northwestern area towards where Stormspire was. If¡ªif there¡¯s a Night of All Burn, here, the size I imagine possible, I want everyone to be ready to flee, and evacuate down here, and I¡¯ll try to get everyone from here, to somewhere safe. If Littlebit¡¯s ¡®Twixt research pans out. If not? I¡¯ll think of something crazy at the time, I guess.¡±


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Shiz chuckles and rests a hand on my shoulder, winking at me. I like the big guy. I¡¯m glad the thunderer siblings joined us. Yui is propping up Yuri nearby, and she looks suitably impressed despite the slight anger tinging her features. I understand. My favor got her brother hurt. Even if she doesn¡¯t hold it against me, she has every right to process her anger at me for it.


    Speaking of my favor, ¡°Has anyone gotten Induul¡¯s sitrep? Or seen him at all since he got back?¡±


    The shuffling, the quiet, and hemming and hawing is all the answer I need, at least until a Draconiac I don¡¯t know comments, ¡°Our The-Green left through the aerie, when the flight was sieging us from above. I¡ªI saw him leave, I swear, but I didn¡¯t see him return.¡±


    My eyes widen in shock as I cast a glance towards Kinzul who furrows her brow. She shakes her head, denying that Induul is dead. I know about her Administration Latent, a lot more about it than I¡¯m supposed to. If she says Induul isn¡¯t dead, then he isn¡¯t dead. What the hell is going on with him? I know he¡¯s battling his addiction withdrawal right now, but to leave during a siege? After showing up, also during the siege?


    Glancing at Illy, I can see her trying to process the same questions. He¡¯s her teammate, her subordinate. They¡¯ve known each other for a very long time by my standards. Yet she offers me only a frown as she shakes her head, not able to answer the questions either. Yui looks pissed as hell about the news when she realizes what my glances to Kinzul and Illy mean, that The Green is alive, but flaking out. I can¡¯t say I blame her, whether she¡¯s upset at me, or Indy.


    Leezahna begs my attention off to the side for a moment, and I acquiesce, letting her take the opportunity to speak first. She starts, ¡°Schism, I¡ªI¡ªI¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry, about, about our fight. I¡ª¡°


    Thinking I¡¯m being supportive, I hover a hand near her shoulder, which makes her flinch as I interrupt, ¡°Think nothing of it, I¡¯m sorry too.¡±


    She shakes her head and frowns at me, taking half a step away from my hand as she continues, ¡°You didn¡¯t let me finish. I was going to breathe. I was charging up, like you said. I¡ªI could have hurt people. Killed them. Thank you. For stopping me.¡±


    Well crap. Hell¡¯s bells. How do I respond to that? I attempt, ¡°Oh, I¡¯m, I¡¯m sorry for interrupting. I um, I¡¯m glad I stopped you too. Look, we both know socially I¡¯m an idiot, and you have certain expectations that I probably can¡¯t meet in the conversation department. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re here with us Leezahna. You¡¯re important. I¡¯m proud to have you on our side, and, and¡ª.¡±


    Leezahna reaches up to my hovering hand, and clasps the very tip of my fingers, in order to curtsy. I am so intensely uncomfortable with the gesture. Which I¡¯m pretty sure is why Leezahna just started grinning after our eyes broke contact. Touch¨¨ Leezahna, touch¨¨. She¡¯s still trembling at our contact. I hate that I¡¯ve traumatized her, but¡ªbut I don¡¯t see another way I could have handled it, that ended with her staying in Mount Solace, alive. I know how awful that sounds. I didn¡¯t trust her or her family in those moments.


    Leezahna stares at my cheek for several moments after she returns to standing. Her eyes tell me she¡¯s contemplating something. Her brow furrowing, and various twitches tell me she decided against whatever she was considering. She spins on her heel in a haughty manner, and catches herself doing it. Leeza proceeds to walk back to her dwelling while rubbing the back of her head embarrassedly. We¡¯ll finish all the psychic networks over the course of the night, she doesn¡¯t need to spend every minute at my side.


    A lovely missile rams into my side and lifts, situating itself, herself, along my torso, so my arm rests draped over her shoulders. I can¡¯t help smiling as Teuila asks, ¡°You okay my Airhead? What¡¯d the Princess want?¡±


    Drawing a ragged breath, I wear a wry half-grin while shaking my head ruefully, ¡°She was sincere Te. She apologized, or, well, thanked me for stopping her from hurting anyone. I¡¯m proud of her.¡±


    The expression drawn across Teuila¡¯s features is one of surprised respect. She nods appreciatively, responding, ¡°That sounds like good news. So you trust her now? With all our fancy Can¡¯Z¡¯aas magic stuff?¡±


    Gnawing on my lip and furrowing my brow, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d go so far as to say with all of our things, but I don¡¯t want Leeza to possibly overhear me saying that, since I want her to feel trusted and supported. Quickly, I answer, ¡°That¡¯s about the half of it, yeah. Everyone here in the Onyx Dawn, or tangential to it, seems to be on a good path, each of them, whatever their journeys are. Farzee and Veril, Leeza here, even Zayzi according to Ixey. And obviously anyone who accepted our mercy. We¡¯ve got Pidge, Trixxie, Yui, Yuri, Shiz, Zelshiz, Atter, some really great people who know a path to peace exists. One beyond the Ice of Rage.¡±


    Offering a neutral, slightly dubious expression, tinted with a hint of worry, Te asks, ¡°Are we just going to hope for the best for now? I don¡¯t want you trying to do some stupid big sacrifice play hoping to hold a whole world together. I don¡¯t¡ªplease don¡¯t do that Airhead. Please?¡±


    Casting my gaze aside and downwards, I¡¯m not sure if I can make a firm promise on that, but I answer, ¡°For now, we¡¯ll just play it by ear. Maybe we¡¯re wrong, maybe that wasn¡¯t the Sisters¡¯ warning. Maybe Alpacker¡¯s crap didn¡¯t go below Subterannea or whatever they call it here again, the ¡®Neath, yeah, the ¡®Neath. In Stormspire, we didn¡¯t see any signs of those mite-hulk-adjacents like in the Gap near the kobolds¡¯ warrens.¡±


    Frowning for a while, Teuila brightens up a bit as she agrees, ¡°Oh, true. I bet they¡¯re all over down there in the ¡®Neath. Yeesh, we¡¯d have a Miracle Oak situation again on top of everything else, wouldn¡¯t we? They¡¯d be fleeing the lava maybe.¡±


    Nodding in agreement, I catch Te¡¯s lips with mine momentarily. We close our eyes and rest our foreheads together. I¡¯ll do everything in my power to never abandon her, them, any of them. If the world is coming apart at the seams, I¡¯ll find solutions. I¡¯d best get working with Littlebit. We¡¯ll go on living, researching, planning, as we would have without the warnings. Just a bit more aware of our invested time is all.


    It seems I have a few more people that need me to check in with them first though, before I can get started on that, and set things up to finish over the course of the night. Farzhis is rubbing her arm ferociously, and virtually vibrating, continually backing away from Veril, looking ashamed with her gaze cast downwards. Crapsnackle pops. Poor Farzhis, poor Veril. Let¡¯s see if we can do anything to help, yeah?

 B 6 C 199: Unravelling

    My beloved Wings hops up, leans in to kiss me on the cheek, and mumble-shouts something about training before rocketing away. My brows flick upwards before furrowing slightly. That¡¯s Te for you. Always the most driven to be the strongest of us. I loose a half chuckle while watching her leave. Come on Reggie, you¡¯re needed elsewhere apparently.


    My lips draw back in a concerned, neutral expression while I approach the pair of Dormir. Farzhis virtually shouts into my mind, ¡°Stop! Schism, please, don¡¯ bring tha¡¯ beautiful blue body any closer.¡±


    Stunned, I stand next to Veril, blinking, and raise an eyebrow towards him. He pouts my way while shrugging. My guess is that Farzhee is going through withdrawal, like Indy, though not as hard, and normally she¡¯d just, erm, conjugate with someone to take her mind off of it.


    Sarcastically, Farzhee snips, ¡°Ding ding, Schism go¡¯ i¡¯ in one, big surprise tha¡¯ tha¡¯ beautiful brain in tha¡¯¡­ tigh¡¯¡­ blue¡­ horny¡­ Ugh!¡±


    I think¡ªhope¡ªFarzhis meant that I have horns, not that I look, erm, y¡¯know. I¡¯m still not used to having them. I gulp when Farzhee eyes up me and Veril both, hungrily. I can tell Veril wants to comfort her, in more ways than one, but he¡¯s trying to be supportive in the way that Farzhis is indicating she needs, not what her addiction is showing that she wants.


    Farzhis, our The-Blue, is mumbling something about needing an outlet, physical, that can¡¯t be a guy. Slightly hurt that I fall into the category of guy for her, I keep my thoughts on the matter of my gender to myself. Casting my gaze about, I spy Ixeyla, and flick my eyebrows, requesting her presence. She shrugs, pecks Zayzi on the cheek and whispers something to her twin, then drags her lanky self on over this way.


    On approach, Ixeyla starts, ¡°¡¯Sup Schism? Wha¡ªoh, oh The-Blue is jonesing bad, huh? Whaddaya need me for?¡±


    Responding, I answer, ¡°You¡¯re fond of, and highly ranked in, wrestling aren¡¯¡ª¡°


    Farzhis interrupts in a fervor, ¡°You, me, there, now!¡± practically pouncing on Ixeyla. She¡¯s pointing to one of the less fruitful warrens, where they can¡¯t do too much damage if they get a little carried away.


    Ixey rubs the back of her head ruefully, and shrugs, nodding towards Farzhis. She mouths, ¡°You owe me,¡± my way as the pair head into the warren to wrestle.


    I do. I really do. I¡¯m so glad Lil is in love with her, and that she¡¯s a part of our life. She¡¯s saved my arse on several occasions now, metaphorically at least.


    Prinrin laments telepathically to me, ¡°I wish Farzhis dear would come to me. I love her like my own Schism sweetie, always have. We¡¯ve never really connected though the sweet dear. I suppose wrestling her runty stepmom isn¡¯t what my sweet wants or needs at the moment though, eh Schism dearie?¡±


    Responding to Prinny, I nod in meatspace to no one, ¡°I suppose that¡¯s how she feels right now at least, Prinny love. If you want to connect with someone that could use some comforting, about the same topic, I¡¯m sure Veril here¡ª¡°


    Veril interrupts to hop into our psychic conversation, virtually shouting, ¡°Yes please!¡± He then blushes fit to weld titanium, quite a feat for a Red to pull off, since his cheeks normally present quite red to begin with.


    Prinrin and I both smirk, trying not to tease the obviously hormonal Veril, about his obvious attraction to Prinrin and Farzhis. I can¡¯t blame him, both are wonderful, astounding women, that are beautiful in different ways, and both are creatures of lust in one fashion or another. Yes I see your devious grin from across the cave Prinny. I won¡¯t tell you to behave yourself. You¡¯re sweet, and wise, and I¡¯m sure whatever you get up to tonight will be none of my business.


    A slight guffaw reaches me as Prinny responds, ¡°Oh stop, hush now Schism sweetie, I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll just be me, Illy, and Broke-One, swapping stories and keeping our minds occupied.¡±


    Veril groans, and virtually collapses in on himself as he slumps, pouting, that it sounds like Prinny isn¡¯t going to bed him tonight. Or perhaps that she used his nickname that Illy¡¯d given him when he was a whelp. I can¡¯t help wearing a rueful smile as I pat Veril on the back of one shoulder, while Prinrin approaches, surrounded by a gaggle of Draconiacs, most of whom are her children, all runts apparently. Hm, speaking of, is Miraina alright? Where¡¯d she get off to?


    Answering my unspoken question, Prinrin comments, ¡°My poor sweet Pawn, she¡¯s all twisted up inside finding out her attraction. Worse, the poor dear, she let it all out to the fake Illy last night, and isn¡¯t ready to go through it again tonight with the real Illy.¡±


    Oof, but also, my blood begins to boil, remembering that Harlequin of the Evil Claws was amongst us, and virtually had Pawn captive. My eyes flash red and my Honoris Causa vibrates with intensity at having to hold back my wrath. The main cavern chamber of Mount Verdimenn shakes at the colossal effort it takes me to rein in my anger. I spook a number of people, though thankfully My Anchor, and my wife are here to redirect my thoughts.


    I¡¯ve gotta be careful. We put the lock on my Honoris Causa, with the titling announcement, to prevent exactly the sort of thing that almost just happened. I¡¯m so easily influenced by anger, and¡ª.


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Interruping my thoughts, Kinzul adds, ¡°And compassion, mercy, love as well, my love. Your well of emotions runs vast, deep within you. Your heart beats within, fueling the endless well. May it never run dry of compassion and mercy. I beg that you simply try. Always try, to reach into it.¡±


    Not intending to snark off at Kinzul, I can¡¯t keep my brain from blurting out stupid questions, like, ¡°Even for Terrorzin and the Damnations?¡± which pisses me off at my brain, because I¡¯m sure it sounds hurtful, and dismissive. I¡¯m sorry, my love. I wouldn¡¯t have spoken the questions it begged aloud. Please¡ª.


    Smiling at me, Kinzul approaches and cups my cheek. She interrupts my thoughts to assure me, ¡°I know, beloved, perhaps there are a few cases, exceptions that prove the rule. Quiet your mind and still your heart for a moment. Bask in the solace available for you, and that others take in you. I¡¯ve rarely felt as much love in a single cavern in my very, very long life.¡±


    My eyes wet as Kinzul absolves me. I loose a long sigh to take several deep breaths. She¡¯s right, of course she is. I¡¯d never argue otherwise. Still your thoughts Reggie, just drink it in. Be in the now for a moment. Prinrin has her children, something that is a miracle on Rayileklia for any dragon. Ixeyla has helped Leezahna, and is now helping Farzhis.


    More, Littlebit and Nala are collaborating. Tiktik¡¯s waiting and hoping for Littlebit to succeed in her research. There¡¯s dozens of Spellknights, Yui and Yuri included, who marvel at the fact that gems are being passed around as snacks with no need for fighting anyone to earn them. I hope that Tiktik¡¯s having decent luck using the shop I¡¯d left her, to help get enough gems to keep the Gap-warrens kobolds healthy, and well-fed. I suppose it¡¯s only been a day or two, they probably still have wealth left from Qlaxi¡¯s hoard.


    Sighing momentarily, I allow my mind to process its regret at Qlaxi¡¯s death, my slaying of her. Lil chimes in along our telepathic bond, ¡°I understand why hottie had to go Rej. I¡¯m sorry it took me so long to understand some things, why you do what you do, the way you do it. I¡¯m mega sorry pal, mega mega mega sorry.¡±


    Sniffling, I rub my eyes as I float about the cavern, surfing towards my best bud, as he leans up against Lucky. I embrace the pair as best I¡¯m able, physically and with my Honoris Causa. I don¡¯t have any words for Lil that could absolve him any better than showing my love for him is endless, and unwavering. My best friend, who happens to be sort of my son-in-law, and my magic-digital-multi-being son are so important to me. I can¡¯t begin to express it enough.


    There¡¯s a slight undercurrent of worry for Lucky running beneath my surface thoughts right now. He seems fine, but we¡¯ve got no way to know what inner turmoil, what subconscious battle he might be fighting, with that strange ooze. Trixxie seems distraught, and seems to be taking solace, comfort, in Pidge. Her world has been flipped upside down. We were enemies, but Lucky wanted her as a friend, so she¡¯s nearly an honored guest. Pidge too for that matter, though Pidge seems less concerned, and more disoriented.


    Wait, that¡¯s right. Pidge has memory problems, as if their mind is only just now clearing from a haze. Furrowing my brow, I try to recall the hints, and what they¡¯d said. It does make me worry that anyone I fight might not be acting of their own volition, if there¡¯s some sort of susceptibility, subdual, or compliance enchantment on them. I can¡¯t afford the massive amount of second-guessing-myself that that thought line would bring though. It could be just the Evil Claws, or just Pidge of the Evil Claws, or Pidge could be playing me, or just a bit addle-brained to begin with.


    Seemingly out of nowhere, across our telepathic bond, Iylynila expresses her gratitude, ¡°Thanks again, Schism, for making it home. For coming home, and bringing them both back, and, and just being so scrappy. Keep it up. Please?¡±


    Rubbing the back of my head ruefully, I nod in response telepathically, stating, ¡°Of course, I¡¯ll try my best Illy, y¡¯know? I¡ª.¡±


    I can tell her telepathic walls are coming up. I know they wouldn¡¯t stop me from directly communicating to her, but the signal is clear. She and I still aren¡¯t in a ¡°she and I,¡± space. She¡¯s too worried about me, and can¡¯t afford that during the war. I rub my itchy eyes, and shrug it off as best I can. I hear Lucky loose a soft whuff, almost of chastisement, and I have to chuckle, because I¡¯m pretty sure¡ª.


    As I¡¯m thinking about her, Luni interrupts my thoughts to agree, ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m pretty sure Lucky doesn¡¯t like it too much when parent and other parent aren¡¯t the most prominent on each other¡¯s minds. Based on what you¡¯ve told me about his thoughts. He¡¯s a sweetie, but I understand. You have a lot of love to give to a lot of people, and a lot of them need it more than me. I¡¯m, well, yeah.¡±


    Well that hurts like a dagger twisting in my guts. Dragging her telepathic avatar into my avatar¡¯s arms, I embrace Luni and shake my head. Well, my avatar¡¯s head. Sighing, I whisper, ¡°Don¡¯t do that Lu. I love you to the ends of every universe and beyond. All you need do is say the word, and I¡¯ll shower you with all my love.¡±


    Blushing heatedly, Luni frowns and casts her gaze downwards, avoiding mine as she mumbles, ¡°Sorry, Hero, I didn¡¯t mean to be manipulative, or make you feel guilty, or hurt. Reggie, I can¡¯t even tell you¡ªI.¡±


    As Luni¡¯s avatar leans in against the chest of mine, I can feel her shaking with silent sobs, and sense the tears streaming down her cheeks. I join her in shedding silent tears, and can¡¯t seem to find her in meatspace amongst the hustle and bustle of so many people in our Mount Verdimenn project space. Why is she hiding from me, when she so obviously needs comfort right now? She¡¯s been there for me when I needed comfort, so many times. Lu, where are you hiding?


    Casting out my senses, I cheat, and do something I shouldn¡¯t do with my Honoris Causa manifested. I slip into a moment between moments, and use retrocognition to analyze my sensory feedback. It¡¯s painful, and wears on me, but I sense Luni hiding in the rear of the stacks, in our nearly bookless library. She¡¯s huddled in on herself, crouched down, hugging her knees. Returning to reality, I swiftly head towards Luni, and offer her a sad frown.


    As I lean down to embrace her, Luni virtually leaps into my arms, to cry against my chest. She¡¯s muttering, ¡°I can¡¯t, I shouldn¡¯t tell you. I shouldn¡¯t. But it hurts to hide it, it hurts so much. Things are about to get so bad. So very, very bad, and sad. And they only get worse, and worse.¡±


    My jaw hangs slack as the two of us shed further silent tears, holding each other. So Lu really does still have more foresight about everything. Whether that¡¯s because of her title as Muse, or some time-traveling shenanigans, I don¡¯t know. I know that I trust her though, more than anything, on any world. If Luni says things are going to get bad, and worse, and worse, then I need to steel myself for it.

 B 6 C 200: Limits

    Starting to collect herself, Luni demands, ¡°Revvy, Greggy, and Shaylon are going to get back from the ¡®Neath sometime soon¡¯ish, maybe tomorrow, and you¡¯ve got to order them to deliver what they found to me, and not ask any questions about it. You especially can¡¯t let Te find out what they found. But you shouldn¡¯t know either. They¡¯ll listen if you tell them to keep it a secret, and you have to. Okay Hero?¡±


    Blinking, stunned, I nod in acquiescence. If that¡¯s what Lu needs from me, of course I¡¯ll do it. I can¡¯t help imagining what it is though. In fact, based on what Te felt during our first journey through the Gap, I¡¯m almost certain I know. Luni glares at my brain across our wavelength, so I place my hands forward placatingly.


    Things we have to hide from ourselves, and each other, just keep stacking up, don¡¯t they? What a pain in the ass for poor Lu to continue to manage, all the time. More than that, a heartache, and so much more. Sighing, I hold Luni for a while longer yet, knowing we both need the comfort, before hardening our hearts against what¡¯s to come.


    Softly, in a whisper meant for her only, I ask, ¡°Lu, is there no way around it? Are we still in the prime timeline?¡±


    Knowing that I worry more for everyone else¡¯s sakes than my own, Luni attempts to mollify me, ¡°Yes Hero, to both. Somehow, somehow we get through it all. I¡¯m sure of it¡ªI think. I just don¡¯t know how, and I¡¯m so scared. I don¡¯t know what happens to us if we veer off the track, or why the Sisters think that all the timelines come to a halt.¡±


    Gnawing my lower lip, I nod along through Luni¡¯s disheartening reassurance. Despite her claim of surety, I can sense the doubt dwelling beneath Luni¡¯s surface. What if we aren¡¯t the prime timeline? What happened to all the mes and all the Lus and all those other timelines? Did they just have to go on living with the failures until they were defeated and slain? Were they erased from existence as the prime timeline solidified in making the other, more-correct decisions?


    How long down a wrong timeline path could we go before we know we¡¯re in a doomed timeline? What recourse even is there, if we continue existing past a point that a different choice was supposed to have been made? How long do we have if I made a wrong move somewhere?


    Wow, how conceited am I? As if my decisions alone determine the fate of whole timelines, a timeline, a dimension, a universe coming to an end or not. Yet¡­ don¡¯t they? Between TQ, my own logs, and vague memories of other timelines that pop up on occasion, not to mention my entrusting the fate of everything to Luni, haven¡¯t my decisions alone shaped our entire reality going forward? Friggin¡¯ hell Reggie, god-complex much? Is there no limit to your narcissism?


    I loose a long sigh while shaking my head. A few more tears find their way down my cheeks while I hold Luni for yet a while longer. She sniffles, and begins to push me away slightly so she can stand up. We flash each other sad half-smiles before sharing a tender embrace, and equally tender kiss.


    Resting her forehead on mine, Luni begs, ¡°Keep trusting me, My Hero, please. I don¡¯t ever want to lose your trust in me.¡±


    Blinking back tears, I nod, rubbing our foreheads together. Luni gingerly parts from our embrace, and walks away, internally still hunched-in on herself. Still, I think she¡¯s taken some solace in my faith in her. I hope she has at least.


    Rubbing my itchy, wet eyes, I return to the main cavern of the project space. To my surprise I see Rend and Sunderer joking around with Gilmeshtu, patting each other¡¯s backs and laughing together. I know our two Queens, Vylon and Vyela, are approximately as ancient as Gilmeshtu, and vice-versa, but I hadn¡¯t really seen them show camaraderie before. It¡¯s slightly surprising, but more heartwarming.


    Even those among us that seem to hold disdain also value friendship, and bonds. Vylon, Rend, and Vyela, Sunderer, have been instrumental to the safety of Solace, and to the Mount Verdimenn project space. Gilmeshtu is one of the most powerful dragons alive, along with our pair of Queens, our Lady, Kinzul, Terrorzin, the Damnations, and a few others like his teammates in our Vivant. I¡¯d like to think Iylynila is up there too. Kinzul felt she didn¡¯t need titling as our ¡°The-Black¡± to manage to hold her own as leader of the Dormir. That speaks to a massive amount of faith in Illy and her combat prowess.


    I know from personal experience that the Dormir, when led by Illy, battled through the more-difficult two thirds of the ShizTinth Stronghold or so. The odds against us may be stacked unfairly, but we¡¯re pretty stacked ourselves. Oh come on you guys. Sighing, yes, I heard what I thought as I thought it. I roll my eyes at the laughter across my mental wavelengths. I¡¯m tempted to put up psychic walls, just to hide my embarrassment and to limit how much discomfort I suffer from hearing the laughter over juvenile things like phrasing.


    Huff. Oh well. It¡¯s mostly harmless. I¡¯m just a bit of a prude I guess. I¡ª, Prinrin interrupts my thoughts to agree with me, ¡°Just a smidge Schism dearie. Just a smidge. You¡¯re a delightfully innocent dear at-heart Schism my sweet. I¡¯d say don¡¯t ever change, but, with eternal longevity ahead of you sweetie, I know how unlikely that is. Solace knows I¡¯ve grown and changed in my many-a long year.¡±


    Blinking in surprise a bit, I feel rather dumb for being shocked at hearing Prinny¡¯s confession. I mean, obviously people change and grow, especially moreso with more time passed, and she¡¯s one of the eldest beings on the planet. In some ways, I don¡¯t ever want to change, or want to have to change. I don¡¯t really want the status quo to get shaken up either, and yet¡­ Yet I do. I want whole worlds to change. I want injustice wiped out. I want disharmony and disdain replaced with harmony and acceptance.


    Huh. If people are disdainful, looking down on others, are they ever just¡­ dainful? Pft. I snort a laugh at my own squirrel-brain. Rolling my eyes and shaking my head, I glance around, and notice Illy, Prinny, Veril, and Prinrin¡¯s children all heading back towards Solace proper. Wearing a bit of a longing smile, I simply nod, acknowledging them. If there are any networks that they¡¯re needed for, I know they¡¯d come back in a heartbeat, but I don¡¯t think I have them penned in for any of the new networks.


    Speaking of, let¡¯s get wrapping that up, so we can finally focus on learning exactly what signals are limiting Littlebit¡¯s research that she needs me to block. I don¡¯t need to pull a full void maneuver to block signals. We¡¯ve been doing that since we learned about dragonfright. ¡°We¡± again Reggie? Oh shut up. It¡¯s harmless. I think.


    Erm, maybe let¡¯s not argue with and berate ourselves while surrounded by so many whose brains are listening in along with ours, yeah? Also, maybe don¡¯t call it our brain, and just call it yours, erm, I mean mine. I swear, I¡¯m not someone with a dissociative identity. I think. I¡¯m pretty sure alters or plurality systems or whatever don¡¯t actually interact. I¡¯m just a dork that talks to themselves from multiple points of view.


    That¡¯s not that abnormal. Isn¡¯t it? Bluh, whatever. If my brain is abnormal¡ªwhich, okay, yeah, it definitely is¡ªwhat type of abnormality hardly matters at the moment. Alright, let¡¯s start wrangling people. I sort of wish I had Ixey at my side for this, since she helped me rewrite the groups I¡¯d be telepathically bonding together. She¡¯s helping Farzhis though, and I think Lil went to watch them wrestle.


    I¡¯m catching hints of, erm, strong emotions from him about what he¡¯s witnessing. I can¡¯t say I blame him for what he¡¯s feeling right now. I can¡¯t say that at all. Blushing, I hide my face for a few moments til my cheeks cool down. It takes a few moments longer as my wife sends a teasing smirk directly into my brain. Gulping, I rattle my skull trying to shake it off, and perhaps shake out some thoughts I¡¯d rather not experience.


    Ugh, I was joking previously once, about how by the end of things, I might as well just be jamming raw gems into my own back and arms to prop up the psychic network permanency enhancement enchantments. That¡¯s not far off, based on how thick the gem-dust sludge is that it takes for me to continue hosting more and more networks.


    Crap on a cracker. We¡¯re going to have to convert pretty much all of Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s wealth to gems with the shop system,to be able to handle all this tonight. Sure, we¡¯ll have a fresh load of gems in the morning, but for the most part, I want that going to all the residents of Solace, since it¡¯s their nourishment. Alright, alright Reggie, get your head in it. Get it together pal. Let¡¯s get this done.


    It¡¯s a bit mind-numbing, the tedium of layering up psychic network after psychic network, being the only legitimate archmage we¡¯ve got. At least, until we get to the networks that I need to link Leezahna up to. With Ixey busy, that means I have to retrieve her personally, even though she¡¯s only a few dozen meters away or so¡ªmaybe a couple hundred, I haven¡¯t measured¡ªit feels like an awkward jaunt in the direction of her home near our vaults.


    I have no idea how to approach this. Dragonkind within Solace are used to not having doors, for good reason, but what does that mean about their expectations for privacy, and the arrival of visitors? How do I announce myself? Do I try to knock loudly on the stone of the empty doorway? Do I just sort of shout casually? Are Leeza¡¯s expectations different, since she came from minor nobility within Terrorzin¡¯s faction?


    Deciding to start with the knocking, and maybe proceed with a semi-formal announcement of my presence if that doesn¡¯t work, I steel myself as I approach Leeza¡¯s home¡¯s doorway. Gulping, I knock loudly in a staccato burst of notes, reminiscent of ¡°Shave and a Haircut.¡± To my surprise, I hear a callback phrase in the form of a lovely voice humming the last two notes. I also feel heat emanating from the dwelling, and can sense that it originates from Leeza¡¯s cheeks, since, well, y¡¯know, thermal senses.


    When Leezahna peeks around the corner of her abode, from her bedroom, I try not to let my jaw drop at her attire. I know she¡¯s a bit of a fashionista or something like that, whatever you call someone who intentionally puts a fairly large effort into their wardrobe looking chique, but I was not expecting this. I cast my glance aside swiftly after noticing the exquisite backless evening gown Leezahna is wearing. Its thigh-slits go all the way to her hips, and the fabric looks delightfully soft. It¡¯s somehow simultaneously matte and shiny, like some sort of velour or micro-suede.


    Stuttering, as she often does when confronting me, Leezahna asks, ¡°Y-you n-needed a, a lot of surface, um, skin, t-to t-touch me, on, right S-schism? J-just don¡¯t get an-ny ideas.¡±


    Oy vey. Crap on a cracker. My only idea is that I wish I hadn¡¯t traumatized someone who is actually a good person at heart. But I think we both agree that she¡¯s on a better path, and is honestly a better person, since the incident. How horrible is that of me to think? Ugh. Oh, wait, right. Respond to the outside world Reggie.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Nodding, I mumble, ¡°Y-yeah, it um, you look¡­ It¡¯s a very lovely dress. I like the fabric, and, well, yeah. Are you ready? Are you okay to receive these psychic networks? I won¡¯t think poorly on you if you say no. I¡¯d find some way to help keep you secure no matter what.¡±


    Casting her own glance down, Leezahna is trembling. My heart breaks, and I¡¯m about to walk away when she nods and shuffles up next to me. Instinctively, I reach a hand towards Leezahna¡¯s shoulder comfortingly. She flinches, but doesn¡¯t pull away. I want to facepalm and berate myself for touching someone without consent, someone obviously uncomfortable with me. I know I was doing it to comfort her, but, ugh. Still, I pat her shoulder once gently and offer her a slightly-sad neutral expression as I flick my eyebrows towards the rest of the gathered people who¡¯ll be in on her psychic networks.


    Leeza offers me a half-smile, half-grimace, and a polite nod, so we adjourn towards the congregation of people in the Verdimenn project space¡¯s main cavern. Leeza, and her ridiculously gorgeous attire draws quite a few stares, and I half-wonder if she might be a bit self-conscious about it, despite having seemed narcissistic to me in the past. I¡¯m reading signals off of her with my various senses that indicate a mixture of embarrassment, fear, excitement, and pride. Was she always like this, or is this because I traumatized her? I don¡¯t really have any right to know. It¡¯d just be to assuage my own guilt, if I were to try to find out.


    I try to space out Leezahna¡¯s placement in the psychic subnetworks, so that she has time to recover from, and/or prepare for my contact again between each network application. To my surprise, during the second network application, she meekly, privately telepathically asks if I can do what I¡¯d been doing for the others. I¡¯d been giving them all half backrubs, since they were all fairly comfortable with my touch.


    Leezahna reiterates, ¡°Don¡¯t get any ideas though. I, I¡¯ve just been stressed about you, the war, these magical resources, and, and don¡¯t have any¡­ I¡¯m just stressed is all, and a backrub could be a bit nice.¡±


    Her friends. Leezahna doesn¡¯t have any of her old friends, because of me, and my threats. I squeeze my eyes shut tightly, trying to blink back tears at what I¡¯ve taken from her. If someone were to make my inner circle too scared to be around me, I feel like I¡¯d die of heartache. I fail at blinking back the tears, and several drip onto Leeza¡¯s back as I¡¯m applying her second network. She doesn¡¯t make a big deal about it at least, though I¡¯m sure it¡¯s awkward as hell to have your tormentor crying over you.


    I wish I knew some way to make it right. Would seeking out her friends and telling them my threat was a bluff help? Or that I call my threat off? Or, or would I just screw things up worse, and make it less likely for her social network to mend?


    Rambling a bit, Leeza continues, ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, the gutter tr¡ª the *Red*, ugh, the¡ªIxeyla¡ªis nice enough, but we¡¯re not going to braid each other¡¯s hair in our nighties. At least not with alcohol present. Never again. Ugh.¡±


    Grimacing and blushing simultaneously, I¡¯m not sure which emotion to focus on. Should I be insulted on Ixey¡¯s behalf that Leezahna¡¯s gut instinct is still to insult people and use disdainful language when talking about them? Should I be upset at Ixey for a thing I know she already apologized to Leeza about? Should I be embarrassed at the implications, and the mental image Leezahna just put into my head?


    Rattling my skull, I let it rest, and work my way through the rest of the psychic networks as best I¡¯m able. Leeza stands at the edge of the crowd, drinking in the attentive gazes that rest on her. I can also sense her psyche poking and prodding at the network, monitoring my brain. I can¡¯t blame her. I¡¯d want to know what the brain of such a monster was like too, if offered a psychic connection to their always-on stream of thought.


    Drawing a ragged breath, I sigh and close my eyes. I know Lu said we¡¯ll never be friends, and I lament that, but I understand. There are some things that you just can¡¯t recover from. Some wrongs, or mistakes, are too hurtful to build a bridge over. Wearing a sad frown, I continue to try to fight the emotions away, to not think about it. I don¡¯t want to dwell, and I don¡¯t want to make Leeza uncomfortable, or have her feel manipulated by my guilt.


    As I continue with the psychic networks, and various enchantments, I try to determine where we¡¯ll be hit from next, and where it would be best to strike at Terrorzin¡¯s leadership core next. If I remember correctly, Inishish and Crepuul have territories a bit beyond our valley, on the other side of the range, past Hareslayer¡¯s lair. We should definitely rout or convert Mydraig¡¯s forces, since they could be conscripted into a siege effort against us with as little as a single message reaching them. Then Crepuul¡¯s domain, then Inishish¡¯s. If they¡¯re less favored, similar to Attraxiaz and such, due to their distance from the center of Terrorzin¡¯s domain, they might be weaker strongholds.


    We might be able to get away with a low power offensive by some of our injured forces. I could focus on continuing to spearhead onslaughts deeper into Terrorzin¡¯s domain, while maybe one of either Lucky, or Lil, goes with a few of our Dormir, to wipe out those strongholds. Maybe Lil with Farzhis and Veril, and Lucky with Iylynila. They could start out together, routing Mydraig¡¯s domain, and then split off to each tackle one of the other two domains.


    I know Lu said she can¡¯t keep running from fighting, but it really isn¡¯t necessary to send her along for something like this, and it¡¯s beneficial to have two Shellcrackers back at base in case the Damnations show up from above or below, or worse, from both above and below. Despite being blazing fast, Teuila can¡¯t be both at the top and bottom of Solace at the same time. Plus, we¡¯ll probably have her out by Mah¡¯ruke anyway, routing the siege forces that had gathered and pulled back, so she¡¯ll be stuck below the Worldstorm. Having Lu watch out over the aerie means she could dissuade the Damnations from attacking, or ground them, dropping them through the Worldstorm. With the help of some of the consumables and trinkets we¡¯d been picking up, and perhaps some of the Strategists-Eight using their conjuration and mana construct powers from afar.


    Focusing now on the current network, and the current applicant¡ªis that the right word?¡ªLittlebit, I fight to keep from rolling my eyes. She¡¯s very squirmy, and completely unapologetic when it causes me to need more surface area than her back, since, like Tiktik and Miraina, she¡¯s a shorty. I try to ignore the lower-lip-bite that Littlebit wears during my application of runic paste about her body. I know we¡¯re both Fae, and friggin¡¯ hell is she gorgeous, but I don¡¯t know the full status of her relationship with Tiktik, and I¡¯d never hurt Tiktik.


    I know Littlebit wouldn¡¯t either, so I¡¯m mostly being a prude and a jackass by letting my mind wander this direction. I think Tiktik might have even literally asked me to take care of Littlebit and her needs. But if so, my brain probably blanked it out, denying it.


    Whispering huskily directly into my mind, I can hear the humorous lilt to Littlebit¡¯s telepathic voice as she states, ¡°Tiktik says you like your ears being nibbled Tiger. I bet you can guess about my listen-flaps, they''re like my own personal radar receivers, great for picking up subtle signals, and for picking up any sweet nothings you wanna whisper. They¡¯re even better for, well, I¡¯ll let your mind fill in the blanks.¡±


    Closing my eyes and biting my lips, I breathe through my nose, attempting to keep my expression neutral. I know she¡¯s trying to get a rise out of me¡ª¡±Fel right I am, Tiger¡±¡ªbluh. Friggin¡¯ adorable tease. Continuing to breathe through my nose, I¡¯d forgotten where I was going with my last thought train. Littlebit also knows I don¡¯t have that equipment, not naturally at least.


    I¡¯ll probably snuggle up against Littlebit later anyway, while helping block the signals that are overloading her transceivers and such. Still, there¡¯s gotta be a limit on how flirty she gets in advance, right? I know she¡¯s lonely without Tiktik, and had been away from her for at least a month or two, before being reunited, but, well. Hm. Okay honestly I want to comfort the everliving heck out of her. I know how much it hurts to be away from someone you love, even if you¡¯re sure they¡¯re okay. Worse if you¡¯re not sure they¡¯re okay.


    Drawing a ragged breath, I rub my itchy eyes on my forearm. It hurts so much to think about Laomati, Agwai, the Mana twins, Dreams of Days, Jazharn, Fawns At Sunsets, Linti, Elder Rinnia, Spring Blossom, Six Wind, Three Thunder, Curious Branch, and all the others I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever see again. I don¡¯t even know if we succeeded in saving them. Can we even succeed in saving everyone this time around, when we¡¯re up against three times as many apocalyptic powers? Possibly more.


    The Sisters intentionally left out the Felgre horde, so that we wouldn¡¯t hasten and end up not meeting Tiktik, or not being in the right place at the right time to save Daffodil. There¡¯s more they could have hidden from us. Maybe more that they don¡¯t know. Hellspit and Fel Fires, we¡¯ve still got to push back the infinite hordes of hell after dealing with Terrorzin and his fifty to sixty odd thousand draconic forces still in play. That¡¯s saying nothing of the Damnations and Evil Claws. Fricklefrack.


    After all that, we have to hope we¡¯ve expanded our limits, and powered up enough to take out the soul-candle at Navica, and the Celestial Emperor. Plus, Jarrah¡¯s worried about some things the Archfey are doing in the Heart. Might they bring about another apocalyptic scenario? Purposely or accidentally? Then there¡¯s the situation in the ¡®Neath, and¡ª. Give it a rest Reggie. Focus on the now. But what if I could come up with solutions that require a long time to implement, now, that need to be done by a certain time?


    How likely do you think that is Reggie? Like needing to construct a shield of Lacrimosa Trifecta on Rayileklia? Could you even do it? You¡¯d have to find Mataalii, and convince him to help, if he¡¯s even capable of doing so. He was pretty badly off when we last saw him, and wasn¡¯t used to running any of his powers on permanent mental subroutines like I was with some of mine. Did he swim all the way to the Untamed Lands? Did he find an island along the way? Oh brother. I miss you. I miss even my grumpy brother, before you turned murderous and calamitous. Though maybe you always were.


    Supposing we need something like the shield of Lacrimosa Trifecta, what might we be able to do without Mat? Well, it might nearly cost our life, but if we do end up with a Night of All Burn style situation, we could cool and harden enough lava to be enough porous rock. Dragons working together can haul large quantities of it, and there¡¯s tons of skilled crafters amongst the Draconiacs and kobolds. I guess like many things, we can burn that bridge when we come to it.


    There¡¯s a slight titter across one of my mental wavelengths, one I¡¯m not familiar with, that leaves me scratching my head, until Leezahna comments, ¡°You¡¯re insane. Firstly, that¡¯s not the phrase you were looking for. Secondly, you¡¯re simply, ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.¡±


    Alright then, perhaps I should put my walls up against her to limit the amount of my inner narrative Leeza can overhear. I really don¡¯t need¡ª¡°Don¡¯t, I, I didn¡¯t mean it the way it came out. I think it¡¯ll help me, with, um, quartermastering, to know what sorts of ideas you¡¯re coming up with, and what they need to be accomplished. And, well, it¡¯s reassuring to know that you¡¯re a person too, not just a monster, and that you¡¯re thinking about ways to protect everyone, all the time.¡±


    Running my right hand through my hair along the back of my head, I puff a sigh. Alright. Alright, I¡¯ll leave them down except for priority privacy communications. Just, please cut my brain some slack. It¡¯s abnormal to say the very least. You¡¯re tellin¡¯ me Rej, heh. Shush, now¡¯s not the time to joke like that. Who¡¯s joking?


    Ugh. My brain is overtaxed from all this enchanting, and hosting all these psychic networks. No wonder the spell only allows for about eight people at a time.


    Though they¡¯re on my head, buried in my hair past my horns, I hear very clearly from my goggles, ¡°Schism, we might have a situation here.¡±


    Shoving my goggles onto my face, I try to figure out what the security center meant. I don¡¯t see anything out by Mah¡¯ruke, or in any of the tunnels in Solace, thank spoot. Is that Te¡¯s Honoris Causa manifested around her? It¡¯s hard to tell from her own point of view, similar to mine, it¡¯s almost transparent looking out from within it.


    Wait. I know those wings. I fired gravity shots into them over and over across thousands of attempts of six seconds to save Leeza, Zayzi, and Ixey. No. No that¡¯s too many. There¡¯s something like forty wings of ancient dragons headed towards Solace from above, and Teuila rushing outwards to meet them head on.


    Pleading with the security center, I beg, ¡°Patch me through to Te!¡±


    ¡°You got it Schism, your line going through now.¡±


    My voice cracking with fear, tears streaming down my cheeks as I hasten towards Solace proper, I check in on My Wings, ¡°Te, Te wait, we¡¯ll take them on together! Have you even recovered enough to fight one of them? Just think about your limits, your limitations, for half a second, please, wait. I¡¯m coming Te!¡±


    With humorously false bravado, Te jokes, ¡°Pft, what limits?¡±

 B 6 C 201: Cooped on a Ledge

    Suddenly I¡¯m in a realm devoid of light, of time, not initiated by myself. In this darkened void, beyond the edges of space, I see myriad golden threads, endless amounts of them, all coming to end at a certain point, as if falling off a cliff parallel to one another. Yet within this mass of turmoil, this ending of threads, a single, frail, microscopic line becomes apparent. A tenuous thread extends past the rest, out into the nebulous beyond. Suddenly I¡¯m shunted back into my own body, back into the normal stream of time. I don¡¯t have *time* to figure out what the vision means, or why it showed up when it did, when Teuila claimed to have no limits.


    Crying out to my telepathic bond, I shout across our telepathic wavelengths, ¡°Lu, Lucky, Lil, top of Solace now, I need you! Te needs you! Everyone else, barricade the aerie!¡±


    I glance at Pidge, who¡¯s sitting down having a bowl of stew with Trixxie. He¡¯s networked now, but his stare is so vacant, he hardly seems to know anything¡¯s going on, much less that an attack by the Damnations and Evil Claws is happening. What is with him? Do I dare leave him unattended right now? Wait, the Evil Claws. Harrelk is out there. He¡¯s why the Damnations are arriving in full force. It¡¯s either that, or because they lost their ability to track me. One or the other. Or maybe both. The Celestial Emperor is getting desperate, it seems. I bet he¡¯s pissed he lost the spying presence within me.


    Alanea casts a saddened gaze my way. She knows I need a break, a rest, mentally and physically. She knows that the Celestial Emperor is Jarrah¡¯s Manxome Foe, that the Enochian Enclave stands against. Littlebit frowns, but grabs something that looks like a remote control, and several automatons come zooming after me. She chases after them, and hops in what¡¯s essentially a kangaroo pouch on the largest one. My lower lip quivers. I know how scared Littlebit is. Her offering herself and her clankers up to even get closer to the combat is heartwarming and heartbreaking simultaneously.


    Ahliyui and Ahliyuri are here. There¡¯s plenty of people I trust here. My eyes plead with Yui to keep an eye on Pidge, since his comrades are attacking. I¡¯m sure she could take him, maybe. Couldn¡¯t she? He¡¯s pretty beat up from Lucky¡¯s assault the other day.


    I¡¯m suddenly being hoisted by a sprinting Shiz as he mutters, ¡°Hup Schism. So, this is what it¡¯s like on this side of the war. This is what it feels like to take my life back? Tell me where you want me. No matter what it costs me.¡±


    Tears stream forth as my lower jaw quivers, and my lower lip along with it. Shiz being my lift lets me spend my energy focusing on trying to come up with solutions to our Damnations problem. There¡¯s too many for the Shellcrackers alone to¡ªIs Kinzul¡ª. Does being a Shellcracker confer the soul-locking benefit? Or is it being from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas? Or from dying to the books? Fricklefrack. I can¡¯t risk it. One more soul-locked person. One more is all I need. Then I could guarantee keeping the Damnations occupied, while others join the fray to fight off the Evil Claws.


    I say one more, because I know Nonnam is damn-near dead, and Ephlomseestiph can¡¯t be doing too great either, so I¡¯m sure I can keep both of their attention. Hell, Nonnam¡¯s being propped up by two Evil Claws to help him glide his way here, his wings are nearly disintegrated. If we blast the dragons propping him up out from under him, he goes tumbling into the Worldstorm, and this time he¡¯s finished for good. We simply cannot let him land on the aerie and get into solace proper.


    Gorrammit all I¡¯m tapped out! What the hell do I even have that¡ªmy Honoris Causa. It¡¯s all I have left in me today. Every last charge in every magical item, every last ability use, or safe SP, are all spent. Hell, my limbs feel a bit leaden because I was trying to boost and speed up some of the permanency enhancement enchantments. Shiz is a thunderer. He¡¯s offering up his life, and his very soul being at risk. Do I dare? If I lose the big guy, how will Atter feel about me? About Solace? Will she turn her back on our mercy?


    Well, no, I don¡¯t think she¡¯d give up the peace and safety of her kinsmen. I do think losing her brother would sour our relations a great deal though. Think Reggie, think. Figure out a way to form a net,even if it lets the Evil Claws through, as long as it stops the Damnations in their tracks. All of the Shellcrackers can fly at this point, even Lucky. We can take five of them head-on for sure to keep them away from Solace. Do I risk leaving the injured two up to our breathers and blasters? Do I order the ancients, Qlaxi¡¯s consorts, who¡¯d been living-it-up at our expense to defend the aerie, to take down the two heavily injured Damnations?


    Anyone I ask to fight them, I¡¯m quite likely condemning not just to death, but to the loss of their dragonforce, and their very soul. Think Reggie, think! What all do we know? What are the clues? The Four. Mate. Eldest evil in the lands. Sun shines in a specific way. A frayed knot. All timelines cease to have a future. What does it all mean? Put the pieces together gorrammitall!


    So many voices along my psychic networks are pleading with me, begging me to win, Leezah¡¯s not the least amongst them. She¡¯s quite vocal, and fearful. What the Fel can I do!?


    A surprising voice cuts through the chatter, Orthral¡¯s, claiming, ¡°Worry not Schism, this is a perfect opportunity. We¡¯ve never had such a chance before. This is what it feels like to finally fight back! You and yours handle the Damnations, We¡¯ll handle the Claws, and sweep them under the rug in a few minutes.¡±


    Minutes? The journey to the top of Solace is a few minutes, and Te¡¯s already almost at a point of contact with dozens of the most powerful, most evil dragons in existence, some of whom have super-powered Latents that we don¡¯t even know the effects of.


    Minutes. How many of them? Eight or more? Maybe not, but¡­ Do it! I don¡¯t care what it costs, do it Reggie! I begin reaching out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. I picture where I¡¯ll be eight minutes from now, and each second after that fact, as I estimate the maneuvers of the foes that I¡¯ll be facing. I have to maintain my focus on this. I have to keep the idea, the exact placement in my mind, even though it means predicting the future. Urk. Blood splashes forth from my mouth, spattering the wall next to Shiz as he rushes the pair of us up the tunnels of Solace. He glances up at me in concern, but I hardly have time to fill him in.


    Chuckling, Shiz queries, ¡°With someone like you, the old adage is really true, isn¡¯t it?¡± as I glance down at him with a curiously raised brow, Shiz offers up, ¡°What doesn¡¯t kill you, makes you stronger. You¡¯re someone, when push comes to shove, when you¡¯re pushed, you push back harder. Sounds like you¡¯re putting yourself near death¡¯s door, I¡¯ll fight for Solace, for Atty, for us, together with you Schism.¡±


    Gulping back my emotions, I nod mutely at the big guy. I really do like Shiz. His name is still unfortunate, since I use it as a curse in place of, well, yeah. Him, his sister Attraxiaz, Ahliyui, and Ahliyuri accepting my mercy and joining us was the luckiest thing that happened that day, perhaps the entire war. Speaking of, Lucky, Lil, and Lu are catching up. Most of the Order is catching up, my Lady included. Now that they¡¯re over the shock of my request, now that they¡¯ve shared what my brain has learned, and what my brain is planning. I¡¯m sorry Kinzul, my love. I¡¯m sorry for what I¡¯m about to do. What it might cost.


    Whispering psychically to me, Luni begs, ¡°Please, don¡¯t you give up on me now, My Hero. Promise you won¡¯t take this too far. All I need is you to promise you won¡¯t let yourself die from this.¡±


    Biting my lips, I can¡¯t answer Luni, though my guts twist with guilt at my silence. Veins and channels within my body begin to glow, expelling light and life. How big? What are the multipliers? I need to know the exact values, to keep the picture in my mind. I¡¯ve been sacrificing points of max mana in order to apply the permanency enhancement enchantments, and others, according to Lu.


    Math, math, so much math. Have I also been gaining max mana from using my various Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian energy related skills? Electrokinesis? My breath skill? Did my inventory skill go up or down at all, by creating the Backpotter form? Crap. Umbra? Void? If you can hear me, I really want to form our bond. I need a miracle.


    What was my maximum mana again? Something like fifty one hundred? Then the exponential multiplier was one point one to the x, x being number of hundreds of mana. That exponential multiplier would be on top of the fifty one times potency that would come just with pumping fifty one times the normal amount of mana into a spell. So, fifty one, times one point one to the fifty first power. Fricklefrack what the hell is it? That math is horrendous. Wait. The phone.


    Digging out the phone, I punch the calculations in. Right, so, my multipliers from energy expenditure alone will be sixty-five eighty-five or so. That, times my Duende bonus, times my Space skill, times my Stamina bonus, times, um, were there any other stacking multipliers? Crap! Wait. I got it wrong. I kept some notes in the phone. I had over fifty-six hundred mana. So it¡¯s one point one to the fifty-sixth power, times fifty six, before factoring in the other bonuses. Two oh seven, almost two oh eight for the exponent, times fifty six is eleven thousand six-forty-six. Uh, what else?


    Screw it. Can we convince Can¡¯z¡¯aas that this deserves a stealth bonus, because there¡¯s no way that the friggin¡¯ Damnations will see it coming? Also a survival bonus because I¡¯d really like to live through using this? Maybe I set that multiplier on the side as a defensive multiplier against shredding myself inside out. Come on Reggie, think, think. Can we electrically enchant the Space-object-duplicates? Set them aflame as well, perhaps alternating flame and frost? Add in some electrokinesis and thermokinesis multipliers.


    Time skill. My time multiplier is, well, it¡¯s utterly ridiculously insanely high. I think I¡¯m going to need to apply it, along with my survival skill multiplier, to be able to survive what I¡¯m trying to do. How do I app¡ªacross my timestream. I divide the damage I¡¯m doing to myself across my timestream, effing myself over in the past. That¡¯s a one-off solution Reggie. You can¡¯t send that much damage backwards across your lifetime more than once. What about ahead? Do you want to risk screwing yourself against three more apocalypses yet to come? Huff, no. No I don¡¯t. So we¡¯re agreed. If we do this, it¡¯s a one-off. We can¡¯t survive it again. We could accidentally nuke ourself out of our own timestream, killing ourselves sometime in the past.


    I need to, hm, frontload the damage. Back to when I was a soul on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. When that soul was being cared for by the Fae at the Miracle Oak. Then stretch out infinitesimally small percentages of the damage across the rest of the timestream. Right, right, get back to the math. If I¡¯m calling my Backpotter form into existence for a split second, to launch the attack, I can probably add in my Shapeshifting multiplier. Do I risk destroying that form?


    Gnawing on my own lip, I glance down at Shiz, who shrugs unknowingly, not entirely understanding what my brain is rambling about. Can I imagine it as a breath weapon of the Backpotter form? I gave every form my breath weapon organ, right? Can¡¯Z¡¯aas is going to be so pissed off at me cheesing the system so hard. I need every advantage I can get though.


    Oh no. Te! She¨Cshe¡¯s okay, for the moment. She¡¯s moving so fast. She¡¯s balking every last dragon. I can see the sweat utterly pouring down over her goggles though. It¡¯s taking its toll on her. Come on Reggie, think. Get it together. Finish the math. Focus. Okay, before cheesing in multipliers, wait. Energy itself had a multiplier. Do I get to add that too, for emptying my energy pool for the attack? Or is that only for limit breaks?


    Ugh, then there¡¯s the fact that the larger the dragon, the more flat damage reduction they seem to have, in addition to resistance to damage from smaller projectiles and weapons and energy blasts and impacts. I need to focus on increasing the mass behind my attacks, like I did in my Cosmic King form. So I can¡¯t just multiply the number of inventory duplicates ejected as an attack, I also have to divide some of that up amongst all the duplicates to increase their mass. Okay, keep on going with the math.


    Reggie, are you sure Can¡¯Z¡¯aas is going to go along with this? This is limit-break levels of multiplication. This is beyond insane. Double-check your math. Almost three-hundred-sixteen-million projectiles, all of over two-hundred-forty-three thousand times mass. It¡¯ll spread two point two four damage per second across my timeline, two-hundred-forty-three-thousand times.


    I¡¯m going to die. I¡¯m going to obliterate myself from the timestream. Even if I heavily layer that damage per second into those seconds before I had a physical form, this is beyond insane. What happens to the timeline if I erase myself from it accidentally? If I grandfather¡¯s paradox myself, does the attack go off at all?


    Can we convert some more of that numerical quantity multiplier, into survival multiplier? Okay, okay yeah. Alright. If we do that, I¡¯ll be taking, let¡¯s see, um. Less than one-one-hundredth of a damage per second, across my entire past timeline, a little over a thousand times. Ten damage per second, that¡¯s survivable, I think. It¡¯s not fun, but¡ªhuh, does this mean I¡¯d always done this? That my regen was always hampered by this much damage per second?¡ªhow much can I safely frontload it? How many times can my soul-self absorb a lifetime worth of ten damage per second crammed into whatever short amount of time it existed?


    Hm, what about swapping one more of those values, those multipliers, from damage to survival? Let¡¯s say my sh¡­ shapeshifting. Son of a mrgrgr. I¡¯m the cause of my mana corruption residue sickness intensity. Wait, hold on, don¡¯t get pissed at yourself yet. You¡¯re a Changeling Fae. Alanea said they¡¯re all not supposed to mess with mana, without copious amounts of shapeshifting in order to compensate. Okay, sure. But was I even a Changeling Fae to begin with? I didn¡¯t start out with a Shapeshifting skill. The system didn¡¯t recognize my species or race or whatever. I, well, I can¡¯t answer that. Obviously.


    But yeah, doing it this way makes it survivable. I¡¯m suddenly down to taking less than a hundredth of a damage per second, less than nineteen times per second, over the course of my entire timestream, meaning even packing in a few of those times into the start, I shouldn¡¯t have to worry, though I probably don¡¯t even need to frontload it, since it¡¯ll be less than a fifth of a damage per second if I just let it ride. It does strike me that it will exacerbate recurring pains.


    How often did I have my right lung punctured? Did I mess with and twist fate into taking that injury over and over? That¡¯s a bit hilarious if the pain and damage per second would bundle up and wait for an opportunity to stab me in the right lung. I rattle my skull, not having time to contemplate my own stupid fate.


    That¡¯s the math then, right? Math, math math math. Yes, no? Yes. Double check. Yes. Okay. I must sound so friggin¡¯ neurotic across my telepathic wavelengths right now.


    Speaking of, calling into my psychic networks, I announce, ¡°Everyone! *Everyone* attention please! In just shy of eight minutes, I¡¯ll be filling the skies over Solace with around one point four million extremely deadly projectiles. No matter what happens, I need you all to evacuate back into, and barricade Solace before that happens. That includes you Te!¡±


    The wave of confusion, surprise, and other emotions that hits me from the combined telepathic wavelengths nearly knocks me for a loop. I struggle to stay maintaining my focus on envisioning the attack that¡¯ll be arriving in about seven minutes. Those who know me well are worried for my own safety, knowing what bearing colossal levels of power does to me. Those who don¡¯t know me are shocked to their cores at the quantities I¡¯m claiming and purporting.


    How many of us, which of us are going to die in this attack? Lu? Do you know? Is this why things get sad, and worse, and worse? Crap, I can¡¯t put that on her. Sorry Lu. Even if you knew, I¡¯m sure I¡¯m not supposed to know in advance. Gods. I¡¯m asking her to go up against, and solo a Damnation for six plus minutes. My Lu, My Anchor, my gal who¡¯s terrified of fighting. I¡¯m asking my son Lucky, too, despite him having just gotten the tar and stuffing beat out of himself by a giant robot the other day, despite hardly ever bonding with him. Lil, best pal, I¨C.


    ¡°Say no more Rej. I get it. This is the big-time. It¡¯s us. It has to be us. I love you too pal. If uh, if I don¡¯t make it back. You know what to say, to who, right?¡±


    My heart freezes as terror sinks its icy claws into me, the idea of my best buddy dying. I can¡¯t even see through the waterfall of tears. I know what he means, to tell Lu, his mom, and Ixey, that he loves them, always did, and always will, no matter how many lifetimes away he is, if there¡¯s any sort of afterlife, or reincarnation for him. I fight back my sobs as I draw a ragged breath, my lower jaw trembling, and lower lip quivering.


    Whispering to the thunderer giving me a lift, I plead, ¡°Shiz, I have a favor to ask. I want you on the aerie, charging up, til the very last second. If someone, something makes it past us. I want you to do your best to knock them into the storm, and flee. If a Shellcracker starts falling out of the sky, I want you to abandon even that, grab them, and flee. Discharge your breath if you have to, to clear yourself a path to save them. I shouldn¡¯t ask this of you. I¡¯m putting you so close to soul-stealing monsters. I¨C.¡±


    Interrupting me, Shiz comforts, ¡°It¡¯s an honor Schism. I¡¯ll do it. I only wish Atty weren¡¯t conjugating right now, or I¡¯d ask her up to the aerie. Her voice is stronger than mine, even before ¡® titling. A point of pride for her, and a bit rueful for me. If I get taken out, get revenge on the bastard ¡® does me in, yeah?¡±


    Nodding, I gulp back mucus. Drawing more ragged breaths, I attempt to control my focus. We¡¯re almost to the feasting hall, then it¡¯s only a quick sprint up the new tunnel to the aerie. Is there anything else we can do, anything at all, to help protect everyone in Solace?


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    How long can an ancient hold the charge on their breath weapon without hurting themselves? How much do they need to expel to let it go if they don¡¯t need to use it? If we have stages of breathers waiting in the feasting hall, and the tunnels leading to it, they can work like archer formations, dropping back, if a Damnation does manage to make its way past us. Could a human-form Damnation withstand the onslaught of our strongest five to ten breath weapons simultaneously, and then next five to ten strongest, several times? It would have to at least slow them down, and give them a little pause, right? Plus, an Evil Claw that made it through would be utterly decimated, totally toast.


    That reminds me, I recognize his form as one of the consorts of Qlaxi¡¯s that joined us. I quickly call out to everyone, ¡°Keep an eye on Harrelk, I¡¯m positive he¡¯s the Evil Claw known as Harlequin. If he changes shape to that of one of us, I want to know the instant it happens. I want him out of the fight ay ess ay pee, but he is not a priority target for the Shellcrackers. As much as I want to take him out myself, our focus is on the Damnations. Anyone else who participates in the combat, steer clear of the Damnations, and check your target! Keep abreast of who Harlequin appears to be.¡±


    Privately, to Littlebit, and Nala, who apparently hitched a ride with one of Littlebit¡¯s bots, ¡°Do you think you can rig up an improvised barricade that¡¯s got some real oomph? I¡¯ll empty my dimensional pouches and haversacks on the floor, use whatever you find, even if it seems irreplaceable. It looks like Lu is one step ahead of me, she¡¯s emptying hers out too. You¡¯re both amazing, talented inventors, and incredibly brave for coming to the front like this, but I don¡¯t want you directly exposed to the combat if we can avoid it. Neither of you are quite as durable as a fully fledged dragon. Speaking of¨C.¡±


    Zooming my way, Miraina leaps onto Shiz¡¯s back and embraces me. The tears in her eyes speak the silent plea she can¡¯t muster. Keep her mom safe. Come home safe. She nods frantically in response to my thoughts. I glance towards the pouch that she keeps the magical chalice in, wondering if she¡¯s used its power today. I can¡¯t remember if she did. I still want it to be a last minute last resort at best though, due to its time-limit, and me not wanting Miraina on the front-lines to begin with.


    I lean over to kiss Pawn¡¯s forehead, and nudge her scalp with my nose, pushing her away slightly, hinting for her to clamber down off of Shiz. Our home is attacked in earnest, by forces that are so deadly, that almost none dare face them. If any of the Evil Claws have Latents that can disable any of us Shellcrackers, they could help get the Damnations past us, to wreak havoc and steal souls within Solace. As much as I hate it, I need a full contingent, a flight of dragons at my back, keeping the Evil Claws off my back, off of our backs, the Shellcrackers¡¯ backs, so that we can keep the Damnations away from everybody else.


    Somewhat surprisingly, only resolute fury dwells within Iylynila¡¯s eyes. She nods towards me. The Dormir have my back. I don¡¯t even have to ask about Prinrin, she¡¯s already at the aerie. Dammit you devious deviant little old lady. Don¡¯t you dare take off out there ahead of the Shellcrackers. If you get your soul stolen, I¡¯ll never forgive you. Oh Illy. I just realized. My eyes water further as I cast my gaze aside. They took her father from her. They took Kinzul¡¯s spouse from her, and the Platinum must also have been Illy¡¯s father. Nietru asked me to help our Lady get revenge. I think it was Nietru at least. Oh Prinny, he was your lover too. I¨C.


    The teary-eyed fury in Prinrin¡¯s gaze across our telepathic wavelength verifies my train of thought. Revenge, justice for the Platinum, his loves, his lovers, and his descendants, and¨Coh my gods, Prinrin might have had clutches of metallic children with The Platinum, and they were all destroyed, hunted down and¨C. I choke on my emotions when I feel the pang of grief, loss, and agony that strikes through Prinrin¡¯s heart as my suspicions bring back painful memories for her. We need to end the Damnations. There¡¯s a minor faction within Terrorzin¡¯s faction that follows them specifically, and their desire to end metallic dragons and Draconiacs, for some reason. We have to ferret them out and destroy them as well for their genocidal bigotry.


    Emotions and stakes are too high. I¡¯m not sure anyone that is invested in this should be out there with us tonight. Illy and Prinny. I trust you both with *my* life, but what about yours? Will you promise to back out before my massive attack goes off? I know I don¡¯t have a right to control your actions, your fury, your desire for justice and revenge. I just¨CI¡¯d die if I killed you. My attack will flood the skies over Solace.


    Wind whips at my cloak as we leave the tunnel from the feasting hall, setting foot upon the aerie, the rough stone slick beneath Shiz''s boots as he sets me down. This is it. We¡¯re assembled to avenge The Platinum. Coming together like this, despite being battered and bruised, it¡¯s so very deeply inspiring. Even moreso, since there¡¯s every chance that any one of my allies might have their life instantly snuffed out, their very souls stolen. Thankfully, everyone waited until we¡¯re all assembled. Well, other than Teuila, since she¡¯s already out there. We need to get out to her to offer reprieve quickly, but it¡¯s best to do it in formation so that those of us that can¡¯t face the Damnations, don¡¯t.


    The Worldstorm yawns beneath us, a roiling maw of acid rain and lightning rivers. Ozone stings my nostrils, its sharp tang ever-present. Atop it, the foul perfume of the storm itself ¨C rotten eggs and bleach in an unholy dance. But stronger than either is the stew of emotions hanging in the air along our psychic networks, foremost of all amongst them, determination. Plenty of fear, but mostly the grim resolve of absolute determination. Oy vey, here we go. One by one, the Onyx Dawn members assembled on the aerie are shifting into their dragon forms, even my wife, Kinzul, Administrator of the entire order.


    Gil, Fen, and Orth, our largest metallics on the aerie are a confidence-inspiring, fortifying sight. Of them, Gil looks like he¡¯s swathed in liquid gold, while Fen¡¯s silver scales sparkle, reflecting and refracting the light from the endless rivers of lightning coursing through the Worldstorm below. And Orthral, his brassy bronze scales holding a slight iridescence, forms a V with Fenric, Gilmeshtu in their lead. Unsurprisingly, to me at least, Prinny, Prinrin, our The-Copper flies just beneath Gilmeshtu, at the head of the V. Her burnished copper scales are somehow more matte, and muted than I¡¯m used to seeing them.


    Despite being the runt of the group, Prinny isn¡¯t holding anything back. The fury at the Damnations for stealing away the lover she shared with Kinzul, the father of her children, and her children themselves, it''s akin to the demon Wrath that resides within me. She¡¯s all fiery spirit in a small package, her eyes glowing like a warm hearth. Only this hearth''s blazing, raging, ready to go out of control. A side effect of her rage and ire as she transformed? I know that my Wrath demon can have physically manifested effects that show up on me. Or is it because, as a runt, she¡¯s flying in Gilmeshtu¡¯s shadow, literally overshadowed by him and his far greater mass?


    Lil, my best buddy for all my lives, the underdog ¨C or underdragon, I guess. He''s about a tenth the size of the ancients, a Blaster amongst Behemoths, but if we can get him a clear shot, for long enough, his breath weapon is no joke. The most feared on the planet for a reason. My buddy''s got guts aplenty, taking on dragons of such vastly larger sizes, like the continental landmasses flying towards us, those Damnations that we have to keep away from everyone else. The Shellcrackers, my inner circle, my family, I¡­ My vision blurs and I blink back tears.


    The Triple L Squad are just charging ahead. Seeing them like this, all brave and bold, is both heartening and a bit nerve-wracking. They''re in over their heads. Everyone, even Lu, is injured heavily, but you wouldn¡¯t know it from their faces. Especially Lil ¨C I mean, come on, the size difference alone is insane, but there he goes, fearless as ever. Lucky, my son, dashing away into the air, flying, utilizing magic items as deftly as anyone, is certainly a sight to behold. He could probably shapeshift himself a pair of wings if he wanted to, but with that helmet-mask-thing that Te gave to him, he doesn¡¯t need to, since it grants him magical flight.


    I manifest my Honoris Causa to its fullest caliber, what¡¯s recovered of it anyway. How few hours ago was it dissipated by a meteor? I can¡¯t believe how much has happened today. Harlequin coming to light, our entire Al¡¯pa¡¯ca mission that felt like a week-long adventure, intense conversation and bonding, and psychic-network-building. And now this! The bastards are lucky Teuila and I are even home from our mission. I¡¯m highly suspicious that they want us, possibly just me, for some reason. Or maybe I was just an easy target before, when I had the spy riding around inside my body, before, well, dying and getting a new one.


    Come on Reggie, hup, and we have liftoff. Te can¡¯t keep this up forever, so get your arse out there. Holding my breath, my Void Dragon form virtually, well, literally, soars towards my target, Nonnam. There¡¯s some lighthearted argument, about who has whom across our telepathic networks, but it seems like we¡¯re almost okay. Eleven active Evil Claws, against eight flying Onyx Dawn sounds bad, but two of them are stuck propping up Nonnam, so it¡¯s actually nine versus our eight, and one of our eight is Kinzul, the eldest, and one of the top five most powerful beings on the planet. Wait, the arguments are concluded, but¨C.


    Veering from my target, I doff my circlet, and rush it to Kinzul. She¡¯s headed towards an Evil claw with pinkish-purplish hued gemlike scales, amethyst I suppose. If those are indicative of her breath weapon, or powers, she¡¯s a psi-oriented dragon. I¡¯m already panting, the nervousness, the anxiety is exhausting.


    Whispering across our psychic network, benefitting from blocking out any possible interception, due to the circlet in my hands, I inform my wife, ¡°Kinzul, the one you¡¯re going after, I¡¯m almost positive her breath weapon, or Latent, or abilities are tied to psionics, psychic attacks. You know that that was one of my weaknesses that was in need of shoring up, and this is the answer to that shoring up. It provides complete immunity to psionics and psychic anything, which unfortunately means temporarily cutting yourself off from our telepathic networks. I wish there was a solution that didn¡¯t have that caveat, but if there is, I don¡¯t have access to it, my love. Please, don this, and don¡¯t take it off until you¡¯re certain your target is slain or driven off.¡±


    Kinzul is wise enough, intelligent enough to understand the value of becoming completely immune to any section of the weapons in your foe¡¯s arsenal. Even if I¡¯m wrong, brain-blasting spells could be in the repertoire of any of these dragons, and out of everyone, Kinzul¡¯s is the most important mind to keep from being blasted. It¡¯s fortunate that she¡¯s got a commingled Shellcracker soul, specifically commingled with mine, or she wouldn¡¯t be able to benefit from the circlet at all. I guess it came to pass after all. The marriage being beneficial for bringing Kinzul partly into the system of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    If it were Te, I¡¯d say, ¡°Go get ¡®em babe,¡± or something similar. If I were in a sitcom, I¡¯d tell my wife, ¡°Be careful honey.¡± As is, I simply whisper, ¡°Stay safe,¡± before kissing Kinzul¡¯s horn-ridge with my Honoris Causa, and turning back towards my target.


    Luni¡¯s headed for the injured target she recognizes from Vorzog¡¯s keep, Laombigla, but I plead with her to keep the healthier one busy, since I know she doesn¡¯t want to fight in the first place, much less try to pull together enough offenses to kill. Plus, it¡¯ll be easier for me to keep the attention of the two that I¡¯ve injured, trading off with Te if needbe. Te¡¯ll be handling two or three Damnations, constantly, despite being as spent as I am from our Stormspire adventure with Lil. At least Lil¡¯s breath weapon, and items that empower it, don¡¯t run out of charges.


    Lucky¡¯s lunging straight for Sibil, going for the wings. Good boy Lucky, good boy. If enemies are going to target the smallest amongst us, which they do, and are, you working to take their smallest out of the fight as fast as possible would free you up to¨C, ¡°Siege is back,¡± I hear from my goggles.


    Are you effing kidding me!? Pleading into our psychic networks, I beg, ¡°Someone get Boetah to come cover the aerie with Shiz, and get Queens Rend and Sunderer down to the siege with anyone who still has daily ability uses left!¡±


    If I can¡¯t rely on having our nearly undefeatable Queens as a last resort backup blocking entry into Solace proper, Boetah is the next best bet. He¡¯s virtually indestructible versus breath weapons and certain Latents. I know he¡¯s been mating with Atter, but I seriously hope he¡¯s gotten some rest recently, and can slip away.


    There¡¯s a flash brighter than the lightning beneath us, orangeish in color that quickly becomes blue and then pure white. I¡¯m forced to squint, trying to parse what happened. Rubicante is breathing on Gil, which shouldn¡¯t hurt him, because Gil¡¯s immune to fire, but the Fire is clinging to Gil, and the air around him, becoming an almost solid object, virtually encasing Gil. Gil¡¯s grunts and snarls are punctuated with profanity, and Rubicante taunts back with equal amounts of profanity, gleeful to have trapped one of our strongest. It does seem like he needs to focus on maintaining the solidity of the flames though. Wait, there! A tiny section of flame winked out as he turned his head a bit. Did it slip outside the range of his peripheral vision? Somebody blind him!


    Lil raises a scaled brow towards me across our psychic networks, but I shake my head. It¡¯s a good thing we didn¡¯t clump up and go after the Evil Claws. Rubicante might have been able to trap a bunch of us, and that would have let the Damnations through in a heartbeat. Lil returns his attention to his long-building breath charge on Dazomeus, who can¡¯t afford to ignore him, as the intensity and immunity-piercing nature of Lil¡¯s flame just keeps ramping up. Good job Lil. Drag him away a bit, and see if you can catch another damnation with your flame at the same time, by luring him around.


    You¡¯re doing good Lu, just keep pestering Ephlomseestiph, and using your abilities whatever way you want. Just, just stay safe. Whatever you do. I see her wielding that thunder scepter that allows for a short range concussive burst endlessly. It¡¯s definitely harrowing enough that her Damnation can¡¯t ignore it.


    Mine is barely alive, hell, he might even be an actual floating reanimated corpse, based on the fact that he doesn¡¯t seem to have sensory organs, wings, a tongue, or even an esophagus. Still, he¡¯s a mountain of mass, and each lazy slow swipe would be enough to bat me down into the Worldstorm, or rend me into pieces if his claws connected. I work on peppering him with holy hellfire double-barreled crossbow bolts, just to keep his attention, and his guttural roar seems to communicate to the Evil Claws lifting him, to chase me. That¡¯s good. I position myself such that my fight with Nonnam gets in the way of Laombigla¡¯s advance, and allows me to harry Laombigla by flying into his face, raking at it with my Honoris Causa. What little of it I can manage to manifest while this stressed out for my loved ones.


    Lucky has daily abilities left, good boy Lucky! He¡¯s firing off mini meteorites, and his eagle-harpy paladins are casting spells to help refresh Teuila, while harassing Ferciul. If he can get into a decent position to do it, he can drop a pretty decent-sized glacier on one or more of the Damnations. Or maybe those are the only abilities he had left, if he was busy fighting the siege while Lil, Te, and I were away. I can¡¯t afford to keep my focus on him to see everything he uses. I¡¯ve got my own Damnations to deal with.


    Speaking of, I barrel roll around an incoming jab from Nonnam, which tags Laombigla in the face, causing me to snicker slightly. Just keep focusing on stuff like that Reggie, don¡¯t think about the one thing, don¡¯t even think about not thinking about it. No need for a panic attack right now buddy. Shush, don¡¯t even talk about what you¡¯re avoiding talking about.


    Okay, Teuila has a not-so-hard time keeping the attention of two of them. She makes it look almost easy as she basically has Mjolnir fighting for her, by tossing it out to clobber Ferciul and boomeranging it back while she focuses on laying a beatdown on Grimsranton¡¯s face. I¡¯ve seen her pull out a Gae Buidhe for a few test stabs, but it¡¯s just not big enough that it actually causes any sort of injury, despite the amount of force Te can put behind it, so its special power is essentially useless. Her weapons might be too small to really carve up these mountainous morons, but her bludgeoning impacts are sending thunderous shockwaves and caving in scales. That¡¯s to say nothing of Mjolnir doing essentially the same thing off to one side every few seconds.


    Other than Gil being trapped, and me not knowing what the powers of these two Evil Claws are, our plan to divide and conquer seems to be working. We¡¯re too dangerous for our foes to try to ignore us in order to pass off dance partners, their size is working against them. Suddenly, the one that I think is Lovelace, one of the two propping up Nonnam, begins calling out orders in draconic, and our plan falls to pieces in mere moments.


    I psychically offer strategy and suggestions to help get the flow back going our way, and the Order utilizes them, but it¡¯s like Lovelace knows what I¡¯m going to suggest before I suggest it, and gets countermeasures into place. It¡¯s like a panoptic Latent, or maybe hyperawareness. It doesn¡¯t seem to be entirely precognition, or we¡¯d already be dead. How the hell do you outmaneuver someone who can guess your every move, knowing the smart strategy to counter it? They¡¯re gaining ground towards Solace by the moment.


    Wait. I know how to make our moves harder to guess. Calling out to Lu, I request, ¡°Lu, play us a random riff, and make it loud!¡± to everyone else, I psychically offer up, ¡°Let your bodies guide you, Groove to Lu¡¯s music.¡±


    I can¡¯t fill Kinzul in on the plan, because of the psi-blocking circlet, but she¡¯s smart enough, hearing Luni, seeing us, she¡¯ll figure it out. Her foe, Butterfly, seems to be growing more enraged by the minute, realizing Kinzul is immune to her powers. I worry that Butterfly might realize the secret behind the immunity, if she recalls my glancing at her, before handing the circlet over to Kinzul.


    Oof. Distracted as usual Reggie? Yeah yeah, shut up. Guess what broke again? I know already, shut up. My right ribs punctured my right freakin¡¯ lung. I joked once about maybe just removing the sucker. Maybe I should really go through with it, because this hurts like hell. Laombigla caught me with the edge of his tail, when I was focusing on claws and teeth of him and Nonnam.


    Okay, if we treat this as a battle of attrition, we look like we¡¯re fighting a losing battle, but that¡¯s okay, right? We want it to look that way. Only¡­ It doesn¡¯t just look that way, the Dormies and Vivvies are getting the crap kicked out of themselves, minus Gil who¡¯s trapped. Prinny is fighting a¡­ bigger Prinny. Harlequin wasn¡¯t going to give up the size advantage, but is still using the same tired trick, just like I expected. But, between that size advantage, and him being far less injured, with Prinny acting on fury, the fight¡¯s going poorly for her. I, I just have to trust her, that she can hold out. I rattle my skull and blink away tears. I can¡¯t afford to drag Damnations towards her in order to try to help her out.


    I hate that Butterfly is so quick, that Kinzul can¡¯t really end that fight. If Kinzul could finish off Butterfly, she could doff the circlet, free Gil, and take on¨C hold on, who¡¯s on who?


    There¡¯ve been some dance partner switches. Curly Beard, a Blue, a lightning dragon, had been harrying Veril, but thankfully Veril¡¯s got some resilience to lightning now, thanks to the artifact that Te split between him and Farzhis. Still, where¡¯d he go? Illy¡¯s over there with Bad Dog, a Sand, and Frostwalker, an Ice. She¡¯s so graceful, it looks like she isn¡¯t even moving. Wait. She isn¡¯t moving. She¡¯s suspended in the air, in a chilly mist that Frostwalker is exhaling. It doesn¡¯t seem like it¡¯s freezing her like a normal ice breath weapon. She¡¯d be plummeting. No, this is something else. Bad Dog isn¡¯t taking advantage of it in the way I¡¯d expect. Bad Dog¡¯s barking off silicate breath attacks over the top of the mist, creating a giant mound of sand suspended in the air above Illy, as if¨C. No! It¡¯s a time stop effect, and when it ends, Illy¡¯ll be driven down through the Worldstorm by tons of sand!


    Crap crap crap. My Honoris Causa just isn¡¯t enough to finish off either of these Damnations, but I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker. If I were over there, I could probably free Illy from the timestopping mist. If I did that though, I¡¯d be freeing her to resume normal time, right into the waiting claws of two Damnations. Friggin¡¯ hell!


    Suddenly, I¡¯m distracted yet again, hearing, "Heh, you''re both Blues, pity for you two," Orthral stretches his neck in time with the thundrous crack of the dactyl-leather of his immense wings before continuing, "No point in charging, no point in breathing. I''ll be sending you below the Worldstorm the fun way. Well, fun for me anyway."


    Apparently during some of the round robin dance partner switching, Orthral lucked out into going up against Curly Beard, and Devilhound, two Blues, lightning dragons, just like him. I can''t help glancing his way, despite being embroiled in battle with Nonnam, who''s little more than a friggin'' sky-zombie at this point, but still lethal to all my beloved family in the Onyx Dawn. My danger-wraps'' senses help keep me from being shredded by a lackadaisical claw swipe while I''m distracted, but Orthral has no such luck. He takes several powerful blows to his face, neck, scapula, and wings in a quick skirmish.


    Spitting blood and thunder, somewhat literally--well, more like blood and lightning, since he''s a Bronze--Orthral begins to claim, "Look here you louts, I''m not gonna--," and my eyes fly wide in shock as an Evil Claws'' Latent activates. An upside-down hurricane funnel appears atop Orthral, sucking him down into the Worldstorm. It sends him spinning into the tenebrous depths of the deadly cloudbanks below us.

 B 6 C 202: Avant Toutfout le Camp

    It just appeared, a whirlwind, a maelstrom, out of nowhere. It¡¯s moving slowly about the battlefield now, but it started by sucking Orthral down into the Worldstorm, almost assuredly sending him to his death, the spin of the hurricane whirling in time with the motion of Curlybeard''s, well, beard.


    This can''t be real. My wife, noticing either the swirl of Worldstorm shaped like Orthral, or her Latent informing her of his demise, calls out, "Beloved Bronze!" and in her distraction, Butterfly capitalizes on the perceived weakness, and dives for Kinzul''s head. Butterfly¡¯s clawing and scratching, attempting to rend the circlet from her skull, realizing it''s what''s keeping Kinzul immune. I hate to admit it. Butterfly¡¯s smart, fast, and strong, and might be able to take my wife¡¯s life if her psychic attacks start working.


    Distracted by this, knowing how deadly it would be to give up the immunity, Kinzul can focus on nothing but tearing herself free from Butterfly''s clutches, or worse rather, attempting to tear herself free, unsuccessfully. Kinzul couldn''t have opened a hole large enough in time for Orthral¡¯s safety, and now she can''t focus enough to do it at all. It happened so suddenly. It just can''t be real. Wait. Where¡¯d Laombigla go? I was supposed to be fighting Laombigla and Nonnam, not just Nonnam, where¨CPrinny! No!


    Damn it, Prinrin¡¯s getting hammered out there. She¡¯s so tiny compared to these beasts. No, no, no! The larger Prinrin has the smaller one, that means Harlequin has got her, in a flying headlock. Worse, I found out where Laombigla went. No, no no no. Prinny, you have to live. It can¡¯t end like this. I barely roll aside a jab by Nonnam while peppering him with holy halefire crossbow bolts, and void breath. I try to aim my ranged attacks towards Laombigla, now on the other side of our fray, near Prinrin, and use my Honoris Causa to keep Nonnam busy, but I just don¡¯t have the range on my breath weapon, and the crossbow bolts don¡¯t so much as tickle Laombigla.


    This is it, she¡¯s done for. My heart¡¯s in my throat. Time slows to a standstill. Laombigla¡¯s closing in, and is only meters away. Even if I could get over there instantly, what could I possibly do to prevent him from touching her? Nothing. I can do nothing but sit and watch as my beloved deviant little old lady is about to have her soul ripped from her chest. Hell, he might not even bother ripping out her soul, she¡¯s in a vulnerable enough position, he might be able to part her ribcage with a single swipe. No, no please no.


    Someone, somebody do something! Luni is aghast, trying to keep her focus on playing her tune, the thing keeping us from getting destroyed by Lovelace¡¯s predictions. Lil is trying to get a lungful of air but his sternum is bruised from a mad dash that Sibil took towards him to get away from Lucky, resulting in a head to chest collision.


    In a tiny, hopeful voice, one adorable goblin artificer brings a smidgeon of good news, ¡°Barricade¡¯s up and running, Tiger.¡±


    It¡¯s followed by our grumpy librarian, Curator, Nala, offering up, ¡°It¡¯s as best as we can fashion it, for now, Schism.¡±


    At least¡­ At least the feasting hall is a bit more secure. But Orthral is, is gone, almost positively dead, since Kinzul is too busy, and blocked from psychic anything, to have been able to open a safe path down the Worldstorm for him, and now Curly Beard and Devilhound are turning towards Kinzul. I can¡¯t believe this. Everything is going to $h17! I can¡¯t bear to watch, because in this frozen moment, it seems like Prinrin is next. I can virtually feel Miraina¡¯s tears. Pawn, Prinny¡¯s daughter, on our psychic wavelengths, I, I can¡¯t save her. I¡¯m so sorry Miraina. Tears cloud my vision. I¡¯m letting her down. I didn¡¯t protect her mom.


    Miraina, sobbing, sniffling, calls into our psychic bond, ¡°Momma, you¨C,¡± But wait! Prinrin remembers! The cloak, her promise! With a flash of lightning, she''s gone, just in the nick of time, blinding Laombigla in the bright flash, and scorching his face as she teleports up and away. Holy friggin¡¯ crap, that was close. And now¡­ and now Laombigla just obliterated Harlequin, ripped his soul straight out and sent his body plummeting to dash against the rocks of Solace and Solitude in confusion. Ha! Take that, you soul-stealing bastards!


    Prinny I love you! Lure that arsehole over to me then get the hell out of here, please! It seems that Prinrin had been building a full charge of her breath weapon while she was held in a vulnerable position. Holy crap look at her go. Kinzul¡¯s breath weapon is charged too, a mighty fine coincidence that the two best friends, eldest dragons, both acids, are charged up right now.


    Strategy my love, nice! Kinzul just turned herself into a geyser, breathing straight up, and flying so that Butterfly clinging to her back, neck, and head, would take the brunt of the splash as it came back down! It¡¯s not a fatality, but it sure drove her off Kinzul¡¯s back! Simultaneously, Prinny did a strafing run along Laombigla¡¯s back and wings, leaving gaping wounds on the already wounded Damnation. Way to go loves!


    Holy friggin¡¯ crap. Te is soloing two Damnations and two Evil Claws at the moment. What even are her limits any¨CI¡¯m drawn into a timeless void again, the same image is presented before me. Countless golden threads all end suddenly, parallel to one another, but one microscopic, frail filament extends beyond them all, out into the unknowable beyond. Suddenly I snap back to my body, to the flow of time. Friggin¡¯ hell, what is that? Are the Sisters trying to contact me?


    Things are turning around, yes, yes! Te literally knocked Curlybeard¡¯s beard off! Haha! I¡¯ve heard of rocking your socks off, but Te amped up on Luni¡¯s rock riffs is something else entirely. Because of her tossing Mjolnir hard enough to clip Curly¡¯s beard, the whirlwind has disappeared from the battlefield. Whew, way to frickin¡¯ go Te!


    It looks like we let one Evil Claw slip through. Boetah and Shiz are about to engage. Where¡¯s Veril? Oh buddy please be okay. Oh whew, Rufflered and Veril are just way off to one side. Seems Veril¡¯s got some lightning scars from when the Blues were ganging up on him, so he lured his prime target away. Good job bud. Farzhis has been on the Green that must be Porkbelly. I uh, wonder if she¡¯s working out some issues she has with Induul, snrk. But no, seriously, she¡¯s really laying into Porkbelly. She keeps igniting his breath any time he tries to catch her offguard with it.


    Butterfly¡¯s retreating, trying to break off from Kinzul to use her assets against an easier, unlikely to be immune, target, but our Lady, my wife, is having none of it. Whew. Okay, Prinny delivered a present for me. Hiya Laombigla, remember me? I died in your ear canal while almost killing you. I really, really want to finish what I started. As Prinny is flying straight at me, I¡¯m flying straight at her, we¡¯re each dragging a Damnation, and we¡¯re both much smaller, much faster, and much more maneuverable.


    Grinning, we pull up at the same time, leading to a head-to-head collision between Nonnam and Laombigla while Prinny and I spiral upwards chest to chest, eyes locked lovingly. Well, at least my Honoris Causa¡¯s eyes. Prinny isn¡¯t -*that*- small that she¡¯d be humanoid sized in her dragon form, even if she is a runt. Kissing her swiftly, I headbutt her gently, shoving her back towards the far side of the fray, to the Evil Claws, so that I can drop down to focus on the two Damnations beneath me.


    Fricklefrack. I need to take advantage of their distraction to help Illy! While Laombigla and Nonnam are recovering from a daze, and a tangle of limbs and wings, with Lovelace and Laughing Drakk in the mix, I blitz through the battlefield to Illy¡¯s side, intentionally diving into the timestopped mist. Come on Reggie, come on. You can operate during a time stop. You¡¯ve done it before. All you need to do is think. Isolate the signals. Stop more of the flow of time, yourself, analyze the signals in accelerated Retrocognition. Ow ow ow ow! I forgot, ow. Retrocognition while my Honoris Causa is manifested hurts like a buggering bugger. Okay, okay we have it though. Don¡¯t let go of the flow of time. Set this up carefully.


    I let my Void Dragon form encompass Illy, as well as the sand above her. I nullify the gravity of the sand, costing me a hundred days worth of dragonforce, oof. Further, I nullify the time-stopping signal on Illy. My momentum from before I entered the timestop transfers into Illy as I had my Void Dragon form shoulder bash her towards freedom from the mist, straight into Frostwalker. There goes another two hundred days of dragonforce. Friggin¡¯ hell. Please forgive me Kinzul, Luni. As Illy returns to the normal flow of time, she¡¯s absolutely furious, apparently she¡¯d been able to sense everything going on, because she¡¯s linked up to a mind like mine, well, mine, that can operate during a timestop, so she kept hearing my inane babble.


    She knows, she knows we lost Orthral, and nearly lost Prinny. She¡¯s making up for the time she was out of the fight by absolutely tearing into Frostwalker and Bad Dog. Speaking of¨C ow. Their concentration broken, their combined efforts fade, causing tons and tons of sand to drop atop my head, and me to be freed from the timestop. I couldn¡¯t afford to keep the sand¡¯s gravity nullified for more than the instant it took to free Illy, to keep her from getting knocked down into the Worldstorm. Now I¡¯m plummeting with a hell of a headache, and probably a concussion.


    Roll aside and slip out from beneath the sand, whew, easy enough, even if I have a clamoring headache. Focus Reggie, only a couple more minutes. Just, just please everyone. Please survive for a couple more minutes. Less than two now. It looks like we stand a chance, like things are turning around enough that things are going our way as I blitz back towards the now-recovered Nonnam and Laombigla. I shoulder tackle their faces into each other with my Honoris Causa, following through by flying past them, raking their faces with the front, and rear talons of my Honoris Causa. Looks like things are finally swinging our way. Teuila¡¯s out there like she¡¯s born for this, just laying waste to them. She¡¯s incredible. My genre senses say there¡¯s another shoe to drop yet though.


    Wait, it looks like all the Evil Claws are trying to break off from their fights. Hell, it looks like they¡¯re regrouping to maybe retreat, as they make a mad break for it in this direction, towards their superiors, the Damnations. Wait. Aura vision. Crank it way the hell up Reggie. What is that trail? Those trails? Friggin¡¯ fuggin¡¯ fricklefracking hell¡¯s bells hellspit and Fel fires! What even is this!? It¡¯s like they¡¯re evolving, like they have a combined super-evolution tether, dozens, maybe hundreds of times more powerful than anything I¡¯ve ever seen, and we made Lil virtually into a god only earlier today!


    Their dragonforces are gestalting, shacking up together here over Laughing Drakk. It¡¯s taking a form like an Honoris Causa, a spiritual behemoth of Brobdignagian proportions. It would blot out the sun if it weren¡¯t nighttime already. Can anyone else see it? Oh no. It¡¯s invisible. It¡¯s spiritual. They might be able to sense the commingled dragonforces, but probably not the shape of it. It¡¯s rearing back like it¡¯s about to breathe in the direction of the Onyx Dawn members who¡¯d given chase to the fleeing Evil Claws. All the Evil Claws look physically weaker, strained, drained, I guess that¡¯s why it¡¯s a next-to-last resort, but that hardly matters with the size of this spiritual thing.


    Amplifying my voice as loud as I can with my Honoris Causa, I cry out, ¡°Retreat!¡±


    Kinzul can¡¯t hear my psychic rambling that had been noting the spiritual dragonforce coalescence, but the other members are given pause by my brain¡¯s rambling. Kinzul, leading the pack of Onyx Dawn members, hears my cry and stops only barely just in time. A swathe of her chest and neck scales just disintegrate before everyone¡¯s eyes, as the edge of Laughing Drakk¡¯s spiritual gestalt breath weapon laps at her like the lick of a flickering flame.


    This thing didn¡¯t just decimate what it hit with those spiritual flames, it eradicated them, erased them from existence. Disintegration on a whole other level. My wife grimaces in pain, and falters. She looks stricken, but she knows to trust me. Teuila glances my way, and I nod, yes, her too. She rockets upwards to snag Lu, and rushes to join the fleeing Onyx Dawn forces. Lucky and Lil only linger momentarily, firing off any last abilities or charge they¡¯d had in store.


    Gilmeshtu, freed at some point, by Rubicante¡¯s lack of maintained focus, mutters telepathically, ¡°Was hoping I might see this attack of yours. Best we retreat though. Don¡¯t disappoint the Vivant. Don¡¯t disappoint Orthral.¡±


    Well that twists like a dagger to the gut. Friggin¡¯ thanks Gil. My eyes sting with sweat and tears as I rattle my skull. The constant boom of the Worldstorm¡¯s endless thunderous roars dampen the rampant pounding of my heart.


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


    Fenric adds, ¡°Please Schism. You saved me once. Avenge Orthral. I don¡¯t envy you, but it¡¯s all down to you.¡±


    The last of the Vivant, the deviant little old lady herself, my beloved Prinrin The-Copper calls into our bond, ¡°Don¡¯t die for us Schism dearie, live for us. Live for us, and all of Solace, Schism my sweet. This old runt¡¯s ticker can¡¯t bear to see another Hero fall to these bastards.¡±


    I do want to live, for Prinny, for my inner circle, my wife, my once-paramour-step-daughter Illy, the entire Onyx Dawn. But can I? I know I did the math, over and over, but that was just pure damage, and numbers. Can I survive this? Calling out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, using mana when, as a changeling, I shouldn¡¯t be using any? I resolve to shapeshift more, constantly. Perhaps I can set up an internal subroutine to at least shapeshift away from being blue every minute or so, since the wild magic keeps returning my pigment to blue. That¡¯d help with a couple of issues.


    Full of false bravado, Teuila comments, trying to assuage everyone, ¡°Relax, my Airhead¡¯s got this in the bag. Just breathe fam. Air¡¯s gonna take ¡®em all out in one, ¡®natch. Right babe?¡±


    I¡¯m about to respond, when I realize Teuila¡¯s telepathic voice was aimed at Luni, who retorts, ¡°Y-yeah, Reggie will always come home to us. No question. Always has, and always will.¡±


    Smirking, proud of me, despite me having done nothing all that useful yet¨CIlly raises an eyebrow across our wavelengths, causing me to blush, since I did free her from a timestop¨CLil adds, ¡°That¡¯s my pal for ya, need some super mondo mega badass, mega mega mega badass spell or attack to do the job? Aint nobody better than Reggie.¡±


    While I¡¯d like to argue, and try to be humble, my mind floods with all the times where I¡¯ve broken systems and rules of reality in order to cobble together a victory, or at least a survival against tremendous odds. Even so far back as the Night of High Water. If I hadn¡¯t crafted the shell, or duplicated Lil¡¯s flames, I think I¡¯d have died, drowning. If I hadn¡¯t broken even more rules of our world, we would have lost Luni, precious Lu. She¡¯s so important to me, to Lil, to Te, to Lucky, to the very fabric of reality and the prime timeline itself.


    Gazing down into the roiling Worldstorm, it¡¯s as if it¡¯s painting portraits for me, of scenes with Luni, showcasing her importance. The clouds bend and twist, despite being violent and dark, they¡¯re fluffy, soft, rounded, and huddle tightly up against one another, like Lu in any number of crevices she¡¯s pulled me into over the years.


    Our The-Blue, Farzhis, in her soft-ending-consonants accent pleads, ¡°Hero, Schism, please make i¡¯ true. I can¡¯--, I can no¡¯ do this withou¡¯ you righ¡¯ now, me and Broke One both.¡±


    Agreeing, Veril, sniffling, comments, ¡°Please Schism. I didn¡¯t know. I, I didn¡¯t know. But I do now. Your plans, they¡¯re everything. I¡¯ll always trust you. I¡¯ll never let you down again. I swear.¡±


    My heart aches at Farzee¡¯s need, and Veril¡¯s comment. I want to remind him that he didn¡¯t let me down, that I forgave him for not igniting the gas on my command, since it looked like it would kill me.


    Nala, Curator, my favorite grumpy librarian calls into our bond, ¡°Schism, friend Reggie, no one else understands. You must survive, and return victorious, you simply must.¡±


    Immediately on the tail of Nala¡¯s plea, Littlebit, adorable, vivacious Littlebit causes me to chuckle, roll my eyes and blush as she adds, ¡°Yeah Tiger, bring home the V, and show me what else you can do with letters.¡±


    Shield, Boetah, rumbles gleefully, ¡°You brought me a mate, even though I¡¯d only mentioned offhandedly Schism. We should feast so I can thank you. I told you, be happy, eat well, everything else sorts itself out, and I¡¯m happier and more well fed than I¡¯ve ever been.¡±


    Wearing an embarrassed grin, not wanting to think too hard about my hand in Boetah and Atter¡¯s mating process, or about Littlebit¡¯s implications about the alphabet, I roll between wing flaps of continental landmass sized monstrosities, while equipping my lightning-cursed leg-guards. This draws a titanic stream of lightning from the Worldstorm up through the Damnation dumb enough to try to sneak up on me from below. Of course, the lightning hits me too, but, meh, not like I haven¡¯t already been struck by a crapload of lightning today. Though still, ow, friggin¡¯ ow! Totally worth it, heh. Oof, I¡¯ll feel that one in the morning, if I¡¯m around then.


    Smirking Shiz thankfully quiets everyone else, ¡°I¡¯m sure Schism gets it. They don¡¯t need any more pressure being told it¡¯s up to them, now do they? Go on, let¡¯s show our faith. A few more of us should head to Solace¡¯s base to tackle the siege.¡±


    My wife, Kinzul, privately, wheezing in pain, must have taken off the circlet so she can admonish me, ¡°Please don¡¯t spend all of yourself. I know what this power costs you. I Administrated it for you before. My love. Please return to me. To us, to all of Solace.¡±


    Thankfully, for some reason, my family, friends, and loved ones are able to evacuate the battlefield, and everyone¡¯s attention turns to me. All the remaining Evil Claws, all the Damnations focus solely on me. I gulp. My wife¡¯s request eats away at my resolve to finish this by any means necessary, but still I persist. Blinking back tears, I rub my eyes and sniffle while dodging swipes of all seven Damnations.


    Pawn meekly adds one last comment and query, ¡°Schism, I still need advice, about the other night. I like you, and you help me so much. Can we talk later?¡±


    Ruefully smiling, I nod across my telepathic wavelength to Pawn. Miraina¡¯s telepathic avatar smiles towards mine in response as she drops our connection to zoom off deeper into Solace. Her unspoken confidence in me--that there¡¯ll be a later in which I¡¯m around--well, it¡¯s pretty darn heartening.


    When I realize I¡¯m pretty much surrounded on all sides, I facepalm. I let everyone¡¯s parting comments distract me. That--ah, well--is pretty par for the course for Reggie Shellcracker, isn¡¯t it? Yeah, yeah it is. Glancing around, gulping, sweating, and bleeding from reaching out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, joking, I pitifully, nervously quip a classic cliche with a Shellcracker twist, ¡°You ah, wouldn¡¯t hit an enby with goggles now would ya?¡±


    Chuckling nervously, I dodge aside a blast from the gestalt. I¡¯m gasping for breath, my breathing labored in almost pure terror. Do I have resistance against whatever that weapon is? It¡¯s going to be turning my way again in a few short moments, and I¡¯ve got about thirty seconds left before my plan kicks in. I can¡¯t retreat, because if this thing¡¯s breath weapon gets in range of the aerie, it could kill everyone in the feasting hall. I have to trust my danger wraps¡¯ senses to keep me alive.


    Y¡¯hear that wraps? I¡¯m counting on you more than ever before, and I¡¯ve counted on you nearly my whole lives. This is instant nullification or something. I don¡¯t dare test to see if it¡¯s some element with a cap on max damage, after seeing it just erase Kinzul¡¯s scales. Kinzul¡¯s for crying out loud! The most powerful, eldest scales on the planet!


    If only I had some of the magical trinkets and consumables from Stormspire. I kinda wish I hadn¡¯t dumped everything out for Littlebit and Nala to sort through, then again, this isn¡¯t fair. The Evil Claws are spreading out, and this gestalt is only getting bigger by the moment. That¡¯s friggin¡¯ ridiculous. It¡¯s also kind of Lil¡¯s shtick. He ramps up power the longer he goes at a breath attack.


    Gorrammitall, several of them have made it to the aerie. I saw the ripples of a thunderous blast, and can tell Shiz retreated with whomever else was on the aerie, now the Evil Claws are balked only by whatever barrier Littlebit and Nala had cooked up. I guess it was a good thing after all. Plus, Shiz blew the Evil Claws off the aerie for now at least. Good job big guy. Hopefully the barricade holds when they regroup again.


    Is that.. Is that Induul? What is he doing here, coming from that side of the fight? Where the hell was he ranging? His telepathic response is, ¡°Forget about it Schism, what the f&*( is this?¡±


    I kind of want to say the same thing back to him. Instead, I mirror something he said to me a few days ago, at ShizTinth, ¡°Damnations, flee you fool!¡±


    His response irks me, ¡°Nah.¡±


    Rattling my skull with incredulity, I call back, ¡°Nah!? The hell do you mean nah? You were terrified of them last time, and I¡¯m about to flood the air with literally over a million projectiles.¡±


    Balking temporarily, Induul responds, ¡°Really? Uh, I¡¯ll find some cover then. I figured you had me covered, would take out the Damnations or something.¡±


    His laissez faire attitude about expecting me to be able to protect him from seven whole Damnations at once is equally as irksome as his nah. Obviously I¡¯d try to protect him, but this is messed up. There¡¯s only seconds before my attack unleashes. I can¡¯t stop it now, or we¡¯re all doomed, because there¡¯s no way we¡¯ll withstand the gestalt¡¯s attacks for eight minutes. Fricklefrack!


    Indy! I¡­ I can¡¯t. My eyes well with tears. Five seconds left. Four. I have to choose, now, do I stop, so that Induul lives for now, or do I let my attack go off, three, possibly being the one to personally slaughter a comrade if I can¡¯t find a way to keep my attack from hitting him. Not just an order member, a friend. Two.


    Like a ¡°best of,¡± hits-reel, images flash through my mind. Everyone that I¡¯ve come to love in Mount Solace, followed up by the stark reality of seeing Kinzul¡¯s scales disintegrated instantly. If I stop now, Induul¡¯s dead in a matter of moments from the gestalt, and so am I, and so is everyone else. I¡¯ve been dodging its constantly increasing-in-size breath weapon, but I¡¯m tired, my muscles have been leaden this entire fight, because I pushed into my unsafe SP usage for the day. I can¡¯t keep this up for another eight minutes. Even if I could, the gestalt could ignore me and wipe out the entirety of Mount Solace. One.


    Fricklefrack! While I was distracted, Laughing Drakk himself landed on the aerie! No no no no! I¡¯m sorry, Induul. I¡¯m sorry. Indy, I can¡¯t¡­ I can¡¯t stop this attack, or everyone in Solace is dead. Please Induul, forgive me. Try to survive, and know that I¡¯m doing anything I can think of so that you do, please. It¡¯s the Damnations, and the Evil Claws. This attack is all I have left that might drive them off or destroy them. If I cancel it now, we¡¯re all done for. I¡¯ll try not to hit you, but I plotted it into the future, without factoring you in the mix. My connection to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and my powers from my world begins to manifest, along with the excruciating agony it brings with it.


    My appearance flickers in and out of my Backpotter form, and umbral duplicates spring into existence. Blood, life, and light rocket forth from my body, painting me like a tattoo of my circulatory system, my mana residue corruption sickness shredding me along every pathway within my body. The sky is absolutely flooded with enormous spearhead-shaped duplicates of diamonds I put into my inventory I think only this morning. My Honoris Causa is still manifested, and I tried to utilize it to create a void where the projectiles would materialize that would fly directly in Indy¡¯s direction, so that they couldn¡¯t show up. I think it worked, but it cost me hundreds and hundreds of days of dragonforce. He¡¯s behind Lovelace right now, rather near, and a bit behind Nonnam, who¡¯s no longer being propped up by Evil Claws, instead being propped up by other Damnations. When did they switch? Why? My jettison attack launches, like the Gates of Babylon opening to unleash the hordes within.


    No. No what¡¯s that light? It couldn¡¯t possibly be¡­ could it? But what else could it be? It must be him, the Manxome Foe, the Bright Lord, somehow. No! No you can¡¯t interfere, you can¡¯t! You bastard! The eyes, they¡¯re doing something. The Celestial Emperor is interfering somehow.


    Growling through gritted teeth, I shout, ¡°I¡¯ll make sure this costs you big you bastard!¡±


    Some sort of shield absorbs the majority of my projectiles, and the stark redness in the eyes of the Damnations dims. I roar with frustration, and expand my Honoris Causa as far as I can, attempting to take the Damnations out myself. At least the Evil Claws drop like flies about a bugzapper, and the gestalt dissipates. Most of the corpses fall into the Worldstorm, likely to be disintegrated by the acid within. I think nearly all of their dragonforces reside within Laughing Drakk¡¯s corpse on the aerie anyway.


    Annoyingly, though I¡¯m glad he¡¯s alive, Induul quips, ¡°Nice shot Schism, but uh, you missed some.¡±


    I can¡¯t focus on that now. My gamble didn¡¯t succeed, not entirely. The Damnations could still kill any of my non-Shellcracker family and friends if I let them get around and past me. By the sounds of things, Teuila¡¯s stuck behind the barricade, trying to pound her way out. I guess Nala and Littlebit really did give it some oomph. My body is shredded to bits, though that¡¯s disguised by my clothing and armor. As long as I don¡¯t give away to the Damnations that I¡¯m actually no threat, and completely out of juice, nearly entirely dead, I might be able to bluff them into fleeing completely, one last time.


    Come on lightning spiritswarm, come on cursed greaves, give me a bit of a boost. I should really, really leave speed to the speedsters, but I have to cover and dissuade all of these continental landmasses from turning around, and circling around past me towards Solace.


    Right now they¡¯re fleeing, a familiar sight to me by this point. But there¡¯s something strange about it. Their flight is more graceful, less jerky than it had been. Did their pilot give up some of his control to create that shield? Does that make them stronger, or weaker? The Celestial Emperor has more tricks up his sleeve than I gave him credit for, and I don¡¯t know enough about the Damnations'' abilities outside of his influence, to gauge if I¡¯m better off or worse off because of that influence dropping.


    Urk. I¡¯m vomiting torrents of blood, and it¡¯s seeping out all of my orifices, more and more as I continue to lightning burst boost my Honoris Causa¡¯s flight in chase of the Damnations, up and down their ranks in their enormity, raking and clawing at them when I can catch up for a split second. Ya¡¯ve said it before, and ya might as well say it again Rej. Leave speed to the speedsters in the fam. Ugh. Everything hurts.


    I¡­ I can''t keep this up. My vision¡¯s going dim. My brain latched onto the red eyes, the proof of the Celestial Emperor¡¯s control, but also my worst trauma trigger, or one of the worst. I¡¯ve boxed up the panic attack for now, but I¡¯m so weary, and in so much pain. I don¡¯t¡­

 B 6 C 203: Ficher le Camp

    *From within this jar of souls, I observe the fiery beast that rends and eats. It¡¯s a fierce glow, a constantly lapping pyre with nearly no form, yet it will extend its tongues of flame as humanoid limbs in order to snatch soul after soul for devouring. It speaks aloud to no one near, yet its words haunt me, fill me with fear for whom it speaks of.


    The voice of hate itself rages, ¡°Seventy thousand souls! An entire damn nation! Insufferable worms. This power, now that you¡¯ve shown it to me, and cost me seventy thousand souls, you¡¯ll rue having used it. All you¡¯ve done is make yourselves more valuable.¡±


    The creature, being, beast, ruminates, the vaguely humanoid form reaches in a way that mimics stroking its chin as it grouses, ¡°The other path continues to fail me. If my agents were more subtle, you¡¯d have read them by now, and be mine to collect at my leisure! My patience wears thin, with this doomed little world, and its lack of sustenance.¡±


    The entity that destroys, obliterates souls for its own pleasure, and fuel, reaches into our jar once more, seeking out those of us who¡¯ve ¡°pickled¡± the most, steeped in fear, regret, and all other negative emotions. Approximations of limbs bring another quivering sphere towards the top of its vaguely humanoid frame, and an approximation of a fanged maw tears open in the space where a face might be within the flames. The soul is tossed inside this gaping chasm of hate and horror, and whomever it was now ceases to exist.


    I think it¡¯s contemplating, wondering if it should invest another forty two souls over its cauldron, wondering if it should reach once again through some rift in the air to some fantasy land, risking a waste of souls, and whatever strange pain it experiences in its attempts to gather more. For the poor souls¡¯ sakes in those realms, and for ours, I hope it finally chooses not to. I¡¯ve a doubt we¡¯re that lucky now, or ever will be. If only we could get out of here.


    Curiously, absurdly, the beast¡¯s tongues of flame that might be limbs, wave and flail about, as if swatting the air. Alongside the roar, the crackle of eternal flames of damnation, I hear something I¡¯d never heard here before, buzzing. Simple buzzing, racing beyond the reach of the entity.


    In frustration, the devourer of souls growls out, ¡°My realm, my prison is beyond the reach of any physical plane, but not beyond the reach of this hell-forsaken fly!? Hold still that I may destroy you!¡±


    Rushing, swishing, swooshing sounds fill the air, until¨C*Plap**


    A voice beloved to me mumbles, ¡°Oops.¡±


    Awakening as I¡¯m slapped in the face, or rather, a damp washcloth falls onto my face, I groan, announcing my return to the real world, from a realm of nightmare fears and unconsciousness. As I do, referencing the restriction of the featherfall enchantment on my Wyverium Chestplate, My Wings jokes, ¡°Too bad you hyperventilate instead of holding your breath in your panic attacks. I might have been able to go after the lousy lame-nations, instead of having to dive down and scoop your arse up before you splattered babe. Though, with what Aunty Zool said, I was going to save you anyway, natch.¡±


    Blinking groggily, I don¡¯t have time to ask what Teuila meant before my eardrums feel like they¡¯re blown out by a cheer going up around me. I definitely don¡¯t feel cheerful enough for praise or congratulations. I can¡¯t help thinking that I barely knew Orthral, and that I let the ones really behind his death get away. Laombigla was the lieutenant or whatever, captain, something-or-other of the Evil Claws. He¡¯s the real reason for our losses and injuries this eve. Or she? I can¡¯t remember. I¡¯d rather not misgender anyone, not even an enemy, as silly as that might sound.


    My legs feel a bit like limp noodles, and are sort of strewn out below me haphazardly against the cool stone floor of the feasting hall. I¡¯m glad that my panic attack happened while I was unconscious, for once. More or less. I mean, obviously it was unfortuitous that it happened while I was in the air, flying. Plus, my internals are in agony, I¡¯m apparently terribly low on dragonforce yet again. It¡¯s a good thing there¡¯s something like ten or eleven dragonforces worth of energy sitting on the aerie.


    Grimacing, trying to hide a snarl, Teuila telepathically comments on my train of thought, ¡°Uh, about that. Indy sorta snatched ¡®em up babe.¡± Fighting her own growl, she sighs before continuing, ¡°Air, I don¡¯t know what he was thinking, but he says it was for his withdrawal, that it¡¯ll hold off the cravings for a long time now. I smell a lot of dragon dung in his claim. Punk better be done flaking out for the rest of the gorram war.¡±


    My face droops as my heart sinks into my stomach. I feel so betrayed. I used up so much dragonforce trying to make sure my attack didn¡¯t strike down Induul. I could have had my cure. Or at least gotten to learn what it is, but maybe gotten my cure, and finally be done with endlessly marching towards my own death with every action. He¨Che¡¯s suffering. I guess I forgive him? Or maybe I should try to be able to forgive myself for feeling upset with him. It makes me feel terrible and selfish, thinking about wanting my cure, and the dragonforces, for myself, if they can do something as helpful as almost curing Induul¡¯s withdrawal symptoms.


    My wife soothes me across our mental link, ¡°No my love, it¡¯s not selfish to wish to survive. Our beloved The-Green¡¯s actions vex even me. I won¡¯t control or punish those under my care, but I care not for being and feeling used in such a time as dire as this. He¡¯s retired to his dorm, wishing to take part in neither mourning nor celebration.¡±


    Pausing to close her eyes, the pain written across her telepathic avatar¡¯s face, and even in the beating and clutching of her heart, Kinzul takes only a moment before continuing, ¡°But you, my Schism, my love, our bond, your foresight, enchantments, everything won us this day, this bit of reprieve from our most fearsome foes. Are you well enough to accept the praise and adulation you deserve, that will ease the mourning for so many?¡±


    That¡¯s something I hadn¡¯t thought to consider. Will people cheering me on really help them face, or pass the mourning, the grieving of Orthral? How are Gil, Fen, and Prinny taking it? Do they resent me for not ending the fight earlier? Not that I could have, but I don¡¯t know if I could convince them if it came down to it.


    A wonderful, deviant little old lady, our The-Copper smirks across our telepathic wavelength before commenting, ¡°You¡¯ve such an active imagination Schism my sweet. Really dearie, do you think I could ever resent my sweet Schism? Orthral would have perished on our first offensive, or I would have, and he¡¯d have been weakened, unable to survive the second. You saved us then. Do you remember dear? You¡¯re such a sweetie to have gotten so worked up, seeing me injured, this runt¡¯s little old ticker swelled with joy being worried about so fiercely, swelled right up I tell you.¡±


    Gulping back my emotions, squeezing my eyes shut tightly, I start, ¡°Prinny, you¡¯re alive¨C¡±


    Of course, the little old lass that she is, Prinny interrupts, ¡°Thanks to you again dearie. Seem¡¯s you¡¯ve a habit, a knack for the big dramatics, and for doing things that pulls this little old runt¡¯s hide out of the fire, literally and metaphorically.¡±


    When she looses a delightful little chuckle at her own joke, I can¡¯t help a quarter laugh passing through my nose, almost a scoff, yet I smile towards Prinrin. I¡¯m so glad I gifted her that Storm-Gryphon feather cloak. Tears flow freely, and my breathing is labored as I imagine having done otherwise. This has to be the prime timeline. I had to have made that choice. Right? I couldn¡¯t bear losing Prinrin.


    Glancing about the feasting hall, even the dim light of the glow-lichen seems blindingly bright at the moment, my eyes unwilling to adjust, my senses overloaded in general. My silent sonar feedback is just too much in addition to everything else right now. I should really divest my danger wraps. Thinking on Prinny¡¯s comment though, yeah, those fire mages were rough on her, and the magma worm seemed to be an undefeatable foe for everyone else. Pulling her out of the fire indeed.


    Grumbling, his normally booming, proud voice, more gravelly, evidence of his injuries, Gilmeshtu butts in, ¡°Don¡¯t remind me. Thirty seconds to do what I couldn¡¯t in thirty minutes. I can¡¯t say you don¡¯t live up to the Vivant¡¯s expectations Schism, despite your immaturity.¡±


    Raising my brow, I¡¯m not sure if I even want to ask if Gil simply meant my physical age, or if he thinks I¡¯m socially immature, or emotionally immature, or what. Glancing around, I see the familiar orangey copperish tail of our grumpy librarian, Curator, Nala and the pert, verdant form of Littlebit packing away some things to return to our dimensional storage pouches and the like. The feasting hall is bustling with activity, and a torrent of soundwaves, the cascading, rising crescendo of conversations attempting to talk over one another. But where are Rend and Sunderer? Is the siege still going on? Shouldn¡¯t we hasten down to help them?


    Fenric interjects to calm me, ¡°Relax Schism, the siege is driven back once more. Our Queens will be alternating resting near the aerie, or base of Solace. We¡¯re in the thick of it now, and they¡¯re being saved up, and kept well-rested, for the safety of all. Thank you by the way,¡± there¡¯s a pause, then in case I was unsure why he expressed gratitude, Fen clarifies, ¡°For avenging him.¡±


    I nod mutely, a bit numb to it all as my brain struggles to process Fenric¡¯s gratitude, my own grief, and everything else going on. Aymeshtu, Dimitriv, Johro, Lijhro, Heccinkethmorn, Shapuackurt, Lilmbrayur, and now Orthral. None of them lost to the war proper, but rather to the Damnations and their sub-faction of genocidal metallic-hatred. It won¡¯t be long before we start losing loved ones to the war proper itself as well, either to the siege, or to assaults we launch.


    I struggle up to a seated position, mostly so that I can prop my arms on my knees, and drop my head into my hands, the ridges of my horns from above my brow contacting my palms once again surprising me, as I forget that I have them, as usual. I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ll ever get used to having reincarnated into this cold-Fel tiefling body.


    How do we win this? How do we even have a chance, if our blasted Manxome Foe can interfere, and nullify the best I have to throw at our enemies? What¡¯s the way through the war? Out the other side? How do we get out of such a tricky situation as not being able to defeat our foes? What is the secret? Are there any clues on how to bring about a victory without losing everyone and everything we love?


    Speaking of clues, the cool of the stone against my back, and the warmth of Teuila¡¯s arms on my skin clues me into the fact that I¡¯m naked, except for bandages. I¡¯d facepalm, but I don¡¯t have the mental bandwidth to be embarrassed right now. Hm, seems my shapeshifting mental subroutine worked though, I¡¯m back and forth between blue and a pinker hue.


    Suddenly a worry strikes me, and I cast my gaze frantically about for Luni, Lil, and Lucky. I don¡¯t see the Triple L Squad, and my heart begins to race. Cooing and shushing, Teuila comforts me, ¡°Shhh, shh my Airhead, shh, it¡¯s okay. The Triple L Squad headed down to Verdimenn to let Ixey, Zayzi, Leeza, Pidge, and Trixxie know that things went¨Cerm, well¨Cokay¡¯ish. That they¡¯re over for now at least. I know that reaching out to home, using those powers messes you up, and throws your emotions outta whack too. Take it easy babe. Just breathe Air, breathe.¡±


    Taking her advice, I slowly deepen my breathing, focusing on it until I can gaze into those alluring windows, those captivating emerald-ringed portals to the depths of Teuila¡¯s soul. I let myself get lost in them. I let myself smile at her pert little slightly upturned nose, at the light dusting of freckles on her face, at the whimsical flop of her high, long undercut, and its almost impossible ruby hue. Drinking her in, the softness, smoothness of the skin of her arms about me, the pleasant, hearty musk of her sweat, the myriad waves of her ocean of emotion in which I can submerge myself, I do truly get lost.


    Staying like this, for long moments, I barely notice myself being passed from Teuila to Kinzul, as Te gets up to stretch. It¡¯s around now that I notice my muscles are barely responding at all. It feels like a miracle that I was able to sit up. The adrenaline is starting to wear off, either from the battle, or the panic attack I had as I passed out, and now I can feel the mana corruption lacerations. Holy friggin¡¯ hell. Tears of pain stream forth from my eyes, and I feel too weak and lethargic to even blink them away, leaving my eyes hang half-lidded with my face slack.


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    My wife, with her perfect form sculpted from pure onyx, holds me against the obsidian vessel that houses her compassionate soul, cradling me between her lap and bosom. I sense Prinrin approach, and feel her lay a hand upon my shoulder reassuringly, and one upon Kinzul¡¯s as well. Miraina is sticking to her mother like glue, her arms wrapped about Prinny¡¯s waist, determined to not let her mother out of her sight. I can sense Miraina still wants to have a talk, but she seems willing to put it off for tonight at least.


    I¡¯ve got a raging headache pulsing and pounding across my right rear occipital lobe, along my mandibular joint, and above my right temple. Between my near-fatal injuries, despite them rapidly closing up, and the headache, I¡¯m in no state for much of anything yet. Kinzul does me a kindness and whispers to several nearby to pass word around that any celebrating will be done after we¡¯ve all had a good night¡¯s sleep.


    I was really hoping to catch up with Littlebit and help her ¡®Twixt portal research along ton¨C¡±Me too Tiger. First thing in the morning hun?¡±--ight. Nodding into our telepathic link, I agree to Littlebit¡¯s request. The vivacious verdant cutie sends warmth and smiles back across our bond, and images of our shared love of Tiktik. I loose one tear out my left eye at the touching sentiment.


    Still. I¡¯m trying to process my grief over the losses we¡¯ve already suffered. Why is there such hatred for metallics? Other than being king of dragons once, why was Bahamut targeted again and again each reincarnation? Unless, unless it wasn¡¯t draconic hatred, but something our Manxome Foe feared or hated. Turning towards Kinzul, my raised brow makes the query I¡¯m too pained to ask.


    Startled, blinking wide-eyed in surprise, Kinzul surmises, ¡°The Platinum, my love, could, and would ferry souls to a divine realm, celestial, within the stars in a fashion. Do you truly believe that it is your foe, this Emperor, this false divinity, that inspired whole generations of hatred and repeated slaughter?¡±


    Sick to my stomach, I nod to my wife. His wife. Several times over. He controls them. I was almost positive already, before the battle, from combinations of clues over my lifetimes. This last battle clinched it for certain though. The bastard did something to protect the Damnations. He steals souls, maybe the Damnations can only even steal souls because of his empowerment and control.


    He had Terrorzin order Astridus to destroy Noirdivinhoz, I¡¯m almost positive. Which would make sense, with his desire for souls, and Noirdivinhoz¡¯s ability to send souls to their final rest, outside the reach of any on Rayileklia. I wonder if I could construct a new Noirdivinhoz, to allow souls to get out of here, off of this planet, out of his reach. The Platinum had a power, a duty to ferry souls beyond such a reach. I stand in his shoes, taking his footsteps. Do I have the same?


    I blush furiously as Prinrin and Miraina lean in to distract me from my thoughts by kissing my cheeks from opposite sides, especially because Prinrin presses her tight, pert body up against my chest, and lets her lips drift near mine, while Pawn presses her softscaled body up against my left side, her chest ridge, despite her tight top, firmly squishing against my left bicep. The mother-daughter duo once again passing glares at each other, grinning slightly wickedly.


    Despite blushing, I let my lips linger along the corner of Prinny¡¯s for a short while. I couldn¡¯t imagine spurning my deviant little old lady at the best of times, much less when she¡¯d come so close to death. Though, I suppose I had done exactly that while she was cursed with the necromantic blight. But that was back when her taboo was still in place, when, well, before she experienced a loss that she¡¯s still working through. Still, the air about me heats rapidly from my collar and face, as I can feel the devious grins of Teuila, Pawn, Prinrin, and my wife Kinzul.


    Throbbing, my headache nearly sends me into unconsciousness with pulses of agony. Between the layers of pain I¡¯m experiencing, I almost black out each moment. With the emotional anguish, turmoil, about our losses, and the possibility of our new conclusions, I just can¡¯t handle the layers of suffering. I can¡¯t even check in with everyone that I¡¯d like to while still conscious. Thankfully, my wife, and My Wings have me covered. I let loose my grip on the waking world once more.


    I don¡¯t believe I¡¯ve ever seen the sight that I¡¯m waking up to. Nala, curator, orangey copper Draconiac that she is, has a fiercely lovely smile, and is beaming it down at me from above. The heft of an object on my chest, square in shape, informs me that she placed a book on me. I suppose our shared love of books could be the reason for her bright smile. Blinking blearily, groggily, I slowly rouse my senses to try to ascertain what¡¯s going on.


    I¡¯m in a cuddle pile, a truly massive one. Nala isn¡¯t a part of it, standing over us like this, but still. It feels like home. In more ways than one. In the cool cavern air, we¡¯re a mingled mix of body heats. We¡¯re¨Cother than me apparently, due to Kinzul¡¯s protection in some ways¨Ca tangle of limbs. It seems my wife kept me centered on her chest as she lay sleeping, apart from the others who snuggled and wrapped themselves around each other in the night. If there¡¯s one thing my psyche needed after such a harrowing battle, it was this.


    The silken rustling of Kinzul¡¯s satin sheets and a multitude of bodies shifting about in it is the quietest cacophony. It¡¯s honestly music to my ears. As is the gentle breathing, the sound and sensation of the rise and fall of chests of those beloved to me. The cutest, tiniest peep arises from the pouch about my neck that contains the dracorocnix egg, and Zorro. I can¡¯t help a bit of a silly smile as I peek in on the tiny fox fire elemental. It¡¯s so adorable, and quite distracting.


    Thankfully, Nala, in her no-nonsense manner, regains my attention, and fills me in, ¡°Schism, friend Reggie, as you know I nearly never sleep. Moreover, you¡¯d gifted me these marvelous spectacles with their miraculous ghostly duplicate that allow me to curate nearly twice as expediently, or continue curating while accomplishing other tasks. The delightful phantasm informed me of things that have the absolutely highest relevancy score for you, such as that sash, and tome. I¡¯ve rarely ever witnessed a relevancy score so high. I¡¯d hazard even perhaps saying that they are perfect for you. Truly perfect.¡±


    With such glowing endorsement from someone as practical as Nala, even in my groggy, still-pained state, even I¡¯m excited to see what she¡¯s brought me. I recognize these objects from Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s hoard. There are runes of, let¡¯s see, synergy in sorcery? They¨Cno way¨Cgrant me massive boons to my style of spellcasting.


    The tome can impart its spells as temporary muscle memory, after only an hour of study, well, one at a time, up to two in a day, but that¡¯s still fascinating, amazing. Moreover, an hour of meditation over the tome can recover a hundred SP for the reader, owner, wielder, what have you, twice a day. The sash as well benefits me so much more than any other sorcerer. It reduces the SP cost of metamagicked spells by one quarter, or ten, whichever is lower.


    Between the two, my pool of power in a given day has skyrocketed. I¡¯d say I can accomplish about three hundred fifty to four hundred more SP worth of spells in a day, if I¡¯ve got the two hours to put into meditating over the tome. That¡¯s something like a fifty to sixty odd percent, nearly two thirds, power longevity increase, at its best. At least if the sash applies after my quickening metamagic, basically all my spells will be ten SP cheaper. I think that I can definitely situate it such that the sash applies after my quickening cost multiplier, since it triggers off of metamagic being used, but only once per spell, and my spells have both subtle spell metamagical rigor, as well as quickening. Well, when I need to quicken them.


    Woah, it also makes my cantrips, the ones that I¡¯d found out how to reduce to one SP in cost, entirely free, like other sorcerers such as Tiktik. I can blast all day long, and with my thermokinetic connection to the cold-Fel reinforcing my cold powers once more, that frosty ray spell should be massively more powerful. I can¡¯t help the doofy grin that takes over my face. I¡¯m back to nearly my peak potential!


    Thwap, ow. Really, both at once? Luni and Teuila, grumbling sleepily from either side of me, where I apparently lay atop Kinzul¡¯s chest, rolled such that their hands plopped over my mouth, slapping me in the face. I don¡¯t even need the dim light of the glow lichen within Kinzul¡¯s private cavern den, to know who slapped me, and why. Not that they did it entirely consciously, but it¡¯d only ever be Lu and Te. Plus, the silky feeling of their hands, the shape and length of their dainty digits, are always recognizable to me.


    Lu telepathically grumbles, ¡°Sh¡¯u¡¯uuuup. So loud brain, so early morning.¡±


    Stifling my chuckle, I revel in the impossibly smooth palms now lightly caressing my face after having slapped me. Kinzul¡¯s body radiates warmth upwards into me, a heavenly, perfect embrace without even using her arms. The scents of everyone around me tells me that Luni liberally used the soapstone¡¯s magic to make sure everyone was cleaned of sweat, grime, and blood, before retiring. They¡¯re a bouquet of aromas that are subtle hints of adventure, zest for life, and honestly more than a little bit of lust.


    Levitating myself upwards off of Kinzul, and her amazing, but raw, injured, chest, I¡¯m surprised to find her awakening and gazing lovingly at me, awakened by my gentle departure. Kinzul rises, strokes and kisses the forehead of everyone who¡¯d been asleep in her bed, or is still asleep in it.


    We¡¯ve got quite the gathering. I¡¯m surprised Prinrin is here, only because I don¡¯t see Miraina. Prinrin¡¯s stepdaughter Farzhis I understand of course, still grieving, being surrounded by love, and her stepmother. Veril, I know he¡¯s just Veril, and wants to be around Farzhis twenty four seven. Lu, Lil, Ixey, Zayzi, Teuila. Lucky is even shrunk down to his spheriform stage size and shape. It¡¯s starting to feel like a real Shellcracker family snuggle pile once again.


    I¡¯m almost a tiny bit surprised I haven¡¯t woken up with the goblin cutie Littlebit glommed onto my hips or torso. But, like Nala, she doesn¡¯t sleep much, and when Littlebit does sleep, she just dozes off in her work, literally. I¡¯ve seen her clamber out of a pile of inventions and spare parts, stretching and yawning. Nala looses a soft cluck, that I suppose, for her, passes for a chuckle.I don¡¯t know how to thank her for getting these curated, and to me so swiftly.


    Waving me off, Nala comments, ¡°Think naught of it Schism, you¡¯ve opened a world of possibilities to me, saved Solace from Damnations, gifted me magical artifacts, and even brought me clients, aids, and helpers, to take over my duties in the library.¡±


    Ruefully smiling, rubbing the back of my head, I nod at Nala, attempting to accept the feeling of, equanimity I suppose, that she¡¯s expressing in our relationship. I still ache, everywhere, especially my skull, and even find my nose bleeding a bit profusely. Nala and my wife glance my way in concern, but a new arrival demands all of our attention. Nietru Devalor, with a few scraps of parchment that she hurriedly, quietly passes off to Kinzul before rushing away.


    Kinzul, shocked, glances my way, after receiving the communique. Raising my left brow while the other remains furrowed from the lingering pain of the headache, I¡¯m about to ask when Kinzul explains, ¡°Their corpses have been found. Devoid of hearts and dragonforce of course. Laombigla and Nonnam that is. Ka¡¯thuul participated in a minor skirmish with the forces of the siege in order to claim the rest of their bodies as meat for her forces. She of course pulled her forces back nearly as swiftly as she entered the battle, after claiming the bodies, getting out of there with them.¡±


    Jaw, floor, hit. My eyes wide, my jaw hanging low, I can barely comprehend or believe what Kinzul just told me. Two Damnations, dead? Sure, the injured two, the ones that I nearly took out already, but dead and drained? That¡¯s amazing! Do we have an ally out there that I don¡¯t know about? Or¨Cmore likely you can guess Reggie¨Cdid they cannibalize the weak ones? Ugh, probably. But still, why would¡­ Because Laombigla without the Evil Claws, no longer served a purpose, and Nonnam was already nothing but a liability being basically a sky zombie.


    Also, Ka¡¯thuul actually helped out against the siege? Well, for purely selfish reasons, but our alliance is either public now, or she has a target on her back either way. I can¡¯t say I¡¯m not at least a bit shocked about that. I was sure, absolutely positive, that she would only amount to being a jealous, treacherous backstabber. I still get the genre sense feeling that she will somehow betray us before the end of it all.


    Rattling my skull, I try to reorient on the here and now so I can query, ¡°My love, may I make suggestions for assault assignments for the day? I believe Lil and Lucky, being Sun and Hound, almost alone would be enough. But it¡¯d be safer with backup, the Dormir specifically.¡±


    Stroking my temples, trying to rub away the pain, I press my palms into my eyesockets, causing a burst of stars behind my eyelids, streaks of color and swimming spots of light, before continuing, ¡°The group could wipe out Hareslayer¡¯s remaining forces, and split up to head off afterwards and take out both Crepuul¡¯s domain, then Inishish¡¯s. Lil splitting off with Induul and Iylynila towards Crepuul¡¯s, along with Lucky splitting off with Veril and Farzhis towards Inishish¡¯s domain, intentionally taking a bit of a longer route, in case the other three might be able to get done early and join them to help out. Or, actually, I know someone who¡¯s itching for combat. Instead of a slow split, at least one Spellknight could go with them.¡±


    I wonder if I should also test Pidge and Trixxie¡¯s loyalty. Or would that be putting too much strain on Lucky, Veril, and Farzhis, if things went pear shaped? Ugh I wish this headache would go away so I could focus and concentrate. It¡¯d be so much easier to think and sugg¨C.


    My goggles suddenly shout, ¡°A rupture, Pawn and blacksmiths are fighting¡­ something. Insects, crustaceans maybe, from the ¡®Neath. Pawn¡¯s doing her best to protect them, but they¡¯re so numerous. Schism, she, she can¡¯t hold out much longer, she¡¯s blowing through the abilities you granted her. The¡­ the blacksmiths are now attacking Pawn!¡±


    My eyes widen enough that several tears of pain flow forth. Fighting my own pain and injuries, I struggle to stand, landing from my telekinetic float. My wife, similarly aching, her chest and neck tender, raw, stands and spreads her wings. We¡¯ve gotta get out of here, and reach Verdimenn swiftly, thankfully my wife is of like mind, winging us away back towards the Verdimenn project space. I reach up to drag my goggles down onto my face, trying to make sense of what I heard. I¡¯m almost positive that I know what¡¯s going on.


    Crap, yes, I shout, ¡°Get word to the blacksmiths to close their eyes! There¡¯s some sort of natural confusion enchantment on the reflection of the carapaces of those creatures!¡±


    Pawn, Miraina, oh gods, please be okay. No. No no no! That hammer might have broken her jaw, it sent her spinning, reeling through the air to land in a slumped heap near a pack of the creatures. Limply, she struggles with the pouch at her hip.

 B 6 C 204: Reine en P茅ril

    I stare through my goggles at Miraina¡¯s crumpled form. Rolling onto her back, she draws forth the chalice, traces its rim while whispering, and my heart catches as she¡¯s closed in on from all sides. I can¡¯t see if she was able to consume the drink. However, when an adult blue dragon springs forth from the dogpile of blacksmiths and bugs, I breathe a sigh of relief.


    Still, I spy Charles and Deli in that pile of blacksmiths. I don¡¯t want to see them hurt. This is bad. There are so many of the gorram bugs, but my area effect abilities would hurt my¨Cwait, The Platinum¡¯s robe¨Callies. Summoning it forth from my QCR, I¡¯m garbed in The Platinum¡¯s ensorcelled robe. Its runostructure has metamagical properties. If I empower them, spending my own SP, I can enhance my spells. But what ways?


    Hm. Emergency spell, expanded spell, shaped spell. Emergency shaped expanded spell. Sure thing Reggie, let¡¯s just break all the rules yet again. Hah. Wait. Since the frost cone spell itself is free for three daily uses, but its cost is normally sixty six, or sixty with elemental tricks, and I¡¯ll be attempting to infuse ten SP worth of metamagic into it¡­ do I get that metamagical effect for free because of the sash Nala just gave me?


    Blinking several times in shock, I cast my senses into the runic weave between the items, and the auras they contain, and sure enough, that¡¯s how it works. The sash filters and cycles ambient mana into runic empowerment, circumventing SP costs for metamagicked spells. It¡¯s intended for sorcerers who are more like Tiktik, their SP pools that are spell slots wouldn¡¯t be affected, but their metamagical SP pool would be, something they¡¯ve only got a couple dozen of in a good day. No one expects the absensorcerer I guess.


    Magic will handle my intent as a massive glacial wave springs forth in a cone, my intent of course being to not hit any of my allies, somehow leaving holes only where my allies are, even if an enemy is right on the other side of them. Just like¡­ The Apex of Divinity. Teuila eating the platinum scale shard. The breath weapon bestowed on her will never harm allies. He really cared. He invented this metamagic. It was virtually a part of him. Sniffling, I scrunch my face, and my heart aches as I sense Kinzul¡¯s discomfort, her longing, her grief, her loss, being reminded of how special The Platinum was.


    As much as I cherish this gift, this symbol of faith, and stepping into the role of the Hero of dragonkind, the role of The Platinum himself, I¡¯d normally avoid bringing it near combat. But, scalesilk is as tough as dragon scales, so it¡¯s about as good as mithril armor. A bit less durable than mithril when rendered into silk this smooth and soft, but still excellent craftsmanship, and being an enchanted item, it¡¯s got a base of a huge durability boost simply from the aura permeating it with ambient mana.


    I suppose I don¡¯t need to be quite as careful with the Ravenfeather Coat, for the same reason. The thing is half-crafted with ambient mana itself. Summoning it from my QCR, the stylish long black jacket with the feathered rough that Teuila attached to it sits snugly over The Platinum¡¯s ensorcelled robe. Hm, why don¡¯t we go ahead and see what Valkyrie armor does atop this all? Huh, spiffy. It sits a bit more snugly than I¡¯m used to, but these delightfully soft enchanted silk and leather clothes work as nicely as the under-armor padding that I¡¯d normally wear. I guess that frees up a couple of slots in my QCR, though I¡¯m still a bit hesitant heading into combat wearing the robes at all. I don¡¯t want to get this gift ruined or damaged even the slightest bit.


    As we continue our hurried descent, the sounds of battle reach my ears, my long, pointy, blue ears that I¡¯m still not used to having. Worse, the sounds that reach me? Almost every single one of them is a dull, and growing louder, impact against dragon¡¯s scales. The only dragon currently down there is Miraina¡¯s temporary adult blue dragon form from the shapechanging potion. She¡¯s getting hammered on. Pawn, no. Please hang in there sweetie. Help is on the way.


    Miraina can¡¯t back off even if she wanted to flee. She¡¯s blocking the tunnel from the forgeworks to Mount Verdimenn. We¡¯d brought the wounded, and most of the infirmary itself, down to our Verdimenn project space. I can see Nala trundling along worriedly, heading this way as well, passing scrying sensors a few floors back, likely either worried about her new friend Littlebit, or perhaps some projects she¡¯s got in the works.


    Wow, Prinrin is quick, and Farzhis is coming along right behind her stepmother. I guess it makes sense that Prinny might rouse with my brain thinking of Pawn being in danger. They¡¯re a few floors back, but passing scrying sensors one after another after another at a blistering pace. It seems everyone is rousing, and not far behind them as well.


    The air is thick with the scent of molten metal and the cacophony of the battle. Heat from the still-lit forges reaches my thermal senses, mingling with the sharp tang of fear and sweat. The forges'' glows cast dancing shadows, transforming the cavern into a stage of chaos. The mite-hulk adjacents, pearlescent crustacean creatures that skitter across the stone floor, are arriving in an unending tide. Their carapaces shimmering unnaturally. Amidst this mess stands Miraina, in her temporary form, an adult blue dragon. Her eyes are closed, as if she were the calm in a storm, desperately avoiding harming the confused innocents.


    As much as I wish I could make sense of it, or heads or tails of things, the scene unfolding is absolute chaos. The pearlescent mite-hulks carapaces shimmering in the forge-fires¡¯ lights are wreaking havoc on our blacksmiths, and poor Miraina. I mean that literally, the carapaces¡¯ shimmering effects are sowing confusion as if by some magical aura.


    Oh. Oh hey. I¡¯ve got just the thing for that. Oof!


    I perhaps should have paid attention to my wife. Kinzul has me pinned to the wall, her strong grip crushing my throat. I nearly black out instantly from the sheer force of the impact knocking the wind out of me, and the surprise at not being able to draw more air until my neckchain¡¯s enchantment kicks in. Gurgling through a crushed windpipe, I beg my wife to close her eyes, but she isn¡¯t listening to my mental monologue while confused. She¡¯s lashing out blindly now, keeping me pinned, squeezing harder and harder, as her other hand thrashes and swipes at anything approaching.


    While Kinzul is crushing my throat, I feel a sense of dread wash over me. This is how I died. All she has to do is twist, and snap, there goes Reggie Shellcracker again, this time, with no reincarnation buff lingering around on them. Focus Reggie, breathe air, breathe. The neckchain has you covered. Aim vaguely in the direction of the Mite hulks, the forges, even Miraina, everything. Channel your willpower into shaping the spell around your allies.


    I focus on drawing forth one of the daily uses of the cold blasting spell, but imagine it lingering, waiting for me to enhance it. The air around me chills as I channel the frosty Fel, weaving shaped, emergency, and extended metamagics into my spell. My breath mists in front of me, and my thermal senses are precognizant of the temperature drop about to occur.


    A cone of gelid mist erupts from my fingertips, expanding and twisting around allies with surgical precision. It sweeps through the forgeworks like a glacial wave, the temperature plummeting, steam rising where the frost meets the heated air. Metal creaks as it contracts in the cold, and the skittering enemies slow, encased in rime. The spell''s passage leaves a trail of delicate frost patterns across every surface that quickly grows into a jungle of ice-sculptures. Colors, rainbows refract through portions of the glaciated area from the fiery glow of the forges.


    The sudden shift in volume and aural activity is profound, going from cacophony to quiet instantly. Of course, sounds begin returning almost just as instantly, the crackling of freezing carapaces and the soft thuds of creatures succumbing to the cold embrace. Phew, that buys us a few seconds. Not a lot of them, but a few at least.


    These things are tunnelers, so a big block of ice isn¡¯t going to keep the new ones arriving at bay for long. Thankfully, my spell had another effect, well, several. It proc¡¯ed runic clips from my bangle, one of which lets me cleanse harmful effects from a nearby ally, or, well, creature that I can see that¡¯s been affected. Which I of course used on Kinzul in order to cleanse her mind of the confusion aura.


    Speaking of nearby, Prinrin, Farzhis, if you¡¯re going to get any closer, stay in your human forms and keep your eyes closed, please. Coughing, I drop to the floor as Kinzul releases my crushed larynx from her grasp. The shatter and crunch of ice being bored through reaches my ears, and I don¡¯t know how long it¡¯ll take for the blacksmiths to be free of their confusion, so I¡¯ve got to act swiftly before a new wave of mite-hulks shows up.


    Thankfully Kinzul shouts loudly enough to announce that everyone must close their eyes as soon as their minds are their own. Ow, my head. Well, having the wind knocked out of me and proximity to a shout as loud as Kinzul¡¯s did my lingering migraine no favors. Rattling my skull, I attempt to leap into the fray, only to bump into Lucky as he enlarges, aside Farzhis, Veril, and Prinrin.


    Friggin'' heck, I hate fighting in enclosed spaces like this, but we can only afford to have two people in full dragon shape on the ground at a time, with the size of the area being as it is. Thankfully, since Veril and Lucky just arrived as well, the two are eager to help in a fight. Veril takes a good hard look at Miraina and is visibly confused. I can tell he recognizes her, but is struggling to understand how it is that she looks so different now. I don¡¯t recall if I filled anyone else in on the chalice¡¯s effect.


    Speaking of the effect, the dragon form, the body crafted for Miraina by the chalice, is still fairly impressive, considering Pawn is technically a runt. She isn''t too much bigger than Kinzul''s human form''s wingspan, maybe just over twenty five feet. She''s the same color of blue as me, but she''s got a black stripe down her spine, reminiscent of her tendrils or tufts or horns in her Draconiac form. She''s also got a longer tail than most other dragons I''ve seen, proportionately. It''s a long, whip-like appendage twisting to and fro. Farzhis¡¯s eyes light up spying Miraina, and I raise a brow, but she blushes and avoids my gaze.


    A voice from my goggles calls out, "Siege above and below Schism. Queens have it handled for now, but they could probably use some backup on one side or the other, so they can take turns resting as usual."


    Oh for crap¡¯s sakes. Calling into my telepathic bond, I request, ¡°Farzhis, Veril, can you two get Illy and Indy and head to one of the entrances to work on the siege with our Queens? Lucky, can you pick out a couple friends you¡¯re willing to take with you, get Lil, and attack Mydraig Hareslayer¡¯s fortress, routing his domain?¡±


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    Grinding my palms into my eyesockets to fight back my migraine, stars explode behind my eyelids, and waves of colors flash in undulating patterns until I let off the pressure. Drawing a quick breath, and sighing, I add, ¡°After that, Crepuul and Inishish¡¯s domains. I wanted the Dormir to go with you, but we¡¯ve got the siege to deal with, so maybe Shiz, Zelshiz, Pidge, Trixxie, Yui, and Yuri if he¡¯s feeling better. Zelshiz might bring along a small squad of Spellknights. Only those you trust. I love you boy, kick some butt.¡±


    Lucky knocks me over with his enormous tongue, lapping at me while I¡¯m trying to catch my balance. He whuffs his assent, and I chuckle and pat him lovingly as he races past, digging through ice to head towards Mount Verdimenn to pick up Shiz, Zelshiz, and the others. I glance towards Kinzul, and she offers me her regal head-tilt of confirmation, that she¡¯s fine with my delegation of duties. I was hoping to not give quite so much leeway to people we¡¯ve only known for a day or two, but this is a war after all. In a war, if you¡¯re not deploying your assets, well, let¡¯s just say you¡¯d better have a darn good reason, and right now, my paranoia over trust isn¡¯t a good enough one.


    Bursting through ice herself, as she assumes her dragon form, Kinzul begins swiftly snagging innocent blacksmiths who¡¯d been trapped in pockets of air between the glacial constructs. The crashing, shattering sounds set my heart on edge slightly, but they¡¯re not all that similar to derezzing, nor is there a time dilation occurring. I nod towards my wife, grateful for her help in getting the innocents to safety. Inhaling slowly, smoothly, my nostrils fill with the dry, cold air that will soon be filled with moisture as the forges melt and evaporate my icy spell.


    Closing my eyes once more, I guide Prinrin to me with a telekinetic grip, and tie a blindfold about her face. Grimacing, I offer up, ¡°Sorry Prinny, I really don¡¯t want you eviscerating me in confusion. I¡¯ll guide you to Miraina, then get you to guide her out of the fray. Sound good?¡±


    My wonderful, deviant, little old lass comments, ¡°Of course Schism dearie. I knew I could count on you to keep my precious Pawn safe. But a mother still wants to be there when her sweet daughter is in danger, you understand of course Schism sweetie.¡±


    Nodding, I flash Prinrin a telepathic smile before we begin hacking and slashing our way through ice towards Pawn. A rumble, a vibration that likely only I can sense passes beneath us in waves, originating at a spot between Solace and Verdimenn. I do not like the sounds of that. Well, the feeling of that. Sure enough, like some sort of foreshock, the rumble grows until the entire forgeworks area is shaking, my ice quickly crumbling under the motion. Friggin¡¯ heck. There¡¯s no telling what sort of damage a quake could do if it knocks some magical artifacts over into each other in our vaults. I should have packed things up better. Crap.


    Dashing through the now crumbling stalagmites of ice, I virtually toss Prinrin at Pawn so that I can begin skating on the frosty floor towards the incoming mite-hulks. I wear a rueful grimace in apology towards my deviant little old lass, but she¡¯s compassionate and understanding, as she scrabbles up her daughter¡¯s neck to help cover her daughter¡¯s eyes. I guide the pair telepathically which directions to move to escape towards Mount Verdimenn without having to open their eyes. While doing that, I¡¯m setting myself up for an onslaught.


    I can sense Kinzul rapidly returning and leaving with more of the innocents that she¡¯s dragging away. Unfortunately, this means that what was a too-cramped fighting space, is now just me facing down a horde of insectoid crustacean mighty mite hulk thingies. Reggie? Yeah? You really need to get better at naming stuff. Oh hush. It¡¯s not like I can call them shimmerhulks or albino umber hulks. I¡¯d get blasted by a copyright ninja or something from Fakeworld knowing my luck.


    Are you really worried that some ninja lawyer from a planet that doesn¡¯t exist, is going to show up and harass you for using a name? I don¡¯t know, maybe. Wait, shut up. I¡¯m busy. Yeesh. You¡¯re losin¡¯ it Reggie. Yeah yeah whatever. Busy.


    Oh man, the way these hips and legs and feet work, compared to what I¡¯m used to as a Changeling-Fae, is kinda awesome. It¡¯s so easy to just skate around, and even limbo with my tail supporting me as I slide between foes¡¯ legs and such. It¡¯d probably be unsportsmanlike to be thrusting FBF style SIPS where I am during my slides, if this were anything other than a life-or-death scenario. Plus, I mean, they have exoskeletons, and I¡¯m trying to slay them anyway. Doesn¡¯t really matter where my attacks connect.


    Between my danger wraps, and my thermal senses, and if I need it, retrocognition, I¡¯m able to fight fairly effectively without my sense of sight, which is a huge boon right now. It sorta feels like I¡¯ve been training for moments like these my whole life. At least as far back as the Night of High Water. The rushing of that forewave, the crashing of the Shellcrackers into the roof of their shell home. The sounds wash over me as a distant memory that lingers, never fading entirely. Someday. Someday I¡¯ll make it back to you all. We¡¯ll journey until we find everyone¡¯s eggs, and get everyone back. If¡­ if that¡¯s possible.


    Blinking back tears and sniffling, I¡¯m quite ready to take out my grief and frustrations on the encroaching insectoid herd. I don¡¯t know how much power I¡¯m going to need today for other activities, or how large this horde is, so I¡¯m trying to play it a bit sparingly with my resources. Am I doing alright? Eh, I guess, maybe. Being able to launch frosty rays that are like sixteen times the size they used to be, for free, compared to needing to use my own SP for them is pretty darn nice. I hate to admit it, but I¡¯m kind of enjoying this connection to the frosty Fel. It feels just that tiny bit more like being home on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas to have my thermal powers enhanced again.


    Blast blast SIP, blast blast SIP, sliding around a wintery wonderland, backflipping and cartwheeling through flailing limbs, mandibles and pincers being swung my way feels almost natural. Almost. I¡¯m still not used to this body, or things like my horns that occasionally scrape the floor while I¡¯m flipping about. Heh, oy vey. Get it together Reggie pal. Could be a hell of a long day. I wonder if Te¡¯s doing any better than when we returned from Stormspire. She and Lil both could use a hell of a lot of sleep, but I figure Lil plus Lucky should be able to keep the newbies in line and keep them from backstabbing each other. Or rather, I figure Lil and Lucky have each other¡¯s backs, even if Lil was pretty heinously injured, and then took a fairly big blow to the sternum last night.


    Gnawing my lower lip, and gritting my teeth, I¡¯m worried about sending any of my beloved inner circle out to battle any more of Terrorzin¡¯s forces. Or to send them to topple any more of his fortresses. I just, I just need to trust them. They can do this. I¡¯m not sending them anywhere near as deeply as we went the other day, in fact, I¡¯m sending them further away from Terrorzin¡¯s stronger forces. Plus, Shiz seems pretty reliable, and he and Zelshiz seem to be in love, so, well, yeah, it should be okay. Right? Reggie stop overthinking it. You¡¯ve made allies, you have friends, and it¡¯s a war. Bad stuff is going to happen, and you can¡¯t let second guessing yourself cause you to make sloppy mistakes, like that hit you just took right now.


    Ooof. Luckily I¡¯m digital-critterkin adjacent, and haven¡¯t had any food yet today, or I¡¯d have lost my lunch from that gut suckerpunch. Blurgh. Koff. Koff. Yeah. You¡¯re right. I need to pay attention to my situation around me, rather than overthinking assignments. If Lu and Te get up, I¡¯ll ask their opinions. If Te thinks Lil and Lucky need backup, she¡¯ll speed away and catch up to them.


    Speaking of assignments, I hear Shiz boasting to someone as he rushes past, on the tail of Lucky, headed back up towards Solace proper, "Defeated all Evil Claws in a single attack," Shiz glances towards Pidge, looses a half rueful chuckle and scratches the back of his head before continuing, "erm, present company notwithstanding. And drove off Damnations like they were whelps.¡±


    Donning my own rueful smile and loosing a half chuckle, I shake my head at Shiz¡¯s oversimplification and far-too-high of praise for me. Still, I wave across our telepathic wavelengths as he follows Lucky¡¯s baying guidance to leave this fight to me, without getting hit by the confusion aura. Everyone by now knows to keep their eyes closed near the forgeworks at least. Whoops, speaking of, hi Nala.


    It took her a while to catch up, but I did not expect Nala¡¯s entrance to be so dramatic. Holy crap. Remember those little automatons that she was curious about giving little force ballistae to? She¡¯s got a pair of them, like wrist-mounted blasters, and she¡¯s going ham over there with her eyes closed, letting them aim for her.


    I¡¯m glad her little constructs are apparently immune to the confusion effect, because I seriously would not want to be dodging or taking the number of blasts she¡¯s letting loose. Moreover, it seems she¡¯s able to have one or more of the clockwork clankers of hers filter ambient mana into those sort of bolstering films or skins that absorb a bit of impact. She¡¯s setting and refreshing one on both me and her repeatedly.


    Wow. Yeah. Nala¡¯s definitely maximum tier in potential in that one system I¡¯m thinking of. Level twenty for sure. Sheesh. As an armored Draconiac rushes my way, I¡¯m uncertain if I should dodge or not as she takes a swing at me. Thankfully, Yui only slaps my shoulder a bit roughly.


    She calls out, ¡°Make sure my idiot brother stays in bed for me, will ya Shellcracker? Off to battle on your orders Schism, according to your dog apparently. Uh, son.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow, with a hint of a malicious smirk, I turn my head towards Yui. I¡¯m glad she corrected herself. Lucky might be part hound, but he¡¯s all Shellcracker. Wait. I just realized a flaw in my request of Lucky. How the hell did he convince this cavalcade of people to rush after him to join him in battle? Then again, maybe some of the people over in Verdimenn overheard my brain while I was passing along the request.


    Bemused, I quip, ¡°Never thought I¡¯d be assigning Terrorzin¡¯s elite Spellknights to go raid his fortresses, while fighting alongside our grumpy librarian pushing back a horde of subterranean hulks with our eyes closed. What about you Nala, Curator?¡±


    With a soft cluck that passes for laughter, Nala agrees, ¡°I¡¯m of a similar mind, friend Reggie. Of course, until recently, I was quite amiable with simply whiling away all my days in our Lady¡¯s library. I still would be, if it came down to it, but I must admit, this is perhaps at least a bit exhilarating.¡±


    Snorting a half laugh, I nod to Nala as we fight back to back, blasting and rotating in a circle to cover each other, Nala¡¯s automatons guiding her, my dangers wraps guiding me. I¡¯m half worried another shoe is about to drop, because it¡¯s, well, I know I shouldn¡¯t say it, so I won¡¯t say it aloud, but this is going too well for me to be entirely comfortable.


    Oddly, the other shoe? It¡¯s our ¡®Neath trio. Roaring as they tear free from the depths beneath Solace, Revinth the Dark, Gresog the Quick, and Shaylon, Aegis, come barreling out the nearest crevice that marks a breach to the ¡®Neath. Even though my eyes are closed? I blink several times, stunned, at how swiftly and efficiently Revinth and Gresog wrap up the invasion, or whatever one might call this attack. I definitely understand their titling at this point. I¡¯d had my suspicions, but wow.


    Breathing a sigh of relief, I realize I spoke¨Cwell, thought¨Ctoo soon, as Shaylon surmises in their pleasant hiss, ¡°Schism, we¡¯ve got something I think you should see, we¡¯ve wrapped it up¨C¡±


    Interrupting, I hazard, ¡°Let me guess, because when one or more of you looked at it, it stole time, caused you to space out, seemingly in a daze to the others, not aware that time had passed.¡±


    Revinth butts in to ask, ¡°Well, yes. How the hell could you know that?¡±


    Sighing, I draw back my lips and clench my eyes tightly as tears form. I was right. Responding, I answer, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. What matters is no one else can know about it, and the book has to go straight to Luni. Please. Please promise me that you will let absolutely no one else know about it. A precious life is on the line.¡±

 B 6 C 205: Inauspicious

    The trio telepathically murmur their assent to my request to keep the tome a secret. Nala likely guessed what was up before I put my telepathic walls up, but if she did, she understands the urgent need for secrecy, and isn¡¯t saying anything. She knows about the tomes, and my suspicions about them. Should I be scouring the globe for Mataalii? Which of the six of us will be spared? Would Mat even be willing again? Is it just the rest of us without Mat? Is that why there¡¯s only five this time?


    But Lil was the original¡­ Sighing, I try to remind myself that without Luni guiding my thoughts, that this line of intrigue is likely to get me killed. I¡¯m not allowed to wonder, let alone know. Drawing a ragged breath, I try to reset myself towards my equilibrium emotionally and physically. Neither Nala nor the ¡®Neath trio are demanding anything of me at the moment, thankfully, as they respect my need for centering myself after such a dire warning, such a terrible find.


    I¡¯ve got to get my mind off of this. I think I just saw my wife hastily leaving Verdimenn back towards Solace. Is it because of the siege, or is something else urgently requesting Kinzul¡¯s attention?


    As I¡¯m thinking about her, my wife messages my mind, ¡°I¡¯m sorry my love. That something could cloud my mind enough to¡­ I¡¯m sorry if I hurt you during this skirmish, my Schism, my love.¡±


    Tentatively touching my raw, sore, still semi-crushed throat with my fingertips, I wince in pain. I want to absolve Kinzul more than I want her to feel any sort of guilt for my pain, but I have to be honest too. Knowing that there are things out there that could wrest Kinzul¡¯s mind from her, or her actions from her, and turn her against us is terrifying. Knowing that anyone and everyone I¡¯ve ever loved, might someday simply be mind-controlled, possessed, sent into befuddling confusion, mentally dominated, puppeted, or otherwise controlled is horrifying. I¡¯ve known about these possibilities in the back of my mind for a long while, but having one of them strike Kinzul really nails the knowledge home.


    Rattling my skull, I try my best to bury the knowledge. It¡¯s not helpful at the moment, especially not if it feeds some kind of fear that, well, any kind of fear. Calming myself, I respond, ¡°Think nothing of it Kinzul, my love. I know it wasn¡¯t you, and it¡¯s not the first time someone I loved has¡ª.¡±


    Whoops. I crumple to my knees, and then topple forward. My breathing is labored, ragged, coming in shallow staccato bursts as my eyes focus and unfocus repeatedly. My ears ring like the worst pitch of a bell extended into an endless moment. Descending into panic, not quite terror, but definitely dissociative panic, I recall the times when my loved ones had attacked me in the past. Lil, and Teuila, were under sway of the red-eyes, some shard of the Celestial Emperor¡¯s being. After I don¡¯t know how long, I come to, with a Draconiac whispering to me that Kinzul said to make sure I was alright, that she had to leave. My head is throbbing, but breathing properly for a few minutes will hopefully clear that up.


    Trying to reorient myself, I blink several times in confusion at the Draconiac¡¯s relayed message. Where did Kinzul have to go? Checking my goggles, I don¡¯t see her anywhere, and she isn¡¯t wearing a pair herself. It seems like most things are going about as well as can be expected. Our Queens are indomitable, as far as I can see. My surmising on their Latents appears to be pretty close to correct as well, like my attacks with that heinously weighted sword in the Cragbeast Warrens, the slashes can be left in the air, and they shred anything that comes in contact with them. Well, rend or sunder anything that comes in contact with them, I suppose would be more accurate.


    Ah yes, just what Schism needs, their brain to be more pedantic about terminology to humorously reference someone¡¯s Latents and Aliases. I roll my eyes at myself before loosing a long sigh. I suppose I was due to be hard on myself again at some point soon. No time to wallow though, let¡¯s try to take stock. I wave towards Revvy, Greggy, and Shaylon as they head topside to take a well-deserved break, and deliver the item I¡¯d requested of them. I¡¯ll get their full sitrep on the ¡®Neath at some point soon, but they deserve time to recuperate before a debriefing.


    Hell¡¯s bells, when did I start sounding so officiant and just, ugh, militaristic? Rattling my skull, I loose another sigh. Hey, hold on, go back a tic, wait a second, speaking of sitreps, did anyone bother to get one from Induul, either time that he returned from ranging? Speaking of Indy, where the crap is he? He¡¯s not showing up in any of the goggles that are heading east with Lucky, nor anywhere I can see around Solace or Verdimenn. Illy looks agitated, and I can¡¯t blame her, if her teammate is flaking on her again, as the war becomes more real, and tougher by the hour.


    Oh Illy. I wish I could alleviate the strain our explosive romance put on you without having you have to withhold yourself and even your friendship from my presence. I get it though. I really do. Thinking about you, Te, Lu, Lil, anyone that I love, mid-battle, or seeing you get hurt, I¡¯d get sloppy, make mistakes, maybe even let Wrath take over, and finally lose, never regaining control of myself ever again. I just keep sighing this morning, don¡¯t I? Hell, I¡¯m sighing again about sighing. What is it with me today?


    Well, then again, that¡¯s not all that unusual for me, is it? I¡¯m oft exasperated, or otherwise sighing for some reason or another. Still, I¡¯d say that this is certainly a¡ªwhat¡¯s the word? Inauspicious?¡ªstart to the day. I¡¯ll spend the day here in the Verdimenn project space, helping out Littlebit, Nala, Leeza, whomever, while doing my best to recuperate and add new tools to any toolbelts for anyone that¡¯s available. It leaves me available to strike out at a moments notice if the Damnations return. I don¡¯t want Lu or Te to face them alone for a moment longer than they absolutely have to.


    Right, get to it Reggie. There are a lot of rueful blacksmiths wandering back towards the forgeworks in the base of Solace. Most won¡¯t meet my gaze, feeling ashamed or embarrassed now that they realize they attacked poor Pawn. Pawn¡¯s pretty beloved around here, I¡¯d certainly have a hard time forgiving myself if I hurt her, even if it was against my will or out of my control.


    ¡°Thanks for saying so, Schism,¡± comes a brief intrusion to my thoughts from the sweetheart herself.


    Flashing a soft smile her way, my telepathic avatar nods to Miraina and murmurs, ¡°Any time Pawn, any time. Let me know if you need anything. Today, or ever. When you can get her to do so, make sure your mom rests up. By my estimates, we¡¯re in for a storm of trouble within the next week or two.¡±


    A couple of weeks, not a lot of time¡ªeven for creatures as powerful as dragons¡ªto recover without some sort of magical aid. The surviving Vivant look like crap, erm, no offense Prinny love. Her devilish smirk across my mental wavelengths lets me know that, while she forgives me, she¡¯s totally going to make me pay for that thought later, somehow. Yikes, heh.


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    Erm, where was I? Oh. I¡¯m so glad that so many Solace residents simply volunteer, and clean up when they see a mess. That¡¯ll make this easier. Puffing a long breath of relief, I head towards a few familiar faces. I grimace when I see how battered and bruised they look. I almost forget sometimes, that Rayileklians, like me, bleed. I was raised around Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital critterkin, well, not raised, I spent most of my first life around them is what I mean. Seeing raw, torn flesh, bloody wounds, exposed bone, and more, on kind, wonderful people that I care about, that are under my protection, it sets my blood to a low simmer, minimum. Clenching my teeth, and my eyes closed, I loose a few heated ventilations, frustrated, angry expulsions of air through my nose. Is there a word for that? I mean, other than, sigh, a type of sigh.


    Rolling my eyes at myself, I finish my approach while calling out, ¡°Hey Del, please tell me that¡ª.¡±


    Nodding, weakly slapping me on the shoulder, Deli interrupts me, ¡°Aye, my son¡¯s home, drawing up a storm, ideas for things to carve or model or whittle or what have you. If you hadn¡¯t thought to have me ask about what he wants, he¡¯d have been with me today. Thank you Schism, again.¡±


    Blinking, stunned, I nod dumbfoundedly towards Del. Did I really have that specific impact? Del said she was going to see what he needed, but maybe she didn¡¯t know that the project space was open to everyone, so she might not have set him loose right away to chase his ideas and desires. I find it hard to catch my breath. So many lives are within so few degrees of my actions impacting them deeply. The weight is almost too much to bear.


    Before I can succumb to the weight of self-pity, or whatever I¡¯d been about to do, Deli interrupts me to request, ¡°Let¡¯s sit and drink a spell since you¡¯ve got ale coming out, when you get the chance Schism. You owe me a drink, remember?¡±


    Cracking a smile, loosing a half chuckle, I nod as I respond, ¡°Yeah, yeah I do. I¡¯ll try to catch you for a lunch break or something Del.¡±


    Offering me a warm smile, and a hearty handshake, the buff woman flicks her head towards me, dismissing me casually. Nodding and smiling, I continue heading towards the Verdimenn project space, waving towards Charles as he heads back to the forgeworks as well. The cries of several people startle me momentarily. They aren¡¯t shrieks of fear, no, they¡¯re more like¡­ wails of mourning. They¡¯re accompanied by sobs.


    It dawns on me after a few moments¡ªretroactively while analyzing some sensory input in retrocognition¡ªthat amongst the bodies of the mite-hulks were bodies of Draconiacs. My heart sinks, plummeting into a bottomless pit in my stomach. We¡­ we got there as fast as we could. Miraina did her best, to, to, to save everyone, and not hurt anyone.


    My breath hitches, catching in my throat. I¡¯m forced to swallow, and gulp down a sob as tinnitus runs screaming through my brain. One of the most secure locations in Solace, in its deepest reaches, was penetrated by a hostile force strong enough to slay some of us. My right hand, trembling, approaches my face and cups my mouth to hide my tremulous lips, but I don¡¯t hide the tears that fall. My family, my friends, my loved ones, the people under my care and protection, I¡ª.


    Nala taps and prods me, pushing me along towards the tinkering space she shares with Littlebit. Dumbly, mutely I follow where directed as I try to get ahold of myself. I feel ill. It¡¯s a war, an apocalypse, hell, three of them. I know death is on the table, for any of us, at any time, but it hits so much harder, seeing the bodies of innocents who should have been safe, who were as far from the conflicts as they could be. I can¡¯t save all of them. I¡¯ve already failed in that. Several times over. The kobold refugees, Jorro, Lijhro, Shapuackurt, Lilmbrayer, Heccinkethmorn, and now blacksmith volunteers I¡¯d never even met or gotten the names of.


    The tremors shaking my limbs don¡¯t cease, but I try to struggle my way back to reality. I can¡¯t afford to wallow. Muttering my titles under my breath, I loose my Honoris Causa, to stifle the rampant signals, the ambient energy that¡¯s messing with Littlebit¡¯s machinery. I can immediately sense it, now that I know to look for it. She¡¯s right, obviously. It¡¯s a wonder I hadn¡¯t noticed before, well, small wonder, since I didn¡¯t know to keep an eye out for them. It¡¯s trivial to keep them dampened, voided out, rebounding back against themselves outside the range of Littlebit¡¯s equipment.


    Speaking of the goblinoid cutie, she approaches with a half-frown, and lays a hand on my hip, patting me comfortingly. After a few moments, she starts, ¡°Tiger? Are you okay? What happened? Is this too much? If you can¡¯t keep it up, I¡¯ll try to work something else¡ª.¡±


    Shaking my head, I¡¯m glad Littlebit didn¡¯t launch into humor about my thinking about her equipment, or my ability to keep it up. I interrupt her, ¡°I¡¯m not doing great, but it¡¯s not the signals. You¡¯re fine to continue at whatever pace you¡¯d like Littlebit. We lost people, good, innocent, helpful, kind people today. The day has barely started, we¡¯re besieged from three directions, sky, soil, and subsoil, figuratively. That last one managed to break in through our forgeworks. I guess the vibrations of the hammering, or the heat of the forges gave subterranean creatures something to home-in on.¡±


    Seeing Littlebit¡¯s eyes widen with worry, I hasten to add, ¡°But at least that last one is dealt with, routed completely. The three I sent to the ¡®Neath returned, and finished off the insectoid invasion. We, we¡¯re, um, we¡¯re safe for now, sorry Littlebit. Uh, do you, erm, have a..¡ª¡°


    After puffing a breath of relief, Littlebit interrupts me to answer, ¡°Yeah, just call me Bitty, unless you think of something sexier Tiger. Wink,¡± before salaciously winking.


    Yeesh, inveterate flirt. Still, I shapeshift to be closer to her height, and wrap my arms around Littlebit, whispering in her ear, ¡°I miss her too Bitty, I miss her too.¡±


    I feel a tear form in Littlebit¡¯s left eye as she savors our hug while we both think of Tiktik, so I don¡¯t make an issue of it when Littlebit refuses to part from the hug for a long while. When I hear a cough at approximately the same height as Littlebit, from behind me, I blush furiously, knowing who to expect behind me. Gulping, I slowly turn towards Alanea. Meek as ever, she stands a ways away, fidgeting, but before I can do so much as greet her, Littlebit waves Alanea over to our hug, and I end up sandwiched between the two women. Gulp. Faefection indeed.


    Teasingly, Littlebit requests, ¡°Can you keep Tiger¡¯s mind occupied for a couple of hours miss Fluffypillows?¡±


    My eyes widen in shock at the play on Alanea¡¯s last name, and I worry she might be insulted, but her response is, ¡°Well, I mean, we, well, have the infirmary only a few steps away. So, I could, well, maybe step away frequently, but there are oh so many injured to tend to now. I, well, I mean, I¡¯ll do my best, miss Itty-bitties.¡±


    My jaw drops in surprise at Alanea¡¯s indelicate nickname for Littlebit, but thankfully the goblin inventor simply grins wildly, smooches Alanea¡¯s cheek in gratitude, and returns to her machinery. Littlebit begins running diagnostics on her ¡®Twixt-related devices in order to get them back to peak efficiency, now that they¡¯ll no longer be overloading upon her every attempt to use them. I forget how much more open Fae are about things of, well, almost any nature. I guess it¡¯s easy enough to lightly tease each other about physical attributes without things becoming hostile.


    Still, I¡¯m slightly saddened that Alanea parts from our elongated hug after a short while, in order to return to the makeshift infirmary. I know she has to look after Kagired, Yuri, all the injured Spellknights, most of whom were injured by me, Lil, or Lucky, and now all the injured blacksmiths who haven¡¯t waved off her attempts to treat them. Phooph. A hell of an inauspicious start to a day indeed.

 B 6 C 206: Orichalcum

    ¡°Schism, friend Reggie, come hold this please, right here, no no, put your finger right here. No, no more to the, yes there. Hold that in that exact position for a moment for me. Um, please.¡±


    Still caught a bit offguard, not entirely reoriented yet, I follow Nala¡¯s request as best I¡¯m able. I wonder why she didn¡¯t have one of her automatons do it, but she seems too engrossed in whatever this experiment is for me to want to bother her with trivial details. For all I know, she¡¯s trying to keep me from stewing by involving me. Nala is one of the most intelligent people within the entire community, in terms of general knowledge, science, history, mathematics, politics, and so on. I don¡¯t expect much in the way of social or emotional intelligence from her though, and hopefully that thought isn¡¯t an insulting one to have. Her antisocial, slightly grumpy nature keeps her from many forms of emotional attachment, and thus also from certain areas of emotional growth.


    Bzzt!


    Biting my lip, I raise one eyebrow curiously towards Nala, who wears a rueful smile while shrugging helplessly. My hair is standing on end all across my body and head. I haven¡¯t felt that much voltage pass through me since, well, yesterday. Friggin¡¯ hell my life is weird. Nala¡¯s lucky it was me that¡ªoh, duh,¡ªtook the shock. She couldn¡¯t risk her automatons, they¡¯d have been fried with that much current passing through them.


    Squinting my eyes a bit suspiciously, I glare towards Nala with no malice, but a humorous annoyance. She could certainly have warned me, but this is Nala we¡¯re talking about. I glare while I roll my eyes when I can sense Nala intentionally ignoring my thoughts and ignoring my glare. Smirking, I loose a half chuckle.


    Coughing, Nala nods before commenting, ¡°Very good, thank you Schism, you can remove your finger now, and go if you like.¡±


    Continuing to smirk a bit, I¡¯m half tempted to tease Curator and ask if she¡¯s certain I¡¯m allowed to leave. I¡¯m not altogether too harmed, or upset, hell, I¡¯m glad it was me rather than a random passerby, or other volunteer. I would hope Nala is discerning enough to not risk someone that doesn¡¯t have a heightened electrical tolerance for one of her experiments. I trust her deeply. Speaking of trust, I turn my gaze towards Littlebit.


    The verdant visionary virtuoso of voltage turns her visage and casts a bright smile my way. In the moment she distracts herself to turn her attention to me and brighten our demesnes with her cheery visage, she shocks the crap out of herself. I¡¯d facepalm, but Littlebit beats me to it. I don¡¯t want to rub the embarrassment in her face, with how hard she¡¯s blushing and ruefully averting her gaze. I¡¯m trusting her to reunite us both with Tiktik, by figuring out how to enter the ¡®Twixt from here.


    Oh for the love of¡ª. The poor gal. It seems like that jolt paralyzed some of Littlebit¡¯s muscles. She¡¯s tottering to move around, her limbs stiff as boards. Rounding the workstation, I approach Littlebit as she begins to call, ¡°Everything¡¯s back up and running now Tiger. I guess you see why I told Tikki to be careful with the unshielded positronics.¡±


    Trying not to roll my eyes, I stifle my smirk and lift Littlebit with my telekinetic grip, using its senses to help her float the directions her muscles hint that she wants to go. Her eyes are only wide for a moment at the novelty, or perhaps the faux intimacy of feeling herself gripped evenly, gently, across the entirety of her being. I lower myself into Littlebit¡¯s pile of scrap to simply focus on voiding out the signals interfering with her ¡®Twixt-sensing equipment for the nonce.


    Really Reggie, for the nonce? Yeah yeah, whatever, I¡¯m a weirdo, shut up. Also maybe put your walls up before picking apart your own mental monologue within reach of Nala, Leezahna, Littlebit, and Alanea. Facepalming, I chuckle while shaking my head at myself. Yeah, as usual, pretty par for the course for Reggie Shellcracker.


    Littlebit¡¯s muscles seem to relax from their near-paralyzed, stiffened states, and she starts humming as I set her down to go about her artificery. While bending over to dig about in her machinery, she sends a mental wink my way across our telepathic wavelength, letting me know she¡¯s fully aware that she¡¯s showing off her pert posterior. Puffing a breath and rolling my eyes, I chuckle, but I have to admit, it¡¯s pert indeed. Cough, ahem, anyway.


    I really don¡¯t need those devilish looks from the two nearby Fae women as they grin evilly across our telepathic wavelengths, so instead I ask a question to satisfy a curiosity, ¡°Littlebit, Nala, what¡¯d you two use for a barricade last night that managed to hold Teuila back for even a few moments?¡±


    Still grinning wildly, Littlebit begins answering, ¡°Some doodads to distribute and redirect force to a single location, but mostly the centerpiece was a dented chunk of the big ol¡¯ O-metal¡ª.¡±


    Interrupting her, Nala explains, ¡°She means Orichalcum Schism, that¡¯s its name Miss Bitty, I¡¯d rather we not have nicknames and codenames for every single resource.¡±


    Rolling her eyes, Littlebit halfheartedly shrugs, not caring to argue the point with Nala. It¡¯s not an enthusiastic concession, but Littlebit doesn¡¯t seem that attached to the nickname for the material as she continues, ¡°Anyway, yeah, a hunk of orichalcum, big ol¡¯ dented plate of it. Originally I was surprised it was dented at all, but that gave us enough areas to attach things to, to redistribute force to it. It worked out pretty well, great even! Until I learned how it got dented, and the menace finished breaking through it. Tenith is terrifyingly strong.¡±


    Snorting a laugh, I nod in agreement. Teuila, strong? Don¡¯t I know it? Or rather, y¡¯don¡¯t say? Flashing Littlebit a smile, I¡¯m a bit surprised when I find her aiming a lunge in my direction. I catch her against my torso and catch myself in a telekinetic grip as we topple backwards. I¡¯m bewildered, or at least I want to pretend to be. I mean, we¡¯re in the company of Nala, and a few meters from quite a few other people.


    Chuckling softly, Littlebit explains, ¡°I need you to stay put for a while Tiger, while I get some readings. Not much to do until the sensors are done scanning, ¡®sept to wait. Please don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve got any complaints about the arrangement?¡±


    Gnawing on my lip, I furrow my brow at the devious intonation Littlebit slips into her phrasing near the end. There¡¯s vulnerability, raw, serious, earnest desire for consoling and affection underlying the intonation however. There are no complaints that I¡¯d want to voice to someone as precious to Tiktik as Littlebit is to her. Also, I could really use a bit of a nap, and, honestly, I can¡¯t even pretend she¡¯s not a wonderful snuggle-partner.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    I¡¯ll just close my eyes for a bit and focus on maintaining my void-presence against the signals with my Honoris Causa. After Littlebit gets her readings, I¡¯ll probably need to get started with my duties for the day. I¡¯ll let her and Nala analyze the readouts or readings or whatever, while I tackle a few things. I¡¯ll be catching up with my quartermaster, and figuring out which target I should hit against Terrorzin¡¯s forces in the west.


    Alanea checks in with me every quarter of an hour or so, making certain that I¡¯m still okay controlling the signals, and am keeping my mind from wandering to too-dark corners of thought. Between Alanea and Littlebit, I¡¯m fairly focused on thinking only about the ¡®Twixt, and its connection to the Fae¡¯s Wilds. Well, also its connection to Jeegoobotstan, and the wonderful little Fae lady out there, protecting the Aasimovian refugees. Oh Tiktik. I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t say yes. I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t spend centuries with you in the ¡®Twixt.


    Startling me from my reverie, Littlebit, as scatterbrained as me apparently, adds to an earlier comment, ¡°Darndest thing though, even though she busted it in half, after everything calmed down, and we started packing away the barrier gadgets and whozits and whatnots, I couldn¡¯t find the big O¡­ Orichalcum anywhere. I thought maybe Nala nabbed it and tucked it away all responsible-like, but she said she hadn¡¯t when I asked her. And let me tell you, that lady doesn¡¯t forget where she puts something, nor makes mistakes when taking stocks of things.¡±


    It takes me a bit to put together that she was continuing her explanation of what happened with the material used to blockade the aerie last night. Blinking in surprise, I furrow my brow as I try to recall something. Missing Orichalcum? Why does that sound familiar? I suppose it¡¯s not that important. Plenty of dragons around here would probably enjoy having small slats of Orichalcum like a salt-lick for many herbivores. I doubt I¡¯d ever be able to track it down, and doubt I¡¯ll ever see it again. Not like it¡¯s going to¡ªReggie, don¡¯t even finish that thought. Yeah, you¡¯re right. I shudder as I imagine a fourth-wall to bust down, behind which I¡¯d find some devastating trope or another.


    Regardless, since I¡¯m thinking about our legendary metals and other resources, I should check in with our quartermaster. It¡¯s close enough that I can maintain my voiding presence that keeps nullifying the overwhelming signals. Wait, signals. Racking my brain, I try to figure it out, but only succeed in giving myself a headache. There¡¯s something on the edge of my tongue, figuratively. I mean, more figuratively than normal, since I¡¯m not speaking aloud.


    Being impressed, and curious, about the metal and its use in a functional barrier, I muse, "Hey, Littlebit, before you nod off awaiting arrival into sensor-readout-land, can you clue me in on how you and Nala came up with the barricade idea? I mean, using Orichalcum is one thing, but getting a small segment of legendary metal to somehow block off a dragon-sized tunnel? That''s genius-level crafting,"


    Littlebit''s enthusiasm doesn''t wane as she responds, "Oh, for sure! The Orichalcum''s unique properties weren''t just physical. It''s like it has a... resonance, you know? Made it way more effective at drawing in redistributed force."


    Nala, apparently not-too-engrossed in her work so as to not overhear, nods in agreement, chiming in, "Exactly. It''s not just about brute utilization of applied mechanics and standard physics with materials like Orichalcum. It''s about how they interact with their surroundings. In this case, it absorbed and redistributed energy in a way that mere steel couldn''t."


    Their explanations paint a vivid picture of the scene last night, and I can''t help but marvel at the ingenuity at play. I wonder if there are other applications for Orichalcum we haven''t considered yet. I spend far too long spacing out pontificating about the metal and its uses. Rattling my skull, I decide I¡¯d better do what I can around Verdimenn while waiting on these readings, rather than snuggling up to Tiktik¡¯s lovely girlfriend.


    Squeezing Littlebit¡¯s shoulder, I help her stand, and offer her a sad half-smile as she pouts my way. Proffering an apology, I start, ¡°Sorry Bitty, lots to get done, but I¡¯ll keep the signals null and stick around our Verdimenn project space for a while. Oh, Nala, that pile of rolled parchments wouldn¡¯t happen to have a copy of our tactical map, would it? Oh, wonderful, thanks.¡±


    When Nala points to one large rolled up sheaf of parchment, I snag it while nodding gratefully, and mutter, ¡°Map, map map map,¡± to myself. Leafing through the pile as I unroll it, I snag the tactical map of the Spine of the World. Looking at the map, it doesn¡¯t take long to commit a bit more of it to memory. It takes even less time to choose our next targets. Well, my next target out to the west. I¡¯ll have someone from the Dormir give me a lift out towards the domains of Thraxxis, Xyzzor, and a few others, that are nicely clustered together.


    Speaking of¡ªwhy did Illy¡¯s goggles go dark? Did she put them in a pouch? Calling to the security center to get patched in to Iylynila, she doesn¡¯t respond, which worries me. Why would Illy need to go dark at all? I mean, I understand she¡¯s great at infiltration and exfiltration deep into enemy lines, but it¡¯s not like the goggles broadcast her position to anyone outside the security center. Maybe Kinzul had a secret mission for her that she relayed telepathically on her way out, to wherever Kinzul had to sneak off to? I guess that¡¯s the only explanation I need for the moment.


    If it requires clarification at some point, I¡¯m sure Illy or Kinzul will fill me in. I¡¯ve got too many things on my mind, and I¡¯m juggling too many irons in too many fires to put more thought into it. If no one else is worried Illy might be in danger or hurt somewhere, I¡¯ll just trust that this is something fairly usual.


    Alanea keeps popping by to check on me as I sort through some tactical maps, inventory reports, and other nonsense that I should be keeping track of digitally at this point. In fact, I might as well get use out of this smartphone. Y¡¯know? So I do. The OCR isn¡¯t spectacular, so any data I went to be readily editable I¡¯ll have to add by hand, which is a pain in the arse on a smartphone rather than a keyboard. Wait. How do I have a preference for typing on keyboards over smartphones? Something bursts above my right eye and I see stars momentarily. The sheer pain rocketing through my skull is absurd, on par with the worst of any migraines I¡¯ve ever had.


    Dazed, I stumble about, thankfully caught by Alanea before my face meets the ground in its own hilarious reenactment of a cartoon coyote being tricked by a fake painted tunnel. Shaking off my migraine, I groan quietly to myself for several long moments, barely keeping my signal-voiding efforts in play for Littlebit. Alanea props me up the rest of the way, and coos softly while dabbing sweat from my forehead with a towel. Am I feverish? Well that¡¯s just not going to happen.


    Closing my eyes, levitating myself in Alanea¡¯s grip, I assume a lotus position. Curiously I direct my lightning spiritswarm about my cranium, carefully avoiding the majority of my brain. There is some damage, but I can virtually watch it being repaired in real-time. It¡¯s fascinating honestly. There are micro-fissures in the blood vessels, not enough that there¡¯s internal hemorrhaging, but enough that some molecules of air are seeping into the blood vessels. That¡¯s an embolism waiting to happen. Or, uh, maybe that is an embolism, and that¡¯s what hurts so much? What do I know, I¡¯m not a cardiologist, I¡¯m a cryptozoologist, remember? Pft, been a while since that one came up, eh Reggie?


    The approaching presence, bound-papers in-hand, draws me from my internal observations when she stutters, ¡°Sc-Schism, it, it, it happened again. I, I swear I double and triple-checked my numbers. Th-there¡¯s more Orichalcum unaccounted for.¡±

 B 6 C 207: Waves In the Air

    With Leezahna trembling as she reports more Orichalcum missing, I freeze. This sounds more and more important. Still, what else can I do? I can¡¯t even safely engage retrocognition at the moment to see if I¡¯ve missed anything that my other senses would have picked up, since I¡¯m voiding out signals for Littlebit. Gnawing my lower lip, I attempt to calm my visage and breathing so as to not frighten Leezahna.


    Before I can ask how much, Leezahna knows what I¡¯m about to ask, so she answers, ¡°I, I¡¯m pretty positive six units, um, almost positive at least.¡±


    Still gnawing, I muse, ¡°Six more, or¡ª¡°


    Leezahna interrupts me, ¡°Yes, six more, I-I swear, Sc-Schism. I swear I¡ª¡°


    Interrupting her in turn, I reassure Leezahna, ¡°I know, I know, it¡¯s alright. You¡¯ve already proven yourself an excellent quartermaster Leezahna. I trust you on this. Hell, I appreciate you for catching it even. I¡¯m just confused on whether we have a saboteur, or just hungry, covetous, or greedy residents. In cases like these, I¡¯m prepared to assume and prepare for the worst, while hoping for the best.¡±


    Still trembling slightly, Leezahna raises an eyebrow, cluing me in that she¡¯s curious what the worst might be, so I explain, ¡°If we do have a saboteur, someone stealing them for some unknown purpose, they could certainly have been hitting us harder, doing much more damage than stealing a few percent of our respawning resources. They could end the respawning power entirely, or, or,¡± I gulp, my feelings caught in my throat, unable to bring myself to say the other things that a saboteur could take from us.


    Nodding somberly, Leezahna catches on to my train of thought. Her eyes submit a plea, and I nod my assent. In moments, Leezahna is scurrying away out of the Verdimenn project space towards Solace, to see her mother. Like I was ruminating about the other night, I can¡¯t  promise that a person shouldn¡¯t be acting on their last desires. Drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die indeed.


    Err¡ªI should probably try to be a bit more optimistic when so many people nearby can hear my thoughts¡ªI¡¯m um, sure we¡¯ve got this handled. Sure, right? Still, what could someone do with nine, no wait, ten sheets of Orichalcum? Well, if they have anyone as inventive as Nala and Littlebit, quite a hell of a lot. Crap. I need a breakdown of Orichalcum¡¯s properties, stat.


    Hustling back into the tinkering workspace, I don¡¯t even have to ask Nala before she begins apprising me of Orichalcum¡¯s unique properties. Nala, with an air of condescension so natural, one might mistake it for her baseline demeanor, rolls of her eyes slightly.


    As though preparing to explain quantum physics to a toddler, she begins, ¡°Well, its intrinsic properties include is near indestructibility, sitting just a tad below Adamantite in terms of durability. Its susceptibility to acid erosion is far greater than that of Adamantite, which, while seemingly a weakness, actually lends itself to unique applications in alchemy and crafting. Not that the untrained mind would consider such a nuance without it being pointed out.¡±


    Shifting her weight, Nala continues, ¡°And let¡¯s not forget its near-weightlessness¡ªa property due to its magical vibratory frequencies. Quite fascinating, really, if you have the capacity to grasp the interplay between its molecular structure and arcane energies. This makes Orichalcum uniquely valuable for constructs requiring strength without the burden of weight. Ingenious, really. Though, I wouldn¡¯t expect just anyone to understand the complex interplay at work.¡±


    With a dismissive wave of her hand, as if to clear the air of the ignorance she assumes is permeating it, she adds, ¡°Furthermore, Orichalcum''s magical properties allow it to resonate with certain spells and enchantments in ways other metals cannot. This... synergistic effect¡ªfor lack of a more appropriate term that might be more readily digestible¡ªamplifies its utility in magical engineering and artifact creation.¡±


    She surveys her audience, me, her expression softening ever so slightly as if she''s just remembered she''s speaking to a fellow sapient being rather than an inanimate object. Clearing her throat as the scales on her cheeks color slightly with the blush hidden beneath them, Nala continues, ¡°So, you see, Orichalcum isn¡¯t just ¡®another metal¡¯¡ªit''s a cornerstone of advanced magical technology and craftsmanship. Its theft isn¡¯t merely inconvenient; it could be catastrophic, depending on the intentions behind such actions. But I''m sure that''s already occurred to you.¡±


    With that, she straightens up, her piece said, leaving no doubt that in her mind that there''s little more to add that could possibly enhance the understanding she has so generously imparted. The not-so-subtle reminder of why our grumpy librarian¡¯s abrasive personality earns her few friendships causes me to flash her a sad half-smile and a pitying glance. There¡¯s only a momentary ruefulness along one of her deeper emotional wavelengths, but she knows she doesn¡¯t owe me any apologies, despite having come across as patronizingly as she did. Not that I¡¯d expect her to leap at the opportunity to apologize for abrasively delivering information anyway.


    As if to demonstrate the points she¡¯d just made, Nala sets out a small slab of Orichalcum. She douses a corner of it in acid, and, while it¡¯s obviously more durable than some of the objects around it, it definitely proves susceptible. Further, Nala sets it near the edge of her workspace, between her and Littlebit¡¯s projects.


    Reaching across the table she¡¯s working at, Nala allows one of her clankers¡ªas Littlebit calls them anyway¡ªto leap to her palm. It then proceeds to scurry up her arm towards her shoulder. Once there, the little robot leans to one side, and extends mechanical armature in order to place a telescoping lens in front of Nala¡¯s right eye, allowing her a microscopic view of whatever tinkering project she¡¯s working on. Apparently Nala uses it to precisely target some sort of vibratory wave generator. Wait. A wave motion cannon? In an area with other-realm signals being voided out by my void-presence? Crap on a cracker!


    Leaping, I tackle Nala to the side while using my telekinesis to shove Littlebit out of the line of fire. Littlebit falls away from where she sat directly across the table from Nala. Just in time, I manage to get the two tinkers away from the epicenter of a phenomenon with which I am all-too familiar. A simultaneously implosion and explosion tears through the tinkering workspace. My telekinetic squares shield Littlebit while my body shields a suddenly very-stunned Nala.


    The entangling intertwining of magics and technologies short-circuits several of my own enchantments and items, sending all my items into the quick-change ring. Probably for the best, as a segment of my back and spine are shunted away into the void of a black hole. Calling it agonizing is an understatement. But if there¡¯s one thing Reggie Shellcracker is used-to, it¡¯s nothing. Heh, erm, the void anyway. I reclaim my lost flesh near-instantly, repeatedly, as waves oscillate and pulsate through the phenomenon for the several moments it lasts.


    When it finishes, the tinkering workspace is in-shambles, and Nala is terribly chagrined. She mutters, ¡°The interplay at work was, was unexpected. Miss Bitty, are you alright? Friend Reggie, would you remove your personage from my own, please?¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    Blushing and wearing a rueful smile, I shake my head while sighing and standing myself off of Nala. Littlebit is sitting in a pile of scrap, blinking, stunned. Nala continues, ¡°Erm, that is to say, thank you for the save, friend Reggie. I¡¯m sorry Miss Bitty, I wasn¡¯t aware such a reaction was even a possibility. Perhaps Schism could elucidate us as to how their signal nullification for your sensor project works?¡±


    Puffing my cheeks while passing my breath through pursed lips, I feel a bit off-put, or put-on, I¡¯m not sure which. Still, even if it does shift some of the blame my way, I guess it¡¯s only fair. I hadn¡¯t expected someone to invent a miniature wave motion cannon and to use it in an enclosed space that¡¯d been wave-nullified by my void-presence. Running my hand through my hair, and once again accidentally bumping horns that I forget that I have, I puff another breath as I contemplate an answer.


    Starting with as much as I can surmise, I grouse a bit, ¡°Well, signals are waves, y¡¯know? Matter is particles, signals and energies are waves. There are some strange, powerful signals down here, like Littlebit said. They were enough to absolutely blow the crap out of her sensors repeatedly. To nullify them, I had to nullify a broad band across the spectrum of available frequencies in UV, electromagnetic, and radio and so on. This sent them bouncing back against each other at the edges of the small area.¡±


    Taking a moment, I conclude explaining the effects of my efforts, ¡°So I essentially made a¡ªwell¡ªa low-pressure zone, with two high pressure zones at its edges. There¡¯s of course the one pushing outward to keep the signals at bay, and the other one being the original powerful signals in the first place that aim to regain entry into the area.¡±


    Nala facepalms, realizing what had happened. She basically tore open a bubbled explosion waiting to happen. One that existed within a sort of vacuum. Thus near-simultaneous implosion and explosion. I¡¯m just glad I¡¯d isolated it to within the tinkering workspace. Sadly I hadn¡¯t reacted quickly enough to protect all of the little automatons and clankers that Nala and Littlebit had wandering about the space. It was all I could do to protect the two artificers.


    Littlebit absolves me, ¡°It¡¯s okay Tiger, I¡¯ll patch up my pals pronto. We just, well, might be waiting a while to progress on our ¡®Twixt project with this setback. Sorry hun.¡±


    Nala looks downright abashed now, and seemingly has no words. I flash her a half-sad neutral expression, it being about the best I can do to absolve her at the moment. Although, hm. I wonder. Nala¡¯s action might actually end up being exactly what we need to do, in a controlled manner, in order to reach the ¡®Twixt. Nala and Littlebit both perk up, and suddenly the rapid-fire tech-talk dialogue between the two sets my eyes spinning. I¡¯m just going to leave the cleanup, and new line of query up to the two tinkerers.


    Well, that¡¯s one issue tackled. Sort of. Heh. I¡¯ll leave this up to the pair of them, and their very capable hands. With just a raised brow to remind them to carry out the rest of their experiments safely, I telekinetically surf away, stopping momentarily to hug Alanea and let her know to keep an eye on the pair of them. She chuckles, and wears a confused expression upon hearing about the cause of the implexplosion, but agrees regardless.


    Stopping to gather a few things from the pile of unsorted artifacts, and to snag a few road supplies from our digital shop structure, I take stock of myself. Somehow, between being connected to Lil, my own dragonforces, absorbing my lycanthrope form into my base form, and my attunement to the void, I¡¯m relatively uninjured. I¡¯ve used up a single free use of one of my spells for the day, and have about six hundred ninety-six SP available. Hm, digging through these artifacts from ol¡¯ Alpacker¡¯s hoard, these couple of items I¡¯d like to have Lu utilize, in case she ends up needing to fend off the Damnations. When Lucky gets back, he can stay with her from this point forward in the war, and he¡¯ll be able to amplify the abilities of these items with Luni.


    I mean, the wand is basically an unmelting icicle, so I¡¯m pretty certain I know what it does. The same with that runic fragment as well. Between Lu and Lucky working together, and the nature of the battlefield likely being above the Worldstorm, creating massive hail-filled clouds and freezing mist could be pretty good deterrents against the colossal flying monstrosities. Not to mention low temperature tightening their dactyl leathers, making them brittle, more easily torn and such. I¡¯m rambling. Luni will know what to do. Freeze a wing, shatter it with thunder from her blast-happy scepter, and the Damnations won¡¯t be screwing around with her again any time soon.


    Hell, if we can ground them somewhere on the far side of Solace, they might not even be a threat until the end of the war, depending on their realms, domains, minions, and so on. Actually, based on what I know about them, from what Induul implied, and what has been mentioned over my time with the Onyx Dawn, I bet they don¡¯t have minions beyond the Evil Claws. I would almost believe that they¡¯ve been dormant, so that the Celes¡ªthey were. The Celestial Emperor couldn¡¯t focus on the fragments inhabiting them, until he¡¯d accomplished enough to move into his endgame.


    We¡¯re in *his* endgame. That thought is more than a little unsettling. How much is still going according to his plans? I¡¯m, I¡¯m just not smart enough to figure it out. It¡¯s more instinct than anything else that tells me I¡¯ve more often than not played into his hand. I¡¯m pretty certain last night was a fiasco for him though. Can we keep it up? Can we keep being a wrench in the works of his grand plan just by focusing on our war? Or do we have to tackle bits of his machinations while they¡¯re in motion, while simultaneously fighting nearly ninety percent of dragonkin and dragonkind on Rayileklia?


    I¡¯ll bring up the idea of a surgical strike against the tower at Navica at some point. Right now though, we¡¯re in a hell-of-a swingy state in the war. I can¡¯t afford to divert our attention. Plus, there¡¯s still the threat of several prophecies hanging over our heads. How many of them are going to come true? How many have we diverted? How many can we divert? Huff. I need to finish taking stock of my assets for the day.


    Zorro is snoozing alongside the egg in my pouch. My body is mostly in top-form again, somehow, for one reason or another. I¡¯ve got the crossbow bolts, runic clips, a few potions, the Cosmic Roundsheathe with its full charges. Frostburn¡¯s slash is ready, my daily abilities other than the one cone of cold are off cooldown, most of my internals and self-made abilities are ready, other than my lycanthrope form having been destroyed. I guess I¡¯m as prepped as I can be for taking down the leaders of a domain or two. I guess I¡¯ll get Farzhis and Veril to take me towards Terrorzin¡¯s deeper domain, and be my backup as I go do what I do best. Be annoying.


    Having been a few hours, I have to verify where everyone is. Lucky, Lil, Shiz, and the Spellknights are making shows of force at Mydraig¡¯s domain. They¡¯ve gotten a few small troops to lay down their arms in surrender, but most are battling tooth-and-nail to the death, unfortunately. Speaking of death, tears fall down my cheeks as I float through the forgeworks where people are mourning fallen friends, hacking apart mite-hulks, creating send-off pyres, and so on. It¡¯s a harsh reminder that this is a war, a real war.


    Deli nods my way, and I levitate the several crates of booze I¡¯d just purchased from the shop while taking stock of things. I figure we¡¯re going to need some alcohol for mourning gatherings, or life celebrations, or both. Whatever passes for funerals in these parts. I can see the query in her eyes, on if we¡¯re about to share a drink so I can get her tale from her, about her name, but now isn¡¯t the right time. I hate to disappoint her, but she seems to understand why I¡¯m shaking my head.


    While I¡¯m shaking my head, my stomach rumbles, but I ignore it. The day has only just begun, and Kinzul and Iylynila are both somewhere off-grid, Induul is nowhere to be found, my son and my best friend are out waging war with new allies at their sides, and so much more is happening. There¡¯s the tome, the missing Orichalcum, our ¡®Neath trio is back and probably has a tale to tell. We¡¯ve got bodies, from several sides, to consider, though with dragonkind I guess they mostly eat their dead. Oh, oh the flour. That might actually be a sort of bonemeal, since I don¡¯t see wheat-fields being tended to by anyone from Solace. Eugh. Maybe they send some human-form dragons to trade with humans, or did in the past, before the Celestial Emperor stole everyone¡¯s souls.

 B 6 C 208: Waves Across the Land

    I¡¯m a bit surprised and worried that Te hasn¡¯t awoken yet. Her goggles are facing her, laying in the bed next to her at the moment. Her breathing is slow, but steady, and even Luni has already left bed. Between taking on the Worldstorm, moulding the tether for Lil, our entire adventure in Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s lair, and holding off the Damnations and Evil Claws, I¡¯m surprised Teuila was still standing at the end, and able to save me. She was even awake when I came to from my short faint.


    I can¡¯t help gazing lovingly at her sleeping form. If I were there, would I just sit and stare? Or would I be caressing those lovely cheeks? I suppose it doesn¡¯t matter. Of course, as I¡¯m staring at and thinking about her, Teuila finally rouses. Seeing her stretch out her rotator cuffs, crack her neck, and hop out of bed brings a smile to my face. Teuila clasps her hands behind her back, stretching her shoulder blades, and likely her biceps as she first leans forward, then leans rearward into a bridge.


    In the blink of an eye, the goggles must have been placed on her head as suddenly the view from them is rocketing through the tunnels of Mount Solace. I feel bad for not being there when she awoke, while she was there for me. She knows we¡¯re at war though, and that I made the judgment call to let her continue to sleep, because we need her at peak efficiency. She can probably guess that some emergency popped up, what with her having awoken alone in bed.


    Actually wait a moment. There¡¯s something wrong with Te¡¯s dragonforce. No wonder she took so long to rouse. Cranking up my aura vision, I try to make sense of what I¡¯m seeing from her point of view with the goggles. It¡¯s like tendrils of light that snake forth, and are dashed to atoms upon coming into contact with anyone else. I can¡¯t tell if she¡¯s actually losing any dragonforce from the strange behavior, or if that energy is simply reabsorbed into her at some point. I¡¯d like to have Nala look into it at some point, when Teuila and her are both free.


    Wait. Was Teuila healing us? I notice pixellated bruising along her limbs in places that I saw others taking hits. Sponge. He¡¯s in a coma. But Teuila¡¯s Latent is precise control over the forces of attraction. Attracting our injuries into herself? Does she even realize she¡¯s doing it? That would be why the energy tendrils seem to atomize in a manner similar to derezzing, when coming into contact with someone else. They take the information of some amount of the other person¡¯s injuries, and translate them into the digital nature of a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian critterkin in order to attract them, pull them to Teuila.


    Crap on a cracker. The applications of that Latent continue to broaden. I mean, if I¡¯m surmising correctly. Does Te even realize she¡¯s doing it, if that¡¯s what¡¯s happening? It¡¯s like she¡¯s got a level in some paladin subclass that can expand its lay on hands pool by trading in its own hitpoints. What even are her limits¡ª.


    I find myself in a vast expanse, or rather, nowhere at all. In every direction is boundless impenetrable darkness, indescribable in truth, it can only be likened to that which I have some understanding of. Describing it is like trying to explain the flavor of water, or air, or heck, the color of air. Within this endless abyss, myriad golden threads, legion paths of travel head onwards in parallel.


    Similarly in parallel do they all cease to exist at some sudden point in the distance. They all just stop, at some dead end. These harmonic vestiges of an energy that could represent anything reach a point of finality so stark, that beyond it can only be called oblivion. All golden threads reach some point at which they wink out, in unison in the distance, as if tumbling over the precipice of a cliff that overhangs the abyss itself.


    This point of pure convergence into nothing, of the beautiful travesty that is the end of all things is marred in its perfection by only one faint, microscopic glimmer. An infinitesimally tiny thread continues beyond this metaphorical cliff, soaring away into the nothing that balks all else. Even I cannot see where it leads, as an observer to the path of these threads. Yet continue on it does, unabated by whatever cataclysm awaits.


    Though I know not where it heads, or how it succeeds in its task, I can''t help but root for this faint glimmer in the distance. I have to wonder what it means, what it all means. Is this destiny? Does everything, everyone come to an end, save one small, dauntless, stoic essence? Is that a reality unto itself? A whole world? A single person?


    Suddenly I perceive reality again, and I''ve got whiplash from the whole ordeal. Okay, three times is no longer a coincidence. The pattern is pretty clear at this point. But what does it mean? Does this have to do with the tomes? Specifically the one Luni had to make sure Teuila cannot see? Is Teuila going to face the void alone, beyond the end of all things? Do we lose? Is Teuila the one of us six that makes it beyond a fated destiny of oblivion?


    Do I dare share this with anyone else? Is it meant for me, and me alone, or am I the messenger, meant to convey it? Luni is supposed to be the Muse, the Seer, not me. I¡¯m a nobody, I¡¯m Nothing. Literally. Well now I¡¯ve gone and hurt my own feelings. Yeesh. Furrowing my brow and scratching my head, I wonder if I should apologize to myself. Snorting a laugh, I shake my head at myself and continue onwards.


    There¡¯s so much to do, but can I afford to put such an ominous vision on the back burner? My face droops, weary with the weight of such a foreboding foretelling. Te. I love her with such a vast ferocity. I don¡¯t want this for her, whatever it is. I¡¯m fairly certain of it. Whether it¡¯s the weight of responsibility, or the lonely finality of continuing on alone after all is said and done. What part do I even play in all this?


    We¡¯re all the hero in our own stories, usually, more or less. Or so I¡¯ve heard. I think. But Teuila is my savior. She¡¯s my hero. I know I represent similar in Luni¡¯s eyes, for whatever cosmic reason she assures me that I always have, and always will. But if it¡¯s all fated to end, the way the Sisters described, then what¡¯s the point? Why not cherish what time we have left?


    Because if you do that Reggie, not everyone gets the opportunity. Not everyone is as strong as you, or as safe as you. They can¡¯t protect themselves from the evils approaching. In fact, many more of them would have their opportunities cut short, and relatively soon at that. Case in point, the forgeworks only a few short hours ago. If all the strongest of us gave up fighting and protecting, instead focusing on mingling and cherishing, the weakest amongst us would be crushed in a heartbeat. With great power, also comes¡ªI know the line. I get it. Sighing deeply once more, I wonder if I¡¯m really just arguing with myself sometimes, like this.


    You can be a real eggplant sometimes Reggie. Y¡¯know that? Uh, sure, I guess. Wait, what? An eggplant? How does that even make¡ª.


    I narrowly avoid bumping into several giggling Draconiacs as I telekinetically surf about the tunnels of Mount Solace. What was I thinking about again? I, well, I could just go to the locations I¡¯ve picked, and hit my targets solo. Bad idea Reggie, stop trying to act as if everything is all on you, all the time. Plus it¡¯s inefficient. The dragons are all far faster than I am when flying above the Worldstorm. Still, it sucks to take away any defenders against the siege when we¡¯re in the thick of things like this, I can tell that right now Farzhis and Veril are tag-teaming some sort of sky-drake siege monsters being aimed towards Solace by some dragon-riding kobold necromancers. I almost wonder if¡ª.


    Apparently listening in on my brain, Ixeyla asks, ¡°You uh, just need a lift, no other heavy lifting Schism? If all the Oh Dee members are all fighting stuff, or needed around here, I could get you around the Spine.¡±


    Gnawing the inside of my cheek, I¡¯m not sure if I can take Ixeyla up on her offer. I¡¯d break my own heart if I broke Lil¡¯s heart by doing so. Before I can go too far down the rabbit hole of self recrimination and doubt, Ixey offers up, ¡°My prince isn¡¯t gonna throw a tizzy just because you and I get busy. Um, riding, uh, to places.¡±


    I think we both mentally facepalm at the same time about Ixeyla¡¯s choice of phrasing. Though that would also be true. None of us would be upset if our partners found, um, rides, anywhere else. Blushing heatedly, I fan myself. Plus, Lil would be smug about it, insisting on how great Ixeyla is, and that he told me so. I mean, if we, urgh. End thought train! Please? Brain? Yeah? New topic!


    The raucous laughter I get from several wavelengths clues me in on several of my friends and allies being near enough to listen-in on my nonsense. Ugh, that just worsens my blushing. At least Ixeyla is joining in on the laughter, despite having set herself up. The pair of us meet up, and bump shoulders jovially while shaking our heads with rueful smiles.


    Greeting Ixeyla, I start, ¡°I guess I¡¯ve got no reason to turn down your offer then Ixey.¡± I balk and fumble as I attempt, and fail to, reassure her, ¡°Uh. If, um, if things¡ª.¡±


    Interrupting me, ending up being the reassuring one of the pair of us, Ixeyla shrugs while irreverently asserting, ¡°Hey, I trust your weird little butt to keep me safe from pretty much everything other than, well, the end of the world. Or uh, you I guess.¡±


    Wearing a sad half smile I flick my head towards the feasting hall and the aerie. Ixey nods, so I levitate us both, having us surf over the crowds in the tunnels of Solace. Ixey looses a short excited squeal that changes from surprise to delight when she realizes both what¡¯s going on, and that my telekinetic senses follow her slightest urging in order to shift direction, speed, and balance.


    As we surf towards the aerie, I check in on everyone that I can through our scrying goggles. Things are probably going as well as they could, for being in the midst of a war where we¡¯re surrounded on all sides by the enemy¡¯s hostile forces, on top of facing down several additional apocalyptic scenarios. Heck, technically a lot better than one might expect, for anyone other than us.


    Ixeyla begins to transform into her full draconic form, and I cast a glance out over the Worldstorm. Apparently not wanting to give me a chance to have second thoughts, or back out of taking her up on her offer, Ixeyla snatches me out of the air with her tail, knocking me towards her back. I¡¯m unceremoniously tucked up against Ixey¡¯s spinal ridge, and do my best to right myself as she takes off at an impressive speed. She¡¯s going in vaguely the right direction, but I offer a course correction so that we¡¯re navigating the heading we need to in order to reach the destination of my planned assaults.


    The thunder, despite originating right below us, seems so far away as my mind wanders. The air is crisp, as usual, tinged with the scent of ozone, as always on Rayileklia. But even that fact barely registers. Things feel more and more like Can¡¯Z¡¯aas lately, but in some of the worst ways. Right now the Shellcracker Adventuring Party is handling things separately, scattered to the four winds. Luni is holding down the fort, while Teuila is embattled with the siege. Lucky and Lil are assaulting domains off to the east of Solace.


    Oh, oh no. It really is like the last days of Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Worse, I¡¯m the one who appointed our spread. Just like we were on our last few weeks alive. The only difference is I¡¯m not working at the edges of our settlement with Mataalii. Instead I¡¯m off here trying to break up key parts of our foes¡¯ forces. Or, well, that¡¯s sort of like the days leading up to the insectoid scourge. When only Teuila and I would occasionally be at the Miracle Oak


    One or the other of us, or both of us would be out hunting with Linti, generally one at a time. Luni was off who-knows-where, and Mataalii was either somewhere with her, or somewhere that she stashed until she needed him. Should I scour the world for Mat? Could I use my scrying abilities to find him?


    Ixeyla bucks, and I reorient on reality as she asks, ¡°What¡¯s that all about? You dying, another world? Lil doesn¡¯t like to talk about anything before his time at the Hidden Heart. It¡¯s like he¡¯s ashamed or something. I can¡¯t imagine my prince needing to be ashamed of anything he could do.¡±


    Sighing, I nod sadly as I agree, ¡°I can¡¯t imagine Lil needing to feel ashamed either, at least not for an extended period. He¡¯s a goofball sometimes, so can make social faux pas or whatever. Still, I think I¡¯m the reason he¡¯s ashamed of¡ªhey eep, hold on. I think he¡¯s sorry that he got upset at me, about the time surrounding the end of our lives. I don¡¯t blame him for being angry. Some things happened, we¡¯d been separated for a long time, and when we finally reunited, it was mere moments¡ªin the grand scheme of things¡ªbefore committing to sacrificing our lives for our family, and world.¡±


    I can sense the rage, and sadness, warring with each other within Ixeyla. The few tears that sneak out as we continue to wing away north-westward are lost to the breeze, though I sense them fall regardless. We travel in silence for quite some time yet. Well, relative silence. It¡¯s never exactly quiet on Rayileklia, aboveground. Hm, speaking of, I wonder if we could, if we should, try to contact the Derbrightmine survivors. I mean, they¡¯re belowground, deep at this point, from what I¡¯d heard.


    I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯d be better or worse to contact them. I feel like if I did, it would just be for our benefit. They¡¯re taking care of themselves, and likely don¡¯t need me diverting their attention and skills to projects I¡¯d choose and prioritize. Ixeyla and I will just do what I set out to do, head towards the domains of Thraxxis, Xyzzor, Vash¡¯taak, and a few others.


    Several of them seem to have their domains situated radially outwards from a central point, perhaps a dormant volcano, by the look of the map. I wonder if they¡¯re actually all friends, ruling their little domains so close to each other.


    It¡¯d be funny if the lords and ladies of the domains were all over at one of their keeps for tea or something. Do Terrorzin¡¯s forces have get-togethers and gossip over a beverage in other domains than their own? Hell, do they have them within their own? Hell, do dragons even drink tea? Ixeyla¡¯s bouncing with laughter while in flight, but thankfully she¡¯s big enough and my limbs and abilities are strong enough that I don¡¯t get bucked from her shoulders.


    I¡¯m fairly certain Ixeyla doesn¡¯t stop laughing or shaking her head at me for the entire duration of our flight towards the convergent domains. Coming up on the closest one, Thraxxis¡¯s domain, I can only spy a tiny fraction of ground below the storm through the ultra-fine tunnel in the clouds that Kinzul had opened up for operations like this. I¡¯m about to dive into it, allowing Ixey to hover and glide about above the Worldstorm while I take care of business, when she surprises me.


    Asking across our mental wavelength, Ixeyla prods, ¡°Schism, think you can lift us both back up through it when you¡¯re done? I uh, I wouldn¡¯t know how long to wait, and if something happens¡ªy¡¯know? I mean, I know it¡¯s just wide enough for mini wings form to carry us back up slowly, but I¡¯m not that good at the whole shifted forms dealy like most of the ancients in the Oh Dee and, just, stuff, y¡¯know?¡±


    I offer up in response, ¡°Yeah, I um, I can cover you. It¡¯d be slow, but if I¡¯m coming back up without someone like Lil or Teuila, it¡¯s because I¡¯m done, rather than luring the lords of the land above the clouds to fight. Most of my abilities manage crowds and affect things in a decent area, so I¡¯m thinking I can get some pretty close to one-on-one battles when troops realize they¡¯re more likely to get in the way and die than help their lords face me. Plus, hopefully shows of force that decimate their numbers, and take out their leaders get them to stand down from the war entirely.¡±


    Without warning, Ixeyla is suddenly shifting into her human form and plummeting through the small tunnel in the clouds of the Worldstorm with her lanky limbs wrapped around me. I grump, ¡°Maybe some warning next time!? I don¡¯t know if the tunnels are enchanted to repel or divert the lightning or not, or if I¡¯d have to nullify it you big dink!¡±


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Cheekily, Ixey snarks, ¡°You were going to ramble til my wings got tired, this is faster, duh.¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I stifle a chuckle, and try to muster up some irritation at Ixeyla, but can¡¯t really manage it. We¡¯re both fine, and she¡¯s right, it¡¯s faster. The more domains we can hit today, the better. I mean, if I keep up the crazy level of recovery I¡¯ve seemingly got since Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s domain. Or if I don¡¯t take too many injuries to begin with.


    Anyway, point is, she¡¯s right. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s not gloating about it too much. There¡¯s a smug undercurrent to her emotional wavelength on our psychic bond though, and she¡¯s playfully elbowing me with her bony arms as we fall.


    All in all the plummet takes only a few moments, or maybe minutes, y¡¯know, because of gravity, obvee, but it takes far longer than my brain says it should. Is gravity on Rayileklia lower than Fakeworld? Is that the natural state of things, or part of the Worldstorm enchantment?


    If I remember correctly, Prinrin said something about back when dragons were heavier or something, she was still a fast flier, and had an easier time than everyone else as a runt. I wonder if the gravity is lower specifically for dragons only, or for everyone. I probably qualify as a dragon at this point in my life, so I¡¯m not a good reference point.


    Angling our descent with my telekinesis, we approach a widened cavern area that seems to house the keep of Thraxxis. It¡¯s eerily quiet, I mean, minus the ever-present roar of thunder, obviously. Ixeyla clasps me more tightly, relying on me to pilot beneath the storm. I¡¯d disentangle us and start my assault, but there¡¯s no assault to start. I don¡¯t see any motion within the keep, nor do I sense any heat signs.


    Surfing the pair of us to a parapet beneath the overhanging cliffside with telekinesis, I land to survey the situation and location. What the fricklefracking heck? Hellspit and Fel fires. Did the entire keep get up to go have tea at one of the other leaders¡¯ domains? Pft, it¡¯s not that funny Ixeyla, I¡¯m semi-serious here. I mean, the answer would be more like mustering troops, rallying them or something. This could be really bad.


    I¡¯m not prepared to try to face five keeps worth of foes at once alone, and there¡¯s no way I¡¯d endanger Ixeyla by asking for her help or even to remain close by while I attempted something so stupid. I could maybe lure some of their elites or lords above the Worldstorm if I were willing to expend the Dragonforce to manifest my Honoris Causa and fly up through the storm, ignoring any pain caused to the manifested form, or voiding out the stuff within its radius.


    Alright, take a breather for a second. If Ixeyla¡¯s fine either waiting here, or clinging to me, I¡¯ll LBBTKSL around the region to the other domains to scout and check. Before I do anything, let¡¯s see what¡¯s going on at the security center. It seems the Vivant, well, its surviving members, minus Prinrin, so really just Gil and Fen, are ranging above the storm, driving back foes. Is the siege getting so serious that¡ª. Is Gilmeshtu facing off against a dozen ancients? Crap. No no no. I know we¡¯re not really friends, but, but I don¡¯t want to see him die.


    Wait, wait what? What? What. Okay, I know Gilmeshtu is one of the most talented combatants on the planet, but wow. He¡¯s managing to outfly the Reds and cluster up all his non Red foes with aerial maneuvers. If he¡¯s about to do what I think he¡¯s about to¡ªyup. Phew, that¡¯s like Lil¡¯s breath weapon after it¡¯s ramped up for a few seconds, maybe a whole minute, just on a larger scale. In an instant the dactyl leather of Gil¡¯s foes, those that aren¡¯t Red, is burned to a crisp, taut and cracking, or ashed entirely. They¡¯re sent hurtling down through the Worldstorm, to a definitely painful end. Now he¡¯s only facing off against four Reds, and he outclasses them all, even combined, by leagues.


    Pshew, go Gil. Fenric is being less reckless, facing less foes, but Fen is equally devastating. It seems last night has lit a fire in their hearts that can be quelled only by violence and retribution. Lil and Lucky are doing alright, as are Shiz and Zelshiz, thankfully, since they¡¯ve just got to rout ground-forces for now, until they expand up towards the other domains. It might take them most of the day though, between the three domains. Veril and Farzhis are spiraling the aerie, keeping guard, making sure nothing makes it by Gil and Fen, or zipping out past the pair to team up on a frightening-looking foe with hit-and-run tactics. I¡¯m glad they¡¯re playing it safe.


    Checking in on her, Teuila¡¯s absolutely brutally driving back a horde from the base of Solace. To see her fling Mjolnir in sweeping arcs and teleport it back to her hand with a simple flick of her wrist is impressive enough on its own. But seeing Teuila¡¯s Honoris Causa meet and grab two incoming attacks from separate dragons, and slam the dragons together as if they were magn¡ªthat cheeky little minx¡ªetized is hellaciously impressive.


    I can¡¯t help chuckling as a grin spreads wide across my face. Observing exactly what she¡¯s doing, I see Teuila broaden and master her powers over attraction more and more. It¡¯s funnier to me than it might otherwise be. Mostly because half the reason she¡¯s doing it is probably to get Illy to agree to let her test out the romantic attraction whammy of her Latent on our mutual possible-paramour. Maybe. Heh.


    I suppose it¡¯s a bit unfair to assume she¡¯s just doing it to master her Latent to play around with the whammy on Iylynila. She¡¯s also less able to use her preferred fighting style, so it¡¯s advantageous to expand her toolbelt, especially in such effective ways. I understand why Teuila¡¯s using her favorite fighting style sparingly, the Worldstorm is still deadly to her, and she doesn¡¯t really need to ride the lightning down in a grav-assist spear stab to deliver earth-shattering strikes. Plus, many of her foes are massive, and driving metal a couple of feet into their scales will hardly tickle them, as opposed to smashing those scales deep into their underlying musculature and bones.


    Half of the dragons I see Te facing are in forms large enough that their wingtips draw lightning strikes from the Worldstorm, nearly skirting the cloudbanks¡¯ bottoms. The lightning seems to be irritating them frequently, or charging up the blues, but not doing anything else extremely beneficial to our side. Part of the enchantment I guess, is that the acid and lightning are far less deadly beneath the cloudbanks. That part is a bit of Kinzul¡¯s mercy for the rest of Rayileklia shining through, even whilst the Worldstorm itself is a massive mercy that basically traps dragonkind in the Spine of the World to prevent the precise travesty that¡¯s rolling on its way towards massacring the planet.


    When Ixeyla elbows me, drawing my attention back to our situation, I frown, but not at her. There¡¯s a single slate-gray Draconiac wandering about, her serpentine form all sleek curves as she¡¯s skulking around the¡ªis that Errissa? Ixey mutters, ¡°Who? What are you looking at? No, look that way, the mud.¡±


    My attention drawn towards Ixeyla¡¯s insistent pointing, I follow her gaze, realizing what she means. Ruts, tearing, prints, craters. The mud off to the southwest is absolutely a scene of an obviously recent convergence. Worse, it¡¯s devoid of that convergence, and it seems to head off southwest out towards the edge of the Spine. It¡¯s as if waves and waves of ground forces marched through here, dragons, Draconiacs, kobolds, en-masse. Thousands of waves across the lands.


    Gazing as I am in the direction of the tracks, I recall the strategic maps of the Spine that I recently committed to memory. The mountain range has to be traversed in certain ways by anyone who can¡¯t exit an aerie above the Worldstorm. At least those who don¡¯t have a guaranteed landing on an aerie above the Worldstorm elsewhere.


    The path that I¡¯m observing coincides with three possible directions. One, to the heart of Terrorzin¡¯s domain, two, out of the Spine of the World to the rest of Rayileklia proper, and three, it wraps around to a narrow trail that is one of few paths towards the valley that leads up to Mah¡¯ruke and Solace. With my attention split, and my focus off of the Draconiac that I thought might be Errissa, I of course lost sight of her. If she is here, I¡¯ve no chance to find her if she doesn¡¯t want to be found.


    Sighing, I chastise myself mentally. I need to focus on this. We need to round the regions, and see just how many forces are missing. Analyzing my senses, I fear the worst. I think the hordes grabbed pretty much everything that wasn¡¯t nailed down, in a relative hurry. The enclosed spaces I can sense are all ashambles. The remaining residents of these dwellings seem to be only relatively sparse furniture, mediocre bedding, rags, and the like.


    We¡¯ve got to curve around this caldera to check on the other lords¡¯ domains, so I¡¯m hastily explaining to Ixey, ¡°I bet you can guess what I¡¯m thinking, so I¡¯m going to try to move faster than I normally should. I need you to hang as tight as possible so that hopefully the featherlight enchantment keeps us both aloft. I¡¯m not Lil or Teuila, or even Luni for that matter. It seems like everyone else in the family, save maybe Lucky, is a speedster in some fashion. I¡¯m just not built for it, as much as I¡¯d like to be.¡±


    Ixeyla nods her assent, and wraps herself around me much like I¡¯d seen her wrap herself around Lil the other day. We both cough, blush, and avoid each other¡¯s gazes momentarily at the mental pictures conjured up. Right, enough tomfoolery. Holding my breath after a massive lungful of air, I launch myself almost horizontally off of the parapet outwards to angle to the northeast, so that I can wrap around northwest, west, southwest, south, then southeast back to here.


    My brain is entirely focused on the locomotion. Exhale when momentum is nearly faded, deep breath, launch, rocketing with additional lightning, again and again and again. I¡¯m covering hundreds of meters per stride, but it¡¯s still not enough, it doesn¡¯t feel fast enough for what needs to be done. Ixeyla¡¯s lanky frame is either light enough on its own, or close enough that she¡¯s affected by my featherlight enchantment, so it¡¯s not even all that taxing to be rocketing about, skirting the lower edges of the Worldstorm, using any stray lightning-strikes to boost my momentum.


    Of course, it does take a little finesse, and finaggling with cursed greaves and my lightning Spiritswarm, to keep Ixeyla safe, but it¡¯s worth it. Between the Spiritswarm, and my electrokinesis, I can send repellent electromagnetic waves through the air, to help coax any stray lightning around me. That, and direct it along my points of impact for the extra boost that the burst of power offers me. It¡¯s tiring after a period, but who wouldn¡¯t get tired leaping across the sky, for hundreds of miles, at dozens or maybe hundreds of miles per hour? I¡¯m not hitting sonic speeds though, a bit thankfully honestly. I don¡¯t need to shatter my limbs in the middle of this war.


    No. No no no. Xyzzor¡¯s domain is the same. No, please be wrong. Please be wrong about this Reggie. This can¡¯t be happening. Rocketing along the edges of Xyzzor¡¯s keep, if there¡¯s anyone left in it, they¡¯re making no show of it. At best I could imagine some deserters, or just lazy troops who couldn¡¯t be arsed to get up to march with the rest. You¡¯d think two empty domains would be reassuring, right? Two less keeps to fight the lords of, two less armies for me to deal with today? Wrong. Wrong in the worst kind of way.


    Worse, my heart sinks into the pit of my stomach, which itself wins an Olympic gold for its tumbling routine when we start rounding the region to yet another empty domain. Does this mean we¡¯ve already lost? Are they tearing across Rayileklia, razing it as we speak? Or is the siege about to get reinforcements in the tune of dozens of thousands of foes? Or worse, could they all be heading to the center of Terrorzin¡¯s domain for some as-of-yet unknown grand plan that somehow siphons their power to destroy the planet, or teleports them across the world for distributed destruction, or, or¡ª.


    Ixey¡¯s trembling. I¡¯m letting my thoughts wander, and head down the worst possible rabbitholes. I bet she¡¯s worried that I¡¯m going to have to try what I said I wouldn¡¯t even think of doing. Me going back in time, or even just sending a message back to myself at some point during my Rayileklian journey just doesn¡¯t even seem like it¡¯s possible. I couldn¡¯t dream of being the me in the moment of the refugee rescue from Atter¡¯s domain suddenly abandoning Ixey, Zayzi, Shiz, and Leeza. I was already pretty worn down by the final attempt, in which I still lost sixty three innocent lives. Failed to protect them. Same difference.


    Gritting my teeth, I press onwards, pouring on every bit of speed I can safely muster without injuring either myself or Ixeyla. It¡¯s several hours all-told, and by the final domain on my checklist, I¡¯m getting frantic that there have been no enemies to confront. I stop to momentarily ransack the place for clues. I¡¯m hoping I¡¯ve been misled, that the mud tracks and prints we¡¯d seen, and have been seeing, weren¡¯t what we thought they were.


    I¡¯m hoping that these were domains with nearly no followers, and there was some sort of deception ploy, and that the lords and ladies offed each other somewhere nearby. No dice on that hope though. I know how unrealistic it is, or was, but there are no clues pointing to it even being a relatively possible theory, much less a plausible one. All signs point to wave after wave of draconic forces spreading out across the lands of this shared region to converge at Thraxxis¡¯s domain, and then move onwards from there.


    There¡¯s only one thing left to do. I¡¯m not going to risk Ixeyla to confirm my suspicion. What I¡¯m doing is going to be only a scouting mission at this point. I¡¯d prefer to have Ixeyla ready above the Worldstorm to make a fast getaway, if I happen to be spotted. I sense her frowning, but she doesn¡¯t complain.


    At least, she doesn¡¯t complain so much as ask, ¡°Just how am I going to know where to be, and when, if you¡¯re going to need to make a fast break for it, after tracking down a horde, that we don¡¯t know where it¡¯s gone, when I¡¯m above cloudcover and you below?¡±


    Gnawing on the inside of my lip, I acquiesce, ¡°Okay, fair, valid point. Uh, well, let me experiment with this.¡±


    Digging out a minor trinket attached to the Shellcracker soul, bound to me in particular, I place it in Ixeyla¡¯s hands. Focusing on it, I ask her to attempt to bond to it, to try to utilize its magics. Ixey grumbles, ¡°Ugh, it, it won¡¯t work. It¡¯s like a tingling, and a tug, in my head, on my brain. It doesn¡¯t hurt or anything, but it¡¯s really persistent.¡±


    Nodding, I levitate the two of us a fair distance apart, asking her to continue to focus on it, on trying to use it. As I move us in different directions, my theory starts to dawn on Ixeyla before I have to explain it. She correctly surmises, ¡°It tugs towards you!¡±


    Nodding, proud of her for having figured it out, we utilize a flaw in the soulbinding of items to our advantage. Ixey can triangulate where I am by focusing on the item once in a while, following its tug, minus the downwards direction it¡¯ll always be pointing in. Landing in an alcove that I can tell leads to an aerie above the Worldstorm, I give Ixey a quick tight hug.


    Offering her a playful shove, I suggest, ¡°Get going, stay safe. Wish me luck? But at the first sign of trouble above the storm, bolt, forget about me. Abandon any notion of coming to my aid if any of Terrorzin¡¯s forces are above cloudcover.¡±


    She frowns, but Ixeyla agrees, and takes off up the tunnel through the dragonforce-reinforced mountain, to a spot above the clouds she can take to the air from. Puffing a breath, I gather my courage, and wits, as I speed off in a southerly course, using my LBBTKSLs to cover ground at a rapid clip, hoping to catch up to the myriad ground forces on the march.


    Once again, I find myself focusing entirely on the motions; the bunching of my muscles, the telekinetic presence and pressure behind or beneath my feet, the coiling and springing as I leap forth from angled telekinetic squares while holding my breath, gathering a new breath only when I¡¯m nearly out of momentum anyway. Denying my mind the ability to focus on anything else distracts me from where my mind could wander, and prevents me from going down devastating rabbitholes or trains of thought. It also however distracts me from reality, and most of my senses not dedicated to simply following the very-obviously recently-trekked-through mud path.


    It must have been an hour or two of following the path when I finally snap to, realizing I¡¯m in the air within sight-range of an awe-inspiring gathering. I thought the sky being filled to the point of concealing the cavern roof in Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s domain was impressive, and even moreso the fact that there were probably around twelve thousand troops in the enormous hollowed-out mountain he¡¯d called his home. This? This puts that to shame.


    It¡¯s not just waves of enemy forces gathered on the ground before me. It¡¯s an entire friggin¡¯ tsunami. It¡¯s easily as many forces as were gathered within all of Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s domain, maybe even double that. How? How does Terrorzin have this many forces rallied and mobilized already? Worse, why are they aimed at the path that heads towards the valley leading to Mah¡¯ruke and Solace?


    I thought we¡¯d maybe have a week or two, because Terrorzin shouldn¡¯t have received any reports that we were overtly waging war against him until the fall of Stormspire Peak or whatever Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s domain was called. This suggests that he¡¯s had these forces preparing to mobilize today or yesterday, for at least several days now. Does he want to wipe Kinzul out that badly, before razing the rest of the world? Our guerrilla war is over. Within a day or two, the full might of Terrorzin¡¯s forces will be breathing down our necks, and breathing up the tunnels of Mount Solace, devastating our defenders.


    There¡¯s a chill in the air that isn¡¯t just my nerves being on edge. The cacophony of the hordes below me is suddenly a distant memory as my senses try to make sense of what they¡¯re sensing. I¡¯d facepalm at the mental redundancy, but I¡¯m too flabbergasted. Across my thermal view in retrocognition, I paint a wide three dimensional portrait of the expanse of lands beneath and before me. There are countless heat signatures blazing together, all of which abruptly stop across a wide radius that¡¯s so cold it hurts my brain to even pick it up on my thermal senses.


    I¡¯d once said I never met anything colder than what I can produce. I¡¯m pretty sure I can achieve full atomic stop, a lack of motion, thermal point of zero. Zero in the absolute sense. Nothing, a complete absence of heat or its usual atomic energy. This is somehow colder than that. This isn¡¯t a void, this is an expansive¡ªand still expanding¡ªregion of magic that pushes the boundaries of physics, and breaks them over its knee. I cannot rationalize it or make sense of it.


    There are countless forces before me, enough to throw wave after wave after wave across the lands of Rayileklia, especially against one small mountain domain. That should frighten me, and in a way, it does. But all that force, all those foes? Somehow they pale in comparison to the moving zone of cold that defies logic, defies physics, and defies any plans or hopes I had for us winning this war.


    The only thing I can do? The one thing my body thinks to do? Yeah, just one thing. It¡¯s gulp. I gulp, and lick my dry, cracked lips, tasting the stinging wet of the Worldstorm for my troubles. If that zone of cold is what I think it is, we¡¯ve lost. We¡¯ve lost the war, the world, everything.

 B 6 C 209: Under Pressure

    If Terrorzin himself is on the move, then likely all of his remaining forces will soon be joining him, if they haven¡¯t already. The entire might of all of dragonkind on Rayileklia save the Onyx Dawn aimed at Mount Solace. It¡¯s unthinkable. Kinzul¡¯s Dragonforce, and that of all those who¡¯ve sacrificed for her, or at her behest, is tied up in the Worldstorm, so even she would needs must quail in the face of¡ªreally Reggie? Needs must quail?¡ªthe encroaching horde. Erm, gimme a break. My brain¡¯s going whacky with the sudden influx of dread.


    Oh, hey, looks like I¡¯ve been spotted. Is this one of those, ¡°go down making a valiant last stand against insurmountable odds¡± moments Reggie? Are you kidding me? I wouldn¡¯t even scratch the surface of this horde at this point. And, sure, I mean, I¡¯m good, maybe one of the strongest fighters in the Onyx Dawn, but our strongest, pulling out all the stops, are winded going up against maybe twelve foes at a time.


    Scribbling a note, I check in with the security center, a hastily scrawled, ¡°Are you seeing this!?¡±


    A reassuring voice soothes me, ¡°Sure am Schism, good news is, where you¡¯re at, it¡¯ll take those forces over a week still to reach us even at their fastest forced march,¡± and it continues, ¡°What¡¯s your play?¡±


    Play? My play? Sure, way to put me on the spot and under pressure. Like I have any sort of play against anything this massive. My play is hoping that I can somehow move something like thirty thousand innocent civilians away from Mount Solace, while the thirty of us who are mostly-uninjured fighters hold back dozens of thousands of troops simultaneously.


    Wait, evacuation. The ¡®Twixt. I have to survive. I can¡¯t pull something stupid here. Shaking my head, I sigh. I make certain I¡¯ve got my best gear on, including my psi-blocking circlet. Whatever happens, I can¡¯t afford to let myself get taken out here.


    Still, it¡¯s good news that their traversal speed is going to be so slow. I guess I was right about having a week before having to face a more significant portion of Terrorzin¡¯s forces. I just didn¡¯t think it was going to already be on the move, bottlenecked, and all coming at once.


    Even surviving, and getting away, and getting home safely with Ixeyla seems like a longshot at this point. There are a few dozen foes taking wing in my direction. I can outrun them until the point that I need to ascend above the Worldstorm, then I¡¯d be risking my dragonforce to try to climb while outpacing them. Even if I¡¯m faster than them, I¡¯d be risking leading them to Ixey.


    I can¡¯t know if any of my pursuers know of secret tunnels through any of the nearby mountains to aeries above the Worldstorm. If they do, they could beat me above the storm, see Ixey, and harm her. Casting out my senses, it seems pretty likely that there are tunnel structures in several nearby mountains. I¡¯ve walked into a kill zone, like The Gap trap the kobolds had set up.


    Since I¡¯m unlikely to get away scot-free, I may as well make a show of it. It¡¯d be a shame to not do as much damage as I can while I make my escape. So, as I¡¯ve so often done in the course of this war, I recite my titles, not that any of Terrorzin¡¯s horde can hear me, but it allows me to manifest my Honoris Causa. Hah, yep, that sure got their attention. I suppose that¡¯s to be expected after all. They were probably ordered to slay anything that moves, especially any dragons that don¡¯t fall under Terrorzin¡¯s sway, or align behind his banner or whatnot.


    Sigh. Yeah, I can think of at least one dragon who¡¯d be in that category. I can¡¯t help thinking of Qlaxianna, and how she¡¯d probably be defying Terrorzin¡¯s forces to the end. At least, if I hadn¡¯t ended her. Qlaxi had no love for Terrorzin. His forces are probably expecting more holdouts like her, rather than anyone with an Honoris Causa, since there¡¯ve been so few of us over the centuries, and only Kinzul seems to know how to bestow them. Oh hey what¡¯s¡ª.


    Whoof! Koff, koff. Ouch. No time to reminisce or lament Reggie. Heh. Yeah, fatal flaw of mine, y¡¯know? Distractibility. Distractability? Something or other. I¡¯m able to be distracted, duh. Maybe stop distracting yourself attempting to describe how easy it is to distract you to get it grammatically correct? Hm, fair point. Dodge!


    Whew, thanks. Wait. Am I thanking myself for warning myself to¡ªlet¡¯s just forget this whole thing and focus on the fight, shall we? Speaking of, the fight isn¡¯t too bad to start with, as they¡¯re all assuming small enough forms to speed along after me to cluster up trying to catch up to me to take me on. Who launched the freakin¡¯ ballista bolt that clipped me a second ago though? I can¡¯t even see where it came from.


    Ah well, focus Reggie, focus. Their breath weapons are at odds with each other, and they¡¯re crap at teamwork. All that spells a decent spell of luck for me. Uh, bit, time, a short period of time, a spell. You know what I mean me. I know I know what you mean, what I mean, I mean, argh, shut up, busy. Anyway, fire breath is evaporating and warming the frost breaths, poison breaths, and acid breaths, while lightning breath is electrolizing, aerosolizing, and igniting the acid and poison breaths, meaning the only thing that really rolls out my way is a harmless, lukewarm massive fireball. Well, that and a lot of lightning.


    Too bad for these goons that both of those are things I can control. Grinning, I try not to be too smug about my suite of abilities which I utilize to direct lightning and flame around me in a slingshot maneuver launching a spiralized volley of their own powerful breath weapons back at them. Huh, if only all fights would start out that e¡ªdon¡¯t even think about it. Right, true. Let¡¯s keep our mouths shut, shall we? I mean mine. You know what I mean. Shut up.


    Anyway, that buys me a few seconds of¡ªMeep! So much for a few seconds! Casters! Okay, okay, calm down. Just shuffle back and forth constantly between the Necrosteel chestplate, and Wyverium chestplate, because they¡¯re mostly necromancers it seems. Quite a few seem shocked and surprised that their spells failed to have any effect on me.


    Tough luck numpties, I¡¯m not going to announce out loud that fire, frost, lightning, psi, and poison¡ªwell, at least inhalation based toxins¡ªall do pretty much bupkiss to me. Oh, wait, huh. I wonder if that¡¯s an offensive term. I dunno its etymology offhand. Err, anyway, right. Probably not the time to try to satisfy internal linguistic curiosities Reggie. I need a plan, a good one, and an escape route in the right direction.


    A plan, a direction, a plan, a direction. Well that sure brings back memories, and not great ones either. Oof. Gods, when I thought I lost Teuila, I was so broken. All I could do was keep following one direction, keep hoping that my plan would pan out. Gotta plan for the plan not to pan, y¡¯know? Pft. Really Reggie? Maybe focus on the fight instead of being silly. Oh, right. Holy motherforking shirtballs. That¡¯s a lot of foes.


    They¡¯re starting to spread out in the hopes of encircling me. That¡¯s absolutely something I can¡¯t let them do. Time to be a little unpredictable. Let¡¯s go ahead and take a deep breath and get up in their faces Reggie. Gods, just look at this mess. It¡¯s like the world is suffering video lag and stuttering, there are so many wings flapping behind other wings that the horde looks like stop motion photography in the flashes of lightning from the Worldstorm.


    It doesn¡¯t help that it¡¯s like a silent film due to being drowned out by the constant thunder. The visual cacophony should be accompanied by equal auditory dissonance, instead of this eerie pall in which the only sound is the constant thunder of the Worldstorm. So, what type of film do you think you¡¯re in Reggie? Is it a horror film? A suspense thriller? A big budget action blockbuster? What does it seem like?


    Well, let¡¯s parse it. I¡¯m outnumbered, outflanked, and these jerkwads have all the subtlety of Leatherface or Jason Vorhees. Wait, who and who? What? Erm, anyway. They¡¯ve got magic I can¡¯t predict, so every shadow could spawn into yet a new nightmare to add to the pile of problems I¡¯m facing. It definitely feels like I¡¯m the final victim in a slasher flick, not one with a happy ending mind you. More like one where y¡¯know, you root for the final survivor to best the baddie, but, yeah, well, you know the ending.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Yeesh. There¡¯s also the intrigue and suspense going on. How could we be so woefully underinformed that so much of Terrorzin¡¯s forces have already mobilized? How can they be so many steps ahead? What if they even planned for me to specifically find out about their mobilization now, and end up here? Which of my moves aren¡¯t yet accounted for? A hell of a suspenseful thriller.


    But then again, I¡¯m me. Almost everything I do is over the top. I¡¯ve glassed beaches, plural. I¡¯ve frozen over hundreds of square miles of lava. I¡¯ve driven back Damnations, or destroyed their gestalted subordinates. I¡¯m definitely capable of pulling out some stops and wrecking things, but wreaking havoc here is small potatoes against such overwhelming forces.


    I think the greater play, the more demoralizing, confusing action, is for me to escape as undamaged as possible. Even just doing a tiny bit of hassling to the horde will be exponentially more effective if they realize whatever segment of their forces couldn¡¯t catch me or pin me down.


    Plus, I¡¯ve got Ixey to think about. She could be almost directly above me right now. Gulping, my heart hammers rapidly as I imagine what it looks like up above the storm at the moment. What if there¡¯s a host of dragons and riders waiting on some aerie near this horde, that spotted Ixeyla? I could never forgive myself if she got caught or killed.


    That tears it. It¡¯s time Reggie. Lil¡¯s counting on you to bring her home safely. Everyone¡¯s counting on you to make it out of this safely and put more plans into motion. One thing you can do though? You can move mountains. You can work a miracle.


    My brain fritzes into a BSOD, a blue screen of death momentarily. Why does that phrasing sound familiar? Rattling my skull, I shake the thoughts loose so I can focus. I¡¯m going to head southeast, into the edge of the horde, and break through them, and break down their route towards Solace and Mahruke.


    Even if the estimates are correct that we should have a week at their current capable pace, I¡¯d rather hassle them as much as possible to slow their pace as much as I can while I¡¯m here. To do that, let¡¯s collapse a friggin¡¯ mountain down atop the heads of the front of their forces, and ruin the easy path through towards the valley that leads to Mahruke.


    Deep breath Reggie, puff it out. Don¡¯t get too reckless. You¡¯re going to be using yourself, FFS, Zorro, a giant dire shadow weasel, and a giant elemental to topple a mountain. Picture the topography, and pick the best route. Dodging aside some sort of nearly-invisible lance of telekinetic force magic, I snarl at my foes.


    Doing my best cornered-animal impression, I bare my fangs and those of my Honoris Causa as more foes close-in on me. Deep breath, hold it, wait for the moment, wait for it Reggie, wait for it. Wait. Wait for it. Now! Coiling every bit of myself and my Honoris Causa for a leap unlike any other, I rocket forth into the head of the pack closing in on me.


    Spiraling as I zip headlong into the fray, My leap takes me parallel to the ground relatively close to the storm. I¡¯m wreathed in lightning as I¡¯m constantly swapping between my lightning-cursed leg guards and glacial greaves. Letting lightning flow around me, I turn myself into a drill of pure energy.


    Tearing through the ranks of Terrorzin¡¯s forces closing-in on me, I break through their lines in order to lead them away from where I imagine Ixeyla to be. In fact, it should appear as if I¡¯m trying to take the quickest escape route towards Solace, which is fine by me at this point. Come on Reggie, analyze the terrain, the topography, the geology.


    Dammit Reggie, I¡¯m a cryptozoologist not a geologist. Pft, snrk. Shut up doofus. Focus. There. Hm, damn. I¡¯m going to need a couple minutes to set this up. That¡­ might be a bit of a tough ask. Well, give it everything you¡¯ve got goober, and go from there.


    Passing a breath out through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I narrowly avoid being skewered by chained harpoons. Ah, yeah, those could put a damper on my day. Seems there are a few powerful Spellknights riding some of the dragons around here. I hate the tiny bit of myself that glances around for Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui. There¡¯s no friggin¡¯ way she¡¯d suddenly turn, well, turncoat, uh, again, with her brother in our infirmary at this point in the war.


    Scratching my forehead, I do begin to doubt the motives of anyone who has accepted our mercy suddenly. I can¡¯t really afford this distraction though. We¡¯ve got as much security in place in Solace as can be to handle such deceptions. Come on Reggie, breathe, tunnel through this pack of dragons and riders. Dodge!


    Interrupting my spin, I fling myself to the side as something monstrous passes through where I¡¯d just been. My stomach lurches from the sudden jarring impact of my evasive maneuver. Blinking several times, I can¡¯t tell if it was a conjured spell attack, an illusion, or some horrific necromantic monstrosity. On the, um, plus side, accidentally interrupting my spin loosed the lightning I¡¯ve been trailing as part of my mobility boosting drilling.


    I snort with unintentionally cruel laughter at the various forces of Terrorzin sent spasming out of the air towards the ground from the absolutely massive lightning bolt that I just sent clockwise out through the far arm of the horde. I¡¯m moving away from the cold spot far in the distance that distorts my thermal senses. Hey, Reggie, quick question. Uh, yeah, what? If a Shellcracker thundershouts in a Worldstorm, does it make a sound?


    What? Oh. Heh. Like some twisted dark baroque painting, such as The Fall of the Damned into Paradise Lost, or The Last Judgment, I¡¯m ascending while trailed by Legion. The dragons are more like a flight of imps from Hell itself grasping at me as I ascend through a world that has become little more than a grim palette of ash and shadow.


    My ascent is a desperate struggle through these demonic figures grabbing at me, these Hellish hordes that are equally desperate to drag me down into their infernal pit. Each taloned hand is a grueling obstacle I struggle to overcome that could be virtually clawing free of Rodin¡¯s ¡°The Gates of Hell,¡± or the seventh circle of Dante¡¯s Inferno that seethes and writhes beneath me. Legion swarms, their physicality equally amorphous as the silent outcry of what should be a cacophony of shrieks and growls that are swallowed by the rage of the unending storm.


    I clad myself in a skin of stone, marking myself the Earthen ambassador to the heavens seeking salvation. Every motion feels jerky and deliberate when lit by brief intense flashes of lightning. Our scene is akin to a low FPS video reel of Bosch¡¯s most nightmarish triptych, or Bruegel¡¯s Fall of Rebel Angels.


    The scene¡¯s illumination is sharp, blinding flashes of lightning, outlining the draconic hordes flying beneath me in long shadows cast below. The flashing followed by inky blackness casts illusions of harsh, exaggerated forms like an unfiltered overexposed daguerreotype. Everything is stark contrasts and haunting clarity simultaneously. What would normally be a rainbow tableau of chromatic dragonkind instead is at best a black and white copy of reality.


    Then I reach forth to the storm like it were some heavenly savior, and nestle myself within its deadly embrace only momentarily. I revel in the thundrous vibrations and draw forth a deep breath while I start loosing one of my remaining cones of cold. Within this nestled stormy embrace I¡¯m under the pressure of the entire Worldstorm, or so it seems at least.


    It¡¯s funny how loud my ragged breathing and pounding heart are within my head, the pressure of the howling winds about me feels like it forces my internal noises to fight forth from within me with more ferocity than ever before. Conversely, the snarling, flapping, and roaring of the encroaching horde¡¯s cries are swallowed whole by the unending tempest of the Worldstorm.


    Here goes, well, everything. Crystallizing even this small fragment of storm is a feat in and of itself. My thunder breath boils, burbles, and bubbles up from within me through my organ. Koff. I¡¯m glad no one else is in my head at the moment. Obviously I mean my breath-weapon organ.


    Regardless, my electrokinesis and lightning Spiritswarm converge, coalescing around my throat to massage my organ as it swells to seemingly Brobdingnagian proportions. My jaw is leveled, aimed downwards at a still-forming glacier amidst the Worldstorm. I¡¯m reapplying my stoneskin, conjuring forth the granite protection that lasts only the merest fraction of moments against the fury of the tempest meant to hold dragons at bay.


    Barking a shout, I can¡¯t help it as I call out, ¡°Fuzz Rodah,¡± for some reason. My eye twitches as a minor BSOD passes through my cranium, but I¡¯m too engrossed in reality to let myself slip long into any distraction. My glacial cone had coalesced beneath me quite nicely, the stinging wet becoming a heavy solid chill, a mountain of ice toppling free from the sky. That in turn is shattered by the greatest shout I¡¯ve ever unleashed. Turning crystallized storm into a shrapnel tsunami with the loudest thunder-shout I¡¯ve ever attempted is, well, let¡¯s just say we¡¯re off to a good start at pissing off Terrorzin¡¯s forces.


    Now, divebombing through bodies in disarray, I try not to sympathize with dragons and riders loosing silent wails of agony as they scrabble to dislodge sharpened chunks of frozen acid from wounds before they melt in more ways than one. Plenty have had their wings decimated and torn to shreds, sending them tumbling to Rayileklia¡¯s muddy soil far below us, in a freefall that my memory says is too slow, yet still surely fatal for most.


    Keep it up Reggie, just a few dozen more steps to your plan before you can try to escape and meet up with Ixeyla. No pressure, right? Pft. Sure. Right, no pressure.

 B 6 C 210: Eye Dee Kay How

    Alright Reggie, you have to assume there¡¯s at least a few individuals at least as witty as your clever little ploy in such a massive horde. They¡¯ll be able to put two and two together if you head right for your target. You can¡¯t let that happen. If they throw together countermeasures that keep you from buying the time you need, you certainly won¡¯t be moving mountains or making miracles.


    So, how do I psych out an unknown opponent who¡¯s probably smarter than me, that has had our entire intelligence network beat this entire time? Well, me being my chaotic little self is probably my best bet. If even I don¡¯t know what the hell I¡¯m doing, how can anyone else? Hah. Erm, gosh I feel silly. But it¡¯s kinda true isn¡¯t it?


    So are you trying to convince yourself to literally, ¡°Don¡¯t think, just do,¡± Reggie? Well, I suppose that¡¯s one way to look at it. You¡¯re totally going to divebomb the horde and unleash giant dire shadow weasels aren¡¯t you? Pft. Heheh. Maybe. Maybe.


    Well, that¡¯s definitely one thing they won¡¯t be expecting right now. I don¡¯t know how anyone would expect a Shellcracker satellite slam from the Worldstorm level. Drawing a deep breath, I hold it only momentarily as I armor up with my Steely Body spell. With this few bits of adamantite shavings, I attain my most durable, defensive form, that of an adamantite golem essentially.


    I loose my breath and achieve a meteoric fall. Adopting an aerodynamic dive, I punch a hole through any pursuer in my way that hasn¡¯t already been dissuaded by my explosive glacial acid-storm outburst. Literally.


    Gruesome, but effective. Dragon and drake after dragon and drake fall before me, again, literally. However, this one¡¯s trying to achieve a size and density grand enough to halt my fall, but I¡¯m still driving them into the dirt regardless.


    The iridescent black scales of my quarry cause my heart to catch momentarily. I know it isn¡¯t Iylynila or Kinzul, but I can¡¯t help how much the color of this beast¡¯s scales affects me. Two of the most important people on Rayileklia to me share this draconic typing. This acid dragon beneath me is furiously writhing about, attempting to strike me and free themselves from my descending trajectory. I however have them pinned beneath my plummeting Honoris Causa¡¯s draconic limbs.


    The ground rumbles as I drive this dragon skullfirst into Rayileklia¡¯s soil. I turn my head to the side and clench my eyes shut tightly. Brutality isn¡¯t my way. It¡¯s not what I want to be doing. But right now? The chaotic outbursts of random acts of brutality are one of the things helping keep my foes on their toes and off the scent of my true objectives. Suddenly, down here as far from the storm as I can be, sound other than unending thunder returns to normal.


    That¡¯d be a blessing it if weren¡¯t for the fact that it¡¯s just a massive din of snarling, roaring, gnashing, and hateful outcries of my foes. Foes that essentially blot out the sky above and around me as more and more close in on my location. At least there¡¯s one sound that ends about as soon as it¡¯d reached my ears. The breath weapons that¡¯d been peppering me throughout my descent suddenly cease, I guess they don¡¯t want to kill all their ground-force allies just yet.


    Heart hammering up into my throat, I make a crazily mad dash into a segment of the landbound horde to the south of me. I joke to myself a bit, since I really am going to let loose giant dire shadow weasels amidst the horde. Quipping under my breath to no one in particular, I ask, ¡°Hey buddy, are ya ready to exist yet?¡±


    Feeling a little silly, I call out, ¡°Let¡¯s go, I choose you giant dire shadow weasel,¡± as I call forth one of my three lesser shadowy conjurations. I can¡¯t help giggling a bit as both my call, and my enormous silly creature sew confusion within the horde above and around me. What crazed nincompoop drops in the midst of Terrorzin¡¯s hordes, and unleashes a giant weasel as their onslaught?


    This crazed nincompoop, that¡¯s who. This crazed nincompoop also begins to void out their own presence. Hey, FFS, mind helping out the dire weasel for a bit? I¡¯ll be calling you again once I get into position in order to enact my plan. Thanks pal, of course I¡¯ll happily pay the sorcerous points from the archsorc staff to call you across the dimensional divide, through the veil into our realm.


    Bursting into flames while coating myself in frost, I summon Frostfire Salamanderian atop myself while working to hide my Honoris Causa, and myself within its voided presence. For all intents and purposes, it looks like I assumed FFS¡¯s form, as I let them take my place on the battlefield alongside my dire weasel.


    Well, that first weasel who is now gone. I quickly conjure my second of three shadow weasels I¡¯ll be able to call forth, summoning it near FFS as I tear away off the battlefield where the chaos being unleashed sews confusion far and wide amidst Terrorzin¡¯s ranks.


    I haven¡¯t tried this before, and I think it¡¯s draining a lot of dragonforce, so I can¡¯t keep it up for long. Huffing and puffing, I try not to cough or give away my location as I make a break for the tunnel structures in the northern mountain along the valley path. My vision blurs, and my lungs burn and ache from the constant strain of swapping back and forth between deep breaths, and holding my breath, while exerting myself so thoroughly.


    My legs ache with the strain of sprinting through deep mud as an adamantite golem, trying to keep my telekinesis to a minimum so as not to possibly accidentally alert any mages that can sense telekinetic force. FFS is back there, attempting to simply seem like they¡¯re chaotically lashing out, which, I mean, they are, and that¡¯s what I wanted them to do, but they¡¯re sneakily being as evasive as possible in order to buy me more time before their form is discorporated from this side of the veil between our realms. Thanks pal. You¡¯re a life-saver, literally.


    Of course, my giant dire shadow weasels aren¡¯t quite as, um, tactically ingenious. I have to resummon it yet again, my third and final casting of the day, if I want to refresh it. I¡¯m going to save it for the tunnel structures though. They¡¯re pretty excellent at fighting in tight quarters, specifically tunnels. Visualize it Reggie. Keep it together. Don¡¯t focus on the idea that you could get beaten, slain, or worse, captured here.


    Don¡¯t think about it. Don¡¯t. Just don¡¯t. Okay? Not everything is riding on you, but yes, it would be a little catastrophic for you to be taken off the board right now. So you can¡¯t afford to panic. Right, sure, don¡¯t panic.


    Reggie Shellcracker, don¡¯t panic under pressure. You¡¯ve totally got it handled. Yup, no biggy. Nadaprob Bob. Pft. Nothin¡¯ doin¡¯. I¡¯m out of my mind with worry about the state of the war, and the possibilities that could spawn from this turn of events.


    I can¡¯t afford to be reckless though. I can be chaotic, nervous, and even a bit silly, but everything I do has to have a calculated outcome, and a fallback in case I can¡¯t achieve that outcome. Current outcomes? Misdirection, deception, buying myself time. Damage to Terrorzin¡¯s forces negligible. Primary long-term outcome from this engagement? The stalling of Terrorzin¡¯s forces forward movement by derailing and or destroying the small path available to them beneath the Worldstorm.


    Backup plan? Be a speedster when I really, really shouldn¡¯t. Ugh, leave speed to the speedsters Reggie. I know, I know. It¡¯s just a fallback. Hopefully. I¡¯m whining to myself mentally. Oy vey. What a putz, am I right? Erm, focus putz. Right, right.


    Anticipate being caught, as FFS¡¯s form is starting to dissipate. Brighter members of the horde are going to realize that FFS doesn¡¯t have my Honoris Causa, or any dragonforce to drink of, nor even leave a corpse. Mages will realize FFS is a summoned entity from another realm, or a conjured mana construct. Get ready Reggie. In about three, two, one.


    They¡¯re onto me! Dive forward! Let loose with my Honoris Causa! Come on, come on, follow me, think you¡¯ve got me cornered. Believe my plan failed. You can catch me. I¡¯m just panicking and heading into the nearest tunnel, which some of you might know is a dead end, and you don¡¯t know that my senses already told me it¡¯s a dead end. You have me backed into a corner.


    Passing my breath out through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I try to keep up the anxious charade without actually letting anxiety take me over. I wish I could afford some time to siphon the dragonforces of these foes. The best I can do is buy myself a couple of minutes to increase the confusion. To sell the illusion of desperation¡ªthough it¡¯s not that far from reality¡ªI begin loading my holy halefire double-barreled wrist crossbow with the cataclysm bolts, two at a time.


    Peppering the encroaching horde with blasting bolts, necropulse bolts, shrapnel bolts, and frost bolts, I hope I¡¯m selling my charade. The bolts are at least a bit devastating against some of the riders and ground-forces chasing me, but they¡¯re barely mosquito bites to the dragons and drakes. I do try to choose my targets carefully while appearing to aim wildly into the horde. My priority is any caster that might be able to work out what I¡¯m up to, or what some of my suites of abilities are, that I haven¡¯t unveiled yet.


    Donning number four from the QCR, my lightning-cursed leg guards, I engorge my organ. Rolling my eyes, I facepalm. I really need a better name for that thing. Anyway, my breath weapon sac swells to bursting with energy, and I loose it into the faces of the front line of pursuers, and amplify it with a lightning-enchanted rune-knife. While loosing lightning, my Honoris Causa is belching breath of the void. I¡¯m no dragon, not truly, but I think I put on a fairly convincing show of being one backed into a corner.


    Conjuring my three slowing fields at the mouth of the tunnel as I dive into it, one after the other after the other, I bring out my last giant dire shadow weasel. I also can¡¯t help giggling a little at the creature¡¯s nomenclature. Rattling my skull so that I don¡¯t get lost in shaking my head ruefully at myself, I try to take stock of what I have available.


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    I¡¯ve got the meteorites I can conjure, my thermal abilities that I¡¯m saving to blow the top off a mountain, and, uh, huh, well, a trick or two that can move me through, about, and beyond a few things. Breathing shakily, I pat down my Ravenfeather Coat and Elemental Bandolier. Yeah, a few things.


    Skating away into the tunnel in which I¡¯ve chosen to make my facade of a last-stand, I continue drawing my foes to me. Just like Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s domain, we¡¯ll obfuscate our subterfuge, with other subterfuge. Three, two, one! I conjure forth a massive block of titanwood to stopper the tunnel behind me.


    Surprisingly, dismayingly, one of the best fliers in Terrorzin¡¯s forces makes it through the slowing clouds, my dire weasel, and bypasses my block of titanwood as it¡¯s materializing. Well, crap. If this fool has any way to communicate with the forces on the far side of the titanwood, or can help bust out the tunnels around it more swiftly from this side, my whole charade goes down the drain.


    I accidentally drop Whisper, or appear to at least. Pretending to fumble further, I continue to grasp throwing knives from my Elemental Bandolier, and shakily toss them vaguely in the direction of my elite pursuer. My valiant foe is a sinewy, sleek green dragon, who, to their credit, takes the knives seriously enough to dodge even my half-arsed throws. I guess it makes sense they wouldn¡¯t underestimate the potential devastation of my abilities and equipment at this stage in the game.


    Anyway, peppering them with holy halefire bolts, I levitate Whisper along behind my pursuer while I edge rearward away up the tunnel towards the dead-end. I need them to remain focused on me in front of them, and for them to believe I¡¯m putting my all into a fighting retreat. I have to make a decisive strike so that they can¡¯t think to call out that I¡¯m not actually trapped in here with them.


    My adamantite form absorbs a few blows from this dragon¡¯s claws and tail, but it dissipates under a magical assault of some single use artifact or another. I¡¯m pelted by an array of magics across a rainbow spectrum of elements and mystical types. It¡¯s like I¡¯m sprayed by a living prism. Oh, prismatic spray. Right. More and more things like that one particular tabletop roleplaying game on Fakeworld keep cropping up.


    Luckily for me, my health pool and saving throws break the balance in that system, so I¡¯m not as thoroughly decimated as I¡¯d otherwise be. Also luckily for me, my pursuer closes in for the kill while I¡¯m seemingly discombobulated by the magical assault, vulnerable now without my adamantite form of my Steely Skin spell. It¡¯s in that moment I let Whisper knick my draconic foe in the tail, teleporting me out of harm¡¯s way as a fairly deadly swipe claws through where I¡¯d been only an instant prior, in my fleshy non-adamantite form.


    Exhaling smoothly, I calmly utter, ¡°LSE Balefire,¡± when I snake my way up along the spine of my foe, dragging the Riptide Katana through its back, eviscerating it, and filling it with consumptive black flames. The unholy shrieking that fills the tunnel I¡¯m hoping either go unheard, or are mistaken to be me wailing in agony from being finished off.


    Alright, if all this pans out, I should have a few minutes before anyone catches on to my escape, and more before someone imagines what I might really be up to in this mountain. Relinquishing my Honoris Causa, I dive into the stone of the mountain. My stomach lurches and it feels like my eyeballs are being torn out the rear of my skull as I plod through the stone like it were a membranous jelly. This will never be pleasant. I try to stifle my coughing, because I have no idea what might happen if my lungs decompress or collapse like this.


    Picture it in Retrocognition Reggie. Find the structural weakpoints. Find the place where conjuring a massive glacier, and then superheating it instantly blows this whole mountain asunder. I¡¯m going to have to use a couple of, hm, no, those won¡¯t work. Crap.


    I¡¯m approaching the area I¡¯ll need to be in to perform my feat, but I¡¯m missing an element. I need a space in which to compress the explosive force that¡¯s large enough to fit the glacier as it materializes, but essentially no larger. I can¡¯t dive into the stone when I cause the explosion, because any cracks in the stonework that I¡¯m melding through will crack me and separate me into pieces, killing me.


    I have to facetank my own ultimate steam explosion. Again. Groaning, I facepalm as I swim through stone. Things never get any easier, do they? Pft. There¡¯re something like twenty to sixty thousand dragonkin spread over a few dozen miles to the west. Yeah Reggie, things aren¡¯t getting any easier. Get a grip pal.


    Alright, alright, no need to be snippy and snark off at me, um, me. Facepalming yet again, I shake my head at myself and sigh. Hell I¡¯m doing that so much today. Anyway, focus up putz. Right, right. How the hell do we do this? We¡¯ve got limited time to figure it out.


    Solace needs every last moment I can buy it with this operation. I know it was unplanned, but so was the entirety of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, himself included, being on the move today. If they close in on Solace unimpeded, they¡¯ll overrun it, destroying the dragonforce-reinforced stone of Mount Solace, killing everyone within. It¡¯s probably one of the five largest mountains on Rayileklia, but withstanding an assault that contains thousands of foes capable of being titanic in size, on top of casters and kobolds and everything else? There¡¯s no chance.


    Del, Yerjhro, Alanea, Littlebit, Nala, all the fighting members of the Order, Leezahna, Zayzi, Ixey, my beloved Lu, and Te, and Lil, and Lucky, my wife, they¡¯d all succumb to such a massive instantaneous onslaught. All the poor innocent denizens of Kinzul¡¯s domain would be erradicated. All this isn¡¯t really news, since we¡¯re on the front lines of a war, but we¡¯re also the only line of defense against this apocalyptic legion, and several others. All of Rayileklia is sure to be doomed, soon, if we can¡¯t somehow mount a strong enough defense to keep our foes forces facing us, and whittle them down.


    We need some time to figure out a path to victory. I don¡¯t know how to even buy the time needed to figure out a path, let alone what such a path could be at this point in the war, seeing how poorly the odds in our favor are. Our advantages of choosing our targets, using guerrilla tactics, and facing only select quantities of our foes¡¯ forces at a time are being stripped from us. Instead the battlefield is about to be our home, with all the innocent casualties that that entails.


    We can¡¯t even safely begin evacuating people yet. Taking to the air we can¡¯t even get a significant fraction of our innocents to safety, let alone if we want to hold the line anywhere, since most of our capable fliers are also our fighting forces. If only we had succeeded in our ¡®Twixt research already. I¡¯d do something with that. It¡¯d buy time at least. Sighing, I blink back tears and grit my teeth in frustration.


    While blinking, my eyes happen to catch sight of several feeds in the security center through my goggles. Hey, crap, what the hell? Is that Vylon in the infirmary? What the crap happened while I was distracted? Where¡¯s Gil? Where¡¯s Te? Okay, Teuila¡¯s nursing some injuries and snagging some eats in the feasting hall. Gilmeshtu is covering the Mah¡¯ruke tunnel with Vyela. Prinrin and Fenric are covering the aerie.


    That¡¯s a pretty big shift from this morning. How the hell could Vylon get injured? Unless¡­ magic. He¡¯s nearly indomitable against any regular physical foe amongst dragonkind, since he can fill the air with devastation between him and his target. But if he¡¯s targeted with a confusion spell? Mental domination? Necrotic curses? He could stumble into his own Latent¡¯s attacks, and shred himself, not to mention what the foe could accomplish if he were even temporarily incapacitated.


    This, this looks bad, really bad. The siege is already going so poorly, and there are dozens of thousands of foes coming en-masse to back up the forces of the siege against Solace. Veril and Farzhis are hanging out somewhere between Alanea¡¯s temporary Verdimenn infirmary and the artificers¡¯ crafting workshop. They seem to be engaged with Littlebit and Nala about something. Maybe there¡¯s progress being made on the ¡®Twixt front after all?


    Kinzul and Iylynila are still nowhere to be found. I¡¯d be more unnerved at that, but I trust them both to the ends of the world and beyond. They wouldn¡¯t just sacrifice themselves somewhere, leaving us rudderless. Lil isn¡¯t ready to lead the Onyx Dawn, and I make a terrible leader. Teuila¡¯s good with attention, but she¡¯s more of a showboat than an inspiration, y¡¯know? Not to disparage my beloved Te. She doesn¡¯t want to slow down and ponder over the tough calls, she wants to be out where the action is, putting plays into motion that no one else can.


    Luni, poor Lu, I¡¯d never saddle her with leadership on top of everything else she¡¯s siring. Siring? Saddled with? Um, holding onto? Dealing with? Whatever, words words words. Point being, Lu, my beloved Lu, I can never forgive myself with what I¡¯ve already put you through and done to you. I couldn¡¯t imagine forcing more upon you.


    Could you imagine Lucky trying to take over leadership? I mean, just imagine his orders being something like, if it smells like friend, bring it home, if not, kill it. Y¡¯know? He¡¯s not stupid, at all, in the slightest, but he is a bit simpler than the rest of us in some ways. Still, he did manage to rustle up his own platoon to go assault Mydraig¡¯s lair with, with Lil. I still have no idea how the hell he managed that.


    Speaking of Lil, I think Lil, Lucky, and the rest have re-converged at the farthest domain. What one was it? Inishish¡¯s? Crepuul¡¯s? Regardless, some of the Spellknights are looking a little haggard. Shiz is in top form, but Zelshiz could use another week or two recuperating from the whole ordeal at Vorzog¡¯s Keep, being skewered and stoned and whatnot. Um, I mean petrified, not drugged. Snrk.


    I rattle my skull to dislodge the laughter at my own stupidity. Focus Reggie. We still haven¡¯t come up with a solution here. You¡¯re trying to literally move a mountain in a moment. You¡¯re pretty full of yours¡ªhuh, that might help¡ªelf. What is Reggie full of? A whole lot of ¡°Nothing.¡±


    I know my Backpotter form isn¡¯t fully regenerated energy-wise, but my Space skill is tied to it, and my Space skill could do some pretty crazy things by the end. Sure, not move an entire mountain instantly, but carve out a perfectly angled cavern by shunting stone into my inventory, over a few minutes? That it can do.


    Remember how we chopped trees Reggie? Remember? I don¡¯t know how I could ever forget. Teuila had to tackle us to the side because she was worried my wedges wouldn¡¯t angle the fall properly. We¡¯re making our own internal wedge. We can¡¯t exactly even keep all the stone we¡¯re going to be needing to move, depending on unit quantity. However, I don¡¯t know how he does it, but Lucky does a thing with his digging, that somehow compresses more of the stone he disturbs and displaces into and along the edges of what he¡¯s digging, reinforcing the floors and walls and ceiling simultaneously.


    If we can borrow that principle from Lucky, we can, well, cause matter to almost occupy the same space as other matter. Essentially we¡¯re filling out the space between molecules with other molecules of relatively the same matter, chaining them together with greater density. Is¡­ is that how Lucky did it? He combined aspects of my Space skill with Cragbeast digging displacement?


    I mean, I don¡¯t know how, and maybe not consciously or intentionally, but I¡¯m pretty sure that the method through which Lucky was born was massively influential in the abilities he has. It must have granted at least some fraction of the applications of all of the abilities the rest of us had at our disposal at the time. I wonder if he ever grew into infinite thermal resistance, like Lil and the Cragbeasts should have had. The lava took him from us, or almost did, if it weren¡¯t for the Phoenix plumes, on the Night of All Burn. I¡¯m pretty sure he inherited specifically fire immunity, rather than thermal immunity. I really wish I could look at our Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian stats pages. Grumble grumble.


    Alright, alright Reggie, focus. You should have been having all these self-arguments in Retrocognition. You went and let yourself get distracted for several minutes. That¡¯s not a good thing. Alright, true, true, we¡¯re back. We¡¯re here. We¡¯re paying attention.


    Oh. Gulp. I don¡¯t know how, but they found me.

 B 6 C 211: Shifting Stone

    Ugh, my QCR is on the fritz, everything keeps popping back into its chambers, leaving me naked. At least I¡¯m currently clad in stone, sort of, since I¡¯m swimming in it as I sense vibrations approaching my location. My foes¡¯re unintentionally helping my longterm goals slightly, but someone¡¯s definitely tunneling my way. It doesn¡¯t seem like the full might of the horde, and I¡¯ve got a few minutes, so I¡¯ll be reaching out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas for the time being. Well, in a manner of speaking. I¡¯m just manifesting my Backpotter form. I don¡¯t need to go bleeding light and life everywhere.


    Pull back the curtain Reggie, what do you see? Follow the flow of time. Make educated guesses, and predict the actions and reactions of everything and everyone around. Thunder and lightning, sure, always. But a crack louder than the Worldstorm, sounding out across the lands, will follow my explosion within here. The ground will tremble, there¡¯ll even be a decent-sized cave-in within the ¡®Neath. I¡¯ll certainly be drawing¡ªhah¡ªattention. We¡¯re far enough away, in the opposite direction from where our ¡®Neath trio had ranged, that the mite-hulk-adjacents that dwell within its subterranean realm are going to be stirred up from my actions.


    Well, that¡¯s just fine by me. Terrorzin¡¯s horde won¡¯t be majorly inconvenienced by them, but every little distraction helps. Still, there¡¯ll be intelligent foes scanning for me after I unleash in here. I need to zip across the valley to tunnel structures in nearby mountains, in and out of several mountains, hopefully shaking my pursuit. Hm, it¡¯s going to be rough. The ones on my tail are going to be smarter and faster, ones that¡¯d waited to see how things panned out earlier, rather than the eager maniacs thirsting for blood that launched as soon as my Honoris Causa manifested.


    I¡¯ll have to make more evaluations in the moment when it arrives, before I can try to follow a tunnel to an aerie above the Worldstorm. Here¡¯s hoping I can remain quick-enough on my feet in order to make the right calls to not endanger Ixeyla. Hell, here¡¯s hoping none of Terrorzin¡¯s horde feels like going above the storm to stretch their wings. Stay calm Reggie, breathe. Ixey can sense dragonforce just like any other dragon. If she senses anything heading above the storm from a nearby mountain peak, she¡¯ll bolt, she promised.


    Okay, well, the breathing advice doesn¡¯t really work as well when I¡¯m melded with stone. Speaking of, I need to finalize the position I¡¯m going to be in for this explosion. This is so reckless. I mean, who the hell am I, deciding off the cuff to alter the very landscape of the Spine of the World? I¡¯m virtually a hurricane, my own walking calamity.


    Hm, whaddaya know? Reggie Shellcracker, land sky and sea, always getting caught up in waves, or causing them. Focus putz. Huh? Oh, right, crap. The rough texture of stone in a pliable near-liquid form as I meld through it grates on every fiber of my being as I finalize my position. My Backpotter form is nearing its manifestation point. When it arrives, I won¡¯t have long to manipulate my Space skill in order to form the perfect hollow from which to blow the top off this mountain down into the valley below.


    In a smoother, more magical transition than my Changeling Fae shapeshifting, my Backpotter form begins to digitally coalesce. The process begins elongating me, stretching me, enfuzzening me. Really Reggie, enfuzzening you? I mean, what else are you going to call growing a bunch of soft plushy fur? You¡¯re such a dork. You¡¯re right, but you¡¯re a dork.


    Okay Reggie, exhale smoothly. You haven¡¯t tried using your Space skill, not really, since Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. You¡¯ve dropped stuff out of your inventory, or shoved stuff into an interdimensional chest, your own chest, but this is applying Space around you like the old days. Claim the stone in front of you to your inventory. Step through into the empty space, now eject that stone, meld it with the stone around you.


    Hm, my Backpotter form feels weird. Is that because I activated it without necessarily giving it enough time to fully regenerate its independent mana pool? It feels kind of¡­ full. Swiping the smartphone from my hyperdimensional haversack across the NFC chip I¡¯ve stuffed into my chest, my capacity seems alright. I¡¯m a bit worried that I might lose access to this form permanently, too, like my lycanthrope form. Oh well. Stick to the plan, keep moving in that forward direction Reggie.


    Eugh, it¡¯s stuffy in here because there¡¯s essentially no air. It¡¯s almost a vacuum in the space I¡¯ve cleared out. My head aches, but the neckchain of the ever-breathing has me covered so that I don¡¯t end up O2 deprived at least. I really don¡¯t need blood vessels in my eyes popping again or whatever the heck happens nearly every time I end up low on oxygen for a bit too long.


    My skin¡ªfor the lack of a better term¡ªprickles, my fuzzy plushy fluff standing on end as I widen this tiny cavern interior, making space for the glacier I¡¯m about to create. I need to be quick, because if Terrorzin¡¯s troops tunnel to me, most of the force would expel outwards down the tunnel they made, rather than evenly outwards in the planned direction.


    Come on, come on. I¡¯m not used to having to exert such conscious willpower to utilize my Space skill, though I suppose it¡¯s not even intended to be entirely accessible in this form beyond the Backpotter having an inventory instead of a stomach. I¡¯m grateful that it¡¯s working at all. I keep breaking rules, and then either don¡¯t understand the consequences, or they seem mild enough when compared to the successes they afforded me.


    I need to be precise. Too wide, and the extra air space would reduce the total outgoing force, instead of compressing it as I need to. Too small, and I¡¯d suffer the full force of the blast, contained entirely, just causing a small cave-in atop my own head. Punching some estimates into the calculator on the phone, using its graphing function, I¡¯m fairly certain I¡¯ve got the right total volume of force, and the volume of stone that I need to displace, in which shape, for a mountain this size. Are you ready Reggie? Me? Well, who else would I be talking to? Hm, true. Wait, stop being a doofus. Terrorzin¡¯s forces are closing in.


    Gripping my frost-enchanted knife, I begin tracing the cold rune in the air, preemptively empowering it with my will as I conjure my last cone of cold for the day. I let slip my knife, loosing it into the swirling vortex of cold that I conjure forth. The multiplicative, perhaps exponential effect is devastating on a geological scale. I¡¯m smooshed into the side of my miniature cavern as a glacier coalesces, displacing what little air exists in this cavern, and of course my own body. It¡¯s like watching a nature documentary about the Arctic Circle on fast-forward as a splintering crack echoes and ice blossoms forth like a deadly flower in bloom. Coughing, I groan in pain, and groan in anticipation of the greater pain yet to come. I¡¯m practically hugging the still-growing glacier, a biting cold that thickens the very air, what little there is of it.


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    My breaths are visible puffs of white, illuminated by my spellwork in the otherwise utterly pitch-black cavern. Whispering to my little Foxfire Spirit elemental, I plead, ¡°Come back to me after this Zorro, somehow.¡±


    Reaching across the barrier, the divide between realms, utilizing the archsorc staff, Claiomh Solais, I seek out another FFS, Frostfire Salamanderian. Thankfully, they¡¯re nearby and oblige, as we¡¯d planned. Manifesting them into this realm as I utilize a non-spelliform flame rune, FFS embodies a monstrosity of colossal proportions in their current form, aided by Zorro. The relief I get from reaching cold and heat equilibrium from dangerously combining non-spelliform elemental runes is a massive boon.


    Using the strange sandy-illusion cloak, I conjure forth a few hundred gallons of water. With my lightning spiritswarm¡¯s aid, I electrolyze the water into free-floating hydrogen and oxygen providing fuel for the upcoming explosion. This is it Reggie. Changing the face of Rayileklia, even on a small scale like this, is so egotistical. First, just believing myself capable is beyond egotistical, second, it¡¯s audacious to actually go through with it. I could turn back now, abandon the plan still, but this is the last opportunity to change my mind. After this, it¡¯s all-or-nothing, an all-out retreating-skirmish, a flight to find my own escape route. There¡¯s no way Terrorzin won¡¯t have the full might of his horde on my tail after a move like this.


    Breathe Reggie, breathe. Breathe air, breathe. Smoothly in, puff out. Destruction? I unleash thee. It¡¯s a good thing my adamantite goggles are¡­ adamantite. I¡¯d facepalm if I weren¡¯t in the middle of spellwork. This is about to become a hell-of-a show if it wasn¡¯t one already, for anyone back at the security center.


    Firestorm, a minor alteration to the fireballs produced by the archsorc staff, a non-spelliform heat rune, and a fire runic knife bring into existence a conflagration piloted and controlled by FFS and guided by Zorro¡¯s influence. As they¡¯re revving up, I loose a long exhalation of lightning-breath and fire-breath. Here comes force the likes of which would neutralize nearly any threat in such an enclosed space. The light provided by FFS, Zorro, and my breath weapons brings bursts of color into my otherwise darkened, gray vision. The colors silhouette jagged edges of stone, brightly reflected in the off-white, blueish mountain of ice I¡¯d conjured.


    How the hell am I expecting myself to survive this unscathed? Well, maybe not unscathed. I¡¯m donning an adamantite body, while coating that one in a stony body. Simultaneously I¡¯m using my Space skill in order to shift a small pocket in the side wall for myself, as well as enhance my miniature bunker with layer after layer of enhanced-density stonework. The chain of reactions is sudden, and violent. The glacier immediately vaporizes into steam. My lightning bounces around, helping electrolyze a bit more moisture, providing plenty of fuel for the mountainous explosion as the steam instantly superheats.


    Turning my gaze sideways, while shielding my eyes and face, barely keeps me from being blinded by the blast. The sound that sunders a mountain simultaneously sunders my mind, or at least my skull. I might be slightly hyperbolic, but the exaggeration isn¡¯t exceedingly grand. The explosion itself is a roaring beast unleashed, and the shifting of ancient stone is the groan of titans. Above both of them? The ringing in my head.


    I try my best to focus on anything other than the scream of tinnitus that races about inside my cranium. Not that I succeed very well. The latest in the Reggie Shellcracker stupid schemes is in motion, as is about a third of a mountain that I¡¯ve sheared off near Worldstorm level.


    As the mountain and rockslide settle, I can feel it as untold tons of rock cascade into the valley below. I¡¯ve changed the face of the world, again, only a day or so since sinking Stormspire peak or whatever Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s domain was called. As the dust settles, there¡¯s a bitter, metallic, sharp taste in my mouth. Despite the tremor of the landslide slowly beginning to end, I¡¯m left with one in my hands, and a simulation of one in the rapid beating of my heart. I pray that this landslide, and resultant earthquake leave enough rubble blocking the path into the valley shortcut towards Mah¡¯ruke. Wouldn¡¯t that be a kick in the pants? Going through all this mess only to end up leaving a slight annoyance in Terrorzin¡¯s path that his forces simply march over or around.


    Probably shoulda thunk of that earlier Reggie. Yeah yeah, I know. Buzz off. Ugh, I swear I see stars and little birds circling my head like some sort of cartoon. Seriously, I can almost make out the sounds of incessant pigeon cooing from right-next to my face. Pressure built around me is an invisible hand shoving against every inch of my body in an overwhelming, suffocating wall of force. It¡¯s as if the air itself solidified and closed in on me in irritation, annoyance at my audacity. Rattling my skull, I wait for my minor earthquake to end before dislodging myself from rubble. Oh I understand why my brain¡¯s so rattled. I mean, other than the explosion, obviously.


    I¡¯m incapable of digging myself out of the rubble, lest I¡¯d like to swim through the Worldstorm to get to safety. I mean, I knew I had to do this, and did it on purpose, but I kinda forgot in the chaos of it actually happening. If I was any lower, even if I¡¯d have succeeded at blasting the top off the mountain¡ªwhich would have been exponentially harder the lower I went¡ªI¡¯d have just created a new trail on which Terrorzin¡¯s forces could march after a short climb. It¡¯s not like they have to worry about elevation. Between dragons, drakes, and so on, they can ascend anywhere beneath the Worldstorm, and certain places above it, through mountains with tunnels to an aerie above the storm.


    Right, anyway, now that the shaking has stopped, I¡¯m going to swim through the stone and exit this mountain back along the northern side of Terrorzin¡¯s horde. I need to remember to suppress my Dragonforce while I make my escape through the stone. I suppose I must have accidentally left it on display in some form or another before I set up the blast. Thankfully, anyone that was pursuing me by tunneling up towards me seems to have been crushed in the resulting cave-ins and rock-slides caused by my actions. It¡¯s a gruesome thought, one that brings me little solace, as I¡¯m sure to attract more attention before my final flight.


    For some reason, I find myself dismayed that I haven¡¯t written more down during the course of this war. Especially as-of late. But why? What purpose would it serve for me to record our goings-on? If we live through this all, and defeat the apocalyptic forces plaguing Rayileklia, we¡¯ll return to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas someday. When we do, we¡¯ll be able to read our logs again.


    If we don¡¯t defeat the apocalyptic forces, it certainly won¡¯t have mattered if I wrote anything down. Who¡¯d maybe find a few fragments of parchment in the ashes some number of millennia in the future? What purpose would it serve at that point? Reggie, you¡¯re distracting yourself for no reason. It was a passing thought, and poorly timed. Just let it go.


    Right, alright. Get moving Reggie. Wait. What¡¯s that? I can hear a mighty thrum, beats in a synchronized cadence. The beats echo off the newly reshaped valley walls. Far too many of them, far too synchronized. A shiver rolls down my spine when I realize the sounds are evenly spaced, and¡­ criss-crossing? It¡¯s like they¡¯re weaving. Oh. Oh they are. They¡¯re weaving a net with their flight and foot paths, a net intended to catch me. Gulping, my mind and heart both race in anticipation of the chase to come.

 B 6 C 212: Autonomous Echoes Under Mountains

    I need to get moving, get a headstart. I can feel it when my adamantite form dissipates into nothing, the tingling of energy, mana fizzling away into the ether. I had to quicken two adamantite body spells just to survive my own geological-scale explosion. That''s what, seventy SP these days? I should keep better track, but, yeah, that seems to be about right. I can¡¯t recall if those are the first SP I¡¯ve spent in the day though. My head is throbbing, my skull pounding out the beat to the rhythm of the war drums. That is, even the distant vibration of Terrorzin¡¯s army¡¯s war drums feels like it¡¯s rattling my skull. I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s because of some spell, the sheer number of drummers in Terrorzin¡¯s war machine, or the weight of the mountain I¡¯d just toppled atop myself.


    If they¡¯re searching so thoroughly that they¡¯re casting a wide net, it¡¯s only a matter of time before they start casting that net above Worldstorm level through various nearby aeries. I can¡¯t let that happen. Ixeyla is up there, and I didn¡¯t think to equip her with a pair of goggles, so I have no way to warn her what¡¯s happening down here. I can¡¯t be as stealthy as I¡¯d like after all. So, how do you get the attention of, and then lose the attention of, fifty-thousand-plus draconic forces? Well, dropping a mountain ¡®twixt them and their destination is probably a pretty good start at getting their attention.


    I¡¯ve just gotta follow that up with a brazen display of my dragonforce. FFS and Zorro are both dissipated from the strength of the blast, so I¡¯ve got no allies at hand. My eyes water, several tears slipping free, worried for Zorro. I believe Zorro is an elemental spirit that returns to the other side of the veil rather than dying, so I can call them back by baking the firefox icon in flames once again. But I¡¯m not positive, and I worry it could be another Sylphie situation.


    We¡¯ll have to wait until we get back to Solace to even attempt it. Right now, even if I could summon Zorro, it would only be to put them back in danger. Similarly, even if I were to summon FFS back to the battlefield, there¡¯re enough mages and dragons with acid breath weapons now that know FFS¡¯s weaknesses, that they wouldn¡¯t last more than a few moments. Hm, I don¡¯t remember if I puzzled it out before, but since my Backpotter form is up, and it has a fair mastery over my inventory and Space skills, I can at least get it fully equipped. I¡¯d better keep it up in order to use every advantage I can muster, though it¡¯s only got a shallow pool of mana left, so it won¡¯t last long, and can¡¯t do any inventory shenanigans without dissipating. So, it comes down to this. How do you rein in a search party of thousands?


    Well, first you swim out of the stone burying you in this mountain Reggie. Right, that¡¯s done with, now you tug on that tail, pissing off the whole body of the horde. Bulking up my breath weapon organ, I thunder-shout my titles, announcing to the whole of Terrorzin¡¯s forces who I am, and what I am. Simultaneously, I¡¯m armoring up in my adamantite body, and dropping like a rock out of the sky once more. Sure enough, the entire net that was cast, weaving carefully about the valley and mountainsides is drawn back towards me.


    Uh oh, it seems like even Terrorzin is on the move, much faster, now that I¡¯ve announced myself so loudly. I guess he¡¯s probably got a bone to pick with anyone titled Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn. I¡¯m pretty sure the previous Hero was The Platinum. Huh, my thermal senses seem to be flaring, coming in bursts from around Terrorzin. Is he pulsing his Dragonforce to cause some kind of freezing effect? He hardly even cares, perhaps doesn¡¯t even care, that he¡¯s turning some of his forces into ice-sculptures, according to my senses.


    That spells bad news for me, because I¡¯m pretty sure some of those new lawn ornaments were the human forms of white dragons, creatures that should be virtually immune to cold and freezing effects. Crap. I¡¯m going to need to collapse every aerie in the nearby area, to beneath Worldstorm level. There shouldn¡¯t be too many, but we can¡¯t let¡ªwhat the hell? The Worldstorm is, well, ascending. My eyes widen in horrified realization.


    The reasons Kinzul had to disappear this morning, and perhaps the reasons Iylynila disappeared later, are now evident to me. Kinzul had to head somewhere that she can exert control over the whole of the Worldstorm. Did she already know the bulk of Terrorzin¡¯s main forces were on the move? Or is this a preemptive play? Whatever the reason, if I don¡¯t hurry, none of the aeries in the region will be above Worldstorm level, and my escape path will be many dozens of miles away to the nearest hole in the Worldstorm. Heck, that¡¯s if Kinzul is even leaving any of the holes that we¡¯d planned for my assaults.


    Erk, crap, I can¡¯t spare a moment¡¯s thought to plan my escape route. I¡¯m being closed-in-on from all sides. Loosing my most potent magics, I conjure GSE Darkest Star¡¯s Event Horizon, utilizing the expanded spell metamagic from The Platinum¡¯s robe to cover a slightly wider area. I set up two, three, four of them, and weave in other spells to keep my foes guessing, to keep them from all realizing that the GSE magics are mostly illusory. Even though I buy myself some breathing room, I¡¯m still trapped until I punch a hole in Terrorzin¡¯s forces.


    A voice as old as time, as hateful and spiteful as the dawn of war-torn ages past calls out, ¡°Hero of the Order, you¡¯ve breathed your last, come so that Terrorzin may feast on your pitiful essence!¡±


    Um, how about no? How the hell are we even going to fight Terrorzin if his manifestation of his Dragonforce can instantly freeze anyone, and anything? Wait, the prophecy. The mate of the wielder of The Four is destined to slay the eldest evil in the lands. Kinzul is the only one that can fight Terrorzin? Her Dragonforce is old enough, powerful enough that Terrorzin exerting his won¡¯t be able to affect her. But so much of it is spread so thin across the whole world. I hyperventilate in a panicked dismay, worried about what this means for Kinzul. It means she can¡¯t produce an aura large enough to safeguard anyone else, and she¡¯ll have to take on Terrorzin alone.


    Maybe if she had a few months, or years, she could reclaim enough Dragonforce to generate an aura of safety against Terrorzin¡¯s forceful frost emanation. She doesn¡¯t though, she has perhaps a week, if she manages to submerge all the aeries in the lands in the Worldstorm, by altering its height. How did she know to do it now, on this day?


    Luni, Muse of the Onyx Dawn probably has that answer. Oh, of course it was Lu, it had to be. Luni probably got ahold of Illy as well, while I was busy. She probably told both of them that they can¡¯t tell me their plan for the Worldstorm, so that I wouldn¡¯t, or couldn¡¯t alter my own assault plans. Sighing, my eyes droop and my shoulders sag with the weight of worlds upon them.


    Alright Lu, still keeping up with the mysterious foresight, I¡¯ll keep putting my faith in you. Hm, waves. Light acts as both particles and waves, doesn¡¯t it? A future light cone would be all the places in spacetime light originating from a certain point is visible from, more or less. Supposedly that determines causality too, that any effect could only have been affected by an originating point if it¡¯s in that point¡¯s future light cone. Lu doesn¡¯t have perfect mastery over that, but did Kinzul¡¯s efforts aid her Latent in being able to determine causes and effects across the timestream? Or is this still somehow related to my Time skill, despite having not really used it on this planet?


    Reggie! Yup? Wrong time to be pondering things out! You¡¯re on a time limit! Oh, oh crap, right. Not only that, but I¡¯m blowing through resources, and, eep, dodge! Unable to get out of the way in time, I barely manage to Raven-port away from several devastating spells that seemed to seek out my position. Three are we, we are three, we wheel and¡ªdie. Oof, I¡¯m back in my own body a ways away from a series of disintegrating blasts, as all three of my raven forms dissipate under heavy assault from breath weapons, spells, and ranged weaponry. Crap, I was really hoping to not dip into using that yet. I already used up Whisper¡¯s port power for the day.


    At this point, conjuring the mini meteor swarm, I keep them hovering about my body as temporary shields to block deadly incoming spells. Normally they¡¯re meant to take down an archer or two, or bludgeon an enemy mage to death. But here¡¯s me helping guide them with my telekinesis in an unintended manner. Just one more way Reggie Shellcracker bends and breaks rules I guess. Not that they¡¯re going to last long at this rate, with all the disintegrating beams and other attacks leveled my way.


    What else do we have? I¡¯m out of daily uses of LSE, LSC, mini meteors, slowing fields, Frostburn¡¯s Slashblast, my Cataclysm Bolts, pretty much everything other than my SP, and Raven-ports. Hell, it won¡¯t be long til I¡¯m out of Raven-ports too at this rate. I melded my greater-elemental conjuration with FFS when blowing the top off that mountain. How can things be going so¡ªyipes!


    Drawing a deep breath, and swapping to the Necrosteel chestplate, I plummet beneath a wide arc slashed by some elite Spellknight who brazenly flew right through my various GSE black holes and other spells I¡¯d set up to dissuade just such a thing. Hoping that throws them off their game is no dice, as they dive after me, keeping up with my gravity-assisted descent. I¡¯m forced to draw Frostburn to parry a series of blows, and I¡¯m reminded once again that I¡¯m no trained swordsperson. Even with my danger wraps guiding my motions, I can¡¯t keep up with the assault from this Spellknight. Worse, now I¡¯ve cratered into the muddy ground, and they¡¯re laying into me while I¡¯ve barely got mobility enough to parry perhaps half of their attacks.


    I¡¯m, I¡¯m not sure how I¡¯m going to make it out of this one at this rate. Even if I had a massive distraction on my side, things are looking pretty bad for my survival odds without some sort of deus ex machina. Huh, whaddaya know, mite-hulk adjacents from the ¡®Neath are harrying some of the horde to my south. Not that that helps me much in this situation, but it¡¯s funny to sense Terrorzin¡¯s forces¡¯ attention divided. They definitely aren¡¯t the break I was hoping for. I need a new plan. Why did I think I could get the attention of Terrorzin¡¯s entire army and get away?


    Hurk, okay, this Spellknight¡¯s got more in their bag of tricks than fast sword skills. There goes my adamantite body, and they¡¯ve got me in some sort of paralytic spell hold. I can¡¯t access any of my powers, or activate any equipment. I can¡¯t even drop my Backpotter form. Frostburn is knocked free of my grip, and I can¡¯t even engage my telekinesis to bring it back. This is gonna hurt.


    Scrunching my face, I wince as the longsword hacks away at my armor, virtually destroying the Necrosteel chestplate as my foe''s weapon flares with magic repeatedly upon each strike, smiting me with different magical forces one after another after another. Suddenly my archsorc staff is in my offhand. Not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth too often, I draw forth FFS from beyond the veil between realms. My elemental companion nods at me, intercepting blows meant for me while throwing my foe off balance by returning a brutal assault of their own.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Coughing, freed of whatever had been paralyzing me, I swap out the mostly-destroyed chestplate for the one with the feather-falling enchantment, and I try to armor up once more, but I¡¯m out of adamantite shavings, so my spell eats away the few orichalcum shavings in my possession. I¡¯ve got a bunch of mithril shavings from pouches I¡¯d found in the interdimensional space, probably put their by Lu, but that metal is far less durable than the other two. FFS dissipates under the assault of our shared foe just as I¡¯m getting my bearings. I stand and lunge sideways just in time to dodge a vertical cleave that flares with magical power loosed by the Spellknight.


    Worse, it¡¯s no longer one-on-one. I¡¯m surrounded once again, my various deterrent spells are all down, I¡¯m burning through SP like mad just trying to survive, and I still don¡¯t even really have an escape plan. Using my Honoris Causa, I clear some breathing room for myself, swiping wildly, loosing void-breath, and buffeting foes with my wings and tail. Wait, someone¡¯s trying to get my attention in the security center by holding up a note in front of my paired scrying sensor. Head directly southwest in thirty seconds? Wait, scribbled out, fifteen seconds? I¡¯ve been so distracted I didn¡¯t notice. In fifteen seconds, directly southwest is going to put me dangerously close to Terrorzin as he continues prowling my way at an almost leisurely pace.


    Rattling my skull, fourteen, I try to catch my breath as I¡¯m knocked for a loop by the tail of some enormous foe. I think it was a siege-drake, but it¡¯s hard enough to keep track of attacks coming my way without trying to identify who¡¯s making those attacks. Thirteen, I¡¯ve got to Raven-port, three are¡ªthat didn¡¯t last long. Twelve. Beneath the flicker of the Worldstorm, the scene around me is a nightmarish tableau of flailing limbs and slinging spells. Like a stop-motion horror film of old, each brilliant flash lights our melee for only a moment. The clang of steel, mithril, metal, fang and claw along with the snarl of my fanatical, ravenous foes drowns out all else. Eleven.


    Ten. Suddenly I catch a whiff of something, something rusty. It¡¯s my own blood. Crap, my form has worn off again, and I narrowly avoided having my jugular sliced open, only to take a nasty jab to my right torso. Yeah, you guessed it, I took yet another attack perforating my right lung once again. Or where my right lung would be. Does this form even have lungs, or any organs? Nine. Coughing up a spattering of blood, I roll rearwards, then vault, launching myself with my telekinesis. Eight. I don¡¯t think I can make it far enough southwest for whatever plan is in motion.


    Seven. I¡¯m down to two uses left of raven-porting, and one use of my cosmic starfall¡ªnever mind, zero uses of my cosmic starfall. Six. Tossing out Whisper¡¯s sheath, my world blurs as my position in spacetime warps, sending me into a crashdown strike surrounded by starlight a few dozen meters past a cavalcade of incoming attacks. Five. At this point, I¡¯m neck-deep in a throng of bodies packed so tightly that I¡¯m starting to get claustrophobic. Apparently, the weight of the horde, and my crashdown strike in this location just opened up a sinkhole.


    A sinkhole that happens to open up into a narrow tunnel heading southwest, where it no doubt meets up with another tunnel heading to one of the few aeries in the region. Opportunity, I hear you knocking, but don¡¯t bother coming in, because I¡¯m coming to you. Four. I¡¯ve got to apply a mithril body again, due to all the powerful attacks aimed my way that I just can¡¯t avoid. This is more stressful than a¡­ really stressful thing. Ah yes, the eloquent poetry of Reggie Shellcracker¡¯s brain on stress. Pft.


    Three. I have to raven-port again, to get beyond the throng of bodies, into the tunnel ahead of them. Now it¡¯s time to LBBTKSL along this narrow tunnel, and¡ªcrap. Terrorzin himself must be nearby as an ice sculpture crashes through the roof of the tunnel ahead of me. My right hand, and tail freeze instantly as they come into contact with the aura produced by Terrorzin¡¯s Dragonforce. His aura instantly dissipates my mithril body even though it barely nicks me, and I back off immediately, into the waiting arms of the horde scrambling up the tunnel after me. I have to reapply my mithril body again just to stay alive against the onslaught of spells, breath weapons, attacks, and magical items aimed my way.


    Two. I can sense Terrorzin taking wing, pulling back so as to not decimate the main bulk of his forces, a lucky break for me. But a few dozen foes have clambered into the tunnel ahead of me where the ice-sculpture penetrated from above. Last port of the day Reggie, and the tunnel curves sharply upwards. Beyond the throng of foes now, having used my last teleporting ability for the day, I rocket along upwards through the tunnel structure within this mountain with my foes hot on my tail. That¡¯s when my senses alert me of my surroundings, and my heart sinks in dismay.


    Ahead is a dead end. I could dive into the stone, but I move slowly through it, and if the foes behind me start hacking at it, I die if they sunder the stone I¡¯m moving through. One. My stomach, or whatever passes for one in my Backpotter form feels strange. Zero, from out of nowhere, Big O¡¯Kuel tumbles forth from my inventory into a three-point landing, taking up nearly the entire tunnel behind me. I could swear the magitech mecha just gave me a solemn nod and partial salute, a goodbye-wave as its eyes reflected a single spark of the incoming breath-weapons and spells. My Backpotter form dissipates entirely, and the spells being slung around Big O¡¯Kuel do a number on my actual body before I¡¯m able to armor up with my own magics once again.


    The ferocious volley of magics launched at and around Big O¡¯Kuel leave me reeling. I hunch over, gasping for breath. The mecha is nearly impervious to harm, nearly, but even it seems to be wilting slightly under the might of the assault leveled our way. I¡¯m far less impervious to harm, and I¡¯m rocked and tossed about like a ship on the ocean in turbulent times. Spell after spell lands in this dead end, disorienting me, leaving me reeling. I¡¯m not even sure what spells are being cast, by whom, if I wanted to try to counter some of them. Still, I¡¯m fortunate to have a sturdy ally suddenly between me and the front faces of the horde.


    I don¡¯t have time to contemplate my fortune as Big O¡¯Kuel shatters the stone wall blocking my path before turning to intercept the encroaching horde. The robot digs its heels in as its palms grasp the lead pursuers¡¯ outstretched claws. The might of the horde sends the automaton skidding rearwards towards me, so I haven¡¯t any time to contemplate how to save it. It isn¡¯t loosing any blasts, or attacking with any sort of ferocity so much as simply standing in the way of Terrorzin¡¯s army, intercepting the pursuers like any defensive linemen, and I fear that¡¯s because its internal mana battery is low.


    I¡¯ve ascended enough that I sense the Worldstorm beginning to spill into the tunnel from above. We¡¯re seconds away from having to contend with the might of the entire storm pouring down atop our heads. With tears in my eyes, I sprint and scrabble my way up the tunnel towards the slim opening to an aerie that isn¡¯t yet buried beneath the storm. Just to dissuade anyone that might be able to teleport past Big O¡¯Kuel, or otherwise make it past my robotic ally, I let loose an enhanced cone of cold from the archsorc staff, summon FFS once more, and send a GSE Darkest Star¡¯s Event Horizon down the tunnel towards the approaching skirmish.


    With that, I¡¯m almost entirely spent. All I can do is LBBTKSL up through a thin layer of the Worldstorm before it totally engulfs the aerie and the tunnel. I¡¯m certain that once it does, I¡¯d have a hard time surviving a flight up to clear sky level without using a ton of Dragonforce having my Honoris Causa void it out while passing through the acid cloudbanks that are rolling in. It¡¯s dusk, and the setting sun casts its orangey glow across the far horizon as I break through a painful stinging puff of acid cloudcover. Quite a ways in the distance, apparently having sensed numerous dragonforces rushing the tunnel I¡¯d been climbing, I spy a tiny red blotch that must be Ixeyla.


    Having survived an onslaught, and lost or slain any pursuing foes fast enough to keep up with me, I¡¯m incredibly glad to see Ixey. The lanky Red sees, or mentally senses across our telepathic wavelength, that I¡¯m in rough shape, and wings speedily to my side to catch me upon her back. Falling against spinal ridges between her shoulder blades, I can only murmur my thanks as I crash hard from the adrenaline rush of the chase. I sense myself falling into a familiar state of unconsciousness, the kind that Lil would claim I told him stories during. I hope it¡¯s a nice dream, and nice story for Ixeyla.


    As if in a dream, I walk onwards, knowing not where I am, or why. Approaching what¡¯s undoubtedly the human form of two dragons, I decide to at least try to be merciful, though my mercy is stretched thin right now, having given¡­her¡­ the benefit of the doubt. Clenching my eyes to prevent them from welling with tears, I gulp back my emotions. I don¡¯t want to be mad at either of them. If I hadn¡¯t been put under that whammy, would I still have fallen for the ploy? Would I still have gone a week w¡ª. Just give it up Reggie. Focus on the now. My shoulders sag as my expression droops. We¡¯ve lost so much. I¡¯ve lost so much. Te¡ª. Oh Teuila. I¡¯ll never¡ª.


    I can¡¯t help bursting into tears, knowing Teuila¡¯s actions, and that I¡¯ll never¡ª. Sniffling, I furiously rub my face on my forearm. This is no time to crack up and wallow Reggie. You¡¯ve got a few powers available to you, but you¡¯re basically naked, about to probably fight two ancient dragons simultaneously. You should probably have been¡ª. I know. I know. I can¡¯t though. I¡¯ll just deal with what I can, and burn my bridges as I come to them. Erm, you know that the phrase doesn¡¯t go that way, right? The way you said it¡ª. I know what I said.


    Sighing as I approach the pair of ancients, I¡¯m surprised that they startle when I call out, ¡°Alright, where am I, and why am I here? Why¡¯d you kidnap my corpse?¡±


    The younger, thinner one stifles their near-scream of surprise to respond, ¡°I¡¯ll do you one better, *Who* are you!?¡±


    That¡¯s more than a tad confusing, seeing as I¡¯m one of the most well-known members of the Onyx Dawn, and they kidnapped my body. Weirder, the elder, brawnier one asks, ¡°I¡¯ll do ye both one better, *What* are ye?¡± referring to me claiming having been a corpse.


    Groaning, it dawns on me that I might not even be in the same period of history. I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker, whose Latent: ¡°Nothing,¡± and skills of Time, and Space, from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, having been on the fritz from some kind of poison, could have put me anywhere, anywhen. I retort, ¡°I¡¯ll do you both one better, *When* am I?¡±


    To anyone else, this would be a comedy of errors. To me? It¡¯s a serious question. What occurs in response though? It surprises me, to say the least. It starts with a half chuckle from the elder of the two, which is met by a snorted half-laugh by the younger, which in turn receives a full chortle from the elder, until they¡¯re both nearly doubling over in laughter. I feel a lot less threatened, but this is weird as hell. Drawing a shuddering breath, trying to put all other thoughts out of mind, I focus on doing what I can in the now.


    Interjecting into their humor, I grumble, ¡°If you don¡¯t even know who I am, what I am, or why I¡¯m here, I¡¯ll just be going to finish my war against Terrorzin¡¯s forces, to finally wipe the Damnations off the map. I¡ª.¡±


    Crap. They¡¯re both tense now. What if they¡¯re uncounted members of the Evil Claws who were ordered to guard this location, without being told why? My own muscles coil with tension, ready to spring into action. The elder poses, ¡°Again, what he said. Who are you exactly?¡±


    Trying not to sigh or roll my eyes, I fall back on the old staple, ¡°I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa¡ª, or was.¡± Blinking back tears, to distract myself from my emotions, I decide to play up a trope, ¡°I guess I¡¯ve died again, and don¡¯t know where or when I am. If the war¡¯s still ongoing, I have to get back to it asap. If you¡¯re followers of Terrorzin or the Damnations, we might as well get to it then, and start duking it out. I¡¯d offer you mercy, based on my late wife Kinzul¡¯s wishes, but I¡¯ll just emphasize the word late. So, hey, good news, there¡¯s no need to wonder what I am, because I am vengeance, and I¡¯m right here. And I¡¯m fresh out of mercy.¡±

 B 6 C 213: What Is Best

    *Thump, thump, thump,* jostling fails to rouse me entirely. Only a moment later, a reedy, cracked, feminine voice demands, ¡°Hey, Schism. Hey, Schism! Wake up! Someone¡¯s trying to talk to you.¡±


    Stretching and cracking my jaw, neck, back, and rotator cuffs, I smack my lips several times while yawning. Coughing, clearing my throat, I reach up to rub sleep from my eyes, bumping the goggles perched on my face, which reminds me of their presence.


    Smooth, royal tones coo and assure me, ¡°Indeed my love, someone is trying to speak to you. I¡¯d appreciate if you could acquire some distance from your friend to provide privacy for our conversation.¡±


    Blushing and gulping, I pat Ixeyla on the back several times before I unsteadily stand, and leap skyward off of her. Yawning again, I mentally apologize, ¡°Sorry Ixey, do you mind gliding around for a little bit, until Kinzul¡¯s done with whatever she needs privacy for?¡±


    Snarking telepathically, Ixeyla comments, ¡°Say no more loverb¡ªuh, what¡¯s the neutral for loverboy? Whatever, loverbud. See ya in a bit. Don¡¯t go falling in the storm. Air¡¯s thin up here, and I¡¯m not your Tenith.¡±


    Ruefully rubbing the back of my skull, I put up my outgoing telepathic walls to ensure privacy as I state, ¡°I¡¯m all yours Kinzul, my Lady. Have the Strategists Eight been keeping track of my findings from the security center? Did they update you about Terrorzin¡¯s army?¡±


    Kinzuls response is, ¡°They have, and they did. This is an unfortunate turn, but not our downfall. No doubt you noticed my maneuver, preventing all aeries save Solace¡¯s from being able to rise above our storm. I sealed the few holes I¡¯d opened for your ploy, and for that, I¡¯m sorry my love. I¡¯m certain you understand the necessity.¡±


    Nodding to myself, though I suppose the image on the scrying sensor back at Solace bobs along with my nodding, I agree silently. I understand the necessity. If Terrorzin decided to come by air, it¡¯d be devastating for Solace. Now that¡¯s no longer an option. We might even be protected by¡ªI¡¯m getting distracted.


    Continuing, Kinzul asserts, ¡°Spymaster has determined that roughly only half of Terrorzin¡¯s subordinates have left their keeps,¡± causing my heart to sink into the pit of my stomach. She further comments, ¡°I¡¯m certain you wonder how such a vast force could be mustered, if half of our foes are still nestled safely in their territories. I¡¯m afraid I have no good answer for you. Only it seems Terrorzin has been manipulating time, hastening the hatching and aging of troops, to ludicrous, unnatural degrees.¡±


    Color drains from my face. I¡¯m left pale, and feverish, imagining just how Terrorzin accomplished such a feat. That¡¯s my shtick, but I¡¯d never use it to breed an army. The temporal zones, the ¡®Twixt, it¡¯s enough to make me sick to my stomach. Could, nay, should I abuse the ¡®Twixt? It feels wrong on so many levels. What could I even do, knowing my Dragonforce, and technically therefore lifespan, is limited?


    Before I can get too caught up in diving down various rabbit-holes of thought, Kinzul adds, ¡°Spymaster also assures me that there are answers, and solutions, to our mysteries and dilemmas in the lair of Crim and Snoutrot, a previously unknown, and unaligned faction within the Spine. The entrance to the location of their lair is relatively near your current position. You will tell Ixeyla to return home, and I''ll lower you safely through the Worldstorm. It may take a week, perhaps a week and several days, but you are the only being that can undertake this journey, this quest.¡±


    Blinking several times, I rattle my skull, trying to process what Kinzul just said. Did she just tell me to abandon the war effort for up to, and over, a week, when Terrorzin¡¯s troops are a week from our doorstep? I shake my head in disbelief.


    Seeing the shaking of my head through the side-to-side motion of the image projected on the scrying sensor, she reiterates, ¡°Yes my love, you and only you are fit for¡ª,¡±


    I can¡¯t help but to interrupt Kinzul in order to question, ¡°Are you¡­? Just hold on a moment. If it weren¡¯t for him being dead, and your knowledge of the Worldstorm, and its motions, I¡¯d accuse you of being Harlequin, trying to get me out of the way for the battle to come.¡±


    I only now notice that Kinzul is alone in the security center as she alarmingly shouts, ¡°You must heed my command! I know what is best! You will seek out Crim and Snoutrot! He has waited long enough!¡± Along with this command comes an overwhelming feeling, like my Honoris Causa being drawn forth from my chest and aimed at a nearby mountain peak.


    Only moments later, the forceful feeling subsides and Kinzul laments, ¡°I¡¯m sorry my love, my dear Schism. Pay my alarmist commands no heed. He¡ªit¡ªhas waited this long, another week will have to suffice. Once our war effort against Terrorzin himself succeeds, it will be at the top of your priorities, as...¡± she sighs, and shakes her head, raising her palm to her brow, partially obscuring her eyes before finishing, ¡°It matters not. You will attend to the lairs of Crim and Snoutrot when you are not needed in defense of Solace. Answers, and aid against the other troubles plaguing Rayileklia lie in wait therein. Please, return home my Schism, my love.¡±


    My breath hitches as I witness Kinzul hold back a sob. She doffs the headset meant for communicating with one of the fielded pairs of goggles, and leaves the security center with a regal sweeping motion. I¡¯m trembling with mixed emotions, not sure how to handle what just happened. Kinzul was about to order me, in a way I couldn¡¯t refuse, to abandon the fight against Terrorzin at its most crucial moment. I¡¯m almost certain what I felt was her Latent administering inescapably compelling orders that would have set me to doggedly following her command.


    The thought that Kinzul might be able to do something like that wouldn¡¯t usually worry me in the slightest. Only, now it does, because there¡¯s a difference between assuming a possibility of a dangerous thing, and that dangerous thing coming close to happening. Does this leave room for doubt as to Kinzul¡¯s heart, and goodness? No, not really. It¡¯s still scary regardless.


    I¡¯ll chalk it up to stress, knowing that our showdown is a week away. With the might of magic Terrorzin has at his command, I probably didn¡¯t even slow his army¡¯s advance in the slightest. I¡¯m just hoping that he has to use up powerful artifacts, or other magical consumables in order to clear the path for his army. Gravity did most of my work for me, but he and his forces won¡¯t have its help, thankfully. Kinzul probably knows I did little more than waste some time, and bury a few of Terrorzin¡¯s more zealotous forces in rubble. My dent of a couple hundred to a couple thousand casualties won¡¯t matter to Terrorzin at all. He¡¯s not going to be dissuaded from attacking even if I were capable of repeating that every day for a week.


    Uh, quick question Reggie. Mhm? Did you bother informing Ixey of some sort of signal that would let her know when to swoop back to pick you up? Blargh. Of course not. Sighing, I equip number four from the QCR, my lightning-cursed leg-guards, summoning a massive stream of lightning from the Worldstorm. Attempting to exert control over the incoming lightning, I unequip the leg-guards. Creating a rotating shell of electricity around me, I huff, and puff, hunched over, breathing heavily, sweat dripping down my brow. I¡¯m still worn out from my fight and flight.


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    Hopefully Ixey can take a hint. Coalescing the lightning shell from around me, into a globe between my palms, I focus intensely on it for a few moments. When its rotation, its spin, is high enough, I lob my lightning-ball like a basketball the direction I last spied Ixeyla gliding around in. My lightning-bomb explodes into a shower of streams of energy that blast off horizontally across the sky before thin arcs down to the Worldstorm itself bleeds off the excess energy towards a grounded location.


    Well, or a magically horizontal ground within the Worldstorm. Something-or-other. Who knows how the hell physics works? I certainly don¡¯t. My memories were wrong about it on both worlds. How is that even possible? How can I be doubly wrong? Well, I suppose any random guess is likely to be wrong in a lot of ways. I guess it goes back to my buggy spawning.


    Random thoughts for a random brain I guess. Hm, now what? Oh, right, there¡¯s Ixeyla. Across our telepathic wavelength I call out, ¡°Hey Ixey, thanks for waiting for me and making sure I had a way home.¡±


    Snarkily she responds, ¡°Not even a thing Schism, though if you wanted to say you owe me a favor, I might take you up on that. Kidding. Kind of. So what¡¯s the news? Our Lady seemed to be freaking out a bit.¡±


    Oh, right, Ixey only knows I was beat to crap and just made it above the Worldstorm as it rose to engulf the peaks nearby. Facepalming, I leap towards her back as she flaps my way while I answer, ¡°Pretty bad news, remember what we were suspecting when we found those domains empty? It¡¯s even worse. Terrorzin himself, and at least half of his entire allied forces. They¡¯re on the move, and almost assuredly heading towards Solace.¡±


    I¡¯ve never heard a dragon squeak before, other than perhaps Lil¡¯s Spheroid form, but now I have. Ixeyla¡¯s squeak would be cute if it wasn¡¯t one of sheer terror. She queries, ¡°No sh!7? Really?¡±


    I simply nod along our telepathic wavelength. There¡¯s little I can do to reassure her, when even I don¡¯t know how the hell we¡¯re going to stem the tides of war as they roll up to Solace. I¡¯m racking my brain, trying to imagine solutions, but other than continuing our hit-and-run tactics against the main might of the horde, little comes to mind. Worse, as Kinzul predicted, Terrorzin is no longer grouping his forces together by element. We can¡¯t send a single gold or red to take down a platoon of fire mages, because they¡¯re all jumbled together with psi-mages, stone-conjurers, lightning mages, and who knows what else now.


    I knew he outclassed us on magical might, but the sheer volume of it is cataclysmic. If Kinzul weren¡¯t so merciful, and there weren¡¯t peace-loving refugees out there still struggling to get by, I might suggest we just lower the Worldstorm all the way to ground level. The problem is, we¡¯d be doing Terrorzin¡¯s work for him, ending everyone, melting everyone off the face of Rayileklia. Well, everyone except the huge portion of his forces sitting cozy in their domains deep underground. We¡¯d just be neutering ourselves and opening ourselves up to a huge raid from the sky. Hell, he¡¯s probably got standing orders for those domains to do exactly that if the Worldstorm lowers.


    How much does he know about it? Al¡¯pa¡¯ca knew about its magical nature in some way, shape, or form. No one¡¯s hinted that they know Kinzul is responsible for it, and even amongst our side, its true nature is a secret. Is that to prevent Kinzul from being targeted, or because¡ªShut your brain off for a bit Reggie. Your walls are going up and down at random. We don¡¯t need to drag Ixey into any of the rabbit-holes we come up with.


    Speaking of, our glide homeward is quite somber. I lay out across Ixey¡¯s back, and stroke her between her scapula, trying to impart some sense of calming reassurance. The war is about to kick into overdrive, and that means her prince, my best buddy, Lil, is going to be front and center against the encroaching horde. He and I will be there with Teuila, beacons of hope for the Onyx Dawn. At least, that¡¯s what we¡¯re supposed to be. I¡¯m not sure how up-to the task I feel.


    I¡¯ve got so many projects in motion, so many ideas floating around, so many avenues of self-improvement to yet pursue. Now more than ever, we need an entrance to the ¡®Twixt within Solace or Verdimenn. I want to evacuate all the civilians to Jeegoobotstan if at all possible. Could I just evacuate them to the ¡®Twixt? Could they live out their days happily in what might seem like accelerated time to those of us out here on Rayileklia proper?


    Good gods though, I can only realistically get one person at a time into or through the ¡®Twixt. It could be hours out here between groups of friends and families, and who knows how many days, months, or years that that might be in the ¡®Twixt. Sure, most of us have the immortal longevity of dragons, but that doesn¡¯t mean I want to inflict time apart on anyone. We could weaponize it, like Terrorzin. We could have Atter¡¯s clutch spend millennia within the ¡®Twixt in order to reach ancient status, and have them mate with any other clutchers from Solace.


    Eugh. Just the thought of planned breeding sickens me. Plus, we have no idea what effect it will have on Dragonforce to be confined to the ¡®Twixt for extended periods. What if their Dragonforces can¡¯t grow? Worse, what if they¡¯re sapped away into the nothing of the ¡®Twixt? There are too many variables for me to trust the ¡®Twixt for anything besides navigating Rayileklia quickly. Even that, I¡¯m a bit worried about, since I¡¯ve always said I should leave speed to the speedsters.


    I really should leave it to them, and I intend to for the most part. But what¡¯s speedier than instantly transporting people halfway across the planet? Or, well, the continent at least. Rayileklia has a bit of a Pangea problem. Most of its landmass is on a globe-spanning continent in the northern two-thirds of the planet. I suppose it¡¯s not really a problem, it¡¯s just not what I was expecting. Then again, on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, we existed on a relatively small island. So why do I even have expectations about things like habitable landmass? I have no idea.


    The wind rushing by as we glide away towards Solace has a calming effect on both Ixey and me. Loose strands of my crimson hair fall free from my helmet, and goggles, waving frantically in the breeze. Hm, has my pigmentation returned to its usual pale tan? I mean, is it no-longer returning to a blue hue against my will every other minute? It still feels like blue is my natural state, and pigment, but it seems like the constant shifting has gotten my body used to being the pigment I intend to appear as. Oh, hm, my Stealth skill from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, and the active-camo I¡¯d whipped up with chromatophores and irridophores comes to mind.


    I begin divesting most of my armor and gear. Once my gauntlets are put away, I return to stroking Ixeyla¡¯s shoulders comfortingly. Her scales are firm and rough for the most part, but the edges are smooth where they grind against each other as her muscles shift about beneath them. I sigh as I gaze out at the starless night sky, while laying on my back upon Ixey¡¯s back.


    I¡¯m a bit surprised that there¡¯s only a moon visible, but it is exceedingly bright. Perhaps the moon¡¯s brightness, and nearing-fullness is obscuring any stars. Or perhaps there¡¯s a thin layer of noctilucent cirrus clouds above our gliding line. It is terribly chilly, or would be for anyone who isn¡¯t as thermally resistant as me, or a Red like Ixey. That moon though, it¡¯s an ethereally beautiful ellipsoid taking up a huge fraction of the sky. I think it¡¯s quite a great deal closer than Fakeworld¡¯s moon from my memories.


    Memories. The idea bounces around in my head hauntingly. There are clues, yet dangers lurking within them. What can I glean from them? Should I talk to Luni? Should I avoid her, so as to not put more pressure on her to keep the timeline on track? Hell, are we even on the prime timeline any longer? I guess there¡¯s only one thing to do, and that¡¯s to keep plugging away, trying to do our best. Yeah, sure, our best in the face of three apocalypses, one of which is marching towards our doorstep, due within a week. As I¡¯m contemplating what¡¯s best, I feel Ixeyla panic beneath me. Sensing her panic, I glance about, and see nothing but Worldstorm and sky. Oh. That¡¯s exactly the issue.

 B 6 C 214: Stuff

    We¡¯re approximately where Solace should be, or relatively in the right region anyway, but it¡¯s nowhere in sight, because of the newly risen Worldstorm level. Ixeyla begins to hyperventilate beneath me, which is worrying, so I do my best to reassure her. I get it, if we don¡¯t find some place to land, she¡¯ll eventually tire, and tumble into the Worldstorm. The few peaks barely poking above the clouds provide barely enough room for a human-sized individual to sit upon, and even then their toes would be dangling and dipping into the Worldstorm, drawing lightning to them if not simply melting off.


    Eugh, gruesome. Casting out my senses, I see why it seems like Solace is no longer reachable from the air. There¡¯s a small tunnel in the Worldstorm, and a large pocket beneath it that contains Solace¡¯s aerie. Smart. There¡¯s enough to space to launch, gain upward velocity, shift forms small enough to slip through the hole in the storm, and return to form above the storm. Or in our case, enough room for Ixey to drop through in her human form, then either return to form and fan her wings to air-brake, or for me to catch us both in my telekinetic grips.


    Reassuring her, I call out, ¡°Ixey, over that way, you¡¯ll just have to shift into your human form and fall through a tunnel in the storm, then transform back to slow your fall.¡±


    Still panicked, Ixeyla freaks, ¡°Are you kidding!? I can¡¯t do that! I told you I¡¯m not as good with shapeshifting as the older dragons in the Order! I don¡¯t want to splat!¡±


    Ah, that¡¯s true, she did say that earlier. Cooing softly into Ixeyla¡¯s mind through our telepathic bond, I assure, ¡°It¡¯s okay, it¡¯s okay, if you want to shift to your human form, I can grip you with my telekinesis, and¡ª.¡±


    Frightened still, Ixey interrupts, ¡°Nuh uh, nope, what if your brain magic stuff fritzes out or something and you drop me!? Can¡¯t you just grip me with your arms like a normal person?¡±


    My jaw flaps wordlessly for a bit as my index finger can¡¯t decide whether to point or curl. I guess she¡¯s got me there. Shrugging, I agree, ¡°Sure, whatever makes you feel safer.¡±


    At my agreement, Ixey climbs rapidly skyward, confusing me slightly. Apparently she wants as much distance between her and the storm as possible before shifting into her human form, not entirely trusting me to keep her from plummeting into it. To say that it¡¯s awkward to have an entire adult dragon flip around and wrap their entire body around you mid-skyward-flight is an understatement and a half. Holding a deep breath, I try to orient our fall as we tumble erratically while Ixeyla shapeshifts into her gangly, lanky human form, its limbs locked around me.


    When her form finalizes, I grip Ixey tightly, and feel her shivering against me. It¡¯s easy enough now to angle our descent and lower us with my telekinesis, but I¡¯ll keep my breath held while we fall, just in case. It¡¯s so strange returning here with the change to the Worldstorm, but it¡¯s what¡¯s best for Solace at this point. It essentially shuts off one avenue of attack against us, while keeping us able to mobilize. The siege will be that much easier to manage, when we¡¯re taking care of just the route towards Mah¡¯ruke.


    Hm, that reminds me of the ¡®Neath. If Charles and other blacksmiths hadn¡¯t pointed out the tremor damage, I wouldn¡¯t have assigned a team to the ¡®Neath. If I hadn¡¯t done that, how much worse would the invasion from the ¡®Neath have been when it happened? I shudder at the thought. We¡¯ve already lost lives and suffered injuries. I¡¯ll have Lucky do some, um, let¡¯s call it landscaping, to shore up and block off any tunnels near Verdimenn or near the base of Solace.


    Checking the security center through my goggles, it seems like most everyone is returning from their various assignments. I don¡¯t spot anyone missing. Err, that was dumb. I find everyone accounted for that either had, or is near, a pair of goggles. Touching down upon the aerie with a crunch, the scritch of sand follows my footsteps as I plod down from the aerie into Solace proper.


    It takes a few smirking faces, winking gazes, a heated blush near my neck, and waggled eyebrows for me to remember that I¡¯m still carrying Ixeyla. Yes, sometimes I¡¯m just that oblivious. I can¡¯t even facepalm, since her limbs are still tangled about my body, and most of her torso, head, and hair are blocking my face from my hand. She looses a rueful chuckle, disentangling herself from me.


    As Ixey backs away, she rests her fingertips on my shoulder, letting them linger for a long moment. I raise an eyebrow, but she just rolls her eyes before turning away to skip off while thinking about reuniting with her prince, Lil. I crack a grin and roll my own eyes while shaking my head. That pair are certainly smitten. With each other I mean, obviously.


    Hm, I know I tried thanking Ixeyla earlier, but I feel bad not expressing gratitude fully, so I telepathically send, ¡°Thanks again Ixey. Today¡¯s stuff would have been a lot harder on me, maybe impossible, without you.¡±


    Her response is terse, and slightly annoyed as she demands, ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. Seriously, especially not the stuff about the aerie. Get it?¡±


    Putting my hands up, palms forward in a mollifying gesture, I agree. Not that Ixeyla can see my hands, but I know she can sense the sentiment. I¡¯m trying to keep from being snarky or smarmy about things. Our friendship is almost at the level where I might be able to get away with teasing her about something like that, but I don¡¯t want to risk hurting her feelings. I also don¡¯t want to risk having her want to kick my arse.


    Chuckling to myself, I barely catch the ballistic missile of bountiful bounciness, and soft jubilation that is Luni. I¡¯d facepalm at my brain¡¯s awkward description, but I¡¯ve now got my arms wrapped around Lu, and she¡¯d pout if I took them away to slap myself. We can¡¯t have that, now can we? Wearing a wry grin, I have another slight chuckle to myself while shaking my head.


    In a whisper meant only for me, Luni comments, ¡°You¡¯re pretty beat up. It was a bit scary going there during some of that. Thank you for coming home to me, my hero, always. You always will, won¡¯t you?¡±


    Assuring her, as I oft do, I nod while answering, ¡°Yes Lu, of course. I¡¯ll always try my best. I have to admit, when there were so many foes on me that I couldn¡¯t see anything other than flailing limbs, my heart was racing in panic. Some of those spells too, phew, I need to see if we can get some more adamantite shavings, because they tore through even my toughest defenses. Mithril isn¡¯t going to cut it.¡±


    Suddenly our mood becomes somber, both of us aware that the blacksmiths and volunteers have lost friends and family just this morning. I¡¯ll need to take care of creating my own shavings. I¡¯ll speed up the process by creating an adamantite grinder if I can. Sort of like a paper shredder for metal plates. Maybe Littlebit or Nala can help with its fabrication, if not at least its design. Luni redirects my thoughts, and my face, to hers.


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    That bright smile, soft, and sad as it seems, beneath those brilliant blue eyes, framed by her dark bob-with-bangs hair feels like a masterful work of art meant only for me. We rest our foreheads together, and nuzzle noses. We love each other. We always will. There¡¯s something more here, or perhaps there, waiting just out of reach, keeping Luni from being the happiest she could be. I loathe myself for that, at least a bit. I¡¯m somewhat responsible for keeping some portion of happiness away from My Anchor, my dear precious Lu.


    Cooing, Luni shushes me, ¡°Shhh Hero, it¡¯s not your fault. It¡¯s no one¡¯s fault. I just have to be patient. Promise me, that if I¡¯m patient, I¡ªnever mind, sorry, forget I said anything.¡±


    Furrowing my brow, I frown sadly at Luni, curious what promise she¡¯d wanted to elicit from me before interrupting herself. She mumbles, ¡°S¡¯dumb, just me being selfish, ¡®n¡¯ jealous, ¡®n¡¯ stuff. Carry me around so we can snuggle? Since I know you won¡¯t be coming to bed any time soon.¡±


    Flashing a half smile at her, I acquiesce to Luni¡¯s request. Skirting the crowds in the feasting hall, I skate and surf my way through the air of Solace, headed towards the security center. It¡¯s where I last saw Kinzul in my goggles, but that was a while ago.


    As I¡¯m thinking about Kinzul, Luni interrupts me to sadly soothe, ¡°Oh Reggie. Poor Kinzul, poor you. She¡¯s so upset, so so upset that you denied her order, or request, or whatever. She¡¯s torn up. She went somewhere for privacy.¡±


    Tears well up in my eyes. Did I hurt Kinzul by denying or defying her? My breath hitches, catching in my throat momentarily. Gulping back a half-sob, I don¡¯t know how to make it up to her. I can¡¯t turn around and go seek out this hidden domain that Errissa told Kinzul to assign me to, or however that request came to be. Each hour passing makes it less likely that I could complete it and return in time for the final conflict. Plus, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m unneeded here before the final conflict. There¡¯ll be plenty of minor skirmishes with advance legions, and guerrilla attacks on segments of Terrorzin¡¯s forces.


    Each day, I¡¯m practically refreshed to my fullest, perhaps even better than the prior day, since my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian skills continue to rise. The beatings that I can take, in place of any of our other allies, are assets in and of themselves. We¡¯ll need them. Every injury that can come my way, instead of landing upon any other member of the Onyx Dawn is, well, I don¡¯t need to explain this to myself. I know how self-sacrificial it sounds, but it¡¯s just logical. If we were to roll out a map, place down some figurines, type out some character sheets for everyone, the numbers would speak for themselves.


    My pool of health is vast, second only to Teuila I think, possibly even greater than hers, especially if taking my regenerative abilities into account. The thousands of damage that I can survive is itself an aegis against injury of our allies. Pft, I¡¯m like a regenerating shield in those games where you¡¯ve got a health bar that doesn¡¯t regen, and a shield bar that regens quickly when out of combat. I¡¯m a plot device for a gameplay element. Snrk.


    Heh. Wait. That¡¯s honestly pretty accurate. My genre senses are tingling. Or maybe I¡¯m just itchy as my wounds are healing from acid blasts, disintegration rays, necromantic blights, fire, ice, lightning, thunder, sand, and everything else that was thrown at me. Poor Big O¡¯Kuel. Okay, also, how the hell did it get out of my inventory, and how did it operate without a pilot? When Lil was in my inventory, they supercharged on my mana. I mean, he did, back when he identified with they/them pronouns.


    Erm, getting sidetracked. Did my mana, or will, or something, somehow get infused into Big O¡¯Kuel while it was in my inventory? Somehow, I feel like that isn¡¯t exactly what happened. Hey, where¡¯s my lightning spiritswarm? Oh. Well, I guess that could be how Big O¡¯Kuel was able to move around, once it was out of my inventory. I¡¯m not entirely sure how it got out in the first place, but it seems like the lightning spiritswarm intended to buy me a chance to escape, one way or another. A favor for a favor it seems. Hopefully the swarm finds peace as a stream of lightning, perhaps traversing the Worldstorm.


    I guess that also explains why Big O¡¯Kuel wasn¡¯t utilizing all of its abilities, it was just my lightning spiritswarm stuffed into the robot¡¯s inner workings. That left it vaguely operating as a humanoid-shaped creature would. Why does it seem like elemental spirits around me are doomed and destined to sacrifice themselves for me, in one way or another? Sighing, I rub my itchy eyes while Luni cuddles up against my chest. Speaking of elemental spirits, I need to get the foxfire icon into a fire as soon as possible, in the hopes of conjuring forth Zorro. I hope my little friend survived and dissipated, and won¡¯t undergo some drastic personality-change from the stress of dissipation.


    My heart skips several beats in fear, thinking of where Zorro likes to nest in the pouch about my neck. Phoenixes are certainly fire elemental creatures, and the one that I knew was semi-intangible, like most elemental spirits. Is the Dracorocnix going to be an elemental spirit? Will it also be doomed to sacrifice itself for me? I barely restrain myself from wailing in anguish at the thought. Luni strokes my face, cooing and shooshing me, both of us blinking back tears.


    I¡¯m never entirely certain when Luni is comforting me, if it¡¯s because she knows something won¡¯t turn out the way I worry, or if it¡¯s because she¡¯s just such a sweetheart that hates to see me in pain. I suppose it doesn¡¯t truly matter in the end, because I have faith in her, and take solace in her comfort. She means the world to me, worlds perhaps. I¡¯d hate to ever let her down, though I¡¯m sure I have in several¡ªprobably many¡ªways, over and over again across the timelines, perhaps even just in this timeline. Still, we¡¯re here together, in Mount Solace of all places.


    If you can¡¯t take solace in your dearly beloved¡¯s comfort in Mount Solace, then your despondence is far beyond what words can describe. I suppose that has been the case for several denizens of Solace as of late, or over its history. Kinzul and Prinrin lost The Platinum, over and over. Prinrin and Farzhis lost the Order¡¯s previous The Blue. The Vivant lost Orthral, and of course that includes Prinrin. Oh hell. How much pain must Prinny be carrying around, to have been the sweetest, best friend, or lover to so many that have passed, been lost to us, over the ages?


    I vow to endeavor to share affection with Prinny as much as possible throughout the rest of the war, trying to help keep her being her positive, loving self. She¡¯s lost so much. I suppose that¡¯s a bit of an over-dramatic way to express that I want to be there for, and comfort a friend who¡¯s suffered a lot of loss in her time. Kinzul has suffered loss as well, all of those lost in the Order were precious to her, like her own children. Heck, with her being of progenitor age, most living dragons might be related to her descendants. Phew. Can you imagine if Terrorzin was a brother or son or something to Kinzul?


    I blink several times rapidly, stunned. I¡¯m fairly certain that that isn¡¯t the case, since we already know how Kinzul reacts to her children and relatives being amongst our foes forces. At least if her reaction to Astridus is any indication. Squeezing Luni tightly for a moment, I nuzzle into her neck as we surf towards the security center on our way towards Verdimenn.


    Gnawing on my lower lip and the inside of my cheek, I query, ¡°Lu? Do you know about Terrorzin¡¯s aura? It barely clipped me, and froze bits of me, destroying my defenses.¡±


    My anchor just shakes her head as she nuzzles against me. Puffing a breath, I shrug. We¡¯ll have to come up with a countermeasure, or keep enemies off of Kinzul¡¯s back so that she can handle Terrorzin. I might be able to land some long-distance spells on him, in order to help her out with the battle, but I¡¯m probably the asset with the greatest range and versatility in the order, and even I¡¯m not sure if I have anything that could reach from far enough outside his aura. If only my supportive spells weren¡¯t self-only. I¡¯d gladly buff up Kinzul.


    Could you imagine an adamantite, lightning-wreathed, dragon-form Kinzul? I snort a bit derisively at myself. Keep dreaming Reggie. Luni looses a quiet, sleepy giggle at my thought train. Asking her what she did today earns me a mumbly response of, ¡°Stuff,¡± with Luni trailing off and drooling on me as she passes out. She¡¯s going to wake up with her cheek covered in her own drool again, and blame me again. I roll my eyes and chuckle while wearing a wry smile, shaking my head incredulously. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s alright, even if she is tuckered out.

 B 6 C 215: Long-Lived Lovelorn Lives

    When I nearly bump into Boetah, Luni rouses, sounding out, ¡°Ick! Whyyyy?¡± in response to feeling her own drool on her cheek. She grumbles, ¡°Just set me down here, my hero, I guess I¡¯m more tired than I thought. Come snuggle later though, ¡®kay?¡±


    Nodding to signal my acquiescence, I kiss Luni¡¯s forehead before she shuffles away, blearily rubbing sleep from her eyes, and wiping her face. I wonder what that was all about. Ruefully scratching the back of my head, I turn towards a brightly smiling Boetah, who immediately wraps me up in a bear-hug. I jokingly cough and wince to indicate the tightness of his hug is a bit uncomfortable, so Boetah sets me down.


    Mumbling telepathically, maybe not even truly intending for me to hear, Luni grumbles, ¡°Better love up on me later buster. Stupid icky drool.¡±


    I send a half frown towards Luni telepathically, but she ignores me, or perhaps doesn¡¯t even notice it. Returning my attention to reality, I glance up at the gentle giant before me. Before I can ask, Boetah offers up, ¡°Atter wants to help with things, but well, we¡¯re not even halfway through conjugating her clutch. I¡¯m only needed for a few hours here and there, so I figured I¡¯d best get back to my duties to the Order. Love her a ton I do already, many tons, bwahaha. Though I don¡¯t think she¡¯s fallen in love at the same pace. She¡¯s happy at least, and that¡¯s what counts. Anyway, need a shield at your side against another fortress Schism?¡±


    Oof, I¡¯m going to have to get word out to everyone that the tides of war have turned, and we¡¯ll be reworking our assault plans. Patting him on the shoulder, I shake my head as I respond, ¡°Not so much to assault fortresses, at least not for a while Boetah. The bulk of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, easily forty, maybe fifty-thousand strong or more have mustered, and are aimed at Solace. They¡¯ll be on our doorstep in a week. I don¡¯t want to have to Thermopolae this, but it¡¯ll probably be one of our best options, attempting to hold Vieriss, erm, the smaller pass that leads from their current location, to the valley towards Mah¡¯ruke.¡±


    Boetah raises his eyebrow at the term Thermopolae, something from historical legend from Fakeworld, so I don¡¯t blame him for not knowing it immediately. He does put together the context quickly enough though. I continue, ¡°I uh, collapsed, I think it was Wistenzlia peak, erm, I mean, a portion of it, obviously not the entire thing. That is to say, I blew the top off the peak, and aimed the rockslide I caused down into Vieriss valley, to slow Terrorzin¡¯s advance.¡±


    Boetah blinks rapidly, caught off guard, stunned for only a moment before his wide smile returns to his face as he offers, ¡°Well, if what you need is rocks blocking a valley, Shaylon and me are happy to oblige, I¡¯m sure.¡±


    Smirking, I loose a half laugh, little more than a partial snort as I nod to Boetah. Flashing him a genuine smile, I retort, ¡°I¡¯d be certain to grab the two of you at the nearest opportunity. For now, I need to find Kinzul, and rethink our approach for this war. With Terrorzin on the move, and what I¡¯ve seen his Dragonforce do, we¡¯re going to need to be careful.¡±


    Boetah¡¯s smile droops as his mouth forms an ¡®oh¡¯, mild surprise tinting his features. Not one to be dismayed though, his cheer returns as he slaps me heartily on the shoulder before claiming, ¡°In that case, I¡¯d best eat up, and get Atter fed, for when you need us. You know where we¡¯ll be Schism. Make sure you don¡¯t go off without a full-belly. Plenty of calcite and zircon these days.¡±


    I nod and wave towards Boetah as he trundles off up the tunnels back towards the feasting hall. I don¡¯t have the heart to remind him that I can¡¯t really derive nutrients from eating pure minerals, rocks and gems. At least, I don¡¯t think I can. Stroking my chin, I ponder my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital critterkin adjacent biology. Food teleports away to some semblance of a gastric-system.


    Plus, I have eaten what I thought to be hard-tack biscuits that turned out to be floured, powdered stones with Nala. Also, those stones might have been floured with dragonbonemeal. Also, the donuts I ate with Zayzi might have been made of dragonbonemeal. I¡¯m just going to stop questioning it at this point, and continue to politely turn down actual obvious rocks when they¡¯re offered to me as food.


    I think I¡¯m going to need to get ahold of Pawn, and have her inform people about Terrorzin. Well, no, not until I discuss the issue with Kinzul. I¡¯d still like to check-in on her though. She had a pretty rough morning. Speaking of, I sense her emotional wavelength zooming about within my telepathic range.


    When Pawn approaches me telepathically to notify me, ¡°I tried courting Leeza today,¡± I¡¯m a bit surprised, but proud for her.


    Prompting her to go on, I ask, ¡°Oh? Cool, right? How¡¯d that go?¡±


    The poor dear bemoans, ¡°Horribly! Ugh, she¡¯s just, she¡¯s an awful person, but I still want to smooch her stupid face so bad. Why do I want this so bad Schism?¡±


    Oof, I can certainly sympathize. I mean, not specifically about Leezahna, though I can see the aesthetic desire, as Leeza has crafted a very lovely young woman¡¯s human form for herself, and is quite stylish in her taste of apparel. Erm, yeah, let¡¯s really, really, really not go down any road in which we start trying to compliment Leeza in our head to find reasons for Pawn to be attracted to her. I really don¡¯t want to accidentally convince myself to find her attractive in a way that I¡¯d desire to pursue her romantically.


    Apologizing, I offer up, ¡°Sorry Pawn sweetie, I¡¯m not fully sure. I mean, at the surface level, you¡¯re just attracted to her because of her appearance, and maybe it¡¯s the first time you¡¯re letting yourself notice attractions to appearances. Essentially I guess she¡¯s maybe your first crush, in this orientation at least. Does that sound about right? Or were you asking more rhetorically?¡±


    The so-so gesture that Pawn¡¯s telepathic wavelength sends back to me is about what I expected. Before I can ask, Pawn continues, ¡°It¡¯s, it¡¯s not like she¡¯s super evil or a total bee-to-the-eye-to-the-tee see aych, or whatever. Although, maybe kind of on that last one. She¡¯s so stuck up, and, it¡¯s like, you can *tell* she¡¯s trying her hardest not to be, and still calling you things like gutter trash while talking to you. Like, my tummy was sick while talking to her. Not just ¡®cause of the butterflies, but those too I guess. Ugh, how can you both want to punch someone in the face, and kiss it!? It¡¯s not fair. Schiz-uuuuummmmm, help me figure this out. Please? Pwease?¡±


    Erk. Furrowing my brow, I grump, ¡°Please don¡¯t do the babytalk Pawn, now that we know. Firstly, you don¡¯t have to, because I want to help you anyway, secondly, it¡¯s just super duper awkward. I¡¯m sorry that your crush had to be Leezahna. I get it, I do. What about Ixey though? You said you were thinking about the two of them¡ª.¡±


    There¡¯s a sudden frantic reply, ¡°Schism! Ssshhhhhhh! Are your walls up? Don¡¯t let her know! I¡ª. I don¡¯t want to try to date Sun¡¯s girlfriend behind his back, and, and¡ª. I just. I¡¯m nervous. She¡¯s been more popular than ever with the fun crowd, and, glp¡ª. I, I haven¡¯t told her that I think she¡¯s pretty, or, or anything. I don¡¯t want her to know yet. Please, please please please promise me you won¡¯t tell her?¡±


    Rolling my eyes halfway while wearing a perhaps unintentionally smug grin at the familiarity with that particular request, I respond, ¡°You¡¯ve got it Pawn, no problem. Look Miraina, I absolutely love and adore you, and hate to see you going through a rough patch, but about Ixey specifically¡ª. Sun? Lil? He¡¯s poly, like me and Te and Lu. He¡¯d be *happy* if he knew that Ixey was happy spending time with someone, especially if during times when he couldn¡¯t be there with her. Plus, I mean, despite him¡ª. Eh, I¡¯ll let you two talk that one out. Trust me, Lil would be on board if you talked to Ixey and she was interested.¡±


    Pawn¡¯s pout across our telepathic wavelength strikes like a dagger to my chest before she pleads, ¡°Then, um, could you maybe please like, formally introduce us? Please? Please please? And, and maybe tell her that I like her? If, um, so that¡ª. I, I couldn¡¯t face her if she¡¯d make fun of me, or be upset with me. Ixeyla¡¯s so cool, and¡ª.¡±


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Chuckling and rolling my eyes, I add, ¡°And hot, and all the things. Yes, I know. Lil says the same. You¡¯ve got it Pawn. Look, as soon as I find her wavelength around, and you¡¯re nearby wavelength-wise, I¡¯ll introduce the two of you, and suggest you at least hang out for a little bit to talk things through. You¡¯re a wonderful young woman Pawn, try not to focus too hard on any possible rejections that may have happened, or may happen in the future. Trust me when I say there are plenty of people in Mount Solace, when they realize you¡¯re looking for love, that would be absolutely thrilled to be courted by you.¡±


    Despite her continuing to pout across our telepathic wavelength, I try to send only supportive smiles in return to Pawn. Miraina continues to zoom about, taking care of whatever duties she¡¯s picked up while I ponder how to help her. I do feel a bit bad because I haven¡¯t had the chance to ask how she¡¯s feeling since the beating she took this morning, and I know my walls were down for at least the first part of that. During the period that I had my walls down, someone who doesn¡¯t always listen in on my inner narrative was nearby. I send a glance telepathically towards Ixeyla, wondering how much she heard at the start.


    The awkward rubbing-the-back-of-her-head emotional wavelength that Ixey sends my way, pretty much spells out that she at least heard up until the point that Pawn requested that I put my wall up towards her. I flush with a bit of embarrassment myself, feeling like I accidentally betrayed Miraina in advance. Ixey seeks me out in meatspace, her lanky limbs carrying her swiftly about Solace until she stands before me. She waves her gangly-digited hand in greeting, and I flash her a smile in return.


    Unsure exactly how to start, I figure I¡¯ll try to take care of Miraina¡¯s request with at least some subtlety, ¡°Hey Ixey. So you might have heard that Pawn¡¯s having uh, girl-troubles as it were. Is that the term? Anyway, she only recently realized how she felt, y¡¯know, so it¡¯s a scary time for her, plus she sort of outed herself as an adult runt, when she¡¯d been letting most people believe she was a child. I don¡¯t know if the runt status is going to make it even harder for her social and romantic life, but, well, I guess that¡¯s neither here nor there. Um, you know that Lil and Lu, and me and Lu, and all the rest of us have our big weird web of romances, right? Like, like you¡¯re okay with the fact that Lil¡¯s first love is Luni, and they¡¯re still together, yeah?¡±


    Nodding, Ixeyla raises an eyebrow before answering, ¡°Yeah, duh, of course. My prince is a studmuffin. I¡¯m not going to step on his toes about that. What¡¯re you getting at¡ª? Oh. So Pawn really likes me? Like, really really like likes me? I mean, I¡¯m not sure what to say. I guess I¡¯m flattered. I was kinda¡ª. I sort of kind of have a little extra room in my heart, if that makes sense. My prince is everything that I need, and more, y¡¯know? I guess Lil can¡¯t be around all the time though, what with the war and all, and you and your team having more adventures and problems to deal with even when we¡¯re done. So, so there is some extra room, but only that tiny bit of extra room in my heart. Like the attic or something. I uh¡ª. I was kinda getting used to the idea of, well¡ª.¡±


    When Ixeyla eyes me up and down, I¡¯m a bit confused, when she drapes her arms over my shoulders, I¡¯m more confused. She leans in close so that she can take her speech down to a whisper, ¡°So your goofy nerdy weirdness has been kinda growing on me, because of how much Lil loves you and talks about you now that he can actually open his mouth around me. I mean, whenever my tongue isn¡¯t in it. Erm, sorry. I uh. I don¡¯t have room for much more than Lil though. At most, maybe one person. Pawn is really awesome, and I¡¯ve known her, well, for almost a couple of decades, so I¡¯m not really surprised she¡¯s actually an adult runt. What about you though?¡±


    Before I can respond, she conjectures, ¡°I was kind of thinking that if you and I were maybe a bit tighter, that Zayzi might get better faster, maybe they¡¯d I dunno, get jealous, and start feeling something, anything, and I¡¯d be like, ¡®okay, hey, you can totally call dibs on Schism, they¡¯re really nice,¡¯ or, or something. Fudge if I know what I was really thinking. Just kinda sorta felt like we were sorta maybe going in that direction, where we might, y¡¯know.¡±


    Ixey pauses a beat, and takes a breath before continuing, explaining, ¡°It wasn¡¯t like a super direct desire or anything, just felt kinda natural that it might maybe go that way. What with you liking my sibling and being so good for them, and being kind of a sweetie and sort of awesome and badass, and having me make friends with Princess and just, lots of stuff.¡±


    My heart¡¯s racing and hammering in my chest suddenly. I can¡¯t say that I¡¯m unexcited by the idea of romancing or kissing Ixey, but Zayzi seemed to indicate the no kissing rule applied to their sister as well. Ixeyla¡¯s hinting that we¡¯re not quite there, not yet, but that I¡¯m growing on her. Hell, not even hinting, she¡¯s outright stating it. She is however making it clear how she feels in a sort of plain numbers sense. For at least the time being, maybe forever, she¡¯s got a hard limit of two people that she can share her love with, at most.


    Does that mean that she¡¯ll want to ditch our friendship entirely, or just stop it from moving in the direction she thought it was going? I don¡¯t like the idea of returning to Ixey being hostile towards me, because I really do enjoy the direction our friendship had grown recently.


    Trying to fight my frown, I gnaw on my bottom lip before simply asking, ¡°If I can sort of help set things up between you and Pawn, and you two hit it off, does that mean my friendship with you is back to square one? Are you going to threaten me every other time you see me again? With like, visceral tones?¡±


    While furrowing my brow, I half frown as I imagine things going back to that first meeting. Before I can stew, I add, ¡°I do like you Ixey, a lot, and, well, I can see where you¡¯re coming from, that we might have been, maybe are going, that way. It felt nice to be just kind of no-pressure friends, and close without needing to worry about romance, because I sort of figured your heart was already filled with Lil. Y¡¯know? He¡¯s great.¡±


    When Ixey begins to get moony-eyed while agreeing with me about Lil, I have to fight my smirk. It takes her a moment to snap back to her senses as heat rises to her face before she can answer, ¡°I uh, I dunno. I guess maybe I could lay off a little bit. I mean, even now I¡¯d still toss you to the storm if you hurt Zayzi, y¡¯know? But I get how the threat doesn¡¯t feel the same now that we¡¯re friends. You¡¯ve given us, me, a lot. I don¡¯t want to seem ungrateful. You uh, well, heck, lemme try somethin¡¯, yeah?¡±


    Raising an eyebrow, I await Ixey¡¯s attempt, or explanation, as she stands back, and checks me out up and down from top to bottom repeatedly. When her fingers start poking and prodding my face, and lips, and opening my mouth, for her to inspect my tongue up close, I¡¯m more than a tad perplexed. She furrows her brow while looking at it. She almost pouts after a bit of staring at it and seemingly finding whatever she¡¯s contemplating to be dissatisfying.


    Thankfully, Ixey explains, ¡°There¡¯s no notch.¡±


    Or, I guess that was an explanation. Probably. Oh I think I¡ª, she continues, ¡°No fork, no fun way to tongue wrestle. You¡¯d be crap at kissing with no notch to line up with mine. I was going to try it out, maybe, just once, but like, I can¡¯t even bother. You can¡¯t. Even if you can shapeshift or whatever, this is always going to be your default, so if I like, surprise you for smoochin¡¯, it¡¯s gonna be that weird stubby round thing.¡±


    Ixeyla averts her gaze before mumbling, ¡°Awe heck. I mean, even if I have to pick Pawn up to smooch her, she¡¯s at least got a good fork, a really pretty one I¡¯ve seen plenty when she laughs or delivers messages."


    Huffing, Ixeyla stares at me with seeming disdain, or some other unpleasant emotion before finishing, ¡°Well crap Schism pal. I was kinda almost looking forward to it, but you¡¯re a big disappointment. I¡¯m teasing, I¡¯m kidding. Still disappointed though. Your goofy dorkiness is kind of fun to be around. I guess us isn¡¯t ever really going to get off the ground after all.¡±


    My right index finger can¡¯t decide whether to point or curl, but, through a mouthful of overly-long digits, I ask, ¡°Iff vaff va caffe, ca I haff vy fafe ack?¡± attempting to ask, ¡°If that¡¯s the case, can I have my face back?¡±


    Rubbing the back of her head ruefully, Ixeyla¡¯s laughter as she removes her fingers from my mouth and face is still fairly charming. And that¡¯s despite her having insulted me a few times In the last few moments. Her feminine, cracked, reedy voice is in that unique zone, where it¡¯s not annoying, but it¡¯s super unique.


    I am more than a little tempted to prove I can be a good kisser, because with someone like Ixey, and her sporty competitiveness, that was basically a challenge. I¡¯ve got enough complications though, and I¡¯d been attempting to set up Ixey and Pawn anyway. I¡¯d rather not worm my way into the one little spot Ixey has available for sharing some extra affection with anyone other than Lil, at Pawn¡¯s expense.


    Flashing a subdued half-smile at Ixey, I agree, ¡°Yeah, I guess any sort of *us* isn¡¯t really going anywhere. Maybe Pawn will strike your fancy though, y¡¯know? You¡¯re both really cool, attractive young ladies. I dunno. That¡¯s up to you and her to decide and all that. I hope that we still stay decent friends, but if you don¡¯t have time or space for that with me, no hard feelings. You and Lil seem really happy with each other, and I¡¯m happy about that.¡±


    Fighting a grin, I add, ¡°I think Pawn¡¯s probably been listening in on me for nearly this whole conversation, so, likely, if you say the word, she¡¯d show up and you two could talk things out.¡±


    Though blushing and scratching the back of her head, Ixey nods, and Pawn sends waves of gratitude and cheek-smooching telepathically my way rapidly stating, ¡°Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.¡±


    Trying not to smirk, I simply nod towards Ixey as Pawn shows up. Good luck Miraina.

 B 6 C 216: Ten To Tenith

    I¡¯m sort of tempted to watch Miraina¡¯s awkward attempts at flirting with Ixeyla, in an attempt to be a supportive wingperson. But since both of them can hear my brain, it¡¯d probably not be all that helpful. They¡¯re both adults, they can handle figuring out their own relationships. I sigh wistfully, my heart filling with joy at the idea of new love springing forth and blossoming, despite all the challenges we¡¯re facing.


    Speaking of My Heart, I wonder where Lil is. Also, speaking of being filled with love, I wonder where Teuila is. I¡¯ll go touch base with them through the security center. Let¡¯s see, it¡¯s closing in on ten PM. Who¡¯s going to be on watch at the security center? When my thermal senses indicate two women, Draconiacs, lip-to-lip in the security center, I fight my incredulous smile and head-shake. That¡¯d be Burshis and Nietru, the evenings pair. I think Aaront and Geskae fill in for gaps between any of the other pairs.


    Approaching the security center, I fake several coughs on the way in to announce my presence, so that I don¡¯t catch the pair unawares. I can sense them smoothing out their blouses and skirts as I round the corner, and it takes a ton of willpower to bite down on my smile to keep from smirking. If I hadn¡¯t been so obvious with my entry, I¡¯d have levitated in here silently surfing on my telekinesis, and walked right into the pair¡¯s little makeout session.


    Anyway, as I¡¯m about to greet them, Nietru rushes my way, and pulls out several parchment rolls before announcing, ¡°Schism, Spymaster has communique for you. It¡¯s good to see you well after the scare you put us all through! Honestly, intentionally drawing the attention of Terrorzin¡¯s entire horde, alone. No one as reckless as you, save perhaps our Tenith, would make it home after such tomfoolery. And changing the geography of Vieriss via Wistenzlia! The audacity, and sheer scale of your efforts! Erm, that is to say, welcome home.¡±


    Pft. I snort a laugh so hard that it rolls along my nasal passages, painfully. Ow, ouch, my sinuses. Chuckling, I respond, ¡°Hi to you too, the both of you. Can you update me on Lucky, Shiz, Lil, the Spellknights, and Teuila?¡±


    After a short grimace, and an exchanged look between the two, my heart starts to race in worry. Thankfully Burshis quickly explains, ¡°Tenith was antsy after defending against the siege for most of the day, said she owed a favor to, um, was it Youey-tooey, or Yooti-tooti as she called Radiant Spellknight Ahliyui. At least, I believe that¡¯s who she was referring to. Our Tenith is, um, let¡¯s say, colorful with names and references. I believe she was experimenting with her Latent, and discovered another use for it, though I¡¯m not certain exactly what.¡±


    Huh. I wonder if Te¡¯s tracking down Yuri¡¯s gear. That¡¯d explain the indescribable blur coming from her goggles, if she¡¯s speeding around, either to, or from, whatever location might host Ahliyuri¡¯s missing equipment. Erk, speaking of Yuri, Yui asked me to make sure he stayed in bed, and I wasn¡¯t here for most of the day. Anyway, if she found another application of her Latent, her control and mastery over it must be growing.


    I¡¯ll make sure she knows how proud of her I am when she gets back. Knowing her, it¡¯ll probably take her like ten minutes or something to return. She¡¯s redonkulously fast. Yes, redonkulous. Beyond ridiculous. I catch Burshis and Nietru stifling titters at my mental monologue, so I flash them both a wicked grin. The pair blush and avert their gazes, but I just have a slight chuckle of my own. I don¡¯t mind people laughing at my brain¡¯s trains of thought.


    While Nietru fishes out the correct communique for me, Burshis continues, ¡°As for the others, Lucky was seen intercepting blows intended for some of the Spellknights. He doesn¡¯t seem too the worse for wear, but I¡¯d certainly like to see his wounds tended to when he returns. As for Sun, hrm, what¡¯s the best way to put this? I believe he¡¯s unintentionally started a cult.¡±


    If I had a drink I¡¯d be doing a spit-take as I snort with laughter. I can just imagine it. Lil showing off his near-limitless breath weapon to cow some enemy forces, and either our Spellknights, or Shiz being impressed enough that even our foes stop to admire it, becoming impressed themselves. When he gets back, he¡¯s going to burst in here going, ¡°Reggie, Rej, pal, guess what! I¡¯ve got my own little army!¡± or something.


    I¡¯m almost certain I¡¯ll have Shiz to thank for whatever chicanery happened while they were out together. He likes to talk up the Order, or at least its members, now that he¡¯s part of it. It¡¯s too bad foes out this far aren¡¯t going to be elite Spellknights, archmages, or anything. A platoon of those following Lil around might be a large enough asset to plan battles around. As is, whomever he¡¯s converted would probably be best served simply defending the halls of Solace against infiltration by said archmages and elite Spellknights.


    If a few powerful foes could magically tunnel, or teleport into Solace, it could be disastrous if all our forces are deployed either externally, or at its entrances. Pawn¡¯s courageous, and a bit powerful, but I¡¯d dread her facing down one or more archmages or Spellknights on par with Yui and Yuri, or worse, Zelshiz or Vorzhog. Having a few squads of infantry roaming our tunnels, if I could count on their loyalty, or fanatical devotion to Lil, would help set my mind at ease for Pawn¡¯s sake.


    Hm, speaking of defense of Solace, I want the option to evacuate on the table as soon as possible. Right now? We¡¯re essentially trapped in a valley that has two paths, a wide one that wraps around mostly directly south, the way Teuila and I came in, and Vieriss, the path Terrorzin¡¯s troops are coming from. If he has a segment of his forces swinging around south, or simply blasts through my blockade in under a day, any refugees we try to relocate would be massacred.


    The ¡®Twixt is our only option to safely relocate all the innocent civilians, and injured Order members, or prisoners. I heave a deep sigh as my hand finds my brow. My muscles droop wearily, as I try to picture what strange setup might be required in order to transport people across the ¡®Twixt, into it or through it. One person at a time? Into the little catacombs dug under Jeegoobotstan? It¡¯s going to be rough, no matter what. Plus, what if the Aasimovian refugees, kobolds, and hares need to be evacuated too? Then everyone in the world needs to get to the Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds, the Fae¡¯s Wilds.


    Sooner rather than later, I¡¯m going to have to either meet the archfae and ask their permission, or see if the Enochian Enclave can somehow house thousands of people. I want it as a last resort, but there are three apocalypses breathing down our necks. It¡¯s ludicrous to think we don¡¯t need any sort of backup plans and last resort options. Hell, at this point, it¡¯s ludicrous to think we¡¯ll succeed at even stopping the Terrorzin-induced apocalypse.


    Gritting my teeth, I furrow my brow, upset at myself for my thought train of self-doubt. We can literally change the face of Rayileklia. We¡¯ve got this. We have to. Right? If we¡¯re still in the prime timeline, we make it work, somehow, right? There¡¯s so much more we have to do, and more mysteries to uncover. The Sisters said I walk the prime timeline, didn¡¯t they? They also hinted that all timelines come to an abrupt end, soon. What the hell could be so catastrophic, that there are absolutely no hopes of¡ªthe Beast of the End?


    What was it that Al¡¯pa¡¯ca said? Something about, if he finishes awakening to his true power through mastery over the storm, Terrorzin won¡¯t even need the Beast of the End. I couldn¡¯t make much sense of it in the heat of battle. Does Terrorzin have some creation so powerful, so unbeatable, that it truly is hopeless? A literal world-ending threat? I know he¡¯s experimented with necromancy, conjuration, and chimaeric combinations of creatures, but none of those were truly unbeatable to my knowledge. Some would be pretty horrendous when paired together on a battlefield, but the undeath-related ones have a pretty exploitable weakness.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    It can¡¯t be that, right? Can it? While I¡¯m mulling it over, I notice the shocked expressions, the gasps frozen on the faces of Nietru and Burshis. I also make note of the parchment spilled all over the floor beneath where Nietru clutches empty air. Blinking rapidly, I rattle my skull, making sure I¡¯m parsing the situation. Did the pair react to my thought train?


    Soothingly, calmly, I query, ¡°Nietru? Burshis? Are you okay? You seem spooked.¡±


    To their credit, the pair recover from their panicked stupor swiftly, and they share a glance before exchanging, ¡°A single beast capable of ending the world? Could it be one of those old myths Burshee?¡±


    Her response is, ¡°Nee, I daren¡¯t think it. That snake Yisstendahl and his son, hiding missives from afraid not that rave about those old things was bad enough.¡±


    Or maybe she said A Frayed Knot? Wait. That iconography. The rope binding a withered tree, all knotted, one section of the rope so weathered, frayed, and torn, that only the slimmest thread yet keeps it together. Now I really want to question Yisstendahl¡¯s son. Fricklefrack. Knowing my luck, he¡¯ll have fled sometime between when he aided us in saving Prinrin, and now.


    Cluing me in, Nietru nods as she states, ¡°Curator was finishing up with sorting Yisstendahl¡¯s hoard, and found hidden missives. She brought them to our attention earlier today. They carried a seal with the icon you pictured just now. A tree, weathered, weary, withered, falling apart, only still standing due to a knotted cord, and even the cord, one knot frayed to a last thread.¡±


    My pulse quickens, and my breathing picks up its pace. This can¡¯t be a coincidence at this point. I request clarification, ¡°Could either of you tell me what myths or legends these missives referred to? How much do you know about them?¡±


    Donning a pair of spectacles, Nietru fishes about on the floor, sorting through the fallen parchment. After a time, she stands, and scans one of the smaller sheets. When she gathers her courage, Nietru announces, ¡°It¡¯s about as one might expect, from our conversation. Clues as to Yisstendahl¡¯s obvious loyalty to Terrorzin, bought in some ages past, possibly through his son.¡±


    My blood boils, realizing why Yisstendahl and his son might be loyal to Terrorzin, his permanent threat of death and conscription, especially to families and descendants. The fact that they were allowed to stay together was probably their reward for loyalty. This entire time, we¡¯ve had another snake under our nose working for Terrorzin. How many more have slipped through into Solace? How vulnerable are we really from within? Kinzul, her trusting, merciful nature is coming back to haunt her, us, now. I knew it was too good to be true to think that everyone within Solace was dedicated to Kinzul¡¯s idea of peace and prosperity.


    I know Kinzul isn¡¯t naive. She¡¯s hopeful. Despite the centuries of hurt she¡¯s endured, she remains hopeful, in spite of evidence to the contrary, that anyone might come to their senses and join the side that opposes tyranny. My love, my wife, surely you have plans in place for things like this. You can¡¯t have been relying on strangers to show up in order to end the snake Yisstendahl, and other hidden threats. Could you? Perhaps, if relying on Aymestu and Dimitriv, she might have thought her security and foreknowledge indisputable and foolproof.


    The downcast gazes of the two in my company are enough evidence that the whole of me sags inwardly, wearily. I motion, and Nietru continues, ¡°Right, it¡¯s encoded, obviously, but Curator and I are quite positive we¡¯ve decoded it correctly. It refers to a gift being en-route to Terrorzin, a last piece of a puzzle. That puzzle seems to have been how to grant a terrible wish, one that calls into being a creature that does not, and can not exist, a walking calamity, unstoppable, nameless, unconquerable, invincible, an unmitigated traveling catastrophe. It¡¯s a reference to fairy tales, ghost stories, horror epics, not a real threat. And yet¡­¡±


    Her words hang on the air. ¡°And yet,¡± indeed. An invincible, unstoppable horror, that Terrorzin has the ability to call into being, or summon somehow? Something powerful enough to wipe the face of Rayileklia clean? Is it too late? Has he already summoned it? Is that why the Sisters'' view of the timelines fail to have a future? The thing begins its rampage soon? I can¡¯t believe that. I refuse to believe it. Nothing is completely impervious. Hell, I mean, I could probably nullify it, void it out somehow, right?


    That prophetic vision I keep having seems pertinent. But I only have it when I think about Teuila, and her seemingly limitless potential¡ªI get a head rush as the vision flashes through my mind yet again. One tiny twinkling ray of hope amidst the endless, the non. I¡¯m certain that one or more prophecies are going to have turned out to be true twice, or even thrice over. The mate of the wielder of the four being destined to end the eldest evil in the lands sounds about right.


    Speaking of mates, I hadn¡¯t been paying attention to Teuila¡¯s position on the security mirrors, but she could obviously tell my location through her own goggles. I¡¯m nearly bowled over as I¡¯m tackled from behind by My-beloved-Wings. I do go crashing into Nietru and Burshis, and end up having to catch us all in my telekinetic grips. There¡¯s a hasty round of apologies and blushing from each of us.


    Grumbling, Te pokes me roughly in the chest, ¡°What the heck were you doing Airhead!? That was crazy earlier today! That was like, ten whole fortresses worth of baddies! Maybe more, I dunno, didn¡¯t get a good look through your goggles. Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere? Did you talk to Lu, or Aunty Zool yet?¡±


    Putting up my hands, palms forward placatingly, I try to reassure Teuila, ¡°I¡¯m okay, I¡¯m okay. I got to talk to Lu for a little bit, but she passed out on me, snoozed, and ended up with a faceful of her own drool, so she wandered off to bed. I haven¡¯t seen Kinzul yet. I¡­ I think I messed up Te. Not with the whole mountain explosion and valley thing, but Kinzul ordered me to go off on a secret mission that might take a week or more, when Terrorzin¡¯s army is a week from our doorstep, and I refused. She seemed so hurt, so lost, and apparently she left somewhere for private time afterwards.¡±


    Blinking rapidly, Teuila scratches at her ears, pretending to need to check if she heard me right before commenting, ¡°Well look who¡¯s a big bad rebel all of a sudden. I mean, I get it, that¡¯s bad timing. Aunty Zool really got that upset? Dang. That¡¯s no good. I¡¯m sorry Air. Are you going to go do her secret mission after all? I can¡¯t imagine having the big showdown without you here.¡±


    I pass a breath through puffed cheeks and pursed lips. Me either Te, me either. What sort of asset, clues, mysteries, or alliance is Kinzul hoping for from this, that takes me specifically, for a week or more? She didn¡¯t even try to plead her case with specifics. My heart hammers, pained with sorrow for having disappointed or hurt Kinzul. I clench my eyes shut, gritting my teeth as I fight back tears. I want to make it right by her, as soon as possible.


    Not intending to ignore Nietru and Burshis, or leave them out, I return to our conversation, ¡°You two, do you know anything else about this supposed Beast of the End? Or Yisstendahl¡¯s son¡¯s whereabouts? I want to question him about it if he hasn¡¯t fled Solace. Te, that symbol, or icon, keeps popping up, the withered tree and frayed rope barely holding it together. I think it has something to do with some sort of endbringer cult within Terrorzin¡¯s elites.¡±


    Whistling a low note appreciatively, Teuila nods and mulls over my comment. I can tell she¡¯s thinking back to our adventure to take down Al¡¯pa¡¯ca. Perhaps she¡¯ll recall a clue I missed, or something. Nietru and Burshis shake their heads in answer to my questions though. Dang. I guess I¡¯ve got some sleuthing to do, on top of all the other things I need to accomplish. I wish I could pass off a bunch of them, like ten or so to Teuila, but even if I could, that¡¯d be unfair to her. She¡¯s accomplishing plenty on her own.


    Cheerfully wearing her mile-wide closed-eyed smile, loosing a Shellcracker Family Squee, Teuila comments, ¡°Darn right I am! I¡¯m mastering the heck out of my Latent,¡± she mumbles under her breath, ¡°gonna show Illy what-for real soon,¡± before continuing, ¡°I feel better and stronger than ever, like I broke through something holding me back, and now I¡¯m growing. Maybe it¡¯s from my Honor thingy? My Honoris Causa? My Dragonforce feels full, and like it¡¯s just getting bigger and bigger.¡±


    Gazing at Teuila wistfully, lovingly, I take a moment to assess the energies flowing from her. She¡¯s right, ten points to Te, her Dragonforce is virtually bursting at the seams. Tendrils of light flow around her in angelic, ethereal waves. I guess now¡¯s a good a time as any to ask if she knows about their effects.


    Raising a brow, I query, ¡°Te, did you realize your Honoris Causa is causing your Latent to attract injuries to you, from everyone you¡¯re near? And, your Dragonforce is working overtime to heal you, to keep those injuries from overwhelming you. I think it¡¯s like a muscle that you used enough to break through a plateau now, so your gains are going to be rapid until your next plateau, or peak.¡±


    Te blinks several times, before intentionally manifesting her full Honoris Causa in its intangible form. The lithe, lucent dragon form of Teuila takes up the entire security center. Nietru, Burshis, Te and I stand at the heart of it, and it radiates a warmth like I¡¯ve never felt before. Teuila grins wildly, smugly, and strikes a pose, flexing her muscles, bringing humor to an otherwise reflective, informative moment. I can¡¯t help snirking, smirking while snorting a half laugh, and rolling my eyes. I love this goof.

 B 6 C 217: Briefly Frozen

    Somehow, standing next to Te, invincible endbringer beasts and apocalypses seem far more manageable. Just being at her side warms my heart. Now more than ever, thanks to the effect of her manifested Honoris Causa. I¡¯m not even certain what this feeling is. All I can think to call it is pure goodness. It¡¯s comfort, warmth, love, strength, safety, compassion, passion, and so much more. I guess that makes sense. It¡¯s Teuila. It¡¯s all the best parts of her, literally on display.


    My eyes water slightly as I smile lovingly her way, while Teuila gazes about at her own Honoris Causa. The way she drinks in its form, like it¡¯s the first time that her gaze travels along its supple neck, and smooth-scaled luminescent body, or its rippling muscles that send waves shimmering across her body as its scales shift, it¡¯s a childlike wonder, and a warrior¡¯s curiosity rolled into one. I can tell that she¡¯s assessing its limits, and I bet she¡¯s planning to break even those. My heart is tugged elsewhere, my mind reels, and I know I¡¯d be having a vision, but I remain firmly planted in the moment.


    Speaking of breaking things, I tease Teuila, ¡°Now that you¡¯re leveling up in a gestalt class, or epic levels, or whatever the hell is going on with you, you¡¯re gonna need to be more careful opening doors and stuff. Not that we have many around here to worry about, heh.¡±


    Sticking her tongue out at me, Teuila partially blows a playful raspberry. She then bobs her head side to side, wearing her mile-wide closed-eyed smile. Staring at her face, and down those tunnels ringed in emerald as her eyes open, I feel a million miles away from all the dangers we face. I see into Teuila¡¯s soul, and see only hope, love, passion, warmth. Much like her Honoris Causa, Teuila¡¯s depths are virtually on display for anyone willing to look. One need not plumb the depths of her ocean of emotions in her mindscape to realize just how vast, and deep Te really is. Our gazes locked, she lays her arms over my shoulders, and we rest our foreheads together.


    A polite cough rouses me from my enchanted stupor fawning over Teuila. Blushing, but still grinning helplessly, I raise an eyebrow as I turn towards the pair of Draconiac strategists. As much as I would like to, it¡¯s probably not the best time to get caught up idolizing or ogling Teuila in any fashion. Likewise, Te grumbles and pouts, but rescinds her Honoris Causa, knowing our situation at Solace is still serious. We¡¯ll still steal moments to express our love, but now isn¡¯t one of them.


    Sighing for a moment, I return to the topics at hand, ¡°Alright, so we¡¯ve got ominous prophecies and foreboding clues aplenty, or maybe the reverse of that, I¡¯m not sure. Point is, we have to deal with the tangible threat first, because it¡¯s breathing down our necks. I¡¯ve bottlenecked the advance of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, but I¡¯m sure he¡¯s got the magical might to blow through my little blockade in nearly no time at all. I¡¯m hoping I bought us some small bit of time, and dented his horde, and perhaps his reserves of magic in at least some slight fashion, but I¡¯m not holding my breath.¡±


    The three around me solemnly nod along with my statement, so I continue, ¡°Boetah offered something I¡¯m loathe to take him up on, but we might need to capitalize on in some fashion or other. We actually *want* Terrorzin to keep his focus on the straightforward path, to think that he¡¯s got us cornered, so that we can defend the bottleneck, and surgically strike bits of his leadership core. The Dormir has its work cut out for it, especially if it¡¯s still down a member or two. Any news on Induul?¡±


    Burshis informs me, ¡°Our The Green seems to have his erratic behavior somewhat under control. He isn¡¯t displaying symptoms of withdrawal anymore, but he does sneak off frequently. I worry what his actions might mean in the long run, but as it stands, I think he¡¯s fit for battle at least. I¡¯m no physician however, so please take my assessment with a grain of salt.¡±


    Nodding and gnawing the inside of my cheek, I mull over Burshis¡¯s statement. Teuila fumes slightly about Induul¡¯s behavior, and I don¡¯t blame her. She¡¯s extra upset at him for imbibing Dragonforces that might have meant I could reach my cure for my mana residue corruption sickness. I worry that she might try to leave Dragonforces for me from foes she slays, only to have them stolen by Terrorzin¡¯s forces. Thankfully, based on her Honoris Causa¡¯s growth today alone, I know she isn¡¯t passing up Dragonforces yet, when she can help it.


    I¡¯ll get my cure, at some point, but I don¡¯t need to worry for a little while yet. Where am I at? About twelve-hundred days of Dragonforce. That¡¯s not great, but it¡¯s plenty of energy to finish off this war, since it seems like we¡¯re down to a week from its culminating battle, or so. In the ruins of the final battle, I¡¯ll probably earn enough Dragonforces, or if not there, when wiping out the rest of Terrorzin¡¯s dug-in elite forces. Or perhaps when we finally take out the Damnations.


    I¡¯m not that surprised that they aren¡¯t marching with Terrorzin¡¯s primary force. In fact, I assume they¡¯ll be licking their wounds as the CE reasserts his control over them. Does Terrorzin realize that I¡¯ve driven them off, time and time again, and that two of them are slain? Would that change anything? I¡¯m fairly certain he¡¯s not relying on them making an appearance, regardless.


    Remembering she had something to give me, Nietru digs about on the floor where she¡¯d dropped all the parchment earlier. Blushing, she hands me what I¡¯m hoping are just more sexts from Spymaster. Erm, not that I want them to be¡ªshut up Reggie. Doofus. I just mean, I don¡¯t think I could handle it if it was more bad news that Errissa sent my way.


    Let¡¯s see. What¡¯s this? I guess that icon is a canyon, which would mean Schism in Errissa¡¯s pictography. Then one figure apart from a group of figures, which I take it to mean alone, or solo mission. Yeah, I¡¯m getting the gist. This is what Kinzul wanted me to undertake. I don¡¯t think I need to even finish reading the rest of the note. I just need to apologize to Kinzul as soon as possible. My heart aches at feeling like I¡¯ve failed or spurned her.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    My eyes drift over the rest of the message, but I don¡¯t catch anything that hints that it might contain more information than what Kinzul already confided in me. The fact that she had to spell out Crim and Snoutrot in the note probably hints at how important she felt this information was to deliver. She couldn¡¯t take the time to come up with a clever way to encrypt the names, that we might be able to figure out.


    Glancing around the room, no one seems to have anything else to add, so I shrug and announce, ¡°I suppose I¡¯ll be taking my leave then. I want to catch up with the others that were out on missions, Nala, Littlebit, Prinny, and obviously Kinzul when I get a chance. I¡¯m tempted to ask for our members to write out semi-official sitreps of their outings, in order to share intel and any findings that might offer advantages in our war effort. The security center basically accomplishes that though. I trust that the Strategists Eight would apprise Order members if any tactical advantages were spotted, yeah?¡±


    Nietru and Burshis both nod affirmatively. With that, I offer a polite bow to the two, and thank Nietru for passing on Errissa¡¯s communique. I¡¯ll try to remember to speak to her or send her some form of communique myself at some point. I guess I sort of miss her. Our friendship built rapidly, and included romantic entanglement, but¡­ My eyes mist with tears and I rattle my skull, shaking free any saturnine, dispirited thoughts.


    Trading a look with Teuila, she nods, and hops into my arms. I smirk and roll my eyes, not having meant exactly that, but definitely not complaining as she wraps her limbs around me. That¡¯s the third time in less than an hour that that¡¯s happened today. I can¡¯t help chuckling a bit, thinking about the vastly different circumstances that several of such embraces were under.


    Wearing a rueful smile, I rub the back of my head, blushing, not wanting to clarify for Teuila, since I promised I wouldn¡¯t bring up the one. She pouts, but swiftly returns to smiling gleefully as she snuggles me while I telekinetically surf us away down towards the Verdimenn project space. That reminds me, Pawn said she spoke to Leezahna today, I wonder how Leeza took it. She could probably use some more friends beyond Ixey, and ostensibly me. Teuila waggles her eyebrows in response to my thought train, but I just roll my eyes at her, shaking my head incredulously.


    Commenting on Te¡¯s expressive brows, I offer up, ¡°Be my guest Te, props to you if you can convince her to smooch or whatever you¡¯re thinking of. I¡¯m serious though. Leezahna is trying to change some pretty deeply ingrained things, and I¡¯m proud of her, but I¡¯m sure she feels lonely. She was abandoned by two cronies that she thought of as friends, twice in as many days, if I recall correctly. She wants to connect with her mother as an equal, because she disagrees with her mother¡¯s point of view, so she doesn¡¯t even have that relationship as tightly as she¡¯s used to.¡±


    Wearing a half frown, Te admits, ¡°Yeah, okay, sounds like she really could use a pal more than a puckered pair of lips. But, but but but, my lips are pretty darn sweet! If I do say so myself. And I do.¡±


    Pft. I snort with laughter as Teuila begins a Shellcracker Family Squee. The vanity and bravado Teuila puts on as a mask sometimes is pretty hilarious, and mostly harmless. I know the insecurities that it masks, and honestly she isn¡¯t dishonest with any of her bragging. Her lips are pretty darn sweet. Erm, ahem, heh, anyway. Yes Te, I can feel your smirk and waggling eyebrows.


    Recognizing this hallway, among the many nearly-identical tunnels in Mount Solace, I slip into an alcove with Teuila. I haven¡¯t been there for My Wings as much as I want to, or as much as she desires, ever since arriving at Solace. She asks so little from me, and I certainly want to meet her demands, or requests. Tilting her chin with my fingertip, My lips drift to hers, and tears roll down my cheeks.


    The kiss Teuila returns is passionate, hungry for more, always hungry for more, yearning, always yearning. Our bodies collide in this alcove, and only the laws of physics prevent us from getting any closer, or occupying the same space. I want a world where Teuila doesn¡¯t need to keep growing stronger, where she doesn¡¯t have to face down apocalyptic forces, and soak up injuries. I want her to get a chance to share her lips with anyone she¡¯s interested in, who¡¯s interested in her in return. I want her to be able to pursue things other than brief bursts of passion, and ever-increasing feats of strength.


    In this moment though? This brief, sliver of a moment? I just want to be with her, truly with her. I carve out this slice of time for us, this brief encounter, to try to stem the tide of Teuila¡¯s yearning, her longing. I¡¯m terribly tempted to find some way to stop time with the two of us together here. How does it go? I¡¯d freeze this brief moment, to stretch it into eternity for her.


    I wish I could do more, be more for her, and be with her more, and longer, but we¡¯re fast approaching the climax of a war. Our lips part, and her head droops as she nods sadly, knowing how brief our passion is allowed to be. Wishing equally that we could share more time together.


    Mumbling as she rests her face against my chest, Teuila laments, ¡°My Air, the very Air that I breathe, it¡¯s not fair. When will it ever end? When do we get to just be us again? What about our fam back home? I hate Terrorzin for making this situation, this war, making Aunty Zool feel bad, hurting her and so many others for so long. I¡¯m so going to kick his ass in the final fight.¡±


    Oh, oh Te. My muscles sag wearily and my face droops as I respond, ¡°Te, I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll be able to approach him at all. His Dragonforce is so powerful, so ancient, that only someone whose Dragonforce is older stands a chance at resisting its effect. It literally freezes anything it pulses out against, stronger than even my Flash Freeze Storms.¡±


    Her jaw hanging low, Teuila fumbles, ¡°But, but, but but but, that¡¯s not fair! How¡¯m I going to introduce him to a knuckle sandwich? Lefty and Righty? Kapow right in the kisser? Ooo I want to break his stupid face in. Are you telling me Aunty Zool has to one vee one the butthead?¡±


    Trying not to laugh at Te¡¯s analogies for punching Terrorzin, I nod, answering, ¡°Sadly, yeah. Te, I couldn¡¯t go through it, not again, seeing you frozen. I¡¯d die, or cry my eyes out, or tear my eyes out in disbelief, or something. Eugh, gruesome, sorry, I just mean, please stay far from him.¡±


    Pouting, Teuila grumbles, ¡°Yeah yeah, alright. No bareknuckle boxing the big icebox. Grr. Phooey. Stupid jerk and his stupid cheating dragonwhatsit.¡±


    Trying not to upset her, by finding her outburst humorous, I clamp my lips shut and half roll my eyes, trying not to laugh at Teuila. I really want to say, ¡°You¡¯re one to talk, Te,¡± in reference to her own massively powerful Dragonforce and Honoris Causa¡¯s rapid growth, but I feel like that¡¯s a bit mean when she seems so dejected. She lightly pounds on my chest, bops the top of my head, and plaps my cheek softly. We both sigh as we resume our embrace, briefly kissing once more before setting back off towards the Verdimenn project space.

 B 6 C 218: Attractions

    The silence and somber air in the forgeworks sets my nerves on end as we approach the Verdimenn project space. I understand why it¡¯s like this now, obviously, but it¡¯s eerie after having seen the place be so full of hustle and bustle after it was initially set up. Te and I wear grim expressions while surfing through the forgeworks on our way to Verdimenn.


    I¡¯m slightly surprised, and equally dismayed, to see Ahliyuri up and about, checking on others in the infirmary, while Alanea appears to be napping on her feet, the poor dear. Teuila once again waggles her brows at me, and I virtually steam from my cheeks. Gulping, I avert my gaze and try to steer my thoughts away from certain activities I¡¯d done with certain individuals in the nearby vicinity. Teuila scrunches her brow, squinting at me suspiciously, but shrugs, letting me off the hook relatively soon after.


    Umbral Spellknight Ahliyuri marches my way, limping, and leaning on a crutch, but the stern expression on his face speaks volumes as he asserts, ¡°I¡¯m upset with you Schism. No, not because I went and got my fool self hurt. Because you sent that deranged sister of mine off to battle while I was stuck in bed. I swear, if one scale on her scalp is, is, is harmed, I, I don¡¯t know what I¡¯ll do, but I¡¯ll do something.¡±


    Grimacing, I nod at Yuri as Teuila hops down from our shared embrace. I float next to the Spellknight, and offer him my shoulder to lean on, and he does so with as much grace as he can muster. I soothe as best I can, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Yuri, you know how she is, she was itching for the first opportunity to fight that she could get. The whole war is upended right now. Terrorzin and the bulk of his forces are on the move, due here in about a week.¡±


    My announcement gives Yuri pause, and seemingly a heart attack. I worry for the fellow, but he collects himself rapidly enough. He jokes, ¡°I suppose it¡¯s too late to switch sides back to the Ice of Rage¡¯s banner, huh?¡±


    At least I hope he¡¯s joking. I raise one brow skeptically, and he averts his gaze. He¡¯s still looking pretty awful, not fit for combat, but as Teuila begins fetching things out of an interdimensional pack, he perks up quickly. Sure enough, somehow Te found his gear and retrieved it. It¡¯s on par with the best stuff of anyone I¡¯d faced thus far, so I can see why Yui wanted to get it back for her brother. Oh hey, there¡¯s an aura about it that I recognize now that I¡¯ve started to study enchanting further.


    Gosh, did they forge each other¡¯s armor? Or at least parts of it? That¡¯s ridiculously sweet. Criminy, and jumping jehoshaphats these twins love each other as much as any pair of people I¡¯ve ever met. And I¡¯ve met me and Teuila! Snrk. Okay, ow, that snorted laugh was a bit much. Obviously their love isn¡¯t romantic, but it¡¯s still deep, and strong.


    At least I think it isn¡¯t romantic, it¡¯d be a bit weird, and awkward, even taboo based on my memories of Fakeworld human culture, but who am I to judge? None of my business, unless they want to inform me of such. Wait, siblings who¡ªwhy does that sound familiar? Oh. I sigh, my gaze downcast as I recall two lost souls, two of the few casualties of the Night of All Burn. I¡¯m pretty sure Har and Sal weren¡¯t actually siblings, but it was good cover, since their assassin alter egos were romantic with each other, making them less likely suspects.


    Anyway, I¡¯d better clarify, and I try to sound hopeful as I do, ¡°I¡¯d never say you, or anyone, couldn¡¯t desert the Onyx Dawn. I intend to evacuate everyone possible should it come down to it, but I know that the rest of the Order will be fighting to our last breaths. I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll actually come to our last breaths though, somehow.¡±


    Sighing, I add, ¡°I just wish Teuila or I could face Terrorzin personally, we¡¯d make paste out of him. I suppose I could try to use the same attack I used to kill the rest of the Evil Claws, and nearly the Damnations, but it¡¯d be hard to buy the eight minutes of setup on a chaotic battlefield. Plus his Dragonforce aura might sap the kinetic energy out of the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian inventory Space skill attack like whatever shield the CE threw up when I used it to try to end the Damnations in one go, I¡¯m not sure.¡±


    Flubbing, Yuri queries, ¡°The what you used to what now?¡±


    Scratching my head, I can¡¯t remember if Yuri should have heard by now, but I answer, ¡°We were attacked last night, by all the Damnations and Evil Claws. The Evil Claws got desperate after we knocked a few of them out of the sky, and did some sort of gestalting thing with their Dragonforces via one of their Latents. Thankfully I¡¯d already been planning to flood the sky with projectiles, so I had everyone else evac while I loosed my attack. I¡¯d have gotten the Damnations too if it weren¡¯t for the gorram Celestial Emperor¡¯s interference.¡±


    Rapidly blinking in order to keep up, I can see that Yuri is trying to parse the information. He raises a scaled brow as his face contorts in a mixture of appreciation and horror before asking, ¡°You¡­ almost took out the Damnations, as a whole, and did take out the Evil Claws, all at once, last night? Wait, what¡¯s this about his imperious doucheyness?¡±


    I bite back a snicker before responding, ¡°Yeah, I fainted after the attack, it cost me a lot, and took a lot out of me. Thankfully I was able to hold off passing out until after I drove off the Damnations. Two of them, the ones I¡¯d previously heavily injured, were found dead this morning, siphoned of their Dragonforces obviously. It feels like the Celestial Emperor is playing keepaway with powerful Dragonforces, from me specifically. It¡¯s almost like he knows I need them. Maybe he does. Eh, nevermind about that, the point¡ª.¡±


    Holding up his hands, motioning repeatedly for me to stop, Yuri exclaims, ¡°Woah woah woah, hold up. The Celestial Emperor might have it in for you personally? What does he have to do with anything? How the hell do you just nonchalantly mention, ¡®oh yeah by the way I nearly took out all the Damnations in one attack last night that did happen to off all their underlings. Woulda got them too if it weren¡¯t for some darn meddling deific interference, no biggy,¡¯ with a straight face!? What even are you?¡±


    Sighing, I wave it off before explaining, ¡°I¡¯ve got to catch a bunch of people up on a bunch of things, if you want answers to stuff like that, and you¡¯re feeling up to it, follow me around for a while. If you think that¡¯s wild, you¡¯re going to love hearing about how I ran into the bulk of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, and him, while scouting solo, and decided offhandedly to level Mount Wistenzlia to block off Vieriss Valley.¡±


    Despite being a reptile, and scaled, the color drains from Yuri¡¯s face. I have to bite my lips to avoid laughing or looking smug. That was totally me bragging, and I feel like a bit of a dickhead for doing it. But if it can help allay Yuri¡¯s fears, and keep him and his sister on our side, I¡¯ll take the smudge to my humility. I can see him processing, working out geographically where I was and what I must have done. His mouth goes from moue to wordlessly asking how, ending in an open oh.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I really don¡¯t want to have to repeat the story over and over tonight to catch everyone up, so I swoop down and sneakily drag Alanea into my hugging embrace and flick my head towards the tinkering workshop. Te and Yuri nod and follow me, while Alanea sleepily mumbles a greeting, packed with her mousy, nervous wells.


    Grinning madly, Teuila makes grabby hands, so I pass Alanea off to her, rolling my eyes slightly and chuckling. Wait. The heck? Is that Vylon in the infirmary? He¡¯s packing several new scars, and nursing his shoulder. How the hell did anything get close enough to¡ªoh, right, I think I noticed that earlier, a caster or something. Or I theorized it at least. I can¡¯t recall, since the day was pretty hectic and I was pretty frantic, what with finding empty domains, and then finding Terrorzin¡¯s whole army, more or less.


    When he notices me, as I¡¯m passing by, I give him a nod, before flicking my head questioningly. He nods assent and hops off his cot in order to follow the growing procession headed towards the tinkering space. I see Farzhis and Veril already there ahead of us. If I could just find Prinrin and Kinzul¡ªthey¡¯re probably together¡ªI¡¯d have most everyone I want to apprise and catch up with besides Lil, Lucky, Yui, Shiz and Zelshiz. Those five are on their way, nearing Mah¡¯ruke as I speak. Erm, think.


    Anyway, since I want to catch them up as well, I¡¯ll just mingle with the crowd gathered in the tinkering space. I haven¡¯t really got a clue how we¡¯re going to move forward with some of the things that I want to accomplish, but with this many minds gathered in one location, we¡¯ve got the best chance of thinking of something. Speaking of, or, well, thinking of, again, I could probably use my fungoid form to decent effect. Regardless, I may as well enjoy this brief moment of respite as we coalesce to converse. Wait, coalesce? Does that work there? I guess it does mean come together, sort of.


    Hey, Reggie. Yeah? Stop getting caught up in your own head about grammar and vocabulary. Right, right. Outside of my head, Littlebit¡¯s cutely mad giggling cuts through the air, a tinkling that¡¯s high and clear. It¡¯s juxtaposed against Nala¡¯s surly mutterings about conductivity, enchantment viability, and the like. Interposed between the two is an occasional comment from Veril or Farzhis, usually in response to a pause and a querying gaze from one of the two artificers. I guess the two have been asked to remain following along, or something.


    Drawing a deep breath, a homey scent hits me. Hot metals, a touch of burnt oil, hints of ozone, and drying ink. The consistent lighting of the glow-lichen is complemented by the warm shine of several of Littlebit¡¯s clankers and Nala¡¯s automatons, as well as brief bursts, flashes of brighter light coupled with sparks, from their tools.


    The stools the pair are using at the workstation they share while tinkering across from each other are adjusted to heights that make sense for each of them, what with Nala being around twice Littlebit¡¯s height. It¡¯s nice to see them at relatively equal footing, compared to when Littlebit is wandering around, scrounging through scrap, tools, and instruments. I¡¯m fairly certain Nala treats Littlebit as an intellectual equal at the very least, due to her gadgetry knowledge.


    Littlebit¡¯s overalls are hanging loose, one strap free of her left shoulder, and I¡¯m not sure if she just doesn¡¯t mind, or if she loosened it to help keep cool in proximity to some of the soldering equipment and such. The vivacious verdant cutie smiles my way, and whispers something across the table to Nala, who doesn¡¯t seem to hear her.


    Calling out my way excitedly, Littlebit shouts, ¡°Hey Tiger! Get your butt over here hun!¡±


    Teuila lights up at the flirtatious friendliness of Littlebit. Simultaneously, Nala concludes her mumbling a bit more audibly, ¡°The ethereal excitations are ephemeral at best, at least without Schism present, ah, speaking of, hail friend Reggie. This could prove fruitful now.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow, neither deems it worthy to clarify, but based on Nala¡¯s technobabble, it sounds like some effect they¡¯re chasing is short-lived, that they think I could help stretch out, elongate, or maintain. Checking with Yuri, he seems steady enough on his own, so I slip out from under his shoulder, no longer propping him up, and float towards the two tinkerers.


    Farzhis comments suddenly, in her soft-stop-consonants accent, ¡°Awe, Schism, los¡¯ the blue? Looke¡¯ goo¡¯ on ye,¡± before realizing she¡¯s eyeing me like a predator, blushing, and averting her gaze.


    Veril mumbles an agreement with Farzhis, and similarly averts his gaze. I smirk their way, not maliciously, but knowing exactly what they¡¯re thinking. I¡¯d like to check in with Farzhis and see how her cravings are doing. Erm, the withdrawal symptoms, not her, uh, other cravings, heh. Sheesh. Get your mind out of the gutter Te. Yes I see you waggling your brows.


    I know you¡¯re riding my thought train Teuila my dear, so feel free to flirt with Farzhis, but keep in mind her vulnerable state. I know you wouldn¡¯t intentionally abuse someone¡¯s vulnerability, but I wasn¡¯t sure if you kept track of some of the goings-on. Anyway, you¡¯ve got Alanea in your arms, whom I¡¯m sure you¡¯re going to be macking on as soon as she rouses¡ª.


    Interrupting my thought train, Teuila telepathically quips, ¡°Damn right! You bring the best smokin¡¯ hot Fae shortstack hotties to the party Airhead.¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I try to hide the obvious agreement that bubbles up, percolating across my mind. Yes, Alanea, Tiktik, and Littlebit are incredibly attractive. Gnawing the inside of my lower lip, I shake my head incredulously. Teuila¡¯s certainly honest about her attraction¡ªsonnova, I walked into that one¡ªand her fun-and-thrill-seeking side. Still, my smile is pure, and wide, as I gaze wistfully at My Wings. Would that I could, I¡¯d share in loving on anyone and everyone with Teuila just to see the joy it brings her when she convinces someone to try snogging. On top of all of her myriad strengths and beauty, she can be so just darn cute sometimes.


    Teuila¡¯s smug grin of satisfaction quickly gives way to her mile-wide closed-eyed smile that has her bobbing her head side to side. See what I mean? The bobbing isn¡¯t headbanging, so her undercut doesn¡¯t flop over to the other side, but it¡¯s still an adorable, and easily noticeable motion. Reggie, you¡¯re getting distracted again. Right, right, of course.


    Blushing, I turn my attention to the artificers in time to hear Nala finishing, ¡°and that¡¯s precisely why the capacitance is less important than the intricate throughput of the manifold, ergo, the bottleneck is in the shape, and, hm, let¡¯s call it bandwidth, along your circuitry. You need more than simple magnetics to modify its manifestation properties, attracting its energies along the manifold. Evaluating its throughput at that point should see marked gains. Wouldn¡¯t you agree Schism?¡±


    Closing my eyes so that Nala can¡¯t see them squinting while trying to give the side-eye to myself, I nod in a self-reproaching manner. I¡¯m not so much agreeing with Nala, as admitting that I have no idea what the rest of her statement was, so I can only guess that she was right unless I¡¯d like to get her to re-explain whatever she was talking about while I was spacing out gazing at Teuila. Nala is someone that you don¡¯t really ask for second walk-throughs of explanations from. That¡¯s putting it nicely.


    Hopping off her stool, heading over to me, and lightly pounding me on the hip, Littlebit exclaims, ¡°I¡¯m sure Tiger here knows all about throughput! Am-I-right!? Hehe. Maybe between a couple of their raids, or after all this dragon business is done, if we haven¡¯t finished our ¡®Twixt research, I could convince them to show me the full extent of their¡ª.¡±


    Coughing to interrupt Littlebit¡¯s salacious comment, I glare at her in mock frustration, but I¡¯m mostly just embarrassed. Littlebit simply grins cheekily my way. She¡¯s darn good at getting a rise out of me. Erm, figuratively. I don¡¯t come equipped with the parts to¡ªugh, nevermind.


    Anyway, where were we? Something about ephemeral ethereal excitations. Let¡¯s start there.

 B 6 C 219: E E E

    From what it sounds like, Nala and Littlebit are attempting to work at drawing energies from a parallel ethereal realm across some sort of circuitry, likely in the hopes of stabilizing that energy within the shape of a doorway, or similar portal structure. If they¡¯re having trouble because the energy¡¯s presence is ephemeral at best, fleeting as it were, then I¡¯m not one hundred percent certain exactly what I could do about it, but I do see why Nala would assume my powers might aid in maintaining them. Once again I find myself wishing I had access to my full suite of abilities from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, on-demand, without needing to nearly kill myself in order to activate them.


    Last night¡¯s maxed out Space skill attack had my mana residue corruption sickness lacerating me inside and out. It¡¯s a miracle I¡¯m mostly whole again, or was, this morning. I¡¯m pretty beat up at the moment, but nowhere near as bad as I was near the end of my flight from Terrorzin¡¯s forces. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s The Stone In Two Parts, Lil, accidentally leaning into my Dragonforce to speed up my healing, my accidental death of my lycanthrope form, or something else entirely, or some combination of all of the above, but I¡¯ve been pretty much physically ready for every combat, no matter how destroyed I end up from the previous one.


    Curious what they¡¯d like me to try, I query, ¡°Is this related to the ¡®Twixt portal research? These ephemeral ethereal excitements? Erm, excitations. Te, no.¡±


    Teuila capitalizes on my accidental incorrect word choice to waggle her brows and strike a sexy pose. I roll my eyes and my cheeks hurt from fighting my smile. Thankfully Nala stays on task as she offers up, ¡°Perhaps. It¡¯s only theoretical, obviously, as is anything that has never been done before. Having learned about the realm beyond a thin veil, parallel to our own, in which elemental spirits reside, I surmised that perhaps attempting to produce an effect similar to those of certain naturally magic gemstones might result in a measure of success, however moderate, in beginning to come to understand what it takes in order to traverse from one realm to another. With anomalous fluctuations accounted for, those that you¡¯d had to nullify for Miss Bitty¡¯s prior sensory research, I hazard to hypothesize that we may very well be in a region in which the veil between realms is thinnest. The, erm, waves, across signal spectrums that you spoke of, may be emitted by gatherings of elemental spirits beyond this realm¡¯s physiplanar reach.¡±


    Puffing a breath, I¡¯m pretty sure everyone except Littlebit¡¯s, Nala¡¯s, and my, eyes glazed over as Nala rattled off her hypothesis. A fear creeps up on me, scaling my back and wiggling its way up and down my spine, sending shivers along with it. I vibrate in intense discomfort as something about this situation strikes a chord. It doesn¡¯t take too long to dawn on me what it is. My near-death experience in The Gap chasm, via the kobolds'' stone elemental trap.


    Gathering myself, I caution, ¡°Nala, if there¡¯s any chance that an experiment might open the way to the elemental spirit realm, instead of the ¡®Twixt, that¡¯s a risk we can¡¯t take. Especially if, as you surmise, there¡¯s a strong gathering of them in the region parallel to our location in their realm.¡±


    Dismayed at my assessment, Nala argues, ¡°While there¡¯s most certainly a chance, in fact, a high chance, due to the nature of the excitations, surely mindless spirits pose no threat while you and your very own lightning spirit swarm are in attendance.¡±


    Grimacing, I respond, ¡°About that, the lightning swarm is gone, I think it saved my life by somehow piloting Big O¡¯Kuel either from my inventory, or once the robot dropped out of it. Also, spirits aren¡¯t mindless. They¡¯re sapient, just in a manner that is alien to our understanding. Y¡¯know? Phooph. Not to mention they¡¯re mana-hungry, and eager to enter this realm seeking it out, plenty willing to injure anything in their way of traveling about procuring more mana.¡±


    Pausing a moment, a thought strikes me, so I conjecture, ¡°Well, there¡¯s another option for the overwhelming signals. Is there any chance that, that maybe, just maybe, they might be from, well,¡± I glance at Teuila who catches on immediately, her eyes sparkling and wet with the realization before I finish asking, ¡°from our home, Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, due to our whole chicanery and shenanigans down here in Verdimenn to abuse the magic of our world, bringing it here?¡±


    Before too long though, I shoot down my own hope by surmising, ¡°Actually, I guess the signals wouldn¡¯t be from our world, rather than just the structures and equipment we brought from it. I know they pump out a radial aura of Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital nature all on their own, no link to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas itself required.¡±


    Slumping dejectedly, Teuila pouts. I can¡¯t blame her for looking upset, especially since I¡¯m the one that accidentally got her¡ªand my¡ªhopes up, only to immediately dash them. Nala pulls out several instruments that I¡¯m not familiar with, that she may very well have invented while I was out. Gazing at the tool, she fiddles with it, gets up and silently stalks away while staring at and tinkering with the strange gadget. I¡¯d normally call someone out for randomly wandering away in the middle of a discussion, but with Nala, it¡¯s likely pertinent to the topic at hand.


    Sighing, my forehead meets my right palm exhaustedly. I stroke both of my temples simultaneously while trying to imagine ways around what may come from Nala¡¯s findings. We could take readings somewhere over in Solace, or move the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian shop structures and other things into one of our inventories in order to¡ªit¡¯s like claiming a plot of land in a videogame. I raise my head just so I can facepalm with greater force, slapping myself in the forehead. Setting down a construction from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas probably has some sort of ¡°build radius¡± that gets treated as your own base, or home point of operations. Why do I know these tropes? What does it mean? Stupid broken buggy mysterious memories.


    If I¡¯m right, then digital structures from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas are hard-coded to include whatever structured object-oriented module that allows for the claiming upon placement. Or at least the digital shop structures. Maybe those are considered the primary edifice to start a settlement, or home base, or camp, or whatever they might be called within Can¡¯Z¡¯aas¡¯s system settings. It feels like my world is coming apart at the seams, and that I see further and further beyond the veil.


    How the hell do we come from a digital world? I once wondered if we were just videogame characters, or AI, or some such. How is Teuila a fully digital being? How am I a partially digital being? Why were there humans that were entirely non-digital beings? Argh! It doesn¡¯t make any sense! Calm down Reggie. These memories have been a mystery for ages, and they can remain so for a while longer. Focus on the thoughts that might advance some of your goals for the war effort, or against the coming apocalypses.


    Cracking my neck and rolling my rotator cuffs, I breathe deeply, trying to center and calm myself. Teuila ogles me as I do, causing me to smirk and roll my eyes. I¡¯m glad she sometimes enjoys my appearance as much as I enjoy hers. Anyway, deep breath, and another, and another. Breathe Air, breathe. Phooph. There, calmer. Let¡¯s itemize, organize, and prioritize.


    I¡¯m glad to spy Lil, Lucky, Shiz, Zelshiz, and that whole crew nearly here, coming down the tunnel from Solace to Verdimenn. Asking those around me, I glance about, ¡°Can we brainstorm to list out all the goals we¡¯re trying to accomplish, and the obstacles to those goals? Down to the nitty gritty, not something as vague as win the war, obvee. Tactics and maneuvers we need to pull off, assets we need to obtain or create, operations that need to happen, and so on.¡±


    I¡¯m surprised to note that Kinzul and Prinrin are behind Lil, Lucky, Shiz, and the Spellknights. Putting up my telepathic walls, I plead, ¡°Kinzul, I beg your forgiveness. I¡¯m sorry to have defied you, your order, or denied your request. I never intended to hurt you, and I don¡¯t know how to make it up to you without abandoning the war effort to undertake your secret mission.¡±


    The long silence I receive from Kinzul strikes at my heart like icy daggers. But I notice Prinrin making note of Kinzul attempting to compose herself, to hide emotions, as she sometimes does. So the mere mention of this mission, this quest, would visibly disturb Kinzul, and she wants to be able to present her regal poise to those present. What could that even mean? I so badly want to comfort her and soothe her hurt. It feels like there¡¯s something deeper here that I¡¯m not understanding.


    After having built her emotional walls, in order to maintain her poise, Kinzul responds, ¡°Fret not my love. My outburst is something I should seek your forgiveness for. I overreacted, when you of course were only making the wise decision for the benefit, the good of the whole Order. I do hope you¡¯ll forgive and forget, until such time as we can afford your undertaking of this crucial task, when your presence is less critical to our immediate successes.¡±


    Scrunching my eyes, holding back tears, I nod wordlessly along our telepathic wavelength. She won¡¯t say it, but it feels like a rift has formed between us. Her words were so cold and calculated. I know she¡¯s not like that. She¡¯s not someone to bury love under resentment from a single disagreement. In my heart, I know that¡¯s not what she¡¯s doing. She¡¯s masking something else. Something so vitally important to her, that it¡¯s injurious to her heart for it to even be temporarily spurned.


    I can tell she didn¡¯t even confide in Prinrin the specifics of the matter. Because Prinny is as alert and studious as ever, drinking in every twitch and tell of Kinzul¡¯s features, trying to suss this out as well. I suppose I¡¯ll have to leave that up to her. Prinny¡¯s insightful, empathetic, observant, perceptive, and intuitive. Far more so than me to be honest, for the most part.


    Muttering passes down my request for brainstorming our objectives to the new arrivals, so that I don¡¯t need to reiterate my request, thankfully. Lil rushes towards me in our mindscape, and telepathically sends, ¡°Rej, Reggie, pal, guess what! I¡¯ve got my own little army,¡± causing me to giggle uncontrollably. I was slightly off in the placement of wording, but I pretty much nailed it.


    Still, despite his excitement in our mindscape, looking pooped in meatspace, Lil shuffles up to me and flumps down next to me complaining, ¡°Next time Rej pal, you take new recruits to take down three fortresses in a single day. Did you even go anywhere or take down any?¡±


    Lucky trots up to Lil, and lays against him, resting his face across Lil¡¯s haunches. Since people are here, and I wanted to apprise them, I answer loudly enough for everyone to hear, even Nala as she¡¯s returning, ¡°There were no fortresses to take down, or rather, Ixeyla and¡ª¡°


    Lil, looking shocked, grumps, ¡°Say whaaaa? You had Ixey go with you to take down baddies?¡±


    Trying to explain, I correct, ¡°No, no, I mean, yes I took her along for a ride¡ª¡° and immediately regret my life choices, and phrasing. Sighing, I wait for the snickering, and brow waggling to die down. I cast my glare about at several of the obvious offenders, and the culprits simply grin my way maliciously. Shaking my head and rolling my eyes, I sigh before trying to gather my train of thoughts.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    When I¡¯m re-composed, I continue, ¡°We, or I, found the three domains adjacent to Thraxxis¡¯s and his own, to be vacated. No foes to take down, no loot to gather, few clues to even observe. Nearly everything that wasn¡¯t nailed down, and some stuff that was, was taken hastily. What little was left on site was ramshackle, bowled over or broken, leaving everything in disarray.¡±


    Assessing everyone¡¯s moods at the news, I observe their faces and further explain, ¡°I see your hopeful expressions. No, the enemy hasn¡¯t turned tail and fled because of our successes. Terrorzin has somehow managed to muster the majority of his forces, perhaps forty thousand or more all-told, and I¡¯m informed that he somehow still has nearly as many left in reserve, tucked away in the deeper, more fortified domains.¡±


    Sighing and nodding as a clamor goes up amongst our small gathering, I wait for the mutterings and alarm to die down before continuing, ¡°Worse yet, he was nearly at Wistenzlia peak when I ran into his forces. His advance units were close to Vieriss Valley. Someone said that the majority of his forces would take a week to get here from there at maximum forced march, but I¡¯m not putting it past Terrorzin to have something even faster than forced march. That¡¯s why I want to get our goals and operations planned and prioritized, and why I blew the top off of Wistenzlia into Vieriss, to block the path at least momentarily.¡±


    The mood shifts from alarm and panic, to dumbfounded, as the majority of those in attendance don¡¯t¡ªor, didn¡¯t at least¡ªknow what I did today. Even Alanea scoots out of Teuila¡¯s embrace to shakily stand and blink wide-eyed at me. Someone asks, ¡°Like, a bit of a rockslide? That¡¯ll take a horde ten seconds to clear up.¡±


    Biting my lips and closing my eyes, not wanting to brag, but also not wanting to provide inaccurate information, I shake my head before answering, ¡°No, not a little rockslide. I blew about a third of the mountain off into the valley. I was a little alarmed when I saw the Worldstorm ascending and stretching upwards, but thankfully its new top remains just within the Worldstorm.¡±


    There¡¯s a round of people comically cleaning their ears and staring wide-eyed at me. I grumble, ¡°My moving a mountain isn¡¯t making a miracle people, I did the first thing I could think of to¡ª¡°


    Bursting into laughter, Shiz interrupts, ¡°First thing ¡®ey could think of. Schism here¡¯s first thought isn¡¯t, ¡®I should get backup and hold the pass,¡¯ no, it¡¯s ¡®I should move a mountain into their path, just because I can.¡¯ Bwahaha.¡±


    A round of nervous chuckling joins in with Shiz¡¯s laughter, which is met with a few lighthearted titters. Kinzul reigns in the crowd, ¡°My love, humble though they may be, is right. I believe they were about to express that their explanation was meant to indicate that their desire to buy time was so that our beloved Order could devise solutions and enact defensive measures, perhaps utilizing Vieriss, once Terrorzin no-doubt clears it to return to the act of sending his fanatics to our doorstep straightaway.¡±


    Nodding to Kinzul, I mouth a silent, ¡°Thank you,¡± and try to send grateful, loving emotional waves to her over our many telepathic wavelengths. I receive a genuine smile, which warms my heart and sets my eyes to misting. Her regal head-tilt of a nod prompts me, so I quickly inhale a shuddering breath and collect myself once again. My worries about a rift between us are allayed slightly, but they¡¯re still there, gnawing at the back of my mind somewhere.


    Stretching myself, and continuing to nod, I dig about for one of our tactical maps of the region and continue, ¡°Precisely. There¡¯s going to be ample opportunities to skirmish with the front of Terrorzin¡¯s horde. For some reason, he personally withdrew after a short bout of chasing me, frosting and shattering a few hundred of his own troops. Kinzul, am I right in that this seemingly passive manifestation of his Dragonforce will be unhindered by any but a more ancient Dragonforce? Is yours the only one in the world as old?¡±


    Offering a lighthearted tease, Kinzul begins, ¡°One does not ask a woman her age my love. But yes, your surmisings are correct. Long has the Ice of Rage plotted to become completely untouchable, by taking out any who might one day rival him. To ensure his own longevity, his machinations ended the lives of anyone his elder. Perhaps the prophecy of his death began long ago, and our interception of it, this year, is simply kismet.¡±


    Grumbling, Vylon asserts, ¡°You¡¯ve only got a few millen¡ª¡° he wilts and interrupts himself at Kinzul¡¯s stern gaze before coughing.


    Vylon¡¯s eyes seem to flair in the flicker of flames that rise within him. He continues where he left off, altering slightly, as smoke billows out his nostrils, ¡°uh, years on me, my Lady. Leave the Ice of Rage to me, and my sister. No frost has ever cooled, or will ever douse these flames. I¡¯d quell his rage sooner than he could quell my spark.¡±


    With an uncommon edge to her voice, Kinzul responds, ¡°My beloved Rend, you and your sister will *not* approach Terrorzin at the final battle. Do you understand? Schism¡¯s estimations are correct, not even you could resist his bedamnable elder Dragonforce.¡±


    Gazing downwards in shame, Vylon nods his assent and understanding. Somehow, I feel like this isn¡¯t the last we¡¯ve heard on the issue of others wanting to take on Terrorzin instead of, or with Kinzul. From Vylon especially. Regardless, he at least acts mollified for the moment. I¡¯m still not even certain why Terrorzin ended up pulling back after seeking me out for only a few moments. Perhaps he worried that I was the one prophecied to end his life, and decided not to risk trying to end me personally, after my geologic maneuver? Another thing that somehow I doubt is that simple.


    Our crowd returns to mulling over my request of figuring out concrete goals to list and prioritize. It feels like we¡¯d done this only a day ago, perhaps two or so, with the Strategists Eight, in order to come up with actionable raids. Now all those plans are thrown out the window, because somehow we missed a massive legion assembling under our noses.


    How does our intelligence network keep failing us? I know how talented Errissa is, and she handles most of it herself. I suppose, in the time it takes her to get around, she¡¯s essentially sprinting from location to location, unable to keep up with constant shifts in force numbers and such. She can only be at any one or two fortresses in a given day generally, and there are about eighty to cover. Furrowing my brow, crinkling my nose, and frowning, I feel like I¡¯m missing something yet, something that¡¯ll be obvious later in retrospect.


    The assembled¡¯s voices bleed together as my eyes roam, taking in the heavy coils of cables, the metal surfaces, the little trundling clankers and clockwork automatons, and the myriad tools strewn about, either gathered neatly, or laid haphazardly, depending on who last used them I suppose. My eyes drift over Lucky, my son, who whuffs sleepily in response to my thoughts about him, and Lil, whom he¡¯s using as a cushion. Lil¡¯s bright red scales glisten beneath the flickers of various lights, tools, and automatons roaming about, while they display a constant healthy sheen beneath the consistent lighting of the glowlichen.


    Apparently during some of the minutes that I was caught in thought, Teuila rushed back to Solace and brought Luni down for our gathering. A now grumbly, grumpy, sleepy Luni. Despite myself, I can¡¯t help smiling as I gaze lovingly at the two. Luni¡¯s fuller curves, deep blue eyes, and that bob-with-bangs haircut that perfectly frames her features are a delight to gaze upon, always. Similarly, Teuila¡¯s brilliant emerald eyes, lithe, toned physique, and her whimsical, wild, long, ruby-red, high-top-fade undercut that remains flopped to one side are equally captivating.


    That¡¯s to say nothing of Alanea and Littlebit, and their compact forms, similarly, one curvier than the other, though Littlebit packs plenty of curves of her own for such a short package. They¡¯re both attractive, aesthetically pleasing, easy on weary eyes for sure. Ugh, I sound like a jerk in my own head, describing them like one might a portion of meat wrapped up to go. Sighing, I perform a slow rattle of my skull to reorient myself on the task at hand.


    Though she¡¯d been mingling at the back, with other Spellknights, Yui is the first to quip loud enough for everyone to overhear, ¡°We spill blood, lots of it. You lot are used to dropping out of the sky and taking down a fortress, but now you¡¯ve got us. I guarantee we¡¯ve got superior skills to most of the Ice of Rage¡¯s horde. I¡¯m sure none of us are worried about their infantry, which is easily half or more of his forces. You lot were lacking in magical might, but me, ¡®n¡¯ Yuri, ¡®n¡¯ Zelshiz especially, and Zel¡¯s little troop, we bring it in spades.¡±


    Puffing a breath, I nod in agreement. Yui¡¯s right, as crude a goal as it is, it is indeed one of our main goals, slaying as much of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, especially his mages, as possible. It¡¯s concrete enough to find a high spot in a list of priorities when we get around to making it. That¡¯s all I¡¯m asking at the moment.


    Jokingly, Teuila asserts, ¡°Gotta make time for snogging, work in some snog sessions, keep our spirits up as high as we can soar, yeah?¡± More quietly, she addresses Yui, ¡°What do you look for in a partner anyway Yooty-tootie?¡±


    Smirking first, Yui raises a brow towards Teuila, then furrows it before responding in an annoyed tone, ¡°Nothing, because I don¡¯t. Besides, corny as it is, no man could measure up to that idiot brother of mine.¡±


    Oh boy, I can see where this one¡¯s going from a mile away, she walked right into that one. Teuila, grinning madly, retorts, ¡°Then good thing I¡¯m no man, and I think we both know how well I measure up. Don¡¯t we chickadee?¡±


    Flustered, Yui blushes, the teal scales on her cheeks reddening. Her blush visibly warms the air around her, causing little heat-mirage waves. She awkwardly averts her gaze momentarily, then shrugs a bit helplessly. With a flick of her brow and a twitch of her head, she offers up a silent signal that reads as, ¡°Yeah, I guess so,¡± more or less anyway. This of course sets Teuila to grinning like a loon. Leave it to Te to find another new makeout partner in the middle of a strategy session.


    Oh, oh I can tell where this is about to go. Te, you wouldn¡¯t. Would you? Sighing and nodding while I close my eyes, I see Teuila sidle up to where Ahliyuri leans against a wall. Still grinning like a madbeast, she whispers, ¡°So hot stuff, your sis is pretty sure you¡¯re packing a mean punch,¡± her face sobers and almost pouts as she abashedly adds, ¡°I guess you both already know that I do too,¡± before continuing with her usual zeal to chase her opportunities, ¡°so, do your scaly lips pack as much punch as your fists and spells?¡±


    Taken aback, Yuri sputters, ¡°Do my what what? What in the hell are you¡ªoh. Ohhh,¡± before clamming up, blushing. The twin Spellknights even blush the same, their teal scales scalding enough to leave heat-mirage-waves in the air. Teuila sneakily leans closer, and steals a kiss from those very burning cheeks. I can¡¯t fault her for chasing her passions and joys, even if the timing is a bit inappropriate.


    I¡¯m grateful that everyone else is either too occupied to notice, or at least pretends not to notice Teuila¡¯s very overt flirtations. Not that any of us really mind. Between Fae and dragons¡¯ open affection policies, Te¡¯s antics aren¡¯t really anything out of the ordinary. I know she¡¯s got a thing going on with Alanea, and has probably either already worked out something with Littlebit, or intends to later in private.


    I wonder if she hit on the twins just now for any particular reason? I know she was fancying chances at flirting with Farzhis and Leezahna earlier, and she thinks Veril is a cutie. We knew a few sets of twins back home on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Sugar and Spice, Manaia and Manameia, um, Spring Blossom and, was it Six Wind? Six Thunder? Wait, I think Six Wind was one of the cat tribe, but Three Thunder was another. It¡¯s been so long. I took for granted the inventory interface that I could always gaze at, and always see the names of those I held dear.


    Regardless, I turn my attention back to the gathering at large, in time to catch Nala asserting, ¡°Our experiments stabilizing and maintaining the presence of ethereal excitations are paramount to any number of projects that I believe are high on your priority list friend Reggie. I envision entangling effulgent eidolons amidst electrostatic electrogenesis would provide elucidation and enlightenment, at any rate¡ª¡°


    Giggling, Littlebit cuts in to quip, ¡°Hehe, a dolphin could sum up our experiment and conversation. Eee eee eee, y¡¯know? Emissions of ephemeral ethereal excitations are better than emissions of effluvial excretions at least, ephemeral or not, eh? Hehehe.¡±


    Pft, I bite my lips but fail to suppress my snort of laughter that ripples through my nasal passages. Ow. Hah. That was so bad Littlebit. My cheeks hurt from trying to fight my smile. What a goon. No wonder she¡¯s so in love with Tiktik, and Tiktik with her. I sigh wistfully for a moment, wishing I could see Kitten, hear her thoughts at the moment. Next time I visit, I¡¯ll carry a paired scrying sensor, and leave one for her. Hm, that should be a goal or two.

 B 6 C 220: Time and Tides

    Having just been thinking about Tiktik, and Jeegoobotstan, there are some things I think important enough to be worth accomplishing. Piping up my own goals, I state, ¡°I think we need to ensure we have open lines of communication, especially instant communication like my paired scrying sensors, with Jeegoobotstan, and the arch-sorceress living therein, Tiktik Clocktok. Not only that, but there¡¯s an open portal to the ¡®Twixt there, which could yield more information if approached appropriately. It¡¯s my first choice of location to evacuate our citizens, our civilians, to, should the worst come to pass, and Solace need evacuation.¡±


    Musing further, I add, ¡°I¡¯d want operations prepared on both ends in order for the Jeegoobotstan refugees to be prepared to receive our people on a moment¡¯s notice. If we get the ¡®Twixt operation up and running, it¡¯s going to be a narrow pipeline, basically one person at a time, in a fast moving queue.¡±


    Of course, Littlebit¡¯s eyes sparkle and widen larger than saucers at the idea of being able to have instant visual and auditory communication with her girlfriend, at all times. I certainly don¡¯t blame her. Hm, thinking about visibility and communication, what about a goal involving the opposite? Invisibility, and hiding? Having a fallback plan that involves a disappearing act might help to evacuate our civilians should the need come down to it. It could help ensure that we can shuffle the Draconiacs and younger dragons and such to safety if things go belly up here.


    Sensing me thinking about bellies being up, Lucky rolls over, exposing his own. I catch his mind latching onto the current problems, telepathically sounding out, ¡°Dig, stone, hide. Safe?¡±


    It¡¯s as concrete a goal as any other offered so far, so I add it to the list, ¡°Lucky says we should excavate, dig in, like the Derbrightmine dwarves. It¡¯d be good if we had a fallback, some sort of shelter for the aftermath of things, the fallout, since we¡¯re still expecting two more apocalypses, and have the other half of Terrorzin¡¯s forces to deal with, post the final battle. I guess we could call it a fallout shelter. I don¡¯t think we can trust proximity to the ¡®Neath though, so what I¡¯d actually like to do is hollow out some of the foothills and mountains where Terrorzin would least expect it, right in front of him in Vieriss Valley.¡±


    There are several shocked expressions, accompanied by murmurs, that are eventually followed by nods of agreement. Sadly, that¡¯s a job that falls almost entirely on Lucky, and perhaps Lil, and some of the sand or rock dragon civilians to some extent. Ugh. I do not want more parallels to our last months on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas popping up, but¡ªI sigh, knowing it makes sense. I float over to Lucky to scratch his belly, and give his ribs a thorough rubdown.


    I¡¯m supposed to be more capable than most, at most things, or at least it seems that way. Yet it seems like the things that my loved ones specialize in tend to take them away from me, for one reason or another. Rattling my skull, I try to remind myself that things aren¡¯t always down to me, landing squarely on my shoulders alone. I certainly won¡¯t be defending Vieriss Valley successfully solo.


    While thinking about the valley, I mutter, ¡°If we¡¯re doing some stuff out there, he¡¯ll probably expect bunkers, because it¡¯s a solid strategic move. I¡¯d hate to disappoint him, but I want those bunkers filled with badass bombs, rather than our allies. Let him send in elite troops to snuff ¡®us¡¯ out in our bunkers where he would expect us to wait to defend the pass. We won¡¯t be there, but they¡¯ll be in for a world of hurt.¡± Turning to Nala and Littlebit, I finish with a query, ¡°What do you two need to create powerful, hyper-deadly explosives, or bottled enchantments with a heaping helping of hurt inside of them?¡±


    Nala blinks, stunned at being set to task on something so brutal, and violent, but scratches her chin thoughtfully. Littlebit however jumps at the chance to show off her knowledge of combustibles, ¡°Saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal would get us rolling on demolitions, but I know a few tricks of the trade to pack a more powerful punch in a much more miniature scale. I can get you a list of what I need after our group meeting, when we get some private time. Yeah Tiger?¡±


    Nodding to Littlebit, I agree, glad of her straightforward nature. Moments later, I blush, realizing I agreed to private time with the devilishly charming little lady. Shooting a glare her way, she¡¯s literally feigning innocence by whistling and rocking back and forth on her heels, while she holds her hands together behind her back. It¡¯s so cartoonish, and well played. Teuila catches on, and waggles her brows my way, while Luni frumps a bit, sending impatient, pouty waves my way telepathically, knowing how long it might be before we get some cuddle time.


    Suddenly Littlebit pipes up again, ¡°Oh, oh, oh! Since Nala and me¡ª,¡± Nala interrupts to correct, ¡°Nala and I,¡± Littlebit cheekily turns it around, ¡°Littlebit and you, you mean,¡± she giggles momentarily, then retracts her tease, ¡°Okay, okay, anyway, since we can both animate clankers, from some pretty simple components, what if we add them to the ranks? Nala can only keep six minis, and a couple of micro-turrets active, while I can do a big, a middle sized, and a small bot. Like, as much as I love my little buddies, I can always recreate them. Can¡¯t recreate any of you folks if, if, if¡­¡±


    Littlebit¡¯s words hang in the air, the sentiment unspoken, but felt by all of us. If any of us die, we can¡¯t be brought back by digging through a scrapyard and tinkering for a few hours. Disposable-yet-renewable soldiers are what she¡¯s offering, in a sense. In a war when we¡¯re so vastly outnumbered, it makes a hell of a lot of sense to put together a power play like that, placing puppets and clockwork in emplacements to do damage where it¡¯d be risky for our living, organic, or digital allies. Suddenly, the mortality of my closest loved ones is forefront on my mind.


    Gulping back sadness, I mutter, ¡°If, if um, if one of my inner circle, if, if a member of the SAP is, is dying, they¡¯ll be derezzing. I don¡¯t know if they¡¯ll even be tangible, but, if any of you, could, could catch or save their polygons before they disappear, I¡¯d, I¡¯d just, just please, please do, if that happens. We don¡¯t, well, they, don¡¯t leave corpses. I don¡¯t know about me absolutely for certain yet, still, despite my um, mishaps.¡±


    I might not have actually finished dying back with Ephlomseestiph and Laombigla, when I got my neck snapped. Then the resurrection buff happened, and I didn¡¯t pay too much attention to some of the aftermath. I can¡¯t recall if my body morphed, if I left a full corpse, or if I initially left a corpse that then dissipated when the reincarnation occurred. It¡¯s kind of hard to think about those moments clearly. My adrenaline was pretty high, and epinephrine, and such. Luni gazes my way, sadness in her eyes, and I return the glance, my emotions catching up with me.


    Seemingly out of nowhere, resetting the mood, Shiz chimes up, ¡°Let¡¯s rattle their scales! Let ¡®em know you¡¯ve got a couple of the rarest breed, Thunderers. Serves two purposes, does some damage, and lets ¡®em know that there¡¯s mercy, another side beyond the Ice of Rage, to take in a couple of turncoats. I know Atty¡¯s conjugatin¡¯, but in the last couple days before the final battle, I mean, she¡¯ll know the viability of the last of her clutch.¡±


    Clasping her chest suddenly, Kinzul nods and fights down her emotions. A mother whose unborn young will never see the light of day, at least some of them, because of having had to hide them from Terrorzin. I can sense how deeply this wounds Kinzul, how much she blames herself for the problems facing dragonkind since she turned down the mantle of King of Dragons in The Platinum¡¯s stead. Her heart aches for Attraxiaz the Loud, quite possibly the eldest Thunderer alive on Rayileklia. We did all we could, but Atter already knew that at most, five, six, maybe seven of her clutch would be viable by the time she even started conjugating.


    Glancing at Shiz, I recall the promise he and Atter hinted at that he said was uncouth to speak of. I¡¯m almost certain it was to wait til the last moment, and conjugate the last viable egg, if no other options were found while still under the Ice of Rage¡¯s banner. It¡¯d have been the slimmest hope for a chance to continue on the Thunderers¡¯ legacies, despite being siblings. Awkward thought, but well, it is what it is. Shiz nods my way solemnly, his boisterous attitude vanishing at overhearing my thoughts. I blush for unintentionally bringing up such a sensitive topic, one that he¡¯d wanted avoided, even if it is only mentally.


    Her eyes up-leftward in thought, Te chimes in again, ¡°What Airhead did tonight, we need to do more of. Specifically though, we¡¯ve gotta find out who any of the big baddies and group leaders are, where they are in the ranks, any of them that aren¡¯t the Icebox of Old Age Rage.¡±


    Several Onyx Dawn members sneer at Teuila¡¯s play on Terrorzin¡¯s title, a hint of satisfaction at disrespecting the tyrant, others suppress giggles. The newest amongst us, Zelshiz¡¯s Spellknights look taken aback, surprised that anyone might mouth off about Terrorzin. They¡¯ve never met Teuila before. Obviously. Regardless, I nod at Teuila, it¡¯s a concrete goal, an action we can prioritize and take.


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    Furthering what Te said, I add, ¡°I¡¯d say that¡¯s two goals then, two steps, one, finding out T-zin¡¯s formations, and ranks, two, setting up our own guerrilla hit and runs, some non-accidental assassinations. What I wouldn¡¯t give for¡ªhuh. Uh, nevermind me.¡±


    Gazing at me suspiciously, Luni squints, furrowing her brow and wrinkling her absolutely adorable little nose. I playfully avert my gaze, since for the most part she¡¯s being silly and overreacting. I know she cares for me and my mental health though. My brain might literally explode according to her, if I handle certain trains of thought wrong. I embrace her tenderly momentarily in our shared thinkspace, where Teuila roughhouses with Lil and Lucky.


    With my attention on her, Luni decides to comment, ¡°Um, research. We need to figure out some things with certain, uh, Muse duties and stuff. Plus, a tome from Autumn Brook, that was in Astridus¡¯s hoard should be arriving any minute now, as long as it didn¡¯t get intercepted, and it shouldn¡¯t have.¡±


    My heart races at Luni¡¯s assertion, my mind yearning to put together pieces of a puzzle. A box from the Sisters, the right shape for a tome, one I was told not to open until after I¡¯d imbibed all the requisite Dragonforces. A book of Eights in Nala¡¯s library from Yisstendahl¡¯s hoard. A book from the ¡®Neath. A book that Astridus somehow knew to steal from Autumn Brook before she unleashed the Fel hordes, likely on Terrorzin¡¯s orders on the behalf of the Celestial Emperor. One more, somewhere, somewhere that I lost time, but I can¡¯t recall where. We¡¯ve run into all five tomes at this point, I¡¯m sure of it. What does it mean though?


    Will it be as simple, and helpful, as directions to finding my cure, once I¡¯ve got the requisite Dragonforces? I highly doubt it, though that would be a nice change of pace. Sighing, I try to still the rampant pace of my heart, slowing it to a manageable level. I¡¯m virtually quaking, though I¡¯m not even sure why I¡¯m shaking so badly.


    Cooing softly telepathically, my wife comforts, ¡°My love, if you are weary from your adventure, your battle, and your monumental feats, multiple days in a row, please take your rest, and know that I will ensure we cover any topics that need attending to. Please forgive me any unseemliness you may have sensed. I wasn¡¯t myself after raising our enchantment, our Worldstorm.¡±


    Oh, I guess that makes sense. It must have taken a lot out of her. Now I feel doubly like an arsehole for denying Kinzul¡¯s request, but my gaze meeting hers sees and offers only love, acceptance, support, forgiveness. We each feel equally responsible and guilty for the other¡¯s ills, whether emotional, or otherwise. I notice Prinrin catching our gazes, and she nods in her understanding manner, somehow putting together unspoken pieces, as usual. Her intuitiveness is uncanny. I¡¯d suspect her of having a Latent related to it, but I know it¡¯s simply empathy cultivated over a long lifespan spent observing while overshadowed, being a runt amongst dragons. One whose caring and loving nature shines through, despite everything else.


    Suddenly, as if to contradict my most recent thoughts, addressing me directly, Prinrin asserts, ¡°The Damnations Schism my sweet. They need to pay dearie, once and for all, for the Platinum, for Orthral, by way of their Evil Claws, for so many more over the ages. Schism my sweet, they need to be slain so we can be sure they won¡¯t surprise us come the time for the final battle.¡± Sweeping her gaze about the room, making eye contact with all gathered, Prinrin finishes, ¡°Right my dears?¡±


    There¡¯s hesitation as the gathered individuals glance about at each other, for confirmation, as if no one wanted to factor in the Damnations. I answer with a slight modification, ¡°I¡¯ve some information that I think means that the Damnations are out of commission for at least the rest of the current segment of our war. We should definitely verify it though. If I¡¯m wrong, then yeah, they become one of the top priorities for me and my SAP.¡±


    Meekly, a lovely voice floats up from near Teuila¡¯s hip as Alanea suggests, ¡°Well, with, well, all this talk of battle, and, and death, your infirmary is, is, well, very basic. We, well, with Reggie¡¯s, Teuila¡¯s, Luni¡¯s, Lil¡¯s, and Lucky¡¯s otherworldly magic, this shop thing they can operate, can, and should stock it up, and, well, see to it that any volunteers are trained in first aid, and equipped with supplies to administer it. There¡¯s sure to be many injuries between now and the fighting¡¯s end, and, well, yes, um, I¡¯ve said my piece.¡±


    Nodding appreciatively, I agree, adding it to our list of responsibilities, goals to accomplish, ¡°You¡¯re right, we can get more civilians further away from the fighting, and down here helping out purchasing medical supplies, and perhaps training manuals or equipment, from the shop system. Any of them willing or able to chip in with triage and the like deserve¡ªhell, need¡ªto be equipped to handle the things that¡¯ll be coming their way.¡±


    I hadn¡¯t noticed it happen, but apparently Ahliyuri shuffled about the room to stand at his sister¡¯s side, lean on, and wrap an arm around her. From his new location, Yuri comments, ¡°If supplies are to be had, and you have a magical means of procuring them, then we need actual defenses, both solid and magical fortifications. If there¡¯s any chance your supply stream can provide, then it needs to be exploited.¡±


    Agreeing, in her soft-end-consontans accent, Farzhis adds, ¡°Tha¡¯s true. If we can defen¡¯ an¡¯ keep the army away, the longer the better. Time, tha¡¯s a goal all by itself. Some¡­ some of us nee¡¯ i¡¯ to ge¡¯ back to our bes¡¯.¡±


    Nodding vigorously, Veril seconds, ¡°Yeah, Farzhee¡¯s right. The more time we can buy before the final confrontation the better, and, and use it, like, call that a um, thing. Stratagem or something. We should plan for what time we¡¯ll give up each choke point, and fall back, so none of our defenders are, are too hurt, or worse, lost, but still as long as possible.¡±


    Echoing their sentiments, Kinzul announces, ¡°Yes, time itself is a valuable resource, and we should seek to buy as much of it as possible, in more ways than one. We should buy time to secure the safety of those weakest and most vulnerable amongst us, having plans and redundancies in order to evacuate the denizens of Solace. If the worst should come to pass, and all are needed in the fray come the final fight, our denizens will be vulnerable to anything that slips by in the chaos.¡±


    Gulping at the gruesome imagery that races through my mind, I clutch my stomach and clench my eyes shut. I don¡¯t want to imagine the sweet, kind citizens of Solace subjected to some brutal elite troop of Terrorzin¡¯s that sneaks past our vanguard when we¡¯re busy fighting off the majority of his forces, to keep them from destroying Solace outright. It will come down to that too, I know it.


    The horde¡¯ll have enough might left over, after all of our assaults, that they could streamroll Solace itself, crashing it down atop our heads, if we tried to hunker down and withstand the siege from within. Hell, I virtually gave them the idea myself with my little act earlier today, if they hadn¡¯t already been planning on doing it. Maybe if I had enough adamantite to reinforce the entire surface of the mountain, I¡¯d feel like our citizens are safe, and that we could just weather the siege, taking our time whittling away Terrorzin¡¯s entire army. There isn¡¯t that much adamantite in the entire world though. At least, not yet, not for a long time. Our respawning resource warrens don¡¯t produce it quickly enough to do something like lining a mountain with it.


    Slightly timidly, which is a bit odd for someone as powerful, capable, and in-command as they are, Zelshiz requests, ¡°If, ahem, since lord Shiz made a suggestion, if I may as well, we are your magical might, beyond your Schism, and their inner circle. If this magical supply system of yours could perhaps produce tinkering and enchanting supplies, we are capable of at least minor feats in the realm of artifact creation. Single-use artifacts at the very least, though a few of mine have talent, and excel enough at their crafts to perhaps provide more lasting items.¡±


    Before I can comment on how glad and amazed I am at this news from Zelshiz, Vylon, squinting suspiciously at them, requests, ¡°In that case, another goal should be to disburse anything our new magic users manage to craft then, distributing trinkets and enchantments where they serve best. Aye?¡±


    There¡¯s hostility in the air between Vylon and the Terrorzin-turncoats, mostly one-sided, mostly. I frown his way, glaring, and try to diffuse this tension as I answer, ¡°Yes, of course, distribution will be prioritized too, so that we don¡¯t have a useless pile of trinkets and artifacts deep out of reach when they might be needed.¡±


    Assent is murmured, and the tension in the air is no longer thick enough to cut with a knife, dying down to a gentle simmer. The gathered begin to mingle, though we haven¡¯t concluded our brainstorming yet, let alone our prioritization. I don¡¯t have to cough for attention though, because Iylynila, whom I hadn¡¯t even noticed arrive, does that for me.


    I¡¯m transfixed, and wistful of our on-hold relationship as Illy seems to be addressing me directly. As our gazes lock, she announces, ¡°Time and tide Schism, they don¡¯t wait, and you know it, but if anyone could fight them, it¡¯s you. You¡¯ll do it, won¡¯t you?¡±


    Gulping, my mind races at the implications of Illy¡¯s hints. Times of war, the tides of battle, the tides of fate, the time to come, all of it. I nod slowly. Of course I¡¯ll try to fight, and stem the tide of fate. Of course I¡¯ll try to buy as much time as possible in order to alter the outcomes of predictions we¡¯ve long since accepted.


    If I could have certain prophecies become technically fulfilled, without triggering their gruesome, horrid implications, I¡¯d certainly breathe easier. Nodding once my way, slowly, Illy virtually melds into the background, her hood up. She doesn¡¯t have Errissa¡¯s Latent, but her shyness, and desire to witness devious little webs of romances have granted her a talent for slipping about as unassuming as one can be, despite her regal beauty rivaling her mother¡¯s.


    When Kinzul raises an eyebrow my way curiously at my mental assertion, I steam at the collar. That came out wrong mentally. It¡¯s bad form to compare the beauty of individuals, especially individuals you¡¯ve been, and slash or are still romantic with, even moreso when those individuals are blood, mother and daughter to be specific. Gulping, I avert my gaze, unable to meet Kinzul¡¯s, though I sense mirth beneath her mildly suspicious glare. I¡¯m certain she takes plenty of pride in Illy¡¯s skills, strength, prowess, beauty, and everything else about her amazing daughter.


    Mentally, to me alone, Kinzul utters only one word, ¡°Quite.¡±

 B 6 C 221: Blades and Running

    Still sweating nervously slightly and wilting under Kinzul¡¯s telepathic glare, despite the mirth beneath the sentiment, I cough once for attention and state, ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going to reiterate what we just went over, just to check to make sure we¡¯re all on the same page, before we figure out the priority level of each goal. Alright?¡±


    Glancing around and making eye contact with everyone, I¡¯m afforded their attention, even those that are sleepy or worn out, so I begin, ¡°I¡¯m going to want the Strategists Eight sleuthing, gathering more intel about any myths or concrete knowledge about the Beast of the End, and the whereabouts of Yisstendahl¡¯s son. We¡¯ll want to be getting Lil''s new little army up to speed. As Yui said, we¡¯ll spill a lot of blood, slay many foes, in many skirmishes using the magical might of the Spellknights. As our Tenith suggested, we have to plan for downtime shifts, recovery time, yes Te, I know you specifically said snogging, but I¡¯m serious here.¡±


    Before I can continue on listing out the goals we¡¯d covered, Kinzul announces, ¡°To that end, I shall rescind the seal on something I¡¯d long since locked away for everyone¡¯s benefit. A lock that I believe Schism, my love, has broken through on their own.¡±


    When our small crowd murmurs and stares about in surprise, I¡¯m fairly certain I already know what Kinzul is alluding to. Does her Latent let her, through perhaps a ritual, control the limits to which Dragonforce can be relied upon and used for things like healing? Long in the past, through most of Rayileklia¡¯s history, at most Terrorzin¡¯s forces might be taking injuries, rather than being slain, so them being able to recover from their injuries overnight would benefit no one, even if the Onyx Dawn could do the same.


    Now however, we¡¯re relying on outright slaying our targets with each outing, and trying to get back to our best before our next engagements. If people can tap into an otherwise limited resource in order to be at their best each morning, or after a good sleep or something, when everything is on the line like this, now is certainly the time to allow it. Terrorzin¡¯s forces won¡¯t benefit from the lift, while ours gets a massive boon, even though the cost is great. That¡¯s a game changer. As long as we withdraw in time, always, to make sure none of ours are slain.


    I wonder if we might be able to rouse Sponge, if he subconsciously leans into his own Dragonforce in order to heal up and wake from his coma. Kinzul¡¯s soft, wet gaze expresses her hope in the thought I¡¯d just had. He, like all of her figurative children of Solace, is precious to Kinzul, and it tears at her that he¡¯s in an unwaking state, as near death as he is near life.


    Regardless, I nod, exchanging gratitude wordlessly with Kinzul. I half wonder if that¡¯s what she used so much of my blood for. Was it to be able to prepare a ritual that would allow her to do this? To nullify or void out one she¡¯d done in the past that set the lock up in the first place? The Worldstorm enchantment has so many layers, it¡¯s beyond remarkable. Only a masterful Administrator could manage all its functions. I mean, it transferred the properties of glowlichen and sturdy trees to sunflowers, to make literal sun flowers. It enhanced the durability of most of the entire planet. It changed the specific gravity of dragons for crying out loud. If someone accused Kinzul of being a deity in disguise, I¡¯d seriously consider the accusation. The changes she¡¯s affected, put into effect, over the ages of the world are astounding, miraculous.


    Anyway, before I get too distracted, and lose my, um, my thingy. My place in my, um, thought head thing. Friggin¡¯ hell. Brain, work, please. Rattling my skull, I start to rattle off the other goals we have, in order to make sure everyone¡¯s on the same page before our prioritization session, ¡°So, uh, as Nala would have it, since one of my main goals is entry to the ¡®Twixt from Solace or Verdimenn, her experiments in electrostatic electrogenesis to entangle effulgent eidolons in order to stabilize and maintain ethereal excitations, or something like that, are a concrete goal we¡¯ll need to work in.¡±


    Before people¡¯s eyes can glaze over too far, I add a simpler task related to the same end-goal, ¡°Along with that, I want to establish relations with Jeegoobotstan, since that¡¯s the only plausible escape path for our evacuees, as the only other ¡®Twixt exit I have in my ¡®Twixt realm to Rayileklia is in the Fae¡¯s Wilds, and that¡¯ll take some political maneuvering that I can¡¯t pull off in a week. So it¡¯d be better to get communications established with the refugees who¡¯ve taken residence in Jeegoobotstan, establish relations, and operating procedures for evacuation.¡±


    Puffing a breath, I do my best to maintain everyone¡¯s attention, specifying a step to accomplishing that goal, ¡°We¡¯ll have to have someone deliver several mirrors that I¡¯ll enchant, with instructions to get one to Tiktik, and another one to either Harriet or Tiago or George or Daffodil, or some of the other Aasimovian elders, or Cain, the elder kobold, and one to the dragons guarding the refugees. Lil, what if we sent Ixey and Zayzi away, before the fighting, to Jeegoobotstan, where it''s safe? They could be our ambassadors, and deliver our scrying mirrors and, um, and stuff¡ª¡°


    Suddenly Lil grumps aloud, elongating his phrasing, whining slightly, "Awe mannnn. I hate it, but I think it''s a good idea, probably. Ixey¡¯s gonna hate it too, maybe. She¡¯ll be happy to get Zayzi out of Solace before the fighting though."


    I pat Lil¡¯s head and rub his skull comfortingly as he sprawls out in a medium sized version of his dragon form. He and Lucky both look seriously winded, and I hate the next goal I¡¯m about to reiterate, ¡°We¡¯re also going to want to dig in in Vieriss Valley, and set up false bunkers filled with explosives, as Terrorzin is certain to anticipate bunkers with defenders. He¡¯s smart enough that he¡¯s likely to send in elite assassins, but even if he doesn''t, they''re fallback traps to take out advance legions during any segments of our strategic retreats.¡±


    Blowing another breath through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I continue explaining the goals related to Vieriss Valley, ¡°Similarly, we¡¯ll also dig in in Vieriss Valley''s canyon walls not far behind the bunkers, and fill it with arrangements to take care of refugees, in case we can''t get them through the ''Twixt or to Jeegoobotstan. Which means a serious lot of digging for our poor Hunter, Hound, Lucky, and any volunteers that can help him out. Also, for the traps for those bunkers, we¡¯ve got to get our artificers and Spellknights the supplies they need, which includes me meeting with Littlebit in private later to learn what she needs. Which will also include what more supplies she¡¯ll need for her and Nala for a steady stream of clankers or clockwork automatons.¡±


    Taking a moment to think about it, I muse on the goal, ¡°If it¡¯s at all possible, to aid in having a constant fresh supply of metal troops, we might be able to set up a foundry or automated process that provides pre-assembled clockwork for Nala and Littlebit to animate. I¡¯d already toyed with the idea of assembly lines for Solace, to help with harvesting resources, and converting them to products to convert to cash to use to acquire more of the goods our residents desire. This would be more focused on the war effort though, obviously.¡±


    Taking a moment, fighting off the trembling in my limbs, and holding my voice steady so I don¡¯t let on that the very idea of what I¡¯m about to say has me gulping back a sob, I state another goal, ¡°I want to make sure everyone knows Can''Z''aasians don''t leave a corpse, if we die, we''re gone. I know we don¡¯t want to think about death, but I want us to have a procedure in place, should any of us fall, anyone at all. We don¡¯t want Terrorzin¡¯s necromancers getting their hands on the corpses of our loved ones. I, I couldn¡¯t personally handle that emotionally, even if I could face them physically.¡±


    There¡¯s a hush that passes through our gathering like a wave. A silent acknowledgement that everyone feels virtually the same on that topic. After a moment¡¯s silence, I continue, ¡°We¡¯ll announce our Thunderers to the horde, or rather, they¡¯ll announce themselves. Being as rare, and powerful a breed of dragon as they are, it¡¯ll demoralize and damage T-zin¡¯s hordes. While I¡¯d like to do this one as early as possible, the earliest might possibly be waiting until the last day or two, for Atter. We¡¯ll do everything in our power to ensure her clutch gets every possible chance to bring forth as many lives as feasible.¡±


    Gulping, and blinking back tears that I share with Kinzul, I try to focus on the rest of the goals as I further add, ¡°We¡¯re going to have some priority-target assassinations and plenty of guerrilla attacks beyond just defending the front where we bottleneck his horde with our defenders. To that end, we¡¯ll need intel on Terrorzin''s ranks, formations, and the like, to schedule and pinpoint those attacks. Speaking of intel, according to Lu, we need other intel, research for foreknowledge? Muse duties is all we¡¯re getting out of her on that topic for now, apparently.¡±


    Pausing a beat, glancing at Prinrin, I nod at the fire in her eyes as I address her goal, ¡°We want concrete intel on the Damnations locations and plans, if they might join the final battle, it¡¯ll be the SAP''s duty to take them down first, before they get the chance. When we¡¯re prioritizing, that¡¯ll almost assuredly be top of the list.¡±


    Drawing a deep breath in order to sigh, I spy Alanea tending to Yuri¡¯s still-injured form, which brings to mind more of the goals we¡¯ll have, specifically I announce, ¡°We¡¯re going to get specific operating procedures put into place for supply lines from the shop-system, specifically medical supplies, training manuals or training equipment, and such to provide the infirmary and any medic volunteers everything they¡¯ll need to keep our defenders who can¡¯t lean on a Dragonforce in order to heal, healthy. Also of course to tend to any civilians exposed to the war, or hurt, injured, or made ill in any fashion. Let¡¯s keep an eye out for curses, disease warfare, poisons, and gases and the like while tending to all that.¡±


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Since I¡¯m meeting Ahliyuri¡¯s gaze while trying not to ogle Alanea, I address his concerns, ¡°We¡¯ll definitely create actual walls, mundane and magical, actual blockades for when Terrorzin''s forces break through my hastily erected blockade. Or I guess we could say my hastily moved natural barrier would be more accurate. Anyway, to that end, we go back to our shop system procedures, since we also want other magic-oriented supplies to provide for the Spellknights and artificers, for the creation of magical assets or artifacts.¡±


    Turning my head, taking in everyone, I catch Farzhis and Veril standing close to each other but hugging themselves, avoiding meeting each other¡¯s gazes, so I bring up their concern, ¡°We¡¯re going to make a concrete plan on how to buy time, and plan out how much we''ll be buying with each skirmish and engagement, always ensuring we withdraw before things go south, but try to maintain minimum time purchased with each engagement. Similarly, we¡¯ll set time aside for evacuation and protection of civilians, and get them prepared now, in advance, so they have time to do their own preparations in the likely event that we need to get them away from Solace or combat. Oh, back on the topic of the shop system and magical assets and artifacts, of course we¡¯ll make sure the procedures include proper disbursements of any magical assets and aids the Spellknights and artificers can concoct.¡±


    Muttering mostly to myself, I add two goals that are just for me, ¡°Fight fate, and get in contact with Errissa, to try to learn what''s going on.¡± Then, more audibly, I request, ¡°Alright, does that sound like everything we covered? If so, let¡¯s work on prioritizing them. A lot can be accomplished simultaneously, though some, we just can¡¯t be everywhere at once, or working on multiple projects at the same time, as far as artificery and such. We¡¯ll also need to get word out to gather volunteers.¡±


    Still feeling horrid for having hurt her, wanting to display my faith in her, I address Administrator, fumbling as I do, ¡°Anyway um, Kinzul, my love, my wife, perhaps you should lead us in prioritizing, by administrating, um, yeah.¡±


    Taking pity on me, knowing how uncomfortable I am with focus being on me in the first place, Kinzul does take over, announcing, ¡°Yes, my beloved Order, please afford me your attention as we organize these disparate thoughts into a congruous outline of events. Let me address our plan going in reverse, starting from the final step. At the end of a week, we shall meet the bulk of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, and he himself, the morning of October fifth. Whether at our doorstep, or in a choke point of our choosing will be determined by how well we pull off the other steps in our plan. Now, as for how to place these priorities, perhaps we list the goals on scraps of paper, and shift them about. When we¡¯re satisfied with their locations, we transcribe that as our master list.¡±


    Grateful for a solid plan of action to help wrap up our little meeting of the minds, I do exactly as Kinzul suggested. I begin cutting squares of paper out of a list of the goals we¡¯d just discussed. The warmth and excitement of those around me, having concrete goals to focus on in the face of such overwhelming odds is reassuring. There¡¯s plenty we can accomplish at the same time, so our list is more horizontal than I¡¯d have liked, as my friends and loved ones point out changes to make to the list.


    One of the things we¡¯ll certainly be doing is running a lot of supplies around. Hopefully we don¡¯t need to run any weapons around. I think everyone¡¯s got their own blades, or claws, at this point in life, and the war. After a dozen minutes or so, this is how the list is splayed out before me on the tinkering table.


    >Intel on the Damnations, their locations and plans


    >>Nala¡¯s electrostatic electrogenesis to engtangle eidolons in order to stabilize and maintain ethereal excitations, *maybe we should just call it EEE like Littlebit suggests *Why, is it too complex for you? *Shut up, I know more about etheric particles than you do Lu


    >>>¡®Twixt mastery *Go Airhead!


    >Restoring ability to lean on Dragonforce to Regenerate *Heck yeah Aunty Zool! *Te, you¡¯re such an embarrassment *Nuh uh, Aunty Zool is okay with her nickname, I checked


    >Getting Lil¡¯s new little army up to speed *Hah, Dragbutt started a cult *I thought you stopped calling Lil that a long time ago? *Pft, whatever


    >Opening the lines of communication to Jeegoobotstan(Sending the twin Reds away w/ scrying mirrors) *Awe, okay, I actually feel bad that Dragbutt¡¯s shiny new girlfriend is going away for at least a week *Well isn¡¯t that sweet of someone *Yup, I¡¯m a total sweetie


    >>Establish relations, as well as operating procedures for evacuating to Jeegoobotstan, whether or not we succeed with ¡®Twixt research


    >>But utilize new lines of communication, twin Reds, and Tiktik, to advance ¡®Twixt research as well *Airhead better not hog the mirror to Tiktik, I want some facetime with Kitten, mrawr *OMG Te


    >Muse duties, and organization of supply lines from the shop system falls to Luni, Muse, our resident shopkeeper expert, and Leezahna, our quartermaster *Someone go wake Princess up, she¡¯s a part of this now too, and Airhead¡¯s proud of her


    >>Possibly construction of an assembly line for swift manufacturing


    >>Prioritize upkeep of material for walls, mundane and magical, as well as medical supplies, as the primary outcomes of the shop system


    >>>If those are taken care of, then prioritize supplies for explosives for the Spellknights and artificers as well as other magic-oriented supplies for enchanting and creation of utility items or whatever the Spellknights are capable of *Reggie, meet up with Littlebit in private later, no groaning about getting private time with the shortstack cutie *Te, don¡¯t leave personal notes in the margins anymore *You¡¯re not the boss of me *Will you two knock it off? *Nah *Nope


    >>>If those are taken care of, then the spare parts for clankers and clockworks should be prioritized as outputs of the shop system, and an assembly line worked on, so that Nala and Littlebit only have to imbue their ¡°robobuddies¡± to animate them, to replace any fallen ones *I like robobuddies better than clankers, sorry Littlebit *Okay, I agree with you there Te


    >>>>Disburse/hand out anything the Spellknights and Artificers can whip up, including explosives, portable turrets, robot allies, consumable trinkets, and anything else


    >Get concrete intel on Terrorzin¡¯s horde¡¯s formation, its elite units, its commanders, and so on


    >Spill blood, and lots of it, *Hell yeah ¡®Yui! the wording is fine, you and your bro rock socks *What does that even mean?


    >Take advantage of our newly minted Spellknight platoon, and send them into skirmish after skirmish


    >>But prioritize downtime between those skirmishes, make sure everyone is treated and rested, any fallen ally is one dead too many *Yeah¡­ always come home guys, all of you *Yeah


    >>While the first skirmishes are happening, Lucky, and anyone else capable of helping will be digging in and tunneling about the canyon walls of Vieriss Valley


    >>>Create false defensive bunkers in Vieriss


    >>>>Fill them with explosives, or lethal magics *Hah, boom goes the dynamite, and the bad guys *You¡¯re SUCH a dork *I know you are but what am I? *Ugh, and you¡¯re such a child


    >>>Create actual refuges in Vieriss


    >During one of several strategic falling backs to new chokepoints, announce our Thunderers to the horde


    >If all other intelligence necessary has been gathered, look into these Beast of the End myths


    >If the Beast of the End research turns up something, or doesn¡¯t pan out, find Yisstendahl¡¯s son, interrogate him


    >>Prepare the evacuation plan to go off by October fifth if at all possible


    >Meet Terrorzin and the rest of his forces head on for the final confrontation on October fifth


    Phooph, what a mess. I mean, it¡¯s pretty well laid-out, all things considered. We¡¯ll have to expand a couple of sections once we actually get intel on the horde, but that¡¯s why it¡¯s prioritized above those sections. I frown and furrow my brow at the little side-notes that made it into comments on the list. Casting my glare over to the responsible parties, I find them immediately pretending to whistle innocently as they avoid meeting my gaze. Yeah, real cute you guys.


    Ah who am I kidding, I can¡¯t be mad at Lu or Te. Who told them to knock it off¡­in another note in the margin? Musta been Lil I guess. Anyway. Wow, this feels like a lot of things to do, and feels like we¡¯ve accomplished a hell of a lot tonight. I suppose in some ways, it is, and we have. We¡¯re going to have to break up into groups though to start a bunch of simultaneous activities.


    I need to enchant some more mirrors while Lil fetches Ixey and Zayzi. I need to stay here with the artificers right up until the second skirmish, where I¡¯ll be on the front lines from that point onwards for the rest of the war until the night of October fourth, when I might be called back to evacuate the civilians. Hopefully we can complete our ¡®Twixt research by then, but it could turn out that we just can¡¯t pull it off. In which case, Lucky will be our go-to civilian savior, escorting them and tunneling dozens of miles through mountains to get them to a refuge that will be behind enemy lines by that point.


    Oh Lucky, my poor sweet boy. He doesn¡¯t even complain, he volunteered to dig to help make others safe. I whisper to him, ¡°Good boy, good boy. You¡¯re so good. Soooo good. Such a good boy,¡± which sets his tail to wagging and thumping excitedly. I¡¯m also privy to his excited happy thoughts of, ¡°Parent says I¡¯m good, that means they love me, I¡¯m a good boy!¡±


    Yeah, yeah I do Lucky. I do love you. Wiping tears from my eyes, I realize this might be the last I see of him for a week or more, and¡­ if one of us doesn¡¯t¡­ come back. Tears begin flowing freely as I hug Lucky tightly about his neck. My son, that I never appreciated enough, until it was too late. I¡¯m so sorry Lucky. I¡¯m so sorry I took you for granted. I feel Luni and Te at my back, their hands on my shoulders, both experiencing the sadness deeply along with me. The gathered begin dispersing, allowing my inner circle, Kinzul, and Prinrin a modicum of privacy.


    There¡¯s plenty to grieve that¡¯s already happened, and there will be more to grieve before the end of the war. I let my emotions wash over me, and away, moments lost in time, like tears in the rain.

 B 6 C 222: A Littlebit Of Time

    My wife excuses herself, to head off alone. I assume she¡¯ll be working whatever magic it takes to use her Latent to rescind the lock on Dragonforce-infused healing. Prinrin stays nearby, wanting a word with me after I get done discussing Littlebit¡¯s needs for supplies and the like. My inner circle now have tasks to attend to though that are going to pull us apart, and scatter us to the four winds, once again. Just like our last days on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. It¡¯s terrifying how similar the situation is. Mite hulks invading, a swarm of foes that seems endless, though dragons rather than a giant-insect horde, Lucky off digging somewhere, us being scattered to attend to necessary activities.


    It¡¯s all too similar. But I guess that¡¯s just the way life works. Things are cyclical, similarities crop up. We see patterns where there are none. At least, I hope there aren¡¯t any patterns here. I don¡¯t know where Mataalii is, but I¡¯m almost sure I¡¯ll see him again before my life on Rayileklia is over. It might even be what ends my life on Rayileklia. Him coming after me, seeking out vengeance for the final time. I¡¯ve dreaded the possibility since we arrived here. Phooph. I puff a breath and sigh, weary just from the thought of it.


    Apparently when Nala went out earlier, she was taking some sort of readings from our Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital shop structure, at the source. I¡¯m curious what her findings were. I embrace Luni for a long moment, and our lips lock for what feels both like an eternity, and yet no time at all, never long enough for either of us. Te smooches each of us swiftly and softly, before rocketing away, planning to work on as many of our goals as possible, even helping out with intel gathering for the info we need.


    Lucky bays once quietly in sadness as we all hug him. We¡¯ll let him get a good night of rest, before he heads out accompanied by the Spellknights, and Lil¡¯s new little army, and whomever else is going in the first wave of defense of Vieriss. He whuffs quietly and hunkers down against the tinkering table, surprising Nala and Littlebit a little bit. I sigh and mentally facepalm at my mental redundancy¡­ mentally. Huff, le sigh. You¡¯re getting tired Reggie. Yeah, y¡¯think? Gee, real genius call there. Stop smarting off and focus goober. Hm? Oh, right.


    Pouting, Lil confides, ¡°I¡¯m um, gonna get Ixey, and bring her down here, so we can hang out until you make your magic mirrors pal. You and momma are gonna make sure she and Zayzi get to Jee-stan safe, right? You won¡¯t let anything happen to them, will you?¡±


    Gulping down sadness and apprehension while blinking back tears, I nod affirmatively, barely able to choke out, ¡°Of course, My Heart, of course. They¡¯re important to you, to me, to Kinzul. We¡¯ll make sure they¡¯re safe.¡±


    Satisfied, Lil looses a breath shakily, sniffles once before standing, and trots away towards Solace. We¡¯ve got to be absolutely sure innocents like Ixey and Zayzi and Del and Charles and Del¡¯s son are going to make it through the rest of this stupid war. I¡¯m going to break as many of my own limitations as I can, pull out every stop I can think of, and try to get them all to safety, should the worst come to pass.


    We still don¡¯t know if the planet¡¯s going to erupt or something from the hole we blew in it by capsizing Thunderpeak Citadel or Stormspire Peak or whatever it was. We probably should have added keeping tabs on that to our intelligence gathering goals list. I figure it¡¯ll be pretty obvious if it happens though. It¡¯d be pretty hard to miss the world splitting in two, or spitting up its lifeblood all over its surface. I know it¡¯s an alarmist idea, and I¡¯m hoping that that¡¯s all it is.


    The thing about applying physics to metaphysics is they don¡¯t always translate how you think they will. If they translate at all. But anyway¡ªReggie. Yeah? It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s going to be okay. What? Oh. Thanks. Phew. I didn¡¯t realize I¡¯d been holding my breath for a bit there. I guess I¡¯m more than a little on edge about the whole thing.


    Gazing wistfully after Luni and Lil as they depart Verdimenn, I feel my resolve waver slightly. Knowing we might all be pursuing different duties at any given moment, in different places, all week, until the final battle hurts. I, I understand why I comforted myself a second ago. Tears swim about along the lids of my eyes and dance to the edge of my lashes, hanging there, a constellation of sadness. I¡¯m forced to sniffle to be able to breathe through my nose.


    Please, please let this be nothing like Can¡¯Z¡¯aas¡¯s final days. Please. I beg, sending my plea nowhere, out into the void, figuratively. I guess kind of literally too, since I cast the plea out within my own mind, and I represent a void in many aspects. Drawing a deep breath and loosing a shaky sigh, I turn my attention to the few individuals remaining in the tinkering workspace at the moment. Nala, Lucky, Prinrin, Alanea, Leezahna who was apparently woken up by Te, or just by our general commotion with our nearness to her home, and several of the Spellknights, Yui and Yuri included.


    Heading towards her, I hold out our finished list of goals to show Leezahna, and to make a request, ¡°Hey, um, Quartermaster. Things just got serious, deadly serious. I¡¯m going to need your help, a lot of it. Is uh, is now an okay time to sit down and talk some of that out?¡±


    There¡¯s an understanding in Leezahna¡¯s eyes, a storm of emotions gathering, welling up within her. She nods slowly, before mentioning, ¡°I, um, heard most of your planning session. It was hard not to. I didn¡¯t intend to eavesdrop, at first. Then it just sounded too important. I didn¡¯t know if you¡¯d want me there though, so I just listened.¡±


    Scratching my head ruefully, I admit, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I wasn¡¯t sure if you were awake or would be interested. I did find myself wishing I¡¯d had our quartermaster there for most of it, since needs for various supplies cropped up for like half of our goals. You uh, able to forgive my absentmindedness on that one?¡±


    The emerald-tressed lass shrugs, which draws my attention to her bare shoulders, and the nightie she¡¯s wearing. I blink repeatedly and quickly avert my gaze. There¡¯s nothing obscene about it, it¡¯s just a very lovely translucent fabric. Thankfully she¡¯s wearing another layer under it, but still, it¡¯d be hard not to be distracted by her beautifully crafted human form if I didn¡¯t set my gaze somewhere else. Oh, crap. I kinda forgot she can hear my every thought when I¡¯m in range. I facepalm, realizing that she didn¡¯t need to listen through dozens of meters of stone to hear us, she just needed to listen to my brain¡¯s mental monologue of the events.


    We exchange a glance, her blushing, but smirking with pride, me blushing, and feeling like a jerk. I¡¯m tempted to ask her how it went when Miraina approached her, and what they talked about, but I don¡¯t want to upset her, or pry into either her or Miraina¡¯s personal life. It¡¯s just a curiosity. I¡¯m sure Iylynila would be far more than just a little curious though, so it¡¯s probably good that she took Veril and Farzhis out of Solace to head directly for Vieriss. Those three, and hopefully their teammate Induul, will be among the first watch, and first front line of defenders holding Terrorzin¡¯s horde at bay.


    It strikes me that we need Shaylon out there as soon as possible. Boetah too, despite me wanting to not take him away from Atter during their conjugation. Argh, we need protections for our protectors, and defenses for our defenders. This is an insane, nearly impossible situation. I try to hide my growl of frustration.


    Leezahna though, comments, ¡°Impossible seems to be your thing, Schism. These magically renewable resources, granting mercy to Terrorzin¡¯s creeps, destroying two mountains in two days, and the Evil Claws. Do, do I have to stay? If, if you need a quartermaster, but if the civilians are, are being evacuated, am, am I still a civilian?¡±


    My heart breaks momentarily as I turn to cast my gaze down, averting it in sadness. Mustering myself as best I can, I answer, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t hold it against you if you considered yourself a civilian, and left when we evacuate them. They¡¯ll need a quartermaster in Jeegoobotstan as much as or more than we¡¯ll need one during, and leading up to, the final fight. It might be better if you do evacuate with them. Y¡¯know? I¡¯m proud of you Leeza, and grateful you thought to ask.¡±


    Rubbing my eyes on my forearm, I try to wipe away the tears. This poor woman. Bullied to tears, threatened near to death, gone home to a haughty family that disagrees with notions her eyes were opened to, and here she is, doing her best to redeem herself in every possible way. There¡¯s really not much I can say that hasn¡¯t already been said. She knows that I love everyone under my care. That I care for everyone who desires peace, who tries to live their life without harming others.


    I¡¯m surprised when I hear a sniffle. Leezahna quickly turns aside as my gaze travels up, intending to meet hers. We stand together, moping for a while, before we both sigh and push aside our emotions to get down to business. There¡¯s a prideful sneer on Leeza¡¯s face when she gets into work mode. I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s how she¡¯d always looked when she was ready to get down to business, or if it¡¯s new, for this moment.


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


    Regardless, I start hashing things out, ¡°So, Leeza, you¡¯ve got the quantities of resources we¡¯re producing, and you¡¯re a whiz with arithmetic, so I know I can trust you to get their base values, and figure out the total we¡¯re working with. Further, I trust you to get in touch with a few of the individuals who¡¯ve tried their hands at crafting to turn a profit. You know your writings, and calligraphy can be worth a fair amount. We want to maximize the capital gains with the least amount of required effort, and least necessity of volunteers. I¡¯ll trust you to try to graph out a sweet spot, or eyeball it, or make a call, based on your social skills. You do know people, and how to work them in a sense. That can be an asset right now. I¡¯ll trust your judgement on any of the base resource objectives. ¡®Kay?¡±


    Nodding wordlessly, Leezahna makes a wave of her hand, motioning for me to carry on, so I do, ¡°Right, so, some raw materials will be used to form blockades. I¡¯ll need you to get in touch with the Spellknights who are used to erecting barricades and such, to see how much they need. Also, ask Nala and Littlebit how much they¡¯re going to need, and if they can make more of those force-distributing barriers, ones large enough to, well, handle Vieriss Valley¡¯s canyon width in some of its slimmest spaces. Understand?¡±


    To impress upon her how much I¡¯m relying on her, and how proud I am of her, how much we in the Onyx Dawn need her, I continue to explain, ¡°You are critical, to so much of what we¡¯re going to accomplish, or try to accomplish, between now and the final fight. Your choices determine how much time we have, how effective our traps are, how much magical might our friends and allies have as backups and trinkets and such. You even in a sense decide how many troops we have, by figuring out how much to allocate to the creation of Littlebit¡¯s and Nala¡¯s automatons that they can infuse and animate. Since they¡¯re limited in how many they can animate at once, and we¡¯re hoping to not get them destroyed instantly repeatedly, you¡¯ll determine their effectiveness, and value, and how many we can commit to animating or reanimating or whatever the two tinkerers consider it.¡±


    Leezahna¡¯s eyes widen in apprehension and understanding. I know she understood on some levels, that quartermaster is an important role, and that I was trusting her with a lot of responsibility, but this is all of the worst and best at once. It¡¯s the most of my trust, it¡¯s everyone¡¯s trust, in the entire Onyx Dawn, hoping that the choices she makes are the ones closest to correct for the best outcomes. It¡¯s also far more stress than I wanted to put on her, hell, on anyone. Rubbing my eyes on my forearm once more, I stand for several moments, meeting Leezahna¡¯s gaze, trying to emit an aura of care, comfort, and calm.


    The lass trembles, but to her credit, she steels herself and responds, ¡°I can do that. I will do that. All of it. I won¡¯t let you down, not now, not again, never again. If the Ice of Rage wins, Mother wouldn¡¯t survive. I¡¯m going to make sure that bastard gets the most we can throw at him thrown at him, the most effectively we can do it. Th-thank you. Thank you Schism, for trusting me with this responsibility, this honor.¡±


    Nodding her way, I can¡¯t help myself as I offer Leezahna a hug. She doesn¡¯t leap into my arms or anything, but she does allow a slow simultaneous approach with a curt polite shoulder patting around each other¡¯s backs. She vibrates with intense discomfort, so I pull away immediately, apologetically. I hand her the primary copy of our goals list, in order for her to photocopy them when she gets a chance, in order to get everyone up to speed on our priorities. She spins on her heel haughtily, as usual, and then cringes, as usual, before marching back to her room to gather her notes and ledger. I¡¯ve got the right person on this job. I know it.


    I suspect she literally won¡¯t rest if there¡¯s any part of her task that she can complete at a given moment, that she hasn¡¯t already taken care of. Telepathically I send well-wishes to Leezahna, trying to remind her to take care of herself too, making self-care a priority, just like we¡¯re making it one for our defenders. We can¡¯t afford to have her burn out. She¡¯s important to us now. Massively so.


    As I¡¯m turning to attend to the artificer¡¯s needs, Prinrin stops me to hop into my arms and wrap her limbs around me saying, ¡°Schism my sweet, you¡¯re doing so well, so well stepping into his shoes. He¡¯d be so proud of you, like I am. You¡¯re our Hero, the one we need. We¡¯ve needed you dearie. I¡¯ve needed you, for so long my sweet Schism. Remind me, like you did before, to come back to them, my dears, my children. I owe you my life many times over, dear me I do my dear. Our deviant little club will have to skip a week or two, but I dare say Illy feels the same, in many ways Schism sweetie. And obviously of course our Lady, my dearest, longest friend, loves you so deeply that it hurts. I don¡¯t know what hurts that linger are plaguing her right now, but I think you made the right choice in refusing her secret request dearie. We needed you here for this, and for the coming battles.¡±


    A whirlwind as ever, I can barely keep up with Prinrin¡¯s speech, let alone the cascade of emotions that hit me as she smoothly shifts into and out of deeply touching topics that tug my heart in so many directions. I squeeze my sweet, intuitive, loving, lovely little old lady tightly, lovingly. We let tears flow down into each other¡¯s necks as we let the embrace linger. I do think I needed to hear that from her. It was eating away at me inside, worried that my choice hurt Kinzul. After a long while, yet too short a moment, we tilt our faces to let our lips meet in the briefest kiss that conveys all of our empathy for the other.


    As our lips part, I mutter, ¡°I told you before, any war, no matter the outcome, if you¡¯re not there on the other side of it to celebrate, I¡¯ll consider a loss in its entirety. I will, I will remind you, again and again, to come home, for them. Thank you for using the gift I gave you, for using it the way you promised Pawn and me to. Just, just thank you for still being here, for making it this far Prinrin, my wonderful, deviant little old lady.¡±


    Wearing a bright half-smile Prinny nods, leans up to kiss my cheek, then hops down out of my arms after disentangling her limbs from my torso. She waves tenderly my way as she jogs back towards Mount Solace. I can¡¯t help gazing after her as she goes. Darn it Prinny, no, I can sense what you¡¯re thinking. No, not because of your tight, pert posterior, you little perv. Pft. But okay, also, yes, because of that. I sigh and chuckle about my deviant little old lady.


    Finally turning to face the artificers, I apologize for the wait, ¡°Sorry about that, I had to impress on our quartermaster the, well, you heard. Then, well, you saw that I was mounted, so I, meep¡ª¡°


    Grinning, waggling her brows, having seen another short woman launch herself at me, Littlebit leaps at me from her workstation, forcing me to catch her. Oh heavens she¡¯s so warm as she cuddles into my neck and against my chest, with her loose overalls and tight undershirt. She whispers, ¡°Thank you Tiger. For making Tiktik a priority.¡±


    Gulping back my emotions, I nod wordlessly. We both know it wasn¡¯t an entirely selfless suggestion that I put forth. Certainly, contacting Jeegoobotstan, and Tiktik in particular does benefit the Order, massively, especially our ongoing ¡®Twixt portal research, but, like Littlebit and Teuila, I miss that goofy grinning face of my Kitten. We didn¡¯t get to spend as long together in the ¡®Twixt as she wanted, and I lament that.


    I know I couldn¡¯t have made another choice. And I know things worked out alright in the end, since she was reunited with Littlebit, and the air was cleared. I still have an ache, a yearning in my heart for another timeline in which I spent ages with Tiktik in the ¡®Twixt. Blushing, I rattle my skull. Littlebit grins a tad deviously into my neck. Oh, right, I set up psychic networks with everyone, and have been overstressed, overworked, and overemotional, not monitoring which walls were up or down lately. She¡¯s heard every thought I¡¯d had tonight, including the pervy ones about her lovely, slightly curvy, compact form. Whoops.


    So, before I embarrass myself further, I try to navigate our minds towards the conversation we¡¯re actually intending to have, ¡°Ah, erm, you said you could divulge which supplies you would need other than than the nitrates and stuff that make up gunpowder? I mean, honestly it won¡¯t be too bad getting ahold of saltpeter and sulfur, even without utilizing our supply system. But if we can pack a bigger punch, we should. Dragons can weather explosions of the usual potency pretty well, depending on proximity.¡±


    Nodding along with me, Littlebit giggles as she leans up to my ear, almost nibbling it as she whispers, ¡°Just kinda wanted to wait til they were all gone, ¡®cause the main ingredient is dragon doodie. Hehe.¡±


    Her lips send shivers up my spine as they tickle my ear. Her warm breath, and her own titter of a laugh tinkles and tingles down my ear canal. However, between the sensual tickling, and the humorous nature of her whisper, the humor wins out, and I burst into a snorted half laugh. I can sense Nala rolling her eyes nearby, so I blush heatedly, not sure which part of our little miniature meeting of the minds is more exasperating to her.


    Answering my thoughts, Nala comments, ¡°For the record, it¡¯s the obvious attraction Miss Bitty has for you, and you have for her, that are distracting you both. It¡¯d be better for all of us if you just went into this ¡®Twixt, where time won¡¯t pass for the rest of us while you got your fornicating thoughts sorted out, in whatever fashion you mammals do to rid yourselves of silly tensions. Honestly, neither of you is subtle in the least.¡±


    Steaming from my collar, I gulp. I¡¯m certainly not going to rip open a portal to the ¡®Twixt, untested, and unstable, and leap into it to, erm, fornicate, with Littlebit. Yeesh. Phew, I¡¯m pretty sure my cheeks could weld that sheet of orichalcum right now. Littlebit suffers no such embarrassment. She¡¯s a woman who expresses her intellect and interests openly. I admire that about her, but I¡¯m not as impervious to the discomfort at others knowing my more intimate, private desires.


    Coughing, to get us back on track, I attempt to set Littlebit on the edge of her workstation, but she keeps her digits loosely entangled in my hair and clothing to keep me close. She mutters, ¡°Come on Tiger, just keep me company, close company. I¡¯m gonna be sending away my bot buddies, and Nala is volunteering as our extradimensional explorer, in order to get readings we need when we start opening portals. You don¡¯t want me to get lonely, do ya?¡±


    Flustered, I pout and avert my gaze, but I shake my head. No, I don¡¯t want Littlebit getting lonely, not even for a little bit. Ugh, the people in my life know how to get me wrapped around their little fingers. Good thing I cut Farzhis off at the pass back before she started turning over a new leaf. Anyway, which project are we attempting first? Seems like an exciting load of prospects for us lined up on the table.

 B 6 C 223: Trusting

    I know I forgot to bring up the idea of an adamantite grinder, but I¡¯m sure that embedding a roller with teeth, and pairing that with another one where the teeth and grooves are offset to match each other, in a sturdy frame, doesn¡¯t take a whole hell of a lot of inventive genius. The fabrication and metalwork with a legendary metal might be tough for me to do on my own, but it¡¯s not my highest priority anyway.


    Before I can really dig in and satisfy my curiosities about the various projects on the table before me, Nala comments, ¡°We can get a grinder set up with no need for elaborate designs or research, so please focus, friend Reggie, and bring your mind to bear on the problems with breaching the space between realms. You¡¯ve a suite of powers unlike any other, I¡¯m certain that several you already possess, or likely could master, are the key to manifesting or manipulating realmways, portals.¡±


    Nodding along, I surmise, ¡°Based on your primary concern, what you want is a magnetic field, an EMF, itself stable enough to stabilize distortions that occur seemingly at random, trapping or entangling particles in various ways. I can probably generate that for you, if you even need me, after designing a device capable of holding that field in place.¡±


    Gnawing my lip, I grouse, ¡°You really might not need me at all, at least for that part. We do have electricity from other sources, with Sun, and our solar chargers. Also, as I¡¯ve mentioned, the lightning spiritswarm left me sometime during my last excursion, so my control over electrokinesis is back down to my own usual levels.¡±


    Disturbingly, Nala jabs me in the neck with a device, and shoves another one at my mouth forcing it inside as I gasp from surprise and a bit of pain. She mutters, ¡°Hm, mhm, yes, yes of course. It all makes sense. I¡¯m beginning to ascertain that there¡¯s more to you than even you yet know friend Reggie. More and more indeed. I¡¯ve half a mind to¡ªwell, no, I¡¯ve a full mind, likely more full than any other Solace resident save perhaps Our Lady¡ªbring out vivisection tools to get a good look under the hood so to speak, as it were.¡±


    As my eyes widen in shock, dismay, and honestly a little bit of terror, Nala catches herself and corrects, ¡°Not that I¡¯d do such a thing of course. At least not without consent.¡±


    My glare at Nala remains dubious, slightly distrusting, since she did just jab, prod me, and shove something in one of my orifices without asking consent prior to doing so. I¡¯m not actually upset at her or anything, but I¡¯m at least a tad incredulous as to her likelihood of consent-seeking. I¡¯m fairly certain she at least wouldn¡¯t perform any operations that would likely endanger my life, or risk it at any high percentage likelihood. I think. I hope. Littlebit titters nervously in response to my train of thought, uncertain herself of Nala¡¯s self-imposed limitations.


    Abashed, at least as much as someone like her ever gets, Nala attempts an apology, ¡°Ah, right, friend Reggie. I did not intend to make you doubt my sincerity and ability to determine right from wrong. I¡¯ll have you know I¡¯m very aware that injuring someone without prior consent is quite frowned upon.¡±


    Stifling laughter, Littlebit comments, ¡°That¡¯s putting it lightly, Sugar.¡±


    Yeah, lightly indeed Littlebit, lightly indeed. It¡¯s a fairly potent reminder of Nala¡¯s abrasiveness and unusual social graces, or lack thereof. Most people wouldn¡¯t take kindly to, much less remain friends with, someone who offhandedly commented about their desire to vivisect them. That, and her apology was pretty close to a non-apology. I take a moment to center myself, passing a breath through puffed cheeks and pursed lips. Phooph.


    Right, so let¡¯s get down to it. I stand near Littlebit to help her stem the tide of loneliness, since she only just reunited with Tiktik, and then had to part with her again immediately, for all our sakes. Resting a hand on her shoulder, I nod along with her technobabble explanations that fly mostly over my head. Despite that, I flash her warm, genuine smiles, glad of her intellect being brought to bear on our mutual desires.


    As Littlebit is working out mathematical attributes of ¡®Twixt portals, and the likelihood of being able to achieve opening one, I¡¯m working on enchanting several more pairs of mirrors. I realize I can give a message to Tiktik, that she might be able to take a mirror to the Hidden Heart, and get me in touch with Jarrah Bettergrove. That would give us a leg up on beginning a secondary backup plan for evacuations, if things go south here, and in Jeegoobotstan. Or, if the worst comes to pass, it gives Jarrah time to prep to get everyone ready to evacuate Rayileklia entirely, if I can somehow get all peace-loving people on the planet into the ¡®Twixt, or to some other realm through the ¡®Twixt.


    Shivering at the thought of needing to evacuate all remaining free peoples alive on Rayileklia, I realize there¡¯s at least one other group unaccounted for, the Derbrightmine Dwarves. Franny Derbrightmine is an utter sweetheart, whom I hope has recovered from her bullet-wound. I couldn¡¯t in good conscience abandon Rayileklia without at least trying to make contact, and offering the same opportunity to the Derbrightmine Dwarves that I¡¯m offering to everyone else. Plus, maybe, just maybe, if they can get Don and Paulette¡¯s bodies down safely from their perch, we might be able to thaw them out with dragon¡¯s fire. If they were alive when frozen, and if they had¡­


    My face droops wearily, realizing how much of a leg up on a chance at survival that Teuila had. She¡¯s digital critterkin, so doesn¡¯t actually need to breathe, not the normal way. If she¡¯s on pause or in stasis, if she had enough oxygen to be alive in the moment of that pause, it¡¯s as good as putting her in sci-fantasy perfect cryo. She also had elemental resistances, and a sentient artifact armor specifically designed to absorb and lessen the harmful effects of elemental things like fire and frost and lightning. Don and Paulette¡¯s odds are pretty grim at this point, taking all that into account.


    Still, I¡¯m sure most of the Onyx Dawn, or even some civilians in Solace would agree that it¡¯s worth at least trying, or at least offering the attempt to Franny, for her to make the decision. That is, if she¡¯s healed, and in charge. Who knows what the political climate is like in the dwarven dominion right now? By all accounts, Don Derbrightmine stopped the families¡¯ constant in-fighting by bringing them all under one banner, his. With him out of the picture, would the survivors have just devolved into reckless in-fighting? Or would they have worked together to rebuild in the wake of the calamity that was Olashax and Astridus?


    Odds are about seventy thirty that they stuck together and tried to make things work, according to my genre senses. Not the worst odds. I¡¯ve played worse with my own life. Similar odds that Franny survived and is leading the survivors, based on her popularity. I know Hellga is traumatized, but I almost wish I could help bring those two together. I know Hellga is repentant, and would beg Franny¡¯s forgiveness. I don¡¯t know if any of her family survived the dragons¡¯ attack, so I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯d be better or worse for her healing process to learn of and reconnect with the other dwarves.


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    Phooph, I¡¯m going to have to table everything related to the dwarves for now. As horrible as it sounds, I have to focus my efforts, energies, and resources on the immediate needs at hand, and the most likely necessary fallbacks. I hate myself just a little bit for even being able to prioritize, and choose. I¡¯ve grown colder in some ways. I¡ª.


    Interrupting my thoughts, Lil offers up, ¡°I can warm ya up buddy, just say the word Rej pal.¡±


    Trying not to laugh or roll my eyes, I glance across our telepathic space to see if Lil is actually misinterpreting what I say, or if he¡¯s trying to keep me from getting down on myself. It seems to be the latter. Plus, he¡¯s returning with Ixeyla and Xayla in tow. Drawing a shuddering breath, I try to right my mind. Is there someone we can spare, and trust, to guide those two to Jeegoobotstan? Wait. What if I¡¯m the right person for that job?


    I know I just defied Kinzul, about me being away from Solace during its more dire hours, but I might need to be *in* the ¡®Twixt in order for us to safely open a portal to it. Or rather, having an anchor here might let me locate Solace from the ¡®Twixt, in order to tear a hole between the realms with my powers over Nothing. I have some semblance of an effect on the ¡®Twixt, almost a bit of control. I can at least threaten it. I can¡¯t do that from out here, unless we miraculously open a portal directly to it anyway, in which case I wasn¡¯t needed for the attempt, and I could just waltz back here from Jeegoobotstan in an instant.


    Littlebit pouts my way at my train of thought, and I feel bad for entertaining the idea of abandoning her for even a short period. If only my mind were sharper, able to grasp these realmways concepts better. I might know what is or isn¡¯t worth devoting my attention to, or trying. I¡¯m no genius. I¡¯m just one hellaciously lucky changeling-fae. Somehow still alive, despite everything, hell, despite dying a couple of times. Rattling my skull, I put it to the group to determine my best course.


    Immediately, Nala offers up, ¡°It would seem that the most potent application of your particular powers would apply directly within the realm of this ¡®Twixt. Were it any other realm, or any other individual, I might say your best course would be to sit tight here, while we decipher the realmways. You make poignant observations about the available applications your talents have proffered. Therefore, I do believe that your wisest course is returning to the ¡®Twixt post-haste, and, as you said, searching for our attempts from this end, as an anchor point from which to re-enter our realm.¡±


    Hemming and hawing, Lil retorts, ¡°Maybe Rej could, maybe they couldn¡¯t, and sure, I¡¯d defo feel safer about Ixey and Zayzi traveling to Jeestan with my pal protecting them, but there¡¯s a *ton* to do around here. Most of that stuff, only Rej can do. Even a few hours away is a few hours Rej isn¡¯t fighting in the vee vee valley pass or whatever it¡¯s called, or making big magics, or, or, or whatever. Tee-zin is bad news, and getting close. I get wanting to be able to get everyone to safety, but if you can¡¯t find out how, from here, and don¡¯t find out how, from there, our chances at keeping everyone safe drop to almost zero, less than zero, because Rej might be trapped in Jeestan, or, or, or something. My pal is our only hope, I guarantee it.¡±


    My lower jaw quivers and my eyes wet, with Lil¡¯s expression of faith in me. My eyes water more when Ixey agrees, ¡°Yeah, as much as the lanky nerd has grown on me, and as safe as I¡¯d feel with them at my back to travel with, my prince is right. Schism needs to be here, or on the battlefield at the valley, every last minute until the final showdown. Maybe you guys aren¡¯t comprehending the numbers. Each member of the OD is gonna be responsible for taking on thousands of dragonkind under Rage¡¯s banner, in less than a week.¡±


    Agitated, Nala responds, ¡°Now see here young miss, I am well aware of the numerical quantities involved in our situation. But if we are to succeed in evacuating¡ª.¡±


    Startlingly, Ixeyla interrupts Nala, not backing down, ¡°You don¡¯t get it. With Schism here, you either won¡¯t need to evacuate, because you¡¯ll be winning, or you¡¯ll have lost, and if you lose even with Schism here, no evacuation will matter. The whole world¡¯s doomed at that point. Schism being here¡¯s the best bet on taking home the W.¡±


    Drawing back my lips in a neutral gesture, I cast a glance towards Ixeyla as she¡¯s entering the tinkering space behind Lil. Her trust, her faith in me, and grasp of the situation might surprise me, if I hadn¡¯t just had her rescue me from forty-thousand plus dragonkind a few hours ago. I trust Ixey¡¯s judgement as well, because Lil loves her so much, that I believe with all my heart, that she¡¯s an amazing person who has Lil and Zayzi¡¯s best interests at heart.


    Plus, she¡¯s right, numerically¡ªin all likelihood¡ªeach of the Onyx Dawn members, plus or minus considering the Spellknights as a group equal to a single member, will be responsible for over a thousand enemies, likely several thousand if Terrorzin brings in any of the rest of his forces that are still in reserve.


    And all that¡¯s if our intelligence estimates are finally accurate for once. I¡¯m not holding my breath on that. No offense to Errissa, whom I adore and trust beyond measure, but somehow our intelligence has continued to come up lacking, this entire time. How is that even possible, with someone as effective as her in the field personally handling most of it? Oh, wait. The ¡®Twixt, and similar. She doesn¡¯t have access. She can¡¯t account for what Terrorzin¡¯s doing between, or in other realms. What was it Nala said about interdimensional wombs or something or other?


    Nala stiffens at my vague reminder of what she¡¯d shared with me the day we met. I flash her an apologetic glance, sorry that my mind brought it up within, um, earshot, of others. I squeeze Littlebit¡¯s shoulder reassuringly as she glances back and forth between all the conversants, seemingly either confused, or nervous.


    Surprising me, Littlebit contributes, ¡°As much as I really, really want Tiger to bridge this area to the ¡®Twixt, and get us able to reunite with my Tikki¡ªwhich I do think would be best served by Tiger flying to Jeestan with the twin Reds¡ªI think Tiger should stay. Not just because I like their company, but because the three Reds are right, Sun and his, um, girlfriends.¡±


    Suddenly Xayla wilts, having already been awkwardly perched against a wall in that unusual manner of theirs, leaning at odd angles. Xayla vibrates uncomfortably and tries to stifle any distaste. I¡¯m uncertain whether it¡¯s the implication of dating someone, anyone at all, dating Lil at the same time as their sibling, or being gendered as femme, with the trauma they¡¯re dealing with specifically. Littlebit looks mortified after hearing my thoughts about misgendering Zayzi, and immediately starts begging forgiveness in a hoarse-whisper directed towards Zayzi.


    After a tense silence, everyone works to overcome their own discomforts mentally. None of us wishes to hurt the others'' feelings, but this topic is pretty swingy. What¡¯s the term? A bit heated? Sort of. Controversial? I guess, maybe. Sighing, I rattle my skull.


    Deciding to try to get back on task in a manner, I ask, ¡°Well, what it really comes down to then is the safety of our ambassadors, Ixeyla and Xayla. Do you two feel like you need, or want an escort to Jeegoobotstan?¡±


    Looking worriedly at her sibling, Ixeyla draws her lips back in a sad frown, and meekly casts a glance my way. I know Ixey worries for Zayzi¡¯s safety more than anything. I start, ¡°If not me, and if we¡¯re not prioritizing trying to get me to the ¡®Twixt to work on the evacuation capabilities of Solace, then who can we spare?¡±


    Surprising me, a voice comes from around the corner, a voice belonging to our quartermaster, Leezahna, ¡°I think¡­ I think I might be able to get them an escort. If, if Ixey still trusts me.¡±

 B 6 C 224: Beanpoles

    Abashedly, Ixeyla reaches up to rub the back of her skull, casting her glance about while responding to Leeza, ¡°Hey, Princess, look, about, about the thing. I¡¯m sorry, again. I know that doesn¡¯t make it right, but I really am so sorry.¡±


    Her gaze seemingly fixed in the distance, Leezahna nods, less in response to Ixeyla, more in order to psyche herself up to answer, ¡°It, it wasn¡¯t right, you¡¯re right, but, but I did overreact when you came to apologize. I¡¯m sorry, um, about that, overreacting. Are we¡­ still friends?¡±


    Loosing a huge sigh of relief, Ixeyla nearly doubles over comically as she agrees, ¡°Yes, of course, totally. Thank you, for uh, still wanting to be friends.¡± There¡¯s the briefest pause before her eyebrows quirk up as she asks, ¡°What was that about an escort?¡±


    Gulping, with her eyes darting about in order to avoid everyone¡¯s gazes, Leezahna mumbles, ¡°My, um, mother, and baby sister could, could evacuate with you, in advance. If, if I told her your title was ambassador, she wouldn¡¯t treat you like gutter trash.¡± Leeza cringes momentarily before apologizing for insinuating Ixeyla is or was gutter trash before being offered a position as an ambassador, ¡°Sorry.¡±


    Lil¡¯s hackles raise slightly, but he only frumps grumpily, and frowns at Leezahna, not making a big issue of Leeza¡¯s implication. I¡¯m grateful to him for extending tolerance to Leezahna as she betters herself. Her coming forward to offer is already apparently nerve-wracking enough. I admit, it does serve several purposes that benefit all of us. One, the two young-adult Reds get an ancient Green as an escort. Two, Leeza gets to know that her mother and little sister are safe, far from the battles and the war itself, even if we temporarily halt or abandon the evacuation project.


    I worry only slightly for the social implications and possible political complications of sending someone as haughty as Leeza¡¯s mother to Jeegoobotstan. I suppose I could personally reinforce the fact that she has no authority there, either now, or when relations are set up with the scrying sensors. Glancing towards Leeza, she¡¯s blushing furiously, still avoiding meeting anyone¡¯s gazes. I make certain all my mental walls are up momentarily.


    Breathing in the silence of the non, the space between spaces, the moment between moments, I try to pick apart any missing puzzle pieces that might affect the outcome of sending Ixey and Zayzi away with Leeza¡¯s mother and sister. I know that recently I heard something that implied Ixey was drunkenly macking on, possibly making out with Leeza, and Leeza commenting on her own disinterest in women afterwards, as a drunken Ixey was reunited with Lil. Ixeyla must have apologized recently, something I think she implied she¡¯d be doing as soon as possible.


    During that apology, things must have gotten heated for one reason or another. Leeza feels now that she overreacted in the moment. It seems like the pair have patched things up for the most part. Leeza wouldn¡¯t do anything that risks or hurts her mother for certain. I¡¯m also somewhat certain Leeza wouldn¡¯t intentionally hurt Ixeyla ever again, from this point forward. I think Ixey is her first real friend. Do I trust Leezahna¡¯s mother? Not in the slightest. Do I trust Leezahna, and Ixeyla? To the ends of Rayileklia, each of them, at this point.


    In the end, my opinion on the assignment of a guide or guard or escort doesn¡¯t really matter. The only thing that matters is that Ixeyla and Xayla safely get to Jeegoobotstan. Hopefully in a manner that they feel safe and comfortable with. Their choice of an escort, or none, is based on their own perceived needs. Maybe Ixey will consider it a favor, bringing Leeza¡¯s mother along. Who knows? At this point, I think the only thing I have left to do in this situation is give my blessings and well-wishes to the twin Reds, after handing off the enchanted mirrors, and instructions.


    Slipping back into the flow of time, I drink in reality at its usual pace, something that¡¯s a bit novel for me when I think about it for more than a moment. How many millennia, or eons have I spent with time not flowing in a standard manner? I don¡¯t even want to try to recall it all, let alone categorize standard versus non. Plus, what even counts as the time spent between moments? The amount of time I think I vaguely perceived passing while in paused time, or just the fractions of a second that actually passed? Bluh, let¡¯s not go into it Reggie. Right, right.


    Flashing Ixeyla and Xayla a warm smile, I bring the enchanted mirrors over to them, half of the sets of pairs that I¡¯ve set up, keeping their paired partners here in Solace. Just so that there¡¯s no chance of a miscommunication issue, I write a small note for them to indicate whom to see and whom to hand mirrors off to. I even label the mirrors for those I intend to receive them. This way the mirrors that I¡¯ve labeled for Tiktik, Harriet, and Jarrah, here in Solace, will communicate solely with the scrying sensors on the mirrors going to their intended recipients.


    I¡¯ve also got instructions and a mirror for Driezyln, Qlaxi¡¯s nephew or niece or something like that. Possibly only figuratively. I¡¯m still not sure if it was biological, or if it was a quaint affectation to call Qlaxianna auntie and the other dragons cousins. My eyes tear up momentarily remembering Qlaxianna¡¯s death¡ªno, my slaying of her¡ªand the moments surrounding it. I need to take ownership of my brutality and the courses of action I¡¯ve taken. Or at least their consequences. I can¡¯t afford to dwell on it now though. I have so many plans in motion, and still need to sleep sometime.


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


    I sort of hope that the time I sleep is the travel-time for Ixey and Zayzi to reach Jeegoobotstan. I¡¯d like to be awake when they arrive, firstly, in order to know if they arrive safely, secondly to get ahold of Tiktik. I¡¯m not entirely certain if Tiktik will have an exit from her ¡®Twixt in Jeegoobotstan to The Tear in The Courts of the Fey¡¯s Wilds. I¡¯m hoping it does, which is why I¡¯m sending a mirror for her to hand off to Jarrah Bettergrove. If not, it¡¯s no big loss if she decides to hand it off to someone else in the refugee camp like Elder, or Tiago, or George, or just keep it for herself to talk to Bitty from two angles at once.


    Gazing over at Littlebit, she cheerily, cheekily smiles my way. After a moment with me lost in thought, not responding to her smile, Littlebit prompts, ¡°Hey Tiger, what¡¯s up? Tikki says I should keep you out of your own head, for everyone¡¯s sakes. Whatever that means.¡±


    Fighting my smile is pointless as it spreads across my face. I retort, ¡°Yeah, Tiktik¡¯s pretty right about that. If I wander around in my own head too far, I might step on a land mine. Figuratively,¡± then, under my breath I add, ¡°I hope.¡±


    There¡¯s more than a few raised brows about my assertion, but I wave it off. I don¡¯t wave off the lanky arms that drape themselves over my shoulders, but I just wear a smirk while raising a brow towards Ixeyla. She mutters, ¡°Hey, legendary hero, you¡¯re gonna win this and come out the other side. You have to, okay? You set me up with Pawn, and she¡¯s sticking around. Don¡¯t go letting my honeys get killed, my Prince or Pawn. A¡¯right Beanpole?¡±


    My face contorts at Ixeyla calling *me* a beanpole, when her human form is lanky as hell, but I can¡¯t help laughing regardless. She quirks a smile my way before headbutting me lightly. As she leaves my personal space, I nod her way, acquiescing to her request. Of course I want Lil and Pawn to make it through the upcoming events unscathed as well. Ixeyla knows some of the lengths to which I¡¯m willing to go in order to ensure the safety of those that I love.


    Including, but not limited to, getting the attention of the full might of Terrorzin and his horde, and keeping their attention on me until it was safe to break away. Though I nearly didn¡¯t. Luni¡¯s intervention, or someone¡¯s, gave me the escape route I needed to get above the Worldstorm. I¡¯m fairly sure it was Luni. I should really sit Lu down at some point and pick her brain on just how much foresight I can rely on from her, without putting undue stress on her.


    Xayla flashes me a warm smile, and telepathic undercurrents of gratitude. I nod their way, similarly wearing a warm smile. I¡¯m glad the twin Reds are headed out, sure to be far away from the primary conflict. Leezahna, Lil, and the twins head towards Solace, in order to lasso Leeza¡¯s mother into escort duty, a sly way of forcing her to evacuate with Leeza¡¯s little sister.


    So quietly, I almost mistake it for the whir of machinery, Nala mumbles, ¡°Family. Hm?¡±


    When I turn my attention to her however, Nala makes no effort to elucidate or even verify what I heard. Shrugging, I settle in. I need to recover a bit, and ship out with the first line of defenders towards Vieriss Valley in the morning. The morning which is only a couple of hours away. Yawning, I rattle my skull. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m capable of accomplishing anything else at the moment, save being near the two artificers while I get a nap in.


    Littlebit looks both chagrined, and grateful, that I¡¯m passing out with my face resting on my arms in the tinkering workspace, rather than heading back to Solace to join my family cuddle pile. I¡¯m pretty sure I assured Lu or someone that I would come to bed, and I hate to break promises, but I¡¯m so, so, so very beat. I¡¯d probably pass out on the trip back up the tunnels of Solace even if I did try to head back at this point.


    Hm, I think my surmisings about dragonforce are correct, that if an individual had their dragonforce tied up in enchantments, titling underlings, or other things, eventually that dragonforce finds its way to its new wielder after the original owner had been slain. I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s the only reason I¡¯ve got about a thousand days left of my dragonforce again, because I was getting dangerously low recently. That and my passive attempts to siphon off any external dragonforce I could manage while messing around with Terrorzin¡¯s horde.


    Oh, that might also mean that dragonforce is a bit of a first-come first-served specialty. Whoever starts imbibing first, or gets enough of a slain foe¡¯s dragonforce first, likely eventually receives it filtering through the cosmos over time. Maybe. There are probably some caveats, like needing a certain amount of concentration, or intake of the heart, or something or other.


    Tapping her chin, Nala nods before commenting on my thought train, ¡°Yes, friend Reggie. Something like that anyway. You¡¯re astute enough, and we¡¯re all tired enough that I don¡¯t feel it¡¯s the appropriate time for a lecture on a subject in which you at least grasp the basics well enough to do your duties. I must say that¡ªoh, you¡¯re nearly asleep as I speak.¡±


    Indeed, I find myself passing out as Nala explains away why she isn¡¯t explaining away dragonforce to me at the moment. My eyelids, heavy as they are, remain closed, despite my best efforts to make eye contact with someone when they¡¯re speaking as Nala was just now. Focusing on my external senses leads to them feeling sluggish, and my brain slow to respond to their inputs, slow to parse their meanings.


    Focusing instead inwardly reveals little more than the fact that my body needs time to recuperate, that I¡¯ve been pushing it far too hard, far too frequently. I¡¯ve accidentally been relying on dragonforce in order to survive, using it subconsciously in order to bolster my regeneration, or health, or both. Something to that effect anyway. Regardless, the waking world feels like a pressure closing in on my head, weighing it down and building up in my ear canals. I succumb, letting sleep take me despite the whir of machinery, the hum of gadgets, and the clanking of busy little robots.

 B 6 C 225: Orichalcum Enlightenment

    Awakening to a voice I haven¡¯t heard much from during the course of the war, I overhear Induul commenting, ¡°Huh, force distribution on Orichalcum only? I¡¯ve heard legends that it could do something like that, didn¡¯t know how though. Still, handy that, with the piles and piles of it we¡¯ve got adding up around here.¡±


    Grinning brightly, Nala responds, ¡°Indeed, a rather ingenious little application of resonant frequencies within the subharmonics of the molecular patterning within Orichalcum and its dual nature. I¡¯ll be crafting as many as I can in order to provide barriers of a sufficient size with which to block off Vieriss Valley and temporarily halt the advance of our foes¡¯ forces. Essentially I¡¯ll be creating fields of force-distribution, forcefields if you will, that redistribute any force directed across a large area to base plates of Orichalcum, which is quite near indestructible. Ahem, indestructible against normal feats of strength for near anyone alive, other than for perhaps our Tenith.¡±


    My snort of laughter at the backhanded praise Teuila receives from Nala clues the others in to the fact that I¡¯m awake. Apparently it¡¯s also whatever cue Littlebit needed to wake up as well. Once more there¡¯s a clatter and clang in a raucous din as a slope of mechanical parts falls to the floor. Of course this is a pile of metal from which Littlebit stumbles out, yawning, stretching, and rubbing sleep from her eyes. I can¡¯t help smiling and shaking my head incredulously.


    I wonder if being of Fae-Goblin descent predisposes someone to compulsive behaviors? Tiktik and Littlebit both have quirks that they apparently always do, without failure, unless they struggle greatly against their nature. It might be rude to ask though, so I¡¯ll file that away under idle curiosities that don¡¯t need sating. A curiosity that does need sating however is standing a few feet away from me, eyeing me warily.


    Deciding to address the elephant in the room, or rather, The Green in the room, I query, ¡°Induul, has anyone gotten your sitrep for the times you¡¯ve been away during the war?¡±


    Scoffing and rolling his eyes, Indy retorts, ¡°No, and no one¡¯s going to. It¡¯s nobody¡¯s business how far I have to range. I don¡¯t need to be judged for poor luck hunting.¡±


    Frowning and furrowing my brow, I follow up with, ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is, your excuse for being gone, and seemingly not even knowing we were under siege, is that you were having bad luck finding any prey to eat?¡±


    Scowling and gritting his teeth, Indy nods and answers, ¡°Yeah, so, what of it? Our mighty Schism might be able to produce food from his or her ass, but not all of us can. At least, nothing any of us would be willing to eat, eugh.¡±


    My face contorts as I try not to picture what Induul just implied, and fail miserably. Eugh indeed. While I¡¯m trying to refrain from retching, Induul takes his leave without another word. Crap in a handbasket. Eugh, wrong turn of phrase for this particular moment, bluh. Induul¡¯s story is flimsy, and a rotten excuse to be gone from Solace during the war in the first place, when we¡¯ve got systems in place to feed everyone.


    There¡¯s a legendary artifact cauldron that continually sees use throughout the day, whenever someone hauls a barrel of water to it, or whenever I¡¯ve got a free moment to cast water into it. There¡¯s the shop system that can produce virtually any kind of food, even some kinds that shouldn¡¯t exist at all. Then there¡¯s the fact that dragons eat their dead, especially the dead of their enemies, and we¡¯re freakin¡¯ surrounded by enemies. Hell, his own mother stole some of the largest corpses that exist, risking her own neck and painting a target on her back to do so.


    Something¡¯s fishy here, and I doubt it¡¯s Induul ranging far enough to go swoop and scoop marlins from the ocean. It doesn¡¯t seem like I¡¯ll be getting anything else from him on the topic though, at least not right now. Rattling my skull, I try to orient on more important matters. Well, that sounds dismissive and hurtful. Induul is plenty important, and I know he¡¯s been suffering with his withdrawal symptoms and such. Sighing, I resolve to try to make it up to him karmically somehow for thinking so lowly of him, even if only for a moment.


    Still, I glance towards Nala before asking, ¡°What even brought Induul down here in the first place?¡±


    Rolling her own eyes and scoffing, much as Induul had only moments ago, Nala responds, ¡°I didn¡¯t hazard to ask, Schism, friend Reggie. I assume our The Green felt like courting your Quartermaster, as she herself is a fetching Green. Barring the ability to follow through on that, he spied me working with Orichalcum, and approached me for a delightfully intelligent conversation. He¡¯s far more knowledgeable about the topic than I¡¯d have assumed, given his proclivities, and seeming lack of scholarly interests elsewhere.¡±


    Huh. Is he now? My brow furrows further, but before I can start to put anything together, I¡¯m interrupted by said Quartermaster, ¡°Schism, Mother and the Reds should be arriving relatively shortly. I thought you¡¯d like to know. I, I couldn¡¯t sleep. I¡¯ll rest after taking inventory for the morning, plotting distribution, and, and, and the other tasks th-that you, w-wanted.¡± Suddenly shaking her head, Leezahna corrects herself, ¡°No. That are important for everyone¡¯s safety.¡±


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    It takes me a moment to realize Leezahna is mostly convincing herself that she¡¯s doing things for the good of everyone, and not just to mollify my wrath, or appease me. I flash her a warm smile and nod her way, expressing my gratitude, ¡°Thanks Leeza. Does that mean you¡¯re staying, since it seems we¡¯ve put the evacuation project on hold? Also, that you¡¯re fine down here, not wanting to be on the scrying call as soon as your mother touches down in Jeegoobotstan?¡±


    Taking a deep breath, Leezahna closes her eyes for a moment before nodding resolutely. When her eyes open, her gaze is leveled at mine, with a fierceness that rivals her old haughtiness. She¡¯s driven, and determined to do her part towards making our war a success. My eyes mist with tears of pride momentarily. With no further words to beg leave or bid adieu, Leezahna spins quickly on her heel in order to head to her chamber to fetch her ledger once more.


    We¡¯ll never be friends, huh Lu? I guess I can see that, though our relationship is less and less antagonistic, and more familial over time. No matter the outcome, I¡¯m proud of who Leezahna is trying to be, and what she¡¯s accomplished already. Phew, I didn¡¯t even notice I¡¯ve been quaking with tension. Flexing, stretching, cracking my neck and jaw, I try to relax my muscles, though I still remain shaking for a while yet.


    Littlebit claws at my hip, a silent plea as she rubs her eyes with her free wrist and knuckles. Bending towards our voluptuous verdant inventor, I receive and return a good-morning kiss that has me steaming with blush, despite its relatively innocuous nature. I fluster quite easily I suppose. Shortly after sharing our kiss, I¡¯m suddenly being shoved by Littlebit, with both of her hands, towards the exit of the crafting area.


    Feigning a pout towards Littlebit earns me an exasperated, or faux-disgusted expression, followed by her commenting, ¡°Come on Tiger, the sooner you get done with whatever wild adventures you¡¯ve got to do today, the sooner you can come back to keep me company. Shoo shoo, get it done and get back fast. Say hello to Miss Fluffypillows for me on the way out.¡±


    We smile genuinely at each other, and I wave towards Littlebit and Nala while leaving the crafting-space. She¡¯s right, on several levels. There¡¯s a lot to be done, and rest time is a part of that, but it¡¯s meant to happen in shifts, between events. Rounding the corner, towards our temporary infirmary, I spy Vylon nursing his shoulder, relaxing on a stretcher. Not far from him, I notice an unusual sight. Three cots are jammed up against each other in a slightly darkened alcove. In the middle of those cots? Teuila. On either side of her? One of the Spellknight twins.


    Shaking my head, I don¡¯t even want to conjecture about that little scenario. I can¡¯t help grinning though. That¡¯s my Te, working in smooching time or whatever the hell, during a war. I¡¯m happy for her. Hopefully it helps Ahliyui and Ahliyuri mend and perhaps double down their drive to remain loyal to Solace, and the Onyx Dawn. Cranking up my aura vision, I do spy Teuila¡¯s Latent tendrils coaxing injuries from Yuri towards herself. Injuries that lessen in severity in short order, due to Teuila¡¯s monstrously growing Honoris Causa capabilities.


    Sweeping my vision across the rest of the infirmary, I notice something odd. Alanea Whifflewillow is virtually a radiant flame as she attends to injured Draconiacs. No, that¡¯s not quite the correct descriptor. She¡¯s bright, but softer, more like a warming candle in a chilly room. I try not to get caught up making note of why several of our friends parody her last name as a comment on certain features she possesses.


    Noticing my mind noticing her, Alanea calls out telepathically, ¡°Well, well hello and good morning dearling. Or, well, perhaps afternoon. I¡¯m not quite sure of the time down here. Are you feeling well, well?¡±


    Checking myself over, my body seems to be in relatively good condition, and my mental state isn¡¯t in crisis mode at the moment, so I smile warmly as I affirm, ¡°Aye dearling, aye. Littlebit sends you a good-morning as well, through me. Are you handling everything alright? Do you need anything?¡±


    Despite her usual mousey nature, Alanea firmly answers, ¡°I¡¯ve my duties handled dearling. I¡¯m working with several residents to train up, and properly equip nursing volunteers, medical aids, and the like. I do so wish we could spend more time together, but, well, as I¡¯ve said, I¡¯m not unused to operating apart from those I care about during dire times.¡±


    Nodding to Alanea, we drift together for only a mere moment in passing in order to share the briefest of kisses, a peck on the lips. As if somehow roused and summoned by thoughts of kissing, I¡¯m suddenly catching a Teuila-rocket to the chest. She steals a quick kiss from Alanea, before wrapping herself around me and kissing me in a near-feral manner.


    Before I can even react more than returning the kiss, Teuila rattles off, ¡°So, gonna go hit up all of Solace¡¯s exits babe, and take down any baddies, natch. Gimme a holler on our goggle headsets when it¡¯s time for a major push in the valley. Kay? Muah. You¡¯re the best.¡±


    And like that, Teuila takes off like a rocket, leaving me no time to respond. My heart aches and yearns for her, as I know hers does for me. Still, if there were ever anyone alive who¡¯d heroically put the needs of others ahead of any longing, it¡¯d be Teuila. She¡¯s a warrior, and really a true hero. I just hope we¡¯re far enough past certain things from her past so that she never doubts herself, or hesitates, ever again.


    My body shudders as I inhale raggedly, recalling our last trip through The Gap canyon. Te¡¯s alive Reggie, just remind yourself of that. She¡¯s here, she¡¯s alive, and she¡¯s more powerful than she¡¯s ever been. If anyone¡¯s going to make it through this mess, it¡¯s Teuila. To be fair, my own odds of survival seem pretty high lately too, with my body renewing itself nearly as well as it used to on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Huh, I wonder if resting in proximity to the shops allows me to access my old digitally regenerative nature. If they weren¡¯t so fragile, I¡¯d consider deploying one on a mobile platform in the field.


    Speaking about Can¡¯z¡¯aasians¡­ Glancing about, I don¡¯t see Lil, Lucky, Trixxie, or Pidge. Nor do I see Shiz or Zelshiz for that matter. Checking the view of the security center from my goggles, it seems like all of them are somewhere in a stony interior that Lucky¡¯s excavating. Good, he¡¯s already enacting his first portion of our plans. I nod curtly towards Leezahna as I continue to make my way out of Verdimenn towards Solace.

 B 6 C 226: Absolute Recollect

    I¡¯m more than a little surprised to see Induul leaning against a wall, seemingly waiting for me. I¡¯m further surprised when he apologizes, ¡°Schism, hey, about earlier. I maybe got a little snippy and maybe, okay I definitely sounded like an ass. Sorry I got defensive and cranky. I was embarrassed about the crappy hunt.¡±


    Gnawing on my lip, I raise an eyebrow while I await Induul¡¯s further explanation, if he¡¯s going to offer one. Thankfully he continues, ¡°So, yeah, there¡¯s that, and, well, how do I even do this? I want to thank you. For saving my life, *again*. For looking out for me, *again*. For making this unwinnable war look entirely winnable. For a lot of things. I hope you won¡¯t hold my asshole¡¯ish attitude against me, I swear it¡¯s the withdrawal.¡±


    Inhaling deeply through my nose, and exhaling sharply, I¡¯m about to respond, but Induul excuses himself, ¡°So, uh, that¡¯s all. I¡¯ve said my piece. So now I should go check in with Brains, err, Ill, and the rest of the Dormir. See you around Schism, probably on the battlefield. Or something.¡±


    That went about as well as I could possibly have hoped for. I gaze after Induul as he jogs away up the tunnels to Solace proper. Something¡¯s still nagging me though. It almost feels too neatly tied up, or something. I wonder if¡ª.


    My thought train is interrupted as a hefty hand heartily claps my shoulder. Deli announces, ¡°Good to see you Schism! Better to see you fit and well, again, after so many offensives, and what¡¯s more, driving off the Damnations a scant few hours ago.¡± She pauses, grumbles to herself, and corrects, ¡°Day and a half, whatever.¡±


    Blushing and chuckling, I clasp Deli¡¯s proffered hand firmly before responding, ¡°Hey Deli, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re up and about too.¡± I immediately sober as I recall why Deli might not be in the best shape, before continuing, ¡°The bug invasion the other day was, well, rough. I¡¯m sorry that you went through that, that any of your friends went through that. I¡ª.¡±


    She sighs and shakes her head before interrupting me, ¡°Couldn¡¯t have known Schism. Y¡¯couldn¡¯t have known. We lost good folk. Some even friends of mine, yeah. We¡¯re in a war. Surprises and loss are a part of that. Even if this one came out of the blue, or rather, the darkened ¡®Neath.¡±


    Nodding along, I puff a sigh, releasing a breath I hadn¡¯t realized I¡¯d been holding, and relaxing muscles I didn¡¯t realize I¡¯d been tensing. When I center myself slightly, I agree, ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. Thank you. Have you met our quartermaster yet, Leezahna? I¡¯m transferring all distribution to her, effective as of, well, a few hours ago. Everyone can still use the main shop stall freely, but she¡¯ll be handling more than just tallying now for the important resources. Most important are the legendary metals, and gems.¡±


    Facepalming for stating something so obvious, I ramble, ¡°I mean, I guess that goes without saying. I doubt she¡¯s foolish enough to hassle anyone about using wood and coal. If she does seem to be going overboard, could I ask you to be gentle with her, and just point her to get into contact with me either telepathically or through the goggles?¡±


    Deli coughs gruffly once, but nods and firmly claps me on the back before responding, ¡°Aye, easily enough. I¡¯ve got a friend looking after my boy, but I wanted to double-down down here. Not my favorite thing to do, leaving the lad alone so shortly after claiming him as kin, but he¡¯s been a right sport about it. I think he understands¡ªI really do¡ªabout how deep in this war we are, and what the stakes are. Lad lost three parents to Terrorzin already.¡±


    Her visage droops, sadness evident in her features before she collects herself to finish, ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve got places to be, and battles to win Schism. We¡¯ll have to put a raincheck on that drink until all¡¯s said and done, sadly. I¡¯ll pour one out for ya.¡±


    Before I can agree with Deli about having places to be, she turns towards the forgeworks and saunters away, waving backwards towards me over her shoulder without looking my way. I¡¯m left scratching my chin, pondering the phrase, ¡°pour one out.¡± It seems a wasteful sentiment, not that I care altogether too much what happens with alcohol around here, so long as people are responsible and don¡¯t get hurt. I guess it doesn¡¯t really matter. Deli was being kind and thoughtful. That¡¯s what matters. I¡¯ll take it to heart, and carry that warmth with me.


    Along a wavelength that I¡¯m still coming to grips with even having, I hear, ¡°Schism, it happened again! Three more sheets of, of, of Orichalcum.¡±


    Responding telepathically to Leezahna, I try to assuage her, ¡°Thanks for keeping me apprised. I¡¯m not sure what we can do about it. We can¡¯t divert the attention of any of our fighters or support personnel. If you happen to know someone you could put on the case, I¡¯d be glad of it, but otherwise, just keep keeping track like you have been. I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t be there with you to puzzle this out.¡±


    Trepidatiously, our Quartermaster responds, ¡°O-okay. Okay. I¡¯ll, um, I¡¯ll do that. I¡¯m coordinating with our inventors, and some Spellknights right now, but, but, well, like you said, diverting them for such a small percent of our resources seems wasteful. I, I, I¡¯ll do my duty. The best that I can. I swear it Schism. Um, g-good luck, glp, out there. D-don¡¯t die.¡±


    As I¡¯m about to think Leezahna and I have actually graduated to something I¡¯d be willing to call friendship, just for the sake of it, I catch her mental monologue subcurrent thinking, ¡°Or maybe do.¡± Oof. I feel the raw chagrin that percolates through Leezahna¡¯s subconscious to the fore, at having been noticed for a desire she¡¯d struggled to not express. It¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t had some pretty intrusive thoughts over the years. I¡¯m not going to admonish her for having feelings.


    Hm, admonish the adventurers. That¡¯s what Harriet said to someone, so very long ago now. Could that have been Astridus? A human-form Damnation? What if it was a Sister Hidden In the Mist? If they were simply guiding us along, to begin our Rayileklian journey on-schedule, it would almost make sense for them to do it in such a roundabout way.


    Whoever it was didn¡¯t get us formally banished from Autumn Brook. Mostly what they accomplished was getting Harriet to worry about our safety. That prompted her to get us passage out of town, the direction we needed to go. One way or another, whomever it was wanted us to begin our adventure as soon as possible. My skull is aching, and I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s because these are dangerous memories, or just the few hours of sleep I¡¯d gotten, with pushing my body to both perform more, and recover more quickly, each day.


    Drawing a deep breath, and puffing a sigh, I let the issue drop, releasing tension as I do so. I¡¯ve got plenty to think about and worry about in the present, without dwelling on determining curiosities from the past. Still, that brings to mind the fact that Harriet knew about the Felgres in advance. Were she and Daffodil the only ones? Was it a long-passed-down secret amongst Aasimovians, leaders and guardians specifically? Or even more specifically, just those from Autumn Brook? If so, I can see how Harriet would have been reticent to try convincing the rest of the Aasimovian leaders to preemptively evacuate.


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    At the time I was a bit furious with her, and simultaneously weary. Looking back though, I sympathize. Could I singlehandedly convince everyone in Solace to evacuate at the drop of a hat, if we didn¡¯t already know that Terrorzin is days from our doorstep? I doubt it. Two weeks ago, I¡¯d have suggested we get community leaders together, to vote on an evacuation plan, or strategy, if the topic had even come up. That¡¯s where Harriet was at mentally at the time back then, when her initial fear and shock over the possibility of the Felgres being loose wore off.


    Right, anyway, catch up to present-day Reggie. Right right. Where are we at with Onyx Dawn members? Let¡¯s see, based on the security center¡¯s views of various scrying sensors I¡¯ve got peppered throughout Solace, I think I can spot most everyone. Vyela and Gilmeshtu are taking a breather in the feasting hall. Fen is down by Mah¡¯ruke, apparently checking in with Teuila on occasion as she zips by. Speaking about zooming and zipping, Pawn is making rounds about Solace, as usual. I wonder if she even got a chance to say goodbye to Ixeyla. I grimace and gulp, hoping I didn¡¯t just set her up and tear her away from Ixey for the next week or so.


    Luni and Kinzul are up in Kinzul¡¯s den, discussing something in hushed whispers, so that I couldn¡¯t overhear even if I wanted to be a snoop and have the security center patch me in to their audio feed. Where¡¯s Prinny? Hm, she¡¯s up in the library, conversing with some kobolds who¡¯ve temporarily taken on Nala¡¯s position, more or less. What about the Paradox Dormir? Induul said he¡¯d be heading off to check in with Illy, but it looks like Illy, Veril, and Farzhis are winging their way towards Vieriss Valley at the moment. I don¡¯t see him with them.


    Frowning, I really hope it doesn¡¯t turn into a comedy of errors, with Induul showing up late to each objective or engagement, feeling embarrassed or dejected, and that causing him to perpetuate the cycle. Genre senses are guessing that that¡¯s going to be a thing, fifty fifty odds. Ugh.


    I¡¯ve got to check in with the Strategists-Eight, coordinate with them, and help spread the news of a backup evacuation effort option. Lucky will be doing his best over the next day or so to connect Vieriss to Verdimenn. Or rather, to a hidden bunker under what used to be Wistenzlia peak, behind rows of slightly-more-obvious hidden bunkers, designed to draw Terrorzin¡¯s forces in and decimate them with explosives. Poor Lucky¡¯s probably going to be digging all week up until the final confrontation.


    I¡¯m going to be stuck running through logistics for half the day. Then I¡¯ll be leading the first true push against Terrorzin¡¯s forces, assuming he¡¯s already broken through my natural blockade, which I¡¯m fairly sure he has. He has us in a vague pincer maneuver, as there are still siege forces out here from Mah¡¯ruke to the plains. They¡¯re mostly routed, or driven back. But if there¡¯s any communication that they have the full might of Terrorzin¡¯s horde coming in as backup soon, I¡¯m sure their efforts will be redoubled.


    It sucks that we can¡¯t just commit to a full-on offensive and end this whole thing once and for all, but that¡¯d be deadly, suicidal for our paltry number of forces. Even assuming we funnel foes into a chokepoint, they can throw forces at us for days, maybe weeks at a time. They¡¯d completely wear us down if we were to try to make our stand right now.


    That¡¯s not even figuring in how suicidal it would be to take on Terrorzin himself in close-quarters, where all of our forces might be subjected to his freezing aura. If he bum-rushed us, he¡¯d take out the entire Onyx Dawn, save Kinzul, in a matter of moments. I fear our lady wouldn¡¯t be long in following after, in that scenario.


    Anyway, no sense dreaming up nightmare scenarios about plans we wouldn¡¯t be foolish enough to rely on. We¡¯re still doing our hit-and-runs, guerrilla warfare style. We just need to be a bit pickier, and a bit quicker on the exfiltration. I wonder if we could amp up our infiltration as well? Would I be willing to risk anyone attempting to go under-cover into Terrorzin¡¯s horde? No, no, not really.


    I¡¯m pretty certain I¡¯ve been informed that he has either some scrying powers, scrying artifacts, or oracles on-hand. They aren¡¯t foolproof, but we can¡¯t rely on them failing. I won¡¯t gamble with the lives of our operatives. Not that they¡¯re mine to gamble with.


    Okay, focus up Reggie. The Strategists-Eight are committed to pulling all-nighters for the rest of the week, in order to maintain top-levels of communication, battlefield reports, and any updates to strategy that are needed. Waving at Elshon, Prent, Nietru, Burshis, Aaront, Geskae, Shrulniz, and Aktixas, I enter the security center.


    My attempt to start apologizing for napping is interrupted with firm shaking of heads. Nietru offers up, ¡°Worry not Schism. As our Tenith suggested, we¡¯re allotting time for rest as needed, and factoring in weariness and recuperation as best we¡¯re able, on the fly. Our timetable officially starts now. I¡¯m recalling the entire scout network, save Spymaster, in order to have them ascertain prime targets, as well as to overlook the routes our forces will take into and out of Vieriss Valley each day. We don¡¯t want anyone walking into an ambush that sneaks by our front line, or pulls away from the primary siege force already on our doorstep.¡±


    Nodding along with Nietru, I¡¯m curious as to why she¡¯s not recalling Spymaster. Thankfully, she informs me privately, telepathically, ¡°Our Lady has Spymaster attending to a matter of utmost importance, even I do not know what it is. I only know that she¡¯s broken off contact with the scout network entirely, and is no longer checking in. I am assured by our Lady that she is alive and well however.¡±


    Mulling over what I¡¯ve just been told, I¡¯m a bit embarrassed that my features droop. I don¡¯t want anyone in my present company to get the wrong idea as to why my mood has lessened. Despite that, I keep my telepathic walls up momentarily as I conjecture. I figured Errissa would be our ace in the hole for reconnaissance, due to her Latent. What could Kinzul possibly have her attending to, of more importance than a walking apocalypse staring down our doorstep? Is she preemptively getting Errissa to check in on this Beast of the End madness?


    Regardless, I put my brain train on pause as I get up to speed with our Strategists-Eight. I¡¯ve got several courses of action necessary for completion before I can start leaving Solace. Plus, when I do, I need to take the first load of barriers and explosives and bots. For now, I¡¯d like to check in with Ixey, Zayzi, and the survivors in Jeegoobotstan. I haven¡¯t bothered fabricating or purchasing new plexiglass enclosures with audiojacks for these couple of mirrors.


    At least a small part of the reason I haven¡¯t done that, is so that it¡¯s not a hassle to loan the mirror to Littlebit so that she can chat with Tiktik throughout the day as she gets lonely. I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯ll be less clingy with me, now that she¡¯ll have a direct line of communication with Tiktik nearly non-stop. Not that I altogether minded all that much, really. I just have those stupid Fakeworld notions of mono-amory and romances and whatnot. Or maybe they¡¯re human notions? I suppose most people in Autumn Brook were in monogomous relationships, if they were in one at all.


    I somehow just keep defaulting to human behavioral thought processes, or something. I have no idea why. Then again, it was years into my life before I knew I was a changeling-fae. Or uh, was it months into my second life? Wait, no, that¡¯s when I learned that changeling-fae get mana residue corruption sickness. I learned about my species back at the Miracle Oak. I think. Ugh, it¡¯d be nice to have access to my logs. Then again, it might take hours of digging through them to satisfy idle curiosities like this.


    Breathe Reggie. I know, I know. Shush. You shush. No you shu¡ªwait. Yeah doofus. Huffing, I sigh wearily. My psyche has always been a little off-kilter, a little bonkers. At least I¡¯m not totally nuts. I think. I hope. Could you imagine if I were? If one time, when I went to sleep, or went catatonic, or checked out in some way or another, if I haven¡¯t actually come back from that. If I¡¯m just having one last dream, that seems like lifetimes? Brr. The thought gives me the shivers. I don¡¯t totally recall why I got on this topic.

 B 6 C 227: Coordinate, Clarify, Query

    Anyway, where are we at? Other than in the security center. Let¡¯s not get snarky with ourselves right now. Selves, plural Reggie, really? Shush, it¡¯s like the¡ªwhat is it, royal? Imperial?¡ªwe. Keep telling yourself that pal. Keep telling yourself that.


    Blushing, I avert my own gaze as I realize several that those of several others in the room are leveled at me. I wave off the questions about my mental health before they¡¯re posed, and thankfully no one presses the issue. Better, I¡¯m handed a mirror through which I see a familiar smiling face, one that¡¯s absolutely exuberant, its teal hues lovely to gaze upon as her smile is wide to her ears.


    Almost ridiculously cheerfully, Tiktik exclaims, ¡°Tiger! This is the best present ever! You¡¯ll let me talk to Bitty on this too, right? Oh, oh! And Big T too of course! Of course you would, you¡¯re a true pal, and a whole lot more when we¡¯re alone together. Especially when we¡¯re alone and between the sheets, rawr.¡±


    Steaming from my collar, I tug at it and blush at the several raised eyebrows about the room. I¡¯m pretty certain that they know by now, that I don¡¯t come equipped with any between-the-sheets biology, and I really don¡¯t want to explain what Tiktik is alluding to. Gulping, I mumble and politely excusing myself from the Strategists-Eight for a bit of privacy to connect with Tiktik. Unlike other fae, I¡¯ve got these hangups, and I¡¯m not quite as comfortable advertising my dalliances, preferences, or proclivities, to those around me. Thankfully, I¡¯m surrounded by dragons, fae, and family, none of whom really care.


    Whew, I¡¯m nearly panting from stress as I sigh with relief in a private alcove, a couple of tunnels away from the Strategists-Eight. Tiktik¡¯s joy is slowly leaving her face as I calm down from being hot under the collar in order to address her. I hate seeing that joy leave, so I make haste as best I can.


    Gathering myself, I start, ¡°Hey Kitten, yeah, of course I will, of course I will. Sorry, was just a bit more crowded than I¡¯d like for there to be any talk of, koff, ahem, between-the-sheets activities.¡±


    Before I can get around to my point, Tiktik pouts and responds, ¡°Oh you fuddy-duddy. You should be proud, and chasing around all the sheets to get between. If you know what I mean. Ya dig? Only don¡¯t, because you¡¯ll get dirty.¡±


    Unable to help snorting a half laugh, and nearly rolling my eyes a quarter of the way, I try to rein in our conversation, ¡°Tiktik, love, I have serious matters that I need your help with. I know that the Aasimovians don¡¯t really have a way to say no, or to prevent me from doing so, but I¡¯d still like to get their permission to evacuate our civilians to their new settlement if the worst comes to pass. I¡¯ll talk to Harriet or Tiago or the others on other mirrors, either with you as a group, or later, but I want everyone apprised on the state of the war.¡±


    Frowning, Tiktik queries, ¡°Is it that bad Tiger? You have to make evacuation plans?¡±


    Drawing a ragged breath, my face quirks and my shoulders half shrug, giving off the so-so vibe as I answer, ¡°Maybe, sort of, probably. I¡¯ve given up on taking the most extreme, direct route to being able to enable and proceed with an evacuation. That¡¯d have been me going to the ¡®Twixt. Yes, of course I¡¯d have taken you, but hold on, don¡¯t pout yet. I can¡¯t leave Solace. Terrorzin, the Ice of Rage, the leader of dragonkind intent on burning the world down during this year of his fated death, is on the move. He¡¯s got an army forty-thousand strong moving with him, and they¡¯re a week from our doorstep.¡±


    Tiktik¡¯s face is ashen as she gazes wide-eyed through the mirror at me in shock, staring at my mouth, wondering if she heard correctly. I nod before continuing, ¡°Our assaults on his fortresses have to halt, even though he supposedly has yet another thirty to forty-thousand forces in store. We were supposedly dealing with maybe eighty-thousand all-told at the start of the war, and we¡¯ve knocked about fifteen to twenty k off the board, or taken them in as refugees, and we¡¯re still this outmatched.¡±


    Pausing, I clench my eyes and jaw momentarily before adding, ¡°I, urgh, I hate sounding so callous, talking about lives as just numbers of forces. It shreds my heart to distance myself from the reality that¡ªdespite most of them being brainwashed¡ªthey¡¯re all still people. I just, I can¡¯t afford to dwell on that, with so much stacked against us, with our SAP being the backbone, claws, and teeth, at the head of our fighting forces. I¡ª.¡±


    Cooing, Tiktik shushes me, ¡°Shhh Tiger, I get it. I do. I know what I signed up for with you and Big T. Three apocalypses. That was the deal, and we haven¡¯t even stopped the one yet. Just ran away from it. Word from a little birdie tells me Aasimovia looks like a mix of barren, charred land, or a sea of angry flesh. I¡¯m worried about any Felgres that sweep east along the coast out of Aasimovia, because if they wrap around the mountain range, they¡¯ll be at the edges of the Fae¡¯s Wilds. Our illustrious archfey¡¯ll keep them out, but it¡¯s still scary, thinking my fam could be close to the hellish hordes.¡±


    Friggin¡¯ heck I love this woman. Closing my eyes, I draw a deep breath and sigh. After centering myself, I redirect Tiktik, ¡°Aye, I¡¯m worried about the residents of the Fae¡¯s Wilds too, which is why I was hoping you¡¯d take one of the extra mirrors, and see if you can get your ¡®Twixt entry from Jeegoobotstan to link up to your ¡®Twixt entry at The Tear in the Fae¡¯s Wilds. If you can get it to Jarrah Bettergrove, or Anubis, Bastet, Mab, or Oberon, I¡¯d do what I can to coordinate eventual protection of the Wilds high on our priorities. Though I¡¯d also like to ask permission to evacuate our civilians, and yours, there, if things go from bad to worse.¡±


    Blinking, stunned, Tiktik cartoonishly cleans out her lovely, enormous ears. Once she¡¯s done with her bit of visual humor, Tiktik nods and affirms, ¡°Yeah, sure thing Tiger. I¡¯ll hop to it and get right on that when we¡¯re done talking. I¡¯ll talk to Bitty from the ¡®Twixt, and¡ª.¡±


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


    Tiktik understands immediately what the sorrowful look on my face means. Pouting, she mutters, ¡°Oh, okay. I guess however long, however many adventures I have in the ¡®Twixt to be able to link up the new entry to my old entry, I¡¯ll, I¡¯ll just handle, and deal with. Guess that means I won¡¯t be seeing you for a while Tiger, though to you, I¡¯ll be back in no time at all.¡±


    My heart aches, asking this of Tiktik. If it takes the exact same amount of time, it¡¯d be about a week of adventuring, likely on her lonesome. Worse, it could be months, or years. She¡¯d be alone all that while. Tiktik¡¯d enter alone, due to how powerful she is, and how dangerous it¡¯d be to take someone without powers into her ¡®Twixt. Unless she¡¯s made friends with one of the dragons like Driezyln, or whatever their name was. Though even then, she¡¯d probably hesitate to bring in such a friend, for a number of reasons.


    Our chat becomes more somber, and more methodical, as I rejoin the Strategists-Eight, with Tiktik on-call as it were. The twin Reds are okay, as is Leezahna¡¯s mother, whom is just as annoying and haughty as I¡¯d imagined her to be. Leeza¡¯s little sister though is a precious bundle of joy, if a little snotty. She latches onto Tiktik though. And of course, Tiktik bonds with her instantly through humor. Glad to get to see Tiktik find yet more sources of joy, I¡¯m almost sad to have to continue attending to other matters, rather than continuing chatting with her.


    Harriet, Tiago, George, Elder of the kobold clan, and a few human leaders from around Aasimovia weigh in on a shared call with me and the Strategists-Eight. I wish Kinzul could have been here for this, or really anyone else at all, but I guess I¡¯m the outward face of the Onyx Dawn for now. Thankfully Ixey is representing our interests¡ªthose of Mount Solace and all its citizens¡ªin-person, and manages to be perfectly charming all the while as our ambassador.


    My brain feels like mush as we coordinate, clarify, query and explain to one another as groups. It feels even more mush-like after we mull over logistics, strategy, and objectives for what feels like hours while I work directly in the security center, or occasionally nearby, maintaining telepathic contact. Thankfully, the Aasimovians are plenty receptive to the plight of our citizens during our war, and grateful of our pledge of protection against the Felgre horde, should we win our war and survive. Plus, I mean, they¡¯ll have no trouble sustaining extra mouths, since I personally provided them a way to generate unlimited provisions.


    Our true battle in this war has begun in earnest. The end is in sight. Which end? Anyone¡¯s guess at this point. Are we ready for this? Hardly. We¡¯re all going to give it our all though, and I¡¯ve got one or two tricks up my sleeve. Speaking of one of those tricks, it¡¯s dangerous to even pretend I can rely on it as a backup. I hesitate as I recall the defectors from the Lavaborn Alliance, the critterkin that Mata had swayed to attack us. Critterkin I decimated, wiped out in an instant in one timeline. That¡¯s one time I used the trick. Hell, not a trick, my primary method of attack back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas.


    I¡¯m pretty sure if I call out to Can¡¯Z¡¯aas again on any scale between that attack, and my efforts to drive off the Damnations, it¡¯s going to finish me off, and finally kill me. The mana lacerations were so bad, that it felt like every motion until I passed out was racing me headlong towards my demise.


    It¡¯s a bit of a last-resort, to attempt calling upon my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian powers, but it is an option. Well, okay, it¡¯s probably the last of the last resorts at this point, an almost guaranteed death. Kinzul has expressly forbade it, according to Nietru, knowing the likely price I¡¯ll pay if I engage my powers again. If she falls though, if I¡¯m all that¡¯s standing in the way of thousands of dragonkin, I¡¯d probably do it. Let¡¯s not think about the worst case scenarios and last-resorts right now though.


    We¡¯ve got actionable objectives to accomplish throughout Solace. Some of it is prep for in case the siege actually makes it through all of our defenders, though that¡¯s a tiny fraction of what I¡¯m attending to today, before our major offensive push. Glancing at the various scrying sensors in the security center, Teuila is embroiled in battle, as usual.


    Oddly, her and Luni are out defending Mah¡¯ruke together at the moment. Fenric and Gil are up on the aerie with Veril and Farzhis, which is doubly odd. I thought those two were headed with Illy to make a first surgical strike. Illy does seem to be positioning herself for a dive through the Worldstorm, far northwest of Wistenzlia. Did she not trust her subordinates? Were they not fit for duty? Where the hell is Induul? Ugh, my head, my temples.


    Prinrin and Miraina are shoring up internal defenses, which is good news at least. Yuri is still in the infirmary, but tinkering with some spellwork. Yui seems to have set out, headed through a segment of the siege to get to Vieriss Valley. Kinzul is somewhere off-site again, and of course not wearing a pair of goggles, unfortunately. I guess she could be getting in position to attempt fine-control over the Worldstorm, in order to be able to secure her daughter¡¯s escape after her surgical strike. Be careful Illy.


    Speaking of that, Nietru gave me a note from Kinzul, encoded, supposedly in a language no one on Rayileklia should be able to speak or read. Good thing I¡¯ve got that permanent written-linguistic comprehension enchantment. I was given instructions to not read it until I was somewhere out of range of all of my other telepathic connections, to not even risk reading it even if my walls are up. Talk about ominous. Since there¡¯s one or two things I can accomplish above Solace, a couple of kilometers out, in defense of Solace, prepping for things yet to come, I head off to take care of those.


    Since I¡¯m out here, far from every other mind, I glance at the encoded message from Kinzul, and it reads thusly, ¡°My love, so that none of your strategies rely upon it, and so that you harbor no ill suspicions upon your discovery of this fact, I must tell you a dire secret. I¡¯m hollowing out the Worldstorm, siphoning back as much of my dragonforce as possible, leaving the illusion of the deadly impenetrable cloudbanks above and below. In reality, there shall only be a few meters of storm, perhaps a few hundred, at each end. As you might guess, this is in order to resist Terrorzin¡¯s Latent expression of his dragonforce. Since that fraction of my life¡¯s essence, my dragonforce, is cultivated so specifically for what it was, for so many years, my desperate grab to reabsorb it will be incredibly inefficient, costing me much. The enchantment, or at least the belief in its effectiveness, must remain however, until the last of Terrorzin¡¯s forces have fallen¡­¡±


    My trembling hands lose their hold on the note as a strong breeze whips up, and¡ªalmost seemingly to spite me¡ªit falls into the Worldstorm¡¯s edges, and is incinerated by a passing bolt of lightning before I can even react.

 B 6 C 228: Fight For Joy, Renewed Determination

    I can see why Kinzul would want no one to know about this at all, and only make a concession to inform me. I didn¡¯t even get to finish the letter, I have no idea what else was in the message. My chest shudders as I inhale shakily. How small of a fraction of her dragonforce does Kinzul actually have access to? How much is necessary to withstand Terrorzin¡¯s Latent for even a few precious minutes?


    Hm, speaking about precious minutes, Kinzul was able to move between moments when my demise was dilating time. But I doubt that that¡¯s one of her normal abilities. If it was, she¡¯d have taken Terrorzin out already at some point. I mean, at least at some point since we discovered he¡¯s traveling with the majority of his forces in a bid to siege Solace. I also doubt she¡¯d let me risk my permanent death by trying to enter that state of time dilation in order to grant her another chance to move between moments. Based on my still-expanding knowledge of dragonforces and Latents, I¡¯m pretty certain I can draw a few conclusions.


    Not only was I right that Kinzul is the only one on the planet who could resist Terrorzin¡¯s ability, but it¡¯s going to cost her dearly to even attempt to do so. Even just covering herself, not a fraction of a millimeter more than her own body, is driving her to hastily reclaim as much of the Worldstorm as possible on a temporary basis. Oh no, oh Farzhis.


    I think I realized why Farzhis and Veril aren¡¯t with Illy right now. Farzhis is probably having backlash, massive pains, and other effects from Kinzul¡¯s tampering, her Administration of the Worldstorm. I don¡¯t know what to do. If our allies are¡ªthat¡¯s another reason only Illy is going.


    Kinzul can trust Iylynila to still perform a strike, as our Lady refines her control of the Worldstorm even further. She¡¯ll likely work to make it appear as if there¡¯s a tunnel through thick cloudbanks by redirecting some excess cloudcover from the top and bottom of the Worldstorm, when sending anyone else through it. Right now, Illy won¡¯t spill the beans if she sees a hollow Worldstorm on her first strike. What about Ixey, Zayzi, and Leeza¡¯s mother and little sister? Perhaps Kinzul waited until after they arrived before starting to hollow out the Worldstorm, or began siphoning portions of it back from around the Spine of the World, or elsewhere on Rayileklia first.


    Kinzul wanted to inform me, because I¡¯d either find out from my senses, or from Illy, at some point. She doesn¡¯t want to give me reasons to harbor mistrust, she wants to mend any that might have formed from her vehement request. I¡¯d say she needn¡¯t have worried, but it was the wise choice, given our current circumstances. I¡­ wish I were a better person. A perfect hero, and perhaps, spouse. That¡¯s ridiculous Reggie.


    Huh? Obviously you know that no one¡¯s perfect. Sure, but what¡¯re you getting at? I¡¯m you, so you¡¯ve already figured it out, doofus. Oh, right. Rattling my skull, I loose a half chuckle and roll my eyes at myself. Not only is perfection impossible, but attempting perfection in opposing roles would drive anyone insane. There are times when duties and priorities will clash. That¡¯s all there is to it. Even if I could perfectly, near-instantly complete all duties, some of them take resources that are required by others, so a choice is necessary. I mean, hell, time is one of those resources, and I can¡¯t instantly complete tasks.


    Anyway, I¡¯m getting the feeling Illy¡¯s going to need some backup during her surgical strike, and flight from Terrorzin¡¯s forces. Hm, speaking of Terrorzin¡¯s forces¡­ Well, I mean, ex-forces in her case. Ahliyui is discussing something with some scouts, seemingly prepping spellwork, and preparing herself to clash with the enemy, alone, ahead of everyone else. The reckless fool. You¡¯re one to talk Reggie. Yeah yeah shut up, I know.


    Despite how dangerous it is, I do appreciate that Yui¡¯s goggles are providing us critical information about the state of the pass in Vieriss Valley however. Even if it was reckless to head out there ahead of everyone else. It seems my hastily mobilized natural barrier held through the night, but by the way it¡¯s shaking, it won¡¯t be long until it¡¯s demolished in its entirety. I can see some rather clean-cut holes in the rubble, and movement on this side of it, which means Terrorzin has his forces working from both sides to clear the pass.


    They¡¯ll widen it enough to get the majority of his forces through at once, rather than sending them all in their smallest forms, walking down a slim tunnel single file. Smart. Even a few tunnels is too risky to send a long column of troops down at once. We could have defenses set up in place, or be getting them ready, to massacre a line of troops en-masse, even if he mixes elemental immunities amongst the columns he sends through them.


    Yui, you crazy little¡ª. Huff. She¡¯s doing the smart thing, taking action and taking out the Spellknights that Terrorzin has on this side of the barricade. She¡¯s catching them offguard, and finishing them in quick one-on-one duels. How long can her luck hold out however? What if Terrorzin has scouts positioned in the tunnels that report back to the main force that a lone defender is taking out their magical might on this side of Wistenzlia?


    I¡¯ve got to get to Vieriss fast. Problem is, it¡¯s a bit of a trip. Kinzul is out of contact, so going above the Worldstorm and dropping down, is problematic at the best of times. Worse, based on the information from the note, it¡¯s not the best of times. Sure, Kinzul¡¯s planning a tunnel for Illy, but only one, and only for Illy. What the hell can I do to get enough support to the valley fast enough to back up Yui? Hell, how the hell did she get all the way there so fast?


    Glancing at the view through Teuila¡¯s goggles gives me a pretty good idea about how Yui ended up making most of the trip fairly quickly. She must have hitched a ride with Te, out towards the bulk of Terrorzin¡¯s siege forces that are on the southern side of our territory, and then swung out west. Maybe she had Te take her almost all the way through Vieriss too. Teuila¡¯s speed has been increasing again, and she¡¯s been taking riskier and riskier moves, skirting the Worldstorm. It¡¯s doing a number on her, and her dragonforce.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    I don¡¯t like it. I don¡¯t like seeing any of my loved ones hurt, no matter what that hurt is. Even if it¡¯s just the burn of a hard day¡¯s work, or workout. I know that, like a muscle, her dragonforce is probably becoming all the stronger for it, with the damage she¡¯s doing to it, but what if she¡­ What if she what Reggie?


    What if she reaches her limits? What then? A pain feels like it¡¯s tugging my brain through the back of my right sub-occipital lobe and my C3 vertebrae. I get a flash, but the full vision doesn¡¯t sweep me along this time. There¡¯s no glimmering tiny thread amidst endless darkness. There¡¯s no horizon point over which all threads end. There¡¯s just the meagerest hint that I should be seeing that vision once again.


    It¡¯s unnerving, unsettling. Why is the vision becoming weaker, less insistent? Is that last, tiny thread of hope dying out? Cracking my jaw to loose it from its locked, clenched position, and rolling my neck to crack and pop it as well, I blink back tears of frustration. Am I seeing a future? The future? All futures? Or am I just insane, and interpreting hallucinations?


    As I struggle to come to grips with the state of things, glancing down, the Worldstorm has shifted and taken on an uncanny appearance, that of a familiar face. Pareidolia. Right? It looks like a massive version of Ka¡¯thuul¡¯s face, Induul¡¯s mom. Rattling my skull, as the face has me rattled, I blink, and it¡¯s gone. Was it just my imagination? Was it paranoia, and fear, and stress getting to me? Or was it another hint, a warning? What are our relations with the Emerald Dawn? Can we ask them to at least defend a portion of the primary valley we share?


    Right now, our relationship as it stands, as far as I understand it, is tenuous. It¡¯s a non-aggression pact so long as Kinzul overlooks any breaches in protocol made by Ka¡¯thuul and the Emerald Dawn. Breaches like sneaking in and stealing some wealth from strongholds we¡¯ve liberated, or bodies of foes we¡¯ve slain. What are Ka¡¯thuul¡¯s forces like? How many are there? How have they been keeping fed? Is their hunting the reason Induul had to range so far, and was unable to get food?


    I¡¯m tempted to offer an olive-branch, to offer to provide them food, for their own forces to withstand the siege. They¡¯re taking care of themselves somehow or another however. It might be a meaningless gesture. Worse, it might piss off the leader of an already tenuously allied force. It might seem like we¡¯re looking down on them, or publicly acknowledging their breaches in social protocol, of stealing wealth and food. I¡¯m sure in Ka¡¯thuul¡¯s eyes, that would be the same as accusing them of theft, which would set her on the socially defensive, and she¡¯d likely get aggressive because of it.


    I trust that Kinzul would have informed me if communicating with Ka¡¯thuul was at all an option in the slightest by this point. She¡¯d have added it to our priorities last night, at the very minimum, for certain. That means, as it stands, we¡¯re on a knife¡¯s edge with the Emerald Dawn. One false move, and they take it as an opportunity to attack us while we¡¯re already stretched to our limits. Should we take them off the board first? No.


    No, that¡¯s not the way we do things. We¡¯re taking the peaceful solution. We¡¯re in a peace treaty with them, and unless they break it, we simply leave them alone. I don¡¯t like leaving an almost guaranteed foe alone to muster its strength, and turning our back towards it metaphorically. If we could risk letting the siege get all the way to Solace, it wouldn¡¯t be quite so bad, but we¡¯ll be mobilizing nearly everyone simultaneously in the coming days.


    With how paltry the numbers of our fighting forces are, getting caught in a three-way pincer between Terrorzin¡¯s approach, his siege-forces that have been coming from the south end of the valley, and the Emerald Dawn, would be disastrous. Sure, I¡¯m sure Te could punch a hole in the Emerald Dawn for us to enable at least some of us to retreat, those that are capable of haste. What about anyone that gets injured though? Anyone too injured to take on their human-sized forms would, would¡ª. I gulp. Gas burbles up, burping out my mouth, a sour taste in my stomach, and everywhere else.


    I need to prepare myself to accept the fact that some of us could, and likely will, die before the war is over. I have to be prepared in order to resist Wrath bubbling up. It¡¯s been getting stronger, and harder to reclaim myself from it. I also have to prevent myself from sinking into despondency as the battle rages on. Would that I could, would I shut down my emotions, and grow cold, in order to prioritize acting efficiently on the battlefield for the rest of the war? No. No that¡¯s not me. I don¡¯t want it to be now, or ever.


    I¡¯ll take all the pain the comes along with the love, and loss. I¡¯ll never give it up. If I change, and grow, because of it, I only want it to be because it makes me more loving, more appreciative of every moment of joy. Images of the joys, great and small, from my time at Solace flash through my mind.


    Prinrin¡¯s devious voice as she delights in hinting at things, or figuring things out, while her smile is the warmest, most loving visage imaginable. Teuila¡¯s goofy mile-wide closed-eyed smile as she derpily rocks her head side to side. Luni shushing and comforting me. Lil, bright-eyed and cheerful, having admitted his feelings for Ixey to her. Said selfsame Red and her twin, enjoying each other¡¯s company, or Lil¡¯s, or mine. Shiz and Atter accepting our mercy, coming over to our side, and their pride in the Onyx Dawn. Zelshiz reuniting with Shiz. The love and rivalry between Ahliyui and Ahliyuri.


    Yet more joys surface. An emerald-tressed lass who put a life of high-society on hold in order to better herself, to stop looking down on others. Two women whose forms are sculpted of pure matte-onyx. Them in their unparalleled beauty, teasing and finding joy in my reactions. Pawn¡¯s cheer at being appreciated. The solace Veril and Farzhis are finding within one another. Boetah¡¯s endless optimism, and the cheer present in every fiber in his being. Shaylon¡¯s serpentine smirk. Even Induul¡¯s gratitude, and so many more things.


    Reggie, focus. Yui could be in trouble soon. Right, right. Let¡¯s get the heck down through Solace to Verdimenn, pick up everything and everyone we can get to come with us, and head out. Floating myself through the angled tunnel of Worldstorm situated above Solace¡¯s aerie, I wave to Farzhis and Veril. Farzhis looks more than a little under the weather, no pun intended. She looses a half laugh at my train of thought, a bitterness underlying the otherwise humorous sound. I bite back my emotions, gulp them down and clench my eyes momentarily. We¡¯ll try to end this war soon sweetling, and when we do, we¡¯ll safely break the enchantment as soon as possible, I swear it. With renewed determination, I race down the tunnels and halls of Solace towards Verdimenn.

 B 6 C 229: Cliff-Hanging

    It only takes a moment at the security center in order to retrieve the mirror that corresponds to Tiktik¡¯s scrying sensor. Arriving in the tinkering workspace, I¡¯m not all that surprised to see Leezahna hustling about, checking in with Nala, Littlebit, Alanea, Yuri, and others. I am surprised to see a host of heavily enchanted objects piled up, looking ready to go. Moreover, I blink in amazement at the scads of combat-bot bodies prepped for Nala and Littlebit to animate, as their powers allow. There are a few animated at the moment, so that must be the limit of our pair of artificers.


    Responding to my thoughts, Nala comments, ¡°Quite, friend Reggie. I must say, it¡¯s slightly taxing keeping such automatons animated, enough to make my scales sweat. Thankfully Miss Bitty seems to suffer no such drain. Or her cheer is strong enough to disguise such discomfort. Oh, before I forget, you should get the strapping Spellknight lad to inform you of our finds. Here, pack up all this, then shoo, off with you Schism.¡±


    Littlebit glances my way, and shrugs apologetically while mouthing, ¡°Sorry Tiger.¡±


    Not wanting Littlebit to worry, I simply flash her a smile and slide her the mirror through which she can talk to Tiktik. The joy that alights upon her face is pure bliss, ecstasy even. Littlebit first hugs the mirror, then sets it gingerly down before leaping at me to hug me tightly in thanks. Despite enjoying her show of gratitude, I disentangle myself from the lovely lass, nudge her cheek with my nose, and begin packing up the things Nala indicated. Though I¡¯m wondering if the bots will amble and slash or fly themselves, or if I should find a way to pack them up as well.


    Thankfully, Yuri is near enough and apparently knows that I need to be informed, ¡°Schism, there¡¯s only one orichalcum-backed field of force so far, a few explosives enhanced by laced enchantments, those automatons, and this¡­ thing. Based on a combination of putting our heads together, we think it¡¯s some sort of locomotion enchantment device. Cutting short space, or moving from point to point, teleporting instantly. Takes a lot of focus, a lot of ambient mana, and a long time to activate though. And it can only handle a couple of bodies at once, and only a few dozen kilometers or so.¡±


    My breathing stops as the possibilities race through my mind. Analyzing the object, it seems to do exactly as Yuri believes. The activation time takes up to as much as half of an hour, depending on how far its teleportation destination is. It has a heinously long recharge time between uses, even if you could provide the mana for it directly, and there¡¯s a danger of backlash, or the device breaking upon use, depending on how much is being moved at once, how far, and so on. It¡¯s really niche, and I might be one of only four or so people alive on the planet who can even use it. Despite all that, it¡¯s a hell of a boon for the moment. I begin concentrating on activating it immediately, aiming to shortcut the distance to Vieriss Valley nearly ninety percent. At least, comparatively versus the ground trip we¡¯d have to travel to round our way out our valley towards Wistenzlia Peak, via Vieriss Valley, based on the device¡¯s distance radius as the crow flies.


    It¡¯ll take at least ten minutes, probably closer to half of an hour, but I could theoretically use quickening metamagic to speed up the process somewhat. The conversion rate for my SP to its quickening though would be abysmal. I wonder how large the SP pools of other archmages on Rayileklia are. Most, if not all of them¡ªother than Tiktik¡ªare under Terrorzin¡¯s banner. Could any of them have better versions of this magical device? If they could teleport a few dozen troops, instead of a couple of people, and teleport farther, or more frequently, or all of the above¡­ I shudder to think about the consequences of Terrorzin being able to place his pieces about the board that is Rayileklia with startling efficiency.


    Trying to get my head in the game, I query, ¡°Yuri, have you been keeping tabs on your sister? She¡¯s out in Vieriss one vee one¡¯ing Spellknights around my blockade. Do you want a lift out there to join her? I figure the device can handle a couple of bot bodies, me, and one or two other people at most.¡±


    Nodding, Yuri answers, ¡°Aye, I was hoping you¡¯d offer Schism. That deranged sister of mine¡¯s going to get an ear-full. But, well, I am proud of her. These goggles, mirrors, and all of this scrying stuff you have set up, it¡¯s amazing. Seeing her fight, knowing she¡¯s at the top of her game, and doing well, it puts me at ease.¡±


    Speaking of scrying equipment, glancing through my goggles, Teuila¡¯s rocketing back towards Solace with Luni in her arms. Lu is covered in gore, shaking, and crying. I think Teuila might be crying too, or the sweat is rolling down her goggles. Every muscle in me clenches with worry. My heart and breathing stop. Luni¡¯s okay, she¡¯s not derezzing, but the urgency with which Te is returning her to Verdimenn is unnerving.


    In nearly no time at all, I see Teuila skidding to a stop at the infirmary with Luni in her arms. Poor Luni is quietly sobbing in pain, cradling her arms. Something about her forearms seem wrong somehow, I¡¯m guessing they¡¯re broken. Teuila nods my way as she carefully hands Luni off to Alanea.


    Privately to my brain, Luni self-deprecates, ¡°I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m not brave like you all, that I¡¯m a big baby and can¡¯t keep fighting when it really hurts. I¡¯m a hindrance in battle, you guys having to protect me all the time. I¡ª.¡±


    Rebuffing her gently, I chastise, ¡°Lu, you¡¯re plenty brave, trust me, My Anchor. Bravery isn¡¯t necessarily being able to get back up after every hit, or hell, even being able to survive every hit, or take them at all. I¡¯m guessing you freaked when a big attack was coming your way, and you protected your face, blocking it with your forearms like a boxer or something. Yeah?¡±


    Nodding meekly, Luni agrees, ¡°Yeah, pretty much. Just, I¡¯m, I¡¯m trying to be better. Things get harder and harder from here on out. I have to pull my own weight too, or, or, or more bad things will happen. Injuries certainly aren¡¯t going to make that any easier though.¡±


    Quirking a raised brow in her direction, I query, ¡°Is that foresight Lu, or waxing poetic about the nature of a war as it comes to a head?¡±


    When Luni¡¯s mental avatar assumes the ¡°innocently whistling, rocking back and forth, hands clasped behind her back¡± posture, I¡¯ve got my answer. I playfully roll my eyes as Luni and I stick our tongues out at each other through our mental avatars. Still, knowing that¨Csomehow¨CLu still has foresight, that there is still more to come, it¡¯s a mixed bag of emotions. On the one hand, I feel more reassured that we¡¯re still in the primary timeline, and Luni hasn¡¯t brought up any changes we need to make to stay on track. On the other hand, knowing that our tribulations are only going to grow more and more challenging is balking.


    Only moments later, Luni telepathically sends, ¡°Erm, Hero? I, I actually am, um, nervous, sometimes. Scared even. Like really really. You asked me once, if I knew if we were still in the primary timeline, or if it was even possible to know. I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t know and it scares me. I don¡¯t know what it would even mean if we weren¡¯t, aren¡¯t in the prime timeline. S-sorry. Nothing you need to be saddled with. Forget I said anything.¡±


    Raising my left eyebrow towards Luni, I see her loosing hesitant, nervous chuckles. She follows that up with shrugging apologetically. I sigh before blowing Lu a kiss. I ask her with my eyes, to tell me if she needs me to stay, if she needs me right now. Luni just shakes her head sadly in response, pouting all the while. I know Lu, I know. Me too. I wish we could spend more time together, especially now, especially when you¡¯re hurting, and things are getting harder.


    Calling out loud to My Wings and My Anchor, I suggest, ¡°Hey Te, saddle up if you¡¯re ready to head to the front for our first major push. Lu, rest up, feel better. Te, you took Yui out towards the front already, and she¡¯s out there soloing and dueling Spellknights in T-zin¡¯s ranks. I¡¯ll bring Yuri and some bots with us. Oh, we¡¯ll TP in a few minutes. Yuri, Nala, and Littlebit found this trinket amongst one of the many hoards, or maybe the shop system, I didn¡¯t ask where it came from.¡±


    Teuila whistles appreciatively, knowing just how impressive teleportation is, and how much I need sources of it to study in order for us to get home someday. Not to mention how many of my worries revolve around transportation. If we understand realmways¡ªor portals or whatever¡ªbetter, our evacuation plan projects can make headway. As is, we¡¯ve stalled out on that end for the moment due to the necessities our engagement schedule requires. Nala and Littlebit have switched gears, focusing on crafting Orichalcum fields of force-dispersion barriers, an assembly line to piece together the bots for them to animate, explosives, and any other intermediate projects.


    Dodging several cots, trainees, volunteers, and injured individuals, I slide up alongside Luni as Alanea tends to her forearms. They look pretty rough, and unlike Teuila, Luni doesn¡¯t have an Honoris Causa to lean on for regeneration. She pouts my way, and sniffles, but I tousle her hair and lean down to kiss her forehead. I give Lu a gentle one-armed hug, rest our foreheads together, and nuzzle noses for a moment before I give Alanea a peck on her cheek. Whispering my temporary farewells, I beg them both to be well, and to take care. Both of themselves, and each other.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    I gaze down at the device in my left palm, its glow is steadily growing from near indistinct, to noticeable. The less solid matter this teleportation has to go through, the better, so we¡¯d better head to the aerie. Plus, on the way, we can pick up Shaylon if Aegis is feeling up to it. We need to get our defenses up to par in Vieriss Valley ay ess ay pee. I¡¯m not sure if the teleportation can handle another body though, at least with the bots as they are.


    Thankfully, as I¡¯m thinking about taking off, Littlebit and Nala show me how to fold down and unfold the bots. This makes transporting them a heck of a lot easier, though they¡¯re still a bit too big to slide into my hyperdimensional haversack, or whichever extradimensional pouch I¡¯m carrying around these days. Lu, Te, and I keep swapping it up, grabbing whoever¡¯s bag is closest at a moment¡¯s notice, so I forget who has what.


    Once I¡¯ve got the bots condensed down as far as I can, I lift them in a pile with my telekinesis, then I pick up Yuri, Te, and myself with my other telekinetic grips. May as well save every bit of energy that we can for the battle to come. Bidding the artificers, Alanea, Lu, and Leeza adieu, we telekinetically surf our way from Verdimenn up through the near-featureless tunnels and halls of solace. I say near-featureless, because there¡¯s conduit and cabling being laid throughout Solace, as I requested, for its electrification.


    Despite not wanting to interrupt Atter and Boetah during their conjugation, my approach is heralded by Shaylon and Boetah both. After a brief explanation, I can¡¯t turn down Boetah¡¯s offer to join us at the front lines. This does have me worried for the little transportation artifact though. I¡¯m already struggling with activating it, but I suppose it does make sense, to get our nearly impervious defenders out to block off the pass as early as possible, while we set up fortifications.


    Chagrined, but grateful, I explain my plan, and the device, ¡°So, this thing takes a while, and a lot of focus, and power, to activate. It¡¯ll transport us a good long distance though, especially when doing it from above cloudcover, without as much physical matter in the way between us and our destination. I guess it sort of bends space between points, or something. Anyway, without over-taxing the device, I figure the closest I can get us, as the crow flies, is at the northeast end of a tiny tributary that flows down towards Vieriss Valley. It¡¯s still a good few miles hike from there, but most of us can spare the energy to fly, glide, ride ghostly horses, or otherwise locomote from there to our engagement site. Sound good?¡±


    In their delightful slight hiss, with emphasis on ess sounds, Shaylon agrees, ¡°It certainly sounds sufficiently good, Schism.¡±


    I can¡¯t help wearing a rueful smile as everyone nearby hears my brain appreciating Shaylon¡¯s accent, and voice. Boetah claps me on the back heartily, and I¡¯d normally take the contact in stride, or enjoy it, I have to rebuff him gently, ¡°Careful, I can¡¯t break my focus on this device and its activation, or I have no idea what sort of consequences we might be looking at.¡±


    Abashed, Boetah nods, and rubs the back of his head. I¡¯d comfort him if I weren¡¯t so intensely focused on the artifact. It¡¯s probably the most difficult magic I¡¯ve ever managed. We hasten along towards the aerie in a larger group than I¡¯d been anticipating, so the magic becomes exponentially more complex.


    Arriving on the aerie, the wind whips and howls along beneath the roar of the ceaseless storm. It sets our cloaks and coats to fluttering in this tiny pocket of safety surrounded by acid clouds and lightning streaks. Our Lady has kept enough of the Worldstorm to surround Solace, leaving it seeming impenetrable from the sky. My focus is split more than I¡¯d like, attempting to maintain activation of the artifact. In fact, it¡¯s starting to feel like the magic is going wild, out of control, so when several Onyx Dawn members on the aerie question me, I barely refrain from snapping at them. I have to focus all my willpower into wrangling the stray magics of this artifact, attempting to corral the device into performing as intended.


    Cranking up my aura-vision reveals a chaotic swirl of energy around the device thrumming with power in my hand. There are tethers, tendrils of energy, going to Teuila, Yuri, Shaylon, Boetah, and the pile of bots. The object pulses, flickering in a rhythm I can¡¯t keep up with as the runes empowering it glow erratically. Colorful swirls in the air become jagged streaks of light that arc and sizzle as they come into contact with the storm, or the aerie. I worry what letting one of those arcs hit my loved ones and allies might do.


    The wind¡¯s rush whips into a frenzy of nearly hurricane proportions as the climactic energy for teleportation builds. Magic surges, and audibly crackles as it penetrates Rayileklia¡¯s primary-realm-proper. What once was like a geometry-mesh grid, a parallel and perpendicular series of lines woven over all of Rayileklia¡¯s topography and features, now appears tangled and frayed. The strands whip about, snapping and lashing out wildly as if struggling to break free of their bindings to the device or their bindings to the natural order of the world.


    My aura vision brightens against my will, filling with deep blues and purples that mingle with sharp bursts of reds and yellows. It¡¯s blinding, but worse¨Cperhaps worst¨Cis a pale, sickly green, near-white, at the center of the bursts of color, the artifact in my hands. It¡¯s reminiscent of a few too many horrid events or powers I¡¯ve witnessed upon Rayileklia, and I¡¯m starting to regret even trying to utilize this artifact. The colors have a near-physical presence, as if their pulsing emits waves of pressure, striking me. The pulses, the waves roll up my body and shove me away from the other assembled Onyx Dawn members.


    None of my allies seem to even be able to approach against the waves of pressure exploding outward from the epicenter, the device in my hand. None save of course My Wings, Teuila. I shake my head quickly at her, begging her to abandon her approach. As much as I¡¯d cherish the solace of her embrace, or aid, I need to focus every ounce of my will, and every train in my brain, on activating this device safely.


    My mind wrestles with magic itself, a familiar feeling for me, actually. Too bad changeling-fae aren¡¯t meant to be magic users, let alone archmages. No time to contemplate your limits Reggie, push past them! Pain rushes through my face and cranium, as if a blood vessel has burst in or above my right eye. The fact that red begins washing down across my vision seems to indicate that that was likely the case. A grinding force arises in the pit of my stomach, feeling as if it¡¯s gnawing me apart from the inside, but I¡¯m forced to ignore even this inconveniently timed¨Cand rather unpleasant¨Csensation.


    My stomach invents a four-star Olympic tumbling floor routine, flopping about with wild abandon, and a series of waves of pressure slam against my body, rolling up it to concentrate on my cranium. The pressure pulses simultaneously inside and outside, hammering my skull, shared waves giving each other high fives with my skull at the center of their meeting.


    I realize that Teuila, and others have been attempting to talk to me, but I can¡¯t hear them over the roar of magic. Heck, I can¡¯t even hear them over the wind for that matter, since the wind is physically influenced by the manifestation of magic. A familiar, terrifying feeling creeps over me. The bot bodies, my allies, Te, My beloved Wings, all seem to be spaghettifying, disintegrating. I rattle my skull and fight back my fears. They¡¯re just being teleported Reggie, focus, focus so you don¡¯t strand them in some teleport-ative limbo.


    Vylon bursts onto the aerie with a roar, his voice echoing above even the ungodly loudness of the magic and wind, ¡°Don¡¯t forget me, Schism!¡±


    My handle on the magic slips and worsens, a tendril lashes out from the artifact to entangle with Vylon¡¯s natural energies. Blinding golden flashes spark and blaze in my vision where magic connects to magic. The teleportation magic threatens to spiral out of control, and it¡¯s all I can do to think of and recite my titles, expressing my Honoris Causa. The dragon in me, my spiritual self manifested in dragon form, grips and tugs at the strands of magic, blocking out all else, voiding out all sound and light, so that I can focus on my task. The last thing I can see before the all-encompassing void of my Honoris Causa blocks off my vision is waves of energy rippling outwards from each of the auras of those around me, distorting when coming in contact with the power unleashed from the artifact. The pattern burns itself into my eyes, a disorienting mix of oil on water, refusing to settle into any recognizable shape or rhythm.


    The device has definitely reached a critical point, if I can¡¯t stabilize it now, it might fizzle out, or worse, explode, having unknowable consequences for my allies whose energies are now mixed with its powers. Despite having nullified and voided out events that could interfere with my senses, or even engage them at all, the stone of the aerie beneath me vibrates, almost sympathetically against the artifact¡¯s wild pulsations. Focus Reggie, focus!


    Drawing up all the willpower I can muster, I manage to clamp down on the erratic energy, and a million things happen at once. My Honoris Causa dissipates explosively, sending my senses into disarray as all of the sensations I¡¯d been blocking out come back at once. Swirling colors align into sharp, bright lines, forming concentric rectangles, like some 70s sci-fi movie time tunnel. Wait, a what? Whatever, focus. The artifact¡¯s thrum stabilizes from wild pulses down to a soft hum as the magic subsides. The air around me stills, the wind dying down to a mere whisper.


    Well heck, the aerie is eerily silent after that tumultuous event. The artifact dies down into silence and lifelessness, obviously entering its cooldown state that will keep it from being engaged again for quite some time. That leaves me standing on a quiet aerie, alone with my thoughts. A silent and empty aerie. Silent and empty except for me. There are no robo-buddy chassises in a pile, no Vylon, no Teuila, no Yuri, no Shaylon, no Boetah. Wait. That means the teleportation worked. Right? Wait. Wait.


    Crap.


    Sure, it worked alright. I¡¯d facepalm, but I couldn¡¯t hit myself as hard as the realization that strikes me like a physical blow. The teleportation worked, but only for my allies. The magic leaves¨Cor, left, I guess¨Cme hanging out on the edge of a cliff, alone.

 B 6 C 230: Cliff-Notes

    I groan as the reality of the situation sinks in. Thankfully, with a quick check of the security center¡¯s scrying mirrors, I can tell everyone made it to the tributary just fine, so I loose a long sigh of relief. There¡¯s definitely confusion and disarray amongst the ranks of my allies who¡¯d been teleported though.


    A cheeky voice comes through my goggles as Teuila gets the security center to connect our audio feeds, ¡°Heyyy Airhead, did you uh, mean to do that, leaving yourself there and all that?¡±


    Grumbling and grumping a bit, I snark, ¡°Gee, whaddayou think Te? Of course not, babe. Huff, sorry, I guess the thing can¡¯t really do more than, what was it, five¡¯ish lifeforces plus some luggage? When Vylon showed up, it was everything I could do to keep my cool, and focus on the device. I probably should have expected he¡¯d want to join the primary fight, and his Rend Latent will be invaluable out there, so I¡¯m trying to not be annoyed or act resentful.¡±


    Jokingly adding a playful pouting lilt to her voice, Te teases, ¡°Awe, does this mean we don¡¯t get to wreck face together today butterbuns? I was looking forward to it Airhead.¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I smirk and retort, ¡°You wish. As if I¡¯d let you off that easy. I¡¯ve got one or two tricks left for faster than normal travel, especially above the Worldstorm, even if Kinzul is off grid. I¡¯ve just gotta make sure I have Adamantite shavings on me.¡±


    Pretending¨Cat least I think she¡¯s pretending¨Cto be flabbergasted, Te queries, ¡°No way, you are not seriously thinking about doing what I think you¡¯re thinking about doing are you? You can be so reckless! Ugh, why do I find the idea of you slamming down out of the sky so hot.¡±


    As several of our allies smirk around her, Teuila adds, ¡°Erm, right, the goon squad around me can hear me while I¡¯m talking to the goggles, oof. Nyeh, sorry busters, bustettes, and unbustables, I don¡¯t really think of you as goons. Hey, no laughing, my Airhead rocking the air travel after tee pee¡¯ing us is hot ay eff. Wait. Ugh, I¡¯m just gonna stop talking.¡±


    Snorting a half laugh, I shake my head incredulously. I¡¯m going to let Te deal with getting her own feet out of her own mouth. Eugh, I hate that phrase, I need to find a replacement for it. For the moment, I¡¯m just going to let that whole bit of speech marinate in the awkward silence that has arisen.


    When I can see heat-wave mirage-lines rising in front of Teuila¡¯s goggles, I know she¡¯s blushing enough that I need to let her off the hook, so I comment, ¡°Anyway, get your party to the engagement zone Te, and I¡¯ll be dropping by as soon as I possibly can, with whatever backup I can muster. Probably just myself with some spell components.¡±


    I¡¯m not fond of the idea of explaining why I¡¯m still here, with a now dormant teleportation artifact, to the two smartest people in Verdimenn right now. But I may as well race down there to see if they have anything else, check our stock of Adamantite shavings, and anything Leezahna wants to have transported to the front lines.


    A muscle spasm that starts as a twitch between my shoulders quickly escalates. It ends with my muscles knotting on either side of my c3&c4 vertebrae, wrapping around a nerve, and pinching with excruciating precision. The torturous ache this causes has me biting my lips, clamping my mouth shut hard in order to prevent myself from howling in agony.


    Ugh, I do not relish the position of anyone who has these sorts of spasms on a more regular basis. Ow. Friggin'' hell. Erk, I can''t even rattle my head to clear my thoughts, because that''d hurt like a bugger and a half. Sighing, I roll my eyes at my own situation and continue rushing towards Mount Verdimenn. All the while, I''m watching the feeds at the security center. Teuila has rushed to the front to provide backup to Ahliyui, and she occasionally doubles back to check on the pace of the others. She''s so ridiculously fast. I envy her speed sometimes.


    The two at the front stop to converse, letting Yui catch her breath from her repeated solo duels. I can''t tell what they''re saying, but I''m pretty certain Te is teasing her about sleeping together last night, based on the blushing blue scales on her cheeks. I can''t help smirking as the unbidden expression takes over my face. Teuila can be such a goon. There''s a right time and right place for things, and the frontlines in a desperate battle against massively overwhelming odds is really neither for that kind of chicanery. Really Reggie, chicanery? Oh shush. Words pop into my head and you know it. Pft, yeah, I do.


    My eyes widen in worry for Yui and Te, when I notice a line of Spellknights approaching through one of the tunnels that''d been bored through my blockade near the corner of Teuila''s vision. I''m about to request to be patched in, to warn Teuila and Yui, when--without taking her attention off of Yui--Teuila casually flings her left arm, and sends Mjolnir flying up that tunnel. The legendary hammer obliterates the first few approaching Spellknights, and manages to knock the others back, or over. While they''re in disarray, Teuila summons Mjolnir to her hand, makes the, ¡°one moment,¡± gesture to Yui. Then she leaps skyward.


    There goes Te, touching the Worldstorm''s edges, before diving at the tunnel while wreathed in lightning, bringing Mjolnir crashing down at its lip, sending a cascade of lightning through the tunnel, partially collapsing it.


    I guess the two have it handled for now. Sheesh. I can imagine cartoonish imagery of Terrorzin''s forces being electrocuted, and x-rays of their skeletons appearing momentarily as they puff smoke. Terrorzin''s advantage of mixing the elemental properties of his forces seems like it''s going to backfire. Sure, some of his forces will survive some of our wide-range attacks, instead of us taking out whole platoons in one attack, but the Shellcrackers all have access to more than one way to put the hurt on our foes at this point. We''re not just relying on breath weapons of the Onyx Dawn members. Speaking of--Teuila''s manifesting her Honoris Causa in order to have it blast a luminous breath down one of the tunnels through the blockade.


    Is that... radiation? Is Teuila exhaling gamma particles? If Te''s able to emit gamma rays, could we leverage that somehow? Those are really dangerous. Or we might end up turning a bunch of our foes into giant green rage maniacs. Cough, cough. I mean, what with that hammer of hers and the other things that keep popping up from my buggy Fakeworld memorybank. Is this the first time I''ve seen her fight with her Honoris Causa? No, I think she used it while defending against the Damnations, but it might have been on the fritz from having to recover from being destroyed by one of Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s meteors. Also, I think I was too worried about her to make note of any properties of her breath weapon. One might be able to excuse me for being a bit preoccupied and distracted at the time.


    Anyway, stop ogling Teuila and her fight, and get moving Reggie. I am moving. I''m on autopilot, surfing down to Verdimenn, remember? Well, yeah. Ugh, stop arguing with yourself doofus. Right, sorry. Yeah, sorry. Is my psyche actually starting to fracture? Between crafting and losing other forms, utilizing magic that alters the fabric of spacetime, sending my friends without myself when I''d planned to send myself...


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Keep it together Reggie. The last thing the Onyx Dawn needs is an evil-twin you popping up, that''s really just yourself but mostly insane. I shudder at the thought of a copy of me, or worse, actually me. It brings to mind teleporter-experiment failures in Fakeworld cinema. Like one that transforms a person into half-human half-fly.


    Nearing Verdimenn, I try to recall how many times I¡¯ve been up and down the halls of Solace these few weeks that we¡¯ve been living here, sometimes many times in the same day. What is it, the twenty-ninth of September? When did we arrive here in Solace? Has it really been exactly only two weeks since our reunion with the rest of the SAP, and introduction to Kinzul and the Order of the Onyx Dawn? So much has happened in such a short time.


    It¡¯s a wonder, dragons, creatures with incredibly long lifespans, keyed up and forming bonds and relationships in what for them is the blink of an eye before and during a war. I¡¯ve met and fallen in love with a fair handful of them myself. I mean, obviously. Hell, I got engaged and married in that same amount of time. That part still seems ludicrous, absolutely ridiculous. Anyway, stop reminiscing Reggie, no wonder things are so fresh on your mind, as if it were only yesterday. Because for some of it, it literally was only yesterday.


    Chuckling at myself, I glide to a halt near the crafting space in Mount Verdimenn. Littlebit waves excitedly my way, and turns the mirror containing Tiktik¡¯s smiling mug my way as well. When Tiktik spies me, she also waves excitedly. Still, I can see the curiosity percolating across Littlebit¡¯s face as her brows peak.


    Before anyone can even ask, I explain, ¡°So uh, the artifact worked, but we hit a snag, and it left me behind. Have you completed anything else that maybe should go to the front, or uh, anything like that?¡±


    Wearing a disapproving gaze, Nala responds, ¡°It¡¯s only been a few minutes Schism, friend Reggie. At best we have this additional prototype, but its design is flawed. The completed ones can only be emplaced in the very few spaces in Vieriss Valley that are naturally quite narrow. We tried to create one in which the resonant field would expand much farther. In that regard, we¡¯ve succeeded. But we¡¯ve also increased its fallibility. When it fails, and fail it shall, it will fail spectacularly,¡± Nala emphasizes the spectacle in a way that almost certainly means explode.


    As I¡¯m wondering how or why it would explode, Nala decides to elucidate me, ¡°As you know, our Orichalcum barriers work by projecting a reverberating refractory resonance from the sheet of legendary metal itself, which mildly reduces the sheet¡¯s near-impenetrable durability. This resonance absorbs impact of virtually anything that isn¡¯t light. They are transparent, to my chagrin. These fields of oscillating waves absorb and redirect any force aimed within their protected field regions, back onto the metal itself.¡±


    When my expression doesn¡¯t change from piqued with a single peaked brow, Nala continues, ¡°Thus, unless sustaining a rapid bombardment, or exponential escalation of force, they¡¯re near-impenetrable. Near, except for the likes of our Tenith, and perhaps a few others with monstrous strength. It also is a demanding, and ever so mildly lengthy, process deactivating these resonant fields. For which we¡¯ve only now designed tools in order to accomplish safely and swiftly.¡±


    Nodding in comprehension, I remark, ¡°Ah, gotcha. That makes sense.¡± At my acknowledgement, the near-permanent frown on Nala¡¯s face lifts and her brow unfurls ever so slightly.


    So if we wanted to move the forcefields, and re-deploy them, we wouldn¡¯t be able to do it in the field without our artificers¡ªor at least instructions or a guide. I kinda figured. I also figured that Terrorzin would have some way to bypass them or disable them anyway, if not outright destroy them. It will sap his resources and time to do so however. That¡¯s one of our goals, buying time. If the barriers manage to last for hours, or days, against an onslaught, all the better. I¡¯d be happy with a forcefield barrier lasting even just minutes though.


    As is, we¡¯d have to stack barriers to cover the height difference anywhere that doesn¡¯t have an overhang all the way up to the Worldstorm. Also, what¡¯s to stop Terrorzin¡¯s forces from just digging around the edges? Oh wait, resonance. It¡¯s not a solid effect. It¡¯ll impart that force absorption resonance property to the surrounding stone through vibratory wave oscillation. For quite a ways actually. So any attempts to dig anywhere near the forcefields will be impossible while they¡¯re deployed. Natural barriers are that much more effective, and the forcefield barriers are that much more effective, when combined. That extends the effect for probably hundreds of meters, allowing the forcefields much greater reach.


    That¡¯s also why Te had to destroy the one blocking the aerie the other night, rather than just plowing through stone to get to me. I heard some pretty thundrous slamming when I was chasing the Damnations after they¡¯d survived my attack. She might have even been attempting to tunnel through stone rather than destroy the barrier, but the barrier was absorbing her frantic digging. I¡¯m lucky that the creation of the forcefield barriers works the way it does, and reduces the metal¡¯s durability. If Te hadn¡¯t gotten free of Solace to rescue me as I was plummeting, I¡¯d probably have died either in the Worldstorm, or upon impact with the ground. Gruesome, eugh.


    Anyway, how long can we depend on these barriers as deterrents to Terrorzin¡¯s forces progress? Assuming Terrorzin has Spellknights with short-range teleportation magic, or other abilities to appear on our side of barriers, we¡¯ll still be fighting to protect them, even if using them to fall back. We¡¯ll need people at the front lines, no matter what, for the entire rest of the next week. But if Terrorzin manages to bring enough force to the front of his procession to bear down on the forcefields¡ªand us behind them as they fall¡ªthose could be some intense, deadly confrontations.


    Well, no sense dwelling on it until we get some concrete data. Glancing about, I see Leezahna cranking a handle on a device that looks like its gearing ratio is one to twenty, or something like that at the bare minimum. Oh, it¡¯s the grinder. Floating by, I snag a couple of handfuls of Adamantite shavings into some spare pouches while checking out the device. Huh, it has vertical rollers beneath the horizontal rollers. Nice. Leeza nods my way, picks up her ledger, and shuffles off to oversee someone transporting goods into and out of the shop system. I¡¯m so proud of her.


    With these Adamantite shavings, and knowing the secret I do about the storm, I should be able to airdrop myself onto the battlefield behind Terrorzin¡¯s front lines quite effectively. Now I just need to get there as quickly as possible. It¡¯s too bad all I¡¯m bringing is one flawed barrier, myself, and some Adamantite shavings for my own defense. At least I¡¯ll get myself to where my offensive abilities are most useful.


    Speaking of, I query Littlebit and Nala, ¡°Do either of you two have any ideas for more efficient travel or propulsion methods for me? I do what I call LBBTKSL¡¯ing. Lightning burst boosted telekinetic square leaping. I¡¯m guessing both of your minds can figure out how I use my suite of abilities to do that for maximum effect.¡±


    The artificers nod in answer that they understand the applications of my powers that lead to my most efficient propulsion technique that I¡¯ve been able to create thus far. I produce a solid surface from which to launch myself, while remaining nearly weightless, horizontally oriented. From there, I engage thrusters, which sounds like a silly way to describe bunching my legs and kicking off while blasting lightning behind me. There¡¯s not much else to it.


    Littlebit shrugs while hazarding, ¡°Whatever you expel as propellant, lightning, combusted gas to expand through explosion behind you, what have you, is probably your greatest source of acceleration. If you can expel more of it, condensed, at higher velocities, your opposite reaction would be gaining speed. Basic physics, but you probably knew that already. Think you can handle any more than you¡¯d already been doing?¡±


    Grimacing, I nod, both that I knew the mechanics of propulsion, and that I can probably push a bit harder than my previous top speeds through more focused expulsion. It¡¯s going to be hell on my joints. Said it before, and I¡¯ll say it again, and again and again. I really should leave speed to the speedsters. Offering a two-finger salute into a half wave at Nala, Littlebit, Alanea, and Luni, I begin racing back up towards Solace¡¯s aerie once more.


    Cliff-notes version of what I''m about to do? Go do something dangerously foolish. You know, the usual.

 B 6 C 231: Pal O Mine

    After exiting the aerie, I have to aim myself up through a narrow, angled tunnel in the Worldstorm that¡¯s slightly to one side. If anyone saw it from above, even at the exact right angle to see down through it, they¡¯d only see the bare face of Solace¡¯s mountainside, not a landing prospect. Though anyone seeking to gain entry would probably guess that there¡¯s some way into Solace from here. We do still have defenders on the aerie, and above it in the sky at times, after all.


    Alright Reggie, Illy¡¯s out there, somewhere behind enemy lines, skulking about in the dark below the Worldstorm. I can see motion from her goggles occasionally, and flashes of brightness, but they¡¯re mostly looking at dark stone interiors of crevices and caverns. She¡¯s using stealth to prioritize hit and run tactics, which is great and all, but like Yui having been dueling the front lines of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, I worry about how long her luck can hold out. I want to make my debut and cause disarray in Terrorzin¡¯s forces as soon as possible, in order to help provide opportunities Illy can capitalize on, either to exterminate foes, or to escape, depending.


    Phooph, y¡¯know what that means pal, right? Yeah, yeah I do. Pushing ourselves beyond our limits, again. As far as speed is concerned anyway. I¡¯ll basically have my brain on autopilot, bunching my legs against TK squares, siphoning off some Worldstorm lightning with the cursed greaves from QCR number four, holding my breath, doffing the cursed greaves, and blasting off as hard as I can, over and over, for the next hour¡¯ish.


    Here we go! The first thing that hits me, despite my thermal resistance, is the cold air. Rather, that it feels sharp, stinging, moist-yet-drying against my skin as I aim myself up through the tunnel in the Worldstorm to leave the aerie. Lightning flickers towards me from the storm, through my cursed greaves¡ªlittle jolts of electrical hell that buzz and nip at my legs like a swarm of angry bees. Come on Reggie. Brain, autopilot. Go.


    My legs coil tight against the TK square like pistons at the ready, and with a sharp, silent inhale--in order to get enough breath to hold for the levitation enchantment--I kick off. I¡¯m my own internal combustion engine, erm, externally. Well, internally and externally both, since my electrokinesis generates EMF and even lightning within my¡ªI know, you don¡¯t have to explain it to me, yourself. Erm, right. Lightning explodes behind me in a crackling burst. It''s like someone punched a hole in the universe and threw me through it. Focus. Legs. Lightning. Leap. Repeat.


    It¡¯s a process that¡¯s weirdly automatic now, like stimming I''d never really noticed myself doing, but more violent. My brain never even comments on how often I''m cracking my ankles, toes, wrists, or finger-knuckles. My body is weightless, just a blur of twitching muscle and burning electricity. There''s a high-pitched hum in my ears as I launch again. Is that my tinnitus, or electrokinesis on overload directly from my brain? Speaking of that electrokinesis, I know I can control lightning within a near radius around me, but I never really paid attention to how absolutely wild it can be when I¡¯m not directly controlling it. It¡¯s simultaneously got a mind of its own, yet seems like a mindless beast, wild and rampant.


    Every jump feels like ripping duct-tape off a wound¡ªthere¡¯s that brief moment where I¡¯m free, nothing around me but air, lightning crackling at my heels. And then, gravity begins to reassert itself as I need to breathe, and impact. My feet hit the next TK square, another solid surface made from nothing but my will and brainpower. Gods, who else has to think this much to move from place to place?


    The world outside is just a blur of dark clouds and flashes of the storm¡ªI can feel the static charge clinging to my skin, making my hair stand up on end under my helmet. It¡¯s like the entire sky is alive, writhing around me, daring me to falter, to miscalculate by a millimeter. One wrong move and I¡¯m a Reggie-flavored lightning rod in a sky-borne pool of acid. Or maybe a half-digital smear on the ground far below.


    I kick off again¡ªanother sharp burst of speed, joints screaming as I push harder than I should. This is fine, this is fine. Right? Nothing I haven¡¯t lived through before. Huh, for some reason, that¡¯s not all that reassuring. Actually, it¡¯s a bit disconcerting that my life¡ªlives¡ªhas been filled with so much injury and pain. Still, I persist, even though I can already feel the telltale ache spreading from my knees and hips.


    Jeeze Louise my knees ache for realsies. For realsies Reggie, really? Shut up. Speedsters have no idea how easy they have it with their secondary and tertiary or ancillary powers. A few magic items help me bridge the gaps, slightly. But I''m still moving through walls of wind at speeds human--err, changeling--flesh isn''t designed for. Not to mention, hyper-inflexing my knees and hips, then uncoiling them at inhuman speeds.


    Thank spoot for my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian blunt pain tolerance. Or blunt damage resistance, whatever you want to call how it applies to things. That brings to mind how hitpoints and resistance skills and such even apply. We¡¯ve puzzled it out before, because hitpoints don¡¯t directly correlate to wounds or broken bones or such, not entirely. You can seem physically whole, but be nearly dead on hitpoint values, or conversely, after recuperating, you can still have broken, ruined limbs, while being back at max health.


    Case-in-point, Teuila and me breaking our legs and blowing our limbs to smithereens trying to press faster than our bodies could handle, way back around the time of the Cragbeast Warren, and nearly losing Lil. We¡¯d regenerated to full hitpoints in a single night of rest, but our limbs took much longer to recover. Most people probably don¡¯t recover from basically atomizing the bones in their limbs, or turning their limbs into leaden jelly, or meat-paste. However you want to think about it. I mean, I know they don¡¯t. Here on Rayileklia, it takes magical Latents like Sponge¡¯s or Teuila¡¯s to help distribute enough of the damage of an injury that bodies can conceivably recover from it.


    Halfway there, Reggie. Good job pal, keep it up. Really Reggie, a pep-talk mid travel? Shush you, this is exhausting and painful. Ugh, my legs feel all wobbly and springy. I think I¡¯m starting to bicycle-pedal midair between each leap, just because of how rubbery my knees are feeling. How¡¯s the battlefield looking anyway? We¡¯ve been on autopilot for a good few minutes.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Actually, that reminds me of someone else I want to check in on first. How the hell are Littlebit and Nala essentially in the robotics age, when everyone else on Rayileklia is early-to-pre industrial revolution at best? I reach up to my goggles to muffle the sound of the wind as I¡¯m leaping through the sky, and to signal that I need communications opened up.


    Before the security center team can even ask, I inquire, ¡°Hey, could you guys patch me through to Littlebit? I¡¯ve got some questions for our artificers.¡±


    An accented voice that uses harder vowel sounds responds, ¡°Roger that Schism, putting you through now.¡±


    Checking my view of the feeds through my goggles, I wait for there to be a slight lull in Littlebit and Nala¡¯s activities and conversation to pipe up, ¡°Hey Littlebit, couple o¡¯ questions for ya.¡±


    Only momentarily surprised, Littlebit beams a bright smile as she speaks with thin air, ¡°Sure thing Tiger! Whacha wanna know?¡±


    How do I phrase this? Well, I start by responding, ¡°How easy or difficult would it be for you and Nala to construct a device, perhaps an elongated barrel of some sort, that could deliver a payload with as many kilojoules of force as we could muster? What sort of damage are we looking at if you can rig it up safely so that there¡¯s no risk until after deployment?¡±


    The adorable goblin inventor blinks a few times, scratches her ears, then her chin, before postulating, ¡°Well, I think a trebuchet could place some barrels of explosives at a fair clip with fairly high accuracy. But if you¡¯re thinking about what I think you¡¯re thinking about, because of our conversation about combustion propulsion earlier, I¡¯m guessing you want a cannon, but with special ammo.¡±


    My nodding won¡¯t translate since Littlebit can¡¯t see my feed, as she¡¯s not wearing the goggles that sit near her in the crafting lab, but I also loose a quiet verbal affirmative to accompany my nod. I really don¡¯t want to be bringing Rayileklia into a nuclear arm¡¯s race. But what if we really break things, really really break them? Like, if we drop a nuke directly on top of Terrorzin, that means Kinzul doesn¡¯t have to face him alone, right? Can we avoid the prophecy that way?


    Though, there is the little problem of his Dragonforce-infused Latent. What if it saps all kinetic energy in the area instantly? If he engages it the instant he feels the tiniest hint of a pressure wave from the explosion, could he completely nullify it? Are his reflexes good enough? Is it completely automatic? We don¡¯t have enough information that I¡¯d be willing to drop a nuke into his lap that he could possibly freeze even before it detonates, as it¡¯s falling. Because then he could throw it back at us to let it detonate in our laps.


    Also, sure, we might not be talking actual nuclear fission, because who knows what sort of magical approximation Nala and Littlebit might come up with. But that¡¯s hardly the point. The point is, we¡¯d be putting our cards on the table, going all in, with whatever they could concoct. I¡¯m almost ready to suggest abandoning the line of thought, when Littlebit squeaks, which catches me offguard.


    Chirping almost with delight, Littlebit continues, ¡°Oh I think I could fasten together a really fun delivery and trigger system! One that guarantees it can¡¯t go off on our side. It won¡¯t be built at all, until it hits its target!¡±


    Now I¡¯m blinking, more than a tad perplexed as to what the heck Littlebit could be talking about. Thankfully, she quickly explains, ¡°If I get one of Nala¡¯s, or my littlelest clankers, into a transport, with the fixings for a big kaboomer, but all in inert states, and let the little pal¡¯o build it after impact, no risk to us! At worst, we deliver some random chemicals that they may or may not even know what to do with, to our foes.¡±


    Huh. I respond, ¡°Well, that certainly alleviates some of the worries I had with this possible project. Don¡¯t bother putting any more time or thought into it just yet though. I need to know if it¡¯s feasible to even bother with it. Is there any way we can get some concrete data on Terrorzin¡¯s Dragonforce-infused Latent? His big magical beyond the laws of physics below sub absolute zero freeze?¡±


    Nala, from the other side of the crafting table affirms, ¡°We could repurpose one of the automatons already sent with you, redirecting its sensory equipment to enable capturing information, with a few rudimentary adjustments. Adjustments I assume you¡¯d be perfectly capable of, friend Reggie. I should hate for you to prove my assumptions wrong.¡±


    My face quirks, and I¡¯m not sure how to parse the thinly veiled threat of being on the receiving end of Nala¡¯s dissatisfaction or condescension upon failure to live up to her expectations. Eh, it¡¯s Nala. Social graces just aren¡¯t her thing. At least not the usual ones most other people are familiar with. While being a veiled threat, it¡¯s also a veiled compliment, that she believes me up to the task.


    Before I can ask, Nala tuts and comments, ¡°Those goggles are making an infernal hissing of wind. If you wouldn¡¯t mind disconnecting until you need instructions on how to repurpose one of the automatons, it¡¯d be much appreciated, Schism.¡±


    Grimacing, I nod, and mutter to the security center to remove the audio patch between our scrying sensors. Well, at least there¡¯s a chance we could get some concrete data on Terrorzin¡¯s abilities. Though, only if any of the robobuddies survive long enough, and I work fast enough, in order to repurpose them. I suppose it¡¯s an asset worth attempting to gain, so I shouldn¡¯t discount it.


    Let¡¯s see, I still can¡¯t see much of anything where Lil, Lucky, Shiz, and Zelshiz are. I assume that means they¡¯re excavating somewhere in the foothills between Mah¡¯ruke and Vieriss. Alanea and Lu are fine in the infirmary, Luni¡¯s resting up. I gulp back my emotions as I think about Luni being injured. Rattling my skull, I pretend the tears in my eyes are from the stinging air as I launch myself through it. I mean, some of them might be.


    I guess nearly each pal of mine, everyone other than Revvy, Greggy, and Atter, are engaged in action or recovering from injury at the moment. It really strikes me, hitting home hard, that these are our final moments¡ªI mean, not like, final final moments, like dead. I just mean, from on on we¡¯ll remain engaged, locked in battle, until the leader of one side of this war dies. Even then, if we slay Terrorzin, his apostles, elites, his buried-in forces, the Damnations, and who knows what else, probably won¡¯t stand down.


    I just hope that Terrorzin is the one to die, and that we can find some way to wrap up all this dragon war business. Rayileklia¡¯s still in peril from other sources. That¡¯ll always itch at the back of my mind until we have concrete plans in place in order to stave off the other apocalypses.


    Pft, how unreal is that? I¡¯m tense, and annoyed, because there are multiple apocalypses still looming, even beyond the scope of this war. Would it be better for everyone if my Rayileklian adventure was just one last fever dream? Brrr. I shudder. Don¡¯t even think like that Reggie. We¡¯re here, this is real. People we love are in danger, or fighting off danger on behalf of others. Time for us to get back to it, and start doing the same pal o¡¯ mine o¡¯.

 B 6 C 232: Fooling Around

    Exhaling smoothly, I can sense that I¡¯m nearing what¡¯s left of Wistenzlia peak. Y¡¯know, the mountain I blew a third off of down into Vieriss Valley. Oh is that all? Reggie? Mhm? Stop snarking off at yourself. Right, right. Sorry. Well don¡¯t bother apologizing, just get to it! Alright already, stop being pushy! Wait. Ugh, nevermind. I¡¯d facepalm, but it already feels like I¡¯ve been slapped in the face about a billion times from all the air I¡¯m pushing through while lightning burst boosted tk square leaping across the sky.


    Feeling silly that your internal monologue is roasting you? Yeah, a little bit. Maybe stop doing it then? Shut up. I¡¯m trying. Anyway, so, phooph. Deep breaths Reggie. In, and out. Yeah, I know how to breathe doofus. Do you? Try thinking about Errissa for a second. My breath catches in my throat thinking about the supple leathers on the slate grey scaled Draconiac whose liquid mercury eyes captivate me so. Oh you complete jerk. Pft. You literally did it to yourself. Also, maybe get out of your head and back to reality Reggie? You¡¯re about to drop through two smaller layers of Worldstorm. All so you can crashdown strike into Terrorzin¡¯s horde. Again. The whatever¡¯th time in two days.


    We do this, and we do it now, because this is it. We fight, we live, we die, because in this moment, and the rest of them until we win this thing, this is war. It¡¯s now or it¡¯s never. It¡¯s down to the wire, so get ready to get inspired. Fam? I love you all. Here goes nothing. I feel like some ninja from some village hidden in leaves as my hands perform the gestures to craft the runes necessary for my magic. My flesh takes on its adamantite form, and I unequip my Wyverium Chestplate while leaning forward off of my TK square.


    Falling into a dive, I let the wind whipping around me rush over and past me. As it does, I try not to lament the passing of Sylphie, the wind elemental spirit who aided me on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. She gave everything of herself to help me save ungrateful beavers. Y¡¯know what? I never let myself be angry at them for it. Other than some explosive wrath, I never really just let myself have feelings about losing Sylphie for what amounted to nothing in the end. I pass through one layer of the Worldstorm, almost unscathed, my Adamantite form keeping me perfectly protected.


    In this hollow area of the Worldstorm, time seems to slow. I¡¯m forced to confront my feelings on loss after loss of friends and allies across both of my lives. The ones that stick out the most are how elemental spirits seem to keep giving their all for my selfish desires. And what do I do with their sacrifices? Nothing. I move on, because one thing or another turned their sacrifices into being almost meaningless.


    No Reggie, not quite right. Hm? Sylphie didn¡¯t just help you save the beavers. She saved you too, and you¡¯re still here, and still fighting, to protect everyone, even spirits in the elemental realm adjacent to Rayileklia. The lightning spiritswarm saved you after you had already saved them. Whether they survived that last skirmish, piloting Big O¡¯Kuel, we don¡¯t know. Maybe they abandoned the robot and joined the lightning of the Worldstorm. For all we know, they could be one of those rivers of lightning passing beneath us right now.


    You living is not a meaningless sacrifice. Don¡¯t get a big head about it, but you can honor their sacrifices by continuing to save and protect as many others as possible. Hm, I suppose so. Welp. Here comes the next bit of Worldstorm. Then we¡¯re in the thick of it, eh Reggie? Yup. I cross my forearms in front of my face, bringing my knees up to my chin, and lean hard into rolling my momentum. Like a spinning cannonball I shoot out the bottom of the second segment of the Worldstorm.


    Using every bit of internal force I can muster, dragging a river of lightning with my QCR number 4, the cursed greaves, I spin down towards the muddy soil below, covered in a shell of lightning. Of course, it¡¯s not just muddy soil below me. It¡¯s thousands and thousands of kobolds and Draconiacs and human-form dragons. Time to piss some people off Reggie.


    Crashing down atop someone I¡¯m almost certain is a psy-mage, pasting them beneath me as if I were an Adamantite cannonball, I use the squelch and crunch of their bones to soften my landing. I crack my neck and roll my rotator cuffs while doffing my cursed greaves, unleashing a massive sphere of lightning. Standing from my three-point landing, I continue stretching and slowly striding forth from the crater I¡¯ve created, amongst an impressive pile of corpses.


    I can¡¯t afford to grimace, or give up the goat, so instead, I grin, and call out, ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s Reggie Shellcracker, Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn. Again. I¡¯m back. Didja miss me?¡±


    Predictably, it has the desired effect of whipping my foes into a frenetic frenzy of frothing madness. Well, maybe not madness, more like anger, but probably also that. Reggie? Mhm? Don¡¯t get pedantic with the snarling horde. Pft, snorting a laugh, I agree with myself, which is probably the stupidest phrase my brain has uttered¡­ in the last few minutes. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll top it sometime, at some point, during this fight.


    Normally, I¡¯d be averse to using *people* to block attacks. But these people are both Terrorzin¡¯s forces, and corpses that I don¡¯t want to have to fight a second or third time if Terrorzin¡¯s necromancers have the ability to animate them. Breath weapons coming my way I can mostly ignore, but spells coming my way, I fling corpses in front of with my TK grips. It¡¯s brutal, but efficient. Especially considering how many of the spells are pure disintegration beams.


    That¡¯s sixth tier magic at least, right? Crap on a cracker. That¡¯s no small feat to have several casters at that tier of power. Even worse is the fact that there¡¯s friggin¡¯ hundreds of the motherglubbers bunched up right here, and they had been intending to use those disintegrations and other magic to finish carving up my mountainous blockade. Reggie? Mhm? Did you ever think you¡¯d be just striding towards a bunch of disintegration-casting mages, flinging the corpses of their allies into the path of their blasts?


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    No, of course not. Why would that thought have ever occurred to me to have? What even fraction of what¡¯s going on right now is in the least bit normal, and in the realm of what any reasonable being would imagine themselves ever doing? Pft. Reasonable being Reggie? Oh shut up. Heh, okay, alright, I admit it. It¡¯s sorta funny. Me calling myself a reasonable being, or even implying it.


    Gosh, with how much I¡¯ve been worrying, and how much farther we have to go, I¡¯m almost calm, despite being surrounded by death-dealing and disintegration-wielding foes. Like, I¡¯m literally juggling the corpses of my foes with telekinetic grips, flinging them into the path of beam after beam. I conjure my twelve mini meteors that spiral about me in helix patterns just so that they might intercept a few beams that I miss or can¡¯t block in time with corpses or Terrorzin¡¯s own forces.


    What I wouldn¡¯t give to have the meteor spell available to me at a reasonable SP cost right now. I could probably take out three thousand or so of Terrorzin¡¯s forces in a single cast, easy, with how condensed these morons are packed. My brain isn¡¯t even registering the scenery, or setting, or foes. It¡¯s solely focused on incoming attacks. That¡¯s probably for the best. Hey Reggie. Mhm? Wanna try an old standby?


    What, this early in the game? Yeah, why not? Alright, I guess. Oh, good timing. I sense a shift in the tide, as my foes begin to take another tack. They¡¯ve stopped slinging spells, so that they don¡¯t hit their allies who are closing in, and are about to swarm me. Wearing the smuggest grin I¡¯ve ever worn, with my left brow raised, I query, ¡°Really? Do none of you remember that I¡¯m packing more than telekinesis?¡±


    Frostburn¡¯s slashblast, ice-rune empowered knife, non-spelliform empowered cold rune, a free cone of cold boosted by The Platinum¡¯s extended metamagics, and another non-spelliform empowered cold rune. What does all that equal? A tsunami of ice conjured in an instant, stretching from the ground to the Worldstorm, washing out west across the battlefield, encasing my foes. I know plenty will survive that, and might even teleport out on top of me or towards my friends waiting on the other side of the blockade.


    That¡¯s why I¡¯m not just sitting with my thumb up my rear twiddling. Fire-rune empowered knife, non-spelliform empowered flame rune, fireball from the staff, extra non-spelliform empowered flame rune, and calling FFS from the other side of the veil into being. Add all that together, pointed at a glacier, and what do you get? The fastest evaporation and biggest steam explosion the face of Rayileklia¡¯s ever seen on its surface.


    I have to engage my runic clip that prevents knockback while crossing my forearms in front of my face to brace against my own blast. It rocks the canyon walls around us, shaking and crumbling stone, while nearly atomizing Terrorzin¡¯s forces in probably a quarter mile radius. Thanks FFS. Whew. There¡¯s rockslides aplenty happening now, and the stone and soil are shifting beneath me, as well as elsewhere on the battlefield.


    Oh hey, look at that. Caverns to the ¡®Neath. I¡¯m about to go be a cocky sonnova bleeping bleep. Disengaging the runic clip that locks me in position, I leap into a backflip while holding my breath, and boost myself into several more backflips towards the east with my telekinetic squares. My Adamantite form is wearing off, from the crashdown strike plus weathering my own steam explosion face-first front-and-center. At least it wasn¡¯t in an enclosed space this time, so the concussive force wasn¡¯t rebounding exponentially against itself and me.


    I allow myself to pant for breath a bit as I lean up against the rubble of Wistenzlia Peak that I¡¯d moved into Vieriss Valley¡¯s pass. I cockily float as if I¡¯m laying in a hammock, gathering my wits, and catching my breath. I¡¯m pretty sure that even without the scrying goggles showing that I¡¯m here, Teuila would¡¯ve gotten the signal that I¡¯ve arrived, after all that. Pft. Checking in on her, it seems her and Yui have routed the entirety of the Spellknights who¡¯d made it through the blockade prior to now.


    Terrorzin¡¯s forces have done some serious damage to the blockade with their disintegrations and other magics. To be fair, me tossing out a nearly-nuke-worthy explosion just off to the west of the blockade didn¡¯t help matters either. Pft. Snrk. Phew, deep breaths Reggie. Between yesterday, today¡¯s antics of Teuila, Yui, and me, what are we looking at? Let¡¯s say a few dozen foes per maneuver, plus a couple hundred to a thousand foes each for the big bombs. Hm.


    Assuming say about twelve square feet top-down style per one of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, a really rough estimate, then yeah, my little moves and attacks where they were packed in as tightly as could be, that hit a ten to twenty foot radius are taking out about three dozen or so foes per. I lean my head to the left and conjure a TK square at an angle to deflect an incoming javelin. Grumping mostly to myself, I complain silently, ¡°Hey, I¡¯m busy doing math here dickweasel.¡± Speaking of weasels, ¡°Let¡¯s go, I choose you giant dire shadow weasel!¡±


    Wow that¡¯s, oof. That¡¯s pretty vicious. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve heard a Spellknight ever shriek in terror of a weasel before, at least not audibly due to how many other sounds were drowning things out. Anyway, where was I? Math, right? Yeah. Floating here like I¡¯m in a hammock, leaned up against the blockade I caused yesterday, I dig some snacks out of my interdimensional sacks, and, well, chow down while contemplating.


    Right, so say three to four dozen foes on my little maneuvers, but how much for Wistenzlia Peak¡¯s fall, and the glacier and steam explosions just now? They really weren¡¯t expecting Wistenzlia, but they also weren¡¯t packed shoulder-to-shoulder right in the crash zone. Especially since so many of them were chasing me *into* Wistenzlia Peak through tunnels. Though that makes the calcs even harder actually. Reggie? Mhm? Don¡¯t you think you could have found a more appropriate time to ponder these calculations? I¡¯unno, maybe, why?


    Dodging a necrotizing ray, my mental self casts me a dubious glance, at which I chuckle. Right, right, I get it. Still, I think I did more damage to the horde last night than I realized. Holding a breath, I kick up into a kip up, flip forward, and leap off a telekinetic square I conjure mid-air at a forty-five degree downward angle. Drawing Frostburn, I let my velocity carry me past the necromancer who¡¯d fired at me, holding it at neck level, and pulling. Flicking sizzling blood free of the blade, I sheathe Frostburn in one smooth motion as I hear the head of my foe plop into the mud behind me.


    Right. No more fooling around I guess.

 B 6 C 233: Shes Got Me

    Y¡¯know Rej, you¡¯ve been talking to yourself a lot more lately, more and more. Yeah? Well, you said it was a coping mechanism. Did I? Um, yes. Now you¡¯re just funnin¡¯ on yourself. Maybe focus on the fight putz. Oy, putz yourself, but also, yes, I should.


    Snagging several arrows out of the air with telekinesis, I whirl as I leap, slingshotting them around me back towards the encroaching horde. There¡¯s not as many as I¡¯d have thought, that are eager to blaze a trail through the corpses of their comrades, and the crater I¡¯ve created, to come face me. Woah, bullets. I can¡¯t quite dodge those realistically well. Those would put a damper on my day. Good thing half of my face is covered by Adamantite, even when I¡¯m not armored up in my magical form.


    Terrorzin¡¯s forces don¡¯t have a lot of firearms, thankfully. Still, the fact that they have any is disconcerting. Oh right. Terrorzin was extorting the Derbrightmine dwarves through Olashax and Astridus, for quite some time. Still, you can tell that these Draconiacs, and kobolds, aren¡¯t used to firearms aiming, loading, or wielding. I suppose there¡¯ve been no generations-long master gunners to teach troops. The ones wielding guns might not even be the best gunners, they could be status symbols handed out as prizes for loyalty and crap like that.


    Whatever, they¡¯ve all gotta die one way or another. Oof, cold Reggie, cold. Not as cold as Terrorzin¡¯s aura though. He took out hundreds of his own forces last night trying to catch me. Speaking of, I don¡¯t sense that aura anywhere in my thermal range. Maybe it does cost him to have it activated, and he¡¯s not willing to just keep it up permanently?


    Regardless, I¡¯d prefer him as far on the other side of his troops as possible from me and mine, for as long as possible. Somehow though, I¡¯ve got a feeling I¡¯ll be seeing him sometime soon. This time, it¡¯ll be much more up-close and personal. We¡¯ve decimated somewhere between two percent, and twenty-five percent of the estimated forces he¡¯d had out here, in two outings. If only we could keep this up. It takes a day to put together enough of myself and my own resources to make a big enough boom to pull off stunts like this last couple.


    As I¡¯m about to continue rambling, I hear telepathically, ¡°Airhead, are you hogging all the fun over there?¡±


    Smirking and shaking my head, I can¡¯t help myself as I laugh out loud before responding, ¡°Sure Te, fun, yeah I¡¯m hogging it. Wanna come get some?¡±


    Sensing Teuila¡¯s telepathic avatar bob its head side to side while she wears her miles-wide closed-eyed smile, I can¡¯t help smiling and shaking my head. Still, I think we collapsed any tunnels that had been cut through our Wistenzlia barricade. Between Teuila¡¯s Mjolnir strikes, and my own steam explosion, we¡¯ve definitely done a fair amount of damage to the rubble ourselves. Hopefully we don¡¯t end up doing Terrorzin¡¯s work for him. I¡¯m honestly surprised that¡ª.


    Dodge you fool! Throwing myself to the side, the radiant cascade of plasma that comes hurtling from the furthest ranks of Terrorzin¡¯s forces feels like it brushes by me in slow motion. I feel my molecular bonds shifting and pulling apart at its mere passing, parts of my physiology melting away in microscopic ways. The hundred meter wide ball of plasma slams into my blockade and just keeps moving, vaporizing the mountain of stone bit by bit in its relentless push.


    Worriedly, I cry into our telepathic bond, ¡°Te, get your barrier up and get the hell out of the way!¡±


    The functional Orichalcum forcefield went with the bot bodies and the team that teleported. I can only hope Teuila¡¯s prepared to set it up. When I telepathically hear, ¡°Comin¡¯ through!¡± my face contorts as I turn towards the tunnel that¡¯d been bored through by the plasma ball.


    I have to blink several times trying to parse what¡¯s happening as it seems like the plasma ball is returning this way, though it¡¯s quite a bit smaller than when it started. Seeing Teuila¡¯s Honoris Causa wielding Mjolnir, as she shuffles magic items and abilities, while reversing the direction of a miniature sun, is beyond baffling. But it is good timing, because another of the juggernaut projectiles is barreling this way from the far end of Terrorzin¡¯s forces. Seeing her pull that off has got me¡­ something. I can¡¯t even fathom what emotions I¡¯m feeling right now.


    This is really not going to end well. Blitzing my way into the tunnel, skirting this death-globe, I join up with Teuila, igniting my own Honoris Causa, in order to push. Each fraction of a step feels like it saps years off of my life, and takes ages to complete. I see sweat running down Teuila¡¯s face in thick rivulets at the effort she¡¯s exerting. Glancing behind us, I see Ahliyui, some bots, and several of our allies. They¡¯re erecting the¡ª. Really. Really guys? Erecting is a perfectly valid word to¡ª. Oh for heaven¡¯s sakes. You¡¯re all so juvenile.


    I¡ª. Sighing, it takes me a while to get over myself, but I can¡¯t help laughing with the goon squad. Teuila foremost amongst them. This is insane. This is utterly, absolutely insane. What sort of powers, items, abilities, and creatures does Terrorzin have in store for us, where he¡¯s able to toss multiple miniature suns in a row!? This is just unreal. Hurk, koff, koff, ow.


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    Feeling the second ball of plasma slam into the one we¡¯re reversing in direction has us beginning to skid back in our tracks. Risking atomizing myself, I engage the runic clip that halts my motion once again, locking my position in space. My eyes fly wide open as the pain that tears through my system is unbearable, on a cosmic scale. I¡¯ve made myself the immovable object in front of two unstoppable forces.


    Trying to beg Teuila to get the hell out of the way, she refuses to budge, so I¡¯m forced to endure the feeling of two suns colliding with my face. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s no picnic for her either, but she¡¯s at least got Mjolnir between her and the forces, and isn¡¯t using an item to lock herself against their friction. Agony¡­ indescribable¡­ Quivering and straining, my Honoris Causa continues to try to push, with Teuila¡¯s, holding back the oncoming storm of supreme annihilation.


    Worse, when two stars collide, and their mass begins to add or multiply together¡­ Yeah Reggie, I know. At least that¡¯s one thing that you¡¯re prepared for. I feel it begin, the force against us slowly recedes bit by bit, but it¡¯s not relenting. No. It¡¯s reversing. The two miniature suns are about to go nova and black hole simultaneously. Grimacing, I glance at Teuila. I know she knows the physics. She knows atomic sciences better than I do. She can¡¯t seriously be thinking of facetanking a nova-hole, can she?


    When Teuila winks and smooches my direction, my face contorts farther. The absolute insanity of my life washes over me like water off a ducks back, and I just exist amidst this chaos. Quick, do the math. This sun¡ªor, well, plasma-ball¡ªis only about eighty meters across at this point. The other one is closer to a hundred fifty meters across, but they¡¯re both shrinking as they collide. The multiplicative force escalation is, uh. Ugh. ¡­So¡­ hard to math¡­ facetanking plasma. Te help me out here! What¡¯s the scale of devastation looking like?


    Smirking, Teuila rolls her eyes and chirps, ¡°Relax Airhead. Just hold that there for a second, will ya?¡±


    That¡­ has to be the most insane request I have ever heard or will ever hear in my entire lives. W-what¡¯s Te doing? Ahh you butt! I¡ªcan¡¯t¡­hold this! She knows she¡¯s got me, but this ain¡¯t great! Teuila¡¯s fishing around and¡ªis that the Orichalcum barrier? Then what are Yui and the others erecting¡ªoh for the love of everything holy and sacred you dweebs. The giggling and guffawing across my mental wavelengths, from Teuila and the team, is downright raucous.


    There¡¯s a resonant cascade occurring right next to me as Teuila begins activating the device, and I barely have enough of my wits about me to unlock the runic clip that¡¯d frozen my position in space. I feel like I¡¯m floating in slow motion as the Orichalcum forcefield springs into place, the tiniest fraction of faster activation would have it bisecting where my Honoris Causa and I had just been standing. As I¡¯m falling away from the plasma projectiles, and away from the extending forcefield, I rescind my Honoris Causa.


    Diving rearwards at an angle, intersecting Teuila, I jet deeper into the tunnel through this barricade. The absolute goon simply looses a Shellcracker Family Squee, and dons her miles-wide closed-eyed smile as her head bobs nearly shoulder to shoulder, her arms wrapped around me. The incredulous glare I give Teuila as she opens her eyes to smirk at me has me staring into her perfect verdant orbs. I get lost in those emerald-ringed tunnels that light the very path into the depths of Teuila¡¯s soul. The smattering of freckles about her face is like its own mini galaxy, a cosmic utopia, a heavenly place of heavenly bodies upon a heavenly face above a heavenly body. Gulping, I blush, remembering the entire goon squad can hear my thoughts.


    I mean, it¡¯s not like I mind anyone knowing how deeply in love I am with My Wings, Teuila. Our relationship has been built across lifetimes, in several senses. Still, I chastised them for distractability due to humor, then go and get lost in Te¡¯s eyes. Yeah, I¡¯ve got no legs to stand on. Oh woah. Quickly doing a double-take, I check to make sure I actually still have legs, in order to stand on them. Phew, okay, they¡¯re still there. Just a bit numb from the lightning-leaping, and then digging in against the plasma projectiles. Teuila bursts into a cackle at my scatterbrainedness that worried if I still had legs, before she smooches me, wrapping her lips about mine, taking my mind off of everything else.


    Sinking into the kiss, my breathing and heart rate both slow, and I drink of this moment with¡ªHo-ho-holy crap! The world vibrates on levels I cannot even begin to describe as the two mini solar events collide with the Orichalcum forcefield. The reverberant synchronicity of the forcefield¡¯s redistribution of the power of the event is on a level that sets my teeth chattering and jittering. Hopefully not shattering or shi¡­ wait. Ahem, anyway, brain, please regain my senses. Y¡¯think it¡¯s easy? You try it buddy.


    Unfortunately, several more hyperdense plasma balls are incoming. The simultaneous novas and black holes as they hit the Orichalcum forcefield vaporize it, and a good half of my Wistenzlia peak blockade. Fortunately, Terrorzin seems to be out of them for at least the moment. Whatever that weapon was, we¡¯ve got to hope it¡¯s either got an insanely long cooldown, or is completely burnt out, or that we can destroy it or get it away from him really dang quickly.


    Double unfortunately, I now realize why it looked like there were so few of Terrorzin¡¯s forces who¡¯d survived my attack that came after me. They were all ducking into side tunnels and such, getting out of way of the nova-blasts, or whatever the hell those plasma projectiles were. Is the rest of the team behind us yet? I need a second to regroup, and Teuila¡¯s not looking like she¡¯s a hundred percent at the moment either, after basically doing the equivalent of holding back a mini sun nearly barehanded.


    She sticks her tongue out at me, but doesn¡¯t remove her arms from my waist as I telekinetically surf us back towards our allies. Her tongue still out, she buries her face in my neck, which sends shivers up and down my spine, as she basically licks my jugular. Friggin¡¯ a. What the crap Te? This is no time for fooling around like that. Yeesh. But also woaaaahhh. Ahem, cough. Maybe y¡¯know, after we finish this war babe?


    I can feel Teuila smirking in my neck. She knows she¡¯s got me, and she¡¯s got me good.

 B 6 C 234: Rend, Rent

    After I telekinetically pilot us around a makeshift barricade past what¡¯s left of the Wistenzlia peak disaster, I land in the mud on my back with Teuila atop me, and ask, ¡°Te¡­ if you had the barrier, and were going to deploy it anyway¡­ Why did we have to face tank those plasma projectiles for any time at all, much less as long as we did?¡±


    Slapping her knee and chuckling, Teuila fills me in, ¡°Right, so, firstly, didn¡¯t want to strand you on the far side, natch. But more strategically, those Orichalcum forcefield force-redirector thingie things work by resonance, yeah? Which propagates through solids further than through air, because of vibratory motion, right? Basically, they only project a big enough shield if they¡¯re in an already solid enclosure more or less.¡±


    Nodding along with Teuila, I¡¯d vaguely surmised that, so I prompt her to continue. She furthers, ¡°Well, the next nearest choke point, with enough solid matter between valley floor and Worldstorm, is a few miles east. I figured you wouldn¡¯t want to give up that much ground on the first salvo. Yeah? Right Airhead?¡±


    Well, she¡¯s got me there. It still hurt like a mrgrgr to block those buggers with our bodies for any length of time. I¡¯m honestly surprised our Honoris Causas didn¡¯t dissipate. Projecting a partially intangible spiritual dragon form to wrestle with, grapple, and push back plasma projectiles the size of a Boeing 747, was not on my to do list today. It¡¯s almost a miracle it worked at all. Whether that¡¯s due to their part ethereal nature, or some subset of draconic resistances against things I hadn¡¯t thought about, like plasma, or what, I have no idea.


    Still, we were split instants away from a seventy-five meter black hole that had a one fifty meter event horizon, which went nova out to about one point five kilometers. And that¡¯s before the other three plasma projectiles hit the forcefield. I couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of what happened from that point, other than the Orichalcum vaporizing after absorbing all that force. Regardless, we¡¯re going to need a supply pipeline to somehow get more of those Orichalcum force-redistributor fields out here, and a lot of luck. The only backup forcefield we have is one I¡¯m loathe to deploy.


    I inform Teuila, ¡°The only spare Orichalcum shield generator thing I¡¯ve got though, is one that Nala said will fail spectacularly, ie: explode.¡±


    Shrugging, Teuila lifts me by the hand and bashes my shoulder with hers playfully before responding, ¡°Yeah? Well, then we¡¯d just better fight hard enough to not need to use it. Easy peezy lemon squeezy Airhead.¡±


    Groaning and facepalming, I drag my hand down my face before muttering, ¡°I really, really, really wish you hadn¡¯t said that.¡±


    This of course prompts Te to cackle, which is followed by me rolling my eyes as my face droops in sheer dread. Thankfully, to distract me from my utter terror as my genre senses ring the clarion klaxon of dire warning, she plants a kiss on my lips that leaves me reeling. The smile that plasters itself across my face is probably pretty goofy looking.


    Vylon, Yui, and Yuri, are hustling about and prepping to receive the wave of foes charging our direction. I can sense that Boetah and Shaylon are a couple minutes out yet, being slower, what with them being rock dragons and all. Still, it¡¯ll be nice when our Shield and Aegis get here. Boetah¡¯s Latent, Shield, I want positioned further back, while Shaylon¡¯s Latent, Aegis, I want closer to the fore. Mostly so that I can snipe and intercept any spells that might actually pierce through Shaylon¡¯s near-immunity to lower tier magic.


    Checking in on them, they¡¯re lumbering or loping this way as quickly as they can, which is good and all, but I feel a bit bad that they¡¯re so much heavier and slower. I can tell Shaylon could get a bit faster, due to their serpentine nature, but Boetah¡¯s all bulk. I regret dragging Boetah away from Atter, during their conjugation time. Is he committed to staying at the front for the rest of the war? Or is he going to try to sprint back to Solace between waves, in order to keep¡­ mating. Bluh. Brain, maybe don¡¯t even try to figure that one out.


    The emotional wavelengths around me all send the equivalent of raised eyebrows my way telepathically, while I simply grimace and blush. C¡¯mon guys, maybe focus on the encroaching horde, instead of my stupid brain¡¯s random thought trains? Yeesh. You¡¯re one to talk Reggie. Oh shush. I know how easily I can get distracted. It¡¯s half of what I do. Hell, distractions make up half of my plans. Like, I don¡¯t mean like adding distracting enemies into plans is a part of fifty percent of my plans. I mean that my ADHD squirrel-brain logic leaping thought-train tracks brings me at least half of my random insights. Probably. I think. I dunno. Shut up. We¡¯ve got company incoming.


    That¡­ has to be about five thousand troops headed our way. Thankfully, they¡¯ve gotta funnel through a hundred twenty¡¯ish meter tunnel. But, between fliers, and packing shoulder to shoulder, the first wave that hits us will be nearly, uhh, math. Approximate area of a sixty meter radius thing, sixty squared is thirty six hundred, times pi, three point one four one five nine two, is about, ahhh eleven grand square meters? Divided by the bottom row taking up about a square meter per, all the way across, so a hundred twenty at ground level, along with, urgh the fliers take up way more space due to wingspan, and motion.


    There¡¯s much more space above ground level within the plasma-forged tunnel, but they can¡¯t pack in as well. Most of the fliers are dragons, so they¡¯re far, far larger than the humanoid sized troops on the ground, whether or not any of the grounded troops are human-form dragons. Still, say about ten to twelve across at each height segment. Hundred twenty down there, subtracts that from the square area, then the¡­ Argh, eleven height segments of flying space. Eleven times twelve plus a hundred twenty, around a quarter thousand of Terrorzin¡¯s forces simultaneously. Up to about two hundred fifty two.


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    Smirking at the numerical figures involved, shoving me aside, Vylon snarks, ¡°Is that all Schism? Catch your breath,¡± before he begins to grow into his nearly-full dragon form on this side of what¡¯s left of Wistenzlia Peak.


    Vylon¡¯s stance is unusual, and he¡¯s not even aimed up the tunnel towards the foes rushing our way. Rather, he appears to be breathing deeply and counting under his breath, slightly hidden around the corner from our foes, his right side up against Wistenzlia¡¯s rubble. Teuila makes as if to rocket up the tunnel into the fight, but I place my hand in front of her chest and motion for her to wait. I trust Vylon. He¡¯s one of our Queens, and his Latent is Rend. I don¡¯t know if Teuila¡¯s seen it in action yet. I haven¡¯t had a spare moment to see it in action, but I¡¯ve surmised approximately what the ability is.


    Sure enough, as the first wave of foes is getting within breath-weapon distance, Rend rushes from the north side of the rubble, keeping his right fore-claw extended, to the south-side, across the entrance of the tunnel bored through it by the plasma-ball. The space through which his claw tore¡ªWait, is that grammatically correct? Urgh, nevermind, not important. The space he tore through visually reads similarly to heat-mirage lines, faint waves in the air that distort vision. Realizing what¡¯s about to happen, and why Rend is once again around the corner from the opening, I lunge and drag Teuila with me, further away from the mouth of the tunnel.


    Sure enough, the stampede of foes essentially forces their first line into the perpetual rents in the air, ejecting viscera at stampede speed directly forward. Several fliers and a couple of lucky ground troops make it through spots that Vylon¡¯s Latent missed, but they¡¯re quickly crushed under the tidal wave of blood and gore and bodies of their fallen allies. Having accidentally created one, once or twice¡ªespecially memorable is the Mydraig the Hareslayer incident¡ªI¡¯d prefer to stay out of any ¡°splash zones.¡± Heh, I¡¯m sure the foes who made it through also wish and prefer they¡¯d been able to stay out of any ¡°splash zones.¡± I¡¯m sure they¡¯re not dead from that, but they¡¯re inconvenienced enough to be picked off by our robobuddies, without risking Nala and Littlebit¡¯s contraptions.


    Speaking of the clankers, apparently sensing opportunity, they begin sifting through the gore and corpses. As they find living foes, they¡¯re shanking the survivors of Terrorzin¡¯s forces first wave. Once again, brutal, but efficient. I snag one of the bots, and ask to be patched through to Nala and Littlebit once more on my goggles. Are¡­ are the security center team that¡¯s watching our scrying sensors eating popcorn? Where would they even get¡ªwell, I guess the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital shops might have popcorn. Rattling my skull, I have no words. I mean, it could be dragonbonemeal dumplings or something. I can¡¯t be certain it¡¯s popcorn. But they are snacking down as if watching a blockbuster action flick.


    Calling across the goggles audio scrying feed, I plead, ¡°Hey, Nala, Littlebit? Can you walk me through swapping one of your clankers over to sensory feedback and recording mode? Or whatever it is you felt it¡¯d be able to do, that might give us data on Terrorzin¡¯s aura if we happen to run into it. I¡¯ve got a feeling we¡¯ll be running into it sooner rather than later.¡±


    Chipper as ever, Littlebit responds, ¡°Sure thing Tiger, just uh, ignore the really erm, powerful vibrating uh, segment, and look for the unshielded positronics, like my ¡®Twixt sensors. You¡¯ll need to run a line from the positronics to the optics, and then down to the, oh, spoot. Do you have any paper on you? You¡¯re probably gonna want some form of output. I guess it could maybe be a thin sheet of a soft metal like aluminum or something too. Basically you¡¯ll ah, heh, tweak the vibrator to write out the analytics of the sensory feedback. Yeah?¡±


    While zapping the crap out of myself, trying to work around Littlebit¡¯s unshielded positronics in her clanker, I bite my lips and attempt to not roll my eyes. I also attempt to not imagine why she¡¯s dancing around talking about the vibratory element. Of course I fail miserably in my attempt to avoid thinking about it. The verdant virtuoso of inventing is a hellaciously salaciously cute flirt. And she¡¯d only recently reunited with Tiktik, only to immediately need to part from Tiktik to join our war effort. They¡¯re the loves of each other¡¯s lives.


    I¡¯m certainly not going to critique someone¡¯s, um, y¡¯know, whatever. Is it hot out here or is it just me? Phew. Reggie? Maybe don¡¯t try to figure out what Littlebit does with that. Blah shush! I wasn¡¯t trying to. I¡­ think. Eugh blrblrblrghle. Vylon glimpses my way, smug as hell, and I avert my gaze for a while. fanning myself and working on the clanker. My senses are acting up though, and it¡¯s not just from positronic shock. I read something off about my big ally.


    Glimpsing at Vylon, he¡¯s nursing his right shoulder, and I quirk my brows, raising them towards him, but he shrugs me off, declining to answer. After a few seconds, it¡¯s clear that the enemies aren¡¯t quite stupid enough to keep charging into a nearly invisible attack that rends them to shreds. Suddenly I feel a familiar tug on Rayileklia¡¯s leylines. A deep, strong pull, to the farthest reaches, the furthest rungs, the ninth tier of magic. My eyes glance about quickly, trying to ascertain if a meteor is being summoned atop us, but no, it¡¯s definitely not, because my eyes can¡¯t move.


    More than a little familiar with the magics involved in moving between moments, existing in the absence of time, my heart freezes. Or, well, it would, if it weren¡¯t already stopped from beating, within this paused moment. My Time skill from Can¡¯z¡¯aas can¡¯t exactly help me here, because I certainly don¡¯t have eight minutes to try to activate it while someone is abusing a stopped flow of time for everyone but them. I just, I need to figure out who cast it, where, and what they¡¯re up to in stopped time. I can¡¯t spy anyone though, or anything that would clue me in.


    In fact, absolutely nothing is moving. No dust particles settling, no rain drops splashing, nothing. Nothing is moving except for one ensorcelled foe, who blinks past Vylon¡¯s Rent space, and takes aim at Vylon. No. No no no. That, that¡¯s the beginning of a powerful word, a single word of power that, that¡­ No! Come on, come on Reggie. You¡¯ve got subtle-spell magical rigor according to Jarrah. Your mentor says you don¡¯t need to move, or speak, to cast your spells. You are one of few beings in existence who can perceive in stopped time.


    You can perceive, and you don¡¯t need to speak. Do it Reggie, counter this jerk¡¯s spell, do it! You have to! Please, please work! It feels like pressure squeezes my eyeballs from the insides, vacuuming my temples towards them. Despite the pain, I push harder. I know the rune sequence. I have the SP available. I can do this. So do it already! Please!

 B 6 C 235: Stop, Silty Soil Stomp

    Wait. Counterspell is the reactive portion of the dispellation magic. I can¡¯t react because it works like a stack of spells hitting the weave of Rayileklia¡¯s leylines in a certain order, and in paused time, there is no order. Friggin¡¯ hell, collectible cardgame rules are less complex than this, and that¡¯s saying a lot! Also, even if we could counter his spell here in stopped time, who¡¯s to say he doesn¡¯t have the juice to just cast it repeatedly? It¡¯s already nearly impossible to even perform one spell during someone else¡¯s timestop. Then, then, then what the eff can we do? Greater dispellation counters and dispels magic, but I can¡¯t even¡ª.


    Reggie. Mhm? Dispel the timestop. Holycrapyes! Same spell, same focus, same brain, same runes, just target the timestop, and dogpile the caster before he can get his power word off. Go, go go go go go! Urrgghh it feels like I¡¯m tearing part of my face through the frontal lobe of my brain and having an embolism simultaneously.


    Mentally reciting my titles, reaching deep into the void that comprises my true self, I plead with ¡°Nothing,¡± my Latent, to allow me to act within nothing, within the absence of time. To allow my willpower to manifest my spell in the absence of time without acting. To just do something, anything. More of a mantra to myself than anything else at this point, my brain recites over and over, ¡°I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an Archmage Aliased Schism, and I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa!¡±


    Suddenly my muscles spasm, as time begins to return to its normal flow, and my SP dumps a hundred thirty five into the dispellation of the stopped time. Instantly I¡¯m diving forward, launching holy halefire doublebarreled crossbow bolts, slinging cantrips, and breathing lightning towards the mage. To say that he¡¯s a bit spooked that not only has his timestop ended, but that someone already has a bead on him is an understatement. I conjure my telekinetic squares between his fingers, effing up his runecrafting mnemonic for the power word spell, essentially countering it without having to blow another hundred thirty five SP. The mage is sweating bullets now, even though all of my attacks are absorbed by some invisible field he¡¯s got protecting himself.


    Come on, come on, a little bit closer and we¡¯ll just be the slow blade penetrating the shield ourselves. Come¡ª. Oh come on! Coward! Where the hell did he blink off to? Glaring about, cranking my aura vision up to maximum, it seems like the trail leads back the way he came from. There¡¯s a stench of rotten eggs, sulfur I take it, in the air. He must have used some item to escape, being afraid that I¡¯d mess up or counter a teleportation spell. Mrgrgr. Vylon¡¯s got his breath held, and his breath-weapon charging, which is good in general, but if he¡¯d died, it might have exploded and taken us out. I¡¯d bark orders for a strategy to counter the caster¡¯s reappearance, but there¡¯re no orders I can give that¡¯d meaningfully help against someone that might just decide to stop time again if they¡¯ve got the juice for it.


    Instead, I grumble, ¡°We¡¯ve got at least one archmage on Terrorzin¡¯s side already in on the action. He stopped time, and was going to blow his timestop to kill Vylon with a power word. Generally, any action taken on a creature or object in a moment between moments, when paused by magic¡ªother than yourself¡ªresumes the flow of time. I guess he figured taking Vylon off the board would have been worth it. I¡¯m loathe to agree with the enemy, but that was a smart play.¡±


    When Vylon blinks in surprise and pats himself down, I know I owe him an explanation, ¡°I don¡¯t know if you know about my retrocognition. I can perceive in paused time. I used to be able to send messages backwards in time too, on my home world. Doesn¡¯t matter though. What matters is we¡¯re in the thick of it, and every moment is life and death. Yui, Yuri, do you have any abjurative magics that can ward off instant death magics? Any death wards I guess?¡±


    Thankfully, Ahliyuri responds, ¡°Aye, I¡¯ve got the ability to cast one, but only have the juice to lay down one in a given day. It lasts eight hours, sixteen if I prep right,¡± when I¡¯m about to ask Yuri to utilize his spell, he abashedly rubs the back of his helmet and continues, ¡°put it on Yui as soon as we met up.¡±


    Right, right, that makes sense. The twins love each other more than life itself. Ahliyui slugs her brother hard enough in the shoulder to knock him off balance so that he staggers back a step. While he¡¯s reeling, she whispers something in Draconic. I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯s berating him for not using the magic on himself. Same Yui, same. Putting it on you is loving and all, but if that leaves him vulnerable, and he gets taken off the board, then for the rest of the week of the war, there are no more death wards at all.


    As heartbreaking as it is, sometimes you have to prioritize your own surviv¡ª, ¡°Darn tootin¡¯ ¡®n¡¯ straight shootin¡¯ Airhead. You¡¯d better remember that thought you just had,¡± Teulia interrupts my thought, leaving me chagrined. I¡¯m certainly guilty of not prioritizing my own survival, quite a lot. Blushing fit to burn a hole as serious as that plasma-ball earlier, I offer a nervous chuckle, a half-grimacing grin, and awkward shrug to Teuila.


    Of course, Te sticks her tongue out and raspberries me, mostly letting me off the hook. Mostly. Her gaze still carries a dubious subtle undertone. I know Te, I know. We *all* need to make it through this war. Checking in with Vylon, he catches himself nursing his shoulder and abruptly stops as I turn my attention towards him. Frowning, I raise my brows towards him, but he shakes his head, shrugging it off.


    As Lil might say, Vylon, my dude, come on. It¡¯s mega serious, mega mega mega serious if you are injured by using your Latent. Snrk. Ah Lil, such a goober. I love him so much. Rattling my skull, I return my focus to the wave of foes that are now strategically working out the gaps in Vylon¡¯s Rend. Well, let¡¯s put a damper on their day, shall we Te?


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    Grinning at me, Teuila summons lightning to Mjolnir, as I draw it down from the Worldstorm with my cursed greaves from QCR number four. Ow. I really need to train that organ. Erm, my EM Field organ. Te, for crying out loud, you don¡¯t need to waggle your brows at the word organ. Pft. I can¡¯t help smiling, despite rolling my eyes at her antics. This body¡¯s still only like two or three days old or something. And unlike the form crafted together with everybody¡¯s help, all the muscles, and various organs, are brand new and barely fully developed. They¡¯re certainly not exercised to peak potential.


    Teuila and I virtually blow a hole in the front line of Terrorzin¡¯s onslaught, as we loose a combined lightning cascade together. Of course, human-form Blues, and any Bronzes¡ªthough I doubt there are any¡ªsurvive just fine, as well as some of the foes wearing enchanted armor. In fact, the human-form Blues, and blue kobolds, loose their breath weapons in our direction. I¡¯m pretty sure Teuila and I *both* roll our eyes as I draw their lightning attacks into a swirling sphere around me with my cursed greaves pulling inwards, while my EM field organ pushes outwards. With my organ¡ªoh knock it off you goobers, jeeze¡ªI coalesce the lightning into a floating orb next to me, and she bats it deep into the enemy horde like a baseball with Mjolnir when I doff the curse.


    This whole time, since the plasma balls, there¡¯s been this subtle rumble. And by that, I don¡¯t mean the constant boom of the Worldstorm¡¯s thunder. The vibration of the ground is pretty intense, but y¡¯just get kind of numb to it, when it¡¯s ceaseless like this. The encroaching horde pounding and plodding along their path to us is like its own unending mini-quake. Though this feels more intense than what I¡¯d imagine a couple thousand soldiers managing across combinations of muddy soil and displaced bedrock and other stone.


    There¡¯s something charging, dashing up the ranks of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, knocking them all aside. Somehow it continues, without being diced to bits, as it reaches Vylon¡¯s Rends. Disconcertingly, Vylon winces, and massages his right shoulder, bicep, and elbow. I knew it. I won¡¯t broadcast the cost of his Latent, but this creature pushing through it, we need to push back, before it breaks Vylon¡¯s arm. Thankfully, Teuila and I charged up for just such an occasion. She grins at me and chucks Mjolnir at this monstrosity¡¯s head, while I loose a spherical charge of lightning that I rotate around me once, twice, thrice, before slingshotting it into the horde.


    The beast soaking up Vylon¡¯s Rends is one of Terrorzin¡¯s necromantic chimaeric monstrosities, like the things in the ShizTinth Stronghold. Worse, despite me and Teuila going ham on it, it¡¯s still kicking, and making space for Terrorzin¡¯s horde to get through, somehow pushing Vylon¡¯s rent space out of the mouth of the tunnel. The sheer tenacity on this creature would be commendable, if, y¡¯know, it weren¡¯t a foe. Ahliyui and Ahliyuri, radiant and umbral Spellknights begin dueling the more well-armored foes making it out of the tunnel. I¡¯m glad they¡¯re taking swift action and downing foe after foe, sometimes on their own, sometimes back to back.


    Glancing at Vylon, I¡¯m about to ask him to rescind his Latent, when his right arm goes limp and the rent space fades away, allowing the beast the rest of the way through the tunnel, and opening a path for hundreds of Terrorzin¡¯s forces to swarm us at once. Getting a better look at the creature up close, it¡¯s like someone mixed the bones of a woolly mammoth with those of a sarcosuchus, or some other crocodilian. The thing barely fit up the hundred-odd meter tunnel, as that¡¯s it¡¯s approximate width.


    Tusks longer than Lil¡¯s wingspan jut out of this thing¡¯s enormous face, and every move it makes seems to loose tons of sand from its form. I¡¯d half guess it was simply animated sand, if it weren¡¯t for the tusks, the scales, the bone, and stony dorsal spines. Despite the lightning of the Worldstorm illuminating it only in flashes and bursts, it¡¯s easy to see its ochre, muddy brown palette. The thing¡¯s mostly the color of dirt, which doesn¡¯t help distinguish it from appearing to be covered in sand, silt, and soil.


    Vylon, on the south side of this east-rushing creature, grips the thing by its right tusk that juts from its lower mandible, but he winces, lacking leverage due to the pain in his own right arm. His left arm is locked about the tusk, keeping the creature from advancing any further though, due to his enormitude and strength. Also, despite possibly aching, he¡¯s blasting flame down its face and into the tunnel, where Terrorzin¡¯s forces scatter in fear of the blaze. One of the eldest Golds on the planet? Yeah, even I don¡¯t want to stand in his fire for too long. It¡¯s almost strange to think that some of Terrorzin¡¯s horde still have survival instincts, when they¡¯re literally marching with the intent to raze the world.


    Oddly as well, the creature seems barely fazed by Vylon¡¯s blaze up close in its face. Parts of its dorsal ridge get glassed, proving that there are plenty of silicates clinging to its body, as if it were recently unearthed, like some terrifyingly gargantuan fossil. The rumble that I¡¯d assumed was stronger due to the creature¡¯s approach still continues, despite Vylon having it locked down. So I guess I was wrong to attribute it to the charge of this thing.


    Could Terrorzin¡¯s necromancers just randomly target anywhere, and pull up some long-lost skeleton creature like this? That seems a bit far-fetched, even with what I know magic¡¯s capable of. Plus, I¡¯m fairly certain this thing still has skin and scales. Well, more than fairly certain, I¡¯m positive, because I can see them more and more the more sand is glassed along its body, or falls off its hide.


    I see this mammoth-gator, this silt-odilian¡ªnow that it¡¯s up close¡ªthat it waddles rather than runs, because its limbs are sorta flipper-like. Hey Reggie, hey Reggie. Mhm? What do most of the creatures in the ShizTinth stronghold have in common? Uh, I dunno, they were such disparate things, I guess for the most part, there were¡ªthere were two or more of them, I interrupt myself to answer myself. Like I¡¯d surmised earlier, my brain has yet to come up with the stupidest thing it¡¯s going to think all day. It just keeps raising the bar. Shaking my head at myself, I sigh while rolling my eyes. My brow quirks towards the bot I¡¯d repurposed, which is settled in its position like a combination seismograph and geophone. This creature looks like it¡¯s made for water rather than for land. Or¡­


    Shouting, I leap skyward while dragging Yui and Yuri, and two bots into the air with my telekinesis, ¡°Everybody off the ground now!¡±

 B 6 C 236: Chaos Overwatch

    Thankfully, I¡¯ve earned Vylon¡¯s trust over these past few weeks. At my behest, he thrusts downwards with all his might, plowing the tusk of the silt-odilian into the ground, preventing its forward momentum, and he begins shapeshifting into his human form, retaining his wings. Helping him out, I telekinetically toss one of the bots, juggling it, while I grip him and toss him up higher as his shapeshifting form finalizes. During that moment, I take a deep breath, hold it for the featherfall enchantment, and leap off the bot that I¡¯m juggling with telekinesis, then proceed to drag everyone further skyward, skirting the area where we¡¯d draw the Worldstorm¡¯s lightning.


    As I do, where Vylon¡¯d just been standing, a second silt-odilian rises from the soil or subsoil, as if swimming through the land. As it rises in the only path it can, its skull is scraped along the tusk of the first creature, loosing a terrible, grating, bone-grinding cacophony. The path it had occupied under the tunnel, which it must have swam beneath on the way to us, now sprouts fissures, and sinkholes.


    Terrorzin¡¯s horde is a chaotic array of opportunistic scrabblers taking advantage of the additional space in order to crawl past and move ahead of their allies, and cautious troops navigating around these new hazards. The two creatures lock tusks, headbutting each other, loosing a jarring titanic crash, coupled with a snap, as the aboveground beast¡¯s right tusk is severed from the impact.


    Sadly, all the bots that¡¯d been with us, save the two I tossed into the air, are now scrap, either from the upwards plunge, or the creature sweeping wide side to side with its tusks. The second, slightly-injured silt-odilian snaps its jaws at anything that scrabbles or bowls over the sides of its tusks towards its maw, destroying any hope of any of the bots even partially surviving. On the plus side, it did manage to weaken its brethren, and take out a few dozen of Terrorzin¡¯s own troops.


    Like Kinzul¡¯d said, as the war rages on, Terrorzin¡¯s going to care less and less about friendly-fire. His whole goal is killing everything and everyone on the planet anyway. Anyway, I need to figure out if this thing is actually necromantically animated or not. Firing holy halefire crossbow bolts at the one that just surfaced, it seems unfortunately not. Are these things native to Rayileklia, or are they one of Terrorzin¡¯s chimaeric creations? I¡¯m betting the latter. Oh, crap.


    The newer of the two silt-odilians rears, snapping towards us, just missing knocking several of us out of the sky with its tusks. When it lands, its bulk shakes the canyon momentarily before it settles onto its belly and begins undulating away to the east at a rapid waddle. Crap, half the reason we¡¯re here is to stall *anything* from getting past us, let alone living siege weapons.


    Knowing what¡¯s on the line, Vylon nods my way. I release him from my telekinetic grip supporting him aloft, so he glides swiftly after the monstrosity running along the valley to land atop it. In an instant, Vylon¡¯s resuming his full draconic form. Even better, Shield and Aegis, that is Boetah and Shaylon, have arrived, and both hunker down in front of the beast. When their Latents activate, their stony hides become nearly impenetrable.


    The charging silt-odilian shatters its massive tusks on the two rock dragons, as Vylon slams down upon its cranium repeatedly, cracking its skull. He¡¯s charging his breath weapon again, and probably going to cook that beast¡¯s brains any minute now. I can¡¯t focus on that though, as I¡¯ve still got one to deal with over here, with Teuila, Yui, and Yuri.


    Though one of its tusks is broken, the monster we¡¯ve got to deal with doesn¡¯t seem any less fierce. If anything, it¡¯s simply more pissed off, and rampaging harder as it flops about the canyon, stomping and thrashing side to side. Plinking it with a few cantrips and holy halefire crossbow bolts doesn¡¯t seem to even get it to notice me. It¡¯s just blindly¡ªit¡¯s blind. It¡¯s a subsoil dweller. It senses through vibrations like some sort of mole or something. An enormous, hateful, reptilian, tusked mole, but a mole nonetheless. I wonder if these things are the apex predators of the ¡®Neath. If they are native to Rayileklia after all. Speaking of, look who¡¯s come to play Te. Only don¡¯t look, because I really don¡¯t need you getting whammied with a confusion aura right now.


    Rayileklian albino mite-hulks pour forth from some crevices caused by the wild thrashing and charging of the two monstrosities. It seems they¡¯re plenty agitated by the walking disaster-movie stomping atop their home. Glancing at Yui and Yuri, I check to make certain they¡¯ve got their helmets¡¯ visors closed, and they do, so I lower them carefully down towards the canyon floor slightly. Doing what I can to bring them in range based on their subtle tells, leans, muscle tenses, and other signals, I levitate them about with my TK grips. They both have some manner of devilish sight-like senses, that allow them to see even in magically pitch-black space. So, like me and Te, with our danger-weapon silent sonar senses, they don¡¯t need to actually see in order to fight.


    This works out a fair bit in our favor. With Vylon off to the east, he can¡¯t get hit by the confusion whammy, as he works with Shield and Aegis to take down that silt-odilian. The four of us can simply annoy and direct mite-hulks back westward, into Terrorzin¡¯s forces¡¯ ranks, as they harry and harass everything stomping and charging about, while we remain aloft, not creating any ground vibrations. Glancing at Teuila, she¡¯s probably got the same idea I do, so, while I¡¯d love to remain in telepathic contact, I have to make sure my mind-blanking psychic-blocking enchantment is in place. We know there¡¯s at least one archmage out there, probably gunning for me now that it knows I can counter some of its most powerful abilities. Best to not risk getting taken out of the fight with a single psychic blast or any mental domination or anything stupid like that.


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    Calling to Ahliyui and Ahliyuri, I query, ¡°You two have your conjuration abilities for the day available still? Want to sow some ultra-chaos with ¡®em?¡±


    Just feeling them smirk beneath their helmets with my silent sonar is confirmation enough for me, even before they respond. When Ahliyuri summons a radiant triceratops in midair, which crashes face-down into the back of the silt-odilian, spearing its spine with a resounding CRACK. The thing¡¯s thrashing is suddenly about half as ferocious as it was a few seconds go. Further, Ahliyui summons an umbral rex midair, letting it fall feet-first onto the monster¡¯s face. The two conjured dinosaurs loose respective elemental breath weapons, one a radiation blast, the other a shadowy inky breath, into the silt-odilian. They work together while wrestling to direct it westward, fighting, nudging, and spinning it, disorienting it, and sending it packing back into the ranks of Terrorzin¡¯s forces.


    The absolute chaos and carnage beneath us is¡ªI lean swiftly to my right as a disintegration beam passes by my face. Well, some of the magical might in Terrorzin¡¯s forces are either keeping their heads, or their confusion-addled brains are having them sling spells randomly. Neither is great for us. Fishing out a pair of Valkyrie bucklers from an interdimensional pack, I toss them towards Yui and Yuri.


    While I can tell they raise their scaled brows beneath their helmets, I just mutter, ¡°I know you guys can fight Florentine, akimbo, and two handed, but they¡¯re slinging disintegrates around again. Better a shield we can dupe than any part of you or the armor your sibling crafted for you.¡±


    They don¡¯t argue, as they don the shields on their non-dominant forearms. Still, I wonder why Terrorzin didn¡¯t use these land-leviathans or the plasma-balls earlier. Were they just so far at the rear of his troops, that it took this long to get them in position to fire, or to the fore? Or, more likely, was he saving them for when we showed up, knowing we¡¯d be back to defend the pass. Or even¡­ me in particular? Still, I wish our reinforcements and big guns weren¡¯t so temporary compared to his. Yui and Yuri¡¯s dino conjurations only last sixty seconds¡ªhm, sixty six apparently. They must have leveled up in some fashion or another in the last few days.


    There they go, poofing into the ether. Still, great positioning, summoning, intent, and power you two. Not that you can hear my brain right now with my psychic aegis circlet in place. Still, I flash the twins a proud look. I¡¯m not certain if they can sense details in things like facial features with their blindsight or devilish sight. Using my telekinetic grips, I let them surf and soar about the sky, repositioning themselves to take on flying foes, responding to their subtlest muscle movements in order to direct them where they hint that they want to be.


    Keeping the bots out of harms way is proving to be a full-time job, and thankfully it¡¯s one that Teuila¡¯s helping me with, by batting enemies out of the air, back into their own comrades. She grins cheekily at me, and bobs her head side to side, when she sees me noticing her work. I can¡¯t help smiling at her and flicking my head ever-so-slightly upwards towards her in acknowledgement. Way to go Te. Oo nice shot. That has got to smart. The more foes that try to make their way around and over the rampaging silt-odilian, the more that end up battered down to its back, weighing it down, as Te, Yui, and Yuri strike them out of the sky.


    We¡¯re trying to conserve resources, because we¡¯re going to be at this for hours on end, but I notice the faintest slowing of swings, muscle twitches that tell of building lactic-acid, and sweat pouring off of everyone¡¯s brows. We¡¯re not made of limitless endurance. No matter how hard we try to be. The twins notice me making note of their conditions, so I nod towards them. It¡¯s time to start pouring on the hurt, using up daily-use abilities, SP, and other tricks, to push back on the horde a bit, as they¡¯re overcoming the mite-hulks, and the silt-odilian.


    Teuila crashes down upon the mammoth-mammoth-crocodile¡­ yes I heard the mental redundant redundancy. Ugh, my brain. I mean the absolutely ridiculously huge mammoth-croc thing I¡¯ve been calling a silt-odilian. She really brings the hammer down, literally, as she rockets downwards out of the sky Mjolnir-first. Her dive aims right into the back of the thing¡¯s skull, driving it facefirst forward into the ground with a resounding crack louder than the thunder of the Worldstorm. The thing still isn¡¯t going down. But from her perch, Teuila begins to really wreak havoc with the abilities I¡¯d granted everyone back when we saved Prinrin from the necromantic blight.


    Passing a breath through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I try to keep note of every bit of the action, on every corner of the battlefield, like I¡¯m some skyborne overwatch. Well, I guess I am, technically. Teuila is going ham on the skull of the silt-odilian, much like Vylon is from the back of the beast he¡¯s engaging. Shaylon and Boetah have abandoned their Shield and Aegis stoic unmoving forms, in order to suplex the silt-odilian, aiding Vylon in caving in its skull, albeit slowly.


    Yui and Yuri pick out high-value targets, generally elite Spellknights, like themselves, and urge my telekinetic grips to glide them into the fray. It¡¯s a whole other level of focus, responding to their intricate movements, their amazing, excellent swordsmanship, in order to provide them with the aerial movements they need to best their foes swiftly. My brain feels like it¡¯s firing five ways from Sunday simultaneously.


    Hell, it sort of is. Four telekinetic grips juggling me, two bots, and two elite Spellknights, me plinking cantrips and crossbow bolts at anything that moves into range that ignores the carnage and makes progress eastward, and tracking everyone¡¯s expendable resources. We, or perhaps our foes, are chaos incarnate. One way or another, the mess of entanglements, engagements, destructive abilities, and intimate duels going on feels like too much to manage in order to keep track of.


    Thankfully, I¡¯ve got a team just for that. Tapping my goggles, I get the scrying security center to open up the audio feed between my goggles¡¯ scrying sensors, and them. They direct my attention to a squad moving with purpose through the ranks of Terrorzin¡¯s forces, ignoring their confused allies, the mite-hulks, and even the silt-odilian. That¡¯s the exact sort of thing I needed them to watch out for. I nod my thanks to the security team, and dive into the  fray.

 B 6 C 237: First Fright I Fight Tonight

    Hm, did I ever mention I was never trained to fight? Yeah that¡¯s a fact that¡¯s probably going to become more and more evident over the course of this last segment of the war. Thank spoot for my danger-wraps silent sonar senses guiding me. I feel like I¡¯m moonwalking and pirouetting between spells, breath weapons, and swipes of claws, spears, and swords. Hell, I am. I literally am. This reminds me of the Fata Morgana, in the Temple of Time. When future me somehow prompted me to move in the order of the Konami-code in order to dodge and make it through the monsterrific copies of me.


    The foes I¡¯m facing snarl and sneer at me, cockily sure of themselves. I can see them preemptively beginning to cast the counteractive portion of the greater dispellation spell. I giggle a moment which turns into a full-on cackle as I unleash a cone of cold boosted by an empowered non-spelliform frost rune in all of their faces. The internal backlash is surreal, since for the most part, I don¡¯t feel thermal fluctuations, so the fact that my guts ice over with a crackling frost that grows further and further through my body is intense. Blurgh, I think I take somewhere between a hundred and a thousand damage when empowering a non-spelliform elemental rune. Crap on a cracker that is painful.


    Good thing you¡¯ve got around five K health, eh Reggie? Sure. Still blurgh though. Oh, wait. No wonder Jarrah was impressed when I empowered the cold rune. Most creatures on Rayileklia, even the toughest, generally have less than a grand in health total. Holy crap. Archmages on Rayileklia would die if they tried to do what I do, bending rules and empowering non-spelliform elemental runes. Another reason it¡¯s no wonder that Jarrah thought of me like a spoiled child when they found the ranges of my powers. Sighing, I rattle my skull.


    I was petulant in a way, but it was because I was chasing magic and powers in order to try to break Dawn¡¯s curse before she was taken from us, erased by magic. And even still, despite how hard I chased that power, I still failed. She was atomized in my arms, pleading with me to stay with her til the very end. The only thing I managed to save was just enough of her soul that memories of her weren¡¯t erased from time.


    Anyway, I shrug at the disbelieving or terror-stricken faces of the foes who¡¯re encased in ice, some of whom may or may no longer be living. Sorry guys ¡®n¡¯ gals ¡®n¡¯ whatever else Terrorzin has. My spells have subtle-spell metamagical rigor as Jarrah puts it. Y¡¯can¡¯t counter what you can¡¯t sense being cast. That¡¯s the one plus-side to me not being able to use a Rayileklian mnemonic.


    Though, that makes me keenly aware that if there are any archmages with Sorcerous Potential along the lines of mine, I¡¯ve got to be leery that they might subtly drop some heavy magical nukes. Actually, hm. With my attunement to Rayileklia¡¯s interwoven leylines, and the frosty Fel, I can feel when spells are beginning to be woven, period. If I target that, if I feel like it¡¯s something that needs to be acted against, I should be able to dispel or counter it in-action. As long as I have enough SP to empower, quicken, and cast the greater dispellation magic at least, whether or not they attempt to put subtle-spell metamagical rigor into it. I guess I¡¯d better just pay extra-close attention to the magic of the realm.


    Since my insides are frosting over, having used an empowered non-spelliform frost rune, I empower a non-spelliform fire room, to counterbalance it. Phooph, I virtually vibrate with the intensity of the various focuses I¡¯m spreading my brain across as I¡¯m utilizing that rune to bolster summoning FFS once more to this side of the veil. The hit to my health pool is this visceral twisting of my nonexistent innards. My Frostfire Salamanderian ally bursts forth into our realm, loosing walls of fire across the battlefield, complicating the approach of Terrorzin¡¯s landbound forces. The ones that aren¡¯t immune to fire at least. Though the ones that are still have to contend with me glaciating small sections of the combat field. Anyway, thanks friend, I wave a two-fingered salute at Frostfire Salamanderian.


    When the further silt-odilian roils, thrashes, and spasms in its death-throes, I breathe a mild sigh of relief. Whew, some small comfort knowing that Boetah, Shaylon, and Vylon are freed up to meet the front line of the assault head-on. Utilizing something like semaphore, I direct Shaylon towards the furthest northwest point that I want covered by Aegis, and Boetah south of me, where I want Shield emplaced. Boetah balls up, and Shaylon serpentinely wraps around him, before spinning like unleashing a top, launching Boetah into the fray like a whirling rock cannonball.


    They¡¯re virtually playing tenpins with Terrorzin¡¯s horde, striking down a small squad with the maneuver. A gaggle of kobolds is flattened along Boetah¡¯s trajectory towards the position he¡¯ll hold. Further, half a dozen Draconiac Spellknights, and a couple of human-form young-adult dragons are knocked aside like, well, bowling pins. As his whirling slows towards a halt, Boetah extends his forelimbs, gripping the foes who¡¯d only been knocked down, and he smashes their skulls together in a brutal display of strength. With his gentle-giant attitude at Solace, it¡¯s a pretty vivid reminder that he¡¯s one of the best combatants in the realm.


    Teuila¡¯s dropping her slowing fields on forces she senses might be dangerous to let act freely during moments she¡¯s got to focus her firepower elsewhere, and I¡¯m doing the same. We¡¯re burning through our daily-use abilities, and somehow simultaneously making headway, yet seeming like we¡¯re about to lose ground, massively. I think it¡¯s my genre senses telling me Terrorzin¡¯s about to send in something souped-up for the next wave. Phooph. Uggggh. Why¡¯d I have to be right?


    Backflipping out of the way of some sort of crystal-spine barrage, I take to the air once more, continuing to juggle everyone who needs to remain airborne until this silt-odilian finally kicks it. The strangest porcupine-faced crystal-quilled wyvern chases me about the skies while I get a read on the situation. Five, six, no, seven ancients, each of different elements, each with fully-charged breath-weapons, each as large as the expanded-yet-collapsing tunnel will allow come barreling onto the battlefield. My allies are locked down in a mix of dragonfrights of different signals from different types of dragons, signals I don¡¯t know how to nullify instantaneously due to their varying types.


    My mind is reeling momentarily as I try to figure out how to keep everyone from getting fried, blasted, melted, blown up, or trounced. The fact that even Vylon, Shaylon, and Boetah are frozen in their tracks, petrified by the dragonfright presence, means that these ancients are on par with our absolute best. That¡¯s something I still can¡¯t contend with easily. Similarly to Al¡¯pa¡¯ca, or the Damnations, I don¡¯t have the offenses to down such behemoths in short order.


    The Red¡¯s fire melts the stone of the tunnel and surrounding south-side of the canyon walls. On the opposite side, to the north, the Ice¡¯s breath pulls a ¡°me¡± and glaciates everything in its path. The Acid in the middle spews forth alternating jets and cones of sulfurous scented fluids that steam and sizzle, melting and crumbling stone and corpses in their path. The crackle, hiss, burble, and spit of the acid boiling away midair or after contacting lava created by the flames is its own hellish cacophony. The roar of the flame contends with the ever-roaring thunder of the Worldstorm.


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    Seeing Teuila frozen atop the skull of the dazed silt-odilian, my heart simultaneously catches in my throat, and beats like slamming a drum to the most frenetic rhythm. My pulse pounds up into my ears, semi-deafening me from the inside. Shortly to be replaced with my tinnitus screaming to the fore. The Poison along the south edge, next to the Fire, looses bursts of gas that are ignited, sending explosive shockwaves across the field, scattering bodies and further destroying our chokepoint. The combinations of melting, burning, and exploding minerals and chemicals leaves the foulest, most acrid scent wafting about the air.


    Originally, our only light in this valley came in brief bursts, flashes of lightning from the Worldstorm, or the occasional spellwork. Now the red-hot glow of molten stone running in rivulets along the south side of our staging-grounds illuminates everything in an eerie orange¡¯ish undertone.


    The Lightning next to the Ice looses blasting chains of electrical energy that dance along the still-forming ice-crystal structures, shattering some of them, melting and hydrolyzing the frost, and aerosolizing portions of the jets of acid. That makes for a dangerous combo. The worst though, the worst is a Sand, whose animate breath-weapon coalesces like a silicate dervish seeking out our allies, and I know it¡¯s going to try to work its way into their lungs, suffocating and strangling them. That is the breath weapon I¡¯m most worried about, and the one I absolutely have to counteract ay to the ess to the ay to the pee.


    As the breath weapons begin coalescing, in a much more focused synergy, with far-better teamwork than the snarling horde, my eyes go wide in worry for my friends as I dash to intercept them. When the breath weapons curve around me, I fumble midair momentarily and blink stupidly. Oh, right. Shield and Aegis. Both of their Latents attract breath weapons, and their stony hides handle them with near-perfect durability whenever they¡¯re unmoving for long enough.


    Pft. I can¡¯t help snorting with laughter a bit. I mean, I had planned to utilize that benefit, but I panicked a bit there with worry for my loved ones, my family. Still, they hadn¡¯t had long in their unmoving states to build up their durability for their Latent-empowered protection. So their hides are *not* looking as impervious as one would hope, especially after intercepting such powerful blasts. Their stony, craggy flesh will not fill out as well over the course of the day if they keep getting pelted and pummeled before they¡¯ve gotten chances to stay still long enough. Wait, how many of the ancients loosed their breath weapons? Was that only six? Is one of them holding theirs in reserve? In this battle of attrition, we¡¯re losing ground on all levels.


    Worse, all of my allies are still unmoving, including FFS, who gets pulverized, and dissipates back to the elemental spirit realm. Grr, I just paid the SP cost from Cla¨ªomh Solais to bring them here. At least most of the horde is inconvenienced by the dragonfright, and slash or simply by the size of the ancients as this septuplet spread out and barrel past the lip of the tunnel to take their largest forms. I really, really wish I knew the meteor spell, and that it was castable within a reasonable number of runes slash SP. What the hell can I even¡ª.


    A familiar sound echoes along the canyon walls, but, not from the west. No, not from our foes at all. Rather, the sound is a near-mournful howl that permeates the air coming from the east. It¡¯s the baying of a hound who¡¯s feeling left-out. The baying that comes from far to my east sends a nearly evil grin spreading across the left half of my face.


    That sound? That¡¯s my son, Lucky. Lucky, who borrowed armor pieces from Triorgraiz¡¯s mount Fennel when we were assaulting Vorzhog¡¯s Keep. A keep that was replete with far more enchanted equipment than anything we¡¯d yet run across in the war before that point. Lucky commandeered that armor when someone broke a ceasefire, as a bit of recompense. Armor pieces that produce an aura of fright-immunity around the wearer, in a radius. Lucky, my shapechanging hound son who can become as large as or larger than ancient dragons.


    Over the goggles, I can hear Aktixas¡¯s hard-vowel accent commenting, ¡°Figured you could use the backup, Schism. Hunter and Sun are on their way, along with the Thunderer, and some Spellknights.¡±


    Biting my lips, I mutter carefully, as quietly as I can into the goggles, ¡°Make sure everyone coming as backup knows to stick near Lucky. He¡¯s got some armor that offers protection from a few things¡­ for everyone around him. Thanks for bringing me up to speed. Schism about to do something stupid, over and out.¡±


    Loosing a silent sigh of relief internally, I glance through my scrying sensors towards those perched in the security center. I can see Lucky¡¯s view skating smoothly this direction, as he hovers speedily using the boots he¡¯d looted from Adkre. Nice. If those still have charge in them, Lucky can get a barrier up for us to buy us a few moments to regroup. I wonder if the barrier is a set size, or if it¡¯s based on the size of the boots at the time of their use? Because the magic items shift with Lucky, and Lucky will be friggin¡¯ enormous. I¡¯m so proud of my son, Lucky, Hunter, Hound of the Onyx Dawn.


    Similarly, seeing Lil rocketing this way at a glide near Worldstorm level, skirting lightning-strikes in order to get to us in time to help out is heartening. I think Lucky¡¯s carrying a few Spellknights, and Lil might be carrying Shiz, or some others. It¡¯ll be good to have backup arriving synchronized, rather than spaced out at different travel speeds. It¡¯s a bit humorous to see Lil blowing a thin stream of fire beneath him, shaping it with his salamander gauntlets, both expelling it behind him like a thruster, and using the updraft to speed his glide. He¡¯s getting more resourceful. I¡¯m so proud of my Lil buddy. Sun, Star of the Onyx Dawn.


    I¡¯ve still got to buy a few minutes as Lucky and Lil arrive from the east, like some sort of cavalry. I cannot have this ancient Sand¡¯s breath strangling and suffocating those I love, worming its way into their lungs and scouring or bursting them from within. Loosing some fire, and redirecting several flames, into the path of the sand dervish that is the animate breath weapon, I breathe a mild sigh of relief when the sand particles are glassed, and settle down, falling to the ground. Still, we¡¯ve got to keep it from charging up and breathing again.


    I can¡¯t help beaming my wicked smile into the eyes of the first foe I fly into the face of, startling the ancient Sand, who opens their mouth wider, surprised that I can move through dragonfright. They lash out, their maw diving forward as they attempt to chomp me. Nah fam, this is where I¡¯m safest and strongest. In the belly of the beast. Well, their throat.


    It¡¯s surprisingly moist in here, considering this foe of mine exhales dry silicates. Similarly, it¡¯s surprisingly not the most horrendous stench. It smells like, hm, limestone along the edge of a desert. Slightly acrid, earthy, but not truly pungent. I¡¯m trying to keep Ahliyui, Ahliyuri, and the two bots levitated with my telekinesis, outside and above the skulls of the ancients, without any visual or sensory lock on them whatsoever. Thankfully TK itself offers some feedback as to objects within its reach, and the frozen Spellknights, and two bots, are objects within reach.


    What time is it Reggie? Time to light ¡®em up up up! Drawing Frostburn, I slash and dash along the inside of the ancient Sand¡¯s throat, aiming to open up its sinus cavities and as much of its mucous membranes as possible, ruining its desire to exhale more silicates. Moreover, I¡¯m hoping to gain a bit of nearness to its brain for my spell as I call out, ¡°GSE Balefire!¡±

 B 6 C 238: Foot Meet Mouth

    Suddenly, over the goggles, I hear Iylynila¡¯s voice harshly requesting, ¡°Can you *please* not do that!? I nearly had a heart-attack you crimson gremlin smurf-ass ass. I know, I know, you¡¯re immune to almost everything, but jumping into ancients¡¯ mouths without your Honoris Causa up is nerve-wracking as hell! Stupid crimson munchkin gremlin goblin smurf-ass ass.¡±


    Snorting a laugh as black fire washes out and around me, engulfing me, I try to maintain my composure. My semi-illusory spell absolutely fills this ancient Sand¡¯s throat, and penetrates its membranes and sinuses. I shake my head ruefully. Really Illy? You want my mental walls up, but you get patched in to tease and berate me for my combat tactics, mid-fight? I can¡¯t help chuckling.


    The shadow-substance that makes up a greater-shadowy evocation feels like warm jelly as I move through it. It¡¯s a sensation that¡¯s a bit odd, but that¡¯s how the spell works, being a semi-illusory copy of other spells. Those who know it¡¯s an illusion are unharmed by it. Those who fail to realize it¡¯s an illusion? Are quite harmed by it. Thankfully, the ancient Sand¡¯s throat rattles in a screaming howl of pain, its flesh blistering and drying out from within. I sidestep the plasma, or pus, that spurts forth from the bursting blisters. Eugh.


    Continuing, Illy chews me out further, ¡°You just, ugh, you ass. Utterly asstastic ass. There were those giant bright ball attacks a bit ago. You and Tenith both were completely crazed lunatics, grappling them and pushing on them! Now some high-commanders are out there, have your crew locked down with dragon-fright, and you¡¯re jumping into one of them as smoothly as you jumped into bed with me!¡±


    Grimacing, and blushing, I hesitantly remind her, ¡°Illy, uhh, our connection isn¡¯t private. The security team has to be patched through to get the audio feeds from one scrying sensor to another. Erm. Sorry.¡±


    The incredibly robust string of profanity¡ªmostly the word ass used in creative fashions over and over and over¡ªthat comes across the goggle¡¯s auditory scrying feed has me giggling like a maniac within this infernal blaze that¡¯s consuming the ancient Sand from within. Still, I¡¯m mortified and blushing fit to weld titanium in here, and just grateful no one can hear my thoughts, or see me the color of tomatoes. Phew, thinking about leaping into bed with Illy, erm, not thinking about doing it, I mean, not not thinking about not doing it. Ugh, what I mean is, recalling the time we, err, had intimate moments, has me sweating so hard that I¡¯m dehydrated, totally parched, and has thrown off my breathing, and heart rate.


    Still, the tirade from Illy continues, ¡°I was going to hit up and take down some of the high-commanders, but was waiting for an opportunity so that I didn¡¯t need to waste dragonforce countering and resisting their dragonfright.¡± Her voice takes on a sarcastic lilt, ¡°But noooo, someone, some asstastic crimson smurf-ass ass has to go and ring the dinnerbell by pissing Terrorzin off so much that he throws a few of his top generals at your ass! And what¡¯s with Vylon? He could be resisting, instead of sandbagging, waiting for you to take care of it.¡± Suddenly switching to addressing those watching the scrying feeds back at Solace, Illy snips, ¡°Don¡¯t you guys in the Eight at the security center dare tell him I said that! That means you Aaront, Prent, and Elshon!¡±


    Starting off strong, Iylynila returns her attention to me, ¡°Schism, I swear to Mother, if you get hurt, I¡¯m going to, I¡¯m gonna¡­,¡± but her conviction wavers and her voice fades into a mumble


    When she trails off, I respond quietly, ¡°I¡­ love you too Illy. Disengage your stealth mission and come home safe, when you can. Okay? Your Dormies need you too. Farzhis and Veril should be able to handle more, with you at their side, and someone has to rein in Induul¡¯s constant going off-grid.¡±


    Grumbling, Iylynila finishes, ¡°Oh you, you, you little gremlin! I hate that I love your stupid-ass ass so much. I¡¯m, I¡¯m, I¡¯ll, argh! Just¡­ just win this thing. Alright? Illy over and out.¡±


    Sighing, I try to corral my thoughts and emotions. Being chastised by my once-paramour now daughter-in-law over open-comms is, well, it¡¯d be flustering at the best of times. Being inside an ancient Sand whose breath weapon threatens a significant handful of people I love and care about, is not the best of times. Also, having Illy confirm that we¡¯ve bedded together, in that way, fully audibly for everyone in the Strategists Eight to hear? Nightmare levels of mortification.


    I mean, dragons and fae and stuff don¡¯t really care who knows what about their, erm, romantic escapades, for the most part. But I have those dang buggy Fakeworld memory frameworks. Human-style embarrassment and stuff. Blarghydoodle. Reggie? Mhm? Maybe try to focus on the fight? I would, but my senses are overloading. Y¡¯know how burning hair and flesh usually smell pretty terrible? Apparently burning moist reptile-meat smells pretty freakin¡¯ delicious. I¡¯m *almost*, *almost* tempted to sneak a nibble inside here. If we win this engagement though, I¡¯ll be scarfing down the hearts of these ancients.


    This thing isn¡¯t dying, despite your best offensive spell cooking it from the inside in a pretty hardcore fashion. Phooph, yeah, but maybe we can at least ruin its breath weapon organ. Pausing, I side-eye the darkness, glad momentarily that I¡¯ve got my psychic-aegis circlet on blocking out telepathy and other psy-magic. I really don¡¯t need¡ª.


    Interrupting me, a voice from my goggles¡ªone I can¡¯t place in this echoing screaming throat¡ªbegins explaining, ¡°Schism, between several scouts¡¯ reports, and what Illy¡¯d observed during her covert operations, we gather that those giant energy orbs have something to do with being produced by way of burning out Terrorzin¡¯s mates. That is, his broodmothers as he refers to them. We can¡¯t be certain how many he has, but such tactics are limited fortunately. I believe this burnout slays them, or leaves them soulless, catatonic, comatose.¡±


    Blinking rapidly, that¡¯s pertinent enough information to drag my concentration and focus back to the battle and the overall war effort. It¡¯s insidious of Terrorzin, and sickens me to my stomach. The¡­ the candle? Burning souls? That sounds so famil¡ªArgh! My skull! Blood washes across my vision as something bursts inside my cranium. I tumble further into the ancient Sand¡¯s throat. F-fudge. Ow. Okay. Mystery for some other time apparently. Holy friggin¡¯ crap. Really don¡¯t need that mid-battle, brain. Alright? Lay off. Friggin¡¯ ow.


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    Huffing and puffing, I stagger about inside the ancient Sand¡¯s throat, and it works its torched esophagus overtime to try to swallow me. Urgh, ow. Vice-grip of doom here. Really, really wish I hadn¡¯t had my brain explode mid-thought while still inside this baddie while they¡¯re still alive. Alright, alright, calm down Reggie. Owwww. Kinda hard. Take a deep breath. Urghk. Even harder. You¡¯ve got the neckchain of the everbreathing on. As far as I know, you could breathe even if your lungs collapse. In fact, they have, and you did. Your right lung is punctured again, even right now, because this squeezing fractured your stupid right ribs.


    Blurghle. That¡­ doesn¡¯t make this better. My eyes swim about in their sockets as my head *would* loll weakly, if I weren¡¯t completely constricted within this dragon¡¯s throat. The spongy muscular flesh is coarse, dehydrated, rough as it tries to squish or swallow me. Well, let¡¯s not make it easy for them. Wiggle a bit and angle Frostburn down, so that the next contraction has them tear their own throat along our path.


    Here goes! Whoof! Oof, koff. They did *not* like that! Hurk. Oof. Still. Can¡¯t. Make headway. Snrk. I chuckle at the accidental wordplay. Make headway to make my way out the head. Come on Reggie, get it together, and get out of this dragon to get together with your allies.


    Waugh, my world is quaking. I think the ancient Sand has given up trying to swallow me, and is attempting to cough me out. My skull rattles and rolls, while I¡¯m inside this snakelike tunnel. Ugh. So much for those snacks from earlier. Horf. This is the worst amusement park ride ever! Awe man, so much for the delectable scent of roasted meat. Eww. I second Teuila, from our tumble down the ramp the other day when she horfed on me, ¡°That came out of me!?¡±


    Speaking of. How have either of us vomitted? We¡¯ve got digital gastric systems that just teleport food away and fill up a stats page number about our hunger. Ugh, no time to contemplate that. Yui, Yuri, bots, ¡®scuse me for a second, I need my friggin¡¯ telekinetic grips. Dumping a host of daggers out of a pack, I telekinetically lift them, and begin launching them into key locations up the inside of this esophagus. Now that the throat is even more agitated, and convulsing even harder, I use these new handholds and footholds, like a ladder to climb my way out of its esophageal track. Is that the right word? Honestly I don¡¯t care at the moment.


    My telekinetic grips resume their holds on Yui, Yuri, and the two bots I¡¯ve been continuously gliding around to levitate them out of danger. Hm, I should probably retrieve those daggers, so that the dragon doesn¡¯t cough and horf them up launching them at me like a sideshow knife-throw. I don¡¯t need to end up a pincushion from my own daggers. Flipping my allies up into the air again with my telekinesis, I drag the daggers up out of the throat telekinetically as quickly as I can and resume my grips once more. Sorry you guys. I¡¯ve only got four telekinetic grips.


    Wait. Do I? I think. Right? Did my myconid form get a fifth grip up and running at any point? I know I was going to use it to do so if we had enough of the right type of gems. Friggin¡¯ hell. Not knowing if I have four or five enchantments attached to my brain? That¡¯s ridiculous.


    I understand why Kinzul and Jarrah were impressed with telekinetic grips as a matter of fact. Permanent brain enchantments are a heavy load that just grows heavier the more there are. There¡¯s way too much simultaneously attached to my brain. Like, ten, maybe twenty or thirty or forty telepathic bond networks, at least four copies of telekinesis, currently, the psy-blocking aegis, my aura-sight spell, and who knows what the hell else at this point.


    Really Reggie? You should. You should totally know what the hell else. Okay, true. It¡¯s hard to keep track of everything! I can¡¯t grow in power so much as expand my toolbelt laterally. This means more and more and more crap to keep track of! Yeah, poor you Reggie, infinite sideways growth, wah wah. Wow, snark much? Screw yo¡ªme. Rattling my skull, I chuckle with chagrin, really glad no one else can hear my brain at the moment.


    Carefully pinging the inside of this ancient¡¯s throat with necrotic rays and lances of frost, I loose a host of runic clip procedural effects within its mucous membranes. There we go. Now we¡¯re making progress. Gotta be careful not to overload the clips and burn ¡®em out though. We¡¯ve got too many useful effects, some that are necessary in really dire emergencies to turn things around.


    Woah sharp things incoming! Skirting a protrusion¡ªor is that an intrusion, since I¡¯m inside and they¡¯re pointing this way? Err, anyway, skirting pointy things, I scramble my way up the mucous membrane webbing of this dragon¡¯s sinuses. In mere moments I¡¯m noticing light, probably from Worldstorm lightning, flicker and filter in through new holes beneath me.


    Huh. Oh, hi Lucky. Hi Lil. Too bad my telepathy-blocking circlet is in place at the moment. Thanks guys. Was having a bit of trouble bringing this one down. Feeling Lucky¡¯s aura bolstering me, I levitate Yui and Yuri closer, landing them upon his back, in order to free them from dragonfright. Their muscles loosen immediately upon approach to Lucky, once they get within a short distance of him. I know the Spellknights are trained to resist dragonfright of a certain intensity, in order to combat and hunt dragons, since those are their primary foes. The fact that these ancients locked down everyone? They¡¯re bad news.


    Suddenly the mouth I¡¯m inside is rocked sideways, and the bottom mandible of the jaw comes clean off. Holy crap. Okay, that was either a haymaker or dropkick by Vylon. Huh, he really put his foot in this mouth. Pft. That makes sense. Did Lucky manage to free Teuila from dragonfright before she got too hurt by the clamoring horde and various breath-weapons? Well, Shaylon and Boetah took the breath weapons on personally, and most of the horde was paralyzed along with our allies. Still, it seems like some casters and ranged specialists had targeted those of us who were dragonfright-frozen.


    Crap on a cracker, defending this chokepoint is getting to the point of near-impossibility. Also, please don¡¯t actually crap on a cracker, that¡¯s just gross. Reggie? Mhm? Shut up goober. Err, right. Taking stock of things, I¡¯m trying to concoct any plan worth its salt, but coming up empty. We might need to beat feet and retreat. Really Reggie, beat feet? What? I think that¡¯s a saying¡­ I think.


    Taking a deep breath, and puffing it out, I try again to get a better grip on the situation. Oof. Valkyrie love, you¡¯re not lookin¡¯ so hot dear. Well, I mean, you¡¯re still hot in the attractive sense, I just¡ªReggie. Don¡¯t worry about digging your foot out of your mouth when she can¡¯t hear your brain. Eugh, I need to find a replacement for that phrase.


    Seriously though. Te¡¯s lookin¡¯ banged up but good, though I wonder how she¡¯s actually feeling. Probably chipper. Shaylon and Boetah look like they could take a month long hibernation to recuperate from the weathering these breath-weapons did. Hell, honestly, Vylon could too just with how badly he¡¯s nursing his right arm. I¡¯m glad I kept Yui and Yuri floating up out of the way.

 B 6 C 239: Terror Of Psycho Pompous

    Cripes. Hey. What¡¯s that rumbling? Oh boy! Taking a deep breath, holding it, I jettison myself out the bottom of this ancient Sand¡¯s no-longer-whole jaw. Thunder incoming! Not sure whether friend or foe at this point. But genre senses or retrocognitive scene-painting are telling me to get the hell outta the blast zone. Signaling for everyone who¡¯s dogpiling the Sand to fall back, I rocket along with Lil, Lucky, Vylon, and several others, a fair distance eastward.


    Oh crap. I think it was both friend *and* foe. Shiz! I mean, argh. I mean actually Shiz, our Thunderer ally. One of our foes is a Thunderer. That was the seventh dragon whose breath I didn¡¯t make note of visually. Or maybe an eighth dragon showed up. I can¡¯t even keep track of the number of bodies bodying us any longer. Some of Terrorzin¡¯s forces are beginning to ignore us and dash on by. Mostly skirmishers, or scout-looking folk, but that¡¯s still no good. Loosing a few holy halefire double-barreled crossbow bolts, I ping them in the back with the energy bolts from the crossbow, and load the crossbow with the cataclysm bolts. A really dramatic name for slightly explosive-effect bolts.


    Launching a few spell rays at the disengaged foes, I follow those up with the explosive bolts, specifically the ones that leave annoying little shrapnel or ice-shard effects in an area, discouraging Terrorzin¡¯s troops from outright dashing past us. Pointing, I direct Lil, Zelshiz, and a gaggle of Spellknights and Lil¡¯s little cult to fan out and stop any of our foes¡¯ who¡¯ve advanced past us. No questions asked, each nods resolutely, or looks to their direct commander, who nods and they follow suit. Yui and Yuri are catching their breath on Lucky¡¯s back, good, they should be fit for whatever next horror Terrorzin throws at us. I¡¯d kept them out of the path of the breath weapons that drenched Boetah and Shaylon.


    Our nearly-invincible defenders are rolling off eastwards to the next chokepoint. Good. By the time we retreat that far, they¡¯ll have had at the very least several minutes to harden after engaging their Latents. Everybody knows the stakes. Everybody does their best to take the most efficient actions they can at any given moment, and listens to the plans of others if anyone offers one up. The Strategists Eight announce any dire needs, changes in plans, or time to swap waves of defenders for rest.


    We¡¯ve bought several hours, if we lose this chokepoint right now, it¡¯ll hurt our timetable, but not completely ruin it. Yui soloing out here for an hour or two before I got here, or half an hour to an hour before Teuila got here, is about as good as I could have hoped for holding my Wistenzlia disaster-cade. It¡¯s still odd that Terrorzin had some of his Spellknights tunnel through and begin chipping away at it from both sides, if he had big plays like those plasma attacks. Again, really feels like he was holding out to go gunning for me.


    Well. I am pretty good at pissing people off. Maybe I got under his skin, or, uh, scales, the other night. Nothing quite says, ¡°incompetent overlord and useless army,¡± like a single creature rolling in, loudly announcing themselves, wreaking havoc, and escaping. So I probably wounded his pride too. Not that I did great or anything. It was a spectacular disaster trying to escape. Still. Why isn¡¯t he pushing harder, faster, with more of his forces? Sending respectably-sized waves after us and a few hard hitters spaced out? It really doesn¡¯t seem like the style of someone who¡¯s fated to die and wants to watch the world burn.


    Wait. That¡¯s right. He doesn¡¯t want to die. He¡¯s actually a coward. He¡¯s been cowed by the Celestial Emperor, ordered to remain in the Spine of the World. Specifically via the Damnations. Where did I get that info? How do I know that? Is that intuition? Retrocognition? Genre senses? Was it in some of the history texts Nala was using to fill me in on things? Well, however I learned it, things are starting to make more sense. Terrorzin is actually afraid of dying. Terrified of it.


    He¡ªhis soul, his dragonforce. Either the Celestial Emperor is going to claim it, via the Damnations¡ªor perhaps even personally¡ªor it will have to face the judgement of whatever afterlife awaits dragonkind after one of the Onyx Dawn absorbs his essence. He¡¯s responsible, at least in part, for the repeated death of The Platinum, psychopomp to dragonkind. I can¡¯t imagine a warm reception awaiting him. After all this blow and bluster, this pompous jerk is scared of getting what¡¯s coming to him, trying to buy every last second avoiding his fate.


    I¡¯m starting to lose track of time, something that¡¯s quite unlike me when I¡¯m not intentionally shutting my brain off during monotonous activities. The exhaustion is setting in, but we¡¯ve got a whole week of slogging through constant engagements like this. We¡¯ll be constantly trying to buy each other one to six hours of rest, at each and every opportunity, with less and less of us able to rotate in as defenders. Whether that¡¯s because some of us are injured and exhausted¡­ or¡­ dead. Biting my lips and clenching my eyes shut, I try to remain centered, grounded in the moment. Growling, I virtually vibrate in discomfort.


    Where¡¯s Te? Hm, sneakily coaxing injuries from others into herself and her Honoris Causa. I want to chastise her, but, well, it¡¯s her prerogative, and us Can¡¯Z¡¯aasians have a lot of legs up over our Rayileklian allies when it comes to injury recovery. Glancing back towards the west, I try to take stock of the situation. The two thunderers are clashing, duking it out with horrendous barks of discordant booms. It¡¯s difficult for me to parse what damage, if any, each thundrous blast is doing to either dragon. The explosive sound and shockwaves however are driving back the other ancients, the high commanders, keeping them from interfering in the duel. That¡¯s almost surprising.


    I think Shiz¡¯s breath weapon is nowhere near the potency of our foe¡¯s though. Grimacing, I worriedly fully turn back towards the fray, intending on joining him. Still, despite not being a blaster, Shiz is giving as good as he gets, if not better, by staying up close and personal against his foe. He¡¯s proving handily why he was the co-leader of a domain, one of Terrorzin¡¯s prized experimental outposts.


    The ancients who¡¯d unleashed upon us look quite pissed that their breath weapons were diverted, and now their dragonfright has been subverted by both me, and Lucky. That¡¯s to be expected I suppose. I truly seem to excel at pissing people off, and it seems Lucky does too. Lucky probably got that from me. Pft, as if that¡¯s a genetic trait Reggie. Hell, we don¡¯t even have genetics to pass on traits, being part-digital. Reggie? Mhm? Focus goober.


    Hey, which feed is that? Glancing through the scrying sensors, I see one flitting along and above thousands of Terrorzin¡¯s troops. That¡¯s gotta be Illy. Yeah, that¡¯s the plexiglass box labeled for Illy¡¯s goggles¡¯ scrying sensor. It¡¯s hard to read around all the bodies flitting about the security center. Based on the canyon walls, she¡¯s heading eastward, this way. Well, she did say she wanted a shot at these high general thingies. Commanders? Somethin¡¯ like that. Based on the movement of her head, I think her neck is stiffening as she charges her breath weapon to maximum.


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    Scribbling a note, I give directions to the security center to pass along a message to Illy, about the situation, so that she doesn¡¯t nail us with friendly-fire. Also, so that we maximize and capitalize on the chaos she¡¯ll be bringing down upon these commanders¡¯ heads. Glancing at Lucky¡¯s boots, I flick a brow towards them, and he whuffs affirmatively. Good boy Lucky. He knows what to do, but I hold up a hand signaling for him to wait. Not just yet. Whistling a staccato series of notes that I think Shiz will find familiar, and funny, I signal for him to back off.


    Things are about to get interesting. Or ugly. One of the two. Possibly both.


    To Vylon, I quickly request, ¡°Rend, get your claws on the horns at the base of the Acid¡¯s skull, and twist as hard as you can until you hear the snap. Do a cartwheel if you have to.¡±


    Jutting the bottom of his jaw out appreciatively, Vylon blinks once at my casual brutality, and probably a bit that I have the nerve to toss him a command. Still, he charges towards the black dragon whose acid breath is almost recharged. If Vylon can at least incapacitate the acid¡ªbetter yet, hopefully kill it¡ªthen Illy comes streaking in, with no targets immune to her breath. She¡¯ll unleash a torrent of fully charged acid of the second-most-powerful black dragon on the planet. We¡¯ll get Lucky to barrier off this lost ground beyond our chokepoint in order to let these high commanders stew in a tidal wave of Illy¡¯s potent acid.


    If I recall correctly, the barrier from the boots only lasts maybe a minute, max. Unless that was Adkre manually dropping the effect. Hard to say. I haven¡¯t worn or attuned to them. My son, our Hound, Hunter, Lucky, went scavenging and looting mid-battle, to pick them off of Adkre¡¯s corpse. He somehow used the magical hands from the scarf I gave him in order to affix the boot-coverings to his own greaves. My life is so friggin¡¯ weird. At least it¡¯s filled with great people.


    Glancing at Vylon, he can be a bit brutish, but beneath that, he¡¯s an eloquent¡ªnearly poetic sometimes¡ªally whose strength lies in far more than his muscles. Muscles that he happens to have plenty of, beneath his bulky, rough, gold-scaled exterior. Crap. Flaw with the plan Reggie. Vylon¡¯s right arm still looks a bit limp. I¡¯m not sure he¡¯s going to have the leverage.


    I don¡¯t think we can hold this chokepoint any longer. Despite the plan I¡¯d intended to put into motion. Still, I mutter my titles under my breath in order to exert my Honoris Causa. The spiritual Void Dragon within me manifests, and I lumber into the fray alongside Vylon. There¡¯s a bit of sulking bravado, wounded pride, in the glance he shoots me, but he nods, accepting the aid. I loose my void-breath in bursts about the field, disorienting each of the ancients that are still kicking, and Shiz raises a brow my way, since I just signaled for him to back off.


    Tapping my goggles, I nod at Shiz, so he falls back with the others and glances through the scrying feeds. Hopefully he sees Illy streaking this way at a rapid clip, likely in her human-form, but with her wings. I¡¯m sure he doesn¡¯t want to get caught in the crossfire of her breath weapon. Even I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d survive Illy¡¯s acid for long. I¡¯ve only got something like, crap, what was it, was it sixteen, thirty, fifty, or sixty or so percent acid resist? Gorrammit, I need to start writing this stuff down. Really Reggie, writing it down? What¡¯re you gonna do, pull a notebook out mid-battle and look up your own stats? Pft. Okay, okay, snark later, fight now.


    Drawing a full breath, and exhaling smoothly, I lock limbs with Vylon as we batter the ancient Acid foe, until we can get a grip along the base of its skull somewhere. Preferably the lower rear horns, for extra leverage. There we go. Let¡¯s see if I can help Vylon out a bit. Concentrating on my Latent, voiding out his gravity along parts of Vylon that overlap with my semi-ethereal Honoris Causa, it costs me hundreds of days worth of dragonforce. It¡¯s worth it though, because Iylynila¡¯s coming in hot, and nearly here. Vylon and I roll hard, resulting in a squeal of fear from the ancient Acid that¡¯s cut short by a resounding snap. Oof. Brutal. Like I said.


    Flicking my head, Vylon nods at my gesture and retreats swiftly. Whistling a staccato burst of five chirps to Lucky, he understands I¡¯m counting down. Another burst of four whistles. Another burst of three whistles. I remain in Illy¡¯s path, unfortunately, as I try to keep the septuplet of ancient high commanders off their game, and corralled in one spot at the edge of our lost chokepoint. I¡¯ve certainly got all their attention. Another burst, two whistles this time. I¡¯m rapidly flickering my Honoris Causa¡¯s intangibility on and off like some sort of shadowy cat superhero full of pride, as attack after attack is leveled my way. Ugh, it¡¯s blowing through my dragonforce reserves.


    Crap, I¡¯m gonna have to take a few hits in order to fall back safely. I remain fully tangible across my Honoris Causa, gripping two claws of two attackers lunging at me in order to guide their momentum down into the ground, planting them at my Honoris Causa¡¯s feet. Last whistle, and Illy¡¯s within range to loose her acid, but thankfully my plan was communicated.


    Trying a judo throw I¡¯d seen Teuila do once, it doesn¡¯t perfectly translate to draconic bodies. But I do manage to topple the ancient Poison into the ancient Fire as they¡¯re both loosing their breath weapons, causing them to blow up in each other¡¯s faces, disorienting them. I raise my fist, zero whistles, Lucky comes streaking my way, and glides up the north face of the canyon walls as Illy dives to land right behind me. In an instant, she¡¯s as large as she can safely be beneath the Worldstorm with her smooth transformation skills, and has about-faced to the west. I dive towards her jaw while dropping my Honoris Causa so that I can slip beneath her stream of acid as she unleashes an absolutely hellish torrent, a full charge that¡¯d normally last a couple of minutes, with her powers. She sets it free though in the span of the two seconds it takes for Lucky to streak across from the north canyon face, to the south canyon face, with his boots activated.


    Sadly, the field that Lucky¡¯s item conjures doesn¡¯t entirely reach the Worldstorm, especially since we couldn¡¯t get our foes back inside the chokepoint. Still, I¡¯m proud of him, so I flash him a warm smile. If those ancients have survived Illy¡¯s torrent, they¡¯ll have to either sit in the giant pool of acid, or try to retreat, regaining us the chokepoint, or fly above Lucky¡¯s barrier in their smaller human forms. Either way, we¡ªIylynila punches me hard across the jaw, demanding my attention. Well she¡¯s certainly got it. She reaches for my face, drawing me close, before freezing and sighing.


    Letting loose her grip on me, Illy¡¯s muscles slacken, and every bit of her sags wearily before she mutters, ¡°Headed home Schism, will send the next wave of defenders. Just¡­ stop dying out here. Alright? You ass. You¡¯d better make it through this. All of it.¡±


    My face droops as I watch Illy take off eastward. She needs to be relieved, since she¡¯d been on covert ops nearly all day, behind enemy lines, taking out problematic targets as best she could. Still. After being socked in the face, I was sure she was going to kiss me. I think she was sure she was going to kiss me too. Something dawned on her, and dropped her emotio¡ªKinzul.


    My wife, her mother. She knows what Kinzul is doing, and what it¡¯s costing her. She knows that she¡¯d be wrapped up in me, obsessed with my position and safety in the final battle. She¡¯s been trying this entire time that she¡¯d requested there not be an ¡°us¡± until after this war, to focus on being able to focus when the moment of truth comes.


    She asked me to fight time and tide, not to mention fate. She¡¯s going to put everything she can into delaying or discrediting the prophetic painting. The portent it showed, of me standing at Kinzul¡¯s corpse, looking regretful. I think each of the three of us are sure that it somehow comes before our war is entirely finished. My heart pinches, and pauses, in my chest, aching at the thought. My love, my Lady, my wife. You¡¯re the most merciful, kindest, compassionate being in any realm. Without you, how can I foster and nurture mercy, while continuing on? We¡¯ve still got at least two more apocalypses to deal with, if we can even suppress this one fully.

 B 6 C 240: Clich茅 Phases of Clich茅 Phrases

    As Lucky approaches, I float up to stroke his jowls and lay my forehead to his snout. Muttering, ¡°Good boy, good boy,¡± over and over, I smile brightly at Lucky¡¯s massive tail thumping into the canyon walls repeatedly. I can sense the chuckles and smirks on the faces of those resting atop Lucky, in the folds of his armor.


    Flicking my head, those atop Lucky nod, and take off towards Lil, they spend this sixty second reprieve fanning out to hunt down stragglers that got past us. I make certain the Strategists Eight know we¡¯re falling back into a fighting retreat to the second chokepoint, a little ahead of schedule. It gives us time to prep, and dig in, hopefully offering a more concerted defense than the first chokepoint.


    Phew. The relentless lightning of the Worldstorm is our only lightsource, marking our entire combat encounter like some stop-motion horror show. Still, the lighting is usually¡­ more even¡­ My eyes drift skyward, noticing a looming shape blotting out streak after streak of lightning as it gets larger and larger, directly above me and Lucky. My eyes wide in horrified realization, I gaze at the incoming Lightning high commander. The wise, powerful ancient blue dragon flew up in their human form, small enough to avoid Illy¡¯s acid. They¡¯re unbothered by any lightning from beneath the edges of the Worldstorm.


    Everything seems to happen in once. The blue is aiming to divebomb down towards the middle of Lucky¡¯s spine, aiming to sever it and paralyze or kill him. I¡¯m battling the speed of gravity as I plead, ¡°Lucky, shrink and warp!¡±


    Trusting me intrinsically, Lucky drops to the size of a soccer ball in rapid order. My goodest boy uses a magic item he¡¯d picked up at Vorzhog¡¯s keep in order to warp me towards the edge of the drop zone, and himself into my waiting arms. The warp¡¯s range is only about fifteen feet or so, so we still have too much distance to clear to get to safety.


    No time to be gentle. Sorry Lucky. I rotate as I float my son, Hunter, Hound of the Onyx Dawn in midair. When he¡¯s at the right position, I boot him in the arse with a spinning axe kick sending him sailing eastward. Despite my rough treatment of him, he happily whuffs as his enormous tongue flaps alongside his wide-open maw while soaring through the air.


    Diving evasively at a different angle than the one I¡¯d booted Lucky towards, I realize a bit too late¡ªno dice. The ancient Blue is aiming for me now, and possibly might have been the entire time. They¡¯re putting all their weight and momentum into their enormous foreclaws, preparing to pin me to the stone of the canyon floor, or drive me into it, intending to pulverize me. Steely Body, and Stoneskin, up and up, both, layer on my protections. Do I dare engage my runic clip that locks my position in space? Is this ancient¡¯s hand more durable than stone-covered Adamantite?


    If this high commander is remotely close to being in perfect shape, more or less, then we¡¯re rapidly losing ground. You¡¯ve gotta risk it for the biscuit Reggie. Biscuit? Oh shush. It¡¯s a perfectly valid turn of ph¡ªmaybe focus. Deciding to chance it, I engage my runic clip that locks my position in space. Wincing, there¡¯s a migraine lancing through my skull just remembering facetanking plasma balls.


    The pain as the devastating weight of the high commander drops atop me and the canyon collapses about me hits me like a freight train. Oogh. The canyon walls, and stone floor of the pass crack and crumble under the immense seismic slam. In fact, the floor virtually vaporizes and falls out from beneath me. Well. Good news and bad news.


    Good news, Steely Body held up, as did the position-locking runic clip. Bad news? Stoneskin of course dropped, and now I¡¯m wedged between this ancient¡¯s phalanges. Hm? Oh no. Worse. I¡¯m wedged between metacarpals. Between them, and the uh, capitate I think? Point is, I¡¯m stuck but good.


    Well, at least the ancient is pinned down, unless they want to remove their entire hand to get away from me. But even if I disengage the runic clip, I aint goin¡¯ anywhere any time soon. My friends¡¯re gonna have to dig me out with a spoon. Didja mean to rhyme Rej? I¡¯unno. This whole battle is just utter chaos. Gimme a break.


    Also, unfortunately, I sense the ancient Blue tugging at Rayileklia¡¯s magical weave. They¡¯re casting spells. I do not have the luxury of enough SP to blow through countering whatever they attempt to cast while we¡¯re both pinned. Similarly, I cannot afford to let them cast, because I¡¯ve got no idea what¡¯s in their arsenal. Worse, because I don¡¯t know what¡¯s in their arsenal, I can¡¯t doff my psy-blocking aegis circlet to engage my telepathy to ask for a hand. Pft, a hand. Haven¡¯t you got enough of those already Reggie? Certainly big enough ones.


    Snrk. Shut up. You know what I meant. Well, I can sense that there¡¯s a tiny undercurrent of panic pulsing through the veins of this ancient Blue. Fairly literally. Like, the adrenaline has their veins pumping like mad, and gushing all over me. Bluh. Alright, we can at least retaliate a bit. Muttering my titles, I engage my Honoris Causa, projecting my spiritual draconic form. Manifesting physicality only in my claws, tail-tip, and maw, I¡¯m struggling to increase the size of my Honoris Causa enough to do some damage somewhere on the ancient high commander. They¡¯ve got me pinned as far away from their vulnerables as they possibly can. Smart move on their part.


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    Still, their face and neck are the things I want access to, and they¡¯re the closest. Really Rej? Y¡¯want access to their face and neck? Like Teuila used earlier? Ah you weirdo shut up! I¡¯m busy trying to kill an enormous ancient evil. Grumble grumble mrgrgr. Awkward nonsense. I mean, we don¡¯t even need to stay here if we don¡¯t want. We could raven-port out, or we could use the Cosmic Roundsheath. Or even use Whisper¡ªwait, didn¡¯t we rename Whisper to Mindfire? Oh, yeah, true. We¡¯d have to levitate Whisper, err, Mindfire.


    Blah! Anyway! Point is, we can get out of this if we need to, but there¡¯s not a lot of opportunities to lock down an ancient dragon as large and powerful as these high commanders, especially for someone as small and squishy and weak as me.


    There is another downside though. Yeah. It hurts like a mrgrgr with this constant building pressure as the bones grind tighter and tighter against my Adamantite form that¡¯s slowly wearing off to reveal squishy RS2 underneath. Not fun. Between headaches, wobbly legs, fractured ribs puncturing my lungs, crushing pressure of various things, I¡¯ve been having a day. Yeah Reggie? A day? Is that what you wanna call it? Shut up. Brain tired. No thinky.


    Pft. I snort with laughter, which is probably pretty disconcerting to the ancient dragon whose hand I¡¯m trapped in, pinning it in position in space. How would you feel if you could tell the tiny creature embedded in your hand was chortling or shaking with mirth? Yeah. It¡¯s a bit of a terrifying prospect. Anyway. Use your senses Reggie. What else is going on around us?


    Okay, the whole battlefield has changed shape, with all the new cracks, crevices, rockslides, sinkholes, and the pool of smoking acid off to the west. There are chunks of frozen acid, and a low-hanging fog that must be misted or vaporized acid over a dry patch of ground. Grr, that all indicates Illy¡¯s breath weapon was countered by at least the Fire and the Ice. However, the smoldering, rotting, melting corpses of the Sand, the Poison and the Thunderer, are sloughing scales and flesh like they¡¯re someone¡¯s science project for a fossil exhibit at a museum. This valley¡¯s going to be an elephant graveyard by the end of the war. Only, y¡¯know, for dragons.


    The ancient Acid high commander appears to be in pieces. It seems like there was a desperate attempt to utilize its body as makeshift shielding against Illy¡¯s cascade of near-vaporizing acid. Yeah. I¡¯d probably have done the same thing. Huff. That means we didn¡¯t get much of the horde, or push them back at all. They¡¯re now beginning to glide, clamber, and dash about the newly roughened terrain. While I¡¯m stuck here, they¡¯re making their way eastward towards the second chokepoint. Fudgeknuckles. Pft. Pretty apt curse, or epithet or whatever, considering where I am.


    All these enemies are crossing the line we¡¯ve drawn in the sand. I guess that means it¡¯s time to start pulling out all the stops. Sure, I guess. But what¡¯ve we got in reserve that we can really soup up? Well, mercy¡¯s always on the table. Sorta. How exactly are you going to soup up mercy Reggie? Uhh. Never mind. It was rhetorical. Ugh, you¡¯re such a goon sometimes. Me. Sighing, I internally roll my eyes at myself while composing myself. Well, first let¡¯s see if we can talk through either prestidigitative magic, or through our Honoris Causa, ¡®cause our mouth is sandwiched between knuckles.


    Once I figure out how best to speak, I shout, ¡°Oy, you, Big Blue! I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an Archmage Aliased Schism. And, as you can probably tell by these fangs and claws, I¡¯m the Void Dragon Honoris Causa. I offer you mercy in the name of the Onyx Dawn, should you w¡ª.¡±


    The ancient high commander sneers and looses a decidedly unenthused chuckle while answering, ¡°You¡¯ve quite the sense of humor, because you simply must be joking.¡±


    That¡¯s about the kindest thing one of Terrorzin¡¯s forces has said to me. I mean, other than the ones that have joined us. Cocking a grin and shaking my Honoris Causa¡¯s head, I call back, ¡°Not even the slightest. Think about it. I¡¯m undefeated, which is more than I can say for half of the high commanders rotting over there. Do you really want to join them?¡±


    In a voice laced with disdain, the Blue high commander responds, ¡°They were idiots. I¡¯m of a higher caliber than my compatriots.¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I retort, ¡°If you¡¯re of a higher caliber, why are you stuck here with me?¡±


    There¡¯s a vicious snarl, but the ancient Blue bites their tongue momentarily before answering, ¡°Enough of this, I¡ª.¡°


    Interrupting them, I warn, ¡°Alright, this is it, this is my last offer, your last chance for mercy. Take it or leave it. Going once, going¡ª¡°


    Through vitriol and more than a bit of slobber, the high commander rejoins in a shout, ¡°I¡¯d rather chew my own arm off than~¡ª!¡±


    Smirking, I interrupt them once more and command, ¡°Then do it! Go ahead. Chew it off. Because that¡¯s the only way you¡¯re getting out of this alive. And that¡¯s if you can get medical attention fast enough, something I highly doubt the Ice of Rage provides a lot of to his forces.¡±


    This apparently causes the high commander some pause. When I begin my countdown to doom again, they bargain, ¡°Hold, one moment, small thing. Your surety is inane, preposterous, nearly paradoxical. It¡¯s disconcerting, when in all regards, I¡¯ve you pinned, at my mercy as your spell wears thin.¡±


    Chuckling quietly to myself, I¡¯ve been entirely totally winging this. Pulling bravado I don¡¯t have out of my rear, my Honoris Causa shakes its head once more and wears a devilish grin while I claim, ¡°Wrongo bucko. I¡¯m not trapped here with you.¡± I pause a moment, letting the sentiment linger before I continue with an uncommon edge to my voice, ¡°You¡¯re trapped here with me.¡±


    Biting my lips, I struggle to not laugh as the clich¨¦ phrase hits the right notes, sending a shiver through the high commander. Still smiling eerily confidently, I add, ¡°You¡¯re exactly right where I want you. If I wanted you somewhere else, or if I wanted to leave, I¡¯d just teleport out, or blow your hand to smithereens and levitate out with telekinesis.¡± As that sinks in¡ªdoing something I hate¡ªI brag, ¡°You must have noticed that a third of Mount Wistenzlia is down here in Vieriss Valley. You had to crawl through it on the way to me. I chucked it down here on my own, just the other night.¡±

 B 6 C 241: Light Or Heavy

    Normally, claiming you moved a mountain alone would sound so ludicrous, that anyone would call foul at the claim. Though Tiktik might cry fowl at the claim, heh. Anyway, the thing is, there¡¯s traces of me and my magic all up and down Wistenzlia. Last night I made a pretty big show of arriving alone, blowing the crap out of the mountain, and leaving without pursuit being able to follow. This ancient is at least smart enough to consider my claim.


    Sadly, I can¡¯t leave myself tied up here forever. I mean, it¡¯s not sad. It¡¯s just a thing that¡¯s a truth. I have to finish our little meeting of the minds sooner rather than later. I can sense tons of Terrorzin¡¯s forces rushing past us, towards where my friends have fallen back to in order to set up a more stable line of defense.


    The veneer of disdain begins to crumble as the ancient Blue ruminates, ¡°The Onyx Dawn cannot possibly hope to withstand the tide of nearly all dragonkind upon the face of our world. You¡¯ve absolutely no hope. The Ice of Rage will raze the world. Your forces have but a scant week or two to accept their fate,¡± before they add, much more quietly, ¡°Even were I convinced, accepting your mercy would be accepting a deserter¡¯s death at the hands of the Ice of Rage and his innumerable forces.¡±


    Smirking and rolling my eyes, I respond, ¡°Nah buddy, that¡¯s where you¡¯re wrong. Y¡¯see, I¡¯ve been out here soloing hordes, fortresses, blowing up mountains, two in two days if you haven¡¯t heard about Stormspire yet, and doing unspeakable things to foes that break ceasefires like Tinth. Oh yeah, did y¡¯hear about how I utterly decimated him in an instant, from Nonnam, the Damnation I rode down through the Worldstorm?¡±


    Okay, so I¡¯m technically lying there, sorta. I haven¡¯t soloed any of the fortresses we¡¯ve taken down. I mean, I started ShizTinth solo, before Shaylon and Boetah showed up, while dragging Atter as my prisoner. Oh wait ShizTinth, Nonnam, Damnations. What was it Illy said when I told her about my Honoris Causa¡¯s breath weapon? She chastised me for mentioning it only disoriented them, when they haven¡¯t even been stood up to, or had anyone survive an encounter with them, for ages.


    My mind races as I press a new tack, ¡°What about the fact that I drove off the Damnations something like *four* times!? Two of them are slain, their bodies as meat for the Emerald Dawn. Not to mention all of their underlings, the Evil Claws. That last part was accomplished by a single attack of mine. Ask any Damnation that fled. They witnessed it.¡± Jeering in a way that hurts my own soul, I taunt, ¡°What, haven¡¯t heard from your buddies in a while?¡±


    Huh, the entire battlefield got quiet all of a sudden when I insinuated the usually-unstoppable Damnations are off the board. I mean, as quiet a thunder-rumbling, stone-crumbling, acid-hissing, fire-crackling, echoey canyon can get anyway. Also, I don¡¯t need to mention that technically one Evil Claw is still alive, Pidge. Pidge seems pretty content to just exist in a bit of a daze, within Solace, after being bested by Lucky.


    Even if this high commander doesn¡¯t defect, but simply retreats to ponder my offer, then I¡¯ve taken a very ancient, very powerful foe off the board for some period of time. I need to remember, that on our list of priorities, buying time is near the top. But I¡¯ve got a better plan. I levitate my portable hole out of a pouch at my waist, unroll it, and place it upon my TK squares in midair.


    While the ancient Blue still contemplates, I add, ¡°If you¡¯re wary of Terrorzin spotting your defection, and you truly wish to be granted mercy, shift down into your human form, and climb into the hole in space that I just placed mid-air. I¡¯ll fold you back up and carry you in my pocket. Then you¡¯ll be untouchable, in an entirely different interdimensional space, until I take a break and return to Solace.¡±


    Sensing hesitation, I angle to press the point home, ¡°When I let you out, you need not join the war effort. There¡¯ll be no retribution awaiting you, should you simply choose to while away the days within Solace, enjoying our infinite supply of gems, liquor, materials, and goods. Take a peak through my goggles if you don¡¯t believe I¡¯ve got the magic to cover my claim. If I open the hole early, before returning to Solace, it¡¯ll just be to check that you have clean air, or to allow another mercy receiver our sanctuary.¡±


    Something I never thought I¡¯d hear happens; the ancient Blue¡¯s voice cracks as they sputter, ¡°You can¡¯t, you can¡¯t possibly be serious. This simplistic little enchantment, and, and, and what? We¡¯ve the might of near a hundred thousand dragonkin. You number in the dozens. The num¡ª.¡±


    Feeling a bit irritated that this is being drawn out, I interrupt, ¡°We house over thirty one thousand dragonkin. If push came to shove, we¡¯ve a lot more force than you claim. Not to mention the Emerald Dawn across the twinned mountains. We¡¯re so confident that we don¡¯t need more than a few dozen to take on the entirety of the Ice of Rage¡¯s forces, that we allow those thirty thousand odd people a life of peace, not even requesting they contribute to the war in any way.¡±


    My foe shakes their head in disbelief. Tumult in their voice, the high commander continues, "You insinuated that, unlike the Ice of Rage, the Onyx Dawn actually has, and provides medical aid?"


    Thinking that perhaps we''re closing in on an accord, I assure the high commander, "We''ve a fully stocked infirmary and triage. Skilled nursing volunteers, and more."


    In my mind, I picture the ancient Blue whose hand I¡¯m being painfully crushed in, and whose hand I''ve impaled with my Adamantite body, asking to have their hand patched up. What is actually requested hurts me a million times worse than any pain of combat, "Take this magic hole and save her. Save Jatrisiahl. Cure the mutation Terrorzin forced upon her. Bring my mate back to me. If... if it''s uncurable, untreatable, at least provide her comfort and care."


    Mentally, figuratively, I¡¯m struck a heavy blow. My innards twist at the revelation of the emotionally heavy toll that must have been extracted from the high commander over the ages. I shouldn¡¯t do this, especially since we seem to have come to an accord, but I disengage the runic clip that freezes me in space, and ravenport out of the ancient Lightning¡¯s hand, wasting a daily charge of my coat, to make a point. When I reform as myself, I stand dozens of meters in the air on one of my telekinetic grips. At eye level with the ancient high commander, my gaze is resolute. No questions asked. I¡¯m rescuing their mate.


    Signaling into my goggles, I request, ¡°Sec-cen, patch me through to Teuila please. Good, thanks. Te, are you able to hear clearly? The Lightning high commander is going to tell us their name, and what a mate named Jatrisiahl looks like, a brief description, and where she is. Are you down for a rescue op? One maybe mixed with a little hit ¡®n¡¯ run?¡±


    Blinking, stunned, the ancient dragon looks down at their foreclaw, where I¡¯d resided this entire conversation. A foreclaw, that¡¯s no longer pinned in place, realizing that, as I said, I was never trapped there to begin with. Shaking her, hm, their¡ªapparently¡ªhead, the ancient Lightning high commander begins taking their human form, androgynous in appearance but femme leaning. They retain their wings, and flap midair, level with me.


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    The look of disbelief, and confusion on the Lightning¡¯s face is tinged with fear. Whether that¡¯s of me, or of Terrorzin, I know not, but upon hearing Teuila¡¯s affirmative broadcast from my goggles, they state as I¡¯ve suggested, ¡°Lightning High-Commander Nyssa¡¯Lina. Jatrisiahl would normally be behind Terrorzin¡¯s throne-room, bound. For this march, the Ice of Rage brought his broodmothers to¡­¡±


    Disquieted, Nyssa¡¯Lina lets the sentiment linger, before finishing with a short description of Jatrisiahl, and the broodmothers¡¯ locations in Terrorzin¡¯s camp. This is beyond dangerous. Teuila and I aren¡¯t covert ops in the way that Iylynila is. Te¡¯s a speedster though. If anyone can zoom through, and past, a snarling horde thirty-five-thousand strong, it¡¯s Teuila. I flash Nyssa¡¯Lina a reassuring neutral half-smile, the sadness about their mate preventing me from showing the warmth I¡¯d like to.


    Quipping to lighten the mood, I hazard to guess, ¡°I don¡¯t suppose the ancient Fire or Ice would be on the same wavelength, and could be talked into surrendering, yeah?¡±


    Nyssa¡¯Lina shakes their head while answering, ¡°No, they¡¯re A Frayed Knot.¡±


    Blinking, I ascertain whether Nyssa said afraid not, or a frayed knot. When it¡¯s confirmed to be the latter, I understand the implication. Terrorzin¡¯s fanatical doomsday cult. I certainly won¡¯t be convincing any of them. Well, I¡¯m going to have to rely on Shiz, Shaylon, Boetah, the Spellknights, Lil, and Lucky holding the second chokepoint against those two. Thankfully Lil and Lucky are both practically immune to fire and cold at this point. It¡¯s almost ironic that the ancient Fire and Ice are the two who survived with their power and wits. Only for them to bring their power to bear against two of the SAP, who will be entirely unfazed.


    Also, I should probably note that something like a thousand troops surround our little conference. Most of them gazing at us, some side-eyeing their compatriots warily, some frothing, ready to engage. No matter the outcome, the fact that my conversation paused the relentless waves of reinforcements rushing towards my allies for even a moment is a massive boon. Still, Teuila¡¯s feed is blitzing its way this way, and I¡¯m still patched through to her on audio, so I let her know not to go ham or kill people that are standing around.


    Whether or not we can convert any of Terrorzin¡¯s shock troops, if Nyssa actually accepts our mercy, and we manage to rescue their mate, then¡­ then¡ªthen what Reggie? Then that will have to be enough, for now. I regret not offering mercy sooner, to the first waves of Terrorzin¡¯s horde, but I know they¡¯d have been amongst the most fanatical, plenty happy to charge headlong towards death. Or perhaps they¡¯d have been the least loyal, sent to the front lines as punishment. Oof, that thought hits like a punch to the gut that I didn¡¯t offer earlier. Still, they couldn¡¯t have defected with thousands of troops rushing up behind them, the silt-odilians and ancient high commanders on the way.


    When My Wings arrives, the surprise on her face is evident to me, but hidden beneath the confident bravado of a warrior in her element. She knows as well as I do, that we really don¡¯t have time for a rescue op. That it¡¯s taking away time we should be decimating Terrorzin¡¯s horde before it can complete its journey towards Solace. This is the me I have to be though, and there¡¯s a layer of pride on Teuila¡¯s gorgeous face. She flips her ruby-red undercut casually, as if we were friends at a social event, rather than foes floating above a thousand Terrorzin troops in the midst of war.


    That seems to be the final straw on several levels. Nyssa¡¯Lina lowers themselves into the portable hole, and the horde below me breaks into chaos at the defection. Amongst the many cries of, ¡°Traitor!¡± and, ¡°Long live the Ice of Rage,¡±¡ªironic as that one is¡ªthere¡¯s quiet reflection and grim determination on the faces of some who¡¯re done with it. In-fighting on a massive scale overtakes the wave of foes beneath us. Even were I not pressed for time, I¡¯d have no idea who to aid and who to slay, so I steel my heart and wrap my arms about Te¡¯s waist. I gulp down my lamentations as I fold up my portable hole like a handkerchief to tuck it away safely once more.


    Suddenly we¡¯re rocketing westward, skirting the horde, or the Worldstorm, alternatingly. The forces of our foes blurs beneath me while I grasp Teuila, holding her tightly. She reduces our gravity and friction to near zero, with her Latent, so I don¡¯t even need to hold my breath. To do this, to succeed, one of us is going to need to be bait, a distraction. That¡¯s going to have to be me. So, guess what you get to do twice in two days Reggie. Huh? Oh. Actually, I think the third time in two days. Yeah. Shellcracker Satellite Slam while unleashing giant dire shadow weasels to distract and piss off the horde while Te slips in to the encampment.


    Te is much more likely to succeed at the rescue itself than I am, so I slip the portable hole into one of her pouches. We¡¯re en-route to Terrorzin¡¯s private encampment, a move more risky than I¡¯d like to admit. If he catches on, and we¡¯re within range of his Latent, it¡¯s over for us. Terrorzin himself is our biggest threat.


    Still, thinking about that, my mind returns to a previous rumination on Terrorzin and his motives. As I conjecture, I mumble towards Te, ¡°Y¡¯know. I¡¯ve been thinking about Terrorzin¡¯s troop placement, his holding back of forces, the fact that he¡¯s kept about half of his army in reserve, and all that. If he had some invincible endbringer beast, why not unleash it already? If he really, truly, just wanted to watch the world burn, why not just send them all out at once? Because he doesn¡¯t. He wants the world scoured of any threats to him.¡±


    Raising her left brow towards me, I can tell Teuila¡¯s listening, despite her careful maneuvers carrying us through and over Terrorzin¡¯s horde at ludicrous speed. Letting Terrorzin¡¯s motives sink in for a moment, I continue, ¡°Kinzul is probably the foremost amongst them. Even if the Onyx Dawn hadn¡¯t initiated our plans for the war, I bet right now, he¡¯d still have been here, just with a few more fortresses of troops.¡±


    Waiting a beat, I finish, ¡°He doesn¡¯t want to die Te. He¡¯s trying to fight his own portent. Sure, he might be confident that half of his forces *should* be enough to take on the whole world, all being dragonkins and all, what with him restricting magical growth anywhere else on Rayileklia. But even still, he¡¯s afraid, and that¡¯s why he kept half of his forces in reserve. So that he can run and hide if things go south.¡±


    Wearing a devilish grin, Teuila teases, ¡°So this whole shebang, the army, the plasma balls, the horny gators, the¡ª¡°


    Interrupting as my face contorts, I ask, ¡°The what?¡±


    Frowning, she answers, ¡°You know, the dirt-swimmy gators with horns on their faces, that took like all of us to even slow them down.¡±


    Snorting, rolling my eyes and shaking my head incredulously, I realize Te means the things I was referring to in my head as mammoth-crocodiles and silt-odilians. I sigh and state, ¡°Those are tusks babe, not horns. They came from the jaw. Pft. Horny gators. More like horny Tenith.¡±


    As Teuila flicks her eyes up towards rolling them, I can sense that she¡¯d be retorting, ¡°Whatever,¡± but she lets loose her miles-wide-closed-eyed smile and emits a quiet Shellcracker Squee. Perhaps she was running a bit on me.


    Sighing, as much as I¡¯d love to revel in Teuila¡¯s affection and antics, we¡¯ve got a plan to hatch on the fly. I express my thoughts on the rescue op, ¡°Te, I think you should throw me at the ground as absolutely hard as you can when we¡¯re almost about a kilometer out from the target zone. It should be far enough, that when the fracas swarms me, they won¡¯t be getting in your way, but close enough that it¡¯ll draw attention from the target zone.¡±


    Nodding silently, Teuila rubs the corner of her left eye. Funnily, an itch and a tear roll along my left eyelid as well, so I end up doing the same. Despite the emotional heaviness, we¡¯re united in this, together on every level, and I feel light. Figuratively and literally, what with Te¡¯s gravity manipulation from her Latent, ¡°precise control over the forces of attraction.¡± Heh. Ah you just had to go and think something positive Reggie, didn¡¯t you? Now you¡¯ve gone and jinxed this whole operation. Bah, shut up, it was barely¡ªcrap.


    Is that a massive hydracoliche? Surrounded by a swarm of fliders? Nightmare-fuel and a half! Ugh, the one I took down at ShizTinth was bad enough. The fliders seem to be taking turns spraying calcifying webbing at the hydracoliche, increasing its mass. Hm, not so much taking turns, as mostly out of, well, web-fluid I guess. Bluh. Definitely going to need to deal with that before it becomes a much bigger, far heavier issue. Literally. Well, I guess I know what my distraction is going to be.

 B 6 C 242: Another Hydra Thing

    Thinking things through, I try not to sigh as I recount just how many hydras or hydra-like creatures I¡¯ve faced across my lives. Two, well, three Octorochis if you count Dehlia¡¯s nearly total transformation, since she was definitely attacking all out with intent to kill me back then. Let¡¯s see, oh, that weird plant thing named Cigarette. One, two¡­ three hydras in the swamps here on Rayileklia? Then a bunch of hydra chimaeras in ShizTinth, and now another souped-up hydracoliche.


    As I¡¯m ruminating, Teuila seems lost in thought, imagining something, only briefly. When she begins giggling a moment, Te brings my attention to her gorgeous face, its galaxy-like smattering of freckles, and the emerald-ringed tunnels that mark the orbs of her eyes. I can¡¯t help smiling at her, though I do raise a brow in query as to why she was giggling.


    Thankfully, Te fills me in, ¡°Yeeting you into the horde, and seeing your full crashdown strike for myself is gonna be hot ay eff babe. We need to do this more often.¡±


    Snorting a laugh, I¡¯m about to state how ridiculous the sentiment is, but suddenly I¡¯m spinning, hurled through the air towards the hydracoliche at near-mach speeds. Te you butt, I didn¡¯t even have my spell fully prepped and up yet. Finishing the last few runes of a recast of Steely Body, I sigh as my Adamantite form coalesces just in time before I make impact with one of the skulls of the hydracoliche. Since I¡¯m spinning like a top, I go ballistic firing holy halefire double-barreled crossbow bolts as fast as the crossbow will regenerate the energy bolts.


    Angling down through the vertebrae of one of this thing¡¯s necks, I actually manage to detach one of its heads by acting like an internal holy laser buzzsaw. Or some radiant ninja blender. I¡¯ve got the Riptide Katana out in my offhand, just holding it while I spin, gouging along the insides of this beast¡¯s bones as my mainhand fires the wrist-mounted crossbow rapidly. Sometimes, a ridiculously long fifteen foot blade can come in handy. Snrk. It all happens in the span of mere moments, but I crater beneath the hydracoliches taloned feet, quaking and shaking the thing enough to cause a small bone avalanche.


    Standing and plodding out of the crater I¡¯d created upon impact, I stretch my temporarily Adamantite muscles, literally flexing on the wide-eyed horde. The innumerable masses of Terrorzin¡¯s forces surround me, and if they weren¡¯t already equipped, begin picking up weapons and gear to rush me. Alright Reggie, breathe deeply of the moment between moments. Slip into the absence of the flow of time. Read the battlefield as best you can. Take your thermal senses and paint the pictures in retrocognition.


    Unfortunately, there¡¯s enough fliders, that the damage I did will be rapidly undone. I¡¯m going to need to take them out first, while somehow not getting absolutely demolished by this undead monstrosity, or the swathes of foes. The horde of foes is so varied in shape and size, that the roiling mass of heat in my thermal scans is completely unreadable for any details beyond, ¡°here be dragon(kin)s.¡± Snrk. Alright, well, I guess this is a bit pointless. My brain is too effed over at the moment to really make sense of, or make use out of anything I can do in retrocognition. Too bad. Gonna have to wing it. Gee, as if that¡¯s something new Reggie. Oh shut up. I have plans¡­ sometimes. Pft. Snorting with laughter, I release my grip and slip from the absence of the flow of time back to reality.


    Only an instant after I land, over my goggles, I hear Teuila chirp, ¡°Gee Airhead, you sure know how to make an entrance and leave an impact,¡± before cackling delightfully.


    Shaking my head and rolling my eyes, I almost can¡¯t believe Teuila isn¡¯t adhering to radio-silence for a covert ops rescue mission, almost. Moreso, that she broke radio silence for a pun so terrible that it¡¯s the sort my mind would come up with and simultaneously berate myself for having come up with. But, well, this is Te we¡¯re talking about. Love of my life, My Wings, Tenith of the Onyx Dawn. She¡¯s a complete friggin¡¯ goober. Snrk, heh, sometimes anyway. It¡¯s probably a good thing she can¡¯t hear me thinking that right now, since my psionic-aegis circlet is in place, blocking all psy effects.


    Still, it looks like I¡¯m on duty for pest control for the foreseeable future. It¡¯s going to be rough as hell trying to take these things down¡­ unless¡­ Unless what? Unless I get them to take each other out. If a few of them blast each others¡¯ wings with that bone-webbing, they¡¯ll crash out of the sky, and be nearly useless. At least compared to when they¡¯re airborne. If it only pings them in the wings, rather than getting a heavy direct shot, they might be able to walk around and still fire off calcifying webbing, shoring up the hydracoliche.


    Regardless, another great thing about the Riptide Katana, at least right now, is that I can parry these calcifying web shots. I mean, I could with any weapon. With Riptide, I can do it without my blade getting weighed down, or me getting stuck in bone-webbing. I mean, since the blade is literally just water, from my own waterskin, or the constant rain of Rayileklia, or any source. And even if it did manage to somehow trap the blade, I can literally just have it levitate new water into a blade for the hilt, from the rain or puddles or whatever.


    Woah! Oof, koff koff. Firstly, I need to check where I¡¯m parrying bone-webbing shots, because I redirected some away from me, without thinking that they were going to hit the hydracoliche. Okay, so the hydracoliche has a bit of shapeshifting ability, or more limbs than I realized, or both. Or it can make up new limbs and abilities on the fly as it gets enhanced with extra bone or corpses and other stuff. We definitely need to keep it away from the chokepoints, where there¡¯s almost nothing but corpses in a near-endless supply.


    Ow, ow, ow. And now it¡¯s just stomping on me. That¡¯s annoying. Also, ow my ribs, and ow my stupid perforated right lung. Koff. Blurgh. Okay, that¡¯s enough of that. Cosmic Roundsheath, gonna levitate you out and do a Wormhole Warpstrike onto this thing¡¯s spine. Well, one of its spines.


    Everything spaghettifies for the briefest instant as I¡¯m sucked through a realm of the absence of space to my destination. I¡¯m flung down into my target, ejected from that realm with the force of a hurricane. Thankfully, some part of the item¡¯s activation prevents me from feeling any of the force of my own delivery. I could have used Mindfire¡¯s teleport instead of charges from the roundsheath, but I¡ªoh Mindfire. Hah. Hahah. Okay, let¡¯s see if these fliders have brains.


    Drawing Mindfire from my elemental bandolier, I keep it gripped tightly in my mainhand, so that I don¡¯t accidentally drop it. Well, its effect that teleports me is only supposed to trigger at the end of a throw, whether it hits a target, or lands at the edge of its range. I¡¯m not sure if dropping it counts the same. I¡¯d rather not find out though. I don¡¯t want to trigger its teleportation, and lose it for a day. It¡¯d suck for it to disappear, then I¡¯d be stuck waiting for its reappearance in the bandolier tomorrow.


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    My offhand is guided by my danger wraps, parrying calcifying web-shots with Riptide, while my mainhand is blitzing about firing off holy halefire double-barreled crossbow bolts in a frenetic display of, ¡°Hey, come get me, I¡¯m attacking everything in sight.¡± It certainly seems to be working. Te¡¯s made progress to the designated zone. I can tell from her scrying feed, that she¡¯s taking a moment to be stealthy, and assess the area, trying to pick out where her rescue target is. More and more of the foes in the region she¡¯s scoping out head eastwards towards me.


    LBBTKSL¡¯ing¡ªfriggin¡¯ hell I need better move names and acronyms¡ªinto the sky, I zip near-horizontally whilst holding my breath to keep my featherfall enchantment from the Wyverium chestplate activated. More and more fliders begin to focus on me, due to me pinging them with annoying little crossbow bolts. I land atop one, and casually kick my adamantite boots into the back of its carapace, locking myself in place as if I were wearing skis, or a snowboard. Woah, a little unsteady, but we¡¯ll get the hang of it. Or this thing will crash and burn, and probably die. Either¡¯s fine by me.


    Jamming Mindfire downwards into this thing¡¯s skull has an interesting consequence. The thing spasms, losing control of its every muscle, and begins flailing wildly about, launching bone webbing everywhere other than where it intended to. I wonder how long that effect will last. Oh, only about six seconds. Too bad. I wonder how many of these things I can get freaking out in six seconds. Reggie? Mhm? Don¡¯t do what I think you¡¯re going to do.


    Pft, as if I could stop me from doing what I don¡¯t think I should want to think I should do. Or something. What was I saying? Rattling my skull, my brain aches. Today has been a day. That it has pal, that it has. Leapfrogging from flider to flider, parrying blasts of webbing out of the air, I knick about five before a six second countdown hits. So I can probably keep five freaking out simultaneously, if I play it casually. Yeah, with however many dozens of these creeps are in the sky? I can¡¯t play it casually. Here goes, well, somethin¡¯.


    Wearing QCR number four, my lightning-cursed leg-guards, summoning all lightning in the area to me, including a massive torrent from the Worldstorm itself, I grimace at the scent of my own charred hair and smoking flesh. Eugh. Drawing my lightning-empowered-rune knife, concentrating on Claiomh Solais, I leap in tighter and tighter circles as I get the fliders to target and follow me.


    When I¡¯ve got as many clumped up as I possibly can, I doff my cursed greaves, push outwards with my EM field organ, and unleash a lightning bolt from Claiomh Solais expanded and reinforced by metamagic, and the elemental-enhancing rune knife. Okay, note to self. Close eyes before doing that next time. My sight is pure white, with some sparkling starbursts of colors flashing and swimming about my vision for the moment.


    My silent sonar, and hearing, can detect dozens of fliders dropping out of the sky, or sizzling and smoking but still heading my way. My vision slowly begins to return, not that it¡¯s much of a welcome sight for my sore eyes. It¡¯s nothing but snarling fanatics, raucous undead abominations, and chimaeric experimentations. All appearing stop-motion¡¯y when lit by the constant flicker of the Worldstorm¡¯s lightning, as if I were being chased off of a rave¡¯s dance floor. Anyway, now it¡¯s time to do what I told myself to not do that I thought I was going to do that I thought that I shouldn¡¯t. Ow. My freakin¡¯ brain. It seriously needs a break.


    Glancing through my goggles, Teuila¡¯s scrying feed is just a sickening blur of motion at the moment, so I can¡¯t really parse her progress. But it does mean she¡¯s doing well enough to continue moving at speed. Speaking of speed¡ªOh boy, you complete doofus. Finishing my climb sky-high, literally, all the way to Worldstorm level I take a deep breath, and don my lightning-cursed leg guards once again. Holding my breath, I leap to float so that I¡¯m facing down towards the ground, with my legs bunched up above me on one of my own TK squares. Now!


    Exhaling smoothly, so that gravity takes hold of me, I push off into an empowered plunge, straight down. Drawing a river of Worldstorm lightning with me, I spin my way down through the assembled flying foes chasing me, intentionally nicking every flider with Mindfire. Aiming to repurpose my previous hole in the hydracoliche before it manages to fully recuperate or fill the hole with new bone, I blitz downwards into it, and keep my cursed greaves equipped. Hanging out beneath the undead behemoth, I let lightning continue to rain down on me, through it.


    Of course, I¡¯m still getting the crap zapped out of me, because my EM field organ is only a few days old in this body, and too weak to push out against the curse. More ow. More ow friggin¡¯ ow. Also, the woven fabric of magic across Rayileklia, its leylines are tugged and pulled in several directions simultaneously, all from the furthest rungs. There are multiple high-mage casters out here, at the very least, if not archwizards or sorcerer supremes. Despite how powerful the effects are, I have to giggle about numerical incompatibility. Which probably sounds insane. I mean, I guess it is insane.


    Since I come from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, the numbers that make up the fundamental core of my being are so alien to Rayileklia, that a power word meant to slay someone instantly with a certain level of constitution or health, does nothing. Same with the power words intending to stun or invoke pain. Like, I¡¯m in plenty pain already, heh. But not from their spells. Still, some of them put up a few walls of magic, ones that come in layered arrays of color in a prismatic sense. Those do tend to hurt a little bit. Fortunately for me, they tend to hurt Rayileklians more than me.


    Chancing a brief glance through my goggles towards the scrying security center, I try to pick out Lucky, Lil, and Shiz¡¯s feeds. There¡¯s a gaggle of bodies moving about, making it difficult. The ancient Fire, and Ice, the high commanders, aren¡¯t making any headway against chokepoint number two, which is good. I do want to relieve Lucky as soon as possible though. I want him to be able to take breaks, and to keep working on bunkers and evacuation routes.


    Reaching out with my mind¡ªwell, my telekinesis¡ªI grab and chuck any unarmored foes within range into these walls of prismatic elemental destruction. They¡¯re vaporized or petrified or fried or frozen and shattered, or transmuted into mush, or have other horrible effects occur. Yeesh. Of course, many of the armored ones have anti-telekinetic runes engraved on them, annoyingly. Still, plenty are vulnerable to my TK. Thanks for providing me an environmental weapon bozos. Hm, too bad Lu has the tendril tattoo¡­ or does she?


    I don¡¯t remember seeing the tattoo emplaced upon her arms while Alanea was tending to the breaks and fractures. Lu, you clever little darling, did you do what I think you did? Reaching into my interdimensional pouch, I fish around, and grin when I feel a tattoo needle that seems to constantly drip ink. Applying it to myself, I¡¯m happy on a whole other level, for a whole bunch of reasons. One of which is how it brings me back to our days on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, when we were really learning to adventure together.


    Lashing out with these tendrils of pure force, I use them to knock foes aside, or grip them and slam them into each other, or to drag and fling myself about. Most importantly though, I dive to the far side of the hydracoliche. Grinning wildly crazily, I put on the absolute highest acceleration I can muster, all my force exploding out behind me against a TK square.


    As I¡¯m passing the hydracoliche, I engage the tendrils, wrapping about parts of it where leverage is on my side. My Adamantite form rocketing past this creature¡ªsuddenly tethered to it by magical, nearly-unbreakable tendrils¡ªtopples the beast. Better yet, my momentum topples the creature into, and drags it through these prismatically elemental walls.


    Well, parts of it anyway. Large sections of it begin to separate, some of which are moving independently, which I do not like at all, so I begin batting those sections into my new favorite environmental hazard.

 B 6 C 243: Stay Down

    One thing my TK squares are great at? Redirecting or blocking jets of acid. The pressure in an acid volley tends to not be enough to shatter them, and they aren¡¯t a physical substance to break down through acid¡¯s chemical solvent properties. Another thing they¡¯re pretty good at, is levitating corpses, fallen chunks of hydracoliche, equipment, and living foes who aren¡¯t TK-warded into the paths of said acid jets, and similar horrifying effects leveled my way.


    There are plenty of fliders left about. Actually, some of them might be being reanimated by Terrorzin¡¯s necromancers. That would just be annoying. I¡¯m not out here to do another endless-hordes-of-the-Fel you dinks. I am however getting dogpiled, so I swap to my cursed greaves, summoning a river of Worldstorm lightning down onto myself again. It buys me a moments reprieve as I dig my way out of charred corpses, or shrug off the lightning-immune Blues. Doffing the cursed greaves, I rotate the river of lightning around me and send it cascading out into the fray while I¡¯m busy stabbing and slashing lightning-immune foes.


    Finally starting to be able to tell who¡¯s casting what, I dash towards a necromancer while shouting, ¡°When I put something down, I want it to stay down!¡±


    Gruesomely, I bludgeon the necromancer to death. There was no fear in his eyes, only fanatical hatred. Hm, wait, I think I can prevent any necromantic reanimation revivification or rejuvenation. That¡¯s right. I learned the necromantic bolt spell, and figured out how to get it down to one SP, which means it¡¯s now free with the sash. Without engaging my runic clips, I tag every flider I can find, live or dead, with necromantic bolts.


    Oh, distractions. This isn¡¯t great for me. Something directed a few fliders above me, and detonated them. Their calcifying webbing spatters out in a wide radius, covering and hardening over me and the nearby vicinity. I should ravenport out of¡ªwait.


    Donning my cursed greaves again, Worldstorm lightning provides, and virtually vaporizes the webbing. Well, huh. Too bad my EM field organ is underdeveloped in this body. It¡¯s going to get plenty of exercise today though. It¡¯s going to hurt, and cost me a lot of health over time, but I might as well just keep the greaves on while pushing out with my electrokinesis and EM field organ as best I can.


    I¡¯ll try to keep the incoming damage to a minimum, between my abilities, and passive resistances, which have probably skyrocketed since Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s keep. I get an endless supply of lightning, whew. The only thing that can get close to me without dying is foes whose armor happens to be warded against lightning, or Blues in their dragon or human forms.


    There are a few downsides to this plan. It feels like I¡¯m back in RS1 when my nerve-tunnels were cored out, as I fight against spasming from all the electric shocks. Also, I can¡¯t keep my Steely Body spell up versus the lightning. I just do not have the SP to be recasting it every few seconds. Another one, is I can¡¯t see a gorram thing through the unending brightness.


    Thankfully I¡¯ve got my danger wraps¡¯ silent sonar to lean on, and my TK and thermal senses. Magic items and abilities I haven¡¯t pulled out in a while I¡¯ve got to keep track of and make sure I¡¯m utilizing fully. My brain feels overloaded from the stress of multitasking by engaging so many abilities simultaneously though.


    My cryokinesis through my ties to the Frosty Fel lets me conjure a bit of cold without much effort, enough to frost the ground around my feet. Though it almost instantly melts what with the heat of lightning. Seconds drift by into minutes as I dash, skate, or plod about the place, wreaking havoc with lightning, physically or telekinetically chucking foes into walls of prismatic elements, and generally just clearing out a wide field. Terrorzin¡¯s forces, even the lightning immune ones, have elected to start staying well clear of me.


    They¡¯re focusing on building up their ranged offenses, getting archers, gunners, and breathers and blasters in place. The dragons¡ªbreathers and blasters mostly, I would assume¡ªseem dubious about their position of having to attack me, but charge their breath weapons anyway. Several just don¡¯t have the range, and several can see that I¡¯m obviously immune¡ªwell, darn near¡ªto lightning, heat, cold, and poison. Sands and Acids clash when trying to blast me, basically backfiring with a lack of teamwork, allowing me to ignore many of them. Plus, there are very few sands. I think two in total, in this segment of the horde.


    The Poisons can¡¯t even get their breath close enough to see if I would choke on it, or if it would damage me. They¡¯re balked by all the lightning I¡¯m tossing about that ends up igniting their breath weapons in their faces. It allows me a moment of reprieve to finish the hydracoliche, and all the fliders, using the endless torrent of lightning. Between being chased by Worldstorm lightning everywhere, struck by it constantly, and using my tendrils and telekinesis to rapidly flit about and knock foes into environmental hazards, I¡¯m pooped.


    My flesh is seared raw, and I don¡¯t know if I even have any more hair left to stand on end. The scent of my own burning hair and flesh seems permanently affixed to the inside of my nostrils, which is absolutely awful. While there are only a few of them, the gunners are the only danger to me at the moment, so I try to keep corpses or shields between my vitals, and them. It¡¯s not an easy task, as they¡¯re trying to get ranged weapons set up in a wide circle around me. Phooph.


    I sink to my knees while doffing my cursed greaves. Directing my lightning westward through the assembled horde, I crumple from the constant strain of shocking the crap out of myself. Huff. I¡¯m just gonna¡­ stay down here for a little bit. A call goes out amongst Terrorzin¡¯s forces to ceasefire, and to check, ¡°the corpse¡±. Rolling my eyes, I take a breather as a few brave souls run up to scout me out. Waiting until the last possible second, before they¡¯re within spear-length of me, I enjoy this moment of reprieve, despite being face-down in sizzling gore. Just as they¡¯re about to become a danger by getting into melee range, I begin telekinetically gripping those that I can, while my tendrils lash out.


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    The screams of fear as I rise and return to my work of carnage are as unpleasant as every other sensation right now. My eyesight is virtually gone, blurry as hell. My gustatory senses feel like my tongue is coated in copper and rotten eggs. Every nerve ending of my flesh is virtually aflame. My muscles are sapped to the point of exhaustion. The snarling and yelling of the horde is giving me a headache. Or, well, it would be, if my head wasn¡¯t already aching from a million different things.


    Since my foes want to play with me from a fairly distant range, I begin slinging frosty rays their way, coupled with necrotic bolts. The change-up on my elemental devastation helps reduce the number of lightning-immune foes. Mixing it with my cryokinesis to frost the ground and skate about, I pick up speed and mobility as best I can. Adding in my lightning breath while utilizing my electrokinesis lets me conjure my own ball-lightning that I lob about the battlefield.


    Through my goggles, I can barely make out the sound of Teuila stating, ¡°Airhead, there¡¯s still too many that won¡¯t leave their post. I can¡¯t get in stealthily. I have to engage and kick some major tail.¡±


    Ugh. I¡¯m a kilometer out from Te. I thought it¡¯d be wise to be trying to draw things out over here. But, if we¡¯ve gotta beat down the horde around the rescue area anyway, I should have just dropped there in the first place. Crap on several crackers I can barely move. My muscles are wobbly and vibrating. I can¡¯t afford to stay down here though.


    Despite not being fast enough for evasive maneuvers, I scoop myself up on a TK square and begin TK surfing around and over the horde to the west. Now, do I blitz these bozos, pulling down more Worldstorm lightning, or do I¡ªFarzhis and Kinzul! Gazing up, I gasp when I realize that the Worldstorm isn¡¯t as full of constant blinding flashes of horizontal lightning as I¡¯m used to. Oh no. Oh no oh no. Please be okay, please be okay. I can¡¯t check on Kinzul, she¡¯s *still* off-grid. Farzhis though, she looks ill, drenched in sweat, and is in the infirmary.


    Veril looks distraught as he¡¯s out near Mah¡¯ruke picking off stragglers of the siege. I¡¯m sure he wants to check in on her and be there for her. Okay, okay, she¡¯s alive, and it might not necessarily be my fault that she¡¯s ill. It could be coincidence, though I sort of doubt it. Fine then. Worldstorm lightning and cursed greaves are a last resort, off the table for now. I¡¯ve got to be more self-sufficient with my offenses. Alright, I¡¯ll be leaning more on my breath weapons, cantrips, telekinesis, tendrils, and possibly conjuring FFS from my archsorc staff, Cla¨ªomh Solais.


    To be fair, having slain nearly all the non-lightning-immune foes, the hydracoliche, the fliders, and a few lightning-immune jerks via cold, or environmental hazards, or plain old-fashioned stabbing, in a quarter kilometer radius put a rather large dent in the horde. Hm. I¡¯m almost surprised that¡ªdon¡¯t you dare finish that thought. Right. Right. We don¡¯t need that kind of karma, luck, or genre-trope to strike, when we¡¯re this badly off, this deep into enemy lines. Plus, we still need to distract or destroy foes in the target area to complete the rescue operation.


    Gritting my jaw feels like a hellish agony of muscle-strain. I fight through what feels like it¡¯s going to become a ceaseless pain. Loosing my breath weapons in bursts, I use combinations of thunder shouting, alternating poison with flame to bounce off of my own explosions, and lightning to boost my TK square leaping. The erratic nature of my movement thankfully makes me hard to pin down. Unfortunately, despite being a speedster, Teuila isn¡¯t as well-off as I am. And that¡¯s saying something, because I¡¯m doing miserably. She¡¯s within sight-range, but only just barely.


    Gnawing my bottom lip in concern, I notice that Te''s wincing, hesitating, and getting sloppy. It¡¯s probably because of the injuries she''d been absorbing. I can¡¯t keep up with my aerial maneuvers any longer with my muscles and jaw feeling like lead. Falling at an angle, I bounce, skid, and faceplant as I approach the foes who¡¯d turned west to rush Teuila when she engaged. Groaning, I stand while wobbling side to side, looking for all the world like some charred zombie.


    Still, telekinesis, tendrils, and my breath weapons are enough to begin carving my way through the horde towards Teuila. I pepper in plenty of frosty rays or necrotic bolts as well, without engaging the runic clips. Unfortunately, the myriad foes who¡¯d been surrounding me a kilometer to the east are doing their best to rush my way. Those that can fly followed me fairly closely. The landbound ones are scrambling to march or dash after me.


    I worry that I might be doing more harm than good, dragging more foes this way. Though only for a moment, as I remind myself that the foes who¡¯d been after me probably would have gone after Teuila as a much larger unit, when she engaged, if I hadn¡¯t gone in first.


    Still, we¡¯re in the thick of it, the worst of the worst. I do my best to parry and disarm any weapons that are jabbed my way, but the sheer number of foes with fangs and claws that leap upon me leaves me constantly struggling to slay my way through dogpile after dogpile. My whole world is flailing limbs and breath weapons galore. Every few seconds I¡¯ve got to thunder shout, or ignite a poison-breath to explode a pile of foes, or corpses, off of me.


    Glancing through my goggles, the second chokepoint is holding, and it looks like Lil is going nova. With how bright they are, his flames are blocking out nearly all the scrying feeds from anyone¡¯s goggles who are posted over that way. That¡¯s my best buddy for ya. Sun, Star of the Onyx Dawn. I worry that he feels he¡¯s got something to prove, since we couldn¡¯t keep his primordial evolution.


    Whispering only to myself, I mutter, ¡°You¡¯ve got nothing to prove Lil. You¡¯re brave, and strong, and perfect. Be safe buddy.¡± As I do, it almost feels like a beam of light breaks the Worldstorm¡¯s cloudcover, the way the lightning seems to center and circle temporarily.


    A call goes out amongst Terrorzin¡¯s troops, ¡°Surround the flying gnat, give her no room to breathe, end her now!¡±


    My eyes fly wide in realization and horror, watching as thousands of foes advance towards, and descend upon Teuila, blanketing out her section of the battlefield. She¡¯s a speedster. She needs room to accelerate to combat at her best. Worse, I feel a tug on Rayileklia¡¯s magical woven essence, its leylines. The draw is across some of its more potent rungs, somewhere between the sixth and eighth tier. No. No no no!


    Sensing Te in danger, I hit a second wind¡ªwait. Did I hit a second wind because of Te being in danger, or because ¡°The Sun shone a certain way,¡± upon the Stone In Two Parts? Err, doesn¡¯t matter! Pouring out every ounce of effort I¡¯ve got, I clear a larger swathe of the horde. Angling towards the new threat against My Wings, I¡¯m about to speed off when it feel like my right arm is nearly yanked from its socket. Apparently, that tug on the weave was conjuring or animating chains about my wrist.

 B 6 C 244: Mindbendy

    Argh! The chain about my wrist yanks forcefully, as more attempt to ensnare my ankles. Glancing back, I see the cowardly archwizard from earlier¡ªthe one who fled after I broke his timestop¡ªsnearing, so I snark, ¡°Look buddy, I¡¯m not into bondage.¡°


    The archwizard virtually howls as he commands, ¡°Not so fast, whelp!¡± Tapping his temple, and pointing at the bindings, he claims, ¡°Chains of the Fel,¡± and he continues in a voice he probably thinks sounds menacing, ¡°You aren¡¯t going anywhere! You¡¯re mine now. And soon, your life¡¯s essence, Dragonforce, and soul will be mine as well.¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I simply grumble, ¡°You absolute outhouse! I¡¯m. Busy. Here!¡±


    The inconvenience of having had this fecal repository¡¯s magical bindings spring into existence around one of my limbs while in motion mostly irritates me, but it does give me pause. Glancing at the chain binding me, it¡¯s translucent, ethereal, and seems to extend deeply into the soil of Rayileklia. More than that, it¡¯s smoky, and I can tell if I were anyone else, that it¡¯d be charring my wrist, and slowly reeling downwards to drag me presumably towards hell.


    Well if it¡¯s Fel he wants, it¡¯s Fel he¡¯ll get. The archwizard advances on me, so I turn my own sneer towards him and growl out, ¡°Fel off pal,¡± before uttering a guttural acronym, ¡°F F S!¡±


    Caught offguard, he begins to laugh at what he assumes the acronym means, but only for a split instant before my Flash Freeze Storm, my FFS, manifests. Ever since the chaotic reincarnation magic, I¡¯m tied to the archdevil of the Frosty Fel on Rayileklia. The Ice of Rage isn¡¯t the only one with hellishly cold powers around here jerkwad. Sure, Terrorzin¡¯s frost aura might be more menacing, but he can go suck an egg. Wait, what¡¯s the etymology of that phrase? I hope it¡¯s nothing offensive. Wait. Why do I care about a private thought about Terrorzin being off¡ªnever mind.


    I don¡¯t manage to do more than stupefy and inconvenience the archwizard¡ªand about a hundred random troops, casters, and human-form dragons¡ªfor a bit as a layer of frost coats my vicinity. But I do manage to make the magical chains binding me brittle. This allows me to shatter it with my equipment, specifically Frostburn. The shorn chain unleashes a sound that makes me wince. It¡¯s far too like the sound of a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian derezzing into polygons for my comfort.


    The archwizard is smug, but as far as I can tell, he¡¯s not going to risk meteors with so many allies around, if he¡¯s even capable of bringing them. The rest of his offenses are seemingly at most an inconvenience. Deciding he isn¡¯t worth my efforts when Teuila is in peril, I turn to leave once again, but yet another subtle spell manifests. I can feel its tug on the weave, but I don¡¯t have the SP to waste on this geek. The spells he¡¯s flinging haven¡¯t been battlefield crippling, but this one is suddenly sending shivers down my spine.


    Tenebrous tendrils, tentacles of inky blackness reach through cosmic tears in the fabric of space into our realm. They lash to-and-fro, seemingly striking yet passing through everything in range. Everything in my senses goes off-kilter just perceiving them, as if my eyes were moved aside and rotated away from each other forty-five degrees.


    My vision wavers and wobbles, bent and skewed at incomprehensible angles. The deafening sounds of the roar of battle are replaced with hissed whispers that somehow blot out all else, filling my mind in a confusing, brain-melting alien tongue. The tendrils have nearly imperceptible eyes and mouths, simultaneously like a squid¡¯s hooked tentacle suckers, yet also nothing alike to anything in our realm. The sheer cosmic horror of simply perceiving these impossible entities would drive anyone mad. Getting snatched by any of them? Let¡¯s just say it¡¯d be bad, really bad. That¡¯s putting it lightly.


    As if I were trapped in a child¡¯s kaleidoscope, everything feels like it spins and fractures into mosaic versions of itself, fractal patterns endlessly repeating, dizzying me. With how my perceptions are skewed, I can¡¯t tell where or what to target if I wanted to dispel the effect conjured by the archwizard¡¯s spell. In fact, I¡¯d probably be entirely incapacitated already if it weren¡¯t for my psi-blocking circlet. Fine, he wants to prove he¡¯s worth my time before I rush to Teuila¡¯s aid? He¡¯s succeeded. And I¡¯m going to make this witless knave, this cantankerous cur, wish he hadn¡¯t.


    The cackling idiot screams, ¡°Hahaha, reel as the horror breaks your mind, feel your sanity slipping away along with your grip on reality! As your brain melts out your ears I¡¯ll¡ªeh. What,¡± and his tirade ends in a flub as he stares at me in disbelief that neither do I have brain matter oozing out my ears, nor am I hindered from acting.


    I snarl, and hurl an insult at my foe before roaring my titles, ¡°You complete jackanape! I am Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an Archmage Aliased ~-VOID the CEASELESS-~ Schism! And I! Am! The! Void Dragon Honoris Causa! You want to see mind-breaking horror? I¡¯ll show you mind breaking horror!¡±


    For some reason, I think I blacked out for about five seconds. My senses just sort of distorted and faded away to nothing, before coming back full tilt. My silent sonar senses pick up something weird, a heavy drip between¡­ Did¡­ the archwizard just wet himself? Also¡­ did I say something between Alias and Schism? My brain fritzes for a moment, and BSODs. What was I thinking about? Okay, uh, what happened? Dozens, maybe hundreds of foes around me seem virtually petrified. It¡¯s almost like they¡¯re quaking in terror. Did I¡ªhuh. When did I manifest my Honoris Causa like this? I can¡¯t recall.


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    Speaking of Honoris Causas, Teuila¡¯s is manifested in its full physical form, and foes are swarming atop it. Her real body is safe within, and she¡¯s¡ªhah. She¡¯s in her mirage-flash stance. She¡¯s honing it, charging it up, holding it longer and longer. Things are about to get ridiculous. How many hits can she unleash during mirage-flash at this point? Plus, they¡¯re *Teuila* hits, so they strike with the force of a fighter jet gone sonic. My guess is she¡¯s probably got it up to a multiple of eight. Either eight, sixteen, sixty four, or something like that. We¡¯ll see when she¡¯s done charging up the stance, how many booms she unleashes.


    Still, something¡¯s up, and not in a good way. What happened to the archwizard¡¯s mindbendy spell? I don¡¯t sense chaos-tentacles anywhere any longer. Was it a short duration spell? I don¡¯t want it sneaking up on me and popping back up at an inopportune moment. For now, let¡¯s hack away at this archwizard¡¯s defenses. He¡¯s got a ton of warding spells and abjurative magics up.


    Too bad that that Wardbreaker I found in Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡¯s domain was single use, and that I had to use it on Al¡¯pa¡¯ca. I¡¯m not willing to blow through resources into unsafe SP expenditures for the day whittling away and dispelling this guy¡¯s buffs. I am however willing to ping him with a few frosty rays the size of ballista bolts, and necrotic blasts.


    Each cast of a spell, even these little¡ªwell, okay, my ties to the Frosty Fel enhance frost rays about sixteen times potency¡ªcantrips, provide myriad effects. Since I innately have subtle-spell metamagical rigor, they engage all the procedural effects from my runic clips relating to metamagic, I get a thin film of mana as a temporary slight shield, I clear my own mind of mental effects, and unleash a rapid cavalcade of random additional annoying little bursts of elements along with each spell.


    Why am I still holding Mindfire, when I could use it to get closer to Teuila? Well, or I could use it to end this jerkwad, so that he doesn¡¯t use another spell that sets me back yet again. Throwing Mindfire, I redirect it midair to curve around my target. He appears perplexed that it seems my deadly-accurate throw suddenly went wide and missed. He had even brought up a temporary shield in front of himself to deflect it. With another telekinetic grip, I slip it along the back of his neck, teleporting to its position, with it in my hand momentarily until it disappears for the day.


    From nowhere, nowhere at all, for some reason I utter, ¡°Nothin¡¯ personal, but omae wa mou shinderou,¡± before shanking and shiving this archwizard with four telekinetically lifted elemental daggers from my elemental bandolier, Mindfire, and Riptide, and I headbutt him in the back of the skull for good measure. The random elemental daggers, oddly, happen to be cold, fire, lightning, and acid, in that order. They happen to be the same order as my elemental powers achieved on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. The same order of my first dragonforces since the open start of the dragon war.


    Wait. Did I just say something just now after teleporting? What was it? Why can¡¯t I remember it? Or maybe I imagined saying something. My brain feels like it¡¯s fritzing out. I try to keep it encased in a protective EM field so that when I¡¯m getting struck by millions of volts of lightning nonstop, it doesn¡¯t get fried.


    Maybe I¡¯ve been failing? Regardless, I stride away from my foe as he internally begins to frost over through his veins. With my thermal senses, I can virtually feel the frost as it spreads through him icing his veins. He then combusts, then spasms from electricity, then begins melting from the center outwards. Gruesome.


    Boom! Followed by boom after boom sends forces flying as Teuila drops the physicality from her Honoris Causa, leaving it ethereal. Wow. She even predicted their exact positions they¡¯d fall in¡ªgravity. Smirking, I shake my head ruefully. Te¡¯s not in any danger from these bozos. I¡¯ll try to keep the adult and ancient dragons off her back while she plows through the horde. After the sixty-fourth sonic crash, and clump of flying foes, there are no more, but I can tell Teuila¡¯s sweating harder than she ever has before. My thermal senses pinpoint that she¡¯s at something like a hundred fifty degrees fahrenheit externally, which worries me for her. My Wings, Te, please be alright.


    I know she has elemental resistances and boons from Iceyhot and her Seasonal Gi, and runic clips, but burning hotter than a fever can¡¯t be good for her regardless. You¡¯re one to talk though Reggie. Eh? Well, I mean, yeah. Lightning is hot as hell. Though something like ninety nine point nine nine percent of the heat dissipates in convection. Or something like that anyway. Still, my externals are still something like a hundred twenty degrees, even after frosting myself and the area around me non-stop since I stopped using the Worldstorm and cursed-greaves combo.


    My externals had been sitting around eight hundred for most of the duration of the fight, between being covered in fire, lightning, and whatever else. Wait. Is acid even a danger to me if I keep myself coated in fire and lightning? If the air around me is near a thousand degrees, which I think is my maximum safe limit for prolonged exposure, can I just boil off or evaporate acid on its way to me?


    Depending on the chemical composition, the water in the acid might boil off as the acid breaks down into its constituent components. Especially if we freeze it first. I really don¡¯t feel like taking pointy acid ice chunks to the face though. So I might stick to boiling it off with the convection from my own lightning. Huh. More science for safety I guess. In that case, more work for ya EM field organ.


    Alright then. Reggie Shellcracker, immune to Fires, Lightnings, Colds, Acids, Poisons, Sands, and capable of softening the impact of Thunderer booms. You really were made to take on dragons weren¡¯t you? I mean, the immunities to Poisons and Sands are because of the amulet, but they don¡¯t need to know that. Oh, and if there are any other psi-dragons like Butterfly of the Evil Claws, we¡¯ve got that covered too as long as we keep our circlet in place. Well, don¡¯t get cocky Reggie, but it¡¯s time to show these people why we¡¯re Kinzul¡¯s Void Dragon Honoris Causa.


    Hopefully we can keep the heat off Teuila if we start engaging swathes of foes out here. Maybe I can even snag some dragonforce to top off. Wait. My dragonforce seems to be topped off again. What the crap? Have I just been subconsciously siphoning it from all the human-form dragons and such that I¡¯ve been slaying? Have I¡­ been ripping out and eating hearts without noticing it? Eugh. Well, whatever the reason, I guess we can go all in on going all out. Pft. I can¡¯t tell if that was an aphorism or a malaphor, or whatnot.


    When at least half a dozen ancients line up to take me on, I sigh while slumping my shoulders. Cracking my neck side to side, I lamely mutter, ¡°Fine. Alright. Bring it.¡±

 B 6 C 245: Step Up

    Despite feeling like hell, I¡¯ve got to step up into the ring as it were. My throat feels like hell from constantly expanding and contracting my organ. Ugh, my breath weapon organ. So glad no one else can hear my brain right now. I have to keep exhaling and alternating breath weapons constantly. Not to mention how wobbly my limbs feel between the beatings they¡¯ve taken, and all the runecrafting and SP expenditures today.


    So, these ancients, sure, are a bit imposing, and sure, I¡¯ve got nothing left in the tank that can deal with them without risking really stupid things¡ªwhere were you going with this Reggie? Uh. I can¡¯t remember. What I wouldn¡¯t give for some sort of superhero power like self-cloning, or friggin¡¯ super-speed. Razzafrazzin¡¯ speedsters. Leave speed to the speedsters Reggie. I¡¯d love to! But I¡¯ve gotta keep wrecking my own face, or legs, or whatever, to get where I need to be, when I need to be there. I think you¡¯re off on a tangent bud.


    Well, I suppose you¡¯re right. Me. Oy vey. Cracking under the pressure much? You could say that. Or cracking under the foot of these five ancient dragons taking turns stomping me. Ow, ow, ow. Mjolnir sails in out of nowhere, clipping two of them in the jaw, bowling them over like dominoes, tipping them all away from me save one, whose stomp I roll out from under. Thanks Te. I needed that. I mean, not that five minutes of being stomped to within an inch of my life, but seeing ancient dragons topple like dominoes due to a casual Mjolnir toss when you aren¡¯t even looking this direction.


    Ugh, so stupidly badass. I need to step up my game to get on her level. Am I jealous? No, I¡¯m freakin¡¯ in love! I just wanna moon over her bein¡¯ so friggin¡¯ awesome. She¡¯s out there, trading away blows with some colossal monstrosity that looks like some kind of gargantuan millipede in a shining crimson exoskeleton. It¡¯s got like a billion spears for legs, horns the size of a city bus, antennae that look like they could signal space, and it seems to be exhaling a cloud of poison.


    What sort of kaiju monstrosity monster factory shenanigans is Terrorzin up to having crap like this? Whatever radioactive brew is churning out these monsters has only one setting: absurd. It¡¯s like he just went to a random name generator, smashed it a few times, looked at the first line, and said sure, let¡¯s make that. Well, more likely, ¡°Hey you, underling, make this for me,¡± or something. Bluh. I¡¯m too tired to roast Terrorzin silently mentally right now.


    For a bit, I¡¯d thought about maybe worrying about Teuila possibly inhaling the toxic gas, but then I remembered a few things. Firstly, she¡¯s got her otter lung boost, so she could probably fight while holding her breath for half an hour if she really needed to. Secondly, she can breathe water, and create infinite water now, with certain runic clip enhancements. So she could literally just keep casting water into her own mouth or throat or nose or whatever.


    Where oh where has my little knife gone? Where oh where could it be? Oh Mindfire, won¡¯t you come home to me. Seriously though. Where the hell does it go when it disappears for twenty four hours? Oh man. Smacking my forehead, I realize I should just tie the sufferin¡¯ thing to my wrist, and use it constantly. Know why? Because psychic damage isn¡¯t subject to the size-difference damage reduction that all these crazy kaijus and enormous ancient dragons and whatever other nonsense have. Blargh! I¡¯m such a dink!


    Now I kinda wish I hadn¡¯t linked its enchantment to the bandolier to free up the roundsheath. Though, the creation and warp strike abilities of the roundsheath have come in handy. Then again, Mindfire had its own warpstrike ability that seemed repeatedly usable, based on the assassin trying to gank me with it in Vorzhog¡¯s keep. Did you really just use the word gank Reggie? Eugh. I don¡¯t know why, but it leaves a fowl taste in my mouth. I shoulda said shank. For some reason, despite being remarkably similar words, with¡ªin this context¡ªremarkably similar meanings, at least that one doesn¡¯t make me wanna blow chunks.


    Oh man. What would these dragons even do if I just started horfing because of my own mental monologue? Like, would they try to avoid the spatter? Kind of a ridiculous thought Reggie. I know, I know, but you know me. We try to weaponize anything and everything our mind comes across, and add it to our toolbelt. Always snagging new tools. Yeah. You¡¯re such a tool. Hey. Snrk. Okay. I deserved that. Reggie. Mhm? Remember one of your most common, most fatal flaws? Which one? I¡¯ve got quite a¡ªow. I¡¯m guessing that one. Distractibility.


    Coughing, I drag myself out of the rubble of this ruin that I crashed into when this Thunderer ancient blasted me sideways. Now they¡¯re all waltzing up to me in a semicircle. Shaking my head, I sigh and just give them a weary look. As they posture with dragonfright, I lose it to a fit of the giggles. I really shouldn¡¯t. I¡¯m baked out of my mind¡ªerm, not like, stoned baked, like cooked¡ªand my muscles feel like they¡¯ve been through a paper press. Still, I strive to expand my Honoris Causa as large as I can in order to take them on. I¡¯m only something like, maybe *maybe* at the very most, possibly close to a seventh of their size.


    If they¡¯re Wolves, Great Danes, and Saint Bernards, my Honoris Causa is a chihuahua¡¯s snout even after expanding it as far as I can. Worse, I¡¯m already bad at fighting in my own normal body with no training. I have no idea what sort of martial arts applies to fighting dragons as a dragon. Well, even if I had an idea, I¡¯d still lack the training. Also, I¡¯m pretty sure that no martial art teaches you how to take on someone as comparatively large as a luxury cruise ship.


    Could we sit in retrocognition and just map three-d modeling and choreograph fighting maneuvers? Well, not with my Honoris Causa up. That¡¯d tear my skull open from the pain, if I recall correctly. I just remember telling myself to do it sparingly at best, and only for very short moments. I can¡¯t recall why though. My brain¡¯s really fuzzy, and I¡¯m hoping it¡¯s just because of all the hits to the head I¡¯ve taken today. Well, I mean, concussive blunt force trauma resulting in cranial hemorrhaging wouldn¡¯t be great either.


    Come on Te, come on. I see you sheltering in your Honoris Causa, powering up another Mirage Flash. Use this one to disappear. Come on love. I know you can¡¯t hear my mind right now, due to the psi-blocking circlet, but you can¡¯t keep risking open engagement. I know how wild and powerful you are, but also how amazingly intelligent you are, even if you goof off a lot. You¡¯ve read the situation, you saw the spectacle of me showing up and getting attention. Come on babe, you¡¯ve got this. You know what to do.


    You don¡¯t have counters to various spells and abilities that might be leveled your way. And, we¡¯ve got a rescue to finish, before we¡¯re both too depleted to complete it. Hm, depleted to complete it. Sounds like the final bar in a sick rap. Pft. What do you know about sick raps Reggie? Absolutely nothin¡¯. Say it again y¡¯all. Wait. What¡¯s a war good for? Absolutely nothin¡¯. Why does that sound familiar?


    Rattling my skull, I try to return to my senses, and return those to the present. Leaving my Honoris Causa mostly ethereal, I snag every bit of enchanted-looking equipment from the corpses around me with my tendrils or telekinesis. What doesn¡¯t seem useful in the moment, I chuck into an interdimensional sack. What does look useful, I use to try to buzzsaw limbs off of ancient dragons by equiping my tendrils, doing a wrapping maneuver like chucking a grappling hook, then tugging like the string on a top. The key word here being, ¡°try.¡±


    Anything that stands up to that kind of punishment, and actually does damage, I¡¯ll keep using. Anything that doesn¡¯t, well, these ancients now have some toothpicks stuck in their elbows and such. I¡¯m certain it can¡¯t feel pleasant. Eugh. I shudder at the idea of a metal object, sliver sized, stuck in that soft spot near the ulnar nerve. Oh, huh. How do you make a pissed-off ancient dragon laugh while fighting them?


    Smirking and shaking my head at myself, I don¡¯t want to finish the joke, but I can¡¯t help myself. The same way you do everything else. You tickle their funnybone. Or in my case, you simply appear small and helpless, and like your own techniques are so haphazard, that they¡¯re hazardly to yourself. Which, okay, sometimes they are.


    Boom! Teuila¡¯s Honoris Causa has disappeared, and is replaced with a gaggle of falling flunkies. The falls are punctuated by about fifteen more booms, and Terrorzin¡¯s forces going flying. Ooftah, I¡¯m bowled over as a sonic breeze flies by like a ballistic missile, winking at me. I knew we were on the same wavelength. Heavens and hells I love that woman. She virtually vanishes in a hurricane of wind and rain, afterimages of her slowly fading from the battlefield.


    Alright Reggie, just try to survive a little bit longer. Then get the hell out of here. Genre senses are screaming another shoe is about to drop. And it¡¯s a big one. You thought the klaxon warning was bad last time? This is every ship in the shipyard keeping their foghorns on blast. Regardless, I continue my rampage, trying to keep attention on me. Well, if there¡¯s one thing Reggie Shellcracker is good at, it¡¯s pissing people off.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Don¡¯t looks so smug you ancient aardvarkian acolytes. Really Reggie? Shut up, I couldn¡¯t think of an assonant or alliteration. I know. I¡¯m you. I know you know. Then why don¡¯t we both agree to stop being pedantic, and¡ª. Both? Ugh. Reggie, take a ten year nap when this fight is over. Yeah, you got it pal. Anyway, I will be out of safe SP for the day from having to pop my Steely Body spell repeatedly to weather blows from these ancients. I¡¯ve got a few ravenports and wormhole warpstrikes left, but I need to keep attention on me, not disappear while evading danger.


    Gnawing on my lip, I try to figure out the right course of action. I¡¯m not really strong enough to take down ancients without magic, without the Worldstorm. As much as my tendril buzzsaw is pretty handy and likely painful, there¡¯s nothing sharp enough and long enough to equip the tendrils with to actually saw off an ancient¡¯s limb. Despite evading as best I can, I¡¯m still struggling here, struggling hard. Trying to apply principles of judo¡ªat least, that¡¯s what I think I¡¯m trying to do¡ªI try to maneuver incoming attacks away by leveraging their own force against them.


    I¡¯m more outmatched than a toddler trying to box the heavyweight champ of the world. It¡¯s a rough job, but somebody¡¯s gotta do it. Pft, snrk, snort. I don¡¯t mean boxing toddlers. That¡¯s horrible. Haha. I mean using rotational momentum, and manifesting physicality and tangibility only at my extremities for combat.


    Doing so, I repeatedly trip up my foes or send them skidding on their faces to my real body¡¯s side which has to leap the hell out of the way. This only works because of the intangibility of most of my form, that still somehow lets me gain leverage as if it were tangible. I have no freakin¡¯ clue how the physics work on an Honoris Causa. I¡¯ve just gotta roll with it.


    I¡¯m up against creatures that are two to ten times the size of a titanosaur. Maybe larger. It¡¯s hard to estimate, since I¡¯ve never seen a titanosaur. Also, because it¡¯s hard getting a clear estimate on the size of creatures whose head is about the size of your entire draconic spirit form. Still, I feel like I¡¯ve been dancing with these ancients for minutes upon minutes. Possibly even closing in on an hour. I¡¯m getting absolutely pounded out here. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s an unbroken bone in my body. I feel like a walking bruise. Every bit of me is as excruciating as every other bit of me simply existing. And I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ve been being sniped by some gunners, because I¡¯m pretty sure I feel bullets floating around in me in random places.


    You¡¯d think you¡¯d notice yourself getting shot, right Reggie? Well apparently not, when all your nerve endings are on fire, and your skin is half baked, and you¡¯re being repeatedly tossed about and trampled by ancient dragons. Still, somehow, these suckers aren¡¯t looking great anymore. I mean, not that they ever looked great in a conventional sense. I just mean, it looks like I¡¯m starting to wear ¡®em down a bit.


    More and more horde has showed up, and chips in with the occasional spell or ranged weapon or whatever. I mean, they tried to join the melee fracas at first, but their own allies would accidentally smash ¡®em flat, or I¡¯d use them as shields against ranged weaponry and breath weapons. So, y¡¯know, they wised up eventually. Let¡¯s see. Teuila slew probably five foes per strike of her mirage flash on average, when counting her other maneuvers. Uh, three hundred twenty, plus another, uh eighty, oh, four hundred, duh, because it¡¯s five times eighty strikes. And that¡¯s just during the period that I was here when she was specifically charging and using Mirage Flash.


    Okay, so five k as the first assault against us, Te probably dropped five hundred easy over here. I melted a few thousand between my first and second, and third Shellcracker Satellite Slams. I mean, not just those three maneuvers, but the time I was soloing around all of them. Like dropping Wistenzlia peak on a few of them, or before the plasma balls showed up, or a kilometer east of here when I thought I¡¯d provide a distraction for Te. All in all, if Terrorzin brought forty k forces, he¡¯s probably getting closer to thirty two, maybe even closing in on thirty k, which is huge for night zero plus day one. But this pace is untenable.


    I¡¯m fairly certain his next assault on our chokepoints is going to be more creative, and be ten thousand of his forces at once. Then if that one fails, he¡¯ll bum rush the hell out of us with twenty thousand forces, and everything at his disposal. That¡¯s going to turn into a three day brawling retreat. On our part, not his, obvee. I hate this. I hate thinking of lives in terms of numbers. I hate just trying to ignore that every person here had a story. Maybe they were a brainwashed fanatic, maybe not.


    Think we should try offering mercy over here Reggie? Are you kidding? I¡¯m getting my ass handed to me. They¡¯d laugh it off like it was nothing at this point. Of course, they don¡¯t know I¡¯ve been using them to have an easier time stalling without dying to a billion spells and bullets and claws and everything else. It¡¯s way, way, way easier to take a bit of a trouncing to put on a show, against a few foes, even big ones like these, especially with judicious use of my Steely Body spell. Though I think that¡¯s off the table at this point.


    Alright. I¡¯m going to have to pull the ultimate in disrespect. I¡¯m gonna read a book while we fight. I kind of have to, in order to survive. This Steely Body cast has to last me for a while, so I need to focus on evading. Doot doot doo. Levitating the book near me that I got from Al¡¯pa¡¯ca¡ªthe Grimoire Tempestas Nox Infinitus¡ªI try to focus on its energies just enough, so that in an hour, it¡¯ll pump me full of a hundred or so SP. Oh yeah.


    Reggie Shellcracker. If you¡¯re good at one thing, it¡¯s pissing people off. The looks on their faces is priceless. Imagine the gnat you¡¯ve been stomping on and trying to squash, burn, blow up, poison, slash, stab, and just all around kill for minutes, maybe going on an hour, whips out a book, and starts reading while messing with your face with their puny breath weapons.


    Hm, that¡¯s right. It¡¯ll grant me the muscle memory of one spell from within its pages, for the rest of the day, or until I focus on it for an hour again. Chewing my bottom lip, it¡¯s a bit too hard to do pros and cons of all the spells in a giant spellbook right now, so I¡¯ll just pick one at random. Here, this one¡¯s fine I g¡ªI guess. Create Undead? Really Reggie? How the hell was I supposed to know which page I was flipping to at random! Gimme a break! But since I focused on it first as a choice, I¡¯m locked in due to the magic of the tome.


    Guess we¡¯re gonna turn some of Terrorzin¡¯s troops back against him, in the sickest way possible. Eugh. Let¡¯s see, details of the spell, something something tier, something something SP, and. Oh heavens. Oh no. Hahaha. Oh man. My broken buggy arse inability to use Rayileklian magic, ¡°the right way,¡± strikes again. So, normally a sorcerer or wizard has maybe twenty SP, maybe. Y¡¯know, a couple-dozen at most.


    The spell lets you, hahaha. It lets, hahaha. It lets you sink half your current SP into it, to boost it by orders of magnitude based on how many SP that ends up being. Now, to be fair, if I cast it after this burst of recharge, it¡¯s ¡°only¡± going to be fifty SP dumped into it. Snrk.


    Let¡¯s see, uh, powers of two, hm. Two, four, eight, Sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four. Five, five and half-ish orders of magnitude? I don¡¯t mean like, five digits, that¡¯s ridiculous. I mean like¡ªReggie. Are you going to start a zombie apocalypse? What? No. I¡ªI don¡¯t think so. Like, even if I casted it first thing after a nice long nap, when I¡¯m at my max SP, it¡¯s only going to drain up to two-fifty-six of my SP, and provide up to uh¡­ three to the¡­seventh power. I blink a few times as I do the math. Like uh, two thousand undead¡­ I guess.


    Look, that¡¯s only even if they all fit within a ten foot radius, well, fifteen if I get creative, because I can enhance it with the metamagic from The Platinum¡¯s robe. Somehow I don¡¯t think Bahamut ever intended that particular metamagic to be used to widen the radius of corpse-to-undead conversion. Eugh.


    But also, yeah, no, I¡¯m sure they don¡¯t have propagating necromancy bites or anything. Besides, if we did accidentally start a zombie apocalypse here in the Spine of the World, in Terrorzin¡¯s domain? We could literally just box off the valleys, cause some rockslides, maybe blow up some mountains, and they¡¯d all be trapped, if we didn¡¯t want to just deal with ¡®em. Anyway, my point was, that it¡¯s only like, three, six, twelve, twenty-four, forty-eight animated bodies. And there¡¯s that limit on the radius it can effect, so even if I had like a thousand SP to blow, it¡¯d only do so much.


    My mind sorta shuts down from all the punishment my body¡¯s been taking. The horde is more and more emboldened. It takes every fiber of my being to keep them off my back, and keep any spellcasters from getting any bright ideas. I think the ancients are getting bored of batting me around, and annoyed that I just keep coming back for more. I really need to learn some higher tier offensive stuff.


    I should honestly fly into each of their noses, walk up their sinus pathways. From there, I should start carving my way to their brains, using combinations of breath weapons to toxify, freeze, fry, and explode my way through their sinusial pathways or whatever. But Illy just socked me in the jaw only a couple hours ago now, for flying into an ancient¡¯s mouth. So I¡¯m trying to be a little less brazen, in case she¡¯s watching the scrying feeds. I don¡¯t want to give her a heart attack.


    Have¡­ I seriously been at this for over an hour now? A rush of energy from the tome fills me. A hundred SP, whew, that¡¯s like, two¡¯ish Steely Body spells, or two create undeads, since I now temporarily have the skill to cast that spell. Did Te finish the rescue op, and need to leave? I¡¯d understand if she couldn¡¯t pick me up for some reason, and I had to get myself out of the danger zone, but she would have at least contacted me through the scrying comms. Huh, speak of the¡ªwell, angelic Valkyrie knight.


    My heart sinks as I hear Teuila¡¯s hushed, hurried, frantic voice patched in over our scrying feeds as she pleads, ¡°Airhead!? You¡¯re not gonna like this! I don¡¯t know if I can get them out of here alive. I, I mean, they¡¯re, them, they, they. I don¡¯t know if they¡¯ll live if I get them out of here. But, but there¡¯s more than one. I can¡¯t just leave them! And, and there¡¯s something else too. Like, like some sort of wiggly energy rip in the air. Reggie? Reggie what do I do?¡±

 B 6 C 246: Tone Shift

    My eyes flash wide in horrified realization as I¡ªquietly as I can¡ªrattle off, ¡°Te! Don¡¯t let those tendrils anywhere near the magic pocket or any of your packs! For anyone not part-Fae, Tiktik said, ¡®at best, nothing will happen, and you don¡¯t want to know at worst.¡¯ It¡¯s, it¡¯s a ¡®Twixt tear, I¡¯m almost positive. How fast can you get to Solace, if I told you that I was one hundred percent positive that right now, you could survive ascending through the Worldstorm, as long as you told no-one about it?¡±


    After some quick calculations, Te guesses, ¡°If you¡¯re sure, and if I can hit max speed, then maybe about ten to fifteen minutes maybe? I¡¯m not sure the exact heading as the crow flies from this far out. Why?¡±


    Do I do this? Can I do this? Should I do this? What if it¡¯s a realm-tear to someplace other than the ¡®Twixt? Or what if the ¡®Twixt rules operate differently here, and time passes in a way I don¡¯t expect? Te said there are multiple people to save. Or, well, mutated broodmothers, whatever horrific changes that that entails.


    Before I can contemplate more, My Wings quietly, somberly adds, ¡°I, I can¡¯t tell which one is her, the mate, Jatrisiahl. They¡¯re all¡­ Nyssa didn¡¯t say they¡¯d be this bad. I don¡¯t think Nyssa even *knew* they were this bad. What, what should I do?¡±


    Hoping that these dragons either don¡¯t overhear me, or don¡¯t know the acronym, I encode it quickly, ¡°Balthazar Relishes Thomas.¡±


    Te¡¯ll understand BRT. She¡¯s quick on her feet and in her mind. She can rest assured that I¡¯ll be right there ay to the ess to the ay to the pee. Alright Reggie, every last charge in Claiomh Solais, except enough to keep it from nuking itself out of existence, a non-spelliform empowered fire rune and frost rune. Summon the biggest body for FFS to manifest in you¡¯ve ever summoned. While doing that, toss out every last consumable in your pack, gear FFS up in magical equipment. The only thing we¡¯re not using is the SP in the Cosmic Roundsheath, and charges of Ravenporting.


    Should we add undead to the chaos? Eh, what the hell, why not. There¡¯s plenty of corpses around. The stories the survivors tell around the campfires tonight, are going to be either terrifying, epic, or just so dumb. Here ya go everyone, have fun fighting your dead comrades! Wow, that¡¯s, that¡¯s just a horrific thought Reggie.


    Just, like, wow pal, that¡¯s messed up. That¡¯s dark. Dot dot dot. Oh well. Anyway, use up every last use of daily abilities, and go into unsafe SP. We need to clear a path for ourselves now, and catch up to Teuila, and dissuade anyone from following us, or even knowing that we¡¯re off the battlefield. Also, did you just subvocally mentally narrate a mental ellipses by saying dot dot dot? Maybe.


    Good freakin¡¯ gravy this brain is fried. Mm, some good gravy would be¡ªhave I ever tasted gravy? Blinking, stunned, I can¡¯t recall if I should or shouldn¡¯t know the taste of gravy. Maybe focus on your exit strat Rej ol¡¯ pal. Yeah. Yeah, you¡¯re probably right.


    Hopefully no one from last night saw the smaller version of this trick. Gladly paying the SP from the staff to coax FFS to this side of the veil between realms, I fill them in on the plan in an instant as our bodies and minds connect during the transfer. Same thing, stay alive, cause chaos, enjoy the ambient mana. To make it more convincing, I hand over Frostburn and Riptide to FFS, while they¡¯re part of me during the transfer. Thankfully in that moment they technically are a Shellcracker, and can receive the soulbound equipment.


    Lighting myself aflame, increasing the blaze to immense proportions, I utilize the void portion of my Honoris Causa to wipe my presence from the battlefield as FFS takes my place. For all the world, I appear to be a towering anthropomorphic flame, wielding my equipment, now enlarged. Only, that¡¯s not me. I¡¯m no longer aflame, I¡¯m just a Reggie. Pft. Snrk. Heheh.


    My Latent, ¡°Nothing,¡± hides my presence as I flex my stealth skill from Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Shapeshifting my flesh to have chromatophores and iridophores, I alter my skin tone, shifting it to literally blend in with my surroundings at a rapid pace. Urgh, flexing my flesh about my entire body in minute miniscule pigmentation changes at a microscopic instant by instant level is a whole new level of pain when all my nerve endings are screaming on fire.


    Behind me, as I make my escape, FFS remains evasive, but strikes decisive blows against the ancients, as my little mini undead army rushes their former comrades. Thanks friend. Enjoy the mana while you can. Cast your senses out Reggie. Figgure out where this den is. It¡¯s chilly, and damp. The moisture isn¡¯t frozen, so Terrorzin isn¡¯t right there.


    Where is¡ªhe¡¯s plotting. He was hoping the five thousand, the high commanders, and the silt-odilians would be enough, but he¡¯s wise enough to plan for if it wasn¡¯t. He¡¯s setting and staging rallying points for if he has to fall back behind the might of the rest of his horde. He was fairly certain he wouldn¡¯t need to do that, before the first engagement. That¡¯s why it wasn¡¯t already in place. I¡¯m sure he thinks that doubling up on us during his next offensive should be enough.


    While I hope he¡¯s wrong, it¡¯s a tough call at this point. Depending on Lil and Lucky today means we can¡¯t rely on them tomorrow. They need to keep up with the evacuation routes and bunkers. That¡¯ll be as close to resting as they can really get, besides a bit of sleep. With Farzhis ill, Induul nowhere to be found again, Illy having been deployed in stealth ops most of the day, and Veril soloing siege engagements, the Dormir are essentially tapped out, and down for a day or more.


    The Vivant¡ªGulping back a sob, I clench my eyes tightly. The Vivant is already down Orthral. Permanently, because of the Evil Claws. Gilmeshtu is in more or less peak condition. Prinrin was wrecked to $%17, but is hopefully being made to rest up by her daughter Miraina. Fenric seemed okay¡¯ish. We might be able to have the Vivant at our sides tomorrow.


    It¡¯ll be me again, obviously, Teuila, and, well, maybe the Vivant. Most of the Spellknights seem alright, especially Yui and Yuri, since they were around for all of those daily-use sorcerous ability enchantments that got transferred through the hivemind. But it¡¯s hard for more than two Spellknights to be in any engagement, because I need to be able to levitate my allies out of the way of enemy attacks, as well as my own. So me, Te, the Vivant, Yui, Yuri, probably Shiz and Zelshiz, as long as they didn¡¯t get worn down too much at the second chokepoint today.


    Are Shaylon and Boetah okay? Can they recuperate in their hardened Shield and Aegis forms? Can they nap in them? Can we rely on them being at every chokepoint from here on out? Or have I foolishly tapped them for the entire rest of the war, and now they need to lumber slowly back to Solace, the long land route, in order to make it back in time for the big fight?


    Is that enough to hold out against ten thousand foes? What if Terrorzin manages to get back to his camp, organize them, and send them before I get at least a partial night¡¯s sleep? We¡¯ve shaken things up, and sent a lot into disarray throughout the column, but he is an eons old tyrant king. I¡¯m not counting on him being utterly useless and stupid at commanding his own forces. What if my estimates are wrong, and he holds out until he can cluster the entire remaining thirty thousand, with some sort of power that demolishes chokepoints, like those plasma balls?


    Accidentally cracking my head fairly hard against the lip of an overhang, I rattle my skull. I¡¯m getting close to where Nyssa described the broodmothers¡¯ den being. There are still some guards about, like Te said, and the reason she needed to engage in the first place. But oddly they give the den a very wide berth. Sneaking past them when they¡¯re so spread out works out well enough for now. I don¡¯t have the speed to escape the situation if someone notices my camouflage. Hell, at this point, I¡¯d be hard-pressed to survive just getting away from Terrorzin¡¯s column.


    The name of the game, after all, is survival while buying time for Kinzul. It¡¯s really all down to our Lady, my love, my wife. She needs the entire week, and we¡¯ve got to give it to her, one way or another. There is no way she can cultivate enough dragonforce any faster than that. Even that, like she said, she¡¯ll be sacrificing so much, so many centuries worth of her life, just dissipated, lost in the conversion process.


    If we¡¯re lucky, tomorrow, Lucky will have some of the advance bunkers, the false ones, complete. Hopefully Littlebit¡¯s getting her bomb-making groove on and done. Reggie. Shush, I¡¯m trying to strategize here. Reggie. I said shush. Reggie! What!? Are you ready in the slightest, to witness the kind of horror that could make Teuila beg and plead for your directions on what to do? The kind of horror that could make Teuila believe she might not be able to save someone?


    My lower lip quivers as tears well in my eyes. Shut up, me. I¡¯ve been trying to avoid thinking about it. Obviously. If, if what Nala said¡­ You mean about spilling forth into a timeless realm from some cosmic interdimensional, or uh, pan-dimensional womb? Obviously I mean that. What sort of mutations, what pains and paralysis could Terrorzin have inflicted on someone, to have their¡ªstop. Don¡¯t speculate. Don¡¯t distract. Just go.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Follow the damp, the dark. The near-supernatural chill. That feeling? That tingling creeping down your spine? Don¡¯t ignore it, but don¡¯t focus on it. It¡¯s a feeling like it¡¯s going to shut my brain off though. It almost feels like, like being a transceiver, or bearing a message. It¡¯s an incredibly odd sensation. My mind suddenly goes blank.


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


    Author¡¯s Note: Below devolves into cosmic horror via sensory overload based on the author¡¯s experience with hyper-photo-sensitivity, hyper-audio-sensitivity, hyper-tactile-sensitivity, hyper-gustatory-sensitivity, hypo-olfactory-sensitivity(little to no sense of smell), ADHD, & Autism(all were identified/diagnosed by various doctors many many years after the fact) & auditory->gustatory synesthesia as a child.


    All this, coupled with forced interactions with crowds/public schools, and loud spaces. The segment can be skipped all the way to Chapter 251, if you¡¯re uncomfortable with the themes. CW: Strange sensations, sensory overload, sensory horror, creeping dread, physio¡­bio¡­psycho¡­logical horror? Also¡­ temporal-spatial gaslighting?


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


    Returning to my senses, I rattle my skull, glancing around. How long was I out? It doesn¡¯t seem like it was too long. Goosebumps raise along every inch of my still-sizzling flesh, which has thankfully regenerated mostly. Now I look more like lightly-cooked meat, instead of a charred corpse. Actually. What in the name of all the hells?


    Peering at myself, my regeneration rate seems to increase with each step I take towards my destination. My flesh weaving itself back together, my bones knitting, more quickly each passing moment. This is unreal. What could¡ªdon¡¯t, don¡¯t think.


    Remember. You can¡¯t remember. Without Luni here, your head could literally explode. Argh, crap, you¡¯re right. Let¡¯s¡­ let¡¯s just hope keeping the psi-blocking circlet on proves beneficial against anything that might trigger that. Yeah? Sure. Copacetic. Time and tide Reggie Shellcracker, time and tide. Oh you¡¯re one to talk¡­ me. Argh. I¡¯m trying to distract myself again, aren¡¯t I? Yeah. Every instinct in me is screaming to turn back, to sprint, dash, fly, warp the hell out of here.


    The coping mechanism, the schism-self of my inner monologue is less and less coherent. It¡¯s more like it¡¯s warning me to be prepared, but to also not know. To turn off my senses. To forget ever learning of this place. There¡¯s twitching and spasming in my muscles, as if I were messing around with my cursed greaves, but obviously I¡¯m not. My amygdala is in overdrive, and, despite not having the organs necessary, nor biological functions to even do so, I suddenly need to pee. Badly.


    It¡¯s like kidneys I don¡¯t have are processing a flood of neurochemicals that should not be pumping out at the rate they are. I feel sick to my stomach, and a pinch where my kidneys would be. It¡¯s as if they¡¯re dehydrated, stuck with solids leftover from the chemical-spill of my brain¡¯s fight-or-flight response.


    The words wrong, and ruined, burble up within me, further pounding and repeating in my head with each step. Every sense that I have that can possibly scream out a warning is doing so. This place feels almost alive somehow, but in an ancient way, more like it was alive, but now is dead, heavy, haunted by the ghosts of what came before. Crumbled stone edges peek out of rough-dirt walls of this tunnel into the mountainside. There¡¯s shreds of what must have been walls, scattered about, fallen stone segments that are flatter, smoother than the surrounding rough-hewn rock.


    It¡¯s almost as if this place was once a place, then was buried, and forgotten, intentionally. But then someone got the bright idea to dig it up. To disturb the dead, the husk of what once was. The path dips more steeply, perhaps once a stairway, now at best a spiraling ramp, slick and damp. I could virtually slide down it. I could literally slide or skate down it with my cryokinesis. Yet somehow the idea of even invoking my cold powers sends shivers I shouldn¡¯t feel up and down my spine, and fills me with dread.


    Strange, alien scrawling adorns the walls. Of course, this causes my universal translation enchantment to kick in, and I wish it hadn¡¯t. It simply says, over and over, ¡°The way is shut. It was made by the dead, and the dead keep it. The way is shut.¡± It¡¯s simultaneously horrifying, yet forgettable. Like my brain BSODs every time I¡¯m not looking at the scrawled text. Times when I have one eye on the text, and one eye on the path before me, I both know, and immediately forget the text as it¡¯s translated into my mind.


    Each moment, I creep closer, and each step I take, seems to knit me back together faster and faster. What should have taken at least a day, if not days, is happening right before my eyes. I should find comfort in that. Should being the operative word there. I want to rush to Te, to support her, to make it to her, for us to find comfort in each other¡¯s arms. But somehow I know, that in this place, no comfort can be found. The damp is the worst kind, it sticks and clings, yet is somehow slick, like an oil.


    The oppressive gloom of it all feels like it drapes itself about my shoulders, like an intimate friend, but one twisted and wrong. Sinister in a way I can¡¯t describe. I vibrate intensely in discomfort, trying to shake off the feeling, and to not associate it with anyone who¡¯s recently draped their arms about my shoulders. I try to blank out my mind entirely, because it¡¯s harder than I¡¯d like to admit, to keep from assigning faces to a newly-developing trauma that I can feel brewing.


    My throat is somehow dry, parched, despite the damp, yet my tongue, thick, swollen, sticky, fills my mouth, tasting the acrid scent in the air, a rusty metallic tang with a hint of molds, fungi, other things I¡¯d rather not identify. I have to swallow my saliva in order to breathe, but it carries that sickening taste all the way into the pit of my non-existent stomach. Now the taste is here to stay, traveling with me, like an uninvited guest.


    It¡¯s around now that I notice something I should have been noticing all along. My shadow? Is not my shadow. It¡¯s bent, twisted, distorted, and though I¡¯m standing still, with no moving light source, it¡¯s growing longer and longer. I try to convince myself it¡¯s my mind playing tricks on me. That my brain¡¯s fritzing and fried from all the combat and lightning. That seems to appease my shadow enough for it to stop growing at least. But not to resume the shape it should be. It¡¯s unnerving on levels I can¡¯t even describe.


    As my boots scuff the corner of a bit of stonework embedded in the rough dirt wall, the sound echoes louder than my slow shuffle, in a way that I wish I could take back. It feels like this place has a heartbeat, that it¡¯s breathing, and beginning to wake up. That I¡¯ve woken it up. Rattling my skull, I convince myself I¡¯m being paranoid. I notice my breathing is ragged and loud, another sound I wish I could silence, and take back. I try to convince myself that the pulse, the heartbeat, is just me hearing my own breathing, and my own heartbeat. I¡¯m not very successful.


    What little sense I have is still screaming at me to turn back. Turn back now. Cry out for Teuila and flee with all haste. That taste, that passenger I was forced to swallow in order to breathe, it coils up inside me and nests, growing a sickening warmth that¡¯s accompanied by chilly claws along its edges. I¡¯m forced to gulp again, to breathe once more, and the taste now has a partner, a sweeter one, but no less sinister. It¡¯s more like water, like life, rather than rusty death and decay. The two spiral and nestle in deeply, ingraining themselves in me.


    The breathing I tried to convince myself that this place wasn¡¯t doing, can¡¯t be doing, picks up its pace. As it does, the tunnel seems to twist and squeeze, like muscles, an esophagus. I blink forcefully, and that simultaneously fixes it, and makes it worse. Somehow, I know how I should be perceiving things, a simple, ordinary tunnel ramp. But either that is an overlaying image, or this living undead husk of a place is an overlaying image. Or, I guess the third option could be I¡¯m just having a horrible, hallucinatory fever dream nightmare. I¡¯m not sure which is more disconcerting.


    Rattling my skull, the tastes that settled into my stomach seem to be growing, branching out, extending their limbs and testingly worming their way about me. They reach my tearducts, and the tastes well across my eyes like tears. I virtually vomit at the sensation of tasting life and undeath with my eyeballs. Trying not to gag or dry heave, I mostly just succeed in keeping my convulsing throat from pushing anything up, or pulling anything down.


    The waxy buildup in my ears now shares the same disconcerting *flavor* that¡¯s dripping along my eyelids, and settling into my stomach. All of my senses are slowly being distorted, warped, homogenized into a single sense, a single, disturbed, revolting sense. Gustatory. A sense I couldn¡¯t even remember the name for, yet it¡¯s that sense all the same. The knowledge of its name is somehow almost more frightening, or at least the way it came to me, like it was whispered in my ear by a traveling companion that I don¡¯t have.


    My pulse quickens, and I can¡¯t take it anymore. Breathing, no, panting rapidly, I struggle to maintain a hold of my thoughts, to think of Teuila. My love for her, her eyes, those emerald ringed tunnels that lead straight to the depths of her soul. It¡¯s no help though, if anything, it makes it worse, because it brings to mind the tremor I heard in her voice. A needy fear, the likes of which she¡¯d never show.


    I¡¯m stuck picturing what she must have looked like, her hand covering her mouth as it was agape in horror, her face contorted in disbelief of whatever she¡¯d seen. For her to feel helplessness, to beg for directions, to call for backup in such a way, when the mission was rescue, and rescue only¡­ I try not to, but I gulp again, and I thank all that is good in the world that a third flavor doesn¡¯t join the other two in dominating my senses.


    Suddenly, the flavors are *excited* as I reach the entrance to some dank pit. They squirm about within me, with a fervor. I nearly black out at the sensation. Rank, sour notes tinge the air, joined by one familiar scent, one sane aspect of this place, ozone, burnt oxygen, lightning. To think, the crackle and spark of lightning would be the one thing tying my sanity together, after having it shock the crap out of me for the majority of the day.


    Despite my sanity seeming to return, and it begging me to turn around and flee, I have to press on. Also, despite how unruly, unnerving, and unsanitary my slow walk, tasting everything seemed, at least Te won¡¯t have been waiting long. It was only about seventy seconds from the foothills to here. Whatever this is, whatever it is that¡¯s here, that awaits, it¡¯s close, and the flavors dancing about my system, distorting my senses, are clamoring to reunite. To enter the room in which I¡¯m sure Teuila currently resides.

 B 6 C 247: L.O.G. Lack Of Gravity

    Upon spying My beloved Wings, Teuila, the fact that we both simultaneously ask, ¡°What took you so long?¡± gets my heart racing and sets me on edge with anxiety.


    No. No no no. Okay, if Teuila lost an hour or two going through a crazy tunnel, then it would make sense that her call didn¡¯t come in til I¡¯d been out there for an hour or two. It would also make sense why I supposedly took a long time, when getting to the location was less than five minutes, and the tunnel was only about a minute and a half, maybe two.


    Gulping, I explain, ¡°I was soloing the horde so long that I literally read a book before you called. Literally read a book. The Tempest one. I can prove that I gained its hour-long-read enchantment benefits. I literally came moments after you called, and it only took me at most a couple minutes to walk down that freaky long spiral tunnel ramp.¡±


    Quirking a brow as her face contorts, Teuila asks, ¡°What freaky long spiral tunnel ramp? It¡¯s a straight shot from the foothill to here, and not even that far. I can just see the edge of it from the door of the chamber. I was only here for a quick check before contacting you Airhead. You¡¯re the one who took hours. I¡¯ve been freaking out a bit.¡±


    Dread creeps up and down my spine, it tastes like someone drizzled chocolate sauce in motor oil. And unfortunately, it joins my other passengers in spreading the oh so joyous sensation of every nerve ending in my body, slowly, bit by bit, organ by organ, becoming gustatory.


    Slowing my breathing, and steadying my heart rate, I try to find some center of calm in the chaos that this place seems to be. Teuila is familiar, should be familiar, should be washing away all dread. But every look she gives me, every flicker of her shadow where it bends in two locations despite only one light source, it all makes it worse. The scent of ozone, and the fading echo of the crackle of lightning are the only things binding my sanity together like some sort of frayed knot.


    Oh. That¡¯s an unfortunate and ironic simile. Shudders run down my spine. I¡¯m not part of Terrorzin¡¯s crazed cult of endbringer worshipers though. There¡¯s something off about our reunion. Well, more than one something. Quite a lot of things are off. If Te was frantic, why didn¡¯t she fill me in on the exact details as soon as I arrived? Or if her emotions were overwhelming her, why didn¡¯t she nail me in a torpedo hug like usual?


    Please no. Please, please please no. Drop it Reggie. Just don¡¯t try to rationalize this. There was a weird tunnel, and time differential. That¡¯s it. That¡¯s all. Do *not* press this line of thought any further. You will not like the consequences. My right wrist trembles, and my whole right forearm spasms as I¡¯m thinking about consequences. Am I going to assign meaning to that now too? Consequences reminds me of the thunder and lightning staff that I shattered inside the head of a Fel Portalspawn, and ended up embedded with all its shards coated in Fel blood?


    Because of that, and using so much lightning that I redirected through myself, my nerve-tunnels were cored out, nearly everything that could be a pathway from brain to most muscles were dead. Was dead? Were dead? It¡¯s a plural singular past thingy. Ugh, brain no worky. Yeah, I can tell, ya goober. No worky? Really? Hush. I¡¯ve got a migraine building.


    Anyway, my point was, the consequences were that I developed spasms and tremors much worse than I¡¯d had previously in my life, after that point. Some of which was even required just to locomote myself around, in a jerky floppy motion. Pft, you¡¯re a jerky floppy motion. Snrk.


    Facepalming, my hand brushes my hair up betwixt my horns. Features I¡¯m still not used to having. Will I ever get used to my new body? It¡¯s not like I hate it, or have some hyper-specialized image of what a Reggie Shellcracker looks like internally. Knowing your luck Reggie, you will someday finally start to get used to it. Oh? And then immediately be mutated or reincarnated into a body with entirely different features you¡¯re not used to. You¡¯re just that kind of sucker. Oh. Bluh. Screw you too buddy.


    Hey, you took the bait, don¡¯t blame me. Wait. Did I bait myself into a punchline to end with roasting myself? Who even does that? Well, Reggie Shellcracker, that¡¯s who, obviously. Let¡¯s see Reggie, if you had to give your insanity a scaled percentage, where do you think you rank on an average day?


    Well, today is anything but average. I know, we¡¯re starting with a baseline. What¡¯s an average day? Uhh, help me out here. How? Describe what percentages correlate with what sort of traits? Well how should I know? You¡¯re the one who asked! Oh no. Oh wow I¡¯m losing it. I¡¯m still in range of whatever effect is taking over all my senses and replacing them with taste. And of course I¡¯m still stuck with revolting tastes swimming around me like some sort of¡ªReggie. Yeah? Do not try to think of an analogy for that.


    Fine. I¡¯m sure it would have been lame anyway. I¡¯m too tired to be witty and quippy in my own head. Oh, but not too tired to bait and roast yourself? Oh shut up. Get out of your head, back to reality, which is much safer, I¡¯m sure. Are you sure you¡¯re sure? No, now go.


    My eye¡¯s twitching slowly starts to pull my right cheek into it. I¡¯m sure I look like the worst first date to roll up on. The one that¡¯s hanging out on the curb outside the club, giving fingerguns and fifty winks in rapid succession. That¡¯s¡­ oddly specific Reggie. Also, should be nowhere in your lexicon or memories. So once again you¡¯re getting sidetracked by random Fakeworld crap. Also, be glad Teuila isn¡¯t in your head right now to hear about how you ¡®baited yourself.¡¯ Snrk. Ugh, you dink. Back to reality! Alright, alright, back to reality it is. It¡¯s a scary reality though.


    Since Teuila insisted it¡¯s a straight shot, with a sight range nearly far enough to see the exit, I really want her to be right. I want that whole twisted tunnel trip to have been one too many dragon-stomps to the head. Slowly turning my head, keeping one eye on Teuila so she doesn¡¯t disappear, I gaze back over my shoulder at the yawning cavern of the twisted spiral tunnel I came down. It still appears as it did to me during my jaunt. My horrific, sensory-filled jaunt. My vomit-inducing, flavor-filled jaunt. Blurghle. Despite the absolute nausea, at least I don¡¯t horf, especially not on Teuila. Wait. Teuila.


    Oh for the love of¡ªplease really be Teuila, and not some cosmic horror imagination hallucination. Every bit of me vibrates intensely as I freeze, torn between looking at Teuila, and the tunnel. No, no no no. Please. Please don¡¯t do this to me.


    Not again. I can¡¯t have her be a trauma trigger again. It would destroy me. Please, please don¡¯t be some horror using Teuila¡¯s face. The last time, I went catatonic for months. This time, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d ever be able to claw my way back. My pulse is racing, and my body is not responding to any attempt to move. It simply vibrates in place. Well, vibrates and tastes. Could really do without that part.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Dry throat, sticky tongue, forced to swallow once again to breathe. I really, really, really don¡¯t want to. I don¡¯t want another flavor passenger. Please no. Gulping, swallowing in order to breathe, I¡¯m not granted any mercy. Instead I¡¯m granted a new passenger, the flavor of every condiment ever, rubbed on asphalt that someone cooked an egg on three and a half months ago, and ran over with tires that left melted rubber today. It¡¯s so unsettlingly specific.


    My right eyelid begins spasming much worse, twitching hard, and I fight to keep it from blinking completely, as it¡¯s the eye keeping an eye on Teuila. Yes, I heard my mental redundancy. So at least I¡¯m pretty sure my brain is still my own if it¡¯s doing stuff that¡¯s that stupid. Swallowing my fear, and another gorram awful taste, like nucleotides infused into a three in one body wash, shampoo, and conditioner. Why-y-y-y!? Only one time have I lucked out so far to not imbibe another passenger on each swallow.


    Yuck, oh glubbing fronds that is sickening. Who even knows the taste of shampoo and conditioner? What does a nucleotide even taste like!? For the love of everything holy, or hellish, please for the love of everything in general, stop adding new flavors to my palate that I never wanted! Somehow, I¡¯m fairly certain my mental plea falls on deaf ears. I mean, at best I cast my wish out into the void. The void of me. Me being the Void Dragon. Yes yes, I know who you are. Wait. BSOD. My brain¡¯s fritzing out. That phrase. Time¡­ and relative dimensions in space? Stolen¡­ soil? Stolen¡­ Earth?


    Well, those are certainly applicable concepts. What with the likelihood of some cosmically horrifically distorted tunnel that treats each traveler differently. I mean, at best. That¡¯s the best case scenario. And you don¡¯t want to know the worst. If there were some sort of log of events, of cases, best to worst, I wouldn¡¯t want it. I¡¯d want it destroyed, so that no one ever had to suffer knowing it. No log? Sounds like a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian stuck on Rayileklia, doesn¡¯t it? Pft. Yeah. Also, why does my tongue keep swelling up all sticky-like, while my throat stays dry?


    Before my body can make another involuntary swallow, I conjecture, ¡°Te¡­ you did call me, right? Because you saw something horrific, right? Like, like our rescue target, is maybe, not entirely¡ªwell, or possibly, I mean. I can¡¯t find the right words. The only thing that comes to mind is Nala said the phrase ¡®pan-dimensional womb¡¯ once.¡±


    Thankfully, despite the lack of gravity in her response, Teuila nods while answering, ¡°Yeah, Airhead, I called. And, I guess maybe that could describe what I saw. Maybe. It¡¯s safe at least. Well, safe enough. There¡¯s nothing to worry about. Getting there is easy peezy lemon squeezy. The room is three doors down this way, deeper into the ruins.¡±


    My brain bluescreens, BSODs hard, fritzing out, and I can no longer control the spasmodic twitch of my right eyelid. Teuila begins walking towards the door, and unfortunately, the eye keeping an eye on her blinks, and she¡¯s gone. Just as my world and mind are about to shatter, she pokes her head from around the door frame back into the room, and raises an eyebrow.


    While glancing at me curiously, Te queries, ¡°You comin¡¯ Airhead? Pretty sure our rescue is on a time limit.¡±


    Unnerved, I nod hesitantly and begin following Te, My Wings, deeper into these ruins. Heavens and hells, I¡¯d walk to the other side of the world right now to ease my troubled mind. Or I¡¯d just send my mind there, leaving my body lying here in these sandy timeless ruins. Everything is a bit floaty, lacking in gravity. It almost feels bouncy, like an astronaut¡¯s first steps on the dark side of the moon. The whole world is floaty, and there¡¯s nothing I can do about it. I¡¯m going crazy. I¡¯m going utterly crazy.


    If I go entirely crazy, will Luni still consider me her hero? Will she call me, ¡°My Hero,¡± if my mind is spinning through outer space, the cosmic void? Gods I wish she was here holding my hand, guiding my brain through this. I¡¯d keep her tightly by my side. Ugh. I¡¯ve also got a lump on my head from smacking that outcropping earlier. One too many hits, bumps to my head today. I wish that explained all the crazy in here.


    Also, what I wouldn¡¯t do for one normal flavor. Just something stupid and pointless, like I dunno, bubblegum, or a root beer barrel. Some kind of candy. Which is a bit odd, since I¡¯ve never had candy in any of my lives. Still, a candy man can mix all kinds of flavors, and make a world as revolting as one where all my senses are gustatory taste good instead of tasting like existential dread lined up with a side of chemical-heavy perspiration.


    These skeletal ruins of some ancient life, now a husk, yet one somehow animate in its spite. I shudder and vibrate harder with every step I take deeper into the ruins. With every step I take closer to Teuila. My hand shakes worse than Induul¡¯s when he¡¯s fiending from withdrawal.


    We pass one doorway, two, and now we¡¯re three doors down the hall. Once again, suddenly for no reason, my brain fritzes, and it feels like the flavor passengers are dancing raucously in my stomach. Dancing to songs only they can hear. I wish I was here without them. They¡¯re like my Kryptonite.


    I could really do without them enjoying the ride so much. Or, just without them in general. I can taste the inside of my clothing through my skin. This is the most horrific thing I think I could possibly imagine. Remember how I really, really, really wish I could find a new phrase instead of putting one¡¯s foot in one¡¯s mouth? Yeah? Did ya ever wonder what¡ª? Eww friggin¡¯ no, gross. Yeah, exactly. The inside of sweaty metal is no picnic. Hurf. Oh gods. Please just let me throw up all these flavors, or let me stop tasting everything. Something, anything.


    I would kill for one normal sensation right now. I¡¯m sure Te would feel the same if this place were affecting her the same way. Speaking of, she¡¯s immensely nonchalant for waltzing through a realm of absolute horror. She¡¯s treating this whole thing with almost no gravity, after her earlier call. And that¡¯s hella ironic, what with her Latent being, ¡°precise control over the forces of attraction.¡± Really Reggie, hella? Since when do you use hella? I don¡¯t know, since maybe my mind is fracturing from cosmic dread as I become a walking giant taste bud? Shut up.


    Ugh. I need to stop arguing with myself. No you don¡¯t. Yes I do. No you don¡¯t, it¡¯s keeping you sane. You call this sane!? Errr, maybe give yourself just a little bit of a break. Te would tell you not to beat yourself up for beating yourself up. And speaking of Teuila, it¡¯s a bit odd that Te¡¯s scrying feed is so dark, completely blacked out almost, when we do cast a bit of glow ourselves with our magic equipment. Or do scrying feeds just not pick up magical aura light?


    As we arrive at a large crumbling room, a thought occurs to me, and I really wish it hadn¡¯t. While making note of what looks like a sealed vault on the wall opposite the entrance, I express, ¡°Te, your goggles¡¯s scrying feed was dark, too dark to see any scrying feed through, they still are. Why didn¡¯t you look through the incoming feeds though to see mine? Or come drag me along while I was walking down the straight shoot tunnel if I was being a slow butt?¡±


    As I¡¯m waiting for a response, one that I¡¯m more and more certain will never satisfy a rational mind, I see and hear something glitchy fritzing about in the room we¡¯re in. My mind wants to break. My mind wants to cave in on itself, positive that once again, some farce is occurring, wearing the face of the one I love most in all the worlds.


    The trauma, like at the beaver dam tunnel complex, threatens to send me spiraling into the depths of my own mind, burying me beneath a cyclic panic, possibly forever this time. I¡¯m not ready to cave in just yet though.


    The glitchy frizting thing has hints of vertical lines like some sort of sci-fi transporter effect. Or maybe a will o¡¯ wisp, or ball lightning, slapped into two dimensions in a three dimensional world. It¡¯s like someone sketched a gif of these vertical white lines with asymmetrical velocities, alternatingly spaced out unevenly, that scroll up, fade out at the top, and fade in at the bottom. It approaches me at mach speeds.


    The Teuila near the vault door cries out, ¡°Look out Airhead!¡±


    Despite every fiber of my being screaming to get out of the way of this seeming attack, I stand my ground and hold my arms out wide. What strikes me strikes at ludicrous speeds, but with zero mass, or, well, at least no gravity. No force.

 B 6 C 248: Break From Reality

    While I hold this aspect of unfathomable design, this strange series of vertically scrolling vertical lines, I glare at the Teuila near the vault. Trying to keep myself from breaking down, I lean into rage. Though I struggle to not go full on wrath-mode, because I¡¯m fairly certain that it¡¯d be just as devastating to my psyche, leaving me trapped within wrath until this body perishes.


    Gritting my teeth, I snarl out, ¡°Who are you!? Why are you wearing her face!?¡±


    The Teuila across the way from me looks shocked, saddened, and like she¡¯s about to run off to hide tears that are forming. The emotive expressions match everything I know and love about Teuila, and it hits like a punch in the gut. I nearly cave. I nearly collapse under the thought that I just hurt Teuila just now by doubting her. But that¡¯s not Teuila. It can¡¯t be.


    I know what I¡¯m holding looks like some low budget stock sci-fi videogame particle special FX, but I¡¯m almost positive it¡¯s Teuila. No. No. I am positive. Don¡¯t doubt. Don¡¯t doubt even for a second. Lumps catch in my throat, and I pray to everything holy that I can keep myself from swallowing my emotions, because if I swallow them, I¡¯ll be introduced to all new horrors of flavor.


    Phooph. Did you ever think that¡ªbrain? Just don¡¯t even bother. No, of course I never thought anything remotely like this situation could ever possibly have occurred. I¡¯d never have imagined anything in the remote vicinity of something like all this. Hell, nothing in the same realm as all this. All I need from you right now is cold, hard, logic, sussing out how to settle things back into normal reality for me and the actual Teuila. If it¡¯s as simple as leaving, then we¡¯ll just try to do our rescue mission under the duress of absolute insanity, and leave.


    The false Teuila, the one near the vault door looks different somehow. She¡¯s shimmery, but sobbing, and rubbing her eyes. She looks regretful, and starts to apologize, in several different voices and shimmers, ¡°We are sorry. We are here to be¡ªwe are not here. We¡¯re to birth¡ªto save¡ªto live¡ªto be saved¡ªto die. Please. Please help us. Only from one, to another¡ªyes only one to another¡ªwe are moved¡ªseldom¡ªnear never¡ªthis one is the worst.¡±


    Wait. Wait. Slow down. Oh no. Realmways. Tears in reality. Temporal zones. Ow, oh crap. Blood is running out my ears and eyes. My brain is hemorrhaging. These are things I can¡¯t learn about without Luni present. If I don¡¯t have her to guide my thoughts, my brain might nuke itself, blow up for some reason. Okay, so, we have to somehow not know, and not hear, the things we need to hear to help out. Grawrgh! This is more frustrating than the cosmically awful horror of tasting with my eyeballs! No wonder Nala is so surly, and so disquieted by her trauma.


    Okay, think Reggie. Pan-dimensional wombs. Not just inter, but pan. Across all? Oh no. Oh no. I had a vague concept that it might be something like this, but, but if I¡¯m right, the reality of it¡ªI struggle to not vomit at the realization of the possible depths of Terrorzin¡¯s depraved methods and ideologies. I¡¯d been trying to deny it, trying to not think about it. It sounds more and more like those silent guesses to myself, guesses that I never wanted to voice aloud, guesses that I never even wanted to subvocalize, were right.


    They¡­ they can¡¯t be moved. Teuila was right. We can¡¯t move them unless we have another tear to move them to. One that¡¯s set up to receive them. This is them. The thing wearing the face of Teuila, standing at a distance, never aggressing me, is a, or rather the, conjoined broodmothers. They weren¡¯t trying to trick me or hurt me. They know the absolute horror of this realm intimately. They wanted to be a gentle guide while begging for my help. They were offering familiarity, trying to be kind, stable against this realm¡¯s cruelty and random insanity.


    My stomach roils and burbles. Finally, I loose up sick just outside this pre-vault room. My passengers¡ªthe unruly dancing flavors that work their darndest to turn every cell in my body to a tastebud¡ªseem to enjoy the ride as they leave my system, whooping with joy like they were spending a day at the water-park.


    Sadly, the deportation of the alien invaders isn¡¯t enough to get my eyeballs and every other part of my body to stop tasting my surroundings. But it¡¯s a start at least. I know the shimmer-Teuila isn¡¯t doing this to me, or at least, not on purpose. The pan-dimensionalness of their bodies, trapped between realms, is letting a horrific version of the non-¡®Twixt, the space between realms, leak into Rayileklia. As I surmised earlier, banishing the effects is likely as easy as simply leaving its radius. Probably the radius of the guards who give this place a wide-as-hell berth.


    But these women, these dragons, from all across the Rayileklia¡¯s history, being ageless dragons, have been subjected to some kind of depraved experimental mutation and ritual. I¡¯m terrified to see what the inside of the vault looks like. The series of flowing lines in my arms, the completely incongruous anthropomorphized event, is shaking. It¡¯s a mix of sadness, sobs, and fear. But the fear isn¡¯t for herself. No. She¡¯s afraid we can¡¯t rescue any of them.


    This weird display of two dimensional white lines is absolutely, one hundred percent Teuila. It¡¯s how she appears to my twisted, distorted perceptions, within this realm. Her body is likely normal, but I might look the same, or worse to her. She still knew me though. She rocketed into my embrace, as soon as she spotted me, her fear at being unable to save anyone palpable from the moment of impact. Without any shred of doubt, that absolute heroism, that empathy, it could only belong to one of the Onyx Dawn. Foremost amongst them would be Kinzul, Teuila, Prinrin, Luni, and I could go on and on.


    Ideas are beginning to percolate, possibilities, strategies, solutions. But only the very smallest bud of sprouting growth. Pieces fitting together naturally, slowly, so that I don¡¯t risk exploding my own brain. Nodding towards the shimmer-Teuila, or rather, the conjoined broodmothers wearing a loving, familiar face, I agree, we¡¯re here to help, to save if we can.


    She opens the vault, and within is exactly as horrible as you could imagine it, and somehow a thousand times worse. I pray that this is simply a hallucination of the torn-open realmspace between realms bleeding through. This eldritch unknowable space, somehow simultaneously close, yet farther than the farthest reaches of the universe.


    Somehow, somehow I doubt we¡¯re that lucky. Come on Te, let¡¯s, let¡¯s try something. I don¡¯t know what I look like to Teuila, but she knows it¡¯s me. Do I dare doff the psi-blocking aegis circlet? Could things take an even darker turn for the worse if psionics from this far realm begin bleeding into my mind? I fear that the answer to both of those questions is the same. Yes. I need to be able to talk to Te, to hear her voice in my mind.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Reaching up to doff my circlet, I realize it¡¯s already askew. Right, I hit my head, and because I don¡¯t remember my horns, the circlet probably got stuck on the outcropping a bit along with them. So things have been partially bleeding in, and the damage is done. We might as well fully commit to this insanity then. As soon as I doff it, I can feel Teuila riding my mindscape and listening for every word. Also in my mindscape, and hers, are a series of unending whispers, whispers that I can¡¯t understand, yet know what they mean.


    They translate to something like, ¡°The way is shut. The dead keep it.¡±


    I feel like I¡¯ve heard it or seen it somewhere before. Telepathically, we struggle to manifest our avatars in our thinkspace realm, and seemingly fail. We¡¯ll keep trying, but for now, at least we can communicate. Where do I even start? I don¡¯t want to subject Teuila to the horrors of what I went through. So I may as well not share my journey here. Sorry Te. I know you could handle it, I just don¡¯t want to throw extra load your way for no reason.


    The false Teuila, the conjoined broodmothers in illusory shape, free to move about, to act, and speak, unlike their true bodies, fidgets nervously. She mutters, in several voices, ¡°We didn¡¯t mean to¡ªwe intend not distress¡ªwe¡¯re glad you¡¯re here¡ªno one should be here¡ªwe are cursed¡ªthis place is a curse¡ªtrapped¡ªtrapped¡ªtrapped. You are free to leave¡ªyou are not trapped¡ªonly we. Trapped across realms¡ªtrapped in space¡ªtrapped in time¡ªstuck.¡±


    The collection of moving lines sighs across our telepathic bond, and I feel her arms about my shoulders as she nestles and nuzzles my face. She starts, ¡°Airhead, it¡¯s, it¡¯s crazy in here. We have to do something, we just have to.¡±


    Nodding, my response is predictable, ¡°No argument from me Te, I¡¯m with you a hundred percent. What that something is though is a complete mystery at the moment. This is about what I¡¯d feared it might be, and simultaneously impossibly many times worse. I¡¯m pretty sure the whole brainmelting whispers thing going on around us in our heads isn¡¯t going to help matters though. We need Nyssa¡¯s opinion. Jatrisiahl is their mate.¡±


    Agreeing, Teuila, well, this collection of vertically scrolling lines fishes about for the portable hole. With bated breath, I await as she unfolds it and sets it up. This is going to be hard to explain. If Nyssa¡¯Lina didn¡¯t know how bad this was, couldn¡¯t give us a heads up, then they might very well be floored, or incapacitated by this realm, or the news. When the high commander peeks their head up from the portable hole, there¡¯s an audible gasp, and they clutch their head before screaming.


    My lower jaw quivers and I clench my eyes tightly to fight back tears that begin to roll. Nyssa¡¯Lina clambers out of the portable hole, and rushes to one of the distorted figures, trapped inbetween realms. They cradle her, this once-woman Jatrisiahl, now conjoined broodmother. Minutes pass by, as we let the two reunite, as much as one can reunite, in a fashion such as this.


    There¡¯s constant muttering of how this can¡¯t be real, how they need to wake up, how they¡¯re unconscious in Vieriss Valley, taken out by some tiny upstart. I almost wish I could confirm that for them, that I decimated them in Vieriss Valley, but left them alive with bruised brainpan. That this was all just some nightmare to wake up from. My body shudders in revulsion at the cruelty on display. Not by Nissa, not by the broodmothers, not by Teuila, not by me, but by Terrorzin, through what he¡¯s done here, to them.


    The tears of shock and denial give way to tears of rage as Nyssa claims, ¡°I¡¯ll kill him! We were never allowed to see. I¡¯d have, I¡¯d have¡ªI wouldn¡¯t have stood for this! I¡¯m only lucky enough to not be a broodmother because I¡¯m barren, intersex, whelped and raised a man. I thought, I thought if I gained enough standing, I might request one boon. We thought, we all thought, just concubines, locked away for his greedy, sick, twisted pleasures. That¡¯s all they were supposed to be! I wanted to rescue her from that! To beg one boon, that being it!¡±


    Almost as an aside, Nyssa rants, mumblingly, ¡°When rumors started circulating, about mutations, we thought, perhaps controlling their shapeshifting, the joke was his taste was for enormous posteriors, and that he didn¡¯t want to explain it, or lie to his commanders, and had their shapeshifting growing larger and larger in the rear proportions. To lock their shapeshifting in some mockery of proportions, but nothing like this. Nothing ever like this. I only ever wanted to earn one thing, one thing!¡±


    There¡¯s a pause before Nyssa¡¯Lina¡¯s fury builds towards a crescendo, ¡°One single boon! To have Jatrisiahl released to be with me. I rose from the very dregs, hated and detested for what I am, my birth, my sex or lack thereof. I rose to his highest commander! Our tyrant king, our lord, the Ice of Rage, shall perish under the fury of my lightning!¡±


    Knowing the kind of rage, the kind of grief that Nyssa is going through, I say nothing as they stalk about the vault, alternatingly clenching their fists and tugging at their temples. The realm continues to play tricks on us, to worsen our conditions, but somehow, somehow it takes a back seat to witnessing, and possibly participating in, Nyssa¡¯Lina¡¯s grief. However, when it looks like Nyssa has decided on a course of action, a course of action that leads right into Terrorzin¡¯s deadly ice aura, I step in front of the exit of the vault, with sadness in my eyes.


    Nyssa doesn¡¯t hesitate to backhand me hard enough that it feels like they might nearly snap my neck, trying to remove me from their path. I don¡¯t budge, as I stand in the vault entrance with my arms wide. Growling with fury, they charge their breath weapon, and unleash it upon me.


    Letting the lightning wash through and over me provides me with temporary clarity. I¡¯m actually centered, and feeling more sane from the pain. The scent of ozone, the crackle, the fritzing, frenetic energy jumping about my nerves. It¡¯s all familiar. It¡¯s real. It¡¯s sane.


    Lightning¡¯s something I can deal with. I could have guided it around me, with my EM field organ, but I didn¡¯t want to. I want to give Nyssa a target for their fury that won¡¯t instantly kill them in reprisal. And so I take it when they backhand me again, and again. They work up the nerve to demand of me to get out of the way. I just shake my head sadly, my arms still wide.


    Between alternating screaming at me, slapping at me, and starting feeble charges of their breath weapon, charges even I can tell aren¡¯t meant to harm me, their fury begins to falter, not entirely, not at first. Their eyes puffy, their nose dripping, they simply begin pounding on my chest. Roughly, intensely at first, the strength of an ancient dragon after all, packed into human form.


    The strength behind each slam, each pound, fades, and fades, as they beg, ¡°Please¡­ just please¡­¡± eventually admitting, ¡°Please let me face him. Let me face the Ice of Rage, and my death.¡±


    They slowly slump to the ground, sobbing, pounding weakly, feebly on my knees, begging for a cure, a solution, or to be let free on a suicide mission. Despite this being one of Terrorzin¡¯s high commanders, despite this being someone who probably caused untold suffering throughout the ages, I drop to my knees with my arms still spread wide.


    Minutes pass. The pounding becomes yet more feeble, nearly microscopic motions, the sobs near silent, barely a raise of the sternum. Eventually, their limbs leaden, their arms droop to their side as they lean forward, falling into my embrace.


    Their voice is hoarse, raspy, weak, as they make another plea, ¡°Please, please free them from this, in mercy. End their misery. I, I can¡¯t bring myself to, to even try. Please, whatever it takes. If you require my dragonforce, I¡¯ll open myself and let you drink of it freely. Anything to end her suffering.¡±


    Shaking my head, tears in my eyes, I gulp back a sob, and try not to grimace as I¡¯m greeted with another passenger whose flavor I can¡¯t even begin to describe without falling into madness. My response is, ¡°It won¡¯t come to that. Somehow, somehow I¡¯ll find some way. I¡¯ll find a way to free them, if I have to break reality itself.¡±

 B 6 C 249: Break Reality Itself

    Did you ever¡ªwill you knock it off? No, I never, whatever you were about to ask, if it has anything to do with anything that has happened to day, the answer is no. Obviously. Today has been the weirdest shambling rambling jaunt through hell that anyone has likely ever taken. My right eye twitches when I catch shadows moving out of the corner of my eye, despite the stagnant lightsource.


    Would be nice if at least the shadows would freakin¡¯ behave. But no. Not a single normal thing at all. Not my beloved¡¯s form, she looks like a glitchy gif or a college student¡¯s first animation project for special FX. Not my senses, because they¡¯d been all being overridden by freakin¡¯ gustatory nonsense from the depths of the worst hells. Not the war, with Terrorzin throwing plasma balls, that, oh, hey, requires him burning out these very broodmothers here. Broodmothers who are, and I quote, trapped pan-dimensionally, only able to be moved between vaults in which there are tears in space to other realms.


    Nothing is normal! Not a gorram thing! Your arguing with yourself is. No it isn¡¯t! Oh. Okay. Maybe it is. A rueful smirk creeps up the left half of my face and I shrug embarrassedly at myself. Teuila cackles delightfully as she hears me berating and arguing with myself. Okay, our love is still normal, our bond is as tight as can be. We¡¯ve spent lifetimes together in accelerated time, in slowed time, in one world, in another, and on and on. Just¡­ just let that one thing remain true. Always.


    Who¡¯re you even making that request of Reggie? Uh, well. Hell if I know. I just, well, it¡¯s just something I want to be true. Alright? Sure, no skin off my nose pal. Or is it back? Maybe both. Eugh, why¡¯d you have to go and use a skin metaphor. Blrghl, it just reminds me that my entire epidermis tastes everything it¡¯s touching. I want to just cry it¡¯s so awful and foul. Eugh. Alright, alright, enough wallowing. Focus up putz. You just pledged to break reality.


    Yeah, and I gorram meant it too. Okay, so where do you start? Well, first of all, I start like this. I take in my assets, my allies, my liabilities, and I let the pieces sift around a bit, seeing what sorts of angles they fit against each other with. I just, y¡¯know, have to be careful to not fit the right, or, well, wrong pieces together. So that my brain doesn¡¯t¡ªaccording to Luni, *literally*¡ªexplode. I have to keep Teuila from doing the same thing too. Especially with what Shaylon, Gresog, and Revinth found. Sorry Te, can¡¯t tell you. Please don¡¯t ask. I really don¡¯t want your brain to explode.


    So how¡¯re those pieces fitting together pal? Shush, I¡¯m working here. We¡¯ve got an inter-realm-realm bleedthrough, a realmway tear to the ¡®Twixt, we¡¯ve got Te, Nyssa, and their offer of dying to give up their dragonforce¡ªwhich I in no way am going to allow to happen¡ªand a, um, what¡¯s the nicest way I can put this so I can avoid adding more cosmic horror to my mental monologue? A big lady. One conjoined broodmother, trapped across multiple dimensions.


    We¡¯ve got some permanently enchanted magic item assets, though most things with charges are low or out entirely. The few that aren¡¯t, are mostly my evasive maneuver ones, since I was intentionally facetanking a ton of stuff to keep foes interested in beating on me. Sure ya were pal. Sure ya were. Oh come the hell on, you know I was, it was your plan! I¡¯m just giving you a hard time. Yeah, gee, thanks, the time is hard enough on its own already, thanks! Chill Reggie, chill. Heh, haha. Telling Reggie Shellcracker the Frosty Fel Changeling-Fae to chill. Rolling my eyes, I can¡¯t help a half-amused sigh at coping-me.


    Those sounds that these poor souls make, the, the fleshy, no, just no, please. Someone plug my ears. Every squish is like its own mournful wail, souls crying out from the agony of compression. Y¡¯know, like being in an ancient dragon¡¯s throat as their esophagus tries to crush and swallow you. Okay, great, thanks Reggie. Sure, we can empathize with the squish of the doomed soul sounds. Wonderful. Really helpful.


    Y¡¯know something Reggie? Oh for the love of crap, what? I think you leveled up your sarcasm game in here. My right eye twitches so hard my cheek spasms along with it. You¡­ interrupted my thoughts, to express that you think my sarcasm is getting better!? Yup. Oh Em Eff Gee. I could strangle you! Well, don¡¯t do that. Obvee. Grumble-grumble. Ugh, you are the absolute worst. Takes one to know one pal. Pft. Hahaha. Hahaha. I¡¯m cracking up so bad.


    Okay, there¡¯s a backup plan I don¡¯t want to subvocalize, that¡¯s already coalesced, but I don¡¯t want to worry Te. So it¡¯s just a backup plan, and nothing for her to worry about, since I¡¯m still planning. Got that Te? Let¡¯s see how these pieces can fit together. If I remember right, I know where one, two, three, four other temporal zone anomalies are on Rayileklia. Don¡¯t you mean two? I said what I said. Too bad. That¡¯s one of the things you¡¯re not supposed to know.


    What? Ow! I, I, Ow, oh gods. I can feel little explosions about my gray matter. The spattering inside my skull is audible. Blood, just, just keeps pouring. From, from orifices. Weakly, I stagger, and my improperly perceived Teuila catches me as I topple. The terror I feel from her is¡­ flavorful. Eugh. Why. My eyes roll about in their sockets, coating with red as I bleed. Are you done trying to know things you¡¯re not supposed to yet?


    Yes! For the love of¡ªcrying out loud, yes!Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    There, all better now. And look, the physical damage, even done to your brain, is recovering swiftly, in rapid order. Yeah, because the bleedthrough on this realm makes me regenerate like crazy for some reason. Oh. Duh. Void Dragon. Latent, ¡°Nothing,¡± and the bleed-through is a realm outside space, between spaces, the nothing, the void between realms. Are you really me? Who else would I be? You¡¯re creeping me out. Know¡ªdon¡¯t start. Okay, okay. Fine. New tack.


    As I lay here, catching my breath after nearly dying from self-induced brain explosion, Teuila cradles my head in her lap. Of course, all I see is a strange semblance of the absence of where the white vertical lines end. Or rather, I can sort of guess Teuila¡¯s outline, because the lines seem to hit the edge of her outline, then wrap back around. Oog, my head. I¡¯d rather not have high commander Nyssa¡¯Lina see me being coddled, but at the moment, I¡¯ll take the affection.


    The voices whose whispered words mean, ¡°the way is shut, and the dead keep it,¡± say ¡°empty and hollow and thud,¡± disconcertingly, somehow still meaning, ¡°the way is shut, and the dead keep it.¡± It¡¯s the *way* they say it, in some altogether alien diction, that can only be translated as, and mean only one thing, no matter what it sounds like they¡¯re saying. Brr. Shivering, I try to place it out of sight and out of mind. The out of sight works, easily enough. Out of mind? Not so much. The voices aren¡¯t coming from outside our heads after all.


    Alright, let¡¯s kinda get back to it. A bit. Maybe if I take another try to analyze things from a different perspective, instead of one of memory and knowledge, one of science and research. Experimentation and understanding.


    Trying to help me out, Te offers up, ¡°So, I¡¯m not sure how much you already know, but there¡¯s some science for tears in space, wormholes, realmways, whatever. If we go with Einstein-Rosen, where ER=EPR, the value of quantum-entangled particles is equivalent in realmspace, no matter where the bridge, or realmway, is. So, theoretically, one could move a tear like this, without adverse effects. It¡¯d take some manipulation of the Higgs field, which I can do to start, as prep.¡±


    Blinking, I follow along with Te as she continues, ¡°I¡¯ll actually start the prep right now. Doesn¡¯t hurt to have Higgs ready to rock. Precise control over the forces of attraction, gravity? Check. One thing to keep in mind is the tachyons.¡±


    Teuila pauses, allowing me to digest her statement, at which I raise a curious eyebrow. She explains, ¡°Since these bridges, these realmways, cause temporal distortions, there¡¯s faster than light particles active in the nearby vicinity. Those I can help deal with too, increasing their mass and slowing them down. That¡¯d regulate some of the time-distortion, temporarily. Until my Latent wore off of them. So I¡¯ll do that in a second when I¡¯ve got the Higgs primed.¡±


    Phew. I understood most of that on a basic freshman level, but wow. Never underestimate Teuila and her secret science side. She looses a Shellcracker Family Squee, while wearing her mile-wide closed-eyed smile, rocking her head side to side. Her pride in being able to utilize her particle physics knowledge is quite apparent.


    Before I have time to go down rabbitholes of appreciation for Teuila, she conjectures, ¡°Another thing to deal with is inertia. Because it¡¯s the sum of the product of the mass of each particle with the square of its distance from the axis of the rotation. The whole thing has a mass that¡¯s undefinably off the charts. That¡¯s what the Higgs field prep is for, in some regards. But I can¡¯t un-warp the fabric of spacetime that¡¯s been stretched and distorted by its density. So I can¡¯t regulate the axis of rotation, or the distance from it.¡±


    To simplify, Teuila analogizes, ¡°So it¡¯s like, like a golf-ball sitting in the bottom of a deep divot. Or kind of like a bowling ball resting on stretched-out lycra. Either one is almost impossible to try to move by swinging a club at it. You¡¯ve got to bend down, and pick it up. Reset it on a tee somewhere. How to get there is something I figure your void stuff can maybe do. From that point though, everything is mystic woowoo mumbo jumbo to me. That¡¯s your area of expertise.¡±


    Hm. Teuila¡¯s explanation makes sense. Reaching out with no actual, ¡°sense,¡± I let, ¡°Nothing,¡± be my guide. The voices, the whispers take up more space in my head, while simultaneously seeming quieter. It causes my eye to twitch, so I try to ignore it.


    The problem with Teuila¡¯s proposition, is that we¡¯re not just moving the tear. We¡¯re moving people who¡¯ve had a magic ritual bind them in place across multiple dimensions, and distorted such that they simultaneously exist across several realms. I¡¯d have to reach into, and be in each of those realms, simultaneously, to interact with them.


    Sighing, I can guess one way around that, but that¡¯s in the backup plan. I¡¯d rather not worry Teuila if I don¡¯t have to. But it¡¯s harder and harder to think at all, as the voices become more and more insistent. No matter their volume. Alternate solutions fade from my grasp as the ideas begin to percolate, because the stupid voices, and horrible tastes of my every-sense being gustatory, continue to pervade my thoughts.


    Deciding to try motion to distract myself from the various unhinged parts of this non-reality that keeps trying to insist itself upon my psyche, I get up and pace around. Teuila frowns, but she stands nearby, watching worriedly. Nyssa has been in quiet contemplation since I swore to break reality. My shadow looms, stretching and bending towards Nyssa as I think about them. I growl at it to get it to stop that. Thankfully, it obeys.


    That¡¯s¡­ just one more odd thing to add to the pile. Yeah. True. Suddenly the insistent whispered voices¡­ have faces. Or rather, pareidolic mimicry of faces. Somehow each of those faces¡ªthe size of human heads¡ªbumps into, and squirms its way into my ears. Eugh. Warghleblargle! They insist harder and harder that the way is shut, and the dead keep it.


    Grr. I! Can¡¯t! Take! This! Shut up! Loosing my titles under my breath and manifesting my Honoris Causa as large as will fit in the room, I let it roar. Gripping the edges of reality, the space between spaces, the absence, the non, the lack of reality and lack of sense, I tug. Hard. My Latent, ¡°Nothing,¡± responds as I pour more and more of my willpower into it. I feel something moving. Something is happening. Something¡­ is tearing. Is that a good thing, or a¡ª.


    Plop.

 B 6 C 250: Give In

    Looking down at my severed left arm, I shake my head incredulously as I loose my grip on the non. I give in to stupefication while staring at it. It flops about like a fish out of water for a few moments, exceedingly disconcertingly. I picture it being about to start walking around on its fingers. Thank everything good in the world that it doesn¡¯t do that. Reggie? Yeah? How do you plan to finish the war with one arm?


    Somehow, I don¡¯t think that that¡¯s the big issue here, or that it¡¯ll be that much of a problem. What? Why not? Check my stump. Gazing towards my shoulder, I virtually leap out of my own skin attempting to recoil in horror, incapable of escaping the visual since it follows me. What with being attached to me and all. Yeeeugughuughhh!! Why would you tell me to look at that! I¡¯unno. I think Teuila thinks it¡¯s pretty cool. You are out of your¡­ my mind.


    As if in rebuttal, Teuila giggles and responds, ¡°Nah, other you is right. I was worried for all of like half a split second, before I saw your arm stump instantly close up and start growing weird veiny digital stuff. Looks like you¡¯ll have a full new arm in a couple minutes at most. S¡¯kinda cool. Almost like you¡¯re immortal down he¡ªoh.¡±


    The horror sinks in slowly, begging us to give in to the realization that dawns on us. What would happen if trapped down here. Incapable of dying. It¡¯s the sort of creeping dread that escalates the longer you think about it. The more you imagine an eternity devoid of meaningfulness, trapped with only whispered voices that beg you to give in to insanity.


    Let¡¯s not think about that! Shall we? What do you wanna think about? I dunno, me missing an arm is a pretty big deal. For a few more minutes anyway. Or that arm of mine, just sitting there.


    I really, really don¡¯t want Terrorzin to have an extra copy of one of my arms. I¡¯d rather not know what kind of sick twisted rituals he might be able to do with it, with his necromancers or whatever. I don¡¯t need to be facing a clone army of zombie mes. So¡­ I¡­ have to take my arm¡­ with me¡­ when I leave. That is the most effed up sentence I can imagine saying about traveling home from some place.


    Nah, you can imagine way more effed up stuff than that. Shut it! I don¡¯t want to! Oh come on Te. This butthead¡¯s giving me a real hard time! Fine, fine, enjoy laughing. Ugh, it¡¯s such a cute laugh. You¡¯re ridiculous, and¡ª.


    Interrupting me, Teuila finishes, ¡°And you love me for it. Right Air, babe?¡±


    Sighing, I nod as I give in to Teuila¡¯s silliness, wearing a soft smile as I gaze tenderly upon a floating facsimile of a lighting effect from a videogame. Somehow, even if my perceptions were stuck this way, for the rest of my life, or lives, I¡¯d still remain just as in love with her. Trying to keep from waxing poetic, I add, the complete and utter goober with inappropriate timing that she is.


    Pouting playfully, Teuila frumps, ¡°Hmph! See if you get anymore midbattle snuggles.¡±


    Neither of us can keep a straight face at her claim though. We begin a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight, an SFSF, by placing one of our hands in each other¡¯s faces, which the other one chases away with their hands, repeat ad nauseum til we give in to a giggle fit, giggling like goons. It feels nice to genuinely have such laughter with Teuila. Despite being surrounded by vacating senses, and cosmic horror. We both know neither of us is going to stop with our ridiculously inappropriate timing of affection for each other.


    Sighing, this realm is making it impossible for me to come up with solutions beyond my backup plan though. And my backup plan requires certain items, and that precipitates only me being here, because I¡¯m the only one that could get back once I use them. I¡¯m forced to give in and use my backup plan. Phooph. How do I even begin trying to explain this?


    Taking a breath, I start, ¡°Te, so, well, what I¡¯m going to need, is going to need you to not be here to try. Which means Nyssa¡¯Lina can¡¯t be here either. Which means you¡¯ve gotta get them home safely. While there, you¡¯ve gotta talk to Nala and Littlebit.¡±


    There¡¯s dubiousness across our mental wavelength, as Teuila waits for me to explain. I don¡¯t know how to describe using and breaking magic¡¯s rules, to break the pan-dimensional effect, by warping a region in space across all universes, to another dimension entirely. Thankfully, Te trusts me well enough, that I don¡¯t need to explain it.


    There is one thing I need to explain though, I need Te to pass on a message back in Verdimenn. So I relay, ¡°I¡¯ll need Littlebit and Nala to be ready, signal-generating back in Verdimenn, clear out the ¡®nasty weirdos warren¡¯, demolishing the respawning resources, despite losing unique resources, because I needs a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital shop aura to pull this off. Well, to pull off the final part of my plan. To get everyone who¡¯s still in this room, in another dimension, home to Verdimenn.¡±


    Gnawing my lip, I give in to worrying, because I¡¯m going to be giving up one of the worst possible secrets, to someone that was Terrorzin¡¯s high commander only hours ago. Maybe technically still is, if Terrorzin hasn¡¯t found out about the defection yet. I gaze down at them as they sit with their forearms on their knees. They alternate between resting their head on their forearms, or leaning their head back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling unblinkingly.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Gently moving near them to get their attention, I start, ¡°Nyssa¡­ you¡¯re a Lightning, probably one of the eldest around, especially since the loss of the Onyx Dawn¡¯s previous ¡®The Blue¡¯. You¡¯re powerful, resilient. You¡¯re going to¡ªyou might learn something, something earth-shattering, mindblowing, while traveling with Teuila. It¡¯s only a recent development, but it¡¯s a secret one, and must remain so. You accepted our mercy, so we¡¯re bringing you into our home.¡±


    Shaking my head momentarily, I add, ¡°I don¡¯t generally make demands of people who accept my mercy, but I promise you, I am going to do everything in my power, and beyond if I have to, to make this situation better. To fix what I can. All that I request is that you do not give up the info you learn, to anyone else, until the end of this war.¡±


    How much can I give away? Should I have Teuila blindfold Nyssa? Should I have Teuila blindfold herself? Rattling my skull, I request, ¡°Te? I need your hyperdimensional pack, or whichever interdimensional pouch you¡¯re carrying. Make sure it¡¯s empty. I¡¯ll need the pocket hole to stay too. I¡¯m sorry babe. They probably won¡¯t be coming back.¡±


    Pouting, Te eyes me suspiciously, but her brain catches on quickly enough. Her pout turns to a frown when she realizes what I might be intending to do. The dubious incredulity awash upon the face of her mental avatar speaks the volumes that her silence doesn¡¯t. I mouth that I promise to try to make it up to her.


    For a start, I offer up, ¡°Te, remember how you¡¯d use my TK squares to reorient your leaps midair? Have you tried leaving your Honoris Causa intangible, except for one part to place your feet against and bounce or jump off of?¡±


    My smile feels derpily wide when I can tell that Teuila is beaming with joy at the realization that she¡¯s her own double-jump, triple-jump, xyz forever jump. Her leaps are so powerful, that being able to redirect them midair gives her her maximum velocity back, at all points in her arc of travel. We hold each other and kiss softly, for the briefest eternity.


    It feels like no time at all, yet also an eon passes. During that time, Teuila gently coaches Nyssa¡¯Lina into coming along as Te plans to ascend past the Worldstorm, and head back to Solace. As she does that, I coach Te into how to navigate the Worldstorm with her Latent and Honoris Causa.


    Unlike my trip, which took a massive amount of dragonforce, hers will take two tiny blips of dragonforce. One at the bottom of the hollowed out storm, one at the top. Though I don¡¯t reveal the secret. I just tell her about the two blips, and that anything she learns while in the storm has to remain secret.


    This leaves me needing to survive and stay sane for fifteen minutes. Or more. Our goggles haven¡¯t been working in here. Which makes sense, because we¡¯re partially in another realm. The only reason Teuila¡¯s worked is because she stealthed out intending to come call me down to the vault.


    I¡¯m unlikely to be able to stealth anywhere with no one else distracting Terrorzin¡¯s horde, since FFS is dissipated by now. So I can¡¯t contact Littlebit or Nala to let them know the plan. I have to wait for Te to get home and do it. I also can¡¯t be within range of the effect that¡¯s going to happen. I do my best to cluster the conjoined broodmother, and their projection, into the smallest area around the tear, and deploy the portable hole symmetrically between them.


    Counting down the seconds is barely keeping me tethered to reality. But eight hundred seconds, plus a few more minutes to make sure Teuila got home and talked to Littlebit, is agony here. Swallowing, I grimace, because it invites another flavor passenger down my throat. The thing wriggles about happily, and at least it¡¯s a simple flavor, disgusting though it is. It tastes like snot.


    Of course, the flavor passengers aren¡¯t the only torment here. There¡¯s my very skin being able to taste my clothing and surroundings. Then most of all, absolutely most of all, there¡¯s the insistent voices. The endless whisper. The pareidolic faces ramming and wiggling themselves into my ears to deliver more whispers.


    Snarling at the constant whispering voices, the same thought over and over and over, about the way being shut, and kept by the dead, I virtually vibrate in frustration. They persist, and persist, and persist. My face contorts, my eye twitching, as I¡¯m trying to focus on letting the pieces come together, on waiting for Teuila to certainly be home. Anything I try to do to block them out backfires.


    Giving in to the rage that¡¯s been building in me about this whole situation, I¡ªwith my Honoris Causa activated, gripping the edges of Nothing¡ªshout, ¡°The way is open! We are alive, and we¡¯re gonna stay that way! And if it isn¡¯t open, I¡¯ll blow it open! Tear it open! It will be open!¡±


    For a moment, all is silent. My eyes roll in my head in a near-euphoric bliss at the temporary reprieve. Huff. I can breathe more deeply. I didn¡¯t realize how suffocating and claustrophobic it was to feel like voices were coming in from all sides at all times.


    This is going to be rough, moving everything, the ¡®Twixt tear included, within the room, to that sea of stars, that realm I saw amidst chaos magic, everything except of course me, Reggie.


    I can¡¯t go with, not this way, because I¡¯ve got all kinds of interdimensional type stuff on and about me. Between that, and not having any way to carry the stuff in my pack home, I have to find another way. As letting my magic items and enchantments mingle with a forced gate to a realm might cause an actual nuke, and end up killing me, and the broodmothers. And leaving them all here for Terrorzin to find and possibly use against us would be a nightmare.


    As is, I had FFS stash Frostburn, Riptide, and their magic equipment when they felt like they were going to dissipate. I might not get them back til the end of the war. Well, I can summon Frostburn, because of that once-per-day ability that lets me bind an item that way, or summon it that way.


    Okay, it¡¯s been about maybe twenty minutes or so. I hope that¡¯s enough time for Teuila to explain the situation, and for Nala and Littlebit to get started. Argh. What if it isn¡¯t? I¡¯ll be blowing my one shot. It¡¯s safer to wait longer. My eyes roll as my head lolls in exasperation. Of course the voices return. Of course they do. Nothing for it but to deal I suppose.


    I can¡¯t tell how long I¡¯ve waited. It feels like years have passed. I think I¡¯m growing a beard, which should be biodigitally impossible without intentionally shapeshifting one. Also, I¡¯ve been identifying¡ªnevermind. Here goes, well, somethin¡¯. I chuck an empty hyperdimensional sack, lobbing it towards the portable hole. Leaping out the room, I aim to gain all the distance I can and duck far out along the hallway for cover.

 B 6 C 251: Plunge Into Stars

    Suddenly I feel more sane, and my senses are no longer overridden with gustatory nonsense. It worked! Clambering back to my feet, I dash into the room. Sure enough, the conjoined broodmothers are gone, the tear is gone, mostly.


    I missed a tiny wiggly fragment. I gulp, hoping that that doesn¡¯t come back to bite me in the arse. Ah, unfortunately, it already is. Tiny bits of the realm-between-realms leaks in. Those nonsensical senses, and a creeping feeling of dread press in around me. And of course, because I gulped, I inherited a new passenger. The taste of peanutbutter smeared across castor oil, baked at nine hundred degrees for one hour. How? Why? Why so specific? What? Argh! Bluh, anyway, focus.


    Now I¡¯ve got to get there, that sea of stars, just in case the broodmothers need¡ªwell, no. I¡¯m going there regardless. I want to help them all the way, not half-arsed. Sure, this already rescues them from Terrorzin, but the next step is giving them back their lives and freedom.


    Plus, I don¡¯t want to be hanging around here with two left arms for too long. I just know that something weird is going to happen with the one in my bag if I do. Flexing my freshly regenerated left arm, and glancing at it, I just shake my head. My other arm is thankfully lifeless, at least it¡¯s not¡­ misbehaving. My life is so effing weird.


    Alright chaos magic, please, please, a sea of stars. A sea of stars. Please, a sea of stars. I¡¯ve been there before. I¡¯ve seen it. Please let this work. I¡¯ll continue to utilize free cantrips, my innate subtle-spell metamagical rigor proc¡¯ing the chaos magic clip, over and over. Though, so that I don¡¯t accidentally nuke my equipment out of existence, I should probably stop after the tenth attempt.


    Huff. Can I really get myself to stop though? Would I give up, having sent them to another realm? They¡¯re at least out of reach of Terrorzin. That¡¯s something. But I can do this though! I believe in the me that believes in me!


    Puffing breaths slowly, I focus on the moment. Each moment will grant me a chance at six seconds in that sea of stars. I¡¯ll use free magic, a cantrip I¡¯ve used a hundred times before, but engage the chaos-magic runic clip.


    The cantrip, the magic I use to do it? I cast a cantrip to summon a whoopee cushion for several seconds with prestidigitative ledgerdemain of all things. Despite the absolute absurdity of it, a weak smile remains on my face, despite the unease, the dread, the horror edging in on my psyche.


    It¡¯s Tiktik¡¯s signature use of the spell. My Kitten. Littlebit¡¯s love of her life. Tiktik prestidigitating whoopee cushions into her hand every single time she introduced herself to someone new, and shook their hand, was such a staple, stable thing for her. That compulsive behavior, the way Tiktik is in some ways, a chaotic gremlin, and others, the most structured individual I know, it¡¯s a balancing act. It¡¯s one she wears as beautifully as the sheer robe she wore when we, erm, koff, koff.


    Blushing, I¡¯m glad no one can see my thoughts right now as I picture Tiktik in that robe, the nights we spent together in The ¡®Twixt. Whew. Tugging at the collar of my armor, I virtually steam. Come on Reggie, focus on the magic, and the chaos. You can do this. You¡¯re probably the most chaotic person most people know. Chaos and you are friends. No reason to fear it.


    Upon my first cast, a number pops into my mind, silhouetted by strange shapes, it appears like it¡¯s carved into a pair of pentagonal trapezohedrons. 42 [42] I suddenly feel fast in a way I haven¡¯t felt since my temporary cosmic king transformation. I can bend space, and move between points within a short and visible range.


    This is amazing! Too bad it¡¯s only going to last a minute. I chuck the conjured whoopee cushion over my shoulder, and it makes its pbbblblblbt sound against the wall behind me before dissipating. Deep breaths Reggie. No whammies, no whammies. Go again. I cast prestidigitative ledgerdemain once more, engaging the chaos magic runic clip.


    Pft. Those strangely silhouetted pentagonal trapezohedrons are back, this time, reading 22 [22]. My second cast brings the chaos magic into a realm of irony at a level I didn¡¯t know existed.


    Me, the sourceless sorcerer, the absensorcerer, the non-Rayileklian caster completely incapable of using any Rayileklian mnemonic gets a short boon. Suddenly a mnemonic from Rayileklia is available to me, for a single minute, granting me quickened casting of my spells.


    I roll my eyes and shake my head at the luck of it all. One more thing I wish was permanent. So far, chaos seems like it¡¯s teasing me, trolling me. It¡¯s granting me beneficial effects that I can¡¯t keep. That speaks to the idea that we¡¯re friends. Some playful ribbing. That¡¯s all it is, right? Chaos? Pal?


    One more whoopee cushion tossed over my shoulder, another pblblbt. I think the realm is backing off on the existential horror a bit, either amused, or confused, that I¡¯m using the lamest gag in the book.


    Phew, get ready to cast it again. Summon another whoopee cushion. Another go, more deep breathing, more fingers crossed. Oh wait. Do I suddenly have more fingers? Oh, whew, no. Just kinda paranoid in here. Need to watch what I say, or think, in an area with a partially-bleeding realm like this.


    Alright, is the third time a charm? The pair of, huh, I guess they¡¯re ten sided dice, returns. This time they read 90 [90]. Yowza! Chain lightning ricochets out from the whoopee cushion and leaps about aimlessly for several seconds. Okay, well, not the worst thing to have happened to me today, by a long shot.


    Fourth time? The dice show up in my mind as 64 [64]. When they do, all of my clothing ignites.


    This is fine. Sigh.


    My non magical gear was already vaporized by dragon¡¯s breath or Worldstorm lightning anyway. I just have a one minute fire aura I guess. Two more whoopee cushions get tossed aside. Again, it¡¯s mostly funny, like the playful ribbing between long-time pals. Chaos hasn¡¯t harmed me, so much as teased me. It knows my clothes being on fire is mostly just silly. Hopefully.


    Getting closer to where I want to cut myself off from trying more of this, but come on, try number five. I cast prestidigitation once more. A new whoopee cushion appears as I engage the chaos magic runic clip again. The fifth set of dice reads 30 [30]. Mana swells in my veins fit to bursting, causing me to temporarily hyperventilate. I recognize the effect though. It¡¯s the magic steroid that Al¡¯pa¡¯ca used to maximize the damage from his spells.


    It¡¯s short-lived. Another almost-too-bad effect. This one I¡¯m glad is temporary though. I don¡¯t want to get addicted to power flowing through my veins. I don¡¯t even want to use it for this minute. I just drop the whoopee cushion at this point.


    Gulping, I try a sixth cast, forgetting that gulping is the most awful thing to do with the bleed-through of this realm. A new flavor passenger joyously leaps down my throat. Eugh. The dice quickly flash twice for some reason. It reads 06 [06], then 1 [1]. Okay¡­ what happened on the sixth cast? I don¡¯t feel any different.


    Did I turn blue? Nope. Quirking a brow, me and the little starfish robot on my shoulder look side to side for several seconds before I nearly leap out of my skin. It¡¯s absolutely comical, like a character that sneaks up on another in a cartoon, and mimics their exact movements.


    What in the name of the hells? Well, I remember two of them accidentally dying to worldstorm lightning last time I engaged chaos magic. I tentatively wave at it, and it begins speaking ASCII through binary at me.


    Ugh. I do not have the patience to try to calculate the bit values and try to remember what numbers correspond to what characters in ASCII. I try to save its rambling to my retrocognitive memory, in case it becomes important, and I have time to decipher it at some point.


    My, erm, friend I suppose, rattles off, ¡°01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100000 01010110 01101111 01101001 01100100 00100000 01001111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01000011 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 01101100 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01010011 01100011 01101000 01101001 01110011 01101101 00100000 01000001 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01110101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01001111 01101000 00100000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01110010 01110100,¡± before disappearing from the realm.


    Alright, drop another whoopee. Come on Reggie, come on. Gulping¡ªoh gods please stop gulping! For the love of everything holy. Oh my lord. That is the most rancid, foulest tasting, eugh. Just stop gulping! G¡ªDon¡¯t even think about moving your throat an inch.


    Glp. AGHGHGH! Okay, that one¡¯s not so bad¡­ it tastes kinda like¡­ living alone in a rainforest. Which, I mean, isn¡¯t all that far from how I began life. On Can¡¯Z¡¯aas. Hey, shush. You¡¯re skirting a trigger. Alright, alright. Anyway, cast number six.


    As the dice come up 02 [02], everything grips me. The mana woven in intersecting parallel and perpendicular lines across Rayileklia suddenly squeezes me til it feels like I¡¯m going to pop. It does me the favor of letting me horf up my newest passengers. It also sinks its claws, its hooks, its talons into me. I feel a curse enchanting itself about me, laying down a punishment for brazenly¡ªhah. Chaos, haha, chaos you¡¯re such a troll.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Hahaha. Hahahaha. My punishment is chaos magic surging ten times in the next minute. Without needing to engage my runic clip. Shrugging, I roll with it as the dice rapidly flash the following progression, 86 [86], 52 [52], 51 [51], 81 [81], 43 [43], 90 [90], 33 [33], 12 [12], 28 [28], 34 [34].


    Necrotic bursts flicker in three spaces about the room harmlessly. A shield rotates aimlessly about my face, distractingly. Another one rotates about my crotch, embarrassingly. Suddenly I glow like a street lamp. Ow, my eyes. Thanks for that. The space-warping boon sticks with me for a bit longer. Another burst of chain lightning bounces aimlessly about and into the hallway.


    My skin takes on a steely hue and I feel more durable against every type of damage that could come my way for the next minute. Also for a minute, my already speedy regeneration quickens even more. Suddenly I flicker into a sea of stars! Also, while here, that steely hue on my skin granting me more durability extends itself. Alright magic, sure, thanks.


    What matters is we¡¯re here! We¡¯ve only got six seconds to get this done, something I¡¯m all-too-familiar with having. Like this temporary chaos-magic-granted ability to bend space, my cosmic king form only lasted six seconds.


    It¡¯s so astounding, time is fleeting, and the madness has taken its toll. But listen up Reggie. It¡¯s not much longer that you¡¯ve got to keep control. Remember why you¡¯re doing this. Drink in the moments between moments, the non, the blackness and nothingness of the void.


    Gazing about, it feels like I¡¯m floating in a river of starlight. I¡¯m surrounded by distinct nebulae and galaxies that are simultaneously close enough to paint across the visual scape, yet obviously so far away, as to be tiny specks coloring the vast, the infinite.


    There are what look to be meteors, rocks, floating about, some of which seem perfectly stable, with what might even be objects set atop them, semi-permanently. Other meteors are those that roll, endlessly spinning like wheels on a bus.


    Some of the meteors even seem to flicker in and out, or virtually dissolve before my eyes, disappearing entirely. While here, in this weightless, nearly euphoric float amongst the infinite, direction ceases to have meaning. There¡¯s not really an up or down. I can orient myself any which way, and I still appear to be buoyantly bobbing in a silver river of shimmering starlight. Each little motion, each bob, sends ripples shimmering through this endless river, bouncing into eternity.


    In this realm, this cosmic realm, where things are askew in a whole new mindbending way, less horrific than back on Rayileklia, I have only moments here to do what I need to do. What¡¯s more, since I¡¯m focused, intent on being here, in the here and now, I realize something about this realm. About me being in this realm. I gain¡­ influence.


    My mind, my imagination, my intellect, somehow, in some small, minuscule way, shape, or form, the realm bends to my will. I¡¯ve got to be quick about this, then get into the ¡®Twixt, or I¡¯ll be trapped behind enemy lines in cosmic-horror realm again. I don¡¯t think I could survive the mindbreaking things it has in store for me *and* having to fight or fly my way through and over Terrorzin¡¯s horde to get home.


    What little time I have in this beautiful location is a reprieve for my senses, and I¡¯d rather not go back to the gustatory overload. It¡¯s a break from the ceaseless whispers of the cosmic horror from before, our location is nearly silent.


    Nearly silent. Save for a faint melody. It¡¯s the sound of emotions. Somehow, everyone, everywhere, has a song, and here it plays quietly, for those who choose to listen. A haunting dirge, for those in mourning, a lively waltz for those in love, and on and on.


    My temperature senses feel non-functional here. As if temperature simply isn¡¯t a thing in this realm. It¡¯s a sort of sterile feeling, no heat nor cold, no warmth nor cool. Just being. It¡¯s a bit unnerving to me, as I¡¯m so used to my thermokinetic abilities. Yet it¡¯s simultaneously relaxing, putting them on hold, not needing to interpret the speed and friction of every molecule within range.


    The lack of one of my senses is almost a weight off of my chest, letting me breathe for once, in a way I didn¡¯t remember or notice that I¡¯d been lacking. With such a pause, such emptiness on a whole new level, I can think more clearly. It¡¯s certainly more clearly than in the vault, but perhaps, more clearly than I¡¯ve ever perceived thought before.


    Alright world, worlds, sea of stars, conjoined broodmothers. Be conjoined no more. Be temporarily tethered to that ¡®Twixt tear, so that you go where it goes. No longer sent with that tear from location to location by Terrorzin.


    Let¡¯s see if we can do this, yeah? I¡¯m reacting in microseconds, trying to take advantage of every split instant that I¡¯ll be in here. What do I have to do in order to enact my will, to help these women have some semblance of autonomy again? Those that still have individual souls at least.


    Grimacing, I turn my head and blink back tears, noticing several who don¡¯t, whose souls are burnt out. Like Selunie Tavner was, though she died before we could get to Victo. Like Selunie, according to her cousin, or like the ancestors. All the ancestors in Aasimovia, they were husks, soulless, waiting for the Aasimovians to complete the great work. If it weren¡¯t for the curse placed on Dawn, they¡¯d still be wandering around.


    The Aasimovians wanted to reunite souls with their loved ones¡¯ bodies and live in an immortal utopia, with the option to opt out, and leave Rayileklia behind permanently. That option was Noirdivinhoz. The Aasimovians truly respected the dead, and the soulless, in a unique way. I¡¯m sure they¡¯d understand, and be sympathetic to what I¡¯m trying to do for the broodmothers. Even without souls, these women deserve respect and autonomy. I won¡¯t leave them like this. Not if I can help it.


    Come on Reggie Shellcracker. Wrack your brain for ideas. How do we use this tiny, infinitesimal influence within the next five point five seconds? Hm, wrack, brain. Rack. Brain. Brain. Rack. Server rack. Parallel processing. Slowly, in these split microseconds, an idea dawns on me.


    This sea of stars, it¡¯s known as the Astral, or the Astral Sea. It¡¯s a place of astral projection, a place for spirits to traverse, free of their constraints. Spirits and souls are near-interchangeable, nearly. If, if the burning of their souls didn¡¯t manage to also burn their spirits, I might be able to replace the souls of the ones who¡¯d had them burned away, replace them with their spirits. Maybe.


    It¡¯d be a bit like a clone, or a copy, piloting their body. And that clone, or copy, would never be able to astral project, but, well¡ª. I don¡¯t think they¡¯d care that much. That¡¯s if I can get them un-conjoined, with their bodies surviving the split. That part will take finesse.


    Then there¡¯s the fact that I¡¯d like them to be able to live in a realm where they¡¯re not stranded in a sea of stars, no matter how beautiful this place is. Gotta get them and the tear back to Rayileklia, after moving it. Moving it itself is going to be a hell of a trip in more ways than one.


    I only hope that Littlebit and Nala have gotten their signal-works up and running, so I have something to home in on. And that those signals are as close to the Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital shop structure as possible, so I have something to grip and pull towards. Letting my form drink in all the waves in this realm, the signals, I think I know where I¡¯ve got to head. I think.


    No matter what I do though, if I want to be able to move The ¡®Twixt tear back to Rayileklia, and the broodmothers along with it, I need to process this all in parallel. That is, I have to do it simultaneously from across two realms. The only one I have access to where that¡¯s remotely feasible is The ¡®Twixt. Thankfully, there¡¯s an entrance right there.


    Plus, I know for a fact that entering The ¡®Twixt will lead to me existing in both realms simultaneously for a split second, as time passes quickly in The ¡®Twixt, while that split second is nearly paused in reality. Nearly. Still, I¡¯ve got a migraine from trying to think faster than reality can move forward in time.


    Also, being in The ¡®Twixt when my six second timer is up might be the only way to not get spat back out into the Vault. The chaos magic would return me to the realm I came from, if I was in the realm it sent me to. I think as long as I¡¯m not in the Astral realm when the timer is up, it can¡¯t tug me back from there to Rayileklia.


    Swimming through this galactic painting, this spiraling cosmos, I use my mind to keep the broodmothers from drifting out of reach. This reality responds to my will. Carefully, oh-so-carefully, I begin pulling them apart from each other, performing acute surgery. It¡¯s nerve-wracking, no pun intended, because I can tell nerve endings are fused, as well as blood vessels, and so much more.


    I have to¡­ my Space skill. While I can free one half of each conjoined pair, the other half would perish, or be sent spiraling into sensory insanity. For each pair, I have to duplicate objects¡¯ positions in space. Just like, well, back home, on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, copying stuff in my inventory to multiple locations in space. Hell, I used it to perform an attack against the Evil Claws and Damnations a day or two ago. Just gotta¡­ duplicate nerve endings and blood vessels instead.


    Something that I might be the only person in any universe suited for. With my Space skill, back on Can¡¯Z¡¯aas, duplicating objects¡¯ positions in spacetime would produce temporary duplicates. Here, in the astral, I can duplicate without regard to temporary restraints.


    Gnawing my lip, I hyperfocus, bending down the microseconds to petaseconds. Each action that my brain sifts through feels like it tears something out of me, reacting this fast. My body spasms, an object not meant to be in a realm meant for spirits. Muscles in my neck and back pinch and twist, painfully locking and knotting.


    After performing a surgery that no being should be able to perform, my everything hurts. My brain is complaining about overuse, my muscles are tight beyond belief. My heart hurts on emotional and physical levels I never thought possible. All of those pains increased more staggeringly exponentially each moment of the surgery.


    But it was all worth it. The women, no longer broodmothers, no longer conjoined, begin to regain their senses, and their individuality. It¡¯s a slow process, and they aren¡¯t able to react in petaseconds like I am, so I just barely notice their senses slowly returning.


    They¡¯re slowly acclimating to having individual senses, individual beings. I do what I can, to locate and infuse the spirits of those who¡¯ve lost their souls, into their soulless husks. I can¡¯t tell if I succeed. I¡¯ve only got split instants to get into the ¡®Twixt, and move this entire congregation to the corresponding point in the Astral Sea that relates to Mount Verdimenn, where they¡¯ll be safe to acclimate to having lives again.


    Diving towards the tear in space, a simple touch will drop me into my realm. Usually quite literally. The ¡®Twixt liked to drop me on my face, or to drop me on my back, and drop Tiktik on my face. Blushing, I try not to think about the erm, ways in which that occurred. Rattling my skull, ow, my pinched neck and spine, I touch a bit of the energy pouring from the tear to The ¡®Twixt.


    Reality shifts, and, while I don¡¯t entirely expect to be dropped into my ¡®Twixt town, Nichtshire D¡¯locke, I do expect a bit more than the emptiness I¡¯m greeted by. Far more appearing like nothing at all, I try to gaze about the void, the non, that lie in wait for my entrance. With little to react to, I manifest my Honoris Causa, reciting my titles.


    A tad unexpectedly, I¡¯m greeted by that shady shopkeep from Nicthshire D¡¯locke, ¡°Tsk tsk tsk. Such an unacceptable entrance.¡±


    Furrowing my brow, I apologise, ¡°Excuse me? Err, sorry. Look, I don¡¯t have time for that right now. Sorry.¡±


    More sinisterly, the shopkeep insists, ¡°Well then you¡¯d better make some, now hadn¡¯t you? I think you¡¯ll find yourself more than capable of making *time* Void Dragon.¡±

 B 6 C 252: Voidrealm

    His insistence sends shivers down my spine as bad as the cosmic horror of the bleedthrough of the between-realmspace. Glancing at him, I¡¯m trying to size up just what he wants, and why The ¡®Twixt is using him to reprimand me for entering. Previously, The ¡®Twixt seemed plenty happy to create a world for me and Tiktik to journey through.


    Holding my hands up placatingly, I explain, ¡°I¡¯m sorry if I seemed disrespectful just now. I meant I¡¯m on a time-crunch, within petaseconds of some magic bounce-back that I¡¯d really rather not let happen. I hope you can understand. You know very well how new I am to interacting with The ¡®Twixt.¡±


    The facial expression spreading across the shady shopkeeper¡¯s visage is hard to explain or parse. At best, maybe I could call it a sneer as he responds, ¡°Yes, yes you are quite new, at this point in¡­ time, to interacting with us. Let¡¯s just say that you¡¯re a bit overdue for a few lessons. Your foe, well, foes, have been paying their dues, for a long, long time. You¡¯ve only just begun, and you¡¯re behind on your payments.¡±


    Blinking rapidly, I hope I¡¯m wrong about how I¡¯m interpreting what he¡¯s saying. I really, really, really hope I¡¯m wrong. Shivering, I raise a brow towards him, prompting him to continue, ¡°You¡¯re the one whose payments we¡¯re most interested in after all. Oh I think you know quite well where this is going. To be sure, I¡¯m fairly certain you know quite well where a lot of things are going. In fact, if I recall, you¡¯ve figured out three endings that verify a single prophecy. You are quite right about them. Quite right indeed.¡±


    The, the conclusions that I drew, I, I¡ªblood vessels above my eyes explode, and drain down across my vision, coloring everything red. My, my mind. My actual brain is¡ª. It¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s in the process of exploding. The, the things Luni told me to, to not chase, to not know. They¡¯re, they¡¯re¡ªI¡¯m going to die. My brain is swelling, swelling with knowledge it shouldn¡¯t have, can¡¯t have, can¡¯t handle. It has to fit worlds, universes worth of knowledge. It¡ª.


    The shopkeep reacts, ¡°Oh, does that make your head hurt? Is that one of the memories you aren¡¯t supposed to keep? My apologies. I¡¯ll just clean that right up for you. There you go, no nasty memories you shouldn¡¯t have.¡±


    Wh-what, huh? Where¡­? Right, talking to shady shopkeep. What were they on about? I must have spaced for a moment, so I confess, ¡°Sorry, I, I think I spaced out, or blanked out for a second. There¡¯s just been a lot going on, and some of it, quicker than I think most anyone is used to happenings, well, happening.¡±


    When the shopkeep scrutinizes me, glancing me up and down, he seems dissatisfied. Muscles along my spine pinch and pull, knotting tightly, painfully, causing me to wince. Our conversation seems to be at an impasse, so I testingly reach out with my Honoris Causa. The shopkeep raises a brow, and simply observes. We float here in a void, The ¡®Twixt making no effort to materialize a realm for me to interact with. It¡¯s just as well. If anything, this empowers the attempt I¡¯m about to make.


    Whispering my intent, my will, through my Latent, ¡°Nothing,¡± I plead for my Void Dragon form to tug the tear in space, the realmway, from its corresponding location in the Astral Sea, the one that corresponds to the vault. The destination is one whose signals I seek out. My only hope lies within my interpretation of the waves of signals that my Void Dragon form within the Astral Sea has been receiving.


    If I¡¯m right, and lucky, the signals I¡¯d been parsing, the ones that I¡¯m locked onto, are the ones by Littlebit and Nala back in Verdimenn on Rayileklia. At least, if their signals cross realms, like I believe they do. The point they originate from in the Astral Sea, would correspond to where on Rayileklia they¡¯re sending them from. That, and the object I¡¯m homing in on should be a Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian digital shop, which is what I grip, and tug, pulling myself towards. Pulling myself, and the tear I¡¯m tethered inside of.


    If I¡¯m wrong, I strand myself in this unmaterialized ¡®Twixt, and the broodmothers in the Astral Sea. Even if I¡¯m right, I still have to get back home to Rayileklia somehow, get to the spot in Verdimenn that corresponds to the location in the Astral Sea that I¡¯m dragging this to, trigger chaos magic to get back to the Astral Sea *again*, envelop the broodmothers and the tear with my Void Dragon form, and tug, hard, as the chaos magic drags me back to Rayileklia.


    I simultaneously exist in this realm, and the Astral Sea, projecting my Honoris Causa in both. Gnawing my lip, I tug gently, like crossing a single-rope bridge, pulling myself across, towards my destination. Each fraction of a millimeter feels like it tears at those twisted muscles along my spine, my neck and back. It¡¯s a hellish agony, felt by me, and observed closely by the shady shopkeep.


    There¡¯s a part of me that was hoping that The ¡®Twixt would let me adventure in Nichtshire D¡¯locke, and maybe have my ¡¯Twixt realm link up with Tiktik¡¯s. I was hoping to earn an exit from my realm, to Verdimenn, and to convince The ¡®Twixt to use this tear, rather than creating a new one.


    It would have been the simpler, easier solution, if The ¡®Twixt was willing. One that didn¡¯t cost me so much. Of course, I wasn¡¯t planning on or banking on it happening or even being possible. It was just a fool¡¯s hope I suppose.


    Ow. Friggin¡¯ ow. Muscles in my jaw, and around my right eyelid and cheek spasm, pinch, and twist, like those along my spine. Muscle tension headaches grip me about my skull and squeeze like, well, being caught between the metacarpals of an enormous ancient dragon, for example. Pft. Only you Reggie. Only you would ever possibly have that be an analogy that you could literally use from experience.


    Almost out of nowhere, the shady shopkeeper asks, ¡°What exactly do you think you¡¯re doing, and how do you think you¡¯re doing it? Explain it to me in that colorful way of yours, but simply, analogized.¡±


    My face contorts, and my right eyelid quirks and twitches as the pain in my face extends, taking over more of my cheek and forehead. Grunting under the strain, I attempt, ¡°It¡¯s, argh. Okay. Imagine the tear, the realmway being something heavy, at the bottom of the ocean, an anchor, a treasure chest, whatever. Me being here, in the ¡®Twixt, is like tying that thing to my ankles or waist. Or uh, a leg lift, I mean a hamstring curl. Yeah, that¡¯s a good analogy. I¡¯m holding The ¡®Twixt tear like I¡¯ve got my hamstrings curled around it.¡±


    Hurk, the pain decides to claw its way across my spine from right to left, pulling more muscles taut. My eyelids continue to twitch as I continue my answer, ¡°Koff. Argh ow friggin¡¯ hell. What I¡¯m doing out there in the Astral Sea, is like pulling on a rope, a lifeline, dragging this heavy-ass object out of the sea, purely by upper body strength. That part is fairly literal. Just with my Void Dragon Honoris Causa¡¯s upper body strength pulling an invisible ethereal rope tied to a spot in the Astral Sea corresponding to Verdimenn on Rayileklia. So I¡¯m tied, tethered to the tear, by being in this realm, and I¡¯m moving it, by being out there.¡±


    The tongue click of the shopkeep after I answer is disconcerting, but he doesn¡¯t respond immediately. I really wish the interactive aspect of The ¡®Twixt weren¡¯t so seemingly annoyed with me. I don¡¯t need a tsk tsk tsk, I need, well, I need a break honestly, but that¡¯s not something I¡¯ll admit, or even take if it was offered. Though, more explanation about why I was greeted by the shopkeep, and why there¡¯s suddenly a blank spot in my memories where I spaced out for a bit, would maybe be nice.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    There¡¯s a haze in my mind from a bit after arrival, til a bit ago. The shopkeeper greeted me, annoyed with something I¡¯d done, and I was a bit impolite, terse, strained, trying to focus on the task at hand. I think I apologized for that. Then what? Then I spaced out. Maybe the pain had me black out for a moment?


    It certainly feels like I¡¯m close to blacking out from pain right now. My lower back feels like it¡¯s herniated, my facial muscles seemingly want to crush my jaw, and my spine itself is spasming. That¡¯s to say nothing of the lingering pains from being stomped on by giant monsters and dragons, crisped by lightning, facetanking plasma, and everything else I¡¯ve done all day.


    Despite observing me, seemingly nearly uninterested in my plight, the shopkeep prompts, ¡°And then what? You move us, it, the tear, along this rope, in some realm it doesn¡¯t belong, then what?¡±


    Oh, oops. That¡¯s right. I may have made a tiny bit of a presumption that The ¡®Twixt wouldn¡¯t mind me sending its realmway to the Astral Sea, as long as the destination was back on Rayileklia. Gulping, I answer, ¡°I go back to Rayileklia, get in the right position, location in spacetime, return to the Astral Sea while anchored at that location, hug the tear with my Void Dragon form, and let magic tug me back to Rayileklia again, having moved the tear somewhere safe, out of Terrorzin¡¯s reach.¡±


    As I¡¯d feared, the shopkeeper queries, ¡°And whom exactly said that we wanted our realmway out of your foe¡¯s reach? Hm? Who exactly do you think you are, to simply decide which aspects of which reality you want where?¡±


    Gulping, I gnaw on my bottom lip, still focused on my task, because I¡¯m doing everything at light-speed in the Astral Sea while this is occurring. I¡¯ve got fractions of fractions of a second left to pull this off. I raise my brow at the shopkeeper, but they make no hostile actions, they simply wave their hand, prompting me to answer. Who do I think I am?


    Well, I guess I can try to answer and hope to not piss off The ¡®Twixt any further, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m just Reggie Shellcracker, just someone who wants people to not hurt, who, who wants to help and get back to their family.¡±


    Unfortunately, the shopkeeper shakes his head while tsk tsking at me again. His response is, ¡°No, no that¡¯s not quite right. That¡¯s an identity. One you¡¯ve adopted, thoroughly, I might add. But that¡¯s not *who* you are. Now is it? Schism? Void Dragon?¡±


    My face contorts. Does this guy, does The ¡®Twixt just want me to recite my titles? Agh the pain contorting and pinching about my back lands somewhere around my Thoracic fourth or fifth vertebrae. My T4 and T5 do not like that. Wincing, gulping, gasping for breath from the pain and strain, my eyes roll in their sockets.


    Once again, the shopkeeper waves their hand, prompting me. Distracted, I give the only answer I can think of, ¡°I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker. I¡¯m a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an Archmage Aliased V???????o??????i??????d????????? ??????????t?????????h??????e???????? ??????C???e???a?????s????????e???????????l???e?????????s???????s??????? Schism. And I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa.¡±


    What just happened? Where¡¯d the shopkeep go? Why is there a scent assailing my nostrils? Is that¡­ ammonia? Argh, the pain¡­ I¡¯m gonna vomit from its intensity. Come on, don¡¯t leave me hanging like this, literally. I¡¯ve gotten the tear to the location in the Astral Sea, and time has completely frozen out there. I can¡¯t even bank on the chaos magic yanking me back to Rayileklia now, as the six seconds will never have passed.


    Me, alone, in a void realm, nothing but nothing from here to eternity. Phooph. Imagine what my insane fractured psyche would do, stuck for eternity in the void. I¡¯d probably split it off, and start talking to myself, being my only company. Yeah, you¡¯d also snark at yourself and probably laugh at your own pain.


    True. True. So, what¡¯re ya in for? Oh me? Just manipulating cosmic realmways and pissing off entire thought-realms and realities. Oh yeah? What¡¯s your sentence, how long? Oh y¡¯know, eternity. Pft. Hahah. Ugh. I can¡¯t even shake my head at myself because of how tightly pinched the muscles along my spine are. But no, really, this is a little unnerving.


    Time¡­ passes. Sort of. I wait, and I wait, and I wait. Nothing but me and my thoughts. Not exactly something I¡¯m unfamiliar with, but disconcerting nonetheless. I glance around like some ponytailed, suit-wearing, pop-fiction movie character gif reference of someone looking confused as heck. Like a what? I don¡¯t even know Reggie, I don¡¯t even know. Well, how long has passed? Well, technically no time at all, but, well, it could be hours, or days already, here in this blank space, this void. Hell, it could be weeks, months, years.


    Glancing about, I feel like I¡¯m in a moment between moments, something I¡¯m somewhat used to, with Retrocognition and all. I¡¯m almost certain I¡¯ve gotten the realmway tear to the appropriate location, the source of the signals in the Astral Sea. Pretty certain. Kinda. I mean, it¡¯s not like I can move it any farther right now anyway.


    I just need to figure out how to get back to Rayileklia from here. Then get back there, to the Astral Sea, in that location. That part is just relying on luck and chaos again. But I kinda didn¡¯t have a plan for what would happen if time just sorta paused with me being partially in an empty ¡®Twixt like this.


    Can¡¯t even shake my head or sigh because of the pain. Muscles around my diaphragm and pectorals and spine feel like I¡¯m being crushed in a dragon¡¯s esophagus. Again. Again. Can you believe that? Who else can say, ¡°again,¡± about the number of times a dragon¡¯s esophagus has squeezed them? Who? Who¡¯s insane enough to have a life like that. Only you Reggie, only you.


    Yup. Only me. Le sigh. Y¡¯know what I could go for? What? A cheeseburger. A big quarter pounder with cheese. A royale with cheese. Why? How do you even know what a cheeseburger is, or another name for it? Or that you¡¯d like one? No idea, to all of those questions.


    Buggy Fakeworld memories is all. Gods, or a chiropractor. A chiropractor would be nice. What, to eat? No you jerk, because my spine is friggin¡¯ killing me with this muscle tightness. Doofus. I know, I was giving you a hard time. I know you were, and I was playing along. Oh really? Yes really!


    Dot dot dot. Reggie? Yeah pal? You have so friggin¡¯ lost it. Yup. And you¡¯re stuck with me. Presumably until the end of time. Ugh. Partners forever I suppose. Right, let¡¯s make a deal, and shake on it. Sure, let¡¯s bargain, whacha want? Phooph. I just want a timeline where my family is all safe, and gets a chance to lead a happy life. What about you? I¡¯m not sure yet, how about you owe me a favor, we shake on it, and the bargain is inviolate. Uh. S-sure? I¡­ guess I shake with myself, making an inviolate bargain?


    Did I just¡­ Mobster deal myself? That reminds me of the Derbrightmine Dwarven Dominion. Don Derbrightmine ran things like the mafia, but at least had gotten the dwarven families to stop their infighting. Though he¡¯d bent knee and kowtowed to Terrorzin, tithing, and extorting more tithes from the nearby kobolds. I can¡¯t say I entirely blame him though. Knowing the sort of destruction that was brought down upon them for defiance.


    Phooph. Yeah. That was kinda your fault Reggie. I know I know! I¡¯m sorry. I just, I just wanted the kobolds to be okay, and not be extorted to the point of dying from malnutrition. I know, I know. Sometimes, there¡¯s no good solution. You do the most good you can, when you can, and hope the cosmic scales balance out. Speaking of cosmic scales¡­ Uh, okay, go on? You should find a way back to Rayileklia.


    Before I can respond to myself, the shopkeeper appears with a grin that¡¯s a tad too malicious for my liking, and comments, ¡°Oh, we believe we can help you with that.¡±


    Unfortunately, before I have a chance to act, I¡¯m hurtling through spatial distortions and edges of dimensions. The shopkeep just ejected me from The ¡®Twixt before I could respond, or ask why he knew my thoughts. Though I guess no thoughts are private from The ¡®Twixt in The ¡®Twixt. Somehow, somehow it feels like I left something behind. Something was skimmed, stripped from me, as I was cast out.


    Worse, I can sense my trajectory. No, please no. He knew I didn¡¯t want to go back here. He did this on purpose. I¡¯m going to land in the vault. The vault with a tiny bit of realmway bleedthrough left in it, just enough to let in cosmic horror and sensory hell.


    Worse, a vault that¡¯s no longer empty. Worse, as I¡¯m hurtling towards it¡ªthat pain? That pain that was nearly causing me to black out? It ramps up a millionfold, and I¡¯m about to black out.

 B 6 C 253: Enrage Rage Engage

    Hurtling face-first into a wall in the vault, I catch sight of someone standing at its entrance, someone who I do not want to be near, much less vulnerable around. That someone¡¯s stony gray skin, full, impressive white beard, battlescars, entirely-white left eye, and disapproving stance are more than enough to tell me who they are. The human form of Terrorzin notices me materializing back into Rayileklia proper.


    This is gonna be bad. I¡¯m almost glad and grateful that he has a squad of human-form ancients behind him. Maybe he won¡¯t engage his Latent-infused dragonforce ice-aura with them around? It¡¯d kill them too. I gulp though, apprehensive of my circumstances. Of course, gulping is something which I wish I hadn¡¯t done, as that invites another flavor passenger. Strangely though, this flavor, is cheeseburger.


    I¡¯m almost shocked. I mean, leave it to cosmic horror to trip you up and fake you out. Y¡¯know? While also maintaining that aura of existential dread, as it seems to have read my mind from two realms away. The implications are, well, unsettling to say the least.


    Sadly, I¡¯m traveling at what seems, or at least feels, like it might be pretty close to fractions of C, light-speed. So when my skull crunches against the wall, the combinations of pains I¡¯ve endured, and those that are lasting, and the obvious concussion I receive upon impact, I black out.


    Being shaken with a concussion is never a fun experience, especially not one to wake up to. Being shaken with a concussion by a pissed-off human-form dragon king tyrant? Also never a fun experience. But I can¡¯t help giggling and smiling widely when I realize Terrorzin has stepped into the vault to pick me up by the collar, while his lieutenants are in the adjacent room. This could get pretty silly. No fear Reggie. No fear. No pressure. Pft, no pressure, right.


    While being throttled, I can barely hear Terrorzin¡¯s question as he snarls, ¡°What¡¯s so amusing, and where are they, whelp!?¡±


    Being as absolutely childish as I can, to buy myself a few seconds, I stick my tongue out and respond, ¡°Depends. Who wants t¡¯know?¡± as if I had no idea who Terrorzin was, and couldn¡¯t recognize him just from his impressive aura and confidence, this stature, this presence about him.


    His bloated ego is enraged at the implication. Of course, the fury that takes over his face makes me giggle more, as his focus is more and more on me, and just me. It¡¯s not on our environment, not our surroundings. Keep him faltering, keep him off his game, don¡¯t show the fear. I mean, I¡¯m kind of not afraid, funnily enough. My smirk grows a bit more malicious, enraging him further, as he can tell that I know who he is and was only doing it to piss him off. Reggie Shellcracker, if there¡¯s one thing you¡¯re good at, it¡¯s pissing people off.


    My uh, let¡¯s say my host, continues to throttle me, enraged, as he rants, ¡°You insignificant whelp, you will tell me, and you will die here!¡±


    Rolling my eyes, I tease, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t that be or I will die here? If not, there¡¯s really no incentive for me to tell you big guy.¡±


    The frothing of Terrorzin¡¯s mouth and spittle that flies in my face is a little bit gross, which is probably the only thing that makes me want to piss him off a little less. But it¡¯s also almost fun. Dangerous, but fun. Probably stupid too. But I keep pushing his buttons anyway.


    While he¡¯s got me he switches his grip to my throat, and squeezes, but I¡¯ve got an enchantment that lets me breathe anyway. I dig out a roll of sashimi, and begin snacking. Hm, I¡¯ve eaten so many of these across my lifetime. Go figure, Shellcracker Pond still providing, lifetimes and worlds away. I miss our home. I pretend to be consumed by consuming my snack, ignoring Terrorzin. His eyes bulge fit to pop out of his head.


    Pretending to be polite, I offer, ¡°What, want some? I¡¯ve got plenty.¡±


    The roar from my host at this range is a bit deafening. I burp in his face as he¡¯s roaring, and compliment, ¡°Hey nice roar, that¡¯s one of the loudest I¡¯ve heard. Not *the* loudest though. I give it say, a seven outta ten. Guess you could work on it a bit more. You could roar like this with practice,¡± and I burp in his face again.


    There¡¯s a moment where I worry Terrorzin¡¯s just gonna go ahead and snap my neck as the veins on his head enlarge to ridiculous levels. Thankfully, he doesn¡¯t. I¡¯m pushing my luck, but I need his attention to be just a little more focused on me, just a little bit less aware of his environment. His mind is racing. I can sense that he¡¯s thinking. He¡¯s realizing something. Sneering, Terrorzin realizes how much I¡¯m playing him, so he switches tacks.


    Leaning so that his beard brushes my cheek, he whispers uncomfortably close to my ear while he¡¯s got me by the throat, ¡°Perhaps you don¡¯t realize how precarious your situation is here, Whelp of the Onyx Dawn. You¡¯re in the claws of the most powerful dragon who¡¯s ever lived. You live only but moments more, and you will never leave, unless I wish your corpse to be brought out and paraded in front of your allies.¡±


    While he¡¯s nice and close, I use my cosmic roundsheath to conjure a giant titanwood block, filling up the exit of the room, airtight, soundproof. He doesn¡¯t notice that I¡¯ve just cut him off from his lieutenants, so I continue to sass, ¡°Nah. That won¡¯t work. Can¡¯Z¡¯aasians don¡¯t leave corpses. I¡¯ll derez. Oh you probably don¡¯t even know what that means. You¡¯re ignorant of us I guess. Maybe ignorant in general. I¡¯ll put it in simpler terms you can understand. I¡¯ll poof if I die. You¡¯ll have to think of something else.¡±


    Roaring again, Terrorzin claims, ¡°You are trapped with me, and these are your final moments, and this is how you act!?¡±


    Grinning cheekily, I can¡¯t believe I get to use this line twice in one day, even better, one of them on Terrorzin himself as I give him the most malicious grin, and lean right into his face. I lick the sashimi flavor from my lips as I whisper, ¡°That¡¯s where you¡¯re wrong bucko. I¡¯m not trapped in here with you,¡± I let the sentiment linger, giving a Cheshire grin, even casting prestidigitation to leave a faint outline of that grin in the air, before I finish the clich¨¦, ¡°You¡¯re trapped in here with me.¡±


    Just as Terrorzin¡¯s probably about to snap my neck, and before he can engage his Latent, or even realize he¡¯s really, really stuck but good, trapped in that room, I ravenport out. I can sense the instant his rage turns to fear. The panic, his temperature changing, rapidly cooling. Three are we, we are three, we wheel, we fly, we peck and scratch, some we die.


    Poofing to the far side of things, I continue to engage my Ravencoat to Ravenport, turning into three ravens, getting as far away as I can. We¡¯ve only got moments, perhaps minutes, before Terrorzin realizes he can bust out. Then, a short while as he fights his way out.


    Each time I port, I split off in three directions before reforming in my own body at the safest location, farthest from the most of the horde, while leading Terrorzin¡¯s forces on merry goose chases in three directions, splitting off more and more of them. I¡¯m so glad I only used the one charge of the coat today to impress Nyssa¡¯Lina. Kinda wish I hadn¡¯t used that charge, but eh, whatevs.


    Doing my best to sense along the elemental leylines for where FFS fought, pretending to be me, I find where they stashed Riptide and Frostburn, and other magical gear. Cha-ching. Great job buddy. I almost can¡¯t believe you were able to pull that off, but you¡¯re a really awesome elemental friend. Do I deserve such awesome allies? I don¡¯t feel like I do, but I do appreciate them.


    Mumbling mentally to myself, as if FFS could hear my thoughts, I ramble on about them. I feel bad how often your body dissipates for me, violently, rather than getting to last its full duration for you to feed on ambient mana. I hope you know how much I appreciate it. Me summoning you into combat, and you being willing to come, again and again. It means more to me than I¡¯ve probably expressed.


    Heck, I mean, you¡¯re basically family at this point. I mean, you literally counted as having a Shellcracker soul, well-enough to don my gear and wield my weapons. More than once in my life, elemental spirits have sacrificed themselves for me.


    Trying not to figuratively get caught with my pants down¡ªfiguratively because my pants were burned, exploded, or melted off much earlier in the day¡ªI try not to spend time lamenting, as I work to lose Terrorzin¡¯s forces that search for me and chase me. It¡¯s nerve-wracking, using every skill and trick in my book to distract and mislead my pursuers.


    What skills Rej? Using my natural shapeshifting, my ability to engage my Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian Stealth skill with chameleon-like efficiency at blending into my surroundings, or rather rock octopus or something like that. Leaving temporary breath-weapon bursts directions that I¡¯m not headed, to make it look like I was using some extra propulsion to head the way I¡¯m not going. Everything I can think of.


    When I¡¯m mostly out of sight, I use another port to make my way up into the hollowed out Worldstorm. Completely losing all of Terrorzin¡¯s horde, leaving them confused as they search about his encampments and column. Whewww. Phooph. Holy. Friggin¡¯. Crap. I burst into hysterical, slightly-frightened laughter amidst the safety of the sky between segments of Worldstorm.


    Just, just gonna let that kinda ride itself out. Just gonna be hysterical here for a little bit. Just gotta breathe. Breathe Air, breathe. Hoooooly crap. Holy crap holy crap holy crap. Terrorzin had his claws around my throat, literally. He was angling for something. He needed information. He was calculating, trying to keep *me* on the defensive, not knowing I was playing him the whole time. There¡¯s a fierce intellect behind that rage.


    I¡¯m only lucky I pissed him off enough to distract him, and keep him focused on just his goal. He needed that information *more* than he needed the Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn off the board. That says something. Something big. I just don¡¯t know what, not entirely for certain.


    I know I¡¯ve denied Terrorzin his plasma ball batteries, since he was treating his broodmothers¡¯ souls as expendable fuel. I doubt that that¡¯s all it was though. For some reason, when he said them, I think he was including the realmway tear. The fact that it¡¯s out of his reach has him freaked out.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Doing my usual LBBTKSL travel, but not at the ridiculously painful velocities I¡¯d been pushing myself at earlier in the day, I head eastwards, to reunite with the Onyx Dawn defenders at Chokepoint #2. We¡¯re still in the thick of things. This war is far from over. Really, this was all just a sidetrack, a diversion. One I¡¯m proud to have participated in, but a diversion nonetheless.


    Terrorzin is only trapped as long as it takes him or his lieutenants to dig through about five feet of titanium. Or, maybe less, if they realize they should just bust through the walls of the rooms instead. I know that they¡¯re all panicking though, so hopefully they don¡¯t think to take the logical, easier, shorter route. Heh. Reggie Shellcracker, sowing chaos, confusion, and panic? Nah, never. Pft.


    Glancing through my goggles, I can see Teuila guarding Nyssa¡¯Lina in Verdimenn, while Nala and Littlebit work nearby. They¡¯ve done as I asked, and destroyed my special warren, to make room for the realmway tear project. It¡¯s sad to see it go, and give up such strange, unique respawning resources, but we¡¯ve got enough of them to rebuild another if we want to commit to that.


    On another feed, I check the defenders at Chokepoint #2. Everyone seems in good health. Shiz is in good spirits, and slapping Vylon¡¯s back while laughing about something. Lucky is scratching behind his own ears, and purposely laying over atop a bunch of¡ªShiz¡¯s partner¡ªZelshiz¡¯s Spellknights, trapping them beneath his bulk. There¡¯s a mix of complaining, and belly scratching going on, from Zel¡¯s Spellknights. Zelshiz and Shiz just look on at Lucky¡¯s antics and laugh.


    I know if the Spellknights or Lucky were needed for defense, he¡¯d be off of them in an instant, and help them up. He might even teleport them into position, standing where they need to be. Snorting and chuckling, I shake my head ruefully. Ow, ow, ow. So many pinched muscles and nerves. Terrorzin throttling me by the neck certainly didn¡¯t help.


    Anyway, it seems like Lil, and Vylon, are taking turns keeping the chokepoint filled with certain death. Terrorzin¡¯s troops are wary, and they¡¯ve established their own center of operations on the far side of the chokepoint. Neither we nor they are giving any ground at the moment.


    This is about the best outcome I could have hoped for. I want to get there as fast as possible, drop in, and deploy the Orichalcum forcefield that I¡¯ve got on me. It¡¯s the prototype one, the one that Nala said, ¡°when this fails, and fail it shall, it shall fail spectacularly,¡± about. I¡¯m not sure if I got the phrasing exactly one hundred percent correct, but the gist of it is it¡¯s gonna explode.


    Despite knowing it¡¯ll explode, I want to buy our defenders as many moments of rest as it can buy them. I know Lil and Vylon have been pushing themselves. Lucky had been digging when he got the call to show up as a reinforcement for us frontline defenders. Yui had been soloing since much earlier in the day. Teuila¡¯s no longer out there backing them up. It¡¯s really not an ideal appointment of our forces, especially with Lucky out here, while we haven¡¯t finished all our bunkers and evacuation routes and everything.


    We swapped him out of his role a day earlier than we¡¯d planned, to be able to counteract the high commanders¡¯ dragonfrights. I mean, the security team, the Strategists Eight made that call, not me. I¡¯m glad they did, it was nice to see Lucky, nicer to not have all our first wave of defenders die to the high commanders. As sad as I am to see our goodest boy, my son, go, we¡¯ve got to relieve him and let him get back to tunneling and hollowing out spaces for false and real bunkers.


    While continuing my way eastwards, to reunite with my friends, my loved ones, I pull out the tome again, the grimoire, and begin reading once more. It works twice a day to send me a little burst of SP after all. Might as well. I should probably also try to get it to teach me a spell other than the create undead spell, but I don¡¯t know which spells it all has, and don¡¯t have time to figure that out.


    It might be safest to stick with the spell it already taught me for today, since it is pretty useful. Being able to animate a bunch of my foes¡¯ fallen comrades behind them, tap them on the shoulder, and say look behind you, will be hilarious one way or another.


    Either I get them to turn around, or they get eaten by their ex-allies. Good friggin¡¯ lord that¡¯s dark Reggie. Heh. Yeah, yeah it is. I just, I just need to distract myself from the fact that I¡¯m taking, or enabling the taking of, so many lives. I have to coat it all in a wash of humor, dark or not.


    I mean, think about it. Nyssa¡¯Lina, one of Terrorzin¡¯s high freaking commanders, defected, and had a grief-stricken breakdown in my arms today. If someone so close to his inner circle, someone so supposedly fanatically devoted as to rise through the ranks to be near him, could have a story, a loved one, a mission, regret, and all that, then who¡¯s to say any of the snarling horde are any different? Well, there is one difference you¡¯re forgetting. Huh?


    The broodmothers. The snarling horde were born in a pan-dimensional womb, fanatically devoted from birth, by way of whatever rituals Terrorzin used. Ancient dragons might have their own allegiances, some of whom might be fanatical to Terrorzin, but anyone born under his rule, is devoted to him by blood magic essentially.


    Oh. Crap. Yeah. Phooph. I don¡¯t know how to feel about that. I mean, it¡¯s obvious that not every single one of his soldiers was born that way. There was a chaotic defection civil-war between chokepoints one and two, when Nyssa¡¯Lina stepped into the portable hole.


    Yeah, but you literally cannot tell who is and who isn¡¯t part of the blood-born brainwashed cult, so you can¡¯t afford to dwell on it. You keep being you, doing what you¡¯re doing, offering mercy when you can. When it won¡¯t get you or someone you love killed. When you have enough of an upper hand, or stable hand, that the offer of mercy can be seen as valid, and not as a ploy to get out of a bind.


    Sighing, I agree. I know, you¡¯re right, it¡¯s just¡ªjust what? It¡¯s hard to let go of the possibility that I could be sparing, or saving, more lives. I can really only do it if I cover it with humor. I know pal, I know. Trust me, I get it. I mean, I¡¯m you. Yeah, true. Sorry.


    Getting all reflective and stuff while jumping east inside a hollowed out Worldstorm is just, well¡ª. I suppose I could talk to the security center, and get patched through to either Teuila, or Lu, or the defenders at Chokepoint #2, or something. That¡¯d probably take my mind off of things. I just, just don¡¯t feel right about it right now. Just kinda wanna be numb for a little bit. Turn my brain off and read as I travel. Let things sink in, and process. Y¡¯know?


    Sure, sure. I get it. Plus, we haven¡¯t fully kept our promise to Nyssa¡¯Lina yet. We¡¯ve gotta keep our defenses good, and get set up to where we can take a break. Once we do, we head back to Solace, chaos-proc our way back to the Astral Sea, and drag the broodmothers¡ªJatrisiahl, their mate included¡ªand the tear back to Rayileklia when we pop back out. I just, I could only do so much.


    I couldn¡¯t fix their trauma. I couldn¡¯t change their bodies. Didn¡¯t even know what their original forms exactly looked like. I could only surgically sever fused portions, and duplicate those portions for the half I severed them from, allowing all the broodmothers¡¯ to each have an individual body again. They¡¯re still warped, and, and, and y¡¯know?


    Aye, I do. But I bet you one thing. What? To Nyssa, Jatrisiahl is going to look like the most beautiful woman in creation, upon seeing her, with her own mind, again. Smiling sadly, I nod, hoping that we¡¯re right.


    My brain sort of mutes itself for a while as I travel. Everything kind of goes on autopilot. Reading. Lightning burst boosted telekinetic square leaping. Gorram that¡¯s a mouthful. An hour or more passes, because the book has charged my SP by a hundred.


    I¡¯m nowhere near as fast as Teuila, especially when I don¡¯t want to push myself so hard that I¡¯m injuring and burning myself out like I did earlier today. I can¡¯t afford to keep pushing into unsafe levels of injury and such. Regardless, I see the shorn-off plateau of what used to be Wistenzlia Peak, the mountain I leveled, creating Chokepoint #1.


    Being as safe as I can, so as not to take any unnecessary damage, I use what few tricks I¡¯ve got available to get beneath the Worldstorm, closer to the far side of Chokepoint #2. It¡¯s clear that several of my allies have been watching my scrying feed from my goggles, through the security center, because Shiz rushes up to pat me on the back.


    Roaring with laughter, Shiz exclaims, ¡°Caught it on them scrying feeds we did, you staring the Ice of Rage straight in the face, up close, givin¡¯ him a real stroke. Then, that instant of panic just before your feed suddenly went blank and blinked in and out for a bit, best gift I ever got, harhar!¡±


    For a moment, I ponder how, then I realize, that the realmway bleedthrough, the last bit of the vault being partially in another realm, turned into a cheeseburger flavor, and jumped into me. So the vault was entirely on Rayileklia by the time Terrorzin saw me, and picked me up to throttle me.


    Whew, I probably gave Illy a panic attack though, splatting into the wall, and my feed being unmoving on the ground, as Terrorzin approached it. Yikes. Grimacing, I¡¯m gonna regret that later.


    Lumbering up to us, Vylon adds, ¡°Schism, that which you pulled off, I¡¯m of mixed mind. The Lightning, that high commander, climbed into your magic pocket, and a near civil-war fracas brewed. It bought us time, to be sure. But you and Tenith, delving that deeply behind enemy lines? Pure foolishness.¡±


    Before I can react, he continues, ¡°And yet here you are, after coming face to face with the Ice of Rage himself. Mark me not a man who cannot be impressed and humbled. Please though, Hero of the Onyx Dawn, see this war through, to its completion. Don¡¯t let your candle be snuffed out before then.¡±


    Blinking, I nod numbly, surprised at how emotional I feel by Vylon¡¯s admission and request. Casting my gaze aside, I quickly wipe my eyes, rubbing the moisture that¡¯s forming on my right eyelid away. Doffing my psy-blocking aegis circlet, I try to distract myself, and to love up on Lil and Lucky.


    We meet up in our mindscape, Lucky dashing about the idyllic hill, chasing Lil around, as Lil flies circles around the region. Grinning, I tackle my son sideways to bowl him over for once, instead of him bowling me over with his giant tongue. Once I¡¯ve got his mental avatar on his side, I give him the biggest rib rubdown and belly scritchin¡¯ that I can.


    Lil swoops in and the knocks me over, pinning me down. Lucky takes the opportunity to join Lil in pinning me, and my son and Lil both grossly lap at my mental avatar¡¯s face with their enormous tongues. Bluh, you guys, you would *not* be doing that, if you knew what I experienced today dealing with taste and flavor. Heh.


    After a few moments of levity, I ask everyone to fall back so that I can deploy the Orichalcum forcefield, ¡°Alright guys, everyone, I want everyone to catch as much rest as possible. They¡¯re not going to have any more plasma balls that instantly destroy these shields. Hopefully Nala and Littlebit can get more of them made, over the course of the week. It¡¯s too bad about the bots from the first wave, but that shield saved us all.¡±


    Sighing, puffing a breath, I explain, ¡°This one though? Nala says it¡¯s guaranteed to fail spectacularly, when it fails. That is, it¡¯s guaranteed to explode, and that it¡¯s not as durable as the other one was. So we need to keep our distance if Terrorzin¡¯s people start beating on it.¡±


    There¡¯s a round of questions and a lot of back and forth talk, but my head is aching. Since they¡¯re plenty capable of discussing on their own, I let my team, my loved ones, talk things out amongst themselves as I set up the forcefield as deep into Chokepoint #2 as I can.


    Minutes, an hour, nearly two hours pass. We station ourselves in the chokepoint, and rest. The enemy forces occasionally check in, and testingly assault the focefield. When they do, we back off. We make it look like we¡¯re worried about them, when really what we¡¯re worried about is the explosion guaranteed to happen if they manage to break the shield. Then, the strangest thing happens. They leave. I mean all of them leave. Every last enemy soldier still on the far side of the chokepoint is gone.


    Could, no, would he? I know he¡¯s powerful, but it costs him to engage his Latent, and he¡¯s been scared off once before. My heart races, so I send out my senses, and though I can¡¯t verify it, I¡¯m almost positive my conclusion is correct.


    There¡¯s a single, solitary creature marching this way. All the other heat signatures and creature lifesigns within my sensory range have left. I¡¯m almost positive Terrorzin, the Ice of Rage, recalled his troops, so that he could come to the front of the line, get into a chokepoint, and take us all out at once with his aura.


    Trying not to let panic into my voice, I call out, ¡°We have to fall back, Terrorzin recalled his troops, because he¡¯s on his way! He¡¯ll use his aura if we¡¯re here. In a chokepoint like this, he¡¯ll take us all out in one fell swoop!¡±

 B 6 C 254: Fail Spectacularly

    While there¡¯s a bit of panic amongst the ranks, they mostly assemble, and begin preparation to retreat. Even if we do retreat though, we can¡¯t afford to just keep running from chokepoint to chokepoint as Terrorzin chases us to engage his aura. I need to figure something out. Something drastic. I guess I could try dropping a mountain on him if I get a couple hours of rest somehow.


    There¡¯s a snort and a raucous round of laughter as my friends and family overhear my thought train. Shiz shouts, tears of laughter in his eyes, ¡°Leave it to Schism, first go-to, change geography of the Spine and drop a mountain on the Ice of Rage! Bwahaha. What I wouldn¡¯t pay, what I wouldn¡¯t give, to see that. Aye, any limb. I¡¯d pay the cost to see our Tyrant suddenly realize a whole mount was coming down atop him.¡±


    There¡¯s a cheerful round of agreement, and I wear a rueful grin as I apologize, ¡°Sorry guys, I¡¯m tapped out for at least six or so hours, and that¡¯s if I zonked out right here and now. I¡¯ve got nothing in the tank to try moving mountains with.¡±


    The laughter continues as they wave me off. Thankfully none of them expected me to be able to. It still leaves us with a dearth of good options though. At least, those that I can think of offhand. I worry that someone might suggest¡ª.


    As I¡¯d feared, Vylon steps up and offers, ¡°That shield, when it falls, it¡¯s going to hurt everything close, right? Explode? Terrorzin himself is coming, alone. He¡¯ll be the one to break it. He¡¯ll be showing off his strength, his power, doing it up close and personal-like, if I know the Ice, and I do.¡±


    Grimacing, I try to interrupt but Vylon continues, ¡°He won¡¯t be expecting his own attack to literally blow up in his face. That¡¯s when we strike. There will never be another opportunity like this Schism. And whether you mean to or not, I will stay here and take it. Whatever happens, remember, pain of all kinds is temporary my friend. Victory, eternal.¡±


    The poetic finality of his statement reads like Vylon knows he¡¯s going to die. He knows this won¡¯t work. He knows how much it¡¯s going to hurt us. I understand he has to risk it, for that slim chance at victory. I just, I can¡¯t bear it.


    My heart sinks as I plead, ¡°Vylon, we don¡¯t know how much, if any damage the explosion will do. I know the range on his aura, from personal experience, and for any of us to get close enough to hurt him, he will be close enough to instantly take us off the board. You heard Kinzul. She¡¯s the only one that can engage him. My estimates were correct.¡±


    Defiantly, Vylon crosses his arms and stares me down as he states, ¡°Be that as it may, and though I do respect your perspicacity and sagacity, I cannot pass up this opportunity. If there¡¯s the slimmest chance, even the slightest, that our Lady need not engage the Ice of Rage, because we defeat him here, first, I must take it. Are you telling me, that you¡¯re absolutely positive, that the chance is completely absent, that it is zero, Schism?¡±


    Sighing, I hang my head while shaking it. Shrugging a shoulder, I offer up, ¡°I¡­ no, no I can¡¯t say I¡¯m positive it¡¯s zero. Vylon, we can¡¯t lose you, not at all, but especially not this early. We¡­ I¡¯m not going to convince you, am I? You¡¯re wise enough, smart enough, you know what arguments I might make, and you don¡¯t care. You¡¯re taking your shot, because it probably is the only one we¡¯ll get.¡±


    The gruff nod causes me to sigh again. I call for formations and begin handing out orders, ¡°Lucky, you go ahead and take as many Spellknights back to your tunnels, and get working on bunkers. If you can get one placed just a bit north of Chokepoint #2, and if the Spellknights can pack it with explosives, you get a signal to me somehow, okay boy? I love you. Be good, and be safe. Zel, are you okay wi¡ª.¡±


    When Zelshiz nods, I thank them, ¡°Good. Thank you. Shiz, I need you at the very edge of your sight range to the east. If I signal you, you signal everyone for attack or retreat based on the signal, or to detonate the bunker if it¡¯s prepped, yeah? Good. Shaylon, if you need to rest, get into the bunker complexes with Lucky, get to the furthest one you can manage, and rest up. If not, get to Chokepoint #3, and begin your Latent. Boetah, I, I think you should get back to Atter, and rest. Lucky should be able to help guide you home with underground shortcuts if you need.¡±


    Despite my suggestion, Boetah comes up and hugs me, shaking his head. He leans in to whisper, ¡°Atty knows, Schism. She knows how many were viable, how late it was, when we got started. The rest, they¡¯re not viable. We have five on the way though. Five Rocks or Thunderers, thanks to you. Rare breeds, the both of us.¡±


    My lower jaw, and lip, quiver. I wasn¡¯t fast enough, I¡ª. Boetah hugs me tighter and shakes his head, adding, ¡°You did everything in your power to get Atty a chance to bring that clutch into life, into a peaceful life. There is no greater deed Schism. Now, I get to be a father, but I want there to be a world for my children to hatch into. A world for them to bond with others, where they can eat, and be merry. Everything else will sort itself out. I am your Shield, as I am Atty¡¯s, as I am our children. I am with you, to the bitter end.¡±


    My eyes wet, I shakily nod my head, hugging Boetah in return. Though he¡¯s kept me from self-recrimination, that he believes I don¡¯t deserve, I¡¯m still stunned, and emotional. Casting my gaze over at his defending-partner, Shaylon, Aegis, I wonder what the other Rock thinks of things. What Shaylon knows about Boetah¡¯s mate Atty¡ªAttraxiaz the Loud¡ªwhom I granted mercy and brought into our lives in Solace.


    Thankfully, Shaylon, in their delightful serpentine hiss answers my thoughts, ¡°Such as it is, we are surprised that any life would begin anew, during our war. Schism, stay safe, for Shield, and for all of us. Do not despair. Do not give yourself over to grief or sadness. So much, so many miracles have occurred, because of your association with the Onyx Dawn. Be proud. Sacrifice not yourself. Continue to be smart. Survive.¡±


    When Boetah releases me, I float over and offer a hug to Shaylon¡¯s large serpentine rock draconic form. I wave at the both of them as they trundle along east to Chokepoint #3. If only I could guarantee that they won¡¯t have to face Terrorzin at all. If I could take him off the board, I¡¯d sacrifice almost anything, despite what they said.


    What I wouldn¡¯t do to not know what I know about the Worldstorm right now.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Just one fact, that I¡¯m not one hundred percent certain of, but the chances are too terrible to risk. To be able to use the cursed greaves. If the chance for the fact I believe weren¡¯t there, if I didn¡¯t know it, I¡¯d risk it, divebomb straight down into Terrorzin, wearing the greaves, and take the consequences, even if he froze me. But I couldn¡¯t, not when knowing that if¡­


    I place up all my mental walls and don my circlet for but a moment. But I couldn¡¯t do it, knowing it may kill Farzhis and slash or Kinzul, to continue draining the Worldstorm lightning for my own attacks. Sighing, I release my mental walls and doff the circlet.


    Rattling my skull, I continue, ¡°Lil, I need you to be east of me at the very edge of your breath range buddy, for an eleventh hour play if things go south.¡±


    Lil¡¯s face droops as he realizes I mean I might need him to breathe fire on me, he whines, ¡°Awe man, you know how much I hate doing that Rej. I hate hurting you, I hate it mega bad, mega mega mega bad.¡±


    Kissing my best buddy on the snout, and resting my forehead against his goofy-underbite jaw, I nod and respond, ¡°I know Lil, I know. You¡¯re the best dragon pal a goofy, mixed up, crazy, green-souled, Frosty-Fel Changeling Fae could ask for. Thank you for being willing. For being with me, all my lives. I love you. Whatever happens, always know that.¡±


    His lower lip quivering, tears misting his eyes, Lil fibs, ¡°I¡¯m not crying, you¡¯re crying!¡± despite no one accusing him of crying.


    Flashing Lil a brow-raised smirk, I try not to chuckle as he blushes and averts his gaze, hiding his misting eyes with his wings. After a few more instructions to those gathered, we split up, to tackle our duties and prepare for the worst. Vylon¡¯s staying the closest, but promised to stay where I told him until the barrier falls.


    At least this way, Terrorzin can¡¯t just freeze him from the other side of the barrier. I¡¯m not sure if the barrier would block his latent or not, but I do not want to bank on it. I¡¯m staying a single wormhole-warpstrike¡¯s teleport¡¯s distance behind Vylon. Hoping beyond hope that I can do something, if things need to be done.


    My best buddy, Lil, is a bit closer to me than his maximum range, in case I need to teleport or cover ground more quickly than he can. He¡¯s generally faster than me, but we¡¯re working around a bit of wiggle-room in distance, and both of us are willing to pull out all the stops for speed, whichever way this goes. I can sense the lone figure closing in, marching purposefully in a humanoid form.


    Before long, that same figure, the one from the vault, stands on the far side of the forcefield from us. His gaze takes it in up and down like he¡¯s deconstructing it with his mind. Despite being in his human form, his towering, broad, muscular, human form, he seems larger than life, out here, instead of the claustrophobic space of the vault. This man, this dragon, nearly as old as the world, coolly, calmly assesses us, and the field. He nods as he makes note of us being just outside the range of his Latent.


    He¡¯s not stupid, he¡¯s assessing what sort of traps we might have in place. It¡¯s really only a few seconds that pass, before the action starts. But this seasoned warrior, this cold, intense man, with his thick, furrowed eyebrows, peers about as if gazing across his kingdom. There¡¯s a matter-of-fact air about him, that when his gaze sweeps across you, he feels like he owns you and the ground you¡¯re standing on.


    It¡¯s not enough that he feels that way, he knows he has the power to back it up. Somehow it shows in the set of his sharp, angular jawline, or his jagged, stormy-white beard. It¡¯s hard to tell what exactly about him projects this aura of confidence. His nose, strongly shaped, but crooked, broken perhaps a thousand times over the ages, somehow doesn¡¯t detract from this regal demeanor. He still somehow manages to look down it at everything beneath his gaze.


    My worrying gaze goes to his armaments, or lack thereof, and his garments. The dark, wind-whipped cloak, reveals a symbol embroidered along its inside in the flashes of Worldstorm lightning. That same symbol I¡¯d been seeing. The withered, weary, broken tree, held together by a knotted rope. A rope which is frayed to a single thread along one of the knots. Despite my thermal near-immunities, the cold wind that whips up seemingly simply being in his presence, within visual range of Terrorzin, sends chills down my spine.


    Also, unlike some dragons, he¡¯s smart enough to shift his scales into armor, instead of simple clothing, in his human form. The plates that make up his garb look like something that could only be forged in the hearts of stars, or deepest volcanoes. There¡¯s this stark white char to them, that seems burned in place. Frostburned even.


    Sneering, he announces, ¡°Today is your last. These moments are fleeting, cherish them.  For when I strike, this contraption shall fall, and you immediately after. Inevitable as the coldest winter chill.¡±


    There is no bravado, no threat, it¡¯s merely a statement of fact. Though, I sorta wonder if he rehearsed that on the way over. I could see him lining up a list of choices like, ¡°Hm, should I say they shall exist beneath my feet, or my soles will trod upon their graves, or should I focus on the inevitability? What if we try to come off sounding benevolent? Yes, let¡¯s tell them to cherish these last moments, simply *implying* their finality.¡±


    Reggie? Mhm? You¡¯re unhinged. Yup. Terrorzin is about to take down the forcefield. Yup. You¡¯re imagining him practicing his villainous monologue. Yup. You¡¯re deranged. Yup, never denied it. What even is your life? Dunno, but it¡¯s about to get really tense. Are you the overlord of understatement or something? Really tense? That¡¯s how you choose to describe what¡¯s about to go down? Look, my brain is a little preoccupied to come up with a better analogy. I mean, you¡¯re doing half the occupying. Reggie. Mhm? Focus on the fight. Right.


    What his underlings couldn¡¯t do over the last few hours, what took Teuila perhaps dozens, maybe hundreds of strikes to dismantle, Terrorzin unleashes a single punch to do. The calculated raw power, and the perfect point of impact synergizes and unleashes a cascade of force that booms like a thundercrack.


    The forcefield reverberates to its Orichalcum sheet at the base of the device. Immediately, unexpectedly to Terrorzin, as the shield falls, all that same force explodes outwards, one single strike, one explosion strong enough to topple the most impenetrable barrier.


    To Terrorzin¡¯s credit, he remains standing, and skids rearwards, leaning slightly forwards into the explosion, dazed, his right hand on his temple, clutching his skull. Vylon charges in, and I want to scream no. I want to tell him it didn¡¯t work well enough, but he wouldn¡¯t listen. Everything slows down as my perceptions speed up. I ratchet my electrokinesis up to maximum to increase the speed of my reflexes, I pour over two hundred percent more electrical energy than my safe limit through my nerves.


    My eyes wide with fear, I cast my signal back for the retreat, screaming, for Lil to begin breathing on me. He¡¯d been stoking his flames, breathing them just within his own mouth for minutes. They¡¯re powered by his Latent, ¡°Solar,¡± and ramped up, hotter than the plasma I faced earlier today. They¡¯re immunity-piercing. This is going to hurt.


    Vylon closes the gap, or tries to, quickly, but Terrorzin, dazed as he is, still has his survival instincts. His aura goes up and out, immediately washing over everything in a blanket of frost, like my FFS on steroids. The sound of my scream, whether it travels fast enough to warn Vylon or not, does not persuade him to stop or retreat. It happens so fast. Vylon¡¯s own momentum carries him all the way into the aura as his entire being is frozen over from the front, rearwards.


    Rend, a friend, a comrade, one of the eldest members of the Onyx Dawn, is now an ice sculpture. Magically unmeltable ice. No Rayileklian dragonfire could save him.


    Despite the subtlest hints of creeping dread visible within his countenance, Vylon¡¯s final expression is one of unwavering determination. Terrorzin, though enraged, and dazed, begins to take his draconic form, and rears back to lash out, intending to shatter Vylon.

 B 6 C 255: Terror Is In

    Trying not to think about it, trying not to think that this might be the end for Vylon, I grit my teeth. I cast aside the thought that whether or not Terrorzin shatters him, Vylon may be lost to us forever. I charge headlong into the most dangerous aura in the world, right behind his frozen form, closing the gap in blazing speed. Literally blazing, backed by Lil¡¯s plasma-hot flames.


    There¡¯s a thing about us Can¡¯Z¡¯aasians. Y¡¯see. What doesn¡¯t kill us? Makes us stronger. And what does kill us? It makes us stronger than that. I might be exaggerating just a tad. But hey, I¡¯ve had more lives than most.


    So when I say, Lil¡¯s plasma-level fires hurt like hell, but I¡¯d gladly take it for a million hours, for the chance to rescue Vylon? I mean it. I know I¡¯d come out the other side, the stronger for it, even if only because I carried that love for a friend, that much longer, and had them in my life, my heart, and my soul, for that much longer.


    We engage, in the most reckless, foolhardy, stupidest thing we could possibly be doing. I make certain Lil knows not to approach close enough that Terrorzin could lunge and catch him in his aura. Y¡¯see, I need Lil¡ªout of everyone on the planet¡ªI need Lil more than anyone, to not get hit by this aura.


    Licking my lips, as I dehydrate in hellish flames, I move at the speed of lightning to intercept Terrorzin¡¯s attack on Vylon. I move through his aura that can freeze anything, even the normally cold-immune Ice dragons under his command. I move, my near-cold-immune flesh simultaneously frosting over, my near-heat-immune flesh simultaneously roasting and melting. I move in a realm of fire and ice, an impossible heat attacking an impossible cold.


    Why am I thinking about this? Because, well, I love my friends. To death and back. And if that¡¯s what I have to risk, to keep them? Then I will. To death and back. Sometimes, sometimes the risks are terrifying, and the decision is hard to make. This was one of those times. But I made it anyway. I made this decision, and I¡¯m sticking to it.


    Lil¡¯s flames are not balked by Terrorzin¡¯s aura. Any other flame would be. Lil¡¯s flames follow me in to his aura, covering me. They melt cellular layers from me, but I persist. Parts of me break down on atomic levels, but I persist. I can¡¯t see anything through the blaze, nor even detect anything with my thermal senses, but I persist. The only thing guiding me forward, is my love for my friends and family. Well, that and my silent sonar senses, which thankfully make me aware of exactly where Vylon is, and exactly how close Terrorzin¡¯s attack is.


    As Terrorzin looks on, slightly horrified that I¡¯m still able to move as I¡¯m dashing through his aura, bathed in Lil¡¯s superheated flames, he quickly leans into an attack against Vylon. Obviously he¡¯s hoping to shatter him before I arrive. I¡¯m not having that. Not at all. Manifesting my Honoris Causa, I catch the foreclaw of one of the most powerful beings in existence, I catch the foreclaw of Terrorzin, the Ice of Rage. I catch his attack with one clawed limb of my own.


    Snarling, I roar into his face, ¡°Heh, nice try! Now. Try again Terrorzin. Pick on someone who can fight back! Me, Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an Archmage Aliased Schism, the Void Dragon Honoris Causa!¡±


    With my offhand, I gently push Vylon away towards my tail, then with my tail, I grip his frozen form and slide it outside of Terrorzin¡¯s aura, still within Lil¡¯s flames. When the force behind Terrorzin¡¯s attack falters, I almost tumble forward. I can see the cool calculations going on behind his rage and beneath his fear.


    I can also feel something that sets my soul at ease along my tail. Vylon¡¯s heartbeat. He¡¯s encased in ice that¡¯s magically impenetrable to even the hottest of Rayilelian dragonfire. Lil isn¡¯t Rayileklian though, so I grin wickedly at Terrorzin. I¡¯m more than meeting his gaze. My eyes lock with his, a madness overtaking my countenance.


    I play into the crazy. I lean heavily into the hysterical, unbeatable hero. I play on the fear that I instilled by challenging him earlier, and escaping. The fact that I had the gall to appear nonchalant when he had me by the throat, he¡¯s now calculating. He¡¯s thinking, ¡°Was that upstart whelp invincible this entire time?¡±


    Pressing his buttons, I growl, ¡°Face *me* Ice of Rage! Someone who doesn¡¯t fall prey to your cowardly aura! Prepare to meet your fated end, this the year of your death prophesied so long ago! Be it at my hands, in this very moment, that I wrest the life from you and drink of your dragonforce, or in one week, it matters not. You will fall!¡±


    Then it hits me. The realization of why Terrorzin wanted *them* not just the broodmother conglomerate, but the tear to The ¡®Twixt. Why he hasn¡¯t already just made a life for himself in the ¡®Twixt. He¡¯s still missing one piece. I¡¯m a possible solution for that missing piece. He doesn¡¯t have a half-fae to get to the ¡®Twixt. He might have been banking on using a ritual that sacrificed the rest of his conglomerate broodmother to try to enter it without one at the last minute of the last day of the prophecy. Doesn¡¯t matter either way. He¡¯s not getting to the ¡®Twixt, now, or ever.


    I begin laughing right in his face as I roar, ¡°You utter coward!¡± and I fib a little as I add, ¡°I sealed it, and now there¡¯s no way to access it ever again! I blew up Stormspire atop the one in its bowels, sealing it forever, and I sealed the one in your vault! You don¡¯t have a realm outside the time of Rayileklia to escape your portent anymore! A simple prophecy, one laced with delicious irony. You die by year¡¯s end! Your scriers know it, you know it, and the date fast approaches!¡±


    That¡¯s exactly the push I needed to get Terrorzin to freak out. The fact that I know what his portent says, and why he was keeping his conglomerate close in the way he was. He wanted the tear to The ¡®Twixt close. He wanted to be able to bail out by year¡¯s end, and live endlessly in a place where Rayileklia¡¯s time won¡¯t pass. Suddenly he assumes that the reason I was there, the reason the ¡®Twixt tear is gone, is because I meant to keep it from him.


    I had absolutely no idea that I might be doing that when I went there. But he doesn¡¯t need to know that. Pondering, I quip, ¡°Hey, Ice of Age, or, y¡¯know, Rage, or whatever. You¡¯ve probably never felt cold before, huh? FFS.¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    A curiosity almost breaks through his fear as Terrorzin¡¯s eyebrow quirks at my acronym. It¡¯s short lived though. With that, I unleash my own immunity-piercing cold, my Flash Freeze Storm. I¡¯ve only got a one to ten percent immunity piercing application of my cryokinesis, but it¡¯s enough that he felt it. Terrorzin, the Ice of Rage, has felt cold for the first time in his life.


    It¡¯s almost too good to be true when I watch as horror sinks into Terrorzin¡¯s eyes from all sides, a frost creeping over him. For good measure, I ping him with a couple of frosty rays, empowered by the Frosty Fel. It¡¯s obvious he felt them. My smile only widens into a full Cheshire grin, hauntingly visible, the only thing visible of my Void Dragon form from within Lil¡¯s flames.


    That grin seems to be the last straw. The grin I left him with when I left him trapped in the vault temporarily. The grin of someone audacious enough to be unbothered when the tyrant king of dragons had them by the throat. The grin of sheer lunacy of someone who knows no fear. Or at least seems like they know no fear. The grin of someone crazy enough to try ice magic on an Ice, the eldest, most powerful Ice on the planet. The grin of someone who can succeed, where it should not even be possible.


    The coward actually flees from me, roaring, signaling for his troops to return to the fore. Our luck in this moment is beyond astounding. To see Terrorzin fleeing, shouting in the way a child begs their parent for aid, from his horde. It¡¯s impossible to have happened, yet it did. He calls out for their aid, for them to re-engage us as he makes all haste to the west. But he drew them all back, so we¡¯ve got a good few minutes, maybe even an hour or more to re-stage our defenses.


    Just to make sure he doesn¡¯t decide to double-check if I¡¯m really invincible, just to make sure he doesn¡¯t actually try to face me, to make sure he¡¯s fleeing, I thunder-shout, ¡°Run home little king! It¡¯s not long now! Your days are numbered! Your throne cardboard, your kingdom a house of cards!¡±


    He drops his aura as he runs away, so that he doesn¡¯t freeze his own troops, or use up more dragonforce. That coward will not be coming to the front again at all during this segment of the war. He¡¯ll be keeping his entire army between him and me, as long as he can. As long as his troops don¡¯t report my death, as long as I¡¯m alive on the battlefield, Terrorzin will want no part of it. This is the best possible outcome I could have hoped for from such a reckless, suicidal action.


    Vylon¡¯s insistence bought us a type of win we could not have gotten otherwise. I wouldn¡¯t have had a position set up, in place, to know exactly where Terrorzin¡¯s Latent aura would be active, without taking advantage of this chokepoint, and the shield. I couldn¡¯t have had Lil prepped anywhere else, but right here, right now. I wouldn¡¯t have had the split seconds of hesitation as Terrorzin focused on shattering someone else before I got to him.


    I needed Lil to be at nearly fully-powered ¡°Solar¡± for his flames, to withstand Terrorzin¡¯s aura. Only Lil¡¯s mother, my wife, Kinzul can withstand Terrorzin¡¯s aura on her own. I had to endure a hellish agony, and carefully keep within range of Lil¡¯s flames the entire time, and keep him out of range of Terrorzin¡¯s aura.


    I¡¯m quaking, vibrating, shaking, and probably still breaking down on the molecular level. Thankfully Lil stopped breathing on me when Terrorzin¡¯s aura dropped. Still¡­ I took some serious damage from that. Parts of my *soul* ache and feel charred. I don¡¯t think I would have lasted more than another few seconds under Lil¡¯s flames. This was the perfect storm of circumstances to be able to pull this off. We owe it all to you, your bravery, your insistence, and your sacrifice Vylon.


    His heart¡¯s beating in there, but can we safely thaw him in time, before it stops? He¡¯s a Gold, so he¡¯d normally be heat immune, so Lil¡¯s fire won¡¯t vaporize him instantly or anything, but it will still superheat his scales, hurt, and possibly injure him, leaving him with burns, something he¡¯d never have had before. Only Lil¡¯s fire stands a chance at rescuing him, but Lil¡¯s fire is also the only one that might kill a Gold.


    Despite my not having given the order, Shiz comes trouncing up, rushing, hooting and hollering. My Thunderer friend lets the whole world know that the Ice of Rage just ran away from Reggie Shellcracker. A cheer goes out from various points within the canyon.


    Blushing and chuckling, I shake my head ruefully. It¡¯s probably pretty darn good for morale, but I really don¡¯t want to take credit for this. I want Vylon safely thawed, and home, before we celebrate.


    Because if he isn¡¯t, if we can¡¯t, then, to me, this was still a failure. Sniffling, I choke back a sob. Flicking my head towards Vylon, Lil nods, and he carefully drags Vylon far away from the front, from the chokepoint, in order to attempt to thaw him. A task only Lil, of anyone on the entire planet, could possibly do. Only Lil is suited for this task, my best pal, My Heart, Sun, the Star of the Onyx Dawn. I can¡¯t help shedding a few tears of pride, at having the best best buddy in any world.


    When Shiz lifts me and chucks me in the air in celebratory fashion, I wince and wheeze, more sore than I let on, more injured than I¡¯d let on. It takes every bit of willpower not to scream out in agony at the rough handling. Thankfully, he¡¯s on one or more of our telepathic wavelengths, so he gently sets me down, blushing in chagrin as he rubs the back of his head ruefully. I elbow him playfully, despite the size difference.


    Phooph. We need our defenders back in place. We¡¯ve bought enough time at Chokepoint #2 that we can abandon it, but I have a feeling we¡¯ll be abandoning chokepoints faster and faster come tomorrow. Terrorzin is going to be plotting and planning. He¡¯s going to give us the worst of what he¡¯s got, to try to overwhelm our defenses.


    I don¡¯t want to recall Shaylon and Boetah from Chokepoint #3 though. If they can rest in their Latent forms, and be all that much sturdier and more powerful, when we do have to give up Chokepoint #2 tomorrow, then our fallback to Chokepoint #3 will be all that much safer and more successful, and we won¡¯t have to give up so much ground that we skip it. They¡¯re going to tap in to their dragonforces for healing.


    Most of us are going to be tapping into them for healing actually. Something that had been locked away from dragonkind for centuries. When Terrorzin has a fresh wave of horrors sent our way, they¡¯ll be facing a refreshed and ready Onyx Dawn. Kinzul¡¯s timing of the unlock was¡­ The timing was¡ª the timing.


    Another thought hits me. Kinzul was positive that the date we have to engage Terrorzin on is October fifth, whether in the valley, or at our doorstep. I need to check with Nala, if the current calendar is the one Rayileklia has always used. If not, Terrorzin¡¯s portent might be sooner than the end of December.


    Right now, it¡¯s late on September twenty-ninth. Kinzul was planning to engage Terrorzin on October fifth. There¡¯s been a few things she¡¯s been hiding. Did she already know? I mean, she¡¯s old enough, she¡¯s the eldest being on the planet. If Rayileklia ever used another calendar, she¡¯d know. Does that mean that she knew when she decided the date of the engagement? Because that¡¯s the end of the year?


    Is it possible, that October fifth falls on what once would have been year¡¯s end? Harvest time, being the start of a new year? The thought has me grinning. Terrorzin, cowardly tyrant king of dragonkind, has no choice. Something, somehow, slays him in the next week, if my surmising are correct.


    I really shouldn¡¯t be grinning so hard. Oh what a terrifying thought. What a wicked world we live in.

 B 6 C 256: Chaos Checking In

    Despite hating to leave things unfinished, and worrying for Vylon, I¡¯ve got so much to do, and promises to keep. Glancing through my goggles, I can see the existential dread that rests upon Nyssa¡¯Lina¡¯s face. They¡¯ve been through so much in such a short time.


    It all started with me, my brazen attitude, making them face a possibility, and giving them hope. Defecting, finding out the truth behind the horrors of Terrorzin¡¯s depravity. Facing down grief, with a jerk like me standing in the way, stopping them from their suicide run. Te is there with Nyssa, but she¡¯s out of her element, out of her depth in trying to comfort and reassure Nyssa, while technically guarding both Nyssa from anyone in Solace, and anyone in Solace from Nyssa, as they¡¯re still by all rights, one of Terrorzin¡¯s high commanders.


    The longer I take to get there and fulfill my promise, the more chances there are for things to go, what¡¯s the phrase, belly up? Pits up? Tits up? Oh come on people. I roll my eyes at the giggles and snickering across my mental wavelengths as my allies hear my thoughts. I¡¯m not actually upset at them, obviously, just a bit stressed. That was intense just now. I¡¯ve got so much to accomplish, and I need to heal, badly. With my thermal and telekinetic senses, I can feel my vibration at the molecular level still unstable.


    Gnawing on my lips, I check the teleportation artifact, but sadly, it¡¯s not recharged yet. That means it¡¯ll take me many, many hours, of winding along Vieriss Valley near ground level, to get back home to Solace. Grr, I don¡¯t really have that kind of time to waste. What I wouldn¡¯t do to have a few more teleportation charges in some of my items. Even just the short range ones, to make use of a secret. I¡¯d almost¡ª. Hold on.


    We¡¯ve got to heal up anyway. We¡¯re banged up but good, fried to hell and back. Further clamping my teeth about my bottom lip, I wonder if perhaps a little gambit might be worth it. Show off the supposedly invincible Shellcracker on the way out, buy even more time for our defenders while cutting a bunch of hours off our journey.


    Still, I¡¯m not a hundred percent certain I¡¯d survive what I¡¯m thinking of doing. But, well, we¡¯re me. I¡¯m gonna do it anyway. Shaking my head at myself, I agree with the laughter rumbling from Shiz. It is pretty funny hearing thoughts like that.


    Flicking my head upwards towards Shiz, I get his attention and request, ¡°Much as I hate to do this, if I leave things in your hands, can you rally our defenders? And¡­ and if¡­ if Vylon can be thawed, saved, make sure he takes some time, gets home, and gets some rest?¡±


    Thankfully, the amicable Thunderer answers, ¡°You can bet your life on it Schism. What¡¯s more, if I heard right, that big Rock lug, the one what broke my jaw when you took down my fortress, Boetah, Atty¡¯s mate, talking to you before the showdown, well¡ª. If I know my sister, and I do, Atty¡¯s likely on her way, now that the clutch is secure, fertilized, safe. There¡¯s naught more for her to do at Solace. She, like that big Boetah fella, will be wanting to ensure a world were my nieces and nephews, and nonnies, and her sons and daughters and enbys, have a chance. She¡¯s coming, soon, plenty happy to announce herself as Attraxiaz the Loud, on the side of Solace and the Onyx Dawn. I¡¯d stake anything to wager on it.¡±


    Heartened hearing it, though sad that it means Atter has given up on the rest of her clutch, knowing they¡¯re non-viable, I nod. I¡¯m grateful for Shiz¡¯s affirmation, and information.


    A thought occurs to me, so I add, ¡°I know you probably understand by now, how much we value life. If anyone asks for, or accepts mercy, I trust your judgement. We want to offer it, to everyone, but, well, there¡¯s certainly the possibility that one might be pretending to seek it, in order to hit us where it hurts, our innocents, our loved ones. So¡­ I¡¯m sorry to saddle you with this, but just do your best to be your best. Please?¡±


    There¡¯s a gruffness, a wariness about Shiz as his eyes half-lid, his gaze distant in quiet contemplation. He nods at my request all the same, so I¡¯m glad he¡¯s taking his time to consider things. I send my love telepathically to Lil, my gratitude to him, and my wishes for his safety. Checking in with the Spellknights, and everyone else left out here on the front lines of defense in the valley, I make sure they all know I love them, and that I¡¯ll be back with reinforcements as soon as I can.


    Alright invincible conqueror that stared down the Ice of Rage¡ªtwice¡ªlet¡¯s go spook some soldiers.


    Winking and waving a two-fingered salute, to the gathered defenders, I leap into a backwards flip and land on a TK square that I conjure, surfing my way westwards towards the incoming horde. So. We¡¯ve got a hundred SP. Yup. Y¡¯know what that means. Yup. You¡¯re gonna be a bozo. Yup. Hey¡ªokay fair.


    The fact that I float swiftly, yet nonchalantly above their ranks leaves tons of Terrorzin¡¯s horde stupefied. I lay on my back, leaving it exposed to them, floating westwards across their formation like I were on a lazy river ride. Digging out more snacks, I munch while I contemplate. One thing I¡¯m so grateful for, other than them not attacking, is me not having cosmic horror flavor passengers any more. Yeesh.


    I¡¯m pretty certain the horde has disbelief being sewn into their very souls at this point. What kind of audacious lunatic floats about with their back exposed to not just an enemy, but an entire thousands-strong force of enemies? They don¡¯t know what to make of it, their enemy, the one that had been announced as having scared off the Ice of Rage himself, casually meandering about. They¡¯re almost hypnotized, following me about, clustering, not sure if they should bother attacking or not.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    I do notice the Fire and Ice high commanders amongst the crowd. I could have sworn that Lil and Lucky had taken them out, or gotten them to surrender earlier. It¡¯s hard to recall though, and I wasn¡¯t able to watch every moment of the scrying feeds. Hell, I could be wrong, and it might be similar looking dragons in human form. Regardless, even they make no move to aggress me, wary, cautious of such a brazen player on the field.


    When I¡¯ve gotten a bit more than my fair share of attention, quite a bit more than I¡¯m comfortable with, or safely likely to survive, I casually announce, ¡°Hey there horde of Rage or whatever you go by. It¡¯s me, your personal offer of mercy. Oh, yes yes, titles and all that. I¡¯m blah blah blah, you know the drill. Or for those of you that don¡¯t, I¡¯m Reggie Shellcracker, a Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn, an Archmage Aliased Schism, and the Void Dragon Honors Causa.¡±


    The fact that I sass myself mid-sentence has plenty of them perplexed and scratching their heads. Throwing them off their game is half the point, so I persist, ¡°I¡¯m a bit bored of playing around with all of you, so I¡¯m going to go home for the eve, and leave my friends to clean up. If you value your lives, you can try one of two things.¡±


    Glancing about, I wear a wicked, lunatic grin as I offer up, ¡°Prove right now, that I¡¯m not invincible, that I don¡¯t come back from defeat, that I¡¯m not unstoppable, chase me, catch me, heh, good luck. Let me just say if you try, you¡¯ll be facing your own fallen comrades. I¡¯m not above using the Ice of Rage¡¯s own means against him. Did he happen to mention while he was fleeing, that one of those little titles of mine in there is pretty important? That I¡¯m an archmage, and with that, comes a mastery of necromancy?¡±


    Waving at the corpses all around them, my grin becomes a bit more sinister, as I start the process of reanimating their dead with create undead. There¡¯s no way for them to know how many of the hundreds, and hundreds of corpses surrounding them I might be able to animate at once, or over the course of a short period. Thousands honestly.


    There¡¯s plenty of fearful looks, and wavering convictions, in both directions, to either stop me before I can raise their dead, or to flee from someone so insane. My spell finishes, raising a few dozen zombies, former comrades of members of the horde, that simply stand at the ready, at my beck and call.


    Pausing my intimidation tactics, I offer, ¡°Or, the sane option, go fall upon the mercy of my loved ones to the east. You¡¯ll be treated well, taken in with the status of prisoners to be kept safe both from the war, and from the reprisal of your cowardly king. Hell, I¡¯ll make sure there¡¯s a feast waiting for you home at Solace if you do. Plenty of booze and gems to go around. My treat. Well folks, your move. Ta ta for now.¡±


    Then, just to be a complete booger, I snarkily add a PS, ¡°Oh, yeah, if you begin fighting, my zombies are on standby order to eat you all.¡±


    The way they eye each other up has me stifling my internal giggles. I make certain my psi aegis circlet is in place, because I can see a few spellcasters in the crowd that might have psionic spells, either able to read my thoughts and find out how full of horsecrap I am, or able to take me out with a single brainblast.


    I mean, I¡¯m being honest about the feast, the gems and the booze. Just the rest of my bravado is horsecrap. I simply wag my index finger at the casters. Smiling, I put on a light show, flexing a few free powers, unlimited breath weapon foremost amongst them, as I soar up towards the Worldstorm. Several of the assembled forces, those that can fly, take the bait, taking up the challenge, trying to capture me.


    But I do something that¡¯s going to hurt. I fly straight up into the Worldstorm, through the dangerous acid clouds, through the rivers of lightning to what normally wouldn¡¯t be empty skies above. They don¡¯t know that it¡¯s only a few meters of danger, maybe a couple hundred meters. I don¡¯t spend enough time inside the lower segment of the storm itself to measure, using my LBBTKSLs.


    For all their lives, for most of Rayileklia¡¯s history, any dragonkin has learned or been told that the storm kills all who fall or fly into it. It was true, up until basically today. We just have to keep the secret about it no longer being fully true. Might as well get use out of that lingering sentiment, as we lose more and more of it, while Kinzul siphons back her dragonforce for the final fight.


    The horde doesn¡¯t know that my EM field organ protects me from the lightning if I can focus without a curse on me, or that my acid resist has been steadily growing, or that, even with these safety measures, a truly full Worldstorm would still kill the crap out of me. I pause within the hollow segment between the clouds, letting my senses keep track to see if any are willing to rise to the challenge, take the bait, and fly into the Worldstorm itself.


    Thankfully no. So, the legend of the Shellcracker continues to grow. Someone capable of simply flying away into the Worldstorm without any sort of magical protection. Whew. This lets me circumvent hundreds of miles of travel, being able to head to the aerie over all the mountains, instead of having to follow the valleys below the storm. Still, OW OW OW. That acid stings like a motherglubber! My life tastes like tears and regret. Friggin¡¯ hell Reggie that was stupid!


    I know, I know, but hey, maybe we granted mercy and saved some lives. Y¡¯know? It¡¯s worth it. It also means we can make a bit of haste towards home, to show that Nyssa¡¯Lina we mean to keep our promise. I don¡¯t want to refer to them as a ticking timebomb, but whether of grief, of rage, or of loyalty, or fanatacism, they sort of are. And I¡¯m not sure which.


    And¡­ even if they are or aren¡¯t one of those¡­ I want to help heal their hurt. I want to reunite them with their mate Jatrisiahl, this time, with Jatrisiahl being a whole individual person, not a fused broodmother conglomerate. I want to give them both a chance at a safe, happy life, where Nyss¡¯Lina need not fight, nor do any of the horrible things they might have done under Terrorzin¡¯s reign.


    One step at a time Reggie. You¡¯ve got to get home, and hope chaos magic isn¡¯t pissed off at you, and that The ¡®Twixt doesn¡¯t try to screw you further in some fashion. I think at least chaos and I are on good terms still. What with how good-natured the random effects were.


    I mean, maybe I¡¯m anthropomorphizing something that is simply the RNG of the universe, but, well, I¡¯d rather treat it with respect and camaraderie, and be wrong, than insult it and be dismissive, if I were right. I kinda wish I could check in with chaos and just get any sort of communicative feedback that I could be sure about.


    Can you imagine? ¡°Hey chaos, are you there? It¡¯s me, Reggie Shellcracker.¡± The response I would get would baffle me, something like, ¡°Hey yo homie what up dog! Tha¡¯z the playa I¡¯m talkin¡¯ abou¡¯! Gimme some skin! High five! You cray cray R G.¡±


    Reggie? Mhm? What the everloving F&*() was that? I have absolutely no idea.

 B 6 C 257: She Sees Seas

    Could you imagine if chaos on the other hand was some sort of weary overworked accountant? Someone who gets no appreciation, no matter how hard they work, and how much they do to keep the universe spinning? And it¡¯s all so routine, too! It would probably bore chaos out of its mind. Like, all the samey samey random stuff that has to happen everywhere, all at once, all the time.


    So what you¡¯re saying is, you think you¡¯re the highlight of Chaos¡¯s day? What? No. I¡¯m not that full of myself. I just think it¡¯d be nice to be appreciated, when you do so much, for so many. I may be a crimson smurf-ass ass, chaos gremlin goblin, according to Illy, but I¡¯m grateful for every little random thing that¡¯s ever helped guide my journey so far. Really? Yes really! Why are you even qu¡ªwait. Am I talking to me, or am I talking to¡­ someone else? Who wants t¡¯know?


    My heart stops momentarily as I falter midair, and barely catch myself with my telekinetic grips to keep from falling into the sea of clouds below me, more acid clouds than I care to deal with in my current state. My eyes wide, I glance side to side, reach up, and notice my psy-blocking aegis circlet is in place still. Coughing, I meep quietly. I can¡¯t tell if I was psyching myself out just now, with a callback to my teasing Terrorzin in the vault, or not.


    I mean, I suppose chaos itself wouldn¡¯t be blocked from speaking to me psychically, by any equipment I had, period. Not sure if it actually did though. I also double-check, and thankfully, my goggles are in a pouch. So at least I know they¡¯re not broadcasting this massive secretly hollowed-out Worldstorm to everyone who¡¯s either back at Solace, or wearing a pair of goggles. That coulda been a disaster. No one can know.


    Kinzul created this storm, with so many sacrifices, so long ago, and it¡¯s taken even more sacrifices over the years to maintain it. It keeps all of dragonkind more-or-less trapped up here in the Spine of the World. It keeps them from rampaging. It keeps Terrorzin from being able to deploy his troops anywhere in the world. Because to his belief, and for most of Rayileklia¡¯s history, anyone trying to fly through the Worldstorm to get above it, or to land from above it via an aerie, would die. It was true, for all that time.


    Now? Now it¡¯s way less fatal. Kinzul having to siphon back her dragonforce, for the upcoming showdown with Terrorzin, in order to resist his aura, is turning it into just a painful inconvenience. A hazard, still, sure. But Acids could fly up through the clouds no problem now. There¡¯s not enough lightning to take them out in a quick bursty flight. Similarly, Lightnings could fly up through the clouds now. There¡¯s not enough density and length of acid cover, to take them out.


    Huff. It¡¯s so hard to think about the global scales of what Kinzul¡¯s accomplished through her sacrifices throughout her lifetime. She¡¯s seen through a sea of time in her own foresight in ways, and made the grandest sacrifices on the grandest scales. Changes the general gravity of Rayileklia, and slash or specific gravity of dragons themselves, over the entire world? Creating a sustainable plant that replaces the sunlight that she deprived the rest of the world of? Locking away dragonforce healing, so that Terrorzin¡¯s forces don¡¯t just take stupid risks and heal it off, gaining more ground by the day?


    Anyway. Kinzul¡¯s maybe off-grid for this entire week, until October fifth, the date of the showdown. Spending a week siphoning back what should take years, maybe centuries to safely reclaim, she¡¯s out there, somewhere, alone. For a whole week, she¡¯s without the love of those she¡¯s cared for for so long. She¡¯s out there, doing this for them, and can receive no comfort from me or anyone else.


    Wiping tears, I hang my head in shame. I¡¯m married to the Administrator of the Onyx Dawn, and I might not see her until what could be her possibly final moments. If two prophecies come to pass simultaneously. Terrorzin¡¯s end, and hers. Coughing, and hacking up snot I don¡¯t want to swallow, I blow snotrockets to keep from sniffling as I rub my wet eyes.


    Nothing for it Reggie. Just gotta keep pressing forward, and make sure Solace is still here for her when she gets back. Give her something to push forward for, to fight for, to look forward to. Keep holding the line, in every way possible. Even if that means striking weird mobster inviolate bargains with yourself in void realms, or talking to the personification of chaos itself, or becoming the personification of chaos itself. I¡¯m super overemotional right now though. Could be from all the pain and weariness. Maybe.


    Do you think this is a side effect of maybe some leftover existential dread from accidentally imbibing flavor passengers through cosmic horror? Not sure. No idea. I¡¯m you, remember. I know you¡¯re me, but I was asking¡­ for¡­ feedback. I facepalm, realizing how stupid I sound in my own head. Rattling my skull, I try to reorient, hoping to forget my own inanity. Yeah, sure, good luck with that pal.


    Snarky jerk, shut up¡­ me. Ugh. Anyway, can we just take a moment to look at how stupidly insane and silly you are, and sound? Gee, sure, thanks, why not? No, I mean it, seriously. Floating casually over Terrorzin¡¯s horde, who¡¯ve been ordered to the front as he flees through them, that was you, right? Yeah, sure, go on? Then you make your offer, which boils down to, and correct me if I¡¯m wrong, but, ¡°Come eat for free, or freely be eaten,¡± yeah? Pft, snrk. Yeah that¡¯s one way to put it. And you lied your butt off!


    That part is definitely true. You didn¡¯t even leave your zombies with any orders. Nope, not a single order. I have no idea if they¡¯ll even react at all, or if they¡¯ll just stand around or wander off. I know they won¡¯t follow anyone else¡¯s orders though. They¡¯ll probably also defend themselves if attacked. Can you imagine, one of Terrorzin¡¯s soldiers, just kinda side-eyeing a zombie, wondering why it isn¡¯t reacting, and then like, poking it? Pft, yeah, then suddenly it jump-scares the entire horde by leaping on that soldier and going feral.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Hahah, oh you have so lost it pal. Yeah, yeah I have. Hey, that¡¯s weird. What¡¯s weird? I think I¡¯m hungry again. How can you possibly think about eating after the gustatory nightmares you¡¯ve been through recently? I¡¯unno, a body¡¯s gotta eat though, don¡¯t it? Probably most, but you¡¯re Can¡¯Z¡¯aasian, do you ever even really need to eat? Well I haven¡¯t tested starving to death, and I¡¯m not about to start now. I mean seriously. What kind of question is that? And how the hell would I know?


    Ugh, the muscles about my T4 and T5 are still all pinchy. Being uber-dehydrated by plasma-hot flames did not help matters. We really need to get through the major things we need done, and get some sleep. Y¡¯know, Illy¡¯s gonna kick the crap out of you when you get home to Solace. Ughhh, I know. I know.


    She probably saw at least one of the times I was facing Terrorzin today, if not both, through the scrying feeds. Let¡¯s just hurry home and hope she pities us enough for our injuries to not exacerbate them. Heh, good luck with that pal. Yeah, same to you buddy, snark off will ya?


    Pft. Anyway, brain off for a bit while leaping through this pocket of hollow Worldstorm, safely nestled between acid clouds and rivers of lightning both above and below. Northeastward ho. Who you callin¡¯ a ho? Pft, shut up doofus.


    I can¡¯t help snorting a laugh and shaking a head at myself. A head? Just one Reggie? Mrgrgr. Shut up. Now you¡¯re creepin¡¯ me out. My head, obviously. I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s the only one I¡¯ve got¡­ pretty sure. Grimacing, I check my pack, and thankfully my spare left arm, the severed one, is still¡­ behaving. Eugh.


    Closing in on Solace, I do sadly have to rise through a layer of Worldstorm to make it to the aerie. Well, that, or burst through the Worldstorm that lays up against Solace, and hope my calculations on exactly where the aerie is, are exact, or I¡¯m stuck lost in a sea of acid and lightning. Brrr.


    Yeah, not gonna push my luck right now. Way too tired and injured. Here goes, well, pain. Bracing myself, I perform a superheated superspeed LBBTKSL to leap through the top layer of Worldstorm. Ow, my knees. Ow, my face. Just ow everything.


    That¡­ is Induul. Okay my circlet is on, so he didn¡¯t hear me thinking about being in a hollow Worldstorm, so that¡¯s good. But he¡¯s gazing at me suspiciously. That¡¯s not so good. I mean, at least he¡¯s, y¡¯know, seemingly on duty again, sorta, hanging out around the aerie. Patrolling. Maybe. Raising an eyebrow, I surf towards him in the sky.


    Unfortunately, he asks, ¡°How exactly is it you just came up through the storm? Last time you went through it, it sounded like you needed to use your defense magics, and the body of a Damnation, to survive the fall. And even if it was something you¡¯d be able to ascend, wouldn¡¯t you have done it back in Vieriss, so you didn¡¯t have to travel hundreds of miles through it?¡±


    Uhh, how much do I want to lie? Induul¡¯s been flaky, and I haven¡¯t trusted anyone else with this secret. Well, except for Teuila and Nyssa¡¯Lina accidentally. Had no choice there. I do have a choice here. But which is the right choice? Offering him trust on a level that I haven¡¯t given ninety-nine percent of the people I know and love? Or hurting my own heart, and lying to him? It¡¯s really not my secret to tell. It¡¯s Kinzul¡¯s. Guess I¡¯ll go with heartache for now.


    Rubbing the back of my head, and shrugging, I answer, ¡°Blew through some defensive and evasive magic to get home quicker. I guess I was a bit lazy. As you can see I¡¯m plenty acid-burned, and crisped to hell. It wasn¡¯t my smartest move. I¡¯m just so tired Indy. Err, Induul, sorry. I¡¯ve got a couple magic projects to finish, a dinner to eat, and a nap calling my name. Hope y¡¯understand. Seeya on the battlefield.¡±


    The scrutiny Induul gazes at me with is intense. I kinda don¡¯t like it. He did apologize to me for blowing me off the other day, but, for some reason, something still seems off about him. Deciding to throw him off the scent a bit, I pull out my spare left arm, the severed one. This is insane. An identical copy of my left arm, that I hold in my left, with its own left hand at the end of it.


    This is so stupid, but, waving it, I offer, ¡°Just lemme know if ya need an extra hand with anything Induul.¡±


    Snrk, that is not a facial expression I ever imagined on a dragon. I¡¯m such a jerk. I hope he¡¯s pulling through his withdrawal alright. Ugh, poor guy. Flashing him a weak, sympathetic smile, I float towards Solace, and thankfully he returns his attention to patrolling.


    As I¡¯m landing I slip my goggles out of the pouch and back onto my head, tucking them up¡­ between horns I keep forgetting I have. Rattling my skull, I roll with it. Of course, just as my boots make the scritchy noise of shuffling across sand on stone, my goggles pipe up, someone trying to talk to me.


    While I probably should expect it when Shiz claims, ¡°Schism, got a bit of a situation here,¡± I don¡¯t. So I grimace, worried what he might mean.


    When Shiz claims, ¡°Got about a hundred live horde soldiers here, ¡® wanted mercy,¡± I¡¯m almost ecstatic, til he adds, ¡°and about fifty dead ones.¡±


    My heart hurts as I respond, ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m really sorry to hear you couldn¡¯t save all the ones that¡ª¡°


    Interrupting me, Shiz states, ¡°Nothin¡¯ like that Schism. These dead ones are walking around. Not quite sure what to make of it, or what to do with ¡®em. My necromancers never quite made ¡®em like this.¡±


    Pft. Snorting with laughter, I have no idea what to tell Shiz. Are those my zombies? They¡¯re just kinda hanging out with their live ex-comrades? Hahaha. Oh Reggie, you are one effed up person. Just leavin¡¯ a small horde of zeds, with no idea what they¡¯ll do. Heh. Huh. I wonder. If they do somehow maintain their cohesion or corporeality or whatever you wanna call their animated corpsiness, for an extended period¡­ Could I do for them, what I tried to do for the broodmothers?


    Reggie, that¡¯s pure insanity. You are no god. The dead are dead. I know I know. I just mean¡­ there¡¯s some physical vessels, and I know how to get to a realm of spirits, and¡­ Dude! Seriously! Think about the consequences on like, I don¡¯t know, a cosmic karmic scale or something! Well¡­ what would they be? I¡ªI dunno. Something! I¡¯m sure. Probably. Maybe. Look. Do not go fishing around in the Astral Sea, for spirit copies of ex-horde flesh¡­ vessels. Cripes I¡¯m flabbergasted I even need to tell myself that.


    Well, we are going back to the Astral sea for six seconds pretty soon anyway. I guess we can see what we see there. Reggie. Stop. What? I¡¯m just saying, we can see in the sea what we see. Ugh. You¡¯re horrible. Meh. Probably true. I shrug at myself, still having no idea what the hell to tell Shiz.